34 - Love is in the Air

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: An enterprising pair of shinki is trying to spread love throughout the Far Shore with exciting blind dates.
When: February 14
Where: Hot romantic spots throughout Tokyo
Summary: Blind dates on Valentine's Day? Sounds like fun (or possibly a disaster, but everyone needs some good disaster stories.) That's not all that's going on, though. Ayakashi are looking to chow down on the negative emotions that a romantic holiday can generate, and those who aren't busy with their own dates might be sucked into helping out followers who need help to make the day go well.






The Dates

Blind Date Matchups

Those who have signed up -- or whose friends and colleagues have signed them up -- for dates will get cards with specified times and meeting places inside for the big event. The cards don't list their dates' names, but instead have a matching symbol to allow everyone to find their proper partner. If anyone tries to stand up their date, they can expect a small and angry owl to harass them until they give in.


• Date One: The Romantic Brunch.
  Couples will find themselves with reservations (and pre-paid coupons for the prix fixe menu) at a swanky French restaurant with a wide balcony overlooking the lake in a central Tokyo park. They can dine on dainty pastries, sweet milk coffees, bowls of grapes and hothouse strawberries, and a selection of fancy chocolates and petit-fours-- plus, some of the trees in the park are blooming in holiday-appropriate red and white!



• Date Two: The Aquarium.
  Couples scheduled for this date have tickets to a rooftop aquarium in Ikebukuro: brightly colored fish, animals including penguins, seals and pelicans, a small petting zoo and plenty of shadowy, secluded nooks to cuddle in make for a fun lunchtime date. The tickets even include admission to the one o'clock penguin and seal show!



• Date Three: The Amusement Park.
  This date sends couples to spend the evening enjoying themselves at a seaside amusement park. Ride the roller coasters! Take selfies with the costumed attendants! Share an overpriced ice cream cone while you watch the fireworks after sunset, then wind up the night with a ride on the colorfully lit Ferris wheel with a romantic view of the Tokyo skyline.

Ayakashi Menace

There's more than just romantic couples out to enjoy themselves today. Romantic holidays can be tough for those whose love lives aren't so rosy, and as always, those negative feelings draw in ayakashi who are ready to ruin everybody's day.

All across the city, besides the usual ayakashi, characters might encounter the following:

Flocks of dove ayakashi whose mournful call induces self-doubt, suspicion and paranoia in everyone who hears it. Are your friends really your friends? Is your lover betraying you? Shouldn't you hurry up and stab them in the back before they can do it to you? These ayakashi are small and agile, difficult to catch but easy to destroy once they're caught... if you can overcome the urge to turn on your allies first.

Long-fingered shadow ayakashi, large and powerful, and capable of sneaking around by blending into genuine shadows. These ayakashi draw those who are alone into their clutches, filling them with resentment and despair. Anyone battling them needs to watch out for the humans they might already have influenced, who may become unpredictable and violent as the ayakashi influencing them grows more desperate.

Cute teddy bear ayakashi, that influence anyone they cling to into greedy obsession: they need attention, affection and gifts, and they can never have enough. When attacked, the teddy bears turn out to fight a little more like a grizzly bear than a stuffed toy, so gods and shinki beware!

Praying for Love

Those who aren't busy with their own dates might find themselves busy taking care of other people's instead. On a day like this one, everyone's praying that things turn out perfectly! Prayers gods might hear include:

"He's just got to ask me out! I made him the biggest box of chocolates... please, let senpai notice me!"

"Does she really like me? Please, give me a sign."

"I got concert tickets for our date, but it's supposed to rain. Please let me find a way to make this work out anyway!"

"The restaurant I wanted to take him to isn't taking any more reservations for tonight. What can I do? I can't cook!"

Wild Card -- players are free to make up their own romance-adjacent prayers for their characters to fulfill.

In Summary:

• Enjoy your dates
• Fight some ayakashi
• Make sure to answer prayers for a good Valentine's Day
• Have fun~

Comments

[priforprince]

A delightful invitation. [ Hibiki bows, a hand over her heart. ] I look forward to indulging in your fullest hospitality.

[ No one would ever provide Shikyoin Hibiki anything but the Best, correct? How charming! ]

[priforprince]

The ultimate ingredients in the ultimate combination.

[ are you sensing a theme in hibiki's tastes ]

The sweetest way to begin the sweetest day.

[ She will have to reward Minako later somehow. Hm. What would suit?

....Probably amore. It is the Best Reward. ]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia tosses the bottle back his way, attention back on the ayakashi. Damn, even with the danger of setting the place on fire, knowing the song spell for fires would be useful right about now. She holds her ground as the ayakashi continues to slap and ooze against her borderline. Her wall is solid and it won't get through, but there's not much else she can do but watch it.

In the full light of the hallway, it's really no more than an oozing ball, constantly moving and rolling. At least it's slow, though the dripping tentacle-like limbs its slapping at the borderline have reach. Gross.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[As soon as Ginia's bottle gets to his hand, Shun disappears, flicking through his shrine and then on to the Far Shore and down to the blessed water pools in his garden to fill the bottles. He keeps his spare canteen concealed near there anyway, and grabs it once he's done with the other two just before he teleports back.

He reappears in just about the specific spot he vanished, figuring it's best not to risk that the ayakashi might've reached anywhere else in the hall, and tosses Ginia her bottle back as he uses his other hand to slash a line of the blessed water out against the ayakashi.]

Catch.

[letteropener]

[Oh, Hibiki. That skill at observation is practically worthy of what you'd say it would be.]

Then that is what everypony does. After all, what can't you turn into something advantageous to you if you try?

[kokuyoyo]

[Oh, so that's what that sign had meant. Chikusa commits the movements to memory. Next time, he'll do better. There's no question about it.]

Mmm, no... I think I should be fine disposing this. If anymore start appearing, then it'll be troublesome... It took a lot of work to make this whole event happen.

[And Chikusa will destroy anything that threatens it.]

Ah, if only... we could pin their bodies around as a warning sign to other ayakashi...

[chikusa calm the fuck down]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

[Oh boy, yeah. Nia isn't sure if she should be more afraid or amused. She's both, mind, but -- how harmless is this girl? An attitude like that is dangerous if someone has power to back it up.]

[Nia makes a note to talk to Wendy at some point.]

Out of curiosity, what if it hadn't been?

[priforprince]

An alternative venue would have been arranged.

[ SHE'LL MAKE HER OWN PARTY

WITH CHESS

AND BALLERINAS ]

[priforprince]

Provided you possess the judgment to notice it.

[ And there's the rub. Not "everypony" possesses that elite skill.

There is no line for funnel cake. Hibiki steps on up. ] Prepare us one deluxe.

[ That's the best one, right? ]

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin's shoe makes far less noise than Celestia's hoof, but the rhythm he stamps out is clear and brisk. With a beat like that, who can resist?

And already it seems to be working. He can see toes beginning to tap, fingers keeping time on wine glasses.

"Fall in love, damn it," he mutters, watching the diners. "I want to go home."

[dredefulchilde]

"Still, it's obvious that many of us are more than simple children," Joscelin counters, rather enjoying the debate. Elfnein seems to be every bit as clever as Romeo claimed, and Joss enjoys a bit of mental sparring.

"Even without the benefit of memory."

[unlucky7]

[If there's anything to be thankful for, it's the ayakashi doesn't try to do more than lash at the borderline and inch forward. By the time it even seems like it's considering going another way, Shun returns. Ginia catches the bottle and turns back to splash it onto the ayakashi.

It twitches and recoils from the stream of water, skin hardening under the harsher deluge. Ginia slashes at the hardened skin, cracking it enough to create a gap to pour more water in.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Taking his cue from Ginia's move there, Shun throws more water into the gap, hardening the surface on an even deeper level and making the thing release an odd, gurgling noise that might indicate it's in pain. It's starting to shuffle back, as if trying to get away, but the hardening of its surface seems to be giving it a harder time moving.

On noticing that, Shun splashes some of the water down around its base, hardening its form there as well and making it list to one side.]

[abgrund]

[ Ain waits while Shun does his Thing. Another flock rended, another couple of people's days hopefully saved. It's all very rhythmic, but he can't help but feel some faint sense of... dissonance. Yes, that's it.

But, to voice it or not? He waits until Shun is finished before dispelling the barrier and speaking. ]

How long more will you be doing this?

[godsoffortune]

Congratulations!

Agrias has earned 600 followers.
Hibiki has earned 200 followers.
Minako has earned 20 exp.
Ovelia has earned 20 exp.

[sassywelshcatgirl]

What, you think the big old harassing owls would let you get away with it?

[Yes, Nia discovered those. She'd tried to escape!]

[letteropener]

[Well. It's the one they're going to get, isn't it?]

[As the vendor moves to start squirting lines of dough into the fryer, Celestia nods to Hibiki.] Exactly. But doesn't that mean you can do absolutely whatever, then?

[letteropener]

Since what she's doing seemed to be working, Celestia picked up energy, leaning her weight back onto her rear hooves so she could tromp out the beat with stronger stomps of her forelegs. That ought to help, and definitely made the beat clear and powerful.

[unlucky7]

[More and more, the surface hardens. It still cracks and splinters, but doesn't rebound as quickly. The limbs are easier to parry with borderlines as it feebly lashes out, looking more like a bubble of hardened candy with each splash of blessed water. Ginia makes sure to chip into it with borderlines, carving out deep cracks to make it easier for Kotori to rend.]

[alchemists]

It's a product made of soybeans.

[ Romeo had the right idea with adding the sparrow grass, adding all the greens with the fish would be a good dish. ]

With fish I think you need to be careful de-scaling it?

[alchemists]

"True, here we're all given new forms and powers so saying that we're simple children is devaluing what the heavens have given not only us by the other gods and shinki."

It's strange to see someone her age be able to keep up in a serious talk, it's kinda nice for a change.

[priforprince]

[ there is a tiny twitch here at the mental image of what owl harassment might entail

not that she has Trauma about birds now

hardly

no!

she's perfect!

Behold, how flawlessly she transitions into pretending it never happened. ] A shift in venue is not a cancellation. Even in hypotheticals, I account for everything.

[priforprince]

[ ........

....

.......WELL PLAYED.

Hibiki smirks. ] You've some skill at rhetoric.

[ Note the lack of a confirmation or a denial. This does not mean she does not have one.

But it must be chiseled into full brilliance before its radiance is unleashed upon the puniverse. That is absolutely what this pause means.

That, and a chance to appreciate competence. ]

[wildguardian]

[He's done worse to ayakashi with borderlines personally. It's a bit of a shock to see the viciousness of the blow -- but, on the other hand, he'd already gotten the strong sense that Ain isn't the kind of guy he wants to annoy.

He does take a step back, because he's also not sure what kind of control Ain has over those spears.

His gaze goes to Ain's hand instead, concern flickering in his eyes as he nods at the blackened skin. It's black like an ink pool, and not black like a burn. It doesn't look blighted. It doesn't look human.]

How's your hand? That thing got you, didn't it?

[The blighted bite mark on his own hand is throbbing, but he really can't tell if Ain's injured or not. His hand wouldn't look like that if he weren't, Zhao supposes. Probably.]

[abgrund]

[ Ain holds out the lantern in his hand, firing a beam from the fireflies within into the cage. The ayakashi's mangled body fades away under its tricoloured light, and the spears around it are allowed to dissipate once Ain can be sure that their opponent is truly gone.

A sigh as he lets go of the lantern and it vanishes as well. ]

That was tiring.

[ Maybe it's too human a sentiment, but having to work with the constraints on his abilities is troublesome. The presence of the blight also prevents him from reapplying his illusion on his hand, which means: ]

We should get cleansed. How are the humans doing?