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]

Lord Saber. [Suzaku runs up to him. Even though he has been asleep for a few weeks he looks ready for anything and had been keeping an eye out for Saber since the shrine first fell.

Why is Saber in a fist fight with an ayakashi? That is a sure way of getting dangerously blighted.] Line! [A borderline springs up between the tentacle and his god as Suzaku runs up to him, reaching into his bag for a bottle of holy water, which unless Saber stops him will be poured over his gods hands.]

[fauxcalibur]

Ah, right! I'm not supposed to do that, am I? No wonder it was hurting more than I expected.

[He says it without a care in the world, like he wasn't just putting his continued existence in serious danger just because he wanted to punch things.]

I really should learn, you know? The last time I tried to fight with my fists, it didn't go terribly well either.

[He has to dodge under a swinging tentacle as he chatters away, but he doesn't even skip a beat.]

Though I was punching giant spikes of earth that time, which were probably a bit less dangerous. Though they were sharp and I probably could have gotten impaled a bit!

[swordofzero]

No sir you aren't. [Suzaku has gotten to know Saber relatively well these last two months and so he knows that Saber will ramble at him regardless and he doesn't have to worry too much about answering him if he doesn't quite know what to say.

So instead he just nods along as he pours the holy water over his gods hands, pausing only to throw a borderline towards a tentacle that gets too close, one good thing about learning to cast them silently is that he doesn't have to interrupt Saber's flow of words.]

Sticking to weapons is probably for the best, fist fighting can be affective but not against ayakashi. [Or giant spikes of earth.]

[fauxcalibur]

I suppose...

[He sounds pretty disappointed. In fact, he's practically pouting as golden light starts to surround him and his armor manifests.]

Maybe some time in the future...

[swordofzero]

We can spar unarmed later if you wish. [He empties a second bottle over Saber's hands, just to make sure. He doesn't want to risk his god having any blight, he has no idea how long Saber had been fighting for before Suzaku found him.

He throws another borderline up even as Saber begins to glow and change into his amour.]

[fauxcalibur]

I'd appreciate it!

[He doesn't seem all that worse for wear, but it would probably be worth it to check up on him later. He's not the best at self-preservation.]

However, it's just not the same if one's life isn't on the line, you know?

[Case in point.]

[swordofzero]

I suppose not, sir. [Another borderline. He can sort of see Saber's point, sparring is very different to fighting for real. Suzaku quite enjoys sparring, the technicalities of it, learning new skills. Fighting is... It's not too bad when it against ayakashi though the knowledge that they were once human still worried him. Fighting was a necessity, he would rather there be no need to.

But there was and so he fought.] For now we should try and rend this creature as quickly as possible before any more humans get hurt.

[fauxcalibur]

I suppose that means I should use your vessel form...

[He looks a little disappointed, but it's still because he'd rather keep punching the ayakashi. Suzaku's vessel form is very useful and rather flashy if used right, it's just that it's very efficient and likely to end the conflict very quickly.]

Perhaps there's some manner of martial arts that uses guns...there must be a movie or two...

[This is a dangerous line of thought.]

[swordofzero]

That would be wise, my lord. [Efficient is what they needed right now, though Suzaku had noticed that Saber for all he liked fighting seemed a little reluctant to ever call him or Edge into vessel form. He was not sure if it was just that their god forgets, and that wouldn't surprise him, or something else.]

I've not heard of one but with everyone being from different places I would not be surprised. I've met a couple of people who can just conjure up guns, much like when your armour just appears.

[He throws out another borderline to block another tentacle that was smashing towards them.]

[fauxcalibur]

Ah! Maybe they know, then!

[Though he still hesitates. The truth is that it's very efficient to use his shinki to fight, which means there's not a great deal of excitement when it's done. He knows himself well enough to know that if he wants to fight that way, he's going to have to find more and more dangerous opponents to face, which would mean putting the shinki he's responsible for in greater and greater danger. Or at least that's how he's thinking about it at this immediate moment. In a situation where he might not stop to think at all, the outcome would likely be much different.]

I suppose if we shoot it, that will take care of it...

[swordofzero]

It might take more than that. There are a few people fighting it already, it seems to be tougher than the average ayakashi.

[It's almost a coaxing, this ayakashi is not going to be easy to fight, not even with shinki. Hopefully it will encourage Saber to want to fight it, the more people who battle it the quicker they can make this area safe again.]

[fauxcalibur]

Do you think so...

[He is, at least, considering it. Or maybe he's thinking of something else that will be a terrible idea. Sometimes it's hard to tell.]

[swordofzero]

I do. There are enough people fighting it that if it were an ayakashi of regular strength it would have been defeated by now.

[He is not Edge, to just tell Saber what to do. But he hopes that the thrill of a new challenge will encourage Saber.

[fauxcalibur]

I could try sniping the tentacles from a distance...

[He watches the appendages flail with a detached sort of interest, like they're not actively causing chaos all around them.]

Not the same, but a challenge nonetheless...

[swordofzero]

That would be a challenge, we probably need to practice being more accurate anyways. [And it would get Saber out of direct harms way and into the fight in an actual productive manner, instead of punching the ayakashi with his fists.]

[fauxcalibur]

Did I ever tell you about the siege of Acre? The time I was sniping the guards on the walls from my stretcher? It was terribly hard to convince someone to bring me a crossbow, you know.

[He ducks and weaves, dodging tentacles as he cheerfully chatters away. They're going to have to find a nice high vantage point a good distance away. Suzaku's range is quite impressive, so anywhere sufficiently out of range of the the monster's attacks should be just fine.]

I did very well! Much better than expected, considering the horrible case of scurvy I had at the time. How wonderful that no one really suffers from that anymore. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku follows, throwing out borderlines to try and keep the tentacles at bay as Saber weaves through them. He shakes his head, he doesn't think he has heard of the siege of Acre before.

He is not at all surprised that Saber had sniped guards from a stretcher or that he had managed to convince someone to let him, he had been a king after all. More surprising was that he had scurvy. But he supposed it had been eight hundred years ago.] That is impressive, though you probably shouldn't have been in battle if you were so ill.

[fauxcalibur]

Where else would I be? There was no way I was going to travel all the way to the Holy Land just to lie about in a tent! Perhaps if they'd had Netfix back then, it would have been easier for my doctors to convince me to stay in bed. Though if it had existed, perhaps I never would have gone on crusade in the first place.

[He hops up on the canvas roof of a nearby stall, but only stays up there for a few moments before hopping down again.]

Not nearly tall enough. We need a good building of some sort. Nice and tall.

[swordofzero]

Perhaps. I'm sure your people would have still needed you to lead them though. [Wars hadn't stopped with the existence of Netflix. At least Suzaku didn't think so. It seemed unlikely even if he didn't really know if any of the Near Shore was at war and he had no memory of whether Netflix existed in his world.

He looked around as Saber tried out the stall roof.] The temple itself seems like the best vantage point sir.