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

[mithrarin]

["Fun" isn't quite the word, but Dust is at last entirely in his element, living out his reason for existence. As the hands launch towards him, he vaults past them with a move that's half dive, half flip, then whirls his sword around in a slash to cut through the trailing limbs.]

[priforprince]

Hah!

[ Hibiki summons an illusory glowing rose and tosses it at Dust. He won't actually be able to touch it, and how well it'll light things up when it's just the illusion of light remains to be unseen, but it's something she can do. It will move where he moves, for as long as she can stay focused on keeping it doing so.

Away goes her shield, too. Now she has a free hand - the better to reach out and declare: ]

[creeping_spirit]

[A few of the hands explode under the blow of Dust's blade, but there are more, still more, reaching towards him.

They flinch, though, from the radiance of the rose floating beside him, and the creature looks up and around to focus on Hibiki instead.

She'd thrown the rose. She's shouting.

Hands dart towards her, too. The creature's main body is still squatting in the street, its tongue still flicking idly out to lick its lips as it continues trying to grab at the tasty-smelling spirits standing so close. Despite the many limbs Dust has left broken and severed, it seems unconcerned about its injuries.]

[nopixiedust]

[It's not only the light of the rose which is shining in the street. Now, it's the apparently small girl who's shining too, her form giving way to light which leaves a toy top spinning through the air straight for Hibiki.]

[Even if it's grabbing, she's still here in the end.]

[But, like this, all she can do is rely in Dust and Hibiki- the first to keep them safe, and Hibiki to use her well.]

[Which doesn't mean she's going to stay quiet in Hibiki's head.]

We need to make the light bigger! It definitely doesn't like it!

[mithrarin]

[Yeah, uh, about that.]

[One of the little quirks of the Dust Storm is its ability to amplify magic. Little balls of flame become tremendous explosions, small tongues of lightning become raging storms coursing through foes... A little rose is a lot to work with.]

[Dust flings up his hand again, letting the sword blur into a vortex once more. From its arc, a column of light roars out like an energy cannon, splashing brilliance and long sharp shadows across the street as it sunders the air and rips towards the ayakashi.]

[priforprince]

[ ....Right, well, that's the light sorted.

Hibiki grabs Wendy-as-top and spins her in the opposite direction, focused on those reaching arms, aiming to make them smaller with Wendy's vessel power. If she can shrink those, then they can't reach her! And if they can't reach her, she can get an opening to defeat it! ]

Hrrah!

[ ....She'll make the top keep glowing, while she's at it. But...mostly for effect. ]

[creeping_spirit]

[The arms dwindle in diameter, the hands shrinking to doll-hands, but they're still just as spindly and long, reaching out and out towards Hibiki with mindless determination.

Until, that is, the creature is illuminated with the rose-borne spotlight. It shrieks, curling up all of its hands into fists to hide the eyes inside, and spasms.

There are two figures above its back, freshly illuminated by the spotlight among a forest of hands. The creature, still visibly cringing, doesn't open its hands again. Its sensitive eyes stay closed inside its fists.

Instead, with blind fury, it starts swinging its fists to strike at everything in sight.]

[nopixiedust]

[Spinning around as a top while also being able to see all around you is a hell of a trip, let it be said. How Wendy doesn't completely lose her lunch, besides shinki mysteries, is, well, a mystery.]

[But fortunately, that means as the light shines, she's able to see past it, towards the ayakashi.]

Hibiki! Tell Dust there's something on top-

[Then the ayakashi starts swinging, and Wendy swears in pure surprise.]

[mithrarin]

More light!

[Give him another rose and he can launch that beam again -- but till then, all he can do is flip clean over one of the flailing fists, one hand tapping down to launch him in close to the creature's body so he can strike at it. He'll make himself a target!]

[priforprince]

Gh--

[ Due to the extreme state of emergency, Hibiki shan't prioritize complaining about how everyone is yelling orders at her when she is the god, here. Be awed at her wisdom. And also at her dodging. It involves backflips, for no apparent reason. ]

Check atop it!

[ And have another rose tossed your way, Dust. This one is even larger, and even brighter. It pulses a little, too.

Like she can already tell her head will when they're done here. ]

[creeping_spirit]

[The two figures on top of the creature are hard to see in the aftermath of the blinding light, but they seem to be striking at its hands, too. It has enough, despite the loss of the dozens that have been cut away, to continue to pummel both the mysterious others and launch more blows at Dust, as its tiny hands grasp frantically at Hibiki.

The fingers are too small to grab hold of more than a fold of cloth, and her flipping easily shakes its grip free, although it leaves streaks of blight wherever the tiny hands graze her skin.]

[nopixiedust]

[Are those people? Are they people? Wendy really has no idea; she can't see much as a top when Hibiki is backflipping everywhere.]

Ugh, these things are so annoying-! We should just tie them down, or stab them to the ground or something!

[What do you mean she shouldn't be so violent-]

[mithrarin]

[One hand scrapes past Dust as he dodges just a hair to slow, blood and blight spattering across the fur of his cheer -- but then Hibiki gives him another rose, and he vaults into the air, whirling his sword around himself. The Aerial Dust Storm lashes through the ayakashi like a celestial bolt, as Dust's spinning blade guides it into another column of pain once more.]

[He angles the beam below the figures atop it, though. They appear to be allies... somehow.]

[priforprince]

Agh---!!

[ OKAY, HOW DARE

No, she'll have time to be outraged at the thing having the gall to blight her later. Hibiki detests being blighted, but they're still in the middle of the scene, so she grits her teeth and tries not to focus on how disgusting those streaks of - ugh ugh ow ugh - one's on her cheek - focus!!! --

She draws her sword. ] Bulleki!

[ Large sword, please. The better for both deflecting and slicing at hands.

And, eventually, if she can get an opening, rending. ]

[creeping_spirit]

[The ayakashi screeches as the light hits it, and bunches its hands up into tight balls again, pulling them back into a close tangle around its body. For a moment, it's helpless, huddled down protectively and not striking out against any of its attackers.]

[nopixiedust]

[One large sword, coming right up! And better yet, it's in the perfect position-]

Let's get it now!

[mithrarin]

[The Dust Storm can amplify magic. Rending is just a spell.]

[On the opposite side of the monster from those two, Dust whirls his sword into a vortex once more.]

[It won't escape.]

[priforprince]

[ Down comes the sword, right in the center of the huddled ayakashi. With a flurry of purple rose petals out of nowhere. Because Hibiki can. ]

REND!!

[ The petals may not even be illusion. She just....does that. Sometimes. ]

[creeping_spirit]

[The sword plunges deep into the ayakashi in an explosion of sickly purple goo, and, as it wails and the Dust Storm whirls, a brighter light gathers and bursts from the wound--

-- through the wounded, wallowing ayakashi itself, blowing its entire body apart into fragments and splatters that paint themselves across the street, the walls of the nearby houses, and every god and shinki nearby. Where the bits touch flesh, they leave stripes and blotches of blight, but they begin to wisp into nothing almost at once. No stains remain behind: only blight shadows on skin.

It's gone.]

[nopixiedust]

....Gross.

[A truly valuable contribution. The toy top begins to waggle from side to side.]

Hibiki, don't get traumatized, turn me back!

[mithrarin]

[This is one reason Dust wears a lot of clothes. Blight trails off his cloak and hat like smoke, staining his hands as he stalks forward, head turning in quick jerks. They'd defeated the ayakashi, but what about whoever had been on top of it, attacking it?]

[priforprince]

Groundless worries.

[ Hibiki alights atop the nearest lamppost, hand out with the top: she wants this blight OFF OF HER, RIGHT NOW, but she struck the finishing blow. Behaving suitably stoically is necessary.

She also hasn't forgotten her shinki can't turn back without her (this time), but, that 360-degree vision will be useful here: ]

Was that all?

[nopixiedust]

[Well, at least she's keeping a hold of herself... Wendy looks around best she can through the dark of night. Taking out those streetlamps really was annoying...]

I think we should be good...

[mithrarin]

There's still whoever was on top of the ayakashi!

[Hrgh. Hibiki, do you have any more light to offer?]

[priforprince]

Kh.

[ How distasteful. An epilogue. When the climax has been reached, the denouement should follow swiftly!

Hibiki summons another glowing rose to try and spot what became of those figures. If she doesn't see them quickly, however, she might decree their work done. ]