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

EVENT QUESTIONS

[godsoffortune]

In need of clarification on anything? Ask here!

[pipers_son]

So just to clarify, Fortune Weaving is mostly tying plaques together, or writing names on them?

I just want to make sure I get it right when I inevitably make my top levels. (Hello, this is James, Chikusa/Wendy/Garry player, typing something up for another game, ha ha...)

[godsoffortune]

Characters get one plaque to write their own name on, but it's mostly tying plaques together to create fortunate connections for the upcoming year.

Re: EVENT QUESTIONS

[light_of_willpower]

Shinki get announced by which name they give, right? Not automatically their shinki-name? (Clarifying)

[godsoffortune]

That's correct. Gods will be introduced by their god name, shinki will be introduced by whatever name they give at the door.

[kuroi_taiyo]

So, if we've got plaques for the new gods and shinki, does that mean the old gods and their shinki have plaques to tie as well?

Also, what happens if you try to color strings (like, say, black,) or cut ones that were already tied? Anything in particular, or just something for other people to be scandalized about and respond to?

[godsoffortune]

The old gods and shinki also have plaques to tie to.

Coloring or cutting strings won't cause any noticeable effects but will definitely scandalize and upset any old gods or shinki nearby, and might get Judar kicked out of the string-tying circle if he doesn't knock it off.

[kokuyoyo]

Back on my actual account appropriate for this game! Will the life-draining blight affect gods and shinki the same way as it does plants and mortals?

[godsoffortune]

No, it only affects the living.

Beings of the Far Shore like gods and shinki might perceive it as "wrong" or "feeling bad," but would not be drained of energy, sickened, or knocked out by it.

[abgrund]

My character constantly emits a very strong chaotic aura, so is it okay if I handwave that someone from the Heavens or an NPC gave him a cloak to conceal it so it wouldn't make everyone around him violently ill?

[godsoffortune]

Yes, that's fine!

[revolutionfalcon]

SO just in case it comes up: Shun's trying to eavesdrop on as many conversations between the old gods as he can during the pre-meeting (and maybe during fortune weaving too if there's enough of them around). Is there anything of importance or at least relevance he'd overhear or is it all just Heavenly Gossip Power Hour?

[godsoffortune]

Lots and lots (and lots!) of Heavenly Gossip Power Hour.

He will get the impression that the gods he hasn't seen around the Heavens before are even more out of the loop than the new gods are -- they appear to be confused and fixed on the idea that gods can reincarnate as someone *else* and how *weird* that is.

[sageprincess]

Zelda's shinki, Samus, has the ability to scan and analyze things with her shinki form. My question is, would they be able to figure out anything in particular about the source of the blight zone or why it's there with that ability?

[godsoffortune]

She would be able to perceive that the blight zone appears to be feeding the life energy it drains from all living things inside its perimeter to "somewhere else," although the trace itself cannot be tracked. She can tell that it's going to one, singular target, though.

From the rate of drain, she would be able to estimate that it started between 1 1/2 and 2 hours before the shinki arrived to warn everyone at the Meeting Hall.

[boneofsword]

What are the effects of holy water on the blight circle itself or/and inside it? Is it affected at all?

[godsoffortune]

It doesn't have any big or obvious effect. Close observation might notice that living things doused with water inside the circle seem to be losing energy a little more slowly, and, of course, it would help to repel the ayakashi attracted to the energy of the circle.

[light_of_willpower]

Is there any kind of guide/gauge for what kind of ayakashi are attracted to the blight-circle? Big and dangerous ones implies we should deal with one in a small group, but some gods/shinki are more experienced dealing with threats than others, even big ones.

(Asking not just because my char is one of those types...]

[godsoffortune]

No, you're free to use your own discretion coming up with the specifics on any particular ayakashi to suit the thread you want to write. Some characters will obviously be better at fighting than others, and may be able to comfortably handle big and dangerous ayakashi, and that's fine!

The only limitation is that, like all ayakashi, while other attacks may injure, slow or stun them, only the Rend spell used by a god wielding a shinki in their vessel form can destroy them.

the most important question

[all_seeing_eye]

Futaba wants to squish Stationmaster Tama's face. Can this be a thing and can I thread it out with one of the mods? she just really likes cats okay

Re: the most important question

[godsoffortune]

Yes and as soon as I clip myself a Tama icon yes.

(good cats deserve scritches after all. and occasionally deification)

Link to the thread you want a Tama tag in!

[kokuyoyo]

Blight Holes, like the one at the firefly viewing, could be "cured" with borderlines boxing it in. Would the same work for this blight?

[godsoffortune]

No, this is a phenomenon different from vents like the one that appeared at the firefly viewing. Surrounding it with borderlines would prevent ayakashi from entering, but would not otherwise affect it.

[priforprince]

/slides in with event questions on the next to. last day. of the month. oops.

Is there anything in particular in the center of the blighted circle?

Also, does the affected area have security cameras in the streets or anything else that a dashing rogue hacker in a dumb hat could access in an attempt to find said center of the circle?

[godsoffortune]

There is nothing in particular in the center of the blighted circle.

There are no public security cameras, but some of the homes or small businesses in the area might have private security cameras, and the ones that are internet-enabled could certainly be accessed by a determined hacker. Would said dashing behatted hacker be attempting to use them to surveil current activity, or trying to look at recorded video? Also, which areas of the circle would she be investigating? (Just the center, expanding out from there, etc.)