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

[redotiertwo]

I dunno, does telling yourself Hakkai isn't your real dad help you sleep at night.

[Someone might've been side-reading Chikusa's form when given the opportunity.]

[kokuyoyo]

[ w o w ]

[Chikusa abruptly pauses, and his mouth gives a sort of twitch at the corner.]

....It's not wrong.

[redotiertwo]

So that's a yes, since you're here telling yourself that right in front of me.

[He's not letting the lack of a proper answer get in the way of pointing out that might as well be an answer of itself.]

[kokuyoyo]

I sleep at night just fine.... And it has nothing to do with Hakkai. It's just a fact...

[Okay?? Hakkai was just a god that showed up a a good time.]

[redotiertwo]

I mean, considering I'm pretty sure you could sleep standing up if you tried hard enough, that doesn't say much, but that doesn't mean you're not totally pulling "not my real dad" about Hakkai.

[If anything, this whole exchange is just making Davesprite more convinced of what was initially basically a throwaway joke.]

[kokuyoyo]

What does that even mean, anyway?

[He is very, faintly familiar with the joke, but that doesn't mean it's any less annoying or clear.]

[redotiertwo]

You're acting like you don't give a shit about him and that there's no connection between you, basically.

[Then again, Chikusa is kind of the type to pull "not my real dad" about everybody with that definition to it.]

[kokuyoyo]

....He's just the one who named me...

[Oh, welp, here we go, sulking time now as he continues to fill out the last bits of his form. Or maybe he's just making busy work for himself.]

Axel-sama is still my real god.

[redotiertwo]

In other words, the one you're calling your "real god" is just the one who named you as well, except the one that did it first. Did you even pick the first guy, seriously.

[Davesprite is making mental notes on how to get Chikusa's loyalty, which is apparently "be who random chance happens to toss him in the direction of first".]

[kokuyoyo]

[That's.... really not wrong, although having it said that way makes his mouth twist a little bit, a sour mood overtaking him.]

I was supposed to be his shinki.... Hakkai only took me on because it was an emergency.

[redotiertwo]

"Supposed" to be because the Heavens said so, right, since when have you given a fuck about their opinion on literally anything.

[Davesprite is just going to continue relentlessly calling him out - this conversation has gotten a lot more serious than he expected it to be, but it rings pretty fucked up to him.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Quietly, Chikusa's fingers dig tighter against the pen in his hand.]

That's giving heaven too much credit. Axel-sama found me on his own.

[redotiertwo]

Since fucking when has that ever been how it works, dude, I like Hajime but I'm not going to pretend we're not paired up because the Heavens said so.

[Despite how evasive he is about this sort of thing himself, Davesprite feels like it's a little late to turn back now. And holding loyalty to a disappeared god isn't going to do anything for Chikusa's seemingly already tenuous stability.]

[kokuyoyo]

And how would that work? [The paper he'd been working on swishes down to the ground as he lets go of it, and his hand goes to curl tightly into one pocket.]

Why wouldn't we just be dropped off directly at our god's temple if that was the case?

[redotiertwo]

You could ask them, I always just figured they threw a dart at a wheel and matched people that way. [Davesprite shrugs, as if that part doesn't matter a hell of a lot to him.]

You and I both know the old gods don't give a fuck about shinki, they expect the gods to know who belongs to them and track them down. And dragging us all to the one place is probably easier for them than going temple by temple.

[kokuyoyo]

And you know that for a fact? That they drag us around instead of us just showing up and them being bad at dealing with it?

[redotiertwo]

I could say the same thing to you. Where the fuck is the evidence that your god is the one special snowflake who got to pick out their shinki when the newcomer gods are always just as lost as the shinki.

[If Chikusa's going to play facts, Davesprite's just going to play harder.]

We probably do just show up, but that doesn't mean they don't assign us where we end up going.

[kokuyoyo]

He wasn't brand new.

[Swaying up to his feet, Chikusa narrows his eyes at Davesprite.]

He said I was his first shinki with a soul. He'd been here already. He found me. [The pen shifts in his hand, fingers curling around it like a weapon.]

[redotiertwo]

Cool, does that mean every new god who bitches on the BBS every other week about getting a soulless before they get a shinki with a soul is a magical rainbow unicorn as well, because that's what your logic is pointing to here. The Heavens still fucking assigned you, my dude, sorry you have to deal with your first god being the same as every other god here, I guess.

[On one hand, this makes it much more obvious why he's not just accepting Hakkai is his god now, but on the other this doesn't make the whole thing reek any less of fucked up to Davesprite. Something about this entire weird idolisation rings a little bit wrong to him, like he has some kind of core reaction to it.]

[kokuyoyo]

Then maybe it's normal for gods to find shinki. [Underneath his words, there's the faint aggravated click of fingernail against plastic.] It's probably more normal for Heaven to assign soulless, if they assign anything.

But Axel-sama found me.

[Found him, gave him a purpose, gave him value.... His thumb grinds into the pen.]

Don't insult him any further.

[redotiertwo]

You really don't like the idea that the ones in charge are actually. You know. Fucking in charge, do you.

[Sure, they don't do a hell of a lot to help them, but it's always been pretty obvious to him that the old gods are the ones who run the whole giving shinki to gods deal. People even talk about getting new gods before being reassigned by the Heavens.

While Davesprite gets that Chikusa's taking this way too hard, he doesn't feel like backing down is the answer, as uncomfortable as the whole thing makes him.]

If you think calling your first god the same as any other new god here is insulting him, dude, that's your fucking problem. If anything I'm insulting you for thinking being undyingly loyal to the first random dude who looks at you the right way is how to live your life.

[kokuyoyo]

They don't deserve the credit.

[And, abruptly, his grip on the pen relaxes, allowing his fingers to twist it in his grip even as he's jerking his hand up to shoot it towards Davesprite like a throwing dart. It's only because he's liked Davesprite, up to this point, that he aims for the chest instead of a wing or above the shoulders.]

[But he's not going to let Davesprite keep talking like this. Not about something so important.]

[redotiertwo]

[Thankfully, where Chikusa aims doesn't really matter, because as soon as the "dart" leaves his fingers, Davesprite is six feet to the left of wherever it's flying, expression significantly colder. Usually, he'd think that he deserved it, and sure, he definitely rode this conversation past its welcome - but this time, he thinks, the problem here is with both of them.

In the wake of being attacked, his feathers are pricked, and his bearing almost disturbingly prepared, like he's used to just having to bound into combat with no questions asked. It's remarkable enough he hadn't drawn his sword with the flashstep dodge.]

I don't know what the fuck you want me to say, Chikusa. I'm not going to bend over so you can keep riding your weird complex about your first god all the way to the moon. Do you seriously think that god, if they gave a shit about you as much as you say, would even want you doing that.

[kokuyoyo]

[Considering what he's seen Davesprite do, it's not a surprise to hear the pen go clattering harmlessly against the floor a good distance away- he threw it with a lot of force. That doesn't mean he's not in some way all the more aggravated. Even lashing out can't get him any sort of peace...]

[...Or, at least, the temporary measure of Davesprite shutting up, and he lets out a slow tense breath.]

I just want you to shut up.

[He doesn't need much more than that, although he suspects it's far too long now... Too far in for him to look at Davesprite without feeling a little bit of bitterness, at the very least.]

Axel-sama... [It still hurts to consciously think of him, to note the lack of his existence and remember there's no kanji marking his ankle anymore.] Axel-sama understood me. He used me best.

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, sorry, shutting up is kind of a thing I have trouble with, in case you hadn't noticed before now. [It's not exactly an uncommon thing for Davesprite to ride the rail of a topic long after it's gone off them and started falling into a gorge, it's just not usually this serious.

And while he can understand the attachment to some degree, the reasoning still just sounds a little off to him.] That doesn't mean nobody else can understand you, dude. And it doesn't mean you have to hold up your old god as if he's some light in the fucking darkness. Nobody's telling you to forget him, but fuck, you can remember someone being cool without going the whole nine yards of screwed-up idealising bullshit and then some.