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

[letteropener]

[No, he does not, not YET. Celestia regards the bears thoughtfully, one hoof tucked under her chin.]

I can if need be, but I would like to know what brings them here. You are not carrying around a remarkable stash of nuts, berries, salmon, or honey on your person, are you?

[redotiertwo]

[That gets a slightly bitter laugh out of Davesprite.] If that's all you're asking, I have that answer right here.

[Digging a taloned hand into his ruff, he extracts a small charm, the kanji on it indicating that it's meant to protect from bears.]

Some hack was handing out supposedly cursed charms. I took one mostly so I could laugh at him later on, but yeah, turns out they were possibly even more cursed than advertised.

[letteropener]

Not that I approve of anypony handing out cursed charms, but I think you may have brought this situation on yourself.

[Which isn't to say she won't help, but really.]

I will take that charm off your hooves, if you like.

[redotiertwo]

Look, I was just trying to be culturally sensitive. Blame the asshole who thought handing out curses was a good idea. [It's all fun and games until someone starts handing out legitimate horror movie tier bad mojo.

Davesprite casts Celestia a bit of an aside look before he offers the charm out, a little hesitantly.] Don't you fucking dare take it if you don't have a surefire way of making sure it doesn't hit you too.

[letteropener]

Oh, it will surely hit me, but I have a great number of resources at my disposal to handle it. [She plucks the charm out of his hand with her telekinesis before he can protest or pull it back, all smiles.] Aside from my magic, I have a natural affinity with animals.

[redotiertwo]

[...He still doesn't look super pleased with this, but hey, he has to figure a rainbow-maned alicorn would have some kind of purification deal to get rid of a curse.] I mean, both of us having wings pretty much gives us a base advantage over anyone else getting a charm like that anyway. But if you've got ideas to get rid of it, I'm listening.

[letteropener]

I will address myself to it in time, but our first priority is to get these bears back where they belong. That will be much easier if we lead them, rather than try to persuade them once the curse is broken.

[Admittedly, persuading them is the course of greater ethics with regards to them, but in this case she has to weigh the safety of both the bears and the residents of the Near Shore in the equation.]

[redotiertwo]

Alright, yeah, probably a good start. Who the fuck knows how they're going to react if we break the curse then try pointing them back the way they came. Not that I have any goddamn clue where that is.

[They're in a fairly built-up area, so how they got this far in besides "curse bullshit" is beyond Davesprite.]

[letteropener]

Let us ask them.

[Celestia drops down, putting deed to word, to land next to the pair of bears. Whether because of something in her nature, because she is large and could probably hurt them with her wings and kicks, or simply because they aren't aggressive, the bears turn to observe her but do not react hostilely.]

You two are very far from home, aren't you? We need to get you back where you belong.

[redotiertwo]

Sure, let's ask the bears, that can't possibly go wrong. [Despite the remark, though, Davesprite follows her down...most of the way. He perches on the lowest branch of the tree for the moment rather than outright landing.]

So, how are we feeling about the getting out of the city idea. [The bears just look at Davesprite for a moment before one of them starts sniffing in the direction of his tail, and he glances over to Celestia.]

Yeah, I dunno if the communication route is gonna work. [For him, at least.]

[letteropener]

Well, you do not have the gift of an earth pony. But you do have a curse on you, so that might do just as well. Let us lead them off.

You two are coming, right? [Steel lurks beneath her gentle tones, enough so that the two bears swivel their heads around to look at her. When the pony starts walking off, they begin to amble along after her.]

[redotiertwo]

[Well, it seems like Celestia can talk to the bears enough for both of them anyway, so Davesprite just glides along after her to make sure the bears don't start having any conflicts of interest.]

So you're saying the ponies that look like our normal ponies without the horns and wings and shit can talk to animals in your world. That's mostly what I got out of what you just said.

[letteropener]

That is not quite it. [She's long since given up on trying to moderate his language, even when it comes to restating her own words.] Earth ponies have a special knack for it as a rule, but one of the best animal caregivers I've met is a pegasus.

[redotiertwo]

So it's standard pony skills in your world, then, just those ones are better at it. [He will never not be confused about this pony land, but at least he's not drawing the obvious comparison.] Sure, why not, it doesn't make any less sense than anything else that's a thing here.

[letteropener]

We ponies are caretakers of the world. The weather, the seasons, day and night -- we are responsible for all of those things. If we couldn't tell the animals to come out of hibernation or bring the birds back from the southern lands, that would make our jobs very difficult, wouldn't it?

[redotiertwo]

[This world is sounding more and more bizarre the more Davesprite hears about it.] So basically ponies are the laws of science. That sure is a thing that would make it confusing as fuck to adjust to a world like this one, where we only make up the magic sky people carrying the sun across it.

[Has Davesprite mentioned he is still not terribly religious despite being in literal Heaven?]

[letteropener]

Well, we certainly help things along. If it's of some consolation, we don't manage things like gravity or thermodynamics.

...Though I admit with pegasi wings and unicorn magic, our relation with them is slightly less fixed than most humans would consider. [But, magic is a thing subject to its own rules and properties in turn.]

[redotiertwo]

That is at least some consolation. Now I don't have to picture millions upon millions of tiny invisible ponies pressing down on us or generating heat. [Because he may or may not have just been doing that very thing.]

Hey, at least you have them, so that's like. Two things our worlds have in common.

[letteropener]

That IS a disturbing image. [Though one that elicits a giggle at least.]

[redotiertwo]

It really fucking is, but without context my mind goes to some bizarro places sometimes. [Hence some of his random conversation tangents.]

[letteropener]

I am going to admit that this does not come as a terrible, shocking surprise to me. [She shoots him a teasing smile over her shoulder.]

[redotiertwo]

I am personally offended by the idea that you might think an upstanding neon orange sprite like myself has thoughts that are in any way abnormal.

[As usual, completely deadpan as he continues leading the bears on a little behind her.]

[letteropener]

I am terribly sorry for offending you by thinking what you just told me was truth. [Celestia can be just as deadpan. Maybe worse, because she actually sounds like she could be serious, if you just heard her voice and didn't see the spark in her eyes.]

[redotiertwo]

Good. Can't have this assuming people aren't being entirely fucking sarcastic bullshit spreading like it's acceptable behaviour. [If Celestia is going to pick up the deadpan rope, Davesprite's going to get right on there with her.]

[letteropener]

Perhaps the greater gods of the Far Shore would be willing to issue that as a decree, if you simply explained it in such clear terms.