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

'Day of the Animals'? No -- 'Grizzly.'

[Look what you've done to this man and his once-respectable body of knowledge, Davesprite.

Hakkai chuckles, drawing an absent spiral in the dust with his forefinger.]

Although shinki don't seem to get hangovers as badly as gods do.

[This could possibly be related to the fact that he'd always had a higher alcohol tolerance than Gojyo, of course, or the sheer quantity of wine and beer Gojyo had managed to put away as the god of the former. There's a little nostalgia in his tone.]

[That makes Davesprite laugh, and the slight hint of a smile curls one side of his mouth.]

Nice, I see you've been availing yourself of the most beautiful and yet also awful parts of the internet and film history at my behest. Welcome to hell, not the literal one but exactly as bad for your soul with continued exposure.

[Or possibly worse, depending on the kinds of movies involved. Davesprite really needs to set up some sort of horrendously awesome movie night sometime. Something about that remark rings a very vague bell with him, though, and it takes him a minute to remember why.]

Right, you had that god once who your first guess on finding when he was missing was passed out at a bar somewhere. Sounds like the kind of scientific opportunity not to be passed up.

As eternal torment goes, there are worse things than 70s horror.

Just not many worse things.

[He beams cheerfully at Davesprite, and leans back onto his elbows, looking up at the sparks spiraling into the sky. It hides the wistful note on his expression at that comment.

That god once... yes.]

In his defense, he was the god of wine. The role did suit a little too well....

Specifically 70s Hammer horror, maybe, when they dicked up their good run of cult classics. Fucking definition of the film industry ignoring "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

[Meanwhile, Davesprite's just going to privately start curating a list of things he'd totally show at a movie night, half actually serious and half so-bad-it's-good, shooting the shit suggestions.

Davesprite is mostly just staring into the fire, though his shades make that a lot easier than it probably would be for others.] Hey, at least he was getting into it. More than some gods can say.

Mm. I think he made a better god than many.

[His tone is still light, but ... don't mind him changing the subject here, Davesprite, hm?

He moves on briskly.]

Hammer horror? I haven't read up on the studios much.

[Davesprite is only too happy to move on from the subject, especially since he's pretty sure Hakkai switched gods at least once since that dude. No point in ripping open old wounds.

Luckily, the look of flat incredulity he turns on Hakkai as soon as he questions the studio probably serves as a sufficient icebreaker to the new topic.]

Come on, dude, nobody expects anybody to know all the studios, but that's one of the standard pop culture references, you've got to at least have that one under your belt. The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, Phantom of the Opera...if it's a stereotypical Western movie monster, they're probably at least half the reason for it being a stereotype.

Really? All of those?

[Look: he's just been watching truly terrible things on Youtube. The actual classics are a bit shaky still.]

... well, now I know! I should watch a few older ones, shouldn't I?

All of those. Sometimes you gotta offset the worst of the worst with the real cult classic quality, or at least so-bad-it's-good unashamed ham and cheese.

[At this point, Davesprite's considering sending him a list again. There are definitely some easy recommendations to make there.]

Damn straight. That's the kind of artful cinema you owe it to yourself to experience.

Certainly! I should pick a few out and make a night of it with my shinki. I don't think she's ever watched a movie at all.

[He tosses Davesprite a cheerful grin.]

And I wouldn't want to start her on Day of the Animals, or she might never get a taste for it.

Shit, seriously. That right there is a fucking travesty of biblical proportions that it's your duty as an upstanding god to remedy as fast as possible.

[If Davesprite had the effort to get angry about anything less than the most legitimately awful horrors anymore, he'd totally be pretending to be angry about that right now.]

Yeah, stick with the good shit first before you gently introduce the concept of movies watched for awful hilarity alone.

If you have any recommendations...?

[He'll totally take that list.]

Ha ha, I've watched quite a few of the bad ones, but I don't know much about this world's better cinema yet.

I'd probably have to do some research to get you a comprehensive list, but to start, anything with the name Hitchcock or Kubrick on it is a pretty solid bet, Jaws, Blade Runner if you like navel-gazing sci-fi shenanigans, the early Alien and Predator moves before things got shit, any of those monster movies I listed earlier...you can start looking at other shit by the same directors if you're really into the style of any of them.

[While this is mainly off the top of his head, there's definitely some kind of logic to it. Prolific franchises and prolific directors give him a good stepping-off point if he wants to dive further into the pits of classic cinematic hell.]

Thank you! [He grins briefly.] That should keep me for a while... and if you have a free evening, you're welcome to join us for a movie.

I'll make popcorn.

I have free evenings pretty fucking often since some rampaging asshole blew up my place of work, so if you have any movies you crave my presence for, feel free to call.

[Hakkai may or may not be able to guess who the rampaging asshole in question was, though it's kind of noteworthy that there's no real direction to the insult, implying Davesprite has no actual idea who it was so much as that it was a thing that happened.]

You didn't happen to work at the bar, did you?

[He's heard about that particular rampage, unfortunately....]

That I did. I'm assuming you actually know the rampaging asshole in question, if you know that.

[He doesn't remember seeing Hakkai at the bar while he was working there, so it's the other logical assumption to make that Hakkai knows the person responsible.]

Hibari Kyouya, yes. He's no longer here, but he was something of a friend.

[He pauses, and just in case Davesprite takes that wrong, adds:]

And a rampaging asshole, of course. We met when he tried to punch me repeatedly in the face.

[Davesprite just kind of stares at him for another moment or two before he responds to that, because that explains a lot about Hakkai's ability to tolerate people like him.]

Dude, I don't know if anyone's told you this, but you have kind of shit taste in friends. As inoffensively as I can possibly put that.

[Because seriously.]

[Hakkai laughs genuinely.]

You are not the first person to tell me that.

Of course, I did hit him back, so you could say he has bad taste in friends too.

Good, because you probably need to hear it more than once. [Really bad taste, Hakkai. Davesprite is confident in this if nothing else.

Though Davesprite isn't exactly a proponent of violence, that is exactly the kind of situation he can get behind it in, and he nods like that was a given.]

I'd fucking hope so, he sounds like he needs a good sobering punch in the face or ten.

He seemed to prefer that kind of friendship. [You know, the kind that involved a lot of punches in the face. Hakkai shakes his head, still smiling as he glances over at the fire. It's flaring up to consume what looks like several handfuls of charms from some unlucky recipient.]

... But he reminded me a little of myself at his age, I suppose.

...Okay, well, should I be saying he needed a nice sobering hug or ten, since that sounds like it would've pissed him off more. [And probably caused him to keep right on punching people in the face, but oh well.

That explains a little bit, though, and Davesprite raises a brow as he curls his tail around himself.] You don't really seem like the punch someone in the face ten times for breathing in your direction kind of guy.

I was a very angry teenager. [With a glint of amusement, he adds:]

Although I preferred verbal provocation when I was starting fights.

[Breaking their face was the second step, and then only if he was absolutely sure it wouldn't be found out by anyone with the power to expel him....]

That bit, I can believe. [Hakkai definitely seems like the verbal provocation kind of guy. It makes Davesprite think, though, because there's something a little odd about how he feels about this.

Lying back again, he stares up at the sky for a while as he tries to pinpoint it.] I guess you and him aren't the sorts to be like. I dunno, freaked out by it or something. Violence, I mean.

[Maybe not the right term, but in the absence of an accurate measure for the feeling Davesprite gets in his gut when he has to fight seriously, fear feels the closest.]

No. To be honest, I don't like violence, but it's because...

[His hesitation is brief, but he glances away.]

... I'm not nearly as freaked out by it as I should be.

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