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

[smilingbullet]

Pre-Meeting
[ There is a log of things going on right from the start, it seems like. D2, dressed in uniform (US Navy whites) because that's easiest when he has to dress up, doesn't entirely know what he's supposed to do so he decides to, for the time being, simply observe. He does find something to drink at some point (his preference leans toward the beer end of the spectrum though the kind they have in the Heavens are not the best he's had) but for the most part he keeps to the edges, playing wallflower. If he spots a friend or someone he likes in general, he waves in greeting, if he notices them spotting him. Or he raises his glass in a little salute, if he has one in hand. ]

Early Announcements
[ This is such a theater that it's almost (but only almost) hilarious. It's so forced, on the old gods' part. On the other hand, D2 is glad that Orihime doesn't seem to be in trouble (or at least in as much trouble) as before

At the end of it though, he mumbles to himself, ]

What a farce.

Fortune Weaving
This is cute and all but how does this actually work?

[ He's not really sure, to be honest. He'd like to give it a whirl sure but...well. Yeah. ]

Midnight Disaster
[ You know what? He's not surprised something goes awry. Maybe that's pessimistic of him, but what with so many of the gods gathered here instead of being in the field, it's like something was bound to happen sooner or later.

Because he's a one-god kind of shinki (unless it's an absolute, dire emergency and he's released again afterwards) he can't kill any ayakashi without Forrest, but he can, without any issues, carry people out of the Danger Zone. Some people take some coaxing, though; they don't want to leave. They're safe in their homes, or just wants to rest on this bench for a while or--well, there are various reasons. (On top of that? Being Very Visibly a foreigner - though he's at least not in military formals any more - doesn't really help here. Some people think that he's fishy. Please help.) ]

No [ ma'am/sir/miss/otherhonorific ], I'm not trying to trick you, I just want to help. This area is not safe to be in right now.

Fortune Weaving

[replicatedform]

Magic, I suppose.

[Yamanbagiri idly guess, looking at the blank plaque in his hands. Looking up, he blinks for a moment when he see it's D2.]

Or something powerful like that.

[smilingbullet]

Ah-...

[ He wasn't technically talking about that....though maybe he meant that too. ]

Hhmmh, yeah, I guess it might be something like that. Even if I'm not entirely sure if the original gods would call it magic.

[replicatedform]

[He tilts his head, thinking.]

Probably... Gods are like a force of nature? Magic probably isn't the best term for it.

[This plaque isn't going to write itself, but does he want to?]

Are you going to do this?

Midnight disaster

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex had just gotten back from bringing some other people out of the area when she noticed D2 trying to convince some people to leave. As much as she prefers to use her words, there just wasn't any time. Heading over to them, she cover's D2's nose and mouth with the sleeve of her kimono as she activates her god power. ]

I'm sorry, but it really would be best for you and your family to come with us.

[ As they take in the soft scent, they visibly start to relax, and also feel more compelled to listening to their instructions. They nod and start to walk out the door. She only lets out a small dose, and eventually takes her sleeve away from his face. ]

Sorry about that..I can't control who it affects.

[smilingbullet]

[ At first he tenses in surprise, but eventually D2's shoulders relaxes in relief. Once someone's gotten it into their mind to not cooperate because they find someone suspicious, it's hard to change their mind. Even when you're honestly trying to help. Her help is greatly appreciated. ]

No it's good, thanks, Alex.

[ He clearly needed that help, and there isn't time to dawdle. ]

That's amazing though, and really useful in a situation like this.

[sing_for_me]

It..comes in handy sometimes. [ She offers a smile, just glad it worked out and that she was able to help. ]

We should hurry before the ayakashi come..

Pre-meeting

[mithrarin]

[Dust offers a wave back -- then has to double-take. Wait, what exactly is he wearing?]

[The surprise is pretty obvious; no graceful subtlety here.]

[smilingbullet]

[ It's not like it's got a lot of decorations on it--only the basic.

D2 tips his head to the side, and arches an eyebrow high. You okay? ]

[mithrarin]

[And yet it still baffles Dust, who has had no experience with that sort of outfit whatsoever.]

I don't mean this in a bad way, but... what are you wearing?

early announcements

[kokuyoyo]

Obviously.

[Most people probably wouldn't have heard D2's words... but Chikusa has been pointedly keeping an ear out for anything interesting, and he's just near enough to catch that.]

[smilingbullet]

One should not expect anything less, huh?

[ Not that he was loud... But he's not keeping his opinions about the Heavens a total secret. ]

[kokuyoyo]

What were you expecting?

[Turning his head a little to address D2 properly, Chikusa quirks up an eyebrow.]

They've been doing things like this... for as long as I've been here.

Pre-Meeting

[iron59]

[Felix has spent a bit of time securing something to eat that didn't look actually frightening (it took a while), but along the way, he has managed to get his little hands onto a glass that appear to be full of mead, and he looks perfectly content sipping at it as he cuts through the crowd and takes up a place against the wall, just a couple of feet away from D2.]

D2, hi. Um. What's with the squid suit?

[He doesn't really look over, but takes another sip, instead. There's a grin.]

[smilingbullet]

Hey, hi Lucky.

[ Should a kid be drinking mead? Maybe there's a difference if they're gods. He's never actually thought about that beyond a couple moments back when he was new and met Wendy for the first time. ]

It's the only formal wear I have, and since this is a formal occasion I thought I could use it. Otherwise it'll just hang around and collect dust.

[iron59]

[Almost certainly not, but he's not exactly like other kids, either. He eyes D2 for a moment, then takes a little drink.]

Huh. Mom always said sailors liked showing off.

[He sighs softly.]

Where'd you get the threads?

[Considering he's still wearing the same thing he was wearing the last time the two met (although it looks like some effort has been made to wash them), his interest in D2's clothing isn't readily apparent; maybe he doesn't care, or maybe he simply doesn't know.]

Fortune Weaving

[alchemists]

I think all you have to do is write something down?

[smilingbullet]

"Something" is very broad though, don't you think? Makes it hard to decide what route to go.

[alchemists]

That is very true, but it's better to be broad instead of extremely detailed for this sort of thing? It makes it a bit easier to try and help that way.

fortune weaving

[death_glare]

[ An old familiar face will come up beside D2, glancing down at the plaques laid out before him. William had recently spoken with Grell's newly appointed shinki, but upon seeing D2, he realizes how little he's interacted with her old one - the one he supposedly also worked alongside. ]

I would claim it to be another superstition created by mortals to ease their minds on complicated topics, but considering the gods are actually taking part in it, it must have more validity than that.

[smilingbullet]

Oh, hey Will, long time no talk! What's up?

[ It has been a while, but D2 is never against rekindling old relationships, even if they didn't have much of one. He still has a t-shirt he needs to give to him though, he's completely forgotten to get to that. ]

I guess the human traditions must come from somewhere, there's no saying what's actually inspired by what the gods get up to for fun.

[death_glare]

Nothing particularly interesting. Seems to be another week were I wasn't assigned a new shinki.

[ His soulless one is very disinterested and reluctant to assist. But he can't say that his previous shinki was better, in any way. ]

This certainly wasn't the way fates were determined in my profession. That was, mainly, dealt with by the higher-ups.

Midnight Disaster

[clothes_make_the_man]

[Forrest avoids fighting when he can, but that doesn't mean he won't step up when the situation calls for it. Once the alarm is sounded, he immediately goes looking for D2, eventually finding him among the crowd.]

D2! Are you all right?

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 blinks a couple times, wondering why he wouldn’t be alright (if he felt any distress or other emotions associated with not being alright) but he won’t ask. ]

Yeah, I am, no worries about me. You?

[clothes_make_the_man]

[Nope! He just wants to make sure.]

I'm fine too. We should do our part to help, though.