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~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The first comment get a bit of a staaaare from Fubuki, because he can't make sense of that, not being the type of person who'd have trouble with it—but he has noted that Shun has made comments like that even from the first moment Fubuki became his shinki, and that's not likely to change just because Fubuki says something, so he doesn't comment further.]

Well, it's not about bringing it up to people... [Rather, it might be kind of a bad idea to, actually.] Just that you shouldn't worry alone. [Since Shun keeping it to himself was what led to that Sleep-Deprivation Incident (it is officially an "Incident," capitalization included).]

[More importantly, there was something else.] Shun...you're supposed to throw those back, you know? [what kind of catch-ball game is this if there's no back-and-forth?? (Please ignore the fact that there is no ball.)]

[Shun just glares right back, as if expecting him to say something about it. When he eventually doesn't, he just continues eying him off until he gets to the next point. And that one doesn't seem to hit home much better, getting a somewhat irritable sigh from Shun.]

Why should I put the weight of something I can handle myself on someone else? [Especially since it'd have to be someone close to him for him to share that information in the first place.] I know when it's something I can't worry about alone.

[...Sort of. He did tell Ren eventually about the most recent spike of nightmares. After only five-ish days of no sleep this time.

But he's distracted from that subject by Fubuki's question, giving him a rather flat stare before looking to the pillow pile, then back at him.] Why?

It involves two of you, though... [Going for the literal probably isn't going to earn him any favors if he has to bring this up again, but it occurs to him that there are in fact things that someone has to face alone, and that changing someone's mind isn't that easy, even if he disagrees with it.] Do we—the people around you really seem so unreliable?

[...Because what with not being able to fight and the shit he almost pulled with certain drug-like substances (not that Shun knows about that) (Shun must never know about that), he can sort of see where he gives that impression (as loathe as he is to admit it, but after the fireflies incident, he can no longer deny it). But there are other people.]

[As for the other thing... Is that...really a thing that needs to be questioned?] Because it's a back-and-forth. [And back-and-forths are how you get to know each other!! (That's how it goes, right???)]

And I already said I was going to tell him about it. [So he doesn't quite see where Fubuki's coming from there, admittedly. That look only gets more prominent with what he says next - as if Shun is legitimately having trouble believing that's how it comes off.]

When the hell did I say anything about unreliability? I just said I don't like spreading the weight of something I can do myself. It might as well just be me taking the weight instead of several.

[It's different for things that's actually necessary for, like teamwork in combat, but personal matters are something Shun sees very differently.

Fubuki's answer also does not help him comprehend the catch game any more, though after a few moments of puzzling through the implications, he manages to get there himself anyway.]

...Then the question is just why you were trying to start a game of catch.

"Weight," huh...? You know...spreading the weight around helps prevent it from breaking.

[Besides, he'd talked to Fubuki readily enough. ... Should be be happy about that...?]

... I didn't mean to imply anything, though. [He totally did but leaving that aside... The real question here is why wouldn't he try to start a game of catch??]

Because it's fun, and the spirits were having fun, and you looked like you were... [Shun did not look like he was having fun, but he has also never seen (non-little) Shun having fun so he doesn't know what that looks like.] ...You looked like you were humoring them.

[Sorry, Fubuki, but Shun's honing in on exactly the wrong part of that sentence, his eyes narrowing slightly as if in challenge. The belated statement that he didn't mean to imply anything doesn't at all help.] If you're saying you think I'll break under pressure, you haven't been paying much attention.

[There are far worse things he's had to deal with than what he has to here, even if it's still pretty bad. If there's one thing he has confidence in, it's his ability to keep some kind of shape, even if it's not necessarily the shape he wants to be in.

Given it's pretty obvious what Fubuki was about to say before he trailed off, Shun has to cast him a somewhat disbelieving look even as he corrects himself.] I humour a lot of things. It doesn't mean anything other than that it's not annoying enough for me to actually stop it.

[...Hrm. He shouldn't have said that. It'd slipped out. But, given the choice, he wouldn't consider letting the pressure build to be the best option...] I'm sure you wouldn't let me see it if you were close to that point, but that's not something we want to test, right? [Considering he didn't quite expect himself to break, either, but the night of the firefly-viewing proved him wrong. Well, that's a slightly different thing, him being a shinki, but...]

People can change unexpectedly... Since you said you're that kind of person, I won't know the warning signs. [But they got on this topic by discussing things that Shun should tell someone else...] But if you don't think that's a problem, I won't insist.

[He glances toward the pillows. "Not annoying enough," huh...?] ...And if I do this? [He snags a pillow that was trying to ambush him (again), and tosses it over.]

It's not a matter of "testing" it. It's just not an issue. [To Shun, this kind of thing is a minor concern. Definitely a concern, yes, but not on the level that he'd actually lose sleep or linger too much on it besides the quieter times when he doesn't really have anything else to think about.

Since he already established that he doesn't think it's a problem, he leaves that, but as for the changing unexpectedly, he shakes his head a bit.] Chances are there won't be warning signs. When I change like I said I can do earlier, I do it suddenly. Your best response would be to have people prepared to come snap me out of it. Preferably violently, because I don't listen to much else in that state unless I have to. [Which generally entails punching him out and then talking when he's slightly calmer anyway.

While Fubuki might be trying to annoy him with the pillows, Shun still isn't actually bothered by it. He is, however, not exactly going to play along - rather than catch it and throw it back, he lifts his leg and spin-kicks the pillow back at Fubuki much faster and harder than a playful throw would have produced.]

Then that's your bad idea. [His tone is a little dry there, so he's...probably deriving some humour out of this, somehow.]

[...He's almost afraid to ask how many times it's had to happen, but that...is not a detail he needs to know. "Preferably violently," he says...]

[There's a bad feeling bubbling up—talking about changing so casually, the feeling that that's a bad thing (that it's always been a bad thing) without him knowing why—but a pillow suddenly leaping at him (finally, a successful ambush, congratulations sir pillow) followed nearly immediately by Shun's own counter snaps him out of it.]

[...Speaking of being violently snapped out of it. Guess the pillows have made Shun's point. Still, he holds the two cushions more tightly that he would have normally; he can't let the feeling spring back up again, so—]

Why did you plop Pipey on my bed? [He looks at the pillows as he says it so it's less out-of-nowhere than it seems.]

[The pillow pile appears to find the successful ambush quite hilarious, judging by the soft laughter issuing from it like a consistent hiss. Shun looks somewhat less impressed, but that's mostly because being unimpressed about people not paying enough attention is his normal state of being.

Though Fubuki seems a little on edge - not that Shun can particularly blame him given what he just said - the question still seems out of left-field despite Fubuki's attempt to justify it. It doesn't help that it takes him a moment to remember what Pipey even is, and he just sighs when he does.]

I didn't have much else to do with those stupid things. I figured if I left one with you, either it'd scare you, or you'd like it and it wouldn't matter. [Win-win, apparently.]

Scare...? Uh...who were you humoring when you did that...

[But that's an amusing enough image that the breath leaves him and he relaxes a little. Of course, the pillows take the chance to jump away, but he doesn't try to keep them.]

...You didn't see anything in there, did you? [He doesn't keep anything weird (*he may have a more out-there definition of "weird" than the normal person) and doesn't leave his clothes on the floor or anything, but ~~it's a very convenient topic to use as a distraction~~ it's the principle of the thing]

And, sorry about having to go into yours... [Judging from the way he's glancing to the side while grinning a little, he isn't that sorry.]

Nobody. I just thought it'd be fitting. [And apparently he's just not explaining any more than that. Calling it payback for his unfortunate reactions to the vultures is probably just going to go over his head.

That really doesn't seem like much of a concern to Shun, but he shakes his head anyway.] I only stayed long enough to leave it there before I went back to the festival. I mostly just stopped here to offload them right after I got them so I wouldn't have to carry them around.

[And he definitely wouldn't have had a chance to do it afterwards, either. In any case, Shun just gives a slight shrug in answer to Fubuki's apology.] The only things you touched were the knife and lighter, which I wouldn't have wanted my kid self to have access to anyway. You're acting like it was some kind of big deal.

That was a rhetorical question! [Mostly because he's certain that Shun was humoring himself, but he doesn't want another pillow kicked at him again. ...The other option that Fubuki can think of is that Shun knew he wouldn't be home and had sent Pipey to keep Fubuki company, but if Fubuki suggested that, he'd probably get a pillow kicked with maximum force against him and that doesn't sound like a good time. Even if he made it clear it was a joke. ...Probably especially if he made it clear it was a joke.]

[It's gratifying to know that Shun didn't expect his child self to know his way around the weapons, though. (Where is he getting this impression of Shun? Well, dagger at sleepover, mystery solved)] I must have gotten the impression that you didn't want me to go in there.

...By the way, she's still called Keba, right?

Then there wasn't really any point in asking it. Besides, you seemed happy enough about it in that message you sent. [Extremely, ridiculously happy. Shun probably would have remarked on it more if he hadn't had quite a few other things on his mind at the time, most of them involving trying to puzzle out the night's events.

Shun tilts his head a bit at the remark on not wanting him to go into his room.] Obviously I don't want you snooping in there, but if you need to go in for something important, I'm not going to stop you.

[Aside note to self: hide his deck better if that starts happening. He already hides it reasonably well, but the extra risk isn't really necessary.

At the mention of Keba, Shun just sighs irritably.] You're not going to get the chance to trick me into naming her anything else, so if you think her having a name is that important, it might as well stay.

Why wouldn't I be happy at getting a gift? [He actually was happy when he discovered it (and after what they'd been talking about at the festival, it was kind of hard not to be), but even if that weren't the case, it's only proper to show appreciation! (Rules To Live By, by Tenjoin Fubuki)]

[He'd try to return the gesture if he thought he could get away with it, but he somehow doesn't think "I needed to give you something" counts as something important in Shun's book. And, well...he'd have to find out if Shun even likes surprises first.]

That's a little unfair, isn't it? I didn't trick you at all! [...Okay, maybe a little. Just a little. It's a shame he couldn't get Shun to name all of them, but he wasn't thinking about that at the time.]

[He looks over to where the vultures are, and after a second, his thoughts...drift back to the earlier topic.] About earlier... ["How far would you go" keeps popping into his head, but that's... That's rude. He crosses his arms.]

It's not that I don't appreciate that you told me how to stop you, but... [He wants to say that it's not that easy, but he has a feeling Shun would disagree.] I'll...remember that.

Gifts are supposed to be thoughtful, not just someone offloading something they weren't planning to get in the first place. [Shun's extremely narrow definitions of certain normal things strike again. It also doesn't really help that he'd almost completely forgotten about it by the time Fubuki texted him, given everything else that happened that night.

He has to give Fubuki a bit of a flat look at his claim of not tricking him, though.] You knew I'd refuse at this age, so you asked while I was seven. I'd call that tricking me, or at least taking advantage of the circumstances.

[Which isn't any better, as far as Shun's concerned.

When Fubuki mentions earlier, Shun's prepared for whatever unpleasant question gets thrown out, so it's a little odd to him that Fubuki doesn't go through with asking one. Still, he's hardly complaining, though he does eye Fubuki lengthily after that anticlimactic statement.]

If it ever does happen, Ren and Nanako will help. [Nanako already agreed to find good punch candidates if Shun should happen to need a punching out.]

Ah...really. [That's pretty cold. Pipey you poor unwanted creature he's so sorry but don't worry he'll take care of you]

It wasn't on purpose! [Because that makes it better...] Besides, you were...quite close... [His heart may or may not still skip thinking about it.] I needed something to distract you with. But it couldn't be anything too heavy. [He was just looking out for you, Shun. please believe him]

[But he seems to getting stared down here. Did he say something weird? (He'd been trying to avoid saying something regrettable...)]

[He gives Shun a bit of a glance when he does say something, though, because it wasn't quite what Fubuki had meant, but if that's the solution Shun's settled on, he supposes he shouldn't contest it. Besides, his own feeling of "don't let it get to that point" really isn't helpful. ...Especially if the people Shun would mention by name were the ones who got hurt.] ...Maybe I should get Keba to help, too?

[That mostly just gets a raised brow out of Shun, like he's kind of surprised Fubuki ever thought otherwise. The change of subject to the matter of Keba instead makes him sigh a little, though.]

You were overreacting about that anyway. They've never attacked anyone who lives here. I don't see why that would change just because I was a different age at the time. [Especially given he still had his powers as a god, so whatever keeps them here normally shouldn't have changed at all.

Fubuki's vague attempt to lighten the mood doesn't really do much for Shun, mostly just making him cast Fubuki a skeptical glance.]

You'd have to get closer than metres away from her for that.

It wasn't an attack I was worried about... [...Mostly.] It doesn't have to be deliberate to hurt, you know? Besides...wouldn't it be weird if I didn't get at least a little anxious when something with sharp claws gets close to a kid?

[He'd side-eye anyone who didn't, that's for sure.]

[...But speaking of side-eying... Closer to Keba, huh?] That wouldn't be an problem. [He says with no proof whatsoever, but he is also certain that people can compartmentalize. But mostly he's just bluffing.]

...By the way, that was in future tense, so please don't sic her on me. [He's already been pelted with pillows! Have mercy!!]

[It's...not like ignoring or joking about the problem will make it go away, but..."ignore it as best you can" is one of the solutions he has as a shinki. Sometimes the signals get crossed... If nothing else, he has the assurance that Shun wouldn't want to abuse Reisi the way he insists he doesn't want to abuse any shinki.]

They haven't hurt anyone who lives here either. [Not even Joker, who'd specifically isolated certain smaller ones to feed separately, which could have gone much worse than it did.] Or anyone who doesn't, for that matter. I think Nanako is less scared of them than you are, and she's about six.

[Which is, incidentally, younger than Shun was at that time. He considers there to be a difference between healthy wariness and what Fubuki's doing.

Unsurprisingly, Shun immediately has a rather doubtful look on his face at Fubuki's claim that getting close to Keba wouldn't be a problem. He doesn't really feel he needs to address how unlikely it is, though, so he just moves on to snort faintly at the hasty follow-up.]

Don't give me a reason to and I won't.

Hm? Is that right... [He doesn't trust the self-preservation instincts of kids, though.]

[He's almost scared to ask, but...] What would you consider a reason? [He needs to know for research purposes]

[...Joking aside.] What are you going to do with these pillows? You can't leave them outside... [Since he suspects the vultures might get at them, and he can already see the mess that would result in.]

Before you make any excuses, she does know they can be dangerous. She's just more sensible about it. [Like getting past them quickly but also not freaking out about them basically any time they come up or come nearby.

Given the impassiveness of Shun's face, it's hard to tell to what extent he might be screwing with Fubuki, but his answer kind of implies it.] That's for me to know.

[He may also be trying to keep Fubuki on his toes a bit, who knows.]

Once they calm themselves down a bit, they can go back inside. If they get too annoying again, I can always shut them in a room downstairs.

[He holds up his hands, bland expression on his face. No excuses found in his possession at this time.]

[The response to the question is more worrying. Keeping it open-ended so he doesn't end up promising anything, huh? Fubuki's onto that trick... No, actually—he shouldn't have brought it up in the first place!! He messed up...] Well, you know what they say about exposure... [What do they say about exposure? He doesn't know but it's gotta be something, right? AHAHA]

[He'll just go over and ~~cling to~~ pick up some of these pillows now.] Heh. You make it sound like they're unruly kids. [...Well, except the locking them in the basement part.] You never considered getting rid of them?

If you're offering yourself for exposure therapy, that can be arranged. [...Okay, so Shun is almost definitely screwing with him on some level here, but his face is still completely neutral, so it's kind of difficult to pick out. Fubuki left that a bit too open an opportunity to be ignored, though.

Fubuki's remark on the pillows gets a shrug.] They're unruly spirits, so it's not that different. And I don't like wasting things frivolously, even if they're spares. This isn't serious enough to get rid of them.

[Force of habit from having access to only severely limited resources.]

That...would happen eventually... [Since he does go in and out all the time. Except they don't bother him when he does that so it's not really exposure but that is not a fact he is going to willingly point out.] When you're away, I do secret training, so that isn't necessary.

[The pillows that had stilled in his arms perk up at Shun's answer regarding their fate. And— Fubuki catches the one that tries to fly at his face.] ...I didn't mean it. [But it was a possibility. Face reality, you pillows!!]

[He turns back to Shun.] They didn't react to you saying you'd stick them in a room somewhere, so I guess you really are good at handling them!

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