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

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun, on the other hand, has no hesitation regarding the fact that it looks like it's attempting to make itself beneath suspicion with that form. As soon as Fubuki looses the cutting lines, Shun follows it with a flanking slash with his sword.

The bear rolls onto its side, and Shun leaps a safe distance back, getting it in their sights to perform the rend. He does wonder if there might be more bear-shaped ayakashi elsewhere, but for now, they need to get rid of this one anyway.]

[blizzardrock]

[Despite his initial hesitation, he doesn't pause in the slightest when it comes to rending it, and he doesn't give the matter a second thought when the ayakashi fades away.]

My lines went down... I don't have another advance warning.

[It'd been a fortunate accident that those lines had been up, anyway.]

[He listens for a moment. If nothing else...it sounds like it's quieted down.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun listens closely to the surroundings as well - there's nothing obvious in the ambient noise, but in his experience, that's not a guarantee they're home free.

He starts to head back in the direction they came, planning to circle around the grounds once more.]

One more check over to make sure there's none of them left, and then we can move on.

[blizzardrock]

[That doesn't need a response, so he doesn't, instead quietly continuing to listen, trusting his instincts to pick up anything, even in this..."other-bodied" state.]

[...For some reason, it feels like there was another sense he could rely on to detect threats. But ruminating on that would be disastrous, so he doesn't, even as he finds himself reaching for...something every once in a while.]

[Though the notion that they're just going to "check over" rather than flush them all out brings him a bit of amusement. They have already used themselves to lure out ayakashi, but there's no accounting for the cowardly. There's always one that's a bit off from the rest.]

[But all you have to do is survive.]

Satisfied?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun figures just being there is likely to bait them out more easily than flushing them from hiding places, since ayakashi supposedly like the smell of gods and shinki so much. If he hears one, he's prepared to go for the more aggressive method anyway, so all he needs to do is keep his eyes and ears open.

He keeps his pace steady and quiet, making sure they don't pass over anywhere quickly enough that they'd miss the sound of an ayakashi moving in the shadows, but he hasn't heard any by the time they get back to where they started.]

Seems like we've cleared this area. [He glances up at the window one last time, though, before he starts to head off. He's planning to switch Fubuki's form back once they get out of the area of the house, just in case.]

[blizzardrock]

[The mask following Shun’s movement has the effect of sobering him a bit. Those ayakashi were created from someone (maybe even more than one someone), but they were preying on them, too.]

...You have an order you want to do this, or are you doing this randomly?

[...Probably the former, since the latter would waste time. He hadn't had the focus to pay attention earlier, though. Having to go out and kill ayakashi—to have to think of it exactly like that in order to maintain a sense of superiority—had still been an unpleasant prospect then.]

[In any case, he continues to listen, though maybe with less vigilance than before, more sure that he can react in time.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I figure we should go along the street and check the houses. Even if the ayakashi started from the kids, they might've spread.

[And even then, it's not as if they can tell which houses are holding younger family members from the outside.

Shun's listening closely himself as they head out of the area, though there's no sound that comes from the garden that would indicate any of the ayakashi still remain. Once they come to the wall, he leaps it easily despite its height, and pauses as he comes down on the other side of it.]

Do you want me to change you back? [He'd panicked at the earlier change in form, so he wants to make sure of it.]

[blizzardrock]

[So, the methodical approach. Heh. As expected.]

[...The question, though, comes as a surprise. A part of him, the part that maintains his composure at all times if he can help it, is answering, “Do whatever you want.” Something stops him from saying it. Part of him remembers the fear.]

...Is there a reason to?

[From the other times they’ve done this, it’s been established that Fubuki has a better range of view like this. But Shun had wanted Fubuki in human form earlier.]

I doubt you intend to have me scout ahead.

[revolutionfalcon]

You get uncomfortable being in this form too long sometimes. [Which, yes, is not the kind of reason Shun usually calls on, but it's still a reason. He's pragmatic, not callous, especially not as regards his allies.]

If you're fine with it, then it's fine with me as well, but there's no point not asking at all.

[If it's relatively calm like this, he shouldn't have to be waiting for Fubuki to actively become uncomfortable before he changes him back.]

[blizzardrock]

[...Part of him wants to let Shun continue believing that, because it would mean not revealing what his real weakness actually is. Part of him wants to deny that there was a weakness at all.]

...You haven't answered me. What are you planning to do with me in human form?

[revolutionfalcon]

Your question was "is there a reason to". Which I did answer. [Either Fubuki didn't realise Shun considered that sufficient reason, or he's trying to avoid the subject, and he could see it being either of them if he's being honest about it.]

If you don't consider your own wellbeing enough of a reason, then it's easier to scout for other affected houses with two separate people.

[blizzardrock]

[...Amusement creeps back into his voice.] Have you always been this literal? [He didn’t ask two questions, but they weren’t separate, unrelated statements. But this suits him just fine. Concern for others...makes someone easy to control.]

[Not that it’s viable to use himself as a hostage. But it’s an amusing position nonetheless. ...Heh.]

We attract their attention just by existing, don't you remember? Think you can teleport to me fast enough?

[...He pointedly doesn't mention what might happen if he has to be turned into vessel form on such short, possibly miniscule, notice.]

[revolutionfalcon]

If you wanted an answer to something other than the question you asked, then ask a different question. [To Shun, it's not so much a matter of being literal as that being a question which didn't really lend itself to a non-literal answer.

As for the second question, he shrugs slightly.] If we stay in a similar area - either side of the same street or something - then it wouldn't be hard. Especially considering you've been doing fine with borderlines today.

[Until now, at least, though he knows that could change at the drop of a hat.] It's up to you, anyway.

[blizzardrock]

[...That wasn’t a literal question, either. Either of them, in fact.]

[But the mention of the borderlines causes his amusement to drop, and he falls quiet as he continues watching ahead.]

[...He doesn’t want to do anything that could be construed as admitting he doesn’t want to re-enter vessel form. But there comes a point where saying too much reveals more than he’d want to.]

If you’re asking me: it's more trouble than it's worth. [Ayakashi don't operate on a time limit. There's no good reason to be in a hurry.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I was always asking you. [That had been how this tangent of the conversation started, after all, Fubuki had just wanted a reason. But since that's the answer he needed, he just shrugs slightly and keeps heading down the street they're on, scanning over the area as much as he can with the mask blocking his peripherals a bit.]

I'm thinking it'll probably be a few houses before we run into any others, otherwise we would've drawn them out already while we were getting rid of those last ones. But be prepared, just in case any of them choose to come for us here instead of sticking to the house areas.

[It's hard to tell whether the upset of young children or just the presence of a god and shinki is a better lure for an ayakashi, but he supposes they'll find out.]

[blizzardrock]

[...Speaking of things being more trouble than they were worth. If he'd known it would be that easy, he would have just answered at the beginning. But there's a certain image that has to be upheld. Normality. ...Composure.]

Behind you.

[A unicorn.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun glances back, for now choosing to keep walking rather than confront anything that might be behind them even though he's keeping an eye on it. Their path is still a little close to the houses, and he'd prefer to fight another ayakashi out on the street where it's less likely to escape into someone's room.]

The snakes were out of place. [It's an afterthought - the little bear and a horse of any kind fit in with something children would associate with, but the snakes seem like an odd choice in comparison to these.]

[blizzardrock]

Parent, or sibling.

[He did vaguely think it was odd, earlier, before he stopped caring about that. No matter what it is, all you have to do is survive it. If it was a trap, it wasn't a good one, anyway.]

[He assumes that if it honestly worried Shun, he would have checked. Instead, he turns his attention back to the unicorn.]

Herding it somewhere?

[revolutionfalcon]

Parents, maybe. [One person seems unlikely to have generated all of them, but both parents is possible.

In any case, he continues down the street, keeping the unicorn in his peripheral vision. It's not charging for them yet, but the slight tension to Shun's motions says he expects that to change at any time.]

Getting it further away from the houses. I'd rather it not make a break for one when we attack it.