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

HOW DID HE GET OUT-LAWYER'D BY TWIN TEENS --

He would have argued his case further, such that really nothing stopped any of them from pulling out special tricks up their sleeves to get their turnips more pliable to carve. But not only has he been called out for having 'evidence of the crime', and that honestly impresses Roland, Inigo jumping out at him like this! To Tidus's countermove: what if they started using magic tricks themselves? Actual spells that would win the whole competition no matter what Roland did to turn the tide in his favor?

Gah. I'm beat. That's actually a pretty compelling closing statement.

He must remember, he put himself in this position. His cat ears will not save him today.

Roland drops his turnip and glances to the side, before he sighs. Keeping to the theme at least, he kneels before them both, suddenly! Without much warning, but it's a movement well-practiced, genuflection as chief consul lending gravitas when he speaks. It's part of the act of course, but he does mean it anyway. Cheating wasn't his intention.

"Your Highness. Lord Councilman. Please accept my sincerest apologies for my unjust actions. I will concede defeat to this honorable turnip carving competition." Then he looks up at them, and smiles, offering the slightly softened crop in truce. "You win. Heh. Sorry. This is just a really stubborn turnip."

Inigo honestly wasn't too sure what would follow his last statement, whether or not Roland would actually give in and do it in the first place. But even if he might have imagined Roland giving in for a moment, he certainly didn't see this in his mind's eye - Roland actually starting to kneel like that. It's foreign even to Inigo, considering it's not like his prince status mattered for long enough for this to be a common sight for him. And so instead he just feels.. slightly flustered as he watches this? How did it suddenly get so weird!

"W-Well, that sure is.. an apology.."

Only the more graceful of responses, clearly.

"B-but! Come on, get back up on your feet already! You have to at least finish up that turnip or it's not fair, you know? It's not over until it's over!"

Tidus expected more of an argument from someone who would say 'there were no rules', but it looks like the old man can't put up a fight to save his turnip skin! And what a dramatic way to go about apologies too--but it does recall to Tidus their little roleplay sess, so while Inigo may be more baffled at it...

"President Roland, I will accept your apology," Tidus starts with a hoity-toity voice, trailing at the end... before coming back down to normal, swinging out his own turnip to be seen.

"'Cause seriously, I'm getting nowhere with this thing either. How're we 'pposed to make a face or whatever out of a thing like this? Let's just let Bambosh cook it. I like that plan too."

As for his turnip, there's three points sticking out for two cheeks, a longer point for a chin. Two dots for what might be eyes, and... are there ears...? Feel free to guess what it was supposed to be.

"See? Cooking it to soften the skin is the only way to get through this."

In a snap, in an instant, Roland breaks character dutifully and stands up as if he didn't just make a little scene there. It's a skill, really. He should get awards. But now they realize the truth, and that's all that matters! Bambosh though, has left the stage. He'll need to call him back, heart to heart. Literally.

Roland quietly wills his little fire friend to return, but not before assessing the turnip in Tidus's hands, and Inigo's cut up one too. His own turnip is trying to look like a face, but it's failing spectacularly. The effect he was going for, which was an open mouth vomiting out guts parading around as turnip smush, is not working either.

"...Wow. We're really bad at this, huh?"

Inigo lets out an offended sound.

"Hey, speak for yourself!" It's probably the most obviously rude he'd ever get at Roland, but he can't help his dramatic feelings once they start. The offense is here, and it needs to be expressed somehow as he holds out his turnip.

"If its nose hadn't fallen off, it wouldn't have been bad at all!"

Which.. isn't too untrue of an assessment. The eyes and mouth on Inigo's turnip actually look pretty decent. It's just the lack of nose that makes it look very weird. Like an alien.

Inigo pulls it back to look at it himself with a small pout. "These things are just way too small to work on. Who thought up that it should be turnips.."

Some of us didn't goof off by slicing and chopping aliens for fun, okay.

"Okay, but you know they'd be way better if we fried and ate them, right?"

Even if Inigo's turnip is looking better, all of the competition in Tidus's soul has left him. He knows he's not winning anything, and with a useless turnip in his hand - what else is he supposed to think about doing with it? Especially when Roland's talking about cooking too!

He wiggles his turnip hair again.

"Or we can just eat the candy."

"It's supposed to be pumpkins. At least, back on earth." Roland has no clue if Evermore had such a tradition. But turnips are really not working, and to be honest, the smell of raw turnips being carved so violently was already starting to irritate his nose.

It's done. The competition has been beat. Inigo wins, and even Roland can attest - even as he accidentally chopped off that nose, it looks so much better than both his and Tidus's combined. This twist of events! Riveting!

"I'm not in the mood to cook up turnip casserole, so let's...Eat candy. Sure." He moves to wipe off his paltry costume, the turnip in his hand starting to look sad that it's now being discarded. "Are we trick or treating? Most candy in one basket wins? Heh."

Just because they all collectively lost turnips - okay Inigo won, but he was judging! - doesn't mean the competition doesn't have to necessarily end there...!

"I want candy!"

FORGET THESE TURNIPS. Forget his half-victory! Who cares about that when the possibility of sugar is being dangled in front of his nose. Inigo doesn't even care that he sounds like a seven year old, give him that candy.

He's even putting down the turnip on the table. Whatever, turnip, goodbye!

"How do we get candy in the baskets?"

He may understand the concept of Halloween a bit now, but the idea of trick or treating is still harder to get used to or remember, really. It's just too far from anything that could actually happen back in Ylisse.

"......

You actually want to eat something?"

Not to call you out, Inigo, but Tidus is absolutely saying that without thinking about it because dude, dude?? He's both confused and surprised at the same time, ready to be told that this Inigo IS an imposter. Or is this roleplay. It must be roleplay.

"I know as much about this Halloween thing as Inigo does," he goes on anyway, since. Well. Baskets, what? "I just know there's candy somewhere."

Is it in this room? He's picking himself up from his seat, the floor, wherever he's been attempting to Art disastrously in the carriage, ready to look around and search for The Sugar.

Goodbye turnips, hello candy. Roland lags behind the two of them though, responsible as he is, attempting to clean up the turnip peel, the discarded soft turnip chunks and the tops that are thrown haphazardly on the floor. The knives too, are returned to the station with a grateful smile and a wave. Bowing out of this one, thanks.

When Roland does catch up to the two of them in costume, he is able to catch the confusion in the air to address it towards an end. A sweet end!

"So we get empty baskets," He says, as if he's been part of the conversation all along. In fact, he spots said pumpkin baskets a few feet away, sitting by another corner with chairs and tables and other such paraphernalia set about by their gracious host. "One each, right? And we go up to people with candy and we just say, Trick or Treat! The answer is always treat, and they give you candy. That's it. Great, right?"

One might imagine Roland to be a stickler for this, sugar is bad for you and all that jazz, but he is reminded of fonder times back home as he looks about the camaraderie shared around the holiday. He thinks of white house tradition as they serve kids the same thing, from all walks of life, allowing them entry in his oval office to trick or treat. He thinks of one child in particular, still having fun even though he has to take the festivities slower than other kids...Yeah, he likes Halloween enough. So he'll enjoy it, even in a place like this.

"I like candy!"

It's a practically instantaneous reply to Tidus's suspicions. Tempo-wise it does very much sound like the way two small children may bicker, going back and forth. But Inigo won't have his questionable eating habits be the subject here, okay, candy is a whole different thing! This place has introduced him to sugar and he's not ready to let go of it. Shove it into his mouth. Delicious, delicious sugar.

Though his attention quickly turns back towards Roland and his explanations the moment the other guy joins him. And with the very, very little knowledge of Halloween that Inigo has now, Roland's explanation just sounds.. weird. Very weird. Other than the part where people give you candy, that sounds pretty rad.

"Why do you need to ask if they always say treat anyway?" Is this not a logical question. He feels like it is. "What if they say trick? Won't there be anyone who says trick? Is it just some secret codephrase to get candy?"

Pffft, like Tidus cares about turnip peel.

But he is listening otherwise to Roland as he pipes up, the mention of baskets all that otherwise gets Tidus to pay attention to the pumpkin-shaped ones in the room ... though, he's not sure if they really are baskets or not just weirdly pumpkin-shaped...decorations? Given the rest of this weird night. Turnips, man.

Instead he's standing, turned to Roland with folded arms. Still unsure about how Inigo can be hyped for candy, but whatever.

"This really is for kids, huh." Not to sound judgmental, even he's curious about the trick answer! ...but absolutely everything about this is so set up for kids.

Makes Tidus wonder if Della got the chance to do this with her kids often...

With his own basket secure, he takes this moment to adjust his pair of ears, noticing they've grown slanted. The tail keeps moving on its own though, which might make one wonder...

"Heh. Sorry. All I know is it's tradition from my world. If it had any kind of deep, meaningful history, I'm not the guy to know about it. But you're right, no one gives things for trick." He chuckles. "If they did that to me, I would ban them from Halloween. Forever. Presidential powers, activated."

He takes the liberty to lead them to where the stash is, or rather, who has them lined up. And maybe it's the atmosphere lending itself to the moment too, but he catches what Tidus says and grins. Wide, toothy smile, like he has forgotten who or where he is.

"It is. Oh, you should have seen it back home. Kids would dress up in costumes, go around neighborhoods to knock on doors and ask for candy. Where I worked, we'd open up the floor for them so they could trick or treat there. Their faces just...light up." He takes a moment to pause, let the nostalgia sink in. He's looking at the empty space between both of them now. "It was really great. Makes the sugar rush all worth it."

Edited 2020-12-06 17:52 (UTC)

Roland and Tidus are still totally talking over there about how all of this works. About what it's like in Roland's world, that it's a tradition for kids.

But said kid in the room - Inigo, of course - has already moved on from this conversation, since he's already busy getting treats from the person handing them out. He's looking so super pleased about it too, like it doesn't even occur to him that he's being kind of impolite here by ignoring this whole exchange between the other two.

Especially since he has a big grin on his face by the time he turns back towards Roland and Tidus, holding up his candy. So proudly.

"Look! It's candy!"

Yes, this is very much a holiday for kids.

But the biggest kid around is apparently just as easily pleased.

"Someone's serious about halloween!" Tidus lets in at that presidential veto; distracted in the meantime from the tail and his hands temporarily empty. But oh, fine -- isn't he supposed to take a basket too? Not just Roland, he's not their chaperone! And if they're going to get candy, he wants some too.

But he's still actually listening to Roland, despite someone else being in a rush for sweets!! The half-humoured smile on his mouth growing wider. Fond. Look at this guy, getting all soft about candy and kids (but especially the kids).

"Worth it? Don't hide it- betcha like being the big kid in the room for a day!" Tidus tease, spreading that grin to show his own teeth. Any further interrupted by, from elsewhere-

'Look! It's candy!'

And Tidus does look. And that grin on his face isn't going anywhere with the expression on Inigo's. He even laughs a little, can't help it.

"Hey, save us some!"

"Yeah, hold on a second! Did you even say trick or treat, Inigo? You have to say it!" The Halloween master rushes for candy too, taking wide strides to cross to where the candy was harvested from, and forgetting where is he for a moment, Roland extends his arms and dutifully says the magic words.

"Hi, trick or treat. Thanks!"

And just like that, candy is deposited into his basket. Success. Tidus, get in on this candyland action!

He mimics Inigo's enthusiasm with a more subdued approach, but the wagging tail behind him, left and right like a metronome, is an indicator of his excitement. It seems to be mechanical, attached with a thin, black wire that looks invisible from afar, leading all the way up to the ears. Was it reacting to him?

He's not minding it one bit though, whatever it is his costume is doing. Roland's peering into his basket, and then at Inigo's. "What's in your haul? Tidus, where's yours?" Are you finished trick or treating yet!!

At least Inigo is a good-spirited kid. The moment Tidus asks him to save them some, he's already holding out his bucket towards the other, as if he's fully ready to share the sweet goods in there. Even though Tidus can easily get his own just by saying the magic words to the person handing out candy..

The magic words which Roland also says. Surprisingly enough, since he does really describe it as a holiday for kids, and yet.. there he is, indulging in it, tail wagging away.

A tail that's now finally grabbing Inigo's attention when he's no longer distracted by The Quest To Get Candy.

".. Roland, what's up with your tail?" The candy can wait like. Maybe two seconds. Maybe.

We can't believe we're the adult in the room.

But at least Tidus is here to have fun too, regardless of how goofy it may be. Finally grabbing his own basket now he's sure which and what those are (pointing to it at Inigo's offer - he'll do it the proper way!), and - with all humouring a guy can do for 2 adult men - he'll say with a smile to the first person offering sweeties:

"Trick or treat!"

Hey, it's a fun atmosphere (fun and spoooky), so Tidus can go along easy. Random handfuls of sweets from the train shop deposited into his basket, a few other pieces - chocolate, fudge; is that even hard candy? - throw in. Not that Tidus digs around to check too closely at first, but just following a similar route as the other pair. But then going over just as Inigo asks his question, only catching the tail end of it.

"Eh? What's up? Did Roland get special candy?"

"Special candy? I didn't get special candy? Wait - "

It's a sentence he isn't able to finish right away. Roland looks between the two of them, slow blinks in confusion until he glances down at the said accessory. His tail is indeed moving lazily, leisurely even.

..."Well, that's new. Who knew it could do that?"

If it's a nonchalant answer, it's because he doesn't particularly care that the tail is connected to some sort of mechanism that measures something, as it continues to move faster, as if excited. He's already turned back to the twin teens with a mischievous look on his face that by all means would have seemed scarily intimidating, had it not been for his getup.

"Okay, let's not get distracted. There's one tradition we have to keep now that we all have our trick or treat candy." Oh yes. Isn't this an exciting reveal?! He walks forward, conspiratorially. "It's time to split the spoils."

Meaning, dump all our candy in the middle of the pile, and trade trade trade till the cow's come home! Now Halloween trick or treating affair would be complete without it a Candy Swap!

Excuse you, Roland, how is a teenage with a short attention span supposed to not get distracted by that tail just wagging away behind you as if it's its day job? Especially when the only true adult here (sorry, Tidus) is acting like it's nothing! No big deal! Randomly moving costume tail, totally normal, clearly.

But fine, fiiine, Inigo will try to drop it. But only because there's talk of candy involved, you got it? That takes priority over everything else.

So Inigo just cheerfully says, "Alright!" before turning over his bucket onto some nearby table, the sweets spilling everywhere. A piece of fudge falls on the floor, but Inigo quickly ducks to grab it and stick it in his mouth like nothing happened. Smooth. Three second rule.

"There's not really any cows here though," he adds - with his mouth full because there's no way he's going to get fudge down that easily! - as if this is some really important addition.

(Maybe Tidus really is the only true adult here after all.)

Excuse us Inigo for being too distracted to notice whatever was going on! Until it meets Roland's attention, and then with Tidus himself finally amongst them does he see the...swinging. There's really no missing that. He watches it puzzled, but with an upturned rise to his mouth. Like wow, really? Since when was that happening? All throughout their turnip adventures?

Let's absolutely get distracted not pay half attention to whatever Roland's talking about to make sure we capture this imagery in our mind forever. Roland and his wagging tail.

--except Tidus is listening, or well enough to pipe up after that one bit of fudge disappears into Inigo's mouth: "Hey, he said split it, not eat it!"

Not that it hasn't inspired Tidus to start poking around inside his own basket to find a piece for himself...

"What are we splitting anyway? Shouldn't we have the same?"

Tidus is being slow about tipping his out. ....but he'll come and eventually do it. Just, what's the point!!

That tail of his will gather as much attention as it can, but Roland's not paying it any heed because look. This was some serious business. A communal pool for candy meant they had to be fair in their trade! He pours out his own pile and altogether, the three of them - or as soon as Tidus decides to share!! - create piles that convene in the center, a small space in the middle like neutral ground. Roland crosses his arms, ignores the fudge that Inigo eats right away. One fudge he couldn't trade, rats!

"You'd be surprised. The chances of receiving exactly the same type of candy even if we trick or treated in the same place is lower than you might expect." Is he using his explain-it-all voice for this? Absolutely. Is this a subject warranting of such seriousness? Probably not. But Roland, as the twin teens might have already surmised from multiple encounters of a similar kind, has a side to him that could indicate he was indeed, young once upon a time.

"For example - " Roland uncurls his arms and picks up a neon red pack of what looked to be, curls of long candy strings. "- Tidus and I received strawberry licorice," A fact he confirms with a pointed glance to said pile that may or may not be slowly pouring out still. "But Inigo doesn't have it. Instead, he's got a big candy bar, right there." The candy bar is indeed, larger than the other smaller bite-sized pieces.

He then turns to both teens, the mood akin to instructing them on how to play a game.

"So one of us could trade for that candy bar so Inigo gets the licorice as payment. Obviously, Tidus can't trade with me, since we have the same candy. But if there's something in the piles that I have and neither of you don't, we trade for what we want. Easy, right?"

Famous last words.

"All right. Start the bidding." Because he saw that candy bar for a reason. He's not a sweets kind of guy, but that in particular has some value he's not willing to pass up!

Tidus doesn't even get a reply to his protest to Inigo's fudge-eating. If anything, Inigo gives him a look in return that's rather triumphant. As if to say, 'yeah, I just ate that piece already, what are you going to do about it?'

But it lasts all of a few seconds. Just as long as Roland needs to start on the first part of his educational little show here, which makes the grin fade right off Inigo's face. The look he then instead gives his fellow teenager is much more something along the lines of 'where did Roland even learn this, how come he's so invested in it?!

They really do find out about the weirdest hobbies their favourite old man has, huh.

"Wait, wait, hold on!"

At least Inigo was paying enough attention to the explanation to know what he has to ask. But he's about to shoot an arrow straight through Roland's initial perception that this might somehow end up easy when Inigo and Tidus are both involved.

"What if some of us," (himself, he means himself) "don't know what some of these pieces of candy are?"

This is definitely a weird otherworld tradition. Roland is totally invested, no matter how bizarre the entire thing is to Tidus. Meeting Inigo's look, eyebrows raising and a small tip of his head given in turn like a shrug. Well, this is Roland for you. Apparently.

Admittedly, this small exchange does make Tidus miss half of what Roland is talking about. Something about- trading and candy? And now Roland's waving around a candy bar...

"Hm, yeah. Can I have a look at that and see what it is?" Tidus follows Inigo's confusion, holding out a hand in interest. There's nothing that can go wrong in complying, with Tidus taking it and reading off the branding and what it's supposed to contain inside. Ah- A peanut nutty bar?

"--I'll keep this," he declares without pomp, slipping it into his white overcoat. "He already ate something from the pile! So I don't have to trade!"

You know, because that makes absolute sense here.

Ah, and so the trades begin. Roland's tail swishes twice as if in total understanding of what Tidus just pulled off, a serious nod to emphasize a strange juxtaposition of candy in piles with an adult figuring out how to create a harmonious bartering system. To Inigo's point, he makes a gesture to one hand while going through more of the candy closer to his own share; checking with sly eyes, what he has, what they all do, what they don't. Was he actually looking for something though...?

"Intuition." He says definitively, as if that solves all of Inigo's concerns. Aha, were those chocolate rocks? No, but it seems it's the most common of all the candy. Drat. "Feel the candy. Look at it. Imagine how it might taste based on how it looks. Your gut will do the rest."

And speaking of gut - his own starts to give him the signal that he's found the jackpot. With narrowed eyes, akin to a predator, he reaches out slowly to his pile, fingers twitching -

- but nothing. It's not the super sour, mouthwatering, neon-colored crackling pop rock candy of his dreams. Little tiny fireworks that go off against his tongue, wrapped in shiny, glossy plastic. Maybe the train didn't provide...? He sighs inwardly.

"Next trade." Because that fudge-candy bar is totally legitimate.

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