May 2022 Substories

[jigokumods]

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SUBSTORY #1	SUBSTORY #2
Moon Medicine On May 16th the gyokuto returns for the moon viewing. This time she is testing medicinal mochi! It goes about as terribly as one might expect, given her proclivities. Some mochi makes you feel warm, too warm. So much so that you have the urge to do anything you can to cool off, including removing your clothes. Some mochi hits you with a chill so deep it can only be relieved by the warmth of another body, compelling you to shove yourself right against the nearest person regardless of who it is. Some mochi is the sort that gives you the kind of energy only promised by shady truck stop energy drinks. You have a desire to use that energy to either Fight or Fuck, whichever is more convenient. Just what sort of conditions are these "medicines" meant to treat?! art by FireBay	Vend Me A Dream A local shirime wants a particular item from a particular vending machine. Which one, you might ask? Who knows! The only thing that the shirime will tell you is the button combination: A5. A nosy kejourou can be bribed to tell you which machine, but first you have to provide them a photograph of a certain popular host from one of the clubs. To obtain this picture, you must first bring food from a preferred street vendor to one of the hitobashira who live under the bridge. This vendor will normally only take payments in barter or trade... This continues throughout the city, a seemingly endless chain of trades and barters, until you finally encounter someone with an easy request to move forward with. Then, at last, you might find out which vending machine you need. Turns out, it's one that vends porno magazines in a backlot. The item in question is a rare printing of a magazine called “Juicy Peaches”. You can probably figure out the content based on the name alone – no wonder that spicy shirime wanted it!
SUBSTORY #3	SUBSTORY #4
Swipe Left A mysterious new app has appeared on the network. It appears, ostensibly, to be a social app. Wonder what that could be? This is a Player Submitted Substory/Plot by Pine, player of Ydris. They have a post right here that explains what's going on here, so please glance over there! All threads conducted on this topic count as Substory threads.	Haniwhat? (plot-relevant) Since the Daitengu's funeral, something strange has been popping up around the city. Clay Haniwa figurines have been seen in random places throughout the city; out in a public thoroughfare, randomly on the tables at various businesses, some of them have even appeared in your apartment unbidden. The Department of the Enma has requested that these figurines be brought to the Department. They will be collected for evidence on whatever mischief is going on. The spiritually sensitive will definitely get some strange vibes from these figurines. You have the distinct feeling they should probably be left alone...

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QUESTIONS!

[jigokumods]

Substory related questions? Post them here!

[medicative]

Chasing down that gyokuto again, and Emily will again want to see if she's open to questions regarding where she gets her materials and components for her medicines. She's willing to barter for the information, be it by making her something specific or by being a mochi test subject or whatever else, but she's not given up on this yet. Will our bunny friend let anything loose?

[jigokumods]

As usual, she's pretty tight lipped, but she will say she gets most of her ingredients from outside the city.

Now, there's supply chains that run up and down the river, it's how most of the import/export work in the city is done, so this isn't terribly shocking, but she will clarify, no, she means outside.

This probably means they come from the wasteland.

[kaientai]

well now i have to ask what happens if you don't leave the haniwa figurines alone...

[jigokumods]

For now, vivid nightmares that will usually be specific to the character, though rather than familiar faces within the nightmare (or even strangers), everyone will have Haniwa faces.

That's for now. One gets the impression the spiritual powers at work here are capable of far more.

Whatever you do, don't shatter one of them.

[everblooms]

1) can you take the haniwa figures home? give them a little dollhouse? what happens if you do?

2) this is just a crazy idea. but is it possible to work with the gyokuto? aerith is 100% willing to employ a bunny costume to keep the theme going, if that helps. her interest is the same as emily's, mainly, but she's willing to resort to just taking extra mochi if raw material isn't possible. lmfao

i'm sorry!!

[jigokumods]

1) This will not bode well for anyone that does it, as the Haniwa's cursed spiritual power will seep into the person they are nearby, infecting their nightmares and, with enough exposure, even give them hallucinations of seeing Haniwa faces where normal faces should be.

2) Well the Moon Viewing is a busy time for mochi sellers in general, so she'd actually appreciate the help, though she won't be able to pay Aerith much (though she will get her fill of mochi, if she likes). The bunny costume will be appreciated, and she thanks Aerith for her respect (somehow). She is not willing to part with her ingredients, however, saying the work it takes to gather them is far more than simply helping out at a mochi stand

[kikuichi]

What happens if someone breaks the haniwa? Assuming they can be broken.

[worldbent]

Overly specific haniwa questions because of Matoba’s Sight and he cant leave well enough alone:

1. Can the haniwa spawn past warded areas? (Aka, are they/whoever is leaving them powerful enough to force their way in/cares enough to brute force it)

2. RE: sensing stuff from them- when you say ‘they should probably be left alone’ is the vibe actively malignant, like they have their own will or are the function of a curse, or is it ‘should be left alone’ in the sense of disturbing a sacred object or a seal might be? Negative vs just plain powerful aura basically,

3. ...So obviously he’s going to experiment/keep these things under observation, so: warding them in place? Trying to send his aura into them? Chanting sutras of power at them???

He’s probably going to rope Natori into these experiments so I’ll pop back if we have a specific idiotic thing they’re going to do, I’d love to know the results of their stupid attempts.

[laughitoff]

- Does the gyokuto answer any questions about what he drugs are meant to treat this month or is it as 'for science' as in her previous substory?
- What's her response if gently sussed out for if she has connections to the black market in Jigokucho?

- Can Wei Wuxian communicate with the Haniwa if he uses his ability to talk to ghosts/spirits?
- What happens if he takes them to the Sanzu? Puts some of the water on them?
- What happens...if he gives them blood...possibly in conjunction with the last point?

I feel like every month my questions get sketchier, I love it.

[retroductions]

At the risk of sounding presumptuous, Sholmes would like to ask the gyokuto if she knows a thing or two about the little white rabbits (from the TDM prompt) leading curious lost souls (see: him) to the Sanzu river? He won’t forget his run-in with the isonade anytime soon, and he’s still very curious about what they were up to.

He’d gladly be a mochi taste tester in exchange for info (if there is any) if she likes!

[deadtective]

1) I see that broken haniwa transfer 'most' of their cursed energy to the breaker. Is there anything interesting to be gleaned from inspecting the shattered pieces of a broken one, in that case?

2) Do they spawn randomly or in set locations throughout the city? Like, if Hazel moved one and then camped the original spot would another just pop in eventually or nah?

3) Rounding this off with some stupidity, but...can the haniwa be dressed up relatively safely...... (tiny hats, little purses for their wee arms, etc) If they're going to keep showing up everywhere you might as well decorate them, you know?

[utsuge]

When the Haniwa are delivered too the Department of Enma, what happens to them? Will the upper managers be forthcoming in any details? Any fun storeroom vaults to loiter outside, suspiciously peeking in at these weird bad vibe dolls and all the little outfits people have been putting them in?

[psionicmolotov]

i would assume someone psychically/psionically sensitive gets some of the same pickup from haniwa being bizarre as the spiritual backlash you've already covered (feel free to correct me if this is not the case) but in the interests of being thorough:

- is the Horrible No Good Very Bad Vibe stronger/weaker/weirder to someone with psychic powers compared to spiritual senses

[breweries]

since shylock can control dreams and nightmares with the smoke coming from his pipe, can he help mitigate the nightmares the haniwa will be giving out to people who won't leave them alone?

[appleforyou]

So the Department of the Enma is just gonna be CURSE CENTRAL for a while, huh? Any weird occurrences outside or inside the department that Enmas might notice?

[medicative]

Question about the haniwa induced nightmares/coma, can Emily, her possessing tengu, and Aerith put their heads together and try to create a medicine from Emily's stockpile that will ease some of the effects and aid the sufferers? She'd want to try, and I'm happy to leave the effectiveness to be truly determined by whatever's most fun to play for the individual.

[kikuichi]

Norimune's going to question the locals about the haniwas. Anything they might know and notice about them. He also wants to know if anyone actually see the moment the haniwa appear, and what it looks like (or if it just pop up).

And also asks if anyone reckless enough to touch/break them. I see that most locals avoid them, but what about the reckless moron types?

in the correct place this time

[mahoraga]

Hi, mods ... If a Haniwa ends up in your apartment do you basically have to live with that until you do something about it ... Rough

And in regard to doing something about it, how long can a person handle a doll until they start to feel the negative effects?

Also, is there any way to dampen the effects (even a little) while transporting the Haniwa to Enma? Megumi might ask the locals to see if there are any whispers of some way to handle the doll safely (whether it's wrapping it in a cloth, or if there's someone who can make a seal). No worries if there's way to do this, he'll just have to deal then.

Also also, out of curiousity, what would happen if Megumi attempted to store the Haniwa in his shadow? Given that his shadow is connected to his psyche, I'm assuming Bad Things?

Sorry for all these questions!

[breweries]

okay but... what will happen if shylock were to set aside little offerings for the haniwa? like maybe a shotglass of wine. because he'd offer some to them either way

[paperpusher]

Since the haniwa are hollow, is it possible to slip something inside them? And by "something" I mean a magic paper doll, even if it's just by rolling it up and pushing it through the eye hole. If so...
1. does anything immediately bad happen? This would be the equivalent of Natori slipping a tiny bit of his own spiritual energy inside the vessel, with the shikigami being in constant contact with the clay on the inside.
2. Say Natori does his duty as a good responsible citizen and hands the haniwa in to the Enma, just. y'know. with his little paper buddy inside, with the intention of having it spy on what goes on with the haniwa once they're turned in. Is there any chance he actually gets some info out of this, or does the doll just never make it back to him? He can't tell what it's been up to unless/until he gets it back in his hand.

[kamisabro]

So asking about substory #1 for a change

do we have the medicine to cure the weird side effect of the mochi medicine (aside of the obvious get something cold to combat the extraordinary warmth, hug someone to fulfill the urge, yadayada), or are we stuck with waiting until the symptoms subside?

Re: QUESTIONS!

[watermemory]

Theoretical haniwa logistics, because Minato isn't nearly this stupid (or disrespectful of what looks like ancient pottery), but I'm curious:

Person #1 throws a haniwa for distance (like pitching a baseball), and it smashes onto/next to Person #2.
Who gets the horrible nightmare coma, the first or second person, or both at once?
Or are they even sturdy enough to be grabbed and yeeted like that without cracking in Person #1's hands?

[everblooms]

v v late BUT: this just occurred to me but: do the haniwa or mochi fetch anything on the black market? if aerith were to go looking for a buyer or someone to "return" one of the haniwa to ig, would she get any bites? if so, is it a Big Price or a Little Price? anything of note?

sorry if this was answered anywhere, i've checked but it's possible i missed it 🙇‍♀️

[kikuichi]

Since it pop up during threads, if an Enma character asks if they have enough storage space (or any left) for the haniwas, will they get an answer? Since they're bringing in more of them and there's IC concerns about running out of space.