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

Ayakashi Menace or two shinki against ayakashi equals...

[replicatedform]

[Yamanbagiri tends to avoid the shinki. Even with his god, his vessel form can't attack. So the most he can do is provide distractions until he get away, or a god arrive.

So when he see someone running, regardless that he can't deal significant damage, he immediately runs forward and quickly draw a borderline.

The ayakashi that's currently chasing D2 slams into the borderline with a screech. He quickly calls out to D2.]

Are you alright?!

[smilingbullet]

[ Even if Yamanbagiri can't kill the ayakashi either, it's still a relief to be around someone who can use lines.

It's better to not stop running since they can't take out te ayakashi on their own. Put some distance between them and hope that the ayakashi lose track of them. ]

More or less- thanks. Sensei, do you have any backup closeby?

[replicatedform]

[He shakes his head.]

Not at the moment. I was mostly helping out with prayers today.

[The obvious non-combatant prayers, of course. Looking back at the ayakashi, he brings up another line. Just in case.]

Hopefully, a god will show up and take care of this. [Until then, they gotta survive this. The sound of ayakashi slamming into his lines is unsettling.]

[smilingbullet]

Ah, thank you for your hard work?

[ D2, this is not the time. ]

Yeah that would be really good. Let's put some more distance. It's possible to incapacitate them a bit if you hit them with enough lines but it's not really an ideal situation for that. Could slow 'em down a bit though.

[ But he can't exactly help with that.. ]

How long can you keep them up?

[replicatedform]

[While it's nice to hear that, now's not the time.]

I can keep up the lines for a while, before I need a break.

[To catch his breath, to reassess the situation and all.]

So we should put some distance between them and us now.

[smilingbullet]

Yessir. Let me know when you need to stop.

[ He has a few bullets to use so if it becomes absolutely necessary.. It's not just him right now, after all.

Blending into a crowd..could be an option. It's not ideal either, it'll cause risk to the mortals, but at the same time it might put the ayakashi off their scent, and there is a chance of gods or some god/shinki pair of being in the area, if they're lucky. Straying toward the blind date areas could be an option for that, since some might linger still. The aquarium or the amusement park, then, was probably for the best to aim for. Or a temple. ]