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

Amusement Park

[letteropener]

[Human guise, of course; most people, she's found, prefer their dates be of at least a bipedal species. Not that she expects this particular date to have anything beneath it; if she knows Hibiki, it will be ten tons of magnificently-sculped buttercream frosting that doesn't actually have the meagerest crumb of cake beneath it.]

[Celestia offers her most beatific smile, as a brilliant beam of sunlight pierces the clouds to shine down upon them.]

Ever regal, Hibiki. You outshine the dawn.

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki smiles: a reception fitting this date, the piece de resistance of her day. Princess Celestia has seemed solemn on their last few meetings. Perhaps she can nudge away the rainclouds darkening the Princess's soul!

Lest they spread to her own! ]

It's my honor.

[ The scene around them freezes. The shading changes to pastels. One kid walking past is suddenly filled with a desire to go home and play with crayons, but doesn't know why. ]

[letteropener]

[Hibiki has as much chance of doing that as a raincloud has of snuffing the sun, for what Celestia truly needs is something Hibiki is incapable of being: a friend she can talk to in a mature and easy manner. But she will enjoy herself playing this part, and that is no small thing.]

Then I shall claim an honor in turn. [With a flourish of one hand, she proffers a single rose to Hibiki, sunlight glistening off the dew that clings to it and catching every last nuance of its petals.]

[priforprince]

[ .....Be still her heart.

Hibiki experiences a profound and certain doki, then smiles and accepts the rose. ] Your affections nourish me like the dew upon these petals.

[ Okay, the dew on the petals is doing nothing. But dew that makes it to the roots does, so that still counts.

She breathes in the rose's scent, transcendent. ] Shall we?

[ They have a whole park before them!

But of course, they shall only visit the Best parts. ]

[letteropener]

Make me wait not a moment more for the honor.

[Oh, what would Hibiki think of her sister? Loud and dramatic, she'd doubtless charm Hibiki most thoroughly. Then again, who would Luna not charm?]

[On such a note, Celestia offers Hibiki her arm.]

the big top super secret is that hibiki wants to go to the kigu show

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki accepts that arm, thinking a mile a minute behind her smooth smile. Diversions that might charm an equine Princess....and one who can fly, atop that...

....with the Tunnel of Love saved, of course, for a particularly opportune moment....

Ah. ]

We'll take a leisurely stroll past all this park's finest attractions. Should anything seize your attention, don't hesitate.

[ First, on their way to the rides: past all the game booths! ]

[letteropener]

[Celestia is not thinking nearly so quickly. Hibiki is fairly easy to manipulate, after all, so making sure she is happy and enjoys herself to the best of her capabilities will be easy. To wit: Celestia, with a quick glance around, spots a large stuffed bear at the dart booth, and so fixes her gaze on it openly.]

Oh my, do you see how cute that bear is?

[What more could Hibiki possibly ask for than the chance to show off how amazing she is by winning that bear, after all?]

[priforprince]

[ Ah, there. Hibiki nods. ] He's smiling for you.

[ What is this strange, unconscious feeling, though? Not of being led by someone - that's impossible, that's absurd - but of - of wanting to give the Princess, instead of the elite Celebrity experience, something that will...

...that will let her unwind....

Bizarre. Still, Hibiki sees a thing that she can do, and thus she heads over to the booth. ] Shall I unite you?

[letteropener]

Offered so, I would be a cad to deny you the chance. [She's amazed Hibiki even asked, save for perhaps the form of it all. Celestia follows her quickly, does the best she can at six feet tall to look the eager date anxious for her beau to win her a prize.]

[priforprince]

[ That height is probably the only thing that gets them noticed at all, let's be real. (And Hibiki had asked for the sheer pleasure of getting to hear herself be excepted. One must savor the small details which elevate life.) ]

One shot.

[ The booth worker looks skeptical, but offers Hibiki a single dart anyway. They get these all the time, these guys hoping to impress their completely-un-impressable-dat......

The dart sings more than whizzes through the air, embedding itself in the grand prize area of the dartboard. The attendant stares.

Hibiki doesn't even try to not look smug. ]

[letteropener]

[Now, admittedly Celestia has to wonder what would happen were the game one featuring far more random chance. A prize hidden behind a balloon wall, with no way to tell which balloon is the grand winner. An experiment for another time, though!]

[Celestia accepts her prize with delight, which she turns on Hibiki in the form of a radiant smile.] Magnificent.

[priforprince]

I never settle for anything less.

[ She casts her gaze down the rows of games. Are any of these of interest....? ] Such attractions likely hold no challenge for those of our shared caliber.

[ Hibiki doesn't doubt for a second that Celestia would excel in anything to which she put her hooves-turned-hands. ]

[letteropener]

That may be so, but now I have a souvenir, the better to remember this night.

[Celestia snuggles up to her bear for a moment, allowing herself a moment of girlish delight before she composes herself once more and lets it hover behind her in her magic's grasp.]

[priforprince]

[ And Hibiki allows herself a moment of pleasure that she was able to cause this result. ]

Let's select a ride.

[ Yet as she walks past a booth advertising an Old Maid video game, she hesitates. What a stupid concept. Its sheer foolishness is enough to catch her attention due to its causing offense! ]

[letteropener]

Oh, are you going to try it? [Celestia notices the hesitation and pounces on it without remorse, smiling down at Hibiki expectantly. Can she truly get away with NOT trying it now?]

[priforprince]

Such trivial matters hardly merit my attention.

[ She says, as she walks over and sits herself down in front of it.

Hibiki. ]

I'll prove its foolishness, then move on.

[letteropener]

Tell me, what precisely is it?

[She has the gist, but ponies have a far different equivalent, so this is not immediately recognizable. So Celestia comes to stand behind Hibiki and watch.]

1/2

[priforprince]

A card game for those with the focusing capabilities of a gnat sipping sugar water.

[ Which means, of course, that she shall make short work of this! ]

2/2

[priforprince]

[ .....So she draws the joker.

And makes an involuntary grunting sound. ]

[letteropener]

It is just like you to draw the most unique card possible.

[She isn't above trying to spin this into something positive. No matter the reason, she doesn't want to see Hibiki frown on their date.]

[A true and genuine smile would be nice, but Celestia doesn't hope for miracles...]

[priforprince]

.....Again.

[ Next game, this will be different!

"It can be a multi-player game," the attendant points out to Celestia, gesturing to the next cabinet over. Apparently a need to shill for money renders humanity capable of noticing the divine.

Capitalism is amazing. ]

[letteropener]

Oh, well then. [Gracefully, Celestia takes a seat at the next cabinet, glancing over at Hibiki with a smile. May the best mare win?]

[priforprince]

[ And win Hibiki shall! This time! For sure!

Hibiki is so absorbed in the game that she completely misses how everyone around them starts banging on their machines, complaining about this whole thing being a scam, and breaking up over bad results with their dates. She also misses how the air is filled with fluttering of shadowy dove wings and a low, sibilant whisper.

"Smells good....." ]

[letteropener]

[Celestia, on the other hand, misses nothing. The mutterings of discontent prick her (less-sensitive, human) ears, and her head comes up almost immediately. Then she stands, hands slapped to the side of her console to push herself upright quickly.]

Hibiki!

[priforprince]

[ This time, for sure - THIS TIME, FOR SURE -

-wait, does something in the atmosphere feel distinctly inelegant?!

Hibiki's head jerks upwards just as her hand spasms on the controls. ]

What?!

[ This place is....it's loud now! Intolerable! ]

What's going on?