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

[dredefulchilde]

Is he okay with it?

Joscelin had mentioned it in the first place because he wanted to talk about it with someone, on a deeper level. He just hadn't realized it until he'd blurted it out to the diminutive goddess.

"I must be," he admits.

"We were in an attic room, and Romeo was in a cage. I managed to free him, but someone that Romeo seemed to fear a great deal was coming up the stairs and we had to climb out of a window, onto a rooftop. There he told me that he'd been bought and sold by someone who dealt in child slaves."

Joscelin says all this without looking at Elfnein; he's staring at his own pallid reflection in a fish tank.

"It's strange to find out what I did about his life before, and then to see him in the waking world as he is now."

[alchemists]

"I can sort of understand what Romeo was feeling in that moment, being used as an object and not a person. I was like that before I was able to escape."

Elfnein can only give a small reassuring look at Joscelin, all this new information is something she'd have to give more thought to later.

[dredefulchilde]

"Were you?" Suddenly, Joscelin is far more interested in his date than before. "I'm glad." Realizing how that sounds, he adds on: "Not...that either of you were exploited. But I hope this means you can empathize with Romeo, as his god. He needs that."

Ayumu had understood him, before Heaven had taken her, like few others he's met. That was why they had worked together so well. Joss hopes that his friend's goddess is similarly understanding.

[alchemists]

"I was created to be used as a tool to end the world."

It really wasn't until recently that Elfnein had any will of her own.

"While it might not be the same situation we both were used and wanted to escape, but it's the past and now we're trying to build our own way of doing things now."

Being sent here was a way of being able to start over somewhat. There was only one other person that knew her from home in the heavens and it was free of the danger of alchemists and other agencies.

[dredefulchilde]

That...is an answer. Joscelin arches an eyebrow at the girl, not quite certain how to respond to such a revelation. "I...see. That makes a fair amount of sense."

Romeo was an enslaved Italian chimney sweep, Elfnein was the Antichrist (?), and as far as Joscelin knows he was a pampered rich boy from London who witnessed his mother's beheading. And now they're all ghosts and gods, working on behalf of an uncaring Heaven.

The thought is suddenly an amusing one and he starts to laugh.

"The adults treat us as mere children, when we all have such things in our pasts."

[alchemists]

"The adults might just be looking out for our well-being? Not every one knows about other people's pasts and they only see what's in front of them."

[dredefulchilde]

"Still, it's obvious that many of us are more than simple children," Joscelin counters, rather enjoying the debate. Elfnein seems to be every bit as clever as Romeo claimed, and Joss enjoys a bit of mental sparring.

"Even without the benefit of memory."

[alchemists]

"True, here we're all given new forms and powers so saying that we're simple children is devaluing what the heavens have given not only us by the other gods and shinki."

It's strange to see someone her age be able to keep up in a serious talk, it's kinda nice for a change.

[dredefulchilde]

"I wish more saw it that way. Our bodies may be small, but they'll also never age; we're going to be children forever, by virtue of the current arrangement with Heaven. And yet, that does not mean that our minds are stagnant. Being treated as children to be protected rather than allies in...whatever it is that Heaven wants us to do sells our collective abilities short. Those who have more adult bodies than we need to realize what we bring to the table."

[alchemists]

"Maybe we can be the change needed for the adults to change their view point? There are plenty of us and we could try and do something major to show how serious we are. "

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin frowns, considering. "What do you suggest we do?" He's already attempted violence. That doesn't seem to have worked.

[alchemists]

"We could hold an open debate?"

Elfnein just gives a small smile at the idea of talking it out. They don't need to attempt violence or anything like that to be heard properly.