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

[yousaytron]

Whoa-!

[For a split second, he nearly has Red shake off the sudden presence, but manages to reel his reflexes in quickly enough that it's not much more than a sudden jerk back. Glaring back out, Keith switches on external communications with a short huff.]

There's too much around here to damage. [He could probably lure them out somewhere with fewer people or buildings, but even then,] But I can't finish them off on my own either way!

[revolutionfalcon]

There's a middle ground between finishing them off and luring a massive pack of them here underneath you only to do nothing about them. [Shun puts that extremely bluntly, though he does pull out his canteen of blessed water in preparation for this to get unpleasant with that in consideration. He's got Kotori with him, but he can't use her too carelessly or on this many enemies.]

What can this thing do? If you can split them up you'd have a better shot of incapacitating them.

[yousaytron]

You think I haven't tried that?

[Splitting them up hasn't exactly worked for him yet, maybe if he could do something more definitive like hitting them with a borderline, but, unfortunately for him, that's not an option right now.

Still, he knows being obstinate here isn't going to help, so with an irritated sigh, he answers the question.]

The tail fires lasers, they're powerful and hit a large area. [So, naturally, he's hesitant to use them at the very real possibility of collateral damage.] I can probably take on one or two at a time, but a they all grouped up before I could do much of anything.

[revolutionfalcon]

[That's a reasonable enough reason to not want to use the laser, so Shun will take that well enough, but it does sound like he has other options here. Observing the group below them, Shun leans his cracked war hammer back across his shoulder before his gaze shifts up to their surrounds.]

If you can move this thing to a forested area, you might be able to break up the group if they follow you. They're big enough that they shouldn't be able to crowd like this in dense trees.

[yousaytron]

[He's put so much stock into being able to make borderlines, that when the option's taken from him, coming up with an alternative plan takes some getting used to.

A forested area, though...? That should help separate the group a little if nothing else, there's bound to be less visibility than going through the residential areas in any case. He'll just have to figure out where the closest option is. He looks around, the lion's head moving as he does, and - ]

Might not wanna keep standing there if you don't wanna get thrown off.

[It's a subtle movement now, but if he books it for a forest, then that might cause some issues.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun's more experienced than one would expect when it comes to staying on speeding flying machines, but he shrugs slightly.] I'll follow on the ground, then.

[Without further fanfare, he leaps off the front of the machine. The wind seems to catch him as he does - or it might just be him abusing his godly abilities to avoid landing in the middle of the ayakashi pack - and he flips neatly before dropping into the grass outside the crowd of beasts.]

[yousaytron]

[At least he's acting like he'll stay for backup, that much is a little bit of a relief at least.

As soon as Shun's safely on the ground, the red lion surges forward, zipping off with enough speed to create a gust in its wake, though certainly not quick enough to escape the reflexes of the cat like beasts below. The pack moves with him, allowing itself to be led toward a forested area and showing little concern for paths or obstacles that may be getting torn up in the chase between the ayakashi and their target.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun heads off after the pack of beasts, focusing on the ones lagging towards the back with his godly ability. There's not a lot he can do like this, but he can at least try to break up the group more.

After a few seconds, the beasts at the back falter a little, flecks of their forms disintegrating from their surface. It's no great injury, but it's enough to slow them down and throw them off a little from the rest of the group, widening the gaps between them to ease the breaking up when they reach the forest.]

[yousaytron]

[For the most part, the red lion sticks just above the trees once it reaches the forest. The color and movement definitely stands out against the sky, but while he's still fairly visible through the gaps in the branches, the cover does provide some sort of barrier to bypass if the ayakashi really want to get at him.

For a brief moment, he stops turns back to see what the situation behind him looks like. The beasts below him skid to a halt and begin scrambling to climb or bypass the trees completely, but it's giving him enough of a reprieve to take a second to regroup. Some toward the back seem to be struggling a little more than before... which means they'll be much easier to take down.]

There-!

[And, just as fast as he beat his retreat, he's racing back toward the stragglers, claws out, letting his lion dive right into a pair of them, knocking them over and pinning them down with ease.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun was wondering whether he was going to choose to pick off the straggling targets or try to lead the others further into the forest, and he can't say he's surprised to see him come back. The weaker ones are easier fodder at this point, and it's not an insignificant portion of the group.

Having them pinned is just about exactly what Shun needs, though, and he starts heading over as soon as he sees the lion dive towards a pair of them. With a deceptively careful motion, he swings the war hammer towards one of them, tapping it on the nose with just as much force as necessary. White light flashes out, and he turns his attention to the other one, moving to do the same to it.]

I won't be able to get rid of all of these, I'll warn you now. [Trying to rend the entire pack would put more strain on Kotori than he wants to risk.]

[yousaytron]

[If he's getting rid of some, why not all of them...? Ah, well, Keith doesn't get the feeling that he's the sort of person who'd make something like that up to save himself some work, so he'll just have to take him at his word.]

Got somewhere to retreat once you've run out of juice, then?

[The question comes as the red lion continues to pick off its opponents to the best of its abilities - none of the ayakashi are going to stay down for terribly long, but the chances of them getting back up anytime soon are slim.]

[revolutionfalcon]

If I don't, I can just teleport anyway. [Though he's not too concerned currently - he's the small target right now, and Keith is the large one who's causing more of a problem even if Shun's the one who needs to rend.

That said, he's going to go ahead and start rending the ones Keith picks off before they have the chance to rise again, because it's much easier to do when they're already incapacitated.]

I'd be more concerned about where you're going to put that thing that they won't cluster under it again.

[yousaytron]

If they're all down, then they won't be able to swarm around me again.

[Ideally, anyway. Even if Shun doesn't rend them all, then letting a clean-up crew or something take care of them sounds like a reasonable expectation.]

Are there more of these things roaming around? Besides what's here?

[revolutionfalcon]

There are. Those keychains people on the Near Shore are obsessing over are turning into them every time someone brings one over, and there must be a hell of a lot of people doing it, or someone's brought groups of them over at once. They're all over the Heavens.

[Even as he speaks, Shun continues picking off what ayakashi he can with graceful, calculated motions. He's keeping a close eye on the war hammer in his hand as he does so, as if watching for a sign of something.]

[yousaytron]

[Near Shore happenings about keychains is honestly news to him, but despite not knowing... anything beyond what Shun's just told him, he sounds pretty incredulous.]

People just brought them in? [At least his endeavors in swiping suspicious stuff from the Near Shore didn't result in such a total catastrophe, jeez.

With the number of ayakashi to deal with slowly dwindling down, it leaves Keith a little more room to deal a little more damage to each one that comes back, with a couple of the cats even going so far as to slink off in another direction entirely to avoid the same fate as their companions. Live to fight another day (or run into someone else who will rend them, either way honestly.)]

[revolutionfalcon]

Nobody knew. There were other ayakashi on the Near Shore, so we thought it was those stirring the obsession. The keychains themselves doing it didn't occur to anyone.

[It does explain his and Caster's finding in the back of the truck, though. There hadn't really been a lot of ayakashi around that scene, but there'd certainly been a large cargo of the cat keychains in the truck.

Shun's thankful enough for the ones choosing to slink off, because the next time he strikes one of the ayakashi for a rend, he hears a sharp hiss through the psychic connection, like someone reacting to a minor, quick pain.]

I'm about at the limit of what I can do here with this vessel.

[yousaytron]

[That still sounds, perhaps even just a tiny bit, suspect, but either way, the ayakashi are in, and everyone here has to deal with the result of that now. As frustrating as it is, getting up in arms about it isn't going to help the situation.

While he's still not sure why Shun seems so cautious about taking out more of these things, with what work he's done already, there's no reason not to trust his judgement.] Thanks. [The appreciation is quick, but sincere.] Fall back, it seems like it should be easy enough to avoid them now.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun shrugs a little at the thanks, like it's not a big deal.] The quicker they're thinned out, the better it is for all of us.

[Nonetheless, he does start to retreat, heading back and winding through the trees to make it harder for them to follow him. One or two do splinter off to do so, but he should still be able to deal with that much, at least, before Kotori is at her limit.]

[yousaytron]

[Keith keeps an eye on Shun's escape route, and while it's not surprising that a few ayakashi are tempted to use the opportunity to take chase, that just means it's easy enough to retaliate and cover him as he retreats.

The red lion lunges toward the cats, bodily ramming them away from Shun's path and letting out a mighty roar to warn them against trying to go after him again. If he says he's reaching his limit with dispatching these things, then there's no reason for Keith to think that he shouldn't keep him covered, even as he leaves.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun takes a few of them into his own hands as well, pulling out his canteen of blessed water and spinning through the air to throw it in the faces of any ayakashi that get close enough. Between that and Keith's efforts, the escape path is clear, and Shun gives a nod of acknowledgement towards the lion's head as he keeps up his pace and starts to get out of sight of the ayakashi.]

[yousaytron]

[If the mechanical menage in front of them isn't enough of a deterrent for the remainder of the ayakashi, getting unexpectedly splashed with the blessed water sure is. Hisses and growls can be heard as the last of the beasts either succumb to the damage inflicted on them and hunker down to recoup, or flee the scene entirely, leaving both Shun and Keith space to retreat or hide without any further complications.

Good teamwork, everyone.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[It's good enough for Shun, and rather than abuse his teleportation abilities, he ducks into another patch of woodland to climb into a tree where he can recoup and check over Kotori.

He probably should've at least gotten the guy's name, but after all that Shun expects him to be getting out of the ayakashi's range as quickly as possible.]