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

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, my goddess is a healer, so it seemed like the spot for us. -- You're Shun's friend, right? I don't think we've met -- Tsuzuki Asato.

[He ducks his head in a little half-bow.]

[kokuyoyo]

[...Hm. How to play Charades when one is a bird... Chikusa points to a telephone pole nearby with his beak. Good enough?]

[kokuyoyo]

[And since he definitely was going to try and pull it out from her grip.... The string goes floundering, and he huffs in annoyance. Dammit.]

...That doesn't explain what the weird power does.

[sweetdeath]

See you. [Tsuzuki flashes him a smile, and heads off to check the soup quotient and put together a shopping list.

A few minutes later, he's back, with a hastily scribbled piece of paper in one hand, running the top of a ballpoint pen down the list and muttering under his breath as he tries to add up how much all this canned soup is likely to cost.]

[kokuyoyo]

[At least Shun has the phone, leaving Chikusa free to abruptly land on another teenager's shoulder. Enjoy the yelling.]

[Meanwhile, the text on the phone reads simply- ]

pathetic to fight only

[kokuyoyo]

[Along with where he's gestured to on the map, there's one other thing that lets Maria know where Chikusa has been. Blankets, water, and occasionally medicine has been dropped onto certain people, those who are quite obviously sick. Chikusa has been hard at work, tending to the mess his god did.]

[And at every stop as he strides along behind her, he makes sure to chase off crows, as well.]

[yasei]

You will? That's good, I can't exactly render on my own.

[ Little Mr. Fluffy sure looks like he thinks he knows what he's doing, at least. If he can back up that confidence is another question. ]

Do you have a shinki in the area, or would naming me be faster?

[ The latter would be more likely, unless whatever shinki this guy has is as fast as Obi is, or faster. ]

[sweetdeath]

Right.

[He pauses, awkwardly, before offering:]

... You know, I think that ought to wear off before too long.

[Or, at least, if what Add said is right, it'll wear off. He has no idea how long it'll take.]

[kokuyoyo]

[At least Chikusa doesn't pursue him, because that would take effort. Instead, he stops in place and lightly stomps his foot.]

[Goddammit, Davesprite, what kind of team player are you]

[roundtablerebel]

[ Mordred is at first confused by Kanade's exhausted state and takes a concerned step forward. Did some of those guys intercept her? Is she injured?

Then Kanade wheels on her with a grin and Mordred's concern evaporates. She gives an exasperated sigh, shakes her head and then smiles. ]

What, did you run over here with the old woman on your back or something?

[yasei]

Is that a metaphor?

[ Well, the child sure is staring. Obi doesn't give any other suggestions, for the time being, instead choosing to stand back and watch, to see what's going to happen. ]

[yasei]

Of course, some people only know how to take that route. But either way, scaring them would probably be more entertaining.

[onedrinkwithme]

One of them, aye. Experiences have taught me to be more prepared.

[And not to jump in head first. Never Forget the Vault.]

And your partner? Are they close by as well?

[onedrinkwithme]

I suppose there are those who see things differently than others.

[What? He clearly doesn't care if she has no head, Celty's been nice.]

Would you like me to join you? There is always a better chance with more than one at work.

[yasei]

[ The Horror; how can anyone ever not be up for casual flirting? Obi's smile widened into a cross between a smile and a grin. ]

It's not as difficult to alter clothes as it might seem, I'm sure I'd manage. [ Sewing isn't difficult at all. Or is that just him? ]

Oh, I just thought they might need some exercise. After all, they seem so starved for it.

[ It's definitely exercise that they're starved for. ]

[blizzardrock]

[He tenses when Shun goes at it with his sword. He'd assumed Shun had used decay a moment ago because he hadn't wanted to get too close.]

You were planning to do that anyway, right?

[He creates a borderline on the snake's opposite side; they can corner it like that, though whether they'd need to isn't certain. In any case, the ayakashi still hasn't regained its bearings.]

[yasei]

[ Chinatsu is, of course, right. The punch is very slow. Obi even had the time to sigh in disappointment - really, they are a weak - before he swiftly slipped to the side and grasped the wrist of the fist that had been aimed at him, and the kid goes flying through the air. ]

I'll take you on if you insist, but you'll only get hurt.

[ Aah, they were bristling. Well, if they tried to gang up on him, he could easily handle it. ]

[onedrinkwithme]

[Nah, he don't mind it. Aymeric will touch the jewel in the middle of the bracelet, letting Sukomi know that she did a good job and hoping she didn't suffer another headache like with the egg babies.]

We shall be waiting!

[smilingbullet]

[ If Hakkai told him what he was thinking, D2 would be able to reassure him as to the truth, but as D2 is no mind reader, he can't do anything about that right this moment.

He nods as he finishes up with soup on his list, and turns the screen on his phone off for the time being. ]

Yeah, that's true. Medicine isn't going to fix everything, and being sick already makes one feel pretty miserable even when one's got those stuff. Being without that's just gonna make it suck more.

[purr_ince]

[Adrien frowns slightly watching the little girl. He doesn't like when kids are scared. It's just not right. Kids should always, always feel safe.]

I'm Adrien. We're not going to hurt you. We want to help. We can get rid of the scary things and get you back to your Mama and Papa. We can make you safe.

[reformedsinner]

Well, that's one way to handle the problem! Ha ha.

[Thoughtfully, Hakkai nudges the one he'd felled with the toe of his boot. The other two he'd struck were scrambling away with their fellows, perhaps a bit more clumsily, but this boy would be down for a few more minutes at the least.]

Although there's still all that trash to clean up....

[reformedsinner]

Sometimes, yes.

[Sometimes, it's less a matter of a bad rep, and more of a reputation for taking such offenses seriously.]

Although that's an interesting suggestion. I don't know who he may have had as an ally, but then, I imagine that if he was executed very few people would be willing to name themselves as his friends.

[reformedsinner]

Ah, I'm glad it's not just me!

[Hakkai brightens with disturbing speed and an equally disturbing little chuckle.]

If it is an ayakashi, the number of gods and shinki out here should lure it out before too long, don't you think?

They seem to enjoy our flavor.

[kokuyoyo]

[The bird stares at her.]

[Dully.]

[Judgingly.]

[reformedsinner]

Mhm. You're not wrong, but if it's true that the death of a god can cause supernatural misfortune on earth, then it's only to be expected that the misfortune wouldn't look natural.

[He might be upset about it, but, as far as he can tell, the evidence here looks supportive.

It is spreading explosively, and with unusual intensity. His lips press flat, for a moment, but he doesn't comment further.]