[EVENT] 'Tis the Spooky Season...

[vrdr_mods]

Autumn is drawing on in the Velvet Room and its environs. The days are colder, the nights are crisper, leaves are a riot of colour ready to fall from the trees. And (besides all the pumpkin spice popping up for some reason) that means only one thing: Hallowe'en!

As the season approaches, you may undergo a mysterious transformation. Perhaps you wake up with wings, or hooves, or gills! Or perhaps your transformation will change more, go deeper... perhaps to your very soul. Who can tell? You might wake up as an animal, or a mythological creature. Or as anything at all.

Transformations will reverse on the morning of November 1st. Probably.

In the meantime, Destinyland is celebrating the holiday. Cheerful Jack-o'-Lantern Shadows have set up on street corners, handing out flyers advertising the park's seasonal festivities. In the days leading up to the 31st, Destinyland will host all the usual fun: Hallowe'en games, Trick or Treat for the babies (and the not-so-babey), the Gorb fortune teller, Shadow-run food stalls serving spooky meals and treats, and, of course, the haunted house with its array of friendly, candy-giving Shadows. Or maybe they're not so friendly.

On the night of Hallowe'en itself, there will be a parade at the park and a grand party out in the main square with food, music, and plenty of space, though characters are not obliged to attend. However, if you wish to show off your new form, see what transformations have been wrought on your fellow guests, or simply take the chance to celebrate, it may be a good opportunity...

Who knows? Perhaps you'll even see some special guests.

[ooc: Welcome to our second Halloween event! This post will serve as a mingle for the duration of the event. Feel free to invite friends to play as guest characters, too! There will be a toplevel, and guest characters are simply whisked into the setting to engage in festivities, with a slight ghostly aura. For an example, see the thread here from last year!]

Comments

[unfoggedlotus]

Friend!! Friend!! Big sniffs. Special friend!! This is the special friend of his special friends...barkbark. Awoo! Licklicklick. Slobber. Get the thing on his face off. Licking his mouth!

[pancakeboy]

Okay, no, absolutely not. With a strangled sound of disgust, Magpie summons all his augmented strength and the furious core of his soul to try and shove the thing right off him. Bad dog!

[unfoggedlotus]

The push barely budges him, any sort of force getting absorbed into his thick, shaggy fur.

Wolf Ren does stop licking and looks down at him, though, ears forward, eyes curious. Head tilt. "Boof." He lifts a paw.

[pancakeboy]

Fuck. Magpie looks quickly to the raised paw, which is easily the size of his entire head, and reaches in through the ragged ruin of his gorget to wipe away some of the revolting drool; he blows bubbles to get it away from his lips before he speaks.

"Ren?" he tries to growl; it comes out as more of a bleat. It's the tangle of black, well, black fur, and the slate-grey of those demonic eyes. "Ren? Is that you? Seriously?"

Seriously: ugh.

[unfoggedlotus]

Ren!! Oh!! That's his name!! "Woof!!" Wagging tail!! Excited wiggles!! "Woofwoof!!"

[pancakeboy]

Heaven save him. The back of his helmet hits the floor with a thud; the room darkens as Loki fades, cackling, into the back of his mind. "What the fuck is wrong with you? Nobody else has lost ther mind. Everyone else is fine."

Ren would be a giant dog though. Not like his Ren, real Ren. Real Ren would have been ... an owl or something. He takes a breath, raises his voice. "DOWN, BOY!"

[unfoggedlotus]

Wolf sits back. He's already down, see? On the floor. Splaying out. Magpie is part of the floor, yes? "Boof."

[pancakeboy]

"You don't even understand down?" Magpie's face, slobbery or not, droops past unimpressed into virgin depths as yet unplumbed.

[unfoggedlotus]

"...?" Ren puts his face down, too. On top of Special Friend.

[pancakeboy]

Nnngh. The back of his head hits the floor a second time, as despair takes him.

With difficulty, he raises an arm, pointing a gauntlet at the wall. "Off. OFF. You see? That way. OFF! Don't make me Laevateinn you."

[unfoggedlotus]

Laevateinn? Ren's head tilts. He knows that word...

...Stick?

He jumps up with a bark, wagging his tail, play-bowing! Stick! Stick!

[pancakeboy]

At last. Extremely grumpily, Magpie gets to his feet, staring into the—wolf's? dog's?—eager face, which is almost on a level with his own.

Something in his heart twinges. It's not that he doesn't like dogs. "You want to play?"

[unfoggedlotus]

"Woof!" Yes!! Now he gets it!! Play!! Wiggling and wagging and boofing!!

[pancakeboy]

Nnnnngh. With a put-upon sigh, he fades back into normality. "You'll have to wait till I wash my face. I'm not doing anything like this."

With some difficulty, he passes apparently-Ren to head for the bathroom, shooting him a bilious glare. "How did you even... well, don't answer that."

As if.

[unfoggedlotus]

Of course, Ren has to follow Special Friend on this new game of Follow The Leader!

[pancakeboy]

But at the bathroom door, Magpie turns, giving wolf-Ren a glare that could bring down nations. "You may not come in. Stay!"

With that, he tries to shut the door behind him. Ah, blessed freedom. (?)

[unfoggedlotus]

Ren whines and puts his face up to the closed door. Friend...frieeeeeeend...whine.

[pancakeboy]

Goddammit. Fortunately the actual slobber vanished when he changed back—but he still has to fight the urge to run the water scalding and strip his face bare. Instead, he pats it clean, with cool water and a pH-neutral cleanser, thank you, before taking a breath, bracing himself, and opening that door back up.

"Hey, boy," he says cautiously, cracking the door, prepared for a metric buttload of Dog to hit it from the other side.

[unfoggedlotus]

There is doggy snoot poking through the crack in the door. And a whine. Friiiieeend....

[pancakeboy]

His heart twists. Ugh, all right. He reaches out, slowly opening up the door to offer a hand. "Okay, okay. Here, boy. Come on."

[unfoggedlotus]

He gets the memo. He moves forward slowly. This is a delicate Special Friend of his Special Friend. He shuffles forward with a huff.

...The door isn't open enough for him. He stops when his shoulders can't go forward.