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]

[A new topic! A new topic is good! Ginia immediately seizes on the topic because anything that isn't about herself or giving her time to focus on her growing crush is very good.]

Are you looking for a particular pet?

[nopixiedust]

It means he has a different view, and nothing more, nothing less.

[That's that.]

So what did you do?

[godsoffortune]

Congratulations!

Shun has earned 600 followers.
Eric has earned 20 exp.
Izumo has earned 200 followers.

Maria has earned 1200 followers.
Alex has earned 200 followers.
Patchouli has earned 200 followers.
Yona has earned 200 followers.
Edge has earned 20 exp.
Saber has earned 200 followers.
Elfnein has earned 200 followers.

[letteropener]

[Celestia is aware of at least half of Ginia's thoughts, and is glad she'd jumped on the opportunity to shed a little awkwardness.]

Not in particular, but I miss my own pet from home. No pet could be quite like Philomeena, but if I can offer a good home to a needy animal while I am here, I think that is a good thing.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Well, as a teenage girl you already did the last part anyway.

[As a demon, Zetta can be casually ageist and misogynistic for the sake of a joke. To be fair, demons often tried to live the stereotypes.]

[unlucky7]

Cats certainly seem to be the most popular here.

[Even with the success of the adoption event at Calico, Ginia has no doubt there are more furry friends available for adoption.]

I thought about adopting a cat, but Caster already has three dogs.

[Plus all the strays Archer feeds, so that's as good as having more pets, right?

[letteropener]

Cats have a lot to recommend, but so do dogs... To be honest, I'd never considered either as a pet before, so I have to consider this carefully.

Maybe I should get a tortoise.

[She knows one pony who had great success going that route, and they do have the virtue of being quite long-lived...]

fortune

[handle]

[ Sorey had just finished writing his own wish. However, his wish wasn't for his sake, but for the sake of others. He always was the selfless sort, really. If anything, he wishes for those who make prayers to have their own wishes heard and answered.

He looks to Mikleo, who seems to be struggling with his own wish. ]

Need some help?

[onedrinkwithme]

Tis hard to swallow at first but the outcome would have been much worse if it were to continue. I had promised to help my people and I could not do it with unnecessary bloodshed.

[Even if Ishgard were be turned upside down due to their actions.]

[redotiertwo]

Then why the fuck are you getting so offended when anyone says anything about him, because I'd love to hear all the other reasons you have.

[In Davesprite's experience, you don't get blisteringly offended about people poking fun at someone if you only have a healthy respect for them. As it is, though, since Chikusa's no longer doing it, Davesprite snipes a borderline at the ayakashi's legs to send it toppling over again.]

This bullshit has been going on for weeks now and if you think you're offended about something else, sure, tell me what the fuck it is so I can do something.

[declamando]

[Maria keeps singing as she decimates the oncoming ayakashi, though she glances up as Edge moves to a different vantage point. It's a little hard to see over the influx of them, so it's useful to have him spotting for victims from elsewhere, at least.

It takes a moment for her to figure out what he's talking about when he says that, though.] The cars?

[Maria slashes her blade through another ayakashi, then leaps to clear a few of them and see if she can spot the one he's talking about.]

Can you distract them while I get the door off?

[declamando]

Good luck with your investigation, too.

[With that, she heads out again, picking up the song from around where she left it off as she vanishes into the night.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I mostly come to these things in case something goes wrong, so I'm not going to say everything else about them isn't a waste of time.

[Shun definitely isn't the type of person who fondly approaches parties.]

[revolutionfalcon]

"Limited use" means it has little use, which is the same thing as being almost without use. [Hence, almost useless. Shun isn't really a languages sort, but he's found he has very different concepts of what certain things mean than other people here. Might be something about his circumstances.

As it is, he considers the question of shinki remaining here somewhat more interesting.] And if your god was one of the ones to leave?

[unlucky7]

[That's disappointing, but it seems the same on her end. You would think in a gathering this large there'd be something interesting, but nope, it's the usual gossip about who has a crush on who, or who was recently reincarnated, or "did you hear so and so answered a prayer for something something?"

Actually, some of it is interesting even if it's fairly mundane.]

What about you? Anything new going on?

[unlucky7]

[A lone shinki carrying three weakened children is practically an entree with appetizers. Ginia hears the low murmuring of larger ayakashi at the edges of her hearing, the rustling and movement of smaller ones. She slows enough to throw down a borderline parallel with the street, blocking off an alley as a large writhing centipede slams into it. Its legs scrabble against the barrier, scratching away as Ginia leaves it behind.

Another step. Another step. The mantra beats in the same rhythm with the strike of her paws against the ground. Ginia sucks in air as she pushes herself on, the feeling of wrongness and unease shedding as she breaks through the barrier of blight. She looks back at the street, feeling the continued beating on a borderline she can't see, the slow drain of energy, but unwilling to release it until she knows Hakkai is safely past.]

[reformedsinner]

[A massive centipede ayakashi hurls itself against a borderline holding beside Hakkai as he runs, and his breath catches, tension seizing his body in a wave that he forces down and away. No. It's fine. The leopard must have cast the borderline to block it as she ran.

He stretches his stride, feeling the ache of the mortal's weight bearing down on his shoulder and his knees. The edge had been -- at the end of the street? Closer?

Closer, he finds at last, breaking past it and hearing the man on his shoulder inhale in a choking gasp, like a swimmer dragged out of the depths.

Asshole has kept silent pace, and as Hakkai slows, looking around for the shinki who'd accompanied him, Asshole slows to match it.]

[ammyterasu]

And is there a single leader above both?

[She sounds, just slightly, dubious. Democracy is all very well, but doesn't every country need an executive?

(Or, of course, a monarch?)]

[ammyterasu]

It's all right. I'll let you know if he finds your friend!

[She still looks much too amused by Chikusa's reaction.]

[futhark]

Wha-? [ And the slightly melancholy expression is gone taken instead by a surprise ] No, no!

[ Sometimes having all emotions show up clearly on your face can be an incredible pain in the ass. ]

Keep it this way, keep it! [ There is a longing for something permanent, something easy to understand and grounded. Having that in life was easy, having that as a Servant was easy- you've got a Master to listen to and all that jazz- but as a "god"? He's still figuring out what it is. ] Please?

[futhark]

[ Looking cool is part of his job description, but yeah, sure, here get the dude, Saber. Caster does bark a laugh at that complain, but he doesn't get much chance to answer as the ayakashi start to slither in their direction. ]

What a delicious truck you got, huh?

[ Tons of kind-of dying people, a god, and a shinki, must smell delicious to them ]

Heee-y, you drive, I'll fend them off, how about that? [ He turns around and picks at something around his neck- oh right, to show off a pendant that is dangling on a thin silver chain. It doesn't have a grumpy face drawn on yet, but, yup, say hi to Archer.

This way he can occupy the top of the truck and kill anything brave enough to catch up with it- granted, if he will be able to keep being attached to that roof, which he isn't aware of yet. ]

[abgrund]

[ .... hasn't he heard that somewhere? ]

Yog-Sogoth... you... showed tentacles to everyone?

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Right, that's the one! You got it!

[Edge bounds from the window down to the grass, landing in a light roll that has him back on his feet in an instant and on a path to charge into the ayakashi right past Maria. It's a technique he's used on animals before, not that he remembers it consciously: sweep in close to her, be bigger and louder, and their attention will naturally shift to him. Especially when he tosses another fan of shuriken into the fray, scoring their hides and raising their ire.]

[kokuyoyo]

That's also why I shouldn't have bothered with you....

[Freakin' old gods with their nosiness....]

[ammyterasu]

It's okay.

[She giggles again, and reaches up to pat his upper arm (he's too tall for her to easily reach his shoulder) consolingly.

That done, she's going to whirl and head off in a flurry of robes, still beaming cheerfully.]