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

[declamando]

As long as I'm not pulling you away from anything. [Maria smiles slightly and glances at the machines. She can't deny the little keychains are cute, even if they're not as much to her taste as they might be for others, so she wouldn't be too surprised if Soleil wanted to try for more.]

But yes, I think it would be a good idea.

[mersunary]

[The charms are cute, but they simply can't compare to the idea of spending some more time with a charming girl. Her prize is pocketed, as if to show just how low of a priority it's made itself.]

I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing right now. [And, since Maria was the one who spotted the odd bits of movement,] I'll follow your lead, then.

[declamando]

Then, right this way. [Maria smiles a little before heading off to one side from where the machines were. Off the main street area, the narrower streets alongside are lined with shops, some of them more crowded than others.

Through the movement of feet, there's an occasional colourful flicker visible close to the ground, and Maria points in the direction of one of those movements just as it passes.]

It's gone now, but did you see it?

[mersunary]

I think so...

[Blink and you'll miss it for sure, though she cant help but wonder if there wasn't one regular passerby who would have noticed the movement if it was something normal. She gives the people nearby a quick glance, but with so many of them transfixed on the machines and keychains, and how fast the moment was, well... maybe looking to outsiders for a sign isn't the answer here.

Might as well get a little closer to investigate.]

Doesn't seem like it's anything big, either way...

[declamando]

No, it doesn't look big. Moving around that fast in a crowd like this would be hard for something larger, even if it was an ayakashi. [People might not notice it, but it would still need a bit more space than it would have here, she thinks.

Maria moves a little closer into the gathered crowd, trying to piece through them a bit so she doesn't accidentally stir anyone's keychain-related ire.]

If it's hiding deeper into the crowd, I suppose we don't have much of a choice but to follow.

[mersunary]

[Even if they have the advantage of being incredibly easy to miss, being careful as not to stir up any extra trouble is probably a smart way to go about navigating these crowds while hunting down... whatever, exactly, that happened to be.]

Whatever it is, we wouldn't want it causing a panic. [That is, she has no issues following it further.] Let's go.

[declamando]

[Maria nods, starting to weave through the people a bit more quickly so they don't lose sight of whatever it was. She keeps her eyes on the ground as they move, trying to pick out any shapes among the moving feet.]

I don't think they need any help to cause a panic right now-- [She breaks off, catching sight of a sharp movement between feet.] It's still here.

[mersunary]

[She's a little surer this time around that she saw the flicker of movement, though it certainly would be easier if it hadn't made its way into a crowd like this...]

Do you think the two of us could flush it out into an emptier area?

[declamando]

We'll have to be careful about how we do it, otherwise it might just try to run into a shop and cause more chaos.

[Maria scans the area to try and find a good spot to do it - the street veers off at an angle, but there's a narrow path running through that bridges it to another street, and Maria points it out.]

If we can find a way to stop it from following the flow of people, we could try sending it down there.

[mersunary]

The people are probably what it's after, though, right?

[Assuming what they're dealing with is an ayakashi, that makes the most sense.]

If we had something more tempting, baiting it out would be easier. I suppose we could simply... try cutting its escape route off? Is it even going in a specific direction, or just 'away from us'?

[declamando]

I think it's going somewhere...aren't we supposed to smell nicer to ayakashi? Though I don't think just two of us would be enough to bait it against all this. Getting ahead of it to cut off the escape route is going to be hard in a crowd like this, too.

[There's a pretty consistent swathe of people throughout the alley, only broken up by little dips between shopfronts, and Maria looks over the area with a thoughtful look.]

You wouldn't happen to know where this alleyway comes out, would you? [Long shot, but she has no idea herself.]

[mersunary]

No, but there's an easy way to find out! I'll go check it out, if you think you can keep track of the thing while I'm doing it.

[As good of a plan as any, surely.]

[declamando]

[It's probably a better idea than following it up there without knowing what they're going to run into, so ultimately, Maria nods.]

If we can get on both sides of it, we might be able to funnel it down the other alleyway, so that's probably the best plan we've got right now.

[mersunary]

That should work.

[It's a sound enough plan, there's only so much trickery that such a small ayakashi might be able to pull over on them, after all.]

You can count on me, so the two of us can take care of this thing in no time.

[declamando]

Alright then. We'd better be quick about it, otherwise it might slip between our hands.

[She makes a permissive gesture, as if making clear that Soleil can feel free to take care of her side of the mission at any point now without it being rude.]