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AUGUST EVENT PT 2

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→ 8/13-8/15 Obon Festival

Lanterns start to dot the streets, hung by the front door of each house who still have an able body to hang them. From there, the lights spread outward, neighbors visiting neighbors with lanterns in hand and prayers in their hearts that the light will be enough to guide the spirits of their ancestors home, enough to heal their loved ones and bring the health and energy back into town.

The first day of Obon passes in silence.

On the second day, the oppressive heat starts to lift, skies clear with a cool breeze that passes through the streets and rocks the lanterns at each door, which opens as people trickle out onto the street. By late afternoon, the entire town is alive with chatter and laughter, the townspeople bustling about to get their late start in setting up the festival stalls and the large stage set on the lakeside in front of the school. Some of the missing have started turning up again, with claims of having recovered from illness or returned from a trip, and more than that, visiting relatives are introduced to one another despite no car or plane ever seen entering or leaving the town. With most businesses closed for the Obon holiday, the second day is spent catching up with one another, making last-minute purchases and renting yukata, and finishing preparations so that both the spirits of their ancestors and those who have become well enough again may celebrate with all in full. By the end of the night, everybody has returned, the town restored.

Loud drumming can be heard the morning of the third day, taiko drum performances starting early and lasting late into the evening. The steady beat fills the air no matter where in town you are, but standing right in front of the stage, it can be felt in your chest, as if the entire town's hearts beat as one. Though less compared to during the tanabata festival, stalls are set up for Obon and largely consist of games and shops selling toys and trinkets, food stalls focusing on small treats rather than meals. With the taiko performance in the background to keep the rhythm, folk dances are held on the stage and in the parks and are open to anybody, participants being pulled in from the streets to join the circles to dance. Traditional clothing like yukata can be seen worn by almost everybody, from young children to great-grandparents, as they gather around the lake at sundown to say farewell to the spirits. Lanterns are lit and sent off into the lake, where they gather at the center and burn bright until there's nothing left to burn, and the town settles into warm, sleepy darkness.

When night falls and the townspeople begin to clean up, retrieve the lanterns, and go home, the breeze picks up a little, soft and cool, cutting paths throughout town much like the freezing gusts of winds that first Lockdown night. Rather than to the schoolhouse, however, the wind gently nudges you towards the forest, towards the edge of forest blocked by caution tape to keep people out of scorched earth and blackened trees. Only one lantern is left untouched, hanging on a tree branch just before this forest fire site, fallen trees cleared out to widen the path, that leads into the forest.

Soon, the full moon hangs high in the sky, shining its light straight down onto the castle ruins below.

→ 8/15 Castle Ruins and the Shrine

Carried along by the breeze that winds through the streets and blows down this path, finding your way through the forest becomes simple, and soon the trees part to reveal the castle ruins hidden away inside the forest -—at least, what used to be castle ruins. The changes come unexpected and instantly, in a blink of an eye during the day for those who still live in the castle, and a sight to behold for those who haven't returned in a long time until tonight.

Entering the castle reveals a repaired foundation and pillars which stand whole again, stairs to the second floor still broken but with all the rubble underneath cleared away, the air inside the castle no longer choking with dust. In the main hall, red candlesticks line the perimeter of the room, the glow of fire illuminating the murals that have shown up on previously blank walls, images faintly visible under a layer of yellow mildew. If you carefully scrub them clean, they depict a small village surrounded by farmland, a familiar lake at the center, flocks of crows adorning the skies with one large crow standing on the peak of the mountain overlooking the town.

At the center of the castle's main hall, a mother bear and two cubs can be seen snoozing in the middle of the room, sleeping next to a meter-by-meter square that has been cut into the stone ground. If you can get the bears to leave or are brave enough to approach without waking them up, you will see that hinges on one edge suggest it to be a door, but there is no handle and no way to lift the panel, nor can the door or the surrounding area be damaged no matter how hard you try. Upon closer inspection, there are four impressions on each corner of the door matching the size and shape of the ofuda received as a reward for defeating the dungeon boss, currently in RO's possession. Placing the ofuda on one of the slots causes the edges of the door to glow bright blue for a second before the light disappears, and the ofuda turns to stone, just like the door and the castle around them. Nothing more seems to happen after, the other three impressions remaining exactly the same.

All throughout the night, the candles burn along the perimeter of the hall, one hundred in total that cast the room in warm light. Whether you remember the fortune teller's words or are simply chatting with one another and catching up on all that's happened during your time here, each time a story is shared, a light blows out, leaving the castle dimmer and dimmer as the night goes on. The darker it gets, the more restless you begin to feel, Personas becoming more agitated and prone to lash out as the clock ticks closer to midnight. Those who choose to take a walk to the shrine to cool their heads find that the shrine looks different from before too, revealing unbroken steps, a thoroughly swept floor, stone lanterns whole instead of crumbled and broken, and the water basin filled to the brim with clear water that almost seems to sparkle in the moonlight— a far cry from how broken down the abandoned shrine appeared just a month before. There's still work to be done, however: in particular, the sign- restored and painted over in pure white so that it looks almost new- still displays no name. The paint is still a little wet, so perhaps somebody is just waiting for the paint to dry...

The night seems to drag on, but as long as people keep talking, no matter where they are in the castle or at the shrine, the candle lights continue going out until they count down to zero.

→ 8/15 Welcome to the Velvet Room

When the last of the candles go out and the castle plunges into complete darkness, a bright blue light begins to shine from beside the throne, taking on the form of a doorway set into the wall. Without fanfare, two figures step out, the taller with silver hair and a kind face, and the other with golden eyes that peek past long bangs to squint at everybody inside the castle. ...The latter immediately turns around back through the doorway to leave his partner to explain things to everybody here, who takes a seat on the throne as if he belongs there all along. If you have questions, come talk to this guy; but otherwise, there's nothing stopping you from going through the doorway to follow after the other one.

This isn't the only doorway that opens up: blue light shines between the pillars of the torii at the shrine, and similar doorways appear scattered throughout town to replace your bedroom door, the bathroom stall in a store you've run into for an emergency, set into the wall in an alleyway where there was no door before, even at the first floor of the school dungeon if for whatever reason you're there. Regardless of which door you enter, stepping through any doorway brings you into a small room, a bowl of fresh fruit and a bottle of some sort of non-alcoholic mixed drink in a bucket of ice sitting on the table in the middle of the room, two chairs flanking the table and a plush velvet couch against one wall. The ground shakes and rocks as you look around, curtains pulled aside to reveal inky blue darkness, spots of light floating past the windows out in the distance like stars. Each person arrives in their own room, a placard with their name and arcana set on the door labelling it theirs.

Down the end of the hall, the door opens up into a brightly lit lounge, wide windows set along the walls although the landscape outside remains as dark as ever. The lounge is filled with chairs and couches covered in the same blue velvet as the rooms and music seems to fill your entire being rather than just your ears. Passing through the door at the end of the lounge brings you to the conductor's cab where a young man sits, changed out of his costume into a more formal uniform in dark blues with a train engineer cap pulled low over closed eyes, slouched far back on his seat with his feet up on the control panel. Despite all that, however, the train simply zips along, the rail just barely visible from the front window of the cab. The attendant tilts his head your way, looking rather irritable, silent until you speak first.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ As a reminder, characters are more likely to lose control of their Personas around the time of the full moon (8/15) but this can also occur at any time, especially with internal conflict and during Lockdown. This is an optional mechanic. Personas will also temporarily disappear once the character enters the Velvet Room.
⬥ The two Velvet Room assistants will have their own top-levels below for those who wish to speak with them in this log, and they may be contacted at the NPC contact page at any time as well. The NPC contact page will serve as an "IC inbox" for the characters to freely interact with the attendants to ask questions, receive and fill requests, hang out, etc. Please read this page carefully for more information about accessing the Velvet Room.
⬥ While each attendant may have individual requests for those who ask for them, they will also give tasks for the characters as a whole. These general requests will be listed on the NPC contact page at the beginning of each month. Successful completion of a request will earn characters rewards, and there is no time limit for completion.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Terry really wants to say that Kido's here, so there's no doubt that it can happen, but he'll just focus on saying something else. His mouth filter has been working better lately... ]

We know that I tried searching for both, and they both gave me the same results of being unable to be found. At first, I thought it was just my original blocking off my powers somehow, but...

[ He doesn't think it's ghosts either, because those still exist. So the fact that Kido said that she saw her sister confuses him. Maybe his original is just fucking with him and everyone else somehow. He wouldn't doubt it if he was somehow the mastermind behind so many things because he'd be capable of it. ]

I never really had problems using my powers until I came here, so it's weird. I can't really explain it either.

[ Yeah, but like, dead dead. Splat against the ground dead. No way to be them back together dead. ]

So... It's possible that she is here, and something's just faulty on your end still?

[ Can she get her hopes up... ]

If it's okay with you, can I ask that you keep trying? Just once a day, or every couple of days would be fine too... I can pay you for that service thing, so it's not like I'm wasting your time and efforts.

Yeah, of course! You don't need to pay me for it either! It doesn't take much to use it every day, so I'll definitely do it! I'll make it a routine habit everyday!

[ He seems pretty adamant on doing it for free too. Even though she offered and he really needs money, there's something about taking money from Kido when she looked so sad about him being unable to find Ayano before.

If possible, he'd like to prevent Kido from crying when he can... ]

Edited 2019-08-12 21:41 (UTC)

...Okay.

[ The enthusiasm takes her aback, but, okay. ]

Yeah, I'd really appreciate that, Terrence. If you don't need me to pay for that, at least let me take you around here and buy you something. Since you probably still have hospital debt.

... Yeah.

[ He laughs a little. It's fine. This is fine... ]

I'd like that. I'm pretty hungry!

Hm.

[ Yeah. She already knows, so she won't press it anymore. ]

Well, I hope you're not too sick of festival food. Mostly desserts this time around, too. Candy apples and strawberries and stuff like that.

A candy apple?

[ He wonders if that's like... an actual apple-sized candy that's shaped like an apple. Just pure sugar. ]

I wanna try that!

Have you never had it before? It's pretty common, I thought...

[ Then again, it's festival food, and he says he's never been. Weird, living twenty years and never going to a festival before. She tugs his hand to lead him over to the stalls congregated around the stage. ]

Yeah, I haven't had one before... I've never heard of one either.

[ Terry follows Kido and looks over at the many stalls that he's passing by. ]

They always have so much in these festivals... Is this normal? Or is this big?

It's pretty sweet, so it's probably better if we buy one and split it, in case you don't like it.

[ It's basically sugar on top of what's already a very sweet fruit, so it's probably overkill to anybody who isn't a child. The rest of the stalls look pretty familiar, if a bit more laid back because the focus of this holiday is the dancing and the music and the lanterns, rather than bustling around eating and playing as much as you can before the night's over. ]

I think there's lots of festivals around this time just because it's summer. The students are on break around now, and the weather is good for being outside. Summertime is also when the days are the longest, so it's nice...

Yeah, that makes sense...

[ Terry wonders just how sweet the candy apple is. He feels pretty excited to eat one now... his curiosity grows ever stronger. ]

With how you talk about it, I would have thought you liked summertime.

[ Kido just hums a little at that, because summertime... it's complicated. She likes it, all the warmth and the energy in the air, laid back and sleepy and unrushed. but at the same time, it's the anniversary of so many bad things— tomorrow is the anniversary of so many bad things- that all she can manage is a hum and a shrug. ]

It's nice outside. But I'm pretty much always indoors anyways, so it's not like things change much, cooped up in the same room all the time.

[ Here's the candy apple stall. They're all bright bright red, perfect for catching children's eyes, if you don't think about how impossibly red they are. Definitely not natural. ]

One candied apple. Do you want to try any of the other fruit?

[ It's also very good at catching Terry's eye, because he's amazed once they arrive and looks at all those candied apples. ]

Oh, those look like grapes! I want those too.

[ He's so childish... Kido can't help but laugh a little. ]

One apple, one grape. You sure you don't want to just try one of each?

I do, but... I'd probably rot my teeth.

[ And he doesn't want that. ]

I'll get some next time.

[ Caring about dental hygiene... gains him +1 point in Kido's book. ]

Next time as in tomorrow? Tomorrow will be the last day of Obon, and I don't know when there'll be festivals like this again.

[ But does that mean he's still in the negatives... ]

Yeah, I'll try another one tomorrow. I don't have to rush through it.

[ He'll have time. Probably.

Now that he looks at it, the candied apple looks... bigger than he thought. Unlike with the popsicles, he's not sure how this one can be shared. ]

How do you split that thing though...?

[ Kido's opinion of Terry just sort of wildly fluctuates depending on what last came out of his mouth. Right now it's trending down. ]

What do you mean how do you split it? You eat half and I eat half.

[ The definition of sharing... ]

But... there's only one stick...?

[ ??????????? ]

...Yes.

[ Why is this a problem. ]

[ ... ... ...

It's been a month and a half by now and Terry realizes that the best way to explain something to Kido is that he needs to show her what he means. ]

... Can I have one now?

[ .........He gets one last weird look from her and she turns to the person running the stall and asks for a candied apple apple on a stick, candied grapes on a stick, and some napkins. At least there's two grapes per stick and that's easily shareable, but the same concept applies to the apple? It isn't that hard. ]

[ Unfortunately, Terry still doesn't get what Kido means with how the apple is shareable and eagerly waits for the candied apple and grapes to be handed to him. :9 ]

They look so shiny in the light...

[ Maybe he'll like them enough that he'll eat the whole thing and she doesn't have to explain. ]

Pretty, right? Like jewelry.

[ As soon as they're done, she hands over both sticks, since it can get stick once they melt and she doesn't want to deal with that. ]

[ Terry takes both sticks from Kido and keeps looking over at the grapes, then at the apple. He looks back at the candied grape and takes one off the stick with his teeth, putting it into his mouth easily.

Crunch.

... Terry looks fine. ]

Wow, it's so good!

[ He sure bit through that candied grape like it's nothing. ]

Here, Kido! You can have the other one!

[ Terry hands her the leftover grape on the stick. He was pretty careful not to touch it too. ]

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 8/13-8/15 Obon Festival

→ 8/15 Castle Ruins and the Shrine

→ 8/15 Welcome to the Velvet Room

→ MOD NOTES

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