jigokulogs | 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

[unfortunately for medics, rest only comes when everyone else is looked to.]

Very wise, sir. Do you need to sit down, or would you prefer to remain standing?

[at the least, she can get these covered and see if anything needs stitches to start healing closed. that's fine enough to do in the field.]

Standing is fine. I'm not sensitive.

[ A little hesitantly he sheathes his sword for the moment and takes off his coat and cloak so the shallow blade wound in his side is accessible for rudimentary treatment. There are more knife-throwing gangsters in this town than he would have given it credit for. ]

... have there been casualties?

[ It won't be until at the earliest tomorrow morning that real counts of injuries can be carried out, but a field medic might have a better overview than himself at the moment. ]

[at that question, a touch of sorrow crosses her features.]

Besides the loss of the Daitengu? I don't know yet. Fortunately, no one I've met yet has been so gone as to only require help passing on - but I wouldn't doubt that not everyone is so lucky.

[ Van Zieks nods. It is not an uplifting response, but it is the best that he could have hoped for given the circumstances. ]

Riots like this should have been prevented by our security measures. There is no doubt we will be feeling the effects of this catastrophe for a long time to come.

[ Hostilities among everyone who has been fighting in the streets, not to mention the power vacuum left by the Daitengu... ]

I can only hope that you will continue to be spared those sad duties.

["our security measures" - that tells her swiftly enough who he stands with.]

Thank you, truly - for now, let's see to getting you in well enough shape to carry on.

[cleaning the affected area is easy, and since he's not one of those shot, she'll opt for an ointment based anesthetic as opposed to the injected. that handled, it's evident enough that when she begins the careful work of actually stitching him up, she's done this many, many times. specific passes of the needle to pull taut, but not overdoing it as to cause him more pain.

it's a process one needs to bear, yet there's a way to do it so that it doesn't force the patient to relive their injuries. his side first, and then she moves to his arm. coverings will come once the blood flow ceases.]

[ Van Zieks' body is already littered with scars and like the expert patient that he is, he barely flinches even as he observes his own skin being stitched together. It is unpleasant, certainly, but he can appreciate the competence involved in it. He's had worse treatment, by far. ]

You're a doctor, I assume.

[ He wouldn't have minded even being treated by a makeshift nurse, in this scenario, but this is better. ]

Yes.

[but not currently employed as one, her mind supplies. even so, the skills were never allowed to grow rusty, and never had the chance with as many people as tended to be reckless that she kept encountering.]

But not one of yours. They were simply kind enough to hand out supplies in trying to contain...everything.

[all they had needed was her commitment to go out and help as many people as her wings could carry her to. that's all that really mattered.]

Your service is commendable, doctor.

[ And he is glad that something like this did not get completely bogged down in bureaucratic nonsense. Under normal circumstances he is all for respecting formal procedure, but when people are hurt in the very moment then every able hand should be granted access to medical supplies. ]

If there should be another grand scale event in the future, I will certainly be advocating for a larger paramedic force on standby. Helpers like yourself cannot be taken for granted.

Thank you. I truly appreciate your words, though I think I speak for the others as well when I say I hope such a force has nothing to do but be idle.

[a physician is happiest when all her patients only need checkups, after all. but she doubts it will be so simple - even a quieter event might still have accidents, fights, the like. the little she's seen of this city, she could never call it dull.]

Are you in command of the evacuation in this area?

It appears so.

[ Though command is a generous descriptor for the disorganized state of things. Van Zieks has certainly made a valiant attempt at organizing escape routes and sending people to break up fights, but none of it went smoothly enough for his liking. ]

It was my shift in patrolling this beat before the steam attack erupted. We should have never let any singular faction block off the underground.

[the stitches are done, meaning she can move onto bandaging the wounds proper - now, the biggest concern was keeping the area clean so it might heal well. snug, not too tight, for he'd still need to use his arms properly.]

No, certainly - with only one faction, whoever committed this terrible act only had to fool one set of minds.

[it certainly can't be an inside job, or at the least she won't mention it if the gentleman hasn't thought about it. her own faction would be most suspect, after all.]

Fool - or merely convince.

[ He knows less about the workings of the Alliance than he might like to. How many groups within it stand to gain by shifting the main players? ]

The Kappa will need to be interrogated thoroughly, one way or another. Beyond that, it would be hasty to draw any conclusions. The smoke has barely cleared after all.

[ Both literally and metaphorically. For a while there nobody even knew who they were fighting... ]

[wrapping bandages, the only falter in her hands, so slight it could be an accident, comes at the word interrogate - but this is how this world works. through force and power and knowledge.]

Yes, and please do take care until this is sorted out. The happiest a physician can be is when she doesn't see anyone. [beat.] In the professional sense, I mean.

[ If van Zieks notices at all, he does not mention it. There's nothing comforting he has to say - the nature of the judiciary is that every once in a while things get rather ugly. No amount of pretty words is going to change this, so why even try to dress it up? ]

I will do my utmost to be careful.

[ Bandaged up freshly, he can afford a little bow - just not too deep, to not put strain on the stitches. ]

Please do take time to rest up as well, doctor. Your work is invaluable.

APRIL 2022 EVENT

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cw: needles, stitches.

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