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

[artificialrose]

It was mainly cats.

[Way too many cats.... Ugh! Giant plushie monsters are just- perhaps with a bit more vindictiveness and fear than he's really willing to admit to at the moment, Garry lashes out with another borderline. It's... just to make sure it can't get up, okay?]

C'mon- we should get out of here before it gets up.

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, cats are overrated. Assuming I don't mysteriously disappear at the whims of our feline overlords for saying that. [Which is definitely a thing that actually happens, and not just more rambling on his part.

Even though Davesprite watches with an unreadable look as Garry takes another shot at the cat, he doesn't remark on that particular bout of vindictiveness.]

How likely are we to just run into another one, though.

[artificialrose]

Ah.

[That's true. Garry knows from experience that there are still a couple probably looking for him... His face grimaces a little just thinking about it.]

We could at least find a better place to defend ourselves at, right?

[redotiertwo]

If you've got any suggestions, I'm all ears. Literally. All of them.

[He's just going to toss another borderline up so that cat doesn't come rampaging in their direction when it wakes up, and look around their area. He doesn't really want to set up a base on someone else's temple grounds.]

[artificialrose]

[Shit, time for him to be a responsible adult. Garry freezes for a moment, mind stumbling over everything. Maybe he should just run back to his temple- ]

Oh! Komaeda's temple- it has water around it! [He snaps his fingers.] And just a single bridge!

[redotiertwo]

Okay, well. I'm gonna take that one and hope these things hate water as much as normal cats. [Which he doesn't feel is entirely guaranteed with these situations, but he still has some optimism left.]

Lead the way, then, before this one starts chasing us down again.

[artificialrose]

I mean, I saw one chasing a light spot earlier, I think...

[And then it chased him, so, you know. Since it looks like it's running time now, Garry starts up a jog. Listen... He's been sprinting all around the place. Let him have this for just a half a second.]

[redotiertwo]

So you're saying they're probably just normal cats except bigger. [Thankfully for Davesprite, his flying speed is already pretty fast, so he doesn't really need to put on a burst of speed to keep up here.

He might just shoot another borderline up between them and the cat, though. Just in case.]

[artificialrose]

Well, they definitely have cat characteristics...

[And he really does appreciate that extra borderline, Davesprite.]

Do all ayakashi have that issue?

[redotiertwo]

Usually when I get to fight ayakashi, they're the weird formless kinds, not the actually looking like animals kinds. So I don't have a good answer to that groundbreakingly vital question.

[Someone hasn't yet met the crow ones hanging around the place recently.]

[artificialrose]

Well... Damn.

[He'd feel more bad about swearing around a teenager (????? it's hard to tell with all the feathers and ghost), except he's heard Davesprite swear like a sailor, so, you know.]

It'd be easier to know what to do if we knew more about them...

[redotiertwo]

[Davesprite probably wouldn't even consider "damn" a swear, and he definitely doesn't react to it in any way even if he does.]

I mean. Either way there's not much we can do except try to mislead them or set up comical distractions until someone who can actually deal with them shows up.

[artificialrose]

Define 'distractions'.

[Because 'comical distractions' just makes him think of cartoon stuff...]

[redotiertwo]

An oversized ten ton weight trap, for starters.

[Serious suggestions possibly incoming after he gets this one out of the way.]

[artificialrose]

Yeah, I don't have anything that convenient around.

[Just his borderlines.]

Do you think it'd be better if we went through trees or not?

[redotiertwo]

Uh. I dunno, probably, they might get distracted and use one as a scratching post. [Or they could just lose them in the obstacles, but Davesprite's taking the more potentially hilarious option here.]

I'm gonna have to fly higher if they're too dense, though, so backup's harder.

[artificialrose]

Ah, right...

[Wings those big won't work with too many trees. Garry swears again, a little breathlessly considering he's still running.]

Well, let's just hope our lines hold until we're close enough to Komaeda's temple.

[They totally won't break or anything, right...]

[redotiertwo]

Or hope that we can keep putting them up. Seems like the smarter course than just expecting them to not break forever under the onslaught of giant cat.

[Sure enough, their pursuer is clawing and biting at the borderlines at every opportunity - they're already starting to crack a little.]

I wonder if it knows it could just go around. [They're in a pretty open space right now.]

[artificialrose]

Don't give it any ideas.

[Who knows how smart that thing really is...]

Anyway, that seems like it could be tiring- are you alright with that?

[redotiertwo]

I mean, if you really want me to tempt fate I could try harder. [While Davesprite's reasonably sure ayakashi can't understand human speech, he doesn't need to say it out loud and then have it immediately turn out wrong, for example.]

If I'm about to fall out of the sky I'll let you know, but I'm pretty sure I won't.

[artificialrose]

Alright. Then let me know.

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

[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.

[artificialrose]

Except when they're hungry and they never leave you alone...

[Pausing just long enough to make sure he draws the line right, Garry takes off running again.]

Although they usually don't go after wayward souls.

[redotiertwo]

I'll take your word for it, all my goddess has are some pilfered vultures. [Which he's usually reasonably chill will by virtue of all of them being birds, even if they're a bit scabby and trash-eating.]

You're saying that like cats aren't here to take all our souls in the first place.

[artificialrose]

[Vultures..... This place really has all sorts. As much as Garry would like to talk more about that, however, they have more pressing matters.]

They usually aren't so violent and upfront about it.