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

B

[replicatedform]

[Yamanbagiri have just finished getting someone to take their medicine. With how ill they are, he counts it as a small victory to get them to swallow it in the first place.

Looking up, he sees Shun and he blinks for a moment. Once he heard what he said, he immediately understands and nods. He stands up, facing Shun.]

Got it. Which one?

[He need to know if he can carry them by himself, or need another person's help.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Over this way. [Shun gestures quickly to Yamanbagiri, leading him over to a small huddle of people. Most of them aren't too badly off, but there's a very frail-looking elderly lady wrapped in a blanket whose skin is paper-pale in some places and flushed with illness in others. It would be close to impossible for just one person to carry her without injuring her, likely explaining Shun's request for assistance.

He indicates a stretcher set nearby, apparently thinking the woman's condition speaks for itself.] We'll have to be careful about moving her anyway, but that blanket should help a bit, and the hospital is only about two streets away from here.

[replicatedform]

[Yamanbagiri only need to glance briefly to understand why Shun's asking for help. The elderly do need to be carefully handled. With a nod, he slowly walks over towards her.]

Got it. It shouldn't be too hard with the two of us. [Just maybe a little time consuming, depending on how fast they can transport her.] Is there anything else I need to know?

[He looks at the elderly lady carefully. He wonders if there's anything else he can do, like giving her water? Is she still awake, or asleep? Yamanbagiri gently reach out and place his palm on her forehead. It's warm. Warmer than she should be.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Not right now. We just need to get her to a professional as quickly as possible without hurting her more. [He tried giving her water already, but she seems to be beyond responding to that already. If she can get an IV somewhere, she should be able to pull through it, but as it is now Shun doubts they can do anything to help her but move her to someone who knows what they're doing.

Shun moves the stretcher until it's immediately next to the woman, then gestures to Yamanbagiri to take the woman's lower half. Shun holds her upper half carefully, using the padding of the blanket to make sure he doesn't do her any more damage.]

On three. [Usually he wouldn't make that kind of concession, but it's the woman who's going to get hurt if they screw up the timing of the lift.]

[replicatedform]

[With a nod, Yamanbagiri take his place and carefully holds the woman's lower half. First this, and then finding a professional to look at her.]

One... two... [He starts the count, ready to lift her up and onto the stretcher with Shun.] ... three.

[Up she goes, and carefully onto the stretcher.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun lifts at the prompt as well, and they get the woman onto the stretcher without incident. He imagines this will be considered a priority case, so he nods towards the white tents just visible behind the trees on the other side of the park.]

There's some doctors working out of there, and it's the closest thing we've got right now. It shouldn't take long to get there even at a steady pace.

[That said, he goes to hold his end of the stretcher, nodding to Yamanbagiri to do the same so they can lift at the same time again.]

[replicatedform]

[Glancing up, Yamanbagiri spot the white tents and nods. Now that he knows which direction it's at, he's preparing himself for the trip. He can spot a possible, non-blocked path they might take.]

Yeah, I'm ready. We also have to keep an eye out for anyone that might walk in our way.

[Depends on how they carry the stretcher. Sideways, or one of them walking backwards. With another soft countdown, Yamanbagiri lift the stretcher with Shun.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun seems to have had the same thought as Yamanbagiri, and before they lift, he turns around so he's holding the stretcher behind him, but facing forward. It means they're less likely to run into someone on the way, and it's better not to rearrange it after they've already lifted.

Once they're up, Shun nods towards the clearest path he can see.] This way.

[He starts walking, keeping it steady to begin with so they can match pace.]

[replicatedform]

Got it.

[Yes, this can work. Yamanbagiri starts to walk steadily with Shun and seeing what the pacing is like. This pace can work, so he voices no complaints. Yamanbagiri keep his gaze straight, walking where Shun is leading them to.

And sometimes get a glimpse of what's ahead over the other's shoulder.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun keeps his focus forward for the most part, besides the occasional glance back to make sure the balance of the stretcher isn't listing to one side and that Yamanbagiri is keeping the pace. It's a little way to the tent, but the paths are mostly being kept clear to facilitate quick movement of the sick and distribution of supplies, so there's no particular incidents on their way over to the tents.

While the attending doctors don't really notice them, one near the front notices the old woman promptly enough, and heads over, beckoning to a couple of the volunteers to help him clear somewhere for her. It seems like a few of the patients here have either worsened or improved, leaving the occasional empty, but messy bed for new patients.]

If it looks like this here, the hospitals are probably running out of space as well.

[replicatedform]

[While the old woman get attended to, Yamanbagiri carefully looks around. The other doctors are doing their best, but he can see they're tired, worried or both.]

Seems like it. And they're just barely keeping up.

[Which makes him wonder how long they can handle it.]

If this keeps up, I could see them getting overwhelmed later unless something's done.

[revolutionfalcon]

[It doesn't take long for the volunteers to clear up and take the stretcher off their hands, and Shun observes the situation as well. It's a little too familiar, and his gaze lingers on a few particularly ravaged-looking volunteers before turning away.]

There's been some healers around, but there's only so much they can do for something of this scale. There's hospitals nearby, but we don't know how much space they're going to have for a sudden outbreak like this either.

[His tone is blunt - it's not a pleasant subject, but it has to be said.]