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

[shrugging]

Sure. It's nice here.

Very well. I will wait.

[he turns back to his qin. the complete unconcern he appears to feel in Wei Wuxian's presence could be taken as an insult, if you were expecting him to be scared of Wei Wuxian in the first place.]

[it's fine, because he also doesn't answer; he turns his back on him entirely, and jogs away through the crowds, to check the note and head towards an unforeseen adventure of his own with a ghost spouse. thanks(?), Lan Wangji.]

Edited 2022-04-07 05:27 (UTC)

[the note says:

"Regards to the recipient of this note on the occasion of the Night Festival. If she has not yet found a finer restaurant than the one with the plum wine, she should be looking harder.

Please receive this offering in memory of Mistress Imai Hanako."

if he follows the address he'll take it to a glamorous older woman in a nice little apartment that doesn't quite match her boho style, who owns two cats and bursts into tears and laughs and tries to make him take some of the food.]

[he wiggles out of taking more than a single steamed bun (please, lovely lady, I couldn't, it's a romantic gift from your love), and stows it in his sleeve for later once he escapes. he carries back a note of his own for the ghost, and drops off a couple of other deliveries on his way back, as a means of delaying. his head is spinning in confusion. why make him the middleman for something like that...?

he hasn't arrived at any easy answers by the time he enters the cherry groves again.]

[it's close to sunset by the time he returns. that means that red-stained sunlight is pouring between the spectral trees like so much dark honey, rendering ~~any Lan Wangjis~~ anyone sitting among them even more at risk to be painted by a portrait artist with no sense of subtlety. honestly fucked up.

Lan Wangji himself has shifted to another part of the grove and put away his qin, for now. he has his eyes closed in meditation and his hands quiet in his lap, not immediately reacting to Wei Wuxian's approach.]

[his feet have carried him there, but he still wrestles with himself as he pauses at the edge of the trees. he could just walk away. he could just come back after Lan Wangji's ridiculous curfew and set the note down for the ghost then. he could get more deliveries done and make more money. he could do anything with this night that isn't speaking to Lan Wangji again.

he has purchased another meal, for two this time (not so fancy as the one the club owner sent, but he's not exactly flush with cash, and he picked something good). he doesn't know why. it's stll hot for now; it rapidly won't be if he dallies any longer. aaaaaaaaaaa.]

[maybe Lan Wangji's cultivator senses have returned enough that he can feel the whisper of darkness and resentment from Wei Wuxian's side of the little clearing. or maybe he still has the edge of his own old wartime reflexes left, and picks up on other peoples' presence easily.

...or maybe he's just tuned to Wei Wuxian existing in his vicinity, his body and heart buzzing like a radio that only loses its static and goes smooth and clear in one place. with one person.

either way, he opens his eyes before Wei Wuxian makes any final decision about what he'll do next.

Lan Wangji goes very still again, looking at him. it's a predictable reaction at this point, but he can't seem to help it. fuck. fuck. Wei Wuxian's too-thin face is so beautiful painted by the sunset light that Lan Wangji can actually feel his throat lock up, his breath frozen in his lungs with it.]

Wei Ying.

[he can still say one thing, anyway. just that.]

Edited 2022-04-08 05:51 (UTC)

[lifts his free hand in a silent hi, feeling even more caught-out and stupid. his legs hurt from running around all day, but it doesn't mean he couldn't still just--go, if he wanted to, maybe. he doesn't know?

he feels pinned in place by Lan Wangji's strange hawk-pale eyes, now that they're on him. he doesn't move. maybe it is he who has become the jade statue now.]

[Lan Wangji's eyes stay unmoving on his face for another heartbeat; two; three. it's agonizing. he seems like he's looking for something.

then, just as abruptly, he tilts his head and nods at the clear space next to himself, under the trees. his voice comes out unexpectedly soft again.]

Sit.

[he should go. he really should. it's not the first time he's turned around and left Lan Wangji to his own hypocritical devices. it should be easy. Lan Wangji should have learned to stop trying, by now. why hasn't he?

why does he keep doing these things?

(he sits.)]

[Lan Wangji glances away, but it's not because he's stopped paying attention to Wei Wuxian; Wei Wuxian can feel it in the subtle tilt of his body, in the flicker of his eyes under their long lashes, in the careful relaxation of his hands. his head is bowed, a little. there's no killing intent.]

...

My thanks, for returning.

[shoves the food over, tone made short by frustration with how confused Lan Wangji has gotten him...]

Don't thank me for doing what I want.

[oh. Lan Wangji pauses again briefly, feeling a flutter underneath where the fist is clenched around his ribcage. it doesn't loosen the pressure, exactly, but the movement gives an impression of life there instead of leaden weight.

he'd wanted to come back?

softer:]

All right.

Edited 2022-04-17 01:31 (UTC)

[that wasn't even the implication he was going for! he just didn't want to be thanked about it so he was trying to blow it off in a cool-sounding way! fuck. shrugs unaffectedly about it!]

Eat, unless someone managed to send you another meal between lunchtime and now.

[too late, Wei Wuxian! people can take your words in any way they want! a consistent problem for you!

Lan Wangji doesn't respond; his throat feels too tight, even if he'd wanted to. he just nods silently and opens the container of food to take some out for himself.]

[Wei Wuxian still has his head kind of turned to the side, temporarily unable to look him in the eye or watch him accept a gesture he'd been less than half-sure about making.

the food's a close approximation to the horribly spicy cuisine from Yiling they'd shared, a lifetime ago, red on red on red, spice-heat warping the air above the dishes in their takeout containers. he's still under the misapprehension Lan Wangji likes that sort of cuisine, apparently.]

[it wouldn't even occur to Lan Wangji that Wei Wuxian is thinking of Lan Wangji's tastes rather than his own. he doesn't have any concept that Wei Wuxian really remembers that meal, fondly or not, or would think back to it when making selections for another meal they'd share together. if you asked him, he'd guess that wouldn't be the case, since he'd think Wei Wuxian would have tried to push it out of his mind.

but he still knows all too well that Wei Wuxian's own taste runs this way. which implies to him that Wei Wuxian made these selections to please himself -- further meaning that maybe he still wanted to do his own best to not hate the experience of eating together. that far lower level of consideration for the sharing of a few minutes is enough to keep Lan Wangji's throat tight as he quietly eats the first scorching bites of the hell food.]

Edited 2022-04-18 02:57 (UTC)

[they're both so stupid. they're so stupid. they're so stupid? they're so st

Wei Wuxian stuffs his mouth like a hamster like that's going to ward off conversation. well, conversation from him, anyway. Lan Wangji is following his weird Lan rule about no speaking while eating, but he himself can feel the whyyyyyyyyyyy!? rising in his throat, ready to burst free if he lets it.]

[it's strange that he's not letting it! Lan Wangji surely expects something as rude as breaking the Lan talking-while-eating rule from him.

Lan Wangji uses the respite to settle his heart and mind, at any rate, concentrating on mindfully and carefully working his way through each stinging bite of five-alarm nostalgia. unless interrupted, he politely doesn't stop until his plate is empty.]

[Wei Wuxian is still eating by the time Lan Wangji's done, though he's slowed down; he's actually kind of overeating at this point, but the urge to yell hasn't faded yet, and he doesn't trust himself to stop until it does.

glares at Lan Wangji over his chopsticks, like this is his fault]

[Lan Wangji will just meet his eyes with quiet attention and wait. he doesn't have any guess as to why Wei Wuxian would be particularly angrier at him than before because he ate the food that was brought as requested, but that's fine. he doesn't expect anything but anger from him.

being able to sit like this with him is already an unexpected gift.]

[puts an extra large chunk of spiced tofu and cabbage in his mouth so he has to keep chewing, forever. the grandhamster of demonic cultivation.

as far as anger goes, this is a lot more undignifed than the other times, at least...?]

[...

did he bring something to drink? Lan Wangji could pour it for him, if so. he probably needs something to wash it down with if he's been chewing so long?]

[there's some fruit juice in one of the bags, yeah! Wei Wuxian startles when he reaches over for it...]

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