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

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!

It's not like I can confirm something like that. [Which clearly means Fubuki's secret training is insufficient and he needs to have vultures randomly sicced on him. Or so Shun would have him think.

Shun is also spectacularly unsurprised when another of the pillows hurls itself at Fubuki for making that suggestion in the first place. A few more of them wriggle threateningly in his direction even as he tries to excuse it.]

If they want to burn themselves out that much, being shut in a room isn't that bad as long as there's space to move around. [Since they've been happy enough to line up for a good punching in lieu of that.]

...Heh. You're not going to take my word for it? [Not that standing against the temple walls really counts as "secret training" even to himself, but it's the principle of the thing.]

Seems like less "burning out" and more "wants to play" to me. [He stands back up, just in case those pillows really are going to launch an attack.] Were they playing among themselves when you found them?

"Secret training" could mean anything, so I'm not going to take your word that you weren't sitting around watching them out the window or something. [He's onto that vague wording, mostly because he's had to deal with altogether too many people who favour vague wording over actually giving anything a straight answer.]

They can't go forever, so wanting to play is going to burn them out eventually. [They're spirits, and spirits can weaken and dissipate. Wasting energy on something like this seems counterproductive.] I found them when one of them tried throwing itself at the back of my head, so no.

These things go in stages. [He nods sagely at his own sage advice.]

[...Yeah, he's not fooling anybody. All he can do is hope Shun isn't being serious... Shun never has used Fubuki's mask form to stab things, so maybe there's hope...!]

[Good to know that he wasn't the only one the pillows tried to sneak-attack, though. Heh.] I guess flinging themselves at each other would get old quicker. [Not having hands and all.] Be careful they don't wait behind the door for you to open it, though.

I think you missed the stage on learning how to make a convincing lie. [Shun's tone is on the edge of deadpan there, because it's hard not to be when Fubuki is like this.

And speaking of things it's hard not to be when Fubuki is like this, Shun casts him a rather sharp look at his warning.] You'd get more out of those words than me. I'm already vigilant enough.

[Whereas Fubuki was the one who got ambushed walking outside earlier.]

[It's not precisely lying, though. ...Oh, wait. It is. He...is not sure what it says about him that he thinks about it like that, but it's not like he was being earnest about trying to fool Shun. It's all fine.] Would you prefer it if I could? [Aaand now he's just trolling.]

[Speaking of—] I wouldn't be the one opening the door! [He snatches a pillow out of the air, and tosses it cheerfully.] Catch!

It'd at least make it more of a challenge to see through you. [And Shun appreciates a challenge, even if that's not normally the kind of form he wants it to come in.

Fubuki's remark makes him raise an eyebrow, though when Fubuki throws the pillow, rather than catching it, he just spin-kicks it once it comes near him. But at least it's back in Fubuki's direction this time.]

Catch. [There's something a bit dry about this tone.]

Hrm? Reeally. But that's not a nice game to play with people, you know? [People hide so many things already; there's no need to add to it for fun. And as a shinki, he's not a fan of that kind of thing, either. He is also only distantly aware of how much of a hypocrite that makes him. (It doesn't count as hiding it if he never went through with the tea plan that's his ~~justification~~ story sir please and thank you)]

I haven't been doing any secret training. [Deadpan admission of one who has nothing to lose. (Literally; he has nothing to lose by admitting it. Aha...)]

[...Except maybe his breath. He grunts a little as the pillow hits him, but he'd actually blocked most of it with his arm, and he plucks it out of the air when it starts to fall.] I've been thinking...

[He holds up the pillow with both hands.] Why pillows...? [Mischievous spirits yet harmless (mostly) mischievous spirits??] If it were me, I'd go with something more glamorous.

I never said it was a game. I just said it'd make it harder. [It's not really the kind of thing Shun generally considers a game, but if he's being lied to he'd at least like the liar to have the decency to put some effort into it.

Shun looks entirely unsurprised to hear Fubuki hasn't actually done any secret training, though by this point it was so obvious he doesn't feel any need to pursue the subject further. Instead, he turns his attention back to the pillows when Fubuki draws attention to them.]

Probably because there were a lot of them, they're easy to get to, and it wouldn't have been hard to pin the blame on someone else if they'd ever caught two people in the same room. And even without that, it means they have an easy way of causing trouble.

What do you consider a game, then? [It seems to him that if it's something one's having fun with, then it's a game, but he also knows by now that Shun doesn't really give any consideration to "fun." It's pretty naive to think that a definition issue rests at the heart of it, though.]

[He turns to the pillows. Pragmatic yet pessimistic, huh...?] If they haven't knocked anything in the temple over, I'd think they're less dedicated to causing trouble than you think...

[In either case—] Are you going to stay out here for longer?

Something that has rules, for a start. [Shun's thinking more in the stricter terms of a game, because generally if you're just doing something fun, it's a fun thing and not specifically a game. Fubuki is right to think that it's not so much a definition disagreement that's the problem, though.

That just makes Shun give a somewhat dismissive huff.] After they tried shooting themselves at me, they didn't have time to hit anything else before I pulled them out here. [And there's a shrug in answer to his question.] I'm not done with them yet, so probably.

...Huh. [He hadn't thought about rules; that's a good point. Rules can be somewhat spontaneous, but he doesn't think he'd get much traction with that. It's not something that can be forced, anyway.]

[The fact that Shun's going to ~~play with~~ use the pillows some more is...some kind of sign.] Heh. I'll leave you to it, then! [Partially because while he's been out here, they've been targeting Fubuki instead]

I was on my way to pick up some things. If you need anything...?

[Shun frowns a bit at the slight laugh, as if he knows what Fubuki's thinking there (or at least can make an educated guess given the rest of the conversation, which is what's actually the case). At the lingering question, he shakes his head.]

Not now. I can do it myself if I need anything later anyway. [Point: missed, but at least he does seem sure about the fact that he doesn't actually need anything right now.]

Getting things we'd need later is why I'm going now, you know? [He sees you missing that point, Shun. But it's not something to worry over.]

[He deposits the pillow he's holding into Shun's arms.] Call if you think of anything.

I won't. [Vaguely worded, but he's sure he won't think of anything, so he figures Fubuki should be able to figure that much out. In any case, he throws the pillow Fubuki hands him up in front of him and then roundhouse kicks it back into the pile.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

018 | Season Spirits

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