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

[subconmodo]

[He smirks beneath the hat, craning his head up slightly to get a better look at the newcomer, revealing a glowing, yellow mouth.]

Heh. I can play others too, but I don't trust anyone around here with a piano.

[He pauses and shakes his head]

Though I'm not terribly fond of duets to begin with.

[holygrailed]

[Irisviel steps back at the sight of the glowing mouth, unease running through her. 'Face like a jack'o'lantern' echoes in her mind.]

I dare say a piano would be difficult to move in a parade too.

[Her tone is friendly, but it's cooled and hardened a little too.]

[subconmodo]

[He takes note of that. Must be getting a reputation.]

[He lets out a short laugh]

Not with that attitude it isn't!

[holygrailed]

Oh? And how would you move a piano then?

[Irisviel brushes her hair out of her face, subtly pulling free a strand of hair and hiding it against her palm as she clasps her hands together. Take no action unless needed, but remain prepared.]

[subconmodo]

A platform with wheels, of course. What else?

[He doesn't catch the hidden hair, but he does catch on to the fact that she's acting suspicious. He looks Irisviel up and down, then shifts back into his usual form, relaxing back in his seat]

You do know this is a festival, right? You should lighten up a little!

[holygrailed]

[Irisviel holds her ground as he shifts, a bit of dread running through her. Suddenly Chris's description makes all the more sense. She smiles, though it doesn't quite meet her eyes.]

I'm sorry, I suppose I'm a little tense with all the problems happening. It's a shame on a joyous day such as this.

[subconmodo]

[He gives a little half nod to the side. Fair point. ]

It's enough to make you wonder if there was something to those annoying boats after all.

[he looks over at the cello]

You wouldn't BELIEVE how long it took me to get this thing in tune. It's like the guy had never played an instrument in his life.

[holygrailed]

The last festival? Oh yes, that was very strange. I heard there were strange dolls too?

[Though without knowing anyone that had been here, Irisviel largely missed out on the hallucinogenic effects. Lucky her.]

[subconmodo]

[He scoffs]

If you want to call 'em that. They looked more like baby's third art project to me.

Creeped out a bunch of other people, though.

[holygrailed]

Creeped out?

[Irisviel feigns curiosity, looking at him with a slight tilt of her head. She knows, but she wants to hear how he saw things that day.]

In what way?

[subconmodo]

Let's see... One kid kept going on about how weird they were. And then there was this girl who would just not. Stop. Screaming.

If I had eardrums, I'm pretty sure they would have burst.

[holygrailed]

Do you know why she was screaming?

[Irisviel didn't witness screaming, but there was definitely a lot of yelling. At least one attempt to destroy a boat too.]

[subconmodo]

I don't know. Something about some girl only she could see.

[He waves his hand dismissively]

Something obviously attached to some weird guilt complex of hers. Or something like that. None of my business, that's for sure.

[holygrailed]

I suppose everyone's business is their own. Did you leave her then?

[His dismissive words and gesture prickles at her for a reason she can't pinpoint. Perhaps because it could be Chris he's speaking of. Perhaps because Irisviel is not the kind of person to ignore people in need.]

[subconmodo]

Oh please. I'm not that heartless. I let her know nothing was there, first. Several times.

[or at least twice]

Unfortunately, whatever weird delusion she was under had her pretty good! So I figured a bit of cold water would do the trick.

Would have preferred a bucket, but not everything works out like it does in books, eh?

[holygrailed]

[Irisviel frowns, not only because it confirms he's speaking about Chris, but who throws a stranger into the water?]

Why would you throw cold water on someone you'd only just met? There are far better ways of calming someone down.

[subconmodo]

[He arches an eyebrow--or at least one eye seems to get bigger than the other.]

You know how to stop a girl from screaming and crying every five seconds about something only she can see, do you? Please, do tell.

[holygrailed]

I would try to remove her from the area and calm her down by talking to her.

[Whether it would work is another matter.]

I can hardly imagine having cold water poured on her by a stranger made the situation any better.

[subconmodo]

[He smirks]

That so? She certainly seemed a lot more lucid to me.

[He didn't really care whether or not she was angry or upset with him, after all. Just that she wasn't freaking out in his general vicinity anymore.]

[holygrailed]

And what if it had gone poorly? Suppose you worsened her condition? Or she fell in the river and hit her head? It seems foolish to think your method was successful if the only baseline was lucid.

[Her annoyance with Snatcher was previous based on Chris's treatment from the festival. His smugness and carelessness only adds to it.]

[subconmodo]

[scoff]

You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to. It worked, and frankly that's all I care about. Anything else is not. My. Problem.

[holygrailed]

So the ends justify the means.

[There was once a person she knew who followed such a methodology. All was fair for the cause of the greater good. It's a dangerous way of thinking that can justify a lot.

Irisviel prickles with anger. It's wrong. Chris is her friend, she saw the effect after. Any justification falls hollow when care is lacking too.]

I see.

I'll leave you to your recital. May you live in interesting times.