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

[unlucky7]

[Favorite is a good question. The inclination is to say she likes all things sweet, but doesn't everyone have preferences when forced to decide. Instead of signing, she uses her phone again, wanting to make sure all her words are understood.]

One of them, I think. I think it's interesting seeing what fruits are used and how the lightness of the cream balances out the sweet or tart fruit. Even if two difference places use the same fruit, there are always subtle differences in flavor. It's reliable, but exciting.

[abgrund]

[ Small exciting things. It's a sustainable source of interest for a restricted existence like theirs... something to be filed away and think about later. ]

It certainly seems so. I didn't think of that either.

[ Jakob probably looks after Add well but he can't expect him to do everything. He should think about using food as a means to keep the mood of people focused. ]

[unlucky7]

It's also temporal because it's seasonal. It'll be around for a known time, but once that time passes, it's a year before it comes back. So it makes having it all the more special.

[From a purely capitalistic view, it's an easy way of drumming up attention and excitement for something in limited supply and thus sell more. No doubt many stores push a sense of urgency toward the end of a fruit's season, but where something ends another thing begins.

Time flows forward always. Change isn't bad. It's a thing Ginia's trying to internalize more.]

[abgrund]

[ There's a few moments of pause, before: ]

So that you can remember what you've experienced. Each day is a new leaf.

[ Time must pass slower for her, who has little memories. He can understand to a certain extent; he was once a shinki before. But now that he has regained his past, it doesn't seem that necessary. He's aware of the flow of time, albeit indirectly through the chaos that permeates every world. ]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia nods. Things have settled a little more into routine after four months. It's still only four months, barely any time in the grand scheme, barely anything compared to the life she once lived. But it's her routine and it's her new experiences.]

I think it's important to remember time passes. Shinki and gods don't age, but time still passes. Things still change. If we lose sight of that, how can we help humans?

[abgrund]

You're quite right about that. Your duty requires you to be human in your hearts.

[ Which is the main reason why he still chooses to do all of this - to take on an illusion, to spend time like this. All to better understand the beings whose souls he is bound to collect.

There are other mysteries, of course. But he has to shed his human-like frame of mind to consider those. ]

I think you have a good mindset, for a shinki.

[unlucky7]

[A good mindset for a shinki. Ginia sighs softly, expression turning a little wistful, a little contemplative.]

Theory is easier than practice.

[Sure, the logic and sentiment is easy to figure out, but how has she actually lived the few months she's been here? Not well at all, one could argue.]

I've caused a lot of problems in trying to figure out what to do as a shinki and what I wanted. I think I've only begun to figure things out recently.

[abgrund]

You can tell me about what you've experienced, if you want.

[ They're ushered to a seat in the meantime and they can order. Ain is a good listener and curious, so he's content to not speak. ]

[unlucky7]

[Looking at the menu she's already studied is an excuse to think about what to say. An old question she once asked on the network comes to mind and months later, her personal answer is still as muddled.]

You've been a shinki before. What do you think is more important? Personal happiness or loyalty to one's god?

[abgrund]

[ It's a good question. Previously he would have answered loyalty, but his experiences have put that thought in a new light. ]

It depends on what you value for yourself. Whether you consider yourself a person, or a tool to be used.

[ There's a pause as he looks up at the sky outside ]

Do you feel that your emotions and desires are integral to your identity? Then do not devalue them. Only robots and angels are destined to be proper mindless tools.

[unlucky7]

[Sometimes Ginia still wonders if it would be better if she were only a tool. To simply serve without having to feel or think. That if maybe she was meant to be a soulless shinki and someone made a mistake somewhere.

But soulless shinki don't have conversations or think about the realities of their lives, or maybe not in the same way. She's here, there's no changing that.

Sometimes, she still wonders.]

Sometimes it feels like I could do without my emotions. Less pain that way, but it's foolishly selfish. Pain is a lesson, I suppose.

[abgrund]

[ There is a short silence as Ain ponders the question. How to reply without slighting Ginia's own feelings. He has his own experiences, but they extend to before he came here as a shinki. ]

It is futile to strive for a form you are not destined to take. You have emotions now, it is better to acknowledge and come to terms with them than deny what is irrevocably a part of you.

[ Even if it seems so wrong in the moment. Dissonance between the self and the mind breeds only despair and gives room for darkness. This he knows from painfully clear personal experience. ]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia knows he's right. As much as things can hurt, do hurt, will hurt, it's still better than feeling nothing. It's not all bad.

It's a reason she gets what the cult wants. Who doesn't want to live a happy life, one free of pain? But everything they're doing is wrong.]

You're right, I know. I wonder if it'd be easier if I had more than four months of my life?

[Would the pain be less if she could remember her past? Or would there be so much more? Context, for everything, but there's none here save a sliver of a day.

Dangerous thoughts. It takes a moment longer, but Ginia pulls herself back from dwelling on the impossible.]

I think I'll get the seasonal fruit cake.

[abgrund]

[ Ain doesn't smile, but the edges of his eyes crinkle; and maybe that's enough. ]

Confidence comes with time, and you have a lot of it here. Don't fret about it too much.

[ He's sure Ginia still has plenty of time to live. It doesn't compare much to his own age, but it's decent for a human. As for his order: ]

Then I'll have the same as you. With some tea, please.

[unlucky7]

[A human can live a long life already, a shinki is practically immortal if no misfortune comes her way. Time and growth. A shinki of months cannot complain about lacking the knowledge of peers of decades or centuries old.]

I'll try not to. Thank you.

[She signs slowly. Food for thought, but now is a good time for food for their stomachs. Ginia waves down a server with some effort and puts in their order through her phone. When he leaves, Ginia turns back with a question for Ain.]

You're Hades, right? Visit Greece yet?

[abgrund]

Not yet. I know I should, but recent matters have taken up more of my time.

[ Theoretically he could probably just send an offshoot of himself there, but he does not intend to be the only one who travels. Utsushi needs to go with him and he can't really leave Ren with divided attention. ]

I need to see this matter of the cult resolved first.

[unlucky7]

Don't we all.

[The server returns with their cake and drinks. Ginia smiles at him and thanks him with a nod, but a small frown returns as he leaves.]

I hate them, the harm they've caused other humans.

[abgrund]

[ Ain takes a sip of his tea first, before replying. ]

I find some humans incomprehensible, these especially so. [ Usually, he wouldn't really bother with interfering in fate, but the cultists are trying to upset his own concept of balance. ] Though, with all the people working on defeating them.... I think we will make good progress.

[unlucky7]

I hope so.

[They're smart, they're efficient, and if nothing else, they're angry and protective. Is that enough against an enemy of unknown numbers and talents? It has to be. If not, they need to try harder.]

I hope they can find happiness without the cult.

we can wrap this one up here? :D

[abgrund]

[ If there is one advantage to this, it is that Ain is willing to wait. Had he been more impatient like Shun, he might have sought out the cultists and wrung the answers out of them by himself... but he's not that kind of person anymore. He has all the time in the world. ]

Humanity's greatest strength is their adaptability. I don't think it's impossible.

[ Some other things are destined to never change. ]