thenearshore | 36 - Dragon Dance

Entry tags:

36 - Dragon Dance

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

The Stakeouts

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.)

Cult Clues

The Parade

The Pursuit

Mitsui Ryou

Cult Clues

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~

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Comment here if your character is staking out any of the cultists, and include the following information:

- Name of the cultist your character plans to stake out
- Date and time that the thread will be set (general time of day, such as "March 11, evening" is fine)

If your character is helping to chase down Mitsui Ryou, comment here with a link to the thread in which he's being pursued.

Please comment here to a link to any thread of 10 or more comments in which your character is helping with preparations for the parade or helping deal with the disaster, including fighting the ayakashi.

Gods will receive 200 followers and shinki will receive 20 exp for each thread.

the festival i
[ Sure there's a lot to investigate regarding the reasons for why things keep happening (it's probably amulets again, if he were to hazard a guess), but Obi is more interested in fixing things for the time being. He's pretty decent with a needle and he can repair at least less intricate instruments.

He fixes a torn happi (at some point he's gotten his own, even) and holds it up to inspect his work together with the owner. He fixes a drum and bops it to test the sound before handing it to the owner for them to assess the sound.

This is actually fun, way more fun than investigating.

Need something fixed? Need to borrow a needle? Want to help out as well? Pay Obi a visit, he'll be happy to engage. ]

the festival ii
[ Come one come all! Obi has found a set of leather balls and other assorted things and because he enjoys entertaining people on occasion, he can at some point find him juggling first leather balls and then small paper balls with dexterity and a few acrobatic elements, happi sleeves flailing and scarf threatening to either slip off or strangle him. ]

the parade
[ So Obi may not be entirely interested in stopping the fights..Not very much, at least. So he sits perched on a high point, just watching like a little shit. What? They're not at the point of trying to kill each other..yet. So it's fine, it's fine.

So there he sits, in a tree or something with some food in a bag, casually just observing, like it's got nothing to do with him. ]

the festival
[ When are these sort of things going to stop happening? It would be better if the old gods just admitted the little kids as gods like proper adults ought to, but he can't say it to their face. They'll probably flip.

He doesn't want people to get sick but honestly? He's getting tired of it and maybe if enough people went on strike and didn't help out, then maybe, though it was unlikely, the Heavens might actually take notice of their faults.

So D2 is on strike from searching for a cause and instead is either helping people solve their bad luck problem, cheering sick children up, and trying games and checking out souvenirs.

You bet he's going to find every single one of the shooting games and win prizes. This is his forte we're talking about, after all.

They're going to run out of prizes if he doesn't get pulled away from there at some point. ]

the parade
[ 'Son of a bitch..' he mutters, though it's in Hawaiian and 'kanapapiki' may not be understood by anyone but him. This sure is chaos. D2 actually has absolutely zero interest in helping the Heavens. They're incompetent and in a serious need for a complete overhaul, but they refuse to see it.

But he can't very well let people get badly hurt, so he'll at least try to do something.. People under the influence of ayakashi wouldn't really just calm down just like that though, and he can't kill ayakashi on his own. ]

Tie 'em up until things blow over... Maybe...? Umm..

[ Meanwhile, Jen has no opinion yet on the Heavens (she only just got here, you see) but she sure as heck has an opinion on innocent people getting hurt, and that opinion is they shouldn't. ]

They could hurt themselves. [ Struggling, with all that ayakashi-induced anger... ] Unless we put borderlines up to fence them in?

[ Jen you're a noob will your borderline really hold that long. She can cast lines but... this is way too many people for two shinki to handle. ]

Or maybe we can tire them out by making them chase us.

[ Slightly better plan, Jen. ]

Snatcher and Aymeric will be staking out Oota Saburo on March 13, Afternoon-Evening.

A: The Festival -- If you want something done right...

[The music is terrible. Why is the music so terrible? Aren't people who perform at these big, important events supposed to actually be good at their jobs?]

[He's pretty sure he just saw a drumstick go flying past his head]

[Somehow, it's still tolerable. Barely, but he's managing. Until he catches ear of a familiar sound: someone's playing the cello. Badly. And he's not sure if it's because the instrument is out of tune or if the player is trying to squeak and squeal everyone's eardrums to death.]

[There's only one thing he can do.]

[Festival-going residents of the Far Shore may notice a man in all black, his head bowed and face hidden by a large, wide-brimmed hat playing the cello. The music, Toccata in D Minor, doesn't fit the atmosphere at all, but damn if it isn't being played well.]

B: The Parade -- Putting a stop to hilarity

[It is with the utmost reluctance that Snatcher has deigned to help this fine noon. If it were up to him, he'd start holding bets--10:1 on the angle biter there, 5:1 on the repressed housewife--but alas. Duty calls.]

[The things he does for a promotion]

Watch your feet!

[It's all the warning that your character gets before Snatcher zips past, spacing out circles of black thorns in his wake. One of the festival-goers steps into its center without knowing and is immediately trapped within a circle of magic, separated from the man he was fighting with, who looks around wildly in search of the quarantined partier.]

You get stuck in one, it's your own fault!

C: The Near Shore Five-O [Locked to Aymeric]

[From all the books he'd read, he would have thought stakeouts would be more interesting. A secret drug trade here, selling of government secrets there, that sort of thing. Instead he's just been watching a guy go through his daily life and perform charming acts of familial domesticity that made his non-existent stomach turn.]

You're absolutely sure this is the guy?

A - Festival

This isn't a festival under Ebisu's jurisdiction- those were all done with back in January thank goodness. However, he's also a little bit worried about how this festival will fare. With recent events such as the shenanigans on New Years, the strange occurrence with the dolls not that long ago, and Amaterasu's own declaration of intent... Well. Best to be cautious.

So many of his shinki can be found running around doing all manners of things to help out: repairing costumes, tuning drums, all of the practical things which require some amount of skill.

Ebisu can't do any of that, for a couple of reasons. (One of them being that he's a child.) However, he does seem to be attending to some of the children, putting one tiny hand over their eyes as he speaks quietly to them. "It'll be alright. Nothing has happened yet, right? You shouldn't get worried over something that hasn't happened yet. You'll deal with it when it happens, and not a moment sooner. Just remember to breathe." He spots someone familiar from the Far Shore, and, perking up, waves one hand.

"Oh, excuse me! Could you go get me something?"

B - Parade

Well. Something has happened. Now,they have to deal with it.

The moment they see that something is happening to the shrine, Kunimi propels Ebisu's body upwards to a higher vantage point... Just in time to witness the masked ayakashi bubble out from the cracked shrine. Ebisu's eyes go wide- not from his own recognition, necessarily, but from the spike of feeling that he gets from those of his shinki who have seen what he's just seen.

That decides it.

With the simple call of a name, Ebisu summons Kiwami into his hands as a reliable fishing pole. None of the others are suited for battle right now, after all, so he'll do his best to keep his distance. As he bound over there, however, he calls to any familiar Far Shore faces.

"Please! Don't destroy it just yet- don't destroy the mask! We need to get it away from here!"

C - Pursuit

Combat, especially such delicate combat with a purpose, isn't something that a god of commerce or water is suited for. However, when he hears Amaterasu's shinki, Ebisu tears himself away from the fray to see what's going on. Once he spots their target, he immediately rears Kiwami back and sends his hook flying. Yet even when the hook snags into the man's clothing, Ebisu still has to pursues.

Kiwami's line has its limits, after all, and he has to keep up if he wants to keep tracking.

"Um, excuse me!" People are certainly welcome to help the tiny god bounding through the crowd and along buildings, if they want to. Or perhaps their paths are simply intersecting. It doesn't really matter. Ebisu is just looking around, letting Kunimi take the wheel on movement.

If he could find Takami and call him, then it would be so much easier to catch up...!

With two of his shinki looking into volcano shenanigans, some of his other shinki working on this festival thing, and the rest of his shinki just... being a part of his temple, Ebisu can't spare a lot of people for this... But he can spare a couple!

So he'll have Takami keep an eye out on Imai Takeru from the day after Amaterasu's meeting to March 16, to get a better idea of his schedule and just what the heck is going on there.

In more present matters... He's pursuing Mitsui! If he loses him, we can assume he just got too far for the line... but you bet I'm prepared for horse times if RNG favors me lmao.

Festival
[With as large and crowded as the festival is, it's inevitable a few children get separated from their parents or group. With a soft spot for children and a distinctive look, Irisviel finds herself helping out lost children. Sensing the weird sense of someone from the Far Shore nearby, Irisviel waves and calls out, a young child clinging to her hand.]

Excuse me! Do you have a moment?

Parade 1
Over here, I can help with healing! Hurry!

[To anyone injured or helping someone injured, Irisviel waves them down. She's set up just out of reach of the lashing tentacles, a borderline in front for additional safety. Fighting is not her specialty, but she can heal and defend and will do what she can as chaos rolls around her.]

Parade 2
[A fight breaks out near Irisviel's location, an ugly brawl that draws more and more people in. Despite her best efforts to shield herself, a stray blow catches her on the back of the head and knocks her to the ground. Dazed, Irisviel balls up to try to avoid getting trampled in the pressing crowd, looking around to try to find a safe spot to hide at.]

[Ginia is already only her way to a shooting gallery game when she spots D2 there. She offers a friendly wave and smile to him before getting the stand owner's attention and paying for a round.

First shot is to figure out the overall power of the cork gun, the second to hone in the shot. Shots three through five? It's very clear Ginia's from her aim and shooting posture she's a very good shot. When she finishes and wins her prize, she immediately pays into another round.

To the current person running the shooting game stand, well... sorry?]

[With no sewing skills of her own and unable to find anyone from her temple in all the chaos around, Ginia looks frantically for someone that looks like they can sew. She spots Obi as he's finishing up a happi and hurries over with one draped over her arm.

Waving and whistling to get his attention, Ginia pulls out her phone and speedily types up a message, holding up for him to read.]

Sorry, have a moment to help with more sewing?

Ginia has an odd assortment of fine skills under her belt, but as it turns out, none of them are really along the lines of repairing things. With the high stakes around the festival, it's no time for a crash course in drum repair or sewing. That doesn't mean she's useless though; Aomi and Unmi can handle the finer repairs, she's okay grabbing tools for them or running finished items back to their owners.

Or right now, putting her height and muscles to work by holding up a new crossbeam on a stall so Aomi and Unmi can finish hammering it in. You're welcome, gentlemen.

Ebisu is a child, Ebisu is a god, and sometimes one matters more than the other. Ginia is making her rounds, checking with her fellow shinki and her gods to see who needs help at the moment. She smiles as she watches Ebisu and the children, comforting them in the way only a fellow child could. Happy at the sight and proud of her god, the emotion is a burst of warmth.

As he addresses her, Ginia bows her head and produces her phone.

"Of course. What do you want me to get?"

[Irisviel is enjoying the festival when she comes by Obi's performance. She gasps and claps her hands together, entranced by the balls flying effortlessly through the air and Obi's dexterity.]

You're very good!

[She calls out when she finishes, as giddy as the children that have gathered to watch too.]

Festival I
[As bad luck begins spreading through the festival grounds, Ginia sets to work looking for curse charms and/or ayakashi. A flask in hand, she wets her fingers and sprinkles blessed water onto festival stands, the musical instruments, and even on people as they pass by. She also looks for any hard to reach corners or areas someone might have tucked a curse charm into.]

Festival II
[When sprinkling water fails to flush out any ayakashi and the problems persist, Ginia turns her focus on helping how she can. She may not have the knowledge to help with sewing or repairing drums, but she can run items between people and help with heavy lifting. Stand frames need to be held in place as someone connects posts in? Large banners to tie into place? Those she can help with.

And once in awhile, Ginia can be seen folding origami flowers or animals for children, creating little good luck charms for them.]

Festival III
[Cat or fox... Ginia stares intently at two different traditional masks at a stand, a small frown as she tries to decide. Cat... or fox... or maybe another mask?

Second opinion time. Looking around, Ginia spots someone she knows and waves them down, holding up the cat mask and the fox mask. Well?]

Parade
[The sensible thing is to find one of her gods and team up to help rend the ayakashi. Ginia does not often do the sensible thing, but mostly because Ginia isn't one to often run from a fight. She slams down a borderline to block a lashing limb as she stares at the mask.

First, if someone tries to pin this on Ebisu again, there's going to be hell to pay.

Second, looks like whoever was creating masked ayakashi months ago is still around.

Third, what are the chances she can get a hold of the mask?

Ginia slashes at the tentacles with borderline attacks, bracing her own barrier against herself so she can launch off it and attack from above. She has no delusions about rending it herself, but at least she can help keep it at bay until she can meet up with any of her gods or someone who can rend comes along.]

[A - The Festival]

[Tsubasa Kazanari makes an excellent performer and fantastic security. Getting things organized, though? Maybe with specific instructions, and proper supervision, sure. Anything that involves keeping an organized space of any sort? ... It's probably realized she should just monitor things. Or, you know. "Supervise."

Rather than embarrass herself too much however, she does keep a lookout for anything amiss while trying to take in the sights and mingle where possible. Or where capable, with how her personality tends to function. She definitely takes note that there seems to be an ... unusual amount of mishaps going on, but she can't detect a specific source. Maybe she's just paranoid.

She's sure been paranoid since her first day here. Still, one will find her looking mostly impassive at most things, trying not to really draw attention to herself. Which kind of just makes her look more conspicuous, honestly.]

[The Parade]

[Of course, things can't just be a little chaotic. A little bad luck here and there is ONE thing, this is something else altogether. As she sees the shrine falling towards the crowd, she finds her feet moving under her before she can think, a red jewel flashing in one hand.

Guess this answers the question about how "secret" she was planning on keeping her particular gifts.]

Imyuteus Ame no Habakiri tron~!

[The hauntingly quiet melody from her lips is quickly followed by a massive burst of light around her body and armor snapping onto her form. Propulsion bursts from her leg armor, careening her straight into the path of the people in harm's way, bodily shoving them out of the way. It happens so fast, she can't yet sing to raise her Phonic Gain, and perhaps dispose of the danger herself, so she just resorts to ... pushing. Not very elegant, but you do what you have to do.

That said she's not expecting the resulting thing to emerge from it. It's her first encounter with an ayakashi, and she's... reminded of Noise from her own world. Disturbingly so, but it's not enough to make her falter, as a song rises in her heart and begins to be sung aloud.

Of course, she can't even be sure her own Shinki is handy. If she can't spy Rita, she already knows she's going to have a lot of trouble even making any headway, but she also knows she's not the only one there. Should she be unable to harm the ayakashi itself, she'll resort to trying to break up the fighting humans, or get the more sane ones away from this mess.]

[C - The Pursuit]

[However that pans out, her ears catch the shouts of Mitsui Ryou escaping, the white-robed Shinki crying for him to be stopped.

She curses inwardly. Her trust of things is very thin, but if there's a chance of nailing down a cause to it, she can't very well let it escape, especially when chasing someone is something she's very well equipped for, regardless of whether or not she has a Shinki handy herself.

Jets ignite to give her a brief burst into the air, and she takes off in the direction of the fleeing man, clearing over the heads of whatever's left of the crowd and bounding across structures once she lands.]

[The string of bad luck around this place is palpable. It sticks out. Even to Tsubasa. She just saw someone trip face first over their own feet into the dirt, and upon helping the poor man up, another person came around the corner and tripped over both of them. The woman would have went flying if Tsubasa wasn't fast enough to catch her, which she was, but this was already beginning to seem like a lot of plates to be spinning all at once.

Getting her head together, she begins to move towards the musical performances. That should at least be calming, and it's worth it to observe. In the days since she's been here, she's not really had the time or place to think much on her own music, besides her discussion with Hibiki.

Or at least, she goes to where it's supposed to be, as she hears a shout from nearby.]

What do you mean she's SICK?! [Tsubasa looks up. It's a man, clearly an organizer of some sort.] That girl was supposed to go up in twenty minutes! How am I supposed to replace a singer on such short notice?! [He grouses and stomps off back behind a curtain, and Tsubasa just stares for a long few moments.

She purses her lips then, a (probably off-center) lightbulb flashing over her head. She turns away from the performance area and scans the crowds, phone slipping into her hand. Now where had Chris gone off to...]

Edited 2019-01-02 07:45 (UTC)

[A: The Stakeouts]

[Given his very public argument with Amaterasu about her lack of decisive handling of the humans involved here, Shun will be staking out the cultists in the lead-up to the festival. Options here are:

i. Oota Saburo, March 9th, Evening-Night
ii. Maeda Shinnosuke, March 10th, Late Afternoon-Evening
iii. Mitsui Ryou, March 11th, Afternoon
iv. Shimoda Tsuki, March 12th, Morning-Early Afternoon
v. Imai Takeru, 13th-18th, Evening-Night for the 13th/14th, Afternoon for 15th/16th, Morning for 17th/18th

He'll likely be somewhere somewhat nearby but out of sight, as he's been caught staking out by humans dabbling in magic before, and may approach other people on stakeout to ask how much they know about the situation or how long/frequently they've been staking out.]

--

[B: The Parade]

[While Shun does stake out the morning of the festival, he gets back to it just before the afternoon. He has a sneaking suspicion that the proceedings aren't going to go off without a hitch considering how things have been recently, and sure enough, not long after he gets back is when the festival breaks into disaster.

He recognises the mask - he's defeated one of these ayakashi before, but it wasn't nearly as large as this one - but he doubts Kotori is going to be able to do much to it in her cracked state, even though he has her vessel form with him. So for the moment, he's moving between searching for his one remaining other shinki, and dealing with the violent humans by...swiftly knocking them out with single hits to pressure points that leave them crumpling to the ground in his wake. Where the tentacles lash out towards more humans, he summons a few of his red, blade-covered robotic birds to slash at and deter the strikes from affecting more people.]

It's been a long time since I've seen one of these things... [His eyes are on the mask. He got rid of the previous one he got hold of as soon as he'd managed to get a little information out of it, but it's not a hard design to recognise.]

--

[C: The Pursuit | Open to first two tag-ins only]

[As soon as Shun catches sight of someone moving fast in his peripheral vision, he turns his head towards the motion. It only takes him a moment to recognise Mitsui Ryou, and he leaps from whatever else he's doing at the time to pursue the man, speed impressive and focus intent on the target.]

Maybe if we drag this bastard back, Amaterasu might actually figure out that she's prioritising the wrong targets.

[There's something bitter about his tone, but Shun's default state of being in combat is operating on anger and bitterness, so it's probably a good thing.]

--

[D: Wildcard]

[[Feel free to hit me up at

reviseleviathan for other ideas!]]

[ Well she has come to the right person. He's not the fashion police or anything but he can still do well enough for this sort of thing.

Oh, a sort-of-familiar face! (But that's usually the case, you tend to see faces around even when you don't talk to them.) ]

Sure! I have lots of time for it. That's what I'm here for right now~

[ Obi sweeps into a deep and comical bow as he gathers the paper balls, now flattened after the wrap of his routine, between his fingers, and he grins cheerfully. ]

Thank you, thank you! I'm always happy to entertain!

[ But the fringes of the crowd is already forgetting. Not that they watched an entertaining performance, but the person performing it. ]

[ The Heavens seem prone to some collateral, if that would help. This fight they're putting up against the inevitable is part of the reason for this whole ordeal. ]

They could. But also each other. [ Borderlines sounds like a good idea though. And D2 is talented with those things. He assumes she might not be. She also isn't familiar to him so he can guess the reason. ] How about both?

[ He waves back inbetween shots. While he unloads the rest of his round where he wants them to go for the prizes that he wants, he observes her behavior with the cork gun. Her palms betrayed her before, but it's good to learn a bit more of others.

He pays for another round for himself, and slips a dented cork between his fingers and into the gun. ]

You're good.

Ain and his soulless shinki will be watching Mitsui Ryou on March 9, using Ain's native floating eyes.

The Festival

["Agh!" comes the cry of an aggrieved vendor, as the front of his booth abruptly sags. He flings his arm up reflexively to cover his face, but nothing crashes to the ground, and after a moment he peeks over his sleeve to see the wooden slats teetering at a precarious angle.]

[Grumbling about needing to fix it all, he stomps off, never noticing the shinki who's holding up the booth so it doesn't smash and crack. This -- hadn't been what Dust had expected.]

...I hope he comes back sooner rather than later...

The Parade

[Ayakashi.]

[Is it wrong for him to be happy, here?]

[Well, leave such questions and guilt for a later time. Well aware that he really can do very little against an ayakashi alone, Dust leaps into battle nonetheless, the Blade of Ahrah cutting arcs through the air with phenomenal force. As ever, he is a tornado of destruction, whirling around the monster on the ground and through the air, light and agile.]

[But far from perfect. A tentacle slips past his guard, knocking him back with a powerful slap that sends him skidding across the ground before he rolls to his feet. When he gets back up, his left arm quivers slightly when he uses it for support, and a hint of blight crawls up his jaw from beneath his collar on that side.]

[Never mind. Back into the fray.]

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36 - Dragon Dance

Cult Clues

Event Rewards

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parade

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Festival

Festival I

Festival - take one

Festival - take two

Festival ii

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[Festival, closed to Chris Yukine]

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