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

[badassfreakingoverlord]

You're really, really wasting that backstory of yours. [Ugh, such potential, lost.] So you're not even going to stop the people who are making people and then throwing them away?

[alchemists]

They've already been stopped and can't hurt anyone anymore.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Oh, now we're talking! Did you crush the life from their bodies? Or turn them loose to the clone armies they'd created for poetic justice? Or imprison them in some hellhole for eternity?

[alchemists]

No, they ended up giving the last bit of their life to save mine. If it weren't for them I wouldn't be here in one piece.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

They did WHAT?!

[This isn't how the cosmos is supposed to work at all! This is so beyond the pale that the book is reduced to sputtering terms to try to argue against it.]

But -- scrap parts! Unwanted! Abandoned!

[alchemists]

It's just how it worked out in the end, Carol wanted to atone even if she forgot her reasoning.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Atone?! [How!? Why?! ] What kind of crap is this?! All this effort at proper villainy, wasted! There was so much potential in this!

[Zetta really is sincerely aggrieved! As a demon, he favors melodrama of an evil sort, after all.]

So what?! You're some goody-two-shoes now with love in your heart for all living beings?

[alchemists]

An alchemist's job is to learn about the world, I try to be neutral on matters but I really do love this world and the people I've met in my short life.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[Zetta gags wretchedly, the entire book shuddering from the force of it.]

Ugh, you are just one transformation item away from being a magical girl, aren't you.

[alchemists]

Magical girl?

[ That's what they were labeling the whole Carol thing as back home but Elfnein isn't even remotely near that. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Yeah, you know, love for everything and dedication to righting wrongs and triumphing over evil and sappy speeches. Oh, uh, I think you need like four or five more years on you too.

[alchemists]

I think that's a little off the mark? I wouldn't consider myself having any of those things or the transforming part of being a magical girl.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Hey, hey, you just said that you loved the world and all the people you'd met, and you have no interest in taking extremely justifiable and understandable vengeance! And I did say you were short the transformation.

[alchemists]

Isn't it normal for anyone to act like I do? It seems like all normal things to me...

[badassfreakingoverlord]

No, it's super not normal! Most people in your position would have done the whole vengeance-on-existence thing I was describing! You'd crush the world like I'd crush --

[The book twitches and shudders, trying to stretch out an arm dramatically that it simply doesn't have any more. After a moment of effort, Zetta sighs.]

--my hopes of this analogy, but whatever.

[alchemists]

If it helps I thought it was a good analogy?

[badassfreakingoverlord]

You though it was a good analogy because it didn't work, don't you.

[He's on to you!]

[alchemists]

Would you be angry if I said yes?

[badassfreakingoverlord]

No, because I figured it out, so why would I be mad that you were saying what I knew?

[alchemists]

Just seems like you would get angry?

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Hyaaaha ha ha ha! I figured out your trick! Maybe YOU should be the one to get angry!

[alchemists]

That would be very hard for me, but if you insist on trying to make me angry I'll try.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

...You're all positive emotions and good cheer too?!

[alchemists]

yes?

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[The Overlord lets out a long, deep groan, as if this affronts him on a deep and personal level.]

You're not secretly an angel, are you?