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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

Well, that's 'cause the only person I really know is...

[ Kokichi, but 1) she doesn't know his name, and 2) lmfao it's Kokichi
There's also Mae, but Kido's convinced Mae's just somebody else disguising herself as a cat, and—- Oh.

Kido whips around, putting herself right in front of Terry's path. ]

You.

... Huh?

[ ???

Terry looks terribly confused at what Kido's saying, because he thought he told her where he usually lives as a hobo... ]

[ The castle barely counts as a building with its open walls and raccoon infestation, it might as well be the hobo life. ]

No point trying to deny it. Somebody saw you and your dragon out there at the castle.

What...?

[ He looks genuinely surprised at this, and also... horrified, because a thought strikes him and it's something very, very unpleasant. ]

W-When? I haven't gone back there since... early July! And I was at the hospital all this time--

[ Terry sure is getting lots of suspicious glares today, though doubt crosses on her face too as she has to reconsider— because he had been at the hospital all this time, and she knows it because she'd also been there to see him too. ]

...It must not have been more than a day or two ago. Then it couldn't have been you.

[ Terry gets no apologies for the accusation. Instead, Kido's mind settles on the fact that Sasuke is a bastard who cannot be trusted. ]

[ Even though it looks like Kido's suspicions seem to be lowering, Terry still looks slightly... panicked. ]

Besides, it would have taken an entire day to go there and come back to town! And I was always either working, with other people, or at the hospital. But either way, I was always in town--

[ He doesn't care about apologies for Kido's accusation. He has something more pressing to worry about. His newly healed heart feels like it's pounding in his ears, because of the possibility of his theory coming true aka a person who died twice shouldn't be telling the clone of someone who died that they were somewhere else when they clearly weren't. ]

--I need to check the castle, right now.

Uh. No, I believe you, so—

[ She doesn't need all that justification because she already knows, even if she won't admit her mistakes, but Terry being panicked sort of scares her, because he's never really that and she grips his hand tighter so he won't go running off. ]

Why? What's going on, Terrence?

You said that somebody saw me and Vassago at the castle, but we both know that we weren't there. And since we know that once dead people somehow come back to life when they're brought here, then there's only one explanation...

[ Maybe if Kido didn't specify that it was "Terry and Vassago", things would have gone better since he knows Red also has a dragon in his possession, but. Sometimes it just be like that.

Terry looks like he's almost going to lose it and do something out of 100% pure desperation with how panicked he looks right now. ]

My... my original. He must be here... and since he's the same person, I wouldn't... deny that he has the same Persona too...

[ Obviously it was Terry and Vassago, because who else could it be, when Kido has no idea about Red's dragon. As if it'd do anything in this situation, Kido reaches out with her other hand to clasp over Terry's, needing him to not freak out because then she will freak out and then she'll probably end up crying— this has sort of been the pattern so she wants to nip this in the bud. ]

That's more a reason to not go, isn't it? I wasn't under the impression you guys were friendly towards each other, so just forget about him!

[ Kido's getting smarter... thank...

Unfortunately, his original has been the source of his lifetime's worth of pain. Someone that he's been forced to chase--someone that ruined his life even though he was never there to be in it in the first place. It's not something he can just forget about. ]

I wouldn't be going back for a friendly visit.

[ That's very ominous when all the panicked tone of voice just drops into nothing. ]

[ It's so telling that he's intending to fight, but there's just so much stacked against him- first and foremost him being a "botched" clone of his original, the fact that he'd just gotten out of the hospital and Kido doesn't want to see him back in it again barely two days after he's left. She doesn't want to let him run off to die because what if he never comes back.

It's so stupid, because he's quiet and she's quiet, and she can feel the tears burning at the back of her eyes anyways. ]

You don't have to go back at all. What's the point? You guys can't just leave each other alone? That's stupid.

Because I know how he's like! He's not going to be passive while I sit around and do nothing! I know what he's capable of--he was a war leader candidate for his brutality! He does shitty things without remorse because it'll benefit him! He'll do inhumane things because it's fun to watch them squirm in agony! Everything that I built up here, everyone that I became friends with, I...

[ His voice trails off and he immediately breaks free of Kido's hold on his hands, but he doesn't escape. Instead, he pulls Kido into a tight hug with his face buried into her shoulder. His entire body is trembling. ]

I'm scared. I'm scared, Kido... I don't... I don't want to lose anyone that I care about.

[ ...Hesitantly, Kido lifts her arms and hugs him back, as if she can stop him from shaking if she holds on tight enough. ]

Stupid... That's how people feel about you too, you know? Running headfirst to fight a guy like that.

[ Whatever the sort of person his original is, the more Kido hears, the more she wants to just keep Terry here instead of letting him run off like that. It's scary, and if she were any stronger maybe she would say something about coming with him, but he would probably say no either way. ]

...Can you detect him? Is that something you can do— Is that something he can do?

[ Terry gradually, slowly, but eventually calms down with the hug. He's no longer trembling in her hold as if Kido's wish came true. However, it doesn't stop Terry from continuing to hug her. ]

... Yeah. He can do everything I can do, but better. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew how to disrupt my search for him either.

[ Kido is the first to let go, arms falling to the side although she doesn't pull away if Terry wants to keep hugging her. ]

You've been here longer than him, and you know more people than he does, so...

[ There should be some advantage with that, but she can't think of what it might be. From what little she understands, it sounds like getting the first strike in is the best course of action after all. ]

How were you able to keep him away before?

[ That was unfortunately the same answer Terry arrived to, which was why he wanted to go get rid of him asap. But he appreciates that Kido doesn't push him away, because he feels like the hug is what's holding him down to his relative rationality. ]

... I was made after he died, so I don't have an answer for that. The only advantage I hold over him is that I can't die, but he can.

[ Dead people should stay dead!! Though, here she is, a dead person, and it's not like there's any sense of past or future when everybody seems to come from different times.

How to defeat somebody who's like yourself, but better? And all you have over him are friends... who are more deadweight than anything else, in a situation like this, and the fact that you can't die. Logically, you would fight. Die. Get up and fight again. Chip away at the enemy until you bring them down, however long it takes, however much it hurts, however many people are lost along the way because at least you aren't losing everybody and that's the only victory you can take away from something like this. ]

I don't want you to fight... But I don't know what else there is to do.

[ It's terrible, feeling all sorts of helpless like this, and Kido can't even begin to imagine how Terry's feeling. ]

Do you really think going to see him is the best thing to do?

[ Terry swallows and breathes out quietly. He doesn't want to say yes, but he can't think of anything else. ]

I don't know how long he's been here already, but if it's been recent... maybe he was weakened like I was when I first got here. I... I can take advantage of that. I don't have a way of knowing for sure. I'm not getting anything right now. But if that's the case, I know where to aim for. And... it'll be all over.

[ But Terry doesn't feel lucky in particular.

stares at his bonuses ]

I think... it's the best chance I'll ever have. The earlier, the better.

[ He hugs her a little tighter. ]

I'm sorry.

[ A part of her wishes he'd be a little more confident, even if it's a lie, because then she would have something to hold onto besides ifs and maybes and I'm sorries.

She raises her hand again to pat him on the head, like an awkward one-armed hug. A pause, and then she gently runs her fingers through his hair—- so she can grab a fistful as a threat to tear half the hair off his head if he denies her this one request: ]

I'm coming with you. I won't fight and I'll stay out of the way, but I can at least hide your presence on the way there. He won't be able to see or hear you come at all.

[ Mostly because he's not there. But maybe one day Ichi and I will raise the character cap to 3 per player and you can app Terry's original and ruin Terry's life ]

[ The first thing Terry thinks of is that his original would take Kido hostage if given the chance, but he's pretty sure Kido won't take no for an answer. He shakily breathes out after Kido runs her fingers through his hair and slowly pulls away from her. ]

Alright, fine. Before we go, I want to test something. Can you turn invisible for about a minute?

Sure. Should I just be standing here, or what?

[ She can do way more than a minute, and it's much easier if she's just hiding herself and nobody else, so it shouldn't be a problem. ]

You can walk around a little. I want to see if my ability can track you down while you do that.

[ He's pretty sure his original has better control and efficiency regarding pinpointing, but it's worth a try anyway. ]

...Worth a try.

[ Kido shrugs, letting her body fade away and starts strolling off towards the forest, though not too far away that she can't turn around and still see Terry.

She has no idea if he could tell where she is, but she has some suspicions. Things to do with the senses— sight and sound and such- can be removed, if the power relies on something like that. The wiki also says that she can conceal her own memories this way, but that's unsourced so I don't know where to verify that; presumably, if Terry's locating power has anything to do with seeing into her head, he'll have a hard time with that too.

The only thing she's not so sure about is the fact that if somebody is really really close to her, they'll have an easier time of spotting her, though they'll still have to squint and concentrate really hard to make out even the faintest outline. Not a problem with the original Terrence, but she's not so sure about Terry. It's only been a month, though. He probably can't take advantage of that either. ]

[ What makes his power functional to locate something is whether that thing exists in the world. So he can even find an overseas relative's remote if that's what they wanted, so if an invisible ghost exists, he can pinpoint it, but I'll just say that for Kido's powers, it'll be extremely fuzzy.

Terry stares ahead. It's an empty street. He doesn't see nor hear Kido anywhere around him, but he's pretty sure that she's still around. He frowns when he can't really tell clearly. ]

Okay, Kido. I'm done. You can come back... wherever you are.

AUGUST EVENT PT 1

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 8/3-8/4 School Cultural Festival

→ 8/6-8/8 Tanabata Festival

→ MOD NOTES

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