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

B

[chibisu]

Humans pray for many things.

[Ebisu would know. While he's not a god of romance, well, he's a god of a very important part of this romantic holiday: ~capitalism~. So he's got a few prayers lined up for the day, as he has with many days, and he's accompanied by some of his shinki as well. One is holding onto his hand, just to make sure that he doesn't trip into the street (again, it's a bad habit), and the other is currently who knows where.]

[Still, he loves talking about the various details and machinations of gods and shinki, so he beams up at Yata.]

I've heard it's also very important for many people!

[thevanguard]

Well, yeah... [ Yata glances over at the voice... and then down when he realizes it's a kid. What.

One eyebrow arching, he eyes him for a minute before crouching down in front of the little god. ]

I guess that's true. For some people, the emotions for this holiday are the most important ones, after all.

[chibisu]

[Yes, hello, small child here. Ebisu patiently waits as Yata crouches down in front of him, not particularly offended at all.]

Mhm. The chocolate industry gets billions of yen from this holiday, so I can sense the passion that's involved! [It's the only way he can pick up on it, honestly. But then...] I wanted to come down here personally, to see if I could understand it all a little more.

But it doesn't sound like it makes sense to you either, does it...?

[thevanguard]

I mean. It's not that it doesn't make sense, I'm just surprised that so many are praying for help with it, I guess. I mean, it's not like we have any Cupid-gods running around. [ A pause. ] I think? Cupid's not a god, is he?

[ Shows how much he knows. ]

[chibisu]

Uh...

[Ebisu isn't sure, actually, but he knows who is! Probably. At least, he's pretty sure some of his shinki have been looking into it. Which is Kimi standing next to him, who gets the expectant look. "He's one of Aphrodite's sons," he supplies helpfully.]

[So that answers that, and Chibi nods back over to Yata.]

So it looks like he is! [Tada.] Besides, humans pray about almost everything, don't they? It's why there are such a variety of gods.

[thevanguard]

[ Yata just blinks. ]

Whoa, really? [ What the hell? ] Then shouldn't he be handling his own holiday? I mean, this is supposed to be his, right? At least all the humans always thought so. I guess there is a lot, though...

[ He pauses to squint at the kid again. ] Are you a Valentine's god even?

[chibisu]

Well, there are many gods of romance. [And, you know. Other things. That are tied to romance.] Besides, sometimes people don't always pray strictly to gods of the domain who might be better suited to their prayers.

Sometimes, they pray to gods who they think might favor them, or who they feel more comfortable with. It's why they can seem so strange to some gods... but, that's why we make work connections, so that we can pass prayers along which we might not be suited to!

[And he knows a lot about this because... Smiling, he holds one hand out because the Western style of greetings are so much easier to deal with in the context of the Far Shore.]

I'm not quite a Valentine's god. I'm Ebisu, God of Fortune for commerce and fishing!

[aka the reason he notices huge chocolate sales]

[thevanguard]

[ Yata's eye widen a little at this greeting as he takes in this kid with surprise. he reaches out to take his hand without even thinking about it, too surprised to stop and consider if he should. ]

Whoa! You're a god of Fortune?

[chibisu]

Yes!

[Smiling, he gives a nice firm handshake that one wouldn't really expect from a child.]

I've recently had to reincarnate- [Listen, a couple years is 'recent', right?] -and been busy, so I was unable to properly greet your generation for a while.