June 2022 Event

[jigokumods]

MAIN NAVIGATION

1. SWIMSUIT TROUBLES (1 POINT)

As the city goes through its daily motions, the heat bears down harder and harder while bringing out some increasingly overheated behavior from the local population. Summer is here and the natives are flocking to the shopping district: both as a respite from the scorching temperatures and to stock up on the needed supplies to beat the heat.

That means one noticeable problem: the bathing suits left on the racks aren’t the most fashionable at this point! Suits are scarce and what is left over are the skimpy, the oddly-patterned, a size too small, or all of the above. Then again, you are probably just feeling lucky you aren’t in the Shuten Clan, who have been provided their own precious supply of freshly laundered tiger stripe bikinis. And nothing else.

You may be able to borrow around within your own faction, where the pickings might not be so slim, but are still unlikely to match your personal style. Better hope you ran out to buy something nice when the Daitengu first announced the party.

2. BEACH GAMES (1 POINT)

The indoor beach facility that the Alliance has provided is extraordinary. It’s massive! It seems to extend to the size of an entire soccer field. With the combinations of Kappa tech and Tengu magic, the experience has been made as close to a natural one as anyone could ask for. The heat of the beach feels true to the real world, the sand is white and pure, and the waves rolling in and out are just like the mortal realm. Even the palm trees and beach scrub seem entirely authentic. The vibe is immaculate.

Each faction has their own area set up for meeting and mingling but everyone is welcome to let loose and interact among all the groups.

SHUTEN CLAN

The Shuten Clan has set up their beach fort with food and drinks. The drinks on offer are a particularly strong Oni beer and a few spirits (especially sake). These drinks have been mixed so that anyone who imbibes them will feel a heightened sense of competition and the need to prove themselves!

There are plenty of opportunities to show off:

• Learning surfing with a few knowledgeable Oni.
  
• Volleyball matches.
  
• Shoulder chicken tournaments.
  
• Beer pong.
  
• Drinking contests that never seem to stop.
  
• And friendly scuffles with some of the Shuten who are feeling more rowdy than usual.

In particular, the volleyball matches appear to be the Shuten Clan’s sport of choice. They’re taking these matches deathly serious. With all powers allowed in play, the game is truly deadly with how powerful, how fast, and how fierce those spikes and volleys are. Hold nothing back and leave it all in the ring!

Toraguma himself is here in his tiger striped best! He’s observing the games and taking note of which Shutens do well and which ones shame the clan with their defeat. He’ll give out rewards to those he thinks are exemplifying the pride of the clan. Don’t worry though, if you’re not up to snuff you won’t be punished; except with Toraguma’s obvious disappointment.

TAMAMO CLAN

The Tamamo Clan doesn't disappoint either. Their tiki bar is set up with a far greater variety in stock than the Shutens. Every drink seems to be made to that Lost Soul’s exact tastes. Watch out, this may compel you to pound them back more quickly than normal. The drinks will make you feel much closer to those around you — either in camaraderie, or something more intimate. The Tamamos have arranged a number of floats, inner tubes, and water wings lounging in the water. Enjoy your time together!

When you aren’t relaxing, the Tamamo Clan has also arranged huge buckets of water balloons and have filled their water guns. The instructions are clear: whether sniping from afar or going in on a full assault, go nuts. Especially against the Shutens. Lady Tenkohime herself has a high-caliber, sniper-grade water rifle with her at her lounge chair. She will occasionally pick some unlucky soul to fire off devastating rounds against. She is not soaking them in just water, of course. This is the Tamamo clan’s patented ‘perfume’, which inspires the most amorous feelings.

Finally, the Tamamo have also inspired a spicy wet t-shirt contest. It’s essentially a sexy beauty contest, but given the variety of bodies and hidden ‘talents’ tucked away under everyone’s clothes, it should prove interesting! Tenkohime has described the simple rules:

• One must wear the provided white shirt and only that shirt.
  
• The crowd will soak them down.
  
• And the crowd will judge how well they pull it off.

SUTOKU CLAN

The Sutoku Clan has been given free reign on a fleet of jet skis and paddle boats; perfect for two. There are boogie boards and larger inner tubes ready to be attached to different jet skis. Just be careful, ok?

A large snack bar has been provided with cheerful yokai behind the counter ready and willing to serve up your heart’s desire. There are some strange candies towards the end of the bar, they taste a bit funny but once you eat one you’re compelled to have a few more. These sweets will give you the power to breathe underwater. What is the meaning of this power? Well, you’re in the Alliance, after all, you figure out what’s under the waves.

Sutoku games include things like kan jam and frisbees, but Sutoku Souls are also very much encouraged to participate in the Shuten Clan’s volleyball tournament. Much to Toraguma’s frustration, the Alliance has planted a Tengu referee who seems to really favor the Alliance players over his own. Use your powers liberally.

The Daitengu is in attendance with sunscreen marks on their mask, for some reason. They’re being a total busybody, as usual. They’re really taking the time to chat up Tenkohime and Toraguma, even if the two want to rip each other’s throats out. Could a resolution to the turf war be on the way? One can only hope!

ENMA DEPARTMENT

The Enma is instructing the members of the Department to volunteer (aka voluntold) for lifeguard duty. The shifts are short — it is ultimately a party — and participation will net you both free food and drink from any of the vendors, as well as license to let loose for the rest of the party! The fare provided by the Enma vendors is pretty staid, but it does fill you with the odd need to run down the beach shallows in slow motion. Not sure what that’s about.

There is one further task that is expected of the Enma Department: suikawari. It is a big deal and to be taken seriously! This is the Enma’s favorite beach activity and the only diversion that he cares about. Your guess is as good as anyone’s, but it’s probably because the game resembles a form of execution. Regardless! Every officer is expected to do at least one round of the game as a form of initiation to the Department itself. Captain Shiki hosts the game in the absence of the Enma. Someone should tell her to chill out with that whistle, though.

3. BONFIRE (1 POINT)

As the hosts of the event, the Sutoku Alliance has set up a massive bonfire as the sun begins to set and stars light up the magical sky. There’s a romantic feeling in the air. Things seem as chill as they ever could be, there are no Haniwa in sight! Things feel peaceful for the first time in a while.

A final happy hour is declared, with free libations for everyone to close out the night. It’s time to finish this party in style. For anyone particularly watchful, they may spy the extraordinary sight of Toraguma and Tenkohime together. Off in the shadows while the party rages on, they are sitting together and watching the waves roll in. What could they be discussing? It will remain a mystery, getting any closer to them would be a deadly mistake.

The evening closes without any major incidents. Nothing seems like it could spoil the mood. It almost feels too good to be true.

4. AND THEN... (2 POINTS)

As all the party goers change back into their clothes and exit the facility, there is a rumble of thunder over Jigokucho. The stars are quickly swallowed by a darkening sky and the ground shakes. A minor earthquake? That’s not unheard of but the sky above is looking threatening. Evil. Darkness washes out over the entire city, none of its many bright lights able to cut through. Something is wrong. Something is happening.

A warm rain begins to fall, spattering across you and your surroundings. It becomes quickly apparent that you are not doused with water, but with blood.

The silence is shattered suddenly when a scream cuts across the whole of Jigokucho. An accursed miasma pours out from every direction. Then you see them: the Haniwa. They are everywhere, gazing from every direction, pressing in. Something has gone terribly wrong.

Captain Shiki is the first to act. She makes a call to Kaigo no Bou, but what she hears is enough to freeze her in her tracks.

The containment center deep beneath the tower where the Haniwa were being stored has been compromised. All of the cursed energy that was stored there has leaked out into the city from below. The guards below are dead. No one is answering their radio. It is not just the containment center that has been compromised, but all of Kaigo no Bou.

Captain Shiki struggles to remain calm as she gives out orders. Her entire command structure has been decimated, but she has to keep these people safe. She urges everyone to seek shelter, immediately. Everyone needs to partner up and stick together.

None of the faction leaders present arguments and they enforce this ruling with their Souls. They direct everyone to make their way back to their home base. Shuten to the Arena, Tamamo to Mizukume, and Sutoku to Konoha. There, their faction leaders can protect them.

As for the Enma officers: they are on rescue duty. You will be heading out into the city to rescue as many people as possible from the nightmarish effects of the cursed energy on the city. Captain Shiki will act as their point of command at the indoor beach.

Good luck, everyone.

5. IN THE CURSED NIGHT (2 POINTS)

A rain of blood is sprinkling all around you. It pings off sign posts and garbage bins, it splatters wetly onto the concrete and your face. The scent is pungent and thick; spoiling. It is soaking in to your hair, your clothes, your skin. It is driving you mad: your pulse spinning, breathing short.

There are noises in the impenetrable darkness. Fox feet on the pavement, crow wings shifting on a perch, a stranger's cruel laughter. The dark energy that has swallowed you is bemused by your smallness, is lurking at the edges and waiting for the moment to strike. Hold tight to your fellows, lest in the darkness another hand be placed in yours. Do you know who you walk with? What you walk with?

The Haniwa are watching you from every surface; crowded together as one with their empty eye sockets and open mouths. Their dark eyes turn to follow where you go as you stumble through your nightmares and your delusions. They breathe in your suffering on the air.

Beware the onibi, they will lead you astray.
Beware the grasping hands in the trees.
Beware the whispers in the distance.
Beware the slope to the river.
Beware. Beware.

Welcome to the June event!

• Art by astrono77153462
  
• Special shoutout to vandalisto for coming up with the meat of this event; the beach party. They approached us with this as a player plot, and it was good enough that we made it into the full event for the month. Excellent work, Vandal!
  
• If you have any questions about event content, please ask them here!
  
• If your character participated in the volleyball games, see here! If they participated in the wet t-shirt contest, see here!
  
• If you have questions about the game itself, please check out the premise, FAQ, and rules pages.

Comments

[aceslow]

[ Après le monde, le gris.

The moment Andromache and Nishitani step into the jagged tear between reality and the Pale, the world disappears behind them, as if it were never there in the first place. If someone were to describe the Pale to them, perhaps they would have conceptualized it as an open, white space, an empty room, like a scene out of a particularly surreal film. That is because the human mind is incapable of conceptualizing just what nothing is -- it is indescribable because it is simply the absence of all that they have ever known, as close to death as any given person can guess, vast and terrifying. Who you are in the Pale is the totality of who you are at all: after all, what are you without a reflection?

It is lucky, then, that Andromache and Nishitani have ventured in with another, so that they may at least see their reflection staring back at them from within each other's eyes. Otherwise, there is nothing but antimatter. There are things you do not realize are an ambience of being alive until it is lost. The smell of the streets - sticky-sweet with blood, trashbags cooling on the street - evaporates into nothing, all colour and light sucked from the atmosphere, the ground beneath their feet featureless and smooth. Even if they speak, they will feel its absence; gone are any acoustics and their voices seem peculiarly dead within this space, as though it is thudding directly into dead space, nothing to reflect it, nothing to absorb it. There is a sense of perpetuity about this place, ineffable, inevitably; it has always been here, it will always be here, long after the heat death of the universe.

As they venture forward, they may feel a strange sensation tickling at the back of their minds. Memories, but not their own, brief impulses that they were really someone else, somewhere else, shaking at the foundations of their identity.

Don't you remember, Nishitani? Your father, with kind eyes and a soft heart? He used to make ozoni for the New Year and clucked at you to chew, terrified of you choking. If you close your eyes, you can still taste it. Wait, that can't be right -- no, no, you remember that that was your mother, crying as she dropped you off for your first day at school, with a perfectly made bento lunch -- no, no, wait, you are a teacher beloved by your students with a young daughter who had just enrolled in your class, looking just as her mother did when you met her so many years ago --

Don't you remember, Andromache? You came home from the hunt one day and as you warmed your feet against the fire, your girlfriend came and slung herself over your lap, pulling you down for a kiss, and as you glance down, you can see the tattoo of your people, strong and proud, emblazoned across your forearm -- no, no, that can't be right, you remember that you are an old woman stooped with age and that the child you had adopted comes back to see you every weekend with bags of fruit so that every time the sweet taste of oranges splashes across your tongue, you are reminded of how cherished you are -- no, no, wait, you are a sailor, your only love the sea, and when you look at the horizon you see nothing but joy and possibility --

No, you're none of those things, are you? You're Andromache and Nishitani. Up until the Pale tries to convince you that you are not. It's Pale madness, nothing more. Keep each other tethered as you travel through: you'll need it. ]

[killtime]

[ It's unlike her, but something makes Andy turn to look backwards — only to see that the endless nothing stretches on forever, as if they'd always been there. No way in or out. Just the eternal void. Suddenly, she feels somehow small — a miniscule existence, like her nearly seven thousand years of life were a mere droplet the unknowable vastness of the place. As if the fabric of her own being is a tenuous thing. It's not a comfortable feeling. If she were alone —

But she's not.

She glances over at Nishitani, quietly shifting her step ever so slightly — almost unnoticeably, just enough so that her arm barely brushes against his as they walk deeper into the Pale. A little anchor. A small point of contact to keep her grounded and solid — because even if she can't put her finger on it, she knows this fucking place has her number. Like it knows how many times she's questioned her own existence, her own humanity, and how many times she fought against both things. It knows, and it's pulling.

With nothing in the landscape to focus on, it's hard to keep track of where they've come from or where they go. Her mind wanders more easily than she's ever known it to, wandering to memories — dreams? Alternate lives? — even as she tries to keep herself present, to think about finding — finding... Noriko? No. Achilles. No. Who...?

Her steps stall. She presses a hand to her face. Her head suddenly throbs, aching. Muffled by her hand, she mutters: ]

What the fuck are we doing here?

[pitfight]

[ The memories are-- foreign. A mother, a father, a family-- Nishitani remembers them so vividly, but neither of them are ]

[ Real. Nishitani's mother was no one, his father was the man who adopted him. A memory pulses, in tandem: Uncle B wiping off Nishitani's lip, still a small boy, with a large watermelon broken open at their feet, the ocean at their back. Sara is there, also laughing, the sun beating down on their back. ]

[ Andy brushing her hand against Nishitani's brings him back, and he wraps his fingers around her wrist. Her pulse is strong. It keeps him focused, and out of his own head. ] Some bitch named Kim.

[killtime]

[ It's confusing in her head. But it's always been a confusing place in there. The human mind simply isn't made for seven thousand years. It can't remember all that. It can't cope. The distant memories are little more than jumbled grains of sand in her gray matter, slipping between her fingers just as easily. She forgets every day. Some things are more imagination now than anything else. She doesn't even know her mother's name anymore. She doesn't even know her own name anymore. All those lifetimes she'd led, all the different things she's been, all those centuries that she's wandered —

The door is wide open to the Pale. The things it whispers to her are feel more real than the fragments of her actual memories. She could forget herself entirely and not even realize it. She could.

But then Nishitani's hand closes around her wrist, wrapping the familiar scars and calluses of his fingers around her throbbing pulse. Her eyes focus. Her own hand unconsciously grips the pair of glasses in her pocket. Kim. Kim, who saved her life. Who always calls her Andromache. And trusted her to try. Kim. ]

...I can't fucking stay here. [ It's unlike her — that audible tension of anxiety in her voice. ] We have to find him and get the hell out.

[ How? She doesn't know. All there is in all directions is the endless void. ]

[pitfight]

Alright.

[ Can't find a man? A man that apparently means something to Andy? Done. Stepping away, Nishitani cups a hand by his mouth and proceeds to yell (and not entirely understand the nightmare he's trapped in.) ]

Yo! Kim! I'm fucking your girlfriend! Come get your bitch!

[killtime]

[ That probably gets no one's attention more than Andy's. And there's any number of things she could say here — like how Kim is entirely too homosexual for that tactic, or the fact that the ominous empty void absolutely does not need to hear about him fucking her — but instead, she abruptly slaps her palm right over his mouth to muffle whatever provocative profanity might come next. ]

Really? That's your fucking strategy?

[ Maybe if she tries real hard, she can keep her hand there until they get home. ]

Behave. Just this fucking once.

[ Still, the gods know she loves the man, even when he's misbehaving. Maybe especially then. If she didn't, she wouldn't reach back when she pulls away, taking his hand in her own to tug him along behind her as she sets off again to find Kim. ]

[pitfight]

What? It usually wor-- [ Andy's hand slaps over his mouth and he huffs as she effectively gags him. He rolls his eyes at her annoyance and clips his tanto back into it's sheath and into the back of his belt. If she doesn't want his help, then fine, he'll just hang by her side. ]

[aceslow]

[ If Kim hears any of what Andromache and Nishitani are saying, he certainly can't make out the words. There are simply too many for him to be able to discern what is and isn't real, the only barrier between him and the memories - false, he knows they're false - barraging at the steel wall he's erected between himself and the outside world the Volta Do Mar. It had always been a mechanism for grounding himself when he felt his emotions were running wild, a way for him to recentre himself, to focus in on the present and not on the nebulous future, but never in his life had he expected to use it for its intended purpose.

To keep himself from being swept away into the Pale. But he can see now, how someone would willingly give themselves into oblivion. Why wouldn't they? The memories the Pale offers him are by and large better than the ones he's already got. Memories of a love he's never known, of security and adoration held beyond his reach, of lives softer and kinder than the ones he's lived, the excitement of dreams realized, the thrill in fighting for what he believes in. But he refuses; his life has been hard won, and he's not about to give it away for a flight of fancy.

In the distance, Andromache and Nishitani may hear an odd sound, an Italian poem recited in a voice accented with French, Kim's low voice a lilting litany: ] Colori come grigio e marrone. Tutti stampati uno sull’altro. Trovai un vuoto. Una macchia Bianca. Gli altri guardarono....

[ Voices, Kim couldn't make out. He can't make out their faces either, but he sees someone on the horizon, a smudge of colour against the endless nothing that he's been trudging through. Or is it just a mirage, something floating into his vision after so long spent without? He squints, looking wholly naked without his glasses, and just as blind. ]

Is somebody there?

[ He's not taking it as a good thing, necessarily. Already, he's reaching for his gun. ]