thenearshore | 003 | Save The Boats

003 | Save The Boats

Who: Everyone!
What: It's a few days after Hinamatsuri - time for a party!
When: Late evening (March 5, 2016) into early morning (March 6, 2016)
Where: The banks of the Kamo River
Summary: The Heavens have thrown together an outdoor party to celebrate Spring and ALSO to ask the Far Shore residents to keep the boats from Hinamatsuri from coming to shore.

Hinamatsuri is celebrated in Japan on March 3 every year. It is a festival to celebrate all of the young girls of Japan, not as important as their own birthdays, but certainly a big day for all families with a little girl among their household. It's perfectly normal for all of the cuties to dress up and get all sorts of delightful treats out of the day.

One of the normal festivities is a ceremony during which ornamental dolls are placed on tiers on boats and floated down the river. It is thought that all of the bad luck for the coming year floats down the river with the dolls, taking that bad luck away from their young girls to keep them safe for another year.

But the boats don't always make it all the way down the river like they're supposed to, and the Heavens sometimes like to make sure that the year will be full of less bad luck for the people of Japan. So they have decided to have the almighty gods do some legwork and disguised it as a fun Springtime party! They expect gods and shinki alike to push the boats away from the shoreline wherever they see them venturing near.

New gods and shinki will have been ushered immediately to the party as well, given all of the normal information, and then left to mingle among their new cohorts. This is a perfect opportunity to introduce the newbies to both their co-workers and the kinds of jobs they'll be expected to perform.

Buffet

A luxurious buffet is set up for everyone to enjoy. There are all kinds of foods to enjoy, though they all seem to be of a local variety. The Heavens have apparently used the funding from their own temples to purchase local food and support local businesses at the same time. In particular among the food and copious amounts of booze, you will find some Hinamatsuri staples - hina-arare, hishi mochi, chirashizushi, and a salt-based clam soup called ushijiru. Among the booze you'll find shirozake, a sake made from fermented rice, also a regular fare of Hinamatsuri.

The Boats

As if they are literally overflowing with bad luck, the boats seem to be making a desperate attempt to land themselves upon the shoreline. They are reluctant to make their way back into the water and will gladly run people down if they're allowed to and are happy to ram into someone over and over again to try and get their way. When they are finally pushed back to the center of the river, they will begrudgingly continue on their way. Of course, some of them will simply sink because of the weight of all that bad luck, but who can really blame them.

Children

As expected of a day dedicated to celebrating children, there are dozens of children running around and playing games during the festivities. It's hard to distinguish, but some of them appear to be human children while others are shinki. They are happy to let anyone in on their games and will gladly bother adults to come play with them or to let them try some of the liquor. (Mods will be available to play out any child interactions you may want, just flag us down.)

Counselling

Off to the side, there is a tiny table set up with a small, nicely written sign that reads "Gentle Counselling". On the other side of the table is a sweetly smiling shinki who is willing to listen to your problems and answer any questions you might have. She is also here to help out any gods that are having a hard time dealing with knowing about how their shinki died and any shinki that is having trouble coming to terms with the fact that they are dead.

In Summary:

Keep the boats off the shore
Enjoy the food and booze and spring atmosphere
Have some fun with cute little kids
Seek counselling if you need it!
Flag the mods in the top thread if you'd like an NPC
Have fun~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Is that to say you're familiar with this holiday?" Slaine can't help asking when he overhears her comment. Given a moment to reflect, he straightens his posture and supposes that just blurting a question out like that isn't terribly polite, and may not be received well. "...That is...if you don't mind my asking."

A fine recovery, yes...hopefully.

"Hmph?" Yuuki, don't try to reply when you've just stuffed mochi in your mouth...

She pauses to swallow before giving a proper reply, at least. "Maybe? I know I've heard about it before. What I meant was, whenever the Heavens put out food for us, it's always really delicious!" Whoever's in charge of providing meals clearly has some excellent taste!

"So you've been to this sort of event before? I'm rather sure I haven't." Slaine's quite confident in that fact, if nothing else. He wasn't in the service of the gods until very recently, and now here he is, feeling out of place and out of his depth. But he has to do what he can, doesn't he?

"If I might ask...is there anything good for someone new to know?" A pause, and he thinks to add, "That is, if it's not an imposition."

Oooh. "You're a new shinki, then?" Since it sounds like he's got some memory problems...

She hums thoughtfully into her food, thinking back to when she first arrived. It wasn't even that long ago, yet. "...You should find out who your god is. You'll be living with them from now on, and if you ever run into ayakashi, you'll need to fight together. We actually got a big attack not too long ago, so try asking your god to summon you in your vessel form before so you know what you can do." She pauses in her eating to tug down her collar just down to her collarbone, revealing the top of a kanji character.

"Your vessel name should be somewhere like this! It's not the same for everybody, though."

"Ah...I know who she is, at least-" He pauses to scan the crowd, eventually spotting a familiar face and pointing her out briefly. Pointing is rude, he understands, but it seems the most immediate way to convey what little he does know of his circumstances, as of yet. With the passage of a few moments, he lets his hand drop to his side once again.

It feels as though there's far more he isn't aware of. That much seems clear to him as he levels his gaze back on present company. "I haven't found a mark like that, but I'll be sure to ask her. I'm grateful for the information; I get the impression I know far less than I should."

Edited (added a bit, sorry for the edit) 2016-04-18 04:46 (UTC)

She waves her hand as though waving away the very idea. "None of us knew what was going on when we first became shinki. Poor Yukine, he has to keep explaining it to all of us." And this is why she didn't find out about the boundary until right before going out to deal with a swarm of ayakashi, yikes.

...Speaking of! "There's some stuff you can do by yourself, too! Like drawing boundaries." She doesn't personally get too much use out of it, but maybe he'll be better with them than she is.

"...Drawing boundaries?" He repeats the words almost experimentally, as though he's not quite sure he's enunciating them the right way. It's not that he doesn't know the words, of course - but he doesn't follow her meaning. "That's news to me."

A statement of the obvious, but since his newness is more than apparent already, he isn't shy about it. The more he learns, the better off he is, and the more good he might be able to do in the future.

She nods, holding up her hand so he can see how she points her fingers.

"It's really easy! You just make this shape with your hand and draw a line."

By way of demonstration, she turns slightly, tracing a line in the air - only for a line to form on the ground as she does so.

"You're supposed to use it to draw a boundary between yourself and ayakashi, but..." She reaches back to scratch at her head awkwardly. "...I have a much easier time just using a sword."

She's a tank, not a caster and it shows.

"Does that mean it's better not to engage them?" Slaine has to ask, since it sounds like combating them is among their duties. Maybe this boundary-thing is meant as a sort of safeguard... That would make enough sense, he supposes, even if such an ability seems as fantastical as anything else.

He folds his arms as he considers that. Should it seem all that strange? If only he knew. Well, nothing for it - at least he's getting useful information for the future.

"I guess it might be more relevant to ask if they're difficult to combat, all things considered..."

"Maybe not alone, if you can't fight." She can, but obviously not all of the shinki are used to it the way she is (for... whatever reason that is). Although judging by the looks Yukine's given her, it's probably strange that she insists on fighting whether or not she's on her own...

"Ayakashi though... I think it depends on the ones you fight. Bo and I, we fought a bunch of them, but they were all just small-fry." She's reasonably confident about this evaluation, considering how easily she tore through them even by herself. Even if she couldn't strike the killing blow, sweeping through them wasn't exactly a challenge.

"Also... it depends on if your vessel form is a weapon or not. We can do things like slow them down or disable them, but only gods can kill them with a shinki in their vessel form. Since mine's a sword, my goddess was able to fight them, but... it's different for everybody."

"I suppose it makes sense that form would determine utility..." Perfect sense, Slaine can admit that much to himself. So whatever he becomes would be the deciding factor in what he could or couldn't do... That might be a positive thing or it might be a rather negative one, depending on what exactly he is.

Hopefully he's useful rather than not, it'd be a shame to let someone down who'd given him... whatever being a shinki is. He's not just listlessly drifting somewhere, or whatever befalls the average soul.

But there's more to what she's said, he realizes after getting past that part. "So no matter what, only a god could dispatch them..." Certainly good to know. "What do shinki that aren't weapons do?"

Regardless of which he is, that sort of thing would be good to know for any cooperative efforts, wouldn't it?

"Um..."

That's... a very good question! She scratches at the back of her head a bit awkwardly. "...I'm not sure! I'm a sword, so we haven't had any problems."

Hmm...

"You should ask some of the other shinki! Yukine's been here a long time. I don't know what his vessel form is, but he might know about shinki who aren't weapons!"

"I suppose I should, rather than questioning you all day..." He's asked quite a lot of her already, and she's been patient enough to explain this much to him. If she hadn't worked with shinki that weren't weapons before, it made sense that she wouldn't be familiar with how they'd function...

Were shinki most often weapons then? It seems the more he learns, the more questions he winds up with.

"...Though, I'm not sure who Yukine is. I've only become acquainted with a few people around here."

"Nah, it's fine! I just don't know that much, either." Oopsie! "Yukine though... He has light hair, and he looks even younger than me! He's sort of grumpy sometimes, but he knows a lot!"

This would probably be more helpful if she had seen Hope around and realized that this descriptor might match a couple people at this point, but alas, she has not. (Yet.)

Fortunately Slaine at least knows who Hope is, though it does occur to him that a number of people could fit that description. The name seems like a unique enough identifier though... And if others here are anything like this girl it shouldn't hurt to ask around.

"Thank you for the suggestion, and for the information. If I find him, I'll see what he has to say." He pauses for a moment before thinking to ask, "Would you be interested in the answer, too?"

She's given him quite a bit more information than he had, and it only seems natural to offer.

"Oh-- good idea! I haven't been here too long, but... since we're all in the same situation, we should all try to help each other. That's what I think!" And indeed, it's what she's been striving to do since she found herself here. "Let me know what he says! I can pass it along the next time I meet a new shinki, too!"

"I'm in agreement with you there. Regardless of which gods we serve, we're all part of the same effort." That's how it seems to him, at any rate - and it's encouraging to hear another express the same. So he offers a soft smile for the thought. "I'll be sure to report my findings."

"I'll hold you to that! --Uh."

Her enthusiasm dips for a second as she comes to a realization.

"Sorry, what was your name again?"

"...I've been rude, haven't I?" Failing to introduce himself like that certainly isn't a shining example of good manners. He takes a half-step back so he can bow properly. And when he straightens he'll correct his error, "My name is Slaine. Pleased to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, Slaine!" Wow, so polite, too... Maybe she should do the same?

Planting her feet properly, she gives a bow of her own. "My name is Yuuki Konno. Let's do our best, alright?"

"That sounds like a fine plan. I'm sure with collective efforts, we'll be successful." At least that's what he chooses to believe. Individual achievements can only go so far, but if they all pull together, they can make positive things happen.

From the sounds of it, they all are meant to deal with the same threat, after all.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

003 | Save The Boats

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