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]

[ Hibiki's eyes track the smoke once Maria draws her attention to it. She nods, once, then nudges the horse in that direction.

Something behind a telephone pole is gurgling happily to itself as it ingests the smoke. Hibiki, meanwhile, seizes up. That's - !!! It's -

She is this close to panic. She's stopped herself - she has to endure - but she's wavering. A push in either direction could send her over the edge. ]

[declamando]

[...Well, that's not a promising sign. Hibiki is her ride currently, but Maria can't necessarily trust that she's going to pull off the ride-by of the ayakashi in this state. Rather than try to convince her when whatever comes out of her mouth is probably going to be tainted by the ayakashi anyway, Maria tightens her grip on her sword.

And then she dismounts, slipping her leg off the horse and dropping neatly to the ground, starting to creep up on the feeding ayakashi.]

[priforprince]

[ She's leav--No, she's being intelligent. Hibiki takes a breath and holds it, as if afraid even an exhalation would come with accompapriment. If Maria misses. If Maria misses, and that thing--!!

That thing, meanwhile, doesn't notice Maria. It's too busy gorging itself.

"Talk more, kero," it burbles to itself. "More, kero!"

Maria appears to have found herself a many-mouthed...frog. And Hibiki is shivering in place so badly she looks like she's vibrating. ]

[declamando]

[That is definitely a frog, and while Maria has sympathy for Hibiki's predicament, as far as she's concerned, the best way to sate her fear is to get rid of the ayakashi once and for all. It's not as if she's unused to fighting monsters where she finds them, and it seems remarkably taken with its feeding.

Taking another few careful steps forward, Maria twirls sharply and drives Uta's sword form straight towards one of the creature's open mouths.]

[priforprince]

[ "More, ker---"

The frog sputters as its mouth is speared by the sword, every other mouth opening up to screech in rage. Swelling up in its indignation, it turns on Maria, tongues lashing out to try and wrench her sword hand away from it.

Hibiki reaches into her pocket with trembling fingers. Queen Maria...she....she has to....

....she doesn't have a sword. But her grip closes over something else, just in case. ]

[declamando]

[At least Maria is fast - she snatches her hand back once it reacts, backflipping a few times so she's out of easy range of the tongues. She would've liked it to be over in one hit, because now it's going to be a lot harder to get a better shot in.

She starts to circle the creature, looking for a weak point, but also trying to keep its attention off Hibiki. She doesn't seem to have a way to defend herself from this right now, so it's best for Maria to take the brunt of its displeasure.]

[priforprince]

[ The frog sure isn't happy about any of this! It's also listing to one side from its wound, so while it's hoppin' pissed, it's also not doing so great.

Its biggest advantages are its multiple mouths, and it watches Maria warily, gladly taking that bait. All of its mouths begin opening very, very wide, and the smoke comes streaming in.

Hibiki coughs, throwing a hand up in front of her face. No! At this rate, it'll drown Queen Maria! She might be hurt, blinded by the thick clouds of smoke everywhere, or, worse,

start using a sentence ender! ]

[declamando]

[The thick smokescreen certainly doesn't help, but the method of it coming makes it almost ineffective - even with the sudden darkness, Maria can see the smoke streaming towards the creature, into the mouths, and she lashes out with Uta's vessel form right into the centre of where she can see the smoke converging.

This time, she doesn't stop with one strike - if the ayakashi gives her the chance, she'll keep slashing at it.]

[priforprince]

Quee--

[ What is she doing?! She's the Prince. Hibiki holds her breath and, finally, kicks into action. The horse thunders up behind Maria, Hibiki's hand poised in her pocket, ready to strike -

Right as Maria's rapid-fire, precision attacks rend the ayakashi. It explodes into more black smoke, then begins to dissipate.

Hibiki switches what she was about to remove from her pocket and starts patting soot off herself instead with a handkerchief. ]

That....solves that, I suppose.

[declamando]

[Maria can hear Hibiki and the horse approaching, and is somewhat relieved at the prospect of backup if she needs it, but keeps focused on her task. And it pays off when the ayakashi begins to vanish, the repeated slashes finally tearing it apart.

Letting her breath out, she turns the dagger in her hand, moving out of the area of where the smoke had been and closer to where Hibiki is dusting herself off.] Our work is done, Uta.

[On the statement of the name, the dagger's form begins to shift, and the kimono clad woman reforms out of light, holding Maria's hand where she'd previously been holding the dagger.]

It does, I hope. That's the biggest ayakashi I've seen here so far.

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki folds the handkerchief over on itself when she's done, coughs the last vestiges of the smoke into it, shakes it out. If Maria looks closely, she might even see the letters "pu" "ri" fall out of the handkerchief and dissolve upon hitting the ground. ] Intolerable. This is precisely the trouble with the current pantheon selection system...

[ The rabble it's bringing in couldn't even prevent the proliferation of sentence enders! What is it good for!?

The horse paws the ground, eager to get away from all these people. ]

[declamando]

[Maria sure does see that, though she also wonders if she might be seeing things, and shakes it off a moment later anyway. With a long breath out, a few remaining traces of it escape her as well, dissipating on the breeze.]

We got rid of it, didn't we? It can't have been around that long if nobody but us noticed it. The effects were...a bit obvious.

[Silly and inconsequential to most people, but still obvious.]

[priforprince]

[ This is...true. Though Hibiki is more inclined to attribute their noticing the issue to their being a pair of geniuses. What's obvious to them apparently baffles the common man.

Or god. ]

I've no more business here. [ That she's in the mood for, anyway.

She slides her earmuffs off her ears. ] Are you staying?

[ She'll give you a ride. You don't need one, but. An escort must always ask. ]

[declamando]

[Well, it's not exactly a surprise that Hibiki doesn't really want to stay here after that. It takes more than some sentence enders to put Maria off, though, and she figures she should probably keep an eye on the area to make sure things are clearing up anyway. So she nods a little, glancing back to Uta.]

I came out to do some shopping, so I still have that to finish. I'll make sure there's no traces of the ayakashi's influence left.

[Even if that influence was ridiculous, it's the principle of the thing.]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki nods. ] I'll leave it to you.

[ With that taken care of, then, she'll be on her way. Her and this horse, who is having quite the afternoon. ]

[declamando]

Of course. Thank you for your help. [Even if it was primarily the ride in. Nonetheless, she waves a hand to Hibiki as she leaves.]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki's out, too. To spend her afternoon surrounded by beauty, in her temple, drinking tea.

What a thoroughly unpleasant interval. She must detox herself to ensure no lasting effects remain. ]