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

[unlucky7]

[There are many things Ginia knows she's good at. She's a deadly shot with firearms. She's pretty quick with a knife. She can run from the west district to the library and back at a fast pace without feeling the slightest bit winded.

Social interactions is not one of them. When Yona offers a reassuring compliment, Ginia's not sure what to do. Her smile flickers uncertainly even as her cheeks redden slightly.

Help, people are being nice again.]

[onedrinkwithme]

...quite similar on my end.

[But his father is probably alive.]

He was motivated by keeping order within the country...even if the truth would remain hidden. But the cost would have been great if steps were not taken.

[trademark_skull]

That does seem exactly the same.

[futhark]

[ Caster, in turn, takes the threat in stride. With a short laugh, he puts his hand on his chest in theatrical gesture, as if his heart just got seriously hurt. ]

Oh, what a swift rejection! But that's perhaps for the best- [ So he won't get his hopes up- not that he ever had them in the first place. It's just how he is, unfortunately.

Anyway, while that was a funny way to end the fight, it's also time to get back to business. ]

No ayakashi around for now, I say it's time to scatter and look for survivors. [ The weapon in his hand changes into a spear- nothing legendary or related to him. Just a simple polearm weapon he prefers. Thanks Archer, for once. He twirls it once and rests against crooks of his shoulder. ] Looking forward to joining forces with you again.

[ General "you" not just Kotori "you." ]

[declamando]

Might as well do it quickly. The slower we do it, the more of a problem it'll be for me. [The Gear's limits are partially in the power of how she uses it, true, but length of time is of similar significance. She doesn't feel like she should be pushing it for longer than she needs to if she's going to output the same amount of power in the end.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Kotori shrugs slightly, not looking particularly apologetic, but still seeming more amused than anything.] Most likely.

[In any case, Shun is only too ready to get back to business, and Kotori heads to his side as he nods slightly in agreement with Caster's mention of survivors.] I was going to go through these buildings to see if there was anyone left. That ayakashi had to be around here for a reason.

[Perhaps it was the movement of gods, but perhaps it was something more. Can't really tell until he investigates. At the very least, Caster seems to have expanded his attention again, so Shun takes that one even as Kotori inclines her head politely.]

I'm sure we'll have enough opportunities in the future. [With that, he starts to head out to the nearby buildings, Kotori following behind him.]

[letteropener]

[She is, literally, the standard of beauty for her world. Her position and longevity play a massive part in that, of course, because time has caused perceptions and social expectations to shift... but nonetheless.]

[Celestia won't torment her, though.] Perhaps I should put in a prayer to find a pet.

[futhark]

[ A soft breathe that is a sigh of relief passes Caster's lips. Anything more being there and they might need a counsel of god of medicine. Who might be currently out, helping with the crisis and what not. ]

Agreed, you need rest. Luckily, I can help with that. [ And he scoops her into his arms carefully, as to not irritate her injuries. Then he teleports right into her room ]

Now, to the bed with ya.

[yoshinocherry]

[Somehow, this display of energy from Mordred in the face of battle isn't terribly surprising. Or... at least, the thought of a battle. As it stands, it doesn't look like there's much of anything to go up against, at least not at the moment.]

We'll have to figure out what's causing all this before we can take anything out.

[She is, of course, not about to dampen her shinki's spirits by telling her to take things a little slower, but there's only so much they can do at the moment.]

We should probably stick together to investigate, that way if something does come up, we can take it out together. Sound like a plan?

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[Edge flashes her a thumbs-up -- then swiftly makes several contorted gestures with his fingers before flicking his hands forward at the group of ayakashi. The street erupts into brilliance as crackling tongues of lighting rip out of the dark sky, lashing its length with scourging bolts. The ayakashi shriek and turn as one to charge him down, only to meet his next spell -- a wave of fire that surges up from the ground, searing their bodies and leaving them reeling.]

[They're weakened!]

[priforprince]

[ That's very big-hearted of you, Mikleo. The person who may or may not be behind this mask does an equally good job of disguising their good points, for some reason.

That said, they do work tirelessly to aid the fallen victims within the affected area. And yet. ]

There's no end...

[ A dramatic, heroic gritting of teeth. Should they root out the problem, instead...? ]

[water_meebo]

[ He's that kind of individual, fortunately. No matter what, he did believe that people had their good points. Perhaps, a lot of his god has rubbed off on him more than he could imagine. Not that it was a bad thing.

Mikleo would do what he needed to help her secure the people. Since he was able to erect water barriers and use water against most of their opponents, it was easy to steer them elsewhere. ]

Yeah, I wonder if any of the other gods and shinkis has noticed this oddity as well.

[ He ponders for a moment. ]

Do you know what is causing this? I haven't found a clue or a point where all of this has been happening.

[priforprince]

It's a circle, isn't it?

[ The super-retro masked crusader reaches into the folds of their cloak and pulls out -

a purple laptop with a crown emblem on the back. ]

Continue the rescue efforts.

[ it's time to

HACK THINGS

if at all possible ]

[futhark]

[ Awesome, unloading everyone onto the truck, frees his range of movement. Feels good to not be a pack bull anymore. This is Caster's Delivery Service. Always on time, service is top-notch, and that smile-- oops. ]

Tch, he's a lively one for this situation.

[ Most of the people tend to be in a various state of unconsciousness. Only few are still moving, and out of them he might be of the rare cases to still be able to run around. Some have a high stamina so it seems.

Caster, like what every Caster does, cheats a bit, adding a speed rune to himself and dashes to quickly that he catches the escapee in just a few seconds. Another rune puts him to sleep and he's back jumping onto the truck. ]

Here, the last one of your flock!

[priforprince]

/slides in with event questions on the next to. last day. of the month. oops.

Is there anything in particular in the center of the blighted circle?

Also, does the affected area have security cameras in the streets or anything else that a dashing rogue hacker in a dumb hat could access in an attempt to find said center of the circle?

[priforprince]

Fortune Weaving
Hibiki & Yona
Hibiki & Dust
Hibiki & Chikusa
Hibiki & Lavi
Hibiki & Tsuzuki
Hibiki & Ken (mostly a discussion of sentence enders, but Hibiki is trying to work)
Hibiki & Amaterasu
Hibiki & Suijin

Midnight Disaster
Hibiki & Mikleo
Hibiki & Felix
Hibiki & Ain

[sageprincess]

[She has no intention of stopping him - he certainly doesn't seem like the socializing sort, after all - but there is one last question she would like to ask:]

... May I have your name, at least?

[sageprincess]

[... Zelda's shoulders sag, accepting defeat. Or rather-- accepting that this is a fight she does not necessarily want to win.]

Your faith is admirable. The world would do well to have more like you in it. ... I unfortunately cannot agree with your perspective, but I can acknowledge that much.

[redstray]

I guess...

[ He tilted his head, looking at the strings, he picked one up, but didn't do anything with it. ]

...How many of these would turn bad, just because someone tied a string together on a whim?

[redstray]

If we clear this area of people and animals...and find ayakashi, we could get rid of them without any trouble at least...

[ He knew Ren would rather do that, and they haven't had much of a chance to fight. So offering was the least Eric could do, it's not like he would hate it.

He tilts his head. ]

That so? We can keep an eye out for them then on our way. If we had a wagon or something to carry them it'd be easier...

[ He could even transform and be the head of it, but there didn't seem to be something that useful around to do that. ]

[redstray]

It does...

[ It was the same, but different. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but he was uncomfortable and annoyed by the party regardless.

He nods, since he could transform into an animal it didn't seem too far fetched to him. ]

There was a cat too, with a conductors hat or something.

[alchemists]

Yeah, it's just like that.

[ Elfnein puts a pair together as well. ]

We're bringing everyone together.

[alchemists]

Exactly

[hellskitchen]

Maybe! But you don't know unless you try it, right? You never know maybe someone might take it into consideration.

[Though it's not something Obi really has to do.]

But what would you do? What kinda activities would you have during these parties/meetings? I think there should be an icebreaker in the beginning so everyone can introduce themselves and get to know everyone. There should also be games to play. And maybe, a pool!

Handwaving is probably best. Sorry I've been so flaky this month. orz

[cuddle_battery]

Chaos?

[He turns that idea over in his mind. Yumoto is entirely more used to bad guys who want simple things. Like better grades or chest hair.]

But if everyone is asleep they won't be awake to see the chaos.

[Unless of course they're from the far shore. But that hasn't occurred to him yet.]