009 | Where Your Demons Hide

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Emergency demon fighting
When: Late May 5-Early May 6
Where: Just outside of Tokyo
Summary: The demon from the school has reared its ugly head again and needs to be taken down.



On the evening of May 5, the Heavens suddenly receive an influx of prayers from people in and around a certain town just outside of Tokyo. There seem to be a lot of people in the area that have suddenly stopped responding normally (or at all). The situation continues to spread as the night goes on until not only is the whole town suffering from this malady, but the neighboring towns are starting to become affected as well.

With so many gods and shinki on hand - including new ones that have just appeared - the Heavens have issued a request for any available gods and shinki to go investigate what might be happening down on the Near Shore. New gods and shinki will be given the low-down on what's happening, but not much more than that.

The situation will continue to expand until just a little before dawn, when the demon finally has enough power to revive.



Drained Humans

Many humans in the affected areas are walking around despondently. Oftentimes, they are just walking into things or getting hit by things. There have been a few car-related incidents as well. Anyone who was present for the high school incident will recognize these symptoms as something that was happening to people in the school. The glazed looks, the spiritless responses and reactions. So this should be fairly familiar to some.

No One's Safe

Unfortunately, being in the town will start to wear on anyone who is there. Gods and shinki alike will find themselves growing more despondent the longer they spend in the town. All of their energy will be slowly sapped from their bodies, and shinki in particular will feel almost like their existence is draining away.

Hellish Circle

There is a large park in the center of the town. Drawn all around this park is a magic circle, large enough to encompass the whole park. There are candles around the edges of the circle, and in the center there is a cup filled with blood covered by a mask with a swirling eye pattern on it. Stepping into this circle will not only make you extremely tired and suddenly drained, but it will also bring bat-like ayakashi bearing down on you.

The Demon

The Demon itself rears its ugly head just a little before dawn, springing out from the center of the magic circle and looking right pleased with itself. It stands about 5'8" tall, so it is largely unimposing, but there is an aura about it that makes it undeniable that it is powerful. The demon will gladly fight anyone who comes at it, though most he will just shove out of the way without a second thought.



In Summary:

• Help the drained people
• Try not to get drained yourself
• Be careful about being corrupted
• Fight the demon
• Have fun~

Comments

[somebodysdaughter]

i. Closed to Ouka Sakaki

[Nothing makes sense any more.

[She'd been lying on her side on wet asphalt. There'd been a ringing in her ears, the roar of flame, and her body aching all over as she dragged herself to her feet. Her yukata had been soaked, her hair had smelled of smoke and she'd lost her shoes and her parents were, mama and papa-- they had been - they were gone and she'd been standing in the road and she couldn't find Ran, where was Ran, where was he? And light in her eyes and her heart in her throat, and her brother's voice calling out her name.

[It only hurts for a moment--

[And that's it. That's where it ends.

[Then - then dreams, she thinks. Smoke. Voices. She hears Ran, hers him talking comforting nonsense, but the words rush over and into one another, meaningless as the churn and bubble of water. And women's voices, and music, and she walks down a tunnel for what feels like hours and the walls slip away and splinter into stars, and then she's falling, tumbling head over heels while someone plays Erik Satie on an unseen piano, and Aya sees her mother but her mother, of course, is dead. A white room, endless and featureless, and a pyramid of white and black boxes, but the floor is water, and she is dragged under and how strange, she forgets she's supposed to be scared. Morpheus, someone says, and Aya thinks, but of course. Morpheus, the dreamer.

[And now she's here.

[Aya's feet are bare, but the pavement is dry. She stands in a street she can't recognize, in someone else's pajamas, and there's something hard and unfamiliar pressed against her palm and when she opens it she finds one of her birthday earrings, just one, and no sign anywhere of its twin. Her fingers feel stiff, like they don't want to move right; her legs don't quite seem used to her weight any more, and she stumbles over to a long, low wall and sits down, her head spinning, as she tries to make some kind of sense of - of anything, of what she has just lived through, of what she is living through now. She feels dizzy, winded, in freefall; too shocked and too dazed to cry. Where's Ran? Where's anybody?

[Someone, she thinks finally, must know what's going on.]

*

ii. Drained Humans

[They wander, and Aya wanders with them - dazed, bewildered, her steps as slow and dragging as theirs. In a funny kind of way it's almost comforting, to know she's not the only one who feels so lost and out of it. Her legs, as she walks, are aching, as if unaccustomed to the effort of holding herself up; she stumbles, unsteady as a toddler, as a cartoon drunk. Where's Ran, she wonders - she's heard his voice, heard him call to her, but she's searched and searched and found nothing. More to the point, where in the world is she? There has to be somewhere around here she recognizes.

[If only someone knew what was going on. Aya's - well, she's tried getting someone's attention, but nobody she's met so far looks any more up to a conversation than she feels. And that's confusing, and it's frightening, and she's starting to feel like some kind of ghost--

[Someone has to know what's happening to her. They have to.]

Um... excuse me? I-- I think I'm lost. Can't somebody--

[Nothing. Nothing at all, and she's starting to feel like an idiot for trying. Oh, God-- Aya is lost and she's frightened and she wants to go home, and she doesn't even know where that is.]

Can anybody hear me?

*

iii. Hellish Circle

[And there's a park, and that's all wrong too.

[To a confused sixteen-year-old, wandering the streets in a pair of pajamas she knows she's never owned, the sight of the park is bad enough. There'd been rain, there'd been light, there'd been the squeal of tires - and now she's dry as a bone, and dazed, and frightened, and hopelessly lost. All that before the circles and the candle call themselves to her attention, and maybe a million years ago she'd been at a festival, but this doesn't look like any kind of a celebration to her. If she hadn't been near panic before, that's enough to tip her over the edge.

[Aya screams. She stares in horror at the cup, the eye, the blood. She stumbles backward. She's had all she can take for one evening, and she wants to go home.]

Ran!

ii

[fullcowl]

[Izuku's out and doing his best to help these people who are walking aimlessly, resigned to whatever might happen to them. He can't pinpoint the location of the ayakashi or whatever is doing this to people, but he can at least keep them out of harm's way.

He pauses when he hears somebody ask for help.]

I can hear you. Where do you need to go?

[somebodysdaughter]

[Aya starts. Her head snaps up; she gazes wildly around herself. Oh, thank goodness--

[It's a boy, she realizes. Untidy hair, freckles, about her age. She doesn't care. He can hear her, he wants to help, and she's so ridiculously grateful for it that she could almost start crying.]

You can?

[She stumbles forward, hurrying over to him. Please don't go anywhere--!]

Where is this? What's going on?

[fullcowl]

[Whoa, okay. She's just arrived then, he looks a little worried. Did they really just throw people into the situation without giving them a proper mission briefing again?]

This is Japan. It seems like people are acting strangely and we're here to investigate, and keep them from getting hurt.

[somebodysdaughter]

But... this isn't Tokyo?

[Well, at least she's still in Japan. Aya laughs briefly, breathlessly, because she knows that if she doesn't she's going to do something much, much worse, something she simply can't afford to right now. God, and she's wearing pajamas pajamas. She's who knows where, talking to who knows who, even the clothes she stands up in aren't up to the job--

[At least that bit made sense. The rest of it?]

We're what? How? You mean we can't just go home?

iii

[asklepian]

[Julian can smell the blood in that cup, and it's making him incredibly uneasy. Not that he hasn't smelled blood before, he's a doctor, a surgeon no less, but in the middle of a sinister circle in a park?

No, he's just genre savvy enough to know where this is going, and that's nowhere good.

Which is just as well, because by avoiding the circle, he saw other people who stumbled into it suddenly take a knee and find themselves beset by shrieking bat-creatures. No, thank you. He'll just stay at the periphery and warn people away.

The young girl catches his attention, because it looks like she's just shy of falling over, and he doesn't want to see her hurt--he'd rather not see anyone hurt.

She calls a name, unfamiliar to him, but no one comes running so whoever this Ran is, he's probably nowhere near.]

It's alright. Come on, let's sit you down over here.

[He tries to gently guide her away from what looks like a grisly human sacrifice/murder scene waiting to happen.]

[somebodysdaughter]

Ah--!

[Aya had always thought that turning sixteen would make her terribly grown-up.

[She doesn't think she's been gladder to see an adult in her life.

[Which is about as much as she notices, for now: the stranger looks nice, he sounds kind and concerned, but more important than any of that is the simple fact that he's a man and maybe it;s silly but oh, how much safer he makes her feel! Of course he can lead her away. Wound-up and strung-out as she is, she slumps slightly as Julian guides her back, her eyes falling closed as her breath hitches in her throat. Oh, but she feels small and stupid and completely helpless; she wants to go home, she wants her mother.]

Oh God. Oh, my God. What's going on?

[Don't cry. Don't cry, Aya.

[It would be so much easier to be brave if only she had her shoes.]

[asklepian]

[He can sense, oddly, the adrenaline coursing through her--aside from seeing the physical signs of stress, those are glaringly obvious and he's been able to read them for years, now it seems he can literally feel the cocktail of stress hormones in her blood.

It's so very strange. He pushes the feeling away, concentrating on getting her away from the circle.]

I'm not entirely sure, I'm afraid. It'll be alright, though.

[He thinks.

Working on instinct--and isn't that odd, with something that he just became capable of--he starts tweaking the cortisol and adrenaline in her system, hastening the dissipation of the stress hormones and therefore helping her calm down. He's not even really aware he's doing it.]

I'm Doctor Bashir--Julian, if you'd rather.

[somebodysdaughter]

[It's funny, but just being near this man makes Aya feel slightly calmer. Nothing's changed, nothing at all: she's still lost and alone, she's still confused and fearful, but it just - it doesn't seem to scare her so much, somehow. Her head feels clearer, her breathing evens out and maybe the world's gone crazy, but it's still the right way round. He tells her it will be okay, and she believes it.

[She manages a smile. It's small and it's shaky, but it's a smile, and her head's on straight enough she can at least remember her manners.]

Aya. Aya Fujimiya. It's nice to meet you, Doctor--

[It's what? Aya is falling back on routine and, when her brain catches up with her mouth, she giggles. Nice to meet you. Can you still say that, when there are dead-eyed strangers stumbling through the streets and - and whatever's going on behind her, when there's nothing and nobody you recognize and everything's falling apart?]

Uh - this is going to sound weird, but... were you somewhere else before this?

Drained Humans

[volksdaemon]

[Well isn't this just the most precious thing! He never expected, of all people, to see her again. He's currently still interested in trying to keep his profile low until the demon shows up, so he notices that all she seems to want is for someone to notice that she's calling to them.

Fine, he can oblige that.

Schuldig grabs all ten of the people immediately surrounding Aya and has them stare right at her. They don't move, they just form a loose circle where there was just a slow-moving crowd before. They wait for some kind of cue, it seems, before pressing in closer as well. Then closer... closer...

From across the street in his hiding place, Schuldig chuckles to himself aloud.]

And the minute she bolts - bam, chase scene.

[somebodysdaughter]

[But she's still dreaming. She has to be.

[Nightmarish enough, before adding any of the refinements. Dragging through streets both familiar and alien, surrounded by strangers who walk at the same dull pace; the growing feeling of alienation, of panic, of complete and total helplessness; of calling out unheard, and wanting to run on limbs grown too heavy and too weak, almost, to hold her up. Nightmarish enough, and then the people surrounding her lurch like puppets and turn on the spot, turn to stare at her, their eyes blank and empty. Aya screams, and at least that comes out right--

[But when they press in, when she tries to run after all - that's when it all breaks down. Because Aya's legs won't hold her, because her limbs are too weak after all. Because her too-stiff muscles scream in protest, because her head swims and she stumbles, she loses her footing and she falls, barking her hands on the tarmac.

[There's blood, but that's not the problem. The problem is that it hurts.]

[volksdaemon]

[She's so petite that it's easy to take the next step. The screams.... they weren't nearly as loud when she'd been comatose and only silent-screaming her way through that possession business.

So he uses the collective strength of the people to lift her up into the air. There's no impolite touching because really there's no point, he's going to terrify her well enough as is - one on each arm, one on each leg, and one lifting by the base of her neck and upper back.

They start to carry her in an arbitrary direction, he doesn't even care. At one point though a car swerves to avoid the swarm of people as they cross traffic - but it's at the last second.]

[oneblackcat]

[The scream catches his attention first. It's practically second nature at this point to go running towards such a clear cry of distress. It sounds like a girl, is all he thinks initially-- and then he sees her, carried overhead by a mob, and for the life of him he cannot fathom what in the world they think they're doing...!]

Put her down!

[He teleports in close the next second, up to the front of the crowd, staring them down in challenge. Maybe they'll listen and maybe they won't, but he's ready to fight them if it comes down to it.

For now, he hasn't gotten a good enough look at the girl to know more than she's in pajamas.]

ii

[eternalshield]

Not to worry, not to worry, missy!

[Zeno can see her getting pulled along by the crowd, so he just-- ducks-- through-- between-- and. There you are. He reaches out and latches on to Aya's arm with both hands, and pulls her away from the masses, into a side alley.

And shines his brightest smile on her.]

You were getting a little carried away there. Zeno will have to ask you to rest here for a while, because Zeno can't go wading in there after you again! Not for a while.

[somebodysdaughter]

[Sometimes, the best thing you can do about a situation is let it happen to you.

[Maybe Aya still doesn't know what to do next, but clearly the newcomer does and she's not about to argue with him. She lets the stranger - a boy, not much older than her but about a million times more confident than she could ever feel right now - lead her away from the crowd and into the mouth of an alleyway, and if there's one thing to be said about the place it certainly feels a lot safer.]

Thank you. [She returns the smile, a little awkwardly.] I... well, I don't really know where I'm going, actually, so I suppose here is as good as anywhere.

[It's considerably better than out there.]

[eternalshield]

Someone needs to scold the gods of this land. They call it "Japan," and the head god is named Amaterasu, so far as Zeno has been told.

[This is all new information to him, so he imparts it to her, just in case.]

New gods and shinki show up at regular intervals... so of course it's always like this when they do. Zeno has only been here a little bit longer than missy, and already Zeno knows that.

[somebodysdaughter]

You're not from Japan?

[It's... something, Aya supposes, to know that she's not as far away from home as the stranger is. It brings her problems into perspective, at least a little, even if it is only by pointing out that they could stand to be a lot larger. Oh, why is this so confusing?

[The rest of it isn't as surprising as it should be. The patterns are too familiar for that.]

Does it - I mean, I've never seen anything like this before! Does it really happen that often?

WOW LETS TRY THIS AGAIN *WHEEZE*

[savemeomi]

[ She's dead.

There's a dull pain in the small of her back, and she almost feels as though that is supposed to be significant in some way. But she doesn't dwell on it. Doesn't want to.

Where is she? How did she get here? Why... she doesn't want to dwell on that, either.

Ouka. Her name is Ouka. Ouka Sakaki... that, she does know. And it's comforting. It's reassuring. Amidst all the panic and confusion, at least she knows her name.

Panic... Ouka supposes she has plenty of reasons to panic, but this panic feels strange. It is almost as if there's someone else inside her. Someone calling out to her, feeling the same level of panic.

She looks around her, and her gaze settles on a the silhouette of a girl. A stranger in odd pajamas, and yet... there's something familiar about her. Ouka takes a step forward.

Then another.

And another.

Before she knows it, she breaks into a run. As she closes the distance between her and the girl, she can feel her panic grow.

She stops a few feet in front of that strange girl. Stares.

She's supposed to be here. They're supposed to meet. But why? ]

[somebodysdaughter]

[Aya isn't feeling any better, which is a problem. That - well, that was the idea, wasn't it? To rest for a little, to catch her breath and get her bearings, at least enough that she can keep walking for long enough to find Ran, or her - or something she recognizes, or someone, anyone who might know what's going on. Enough that she's had time to calm down, at least a little, but her heart's in her throat and nausea gnaws at her stomach, and the panic doesn't want to give an inch, which is why she's still sitting there when the girl runs over.

[Just like that. Just runs over, like someone who's spotted an old friend they haven't seen in months, and is afraid they'll vanish altogether if they don't get there fast. Aya starts at the sound of her footsteps; she raises her head and finds herself looking at - at nobody, really, at a girl of about her own age, a pretty, trim, well-dressed teenager whose hair does what she wants it to. She meets the girl's eyes, just long enough to understand that she's staring at a stranger...

[That's all it takes.

[For a long, horrible moment, Aya isn't seeing the girl at all.

[Night. A park. The girl, the dark-haired stranger with the expensive clothes, is slumped on the ground; she is weeping. A boy - fair hair, blue eyes - is holding her, he is trying to comfort her. All about them figures dart and stagger, the figures of men fighting. Strangers, she thinks for a moment, and for a moment she wonders why she's seeing this.

[Then she sees Ran.

[Aya hears herself gasp: then she hears the crack of fireworks, sees the girl's eyes go wide. Her body tenses, then her muscles go weak as water--

[Aya doesn't understand, and then she does. Gunfire. She heard gunfire: she saw the girl get shot. And now, oh, now she is watching her die. The boy is shaking her, his voice cracks as he calls her name and Ran (her own brother!) simply stands there. Out of the corner of her eye she sees a tall, red-haired foreigner spit a curse and turn to run and she knows - someone stop him! - that he did this. She wants to scream. She wants to be sick. She wants to run to her brother and scream at him to do something and she can't. She can't move. She can't speak. She can't do anything but watch this girl die...

[And then she dies, and then it's over.

[And then Aya's staring straight at a living dead girl, and she screams.]

[savemeomi]

[ It's as if she's seen a ghost.

And then, she's screaming. Ouka winces. That's not quite the kind of reaction someone wants. ]

Hey! What the heck?

[somebodysdaughter]

[Except she has to stop at some point, and the girl is still there.

[Still there, still whole, and staring straight at her like - well, like someone would stare at you, if they walked up to say Hello and you just started screaming. She's shocked and confused and a little insulted and of course she is, Aya, she probably thinks she's grown an extra head or something. How could she tell her, how could she ever find the words to tell this girl, I just saw you die--? she couldn't say that. She just couldn't. Aya didn't know how she knew, but she knew it as clearly as if it were her own name: she couldn't say a word. That if she did, it would doom this girl just as surely as bullets could ever have done.

[Far better to be the girl who screams at a stranger because - because of anything else. Because she matters, she is important, this girl she's never laid eyes on before matters to Aya just as much as her parents or her brother. She has to keep her safe--

[She has to keep her here.]

I... I'm sorry. I - I just... please don't go anywhere!

Drained Humans

[maskeddragon]

[Shin-ah is possibly not the most reassuring-looking person to answer a call for company and guidance, but he's who shows up regardless. Lost is something he can help with.

And so here he is, approaching wordlessly. And even though it makes him a bit nervous to do (and he still doesn't know why), he nods to the girl: yes, he can hear you.

And he just. Stands there...]

[somebodysdaughter]

[Well, you did say anybody--

[There's a man walking up to her, tall and savage-looking and covered in furs, his face half-covered by - it's a mask of some kind, with horns and blank eye sockets; bare, almost, as bone. Aya gasps as she realizes he is coming for her, she stops short, unsure if she should be running for him or as far from him as possible: and then he stops. He nods to her, and he simply stops walking, the bare black eyes of the mask locked onto her own and she, she realizes, has no idea what to do next.

[Go forward. Go back. He looks - she can't find the word, she settles for strange, and yet there's something about him that gives her pause, something that tells her to wait. No, here's help. You're not a child, to run from masks and fur. Appearance isn't everything, Aya.]

Um... hello?

[She'll hold her ground, for now.]

[maskeddragon]

[Words are hard.

But Shin-ah does realize he needs to say something here. She looks nervous, afraid. It makes him feel sad inside, that he has this effect. He has to make it right; he doesn't want her to feel those unpleasant things, especially because of him.]

Where do you want to go?

[His voice is soft, quiet. He's here to serve.]

[somebodysdaughter]

I--

[Wow.

[There should be an answer to the stranger's question, and there isn't. Just that, just where do you want to go, and Aya's catching herself doubting pretty much everything. Home? She can't go home. Even if - and it hits her like a physical blow, leaves her every bit as stunned and reeling - even if she could find it again and she's sure this is nowhere she's ever been before, home is a smoking ruin, it's a hole in the ground. And where else does she have to go, really? Maybe home is wherever Ran is, and she doesn't know where that would be either.

[Crying will do nothing. It won't help. She'll be lost and afraid and in tears, that's all, instead of just lost and afraid, and there'll be plenty of time for that later, when she's safe and safely alone. Aya steels herself. Just for a moment, she wishes she had a mask.]

I - there was a... a fire. I need to find somewhere I can stay.