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

[replicatedform]

[While searching for people to rescue, it's impossible to miss hearing a man's yell about an abduction. An abduction, in the middle of this fiasco?

When he goes to check—he didn't want to assume anything—Yamanbagiri saw the man, and then Mordred at the truck. Ah.

As quickly as he can, Yamanbagiri quickly dash towards the fleeing man and trips him. The man looks startled by the sudden trip. Just when he's about to really see what, or who, is responsible, Yamanbagiri take this brief chance to knock him out.

And just barely catches him before he hit the ground. This guy will feel the pain whenever he wakes up, but it's the lesser of two evils.

A moment later, Yamanbagiri carry the unconscious man over towards Mordred. He raise a brow at the truck and her method. That's a pretty straightforward rescue method.]

I got him.

[And he put him into the truck. Carefully.]

... Did you just throw people in there?

[roundtablerebel]

[ There's a series of metallic clangs as Mordred claps gauntleted hands together in applause. ]

Nice catch.

[ As for whether she was throwing people into the truck. ]

Yeah. That a problem?

[ At least she's being careful enough not to toss them in such a way that they could break something. ]

[replicatedform]

Not really.

[Since her method does seem practical. But okay, he's concerned a little. He glances around, just in case there's ayakashi.]

Can you try putting them in there a little more gently? Or that's a no go?

[roundtablerebel]

[ A faint skittering sound can be heard nearby but it's unclear what or where the sound is actually coming from. ]

Why? Seems like it'd just be a waste of time.

[ Mordred makes a cursory inspection of the people in the truck. Their breathing is shallow but all of them are alive at least. There are still more of them that need to be loaded up, both on the sidewalk and the nearby bar. ]

Doubt they'd mind getting a little roughed up if it saves their lives.

[ They'd probably mind a lot since humans are like that. Still, she isn't trying to hurt them so maybe she could afford to be a bit more considerate?

Meanwhile, the skittering is steadily growing louder. ]

Are you moving on or are you gonna give me a hand with the others?

[replicatedform]

They'd probably mind.

[Getting roughened up like that probably earn more reaction than a small, mysterious wound.

That skittering sound is incredibly ominous, in this situation they're dealing with. He looks back at her. His hand shift to rest on his sword. It'd be pointless against an ayakashi, but it's still a familiar gesture to him.]

I'll stay and help out. Beside... did you hear that sound?

[roundtablerebel]

[ Mordred frowns. ]

Well, it's not my job to care about how they feel anyway. If they've got complaints they can bring it to me at the Far Shore.

[ Which she knows would actually be impossible for them to do; even if they died they wouldn't remember anything about her roughing them up. But despite what she says, Mordred does make a small effort to move some of the people around so they won't sustain further injuries once the truck starts moving.

Mordred's eyes follow Yamanbagiri's hand as he reaches for his sword, fists clenched as she tries to determine his intentions. When it becomes clear he isn't going to attack she casts her gaze up at the buildings. ]

Yeah, been hearing that since I got here. Saw a couple of hairy things up on the rooftops too. Gotta be Ayakashi, right?

[replicatedform]

Have to be ayakashi.

[And so far, he doesn't have any other reason to suspect otherwise. He glances at the buildings, and then at the truck. They're still inside the infested area, so the truck have to leave safely.

He looks back at Mordred. An idea for a plan is forming in his head.]

There's a chance they might attack us from above. Or they don't, but I doubt they'll leave the truck alone.

[roundtablerebel]

Damn. They're probably waiting for us to get moving before they attack. Guess they aren't so dumb after all.

[ They'd be a big easy target that's for sure. ]

I can't fight them and drive at the same time.

[ Well she could use the truck as a weapon except that it's, you know, loaded with innocents. ]

[replicatedform]

[Please don't use innocent, (hopefully still) living people as ammo.]

I don't know how to drive.

[Well, he can probably give a try. But that doesn't mean he can drive it properly.]

You drive, and I repel them back?

[roundtablerebel]

Tch. Guess it can't be helped.

[ Even though she'd really prefer it the other way. She starts grabbing the few other people scattered on the sidewalk to lay them in the truck. ]

What about them? I can't guarantee a smooth ride once we get moving.

[ With the way she drives a "smooth ride" isn't even a possibility. ]