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

[trademark_skull]

[What is it with all these shinki saying nice things to him, like wanting to be his friend and stuff.]

I don't think you need to tie a plaque together just to be friends with them... e-especially if they're friends already!

[Emizel found his own near the piles he made and lifted it up. It just seem like normal basic wood to him?]

I mean, does it really do anything??

[Although, he is kind of curious... Hesitant, but curious.]

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex doesn't look back even when she hears the ayakashi slams against the border, wanting to get outside the blight zone as fast as she could. Once she's out, she drops to her knees, holding the kids close to her and panting hard. She feels them start to stir in her arms, so she loosens her grip so they're more comfortable. ]

Hey, there...don't worry. Your parents are out here. I'll get you to them, okay?

[ They're still too weak to react much, but they nod sleepily, rubbing at their eyes and yawning. ]

I WAS WONDERING THAT. I thought it was some kind of short hand XD

[trademark_skull]

[You really trust him with something like that?]

You...you sure? What if I mess something up?

[risingdarkness]

[He snorts.]

Moral guides.

[The disdain is practically dripping from those words.]

Funny how they choose moral guides who can't remember their past lives. Pretty easy to learn how to tell someone whatever they want to hear when they're all you know and you have no other experience to draw on.

[He's pretty sure he's not qualified to be anyone's moral guide.]

[sing_for_me]

Yeah, they are. They're breathing just fine. [ And better too now that they were out of the blight zone. ]

I'll take them to the other kids..

[ They didn't have any parents, but the caretakers and some of the other children had been taken out from the orphanage already. ]

And I'm fine. [ She remembers to add with a small smile. A little tired, and maybe a little sore since her shoes weren't made for running, but all in all she was fine. ]

[sing_for_me]

[ She's not sure whether to be surprised or not that he'd participate. ]

I don't know...I'm not really sure..I guess I don't have much of a reason to..?

[ Connections were what she's been trying to avoid--and yet she also can't help but want to make them. ]

[hellskitchen]

[ Rin feels he shouldn't be laughing, but Davesprite does have a point. He hasn't really met the other Gods of Fortune, and they weren't really that impressive to him either. He does know about Shun, and he can't really knock him. His god name does sound cool, but Shun is quite diligent. He's probably done a good job of answering his followers prayers, on top of the other things he has his hands in.]

You're cold, man. Though I am happy that Orihime is where she belongs. It just sucks that she had to prove herself. These gods sure are vicious. They have no problem turnin' their backs on their own.

[ Rin, of course, says this within earshot of that guard. Oops!]

And yeah...I haven't been here for long, but this gathering is kinda dull. Compared to the last party, I had higher expectations.

[light_of_willpower]

[It's not until she is on solid and sure footing, even if they're on the ground, that he is letting go. But there is a hint of smile, mostly because the children will hopefully be okay now.]

Good. You need to be careful too. Work with someone else, so it's harder to be ganged up on like that.

[Did she have any other shinki besides Temeraire? Had she gained any new ones? Questions for later, after this was over. Trunks let himself take a quick-assessment of her and the children as he stepped back. They did all seem to be alright enough for now, which meant he should head back into the fray.]

[sing_for_me]

You too, be safe. [ Though he was clearly more capable of taking care of himself, it didn't mean he couldn't get hurt. ]

I do..his name is Kaden. He's probably bringing more people out, so I'll be going back in to help out after I drop them off.

[unlucky7]

[Her focus is largely on dealing enough damage to the ayakashi so Shun can rend them so Ginia doesn't quite watch him fight, but he moves with a deadly ease that doesn't go unnoticed. She never doubted it, not with the way he handles his knife, but with the ayakashi thinning out, he's certainly skilled. It's something to consider after the fight.

There's a second to breath and she takes that moment, sucking in air as she surveys the remaining ayakashi. There's a matching pair of insect-like ayakashi with a flat, shield-shaped body, an almost hard glisten across its bright neon surface.

Ginia snaps her teeth around a giant snake, tossing it aside as she leaps at one of the shield insects. Her claws scrabble off the back, not even a scratch left on the shell. Shit. Sliding, she bunches and leaps to the side as the other spits an oily goo in her direction, splattering against the pavement with a slight sizzle. She hits the pavement and stumbles, leaping again as more acid comes her way.]

[kagenonadeshiko]

Thank you, Hakkai.

[She bows in return, lip quirking up in slight amusements. Her face has a lot more color than it'd had since he'd last seen her; she's been more mindful of her health since the incident at the bar. Aside from her trip to the cat cafe on adoption day, she's hardly left the temple at all.]

Of course. It might be best if I don't, though. Kishi and Musha might get jealous. I don't think they've completely forgiven me yet for bringing kittens home the other day just yet.

[But apparently enough to continue sleeping on her bed and keep her lap permanently occupied while she's watching dramas.]

How have you been?

[hellskitchen]

Kanade? I'll remember that. Yeah. I haven't gotten until much stuff lately.

[ Rin almost sounds disappointed, but things have been uneventful lately. Usually that's a good thing, but Rin's been a bit restless.]

That's why I wanted to come out, and check this out.

[light_of_willpower]

Was he near where you were?

[Because honestly, Trunks is reluctant to have Alex go back in to the fray alone. Based on what, albeit little, he knows about her, she's good at running from the ayakashi, but if she gets cornered again...]

[revolutionfalcon]

There's not much he seems to care about enough to actually get angry. If he gets frustrated with you, that's not a sign of patience. [Shun still considers that temperamental - and he really just can't agree on the patient comment because he wouldn't consider himself patient even if he rarely gets actually angry with people.

It's definitely not surprising to hear that most of what she knows, she got from Izumo, though Shun's eyes narrow a bit at the somewhat lacking knowledge of that last thing.]

If he keeps distancing himself the way he is, he could end up hurting a lot more people than he's trying to protect. But he doesn't want help, because he's an idiot.

[Shun puts that rather flatly. He considers both Kings somewhat stupid in how they handle their business, and he's never been particularly shy about stating it.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun nods slightly, his grip loosening on the hammer.] Return, Kotori!

[The hammer glows white, deforming until it resolves into the shape of Kotori, who removes her hand from Shun's and holds ready to cast a borderline. She looks like she's just been doing some kind of high-impact exercise, worn out but not actually injured...but then, it's not worth the risk of making things worse to keep going.

Shun then turns to Chinatsu, as Kotori draws a line up that the current ayakashi runs headlong into long before it reaches them.] Come, Ouki!

[As ever, he's prepared for the appearance of the weapons, held ready to engage with the monster again as soon as the change is done. Kotori glances over, still holding the line in case the ayakashi gets up in time to take another shot.]

Good luck, Chinatsu-kun.

[hellskitchen]

Oh?

[Rin allows that to sink in for a bit.

So Emizel considers them to be friends? Well that makes Rin happy! Though it kind of leaves him even more unsure of how to do this fortune weaving business.]

So we can't link plaques then? Then how is this thing supposed to work? I don't know if it does anything, but you're a god. Maybe you have more influence than I do.

[sing_for_me]

I'm not sure... He had gone ahead of me to bring others out. He might be back in there heading to the same place.

[ But there was also a chance that he had encountered some ayakashi. That had her worrying more. ]

I'm sorry, I need to drop them off so I can go back to him quickly.

[ Giving him a nod of acknowledgment, she hurries to bring them to the other kids so she can run back in. She wasn't sure how well Kaden held himself in a fight since this was the first time she's had to call his vessel form for this reason, but she didn't want to leave him alone for too long. ]

[light_of_willpower]

[Her worry is clear, and he's nodding. Although as she's turning, he'll call out so she can hear.]

I'll wait, and go with you to look. 2 sets of eyes are better, right?

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex wasn't sure how to answer that. As far as she was concerned, considering the stuff she's pulled with him which she'd normally never get away with without a beating, he was practically benevolent to her. She and this person had different definitions of patience, apparently. ]

Does..this have to do with the giant sword?

[ Again, she couldn't argue about Mikoto's resolve to not accept help. And yet the man insisted that she ask for it if she needed. ]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia watches carefully, doing her best to mimic Amaterasu's directions. It's easy when you've been doing it for however old the god is, but Ginia's first attempt isn't bad, if a little uneven. She tugs a bit more on the loops to try to even out the petals before showing it to the god, bracing slightly.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun picks the armoured surface even as the leopard leaps, and pulls up - he doesn't expect her to punch through with an attack like that. There's a chance some weak point in their shells can be found, but as soon as the second one spits acid, his eyes narrow slightly.

When it looses the second ream of spit, Shun leaps in as soon as the fluid flies clear and rams his sword almost up to the hilt into the ayakashi's mouth. The ayakashi looses a bone-rattling screech as he withdraws the blade, seemingly untouched by the acid, and spins to deliver a faceful of the war hammer into the insect's still hanging-open mouth.

He has to leap out of the way immediately after as the other one hacks out another blob of the acid at him, but the first ayakashi just about implodes, inside flashing white and disappearing before the empty shell vanishes.]

Think you can tip the other one over? [It might have a belly weakness.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun hums slightly in assent. If she knows that there's more than one sword present here, that might be useful, but if she doesn't then he's not going to let it on either, instead just setting down another plaque and starting to connect it to a few others.] That sword can fall under the right circumstances. Have you seen Mikoto's for yourself?

[He doesn't feel he'll need to explain the problem - that Mikoto's is already horribly damaged and has been for what Shun assumes is the whole time he's been here - if she's seen it, but if he hasn't it'll need the elaboration a little more.]

[trademark_skull]

[He likes you Rin!]

W-well we could...t-try it and see if anything happens, if you want. The other gods say it is supposed to make all kinds of connections... Not just romantic ones.

[Although Emizel isn't sure how to pick which type he wanted.]

[redotiertwo]

[Davesprite swoops over and draws a line between the ayakashi and the building he'd originally been trying to herd it away from, driving it further down the street.]

Did you seriously think I was just going to decide I was wrong if you stopped talking to me for like a week and a half. I'm not real happy with you, but fuck, if I did that I might as well just lie down on the fucking floor because I'd be a doormat by all definitions.

[Every single definition, apparently.]

[sing_for_me]

[ At the mention of it falling, yes, she does think of the other sword she's aware of. ]

I have..and I've seen the other one. Does..that mean Rei--that both could fall? What happens when they do?

[ She's not sure if this person knows Reisi, but he seems rather knowledgable about the subject. ]