011 | Black Parade

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Parade of the dead
When: All day May 26
Where: Shinjuku
Summary: The Near Shore needs a little protecting from the dead



The last few days have been filled with festival food, high energy, and lots and lots of parades. Near Shore residents really know how to enjoy their holidays, stopping up traffic for hours on end as floats and palanquins go by and filling the streets and courtyards in the area with food stands and festival treats. Many Far Shore residents may have found themselves drawn to this particular festival, as it is being held in honor of a shrine.

When an unexpected parade starts up, the people gather round to watch the impromptu spectacle. It's a little strange, yes, but nothing too terribly off-putting. That is until the parade reaches the shrine itself, at which point all hell breaks loose as the members of the parade start attacking anything and anyone in their way.

The Heavens will then call upon all the gods and shinki who are available to help, because these attackers are not normal at all - they are, in fact, the undead.



Let the Festivities Continue

The festival is a large, booming one. There are dozens upon dozens of food stalls set up all over the place with so many different kinds of foods that it could make your eyes go buggy, most of them fried in some way. On top of that, there is live entertainment walking around, stalls with souvenirs, and lots of excellent company nearby. Surely you'll be able to enjoy the festival to its fullest.

The Walking Dead

It is not immediately evident that the parade is being manned by corpses, but keen observers would be able to pick out the noticeable rotting elements of the dead. Anyone with a soul-sensing ability might even realize that they're not soulless, just lifeless. When the parade reaches the shrine, every god and shinki will be needed in order to protect the Near Shore from this menace. Corpses must either be exorcised or completely mutilated to the point where they can no longer move in order to release the soul.

Not Rootbeer Floats

On top of the mass of dead bodies being possessed by stray souls, some of the floats on wheels in the parade seem to have been taken over as well. They are moving slowly and with purpose towards anyone that crosses their path. At first, it may seem like the float is just veering a little off course, but it will soon become evident that it's headed towards you. They may be slow, but they're very large as well, meaning there's a lot more than needs to be destroyed to release the soul.

Souls, Souls, and More Souls

As souls are released from the objects they've taken control of, the air will become thick with a hazy fog of souls rushing away, into the air, and out of sight. This may make the continued fighting a little more difficult, but it means that the job is getting done.

Through some innate sixth sense, some of the dead people may seem familiar to certain gods (or shinki with specific memories). They can recognize some of the souls as friends or compatriots from their home world that had died. And these souls will recognize them as well.

Any characters not currently in the game that have actually died in their canon are free to be used for this part of the event and played out as NPCs by you and whatever partner you are playing with. All of these individuals will react in a similar way, though - they will beg to be released because it hurts them so horribly to be here right now and, of course, they can only be released in the same way that all the other souls are being released: exorcism or total destruction.

In Summary:

• Enjoy the festival
• Help save Near Shore residents
• Take down the dead bodies
• Try not to cry
• Cry lots
• Have fun~

Comments

[kokuyoyo]

[A nod. That’s the unfortunate fact of it, or, trust him, Chikusa would be moving on feeling much more confident about what he can do if that were the case. He’s had to rely on outside forces to take care of complete destruction of the corpses before they can get up again.]

Axel-sama has been burning them… but he told me to stay out of his way.

[So he’s at a bit of a loss here.]

[razzledazzles]

Sorry, but who is Axel? Your god...? [It must just be a shared name, a coincidence, but still. He's wondering now.]

[kokuyoyo]

[A short nod.]

Hestia. These aren't ayakashi, so I suppose he didn't have use of me...

[And he's totally not lowkey stressed about this, or anything. The fact that one of his yoyos goes smashing into the skull of one of the few corpses still struggling to stand is just because they're being a nuisance. Yep. Would this expressionless face lie?]

[razzledazzles]

I'm certain that's not the issue. My own god and I are working together even as we're separated. If you can knock them down or disable their movement, even that is a help.

I'm also sure that many gods aren't used to being in charge of others in this way, either.

[kokuyoyo]

[He feels like that's contradictory, a god not knowing how to be a god, but then again... Considering as he inspects a down corpse, he remembers something.]

...Because they were human before?

[razzledazzles]

Exactly. Most of the ones you ask will insist they're still human now, as well.

[He breaks from this to cheerily swipe under a corpse's legs, knocking it to the ground and pinning it there with his right foot.] If you think about it, it's unfair to pull someone into a position like that and ask that they be responsible for another person's life. It's a lot.

[kokuyoyo]

[Trying to grind his foot down onto a corpse’s leg to make it have a harder time to walk when the Rain flames wear off, Chikusa considers that. If he’d been made as a god and not a shinki, would he properly be able to watch after another person? It doesn’t feel like he would; the idea makes him feel faintly ill in fact.]

...But they had to be made as gods for a reason… right?

[razzledazzles]

No.

[Jae-Ha's answer is pretty immediate, and he pauses from continuing just long enough to spin kick another corpse.] There are some shinki who die or vanish and return as gods, for example. The roles can change, so I don't believe personality or anything else has to do with it.

[kokuyoyo]

[The idea of that happening makes him uneasy, and he takes it out on another corpse.]

Why?

[razzledazzles]

Why do they vanish, or why do they switch? Either way, I don't know of the answer myself. It just happens.

[kokuyoyo]

[That’s clearly not a satisfying answer, but fortunately there are still plenty of slowed corpses around to take out and distract his mind from that problem. With the immediate area around him cleared, Chikusa takes a breath.]

...There’s not a lot of information known about all of this, is there?

[Something he’s quickly realizing.]

[razzledazzles]

Not really. The gods are more informed, but only barely. We shinki have no memories, and the gods are forced into this position regardless of their will, and treated differently from the "original" gods. It's a complicated situation and no one seems to know what's happening.

[kokuyoyo]

How troublesome…

[And, in response to that trouble, he almost wants to ask if a god can be killed, tortured. If such a pantheon can’t even look after those that are new in order to make things more efficient, what use are they?]

[But… He knows enough to keep that to himself as he looks for any nearby stalls amidst the fallen zombies now surrounding them.]

Why listen to their summons, then, if they won’t work with us or our gods?