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

[reloves]

[ That is a problem, considering Minako's own goddess is still back at the Far Shore as far as Minako knows. And without either of them having a complete duo present here, it'd be difficult to fully get rid of the ayakashi.

But just ignoring it isn't an option either as far as she's concerned. She can't have it making these humans go crazy when she's trying to organize some dates here! So.. ]

Can you make sure to distract the humans for a moment? Then I'll see if I can at least drive it off so it'll drop its hold over them.

[cloakedinruins]

Distract..? [ Quite a few of the humans were still on the ground, while those that were just regaining their feet did not look like they were going to continue their attack. Shen Wei's eyebrow rose in slight disbelief that they were going to attack at once. ] Fine.

[ No, he couldn't help the slight disapproving tone in his voice even as he gathers up energy again, his fingers flexing as patterns of ice and darkness shifting through them. (He was a teacher and there were times that it came through even when he was focused on other matters.) ]

Get ready then.

[reloves]

[ Well, forgive her for being cautious for one, Shen Wei!! She still has the entire rest of the day's worth of dates to take care of, and she can't risk getting hurt in case the ayakashi can influence humans to a point where they could get up again even after that.

But she's too focused to get huffy over it for now. Instead she does get ready-- ]

Here I go!

[ And then jumps off the table, heading for the ayakashi. She pulls back her hand. ]

Line..! And another one! [ Minako is making sure to drive the ayakashi off in a direction where there's the least amount of people, otherwise it's just going to try and influence a whole new bunch of them. But her strategically placed lines do seem to be enough to make the shadow slink off and away from there, relinquishing its hold on the humans here. ]

[cloakedinruins]

[ Offering up a silent apology to Old Chu for mimicking his ability, Shen Wei weaves the energy in his fingers into strands and flings the long lines out. They snag those few humans that were starting to move, and he pulls them back and down, reeling the lines once that was done and pulling them taunt between his hands.

And like that, he just steps down from the table, expecting the people to move away from him. A couple step up to try to drag him down, but he just simply blocks, deflects and uses the line to entangle and flip them back to the ground. After that, he was left alone to catch up with Minako. ]

Is there any way to get rid of this without a shinki and god bond?

[reloves]

[ Minako shakes her head, keeping her eyes on the ayakashi rather than looking at him. ]

Not as far as I know. Only a god and shinki pair can fully get rid of an ayakashi. I could wound it, or keep it in one spot, but I can't fully get rid of it.

[ And even though keeping it in one spot until the day was over would be kind of a solution, it's not really possible since Minako would have to stay near it and keep up her concentration the whole time.. ]

And my goddess is nowhere near here right now.

[cloakedinruins]

Then I suppose we just need to drive it away, or find a place with enough blessing to weaken it.

[ He dismisses the lines of energy, the black energy that formed them sinking into his skin. Reaching into his jacket pocket, he takes out a couple slips of paper with a few Chinese characters written on them. ]

Do you think that a couple blessed papers would help in that?

[reloves]

Oh..! [ She looks rather surprised at him pulling those out - and a moment later her surprised facial expression turns into a much happier one, practically bordering on glee. ]

Yes, I'm sure those should be able to do the trick! I doubt it'd want to stay around here when those are involved! [ Minako clasps her hands together, staring at him all starry-eyed - a little bit more like her usual ridiculous self than her more serious attitude from just now, but it's probably since she's so confident they've found the solution now. ] You really can handle any situation, can't you?