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

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun glances back slightly at that - he's heard of those kind of desires before.] Sounds like Ebisu's been rubbing off on you.

[It's not necessarily a bad idea, but from what he'd heard about Ebisu from other gods, it has a tendency to leave people who dabble in it very dead. And from the sound of things, last time it hadn't just been Ebisu himself.

Kotori is just coming back from securing the back door when Ginia opens the storeroom, and when Shun catches a glimpse of something moving in there, he doesn't hesitate to call her back.] Come, Shouki!

[The familiar hammer returns to his hand as something starts to emerge from the storeroom, pushing against the door - it almost looks like a melted blob of...something. Possibly chocolate, though it's made of whatever it is ayakashi are made of nonetheless. It's slow-moving, but large, and its form starts to ooze out towards them as Shun takes a few paces back, grabbing for his canteen again.]

We're going to need to weaken this one. [It's too big for him to just try and take it down with Kotori straight off, even if it is slow.]

[unlucky7]

[Guilty as charged. But Ginia knows the wishes of her temple, knows they would like Ebisu to live a long, happy life. Knowledge is useful, but with all the sacrifices Ebisu's temple has endured, she would never ask any more of them. Others can research. Let Ebisu live.

Ginia tries to close the door, but the ayakashi presses back and oozes out the door, forcing it open again. She backs away, dropping her borderline from the front door to press against the ayakashi. It can't reach them immediately, but there are enough inches for it to ooze the space between the borderline and wall to get at them. She slashes at it, but with how viscous the ayakashi's shape is, the slashes are barely noticed.

Pouring blessed water helps, a solid shell forming on its surface like a hard candy, but Ginia uses the reminder of her water. She shifts the borderline to block off the hallway.]

I'm out of water. If I hold its attention, can you grab more for us? It might be the only thing that works.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun looks a little uncertain about that, but they don't have a lot of options right now, so he nods slightly and gestures for her to throw him her bottle. He's still eying the ayakashi, focusing on it a little himself, and while bits of its outer skin dry up and flake off under the use of his powers, there's too much of it and it's too oddly formed to make that a useful method of attack.]

It shouldn't take more than a minute. I've got a spare canteen I can pick up on the way as well.

[He doesn't always bring a second because it's just inconvenient if he turns out not to need it, what with how much he carries, but in cases like this, it's useful to know where it is so he can just sweep through and grab it if he needs it. He'd leave one of his birds to draw attention, but he knows from experimentation that he can't get more than a certain distance away from them, so it would vanish as soon as he teleported anyway, so it's best to focus on getting there and back quickly.]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia tosses the bottle back his way, attention back on the ayakashi. Damn, even with the danger of setting the place on fire, knowing the song spell for fires would be useful right about now. She holds her ground as the ayakashi continues to slap and ooze against her borderline. Her wall is solid and it won't get through, but there's not much else she can do but watch it.

In the full light of the hallway, it's really no more than an oozing ball, constantly moving and rolling. At least it's slow, though the dripping tentacle-like limbs its slapping at the borderline have reach. Gross.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[As soon as Ginia's bottle gets to his hand, Shun disappears, flicking through his shrine and then on to the Far Shore and down to the blessed water pools in his garden to fill the bottles. He keeps his spare canteen concealed near there anyway, and grabs it once he's done with the other two just before he teleports back.

He reappears in just about the specific spot he vanished, figuring it's best not to risk that the ayakashi might've reached anywhere else in the hall, and tosses Ginia her bottle back as he uses his other hand to slash a line of the blessed water out against the ayakashi.]

Catch.

[unlucky7]

[If there's anything to be thankful for, it's the ayakashi doesn't try to do more than lash at the borderline and inch forward. By the time it even seems like it's considering going another way, Shun returns. Ginia catches the bottle and turns back to splash it onto the ayakashi.

It twitches and recoils from the stream of water, skin hardening under the harsher deluge. Ginia slashes at the hardened skin, cracking it enough to create a gap to pour more water in.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Taking his cue from Ginia's move there, Shun throws more water into the gap, hardening the surface on an even deeper level and making the thing release an odd, gurgling noise that might indicate it's in pain. It's starting to shuffle back, as if trying to get away, but the hardening of its surface seems to be giving it a harder time moving.

On noticing that, Shun splashes some of the water down around its base, hardening its form there as well and making it list to one side.]

[unlucky7]

[More and more, the surface hardens. It still cracks and splinters, but doesn't rebound as quickly. The limbs are easier to parry with borderlines as it feebly lashes out, looking more like a bubble of hardened candy with each splash of blessed water. Ginia makes sure to chip into it with borderlines, carving out deep cracks to make it easier for Kotori to rend.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[As Ginia chips further in, Shun continues splashing with water, into the cracks and letting her get deeper into it with the slashes. As the hardening gets closer to its core, something colourful and more akin to the appearance of a typical ayakashi becomes visible from under the layers of sludge.

Shun doesn't hesitate to aim for it, with the thing practically immobilised and what seems to be a weak point wide open. Sure enough, when Kotori's vessel hits that point, it bursts into a flash of white light, taking the disgusting outer layers with it as it disappears.]

[unlucky7]

[Chalk up another win and a note for the mental ayakashi bestiary. Ginia exhales and releases her borderline, capping her bottle and tucking it back into her purse.]

First time I've seen one like that, I hope it's the last time. Talk about a pain to fight.

[Ginia swipes some of the remaining blessed water on the floor over toward the wall. Outside, there's the sound of sirens pulling up.]

Sounds like there's our cue to finish up.

[revolutionfalcon]

I think I might've seen one before, but it wasn't one I fought directly. [He's definitely quietly echoing that sentiment about it being an absolute pain, though, letting out a faint hiss as he puts his canteens back on his belt.

At the sound of the sirens, he glances back sharply.] Probably for the best. We must've gotten rid of most of them by now.

[unlucky7]

[It's not a big hallway or back storage area. The room the blob ayakashi was hiding in contained an additional handful of small, easy to handle ayakashi. Ginia blocks off the storage room's door as Shun and Kotori rend them, keeping an eye on the door.

The remaining room is the utility closet with the breaker, free of ayakashi. As they exit out the back door, it closes as the door to the hallway opens.]

Wish we could have swept the front again, but I think this place will be okay for awhile. Thanks.

[revolutionfalcon]

That's probably about the best we can ask for today. There's no guarantee none will be drawn back here if it gets busy again.

[But it's fine for now, and that's something. He shrugs slightly at the thanks, as if it's unnecessary, but doesn't outright dismiss it as he sometimes does.]

I'll see if I can chase down a few more of those bird ayakashi. [He starts to head on towards the next building, so he can leap up to rooftop level, but glances back as he does.] And remember what I said earlier, if you decide you want to talk to me about that fight.

[He's not going to force her, but he doesn't feel like leaving it hanging indefinitely is a great idea either.]

[unlucky7]

[One day they should probably talk about that. Ginia's still not sure when or what to say, but they'll talk when they get there. She remains on the ground level as he jumps up, nodding at him.]

Sure, one day. Stay safe out there.

[With nothing else to say, Ginia takes off at the run down the alley, bounding out once there's more space.]