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

[reformedsinner]

Well, that's very nice of you to say!

[The confidence would almost be convincing if his laughter weren't so nervous!

But it is charming that he's such a terrible liar. Hakkai'll let him get away with it. (In any case, if he were honest, it probably wouldn't be very nice to say at all.)]

But I admit, apart from watching Shun's reactions, none of the announcements were too exciting. It's a little odd, I suppose, that their story is that we are the gods we're supposed to be representing, incarnated a bit differently...

[darkestbefore]

Maybe I was just a very naive child...

[ Embarrassed a little, she just laughs and tucks her hair behind one ear.

No, she's pretty sure there's no 'maybe' about that part of it. ]

But no, I haven't either. So I'm hoping that maybe these little fates we weave for them might turn into something unexpectedly fortunate.

[darkestbefore]

[ There comes a rumbling crash from behind them at the house they've left behind, and an enraged roar. ]

That... sounds like a yes?

[ Although they've turned a corner and put some distance between themselves and it, that it might not be able to track them so easily. ]

Although I'm sure all the noise it's making will quickly draw the other gods to it to stop it. So as long as we get these little ones to safety, I think we can count is as a success!

[ ....A near one though it might be? ]

[darkestbefore]

Ahh, it's... well. [ She pauses for a moment before sighing. ] It is still somewhat honed to something specific. I can only make something happen if I'm feeling a certain emotion - and very strongly, at that. What happens changes on the emotion I'm feeling, though, so sometimes it can be very unstable or unreliable, depending on what I'm trying to do. It seems very strange for a power to me, as well, but maybe it had something to do with Áine herself, or what she was?

[kokuyoyo]

[You know what, that works for him. As long as it's not his problem anymore... Chikusa continues to lead the way out of the blighted zone.]

Do you always solve problems this way...?

[darkestbefore]

[ You're speaking in words she doesn't understand again, Nari... This science sounds like a very strange sort of magic to her. ]

What's a dinosaur? Is that a type of dragon? A feathered one?

[darkestbefore]

[ She gives him a sympathetic look. ]

Then you do understand. Although I'm sorry you had to lose them, as well.

[darkestbefore]

I seem to be a special case, then. Wonderful.

[ Her tone is dry as she answers that, but inclines her head in agreement at his question. her fingers tug out a lock of her hair to glance at it. ]

Yes. This was how long it had grown to back home, in the months that had passed. When I returned - or woke up - I appeared as I remembered in the most recent of my memories. Another inconsistency, since it did not have the time to grow that long while I slept, and yet here it is.

[nopixiedust]

Exactly~. Anyway, I could probably be a lot worse, couldn't I?

[She knows this for a fact.]

[darkestbefore]

[ She glances back over her shoulder in that direction. ]

So they were intelligent enough to do something like that? That's... unnerving.

[ And it would also make those type all the more challenging to face off against. ]

[darkestbefore]

[ She shoots him a sideways glance at that. ]

This way...? What do you mean?

[lionhearrt]

It doesn’t matter, it only worked for a while and she’s not here.

[ If she was then his fights with Munakata would look like a play date in comparison. He’d killed a King for Totsuka but before that he’d taken on a King and two clans for Anna. He’d already killed for her, killing a King for her wasn’t even a question. ]

[kokuyoyo]

Dropping houses on things.

[...And other such property damage.]

[light_of_willpower]

[Oh he is not being fooled at all Celestia, by that serene veil. He knows you better. Making a very noble effort to be serene himself.]

I'm sure my ignorance of certain customs and conventions could easily get me in trouble. Not to mention that I'm shy and not used to big gatherings like this.

[All said completely calmly, and with a hint of accepting smile himself. Then, still in a quieter tone.]

I am glad you're more centered again though. Anything else I can do?

[heartshutter]

[ To be fair, Hakkai, that is more or less honesty from Tatara! Just... put in a far less offensive way, that's all.

But anyway. ]

Mm, but when was the last time you can remember a meeting being super exciting? [ Offered with a shrug. Shun's face was definitely the highlight of the evening.

A beat, and Tatara leans his head to one side curiously. ]

Was that not their story before?

[reformedsinner]

It's just that it's so obviously not true. I wonder if they just don't have a better way to understand it?

[Or if they're sticking with the story because it's easier than explaining things to all of the old gods.]

[reformedsinner]

Special cases are everywhere among the new gods and shinki, from what I've heard. To be honest, my theory is that whatever spell is forcing us into these roles tends to malfunction.

[And so they remember certain things, and their false bodies change to suit their memories...

There's a certain obvious corollary to that, but he doesn't mention it, instead half-smiling as he shrugs.]

Not that anyone seems to have any good explanations for what that spell is, so far.

[light_of_willpower]

It could be because they're more powerful than the smaller ones.

[But she's right, it is unnerving. It had been just a bad combination of small space+annoyingly large ayakashi+passed out mortals. Fortunately said mortals are still asleep and breathing, and will do better once they're out of the Blight zone.

Which Yona and Trunks are both heading for the Border of.]

You have good timing though, as that was just a bad place to get caught and I couldn't do what I needed to.

[futhark]

[ So one return and one snow-leopard running around. There is a good point she makes, since the cat form definitely has better mobility. ]

Return, Emiya

[ Caster calls back Archer to his original form, and watches as he materializes next to them. He's probably no longer on the line of communication with Ginia- or is he? How this telepathy work in first place. ]

The area isn't that big, we're bound to run into each other soon. Stay in touch and good luck.

[darkestbefore]

[ She makes a sound that's probably laughter. ]

Ahh, no. This... would be the first time I've dropped a house on anyone. [ A telling pause. ] At least, I'm pretty sure.

[darkestbefore]

[ She gives a rueful laugh and lifts her hands in a shrug. ]

I'm afraid I'm not the person to ask. Magic of that sort is not something I know anything about. Most magic in the world I come from is mostly confined to the lore and stories I know.

[ Mostly. ]

[darkestbefore]

I'm just happy I heard the noise and was close enough to do something about it. Shouldn't you be out here with your goddess?

[ ....Says the goddess currently running around without her shinki. ]

[light_of_willpower]

I am. Although we keep getting separated as well, before finding each other again.

[Still absolutely serious, and with a sigh despite the grim mood.]

When we haven't been actively Rending, I've been running interference for her to get people out to safety.

[unlucky7]

[Ginia smiles and nods. Her name is fairly phonetic, perhaps fortunately so. At the very least, it's the pronunciation she remembers and knows.]

I'm Caster's shinki.

[She spells out Caster's name as well as shinki, but then pauses and signs the words for cup and ghost.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Chikusa says nothing.]

[He just shoots her a deadpan look that says he believes nothing, but then they're crossing the boundary between blight and cleanliness, and he goes to immediately slump against a pole.]