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

Parade

[swordofzero]

[He recognises her, even in the armour as the god he had met at the last festival, before he had fallen asleep. He runs over as the humans begin paying attention to the voice that came from nowhere.

He sent off two wordless borderlines towards the ayakashi and glanced over at Chris.] Do you have holy water?

Re: Parade

[trustheart]

[Chris regards Suzaku with a nod, moving to cover him; she's a bit more durable than he is.]

A bit... but do you really think it'll be enough to make a difference?

Re: Parade

[swordofzero]

[Another couple of borderlines, his best weapon against ayakashi and he nods at Chris.] If you coat your bullets in it they will harm the ayakashi a lot more than they are now. They won't kill them though, you need your shinki to do that.

[She probably already knows this, but she had said she was new, this might be her first big fight with an ayakashi.]

Re: Parade

[trustheart]

Well, that's gonna be difficult. I don't actually load these things, and I don't think I can just pour water into the barrels of my guns!

[She has to think. Gritting her teeth, she concentrates for a few moments, before looking back at Suzaku, holding out a vial of it to him.]

Can you toss all this into the air? I'm going to try to shoot through it!

[swordofzero]

Oh [He tries to think about how such a gun might work and comes up blank. They definitely seem to be bullets and not energy beams or such... But there is a lot he doesn't understand so he takes her word for it and takes the vial with a nod.] Right. Ready?

[He gives her only a moment and then throws the vial steadily up into the air. He knew as he did so that this was probably a terrible idea.]

[trustheart]

[The concept is simple, Suzaku... the guns and bullets don't exist until Chris wills her Armed Gear to take their form.

Nevertheless, Chris's aim is quick and almost superhuman. She fires through the screen of water, her bullets becoming coated in the substance as they fly through it. They strike the beast's hide, causing the surface of its body to smolder and for the beast to cry out in pain.]

Hell yeah...!

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku has quick reflexes and a quick eye but Chris is fast and the ayakashi is injured.]

Good shot. Keep going. [He throws a second vial in the air and with his other hand throws up a borderline at Chris' other side, a tentacle rears away from it.]

[trustheart]

[Chris spins to the side as Suzaku throws the vial, shooting through the screen of water a second time. This hits the tentacle Suzaku warded off, but her aim was off, and she didn't manage to hit it as well.]

Dammit... this is still a pretty risky maneuver...

[swordofzero]

It is. [Another borderline.] Maybe we should focus on getting the people away. As we can't actually harm it.

[trustheart]

... Sure. You focus on that, and I'll cover you. But once we clear out this area, I'm shifting my efforts back to focusing on it, alright?

[swordofzero]

Right. [He nodded, a terse nod. Hopefully by that time he will have found Saber. The only real way to defeat this creature was to rend it and he needed to find his god for that. Until then getting people to safety was a more sensible approach.]

[trustheart]

Alright then!

[Chris steps forward and focuses on fortification, deploying a number of missiles from her armor. An... obscene amount, honestly, several of them larger than she is. She fires them off, trying to force back the ayakashi while Suzaku focuses on herding people away.]

[swordofzero]

[And they continue like that, Suzaku herding humans, Chris blasting the ayakashi back from where he was steering people to safety.]