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

[nopixiedust]

[Holding Wendy is holding a bunch of ruffles, lace, and ribbons, but that just means having a more secure hold, right? Right. Either way, Wendy is completely unsurprised when they teleport so immediately.]

It was the fastest way~. Besides, I knew you would catch me.

[And she's already taking care to let herself down, making sure not to upset the balance or disturb his own standing.]

So that's them, then, right?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun's only too ready to let her go so she can drop down to the rooftop, remaining on his mount himself in case they end up needing to pursue the birds.]

Right. There's enough people here that it seems to have watered down the effect some, but it's still causing problems.

[He points to the building beneath the birds - there's a cafe with some outside seating, and there's an altercation happening at one of the tables that's clearly visible, one girl holding another by the collar while a young man looks on in stunned bewilderment.

Shun holds his war hammer at the ready, nodding slightly to the birds.] We'd probably be best off trying to flank them so they don't have a clear escape route.

[nopixiedust]

[Oh boy. She can only imagine what that argument is on about. Best to just mind her own business... and start readying her wire instead.]

Then I'll get at them from the left. Let's go!

[There's no reason to put this on hold when they know what the plan is, after all. With a strong toss of her arm, she goes swinging, and uses the momentum to carve out her borderline through the air.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun goes right as soon as Wendy starts moving, using the speed of his mount to cut in behind the creatures and push them forward towards her borderline. They flap out from their perch and try to scatter, but another of Shun's birds appears blocking the only easy route and circling them back towards the borderline.

Shun's pursuing them closely, but the space needs to be tightened a little bit before he can properly catch and kill them, and he and his own mount start to move towards that end.]

[nopixiedust]

[Move it a little tighter, you say? No worries, Wendy can do that in a heart beat. She snaps the borderline down, only to have it back up in less than a second, ever closer, pressuring the birds more. A bit of a risky move, but, well, they're doing all of this in mid-air. A lot is risky right now, especially until she can get a good perch.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun seems practiced enough to make the risky move less so, at least, skillfully moving his own mount and the other bird closer to form a caging shape. The ayakashi don't really have enough space now to climb or plummet easily, and Shun takes the opportunity to bring out his war hammer and attack, starting to cleave through the bird-shaped ayakashi in flashes of bright white light.]

[nopixiedust]

[And that's that, she should think. Together with his birds and her borderline holding steady, there's no way for them to escape. So, finally finding a perch on a balcony, Wendy watches Shun gets to work. At some point, she cups one hand to her mouth and yells at him.]

Do you think you've brutally killed them hard enough yet?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun doesn't answer that question until the flashes of light cease, and he turns his bird towards her with a somewhat flat look.]

Now that they're all actually dead, yes. Hopefully that'll calm things down.

[On the street below, the boy seems to have successfully intervened with the fighting girls and at least gotten them to let go of each other, so that's a promising sign.]

[nopixiedust]

And if not, then I'm sure we can handle them.

[Shun is the pinnacle of ayakashi murder. In that way, he's really pretty reliable. Although, now that she's thinking of reliable...]

Do you think you'll be alright on your own for a while? I just realized I left Hibiki to her own devices for a little too long, so I should go check on her.

[Hibiki is very talented in her own right, even though Wendy knows Shun would sooner tear out his own tongue before admitting as much... but that just means she's even more liable to get into trouble.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun gives a faintly dismissive sound at the reasoning, but shrugs.] I'll be fine either way. It just means using different tactics to deal with them.

[He may or may not be obliquely making the point that he doesn't need babysitting in the same way Wendy's god does, though by this point that's probably to be expected. It's not so much a matter of Shun not wanting to admit Hibiki has talents as legitimately not believing it to be the case.]