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

[bakusatsuo]

[Lin Xue Ya has picked the wrong person to play games with. As soon as Bakugou realizes, just from the tone of the man's voice, that his attack failed, his own eyes snap open again, and they're blazing.

Without a word, he blasts himself from where he's standing directly at Lin Xue Ya, at an acceleration that would be the envy of a sports car. If Lin Xue Ya doesn't get full body tackled in the next two seconds, it will only because of extreme and immediate evasive maneuvers on his part.

Because the man's right; Bakugou's target has gotten away by now, at least from Bakugou's pursuit. (Perhaps others managed to keep up the chase; Bakugou can't afford to wait to find out.) But if Bakugou can't deliver the culprit to Amaterasu, he can sure as hell deliver the asshole who helped him get away.

How kind of Lin Xue Ya to provide Bakugou with a new target.]

[vaporlike]

Hmm...

[It's a disapproving little hum. If there's one thing he's good at, it's being evasive in every way. When someone charges forward like an enraged boar, not only can a sidestep take you to immediate safety, but it also gives you ample opportunity to put a great amount of distance between yourself and whoever has decided you're an obstacle to be plowed over.

Up is usually the most effective direction to escape in. Luckily there are quite a few festival stalls around and it's not too difficult to find one with enough of a roof to hold his weight.]

There's really no need for such hotheadedness, you know. Or, perhaps, you could charge in the other direction. With such speed, you may catch him after all. Especially if he was confused by the smoke, which is generally quite effective for that sort of thing.

[bakusatsuo]

[Evasiveness is all well and good, but Lin Xue Ya is about to find out that the person chasing him is exceptionally mobile.

Explosions from Bakugou's hands are what propelled him forward at such speeds, literally rocketing him along, and Bakugou is intimately familiar with how a simple thing like changing the angle of the blasts can change his direction midair. He doesn't even stop; he keeps chasing Lin Xue Ya like a guided missile, if guided missiles could make 90 degree turns on a dime.

Bakugou's been training to fight supervillains. He's been in training battles against kids his own age who were significantly more challenge than this. And he's not stopping to talk, or to listen.

If Lin Xue Ya doesn't want to be caught, he'd do well to focus everything he has on a hasty escape, however undignified it may be. He's already pushed his luck beyond the point where Bakugou can simply be talked down - especially when he's being talked down to at the same time. A smug bastard being condescending to him turns the berserk dial up to 11 and then breaks the knob off.]