A Wake for All Saints (Board Event)

[Mallory]

Halloween was one of the witch's favorite times of year, and Battlefield Park still held a fond place as her first barony. Her shrieks and cackles were more of delight than true terror as she ventured along the paths and their abundant scares with Eri...

...though she didn't let the spirits of Battlefield Park (those in costume as well as the real ones!) have all the fun! She frequently stalked and chased after the half-oni in her seal kigurumi, chomping her teeth after an ear or a shoulder when she saw the opportunity. Penguins were a delicacy, after all, though she saved plenty of room for the spicy bat wings.

Tempting as it was to go home that night, she'd missed the manor -- and there were spider waffles in the morning! So she laid claim to one of the rooms more familiar to her as early as she could to stay the night with Eri and pillage the breakfast buffet the morning after.

[Eri Maeda]

Eri had looked forward to the wake and a trip to Battlefield Park for days, and was bounding around excitedly in her penguin kigurumi fleeing from the chomping Mallory and squealing gleefully at both the witch and the spirits of the manor. She had, as ever, an almost endless appetite for treats and snacks and took every opportunity to eat along the way.

The half oni seemed perfectly happy to spend the night in the familiar room and to attack the breakfast buffet at will the following morning.

[Regina Wellston]

It had been easier than she thought to convince The Cowboy into the costume suggestion. She had insisted on getting ready over at the ranch just because Gran was there to help her with the stays and the corset and then the big cage that rested on curved hips. She stepped outside and grinned a pretty smile from under the wide brim of the hat that tied in a pretty green bow under her chin. The iconic dress was gray with green stripes and a very large hoop skirt. "Well my dear Rhett, you look simply handsome in that finery." Decked out in a gray suit with tails and a matching brimmed hat, he was the image of a modern day Rhett Butler and that small smile on his lips sent a shiver down her spine more than any floating specter they might see. It was a trick to figure out how to properly sit on the mare he had saddled up for her, but once she was, they were soon on their way to enjoy the night's festivities. On horseback Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara had arrived!

[Josette Wheeler]

The ballerina was so excited to check out the spectacularly spooky festivities. But instead of toting a ghostly jack-o-lantern for the occasion, she carried...a watermelon. The costume would not be complete without one after all!

With her ghostly white familiar trotting along at her heels, the ballerina floated along with a little help of pixie dust thanks to Vie. She kicked off her heels and ran with her feywild familiar and the druids through the woods under the light of the Hunter’s Moon. Josie danced and sang around the Druid King’s bonfire with wild abandon, only stopping to set herself down with her blade to carve her watermelon and smash it as an offering back to Mother Earth.

With watermelon juice splattering everywhere, she looked a bit more like Carrie than Baby by the end of the night, but she was having so much fun, she hardly cared!

[Coydog]

After convincing (guilt-tripping) her teenage son to go trick or treating with her, only for him to part ways a few hours later to go to his first Halloween party, Coydog breezed through the rest of the night delighted to have spent time with Fennec and perhaps a bit too high on the candy she carried in an old pillow case.

Eventually the night would find her standing outside of an eerie abandoned house (complete with creaky iron gate, as was standard with such hovels), and spying a single candle in the window, she would head inside to join Betty. She would emerge at the break of dawn, bright and cheerful and smiling goofily, and not without a bit of a tummy ache.

[BardGallant]

After a long day spent delivering supplies to Cadentia Manor, and attending a couple of birthday parties, Dris and Rhys costumed themselves up, passed out candy, and then dashed out to Seaside to catch a carriage ride to the haunted armory. Wearing the same costume two nights in a row was unacceptable! For this event they switched things up to be a little more tragically romantic, but again with a twist. Taking their inspiration from the Baz Luhrmann musical production of the classic Romeo and Juliet, the mechanic donned armor and the luthier gussied himself up in white. Instead of a dress, however, Dris gender swapped the role of Juliet to become Julien in a white short-sleeved button down and pressed slacks. The ensemble was not complete, of course, without a pair of angel wings.

Though he had volunteered himself for some spooks and thrills, Dris still wound up clinging tightly to Rhys’ arm through most of the carriage ride, particularly over the covered bridge. The gunshots made him jumpy and extremely nervous, even though he knew it was just for show. Or so he thought. When asked to help the spectral army do battle, how could he say no? Dris hadn’t run from the horrors of the hellmouth fissures months previous! He wasn’t about to turn down men in need either, even ghostly ones, tonight! Discovering that he was being armed with a paintball gun and not an actual gun made him laugh with delight, and soon he was pelting “zombies” with gusto. By the time they reached the armory, his white outfit was splattered with splashes of neon colors, but he was not at all complaining.

Being somewhat of an amateur dueling historian, Dris recognized many, but not all, of the weapons and armors on display. He pointed out the ones he knew to Rhys, telling him a little bit about each one, and promising to fill in the blanks later. When they got to the crossroads hall, neither of them could quite decide which path to take. Choosing a somewhat random method, Dris covered his eyes with one hand and stuck out his other to point blindly. He asked Rhys to spin him around a couple of times, and kept rotating until he made himself dizzy and stopped. As it turned out, he wound up pointing at the left path, and so that’s the way they went!

Their adventures through the tower levels took several hours, leaving the bard and his noble knight exhausted but merry. They decided to stay the night after rejuvenating themselves in the dining hall. Dris insisted that he wasn’t so tired that they wouldn’t be able to dance a little, but eventually they found themselves a spare bed somewhere to collapse together and sleep. In the morning they made good on the hostess’ hospitality and joined the living for breakfast. After a marvelous time, they thanked their hostes and bid adieu to Battlefield Park by way of the carriage route one last time.

[Rhys Germain]

Dris and Rhys’ adventure in the tower took hours.

Once he realized they weren’t dealing with a haunted house but a series of escape rooms, Rhys really got into the game. He was all too willing to peel the wallpaper off of the walls if it meant finding the key that would let them out into the next room, an impulse—one among many—Dris did his best to curb. He found himself caught off guard a few times by the portraits hanging upon the walls. It wasn’t so much that the eyes seemed to follow Dris and him, regardless of which way they moved, that got to him, but the fact that he thought he recognized some of the faces. No matter how hard he tried, though, he couldn’t remember where he had seen them before, and he couldn’t afford to lose himself to a fugue while he chased ghosts through his memories, so he allowed his lover to pull him onward.

By the time they had made it to the third room, Rhys was more than ready to have a chat with Widow MacHenry (as he called her). Only quick thinking and soothing words from Dris kept the ghost from sending them straight to Hell—or at least, straight back down to the first floor. In the end, that was what happened anyway, but thanks to the bard, they got to do it via slide instead of trapdoor.

Back inside, Rhys coaxed Dris into joining him for a light supper before they got to dancing. And boy, did they dance. The pair of them were wholly exhausted but merry when they finally found a spare bed to collapse into together, and after sharing whispers and innumerable kisses, they slept the rest of the night away.

In the morning, they joined the rest of the living for breakfast, an affair Rhys took to with gusto. Dris practically had to roll him out of the armory—after taking a few moments to thank their hostess for her hospitality and the good time, of course. Then they were off on another carriage ride, this one taking them back to Seaside, and ultimately, back to their waking lives.

[Partly Cloudy]

Tonight, it’s not the young man who goes by gatito who slips away from Matadero, but Jareth the Goblin King, replete with a tiny Firey replica.

Walking the shadows, he heads over to New Haven, and from there, he takes the foot trail to Battlefield Park. Lovely though they are, the little black wisps of flame lighting the way are suspicious and remind him of a life he’d rather forget, and he gives them a wide berth where he can. The howling of wolves—and men—makes him shiver.

When he runs into the beautiful woman along the way, he agrees to follow her back to the Vistani camp to share in their hospitality—even though he knows accepting drink or food from unknown beings is a dangerous proposition. After sharing drink and telling a story by the fire, he steps into the Raven Lady’s tent. The reading she does for him leaves him unsettled, his stomach cramping with nerves.

The rest of the way to the armory, he eyes the night warily. The color change in the wisps is a little mesmerizing, but not enough to distract him from taking care as he enters the armory. Salvador has told him this place is rumored to be haunted; the man had tried to win it, after all. So Jareth watches the shadows for the shapes of specters.

When he comes to the crossroads in the hallway, he chooses to go right. He’s surprised to find that this path spits him back outside. He wants to refuse the treat the druids offer him, but they speak to him as if they know him—not personally, but as a child of Seline. And the little cake smells irresistible, besides. He takes the first bites while stepping deeper into the woods to join the druids for the run.

He takes the final bite as he reaches the clearing housing the Druid King’s camp. There, it doesn’t take the men and women of the King’s party long to pull him into the dance and other festivities. With the revelatory treat warming his blood, he’s pliant and sweet, open to almost every suggestion. Somewhere along the way, he loses his wig to the bonfire, and as warm hands pull at the ruffles lying pale against his chest, he sees the first figure amid the trees.

Ghostly hands, a ghostly face. Eyes that burn like the wisps that had led him to Battlefield Park.

He knows this face. Not intimately, and not with a name attached, but he knows their kind. He knows their home. He knows whom they serve.

He pulls away from the druids, who continue reaching, wanting to draw him back into the celebration. Apologetic smiles go far, but there’s no mistaking the revelers’ disappointment for anything else.

At the edge of the clearing, he is again caught out by the sight of a specter in the darkness. Another familiar face—and now, they’re riding the wind. He can smell them, the acrid tang of the one memory he can’t forget.

He doesn’t wait to see a third materialize, but turns and flees into the darkness at the opposite end of the clearing. As he dodges between tree trunks and clears risen roots, he can feel the tremor in the earth beneath the tree.

He can feel it when it breaks and heaves forth a pair of silent, otherworldly guardians come to escort him back home.


Costume:


And riding upon his shoulder:



((OOC Note: gatito’s costume is inspired by the lovely work found at Marvelous Labs. And his little friend, Firey, can be found in the shop of Wonderland24.))

[Strawberry]

As the clock struck midnight, Callisise made her judgment of the costumes of those who had come (and gone for a few).

The winner of the individual costume contest was Jareth the Goblin King (Gatito) and his little friend Firey.

The winner of a surprise couple's costume contest was Romeo & Julien (Rhys & Dris).

Congratulations to those who won!


((The rolls were as follows;

Surprisingly the last entry for each category took the cake!

Icons will be sent out soon!))