36 - Dragon Dance

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Help the Heavens cover for a missing goddess at her temple festival.
When: March 18
Where: Near the Sensou-ji temple in Asakusa
Summary: After Kannon's disappearance last year, the Heavens are concerned that things might go wrong at her temple's March 18 omikoshi festival. They've asked new gods and shinki to attend the festival and keep an eye out for trouble. Meanwhile, trusted newcomers and older gods and shinki alike are watching over the cultists that have been identified.






The Festival

Shrine-carriers, musicians and dancers congregate early in the morning in their matching outfits to get organized into their parade. Luckily, all of the parade participants this time are alive and well. There aren't even any troublesome ayakashi hanging around... so why is everyone having such bad luck?! Laces are breaking, costumes tearing, small children are getting sick from nerves, and even the drums seem to have gone out of tune. It looks like this parade is going to need a whole lot of help to prevent disaster.

For those who aren't busy with the parade preparations, food and souvenir booths throng the area in front of the temple. There's traveling games, too, and plenty of people showing up early with their families to find a good spot to watch the parade. This is one of Tokyo's most popular temples, so it's quite a crowd!

The Stakeouts

Any gods or shinki who were told about the cult problem by Amaterasu -- or anyone who might have heard from friends and allies about the plans -- can help Amaterasu's shinki keep a tight watch on all of the known cult members. Her shinki are looking for any sign of the young gods who she believes are behind all of this trouble, but are there other clues that might be found by a keen observer? Join in on staking out a cult member, and see what you can see.

Current cult members that the shinki are watching include:

• Mitsui Ryou - lives alone in a medium-sized apartment, appears to work a 9 - 5 schedule with occasional late nights.
• Imai Takeru - lives in a small two-story house by himself, has an unpredictable schedule.
• Shimoda Tsuki - lives alone in a small apartment with a lot of plants, works retail with varying shifts.
• Oota Saburo- lives in a medium-sized apartment with his wife and two young children, works a 9 - 5 schedule with frequent work trips.
• Maeda Shinnosuke - lives alone in a small, messy apartment, works construction (early mornings, long days.)
If your character is taking part in the surveillance of any of these people, please feel free to comment to the Cult Clues thread below with the name of the character they're watching, and the times that they're watching that character, in order to learn what they might see. (Note: surveillance doesn't have to take place only on the 18th. Characters can take part in watching the cult members at any time after Amaterasu's announcement on March 8.)

The Parade

At noon, the parade begins. Misfortune is still dogging the participants and the crowds around them, but it looks as though everything will go all right up until the final turn as the heavy, gilded shrine turns back towards the main temple building, tips, and slowly falls over sideways, straight for the crowd.

What's worse, when the shrine hits the ground, it cracks open -- and a huge, jellyfish-like ayakashi wearing a giant white mask with a single black eye inscribed on it heaves its way out and begins lashing its tentacles in every direction. People stung by the tentacles are driven into a furious frenzy, and fights are breaking out everywhere. Stop the humans from fighting, take care of the injured, and destroy the ayakashi before the situation gets any worse.

The Pursuit

In the middle of the fighting crowd, two white-robed shinki are chasing after a very average-looking salaryman in a tan coat. He doesn't seem to know that the shinki are chasing him, but he is moving fast, and they're in danger of losing track of him. They're calling out to any Far Shore denizen close enough to hear, shinki or god:

"Don't let that guy get away! He knows what happened!"

Anyone who has met or spent time staking out Mitsui Ryou will recognize him as the escaping salaryman. If your character takes part in the pursuit, please comment to the Cult Clues thread with a link to your thread - the character who successfully catches Mitsui will be determined by RNG on January 6, 2019.

In Summary:

• Attend the Sensou-ji festival
• Enjoy food and games
• Help Amaterasu's shinki stake out the cult
• Fight a masked ayakashi
• Have fun~

Comments

[hattersgonnahat]

[Does Hibiki ever have a good day? Though, the kid blinks at the rejection.]

You don't have to, but it will go faster.

a

[wishwing]

Of course, I don't mind. Try not to do anything too sudden when I'm trying to help out.

[ She's going to be upset if either of them get hurt somehow. ]

[hattersgonnahat]

[Finally. She got someone's attention. Seems almost a little too ecstatic that somebody listened.]

Yeah! That way I can climb up there and fix it.

["It" being the strand. Not even considering the fact not everyone knew about it.]

[hattersgonnahat]

Probably. I know I can. [Just...might need a little bit of help with it.]

[Just to be extra sure there it was going to be enough, the kid looked again at how tall the stall was.] ...So long as I can get to up there, the rest should be easy.

[It's up to Minako whether or not she wanted to join. ...Not afraid of heights are you?]

[hattersgonnahat]

I won't! [Promises and all that. She'll be extra careful, really.]

[...Okay maybe not as careful as she probably should, but she had done this kind of thing plenty of times, and in worse situations.]

[hattersgonnahat]

These things. [A bit frustrated now, but holds up one of the broken needles. What were these things made out of anyway?] They keep doing that.

[vaporlike]

Festival

Hmmm...

[There's a small whirlwind of chaos around Lin Xue Ya. Children are crying, all the merchandise of one souvenir stall is sliding off the counter onto the ground, a small hole in the pavement is tripping just about everyone who walks over it, and in the center of it all is one overdressed god looking at the colorful cords on his shoulder with a severe frown.

And then the umpteenth person stumbles past the hole and bumps into him, somehow pulling yet another cord loose.]

Hey! You clumsy oaf! Must you?!

[It's a far cry from his usual cheerful detachment. He sounds almost petulant.]

Parade

[At this point he's just sulking. His hair is in disarray, none of his clothes are hanging right, he has no pity for anyone else affected by any of this, but for some reason he hasn't gone home. Instead, he's found himself a seat on the roof of a building overlooking the chaos, smoking up a storm and refusing to help.]

Hmph. So it's an ayakashi...

[Not his problem.]

Pursuit

[He has no idea what's going on or why anyone is chasing anyone else. He's not particularly inclined to help, either. However, he's irritable enough that it makes him feel better to fill the entire immediate area with a huge cloud of smoke. It's just regular smoke, though it twists and weaves unnaturally and it's almost too thick to see through.]

That should have an effect~

[An effect. Not necessarily a helpful one...]

[ittenbari]

Festival

No no no! Don't cry!

[Sakon has somehow found himself surrounded by half a kindergarten class, all total nervous wrecks about their upcoming parade performance. They tug on his clothes, sniffling and whining and clinging to “big brother for reassurance.]

You can't cry! If you cry, I'm gonna cry!

[He may already be crying. This is ridiculous.]

Parade

[Sakon has always been quick on his feet, so when fights break out all around him, it's easy to dodge the flying punches and duck under irate parade-goers. It's just that there's no clear line to safety in sight and everything keeps escalating around him. And he's not exactly proficient in de-escalating...

Which is why he's just punched someone in the head, knocking them out light a light.]

Uh.. Oops! Sorry! I'm so sorry!

[He's never going to get out of here. This is a disaster.]

[fauxcalibur]

[Festival]

[Such a lively festival seems like the perfect place to set himself up with his guitar, so Saber has found himself a nice open space near all the festivities to play his endless repertoire of anime theme songs and original compositions about the exploits of King Arthur. He seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit, regardless of how much attention he's getting from passers-by, but then one of his guitar strings snaps.]

Ah – Oh, I'm sure I have a replacement...

[He starts fishing through his guitar case for another string, but then another snaps without even needed to be touched. He looks at the guitar, a bit more distraught now.]

But why...?

Parade

This is more like it!

[As usual when ayakashi are involved, Saber looks a bit too excited about it. While the reasonable thing would be to find one of his shinki or get his sword, he's instead bobbing and weaving to dodge the tentacles, then punching them as hard as he can when he has a clear shot. Why is he fist-fighting tentacles? Why not? He certainly seems to be enjoying himself, laughing delightedly as he weaves from side to side, avoiding enraged parade-goers and ayakashi bit alike. He's not doing a great deal to actually defeat the thing, but it doesn't seem like he cares a whole lot.]

[fauxcalibur]

[It's a good think he's naturally hardheaded on top of having a Servant's extra durability. It's probably the only thing keeping him conscious as he slams backward onto the ground.]

At least...at least I managed to break your fall...

[Hopefully that's the only thing he broke.]

[letteropener]

I'm so very sorry! [There's an edge of hysterical laughter at the corner of her apology, as she lifts her head to look down at him. Her hands are still on his chest, her hair sprawled all over them both.] I won't pretend this isn't nice, but that definitely wasn't how I would go about getting to it!

[beyondtheblade]

[Well, Tsubasa is fairly tall, and strong. So that shouldn't be too much of a problem.]

Hmm... I suppose, that shouldn't be too difficult.

[And it's not like she can really screw up fixing stuff this way.]

[beyondtheblade]

[Tsubasa takes a step back, ready to at least try and deflect anything incoming towards her, Elfnein, or surrounding people.]

I'm aware! But I'm still going to move a lot faster this way.

[Not to mention, have a lot more at her disposal once she can find her shinki.]

[beyondtheblade]

His shadow! [She shouts while still moving, flipping over a small crowd in the process. Even if her Symphogear on its own couldn't prove of much use against an ayakashi, the increase to her own physical power and ability was enough to warrant its use.] A runner is liable to go for the darkness! Don't let him get from out in the open.

[Especially in the daylight. The skill she's thinking of - the only one she could use against a human and not pulverize them - wouldn't do much good if he ducked down somewhere dark.

For now there is too much crowd and she can't just go tossing knives at people.]

[beyondtheblade]

[If Tsubasa were more easily spooked she may have jumped in fright at that. As it is, she jolts a little, before realizing who it is.]

Ah, hello... no, not quite. I tried helping clean something up a little while ago... [But had just made a bigger mess.] It's seemed more prudent since then to keep a lookout for other strange happenings.

[Being at a festival doesn't really register to her.

She's here to do a job, right?]

[beyondtheblade]

[Tsubasa just gazes onward as Hibiki nearly falls over. She's not really sure if she should help, since she's really not understand what's happened.]

...evidently not.

Did you eat something bad? Perhaps you haven't had enough water, you know being out in the open, people need to hydrate themselves...

[She's super not catching on to the cause of this.]

[the parade]

[trustheart]

[Chris isn't stopping the fights... but she is busy fighting the ayakashi. She ends up being knocked back by one of its tentacles... and is sent flying, right towards Obi's tree.

She ends up hitting a branch adjacent to Obi's, a red armored young woman literally head over heels on a branch, screaming obscenities as she tries to right herself. She hasn't noticed her neighbor yet...]

the festival

[trustheart]

[Shooting games. It seems like just yesterday that Chris cleaned up at the last festival... and now she's gonna make her rounds again. However, this time, it seems she has competition, as she inadvertently bumps into someone at the booth.]

Oh, sorry... [Wait...] Oh hey! I didn't expect to run into you here...!

[ooc - Gonna headcanon that they met in person a few times after first talk on the network, if that's alright? If not, just let me know and I'll do something else.]

The Parade

[trustheart]

[Chris isn't happy with the way the day's gone - getting a chance to sing was good, but all the bad luck and rampaging monster she could do without - so, she's hoping it's out of surprises for her.

Seeing Snatcher stopping people from fighting? That quickly proves her wrong. But this time, it's marginally not unwelcome.]

Hey you, shadow guy! You think you put some of those thorn traps in big and ugly's path?!

Parade

[trustheart]

[That familiar head of hair, accompanied by the rush of battle related emotion, is enough to draw Chris's attention.]

Ginia!

[Chris dashes toward her, and leaps up to join her in one of her aerial attacks.]

Am I glad to see you!

[festival]

[trustheart]

[Chris has been helping out with the formal music matters for most of the day, including singing herself. When she hears the sound of a guitar string snapping - and then another! - she blinks, and heads over in that direction.

When she sees who it is... she blanches a bit. It's the drunk singing guy. She recovers quickly... hopefully he's in a better state of mind right now. With a sigh, she heads over, and waves.]

Your guitar strings broke? We have a few replacements over by the performance stage.

[Is he going to remember her...?]

[festival]

[trustheart]

... That's not how you reassure kids.

[Chris stomps over, wearing her yukata from earlier. Maybe the kids will recognize her from her performance earlier. Chris smiles reassuringly and leans down.]

Hey, little squirts. It's gonna be alright, okay? You've already done so much getting so far in your preparations today. Big brother and big sister believe in you!

[trustheart]

["Can you think of a better time?"

In any other situation, Chris would protest further, take Tsubasa up on her offer of doing it in her stead, but...

That lingers in her head.

But she's not going to agree just yet.]

It's... it's not stage fright exactly. I'm still kind of an amateur. Impressing my classmates... they already liked me, you know? I don't know how any of the people here will react...

...

That's exactly what stage fright is, isn't it?

[beyondtheblade]

...that is precisely what that is, yes.

[She smiles, a fond memory passing through her mind, and it shows in her face.] When I was younger and just starting, I often felt the same.

What would you say if I told you I would hide backstage, huddled up and terrified of stepping out in front of everyone?

...but I had someone there to push me forward, to remind me I had nothing to worry about.

[trustheart]

[Chris's eyes widen as Tsubasa relates that story to her. She knew Tsubasa was different before they met, but... she'd only ever known the bold Tsubasa Kazanari. When a girl's first act upon meeting you is to use a superb song to utterly crush you in battle, you're going to have a hard time ever thinking of her as meek or afraid.

... It's kind of humanizing.]

W-wow. I... I had no idea. That kind of clashes with my image of you, to be honest.

...

That someone was Kanade, wasn't it?