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

KSHITIGARBHA - CHILD'S PLAY

[creeping_spirit]

[Two hours after sunset, the moon hangs low on the horizon, pumpkin-orange and fat, its light just enough to blur the edges of the yellow pools of illumination under every streetlight.

A streetlight flickers, and goes out. Something shifts beneath it: slow, ponderous and massive, heaving a bulbous body along.

The next light goes out.

Moonlight limns the edges of a long-fingered hand, and picks out a long arm… a long, long arm, with far too many joints, stretching lazily up towards the third streetlight. Skeletal fingers pinch at the bulb. The third light goes out.

In the shadows, eyes pop open in the palms of dozens of hands, and the creature shifts again, sighing out a lungful of air as its squat spider's body settles into the darkened street. It reaches out, long arms easily stretching to reach windows and balcony doors up and down the block, and the sound of windows sighing open is very soft in the silence of the night.

A baby begins to scream.]

Hibiki + Wendy + Dust

[nopixiedust]

Line!

[The attack goes straight towards one of those offending hands, meant to sever through the wrist. Will it? Wendy doesn't know. All she does is use her wire to swing up on top of a streetlight, where she sends another borderline for yet another hand.]

Hey, you! If you want to mess with babies, how about you come get me, first?

[She certainly looks the part, tiny and in pigtails.... and she's definitely not alone.]

[mithrarin]

[At the same time, Dust throws up another Borderline, creating a barrier on the other side of the street. Whatever forces it to focus on them instead of the kids.]

You've made... a lot of bad decisions.

[priforprince]

Those who seek to disturb the innocent must submit themselves to our authority!

[ And here's Hibiki, mostly just making noise so it'll notice Wendy.

That or she sincerely thinks she has the clout to yell at the ayakashi. ]

[creeping_spirit]

[The borderline slices neatly through the creature's wrist in a shower of purple goo, and it jolts in silent pain, lifting a dozen other hands so that the eyes in its palms can blink at the three.

And then, slowly, it begins to pull back more and more of its arms, turning each towards them, in a forest of blinking yellow-red.

The spidery body shifts, and opens a wide red slash of a mouth, with a long purplish tongue licking out to taste the air and wet its lips.]


Y̹̗͎̩̭̟͎o̻͆ų̘̲̖̠͉̾̇ ̨̭͈̠̭͗s̗̝ͨ͆̔̇̕m̲̥̯̹e͕̭̬̖̫̤ͣͣ͊̑ͅl̶̼͍̤̻̔̆ͦ̊̋l͈̞͉̂͊ ̫̱͎̟͟n̖͖̈́̀̇̎͋ĩ͇̝̘͍̰̗͍̀c͂̒͂̿̍̚̕eͣ̍ͣ̄ͧ͒҉̩̜͕͖̣ͅ


[--it whispers, and giggles in a voice like a child's shouting into a well.

Its hands whip forward, a dozen or more aiming for each of the three, trying to grab them and drag them forward towards that mouth.]

[nopixiedust]

[Well, bugger.]

[Wendy immediately lashes out with her wire once again, this time hooking onto the roof of a house so she can swing out of the way of the many grasping hands chasing after her. As she does so, she shoots off more borderlines behind herself. They're not the best aimed, but, as she goes wall running along with her wire, it's the best she has.]

Dust, Hibiki-!

[Dust should be fine, and Hibiki should also theoretically be fine as long as nothing dumb happens like sentence-enders. Still...!]

Ugh, we need to weaken this stupid thing!

[mithrarin]

[Dust lets out a soft chuckle.]

Maybe this thing will actually make me work.

[The Sen-Mithrarin explodes into motion, one hand raised as he opens it to release his grip on the sword's hilt. The blade blurs into a vortex, whirling so fast that it isn't visible save as a distortion of the street seen through it. The Dust Storm is sword and shield both, practically sucking in the grasping hands, whipping them around -- then Dust grabs his sword without warning, scything great arcs through the tangled limbs.]

[He doesn't just want to hurt it; he wants to make himself the best target. Even as the last blow lands, Dust dives past the assault, charging down the center body.] You want me? You got me!

[priforprince]

Ghk!

[ Hibiki draws her sword with one hand and her shield with another, hoping to deflect those arms - and slice at them if she can't. All right. Wendy's fr...Wendy's.....the third person Wendy brought along can be the bait, and do whatever damage he deems possible. She and Wendy will regroup in preparation to transform Wendy and then rend the creature.

This is why you bring a genius along. Making up plans in the spur of the moment is the height of strategy!

For once, she isn't trying to call attention to herself. Instead, she waits to make her next move until she doesn't think any of those eyes are looking for her. Deflection is a classic magician's trick. ]

[creeping_spirit]

[The creature cries out, like a baby's wail but for the same echoing distortion, as Dust's attack shatters dozens of its spindly limbs. The hands shatter into sprays of foul goo, spattering across Dust and over the asphalt, and the creature shifts to focus on him. Its hands arrow in towards him, clutching from every direction as it turns its attention away from Hibiki and Wendy.]

grell + ronald (with soulless)

[untodeath]

[ It's times like these that Grell truly feels in her element! Impending combat, with only the moonlight and her less than good sense to guide her.

Sure, she misses the roar of her chainsaw leading her into battle, and the target is a hideous abomination rather than some cute demon-- but, as any predatory beast must do to survive, she's learned to adapt!

Deeply breathing in the cool night air, the redheaded reaper brandishes her kalij. ]

Ready, Ronnie?

[ Shouldn't that be something that you'd be asking me?, remarks her sword, to which Grell will roll her eyes with a tick of her tongue. ]

Darling, if you aren't prepared, then I should inquire your worth. Let's go☆

[ Bending her knees, she pounces from the rooftops, poised to drive her sword into the ayakashi's abdomen from above. ]

+ Kuroyukihime NPC'd

[diehardreaper]

Right then, you two. Quick'n easy. Finish fast enough'n supper's on me.

[ Y... yessir!
I leave it in your hands, Baron... or in your hand, as the case may be. comes the response from Noel and Hime respectively, causing the smallest chuckle. Such cheek for a little lady.

But he knew better than to call her out. She was more reliable in situations like these than his scythe was. ]

Goes for you too, Miz Sutcliffe! We're more'n ready over here. If we get this done with without a lick of overtime, fancy joining us for supper? I'm buying!

[ Noel is in his earring form, a shining little stud in Ron's left earlobe while Hime rests in his right hand as a rapier made of deep purple steel that was so dark it was almost black. His mower was left at his temple. Bringing it into battle with his disability just made it a liability than a boon, not when he needed his only hand to wield a sword.

Ah but this brings him back: all those missions assigned with Grell, risky as they were. He was always the one who had to reel her in from straying too far but when it came to combat, there certainly was no one more capable.

As soon as she pounced, he followed shortly after and aimed for the ayakashi's eyes to serve as distraction. He seemed to move faster than usual for half a second, becoming a blur of black and purple as he dashed across the ayakash's eyes, dragging the blade between its eyes as he passes. When he lands, he staggers slightly. ]

Blimey, I'll never get used to that, Kuroyuki. [ There's an exhale as he keeps his eyes trained on the creature now that he has its attention. Time to play keepaway. ] Keep it coming, Miz Sutcliffe!

[creeping_spirit]

[Every hand bears an eye... which means that this ayakashi is unusually difficult to sneak up on. As Grell hurtles down towards it from above, dozens of the creature's spindly arms lash towards her, ready to grab and shove her away from its vulnerable, slow body. Ron, just behind, meets another forest of snatching hands, clawing at his clothing and skin as his blade trails across its palms. Wounded hands jolt away, balling protectively into fists or tucking themselves under the ayakashi's frame.]

[untodeath]

[ The onslaught of limbs has the redheaded reaper's eyes widen, grin growing maniacal. This will either be an exciting battle, or positively horrific. Ideally, a lot of both. ]

Hatchimitsuki--!

[ Already ahead of you.

A spark alights from the kalij's blade, erupting in a brilliant flash of warm light that consumes its wielder. Grell radiates this golden aura, not only making her difficult to look direct into, but also creating an image wake in the stead of her movements; hallucinatory palinopsia.

Should this work to her advantage, she'll take a generous slash at the the arms to her right; then, drive a heel into one of the beast's injured palm-eyes, so that she may propel herself back up with a spin, in order to hit the rest.

Finally, if Grell's battle prowess may shine in her favor, she'll drop-- only to drive that blade into the ayakashi's back. ]

Careful, Ronnie! We ought to share supper, not a holy bath!

[diehardreaper]

[ He doesn't need to open his mouth when a barrier appears around him like a protective shell of light to deflect any hands that come forward. ]

Good save, Noel.

[ The young shinki is practically beaming in their "headspace". He has to hand it to the kid, he's getting better at creating that barrier. Hopefully it should be enough to keep those hands off him as he lands and immediately goes into a dash. It's hard to hit a moving target and his young shinki can only keep it going so long. ]

I'd rather pick the supper over the bath, anytime mind.

[ And with that, he delivers a sharp whistle in an attempt to draw the creature's attention again. ]

Oi! Over here!

[creeping_spirit]

[The ayakashi cringes away from the bright light emanating from Grell, hands closing into fists to protect its eyes from the glow even as her slash travels through a half-dozen wrists and sends the hands flying in a splash of gore.

Then, the other god fighting the creature throws a glowing rose into what looks like a tiny, localized sandstorm, and a beam of brilliant light plays across the ayakashi.

All of its hands snap closed into fists, and Grell's blade sinks deep into its soft body, purplish goo erupting over her sword and her hands from the wound.

Blindly, it starts punching, at Grell where its fresh wound throbs and towards Ronald's whistle, hands flying with pained fury.]

[untodeath]

[ While Grell had enough foresight to wear leather gloves this evening, they wouldn't protect her forever; fair reason not to drag the fight on for too long. More concerning to her, the goo is rank and unsightly. It would be SO much more satisfying if she were met with the familiar splash of sanguine, instead.

Pulling the blade free from the ayakashi's back, she pivots to cut through one fist-- barely ducks the second, as she reaches into her pocket; uppercuts another, before using her teeth to uncap the bottle she holds securely in hand! It's risky, but she drops to a knee, shoving the mouth of the carrier into the monster's gaping wound, thus effectively delivering a dose of holy water. ]

GDIT I'M SORRY FOR HOLDING THIS UP

[diehardreaper]

[ Ronald meanwhile is attempting to keep the creature's attention. As long as he can keep it diverted, Grell can deliver the brunt of the blows. What follows is a sort of keep-away; the reaper dashing in and slicing, occasionally making use of his shinki's Acceleration to attempt a last minute dodge.

The moment it goes into a frenzy though, he focuses mostly on dodging: rolling, dashing away and pulling up Noel's shield if ever it comes too close. ]

D'you think we've worn it down enough to attempt a rend?

Hajime + Davesprite + Kairi

[birdstheword]

[It doesn't take them long at all to come across the 'mother' of the ayakashi. Haijime comes to a stop a good distance away from the creature. She knows both her shinki have been asking for her to call them but she wanted to get just a little closer to the source. She likes having her shinki out and with her. While they're always a team regardless of what form they're in, it just feels right to hold off until she really needs to use them as their vessel forms. It might be good to have them in vessel form but she knows both Davesprite and Kairi are strong on their own as well. With many smaller targets and it just felt right to have them out and able to use their borderlines rather than being the one wielding them.

But now that they're here at what she would guess is the source, the time is now! And fast!

She smiles to them both despite the large ayakashi just ahead of them.]

Sorry, sorry! Better late than never though, right? We are a team and always will be so---soooooooo You both ready? Davesprite, Kairi? Let's do our best!

[She does like to make sure they're ready before calling their vessel names. She waits for an answer be it verbal or a quick nod before holding out her hands and winking to them.]

Yuiki! Souki!

Re: Hajime + Davesprite + Kairi

[pure_radiantics]

[OOC: previous thread ]

Finally! Don't scare us like that, Hajime!

[ She was so relieved that Hajime wasn't going to just summon her armor and try to rebuff the thing out on her own. It was how Kairi and Hajime had worked a couple of times, before Kairi was her shinki, to just push the ayakashi back or drive it off somehow so that they could help with Hajime's prayers. Now they don't have to do that!

So Kairi skids to a halt a few feet back from Hajime when her name gets called, dispersing into that white light as shinki do. When the moment passes, she'll be in her long polearm weapon form at Hajime's side, ready to be grasped before the weapon falls over. The pincers make a noise as they shut, completing Kairi's transformation. ]

[redotiertwo]

[It's been a pretty long time since Davesprite was called into vessel form, so he's still not that used to the feeling. Still, he vanishes into that white light just the same, reforming into a pair of turntables resting atop floating red gears.

In this form, with full-circle vision, it's hard to miss what Kairi just turned into, and Davesprite kind of wishes he still had eyes in this form to give a sidelong, pointed look into the camera with.]

No offense meant to anyone's vessel forms, but I can tell you right now that timetables don't work one-handed. [He actually remembers what this form is now, having regained a memory containing it, so he has at least the general gist of how it's supposed to work.]

[creeping_spirit]

[ooc: Note -- the ayakashi has already been defeated by other teams; this team will be able to get a few tags worth of battle before they witness its defeat or it escapes.]


S̭̗̃ͩ̑́̍ͥͫ͘m͋͂͋̎͑ë͎̩̖̲́̌ͨ͢ͅl̝̿̉ͧ̃ͯ̓͒ͅl̮̺̯͇ͬ̈ͮ͛͌̋s͇̲̓ͮͨͩͩ̈ ̸̜̥̺̤͆̈́̉ͬ̉̉ń̲̬͚i̲̼͙̠̼͉̽͂͂i̗̯͎̳̺̳ͤ̽͆ĩ̈̇̒̀ͥͣ͏͓c̮e̙̫͍̹̼̻̦ͦ̍̄̕.̷̖̬̩͓.ͥ̏͗ͤ.̛̤͐̏.̶̙͍̙̣͇̎̒̽̒̄̀͊ͅ
ͭ̈́̈ͨ̃̚͜

[The sound is a shuddering whisper as the creature turns towards them, long legs unfolding as it pulls the heavy central body closer. It raises a dozen hands, big and small, long-fingered or petite, and red-gold eyes blink at them from each palm.]

[birdstheword]

Uwahhhh~! You both look so cool!

[Hajime reaches out, grabbing the pole arm with her right hand. With her left she lets her fingers brush against one of the floating turntables. She strokes moves the disc as if testing it thoughtfully. As she considers their options. They need to do this as team. But if she needs two hands to use him then he raises a good point...]

Don't worry Davesprite, we'll make this work! If I gotta use both my hands for you and hold Kairi between my legs then I will! But lets give this a whirl first!

[Luckily the turntables float otherwise she might offer to do the same to him. If she can't use him with one hand then maybe---

In that next moment a second Hajime appears to the side of them, a second set of turntables floating around her. She gives the group a two finger salute.]

Gatcha! I'm here to lend a hand. You use Kairi and I got Davesprite and we'll beat this thing!

[There's another of her, Hajime's eyes go wide---thats so cool! Davesprite's powers are a little complicated but it's still so cool to see it in action! When they get close enough to eachother, the two goddesses bounce up and high-five each other giddily. Hajime (Prime) grips the pole arm letting Davesprite float there for now.]

Alright! Let's go!!

[The two Hajimes charge in each with one vessel in their hands. If the issue was each weapon needed two hands to use then she just needed an extra set of hands! The Hajime with Kairi's vessel jumps and strikes at the various hands and limbs of the ayakashi while the other Hajime with turn tables tries to strike at the bulk of ayakashi]

[pure_radiantics]

[ When the second Hajime shows up with Davesprite's turntables in tow, Kairi is absolutely stunned. How did that even...

But when Hajime #2 explains that she's there to lend a hand, it clicks in Kairi's mind. Davesprite's power is time magic, Hajime had told her that once long ago, possibly even before she became Hajime's shinki. So somehow she made a copy of herself? It's powerful, for sure.

And for Kairi, she's able to focus on one thing - together they're a team. She has one surge of energy that crashes like a wave up to give Kairi confidence and Hajime Prime a boost, but then a second surge helps all three - er, four - of the combatants. It's Kairi's vessel power, literally the power of friendship, and more friends = more power. At least now Hajime prime can use Kairi's Pincer Yari with more force since she has both hands available. Kairi can even activate the pincer if they have the chance. ]

I'm with you!

[ Kairi says it within her vessel form, unsure if Davesprite Beta can hear her, but glad that her vessel power gives everyone involved a boost regardless. ]

Remember I can Rend with a grab through the pincers too!

[redotiertwo]

[Thank however many gods that Hajime has the kind of weird thought process that seems to be required to make powers from Davesprite's world function ideally. On the other hand, Davesprite doesn't really have much to do while he's in this form except listen in on the conversation. He can still hear Kairi like this, it seems.]

Been a while since I dealt with this fuckery. [Davesprite is happy to leave the Rending to Kairi since she has a more suitable form for it, he's just lamenting the return to dicking around with time when he still has that feeling it's better left alone.] You can loop back more than once if you want to weaken it easily, just make sure nobody dies like a chump or you'll fuck up the timeline, probably.

[He doesn't actually know that his vessel form restricts looping into a situation that would cause their death, but hey, it's a legitimate warning when you're dealing with Freaky Time Shit^TM.]

[creeping_spirit]

[The ayakashi roars, hands slapping and punching out at the Hajime holding Kairi's vessel form. The remaining hands, the ones unoccupied by trying to swat away the tiny, annoying goddess, bunch up defensively between the other Hajime and its soft, bulbous body. It's clearly protective of that abdomen, and for reasons that are just as clear: there's no armor, and it looks as though a few good kicks could leave the ayakashi as squashed as a very, very big spider.

It's not about to let anyone through so easily, though. With another atonal roar, it grabs out at both Hajimes simultaneously, its fingers curved into bony arcs that won't be easy to escape once they get a solid grip.]