thenearshore | 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

Don't worry about it, just run!

[ Mostly because he needs his focus at the moment. he'll explain later. He doesn't let go of his hold as he darts down the hall outside. The lights dim, darken, and a strange howling fills the air behind them but like hell is Yata stopping now. Instead he's looking for the quickest damn exit he can find.

Which just happens to be.... a window? ]

Shit. Whatever. We're taking it. Get ready to jump!

[ He makes a motion with his hand, something that almost looks like the gesture for a Borderline but instead it summons fire, the Red Aura spilling out of him to wrap around his arm and then explode ahead of them. It hits the window and glass goes exploding outwards ahead of them, leaving it wide open. Yata doesn't slow as he races them towards it. ]

[Chinatsu's eyes widen when he's engulfed in a red aura--she had seen that before. It was the same as that god from before.]

We're jumping?!

[Crap! When he quickens his pace, she runs to match his. It was that or get skewered by dining utensils---not that she could decide which was worse at the moment.]

We're jumping!

[ Because did she really want to stay here and reason with the ghosts instead? They didn't seem all that inclined to cooperate.

Not that he gives her much time to debate the options because the distance between them and the window quickly closes and outside a dark sky can be seen. He thought they'd been on the first floor, but that didn't look like the ground immediately on the other side.

Shit. ]

Jump! Don't let go of my hand.

[ Because he's pretty sure he can protect them from whatever drop is out there. Even if he isn't on his board. ]

[Wings would be great right now but oh well. Out the window she jumps along with a stranger she met just a couple of minutes ago. She squeezes his hand tight as they fly out of there, too late to question her decision to listen to this guy.]

She screams as they fall towards the ground that's too dark to even see. Was this how she was going to die--a second time?]

[ He gives a yank the moment they're airborne, his own burst of speed having him plummetting a little faster than her, but he drags her into his arms as he drops towards the ground with a dizzying speed.

Yata winces at her screams, because ow, but still manages to shoot a burst of fire beneath them, wrapping them almost in a bubble for a long moment before it breaks the impact of their landing, softening it just enough that it doesn't jar too bad when his feet hit the ground. There's a moment of wobbling before he almost goes staggering forward to land flat on his face, but luckily, he manages to catch himself at the last moment and not look like a complete idiot for once. ]

[Chinatsu clings to him for dear life, not realizing right away when they do stop falling. She doesn't feel any pain anywhere..and it doesn't feel like she's dead ~~although she technically already is~~. Slowly she peeks up from his shoulder, finally seeing that they've somehow survived that fall.

She pulls back just enough to look at him in his face]

Holy crap we survived that?!

[Then she gasps, looking him over]

Wait--Are you okay!?

Hah?

[ At her question, he lowers her to the ground to set her back on her feet again before stepping back to look himself over. Just in case. ]

I... think so?

[Yeah, looks like he is. She stares at him for a moment, almost a little unsure all that happened, but it really did.]

You did it...

[She starts to laugh as it sinks in.]

Oh my god, you totally just saved our asses!

[Chinatsu pulls him in in a grateful hug. It only lasts a few seconds before she pulls away, grinning at him.]

That was actually pretty cool!

Ahhh....?

[ Oh god. She's hugging him!

For a moment, he just flails, because what's he supposed to do with this? Where' he supposed to put his hands? Is he supposed to hug her back?! When she pulls back, his face has flamed beet red and he doesn't know where to look as he rubs at the back of his neck. ]

Ah, umm... I mean, I guess so?

[It was a good thing it was dark so she couldn't really see him blushing. If she did, then it'd be awkward for both of them.]

What do you mean you guess? You just jumped out of second floor of a house!

[She bring her hand down on his back with a loud smack.]

Give yourself a little more credit for that.

[ He gives a yelp at that, rubbing his shoulder as he gives her a bewildered look. ]

O...kay? Well, we had to jump, it's not like it was giving us stairs! Is it that big a deal? [ He hadn't stopped to think about it before, because doing tricks on his skateboard often had him launching off of (and into) a lot of weird things. ]

You make it sound like jumping out of windows is a regular thing for you.

[She snorts, raising an eyebrow at him. Surely it wasn't, right..?]

[ He just blinks and then shrugs. ]

I dunno, maybe? I don't really remember much before here, but jumping out of things and off things comes pretty simply to me, so maybe?

018 | Season Spirits

no subject

Ooc: i.. wasn't sure if they were on a lower or higher floor ahaha

ME EITHER. /wings it!

YAY FOR WINGING IT

\o/

Re: \o/

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject