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

[lostinshadows]

Not for too long. [Definitely not long enough until the police arrive, especially with this kind of crowd.

He keeps it up, though, and peers down at him.]

Think fire would have a better chance of warding some of the more stubborn ones off? [He's not opposed to potentially burning what's in this truck, too, but he's trying to be nice here. The people, on the other hand, seem to be a lot more crazier than usual and he's really not opposed to scaring them off with fire if it comes down to it.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun doesn't look too put-off by the suggestion, but he does eye the crowd a little skeptically. If it was a normal riot, he'd be a bit more prepared to employ measures like that, but as it is...]

I don't know if I'd trust some of the worse affected ones not to try running through the fire to get to the truck while they're under this kind of influence.

[If they were in their right minds and just angry, sure, but he's not going to be too risky with this lot considering the situation.]

[lostinshadows]

Think you can manage to get one of your shinki here in time to help out?

[Shun has...three, doesn't he? Lavi knows about Kotori and two others, one even looking familiar from the time he's visited Shun's temple before.

But he does keep up the wind sphere, eying the crowd.]

We can't even be sure of the police would be sane enough to help out either.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun has to consider that for a moment. Fubuki would probably not be an asset in an instance like this, and Reisi he doesn't feel is safe to call considering what happened this morning. That leaves two options, and in terms of ones that could potentially help with both crowd control and clearing ayakashi, Kotori is probably not the better option.]

...I could try calling Chinatsu. If she's in the area. [It at least shouldn't be too hard to call her to "where the overturned truck is".] We won't be able to tell that until they get here, but you're not wrong that they could just fall under the influence as well.

[lostinshadows]

Better than nothing.

[Because keeping this up can be exhausting. However, Lavi is resilient and stubborn enough to keep it going.]

Does it sound like they're getting closer, at least?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun pauses in pulling out his phone to listen to their surroundings. After a few seconds, he frowns a little.]

Slower than I expected, but yes. This is a main street, so the ones around it are probably choked up enough they're having trouble getting through.

[On that note, though, Shun's going to attempt calling Chinatsu while things are still quiet courtesy of Lavi's windstorm.]

[lostinshadows]

Fun.

[His voice drips with sarcasm, but he doesn't mind waiting.

Really, he focuses on making the wind sphere a bit bigger to keep some of the more stubborn ones out.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun hangs up the phone before too long.] She'll be here. Hopefully before this thing runs out.

[He's prepared to fight it out if it doesn't, but it would be nice to have the backup before Chinatsu shows up. He's going to keep an eye out for her from the top of the truck within the sphere of wind, though, to make sure she can get through when she does arrive.]

[redmare]

[It really was a lot easier traveling with Shun..It took more work on her own, but Chinatsu eventually made it. She needed to fight her way through the rampaging crowd, which looked like a scene out of an apocalyptic movie. What the hell was all this about? A couple of kicks and elbows to the gut later, she manages to get close enough to the swirling ball of wind...

But how the hell was she supposed to get to them through that? ]

Oi! Shun!

[lostinshadows]

[It's fortunate that through the sphere, Lavi is able to pick up Chinatsu's voice.

He focuses enough to create an opening for her while focusing on keeping the rest of the crowd away.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun hears her as well, and when Lavi creates the opening, Shun leans down from the top of the truck so he's visible through the gap.]

Come on, before someone follows you in.

[redmare]

[She hops right on up, though she didn’t realize who was responsible for the wind barrier.]

Ehh, you were doing this prayer with Lavi-san?

[Though she imagined Lavi was way more patient when it came to Shun...compared to her anyway.]

So what’s your plan exactly?

[Surely it wasn’t to set those people on fire.]

[lostinshadows]

Not quite. We kind of ran into each other.

[He closes up the sphere before someone from the crowd tries to brave it.

Lavi peers over at them.]

Well, we were hoping to get rid of the ayakashi hanging around here.

[revolutionfalcon]

I saw the riot starting around the accident and came here. Lavi showed up later.

[So not really a prayer so much as a case of them both coming to the rescue and ending up trying to deal with it together.

Lavi already has the basics covered there, and Shun nods a little.] There's some small ayakashi around here fueling the violence. If the emergency workers get here and those ayakashi are still around, there's a chance they'll join in instead of helping. So we're trying to get rid of them before then.