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

[smilingbullet]

The closest would be best, right? As long as it's not a really bad place.

[ Gingerly, he picks up one of the girls. He looks over at Izumo, with a look of do you know? but also you coming or should I bring them both? ...if Izumo can read that on his face, but it's not difficult to interpret. ]

A

[toremainbehind]

Here.

[He hands Totsuka the blanket from a pile he's been holding.

Izumo's attention is drawn to the shivering person, a faint frown on his lips.]

[boneofsword]

Hmph. I'd rather know what he's up to. [Heavens are knows for sharing no information, so Archer doesn't trust them to share anything regarding Add.] He may need someone to share and discuss theories with and who will point out logical flaws. That may lessen the risk of another attempt. Futaba is fascinated with his technology, especially his cat cube AI.

[blizzardrock]

[It takes a second for him to catch up to what Shun's saying.]

[Rending comes first, though. The "beam," such as it is, is fairly simple and uncomplicated, but today, without him meaning too, it's a little more forceful, the wind coming out more strongly. He may be overcompensating.]

No, I was... [...Talking about making sure to get every ayakashi in the brood; he finds it hard to believe that Shun wouldn't have checked, even if a second one hadn't shown up. ...Though it was certainly true that he was thinking about the decay power...]

—No, never mind.

[If he's starting to get unsettled this early into it, he won't be able to do what he needs to. He's not sure if Shun caught it, but...the defensive borderline just now had actually shattered when the ayakashi touched it, right before the rend.]

[Back to business, then.] We can split up to check whether there are any others... Are we doing this the faster way, or the safer way?

[redstray]

[ Eric's eyes widen as he watches a whip appear suddenly out of Kusanagi's hand. That was, pretty cool he didn't know he could do that with his aura.

Eric takes out his knife and it begins to glow. Concentrating, he swings it through the air and fire follows suit, creating a small fire wall that directed towards the approaching dogs. They seemed eager after they got Kusanagi. Speaking of...he turned to look at him again. ]

You're bit. Are you okay?

[ That had to be painful. ]

[roundtablerebel]

[ Mordred chuckles. ]

You really did that? Now I'm disappointed that I didn't get to see it!

[ The mental image is plenty amusing though. On the topic of nearly missing the bus...]

Yeah, no one seems to notice us unless we try to get their attention.

[ As if to illustrate her point someone walks right by them and doesn't even spare a glance. Mordred thinks that Kanade's hair alone would invite some attention but nope. ]

If we had a car or something we wouldn't need to rely public transportation.

[ At least they can get on and off buses for free. ]

[reformedsinner]

Indeed we do. We'll have to do our best -- and perhaps we'll be able to work more quickly than mortals.

[There's teleportation, for one thing, and Hakkai knows he's not the only one with supernatural or divine healing abilities.]

I'm hoping this isn't quite as big a disaster as it sounds like it may be.

[smilingbullet]

Perhaps, yeah. And since it's an official job we don't have anything better to do...

[ He pauses, for a few short moments. ]

Though I guess considering, this is the best we could do even if it wasn't a job.

[ He shakes his head. ]

Yeah I hope so too. It's hard to know, but they seem to like blowing things out of proportion sometimes.

[reformedsinner]

Sadly, no. Perhaps we'll be able to find someone who isn't too afraid to discuss it -- though it would have to be one of the older gods.

[Which narrows the field of those willing to talk to the newcomers, and makes it harder to pick out someone who has enough trust to share. It's a shame.

He shakes his head.]

Or perhaps it's unrelated to our appearance, after all. It's interesting that it happened so recently, though.

[alchemists]

Oh!

[ They need to use the phone, guess it would be hard for a bird to use one. ]

You need this. [ Elfnein holds out her cell and opens the home screen ]

[alchemists]

I think it's normal for people to just forget to put a book back. It's not a big problem, and it helps me figure out what books get used the most.

[reformedsinner]

It seems it has some other motive than mere hunger, to remain hidden so long.

[He glances up and down the street, eyebrows flicking up in the sketch of a shrug.]

Perhaps if we manage to get close enough to its location, that will be enough to lure it out. A grid search?

[monkeyblue]

You can avoid them if you go left and around or you can just run right through them. The underbelly is the weakest, though some have tender spots on their heads.

[sageprincess]

[To say she is blindsided is an understatement.

One moment, she is readying her sword to swipe at the hand reaching for her once again, calm and cold and quiet as she has been ever since her extraction from Henir's core. In the next, she is bathed in the light and heat of fire, and a voice she'd half-forgotten calling out a ridiculous taunt.

Oh, he's alive.

The ice around her mind cracks, then melts.

All at once, she remembers. The plan to use the core, how it failed, and how it succeeded. Losing Oscar, losing Caster, losing any hope of returning to her beloved country. Being saved, being healed, being helped. Suijin's promise, Samus' awakening, Archer's duty-- she remembers all of it in sudden, horrifying clarity.

She feels dizzy.

She feels sick.

She feels, so intensely in that moment, that she cannot begin to tell where Archer's feelings stop and her own begin. It causes her to stumble and sway in her place on the giant's shoulder, the only thing holding her back from a calamitous fall being her hand caught in a tangle of the phantom's messy mane. She tries to breathe, but the stench of blight and smoke assault her senses, causing tears to prick at her eyes and making her feel like she might suffocate on top of the mental drowning she's experiencing.

What happens next can only be called instinct, a desperate need to survive the assault on her being and knowing the one way she can escape it.]

Y... You who would desecrate this Emerald Isle--

[Her blade hand lifts into the air as the giant lunges for its wicker counterpart, Archer's sword gleaming silver with holy power that has nothing to do with the Triforce.]

On behalf of Cú Chulainn, I, the Goddess Metis, shall lay waste with the Kaki, and cleanse thy vast defilement...!

[She swings.]

Rend!

[reformedsinner]

Ah? Thank you, that will help.

[Unlike Hakkai's, it's not divinely effective. However, also unlike Hakkai's, it's not limited by what he was able to compound by hand over the last week.]

Let's give what I have to the worst off, then, and that to those who are doing a little better.

[reformedsinner]

Yes, I'd certainly prefer not accidentally killing too many mortals.

[He laughs lightly, with an ironic edge, as he sets down the prayer and moves to investigate the supplies.]

Orihime seems to be well stocked.

[priforprince]

....I'm going to check the perimeter.

[ Hibiki's interest in protecting this infant from ayakashi attack seems to have coincidentally spiked just as a diaper change became necessary.

How strange! ]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki grits her teeth. This young man.......

No, wait, she knows how to fix this. She reaches into a pocket and pulls out a large purple rose-shaped earplug, which she then begins attempting to affix to one side of her head. It's less elegant a solution than sentence ender cutphones, but sometimes, more intense measures are necessary.

Sometimes, one wishes for silence. ]

[usedperishsong]

Well jeez, now you're just soundin' like an old man, old man.

[ None of the other kids seem to appreciate it either. ]

Need to warm up so you don't throw out your back?

[usedperishsong]

Unless nobody sees the car.

[ Which would be. Bad.

Kanade sighs. ] You casin' the joint too?

[cuddle_battery]

[He looks a little embarrassed.]

I don't really have a shinki so it probably would be faster to name you. What kind of name do you want?

[Because that's an important issue.]

[kokuyoyo]

[There's the slightest nod, and then he leans in to press his beak to the screen. A bird's beak isn't exactly meant for this kind of delicate movement, and there might be some scratches later.... but he's doing his best.]

[Eventually, he pulls back, and there's some words texted on the screen.]

what in it

[waitingforhope]

[That's...probably close enough for Mai. And it solved literally everyone's problem, so she wasn't about to protest any further.]

Well, Shikyoin HIbiki, Mai appreciates it very much. As will the children, even if they don't show it.

And if you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask. Everyone should feel like they're being taken care of, no matter what age.

[waitingforhope]

Easy targets...weak immune systems.

[Far more susceptible. Both in catching it themselves, and then subsequently passing it on to others. Children, in particular, often had yet to learn how to properly cover their mouths when they coughed and sneezed. As Mai had learned the hard way during one of her first visits to the elementary schools.]

In some ways, I suppose it's a small blessing. It means we can predict who has a better chance of getting hit, and there might even be less overall targets to worry about if there is a restriction.

[waitingforhope]

[Mai watched quietly out of the corner of her eye. Subtle, as she changed a cold compress of one little girl, then fixed the blankets of another.]

[The fire trick seemed to do the trick, in that it caught the boy's interest easily enough. His eyes were wide as saucers, jaw dropping as he lifted his head in attempt to better see the flames. Until--they disappeared. And the funny man didn't burn his hand! Even though he touched the fire!]

[Cautiously...as if he were afraid of getting burned himself...he reached out with one finger and lightly poked at the side of the cup. Testing...something.]