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

August 13th

[cyan_maid]

[Luckily for Jane, the vendors at this festival aren't hiking up their prices too high - at least, not yet - so she was able to get a bag of cookies at a nearby stall. She's being conservative with them, planning to share them with her Pokemon later, and nibbles on one, still not used to the flavor of green tea, but then she spies...the pink, shiny thing. It's poked it's head out of someone's bag and has its eyes fixated on her, or rather the cookie in her hand. She looks at the cookie, then at the creature, then at the cookie again.]

...Hmmm.

[Let's just...edge a little closer, not to bother the Pokemon's trainer (obviously the boy holding the bag it's in, right?) and just. Break off the uneaten half of the cookie in her hand and give it to the little guy. Obviously this isn't weird at all, right?]

[samsa]

[The Dunsparce has eyes that are only for that cookie, even though it doesn't seem to have its eyes...open? How do Dunsparce work, we just don't know. Either way, the instant Jane reaches out to hand over the cookie, the Pokemon pokes her head out further and dantily grabs it in her mouth.

Crunch crunch crunch.

Alas, she is less stealthy about eating as she is about receiving snacks from strangers...and just as Kaneki has his Taiyaki in hand, he's lifting his arm to look down at his Dunsparce who has a face covered in cookie crumbs.]

Hinami-chan...? What are you eating?

[cyan_maid]

Uh-

[Jane stares, like a Deerling in headlights, hand outstretched - and the other half of the partially eaten cookie is in those hands, too, so in case there was any way to mistake it, Jane was definitely feeding your Pokemon, random stranger.]

[samsa]

[Meanwhile, Hinami is happily munching away. If she was outside of that bag, her tail would probably be wagging.

Kaneki looks over at Jane and puts two and two together, but he doesn't seem mad at all. He just seems a little exasperated, probably towards the little Dunsparce. He reaches down and rubs the top of her head, shooting Jane an apologetic look.]

Sorry about that, I...she must have been begging, huh?

[Kaneki, why are you apologizing.]

[cyan_maid]

Oh...um, no, I'm sorry for...

[For feeding your Pokemon? Yeesh Jane why are YOU apologizing.]

Uh...er, that is to say...she was, a little bit. But, I don't mind! I'm just...ugh, this is so weird, isn't it?

[samsa]

Oh- n-no, it's okay! I don't mind it, really.

[Kaneki shakes his head quickly, lifting a hand to rest against his cheek for a moment as he looks down at Hinami. She looks about as happy as anything, her tail wiggling inside the bag as she looks up at Jane again as if trying to convince her she's starving and needs more treats.]

Though I guess you'll have to tell me where you got those...I'm sure she'll want more, later.

[cyan_maid]

Oh! Uh, it was that stall, over there. [She'll just point to a cookie stall.] They boasted that their products were people and Pokemon-safe, so I'm certain you could pick whatever they might have, if you or your...sparkly pink friend would like to try something different.

[Oh my gosh this thing is weird looking but precious.]

[samsa]

[Dunsparce is a weird Pokemon, one that Kaneki never planned on owning. But Komasan insisted and the egg hatched shiny, so. Now he's got a pink snake baby.]

Alright, we'll head that way next. We've just been checking out everything, pretty much...this is her first big outing like this.

[As Kaneki says that, the Dunsparce wiggles again and makes a sort of chirping sound up at Jane.]

[cyan_maid]

[AAAH IT MADE A CUTE NOISE, it makes Jane smile brightly.]

I see! It happens to be my first outing in a festival like this, too, so we're both new at it, huh?

[samsa]

[She is the cutest, it is her. Kaneki gives Jane a friendly smile and nods.]

Sounds like it.

My name is Kaneki. Are you new around here?

[cyan_maid]

Ah, yes! I've been here for...a few weeks now? My name is Jane.

[samsa]

It's nice to meet you, Jane-san. I've been here for...over a year and a half now, I think. Usually I try to check the Network for new people more often, but...I guess my excuse is that a library just got built here in Ecruteak. I haven't done much else but read.

[Books are life.]

[cyan_maid]

A library only just got built here? There...wasn't a library in the city before?

[samsa]

For some reason, there wasn't. I work at a bookstore in Goldenrod, but...that's the closest thing I've ever seen to one. And you can't really borrow books from a bookstore.

[cyan_maid]

No, you definitely can't! But I'm surprised there wasn't one - and, at the same time, definitely glad that there is now. [A pause.] But since you mention it, and working at a bookstore, I take it you like books?

[samsa]

I do! I was, uh...I was majoring in Japanese Literature, back home.

[So you can say he really likes books.]

[cyan_maid]

Oh wow! So, you were in college, then! That must've been so interesting!

[Yeah let's. Definitely get on the topic of school and stuff because that's a safe topic.]

[samsa]

[Quite safe! And Kaneki doesn't mind talking about it...he really misses it, if he's honest. But there are...reasons that he's not going anymore, and they don't just extend to being in Johto.]

That's right. Of course, there aren't really many books like that to study here...I have to rely on the books I've gotten from home now and then, and I only have a couple of them right now.

[cyan_maid]

[That takes Jane by surprise.] You've gotten books from home? Non-Pokemon books? But...how?

[samsa]

I wish I knew how it works, honestly. But sometimes things just...show up? Like...I think I got The Black Goat's Egg for Christmas last year.

[Arceus works in mysterious ways.]

[cyan_maid]

It...they just pop up? Out of nowhere? Gosh, that's...I definitely want to see that for myself.

[samsa]

Things like that happen around here, sometimes. I...wish I could explain it better without coming off as crazy or something, but I guess just being here at all is pretty unbelievable.

[cyan_maid]

Oh, gosh, don't worry about that. I've gotten a better feel for this place, so I know it's all highly unusual. Besides, I wouldn't ask if I wasn't curious.

[samsa]

Ah, that's good to hear. Actually, if you do want to learn more about this place, the library should help...though for some reason I haven't been able to find many books about history for the regions.

[Not that he's all that surprised.]

[cyan_maid]

Really? There's so few? That's...incredibly odd.

[Suspicious.........]

Ah, but, I'd love to come and visit! I think my friends and I will be in town for a few days after everything settles down, so I'll see if I can swing by.