009 | Where Your Demons Hide

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Emergency demon fighting
When: Late May 5-Early May 6
Where: Just outside of Tokyo
Summary: The demon from the school has reared its ugly head again and needs to be taken down.



On the evening of May 5, the Heavens suddenly receive an influx of prayers from people in and around a certain town just outside of Tokyo. There seem to be a lot of people in the area that have suddenly stopped responding normally (or at all). The situation continues to spread as the night goes on until not only is the whole town suffering from this malady, but the neighboring towns are starting to become affected as well.

With so many gods and shinki on hand - including new ones that have just appeared - the Heavens have issued a request for any available gods and shinki to go investigate what might be happening down on the Near Shore. New gods and shinki will be given the low-down on what's happening, but not much more than that.

The situation will continue to expand until just a little before dawn, when the demon finally has enough power to revive.



Drained Humans

Many humans in the affected areas are walking around despondently. Oftentimes, they are just walking into things or getting hit by things. There have been a few car-related incidents as well. Anyone who was present for the high school incident will recognize these symptoms as something that was happening to people in the school. The glazed looks, the spiritless responses and reactions. So this should be fairly familiar to some.

No One's Safe

Unfortunately, being in the town will start to wear on anyone who is there. Gods and shinki alike will find themselves growing more despondent the longer they spend in the town. All of their energy will be slowly sapped from their bodies, and shinki in particular will feel almost like their existence is draining away.

Hellish Circle

There is a large park in the center of the town. Drawn all around this park is a magic circle, large enough to encompass the whole park. There are candles around the edges of the circle, and in the center there is a cup filled with blood covered by a mask with a swirling eye pattern on it. Stepping into this circle will not only make you extremely tired and suddenly drained, but it will also bring bat-like ayakashi bearing down on you.

The Demon

The Demon itself rears its ugly head just a little before dawn, springing out from the center of the magic circle and looking right pleased with itself. It stands about 5'8" tall, so it is largely unimposing, but there is an aura about it that makes it undeniable that it is powerful. The demon will gladly fight anyone who comes at it, though most he will just shove out of the way without a second thought.



In Summary:

• Help the drained people
• Try not to get drained yourself
• Be careful about being corrupted
• Fight the demon
• Have fun~

Comments

[eternalshield]

Zeno doesn't know what makes one school higher than the other, unless you live somewhere with quite a lot of hills, but missy shouldn't put herself down. As you said, there must be a reason here, and... well, Zeno doesn't know what it is, either.

Zeno lives in a country founded by gods, as probably most people do. [Or believe they do.] It's so far away from the current and the every day things that even Zeno can't believe it, but Zeno strongly suspects that the gods were only one part of the equation. The gods would not have any pull if it weren't for the people who weren't special, but followed the gods anyway. And there are so many stories of these same people who were never special, but later became special and did good things, either becoming gods or assisting them.

Maybe you aren't special yet, but will become so. Zeno can wait for that.

[somebodysdaughter]

[Okay, that didn't contextualize her in quite the way she'd thought it would, and now that she's caught short on the reply she got Aya isn't entirely certain why she thought it would do anyway. Zeno... well, maybe she isn't from round here, but Zeno really isn't from round here.]

But how do we know what to do?

[Gods don't wear pajamas, and she'd really like to point that out but she's not sure she should be mentioning it to a boy, even to a nice one. And helping people seems, well, nice, in the abstract, but even if it makes her horribly selfish Aya can't help but feel that, at least right now, she needs help almost as much as the poor people in the street. As for what makes her special - well, there might have been something about that. There was a catch, though. There's always a catch.]

I... think I needed to be asleep. To help, I mean. Surely I'm not supposed to sleep here?

[eternalshield]

[...eh, he's heard weirder. For a second, he's about to shrug out of his overcoat, to give her a blanket, just to test the theory... but that might be a little alarming.]

Power is a strange thing. If you had to be asleep to focus it, it's possible. Some things are clearer either during or after sleep.

[somebodysdaughter]

[That much makes sense. Sleep is... it's like a reset button for the body. Aya's no stranger to the calmness that a good night's rest can bring to a confused situation, or the sense of sudden calm. Maybe she just needs to sleep on all of this...

[But where? Home is - it's gone. She has no money, nothing but the clothes she stands up in, and those are flimsy and inadequate. Where, oh where, is she supposed to go?]

Is - is there somewhere I can rest? I don't think I have anywhere to go.

[eternalshield]

Mm, you could come back to where Zeno and Seiryuu live. Zeno promises you will be safe there. Or if you are a god, there should be a home set aside for you.

Or you may rest here. Take Zeno's coat, let Zeno tell you a story to make you sleepy, and see what happens.