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

[declamando]

[Well, that's moderately concerning. Not only because of the talking cat part, though Maria does look briefly surprised at that before recovering her composure.]

...Is there a reason you need to make sure of that? [Talking to the nekomata seems slightly more likely to get answers here.]

[kokuyoyo]

He knows kin!

[Indeed- there is an answer. Chikusa heaves out a sigh, shoulders slumping further. The nekomata keeps its place determinedly.]

[declamando]

Kin? So a member of your family? [Or possibly a friend. Maria doesn't really understand why that would make the nekomata so determined to keep him under observation, but she's trying.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Sighing, Chikusa finally speaks up even as the nekomata nods.]

This cat moved in on her own to Axel-sama's house... and she's never left us...

[declamando]

Alright, but I'm not sure why that means you need to be kept track of. [Couldn't they just keep track of the cat instead of him? Then again, Maria doesn't have a great deal of experience with either cats or nekomata.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Clearly this is when the nekomata has to speak up, right?]

We have not known her location for many months now! We must discover how she is faring.

...so yeah.

[declamando]

[Well, that makes slightly more sense, at least, though now she glances back to Chikusa.]

Wouldn't it have made more sense to show them where their friend was so you wouldn't have to carry them around all day?

[kokuyoyo]

[Chikusa raises an eyebrow at her, at a snail's pace.]

....Then they'd know where I live.

[declamando]

I think you're going to have a hard time stopping them from finding out where you live, unless you're planning not to go home.

[The nekomata seems...determined, if nothing else, to find out about its friend.]

[kokuyoyo]

[A beat of silence.... and then a very quiet but heartfelt word in Italian.]

[Even if she doesn't know the language, Maria can probably guess the feeling behind it.]

[declamando]

[Maria doesn't need to understand the swear word to recognise the tone of one, though rather than look offended, she actually looks slightly amused. It seems like he didn't think this through.]

So, do you think it's easier to introduce them now, or later?

[kokuyoyo]

....I want to prolong this.... as long as possible.

[One can only hope that maybe the cats will get distracted by a shiny object.]

[declamando]

If you say so. [It doesn't sound like a good idea to her, but then, she's never been in the same situation.]

Anyway, have you had much luck with the shopping so far?

[kokuyoyo]

[Reaching up and ignoring the following smack of the cat, Chikusa sighs.]

I've just... been getting the most expensive items that qualify...

[declamando]

I suppose that's safe enough. I've been wondering whether they're favouring quality over quantity, or if they expect people with lists containing the same item to actually come back with the same kind of product.

[They seem to be requiring enough food that just one list can't really cover everything they need of a particular item, because just one person couldn't transport it, but that presents the problem of inconsistencies in interpretation.]

[kokuyoyo]

.....They've punished themselves to their own Hell.

So it's their own fault with what becomes the result.

[No pity.]

[declamando]

You can't say it's a bad thing that they're asking us to help for once. They just...maybe didn't make the best decision on when and how to do it.

[Maria sounds more amused than like she's trying to defend them, because he does have a bit of a point that this is likely to cause more problems than it solves.]

[kokuyoyo]

Is it really anything significant...?

[Stirring a little bit more, he tilts his head to the side with a frown. Well, 'tilt' is giving it a bit more purpose than it maybe deserves. It almost seems more like a fall, lacking in energy.]

All they're doing... is giving us more menial work again.

[declamando]

They didn't let us help with any of the last ones, did they? Menial work or not, they're trusting us to gather food for all of them, which says they're trusting us enough not to sabotage this.

[As do most of the rest of the assignments they have the new gods doing. To Maria, it's progress, even if it's small.]

[kokuyoyo]

Which is good, since they're sabotaging themselves...

[Pessimists gonna pessimist, Maria. Still, Chikusa sighs.]

Is that really enough...?

[declamando]

It's a start. Things don't usually go from bad to good in one movement.

[Maria knows that well, so she's happy enough to wait, though she can also understand why people would be impatient.]

[kokuyoyo]

...But they can go to the opposite very quickly.

[Picking up something to check its price, Chikusa glances at her again from the corner of his eye.]

...Like the festival in the beginning of summer.

[declamando]

Usually, I think it's just that it's harder to notice things going from good to bad until it's already happened. [Maria puts that one a bit more seriously, bending over to check out something she thinks might be among those on her list.]

I don't think that would've been something someone could have done without setting it up.

[kokuyoyo]

Well... That counts for a lot of things regarding what happens here.

[Putting the box back, he picks another one, from a different brand.]

And we can never find enough information how what it's about.

[declamando]

No, they obviously know what they're doing in that regard, at least. [Maria straightens up, picking a bottle off the shelf on the way and putting it in her basket. And then another one.]

I never see a lot of people talking about it in public, either, so it's hard to tell how much everyone might know.