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

[swordofzero]

I can fight. I've never fought a demon before that I know of. But I can be useful in a fight as well.

[He notes that this god seems to prefer the idea of fighting a demon. He's not sure what to make of that.]

[fauxcalibur]

That's good to hear! I'll bring a sword, just in case. Well, I suppose a kitchen knife would do and there will surely be one there...

[Saber, please don't fire beams from a butter knife...]

[swordofzero]

I can fight unarmed. But likewise I can use a knife.

[Between them it will be fine, he's sure.]

Where do we need to go?

[fauxcalibur]

I believe I have the address written down.

[He double checks his notebook, then looks around to get his bearings.]

Actually, it's not all that far. We should be able to walk there.

[And he starts walking off in what is presumably the right direction, still talking as if it hasn't even occurred to him that he's sort of leaving Suzaku behind.]

So you can fight unarmed? I actually tried that for the first time not that long ago! It was before I arrived here, though, and I haven't had much of an opportunity since. Come to think of it, I couldn't finish the fight that way, since...oh, are you still there?

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku is not that far behind, hurrying to keep up. He listened as he walked and nodded when he was addressed] I am sir and I can. I obviously don't know if it is a specific type of martial arts but I can fight. Why couldn't you finish your fight?

[fauxcalibur]

[Saber turns to look back over his shoulder at Suzaku. His eyes are practically sparkling.]

You wouldn't believe it even if I were to tell you! It was truly magnificent and I've never seen the like of it before myself. My opponent was of the Lancer class, though not the Lancer who serves as a shinki here. He was...

[He waves his hand vaguely, trying to figure out how to put what he'd seen into words.]

Connected to the earth in a way I can't begin to explain. He sent great spikes up from the ground itself and it was all I could do to merely dodge them. I needed a weapon with much more reach to actually lay a blow on him.

[swordofzero]

[He has met the Lancer here, they sparred when Suzaku first arrived. He thinks he is shinki to Caster, same as Ginia.

He is trying to follow Saber's story as best he could. It sounded strange, spikes from the ground? It made him wonder about the world that Saber came from.]

He sounds like a formidable opponent. Where you able to find a weapon?

[fauxcalibur]

I was! Since we were fighting in the middle of a forest, it was quite easy to find a nice sturdy stick!

[Which doesn't exactly sound like the sort of thing you should be using against giant spikes of earth.]

You see, I wanted to play at being the Knight of the Lake and fight with whatever was close at hand. It worked fairly well! Though, perhaps, not well enough that I would mention it to Sir Lancelot himself should I ever be granted the great honor of meeting him.

[He's literally the ONLY SERVANT HERE who hasn't met a Knight of the Round Table and he can't stand it.]

[swordofzero]

[He fought giant spikes of earth only a stick? That was pretty impressive though it sounded like he had not had much choice. Sometimes weaponry was hard to come by.]

Sir Lancelot? [The name caught his interest, if only because Lancelot had been the name of the Knightmare frame he had driven in the dream that had actually been a memory.]

[fauxcalibur]

Yes! Sir Lancelot!

[Saber stops walking and turns around to face Suzaku. His eyes are sparkling and he looks maybe a bit too excited.]

Do you know of the Knights of the Round Table? If you've never heard the stories, I could tell you any one you wanted to hear!

[swordofzero]

I've heard of the Knights of the Round. [And he vaguely knows some that there are some ancient stories about Knights. But no specifics come to mind.] I don't think I know any of the stories though, or at least not that I can remember.

[And Saber looks excited, so Suzaku is content to let him keep talking.]

[fauxcalibur]

[Suzaku, if you keep encouraging him, you'll NEVER ESCAPE.]

There are so many! I've also written quite a few songs based on them and I can recite all of Chretien's poems, though those are in French and I'm not certain if anyone would be able to understand them or not.

[Weren't you supposed to be fixing a toaster, Saber?]

[swordofzero]

I don't think I speak French, only Japanese and Britannian. [Also he has no idea who Chretien is, but the fact that this god has memorised a whole series of poetry is very impressive.

Even shinki issues aside Suzaku's memory isn't wonderful, not for anything academic anyways.]

You write your own songs? Do you sing?

[Also were they close to the house this broken or haunted toaster was in? He looked around, not that he would be able to tell, he doesn't know which address they are headed to.]

[fauxcalibur]

Well enough, I'm told! And I've been practicing with my guitar quite regularly so hopefully I'm not as much of a nuisance as I was before.

[He pauses and looks around, then looks at his notebook again.]

I'm certain we're supposed to stop around here...somewhere...

[swordofzero]

I am sure you are not a nuisance at all. [He pauses when Saber does and looks around again.] Is it in one of these houses? Does it give a house number?

[None of these houses are advertising they have a toaster problem, it is a perfectly normal street.]

[fauxcalibur]

It should be...

[He looks back and forth, eventually settling on a direction.]

Further that way? Two houses or so, I would think. How interesting to think to number houses at all...

[Though he probably wouldn't be able to find their destination otherwise.]

So many more people in the world. It's no wonder they might get lost more frequently.

[swordofzero]

I guess so. [There were a lot of people but house numbers seemed normal to him so perhaps it was something his own world had had as well. He moved down two houses and looked at the house before back to Saber.] This one? Do we just knock?

[Is this how prayer answering usually worked?]

[fauxcalibur]

Oh! We could go in the front door!

[He hadn't even considered doing anything but sneaking in. Which really wasn't the best plan, considering the fact that not everyone could just appear inside the house at will the way he could.]

We'd need a cover story, wouldn't we?

[Like in the movies!]

[swordofzero]

[There was ever going to be an option to not go in the front door? He looked at the god with a small frown. A cover story... He thought for a moment.]

We could tell them that we are investigating electrical faults in the neighbourhood.

[fauxcalibur]

A brilliant idea!

[And one he couldn't have come up with on his own. He received a certain amount of knowledge about this era when he was summoned, but there was no reason to expect that he'd need to know about this sort of thing, so his grasp on the concept is basic at best.]

Perhaps you should do the talking and I'll do my best to look competent.

[swordofzero]

Right... [He looks a little worried but he nods as he thinks about what to say before nodding again and leading the way to the door. He glances at Saber before knocking firmly on the door. He just hoped that knocking counted as drawing attention to themselves enough to be noticed.

It seemed it was because after a few moments a young man opened the door.] Hello?

[Suzaku glanced at Saber again before speaking.] Hello. We are sorry to disturb you on the new year but after the issues with the Winter Lights we are doing an investigation of the area to check for any electrical faults, fluctuations of power, anything that might be a symptom of a larger problem in this area.

[fauxcalibur]

[The young man at the door looked skeptical, and rightly so, so Saber did the nearly impossible and kept his mouth shut. In fact, he shuffled over a little so he was standing behind Suzaku and tried to look as inconspicuous as he could.

After a few seconds of excruciating silence, he started fishing through his pockets. An ID of something would help their case, but it wasn't like he had one. He might have a business card or a rewards card or something that he could flash quickly and put away, but it would take great theatrical skill. Which was exciting, actually.

When the door opens a little wider and the homeowner actually steps back to let them in, he's still looking. Because pockets are an exciting invention and he has too many of them.]

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku stood stock still, trying to look authoritative. The effect was more like a soldier at attention but the man seemed to decide to believe his very dubious story. He glanced behind him at Saber, wondering what he was looking for, but then stepped forwards through the door, before the man forgot they existed.

The man led the way to the kitchen, he seemed reluctant to go inside but gestured. "Toasters been playing up. Not sure it's t'electrics though."]

[fauxcalibur]

I'm sure we can handle it, even if it's possessed!

[It's not a smart thing to say, but it's not like he always gives the most thought to what he's about to say...]

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku glanced at Saber with worry, talking about possessed toasters was not a good way to keep up their disguise as electricians.

The man though fixed his attention on Saber.] Do you think so? I know it sounds superstitious but I'm telling you, something is not right with that toaster and will my wife throw it out? No she won't. Gift from her mother, won't part from it.