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

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Yeah. Alley oop, kid.

[Not waiting for much permission, the minion cheerfully struts over to grab her.]

[hattersgonnahat]

Huh? [The child has been lifted up! Could definitely get some high mileage with her with a decent throw stat, she doesn't weigh that much.]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[No throwing needed! The minion lifts her up over his head, almost effortlessly because lift mechanics, then steps over so she can reach the lanterns in question.]

[hattersgonnahat]

[Oh hey the ledge was within reach now. Well, the kid still had to push herself a bit just to grab it but the minion should be grateful she didn't bounce on their head.]

[Now, just needed to find where the strand ends and retie it. Or, something.]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[The minion is too vapidly cheerful to be grateful about such things, or conversely, mind them. One benefit of creating your help!]

Hey, it's to the left!

[hattersgonnahat]

[To the left...ah, there it is!]

[She grabs hold of the end lanterns and pulls it all the way to the other side. Despite the pole looking a few feet tall she manages to get on top of it with ease, no fear of being that high up either.]

[Once the line was tightly snugged she sprung off the pole and back to the roof. The canvas had a bit of an elasticity to it that made the kid bounce. Convenient, she used it to her advantage to get back to the ground unscathed.]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[Oh, hey, that was actually pretty skilled.]

Nice stunt. And mission accomplished, I guess?

[...wait, how'd he end up sucked into this in the first place!?]

[hattersgonnahat]

[Who knows??]

Yup! It shouldn't come down again!

[...Please don't jinx it. Not with this bad luck.]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[Beat.]

[With a crack of wood and a rustle of cloth, an entirely different building promptly drops an awning on top of Zetta.]

[hattersgonnahat]

........

[Uhhh....]

[That one she is not responsible for.]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

HEY! GET ME OUT FROM UNDER HERE!

[The awning trembles violently, as if beneath it, a large tome was flopping around violently.]

[hattersgonnahat]

[Moves a little closer....]

[Carefully lifts up a corner of the awning.]

[Is, that better?]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[Really?]

[Is that seriously it?]

...Keeeeeep going.

[hattersgonnahat]

[Oh.]

[Flings the corner to the opposite side. How's that now?]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

...Right.

[Zetta heaves a heck of a sigh, which raises the question of how exactly he inhales to begin with.]

I'm thinking this isn't going to be a good day for anyone.

[hattersgonnahat]

I guess so...

What were the odds of that falling down too? [It seemed almost on cue, for some reason.]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

I'd say not very good. What are the odds of so many things going wrong in general?

[hattersgonnahat]

[Had been looking up at where the awning had fallen from, wondering.]

Unless there was something doing it...

[It's not likely, but hang on. Gotta check if there was anything else unusual happening nearby by using the rubble to get up higher.]

[...Nope, no rifts here. Her hat wasn't finding anything either.]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

...What?

[The question makes sense, but what's with the look?]

[hattersgonnahat]

[Sigh. Comes back down.] ...Nothin. I thought I could maybe see the cause of it.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

See the -- what? Hey, you don't have weird funky powers, do you?

[hattersgonnahat]

...Depends which kind you're talking about.

[The new one, or..well..they're not 'powers' per se but they could be classified as such.]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Uh, the kind most girls your age and apparent species don't have?

[Species counts. She looks human, but hey, maybe not?]

[hattersgonnahat]

...Being a god does let me see a little into the future now.

[Which is cool! Though not entirely sure how that happened.]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Huh. Really? How far? That sounds like a predestination paradox just WAITING to rend space-time.