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

C (Disaster)

[light_of_willpower]

[Even with the influx of help, the blighted area is still a mess. It's not difficult for people to get separated as they try to fend off ayakashi and rescue mortals. It also wasn't hard to suddenly have a situation change in ways that weren't for the better.

Such was the situation Trunks found himself in, along an alleyway with 2 ayakashi bigger than himself. Multiple legged, with lashing tails, and he's placed himself between the ayakashi and 2 mortals passed out. The two ayakashi penning him also seem to have some sense of coordination; between that, and the blight, he hasn't been able to get the two to safety or fight off the ayakashi enough to make them retreat.

He's been at this for a while too, and the borderline behind him is another measure of safety between the ayakashi and the mortals (a father? older brother? it wasn't clear, and younger child). Combat and fighting may be his element, but who knows how long he's been at this already?]

[darkestbefore]

[ She's not really aware of what his element might be or not - all Yona can see is a solitary figure up against two large ayakashi down an alley she almost misses entirely in her haste. The sound of fighting, however, has her skidding to a stop and reaching for her bow, even as she changes course to intercept.

She takes aim and lets her eyes close for a moment, focusing. She lets a flare of temper in her rise up at all this pointless waste and the danger and harm to all these poor humans who had done nothing to deserve this. The tip of her arrow sparks and then abruptly bursts into flame a moment before she fires it, letting it land just underneath where the pair of ayakashi had the man cornered.

The sudden appearance of a flaming arrow gives them pause and too many eyes swivel in her direction. She lets herself feel fear then - something that normally goes against her own instincts to let herself feel on a battlefield, but since coming here it serves a purpose. Immediately, a strong gust of wind rushes down the alley and a moment later, that tiny flame enveloping her arrow feeds on it, roaring upwards in a sudden inferno, temper fed by fear. the ayakashi both shriek in sudden alarm, an unearthly howl coming from between jagged lips spread wide as fire catches, feeds more in an unquenchable rage.

She calls to the man behind them, her voice strained as she maintains her focus to keep the elements channeled. ]

Hurry, I can't hold this for long! Get out of there!

[light_of_willpower]

[Okay the burst of fire had Trunks's attention, looking for the newcomer--and whether they were friend or foe. Which, with the sudden blaze up into an inferno, became a moot point. Dropping his borderline, he moved to the passed out humans. The older boy hefted over a shoulder carefully, and the younger child picked up and tucked carefully against him.

Kicking off the ground, up and away from the flames, which gave him a view of whoever had shot the arrow. Friend, which had him relaxing a bit and heading her way. Careful of the wind and flames.]

We're safe! Just ayakashi there now!

[Called, to let her know the fire could burn all it wanted on the two monsters.]

[darkestbefore]

[ She sees the figure leap upwards - and for a moment her heart clenches, because that's achingly familiar - but with him now clear of the ayakashi and the fire, she can see clearly it's another shinki she doesn't yet recognize.

She nods at the call, turning her gaze back to the burning and writhing ayakashi, still wreathed in the flames she'd created. Letting that continue, she focuses her determination this time. One hand lifting in front of her to help visualize what she wanted to happen, she lifts a wall of rock out of the cement of the alley, effectively blocking them in the same dead end they'd had Trunks trapped in a moment before. it won't last long - especially since she doesn't intend to stick around, but for the moment, it should give them a decent enough head start.

That taken care of, she turns and heads back the way she'd first been headed - towards the nearest evacuation point the gods had all been setting up around the Blighted area. As she moves, however, her gaze travels upwards so she can keep track of the figure she'd found, hoping he was okay. ]

[light_of_willpower]

[They'd only managed to meet properly once before. At her End-of-Summer party no less. Small wonder neither of them recognized the other by name, but could at least tell allies.


Fortunately the way she's headed is the way he's headed as well, albeit in the air. Trunks is also keeping track of her, and noticing what she's doing, he'll come closer to the ground once it's safer. Older man thrown over his shoulder still, younger child held close--both of them unconscious.

Now, he's blinking then offering a half-grin in recognition.]

Yona...yes? Sorry to meet you again like this, thanks for the help though.

[darkestbefore]

[ When he drops close enough for her to see his face, it triggers her own memory of the meeting - even if that felt so long ago for her now, with the months she'd lived through at home though her nap here in the Heavens had been short. Something that was still more than a little disorienting. But she smiles when he recognizes her, nodding to confirm. ]

Trunks, yes? You're more than welcome. Are you hurt at all? I'm relieved I found you when I did. You looked as if you had your hands full.

[light_of_willpower]

[A nod to confirm she remembered right, and a head-shake in the negative to her other question.]

Not hurt.

[And if he was, it was probably Blight, and he was hiding it because it wasn't serious.]

Those two were coordinating, which was the problem. I had my attention split between defense and rescue, so your timing was perfect.

[He's actually been handling things fairly well over all. Combat is his element in many ways.]

[darkestbefore]

[ She glances back over her shoulder in that direction. ]

So they were intelligent enough to do something like that? That's... unnerving.

[ And it would also make those type all the more challenging to face off against. ]

[light_of_willpower]

It could be because they're more powerful than the smaller ones.

[But she's right, it is unnerving. It had been just a bad combination of small space+annoyingly large ayakashi+passed out mortals. Fortunately said mortals are still asleep and breathing, and will do better once they're out of the Blight zone.

Which Yona and Trunks are both heading for the Border of.]

You have good timing though, as that was just a bad place to get caught and I couldn't do what I needed to.

[darkestbefore]

I'm just happy I heard the noise and was close enough to do something about it. Shouldn't you be out here with your goddess?

[ ....Says the goddess currently running around without her shinki. ]

[light_of_willpower]

I am. Although we keep getting separated as well, before finding each other again.

[Still absolutely serious, and with a sigh despite the grim mood.]

When we haven't been actively Rending, I've been running interference for her to get people out to safety.

[darkestbefore]

[ She flashes him an understanding look. ]

That's easy to do, on nights like tonight, with everything as chaotic as it is. Then I am doubly glad to have found you.

[ They turn a corner and there's light ahead and she nods towards it. ] There, we can take the people you found to safety there. And get you seen to, as well. How badly are you hurt?

[light_of_willpower]

Not enough to bother me, when I can still go help fight ayakashi.

[Trunks lets himself float down to the ground now instead of flying, older-man and younger-boy still held securely. They'll recover, thankfully.]

What about you?