25 - Troubled Waters

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Alleviating the troubles caused by conflict in Heaven
When: October 10
Where: Orihime's meadows in the Far Shore, as well as various places in Japan, China and Ireland
Summary: Orihime has been tasked by the Heavens with resolving the conflict caused in the mortal world by the new gods' struggles against one another. Several gods have been killed recently, and their violent deaths have led to dangerous corruption being released in the mortal world. Help Orihime expunge the corruption and return the human world to a peaceful existence.







Orihime's Meadows

Before traveling to the Far Shore, gods and shinki can meet and make plans near Orihime's modest home at the edge of the Southeastern District. Her dwelling is too small to accommodate even one team of gods and shinki arranging something as serious as this, let alone several. It is obvious she thought about this fact, and has crafted four cloth tents out in the meadows surrounding her home. The sounds of the milky way river are now joined by rustling fabric in the wind, for each tent has a flag mounted atop it and standing in front of it:

• The blue tent belongs to the team for Ksitigarbha. It has a sigil in black on the flag.
  
• The green tent belongs to the team for Li Tieguai. On its flag, a mortar and pestle in white, but the visible part of the pestle resembles a staff crook.
  
• The red tent belongs to the team for Cu Chulainn, with an impressive reproduction of a two-headed dog celtic knot in shining silver.
  
• The brown tent belongs to the team for Loki. Its flag bears a two-headed snake in gold.
All four tents are spread out in cardinal directions. Near each tent, she has a few stacks of wooden prayer tablets related to each of the problems, as well as maps and supplies for those who might need them.

In the center of all four tents is a simple chair and table where Orihime herself is generally sitting, talking to others nearby, or writing notes based on those conversations. She does a lot of listening when people ask her for new supplies she hadn't thought of previously, but has only been supplied with four shinki runners to get those supplies, one per group. Additionally, she cannot teleport down to the Near Shore herself, nor can anyone use her home to teleport down to where each of the troubles are; that is a problem for each group to solve on their own, with Orihime only able to mediate and provide suggestions.

Child's Play

Kshitigarbha, protector of children and of hell beings, is one of the recent casualties. Without his protection, it seems that babies' fears are giving rise to new and awful ayakashi throughout the city of Xi'an. Shadows on the wall above the crib, oversized stuffed animals, monsters hiding in the closet or rattling the windows at night -- all the fears of earliest childhood are taking real, malicious form. Babies are panicking, parents are exhausted, and all this stress is pulling in even more ayakashi! Someone needs to lure out these nursery nightmares and defeat them before the situation gets worse.

As gods and shinki work to rend the ayakashi tormenting children, they may notice a strange shadow passing by in the street outside, or scratching noises at the nursery window. Something more seems to be waiting outside....

Flu Season

With sky-high living costs and limited space, Tokyo has a large homeless population. Li Tieguai, protector of the poor and patron of medicine, was another recent death: now, winter's coming, and without his protection it seems like everyone's getting sick at once. They're suffering from everything ranging from plain old head colds and 'flu to more serious things like pneumonia or infections. Help pass out tea, soup and blankets, make sure they get the right medications, and get the sickest people to the hospital.

Carrion crows crowd close around the sick and croak, watching the gods and shinki helping them.

Wild Hounds

As if honoring the fall of the Hound of Chulainn, stray dogs have begun to form into large, dangerous packs in rural and suburban areas of Ireland, and even well-trained housepets have started breaking their leashes and joining them. They're starting to chase and bite humans, and it's only a matter of time before someone gets killed. Gods need to defeat the ayakashi possessing the "leaders of the pack," and get the pets back to their worried owners.

The groves of trees where the dogs are lairing seem unusually dark and shadowy, and footsteps seem to echo those of the gods and shinki tracking them down.

Prank War

Teenage pranks are turning unusually cruel and dangerous lately: with Loki gone, a few groups of bored kids have coalesced into more serious gangs in Chiba, and they've been seen setting fires, tormenting animals, vandalizing businesses and intimidating or robbing people walking alone at night. Someone needs to stop them from causing trouble, put them on a better path, or turn them in to the police before someone gets badly hurt.

Even as they're working to stop the teenagers' mischief, something seems to whisper to them and encourage them to join in and cause a little trouble. After all, it's just some fun....

Boss Battles

Those who helped to resolve the problems caused by the gods' deaths have one final enemy to face. Four dangerous ayakashi are behind these conflicts. Each character can participate in one boss battle, but it's fine for characters to form multiple different groups (i.e. multiple threads under one boss's comment.) To ensure that the NPC knows when to respond to your characters, please indicate which characters will be in a thread in your first comment.

Kshitigarbha - Child's Play

Li Tieguai - Flu Season

Cu Chulainn - Wild Hounds

Loki - Prank War

In Summary:

• Check in with Orihime and your new teams
• Save scared children
• Help the sick
• Tame stray dogs
• Stop pranks from going too far
• Watch out~

Comments

[sixthree]

Huh?

[Wha--

What'd she do.

Samus' helmet tilts quizzicaly, but before she can question it in-depth, Big Nasty Boy's throwing his fit, and Samus is getting dragged out. She's not objecting, and is quick to follow along.]

Might do well to get above the canopy again so we can coordinate with the others, but not knowing for sure where ugly there is going isn't ideal...

[She makes an annoyed noise - even with her armor, jumping straight up is a huge gamble. Even if a stray branch might not harm her as much, it'd still slow her down.]

[nopixiedust]

Liar~.

[Sing song, sing song! Still, Wendy just shrugs, not worried.]

Anyway, even if we can't kill them, we can still stop them, right?

[shutupnail]

That's a good question. I've been discovering most of this by trial and error. Which is frustrating when I'm positive that I knew all of this by rote before!

[He paused for a breath and then added as an after thought:]

Yeah, I can do that one. It's your energy you're manipulating. I know that much at least...

[He really should talk to his god Gohan more. He could learn most of this more quickly but something about that just didn't feel right.]

[priforprince]

[ Down comes the sword, right in the center of the huddled ayakashi. With a flurry of purple rose petals out of nowhere. Because Hibiki can. ]

REND!!

[ The petals may not even be illusion. She just....does that. Sometimes. ]

[nopixiedust]

....So you'd be just as bad as she was, if not worse.

[YEAH, SHE'S CALLING YOU OUT, BUDDY]

[futhark]

Right- [ "Probably" doesn't placate him, he needs to know For Sure. But your kindness is appreciated Lancer. So you get a pat in the shoulder, a quick hair ruffle because of still staying in range. ]

I'm sorry Lancer, but I have to go and find her. [ Go and confirm if she's back. ] I'll be back when I know more.

[ He wouldn't die for her if it wasn't important ]

Do you want to go with me? [ Feel free to, always an additional pair of eyes. If they run into Archer he can join too. ]

[futhark]

[ Why should he take it as an insult? That would be a bother. He's got more important things to worry about ]

Exactly as you say, teamwork is important. [ Touching the tree trunk gives him the access to the roots, just as touching the ground did. He makes sure to add some more roots and vines keeping the ayakashi in place. ]

Go get them tiger. This will hold them immobilized for a while. [ Why to waste a good opportunity, especially if your god is around ]

[nopixiedust]

[They're in a life or death battle. Wendy will very politely not answer that.]

[As for the surroundings, there's the usual suburban nonsense- mailboxes, clotheslines and the pins that come with it, newspapers which have been left abandoned... but are any of these really suitable for a prince?]

[nopixiedust]

You could stop worrying.

[sonofson]

Kinda! I train with Hitsu and a lot of other people. Sparring is a lot of fun, but they're a lot stronger then I am.

[Actually, she'll probably be added to that list too]

I know im pretty strong but there are a lot of people that are way super strong!

[waitingforhope]

[The name rang a bell, though it took Mai a moment to properly place it to a face.]

Nanako...that's the little girl with the brown pigtails, right?

I've met her before. She seems sweet.

/wanders in late, orz

[koukai_kirai]

[Old man, is it? Hijikata looks down at the youth, radiating a staggering degree of unimpressed-ness.]

Bit late for questions like that, brat.

Sorry it's so late!

[koukai_kirai]

[That's not a bad idea, at least. He doesn't see any reason he shouldn't be able to make that work...]

[He squares up against one of the beasts, keeping a careful eye on its movement. Then, just as it pounces, he moves himself well out of reach, leaving the animal snarling in frustrated confusion. Hijikata grins a little at the woman, nodding his thanks before he raises his voice.]

Don't tell me you mutts are too slow to keep up!

/sneaks in late

[koukai_kirai]

Depends on how.

[His pace is measured when he speaks, not too rushed and not too lazy. He keeps staring down the boy who spoke, focusing his overbearing presence in on him a bit more intensely.]

Cut the bullshit and talk, already. If you don't, I'm sure I can find someone you'd be more inclined to listen to...

[A parent, a mentor, the authorities... Hijikata's always flying a bit blind when he uses his powers, since he can't actually read minds, but he figures the desire to please someone like that (or at least stay out of trouble with them) is in there somewhere for most people, and tries to help that feeling get a hold on the young man's heart.]

screams sorry I'm a million years late again and also sorry Hijikata is Like This

[koukai_kirai]

[Helping with the sick?]

[Hijikata laughs a bit, even as he's suddenly hit by a wave of memory. Souji smiling a liar's smile, growing a little smaller, a little weaker, with each passing day. Bloodstained fingertips hovering near sullied lips, eyes dull with pain and still wide with horror.

Don't open the door!]

I wasn't planning on it. Don't have much of a bedside manner.

[You know, that and just thinking about personally tending to the sick just made him look more like he's been to war than talking about the war ever has.]

Gotta have icons for all the occasions~ haha

[sonofson]

[The moment the bigger dogs charage he moves his hand to get ready to draw a boarderline but seeing them stop he blinks. Wow, Alex's power is strong! He watches in awe as the dogs lower themselves down]

Mmhm!

[Goten nods his head before trailing over Alex, doing his best to keep his nose and mouth covered. He doesn't know how her power really works but he doesn't want to be under it's effect either!]

/slams into late tags, sorry about the delay!

[koukai_kirai]

Oh, for...

[Hijikata skids to a stop, glaring up at the narrow sliver of sky. For a moment, his temper runs hot, and he snaps:]

Get your ass back here if you know what's good for you!

[koukai_kirai]

The dog?

[Hijikata stares at Mikoto for a moment.]

Thought we were trying not to make some kid cry, weren't we?

[Burning it seems a bit excessive, if that's the case...]

[koukai_kirai]

I've been thinking along the same lines.

[Trying to look past the little fish and make his way to the places where he can do the most good.]

There aren't that many in the parks and playgrounds. A few at nursery schools and so on.

Orphanages might be a place to try, if they're feeding on upset kids. I've heard there's a children's hospital or something around, too...

Sorry I got behind on tags!

[koukai_kirai]

[Hijikata rolls his eyes, though he does at least set the kid a bit more on the ground.]

I haven't even started scaring this brat.

[koukai_kirai]

They do belong to someone, a lot of them.

[And property damage is fine, but...]

People get pretty attached to their pets, you know.

[koukai_kirai]

[The notion of hiding seems odd, until he realizes that he's really gotten too used to walking among people who only subconsciously notice he's even there. He sighs at her choice of wording, but it's not as if she's wrong or anything.]

Fine. I can go around the corner into that alley.

[And he'll only grumble about it a little bit!]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai sighs, watching the boy bristle at 'brat' and attempt -- and fail -- to puff himself up to Hijikata's size.]

So, in other words, you're using the excuse of a minor mistake to set that boy up for a beating?

That doesn't sound very fair.

[The boy startles, realizing Hakkai's presence, and looks from one to the other with a scowl that Hakkai's certain is mostly the bravado of superior numbers.

You think you can show up here and insult us?]

[koukai_kirai]

[Hijikata straightens up again, looking appropriately Majestic and Dramatic.]

Yes, sir!

[And the apparition vanishes, conveniently back towards where Leo has been hiding out.]

[koukai_kirai]

If you're going to take insult that easily, I believe we just did.

[It's pretty laughable, really, this teenager trying to scare them.]

You're getting distracted now, though. From what I'm getting, it sounds like your friend's just dead set on beating up on anyone who doesn't feel like kissing his ass. Is that about right?