Heaven's BBS | Video

[revolutionfalcon]

Posted by: Chinatsu Hiyama
Date: November 13th, 6:57PM

[The video opens on...someone who is definitely not Chinatsu, sitting on a stark white couch in front of smooth earthen walls. It's a woman in her early to mid 20s, wearing a yukata in a careless enough manner that it's listing badly to one shoulder, with her hair done in a circular curl on one side of her head, finished with a shining, formal pin despite the abundance of hairs that have come loose of the hairdo. The arm holding the phone has a network of very faint knife scars down it, only visible because of her sleeves being tied up right now so as not to get in the way.

Though she's clearly not feeling it, she manages to force a smile and wave to open the conversation.]

Hello everyone. I'm not Chinatsu-kun, which you must already know if you know her, but I'd like to thank her for lending me her phone. This is...something I think I should say myself.

[Her attempt at a smile collapses quickly into something more strained and worried, though she manages to salvage it to collect herself into a more serious, but still grave manner.]

I haven't met most of you, but my name is Kotori, and I'm one of the shinki to Kurosaki Shun, otherwise known as Nekhbet. [She bites her lip a bit, keeps going.] I know there's some of you I should've told this to personally, and I'm sorry to them, but...he's missing. Not gone like what happens to you newcomers sometimes, just--

[Letting out a breath, she tracks back to an explanation.] He took me on an early morning patrol on the 11th. Maybe two or three AM, it's not uncommon for him to run out at that hour...but one of the places he wanted to check was that forest that moves around the Heavens. I think some of you might know what I'm talking about already. It's been...worse, in the last few days. Like it's reaching out to us. It had already been getting worse, but this...

[She grits her teeth, running a hand through her hair.] Don't let anyone else near it alone. I don't know what happened that day, I couldn't see it when I was a vessel, and all I could hear was the trees. And then I was changed back and he ordered me to run, and he never gives orders unless it's-- [Another break off, like she's angry with herself for having to pause so much, before she takes a deep breath.] I was lucky to find the edge of the forest, but he wasn't with me. That forest took him, and I don't think Kurosaki-sama is the only one. I don't think it's going to end by itself. I could feel it on my heels when I ran, and I can still feel it now...like it's trying to lure us and keep us there. Have any of you felt it too? Or seen others taken by it?

It needs to be stopped. And I don't know how to do it...but I can try and help you all a little if you're going to try. I owe that much.

[[This is the pre-event announcement/lead-in for the Hungry Forest event that begins on IC November 14th. Characters may ask questions of Kotori or discuss disappearances between themselves (or just make certain disappearances public knowledge), or try to plan things out for the next day - whatever helps!]]

Comments

[revolutionfalcon]

I could've told people earlier, though. [She'd initially kept her mouth shut because she wasn't sure how to come at it, but then she'd asked Chinatsu to borrow her phone and seen that other message about someone disappearing. That had definitely given her some extra motivation to get it out there.

Kotori tenses slightly at the prospect of contacting the old gods.] I don't know if I'm the best person to do that, but if it gets bad enough, they may have to take notice anyway. That thing is in the heart of the Heavens and keeps moving around to suit itself, even they can't ignore it forever.

[boneofsword]

You did it, that's what counts. [Archer shakes his head.]

Actually I think you're the best person, since you were there with Kurosaki. You know how that forest feels. [he can understand her not wishing to get in touch with the old gods, given that she most likely saw the worst of them. At least that's the feeling he gets.]

Another important factor is that most of vanished ones are powerful, gods and shinki alike. It's troubling.

[revolutionfalcon]

I know, but I...don't have the best attitude towards the old gods nowadays. [She seems a little hesitant in admitting that, but considering she ended up in the situation Shun pulled her from after being discarded...

She seems interested - if more worried - at Archer's second observation, though.] Is that true? I got the impression Caster was quite powerful when we met, and obviously Kurosaki-sama has high standing among the newcomers, but I don't know much about the others.

[boneofsword]

Neither of us have. [Archer's smirk is grim, but nonetheless amused.] Although the best way to go is to grab Wendy and go to Amaterasu herself or one of her advisors. The wind god is impulsive enough to act. Who knows if old gods or their shinki aren't also missing.

[At her second remark he just nods.] Both Caster and Saber are powerful, and shouldn't be affected by spells or other kind of sorcery. Yona - another of the gods that are missing - is powerful for a human and wouldn't fall for simple trickery. Kurosaki as well, and the fact that none of them are able to teleport back means that something prevents them from doing so. Alex mentioned that she can feel her shinki but can't pinpoint where exactly he is. Such deliberation isn't coincidental.

[revolutionfalcon]

There's no way to tell but someone asking, I suppose. I doubt they'd admit it themselves. [Prideful gods, and all, not to mention the fact that it might be seen as a weakness in their defenses.]

Someone on this post mentioned Cho Hakkai is missing as well, and he seems like another powerful one. You're definitely right about the teleportation, too - that would've been the easiest option to get both of us out, but Kurosaki-sama didn't take it, so I have to guess he couldn't.

[Archer laying it out like that has Kotori inching into angry rather than upset, though.] You think someone's set this up, then.

[If it's deliberate. She had assumed the people taken were being used for something, but she also assumed it was due to spirits, the nature of the forest or even ayakashi rather than an actual enemy.]

[boneofsword]

So Cho Hakkai is also missing. Yes, he's powerful, as well as someone that wouldn't walk into a trap. In fact all of them are the ones hardest to ambush or to kidnap. This again shows it's not something that any of us can face alone or in small group.

[Archer frowns, not liking how the situation looks. He's already pissed, so it only makes him more than willing to take action, but he'd rather know the temperature of hell he's going to jump into.]

Someone or something. [he clarifies.] So far noone knows what the forest is, or what's causing it. Old gods may know something but aren't ones to share information freely while we're left in the dark.

[revolutionfalcon]

That's why I was trying to reach out like this. I don't know enough people outside of the temple to make a large enough group on my own...and it sounds like a few of the people I do know were already taken.

[Hakkai and Caster, for example. In any case, Kotori is getting the impression that there's going to be a considerable amount of people raring to storm the forest come sunup, and that's all she could really ask for out of this.]

All I know about the forest is what's been happening the last few months - how it's been easy to be lured into and hard to get out of. There's no saying why it suddenly got so much worse.

[boneofsword]

I think you'll have enough people to raze the forest to the ground. [Archer smirks but this expression fades quickly as he sobers.]

That's what we'll have to find out. [a pause.] Have you tried using any shinki abilities in the forest?

[revolutionfalcon]

I'm hoping we won't need to go that far...though if that's what it takes, I certainly won't have a problem with it. [She doesn't have a lot of compunctions about the fate of a forest that's decided to take away her god.

At his question, she takes a moment to think, frowning slightly.] I think I borderlined against something on the way out...but something was off about it. It made me feel lightheaded for a moment.

[boneofsword]

Then there's possibility that neither of us will be able to use other skills than innate ones, or in the worst case scenario, only physical ones. [Archer speaks slowly. He's definitely not thrilled with this revelation, his lips forming a thin line.] Being forced to fight only using traditional means, huh.

[revolutionfalcon]

It's definitely possible. If Kurosaki-sama could have teleported, that would have been the obvious way out, but he didn't.

[And if just a borderline had taken that much out of her, she could only imagine what trying to do something more complicated would result in.]