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

Festival

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Hey, cool it!

[A cat-eared head pokes out from behind a large box.]

It's not like I could bloody well see where I was going! Why are you just standing around looking frippery anyway? D'you have any idea where the 'booth' is?

[vaporlike]

Why would I know?

[He might know, actually, but he hasn't the slightest desire to retrieve that information because a decoration on his robe is coming loose and that's far more important than someone else's problems. Why is he standing around and looking frippery? Because that's roughly 50% of what he does with his time and he doesn't appreciate not being able to do it properly.]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Because people hear things? Even if they're just standing around. [Being useless, she doesn't need to say!]

[vaporlike]

I'm afraid I wasn't listening.

[He doesn't sound too apologetic. Nor has he looked away from the cords on his robe. Should he just detach them all and take the ornament off? But then he wouldn't have his snowflake ornament and that's a very important part of the ensemble. People don't always notice the snowflake print on the robes themselves, so he needs something that will draw attention...]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Then what are you even doing out here except taking up space?! [A sensible girl would probably just walk away at this point, but Nia has a certain investment in being right and snarling at people over it.] How about you do something useful?!

[vaporlike]

Hmmmm...

[He looks around at the crowds surrounding them and all the little accidents that keep cropping up. He doesn't look terribly interested in it all.]

What would you propose I do?

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Help out! And you can start by helping me find out where this bloody booth is so I can actually put this stuff DOWN!

[vaporlike]

There are quite a few booths set up here and there! I'm sure one of them is the right one.

[Hmm...if the ornament and cords are all coming loose, he might as well take them all off and tuck them away in his sleeve to fix later. With whatever nonsense is going on, there's no point in trying to fix them now.]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

They made it sound like it would be a big one. Not some ordinary booth selling stuff, an important one!

[Nia wonders if he's actually trying to help or not, and what answer would make her least mad.]

[vaporlike]

Then I would imagine it would quite easy to find without anyone's help!

[He's definitely not trying to help. Not in the slightest. He's fussing with his clothes again because that's obviously more important.]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Right, if I wasn't carrying a pile of stuff!

[Honestly, the nerve of this guy! He ought to go hang out with Hibiki, they'd kill each other in the space of ten seconds.]