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

Closed and open prompts!

[mylanceisbiggerthanyours]

A - Aquarium date - Closed to Chinatsu:


[Unlike Nephenee's first date, where she'd not known of the person she was meeting up with, she'd heard of Chinatsu. If memory served, she'd run the Laser Tag not too long ago? She'd need to thank her for that...

The Sentinel's dressed a bit more casually now: a warm sweater and a skirt feels more appropriate for the setting, and she isn't exactly trying to impress her 'date', since she isn't into girls...but it felt wrong to not at least look nice.

It's not hard to spot the one known as Athena, as she's near the entrance, green eyes sparkling as she's become a bit distracted by some rather pretty sea critters in a nearby display.]

Whoa...these are real pretty...

B - Aquarium - Open!:


[After her date, Neph's got a lot of time on her hands, and it's easy to find spot her flitting around the displays, or in the food court. If you're nearby when she's at a exhibit, she turns to you, smiling brightly.]

I-is this what the critters under the sea are all like? They're so different from ones in streams an' lakes!

C - Ayakashi - All Open!:

I - False Doves, False Thoughts:



[Nephenee's been around animals her whole life, and birds like doves are no exception. She's always thought they're beautiful, but..something seems off about these. She can't quite put her finger on it...

And the thoughts that come to her aren't much different from her own. So even as she feeds them, she starts feeling even more self-conscious than usual. And the thoughts keep getting worse...

Why am Ah showin' my face? No one wants to see that...
N-no...showing...no one wants to hear that lowborn accent...
No one wants to follow a goddess like me...not even my Shinki...they just disappear...
They just think Ah'm some dumb hick...
...

And it doesn't take long for those thoughts to anchor in hard, hard enough that when someone finds her, she's crouched down under a tree, hiding and tugging down her hat as much as she can, shaking.

Nephenee has plenty of willpower, but she doesn't have self-awareness and good self-esteem, and that makes this particularly hard hitting.]

II - Lions, Tigers, & No, just Teddy Bear ayakashi!:


[Being a simple country girl who grew up with little, but had learned to be saisifed as long as she could keep her family fed, Nephenee's wary when she hears of the outbursts of greed from some people she didn't mean to eavesdrop on. She's seen greed, of course, but..this feels different.

And after her falling prey to the stupid dove ayakashi, she's incredibly vigilant about finding out if something's going on here as well. She's not taking chances, and she's in her full armor now.

When she asks another resident of the Far Shore the following question, her voice is lacking her normal stutter. She's in her battle-readiness, and she wants to find out what this is.]

Hey, ya heard anythin' bout these bouts of greediness croppin' up? Ah'm concerned there's some more ayakashi causin' trouble.

[redmare]

Chinatsu may not know the person, but there was someone in the crowd she recognized. Mostly in passing, but she's seen the woman around in the heavens at least a few times.

"Excuse me, miss?" She holds up her card. "You wouldn't happen to have one of these, would you?"

Chinatsu has her hair in loose twin braids down he shouldersr , sporting a more casual look with jeans, a sweater, boots, and a knitted hat atop her head.

C-I

[replicatedform]

[Yamanbagiri's in-between prayers right now. A short break, if you well, before he can go and see what he can help out with. So while he's walking with a snack—a box of chocolate pocky—he happens to see someone crouching under a tree. And seems to be tugging down her hat down?

Such a familiar looking gesture makes him pause and feel... empathetic? Without thinking, he walks over towards her. Once he's in front of her, he crouches down.]

What's wrong?

[mylanceisbiggerthanyours]

[Being stuck in her thoughts for awhile, the Sentinel didn't hear him approach, so when he spoke...there's a jump as she hears his voice, and even as she scrambles back a bit, there's already a vine coming out of her bag, ready to grab whatever the perceived threat was.

Then she sees it's Yaman, and her eyes, bright green against reddened sclera, soften as she sees it's just him. The vine slowly snakes back into her satchel, and she settles back down to just about hugging her knees.]

H-hi, Sir Yaman...

[She's trying very hard to soften her accent, but it's still obviously 'country'.]

N-nothin'...

[She doesn't want to make others worry...but she's not good at lying. Meanwhile, she's back to tugging down her hat.]

[replicatedform]

Are you sure?

[He doesn't seem convinced, so he asks his next question.]

Can I sit with you?

[You know, for company. Whatever's bothering her, how she's trying to hide herself is tugging at his heart. It makes him think that having company might help, even a little.]

c-1 false doves

[shalamayne]

[ Varian had been wandering around, keeping a wary eye on the festivities as much as he felt the need to. It all goes above his head really, the idea of a holiday devoted to romance and such baffling to the large human. It seemed contrary — a hypocrisy — and it's only with the usual unimpressed look on his face that he's wandering around. Who needs a holiday to celebrate someone else? Do that stuff every day.

It doesn't take him long to spot Neph under a tree looking out of sorts. Varian doesn't even think twice as he walks on over, shooing the doves away automatically out of habit more than anything as he crouches down to almost eye level.]

What's eating you?