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]

[A pity Hakkai already aired all his dirty laundry. This would be a really good chance to see just how many people Gojyo has been shittalking to otherwise.]

....Cho Hakkai...

[sweetdeath]

Oh shit, seriously?

[The guy Gojyo'd been so upset about? The one who upset Ayumu? The one who confessed to killing a bunch of people on the network?

Tsuzuki winces. Sure, Gojyo's been pissed at a lot of people, and he's not totally sure how many of them deserve it, but Ayumu's hard to tick off.]

Are you... I mean. Is he okay to have as a god?

[Does this kid need help.]

[kokuyoyo]

[....Yeah, with a reaction like that, he's sure heard some damn thing. Chikusa blinks slowly at him, processing the sudden concern.]

...Why?

[sweetdeath]

Ayumu works the bar too. I mean, I've been trying not to pry with either of them, but Gojyo's real sensitive about whatever happened with him, plus Ayumu had to cut things off and go find a new god? I don't know the guy, but he's upset a lot of shinki.

[He shakes his head, still watching Chikusa worriedly.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Oh, wow, look at that, he is suddenly much more interested in this conversation! Looking a bit more awake, Chikusa shifts a little bit to stare at him.]

....That's the bar she works at?

[Don't mind him, just casually ignoring everything else Tsuzuki has just said-]

[sweetdeath]

You didn't know?

[Oh, shit. Is he giving away information he shouldn't be? He looks briefly panicked. There's probably no getting around it now, and Chikusa'd seemed like a decent kid so far, but-- he's also Cho's shinki, and Tsuzuki doesn't know how Ayumu feels about the guy these days. Maybe she doesn't want him hanging out at the bar, or any of his other shinki, for that matter.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Whups. How unfortunate that Chikusa already knows where the bar is technically, too.]

...I'll... come over sometime then... I don't know where her new god is either...

[So her work will be a lot easier, frankly. He'd rather not deal with the nonsense that is Heaven if he can help it.]

[sweetdeath]

[Tsuzuki blows a breath out, shaking his head.]

I don't have a problem with it. But-- look. If she's got a problem with you hanging out there, can you leave? I don't know how much she wants to worry about Heaven stuff at work.

[His eyes are still dark with concern, and that cheerful smile hasn't made a reassurance since Cho's name came up.]

[kokuyoyo]

[...Oh. He sees what the issue here is.]

....I invited her to dinner. At his temple. She came.

[So it's fine. She was exhausted, sure, but she came.]

[sweetdeath]

[Phew. Okay: in that case, things might not be quite as tense as Tsuzuki'd been afraid they were. He relaxes, finally.]

Okay.

[And he's a pretty good kid, if he'd been trying to bridge that gap between his god and his god's former shinki that way. Tsuzuki just hopes Cho's worth it: it doesn't sound like Chikusa's asking to be rescued from the guy or anything, though, and he had let Ayumu go, so maybe it was all one big personality conflict.

Or something.]

I mean, my point still stands if she asks you not to hang out at the bar, but thanks. That's good to know.

[kokuyoyo]

[It was more incidental to reassuring his partner.... but whatever. With that hurdle passed, Chikusa offers a one-shoulder shrug.]

I should probably be fine... [Unless she tells him not to drink...] Anyway... If you know that other guy...

Then you should know he's pretty biased himself...

[sweetdeath]

What, Gojyo? -- Look, like I said, I don't know the details, but he's my friend, and I've only ever seen Cho around on the network.

I'm not going to mess with your god, but I don't want to hear you slamming my friend.

[-- So much for the relaxation: Tsuzuki's frowning again. Man, if it's gone this far, there must be some seriously bad blood between Gojyo and his ex-crush.]

[kokuyoyo]

[....Chikusa could say something about Gojyo doing things to himself, but he has a feeling that Hakkai would be aggravated, to say the least, if Chikusa started spilling his personal life all over the place....]

[So he sticks to classier affairs.]

Gojyo slams himself well enough...

[Classy.]

[Chikusa forges on.]

Besides... Tell him to stay away from Hakkai in that case... and just stop period. Trying the sort of things he has.... it's troublesome for everyone.

[sweetdeath]

I'm probably not the right guy for you to pass that message through. He hasn't been back to the bar in a while.

[And Tsuzuki's worrying about him. He's not about to get into that with Chikusa, though. The guy's obviously not a big fan of Gojyo's to begin with.]

What'd he do?

[kokuyoyo]

[So basically the best time to visit Ayumu, then. Reaching up, Chikusa nudges his glasses into place, although they'd barely moved to start with.]

He keeps bothering Hakkai... even though he doesn't want to see him. And things like that....

[He's being a huge pain in the ass, essentially.]

Like when he tried to make me break it off with him...

[sweetdeath]

[Tsuzuki winces, rubbing the back of his neck. That sounds like a horrible idea on a lot of levels, but, also, having heard a couple of drunken rants from Gojyo... not unbelievable.

Maybe he ought to just introduce the guy to other, nicer people, or something.]

Yeah, well. Break it off, like have him revoke your name, you mean?

[kokuyoyo]

That seems like it was what he was trying to do.... considering the things he kept bringing up about Hakkai to me.

[The "serial killer" comment was one thing. But poking at his dislike of Hakkai hiding things? In hindsight, it's clear what he'd been aiming for with such a shift in the conversation.]

[sweetdeath]

You know, I'm not sure he's all that subtle.

[He might've wanted to get Chikusa away from Cho, though. Cho's a murderer, for one thing. Tsuzuki'd been worried enough about Chikusa's safety a minute ago.]

But it didn't work, anyway, right? So no harm done.

[kokuyoyo]

[A long.... dead.... stare.]

[and then, just when it's becoming awkward enough that Tsuzuki might think to speak-]

The last time something happened to someone that didn't work- [It might have been poison, and it unfortunately wasn't fatal.] -there was apparently still a problem.

[sweetdeath]

I mean if you want to have a problem with it, it's not like I can stop you.

[Tsuzuki shakes his head.]

He hasn't been back by the bar in a while, like I said. But I can meet you somewhere else if you'd rather.

[kokuyoyo]

No.... Bar is fine. If he complains, I can just harass him...

[CHIKUSA]

I want to see Ayumu anyway...

[sweetdeath]

Look, I actually like him. Don't be a jerk or you're not getting any tips on magic from me.

... it's fine if you want to see Ayumu though.

[Ground rules! He has them.

He may not actually hold to them, but he can set them just fine.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Sorry, Tsuzuki, he's a teenager. The bullshit will not cease, especially considering him and Gojyo seem to egg each other on.]

...Why.

[sweetdeath]

What do you mean, "why"? Because if you're a jerk to my friends I'm not going to help you out.

[Teenagers are such a pain in his ass.]

[kokuyoyo]

...I mean, why do you like him?

[Having met Gojyo, Chikusa can't understand it.]