🎉 TANABATA FESTIVAL 🎊

[eyescar]

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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Comments

[gorb]

Was it? Sukuna? ( Wasn't it him, instead? Abandoning them to a fate he made no certainties for, because he could not face up to his own reckless suicide? Because he pinned all his hopes on one impossible task? Because he was weak after all? ) Didn't I know how it would happen, Satoru?

( He laughs, and it's sharply hollow. )

You're wrong anyway. This isn't death. Death would not feel like this. It would be a relief. ( It presses against his throat, that certainty. What had he said to Gojo before? That he couldn't wear a heartfelt smile in the world? And yet he'd gone with one on his face either way. Because it had felt right. It had been an ending. Dying by this man's hand after all those years of cruelty, potential festered. Dying for a purpose.

With meaning.

Logically he knows that he does not get that here. LILITH is capable of stopping it from happening. A failsafe for fights amongst volatile people. But Gojo Satoru has never cared for logic when he can bend the world to his will. The light catches the glassy edge of his eyes when his chin tips upwards. ) What would you do if I told you I didn't care? A world is a world, and I am a violent man. I'm filled to the brim with it.

( A cup, overrun. Was that always his fate? )

I have to put it somewhere. Why not them?

[rikugan]

You couldn't have predicted it. [ none of them could have. if they were able to foresee the future, then the amount of chaos and devastation that sukuna had wrought would have never come to pass. gojo wouldn't have let him. ] It was my fault, if you need someone to blame. I took you away from them. I failed to stop Sukuna and, as a result of my mistake, thousands died. Not just your girls, but other sorcerers and countless civilians.

[ he can't allow suguru to fall back into his old pattern — not out of some greater sense of morality or responsibility, but simply out of sheer selfishness. what does geto think would happen if he started killing innocent people here? does he think that LILITH would turn a blind eye to it? that they won't just make him disappear like they've done with so many others? he can't let that happen. he won't. not when he has already lost him once. ]

So if you need to take it out on someone, then take it out on me. Put it all on me.

[gorb]

( Despite everything, some part of him still revolts. There will always be a singular strand in the makeup that makes him that is fervently in defence of Gojo Satoru. No matter what had happened between them, no matter how far the distance, and how fraught their perceived hatred of each other had been, his first and foremost instinct is some terrible protection. Muscle memory of the soul, maybe. Or something to do with how desperately he's been trying to claw them back these last few months. He scoffs at the idea of blaming Gojo the same way he scoffs at the rest of it.

Hadn't the point been to spare him? Isn't that why he left? Why he fought so viciously so that there would be no more weight placed on too strong shoulders? Too many people asked too many things. Geto would not be one of them. )

Do you want to fight, Satoru? ( Sharp and mean, his thoughts spiralling. There is no way to control the situation, he does not know what to do. ) You're not a glutton for punishment. And you know I'm serious.

[rikugan]

You'd lose.

[ if they actually fought, geto suguru would lose. even with his powers suppressed, gojo would still beat him. it wouldn't be the satisfactory outcome either of them wants. ]

But you're right, [ he lets out a breath. ] I'm not a glutton for punishment. [ a wiry smile. ] I know I should care more about everything I'd just said. Lives were lost. A city was leveled. All on my watch. Just 'cause I'd fuckin' hesitated for a split second. [ it still pisses him off to think about. the fact that he never got to put that goddamn brain in its place— ] But [ he grits his teeth, his jaw growing taut, before his expression neutralizes and his tone turns cold. ] I don't. I couldn't give a crap about all the people who've died. The only thing I care about is the fact that I couldn't win against him.

[ that LILITH didn't let him get the chance to rectify that loss. ]

Aren't I the perfect target for you to release your anger on? [ heartless, immoral and a monster by design. ] I won't fight you because you'd lose. So, just do whatever you want to me, Suguru. Whatever that will make all of this more tolerable for you.

[ because that's ultimately what they're doing here now, aren't they? tolerating an involuntary extension of a life that should have long been laid to rest. ]

[gorb]

( He'd lose.

It's not surprising. He'd lost before. At least the grief leaves no room for that old fear to rear its ugly head, the one that told him to keep moving, to be faster, and stronger, and better, because if he couldn't reach Gojo what was the point? That's silent, there's no need for it here.

There's no part in this where he'd want to win.

His sword goes flying, a singular point embedded in the sand, a distraction so that he can get up close. Without warning fingers seize in Gojo's collar, his own breath coming sharp and animal fast, fear and dread and the nausea of it all leaving each terrible pant vocally edged. He doesn't like it, doesn't want to hear the dead-air in Gojo's words, the space where feeling should be. It's too familiar, it's too hopeless. If he feels like an open wound then the other man should not sound like one gone ignored, that isn't fair. )

Stop that.

( Angry, almost a plea, his grip wound tight. )

Fight back.

[rikugan]

[ infinity drops long before suguru reaches him. he willingly lets those fingers curl and tighten their hold around his collar, wrenching him towards him; yet his countenance remains unchanged, an eerily blank slate devoid of all the warmth and emotions it had to learn and maintain throughout the course of his life. ]

I won't. [ so, do what you have to, suguru. ]

[gorb]

What do you mean you won't?

( It's blanket permission, it's not what he wants. His own breath chokes him, a terrible and ugly fear winding around his windpipe. His hands are shaking, the other coming up to curl in the very same fabric, fists pressed hard against Gojo's clavicle. )

You have to. You -.

( Those hands tug, then push, refusing to let there be space between them. )

Fucking do it.

[rikugan]

No. [ he has already made up his mind. ] Why should I?

[ what would even be the point when they both know how it'll conclude? ]

[gorb]

Because it can't be anyone else.

( He's yelling now, his voice fraught in the desert. )

Because it has to be you.

( Because if Geto can't make him move, then what else is there? Does he have to do it himself? Pick up the sword again and finish what should have been done with a year ago? Do what he was too cowardly to do at sixteen with life unravelling and the human rot coating his tongue? He makes a noise, a snarl of sound, fists curled right up against Gojo's throat where the only hint that he's alive and in there is the sensation of his pulse. )

Don't ask me to keep going. Don't ask that of me. They're dead.

[rikugan]

[ he is silent for a long steady moment, the implication of what geto wants from him far too loud and far too clear.

they've had this same conversation too many times before and he had rebuked it each and every time. he had attempted to quash it down through words of hope and, when that didn't work, through violence. but he doesn't want to go through the motions of the past again, when nothing he has ever done worked to sway suguru and put him back on the correct path — but what is the correct path?

maybe his failure to save geto always lied in his inability to fully convince himself that the path he has chosen is the right course — and geto can see it, can't he? all his talk of responsibility and being moral and just came from him, after all. words that were regurgitated back to the boy who had taught him all of it in the first place, yet they both knew then and now that gojo satoru lacks the heart to truly mean any of it or comprehend it on a deeper level than what he can mirror back from what he has seen.

it's pathetic and it's sad, and he no longer has the energy or the desire to continue with this repetitive cycle.

he lifts his hand to remove his blindfold, his eyes a hauntingly bright blue that quickly dulls as he switches off his rikugan for the first time in a long time.

the fabric slips through his fingers, swept away by the sharp wind of a desolate desert littered with corpses. ]

I won't. [ —calm and detached. ] But you will have to kill me first.

[gorb]

( The colour drains from his face, red flush of anger replaced by the deathly pallor of terror. His teeth grind in his skull loud enough to be heard, chest heaving, panic flattening against his edges. )

Shut up.

( He sounds like a child, he sounds frightened. He'd been strong at one point, he'd been feared. A curse user so extreme the reverberations of his violence were felt far and wide. Powerful and unstoppable. Geto doesn't feel like that now. There's no surety, the peices are unravelling too fast for him to keep a hold of, he hadn't even known that he had to be on the look out for this too.

What a shitty friend he is, what a terrible father. )

Shut the fuck up, Satoru.

( He's aware there's an irony here, as terrible and awkward as it is. But he still dreams about the time Fushiguro Toji told him that Gojo was dead, still wakes up in a clammy sweat with just a wall separating them. All his running hadn't bolstered him against that, all his cowardly pretending couldn't stop it. Ten years of silence and he was still so afraid of loss. He hasn't done anything right.

He shakes the other man instead, hard and unforgiving, like he's nothing but a doll with its strings cut. )

Do I have to lose you too, is that it? I can't keep anything safe. I ruin everything I touch and kill everything important to me. And now it has to be you? ( Hysteria finds its home in him, an old mania. ) I tried so hard. For a world where you didn't look like that, where my girls would be safe, and we could be at peace. I gave everything to it. And I failed.

[rikugan]

[ he doesn't resist as geto shakes him forcefully, watching his anger and panic unfold before him with collected composure.

once he is done with his rant, gojo reaches up to grip him by the wrist. ]

Why is it okay for me to lose you but not the other way around, Suguru? [ a genuine fucking question. ]

I know your intentions were good. They've always been good, but I never asked you to do any of that. I don't care about a safe and peaceful world. It doesn't matter to me whether people live or die. The future of the world we came from is no longer my responsibility. [ a derisive tinge laces his tone. ] And I certainly have no attachment to this place. [ he spreads his arm out at their current surrounding. ]

So, if you really have nothing left to live for, [ he yanks geto's hand up towards his neck, helping him wrap his fingers around his throat. ] then kill me first. I have no reason to continue existing here without you.

[gorb]

It matters to me. ( Too quick, too sharp, pulse fluttering under Gojo's grip. The anger circles, sloshing up against the edges of his vessel, flooding in increments at the edges. ) It mattered.

( Jujutsu sorcerers always fucking dying. A never ending self-fulfilling prophecy, stars destined to spark out. And the truth of the matter bleeding out of him, that he'd always cared too fiercely about the things he wanted to protect. So much so that he'd burn it all to the ground before anyone else could.

His hands still shake, the one Gojo pulls up to his throat pressing briefly too hard against a windpipe. Some of his anger loses itself to blind panic. There is no infinity here. He does not know if he wishes there were. He feels impossibly angry at his old friend.

He feels scared too, eyes too wide in his face. )

I couldn't. ( A confession, though the palm doesn't stray. ) I'm not strong enough.

( A shitty old refrain maybe. He does not mean physically, though there's always been a part of him frantic to catch up. The idea of it lodges somewhere awful. )

You know I can't.