thenearshore | 26 - The Gods' Month

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26 - The Gods' Month

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

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

Rate Your God

might

Heavenly Record Keeping

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~

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[He gives a noncommittal grunt—he doesn’t really believe that the Heavens are depending so heavily on the snowglobes to detect weaknesses. The casters could very well feel the wards going down, like borderlines, for all the new gods and their shinki know.]

[But it’s an intellectual issue, anyway, unless they actually do notice something during this survey.]

...By the way. [He pulls the shinki survey from his pocket, hands it over without looking.] What do you think of this?

[It's probably not their only method, but even a dent in security can be punched into a hole if it's left there. Shun's not going to argue the point, but he does consider it at least somewhat likely these things could be tampered with to detrimental effect on the hall's safeguards.

When Fubuki hands over the survey, Shun gives a faint sound of annoyance before gesturing to a nearby tree.

There's two white doves in it, watching him very intently.]

I got one of those ridiculous surveys too. I don't know about you, but I don't think gods are going to get off without doing them. [He does at least skim over the shinki version, though.] I suppose it makes sense to want records, but some of the questions are too thorough for just that.

[...He finally glances over, but it's to look at the snowglobe, before his gaze darts away. He has wondered if the thing is set up to raise an alert if it detects a weak portion, or if it's left up to the snowglobe-holder to report it. One of those things is safer than the other. ...Heh. Something doesn't need to be tampered with to be a hole. He pulls his hand away from his face, in case someone passing by (or spying doves, perhaps) wonders why he's trying to hide amusement, and folds his arms instead.]

You know what they say about good bookkeeping. [It can be faked to say that you're studying abroad when they disappear you. For example.]

I don't think it's just for fun, either. But I don't think they'd appreciate it if I left it blank. I'm going to write something about the vultures, just so you know.

Good bookkeeping relies on the trustworthiness of whoever's keeping it. [And it's not like he hasn't discussed some issues with trust of the higher-ups in this place recently, though not necessarily with Fubuki.

It seems like that subject falls aside a little quickly when Fubuki mentions the vultures, though, in favour of a somewhat suspicious squint from Shun.]

The vultures have never done anything to you. [Even if Shun's threatened him with them ~~frequently~~ occasionally. It sounds a little like he's getting offended on their behalf again, though.]

[He looks away as what have been halfway to a sardonic smile appears and then disappears on his face. Bookkeeping would also depend on who was filling it out, surely. Fubuki had had no intention of being truthful or forthcoming.]

[...But now he's definitely going to write something about the vultures. He would beg to disagree, Shun, Keba has done a lot to him.] ...Someone was trying to get to your temple the other day. The vultures reacted even though she was only trying to see Chinatsu.

[Shun considers it somewhat of a given that not everyone's going to answer, or even answer honestly - it'd be naive to think they would. He can't imagine the kind of experience the shinki going over the answers are going to have.

As soon as Fubuki mentions the person trying to get to his temple the other day, though, he gives a derisive scoff.] I ordered them to attack her. I've had to chase her off the temple grounds twice before then because she wouldn't leave when I told her to, and started making demands. And she couldn't even apologise to Chinatsu like she was supposed to. So she deserved everything she got, considering she's a selfish, spoilt brat.

[Shun has an extensive range of opinions on Hibiki, and none of them are good.]

[...That's exactly the kind of thing he's talking about. The vultures may be the temple's watchdogs, in a sense, but using other beings to attack another is...]

[...Fa...miliar.]

[...Maybe that's why he dislikes them so much.]

If you were going to set them on her, then you should have let her fight back. [He didn't actually see what happened, since he'd left, so she might have and he wouldn't know. But Shun doesn't talk like it was a fight (a one-on-one, a bout, a duel, whatever) at all.]

She had a shield for most of it, which she's used before when I set them on her. And she's a god. She could teleport out whenever she liked, which she's also done before. If she didn't have a reason to be there that she was determined enough to see through, I wasn't going to tolerate her being here after how she's acted.

[Sure, the part where she started yelling at him for venting on his own temple grounds when he was dealing with various traumas were one thing, but her clear offense of some kind towards Chinatsu sealed the deal on his not letting her near the temple.]

But if you're worried about me actually doing her damage, don't be. Even if I can't stand her, I'm friends with her shinki. [He has no interest in giving Wendy more trouble to deal with than being Hibiki's shinki causes alone.]

[...That wasn’t, in fact, what he was worried about. But it’s true that he’d rather not see Hibiki hurt.]

[...Cataloguing someone's defenses against an attack, though. Unintentionally, he snorts, and then gestures toward the snowglobe.] Guard creatures might be more effective than those, then.

Guard creatures can be affected by magic as well. It probably wouldn't be hard to find a way to put them all to sleep or something.

[At least a globe like this would probably require a slightly more in-depth replication to be convincing rather than blunt force magic. It does mean his own vultures have their limitations in effectiveness, but then, his temple has other defenses.]

[Certainly living creatures are easier to bypass than a spell that can’t be seen. But that’s exactly what makes it better.]

[...Regardless of anything else, though. There is one surefire way to get an ayakashi through all of the defenses. Shinki are walking around all over the place, after all. And if Shun's information is right, then that selfsame shinki-turned-ayakashi can be named right afterwards and controlled.]

[He glances at the snowglobe again despite himself, and then away.]

The real question is...what happens when that thing changes color? Are you curious?

That depends on what you mean by "what happens". It's supposed to react when it's not within the hall's defenses. [Which means he could be talking about the reaction in detail, the specifics of what triggers it, or various other things. It's obviously some kind of spell, but considering spells are more an area for shinki than gods, it's never been something he's looked into that much.]

It's shinki who are supposed to know more about spells, anyway. [He's sure a detailed answer could come from one of the white-robed shinki, he just figures he's not going to get one out of them on a day like this.]

[...So that’s a no. Shun’s not thinking of the same thing Fubuki is, anyway, if that’s his response.]

...I didn't bring up shinki. Why did you?

Because I don't know how much you know about shinki magic. [Shun says that straightforwardly enough. Fubuki is obviously familiar with the concept of ablutions, at least, based on their previous conversations, but he has no idea where he stands with even things like Bind and Truth that a lot of shinki know, let alone the existence of more complicated magic like those animated dummies that are apparently made by a shinki.]

...You think it was the creation of shinki.

[It's not like gods don't have abilities of their own, or even entire domains that they rule over. And not that he knows deeply about it, but gods of protection are a thing. It's fifty-fifty, as far as he can tell.]

A shinki with enough experience can do complicated specialised magic. I'd consider it more likely to be a shinki who's been working on it for however many hundred years than a god.

[Especially considering the vast majority of older gods seem so complacent about this sort of thing that he can't imagine any of the ones he's met with the appropriate skills taking the initiative to do this.]

[It's not like gods aren't (supposed to be) long-lived, either...]

[The snowglobe's meant to detect something. Item-based spellcasting. He'd had a conversation once with some guy with a dramatic cape about ah, "totems of power," he'd called them. (Something like that.)]

[...If he knew how to punch a hole into the defenses, he wouldn't need to even consider the snowglobe at all. He doesn't suppose encasing the snowglobe with his borderlines would do anything (he very likely isn't powerful enough to shut out the effects of whatever defensive spells are up, for one). On the other hand, he is in fact inside the defenses right now...]

[...The survey.] ...Hmh. [That's one way of keeping a tally of who can enter the premises normally. He isn't being harangued by birds the way Shun is right now, though.]

"Complicated specialized magic" like taking stock of someone's essence? [...That sounded less silly in his head.] Handwriting is a type of magic, isn't it.

[Won't prevent him from filling it out, since it would seem almost suspicious if he didn't, and anyway he might still be mistaken about it.]

...Are you going to fill it out?

[That hadn't been his point, more that a shinki was more likely to be able and willing to dedicate the hundred plus years to that than a god. Shun doesn't have a particularly high opinion of gods.

It definitely seems like Fubuki's thinking on something here, though Shun raises a brow when he makes the remark that leans towards what it is.] You think the surveys are using some kind of magic?

[It's...not impossible, but it seems a little unlikely to him, and he unrolls his own scroll.] The more complicated magic here doesn't seem to use Japanese alone, so unless they've enchanted the scrolls, it's probably not anything significant.

[He could see some kind of charm to tell who's filled out and who hasn't, but that's about it in terms of things that simple. As for whether he's going to fill it out, he gives a slight sound of annoyance.]

I don't want to, but I was the one telling Amaterasu the other day that most of the new gods think the old gods don't give a damn about us. If this is her trying to show they're interested, the lesson isn't going to stay with her if I don't respond.

[If the person telling her to connect more refuses to connect, it might kill the message just a little.]

[Heh. Invisible ink.]

[The amusement doesn't last, as he glances at the scroll, back to the doves, and then away again, toward the grounds.]

A survey isn't a show of interest. It's just a record that they can do whatever they want with. [And that's not even considering the fact that, regardless of any of the actual questions, names are clearly important. Shinki spells working off of the name they were given, rather than their real names is...something. But since he no longer believes Fujiwara Yusuke was a god, he doesn't know who gave him the name "Darkness."]

...It took some convincing, huh. [Since he already knew from their meeting with Suijin that Shun had already talked to Amaterasu.] Is she— [He brings himself up short. He doesn't want to think about the banquet. But after a second, he continues.] Is she as eloquent as she was in that speech?

I know that much, at least. That's why I said I didn't really want to answer it. [And why he's been a little reserved about the parts he considers to be probing questions. Shun isn't one to easily hand out information on his deeper thoughts on something, as opposed to just saying it annoys him or whatever else.

Then again, he'd consider anyone who put their shinki name on the scroll knowing what it can be used for a bit of an idiot, so that particular point doesn't really occur to him despite him not putting his god name on his own.

As for the subject of Amaterasu, Shun shakes his head.] She's hardly stupid or bad at speaking, but she's naive and immature. She almost lost her temper with me because I implied her shinki alone weren't good enough security if we've been having all these attacks. She'd probably make a good leader if she was old enough to grow out of that sort of thing, but as it is now, she's poised to make rash decisions if things get any worse. Or be easily manipulated.

[By her advisors, for example, or even her shinki.]

...You wouldn't have wanted to answer it anyway.

[More to the point, not doing it would send the message that it's not the kind of the kind of interest that's going to be seen as friendly. Especially if certain kinds of people are being hounded into doing it regardless.]

[Filling it out means you've already lost. He may as well assert his own agency in the very form that explicitly denies him. Even if no one but him recognizes it. Even if it doesn't come to anything. Even if someone would call him an idiot for it if he finds out, which he won't because Fubuki has no intention of telling him.]

...So she didn't write that speech herself.

That doesn't mean I can't have reasons for not wanting to answer it.

[Not wanting to answer it on principle is one thing, but generally Shun has reasons even if he's mostly doing something just on principle. In this case, it's certainly a little of both, but he's more on the side that it's a little useless telling the Heavens to administrate better and then not giving them administrative information.

In any case, he moves on to the subject of Amaterasu, nodding slightly.]

My guess is it was one of her three advisors who wrote it, probably Suijin since she's the least idiotic, but it could've been one of her shinki.

[He glances askew at Shun for a moment, before turning his attention away again.] ...Naturally.

[The other thing is more difficult, because he distinctly recalls that he found something odd, or at least unsettling, about it. But he doesn't want to be thinking about that night too closely, lest things rear their head. If he phrases it as generally as he can...] What did you think of it, then?

[Shun considers that for a moment before settling on an answer, though somewhat simplified.] I think they already knew about the impact those god deaths had on the Near Shore, for one thing. And I think they're trying to tell us to avoid conflict without really understanding anything that's behind it. I don't know how much they looked into how and why those gods died.

[Admittedly, he doesn't know a lot about it himself, just that Loki is thankfully one of the dead and Hakkai...he has some suspicions about there, but nothing confirmed. And the other two had died during Add's core disaster, which Shun had been party to eventually.]

[...Unless Shun is saying that the Heavens knew about the surge in ayakashi that arose with the deaths of those gods, the speech at the banquet happened before the Four Gods Dead Campaign.]

[But it's not a new theory that the Heavens hide things from new gods. (...And new shinki, but no one ever says anything to new shinki directly.) Which might be understandable for certain things but not others, but maybe that only stands to reason.]

[...He didn't think too carefully of the circumstances or the details behind the Campaign. He can't comfortably think about that right now, either.]

[He's looking entirely away as he says it—] ...Murder?

[...So much for not thinking about it. But once said, he can't take it back.]

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revolutionfalcon - 2018-04-09 13:36 (UTC) - Expand

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