27 - The Gods' Meeting

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: The Meeting of the Gods is here at last.
When: October 30
Where: Heaven's Meeting Hall
Summary:







Pre-Meeting

Guards at the front door are carefully checking each god who enters off on their list of attendees, and taking the names of each of their shinki attendants.

Once the participants are past the doors, they are guided down the hallway to a huge meeting room by one of the guards, who will announce them by divine title, and each of their shinki by whatever name they gave. It's an open question as to who's actually listening, though, because the room is swiftly filling up with gods and shinki. As well as the newcomers, old gods are here, some in human form attended by their uniformed shinki, others in stranger shapes -- giant bears, round-bellied tanuki, turtles, dragons, and more. There's even one tricolored tabby cat in a small blue cap, seated majestically in the arms of a uniformed shinki and chatting with another god.

Buffet tables bearing every kind of food and drink imaginable are set up at one end of the room, and a dais with a podium is at the other, draped in bright gold and white bunting and emblazoned with a chrysanthemum emblem.

Early Announcements

Finally, the socialization comes to an end, and the meeting itself begins as Ookuninushi grabs the microphone and steps up to the podium. The year's most popular gods are named first: Hotei, one of the Seven Gods of Fortune, is in third place, Tenjin in second and Ebisu in first place. Each steps up to bow and accept their accolades in turn: Hotei is a big man with a wide smile, Tenjin a tall, ascetic man wearing old robes and concealing his smug expression behind a fan, and a tired-looking younger man in a business suit announces himself as representing Ebisu, who is watching over the Near Shore during the event.

Next, the most popular new god is announced: Ookuninushi has to stop and wrinkle his nose at the name for several seconds before he pronounces it-- Nekhbet, a new arrival in the Heavens.

He moves on to call for a moment of silence recognizing the difficulties of the last year. Many gods have faced reincarnation and returned wearing unfamiliar faces! The Heavens can't yet explain the cause of these changes, but Amaterasu herself urges them to welcome their friends' new incarnations as brothers and sisters in the Heavens.

His final announcement is that, after the successful resolution of the trouble associated with some recent deaths, Orihime has been restored to her place among the eight million gods.

Fortune Weaving

Announcements finished, the main activity of the evening begins. The white-robed shinki bring in huge baskets filled with wooden prayer plaques, setting them down all around the room, and the gods begin to form into circles around each basket. The older gods will gladly explain to any confused newcomers that they're weaving fortunate connections between mortal lives as they spread the plaques out and tie strings off together with great care. All the plaques have names written on them; some are filled out with prayers, some just with notes, and others adorned with pictures of flowers, animals or favorite characters.

Gods and shinki are given blank plaques to inscribe with their own names, too, in order to give them the chance to make fortunate connections as well. (Not necessarily romantic, the other gods will assure them! There are many different kinds of fated connection.)

Help out, take the opportunity to chat, and make some fortunate matches for yourself as well as these hard-working petitioners.

Midnight Disaster

Just shy of midnight, while the gods are still matching up plaques, finishing the last of the banquet, and getting into drunken arguments over who to connect to whom, a shinki in a dark suit torn at the shoulder comes dashing into the Meeting Hall.

"Calamity!" he cries-- and tells the assembled Heavens that a mysterious blight has fallen across a sleepy residential community in the Tokyo suburbs. The blight, a huge circle covering about two blocks, is sucking the life out of everything inside it: plants are wilting, and people and animals have fallen into deathly slumber. As if that weren't bad enough, it's also attracting big, dangerous ayakashi. Ebisu and his shinki are there now, but there aren't enough of them to fight the ayakashi and move the people trapped inside the blighted circle to a safer place before they die.

Volunteers will need to fight ayakashi and rescue the mortals trapped in the blight -- once they're outside its edge, they'll begin to wake up and recover on their own.

In Summary:

• Enjoy the banquet before the announcements
• Hear about the most popular gods
• Help make fortunate connections for the living
• Respond to a disaster
• Have fun~

Comments

[usedperishsong]

[ Okay, that gets a peace sign. ] Yeah! Now you're good!

[ Or a good sport, at least... ]

[usedperishsong]

Food or god?

[ A pause to consider her consideration. ] Though I guess we already got asked that last one earlier....

[usedperishsong]

You tryin' to call me un-serious?

[ That's. Not the word.

This face does not care. Even as it files this information away for later. He really does notice everything, and he really does care about his shinki.

Her intel was spot-on. Good job, Kotori! ]

[usedperishsong]

Then give me somethin'. I don't care what.

[ Kanade sticks a hand out. ] If you're offerin', I accept!

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[Edge is a fairly straightforward man -- if he can make good out of something, he's not going to worry about how it came about. But her comment has one eyebrow rise.]

Oh? You sound like something's got you down.

[usedperishsong]

I got it!

[ And she does. Now. Jeez, she can't start lagging already. She can't run out of steam before she builds up a full head.

Who knows how many more people are out there...! ]

[mithrarin]

Orihime at least promised to make me some clothes that didn't itch so much against fur. I should have taken her up on that, but time got away from me...

[nibelungvalesti]

[It is the simplest of matters for the Valkyrie to tap the inexhaustible supply of energy within her, forging it into matter as is her right as Chooser of the Slain. In Kanade's hands a sword coalesces, long enough to have weight without being too unwieldy for one-handed use. And around her appears chain armor, striking a balance between protection and mobility, while adding metal-backed gloves to shield her hands should they come into contact with ayakashi. All of them shine dully, thanks to the ether coating that makes them unbreakable.]

Will that serve?

[onedrinkwithme]

That is how it goes normally. There are rarely any parties where some kind of politics are discussed...and it seems this world is no different.

[toremainbehind]

[Izumo would push, but knowing Totsuka, the younger man would just move on as if nothing's happened. In any other case, he'd try to figure it out. At the same time--

It's Totsuka.]

Europe. Mostly spent time in Germany.

[toremainbehind]

Mm, that's true. Though, I'm not sure how much productivity this could actually be.

[This fortune weaving business is still a little odd to him.]

[purr_ince]

No. It's proof you've been paying attention.

[He smiles faintly.] We can do this. We'll help them.

[Plagg is just making a serious face.]

'It's still concerning.. but I do trust you both.'

[Adrien nods.] Oh we will but the suits will protect us and we can help save people and animals. If you're ready Marinette? Tikki?

[toremainbehind]

Quite a bit. I try not to use it often.

[It was just a little bonus in this moment.

The blood is already slipping back into Izumo's body, clotting up as if he hasn't used it at all.] A lot of powers are easy to overdo. [Thanks, heaven.]

[toremainbehind]

Not unless you talk to the leader of the heavens directly. She seems to be more open minded than most.

[toremainbehind]

Amaterasu is a good kid. Do you mind showing me how to do those knots?

[toremainbehind]

It's fine. We haven't really had the chance to practice this with just the two of us.

[Izumo is patient, waiting for Yata to calm down.

This time, he can process the information better, able to see what the sounds are producing to them.]

[toremainbehind]

[Smiling, he pats her head affectionately.]

If only they see it that way, too. They can be stubborn like that.

[toremainbehind]

He gives a shrug. "One of the goddesses, particularly the younger ones such as Nanako."

[thevanguard]

I guess we should work on that, huh?

[ He still sounds sheepish, but at least it's less overwhelming this time. And now he's paying attention to the information he's picking up, the blips on his 'radar' as it were. ]

There. Over there, that building on the corner. Are you getting that?

[boneofsword]

[Archer doesn't waste time. Each of his moves is efficient, easily flowing into the next one as he thinks a few steps ahead, trying to predict ayakashi's movements. He's also staying opposite of Shun, drawing their prey towards himself. If he's to be a distraction, he's a very effective one. Archer dives into the midst of ayakashi, never pausing for a blink of eye, each slash leaving at least a few wounded. When it seems like he's surrounded he leaps into a back flip, blades vanishing in an instant in favor of his bow and he releases a volley of glowing red arrows. For a second nothing happens but then arrows explode releasing a mist of holy water.

Sure, it's not enough to kill them, but it works well enough. Archer lands and immediately charges back, drawing his swords. He trusts Shun to hold his own and is just having fun after spending so much time in vessel form with Caster.]

[futhark]

[ But there was a reason, important reason!! /shakes imaginary fist ]

Hey... want to hunt for some? I'm sure there must be a part of a buffet with desserts.

[ All this food talk made him crave some sugar. ]

[boneofsword]

That's true. She can always use more people taking her seriously. [Archer is quite sure that he could dismiss her as a kid if not for his instincts telling him she's much older than she looks like.] On the other hand, it makes it easy to gather information.

[toremainbehind]

I got it.

[And he wastes no time in heading in that direction or use teleportation this time.

He hears the whimpers of a child, a young boy curled up in the corner. Coming close to him, Izumo gives the child a kind smile and offers him his hand.]

This isn't a place for you. Shall we get you out of here? [He can feel tremors on the ground, the building trembling just the slightest.]

[lostinshadows]

...

[Lavi raises his hand to where he feels the blight.

A chill goes down his spine but he nods. This kind of concern--Lavi tugs his headband down to cover it enough. Not wanting anyone else to see it until he talks to Cardia.]

....Alright. [He's done talking about this for now. Yuto was a bad topic to bring up.]

[lostinshadows]

I've been asleep.

[Still, he's surprised Hibiki noticed.

He tilts his head at her.] Were you worried?