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

narumiya mei | ota!

[koshien]

possessed possessions.

[ narumiya mei would like to start by saying that he does not deserve any of this.

admittedly, he'd seen the post on the network about spooky ghosts and just laughed it off, because ghosts aren't real! they're just something made up by people who need a reason to be scared!

on the morning of the first, everything is calm in huitzilpochtli's temple. the sun is shining. the birds are singing. it's a completely and utterly peaceful day. ]

--GET BACK HERE!!

[ except when it totally isn't. that would be none other than the sun god himself yelling at the top of his lungs, because the thing that is causing him so much trouble this morning is not either of his shinki, but rather, a pair of plain white baseball pants. it seems that the haunting has made them "grow legs", so to speak, and the haunted pants go tearing down the marble stairs and straight past any unsuspecting visitors or passerby, right in time for mei to suddenly appear at the base of the temple.

...he's not pantsless, but he's definitely got a pair of clearly too big pajama pants (either kazuya's or sanada's) that he's holding up with his left hand, and he's still got the remnants of what looks like a face mask on his cheeks. he's half dressed, hair still a mess, toothbrush spat out on the forest floor as he tears after the haunted baseball pants like a bat out of hell, stumbling forward and windmilling his arms before he gets going.

help him? laugh at him? get run into? mei is suffering here. ]

cursed charms.

[ continuing this theme, mei doesn't deserve this.

he'd been given a little gift by a cute girl earlier in the day, so of course mei's not really going to say no. after all, he helped save her from the haunted house earlier in the day! of course, ever since getting the charm, he's been feeling a little...well, under the weather. ]

Ahh-choo! [ mei sneezes, loudly, in the middle of the streets, and rubs his hands against his arms. he doesn't get sick often, which means that he is certified Miserable, which means he's definitely not above complaining. (not that he is usually, either.)

he jams his hands into the pockets of his (no longer haunted) baseball pants and shivers, swaying a little as he walks through the streets. though he doesn't pass out or anything, he ends up pausing at a stopping point with other spirits and people around, leaning forward, and bonking his forehead gently into the person in front of him's back (or shoulder, depending on height.)

he didn't do it on purpose. someone's not looking so good... ]

wildcard.

[ feel free to come up w/ anything you want! i'm open to it all ♥ ]

gutbuster icon to arrive shortly

[neraiuchi]

[ So.

Miyuki had been minding his own business in the bathroom, having gotten up and made some food (mostly for him, but also for Mei, because he is a gigantic mooch), before going to take a shower. Now, things in the Far Shore aren't boring around this time of the month. Never, ever boring. New arrivals come in, something happens - good or bad - and it's a constant revolving door of stuff.

So, you know. Mei coming tearing into his room, and then out again, to subsequently shriek like a banshee on the way out of the temple...

Well, he has to come and find out what's going on? So Kazuya abandons what he was doing to meander out after him, shirt slung over a shoulder and towel ruffling his hair as he trots down the marble steps to find out what's going on.

That's about when the pants come out of nowhere to go running. ]

What the hell?

[koshien]

Kazuya-- [ mei gets distracted by the sudden arrival of his shinki, head whipping around--naturally, the pants take the moment that mei's distracted to abruptly change directions and go flying at kazuya. ]

Move it! [ and, between trying to keep the pj pants up and trying to catch his actual pants that fit--they were going to practice this morning--he leaps forward, and gets his left hand on his pant leg...!

and then promptly crashes into kazuya. timber! ]

[neraiuchi]

[ Eyebrows raising and hand secured around the bottom of his towel, Miyuki stands there for a long moment as he watches Mei chase after the pants. Or, at least, it feels like a long moment. It's probably more a realization that everything is about to end in disaster, honestly, so he winds up standing there, nonreactive, for a beat.

And then the pants come whipping towards him, and Mei follows. ] Wait -

[ And they go down.

With a sharp grunt, and hands snapping to hold onto Mei, he tries to angle his body so that he doesn't land on the steps. Or on the stones in general - being shirtless and crashed into like this? ]

Cursed Charms

[redmare]

[Chinatsu has her earphones on, pretty oblivious to her surroundings. She's standing there tapping her foot to the rhythm of the music, waiting for the pedestrian light to give the go signal when she suddenly feels a weight on her shoulder.]

Wha--h-hey! What do you think you're doing?!

[She presses her hand against his face, trying to push the stranger off of her]

Get...off..!

[How was he so heavy?! It was like dead weight!]

[koshien]

[ poor chinatsu just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. mei's not trying to be purposefully obtuse or anything--he's just tired and dizzy and his head hurts--so luckily when she pushes on his face, it makes him sway backwards to his feet.

mei blinks, trying to get his blurred vision to focus properly. vaguely, he thinks he might pass out. ] ...sorry. [ and continues to sway just a little bit.

what're you gonna do chinatsu. he does not look good. ]

[redmare]

[Her anger subsides when she notices the state he's in]

H-hey are you okay? You don't look too good..

[She extends her hand to either side of him, as trying to balance a jenga tower with most of the side pieces taken out.]

PP... (ap?)

[pathofheaven]

[ Flying pants. That's new...? Tendou watches them soar through the air, then glances over at the guy chasing over them in poorly fitted trousers. ]

Do you only have the one pair of pants?

[ Clearly the most important question on Tendou's mind right now, all things considered. It's important to be fashionable at all times! Which hopefully includes having more than one pair of pants! And for those pairs of pants to not all be uniform pants! ]

ahhh pineapple pen

[koshien]

[ super helpful, tendou!!!!

mei snaps his head back to glare at this person-- ] No, don't be an idiot, they're just my last clean pair of practice-- shit!

[ --and because he took his eye of the prize, they go zooming off, right over tendou's head. mei abruptly tries to make a swipe for them again. ] Well?! Are you going to be helpful or what?!

[pathofheaven]

[ Always the most helpful all the time.

Tendou watches the pants fly overhead, and shrugs. ]

You could probably have caught them if you were wearing pants that fit.

[ Not having to worry about tripping over your own feet or flashing everyone certainly helps. ]

But be thankful, for the sun's light reaches all things.

[ Tendou raises a hand, and a robotic beetle zooms after the pants, pinning it to the nearest wall with great prejudice. ]

possessed possessions.

[alchemists]

[ Another case of clothing gone wild, Elfnein had made a few weighted clothes pins to help tie down the escaped clothing and was trying to find anyone having trouble. ]

Try and get it in to a corner and use this!

[koshien]

[ someone actually being helpful, finally!!! mei turns around to the person's directions, then nods his head, and tries to chase the haunted baseball pants into a corner!

like their owner, they seem to be awfully quick, and the haunted clothing does a quick sharp right turn and heads right in elfnein's direction!!! ] A little help?!

[alchemists]

[ What works in this situation, body slamming it or catching with bare hands before putting the clips on? Elfnein really has no idea but she's going to throw everything at the incoming ghost pants. ]

Obey your owner please!

possessed possessions

[priforprince]

It's too early in the morning for yelling.

[ So says, critically, the person camped out in front of Mei's temple with her own table, umbrella, and chair, sipping her tea. Having finally secured a suitable location for their baseball match, she thought she'd deliver the invitation in person to better drive home just what a great honor the chance to be defeated in baseball by Shikyoin Hibiki is.

This is a perfectly reasonable course of action.

It's certainly less nonsensical than whatever it is she just witnessed, which gives her a sour expression as that teacup tips back. As far as helping, however?

Nah. Godspeed, sir. ]

[koshien]

[ oh, great, the last person mei wanted to see this morning. look at him, he still has his facemask half on, and now he has to face hibiki?! very funny, heavens!!!

so, of course, mei puffs up like a little, angry bird, and starts off on a tirade. ] What are you even doing here with that dumb expression--[ right then, of course, the pants bop him over the top of the head, sail across, and throw themselves, full throttle, at hibiki's tea saucer. ]

[ he doesn't even say anything, just makes an annoyed snarling noise and shoves forward to catch them his own goddamn self ]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki does not move. No, that's inaccurate. She lowers her teacup. And scowls. ]

Don't try to hold a serious conversation while engaged in such an idiotic display.

[ You're giving her a headache. Do something about the pants. ]

The doomed curse

[nibelungvalesti]

[Good work, Mei. You've bonked your head into one hell of a thick mane of hair, and the Valkyrie goes stiff at the sudden contact.]

What is this about?

[koshien]

[ onee-chan, save him...!!!

mei blinks at what he's crashed into, sleepily, and rocks himself back into a standing position. he clearly does not look well, cheeks flushed, sweating, and he mumbles: ] Valkyrie...sorry.

[ which is like way more than he'd ever normally offer someone, so consider yourself well liked or him delirious, either are possible. ]

[nibelungvalesti]

[Considering her earlier impression of him and his current appearance as she turns to regard him, she immediately concludes it is the latter.]

You look incredibly unwell. You should not be out and about.

[Pitiless and blunt as she is, at least her words betray a certain amount of concern.]

cursed charms...mei pls...

[goingbananas]

[ He had been off on his own little adventures that morning, but Miyuki had better give him the play-by of their crazy little morning later on. As it stands, Sanada’s just enjoying the festival, leisurely taking in the sights and hoping to bump into someone he knows—

Well okay this works too. He turns around, a stick of grilled squid he’d just bought at a nearby stall in hand, ]

Mei? [ You know, that sneeze he’d heard above the din of the festival crowd should’ve tipped him off, but…he turns around, propping his god up by the shoulder with one hand and searching his face, his cheer suddenly turned to concern. ]

What’s wrong? Did the haunted house get to you?

he's SUFFERING

[koshien]

[ kazuya better not!!!!!!!! (which means, of course, he will.)

sanada's strong enough to keep mei easily propped up. he wobbles a little and rubs at his eyes like a sleepy child. ]

I don't feel good. [ and he's continuing this child act, clearly. ] Something's...wrong.

that's classic mei tbh

[goingbananas]

[ That’s why Miyuki’s the best!!! ]

Really, you… [ He shakes his head. The guy probably just ate something bad, or had a nasty scare, or got dumped by a cute girl, or something. It’s all good. Sanada can appreciate when Mei’s not trying to pull some tough guy act on him. ]

Can you walk? I’ll find you somewhere to sit down for a bit. [ And so saying he’ll just stick that squid into his mouth to free up his arms for propping Mei up against himself. ]

surprise

[neraiuchi]

[ Originally, Miyuki had just been - going out to investigate things, as he does, going to stick his nose into whatever was going on. Especially after all of the shit that happened that morning, and dealing with Mei particularly sulky and pissy from his embarrassment. He talked with a few people, checked out some things, and meandered off and about to look at the haunted house. Being dead and all, the idea of a haunted house isn't a big deal to him.

Even if, you know. It was actually haunted.

But then he jolts a little, feeling someone bump into him, and he turns to question it -

Only to see that it's Mei, and he doesn't really look all too hot. ] Mei?

double kazuyas \o/

[koshien]

[ mei hates getting sick. he takes pretty good care of himself, and is a hearty, healthy athlete so feeling like this--run down, weak--is the absolute worst. he was already in a pissy mood from getting in a fight with his stupid haunted pants earlier in the day, and especially irritated at stupid useless kazuya for laughing at him, but...

now he's familiar.

mei squints up at him for a moment--relief crosses his face, and he slumps forward to drop his head directly against kazuya's shoulder. ] Don't feel good.

cursed charms

[kokuyoyo]

[Honestly, Chikusa isn't into the whole- haunted house festival thing that's spread like wildfire throughout the Near Shore. It's hard to say the reason: just how he is or because why be scared of the dead when he's dead? Who knows.]

[However, he can appreciate some of the sales that are going on because of the season, so he's mostly been shopping and only occasionally slipping into various places to cool off. He's lingering out near one of the local haunted houses, debating if he feels sweaty enough to hide inside one (they're always ten times cooler than the outside, thankfully) when something suddenly bumps into the middle of his spine. Blinking, Chikusa looks over his shoulder.]

...What's wrong with you?