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

C

[eluci]

[By the time Noctis hears the plea to stop the fleeing man and locates said man, he's already far enough away that it would be hard for Noctis to give chase entirely by foot.

It's good that there's someone else going after him, then--not that Noctis isn't going to help, but two pursuers is better than one.

He doesn't know Tsubasa by name, but that's not a huge deal.]

Hey! Think you can catch him if I push him your way?

[He gives her about three seconds to respond before throwing his makeshift weapon (a flagpole stripped of the flag) towards Ryou and warping after it.]

[beyondtheblade]

[Bouncing off and over a few more crowd members, Tsubasa lands on the ground, when she hears the shout. Just in time to see the young man warp towards Ryou, which is very impressive, but they'll have time to trade notes over powers later.]

Yes, I can!

[Specifically, she reaches down and draws several small blades out of one side compartment of her armor.] If he gets away from the crowd, draw him towards light! I need a shadow!

[So she can pin said shadow to the ground.]

[eluci]

[That's a pretty cool ability itself, and they'll definitely have to trade notes about powers when this is all over. For now though, he's managed to get closer to the fleeing man but isn't quite close enough to halt him yet.]

A shadow?

[There are plenty of light around, it's only early afternoon--ohh. Hopefully she's referring to his shadow, since that's what he got out of it. Hmm.]

...Right. Got it.

[Ryou hasn't run out of crowd yet, so Noctis isn't going to try to adjust the light in the area until it thins more.]

[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.]

super late but here sorry

[eluci]

What? How are you going to find his shadow if he's not in the open? You don't want him in the crowd!

[Besides that, he's easier to find when he's in the open.

He's having the same problem she's having, pretty much. She can't throw knives and he can't go swinging a weapon around lest he hit innocent bystanders instead of the man they're chasing.]

\o/ it happens

[beyondtheblade]

Darkness! Places to hide!

[Too many people though. No matter how fast she is in this armor, or what they have at their disposal, these people - who don't really want to pay much mind to them in the first place, and are thus harder to just get out of the way - are making it difficult to even get there in the first place.

Finally she lets out a curse and jumps straight up, willing the blades on her leg armor to snap out, the propulsion jetting out from them keeping her aloft for a moment.]

Dammit! Which way did he go...?!