thenearshore | 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~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I-it's been better since everyone helped clear out the h-haunted house...

( She still doesn't like crowds but the mood at the festival was more enjoyable by far. She comes closer to Maria, trying to find safety in numbers, even if it's just one more person. )

You noticed? It g-got worse when the sun started to go down...

That's good to hear. People should be able to enjoy the season without having to fear for their lives. [Fear might be part of the fun here, but genuinely having to be wary of dangers like that isn't enjoyable for anybody.

With a slight nod, Maria looks up at the sky as if to gauge how far down the sun is now.] I left work a little before sunset, but I thought I'd take a detour. Since the sun started sinking, it's been feeling more and more oppressive.

B-back home...( She fidgets, trying to articulate herself in a reasonable manner, ) There's a legend. In the hour b-before dark when th esun sets, e-evil spirits meet in the material world.

( As she says that, some of the shadows begin to shift around. )

My world i-isn't so different from here so maybe it's the same...

That could be right. I haven't done much reading on spiritual lore in Japan, but the West does have the occasional similar superstition as well. [But things are only getting creepier the longer they stay here, so Maria starts to move a bit quicker, heading towards the festival.]

Why they're choosing now to do this, though...this is supposed to be harmless fun.

Y-yes... but even back home, these were just s-stories.

(As they hurry towards the festival, there's a loud crash followed by a child's voice moaning. Not too far from them, a kid sits up on the ground, completely tangled in his bike.

"Ow... what the...?" The kid seems pretty dazed.

Sakura reaches for her sleeve, giving her a tug and looking over in said direction.)

Let's check on him.

Many of the things here are just stories in other worlds. Here, I wouldn't be so sure. [Most of the gods here aren't ones that were still considered to exist in Maria's world, though she knows some of them had to have given the relics they've left.

The sound of the hurt child draws Maria's attention quickly away from that subject, and she turns her head as soon as she hears it. Sakura tugging her is all the encouragement she needs to start heading over.]

I wonder what happened...

( When the two of them approach, the boy begins to scramble up onto his feet. He insists he's fine and begins to check his bike. Sucking on his teeth, he mentions his chain seems to be broken and he'll have to push his bike back home now which sets Sakura on edge right away since he appears to be alone. )

M-maybe we can walk with you? ( She glances at Maria. They can't let him go alone? ) What do y-you think?

[Almost as soon as Sakura suggests it, Maria is nodding in agreement, offering a reassuring smile.] It only seems right, after seeing that. And if your parents ask what happened, we can support your story.

[A bike chain being broken isn't exactly huge damage, but given the condition of the bike itself, it is highly unusual and might be a little suspect. With that thought, Maria glances at the bike pedals.] Was that chain new?

( The kid can't help but make a face. He's not exactly jumping at the idea of being escorted by two girls, no matter how cute they might be. He welcomes the change in topic as he tries to figure out an excuse out of the situation. Yeah, it's a pretty new bike in general. He'd saved up a lot of allowance money to be able to get it without asking his parents for too much help. What a bummer. What gives?

Meanwhile, Sakura frowns. She isn't sure what Maria is getting at but... she's getting at something, isn't she?
Was this unusual? Is this something that shouldn't happen normally? )

M... maybe you can leave it and take a bus? ( The boy says he doesn't live very far. It's only a few blocks away so he'd be okay. ) Oh... Well, we do too! R-right?

( M a r i a??? )

[The whole bike being new makes it that much more unusual, and Maria looks a little concerned as he shares the story. Unless it was a manufacturing defect, something like that definitely shouldn't be happening. Which means it was most likely another spirit sabotaging it.

Nodding a little in agreement with the boy, Maria glances over to Sakura as if trying to gauge how familiar she'd be with something like this.] The chain can be replaced fairly easily, so leaving a new frame here would be rather a waste.

[It's not ideal for their situation of trying to help him avoid another accident, but it's a logical choice to make. As for Sakura's hasty lie...Maria hates lying, and avoids it when at all possible, but technically speaking, her shrine is a few blocks away from this area as well. It's a half-truth, but it's not an outright lie.]

Right. We're probably going the same way.

018 | Season Spirits

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