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

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun does pick up the scent of a cigarette before Mikoto actually speaks - he knows one or two others here who smoke, but Mikoto's the one of them he sees most often.

Turning his head with a somewhat wary look, Shun flicks his pen somewhat irritably against the page again before setting it aside for the moment.]

I don't like these kinds of formalities. Not used to them. [What's written on the form so far - only the completely factual questions, like the first two - is in somewhat difficult to read handwriting. It's of the sort that was once neat, but has deteriorated from lack of use and practice.] I'm guessing you didn't fill yours.

[He's mostly doing it because he's complained previously about the lack of organisation, but he can certainly understand why people wouldn't.]

[lionhearrt]

[ A grin. ]

You think so?

[ A scroll hits the ground next to him. ]

You can turn it in.

[ Or throw it out, he doesn't care. ]

---------------------

What is your name?

Suoh Mikoto

How many shinki do you currently have?

None.

What are your areas of divine responsibility?

The Sun. [ The first part is legible but crossed out. ]

None.

How do you see your duties as a god?

None.

What traits do you most want in a shinki?

None.

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

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun glances over to the scroll when it's thrown, though it's a few moments before he actually bothers to pick it up and look at it. When he does, it's with a subtly incredulous look.]

Usually things like this are asking for answers, not non-answers. [He rolls it up again and sets it aside - he might hand it in, or he might destroy it, depending on exactly how frustrated he ends up by the end of all this.]

I'm mostly wondering what suddenly prompted them to decide they needed these records. I know what got them to bring us in on security detail, but this is a completely different area.

[lionhearrt]

[ He pulls the cigarette from his mouth, tapping off the ash. ]

Who knows.

[revolutionfalcon]

They're unlikely to tell us, anyway. [It's annoying, and Shun's tone makes it abundantly clear he dislikes it, but he's also used to it after having been here this long.]

You weren't here last time they held a meeting in this place, were you? [He's pretty sure Mikoto wasn't one of the ones around back in May, since there's a fairly limited number who've been here that long.] Small mercies.

[lionhearrt]

Can't say I was.

[ He probably wouldn't have gone to it. ]

You've been here that long then.

[revolutionfalcon]

I've been here six and a half months. [Which he figures says enough on its own - there's very few people who've remained here that long, and he's pretty sure he knows all of them.]

They dragged us all to a meeting here back in May because they'd been too stupid to actually say directly that telling shinki their past turned them into ayakashi, and two people died before they figured out nobody knew.