[ ooc; anyone is welcome to reply to any of the below prompts. i've written them out in prose, however i'll match action brackets if you prefer those! here is a link to jesse's post on the plotting meme to give you an overview of what he's up to upon arrival/some ideas i have for interactions. you can also PM this journal or hit me up on plurk rizzoto or discord (itsmepinkman#5836) for brainstorming purposes/questions/etc. also feel free to hit me up if you'd like a custom starter prompt, which i can add into commments. there will also be a wildcard prompt at the end wherein you can post a starter of your choice :) ]

Jesse's memories are, thankfully, intact when he arrives at Yancai. He's been through enough where he doesn't need lost memories and the subsequent migraines and side effects plaguing him.

He's given an assignment--a role to play here, in this soggy, half-flooded, seaside village. It's to sell candles, which he first scoffs at. He's given a supply of plain, sea-salt scented candles, but also given raw materials and a small set-up to make more. He's given a lot of extra candle-making supplies as well, to pawn off to others who wish to follow in his footsteps. It's an obvious pyramid-scheme type business, which he's familiar with back in his homeworld, so Jesse sets out to figure out how he can rapidly expand this business. What better way to get to know people around this town and to discover whatever mysteries lie unsolved?

There are a few people in mind who he has heard talk of, but he'll meet up with those later--one: a money-lender who he'll certainly need to visit. Two: a door-to-door style missionary, recruiting followers to praise some kind of fish-god. Of course he'll be searching for those he'd met on The Sandman, as well--America, Buck, Clara, Nacho, Jimmy, Kim...he'll be on the lookout for any familiar faces from back home or otherwise.

For now, he'll settle into his humble abode--some flooded, half-sunken place. But, ascending to the rooms above, he discovers it's actually a rather nice dwelling. There's a sense of peace and calm when he walks in. Supposedly, it's a place where people come to be forgiven for their sins--to be set on the right path. Jesse scoffs at that a little, when it's revealed to him. It doesn't seem right that a person like him, with more sins than most under his belt, should be giving anyone advice on how to forge a righteous path.

Once settled, and armed with his first batch of candles, he'll start off with a simple door-to-door sales tactic. He walks until he finds the nearest dwelling, stepping up to knock firmly on the door. Once it's opened, he'll put on the most charming smile he can muster.

"Can I interest you in purchasing some candles? Looks light you might need some extra light in there, am I right?"

After reuniting with some familiar faces from The Sandman, Jesse's managed to secure a decent loan with which he aims to get some decent clothing and maybe a little extra--something to make him seem like the sucessful business owner he wants to come off as. A gold chain or two, perhaps? Or a gawdy ring? He'll figure it out. In the meantime, he's been tasked with checking on this 'beacon', whatever that's supposed to be and, now that he's secured a rowboat to get to the building it's housed in, he returns to Nacho with the news.

"Hey, man. Got us a boat. The guy's letting me borrow it for, like, next to nothing. You ready to check this place out?"

Crashing funerals doesn't exactly seem like the right thing to do, but Jesse can't help being curious about the customs this village has surrounding the deaths of loved ones. He lingers on the outskirts of the crowd, but shuffles closer when he notices what appear to be scratches on the inside of one of the tomb lids. Had its inhabitant still been alive when sent off to sea? He wonders that, along with why so many people are dying in this town. It seems like an off-balance number for a community this small.

While stepping closer, parting the small crowd to get a better look, he feels his vision start to grow hazy, a high-pitched ringing filling his ears and drowning out the ambient sounds around him. Suddenly, there's an unstoppable urge to submerge himself in the water and, while somewhere in the back of his mind he knows its a bad idea, it's as though he can only watch himself take one step and then another, down the beach and into the surf. He's at chest-height in the water now, and not stopping. Someone should probably pull him out before he sinks into the ocean entirely and gets swept away...

Even with Nacho paying off his initial loan debt, Jesse's been struggling to get his candle business off the ground. Much like business at home went, it feels like he's taking one step forward and two steps back. It doesn't help that he felt bad and gave away candles to some folks who promised to pay later (and who unsuprisingly never did). This feels different than being a drug dealer. Back then, it was easier to ward off feelings of guilt or empathy when it was someone trying to get their next fix off of you. This is different. It feels wrong to deny light, warmth, or a sense or protection from those who can't afford his wares. It's just not the same.

Unluckily for the village, it begins to be overrun by tar-coated corpses during the night, and it's quickly discovered that light and fire keep the undead at bay. Well, he'd been inadvertently taught by Saul Goodman that sometimes tragedy opens up an entirely new avenue for business opportunities. He'd thought it disgusting back then, when Goodman profited off of the victims of the Wayfarer accident and their families. But now? It doesn't seem like such a bad idea to start pushing harder in the promotion of his candle business, considering they do a decent job at keeping the corpses away. The idea works. It takes off so well, actually, that he has no choice but to hire on candle-makers and salespeople because the demand grows far higher than what he can take on by himself. THat's when the real profits start rolling in and he suddenly finds he can pay off all of the incurred interests and then some on that loan he'd taken from Jimmy McGill when they'd first arrived at Yancai.

A smug look on his face, he steps up to Jimmy's place of residence on the island, knocking heavily.

"Open up, Goodman! I mean, Jimmy! It's important!"

[ Feel free to make up your own starter if any of the above prompts don't quite fit. Hit me up for plotting if you'd like to hash out an idea first. Again, you can check my plotting post or my recent plurks if you'd like to get a general idea of what Jesse's up to in Yancai. Everyone's welcome--I'd love to write with any and all of you! :) ]