Onto Business, with the Grand Fireworks Carnival! (Open)

Hey, sorry for the wait Faustus! I wanted to see if anyone else was going to be joining in this thread. At any rate, let's begin!

The first spot Alaistair was interested in stopping by was a food stand. Frankly, he hadn't eaten since he'd gotten to Papaya and he could honestly go for some okonomiyaki at the moment! Load up on a lot of calories and then get on to searching... Or maybe handle both at once. His eyes darted from stand to stand, trying to gauge who had better technique and food etiquette! Considering this was Papaya, Alaistair expected this decision to be difficult to make... It was a tourist attraction here, after all!

At the first stand, Alaistair came across a crowd of 12 watching and waiting for their veggie and egg 'street pancakes' to be handed to them. This stand's cooks were working fast, it appeared. A large grill had been cleared away from the previous okonomiyaki that was cooked prior and then oiled up, with the cook using what looked like a blue duster with a foam brush. It spread the vegetable oil thoroughly across the blackened grill top before going retrieve something behind him. A ladle, or more like a large pot with the size of it, filled up with the batter base of the dish! He wasn't too focused on making the amount he cooked look neat. More even, as he covered an entire half of the grill with the batter! Apparently, this wasn't enough though, as he went behind, filled up the ladle with more batter and covered the rest of the grill with the white liquid that foamed and bubbled against the hot surface! He even hit up what was already looking thoroughly cooked with some more batter, aiming to get some sections he didn't get prior.

'Not very neat, but thorough I suppose,' Alaistair thought to himself. The cook had gloves on as he started piling on overflowing fistfuls of shredded cabbage over the still cooking batter, 2 at a time. By the time Alaistair blinked, the man had covered all the pancake batter with 7 columns by 4 rows of cabbage. They indented the centers of all the cabbage piles with a egg per pile before cracking and filling the gap with it. Most were accurate, but some of the egg yolks dribbled a bit out of their cavities. However, it wasn't the end of the world, as the yolks would still be incorporated into the dish.

As the man worked, Alaistair made the decision and ordered 3 okonomiyaki for himself, the first with pork belly, the second with loads of octopus, and the third with a little bit of both octopus and pork belly. He paid up front and waited for his order near the register... He was planning to go to town on these the moment he could find a place to sit!

Alaistair's order completed, he was given 3 packages, with initials dictating which had Pork Belly solely, Octopus in another, and one with both! He thanked the cooks and was about to get underway to searching for a spot to sit at. Yet, he was halted by a hungry majin. Alaistair remembered coming across these guys back in the Demon World and just having to resort to avoiding them altogether on the battlefield. They also carried the unfortunate stigma of being a bit... 'brain-dead,' to put it. Seeing one individual here was surprising, and it honestly was just the type of thing Alaistair was looking for!

This one was clearly starving, so Alaistair held out the one with both pork belly and octopus! He replied, with a smile, "Okonomiyaki. A street cart pancake, if you will, smothered in veggies and meat. This one has both diced and grilled octopus and Pork belly on it... Also has some savory sauce as a cherry on top! You're gonna wanna eat this with chopsticks."

He winked and, on top of the enclosed container, a pair of slick orange chopsticks appeared, Alaistair's symbol looking like it was painted on in black. They were squared out instead of rounded, so they didn't so easily roll around on top.

"It's surprising to see a Majin around here on Earth," Alaistair continued, gesturing with the hand holding the platter to a spot nearby they could sit at that looked quiet: an alleyway away from the loudness of the crowd, "Up to trade some information? I'll pay for some more meals if you're down with that!"

Considering they were at a Carnival, the amount of confections and alluring dishes were quite overwhelming to see!

No fuss, which put a smile on Alaistair's face! This was hungry, so Al was gonna need to make sure he kept him happy. They walked over to the alleyway, the noise dying down a bit them not so close to people anymore. It was surprisingly clean at the current time, considering there was a dumpster there about 20 feet further down from them. Perhaps it was just early.

Al sat down on the ground and carefully opened up the first container of okonomiyaki, this one with Pork Belly. As he did, he started up with introductions, "So, first and foremost, my name's Alaistair. I'm the owner of a business helping provide fish and other aquatic foods to this island during the time of the 25th Centennial Tournament, call the Cherry Fishing Company! I'm also a guy who likes seeking all sorts of strange artifacts and wonders in the world with all sorts of weird and occasionally creepy vibes to them..."

He paused, the smell of the Okonomiyaki, primarily the pork belly part and the brown sauce, wafting his nose and making him huff it in further and gasping delight, as he manifested another pair of chopsticks much like Faustus's, but instead these being brown with the black insignia.

"Man, this smells great," he uttered, looking back and quickly continuing, "Sorry. You REALLY gotta take in the smell of yours, there! Anyway, as I was saying, I like to look for all sorts of weird places and objects! So, I was wondering about who you are and how you came to this world. In the past, I'd come across Majin folk as these weird places and... Well..."

With his chopsticks slid in between his thumb, pointer and middle fingers, he wagged his hand rapidly, saying, "They tended to be part of why things were weird and interacting with them went BAD... Most of the time! Except with Juju, a guy working for me since the 90s. Cool guy! Gives the crew all sorts of stories of when he was in a place called the Demon Realm!"

Faustus, as he called himself, got to talking as he got into the food before them. He explained that his reasoning here was complicated. He was a subordinate of a guy named Azoth, and based on how he was talking, this guy was a conqueror type! Al recognized it, as his own people talked that way! However, he wasn't into the realm conquering business, since he'd been stuck on Earth for a while now.

It certainly perked his interest though. Going to the tournament meant getting to be able to scope people out: Find out who was among the strongest! Al couldn't sense energy, not yet at least. He didn't have a reason to develop it. However, hearing Faustus was competing in it, too, Al felt as though he should be developing it soon. He just needed to find the right reason to use one of the few artifacts in his possession back at home to unlock it.

When he was asked, Al replied, "No, I'm not in the tournament. Not really interested in getting into that particular scene. I'm more for watching and understanding! From the sounds of it, your boss Azoth has a hands on approach to that idea!"

Al paused to take a couple bits out of the pancake and chow down on it! Savory bacon-like flavor from the pork belly mixed with the peppers and cabbage blanketed his tongue and taste buds. Delightful, despite the messy appearance! He worked the solids out, trying to think of how to word his thoughts next.

He swallowed and asked Faustus, "So, may be I was being a little ambiguous before. How did you arrive here? Your boss's name sounds a lot like the area my people come from, and so does your name! Was it through a ship, a door... A portal of some kind, essentially?"

Al was hoping this guy would be able point him in the right direction. If he couldn't, perhaps his boss, Azoth, could! A boisterous claim coming from Faustus, a Majin, about someone else had to mean something!

Faustus's answer wasn't what Alaistair was looking for... And considering how honest the guy had been to begin with, Al had to take the word from him. Disappointed, he responded, "Ah, you're an off worlder, then... So, I'm into ghosts, demons, and all sorts of paranormal phenomena-"

He gestured at himself, deciding to not hold back on his response, "-Being a Demon myself. Your boss's name, Azoth, sounds like a demon's! However, from that sounds of your statement, it's not the case."

He sighed, taking a disappointed bite. Alaistair honestly really was disappointed! It turned out this guy was born out here and not in the Demon Realm. It was honestly a good thing they were at the Carnival, at least!

"Being out here, my brethren and I gotta be careful declaring and showing evidence we're actually Demons," he explained shortly after swallowing his last bite, "We'd been stuck here for 100 years now, just trying to figure out a way to get back... I even wound up starting this fishing business just as a means we can have safe ground to go around the damn globe to find a portal or something to recharge the means we came back here!"

Alaistair was tepid at the moment. He didn't care at that moment if someone finally learned what he was: It was like a rain drop in the ocean! Unless it was storming out and kicking up the waves, someone learning this after a while wasn't going to affect him.

He pointed to the food with his chopsticks, asking, "How's the food, by the way?"

Alaistair was asked the question: How did he get here? Faustus got focused on that, rather than being distracted by the food before him.

"Well, that's a bit of a long story," Alaistair replied, "One I can make simple: I came here through a portal from the Demon Realm. The long answer is more about what I and my people learned."

Al paused to take another couple of large bites, already almost done with the pork belly okonomiyaki. There was still the octopus one, but he had a feeling he may need to give that to Faustus instead. Afterwards, Alaistair continued, recalling it like it were yesterday.

"We were searching for a new place to call our own. We were on an exodus from our former lands to the Demon Realm's massive ocean, not too different from this world's massive ocean. The reason we were on this journey was because, like what I'm assuming your master is, we are conquerors. As their leader, I made the decision to get a move to those seas, hearing that there'd be an entryway to the Mortal Realm. Normally, as you mentioned, Demons could use their own power to transfer from the Demon Realm to the Mortal Realm much like our opposites, the Shinjin. Like them, as well, it taxes us to do this. Now, we were intending to make some commotion over here to give us a bigger reputation. We heard that, at this island that is mirrored over here, there was a portal one could go through in mass to the Earth! To give my people some additional morale, I chose to lead my people here and went through the portal after setting up our new home on the Demon Realm side of things..."

He paused again, clicking his tongue and huffing in frustration as he looked up above them at nothing in particular.

"I should've kept my wits about me and taken to account that such portals could prove to be unstable," he exclaimed, returning his gaze back to Faustus, "In my arrogance, after setting up a base here 100 years ago, I did not take into account that the portal had shut us out from the rest of our people! Morale plummeted rapidly, some of my people questioning my leadership and causing infighting among everyone. It shattered us into different factions, who fled to other parts of the Earth... It's not exactly a clean cut, but that's how I got here, and why. So, how about you Faustus? What's the story with you and your boss, Azoth? Where do you come from?"