23 - Crazy Cat Shuffle

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Crazy Cat Shuffle
When: September 20
Where: Shibuya & Ikebukuro, as well as the Far Shore
Summary: The new Crazy Cat mascot keychains are sparking real passion in Tokyo's hot spots. Brawls have broken out over the extra-rare versions, and all of this angst is attracting ayakashi. The gods have been asked to step in before things get out of control.







Crossing Crisis

The Shibuya scramble crossing is always busy, but it's especially wild today. Ten new Crazy Cat vending machines have been installed at the mouth of the alley across from Shibuya Station's exit. Rumors are flying that these machines have extra Blue-Star Cats in them: the very rarest kind! A crowd of hundreds of excited fans have gathered, but the people at the front of the lines are buying lots of cats, and the mood is starting to grow sour as the people at the back of the lines begin to wonder if there will be any left by the time it's their turn.

This crowd needs crossing guards... or just someone who can snag some of those ultra-rare Cats and sell them to the back of the line for crazy cash. Everything a god does is righteous, after all.

Sunshine Struggle

Crazy Cat machines dot the Sunshine City complex in Ikebukuro. The machines here are attracting some particularly nasty ayakashi: jealous little purple creatures with too many legs that stoke buyers' envy and need for more and better collectibles. Under their influence, it's not just the Cats going fast. The local stores are selling out of everything cute on the shelves.

Worse, some of the ayakashi victims are turning to theft when they run out of pocket money. Time to exterminate those bugs before they start a new crime wave.

Taking Stock

Accident? Sabotage? No one's telling, but a delivery truck carrying boxes of new keychains to restock the machines blew a tire and overturned on a major street. Under the influence of those greedy little ayakashi, collectors are descending on the wreck to snag their favorites before the police show up.

The dazed driver doesn't know what to do, the crowd is starting to get violent, and those Cats do look amazingly cute. And appealing. And, for that matter, valuable.

Bad Kitty

The cat keychains are super cute! Even gods or shinki might be tempted to buy one and take it home, but taking these keychains back to the Far Shore will give away their hidden secret. It's not just human envy that's attracting ayakashi to the Crazy Cats. There are ayakashi hiding inside this batch of cute kitty dolls, and bringing them through a shrine to the Far Shore will force the hidden creatures out of their plushie prisons.

They're big, they're mad, and they're hungry. And the Heavens are full of souls that smell delicious.

The ayakashi escaping from Crazy Cat dolls on the Far Shore resemble gigantic (taller than a person at the shoulder) versions of the cute plushie cats, with very real and sharp teeth and claws. They run and attack at random once released from the dolls, so even gods and shinki who did not bring the toys back could be faced with a fight. The patrolling shinki will do their best to hold them back with borderlines, but they need help to rend these crazy cats before they do too much damage!

In Summary:

• Placate the crowds
• Squash bitty ayakashi
• Struggle with temptation
• Defeat the cat invasion
• Have fun~

Comments

[kokuyoyo]

So... paint next?

[They might as well properly fuck around.]

[nopixiedust]

[....Oh, look, it's Hibiki Version 2.]

[Laughing into her palm, Wendy hops up onto the machine properly to take out her since repaired wire.]

Alright. What do you think would keep an ayakashi trapped? Plastic?

[nopixiedust]

...And you do what with this stuff again?

[artificialrose]

Alright. Then let me know.

[In the meantime- well, shit, that's definitely his line going first, and Garry grimaces.]

[nopixiedust]

[...Oh. She sees now.]

Did they leave a name or address?

[mithrarin]

That's fast. I guess a big accident gets a lot of attention. [Dust frowns even as he pulls his own phone out. Is this going to solve everything...?]

[artificialrose]

That was far from an explicit warning....

[Yeah, he's calling bullshit, even as he tries to flail his arms a little bit. Can he flail closer? ....No? Well, alright.]

You don't seem fine.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Plastic's the clear stuff, right? I'd think metal or stone is better, but I have no idea. [Plastic is not a thing he is familiar with, obviously. Traditionalism would dictate a sealing jar or something?]

[nopixiedust]

....We're not finding a stone box anywhere around here.

[priforprince]

I know who they are.

[ Every slip of paper. She knows. Every slip of paper.

Hibiki is remarkably devoted to being good at very strange things. ]

[lookingforhead]

[Celty has the ayakashi's number this time. While making a borderline might be the right call she goes with her instincts. She starts to move in one direction, but as soon as the spirit dodges she flashes her hand out. A shadow snare launches from her sleeve, wrapping around the neck of the creature as a thorny vine. She has it caught!]

[lookingforhead]

[Fortunately the crowd isn't actually that deep, but with the way people were piling up on each other it was hard to see outside the crush. All of a sudden they're back out in the open air and Celty only hesitates for a second before she keeps running, evading the other shoppers.

They round a corner and through a door. It was the first one she saw but the womens restroom should offer them a brief respite.

Celty leans against one of the stalls, bent over as if she's trying to catch her breath,
not that she actually has any to lose.]

[mithrarin]

[Dust explodes into the fray much the way a buzzsaw would, his sword flashing through the air as nothing more than a blur. The reverberations of his cuts hasn't even faded from the air by the time he comes to a halt on the other side of the creature, cloak fluttering forward with the force of his passage.]

[nopixiedust]

[Just in case, Wendy slips out of her sneakers and tries to stuff them against the bottom of the door. Hopefully that will lodge it a little bit...]

[And in the meantime, she trots up to Celty.]

How are you feeling? Do you still have your phone?

[lookingforhead]

[Celty nods and grabs at one of the levers, pulling on them to slide them into place. She could use her shadows to give them another kick if need be but fortunately it slides into place easily enough after a few seconds of just trying to get the thing to start moving.

The truck is secure...but what about the driver?]

[irishfriskey]

"Mister Caster!" He cries out, trying to help him dodge however possible. But being a spear and not a human, he can only do so much. He can't even really defend his master from getting hit and blighted. It makes him pained to watch this all go down.

But he can't leave his spear unless permitted. Which means, all he can do is watch.

"I'll watch the claws! Are you okay, Mister Caster?!" Get up, get up, get up. "There's another one!"

[artificialrose]

Well, it is an overturned truck....

[Although something occurs to him as he gives his number, and Garry winces a little.]

Do you think they'll have brought enough people?

[fortunesmiles]

[Komaeda blinks at her for a moment, seemingly surprised by what she's...well, not so much saying as vaguely skirting around, but that's just Mikan. He doesn't really have any trouble understanding her; he wonders if that's purely from the time they'd spent together on the island, or if it's some subconscious holdover from when he'd known her for far longer and had a lot more time to become accustomed to her mannerisms.]

It's strange...when you had all your memories as a Remnant of Despair, you said you didn't care about any of us...you even told me that no one cared about me. [Komaeda's faint, abstracted smile doesn't change at all as he says this. The way he can say the most disturbing things without flinching...remains as eerie as ever. Especially when he'd definitely reacted to it when it happened, so he's clearly paved over his own emotional reaction.]

But now that you've returned to being an embodiment of hope, you're saying the exact opposite of what you used to. I'd say it was related to our being robbed of our memories, but...you have the same memories now as you did then, don't you? Well, minus things that have happened since then, but the point is that it wasn't whether your memories were there or not that's changed. [He presses a finger thoughtfully to his lips.] You didn't seem to be lying as a Remnant of Despair...in fact, you seemed like you were at your most honest at the end, when you stopped caring about what anyone else thought of you. And while you don't exactly seem to be lying now, either, you're definitely back to doing or saying whatever you think will make people like you or treat you better...

I guess what I'm wondering is, which is the actual truth? How can the same person have believed I had no value at all, and now believe just as strongly that I do? And which Tsumiki was correct?

[fortunesmiles]

[Komaeda takes the drink from her, although Mikan - in her professional fervor - snags his hand to take his pulse before he can open it, and his left hand certainly isn't functional or strong enough to manage it one-handed. He patiently waits for his other hand to be freed, with a vague smile and no complaints. This is just Mikan, after all.

Besides, she's taken excellent care of him before...the murders she committed while he was bedridden notwithstanding. Of course he'd trust her care.]

I think it's mostly the weakness from my pre-existing condition, really...I don't feel any less healthy than I usually do, but then I usually don't feel very healthy. I can't imagine my illness is actually dangerous anymore now that I'm a god - I'm sure it can't kill me - but godhood doesn't seem to have restored my body to any healthier a state than it was in before I died in the simulation. [He shrugs and smiles.]

I don't handle a lot of sudden exertion very well, so getting shoved around by the crowd was kind of awkward...but I think that's all it is. [And probably some not looking after his nutrition too well to compound it, from the sounds of it, but in terms of disinterest in his own well-being, that's pretty tame for Komaeda.]

[fortunesmiles]

Shall I bring you with me, or did you want to stay here...? [Komaeda looks thoughtful.]

[junkyarddog]

[Ken's hand closes around it, stubbornly.] It's a gift, so that stuff won't work.

[It may be of mild surprise to Hibiki that Ken would get something to give to someone else.]

[fortunesmiles]

Not really...I was just trying to use my luck to get some rare charms for those at the back of the line... [He smiles weakly, perhaps in some form of awareness that his plan doesn't sound that great.] It worked earlier...

[junkyarddog]

Yakitori, byon! [Ken declares this with certainty. And then, because he's impatient and also a shit, he shoves Chikusa off the bus stop roof, jumping down after him with a cackle.] C'mon, I've already waited for your slow kappa ass enough!

[Sometimes Ken is cute, sometimes Ken is feral, and sometimes he's just a loud brat with zero self-restraint.]

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, why not.

[This is an excellent plan and in no way likely to backfire horribly.]

[redotiertwo]

[Davesprite glides backwards for a little while and draws up another borderline when he feels his first one getting weak. Sure enough, the first goes down after another few hits.]

Shit's fucking determined, I thought cats lost interest after a while if it wasn't a laser pointer or something.