voidtreckerexpress | it's halloween, lo-ween, everybody!

Entry tags:

it's halloween, lo-ween, everybody!

Who: Everyone's Invited!
Where: Various decorated carriages!
When: Horseshoe 31.
What: Della is hosting a Halloween party! Come for treats, tricks, and trouble!
Warnings: N/A, will update it needed.

The room is dark…why aren’t the lights on? But as the doors fully open, a voice begins laughing darkly…

… although if you’ve ever heard the voice of Della Duck, you’ll recognize her immediately.

“Boys and girls of every age, wouldn’t you like to see something strange?”

Suddenly there’s a big THUD as someone drops from the ceiling, the lights flash on, and Della herself, dressed as a zombie – ripped apart clothes, fake blood here and there, drawn on scars - wiggles her fingers before laughing joyfully. “Happy Halloween, everybody! Let’s party!”

Tasty Treats

A big buffet table of candy and punch has been laid out! Mini chocolate bars and multi-colored lollipops, gummy worms and candy corn, all sorts of sweet and sour shenanigans, ghost-shaped cookies and mummy-looking muffins! There’s plenty to eat, with absolutely no healthy alternatives.

There are also small wrapped bags of candy with the letters “T.o.T” written on them. If someone tells you, “Trick or Treat!” you have to share your candy! Or keep it to yourself, you monster.

Haunted House

Thanks to Seto Kaiba’s projections, a neighboring carriage has been converted into a Haunted House! While it’s all a trick on the eyes, it gives the illusion that there are several floors of spookiness. Each floor has a different theme –

#1 Serial Seriousness – Every so often, a masked intruder pops out at you, with long claws or chainsaw, ready to give chase! Be careful, or you’ll be the next victim!

#2 Zombie Zaniness – Moans and groans of the undead can’t be unheard. Rotting arms will try to swipe at you through the floorboards!

#3 Ghostly Games – You can see through them, and they can see you too! Each mirror reflects a different dastardly demon!

#4 Deadly Doctors – In this hospital, it’s not the awful health insurance that’ll kill you! Beware the bloody nurses and their extra big needles!\

#5 Fishy Fears - … Wait, what? … Okay, this last floor was clearly designed by Della. It’s like Under the Sea, but with sharks and octopi and kraken - and Della insists this is the worst floor.

Feel free to have your characters braving the house, or trying to scare people within!

Dance Floor

If being haunted isn’t your thing, nothing wrong with getting your groove on! Ask DJ Della what kind of song you’d like to play, and she’s happy to put on the list, from a classic Monster Mash to something more somber and soulful for you slow-dancing-romantic-vampire-types.

Turnip Carving
… Look, they didn’t have pumpkins. Anyway, you’re encouraged to carve scary and silly faces in these veggies! There is a contest, but everyone will be a winner, from “Most Realistic” to “Most Depressing” !

Movie Mania
Kick back and relax – and be horrified – at the otherworldly horror films! Like the horrific monster mime, “That”, the relentless umpire-mask wearing killer, “Monday the 20th”, and the endless array of the undead, “Midmorning Of The Not Wholly Alive”!

Some of you awful people might be thinking of popping up and scaring the theater-goers and this is /winkwinknudgenudge/ totally not approved. /plausible deniability/

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
In one secluded, quiet, and verrry dark carriage, lit only by candles, here you are encouraged to tell the scariest stories you can think of! What eerie legends will you share from your world, or do you dare to make it up as you go along?

Make your own top-level, and happy haunting!

Also, if your character would like to dress up, costumes are available for this night only!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Look at Inigo, throwing down a glove in challenge! And you might be mistaken that right there is the end of Tidus's roleplay, a sound much to unbecoming for a man of high stature, except-

"I can never turn down the whims of His Highness. What you say is my command, remember, Prince Inigo?" And he nudges at Inigo, maybe losing some of the exaggerated accent, but finding it again by the time he shares with Roland:

"As a man of high opinions on everything, including vegetables and art, you will find my craftsmanship with a turnip to be the most exquisite. I hope you aren't shaking in your boots?"

What a high class councilman Roland has found as his opponent. Tidus wouldn't think poorly of him if he just laid down his life right now! Oh, maybe he should tell him to do that.

A competition? Now that's got Roland's attention even more hyperfocused on their little creepy escapade. Not quite a pumpkin showdown, but you bet he's going to do his best on it anyway! The challenge is met, and accepted. With his free arm, he puts his finger under his chin and closes his eyes for but a moment.

Tidus's impression is slowly morphing into something that even Roland knows can't be Kaiba at this point. It was too...posh? Literally, like a butler in those old movies! This was just Tidus playing it to eleven, but Roland appreciates the commitment to the role so he doesn't feel the need to stop the antics. Instead, he'll add on to them in his own little way.

"Not at all, councilman. In fact, I welcome your efforts to try and best me in the act. Brace yourself for an unprecedented defeat, all in the name of Our Highness!" Sorry for the weirdos, whoever-is-manning-the-turnip-carving table right now. This was just how it is!

Does Inigo care much for the whole royalty thing? Of course not. Sometimes he even just forgets he's a prince, since it's been so long. But something about the way both Tidus and Roland are treating him right now, especially with that joking edge to it, actually feels kind of nice. Maybe it's since he's a sucker for positive attention and validation, but Inigo feels like he can get used to this, actually.

So he smiles as he hears the two quip at each other, still with those exaggerated attitudes.

"It sounds like you both have big plans! I can't wait to judge the final results!" Is he raising the stakes? Maybe just a little. If not just to see how competitive the other two can get.

And Inigo will at least do whoever is manning the turnips table a favour and let go of the two others so he can grab the turnips for them. Rather than them having to deal with weirdly-formal-Tidus or way-too-much-into-roleplaying-Roland. He'll even flash said person a smile before turning back to the other two, holding out the vegetables as if they're already prizes.

"Here you go, now you two can get to work. I, in the meantime, will prepare myself to have my mind blown by your artistry."

Oh, does a declaration like that make the engines in Tidus's feet rev! He doesn't go too out of character, but he might be rolling his shoulders, lifting off his heels in preparation to get zooming. Come at him, gramps!!

It means for sure that Tidus is itching to take the vegetable once it's offered, if waiting for Inigo to give his own flair to their act. Shooting Roland a challenging look after, smirk with it.

"Don't go curl up and lick your wounds just yet!"

Get it, wolf guy!! Ahaha! Time to take this turnip and knife and plop himself down with both. Alright, he's got this!! He knows what he's doing!!

...

...

...

okay he's digging the knife in!

Never say Roland ever broke character, Inigo! One day, he will need to put his life on the line and only proper roleplaying will save him from a dastardly end!

For now, this act would go to turnip-carving. A noble goal, nevertheless! Roland joins Tidus in watching Inigo fall into his role too, then throws him an equally impassioned smirk as his hands grasp at the rotund body of his very own Halloween turnip. Look, he might even twirl his knife twice in his dominant hand as a show of force!

"Well now, such arrogance. If you're looking for an easy victory, then you should turn tail now." Get it? Because he has a tail? Anyway. Roland focuses too, getting started on studying his assigned root crop that had long, protruding leaves near to wilting, and a thicker top than when it tapered down to the roots itself.

Should he go for the typical pumpkin face...? But then there wouldn't be any seeds to carve...? Roland frowns, barely touching the skin of the turnip.

Inigo outrights snorts at Tidus's words. It's hilarious, Tidus going from his best uptight rich prick act all the way back down to usual Tidus levels. And not just usual Tidus levels, mind you, oh no. That's dumb competitive Tidus. And when it doesn't involve a competition that Inigo is participating in himself, it's just hilarious to him.

He looks around for a chair, locating a nearby one and dragging it over so he can sit and watch ~~his subjects~~ the other two get started on the carving.

.. or, well, there's not a whole lot of getting started happening. Roland is just looking at that thing, and Tidus looks more like he's trying to stab and murder the vegetable rather than carve it..

So Inigo pauses briefly before piping up with, ".. you two do know what you're doing, right?"

Scoff, "booooooooooo." Because if Roland's the one delivering the puns, then of course they're not good enough. That's the Rules. But, speaking of puns- "You're more bark than bite." More emphasis than the words need. Or is it?

But all the meanwhile, he is getting his stab on! Trying to dig his knife it and start getting it to curve (or, should it be more square-ish?), depending on how the knife wants to cooperate. Hearing Inigo speak challengingly at the both of them.

"'Cause we do! Or I do." Aha! "I don't know about Mister President Catnip over there. But this'll be the best looking vegetable you have ever laid your eyes upon. You'll want me in the royal kitchens everyday, making your meals this inviting!"

drag drag drag.

stab.

"Sire, please. Of course, we two are quite the experts at root crop sculpting." Roland smirks even as he finally moves his own knife into the thick skin of the turnip. An image appears in his head, and he'll chase it with the hopes he's got enough skill to push through. For now though, he discovers the skin to be a hindrance to the artform, so Roland starts peeling it carefully. Making sure it doesn't break apart, the swirl of tough exterior forming like a vegetable skin staircase.

"And as for my vegetable, it will look so exquisite that you would be heartbroken to eat it for supper." Yes, it deserved only the glass showroom and nowhere else!

Caaaaaarve. Don't break it, keep the peel going...

"I think you're starting to mix up your puns," Inigo says as he looks at Tidus. Sure, it's not like Inigo knows what Roland is supposed to be either - those animal ears are pretty vague, okay, it could be any animal with even vaguely pointy ears! - but they can't just switch what animal he is depending on the joke!! There has to be some consistency!

He won't protest the booing though, because.. well, this is a competition, right? Everything's fair in love and competitions. Or something like that.

Not to mention he can't help but glance over at Roland and wonder why the older guy is starting to peel it. Is it an old people thing? A Roland kind of thing? Inigo was thinking that if he'd have to participate in this, he would very much just have shoved the knife straight into the turnip, very much like Tidus is doing. Isn't that what carving is all about? ~~Also, he's not even using a royal sword to peel that vegetable, wow.~~

".. and Roland, are you entirely sure you aren't just preparing yours for soup?" Why else would you peel it!!

"He's a dog," is Tidus's confused but certain reply. How is he confused?? Isn't he a dog? Eyes darting onto Roland and squinting on him, since- look! He has ears! And a tail! But it's a momentary distraction before he gets back to his vegetable.

(Why does it have to be this fussy to art up a turnip? ugh)

This is a harder job than it looks, which ... it's a vegetable, it's stabbing into one, why does it have to be this fussy? But Tidus commits, finally cutting in the outline he wanted to make, and now scooping out inside -- a job that would be easier with a spoon. Getting at least one cheek (???) done with when he hears Inigo again, and--

"Aren't you supposed to judge once we're done?"

Roland may be his competition, but come on, stop nitpicking over there!!

"Grimalkin. Dog ears are floppy." A beat. "Err, councilman." Can't break character, just like he can't break his concentration even as the two exchange some mild pleasantries about his turnip peeling. What he won't say is that peeling the skin would help him carve into the meat a bit better, since the knives aren't that sharp to begin with. ~~Inigo might have the right idea using a sword instead...~~

"Oh ye of little faith, your Highness. Let me finish this masterpiece. It shall speak for itself!"

The skin of the turnip, beautifully spiraled out without breaking as he intended, is placed gently on the nearest clean surface before be cuts off the top with protruding leaves. He doesn't discard it either, placing it on the table. Then, the roots are cut, leaving a stable base. Now he can work on the face, which he starts by carving into the place where the eyes seemed most appropriate.

"...though turnip soup wouldn't be such a bad idea after all this, huh?" Not exactly Halloween fare, but it would do during fall, had they been in another world, another planet with this actual holiday in mind.

"I'm trying to keep things interesting!" He protests. What, do you just expect him to sit here and stay quiet while watching them not get anywhere too soon? And that's coming from the guy who's delivering constant peanut gallery commentary all the time!

But fine, fine, Inigo will lay off on the criticism. It's not like he'd want either of them to actually feel bad over what's just a dumb mini-competition, even though he knows Tidus and Roland's feelings don't bruise as easily as Inigo's own. But still, some caution can't hurt.

Especially since he's totally distracted by what Roland says anyway. No, not the part about the soup, it's just--

"What's a grimalkin?" He's mostly asking Roland, obviously, though he does glance at Tidus for a moment - wondering if those things exist in Tidus's world too, and Inigo's own is just the odd one out here.

What a lucky coincidence that Inigo looks at him like that, since Tidus actually knows!

"That's what Roland's king and world people are." Pause. He looks over to Roland now, completely forgetting here to get back onto his accent or character or whatever he's meant to be. "Or some of them? I know his king is. King Evan."

...but that's as far as his knowledge goes for there, so he'll allow Roland to actually answer properly instead of butting in. He's got a very special face to saw into this turnip!! ... ... ...

... wait, maybe it wasn't a great idea he gutted out the entire face space? ummm, time to turn over and re-do!

"There's more where this came from, y'know. You could carve with us. You won't be part of the competition, of course. We have to earn your praise, sire. Heh." Roland offers to Inigo quickly, a nudge of his head to one side as a pile of turnips sit untouched by anyone else for now. Knives stacked safely, and a bucket under the table for peels and things. Not that Roland needs that for now, a plan already in motion.

He carves out more of the face - the mouth? Was this upside-down? - while he resumes conversation easily.

"That's right. They're like...cats, but with humanoid features. Or, humans with cat-like features?" Semantics. Plus how many times is he going to fall into the pit of trying to figure out how grimalkin genetics worked? Evan had a half-human mother, after all. And speaking of, "So King Evan is like this-" Roland pauses, gestures one tainted radish-juice stained finger to his ears. "-with cat ears and a tail. Except they're not called cats there, they're the grimalkin race. There are others, too."

He lists them off, a natural story spilling from his lips, with more of the turnip carved out. Slow progress, but it's working. "There's the mousekind, the dogfolk, the merfolk, and the humanfolk." Roland raises the turnip to eye level. Wow, that's an ugly turnip. Perfect.

"Did your kingdom have different races too, Inigo?" Roland knows Tidus's world - Spira at least - was made up of a diverse group, somehow. If not diverse through split of belief, but he mentioned the Ronso, closely resembling cat-people too.

Huh.

Interesting.

Not enough for Inigo to get shocked over, considering what he's seen both back home and on this train, but he didn't quite imagine that the world Roland visited before ending up on the train was filled with so many animal-like people..

"The grimalkin race," he repeats once more, as if trying to get it right.

And in the meantime he's going to grab one of the turnips too at Roland's suggestion, along with one of the knives. Though Inigo seems to have a surprisingly easier time as he starts carving. It must be his creative nature. ~~Or all that practice peeling apples with the royal sword.~~

In fact, by the time he speaks up again, he's just casually looking over at Tidus and Roland even as he's carving. (It's not him flexing on purpose, okay.) "A few, though there's mostly just humans. Aside from us there's the taguel, they're half-human, half-rabbit, but they can go full on rabbit too. But my friend, Yarne, is the last of his kind."

Extinction is a very real thing during the zombie apocalypse, after all.

"And then there's manaketes, but they're just dragons in human form."

HOW DO YOU PEEL APPLES WITH A SWORD.

Tidus is letting the two of them speak, Roland explaining the grimalkin, Tidus taking that opportunity to focus more on his artistry. It is looking like.........a turnip. But maybe these things weren't really supposed to look that different? Were they supposed to paint them in later?

Regardless, he is listening. Piqued by a mention of one of the species, but also by a memory-

"Oh, Inigo, you ever meet the woman with fluffy ears and a tail before?" And he thinks, Zidane had a tail, but that's neither relevant, nor a name he wants to bring up lightly. Or just...not right now. "They sound like that, now that I think about it. But there were merfolk on one of the missions. Remember, Inigo? The first mission we went on together. They had long tails instead of legs or anything, lived underwater near the island we were guarding."

Tidus looks Roland's way. "They sound the same?"

~~THE PEOPLE DEMAND A DEMONSTRATION, YOUR HIGHNESS!!!~~

Hearing the existence of different races piques Roland's natural interest, and maybe a part of him also begins to wonder how they would look like in real life. Once again, he is reminded of how much his experiences have thrust him into the thick of a land of fantasy; meeting a diverse range of characters that by all accounts, have only existed in storybooks and movies.

It's enough of a brief distraction to halt his hands from carving the turnip, pondering openly as his mind imagines it. Taguels and manaketes...Roland tilts his head up. "Do they both transform? How do you go full rabbit?" And apparently, there was a woman just like that on the train? Ah, he will never get used to the diversity of universes, and he doesn't really want to either. All part of the unification package, and he's signed up to that a long time ago.

He shakes his head and returns to the carving process. He happens upon Inigo's own handiwork and will quietly admit he caught up a lot faster than Roland thought he would, and Tidus even had a headstart on Roland himself! Speaking of the guy, he meets that gaze after, Roland's knife cutting out a mouth against the bruising turnip flesh.

"Hm. Not quite. Merfolk are bipedal, and they lived above water. They've got blue skin with underwater features depending on who you talk to. Gills, fins on their arms...Now that I think about it, they're a very good-looking race. What's the word for it? Ethereal?" Which is perhaps, by design.

"I wonder what next race of folk we'll meet next, on our missions..."

Edited 2020-11-15 08:31 (UTC)

Inigo is actually pretty getting into this whole carving thing now. It's fun! So much so that even though he's also trying to pay attention to the conversation, his answers get a bit less elaborate as the other two talk, because he's mostly just focusing on making a nice face here on this turnip.

So there's - in order - a slightly confused sound at Tidus's mention of a woman with fluffy ears, then a nod as Tidus starts about the merpeople, then Inigo's thoughts drifting off about these merpeople. Especially the ones Roland describes. Good-looking, huh? Inigo may be imagining one of those mermen now, shirtless with beautiful blue muscled skin, beautiful face and hair and--

In all his ~~thirst~~ thoughts, Inigo accidentally cuts off a wrong piece on his turnip, leaving it just as noseless as Voldemort.

He stares down at it in horror, quickly grabbing the piece of turnip off the floor and trying to fruitlessly reattach it.

"Y-You transform using a beaststone, of course!" Of course. "But it doesn't work on humans! Believe me, Owain and I tried--"

ARGH, STUPID PIECE OF TURNIP, just reattach already! Come on!

Tidus is a mixed bag in his attention. Listening to the both of them between knifing at his turnip, and then blanking out as he attempts to concentrate more on the vegetable than the other pair. There's something of a frown starting to worm itself on his face. No matter what he does...

.....it continues to look like a stupid turnip!!

pahhhh. He'll glance at Roland, but otherwise be too distracted to catch the horror Inigo is experiencing.

"You got the hots for merpeople there, Rol?"

Wrong guy, Tidus.

'...Is there time to cook the turnip so it gets softer?' He definitely got a bad turnip. This was going to take forever, and might hurt all three of them with how they were struggling to carve into it with knives that were not equipped for the task.

It seems that even Roland then, isn't immune to the distraction that washes over them, from Inigo's broken turnip part to Tidus's turnip struggle to transform it into something else. Suddenly, the roleplay is forgotten and the ears on his head become a distant memory...He just squints and analyzes his own root crop, and what he's envisioned for it, trying to fast-track the process for a clean win. When he answers, he's also very obviously unfocused.

"Huh? Oh. Maybe. I'll go on a blind date and let you know with a full report." But eureka, he's got it. It is the greatest of ideas. But should he...? Turn the turnip over and...? Just do it, he says to himself! Roland begins to glow, a familiar warm light emerging from his chest. Bambosh comes out of him then, quietly for once. Yeah, he's doing this.

The fire higgledy calmly waddles over to Roland. He crouches and begins to...cook his turnip. Turning it carefully, gently. A softer exterior might make for a better carve!

HAHA, HOTS FOR MERPEOPLE. Very funny, Tidus. As if there's anyone here who's got the hots for merpeople, what a great joke. So funny. No one here is thinking about that.

Of course that, coupled with the still broken nose of his turnip face, Inigo is only decending further and further into ~~gay~~ panic. So much so that he doesn't even reply to anything the other two are saying at first, trying his best to salvage his face while keeping the thought of hot merpeople out of his mind.

.. until something starts feeling hot. Inigo glances up from his turnip, confused, and that's when he spots Bambosh.

His jaw drops.

"Roland, why do you always use your higgledy to cheat?!"

Haven't you learned from the hot springs experience what happens when you start using Bambosh's power around these teens?

If it wasn't for Inigo's crystal clear voice, Tidus wouldn't have noticed immediately what was going on. Searching around if anyone else is using paints, but when he hears those magical words - 'Roland, why do you always use your higgledy to cheat?!' - his head swivels to attention to the scene. Tidus's mouth is agape.

The cheek!

"Dude, are you gonna eat it?!"

Actually what is Roland trying to do? Eat the evidence? Whatever the case, Tidus is definitely calling this a cheat move too. CHEAT, CHEAT. ROLAND IS CHEATING.

"This isn't cheating if there were no rules to begin with." He says calmly, rotating the turnip one more time, this time counterclockwise. But Bambosh, clearly with a mind of his own, mischievous as he is kind, hears the two teenagers in their complaint and decides to do the last thing Roland wanted him to -

- rebel. With a decisive HIIIIGLE! as loud as he can muster, Bambosh disappears in a flash of light and teleports himself somewhere by the table of uncooked turnips. The tiny one shakes his head at Roland and makes jumpy motions on both legs before going off and...walking around the place like he owns it. Might even decide to trick or treat himself, if any pure-hearted ones come along to see him.

Which leaves Roland dumbfounded and only slightly frustrated, though it shows by just a smidge of his brow dipped in shock, and a sigh through a closed mouth. "Thanks for the help..." He mutters, before he faces the inevitable embarrassment between Tidus and Inigo. Witnesses to the crime.

"All right. Do your worst. I'm going to go back to carving." Which he does, in his defense, now with zero tricks up his sleeve and the turnip barely cooked through the layers such that putting it through fire did nothing for its hardness. Snip, snip, snip!

"You can't just ignore it since the evidence of your crime wandered off!"

(Thanks though, Bambosh, you're a real pal for evening out the odds again here.)

Granted, it's not like Inigo had even the slightest idea of what Roland was trying to do. Make the turnip.. warm..? Why, so he can use it as his hug buddy or something? But it really doesn't matter what he was doing, because Inigo knows what happens when Roland brings out Bambosh. It means he's trying to cheat. Somehow. And even if Inigo isn't an active participant here, he still won't have it!

And so for once, Tidus may find Inigo miraculously on his side for once in an argument between the three of them. He even says the blessed words: "You should apologize to Tidus!"

Did Inigo just say Roland should apologise to him?

Tidus doesn't actually know why Roland should apologise to him - he might if he thought about it, but who needs to do that? Not with what Inigo is suggesting already, and so with no more than a paused second as the words register-

"Yeah! You should apologise to me! And Bambosh! For sucking at cheating!"

Because Tidus is aware of Bambosh's nature to know the little guy would care less for the 'cheating' aspect as maybe just liking whatever chaos Tidus can bring him into. Does it look like Bambosh cares? No. Does Tidus just like the idea of Roland having to apologise to half of the people in this thread? ABSOLUTELY.

He plops the turnip onto his lap, folding his arms.

"What have you got to say for yourself, huh? There's 'no rules'? So what would you say if I got someone to magic me a carved turnip? You wouldn't have a problem with it?"

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