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

Pretty sure they're not!

[like, Kappa are pretty particularly-shaped, it'd be obvious even under the suits and masks, but--

they've got to move while they're talking; he starts pushing forward through the crowd again, invisible assailants or not]

They're going invisible like them, though--I don't know how they're doing it! We should get to their target, this is no way to fight!

(He knows they aren't kappa he just doesn't get the connection here until it's explained-- and you know what? He still doesnt get it.)

I can't sense any of 'em either--

(His senses have been all out of whack since he arrived here but right now, everything feels particularly muffled. He isn't sure if it's because of the chaos around him or something else but he can't keep track of any of the youkai he isn't actually watching with his own two eyes.)

They're going to the stage.

(Where the leaders are so they should get going.)

Ack, who can sense anything when they've locked us down like this...all right.

[no time to mourn that more, though; they're not getting attacked again by the assassins yet, but they're going against the flow a bit to get to the stage, and while he's able to eel between people well enough, he grits his teeth as he catches some elbows in the panicked, hurrying rush of youkai.]

Are they trying to take out all of them--

[more gunshots ring out ahead; uh oh.]

(If there's something swords naturally hate, it's guns. He flinches when the shots ring out but pushes through. He's able to keep up with Wu Wexian easily enough. Hizen is used to fighting in chaos and his size has always given him an advantage when it comes to slipping through a crowd or difficult place.)

All of them?

(Up ahead on the stage where all of the leaders are gathered,)

That's stupid!

(No, something about it doesn't feel right to him and if he sits down and really thinks about it later, he'd be able to reason through exactly why. It's risky to take on multiple targets like that if the plan is to overthrow the entire city, taking out all four leaders at once would just turn the people against the one behind this. It's better to take them out one by one, curry favor, and let the people welcome you after the chaos. It's just more trouble than it's worth to him.... )

Just keep everyone out of trouble.

If you can get up on there and rally them, I can try to keep things clear in front?

[it doesn't matter who the target is, too much; at least the leaders are relatively clustered up and have a number of meat-shields of their own, even if they're confused and milling right now. as long as Hizen and Wei Wuxian and however many others have managed to make it up here can keep them off long enough for the actual security details to regroup, then maybe--just maybe--they have a chance, despite the calculated scale of this attack.

their window is whisper-thin, though; already the assassins are visible again, and Wei Wuxian curses and charges towards another one, though he's still close enough to hear if Hizen answers.]

(His first mistake was tasking Hizen with the people job. Rally them? If this wasn't in the middle of a fight, he'd snap back that there's no way in hell he's doing that but there's no time to argue. All he can do is curse under his breath and head toward the leaders.)

Just don't die--

(Very encouraging. Unfortunately, there are so many assassins and they're taking full advantage of the chaos. He's able to squeeze through and make some progress but it's really impossible to completely catch up given their late start due to the surprise attack. Up ahead, there's more gunfire, a scream, some howling, and well... their four leaders go down to three.)

[sorry Hizen! he had faith in you! they are both going to fail miserably at doing any assassination thwarting but at least they'll do their best and challenge themselves on the way.

for his part he doesn't make a fantastic showing either; he buys maybe a few more seconds against some of the attackers, but too many have already gotten past to get onto the stage. he too whips around with a furious noise as the final shots ring out, but it's all he can do is wade up to catch up to Hizen.]

Shit! That was--I can't tell if they're still alive--can you do anything?

[maybe, if this stranger had been trusted with some of their power back, and it involved healing--that's an absurd long shot, but he's got to ask.]

I'm not a healer.

(He's the opposite, in fact. He's an assassin. The only thing he's good at is killing and there's nothing he can really do in this situation beyond some basic combat first aid. There are definitely going to be more qualified people taking care of things.

This whole thing is a big failure.)

Let a real medic take care of it.

Yeah, I guess--had to ask, you know?

[shakes his head in some frustration; he might have been able to help with more than battlefield first aid himself, once upon a time, but that was years ago. all they can really do right now is keep scanning to make sure none of the other leaders are targeted as well, while their guards close ranks.]

What a mess.

(Ugh,)

Standing around and complaining isn't going to do anything.

(Weirdly... motivational? Even if he isn't trying to be.)

I'm going. They're all retreating somewhere. (They can try to catch one of the assassins. Spoilers: They cannot and Hizen will definitely pay the price for it later. ) Find something you can do.

(And before he runs off in his own direction, he stops and seems to consider something before glancing back at his temporary comrade,)

... Just don't go dying.

[Wei Wuxian lifts his hand in response, a wave or a salute. Hizen catches an odd curl to his mouth, not quite a smile, because in the years before this he's gotten far more used to people screaming for his blood than expressing concern for his safety--]

Ahh, don't worry about that. But the same to you, you hear?

[neither of them will die, which is great, though they're not going to do well in their immediate followup to this. they'll meet again later.]

APRIL 2022 EVENT

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