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

[unlucky7]

Sorry! Sorry!

[The sign comes slower as Ginia's smile turns grateful, relieved. There are still so few around that know sign language it's hard not getting excited.

She looks over at the new plaques, grabbing a handful of her's as well to share, laying them out above. Oh, a name that matches a prayer, one wishing good fortune upon the recipient. Ginia carefully binds the two together, tying a bow in the string. She looks at the bound plaques and over to the other woman, waving her hand to get her attention.]

This is strange, isn't it. [She gestures at the fortunes being woven together.] Tying fates together.

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex smiles back, then goes back to arranging her own stack of plaques until she catches the hand waving at her. ]

Ah..yeah, it is. Honestly, it almost doesn't sound real..[ She glances back briefly at the materials.] Can relationships really be formed with just...pieces of wood and string?

[unlucky7]

[Ginia nods in agreement, carefully choosing her words.]

I don't know. Someone explained it as pushing people together, but human nature still decides things.

[She stares at the plaques before shrugging, smiling slightly.]

Then again, I can turn into a cat. Things are weird enough.

[sing_for_me]

[ She had a point there. With people here being able to shape-shift, or not even being humans in the first place...was this really so far of? ]

But I also worry that we don't really know them well enough...Like what if they're trying to connect to someone who isn't treating them well? Or someone bad trying to connect with someone innocent?

[unlucky7]

[It's a fair point. It's one reason she's put love-related plaques off as much as possible simply because there's too much that can go wrong there. But now Ginia finds herself second-guessing all the other plaques she's woven together.]

I don't know.

[She pauses and pulls apart the bow she just tied.]

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex does notice her untying that string she just knotted, and worried that she might've gotten the woman to doubtful about her decisions. ]

But, um..! Maybe...maybe even those connections are important. Sometimes..good things can come from bad situations...

[ Did that even make sense? Though it's not as if they're purposely putting them in bad situations. It's almost like chance. Which..sounds bad too considering it is people's lives. ]

[unlucky7]

[Doubt is merely the background to Ginia's life. Alex shouldn't take it personally; if not her, someone or something else would have made her regret her decisions eventually.]

Do you really believe that? Good coming out of bad situations?

[Her signs are still slow, but signed a bit firmer, a hard edge with each gesture as Ginia speaks honestly. There's been too much to think about over the last few days.

After the signs are out, Ginia's posture stiffens as she braces, regretting her words.]

Sorry. That was rude. Sorry.

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex reads each sign carefully, taking a moment to form the sentences in hear head. The apology she recognizes right away, blinking at her questioningly. ]

Oh--no, I didn't think you were rude at all! I guess it did sound like I was back pedaling there...

[ She thinks a little more on her response, not wanting to just blurt things out. ]

I don't think..you need bad things for good to happen, but...I think..you appreciate the good more, when you've had the opposite..

[ Her gaze lowers as she speaks, which probably didn't do well in showing how confident she was in her answer, but she liked to hope that was the case. ]

[unlucky7]

[Appreciating the good because of the bad... by that logic the inverse holds true too. Ginia looks at the plaque and runs a finger over the prayer written on there. It seems impossible for a life to be completely good or completely bad; good and bad all based on personal perspective too. But wouldn't it be idea to have a life mostly free of bad things?

She sets down the plaque to free her hands, carefully choosing her words.]

I don't want to hurt people. Even if people ultimately determine what happens, I'd hate to know I cause someone to end up in a bad situation.

[sing_for_me]

[ What a gentle woman, despite how tough she also looked. There was a warmth about her that made Alex smile. ]

I think...your intentions count for something...I guess I'm not really one to speak about this sort of stuff, but it could go either way, right? You might not hurt anyone by not doing anything..but you can't really do any good either.

[ Those words might sound empty coming from her, but Alex did believe that this person might actually be able to do some good. ]

Ah, but you really don't have to if you don't want to.

[unlucky7]

[Action versus inaction. Ginia looks at the pile of plaques and the prayers, wishes, and names written across them, everyone hoping for something good. Which is worse? Making a choice and having it turn out poorly or refusing to do anything when given the chance?

Inaction. Always inaction.

Ginia exhales softly as the realization clicks in. She looks at the other woman and smiles, soft, a little shy, thankful.]

If I don't, someone else might, and they might not be as careful.

[Generally speaking, Ginia has faith the general majority wishes to do good, but there are always individuals to watch out for.]

I'm Ginia.

[She spells out the letters of her name then shows her name sign, the combination of the letter "G" and the sign for "seven."]

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex watches her hands carefully, muttering the letters out under her breath. She mimics the name sign repeatedly with her own hand, trying to commit it to memory. ]

Gi..nia...Did I say that right?

[ She pronounced the G as a J, though she wasn't sure if maybe it was supposed to be said differently.]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia smiles and nods. Her name is fairly phonetic, perhaps fortunately so. At the very least, it's the pronunciation she remembers and knows.]

I'm Caster's shinki.

[She spells out Caster's name as well as shinki, but then pauses and signs the words for cup and ghost.]