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

[beyondtheblade]

[She gives a nod, and she takes another leap up. A number of small, electrical energy blades form around her and rain down at the tentacle. Death by a thousand cuts, or so one would hope. Either way it'll piss it off more, and without her shinki and not wanting to touch it much, that's something. As she lands, she gives him a glance.]

I figured as much, but I can understand that as well... [She casts her gaze back at the monster.] These do not strike me as things that should be too widely known. I know a little too well that too much information can be dangerous.

[Which is also why she hadn't really spent much time ON the network. She's not entirely sure how much she trusts security of the things she might say.

Either way, whether her knows it or not, she'll be getting quite a bit of information dumping later that night by one of those few people.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[The tentacle is ripped into segments by the assault of blades - it'll probably grow back later, but as far as Shun's concerned, one less tentacle for now is still an acceptable outcome.

He gives a faint hum of assent to Tsubasa's point, bringing his birds back in so he can spot for any other locations they might be needed.] That's the problem. There have been people here and might still be people who'd take advantage of that kind of information, so I don't trust the network with it. But organising in-person meetings to do that sort of thing is a hell of a lot of trouble to do regularly. And even then, you're still using some kind of trust system.

[Having to trust that everyone is a good judge of character, for the most part, which unfortunately isn't always the case.]

[beyondtheblade]

Hmm...

[She understands that, pretty well. Her own organization had to deal with a lot of dodging around authorities, be it the ones above them or abroad, and that's when she had some power of authority. They seem rather under the Heavens mercy here, far more than she's used to.

She snaps another blade out of her armor on the side, chucking it off at a further off tentacle, because stopping her attacks at any point seems like a waste of her time in her armor.]

Aye, that makes sense. So I understand if certain things are left off the table for the time being.

Hopefully, I'm able to in due time earn enough people's trust here to be worthy of that.

[revolutionfalcon]

[With that particular tentacle out of the way for now, Shun sends two of his birds circling overhead just in case there's anything on the other side that needs dealing with that they might not have spotted from here.]

It's not that difficult, honestly. Pull your weight and contribute when it's important and most people will decide you're probably trustworthy before too long.

[Not Shun necessarily, since he tends to take a bit longer to completely warm to people, but it's a pretty common phenomenon he's observed while he's been here. Even newer people have found their place in that inner network of those who keep each other informed.]

[beyondtheblade]

Hm. Well, then.

[She pulls up yet another small blade. Just... how many has she pulled out of her armor by now? It seems like an awful lot, for how thin that actual armor is. She chucks it up and down in her hand and considers that.]

I have something specific to endeavor to, then. Thank you, this has been a very enlightening talk.

[While... fighting a giant monster.

Yep.

This is super normal to her.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Considering Shun doesn't exactly seem fazed by the whole thing either, it's probably safe to assume it's pretty normal for him as well. Or at least that it's become normal while he's here.

A moment or two after Tsubasa finishes talking, one of Shun's two birds lets out a metallic-sounding cry from where they've flown around the ayakashi, and Shun beckons his third over with a quick movement so he can leap onto its back.]

If you say so. I'm heading around to see what's happening on the other side. [He's guessing someone's probably covering it, but if one of his raptors has spotted something, it's worth checking out.]