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

[reformedsinner]

[Mikoto lunges into action, pummeling one of the teenagers with blows that look hard enough to do real damage-- and yet, though his target is reeling, he doesn't seem as injured as he should be. His chi flickers strangely in Hakkai's perceptions: injured, well, injured, well again, and Hakkai blinks to focus himself on his own opponents. Whatever it is Mikoto's doing, it at least doesn't look too fatal. He can be left to his fun for now.

Meanwhile, Hakkai has three of the would-be muggers advancing on him. He drops low, scything one foot around to catch one of them behind the knees and dump him into another as Hakkai straightens in a fluid movement that ends with his fist buried in the stomach of the third and the teenager bent double and retching as he struggles for air. Hakkai lets him fall, turning to knock one of the two he'd tripped flat with a chop to the side of his neck.]

[lionhearrt]

[ He doesn't have nearly as much fun as he would with someone who could actually put up a fight but eventually the rest get the message and Mikoto throws his punching bag towards the group running away and the guy quickly scrambles after them refusing to look back as Mikoto looks on looking utterly amused as they round the corner barely stopping themselves from running into each other. ]

[reformedsinner]

Well, that's one way to handle the problem! Ha ha.

[Thoughtfully, Hakkai nudges the one he'd felled with the toe of his boot. The other two he'd struck were scrambling away with their fellows, perhaps a bit more clumsily, but this boy would be down for a few more minutes at the least.]

Although there's still all that trash to clean up....

[lionhearrt]

[ Suoh doesn't even look down at the kid on the ground, his gaze shifting to the trash instead. ]

Burn it.

[ Is all he offers in response. ]

[reformedsinner]

Hmm...

[Hakkai looks down the street, considering the smell, the mess and the soot and tar stains that burning trash are likely to leave all over the neighborhood.

After a moment, he returns his gaze to Suoh and smiles.]

... I think I'll leave that pleasure to you.

[lionhearrt]

[ He grins and takes a step forward as red begins to emerge in a fiery flame burning bright. He breathes in, taking reign of the wild fire and with a quiet grunt it rushes forward burning through the trash in a bright show of power that bespoke his godhood. Within moments, the trash disintegrates leaving no ash behind and the flames that cling to the sun god soon begin to dissipate too. ]

[reformedsinner]

[A wave of heat rolled back, past where Mikoto stands in his wreath of red flame, heating the frame of Hakkai's monocle. His expression is distant as he watches the rubbish evaporate into ash, and then to nothing, leaving the street wide and empty as the inferno dies down at last.

He takes a breath -- the trash is gone, but the tang of smoke and burnt plastic still lingers in the air -- and puts on a mild little smile as he steps forward to stand even with Mikoto's shoulder again.]

My, that was faster than I expected. Shall we see if we can find any more troublemakers? Or...

[There's a strange little voice at the back of his mind, bothering him for attention. It's not quite audible, but it's not quite his, either. It's approving of the fire.]

... Or anything else that might be involved.

[lionhearrt]

[ He looks at him, his mouth pulling up at the edges as if privy to a secret only he knows. ]

Lead the way.

[reformedsinner]

Gladly.

[Hakkai's eyebrows quirk at Mikoto's expression, and he steps past him, starting down the street. There's still some warmth rising from it, tangible through the soles of his shoes as he walks down the road, though the sun is beginning to slink down under the horizon.

The houses, he thinks as he watches red-gold sunset glint from the roof tiles, would burn just as well as the trash had...

... and that, too, is an odd thought to have.]

How do you suppose a god's death could cause this kind of thing?

[His tone makes it an idle question, no more than philosophical discussion to fill the silence.

But it is a very interesting question.]

[lionhearrt]

[ The heat lingers because he doesn't bother to reign it back into himself, letting it dissipate into the air instead. The same holds true for the nearby houses that remain untouched by the wildfire he'd let loose. They remain standing at a whim. He reigned back his powers letting the red aura pass them by without destroying; unburnt at a whim. ]

[ He walks behind him at a leisurely pace, snorting in amusement at the question. ]

Power doesn't go out without a bang.

[ It arrives and goes at a cost. He knew that better than most. ]

[reformedsinner]

The gods who disappear hardly even go with a whimper.

[He shakes his head, still watching the sunset rather than glancing back at his companion.]

And these aren't the first ones who've died.

[He hadn't worried about it before. Now, he's wondering: did the other deaths leave these wounds? What about Susano'o, with his guts spilled across the floor of the meeting hall? What about Ekko's explosion?

Had they just not noticed?]

[lionhearrt]

Depends on the god.

[reformedsinner]

Is there a particular god you're thinking of?

[Hakkai raises his eyebrows thoughtfully at the other man.]