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

[erogappa]

[ Hakkai's so sick he nearly falls out of his chair... or at least, that's Gojyo's initial thought. But then he says the b-word, and god, he really sounds worried. Almost like he isn't to blame for the blight being there.

Gojyo's hand slaps quickly against the back of his neck, and sure enough, his fingertips come back purple. Dammit. He balls his hand into a fist to stop himself from accidentally spreading the blight any further, and shakes that closed fist in Hakkai's direction. ]

I fucking knew this would happen! I knew it! Why'd you have to go and tell me about my past, huh? [ It's probably not bad -- only his fingertips are stained, and not his whole palm -- so he can probably make it back to Sharak's temple. And man, is she gonna get an earful about her asshole friend when he gets there. ] I don't want to know this shit! I was a bad person!

[ He waves his unblighted hand in Asshole's direction. ] I was the kind of asshole who named this poor guy Asshole! [ And he slaps and unblighted hand against his own chest, the fury and frustration pouring out of him. ] I've got scars from bein' stabbed and bit and fucking shot, okay, I know what kind of a person I used to be! And I don't want to be him anymore! He's fucking dead, and good riddance!

[ That may have been building for some time. ]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai lets his head fall on his drawn-up knees: his glasses dig uncomfortably into the bridge of his nose, and, after a few seconds, he shifts again to take them off. His hands are shaking badly. He's choosing to blame it on the fever.

Gojyo is still exactly the same man, he thinks. Still the kind of person who can't see a stranger, or even someone he dislikes, lying helpless in the road without going out of his way to bring them home. Shinki don't become different people. But shinki can change.

Ah: and there's the anger, blossoming from under defensive shock. It chokes him, even as he stays where he is. (Sitting on the plain wooden floor of his own temple entryway, curled up in a ball, shivering, pathetic: utterly pathetic.) He'd shout, he'd snarl and throw Gojyo out of his temple, if he could stand. If he could sort his words even in a rage, ensure he won't hurt him any worse.

Excuses, excuses --

Gojyo wants to throw himself away. Gojyo wants to throw Hakkai away, and Banri, and his life, and himself, the one who was by far the best of any of them, and the kindest. How dare he? How dare he.

His glasses slip from his grasp to clatter on the floor. He inhales harshly and lifts his head.

Ignoring Gojyo, he speaks with painful precision.]

Asshole, go into the workroom. Bring me the jar labeled "for fever" from the bench.

[Banri hesitates, looking between them again as though he's waiting for orders from his first god. Hakkai's voice lashes out.]

Go.

[He turns, obedient -- he can't help but be obedient -- and disappears into the workroom. Hakkai keeps talking, without moving, without looking at Gojyo. The workbench isn't too far into the room. It'll be easiest to get Gojyo away before Asshole comes back with the medicine.]

Go home, Mr. Sha.

[He should stop there: cold distance works on Gojyo, more proof that he's still the person Hakkai knows, and relies on, and cares for regardless of how foolish it is. He should, but he doesn't. His bitterness burns through, and his mouth twists as he looks dizzily down to find and gather up his glasses again (probably scratched, more's the pity.)]

Wash up.

[If he cares so much about keeping his hands clean, if he cares so much about being a good shinki, the sort who deplores blight, and deplores scars, and --

-- and stays safe. Hakkai contemplates the satisfying thought of watching the Heavens burn.]

[erogappa]

[ Those first few steps, Gojyo's moving without thought. It's like he's floating outside of his body, watching himself move without actually being the one doing the moving. He can't remember having ever been this mad, can't remember wanting to grab, and squeeze, and punch as badly as he does right now.

Why does he hate this man so much? Why is he so desperate to put his hands on him? This stupid, petty, sick...

Just out of arm's reach he stops. Cho is sick, so sick he can't even keep ahold of his glasses. The man Gojyo used to be might have been the type to beat up sick people (he wouldn't put anything past Past Him, he thinks, as the guilt-blight spreads down to the corner of his jaw). But he's not that man. ]

You're not fucking worth it.

[ He has no idea why Cho gets under his skin so readily, and it's looking like he's never know.

He used to be a god. Maybe that's the secret of heaven, he thinks. Maybe none of them ever really change, and they're all cursed to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Maybe he's a shinki now because as a god he couldn't stop sticking his nose in where it didn't belong.

But how do you change who you are, when that's the only thing you've got?

The blight on his palm oozes between his fingers, staining his knuckles like grape juice.

Without another word he turns on his heel and storms off. ]