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

[justfuckingtryit]

[His outfit's covered in stars, and he might be looking for Intensity, specifically, because he makes his way over as soon as he spots him.]

Hi.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Holds out a sparkler to him as well.

What? Did he want one, too?]

[justfuckingtryit]

...thanks, I'm good.

Can I talk to you for a minute, though?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Of course.

[Extinguishes it with his gloved hand]

Somewhere public or private?

[justfuckingtryit]

[Considers the gathered crowd for half a second.]

Private.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Gestures for him to follow. Towards the hotel it looks like]

Then step into my office.

[justfuckingtryit]

[Falls in after him, quirking an eyebrow.]

Do you really have an office?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Close enough.

[And leading him to the FiN dorm. First time?]

[justfuckingtryit]

[First time. It's probably obvious in his expression, though his poker face is pretty good.]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Then after Thorn has been be-dazzled by the cube-acious main room, Intensity will lead him to his office.

Or lab. Which looks like a bad 90s sci-fi music. Almost most of the table is covered in various tools and body parts. Seems like business has been booming in the limb and eye business because of the last game.

He shoves the floating chair over to Thorn]

Have a seat.

[justfuckingtryit]

[Surreptitiously presses down on it to see if it will actually take weight before he goes ahead and takes a seat.]

It looks like you've been busy, so I won't take much of your time.

After that game with the monster transformations, you said that you owed me a favor, if I ever needed something built. Does that still stand?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[There's a raised eyebrow at that]

It does.

I'm not one to go back on my word.

[justfuckingtryit]

Can you do it discreetly?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Depends on what you want built. And what you mean by discreet.

I don't advertise what I build for who - if that's your concern. Though if you ask for something like a mega-laser, it's obviously going to have Future is Now written all over it.

[justfuckingtryit]

I'm looking for a device that will negate all unit powers for a short distance.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[. . .]

You mean something like that neutral area in the Battle Royale.

[justfuckingtryit]

Something like that. But either portable, or installed directly in our dorm and able to be turned off and on.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

...

I don't think I can make something like that. Not without access to tech from the producers to see how they did it.

But---

Do you need the people to be conscious? Is that a requirement?

[justfuckingtryit]

[Thinks about how he wants to answer that for a beat. Then, measured:]

You have an alternative in mind?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Bad End has it's own power set, right? And you want this to be for either Bad End's dorm or on the go.

So what if we devised something that would knock everyone else out but the people on your unit?

I'm not sure what that would look like yet. But it's more feasible than turning off people's abilities.

[justfuckingtryit]

I don't think that would work.

[A beat.]

I'm not looking to shut down the powers of people present in the dorm, exactly.

I want more of a... shield, I guess you could say. Against manipulative powers that could potentially be used at range.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Can you narrow it down to which abilities you're worried about?

[Though he thinks he already knows the answer to this question]

[justfuckingtryit]

That dream bullshit Baritones can pull.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

...

You want to be able to manage dreamless sleep.

[justfuckingtryit]

That would do it too, yes.