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

D

[replicatedform]

[Fortunately, Yamanbagiri wears a suit for the occasion. Of course, he didn't expect it to get dirty like this. But on the other hand, it's almost to be expected? And at least he can move around.

He's about to head out and see what he can do, probably escort people to safety, when he heard someone. He looks over and see Garry, and immediately see his problem.]

Coming!

[He quickly comes over and glances it over. Fast way, or ... you know what, they have no time. He start to draw out his sword, giving Garry a moment to realise what's happening.]

You're not against cutting, right?

[artificialrose]

Cut-

[why are people like this- But Garry hardly has to think twice about it before he groans. Why all the horrible things happen when he tries to wear kimono?]

Okay, fine!

[replicatedform]

[With one smooth movement, he unsheath his sword completely and cut the kimono. Goodbye, nice kimono.

He returns his sword back into its sheath afterwards.]

You can get it fixed later. Or get a new one.

[artificialrose]

[well, there.... There it goes. And it was so nice, too. Sighing, Garry shrugs out of what remains and tosses it to the side. He'll get to it later.]

I'm not sure if that kind of damage can be fixed, but we'll see... Anyway, let's go. Do you have to go be with your god?

[replicatedform]

[He shakes his head.]

I can be away for a while, but I'll return to her later.

[Both to check on each other, and it's an attempt to force himself to take breaks. Maybe.]

I'm ready to go.

[artificialrose]

Alright, then... I'll do my best to watch your back.

[He's not the most skilled fighter in the Far Shoe, but Garry is certain, with his borderlines and whatever staff-like-object he can grab, he'll manage. As they reach a shrine to the Near Shore, he nods to him.]

Then let's go.

[Time to see how bad it is.]

[replicatedform]

[With a nod, Yamanbagiri turns to the shrine and brace himself for what might come.

...

Once he appear on the Near Shore, he quickly looks around at his immediate surroundings. They're... in a "safe" area, so they have to travel to the blighted area. That's fine, he need some time to prepare himself and go over his strategies.

Now, where is it... He blinks and look upwards.]

Ayakashi.

[That's a decently big ayakashi in the air, seemingly heading in a certain direction. Their destination, probably?]

[artificialrose]

Ah-!

[Definitely their destination, as decided now, by Garry. He starts moving after it, already alarmed.]

I've never seen one that big before...! It definitely has to be one of the problems here, oh no.... Do you think we can handle it?

[replicatedform]

[It's about as blatant as it can get. Yamanbagiri frowns before he shake his head.]

Not by myself, and I'm not an offensive type if I'm with my god.

[Being an invisibility cloak can be useful, but pointless if they can't do any damage.]

So at least we can let others know about that ayakashi.

[artificialrose]

But there's still people-

[What if someone doesn't come in time? Garry's speed picks up.]

How strong is your borderline?

[replicatedform]

Strong enough to hold for a moment.

[Are they getting closer to the place? Probably so. He starts to shudder the closer they get. And almost tsk'd when they get close enough to see.

That blight looks pretty bad even from here.]

[artificialrose]

[Definitely revolting, and Garry can't help but look a little pale as they get nearer. That doesn't deter him, however.]

Then lets make a pair of barrier's together to help block anything from getting to us, and we can get people out of here while that slows the ayakashi down.

[replicatedform]

[It's so awful, he wonders how in the world it get this bad.]

Right. We'll start from the edge and go further inside.

[He imagine others would be here as well, and handling the other sides of the area. Right now, they can focus on where they can plausibly go and find as fast as they can. He clench his fists for a moment, silently pumping himself up.]

Let's go.

[artificialrose]

Alright.

[It becomes very obvious to see their destination, considering the large ayakashi has perched on a house. A few smaller ones are around it, and Garry takes in a breath. He's terrified, but... They can do this. Yeah.]

Sneak in if we can and then out with our borderlines?

[replicatedform]

Yes.

[It's the most they can do, anyway. He gaze up at the largest ayakashi, who doesn't seem to notice them yet.]

And if that big one notice us, just run.

[Alright, he's ready to go.]