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

[artificialrose]

We'll split the list of things we need to get in half. Then, whoever gets everything on their half first, and has gotten the right things without damaging them, wins!

And whoever wins.... [Well, what to make a prize...] Well, how about they treat the other to lunch?

[junkyarddog]

[Ken grins wolfishly.] I'm a lot faster than you, byon. I'm definitely gonna win! [He pauses for consideration.] How're you gonna know when I finish, though?

[artificialrose]

We'll see! As for how we'll know, how about we both meet back here when we've finished?

[junkyarddog]

So whoever makes it back first, we'll know they finished first?

[artificialrose]

Makes it back first with groceries.

[don't... don't forget the food, ken...]

[junkyarddog]

Well, yeah, but that'll be easy, byon!

[Ken pauses suddenly. Wait.]

...do we have to pay for them?

[Ken.]

[artificialrose]

[KEN...]

They did give us money to pay for it, yes.

[junkyarddog]

That doesn't mean we have to, byon. [KEN.]

[artificialrose]

[KEN]

Maybe, but we're definitely paying for it, alright?

[junkyarddog]

Okayyyy. [Ken huffs.] ...it'd be faster without paying, byon...

[artificialrose]

And it'd make a lot of people upset. [He shakes his head, even as he goes through his pockets for a pen or something. He knows he has one on him....] You wouldn't like it if anyone stole from you, right?

[junkyarddog]

No, but that's why I hide all my stuff! [K E N.]

[artificialrose]

[KEN.....]

....Most people don't have to hide their things.

[junkyarddog]

That's why it's easy to steal from most people, byon. They don't do much to stop people from stealing their stuff. [Ken says this like not taking appropriate precautions is a moral failing, and his stealing things is simply an education to the unwise.]

[artificialrose]

A shop can't lock everything away, or else they wouldn't be able to sell anything, Ken.

[Along with, like... everything else wrong with that sentence, but he'll try small steps first.]

[junkyarddog]

Well, if selling stuff's more important to them than stuff not getting stolen, their stuff's gonna get stolen.

[artificialrose]

Ken... If everyone put everything they owned under lock and key, then society wouldn't be able to function.

[junkyarddog]

Not my fault society's stupid, byon.

[artificialrose]

...So... you think people shouldn't work together? Since that's basically what it boils down to...

[Is he going to have a philosophical discussion about human nature with a half teeanger half dog? God he hopes not. But he is, apparently.]

[junkyarddog]

No, that's dumb. Kakipi and I work together all the time, byon. [Ken rolls his eyes.] But you can't trust most people, especially strangers. And there'll always be people who need to steal stuff, or just want to steal stuff, and if it's too much of a hassle to stop 'em then just deal with getting some stuff stolen. If people had made it so me and Kakipi couldn't steal stuff when we were little, we would've starved. We needed that stuff way more than the stores did. So if it's too much of a pain to keep their stuff safe, then stores should just get used to some stuff getting stolen sometimes, 'cause they can't have stuff that's safe and easy for people to get to.

[artificialrose]

[Garry is about to try and explain the concept of people being social creatures, and how working together to do the minimum of ruining each other's lives is really better for everyone in the long run...]

[...Except then Ken goes and says that.]

[He freezes up for a moment, brain stumbling, before he tentatively asks the only thing that comes to mind.]

Ken, are you... alright?

[junkyarddog]

[Ken blinks bemusedly at Garry. From his perspective, that question came out of nowhere.] I'm fine. What're you worried about?

[artificialrose]

Most people don't have to steal. If you have to do that, or else that you would starve, it means.... something isn't right.

[There are a lot of things not right with Ken Joshima, honestly. Garry just hasn't been sure how to approach any of them.]

You have enough food now, don't you?

[junkyarddog]

We were born in a mafia famiglia, byon. [The Italian word rolls so easily off of Ken's tongue.] But they made such dangerous weapons that the rest of the mafia wanted to wipe them out, and just started exterminating them...so our famiglia took all us kids and tried to turn 'em into weapons, with experiments and stuff. Kakipi and I are the only ones who survived...I think. [His brow furrows a moment before he decides to stop thinking about it.] We'd probably have died too, but somebody killed 'em all...so we escaped. But the mafia wanted us dead still, 'cause we were weapons. And I guess technically still part of the Estraneo, even though we were just their lab rats. So we were on all the mafia hitlists, and we didn't have any kind of family anymore...and we were still little. So we had to look out for ourselves, byon.

And yeah, Hakkai-sama looks after us now, but it still feels weird not stealing stuff, byon. We've always stolen stuff. [After a moment, he huffs.] Besides, every place we steal from probably would've just let us starve as kids anyway, so why the hell should we care about giving them money?

[artificialrose]

[It feels like, recently, he's been getting a lot of information that he doesn't know how to deal with, and doesn't even know if he's the right kind of person to deal with it, honestly. It all feels so over his head. As far as Garry can tell, he's just a regular guy with nothing special to himself... No special powers or even the knowledge of his own background, like Ken clearly has.]

[But to say nothing, or do nothing... He doesn't feel like he can do that. So after a moment of wide eyed staring as he tries to process it all, Garry slowly reaches out to lightly touch Ken's arm.]

...Ken... It was wrong of those people to punish you, just because you were connected to someone else, right?