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

[nopixiedust]

Well, yeah... But that's because it's probably ayakashi, right?

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Is it? [Edge folds his arms, eyebrows narrowing to emphasize the frown beneath his mask.] Humankind has its darkness within it too. People don't need ayakashi as an excuse to be worse to each other.

[nopixiedust]

I mean, sure, I won't argue there, but also I saw some ayakashi running around in a store just a couple of blocks away.

[And she points to where she's talking about.]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

That doesn't surprise me. Whether they're creating this or amplifying it or just drawn to it...

[One hand falls to the hilt of a sword by reflex, but he checks the motion before he can draw it.]

Damn the fate that makes us unable to simply destroy them.

[nopixiedust]

I mean, we can simply destroy them. It's just a team effort.

What, missing your partner?

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Yeah, that's my point. I could stab these damn things all day and they'd still escape at the end of it without my god here to Rend them.

It's stupid!

[nopixiedust]

Well... Why not trap them if it's bugging you so much!

[onehandsomeslickninja]

That hardly seems like a victory, and besides, trap them with what?

[nopixiedust]

You know- whatever you make traps out of! A box, or something. You could even use borderlines, I guess....

[onehandsomeslickninja]

But those don't last. The ayakashi will just escape eventually, even if you found something that could hold an evil spirit.

[nopixiedust]

They don't have to last forever. Just long enough for someone to come take care of it!

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Hmm. [It's far from ideal, but she has a point.] If I pin an ayakashi, can you get it into something?

[nopixiedust]

Hmmm..... I guess...

[She should probably start being helpful right around now, shouldn't she?]

But I'd need to find that 'something' first.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Then you go find something, and I'll hunt the ayakashi down. I find one, I pin it, you trap it, and we get someone to Rend it.

[He nods decisively, flipping his cape back as he does in a fit of dramatics.]

[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?

[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.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

What about a vase? Or a water jug?

[Still a little adaptation to modern life needed here.]

[nopixiedust]

We can probably find a metal box. [Shaking her head, Wendy gestures to him.] Come on, lets go.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Yeah, it's not going anywhere, is it. So long as it doesn't think it's in danger. [It'd be like leaving a banquet when you're still hungry.]

[They'll make it pay.]

[nopixiedust]

Not to mention there's a ton of these things....

[Standing on the tips of her toes, Wendy peers into a window to see if it's the kind they're looking for.]

So we could probably be busy for a while, I guess.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

We're right back to how irritated I am that we can't just kill these things. [Edge has no problems looking straight over her, though he doesn't see anything that registers as useful for their purposes.]

[nopixiedust]

You and everyone else.

[Moving on to the next store, she shakes her head.]

Okay, this looks like one that has tools and things, I think. Is this good?

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Buckets! Those would do the trick, right?

[Buckets are typically metal or wood, to his knowledge. Certainly sturdy!]

[nopixiedust]

Yeah, probably! [In she goes! Catch the door for yourself, Edge.] I've never been in a store like this before... Know where anything is?