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

[Wei Wuxian catches the glance and promptly makes a face, which tells Yuri he's seen that kind of look before, which means people probably have reason to give it to him on a regular basis. oh no, he been knew.]

Yeah, they might have hidey-holes, and we don't know--maybe they have shelters in the sewers they'll try to get to anyway. Let's go.

[since Yuri noticed, he doesn't really hide the limp when he pulls himself to his feet and they head out. he can walk, but they'll have to go a little slow...which is just as well, since for the most part they don't want to rush navigating the mess the streets have been left in.]

Edited 2022-04-24 22:36 (UTC)

[ We are taking a proper break after this, friend! Since they're in something of a time-sensitive situation right now, Yuri will trust Wei Wuxian to know his own limits and not push too hard.

Luckily, they don't have to travel all the way to the river before they spot a Kappa scurrying out of the mess. ]

Is that...? Wait, you there!

[ The Kappa startles at Yuri's voice, looking back at them wide-eyed and ready to bolt off. Yuri puts his hands up placatingly. ]

Easy, friend. We're with the Alliance.

[the Kappa doesn't look entirely reassured -- to be fair, 'we're with the Alliance too' wasn't flying when any of them wanted a look down under in the cordoned-off underground -- but approaches instead of running.

they're getting some definite sideeye, though, and it's keeping some distance, so Wei Wuxian finds a seat on a log or something off to the side a little, to get off his bad leg and make it clearer they're not here to do a chase and grab.]

Relax, please, yes. We just want to get things straightened out while we've got a moment. This really isn't the time to give people more of a runaround, you know? It's a real disaster up there.

He's right. Now's not the time to panic. If you run, it'll only draw suspicion to you and your whole tribe. We can only help you sort it out if we know more about what happened.

[ Yuri softens his voice and says as kindly as he can, choosing his words carefully. The Kappa seems to consider both their words and finally nods. The creature takes a seat and slumps down as if exhausted by it all. "It wasn't supposed to be like this!" The youkai buries his head in his hands and exclaims, telling them about how the device should have been nothing more than a generator. ]

[Wei Wuxian shares a sharp, worried look with Yuri over the Kappa's head, because that sounded very genuine indeed. of course, this Kappa could be a great actor, but if they're telling the truth...]

Can't you tell us what happened? Did it start working improperly? Did you see anyone interfere with it before the whole mess started...?

[the Kappa can't give them a lot of info, unfortunately; a lot of the workers were up on the surface enjoying the festival like everyone else, not babysitting the newly-built mechanism down in the tunnels.]

[ Yuri's expression is grim when their eyes meet. Whoever planned the assassination has covered their tracks well. It would make sense to keep the rank and file Kappa in the dark about what they're building.

When they've exhausted their questions, the Kappa makes them promise to believe in their innocence and scurries off, leaving them with few answers and many more questions. ]

What do you make of it? It seems like the assassins were careful to mislead the workers about the machine, the clever bastards.

[Wei Wuxian looks equally serious, his usual easy humor drained out over the course of that brief interrogation. it's not too hard to plan for a physical threat, but this stinks of the political, and he's never been terribly good at that even on a stage where he knew the various players of the game and their relationships in relatively good detail. Jigokucho is...not that.]

Sounds like we won't get many good answers unless we manage to corner a member of their management...it's not like the assassins would have been instructing the Kappa directly. I don't know if we'll be that lucky up here, though. If they're guilty, they're not likely to be wandering out in the open.

They'll have long fled into hiding if they're wise. Before we go scouring the city to look for the higher-ups, you need to see a healer.

[ Yuri will remind him now that their current lead has hit a dead end. It'll be a long chase for answers from here, and the best thing they can do is regroup and recuperate. For a Parade celebrating peace, what a mess it's turned out to be. ]

A...

[he pauses, flipping through his mental index of what he's discovered in the city and coming up blank. he's been able to purchase first-aid supplies in a couple of the stores, a decent precaution to take when his usual avenues of dealing with damage to himself have been taken by the forces that govern Jigokucho, but--]

Do you know where a healer is? I've never spotted one.

APRIL 2022 EVENT

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