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

[That sure is some existential ramble on the nature of gods, but thankfully, Davesprite has a good head for lengthy diatribes. He goes off on them himself often enough, so he listens relatively closely to Komaeda's summation of the issues there.

And honestly agrees, because he's had similar thoughts himself. This place in general doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.] I'm pretty sure it's gods are created by people here, though don't quote me on that. But it's the only real explanation for shit like that, and how we've somehow got people still worshipping gods that should have gone bust thousands of years back when their societies did. The closest thing we have to a central authority here is Amaterasu, and even then she's not really one.

Hadn't I heard something about her temple being set on fire awhile back? [Komaeda gives Davesprite a questioning look.] I wasn't here for it, but...

Yeah, it was about... [Davesprite taps his claws on his arm for a moment as he tries to remember the specifics.] ...two months ago, late June. Some fucker must have crept in while we were all out in paroxysms of delight over getting new shrines in our homelands.

Hmm...so the one god closest to being in charge of the heavens has her temple burned down? That seems pretty suspicious, if you ask me...I imagine a god's temple doesn't just burn down because someone left the oven on...

Was that incident investigated at all?

Pretty much. I'd argue that arson in any form is pretty fucking suspicious, but the timing was way too good for it not to be a set up. [It just happening to be when everyone was out of the Heavens visiting new shrines is a bit too much coincidence for him to swallow.]

Probably, but if anyone turned up anything useful they didn't go public with it.

Doesn't that seem strange? You'd think a god with so much power would be able to track down an unsavory element in the heavens...

For that matter...why would someone have enough of a grudge against Amaterasu to burn down her temple? And what would be the point? It doesn't seem to have had any real negative effect on her, and it created a public spectacle that would just draw attention and risk onto whoever did it. So why bother doing it? What did they gain by such a senseless, meaningless action...?

Apparently there's kinda...extenuating circumstances, I guess, but I'm more surprised these advisors she's supposed to have haven't managed it. [Amaterasu being a kid, Davesprite's not really going to expect her to be able to deal with this sort of thing, but the advisors presumably aren't, and thus have no excuse.]

She's been around a while, apparently, long enough for people to have shit against her. Someone's trying to unseat her from the top job, but for now they've mostly just been fucking around and setting shit on fire instead of doing anything that damaging.

Ah...I guess I'm still too new to have all the context. And it does seem like those of us who were thrown into godhood or shinki servitude recently see a lot more of each other than we do of the older gods who've supposedly been doing this for awhile...I don't believe I've ever actually seen Amaterasu, although I've seen people who claim to serve her.

Still, I wouldn't think that unseating a goddess like Amaterasu would be as easy as just undermining her authority...or even killing her! After all, as worthless as I am...I'm still apparently the current incarnation of a god. Wouldn't she just reincarnate into a different person if she was killed? So it's definitely not a case of the killer trying to usurp her, since even if she was killed there's no way they could control who her next incarnation would be or take over her job. But if they can't permanently get rid of her, either, what could they possibly get out of it?

I wonder...if it could be merely for the purpose of causing fear and despair in the heavens...

Yeah, she's not around super often, I haven't met her either. [To his knowledge, at least.] I've seen her post to the BBS a couple of times, but that's pretty much it.

She's a big goddess, so getting rid of her would be a big fucking deal, but I think whoever's doing it is kinda trying to undermine her follower base. They keep spreading these shitty flyers with "down with Amaterasu" on them whenever they decide it's time for some good healthy arson. So I'm guessing the plan is meant to be more uprising and overthrow sort of thing, but who knows how the fuck that would work here.

[It'd be more than Amaterasu having to die to pull that off, that's for sure.]

Hmm..good question. In more than one way, too. I don't know what would happen to a god if they lost all their followers, or all their followers turned against them, although I suppose the god might cease to exist...but who would really gain from that?

And besides, could some mere cases of arson actually weaken Amaterasu's follower base? At best, it might make people think she's not as competent as she could be if she can't even stop some simple arsonist, but that's an incredibly small impact to have for going to all that trouble and risk. And I think it'd take something a lot bigger than that to make someone forsake their god.

Besides, do her followers in the Near Shore even know about that minor unrest in the Far Shore? It seems to be aimed more at the heavens than earth.

I'm pretty sure it'd have to fuck them up in some way, followers seem to be a pretty big deal here. I just don't have the details since, like I said, no direct line to the old gods. [He is kind of curious given this conversation now, but he also wouldn't recognise any of the old gods other than Bishamon if they kicked him in the teeth.

Davesprite waves a hand a bit as if the rest of it is kind of hard to figure out.] If they were gunning to turn us against her, they kind of shot themselves in the foot as soon as they lit up a cherry blossom viewing we were all at. Anyone who wants to sign up with them after that can get stuck in an infinite loop of the door hitting their ass on the way out as far as I'm concerned.

Their methods really don't make any sense...at this point, it's almost more logical to think that the gods themselves are doing it to encourage people to support them by presenting those who oppose them as fanatical 'detractors' who commit meaningless, nonsensical acts of violence. The only reason I can't believe that is because I don't really see why the gods would find such extreme measures of drumming up support necessary.

[They're finally near the fire - which is a good thing, too, because there are sounds behind them that indicate that least one bear might be catching up to them, and that however many there are, they aren't in good moods. Komaeda, however, doesn't even look back or change pace; he simply approaches the fire, a faint smile on his face, and tosses the charms into the fire.

Then he turns to survey the absence of bears behind them.] You see? I told you I'd be fine. I've done far more dangerous things without my luck permitting me to die.

Yeah, it hasn't really done anything to push us closer together, just made us more pissed off at how shitty the old gods can be at handling basically anything down to protecting the person meant to be in charge. So I'm gonna guess that particular conspiracy theory isn't getting the "Illuminati confirmed" treatment anytime soon.

[Though maybe it should. They could use some more Heaven-oriented memes.

Davesprite is definitely looking a little antsy at the sound of impending bears, and Komaeda's apparent lack of giving a fuck, but he rides it out for now. Thankfully, he can hear the sounds disappear once the charms burn, and he lets out a breath he didn't realise he was holding.]

That still doesn't sound like the safest attitude to have, dude, especially if your luck swings both ways.

Oh, it wasn't safe at all! Or, at least, it wasn't meant to be. But my luck won't let me die even if I want to. [Komaeda's smile doesn't change in the least, which is perhaps the most alarming thing about it.] I was terminally ill before I died; I really should have been dead years before, but my luck kept me going. I've been on planes struck by meteors, been part of a mutual killing game, performed amateur surgery on myself, played Russian roulette with five bullets, been kidnapped by a serial killer, took part in The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History...you wouldn't believe the trouble I had to go to in order to actually kill myself!

[Well. Davesprite can't say he hadn't gotten the impression of something somewhat off about Komaeda, but that is definitely a little more than he was expecting. While he himself might be somewhere in the lowest echelons of self-worth, he's always been too wary of death to ever consider going that far.

Komaeda, though, doesn't appear to realise there's anything wrong with that statement, to the point all the reaction Davesprite can really muster is his eyebrow creeping about a mile up his face.] Okay, I can kind of see how having a power like that could fuck you up, but most people don't sound that excited about actually managing to pull off killing themselves, dude, that's pretty sad. [To say the least.]

Is it? [Komaeda seems faintly thoughtful at this statement.] I wouldn't think it would be, if the person in question didn't mind dying...and I don't think anyone would have missed me, either. My parents were killed by my luck years ago, so I didn't have any family. And my friends... [Well, that gets a laugh from him. What a complicated subject! Explaining the situation fully would take much too long.] Well, I made myself their enemy before I died. I'm sure they were happy to be rid of someone like me.

Not to mention that, considering the things I've done, I undoubtedly deserved to die...and my death served a valuable purpose, too! I arranged it so that my death would destroy the enemies of hope, people who helped destroy the world! For worthless trash like me, someone who can't bring hope without cancelling it out in despair, to be able to end my life in servitude to an act of ultimate hope...it's a greater honor than I deserve! What could be sad about that?

No dude, that's. That's the sad part. [He sounds kind of deadpan surprised that he even has to point that out at all, but it's becoming increasingly clear Komaeda might have a few reasons to be biased on the subject.] Having so little that you don't mind the idea of dying is a pretty shitty situation to be in.

[It's the latter part that's harder to respond to, really, and it's a little wrenching the way Komaeda seems so excited to think his death served a purpose.] Look, you know, I kinda know the whole song and dance with people calling themselves trash, but you seem like an okay dude. Kind of fucked up, but a lot of people here are kind of fucked up. Saying you deserved to die is a pretty fucking condemning way to think about it.

[Komaeda shrugs and smiles.] Sadness is always followed by happiness. Despair is always followed by hope. Why focus on the negative? Even if someone dies, isn't it better to think of the good things that can come from that?

[There is logic in what Komaeda's saying...of a very twisted sort. But he's been through so many tragedies, so much suffering, that he probably couldn't have possibly endured without taking on such a warped philosophy.

Of course, that leaves the question of whether Komaeda adopted this view on life because he would have gone insane otherwise...or if this is just the form that the inevitable insanity wound up taking.]

I appreciate the compliment, truly! But if there's anything worthwhile about the me you're looking at right now...well, as I told you, my memories and personality were reset to a point prior to my becoming the most worthless, terrible kind of person imaginable. I was a servant of despair...I served the Ultimate Despair herself! I helped the world be destroyed! And when the Ultimate Hope destroyed the Ultimate Despair...even then, I continued serving despair! I cut off my own hand and attached a piece of Ultimate Despair to myself! [He holds out his left hand as evidence - and if Davesprite hasn't noticed it before, he'll see it now. It's even more sickly-looking than the rest of Komaeda, and it does indeed to seem to belong on a completely different body than Komaeda's. It's slim, feminine, and there's fake red nails attached to it.] I helped to sabotage the computer program that was meant to rehabilitate us by wiping out our memories of despair and replacing them with healthy memories instead!

I forgot it all, of course...but then I won the Final Dead Game, and my reward was the truth. I know what we did...and that's why I know exactly what we all deserve. I don't think I was ever worth much, but if I was ever worth anything at all, I forfeited that long ago...

[There is a logic to it - a very bizarre one, but a logic nonetheless - even though Davesprite doesn't really want to concede the fact. It might be nicer to focus on the good of a death than the bad of a death, or focus on moving on rather than the death itself, but as someone who thinks as lowly of himself as he does, it kind of hurts to hear someone else talk the same way.

It's pretty clear from what Komaeda says and shows next that he's done some horrible things. Davesprite even pauses briefly at the sight of the transplanted hand before gathering himself again. But even at the end of all, Davesprite just looks at him for a long moment before shaking his head a bit and looking towards the sky.]

I dunno, dude. I mean, yeah, obviously you did some shit, and some pretty fucking major shit from the sound of things. You fucked things up, and you fucked yourself up, and some other people who I guess were involved. But I always kinda thought the keystone to being a shitty person is, you know. Not caring that you're shitty. If you thought you deserved punishment, then you've got enough not-shittiness in you to know you fucked up badly and wanted to atone. I just don't think that's the way you're supposed to do it.

Atone...? [Komaeda says this slowly, as though testing the fit of the word on his tongue.] No...I'm not sure that's the right word. That would imply regretting my actions, wouldn't it? Or believing I can become anything but a stepping stone to something more worthwhile? That's not how I feel, though.

[He smiles, and for all his talk of hope...there's something like desperate, bone-deep despair in his eyes.]

Everything I did...everything my friends did...as horrible as it might have been, as terrible as Ultimate Despair and the Tragedy she caused was...it led to the birth of Ultimate Hope, didn't it? It's impossible to have ultimate good without ultimate evil, isn't it? It's like trying to have one without the existence of zero, or a coin with only one side! As tragic and full of despair as all those things were, weren't they ultimately worth it for what they created? It's a sad reality that they were necessary, but to deplore the action is the same thing as deploring the reaction! So I can't say I regret what I did. But to think that I served Ultimate Despair...that I might have been trying to subvert or sabotage that hope that was created...that's what I can't stand! To serve a despair beyond even the possibility of hope is meaningless! And meaningless...that's the worst word in any language. Meaningless is zero. It's pure despair! To think I worked with that, followed someone like that - !

I've always been meaningless myself, so I know what a terrible thing that is. A life with no talent or effort, with hope and despair constantly trying to cancel each other out, my luck destroying the people around me to preserve my worthless self...so I tried to create meaning. If I helped to create the ultimate hope, or helped to destroy the ultimate despair, then surely even my life could mean something! And in a way...didn't I do both...? By destroying the world as part of Ultimate Despair, and then destroying myself...

[For all Komaeda is saying he doesn't regret it, it definitely sounds like he regrets the worst part of it. Creating some kind of Ultimate Hope is one of those "road to hell" sort of deals, from the sound of things, but considering how he's talking about serving despair in the negative anyway, it sounds like he regrets the means even if not the end.

So Davesprite keeps right on watching him for a few moments before just giving a vague shrug.]

You can regret one part of a thing and not another part. You did a shitty thing for a good end, and even if you say you don't regret it, you're still talking like you hated the idea of serving the shitty thing you served. So maybe it looks different coming from the outside, and yeah, it sounds like you'd do it again if you had to. But doing shitty things doesn't make you entirely worthless, and it doesn't stop you from also doing things that aren't shitty.

[While the issue of if he's a bad person is probably a bit more complicated, the matter of whether he's worthless is, to Davesprite, an entirely different one.]

[Komaeda listens to this with a cocked head, a look of faint surprise on his face. Then he smiles.] You know...I don't think anyone's ever been so determined to see some good in someone like me. Not even my own parents! That's actually some Ultimate level kindness you have there, Davesprite.

It's hardly deserved by someone like me, but...I'm honestly kind of flattered. Thank you.

[Some of the manic passion seems to have bled out of Komaeda's voice, leaving it softer and more relaxed again.]

[Davesprite looks a little like he doesn't know what to think about that, and he turns his head away a bit eventually. It's not something he's all that fond of going into in detail, especially to someone he only just met, but he does have a pretty good idea of the reason he's trying so hard.]

I guess I just don't like seeing other people that down on themselves. It always feels like you could be doing worse than where you are, you know. [Because from where Davesprite's standing, they're all doing better than he is.]

Hm...I suppose I've never really looked at it that way. [Komaeda muses on this.] I mean, I suppose I would be worse off if I had all bad luck...but then again, anyone who had all bad luck wouldn't really live very long to suffer the effects of it, so I suppose the only way one could be unluckier than I am is to already be dead. But then I suppose I am already dead...so I guess how I should really put it is that the only way to be worse off than me is to stop existing.

Still, though - that's not really how I see it! That focuses too much on the despair of one's situation, doesn't it? It's much better to focus on the hope! My existence may be meaningless in itself, but there's the hope of creating meaning for it by helping those who do have value. And even if I can't do that, just to bear witness to the talented, and the hope that they can create...even that is worth something! Though that's pretty selfish of me, I suppose.

The fact is that a lot of people live talentless, meaningless existences like mine. So why aren't there mass suicides every day? It's because of hope! No matter how empty or full of despair your life is at any given moment, so long as you have hope that you can make it better...that's what keeps people going. It's thinking of how you could be doing better than you are that's important. Even someone like me, who had no value to the world...I never killed myself until my death could serve a useful purpose. To have died without ever having done something to give my life meaning - that would have been true despair. But the way I died justified the worthless life I lived...

[There's a pause, and the slightest touch of uncertainty in Komaeda's voice. After all, for all his faith in his luck...he doesn't actually know the outcome of his final gambit.] ...well, at least I hope it did. It should have if it worked, in any case!

[He smiles.] So please, Davesprite, don't think about things in such a negative way. Don't focus on the despair of where you are, or who you've been; focus on the hope of where you want to go and who you want to be in the future. Someone as kind as you deserves better than despair.

[How, of all things, did this turn into Komaeda giving Davesprite a pep talk? There's no end to how weirdly a conversation with Komaeda can go, it seems.]

[For someone in the kind of position Komaeda seems to be with in his life, Davesprite wasn't really expecting something that optimistic. Though maybe he should have. Living with that kind of good and bad luck would have to be crushing on someone's mental state, and Komaeda is a pretty glaring example of that already.

Still, he kind of needs a moment to properly parse it. Mostly because he wants to be able to dodge answering as much of it directly as he can, but partially because he's having trouble arguing the logic, however bizarre.]

I mean, a shitload of us here are dead, so I guess you could call that most of us being as unlucky as you. [Positive? Probably not really.] And you're a god now, you know. Even if you had no value to the world while you were alive...people have to believe to make a god here, right. So you're gonna have people who believe in you in some sense for as long as you're here.

[As for his own situation, though, Davesprite gives a somewhat helpless shrug.] I just...I dunno, dude. It would be easier if I was like you and I knew the reasons I had for feeling down on myself. Looking to the future and all that good feel shit is actually kinda hard if you don't know where you've come from. [And especially if you can't really think about it at all.]

018 | Season Spirits

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: talk of suicide

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)