Tanabata in Kabuki Street July 10

[Eri Maeda]

With summer in full swing it's that time of year again. The first decorations are already up in Kabuki Street's alleys and there are more by the day as the neighborhood's favorite Tanabata Festival is almost here! Delinquents and shopkeepers alike look at the calendar eagerly and prepare their best decorations, and bargain hunting shoppers look for the perfect yukata. In the parks the legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi that the festival celebrates is often retold to the younger delinquents.



The festivities will take place July 10, starting with a grand parade down Kabuki Street's eponymous main thoroughfare. The Zama Shrine hosts this parade every year and sponsors most of the games and attractions which make up the huge block party to follow. There are rumors that Hana the shrine maiden promises an especially grand parade this year!



While Kabuki Street always enjoys visitors and shoppers from all over the city, the 9 block area especially rolls out the red carpet around Tanabata, with the department stores celebrating with huge sales. While many wear whatever they wish, a popular choice of attire is the cotton robe known as the yukata. Both the department stores and many street stalls sell a bewildering array of patterns in every color.



Following the parade, the entire neighborhood will be lined with stalls containing popular festival games such as kingyo, scooping of goldfish from a pool. Also well represented are classic festival games such as senbonbiki, where prizes in a box are attached to strings which players pick and pull.



One tradition many look forward to is the game known as suikawari. Participants are blindfolded and given a stick, and then attempt to bust watermelons.

Games and partying can work up a great appetite, and a multitude of vendors set up stalls to prepare and serve festival classics. Favorites include takoyaki, yakisoba and taiyaki.



The grand finale will occur at midnight when a grand fireworks display will begin. Rumors are circulating that the sukeban of the Kabuki Street Rengou-kai Eri Maeda has successfully hired and secured extraplanar transport for the same group of Swiss pyrotechnics experts that put on the show in previous years. In fact, some delinquents gossip that the Swiss were seen days ago checking into Kabuki Street's Prince Hotel.



((Tanabata is a live play event, and will take place in the #streets-of-rhydin channel Saturday July 10 starting at 9 PM ET. The channel will represent the Kabuki Street setting. Feel free to use this thread to post your character's participation and pictures of outfits. The activities will take place throughout the night, but the fireworks show will start at midnight! ))

[Izumi Takamine]

Izumi had planned for yukata shopping several times throughout the week leading up to Tanabata, in order to maximize the chances of finding the perfect one. As it happened she was delighted with one in a cool blue color that she found in one of the street vendor stalls near the turn to the Takamine house.

[Eri Maeda]

This year being an exceptionally festive one in the Maeda house, Eri felt it was appropriate to have an extra bold colorful yukata for the Tanabata festival.

[Yuzuki Kuwabara]

Yuzuki had been on the lookout for the perfect outfit since the start of summer, shopping between class times at the dojo on weekdays. She'd kept the chosen yukata on a shelf for a few weeks before taking it down to show off to her Rappapa friends the week of Tanabata.

[PC]

The blue of her wife's wife chosen attire for the evening would slightly contrast with the pink of Na-rae's chosing. No doubt during the festivities the Takamine's could be seen among the many stalls hand in hand with their daughter; who would have a new Tanabata mask added to her growing collection.

[Mallory]

Mallory had been seen out on Kabuki Street more often over the last few weeks. One of the first visits was to the studio of the alternative artist and fashion designer, Bungee Maximum, who had fled Tokyo to Kabuki Street years ago after fatally running over her boss with a Vespa. While many were wary of the designer, the witch had struck up a friendship with her, and stopped by for tea, gossip, and to create a design and have her measurements taken.

The finished product had chalk-like lines that resembled Mallory's complex spell circles. While the newest member of the Maeda family could not be out very late, Mallory took Midori out to see the goldfish and suikawari and other sights, even if she seemed a lot more interested in her parents' faces and the people who came up to see them, and the play of colors and lights all around them. Family and friends were around to help out with the baby, too, so that Mallory and Eri could take a little time to themselves to enjoy the festival and the fireworks show at the end.

[Strawberry]

[Caleb Feren]

Once more, Caleb went to the old lady there on Kabuki street. One of these days, he would get her name, but it didn't seem it would be this day. She was out preparing for the festival, but seemed to know he was going to be by and had already put together an outfit for him. He nodded to the one who was tending her counter and paid, walking out with the new outfit.

[Rhys Germain]

Soon after winning a voucher for festival-wear during the All Ranks Tournament, Rhys took Dris shopping at JUSCO. The pair of them had been rather clueless about Tanabata the year before, so this time around they made sure to pick out something special.

Rhys went with a lightweight haori featuring an evening landscape and a great dragon chasing the moon. It was the perfect complement to his boyfriend’s lighter themes.

The day of the Tenth, they arrived early to catch the parade, play games, and browse some of the numerous sales for memorabilia, and over the course of the day, Rhys had sampled most of the traditional delicacies. He especially loved the vegetarian yakisoba and sweet taiyaki. He had shared both with his beloved bard.

Come nightfall, each of the men had a little goldfish friend to take home and add to a water feature in their garden. They were a little bit smashed, too—just like so many of the watermelons!—thanks to liberal application of sake, Hitachino Nest Dai Dai, and umeshu, and all too ready to cuddle together on a fire escape to watch the fireworks explode overhead.

[BardGallant]

Dris was elated to accompany Rhys to JUSCO to help him spend the gift voucher he won at the All Ranks Tournament, and then some. Ignorance and an excuse to party had motivated them the year before, but now the bard was eager to participate from a better informed perspective.

The kimono cardigan Dris chose for himself was a sheer white and featured a beautiful illustration of a Zen landscape, with birds flying over mountains. A contrast but glowing complement to Rhys' darker themes.

Getting up early went against everything Dris believed in, but for this he made an exception and joined Rhys to watch the parade. Afterward they strolled through the streets and visited with various vendors to collect souvenirs. Not to mention all the games they played! Though he left most of the eating to his boyfriend, he happily shared nibbles of his chosen delicacies, especially the taiyaki. Rumor had it the bard could be seen eating a lot of those.

By the time evening rolled around, Dris was most assuredly wasted and only remained upright due to using his boyfriend as a crutch. He spoke frequently to their new goldfish friends, whom he had spontaneously decided to name Umeshu and Dai Dai, in honor of the delightful beverages that had gotten him to this state. The two drunkards lingered for the fireworks, snuggly and deliriously happy together.

[Asami Ito]

Asami chose to pick her own attire without taking suggestions for the Tanabata festivities. It seemed that Mallory hadn't been the only one wearing a design by Bungee Maximum — with Asami's choice seeming to be inspired by the blending of the colors of black and yellow with shades of gray that made up a a design depicting dragon scales. The alternate style of yukata benefitted well with Asami's footwear of choice; platformed black combat boots. The chains which draped from the ankles of these boots would give off a little ringing of their own with each step the Sukeban took.



While much of her time was spent with Yuzuki, Reira, Tomo, and Kaho (along with a brief moment to say hello to the Juri, and by association — the Sato's), she did splinter away from the group with Yuzuki so that they could spend time together. Though this date had a small pause to it as Asami was asked to act as the tester for the Takamine vs. Takahashi Blade Contest.

The Takamine blade was tested first and Asami swung the katana one-handed and with enough force to carve through the dummy. She briefly looked it over and saw no damage had come to the weapon and then swapped it out for the Takahashi blade. She swung it as well, cutting just like before; yet it seemed the blade could not handle the strain of the swing and broke as it was forced through the dummy.

Asami handed the broken blade back and then said, "Takamine wins." resulting in cheers of applause (and one groan from no doubt the creator of the Takahashi blade).

With both weapons then being taken as offerings to the shrine it meant Asami could once more to back to enjoying the festivities. So off she went, hand in hand with Yuzuki.

[Riho Matsuda]

Riho and Suza returned to Rhydin in time for Tanabata after spending the July 4th holiday in the United States. Suza might have been the more tired of the two after their travels, but who wouldn't after multiple theme park visits and a large family get together? Still, they couldn't miss the fun, and photos from the Tanabata celebration would be included in the album e-mailed to Suza's parents the morning after!

The Matsudas had time to shop for their new yukata, including a trip to Jusco to check out the summer sale!


Riho's yukata


Suza's yukata

[Kaede]

Kaede had a wide assortment of yukata and kimonos so it took no small amount of contemplation to decide just what to wear for Tanabata. In the end, she settled on a soft pink and white cherry blossom patterned ensemble. By the end of the day, she had absconded with more goldfish than should have been feasible. Her friends would likely be receiving them as gifts for weeks to come. She disappeared just before the fireworks started and reappeared shortly after they finished to leave with the rest of the crowd.

[Josette Wheeler]

Eager to check out the festivities after her performance at the Summer Gala, Josette made her way to the Tanabata festival at Kabuki Street with her little feywild stoat, Vie, trotting along at her heels.

Famished and still exhilarated after the show, Josette sampled some of everything the festival had to offer. From the food, to the parade, to the games, to the splendor of the fireworks at midnight.

One stubborn goldfish refused to be parted from the other as it practically jumped out of the water once the other was collected. There was a laugh of delight from the petite ballerina as she gently gathered the two together. “What do you think, Vie? For Cane and Isaac?”

Vie was distracted by a sudden splatter of watermelon juice that stained her snow white fur pink. Utterly indignant, Vie sat up and sneezed pixie dust onto a nearby robe. “Oh…I am sorry. Josie apologized to the nearby vendor and caught the haori before it had a chance to drift upwards and could float away like a paper lantern. “I will pay for it, it’s lovely.” Meanwhile, Vie spat out a stray watermelon seed, looking utterly unapologetic and was now eyeing the fish with a hungry gleam in her eyes.

“Don’t even think about it.” Murmured down to the now pink and white weasel. The haori was entirely too big for her, but it would make a perfect gift for Cane once she cleaned off the pixie dust! Alas, her brother Isaac would never wear anything so colorful. The robe also made her think of the fish that swam happily together in the bag, the two playfully chasing the other. “Vega and Altair,” she softly murmured to them as she drifted off to find a good spot to watch the fireworks. Of course the ballerina chose to name them after stars.

[Momoka Hakuto]

Momoka sat on the steps of the shrine, waiting hopefully that Yasei would return to Kabuki for their planned date to the Tanabata festival. She had looked through her own selection of yukata but decided that the occasion warranted a new one and a shopping trip! She looked down the main street in both directions, hoping that her messages to her mother, Lady Fuku had made their way to Yasei's hands.

Time continued to pass and the festivities of the Tanabata celebration continued to play out in front of Momoka until a figure seemed to be dashing through the crowd.

"Fuk-- Momoka!" exclaimed the newly arrived Yasei as she attempted to catch her breath. Running was always her strong suit, but the length she had traveled nevertheless was enough to wind her for the moment. ".. I'm sorry, Lord Okami called upon me.. If not for Lady Fuku I would still be away."

Momoka had almost decided that Yasei would not make it, and began to look more worried than disappointed. She was just rising from the steps when s he heard the exclamation and the running steps. Her eyes lit up along with her bright smile as she turned to greet the dashing Yasei. "You made it! Oh, my mother wished for you to come to Tanabata?"

She was feigning having nothing to do with begging Lady Fuku to use her influence in the youkai realm to convince Lord Okami, but her smile had a touch of mischief. Then she was peering to study Yasei's outfit with a grin. "That's an interesting design. What made you choose that pattern?" she asked.

Yasei released a soft laugh and answered, "Lady Fuku, of course.. She said it would be fitting."


Momoka's yukata


Yasei's yukata