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

[chibisu]

"Oh, yes!" To have someone suddenly bouncing along right besides him doesn't seem to surprise Ebisu too much. This place is chockful of gods and their shinki, many of whom are quite talented. All he does is nod over to him.

"I don't want any of us to lose him, so please do your best!"

[yasei]

"It would be inconvenient." If anyone else specific were to catch him first, goes unsaid.¨Of the people from the Heavens originally..belonging, Ebisu seems to be the most agreeable. (Obi may not dislike Little Miss Ammy as just another child, but as a ruler, he's got his doubts regarding the Lady Amaterasu.)

Obi bounced up a bit further up, finding his way across balconies and rooftops with ease, eyes trained on the fleeing human... Unless he unexpectedly knows magic, he shouldn't be too hard to catch.

Hunting, be it people or otherwise, seem to be instinct.

[chibisu]

Unfortunately, even for regular people, certain situations can make it hard to catch them. The crowded streets of the festival, the utter chaos steadily overtaking the streets, all those from the Far Shore racing for the ayakashi...

It's enough that the wire on Ebisu's fishing pole seems to be going tense, and Ebisu frowns down at it.

"I might be having difficulty on my end!" he calls up to Obi.

[yasei]

It's not the most challenging thing.. Though it it easier to lose track of a person in a crowd like this, when there's such upset going on.

Obi spares a glance Ebisu's way when he hears his call, but he can't see the wire. He can see that the fishing pole's tenseness. His gaze returns to the human they're pursuing.

"Should I run ahead a little while then?" While Ebisu takes care of his little problem. "Or do you need help down there?"

[chibisu]

"If you can see where he is, that would be helpful!" As long as there's some way to track him down, then it's fine. It doesn't have to be with Kiwami, after all. The most important thing is tracking this source of information at all.

[yasei]

"Alright, I'll go for a bit then."

Obi is a good tracker and good at following people without being noticed even without the shinki sort-of-invisibility (he needs to learn that actual spell at some point) and he darts off after the mortal man, to see where he goes to. Most likely, he's going to seek out a place to hide for a while, before going home. If he was smart, at leat.

[chibisu]

Unfortunately, being good at tracking is mostly helpful when chaos isn't clattering all around from a combination of both Shores' residents. Even as they're all trying to chase after the man, the fighting which is spreading through the mortal audience seems to crash into some of the stalls... Making it a problem for anyone trying to use them to leap past all the chaos.

And besides that... There's the ayakashi itself, whose lashing tentacles can reach surprisingly far. Ebisu manages to effortlessly dodge one, thanks to Kunimi guiding him. "Ah, watch out!"

[yasei]

Tracking isn't only about following trails. Sharp eyes are good. Chaos is a situation Obi isn't uncomfortable with. The stalls starting to get overturned is a slight problem....but at least there are at least a few trees around- though he'll have to use the ground and people for the most part.

There's a cry from behind, and Obi passes a glance over his shoulder. Just in time to roll out of the way of a reaching tentacle; it's a reflex to stick a dagger into it and run it through it diagonally, though if he were to pause to give that a thought Obi would remember that doing so is pretty useless in the long run. (Gloves, even if they don't cover all fingers completely, are proving to be pretty useful against skin-contact blight though.) "Yikes, this thing's got reach." Did the tentacle grow longer or does it have some visual hallucination (not what it's called) going for it?

He didn't lose track of the prey, did he?

[chibisu]

Ayakashi are peculiar creatures as it is. If they weren't in the middle of such a mess, with the humans going wild, and the ayakashi attacking, and a chase occurring.. In other words, if everything wasn't happening so much, Ebisu could offer some thoughts on what's happened. As it is, he instead hurries in Obi's direction.

"Are you alright!?"

[yasei]

If ayakashi battle specific sports commentators were a thing... It would be right up Ebisu's alley.

Obi bounces over to a slight protrusion to scan the crowd. "I'm fine I'm fine, no worries Little Mister." He waves off his concern with the hand he touched the ayakashi with. There's only a little bit of blight, on the two fingers not fully covered. "Ah, over there. He's put some distance between us."

And is about to turn a corner. They might lose their prey if they're not quick about it.

[chibisu]

"Please let me know if anything serious happens. I don't want you to get injured for my sake, especially when you're not even a part of my temple." There's really no excuse then, is there? Still, certain of Obi's condition, Ebisu turns and tries his best to catch up.

"Ah, this sort of situation is really working to his advantage-!"

[yasei]

"Sure is." Obi's eyes never leaves their prey, now that they have spotted them. "Don't worry, I'm prone to landing on my feet. But~ I will do that."

Now then, Obi is off to see if he can reach that corner before their prey makes themself totally scarce. Signs, street lights, and other scattered footholds are well-utilized between his leaps.