018 | Season Spirits

[godsoffortune]

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~

Comments

[mermaiding]

[On the bright side, Oona's bears seem much more like the bumbling-winnie-the-pooh type than vicious maulers after their souls or whatever. It'd be cute if Oona wasn't more concerned about her food.

She looks at the necklace with reluctance, knowing she should probably get rid of it then, but...] Can make it stop? Is pretty! [There's a definite little whine in her tone] Want to keep it, but not keep bears!

[redotiertwo]

[While Davesprite's not going to be too trusting of the bears, he does at least uncurl his tail a bit to where the bears could probably reach it if they wanted to. At least then he'll only get slightly mauled if they turn out to be bad news.

Unfortunately, Davesprite doesn't have a good answer to that question, tucking the tiny charm back into his ruff.] If I knew that, I would've stopped this fucking thing from doing it as well. I can probably distract them long enough for you to finish your precious crepe, but past that we're probably going to need to do some asking around.

[mermaiding]

[The bears begin to bat a little at his tail once they take notice of it, and Oona watches them idly. If they start trying to maul him she's... probably not gonna step in, sorry, oops. He's made his bed and now he must lie in it!

...Okay well, she might teleport over and teleport out once she remembers she can do s, but. Still.]

Charm is not so pretty, just throw it away.

[Because, obviously, there's no reason to keep it around if it's not as nice to look at as, say, her necklace. Why keep it around then!! Nevermind that if he threw it out it might land in someone else's hands. Who cared about them?]

[redotiertwo]

[The very tip of the tail isn't really enough to maul, at least - the bears are only hitting anything solid occasionally, and other times, their paws just go straight through the wispy and insubstantial end. Right now, though, it just kind of looks like the bears are being cats to Davesprite, so he doesn't worry too much about it.

While Oona's suggestion has its merits, Davesprite shakes his head a bit as he threads a feather out of his ruff.]

I hung it off a tree branch and hid in one across a park to test it out. They still came looking for me and not the charm itself. Pretty sure it's some kind of lingering curse deal if we can't find a counter to it.

[mermaiding]

[Oona whines] But how countering it? This is stupid! [She goes as far as to stamp her foot, irritated at the lack of an easy solution to this all. She's too lazy for this, okay?!]

Stupid thing, stupid bears...! Eugh! [She feels like throwing a tantrum, but she refrains, if barely, huffing.] Can not just throw it in holy water and be done with it?

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, it is, but neither of us has a degree in Japanese curse mythology, so you're gonna have to suck it up, princess. [Davesprite doesn't have a particular issue with Oona, but he's not really here for people throwing tantrums, so he just deadpans that at her.

That suggestion gets a slight shrug.] I mean, you could totally try it, but I don't carry holy water on me to test out the scientific soundness of that theory.

[mermaiding]

[Oona scowls at him and if he was any closer she'd probably hit him to make herself feel better--but he isn't close enough and the only ones that ARE are the bears, and Oona's not stupid enough to go around fist-fighting bears.

She eats the rest of her crepe as she stares at the necklace, trying to think of something.] Are people who can get rid of curses, yes? At the, ehhh... Shrines? And things? Maybe they will un-curse it.

[redotiertwo]

If there are people throwing around curses, there should be people who can get rid of them. Or maybe charms that can counter them, I don't know. It seems like an actual good luck charm should be able to counter bad luck if we're assuming all of these things actually work.

[Davesprite is, at this point, ignoring the occasional bear paws at his tail in favour of considering this idea. It'd be pretty shit if they had working curses here, but not working charms.]

[mermaiding]

[Oona crosses her arms over her chest, considering, and then nods]

Good, suppose will work. Have to hope will, at least. Come, there are temples everywhere, one will have answer, yes? [She turns on heel and starts walking off in a random direction she hopes will lead to a temple.

The bears, for the most part, aren't following yet since Davesprite is right there also under the curse, but once Oona gets a certain distance they start ambling after at a leisurely pace.]

Aaahh, just wanted pretty necklace... So stupid. [how dare she face consequences for her actions??]

[redotiertwo]

[Davesprite drifts after her before too long anyway, so the bears no longer have a conflict of interest. At the very least, he'd like to see if this actually works so he can get rid of his.]

I mean, it's supposed to be the season for this sort of shit, if the temples aren't coming prepared then I have to ask who's got their head up whose ass.

[Considering temples are pretty much founded on the basis of this sort of thing being real, they don't have much of an excuse for not being prepared.]