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

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun scoffs at that.] This isn't a good fight.

[As another couple of the kids try to go at him, one after the other since their fallen comrades are reducing the space they have to attack a bit, Shun flips backwards again, delivering another kick to the jaw. As soon as he lands, he uses the recoil to leap in a flying kick towards the one behind the first kid, who just about crumples on contact.]

This is almost embarrassing to be part of.

[lostinshadows]

Wouldn't it be just easier to get rid of the ayakashi affecting them?

[but even as he says that, he jerks a bit when he hears...whispering? in his ears. Shaking his head, he grabs a fist aimed at him and thrust his palm against the teenager's chest, robbing the human of his breath and staggering backwards. He pulls back a bit, eying the crowd.]

[revolutionfalcon]

That's the problem. [Shun can hear the whispering too, and he grits his teeth as he simply punches the next comer in the stomach to wind him.] I keep hearing it, but I can't find it. It's probably a powerful one if it can keep itself that well hidden and still make us hear it.

[Shun sounds like he's musing on that even as he grabs the guy he just punched by the arm and throws him over onto one of the fallen who looked like they were about to try getting up again.]

[lostinshadows]

[Lavi smacks the heel of his palm against a guy's nose, effectively breaking it and knocking him backwards.]

Powerful - big. Certainly worse enough to affect this many people.

[He steps back when another guy punches him, ducking low enough to elbow him in the gut before sweeping a foot under his legs to have the human fall backwards and onto the ground.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Which only means it keeping itself hidden is even more significant. [If it has to be a big one to cover this kind of area, then the fact that nobody's come across it at all yet despite how audible its voice is is a little unnerving.

Not that Shun looks outwardly bothered by it, instead scything someone's ankles out from under them and elbowing them in the stomach on their way down for good measure.]

[lostinshadows]

Either way, it's causing a big enough nuisance to get all of these people riled up.

[And hearing the whispers.

That isn't something Lavi appreciates too well so when he kicks someone back, he may have cracked their ribs. Or broke them. Either way, it's something the poor guy will live through - hopefully.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun glances over as Lavi makes that particular move, though he turns his attention back to the next person to throw them across the circle and into someone else before too long.]

Exactly. So try not to break any more ribs, because they probably won't even know what hit them when they regain their sense.

[Broken ribs is a little too close to the life-threatening end of the scale for him to be pulling that out in this situation, even if he's not going to actively stop Lavi from doing it.]

[lostinshadows]

Noted.

[He flashes Shun a grin.]

It'd be much easier if we can just knock them all out in one fell swoop, though.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun just gives him a pointed glance back while kicking someone else in the jaw.]

I'm not the one with the magic hammer. [Breaking people's ribs isn't going to knock all of them out at once anyway, but it does seem potentially more efficient.]

[lostinshadows]

[Oh, right.

Lavi shrugs.]

Using my hammer here might be a bad idea. I might accidentally kill someone instead of just knocking them out. [....Though, he does get an idea.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I meant the magic part. [Using the hammer itself would be a terrible idea, but he figures something like the wind magic would be harmless enough, if effective.

He spins again, kicking someone else in the mouth.] Surely there's something you can do with it that'll make this quicker.

[lostinshadows]

Wind is good. Don't suppose a storm would be better.

[Even as he says it, he elbows a guy in the stomach before he unholsters his hammer. He activates it and the seals appear around him.]

Mokuban!

[Immediately, wind gathers around Lavi and spreads out in a vicious tornado.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[It's probably a good thing the kids are going to forget this in a few minutes. Shun draws a bit closer to Lavi to make sure he isn't caught up in the gathering storm, watching it rise and expand.

Thankfully, even the kids in this state can recognise a threat that can't be dealt with, and a few of them choose to flee rather than confront it.]

Looks like a couple of them are cutting their losses.

[lostinshadows]

I doubt even they'd be stupid enough to try and fight through this.

[Or risk being thrown more into danger. He still keeps up the storm, waiting to see if the remaining ones will flee or risk trying to get through it.]

[revolutionfalcon]

It's not a matter of being stupid if that ayakashi forces their hand.

[Shun observes through the storm to see what happens - one or two more do flee, but under the sound of the storm, a ripple of the ayakashi's whispering becomes audible.

The remaining kids pause in their tracks, then move forward, trying to find a way to breach the winds and reach them.]

[lostinshadows]

Like that?

[Lavi watches the remaining kids, almost shaking his head.]

Stay close.

[Because while he's really hoping he doesn't kill anyone, this is getting ridiculous, too. Seals appear around them again, and Lavi combines the Wood and Fire Seal together. It births twin snakes of fiery snakes that erupts from the wind sphere. Fortunately, the flames won't actually hurt, but the heat it gives off is very real and usually enough to warn others away.

Usually.

Lavi has no idea if these kids will continue to try to break through with the influence over them.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun doesn't move to separate from Lavi, sticking to the order since he assumes Lavi is going to break out something more powerful. Sure enough, he's not too surprised to see the twin flame snakes burst out.

He assumes Lavi isn't aiming to hurt them, but he can feel the warmth from here...and yet, the kids don't stop coming forward, bracing themselves against the wind and heat as if that will help any.]

It's got them badly this time. Scaring them off isn't going to work. [Which means the next option is knocking them out so they can't be controlled anymore, or back to square one.]

[lostinshadows]

I, unfortunately, don't have the kind of magic that can put them to sleep. I can use the winds enough to knock them back? [And unconscious.

He...thinks he can control the winds enough to prevent them from being killed.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[That seems like a risk...but then again, knocking them out by hand is also a risk. Shun considers it for a moment or two before nodding slowly.]

Be careful about it. [They don't need any fractured skulls today.]

[lostinshadows]

[Either way is a risk.

But with the permission, he nods and adds a little more power to the winds. While he can control them to some extent, he also has to remember not to put in a lot of power to kill anyone either.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[For a moment, the teens try to hold their ground, but the winds push them back, and eventually blow them aside. Some of them end up knocked out from colliding with each other, some keep trying to creep back in after being knocked aside and eventually just pass out from not being able to breathe in the sucking, swirling currents, but it seems like nobody's in severe danger from it.

Shun's keeping an eye on things in particular himself, to make sure nobody flies far enough to crack their head against a nearby wall or similar.]

[lostinshadows]

[Once it seems that things have calmed down considerably, the winds suddenly disperses, leaving a rather calm feel in the air. He keeps his grip on his hammer just in case, ready to summon more winds around them.

But the teens are unconscious for the most part.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun picks out the ones that are still conscious and weaves through them, pinching or sharply striking pressure points to drop them to the ground with the others. He'd rather not leave any loose ends while they're trying to clean this up.]

Looks like it worked.