hush

[whatoncewaswhole]

Who: Open to anyone!
Where: Everywhere at first, but leading up to the Virgo District.
Summary: There's an odd feeling in the air, in the wake of the Scorpio incident...
Warnings: Secondary, small plot event
The city was in a sort of rebuilding lull after the Scorpio incident. People swept debris off their porches as Wand operatives did their best to calm the demon population- the post-battle issues would probably have lasted quite a long time, if not for an odd intervention.

The twenty-seventh of October was an oddly quiet night in Hinoto-Ri. The silence seemed to scrub the streets clean, even if only metaphorically. A soft, humid rain drizzled down over the city like a blanket, lulling those who were still awake and patrolling. Yet, there were not nearly as many demons as usual; something unheard of for the town, and too suspicious to leave be, especially in the wake of Skorpios.

At about eleven, the rain picked up, more of a downpour than anyone could have expected- and there was a sound. No, more than that- it was music.

At first, the tune was simply an irritation, but as the minutes ticked on, it wormed its way much deeper. Like a fading echo, it pushed through the rain from parts unknown, calling out with it's last, faint breath. Yet never did it cease. The song begged to whatever persona users would heed it, beckoning them softly to follow it...whatever 'it' was.

Anyone who heard the melody would find themselves lured to the same place- a small row of shops in the Virgo district. The rain was harsh, yet could barely whisper over the song's intensity by then...

[ OOC: The half of this log set on the 27th is just a mingle, to ponder over what could be happening- feel free to make ridiculous theories, or what have you! The half set on the 28th will go up tomorrow, and will kick off the event proper. ]

Comments

[cantgive100percent]

The way rain usually leeched the heat out of everything shouldn't have been as comfortingly familiar as it was, but there you go. Ryu had taken to at the least exposing himself to the cooled air when the sky wept (one of many things that he's sure everyone knows the whys of but him, but that he'd rather leave mysterious), so the humidity of this drizzle was vaguely dissatisfying.

It's weird, what you end up missing from home.

But he'd stayed out late when he'd seen clouds, so he was stuck in this muggier rain until he could make it home - which he didn't. The draw of that underlying song between each raindrop drew him unconsciously away from the path of Libra, and instead into a part of Virgo he'd never been a patron of before.

By now he was thoroughly soaked, and his bangs stuck uncomfortably to his forehead from the water. The present finds him giving a disagreeable mumble and trying to brush them to the side.

[ghost_shield]

The tune is suspicious, its summoning call even moreso. Stiill on edge from the events of the past few days, Nick can't help but find it suspicious -- and yet here he comes anyway, his brow furrowed, the rain pattering away on his umbrella.

His head is clearer, at least. The waves of paranoia and fear are gone, although it's difficult to come down from such high levels of anxiety quite like that. He's not really comfortable with the effect this song is having. Ironically, this is all further reason to investigate it. He's still feeling the sting of his own uselessness during the event, after all.

And so here he is. His hand brushes over the pendant around his neck. He hopes whatever is singing this song isn't going to be immediately dangerous. Focusing his mind to ensure the song doesn't overpower his mental faculties, he continues to look for its source.

[otakuro]

"Entertainment-wise, I liked the dancing Jack Frosts better."

A voice sounds through the darkness - barely audible over the driving rain and the unearthly melody, it nonetheless serves to banish part of the eerie atmosphere. Atsuro speaks as much for his own benefit as for the person standing under the umbrella. Laid up in bed in exhaustion after combating Skorpios, he had ventured out tonight to examine the aftermath of the debacle only to be caught by the unusual siren song.

He approaches slowly. A part of him wonders if it was wise to approach a stranger under such a potentially parlous situation. Another part of him points out that if karakasa-obake weren't exactly known for their viciousness, even if this individual happened to be a demon in disguise.

"Where do you think it's taking us?"

[drakenguard]

Yamato normally didn't go outside if the weather was more intense than a mild cloudy day. He hated the sun, and he hated getting wet even more, but regardless, he found himself outside in the late evening despite the drizzle. Reasons why was paranoia, mostly.

After the events that had just transpired, his instincts were still on high alert, and as he had no safe base to recuperate in, and no subordinates to send out on patrols, he could only get peace of mind by doing a quick sweep of the area every few hours. No doubt this habit would persist for quite a while before he felt secure enough to do them less often.

But the patrol had meant to be that - a quick sweep. As he finished his rounds in the streets near his apartment complex, he heard a

so un d...

Then he found himself in the Virgo ward, feeling a bit groggy yet hyper alert. He had been fully conscious on the way to Virgo, yet he had a faint headache as well, like he'd been trying to pull away from something only to fail quite miserably.

At this point he was pretty much soaked through. He grumbled irritably, rubbing his hand through his hair, his eyes narrowed and suspicious as they swept up and down the dark street. Row of shops, that insufferable melody still hooting over the rain...

Needless to say Yamato did not like it.

[demifemme]

"You'll catch your death."

Shura moved in quietly at Yamato's side, sharing her Frost umbrella with him, not caring that she was only in her PJ pants and that her left breast was almost touching Yamato's arm.

"You hear it too, right?" Her eyes were wide open, peering into the darkness.

[awww_yeeeeeaaaah]

So. Here's something Yamato probably thought he'd never see.

Kaito, huddled under the awning of one of the shops, with his hoodie up and (get this) actually looking worried. If Yamato comes closer and strains to hear over the piping, it become obvious that the hood isn't up just because of the cold. Tinny music can barely be heard over the incessant "piping" noise.

He seems to be keeping a lookout for something...

[linefacingforever]

Yu was used to going out in the rain. It was pretty much a fact of life when you lived in a place like Inaba. The problem with that was that he usually remembered when he got up and left the apartment for somewhere else. Instead, one minute he was on the couch, and the next he was standing next to a row of shops in Virgo, umbrella resting on his shoulder and a confused look on his face.

...what?

He shook his head, looking around in mild surprise. The rain...

...all right, Izanami. Where are you?

He flinched privately, putting a hand to his head, not sure if that being his immediate thought was a bad thing or not. Maybe it was his Persona, or maybe it was his friend's response to her, but he hated how when things went wrong, she was the first thing he thought of. It wasn't fair to her to blame her for everything...

Yu let out a breath. Well... maybe the others that looked just as confused as he did would have a reason for this.

[nofairy]

Link didn't mind the rain - it was just natural to be out in it. The music, however, made him perk up. He took out his ocarina and began playing an answering song, over and over as he followed the music.

He stopped when he spotted Yu, walking over to him. He was soaked, but didn't really look like he minded.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" Did he hear it too? Huh.

[hadronknight]

It was strange, on how a soothing event such as rain could make him feel unsettled. While that feeling was lighter than the one he went through last month, regardless, he noticed that he was standing in front of a small row of shops.

...

"Hm, how odd..."

[maybe_a_king]

She'd been out to pick up some more TV dinners for the two of them when she wound up here, staring intently at the row of shops. In fact, she had a bag of them in one hand and the umbrella in the other.

When Arturia sees her uncle watching the row of shops, she goes to him and holds the umbrella over him.

"I quite agree. And so soon after the battle?" She's uneasy, if only because of how embarrassed she was by her conduct during the fight and how she wound up spending most of it tied to a chair while her assailant went off to look for more kidnapping victims. So cheesy.

[theothermist]

While Chrome didn't mind this kind of weather, she did tend to avoid it as much as she could due to how easy it was for her to get cold. And after the events of the last few days, she had stayed within her room to gather her energy again.

But over the rain, she could hear a song playing and she felt a... pull, like something was calling her...

And this is how she ends up wandering to the Virgo Ward, next to a row of shops, with an umbrella in her hands as her one good eye glances around, trying to see if she can pinpoint where exactly that song was coming from.

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

"No feet, when I say NOT to go in the direction of the strange, creepy music, I generally mean that."

The voice comes from a lanky man in a ponytail, beard, and blatantly period pirate wear. He's not exactly unattractive, but he doesn't really carry an air of authority, either. One might even think he works as a flooring inspector or something.

Right now, he's looking at his feet with an air of annoyance, like they had a mind of their own and had pretty much decided "heck with you" in terms of where they'd gone.

He looks over at her. "Hey, any chance you're hearing the creepy music too?"

[pistolsakimbo]

"ACHOO!"

Rune sniffled, trying to hide under an awning as she shuddered in the rain. What the heck was she doing here, exactly? She was just minding her own business as she went around closing the windows in her apartment... and she was here. Her clothes weren't exactly the best for this weather, and on top of it, she didn't have an umbrella. So on top of being cold as hell, she was soaked to the bone and extra cold on top of it.

She let out a loud whine as she sneezed again, hugging her arms to her chest.

[gforceinmyfaaaace]

She's way more prepared for the weather than a certain angel who has, unknowingly, taken refuge under the same awning.

Dressed in nothing but his black singlet.

He doesn't even have shoes on.

Suffice to say, this little angel is drenched to the core, and shivering like mad.

"Wh-what's going on..."

[sky_child]

For a while, he put up a good resistance. That unbreakable spirit wasn't only good for claiming the Triforce, after all. But, eventually, he finds his feet moving of his own accord, away from the Capricorn ward and into the Virgo.

He stops just outside the crowd that's amassed here, cloaked in the plastic poncho provided to him by the police department.

That it strikes him as suspicious goes without saying. Now how to go about finding the cause of all this? Was it some sort of magic? Brows furrowed, he enters the crowd, asking questions to whoever will answer.

[fracta_anima]

"I'm sorry. I don't know either," Minami told him when he asked her what was going on. There was music and the urge to follow. Minami had come out mostly due to worry there could be another attack like before.

She'd had the frame of mind to pull on a raincoat before coming out and had her naginata in one hand for just in case.

[awww_yeeeeeaaaah]

"...What?" He lowers his hoodie and pauses his MP3 player. Looks like he was trying to drown out the music...

And then he recognizes the guy he met when he first came here! Neat!

"Oh, hey! Sorry, could you ask that again?" Damn piping music...thing.

[back_to_the_past]

A robed figure emerges cautiously from his hiding place. The fear that had plagued him for the last few days had vanished like dew before the rising sun.

The second thing he noticed, after the lack of fear, was the distant, haunting music floating on the wind. Curious, he followed it, occasionally stopping to try and figure out what direction it was coming from.

Eventually, he came across a crowd of people, which he started weaving through, looking for the pipes player.

[maybe_a_king]

A samurai.

There was what looked like a proper samurai here and if there was a samurai that meant her uncle would eventually make a beeline to him. Which further meant Arturia should stick by him in case such a thing happened.

So she approached the man and held her umbrella over him in an attempt to keep him dry.

"You heard it as well?"

[echo_of_a_jedi]

"If you're looking for the source of the music, I don't think it's really here," Meetra said to the white-robed man, her own brown hood up against the rain again. "Not physically, anyway."

[awww_yeeeeeaaaah]

...Wow. Talk about looking at a blast from the past. Not that he could afford to be distracted, but...hmm.

"Kind of early for Halloween, isn't it?" Says a teenager wearing a hooded jacket that has what can only be described as "Bunnny Ears." But hey, Jack's probably seen stranger, right?

[deathof4thwall]

He was still riding on the post-battle high, even several days later, leaving him unusually sedate when compared to his normal exuberance. When the music started, he immediately followed it, singing a tune under his breath as he clutched a paper sack filled with...something in one hand. Periodically he'd pause to pirouette underneath a canopy or some other form of shelter in order to open the sack and draw out skewers lined with small items, eating them with a sort of studied appreciation - small but speedy bites that prevent anyone not right next to him from seeing what they are.

Eventually, he takes a slightly longer break than normal, leaning against the front wall of a closed store and letting loose a long, happy sigh.

"Aaaa...victory snacks are even better than regular snacks!"

He draws out another one of the skewers and savors it slowly, allowing anyone to see just what he's eating.

[fools_journey]

A rather similar looking, but considerably groggier and less cheerful, teenager yawns and stares blankly at those scorpions on a stick. It is perhaps a testament to how used he is to weird things (or maybe it's just that he's sleepy enough not to immediately notice the stranger things) that his attention is focused on the scorpion on a stick more than the person eating it.

"... that doesn't look all that tasty." Especially not after smashing scorpion guts all over the streets the other night.

[maybe_a_king]

There was something oddly soothing about the rain for Arturia. She never understood the whys of it, just that it did, which is why she'd gone out in the first place with umbrella in hand and the intention of getting some more frozen dinners for herself and her uncle.

But then she heard the music and, like so many others, she followed it. Not just because it lured her, but the presence of so many others following it just made her more determined even as the rain fell harder. Something was going on, it had to be, and she desperately wanted to make up for the embarrassment of a few days ago.

"Excuse me? Do you know why we're here?" she asked one of the first people she came across as she approached.

[glassworkgenius]

Taiyou had holed himself up in his room with cup noodles ever since the uneasiness inside him gradually grew more severe. But when he awoke the morning of the 24th, his fear was inexplicably gone. Though of course, the city was not put at rest in the same way. There was all the damage that needed to be cleaned up, and the calming of the stirred population.

On a rainy day such as this, Taiyou should have not wandered where there was no roof over his head. But then the hushed, yet alluring voice, beckoned him. So, not caring about his clothes getting soaked and the bangs messily hanging over his face, the boy found himself in the same general area of the market.

So he wasn't the only one who heard. He turned to face an older girl, and he shook his head. "I don't know either. You heard it too?"

[gigglesnortpriestess]

The past couple of days were...eventful to say the least. It's not often that icky creatures with poison decide to go on a rampage as well as weird things occuring to certain people (Michel, she does not like that swearing skill you used on her). Now to walk back to her apartment from the cafe in the rain...it was uneventful.

That's how she liked it.

No worries about friends getting hurt but just not to get wet.

But then that music. Where was it coming from?

[electricyousei]

Ruri was also out investigating the sounds she heard while taking a walk trying to clear her head. Floating in front of her was what looked to be a TV screen as she wrinkled her nose in a fairly bland expression of frustration.

"I'm not seeing any speakers here."

With that she peers slightly at Yukiko and tilts her head.

"Do you hear it too?"