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cetana mods ([personal profile] citta) wrote in [community profile] cetana2019-08-12 05:19 am

AUGUST EVENT PT 2

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.


overstrain: * (pic#5531545)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-08-13 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
[ THIS IS WHAT HE MEANT BY SHARING, OKAY... let him live... well, first, we need to have Kido live. Terry is surprised when Kido starts choking on the candy. Oh no... ]

Kido, can you talk, cough or breathe!? Nod for yes and shake head side to side for no.

[ I cant believe someone is actually not breathing. Amazing. ]

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-08-13 05:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ I can't believe this, why is Terry so stupid, Kido shakes her head no

but, like. she's trying to cough, and the problem is that she can sort of expel air but not draw any back in so she's just going to suffocate probably lmao ]
overstrain: * (pic#13280454)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-08-13 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Terry is panicking, but his infamous Panic Responses aren't as bad as before... okay no, they're still bad, but he's been trying to restrain himself more. That's why after Kido shakes her head no, he immediately positions himself beside/behind Kido, holds her shoulder and pushes her a little so that she bends over a bit to make her upper body a little more parallel with the ground as much as he can making her fall, and delivers up to five blows (human level strength. he doesn't want to kill kido by hitting her to the next tree or something) to the back between her shoulder blades with the heel of his hand.

Working in the hospital comes in handy sometimes. Thanks, Jace.
]

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-08-13 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Choking to death is a pretty miserable thing and I like to think that the stall owner is just standing there going "please don't die in front of my stall, that's bad for business."

But eventually the candy is dislodged and Kido's coughs sound like actual coughs rather than a desperate but futile bid for air.

She's definitely crying now and is nauseous and crouches down on the ground with her head between her knees trying to breathe, maybe she should take back what she said about Terry not ruining her night lmfao thanks for saving it though ]
overstrain: * (pic#13280488)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-08-13 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He didn't expect things would turn out this way! Feels bad, man. Terry gets a few napkins from the stall owner and crouches next to Kido, holding out the napkins to her since he doesn't have a handkerchief and rubs her back.

He's totally expecting a punch to the face for what he did, and for what came out of that happening, so he's just mentally preparing for it whenever it comes.

...

Okay, yeah. Forget this. Punch or not, he'll end up carrying Kido and run to the nearest bench that doesn't have many people around.
]

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-08-13 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She wants to yell something but that requires air and she's still trying to keep what air she has in her lungs, so Terry makes it to the bench before she tries to shrug him off. The claim of "I'm fine" gets caught in her throat, and when she tries to say "God, I wish you'd just leave me alone," that doesn't come out either— it's too much like when she was little, all these words jumbled up in her head and she couldn't get anything out, not even a "hello" or a "thank you" and all she can do is sit and cry and feel sorry for herself.

It's hard to breathe when she cries too, so she'll just focus on stopping that first, rubbing her sleeves over her eyes to get the tears to stop, trying to take deep breaths that keep getting interrupted by hiccups.

Oh, this really sucks.

Terry must have dropped his candy to help her here. And he'd looked so excited about it, too. ]


...Sorry... I didn't...

[ Who's ruining whose night? ]
overstrain: * (pic#13294432)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-08-13 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It's pretty hard to unintentionally ruin Terry's night, so it's fine on his end. :') Kido, on the other hand... well, Terry puts Kido on the bench properly so that she's not in some awkward position after shrugging him off. Kido's more important than the candy anyway. It's fine. It can always be bought later. There will always be another chance. ]

It's okay... Don't be sorry. It was my fault. I didn't think it would go the way it did.

[ He still has some extra napkins. While they're not as soft as tissues or handkerchiefs, they probably absorb water better than her yukata, so he'll just hand them over.

He'll give her gentle head pats too so that he doesn't mess up her hair in the process. There, there.
]
reveilation: (011)

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-08-13 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Out of everything, it's having her head patted like that that makes her calm down. With her eyes closed and the napkins being torn up in her hands instead of being used to wipe her tears, she's reminded so much of how Ayano used to pat her head just like this. Her foster mom too, and Rin as well. All these people she loved and lost and misses so much. Those sorts of thoughts make her heart hurt, but easy to calm down and feel safe enough to turn red rimmed eyes over to Terry and shake her head. ]

No, it's not your fault. I was startled and— ...It would've been such a stupid way to die.

[ Like, nobody really thinks about how they want to die, but choking on food? That's such a lame way to die. ]


...Thanks for saving me, Terrence. I owe you one.
overstrain: * (pic#13280491)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-08-13 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
... Yeah. Sure thing.

[ He'll give Kido a headpat one more time before taking his hand back. Choking on festival food would sure be quite a way to die, and he's glad that the crisis had been averted. If he has to worry about death falling onto someone, he'd rather it be out in battle, not in... festivals like these. That would probably drive him crazy, trying to look for safe places for his friends to be, when in reality, there probably isn't any. ]

I'll always come to help you if I can. I won't let you die, Kido.
reveilation: (013)

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-08-13 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Mm, same here.

[ Which just reminds her about how powerless she really is in situations like these. How's she supposed to help anyone when her Persona only has weak healing spells, can't shuttle anybody around, and she keeps getting flustered every time Terry does anything, to the point that she chokes on a goddamn grape? Shameful.

But it's enough of that, she doesn't want to look uncool in front of others, so she stands and smooths out the front of her yukata, the fabric damp with tears and probably spit here and there but at least the fabric is dark and hard to see. ]


I told you before: we have each others' backs. So you better not let me die.
overstrain: * (pic#5531544)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-08-13 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Not on your life.

[ ha.

Terry also stands and stretches his arms up, dropping them down after he's done. The festival is still going on and he'd like to look around more, but there's always tomorrow. Not to mention, he is pretty tired from his trip.
]

I should get going though... and I shouldn't keep Rei waiting for you if she's here.

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-08-13 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[ /: ]

Oh, right. I should go find Rei, so I'll see you later, Terrence. We can hang out some other time.

[ But her best little sister gets precedence, he's absolutely correct. ]
overstrain: * (pic#5531551)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-08-13 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[ :') ]

Yeah, some other time then. See you later, Kido.

[ Terry starts leaving first, waving bye to Kido all the meanwhile. ]