32 - Blow Your Top

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: A volcano eruption threatens the Western District
When: Jan 14 - 16
Where: The Western District of the Heavens
Summary: The Western District volcano is erupting again, endangering nearby temples and sending ash sprinkling down across the Heavens. Is it natural, or another attack? Those who dare climb the volcano can find out.






Earthquake Warning

On the morning of the 14th, an earthquake rattles windows throughout the Heavens. It's not strong enough to knock down buildings -- unless they're about to fall down anyway, like some of the older abandoned temples -- but it's strong enough to knock things off shelves and startle any late sleepers out of bed.

After the earthquake, strange sights abound around the Heavens. The poetic koi are swimming in organized schools in all of the canals, heading upstream towards the east. Springs of pure water burst out in some areas, and in others, normal springs or fountains have gone temporarily dry. Blue and green lights bob and weave across the landscape.

Falling Rock

The volcano begins erupting with a roar and a bright scarlet glow on the horizon. Ash and bits of rock fall across the Western district, and may even reach into the Southwest, Northwest and southern Central districts. Volcanic glass fibers that look like golden hair collect on trees, fences and buildings.

Trails and fountains of lava are also erupting from freshly opened fissures and wending down the sides of the volcano. Gods and shinki who live in the Western District are going to need some help clearing ash and glass from their roofs, trying to re-route lava flows (the good news is, if you cool one side down enough, you can turn them! the bad news is, that takes a lot of work) or just offering them a spare room to stay until things calm down.

Swamp Gas

It's not just lava and springwater erupting from mysterious new crevasses -- and it's not just mundane volcanic gases, either. Divine volcanic vents are blowing mind-altering fumes all over the Heavens. Anywhere across the Far Shore, but especially as characters get closer to the volcano, they may experience one or more of the following effects:

• Confusion
• Intense emotions
• Anger and irritability
• Impulsive behavior, loss of emotional control
• Hallucinations
• Unusually clear insight into other people and situations
• Coughing, eye and throat irritation, difficulty breathing
• Irresistible impulses to speak in poetry

Most symptoms will clear up after a few hours in fresh air, and all of them will be gone within 48 hours of the last volcano gas exposure.

Mountain Climbing

Natural disasters don't just happen like this in the Heavens... do they? Amaterasu's white-robed shinki are convinced that something is wrong, and they're organizing into search parties to go up the mountain and seek out the cause of this eruption. New and old gods and shinki are welcome to join them, or form their own groups. All of the hazards -- tremors, lava, ash, and volcanic gas -- will get worse as characters ascend the volcano. Strange little spirit flames, in shades of red and blue, dance on the rocks, dazzling, confusing and threatening to singe interlopers.

And there's someone up here, too. A mysterious figure with glowing red eyes is keeping watch on the intruders and vanishing behind boulders whenever someone turns his way. He won't let anyone traveling with one of the white-robed shinki get too close, but solitary gods or shinki might manage to lure him into conversation, if they try....

OOC: Please comment to the 'NPC REQUEST' thread below in order to talk to the mysterious figure on the volcano.

Those climbing the volcano will have a chance to battle the mysterious figure should their characters choose to do so. If you're interested in a fight, please comment to the 'NPC FIGHT' thread below before the top-level is posted. A top-level for the fight will go up on IC Jan 16/OOC Sept 4.

In Summary:

• Don't get rattled
• Help out the Western District with their volcano problem
• Watch out for volcanic gases
• Find out who's behind the eruption
• Have fun~

Comments

[veiledflame]

"Yeah you are. Of course it's magic." As emphasis, he sticks out his tongue, and adds, "nyeh."

After all, how could anything but magic protect somebody from getting burned? It's obvious, he clearly thinks, so anybody who's got to ask must be a dummy.

[myblueskies]

Romeo pulled another face though he didn't stick his own tongue out in return, that was a really babyish thing to do!

"What kind of magic? Are you a god?"

[veiledflame]

Babyish, but satisfying. The boy's smirk widens into a grin.

"Yeah, I'm a new god," he announces, smacking a fist against his chest. "What about you? You said you had a god, so you're a shinki, right?"

[myblueskies]

So he had just got here, Romeo hadn't seen him on the beach when all the new people went there after training but there had been a lot of people, he kept meeting people he hadn't seen before!

"Yes I'm a shinki! I'm Romeo, what's your name?"

[veiledflame]

"Sotero." Hopping down from his rock, and taking a step closer, Sotero offers his hand, still grinning.

"You need help finding your god again or something?" he adds, curiously.

[myblueskies]

Romeo grasps his hand, keeping hold for a second and grinning before letting go.

"She's looking at some of the rocks. She's a researcher so she is interested in this volcano!" He waves down to where he had last seen Elfnein.

"Do you want to come and meet her? She's around our age too and really nice. You shouldn't be up here all alone even if you got magic!"

[veiledflame]

"Really? Are you sure she's nice?" Sotero eyes him dubiously, clasping his hands behind his back.

"I guess I could go say hi," he adds.

[myblueskies]

"She is! She's really nice and kind and smart! She likes learning things and is also a really good teacher!" He is still grinning. He is glad Sotero is going to come further down with him. He's worried about him being up here on his own!

"Do you not got a shinki? Have you made many friends yet?"

[veiledflame]

"Not really." This shrug is theatrically unconcerned; Sotero waves back down the mountain.

"So, which way is she, anyway?"

[myblueskies]

"This way!" He pointed and began to lead the way, carefully. The rocks were unstable and the ground very hot. The air thick with ash and smoke, even with a gas mask it was difficult.

"There's lots of really nice people so I bet you will make lots of friends soon! We have lots of days where we all train together so you will meet everyone."

[veiledflame]

Sotero strode along at Romeo's side, apparently not noticing the heat of the ground or the ash in the air. Occasionally, he leaped up on rocks, balancing with arms outstretched before he dropped back down to the other boy's side.

"I don't know if I want to come to those," he said, and jumped across a small crack in the stone that oozed a tiny curtain of vapor upwards. "I don't like big crowds. Or Amaterasu, either."

[myblueskies]

He was very good at volcano climbing! Romeo was doing his best but the heat and the ash were getting to him, even with the gas mask that Ebisu had given him.

Still he was keeping his spirits up! Also his balance! "Who is Amaterasu? Is she a god?"

He thought he had heard her name? Was she one of the important gods that had been here a long time? "Why don't you like her?"

[veiledflame]

Sotero wobbles on his rock, windmilling his arms until he catches his balance again, and stares at Romeo. "Wait, you don't know? She's the queen of the heavens.

"And I don't like her because she's the one who makes this all the way it is."

[myblueskies]

"The queen?" She was really really important then! She was in charge of all the heavens!

He frowned at the next words though. "What do you mean? Do you not like the heavens?"

It was a really nice place! Everyone was really kind and friendly, even the demon book that had yelled at him wasn't all that bad! There was always lots of food and he had made lots of friends. Sotero had said he didn't have many friends yet so that might be why he didn't like it. Or he was like Nia and just needed help making good memories!

[veiledflame]

"'Course not," Sotero says, scowling. "Why? Do you like it?"

Balance back, he speeds up a little, walking ahead of Romeo.

[myblueskies]

"Yes. Everyone is really nice and friendly." He spreads up to walk beside Sotero hands outstretched for balance.

"But this is the only place I know! Why don't you like it?"

[veiledflame]

"I guess you're a new shinki," Sotero says, and speeds up a little more, jumping ahead of Romeo onto another rock and disappearing over the top of it. He's looking impatiently up, several meters downslope, when Romeo gets to the top of the rock.

"So it's not your fault you don't know better. The Heavens are cruel."

[myblueskies]

Romeo nodded, though he had been here quite a while he knew it was not that long compared to some people.

"Cruel?" He looked worried, "How are they cruel?" Romeo had never seen them be cruel. Had they hurt Sotero?

[veiledflame]

"Ask somebody what they do to gods who break their rules," Sotero tosses back up at him, scuffing a toe across the ground.

"Besides, they just want to keep their power. They don't really care about what happens to anybody else, gods or shinki or even humans."

[myblueskies]

"What do they do to gods who break the rules?" Sotero had said to ask somebody. He was somebody and he seemed to know!

He frowned slightly. Not caring about what happened to anyone but yourself was selfish and bad!

[veiledflame]

"They kill them and bring them back not knowing anything," Sotero says, brutally, "so they can tell them whatever they want about it."

[myblueskies]

Romeo's face twisted in horror, in shock. He expected them to be mad if a god broke the rules, maybe to hurt them because in the end they were the bosses and everyone had to do what they said. But to kill them and then bring them back not knowing anything.

"So... like shinki..."

[veiledflame]

Sotero glances up, brows plunging briefly together before he waves a hand in denial.

"No, still like gods. Just, baby gods who don't know anything yet."

[myblueskies]

"Baby gods?" There were baby gods? Baby gods were goods who had been killed because they didn't know the rules?

"Where are the baby gods? Most of the gods I've met are grown ups!" Except Nanako, Ebisu and Elfnein... Had they been gods that had been brought back knowing nothing? Was that why they were just kids?

[veiledflame]

"Sure, 'cause after they grow up they live until someone kills them. Most gods just play along, either from being scared or because they don't care about what the Heavens do as long as it doesn't hurt them."

Arms crossed, Sotero rounds on Romeo. "Seriously, you didn't know any of this? Didn't your god tell you anything?"