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

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, no, past Amaterasu we haven't really gotten anything, and I dunno if she's the actual top banana or if they're still lurking somewhere in the murky background. There's got to be a shitload of gods here we haven't had anything to do with yet.

[The Japanese pantheon alone is way bigger than what they've seen of it.]

[letteropener]

And yet, how can that be? How could they keep themselves so hidden?

[Not that she doubts it to be possible. But it does raise questions.]

[redotiertwo]

I'm pretty sure they just don't really do much. This is a big place, it's not like there's gonna be a lack of places for gods not us to hang out.

[He scopes it out overhead pretty often, and he's not even sure he's covered all of it.]

[letteropener]

It is possible. But if that is the case, then what is the point of it all?

[The gods are here to help mortals, are they not? So if the other gods are simply not doing that...]

[redotiertwo]

Dude, don't ask me, we're getting into the deep philosophical territory here, nature of gods and all that shit.

[And given Davesprite's not even a particularly reverent person here, he doesn't really have much on that subject to share.]

[letteropener]

I don't think we have a choice but to get into those things, you know. Given the circumstances. [After all, half of them here are gods now. What does that even mean?]

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, but this is a little deeper down the rabbit hole than we can deal with right now. Barely knowing shit about the older gods and all. [Theorising will only get them so far when they have very little practical information on the subject.]

[letteropener]

Then our first step is to learn. [And yes, she knows that is no easy prospect, and they have few places to even start.]

[redotiertwo]

Good luck with that, because from what I hear the library's still a shitshow. [And by what he hears, he mostly means what he's seen on the occasional random driveby.]

[letteropener]

If you ever see a pony named Twilight Sparkle, please don't tell her I said this, because it will possibly break her heart or mind. But there are other ways to learn then from a library.

[redotiertwo]

Wow. That is some seriously mind-blowing shit right there, I don't know how anyone could not have their brain broken by that.

[Not completely deadpan as fuck over here, no siree.]

[letteropener]

[Celestia can't help but giggle.] She's not as bad as she used to be.

[redotiertwo]

I should fucking hope not, otherwise she'd be having mental breaks every other minute. [Or at least, every time she encountered anyone who learnt things off the internet.]

[letteropener]

[Sun help everypony if Twilight Sparkle got on the internet.]

It's been quite a journey, but she handled it magnificently.

[redotiertwo]

Sounds like kind of a shame she isn't here, then, could've given her the crash course in internet learnins.

[That inaccurate pronounciation is entirely intentional on his part.]

[letteropener]

Maybe it's better if she doesn't encounter certain corrupting elements too soon in her new life. [Celestia regards Davesprite out of the corner of her eye, a playful smile flickering around the corners of her mouth.]

[redotiertwo]

I mean, we all get internet access as soon as we get here. Like it or not, she's gonna fall down the rabbit hole if she ever comes here.

[And it really isn't the best rabbit hole to fall down if you're not prepared for the worse parts of it.]

[letteropener]

That isn't something somepony would automatically realize, though. I did not, till a few helpful souls instructed me in the many different things my phone could do.

[She's still intensely fascinated by how useful it is, so she can understand the allure.]

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, but it's gonna take about two seconds for somebody to do that. As soon as anyone mentions the internet, we're doing it, we're making it happen.

[And ignoring the internet is kind of a bad idea here anyway, given what tends to show up on the BBS.]

[letteropener]

It took me longer than that. Though to be fair, many people were distracted by my species. [A second pony would probably have much less of that problem.]

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, the rainbow winged horse thing is pretty new. There's not a shitload of us kinds of people here anyway. [There's maybe a handful Davesprite's aware of, and some of those might have disappeared since he heard about them.]

[letteropener]

Yes. That's very true. It does raise a lot of questions itself, doesn't it...

[redotiertwo]

Kinda. I mean, if they're basically relying on the whims of RNGesus to pick us, then why the hell aren't there more of us kinds of people. [Humans can't be the next big thing in that many universes proportionally...]

[letteropener]

I'm sorry, but what?

[She's done her very best to keep up based on context and educated guesses, and being a clever pony she has done pretty well so far. But 'RNGesus' references two things well beyond her current understanding.]

[redotiertwo]

[Thankfully, she is not the first person Davesprite has had to explain the glory of RNGesus to, so he's prepared, spreading his hands somewhat dramatically.]

So it's like the Random Number God, which is basically the whimsical son of a bitch you pray to if you want something up to chance to go right, except the Jesus version because he's supposed to be more forgiving than God or some shit. So he might maybe not fuck you over as much.