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

[declamando]

Maybe as a fun thing, but don't make it too serious. You don't want meeting new people to be a chore.

[Maria gives a slight wink at that. It sounds like a fun idea, but anything can become stressful if you force yourself to do it for too long.]

[alchemists]

That is true, if it becomes a chore then it would lead to more issues instead of being fun.

[declamando]

Exactly. It's good to know more about who we're working with here, but forcing yourself to do it isn't the way to go about it.

[Maria picks a bottle off the shelf in passing and adds it to her basket, then another one from next to it. She seems to have ended up with a few of the seasoning requirements for the party.]

How have things been with the library? I remember you saying before you were having some trouble with people not returning books.

[alchemists]

Things have been a lot better since the temple moved locations, the added space and facilities have helped out a lot.

[ Outside of Hibiki supplying all the movies in the AV room. ]

[declamando]

Right, I noticed that change. My temple grew a little when it moved as well, but that was quite a while ago now. I have to wonder what influences it.

[Possibly something to do with their standing or the time they're here, since she's never seen anyone go there right off the bat.]

[alchemists]

It's something I'll have to research, the amount of added space seemed to be in places that people used the most or had requested at some point.

[declamando]

Is it? I don't remember asking for a library area in mine...though I can't say it hasn't been useful, even if it isn't very big.

[Definitely not compared to Elfnein's, at least. There's only so much you can do with rooms circling the trunk of a tree.]

[alchemists]

It might be different between each temple due to how many followers and shinki each has?

[declamando]

Possibly, though I think that's a little true of where we move as well. The Central District has a lot of the old gods living in it, after all, and only a few newcomers.

[And even Maria's knowledge of that is largely based on having seen a couple of temples from the smaller districts turn up in that one of late, including Hibiki's.]

[alchemists]

That is true, Hibiki's temple recently showed up there.

[ Elfnein just figured that was just Hibiki being Hibiki though. ]

[declamando]

Right, and my temple moved to a different district a while ago when I've been here a fairly long time. It should have some connection.

[Hibiki has been here a shorter time than Maria, but Hibiki is also the sort to try and pull a lot of attention, which has probably been helping her popularity.]

[alchemists]

Mm, it's safe to say there is a connection but again I need more data before I can say for certain.

[declamando]

Well, you might be able to get information off some of the people who've moved...though others might not want to give it out, since not everyone is that open about things.

[Maria doesn't really see how temple movements could harm anyone, but she doubts something like an open BBS post about it would get bites from all parties.]

[alchemists]

An anonymous survey would work then, that way people don't have to say who they are and I can still gain data from a large data pool.

[declamando]

That's true. You'd probably get a good amount of answers from that. [Even if not everybody ended up answering, it would have to be a decently-sized sample.]

Maybe it's best left for after all this organisation for the meeting is done, though.

[alchemists]

That would be the best thing to do, if I tried to gather data now it would cause more issues for people getting ready.

[declamando]

In any case, it's not urgent information, it would just be useful to know so people can be prepared for it happening.

[She imagines some people have mistaken temple moves for disappearances before, after all.]