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

[sing_for_me]

[Luckily, her powers work this time around, and the kids began to quiet down. The smaller one's start to fall back into their beds, feeling drowsier than the others. Even the ayakashi began to slow down, though they try to fight it off. Alex stops there, not wanting to let too much of the power out. It should be enough to make things easier for Maria.]

[sing_for_me]

[Alex looked to the wall.]

Can you break that? Get us outside?

[At this rate, the water might end up flooding the rest of the house.]

[redmare]

[She got the hint. At least that was something they could agree on.]

Been ready.

[redmare]

[Chinatsu looks back when she sneezes. She wasn't used to Hibiki having so little to say... She tucks her underneath the blanket.]

I'll be back.

[She leaves for a few minutes, returning with a tray of soup, medicine, and water. Placing it down on the table, she starts to prop Hibiki up with a pillow, just enough so she can eat and not choke. She takes the bowl and scoops up a bit of soup, holding it out towards Hibiki's mouth.]

Here.

[hakingitup]

[Well that makes things easier. He moves over towards the workers and begins to slowly hand over the people in his arms.

It's slow because he has a bunch of them at once, but it's still going.]

[reformedsinner]

I'm not so sure.

[Following the kids who left sounds like a surprisingly good idea. Surprisingly, because normally, he wouldn't feel quite the same urge to go find a bunch of stupid children and beat them within an inch of their lives.

Not since he was their age, at least.

But there's a little voice, whispering at the back of his mind, that encourages it.]

Do you hear that?

[creeping_spirit]

[The ayakashi is outpacing Ken -- at first, but Chikusa's power and its own injuries are slowing it down, bit by bit.

Slowly, but surely. By the time it hits Ken's borderline, it's slowed enough that it thuds into it, with great force. Enough force to shatter the borderline, still, with the creature's weight, but not enough that it can keep moving afterwards.

It collapses to the ground with a full-body shudder, rolling heavily onto its side.]

[creeping_spirit]

[The foot is as tough as horn, and the blade judders as it strikes, forcing itself against the heavy weight of the descending foot.

And then it cuts through, as the light of the Rend spell begins to glow around the blade, more and more brightly.

Above them, the creature, once wounded by the Rend spell that Zelda's group had cast, lets out a wordless, deafening, agonized roar. The light grows, and under its harsh illumination the purple flesh of the foot begins to blow apart. The shin follows, and the leg, as the wave of destruction climbs further and further.

The roar thins, and goes higher, until it's a wail, then a screech as the last of the creature's substance explodes apart, into ribbons and rings of light.

Abruptly, the light dies.

An instant later, bits of ayakashi begin to rain down everywhere, splattering across the trees, the ground, and every god and shinki in range.]

[priforprince]

...I'm not a child, you know.

[ Being propped and fed does have some of the usual haughty pique returning. It just looks out of place on a face still boggled by fever.

Something to soothe this ache in her throat...does sound pleasant, though. ]

[redmare]

[Her eye twitches.]

Would the gian baby like for me to shove a tube down her throat?

[priforprince]

I can at least hold a spoon!

[ Hibiki, you can't hold a teacup when you're in perfect health.

Raising her voice also makes her cough. She has to hunch down in the covers, doubled up on herself. ]

[redmare]

Tch.

[Putting the bowl down, she hands the glass of water over instead.]

Can't you put that damn pride of yours aside for five freaking minutes?

[Pot meet kettle.]

[priforprince]

[ Wordlessly, Hibiki accepts the glass and drinks. This, apparently, is permissible without comment. Or perhaps she's just desperate.

She clears her throat when she's done, handing back the glass. ] Pride is the calling card of Celebrity.

[redmare]

Yeah, yeah, whatever.

[She hands the bowl over after taking the glass from her.]

Don't spill it.

[Be careful--was the translation.]

[priforprince]

Of course.

[ This bowl feels heavier than she thought. But she can do this.

Why is the spoon wobbly?

Ah, well. She gets it to her mouth. One spoonful down...

Oh. This feels...even nicer than she'd imagined it would. Hibiki swallows, closing her eyes. The flavors are somewhat lacking, but this sensation -

She can almost see the Palps. ]

[redmare]

[While her arms were crossed, Chinatsu was ready to catch the bowl or the spoon, should Hibiki loose any strength. Dammit, why wouldn't she just listen? Her foot tapped anxiously, betraying the uncaring demeanor she was trying to show.]

[usedperishsong]

That's the spirit!

[ You said "hope." Good boy!

Kanade reaches into a pocket and shows him she's got her Far Shore phone on her. ] I'll keep in touch.

[usedperishsong]

Then you think all these kids are doin' it because they want to?!

[ That, she....She can't believe that. Maybe it's just that she doesn't want to believe it.

But trusting a guy who gets his kick from riling people up, or taking him at his word, would be super stupid. ]

[usedperishsong]

[ Indeed not. But everyone has their reasons for taking things different ways. ]

You been patrollin' around here long?

[usedperishsong]

Death doesn't improve people, then.

[ Kanade has no such qualms. ]

Drat. They said Heaven, I figured it'd be a bunch of choirs and folks holding doors open for each other.....

Well, this way's probably more interesting.

[priforprince]

[ That tapping is....irritating, or would be, if Hibiki were not so absorbed in eating. Hibiki is at soup right now. Yes.

Her arms get tired, though, and she rests the bowl in her lap. And sighs.

This is all so strange. ]

[futhark]

[ Answering after consulting with Archer's mun- yeah, handwaving the fire-support it is! ]

[declamando]

[Maria laughs a bit at his response to the dog comment and shrugs.] You seem very loyal to people you like and drag them around to get them involved in things. I could probably think of more reasons with some time.

[It had been a relatively off-hand comment, but that doesn't mean it was necessarily an incorrect one.

She nods in agreement with his impression of their pantheon, though she's not surprised he has more observations on it since he's what she'd consider a legitimate part of it.] That sounds right. It's a little odd to me that people are still worshipping such old gods...in my world, we study them and their cultures, obviously, but I don't think I've ever met anyone who actually worships them anymore.

[declamando]

[Considering how tight her chest is getting already, Maria tries to keep it quick, slashing through the ayakashi with the methodical manner of someone very used to disposing of dangerous creatures quickly. The power slowing them down certainly helps - since she has to worry less about them striking back, she can be more straightforward in her moves.

After a series of white light flashes that dissipate the remainder of the ayakashi, Maria returns to the door and takes a deep breath in.]

Sounds like it worked. [She didn't have much chance to watch the children while getting rid of the ayakashi, but they're much quieter now.]

[futhark]

[ The rune is written in less than a minute in fact, but there's one more "ingredient" so to speak, necessary to finish the spell. ]

Hey! [ He calls to get Obi's attention, and when he does he throws the stone in his direction. ]

Hold on to it for a moment, think about your god- dunno visualize him or something. [ That's the weird part to explain, but it's always easier to let the tracking spell go by someone who knows what they are looking for ] Then throw it on the ground and follow where it goes.