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

[alchemists]

We'll do our best to make sure you have a meal to share.

[ They might be small but the two of them can do anything together if they put their minds to it. ]

So don't worry and leave it to us!

[myblueskies]

["Are you sure? There's lots of knives... And an oven." He looked worried about the prospect of letting two small children into the kitchen alone. Romeo smiled at him and nodded.]

We are really good at using all that stuff! I promise we will make you the best meal, sir!

[alchemists]

[ Knives won't be an issue, Elfnein knows all about the kitten paw way of cutting food. ]

We'll pinky promise if that helps?

[myblueskies]

[Romeo blinked at Elfnein and the man.] What's a pinky promise? Is it like a vow? We can vow as well, that we will be really careful and make you the best meal!

[alchemists]

It's like a vow, it's a swear you'll do it or eat a bunch of needles.

[ She learned the basics of it from Nanako, and the idea of having to eat needles is scary. ]

[myblueskies]

Eat a bunch of needles? [That sounded bad! But it was a serious vow!] Okay sir! We will vow that we will make you a delicious meal and not get hurt or we will eat a bunch of needles!

[He brings his fist up to his chest.]

[alchemists]

[ The man just lets out a chuckle at the two of them. ]

Alright, Romeo let's start prepping the food.

[myblueskies]

Right!

[He stood on tiptoes to look at what the man had laid out to make.] So he's got noodles and fish and rice and broccoli and... whatever that is. [He poked the tofu gently.] and soup and sparrow grass. We can make tasty food with all of that!

[alchemists]

I think that's tofu?

[ Elfnein isn't the biggest fan of tofu, that and back home most of her meals were more western style. ]

I have an idea, we can cook the fish and broccoli together.

[myblueskies]

Tofu? [He's never heard of tofu before. He grins at her and grabs the fish and the broccoli and looks around for a knife.]

We can cook the sparrow grass with it too! That will be nice!

[alchemists]

It's a product made of soybeans.

[ Romeo had the right idea with adding the sparrow grass, adding all the greens with the fish would be a good dish. ]

With fish I think you need to be careful de-scaling it?

[myblueskies]

Do you know how to de-scale it?

[He looks at the fish and the knife, he thinks he knows how to cut it up right, but Elfnein might know better than he does.]

[alchemists]

I think we put it under water and scrape it gently?

[myblueskies]

Right!

[Romeo opened some cupboard until he found a bowl and then dragged a chair over to the sink so he could fill the bowl with some water.] We will need a knife as well! To scrape with.

[alchemists]

[ Elfnein found a dull knife in the back of a drawer, they didn't need to use a sharp one on this task, also given what they need to do there was a higher chance of cuts so dull is the way to go. ]

I think this should work for it.

[myblueskies]

Alright! [Romeo took the knife and held it carefully as he picked up this fish studying it for a moment. The scales were like little flaps that were held on at one end so if he put the knife under the flap they should come off!

Elfnein had said to do it under the water so he put hand holding the fish into the bowl and held it tight as he moved the knife up against the first few scales. It was a bit tough but after a few moments of pressing upwards the scales began to pop off.] It's working!

[alchemists]

Just like that, once all of the scales are off we can slice the fish open.

[myblueskies]

Alright! [He keeps scraping, concentrating so that he gets all the scales off. It takes a little bit of time since it's his first time doing it but soon he is bringing his hands out of the water and he puts the fish on the board.] I think I need a sharper knife to slice it open!

[alchemists]

Correct, I think there are other knifes in the drawer that we can use.

[ Elfnein is super proud of Romeo for de-scaling the fish so well on the first go. ]

[myblueskies]

[Memories are strange. Though Romeo's whole life before arriving in the heavens and being Elfnein's shinki is a blank and in his time here this is the first time he has ever descaled a fish it seems that his hands sometimes know what they are doing without his mind telling them.

He opens the drawer and ponders the knives for a moment.] I think this one. It's sharp but not too big!

[alchemists]

Let's try that one out.

[ The way Romeo was handling the knife was better then someone that had never cooked much before, maybe it was muscle memory at work? Even if the mind can't remember the body does. ]

[myblueskies]

Right! [He picked up the knife in question and turned back to the fish.] We got to get the bones out, right?

[Because no one wanted to eat fish bones!]

[alchemists]

Correct, now we need to get the bones out, we should be able to just pick them out after making a cut into the fish from my understanding.

[myblueskies]

Okay! [He concentrates again as he slices into the fish, it cuts easily and it's easy to see the bones.] It should be easy to get them all out!

[alchemists]

I can get them out if you want to work on the next fish?