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

[reformedsinner]

Yes, they hardly even need to be nagged about it.

[Ken is not quite as good about domestic duties, but Chikusa is good at bullying him when necessary, and Hakkai generally manages to maneuver Chikusa into doing his share.]

And I hope Sanzang has been taking proper care of you while you recover?

[His tone is a little teasing; she looks better, after all, but if they're talking about proper divisions of household labor, the right share for a woman who was recently both stabbed and gutshot is zero.]

[kagenonadeshiko]

She has! I've been getting plenty of rest. I've been doing a fair bit of reading. Mostly Chikusa-kun's story but I'm planning to take a trip to the library soon for more things to read.

[Sorry, Chikusa. She's coming right out and saying it. Besides, surely if she's figured it out, Hakkai has, too.]

I've found that I rather like reading.

[It's a little more her thing than dramas though she has been enjoying those, too, along with the variety shows she's been watching with Sanzang.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai ducks his head, hiding laughter.] Don't let him hear you say that out loud!

What sort of books do you like? So far?

[He'll have to find her some reading material -- something that she doesn't have to sift through the library for, considering how frustrating Heaven's library can be.]

[kagenonadeshiko]

[Oh, no worries. She'll let Chikusa keep his secrecy a little while longer unless properly provoked. A few hints dropped here and there to make him wonder just how much she knows about it is just as fun.

As for answering the question, she taps her chin thoughtfully and smiles.]

Well, I've mostly read romance so far but I rather like adventures and mysteries, too, I think! I like stories best where there's something a little more than romance to them. And maybe a little old-fashioned.

[reformedsinner]

I'll have to see if I can find anything you'd like! There's plenty of fiction at the school -- I picked up used books by the box when I was stocking the library there, you see....

[He returns her smile, eyes crinkling a little at the corners. Old-fashioned romantic adventures, hmm. That does sound like the kind of book he'd have accidentally accumulated dozens of.]

I haven't read most of them, but I'm sure there's something there.

[kagenonadeshiko]

Thanks. I'd like that.

[Though Ayumu intends to start studying shinki spells after she's a bit more recovered, she'd like to incorporate recreational reading into her daily routine. The cats seem to like it when she reads to them, too, while they're snuggling with her. And that's nice, even though Ayumu's certain they just like the sound of her voice.]

I've been trying out different things to relax and have fun. Books have really helped a lot. So has meditation though I'm not very good at it just yet.

[She's still learning how to do it and train herself to do it several times throughout her day.]

[reformedsinner]

[Meditation? He blinks, imagining her for a moment as a shaven-headed, saffron-robed nun, and shakes away the image.]

Sanzang is teaching you, I assume?

It's not a bad method of relaxation.

[kagenonadeshiko]

Yes, she is. She offered a little while ago. So I've been practicing.

[It's a clumsy, uphill journey but she's getting there.]

It's a little strange still. Learning how to relax and clear your mind is surprisingly difficult.

[But if it'll give her the inner peace she desperately craves, she'll try just about anything.]

[reformedsinner]

It really is. [He chuckles, glancing at her.] It took me a long time to learn, too.

But it helps, if your problem is thinking too much.

[kagenonadeshiko]

It's a problem. And dangerous for a shinki to dwell or think too much. I don't wanna blight Sanzang if it can be helped.

[Or maybe it's just dangerous for her. She wants to understand herself, figure things out so she can make herself better. But that natural aversion toward thinking too much about her past kicks in and she has to stop. She's stubborn, once she gets an idea in her head it's hard to get out. So meditation is a skill she feels she needs to learn for both herself and Sanzang's sake.]

It's frustrating but I can't give into that or it could hurt her.

[reformedsinner]

Learning to control that is an advanced level. -- Not one I ever reached, I'm afraid.

[It helps him understand himself. As for helping him not dwell on his fears or his curiosity....

... well, he'd probably have to be dead not to do that.]

But I hope it helps you. If it does, I'll have to ask you for advice!

[kagenonadeshiko]

[Self-understanding's something Ayumu would like, too, but she thinks the only way that'll happen is through forbidden information. Finding some level of contentment and serenity seems like a much more attainable goal for her to achieve.]

Thanks. I'd be happy to teach you once I'm more than just a novice myself.

[She smiles gently, changing the subject.]

How are you enjoying all of this so far?

[She waves a hand to indicate the party around them.]

I hope you're finding some time to relax.

[reformedsinner]

It's a nice party, but perhaps I've grown a little too jaded. I find myself waiting to see when something will catch fire every time Heaven invites us out.

[He shoots her a dry glance.]

Though I do appreciate their letting us look at their security, I also didn't understand what it does. And it seems easy to sabotage.

[One person with a chisel could take out a large number of beautifully inlaid wooden sigils. Hakkai's not convinced it's safe.]

I'm enjoying the buffet, at least.

[kagenonadeshiko]

The buffet does look pretty appetizing. It looks like the cooks put some real effort in.

[She laughs a bit at the comment about security.]

I never understand what half the magic in this place is meant to do. But I think it's foolish to depend on it too much. And unwise to allow others to view your security plans before they're in place. It's a perfect opportunity for an enemy to gather information on its weaknesses.

[Another soft laugh.]

Of course, it's a good way to trick those who see it with false plans, too.

[reformedsinner]

Considering that whoever has been making the attempts burned down Amaterasu's temple, I think we can assume they know what her security looks like already.

Perhaps they were just trolling for traitors among our ranks with the offer.

[False plans are one thing; looking for damage they might have caused to redundant or decoy spells is another option. Hakkai shrugs, smiling with apparent equanimity.]

But seeing secret motives in everything is a good way to wear yourself out jumping at shadows, isn't it?

[Even if, sometimes, the shadow really is an enemy. The trick is waiting for confirmation -- or at least evidence -- before the jump.]

[kagenonadeshiko]

Well, of course! Jumping at every little thing is a waste of one's resources. It dulls the senses, skews one's judgment, and makes it difficult to distinguish friend from foe.

[For all her hypervigilance and ongoing anxiety, she is capable of recognizing the detriments of such a state on a rational level. Even if her attempts at genuinely relaxing and letting down her guard are very much a work in progress.]

But I think it's better to err on the side of caution. All it takes is trusting and opening up to the wrong person once to end in disaster. One that ends in more casualties than just yourself.

[Briefly, Ayumu wonders if she'd been like this when she'd been alive, too. Just keenly aware of how dangerous risk taking can be for everyone with a connection to a person. How easily one's doom can spread outward into the lives of those closest to them.

Well, that's a dark, unsettling thought. Maybe Ayumu should find herself some snacks or a drink to distract her with. Sanzang wants to make friends with the old gods and it's harder to put on a charming performance once her natural inclination to brood sets in.]

Are you hungry? I was just thinking of getting something more to eat before the meeting starts.

[reformedsinner]

[Her tone is growing a little cold and dour; Hakkai glances at her, his expression unreadable.

It's true that trusting wrongly can lead to disaster, after all. It's easier never to trust anyone until they've proven themselves; and yet, sometimes, to fail to trust can lead to disaster too. No one can really fight forever all alone.

He's taken a long time learning those lessons himself.]

As the saying goes, "trust, but verify," I suppose. I wouldn't mind a little to eat before the speeches start. Did you see those butterflied shrimp?

[kagenonadeshiko]

No, I haven't. Maybe this is a good time to give them a try.

[They did look delicious. And maybe she could permit herself a small glass of wine to calm her nerves a little. "Trust, but verify" is good advice, even if it's easier said than done. Trust, much like socializing, doesn't come to her naturally. She really has to work at it and work even harder to make it look real.]

A glass of wine might not be a bad idea, either. But just one.

[She is working, after all.]

[reformedsinner]

Yes, I'm still not convinced we won't need our wits about us later...

[He smiles quickly at her, and turns towards the buffet.]

Ah, you should try some of this fruit, too! It's very fancy.