synflux | 🎉 TANABATA FESTIVAL 🎊

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🎉 TANABATA FESTIVAL 🎊

WHO: Everyone in Neo Tokyo
WHAT: Tanabata festival! 🎉
WHERE: In the centre of the park
WHEN: 17/07 onwards
WARNINGS: N/A

NEO TOKYO TANABATA

aka operation festival funtime

As the middle of July opens, the streets outside of Neo Tokyo seem to get decorated almost overnight. Colourful origami banners hang from the trees, a mixture of tanzaku, kamigoromo, orizuru and toami.

For anyone who has been to the Sendai region in the midst of the Summer months, the decorations will look almost endearingly familiar; it's time for tanabata!

▶ 001. OPERATION: FESTIVAL FUNTIME.

The savvier of people might notice a particularly bright shock of pink hair running around in the early hours of the morning, taking part in setting up the decorations and putting together a basic layout of tables with tablecloths and various goods and prizes. Each decoration is hand made, and if you look closely you might see little golden traces throughout, giving a clue to who helped made these ones. There's something infectious about his enthusiasm and the delight, even as he gets a little more tired as the day goes on - there's nothing stopping him. Eventually, his section of the festival is set up; there are various stands, some for making decorations (bamboo branches with ornaments, more paper ornaments, origami, and various other cute and traditional arts and crafts), some space for you to take a break and have a fruity and always non-alcoholic drink and an area with a handsome backdrop for the taking of photos.

He's not alone, though!

Raidou's looking livelier than he has than in the last few weeks. He's helping the festival in an organizational capacity, while Yuji handles most other things. He sets up the stands, moves and directs supplies to the right place, picks out spots for decorations, and makes sure both vendors and visitors have everything they need. If you stop to ask him a question or ask for direction, you get a quick, polite answer before he flits off to the next task.

Once things are running smoothly, you'll find him working at one of the food booths, where he's frying up takoyaki and taiyaki. Raidou couldn't be more in his element - serving up fresh food and treats to the Outsiders and the community. You might even get your food handed to you from him with a smile.

At night, the festival is lit up with fireworks and sparklers throughout, lighting up the sky with explosions of little joy and happiness.

Throughout the festival, you can also get a free bento, delivered to you by a cute looking rabbit. The bentos come in many designs, cute, adorable or precious!

▶ 002. A DREAM IS A WISH.

One of the most exciting aspects of tanabata remains the wish-making. In the set-up for the festival, there are little posters left around near one particular booth (manned by local cryptid Choso) to explain the story of the festival and the meaning that it holds. Alongside it are an almost ridiculous amount of paper strips in various colours, left with some pens and calligraphy brushes for people to pick up and use. A big sign next to it declares the following:

Make a wish! If it's a good one, it might come true!
The directions are clear: write your wish on a strip of paper and hang it on one of the bamboo decorations. The harder you wish, the more likely it is to come true - and there are some prompts for the kind of wishes people could make, just in case you're strapped for ideas:

Academic or work successes
Prosperity or good health
Care and love for family and friends
Success in love or platonic relationships
Fulfilment of a personal goal or ambition

You might notice Yuji watching as you're tying your wishes up... Don't worry about that!

If you require further assistance in your wish-making (or even if you don't at all) Choso seems more than happy to lend a helping hand. When he isn't cutting up paper strips and sorting them out into strangely-organized piles (paper thickness instead of size or colour), he's preparing the calligraphy ink via manual inkstone grinding or offering an absurdly wide variety of coloured (and scented) markers for your convenience.

The strips of wishes can be as decorative or simple as you like, so don't stress about your artistic genius!

( ooc note: If you would like Yuji to take a shot at making your wish come true, please respond to this comment! There will be some RNG "granted wishes" that you can use in your top level and keep as a fond memory, but please note there is only one "granted wish" per character. )

▶ 003. AS THE POETS SAY.

In the centre of the festival, in the midst of a park with vibrant flowers, is a table where Yuji sits for a few hours at a time between breaks. He seems to be practically vibrating out of his seat, and when approached he launches into an explanation of this particular game:

THE SOULMATE GAME!

The aim of the game is simple: you are given a ribbon at random with a number on it. Your mission? Find the person with the matching ribbon within a time limit of an hour and win a special prize. Don't worry though... If you lose, there's a prize for not quite making it within the limit. The festival is meant to be a celebration, after all, and Yuji doesn't want anyone to miss out.

Here's the problem: Yuji isn't making it easy for people to find their soulmate. He's not left a boundary for how far you can go (in case you were tempted to hide...) nor has he done anything to make the festival less distracting. This area is set up with your traditional festival games, such as (fake) goldfish scooping, ring toss and some chairs and tables set out for food and conversation.

To make it worse? Sometimes, Yuji might pop up and give you a hint to go in a particular direction, only for it to be a total red herring. This is definitely fun, isn't it? Who doesn't love a good chase? The problem is...

Will you find your soulmate in time...?

( ooc note: If you would like to win (or lose) at the soulmate game, please respond to this comment! Go ahead and OOCly decide who your character gets paired with and whether or not you win or lose - there are different prizes for each. You can play the soulmate game as many times as you want ICly, but you will only get one prize roll per character! )

▶ 004. TINY FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN.

NOTE: THIS PROMPT WILL REFER TO THINGS THAT ARE SPOILERS FOR JUJUTSU KAISEN CHAPTER 264 ( refering to Yuji's powers and how he uses them in a fight ).
Here's the thing: Yuji wants everyone to have fun. His dream is that people are able to find some joy and peace in the midst of the darkness of the last few weeks, and so he sinks into something that is familiar to him - cursed energy, and his domain expansion. In the early hours of the second day of his festival, you might catch him making a hand sign before a ripple of powers hits, collecting around the area of the festival like a literal bubble. Anyone on the edge of the bubble will see it like a flickering, semi-transparent void, but there's nothing to worry about... Right?

The power of Yuji's domain expansion is simple enough, in theory: it transports into the memories, digs into the heart of what people want to show. His intention is to share the tanabata of his childhood with the people of Neo Tokyo and spark some joy for the Outsiders who have been through so much. He wants to show them something sweet and nostalgic, but he doesn't quite anticipate the side effect.

Outsiders who end up stepping into Yuji's domain will find themselves able to come face-to-face with their childhood selves, and enjoy the festival together. If they're together with another Outsider, those childhood versions of themselves (shaped in the way they remember themselves rather than how they actually looked!) are visible and shared, like an extension of their thoughts come to life.

It's still tanabata, but this particular part of the festival is influenced by what Yuji remembers from his youth, and Outsiders can find themselves seeing and being able to take part in various activities:

Crayfish catching (try and get the biggest or rarest one!)
Archery (can you beat your friends and get the bullseye?)
Horse riding (and you might hear Yuji commenting on how big their faces are)
Parades (are you going to join in?)
And anything else you can dream up! It's your character's childhood too, right...?

As soon as Yuji realises his mistake (at the end of the day, lost in his own memories) he brings down the domain, but it might be too late for some Outsiders who have come face to face with their more adorable versions. Whoops.

EVENT BREAKDOWN (CLICK TO EXPAND)

1. OPERATION: FESTIVAL FUNTIME: The festival is being set up by Yuji and Raidou, with support from other Outsiders to make decorations. Food and other entertainment is on offer for anyone who attends, but all drinks are non-alcoholic.

2. A DREAM IS A WISH: Outsiders are given the chance to take part in the tanabata tradition of wish making. They can decorate paper with their wish and hang it up in the hope it will come true. Yuji will be granting one wish per outsider.

3. AS THE POETS SAY: The "Soulmate Game" has characters being randomly assigned numbers and tasked with finding their matching pair to win a prize. They have an hour to find their partner and, win or lose, there is a prize for taking part.

4. TINY FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN: Yuji uses his domain expansion to bring Sendai tanabata to life, that has the accidental side effect of allowing Outsiders to meet and see their childhood selves. It also allows them to visit Sendai itself and take part in some other minigames that are not tanabata related if they want.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

OPERATION: FESTIVAL FUNTIME

[ it feels like it has been a decent amount of time since gojo last attended a festival. maybe it has been a year or so, give or take...? if it wasn't for the tiny pink-haired boy running all over the place right now, he most likely would have opted out of the festivities.

but he is here now as a show of support, dressed in a loose blue shirt and white pants. instead of his customary blindfold, he has swapped it for a completely pitch black pair of sunglasses, which works just as well to shield his eyes.

currently, he stands near the crafts table with a cup of the non-alcoholic fruity beverage in hand, being super helpful as always. ]

Man, that looks ugly as hell. Are you sure you know what you're doing?

A DREAM IS A WISH

[ negl he is only here to menace choso by virtue of existing within the same space as him.

but for the most part, even though he isn't going to make a wish himself, he is gonna be a nosy bitch and steal a peek at what other people are jotting down on their bamboo decorations. unlike how he was at the crafts table though, gojo is at least moderately more considerate here: ]

I think you can be a little greedier.

[ or— ] If you need help hanging that up, let me know.

[ and of course less often but inevitably (and MOST LIKELY ABSOLUTELY DESERVING)— ] Haha. What a crappy wish.

AS THE POETS SAY

[ with a ribbon peeking out from his back pocket, gojo is checking out the different games and activities, less concerned about finding his 'soulmate' and far more interested in the prizes he is about to win for his students in goldfish scooping, ring toss et al. ]

This is gonna be friggin' easy. [ with his sleeves rolled up and a popsicle slid to one side of his mouth, he nudges the person next to him. ] Hey, which one do you think I should hit up first? Maybe your pick will give me a lucky start.

[ as if he needs luck.

on the other hand, if he is approached about the ribbon he's carrying, well— ] Haha. I don't know what number I am, but does it matter? I doubt I'm who you're lookin' for. Maybe you should give this area another sweep first, yea?

WILDCARD

[ ooc | prompts are malleable! feel free to play around with them. if you want to do something else with him, don't hesitate to hit me up for plotting or surprise me. i'm over at voicelog or you can reach me at discord (just look me up in the syn group chat). ]

( A presence will be felt at Gojo's back, an arm snaking around to dangle an item in front of his face between familiar painted fingernails. The black cat keychain catches the light, glimmering as it swings, but it's not quite as warm as Geto's voice when he hums. )

Here. ( He drops it, expecting Gojo to catch, looping around into view with a smile on his face. There's a similar keychain, white, snapped to the wallet peeking out of his shorts pocket. They match. It is very deliberate.

Geto's other hand lifts his drink, nonchalant, straw between his teeth even as he continues. ) Since everyone's looking for a soulmate, I've got to stake my claim, right? Best friends first.

( An eyeroll but you know what? He means it. )

[ he does in fact catches the keychain, letting it dangle between his fingers as he examines the black cat more closely. ]

Cute. [ hooking his forefinger into the split ring, he twirls it around as he eyes suguru through his sunglasses, the beginning of a grin spreading across his lips. ] What's the occasion? [ it isn't everyday he receives a gift from geto. ]

I don't think that's how the game works. [ not that it's a huge deal to him either way. ] But even if I find a soulmate here, they're never gonna be my best friend. That isn't a position for just anyone.

I told you.

( Staking his claim, duh. But it's been a long time since he's gotten trinkets for the sake of it. With the sun shining and a festival happening, he'd felt indulgent. )

Since you're so discerning about the role, and I'm a nefarious troublemaker - ( Head tilting into familiar mischief, bangs in his eyes. ) - what's a little bribery?

( Also he will be stealing that ribbon and throwing it in the trash, sorry whomstever gets Gojo, no you do not. )

Edited 2025-07-17 20:19 (UTC)

Wow. So, all it takes is a soulmate for you to start bribin' me. [ he removes his sunglasses momentarily to slide the split ring through the right temple before putting it back on. +1 black cat keychain now dangles near his right lens. ] Maybe having one ain't such a bad thing then~

[ geto is gonna have to try harder if he wants him to drop infinity. ]

I'm guessing you're not playing then...?

gojo satoru / jujutsu kaisen / brimstone

wildcard lets go

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A DREAM IS A WISH

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if wishes were fishes we’d be in the sea

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wishes

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festival funtime

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wildcard.

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festival funtime

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funtime

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