thenearshore | 018 | Season Spirits

018 | Season Spirits

Who: Everyone!
What: Season spirits and spooky things
When: IC August 1-15
Where: The Near Shore and Far Shore
Summary: It's the time for spirits to get a bit more 'lively'.

August is a spiritual season in Japan with many people preparing for the Obon festival but many others get into the spirit in another way. All across Japan, people have begun to share their favorite summer ghost stories. Movie theaters advertise the hottest horror flick of the season, teenagers challenge each other to do trials of courage, haunted houses begin to pop up, and it feels like you can't change the channel without switching to some ghost hunting urban legend special. All of this talk about spirits comes at a cost, though.

July comes and passes easily enough but it's almost as if as soon as August begins, so do the incidents. There's an increase in spiritual activity and shenanigans on both shores. Some of them are harmless spooks but others are much more sinister. Arm yourselves with all of the ofuda and omamori you can find and get out there and restore peace!

Possessed Possessions

Inhabitants of the Far Shore may awaken to find their sheets trying to strangle them and shoes stomping on the floor around them. Others may go about their day and find out their teapots suddenly only serve lukewarm tea or their weapons are trying to take swings at them. They're just playful spirits that will abandon their hosts if you shove any ofuda/omamori at them or yell loudly enough. They aren't malicious spirits... they were only just trying to have some fun.

Spirited Festivals

There's a festival every weekend and some of them have set up haunted houses for patrons to visit. You have your standard haunted house thrills... costume make up, jump scares, special effects smoke, the usual! But it looks like some real ghosts have made themselves at home here. Visitors are going in and emerging hours later absolutely traumatized. It looks like once you enter, the real spirits walk you around in circles and give you real scares. There are some spirits here just to have fun thrills and these are spirits that can be chased away with regular ofuda. But it looks like the more violent ones are actually ayakashi out for vengeance. Be careful in there!

Cursed Charms

There sure are some weird trends out there, huh? The latest one is buying cursed trinkets off the internet and passing them off as gifts to unsuspecting victims whether it be to prank a friend or get revenge on an enemy. Cursed mirrors, dolls, fake ofuda, VHS tapes, and so on are being passed around the Near Shore and spreading all sorts of curses.

Bad luck. As long as you're in possession of the cursed item, you'll be followed by bad luck to varying degrees depending on the quality of the charm.
Fear. Holding onto this charm results in intense, crippling fear. The fear can manifest as an intense paranoia at all times or being frozen with fear in the face of danger. Some say you can even die of fright...
Sickness. This charm is pretty straightforward. Having this charm just makes you feel incredibly under the weather and your health will worsen the longer you have the charm.
Evil. Holding onto this charm results in you being followed attracting evil instead of warding it. Suddenly, you feel as though you are always being followed, as if something is stalking you and clearly out to get you. You begin to run into smaller ayakashi at first but they keep growing in strength and number until you can't fight anymore.
Bad romance. Someone's meddled with a romance charm so it ends relationships instead of making them! People stuck with this charm are suddenly hyper aware of the faults of others. Everything gets on your nerves and you can't stand being around that person because they're just that annoying. It doesn't just work on couples! It also works on friends and relatives too.
Bears? An oddly specific curse. It looks like someone has taken a protection from bears charm and made it so now you attract bears where ever you go. Some of them are nice but others...

You can try to destroy the charms but you will find that unless you have purification powers or rend it, the effects last. It looks like most people have been able to shake off the effects by simply disposing of them at temples and buying another charm to counter the effects.

Haunting Hour

There are reports of violent attacks at night-- people being pulled into alleys and attacked, school children being chased by slashers while walking home from school, homes being broken into-- and all of it is done without a single clue left behind to explain who did it. People are warned to be careful at night and as the sun begins to set, something happens. The hour between sunset and dark is supposed to be the scariest hour them all. At this time, the shadows are suspiciously bigger and darker and you constantly see things just out of the corner of your eye. Suddenly, the wind blows cold and there's a rotten smell in the air like blood. It's Oumagatoki, the hour evil spirits meet. Small time ayakashi and spirits on the verge of becoming ayakashi spill into the streets and begin to terrorize others. Protect the people of the Near Shore and watch your own backs.*

* These are just generic ayakashi! Nothing special, nothing specific. Feel free to make up and NPC your own two-bit ayakashi.

THEN WHO WAS PHONE?

In the evening, everyone will receive a set of coordinates and a message from an Anonymous sender,

I want to talk about the
mysterious things that have been happening
lately.
OF course, i
NEED
EVERYONE to come. so don't be
late! see
yoU.
:)

Everyone receives it and there is no way to track where the message came from. If you follow the directions, you'll arrive at a small temple on the outskirts of a city. A sacred fire is lit on the grounds for people to dispose of any cursed or old charms they may have collected. Hang around a bit and it'll become obvious that no one knows who has gathered all of you here tonight. The only ones around are gods and shinki. It doesn't look like any evil spirits are around so other than being invited to the middle of no where at night... there's nothing to worry about. If you wait around, nothing will happen. So while you're here, you might as well discuss the strange happenings! Or tell ghost stories around the fire.

Wildcard

Choose your own adventure! Feel free to make up your own prompts. Ronald Knox's player (

diehardreaper) has offered up their temple as a test of courage in the Far Shore for those who want to try their luck. Check out their description under the Baron's manor.

In Summary:

Beat the heat by feeling a scary chill
Deal with cursed and spirit-imbued items
Keep the Near Shore people safe
Chat about your scary encounters
Have fun~

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[Naoto sprints along behind the thief, attempting to catch up as best she can. She's starting to run out of gas, however, as adrenaline can only carry someone so far. And at this point, she's chased the masked individual around much of the museum. Fortunately, it looked like she now had them cornered, as they're heading directly for the doors. Doors Naoto had been sure to lock before investigating further into the museum. There was no way they could get out... right?]

[She grins, slightly crooked as she's not sure she liked that second part of Dust's statement, but they could cross that bridge once they'd dealt with the immediate threat before them. Following her comrade's order, she drops the borderline, timing its release to allow Dust to dart forward and try to get the jump on the ayakashi now preoccupied with trying to figure out how to get around the barrier.]

[As the light of the borderline fades, Naoto dashes to the right, attempting to get whatever kind of flank position she could. She needs to get out of Dust's way -- between the two of them, it was clear who the more capable fighter was (i.e. the guy who actually carries around a weapon on his person), but she still needs to be in a position to support him as much as she possibly can.]

For now. [Shun's keeping a much closer eye on it now, one hand on his canteen of blessed water. If it decides to make a leap forward, he can at least respond with something that'll deter it briefly.]

How close together do the rest of them live? [It'll be a lot easier if they can take the last few home in one quick run, but Shun's not counting on them being that lucky.]

Could imagine that'd sting quite a bit, yeah...

[ And losing someone you've gotten close to here was bad en-- NO. REEL IT IN RONALD KNOX. He rapidly shakes his head as if to clear it of imaginary cobwebs before speaking up again. ]

Anyroad! I'd been thinking of getting everyone associated with reaping together. Just to rub elbows or summat. What'd be a good day for you?

[ Way to change topics, Ron. ]

Makes the two of us then...

[ He heads in without hesitating and even as he walks through the door, something seems to be holding it open almost as if waiting for Emizel to enter. ]

Make yourself at home, by the way. It's a bit more'n what I'm used to, honestly!

[ It's a normal manor, the front door leading to a receiving area with a sitting room next to it but Ron's heading through it to a modest kitchen and rustling around for a pot to boil water in. The only thing deceptive about it though is likely the way the shadows shift and move, almost as if wanting to get a look at the newcomer. ]

Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!

[ Genius doesn't even slow down. They swing right for the doors -

and vanish. Completely. Just. Poof. They're gone, save for a single red flower spiraling down on the ground with a note attached.

Phantom Thief Genius has teleported away. The chase was completely unnecessary.

Granted, they just revealed they were a god, but whatever. VICTORY. ]

[[ ooc: I hope it's okay if she gets away here! Though I also welcome Naoto figuring it out and showing up at Hibiki's place later, etc...however you want to play it! ]]

Edited 2017-08-12 14:59 (UTC)

[Well, that certainly stops Naoto in her tracks. What exactly just happened? That last trick, the vanishing act... that had been different from the illusion of splitting in two. And she has a fairly good feeling she's seen something akin to this before. In fact, she's almost definitely certain she has.]

[As she stops and catches her breath, her mind already formulating several interesting theories as to the thief's identity. She'll have to give these events some more thought before she can arrive at any particular conclusions, but she has a good feeling she knows where to find her suspect.]

[Her heartbeat slows back down, and her legs start to ache from the chase as the adrenaline fades. Still, she needs to investigate the scene here at the museum a bit further before she leaves. There were a few things she wished to check on personally. Naoto lets out a sigh as she stands back up straight, the faintest trace of a smile crosses her lips. It seemed... at least to some degree... that she was starting to enjoy this, too.]

(ooc: Yup! Totally, good! I wanted Hibiki to escape, as it's more fun that way. :3 I can throw up a Naoto log soon of her coming to visit Hibiki at her temple. Not necessarily to unmask her there, but at least perhaps play some mind games with her, if that sounds good to you? ;) )

[A ghost?!!!]

[When he glances over to Hibiki, he notes that she hadn't...really reacted; given her reaction to the girls in the other room, that doesn't seem quite right, so he assumes it's Hibiki's doing.]

[He whispers as he falls in next to her.] Warn me when you do something like that.

[Well, considering they're in the final act now, that may not even come up again, but it...did startle him a bit. Ahaha...]

[Aaand, on the heels of the cold, here comes the fog.]

...Heh. You're not going to take my word for it? [Not that standing against the temple walls really counts as "secret training" even to himself, but it's the principle of the thing.]

Seems like less "burning out" and more "wants to play" to me. [He stands back up, just in case those pillows really are going to launch an attack.] Were they playing among themselves when you found them?

[If borderlines take energy continuously like that, then her plan—that of keeping borderlines up until morning—is probably a bad idea. (More like, 100% a bad idea, but who's counting?)]

We'll have to depend on this as it is, then. [She straightens.] Don't worry, it's very strong. [She says with a straight face. Technically, they are very strong (back home) so she is actually not exaggerating. Plus, what with the kind of god she's filling in for...embodying Rangda has to count for something. (It would count for more if she knew how to use her god ability or if she knew how to interact with Rangda's domains, but there's a first time for everything.)]

Let's get started. [She casts an eye over the children.] Which one of you is going home?

[ The museum contains no further clues as such, though the flower does seem to be a present for her, given that the note attached reads "The curtain falls. Until our next rendezvous, Detective."

The Phantom Thief seems to have enjoyed themselves as well. ]

[[ ooc: That sounds perfect! I'll look forward to it. <3 ]]

[ Hibiki looks over, unconcerned. Completely deadpan: ] Do what?

[ Yes, she's lying. But this needs to not look like her doing (and keep attention away from her) to be an effective ruse.

The fog swirls around both of them, and around the girl who has dropped to her knees in fright in the middle of the room. "D-don't come...." she whimpers.

Hibiki touches her forehead lightly - not a headache already - but keeps concentrating. And a shadow looms up. ]

That explains the lack of there being a god version of it.

[Her god was impress by the pamphlets given to her. It helped him know the rules in what subjects to talk about with her.]

How do you get an audience? I'm surprise there is even an option to do that. With the way it seems the Heavens are hoping we'll one day disappear or something.

[Emizel has to resist the urge to explore around. It probably rude. Then again, demon and all...]

[Well, that and he kept having a eerie feeling he was being watched. Considering he has no idea what other temples are capable off, it's wiser just to stay put, for now.]

You don't have another shinki anywhere?

"Secret training" could mean anything, so I'm not going to take your word that you weren't sitting around watching them out the window or something. [He's onto that vague wording, mostly because he's had to deal with altogether too many people who favour vague wording over actually giving anything a straight answer.]

They can't go forever, so wanting to play is going to burn them out eventually. [They're spirits, and spirits can weaken and dissipate. Wasting energy on something like this seems counterproductive.] I found them when one of them tried throwing itself at the back of my head, so no.

Yeah, pretty sure they leave most of it to us unless some serious shit starts going down and they need to step in. [And even then, this murder stuff going around recently doesn't seem to have gotten their attention.]

A couple of minutes. Having a shitload of people in the haunted house at once kind of ruins the effect, you know.

[So mildly lazy is sounding good right about now, though they've spent a fair bit of those few minutes already.]

We just don't know, sometimes this place makes accurate god assignments and other times it's basically the dartboard method.

[He'd kind of like to see that dartboard given the range of worlds they must have represented here, but that's a thought for later.]

I think there's supposed to be some kind of shinki committee or some shit, so maybe them, I dunno.

[Davesprite could debate the thing on details, but seeing how long Hakkai can hold the poker face is more interesting, and then when he says he needs to head home anyway, Davesprite offers a vague wave.]

Think I'm gonna hang out a little longer. See if we get any other chronic cases of exit, pursued by a bear.

Perhaps we'll have to see each other one day. But generally when you work doing a certain thing, you're confident in your ability to do it.

[And for Maria, that goes for fighting just as much as it does for singing.]

That's true. So it just might not be worth teaching everyone in their view. [Maria doesn't sound quite satisfied with that, but it seems like the most likely answer to the issue.

With a polite smile, she shakes her head.] I should be fine. Thank you for your help, though.

[She still feels a bit unsettled, but it's better than earlier, at least.]

That's one way of looking at it. [Maybe not "harass", but the intent would be close enough in the end.]

[Thread wrap!]

What? Already?

[He sounds disappointed, and he's sure that the girls are glaring at him a bit in his sad sounding voice.]

We barely got started.

[But he sighs and moves to clear the quickest way for them to get out.]

[A surprised blink.

Wow he's taking this super seriously. There's obviously some true passion underlying his coffee elitism.]

What? Does it really make that much of a difference?

[She's curious now.]

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018 | Season Spirits

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