jigokulogs | APRIL 2022 EVENT

APRIL 2022 EVENT

1. HANAMI

The week of the Night Parade is marked by the traditional symbols of Spring in Japan. Somehow, several city blocks have been turned into cherry blossom groves as a show of goodwill by the Sutoku Alliance. These cherry trees don't feel normal. They are more like spectral manifestations. Rumor has it they grew so quickly because they're planted on top of a graveyard. That's just a rumor, though. Don't pay it any mind! Don't listen to any whispers you might hear if you walk through the rows of trees alone and certainly don't dig under them for proof of their provenance.

Accompanying the hanami are copious amounts of food and drink. Such as dango, specialized bento, sake, and festive drinks. They are all available to purchase from stalls near the spectral grove. The refreshments may have a little something special added to them:
Ingredients that promote peace (calming any angry or upset feelings)
Ingredients that promote romance (gives soft, warm feelings towards the first person you see).
These effects are mild and only last as long as you're in the boundary of the grove. Eat, drink, and be merry with your fellow lost souls.

2. KANAMARA MATSURI (NSFW IMAGERY)

In addition to the simple joys of flower viewing and the cherry blossoms blooming, new festivals pop everywhere. They are inspired by various regional festivals from all over Japan. Some of these are benign and feature your normal festival fair. Others are a little more unusual, such as the Kanamara matsuri-inspired treats. You can thank the Tamamo Clan for this. Don't mind the giant phallus being carried down the street or the wooden phalluses you can ride on or the interesting mascots walking down the sidewalk, or the suggestive vegetable carvings.

Surprisingly, none of these foods are spiked, at least not more than the experimental recipes had been during the parade preparations. The spirit of the thing is more just the amusement of genital-based foods rather than anything meant to entice a sexy sort of good time. That will come as the parade rounds out onto the bath district...

3. HADAKA MATSURI

cw: nonsexual nudity

If that cheeky festival isn't your kind of fun, maybe the hadaka matsuri is more your speed. The Department of the Enma are probably the most stressed out faction in the entire city, so the Enma has allowed them to put on a festival to blow off some steam! It's a bit different from the traditional celebration: it's not contained to just men and it's not contained to a shrine.

This event is a mobile mob of nearly naked people and youkai running after a cart with a masked person throwing out small sticks. They represent good luck for the people who manage to nab them. There are far fewer sticks than there are people present and everyone will do a lot to get one of the coveted prizes. Try not to get in their way!

Or you can get caught up in it all and try to snag one yourself to see what your fortune holds. (No, the Enma isn't participating. Too dirty, for his tastes.)

4. FESTIVE FUN

A. SUMO
Some other festivities you might come across are miniature sumo tournaments put on by the Shuten Clan. Raised dirt circles with chalk rings on the outer perimeter pop up seemingly everywhere. Two people are allowed in the ring at one time and there are strict rules to be followed. If you disobey the rules, you may find yourself suddenly ejected from the ring with magical or physical means, and at the mercy of a Shuten enforcer.

Play by the rules to beat your opponent and victors will find themselves rewarded with a strong bottle of booze. The winners of each bout are handed out a commendation by Toraguma himself, which comes in the form of a commemorative sake gourd. This is probably the kind of prize you'd expect from an Oni at a festival like this.

B. FOOD RUNNERS WANTED
If you're in the mood to pad your pockets, maybe you want to help the Tamamo Clan out by running food delivery. This opportunity is available to anyone regardless of affiliation. Runners will be fitted with a contraption to carry the food orders on their person and may proceed either on foot or on a small motorbike. Be careful and make sure not to drop anything! Any ruined or undelivered orders will come directly out of your pay.

It's harder than it looks not to drop the food with all the excitement going on and your delivery recipient may be similarly hard to locate.

C. HOT BATHS (NSFW + cw: optional aphro)
The Tamamo Clan has set up a sanctioned orgy in one of their larger brothels. Rooms are available for whatever your heart desires, including one with exposed windows if you like being watched or if you want to watch in kind. Baths and pools are available for all your indulgent fantasies. Everything you could need is at your disposal: toys, restraints, costumes, lubricants, condoms, aphrodisiacs in many forms. It's a proper bacchanal celebration!

All that matters is your consent and enthusiasm.

5. NIGHT PARADE

One of the primary highlights of the Night Parade are the fantastical floats depicting scenes of legendary events. Keen-eyed observers may note that the humans are portrayed as the bad guys in most of them. While a few of these are mounted on motorized vehicles, most of them are carried by people. That means you'll probably be called on to help carry one along the parade route. It's a fun job, if exhausting.

If you're not the type to wear yourself out carrying a float, ride on one instead! There's plenty of things to toss out into the crowd along the street; candies and trinkets. Dress up in a fitting costume and walk around the float. Have fun scaring bystanders or just have fun hamming it up and celebrate the peaceful night.

5. FIREWORKS

The parade's central stop is the festival square in the heart of the city, just under the shadow of the Kaigo no Bou Tower. There is a stage set up here where the four faction leaders and their personal entourages have assembled. All of them are giving pretty typical speeches. The Enma has declined to give one, having no patience for unnecessary oration. Tenkohime gives praise to the unifying factors of love in the city, while Toraguma rallies the crowd like a sports hero; encouraging them to get stronger and do better in the coming year.

The Daitengu is the last to speak and they also seem to have the largest entourage. The entourage is quite conspicuous: White Wolf Tengu, each standing well-taller than the Daitengu themselves. They are carrying massive broadswords strapped to their backs and hunting about the area for anything suspicious with keen eyes that seem to see right through the crowd and the heat of night.

The Daitengu's speech is also pretty typical, although much more humble than their fellows. Mostly, they just wants to hurry up and get to the fireworks. Just as they finish speaking, the sky lights up.
There are a few peaceful moments beneath this spectacle as the crowd enjoys the display of unity and phantasmal wonder that this unique and strange world has created.

But the explosions aren't just in the sky. One particularly loud boom seems to rattle the very earth beneath the crowd. That is the only warning anyone gets before...

6. A NIGHT PARADE TO REMEMBER

Every manhole cover on the street bursts open, injuring anyone that was standing nearby. Far worse is the deluge of steam that rushes out from the underground. Pillars of hot, blinding steam spill into the air, quickly filling the streets. The luminescence of the festival lamps and city lights are diffused and blurred into singular blobs of color, obscuring all vision and making it impossible to see what's going on. The panicked cries of the crowd also make it impossible to hear. Everything happens so suddenly, so violently, that ascertaining what's going on takes time.

Too much time.

In the chaos, gunshots are heard. They seem to come from several directions. Fighting is breaking out. It's difficult to tell from where and who is in the brawl. Previously unseen figures in full-body black coverings appear from nowhere, rushing the stage. They zoom past any Lost Souls nearby, ignoring their presence. They are focused on a singular goal. The barking of the White Wolf Tengu further indicates the goal of the attack.

Struggle in the steam, help others get to safety, get caught up in fighting the other factions, try to protect the Faction leaders, or try to keep up with the black-suited youkai rushing the stage; do as much as you can.

When the steam finally begins to clear, however, there will at least be one thing that is certain: the Daitengu has been killed.

Welcome to the April event!

If you have any questions about event content, please ask them here!
We also have OOC top levels for Shuten Sumo Results, Tamamo Partner Cards, and Hadaka Luck Draws!
If you have questions about the game itself, please check out the premise, FAQ, and rules pages.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Maybe, but they're putting up a good fight.

[the one replying is a woman who's been equally getting into the action, warring between self restraint and the desire to cheer loudly when things go in her favor - some of these bets are for nobler purposes than lining her own pockets, and it's hard to not get wrapped up in things. she's not analyzing like he is, but her eyes stay fixed on the sport.]

I can't judge their size if they can manage good results. Though I'm no veteran audience of these matches.

I wouldn't say I'm judging. Really, they're doing very well, especially considering their opponents.

[ It doesn't seem fair that anyone fighting against one of the onis seems to be half their size. Isn't that what size classes are supposed to help combat? ]

I've never seen one in-person either. But I did listen to a fascinating radio-documentary on the subject. I got the impression that maintaining a certain weight was a part of it... they went into a lot of detail about their diets.

[ Kim, an enthusiast of wrestling if concept even if he rarely got the opportunity to see it in-person, had been absolutely gripped by it. ]

That's doubtlessly a good part of it. For such a physical sport, you'd have to stay well matched to your opponents, and they to you...making sure you were well fed, but also within specific parameters.

[and yet, here the oni were. but watching two of the youkai go out, both similar in bulk and build? then it becomes more of a mental game, who could be keener, and there the sport is. not in violence, but cleverness.

oh yeah, and strength being displayed has its own charms.]

Did the men in your documentary talk at all about the mentality of such combat?

They did, actually. [ It's rare that someone takes interest in the esoteric radiodocumentaries Kim sometimes favours -- though he can't say it's purely out of intellectual curiosity, even if that would be a flattering thought. It's because he likes to listen to something while he's stuck underneath the hood of his car, and sometimes that means he happens to learn a great deal about fiddling, or folk dancing... or in this case, sumo. ] It's much more of a mental game. They speak of clearing their heads of everything prior to a match for clarity of mind, and of daily meditation. The moment in which they second-guess themselves could be the difference between success or defeat.

[ He glances over at Emily, expression a little wry. ] But in this case, I believe our colleagues are just trying not to get thrown out of the ring. All things considered, they've put up a pretty good fight. I wouldn't want to go up against one of those.

[ And he wouldn't. Even if someone tried to throw him into the ring, he'd simply walk out. There are certain things he's willing to do, and to go hand-to-hand with some frankly unsettling demon is not one of them. ]

Neither would I...we're fortunate that the Daitengu didn't offer us up as contenders.

[pride or no pride, she has an acute understanding of her shortcomings, and physically, she wouldn't be any sort of match for even the weakest of Toraguma's underlings.]

But I can't help but want to cheer on those like us. [lost souls, she means.] Maybe they'll gain a little more respect if they can walk away with just bruises and not bone fractures. Though the likelihood of that dwindles by the hour...

[given the force that some of them are working with - like the current bout, and how they can feel the dirt tremble ever so slightly when one of them hits it...]

Forgive me, I don't mean to sound so dour about the prospects. Not all professional habits are good ones.

Mhm. So far, they haven't asked anything of us I didn't feel we were more than capable of accomplishing. That's been very fortunate.

[ He would not have done well in the ring, nor would he have done well with the Tamamo clan's orders. Enma's orders were not objectionable, of course, but Kim has already publicly spoken on his reluctance to engage in policework in a city he's unfamiliar with; by design or by chance, it seems many of them had been placed precisely where they'll be most effective. ]

But I'm here to cheer for them as well. [ He smiles, a little. ] Though I'll admit the way they're getting bumped out of the ring is a little funny, provided that none of them have broken bones. [ He glances over at her, curious now. ] Though -- professional habits, you said? You're a doctor?

Yes, though currently without an office.

[it feels important to clarify - to not be above her station. but people were asking, more and more, and she has to at least have an answer. her dreams are still being formed, after all, but...part of that is why she's here. smart, safe bets would steadily grow the reserve.]

It means there's always underlying thoughts about this or that, what could happen...and when some of your friends tend to be the reckless sort, well.

That's understandable. None of us are situated well enough here to have a job like that. I'm not sure how regulation works here, but I can only imagine you would have to undergo some sort of examination to make sure your abilities are up to regulations. I can't imagine our certifications transfer over.

[ She talks about being a doctor, he talks about regulations... perhaps that's why he's in Sutoku. He just can't help himself sometimes. His mind works a mile a minute, but instead of being struck by inspiration, he's busy thinking about things like proper paperwork. ]

I imagine you'd have to learn how to treat a... [ His eyes follow an umbrella-yokai as it bounces past. ] ...number of different organisms. But I digress. [ He nods up at the ring. ] Are many of your friends participating today?

[the official talk makes her think he must be connected in some way to bureaucracy, though not with the self important air that speaks of politicians. thus, she's a little more at ease. she's still not sure why they put her here, when she could have done more for public works in another place, but far be it for her to question the deep workings of this place. a patron is a patron, after all.

at the question, she realizes that oh, yes, she should return to the matches.]

A few of them - some have already had to bow out. But like a good friend, I have to cheer the remainder on, so when they brag about their victories I can say that they put up a good showing. Even if they haven't.

[that's her duty, after all.]

What about you? Anyone you're here to keep an eye on?

A couple of acquaintances, yes.

[ Just Harry and Kamui, really. He's here for Harry more than he is for Kamui, but Kamui is a good kid, and Kim finds that he rather likes him, and he's certainly interested in how well he can hold his own in the ring. Being able to fight isn't a prerequisite to being a detective, as far as Kim is concerned, but it certainly helps. Kim himself is of a lean, lithe stature, but he can hold his own in a fight in the short-term, predominantly because it's a skill he has to have with the sort of work he does.

He has a funny feeling Kamui is the same way. And speak of the devil -- his eyes light up with recognition as he sees Kamui enter the ring. ]

Ah, there's one of them now! Kamui, if you haven't met him. We've only just met, but I did say I'd keep an eye out for him, and...

[ He watches as a massive scarlet oni stomps into the ring. ]

...oh.

[ Still, when the announcer announces Kamui's name, while Kim is not the sort to shout, he certainly claps as loudly as he can. ]

Maybe it's a good thing I met a doctor in the crowd?

I do know him, actually...

[the expression on her face can be summed up as "deeply concerned for that young man's well being", and her hands clasp together, nerves showing.]

I just hope he knows what he's doing.

[enough to sign up, but enough to handle that? she'd worry about any of her friends going against the oni.]

I imagine he's just trying to follow orders from his boss. The Toragumi did say that participation was compulsory from his clanmembers, and I think Kamui is the sort to take that seriously.

[ Which is not a flaw, per se, but Kamui has certainly made his impression as a serious-minded, dutiful young man. When men in those positions are given orders, especially those used to obeying superiors without question as policework often encourages, they tend to follow along.

To either their own, or others', detriment. He watches as Kamui darts around his opponent, clearly trying to use his wits rather than his strength. ]

He's got the right idea. [ His eyes flick towards Emily for just a moment, curious, then back at the ring. ] Did you meet him here, or do you two know one another from home?

Here - I met him when he was getting out of a fight, and he was injured then...

[so you can see why she'd be concerned now. following orders is one thing, but risking one's life at a festival that's supposed to simply be a celebration? she'd thought he was a little better than the sort of reckless man she's accustomed to seeing in her practice.

without thinking too hard about it, she bursts out with:]

Kamui! Please do your best!

He's gotten into a fight already? Maybe that explains why Shuten took him on. He had been wondering.

[ He'll assume for now that it was necessary and likely in the defense of someone or another - Kamui just doesn't seem like a hot-headed enough fellow to get into a fight for the sake of it - but they've only been here for a matter of weeks. It's awfully soon to be getting into any fights.

He doesn't cheer alongside Emily, though the corner of his mouth twitches in a smile to hear her do so. He doesn't tend to cheer out loud as a general rule. It's just... embarrassing. He does make the effort to clap a little more enthusiastically for him, though, peering between the shoulders of the audience to get a better look. ]

I think he'll be all right. This is for sport, after all. [ And he seems to keep darting away from his opponent. Good strategy, when your opponent is that far out of your weight class. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

APRIL 2022 EVENT

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