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]

Yeah, I'll be ready with my diagnostic apps, get the age groups and backgrounds of all the people who jump in, except that might be kinda hard when we've got people from the equivalent of a couple hundred years ago.

[Davesprite does actually sound pretty entertained by the prospect of having to figure that out, though.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai chuckles.] You'll need two variables, age and birth decade -- though that might be a bit difficult with shinki, too...

"Familiarity with the internet"?

[Heavenly meme polls are serious business, obviously.]

[redotiertwo]

Birth decade could get pretty weird when we've got people from all over the place as well, like we'll just end up with outliers from different numbers of centuries ago. Or hell, different numbers of centuries in the future. Internet familiarity seems like a nice solid starter, maybe with like, a thing for them to say if they only got familiar with it since coming here.

[In his experience, he can at least tell when he's not previously skilled in something, so in theory shinki should be able to figure out whether they only learnt about the internet here.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai nods, with great seriousness.]

It will be a great contribution to the field of meme understanding.

[redotiertwo]

Someone needs to make an actual academic field about this. And not just some offshoot of sociology, that's some cheating shit right there.

[Memeology deserves its own entire field more than many much more deserving candidates, clearly.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai chuckles, leaning back against the gate.]

Perhaps you're the meme professor the world has been waiting for.

[redotiertwo]

I might have to shave a bit and hide my wings under something first. Also not be orange, I feel like that's a deal-breaker to being taken seriously.

[How many orange people actually get taken seriously enough to end up in important positions? Unless they're on reality TV, in which case it's basically a requirement, but obviously meme professorship is much more important.]

[reformedsinner]

[Watch him try out a little of his brand-new knowledge: very seriously, he informs Davesprite:]

On the internet, no one knows you're a sprite.

[redotiertwo]

[This is progress. Davesprite lets an amused smile slip through at that one before leaning back, seeming to consider the notion very seriously.]

Can an exclusively text-based internet professor ever be taken seriously, though, that's the real question.

[reformedsinner]

Is it any more of a disadvantage to be text-based than it is to be a professor of memeology?

[Because, honestly, there are bigger problems with the perception of Very Serious Science here than Davesprite's typing.]

[redotiertwo]

Wow, okay, are you implying that memeology isn't a valid science, social sciences are real science too.

[Let him pretend that memeology is legit by engaging in the classic memetic behaviour of shitposting.]

[reformedsinner]

Here I thought you were the one who objected to associating it with sociology.

[Don't challenge Hakkai's shitposting skills, Davesprite. He has the reserves of disingenuousness to go on like this for hours.]

[redotiertwo]

Social sciences is the bigger umbrella, you know, it covers shit other than sociology. I'm saying sociology is too small to contain the hard science of memeology as well, so it needs to be its own social science.

[The real question is which of the two disingenuous shitposters is going to quit the discussion first.]

[reformedsinner]

Ah, I take your meaning. Still, wouldn't anyone who accepted the validity of the Internet as a field of study accept it as a means of communication?

[QED, more or less.

Hakkai does hate being the first one to back down.]

[redotiertwo]

The communication isn't the problem, it's the "nobody's gonna believe some rando on the internet with no qualifications is qualified to call themselves a doctor of memeology". I don't even know any good fake online universities to buy a degree from.

[Important uses to put money from his hard work and potentially Hajime's offerings towards: real fake doctorates from the internet.]

[reformedsinner]

Ah! But there's an easy solution to that. After all, it's not as if any universities offer a degree in a field that doesn't exist yet.

You simply have to publish.

[redotiertwo]

Sure, know any academic journals that are gunning for extended treatises on the importance of memes to a healthy society.

[Davesprite has the brief wonder of whether something like that would even work considering how little attention mortals tend to pay to anything from the Far Shore, but then it goes away in favour of shitpost logic.]

[reformedsinner]

That's what Google is for.

[So, no. Do your own research like a proper doctoral student, Davesprite!]

[redotiertwo]

Hey, I'm using my resources, it's an important research skill.

[Gotta exhaust those human resources before just resorting to Professor Google.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai laughs.]

Well, in that case: no. Sorry. I haven't published anything recently.

Good luck with your research, though, sensei.

[redotiertwo]

Alright, guess I'm gonna have to do all the legwork myself. Spreading the word of memes is truly the work of gods, obviously I ended up in the wrong position here.

[He says that in a rather deadpan manner, though it's not something he could even remotely imagine thinking normally. He's never had a great deal of faith in his...well, anything really.]

[reformedsinner]

Maybe you did. They've certainly handed the title out to less deserving recipients.

[It's not even really a compliment, considering the list of other gods here includes people like Loki or Susano'o. Hakkai reflects that it seems to be a bad sign whenever anyone refuses to hand out a name beyond their new divine title.

It is, though, meant as a compliment.]

[redotiertwo]

You mean like that dude who set a bunch of experimental ayakashi shit all over the Heavens like a week after I got here.

[Davesprite might not be familiar with Loki, but he certainly remembers Susano'o's exploits, even if it's been a while since he dealt with them. Still, he waves a taloned hand somewhat dismissively.]

It's probably better off like this, though, might outshine the other gods in the most literal possible sense otherwise.

[reformedsinner]

Like him, but not just him. As for the other gods... it'd be a learning experience for them, wouldn't it?

[Being outshone, even literally, is good for the soul.He chuckles, but shakes his head to dismiss the subject a moment later.]

In any case... I should go make sure Chikusa and Ken aren't causing any problems. I'll see you later?

[redotiertwo]

Hey, maybe it'll be a good start to my career as an esteemed academic. [Learning experiences and all that. In any case, since there's more to get done around here than chilling and verbal shitposting to Hakkai, Davesprite raises a hand when Hakkai moves to farewell him.]

Yeah, probably, shit here probably isn't gonna get done for at least a day, right.