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AUGUST EVENT PT 1

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→ 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He quickly waves his hands no because he doesn't want holes in this thing but he wouldn't stop Kido if she tried anyway. Vassago looks so done with this scene already and disappears.

He'd offer to let her use his knife, but. He doesn't have it with him. ]

[ He should probably stop Kido from stabbing because that's a not a very thick layer separating the mask and his face.

But alright, okay, how are they supposed to do this... ]

I'll try pulling it off, then. I'll need you to kneel down so I can get a better grip on it.

[ Like always, he does what he's told and kneels down. He's hoping this will work, but no matter how hard Kido pulls at it, it won't come off all the while Terry screams inside the mascot head from how much it hurts. ]

[ It's unsurprising that it doesn't work, as Kido's method is nothing fancier than gripping the edge of the mask by the neck and pulling— eventually putting one foot up on Terry's shoulder as extra leverage as she pushes and pulls to no avail, all while ignoring Terry's screaming because he needs to stop being a big baby about all this, no remorse for Terry's head or his shoulder. ]

Aw, geez, what did you even do to get it on?!

[ She lets go, stepping back to give herself a break. ]

Really, the only option I'm seeing here is to cut that thing.

[ It hurts when it feels like his head is going to come off okay!! He doesn't need to be headless already in the first week of August.........

When Kido asks the question, all she'll get is a muffled response. It's really hard to tell what the hell he's even saying because it's really muffled. You'd think with a mascot head like this, it would be easy to talk through it, but no. This design sucks.

When Kido suggests cutting the head, Terry puts his hand over each eye of his to suggest that it... sounds scary. ]

[ taps watch, it's gotta happen sometime

It might as well be today, because Kido has no idea what the hell that gesture is supposed to mean, so she just presses her ear up against the side of the mascot head. ]

Use your words.

[ She'll give him one chance. Just shout as loud as you can, Terry, and if she can't hear you, it's knife time. ]

[ card you tempt me so well.......

Terry breathes in. It's one thing when he initiates the contact, but Kido's so close aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa IT'S AT THE SIDE OF HIS HEAD. HE'S FINE. PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, TERRY!!

Anyway, he ends up screaming "DONT STAB ME" but it's really muffled... Can Kido make it out. I'll leave that decision in your hands, card. ]

[ All she hears is "stab me" lmao

So, with permission granted, she pulls back and nods. ]

Alright, I'll be right back.

[ and trots away into the school building. ]

[ ... ... ...

Terry isn't so sure what's going to happen, but he has a bad feeling. In the meantime, he'll try to get the mascot head off himself, but it's really not working. He's even clawing at the back to make some sort of slit, but his nails aren't that long... maybe he shouldn't have cut them when he was at the bathhouse.

Anyway, he's trying other things while Kido is away, but none of them seem to be working, so he's just staying on the ground like o)-( ]

[ It takes Kido a while to get back, but eventually she does, handles of something that aren't quite scissors sticking out of her pocket. ]

I'm back...

[ Too bad, she was hoping he'd be able to make some progress in the time that she was gone, but apparently not.

She stands there, looming over him for a moment, before taking a seat next to his head, because, actually, yeah, being on the ground is a good position for this. ]

Don't move. If you move too much and your ear get sliced off, that's your fault.

[ It feels as if Terry has suddenly come back to life instead of being dead on the ground upon hearing that because WHAT THE HELL KIDO

WHAT

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa

Yeah, he's actually screaming in that head of his. ]

Shut up. You're wasting your breath.

[ something something about the lack of oxygen that mask is probably allowing ]

[ All the outward screaming makes him tired, so it doesn't take much for him to stop. He is completely silent now.

Even though it's a mascot head that's unable to be taken off by normal means, there's still some space inside the head in a sense that if Terry tilts his head a little, the mascot head won't move much, if at all.

This is like playing the game where you stick swords in the box and hope you don't stab the person inside it.

ganba kido ]

[ God. The silence fell so suddenly, she half suspects Terry's passed out in there, which wouldn't be too surprising given the screaming and the pulling and the unbearable summer heat.

But it's just as well, so he'll stay still. Despite what she said, it isn't a knife that she has in her pocket, because if she slips, it's going to be her hands that she'll be slicing up. She thought about getting scissors, but then realized there was something better she could use: garden shears, with strength enough to cut through solid wood, instead of paper or thin sheets of plastic like craft scissors can do.

She gets her fingers in between the mascot head and the back of Terry's neck to create some space she can ease one blade of the shears inside and start nipping at the fabric and whatever hard material is on the inside. Once the cut is large enough, she can continue using her fingers to create a buffer between Terry's head and the mascot head so she's not cutting any hair, but if he moves and he comes out of this with a bald spot, it's not her problem. ]

[ Hearing cutting sounds so close to his ear makes him feel anxious. He didn't think something like this could make him feel so nervous, and yet, here he is.

The way his head is tilted is kinda strange, so even with Kido's fingers buffering between his head and the mascot head, he feels some kind of pain in his ear. Kido could have also probably felt something that wasn't exactly mascot head material on that last snip either.

Terry doesn't say anything though and moves his head a little away from the gardening shears. ]

[ ...Huh.

She pauses in her cutting for a bit, frowns, and edges her shears over to the side a little so she won't be cutting at what she hopes isn't an earlobe.

Unfortunately, she moved towards the same side that Terry turned his head, so lmao ]

[ When Kido performs her next cut, Terry grimaces and flinches. Enough of the mascot head has been cut so that he can get free, but he doesn't make any movement to take it off...

That sure is blood dripping in the opening. ]

[ HAHA! OKAY!!! we're done cutting.

Kido hastily sets the shears aside and prays the cut is large enough and maybe the blood can provide some lubrication as she gives the mascot head a tug. ]

[ Terry's head is now free from the evils of the mascot head!! Kido gains experience with precision cutting with garden shears. Awesome.

However.

The blood that collected itself into a small pool kinda splashed itself onto Terry's head, so his entire left side of his head and face is splattered with blood. If Kido can look past that, she can see that the source of it all is a pretty big cut in the middle of his earlobe and a small edge of his ear had been snipped off.

Meanwhile, Terry tries to wipe the blood off his face like it's no big deal other than a nuisance. He hasn't really realized how much he's been bleeding despite the action. ]

Thanks, Kido.

[ The thanks is drowned out by a startled cry on Kido's part, and

stares at the sky, we talked about this last month but ig it's not seeing Terry drinking blood that makes this happen, but seeing Terry half covered in blood that terrifies and shocks Kido enough that she just passes the fuck out ]

[ ... I guess she'll have to be shocked again another time then. LOL

Terry's startled by Kido and... oh no. It's so weird being on the other end of this, but after he wipes out most of the blood off his face and sticks a bandaid over his ear (not that it'll help much, but it's something). He's very careful not to get blood on Kido and shakes her shoulder with his hand that isn't dirtied with blood. ]

Kido! Hey!! Kido!!

[ There's really only one place to take her, really... He gathers her things if there are any, carries Kido over his right shoulder and just goes to the hospital where Terry will accumulate more debt with getting ear stitches--a quick treatment-- and getting Kido to a bed in an air conditioned room while that's happening.

He's on friendly terms with all the nurses there by now, even when it was just half of them earlier on. It's sad. The accountant even gives him a dead look when she sees him walk through the door.

Anyway, when he's done, he'll sit by Kido's bed on a chair and wait for her to wake up. His clothes are no longer all bloody--same with his head. Everything is all clean. ]

[ Kido had probably slipped from unconscious to just plain asleep somewhere during all that time, especially once she's indoors and it's nice and cool and quiet. So. You know. It's probably like a two hour nap before she stirs and blinks blearily at white walls, Terry sitting in a chair next to her, and she gives him a suspicious look for a moment before closing her eyes again.

Wow, what a weird dream. She hopes she wakes up soon. ]

[ ... ... ...

Terry caught that suspicious look before Kido closes her eyes again. He quietly sighs, and lets Kido do what she wants as he continues sitting on his chair, thinking that she might need some more rest.

So he reaches over to brush her bangs away from her face. ]

[ The contact makes her sit up in a start, before letting herself fall back again, also bringing her hand up to brush the hair off her face, damp with sweat. Gross. ]

Ugh... Did I pass out from heatstroke? Embarrassing...

[ The wonderful thing about human brains is that they block out whatever you don't want to remember, aka she's thrown aside and forgotten anything past returning to the gate with the shears, and can conclude that Terry had gotten the head off on his own and she passed out sometime soon after that. ]

... Yeah.

[ Terry isn't exactly sure why Kido screamed and passed out, but if this kind of answer calms her down, he'll roll with it. ]

You should probably stop wearing so many layers in the summer.

[ He grabs a nearby clean cloth and wipes the sweat off Kido's face. ]

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 8/3-8/4 School Cultural Festival

→ 8/6-8/8 Tanabata Festival

→ MOD NOTES

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