tanabata

[idolpro]

Who: Princesses & Cowherds
Where: Various parts of the city
When: Day 137, morning

[ Good morning, idols! It's. . . it's morning, right?

Even though your clocks are correct and it is the AM, the sun isn't out in the sky yet. More than that, the stars are shining ever so brilliantly today - you can see the entire Milky Way system here, in fact so clearly that it feels like you could reach out and touch them.

It might be a familiar sight to some of you idols, though there's no message that accompanies your phone.

Step through any given doorway outside of the dorms - the elevators for example, or the lobby doors - and you might find your clothes mildly transformed: the style and colors are still the same, but white constellations and stars glitter the fabrics, twinkling like the night sky. (If you're wearing white, the stars have a black outline, still twinkling against your clothes.)

This will likely persist throughout the day, although depending on the doorways you go through the constellations may change. (When the clock strikes midnight, the constellations will no longer move or twinkle, though it's player choice if they want to keep the clothes transformed to have unmoving stars.)



Outside, you'll find a lit-up pathway to Shinjuku Gyoen from . . . anywhere you are, honestly; the pavement seems to reflect the sky above to make a river of stars that run down to the park. There, you'll find a wooden platform lined with white cloth just outside the park, as well as a few fold-up chairs and cloth-lined group tables - you know, the long ones. There's nothing on them, though. The place looks primed for a potluck, but only if you're the ones bringing the food!

Lining this side's edge of the park are tall stalks of bamboo, with a wooden plaque hanging from one of the stalks. It has this written on it:

Long, long ago, the Sky King's daughter began to weave him a beautiful cloth. He loved it so much that the Weaving Princess would work diligently every day in order to please him - but her weaving left her in solitude, alone and loveless. Seeing this, the Sky King arranged for her to marry the celestial Cowherd. The Weaving Princess and the Cowherd fell in love, happily spending their days together ☆

However, in their love was tragedy. The two were so enamored with one another that they forgot their duties - the Cowherd his heavenly cows, and the Princess her weave. Displeased by this, the Sky King separated the two across the heavenly river - but at the behest of his daughter, he promised that the two could meet each other once every year should she finish her work.

And so, we celebrate Tanabata, for the two's reunion. When we celebrate the day when the two lovers can meet once more, we also ask to be granted a single wish! Write your wish on a paper tag and tie it to the bamboo tree; it very well may be granted to you.

The paper tags are neatly placed in front of the bamboo, several inkwells in the ground - that is, the cement seems to be dug into in order to fill with ink - and some bamboo stalks lend to disposable one-time use brushes that start to dissolve once it's written a tag, although if you want like, you know, nicer writing implements to write with or more space on the paper you can always hit up a Taisho.

The first tag is already on the bamboo: STOP BREAKING MY CITY . . . One year later . . . things haven't changed.



At the café, the decorations inside have been replaced with Tanabata-themed items: bamboo stalks, star wallpaper and flooring, and black-and-white spotting on the seats and tables like they're for cows. The door is fixed, so that's nice - for today only, the outer walls have fencing as decoration too, as if the café is a cowpen.



The station has been cleaned up, with constellation paths going to each train. The missing train has returned, and upon searching, you won't be able to find it at the bottom of the bay, so . . . there's that! There's also a building somewhere that had a hole in it . . . but the hole is gone . . .



There are various vending machines to be found today only, both in the arcades and just around: 50 points for a broach or lapel or hairpin themed Tanabata, taking form of one thing or another: a little cow face, a constellation, weaving instruments, kimono, or other things. You know, just stay in theme. There's no option to select anything, just a little scanner where you can beep your phone and you'll get something random out of it. In other words, it's a gacha.



Nothing to be heard from the Producers today, it seems. It's quiet. It's nice, isn't it? ]

Comments

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[B's right. He does have sparklers.

And one is being shoved in King's face right now]

[puzzlekeeper]

[ He jumps a little in surprise, but reaches out to take it on reflex. ]

Oh... it does make sparkles.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

One of the few things in the world that's aptly named.

Straightforward. If a little boring.

[He pulls another stick from the pack -- apparently it comes with quite a few -- and snaps his glove hand over the end to light that one, too]

[puzzlekeeper]

[ He watches the sparkler spring to life with an almost child-like curiosity, but then a gear turns in his head -

And then his eyes immediately re-focus onto that gloved hand. ]



—Oh! You finished it!

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Of course. I'm nothing if efficient.

[puzzlekeeper]

[ Motioning for Intensity to present that hand to him ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[He holds it out to King, palm up.

Only when he's this close is it obvious that the whole arm is metal from the thin strip of visible wrist]

[puzzlekeeper]

[ ...

He places the sparkler between his teeth (this is safe probably) so that both hands are free, grabbing hold of the metal hand, gently. Like he wants to get used to the feel of it. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[That, sir, is not safe. Not safe at all.

But Intensity is too distracted by King's fascination with his hand to protest much. While obviously metal, it's surprisingly not cold even in the "night" air. In fact, maybe it would be a touch too warm if one were to linger there too long]

Does it meet your quality inspection, Your Excellency?

[puzzlekeeper]

[ Removing one hand to pull the sparkler out of his mouth. ]

I think I'll need more information to decide that.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

I can provide a demonstration if you are that curious.

[puzzlekeeper]

I am, in fact.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Then you might want to put on your armor.

[puzzlekeeper]

[ ....... ]

Why? Planning to laser me?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Nothing so boring or predictable.

But also I'm only going to ask you nicely once.

[puzzlekeeper]

[ He rolls his eyes a little, but as requested, dons the golden armor - for the first time since the battle royale, in fact. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Suddenly the Tanabata stars are no longer the brightest thing around.

But - whatever.

Bracing his metal arm in front of him, Intensity attempts to pin King in all his armored glory up against the nearest tree]

[puzzlekeeper]

[ Oh.

Well, he wasn't expecting that, and he doesn't have a metal arm, even if he's now much (much) heavier than usual.

So that's probably fairly easy to do. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[There is the flicker of something in his eyes as he pins King down. Concern about that expression on his face? Paranoia that King went down so easy so there's a trap card lying in wait? Who's to say really.

But the pressure lets up just slightly as Intensity dig his heels carefully into the dirt]

See if you can free yourself, Your Excellency.

[puzzlekeeper]

[ It's been a long week! Be kind!

But since Intensity asked so nicely: he presses all of his strength against that arm, like he's testing its power before deciding how to proceed. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[This is being kind!

At first, it looks like King will be successful in pushing Intensity back - but then silver blue lines of technomagic streak underneath the cloth and across the metal (Overload - of course) and he gets no farther than pushing Intensity back a few inches.

The arm creaks and heats and sparks under the pressure though.]

[puzzlekeeper]

[ King watches all of this carefully - curious - before suddenly wrenching one arm around to slamming it full-force into Intensity's, right at the bend of the elbow, trying to see how easy it is to unlock it. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[There is an obvious and loud crunching sound as the joint begins to crack under the weight and force of the armor.

And Intensity can't Repair it and keep up Overload, so he has to ditch the latter, staggering back one, then two steps.

Only to reach out and brace his gloved hand palm out right against King's chest.
It does not nearly have the weight behind it of his previous hold]

Conductible or not?

[puzzlekeeper]

[ His eyes widen at the crunching sound, and he's tempted to pull back (that's Intensity's arm) until he reconsiders at the last moment.

Intensity would just get pissy if he did.

Instead he wraps both hands around that metal wrist where it's pressed close to his chest. ]

What?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[There are no nerves facsimiles in his elbow. King can CRONCH it all he wants. Like the Terminator movies, it is already repairing itself under the cloth]

I said does your armor---

[And he drums his fingers across King's chestplate, each touch sending just a tiny spark across the surface. Nothing that would actually hurt. Just make the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end if the current carried]

Conduct electricity.