39 - Where Do We Stand?

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Help the Heavens investigate what remains of the cult and their compound
When: May 2
Where: A converted farm on the rural edge of the Tokyo metro area
Summary: Characters can discuss what they know about the cult, choose how much or how little they tell the Heavens' representative Suijin, and help make decisions about where to go from here.






This place was once a farm, then rebuilt into a compound with a big central building, heavy concrete walls and plenty of outdoor spaces for ritual magic. Now, the rooftop has caved in, and the main floor has collapsed as well, leaving a basement open to the skies above. All around, police tape from a local Near Shore department has quarantined off the area. Amaterasu's shinki, in cooperation with those from Suijin, Fuujin, and Raijin have managed to take shifts warning miscreants and the police away from the area, but left the tape to help with those efforts. Just beyond the tape, they've now put up Borderlines to safely guard against ayakashi for the duration of this meeting, but they're pretty far out of earshot and very focused.

Letter of Invitation

Everyone should have seen the digital letter that Amaterasu sent out, but just in case, later that day each temple receives a single letter, with a wax seal on it with Amaterasu's chrysanthemum as the emblem. It is a reproduction of the same digital letter that Amaterasu crafted the day before; it's not printed out, but rather handwritten with painstaking accuracy. The shinki could be from Amaterasu, Suijin, Raijin, or Fuujin, and they will not force anyone to take the letter, in particular if they're told that the god/dess already saw the message on their phone earlier.

Early Arrival

There's a set time that Suijin will arrive - Noon - but as everyone is encouraged to come early, it is possible you are one of the first or last to arrive among the "early" crowd. How did you get there? Was it by stealth or impossible to miss, even by any Near Shore people in the area?

Topics of Discussion

Now is your chance to discuss with your fellows what you know, don't know, wish you knew, etc. about the cult or their compound. Do your characters think they are still being spied on by Heavens and want to hold back, or are they reasonably confident speaking out with the protecting shinki so far away? At the very least, none of the shinki are making very obvious attempts to return to the compound itself. For the very paranoid, there are little alcoves out of visual range or a small room that still has a door on it, albeit not a ceiling.

Suijin's Arrival

Suijin arrives at the appointed time, stepping onto the compound's front drive and under the police tape at precisely Noon. She comes in the capacity of official counselor for Amaterasu. OOCly, this thread will be free-form individual threading.

After her arrival, we will have mirrored top-level comments with Suijin supplying a piece of information as a jumping off point for discussions about each topic. From that point, it will be individual threading, or multi-character threads if you would like. All of these threads will still be addressed to the group at large, loud enough for them to hear and jump in if players would like.

Redacted April 7th via OOC post: We will run this similar to how we ran the Compound's Second Fight: there will be an opportunity for Suijin and/or her shinki to speak, then characters will be given free reign to respond to her and amongst themselves for a period of time. Then, another "round" will begin with Suijin and/or her shinki's responses to the characters. This structure allows for characters to still react with late comments or reactions to anything being said, or jump in whenever they feel comfortable speaking up.

In Summary:

• Talk amongst yourselves before Suijin arrives
• Check out the damage inflicted on the Compound
• Discuss next steps with Suijin, if you would like
• Have fun~

Comments

[unlucky7]

The fact there wasn't a massive spate of deaths or disappearances is the sign the crystal and dolls are probably somewhere safe. Given police looking around, things were probably moved to prevent any of them from moving things. But if Heaven still has everything under custody, that doesn't necessarily mean the dolls are safe.

"That is a concern of mine. However, if getting rid of us was so easy, why didn't they attack the dolls instead of us?"

[revolutionfalcon]

"I've been wondering about that myself since it happened."

Shun's remark comes without the same kind of surprise at the deep connection the dolls seem to have to them, since he and Ginia already discussed it, but he does seem a little bothered by the overall situation. "They seemed to be protecting the crystal and the altar, and if it was being kept in the basement, they would've had plenty of opportunities to attack us with it. But they didn't. I don't like how little we know about the circumstances surrounding that."

[bakusatsuo]

Bakugou makes an irritated sound in the back of his throat. "None of this shit makes sense. If they wanted us destroyed, it seems like they had the tools to do it already. The fact that they didn't makes it seem like they want us alive...but they sure ha haven't been holding back on attacking us, either. Hell, us new gods have been fielding most of their bullshit while the old gods sit on their asses, so we're getting more of their shit than anyone else. Which doesn't make sense, either, 'cause if what they want is new gods who actually give a shit in the heavens, we're already pretty close to that...but they act like they don't even know we're new, or that there's any difference between us and the old gods."

He folds his arms over his chest. "I can only see three ways any of this shit adds up to something logical. One, whatever's bringing in new gods - in a conveniently similar way to what the cult wants - is actually somehow unconnected to the cult, which seems pretty fucking farfetched."

He ticks the points off on his fingers. "Two, the cult tried some bullshit to spawn in new gods - and it worked, that's where we've been coming from. But they didn't realize it worked, and they gave up on that to just attack the heavens directly. So they think we're all old gods still.

"Or three, the cult is being real goddamn manipulative. They know we're new gods, and they know that the old gods are one and all bastard enough to use us as foot soldiers and cannon fodder against everything the cult throws at us while simultaneously looking down their noses at us. In other words, the cult's using their own actions to give us first-hand experience of how shitty the old gods are and how little they give a damn about anyone but themselves, indirectly trying to encourage a heavenly schism by making us resent the old gods as much as they do."

[unlucky7]

They're good points. The first is a bit too farfetched of a coincidence to quite work. Not an idea that should be dismissed off-hand and there have been stranger coincidences, but it falls lower on the list.

The second point is certainly a fair one. Votelli and Sotero seem fully birthed into existence as themselves, but the new generation of gods are all assuming the mantles of someone else. While they're all acknowledged as new reincarnations by all pantheons, something certainly broke in the system. With no visible change in the system, it's possible the cult moved to a new tactic.

And for the third point...

"The second point makes sense. It's strange enough Egyptian and Greek and Roman and etc. gods are now tied to Japan and gaining popularity here, but from a Near Shore perspective, the gods didn't change.

"I can see the third point too." Though no one here has also seen how truly bad Heaven can get. She has the stories of her temple, she's seen Takami's nightmare, but that's still not the same as living through a massacre. "I think the cult has continued to be more of a thorn, but the inaction of the old gods are frustrating as well as their unwillingness to listen. I think it's also possible there's an old god or shinki manipulating the cult to antagonize us and hoping to take advantage of a schism that might occur."

[bakusatsuo]

"There's a chance that how goddamn idiotic and ineffectual the old gods have been is a product of the traitor, too," Bakugou grunts, almost seeming unwilling to concede that the old gods might not be intentional bastards. "They could be spreading condescension or shit-talking us new gods behind the scenes, which could explain how little the old gods give a shit about us and how much they've been looking down on us. Especially if whoever it is got to be on the decision-making committee for having us clean up every goddamn mess that comes down the pipe, with no help from any of the old gods.

"I don't know if the old gods need any help or encouragement to be assholes to us, but if getting the old gods and new gods at each other's throats is what they want, it's a possibility. It's definitely a fucking fact that if the old gods were trying to make us resent them, they couldn't be doing a much better job than they already are. So the million dollar question is how much of all this bullshit has been arrogant stupidity, and how much of it was someone trying to piss us off?"

[unlucky7]

"The question is who benefits the most either from us being here or from our sudden removal? There is the greater reality that we exist on a different scale of time than the old. From what I've been told by my temple, the old gods cooperate with each other far less than our generation does with each other. A year is also nothing compared to centuries. We could be ignored because we could be fleeting in their eyes."

Ginia levels a look at Shun and lightly waggles her phone toward him before she resumes typing.

"However, they can't ignore you, Hakkai, and Hibiki have become Gods of Fortune in such a short span. Maybe now they're paying attention to us more. Maybe now we're a threat. So again. Who benefits the most?"

[bakusatsuo]

"Who benefits the most from us being here is obvious enough," Bakugou growls. "The old gods do. They've been treating us like fucking servants and cannon fodder from the minute we arrived. And concern? Appreciation? Barely seen a single goddamn scrap of it.

"You remember that ape monster that tried to level the western district? You ever hear word one from the old gods about it? And who fucking dealt with it? Me, my exemplar, and Goku. Did the old gods even notice? Does the western district just not matter that much, since it's almost all new gods? They don't give a fuck about us...but they'll use us all day long, if we let 'em. I hope for their sakes someone is encouraging them to treat us like shit, because if they're just naturally this level of bastard then they're walking arguments for blasphemy."

He folds his arms with a snort. "As for who'd be better off with us gone, who knows. Seems like the cult's the group trying to get rid of us, although search me if I can figure out why. Maybe the cult's master plan is to make the gods become so reliant on outsourcing all their work to us that getting rid of us would cripple 'em." The last remark is accompanied by another, more sardonic snort. "I don't think the old gods would cry to see us gone...but considering how much heavy lifting we're doing for 'em, I'm not sure they'd actively try to get rid of us, either. Not when we're so useful. And then they'd have to field all this shit on their own, which based on their results they're completely unequipped to handle."