[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

A

[undyingcrow]

Of all the things to turn into, it's...

Shadow the Hedgehog, but clad in the Black Mask uniform. Utterly absurd. He's so short now. Almost half his original height. And for what? What is the point of this?

But if that wasn't ridiculous enough, now there is a musical number going all around him. Fine. Whatever. The board mentioned something about musical numbers.

"You get your own orchestra? How lucky."

At least his voice sounds recognizably Akechi.

[herewardbound]

"You get used to-"

He looked down. Took in the sight before him. The brain rejected what the eyes had reported, and told them to check again. The eyes returned, sheepishly, holding the latest report and mumbling something about the same results turning up. Well that wasn't possible, said the brain. Reset the machine and check again.

Phoenix blinked.

Oh, very well, I'll go and check myse- oh.

Behind him, Renée stepped through the doorway, glanced down at the creature before them.

"Get used to what? Hello. Are you a newcomer, or one of the Goros we've already met?"

[undyingcrow]

"I'm the Akechi who survived after the collapse of Maruki's reality." And now he looks ridiculous. Ugh...

He crosses his arms, tipping his head up to look at the others. He is not used to being the shortest person in a conversation.

"If we're talking codenames, Karasu will suffice."

[herewardbound]

Ah. Fuck.

"... I guess that makes two of us, in a sense. I'm Phoenix. Nice to meet you in person, even if the shapes are all wrong."

"I am Renée. Although... if the pair of you would like to discuss that topic alone, I can step away, if you would prefer. Although... I am slightly curious. What is your 'costume', for lack of a better word?"

"It's Shadow the Hedgehog."

"I don't... believe that looks anything even slightly like a hedgehog."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Angel Dust looks nothing at all like a spider, and yet here we are. It's a character from a video game."

[undyingcrow]

"...Yes. And, evidently, someone thought it would be funny to make me look like him." He shakes his head, his sneer audible in his voice. "Honestly, I fail to see what this accomplishes, sort of needless humiliation."

He's so small. With his Black Mask attire, he probably looks... ugh. Cute, in the same way that mascot characters appear cute.

[herewardbound]

"Could be worse," he muttered softly. "If I had ten yen for every time a holiday's come around and I've been transformed into something against my will, I'd have at least enough for a bag of chips. It's never not a pain in the ass, and it's always temporary, the best thing is to just find whatever joy you can out of the benefits, bitch to anyone who'll listen about the downsides, and maybe swear bloody vengeance against the person responsible if it's sufficiently humiliating."

*SHORT OF, damn typos xD;

[undyingcrow]

"...That's fairly concerning." Multiple transformations. As if one wasn't bad enough. "Is that commonplace, in your reality?"

Frankly baffling. Pardon his staring.

[herewardbound]

He sighed, rubbing his face. "Haaah... Okay. Not strictly speaking, no? Up until February 3rd, 2017, I was, in fact, in much the same position as you, from what I've gathered. We made the decision to confront Maruki, I... went off to my death, we won, the Palace collapsed, and I... woke up in a place not unlike this one. A shared dream, connected to many possible realities. Dreams being what they are, the local reality was... unstable, at the best of times."

[undyingcrow]

"I suppose that's to be expected, in a world of dreams." Still, that's fascinating. Fascinating enough for him to relax his posture, taking his chin in hand. "In my case, I woke up only to find myself at a shelter my mother and I went to when I was very young, with a rush of memories I had 'conveniently' lacked until the collapse of Maruki's reality. Evidently, he was so convinced that I had died that he rewrote reality so that it was a fact that he reversed."

Which left him with quite a lot of existential baggage, to say the least.

[herewardbound]

"Heh..."

Phoenix stared at his hand, for a moment. "Funny. That's... funny." He tensed, slightly, as Reneé laid a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't make it that far. Maruki made it abundantly clear, what I was. I felt myself coming undone, when his Palace collapsed. If I hadn't awoken in Reverein, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

[undyingcrow]

"Ah." That's... hm. He can see why it would be... concerning. "Maruki claimed that Ren needed to accept his reality, for my sake. I had a gap in my memories. No real way of knowing if I would even survive. I had confidence that I was real, the same way that Wakaba Isshiki and Okumura were in that reality, but beyond that..."

He trails off, blowing a sigh.

"Well, I suppose it's rather moot, isn't it? Our experiences speak for themselves."