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

[smilingbullet]

[ A little of annoyance flickers through the connection. ]

If I care to be cooperative.

[ They both know that that isn't a word that generally would describe their relationship.


But he will nonetheless focus on letting out more of his power. The only way he can adapt to it is to practice, and the ayakashi needs to be taken care of. ]

[priforprince]

Heh.

[ Very well. She, too, shall grow serious -

And just in time. You know that thing monsters frequently do in anime, where many small foes band together to create one large foe?

Hibiki is secretly gratified to find herself battling an opponent that understands the importance of following such combat precepts (though its multiple arms still make D2's powers a necessity). Whirling out of the way in the nick of time to avoid a blow, her own hands tighten on the sword.

If they can find....a single, clear path...... ]

[smilingbullet]

[ She's capable of something like that? He would have never known.

D2 does not know that thing that monsters do in anime, or at least not that it's common. He's mainly a Ghibli and Disney and other such movies (like Anastasia, he liked that one) watcher when it comes to movies overall. He doesn't really watch any other stuff.

But fighting ayakashi.. He's generally only mildly surprised at any unexpected things that they throw their way and this time is no different.

He has better things to focus on either way, sharpening his attention and pulling the strings of his subconsciousness, until the next important one is within reach and materializes from ayakashi to god. ]

[priforprince]

[ When D2 passes along his sense to Hibiki, she can practically see a glint of light right where he's guiding her. She readies the sword and follows the path, striking deep.

But no! This one is not enough! ]

Last blow!

[ Where should she hit to rend it? ]

[smilingbullet]

[ She needs to pierce harder. and with more precision.

Fine, let him just find another string- And there. It always does come easier when he knows what he's doing. ]

[priforprince]

[ ....is there a faint whiff of judgment in her unconscious mind....?

No, never mind that! Harder, stronger, more exact - perfect placement, the perfect blow -

Right there! ]

REND!

[ ....Must these things screech so, when they perish? ]

[smilingbullet]

[ It sure is. He's always judgmental of her.

Many things screech or yell when they don't instantly die. ]

If I could have my proper body back?

[priforprince]

[ She kind of likes him better as a sword, honestly. But they need to attend to his blight, now that it is also her blight. (Intolerable.)

She sticks the sword in the ground and steps away from it, and takes out a holy water pistol. ] Return, Carl Adler.

[smilingbullet]

[ And if she were to keep him in vessel form against his will, she won't get away easy.

Once his body has melded back into his human form, he stretches to get phantom stiffness out of his body with a groan betraying how tired he is. ]

[priforprince]

[ He's in terrible shape all over. Ugh. She would have expected Forrest's hand-me-downs to be in condition superior to this. Must be his fault.

She'll give him some moments to stretch, but she is unaccustomed to waiting, so they're not exactly very long. ] Expose the locations of your blight.

[ So she can shoot you.

No hard feelings. ]

[smilingbullet]

[ It could have been worse though. He's had to deal a whole lot with guilt at some instances. This is not only caused by emotion.

Despite the serious situation, or maybe because of it, he can't remain serious.

He lets out a dramatic gasp. ]

My, how scandalous! And in the middle of the street!

[ Just by looking it's obvious that the blight goes below his collar. ]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki points the water pistol at D2. Given that it's shaped like an old-time blunderbuss, the chances of it being mistaken for a real gun are...slim, but it's the effect that counts. ] I am unaccustomed to waiting.

[ Enough that she felt the need to echo the quote used in the last tag's bracket text, even! (She says it a few times, okay. And that's enough from an anti-catchphrase character to seem like a catchphrase.)

Will she shoot as-is? ...Is it worth testing her? ]

[smilingbullet]

Yes, I know.

[ She could do well to learn some level of patience. Even if he really shouldn't drag this out.

He needs to rid himself of the blight-

but he also feels like he deserves to suffer a little while.....and is forgetting that he's caused Hibiki to be blighted as well. ]