018 | Season Spirits

[godsoffortune]

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~

Comments

[reformedsinner]

Spirited Festivals

[It's just a small local festival in a town that is technically part of the greater Tokyo metro area but realistically enough of a backwater that the sidewalks drop off into rice fields every other block and a significant number of the houses are growing moss in the roof tiles and holes in the balcony screens. The haunted house that the local junior high has set up in a textile store rented for the purpose shouldn't be scaring anyone older than the age of ten...

... and yet, grown adults are stumbling out of it white-faced and shaking, hours after they'd gone in. There's a group of high-schoolers clustered together by the entrance, staring in.

Hakkai insinuates himself into their murmuring group with a light step, and leans over to murmur -- hoping his voice will be mistaken for a classmate's:]

What's wrong?

[The nearest girl, hands white-knuckled where they're clasped in front of her chest, whispers back: Mika and Tomoe didn't come out with the rest of us! They're lost in there!

A dire rattle, like wind through bamboo, shakes the building, and the group of teenagers bunches closer together in terror. Hakkai exhales, considers the haunted house and its obvious aura of corrupt spiritual energies, and sets off for the door at a brisk walking pace, dropping a hundred-yen coin into the box set to collect entry fees as he goes.

(After all, he may as well support school activities.)]

Cursed Charms

[There's been an rash of sicknesses lately, and Hakkai's busy with sudden prayers from his -- from Li's -- followers: he's been out and about these past few days, and every house he's visited has something, somewhere, with a polluted aura about it hanging on the wall or even in the sickroom itself. He's been quietly collecting them, leaving a few capped vials of medicine or sachets of herbs for infusions and neatly written instructions for the mortals who will be left with a vague sense that surely an herbalist must have stopped by, how kind of him to make a home visit, how odd they can't remember his face or name.

He's collected a whole basket full of the little charms by a few days into April, and it might look, to anyone who checks closely, as though his shoulders are slumped just a bit more than usual, as though his movements are slightly slower, his back held more rigid, his eyes a bit rimmed with red.

He's fine, though. He's definitely fine. He's perfectly okay --

-- at least, that's what he tells everyone, until, halfway between his temple and the school building on August 3rd, he stops in his tracks, raises one hand to his head, wavers, and pitches over face-first towards the path.]

Cursed Charms

[revolutionfalcon]

[While Shun hasn't quite pinpointed effects yet, he's well aware there's charms going around that seem to be having the exact opposite effect to what they're supposed to be. Largely, he's been countering them by nudging people around temples to get rid of them in favour of a genuine charm, but that can only do so much.

He's midway through a patrol when he notices someone collapse from a distance, and immediately heads over to check on the situation. Admittedly, once he gets close enough to actually identify who it is, he pauses for a few moments as if weighing up whether it's actually worth it, but eventually sighs quietly and takes the last few steps over. He might not like Hakkai, but they're on civil enough terms that abandoning him in this state would still feel a bit low.

That doesn't mean he has to handle him with any particular decorum, though, and given Shun doesn't know where Hakkai's temple is, he instead elects to take him back to the school building. Which will likely involve grabbing his legs under one arm and dragging him rather unceremoniously back that way if Hakkai doesn't wake up in time to stop him.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai doesn't wake up in time to stop him, in fact. He's feverish, warm to the touch and breathing shallowly, but he's not so deeply unconscious that being dragged doesn't stir him back to a dizzy awareness of where he is.

And who -- someone has his legs and is pulling him across the ground as if he's a corpse... he tries to kick his ankles free of the grip, struggling weakly.]

-- I'm -- I can walk....

[His voice is muzzy and uncertain, but he's trying to make it convincing.]

Spirited Festivals

[bussounoshima]

[The door opens for Hakkai with a wonderfully ominous creak, loud enough to make one of the highschool students shriek and have to be calmed down again by his classmates. Inside there's the occasional sound of wind strong enough to rattle windows, creaking floorboards and distant footsteps.

Down the hall and around the corner, past several spooky looking decorations and one very creepy doll watching from a classroom window, there's the source of those footsteps (hopefully). Sharak's examining a classroom door completely blocked by spiderwebs with a mildly impressed look on her face.]

Either the kids have done a great job setting this up or the school really needs those entry fees to pay for maintenance.

[She looks over her shoulder at Hakkai and raises her eyebrows in greeting.] Scared yet?

[reformedsinner]

[He smiles brightly at her, and reaches out to tug at a strand of the spiderweb. It snaps under his fingers, sticking to them with the tenacity of real webbing instead of a polyester fake.]

Oh yes, terrified. How many spiders do you suppose they imported for this?

[Or, importantly: how big was the spider....

He hasn't seen any students in here yet at all, but there's a whispering just at the edge of hearing, something low and indistinct, and poisonous with sheer rage. He turns his head, expression going slightly vague as he focuses on that sense of not-exactly-youki wrongness; further inside? Yes, he thinks. Further inside. He gestures politely to the hallway.]

Shall we continue on?

Cursed Charms

[genkireaper]

[ Botan isn't there to catch Hakkai from falling, but was flying by a few minutes after the fact. To which- well, she can't necessarily ignore some stranger passed out on the ground. They weren't dead, she can tell that before getting close just by the man's youkai energy still being there. When she flies down to the body, while lacking the strength to carry or pick up the guy who was considerably larger than her, she could at least roll him onto his back.

Hakkai may be unconscious, but it doesn't stop her from talking to him. It helped the thinking process. ]

You really aren't doing so well... I certainly hope there aren't any ill effects from this, but it's the best I can do without leaving you alone.

[ Theoretically, it should be alright- Botan just wasn't familiar to whether spirit energy had any weird effects on demons. Hands starting to glow a light blue as she holds it just above the man's chest, the spirit girl starts to funnel her energy into him. It's not too different from the kind of chi healing Hakkai was familiar, and unknowingly, came with purifying properties- though it'd take time to even counteract one of those cursed charms. Especially if it was kept on the person's body. ]

Really, who goes around while in such bad shape?

[reformedsinner]

[After a few seconds, Hakkai groans and stirs, eyes slitting open. There's someone leaning over him, talking. A woman? He doesn't recognize her, but even with his vision blurred and confused, the glow of her hands is familiar. He can feel her energy supporting his own.

He tries to raise a hand to his face, looking for the glasses that are actually on the path a few feet to their left, and has to convert the gesture into letting his hand fall on his chest when he can't summon the strength to move it all the way.]

Who...

[His head feels as though it's threatening to explode. He closes his eyes against the blazing sun, and tries again.]

Who are you?

Spirited Festivals

[meowbel]

[To go or not to go in the haunted house. That was the question that kept popping in Mabel's head as she looked at the place before her. While she was well aware that it was probably filled with ghost, a part of her can't help but wonder just how spooky the whole experience would be.

Sure, it probably wasn't a good idea to go alone and especially after hearing how some people have gone missing. But at the same time, it felt like it was once in a lifetime chance to just go in and have some fun!

It couldn't be that bad, could it? ...Could it? Nah, she had a feeling she'll be fine. She was worrying too much!

Either way, as she placed the hundred yen coin, that's when she smiled brightly before approaching someone in front of her]

You're not planning on going alone, are you?

[reformedsinner]

Ah...

[Hakkai checks his stride and looks down, startled, at the little girl approaching from right behind him in line. He had been planning on going alone, in fact. But here she was, and with people disappearing inside this particular, obviously haunted attraction, he's not sure he wants to send her in alone.

And then there's the problem of her having noticed him, of course.]

... I was just going to see what it's like, ha ha. Are you here by yourself as well, miss?

Cursed Charms

[sonofson]

[Somehow Goten has lucked out on not getting cursed by any charms, or he hasn't noticed at all. It's as he's flying over the school and a little further does he spot a body on the ground. Swooping down to get a closer look he hovers over the person....who from behind looks fimilar. Usually he could sense the energy of a person, especially those he was fimilar with but here...it was pretty faint which just confused him further.]

Uh....hello?

[He lands, nearly stepping on the glasses on the ground but just barely misses them as he steps closer. Carefully, he places his hand on the god's shoulder to nudge him before shifting to turning him over on his back]

H-Hakkai?! What happened to you?

[If Hakkai dies does he become a shinki again?]

[reformedsinner]

[He's not dead: he's breathing, and, in fact, mumbling something under his breath, eyes half-open but refusing to focus. He stirs as Goten calls his name, one hand twitching and trying to go up to his face as though to adjust glasses.]

-- excuse me -- just need to rest -- a moment....

Spirited Festivals

[deniles]

[Niles is in full swing with this sort of place. The spooky, the scary, it reminds him of something almost familiar. In a relaxing sort of way. He's walking through it, trying to create scares that might actually frighten some people when he hears the door open behind him.

And he just smirks when he sees who it is.]

Hakkai. Didn't know you enjoyed spooks.

[They're pretty tame spooks, but spooks all the same.]

You're not too busy, are you?

[reformedsinner]

Real spooks are more interesting than the false sort. I have a few teenagers to drag out of here, but after that -- no. Why?

[And what exactly is Niles doing in here? Helping scare the fairgoers?

It would be rather easy for a shinki... Hakkai raises his eyebrows, considering this, and smiles faintly.]

/cracks knuckles

[erogappa]

[ If he'd known that Hakkai's temple -- or Hakkai's school, for that matter -- were on this end of the Far Shore, he'd have made sure to stay far far away. But between the suddenly-alive shoes and the suddenly-alive bedding and the suddenly-alive hairbrushes and the suddenly-alive... well, shit's been rowdy, that's the point here. Shit's been rowdy and he's tired of being attacked by inanimate objects.

So he's out, getting some sun and fresh air, wandering with no real intent. It's the kind of day that makes him want to run, or get in a fight (or sit by a pool with a cooler of beers and watch the girls in their swimsuits), and he's feeling antsy, picking paths at random, eyes everywhere but on the road ahead.

He doesn't actually step on Hakkai, but it's a nearer miss than it really should have been. ]

Oh shit!

[ He's on his knees checking for a pulse before the man's identity registers... and when it does, he's not ashamed to admit that he keeps going with his exam. Pulse, breathing, forehead and cheek temperature, pupils the right size... he's had to do the rundown a couple times for drunks passed out in (and behind) the bar, so he's getting pretty good at it. ]

Oi, wake up! [ He pats Hakkai's cheek, then pats it a little harder (which is technically a slap). ] What happened? You eat somethin' funny?

[reformedsinner]

[Forehead and cheek temperature are both much too hot, and he's breathing, but his breathing is a little fast, a little raspy. Whatever it is he's caught, on top of everything else, it's given him a sore throat.

The touches hardly register at first: cool hand on his face, his wrist, a spark of childish comfort. Someone's taking care of me -- he's not awake enough for pride to sour it, not until the hand on his cheek turns into a swat that startles his eyes open and his breath into a gasp.]

Gojyo? Fine -- I'm... under the weather -- rest...

[The disjointed mumble isn't the most convincing lie he's ever told. He's not in bed, is he? He'd thought they were at home, but no. He's on his back. Hard surface. Sun overhead.

Oh, he's passed out outside, he thinks, and closes his eyes again. That's very unfortunate. Maybe if he can just....]

... can you. [He drags in a deep breath to expend on:] Help me home?

Cursed Charms

[returnedfromtheline]

[Hakkai-san is so totally not okay. Changing into a god hasn’t changed him a bit, has it.
For the past couple days when he came to the school, Yukine bluntly told Hakkai that he looked like crap and that he should get more rest. He frowned all through the guy’s reassurances that he was ‘perfectly okay’, but what else could he do?

And then came August third.]

Hakkai-san?! Damn, what happened? Or more like, what the hell have you been doing the past few days... [Rushing down the path to his side, Yukine fretfully tries to turn his face out of the dirt so he can check to see if he is breathing.
Just for the record, this is not what he was hoping to do.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai's breathing, but he looks even worse, and not just because he's collapsed face-down on a dirt path and knocked his glasses off. Yukine's hands feel ice-cold against his face, and he stirs into consciousness, eyes slitting open.]

... Should --

[Who is it? Small, blond, stern... Hakkai makes a dizzy effort to piece together memory, and blinks against the sunlight. It's far too bright. He should do something about that.]

Yukine? I should go home.

[And, with a ghost of a smile, he adds:]

Class is cancelled.

[The next, very important step is going to be standing up, and he contemplates it with concern. Perhaps he can start by rolling onto his back. Yes, that sounds about right. He manages it, with an effort, and throws one hand over his eyes to protect them from a sun that appears even brighter at this angle.]

cursed charms

[smilingbullet]

[ Well that sure as hell isn't something you see every day, least of all to Hakkai. D2 drops the paper coffee cup as he hurries over and manages to catch him not long before he hits the ground.

Though well, he was nearly too late and by way of catching, D2 ends up on the ground with Hakkai slumped over him and half in his lap. (Nobody ever called him elegant, least of all when he wasn't in a fight. He could have pulled that off better if he had been a little closer when he started falling.) ]

What the hell, Hakkai?!

[reformedsinner]

[It's enough to keep Hakkai from hitting his head on the ground, and he seems to be still at least half-conscious -- or, at least, he shifts, opening his eyes a dazed slit and muttering under his breath. He's running a high enough fever that his skin is shockingly hot against D2's.]

Sorry -- fine -- I... lost my balance.

[This is deeply unconvincing. The fact that he doesn't seem to realize that is an even clearer sign of what terrible shape he's in.]

Just need to get home....

spirited festivals

[oldblue]

[ Ao had had no intentions of being here. In fact, he had been trying to find the way back to the Far Shore, and somehow ended up walking further away from the temple he was looking for, as well as from the bustling parts of the city. Not that he dislikes being away from the mess that is Tokyo, he just didn't intend to do it. But navigating that place, alone, when you're blind, is not really a good idea, probably.

How he ended up at a haunted house is inconsequential, in the end. But there he is, a little ways inside the house itself, where there are several open doorways with markers he can't see telling people which way to go. He's muttering curses of annoyance under his breath. ]

[reformedsinner]

[Of all the things Hakkai had expected to encounter in here, a pale-haired man standing at the end of the front hallway cursing wasn't among them. He stops a few steps away, stares, and after a few seconds clears his throat.]

Excuse me. Can I help you?

Charms. I'm sorry for her.

[rememberher]

[ Ever since their previous altercation that wasn't quite an altercation, Lux has been regularly visiting the school. Simply put, there was a lot that she could learn here, and while she would t outwardly say it, she might be subconsciously keeping tabs on the shinki-turned-god. It gave her something to do outside of her part-time job, attending classes and indirectly tending to their headmaster.

She probably should have said something sooner. He lacked a certain spring in his step, and at first she wondered if it wasn't the expected uptick in work that being a God likely entailed. But as she saw him on her path toward the school (hm? Heading home early, Hakkai?), she raises a hand to wave–

Then stops as she sees him pitch. Eyes wide, the small shinki rushes to close the gap between them, in a hopes to steady him before the inevitable. ]

Hakkai!

[ She might be stronger than she looks, but he will probably still take her down with him if he doesn't recover. ]

Poor Lux....

[reformedsinner]

[He's not recovering, unfortunately. At least not that quickly: he collapses against her with his full unconscious weight. He doesn't have a fever (he'd taken something for it already at the school before venturing the walk home) but it's surprising, how much being very sick takes out of him regardless.

It's also possible he's been pushing himself a little too hard, in the vague belief that gods shouldn't get sick and youkai shouldn't get that sick from a little human cold, or, well, whatever this happens to be.

He's not expecting to hit something that's not the ground, though, and -- whether he's taken her down with him or not -- he manages to regroup sufficiently to try to push himself away and upright again after a few seconds. There's very little strength in the attempt.]

Ah... sorry....

charms

[kokuyoyo]

....I'd always assumed you were smarter than this.

[Chikusa had just been stopping by the school for the usual reasons- they have a dog now, after all, and sometimes he likes to just leave Bon at the school for a few hours so that he'll stop getting into his room or harassing Pookie.]

[What he hadn't been expecting was to find Hakkai collapsing, and he nudges the god just to see if he's actually conscious.]

[reformedsinner]

[Somehow, it appears he's not. Hakkai groans when nudged, which is, if nothing else, reassurance that he's not actually dead.

He's not twitching much, though. It may take more than just a nudge to get him off the ground.]