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]

[ Now that Hibiki has gotten what she wants, she doesn't much seem to care about her victory. She sits back down, legs further apart than normal. The better to hunch over them and brood.

Somehow she is affecting the lighting on this side of the truck and this side of the truck only. She is sitting half in light and half in shadow, watching the scenery out of the side of the truck that doesn't involve having to look at anybody.

Even when moody, she's moody in Her Style. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[Zetta has got to figure out how she does that without any meaningful mana power to speak of.]

...All right. That's it. It's time for drastic measures.

Open the glove compartment.

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki, deep in the throes of a Very Important Sulk, refuses to comply.

She will move out of the way if the driver ends up reaching over one-handedly to obey its master, though. Mostly to avoid being touched. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[...Wait, hold on, this won't work if Hibiki doesn't do it.]

...Look, if you don't open the glove compartment, which I specifically warned you not to open before, I'll go back to having however extensive a one-sided discussion about this secret romance life of yours it takes to snap you out of this sulk. And neither of us want to go down that path. I was much happier thinking of you as a leggy annoyance instead of someone with, I don't know, feelings and stuff, and I'm pretty sure we both want to erase that from our minds and get back to what really matters.

So freaking work with me here!

[priforprince]

[ He's going to make good on that threat, isn't he. Hibiki sighs. It is a sigh that starts at the ribbons on her shoes and ends all the way up at her ahoge. ]

If this is a gag, I'm teleporting.

[ Don't ask why she hasn't already. It has everything to do with how much more fitting it is for a Celebrity to not have to bother doing small things, like transporting themselves, under their own power.

And yet, she can't risk his saying more things like "br---"

--like that thing he said earlier again. So it is with exaggerated weary grudginess that Hibiki pulls open this glove compartment, exposing herself to ----- ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Hibiki, dood!

[Like their butts are spring-loaded -- or perhaps more accurately, like they were crammed in a glove compartment without regard for physics -- the three Prinnies spring out to glomp onto her with Prinny hugs.]

Cheer up, dood! The world's a sadder place without your elegant smile!

Yeah, also it's really weird to see you all sad, dood. That's not like you!

1/2

[priforprince]

[ SO IT WAS PRINNIES!!! ]

2/2

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki is unable to teleport, and to tsukkomi, for two reasons:

1) The Prinnies are affixed to her person. If she leaves, they go with her.

2) The moment the first "dood" smacked against her face, she froze into a solid stone statue. This side of the truck may now be listing from the extra weight. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[The Prinnies, heedless of Hibiki's distress, continue to cling to her -- one on each shoulder and one on her waist, all of them utterly intent on hugging the misery out of her.]

[priforprince]

[ The misery is not exactly flowing in the direction the Prinnies desire.

Instead, having discovered that fleeing within herself hasn't helped her escape this fate - ]

H-HAGH! HUAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!

[ Hibiki returns to herself only to begin flailing around with all four limbs. One hand strikes the lever on the side door, which opens

and Hibiki half-falls, half throws herself from the moving vehicle in a confused attempt to stop, drop, and roll the Prinnies off of her. Away!! She has to get -- away!!!!!!! ]

WAAAAAUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHGGHGHGH!!!

[badassfreakingoverlord]

There we go! That's much more like --

[Zetta pauses as Hibiki flings herself out of the vehicle. Had he just driven her to the point of extinguishing herself?]

[...or had she forgotten how subject Prinnies are to explosions when they go flying?]

1/hibiki

[priforprince]

[ Forget? Nonsense! Geniuses never forget!

They merely, on occasion, overlook.... ]

2/hibiki

[priforprince]

hibiki/3

[priforprince]

[ When the smoke (and the rain of rainbow onomatopoeia, hope that truck is durable) clears, the volcano has an additional crater whose origin had nothing to do with divine plate tectonics.

Planted in the center, as if someone were hoping for a good crop of princes this year by digging the seeds in deep, is Shikyoin Hibiki.

She is probably not dead. Dead people don't fill the air with pent-up temper pressure.

Or twitch. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Hyaaaha ha ha ha ha! Yes, she's definitely back to normal! [This is definitely what Zetta considers normal for Hibiki, as he looks down at her from the open door where the truck has stopped. Protected by his mana power, the vehicle will function perfectly well until it reaches 0 hit points, of course!]

Once again, the intelligence and wisdom of the Overlord has won the day!

[The rim of the crater cracks ominously beneath the truck's wheels.]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki twitches some more. This sends minute vibrations up towards the truck through the battered surface of the volcano.

Sure would be a problem if anybody in that truck moved around too much..... ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[So, uh, the Victory Dance of Supreme Badassery is a bad ideas, huh?]

[Welp, someone should have told Zetta that before he got to the triple-spin backflip part...]

[With a decisive whump, the rim gives way, and the truck topples sideways down the crater wall.]

[priforprince]

[ It will conveniently somehow land with an open portion right where Hibiki is lying, so that she won't be crushed!

And Zetta, if not secured, may fall on her head!

Good job, everyone. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[So there they are. Beneath a pickup truck, stuck through the sunroof. Minions litter the ground like a train leading up to them. Zetta is on Hibiki's head like a hat, staring up at the driver's seat blankly.]

[That's when lava surges over the edge of the crater.]

[priforprince]

[ - is it getting hot in - ]

HRK!

[ Hibiki teleports just in time. She was only trying to save herself, but as she was wearing sentient headwear at the time, the other god gets to come too.

If it's any consolation, that truck sounds like it was a goner even before molten rock entered the equation. ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Well this --

[And then Zetta is teleported! What the hell?!]

H-hey! I have minions to save! Why are you kidnapping me?!

[priforprince]

[ Oh that's it. Hibiki leaps to her feet, snatches Zetta from her head, and tries to toss him down. So there! ]

Why are you hitchhiking on my self-preservation if you wished to remain?!

[ Yes, things have definitely returned to normal.

"Normal."

They're in Apollo's temple now, but since Zetta and Hibiki aren't in physical contact any more, Zetta doesn't have to stay... ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Self-preservation? I'm offended! As if I'd have left you to die to lava! That would be absolutely pathetic of me!

[Zetta's plan appears to be 'argue with Hibiki' more than anything. After all, his pride is much more important than anything else!]

[priforprince]

Are you going to remove yourself or not?!

[ Hibiki says nothing about whether or not she would have saved Zetta voluntarily, had her teleporting been a little less instinctual. Which of them is the villain and which is the dashing prince with the secret sadness, again?

Or, then again, she could be trying to prompt him back to do that saving. But how likely is that? ]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

[It's pretty obvious which is which.]

Not until you stop insulting my pride as an Overlord! I won't abide you harboring such distasteful thoughts about me!