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

[swordofzero]

Line! [A shimmering borderline cuts into a tentacle that is snaking towards the group of humans Tsubasa is currently trying to help get away. It retreats slightly giving Suzaku enough time to run up to the group.]

You need to get out of the temple. [He's not sure any of them cane even see him, being noticed by humans is still something he struggles with.]

[beyondtheblade]

[Tsubasa flips her katana around and tosses it into the air in front of her, as one tentacle comes streaking for a crowd behind her. The weapon morphs into a much larger blade and slams down in front of her, embedding into the ground and acting as a shield that said tentacle slams into. It'll only take a couple hits like that, but there's more where that came from.]

Get moving! [She cries, but the people behind her... seem to actually already be infected, and are at one another's throats.

She sighs, eyes drifting towards Suzaku.] It would seem some need to be subdued, AND moved.

[swordofzero]

[Shape shifting weapons. Was that her shinki? It didn't seem likely as she was not using it to actually rend the creature, some different kind of magic perhaps.

But he did not have time to be distracted, the nearest crowd seemed to fighting, attacking others without a thought.] We need to split them up. [He rushed towards them, scanning the crowd for anyone who didn't seem infected.] Are you any good at knocking people out without harming them?

[beyondtheblade]

[Sadly not, her shinki is elsewhere, and she's aware that it's useless to actually rend this creature. Still, a physical blockade is a blockade, and that's what she's relying on while trying to move people away.]

I can separate them, I can move them...

[She flexes one hand and looks down at it.] It is not a good idea for me to strike a human whilst wearing this.

[It's more liable than anything to turn them into paste, and while she's confident in her ability to control her own strength, the Symphogears were not something they nominally tested on human beings.

...

Her uncle and manager not withstanding, but those are... special cases.

A few more strikes against her large sword and she dismisses it, letting it fold away into practical nothingness before forming another katana in her opposite hand, rolling to dodge the tentacle. Mercifully it didn't travel far enough to hit anyone else, this time. She's trying her best to not make contact with it, or let what she's attacking with rest on it too long lest blight spread, hence changing them out.]

If you can, I can move them quickly! Additionally...

[She flicks up two small blades in her free hand, chucking them at two people charging at one another. Or more precisely, she strikes their shadows on the ground. The humans stop short, struggling to move, but unable to, as their shadows have effectively been "pinned" to the ground.] I can stop them for a moment!

[swordofzero]

[He fires off more borderlines towards the tentacles, ducking under one as he follows her. He takes in the information quickly, she can't strike people wearing her armour and she can temporarily still people, make them stop moving.] I'll knock them out if you move them to safety.

[He's only ever knocked out the out of control soulless shinki in the forest, but at least that taught him that he knows how. He runs up to one of the pinned people, he's still worried. Rendering someone unconscious is never completely safe, he could still damage them and that's not something he wishes to do.

But it's the only way when they are attempting to harm others.

They go down and he glances at her.] Do you have somewhere to take them?

[beyondtheblade]

[She lets out an uneasy breath at that question, even as she moves to scoop the two of them up. Rather effortlessly, really, which should go to say something for what the armor does to her upper body strength.]

No, I can't say I know a surefire place to take them except for away from here. [She slings them over her shoulder, and sees a tentacle rearing up for them.] Move! I'll return momentarily!

[She takes a running leap and the blades on her legs snap out, explosive propulsion from the backs of them sending her soaring through the air for several moments. She lands somewhere considerably further away, as a tentacle comes smashing after Suzaku.]

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku leaps out of the way, sending out another two slashing borderlines to attack the tentacle before throwing up a wall borderline to protect a nearby group of fighting humans. That's the crowd he moves towards now, knocking out the violent ones, keeping the borderline up to protect them against the violent tentacles.]

[beyondtheblade]

[A couple moments pass and a person-sized sword suddenly comes spinning overhead and as the tentacle recoils from Suzaku's borderlines, it lands dead on its tip, slamming it into the ground and (temporarily) pinning it. It probably won't last long, as it yanks and the sword shifts, but Tsuabsa lands beside Suzaku and blinks.

Already new passengers.]

You work fast.

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku sees the sword from the corner of his eye, ready in case any humans got in the way of it's path. Like the ayakashi itself it was not a danger they were able to see. Luckily it pins the tentacle. He nods at the words.] The quicker we can clear the area the better.

[beyondtheblade]

[She moves to scoop up the next people knocked out, nodding to him.]

Of course, but do watch yourself. [She glances back to where the sword is embedded. The tentacle tugs and... it looks like one or two more will wedge it loose.] That won't hold for long!

[Annnnnnnnnd she's off again.]

[swordofzero]

Don't worry about me. [He is ready with another borderline for when that tentacle gets loose.

He continues knocking out fighters. He is almost done, the last few. Most of the other humans had fled from the scene or been taken to safety so there were only the last few affected humans left.

Which was good, because that ayakashi needed stopping.]

[beyondtheblade]

[She gives him a look and hesitates for a moment, but... He's right, to a degree. She's so used to having to fend for anyone who didn't have the same power as her, it didn't come completely naturally. But shinki had their jobs, and this one was clearly good at it. She needed to give him the same respect she would the other Symphogear wielders.]

Understood.

[She gives a nod and dashes to take off with her current haul, as the tentacle snaps free of her sword.]

[swordofzero]

[He nodded back and threw another borderline up against the tentacle that was trying to smash down on him and the fighting humans. He kept half his concentration on that, keeping it strong against the onslaught. He knocked out the remaining few humans and was stood guarding them, throwing borderlines at the ayakashi to keep it at bay by the time she returned.]

This is the last of them. I should find Lord Saber. [This ayakashi was not going down easily. It would need as many of the gods and shinki as they could manage.]

[beyondtheblade]

[Tsubasa lands back again, fairly impressed with his work. At the comment, she nods, starting to heft up a couple more unconscious bodies.]

Your god, I presume? Yes, by all means - we need this thing dispatched as soon as possible.

[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.]

[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.

[swordofzero]

[He nodded, it did indeed seem the best course of action now that most of the humans were evacuated. The quicker they could take down the ayakashi the better.] Good luck. [And off he goes to find Saber.]