001 | The Welcoming Feast

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: A little bit of explanation, thank goodness.
When: Early morning. (February 15, 2016)
Where: The Heavens. Specifically in the Meeting Hall.
Warnings: Exposition is coming your way, sit back and enjoy the show!



The Heavens have summoned you. And there is no way to turn down a summons from the Heavens. Of course, some of you know where you are and what you are probably doing here, but most of you might be completely confused as to what is going on. All gods have been ushered into the meeting hall, where every person suddenly becomes anonymous and obscured, while every shinki has been gathered up outside in the hallway, both sets to listen to the same message sent by Amaterasu herself. And while you cannot see her properly or really figure out what her voice sounds like, you definitely know that it's her speaking:

'Welcome, one and all, to Takamagahara. There are many new gods and shinki here today, and I hope you all find your stay pleasant. I wish that I could explain to you exactly why you find yourselves here now, but I am unsure of the details myself. Please make use of the shinki dedicated to our services in order to make yourself more acquainted with your new position. You can find them by looking for my golden insignia.

As compensation for the trouble you are all being put through, I have had a wonderful feast prepared. I only hope that it is to your liking. Feel free to eat and drink as much as you would like, though please do not leave before the clock chimes midnight, for that is when your homes will be prepared.

I ask that all pre-existing gods please help those new to our ways. Let them know what is and is not acceptable and what duties will be expected of them. I am counting on your all to support the Heavens in this confusing time as we attempt to sort things out.

Thank you all for your time. And I am truly sorry that you have found yourselves in this situation.

With that, the figure that is Amaterasu bows deeply and disappears from their sights. The gods are released from their chamber and the shinki are allowed to roam. All exits are manned by a white-clad shinki, bearing a golden, embroidered Chrysanthemum on their chests. So, technically, there is no way out. You can't even seem to teleport out by any means.

All that's really left to do is enjoy the food and hope that you'll actually be able to leave after the clock chimes midnight. Though the clock doesn't seem to work on a minute-by-minute basis either...



Banquet Hall

There is food from literally every culture and walk of life here. Everything is prepared gorgeously and deliciously, no expenses spared. There are shinki bearing the Chrysanthemum carrying out new platters of everything as it's eaten up and nothing seems to go hot or cold as time passes - it always at the perfect temperature for eating and it never tastes anything but delicious. Maybe there's a little magic making it taste so good...

On top of the delectable dinner, there are plenty of desserts and every kind of alcohol available and constantly being refilled. The liquor is being offered to gods and shinki alike, no matter how old they are/look. Let's hope that you can hold your alcohol.

Counselling

In the main hallway, there is an innocuous door with a small, nicely written sign that reads "Gentle Counselling". Inside the door is a small room with a few sweetly smiling shinki inside who are willing to listen to your problems and answer any questions you might have. They are also here to help out any gods that are having a hard time dealing with knowing about how their shinki died and also any shinki that is having trouble coming to terms with the fact that they are dead.

Did Someone Say Games?

A large room connected to the back of the banquet hall has a wide variety of games set up for everyone to enjoy. There are old-fashioned board games (like chess and Othello) as well as newer ones (like Candy Land and Sorry!). On top of that, there is every kind of console available with every video game ever made - and plenty of handheld devices for everyone to be able to play. The devices don't seem to work outside of this room, though, so you'll have to stay there if you want to keep playing. Gaming is, after all, a great way to get to know new people!

After Midnight

Finally, the clock starts to chime. It seems like it's been days and yet only minutes at the same time. Time seems to work so strangely here in Takamagahara and it's hard to keep up with what's going on. But now that the shinki guarding the doors have left their posts, you are more than welcome to leave. In fact, the Heavens seem to want you to leave because all of the food has disappeared, none of the games work anymore (including the board games, which keep flipping over when you try to play...), and the friendly shinki are smiling as they usher you out the doors.

You are welcome to start wandering around Takamagahara, but it's an ambiguous sort of place and might just take you straight home anyway. Feel free to go home and start bonding with your partner. Or sneak home with someone else because your partner is a meanie-pants. It's up to you!



In Summary:

• Amaterasu says you're stuck here and she doesn't know why. Sorry!
• There's lots of food to eat, though! Eat your fill.
• Oh, and there's booze too. Try not to get TOO drunk.
• Guidance/Grief counselling is available, if you need it.
• Use gaming to get close to others!
• Try to start bonding with your god/shinki. Or just form new friendships. Whatever you feel best doing!
• Have fun!

Comments

[roeh]

Shepard draws her mouth into a thin line and narrows her eyes. By the time he releases her, she practically throws her hand up and back at him but it's with calculated force that demonstrates she knows exactly what she's doing. And then everything smooths back into pleasant curves and soft edges. She splays her hands flat across the wood and drums her fingers thoughtfully.

"A genuine apocalypse huh?" It would sound like a wonder if it weren't such a tired subject for her already. She knows first hand that all fearing the reaper got you was dead. So she looks back. And she doesn't flinch. Even his threats ring with a kind of familiarity that does more to invigorate than startle her. Because there's been no evidence to indicate that the demons of their worlds had followed them here as of yet but he can sit next to her and prophesy all the same. What did that say about him?

"You're not the only one." Palming the bar once more for effect, she pushes her chair out, but not before swiping at the half empty bottle of tequila. Just because she knew how to play, didn't mean she found it any less bullshit. "Save it for someone who forgot their spine."

[jyajyaaan]

Vector holds her gaze a minute longer, and yeah, he can tell that that had overshot the mark. Ah well, even experts make mistakes. He likes her attitude less and less, though -- too much arrogance there, too much been there done that so I can see right through you even though she knows nothing about him or his circumstances yet.

"......." It wants to make him angry, but somehow there is a calm reigning inside of him instead that makes it impossible for him to seriously care. Wasn't that what the break within the Emperors had boiled down to in the end as well? Vector had seen the danger heading their way years prior to the rest. But the others had refused to even consider taking it seriously until there was no denying anymore that their world was literally being torn apart and then it had been too late for their stupid heroics. "That's what the others said before too."

All the previous steam for confrontation he has had vanishes as he grabs the fabric of his cowl and pulls it back into place with a practiced swiftness. "Until the bomb dropped."

[roeh]

So that's what he's sticking with? A lot of doomsday theatrics but none of the gospel to back it up. It's nothing if not suspect but she can play her cards close to her chest too. All it takes is a well timed bluff to make or break the game.

"Didn't you know?" Though she stands, tall in presence if not stature, her arm drapes casually over the back of her chair. She jams her thumb into the bottle's cap until it pops with a meager display of force and swagger.

"I'm the bomb squad." And she takes a swig.

Though her head cocks thoughtful to one side before she's finished. "But I wonder. Who does that make the bomb?" Because it's always a who. Behind the cold and senseless artillery, is the man that pulls the trigger, the mind that germinates the idea, the hydra with its million heads and a body to carry all the mayhem. The look she levels him is nothing short of accusative. If he really cared, if it's such a genuine concern, the onus is on him.

[jyajyaaan]

"Is that so?" He gives her an unreadable look before he lets out a tired laugh. This game has quickly started to bore him. "In that case we should have known better and called you, huh?"

Brushing his hand over the surface of the bar in a resigned gesture, he gives her the faceless equivalent of a face of somebody who is smiling because shit hit the fan just that bad that there's no other viable reaction left.

"The Astral's couldn't let us exist. I don't know why they felt that way, but it's quite laughable that a race that despises all kind of emotions hated the very thought of our existence enough to not only decide that our world should be wiped out but also actually went through with making and sending a bomb that could actually do just that."

He pauses, not to let the information sink in but simply to make sure he remembers all the names right.

"Getting information on anything that goes on in the Astral World is very risky and difficult, so I don't know if what I managed to get is even 100% right. The man who decided to send the bomb was an Astral named Eliphas. He is the leader and high priest of their world. The ones who delivered it and assembled and activated its key were an Astral that was simply known as the 'Astral Emissary' and a human boy named Yuma Tsukumo. The Barian leaders who failed to do anything about it were Nasch, Durbe, Merag, Mizael, Alit and Gilag.

We were wiped out for the crime of refusing to see our emotions as flaws that should be sins in the way of the eternal quest to 'rank up' into perfect beings." He laughs softly. "And because we don't have that pretty blue glow that Astrals get when they come to the human world, most likely. Makes them look like angels when they don't open their mouths."

[roeh]

Well that worked better than expected. Not exactly what she was looking for, but he had already established himself as the sort to be anything but forthcoming. But the rules of the game had changed and with that came new information, new holes to poke and prod should it come to that down the road. All she needs is a quick glance at her figurative hand and it's back on the table, face down. In the face of reserve, she is nothing if not resourceful.

"Well well well." She has to laugh and it's a dark and breathy thing that belongs to the night in which they were fast settling. There's a certain veracity to his story that she chooses to accept. Too long, too many details for it to be all wrong.

"When you get past the pissing contest, it turns out our stories have a few things in common after all." Not everything, but maybe it was enough. She turns and she leans against the chair and it would seem her attention isn't completely lost.

"The reapers are a race of sentient machines that hibernate out in deep space. They have it in for all organic life in the galaxy but instead of just wiping it out outright, they let it grow and develop like they're cultivating us for some kind of sick harvest, waiting until we're just ripe for the picking. They think, if that's what you want to call it, that they're above us, claiming they're some kind of higher form. The pinnacle of existence and we should just be so fucking glad to fit into their master plan."

Her words flow like they're carried on the tide of liquid courage. And within those currents, concealed just beneath the surface hides her roiling anger and frustration and emotions even baser still. That much was her own raw truth.

"Then one shows up right on our doorstep to start the cycle all over again, and the galaxy just buries it's collective head up it's collective ass. Because it's easier to dismiss the fairy tales than face the facts that are blowing up in their face."

So yeah. It's less been there done that and more, right there, doing that, right the fuck now until some other higher power comes along and decides her talents are better allocated elsewhere. So here she stands, and here she drinks.

"Sorry to hear it didn't work out for your kind though. Believe me that's not the way I want to hear any story end."

[jyajyaaan]

He raises a barely existing eyebrow when she begins to talk, but says nothing. Yet as her words keeps coming something in the look in his eyes changes and he curls and relaxes his fingers slowly until the expression inside his eyes sets into an ice scowl.

"You're right. That does sound familiar."

Same with the barely veiled onslaught of emotion she seems to be keeping back. Vector recognizes it from the times he heard similar notes in his own voice, although there is no telling whether their motivations are anything alike. It's a particular note, this kind of frustration. Like the ominous crack you have silently been waiting for all the time when walking over the barely cooled outer layer of the lava inside an active volcano... Dangerous, yet also promising.

What an interesting find.

"I regret an ending like that too," remembering her earlier words, he adds, "are you sure that nothing followed you here?" It's a wry jab, like a small nudge of the elbow noting that she's giving him pretty much the same thing she was so ready to disregard just a couple of minutes ago.

[roeh]

It's not so much that she was disregarding his words, just the one they were coming from. A person was like a puzzle and sometimes all the pieces were there, sometimes a few went missing and sometimes half the picture could be hidden away in a place that was never meant to be found. This guy was still orbiting erratically around the later. First impressions were named such for a reason and one can't be taken back so easily.

"If they did," she replies in her own time, after appearing to give it some real thought. "We're all fucked." And she means it. She has her own reasons for thinking it unlikely but coming from the realm of possibility, she's being honest. They would target where there is still life left to live but she imagines genocide is a pretty effective tool against the gods too.

"So what do you plan to do about it?" she says, appealing to his profound concern.

[jyajyaaan]

There is a subtle beat of silence as he assesses her words. They are fatalistic, but can't serve to worry him in the slightest. Impossible odds are the things Vector has been dealing with since forever, and he hasn't failed to majorly derail whatever cryptic demise's plans were even once.

"Me? Nothing." He seems honestly puzzled at the idea that he alone could be planning to do something about what he heard about just seconds prior. "I will do what I can once I see a reason to act, but this is not my jurisdiction nor level of authority to get involved with even theoretically at this point."

[roeh]

Just one more thing they have in common it would seem. Which begs the question. Who else shares such particularities. She turns in a slow wide fashion to scope out the rest of the room where the pleasant tones of clinking glasses and subdued murmurs pervade. One would think they were all here for a business party, but beneath that?

Even if she could gather that data -- impossible as it would be given the Shinki's particular condition -- what would she even do with it? Liara would know. Or even Miranda. And then Shepard would act but now she's on her own. Even more so in the present company, in spite of their similarities.

"Now you're starting to see it my way." She may be prone to action herself, but not as a needless exercise.

[jyajyaaan]

"Looking for the traitors among them?"

His own comment was cynic as he followed her gaze. He didn't see any similarities between them, past what he would consider a natural survival instinct that weeded out the hopelessly naive from those that could grow strong enough to actually start acting on the changes they dreamed of. His own stance remained sharp yet relaxed. Bored, if one didn't know how to read a Barian like him.

"You won't be able to find out who you can trust just like that. Good intentions can stab you in the back just as badly as bad ones."

Which was why he didn't spend a second on the decision whether he was going to trust his assigned shinki or not.

[roeh]

Of all the things to say. Her attention shifts back, sharp, needling, yet casual. "I don't expect to."

Which is to say she's better than that. She's been playing this game for a long time -- though not as long as him -- enough that she owes much her current standing to it. And when something has served you well for this long, it doesn't make sense to doubt it, especially not when circumstances are at their most dire.

"Doesn't mean you can't still tell a lot just by looking. And I expect we'll need to be doing a lot of that soon." Anything less, would be foolish, naive, an accession to fate even. But not tonight. Tonight she has a date with a bottle full of the worst intentions.

[jyajyaaan]

He subtly raises an eyebrow but says nothing. There is no need for it, after all. Silent understanding happens, even between strangers.

There is a loud moment of silence that stretches half a millennia before it snaps back into minutes when Vector finally shifts.

"You won't find what you're looking for at the bottom of a bottle, either." The game has just begun, and apparently nobody is quite sure what kind of game they are actually participating in here. Yet. Sooner or later it will happen. One piece will fall, then another, and suddenly a rush is going on when more and more realize what happens. Activity. Realizations. Emotions, struggles and being too late-s. He aims to stand above it all and watch it like one who plays when that time comes.

"Whatever it is, it's already started. It's happening." He raises his chin in a nod towards everyone in the room. "A big cheer to us all, and might the most see an end worth playing."

[roeh]

Vector has earned himself a look of near affront as a response before it shifts back to the bottle. He's right of course. What's done is done and when you play the game you stick with the hand you're dealt with because there's no leaving the table. You keep playing till the end. Sooner or later, that meant the same thing for everyone. At least, Shepard was the sort that always preferred the bang to a whimper.

But that didn't mean she wouldn't rage, burning up in the absence of an outlet, a goal, something to point her cross hairs at. She gives the bottle a shake and pours herself in where the drink empties. Her glare turns to a smirk as she takes another defiant swig.

"For some of us there is no bottom." Leaning over, his glass finds itself filled one more time. "But I appreciate the concern."

Mocking, she gives a final salute, a toast. To the very end.