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

[beyondtheblade]

[More than that, all the way up here gives her a very good vantage point for what's going down. She scans the fight and the crowds, looking for one specific shinki...

Before leaping back down, landing beside Elfnein.]

Indeed, and I have spotted my shinki. [It's against her instinct to leave Elfnein in a danger zone, but she tries to remember that even without a Symphogear, she is a god just as well.] Find... some cover, or your own shinki, alright?

[It comes out a bit awkwardly.]

[swordofzero]

Perhaps. I'm sure your people would have still needed you to lead them though. [Wars hadn't stopped with the existence of Netflix. At least Suzaku didn't think so. It seemed unlikely even if he didn't really know if any of the Near Shore was at war and he had no memory of whether Netflix existed in his world.

He looked around as Saber tried out the stall roof.] The temple itself seems like the best vantage point sir.

[swordofzero]

Yes. [He nodded at her again.] Will you be alright?

[Hopefully, she hadn't seemed to have any trouble so far but he has no idea if she is has a shinki to rend with, and that's the only way to actually take down this ayakashi.]

[hattersgonnahat]

...Actually, usually if I'm able to see it at all then it isn't anything good.

[smilingbullet]

You mean with paper? I know some different things to fold, but there's a whole lot I don't know. Looking it up and following instructions isn't all that difficult though.

[ If it is origami she's talking about. Learning more is always up on the table anyway. ]

[revolutionfalcon]

[While the line does help move the crowd a little bit, it also makes the lines where they've been pushed apart much more dense with people. It's the kind of thing that offers an easy opportunity to slip away, and Shun starts forward that little bit faster knowing that this could either work in their favour or very much not.]

Careful. If the crowd gets spooked more or tightens up, it'll give him more of an opportunity to disappear.

[revolutionfalcon]

Using the masks is-- [Shun breaks briefly to jump over a tentacle that does a rather better job of snaking its way past his birds at just the right angle than most of them have so far, before sending one back around to slash at it.] --ridiculously dangerous, from what I've heard. It's a form of curse, but it needs you to name the ayakashi.

[He has to break off again to forestall another tentacle up ahead that sweeps towards a crowd of still lingering humans, but he's figuring for now, saying that should be enough to highlight the gravity using a mask has. Any god would probably die from the sheer blighting that would result, but it seems that magic of some kind is required to do it, so it should be beyond the scope of mortals at the same time.]

[priforprince]

I simply act as my style dictates.

[ She's going to save as many people as possible and don't make her say it. Hibiki is very good at bragging about all of her traits

except the actually admirable ones. ]

[timeforpink]

Yeah, I am.

[ And it's starting to bother her that she knows so little about what's going on. Once this is cleaned up, she's gonna rectify that. ]

Why—do they just want power? Will they hurt people?

[chibisu]

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." Unmi's mouth twists in a frown as he crosses his arms. "I don't like it either. For crowded occasions like this, there are almost always ayakashi. They're small types, often not very powerful, which is why they do well, at least in my experiences... Especially when the resident god for whom the parade is in their honor is absent. Ayakashi can be rather quick when it comes to opportunities like that. Along with the increased amounts of stress..."

Catching himself, Unmi shakes his head. "I apologize. I shouldn't distract you with my ramblings. I've just become somewhat familiar with the creatures, after so long working for the master." Heaven would be embarrassed to hear this, after all, but Ebisu had been working on capturing ayakashi long before they executed him.

[chibisu]

Ebisu smiles up at her in clear defiance of any grumpiness or impatience. "Yes, you are permitted to talk now," he says, lowering the knife. For the time being, he keeps Kimi as he is, just in case. It's clearly making his shinki a little antsy, but it might be for the best. Kunimi can calm him down, and they won't get distracted this way.

Behind him, Kiwami patiently begins to strip out of his jacket. When Ebisu glances over at him curiously, he tilts his head down a little. "It might be better not to keep it so close to you," he explains to Ginia quietly. "Until we can get a proper container for it, to make sure that there is no negative magic or anything lingering from the ayakashi."

[chibisu]

It's fine, he deserves lids on occasions.

However, he doesn't deserve to be crushed by a float, that's for certain. If there's any good news, it's that he is safeguarded by what he would say is one of the best shinki in the Far Shore.... and his own abnormal luck which seems to do well enough in keeping him safe from accidents such as this.

This is good for the children around him, too, as it turns out. Once Rita returns- successfully, this time- she'll see the kids not too far off, all of them peering around Ebisu towards the pile of destruction. Some of them look like they're even more nervous and sick now, clinging to the tiny god or their own stomachs, while others look morbidly fascinated by what's just happened. When Ebisu sees Rita perched on top of it, he smiles brightly and waves his hand high.

[unlucky7]

Ginia smiles back and offers a light shake of her head. "Don't apologize, it's interesting to hear."

There shouldn't be anything wrong with knowing more about ayakashi. The better you know your enemy, the better you can fight them. Control should also be a viable way of handling ayakashi. It's immensely short-sighted of Heaven to see any kind of knowledge as heretical. Sometimes Ginia wonders if there's something about ayakashi Heaven doesn't want anyone to notice.

"Besides a borderline perimeter or sacred ground, can you think of anything that would keep ayakashi completely away?"

[unlucky7]

Today is the day for all sorts of revelations and concerning statements. Ginia glances at the mask and gives a tiny intake of breath. Right. Magic. There's no denying what she did was dangerous and could have gone poorly for Waver too, but better to ask for forgiveness than permission? It's not like anything bad happened either.

"Someone already looked over the mask for any negative magic and didn't find any. He was attempted to scry back to the location of the controller of the mask, but was interrupted."

If nothing else, at least she's proactive in tracking leads while they're fresh?

[beyondtheblade]

[She gives a firm nod.] Yes. My shinki is here... somewhere. I shall find her and join the other gods to rend this creature, now that the crowd has been...

[She motions to the bodies slung over her shoulders.]

Thinned out enough.

[phantomtrick]

Not at all, I like it that way. I'm not too picky to begin with but it has a nice blend of flavors that would please most people.

[ Ain's eating food....amazing. That's a first. Ren's watching curiously like he's staring at something foreign. ]

[bakusatsuo]

[Bakugou gives him a slightly bemused look.] Since when the fuck do you have to be enemies to wanna fight someone? It's called sparring, dumbass. I don't know how they do shit where you've from, but sometimes you fight people you don't plan on killing, just so you can get stronger by challenging yourself.

If you're only gonna fight if you're allowed to try to kill me, though, I'll fucking accept those terms. I won't even try to kill you back. It'll give me a handicap. [He bares his teeth in a grin, even as his nerves spike. It's not like offering to let someone try to kill him - especially someone whose relative strength he has no way of gauging - isn't frightening. He's only sixteen, after all, hero aspirations notwithstanding, and as strong as his resolve might be, it's not literally made of steel. (And, of course, that's one fuckoff intimidating spear the guy's holding.)

But it's exactly because this is frightening and difficult, possibly verging on deadly, that he wants to do it. It's not just the being looked down on, although of course Bakugou's pride plays a definite part in this. It's that if Bakugou ever intends to be the top hero, if he means to climb over the highest wall in the world...then it doesn't matter what odds he's against. He has to be able to face them whether he's scared or not, and to beat them regardless. So it doesn't fucking matter how strong Berserker is, or whether or not the man's trying to kill him - all that matters is that Bakugou wins anyway.

He keeps his hands curled at the ready, prepared to blast himself away from Berserker at the first hint of the man lifting his spear. Bakugou's measure of the guy tells him that this isn't somebody who'll waste time on small talk if he decides to take Bakugou up on his offer.]

[bakusatsuo]

Tch. Maybe they oughta keep it more secret, then. How the fuck're they gonna narrow down who did this if anyone with basic reading comprehension and a library card can find out, huh? [Bakugou snorts.] It's not like I've got any damn faith in their ability to track criminals down.

[bakusatsuo]

He never mentioned the cat in his dream... [Bakugou's eyes narrow as he thinks back.] Shen Wei and Zhu Hong...so Zhao's arm candy and the snake lady.

[Yes, that's how he remembers them.]

He never actually said what the hell Zhu Hong's job was.

[chibisu]

"Oh, then I should have asked you for even more advice." He beams over to her, pleased with this new information. Not only is it very useful and relevant, but it sates a little bit of his neverending curiosity as well. Perhaps one day he'll get a proper introduction to her other gods. You know, when there's time, and the whole of Heaven isn't being overworked on matters like this.

"I'm glad to see that you're using your salary as well. Money only has value so long as it is circulated."

[hattersgonnahat]

[Can a book even have allergies? Or get sick? These are questions no one's even bothered to ask]

Really? None at all? That's lucky!

[cleansingstrike]

[If they could cut through one, then surely the others would follow.]

Aye, before it has a chance to cause more harm!

[cleansingstrike]

Surely. [It would only take her a moment, as she walked on over to the banner. Holding out her arms, she grabbed each end with one hand.]

What else would you have me do?

[cleansingstrike]

[Agrias resumes her work. Tirelessly and without pause. Uneasy as it may be, it's an alliance nonetheless.

The crowd is eventually thinned and the crazed festival-goers cease their attempts on Agrias.

On threat might be past, but others remain.]

Allow me to come to yon aid, Berserker!

[letteropener]

Just move them slowly together as I work... [Which she immediately begins, stitching the fabric back together to a seamless whole with a line of light that crawls slowly up it like a zipper.]