godsoffortune: (baths)
The Far Shore Mods ([personal profile] godsoffortune) wrote in [community profile] thenearshore2016-04-15 06:57 pm

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~
reformedsinner: (foundling)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2016-04-16 09:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Like this.

[Hakkai reaches over to nab the flowers out of his hands before the stem snaps, and curves it around gently, tugging the stem into a loose knot.]

If you pull too hard, you'll just break the stem!

[personal profile] choseneutrality 2016-04-17 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
[He lets go of the flowers easily enough and watches Hakkai's movements carefully. Bend the stem, make a loop, and then pull it to create the knot. Simple enough. Flynn's head bobs a little and then he picks up another pair of daisies to try and mimic what he had been shown.

Curve it, make the loop, and then pull...

He tugs the two ends to make the knot and then releases them to inspect them. On the one hand, this was a much better attempt with only some tearing to the stems. But on the other hand, it looks like the knot could come completely undone if jostled the wrong way.]
reformedsinner: (fear the smile)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2016-04-17 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
Well done. Now add another!

[Hakkai settles down, gathering a handful of flowers from the lawn himself and starting to gently tie them together.]

How did you wind up making flower chains?

[personal profile] choseneutrality 2016-04-17 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
[At least some progress was being made now. Flynn moves on to slowly add another flower to the chain, being as gentle as he could. He glances back at the man who had settled nearby when he continued to address him.]

They asked me to play with them. Nothing more than that.
reformedsinner: (foundling)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2016-04-17 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
There are plenty of children out today.

[He glances around at the group, smiling. Come to think of it, are they all shinki? Or gods? If they're shinki... well, that's certainly a lot of children to have died young.]

I suppose it's a good holiday for it!

[personal profile] choseneutrality 2016-04-19 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
[Flynn doesn't verbally respond but he does nod his head in agreement. The day was beautiful and there was a nice breeze blowing through. The laughter in the air from people celebrating and the children playing with one another certainly made for uplifting background noise.

He continues to dutifully add daisies to his growing chain. It's uneven and sloppy but at least it's holding together this time around. At least until he tries to tie the two ends together and the middle part comes undone leaving him with two chains instead of one.]
reformedsinner: (dot dot)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2016-04-19 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
[Hakkai blinks at Flynn's daisy chain as it comes apart in his hands, and nobly resists the urge to laugh at him.]

Well, it was a good start!

[He offers his own chain, still only half the length of Flynn's.]

Here, you can work on this one.

[personal profile] choseneutrality 2016-04-20 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
[Flynn's mouth faintly curls in disappointment. He was so close too! He turns to look at the offered daisy chain before slowly accepting it.]

Thank you...

[Hakkai's chain was a lot neater and more tightly held together than Flynn's. So maybe at the very least he'd be able to finish making a crown with the much sturdier foundation.]
reformedsinner: (elementary my dear dragon)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2016-04-20 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
[With his daisy chain in Flynn's hands, Hakkai sits back and folds his hands on his knees, looking up at the blue springtime sky. It's such a nice day for a picnic...]

Did you never make flower crowns as a child? Or don't you remember?

[personal profile] choseneutrality 2016-04-20 04:03 am (UTC)(link)
[Flynn pauses briefly at the question posed to him. He'd been just about ready to add the last flower and tie it all together.]

... I don't remember.
reformedsinner: (foundling)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2016-04-20 11:50 am (UTC)(link)
Ah. Shinki?

I can't remember where I learned this, either.

[He runs his fingers gently through a few daisies springing up from the grass next to his foot.]

[personal profile] choseneutrality 2016-04-20 02:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's another nod from Flynn. He recognized the term Shinki well enough at least, that was what he'd been told that he was.]

Are you a Shinki as well?
reformedsinner: (foundling)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2016-04-20 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
That's right. Of the goddess Menrva, it seems.

Who I don't think I've ever heard of before... but I'll learn!

[Shrugging, he turns his attention back to Flynn's flower chain.] Ah, you're almost done.