Chapter 1: Petals Born on Spring

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Jul 15, 2025 8:42 pm
"S-Model, huh? If you switch to a lorry with no prior experience, it'll feel more like we're all being driven in a Model M . . ." commented Claude with a sly grin, while joining the group, then added innocuously, ". . . in the luggage section. But I guess it cannot be helped."
OOC:
I'm posting despite not being sure how the other dialogue with Abenanka (and later Dominique) go/end, but yeah, they can be pushed to a side thread or otherwise wrapped up retroactively later, as they don't seem to be a huge issue.
Last edited July 16, 2025 11:10 pm
Jul 17, 2025 12:21 am
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Homura pouted, shooting a quick glare at Claude. "Just watch. It'll be a smooth ride with me at the wheel."

When Homura received the keys to the truck, she got into the driver's seat and unlocked the passenger seat for Chimera. There weren't any other actual seats, so the others had to ride in the empty cargo box.

"Hold on back there!" Homura warned them as she fastened her seatbelt. "Just in case!"

She stretched her fingers, adjusted the side-view mirror.... and slammed the gas. The truck jumped from zero to sixty in a few seconds and kept accelerating, rapidly leaving behind the theatre. Humming to herself, she casually cut into traffic and started swerving around the other vehicles and carriages on the road, earning a startled cacophony of horns being blared.

Homura was unphased. "Nothing wrong with passing when you're in a hurry!~" Her erratic weaving through traffic caused the cargo box to swing back and forth. When she took a hard left along the way, the centrifugal force lifted the truck halfway off the ground. Miraculously, it stopped just short of tipping and found all four wheels back on the ground, landing with a teeth-rattling thud.

Strangely though, despite her blatant disregard for road safety, Homura was consistently, implausibly avoiding collisions by just a hair. At least, so far.
OOC:
Tactic: Letting God take the wheel :P

Rolls

Joanine Lineage [Protected by Providence]: Rating 20 - (1d20)

(17) = 17

Jul 17, 2025 4:07 pm
OOC:
Lol, great tactic! 1 degree of success.
Suzumiya Hoshino
"Woa! Homura-san, I didn't knew you liked wearing western clothing! You look good- Uh? What?! You're a model?? Gah! Sorry, I didn't knew..." Suzumiya concludes, embarrassed, as Rika explains it to her, she who seems to be a fan already. "Heheh~ If even our truck drivers are this stunning, the theatre is surely going to be acclaimed by the public!"

On the meanwhile, Claude's joke seems to fly above everyone's head.

Rika Hoshikawa
"Uh, I've heard they had to call the firemen to the underground HQ... Do any of you know anything about it? I hope it wasn't a petalframe misfunction." Rika inquires, ponderously, she would hate if the frames she loves would cause any trouble by themselves.
On the truck, everyone but Homura and Chimera seat on the backside of the truck, still able to access the front by a window. Chimera would notice that the truck had a poor field of view (which certainly would be trouble to the driver, if not for her high stature), and that she would have to stretch herself to be able to see anything at street level well... The sky and rooftops were pleasant though!

It didn't take long for the truck to be filled by horrified screams, mostly by Rika and Suzumiya (along with anyone who'd like to join~), as Homura makes close-call overtakings and curves, which many times almost keels the truck. Outside, instead of the girls' screams, horns exploded in response, as Homura broke pretty much every traffic law.

Miraculously though, they reach their destination just fine, without a single scratch on the truck and any harm to the passengers, despite a possible dizziness that certainly affected Suzumiya, at least. "G-guys, you go on... I'll be just behind you..."

They parked in a small street that cut through a marked block, a canal ran next to it, bringing wares from the docks. This place was the best in Tokyo to get imported European goods, and technological novelties.

As they all exit the vehicle, works come and open the truck, loading boxes of beautiful porcelain dishes and cutlery from Europe, along with other furnishing necessities like lamps. It surely would take some time for them to load it all.

Rolls

resistance vs Homura - TN 5 (easy) - (d20)

(10) = 10

Jul 18, 2025 8:45 am
Claude discreetely approaches Rika once the workers started loading the boxes. "If we're driving back the same way as we drove here, it would be highly appropriate to spend extra effort on ensuring the cargo is secured very tightly both outside and inside the boxes. Also, why does a military unit with a lorry not have a driver assigned to it? Seems sloppy. Is there someone we can call back at the dislocation to entrust with resolving this problem for the future?"
OOC:
Apparently Tokyo had 25-125 thousand phone lines during these decades, so I'm assuming placing a call from the cargo offloading station to a major theatre is plausible.
Jul 18, 2025 10:44 am
Abenanka is wary of the truck. She's always been wary of vehicles, having grown up in the mountains far away from vehicles and the like. She treats it like most people would treat a wild bear, with more than enough distance and placation as long as possible. Just like her experience with bears though, the bad luck is she has to climb aboard.

Unlike Suzumiya, she doesn't scream. She does grip her charms until her knuckles go white however, and keeps her eyes fixed firmly on the floor of the moving vehicle. The entire experience grates on her nerves and makes her feel a bit ill, characterised by her shaky disembarking. Once she's relaxed enough to speak without... an accident occurring, she addresses Rika.

"Hoshikawa-ojousama, I don't mean to be rude or... well, I'm curious as to why we are all here? It seems the staff are perfectly capable of loading the goods." It could be considered speaking out of turn, but after the truck ride she's happy to speak her mind.
Jul 18, 2025 12:53 pm
"Ahhh..." Homura stretched her arms once she exited from the driver's side. After what was effectively a joyride, she was feeling quite refreshed.

She looked over everyone that exited the back of the truck. Good, it seemed like no one was hurt. "See? I got everyone here in one piece!~" She boasted to Claude, though she'd blatantly shifted the goalpost from a 'smooth ride'.

"It's the same reason why Rika-chan's dad made us to go to the spring fair with her. She wants to fraternize with us, but she's not confident enough to just ask outright, so she does it under the pretense of work. Did I hit the mark, Rika-chan?~" Homura theorized rather bluntly in response to Abenanka's question, though she said it in a more tongue-in-cheek manner rather than an accusatory one. She didn't mind being here, since she was helping someone out.

Being somewhat familiar with Abenanaka's dislike of vehicles (she may even have exasperated it with her driving in the past), Homura reached into her handbag. "You're not feeling motion sick, are you? I should have something for that in here..." As she rummaged around in her bag, a glimpse of the bird plush Abenanka made yesterday could be seen inside the bag.
Jul 18, 2025 4:42 pm
In the face of Rika's inquiry about the firemen, Chimera can't help but turn her head away to admire the scenery. That particular tree does stand out among its peers.
Unlike some of the others, Chimera is thrilled by Homura's driving. So fast! So flashy! Chimera scribbles down notes and diagrams in her notepad to study. As Homura searches through her bag, Chimera steps forth.

"No need, for I will turn maladies into faint memories! Secret Gambit: Valley Crushing Grip! ...Hmm, was it the left hand or the right hand?"

Chimera grabs Abenaka's hand and firmly pinches the web between her thumb and index finger.
Jul 18, 2025 6:43 pm
Riding in the back of the truck bed, due to being burnt, Shizuka couldn't really tell what was going on but she was thrown side to side seemingly at random. Once they had reached their destination, she was dizzy and banged up as she slumped out of the back of the truck. She got a look around the area, and recognized it as the Nihonbashi District/

https://www.oldtokyo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/scan0006.jpg

The sound of a nearby foghorn as the boats entered the canal to offload their goods. The noise snapped her out of her stupor, and she began to look around the area. With so many people moving cargo around, it was certainly and interesting place. There were also tons of those new electric streetcars, and and plenty of stores to explore while they waited for the truck to get loaded up.

"Ooh, there'[s a pastry place I heard good thing about here, and also there's supposed to be a cursed antique store... Does anyone want to go check it out?!"

After getting her bearings, she figured out where they were and pointed down the street in a direction.

"Maybe the have something about the shamon in the spooky ghost store. That means it is related to work and we can go!"

Dominique

vicky_molokh

Jul 19, 2025 11:56 am
Meanwhile, back at the theatre, Dominique was looking through local catalogues of photography equipment and making calls, asking questions - not so much to the official offices of the retail establishment as to the various backdoor contacts. Members of the working class who handled the inventory in the warehouses, knew when something became low in stock or a rare item had to be procured, and generally had a more easygoing attitude towards rumours.

Once all the answers were gathered, Dominique sat quietly by a desk, meticulously cross-checking the attained information, looking for bits that could either rule out, or conversely hint of the possibility of being somehow connected the mystery photographer, and proceeded from there.
OOC:
Valet is 5M1, -10 Stretch (using working-class horizontal connections to gather rumours and other info), +5 Augment from Cool-Headed for the subsequent analysis.
Dominique
Last edited July 19, 2025 12:28 pm

Rolls

Investigation into the rare camera - (1d20)

(16) = 16

Jul 19, 2025 12:54 pm
Rika Hoshikawa
Being showered on inquiries, Rika seems more and more embarrassed and overwhelmed. "N-no, it's not that..."
Suzumiya Hoshino
Suzumyia cuts short her mumbling, slapping her on the back and saying: "Heh, it was my idea, you see? We noticed Moriyama-san complaining about the driver being unavailable, sick or whatever, and as a very front-headed girl I am, I quickly proposed we go instead! After all, 'the girls would benefit from getting to know a bit more of Tokyo, and they should enjoy going out before they get like, super famous!', I said~"

"Oh, you mentioned a pastry place?!" She exasperatedly asks Shizuka.
Dominique's investigation brought forth that there were about three stores in the capital that could deal with that kind of camera, and all three of them where located on Nihonbashi. He could further discover through calls that only one of them sold that kind of camera recently.
OOC:
Just so everyone know, the stretch penalty on Dominique's roll was accorded between us on Discord.
Jul 19, 2025 1:16 pm
handle says:
"Ooh, there'[s a pastry place I heard good thing about here, and also there's supposed to be a cursed antique store... Does anyone want to go check it out?!"

After getting her bearings, she figured out where they were and pointed down the street in a direction.

"Maybe the have something about the shamon in the spooky ghost store. That means it is related to work and we can go!"
"Cursed, you say?" Claude's curiosity was piqued. "Would be interesting to see that, and check whether there is genuine reason to suspect a curse."
OOC:
Cool, so Dominique now has a suspect shop, but Claude doesn't know that yet, so the visit would likely have to wait until after the current trip.

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