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

[sweetdeath]

Right, but do you have both jobs at once?

[It makes sense in his head! Surely there are duties associated with being a whatever-she-was, the same way there are with being who she is now.]

[nibelungvalesti]

So long as I am awake and active, I am the Valkyrie.

[It is not a question of a 'job', but an 'identity', which is why the question proves so baffling to her.]

[sweetdeath]

Um, okay....

[It's not a question of identity to him at all: being a god is doing the job of a god.

Right? Right.

He's not actually arguing, though, just looking bewildered for several seconds before he forces an uncertain smile.]

Anyway, uh, I guess it's nice to meet you!

[nibelungvalesti]

[It is very easy and not entirely incorrect to argue that the Valkyrie has no sense of humor. And yet at that comment, the faintest smile crosses her face.]

Strange times indeed when any would express that sentiment.

[sweetdeath]

Come on, you're not that bad!

[That's what she means, right?]

[nibelungvalesti]

A Valkyrie appears to a mortal only when they die. The meeting is therefore not much anticipated.

[sweetdeath]

Oh.

[That makes sense. A painful kind of sense, but sense nonetheless; Tsuzuki sobers, frowning sympathetically.]

That must be tough. I mean, that's a lot of people who've been through the worst. Unless they're like shinki and they forget?

[nibelungvalesti]

No. Whether they are Chosen or rendered unto Hel, those who die that face me remember their lives.

[sweetdeath]

[... "or rendered unto Hell..."]

S-so only the ones who are chosen get saved, huh?

[She said that so calmly. Tsuzuki shivers.]

[nibelungvalesti]

[That is fate. Valhalla or Niflheim. A fate earned by mortals through their choices, a fate it is her duty to arbitrate.]

Make no mistake, my Choosing is not arbitrary. Those who become Einherjar are those worthy to become Einherjar.

[sweetdeath]

It must be tough doing a job like that.

[All those people she's got to meet right after they die, and she makes the call about who gets a horrible fate? Man. Creepy. She still sounds weirdly calm about it, but anybody must be upset about having to do that all the time... right?]

I mean, even if you've got good reasons, don't you feel sorry for the people who don't make the grade?

[nibelungvalesti]

Their choices were their own to make. Their lives were their own to live. Should I feel sorry for those who do no good in all their time in Midgard?

[sweetdeath]

Shouldn't you, if you're sending them someplace awful? I mean, they're still people!

[Where's the compassion?]

[nibelungvalesti]

When given the gift of life, some people choose to do good with it. They make the world a better place, and make the gift of life others have more rewarding.

Others commit evil. Life is tarnished in their presence, a gift made dull and broken as they wield their own fortune like a sword against others.

Fate is earned by your actions to others. Those who do not treat others as people have no right to complain at the fate they earned.

[sweetdeath]

I mean, I'm not saying nobody's ever bad.

... I'm just saying it must be tough to make that call. What about the average people? It's not like everybody either makes the world better or they're evil.

[What about the people who did something wrong, but they're sorry?

It still sounds awful to him. He's just glad that it's not his job.]

[nibelungvalesti]

One need not live a perfect life to be Chosen. But one must make the world in some way better... and be worthy of godhood, to stand on the battlefield in the final conflict of Ragnarok.

[This is her duty. She does it as simply as breathing. More easily, in fact...]

[sweetdeath]

Um... okay. That's, uh.

[So the options are being worthy of being a god or getting sent to the underworld to rot.

Suddenly he's glad he's a shinki.]

That's... great?

[Also? Her casual answer makes her abruptly terrifying.]

[nibelungvalesti]

[Being a shinki is, in her viewpoint, quite inferior to being an Einherjar. Both for the arbitrary selection and the loss of memory.]

The final battle approaches... and mortals will quail if Valhalla loses.

[And yet, a faint flicker of doubt shows in the depths of her eyes. Will they be better off if the gods win?]

[sweetdeath]

What happens after the battle?

[That's kind of something that leaps to mind, isn't it?

If the gods lose to the, well, whatever it is they're fighting in a "final battle," that's obviously going to be bad. If they win, though, why's it final? What happens next?]

[nibelungvalesti]

Should the Vanir be defeated, I believe that will be the end of it -- all will continue, as it was before.

Should we lose, they will doubtless break all creation to their will.

[sweetdeath]

All will continue until the next battle? Or are they going to be wiped out?

[nibelungvalesti]

If I face Surt, I will see to it that there can never be a next time.

[Was she scary before? Now might truly drive it home.]

[sweetdeath]

[EEP. Man, he's glad he's not whoever Surt is.]

U-um, okay! Right! Um, anyway, it's great meeting you! I shouldn't, um, take up any more of your time.

[nibelungvalesti]

Nor I yours. I imagine many things remain in this festival to impress you.

[She delivers this so straight, and in her usual imperious tone, that she cannot possibly be ironic. Can she?]

[sweetdeath]

You're probably right.

[Whether she's being sarcastic or not, it looks like Tsuzuki's taking it absolutely at face value.

But then, he's been spending a lot of time impressed and intimidated today.]