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

[yousaytron]

[Maybe someday you'll remember your badass exploits, Berserker. Maybe someday....

Today's not that day, at least not right now for certain, as the two of them head toward a pair of buildings. Picking up what her plan is pretty easily, Keith drops his altitude enough to not tempt most of the ayakashi to simply leap over the temples in an effort to catch him. Individually, the cats are largely swift enough to maneuver themselves into the gap with little to no hassle, though their sheer speed as a group makes actually getting into there without creating a mess a bit of a challenge.

All according to plan, while one or two squeeze themselves in, the majority of the group is left behind, attempting to squirm into the space to keep the pursuit up. A few do smarten up fast enough to simply circumvent the buildings all together, but that's where Keith can turn and fight them back.

A good plan and winning combination all around...! Incredible!]

[mersunary]

[Easy peasy!

The Valkyrie's actions, it feels akin to the sorts of things a few magic users in Soleil's world are capable of, though entirely different in its own way. Watching magic users work their magic is always breathtaking, and having someone so cool and dashing execute it... ah! She feels her spirits and strength bolstered just from the sight!]

Let's go!

[Sword poised, she moves in with the group of figures summoned by the Valkyrie, striking the ayakashi with swift and practice precision.]

[mersunary]

[How unbelievably smooth...!]

Soleil, it's a pleasure. [Said with a smile, sunny and charming as can be.] And yourself?

[mersunary]

[That's one down, and however many more to go... still, taking down monstrous enemies like these is easy enough with this sort of power at her disposal, so once the first one goes down, Soleil wastes no time in dashing toward their next target.]

Haha, not bad! Not bad at all!

[She's obviously enjoying this, throwing yourself into the heat of battle like this is plenty familiar, and getting used to what Berserker allows her is interesting, not to mention thrilling.]

[priforprince]

The gentleman with the hats.

[ She refuses to say "beanie". Her face scrunches up of its own accord when she gets a tongue stuck out at her, too. ]

[yasei]

Memorizing things is one of the things I seem to have a talent for.

[priforprince]

Shikyoin Hibiki. [ Pause for effect. ] The god Apollo.

[ She tucks the keychain away in a pocket without letting up on the smile. ] It seems the sun has destined us to meet.

[mersunary]

Hmm, that sounds like something that wouldn't be a bad idea to investigate.

[Harmful or otherwise, at least their presences are diminished enough on the Near Shore that, if it is simply something mundane, it's not like they'd be calling too much attention to themselves.]

Shall we take a look?

[discerp]

[Oh boy here we go again. Mikan waits patiently, albeit anxiously, for him to finish.] W-well, that's... good... [She thinks, anyhow. Hopefully they wouldn't be 'stepping stones' in this place either, but it's Komaeda so who knows.

She makes a startled little noise] O-of course you do! [Jeez!!] Komaeda-san is important! [How any times does she have to say it?

She hesitates a moment, considering everything else he's said again] Despair versus Hope... is that, um. I mean, is that a problem here?

[discerp]

[Mikan had only gotten a brief overview of what had happened after her execution, but she flinches in surprise-- mentally she makes a note to ask for more about that a little later, but right now Komaeda presents a more pressing topic of discussion.

She's not really knowledgeable about these sorts of things, but she struggles to come up with an explanation anyhow.] T...Time travel...? I-I don't know. The Komaeda-san I met after we woke up didn't say anything about this sort of place...

But, then, maybe you--he?--forgot, or didn't get the chance with everything going on?

[nibelungvalesti]

[The Valkyrie's Einherjar are not great warriors. She has been training them extensively since Choosing them, but that does not change the simple fact that they knew nothing of combat before joining her.]

[Their strength is in coordination. Guided by the goddess, they move in tandem to take perfect advantage of Soleil's strikes, catching the ayakashi's flanks -- only for the Valkyrie herself to explode into the fray, hammering the creature down with a mighty overhand blow.]

[frankensteins_moe]

[And meanwhile, Berserker takes up her position in the gap, shooting lightning at the ayakashi that approach and smashing any that get too close with her mace. They won't be able to take any of them down permanently without a god around, but their combined efforts at least manage to thin the herd significantly.]

[frankensteins_moe]

[Berserker keeps the lightning coursing, conducting it into the tip of Soleil's blade as she keeps up her assault. She's not very talkative even telepathically while they fight, but Soleil will pick up little proud and satisfied hums every so often.]

[kokuyoyo]

So it will either go until it finds a store.... or it gets bored and returns.

...I hope it's the latter.

[He's going to steal a motorbike or something if this keeps up.]

[kokuyoyo]

Focus to something in particular...

[you know, like aggressively devoting yourself to a single god]

[drops_acid]

{she sighs.]

Some of them will. But some will be deterred too. At any rate, it's all I can really do right now.

[drops_acid]

I suppose... you could call it that.

[It's almost more of a curse than a skill, but she does get some use out of it.]

[kokuyoyo]

So are you going to leave?

[kokuyoyo]

...What if.... they just stop moving at all?

[redotiertwo]

I mean, it might just find the nearest angry crowd and hang out there if all else fails. [He's still watching the ayakashi as he says that, and then it starts to veer off to one side.]

Hang on, I think this one's legit.

[declamando]

As long as I'm not pulling you away from anything. [Maria smiles slightly and glances at the machines. She can't deny the little keychains are cute, even if they're not as much to her taste as they might be for others, so she wouldn't be too surprised if Soleil wanted to try for more.]

But yes, I think it would be a good idea.

[kokuyoyo]

[Chikusa smashes his cart into someone's hip, ignores the yelling, and keeps moving on.]

Store?

[boneofsword]

[Now that he has a chance to watch her up close Archer realizes that she's wearing too much clothing that covers almost all of her skin. It hints to more of a curse than it being a skill.]

...I see. [he's impressed that she's trying to help despite this condition.] It must be hard.

[nopixiedust]

It's blackmail.

[She's going to call it as it is.]

So are we just going to only do this as practice?

[priforprince]

I've devised alternatives.

[ Hibiki lifts a large cardboard box with a hole cut into it and places it on the table next to all the cups.

She's completely serious. ]