APRIL 2022 EVENT

[jigokumods]

MAIN NAVIGATION

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.

Comments

[strikingchords]

Celebrate?

[Lan Wangji's voice trembles slightly, pushed close to some hard limit; it's barely noticeable.]

[laughitoff]

You say you didn't do anything wrong; Jin Guangyao says it shouldn't matter because he's already died and lost everything and turned into some kind of yao, and I should sympathize, ah? You both disgust me.

[strikingchords]

[Lan Wangji's voice comes out weirdly normal in his own ears, stern and cool as always. he feels like his heart is soaked in that acid Wei Wuxian's words evoked, stinging and sore in his chest. his face feels numb.]

He had died, as well?

[laughitoff]

Died, gone somewhere else, and become some kind of huli jing, apparently, I don't know, I don't care. He's in Tamamo, if you want to catch up the last several years with him over tea.

[strikingchords]

There is nothing I would say to him.

[his speech is lower now, nearly contemplative. the quiver has disappeared, though his throat is still tight. it nearly always goes this way. no matter how upset he gets, something in him steadies before he can start screaming. he doesn't know if it's resolve or resignation.

Jin Guangyao dead... he remembers Wei Wuxian alluding to time being malleable here, during their first conversation. he takes a moment to consider the grief of some future Lan Xichen.

he really hopes he didn't die too. painful as his family relations are right now in the wake of the siege, he doesn't want his brother to be wholly alone for his own grief, any more than he's let Lan Wangji be.

it's sobering to remember that his own loss is far from the only bleeding hole in the world, but he'll reflect more on that later, he thinks. here and now, in this strange hell, there are still practical things to make sure he's given their correct consideration...]

You spoke, then.

And he did not wish to make further war.

[laughitoff]

Oh, that's what he said. It's so nice that I'm surrounded by liars in this city, don't you think?

[he does not have the room to pity someone who was an acquaintance by sight at best, when they played a part in the siege of the Burial Mounds. Wei Wuxian has never been described as selfless or forgiving even in his best days, and these are so far from his best days he almost has to laugh at it.]

[strikingchords]

Mm.

Will observe his actions.

[Lan Wangji is apparently just straight up ignoring Wei Wuxian's attempts to turn the knives on him, at this point. from the outside, one can only conclude that he's gone numb to it, or never cared in the first place.

either way, Wei Wuxian raises a good point; Jin Guangyao has never been someone without hidden motives. Lan Wangji's sympathy for his brother's feelings didn't stop him from fighting his family. he's not going to hesitate to defend Wei Wuxian from the slyest of the Jins -- much less the person who he still blames for betraying the Wen siblings Lan Wangji had tried to defend. the cultivation world's last chances at reconciliation with Wei Wuxian went up in smoke on that pyre. Lan Wangji has not forgiven them.]

[laughitoff]

[that's an interesting reaction; he supposes, for all Hanguang-Jun might be a filthy hypocrite, his personality hasn't changed. he wouldn't celebrate with Jin Guangyao. Lan Wangji has never been the celebrating type. but it doesn't mean he'd disapprove if Jin Guangyao knifed him in the back one day, either.]

Is that all you wanted to discuss?

[strikingchords]

[Lan Wangji shakes his head. his body and face are still composed, sitting quietly on the grass.]

What I said before.

[laughitoff]

Which I've already refused; or are you choosing to ignore that?

[strikingchords]

It is the answer to your question.

[breathes in, out...]

...

Not all is publicly known.

[laughitoff]

So you had private reasons to come murder my people, too? Hanguang-Jun! Here I thought gossiping was forbidden.

[strikingchords]

[his fingers clench and then untense again in his lap... frustration?]

Wei Ying.

[laughitoff]

[his voice goes flat again, grave-cold]

I don't want to hear it.

[strikingchords]

[Lan Wangji goes still again; the tight line of his mouth and intensity of his eyes is nearly a glare. he takes another breath in and out, clearly at a loss and trying to figure out how to speak anyway.]

[laughitoff]

Nothing you say will convince me that any of it was a righteous affair. If you try, I'm going to leave.

[strikingchords]

It was an atrocity. I will not try.

[that was almost a snap in return, Lan Wangji's voice as taut as his rigid spine.]

[laughitoff]

[he goes still as an animal crouched to leap, at that, red eyes glittering on Lan Wangji's face]

...

[strikingchords]

[he'll sit up straighter, hands flat on the ground now...]

...

After. I arrived after. When the sects had departed.

[laughitoff]

[Wei Wuxian doesn't think, doesn't speak--he just tackles him, over the mess of takeout dishes.]

[strikingchords]

[Lan Wangji will go over hard in that first breath, at least; in that first moment, insanely enough, it was like he wasn't guarding himself against Wei Wuxian at all...]

[laughitoff]

[maybe he'll think on that later, when his teeth aren't bared, when his eyes aren't wide and mad with rage and resentment like he's one of his own fiercest ghosts, when all his attention isn't on seizing the front of Lan Wangji's robes in one hand and using the other to strike at his face, as hard as he possibly can, as many times as he can, if Lan Wangji lets him go for more than one.]

[strikingchords]

[he won't. by the time he was down, he was already moving to defend himself; he's staring up at Wei Wuxian, his own eyes wide and gold and frantic, hands like iron on his wrists. even though his golden core still doesn't have the strength to reinforce his body properly, he's in a lot better shape than Wei Wuxian these days; and he lived through those wars, too.

he's in love with Wei Wuxian, not with pain.]

Wei Ying.

[laughitoff]

[some of the dishes have overturned around them, the smell of spice and crushed grass mingling with that of the flowers. there are some alarmed passerby nearby, not quite willing to interfere yet, but it's like the two of them are in a bubble of focus.

Wei Wuxian snarls down at him wordlessly, straining against the hold on his arms; he's so close to being able to set his teeth in Lan Wangji's throat, if he can't hit him. his rage is so great he feels strange and distant with it, like he's wrapped in a red, suffocating cloud.]

[strikingchords]

[for a long, heartstopping moment, Lan Wangji just stares up at him, feeling that rage in his grip, in the red glint of his eyes and the snarl on his mouth. he himself feels carved-out, cored like a discarded windfall left to rot on the ground. he feels sick.

all these weeks, he hadn't really believed that Wei Wuxian hated him so much that he would rather see A-Yuan dead with the other Wens than in his care. he'd insisted on trying to tell him, because no matter what else was between them, wouldn't it still give Wei Wuxian some comfort? the fact that at least one of the people he gave his life to protect had survived?

faced with this, Lan Wangji isn't sure of that any more. he's cold all the way through with it.

there is absolutely nothing he can do. he wouldn't trust some future Nie Huaisang with the son he's adopted, even if he could; even if Wei Wuxian would prefer it. he wouldn't hand over A-Yuan for anyone. not even if the end of this confrontation was Wei Wuxian asking him to do it, and then the Sutoku Alliance breaking his contract and somehow sending him home a moment later. there have always been things more important to him than doing what the man he loves wishes he would do, up to and including protecting Wei Wuxian himself.

Wei Wuxian is in pain now, and Lan Wangji won't try to force another painful truth on him any more, but letting Wei Wuxian hurt them both more like this won't help.

in the same motion, he'll shove Wei Wuxian as hard away from himself and back as he can, and try to sit up -- if the weight and angle are right, he'll try to reverse the pin, but he hopes to at least get him far away enough to keep him at bay better.]

...