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

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Oh, that was maniacal laughter as I gloat in the evil I'm perpetrating.

[...points for honesty?]

See, I don't plan to actually shop.

[alchemists]

But, that's what the money is for if you go against what the heavens want doesn't that mean you're in theory going against god?

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Oh, that's no big deal. Eventually I'll conquer this entire realm and turn it into a Netherworld, so I'm already an enemy of all who aren't my loyal servants.

[alchemists]

Things must not be advancing then since you're taking money from the heavens instead.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Hey, hey, every journey begins with leveling up. You can't rush these things!

[alchemists]

But you've been boasting so much, aren't you at a high level?

[badassfreakingoverlord]

They don't come higher than me. Except Baal, but he doesn't count. Problem is, even high level and the most badass mana power around aren't quite as useful as I'd like without hands.

[alchemists]

Have you tried asking the heavens for a way to regain that sort of movement? If you're working hard as a god here wouldn't they allow you at the very least some form that works better?

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Why would they help me when my plan is to conquer the Far Shore and the Near? That'd be pretty stupid of them!

[alchemists]

No offence I really doubt you'll be able to conquer both.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Uh, I totally take offense to that. Why would you even start to think it isn't possible?

[alchemists]

You just kinda seem like you're all talk and not a real bad guy.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Not a real--?!

[So horrified is the Overlord that he shudders and nearly falls out of the air. Regaining his bearings, he draws himself upwards to his full tomely height.]

I'm a freaking Overlord! I've conquered worlds and broken planets! Evil is in my job description! I've been committing evil deeds for something like twenty thousand times as long as you've been alive, I bet!

[alchemists]

The last statement is most likely true, I haven't been living for a long time. I was created to be a back up clone body but I wasn't perfect therefore thrown out.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Uh, huh.

[Oversharing is go.]

So, besides bumping up the number a bit... so you're perfectly set on the path of evil too, right?

[alchemists]

No, I don't walk down that path.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

...Wait, seriously? You were thrown away! That's a perfectly good reason to strike back at the hooorrible universe that made you and then discarded you!

[alchemists]

I was taken in by people who care, and even if I wasn't I don't think I'd ever sink that low.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

What -- but the spite! The cold unfeeling unfair universe! Come on, you want a LITTLE vengeance at least, right?!

[Zetta, a demon, does not understand this very, very undemonly attitude.]

[alchemists]

I really don't wish to do anything that involves blaming the universe or hurting others.

[ Elfnein just wants to be normal and help out. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

You're really, really wasting that backstory of yours. [Ugh, such potential, lost.] So you're not even going to stop the people who are making people and then throwing them away?

[alchemists]

They've already been stopped and can't hurt anyone anymore.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Oh, now we're talking! Did you crush the life from their bodies? Or turn them loose to the clone armies they'd created for poetic justice? Or imprison them in some hellhole for eternity?

[alchemists]

No, they ended up giving the last bit of their life to save mine. If it weren't for them I wouldn't be here in one piece.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

They did WHAT?!

[This isn't how the cosmos is supposed to work at all! This is so beyond the pale that the book is reduced to sputtering terms to try to argue against it.]

But -- scrap parts! Unwanted! Abandoned!