31 - First Shrine Visit

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: It's the New Year, and gods are traveling to their shrines to listen to their followers' prayers for good fortune in the upcoming year.
When: Jan 1 - 3
Where: Places of worship throughout Japan
Summary: The first shrine visit of the year is vital! Followers are flooding into everyone's shrines to have their fortunes told, buy good luck charms, and get things in order for the new year. Get the new year started on a positive note by giving the faithful a hand with their requests.






Shrine Visits

New and old gods alike have places of worship somewhere in Japan, places for their worshipers to go and leave both offerings and prayers. Although most of the new gods reside in their homes in the Far Shore, their places of worship in the mortal world need some attention, too! Whatever those shrines look like -- and however large or small they might be -- it's time to head there and prepare to receive the first faithful visitors of the new year. The crowds are full of followers looking to buy fortunes, leave prayers, get good-luck charms, and bring offerings to their gods in thanks for past good luck and hope for more.

Most of the visitors seem to know what they're doing, but some may need a hand. Translate for tourists, reunite lost children with their families, point out the bathrooms and scare off any ayakashi that sneak too close to the shrine gates.

Gods and shinki can take this opportunity to drop by their friends' shrines, too, whether it's to help with the rush, bring some tasty New Year bento, or just say hello.

Prayers

Some of the followers stopping by the shrines at this time of year have special requests in mind, and they're picking shrines with care. A god of funerals might find a follower asking for help keeping their family grave in good condition, while a god of the harvest might be asked to help keep a windowsill herb garden alive when the apartment heat has gone out. Big requests or small, meaningful or silly, these are the special prayers of a god's most devoted followers, so it's important to help out.

(For this prompt, you can create prayers that your character or your character's god might have received! The same prayer can be used for more than one thread if you wish, and characters do not necessarily have to be working with their god or their shinki -- groups of two gods, two shinki, or a god and shinki who aren't paired up are perfectly OK.)

Special Offerings

Most of the shrine visitors bring offerings of money, but sometimes, gratitude to the gods takes a more idiosyncratic turn. Five-yen coins are great (and they add up!) Food tastes great, and besides, shinki never get full. But what can you do with some of these weirder gifts? Who brought Athena's shrine that pile of cute plush owls? Why is there a tiger-skin rug on Bastet's altar? They all suit the gods they're being given to, but it's going to be a pain to figure out where to put these all!

Maybe some of them can be re-gifted?

Great Misfortune

Even the small shrines are bustling this time of year. Gods, shinki, and mortal priests alike have to hustle to keep up with the demand. It's hard to keep an eye on everyone visiting, but they're all faithful followers anyway... aren't they?

Maybe not. Some shrines, belonging to new and old gods alike, are experiencing a sudden increase in misfortune. Ropes break, wood splinters, metal rusts, statues fall over, visitors fall ill, pipes break and appliances malfunction. This isn't just normal wear and tear from the crowds. Someone seems to have cast a curse on the shrines, right at the busy time of year! What will this do to their reputation? Gods and shinki will need to work together to uncover the hidden curse charms at these unlucky shrines before their followers start to think that this isn't the right place to ask for good fortune.

Not every shrine will suffer this curse of misfortune, but at those that do, characters who search with care will be able to discover one or more hidden fabric packets containing a paper with a bad-luck spell and some mysterious characters written on it. Burning the packet and the paper will end the bad luck, and taking it out of the shrine will transfer the bad luck to wherever it goes.

In Summary:

• Head to shrines on the Near Shore to spend the first days of the new year
• Help the faithful out by answering their prayers
• Find something to do with the more unusual offerings
• Prevent your shrine from being cursed with bad luck
• Have fun~

Comments

Great Misfortune

[replicatedform]

[He's on a... kind of a "break", which give him time to walk around and visiting other shrines. It's an interesting time for him, observing other shrines, how they look and how they handle their followers.

Stepping closer to the church, Yamanbagiri looks up and see the wobbling statue as well.]

That will be a problem if someone get hurt.

[fauxcalibur]

It would certainly put a dent in my reputation as well, such as it is. Not that I'm more concerned with that, mind you, but it's hard not to think of it when it's an effigy of, supposedly, oneself that's about to fall and crush someone.

[He's generally the sort who prefers to act rather than discuss, but he's also the sort who can't shut his mouth even when it's more prudent to keep his thoughts to himself.]

[replicatedform]

[Raising a brow, he looks at Saber.]

If that bothers you, shouldn't you do something?

[Like, hopefully before it falls and hurt someone for real.]

[fauxcalibur]

I was thinking I might try to catch it!

[He sounds quite excited about that actually.

It's a terrible idea, but he sure is excited about it.]

[replicatedform]

[That sounds like a terrible idea.]

... Are you good at catching things?

[How much does he want to discourage this...]

[fauxcalibur]

I've certainly never tried catching something that large or that heavy! We may see what happens if something crushes me!

[Saber, WHY ARE YOU OKAY WITH THIS?]

[replicatedform]

[Okay, you know what, maybe he SHOULD discourage this!!]

Maybe you shouldn't. Isn't that a bad thing?

[EVEN IF SABER WOULDN'T DIE FROM THAT, IT WOULD STILL HURT.

also how long until it finally fall]

[fauxcalibur]

Well, it certainly isn't a good thing!

[He moves a bit to the side to get a better look at the statue. It's strange that it's moving at all. Nothing seems to be causing it.]

I suppose I could jump up there for a better look, but that might cause it fall even faster.

[replicatedform]

[That leads to the other thing they haven't discuss yet.]

Do we have to stop it from falling? Why not... catch it with something?

[Just throwing it out there, while they still have time (?). Not like they have a pillow or a mattress around here...]

If you go up there, I can stay down here?

[fauxcalibur]

I don't really have anything to catch it with...

[It kind of came up unexpectedly and he's not the best at planning ahead even when he does have prior notice of something.]

[replicatedform]

Something like a cushion, or a...

[What's that other cliche way of catching things?]

... net? Something we can substitute for them?

[All while he's looking up at that dangerously wobbling statue.]