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

[nopixiedust]

[At least her dress makes for a nice returning entrance...]

I guess. Have you been running around all this time?

[priforprince]

I have. [ ...The Thief's arm hurts.

No, they can't falter yet. ] This area's population is unpleasantly dense.

[ In the sense that there's no end to them....probably. ]

[nopixiedust]

That's the spirit~. And maybe you'll get some ideas of hobbies to pick up, too.

[Finally, she detaches from him.]

So I'll see you around later, right?

[kagenonadeshiko]

I'll come over soon.

[Things between her and Hakkai do have a tendency to become awkward and strained from time to time but she tries not to let it influence her relationship with the boys too much.]

We'll have dinner together soon, 'kay? I promise.

[mithrarin]

[Dust is going to discover he isn't one for plaque-weaving, that's for sure.]

[He helps set Wendy down with his usual casual disregard for any weight she might have.] Here or elsewhere. And Wendy... thanks for all your help with this. It means a lot to me.

[nopixiedust]

That's not what I meant, but fine- what other way is there to live?

[nopixiedust]

Shows what you know, quitter.

[It takes a little work, but she can do it when she puts her mind to it.]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Oh, who's quitting? I think I'll mind my business till the yawning really starts, then see if anyone wants to ditch this event for something a little more fun. Maybe by then one of these plaques will have kicked in!

[Persistence is a virtue, so get back on that chocobo.]

[replicatedform]

Strong enough to hold for a moment.

[Are they getting closer to the place? Probably so. He starts to shudder the closer they get. And almost tsk'd when they get close enough to see.

That blight looks pretty bad even from here.]

[hellskitchen]

They must do some kind of hocus-pocus to keep it safe.

[Even though Emi isn't sure what happens afterward, Rin is sure that the gods wouldn't treat these chains carelessly.]

Maybe some messenger of the gods delivers them. Or maybe, "POOF" it's there!

[ It's fun to think of the various methods the gods could use. Maybe they woldn't use any of the ways Rin imagined, but it'll be cool if they did.]

[hellskitchen]

[ Rin feels as if the mood has changed a little. He frowns a little as the god's comments.There's even Shun's body language that seems more standoffish. Nope, he doesn't seem really happy with him. He wonders what he could have said to piss him off. He knows he tends to run his mouth off, and maybe that was it. It probably is a good reason to depart.]

Guess I said too much, yeah? Anyway, congratulations all the same!

[ Rin turns on heels and heads back.]

[revolutionfalcon]

So I keep hearing. [With that, Shun heads further down the hall, closer to the outside. He's not going to have any trouble getting back in unaccompanied as a god, but it might deter some others from following him if he's far enough out.]

[kokuyoyo]

I'm going to film it when it happens.

[#priorities]

[junkyarddog]

I dunno...I like using 'em. [Ken makes a face at her.] Shouldn't I only care about the stuff I like, and not the stuff you like?

[junkyarddog]

Well it's true. [Ken huffs a little.] Besides, nobody's listening to us.

[priforprince]

If you wish to remain as you are.

[ Which she....supposes.....is your choice. It's the wrong one, but she's not the one making it.

This is about as bighearted as she gets. Be honored. ]

[junkyarddog]

If I just act like I'm perfect like you do, I don't have to change anything, right?

[priforprince]

My perfection isn't acting.

[ helpful ]

[junkyarddog]

Somebody who's selfish and goes around insulting other people all the time isn't perfect. They're just an arrogant jerk.

Roy-sama was more perfect than you, and he never acted like he was better than me.

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki shrugs. ] Overwhelming splendor requires no modesty.

[ But they've reached an impasse - his refusing to see the light and understanding that's due to his limits. She turns to be on her way. ] My revolution is all-encompassing, if you change your mind.

[nopixiedust]

Well, let me know when you need to rest. [She knows how Hibiki gets with genuine work and gross things.] There's a lot, but we're not the only ones here, right?

[nopixiedust]

I'm a generous giver of wisdom, what can I say? [Laughing, she pats his hand and whirls away.] See you soon!

[nopixiedust]

I can't wait to see you try to use that line on someone~. That'll be the real fun!

[Use a bad pick up line. Please. She needs something to giggle at.]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[Name a good pickup line. Name one.]

As always, your unquestioning support and stalwart faith that I'm not an idiot is appreciated. [Edge rolls his eyes almost violently.] Do you take fun in the failures of everyone trying to pick themselves up after getting knocked down, or am I just lucky?

[priforprince]

Help of varying quality can barely deserve the name.

[ Phantom Thief Genius has seen some things.

Or maybe they're just a snob. ]

Let's go.