的場静司 | Matoba Seiji (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
worldbent) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
jigokulogs2022-05-18 10:18 pm
worldbent) wrote in jigokulogs2022-05-18 10:18 pm
OPEN ➸ May Catchall
Who ⬤ Matoba and you!
What ⬤ Curses. So very many curses- eye attack, haniwa, and... the arcade?
When ⬤ Throughout May
Where ⬤ Around the city, but mostly Sutoku territory
Content Warnings ⬤ Possible light violence from the attack prompt?
1 ➸ Fight Fire With Fire (Substory 4/May Eyeakashi Attack)
[ooc; please read this info/permissions post before replying to this prompt (and feel free to ping me with questions!)]
[A]
[Whatever you happen to be doing when the low, rumbling groan begins to sound from the sky overhead of you, the crowds around you uneasily stop and glance around. Its source is unclear, and others on the street seem equally puzzled-- all but one, a man, who withdraws the paper parasol tucked into his obi and opens it with a smile. Matoba bends over, and deposits something on the ground from a bundle he is carrying- if your eye is sharp, you'll see that they're those haniwa that have been popping up around the city, the ones the Enma specifically said not to mess with. His parasol is left to shade them, like a little house.]
[Are you going to ask what he's up to?]
--
[B]
[If not, he begins to walk away from his little dioarama- directly towards you, it so happens.]
[A mass of black sludge suddenly rockets out of the sky and smashes into the sidewalk moments later, leaving a small crater where the man had been; instead of him, the haniwa are devoured in an instant, absorbing a seismic flash of cursed energy that anyone with spiritual senses is sure to feel. The parasol is left crunching into its formless, toothy mouth before it realizes it has been tricked, and stares into the crowd- directly at Matoba.]
[And you.] OooouuGGGHHhhhhh.... EYE..
2 ➸ Cursoid (Substory 4)
[The trouble with cursed objects was that they seemed innocuous to those that needed to avoid them the most. As more and more of the little haniwa figurines began to appear throughout the city, Matoba had reluctantly taken it upon himself to do what he could to seal and remove them from public spaces, either delivering them to Department of Enma stations or whisking them away to less populated spaces. Those in Enma may find themselves tasked with a sudden delivery, wrapped in strange paper spells as Matoba gives you a skeptical once-over.] ...Are you sure you can handle this?
--
[Those outside the Enma- those who can't leave well enough alone on the streets- get even less benefit of the doubt.]
I'd appreciate if you could avoid touching that. [His tone is more exhausted than sharp, at this point; you might get the sense that he's tired of repeating himself, but with people kidnapping them to dress them in cutesy little costumes and all manner of other absurdities, he's really over it. Maybe he should just let you all get cursed.]
3 ➸ SHMUP is just fun to say (arcade)
[Some time ago, Matoba made the Daitengu a promise. For a while there, it seemed as if that promise would be a fruitless endeavor... After all, why compete against a dead body? Fortunately, news of the Daitengu's demise was highly exaggerated, and so Matoba can be found in the arcades from time to time, his single uncovered eye narrowed in focus.]
[...He is, as Daitengu said, 'in the zone'.]
[Bright lights and colors flash across the screen as explosions and bullets fly across the screen, Matoba's movements precise and automatic. It was pretty different from the old 90's games he'd played growing up in the rural arcades back home- flashier, extra mechanics- but the basic idea was the same, right?]
[Alas, after a tough late-stage boss battle, his ship explodes. Matoba lets out a soft 'tch', finally detaching from the machine to reach into his coinpurse for more yen... When he finally notices you hovering nearby with a slow blink. Forgive his strained eye, it needs to refocus.]
...My apologies, were you waiting for this machine?
----
[Hit me at![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
kitsoru or via PM for plotting or questions!]
What ⬤ Curses. So very many curses- eye attack, haniwa, and... the arcade?
When ⬤ Throughout May
Where ⬤ Around the city, but mostly Sutoku territory
Content Warnings ⬤ Possible light violence from the attack prompt?
1 ➸ Fight Fire With Fire (Substory 4/May Eyeakashi Attack)
[ooc; please read this info/permissions post before replying to this prompt (and feel free to ping me with questions!)]
[A]
[Whatever you happen to be doing when the low, rumbling groan begins to sound from the sky overhead of you, the crowds around you uneasily stop and glance around. Its source is unclear, and others on the street seem equally puzzled-- all but one, a man, who withdraws the paper parasol tucked into his obi and opens it with a smile. Matoba bends over, and deposits something on the ground from a bundle he is carrying- if your eye is sharp, you'll see that they're those haniwa that have been popping up around the city, the ones the Enma specifically said not to mess with. His parasol is left to shade them, like a little house.]
[Are you going to ask what he's up to?]
--
[B]
[If not, he begins to walk away from his little dioarama- directly towards you, it so happens.]
[A mass of black sludge suddenly rockets out of the sky and smashes into the sidewalk moments later, leaving a small crater where the man had been; instead of him, the haniwa are devoured in an instant, absorbing a seismic flash of cursed energy that anyone with spiritual senses is sure to feel. The parasol is left crunching into its formless, toothy mouth before it realizes it has been tricked, and stares into the crowd- directly at Matoba.]
[And you.] OooouuGGGHHhhhhh.... EYE..
2 ➸ Cursoid (Substory 4)
[The trouble with cursed objects was that they seemed innocuous to those that needed to avoid them the most. As more and more of the little haniwa figurines began to appear throughout the city, Matoba had reluctantly taken it upon himself to do what he could to seal and remove them from public spaces, either delivering them to Department of Enma stations or whisking them away to less populated spaces. Those in Enma may find themselves tasked with a sudden delivery, wrapped in strange paper spells as Matoba gives you a skeptical once-over.] ...Are you sure you can handle this?
--
[Those outside the Enma- those who can't leave well enough alone on the streets- get even less benefit of the doubt.]
I'd appreciate if you could avoid touching that. [His tone is more exhausted than sharp, at this point; you might get the sense that he's tired of repeating himself, but with people kidnapping them to dress them in cutesy little costumes and all manner of other absurdities, he's really over it. Maybe he should just let you all get cursed.]
3 ➸ SHMUP is just fun to say (arcade)
[Some time ago, Matoba made the Daitengu a promise. For a while there, it seemed as if that promise would be a fruitless endeavor... After all, why compete against a dead body? Fortunately, news of the Daitengu's demise was highly exaggerated, and so Matoba can be found in the arcades from time to time, his single uncovered eye narrowed in focus.]
[...He is, as Daitengu said, 'in the zone'.]
[Bright lights and colors flash across the screen as explosions and bullets fly across the screen, Matoba's movements precise and automatic. It was pretty different from the old 90's games he'd played growing up in the rural arcades back home- flashier, extra mechanics- but the basic idea was the same, right?]
[Alas, after a tough late-stage boss battle, his ship explodes. Matoba lets out a soft 'tch', finally detaching from the machine to reach into his coinpurse for more yen... When he finally notices you hovering nearby with a slow blink. Forgive his strained eye, it needs to refocus.]
...My apologies, were you waiting for this machine?
----
[Hit me at
2
Their magic is strong but my mind is stronger.
[Maybe that's his way of saying yes.]
Tell me your desired delivery location and I will handle it.
no subject
[...He's inclined to agree, based on what he's seen from the other man in battle, so he holds the little bundle of curses out for Lalli to take.]
I'm glad that the Department has such capable people on-board to deal with this. Wouldn't want any mishaps, would we?
...These should be bound for the Kaigou-no-Bou, I suppose. [Matoba's eye settles on Lalli's own, searching and sly.] What exactly are they doing with these, locked away in that tower?
no subject
[He says this right before he's about to make a big mistake, completely unaware of how big of a mistake it is.
Lalli looks confident in his ability, like he's done this very thing hundreds of times before and knows exactly what to do. The cat eyes he has help with the appearance of competence too, actually. And he's so confident that he just starts talking about stuff from the Enma that he probably shouldn't mention without asking his boss first, but. You know. He just doesn't do that.]
Gangs keep using these as 'curse bombs' to bother each other. So we're supposed to get as many of these as we can off the streets to try and stop the curses.
no subject
[Matoba says it with a tone of disgust, frowning and tilting his head in a commiserating way. This reaction, at least, wasn't put-on; whatever these moronic low-level youkai thought that they were getting away with, taking hold of some awesome power they had lucked upon, they definitely needed to be stopped before this entire city ended up in a perpetual state of gathered malice. As if it being Hell wasn't bad enough.]
[The haniwa that Matoba have gathered were all wrapped carefully with some sort of spellpaper that felt securely glued onto them, paper slips similar to the one that covered Matoba's eye. The characters on them were different, but the eye-like symbol on his ward was present in them nonetheless, and each one felt as if something terrible was being barely restrained behind them.]
From my experiments, I can say that while I have had some luck in restraining their malice, and temporarily blocking them from entering some spaces, whoever is creating these is powerful enough to break through the wards eventually. It may not be possible to totally prevent their influence...
no subject
[Is he agreeing with Matoba? Possibly. Whatever he's saying makes sense to him though, and he's nodding as he peeks at the spellpaper. This isn't really his area of expertise- paper wards are more the purview of Icelandic mages, and his experience with Icelandic mages is largely an experience with just one Icelandic mage- but even he can recognize good craftsmanship. He still feels the malice being held back, but the fact that it's being held back at all is amazing considering how many of these little statues are all right here.]
But this will work until they can join the others. You made these papers?
no subject
[Matoba reaches into his sleeve and produces more of the thin slips of paper, most with the same spell painted onto them in ink as was on the haniwa.] Yes. You could say it is a bread-and-butter technique of my practice.... They have a wide variety of uses for combating malicious auras and warding off ayakashi.
...Do not make use of such physical charms in your spells?
no subject
[Close enough though, especially given how a lot of Lalli's magic is used for rituals for the dead.
He looks down at the paper, and his brow scrunches up in concentration as he studies the paper. It's a different design- kanji rather than a circle design- but it looks like they're still used for similar purposes. Different gods have different requirements, he assumes.]
This is like Icelandic magic. Those mages draw patterns in the dirt and on paper to commune with their gods and use their magic. Finnish mages use spoken words and sing prayers.
no subject
[Chants were also quite important to haraiya practice, perhaps equally so in a way; learning that for some spellcasters it was strictly one or the other was different enough to catch his interest.] With just one or the other we would be quite limited. Drawn spells are important for seals and any kind of permanency. Incantations are vital to summon power from spells.
And, there are also certain techniques unique to this or that bloodline.
Truly... I never realized the Western world had so many specialized regions of spellcasters, but I suppose even our community has a great many different techniques on its own. Are you acquainted with, ah, Icelandic practitioners as well? I wonder what their circles look like.
no subject
[He can't help but show just a little bit of ire there. He knows one Icelandic mage in particular, and said Icelandic mage can be really annoying sometimes. He trusts Reynir with his life but he also wants to stuff a pillow in the guy's face sometimes.]
I remember some of the circles. They don't have power if I draw them, but I can show you.
[Magic related to blood, though. That's an interesting thought. Does Finnish magic count in that way? There had always been some pressure on him to settle down and have children eventually, though he hadn't paid much attention to said societal pressures. He had always figured that Onni and Turri could have kids and continue the family line. But now...]
Icelandic and Finnish magic isn't about blood, it's about the gods we worship. They want to be prayed to in their own ways, and they bless us with magic in their own ways.
no subject
[...And being that the youkai here were all ones which followed his familiarity, he wondered how foreign magic would affect them. Were the gods of foreign lands drawn even here? He would very much like to see that.]
How fickle. Gods can be troublesome in their own ways, too, don't you think? [As the ages passed, and worship grew weaker, gods became enraged. Gods cursed humanity, or left them. It hadn't become uncommon for gods to need to be dealt with, as any troublesome ayakashi. But the need to appeal to them also remained, in whatever small capacity was left. It was a strange and somewhat twisted relationship.]
[Though perhaps, not as twisted as others.]
...There are bloodlines which are better equipped for that sort of thing than mine. We Matoba derive our power in other ways.
no subject
[Lalli does carry respect for his own gods, as he was raised from birth with the knowledge of how they had blessed him with both immunity to the Rash and magical talent. Some of the gods are difficult to see results from, but he doesn't openly badmouth them as much as he does other people. Partially because of that ingrained respect, partially because the fickle ways of the gods are easier for him to understand than people are.
That said, he holds up a finger to draw (CW: spooky horse ghost) a rather complicated-looking pattern with lots of circles and lines. But since he's drawing it in the air it's probably a mess that's impossible to picture. Whoops.]
Grandma taught me how to protect my mind and summon my 'Nature' to protect me. So I guess that's kind of like bloodline-stuff.
no subject
[Matoba probably knows he's being referred to here. He's simply choosing not to call attention to it, or rub it in. In truth, Matoba thinks people were just as fickle as the gods.... But people did not have such power to turn crops to ruin, to dry up a river water-source, or to curse a village to mudslides and storms because of a perceived sleight.]
[As the modern era advanced and people forgot traditions... The anger and resentment of forgotten gods built. Perhaps it was only some world like Lalli's, forced to return to the old ways, which could reawaken their favor. Summon one's Nature, huh......]
[He watches Lalli draw in the air, trying to understand the way the signs weave together; unfortunately, it all sort of jumbles together after a few strokes. Not to worry; Matoba takes out an ink-brush from his sleeve, and a small pot. You have to have these sorts of things on the go an an exorcist, in case you need to paint some spells--]
Why don't you draw it out for me with these?
no subject
But Lalli nods, and he takes the paper and ink brush from Matoba. It's not a tool he uses often, but he's drawing simple shapes here so his rendition of the circle from the image linked before is mostly-alright. It's got a little bit of wobble to some lines but it's recognizable as a symmetrical circle of some sort.]
Like this.
no subject
[Like none Matoba had ever seen. Shinto spellcircles were ...softer in comparison; that is how he would put it. Where this circle contained layered geometry, arrows and rays, the typical Shinto spellcircle was free of such harsh edges, a series of concentric circles and swooping mixtures of kanji and unrecognizable symbols- the ancient language of ayakashi.]
Is this-- this writing along the edges... [He traces a finger over the strokes along the outside, the lines crossed over lines and over circles, placed in equal positioning as where the symbols in a Shinto circle would be.] ...the writing of gods from the West?
["The West" because he is definitely still mentally lumping you all together right now, sorry about that.]
no subject
I don't know, it's not my magic. Someone who worships the Icelandic gods would know. It just looks like lines to me.
[Lalli, in true fashion, continues to be helpful and unhelpful at the same time.]
This circle is a 'look away' circle. Whatever's inside of it, spirits won't notice. So long as the person inside is very quiet and doesn't step out of the circle or break it.
no subject
[The concept of the circle, however, he understood right away.]
It is a ward.
[He says it with realization, and then reaches into his kimono, drawing out one of the seals, the same as had been placed over the haniwa.] Typically, I would use these in order to purify a "space", but... in this case, they have also proven useful in purifying the areas affected by these figures.
But drawing a circle... Much like this one, that is another way to accomplish the same task.
[It was truly remarkable how similar systems of magic from opposite sides of the world could be. And it makes him curious- how similar the chanted spells of Lalli's magic were to his own incantations.] ...How might you accomplish a similar task?