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

[priforprince]

Ah -

[ ....Right. Conversation. They're trying to have. A conversation. Hibiki does her best to pull herself together, though the sparkles all around her head have a life of their own and continue even afters she places a hand to her face and her eyes come back into focus. ]

Well enough.

[ She has a new fountain, but no one aside from her landscaping is dead. ]

[letteropener]

[Celestia doesn't really register the sparkles, being as she tends to sparkle herself when her magic is at its peak. Instead, she turns a stern gaze to the encroaching flow.]

We need to stop this. I alone cannot do it. Have you any resources to command for such a task?

[priforprince]

[ Oh, talking shop. Hibiki continues to sharpen her focus, and the sparkles dim. We are being a Serious Prince now. ]

Halting the eruption is beyond me. But, if it's a matter of containing the damage...

[ A laptop is produced from nowhere. It is typed upon.

And legions of spygoats with heatproof shields begin appearing over the horizon.

You did ask Hibiki. ]

[letteropener]

[Celestia regards this with -- well, regal solemnity and absolute seriousness, but also no small amount of confusion.]

Are they not in danger of heat damage?

[priforprince]

Compared to barricading sentence enders, thwarting lava is simpler than a gerbil's rolling its ball down a bowling alley.

[ The shields, indeed, seem to be okay as the lava approaches.

But a few of the goats stop rolling, circuits acting up in the heat. ]

[letteropener]

[Celestia glances sidelong at the girl.]

...Bowling lanes are oiled and slippery, and a gerbil is normally not so massive that it can easily overcome such things.

[priforprince]

It's a genius gerbil.

[ Of course.

One of the goats turns around and starts rolling the other way. Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope... ]

[letteropener]

[Celestia points at the retreating one with a hoof.]

I think that one might be the genius among your crowd.

[priforprince]

Impossible...

[ The lava encroaches. The shields begin to glow from the heat before it even arrives.

More and more goats begin turning around.

Hibiki is left staring at approaching lava with no barricade. ]

[letteropener]

[Without a moment's hesitation, Celestia magically seizes the shields from each and every spygoat, whirling them through the air to plant them in a line in front of the lava. ]

[priforprince]

[ The shields, at least, hold up - they heat but do not melt. Much. Enough to be a problem. Except for whoever's going to end up with lava and a line of shields now embedded in their horticulture.

Hibiki sighs. There's....that....

She turns to glare at the goats that made poor Princess Celestia exert herself despite her splendor, far better-suited for issuing orders than taking direct action. The goats flee. ]

Honestly.

[letteropener]

I'm not sure what you were expecting, to be honest. [Just goes to show how serious and ruffled Celestia truly is -- rarely does she vouchsafe a criticism so overtly.]

[priforprince]

The physics of this puniverse operate differently than expected. [ Lava does a lot more damage, for one thing. (No one tell Hibiki that's because less-bad lava works better for rule of funny.)

Satisfied those shields will redirect the flow away from where anyone's living, at least in this area, she turns to leave. ] In any case, this place is secure. Others await.

[ As does rooting out the cause. ]

[letteropener]

I agree with you on that score. What is your next plan, Hibiki?

[Celestia suspects her aid might be needed further.]

[priforprince]

If no other areas require attention, to summit the mountain.

[ You know. The exploding mountain.

NBD. ]

[letteropener]

Such was my plan as well. If you wish company, for as long as our paths can wind the same way...

[Celestia has wings, after all, and other resources for travel. In haste, she may need to take a different route allowed to her by such virtues.]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki smirks. Then, she gets on one knee, hand over her heart.

She knows the proper way to do this. ] Beautiful Princess. I would escort you to the ends of the earth.

Heedless of the inferno's fire.....

[ If they were adapting the popular epic by Pante, she would be the lead, guided by his love of Priatrice! ]

[letteropener]

[Celestia ponders this for one moment, expression blank.]

[Then light whirls around her for a second, broken by a slash that leaves behind her tall human form. She clasps her hands in front of her, smiling down brightly at Hibiki.]

Are you offering to be my protector, then?

[priforprince]

[ SHE'S ACTUALLY GOING TO GET TO GUARD A PRINCESS

THIS IS SUDDENLY THE BEST DAY OF HIBIKI'S LIFE

...OR ONE OF THEM. IN THE FAR SHORE. ]

If I'm by your side, nothing can burn me.

[letteropener]

That, Hibiki, is the first notion you must disabuse yourself of.

[She bows her head over her hands, her hair streaming out behind her, long and iridescent like a pastel rainbow utterly misplaced against a background of red and black.]

I will give all I can to keep you safe, but for everything that I am, I am still flawed and fallible. Nor are you so weak that you require such protection. For I need allies and friends, not guards nor wards. Be that to me and you shall have me at your side as long as it is within our power to grant that gift to each other.

[Let's try this message in Hibiki's language.]

[priforprince]

[ ....there is that. F___ word again. It keeps. Happening. Somehow.

To Hibiki's credit, she does listen. To Hibiki's less-than-credit, she knows full well that the moment the situation requires it, Hibiki is going to do as she pleases, no matter what.

But, until that emergency, to the best of her ability.....

So she gets down on one knee. ] Then, let us restore prosperity to the Far Shore.

[ And reaches for a hand that had recently been a hoof. ] With these hands.

[ Smooch. ]

[letteropener]

[Looking down at Hibiki, Celestia raises both her eyebrows very high.]

I might also add, Hibiki... don't flirt with the Princess of the Day.

Unless you mean it. [She adds this with a mischievous smile.]

[priforprince]

Not to worry. [ Does this smile imply she means it? Well. That is part of the mysterious aura of a Prince.

Then, she settles her expression into a serious Mission Face. The pleasantries are over with. The scene is changing. ] Let's go.

[letteropener]

[Ah, she thought she had that one, but point to Hibiki.]

[In a flash and a slash, Celestia is a mare once more, nodding her agreement with all play put aside.] Onwards, then. Lead the way.

[Hibiki's movement is more constrained than her own, after all.]

[priforprince]

Mm.

[ Hibiki nods and turns to direct that serious gaze up the mountain. Picking the route that looks like the least amount of hassle, she sets forth!

In her mind, this is a dramatic pastel freeze-frame shot. Lots of shading. Some rose petals.

A few stray petals blow past Celestia on the wind as she spontaneously generates them. ]