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

[revolutionfalcon]

It'd probably make the meeting more interesting, but I'd rather not deal with traditionalists complaining about how offensive it is or whatever else.

[Shun casts a glance back towards the main hall, and the remaining multitudes of old gods still hanging around in there. He doesn't doubt that a good chunk of them would take a fight as a strike against the newcomers.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun isn't really expecting an answer to that, instead observing Mikoto as he waits for the flames to die down. It's always seemed arbitrary to him, the choices both Kings make and the ways they choose to distance themselves despite that instability only seeming to bring them closer to death. To someone like him, who's spent the last few years prioritising survival at all costs until he can have his revenge and take back the lives of those important to him, it seems careless.

But it's Mikoto in particular where he's most expecting to fail. For all his talk with Izumo and Tatara, for the others it's been mentioned to, it's clear to him that Mikoto doesn't want help, and there's only so much that can be done in that situation. The impression he's gotten, however, isn't necessarily in lack of care for others - it's purely on whims, but Mikoto does help people often enough, and his behaviour towards those closer to him paints its own picture. It's a different kind of lack of care, and Shun's gaze follows Mikoto as he sits down and pulls out that cigarette.

He's not expecting an answer, or definitely not a straight answer, considering how his conversations with Mikoto tend to go. But with everything that's led up to now, and a situation that only seems to be worsening, he doesn't feel like he can leave without asking.]

Why do you care so little about your own life? [It's extremely direct, as is typical of Shun. Even if he was the type to break things gently, Mikoto is the last person he'd think to do it to.]

[mithrarin]

I... think it raises some good questions and is worth investigating. And if I was haunted, I might wonder how to deal with that little problem.

[welcome_home]

Nanako, Round One!

Fortune Weaving:
Nanako and Shun

Disaster:
Nanako and Edge
Nanako and Chikusa

[welcome_home]

Yeah, they always have some yummy food at things like this. I bet it's a lot of work. There's a lot of gods and shinki here.

[ More than she's ever seen gathered together in this place, even in her time here. ]

Are you having fun so far? What do you think?

me either >.>

[welcome_home]

Meaningful?

[ Nanako looks thoughtful at that as she thinks it over, glancing at the basket of plaques again. Although she does look a little more relieved at his words. ]

So as long as they can have a fate woven with someone else, that makes it more important?

[nibelungvalesti]

The forming of connections, mortal to mortal, is not something that should be dictated. Who a mortal knows and what that relationship does to them can be the strongest drivers of the fate they make. In a moment, a chance meeting can damn one soul to Niflheim or exalt enough to be worthy of Asgard.

it's fiiiiiiine double the trunks!

[welcome_home]

[ When he doesn't try to stop her outright, she relents a litte, her scowl fading as she nods. ]

I'll be careful, I promise! I can't help anyone if I get hurt, too, right? And I don't want to make everyone worry. I'll look for Suou and the others. Don't worry, Trunks. What about Mai? Won't she need your help?

[nibelungvalesti]

[The sounds of battle ring out for several moments more, till the escape is made and the purpose no longer there. The Valkyrie cannot defeat the ayakashi any more than Kanade can, absent her shinki, and thus makes a withdrawal that galls her as well.]

[A being of spirit, she has no physical body save when she wills it -- so she rejoins Kanade to check on the mortals simply by appearing out of apparent nothing, a slight frown on her face.]

Are you all right?

[welcome_home]

[ Nanako smiles and nods in agreement as she makes room for Elfnein. ]

Okay, then! Maybe we should start sorting them into ones that are alike so we can start matching them up when we know what kinds there are?

[welcome_home]

Is it? [ She looks excited about that. ] I haven't gotten to try a lot of the food yet, but it all looks really yummy. And yeah, I'm enjoying it! But there's a lot of gods here, huh?

[iron59]

[Well, this little colt, for one, has plans to listen and maybe make a few contacts, because while political intrigue may not mean much to him, the regular kind if very familiar.

He stops walking when she introduces herself, at least long enough to let her get a little ahead of him. Princess was not exactly a common thing for someone to introduce themselves as. Even if that someone was a talking pony. He hurries to catch up to her.]

Princess? I don't think I've ever met a princess before. A couple of Queens, but they didn't look anything like you.

[It was a poor choice of words, maybe, but he wasn't talking about her being a pony.]

Mom has all kinds of friends.

[welcome_home]

[ Nanako nods intently, taking the warning with the utmost seriousness. ]

Don't worry. I'll be careful, Chikusa. Guns are scary, so I don't wanna use it wrong.

[darkestbefore]

[ Yona is still making her way through the apartments on the first floor. There are a couple humans on the grass nearby now, placed under a tree, and she comes out with another pair as she spots Maria bringing her own load out with her above. Having heard the scuffle, she calls up to her, ]

Alright so far?

[iron59]

It's be a while since I've seen so many people in one place.

[It was a little odd, being here without any ulterior motive. He wasn't supposed to distract anyone. He wasn't supposed to follow anyone. He wasn't supposed kill anyone. He was honestly a little confused, at this point, why he was at this thing at all.]

Um. I don't know. I really like the food. And they have all kinds of things to try. But I don't know almost anyone, and I think it's kind of a little boring.

[He shrugs.]

I'm sure there's stuff I haven't seen yet, though. How about you?

[onehandsomeslickninja]

But they wouldn't look as cute in them as girls do! It would ruin kimonos!

[kokuyoyo]

Good. Then.... let's go to find someone, so that I can show you how to aim.

[While the detour was necessary, he guesses they shouldn't waste any time...]

You can teleport, so.... do that as much as you can to cover more ground. [A pause.] Unless you get tired...

[thevanguard]

Yata and Saru being Disasters. I mean, saving people. From other Disasters. >.>

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[Edge lifts a finger to correct the point.] The chance. If we do all the work, then what happens means a lot less than if the people who make these prayers help themselves, too. What good is a friendship if it's forced? But if you make a friend because a little divine nudge brought someone suitable into your path and you acted on that, that's the best of all possible worlds.

Now why wouldn't being with you be lucky, though?

[usedperishsong]

Enough here is a pain already, right?

[ So this is your limit. Not ayakashi, but social gatherings.

....Cute. ]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[Edge doesn't have any idea but the most abstract of what she's doing -- 'sing for power' is what he's gotten out of it, not that he's complaining in the slightest about her methods or results.]

Sounds like the best place for us to start checking. [He turns, one arm flicking out so that his cape snaps dramatically behind him -- then ruins the gesture just a little by looking back over his shoulder at her.] You don't mind if we stick to buildings that are maybe a story high to start with?

[onehandsomeslickninja]

This whole thing is dangerous. [Edge shrugs.] Less dangerous for me than for you and we gotta save the people in danger, right? So it doesn't matter anyway.

[usedperishsong]

[ whoa what the

Kanade whirls, a crazed light in her eyes from the surprise and the adrenaline--

But when she sees who it is she deflates, scratching her head. ] Yeesh, don't do that.

I'm not hurt.

[ Which ain't what was asked. She nods at the sleeping victims. ] They're OK, too.

[ Very nearly no thanks to her. Dammit. Move past it. This isn't helpful.

Dammit!! ]

[boneofsword]

Her castle offers a good vantage point. [Archer suggests innocently... or not that innocently, given his smirk.] She almost fainted when she saw me there, although she immediately assumed I was there to be her butler.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

I climbed up from the bottom once before. If I can't do it again, I'm not worthy of the title 'Badass Freaking Overlord'. [Demonic pride, arrogance, and a focus on appearances could have positive effects, it seems -- by whatever peculiar alchemy they'd fused together into a simple determination to recover, even though this ridiculous fall is brutal indeed.]