Ebisu's Inbox

[chibisu]

[For anyone who is familiar with Ebisu in person, they might be expecting the sound of a cute child on the answering machine.]

[They do not get a cute child's voice.]

[Instead, it's the voice of a young man, speaking calmly and professionally.]

Hello. You have reached the personal phone and temple of Ebisu, one of the Gods of Fortune. He and his shinki are currently busy right now, so please leave a message and someone will respond back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you, and have a nice day.

Comments

[yasei]

I suppose that it is!

[ He replies to the other shinki, cheerfully.

And then there's Little Ebisu on the other side of the communication device. ]

Hello, Little Mister, that's right, that's me and I have some of that!

[ He is calling about business, after all, so why not cut right to it? ]

[chibisu]

[It's quite nice to be able to cut to business so that they're both very clearly on the same page and not dancing around the issue.]

Is there a particular area which you would prefer? Our fishing and agriculture department could both use help, so, even if your knowledge is more theoretical in nature, either area would benefit greatly from your assistance.

[yasei]

It's pretty practical in either area, I would say! Does that work for you as well as theoretical?

[chibisu]

Indeed, it would be perfectly fine. Then, if you don't mind, I would like to place you in the agricultural department. It will involve some traveling all over Japan, but my shrines and temples will all be available to you for this purpose, or any other if you like.

[yasei]

That sounds great, I like seeing places anyways. What is it that you want me to do while I go places?

[chibisu]

It will be a variety of things that will honestly depend on our workload, such as the prayers we receive or things we have to check up on. Some people pray when they're struggling for finances on their farms, for example, or they need help with a harvest. There are also, of course, ayakashi problems, although we won't ask you to destroy them, as that would be unreasonable.

[Unless he was named by Ebisu, of course.]

We simply need you to weaken them, or chase them off, and give us a report on it.

[yasei]

So like helping out with tasks, or doing counting and see if it goes around well. It would be manageable to do with the ayakashi problem so long as I had a god with me, which I have no problem with.

[ He doesn't mind being named by other people than Mistress Celestia. ]

[chibisu]

[Huh, that's certainly something, and Ebisu pauses as he considers Obi's words.]

Well, if you were to bring along a god of yours to take care of the problem, then I would like to know who they are, just so that I could pay you all fairly. Although, if I may be blunt, do your words indicate an interest in joining my temple as one of its shinki?

[yasei]

Bluntness is best in these situations, isn't it? I have an interest in it, yeah.

[ He's not sure what he'd do about Mistress Celestia.. They still have some mending to do, and all that, but they'd probably still keep her name for the time being even if Ebisu named him. But Ebisu isn't as stiff as the rest of the old gods from what he's gathered. ]

[chibisu]

Well, I'm not concerned about that at all. My temple is mainly one of nora, you see.

[So the oddballs and weirdos do fit right in. It probably says a lot about Ebisu.]

Are you on bad terms with your god?