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

[replicatedform]

[The number of people, gods and shinkis willing to do this is a problem. Do they have enough people to do everything?

After glancing around, he looks back at Tsuzuki and nods. The sick people would be too sick to notice, regardless of how sensitive they are to seeing Far Shore residents.]

Yeah. Their supplies are getting low. I don't know how long until we're out.

[He need to see their actual supplies, but it's probably worrying enough at this point.]

[sweetdeath]

I can check, and go buy more if we're getting too low. [He rubs the back of his neck, straightening up until his back creaks. He's been carrying a lot of crates so far today.]

How fast have we been going through the cans we've got?

[Maybe they can get some miso and instant dashi and make a big pot instead of relying on the canned food... it'd sure be easier to bring the supplies that way.]

[replicatedform]

[He thinks back to what he just heard.]

Very fast, maybe two or three times as fast?

[This shelter is only one of many, and there's only so many people they can feed at once.]

Will you be able to get more? [Are you tired?]

[sweetdeath]

Sure, I've got some cash -- maybe it'd be better to get stuff for a big pot of miso soup, I was thinking, though? Something that'll serve a bunch of people.

[He's tired, but that's okay. He can afford it, which is important, especially if they're gonna run out as fast as he thinks they will. If they're going through the soup twice as fast as they'd expected....]

Think you can help me carry it? That's gonna have to be a lot of groceries, either way.

[replicatedform]

[He nods. Tsuzuki's ideas sound good to work with, and maybe he can pick up some stuff that might be helpful.]

Of course. I was going to ask and come along, since we probably do need a lot.

[Miso soup... just plain miso soup might work. Unless they can grab some dried ingredients to add to it?]

I can ask and see if they're low on anything else, too.

[sweetdeath]

That's a good idea. You want to go check about anything else they need, and I'll see how much soup they've got now, and meet you back here in a couple minutes?

[He rubs his neck again, then tries rolling his shoulders back, and winces at the popping noise it makes. Wow, he really sounds like an old man.]

[replicatedform]

[He eyes Tsuzuki for a moment, before he nods. If it's just a couple of minutes, he can ask Tsuzuki by then.]

That works. I'll see you back here, soon.

[Yamanbagiri turns to leave, making his way towards the back.]

[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.]

[replicatedform]

[After checking on supplies at the back, Yamanbagiri returns with a piece of paper. He doesn't want to risk forgetting something by accident. He keep glancing at his list, neatly written.]

Tsuzuki.

[He stops in front of him, glancing down at the other's list.]

What did you have on it?

[sweetdeath]

Oh, hey, Yamanbagiri. It looks like they mostly want to replace the canned soup they served -- [He turns the paper so the other shinki can read it. It's mostly a list of different instant soup flavors, with numbers. It's a lot.]

I wonder if I can get one of those box moving lift things. You know, with the wheels? And the metal shelf at the bottom?

[This totally is a good description that makes sense, right.]

[replicatedform]

[Looking at the list, Yamanbagiri blinks when he see the numbers. He doesn't even need to see the total cost to know it's probably a lot.

He looks up and raise a brow at the description.]

A... lift machine? I don't know what they're called. But I think I know what they look like? We can try asking around at a shop.

[May... be. Anyway, he shows his list. Materials like blankets and sheets.]

They need more of these. Either because we're low or as replacements for old ones. [There's a point where a blanket is just too worn out to be usable.] So food first, and cloths if we can spare afterwards?

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard to find one. Whatever they're called. [He laughs a little, embarrassed, as he leans forward to get a better look at Yaman's list.]

Mm... okay.

[Blankets, sheets -- those are more expensive, but maybe they'll be able to find a sale, or a used clothing shop.]

Sounds good to me. Let's go!

[He looks back up, flashing Yamanbagiri a confident grin, and tucks his own list into his pocket.]

Grocery store first.

[replicatedform]

[With a nod, he put his list away inside one of his pockets. He hand briefly hover over where his wallet is, confirming where it is.

Right, it's there. He looks up at Tsuzuki.]

I'm ready. Let's get going.

[To the grocery they go!]