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

[usedperishsong]

You're mean.

[ Kanade nearly winces at that, but he's getting the job done. So. Back to being serious for her, too! The shock on some of the guys' companions' faces as they try to figure out exactly how Shun managed that gives her a nice opening.

Down you go. And you. You too. Why not? ]

[revolutionfalcon]

That's what they need right now. [They can't just let them off easily in the midst of all this, so they can go start another fire somewhere else or try to hurt someone some other way.

Thankfully, they're running out of targets by now, especially when Shun kicks another one of them into a different member of the gang and then throws another one after. They seem too surprised for anyone to be running back towards the fire, too, which helps.]

[usedperishsong]

Guess so! [ A paragon of virtue, is Shun. Kanade dispatches the rest of the guys that were close to her, then checks to see if Shun needs help with his leftovers.

Though from the way he moves she doubts he's gonna have any. ]

[revolutionfalcon]

[As she expects, by the time she's done with hers, Shun is just flip-kicking the last person in the jaw. Once that's done, he dusts off his sleeve slightly as he glances over to the truck from earlier.]

We might be able to extinguish it if that tarp goes over it. [It'd limit the oxygen that could get to it, at least.]

[usedperishsong]

Roger that! [ Kanade is already heading over to the tarp by the time he speaks. A woman of action, this. ]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun goes for the side opposite to where Kanade's grabbing it - it's going to be useless if they can't smother the fire, so they'll need to spread it out. It'd help more if they had a decent amount of water to shrink the flame beforehand - his blessed water might put a bit of a dent in it, but they'll have to hope that's enough for this to work properly.]

[usedperishsong]

[ Kanade is not hibiki, either hibiki doesn't carry holy water on her either, unfortunately. She's even out of sports drink. But she'll help Shun spread the tarp out and begin trying to walk it briskly over. ]

Let's aim to get it in one shot....

[revolutionfalcon]

I was planning to. [Holding the tarp with one hand, he fishes at his belt for his canteen, still mostly full courtesy of him not having encountered the ayakashi responsible for this yet, and regularly refilling it throughout the day. Once they get close enough to the fire, he splashes the water broadly out over it, shrinking it to more the size of a small campfire.]

Now. [Before it gets larger again, Shun brings his side of the tarp over it.]

[usedperishsong]

Take that!

[ Down goes Kanade's side, too. She holds it down to try and keep the fire from getting any more air.

That'll show this thing! ]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun holds his side down and waits - there's a telltale sputtering sound as soon as they both get it to ground, but the crackling continues for a little bit longer.

Then it starts to fade a little bit, and the slight light coming from under the tarp shrinks. It's gradual, but it's happening.]

We might as well just stamp it out when it gets small enough.

[usedperishsong]

Can do. [ Look. She is wearing stompy boots today instead of a frilly stage costume. She greatly prefers her stompy boots for everyday wear.

Kanade raises a foot and prepares for the fire to shrink enough. When she thinks they're good, stomp stomp stomp.

Hahah. ]

[revolutionfalcon]

[At least stompy boots are more practical - and probably the better option for this, considering Shun is wearing his usual footwear which looks suspiciously like something someone would wear to school.

Once Kanade stomps down the fire, Shun slides the tarp aside a little cautiously. The embers are still glowing a bit, so he grinds that down with his own heel.]

I don't want to know how that would've gone if they got it any bigger.

[usedperishsong]

Badly. [ Kanade wipes her brow, looking appropriately serious. ]

The kids are gettin' worse.

[revolutionfalcon]

I've noticed. Maybe the ayakashi is getting stronger the longer this goes on.

[The more kids affected, the more chaos going around, the more to feed off. To Shun, it makes as much sense as anything else that goes on here.]

[usedperishsong]

You are just full of ideas that make this suckier but that I can't argue.

[ This is as close to deadpan as Kanade gets. She's not very good at it, but she'll do her best. ]

[revolutionfalcon]

Ayakashi want things worse. So the worse the thought is, the more likely it's true.

[At least he has some kind of logical reason for his pessimism. In this particular situation, if nothing else.]

[usedperishsong]

You did it again.

[ Sigh. Okay. ]

Let's hit the next one, then.

[ Sooner or later, they'll strike gold. As long as they don't stop moving, they'll get somewhere.

Kanade has to keep focused on that so she doesn't get impatient again. ]

[revolutionfalcon]

[While Shun's already walking off, he doesn't seem the most enamoured with the situation either.]

I don't think following the trail together is doing any more than us splitting up and pursuing this alone would.

[It is nice to have the back-up, but they're both capable of handling themselves, and separating covers more area.]

[usedperishsong]

So I can trust you all on your lonesome, huh?

[ This is a joke. Look at this smile. She thinks she is very funny.

But yeah, point taken. Splitting up is probably better for now, so she takes a step backwards to indicate that. ]

[revolutionfalcon]

You don't need to trust me to know I can put down a few kids who think they're tough.

[Look who's not at all taking that as a joke and instead answering it as a literal statement. Shun figures it was intended as a joke, but he doesn't find it funny enough to play along.

Still, he inclines his head slightly.] Hopefully we find the damn thing before the night is out.

[usedperishsong]

That's the spirit!

[ You said "hope." Good boy!

Kanade reaches into a pocket and shows him she's got her Far Shore phone on her. ] I'll keep in touch.

[revolutionfalcon]

[If Shun was incapable of hoping, he'd have crashed and burned long before now.

As it is, he taps his own pocket to indicate he has his as well.] I might not call if I find it, but that'll be because I've already dealt with it.

[But getting hints of where it might be is still fair game to contact about.]

[usedperishsong]

Mister Efficient.

[ Still, as it is, she starts jogging off in a different direction, saluting. ] We got this!!

[ Somehow, it's easier to switch back to being positive if it means she can be a pain to him. So, uh. Thank you? ]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun just gives her a rather flat look as she runs off, before sighing slightly and turning in a different direction himself so he can go work on finding the ayakashi.

She's definitely not getting a call when he finds it, because he just jumps right into dealing with it, as promised.]

[usedperishsong]

[ What a capable guy. We can all sleep more soundly knowing he's on the case.

Kanade even kinda means that. Ah, well. She does her part and looks until it becomes clear there is no need to do any more looking... ]