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

[chibisu]

"Yeah, you have to put it on right away, Kimi!" And so, pressured by two small children, Kimi obeys, stuck between laughing and coughing sporadically. Ebisu watches him carefully, making sure he puts it on correctly, before he finally eases up.

At least not being lovingly harassed gives Kimi a chance to finally speak up, although that might be the mask at work. "Yes, I'd let you name me. It would be easier for me to come help you get things if I were named, right? I'm already a nora, after all." It would also help him keep an eye on the kid, as well... A nora is a lot easier to ignore or miss in comparison to his God of Fortune master. Hopefully Heaven will continue to remain stubborn on that front, anyway. "I'll only help against ayakashi. I don't like hurting other people."

Or, rather, he doesn't care himself if it actually comes to the rest of Heaven, but just thinking of betraying Ebisu's trust would kill him inside. Literally.

Said god reaches up to squeeze his hand for a moment, concerned, before he gets back to finishing the rest of the contract. "I'll finish up with the rules of staying at my shrines." It will be basic stuff, nothing that Sotero should have any issues against.

...Unless being a god of fire means he's opposed to regular baths and basic hygiene.

[veiledflame]

"If you're okay with it," Sotero says, slowly, glancing back and forth between Kimi and Ebisu again to be sure, "then, okay. I don't have any shinki. But that's only if I'm staying in Ebisu's temple, right?"

He chews on his lower lip, watching as Ebisu types up the rules of staying at his shrine. From his silence, he doesn't seem to have any problems with basic hygiene.

[chibisu]

"I'm sure," Kimi promises, muffled through the gas mask, and Ebisu pauses for only a moment before nodding as well.

"If the two of you make a decision for anything more long term, then that's your business, but this would only be for the duration of time that you're interested in staying in my temple." Finishing off with the contract, he twists around to face Sotero. "But! You have to be very careful when it comes to taking care of Kimi!"

"Young Master...."

"He's the type of person who, if you're not paying attention, he'll not let you know that he's actually really worried about something because he smiles a lot. We still need him to work at my temple a lot since we're so understaffed, but if you take him out for an entire day, be careful how many energy drinks he has. If he drinks more than five in a day, then he ends up sleeping really badly later in the week. You also need to make sure he eats well. He can cook on his own, but, when he does that, he tends to just sneak food from what he's cooking instead of having a full meal. Eat together with him if you're going to be together for extended periods of time."

"Young master, I'm not a gerbil you have to leave detailed caretaking instructions for, I promise." He sounds more amused than anything, however.

[veiledflame]

Sotero is intent on Ebisu for the whole series of instructions, nodding earnestly at each sentence. As Kimi objects, he looks up at him and reaches out to pat his forearm reassuringly.

"But it's important to take care of you, isn't it?"

Especially if Kimi forgets to eat and drinks too many energy drinks. If he's going to have a shinki even for a short time, he has to take great care.

[chibisu]

"Yeah, it's important, Kimi," Ebisu tells him earnestly, patting him as well. "It will be alright." It has to be alright. If he lost another one of his shinki... It'd be horrible, especially if he didn't try anything to help keep it from happening.

"Yes, yes..." Kimi surrenders, eyes shining with amusement. "Then, do you want to name me now, or wait until you come to one of the shrines?"

"Oh, I need to make sure this is on the contract too..." But it will only take a moment. It's all mostly written out, after all.

[veiledflame]

"I'll do it now," Sotero says, and takes a step back, lifting his hand as he looks up at Kimi. It hadn't been much of a touch on Kimi's forearm, but he may notice, over the next few hours, that he feels more emotional than usual, and self-control is more challenging.

"My name is Sotero. Grasping thy true name, I bind thee here; with borrowed name, I dub thee my servant. The name answers, the vessel to sound. The name, Kiyoshi. The vessel, Chuu. Come, Chuuki!"

1/3

[chibisu]

As the spell is said, Ebisu squeezes Kimi's hand one more time before the kanji of his new name burns bright and his body dissolves into light. It goes straight into Sotero's hand, solidifying neatly into carefully tempered metal- and the feelings of a new bond, a shimmering nervousness that's now gotten stronger as the seconds have passed. Ebisu was absolutely right on that "hides his feelings with a smile" part.

2/3

[chibisu]

"You can't be serious?"

A hushed whisper, rough with exhaustion- Kimi's voice the source. Although... Not "Kimi" right now. Not "Kiyoshi" either. There is no one else to hear him, not out here in the woods where even trees are fallen against one another and upturned from their place in the earth. There is no one else to hear him save for one other person, standing before him. He looks the way "Kimi" sounds: haggard, bags heavy under his eyes, and clothes ruined with dirt and ash. Clothes that are far from modern, in fact. They're the traditional kind of clothes from history, for that of a common man.

And there's no doubt that, here in the woods with only themselves in dirty clothing, they're both common men.

The other man gestures frantically, tossing his hands toward the earth, gesturing his words as if they'll bear seed. "I'm not! Masao, you're too soft-"

A flare of aggravation flickers through him. "Were you saying that when I helped put out the fire in your home, Maon?"

Maon talks over him, not noticing or perhaps even ignoring what he's saying. "-but even you have to think that it's suspicious that the wells have become so unclean! The earth shook because we displeased the gods, that much is obvious, but for this, too? It has to be the work of those outsiders, conspiring against us."

Yet again, another burst of aggravation, stronger now. Hotter. "Or perhaps that, too, is the gods."

"We have been punished enough by them! They would not-"

"Susanoo-no-Mikoto threw a dead horse in his beloved and honorable sister's loom," he says, temper snapping, and he pushes himself up to his feet. "Just like you are trying to throw a rotting carcass into the strings of our village. We have enough disaster to deal with, alright?" Making his way past his friend roughly, Masao raises up a hand. "I came out here because you said you had something important and secret to tell me, but this is ridiculous. I am going back to help everyone clean up. Cool your head and then do the same."

He's almost at the point where the trees manage to still form a line around the disaster-born clearing when Maon speaks up again. "So that's how it is... I'll have to do it on my own, then."

Masao jolt to a stop, heat flushing ice cold throughout the whole of him. "Maon..." He twists around, face contorted into concern and betrayal both. "What are you thinking of doing, exactly?"

There's no eye contact, only a shadowed gazed and set jaw. "What's needed to be done for all of us."

"All of us but a single family." His own jaw is so tight that it hurts past all the exhaustion in his body. Masao twists on his heel, mind already set, but he only makes it a few feet before there's rushing footsteps behind him and a grip snapping around his arm. He jolts forward, feet nearly going out beneath himeslf. "Hey-!"

"Don't! Masao, don't you dare go tell them what I've told you-"

"Maon, let go of me!"

"-those people were never any friends of ours, and I can't-"

"Maon!"

But it's no use. Temper too heated, paranoia too stoked, and that grip too strong- Masao can't get free no matter how much he bargains or struggles. The woods echo with their scuffle. Desperate, Masao tries to twist and their feet tangle together clumsily. The fall, inevitable... and so, too, the result.

Earthquakes bring up so much that's been buried up to the surface. The only blessing was that when his head cracks against upturned rock, the pain is sharp for only for a moment... before the darkness washes over like a tide, dragging him under. Distantly, he can feel his body being moved, can hear Maon's voice going from bonfire paranoia to horrified shock, but it's all so distant. He's sinking, sinking, sinking...

3/3

[chibisu]

The light fades, revealing a nicely polished frying pan now in Sotero's hand, and Ebisu inches closer. "Ah.... So it's like that?"

There's the feeling, almost like a sound but not quite, of someone taking a deep breath through the connection Sotero now has. I guess third time means it's definitely not a coincidence, ha ha.

[veiledflame]

Being betrayed by his own family-- Sotero looks stricken as he stares down at the frying pan in his hand, that new thread of nervous tension in his mind hardly registering. His eyes well up, and he sniffles, scrubbing his nose with the arm of his hoodie. It leaves a wide ash streak across his face.

After a moment, swallowing, he gets enough composure back to look up at Ebisu and speak in a nearly normal tone.

"Third time? Hey--" He looks down at Kiyoshi. "--are you always a frying pan?"

He can't cook. He wonders if that's going to be a problem.

[chibisu]

Oh. Oh, he knows what this is about. After all, he's just recently named a new shinki as well. Ebisu digs through his pockets, which is a little harder considering what he's wearing. Thus, he's rather belated when he offers the handkerchief out. Well, better late than never

"Well, he's the knife when he's with me," Ebisu says plainly. "But I don't know what he was when he was named by his first god."

Fortunately, Kiyoshi can answer that for himself. I was a rolling mat for her. You know, like for sushi? I don't think she particularly cared for me like that.

[veiledflame]

"He says he was a sushi rolling mat," Sotero reports, and reaches out to accept the belated handkerchief, blowing his nose loudly on it. He looks down at the frying pan again.

"Hey, Kiyoshi, can you cook?"

Because, obviously, if everything he turns into is a kitchen utensil, he must be a great chef himself-- right?

[chibisu]

"Oh!" Ebisu sounds pleasantly surprised. "I bet one of my past incarnations must have known that." He had named him, after all, although Ebisu is only vaguely aware of the details of that time. Kimi is one of his younger shinki, although only relatively, and really only barely.

Meanwhile, even as he nods in answer to Sotero's own question, Kiyoshi answers himself. Ah, yeah. I cook for the- well, Ebisu-sama's temple as well. Well, me and some other people. One man alone cannot cook for a temple as big as Ebisu's. That's asking to die for a second time.

[veiledflame]

"Hey, you should teach me how to cook," Sotero says, grinning down at his skillet-- and then, reluctantly, he holds it out at arm's length. It's heavy; his arm trembles with the effort.

"Return, Kiyoshi."

It's not fair having him just be able to talk to Sotero, after all. Plus it's weird having to tell Ebisu what he says.

[chibisu]

"Whoa-" It feels a little funny, to be called out by a new name after so many decades of service under one... but it had felt funny when Ebisu had first named him, too. Kiyoshi- Kimi adjusts, making sure he doesn't lose his balance as he gains legs once more. Ebisu holds onto his hand automatically and, after a moment, he holds one out to Sotero.

"Well, you'll have to drop by the shrines then, right?"

Ebisu leans around him. "It's easy to find a good kitchen."

[veiledflame]

Sotero, swelling with obvious pride, takes Kiyoshi's hand and squeezes it.

"Yeah," he says, and nods to both of them. "Yeah, I will! Even if I'm not staying."

[chibisu]

"That's fine." Although, if Sotero doesn't stay, but still comes to visit... Now with a slightly renewed interest (as if it needed to get anymore intense), Ebisu blinks at Sotero.

"If you're coming to visit, and we're both sharing a shinki like this..." You know, openly, with him taking care of both of them, and there being no judgment about it. "Does that mean we're friends?"

That shinki at one of the training meals had certainly said it could be so easy, after all, and Ebisu has to admit he's intrigued by the idea.

[veiledflame]

"...Maybe," Sotero says, and then, in a lower, confessional tone: "I don't really know. I haven't had any friends before."

Humans can't see him, he doesn't have shinki, and other gods aren't safe to talk to, mostly.

But if Ebisu's okay... then maybe they can be friends.

[chibisu]

"I only have one," Ebisu confesses in an equally quiet tone. "I was told by someone that I should have more." Clearly humans are very experienced in this area, dead or not, so he's inclined to trust such stellar advice. He'd cared so much about it when he'd talked about it to him, after all! And none of his shinki have really corrected it.

It only makes sense.

[veiledflame]

"Really? Who's your friend?"

Clearly whoever told Ebisu that must be very experienced on the topic of friends; Sotero's never even had one, so Ebisu, it seems, has more friendship experience than he does.

[chibisu]

Well, it's not like there's any harm in telling him. "His name is Yato. He's a combat god." A very small, minor combat god, but a god of combat nonetheless. Even despite the fact that he's well aware that most of Heaven thinks his prior incarnation was a traitor, he's a little proud he was able to stand alongside a combat god in the Underworld.

[veiledflame]

"Seriously? That's awesome! Where from? I don't know that name." Sotero leans forward, beaming in excitement.

[chibisu]

"He's a Japanese god!" At least, he seems to be, as far as Ebisu himself understands. It's a little hard to tell, since... "But he's just a small one. I'd be surprised if anyone else knew his name yet. I'll tell you more when you come to visit, alright?"

[veiledflame]

"Yeah, okay," Sotero says, and, reluctantly, steps away. He pauses, and then hops up onto a small rock by the path, swinging his arms to keep his balance before he turns to look at Ebisu and his shinki.

"So I guess I should go work on the volcano now, huh? I'll do my best."

[chibisu]

"Yes, please!" Ebisu perks up, relieved. This will help at least a little bit, won't it? And it's much better than what he suspects Heaven's forces would do. Although that remind him...

"Be careful, alright? Even if we're gods who can reincarnate, you still need to take care of your life. That's what I was told."