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

Hm? Well, you'd know better than me about that. [There are times he gets the feeling he was capable of using a weapon, but then comes the simultaneous thought that he shouldn't consider it a weapon, without him ever knowing what "it" is. And then he tries to forget about it because he shouldn't think too hard when it comes to things like that...]

Ah, adjusting to its quirks is something you have to do now, right? [Not risking it would probably be the better choice in that case.]

...Are you concerned? [He doubts Reisi would let anything happen, but Shun's talking about it like that isn't a factor...] Power-sharing...you said?

Basically. It's not the sort of thing you want to push before you know what that's going to do. [With any weapon, that can be dangerous, but with something like this, it's even more so. It would be much easier to explain his concerns if he could actually say that the sword in ruined condition had been the reason Reisi had to die in the first place, but there's no way in hell he'd tell that to any shinki.

So for now, he plays like it's not that deep a problem, letting out a faint breath.] As far as I know. He did say that first time that his power was mine to use in that form. So that's making me more careful about it.

[That's as specific as he's going to get on the front of potential risk to Reisi - and he considers it reasonable that if you're wielding someone else's power, you'd be concerned about any potential backlash on them.]

Hm... [He doesn't quite understand being careful with someone else's power on anything but an intellectual level, but maybe that's just one of things. (...Y'know, those things.) Seems to him that getting overcome by the power is more of a concern, but saying something like that when he knows both people in question would be pretty rude.]

[When the pillow pushes him up farther than he can ignore, he straightens and takes hold of it again.]

I don't suppose you can ask him? [Since it's originally Reisi's and all.] ...Unless you're afraid he'll think about it too hard.

[Which is a valid thing to be afraid of, from...experience. Aha... But certain things need to be met head-on despite the danger, and while it remains to be seen whether this is one of those times, it's...an option. From what he's seen, generally shinki seem to be able to talk about their abilities.]

It's likely enough that I don't really need to risk asking. And like you said, there's always the risk he'll think about it too hard or try to remember something about it. You haven't been as bad, but Joker would come close to remembering things from as much as something that might have alluded to his past life, let alone being questioned about something from it.

[As ever, his tone is slightly terse when talking about his disappeared shinki, though it's also not least because Shun knows Fubuki's risk level probably also depends entirely on how careless he is with his own possessions. He generally kept his deck concealed without really thinking about it, but Shun's been actively hiding it since finding out Fubuki and Johan shared a world.]

[Well...about that...] I did ask him, though, once... [Sheepish.] He didn't give me a straight answer, but it didn't seem like he was struggling with it, either.

[Not that he's encouraging Shun to go and do that, though.]

...Catch. [He tosses the pillow. Way back when, he'd suggested Shun tell him about Joker as a way to alleviate the pain of that loss, but it sounds like Shun isn't at that point yet where that would be effective. Although, Shun was fine when he was talking about Joker's throwing knives, which, uh... That's just to be expected?? (Fubuki may have misunderstood something here.)]

Guess your only recourse is calming exercises, then! [He says this entirely cheerfully in such a way that it probably sounds a little bit mocking.] How about this? I'll try to rile you up, and you can throw Sir Pillow at me, but if you do that, you lose.

[This ~perfect plan~ fails to take into account that the pillows were throwing themselves at them both anyway, but details]

[At the least, it's ebbed enough now that Shun can talk about Joker in passing easily. It's just going into details that's the issue now, and that would take a lot longer to stop being the case.

Though Fubuki seems unconcerned, Shun shakes his head slightly.] I can't really trust that from other people when I prefer to conceal that sort of thing myself.

[One advantage of being stubborn and refusing to show weakness: it makes it easy to see those habits in others. When Fubuki throws the pillow, Shun grabs it out of the air and traps it under one arm.

The other pillows appear to take this as indicative of a cycle, and another one lines itself up to toss itself at Fubuki right as Shun levels him with an incredibly dry look for that suggestion.]

You couldn't replicate what's most likely to piss me off in a combat situation. And if your idea was standing there and hurling insults at me, I can tell you right now it isn't going to work.

[That's the voice of experience speaking.]

[Conceal...? ...He can't say he can see it, considering the knife at sleepover, but maybe that was just because it was Ren, and as established, Fubuki can't do anything to Shun. That's a fair point about not revealing one's hand, though.]

[He noticed the other pillow too late, so he ducks instead.]

Ah, you found me out? [...Will it really not work, because he can think of one or two things]

...Is it the combat situation that's the issue? [Not that he's unfamiliar with the idea of losing composure in combat, but...] Seems to me like that's something you can practice.

There's only so many ways you could try to "rile me up". [And Fubuki trying anything but verbal attacks is something they both know would just end with him flat on the ground, so Shun considered it unlikely to be that.

Shaking his head, Shun looks over to the garden, and the flowers growing around the little shrine at the far end.] I mean I have too much self-control these days to be angered by anything short of something that would come out of combat. [Granted, when one of those things happens, he generally switches to having no self-control, but it's still valid.] You can't practice not reacting to friends and comrades getting hurt, and that's the most likely thing to be a risk here.

[If he ever needs to do something like the save he gave Fubuki and Johan, but the ayakashi had actually gotten to the person badly enough first, he'd have to put in a hell of an effort to force himself to react in any way that wasn't destroying every single one of them in a blind rage.]

[Well it's certainly true that he was only going to say things—]

[—Ah. That.] That's true... I'm sorry. [He hadn't thought about that, but in retrospect, it's really not that surprising that Shun would. As well as the fact that that probably comes from experience and not an extrapolation, considering what Shun's told him of that war...]

[He picks up the pillow he'd dodged and tosses it at Shun again.] Catch.

[He folds his arms as soon as the pillow leaves his hands.] So it comes down to danger level, after all. [...For some reason, something Inti had said is echoing in his mind now, about power and the people who use it...]

Shun, I'm not implying anything, but...does that hesitation come from fear of using it, or does it come from wanting to use it?

[There's a dismissive sound and a shake of the head from Shun.] You had the right idea, but it'd work better on someone else.

[There are a few people he can think of who could probably use something like that, but it would be best for people who are easily riled by anything, not by just one kind of scenario.

Shun grabs the pillow out of the air with one hand, throwing it back onto the pile with enough force to knock over the two pillows peeping up to have another go. It also means he has another second or two before he has to answer Fubuki's question, and he lets out a rather weighty breath.]

Wanting to. I know myself well enough to know that if I have that kind of power at my disposal and something or someone seriously hurts a person I care about, I'm probably going to destroy whatever's responsible before I listen to reason.

[It wouldn't be so bad if he had to call the vessel form first, because he'd have time to calm himself down, but if it was already at his hands, he can't see that going well.]

[If it was fear, there'd be backlash to worry about, but wanting to... He's not sure what he was expecting when he asked that question, but the answer gives him something of a jolt.] I—I see...

[Considering they've been talking about ways to avoid that scenario, it should be fine, though. Should.]

...Does Reisi know? [Not asking him about his powers is one thing, but for something like this...]

[Well, he could say that going wild like that would hurt Reisi, and Reisi is almost certainly one of those people Shun cares about from the way he talks, but... He can't say that kind of thing carelessly.]

What did he say when it happened?

[Fubuki's reaction gets a look from Shun that's difficult to read - to him, it sounds like Fubuki's shaken or surprised.] There's a reason I don't abide people naive enough to think of me as a good person.

[He might have good goals, but he's not exactly proud of what he's done to get to them in the past. And even now, when he's narrowed his focus a bit, he's still willing to do worse than most people are prepared to.

At the question, Shun lets out a slight hiss.] I don't generally share that with people until I've known them longer. It leads to messy questions.

[About the war, mostly, and details of it Shun isn't particularly open to sharing. He's much more willing to go with the follow-up question, though.]

If you mean when he changed forms, he told me to stay calm, focus on our goal and direct his power with my will...and above all, do what was right. [Which is another reason Shun figures this could be a problem in the wrong circumstances.]

That's... [That's not really the issue, but he doesn't actually know what is.] That wasn't what I was thinking about. [He raises his hand to his temple briefly, but realizes what he's doing midway and stops.]

[But anyway, the more important thing here is—] I think you should tell him. [He crosses his arms.] It involves both of you.

[Especially since it sounds like Reisi was saying reasonable things. ...Not that Fubuki would know if they were or not, but.]

[...But refraining from using it may not be an option if there's no choice.] Messy questions is a problem, but... [But, uh. Well. Hrm. Considering what Shun was like after the age weirdness, he can imagine that the messy questions might not just be merely uncomfortable.] ...But getting angry at losing a friend is an easy thing to understand, I think. [And that's all the information Fubuki thinks is necessary when discussing it. He knows Reisi takes notes and whatnot, but from what Fubuki's seen, Reisi doesn't pry.]

[The raise of Fubuki's hand gets a somewhat suspicious squint from Shun which doesn't entirely dissipate once he stops. He does at least set it aside for the moment, but after what happened at the firefly gathering, he's resolved to keep a bit of a closer eye on Fubuki's reactions to this sort of thing.

There's a somewhat noncommittal sound in answer to that suggestion, and Shun crosses his arms as well, clearly trying to think of a better solution. He doesn't disagree - he knows full well he should tell Reisi before it actually does become a problem - but actually doing it is a lot harder when he's so used to distrusting people for longer than a few weeks before letting that sort of information go.]

It might be easy to understand, but he seems to have a bit of a way with pressing on things before he accepts they're not that easy to solve. [Not quite prying, but trying to get as much information as he can before being shut out.] I'll have to think of a way to put it that isn't going to lead to him trying to press on something that I can't answer.

[Physically can't, given he clams up if someone stresses on the wrong things about his history.]

Hm...I think I know how that feels. [Wanting information while being a shinki and all, leaving aside the fact that that's probably how Reisi is.]

I wouldn't think getting curious about you has the same effect as wondering about himself, though. You could tell him directly not to question the whys? Or I could fill him in depending on what you've told me. [Normally he wouldn't be a proponent of not confronting things like this face-on, but...things are different. He wouldn't be a love doctor if he couldn't adapt]

[...Jokes aside, this conversation only came about because Fubuki asked. So—] Were you worrying about it alone?

Edited 2017-07-22 23:23 (UTC)

A lot of people here probably do. [It doesn't seem to be an uncommon shinki trait, and Shun in particular has observed it in every non-soulless one he's had so far.

The idea of telling him not to makes Shun hiss a little.] I don't like demanding either of you do things if I don't have to. I've dealt with enough people who abuse their power over others in my life. And you filling him in doesn't help all that much. [It's half Shun's discomfort with the subject, and half that he straight-up doesn't generally let people know about his history this soon.

Shun tilts his head a bit at the question, as if considering how to answer.] I wasn't worrying that much. Ren knows enough about the kind of person I am to understand if I brought it up, but I haven't told him about Munakata's abilities yet either.

Shun... That kind of thing doesn't have to be a demand. [If he asked one of his friends not to talk about something, he'd expect them to respect it. But given how Shun phrases it, it's probably best not to press on that point.]

[The other thing is a relief, though.] Good.

[He is looking way too happy at that, and that's probably why a pillow comes sailing into his face.]

Ah, I mean...it's good that you're thinking about that. Catch. [He tosses the pillow.]

[He crosses his arms again. He'd brought this up accidentally, and things hadn't happened in the time that he hadn't known, but certain things happen so suddenly here that they can't trust that things won't happen. Shun already knows that, though. Rather...Shun's the one who tells him to be prepared in the first place.] I'm sure you know this, but...you probably shouldn't put it off for too long.

It'd sound a hell of a lot like one. [Mostly, it's just a matter of Shun trying to be as responsible about this as he can when he doesn't consider himself a very responsible person.

Shun would have made some sort of biting remark on Fubuki being so pleased about that, but the pillow really does his work for him on that front. When the pillow is thrown, he instead kicks it out of the air and back onto the pile to knock over a couple more ambitious-looking cushions.] I'm still not going to bring it up to others if I don't have to.

[He has not gotten any better at asking for help, to probably nobody's surprise.

And he's already well aware of the urgency of this, so he just nods slightly at the suggestion.] I know.

[The first comment get a bit of a staaaare from Fubuki, because he can't make sense of that, not being the type of person who'd have trouble with it—but he has noted that Shun has made comments like that even from the first moment Fubuki became his shinki, and that's not likely to change just because Fubuki says something, so he doesn't comment further.]

Well, it's not about bringing it up to people... [Rather, it might be kind of a bad idea to, actually.] Just that you shouldn't worry alone. [Since Shun keeping it to himself was what led to that Sleep-Deprivation Incident (it is officially an "Incident," capitalization included).]

[More importantly, there was something else.] Shun...you're supposed to throw those back, you know? [what kind of catch-ball game is this if there's no back-and-forth?? (Please ignore the fact that there is no ball.)]

[Shun just glares right back, as if expecting him to say something about it. When he eventually doesn't, he just continues eying him off until he gets to the next point. And that one doesn't seem to hit home much better, getting a somewhat irritable sigh from Shun.]

Why should I put the weight of something I can handle myself on someone else? [Especially since it'd have to be someone close to him for him to share that information in the first place.] I know when it's something I can't worry about alone.

[...Sort of. He did tell Ren eventually about the most recent spike of nightmares. After only five-ish days of no sleep this time.

But he's distracted from that subject by Fubuki's question, giving him a rather flat stare before looking to the pillow pile, then back at him.] Why?

It involves two of you, though... [Going for the literal probably isn't going to earn him any favors if he has to bring this up again, but it occurs to him that there are in fact things that someone has to face alone, and that changing someone's mind isn't that easy, even if he disagrees with it.] Do we—the people around you really seem so unreliable?

[...Because what with not being able to fight and the shit he almost pulled with certain drug-like substances (not that Shun knows about that) (Shun must never know about that), he can sort of see where he gives that impression (as loathe as he is to admit it, but after the fireflies incident, he can no longer deny it). But there are other people.]

[As for the other thing... Is that...really a thing that needs to be questioned?] Because it's a back-and-forth. [And back-and-forths are how you get to know each other!! (That's how it goes, right???)]

And I already said I was going to tell him about it. [So he doesn't quite see where Fubuki's coming from there, admittedly. That look only gets more prominent with what he says next - as if Shun is legitimately having trouble believing that's how it comes off.]

When the hell did I say anything about unreliability? I just said I don't like spreading the weight of something I can do myself. It might as well just be me taking the weight instead of several.

[It's different for things that's actually necessary for, like teamwork in combat, but personal matters are something Shun sees very differently.

Fubuki's answer also does not help him comprehend the catch game any more, though after a few moments of puzzling through the implications, he manages to get there himself anyway.]

...Then the question is just why you were trying to start a game of catch.

"Weight," huh...? You know...spreading the weight around helps prevent it from breaking.

[Besides, he'd talked to Fubuki readily enough. ... Should be be happy about that...?]

... I didn't mean to imply anything, though. [He totally did but leaving that aside... The real question here is why wouldn't he try to start a game of catch??]

Because it's fun, and the spirits were having fun, and you looked like you were... [Shun did not look like he was having fun, but he has also never seen (non-little) Shun having fun so he doesn't know what that looks like.] ...You looked like you were humoring them.

[Sorry, Fubuki, but Shun's honing in on exactly the wrong part of that sentence, his eyes narrowing slightly as if in challenge. The belated statement that he didn't mean to imply anything doesn't at all help.] If you're saying you think I'll break under pressure, you haven't been paying much attention.

[There are far worse things he's had to deal with than what he has to here, even if it's still pretty bad. If there's one thing he has confidence in, it's his ability to keep some kind of shape, even if it's not necessarily the shape he wants to be in.

Given it's pretty obvious what Fubuki was about to say before he trailed off, Shun has to cast him a somewhat disbelieving look even as he corrects himself.] I humour a lot of things. It doesn't mean anything other than that it's not annoying enough for me to actually stop it.

[...Hrm. He shouldn't have said that. It'd slipped out. But, given the choice, he wouldn't consider letting the pressure build to be the best option...] I'm sure you wouldn't let me see it if you were close to that point, but that's not something we want to test, right? [Considering he didn't quite expect himself to break, either, but the night of the firefly-viewing proved him wrong. Well, that's a slightly different thing, him being a shinki, but...]

People can change unexpectedly... Since you said you're that kind of person, I won't know the warning signs. [But they got on this topic by discussing things that Shun should tell someone else...] But if you don't think that's a problem, I won't insist.

[He glances toward the pillows. "Not annoying enough," huh...?] ...And if I do this? [He snags a pillow that was trying to ambush him (again), and tosses it over.]

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