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

[discerp]

K-Komaeda-san... [She's not sure how to respond to that for a moment before she sort of squeezes her eyes shut, hands clamped tightly together.]

Y-you shouldn't, um... I mean, that is to say-- Y-you're still an Ultimate too, and, um, and one of our precious classmates, s-so... [So don't call yourself trash? Maybe??]

[fortunesmiles]

[Komaeda blinks at her for a moment, seemingly surprised by what she's...well, not so much saying as vaguely skirting around, but that's just Mikan. He doesn't really have any trouble understanding her; he wonders if that's purely from the time they'd spent together on the island, or if it's some subconscious holdover from when he'd known her for far longer and had a lot more time to become accustomed to her mannerisms.]

It's strange...when you had all your memories as a Remnant of Despair, you said you didn't care about any of us...you even told me that no one cared about me. [Komaeda's faint, abstracted smile doesn't change at all as he says this. The way he can say the most disturbing things without flinching...remains as eerie as ever. Especially when he'd definitely reacted to it when it happened, so he's clearly paved over his own emotional reaction.]

But now that you've returned to being an embodiment of hope, you're saying the exact opposite of what you used to. I'd say it was related to our being robbed of our memories, but...you have the same memories now as you did then, don't you? Well, minus things that have happened since then, but the point is that it wasn't whether your memories were there or not that's changed. [He presses a finger thoughtfully to his lips.] You didn't seem to be lying as a Remnant of Despair...in fact, you seemed like you were at your most honest at the end, when you stopped caring about what anyone else thought of you. And while you don't exactly seem to be lying now, either, you're definitely back to doing or saying whatever you think will make people like you or treat you better...

I guess what I'm wondering is, which is the actual truth? How can the same person have believed I had no value at all, and now believe just as strongly that I do? And which Tsumiki was correct?

[discerp]

[She stares at him, baffled and wide-eyed as he speaks. A couple of times she makes a noise like she's about to interrupt and/or protest, but she can't find the words.]

I... I, um... [Her shoulders slump a little and she stares at him helplessly. This may or may not require more explanation of their missing memories than she'd like to go into, but maybe she can keep things simple.]

When we were--I was-- part of Despair... I think it's less 'the real me' and more... An 'exaggerated' me. All of my bad traits, all my bad feelings... They all came to the surface, without restraint. Feeling angry at how I was treated became hatred, feeling like 'I wish they knew how I felt' became getting revenge and lashing out and wanting to hurt people as much as I was hurt.

S-so... So, I think it's a bit more complicated than that... They're both 'me,' but... This version is more 'real'...I guess. [She twists her fingers together anxiously] I-I'm sorry... Do you not like it?

[fortunesmiles]

Of course I like it! [Komaeda laughs.] A Tsumiki-san that's full of hope is always going to be better than a Tsumiki-san full of nothing but despair. Maybe the other you was cruel enough to be brutally honest, and maybe this you is much more anxious and uncertain...but that doesn't mean honesty is always good, and anxiety is always bad! After all, you're anxious because you have hope, right? You hope for people to like you! It's a hope you're pursuing in the best way you know how! Using the truth to hurt people because you've completely given up on that hope, and you want to spread that misery to others...there's nothing so great about that.

[Wow. Komaeda may be a mess, and mostly he's just creepy, but...sometimes he has the potential to say genuinely nice and uplifting things, too. His erratic brain function must be on an upswing.]

So there's nothing wrong with hoping I like you like this, Tsumiki-san...although I hope you don't need me to like it. After all, if I preferred a despair-filled Tsumiki-san to one filled with hope and passion, I'd be someone with terrible taste! You wouldn't want to listen too closely to the opinion of someone like that.

[discerp]

[That's...Nice? She thinks?? Um.

Sometimes following along with what Komaeda says is an adventure in and of itself, so she nods slowly.]

Um, well... As far as I know, we're the only ones from our w-world here, right? So... I'm glad that you like me. I-I 'd be really lonely, otherwise... B-but! Um, um... Even if there were more of us, I still wouldn't want Komaeda-san to dislike me!

I d-don't think I'll ever apologize enough f-for the things I said and did before.

[fortunesmiles]

Well, the things you said then definitely weren't kind...but it's not like they weren't true. [Komaeda shrugs and smiles.] But it's just as well, after all. If I ever cared about someone as much as you cared about Enoshima-chan, my luck would probably kill them...

[He's using a more familiar form of address with Junko than he does with Tsumiki. This is partly because Junko is younger than them, and partly deliberate condescension to demonstrate Komaeda's lack of respect for her.]

So it's fine. Even if the truth hurts, we should be able to face it... [Hinata will never love Komaeda, and absolutely no one is upset about this even a little bit!] And a worthless person like myself was trying to have you executed...even after you'd taken such good care of me. I'd probably have died without you! So it's not like I was being very kind myself...

And I've probably caused you all kinds of problems and been cruel to you in ways I don't even remember, but you do. So I probably owe you apologies I can't even give...

[discerp]

N-no, not at all! [She's quick to protest.] Actually-- Actually... Komaeda-san was always... very nice to me. To all of us.

["Stepping stone" rambles aside, really. But she shakes her head and smiles a little] They were... Extraordinary circumstances. The, um, the killing game and everything else.

...None of us can change the past, but... We both did and said horrible things. All of us did... So, I think... Hinata-san and Nanami-san and Sonia-san would say to keep moving forward. [She shakes her head and tries to smile encouragingly.]

I'm glad Komaeda-san is here with me, regardless.

[fortunesmiles]

Was I...? That's good to know, but I really don't remember at all...

You know, when I saw you during your trial, and then I read the Future Foundation file about us...you could say it gave me some idea of what we must have been like, as members of Ultimate Despair. And I realized that the only reason we weren't all monsters was because someone had forcibly extracted our memories, and our despair, right out of us. It wasn't that we were actually good people, or that we'd gotten better on our own...we were just a few memories away from Ultimate Despair. I didn't know how people like you were, like how the rest of us must have been, could be anything but stepping stones to hope...how there could be anything hopeful about us besides destroying us completely.

But now, knowing that you've regained all your memories and you've overcome your despair, and that the others did too...I guess I was wrong! There really was more than one way to defeat the despair inside of us! And I'm actually really relieved it didn't mean losing so many wonderful Ultimate talents! I want to help hope rise from the ashes of despair, but...even knowing we were all awful, I didn't feel that great about having to kill my friends.

[That's not quite an apology, but it is Komaeda saying he doesn't want them dead and that he feels bad for trying to kill them. Which is...significant? If not exactly reassuring, but then very few things about Komaeda are.

Meanwhile, he's doing that...thing again, where he hugs himself. All things considered, the gesture is more unbearably sad than creepy when one thinks about it.] Ah...I don't think anyone's ever been happy to have me around before...not even my own family! Can someone like me really deserve a compliment like that...?

[discerp]

[Oh boy here we go again. Mikan waits patiently, albeit anxiously, for him to finish.] W-well, that's... good... [She thinks, anyhow. Hopefully they wouldn't be 'stepping stones' in this place either, but it's Komaeda so who knows.

She makes a startled little noise] O-of course you do! [Jeez!!] Komaeda-san is important! [How any times does she have to say it?

She hesitates a moment, considering everything else he's said again] Despair versus Hope... is that, um. I mean, is that a problem here?

[fortunesmiles]

[At least once more, Mikan, as always. The idea of Komaeda being important to people is still a difficult one for him to adjust to - especially his classmates, when his own memories only extend to them being at their least tolerant. (With some justification, of course. No one's at their most accepting and trusting in a mutual killing game.)

At her question, he looks thoughtful.] Well, I'd say that gods are definitely a product of hope, aren't they? After all, one could argue that the belief in gods even existing is a form of hope. And then asking them to grant prayers and wishes...that's hope too, right? So hope does have a bearing on the heavens and what we do here, I think.

[He gives her a curious look.] Or did you mean right here and now?

[discerp]

[okay will turner.] And then, I s-suppose the wishes actually being granted and s-seeing that helps... [Helps generate hope, she means.

But she shrugs at the question, not entirely sure how to put her feelings about it all into words.] I was just wondering, I suppose. This, um, world is... [HOW...DOES SHE DESCRIBE IT. She can't say 'normal' because for her the very definition of 'normal' has changed too much.]

Different. Um. Stable? It's just...a lot to sort of take in, I suppose. And you said Enoshima-san was here for a time, so I didn't know if, um, i-if maybe she'd...done something... Or tried to...

[fortunesmiles]

[Thank you for appreciating that reference.] Well, I was thinking that the mere act of asking the heavens for help is a form of hope, in hoping that someone is listening and will help you! Answering those prayers...I don't think that's hope itself so much as the hope of making a prayer being rewarded? But I suppose it depends on how you look at it, really.

Enoshima-san...her time here was disappointing. We talked once or twice, and she certainly got under my skin a bit, but beyond that...her presence here wasn't really felt. She didn't much live up to her reputation. And even the effect she had on someone like me was minimal...

[discerp]

[Mikan watches him a moment, straightening a little into something more serious and concerned.]

You sound... Almost a little disappointed, Komaeda-san...

[fortunesmiles]

Naturally. What could the point of Enoshima-chan even being here be, if not to use her talent of Ultimate Despair to create more Ultimate Hope? I know technically the Ultimate Hope already exists back in our world, and he's still alive, but presumably the heavens would need an Ultimate Hope as well, to counteract her presence here. It might have been an even more ultimate despair than on earth, if she was a god, and an even greater hope in return! And this time I could have seen it for myself...or perhaps become it...

And instead of that, nothing much happened at all. She left without really doing anything. Why was she even here at all? I never expected such a meaningless outcome...

[discerp]

But that...Also sounds like something she would do... [Not that she can pretend for a second to really understand Junko's motives or thoguht processes behind anything, but Mikan does know the things that would cause despair and the desperate chase for it like it was some kind of drug.]

B-because, I mean... She probably knew something like that is what you wanted. So by not doing it, maybe it was it's own type of despair...?

[Build up the expectation and then not following through at a crucial moment sounds like a good way to bring about despair too. And the despair caused by restraining herself could also cause Junko despair... Probably.]

O-Or maybe the Heavens just didn't want to give her a chance...

[What if one day Junko came back as a shinki, with no memory? ...What is she got assigned to Komaeda?? This is not a thought process Mikan wants to take a trip down]

[fortunesmiles]

Ah...what a flattering thought! [Komaeda laughs.] To think that she'd do nothing while she was here, purely to let me taste the ecstasy of despair of being denied by her...! That she'd place so much importance on me...! [His eyes go...a touch wild for a moment, but they quickly calm again.] But no...I'm sure she'd never do that for someone as worthless as myself. To not spread her despair purely to spite me - I can't imagine her bothering with that kind of restraint on my account.

I expect she just didn't have enough time to set whatever plans she had in motion before she disappeared.