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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.
no subject
[ That sounds strange to RO, since she's more of a science person instead of occult and magic. But ever since she obtained a Persona, she has to be open to all kinds of things, which usually means cramming her limited memory space with so many things she didn't bother to learn before. She should clean out the clutter that she deems as useless later...
She looks down at the book, squinting down at it as if it offended her entire team unit back home and killed her commander all in a minute. ]
I could scan for relevant information if there is a digital copy of the book... I can also go through it manually and store it in the database that way, but it may take several days.
[ Because this book is absolutely huge. ]
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Yeah? Thanks. It'd be great if you could do something like that. I'm not sure a place like this would have digital books, but you can borrow this one for as long as you want.
[ Essentially, since Kido had stolen the book, it doesn't matter how long it remains stolen. ]
no subject
Then I'll be sure to report back in about three days. Where would you like to meet?
no subject
[ Well, today's a holiday too, and also the next day. It's hard to squeeze in reasonable business days... ]
How about on Saturday? We could meet up here at the school an hour before midnight, and try out whatever you found out.
no subject
That sounds good... I'll take the book.
[ Hopefully Rei won't be there to be a blockade at the entrance... RO holds the D&D book close to her and then looks off at the other books. ]
Is there anything else you'd like my assistance with? You have quite a lot of books over there...
no subject
This other stuff isn't as important.
[ But she pulls the stack over and fans them out in front of her anyways. Mostly recipe books, but stuff on plants and mountains too. ]
Some of this is for personal use, but I was trying to see if I could find out what those leaves were at the very end of that transformed school house, that were able to heal. The mountains surrounding this place as well— I thought a lake with mountains surrounding it from all sides would be pretty conspicuous and easy to find mentions of in a book.
[ Unsurprisingly, none of these can be found in the books, but Kido's sure she can learn something that connects this place together, or at least place them somewhere on a map. ]
no subject
[ Someone has been reading too much lately... she also had similar thoughts about the lake, but could only find similar other lakes instead of the lake itself. rip. ]
The closest result to "healing leaves" I've been able to gather were chamomile flowers which were once believed to be cure-alls... nothing about those leaves in the strange location, unfortunately.
no subject
You already did so much research, I'm impressed. Have you found any leads at all that might be worth looking into?
[ Otherwise, Kido's banking everything on the D&D manual in RO's hands. ]
no subject
That reminds her though. ]
Yes, the book that was on the other side of the table... I looked into it. It seems that the occult shop that had opened recently in town buys off the scrolls, no matter how much in quantity you offer. Particularly, the scrolls that the monsters drop that give off a putrid smell. I was trying to see if there was any connection between the monsters and the occult, but I did not find anything else in that regard.
[ If Kido survived through that tidbit, congratulations! Here's another one. ]
It also seems that a very strange term, Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, is a parlor game that was popular once long ago in Japan. It sounded similar to seances in order to summon spirits. It seems that upon completing this ritual, it will summon two spirits?
[ Or something. That fortune teller was weird and disappeared before RO could question them any further, so it really bothered her a lot. ]
no subject
Kido is about to mark down the shop as a place to visit sometime, but then RO continues talking and it takes every ounce of will to keep Kido from slamming her hands over her ears and refuse to listen. ]
Y-yeah, it's a stupid game. The students here are so childish! First the haunted inn, and now ghost summoning...
[ And the way that particular student knew her name and arcana... She tries to reason that it's because she keeps her omamori on her wrist, that anybody could catch a look of it. Just a stupid magic show gimmick, it's stupid. ]
no subject
[ It's logical, at the very least. RO wouldn't do something that puts herself at an unnecessary risk if ti could be avoided. ]
Though, I am more curious about the phrase "return to the place of beginnings". I was created in a laboratory that is out of reach, so I clearly cannot return there.
no subject
[ Who knows about androids and what ghosts and stuff can do to them— actually, no, Kido knows exactly what can go wrong. She doesn't want to talk about this!!!!! But RO is another one of those people who'll just do what she wants if Kido can't give her concrete reasons why something is a bad idea, so she swallows down her fears as best she can, ignores her trembling voice, and pushes on. ]
Rather than losing your soul, isn't the problem getting possessed by whatever weird soul you're summoning? They're evil spirits! That's why you're not supposed to play that sort of game! Besides, it's not a game you can play by yourself anyways, and telling everybody the same thing- going back to where we all came from- it doesn't make sense since none of us can do that!
[ If she could go home, she wouldn't play a stupid dangerous summoning game!!!!! ]
no subject
That's a valid reasoning. I figured that spirits and such would only possess biological bodies, and not one of machinery. However, if it's a game that cannot be played by oneself, I will have to give up on the idea regardless.
[ She means it too, since there's no point now. That's one less thing to worry about. ]
no subject
...I guess that's that. But it's funny that you and I heard the same thing. I wonder how many others did too...
[ There are so many people who would think it's just a fun game and would do it, she has little faith in anybody else but RO at the moment. ]
no subject
[ She looks over at Kido curiously. ]
... Have you experienced the ritual firsthand?
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With Kido's reaction, RO isn't sure what to think except that she should probably leave the topic alone when Kido is around. ]
... Alright. Please stop shaking your head. I wouldn't want you to get a headache.
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Let's just drop this. Someone like the Fool seems to enjoy that sort of stuff, so he could probably tell you more about it.
no subject
[ She feels like she should have an idea, but... ]
no subject
[ She falls silent for a moment, not because she's reluctant or feels bad about it, but because she just never uses his name so he's just been the Fool for a month now. Gotta dig around to remember his name. ]
Hibiki?
no subject
[ ...
That's really all she says about it. ]
Thank you for telling me. If that's all, I should go. I should start as soon as I can on the book.
no subject
[ actually, wait wait wait, don't go yet ]
Can I ask you to do me a favor?
no subject
What is it?
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Please return these for me. I'll owe you a favor!
[ The librarian is scary and she doesn't want to go back lmfao ]
no subject
Of course. Is that all?
(no subject)
(no subject)