014 | A Whole New World

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Exploring the world
When: All day June 26
Where: The Near Shore (All Over)
Summary: So many shrines have popped up! Go visit your homelands!



The Heavens have received reports of many shrines to the "new gods" they are harboring appearing all over the world. These shrines seem to be additional, new shrines to those gods. Older shrines to those gods still exist, but these ones are shiny, new, and way more compatible with the "new gods". God characters, as well, will have felt the sudden pull towards their homelands and be compelled to travel to them. But the Heavens have taken it a step farther, offering the Meeting Hall as a place for gods and shinki to group up and go out for the day to the various places that are now calling out to them.

Please ignore the fact that they are mostly doing this so that you all will collect information for them without their begging for it or having to reward you.



Meeting Hall

The Meeting Hall is being used as a sort of hub right now. Any groups that are planning to meet up and travel together can meet here, but you might also find someone who's going somewhere you'd like to and tag along with them. Additionally, the Heavens have provided packed lunches for everyone to take with them, should they desire to. This also serves as a meeting place for all of the new gods and shinki.

Locals

Local pantheons have been alerted to the impending visitors. They are happy to welcome their brethren home and are likely to make a big fuss about their brothers and sisters staying with them. Local gods are welcome to be interpreted however you would like, just be sure not to NPC any god that is already taken by a god player. Also, you may find yourself running into some local spirits during your sight-seeing - including local ayakashi and various folklore spirits.

Flyers

They may not stick out at first, but those who are paying attention will notice that there are a large number of flyers being left around at their new shrines. Heck, even walking through the human towns, you will find flyers scattered on the ground and pinned to cork boards and nailed to telephone poles. All bear the same message: "Down with the Heavens. Down with Amaterasu." The locals gods are well versed in the flyers, saying that there have been some strange characters around throwing these flyers at anyone who will give them the time of day. Even humans will note that some shady-looking people have been putting up these strange posters.

Destruction

Whether you return early because of boredom, never left because you're uninterested, or late because you've been having fun, the middle of the night will bring an interesting sight to all. The Heavens will find themselves under attack - in the form of a large fire set at the temple of Amaterasu herself. The entire home is going up in flames and no one knows where Amaterasu is. They're asking for help in dousing the fire or even entering the burning home to find the small goddess and possibly look for the saboteurs, though the only people who are still around are Amaterasu's shinki, in varying states of distress and consciousness.

Note: Who will discover Amaterasu will be decided randomly on 3/20/17 OOC. At that point, a follow-up post will be made by Amaterasu herself.

In Summary:

• Explore the world
• Get to know your homelands
• Investigate insurgents
• Deal with a riot
• Save Amaterasu
• Have fun~

Comments

[justclaws]

[First thought: It has to be her.

[Second thought, hard on the heels of the first: It cannot be her. He is seeing things, that is all, seeing the Princess's hair and features on some other girl, any girl at all, for no more reason than he desperately wants her to be here. Kairi looks, in some lights, enough like the Princess to... to trouble him. Kija has not told her this, of course. She cannot help the way she looks.

[Third thought: It is definitely her. Her hair is shorter than he remembers it, but everything else - yes, everything else is exact, absolutely exact, even after two or three hard blinks.

[After that come emotions, and for a split second Kija is overwhelmed, than just plain ecstatic: he wants nothing more than to call out to his Princess, to run to her side - just her side, Jae-ha, thank you - and never let her out of eyeshot again unless decorum dictates it is absolutely necessary and decorum, right now, can clearly and absolutely go hang--

[For a second, just that: then he remembers where he is, he remembers Yoon, and after that he is terrified.

[Because Kija doesn't even know what to call her any more. Because he cannot (damn this place, damn the way it splits them all off from one another!) he cannot let on that he knows her, not without knowing - good God - what she is. The thought she might have forgotten everything, forgotten not only what they had been through together, not only who her guardians are but forgotten even herself, forgotten, for crying out loud, the simple fact that she is royalty... that thought is terrible, and it is only too terribly plausible. Who is to say that the madmen in charge of this place would not look at someone like her, a princess, a warrior, an absolutely elemental force for justice and change and see nothing but... but another servant?

[And then he realizes he is staring at her.

[And then Kija thinks to wonder exactly how long he has been staring at her for.

[And he doesn't even know what to call her, and he cannot think of anything to do but hide. Moving - and now people are staring back - far too quick and too sudden, he ducks behind the nearest thing that looks substantial enough to hide him and tries desperately to think of something to do...

[Which is when he hits on the BBS. Yes, last time it went badly but this is an emergency. Digging out the strange and entirely too fragile box that was foisted on him by whoever was in charge he struggles with it for a few accursed moments before (quickly, quickly, there is no time for this) posting a message aimed at absolutely anyone who might happen to see it, at all--

[All right. That will have to do.

[Now. Is there nowhere better to hide?]

[darkestbefore]

[ No, there is not, because Yona might have caught the flash of white as he dashed into cover the first time, it's just taken her this long to push her way through the crowd to investigate.

And sure enough, as she peeks around the pillar to find him crouched over some small strange device, it is, in fact, just who she had hoped it might be. She couldn't sense him, not like he could with his brothers, but there had been that same sense of knowing when she'd caught the quick movement out of the corner of her eye, just like when she'd first met Shin-Ah, and Jae-ha.

And despite how impossible it might seem, the relief that floods through her at the sight of a familiar face here at last, Yona can't help but break into a bright smile at discovering him. Even if he is hiding - a fact that, for the moment, goes completely over her head. ]

Kija!

[justclaws]

[What the--

[Dropped the phone again.

[Kija only barely notices. He cares even less.

[He doesn't know what he is supposed to be feeling, except for about a thousand things at once: shock and relief and simple happiness, and also wonderment and confusion and something very close to panic, too much of everything and everything at once. You would think it would be easier, second time around. It is not. Is, if anything, only all the more overwhelming for - for actually knowing her, for understanding not only that his master is here, but that the Princess is, for the reality that is her over the abstract that was Hiryuu. And that by itself would be enough, except...

[Except that then the Princess says his name, and she says it like it means something. Blame this place, blame everything it can take from them, but that, here and now, is the most overwhelming thing of all.

[He has no idea what to say, because there is too much to choose from; he cannot think what to do because what he wants to do is so very obviously improper. He has probably been gazing at her for far too long, but - no, she is real, she is smiling, she is glad to see him. She is here - and yet Kija fears that if he is to look away for even a moment, she will simply disappear...

[Stop staring, Kija. With respect: no.]

Princess!

[It is you.

[Is there more than that? There should be more than that and if only he knew what. Anything would be better than nothing.]

Are you all right?

[Anything other than that, but it really is all he can think of.]

[darkestbefore]

[ It takes him so long to answer her that for a moment she starts to worry. To doubt. not that it is him, no of course not, because she would recognize him anywhere. But the information given about the shinki such a short while ago is still fresh in her memories and when he just stares at her and says nothing, the fear starts to wrap around her, choking and horrifying, her warm smile faltering a moment as she wonders if she'd just horribly misstepped.

Why did he not say anything? Did he.... Was he here with none of his memories of his life before? Of himself? Of her?

Fortunately before that fear can unravel much further he speaks, and the moment the title of Princess leaves his lips she all but sags in relief, her heart starting to beat again, and then pound, a rush of adrenaline following the bone-deep fear that he would not know her.

It is that adrenaline that has her acting on impulse, spontaneously pushing forward to throw her arms around his neck in a hug born of utter relief - both that she had found a familiar face and that he knew who she was. ]

It is you! I feared... I am unharmed. Just... confused. So very confused. But I am so glad to see you here, Kija.

[justclaws]

[Exactly the same things I did.

[At least someone here is good with gestures and, if an embrace is to be the Princess's will, he can accept it gladly and graciously. Not least of which because it is exactly what he needs, maybe what the both of them need: to know the other so utterly and immediately there.

[It might have been embarrassing, if it hadn't been such a blessed relief.]

Please... Princess, you must not worry on my behalf. I am quite all right. This place...

[Well.

[What is there to say about this place? He would like to say they are quite safe, that there is no danger here, if that were not entirely untrue. The last thing Kija wants is to pile worry on top of confusion. There will be time enough to explain, or try to, exactly what kind of a place this is (and it needs her; oh, how badly it needs her too). For now--]

This place is strange, but neither of us must face it alone. And Ouryuu Zeno is here, too. I am sure he will make himself known to you too, just as soon as he can.

[Should he mention Yoon?

[He can work round to Yoon. Very well, should he stop hugging her?

[Should probably stop hugging her. It is going to get awkward. Okay, stepping back a bit. Just a little. For decorum's sake.]

[darkestbefore]

I'm glad you're safe. [ And that he remembered her, because the alternative was... too terrible to think about. So she just smiles and reaches out to rest her hand atop his own when he pulls back from the hug, completely oblivious to any awkwardness that might accompany it. ]

Zeno is here, too? [ She is not sure whether to be relieved or troubled that this place has brought several of them here for its own purposes. ]

Have you seen any of the others?

[ It also hasn't occurred to her that they haven't just arrived here at the same time from their little campsite she'd fallen asleep in the night before. ]

[justclaws]

You too, Princess. I am very glad to see you unharmed.

[And, selfish as it may be, that you are here-- Oh.

[So we are doing this now.

[Not the intention in breaking the hug, certainly, but Kija can hardly own it... unpleasant. At least (shut UP, Jaeha) at least it is proof that the Princess is really, truly here. If she needs the - the reassurance, maybe, too... well, then it is all right. More than that, really. Welcome.]

The others? I - unless they came back when you did, then I do not think they can be here now. Jae-ha and Shin-ah were, for a time, but they - returned.

[No, Kija, stop looking at her hand.]

I am not quite sure how returning works.

[darkestbefore]

[ A flicker of surprise crosses her face before she turns more serious, considering that. ]

I was not told anything about that, either. But it seems you are the first one I am to find yet again, Kija. Although I'm certain they've made a very good choice in entrusting you with the responsibilities they've asked of us. Is the god you are here to represent a familiar one?

[ Because so far, from what she'd heard from others, none of them were to her. ]