2nd Event: Choices We Make

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Arrival


Not all characters (known as Wickie, singular or Wickies, plural) arrive at the same time, surprisingly enough! That’s life for you. Some Wickies find their way to the island at a pivotal (or very mundane) point in their life, or even after or during their death.

Wickies who were standing or walking often find themselves entering the town South Sister, located on Lighthouse Isle, through an open doorway. Those that were laying down, or sleeping, tend to be found lying prone in beds, bathtubs, showers, couches, and similar places within the cottages on Cottage Row. There’s no rhyme or reason to it all! To Wickies familiar with the era, they will realize that everything looks as if it’s come from the ‘90s.

The house which a Wickie finds themselves within could already be occupied. This includes walking into a fellow Wicke, waking up in the same location, or accidentally scaring a room full of people with their sudden appearance.

Oops.

C-C-Changes

Thankfully the fog has gone down to what it was before, a slow creeping crawl over the ground. And too, the monsters of before are gone, leaving the town much like it was before. Well...close to what it was before.

For now the season's have changed, from a lingering summer to a cooler fall.

There’s new foods to try, even if some things like lattes cause people to slip into warm boots and tie up their hair, and soups make people curl up under blankets on the couch. And it also means decorations of all sorts, made of the leaves from the forest, orange, yellow and red things and...we can not forget...

Pumpkin overflow

Pumpkins! They're everywhere. Wickies will find pumpkins infused into all sorts of things, like coffee, ice cream, even spaghetti options! It's wild.

There’s also many jack o'lanterns. They have been placed everywhere in town, outside homes, and even small ones have been made into table decorations. The Jack o lanterns have very cheerful faces, and seem to watch Wickies every single move.

That is, until a Wickie bashes or otherwise abuses a pumpkin. That's when it changes- there seem to be more of them. Their expressions change to that of anger, sadness and disgust. None of them attack- yet. But their faces become more and more horrifying, as they follow the Wickie more and more- outside of the bathroom perhaps, or found on top of them as the Wickie wakes up in the middle of the night.

It shouldn't matter right? They're only pumpkins.

What a ride

Funny enough, with the pumpkin invasion, there also comes a dull colored horse wandering about the island. Its head is drooped, and it looks depressed and lonely. The horse is tame on approach and will accept pats and treats, even from those who are obviously not human.

But it also wants something, for all that it seems to be begging for attention. It wants someone to ride them, seems to even be begging for it with its big eyes. The horse will help Wickies to figure out how to mount; it will even stand beside the Town Center benches, rocks, or even go down in order to make it possible for the Wickie to get onto the horse’s back.

That’s when it changes. The Wickie is immediately wrapped in chains from their barrel to the Wickie’s waist. The horse turns a coal black and the Wickie’s clothing changes into that of a soldier's uniform, with a hand either holding a whip modeled after a human spine, or a jack o'lantern.

The Wickie cannot get off the horse on their own, no matter how much they struggle. As the horse moves throughout the town, they will go anywhere from a walk to a full canter, seemingly impervious to any magic or physical attacks. The same cannot be said for their unfortunate rider.

If the rider is hit, or simply in pain, the Wickie will feel an impulse that grows and grows until they scream a name of someone in town, someone they know.

And the named will drop, paralyzed. Paralyzed wickie are likely to die within minutes, more so if they are too close to horse and rider. The horse will happily trample anyone on the ground to death.

Even without the impulse, should the Wickie rider use anyone’s name, that person will drop, paralyzed, and unable to breathe.

There is only one way to possibly save the rider: scatter golden objects in their path. The horse will shriek, and promptly buck the rider off, before running away. Just make sure to catch the rider, or at least cushion their fall: they have no way of saving themselves until they hit the ground.

Heart game: confession

Current residents of the island may remember this particular beeping alert, and how it doesn’t go away, no matter what they do! That is, unless they open up the Heart Game, and answer the question.

Welcome back everyone! It’s so good to see you again! Now let’s play that game, Confession! And the question isssssss…

How do you celebrate the changing seasons! Don't be shy!

Comments

4

[paperpusher]

[Natori is 100% drop dead convinced that they've stumbled into some youkai's realm, and this message just makes that more obvious.]

Haha, guardian, deity or exorcist?

[sohayamaru]

[ They're in agreement as far as she's concerned. So much of the stuff lying around here is sus af. ]

A demon hunter for the right pay. Exorcisms aren't within my purview.

[paperpusher]

A demon hunter, huh? That's interesting.

[Someone who hunts demons or a demon who hunts? It's probably sad that he thinks it's more likely to be the latter.]

Well, if anyone asks you for exorcisms, you could refer them my way.

[sohayamaru]

[ Who says the two aren't mutually exclusive? ]

An Onmyo practitioner. Well, well. Didn't expect so see one so far from the temples.

We might be competition, you and I.

[paperpusher]

[yeah that sounds about right]

Haha, not quite! I'm useless for divination. My clan specializes in paper spells.

But, that said, I'm sure there won't be a need for competition. [...yeah it sounds sarcastic because it is.]

[sohayamaru]

Interesting. Shikigami doll and sealing talisman disciplines, I assume?

No? I wonder...
Exorcisms have been unreliable in my experience, but you're the expert here.

[paperpusher]

That's right! I don't suppose you've heard of the Natori, have you? [Well, it's worth a shot.]

There's a lot of newcomers to the profession who don't really know what they're doing, so it might be something like that.

[sohayamaru]

Can't say I have. Socializing with the temple keepers doesn't happen often, I'm afraid.

[ As in: they're usually trying to kill her. Hella rude. ]

That's certainly possible, with the rise in yokai numbers. Wouldn't be the first time con men have preyed on the desperate.

[paperpusher]

Oh, that's fine. We haven't been around temples in a long time. [partly because they haven't been around in a long time, period!]

Some of them can't even see youkai! It's embarrassing; it's as if a bunch of them realized it's a possibility and go out to experiment willy-nilly. It's a mess to clean up, I'll tell you that.

[sohayamaru]

whats more concerning is the body count after they make off with their earnings. whole villages have been destroyed overnight.

how would you discipline a false priest, if you caught one in the act?

[paperpusher]

Is it that bad in your region? It's rare for a youkai that destructive to get so close to human settlements without one of us getting called in. (Based near Kumamoto, if it matters)

As for discipline? I wouldn't do anything. There are plenty of other clans who are more than happy to enforce the laws.

[sohayamaru]

It's... bad. The number of attacks has risen sharply with the constant warring, regardless of location. Nowhere is truly safe.

Passivity is your prerogative, I suppose. You're far kinder than I would be.

[paperpusher]

Oh, no, not at all. I'm simply too busy to get involved when I know someone will take care of it.

[But constant warring? If there were that many attacks, that big a squabble between youkai, surely some word of it would have reached them? Even if it was on the other side of the country, could he really believe that Matoba wouldn't have heard of it, or would have chosen to stay out of it? Surely even if he had to return for the Mihashira-sama ritual, he would have made some sort of reference to it?]

Where are you from?

[sohayamaru]

Fair enough.

Mino, but I travel a lot. "Home" is wherever I can find work.

[paperpusher]

[Gifu prefecture isn't far enough away from Kyushu that he wouldn't hear of that many attacks-- sure, he's not as plugged into the exorcist community as many, but if entire villages were getting wiped out, he's certain he'd hear something about it.]

Well it certainly sounds like you've found work aplenty. Where's this war? Hokkaido?

[sohayamaru]

I'm not certain how far the borders have been extended in the confusion. Have you not heard of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his land grabs?

He died recently, but I doubt there'll be any semblance of order for quite some time.

[paperpusher]

[...he's talking to a youkai, isn't he. A youkai who doesn't realize how much time has passed. This conversation suddenly makes more sense.

(Right answer, wrong reasoning.)]

Ah, of course. Hideyoshi. That would throw a wrench into things, wouldn't it.

I may not be particularly skilled at divination, but I can tell you that things will settle down. [Let's see... It's been a while since his last history class, and he hasn't been in anything set in the Sengoku period, but if Hideyoshi died recently...] Give it a couple years.

[sohayamaru]

[ Ding ding ding winner winner chicken dinner! How astute of him. ]

Doubtful. Only time will tell.

[paperpusher]

Haha, that's certainly true!

[This is a joke, right. Someone is giving this to him as a joke, right. Either way, at least it lifted his spirits a little.]

What's your name? [or 'what should I call you,' anyway; if he's right, he's sure it could be a touchy subject.] As I mentioned, I'm from the Natori clan. The current head of the clan, for that matter. [Ignore the fact that he's the only member of the clan.]

[sohayamaru]

Hide.

[ Is that her full name? No. Is she going to volunteer that information? Also no. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This is how you're supposed to make friends right? ]

And the most experienced, I would hope. You can't rely on your clan to protect you here.