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]

Your vehicle is better-equipped for the terrain.

[ How is it that Hibiki can manage to admit someone got one up on her and still be an asshole.

She stands by the door expectantly. ] I'm boarding.

[ Chauffeur, please. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[Hibiki would make an excellent demon.]

[Begrudgingly, the minion in the passenger seat crawls out through the rear window. Without opening the door for her, but the message is clear.]

Fine, hop in. Don't open the glove compartment.

[priforprince]

We're heading directly for the summit.

[ Says the new captain of this vessel, boarding. One can totally be a captain of a wheeled vessel. In one's heart. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Uh, yeah? [Zetta doesn't understand that she thinks this is a command, nor that she thinks she's in charge. Though it's weird she even felt the need to note their destination.]

[The truck tires screech, then catch on the rock and rubble, lurching the truck forward onto the path once again.]

[priforprince]

Hrgh....

[ Hibiki jerks forward when the truck lurches, then turns. Who exactly is driving this contraption again?! ] Oi! Can't you operate this vehicle smoothly?!

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Not on a freaking VOLCANO! [Honestly, did this look like a comfy three-lane highway?! The path up is a lava flow, long ago hardened -- they're lucky no more molten stone is rolling down it now.] You want a freaking palanquin?!

[priforprince]

I am unaccustomed to jolting!

[ SO THERE.

Still, loath as Hibiki is to admit it, the terrain itself does...work against them. She sits up straighter, the better to stick her nose in the air. She shall speak her peace, then, and be done. She shall inspire as smooth a ride as...is possible, given the setting's limitations. ] You've been given the tremendous opportunity of becoming my chauffeur. There are limits to wastefulness.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[For a moment, she gets an utterly peaceful and unjolting ride, because her claim is so ludicrous that sheer shock permits no distractions.]

...You're basically a hitchhiker, you know.

[priforprince]

Hmph. A wishful claim.

[ Hibiki settles down to enjoy (or at least tolerate) her not-bad-for-a-volcano experience. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[She doesn't expect air conditioning, right? Because there's no air-conditioning.]

[The truck continues to crawl its way upwards, over some rough terrain that could be more pleasant, as Zetta glares over the dashboard as best he can.]

[This isn't awkward or anything.]

[Nope, not at all.]

[priforprince]

[ Indeed not.

Hibiki endures the silence as long as she can. But then she catches a bad case of being unable to endure...something else. ]

It's hot.

[ Thank you, Hibiki. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[Zetta turns to look at her curiously -- then his expression lapses into a scowl.] Oh, right. You humans notice things like that, don't you.

[He doesn't appear particularly inclined to DO anything about it, but he has at least acknowledged her sentence.]

[priforprince]

Hmph.

[ His lack of inclination is noted. Yelling also did not fix things, so while Hibiki is still calm enough to not be incapable of doing anything else, she considers her next move. ]

Spine-binding glue does melt, you know.

[ Your pages are going to fall out if you don't attend to Shikyoin Hibiki's comfort. It's just a fact. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Hyaaaha ha ha ha ha! This is the Sacred Tome, inhabited by the most badass freaking Overlord in the entire cosmos! There's nothing that can destroy me!

[That might be stretching it just a bit, but he actually does have a legitimate point under all that. The Sacred Tome's resilience and his own power do make for quite a combination.]

[priforprince]

[ Agh, someone else's villain laugh, right in her ear!

Hibiki leans away, pressing her fingertips to her head. A stray vein pop appears amid her impeccably-coifed silver curls. ] I'd settle for something that silences you.

[ Attention, driver: while Hibiki is busy nursing a headache, this truck is headed for a cloud of rather ominously-covered gas. Avoid or YOLO? ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Hmph. Here I am actually trying to help, and this is the thanks I get. Do me a favor and talk to Elfnein's kid shinki sometime, so he understands the way of the world.

[That's as far as they get before YOLO SWAG INTO THE GAS -- what else would she expect from Zetta or his minions?]

should this be a serious cloud or a funny cloud?

[priforprince]

[ That actually distracts Hibiki! She turns to stare at him. ]

...You associate with Elfnein?

[ This is totally the thing to be asking when driving through a substance of uncertain potency. ]

Maybe they should be serious-ish for once >.>

[badassfreakingoverlord]

'Associate' is a hard word. But I'll corrupt her to the path of evil yet -- pfagh!

[Okay, what the heck is this stuff? It tastes like rotten eggs and burning!]

hibiki might be....sealrious

[priforprince]

HRAKH!!

[ Hibiki also hunches over, hand over her mouth, eyes squeezed shut. All thoughts of the strange company her talent agency keeps are swept out of her mind by EXTREME DISCOMFORT.

Not....breath....lungs....throat.......

She's a....she's a performer, those are sacred......!!!

Her lung capacity is excellent, though, based on the sheer volume of the hacking going on over here. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[Aaah, ask the book, they're overrated.]

[Zetta clears his (lack of a throat), making smacking noises as he tries to work the last of the crud out of his mouth.]

That was weird. As a demon, stuff like that shouldn't really affect me.

[priforprince]

Save your breath.

[ For someone who cares.

And, just as Hibiki thinks that, she sees a silhouette in the mist. Her head lifts, and she blinks. That's...that's impossible.

What would she be doing here? ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

You know perfectly well telling me that will just make me talk more.

[Zetta makes this statement calmly, even reasonably, as if it's simple logic. Meanwhile, the truck rolls on -- towards that envisioned silhouette, as it happens.]

[priforprince]

[ The closer they get, the more Hibiki's convinced. That's....that's....

At long last..... ]

--Pull over.

[ She doesn't even respond to Zetta's riposte. Her attention is completely fixed on something up ahead that it's entirely likely only she can see. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[...What the?]

[She actually seems serious, and not even in the "angry yelly Hibiki" way. Or the "scornful, condescending Hibiki" way. Or the "over-the-top, way-too-committed Hibiki" way. Or -- well, he could go on, but this is different.]

[With a mental command, the minion who's driving stops the truck. Not even suddenly, actually gracefully.]

this tag goes out to tenoh haruka, who has no time for such shit

[priforprince]

This shouldn't be...

[ Really, Hibiki should be listening to her more suspicious side right now. It would behoove her, as the Cool Older Antihero, to not fall for stupid traps (and then yell at the kids about it). She will have a genre crisis later.

Right now, though, she is having a gay seal crisis. She's out of the truck before it's even finished moving, and taking off at a run, an actual run. Her mind has fixed on that silhouette, and she literally cannot see anything else.

What's the meaning of this?! Why has this figure appeared before her?? Is her wistful, tortured longing so great she's hallucinating, or.....or....

or...... ]

FUWARI!!