VitaVitaAR

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

Tomoko listened for a few moments to the various proposals presented from across the room. Most of them were sound, though Akari had already noted why oni were unlikely and the less said about the 'big bad wolf' the better. Indeed, it was clear that everyone present had done some real thinking! Not that she needed this sort of assistance, but it was sometimes useful to have other people thinking for themselves! She did pause a moment to eye Kaori as she tripped the yuki-onna strategically. After all, given the jorogumo's past, well, noting what she was doing when a cute girl was so close to her was important.

A yamauba would capture children to devour them.

Some legends spoke of aobozu harassing children.

Kappa had an entire legend around them attacking people, including children.

And a kuchisake-onna would approach people at night, including children, with the question of her own beauty and a pair of enormous scissors.

And, of course, a depraved human being could have abducted the children. Murdered them, abused them, or both.

All of these could have been the perpetrator.

And one was more likely then the others.

"There sure are a lot of youkai who like attacking children," mused Tomoko as she leaned back in her seat, "Normally, that might make it challenging to figure out our culprit. But it's not so difficult when you have your wonderful intermediary and club president here, is it?"

She flashed a smile towards the assembled club members as she rose to her feet, the bow in her hair bouncing.

"Since most of your suggestions make sense based off the information we have, it would be a struggle to figure out which one makes the most sense. At least, at first glance," she continued, "But how many of those are known for their willingness to visit the city? These days, many of your child-hungry youkai aren't too fond of visiting populated areas."

The blonde girl picked up her cane.

"We could be looking at a human perpetrator, that's true. But if that were the case, I don't think anyone would have spoken to me," she continued. "I'll admit right now it's based on conjecture and hearsay, but I have a strong feeling about this. And so, we're going to go to the scene of the crime and have a chat with some witnesses."

Given Tomoko's nature, it wouldn't take too much difficulty to understand who the 'witnesses' she mentioned were. There were no human beings who saw the crimes or knew anything about them...

At least, there were no living human beings.

"Today's club activities will be spirit invocation~!" declared the short girl brightly.

@Rune_Alchemist@TheHangedMan@RolePlayerRoxas@Crab Bane@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

So one of you was very close there.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

Alright so:

Mausoleum is fairly spacious. We have a wide rectangular entrance with a central altar. Any offerings on said altar are pretty old, except for the doll mentioned in my post. To the left and right are slots for coffins lining the walls, and decorative carvings featuring various Mayonite/Reonite iconography such as stylized moons, roses, and Lamplighters(more on those later). On either side of the altar is a spiral staircase downwards, which likely links up on the next floor down.

Any undead are not currently visible and and coffins do not appear to be disturbed.

Lamplighters, for some clarification, are a type of low-level divine entity that serves as psychopomps for Reon and Mayon. They light lamps that lead the souls of the dead to the afterlife. In appearance they're female children who wear tall hats that have lamps hanging from them, and carry a long rod with a candle hanging from one end. There's a Halloween-ish holiday centered around them as well, and they're not uncommon as grave decoration much like angels are in the real world.

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

The strained nature of the kitsune's smile wasn't lost on Tomoko, but she completely ignored it in favor of focusing on the tea.

"Ah, thank you," she commented as she took a seat at the head of the table, clapping her hands together as she did, "Tea would be lovely."

She cast a bright smile around at the assembled students. Yes, she'd done quite an excellent job at putting together various supernatural attendees at Miyama, and it hadn't taken very much effort at all!

At the oni's question, she simply cocked her head slightly.

"Of course, I wouldn't have walked if I was going to get wet," she said, simply. As someone who had been in contact with youkai for six years, effectively able to call many of them at will, well... Using their assistance to overcome things like a rainy day was only logical in the blonde girl's opinion.

"I'm sure you're all curious about our first order of business today, so I won't delay any longer," she continued, retrieving the daily newspaper from her bag. She didn't often read them, but picking up a copy seemed like it was a wise idea for illustrating the task at hand.

"Tada~" Tomoko declared, presenting the paper, or more specifically one of the articles.

The article in question was one that detailed all the publicly-avaliable knowledge on the recent rash of children's disappearances. There wasn't much, but it was enough to establish the fact that there was little to no evidence, and no way of knowing if the disappeared children were alive or dead.

Though given the length of time since the first known disappearance, the outlook was growing considerably more grim.

"Seven children have disappeared this month alone," she continued, "Without any evidence, with no sign of a struggle. Nothing is left behind at all. Even if I didn't have a few friends letting me know they thought something was going on, I think this would be plenty of reason to suspect it's not simply a human kidnapper, isn't it?"

At the very least, it was clear that Tomoko was taking the matter seriously, even if she had presented the newspaper article in such a lighthearted manner.

"I have my suspicions as to what it may be, but I'm curious if anyone else does," continued the girl as she put the newspaper down, waving her real hand idly, "Speculation and conversation are the best path forward!"

Indeed, assembling a plan of action meant discussing that plan of action first.

Tomoko had no intention of allowing another child to disappear, so letting the perpetrator go another night wasn't an option.

@Rune_Alchemist@TheHangedMan@RolePlayerRoxas@Crab Bane@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

Fate/Eternum — Reboot

Mihama Nanako

She'd never even been inside of a shop like this, so it was an entirely new experience for the brunette.

Nanako recognized some characters she knew among the figures, and she did have to admit they were all well-made... she'd never really considered buying any for herself or anything like that, but at least she fairly quickly understood why someone might want to do so. And Meltryllis definitely seemed enthusiastic. The instant they'd set foot inside the store she was off carefully examining each and every one of the figures at an incredibly rapid pace, sometimes audibly mentioning her analysis of them. She really knew about this stuff! A lot! It was kind of unexpected!

It wasn't very long until the petite purple-haired girl located a target figure, an exquisitely-made figure of a girl in elaborate armor wielding a long, thin sword.

One that cost... over...

... Oh...

Nanako opened her mouth, then shut it, then opened it again.

That price tag... it was... aaah, all that for one figure?! Could she even spend it in good conscience?!

... no... it was the opposite, wasn't it? She'd told Meltryllis she would buy what the Alter Ego wanted. She'd done so in the first place with a desire to improve their relationship, to make things better.

A little bit of wallet pain was nothing compared to having a crossbow bolt lodged in her shoulder, right?

Nanako's shoulders sagged, and she exhaled heavily, before straightening and clearing her throat.

"R-right... that one, then!"

Feeling as if her soul was temporarily leaving her body, Nanako went to the checkout. Soon enough, a box containing the figure was in their possession.

Those payments from the city were really important now.

But it wasn't over yet. She still had to take Meltryllis to buy clothing, even if she was going to let the Alter Ego pick this time. When it came to something like that, letting her pick out the outfit seemed like the best idea. Hopefully she'd find something she liked that was less...

... Less...

Metal c-string...

@PKMNB0Y

---

Yuriko T. Louvyngyr

This girl... it was becoming fairly clear to Yuriko that the girl was totally unfamiliar with being flirted with. While in some cases that might have actually been helpful to her goals, when someone was more on the standoffish side it wasn't. Oh well... now wasn't really the time to be flirting, was it? Not when Jack had wandered off like this.

"I suppose so, I can't have her just wandering off like this," Yuriko said finally, as she caught the dango, "I should have been a bit clearer about her staying in sight... Jack, can you come out?"

At the very least, the Assassin listened quite well, so hopefully that would work. If not... well, finding her was considerably more difficult.

@Raineh Daze@Crusader Lord@Rune_Alchemist

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

@Pyromania99: Not seeing any issues here.

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

Chisaki was a good girl. She never disobeyed her parents, she did her best to make sure all her homework was done on time, she tried to make sure her fellow students were on track, and she was always interested in what her teacher had to say.

So even she thought what she was doing now was out of character for herself.

She was a primary school student, at only nine years old, with short black hair and glasses.

And that made the fact that she was out by herself so late all the more unusual. But the fact was...

It wasn't just one of her friends. Two of them, Sakura and Taro, had both disappeared. Up and vanished without a trace. No-one knew what happened to them. Not their parents. Not the police.

There wasn't a single sign of anything. They weren't... they didn't seem to have died, or anything like that... it was just like they'd evaporated into thin air.

Chisaki thought of herself as smart. She thought of herself as mature. And she was worried... she thought, maybe, it would be possible for her to find something out, something she could tell the police. So they could save her friends.

So she'd snuck out at night. She knew her parents would be mad at her, but if it was for her friends' sake that was okay, right?

At least that's what she'd thought at first. She'd originally intended to meet her other friends here... but they couldn't get away from their parents.

So she was alone.

It was dark.

No-one was around.

Chisaki couldn't help but be scared. She couldn't help but worry. But at the same time, if she could find anything, anything at all that would help the police find Sakura and Taro...

It was worth being scared, right?

And then she heard it, from the alleyway...

"Chisaki-chan...?"

Sakura! That was Sakura's voice!

"Chisaki-san!"

Taro too?!

Excitement rose in the young girl's heart as she turned, immediately rushing into the alley. She'd found them! She'd found her friends! She-

The alley was empty. She heard a sound from behind her, a long shadow fell over her, and-

---

It was a dark, dreary, rainy day.

Naturally, there were few people walking out and about, unless they desperately needed to be somewhere. And even if they did, most of them were taking public transit or personal vehicles. There wasn't anyone in their right mind who would willingly be out for a walk when it was raining heavily enough, and this certainly qualified.

But regardless of that fact, there was one girl who seemed quite content to take a stroll right through the rain to her club's meeting place. Perplexing as this was, it became all the more unusual when she was observed more closely.

She was a petite blonde girl, her age difficult to discern form her youthful features and short height. It was unlikely anyone would place her older then perhaps thirteen, and many would place her a year or so younger.

If one were to ask her how she felt about such comments, it was unlikely they would hear anything particularly happy in response.

In her right hand, she held a black cane. She didn't seem to need it to walk, and yet she was using it all the same. Speaking of her right hand...

Her entire right arm was bandaged. Not a single piece of flesh could be seen underneath, the bandages extending up beneath her sleeve. Exactly why this was would be a complete mystery to most observers, as the range of movement that she exhibited with the limb indicated she was entirely uninjured.

But, perhaps, the strangest thing was the fact that there was an umbrella beside her. No, she was not holding an umbrella. Many observers would simply assume that was the case, as it was impossible that an umbrella would simply float beside someone.

But common sense could override the truth, in some cases. And to be fair, the umbrella was not simply floating beside her.

It was being carried by a girl, taller then the blonde, in a stylized kimono. Only the blonde herself, and others versed in the supernatural, could see this fact. They could also see the lengthy tongue hanging from the umbrella, and its single large eye.

Suzuki Tomoko, the intermediary between humans and youkai, had a club meeting to hold. And given the recent circumstances, it was going to be a particularly important one.

Seven disappearances. Seven children, both boys and girls, had disappeared in the last month in the local area. That wasn't even considering disappearances across the entire city that could be tied to these incidents. Each time, there was absolutely no sign of them.

It was as if they simply vanished into thin air.

As she reached the club's meeting place, the door opened ahead of her courtesy of her companion.

Indeed, she wasn't going to let this carry on any longer. She most certainly couldn't.

What sort of self-respecting intermediary could possibly let children continue to up and disappear? This wasn't a regular human perpetrator, not when the disappearances happened so swiftly and so without any evidence. Tomoko was certain of that.

No, the perpetrator had to be some sort of inhuman entity...

But who? And why?

These questions would have to be answered.

But first...

"Hello, everyone," began the blonde-haired girl brightly, "Today is the third meeting of the Miyama Occult Investigation club!"

@Rune_Alchemist@TheHangedMan@RolePlayerRoxas@Crab Bane@Raineh Daze

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

@TheHangedMan: That's fine now. Though I'd edit it to be shikigami rather than familiars, since they're a little different from one another in this setting.

Fate/Eternum — Reboot

Mihama Nanako

Nanako paused for several moments. Out of everything she had expected from Meltryllis at this point, a fascination with figures wasn't necessarily one of them. The elegant ballerina-like sadist suddenly gushing about expensive scale figures was simply unexpected... that being said, Nanako did have money and had said she'd buy Meltryllis stuff she wanted. Within reason, but given the payments from the city for having a Servant in the first place...

That made this a little easier.

Figures...

Part of her mind wandered back towards the little girl she thought she'd seen. She had looked almost like some kind of figure, or maybe a doll. That was what made it all the more unlikely, though... or maybe she was someone's Servant? Her hair and everything...

Well, it was probably nothing.

"Um... I can't say I know where to get figures off the top of my head..." Nanako said, finally, considering her options, "But I think there's a hobby shop down this way?"

While there were some series of anime and manga Nanako definitely liked, she'd never been the type to buy figures or get into it like that. She'd also hoped to locate and outfit Meltryllis actually liked to make... well... walking around with someone who had nothing but a metal plate on their crotch was seriously awkward especially when they were so pretty so she had to figure out something to make it less awkward.

So whatever she ended up buying for Meltryllis here, she had to make sure she had enough spending money rationed out for the day to buy at least some kind of outfit, as long as she could find one with enough appeal to the Alter Ego.

"Hopefully there's something there? They've got a lot of merchandise," continued Nanako as she began to lead the way, hoping her wallet wouldn't be in too much pain for the sake of her desire to bond with her Servant, "I've never been inside before but I've seen through the windows."

@PKMNB0Y

---

Saber - Arturia Pendragon

Her Master seemed quite ill at ease... Arturia frowned to herself slightly. She had never intended to cause her Master distress, her words had been genuine. She was certain she would approve of anything that Ritsuko would prepare. But it seemed as if something she had said had caused her Master to become quite nervous... She had to address that somehow.

The path forward, even if this was not a Holy Grail War, would be traversed best if both Master and Servant were capable of supporting and working with one another. Battle was won by the side that forged ahead together, not as disparate parts.

The application of this strategy was viable in many things, the knight-girl was certain.

She had felt what it was like to be in near complete opposition to her Master before... Thankfully, that would not be the case here. But at the same time, it still meant ensuring that her Master was not uncomfortable simply speaking to her about food.

Besides, fried rice was absolutely delicious!

"Worry not, Master," Arturia began in what she hoped was a reassuring fashion and definitely showing her excitement at the mention of the dish not entirely intentionally, "I would be happy to have fried rice! I am certain you shall prepare it excellently."

@Rin

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

@TheHangedMan: Going to have to nix the control of youkai stuff, and I do want to know more about the extent of his ability to see the future.

Otherwise probably fine?

I'm aiming to start by Thursday incidentally!