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

[artificialrose]

[Alright, the look on his face has Garry laughing a little into one hand.]

No, but you're obviously an adult, right? [It will sure be awkward if he isn't.] If we can't remember anything, then that means we could have all sorts of dating lives. You're definitely sort of charming, in that rugged way.

[Especially with that face.]

At any rate, I'm not sure if my god is very much into dating right now, so I'm afraid I couldn't say on that one.

[erogappa]

[ Yes, he's obviously an adult, thanks for noticing.

He is not, however, ruggedly charming. Just the idea that he might be is kinda unsettling. ...Is that the right word? Maybe uncomfortable is better. He's not used to getting compliments from sober people, even backhanded ones. ]

Uh. Thanks? [ Now would be a great time for a waiter to come by and interrupt, wouldn't it? Too bad Gojyo can't see any. ] My god's... uh...

[ Complicated. It's complicated. Gojyo takes a deep breath, and laughs it off. ]

He's not here. [ So why waste time talking about him? ] You are, though. How come you signed up for this dating thing? What's your story?

[artificialrose]

[Huh. Garry raises his eyebrows, one hidden behind a wave of purple hair. That's a bit of an odd reaction, both to the compliment and the awkward way he fumbled talking about his god. Well, maybe that's something to just back off on, then. No need getting dark on a first date.]

Well... I thought it might be a nice opportunity, wouldn't it? The best ending would be meeting someone I like, and the most likely one is just meeting a few new faces that could become friends in the future.

[Or, worse case, he'll find someone he hates almost as much as he used to hate Niles, but he's really hoping that doesn't happen.]

Besides... Ah, nevermind. [He's missing a friend, but he shouldn't go and mention that and bring down the mood.] Anyway, it's good to encourage teenagers like that to do things like this, don't you think? Organizing events where people can meet one another.

[erogappa]

[ It's too bad Gojyo doesn't have his godly memories anymore and therefore only knows Niles as some jerk he's run into once or twice. This could have been a much different conversation. Alas. ]

I don't think these particular teenagers needed much convincin'. [ Chikusa is his own personal demon, and Minako's proving herself to be a promising pain in his ass as well. He's not impressed, by either kid. ] Plus, I'm still waitin' for it to start raining ayakashi snot or somethin'. These things always go bad.

[artificialrose]

[Well, that's sure a response.]

I wouldn't say that. There have been some good moments, haven't there? Ah, hold on-

[That's one of the servers passing by- Garry suspects the aforementioned particular teenagers must be reminding them or something to go take care of guests to get around the 'far shore invisibility' thing- and he makes sure to get one's attention so that they can at least get some drinks.]

[erogappa]

[ Drinks? Yeah, okay, that's not a bad idea. Does this place do those coffee drinks with the chocolate and orange and vanilla so it's basically a milkshake but with a little buzz? Because he wants one of those. With some of those cookies that are super crispy and rolled up like a straw.

Or a cup of black coffee, if the rest is too much to ask for. ]

There's good moments, sure, but mostly every time there's a festival or a party or anything else that gets us all together, something explodes. Are you sayin' you haven't noticed it?

[artificialrose]

[They do in fact have all of those things! The luxury of being in a high class restaurant. Garry is inclined to similar, honestly, because why not treat yourself to something like that. It'll help take the edge off of what is clearly becoming quite a downer conversation, along with the pastries and fresh fruits that have been left for them.]

I've noticed, of course, but I rather think you're putting too much doom into all the circumstances. After all, New Years came and passed without there being anything too horrific, didn't it?

[Hm. Garry nibbles on a strawberry thoughtfully. Or perhaps that doesn't count, since they were all so focused on their own individual shrines, like he was for Komaeda's...]

Oh, everyone visited that bathhouse. Nothing bad there, for all that I was certain something would. [He had to leave early for that exact reason. Listen... Creepy places are creepy, whether anything bad happens or not.] And there was that reception in autumn, before the Gods Meeting happened.

I mean, it's good to be prepared, and everything... but I think going to every event just waiting for it to happen isn't any way to spend our time, don't you think? Why, I would think that would just make us all outright miserable.

[erogappa]

[ Too much doom?

We're dead. [ His deadpan is great, isn't it? He's been practicing. ] Think we've pretty much hit the jackpot for doom, don't you?

[ Sha Gojyo: Ray of Fucking Sunshine. He pops a strawberry in his mouth, and continues: ]

Besides, if you aren't expectin' it, then it hits you out of nowhere, and that's worse. Better to be prepared!

[artificialrose]

Ah, I'm starting to see why you haven't dated much before.

[This guy really has forgotten what kind of day it is, hasn't he? A not bad face, but really no brain. Garry shakes his head a little bit.]

Anyway, being dead really isn't that bad from what I've found. The menu for this place is decided ahead of time, isn't it?

[erogappa]

[ No, see, he's got a real date tonight, a real date, and the last thing he needs is some chick snarking at him and putting him in a bad mood. He considers telling her off, but there's the very real chance that Minako is hiding in the bushes with a pair of binoculars, and he's sure that anything she sees will get reported to Chikusa, and that little shit ruins everything. Better to just cut things politely short. ]

I wouldn't know. [ So he pushes back from the table, and snags one more strawberry as he stands. ] Don't think I'm gonna stick around to find out, either.

[artificialrose]

Wha-

[Admittedly, this is something of a surprise. Up until this point, the only thing that had looked thuggish had been the outward appearance. If the guy had signed up for an event like this, there had to be some soft spot to him, and the conversation up to now has been just pessimistic, not really anything else. So for him to lose his temper this quickly...]

[Well, it's not as if Garry is going to stop him. He just blinks up at him in surprise.]

You're not going to even wait for your drink...?

[erogappa]

It's all yours.

[ Lose his temper? No, he's calm. Calm and polite, even now, because he's without a doubt got an audience, and he's not giving them a goddamn thing. ]

Nothing personal, okay? You seem like a nice enough chick.

[artificialrose]

[Oh. That has Garry pause for a brief moment, because he honestly wasn't expecting it. Is he pleased or not that he's being thought of as a woman...? It's something that he'll have to think more indepth on that later, because it requires a lot of thought and he can't really do that any justice when he's trying to figure out why his very first blind date of the day is trying to ditch him already.]

Yet you're still leaving... [Faintly, he wonders if the wording was a hint. Well there's no harm in asking.] Are you gay?

There's nothing wrong with that, obviously- [And he'd be one hell of a hypocrite to say anything about it regardless.] -but I'm wondering if that's part of the problem.

[erogappa]

[ He should have just walked away. ]

What?! [ Why would she assume that? ] No I’m not... [ Well, actually... He scowls, and shakes his head. ] I like chicks too, okay, that’s not a problem.

[artificialrose]

Well, that's good, or else this would be incredibly more awkward than it already is, wouldn't it?

[You know, more awkward than someone being ditched by their Valentines blind date in less than ten minutes.]

I don't suppose I can ask what the reason is?

[erogappa]

[ Does it looks like he's yelling at her? Shit. Gojyo immediately straightens up, carefully tucks his hands into his pockets, adjusts his posture and tone to try and avoid giving even the faintest sign that he's ~ruining Valentines~.

He can feel your eyes on the back of his head, Minako, don't think that he can't. ]

The reason is that you're kinda pissin' me off. [ It's rude, but it's honest. Sorry. ] So instead of stickin' around and fighting with you about it, I'm gonna head out.

[artificialrose]

Oh. [So it really is as simple as that.] Then, I do apologize. We don't have to fight about it. I'd just like to know what I did.

[He supposes he could have been a little snappish, after all...]

[erogappa]

[ This doesn't look like him leaving. This, in fact, looks like him sticking around. God dammit.

And here comes their server, with their drinks. Gojyo was going to walk away, but that's a cup of sugar and caffeine. With an annoyed eye roll, he takes the cup from the server and downs two big gulps before answering... which also gives the server time to leave. No reason to have weird heavenly conversations where the living might get confused, right? ]

I'm leaving because I'm sick of people tellin' me how great it is here. If you want to pretend that bein' attacked by monsters and havin' your friends disappear is fine because sometimes we get to go to a hot springs, honey, that's your business.

[artificialrose]

[Whups. Funny how that happens. He'd just wanted to know exactly what he'd said that had been so rude, so that he could avoid it, but it looks like he's accidentally roped him into things again. Well, he'll work with what's he's given.]

[Which is, indeed, more pessimism. This time, Garry makes sure to take a sip of his coffee before saying anything.]

Well... Obviously it's not fine.

[Another sip because he can feel a bit of snappishness coming on with his next words, and he's pretty sure he needs to temper it. The server coming in with the drinks really was a blessing.]

But for horrible things that happen... Isn't it important to fully enjoy the good?

[erogappa]

[ Unbelievable. He's never getting out of this conversation, is he?

He finishes off his coffee in another couple gulps (it's really too hot to drink that fast, and he regrets it immediately), and sets the cup down firmly on the table. The edge of the tattoo sleeve is just barely visible at his wrist. ]

I haven't had a lot of luck with the good.

[ The breakfast is paid for, but there's still their waitress. Gojyo fishes in his pocket, and pulls out a couple crumpled small bills -- he's been a bartender too long to not tip, even though the amount's probably a joke to somebody who works at a place like this. ]

Enjoy your coffee.

[artificialrose]

Well, it's nice of you to wish me so.

[The food is almost guaranteed to be good even if he is being ditched... Garry takes a sip of his drink, sighing at his luck, before something occurs to him and he turns his head to call after Gojyo's back as he's walking away.]

Get some yogurt for your mouth!