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

[unlucky7]

Coincidence or bad luck finally striking? Ginia grabs the bottle of water before someone can trip on it, tucking it and the remaining pamphlets into her jacket. The crowd settles again with the crisis averted, the veil of the Far Shore and the fact most people don't look up giving them the cover they need.

Ginia leaps onto an awning and finds the broken line dangling from an anchor at the corner of a roof. Leaping up there, she pulls it up and studies the broken line. It's a natural fray, something that would have given out eventually.

That it's today of all days is far too convenient.

"I'm chalking it up to whatever weirdness is causing problems." she signs at Kimi. "I can see if anyone has rope or twine we could reattach it."

[chibisu]

Trying to hold onto the banner with his teeth, Kimi struggles to sign back to her. "Please get some before it hits me in the face. I think it will do that soon." He'd really rather not, but it's a big banner, the wind is stronger up on the rooftops where there are no taller buildings to block it, and, well. He's short and not some muscle beast.

[unlucky7]

"On second thought, you get the rope, I'll watch the banner."

She has the height and muscle advantage, Kimi has a better sense of the area. It's better this way. Ginia leaps over to his side and grabs the banner, solidly planting her feet as the wind tries to tug it away from her. Not today, wind, not today. She smiles at him and tosses her head for him to go ahead.

[chibisu]

Unlocking his jaw from around the banner, Kimi turns his head to sputter a little bit. It's a very nice banner, he's sure, but, also, it's been flapping around for who knows how long after being stored who knows where and handles by whoever. It's disgusting, frankly.

"Good idea. I'll be back in a little bit, alright." Mournfully, he looks down towards where he was standing.

"And I didn't even get to finish my drinks... Anyway I'll be back in just a second."

[unlucky7]

Such is the price you pay for telling an embarrassing story instead of drinking up. They can get drinks after this, they've certainly earned one with all the chaos going on. Ginia braces her feet and leans back. She keeps the banner taut enough so it won't snap around too much, but not so much it'll risk snapping the other side from too much tension. At least if that side decides to give out, she can haul everything up.

It could be a coincidence. It would have given out eventually, that was a strong gust. Kimi had said things hadn't really spread here. But with everything else going on around the festival grounds, it's hard not lumping it all together.

No ayakashi, no cursed charms, no sigils as far as she could find, what the hell is going on?