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

[abgrund]

festival prep

[ For the most part, Ain prefers to stay out of the limelight. However, with the amount of humans around, it'll be difficult for him to remain alone, or to use his eyes to monitor. He's forced to be there in person, which is beneficial as there seem to be too many things going wrong at once.

If anything, his calming presence has a beneficial effect on the humans' nerves. While his placid countenance hasn't changed, he seems to move with a cutting focus different from his usual cautiousness.

The reason? He doesn't give it, though the firmness of his voice probably gives it away. ]

Do you feel something?

when disaster strikes

[ That must explain it. The holy aura of the shrine conceals the feeling of ill fortune from the ayakashi. Perhaps a perfect trap, even. Such disorder cannot be tolerated. Four lines of thought easily resolve into a single-minded intent to make things right.

Ain counts himself lucky to be within the immediate vicinity of the crumpled shrine and the ayakashi spilling out from it. A prick of annoyance conjures a frown on his expression (how dare something basal seek to copy his perfect form?) as he pushes firmly through the crowd, shouting to any Far Shore resident nearby who can hear him. ]

Please guide the humans away from this spot to avoid collateral damage.

[ He cannot use the bulk of his power without hurting the humans, so he will have to make compromises - letting his illusion dissipate but not completely, instead appearing as an inky black orb. An eye opens on the surface of the orb as it rises from the ground and flies straight towards the ayakashi. The eyeball proceeds to sprout a good dozen spears around it vaguely assembled into a halo, the spikes smashing into the jellyfish in a bid to pin it down.

Of course, the ayakashi retaliates by slamming its tentacles in the direction of Ain's floating form. He brings up the remainder of his spears to form a shield - to a casual observer, it appears that not one but two ayakashi are currently fighting each other. People who know Ain well might be able to identify him, but he's easily mistaken for the enemy at this point. It won't be the first time if someone attacked him thinking he was an ayakashi ]

after

[ The jellyfish was brought down with the combined effort of everyone in attendance at the festival. While Ain had stubbornly clung to the ayakashi in his efforts to weaken it, the backlash ended up fracturing his vessel further. The ayakashi flings his eyeball form away with its dying breath - unable to continue levitating, the orb hits the ground with a dull (and shockingly flesh-like) smack before rolling away.

Blink, blink. Time to reform, which means the eyeball melts into a puddle of goo before rising up and reconstituting into Ain's (now not exactly) human form. There are patches of dark blight across his body, preventing him from reapplying his illusion. His true form shines in - bone-white and naked, radiating a chilling aura.

Maybe it'd be better to recycle this vessel. Ain doesn't sound winded, but his everything else is indicative of a beating. ]

Can you help me get back to the Far Shore?

[ The small occult shop he had been using is too far away to reach on foot. If he stays here any longer, then the miasma leaking in from his void essence would have bad consequences. ]

wildcard

[ hit me with something and I'll roll with it! ]

when disaster strikes

[timeforpink]

[ Jen is there to hear his instructions, and good thing too because there's very little she can do to help right now. Through sheer force of will (and maybe the effects of the bright pink jacket she's wearing - what, it's springlike!) she gets the humans closest to Ain to move away. ]

Go, go, go, get out of here! Now!

[ Or maybe it's the firmness of her voice, confident and authoritative that gets them tl keep moving away as Ain fights.

...and what a fight, jeez. Jen knows the ayakashi from the good guy simply because of the ayakashi's form, but it's still unsettling to watch. So, she points her fingers like a halberd and swings her hand down, aiming between the two figures. ]

Line!

[ It's a pretty solid borderline, slicing outward like a blade. Hopefully Ain heard her and can pull away, or maybe the ayakashi will go for a shive and end up with a nasty gash on a few of its appendages. ]

[abgrund]

[ He counts himself fortunate that there are others around - while he is quite powerful in combat, his abilities are destructive by nature. He cannot heal nor protect, only face the threat head-on and hope that someone else can help cover what he can't do.

Ain has the ayakashi's attention for a while, enough to let Jen herd a couple of gawkers away and onto the next street. The relatively small size of his form lets him get out of the way (but barely), and Jen's borderline cuts the tips of a few of its tentacles off. This gives him an opening to try and spear it to the ground, except...

... the ayakashi lifts a tentacle and tries to swat at Jen instead. Seems like it's changed targets. ]

[timeforpink]

[ it's too soon after casting a borderline for Jen to try another offensive one, but she thinks fast, an unknown but familiar fighting instinct guiding her like muscle memory to fight. She casts another one, a barrier, and jumps back at the same time, in case it fails.

The tentacle bounces off the barrier, and Jen lets it go right then to conserve her energy. It may have missed her but uuugh it's gross. So gross. ]

At least it's not slimy.

[ That's more to herself than to him but surely that's a sentiment he shares? ]

Someone's gotta attack the source.

[ Or else they'll be here forever. At least the humans seem to be catching on and running away. ]

after

[smilingbullet]

[ What- wow he looks like shit. He's already over by his side as he responds, and there's concern on his face. ]

Yeah- okay- yeah sure, I can do that, there's some temples nearby to go through that's near your place.

[ Some gods might be able to teleport between the shores from wherever, but shinki can't. And D2 knows the map of the Far Shore well. ]

Am I good to touch you?

[ The blight can be dealt with with holy water, D2 still has some left of what he usually carries with him, it's not enough to wash Ain clean of blight- and Ain looks about ready to break apart at the seams. ]

[abgrund]

[ Ain freezes as soon as D2 approaches - his body doesn't move, but a strange black mist evaporates from parts of his body, wisping upward into the air and out of his conscious control. ]

No. Keep at least an arm's length away from me. I can walk, don't worry about that.

[ Even if his definition of walk might become levitation or a strange gliding motion out of his decision to stop projecting physical legs. He's able to force the void miasma close to him, but some of it still escapes. If that touches anything living, bad things might happen. ]

Tell me where to go, that'll be enough.

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 halts, reflexively obeying. He should probably worry more about himself regarding the mysterious mist, but he's more concerned for Ain. ]

Yessir- If you say so.. It's this way- off to the first right turn first.

[ Even if he is to keep at arms length distance, it is fine to walk sort of beside him. ]

festival prep

[yasei]

Always!

[ Obi has no idea what he's supposed to feel but, if it's emotions then that's his answer. If it's things he's currently blowing up crinkling paper balls for juggling. ]

What am I supposed to feel?

[abgrund]

[ It's that youth again. Ain's memories of him are a little muddled, but he still keeps his calm and peers at Obi. ]

I observe a higher than expected rate of misfortune. Surely there is a cause.

[yasei]

[ He should probably be looking for magical people then...maybe? Or something along those lines. If he want to find something connected to an extra sense. ]

Oh! Yes, I have noticed that. People trip and break a whole lot of things around here today.

festival prep

[priforprince]

[ ....Her headache isn't as bad over here. That's....progress.

Hibiki nods, still preoccupied with the state of her own headspace. As a result, unnecessary honesty slips into her reply. ] Indeed. The sentence enders are lessening, but they haven't dissipated.

[ A few stalls over, a shrine maiden is being chewed out by her senpai for trying to commercialize Kannon-sama. And for behaving in such an un-shrine-maiden-like way! Why had she been ending all her sentences with "yuru"?! ]

[abgrund]

[ Sentence enders?

Ain blinks, then decides to not comment on it. Best to clarify himself. ]

There is excessive misfortune in this area without an apparent source.

[priforprince]

[ There's more beyond the sentence enders? Hibiki sighs. ]

To think the revolution'd be impeded to this extent....It borders on intolerable.

festival prep

[replicatedform]

[Yamanbagiri's walking away from a stall he just finished fixing up. Although with how things are, it would probably break later on...

With a blink, he pause and looks at Ain. He frowns for a moment, and focus.

... Yeah, he can't tell what Ain's referring to.]

Feel what, exactly?

[abgrund]

[ Ain cannot feel anything either, but it is this absence that warrants more attention. The discrepancy needs to be addressed. ]

There is far too much misfortune here. I thought there to be an ayakashi about.

[replicatedform]

Yeah. I agree. Too many unfortunate things happening to be "normal".

[Things breaking once or twice? Laces snapping once? Someone getting sick... Individually, they're "normal". But all together, and happening so much?]

And I haven't seen any ayakashi around so far. I thought they might be very small ones that can hide.

festival prep

[reloves]

[ Ain's calming presence might have a positive effect on the humans around, but shinki Minako over here just seems startled when he suddenly speaks up. It's mostly her own fault, though - she wasn't exactly paying attention to whoever might be talking to her, too occupied by running around the festival to help as many people as possible.

It's why her eyes are so wide when her head snaps to look over at Ain, looking completely baffled for a moment. ]

You mean whether I'm feeling something? [ Apparently she's not even sure he's talking to her.. ]

[abgrund]

[ While they've never met in person before, Ain knows of Minako and her efforts at spreading cheer. Thus he doesn't seem to respond to her surprise all that much. ]

Yes. There is a lot of misfortune here. I thought something responsible, but I don't detect anything malicious.

[reloves]

Hmm.. I haven't felt anything in particular, even though it's pretty obvious there's a little too much going wrong here.

[ Not even Minako could just miss that. ]

Are you usually good at sensing stuff like that? [ Because Minako.. isn't. Even as a shinki. Her mind is just too overly active and easily distracted to be able to settle down enough to feel things out. But if he's actually good at it and can't sense anything, then that'd be pretty odd. ]

festival prep

[phantomtrick]

[ This likely isn't the answer that Ain's expecting to hear. Ren opens his mouth and speaks truthfully anyways. ]

Hunger. That's what I feel.

[They're getting ready for the festival and it's making him excited. Is that so wrong????]

[abgrund]

[ It certainly isn't, but Ain's also used to getting this kind of non sequiturs from Ren. ]

I can get you some food.

[ They say that shinki retain the memories of how hungry they were when they died. he won't be surprised. ]

What do you have in mind?

[phantomtrick]

Thanks, Ain. I'll eat anything you can get.

[ He's not picky at all. Food is food. ]

I wouldn't say no to meat or fish.

jellyfish mambo

[cloak]

Ain-

[The sight of their enemy attacking is all it takes for Roxas' keyblades to appear in his grip. And as others herd the humans away, he advances, strides purposeful. He ignores the way larger bodies barrel into his, shouldering his way through the panicked throng until he deems it too inconvenient.

In whirling mass of luminescent code, his form vanishes, only to reappear above the Ayakashi an instant later. He comes crashing down on it, keyblades first.

His light would be most effective, most efficient, against such an enemy. But it runs the risk of hurting Ain, and that isn't an acceptable trade-off.

Buying Ain time to recover will have to do]

[abgrund]

[ It's been a while since he's had to fight anyone, especially in a world that doesn't allow him to exercise his powers freely. There's a lot of improvisation that he has to do, and he's beginning to find that he's unable to react fast enough to put out both defense and offense.

So it's good that Roxas steps in at this moment, so that Ain doesn't have to solo the ayakashi. The sudden attack causes the jellyfish to reel back and cease trying to swat at Ain's eyeball form. He takes this chance to disengage, curling his spears around himself. ]

Thank you. This thing is strong....

[cloak]

[No soloing raid bosses today, Ain.

When the Ayakashi withdraws, Roxas positions himself between it and Ain, knees bent and shoulders hunched. He doesn't know why facing such an opponent seems natural to him, only that he should be ready for it to recover and resume its attack]

We're a team, right? [He needs no answer to that question, because he knows it already] If I can hold its attention, you can attack more freely.

[And where raining light on this foe comes with the unacceptable risk of harming Ain, those spears appear far more controlled. How very like Ain, to be in command of his abilities, whatever his state.

Without awaiting an answer, Roxas vanishes again. Glowing code coalesces into his form behind the Ayakashi, and he strikes it with his dark Keyblade immediately thereafter, prompting it to turn his way with a screech]

That all you've got?