2025-06-27: Who Are These People Supposed To Be?
- Log: Who Are These People Supposed To Be?
- Cast: Masao Inaba, Ulala Serizawa
- Where: Rengedai, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: June 27, 2025
- IC Date: June 1, 2012
- Summary: Working down to the wire, hired street artists finish their displays for the imminent 2012 Sumaru Hyakumanzeki Festival. By chance, Ulala Serizawa stops by and inquires more deeply about one made by Masao "Mark" Inaba.
(|============================= Rengedai - Main ==============================|)
-=============================================== Sumaru City/Rengedai Ward ====-
The central ward of Sumaru, built on the Tanabata River that splits the city
like a yin-yang symbol, is called Rengedai, or "Lotus Pedestal," because it
looks like a lotus flower floating on the water. It's a quiet, peaceful place to
live, and though it has undergone modernization over the past decade or two, a
good number of historical sites remain.
Its most standout feature is Mt. Iwato, a small mountain with a significant
network of caverns that spelunkers are advised not to explore casually. Alaya
Shrine is available for worship at its foot. It has never been set on fire.
The prestigious Seven Sisters School stands nearby; according to rumor, the
symbol sewn on the school's uniforms will protect you from the Joker Curse. To
the west is Honmaru Park, built on the site of feudal leader Kiyotada Sumaru's
castle and in his dubious memory, but it's under construction, so you can't go
in there.
Mansions, houses, and apartment complexes dot the riverside banks. The Lotus
Plaza Shopping Mall is right there with them, offering modest shopping in
convenient walking distance.
-==== Players =================================================================-
Masao Inaba [VII]
-=================================== Exits ====================================-
<A> Feel drawn to Alaya Shrine
<H> Go Southwest to Hirasaka - Main
<K> Turn South to Konan - Main
<M> Run some errands after a walk to Lotus Plaza
<O> Head East to Aoba - Main
<S> Cross campus to Seven Sisters High School - Classroom Building
<Y> Move Northeast to Yumezaki - Main
(|============================================================================|)
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
The Sumaru Hyakumanzeki Festival will be underway before long. The early morning's already abuzz with no small number of people about the streets around Honmaru Park, excited for the festival to begin in full swing.
Sumaru TV has chosen to sponsor a stretch of road for a number of local street artists to show off their stuff and add a splash of color for the proceedings, overlaid on top of temporary surfaces meant to house them. There's a line of artists doing the finishing touches on their works, and their themes are all over the place.
"Hm, hm, hm, hm-hm-hm-hm-hm, dah dah dah~" A young man hums a familiar tune to himself as he picks up a palette - with some bright red and yellow hues - with a smaller brush to apply accents as to give his own last send-off to said piece. They'd all been running behind schedule - a bit of a dust-up over permits, you know how that goes - but before long, said young man steps back to size the whole of it up.
A bonfire, surrounded by people of so many different shapes and colors of abstract, exaggerated features with realistic backlighting of the bonfire relative to the fantastical personages in question. The kanji characters for 'Hyakumanzeki' are expertly woven into the piece as if part of the scene itself. A soulful work, whose effort well exceeds the span of time in which it is meant to exist for.
"Yeah. That really came out somethin' special."
A shorter than average young Japanese man, about 168cm (~5'6"), takes off a pair of yellow gloves and removes a face mask to reveal a bit of stubble around his chin along with a wide, even mischievous smile that hasn't left him going into adulthood.
He's wearing a lightweight dark gray hoodie, open to a bright yellow t-shirt underneath with an indiscernible design. A yellow backpack is slung over his shoulder. Simple jewelry adorns his neck, an earring hanging off his left ear. A smaller yellow beanie adorns his head, a familiar crowned figure depicted in white stitched in miniature about the rim. Folded sunglasses hang off his shirt collar, with a yellow tint to the lenses. Simple gray pants lead to bright yellow shoes.
"Now that's a Mark, all right!" He pumps a fist into the air, as a few other nearby artists look over, give their admiration, and some applause. Still, there's a lot of good pieces to be seen along this street for today's festival. If only they could've gotten this out of the way a little sooner, but... better late than never, right?
Foot traffic hasn't been blocked off here.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
It is a lovely early morning, if you're not Ulala Serizawa. Having checked into work, her boss quickly decided to close up for the day, citing 'it's a festival! I want to spend time with my family!' and forcing a tired Ulala to trek all the way back on foot, a shot in the heart and body alike.
While the festival is out of the way back to their home, she's curious how the preparation is going... and also if any of the snacks are Accessible yet, because she sure is hungry.
What the young woman finds isn't snacks, though, but... art! Stepping over towards Mark as he cheers, she watches carefully for a moment, before deciding to take a look at the piece.
"Is this for the festival today? It's pretty cool," Ulala says with a light hum, looking over it. "Who are these people supposed to be? I can't make them out... you art guys are really talented, y'know?"
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
Mark might be the highlight. Might? Is, but there's a lot of artwork on display. Even the least skillful of them is, at the very least, colorful and at least tangentially related to the festival - but everyone that Sumaru TV sponsored has had to put forth an A game today, one way or another.
"Sure is," Mark answers. "Another art appreciator, huh?" He sizes her up, as she asks a critical question.
"Well... you kinda answered that question already, didn't you? They're people." Strange, exaggerated, colorful caricatures of people, enjoying a bonfire and being woven expertly in and around the kanji characters written and drawn into the piece.
"Enjoyin' the bonfire, and the festival, like the rest of us!" Mark's smile fades a little. 'Most of us,' he should say, as he rubs the back of his head.
"I mean... it's not just talent you're looking at here. You're really seeing everyone's soul, all over these walls. It's not just paint we're putting up here."
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Ulala takes a closer look at the piece as Mark replies, asking her if she's an art appreciator. "Oh, sure, I wanted to take an art class in high school," she says with a slight deadpan, but the light smile on her face shows, at the least, she's mostly joking.
"Huh. So they're... caricatures, because they represent the inner soul, too, of the people at this festival? After all, we're not just so simple we can be always be depicted real-to-life..." She does know art has meaning and wantd to give it a try, but... no, that's dumb, Ulala thinks. He's gonna think you're a fool...
She laughs smoothly, casually deflecting from her 'blunder' of trying to be smart, and responds with cheer. "Yeah, they're all so good! Very soulful indeed... how many people do you think worked on this? It's cutting it a little close to the festival, isn't it?
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
Mark gives Ulala the verbal space to work out her thoughts on what it is she's looking at, and what she's getting from the picture ahead of her.
"If that's what you're takin' from it..." Does he think she's a fool? Is there some greater message he hopes to communicate? Artists! Who even knows! He looks off to the side a bit as Ulala plays off some of her confusion and tension with a laugh.
"Uhh. I didn't think to count heads, but it's something like... thirty? We were gonna get started yesterday, but apparently there was some kinda mix-up between the city council and Sumaru TV over it. They're the guys that commissioned all this."
He can think of one name to thank for it later... maybe. He knows he's not in charge of any of the Grown Up Legal Handshakes but damn if he wasn't always at fault for mess-ups like that back then!!
"But y'know, better late than never... I know they're closin' off the park real soon for renovations, so, I'm just glad we got to do something like this."
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Ulala takes the fact Mark didn't call her a fool as a win, but she's still reading into it. There's a reason she's never been an artist... she's more sporty, as it is.
"Oh, wow, that's a lot! You finished this all in one sitting?! I'm surprised you all got it done in such a short amount of time... bureaucracy, right?" Her impressed state has doubled, knowing that they actually gone it done in a short amount of time.
"Yeah... I used to play here as a kid, so it sucks. But, hey, nothing lasts forever! I'm gonna enjoy the festival, though... even if it's a lot of walking for one day!" Ulala grumbles lightly, before cutting it off with another smile. "Besides, I heard there's all sorts of food vendors... was wondering if they'd be open early."
Oh no, she's getting hungry.
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
"Yeah, we were all up way early for that. That's how much we wanted to do it!" Mark puts on that youthful smile of his. Enough to stave off some of the loss of sleep involved in having to get up that early. Enough to stave off the oncoming dread of inevitability of others wanting his time on other fronts. Sometimes, the act of creation is just enough.
"Y'know, I haven't checked that myself, been busy with everyone and everything else here..." He shakes his head. "Yeah... lots of stuff when we were kids aren't really a thing any more, but y'know... still part of us, one way or another."
Someone yells from over yonder. "Yeah, I'd better let you go. Enjoy the festival," as if implying there is a real chance he might not get to.
A certain someone in his life might want to emphasize how nice it would be to have an extra pair of hands at the dry cleaners today...
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
"Well, it's great. Good work!" Ulala says, before nodding along to the thought about losing the past... "The best memories stick with us forever, right?"
But then, someone calls Mark aside, so he nods. "Thanks for giving me a chance to chat your ear off. Have a good day...!" she says, knowing he might not feel like he will, with a sympathetic smile before heading off.
She'll grab a snack for her and Maya, she decides, but not festival food. They'll be buying lots of that later! (Rest in peace, wallets.)