GHOST TRICK PART ONE: Festival Log!

[indigo_league]

Who: Everyone!
Where: Either Ecruteak City or Lavender Town; please mark your toplevel comments accordingly!
When: August 13th-15th
Summary: Celebrate O-bon at a festival near you! For details, see the infopost.
Rating: Will vary from thread to thread. Warn for common triggers if something comes up.
Log:

The streets are lined with NPC-run stalls for food, games, and the assorted tchotchkes of every summer festival you’ve ever seen in your animes! There’s Goldeen Scoop, heaping cones of Swirlix Candy, Test Your STRENGTH (there are two different machines for people and Pokémon; HM04 not required); basically, if you can think of it, it’s there. There will also be a yukata rental stall if you want to go full hog on the cultural side of things. Ecruteak boasts a small stage where the Kimono Girls give a short performance once every two hours; the festivities in Lavender Town are a little quieter, but they also have Haunter-shaped ice cream treats. When you lick them, they Lick you!

On the last evening (August 15th) of the festival in either location, there will be a large bonfire and traditional bon-odori dance in which everyone is welcome to participate. In Lavender Town only, they also set paper lamps afloat in the water past the cliffs.

The closer you get to midnight on the last night of the festival, the more ghosts pop up.

Again, please say which city your character's in and note what dates/times they're there in the header of or within your top--level comment to avoid confusion. Play nice and have fun!

Comments

13th, strength test

[callbacks]

[Someone whistles a long falling note from the milling crowd.]

Damn, dude. Hope they don't make you pay for that.

[shiro2hero]

[He jerks his head around, before looking... incredibly embarrassed. The Aron at his feet, however, seems excited.]

I hope not... I'm almost broke as it is.

[callbacks]

[Dave tilts his head up as he stares at the poor damaged bell, hands in his sleeves.]

It's pretty easy to make fat cash through physical labor around here, so I guess if you're really that strong you can ask the carnies if you could wear that bell around your neck as some kind of advertising gimmick.

[shiro2hero]

... I'll pass, thanks.

Maybe they'll accept an IOU.

[callbacks]

I'm mostly kidding. They probably prep for this kind of shit extensively, I mean they have to have a truckload of spare bells for the Pokémon one at least so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

So what'd you do to blow all your P-dollars ahead of a festival, dude?

[shiro2hero]

Getting here, mostly. It seemed like a good idea to ... get a better feel of where I was.

[Yeah he literally just arrived.]

[callbacks]

Oh, you paid for the flight over?

[Wait.]

Oh, you're new? Man, you could've said something, I'd've been slightly less of a shitsack about teasing you re: fucking up their game bell thing. You'll be fine, probably they won't even care, everyone's horrendously nice around here.

[shiro2hero]

Yeah. Couldn't really fly myself without a ship.

[And then he blinks.] No, it's fine. I've had worse.

Everyone?

[callbacks]

[Ship? Hmm.]

Everyone I've met, anyway. Fellow out-of-towners, mostly, but the locals, too. Pretty sure the whole experience is keyed to be as infant-friendly as possible.

[shiro2hero]

And here I was, worried.

[It's nice to know, though. And, as an afterthought, he holds his human hand out in greeting.]

I'm Shiro, by the way.

[callbacks]

[The left-handedness of the gesture gives Dave a half-second's pause, but then he notices Shiro's right. Huh, neat. He accepts the handshake.]

Dave Strider.

[He crosses his arms and tilts his head slightly.]

So, hey, are you another space soldier from the future? With your ship and junk. I gotta assume that's a spaceship.

[shiro2hero]

[It's always easier to use the one that probably won't crush the person whose hand he's shaking.]

Good to meet you. Have you been here long?

[And then there's a grimace, and he's pushing his hand through his hair.]

Something like that.

[callbacks]

[Dave can smell avoidance like that a mile away--it's his scent of choice, after all--and decides to do the dude a solid and leave the matter of Star Wars unpressed.]

Yeah, I've been here about a minute now. Since last November. Had a birthday and everything.

[shiro2hero]

[Oh thank god. Explaining the Lions and Voltron and that kind of thing to Dipper was one thing, but to a guy who caught you accidentally breaking a carnival game? That's a little more awkward.]

November. And now it's... August, right?

[Sorry it's been a while since someone had to use actual normal months.]

[callbacks]

Yup. The hottest asscrack of the year.

Little cooler than what I'm used to, though, at least.

[shiro2hero]

[He really shouldn't laugh at that, he should be mature and reasonable. But... okay, yeah he snorts a very undignified, unleader-like laugh.]

Hey, I can't judge. I've been in space for months.

[callbacks]

Me too. Well, not recently, but I did some time up on a meteor for a while. But I'm from Texas before that and, dude, let me tell you. If you can still breathe when you walk outside, it's just fuckin' balmy.

[shiro2hero]

... Time on a meteor? How?

[Even though he's spent time on a castle that doubled as a space ship, flies a giant lion that turns into a robot, and saw a princess save a planet -- that apparently needs clarification.]

[callbacks]

...From what I understand of how other people's worlds work, mine was sort of physics-optional.

["Sort of," said the time-traveling slime-based paradox clone.]

There was a laboratory on the meteor. Mostly we stayed in there, if that makes it easier to picture.

[shiro2hero]

... I'll take your word for that one.

[He can't really argue. Giant space lions who turn into a more giant robot sort of feels physics optional at this point.]

We'll go with yes, for the sake of argument. What were they studying there?

[callbacks]

I dunno. It was mostly for making monsters, I think? But that was for the trolls' session, not ours, so I don't even know what the fuck was going on in those test tubes, biologically.

[Oh god Shiro no don't do it, don't ask about Homestuck.]

[shiro2hero]

[No worries, bruh. The mention of 'making monsters' is enough to ward him off the subject entirely.]

... I don't really think I want to ask.

[callbacks]

[Dave considers Shiro's expression, weighs the pros and cons of allaying the man's possible concerns, and finally just says, very matter of fact:]

I'm from a video game.

[It's not the fullest truth, but, eh, close enough to explain some things.]

[shiro2hero]

... I thought you said you were from space.

[Shiro please.]

[callbacks]

What, you've never played a video game set in space? Dude.