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~

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U-um...

[The bear makes a weird noise, somewhere between a whuff! and a bark, and keeps following Gojyo with singleminded interest. Tsuzuki scrambles back into a run after it, waving his arms as the gods and shinki clustered around the fire start scattering.]

Bad bear! No! Go away! Go back in the forest!

[This is totally effective, right. Well -- on the plus side, the bear is showing no interest in him at all. On the minus side, it also doesn't seem to care that a loud person is chasing it and waving his arms.]

[ Gojyo nearly throws himself into the fire, his momentum is so great. He barely (heh, bearly) catches himself at the edge of the fire pit, flinging the charm into the hottest part of the flames he can reach. He loses all the hair off his arm in the process, but it'll be worth it in a minute.

It... will be worth it in a minute, right? When the charm burns up, and the bear loses interest and wanders back into the woods? ]

Did it work?

[The plastic and polyester starts to melt and then catches in a little flare of greenish flame, and the bear stops, whuffs again, and rears up on its hind legs for a look around. Standing, it's nearly as tall as Tsuzuki. He carefully edges around it and waves his arms.]

C'mon, bear, go! -- I, uh. I think it worked!

[The bear swats at him with one long-clawed paw, and Tsuzuki jolts back and waves his hands again.]

Go!

[His arm stings; he glances down at it, and sees he's wound up with a few thin scratches from the very tips of claws. With a huff, the bear drops back to all four feet and turns to lumber casually back into the forest, and Tsuzuki drops his arms, blowing out a relieved breath.]

Okay, so. Not just a toy. Thanks, Gojyo.

[ The golden bird-boy had been right after all. Thanks for the warning, bird-boy! ]

There is something... [ Hold up, he's really out of breath. ] ...really fucked up about this place. [ He's not that out of shape or anything. He was just running so fast he nearly hurt himself.

And speaking of hurt... Gojyo nods at the scratches on Tzu's arm. ]

Looks like he got you.

No kidding. Man, I wish whoever invited us out here had told us it was BYOB.

[He needs a drink. They probably both need a drink. At least the scratches aren't a big deal; he turns his arm to inspect them. Lucky he's in one of his short-sleeved Hawaiian shirts: it didn't even clip the sleeve.]

Just barely.

[He hasn't scratched himself up yet, except for maybe on the occasional twig weeding, and he'd never paid attention to those. He wonders if they'll heal as fast as bruises--]

Oh, hey. [Faster. The blood welling up is sinking back into the skin as the thin scratches heal to pink lines, and then to nothing, from the ends in. Tsuzuki watches in fascination.] That looks so weird.

[ Gojyo's about to ask what a biwyoubi is, but then Tsu's arm heals. From where he's standing he can't see the details of the process, but one minute there's thin lines on Tsuzuki's arm, and the next, they're gone. ]

What the... How did you do that?!

Good question. [He fishes a tissue out of his pocket to wipe the last smear of blood off his arm, glances around, balls it up and tosses it in the direction of the fire, which it manages (barely) to hit and stay in.

It keeps him from looking too self-conscious, or looking at Gojyo, as he adds:]

I guess it's because I wasn't really human before. I was something spirit world-y. Apparently.

[Whatever that is. He glances back to check Gojyo's reaction, expression a little sheepish.]

[ Oi. No. Gojyo's the last person to judge anyone for not being human, okay? His refusal to be a dick about Tsuzuki's lack of humanity is written all over his face... at least, for a moment.

The next moment he's got Tsu's arm in his hand and he's checking out the totally unbroken skin, like peering at it from close up will give away the secret. ]

You got a pin on you?

[That was okay. That went a lot better than Tsuzuki'd expected it to, and he doesn't know why he'd expected it to: it's not as if they're all human up here, and nobody's been a dick so far. Still. He relaxes into a smile.]

A pen? Uh, yeah --

[He fishes out a cheap ballpoint from his pocket.

Only, wait. From the fascination on Gojyo's face, and the fact that he's checking out Tsuzuki's healed-up arm, that's not what he meant, is it? Tsuzuki's smile falls right off his face.]

Hey! Just because it heals doesn't mean it doesn't hurt!

[ No, he said pin, not pen! ]

Don't be such a baby! [ Well, here, give it over anyway. Maybe he can use the edge of the cap or something? ] It'll just be a little scratch. I wanna see it heal!

[Tsuzuki surrenders the pen automatically as Gojyo plucks at it, but the pen lid's cheap plastic too, without anything even close enough to an edge to scratch. He looks dubiously down at his arm.]

Uh.

I don't think that's gonna work. I mean, you could always call the bear back....

[The charm's probably long since gone to a lump of weird plasticky goop in the coals, so Gojyo actually can't, or Tsuzuki would not have suggested it. As glad as he is that Gojyo reacted with a spirit of scientific inquiry, he's still not down for unnecessary scratching.]

[ No, dammit, the whole pen is all soft round edges! It's totally worthless. ]

Don't even joke about that.

[ With a disappointed huff he hands Tsuzuki back the pen and releases his arm at the same time. ]

...I wasn't gonna scratch you badly, you know.

[Tsuzuki snorts, re-capping his pen and dropping it back into his pocket with the rest of the random crap he's collected.]

Yeah, sure. Not with that pen, anyway.

[... on the other hand: he relents, and grins at Gojyo with a conspiratorial air.]

It is cool, though, huh? I don't even have to think about it, and poof! Like magic.

It's totally cool!

[ He drapes his arm around his new friend's shoulders and casually steers them away from the fire. Nothing's exploding, nobody's dying... plus, with the danger of residual bear, it's probably best to move somewhere else for awhile, yeah? ]

It sucks that it still hurts, though. You'd think magic healing would come with magic not-feelin'-the-hurt, you know?

Seriously. At least it doesn't hurt for that long.

[Tsuzuki doesn't mind being steered away from the fire; he follows easily along. After all, the fire's what they were searching around for scary and dangerous crap. Even if it's not there, it's got this aura of creepy now.

He shrugs, easily putting it out of his mind, and glances at the forest edge. The bear's gone, at least.]

It's the only special talent I've figured out yet, and that was just because some boxes fell on me....

[ Yup, the bear's gone. Bear's gone, people are getting rid of their cursed items, and Gojyo needs a drink. Thankfully, he knows a place he can do that for pretty cheap!

Once Tsu turns with him, though, the arm around the shoulder drops, and Gojyo tucks his hands into his pockets. Tsu's cute, but he's not that cute, sorry! ]

Ha! ...You're kind of a klutz, aren't you?

[Tsuzuki pulls a face.]

Good thing I heal so fast, huh.

[...because Gojyo's not wrong. He's just as happy to wander along with Gojyo wherever he's off to without the arm around his shoulders, too, because Gojyo's cute but that would make it weird. And not-weird is better.]

So how'd you know about that bear thing? Did you get one of those charms too?

[ Maybe Tsuzuki's not not-human after all. Maybe somebody in his previous life just took pity on him for being dangerously clumsy and cast a spell so he'd never get hurt too badly for too long.

Or maybe he's some kind of robot? ...Eh, conversations for another time. ]

Are you kidding? I've been here long enough that I know better than to pick up anything that everyone else is playin' with. [ Preventative Hipsterdom: learn it live it love it. ] No, it was some bird guy at the fire just now. He warned me about the bears.

Yeah, yeah... [Look, it was a cute teddy bear.] Lucky break, then. I'm glad you figured it out before I gave it to Sakura, anyway.

Oh? Sakura, huh? You've got a girlfriend?

[ It was a cute teddy bear, and, without the curse part, an A+ gift for a cute girl! ]

Is she a hottie?

Hey, watch your mouth, that's my goddess you're talking about.

[Like: literally his goddess. He nudges Gojyo in the ribs with an elbow, not too hard.]

And she's about thirteen.

[There's two kinds of girls you give cute teddy bears to. One of them is girlfriends. The other one? Actual little kids....]

Oh. [ Ugh, now he feels like a creep. Great. ]

Shit, then I'm doubly glad you didn't give her that charm! [ And that's a safe diversion of topics, so lets head that direction! ] Where'd they all come from anyway, do you have any idea?

Seriously. She might've really gotten hurt.

[Tsuzuki shakes his head, glancing out over the party in total obliviousness to Gojyo's reaction. It's a good question. Where did all those weird cursed objects come from?]

I don't know. Maybe this kind of thing happens around Obon every year.

[ The temple Gojyo usually uses to get to his bar is all the way on the other side of this row of temples, past the fields and just at the edge of the woods. It's about a thirty minute walk from Sharak's temple, and it'll probably be about that long from here, too. Hopefully Tsuzuki isn't adverse to taking a stroll, because it doesn't even occur to Gojyo that walking a mile and a half in the dark is anything at all out of the ordinary. ]

It seems to happen a lot more than that, have you noticed? If it's not cursed charms it's us gettin' attacked by killer bugs or gettin' turned into, uh... [ He trails off there, then shakes his head and picks the thread of the conversation right back up. ] There's always something. It's like we're in a monster of the week show.

Yeah, it's like it's a different thing every week.

[He blows his breath out, pulling a face.] I mean, maybe that kind of thing's normal, though? I run into ayakashi on the Near Shore all the time, so it didn't seem like it was all that weird that there'd be some going after a party there. Then there's been all kinds of stuff showing up possessed lately, too.

[He's perfectly willing to match Gojyo's pace, hooking one thumb into a pocket as he glances away from the fire dwindling behind them and out over the quiet temples instead. A few have lights burning in the windows; most are dark. Sleeping, maybe. Or abandoned.]

Where're we heading?

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