015 | Sky Full Of Stars

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Tanabata Festival
When: All day July 5
Where: The Near Shore
Summary: The Heavens are throwing a party and you're invited!

Edit: OVERFLOW is here!



With Tanabata drawing close, the Heavens have decided that there is nothing wrong with a little celebration for the annual occasion. So they have invited everyone on the Far Shore as well as a large number of people from the Near Shore to attend a festival for Tanabata. Tanabata festivals are not uncommon in this area, so the Near Shore residents are none the wiser, though some of them are a little uncertain about where this street they've never heard of popped up from...

Tanabata is a festival held to celebrate the one time a year that the lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi can meet across the vast expanse of the Milky Way. Many birds have been working their tail feathers off to create a bridge for the two lovebirds and that bridge - perhaps unsurprisingly - touches down on this street, in the middle of the festival.

The Heavens have prepared entertainment, food stalls, and as many tanzaku as might be needed for everyone to write down wishes, along with plenty of bamboo stalks to hang the wishes from.

New arrivals will find themselves ushered to the festival and offered traditional clothing after their normal briefing at the Meeting Hall.



Stalls

There are festival stalls of every kind present, all run by shinki dressed in white robes and bearing the golden chrysanthemum of Amaterasu. Many of them seem a little bruised still, but they are happy to smile for anyone who comes to the stall they are running. There is food, games, and drinks available of all kinds, so feel free to roam around to your heart's content sampling everything that you can.

Performance

A large stage has been erected at one end of the festival street. The Heavens know that there are many talented gods and shinki present, so they are more than willing to clear spots in the scheduling for those people to perform. Anytime a Far Shore resident isn't on stage, there are plenty of Near Shore acts to go on, ranging the gambit from traditional music and instruments all the way to a rock band that has somehow found themselves here for the celebration.

Wishes

Pieces of paper called tanzaku have been strewn about a number of bamboo shoots all over the festival. There are brightly colored decorations on the bamboo and the papers themselves exist in every color of the rainbow as well. Attendees are encouraged to write down any wishes they may have and hang them from the bamboo, a normal Tanabata tradition. Wishes can range from 'I want a soda' to 'World peace' and anything in between. Obviously, some of these wishes may not be able to be granted during the time of the festival, but gods and shinki alike are encouraged to answer any wishes they can as well.

NOTE: Please report any wishes your characters answers to the first comment on this post along with a link to where the wish is answered. There will be small bonuses awarded for answered wishes.

The Bridge

As stated previously, the bridge that will allow Orihime to meet her lover touches down in the very center of the festival's street. It may be made of tiny pieces, but the bridge itself is sturdy. While it may not be able to take just anyone who sets foot on it across the Milky Way, you are allowed to walk along the bridge yourself, though you will always find yourself turned around after a short time and heading back towards where you stepped on. Lovers in particular are encouraged to walk the bridge together to deepen their bonds, but be cautioned! If you walk onto the bridge with someone, you might start feeling affectionately towards them even if they are your sworn enemy! Such is the power of love on this day.

In Summary:

• Enjoy the festival
• Watch some quality entertainment
• Make and/or answer wishes
• Meet Orihime
• Traverse the bridge
• Have fun~

Comments

[fortune_detective]

Hmmm... I was given no other name to go by.

[She scratches a cheek briefly with her finger. It certainly was obnoxious how little assistance there seemed to be from the heavens when it comes to introducing the pair of god and shinki to one another. However, she ties not to show her frustration on the surface.]

I certainly hope we get along to. I imagine it will make the afterlife much more tedious if it's otherwise.

[mithrarin]

[The heavens seemed to do it deliberately, Dust has noticed.]

Even so, it's not so bad as all that. There's plenty of people to meet, ayakashi to fight... parties, I guess? [The last part he can't help but voice skeptically. Everyone says that the heavens are dangerous, but they seemed to have a lot of celebrations...]

[fortune_detective]

[Naoto tilts her head to the side momentarily.]

Parties?

[She then remembers where exactly it is they're supposed to be headed to, the festival. That counted essentially as a party, didn't it? A celebration.]

Are they really so common here?

[mithrarin]

Fairly. I haven't been here all that long, but -- there was a beach party when I arrived, then there was a sleepover, now there's this. People keep telling me they're pleasant breaks from constant danger, but...

[Dust shrugs. He has yet to feel the slightest sense of danger here.]

[fortune_detective]

[A beach party does sound like fun, but Naoto's more curious about the other example.]

A... sleepover?

[She then grows more serious at the mention of danger.]

You mean from the ayakashi?

[mithrarin]

More than that. People have told me about the undead rising, before I came here. Then, just a little while ago, when most people were out in the world visiting shrines, someone set a local temple on fire.

[From everything he's heard, the ayakashi are mostly mindless. So either something is leading them, or another faction is involved.]

[fortune_detective]

[Naoto's demeanor seems to change a little further as she grows more serious, more focused.]

The fires... could they have been started by the ayakashi? I still know very little about them, what they're capable of.

[mithrarin]

If it wasn't them, I don't know who it was. Though I sometimes wonder... if the ayakashi have gods the way we do.

[This isn't a thought he has voiced to anyone who knows more than he does, because he expects to be dismissed or merely shrugged at.]

[fortune_detective]

[That's... an alarming concept. Naoto has far too limited information at the moment to weigh-in on how accurate she finds Dust's theory.]

You would be in a better position to guess than I. I was only first warned about the ayakashi a little while earlier.

[mithrarin]

Sorry. Kind of deep thoughts to be dropping on someone new. Believe it or not, being dead and memoryless has a way of doing that to you.

[Dust flashes her a brief smile, faintly humorous and all sympathetic.]

Anyway. I know it's going to be rough. But there are lots of good people here. Gods and shinki both.

[fortune_detective]

[Continued on the Tanabata Overflow]