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

...I certainly do my best. Sometimes the sort of person we are has no bearing on whether or not we're killed. I've seen it happen to more capable officers than myself. But I appreciate the vote of confidence.

[ In truth, Kim knows that his death will likely be some sordid, meaningless affair. Most deaths are. Not everyone can die to protect something important, or in some incredible blaze of glory -- it's wrong place, wrong time, a failure to spot danger when it's before you, overconfidence fueling recklessness to the point of fatality. But it's not a pleasant road to go down and one that he has gone down too often these past weeks (if he is here, then where is Eyes?), so he shakes it off. ]

I can't speculate on what the Daitengu was thinking, or if they even expected this to happen. Perhaps they just had full confidence in their bodyguards. [ He finishes the final stitch and snips the thread with scissors, leaning a little further away to properly study his handiwork. Satisfied with what he sees, he gets to work unwinding some bandages to wrap it properly. ]

We had - and have - no say in who our leader is. As far as I know, we don't get a vote. [ Pity, that. Not that Kim would even know who to vote for. ] Nor does your clan. Do you have any siblings to share that burden? Or... cousins, perhaps?

[ He's not sure how these generational curses go. It could be that there's a whole gaggle of children that it had impacted, not just Matoba -- but he gets the impression that it's just him. ]

A stroke of bad luck happens to everyone. I suppose you'd be happier that way, hm, Kim-san? [He turns his head back a little, so that the corner of his visible eye, half-lidded and smothering whatever it was he'd been thinking, rests on him.] That I wished you a random and meaningless death, so that whatever it was, you wouldn't have to worry about becoming a lingering and resentful ghost. It'd be no good if I had to exorcise you.

[He's already made that promise to someone here, but he thinks Kim has more humanity inside of him to turn into something like that than the man he's thinking of.]

[Matoba doesn't necessarily disagree that the Daitengu had confidence in their bodyguards. He thinks they were in on it- whatever their plan was. He watches Kim finish off the stitches and tests a twitch of his left fingers, feeling the way the tendons pulled in his wrists and elbow, and then thinks better of any more before his arm has been bound up.] You're right about that.

[That no one had a choice, he means, and certainly not any of them. He's about to comment about his clan, but the rest of Kim's thought puts him dead silent in his tracks as Kim begins to wrap up his wound, until his chest and shoulders start to shake with barely-suppressed and silent laughter.]

I have siblings.

[He doesn't offer any more than that, and his unkind (and somewhat unhinged) smile suggests it's better not to ask.]

[ If ghosts are real in his own world - Kim harbours his own doubts - Kim doesn't think he would be one of them. Frankly, he doesn't hold enough animosity towards any one person to fuel him to that extent, with no friends or family close enough for him to feel as though he would leave someone behind. In short, he makes the ideal RCM officer: no next of kin to comfort, and no personal grudges that will fuel even the most by-the-book officer to stretch the rules and dabble in a little corruption. Still, his mouth twitches as Matoba makes his point and he nods, as though conceding the point.

The point about siblings was taken less kindly. Kim likes to think that he knows when to push, and when to hang back, and besides, he has a policy of not wanting to get too personal. So he nods, binding up Matoba's wound with a simple, ] I see.

[ Bad blood between them, he thinks. Or something else. Whatever it is, he won't push. Matoba's in a grim enough mood as it is, and Kim doesn't feel inclined to worsen it when Matoba's thoughts are already circling the drain of supposedly altruistic suidical thoughts. ]

I don't, [ he says instead, breaking the awkwardness with a rarely volunteered personal fact. ] I wouldn't know what it's like, or the complications that come of it. Regardless, my duties will die with me.

[ He rises to his feet, eyes flicking between Matoba's wound and his face. ]

I'm done. Be sure to keep on top of your painkillers -- there's no need to suffer for the sake of it. No getting it wet for at least 48 hours, and come to me if you suspect that it's not healing as it should. Though if it's all the same to you, I'd like to check on it periodically until it heals. I'm right next door, after all.

[Kim makes the wise decision not to ask, and Matoba relaxes a little when the moment passes without it. Not, he would decide in better frame of mind, that he would expect the man to push, anyway. Kim had better sense than to dig for sensitive information from someone as secretive as Matoba, and beyond that he had that thing Matoba was so dismissive of- tact.]

[He gets the impression from the little bits and pieces of Kim's world that his situation was not all that unique, which says a lot about the sort of place he comes from.]

[So they both choose to ignore all of that baggage and instead focus on the present, which is Matoba's arm now stitched and bound up in proper bandages. He turns and tilts his head to appreciate the work, which was neat and efficient, much like the man himself.] Hm. I'm going to need to buy some, [He realizes- now that he isn't distracted by talking or the determination to get back home in one piece- that he is still somewhat dazed by the bloodloss and the suppression of the pain. He's going to need liquids, too.]

[He tests moving his cradled arm up slightly, lets out a slight shuddered breath, and decides not to do that again. He's going to need to fashion a sling.] Some examination is better than nothing. If possible, once the wound has closed, I would like to test it little by little to ensure that nothing pulls when I extend it. [As he would, when supporting a longbow.]

[There's a moment of quiet, Matoba still looking at his arm with an impassive expression, before finally tearing it away to glance up at Kim.]

I'm in your debt, Kim-san. [His face is a little tight, as if he's struggled with himself a little bit to say it.]

You would be best off seeing an actual doctor for that part, but I'm not sure what the state of this world's health care is.

[ He hasn't had to check. He probably should. He can't imagine that Hell would have better health care than Revachol, but then again, it's pretty hard for its health care to be worse. Regardless, Matoba's a grown man. He'll be able to handle it from here and can indulge Kim in allowing him a visit every now and then to make sure things haven't worsened. It's a matter of convenience, too; he is next door, after all.

Any claims of Matoba being in his debt are quickly waved off, however, the flick of his wrist making it clear that he's dismissed the idea wholesale. It would be downright irresponsible of Kim not to provide assistance when he's capable of it and he doesn't even feel as though he's gone particularly out of his way. He'll save things like debts for the really important things, like helping someone move, or listening to them gripe about their relationship with their significant other. ]

Think nothing of it. I'm just glad we ran into each other. [ If they hadn't... no, he shudders to think of how Matoba would have seen fit to deal with it in his pain-fueled haze. ] It's been a very long day. Try to get some rest. We can deal with what comes next tomorrow. All right?

APRIL 2022 EVENT

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