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

Open!

[sing_for_me]

Security Precautions
As she's found from having to deal with those stray dogs, Alex's power came quite handy with dealing with animals, influencing them to come to her. It was actually the easiest she's gotten cats--or nekomata in this case-- to follow her. She had a trail of varying animal spirits following her, but now she wasn't sure where to take all of them, and quite a few of them had chosen to climb up onto her. It was starting to get difficult to walk as the animal pile grew.

"H-hang on--I can't pass if you're around me like this..!" Clearly she didn't think this one through.

Record Keeping
The reason she came was to keep herself busy and out of the temple. But this paperwork just had her thinking of exactly what she was hoping to not think about. Having left that lest checkbox empty though had the doves chirping non-stop at her, and it had even started to tug at her hair with its beak. No matter how she tried to shoo it, it refused to leave her alone. Had she done something to piss it off?

"I-I don't have food if that's what you want!" Now it was a battle of tug of war with her hair.

Security

[batteredog]

[ Standing behind her with is own three kittens all over him as usual, Nico just watches her perplexed. Without seeing her mouth he has no idea what she's saying but she's moving around weirdly. Does she need to take a piss? ]

[sing_for_me]

[If only it were that, Nicolas. That problem would be much easier to solve.

A cat crosses from one shoulder to there, sliding it's tail across her face, then does it all over again. Their balance really was amazing... But it didn't help as it blocked her view, and she couldn't see the critters weaving their way between her legs, her ankle catching onto one of their tails.]

AAH!

[She wobbles before falling forward, trying to hold onto and cushion the fall of any of the animals that she's carrying. Hopefully the ones on the floor scatter fast enough.]

[batteredog]

[ He moves before she hits the ground. His small hands catch her left said, stopping her before she hits the ground. He may be small but he's strong. He helps her back to her feet, his hold gentle he knows when to break bone and when to hold things softly. Nicolas lets her take her time to right right herself and pushes off the cats that get too near. ]

[sing_for_me]

[She can feel something small, but strong, keeping her from falling any further. There's still a cat in her face, so she can't see her savior, but once she's back on her feet, she manages to push the fur aside to get a glimpse of whoever it was.]

N-Nicolas..!

[Alex was stunned--but pleasantly surprised. She hadn't seem him in so long..! Doing her best to hold up the spirits with just her arms, she begins moving her hands.]

[Where did you go]

[She tilts her head, an inquisitive look on her face.]

[batteredog]

[ He remembers her from a while ago. He hasn't been around a lot of gods or shinki, he's been more... along the edges of this world. He watches her sign and reciprocates glad that he doesn't have to talk. People always looked at him funny when he did. ]

[ I've been here. ]

[ He doesn't know the exact word for the farshore so he goes with: ]

[ Spirit world. ]

[sing_for_me]

[So around...]

[Where you staying?]

[She worried, since the last time she saw him he was going through garbage.]

Record Keeping

[lionhearrt]

[ From behind: ]

That's not what they want.

[sing_for_me]

E-eh..?

[Alex turns around, though she's still holding on to the lock of hair the dove continued to pull at, frantically flapping its wings.]

What do you mean?

[Was Mikoto able to understand birds now or something?]

[lionhearrt]

[ Gold eyes stare at her cooly. ]

They don't want food.

[sing_for_me]

What..what do they want then?

[She winced a little as it tugged harder.]

[lionhearrt]

[ He sighs, wondering if he should even waste his time. It felt like such a drag helping someone so obviously clueless. It'd probably take him longer to explain and Suoh didn't feel like going through the trouble. ]

[sing_for_me]

[It may have just been a sigh, but it said a lot to Alex, and she didn't exactly appreciate it.]

...Don't force yourself.

[She'll turn her attention back to the bird and try to take her hair back without somehow hurting the thing. He didn't have to make it sound like it was that much of a pain!]

Record Keeping

[declamando]

[Another hand comes to swat the dove out of her hair, and Maria shoos it away with a hard frown. She's mostly been cleaning, but she's done her survey already, and the resulting departure of her own doves has her fairly reassured of what the cause of their presence is here.]

That's not it. Have you finished the survey? [She's going to keep eying off the doves in case they come back, which makes it a little hard to check herself if Alex finished it.]

[sing_for_me]

Maria..!

[Ah..her hero. How did someone look cool while holding off birds?]

Well..I filled most of it...Is that why it's doing that..?

[declamando]

I think so. They were heckling me earlier as well until I finished all of it, so if you've left anything blank, I think they're going to keep making trouble.

[Maria doesn't sound terribly impressed, but unfortunately, that seems to be how they've laid out the surveying system, so there's not a lot they can do about it.]

[sing_for_me]

A..ah...I didn't think they'd be so strict about it...

Sorry for getting you caught up in this. You're always having to help me out.

[declamando]

I didn't think they would be either, until they started pecking at me when I didn't do it right away. [It seems more inconvenient than helpful if they want the gods helping out here as well, especially since it isn't going to give them time to think about their answers.]

It's fine. But if you want to make sure they're off your back, you'll have to finish and give it back to them.

[sing_for_me]

[That explained why Maria was so annoyed with them then.]

I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you out earlier..

[She looks at the paper the bird had thrown back at her, crumpled in her hand from all the fussing.]

I don't..really know what to put though.

A

[kokuyoyo]

If it's any consolation to Alex, at least she's not the only one with a cat problem. Chikusa is slowly forcing his way through a small crowd of nekomata that have congregated around his feet, hunched over for once not because of his own self but because of the two cats on his shoulders. Passing by her, he gives a pause to look at Alex's own predicament.

"....You two, huh."

[sing_for_me]

It takes a moment before she can see Chikusa over cat that was rudely covering her sight.

"Ah..Chikusa..!" Well...so much for asking him for help. He seemed to have his hands full too.

"I..I'm not sure..where to bring them..."

[kokuyoyo]

"I know I can't get rid of mine." The cats around him seem supremely smug about this fact. "But.... why are they are you...."

Family business is apparently his issue, but he has a feeling Alex doesn't have long lost kin or whatever.

[sing_for_me]

"Umm.." She pauses as she gets muffled by a cat torso that decides it wants to cross to her other shoulder instead. "Um.! I..might've overdone it..with my god power...!" She could feel more of them trying to climb up her legs or claw at her clothes.

[kokuyoyo]

Somehow, he now has more questions than when he started. Chikusa stares dully at the cats attempting to bravely clamber up her legs. "What.... exactly is your god power again..."

[sing_for_me]

Ah..explaining her power was always a little strange to her.

"It's--owowow!" Claws on her legs, claws on her legs! She manages to shake them off, looking back at Chikusa a little tearfully. "Ph..pheremones...it uh..controls feelings.."