Open ♔ My pri may be pri, but it’s the pri in “prince”, pri!

[priforprince]

Who: Hibiki and you, pri
When: July 27, pri
Where: Harajuku, pri
What: An unusual ayakashi is preying upon Japan’s cutest citizens, pri.
Warnings: Pri-ating the dead horse that is Hibiki's phobia, pri. (Live horse also included. Pri.)


[ In an area of town as style-conscious as Harajuku, various fads come and go. The latest craze, however, seems to be completely involuntary: anyone visiting these two particular blocks of the area will find themselves compelled to add a cutesy suffix or “sentence ender” to the ends of whatever they say. What’s worse, the effect doesn’t seem to wear off for quite some time after leaving, and the longer people use their sentence enders, the fonder they grow of them.

This is causing no end of additional discord to erupt as friends and loved ones slowly cannot stand being around their affected acquaintances anymore.

Particularly adept or powerful gods and shinki may notice an ayakashi-like smoke issuing from people’s mouths as they use their sentence enders. The source is somewhere in town, hiding out. Lurking. Enjoying inflicting itself upon its unsuspecting victims, and growing stronger from ingesting said smoke. Why, it's even affecting any gods and shinki who wander into its territory...

Into this mess, preoccupied by dreams of revolution, rides one Shikyoin Hibiki on a literal white horse. (Don’t ask.) If she’s going to attract PriPara to the Near Shore, she imagines it’ll be touching down where Parajuku should be, as it’s the closest PriPara location to her shrine. Best scope out the area to be sure there’s nothing of use there right now….

But what is this chill in the midsummer air, and this deep-rooted sense of terror-stricken foreboding? ]

Comments

[priforprince]

...Queen Maria.

[ For this esteemed personage, Hibiki will rein in the horse entirely. Said horse does Not look happy, but it's also not running pedestrians over with Hibiki hanging from the stirrups, so, so far so good.

What's more, Maria has one of those thoughtful concerns people sometimes have about people who aren't geniuses! Hibiki doesn't quite smile - she's too distracted by...whatever's making her tense...for that, but she does keep her tone light. ] It's all right. My mastery has been acknowledged.

[ The horse sneezes. ]

[declamando]

[As long as the horse isn't hurting anyone, Maria is satisfied with that much. She has her doubts Hibiki would've brought it if she didn't have good control of it, for the sake of her pride if nothing else, so she'll take some reassurance in that.

The horse's sneeze does make her mouth pull into a slight smile, though.] So I see. But I have to ask why you brought it out here in the first place. It doesn't seem like an ideal place for horseriding.

[priforprince]

[ Sorry, Hibiki doesn't follow. It's a conveyance, isn't it? And this is a street. Not a problem. ]

I can't sightsee on a motorcycle.

[ And forget trying to charter a chauffeur as a denizen of the Far Shore. She has tried.

They never pick her up. ]

[declamando]

Maybe not, but if you were aiming to sightsee, on foot would make more sense. You'd have to tether your horse anyway if you want to go into any shops.

[At least Maria's used to Hibiki's idiosyncrasies right now, and her explanation is patient enough - perhaps a little too patient, since she's explaining something which would probably be obvious to anyone not Hibiki.]

I admit I didn't think you were sightseeing, though. You seemed a bit distracted.

[priforprince]

Ah.....

[ She doesn't deny being caught lying - or at least prettifying - on autopilot. ]

There's an ill vibration in the air.

[ Behold. The brooding, utterly serious expression worthy of playing guitar on the battlefield in that timeless cinematic classic, Battlefield Guitarist. ]

My imapri--

[ Her lips snap shut. What.

Had that almost been?? ]

[declamando]

An ill vibration? [Initially, she waits for Hibiki to elaborate. Even if it probably means she'll have to parse through some manner of dramatic prose to figure out what the actual problem is, usually Hibiki isn't too bad about that sort of thing.

And then she closes her mouth sharp halfway through that word, and Maria can't help but look a little concerned.]

Excuse me? [It had sounded like she was about to say "imagination" except...well, one part of it had been entirely wrong for if that was what she was aiming for.]

[priforprince]

Mm...

[ It can't be. She can't have. Not her, Shikyoin Hibiki.

Hibiki's gaze darts around, looking for a source. Her ears prime, listening for confirmation that this had been a fluke, a foolish fluke, a slip of a tongue that, while perfect, may perhaps slip once in a bl--

"--sounds like a boring show to me, kyupu..." ]

Mmmnn!!

[ Hibiki doubles over on the horse. ]

[declamando]

[To Maria's eye, not knowing what's wrong, Hibiki looks like she's about to be ill, and she steps up carefully to the horse's side with a look of concern. Though she also catches that small snatch of conversation, she doesn't register anything wrong with it given how used to Kirika's questionable speech patterns she is, so all it does is make her look even more worried as Hibiki folds over.

Reaching out, Maria tries to grab her shoulder for support.]

Are you okay? Are you sick--? [There's a hesitation at the end there as something unseen prompts Maria to want to add something else. The sentence doesn't feel quite...complete? But for right now, she can't figure out what it is.]

1/2

[priforprince]

.....Run.

[ Hibiki has felt this feeling before. She knows what it portends. So she reaches out, with one trembling hand, and grabs for Maria's sleeve, the better to implore her. ]

Before you, too, are infected...

[ A deep, shuddering breath. She is treating this with every bit of gravity she possesses. ]

I will not have my rival sullpried.

2/2

[priforprince]

[






GASP ]

[declamando]

[Normally it would be harder to take Hibiki seriously being that dramatic, if it hadn't been for the fact that she'd seemed to be genuinely overcome by sickness or distress just a moment before. So Maria looks even more concerned when Hibiki grasps for her sleeve.]

Infected by what? [She has to outright draw a breath at the end there to stop herself adding to it, but Hibiki's slip up manages to distract her from the overwhelming urge for a second out of sheer bemused surprise.]

What was that? [She assumes that was meant to be "sullied", but...]

[priforprince]

[ she

she

and if they stay here, it'll get maria too

Hibiki acts with all the decisiveness that befits a Prince. She lets go of Maria's sleeve only to attempt to grab Maria proper and hoist her up onto the horse as well, if she can.

If this is successful, she will spur the horse into a gallop. Without explaining a single thing.

She doesn't trust her mouth right now. ]

[declamando]

[Thankfully, Maria can put two and two together well enough to figure out what Hibiki is trying to do, and assists in getting herself up on the horse. Since Hibiki immediately brings it to a gallop, she holds on as best she can and waits for whenever Hibiki decides to explain...anything about this situation, really. It seems like it has to be urgent if she's reacting like this, but all Maria's seen evidence of so far is some oddness to her speech.

...Still, Hibiki would probably consider that grounds for panic. But Maria goes along with it anyway, for the moment. If she doesn't get an explanation, she'll ask whenever they stop.]

[priforprince]

[ Fortunately for the pedestrians of the Near Shore, being atop a horse going full throttle is enough for a couple of gods to get themselves noticed. They therefore cause alarm but no accidents as Hibiki spurs her steed onward, away from the poisoned area.

When the antsy discomfort in her stomach has subsided somewhat, she slowly begins easing their ride to a more reasonable cadence, and sighs. ] Is this far enough...?

[ The slightest tendril of smoke slips out of the corner of her mouth and wisps itself away. She doesn't notice. ]

[declamando]

[It's at least good that nobody's hurt in their quick escape, otherwise Maria would have pulled them up. She can't feel any difference in the atmosphere, so when Hibiki decides to stop them, Maria assumes it's at a safe distance, or at least a better one than what they were at.

As Hibiki asks that question, Maria's eyes are drawn to the corner of her mouth. What was that...?]

I'm not sure. [She puts a hand to her own mouth. She still feels some urge to extend her sentence, but it's not as powerful as it was before.] How could you tell it was safe to stop?

[priforprince]

The atmosphere had cleared. [ Hibiki sees no reason not to answer this perfectly reasonable question with a reasonable explanation with her own. In fact, she'll expound. ]

Sentence enders are poisonous. [ To that end, she'll take out her handkerchief and clean her mouth. Just in case. Ugh. ] Remaining at least a kilometer away is best.

[declamando]

Hm. I can't say I felt it. [That only bothers her for about a moment before Hibiki clarifies what the problem had been, which...makes her look much less concerned about not knowing what the problem was.]

They were never my style, but Kirika always used them back home. I never minded it then...though if something back there is infecting people with them, running away isn't going to solve it.

[priforprince]

Queen Maria's associate....used sentence enders?

[ That is all she took from that.

Rebooting. Please hold.

Or, nope. Screen frozen. ]

[declamando]

Quite often. Just "-desu", nothing particularly out there. [The way Maria pronounces it leaves the last letter silent, highlighting the "death" pun. She still seems vastly less bothered by it than Hibiki does, though that's probably not difficult.]

I didn't realise you had such a problem with them.

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki relaxes somewhat at Maria's explanation. ] One of my lifestyle cannot possibly be expected to accept anything but the most elegant words.

Fortunately, "desu" is nothing dire.

[ That....pronunciation, though. It's teetering on the verge of a very stupid pun, which surely, Queen Maria can't have meant....Hibiki makes sure to give the ender its proper, well, ending. ]

[declamando]

I'm not sure what lifestyle has to do with it. They're just words. [Granted, Maria hangs around with people like Chris, who aren't exactly mindful of their language a lot of the time. She can understand not liking people swearing or similar, but sentence enders still sounds pretty silly to her.]

I wonder if that's all that's going on back there.

[priforprince]

[ A shudder. Maria can't be thinking what Hibiki thinks she's thinking. ]

You'd go back?

[ This is a scary thought. ]

[declamando]

Surely you don't think it's the sentence enders themselves infecting people. There has to be a vector...and odds are it would be an ayakashi, with how rare other kinds of spirits seem to be compared to them.

[Her tone is appropriately severe for the matter of an ayakashi, because if it is one, then chances are it'll do a lot worse than spread sentence enders if left unchecked.]

[priforprince]

A sentence ender ayakashi.

[ Hibiki looks nearly as ill as she did when she found the dead body of her shinki. Two things that, separately, cause her no end of distress, combined...

But Maria does have a point. Hibiki would not put it past sentence enders to spread on their own, but given the usual pattern in this world....She's not an idiot. She's becoming accustomed to the trappings of this genre. ]

And you'd....face it.

[ She's speaking with Intense Seriousness, as befits such a grim discussion, but she's sweating. A cold, cartoonish sweat. ]

[declamando]

In theory. [They can't really be sure, but it does seem vastly more likely than a sudden sentence-ender plague caused by just about anything else. It's a little scary that Hibiki looks that ill at the thought, but Maria just puts it aside for the moment as one of her oddities.

Nonetheless, she nods firmly.] It's an ayakashi. That's our duty as gods. And I did bring Uta with me for other reasons.

[Yeah, so that quiet woman in the kimono who Maria didn't have time to pull onto the horse as well? She's just getting back to behind Maria now, seemingly as collected as she ever was.]