9550/Onsen and Ofuro: The Night Parade

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Onsen and Ofuro: The Night Parade
Date of Scene: 09 January 2022
Location: The Bathhouse of the Gods
Synopsis: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen survive the Night Parade, acquire some food, and manage not to fade away entirely.
Cast of Characters: Hope Svelgate, Eric Brooks, Megan Gwynn, Jonathan Sims, Martin Blackwood




Hope Svelgate has posed:
    When we last left our intrepid band of Extraordinary 'Gentlemen', after investigating a mysterious disappearance at the British Museum, they had plunged into an otherworldly sento bathtub and found themselves in a strange Otherworld in the form of a seeming resort destination for all manner of Kami and other East Asian divinities.

    All around, the festival atmosphere is just starting to get into swing as the strange hawkers begin barking about their wares. In the distance all manner of shadows can be seen approaching as the sun of this world touches the horizon filling the sky with orange and purple hues as it begins to melt out of sight. Before long night will fall and as it does the approaching shadows grow more and more solid as the visiting gods arrive.

    In the distance with the fading of the sun, the great looming bathhouse too begins to come alive, windows lighting up, chimney belching great clouds of thick black smoke, as this relaxation resort for the gods themselves prepares to open for the evening's business and receive their esteemed patrons.

    Whatever has become of young Charlotte, the answers are surely here ...somewhere.

    Meanwhile, back in the British Museum, the assistant curator and their aids continue to fuss about on the edge of panic. Some approach the large still full wash basin where all of the Extraordinary investigators vanished to gawk, but none dare touch the water. So on edge are they, a single last drop falling from the chute that filled the bath and sending ripples through the surface with a quiet splash, causes them all to jump back in fright.

Eric Brooks has posed:
Blade flexes his gloved hands and looks around slowly, a pan and scan behind his opaque sunglasses. While the world around them bursts with color and life, Blade is a singular figure clad in his all black, heavily armed and menacing, an obvious intruder in this exotic landscape.

"What in the sweet criminy Christmas fuck is all this happy horseshit?" he says out loud.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn blinks as the world changes, and rubs her eyes, "Woah, what is this place? I feel like Alice in Wonderland or..Something.." she glances around as Blade joins her, glad at least not to be alone. "Soo, how do we get out..What even is this place?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon went and touched the water on /purpose/, because of course he did, after firing off a text to the other Extraordinary types to let them know how to follow them into this other world: touch the water, get transported. So dropping into this different world isn't /entirely/ strange. He's done this before. Sort of.

    Still, he narrows his eyes and peers around at the... resort? Hmm. He walks over to join Blade and Megan and comments, "The air is full of magic. We're in another realm, I think. Another... dimension? World?" He shrugs and looks around. "Likely connected to Japanese religion and folklore, by the look, and given the exhibit." Not his forte, exactly.

Martin Blackwood has posed:
    Martin comes into the museum with a frown. He received the text. Sure it -read- as an explanation of the exhibit, but if he knew his husband--and he did--what it really said is 'I'm going in. Make sure I come back out.' So he is geared appropriately for a rescue operation, SHIELD standard issue ICER in a shoulder holster, and his gloves (because of course this is magical, how could it not be) in his pocket.

    Upon reaching the exhibit he looks to the nearest curator, "I just received a message saying a number of my fellows went in." Is he making sure his Mancunian accent came out more than usual? Yes. Yes, he is. "But they failed to express just how many managed to enter. To that end, could you tell me how many disappeared?" He needs a better understanding of the nature of the phenomenon before he was going to go in. Preparation is key after all.

Hope Svelgate has posed:
    If the visual clues were not enough, the fact that all of the Hawkers are shouting in what at least sounds like Japanese lends credence to that assessment.

<<Get your newts! Grilled newt skewers!>> Shouts a Hawker with the face of Namahage Oni.

<<Freshest manju! Pork! Deer! Boar!>> Another Hawker looking almost human save for a pair of very foxy eyes and hair in the coloration of a pelt shouts.

<<Delicious milk! What better to enjoy before or after your bath!>> Calls perhaps one of the strangest beings, reminiscent of a bipedal cow crossed with a milk bottle, wearing the bottle's seal as a hat.

    In the distance the shadows take on more substance as they approach, a veritable parade of minor divinities, yokai, urban legends, and even some especially popular modern mascots make their way down the stall lined street towards the bathhouse on a collision course for the group of Extraordinary individuals standing in the road. At their head is a giant humanoid radish, easily eight feet tall with what looks like a rice bowl for a hat, behind him a group of prancing frog-men dancing about on their hind legs, further back a palanquin bearing Zocho-ten of the Four Heavenly is carried, along with several others that have the curtains drawn. The parade seems to extend as far back as they eye can see. This place seems to be nothing if not popular.

    Back in the British Museum, the assistant curator in charge of being the liason to investigation efforts, nearly jumps out of his skin at Martin's sudden arrival. He can perhaps be forgiven having just watched five people disappear into a bathtub. "There were five, I didn't realize more were coming. They asked for the wash basin to be filled and then just vanished into thin air when they touched the water."

Eric Brooks has posed:
Blade tilts his head and looks over at Meghan and Jon, "No shit," he says. "Pocket dimension, probably. This ain't exactly an alternate quantum realm. Ain't no other world where I look like that," he says, pointing to a bulbous spirit that resembles a giant Vidalia onion with a face on its belly.

"Whatever this place is, I hate it. Let's see if we can find that missing girl as fast as possible before I have to murder a lot of cute little fuckers and make the fairy girl cry."

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn meeps and steps back and tone the side as all manner onef crazy critters start marching tonewards them. "What the heck? Are thonese conestumes, onerrr...?" but amid the conenfusionen and chaones, one thing is certain. "They're all headed tone the bathhoneuse..Anonether bath honeuse? Soneoneone, what, that's where this all started and where it all ends? Let's gone!" and she starts tone run donewn the ronead tonewards said bath honeuse.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I think it's delightful," Jon says brightly, grinning as he looks around at the parade. Look, the Archivist is nothing if not endlessly curious about /everything/. "I don't know much about Japanese--"

    And then Megan's running off and he shakes his head. "Probably best /not/ to hurt anything!" he notes to Blade as he takes off after Megan, toward the bathhouse. It /is/ a reasonable assumption!

Martin Blackwood has posed:
    Martin frowns again an sighs. "Five. Alright then. Thank you. Umm... just in case our investigation takes longer than anticipated, it would be best to close off this exhibit. At least until we can ascertain the nature of the phenomenon that's occuring." He turns to regard the bathtub, accepting that the man in charge would see to it that his suggestion was followed.

    Then without much fanfare or hesitation he reaches out and places a hand onto the surface of the water, breaking the tension therein and sending ripples across its surface. In for a penny, in for a pound, as it were.

Hope Svelgate has posed:
    There is a rush of water as Martin plunges into the tub, and somehow never touches the bottom. Instead one moment he is completely immersed in the water and the next he is standing on a dark street thronging with creatures of Japanese myth, legend, and folklore as they all press forward towards a grand bathhouse. In the distance, also heading for the bathhouse is a small group of Earth looking individuals that stand out like sore thumbs.

    As the shadows solidify, the strangest thing begins to happen, the Earthly interlopers find themselves becoming more translucent, like they are slowly beginning to fade away as so much ephemera in this place.

    A beautiful red bridge spans a chasm in order to reach the bathhouse, freestanding upon a precipice over the sea. The distance down somehow feels infinite and yet the water can clearly be seen. The grand ornately carved red front doors open as the first guests are admitted. A squat newt faced pudgy man standing to one side of the entrance collects rectangular gold coins from those seeking entrance.

<<Yes, right this way! There's space for all! Don't shove! Have your coins ready! Welcome to the Seijin Sento!>>

Eric Brooks has posed:
Blade snorts, "I ain't gonna hurt anything that doesn't try to hurt me first. You know that touching is personal assault in a lot of jurisdictions, right? Cause some of these squidgy little bitches start trying to put their gummy fingers up on me, they're gonna find out I feel assaulted enough to rip those hands right off their scaly rumps. Yo, wait a second, am I startin' to fade out here? Maybe we shouldn't be rushing straight into the lion's den," he says.

Plus, he doesn't have any coins. He went digital last year. Hell, half of the guys who sell black market weapons only take crypto now.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn heads for the little bridge, pausing to stare into the infinite depths below. "Oooh pretty.." she catches a glimpse of her skin and gasps, "Gack! I'm disappearing! What's going on! Am I a ghost? Is this the afterlife?" yeah, she's panicking now.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon blinks at Megan and Blade both, then looks down at himself. "Well, shit," he mutters. "Alright, alright, hold on... let's just..." He tries, for one, to imagine himself as /solid/. Sometimes that works, magically, an effort of will and belief. Sometimes.

    More likely to work, though, while he's still not entirely see-through he turns to one of the creatures passing by and says, "Where can we get some of those coins? The gold rectangular ones?" He glances back and spots Martin--or maybe more his aura--and waves him over.

Martin Blackwood has posed:
    Martin takes note of the strangeness and while it's a step beyond the confusion of Nilaa he's a little more inclined to accept the oddly anthropomorphic animals than he would have a month ago. He ignores the hawkers and rushes to catch up with the fading images of Jon and the others. As he moves forward his form too fades and he notes the curiosity in it. That's not ideal.

    He makes it to the group and slows. "Is this just a thing now? We find portals to other worlds and dive right in?" he asks his husband. There is a measure of pleasantness in his tone though as he moves with the throng. He focuses as well and a pale blue glow collects around him in an effort to make himself more -real- than he was before. The concept itself is a bit odd but not unnatural to him, a reverse of the illusion spell he often wraps around himself for infiltration.

Hope Svelgate has posed:
    All around the yatai stalls are conducting vigorous business as the seemingly endless parade of patrons acquire delicacies, some fit for human palates and others clearly not, on their way to the bathhouse.

    Inside a jovial party atmosphere can be seen as guests are changed into comfortable yukata and escorted off to where their hot baths and other delights await. The Newt faced man continues collecting coins as people file inside.

    The fading continues as the humans can now almost see through each other becoming semi-translucent. Happy thoughts seemingly have no affect upon the condition.

    Just when things are starting to look dire, a young man with a racoon tail steps from the parade pausing to look over the Earthly interlopers and their predicament. <<You really should eat something before you fade away entirely. Are you lost? This really isn't a place for mortals.>>

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon grins at Martin. "Seems to be the way of things! Look, there's a missing girl, it's a whole thing. Also, isn't this /brilliant/? Aside from the 'fading away' part, of course."

    He turns when addressed, and blinks at the man with the raccoon tail. "Oh! Eat! Right." Not that he... speaks Japanese, but he can at least understand. Magic, right? "Can we just... do that? Martin, can you get us all some food so we stop, ahh, turning into ghosts?"

    He looks back at the raccoon-tailed man. "Not lost, precisely. We're looking for a young woman who came here accidentally." He describes Charlotte. "Now I worry she didn't eat either..."

Martin Blackwood has posed:
    Martin gapes at Jon for a moment and then looks at the tanuki before looking at Jon again. "With what coin am I to purchase food, Jon?" he asks indignantly. "Bad enough you leap into a scene straight out of an anime, but now you expect me to purchase food when I don't know what sort of currency is needed?" He turns back to the racoon dog and says, in English because the language barrier is just another level of confusion on top of everything else.

    "I... how does one get food here?" he asks reaching into his pocket and withdrawing a billfold with a number of dollars (both British and American) in it. He removes a 20 pound note and offers it. "I don't suppose this will work, will it?" he asks, holding the purple polymer sheet to the creature.

Hope Svelgate has posed:
    Mysteriously enough, the young man with the raccoon dog's tail seems able to not only be understood but also to understand English. Perhaps all the spirits here could if they chose to.

<<Once upon a time.>> The Tanuki youth replies. <<But then they stopped being worth anything. Gold, silver, even a copper Zeni can buy things here. But that isn't worth anything anymore. Here,>> He reaches into a pocket and withdraws a dango skewer with six small balls of mochi covered in sticky sauce. <<You can have this. Good luck!>> And in true Tanuki fashion, no sooner has the sticky pocket dango been handed over then he has disappeared into the crowd once more in pursuit of his bath.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Well I don't have /any/ money on me, so..." Jon shrugs, and sighs, and grumbles, "We're going to have to scrounge up some proper coin. But... here, let's all eat one and then go find Charlotte." He doesn't have any clue what a Tanuki is, not really, nor whether or not he should trust the creature. He really ought to start expanding his cultural knowledge.

    "Hopefully Charlotte got some help as well." Or else they won't be able to find her at all. He'll pop a dango in his mouth once Martin hands it over, though.

Martin Blackwood has posed:
    Martin gives his thanks to the anthropomorphic tanuki and returns as he downs one of the dango balls. He nods as he appreciates the taste and looks at himself with relief as his physical constituion returns to normal levels.

    "Do you have any clue where she is? Or are we simply following along with the crowd in the hopes that she is at the bathhouse?" he asks, looking to the large structure with a level of dubiousness. He doesn't like the idea of wandering the rooms of a private bathhouse in the hopes of casually running into the woman they're searching for.

Hope Svelgate has posed:
    Dango eaten, fading averted, our six Extraordinary adventurers are left on the bridge as night falls. Before them looms the Seijin Sento, the Bathhouse of the Gods, and somewhere within... young Charlotte.