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]

Okay, I think I can do that.

[It just means clambering onto the driver's side... Drawing a borderline in front of the driver's door.... and hunkering in.]

Do you think anyone can even get past all these people?

[revolutionfalcon]

I can clear a path when they get here. And considering that sounds like more than one car, hopefully someone called the police and not just an ambulance.

[It might not be as effective as dealing with it through supernatural means, but mundane backup in large numbers can do wonders as well.

Now excuse Shun while he kicks a few more people in the face via a sequence of interconnected flips and spins that he somehow considers practical.]

[nopixiedust]

[Well... It looks like they've at least got some time to kill and people to kick until everything gets to the truck. So Wendy presses her hand against the window and just watches Shun at work.]

Have you ever thought about being an acrobat? Or a dancer? Or is that too much fun for you?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun looks somewhat unimpressed with the rapid-fire questions, but he does eventually answer after he finishes...kicking yet another person in the face, this time just lifting his leg high enough that it borderlines a complete leg split.]

I wanted to be an entertainer when I was younger. Just not that kind. [There's something reserved about the way he says that - he doesn't often talk about his attitude before the war.]

[nopixiedust]

[Clearly that just means she should get him to talk more, while he's preoccupied with kicking people in the head.]

What kind was it, then?

[revolutionfalcon]

Something that doesn't-- [Pause while he dips backwards onto his hands to drive his heels into someone's jaw, then push himself up hard enough to kick off the chest of the person who tries to charge in behind the first to fall and flip back onto his feet.] --exist in this world. It doesn't translate well.

[nopixiedust]

[A low whistle at Shun's determination to smash in the face of everyone who comes near him or his feet.]

Can you describe it anyway?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun lets out a sharp breath of annoyance and foregoes his feet this time to just punch the next contender in the jaw.] Competitive game, usually played one on one. If you want to do it professionally-- [There goes someone else, and possibly one of their teeth.] --you have to be able to play well and keep an audience's interest. Stage something drawn-out even if you could smash them in a turn. Interact with the field. Make the audience feel like they're involved and not just watching.

[nopixiedust]

Oooooh, that sounds fun! Like a sport!

[And she's been here just long enough to know that people watch sports all the time. However, Shun will get a short reprieve from questioning when someone gets the not-so-wise idea to get near Wendy's part of the car, and she smashes her dainty little foot straight into someone's nose.]

[It might be broken. She doesn't care.]

What do you need to play it?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun can't exactly judge Wendy for not caring if she just broke someone's nose, considering he drives his elbow into someone else's shortly after.]

Cards, a specific kind that only exists in my world. [And apparently a few others, but he's not getting into that can of worms.] And a machine that only exists in my world as well. The machine isn't necessary, but competitions are never played without it.

[Card games can always be played over a table, but it's a very different feeling. Shun muses on that for a moment while he kicks someone else in the jaw.]

[nopixiedust]

Oh, I see.

[Sounds like something that goes over her head, honestly... but now that she's thinking about it- ]

Do you think there's anyone smart enough here that could make the machine?

[revolutionfalcon]

I doubt it. Especially since some of its functions were disabled when I came here. Either they're not compatible with coming to this place, or the Heavens don't want hard light technology here.

[Shun appears not to either notice or care about the fact that he hadn't previously mentioned that he has one of the machines here.]

[nopixiedust]

Oh. [Well, him having one at least makes this fifty percent done.] What's-

[Oh, wait- she takes a moment to punch someone straight in the eye when they wander too close.]

What's hard light?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun's just going to kick some other unfortunate in the face while she's talking.]

Exactly what it sounds like. If you project a hologram or illusion, it's just light. You can stick your hand through it or whatever else. Hard light is something with mass, so it's like a real object.

[nopixiedust]

...And you do what with this stuff again?

[revolutionfalcon]

We call them duels. You play one-to-one against an opponent using the monsters, spells and traps in your deck. If your Life hits zero, you lose. [It's about the most straightforward way he can possibly try to explain Duel Monsters, because it's a far more complicated game than it looks like just watching it.]

The hard light is for making the monsters and effects feel real, but it just ended up being used as a weapon in the end. [There's definitely some bitterness there, but being able to punch people every few seconds is helping keep it to a minimum.]

[nopixiedust]

That sounds fun!

[Probably a little complicated, but fun. Unfortunate about the information that soon follows it, and Wendy pauses for a moment. It's a luxury she can afford, since most people are focusing on the guy beating everyone else up.]

...So... Is the hard light stuff really important to it...?

[revolutionfalcon]

[The guy beating everyone else up isn't having a great deal of trouble doing so, so he's relatively at his leisure to continue the conversation between kicking people in the face or punching them out.]

It means you can interact with your cards, but you don't need it. Normal holograms are still fine for an audience, and the game itself can be played over a table like any other card game.

[nopixiedust]

So.... Illusions and stuff like that... would be fine?

[depending on how much he unwillingly knows about hibiki, shun might hate this conversation now]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun has an inkling of what Hibiki's powers might involve, but not enough of one to jump on that.]

It's better to have the actual equipment, since it means you don't have to memorise the more complicated rules and exceptions or calculate things on the fly.

[Shun can do both, admittedly, but he's been playing a long time, aiming to be a professional, and is pretty good with numbers, so he's not exactly the line average.]

[nopixiedust]

Ah... That would be a lot harder. Well, if I can figure something out for you, I'll let you know, okay?

[Any further promise is halted by the sound of sirens nearby, and Wendy perks up.]

Oh! That's for police or doctors, right?

[revolutionfalcon]

It's fine anyway, but if you want. [He shrugs a little. He does have two duel disks now that should be compatible, and two decks, it's more just a matter of teaching others the game so he's not just flattening all comers in the space of two turns.

Shun glances back at the sound of the sirens.] Should be both, with a situation like this. Either way, we should be able to hand it over to them.

[Though he might hang around a little to make sure they don't come under the same influence.]

[nopixiedust]

I'll stay right here until someone comes to help this guy. It's not as if I have anywhere else to be.

[At least, not that she'll realize until she gets back home to a flood of prayer strips.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I was planning to at least make sure they don't end up just behaving the same as everyone else here, but if you want to hang around longer, go ahead.

[Shun's getting a little short with the greed ayakashi at this point, so he's thinking of going to the Far Shore to pick up one of his shinki and come back.]