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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.
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Hello.
[It's possible someone's just trying to be friendly; it's not like either of them look especially out of place in this town, unlike some of the others.]
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[The play is going on just fine without Akira's attention, so he focuses on Sasuke while still mindlessly eating the yakitori.]
When'd you arrive?
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...Do I know you?
[Because it kind of sounds like Akira does.]
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Are you not Yuusuke Sagami?
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Sasuke Sagami. His twin.
You met Yuusuke too?
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[Now that you mention it, Akira does remember Yuusuke mentioning a brother a few times. So maybe he is telling the truth.]
I didn't know you were twins. Sorry.
But yeah, I met him. Bad circumstances, but I met him.
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[It's easier when he isn't associated with Yuusuke, but well. Still, this does bring up some questions of his own...]
...Was it wherever the two at the castle met him?
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Is one of them small, purple, and loud?
Because if so, yes.
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The other had... a few different animals with him. [That's a way to describe it.]
Red.
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[He's surprised by this for a moment. Akira's gonna have to have to some Words with them. —But that's not important right now, he realizes, and he tries to refocus himself on the conversation at hand.]
Either way, yeah. Same place.
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...Can you tell me what happened? During... all of that.
[He still has no idea what it actually was - only that several people now have recognized him here, and that Red in particular was terrified.
It does not paint a pleasant picture.]
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How much do you know?
[He's going to need more yakitori.]
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Not much. All I know is two people other people here knew Yuusuke, and one of them was terrified just seeing me.
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[He really doesn't know anything.]
Alright. It's a lot to explain. So I'm going to get another thing of yakitori, and then we'll find a quieter place to talk so I can fill you in. Okay?
[Ordinarily Akira would sooner die than be so upfront with a person about Reviv right off the bat. But if this guy is Yuusuke's brother, Akira feels he deserves to know.]
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He has to know what Yuusuke did.]
Okay. Lead the way.
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[And he gets up to start walking towards the same stand he hit up last time. A little way into the walk, he asks:]
Do you want anything? I can pay.
[Losing one round of cheap festival food to Sasuke isn't going to kill him. And besides, it might just be good for Sasuke to have something nice to counterbalance the shittiness — the shittiness they both seem to know is coming.]
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[He's already indebted to so many people...]
Telling me is enough.
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[But, if they make it to the stand and Sasuke doesn't change his mind, Akira won't press the issue.]
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[He'll find space off to the side to wait while Akira gets his food, arms crossed and expression troubled. Very un-Yuusuke-like, if his more serious demeanor up until now wasn't evidence enough.]
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[Well, that's too bad. Akira keeps glancing over at him while he's ordering, definitely noting the change in demeanour — but it's to be expected, considering their personalities are probably different. Aren't twins especially supposed to have more actively clashing personalities? Maybe he's just making that up, but it sounds legit.]
[Either way, after obtaining another serving of yakitori, the two of them wander around until they find a bench on a relatively ignored corner of the school grounds.]
[Akita glances down at Sasuke, and gestures for him to take a seat.]
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Whenever you're ready.
[Even if Akira decided to eat all his yakitori before he spoke a word, Sasuke wouldn't complain.]
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...Do you want to know the whole story, or only his role in it?
[Akira doesn't have all the details of what happened to Yuusuke in his final moments. He remembers their conversation in the blanket fort, and what Towa told him, but that's it. He wasn't directly there.]
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Yuusuke's role, though-?]
...All of it, please.
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[I'm not going to recap the entirety of Revivarium because both muns were there, but basically, Akira tells everything to the best of his recollection. The people who were there, the places they were, the deeds they committed. His mask of absolute detachment only breaks a few times, and even then, it's only for anger — not fear, sadness, happiness, or anything else.]
[He's upfront about his opinion on Yuusuke, which is... mixed, but faintly positive. He was sketchy from the start and made no attempt to hide that, but he kept his word when it came down to it. He was upfront about the fact that he was planning to kill in order to keep himself alive — but Akira's not sure yet if he can put more blame on Yuusuke for that than he can put on the people who started this janked up experiment in the first place. He recounts Towa's telling of Yuusuke's death.]
[At the end, he clarifies, they were supposed to go home or stay in the bunker. But a few of them showed up here instead. And at least one... well, she's turned into a shell.]
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But as for Sasuke's part, he absorbs all of this in silence, eyes widening as Akira speaks. When he gets to explaining Yuusuke's death, or at least, what he knows of it, he almost looks on the verge of saying something, but...
Not a single word comes out. Instead, one hand grips the other tightly in his lap as he struggles to understand all of this. Some kind of... death game? And Yuusuke - killing someone, and then dying--
He just saw Yuusuke a few days ago. Just heard that smug voice taunting him even as he choked, trying to regain his breath after it was stolen away by the tug of a rope. Yet all these people knew his name and what he looked like.
So how...?]
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