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

flu season

[redotiertwo]

[Considering Davesprite thinks of Hakkai as one of his actual friends here, it was a given he was going to want to help out with the disaster caused by his death. This isn't really something he has a huge amount of experience with, but somehow, a situation this busy doesn't feel that trying. Or it feels like something he's been exposed to a lot worse of, so he should be able to handle this one.

Swooping around Hajime, Davesprite eyes up the people handing out supplies.]

I'm not gonna be able to front up to people, but I'm way more mobile than anyone else they've got doing this. So maybe I can take supplies in bulk to different places and you can hand them out.

[birdstheword]

Sounds like a plan to me though if you are up front with people they may mistake you for an angel! Especially kiddos.

[She smiles teasingly. To be fair, for Davesprite to be mistaken for such could be a comfort for some. He doesn't look like an angel of death or anything. She appreciates him and doesn't see why others wouldn't. ]

Lets start with that. You can help me hand them out too if you start bringing faster then I can hand out.

[redotiertwo]

I don't think we need anyone mistaking me for an angel with shit going how it is right now. [If anyone's afraid they're going to die, that's just going to make it a thousand times worse, so he'll stick to the background. Then again, this might just be evidence of him being glass half empty to Hajime's glass half full.]

Alright. [He points out a cluster of people a little distance away.] Let's start there, head over and I'll start bringing it across to you.

[birdstheword]

I don't think it'd be so bad. If anything you could reassure them that they'll be fine and you're just checking in on them. Maybe turn them around for the better.

Glass is always half full.]

Roger that! Let's zoom through this and help as many as we can. Do your best and I'll do mine.

[She winks to him before heading off to the group of people. She is quick to try and lift their spirits. Offering smiles and attempting to help them get comfortable. It's really the sick kids that are the most heartbreaking but Hajime pushes on and tries to comfort them.]

[redotiertwo]

I'm pretty sure it would, in fact, be so bad, let's not risk it when we have some guaranteed help we can give. [Davesprite's experience tells him that people running and screaming or throwing something at him is much more likely than waiting for him to talk about how he's totally an angel.

While Hajime heads off, Davesprite sorts out a couple of piles of supplies neat enough for him to carry. A few water bottles have to go under telekinesis, but before long he's making his way over, depositing the supplies next to Hajime before flying up a bit so attending to the items doesn't draw attention to him.]

Should be enough for all of them there, but take care of the kids first.