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

[kokuyoyo]

It has to originate at least partially from the person... or else anyone could do it. Ah... [He just remembered something, and he blinks at Shun, taking him in for a moment.] Those paper charms you were doing.....

[Apparently Shun is a step ahead of everyone else in this regard.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun would probably have raised the charms as an example himself, though he still doesn't really tend to register the fact that everyone here is innately empowered by the fact of them being gods and shinki.] I've gotten the hang of them now, but the writing on them wasn't anything like this. So it's still something new.

[Compared to what little of the Heavens' magic they already know of.]

[kokuyoyo]

It's still a similar concept... magic empowered by the writtten word.

What are the differences? [After all, he might as well pry for information from the best source here on it.]

[revolutionfalcon]

This doesn't look like the same language, for one thing. [He might just be showing his inability to read fancily-written kanji anymore after not having needed to for several years, but he's pretty sure it's not just Japanese written on here.]

The charms seem to get their power in part out of the "ritual" of making them. This is probably more a matter of how thorough and complete the engraving is.

[kokuyoyo]

So... Looking up what language they are might be helpful in identifying what they are, and how to make them...

[Well. Back to the library for him, is what it's sounding like.]

[revolutionfalcon]

If we can find it. It might be something like what was used for that cursed shrine a while ago.

[He hadn't ever managed to find anything on that language himself, nor recognised it at all, so it's possible this is going to be the same deal.]

[kokuyoyo]

....Oh. You found that too.

[Well, if anyone would actually search hard and purposefully enough, Chikusa can't be too surprised that it's Shun.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Obviously. Considering someone knocked the door down at some point, it was hard to miss.

[He doesn't know who it was, but he'd run across it while casing out the basement.]

I think there were charms written in some other language that we found that day, too. So it could be similar.

[kokuyoyo]

You're welcome.

[...Well, it was Chikusa's boyfriend and not Chikusa, but whatever.]

Do you still have those charms... or pictures of them?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun raises a brow briefly, but then he figures it was probably one of Ken's weird animal forms, so he just shrugs a little.

As for the charms, he reaches into his pocket for his phone. He did keep that charm after the incident, but considering it's a risk to touch a talisman like that, he figured photos were safer in the long run.

After he tracks down the right one, he turns the phone around to show Chikusa. The image is of a seemingly normal ofuda lying on what looks like a cleaning cloth, the fabric of the charm cut open with considerable precision. Lying on top of it is a piece of paper with a spell for misfortune at the top, and unrecognisable characters at the bottom. There's also a piece of streaky acrylic with the same unrecognisable characters on it.]

I've still got it hidden in case it comes up again, but I figured it'd be safer to carry a picture.

[kokuyoyo]

[Chikusa leans in close, taking in every detail of the image carefully. An ofuda.... could be made by anyone, he guesses. It's not an identification to what could be behind all of this, although that probably takes ayakashi out.]

....Forward it to me?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun considers it for a moment, then figures it might be best to have more eyes out for finding that language again, and texts a copy of it to Chikusa.]

You haven't seen that kind of language when you've been looking around the library, have you? [He's guessing not, considering Chikusa's interest in the charm, but it can't hurt to make sure.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Without much time wasted, Chikusa checks his phone once he feels it buzz, and forwards it to his own email to look at on his computer better. Hey, as long as they have time...]

I don't think so... but I'll double check. It's better to make sure on these kinds of things... And with how fickle the library is, you never know.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun lets out a faint, irritable sound at the mention of how fickle the library is, because he really doesn't need reminding himself. It took him long enough to find that book on ofuda.]

If you want to spend that sort of time there. I'll see if there's anyone interested in languages I can run it by.

[Lavi comes to mind, but Shun hasn't talked to him in a few days.]

[kokuyoyo]

I'm stuck there anyway.

[So. You know. That's just hell.]

Do you know a lot of people with that kind of knowledge...?

[revolutionfalcon]

You volunteered. [It doesn't count as being stuck when someone asks for it.]

I can think of at least one person who'd probably be interested. I was with a couple of people knowledgeable about magic when I found it, and they didn't recognise the language either, so running it past more magic users probably isn't going to help any.

[kokuyoyo]

[A dead eyed look right at Shun.] I'm stuck there anyway.

[Even if it's self imposed.]

Anyway... I wasn't thinking of magic. More.... language.

[revolutionfalcon]

You wouldn't have been if you hadn't asked to do it in the first place. [He could have just said "because you volunteered", but he's not sure that would've gotten the point across properly.]

That's what I was thinking. Lavi knows a wide range of languages, so I figured I could run it by him, at least.

[kokuyoyo]

I can always heckle him on my own, then.... I guess we'll see. There's no point in giving up on something like this...

[It might not be the most important thing... but it's pretty interesting on its own.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I doubt heckling him is going to help that much. [It largely depends on if he does know anything as to whether that would be worthwhile or not.

Still, he has to agree on the second point.] It's a lead, so if we can find a way to follow it up, we might uncover something important.

[kokuyoyo]

...It'll make it less boring...

[It's fine. They're.... friend....s...ly?]

[Still, he eyes Shun for a moment with a bit of wariness.]

....Do you plan on passing along anything you learn...

[revolutionfalcon]

If it's important, I'm not going to keep it to myself. [If it's really important, he might even distribute it on the BBS, but he hasn't run into any information quite that pressing yet. It's almost annoying at this point.]

The same goes for you. Don't keep something under wraps if it's something everyone needs to know.

[kokuyoyo]

I don't keep things under wraps.... I tell Hakkai. So you could always ask him.

[jk he knows you two are weirdos]

[revolutionfalcon]

I'd rather not, though at least he's willing to share things that are actually important.

[Shun doesn't like dealing with Hakkai more than he has to, though he could admittedly send someone else to deal with him instead.]

[kokuyoyo]

So weird....

[He swears. Well, whatever. Hakkai is really the only person he feels he needs to tell anything to.]