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

[kokuyoyo]

....Still sounds like a stalemate to me. Despair is just as reliant on it, from the sounds of it....

[fortunesmiles]

But despair is always the loser, so it's hardly a stalemate. Rather, it's a battle that's fought countless times in countless formats, with a pre-determined victor.

[kokuyoyo]

I wouldn't say 'always', or 'pre-determined'.

[fortunesmiles]

I would. If despair is true nothingness, then despair can't truly win as long as existence continues. And even if, someday, the universe deconstructs itself down to total nothingness...I expect that something will spring from nothing again, just as it did the first time. Despair will never have a true victory.

[kokuyoyo]

And what if... A person's existence is nothing?

[fortunesmiles]

Hm...well, a person's existence can't be completely nothing, I suppose, if one defines the absence of existence as true nothingness. That said, I think a person can be worthless without actually being nothing at all.

[Komaeda looks thoughtful, and after a moment lifts his right hand to look at it.] Think of a person's body; it's composed of multiple elements that are vital and important. Skin, organs, veins, nerves, blood, bones...all elements with a vital role. But what holds those things together? What does nothing more but support all the other elements, simply by existing? The flesh. Flesh serves no real purpose other than to occupy space, to permit the existence and function of the more vital elements around it. In essence, flesh's one virtue is that it fills space that needs to be filled. But the flesh itself isn't important. Obviously, if you removed all the flesh from someone at once - if that could be done - the rest of the body would die, because the change would be too fast and too radical. But slowly replace every bit of flesh with different flesh, or transplant the more vital pieces of a body to a different body, and the important things are unaffected. The only worth of the flesh is the more important things it supports, and no individual chunk of it has any meaning in itself.

I think that's a good way to think of society. People with talent, with inherent value, truly amazing people...they're the vital functions. But there are millions of people who are essentially just the flesh holding them up. People like me, with no intrinsic worth. The only way worthless people like me can have value is by supporting those who do matter.

[He smiles at Chikusa.] So...a person can't be nothing, but they can be worthless. But not having inherent worth doesn't mean you can't give yourself value in supporting others, so as long as you exist at all, despair isn't inevitable!

[Komaeda, if the world may gently inquire, what the fresh hell was that verbal journey you just took us all on. Why are you complicating Chikusa's self-worth issues like this. Komaeda why]

[kokuyoyo]

[ok]




[so]




[what the fuck]

[There's no immediate answer from Chikua as he instead takes the time to just... stare at Komaeda with the kind of intense blankness that probably belies the utter whirlpool of emotion that's going through his head. That's a lot to process, with his own issues playing into things, so just.... let him restart.]

[Or comment upon the staring, whatever]

[fortunesmiles]

[Komaeda gives him a look of mild curiosity, as though he didn't just shake Chikusa's head like a magic eight ball.] Are you all right?

[kokuyoyo]

[A mature individual, Chikusa answers by kicking Komaeda's shin and, without a single god damn word, turning on his heel to walk away.]

[No, he's not alright. And he doesn't think he likes that, either.]

[fortunesmiles]

Ah - ! [Well, Chikusa was probably too lazy and mentally preoccupied to kick particularly hard, but Komaeda's sickly enough that he probably bruises like a peach, so Chikusa can take some satisfaction in that sound of startled pain. But Komaeda neither questions this reaction, offers any show of indignation, or even stops Chikusa from leaving; really, Komaeda is accustomed enough to conversations he's in ending badly, and occasionally with at the very least attempted violence on his person. He doesn't know what exactly he did wrong, but he's used to that, too. He simply watches Chikusa go with a mildly perplexed look, rubbing his leg.]