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

[lookingforhead]

[Celty looks around, noting the smoke that everyone is walking through obliviously, but she can't seem to find the source herself. Even with no head of her own, Celty winces a few seconds after Hibiki, but the source of the mental noise is vague, hard for her to put a finger on.

She holds her hand out to the side, gathering shadows as best she can, ready to strike if something makes a move.

She may be the frightening black knight here, but only the Prince seems to have a clue.]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki takes another step forward and then...freezes. A drop of cold, terrified, pained sweat slips down her ashen face and drops from her perfectly-shaped nose. She can - she can hear them now. More than just sense them, she's in the wall of the storm, she can hear them. All around her, pouring themselves into her, rattling around her head, refusing to leave, pounding, corrupting, poisoning, scrambling - ]

H..hh.....

[ She starts to twitch. No. no, no no. How could this have happened?! Right when she was in the middle of something intriguing.... ]

[lookingforhead]

[Celty turns back, and she can see Hibiki stumbling. Her reaction to this is swift. There's a benefit to not being able to speak, to being unable to ask if someone is alright. You skip straight to action.

Keeping her focus as best she can she urges the horse to leave the area, making sure that Hibiki is along their path. As she rides by she unleashes several strands of shadow from her sleeve, scooping up the other in the web they make.

She keeps riding until she's sure they're in the clear.]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki is fairly unresponsive, along for this ride. Once they've left the afflicted area, she starts to recover. Once they're definitely far enough away, and the horse is slowing down, she gasps for air and grabs at her forehead.

That had....That....

That was terrifying. Not the shadows and the ride part. The part beforehand. ]

[lookingforhead]

[It's important to keep perspective.

But as Hibiki catches her breath and comes back to herself, there's a phone gently being held out to her.]

Are you okay? What just happened?

[priforprince]

[ In a way, it's nice that you type. That gives Hibiki something to focus on, as she returns to the present. ]

....The written word is so elegant.

[ She's okay. She's okay. She's okay.

A WHOLE CITY BLOCK WAS SENTENCE ENDER-IFIED SHE IS NOT OKAY. ]

Sentence enders have no place there.

[lookingforhead]

I see

[That's a lie.]

Is it an Ayakashi? What should we do?

[priforprince]

[ An ayakashi....

That's possible, isn't it. Loath as Hibiki's mind is to even begin imagining such a conceit. Indeed, as ayakashi are corruption incarnate, not involving sentence enders at some point would almost be odder...

And yet. If it's an ayakashi. She is a god. She would have a duty to.

IT IS DEFINITELY NOT AN AYAKASHI. ]

It's no concern of mine. [ She tugs on the horse's bridle to see if it's interested in moving some more. ]

Leave it.

[lookingforhead]

[Nope. Sorry. Celty's a respectable and upstanding citizen monster. She can't just leave this be if she knows there's a problem.

The horse moves with Hibiki's tugging but Celty tugs back. The horse gives a disapproving whinny.]

But if it IS one then we're supposed to do something about it, right? At least, that's what the Shinki are for?

[If Hibiki's not going to do something about it, fine, but Celty will.]

[priforprince]

My duty ends when sentence enders become involved.

[ And yet. Mrgh. Hibiki frowns down at her hand on the reins, knuckles pale. A shinki by herself can't do much....she's not about to name a stranger, but....

Gghhhhhhh. ]

[lookingforhead]

[Celty just...looks at Hibiki. Her visor is devoid of expression, but it still carries something accusing in the blankness. She holds for a moment, and then makes her own decision.

She can't just stand by.

She tries to tug the reins away from Hibiki's grip, and if she succeeds she'll ride back into the fray to fight whatever is there.]

(ooc: so Celty DOES have a god already, so what would be the best way through this?)

[priforprince]

Wha--

[ She is successful!! Which leaves Hibiki sputtering in disbelief that this just happened as the horse makes its way back towards the danger. ]

What are you doing?! Let go!!

[[ ooc: Stalemate? Chase the ayakashi away so it's not harming people right this moment anymore? ]]

[lookingforhead]

[If she's holding back like this out of fear, Celty won't judge her. If she's merely writing off people in need out of a lack of desire to help though....

For the moment, Celty pays it no mind. Without any idea of where the Ayakashi is she has no idea where to use a borderline, not that hers are that strong yet. Instead she sticks to what she knows how to do.

With a flourish she reaches out to the side with her right hand. Shadows stream from her sleeve and form into a massive pitch black scythe, the blade so dark and smooth it shines with the light reflecting off of it. More shadows stir around her, streaming like ethereal smoke as they stream off of her and are kicked up in the wake of the horse. If the Ayakashi can be frightened, this is certainly a sight worth being scared of.]

(ooc: works for me)

[priforprince]

[ From the ashen tint Hibiki's skin starts gaining the closer they return to the problem areas, her reluctance is 100% motivated by fear. ] I'm dismounting! You can't force pri---mmmmMFMFMFMGghhh--

[ And with that, she has to shut up and hold her mouth shut lest it commit any other grave expression transgressions. She's along for this ride whether she wants to be or not.

Something else dark and smoky, meanwhile, sees that horse wreathed in shadows coming and makes a dash from one lightpost to another, trying to stay hidden. It burps smoke as it runs. ]

[lookingforhead]

[Celty's not going to stop Hibiki from dismounting at all. Actually she's a little surprised the other girl has held on this long, and given the look on her face she'd normally be inclined to stop.

But once the Something makes its appearance, the rider's focus on the chase tightens. She holds up a hand as the horse charges forward, aiming first at the creature's smoky trail and then a bit ahead of where it seems to be going.

As she's been training she puts her fingers in the 'halberd' shape and tries to focus on making a Borderline...It's not the worst one she's made, but it's more of a burst of light and then a sputter as it fails to come together completely.]

[priforprince]

[ The sputter is still enough to surprise the ayakashi, which drops to the ground with a burp as Hibiki covers her ears and hops off the horse. Its eyes - and its many, many mouths - all turn towards the Prince.

"Tasty, kero! Tasty, kero!"

Celty has found herself a fat multi-mouthed frog.

And Hibiki, once she caught the sight of multiple mouths, all spitting sentence enders simultaneously, has frozen into a statue. The Prince appears, let's say, in distress. ]

[lookingforhead]

[The horse isn't of much mind to pay attention to Celty at this point, and with Hibiki bailing out her priority becomes protecting her unwilling companion. She leaps down after the fallen prince and throws up a sphere of shadow around herself and Hibiki.

The ayakashi will find the sphere impenetrable both to assault and sound, so Hibiki is saved at this point. But if the creature were to escape this would be its chance.]

[priforprince]

[ The frog ayakashi bounces off the sphere once or twice before deciding this isn't a great idea. Burbling in displeasure, it takes a mighty hop, scales a building, and disappears - from this particular street corner, at least.

Hibiki's condition remains pretty much the same for the time being. ]

[lookingforhead]

[After a few moments of silence Celty dispels the shadow shell, leaving them kneeling in the middle of the street. She looks around for a tense moment but then relaxes once she's mostly sure the threat has passed.]

[priforprince]

Its potency should shrink with a smaller audience.

[ Look who's back. And apparently deciding to act like none of her previous behavior even happened. ]

[lookingforhead]

[There's a bit of a pause as Celty studies Hibiki before answering.]

What was that just now? And what did you mean by 'sentence enders'?

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki flicks her bangs out of her face, sighing. ] "Sentence enders" are an obnoxious habit of attaching nonsense words to one's speech. It's artificial, idiotic, and outdated, besides.

You're fortunate to have gone this long without learning about them.

[ It clearly displeases her to have even needed to introduce them into a life previously blessed with ignorance. ]

[lookingforhead]

[Celty just balks at this. She supposes she can see where Hibiki is coming from, and she can think of a few cases even with her limited memory where it's annoyed her too but this reaction seems to be right over into the extreme.

Nobody tell Hibiki about grammatical practices on internet forums. Especially fandom ones.]

Right

I guess we should catch that Ayakashi before it can do any more damage?

[priforprince]

You may, if you wish.

[ Hibiki currently lacks the proper hunting equipment.

Not a shinki, mind you. Sentence ender cutphones. ] I'm returning.