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"Oh! Right! Sorry." Tsukiko said, smiling faintly. "I'm not really good with names. Or remembering much, really... Thanks." She tentatively nibbled on what Billy offered her. Fright Night... big noisy and crowded festival. Almost like this one, but no booths. At least she was able to avoid having her tail trampled by hiding here (and it was less crowded under the table as well, in spite of the addition of the boil joining her).
"I still have that plushie. Somehow it's managed to escape my Cluppy's teeth. Probably the other plushies keep it occupied..." She couldn't remember most important things, but somehow the most random things were easily remembered.

Peering out of the dense mane of hair, Catori glowered at Billy before nipping at the food in Tsukiko's hand. "Ah! Catori... I was eating that... Billy, this is Catori. A demon gave her to me. Something about atonement for their ancestors..."

Alexander waited for Mort to respond to his question, with a small hope that maybe the other zomboil could shed some light on what exactly had happened, and how they had gone from wherever..to here. But it seemed that it was not to be, and he felt small pang of disappointment, hands coming up so that his palms were pressed against his now closed again eyelids.

"Arrrgggggghhhh...." It was a low moan of frustration as he tried to concentrate past the noise, past the joviality of the crowds and the Fear that hung thick and heavy in the air. He wanted to know, needed to know what had happened.

"Five, I guess, yes." That seemed right, in a way, though for some reason it felt like it had more to do with the number four. But the card had five faces, not four, and all of them were recognizable, even if one was only a vague recollection. Ayemet, Shehk, Mort, and the other that he did not know the name of. What did they all have in common? His mind wandered back to the shard in his pocket.....

"I don't know. I don't know what we should do." He probably sounded a bit whiny, but mostly it was just frustration laced with a desperate need for answers. He let his hands drop back down to his sides, and he turned, and let his gaze sweep across the crowds, looking for more familiar faces, possibly the faces of those others who had been in the card, but for now he could see nothing. One hand slipped back into this pocket, fingering the crystal, brushing past it to something else. A flat, round object, somehow it was always warm...

...The zomboil was hit hard by a sudden feeling of deja vu, and a stark memory came clear to his mind while his pale eye widened. And it didn't end there. No, they just kept coming, everything, absolutely everything. Alexander reached out to clutch at Mort's arm as his knees began to buckle. This was..no, he had wanted the memories, but no..this was so much more, and so much of it was so horrible...

Cleaning up the Fright Night festival grounds. Foot prints that appeared and disappeared. A sudden fog, with figures. Students transforming. Amrita...Yin...

The zomboil let out a gasp and squeezed his eyelids shut against the imagery, but it didn't stop.

Going to an exam, getting caught up in the fog, fighting a figure born of insanity. Rescued by a teacher. Returning to the fog despite knowing what could happen...

His grip on Mort's arm tightened, his brow creasing further as his limbs began to tremble.

Losing both Mort and Belladonna to the fog. Lost, alone....And then Yin. He had changed Yin back, but then the other boil had asked Alex to kill him. He hadn't wanted to do it, had tried to protest, but in the end....

He would never forget the feel of it, or the sound Yin's neck had made when it snapped.

Alex let go of Mort and let himself fall onto his knees on the ground, arms wrapping around his midsection as he curled forward.

Maggie and Chryses had found him, lying on the ground in the fog. They had been attacked. Alex's body had been ripped in half. But he had come back, the fog didn't managed to take him like it had his friends. They had kept fighting....

Alex's body was shuddering violently from his position on the ground. He had wanted this, but it was awful, and having it all rush upon him like this was nigh unbearable.

More fog, more desolation. Just him and Maggie though eventually he had lost her as well. A stairway. Hunters. Red's return, though he hadn't known it to start with. Fighting with Yin against her, defeating her monstrous form...

The fog had taken him. Had turned him into a weapon. He had been used to fight against his friends. He had bit into them with his blade, tasted their blood and Fear. Xiu, Yin, Belladonna, and even some others that he didn't know...

The zomboil retched violently, but he had nothing in his stomach to bring up, so they were just dry heaves, painful, almost as painful as the memories that continued to bombard him.

He had come back. Yin was there. Red came back. They protected her, but she had turned them away. She had taken Mort, had drained him into nothing and then Yin had told him to walk away, had tried to shield him from harm....

And then Mort had come back, and Alexander had gotten an idea....

He had left Yin, had gone to Red, had talked to her and then had gone to Aymet and Mort for their help with what she needed from them. Their Fear crystals. They could help Red, and they would be able to come back as Mort had. Probably. That had been the hope, at least. He had asked them to trust him, had said his goodbyes to Yin....sort of. Red had taken their crystals. She had their power. She had howled, long and loud.....

Everything began to fade, and with it an overwhelming sense of regret had enveloped him. And then it became peaceful. Quiet.

Darkness

"We...we died." Alex gasped from his trembling position on the floor. "I think we died...we...but I think...we won." They must have won, right? They were here. The students were here.

"I...I need..." What did he need? He was still shaking, still hunched up into himself, kneeling on the ground. His eyelids were still closed.

He retched again.

Freya backed off when her sister got between them, and sighed sharply at Hel's antics. Why was she so touchy about her playing with Shun? Was she ******** him TOO? That would have been messed up, actually.. Freya doubted her sister would go that far. Mitsu was too sweet a ghoul, and she couldn't see her sister doing that to her.

Except that Hel was making a bad name for herself, in her sisters eyes, nowadays. She was already threatening to tell Kettil things, and Freya turned to stare at her, mouth slightly open.

"Shun, I thinks our swordfights will has teh waits." She said, while staring at her sister. She walked over, grabbed the ghoul by the collar, and tugged her closer. "Crumpet?" She seethed out through clenched teeth. "Can I talks teh yeh for a moment? Alone?"

She sounded remarkably pissed - but not the kind of pissed that made her scream and yell. The real kind of pissed. The kind that Freya didn't often manage.

Finley nudged his wife. "See. He likes your cooking." Ailsa did not smile, but pursed her lips, still looking Barth over.

At Barth's question, they both smiled. "Very, yes." Calder's mother said, liking the loud commotion all around her and all the sounds of laughter.

"We come each year. It's a nice way to spend the end of the Fear gathering together." He nuzzled his wife. They often went gathering together.

As Barth talked to his parents, Calder spotted Malodore in the crowd and started waving and calling out to him. "Malodore! Hey! Hey Mal! Over here!" He called out, jumping in place to try and flag his friend down.

Jude's response to Robert's critical glance was a simple benign smile that showed fangs (couldn't be helped). Him? Consider killing Robert just to help him out of his misery? Nah. Not in a million years. Not even in three billion of them.

Okay. Maybe a little.

Jude just offered Gale and Eva a smile as well and just sort of fidgeted in place, "So what are we going to do?" He was carefully trying to appear 'care free' and 'youthful'.

Christof had been laying low. He was often a lurker, keeping to the shadows and outskirts, as was proper for an Igor but today even moreso. While everyone was celebrating, rejoiceing in reuinions with their loved ones and the recent emergencies past, and the great Fearful holiday, he could tell by the burning in his mouth...

He was here.

Mismatched eyes kept a sharp lookout at the shadows, any sign of the man. But... there were too many people here. He wouldn't- Dr. Fell was not a fan of crowds. He was not a fan of so many people and their contaminated Parts and... surely he wouldn't... surely he had given up on his project by now? Christof had not contacted home in a long, long time. But had Dr. Fell still been watching?

At his ankles, Scruff sniffed about the ground, finding several shiny things he sniffed at and swallowed happily.



sent

It had been no wonder Otto hadn't spoken a word the entire time he'd been there. he didn't want anyone knowing that once again, he was a short, tiny, FEMALE golem.



Never mind the small fire imp that seems t follow the group around. She's just chillin' guys.

Someone did notice, and a he was walking around behind her before giving a low, long whistle. TG was mad impressed.