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

[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.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Considering you like to complain whenever I don't tell you something you want to know, it's pretty stupid for you to be saying something like that.

["Hypocritical" is probably the better term, but he'll take "stupid" for now.]

[kokuyoyo]

Aren't those two separate issues...?

[Chikusa is petty. Hakkai is apparently passive aggressive.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Not really. You don't like dealing with me either, but you're expecting me to tell you things.

[Chikusa has never exactly hidden the fact that he mostly does things Shun asks because he just doesn't want to deal with Shun.]

[kokuyoyo]

[think think think think...]

....I guess, but you're still useful, so....

[A comp...li...ment...???]

[revolutionfalcon]

[That just gets a rather flat look out of Shun.]

So obviously it's not that weird to you to mostly interact with someone when it's useful to you.

[Which is essentially the manner of Shun's relationship with Hakkai, aside from Hakkai's occasional passive-aggressive baskets.]

[kokuyoyo]

I guess, but wasting time over hating you seems...

[...a waste.]

[Chikusa still also doesn't get being angry over food, either.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[It takes "wasting time over hating you" for Shun to guess that he's probably still talking about the business with Hakkai.]

If you're talking about things Hakkai's stupid baskets, we have a shared friend he expects me to pass them on to. He just seems to think it's funny to convince me to take them.

[And occasionally include jerky for the vultures, apparently.]

[kokuyoyo]

Probably because you get worked up over them like this...

[Chikusa huffs a small sigh.]

Just stop reacting...

[revolutionfalcon]

This isn't "worked up". And not everyone is you.

[Or, not everyone is lacking emotions or concern to the point it takes more effort to react to something than it does to not react to it.]

[kokuyoyo]

Ah.... I can't tell if that's a good or bad thing...

[On one hand, he'd understand people better. On the other hand, they'd all be messes who don't like to move.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Definitely a good thing. [Shun doesn't even need to consider that. If the entire world was people like Chikusa, it would've been destroyed a while ago, assuming they all didn't just end up killing each other for petty reasons.]

[kokuyoyo]

If you say so.

[At least Shun is honest that way.]

Anyway.... I guess it only matters if anyone learns anything.

[revolutionfalcon]

Probably. And that's going to be hard considering things like what the library's like about giving out information. Have you even found anything about what's gone on here before we were here while you've been going through it yet?

[It'd be nice to know, and Chikusa's in there often enough that he should have more of an idea, but he doesn't get the impression he's hit on anything yet.]