thenearshore | [Closed] Let's Get Down To Business

[It was strange that as he and Emizel were discussing potential ways that newcomers were brought to this star, that they both would receive a summons. Well shite, hopefully neither are in trouble for trying to help.]

I do hope this is no jest. Twould be unfair to come all this way for it be of naught...

[It was convenient that this request happened not long after their discussion about recent departures. ...A little too convenient. It would be dumb for the demon not to be on his guard about some of this.]

...You don't think this is because of the message posted earlier, do you?

Edited 2018-07-05 03:14 (UTC)

A summons of one of the new gods would not be done in jest, Forseti.
And there are many more considerations taken into account than just the message board, Thanatos.

[Making herself seen at the far end of the hall is a god in an elaborate kimono in layers of blue and white. A veiled wide-brimmed hat conceals her face, but bright red lips and black eyes can be discerned, contrasting against her painted white skin.]

I am the Mizu no Kamisama, Suijin. And this is my exemplar, Suna, vessel name Saki. I call her Sunanaga.

[She raises an elegant hand to indicate the grandmotherly-looking shinki at her side. Suijin then gives Forseti a slight but familiar nod of her head.] It has been some time.

[Running a white hand along the cuff of one long sleeve, Suijin regards them both for a moment before speaking again.]

You have been summoned for a purpose. I would have you carry out an investigation on the Near Shore. Of course, what this investigation may yield is unknown, but we have hope that it will be related to the appearances of the 'new' gods and shinki to Takamagahara.

Are you both willing to take on this task?

[He's never going to get used to the god's name as his own; only that it will never be. Aymeric is glad that it is Suijin but mainly due to working alongside her with Kairi and Goten moons ago and she seems a decent person, returning her greeting with his own nod.]

It has, my lady.

[And it is when she speaks that Aymeric cannot wonder if there is more. The more idealistic part of him is trying to reassure him while his more cautious side is telling him to be careful. And for good reason.]

If it will give us all answers we seek, then I am willing.

[An investigation in the human world about how they were appearing? Not exactly someplace he expected to find answers. Given how tied they were to the heavens he would assumed their arrivals were caused by here, not the other world entirely.]

[Emizel will let Aymeric handle with the professionalism. Emizel was still fairly young and formalities were not quite his thing yet. He merely continued with one of the things on his mind.] Ah, is there a reason why you think there's something related?

[Not that he has any issue with checking it out, besides the usual wariness. But what could the correlation be?]

Whether this will yield answers, let alone ones related to the appearances, is not known yet. Because, after all, we are asking you to investigate it.

[Her wry tone returns to being neutral.]

However, we would not send you if we did not at least have a suspicion. As you know, there have been strange incidents on the Near Shore - starting from curse circles, and recently culminating in that happening with the forest. [What else do you call such a thing...?]

We believe that there is possibly another curse circle to be found.

Do I have your willing agreement, Thanatos? [For there is no point in explaining more if he does not wish to go.]

[A kidnapping and energy stealing plot? Sounds about right. Hells, two of those sigils weren't even destroyed and that has been bothering Aymeric since realizing it. Not again...not to innocent people.

Aymeric is willing and he nods to Emi. If this is another plot then they need to help in some way shape or form.]

[He would have hoped the forest "happening" was just an isolated incident. But if it was growing further then it could be bad for all of them.]

[Still, the 5 sigils in the forest took so many gods and shinki to remove, and they supposedly did not get all of them. What makes them so sure sending only two gods would be fine? Oh, who is Emizel's kidding - he practically took one of those sigils out single-handedly, or so he believed. Finally he was getting the recognition he deserved.]

[Besides, he hasn't quite gotten back at those cultists yet.]

O-of course, we can do it!

Very well.

The details, then. There is something in the wilderness of Southeast Australia that has gathered the interest of many humans.

[She nods towards Sunanaga, who hands them a page from a newspaper. Although, 'newspaper' may be a generous term for it, because the headline screams "Strange But True Tales!" In sensationalist terms, it speaks of the appearance of a series of Nazca line-like glyphs around the Wyara and Numalla lakes in Currawinya National Park. The residents of nearby Hungerford (population 23) are completely mystified, because surely they would have noticed anyone among them who would do this.
The article then goes on to speculate about aliens or other mysterious (and ridiculous) things.]

As I stated, it is possible another curse circle might be found there. But that is only one possibility. Go with an open mind and investigate for yourselves what is happening there.

[Aymeric is kind of glad that Celty is not among them because he does remember her talking about these aliens and she may not be happy about it. But seeing these circles are strange...just how big are they...?]

I see...[Now turning to Emi.] We may need to gather a couple things if an emergency arises but I cannot see much in the ways of a battle occuring.

[So just a couple vials of holy water and maybe a small knife in case they hit a snare and can't untie themselves quick enough. Better safe than sorry.]

Anything that can help us all in learning more about our arrival and these circles is better than trying to claw through the dark without any ideas.

[They will try their best, Suijin.]

[Eh, a few vials should be fine. Between a scythe, literal firepower, and whatever else Aymeric has they shouldn't run into any serious snags. Although, if Aymeric wants to stock up anyway, fine by him. He nods at the suggestion.]

[Emizel was curious about the lines in the picture... They didn't see anything like that in the forest. Still, if it was something that cropped up overnight and the other gods were concerned about it. Fine, they will go look.]

Hm, right. And we'll be back with what those things are before you know it!

[Not sure at all how this has anything to do with their appearances, but they may figure it out when they get there. He's got faith in this!]

I hope it goes so well for you.

Once you return, leave a message at my temple and we shall meet here again.

[And with that, they are dismissed to their mission.]

[No fighting but being overprepared is better than none at all. The sooner they get to Australia, the longer they may have to investigate. He gives Suijin and her shinki partner a bow in farewell before quickly heading to his temple and grabbing a couple vials of holy water from his working satchel and slip them into his pants pocket.

You know, just in case. Don't need anyone touching the circles and get Blighted or something. Once he gets what he needs, he comes back to Emi and head towards the way of Currawinya.]

We may want to stay hidden for this investigation. Twould be suspicious for anyone to see us poking around.

[Can't remember anyone getting blighted by touching the sigils last time, unless that was just a hypothetical situation. Emizel packed fairly...light. Rina has no issues with staying in vessel mode throughout the trip, especially if they needed to keep their numbers low. The death scythe was being kept in its usual hammerspace just in case. Otherwise, a hell butterfly was sitting on the demon's shoulder, should for some reason they got separated. It twitched its wings when Aymeric approached.]

I wasn't planning to show myself anyway.

[Mostly because, he would rather not deal with humans while they were other there doing this. ...Neither of them would happen to have a shrine in Australia for a quicker fast travel would they? He regrets being a western god at the moment.]

[Sadly nope so it's going to be a bit longer than a quick second. And probably involving different transportations.

However once they get there, Aymeric is heading straight to the first lake mentioned, Wyara and taking a look at these circles.]

Hmmm, let's see...

[For starters, he's going to look at how they are made: was the tools involved carving into the ground or simply drawn? Will they find any information on the styles on the internet or is it brand new?]

Edited (It a lake not river XD;) 2018-07-17 15:24 (UTC)

[The glyphs have been carved into the ground, and they lie in the center of wide circles where the trees and other plant life appear to be wilted and rotting. The styles of the glyphs are extremely basic and familiar -- interlocked triangles, five-pointed stars, rings within rings. If anything, they might be a little reminiscent of the glyphs seen within the depths of the mysterious forest...]

[It was making perfect sense why the Heavens thought these were same circles. They looked a lot like the ones in the forest. The dying plant life made it even more concerning, although, he doesn't see anyone trapped in the circles like before.]

But how - They're even on other parts of the world. [Emizel looked around for any other sort of clues, such as who could've created them or if those creators were even still nearby.]

...We should be getting rid of it then, right? Before it gets worse. [Although, not without some kind of photo evidence first. It was something the demon didn't think about doing last time.]

There is a difference between these symbols and the ones found in the forest: these are carved into the ground. I do not think the amount of holy water we have will be able to help relieve the problem now but we need to gather as much information as we can.

[Not only is he getting photos but he's writing down the symbols of these circles and the location of where they are. Now that he thinks about it, wasn't there that meeting of the gods months ago that said that the person responsible for all of this outside of Japan? He can't remember but he feels like he should recall that meeting. And if so...he'll need to check Heligoland and Germany soon. If this is hurting the lands, he worries what will happen to those like Mister Singer.

But he wonders...were they trying to summon something? While this supposed to be something that can hold a clue as to how they arrived, were they summoned instead of what they were trying to accomplish? Too many questions, very little answers.]

There is a town close by as well. We should listen in if there is something of note.

[Before they go to town, is there anything else they need to take note of? Is there anything out of the ordinary besides the symbols and dying plant life such as traces of people (footprints, any pieces of clothing, electronic devices, papers, etc.)?]

Edited 2018-07-18 16:24 (UTC)

[There are no obvious clues: nothing left behind or dropped that's distinguishable from ordinary trash, although they will be able to find a few bits of trash such as crumpled bits of plastic from candy wrappers or old cigarette butts lodged in the dirt.

At the edges of the clearing, some clearly defined footprints can be found if they look very carefully. They must be fairly recent, as the edges are too crisp for wind and rain to have had much opportunity to work on them. They're of a medium-sized foot, apparently wearing athletic shoes.]

[He does wonder if burying it might break the glyphs. Although if it doesn't, it will just make finding them again even worse. ...Besides, it won't stop more cultists from doing it again. If only Emizel could figure out what these symbols were supposed to mean. They're different from his own spells.]

[He does notice the footprints the longer he looks around. They're fresh. Then again...If these glyphs were catching attention in newspapers, they could be tourists. They needed more proof than this.] ...There were supposed to be two lakes with these, right? We could check the other one out first.

[Numalla, if he recalled correctly.]

Oh, of course. We cannot overlook it.

[And just in case, he will snap a couple photos of the footprints. Better to overcompensate than not look at it.]

It should not be far.

[Easy enough to walk but to be wary of any footprints that do not belong to them. But once they arrive at Numalla, Aymeric will look for the same matters as the first lake. Are they exactly the same or is there any differences?]

[The signs at the second lake are similar. The patterns aren't exactly the same, but they are clearly similar, and also resemble the ones seen in the forest.

Aymeric and Emizel will find footprints at the second set of signs. One set of footprints definitely matches the ones they've seen before, while the other is smaller, in a different brand of athletic shoe.

They should be cautious, though. As well as being blighted, the area at the second lake seems to have attracted a few sizeable ayakashi, who will approach them hungrily as soon as they notice the gods on their turf.]

[Same kind of shoe for one of the prints, interesting. Either one of the culprits brought a different friend with them this time, or there was a popular shoe brand in the area.]

[Emizel wanted to follow more of where the footprints lead to, or study the sigils closer. But it'll have to wait when there was pesky ayakashi in the way. Strange that they were here and not the other. What was different at this lake that attracted them? Something makes Emizel doubt they could go much further to find out without being seen.]

I think we're gonna need to do something about this...

[He's no ninja therefore he cannot sneak around the ayakashi.]

Even with Sukomi, I do not believe we can defeat all of these ayakashi with only us two. We need assistance before moving further here.

[Keeping the flash and shutter noise off, he takes photos of both the footprints and the ayakashi. Both he will need to show to Suijin.]

We need to look at the town as well so let us continue there.

[Ok, time to make a detour in the town. It's small enough to warrant some form of gossip. So...is there anything to note within the town or people?]

[By asking around about the strange symbols, Aymeric and Emizel will find plenty of people willing to talk (and speculate) about them. The overall belief seems to be that some kids were playing around with occult stuff and damaged a big swath of the park, and they hope the cops catch the little brats. There's one guy who several of them mention, who's absolutely convinced it was a couple of tourists doing some kind of real magic, but most of them mention him with an eye roll.

When they find him, the guy with the suspicions turns out to have been hiking in the park when the sigils were made. He didn't see them, or see whoever made them, but he did see a couple of tourists, a man and woman, the man with a heavy Japanese accent, entering the park and talking together before he left on his hike. He's also absolutely convinced that the plants started wilting super fast after the sigils were made, and had mostly died by the end of the day, which is also weird.

He describes the man as about 180cm, dark-haired, skinny, in a red windbreaker and tan slacks, and the woman as about 155cm, also dark-haired, and wearing a large white sun hat with silk daisies that made it difficult to see her face.

It might be possible to get images of the two from CCTV cameras around town, or figure out if they shopped or ate in town, using those descriptions.]

[Someone who believes there was real magic involved was exactly the kind of guy they needed to look for. No matter how much the locals think he was crazy.]

[Emizel felt like they were even more on the right track when it turned out the two suspicious tourists were obviously Japanese. It almost gave the little demon chills. This all but confirms that whoever was involved with this did have connections to what happened in the forest. If they can catch them, they might learn a lot.]

S-so, what now? I mean, we need to stop these guys somehow. This might be our chance.

But would they still be in the area? And it might be possible that they somehow summoned the ayakashi; that we will need proof.

[Like the blackened cup he has back in his temple.]

As much as I want to catch these two, I fear that we might be over our heads. They can have weapons meant to disable us or something harsher if those sigils mean what I think they do; we need a plan before we go stumbling in otherwise the chaos might become much worse. We need to speak with Lady Suijin about what we found and ask her what needs to be done.

[Is there anything else of note in the area? If not, it's time to go back and report what they found.]

[It appears that the two mysterious tourists are no longer in town -- or, at least, the hiker who believes in magic thinks that they've left, and further investigation turns up no other information.

There is nothing else of note in the area.]

But...won't it just continue to get worse? You saw what those plants looked like, a-and what ayakashi can do.

[Let alone ones that size. Humans weren't able to see them so there was nothing stopping them from exploring the lakes, and potentially get into the worst kind of trouble. One that could spread more and more into the town itself.]

[However, this was not something Emizel could do on his own. He knew he had his limits. And if Aymeric was not going to help, he had no choice but to follow.] ...

...Fine, let's go back.

I never said to leave them be. You know as well as I do that as we are now, we will not be able to fight back. Those ayakashi will overwhelm us and what will that accomplish? The area will only get worse and hurt these people more. If we can get at least a couple more of our comrades to join us in curing the blight and vanquishing the ayakashi then we stand a chance. But as we are now? It would be nothing more than feeding those creatures.

[He understands Emi. He truly does but to rush in like this? It's suicide.]

I have the photos to show to Lady Suijin and we can let others know for assistance. We will not leave these people to suffer, I can promise you that.

[Having received Aymeric's letter (how refreshing it is to work with someone that understands proper decorum), Suijin replies the next day, inviting the two to meet her again in the Meeting Hall.

As before, her exemplar is at her side. This time, there is a small square table set in the hall, with Suijin sitting across from two empty chairs meant for the other two gods.]

Good day, Foresti and Thanatos. I am pleased that you have returned safely, and with some findings. Please take a seat, and tell me the facts of what you found. Should you have opinions or theories, kindly keep them until afterwards.
Take your time to order your thoughts, and begin when you are ready.

[Once Emizel was seated at the table, he revealed some of photos of the circles, ayakashi, and other clues they had found...printed out of course. Not just because trying to show them on a tiny ass phone screen unprofessional and janky, but then the Heavens can keep their own copies of them if they need. Despite wanting to hurry and plan their next move, he was also glad to be given some time to prepare a bit.]

The sigils are a bit different than the ones in the forest..but not by too much. They were carved into the rock instead of drawn out too.

[whatever exactly that was supposed to change.]

Only one of the lakes had ayakashi near it. We checked in with some of the locals, and there had been two tourists hangin' around the same time the sigils showed up. Couldn't find them, but by the description they must've been a Japanese couple....o-or whatever.

[Aymeric nods and verifies the photos that Emi had printed out.]

Unfortunately we could not get a description of their faces but of their clothing and height we did, which seem to match about the size of the footprints we had found. The same goes with the ayakashi; assessing the situation, the ayakashi would have overwhelmed us both even with our shinki.

[They need more than a simple Rend because that would not work for them. Aymeric knows this and jumping into battle without a plan was not going to fly. They need another god and shinki pair to help them out.]

[Although it would be difficult for them to see it behind her veil, Suijin keeps her face neutral throughout their explanation.
Her white-painted hands carefully handle the pictures provided, laying them out before her, but mostly she looks at each of them as they report.]

I see. And now, then, your theories and intended course of action?

[Emizel had thought long on it.] ...Being that we don't know what happened to those two, they could be anywhere now. [Especially if they are still traveling between countries frequently. And the descriptions don't help all that much. They couldn't even get an idea of the woman's face.]

But the circles are having a big effect on the lakes, and the ayakashi are only gonna get worse. I think...I think we should start by doing something there.

Edited 2018-09-09 06:23 (UTC)

My main concern right now is those circles and ayakashi. If left alone for a longer period, not only the enviromemt will suffer but the people will as well. Not just those of the town but those who come to visit but as stated, we need at least another god and shinki pair to help destroy those creatures before it is too late.

[Hopefully within the day. They cannot wait that long.]

[Suijin looks to her exemplar, and a silent discourse takes place between them. They have known eachother long, and much is communicated in a glance.
Turning her gaze back to the two gods, she nods slightly.]

I agree that the ayakashi must be disposed of and the curse circle erased as soon as possible. I'm sure you two would like to finish what you began. Put together however many members of the new gods you deem necessary for the task.

As for the curse circles, the fact that they are carved into the rock is troublesome. I ask that you do as little damage as possible to the surrounding environment when you destroy the circle.

Should you need further resources than what can be found among the new gods, do let me know now.

[Closed] Let's Get Down To Business

Mission 2-With Emi

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Since we wanna get to the site quickly...

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