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

Never too late! \o/

[sweetspringwater]

I hear your concerns, Metis. The truths of your world and your culture are not easily put aside.

You are not wrong in that the things that bless can also seem to be a curse. I am the Goddess of Water. I see such truth unfold every day.

But take heart- you should know that trails can make people stronger. So much so that they can overcome the most dire odds. Humans are wonderful, that way. [Her voice nearly shines with admiration of it.]

As for whether the gods understand the weight of their actions as we tie these bonds, I believe we do. Every individual to a different degree, of course. Yet we do not so easily forget the ones who pray to us and grant us our very existence. And we do not answer their prayers to only then cast them aside.

Which is all to say, your concerns are not unfounded. But perhaps they are not as bleak as you perceive them to be, in this new context.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

I'm allowed to be mad when other people are stupid at my expense. [Though the anger is shifting swiftly to a pronounced sulk.]

[boneofsword]

Her temple is in Central District. [Archer points out. It's hard to not notice the purple monstrosity, and Shun actually lives there too.] Only three of the new gods live there, and I'd say you're the best choice.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[The scene she comes back to is as pitched as battle can be between a man and an akayashi the size of a building.]

[Overlapping copies of the ninja dart in and out, light-footed and agile, as the clawed foot descends in a crushing blow that strikes nothing but the street. Edge hacks at the limb before it can withdraw, blades scoring deep furrows into the spirit as it twists to try to catch him with another blow. One of his mirror images vanishes as the claws sweep through it, demonstrating just how he'd held out without harm.]

[reformedsinner]

Yes, they hardly even need to be nagged about it.

[Ken is not quite as good about domestic duties, but Chikusa is good at bullying him when necessary, and Hakkai generally manages to maneuver Chikusa into doing his share.]

And I hope Sanzang has been taking proper care of you while you recover?

[His tone is a little teasing; she looks better, after all, but if they're talking about proper divisions of household labor, the right share for a woman who was recently both stabbed and gutshot is zero.]

[shutupnail]

[He glanced down at his hands as he clenched them and opened them once.]

I don't like the idea of covering them. I didn't last time either. I'll be fine.

[So he says anyway. And before they could argue anymore he turned and began to walk away.]

Attack from the front. I'll take the right side.

[heartshutter]

[ Secretly, internally, Tatara might just feel a bit flattered that Eric agreed -- as flattered as one would be by being accepted by a feral dog, almost. He can't help but smile; yet, turns his eyes forward so as to keep any pressure off of Eric. ]

Aah, it sure didn't take them long to make us all come back here, did it?

[ Small-talk is a thing. ]

[priforprince]

Such an opportunity would be an unparalleled pleasure.

[ Technically, she's also doing her upmost for Shikyoin Hibiki. But as she also wishes the Heavens to benefit from it (if largely for her own sake), that counts. ]

[heartshutter]

[ True enough, this particular meeting seems to be half humans and humanoids, and half Animal Farm. Alex seems so captivated, (and maybe charmed?), by it all that Tatara can't help but chuckle lightly. ]

Aah, I thought I saw something like that, too! They looked like something out of a children's book I read when I was--[ in the hospital after getting beat up, he realizes, but swaps that out for something else: ]--a kid!

[ A curious tilt of his head. ]

Do you remember seeing animals here last time?

[priforprince]

What I have to announce deserves to be heard by all.

[ Besides, her cutphones only block the sentence enders. The rest comes through just fine (more's the pity, sometimes).

Explaining that would make sense, however, and therefore somehow does not occur to Hibiki. ]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki puts another doll down. ] What a hassling combination.

[ Both on the receiving end and, she imagines, the giving end. Hibiki enjoys conflict, but only under specific circumstances, and preferably dictated by yours truly.

That's pretty much how she enjoys all things, actually. ]

[reformedsinner]

It has. I believe I was a shinki the last time we spoke.

[His smile, briefly, looks almost bitter before he glances down at the plaques again to resume sorting. Wood clicks against wood under his fingers.]

And no... when it comes to fated bonds, you see, I think I'll leave them to the more experienced gods to make. The consequences are too severe if they go wrong.

[reformedsinner]

It's much better that you didn't, Sanzang, I was a terrible shinki.

[Hooking up with Genjo must have been more than enough trouble for her without adding Hakkai to the mix.

He's keeping pace with her, moving as swiftly as he can manage while still being careful of the girls in his arms.]

Chikusa and Ken are-- [His gaze goes distant for a moment, and his head turns as though drawn by a magnet, south and west.] -- at the edge of the blight that way, I think. Working hard.

[He's feeling urgency from them, but no distress.]

[brynwieldr]

I do.

[Leo, meanwhile, doesn't care and leans up to steal a quick kiss.]

[brynwieldr]

Because I want to be ready for the inevitable disaster.

[yasei]

I try~

[ He thought that might be an agreeable choice, when it came to Yumoto. He made a great choice. ]

It's a great kind of friendship, those that are unexpected yet works.

[ He lets the plaque slip past is fingers when Yumoto takes it. ]

Making everyone wonder is also pretty fun.

[ittenbari]

[Sakon's cheery expression doesn't fade even as he's being shoved. It's not treatment he's gotten very often here, but on some level he feels like he's accustomed enough to this sort of thing not to be fazed by it.]

Stupid can be pretty fun, though! Do you have any recommendations?

[ittenbari]

Would it be different from wearing a shirt if you have a really hairy chest? Guys do that. And, I mean, they may not be men, but isn't this kinda a place where you have to follow the dress code? Like, if I showed up in my pajamas, I'd get in a lot of trouble.

[He has a lot of deep thoughts that clearly need to be shared with whoever he can corner to listen to them.]

[kokuyoyo]

Not long ago, there was a rift in the earth that kept unleashing ayakashi... A borderline helped to shut it.

I haven't seen a rift yet in the area, but... the same idea could apply.

[reformedsinner]

And you don't fight better on a full stomach?

[Says a man who has, so far, had nothing beyond about half a glass of sake... but he's certainly used to having companions who fight best on a full stomach.]

Although that's a good reason not to overindulge in the drinks.

[kokuyoyo]

Borderlines can be brought up immediately... [And, as if to demonstrate, his hand snaps out to draw out a line of his own... to immediately stop an ayakashi in the distance from getting any closer.]

It's a matter of getting enough people.

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai nods, casting a thoughtful glance at Trunks. His voice was getting thin, anger shoring up the places where exhaustion undermined, in a way Hakkai would recognize as, oh, two or three healings from the point where he himself would pitch over face-first into the street.

Hakkai can catch him if he has to, but he'd rather not have to.]

I agree. -- Stick to borderlines until we do. You've been working harder than I have.

[He's been rending, and that doesn't drain him the way that using his chi to attack does. The magic seems to be drawn from elsewhere. From belief? From something rooted in the bones of this world, instead of his own youkai marrow? He doesn't know, but he's willing to use it.

He sprints forward, raising his leaf-bladed sword, towards the wormlike ayakashi. It shrieks, swinging its head to bring those wicked horns down towards Hakkai, and he twists even as he runs to let one slice down through thin air and embed itself in the asphalt to his left.]

-- I, Li Tieguai, wielding Shiki, expel thy vast defilement --

[Hakkai leaps. The blade pierces the ayakashi's skull between its horns, sinking deep as his full weight bears down on it.]

Rend!

[nopixiedust]

That's because Heaven is horrible at communicating!

[Cutting straight through, Wendy continues to grin brightly.]

You did it! You're part of everything now!

[kokuyoyo]

[At least she won't have to deal with it for long. The blight isn't too serious, able to be washed away to reveal smooth skin underneath.]

Ah.... Probably at some point... [He turns his arm about to get a better look and make sure he's completely clean.] So is that all you plan to do...?

[sweetdeath]

[That sounds like exactly the kind of thing a god ought to be doing with this, and Tsuzuki nods, absorbing Hibiki's lecture with sincere fascination as he leans closer to check out some of the messages on the plaque. That woman's an artist, that guy a photographer....]

Huh, okay.

How are you picking these out?