26 - The Gods' Month

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Helping the Heavens prepare for the yearly Meeting of the Gods
When: October 20 - 21
Where: Around the Heavens (and maybe some mortal shopping trips, too!)
Summary: Amaterasu has been told that the newly arrived residents of the Heavens want to take a bigger part in security and administration, so she's convinced her shinki to let them help with preparations for the big yearly gala. It's also time for shinki to rate their gods and gods to find out what their shinki really think of them....







Security Precautions

The white-robed shinki guards are working hard to secure the Meeting Hall for the arrival of all the gods of Japan. Hard-working shinki are scurrying everywhere! Despite Amaterasu's orders, they're still a little unsure of and standoffish towards the strangers who they're supposed to work with, but there's a lot of work to do, so they're happy to hand out jobs to small groups of newcomers before returning to their own duties.


• Help clear out any small spirits who might have sneaked back into the Meeting Hall after the spring cleaning, from sootsprites to nekomata, animal spirits from the park or well-camouflaged plant spirits.


• Check the magical writing worked into art or inlaid in wood all over the building to protect the Meeting Hall from attack, and make sure none of it is scuffed or damaged.


• Join in on the patrols around the building or spend some time guarding one of the gates. It's boring, but the shinki appreciate the help.


• Test the integrity and extent of the magical protections with glass balls that turn purple outside the protections on the Meeting Hall and clear inside them. But don't drop your glass ball! They're fragile.

Event Preparation

It's not just security that the shinki are asking newcomers to help with. They also have plenty of work to do getting ready for the festivities! The Meeting Hall floors need to be swept and scrubbed, the gardens need to be trimmed and tidied, artwork needs to be dusted, flower arrangements arranged, damaged furniture repaired and rafters cleared of cobwebs. Anyone with particularly good handwriting can help write out invitations and name cards, too.

Besides cleaning and calligraphy, there's lots of food and beverages to purchase! Grab a shopping list, a wad of cash, and head to the Near Shore to pick up the necessities. (Don't forget to keep the receipts.)

Rate Your God

Shinki have the opportunity to submit surveys on their life with their new gods before the big event, and even request a transfer if they want one. Early in the morning, every new shinki will be visited by a small white dove carrying a scroll that, when unrolled, reveals the following questionnaire:


What is your name?

What is your god's name?

How do you see your duties as a shinki?

What is your favorite part of life with your god?

What is your least favorite part of life with your god?

What advice would you like to give your god?

Do you wish to be assigned to a different god? []Y []N


Fill it out, discuss it with your fellow shinki, forget about it until you find it under a pile of junk mail in two months: the choice is yours! Gods will receive a copy of the answer that their shinki submit to "What advice would you like to give your god?" -- there's no name attached, but they might be able to guess.

Heavenly Record Keeping

Gods don't get to skip the paperwork entirely! Although the Heavens aren't asking them to rate their shinki, new gods don't have all of their vital statistics on file quite yet, so they get a questionnaire too. The same white doves will drop their scrolls by in the morning, with the following set of questions:


What is your name?

How many shinki do you currently have?

What are your areas of divine responsibility?

How do you see your duties as a god?

What traits do you most want in a shinki?

Do you wish new shinki to be assigned to you? []Y []N


Unlike the doves attending on the shinki, the doves who drop off the gods' scrolls will remain close by and chirp loudly until they finish and submit their questionnaires. If a god is particularly lazy about it, they might even start pecking.

In Summary:

• Help protect the Meeting Hall
• Lend a hand cleaning and shopping
• Rate your gods
• Help Heaven keep its records up to date
• Have fun~

Comments

event priparation

[priforprince]

[ This fuss attracts the attention of a cluster of purple-goat-shaped robot plush toys, which wheel over on their little platforms. They won't get in the way of the minions on purpose, but they're also not the most dexterous observers....

Collisions do seem likely. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[With a cry of victory, the minions surge back over towards the Overlord. Their collective steps get them all of two feet before they crash over the plush toys, tripping and flailing into a pile that looks like a football tackle out of a Goofy cartoon.]

[priforprince]

[ The goats are caught up in this wave of tripping minions and bear it in stoic silence, a fact that reflects well upon their endurance and not at all upon the fact they don't have mouths (or full sentience).

A head and a few hooves stick out of the pile, and there is a whirring noise as some of the goats attempt to move forward despite being tipped to the side. Their programming apparently did not account for pratfalls. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[The strength of Zetta's ellipsis is almost palpable.]

Okay, what the hell.

[He can't do much to actually go over there and check it out, what with being a floating book at all, so all he can do is gradually fume more and more as his minions try to extricate themselves from the tangle. A Prinny finds its peg leg caught in the mechanism of the remaining upright goat, slowly sliding out of the pile as it trundles away.]

[priforprince]

[ The burdened goat is a trouper, and heads off for less confusing climes. The rest, however, remain caught in the tangle. Recording everything.

Video...and audio. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

HEY!

[The Overlord's roar is enough to shock the minions into motionless silence -- well, that, or the semiconscious mental command that comes with it. The squadron springs upright, shedding goats left and right as they stand at attention, each of them saluting the book like the most loyal People's Guard of the tinniest tyrant.]

Okay, whose toys are on the loose? Someone owes me a Prinny, damn it!

[priforprince]

[ A goat that had been somehow lifted in the wave of Prinnies drops back down, bouncing a little before whirring in a sideways circle on the ground. Not a single goat owns up to their mysterious master. How loyal of them. And yet, were anyone to peer at the base of each toy, there's a tiny crown emblem painted there...

The one that took Zetta's Prinny with it appears to be heading away from the complex entirely. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[It's just a Prinny. Comedic sociopathy will happen to it offscreen. These things happen.]

[Zetta surveys his line-up as one minion scoops up a goat to offer it over for his appraisal. His eyes, despite being just big ol' blank white blurs, detect the crown soon enough.]

...A crown, huh? So, the King of the Far Shore himself is trying to oppose me!

[priforprince]

[ The person on the receiving end of everything each of these goats can see and hear would....not bother refuting that statement. It's tragically premature, if one wishes to be technical, but when considering the inevitable outcome of her tenure here....

The goat, for its part, just whirs in the minion's hold. Its head is awfully close to that beak. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

...Eh, toss 'em in the sack.

[The minions produce a sack=, cleverly labeled 'Loot', and begin doing just that.]

[priforprince]

[ The owner of these goats is officially disgruntled. Every gruntle of hers has hereby been dissed.

Fortunately, the goats are replaceable, so there's no issue about retrieval...

As the goats start trying to take stock of this new situation, the whirring sound stops coming from their bases. It's coming from their heads instead, as the cameras inside their eyes adjust. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[The Overlord isn't ENTIRELY stupid and oblivious -- the noise catches his attention, and the minion currently pitching that goat into the sack stops at his subconscious order.]

[A moment later, one big ol' blank white eye peers into the goat's.]

[priforprince]

[ Figuring it out, is he. That's fine, as well. Let him realize his ineffectiveness has been witnessed.

The person on the other end of the camera sits back and sips her tea.

The goat stares up into Zetta's eye. That is definitely a camera lens in there. There's one in the other eye, too. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Hyaaa ha ha ha ha! So, someone's spying on me, huh? [The Overlord seems not at all disturbed by this discovery, secure as he is in the force of his overwhelming ego.] Well, now I've got your resources!

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki reaches over, turns the volume down on her computer, and swirls her tea around in her cup. Being alone in this room will not stop her from monologuing. ] What a petty, insignificant thing he's proud of. Such tools are disposable.

[ It will take more than that to convince her she doesn't still have the upper hand, big-picture-wise.

The goat that got away is almost to Apollo's temple. She can see its GPriS locator blinking in a sub-window.

It's moving so slowly, however. What could be dragging it down? ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[Resources are resources! And resources taken from the enemy are doubly valuable!]

[It will take more than skepticism to convince Zetta he doesn't have the upper hand, however.]

[....wait a minute? Where the hell is his third Prinny?]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki hears the door open behind her. Pushing her laptop away, she picks up her teacup and turns. ] So you're back. What took--

[ She is turning around now, to greet her spygoat. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[The Prinny is scuffed, battered, and resigned to his fate -- right up until he hears the door open. Picking his head up, he blinks at the sight before him, then sticks up a flipper in a friendly wave.]

Oh hey, it's the Overlord's ex-minion! How's it hanging, dood?

1/2

[priforprince]

Ghk!!

[ Things that are not hanging: this teacup.

Why, one might even say it's falling!

And now it's breaking! ]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki, for her part, is taking a defensive step back and whipping her shield out of nowhere. H-how did - there's -

There's one of those things in her temple - ]

You?!

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Yeah, I don't suppose you could, you know, get my leg out of this thing, huh dood?

[The Prinny gestures at its entrapped peg leg, as if this sort of thing is perfectly normal.]

[priforprince]

DON'T COME!

[ Hibiki hunches behind the shield, feeling around behind her with a hand. Cutphones. Where. What. Where are....her cutphones? They should be somewhere - in her desk, but he already said "dood", she can't focus....

Papers scatter. Chess pieces, too. Hibiki's search grows more frenzied, sneaking torn glances between the search area and the encroaching Prinny. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

It's not like I can move my leg anyway, dood.

[The Prinny sighs, not surprised but not particularly thrilled at its rejection, as it tries to struggle out of its entanglement without much success.]

Seriously, dood, this sucks.

[priforprince]

Stop.....saying that!

[ How is she supposed to - Wendy. Is Wendy out? She'll phone Wendy.

Hibiki grabs her phone and flips it open. Someone invisible jostles her elbow, popping the phone out of her hand; it falls to the desk and the back (and battery) pop out. Hibiki is shaking for many reasons now.

The spygoat, meanwhile, decides to turn and go for a stroll around the room. Maybe if the Prinny is lucky, it'll run into a piece of furniture and dislodge its passenger... ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Look, dood, no offense, but --

[Oh, hey, opportunity! The Prinny stretches its flippers out to grab onto the leg of her desk. The goat heedlessly marches on, slowly stretching the Prinny out as its pegleg grates against the machinery.]

I get the whole 'overblown reaction for the purpose of comedy' thing! I mean, look at me, my entire kind is a laughing joke! We even explode when we're thrown, dood -- what kind of life is that? One stage we were in featured us set up like a bowling alley, for crying out loud! One pitched Prinny and boom! Game over, dood! If we were any good for farming we'd lived really cursed lives, instead of just badly cursed lives -- but I digress, dood. The point is, aren't you better than this?

[And that was how Hibiki was lectured by a patchwork penguin clinging to her desk while a goat stretched it out by its pegleg.]