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

Though they do get their fair share of rain, I understand the worst of it is limited to the summer months.

[ Which sounds convenient in theory, though he thinks that after a lifetime in London, the familiar cold rain is probably preferable to whatever steamy, jungle-like conditions three months of straight heat and humidity would create. ]

I suppose we'll see if the same is true here, eventually.

[ If they're unfortunate enough to still be in this place in two months' time, which is seeming increasingly likely as the days go by. ]

...Frankly, I wasn't expecting to see you outside of your designated patrol beat tonight.

[ He'd imagined van Zieks would have wanted to spend as little time as possible soaking up this perverse parody of Japanese culture... yet here he is, under the cherry trees with a cup of rice wine instead of a chalice of red. It's a bizarre sight. ]

[ There is some twisted delight in not being understood. After so many years of Stronghart of meticulously setting up the pillars holding up van Zieks' reality, he has finally broken free and put a crack in the gears. Of course it is a benefit only awarded to him through time travel, but it does bring him a momentary sense of pleasure. ]

My shift has yet to begin.

[ He could have remained home for longer but he feels restless when he is stuck inside his one room apartment. That is the simple truth of it. ]

This seemed the least offensive area to pass some time in and gather my thoughts before the onslaught of obscenity that will be the rest of my night.

I'm aware.

[ With so much else frustratingly out of his control and beyond his knowledge here, Stronghart made damn sure to at least memorise everyone's assigned schedules for this event. ]

I'd hoped our department would make an effort to rein in the debauchery rather than make its own organised contribution to it, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. [ He has very mixed feelings about the Enma right now. ] In any case, this does indeed seem to be the "least offensive area".

[ He's quiet for a moment after that, and takes another sip from his cup. His gaze returns to van Zieks, watching again with curiosity. Even when their relationship had appeared wholly positive, they'd never been close enough to discuss personal matters — everything was nearly always strictly business, and that had suited Stronghart just fine. Keeping him at an arm's length had ensured that he wouldn't get close enough to stumble upon the truth on his own.

But now, for some reason — maybe just because there appears to be something beyond the usual in that perpetually brooding expression — his interest is piqued... and apparently some of the secrets he'd been keeping for all those years had somehow already revealed themselves to van Zieks anyway. ]

I assume you've no interest in sharing any of those thoughts you've been gathering.

[ Van Zieks offers a sigh in commiseration at the mention of the Department's own contribution. The fact that putting on a celebration of public indecency was meant as a reward for the keepers of order is still messing with his mind a little.

Putting aside absolutely everything about their underlying moral principles, Stronghart still remains the person who shares his mundane sensibilities the closest - an unfortunate piece of comforting familiarity.

Is it that, which makes him decide not to dismiss Stronghart's inquiry into further conversation? Just some twisted sense of homesickness, of longing for a world that makes more sense to him?

He's not really looking at Stronghart as he speaks, but they are standing just close enough that it doesn't seem to matter anyway. ]

For a long time I have not allowed myself to reflect on the Genshin Asogi I thought I knew. Of course, it is largely thanks to your interference that my memory of him has been warped into a monstrous caricature...

[ Where he'd sound full of hurt and range and contempt in a different context, he just sounds matter-of-fact and kind of exhausted now. ]

I am free to mourn him now, for the first time. I do not know if I desire to.

...I see.

[ Since their first conversation here, Stronghart has been gradually piecing together exactly what van Zieks knows. It's been clear that he knows the truth behind the Reaper, but the extent of his knowledge of the Professor case has been less obvious — though van Zieks's apparent anger toward him certainly gives him some ideas.

Taking into account now that he definitely knows at least part of the truth about Genshin Asogi also clarifies some things... and makes the sight before him a bit less incongruous, he supposes. He still wants to know exactly how it was that any of this had come to light, when hardly anyone involved in the events of ten years ago should have even been alive to reveal the truth... but for whatever reason, it isn't eating at him quite so much right now.

There's a low, contemplative hum as he considers how much he should acknowledge. He's been casually denying everything the whole time they've been here, trying to make it seem as if all of the accusations toward him were the delusions of a man who'd had a mental breakdown, but, oddly, with van Zieks opening up to him even this much, he feels inclined to do the same... just a little. ]

My interference, as you put it, was not ideal for me either. I did what I deemed necessary, and regardless of how things ended up, Asogi was a willing participant.

[ He regrets that their plan ended in such a messy failure, to be sure, but he still thinks himself justified in his actions, and has no intention of apologising for them even now, though his words don't have the same harsh edge as usual. ]

Knowing that, whether he's worth mourning is up to you.

[ The lack of denial does prompt van Zieks to turn and meet Stronghart's eyes properly. He had not once been at risk of actually believing that he was being delusional in his accusations, but it is still a surprise that Stronghart would be willing to give up on that strategy so soon. This isn't open admission of much, and van Zieks knows better than to ask for more, but it is acknowledgement of a shared standard of knowledge.

It makes Stronghart feel less like a specter of the past and more like a part of the present and immediate future, of this life that they're building here after having been dragged out from the ashes of their old reality. Accepting Stronghart into the order of his life once more feels like a regression, but for as long as the man is here van Zieks has a moral obligation to not let him out of his sight. As ghostly petals rain over them, Barok feels real acceptance of that for the first time. ]

A statement worthy of several objections.

[ Genshin did not willingly get shot dead, for one. And then Klint-- It is not the time to unpack all of that. Barok wants to be able to focus on his duties later.

So... moving on. ]

Fortunately, this is not a court of law and this drink does not hold enough of my favor to make me feel inclined to argue.

[ He is absolutely not having this conversation sober whenever it comes. ]

APRIL 2022 EVENT

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