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

[revolutionfalcon]

She's overprotective of her shinki, so that's a bad idea. [Or at least, that's how Shun's taking her reaction to his blunt dress-down of the security situation at the dance.] Not to mention it's not any better than what you keep telling me off for doing.

[nopixiedust]

I know, but the more I learn about them, the more annoying it is.

[She slumps in his direction, sighing.]

They all need someone with good sense in that whole group.

[revolutionfalcon]

The one closest to good sense is Suijin, and I wouldn't consider her trustworthy because of it. Bishamon was fine too, but she's been busy in the last few months.

[Which is unfortunate, because they could certainly use the additional sense in the Heavens right now.]

[nopixiedust]

So the people who know the most are the ones to watch out for most... [She taps a finger to her cheek.] Is that right?

[revolutionfalcon]

That's usually how it is. The only time stupid people are the ones to pull one over on you is if they were faking it the whole time anyway. [And Shun is generally fairly good at spotting that considering his history.]

[nopixiedust]

So then that means you're the one to watch out for the most.

[And she grins cheekily.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I don't expect people to trust me easily, but people insist on doing it anyway.

[He's had quite a few cases of people trusting him within two meetings here.]

[nopixiedust]

[All she does is laugh at him.]

It's because they can tell what kind of person you are!

[revolutionfalcon]

[For some reason, that just seems to irritate him more, to the point he goes from largely uncaring about it to glaring at her within the space of about a second.]

If they knew anything about that, trust wouldn't be their first reaction. [Just ask the number of his allies back home who are still afraid of him.]

[nopixiedust]

[Well, that's one way to make her serious up pretty quick, and Wendy frowns up at him in turn.]

Hey. You know I'm just teasing you, right?

[With Shun, it helps to make sure.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I've heard enough people say it seriously that it hardly makes a difference. [There have been a lot of people to say it seriously in his time here - largely the ones who never made it to the point of being people Shun trusted rather than tolerated. Bar one, but that had been a remarkable circumstance anyway.]

I don't want to hear any more about people thinking they know what kind of person I am.

[nopixiedust]

...So I'm not allowed to talk about it, ever?

[She has something to say about that, but she's trying to make sure on boundaries, here.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I'm not going to tell you what not to talk about, but don't expect me to just go along with it if you do.

[While Shun isn't the sort to demand people avoid certain topics, there are definitely topics that are going to irritate him much more quickly than others.]

[nopixiedust]

Mm.... Alright, I guess. I do have some things I want to say about it....

But I'll save it. Alright? [She might as well give him a heads up about it.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun lets out a faint hiss of annoyance, but he does tend to do better at talking about certain things with some advance warning rather than off-hand.] If you have to.

[He hasn't told Wendy a great deal about the war anyway, other than that there was a war and that he'd turned his back a lot of people who died because of it. He hasn't gotten so much into the ones he killed personally.]

[nopixiedust]

I mean, I'd like to, but that's not the same thing. Right?

[There are a lot of things she doesn't have to do, but she does it because she cares about other people, or is worried about them being dumb.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Not really. [Shun would wonder why she'd like to do it, except he's at least been exposed to enough people helping him in his time here that he can assume it's some attempt at doing so.]

[nopixiedust]

Exactly.

[So there. In the meanwhile...]

Anyway, I'm going to finish this up, alright? [She has to figure out how to give advice to her god without being obvious...]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun just shrugs, good and ready to go back to his own work.]

Go ahead. [He's just going to head off, himself.]