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

[Dust flips back out of danger just in time for the line to slam through the ayakashi, neatly bisecting it.]

[That isn't enough to kill it, of course. They aren't a matched pair, they can't Rend. But the spirit has had more than enough of this; the part of it that didn't evaporate scrambles for the wall to claw its way into a crack. Who knows when it will stop running? Not any time soon.]

[Dust gets to his feet in a ready position, but the danger has passed. He looks around, just to be sure, then straightens up.]

Nice work. You're really good at Borderlines.

[Naoto allows herself a sigh of relief, content that the two of them were able to repel the ayakashi. However, that fact that it was able to scurry away worries her, and so she's a bit distracted by the thought of where it may have run off to. She doesn't want anybody else to come to harm.]

Hmm? Oh, yes. Um, thank you.

[She smiles weakly. In truth, she is glad to see that the hours she'd put into training seem to have paid off adequately. Again though, she's worried about what further trouble the ayakashi may cause.]

What do we do? We can't just let it get away, but we can't rend it together can we?

Sometimes all you can do is hurt them badly enough that they retreat. [The shadows cast by the borderline's glow cast Dust's features into sharp relief, making his resignation seem darker than it is.] Unless your god is near... mine isn't. But so long as it can't bother anyone else trying to just enjoy themselves in here, I think we've done what we needed to.

[Naoto bites her lip, still not fully convinced. At the very least, she wipes her hands over the borderline, dispelling it and returning the hall to its relative darkness.]

My god is somewhere nearby. If I can find him, maybe we can track it down again and finish it off for good.

[She looks back the way they came, and then forward down the hall. It's now coming back to her exactly where they are again and what this place is.]

I don't suppose they'll simply let me exit back out through the front?

Didn't you know, Naoto?

[Dust turns slowly, cloak and tail swishing across the floor in a soft and eerie whisper, to face her fully -- barely a silhouette of a figure in the shadows, as he drops his voice.]

No one.. ever... leaves...

[Naoto squeaks.]

O- okay... That's enough... Please stop.

[She starts slowly inching backwards towards the entrance. You know... just in case... he's not kidding...]

[Dust stops, one hand lifted up to cover his mouth.]

Sorry. I couldn't resist. I'll owe you one later for that.

[She stops inching backwards and let's out a very exasperated sigh.]

That is, if I manage to get through here without dying from a heart-attack you mean.

Let's just get this over with.

[It's clear she still doesn't want to be here, but she's more or less resigned herself to walking through the rest of the haunted house to reach the exit.]

I'm surprised you're nervous in here. There's nothing a haunted house could throw at you that you couldn't handle.

[He means that, too -- she's quick with her borderlines and had been fearless against the ayakashi.]

[Dust leads the way forward, pushing through the door on the far end of the room to enter the next one -- a room full of skeletons, with a strobe light flickering madly above them, making them seem to twitch and move in the moments between illumination.]

[She smiles weakly.]

I appreciate the compliment.

I know it's rather childish of me to be frightened of things like this.

[She's never be good with ghost stories, paranormal rumors about hauntings and such. Things that fall outside the parameter of logical explanation basically. Despite her loss of memories as a Shinki, this innate unease about spooky things has clearly carried over.]

Hey -- don't be hard on yourself. Who knows what causes it? [Why does Dust like to fight? He has no idea. No clue what his life was like, but whatever it was shaped him this way. Naoto must have been the same.] You're not afraid of the actual stuff we need to face, and that's the important thing.

[She nods, appreciating his words of encouragement.]

It is a weird sort of contradiction, isn't it? Sorry I can't better explain why it happens to be the case though.

[Though, that doesn't necessarily mean he's off the hook for trying to creep her out!]

[Oh, he expects revenge to come his way. He might almost be a little disappointed if it doesn't. Naoto has too much spirit to just let something like that go.]

Well--

[This is exactly when a panel slams shut an inch behind Naoto, forcing them into the midst of the skeleton horde.]

[Naoto jumps and squeaks again in fear and surprise. She turns and bangs on the panel for a moment. They really are stuck. As she turns back around, her face flushes at the monsters shambling before them.]

I- I don't think these are meant to be part of the house either...

[Dust flings up an arm to catch a blow he's certain is coming -- before realizing that the skeleton isn't truly moving. His own movement and the flickering lights created the illusion.]

That -- these aren't real?

[At least the one in front of him isn't, despite the incredulity in his voice.]

Wow, that...

[Naoto visibly winced herself as the skeleton swung at Dusk, and she is equally as surprised and confused as he is to discover that they appear to be some sort of illusion.]

It's unlikely that the architects of this attraction naturally possess this sort of projection capability.

[But what could that mean then? Was this some sort of ability the ayakashi have?]

[Dust reaches out to tap one with a finger. When he touches it, the sudden contrast between the bones and his own fur stands out much more dramatically. Some sort of glow-in-the-dark paint maybe?]

These lights... [The strobe bothers Dust less than it might thanks to his hat, but still.]

[Naoto holds a hand over her eyes, attempting to look up at them more closely. However, the constant strobe of their flickering makes it difficult to pick out exactly what about them is odd. She looks over at Dust and then back towards the skeletons as she tries to assess the situation.]

If they're not really there, should we try to just run through them?

[Naoto herself can barely even believe what she's suggesting, but, well, lacking any better ideas in this exact moment...]

...If you trust me, I'm sure I can get us through this.

[After a moment, Dust somewhat spoils this dramatic, confident statement with a much more awkward one.]

I'll.. have to carry you, I mean. Or we could try to run through. That's a little less safe but a little more respectful...

[She looks over at him, blinking in surprise at his suggestion. Well, despite her misgivings about the idea of being picked up and carried, Dust has certainly managed to earn her trust by now. And if his idea meant a quicker way to the exit than if they just ran separately, then Naoto supposes she really can't complain. And so, she gives a hesitant but affirming nod, stepping closer to him.]

Alright. I trust you.

Sorry about this.

[Really, it isn't very dignified for her, but...]

[Dust catches her around the waist with one arm, then practically throws both of them through the middle of the boney horde. It feels wild and out of control, but Dust knows what he's doing -- he taps the ground with his free hand just enough to twist his feet down beneath him, then kicks off the ground again. The second vault takes them past the crowd and to the door of the next room.]

[In one motion, Dust sets her back on her feet and whirls to face the room they'd just come from, sword out and ready.]

[Naoto had been bracing herself for whatever Dust was going to do; however, there really was nothing she could have done to prepare herself for this. Everything happens so fast that she can barely even process just what exactly he's doing. It certainly does feel wild and out of control, but it's over too quickly for her to even have time to react to it properly. She does stagger a moment upon being set down, just for a moment until she can regain her balance. She then turns herself to also see if they're being followed.]

[So far so good -- the strobe light makes movement hard to discern, but nothing is reaching out to claw at Dust or pile after them to rend their flesh. He steps backwards, giving her time to get into the next room as he guards their rear.]

[Naoto doesn't see anything coming after them either. She turns to Dust and nods her understanding before making her way over to the door. Opening it slowly to check for any threats, she cautiously takes a step into the next room and then motions for Dust to follow.]

This got a bit more exciting than I thought, huh?

[Dust is close on her heels, still alert despite his more casual tone.]

Guess I owe you a big apology...

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