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

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"...You want the actual explanation or the complicated explanation?"

Zetta kind of had a feeling the actual explanation would only provoke an argument, but hey.

[kokuyoyo]

There's a highly suspicious squint leveled Zetta's way.

"Wouldn't the complicated one be the actual one...?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Nope."

Zetta was pretty confident of his answer.

[kokuyoyo]

Somehow, for some reason, this sounds incredibly fake. Still, with another heaved out sigh, Chikusa has to admit that there's only one way to find out.

"Actual."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"It's a freaking attack animation! That's all!"

[kokuyoyo]

....Oh. So the book is out of his mind. Well, that explains everything, he guesses.

"So if that's the actual explanation," he says, words slow and steady as usual, devoid of most of what he's feeling, "then what were you planning on saying is the complicated one...?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"In the course of a true battle, all interactions are actually between the mana power of those involved," Zetta said. "Even you humans understand this on a subconscious level, which is why your video games and movies and stuff always have guns, knives, swords, rocket launchers, all that crap be equally effective in battle, even though you guys don't have enough mana power normally for it to be true. So when turning an attack against an opponent, the battle actually happens on a different level of reality than the purely physical."

[kokuyoyo]

On one hand, that does sound more complicated, but on the other, it seems almost too complicated to be sensible. "A true battle".... Whatever that even means. To Chikusa, it seems that a true battle is whatever affects a person.

Still, there's no point in arguing about it. "Okay," is the simple dull answer that doesn't seem to lean one way or the other. "Either way.... That seems like the kind of nonsense someone else here pulls.."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta was starting to wonder about this guy, but hey -- he's a Sacred Tome, not a DSM-IV. "It's not surprising someone else around here could actually wield mana power competently."

[kokuyoyo]

"But not as competently as you, or something, right?" He's starting to wonder if he can bait this guy properly.... But oh well. He's not going to lose anything by trying.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Any demon can do it the way I do, it's natural for us. Just no one has more mana power or greater strength than me." Just... maybe more arms, which was a significant inconvenience at the moment.

[kokuyoyo]

Well, time to see... "Can you break time and space?" Chikusa tilts his head to the side. "The guy I know here... can do so easily. And claims himself as the best."

...Probably. Chikusa tries to give Add more attention than he warrants.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Sure, that's easy. Poor guy probably thinks he IS the best..."

It WAS easy when he had a proper body. Being a book made it hard to punch so hard the fabric of the reality couldn't handle the force involved and just broke.

[kokuyoyo]

"And if you don't really say or do anything... Other people might think he's the best." Or, well, they'll think he's an idiot and this book, too, but hey. Chikusa doesn't care.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"...If I don't say anything? I'm not exactly being subtle about the whole 'badass freaking Overlord' thing. It's pretty much my catchphrase."

Zetta could occasionally break his absolute rule of no-self-awareness, but only for reasons which were themselves terribly unself-aware.

[kokuyoyo]

"So?" A lazy shrug. "You're a book. No one's going to believe that."

....Chikusa still isn't sure he actually believes it, honestly, but hey.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta glared at the kid for several long moments... then drew up a portion of his mana power.

Physics tended to envision gravity as a weight that distorted the fabric of space-time. Zetta's mana power was like a weight that distorted reality itself, a pressure that seemed far more true than matter and energy around them. Power crackled around the book in a purple aura, barely able to contain itself, so that flickering beams of light shot out of it where the energy pressed through to escape its confines.

"Oh, really."

[kokuyoyo]

Ah. As hairs prickle upwards on the back of his neck, Chikusa takes a quiet but deep breath and resists the urge to draw out any weapons. That's just instinct, really. Easily ignorable. At least now he has an answer to how much of this guy is actually just flash over substance.

"....I'm just pointing out the obvious."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

The power disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving just your average floating book, still glaring.

"It's easy to doubt," Zetta said. "It's a lot harder to put your money where your mouth is."

[kokuyoyo]

"I've never seen where he puts his money." A one-shouldered shrug, and he starts to turn away. "So it could still be a toss up. Anyway..."

One last glance over his shoulder.

"Don't let that spread."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Hmph. If there's one thing I know how to do, it's being the freaking strongest. You don't have to worry about ME." Not that he thought 'worry' ever entered into it. "And if this guy thinks he can match me in any way, I'll look forward to proving him wrong."

[kokuyoyo]

"Says the guy with blight spreading over him..." Oh well. Chikusa continues on his way. Unlike if he were another shinki, gods don't turn into ayakashi if they have too much blight on them. It's not his problem.