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

There are a few of them among the new shinki. I don't know what happened to him, but he doesn't seem to have any will of his own -- please excuse me for talking like this in front of you. [The last is an aside to Asshole, who doesn't seem bothered by it in the least.]

My theory is that his soul was somehow damaged when he was brought here and made a shinki.

[The corner of Hakkai's mouth tucks down for just an instant, a neat tic of distaste.] What's the line? "There, but for the grace of God, go I"?

Huh?

[ No something Yata would have heard before. That's more likely to be spouted by one of the Blues rather than the people he tends to hang out with.

Still, he gives another look at Hakkai's shinki, not sure if he should feel sorry for him or not. ]

Damaged...? And here I thought I had it bad.

[Hakkai sighs, and gets to his feet, brushing a few bits of grass fussily off his slacks.]

It's possible he'll recover in time. There are some hints that he has opinions of his own -- he likes the name his first god gave him, for example...

[Despite the fact that name is 'Asshole.' Well, Banri was an asshole, once, and so Hakkai isn't too inclined to insist that he give up the name he likes.]]

Well, I guess that's something, at least.

[ Honestly, Yata thinks it's a little creepy, but hey, it doesn't really have anything to do with him.

Still, he pushes himself back to his feet when Hakkai does, straightening his clothes and kicking his skateboard back over onto its wheels. ]

Hopefully this will quiet the street down for the rest of those humans, too. If this was what was causing all the problems, maybe it'll go back to normal for 'em now.

Hopefully. It should help, at least.

[He glances out at the dark river with its glitter of reflected streetlights, shrugs, and starts climbing back up to sidewalk level.]

Thank you, it's been a pleasure to work with you. [That, he says with a glint of amusement on his face. It really has. He does enjoy seeing new and odd abilities, and Yata's fire bat is entertaining.]

Huh? [ Yata blinks in surprise at the thanks, and then actually looks a little flustered about it, turning sheepish. ] Oh. Uh, you too. We didn't do too bad, yeah?

We're still walking and it's not, so I'll call this a success. [He chuckles pleasantly.]

-- You mentioned earlier that you have trouble with borderlines, didn't you?

[It's particularly impressive that a shinki did so well against an ayakashi for several minutes on his own with no borderlines to protect him.]

[ That's enough to have his expression dropping again, shoulders slumping slightly as he rubs at the back of his neck. ]

Ahh. Yeah. You could say that.

No offense meant! I was just thinking that, although I can't cast them anymore myself, I've trained quite a few shinki in them... if you'd be interested in a bit of practice sometime?

[He ducks his head in polite apology, smiling.]

I might be able to offer a few tips.

Tips?

[ Yata actually looks intrigued by that, perking up a little. ]

No one can tell me whatI'm doing wrong. I mean I have the motion and the words right, but... [ He looks sheepish. ] Every time I try and cast one I just make a wall of fire instead. I don't know how to summon whatever a Borderline's supposed to be made out of instead of whatever this is. [ He adds that with a flame of fire appearing to dance in his palm once more. ]

That's very interesting.

[Hakkai leans over, attention on the fire. It glitters with energy -- clearly, it's magical -- but it's not a familiar sort of energy.]

My chi manipulation didn't interfere with my borderline casting, even though I can use chi to cast a shield as well, but your energy seems different.

If I had to guess, I'd guess that you're too used to using this flame, and so when you think of yourself as casting a line, it's this that you instinctively cast.

Why don't you try the motion and the line, but instead of thinking about summoning a borderline, just think about something you want to keep away from yourself? I find revulsion to be the most effective emotion for inspiring a successful line.

Revulsion? Not protection? [ This is the first time he's heard of this particular trick. Especially because he did seem to fall back on his fire as default protection, often without even thinking about it. Was that why a Borderline hadn't worked? ]

Umm. I guess I could try that?

[ He thinks for a moment, but the only person he could think of immediately was Schuldig. And considering he hadn't seemed at all worried about fire... well that made his default not very effective, didn't it? Scowling fiercely, he tried to think about that day and how it had felt as he focuses.

A moment later, he's making the motion to cast the shinki spell. And it... feels like something should happen, but nothing does. Not even fire this time.

Yata stares at his hand like it's personally offended him. ] What the hell.

Ah! [Hakkai sounds surprisingly enthusiastic, considering that nothing had happened at all.]

You seem to be over the interference. It takes a while to master the borderline itself-- that's normal, and it will come with practice.

But yes: revulsion, not protection. The spell rejects what you choose to reject, and so to give it the proper strength, the stronger your rejection, the better.

[ It also doesn't help that he has no name at the moment and therefore wouldn't have been able to make one anyway.

Yata still stares at his hand anyway. ]

But nothing happened?

Keep trying.

[Hakkai shrugs.] Nothing happened for me until I tried it against a real ayakashi, but I think it's a bit late to go looking for another one tonight.

[And it helps to be named, of course... although he isn't even considering the idea that Yata might not be. After all, here he is, wandering around the Near Shore hunting down ayakashi on his own. Surely no nameless shinki would risk such a thing: it looks as though he's here answering a prayer.]

[ Yeeeeah, he got bored. That and feeling useless hadn't made for smart life choices.

Instead he just hums, looking thoughtful. ] I guess I'll try that next time then.

[ Because of course there would be a next time. ]

Just be cautious.

[Hakkai smiles cheerfully at him.]

I'd hate to be responsible for getting you eaten by an ayakashi if it doesn't work right away. For now, though, I should wash some of this off.

[He displays his blight-spotted hand with a little shrug.] I'm heading back home -- and yourself?

[ Yata looks sheepish, rubbing at the back of his neck. ]

Ahh? Yeah, uh. If you don't mind? I don't have easy access to anyone who can hop back and forth at the moment.

Of course not.

[... he pauses, hand half-outstretched, and his eyebrows creep up a fraction.]

Do you have a god, Yata?

[ ....Busted. ]

Uhh. Not... exactly?

[Can godless shinki cast borderlines? Hakkai's not sure, but he dismisses it for now in front of the more serious problem.]

I'd recommend you wait to fight ayakashi again until you find one.

[He'll just leave it at that as he takes Yata's hand to teleport them to his own temple on the Near Shore. It's not safe to fight ayakashi alone at the best of time, but with no working borderline and no god to sense his distress or strike it down, it's almost certain he'll run into one too big to handle.

The temple is a relatively small one, with a Japanese-style torii at the front gate and a Chinese-looking brightly colored altar. At this time of night, it's quiet and dark, with the light of streetlamps outside barely enough to pick out the cobblestones of the path.]

[ The teleport is abrupt enough that it stalls the retort he might have made to that, and when they reappear outside of Hakkai's temple, he's just frowning instead. A glance up at the structure takes but a moment as he takes in his surroundings before he looks back at Hakkai. ]

Yeah, noted, but I'm not going to just sit around and do nothing while I wait.

[ Because otherwise, he'd go out of his mind with boredom in the meantime. ]

I'm sure you can find something. [His glance is genuinely concerned, but he keeps his tone light. From here, it's only a moment's thought to move from the Near Shore to the front hallway of Hakkai's temple in the Heavens.]

Are you waiting to have one assigned to you, or picking a friend?

Waiting, I guess. [ Yata shrugs, looking away. ] I don't really know any who are looking for one.

[ And after Schuldig? He was considerably more wary of strange gods offering him a Name anyway. Especially the friendly-seeming ones. ]

That's dangerous -- although my worst god was one I chose myself, so.

[His smile is thin, and disappears just as quickly as it appeared.]

Do be careful. I assume you have somewhere to stay, at least?

018 | Season Spirits

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