it's halloween, lo-ween, everybody!

[sos_pilot]

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!

Comments

[radishlobbyist]

[ Wen Qing's eyes flicker to the gentle grip on her arm but only for a moment before she turns her gaze forward again, not wishing for Alice to end up feeling flustered by taking the comfort she clearly needs. The way in which she takes and accepts comfort is different from Wen Ning, who is happy to be fussed and doted on. Alice, for whom it has been far too long since she had a protective older sister to do so, wouldn't know how to accept it.

So she walks to get them out of here, trusting Alice who has attached herself to her to keep step with her. ]

I don't know either. Someone who told me because spooky things are fun as long as they are only pretend... [ She mulls on that for a moment. ] I guess it's funny to the ones for whom doctors aren't a scary thing in real life.

[irrationally]

[ She lets out a slight sound, almost close to a huff. Right. The ones for whom doctors aren't a scary thing in real life. Talk about the lucky ones. They must never have been the inside of an asylum, or they wouldn't be making so light of it, Alice can't help but think. (Then again, hasn't she already found long ago that a general lack of empathy is a very common trait among people?)

Thankfully she does have someone by her side who does possess it - because Alice isn't too sure if her own feet would have been capable of leading her away from here at the sight of all this. But with Wen Qing gently moving along, it's easy to just let herself be dragged along, let her feet move without thinking. ]

Some people spend their entire lives in fear. [ Not necessarily her, since there are plenty of things others would find frightening that Alice has stood up to without hesitation. But she knows. She knows the circumstances of many unfortunate people back home.

The circumstances of many unfortunate people back in Wen Qing's world too, she thinks, from what she's heard from the other. ]

Yet others are privileged enough to decide when they want to be scared. And for fun.

[radishlobbyist]

They think so. And I can only wish they wouldn't. At least it's not malicious, they just haven't ever known this fear.

[ Oh, she can understand that it must be upsetting for Alice, far more so than it is for her. She may not know too many details of what has happened to Alice or what the doctors in her world do to people but she has seen the fear and distrust it has resulted in. That is all she needs to know. ]

Come, let's see about getting out of this haunted house. [ She picks up her pace a little, eager now herself to be out of here, out of the stuffiness and spooky darkness. It's really not funny at all. Not after what she saw in Qishan; the people twisted into monsters by experiments, the torturers in the Fire Palace. ]

[irrationally]

[ Alice is eager to let herself be tugged along. She lets her feet move as fast as they're capable of going right now, not wanting to stare at this for a moment longer either.

She only stops walking and starts speaking by the time they're out of the haunted house, standing near the exit. Alice's face looks even a tad paler than it usually does, but she's trying to breathe more calmly now. ]

.. forgive me. It can't have been pleasant for you in there either.

[ Considering Wen Qing is a doctor. She probably couldn't appreciate her job being depicted in such a way. But it was a little hard for Alice to consider it much a moment ago, too stuck in memories of the past. It's only now they slowly eb away that she can see this much. ]

[radishlobbyist]

That doesn't matter. [ The dismissal may be curt, though not for lack of appreciation for the thought, just because it hardly matters in comparison to the discomfort Alice must have felt.

Still, Wen Qing feels a little bit bad for her curtness once the words are voiced, so she gives her another gentle little nudge and a smile that is far softer and more concerned than her dismissal. ]

Let's get you something to drink and we will sit down where it's quiet.

[irrationally]

I don't think there's going to be much quiet around here..

[ Not with the party going on. But rather than sounding actively bothered by it - not in an upset way, at least - Alice sounds more like she's just exasperated. She already doesn't like parties, let alone having to deal with a major part of her trauma in the middle of it.

At least she has Wen Qing with her right now, so she's trying to tell herself that it could be worse as she lets herself be lead along. ]

I thought I'd at least find some peace and quiet in there. [ Yes, in the haunted house. Because scares are so much more peaceful than people partying.

But then again, it seems like she made a miscalculation as to what exactly she'd find in there, huh. ]

[radishlobbyist]

[ Hmm, yeah, that does sound like a miscalculation but... ] You couldn't know what to expect in there. It looks harmless enough from the outside.

[ And she knows how fearless Alice is about most things, Wen Qing would say she is more fearless than she herself is. But they all have their specific weaknesses. ]

You couldn't possibly know what one of the attractions would be.

[ But it's over and done now, and the buffet comes with drinks. She pours them two glasses from the bowl of punch, though the liquid looks somewhat ominous, too like all the supposedly creepy food laid out. ]

I hope it tastes better than it looks.

[irrationally]

[ She shakes her head slightly once the other offers her the drink. Not to reject it, since she does reach out to take the glass once it's offered from her, but more just to say 'don't worry about it'. Drinking things that look creepy or vaguely omnious at least very much isn't a problem to Alice, especially with the standards of food where she comes from.

But before she takes a sip, she at least looks over at Wen Qing. ]

Thank you. For helping me out like this, and.. for reassuring me. It's strange. [ Because she's so unused to it. If there's anything she is used to, it's being kicked when she's down rather than getting any reassuring like this. ] But I don't dislike it.

[ It's only after those words that she ventures to drink a bit of the punch. Alice makes a bit of a face, like she's not too sure what to think of the drink, but still continues to drink it all the same. ]

[radishlobbyist]

[ To be fair, Wen Qing's own experience with giving comfort is limited as well, she's never really been approachable enough for that to anyone outside of her own family. Even after all these months on the train and trying to do better in her second life, she knows she is still somewhat clumsy at reaching out to people who aren't her brother. But... ]

I don't dislike it either. And you are no outsider. I ought to aid you.

[ Alice, protective, cautious Alice, she is what Wen Qing has long since come to consider family if not by blood. ]

[irrationally]

Well, as long as you don't experience it as an obligation.

[ Because Alice wouldn't want to do that to anyone. But if Wen Qing just genuinely out of her own free will wants to help her - then who would Alice be to stop her? Especially when - like she said - she doesn't dislike it.

It's not a topic she wants to linger on for too long though. It feels kind of embarrassing. So instead she shakes her head, continuing-- ]

Are you going to have a word with whoever put that just now together about insulting your profession?

[radishlobbyist]

Maybe. [ Her response comes slow and a little hesitant, simply because she hadn't considered the possibility at all. For all her indignation, she had thought of it mostly as a her problem.

She takes a sip of the punsch, still weighing the possibility. ]

I would have a thing or two to say but... I will think about it. I would like to see such things come with descriptions, at least. Maybe it is obvious what to expect to people from the same place as the one who thought of it but it's not to you or I.

[irrationally]

[ She slowly nods, taking Wen Qing's words very seriously - which means she's taking a slight moment to consider it before she speaks. ]

Right. I suppose there is a lot of.. perhaps we should say 'culture clash' here on this train.

[ It wouldn't be the first time for Alice, after all. Although usually it's more about offending her Victorian sensibilities moreso than something this extreme, digging into her worst fears. ]

It would be good for people to be more understanding of that. Especially since most people here do seem to have good intentions, weirdly enough. [ 'Weird enough' because that sure was not the case back in London. And Alice feels like Wen Qing would get it too, considering a lot of the things she's heard about Wen Qing's own home. ] They probably just aren't thinking much about what they are doing.

[radishlobbyist]

Certainly. I don't think at all that it was malicious just... [ She shrugs her shoulders slightly. ] We just don't all have the same kind of memories or experiences. [ More like, some of them come from places with doctors which make Wen Qing want to grab her needles for some very painful stabbing of her own. ]

There are so many people on the train now, from so many different worlds and points in time, there are bound to be misunderstandings. I'm surprised that we don't run into more trouble. Everyone seems to be making an effort to get along for the most part.

[irrationally]

Surprisingly so.

[ Where it may no longer surprise Alice that Wen Qing is kind - it's just something she expects from the other now, given her track record - the fact that people on the train are.. mostly kind is still odd to wrap her head around. ]

I've met some truly rude and unbearable people here, but also a lot of people who go out of their way to be kind. It's.. odd. Perhaps that's why suddenly witnessing a display like that surprised me so much. [ Since it almost seems like the kind of deed some cruel person would carry out to make people relive their very specific trauma, if it wasn't probably just a misunderstanding. ]

[radishlobbyist]

[ That the medical scare could have been set up on purpose to frighten people instead of being merely a joke whose humor got lost across time and space, that is something Wen Qing hadn't even considered by herself.

It's still not something she truly thinks of, though she nods thoughtfully in agreement with Alice noting that the discovery was startling. ] Maybe this Halloween celebration isn't the right feast for us [ she offers, then takes another sip from her drink. At least the drinks taste alright, though the food looks too disturbing for her to enjoy it. ] It is remarkably unkind.