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

[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.