The Riverboys! Summer Disaster?

Mon Jul 11, 2022 5:50 pm

Mission Summary:

The sound of a lighter cap being flipped open, the spark of flames followed and the lightning of a cigarette with a drag of the flames interrupted the quiet of the bar. Today seemed off, more than it usually was. Satoshi was use to the people of this place being loud and festive, but today…today they were nothing like that. They were gloomy, depressive and husks of their former selves. The way that they moved about and even spoke was slow, slurred. The bartender returned with his ordered drink, nearly 15 minutes later after ordering just a scotch with a coffee. He knew it didn’t take that long to prepare something so simple. It’s what he always get, consider it his comfort order.

Once he received it, inspecting it closely, he notice it was a messy presentation. “Come on, man. This is mess.” He explained, but his disappointment was met with a soulless gaze. The Uchiha scrunching his face, he recognized that look. “Hold on…” Black eyes transformed into crimson ones, three tomoes placed around the pupils. The Sharingan would glow and reveal to him the distortion of the bartender’s chakra. It was as Satoshi deduced, he was placed under a Genjutsu. But why him? He would inquire. Looking around the bar he would see the mass of chakra that coats many of the inhabitants of the inn diner. They were all placed under a Genjutsu.

Unsure of if he should go out of his way to release them, but if he did what point would it make? What if releasing them caused harm to them. He had no true way of understanding the Genjutsu that was placed on them and because of that he had no way of telling the consequences. “Who could place this many people under a Genjutsu at once? Is it someone working alone, or is this a group effort?” He would think to himself. Standing from the counter, knocking his scotch back with a wince from the burn. It felt good. Taking another drag of his cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray.

This morning he didn’t bother to check on his brothers, their bedroom doors were closed. But considering something like this going on, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to. Granted, Tokito was pretty good with Genjutsu and Yami was a monster with breaking down something to gain a better understanding.

Stepping out of the inn he would step into the sand of the beach. Looking around he would see the same fluctuation of chakra being disturbed in the many beach goers.

TWC: 430/1334

Fri Jul 22, 2022 12:35 am

Sandy beaches. Bright sun. A cool breeze. Now, this was a real vacation. The memories of powdery, freezing snow still fresh in his mind, Joski had jumped at the opportunity to take a trip to the beach. Contrary to the humid, cramped jungles of River country, and the arid heat of Haven, the ability to take off his shoes and kick back on the beach was more than a breath of fresh air. So, of course, someone had to come along and make a complete mess of it.

Joski had first recognized it when people on the beach began to act strangely; a game of volleyball suddenly became chaotic as the ball bounced out of court yet the players continued to play as though no such thing had happened. A child continued to drink from an oversized cup through a straw for several minutes after the container had been emptied. A woman had taken to applying some manner of screening ointment to the same spot on her arm for the last half an hour. At first, Joski thought he was just seeing things, but now having been stationed outside of the inn for the better part of the morning, all the signs became all too obvious: something funny was going on here. It didn't take an expert to recognize the effects though Joski only had the stories told to him by the Old Man to go off of; a type of jutsu that could affect the mind of many people. Genjutsu. Having never seen it before, it was difficult to know for sure if this was the case, and further still, why hadn't he been affected by whatever was happening to everyone else?

Keenly aware that his siblings had found their way here as well, Joski had kept his distance for fear he might be dragged into some manner of chore that the brothers had gotten themselves tangled up in. As luck would have it, it seemed he couldn't escape the tangled web of fate that he and the other River Orphans seemed to be stuck in. The veiled gaze of Joski fell to Satoshi as the other left the inn. "About time one of you got up," he would call over. Perched as he was, Joski could be seen sitting on the roof of a low awning attached to the building. The mask that he typically wore had been transformed into a set of tinted glasses that allowed the raven-black hair to flow freely in the gentle breeze of the beach. An open shirt revealed tanned skin leading down into a pair of shorts capped on the end by some sandals. Joski was in full vacation mode.

"You stink like smoke." He complained, wafting a hand here and there to pronounce the dramatic response to the smell. Joski would allow a moment for the other to respond, expecting some complaint about having shown up randomly. "You noticed something funny going on yet?" Joski would ask eventually, motioning around the beach to the others. "Can't put my finger on it, but it sounds like a lot like that story the Old Man used to tell us, doesn't it?" Turning his head, Joski would blink behind his glasses as his mouth hung agape for a moment. "Whoa, what happened to your eyes, man? You get into a fight and lose? That doesn't seem like you."

WC - 564/1000

Sat Jul 30, 2022 7:06 pm

Soaking up the burning sun, its scorching rays shining on those visiting Mikadzuki Beach, plenty of people were working on their tan. "It's hot". Following the example of everyone else that had gathered at the beach, Yami placed his towel on the sand before laying down and enjoying the experience as well. Things were different from River, the Shinkou's home that had rivers and even swamps, a sheer contrast to the place he found himself right now. With hair resembling that of a lion, his spirit as passionate of the king of the jungle, an animal capable of waging war against all the other races, he was currently alone and without his pack, the remaining River orphans nowhere to be found.

A couple of minutes passed, time spent getting a little bit of color. Dressed for the occassion, Yami wore a simple swimming trunks, black in color with an open shirt placed on the sand next to him to allow for the ultimate tanning experience. He would sit up after a while, grabbing his diary which he then opened to go over the past months' events and experiences. A lot had happened ever since the brothers left River but so far they were still in one piece, having encountered a handful of hardships that had tested both their strength and skill. The four of them grew stronger, and so did their bond.

The sun continued to shine and people kept finding their way to Mikadzuki Beach, all hoping to take in the experience it had to offer. After a while of complete silence, the golden Shinkou started to notice a strange change in the atmosphere, those present appearing to be in somewhat of a trance. Strong-willed as he was, Yami resisted whatever was affecting everyone else, wondering who or what could have been the cause of it. The River youth would stand up, dusting off the sand on his body before starting the investigation of Mikadzuki Beach.

(WC: 327)

Wed Sep 07, 2022 8:33 am

"Guys?" Joski asked, having been waiting for a response from either of the two of them that had joined him in the early morning. Blinking behind his glasses, Joski would give them a few extra moments to continue their act before he'd lift a hand and wave it in front of their faces. "Guys? Hello? You can drop the joke, I get it. Something is messing with people around here..." his voice trailed as he saw his siblings fail to respond in any manner. Their eyes didn't move and their muscles didn't twitch- if they were committed to the bit then it was truly a masterful performance. The reality of the situation would begin to dawn on Joski as he realized that he was going to need to sort out exactly what was going on here himself. Glancing up and down the beach, Joski would try to spot something- anything- out of the ordinary. Failing to do so, he'd look back to his siblings and shake his head before physically dragging them one at a time back into the inn they had just exited and stashing them both in a room by the door. Joski wasn't actually sure that he needed to store his siblings anywhere but given the broad spread nature of the event, and the fact that he alone seemed to be unaffected, better safe than sorry when it came to those her cared about the most. Settling both of them into the space, Joski would lock the door from the inside and take the window as his exit, stepping out onto the compact earth just beyond the sand and sliding the window back into place. Shoving his hands back into his pockets, the traveler would release the transformation from the glasses that sat across the bridge of his nose and allow the accessory to return back to the normal form of his mask. Not that he figured he'd need his anonymity, but the very notion of being more concealed helped ease his mind some. And he was going to need his wits to figure out what exactly was going on.

Some hours passed and Joski had begun some preliminary investigations about the area, and thus far he had come up empty-handed. All over the beach and nearby village, it was the same display; people seemingly caught in the middle of their days destined to repeat a small loop of actions. Some would continually walk back and forth through the same door while others would pick up and drop an item in a seemingly endless repetition. Having tried to snap a few of the people out of it, Joski was met with very little success with the most notable being a woman that had been swinging on a swing simply passing out when she was removed from the swing set. It seemed that whatever was going on didn't exactly seem malicious but whoever was doing it must have had some incredible strength to their chakra to have knocked out an entire town- and even a fair few who seemed well versed in jutsu such as his brothers; Satoshi being perhaps the most surprising as Joski had always known the younger brother to have a knack for this sort of thing. Admittedly, whatever was going on was a little above what Joski had experienced in terms of this sort of technique. Still, Joski couldn't allow himself to become disheartened and give up, and thus would return to the beach in the hopes that some manner of culprit would make themselves known at some point. Picking a wallet, stealing a person, robbing a bank? What could someone with the ability to subdue an entire village without showing themselves possibly want from the simple beach-side town?

These were the questions that Joski pondered to himself as he sat at the beach and looked out over the rolling waves as they came ashore, his feet laid just over the line where he would feel the rush of water along his lower half when the flow of the waves washed far enough up the beach. With his arms crossed over his chest, Joski would hum quietly as he mulled over the situation in his mind. There wasn't a whole lot to go off of, and he couldn't wait forever, but what was he supposed to do? His thoughts were interrupted as he noticed a creature had washed ashore next to him. A crab that snipped its claws in the air like it was threatening him. Snip. Snip. Snip. A moment went by, and Joski went to put it from his mind when another crab washed up shortly after and began doing the same thing. The tandem snips synchronized with one another, becoming a more steady sound that seemed the mesh along the dull roar of the cost like a drum beat beneath a tempo. Glancing around the shore, Joski would take note of a handful of crabs. Then a dozen. Then many, many more. Had there always been so many crabs on the beach? He hadn't heard it before now having been further in the town but with a front row seat to the little performers, their rhythmic tapping of their claws pressing on his mind enough for the traveler to realize that it wasn't just in his imagination; something about the way these crabs were making noise was trying to invade his mind!

Reeling, Joski would flood his system with chakra in an attempt to snap himself free of what he believed to be a Genjutsu, but before he completed the process, the crabs would respond by shifting about in their space. Curious, Joski would try again, and once more receive the same reaction. The pair of crabs flattering about the sand and listlessly moved in a direction down the shore every time Joski flared his chakra. They were reacting to it. Standing from his position, Joski began a bit of experimentation. Fluctuating his chakra through his body, he managed to find a sweet spot of making the crabs move while not seeming to cause them distress. In a manner that wasn't unlike a crab-based radar, Joski would make his way up the beach and towards the cliffside that had a Lighthouse built at the top where Jojo would find a much more obvious means of following the trail as the beach was absolutely covered in crabs that all moved around him as he maintained his chakra control. It was a strange sensation to be able to part a skittering, snipping sea of red-shelled creatures, all of which seemed to regard him in a way he couldn't quite identify but so long as they weren't swarming him and attempting to pick him apart bit by bit, it was positive regard. Taking a moment to observe the creatures as he moved across the beach, Joski would find bigger and bigger counterparts to the much smaller versions he had found earlier. Imagining those massive claws wrapped around his fingers made him nervous enough but when he got up against the cliff, he was beginning to see some that could contest his entire wrist. A test he would certainly fail, and thus decided his best option was to skip the learning step for the day and remain with both his hands firmly attached to his body.

Finding his way around the cove, Joski would come upon a sight that could only be the sign he had been looking from. A squat cavern that would certainly flood with high tide could be seen cut into the side of the cliff that one would have to crawl on their belly in order to get through. Worse than the unfriendly stature of the entrance was the absolute torrent of crabs that were pouring from the entrance. A slow march of the crustaceans was steadily flooding from the cavern in droves; enough of a strange happening that Joski felt like whatever was manipulating these crabs into their mind-freezing frenzy was in that cave. Still, that didn't make the journey any easier. Joski simply stood and stared at the entrance for a time, contemplating his next action before sighing and getting to his hands and knees and then his belly to begin to crawl through the entrance. Thankfully, the control of his chakra was enough to sweep the crabs from his path, allowing him to mostly pass undeterred until, just within the dark of the dave, he felt the body of a dead fish squish beneath his hand as he crawled. Making a small noise of disgust, Joski would sweep the remains to the side and continue crawling down the length of the tunnel until it opened up into something more manageable for a person.

Immediately within the cave, Joski would catch the sound of something coming from further inside. It was impossible to make out what was being said, but it was definitely the voice of a person and had a certain cadence to it that made Joski believe it was some kind of chanting. The closer he got to the sound, the more correct he felt in his assertion, though there was only a single voice doing it. The darkness of the cave made it difficult to navigate but between the sound of the chanting and the skittering of the crabs, Joski managed to work his way down the small earthen tunnel carefully avoiding the little scuttling creatures that lazily moved around his feet as he walked. Finding some jagged, uneven turns in the darkness, Joski would become aware of light somewhere ahead of him, offering him just enough to make out the shape of the tunnel ahead of him and allowing him to close the distance on the sound of the chanting. As the traveler drew near, he would lower his profile near the ground, keeping one hand on the wall to guide himself as he rounded a bend and revealed what awaited him at the end of this strange and bizarre journey.

Standing amidst a small chamber decorated with the flickering light of candles that had been arranged around the solitary figure that stood in the middle of the room. A ragged, shaggy man with stringy hair ran down past the man's back as he raised his arms into the air before a massive statue of a crab. Trailing up the man's arms with his eyes, Joski would recognize the bewildering sight of crab claws attached to the ends of the man's gaunt arms. The chanting got no more clear as Joski got near to it; the entire sequenced sounded as though it was being spoken in a language that Joski didn't understand. That was, until the man summed up his chanting with a violent huff of air. "Foom! We will clean the shores of this infestation, your lordship! These mortal men have spent too long basking in the glory of our sand and sea. Give rise, rise, rise! Rise the army of the depths! Scuttle across the sands, and seek the hearts of the land walkers!" From pools on either side of the man would form small bouts of foam that would slowly morph, shaping itself into a crab that joined the army that would slowly make its way down the corridor.

"Crap," Joski thought to himself. "What the hell is this guy doing?!"

WC - 1,889
TWC - 2,453

Wed Sep 07, 2022 8:39 pm

Entranced by the ritual, Joski would continue to watch as this strange, misshapen man waved around his clawed arms and went back to chanting in some strange language and continuing to spawn forth an army of crabs that he seemed to believe would allow him to take back the beaches. Joski didn't exactly know what that entailed but given the rather strong wording of the cries to the crab statue, it likely wasn't about to be a diplomatic process. The brow of the traveler furrowed as he continued to watch. "Once again, how does it fall to me to take care of this? Couldn't someone else have been the one not to get seduced by this ritual? Maybe someone who was more inclined to beat up this walking seafood buffet? Well, it hardly matters. I'm the only one here, which means I get to be the one to take care of it," he reasoned to himself as he let out a soft sigh and made to step from around his corner. In doing so, a rock would tumble from the wall he had moved against, clattering to the ground in a soft sound that broke the rhythm of the chanting and caused the man to turn around to address the intruder. Joski stood at the entrance of the chamber, illuminated by the feint flickering glow of the candles with a hand raised to motion to himself and another raised to motion across the chamber, his thumb up and a single finger extended in an accusatory point. "Oi, creeper in the dark. I have no idea what the heck you are doing, but your crazy juju has my brothers in a trance. So I'll give you the opportunity to stop it of your own accord before I make you stop." The warning was a simple one- Joski never considered himself to be the confrontational sort but he couldn't abide by someone putting his siblings under an effect that took away their agency. The notion was strong enough to override any hesitation the normally docile traveler had.

The man who turned betrayed a face grizzled by time, marred with age, and sporting an extraordinary beard that had been weaved with sea shells and other small ocean refuges that were often glued onto bits of canvas and called "art". A scraggily set of misshapen yellowed teeth were bared at the posing intruder. "What! How are you able to move around?! You should be comatose just like everyone else!" He snipped angrily. "No matter. If it's just one of you, I'll take you apart piece by piece and feed you to my children before we storm the beaches!" The clawed man would break his stance, stumbling forward and making as though he was about to charge down the intrusive youth before the man seemed to fall into the rocks beneath him and his body was completely absorbed. The entire sequence was quick for just how slow the man seemed to be moving and yet he was gone in an instant. Having completely disappeared into the ground, Joski would flicker his vision from spot to spot in an attempt to locate some sort of indication of travel, but there was nothing to be seen. No disturbance of the ground or the rocks; it was like the man had become one with the cave around them.

"Not good," though Joski, his head turning this way and that in an attempt to find some sort of sign but it wasn't a sight that would give him away. It was the sound of the wall behind him, though as Joski turned to address the threat, that clawed arm would materialize through the wall as the old man stepped forward and clubbed the traveler across the back sending him sprawling forward across the stone floor. Turning around, Joski would lift a hand to guard himself as he looked back through the mask at the troubled shinobi and watched him manifest fully from the wall, laughing all the while.

"You foolish land walker! You're in my domain now. You have no hope of...of...what is that smell?" The man asked, pausing mid-threat to look about himself in an attempt to identify something. It was only then the man realized that a smear of fish guts had been splashed across his chest by the hand of Joski as the youth had been struck. "What the..." The man would exclaim, panic in his voice growing as the troubled man began to feel those same crabs he had spawned earlier now crawling up his legs and over his body drawn in by the scent of their food. "No! No, get off of me! You aren't supposed to eat me; I am your master! I created you!" Pinch after pinch was taken from the man's flesh as he tried desperately to swipe the crabs from his body but a lack of fingers made clearing the mess from his body difficult.

"Heh," tut Joski from his seated position, who dropped his hand to watch the display. "I'm sure there is something clever to say here about rules of the sea or something, but to be honest, I just wanted to get my family out of this. Unlike yours, we don't eat our own." The sounds of curses and yelling rose in the cave as the man was swarmed for the meat smeared across him, eventually falling to his knees and lifting his arms in one last agonizing cry before he collapsed forward, covered in the skittering swarm of crabs that quickly worked to devour his body.

All at once, Joski snapped awake. Laying on his back, his gaze bore into the top of the shelter he had made for himself not far from the beach. It had all happened so quickly that Joski wasn't actually sure he had just been asleep. There was no way all of that had just been a dream, right? Blinking a few times, Joski would lower his eyes down to a small pressure he felt on his chest, resting his eyes on a single crab that had crawled up on top of him as he had slept. Its beady black eyes would stare into him almost accusingly before Joski would pucker his lips and give the little critter a small puff of air, spooking it and causing it to skitter off of him and away. Sighing, Joski would lay back down on his mat and close his eyes slowly, bringing a hand up to rub at his head. "I'm going to have to ask Satoshi about this mind-bending stuff- it's really a pain to not be able to tell what's real and what isn't." Lounging for a moment longer, Joski would eventually get up and dress before departing his small camp to head to the beach. He had some sunbathing to do.

WC - 1,141
TWC - 3,594

[Exit. Mission Complete.]