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

[yoshinocherry]

[With that, her smile takes on a knowing sort of edge.]

I guess we just have to keep you on your toes, don't we? But, just to let you know upfront, I'm more than happy to be your friend, no questions about it.

[nibelungvalesti]

[Mortals are so strange.]

My position makes you feel no qualms? There are many who term me a death goddess.

[yoshinocherry]

[It's a job someone has to do, right? Yuna's expression takes a turn to something... between melancholy and understanding. It's kind of hard to place, exactly, and Yuna herself probably wouldn't be able to define the feeling exactly.]

Well, death is just something that comes with being alive, right? It's an important thing to be presiding over, so even if it's something that's pretty scary, it's not really something I can hold against you.

[junkyarddog]

Yeah I would, byon. [Ken's level of smugness is increasing in direct proportion to Chikusa's sulk.] Forfeiting is losing, right?

[fortunesmiles]

Well, it depends on your perspective. The Ultimate Despair of my world, Enoshima-chan...I suppose you could say that even she had hope, in a way, in that she hoped to spread her despair or to have her plans work. Likewise, the Ultimate Hope of my world who destroyed her...I'm sure even he felt despair at times.

Really, though, that's just the nature of hope and despair. You can't truly have one without the other. That's why even someone like me could potentially become Ultimate Hope...being Ultimate Hope doesn't mean a complete absence of despair. It just means having a hope strong enough to be able to destroy the strongest despair there is...!

I suppose, when you look at it like that...the biggest draw of potentially becoming Ultimate Hope is to be able to feel that much hope in something. To have a hope so strong that no despair can shake it...because even though one can't exist without the other, hope always overcomes despair in the end. Despair is meaningless...it's emptiness. All of existence is proof enough that something will always beat nothing, even if you need nothing to define the existence of something.

[fortunesmiles]

Hm? You do nice things for me all the time, Garry.

[nibelungvalesti]

You have a great deal of wisdom. [Not 'for one her age', but just in general. Many mortals never arrived at the sensible understanding she's expressed.] Besides, in truth I am a goddess of fate.

[kokuyoyo]

[That sure is a lot of philosophy he's hearing right now, but at least thinking is easy enough. Chikusa listens patiently to the rambling, even as his gaze drifts away a little bit.]

....So just existing... is "hope" by that loic...

[kokuyoyo]

You wouldn't have broken through, so you wouldn't have won.

[He doesn't want to keep doing this, but he doesn't want Ken to win. The struggle is real.]

[mersunary]

That's right. Keeping your heart in a good place makes keeping up with everything else that much easier.

[It's not like watching one's health is really expected to be... a big priority for someone who's dead.

It's probably best to be mindful regardless.]

[kokuyoyo]

...I see. That doesn't make sense to me yet...

It feels... as though just getting energy has been enough.

[Being happy seems like it takes so much more...]

[nopixiedust]

When you put it like that, it just makes it sound like you don't have a spine...

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Spines are flexible! [Edge leans backwards, then to one side.] You have to be able to lean or stand firm!

[yoshinocherry]

Really, it's just something I've had a lot of time to think about in particular.

[Surely that isn't a troubling thought or anything. Still, she's quick to carry on.]

Either way, something like that isn't going to change my mind!

[nibelungvalesti]

[That is a little troubling, yes.]

Then I shall do as best I am able to accept your friendship. Be well-advised that I am not particularly able by nature or purpose. [Just putting that out there....]

[junkyarddog]

Only 'cause you were too lazy to keep it up until I did, byon. Not 'cause I couldn't.

[fortunesmiles]

Well, I suppose it would have to be, wouldn't it? Meaninglessness and emptiness tend to characterize despair, so by that logic, despair is essentially nothingness. So existence would have to be hope, and nonexistence could be classified as despair.

[kokuyoyo]

....But then.... That would mean deciding what is "meaningful", and what classifies as "empty".

[For example, even though he exists, he rarely feels intensely, and drifts through life without the guidance being Axel's exemplar gave him. Does that make him 'empty', and thus something of despair?]

[kokuyoyo]

It still doesn't-

[Okay, you know what, fuck this. He sharply dismisses the line right as Ken is swinging into it, hoping to make his partner fall flat on his face.]

[artificialrose]

I feel like it's the bare minimum....

[nopixiedust]

Isn't standing more to do with your feet standing firm?

[Now she's just messing with him.]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

But you can't lean if you don't have a firm grip either. That's why plants have roots.

[He's determined to see this through to the bitter end.]

[nopixiedust]

Isn't it less that the roots are gripping the dirt, and the dirt is gripping the roots?

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[That is so patently ridiculous Edge glares at her as he clamps one hand onto the bucket, holding it with the pressure of his fingers.] Is the bucket gripping my fingers? No!

[fortunesmiles]

I suppose it would. But that isn't really that difficult, is it? For something to be meaningful, it has to bring something worthwhile to the world. If it contributes nothing of value, or worse, actively subtracts from or destroys the worthwhile things in the world...then that would be meaningless. I suppose it's not as simple as good or evil, because even murdering someone could be meaningful if it was someone who made the world less worthwhile by being in it. And helping someone could be meaningless, if that person only spreads despair and misery.

Still, it should be easy enough to know if you're spreading hope or spreading despair.