Who: Princesses & Cowherds & Imps
Where: Various parts of the city
When: Day 261 (forward dated slightly)
[ 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.No—depending on how early in the morning it is, you might have been able to see how brilliantly the Milky Way system glistened and shined, but now the sky is covered with roiling dark clouds once more, threatening rain.
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 recreate the sky to make a river of stars that run down to the park and to the rest of the city, as though to make up for the dark skies above. At the park, 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. It looks like they were full of food once, but alas—imps have ravaged it, throwing food all around and lacing it with potions and glitter, and generally making a mess of things.
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 that used to be neatly placed in front of the bamboo have been torn up, scattered all around. There are several inkwells on the ground—that is, the cement seems to be dug into in order to fill with ink—but the ink seems to also have spilled everywhere as well, glittery messes all around. There are bamboo stalks to use as disposable brushes, mmmmaybe? Maybe not? You might have to hit up a Taisho, actually.
The first tag is already on the bamboo, but it's ripped to pieces. Only one word is readable, still hanging from the bamboo:
HELP . . .
. . . Well, that's ominous.
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. For today only, the outer walls have fencing as decoration too, as if the café is a cowpen. The shopping mall and OIOI have decorative star merchandise, and today if you purchase any clothes from the department store, they'll be covered in galaxy stars that stay animated even after midnight's passed. But if you want to get anything, you'll have to brave the imps taking refuge . . .
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. Also, there might be an imp hiding behind the vending machine, just waiting for you to be distracted so it can throw a glitter bomb at you.
Nothing to be heard from the Producers today, it seems. Ordinarily, the quiet would be nice, but—with the imps making a mess everywhere . . .
It's a little disturbing, isn't it. . . ? ]
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CATCHING IMPS ROLL TABLE |
CATCHING IMPS TURN-IN