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]

[While curious who gave the gift, it's none of her business.]

I wouldn't have thought there were this many around.

[And there seem to be more coming in too, though the room itself never seems to feel overcrowded. It's an impressive assortment of gods and shinki.]

What do you think about things so far? See or hear anything interesting?

[kokuyoyo]

It definitely seems to be something special.... But I don't know enough about Japanese mythology to say anything about it.

[Although it's sort of funny to talk about 'mythology' when it's a reality that they're all living.]

Mostly... it seems like it's just been the usual idle gossip. I haven't heard anything particularly interesting so far....

[unlucky7]

[That's disappointing, but it seems the same on her end. You would think in a gathering this large there'd be something interesting, but nope, it's the usual gossip about who has a crush on who, or who was recently reincarnated, or "did you hear so and so answered a prayer for something something?"

Actually, some of it is interesting even if it's fairly mundane.]

What about you? Anything new going on?

[kokuyoyo]

Ah... Not really...

[His head tilts back a little bit as he thinks on it. Normally, he doesn't really care to share things about his personal life, so he'd rather not...]

...Something interesting has been happening at the library.

[unlucky7]

[Ooh, library gossip! Ginia is there often enough; she mulls over whether she's heard or seen anything.]

Is it about the noises behind the locked door?

[Because that's definitely the most interesting thing happening at the library she can think about. That, or the increasingly frustrating fact she can never seem to find the first volume of any book series. Sigh.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Trust Ginia to know exactly what he's talking about. He nods.]

It's more active that it's been in the past.... And if I shove paper under the crack, the person on the other side tries to steal it.

[unlucky7]

[Smart, Chikusa.]

Tries. Sounds like you were able to take the paper back?
I knocked on the door and was told to go away.
I stayed around for another hour to figure out if the sounds were real or a recording of some sort. Doesn't sound like a recording.

[Pause.]

Might have annoyed the person behind the door by knocking a few more times. Has that door always been there?

[kokuyoyo]

They tear it if we get into a fight over it....

[So, they're petty. That's something.]

The door's always been there... but it's never been this noisy or active....

[unlucky7]

[Interesting. They don't want company, but they're quick to aggressively take paper?]

Have you tried sticking anything else under the door?

[kokuyoyo]

I've been thinking of getting one of those thin wire cameras with this kid.... but we haven't met to steal them yet.

[Casual confession of crime, nbd]

[unlucky7]

[It's only a crime if someone catches you and there's trouble because of it. Ginia nods her approval at the plan.]

Good idea. Have you scoped out if there are adjacent rooms you could spy through?

[kokuyoyo]

No.... It seems like it's only the rest of the library, and that back room. Unless there's a hidden passage behind a bookcase....

But that's probably a little too cliche.

[unlucky7]

A cliche, yes, but I wouldn't dismiss it.

[But other leads first. Threading a wire camera under the door certainly has promise.]

Where are you two stealing the cameras from?

[kokuyoyo]

I hope there's no cliche....

[That would just be the worst, and so annoying.]

That's what we're doing research on.... Although I have to check up with him....

[unlucky7]

Who is your partner in crime anyway?

[Ginia honestly doesn't expect an answer from Chikusa because it's Chikusa and it isn't her business, but since he's readily mentioning it, she's curious.]

[kokuyoyo]

Ah.... It was this kid...

[Right, names. Chikusa takes a second to remember.]

...Felix?

[unlucky7]

[The name doesn't ring a bell. No surprise, there are plenty of people she hasn't met.]

Need a third as a lookout or extra set of hands or are you two good on your heist?

[kokuyoyo]

Maybe.... But I'll let you know when we get the details more finalized. A lot of things are coming up....

[But that's life in the Far Shore for you.]

[unlucky7]

[Sure, sure, keep her posted. Ginia nods and looks around the room, frowning a little.]

Do you mean anything specific or a general feeling? Personally, I'm expecting this to go upside down in the next few hours.

[People of high importance gathered in one place? A history of previous incidents? If something doesn't go wrong, Ginia will eat her suit jacket.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Slowly, Chikusa lets his gaze drift around the party... before settling it on Ginia again.]

Yes.

[So, they're of the same thought on at least one thing.]

[unlucky7]

[Figures. Ginia sighs and crosses her arms over her chest. Caster had told her to have fun so there's no rush to find him, but maybe it's not a bad idea to check on where he is incase something happens.]

Heard there's a bit of a history of stuff happening at gatherings like this. So what do you think? Direct attack while we're all here or an attack elsewhere while we're all distract here?

[kokuyoyo]

It could god.... either way. It depends on a lot of factors... which is a problem since we don't know a lot of who we're dealing with.

[His mouth twitches a little at the corner.]

A lot of it is personality... and resources.

[unlucky7]

Heard about the rogue spirits, but any other usual suspects worth knowing about? Or people to keep an eye out for here?

[kokuyoyo]

No... I'd say "anyone who you don't remember", but...

[That's an obvious problem.]

I guess... anything suspicious.

[unlucky7]

[With only two weeks of memories to her name and the small group of familiar faces far outweighed by everyone gathered here, yeah. That's not going to work out.]

"Suspicious" doesn't narrow things down with this crowd around. Didn't even check for weapons at the door, though I guess over half of us are weapons.