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

[lookingforhead]

(ooc: sorry, this past week got away from me)

To attack us off guard before you and your army come in! To weaken us or break our defenses!

[Really, he should know more about this sort of thing. What sort of alien is he!

And Celty doesn't know it but there indeed are a couple of aliens in the heavens, including some people she's met.

But she types up one last comment with a still shaky hand.]

No w surrender
and I'lll task you to to the gods nin charge and they8'll deciduous what today with you.

[fortunesmiles]

[Komaeda doesn't comment on the spelling errors; he can make out what she's saying from context. He shakes his head bemusedly.]

I don't know why you're so convinced I'm an alien...but I wasn't asking why an alien would be in the heavens, I was asking how an alien could be in the heavens. We're all essentially spirits here, aren't we? And aliens would probably be mortal...so they could hardly invade the Far Shore, right? If they were going to appear anywhere, they'd appear on the Near Shore. People who believe in aliens have talked about sightings of them and things there, right? So if you believe in aliens, and the stories about aliens from the Near Shore...then for aliens to have interacted with humans and been seen by them, that means that aliens are mortal. So they couldn't be here.

I guess that might not be enough to convince you, though...is there anything I can do to prove I'm not an alien to you? I've come too far to investigate the volcano just to get turned around and hauled back before the old gods for something baseless...

[Komaeda considers, then snaps his fingers.] Ah, I know! Would calling my shinki help? An alien wouldn't have a shinki...well, I guess not unless the alien belonged in the Far Shore anyway. I suppose there's nothing stopping the heavens from pulling in aliens and making them gods...actually, I guess if most of us are from different worlds, we're all aliens to each other anyway...

[Komaeda, stop getting lost in your musings when a Very Serious Accusation is being levied against you.]

[lookingforhead]

[His arguments are logical, but they're not precisely convincing. A problem with an irrational fear is that the arguments against it can be met with circular responses such as "but aliens". And with the gases interfering with her senses and thoughts she's having trouble finding her own footing in all of this.

And really, summoning a shinki, teleporting matter into a space? Still alien tactics. But a rumble of the ground beneath her does manage to stir her back to a touch of reason before she can get caught up in the "we're all aliens" comment.]

Look, whatever you are, we need to stop this volcano before it kills us all!

[fortunesmiles]

Well, I was trying to make my way to the top by teleporting in small jumps...I thought a teleport all the way up might be risky, if I can't see the terrain.

That said, I was just going up to investigate...I don't know how anyone can stop a volcano...maybe if someone had a particularly handy and specific god power, I suppose...? I could try to use mine when I get there, I guess, but - I wonder if that would really be sufficient.

[lookingforhead]

[Celty pauses. She understands the point about the teleporting, at least in the concept of the small jumps. It makes sense. But maybe this alien isn't as all powerful as she feared if he's being this way about being told to fix it. Maybe he's not the source after all.

But the gas still has her firmly and wrongly on the alien line.

In any case, her fear has quelled enough that she feels confident enough again to move. Her helmet tilts forward questioningly at him before she turns, gesturing for him to follow as she starts to trudge her way up the mountain once more.

One way or another, this eruption needs to be stopped.]

[fortunesmiles]

[Well, Komaeda seems to have acquired a very unusual companion(and he hasn't even seen her take her helmet off yet). But he can be surprisingly biddable, and someone so strange intrigues him. So he follows after her, leaving off of his teleporting for now.]

Do you have a plan?

[lookingforhead]

[Really, she's just unusual all around, which is pretty usual back where she came from back in life. And as she tromps off she holds her phone back at him with her roughly intended reply.]

We'll get up to the top. And then we'll see.

[Once the fumes eventually wear off she's bound to apologize to him severely and repeatedly for her behavior.]