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

C

[replicatedform]

[It's not exactly hard for Yamanbagiri to notice a large crowd of humans, who seems to be either watching something or cornering someone. He soon get his answer when he saw Minako. And her speech.

And how the humans reacted by throwing things at her.

Good thing is, he have no problems knocking people out. It's fine if it's to help someone, and he's not killing them. That's why some of the possessed humans are suddenly falling down to the ground. Yamanbagiri knock out and push some of the humans away, disturbing their "throwing things at Minako" groove a little. So there's less of a barrage of raining items aiming at Minako.]

Oi! Get away from the corner!

[He have his hand on his sword. He haven't unsheathe it, because knocking people out with his sheathed sword is good enough.]

[reloves]

[ This might truly just be Minako's best Valentine's Day. Sure, she can't remember any others from when she was alive, but this one is throwing handsome men at her left and right, and she will gladly accept that sort of gift with both hands.

Even if it's in a dangerous situation. And despite how silly that speech might have seemed just now, Minako is taking this seriously. Just.. by magical girl genre standards. ]

Yes..!

[ Which means she does move out of the way pretty quickly once he's given her some reprieve from the rain of stuff thrown at her. Minako is pretty athletic, so she does manage to jump off the table onto an empty spot between the people and then nimbly dodge her way through the crowd until she's at Yamanbagiri's side without too much difficulty. ]

It's that shadow-- the ayakashi controlling them is hiding in the shadows!

[replicatedform]

[He haven't knocked them all out yet, so a few people starts to turn around to see who the hell is interrupting them. Yamanbagiri manage to knock more of them out, before he backs away.]

A shadow?

[He quickly looks over with a frown. Oh boy, ayakashi. Where's a god with an offensive shinki when you need them? He raise a hand, ready to draw a borderline at a moment's notice, his eyes going between the shadows and the possessed humans.]

We need to get it away from them! Or make them let go of the humans!

[reloves]

[ Just make sure knocking them out is all you do, Yamanbagiri.. Minako doesn't mind that in this case, since it's just kind of necessary to not have people in the way before this escalates into something even worse, but it's not like she wants to see them actually get harmed.

She frowns though, considering what he's saying.. ]

It probably can't keep controlling them if we just lure it far enough away from them. [ Hopefully, anyway.. ] Let's chase it away to a place with less people around using borderlines! Maybe it'll be helpless if there's no people to use!

[replicatedform]

[He nods in agreement. It's worth a try! So...]

Alright, let's do it.

[Yamanbagiri quickly glance around, checking the area and seeing where they can force the ayakashi to run to. Not like there's a lot of options, but it makes things easy to decide.]

Get ready to start running. On three.

[Running after the ayakashi, of course. Three... two... one... BORDERLINE TIME!]

[reloves]

[ Minako was born ready, so she sprints in the direction of the ayakashi the moment the countdown is over. ]

Line..!

[ Better to first cut off the routes it could escape to with the most people. So she doesn't hit the ayakashi directly, but instead sends her borderline slightly to the right of it to send the ayakashi fleeing in the opposite direction of a room filled with people. ]

[replicatedform]

[Minako's fast. Yamanbagiri notes it at the back of his head, since he's already running after the ayakashi.

Ahead of them, he see an intersection. Which means...!]

Line!

[Once he's close enough, he unleash his own line and block one of the paths. The ayakashi is forced to run down the other pathway. Towards less and less people around for it to use.

Hopefully, there's no humans around further ahead. But the ones they left behind should be fine.]

[reloves]

[ It's kind of nice to have this teamwork going. Even though Minako is fast, she's been busy and running around all day already at this point. Her nerves may be just a little bit more frayed than she's showing, so relief shoots through her when she sees him blocking the ayakashi's path next. ]

Nice! [ She glances over to where he sent the monster-- ] If we get it to take the next right, it'll be lead out of the city and into the woods!

[ The recon she did of this city for the Valentine's Day planning is suddenly paying off in ways she never expected.. ]

[replicatedform]

Got it!

[The next right? He can see the next intersection ahead of them. Is it him, or is the ayakashi moving a little faster now? Yamanbagiri quicken his pace.]

C'mon, we gotta move faster!

[They're drawing closer to the intersection. Yamanbagiri sees it and get ready to unleash his borderline at it.]

Line...!

[reloves]

[ Minako does follow suit by trying to move a little faster. She manages to keep pace, but she's well aware she's probably going to end up exhausted by the end of today at this rate.. But getting rid of the ayakashi right now has the priority. ]

Here, I'll help too..! Line!

[ She figures that if anything will push it in the right direction, it's the combined force of both of their borderlines. And it works - the ayakashi is pushed into that direction, and the force of the borderlines seem to have (for now) made it decide that all of this wasn't worth it as it disappears into the woods.

Which makes Minako let out a sigh - of relief, but also exhaustion - as she rests her hands on her knees for a moment to catch her breath. ]

Geez, that one sure was fast..

[replicatedform]

[They did it. Well, the chasing the ayakashi away part. Hopefully, a god will find and handle it. But right now, the humans in this area would be safe.

Yamanbagiri stopped running, looking at where the ayakashi disappeared as he slowly catches his breath.]

It was... [He looks over at Minako, giving a hint of a smile. After his breathing calms down enough, he continues.] ... but we did chase it away. So... good job.

[This satisfaction of achieving something, it's a good feeling.]

[reloves]

[ That's definitely a good feeling. And it's one Minako could use a little more often - she may appear confident as hell on the outside, but there's a lot more insecurity hiding underneath it than she'd ever admit out loud.

Which is why Minako's smile actually looks almost shy for once when he tells her "good job." Her cheeks grow faintly pick, and she suddenly seems very focused on making her bangs neat again after all that running. ]

I'm the one who should be telling you that..! There's no way I could've managed all this on my own.

[replicatedform]

[He blinks, before he blushes a little. Instinctively, he bring a hand up to tug on his hood. Being told that while feeling good about their success? That may have cause a few cherry blossom petals to appear around his head.]

Y-Yeah, that's right. It's our teamwork that did it. [And not only that...] Especially with your knowledge of the surroundings.

[reloves]

[ The two of them suddenly blushing with the cherry blossom petals around him might just be the nerdiest moment Minako has ever experienced.

But someone else being more flustered than she is makes it very easy for her to bounce back, thankfully. She can't look like the most bashful one here, after all! Never! ]

Well.. I'm just saying, if you ever need help with something like that some other time, just let me know! [ She winks at him. Maybe she's doing this kind of to be able to spend more time with a handsome guy, but.. there is a gooey center of just wanting to help people out in the middle of it, okay. I swear. ] I'm pretty useful in situations like these!

[replicatedform]

[He have long since accepted the magical cherry blossoms, but hopefully she wouldn't point it out... It's still embarrassing.

Anyway, ahem, Yamanbagiri nods and lower his hand from his head.]

Of course. And in return, let me know if you want my help. [He'd feel bad about receiving help all the time, it'd make him want to reciprocate even more.] We can cover each other's back, or something like that.

[... This would look a lot more serious and impressive if he didn't have a few cherry blossom petals on his cloak.]

[reloves]

[ Don't worry, Yamanbagiri. Minako still thinks you're totally impressive after saying all of that.

Even so.. this is Minako, so of course in the end it does have to come down for a moment to-- ]

Oh, you don't have to worry about that! How could I refuse an opportunity to ask for help from a cute guy? [ There is the c-word again... ]