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

[erogappa]

[ What time is it, anyway? It's late. Not quite midnight, but probably close... or maybe it's just been that kind of a day.

It's tempting to let his feet take him south, to find neighborhoods where there's drinking to be done and fights to get into, but one, he doesn't really want to get into a fight with humans right now (he'll just hurt them, it'll be a big mess), and two, he doesn't really want anyone to see his ridiculous too-tight suit and plush jacket. He'd been so excited when he'd poured himself into it earlier, but now? Now it's only the cold of the mortal world that's keeping him from taking it off and leaving it in the nearest dumpster.

If he goes back to Goku's temple, Hokuto will ask him how his date went, and he's not ready for that conversation yet. If he goes to Hakkai's temple... no, he can't go to Hakkai's temple. And if he goes to the bar he'll just drink.

So he's walking. ]

[rockthemonkey]

[ Goku's had a pretty good day. He got to see a bunch of things, meet a load of new people, ate some snacks, went on a bunch of rides- and he got to hang out with Nia! That's always fun.

They've just finished dinner- and wow, it's getting pretty late, he didn't realise- and when they exit the restaurant Goku's briefly overwhelmed by the crowd of people still out on the street. ]

Woah- [ He's holding the door open for Nia, because that's just the position they ended up in on exiting, and he turns to her and grins through the crowd. Neither of them are tall enough to see over anyone else. ] Come on- you ready to head back?

[ And it makes sense to hold his hand out to her, because even if they don't try teleporting somewhere, they might lose each other in the crowd. It makes sense. ]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Ehh, not really. But suppose I've got to go home and let tomorrow come sometime, huh.

[Right, better hold onto the boy or else he'll get lost. Or go chasing after dessert, or who knows what? The important thing is he can't run off if she's got ahold of his hand, so she takes it quite firmly.]

[erogappa]

[ Maybe he should go see a movie? ...No, that's stupid, sitting on his ass for two hours isn't going to do him any good. He could go for a run? Ha, yeah right, not in this lifetime. Maybe he could...

Goku's voice cuts right through the crowd, and Gojyo's turning before he realizes it. Of course Goku's out here at a restaurant, he thinks, mentally chuckling. Wonder if he left them any food, or if they're shutting down for the night?

But then he stops, because Goku's not alone. Would you look at that. ]

I see somebody's havin' a good night!

[rockthemonkey]

Do you wanna just stay up all night? [ Heheh, hand holding. He guesses it's probably childish, but it helps ward off the cold so he's not going to let go. ] We could watch the sun-

[ Romantic date suggestion predictably ruined by sudden cockroach appearance. Goku jumps a little, looking around before he realises where Gojyo is. It might say something about how distracted he was that he didn't feel his own shinki approaching, but this is Goku we're talking about. ]

Gojyo? What're ya- what're you doin' here?! [ Blushing like he's been caught doing something embarrassing which is dumb because he's not. ] What's up?

[ He's going to get teased for this. He can sense it. ]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

[Nia jumps a little, very much like a startled cat, and turns a little red herself. She doesn't even bloody well know why! She quickly turns a scowl on Gojyo, because that seems like the appropriate reaction here.] Probably getting off his own date, Goku, a bunch of people came here, right? We had our own dates earlier and decided to hang out for a bit when we ran into each other.

[In other words, don't read anything into this, you bastard!]

[erogappa]

[ Scowling at Gojyo is usually the right choice, yes. See? It's like she's part of the family already.

We just decided to hang out together, she says, holding the shrimp's hand. Is that how things are between them? That's really sweet, actually. Fuck, Gojyo would fall over with contentment if Hakkai wanted to hold his hand while walking out of a restaurant. His smile softens, and he shakes his head. ]

Yeah. Just comin' back from a date, that's right.

[ There will definitely be teasing, but it'll be teasing in private. He's not going to do a single thing to mess up Goku's love life, dammit. One of them should be happy! ]

I'm on my way to the bar. [ You know. In case they wanted some privacy back at the temple. Hokuto's still there, most likely, but at least Gojyo can stay away. ] So I guess I'll see you later, shrimp!

[rockthemonkey]

[ It's possible that Goku has a type and that no one should comment on it. ]

You were still on one of those weird dates? [ He thought those finished a couple of hours ago. Still, he's not being made fun of, that's good! Suspicious, but good! ]

Nia, you know Gojyo, right? He- wait, you're goin' now? [ Gojyo's already leaving? Goku looks between him and Nia, a little caught off guard. ] Uh, yeah, see ya later!

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Hey, we could go to the bar too and hang out. Why shouldn't we? [An even fiercer scowl indicates that Gojyo couldn't possibly be a third wheel because there's nothing to wheel here! She'll scowl till he believes!]

[erogappa]

[ Goku's questions are easy enough to ignore -- he's just talking because that's what you do when things are awkward. In another handful of seconds Gojyo would have walked away and Goku wouldn't have thought twice about it, Gojyo's sure.

But Nia wants him around? Why? She's on a date with a great guy, why the hell would she want somebody like Gojyo there?

...Ah. Is she thinkin' about drinkin'? Gojyo's confused frown smoothes out, and he laughs a little, tossing her a wink. ]

You're in luck. Tonight only, nobody's checkin' IDs.

[ Because really, what's the harm? They'll come by, he'll hide behind the bar and serve them a couple drinks, it'll be fine. And then he won't have to be alone for a little while longer. ]

Whaddya say, shrimp?

[rockthemonkey]

[ Goku feels like he's missing a few things going on in this conversation and he's feeling pretty confused as a result. ]

You really wanna go, Nia? [ Not that Goku minds. Hanging out with Gojyo and Nia sounds like fun. ] It smells kinda gross there.

[ Sure, it's been cleaned up since the last time someone nearly died in there but bars always smell kind of gross to Goku. Still, he shrugs. ]

Sure! Let's go! ... And quit callin' me that!

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Sounds fun, doesn't it? ['Fun' = 'not giving anyone some weird impression about their relationship!' 'No matter how accurate that impression will be in just a few days!']

[Though she turns a smirk full of sass on Gojyo.] Gotta agree this isn't the best crowd for short jokes though.

[erogappa]

[ Say his bar smells bad = get a noogie. It's the law. He put a lot of work into getting rid of the smell of dead bodies, okay? It's freshly painted and clean now, so don't shit on his bar. He loves his bar. ]

Oh, it's not a short joke. [ Resting his arm on Goku's head like an armrest, like he's demonstrating now? That's a short joke. ] I call him shrimp because I got a memory back of him swiping my shrimp, right off my plate. You've got to keep an eye on this guy!