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

[timeforpink]

[ D2 nailed it, shw's a noob and not yet confident enough to use a borderline near humans. But she'll do what she can. ]

Okay. You start with borderlines. I'll get a few to chase me.

[ Nothing could possibly go wrong here.

She starts by shoving a human in the shoulder and waving her arms around, bright pink sweater hopefully catching his attention. ]

That's right, I did it. Catch me if you an!

[ And do it begins. She leads this one (and a few others who fell for the taunt) away from D2, so they can deal with as many possessed humans as possible. ]

[smilingbullet]

[ He has been here for almost an entire year by now.

He slips easily into ready mode, and he is prepared to use his borderlines. It's such a comfort to have access to them again, even if he's had access to them this past month thanks to Hibiki. ]

Yes ma'am.

[ He's got enough experience that he doesn't need to call out the name of the spell any more. He can cast a large number of them and keep many up at once as well, causing chasing people to bounce off walls and be trapped in a labyrinth. He could do better if he had a better vantage point, but it is what it is and he needs to keep moving as well, until he's trapped these ones in separate prisons up against walls. ]

greetings from sunny phonetag typo hell

[timeforpink]

[ Jen navigates the crowd around him, going overall in a big circle so she doesn't lose him and so, you know, her pursuers get tired enough that the ayakashi have to find other people to possess. It's not as hard as she imagined — she has endurance and she's pretty fast, plus that neat high jumo thing she can do because she's, you know, dead. What's hard is weaving around the barriers scattered around them.

When two od the humans chasing her slam into a border, Jen spins to check on D2 (and pause for a second to be glad he's so skilled with borderlines) — in time to see a possessed human appriachhing him from behind.

Still new at this, she has to cry out line! to focus and cast the borderline, but the good thing there is D2 can hear her and avoid colliding with it. The barrier goes up just in time for the human to bump into it. The impact demands more of her focus than she's used to, and the borderline flickers and wavers for the second before she releases the spell. ]

Are you okay?

[smilingbullet]

[ When the ayakashi detaches, D2 swipes new lines, aiming to trap them as well. Some cut through them to a degree, making them screech, but it's not as much a mistake as it might seem.

D2 is surprised at his own lack of attention, and berates himself for it.

He must still be affected by Forrest's disappearance. Not that he's surprised, he was with him for close to a year, it stings even when it's not the first time you lose a good superior.

But even though he is surprised, his borderlines doesn't waver. He is good under pressure and a little startle isn't going to throw him off. ]

Ah. Yeah, yes, thank you.

[timeforpink]

[ She nods firmly. They've gotta keep an eye out for each other, or else they won't be a le to help all the humans who are getting caught up in this mess. ]

I've got your back.

[ And surely he's got here because this moment of distraction means there are possessed humans en route to attack her. ]

[smilingbullet]

Likewise, ma'am.

[ Of course. He may have his serious doubts and dislikes regarding the Heavens and their way of running things, but that's not a reason to not guard the backs of other people from the Far. That sort of thing is ingrained in him.

The borderline slashes past her, rapidly appearing in front of the humans to hinder them. The humans the ayakashi has detached from are starting to come out of their daze, and D2 lets the borderlines trapping them dissipate so that they can wonder about the riot without being trapped. Unless mob mentality takes over, they will do the smart thing and leave.

He seriously needs to get a place to fix those damn holy water bullets again. ]

[timeforpink]

[ Yep, he's got her back. They may be strangers, and she may be new here, but they're gonna be okay fighting together. ]

This ayakashi— [ Jen jumps out of the way of a human charging at her, and he runs and runs, likethat's good enough for him. Okay bro. She lands and keeps talking to D2. ] Did someone place it here on purpose?

[smilingbullet]

It wouldn't be surprising if that turns out to be the case. [ He casts another line, forcing a person to change direction. ]

You haven't heard the way the Heavens try to suppress a rebellion.

[ One that has nothing to do with Hibiki's Révolution. ]

[timeforpink]

No, I haven't.

[ She blocks an oncoming human's attack, deflecting it and sending her in a safer direction. ]

I wanna hear about that when this is over.

[ Sounds... a lot unlike what she'd imagines things would be like, after her orientation. ]

[smilingbullet]

[ He thought he mightn't. The Heavens liked to try to press only their view of it onto people, and it's easier to try to indoctrinate newcomers who don't know what's going on than people who have been around for a while and has seen the shit that they get up to. Not that that stops Amaterasu from assuming that the new gods and shinki would follow her without question.

D2 slips out of the way of a fist, grasps a wrists and redirects the person, swipes out a squirt gun and hits the ayakashi attached to them. The ayakashi lets out an annoyed screech, detaches itself, and is slashed with a line that makes it move sideways and gets itself trapped. ]

Not too publicly, hopefully.

[ Because that would be bad, the wrong person overhearing. ]

[timeforpink]

[ So it's really, really serious. ]

I train every morning. A run is part of it. [ Jen steps aside to let a not-possessed human run out of harm's way. ] How about the riverbank by the park, on the northwest end?

[ They can at least meet there, move somewhere else if it's too exposed. ]

[smilingbullet]

[ Pretty much.

And he knows that there are others that train of course, but he supposes that their hours or routes might be different. He's not seen her during either of his two hours out. But he's up very early. ]

I know it, sounds good to me.

[timeforpink]

[ A human slams into her, and Jen uses their momentum to shove them in a direction that'll take them away from the messy ayakashi fight. ]

Okay.

[ It's a done deal. Time to keep the humans safe, and to keep watching D2's back. ]

[smilingbullet]

[ Possessions are a pain in the ass, particularly when they turn violent. If only there were easier ways to cut those things short.

For now, trapping the mortals one by one and scaring off the ayakashi with cutting Lines and burning holy water is the best he can do until the crowd thins and calms. ]