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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[Too bad. Niles would have loved to hear some dirty jokes.

Niles listens at the noises and realizes that he has no idea how close he might have been to getting blighted. He should certainly thank his lucky stars that he didn't. He looks up at the roof as they walk through the rooms.

This? Really was nothing.

He sighs and shakes his head, following closely behind Hakkai.]

I can see why they'd be scared. Why we'd be scared is certainly a mystery.

We do have a few advantages over scared teenagers with no combat experience, to be fair.

[Hakkai brushes the fine threads hanging from the ceiling impatiently away from his face as he heads for the exit, pitching his voice to carry.]

Mika! Tomoe!

Only a few? Clearly, we're lacking.

[He laughs lightly, trying not to be too loud or creepy.]

They're probably in the basement.

[Hakkai doesn't even try not to make his cheerful little snicker creepy.

(It's a natural skill.)]

Or, perhaps, the attic?

[There aren't any stairs, though, so he's going to keep walking. He can see a darker rectangle on the opposite wall, now, and shapes along the walls. Furniture, he thinks. Furniture pushed up against the walls and covered with white drop cloths, stained and splashed with some dark liquid. He sniffs, thoughtfully. There's no odor of blood.]

No one goes to the attic in a horror movie. It's always the basement.

[It's a fact of life. He sighs and shakes his head as he moves to touch the walls. No blood there either. At least they haven't been brutally murdered.]

You seem like the kind of man to enjoy a good horror movie, you should know this.

Oh, of course. But because of that, real children in a haunted house probably wouldn't go to the basement if they had a choice.

That's where all the monsters live.

[Besides, he's not certain this place has a basement, although it does unquestionably have a second floor and a flat, open roof above that. He smiles cheerfully and wanders over to the cloth-draped furniture, throwing back the drop cloths with a quick gesture.

Beneath them is, in fact, furniture, but furniture equally splashed with that mysterious, long-dried dark liquid. Hakkai runs a fingernail along one stain, collecting fragments, and takes a closer look. It flakes easily and smells faintly acrid.]

... Paint, I think. Tempera paint. [He chuckles, heading more briskly for the next room.]

Someone working on this was creative!

These are teenagers, they're going to the basement to... have fun without getting murdered. And then they get murdered.

[Look, Niles is just causing bullshit here. That's what he does while helping him. And he's doing his best. He sighs.]

So. Nothing here.

[He sighs and moves to follow him.]

Maybe check the closets.

[Cheerfully, Hakkai offers:] If so, they've been strangled. I can't smell blood.

[The next room proves to be more of a storage room, and therefore annoyingly well-supplied with cabinets. One whole wall is set with them, seven feet tall and deep enough to hold two teenagers apiece. Hakkai heads for the nearest end of the cabinets.]

Take the far end, and we'll work towards one another, Niles?

[He throws open the first. Stacked boxes and books sit within, with a few old rolled-up banners crowding the top. Something rustles from a lower box. Hakkai contemplates the fact that, if they have rats, it's not his problem, shuts the door, and moves on. Two little, purple, glowing paws shove their way through the crack, reaching after him as he steps past. It's only a little ayakashi. Hakkai is not concerned.]

Not true. They could have been poisoned or drowned. If you're only thinking strangled, you really aren't being that creative.

[He laughs as he moves to start opening cabinets from the other side, humming as he slams each one open and starts to kick things to see if there's anyone in there.

Hey, they'll scream.]

Honestly, why do they choose to hide? It's easier for them to get murdered.

[He's not shutting any of the doors. Might as well as a reminder of where he's already looked.]

Have you ever poisoned someone? The smell tends to be much more distinctive.

[Vomit, effluvia... it's a messy way to go, with most common poisons. Hakkai chuckles mildly as he throws open each cabinet in turn, only re-closing the ones that prove to be hiding small ayakashi. It's a surprising number; maybe one of every three.

None of them, though, contain any hiding teenage girls. He stops as he meets Niles, and sighs, sadly, and is about to speak when he's interrupted by a banging from behind him. He turns around, startled.

One of the closed cupboards is shaking with the force of the blows, and a girl's voice shouts from inside it, "Help! Help!"]

My goodness. For an ayakashi, that's quite a good imitation.

Edited 2017-08-02 02:25 (UTC)

Possibly in a previous life. I haven't needed to do it yet.

[And he kind of doesn't want to. He'd like to not clean up any vomit thank you.

He blinks towards the banging door and tilts his head to the side. Wow. That's incredible.]

You know, there's supposed to be two, right?

[Those ayakashi aren't that bright.]

Do they think we're idiots?

Really, I think they're idiots. Ayakashi aren't the cleverest of creatures.

[As witnessed by the fact that they're trying to play "over here!" from a closet he's already checked. With a shake of his head, Hakkai moves towards the next room. Behind him, the banging on the cupboard door falls silent.

The next room is full of strange, ghostly shapes: furniture draped in discolored sheets. It's silent, but, Hakkai thinks, looking around, there are too many places in here where two girls could hide. He heads for the nearest pile of sheet-draped furniture, crouching to lift the edge of the sheet and peer underneath.]

They don't have to be mutually exclusive.

[Idiots can think they're very smart and other people are idiots. Niles meets those people all the time, particularly on training days.]

Here, let's make it easier.

[Just grabs a sheet off something and throws it off and to the side. Just a couch.]

And then when we're done, we can go scare everyone else.

Well, that sounds like a plan.

[Sheet off -- a stack of chairs. Sheet off -- an old cabinet.

Sheet off -- a scarred teacher's desk, with two wide-eyed preteens huddled together underneath it. They both shriek as Hakkai pulls she sheet back, and one girl falls backwards and scrabbles away a few paces on hands and feet.

Hakkai sighs, and crouches down to their level.]

Your friends are looking for you outside. Let's go.

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.]

You can keep looking if you'd prefer, Niles, I'm sure there are more lost lambs somewhere in here.

[The girls are looking more confused than anything, glancing back and forth between Niles and Hakkai. Hakkai catches the nearest girl's hand and tugs gently, spurring her to scramble out from under the desk. Her friend hastily follows.]

Lead the way?

[He glances back to the teenagers, and says, more gently:] Let's follow my friend over there outside. It's safe -- come on.

[Safe enough, anyway. As they reenter the previous room, another fusillade of thumps and crashes echoes from the closed cabinets, and the girls shriek, stopping and clinging to each other.]

I think lemmings are more appropriate.

[Niles sighs as he starts to head out. Less fun than he had hoped for, but whatever. Once they were done, he could go enjoy himself again.

When they get to the next room, and they hear the crashes, he just sighs and shakes his head.]

At least they didn't hide again.

[He grumbles and walks to slam open all the closed cabinets until the noise stops.]

There. Done.

[Little ayakashi, mostly blobs with glittering yellow eyes, ooze out of the newly opened cabinets and onto the floor. A few of them whisper together, You smell good....

Hakkai, sighing, puts one hand on each of the girls' shoulders and begins propelling them firmly towards the exit. The ayakashi aren't big and they aren't moving very fast, although they're licking their lips with eerie interest.]

Thank you, Niles. Come on, girls, let's go.

[And those are certainly something they'll have to deal with afterwards... or just shut in little boxes and leave around to spook the mortals. Niles isn't his shinki, after all. They can't rend them.]

[Niles would love to rend them, but it's not possible. A shame there is no way for them to work together as god and shinki.

A shame.]

Yes, let's.

[He slams the door to that room shut as they start heading towards the front door.]

And maybe don't come back in here. Just a tip.

No, I recommend finding a different haunted house!

[The girls are wide-eyed and shocked silent, but, at least, they're still walking forward obediently when Hakkai propels them. He sighs, wondering what they'd seen when the ayakashi came flooding out of the cabinets. Nothing? Mist? Shadows?

The reassuring yellow of the streetlights outside is visible through the windows on either side of the building's front door, in any case, and Hakkai offers Niles a help-please nod.]

--Can you get the door?

[And then he'll shove the kids outside, and they can go about their business somewhere else. He has to admit he's looking forward to it.]

[Niles nods and rolls the door handle open, pulling it back so the girls can leave and they can have their own fun.]

Exit this way, and continue walking until you no longer see this house.

[They look absolutely terrified. Honestly, what did they expect from a haunted house? He just shakes his head and looks towards Hakkai.]

We'll take care of the rest.

[making it scarier, of course.]

[Of course. As soon as they're out the front door, they look at each other, grab hands, and start running pell-mell across the parking lot. Hakkai, standing in the doorway behind them, sighs, and glances back over at Niles.]

What do you think? Shall we go have a drink?

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018 | Season Spirits

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