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

[handle]

A few bites and scratches aren't a big deal. [ He says honestly, offering a sheepish smile. ] ... But, I'm still pretty glad you were here to heal me up, too!

[ So really, nothing to worry about. ]

[boneofsword]

[Archer lets his god feel the spike of irritation at his actions. He's so pissed he frankly forgets that Zelda can hear and feel him too.]

Disengage, or I'll spear your ass. I will take care of its eyes.

[He projects several swords hovering in air and aims carefully. First few are decoys, but the rest is aimed at giant's eyes. Archer waits for a moment when the ayakashi is focusing on Caster trying to climb onto its ear and fires.]

[nopixiedust]

Acrobat!

[So, close enough. Now fully in, she grins a little.]

Well, if you're going to get going, you'll probably want to put that baby down.

[artificialrose]

[...ah.]

You don't get along, or is it just this sort of thing...?

[usedperishsong]

Act casual.

[ Kanade starts "wandering" towards the source of the feeling, hands in her pockets. ]

Ah, man....I'm so pissed right now. I wanna just blow off some steam and fight stuff......

[ Said loudly, for anything that might be listening. ]

[usedperishsong]

I'm going through my rebellious phase.

[ Next thing you know she'll be filling notebooks with angsty poetry!

But that involves sitting still, so, nah. ]

[hellskitchen]

That's how it has to be, then.

[ Rin is far from getting tired. Especially now that he resolves to break the kids from whatever hold they have over them, he can't quit. Even if that means inflicting a few bruises and wounds to sever the influence. Maybe these kids will understand the torture they administered to the puppy.

More delinquents are coming, and Rin cracks his fists as they charge toward him. His knuckles are sore and red from punching kids from left and right, but it's a pain he can easily tolerate. He's ready to take them on, let it be two or a hundred! He watches as the closest one tries to punch him head on, only for Rin to grab the other's fist in his palm. He spins the youth around before relinquishing his hold, and thrusts the teen at the adjacent wall. There's no way for youth to halt the momentum, he ultimately crashes headfirst into the wall. Rin whirls around in time to dodge the next kid's attack. Leaving the punk wide open for Rin to slug a fist into the teen's gut. The punch is hard enough to get the kid kneeling in front of Rin, the shinki follows up by kneeing the youth in the face. Two down.

Rin senses someone at his back, and the thug does try to grab him from behind. Except Rin doesn't want to lose face in front of Shun again,and goes for stomping the youth's foot. The delinquent freezes up, yelling out in pain. This gives Rin enough time to grabs onto the punks's arm, the shinki throws his weight forward and lifts the kid off the ground. The thug's body flying over Rin's frame. The shinki slams the kid down on the ground with enough force to knock him out. Booyah!]

[hellskitchen]

[ Rin is doing his best to keep up! But damn these kids are fast! They definitely have a head start, but they are actively trying to lose the two of them too. Weaving in and out of crowds, so it will be harder to keep track of them. Even cutting down alleyways, and the streets of Chiba are certainly an interesting labyrinth.]

Shit! We're gonna lose them!

[hellskitchen]

[ He gets it. Getting close to them enough to gain their trust, and then use their personal information to inform the people of their misdeeds. It's bound to catch the eye of their neighbors and even their parents. It's really smart. Still...

Rin blinks his eyes to get the remnants of the paint out. Green paint streaking his face as he looks at the wall, and sees where the kids cover up their numbers.]

What? You think that's enough to scare 'em straight? They covered their numbers, what's to stop them from doing it again?

[hellskitchen]

I'd like to think so!

[ Rin is always up for helping someone else in need. He hopes someone will have his back when it counts too.]

Well that's very noble of you! You must be a very patient and caring person.

[As first impressions go, Garry seems to be a good guy on the outside. Judging by his choice to help the children, Rin feels he's justified in believing that.]

Your god gets sick easily? That's too bad. I guess it would be best to sit that one out, and I'm sure enough people will volunteer for the cause. Who is your god, anyway?

[waitingforhope]

[...]

[...yeah...Mai looked like she was trying extremely hard to piece together what he was saying, but the problem was she just didn't know enough about the situation to complete the puzzle.]

Okay so...no Trunks? [She was nearly positive that much was being established.] Do I need to...

[A pause. Then she sighed.]

...yeah, I'm going to need more information. I'm sorry.

Just tell me exactly what to do, and I'll do it.

[waitingforhope]

[At least he was being reasonable about his punishment.]

[Except Mai didn't want to be reasonable. She wanted to be mad. At him. At what he told her. At the fact that he had to up and get himself killed almost immediately after. Technically, she knew the latter wasn't really his fault--he probably hadn't done it 100% on purpose--but the timing was too frustrating for her to care.]

[But she couldn't be mad at him here. Bad enough she'd snapped and punched him in front of the children. Anything and everything else she could do or say to him right then was not fit for young eyes.]

[So instead, she spun on her heels and headed out the room. The smallest droplets of water flying through the air from the movement.]

[purr_ince]

Oh. That's pretty impressive!

[He gives a little shrug.]

We have gotten rid of the ayakashi. They'll all be safe and this little one seems to have calmed down a lot.

[Considering the state the baby had been in when they arrived wailing and horribly distressed now was a vast improvement.]

She does have a point there are more homes to go to ayakashi to banish.

[untodeath]

[ Very true, the boy does remind her of a certain someone! In fact, she finds herself doing a double-take, as amusement settles into her features.

Standing, Grell steps back with a nod toward the child in the crib. ]

Please do.

[ It isn't as though she hasn't seen a baby being held in all of her one-hundred-something years, but it's better that someone else handle it that won't get attached. ]

Your goddess is of the empathetic sort, I take it.

[blizzardrock]

I—

[For him, it’s never been about how long he can hold a line and more about how many impacts it can take... Which means, fundamentally, that he’s been doing it very wrong, but what that means right now is—]

Okay.

[He can make new ones, as many as he needs.]

On your signal?

[purr_ince]

She has a fondness for children and strays. [He grins.] Shinki and otherwise. [A little nod of his head.] If you insist.

[Adrien is walking over quiet on his sneaker clad feet. He's leaning over the rail and carefully lifting the little girl into his arms. His hold is careful, gentle - and perfect as if he's done this dozens of times. Delicately, he's doing a little bounce. Shushing her gently and speaking softly.]

Come now why are you crying, ma petite bébé? There's nothing to be afraid of.

[Then he's giving a soft low rolling purr peering down at the child with a look that is nothing but brimming with affection.]

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, though the bar business is more lucrative, as long as I don't actually ask anyone for orders and just let them yell in the general direction of the bar.

[Hey, they get their orders in the end, it works, he gets paid. Presumably Izumo wouldn't still be running the place if it didn't get good business, and he probably would've gotten the boot if he was that bad for it.]

Couriering has its perks, though. [He's gotten to help people like Orihime on occasion, or do things like this.]

[redotiertwo]

[And Davesprite is just going to levitate pointedly back at about the same speed. Slow-mo games it is, apparently, until someone decides to be slightly more of a shitlord than the other.]

[declamando]

Confusing, if nothing else. Even if they didn't really know what was going on, being one place and then becoming aware again in another would be disorienting enough.

[It's probably for the best that they don't actually understand what was going on, because she doubts the experience of possession is a pleasant one for anyone.] I think they'll be fine once they get back to their owners, though.

[declamando]

I will. [Maria waves a hand to indicate that she probably will be, and to farewell him.] Go make sure Sakura is okay. And look out for yourself as well.

[declamando]

[That's a valid enough answer, she supposes, though if he's not reporting back to his god regularly then she has to wonder what the initial point was. He's been out helping her for quite a while, after all.]

If you're keeping an eye on things for your god, are you planning to check in with them?

[declamando]

Well, it is your library, so it's up to you. [Maria offers her a smile before turning her attention back to the matter at hand.]

Did you have any of that tested medication we were talking about with you? I can start carrying it out to the worse cases.

[declamando]

[Maria looks prepared to take it on again while it's still reforming, but Caster using his magic as a distraction works as well. Since it's lunging for him and distracted by the movement of his staff, it's not paying attention to her while that's going on.

She leaps forward while the opening's there, slashing its body in two with the sword as it tries to leap up again. Its angry snarling turns into an unnatural, gurgling hiss as white light consumes it, and it bursts into nothing as Maria lowers her sword and looks over the other dogs.]

That should be one pack down, if they're all following single leaders.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun doesn't bother picking on the attitude, since she seems alert anyway and he knows plenty of people who choose to hide their real faces under that kind of thing.

He is, however, a little more straightforward about approaching the problem himself, merely keeping his steps quiet as he starts heading in the direction of the movement.

There doesn't seem to be any noise yet, but that could be a good or bad thing.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun is definitely not going to bother to stop him. While he gives a faint sound of annoyance at the sight of it, he has, as he said, got better things to do than break Chikusa's wings as a deterring measure, which is probably about the only thing that would work considering how determined he is to thieve from every mortal in sight.

As such, he starts to head off to spot for other groups to deal with, or any initial signs that the ayakashi might be starting to take an interest.]