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

[letteropener]

Pre-Meeting

Oh my goodness.

[To her utter shock, Celestia steps in to discover that far from being the only thoroughly nonhuman god of the Far Shore, she is in fact one among numbers. Numbers that she is only seeing now for the first time, and had never gotten a hint of before.]

[In a rarity, her calm outer demeanor breaks -- enough so that the keen-eyed can note the tremble in her legs, and the sadness beneath her shock.]

[Why is she only learning this now? Why are there no other ponies here, indeedbarely any other representatives of nonhuman races? The shock is real and painful, raising so many question that for a moment all she can do is stand there, blocking traffic, and ask whys in her head.]

Fortune Weaving

[In a fit of rebellion, Celestia has taken on a human shape and a suit to go with it. Of course, said rebellion makes it easier for her to fit in around one of the weaving circles, where she goes at the task with an amused and eager will. Let happy relationships of all sorts for! She'll gladly weave the threads of people's lives together.]

[And if she can find the plaques belonging to gods or shinki in here? She'll weave them together all the more avidly, wondering if there truly can be any power within them.]

[Her own plaques have been tucked away into different piles as well, so perhaps you find your own plaque tied to hers?]

Fortune Weaving

[unlucky7]

[Oh. My. Goddess.

It's not as if Ginia hasn't seen Celestia's human form before, and it's not as if Ginia doesn't find Celestia's human form absolutely stunning and gorgeous. But the suit is the kicker and when Ginia spots Celestia, all she can do is stare in open-mouthed awe.

She slips out of her surprise when someone bumps into her, pulling herself together enough to go over to say hi to Celestia. She's also wearing a suit with a dark purple dress shirt, her heels giving her just a few more inches to her already tall height. Ginia gives an embarrassed smile and a wave, quickly typing up a message to play.]

You look amazing!

[letteropener]

[No lie. She looks amazing in the suit. There's just no getting around that.]

[In the middle of coming back from slipping one of her plaques in a different circle, Celestia stops to smile at Ginia -- a smile that becomes only broader, with a little giggle, as she realizes she's looking the woman eye-to-eye quite evenly. The feeling is particularly strange considering how few people are on her height as a human... and that she has literally been the tallest pony in existence for two thousand years.]

Oh, thank you!

[Then she has to take a step back to look Ginia over, which only takes a moment before she can reply with utter truth.] So do you!

[unlucky7]

[Ginia looks down at herself and chuffs lightly, blushing a little at the compliment. Yes, she knows she looks good in a suit, yes, she knows she's attractive, but Celestia's compliment sinks in a little more than most.]

Thank you! I thought I should dress to fit in with the other guys at the temple.

[letteropener]

[Celestia, all smiles, shakes her head.] It didn't work in that respect. You most definitely stand out rather than fitting in.

But you chose so well! I think a suit fits you far more than a dress would. [For a number of reasons the foremost of which being Ginia is just not a terribly marely mare in Celestia's mind.]

Would you care to come do some fortune weaving with me?

[unlucky7]

Archer helped me pick out the outfit. [She would have gone with a dress--and still looked just as stunning--but with all the guys wearing suits, it seemed better to fit in with them. It also stands it's a nice suit.

At the offer to fortune weave, Ginia's expression wavers between a smile and slight apprehension.]

Do you really think it's okay to tie people's lives together in such a way?

[Granted, most of them are gods and this is the sort of thing they do, but this feels almost too casual. Like a game of sorts.]

[letteropener]

[It really is quite nice. Celestia appreciates it.]

It's a gentle nudge, nothing more. Such a thing can't overwhelm a human soul. If fate conspires to put two people in the same place at the same time where they can meet, it is still up to them to find common ground for whatever relationship grows between them.

I put my own name on a plaque. Perhaps I'll be fortunate, and somepony will weave me together with a new friend.

Pre-Meeting

[iron59]

[Sure, he's spent some time walking around the Far Shore, and he's even seen a few ayakashi, but nothing in his life has really prepared him for the sheer scale of splendor in a meeting of the gods like this. One can hardly fault him for walking in with wide eyes, craning his neck this way and that to see everything that there is to see. Of course, that means that he is paying basically no attention to where he is walking. He half turns to watch a lumbering giant of a god (or a shinki, he can't be sure) lurch past, and walks straight into the back of whoever was in front of him. He grunts, stumbling back from the hit; he didn't slow down at all.]

Oh man, I'm so sorry, I didn't...I...I didn't...

[He looks up at the person he walked into and it's not a human at all. For a second, as he's stuttering, his muscles tense. It's a reaction beyond his control, but with so many people around, he's able to push down the knot in his stomach, if not banish it entirely.]

Sorry.

[letteropener]

[The bump and the apology both snap Celestia's mien straight back into proper Princessly serenity as she turns, careful not to jostle anyone herself with her shape so far out of the norm of those around her. Her smile is perfect regal grace, the sort of smile that she has spent many many years mastering so it can put anypony at ease.]

That's quite all right. It was my fault for stopping suddenly.

[iron59]

[It takes a long time, at least relatively speaking, for the boy to realize that she was talking to him, because in truth, she's the first living thing he's ever met that can talk without being human. Of course, even that fact isn't too far out of the realm of weird he's been living in; unfortunately, even her grace and charm can't completely counter the fact that he is actually rather frightened by large animals - even ones as regal as Celestia.

His hands, clenched in fists at his side, don't move, and it takes an effort of will for him to force a slow breath, closing his eyes for a moment.]

I wasn't...um. Looking.

[His voice is much weaker than when he first apologized, and there may even be a quaver to it, but he presses on.]

I should have noticed that you had stopped. Really, sorry.

[Situational awareness keeps one alive. Running into someone because he was distracted is a good way to get himself killed...at least, it was back home. Here, he's still going to act as though that's true, because the last time he lost focus, a bunch of evil spirits almost ate him.]

[letteropener]

[The Far Shore is a good place to have all your notions of 'usual' torn down. As had just happened to Celestia once again, despite all her time here.]

It's really quite all right, and no harm was done at all. [She steps forward to keep traffic moving again, even as she watches him over her shoulder with that same smile.] Were you heading anyplace in particular? It's terribly crowded here.

[iron59]

[Yeah. He's seen some of that already. He doesn't like it; this place is rather abrupt about it. He follows without thinking about it; they're talking, even if she is a pony-pegasus-unicorn. With a rainbow mane.]

Um. No. I was just looking, and wondering if there was something to eat maybe.

[He licks his lips, glancing around. No one else seems to be worried, even though the more he looks, the more creatures he can see. He focuses back on Celestia; she can speak, and so he has to keep talking to her, or he's being rude.]

Getting kinda tired of sandwiches. I don't really know how to make anything else. Uh. Were you...going somewhere?

[letteropener]

Inside, but I think I can answer your question. There's a table over there simply loaded with food.

[Celestia flicks a wing out to indicate the path, then starts in that direction, using her equine bulk to gracefully clear a path for the young colt.]

Pre-Meeting

[light_of_willpower]

[It's as he's passing on his way, that Trunks notices. Given that Celestia is his friend, and he has seen her composed in so many situations, it's not long before he's near her side. Offering a hand against her shoulder, above her wing.]

Easy there, Celestia. Let's move over this way.

[He's going to try and guide her towards his original destination, the buffet table, and get her a drink. Willing to play shield from others too, while she recovers, if needed.]

[letteropener]

[Though his instant support is appreciated beyond words, the sudden reminder of her position and those around her snaps her demeanor straight back to its normal serenity. She offers Trunks a grateful smile, but to all appearances is no longer in need of that help.]

[Nevertheless, she takes a step towards the table herself, allowing him to guide her.] It's quite a gathering, isn't it?

[light_of_willpower]

[Which is why he is trying to be discreet--at least as much as he can, while also still providing her that support.]

It's different than the big ball. Didn't think I'd miss it, but compared to this so far?

[One side of his mouth quirking up as he grabs two drinks, one offered to her.]

Although I admit, I do feel a bit more comfortable in some ways, if only because this is more--official I guess? I don't know.

[letteropener]

[Celestia tilts her head slightly as she accepts the drink with her magic.] More official? I suppose it might be, but there is so much more seething under the surface at your average ball...

[light_of_willpower]

[As long as she's feeling steadier, then he's relieved. Plus this gives him a good excuse to chat with her--and cover for her if she wants, to take time.]

I don't doubt it, I'm just not as well-versed in picking up on it as you are. There's probably things going on here I'm missing too, but it feels less..

[Hmm, how to phrase it, one arm crossing under the other that's holding his own drink, and his head tilts in thought.]

This one feels less socially-oriented? Even though I know there are all these people catching up and chatting with each other.

[letteropener]

That the main purpose of the gathering is more for business, than for socialization for its own sake. [She understands what he means, though in her experience, all formal 'social' activities are really just excuses for business, but driven by each individual attendee rather than an agenda at large. Goodness, but they were tiring...]

Pre-Meeting

[replicatedform]

[Between all the gods and their accompanying shinki in attendance, Yamanbagiri immediately spot Celestia. She just seems to stand out to him. Maybe because he previously know her?

Or because she's standing there and causing traffic. He could make out the confused, and maybe annoyed expressions from the people behind her, before they try to walk around her. Feeling concerned, he walks over towards her.]

Hey. Are you alright?

[letteropener]

[Being addressed is all she needs to shake her out of her sudden fit of mood; she blinks once, quickly, then turns to face him with a smile that shows nothing of her inner thoughts.] Oh, my apologies, I'm blocking traffic, aren't I? I'm quite all right, thank you.

[replicatedform]

[He gives a nod.]

Yeah... [They should probably keep going. She's smiling right now, but he wonders if she's really feeling alright.] Do you want company?

[letteropener]

I'll never turn down company. [At least, certainly not here and now. As for how she's feeling, well -- he's right to wonder. Celestia is excellent at hiding her inner thoughts when she wishes to do so.] Would you care to go to the buffet first, or mingle a bit?

[replicatedform]

[She's not opposed to it. Which is good. If she decline him, he would be worried but respect it.] The buffet sounds good. You can count on them to host good food here.

[And maybe eating delicious food might help a little?]

[letteropener]

Perhaps the food will have a little more diversity now, too. [As an herbivore, that would be very nice.]

[Celestia leads the way towards the table, since her bulk is more suited towards making a path through the crowds and keeping it open.]