29 - Autumn Leaves

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Uncover the remaining secrets of the mysterious forest.
When: Nov 29 - 30
Where: Chichibu National Park & the Central District
Summary: A heavily forested wilderness area in Chichibu National Park is attracting dangerous numbers of ayakashi, and Heaven's forces suspect that this might be the mortal forest that was connected to the Heavens in order to kidnap gods and shinki a few weeks ago.






Walk in the Woods

On the morning of the 29th, Heaven's messenger doves drop off small folded cards at the doors of every temple. The cards read,


We believe that we have identified the location on the Near Shore where the human accomplices were working. As it is a large area, we offer you this information, in case you are able to assist us in searching for clues to the identity of the culprit. Please investigate with caution: there are reports of ayakashi in the area.


Attached is a map to a large national park in the Kanto region, with a section of the park cross-hatched in red pen. Anyone who goes to investigate the marked area will discover that it is heavily forested and contains about a mountain and a half; the ground is steep, muddy with autumn rain, and slick with dead leaves, though some red and orange colors are still grimly clinging to the branches overhead. Watch your step! The supernatural menace seems to have faded, but the purely natural hazards can do almost as much damage.

Heaven's forces, wearing white short jackets with gold chrysanthemum emblems over much more sensible jeans and hiking boots, can be seen here and there throughout the forest, searching for clues themselves. If somebody gets in a real jam, they might be willing to lend a hand.

Mysterious Trees

Towards the center of the cross-hatched area, investigators may begin to see some familiar signs. Are those bits of torn-down spell papers still fluttering from nails driven into the trees? Vines and tree branches cut and broken by the hostage rescuers breaking through? Footprints, torn bits of black hooded cloaks... there are clues aplenty here.

There's something else, too: a mysterious presence still seems to haunt the forest. The trees might not move when anyone's watching, but it seems like they're in slightly different positions every time you look away and back. And what was that flicker of movement in the underbrush? Is there still someone here?!

Comment on the NPC REQUEST/CLUE SEARCH thread below to request specific details, or to go hunting for that mysterious presence.

Ayakashi Attacks

There's more than one mysterious presence in these trees... and some of them are definitely not friendly. The forest's aura is unsettling and creepy enough to partially mask their approach, but ayakashi of all types and sizes seem to have been drawn here. Some wind along tree branches or soar through the air on fleshy, wide-spread wings. Others crawl or even burrow in the ground.

And all of them are excited at the possibility of a divine meal. Look out!

Autumn Leaf Viewing

An area of the Central District planted with maple along a stone-walled canal has been decorated with hanging lanterns, comfortable spread mats and cushions, and an abundance of delicious food and drink on the afternoon of the 30th. Everyone is invited: new gods and old, those who helped investigate the Near Shore forest and those who didn't. For those who did investigate, though, one or two of the white-robed shinki who are helping with the party preparations and enjoying the food and drink themselves will take the opportunity to pull them aside and ask about their findings.

The party includes games as well as food and drink. Kites, poetry games, tag, hide-and-seek, card games and dice games are going on all over. There's even some determined board game and mahjong players who have brought their favorite game to the outdoor venue and are setting up on mats with immense care.

At one edge of the landscaped area where the party is being held, the ground slopes up, and is planted with a riot of bright gold, white and rust-red chrysanthemums. Like the ones that bloomed everywhere a few months ago, these flowers exude a sense of peace, confidence and security to anyone nearby, and especially those who pick the blooms to wear in their hair or their buttonhole.

In Summary:

• Investigate a wild forest
• Watch out for nasty trees
• Exorcise an ayakashi infestation
• Enjoy some hard-earned relaxation
• Have fun~

Comments

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Here's one for you. You can form a dagger and hold it, so why not form a shield? Focus it on your arm -- [She lifts her left one, holding it across her body] -- and you've got all the resilience of the wall, but mobile.

[pure_radiantics]

... Whoa! Who showed you that?

[ Granted that she learned the dagger form from someone else too, so she doesn't think of it as a bad thing, she just assumes a more senior shinki figured it out first. Probably more senior than her! ]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Nobody showed me that! I just thought of it right now! Wasn't going to try it till you told me if it made any sense or not.

[Nia regards her arm with a slight frown. It's not likely to go wrong, is it?]

[pure_radiantics]

[ Kairi thinks about it a little more. ]

Well... borderlines that are the long wall have to start from something solid, usually the ground or a floor of some kind. I've managed to raise a borderline right underneath of someone flying and hit them with it like an uppercut punch, for instance, but if you wanted a shield...

[ She makes a hand gesture around her own arm, trying to imagine a shield. ]

I don't think you could use your own arm as a base. I think you'd still need something inanimate like a real shield or... shoot what are they called, armor for your upper arms. [ She means something like bracers, vambrace, or gauntlet. ] But from there, you could try to make a borderline appear upwards and still protect against an ayakashi that's, I don't know, jumping over your head or trying to attack you from above.

It would be super difficult to maintain, I think. Borderlines require a lot of concentration already. If you did get it to work, I bet you wouldn't be able to hold it for very long without practice.

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Hmm. Well, that's easy enough. Say you just strap something onto your arm, and there you go. Seems to me like it could be pretty useful -- make it nice and portable instead of having to redraw the Borderline any time you need it a different place.

[That portability appeals to her. Especially if she could combine the Borderline with a Blade shield. That's solid defense.]

[Nia looks down at her hands as they walk, curling and uncurling the fingers as she imagines how it would feel in her mind. In either fashion.]</small. Difficult, yeah. But Borderlines haven't been difficult for me at all. A challenge might be good.

[pure_radiantics]

Well, sure, if you can concentrate that long... and sometimes you DO want to let people in through your borderline. It's possible to allow people through without lowering the borderline, but for most shinki it's easier and faster to drop it and make a new one immediately afterwards.

[ At least, in her experience that's easier for unpracticed shinki. ]

I'm happy for you, though, if borderlines are coming easy to you. They definitely don't for all shinki. I've been training with a lot of them for months now and some couldn't make one for the first several weeks they were here, or at least not consistently. I'd be up to sparring with you sometime if you figure this out too. I'd like to see it in action.

[sassywelshcatgirl]

I think they must be like a technique I knew when I was alive.

[Nia doesn't feel the slightest bit of shame for lying. Even if she explained that manipulating aether to form a shield is something she can do in her vessel form, it would still raise too many questions. Sorry, Kairi, but her secret's worth the dishonesty.]

I'll work on it, see what I come up with. Who knows?

[pure_radiantics]

[ She'll get upset with Nia only if she ever finds out about it, but then again they got off to such a rough start maybe it won't come as such a surprise either. ]

Thanks, Nia, I appreciate it. I haven't gotten any memories about my fighting style at all yet. That would be super-useful...

[ She's commiserating the loss of Roxas and Sora again, this loss of her teachers. ]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Maybe you weren't a fighter? [That's the simplest answer. Nia understands because Blade techniques are instinctual; even when a Blade has forgotten everything but their name, they still know how to be a Blade.]

[pure_radiantics]

... But I have a weapon.

[ She makes the keyblade appear. ]

Doesn't that mean I can fight?

[sassywelshcatgirl]

[Super-weird. Comes out like a Blade weapon, except there isn't even a crystal involved. Just poof and there.]

...Maybe you weren't trained?

[pure_radiantics]

[ Kairi's mouth opens a little in shock. ]

I know I wouldn't really be able to tell, as a shinki but...

[ She holds her keyblade in both hands. ]

That seems really odd to have such a powerful weapon and not be trained to use it. ... Isn't it?

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Dunno. A weapon like that you might've just stumbled onto somehow. Learned how to summon it, never had the chance to learn how to fight with. Might be a gift, or something special about you.

[She'd love to offer some more insight, but... no. Her secrets are staying secrets.]

[pure_radiantics]

Well it was definitely a gift... both times, actually. I saw the memory of how I got it the first time.

[ She scratches her head a little. ]

I guess by then I'd already seen Sora and Roxas use theirs so much that I just... thought it was something really special. Something you earned or achieved, so I had to catch up to that achievement instead of just getting it as a gift.

[ #GirlProblems ]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Then maybe you didn't have time? [Considering, uh, where they were and all, and what had to happen for them to get here. Nia might be a skilled Driver, but Arts come at least half with the Blade, so that's a leg up on even the newest weapons she might get.]

[pure_radiantics]

It certainly... would make sense.

[ She ponders that a bit more. ]

I thought it would be the same as being a Princess. It's just something you are, since you're born, and I just wasn't very good at it despite practicing for years.

[ Unlike Sora, who clearly had a whole LOT more practice than she did. ]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Being something like that... it's half luck and half skill, isn't it? But that's sort of like anything. Some people are born with a lot of talent, and some people work really hard to get where they are. Usually it's the hard work that wins, isn't it?

[So if she'd put in hard work, she'd be better. Thus Nia's guess.]

Wrap soon?

[pure_radiantics]

I guess I have to hope you're right, don't I?

[ She smiles softly in contemplation. ]

That I can work hard enough for that to outweigh a little less than 50% in the luck category.

[ Then she looks a little shocked at Nia. ]

Oh, but what about you? Do you think you're half and half too?

Sure!

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Naw.

[She's something else entirely.]

But don't worry about me. You focus on you.

Nia this is not how you get Kairi to shut up LOL

[pure_radiantics]

You know... that's not how friendship works. I get to worry about friends, even if they're new ones.

[ She's laughing and smiling. ]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Tch! [Nia folds her arms and cocks her head.] I'm saying don't worry about me because I've got it all under control! I'm good at fighting. You work on getting better yourself, all right?

Haha okay done, I swear

[pure_radiantics]

[ Welp. She didn't reject the friendship comment. ]

Okay, okay, I will, I promise.

[ And they can continue their patrolling. ]