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

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Edge was surprisingly solid, all muscle -- but also surprisingly light in comparison. Sideways he went, slapping one down hand to keep from taking a tumble. "Hey! What are you, a traditional enemy of Eblan secretly?!"

[nopixiedust]

"I don't even know what that means!" Wendy cackles, daintily situating herself back so that she can return to work. That was easier than she thought it would be, and she really thought she'd have to heave. "And it's not Eblan, it's just you!"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"You're not my enemy." Edge ostentatiously brushed off the shoulder she'd kicked him on. That wouldn't have been so easy if he'd have seen it coming, Wendy! "My nemesis maybe, but not my enemy."

[nopixiedust]

She can kick your ass, Edge!! Shown by more of her laughter, even as she tries to keep her fingers steady. She's already been having trouble getting these clothes fixed, so she really should concentrate. "Oh, a nemesis, huh? And what does that mean?"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"It means you're eternally trying to thwart me and crush my dreams, my hopes, my very soul!" Edge was not helping, with his overblown drama as he contrived to look mortally offended.

[nopixiedust]

Overblown drama means that she only has one course of action, and that's to look as completely cute and innocent as possible. For all the words that come out of her mouth, not to mention what she's just done, it's quite easy for her.

"Yup, that sounds about right!"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Edge rolled his eyes, though beneath his mask he was smiling. "You're lucky you're an adorable child or I'd dispatch ninja vassals after you to toss you in the dungeon I assume I have."

[nopixiedust]

"I'm an adorable child with an army of goats, both robots and otherwise." Her grin is unhindered and shameless. "So I feel pretty well protected against those ninja vassals of yours!"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Ha! I should say, you're adorable till you open your mouth!" Edge said, clearly needing to rephrase his alleged compliment. "I'll let them listen to you brat around for a couple of minutes and then nothing will dampen their determination."

[nopixiedust]

"People love me exactly because I open my mouth," she shoots back with zero hesitation. She is a god damn delight, thank you. "Besides, they can listen all they want, because that works out for me!"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"I didn't say we don't. I said you stop being adorable as soon as you do. And you make everyone want to lynch you at the same time." Edge folded his hands behind his head, supremely satisfied with his logic.

[nopixiedust]

"Nope!" Posing almost like an idol, she presses her fingertips to her cheeks. "More people love me than you'd think! I just keep telling you, you have horrible taste. One day you'll come to your senses."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"People can love you and still want to throttle you," Edge said pointedly. He kind of fell on that side of the scale, after all.

[nopixiedust]

"I only accept worship, sorry," she sing-songs, clearly not sorry at all. Her regrets are few and far between. Hibiki is lucky in that regard, because she is an entire drama theatre of trouble all on her own. "Anyway, have anything else to do? Because I'm trying to repair this jacket before it falls apart."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Urgh." Edge tilted his head left, then right, then rolled both his shoulders. The break had helped; he felt like he had some energy again. "Then I should get going too. I'm sure there's no end to the number of things a skilled ninja needs to attend to!"

[nopixiedust]

"Yeah, you were very helpful as an errand boy," Wendy shoots over before she can stop herself, because dammit this is a relationship built on mutual harassment and so she's no going to stop now. Still, her next words are a little less of a jab. "Try not to get caught up in another stampede or avalanche, or anything else you ran into out there."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"My pleasure! I was happy to help!" Sometimes the best antagonism was taking their words as a compliment. Besides, he HAD helped, and that was positive no matter the circumstances! "No promises on the second part though, it is crazy today."