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AUGUST EVENT PT 1
premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation
→ 8/3-8/4 School Cultural Festival
Good morning!! The crows start cawing at the crack of dawn and they're really noisy, but while they're usually a nuisance on the best of days, perhaps the wake-up call will be appreciated this weekend, as the school gates are open over the weekend for the annual cultural festival the students have been hard at work on for the past few weeks. It's an open event for family and friends to come enjoy themselves, or perhaps get dragged into helping out in a booth or two, as some of the students have called in sick or can't be reached at all. Either way, the general commotion centered around the school is probably even loud enough to be heard all the way over in Castle Ouma if you're quiet enough. I don't know how else to get you guys who still live in the castle ruins over here... Hopefully you've been hearing people talking about it all of last month? Or maybe you're a newcomer who's just woken up in the castle ruins, spent ten seconds with Kokichi, and decided to leave the forest and never return, that's also very plausible.
Involving the elementary, middle, and high school buildings on their shared campus, all the typical sorts of booths can be found, including a school play performed by the elementary school students in the auditorium in the morning, and various concerts or performances held throughout the day. In the classrooms, food stalls and cafes are common, along with haunted houses for the braver souls. Rumors say that sometimes people who enter the haunted houses never come out the other side... but never mind that. It's fine. Sports clubs hold friendly competitions outside on the field, and many cultural clubs have displays of their work to show off in their club rooms, so there's plenty to do and see and eat all around campus. Despite all the preparation, however, some of the stalls appear to be empty, others with students frantic about not having enough people to keep things rolling smoothly. Looks like the strange illness going around town last month hasn't completely resolved yet, but maybe it's best for those who are ill to stay home in a crowded place like this.
For those seeking something quieter, tucked away in a corner of the high school building next to a struggling yakisoba stand is a fortune telling tent which doesn't seem to be getting many customers. The line is short and there's no fee, so why not give it a shot? Inside, a hooded figure sits, head bowed and face completely obscured in shadow aside from their chin, illuminated by a cheap looking crystal ball placed in the center of the table. A stack of cards lays on their left, a bag of something smelling faintly sweet and spicy sitting on their right. Without prompting, the fortune teller speaks in a low soft voice, greeting you by name. Weird. Weirder yet, they go on to address you by the arcana on your omamori, be it The Fool or The Hermit or what have you, and rather than answering any questions you may have about your future, the fortune teller instead offers one of two messages:
『To return to where you hailed, you must return to where you arrived. Take with you that which bears the name of the being you have banded together to defeat, and restore what once was.』
or
『When the moon's face shines full and bright, at the cusp of night and day, return to the place of beginnings. Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai must be played, to return two lost souls to this world.』
Huh... Before you can ask any questions, however, your time is up and the next person in line is already pushing you out the seat to the exit. You can always return to the end of the line to have another go, but... curiously, when you enter the tent any subsequent times, a high schooler in uniform greets you, bright and chipper. Home? Souls?? She has no idea what you're talking about if you repeat the messages from before, but never mind that! She can read your fortune!! Maybe you'll let her show off some palmistry and— oh... your life line is rather short... Unfortunate. Never mind, we'll try tarot instead and- hm. That sure is The Tower. Oh well, time's up, next person please!
On Sunday evening as the festivities wind down, a bonfire has been set up in the middle of the field, adding to the unnaturally hot summer night. It's still pretty, though, with the sky dark and bright stars starting to peek out, blankets laid out across the grass and sweet potatoes being passed around to be roasted by the fire. Take the time to relax and breathe... because it's un/fortunately a festival month and the villagers are hype about their festivals.
→ 8/6-8/8 Tanabata Festival
- While the students had been hard at work setting up the school festival, the rest of the town had been preparing for the tanabata festival, with stalls set up encircling the entire lakefront at the center of town. Yukata can be bought or rented, along with traditional hand fans to ward off the heat of the summer, and many of the typical food stalls and carnival games can be found, including stalls where you can test your luck in scooping goldfish/yo-yos/other small plastic toys, shooting targets with cork rifles, attempting the rigged ring toss that's impossible to win without cheating, or playing the lottery with tickets for free food from the stalls as consolation prizes. Maybe your luck sucks and you just want to buy stuff and that's fine too. Come with full wallets and leave with full stomachs filled with yakitori skewers, sweet or savory dango, roasted sweet potato, and the seasonal favorite: shaved ice. It's seasonal because it's summer and summer is so hot. This particular summer feels like hell and halfway through the last day, they run out of syrup, but cups of plain ice are still selling very well, so... yay...
While some of the stalls are already heavy with decoration, others are pretty sparse, with the lack of people running them. Which is fine, or intended, because there are workshops held all around for teaching and encouraging people to make decorations meant to improve different aspects of one's life: paper kimonos for artistic ability, strings of a thousand paper cranes for long and healthy lives, paper purses for wealth, colorful streamers for handicraft, wastebaskets for cleanliness, and of course, tanzaku- paper strips hung up on bamboo trees for a wish to be granted by the gods. Decorations are judged for artistic ability, with a small prize given to the best decoration judged at the end of each night.
In the evenings, stages set out along the lakeside feature folk dance performances, and decorations are collected to be lit on fire and sent off in small boats in the lake, the collection of flames giving off a soft light as the paper burns down and turns to ash, reclaimed by the lake as they sink. A reminder from the townspeople to anybody who stands too close to the lake: please do not touch the water. On the very last evening of the festival, a fireworks show is held, shooting up overhead above the lake and is visible anywhere around town, raining down sparks of gold and red, hell fire from the sky.
...Also hell fire in the woods. It's been windy and dry all month, and a small forest fire has started at the edge of town, be it from arson or by accident. The villagers cut the evening short to go help, as there is no established fire fighting service, so any and all assistance would be appreciated. Somewhere nearby, a child starts to cry, unable to find his mother. With the villagers pulled away, the night ends with the stalls left empty. Nobody comes to clean up the next morning...
→ MOD NOTES
- ⬥ As mentioned in the OOC plotting post, a heat wave befalls the town and NPC villagers start disappearing until the daitengu from last month is defeated. 2 more dungeon threads must be submitted before 8/11 to secure the ofuda. Lockdown continues to occur each midnight, with the school transforming into the dungeon; details can be found on last month's event log.
⬥ For the cultural festival: characters will receive a hint about either 1) how to return home (take the ofuda received after beating the dungeon boss to the castle ruins), or 2) how to summon the Velvet Room attendants (playing Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai at the castle ruins during the full moon), and are highly encouraged to discuss both messages amongst themselves. Characters may learn more about how to play Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, date of the full moon, etc. by asking around town.
⬥ On 8/12 (ICly dated on 8/15, the night of the full moon), a mini-log will go up encompassing both of these findings.
⬥ For the tanabata festival: each character may claim one small wish pending mod approval at any time this month (comment below) for writing their wish down on a tanzaku, and 3 characters will be randomly chosen on 8/12 as winners for the decoration judging, and will be contacted at that time for the option of receiving an additional wish.
i
Holding Pikachu close to his chest and keeping his gaze lowered, he walks quickly throughout the hallways. However, he instinctively stops when a familiar voice calls out to him, looking over to see who it is. Ah. It's that Terry guy.
He glances over at the entrance to the haunted house, frowning slightly and shaking his head. Even if he actually wanted to stick around the festival, the idea of a fake haunted house put together by students sounds kinda lame. He's been to the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town which was full of Ghost-type Pokémon and an Actual Ghost, so a bunch of schoolkids in costumes can't scare him!
And then he just attempts to leave—]
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(lavender town bgm intensifies) ]
Hey, Red... Where are you going? I thought you were going to ditch me after a well-meaning invitation...
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Red actually remains frozen in place as he reflects on Terry's words for a moment. ...He's right. That was pretty rude of him. His response is barely louder than a whisper.]
...S-Sorry.
[If Terry isn't already working for the haunted house, he should.]
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Hey, it's no big deal. You tired or something?
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...Mhm.
[It's true that he's still kind of tired and sore from sleeping on a classroom floor for so long, but even more than that, he's completely mentally drained. For Reasons.]
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Hm... Terry spaces out for about five seconds, maybe lost in thought before speaking up. ]
Wait here. You better not leave, okay?
[ Then he briskly walks to the nearby classroom that's set up like a cafe. After maybe five minutes, if Red sticks around, Terry comes out with a vanilla milkshake and a small cup of fruits. ]
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So he reluctantly stays, leaning against a nearby wall and once again avoiding eye contact with other people in the meantime, unlike Pikachu who is curiously observing the people and events around them from the comfort of his trainer's arms. When Terry emerges from the classroom, Red looks up and can't help but stare right at the vanilla milkshake in one of his hands. Please tell him that's not for him. Even the fruit cup... Terry just bought both of those things for himself, right? Right???]
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This [ He points to the milkshake ] is for you. And this [ he points to the fruit cup ] is for your buddy.
[ He feels like he doesn't have to tell Red to sit with him since he got that message across pretty clearly... also the room is nice and air conditioned. Really beats the heat outside. ]
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Pi-ka-chuuuu~
[He sounds so happy. Bless... Red picks up the fruit cup and takes off the lid, putting the now open cup down in front of his little friend for him to enjoy. Then he glances over at the milkshake again with a slightly melancholy expression.]
...Um... y-you can have that... if you want.
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[ He even nudges it to Red's direction. ]
Drink up. It's pretty hot lately and you must be exhausted. Some energy would be good, right? Enjoy it like your little friend here.
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Pikachu puts down the piece of fruit he was nibbling on and jumps up onto the desk, picking up the milkshake and holding it up so that the top of the straw touches his trainer's mouth.]
Piiii-ka!
[Just drink the milkshake, Red!! After another moment of staring, Red finally gives in and takes the milkshake from Pikachu so he can go back to eating his fruit. With some hesitation, he takes a small sip... and his eyes go wide. Although he isn't actually smiling, the
anime sparklesshine in his eyes make it clear how much he loves this milkshake. He had honestly forgotten just how good they are. Wow...He starts drinking it properly this time, except now he's drinking way too fast and soon enough, he abruptly stops and puts the cup down. He already gave himself a brain freeze.]
...Th-thank you.
[He probably should have said that before he started drinking, but whatever.]
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[ The shine in Red's eyes just reminds Terry that Red's just like any other person here, despite ages and appearances. ]
We should all enjoy ourselves at a festival, even if it's only five minutes of it. Right?
[ He looks over at Pikachu. Back him up on this, bro. ]
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[Pikachu nods enthusiastically in agreement with Terry. You guys... Red sheepishly tilts his aching head towards the ground and mumbles in defeat.]
...I guess...
[1 point for Terry and Pikachu, 0 points for Red. In the spirit of enjoying themselves, Pikachu takes an uneaten piece of fruit from his cup and holds it out to Terry. He should eat too!]
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Yeah. Don't hesitate to take a break when you can and have fun! If you like spending that kind of time by yourself, that's fine. If you want to go with someone, you can always ask me.
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[Pikachu is absolutely loving the pets, meanwhile Red feels like he's about to have a heart attack from these sweet and embarrassing things Terry is saying to him... He can't even fathom why someone who doesn't even know him that well would be this nice to him. Hopefully since his head is lowered, Terry won't notice that his face now accurately reflects his name.]
...Mmkay.
[The odds of Red ever outright asking Terry to spend time with him are slim to none because that's just how he is, not to mention he doesn't even have a cell phone or know where Terry lives, but y'know. He'll at least acknowledge that he said that.
Pikachu now offers a piece of fruit to Red as well, who takes it and begins eating it without lifting his head at all. The adorable mouse Pokémon seems extra happy that all three of them are eating fruit now. They're both welcome to have as much as they want!]
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[ He says a lot of things like it's nothing, and this is one of them. Terry smiles while looking over at Pikachu and Red and eating the small piece of fruit he received. He feels incredibly fond of them, even though he's not that close to them in particular. ]
Also, do you want to rest here? This classroom is going to empty for a while and there's air conditioning--much better than outside. I don't think people will be coming here all that often either.
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He ignores his increasing heart rate at Terry's compliment and looks over at Pikachu, who meets his gaze in turn. Pikachu knows this means that Red wants his input on the matter. The trainer drinks some more of his milkshake while his Pokémon is thinking about it. After a bit, Pikachu shakes his head. As cool as it is in here, he's already been stuck in this building for a pretty long time thanks to his trainer sleeping in. Red doesn't want to stick around for too much longer either despite his lingering fatigue, so he's glad that they're in agreement. They'll stay long enough to finish the milkshake and fruit at least, but after that it's back to the sweltering hot outdoors. As much as Red hates the heat, he hates being stuck inside even more.
He moves the cup away from his mouth so he can give Terry a proper answer now, trying to pretend he isn't still flustered (he is).]
W-We... need to train.
Pika~ chu!
[It's extremely important to Red and his Pokémon that they all stay in shape, so they would rather get out there and exercise for as long as they can manage.]
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[ Terry is a hypocrite, but he knows where his endurance stands. He's not so sure for Red though, even if Pikachu is in agreement.
...
Well, even so, Terry won't stop them from leaving if they really want to. ]
At least take this if you're gonna go anyway.
[ He slides a water bottle over to him. ]
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I have enough.
[By that he means he has a living, endless supply of water (Blastoise). He's noticed that the stores have been quickly selling out of water and ice lately thanks to this heat wave, so Terry should keep that for himself or someone else who actually needs it.]
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[ Terry takes the water bottle back, mostly because he also remembered that Red has a turtle that could probably raise the ocean level on its own. ]
Well, I'm gonna go check things out at the festival. You can keep using the classroom as long as you want.
[ He gets up and gives a pat on Red's head on the way. ]
Don't push yourself too hard, okay? Heard there were some heatstroke victims too, so keep yourself cool.
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...You too.
Pika pi~!
[Pikachu waves happily at Terry as he walks out, and then the two go back to enjoying their treats.]