20 | Shopping Frenzy!

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Helping a grand opening go well
When: August 21
Where: The Near Shore
Summary: The owners and employees at a new shopping center are begging for help. Bad luck has plagued them, and their grand opening is this weekend! Gods and shinki alike have been asked to respond to their prayers on Opening Day, find the source of their misfortune and ensure that the opening goes smoothly.



The Yamada Corporation is opening a new, high-class department store in a Tokyo suburb. They've been running advertisements for weeks and excitement among their prospective customers is at a fever pitch. Unfortunately, things inside the project aren't going so well. Construction has been delayed, deliveries are wrong, employees keep getting sick or hurt on the job and it's starting to look like the grand opening will be a grand disaster. Their fervent prayers for help have reached the Heavens, who are passing them along to you to be granted... but with an addition: Heaven, too, is very interested in learning where that bad luck is coming from.



Maintenance Madness

For a brand-new building, Yamada Department Store is having a lot of maintenance issues. Toilets are overflowing, lights are burning out, stair railings are coming loose, and either the air conditioning is set so cold there's frost on the vents or it's not working at all. The overworked maintenance crew needs all the help they can get! How many gods does it take to change a light bulb?

Secret Shoppers

Are you really going undercover to make sure you stop problems before they start, or just enjoying a day of high-class shopping on Heaven's dime? Whatever your real motivation is, all expenses are covered... but you'll still want to keep an eye out for mishaps. Unfortunately, the grocery and bakery in the basement are under construction (they've had some flooding problems) but there are still six floors of designer clothes, consumer goods and restaurants to enjoy.

Retail Rescue

Between mysterious accidents and that nasty flu that seems to be going around, the department store is badly understaffed. Grab an employee uniform and someone else's nametag and pitch in before the lines get too long. There are positions open in every department, from the restaurant on the top floor to book sales on floor one.

It's not just sales and service you have to worry about: thanks to the store's misfortune, displays are toppling over, the wrong orders are coming in, fancy candies are melting all over the shelves and ink tags are exploding on their own. This is hard work!

Intrepid Investigators

The Heavens aren't just sending so much supernatural help to this department store to keep their faithful followers happy. They have reason to suspect that there's something more sinister behind this mysterious streak of extra-bad luck. Between keeping the lights on and the customers happy,
you've been asked to search the store and investigate all of the "unlucky" incidents in order to determine what's going on. The shinki who brought you this request hinted that Heaven would look favorably on anyone who uncovered something particularly useful....

If your character is investigating the department store and needs to know what they have found, please comment to the "Investigations" thread below with a link to your thread. Your hint will be provided.

Investigation threads longer than 10 comments will earn 200 followers for every god in the thread and 20 exp for every shinki. Once your thread reaches that length, please turn it in by replying to your hint under the "Investigations" thread to let us know you've earned the bonus.

In Summary:

• Keep the lights on
• Take some time out to enjoy a shopping trip
• Make sure the customers are happy
• Discover the cause of the bad luck
• Have fun~

Comments

[blizzardrock]

[fair point good ghost sir]

I'm next to the bakery... [Another step sloshes into water. ...Hopefully that startled gasp wasn't too audible. Aha...ha....] Right outside the supermarket! [Next to a puddle (or maybe it's a small lake, he can't tell!), apparently!]

[He looks around.] Do you have a light on you?

[smilingbullet]

Oh, okay.

[ He's pretty much giving out his exact location with description and noises he makes. ]

I have a phone on me, it's got a flashlight.

[blizzardrock]

Ah...right. [He forgot... Sheepishly he pulls out his phone.]

Are you going to tell me where you are, or are you coming to find me? [He'd assumed they were going to look at each other face-to-face. He can't think of a reason not to, after all.]

I promise I'm not a ghost either!

[smilingbullet]

Hide and seek is pretty fun, don't you think? [ That is not a proper answer and he knows it. ]

That's nice, but I technically am.

[ He never said he wasn't a ghost. ]

[blizzardrock]

Oh, is that what we were playing? [He'll begin looking himself, then, abandoning his spot and walking toward where he last heard the voice, the beam of his phone light preceding him..]

["Technically"...] Haha, I'm not a ghost, but I am a spirit. Er—did I startle you, too? Sorry about that.

[smilingbullet]

[ He chuckles. ] Maybe that’s what we’re playing. [ Nah, he’d find a better hiding place if that were the case. His own phone’s flashlight tells enough of where he is. ]

No? [ So is he a shinki in denial? ]

[blizzardrock]

[Aaand there's the other beam of light.] Found you.

[He grins.] How about it? I don't look like a ghost, right? [They might be working on slightly different mental images of "ghost." Although, Fubuki's vessel name isn't actually visible.]

[He holds out his hand. (please prove to him that you are not a ghost)] I'm Fubuki.

[smilingbullet]

[ He smiles at the stranger once he approaches the spot he's at. ] Yup, you did.

But I dunno, ghosts don't always look like ghosts, do they?

[ He looks at his hand in amusement, but doesn't take it, for now. Because he's a Mature Adult. ] I'm D2.

[blizzardrock]

Well, I haven't met that many ghosts...

[He keeps...his hand up...]

[smilingbullet]

Should I have worn a sheet to look more like one?

[ Halloween costume decided? He wants to be a colorful sheet ghost. ]

[blizzardrock]

Heh. If you think you should.

[Looks like no handshake for him, so he drops his hand.]

Wouldn't that be in poor taste, though? I don't like getting reminded that I'm dead, you know? Aha.

[smilingbullet]

It would be ridiculous and cute.

[ Aa-ah, so he is, or wants to be, in denial. ]

But we are dead. There’s no way to change that, so we might as well just face the reality of it.

[blizzardrock]

Heh...I guess so.

I guess I should say...I don't want to be reminded "right now." Everyone deals with it in different ways, you know?

[...There's a deeper reason he doesn't want to be reminded of it at the moment, but never mind that. For now, he swings his light around.] I couldn't see it that well before, but...this looks really unfinished.

[smilingbullet]

Hmm, I guess so.

[ But it would just be better that they came to terms with it... ]

Mhm, it seems they woke up something bad, or something~ If they had been in the States I'd have thought they'd built the place on an Indian burial ground.

[blizzardrock]

[Easier said than done, you know?]

[But at the mention of waking something up, Fubuki's light dips as he tenses slightly. When it's put like that...that's pretty creepy.]

Ahaha...is that so...

Let's hope not... [He swings his light to the floor. Nothing's...at their feet...]

What are the characteristics of...a burial ground?

[smilingbullet]

[ What? It's not like it's an invalid point. And D2 is finding that he's a bit of a spiritualist, while he can't figure out what religion he believes in. None of those that have gods present in the Far Shore feels right. ]

Yeah, that can be troublesome to deal with, I've heard. And like, it makes places haunted and makes things happen, it's pretty bad.

[blizzardrock]

[Would be easier if he could remember who he was and make his peace with that (and the other death(s)), is the thing...haha. But he can't confront it enough to say so out loud, not least because it's dangerous.]

How would you be able to tell if it really is one? [Or something like it. Not that he expects the signs to be identical, really, but it'd be good to know what to look out for.]

[(The fact that D2 was probably not being literal about the burial ground has escaped Fubuki's notice for now.)]

[smilingbullet]

[ They're all in that boat, unless they somehow get some or several memories back. ]

Researching local legends, looking for buried bodies, consulting a shaman. Different things.

[ He might be literal about it, he's not sure. ]

[blizzardrock]

[So...external things. Not something that's apparent from here...]

[Should he be grateful for that? Well...he would like to know, but—no, it would be better to know.]

I guess I should look out for...upturned earth? Do you know any shamans?

[smilingbullet]

That might be a bit hard right now, given the, you know, building and all. [ He makes a hand gesture that's meant to encompass the entirety of said building. ] I don't think I do, at least.

[blizzardrock]

Haha, probably. [Sounds pretty silly when D2's pointed it out, so that little knot of tension fades away.]

I don't think I know any shamans, either.

[He swings his light slowly around.] Were you taking a look at things down here, too?

[smilingbullet]

No, I don’t imagine there’s a lot of them. Ah, they’re called onmyouji in Japan though, so it might be possible to find some. [ There might even still be some famous clans around still. ]

But that was the plan.

[blizzardrock]

[...Yin-yang magicians? Ah...that makes sense. He might have been thinking of something else, but if he tries to pin it down, he's not sure what exactly it was that he was envisioning.]

Haha, I don't think I know any of those, either.

[He brings his light back to straight in front of him.] That was my plan, too. But I couldn't see much! [he says cheerfully like that isn't totally lame.] Want to look around some more?

[smilingbullet]

[ Every culture has their own brand of shaman, they're not necessarily alike at all. ]

Maybe they place ads or are listed in the phone book.

[ Probably not. But there's the internet. ]

Maybe you'll see a bit more now. Yeah, sure.

[blizzardrock]

[Not like he knows much about shamans to begin with.]

I guess I'll see. [He picks a random direction and starts off, but not without giving D2 a jaunty wave.] See you later, if you're still here then.