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]

[Pre-meeting]

[Some might recognize Emizel by the outfit he wore to the last important banquet, though it had some new additional details in the form of strands of cat fur found in places - despite his best efforts to clean it off. Even while he being escorted he was still picking hairs off, only trying to look 'professional' by the time his name was announced. Luckily - or not so luckily - there was barely any eyes on the demon when he made the entrance.]

[After that he pretty much blended in with the crowd, if even spotted at all given his size and the fact that there were even less humanoid beings around than usual. Not that Emizel really batted an eye at. He had seen talking dragons, wolves, cockatrice, even mushrooms working around the Blight House and Dark Assembly all the time. If anything this just further confirms that the Netherworld and the Heavens were actually more alike.]


[Fortune Weaving]

[Emizel was less about tying connections and more rummaging through as many plaques to make the best choice. Even then, he was feeling less sure about what he was doing. This kind of thing seemed so easy to screw up that he has no idea why other gods made it sound so simple.]

[But organizing, that is something the little death god can do. All around him were neat stacks of plaques with similar needs; Matching up specific wishes, and the ones with pictures had their own pile since he was...even less sure what to do with them. But it was a step in the right direction..?]


[Disaster - Locked to Ron]

[Emizel did not want to go to the blight, but he did not have much choice if they were short on help. The problem was more that Emizel was not that strong to carry people out, nor was he very confident about Viktor's abilty to fight. But if there was one thing he learned from the last big attack of ayakashi, he made for a good distraction and a wall. All he needed was another god to help clean up the mess.]

[And luckily, he was not alone.]

Ayakashi can't get through walls...right? If all I haveta do is guard the door then everyone can get outside through the back.


[Wildcard]

[Especially for the Midnight Disaster, though open for all plotting~ Or surprises.]

Fort

[letteropener]

Here you go!

[Celestia, resplendent in her human form for the moment, sets down a few plaques for him -- then with some surprise realizes he's putting them into piles without seeming to do any work on the proper weaving!]

Are you having trouble?

[trademark_skull]

Ye--I mean no! Everything's fine.

[Was he not supposed to do that..? It kind of seemed like it would make it easier...]

I'm makin sure I find the right ones.

Why did it just say 'fort', Dreamwidth? :/

[letteropener]

Oh, well, you can start with mine if you like!

[Celestia plucks from her selection one with her name written on it, offering it up.]

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?

[letteropener]

How could you mess up nudging me into a connection with somepony else? [Seriously, look at all these people diving in. If it could have terrible consequences, the Near Shore would have collapsed at this point.]

[trademark_skull]

[Some...pony?]

You really wanna be connected with a bunch of mortals though?

Fortune Weaving

[hellskitchen]

Yo, Emi!

[Rin spots the death god from across the room. He notices Emizel is deep in thought with organizing his plaques. Rin really doesn't get any of it, but the shinki offers the death god his plaque.]

Let's make a connection, or whatever!

[He's doing this all wrong, probably!]

[trademark_skull]

[It's fine! Emizel has no idea what he is doing either.]

[But he was a bit nervous to receive Rin's plaque.] You...you want to? But I'm not your god.

[That and he's not really sure what other connections there was out there besides the 'romantic' ones, which he's not sure if he wants. Do the connections make people feel funny???]

[hellskitchen]

Huh? Does that matter?

[ Rin looks a little confused at Emizel's hesitation. Although it would make sense to give his plaque to Add, but he didn't think his god would be really interested in this activity.]

I just thought since we're friends, this should be automatic.I just want to create stronger bonds with people. So this sounds like an good opportunity to do that.

[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.]

[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.

[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.]

fortune weaving

[death_glare]

Honestly. You are far more organized than I would ever expect a demon to be.

[ Why he keeps coming up to talk with Emizel, one may never know. Perhaps he's slowly learning to trust the kid. ]

[trademark_skull]

[And also giving out compliments to demons. Who are you and what did you do to William?]

Hmm, I've heard that being neat makes you more successful.

[So he needs lots of it!]

[death_glare]

[ Kind of a backwards compliment. Praising him but still super judgmental to demons as a whole. ]

It certainly helps. However, spending all of your time organizing while avoiding the actual task at hand does not.

[ And now he's judging you for taking too long anyway. ]

[trademark_skull]

[Emizel pouts a little by folding his arms.]

I know...but I can't decide which ones to connect to.

[At least he was being honest.]

[death_glare]

Do what is logical.

[ Duh. Must dad teach you everything, Emizel? ]

[trademark_skull]

I dunno what is logical!

[Have you taught him anything?]

pre-meeting

[onedrinkwithme]

A new addition to the temple of the furry sort?

[Aymeric can recognize someone with cat hair and with Emi trying to pluck them off...definitely a thing.]

[trademark_skull]

[So....you noticed that.]

Multiple.

[Need he say more?]

[onedrinkwithme]

Most would not notice unless they already own one or that the creature has white fur. I have already accepted the fact after Mandragora.

[But from his coat pocket, he does hand a small lint brush over.]

But this may help a bit.

[trademark_skull]

[That little lint brush might be a life saver. It might not get every piece of fur but it was better than before.]

I'm gonna need to start carrying these things around.

[onedrinkwithme]

They are handy in a pinch.

Have you been enjoying yourself so far, tonight?

[trademark_skull]

I just got here, but everything seems fine so far.

...Kinda wondering what is it that gotta announce this time.