November Announcements

[godsoffortune]

November Announcements

Here we are again, bringing you the news of Near and Far Shore events for the month of November!



Happenings

The Near Shore

Happy Valentine's Day! The spirits of true love (and the ayakashi of resentment and loneliness) are in the air.

• A new reality show just entered filming! Each participant gets a "target" from among the other participants, and they have to dodge their pursuer while finding their target and tagging them with a special neon ink. Any delivery method goes: water balloons? Squirtguns? Paintball guns? Fountain pens? Disguise?? No one knows who to trust, but there's a lot of collateral ink splatter going on!


• Now that Valentine's Day is past, men who've gotten chocolates have to come up with a good return gift for White Day. Give hapless romantics a hand with some good suggestions, and encourage love to blossom.


• The Tokyo Marathon is scheduled for the final weekend of the month! It makes a circuit through central Tokyo, and even non-runners can enjoy a day out cheering on the participants. All of that competitive spirit, and the fears and hopes of the runners, can draw ayakashi in, too: they might need some help keeping the course clear.

The Far Shore

The weather is beginning to warm as the calendar inches towards March. There's no more snow, and buds are beginning to appear on trees throughout the Heavens.

• As the flowers from the ash fall continue to sprout and bloom, plum blossom trees are also beginning to break into flower. Their scent permeates the air, and residents of the Heavens will notice that staying near the flowering trees strengthens their resolve and makes them feel more energetic and enthusiastic. Keeping the flowers on them will even repel ayakashi on the Near Shore.


• The weather is surprisingly good, with blue skies and bright sun every day. Even though it's still chilly at night, small animal spirits are showing up everywhere. Rabbits, birds and squirrels throng the Heavens, and there's lots -- and lots -- of birdsong. Hope no one minds waking up at dawn....


• The new edition of "From Ama" is due to come out soon! Its writers are roaming the Heavens, interviewing new and old gods and shinki and looking for interesting stories and quotes. They're particularly interested in the new gods and shinki, and they're also accepting advertising on any topic under the sun.

Noteworthy Ayakashi

• Winding-sheet ayakashi are drifting through abandoned places, snaring the rare passersby and wrapping around them to lure them into misfortune and despair.


• Angular frog ayakashi are hopping around the Near Shore. They're strangely reluctant to bother mortals (although they will if there are no gods or shinki around) but they have a particular preference for attacking beings of the Far Shore: gods, shinki and even helpless wandering ghosts. They're resistant to attacks, too, requiring good teamwork to defeat.

Weather

Here you can see the weather starting on February 1.

Event

Love Is in the Air

• Two shinki have devised a special set of blind dates for residents of the Heavens who tragically lack Valentine's Day plans. Characters will start the day with a romantic brunch, visit an aquarium at midday and spend the evening at an amusement park! But with all the love in the air, there are some malicious ayakashi stalking the date spots, too, and some additional support might be needed to help protect the lovebirds. Characters who want to sign up can go here for IC signup, or, if you prefer to sign up OOCly, please reply to this post with the following information: the characters who you want to sign up, any specific requirements you have for their dates, and the number of dates (1 - 3) you want them to go on.
• IC Date: February 14
• If you have any questions, feel free to reply to the comment marked 'Event' on this post.
• To participate in the event, you will just need to comment to the event log after it goes up on November 1 at 7PM EST.

Past Happenings in the Heavens

Major Events

July Announcements	August Announcements	September Announcements
October Announcements	November Announcements	December Announcements
January Announcements	February Announcements	March Annoucements
April Announcements	May Announcements	June Annoucements
July Announcements	August Annoucements	September Announcements
October Announcements

• Last month on January 30 and 31, a dream plague sent gods and shinki alike to sleep, and allowed them to travel into each other's dreams, trying to wake up the sleepers before they were trapped forever in a dream.
• On February 6, new arrivals were brought to the Meeting Hall for orientation and training.

Player Plots

After the dream event, a giant ape rampaged through the Western District before he was stopped by a few gods who identified a weak point in his tail.

If your characters have been up to anything this month that other characters may have noticed -- parties, ayakashi attacks, violent rampages through the Far Shore -- leave a comment on this post to let your fellow players know what's going on!

A Special Message from Amaterasu

Has your character gotten involved in any missions involving cult activity, contacted Amaterasu or her shinki offering help, or brought information to Amaterasu or her shinki regarding the activity of the mysterious gods attacking the Heavens? Amaterasu is reaching out to characters who have assisted her or offered their help, hoping to share important information. Please reply to the comment with the subject line "Special Message from Amaterasu" below with the name of the character you want to be involved, and a brief note about what, if any, information your character would have shared.

Please note that it's OK to reply if you're interested in getting your character involved, even if you haven't threaded out an offer of help or information sharing. Handwaving is fine!

Comments

Special Message from Amaterasu

[godsoffortune]

Please reply here if you are interested in your character being contacted by Amaterasu about cult activity/the mysterious gods attacking the Heavens.

Don't forget to include a note about what information, if any, your character might have shared with Amaterasu or her shinki!

[kokuyoyo]

Chikusa "helped" with the department store investigation, rescued his dumb god from forest kidnapping, and has been stalking a cultist for a while now. He has given Heaven none of this information, although the first two are probably known enough. He's also the exemplar nora hafuri to a God of Fortune, so, you know

[sageprincess]

Zelda has done a bit of investigating, and would have offered occasional reports.

- She has spoken to Ammy directly following the forest incident.
- She would have given a report regarding this meeting with a cultist and the task given to them by said cultist.
- She would have posed the possibility of the "bad luck" charms actually functioning by siphoning away good luck from the temples they've been placed in. Just, y'know, wondering... totally didn't try poking around in some cultists' heads with her dream powers, no sir...

[unlucky7]

Ginia has stalked several cultists, collected footage of the cult from the area of the blighted city, collected intact samples and detailed photos of the straw dolls and spell tags from the forest, found cursed charms around shrines during New Year, been in contact with Votelli in January (possibly again once I know how the mission wraps up), and got footage that identifies Sensei.

She would have passed on pictures of the tags/straw dolls, pictures of the curse charms from the shrine visits, and also the footage of the cult gathering and chanting in the blighted city prior to the meeting.

Ginia would have also passed on the fact the vice-principal had a summoning book that disappeared. She's not sure if it's relevant to the cult stuff, but figured it was worth sharing.

[chibisu]

Ebisu has promised his bitty sister help, of course, and helped health efforts during the volcano, if that matters.

Of course, if a former problem god with a temple full of nora will be reached out to is one thing entirely different...

[godsoffortune]

Yes, in this case, he would be, as he was involved during the volcano event!

enjoy this chance to prove you're no longer a problem god, Ebisu. You're not, right?

[chibisu]

"Totally not" says Ebisu while gently shoving Sotero's head down into a box in one of his shrines

Also, let it be stated for the record that if the other Gods of Fortune aren't there, Ebisu will totally be telling all of them about this meeting as soon as he can.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku has been investigating/getting involved in things. He took part in the forest rescues. He probably gave the information he knew about Votelli over to Amaterasu's shinki. He also took part in fighting on the volcano and will have reported what he knew about that (which wasn't much to be fair).

[onedrinkwithme]

Aymeric has also done some investigating:

~He was there during the investigation post Forest Kidnappings and would have given the shinki copies of the photos he took as well as items left behind such as robes, paper dolls, and footprint photos. However, he has not given any information involving the conversation with Votelli.

~ He would have also given a list of names he and Ryoma had gathered from the hotel who are potential cult members.

~The Mission is ongoing but he and Ryoma are doing several B&Es involving said list and would have given copies of photos showing that said list members are in said cult. He doesn't like crimes but if it will nail these guys who hurt his friends then yep. He got hurt too but clearly he gives no fucks about himself

~He and Goten spoke to the volcano god kid and attempted to try and be peaceful.

[revolutionfalcon]

Shun's been doing a fair bit about the cultists, so he probably would have passed on to Amaterasu information about the attempt at cursing her shrine that the mission with Zelda and Hibiki pulled up, the connection between the charm incidents (and that the ones behind the initial attack that had them, the department store, had been humans acting under orders of someone who'd only left a postcard of thanks as hint that they'd been there, so potentially cultists themselves), and the bits and pieces he's learnt about the cult spells on various missions, where they seem to be using summoning or empowering spells of some kind that kill off plant life in the area and attract ayakashi (though he's also passed this information on to Suijin previously, so she may already know it).
He also would have mentioned fighting Sotero but considering it highly unlikely he was actually defeated, since Sotero jumped into the volcano to escape them before anyone could land a decisive hit.

[boneofsword]

Archer has shared some information, as well as contacted Amaterasu's shinki specialising in spells with all the spell tags (forest, burned department store, bad luck charms from the shrines) he gathered, intact straw dolls from the forest, cleared recording of cultist ritual he got from Shun, and the prayer that Ginia got from the cultist. He asked that if anything else is known to share the information with his god, Cu Chulainn, who's working with Nekhbet on it. (He was supposed to drag Caster to meet Sabimei during the arrivals, but shuu was swamped with work before her hiatus and we never managed it.)

He also got footage of cultists ritual from the blighted city, and has a nice stash of photos and personal data of all the people Mitsui contacted. (He was supposed to hunt the source of handmade paper from spell tags, but that got delayed because of shuu's hiatus.)

[welcome_home]

Hmm, I'm going to leave this here just in case you want to do something with it, but. Recently Nanako and Chikusa took on a Prayer to stop someone selling cursed charms at one of her temples. When they caught the person responsible, he relayed that he'd just answered an ad in the paper and thought it was easy money but didn't know who was behind it since he'd never met them in person. Chikusa had a hunch it might be cult related, but since it was something we winged into a prayer it could easily not be as well. Regardless, Nanako may have gotten in touch with Ammy to let her know what she found, sent over a note or something or arranged to show her the cursed charms they found at the Temple.

[godsoffortune]

If you would like these cursed charms to be similar to the ones that showed up during the New Year event, that's fine! (Regardless, this would definitely get her an invite.)

[futhark]

Welp, totally missed it because vacations. Caster is kind of a curious case here, because he is mostly involved by proxy. Archer uses his name to open doors and get information, but the truth is Archer and Ginia are doing the bulk of the legwork and he's the "independent consultant". He was also present on Zelda's council if Amaterasu ever got wind of that.

Caster would most likely consult some of the shinki about mechanics in the ofuda spells, and if asked why, he wouldn't hide he's investigating the spells left around the forest and the shrines

He's putting his nose here and there, but trying to keep it low at the same time. But while he is not readily and openly telling about his involvement in the investigation, he would answer honestly if asked directly. He also went to Ireland in part to continue the research into cult activity and their relation to gods.

[godsoffortune]

If his name was being used by Archer, and he spoke about investigating the spells left around the forest and shrines, he'd certainly be included in the invitations.

Re: Special Message from Amaterasu

[pure_radiantics]

Kairi has mostly interacted with Suijin and Fuujin re: the blighted areas out in the world, such as in this log where she helped clear out an area with Suijin, and rare positive encounters with Fuujin that led to running errands for him, which may or may not have been tied to cult activity.

[fortunesmiles]

Komaeda investigated the department store and may well have passed on information about what he found to either Amaterasu or her shinki, if only because he doesn't know what else to do with that intel. He also took part in the forest rescue. Currently, while he's not exactly making a concerted effort to work with Amaterasu or the old gods, he has nothing against doing so and will readily share things he learns. Amaterasu may also remember him as rambling on and coming up with a lot of theories about what's going on and why, because he's trying to understand all this nonsense, so he's clearly invested in figuring things out.

Bakugou hasn't participated in much, and has informed the heavens of even less - he's playing his cards pretty close to his chest - but he was instrumental to stopping Gohan's giant ape rampage through the western district, which might construe him as a handy god to encourage to work with the heavens. Of course, he also grouses about the old gods having extremely questionable priorities and less power than they think they have and talks about his naked intention to surpass every other god in the heavens - admittedly only on a personal level with other new gods/shinki, but not exactly in sotto voce. Whether Amaterasu wants anything to do with him might be influenced by how the old gods look upon a critical and ambitious new god. (On the OOC front, I don't care if he's involved or not! I'm mostly curious how the heavens would call his case, given the information at hand.)

Ken has participated in a number of investigations or events in which the cult was involved, but doesn't really trust any of the old gods and is just short of being actively hostile to them as Figures of Authority. No one in Temple Li Tieguai likes figures of authority. And, of course, he's a nora. (Which the heavens may or may not know, but even if they don't know he's a nora now, they do know he's passed from hand to hand as his gods have vanished, which might still be considered undesirable even if Ken has no control over his gods vanishing.) I seriously doubt any of the old gods would get anywhere near him unless they really needed his nose or something.

[godsoffortune]

Komaeda would have been invited as a result of passing on information about the department store!

Assisting with the giant ape rampage, because that wasn't cult-related or new god-related, wouldn't count one way or the other. However, Bakugou wouldn't be thought of in a negative way for being critical and ambitious (those are positive traits as long as he's loyal, after all!) He would not personally receive an invitation if he had not shared information or openly declared his interest in helping to Amaterasu or one of her representatives, but he would be welcome if someone with an invite brought him along.

Ken is not known to be a nora, and considering the new gods' situation a shinki isn't going to be thought badly of for having had multiple gods as old ones vanished. However, not sharing information or volunteering his assistance would mean he wasn't personally invited, though he could come with another invited person.