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Ivy had heard rumor of the haunted house and curious had decided to go check it out. Dante had had to leave with his mom but had assured her they could meet up later and while the night was getting late Ivy wanted to at least go take one good look at the house.

She passed a hybrid girl as she found the path towards the attraction, least she thought it was a hybrid, although she seemed to be covered in nezubats. Ivy frowned a bit and walked over and touched the girl's shoulder, and decided voice usage was definitely necessary.

"Are you okay?"




Tarin jumped slightly at the sudden appearance of the Imp. The other girl had been so quiet she hadn't even known she was there.

" 'M fine." she said, "just getting swarmed by bats is all. I don't know where they keep coming from or why they even like me!" she huffed a bit.

Ivy smiled just a touch at the other's exasperation but knew this wasn't much of a joke to the other.

"Very cute." she said admiring the two that weren't perched on the girl's head.

"Take them!" Tarin said pointing at the brown and blue/green one. "I don't think Astonish likes either much and the last thing I need is feuding pets!" she indicated the bat on her head who was still chittering in an irate way towards the other two.

"Are you sure?"

"Very!" She picked up the two bats in her lap and handed them to the Imp girl. "Happy Haunted Hallows!" she said with a firm nod and got up, reclaimed her pail and went to find somewhere with some water.

Ivy watched the other girl walk away and then down at the bundle of bodies and wings that were sorting themselves out. Well, that had been interesting.

When Callessa was too distracted for her turn at the object guess, Eidil stepped forward. "I guess it's my turn!" she said.

The Chimera chuckled. "I guess so. If you don't think your Fallen friend will mind."

"She's busy," Eidil shrugged. "Tell you what, I'll let her have an extra go next time." She stepped forward and stuck her hand in the next box that was offered to her. This one was different. Hm...what was it...it was soft, but also surprisingly coarse. She wouldn't really have expected such a subject to show up in one of these boxes, but here it was. So, hm. What was it? She twirled it in her fingers. Well, the first one had been fishing bait, then shredded carrot, peeled grapes...aquagems...so this one was less slimy, less wet than the other ones... "Is it horse hair? A wisp of horse hair?"

The box was opened, revealing a lock of blond-ish hair. "Very nice! I would have accepted any sort of hair guess, though. What would you like?"

Eidil considered it. Her mother might complain if she came back with only candy...she pointed out a ghostie hanging from the top bar of the booth. "I'd like that little paper ghost, please. If it's available as one of the prizes?"

"Sure is," the Chimera said. "So whose turn is next?"



"Mine, I think." Cal had turned back to the game in time to see her friend correctly guess the horse hair. Good for her! And not...in a sarcastic way, either. She was genuinely glad to see Eidil win a prize. As for her? Well, she didn't mind skipping a turn. But she stepped forward nonetheless, stepping through the ever-growing menagerie around their feet. The Chimera picked up another box and offered it to her.

The substance inside straddled the line between moist and dry. It was odd, and a little spongy. Spongy...but rather dense. But light. That didn't make any sense at all...but then it struck her. Her mother liked to open a bottle of wine every so often, and they had a cork oak down the old dirt road. "Is it cork?" She was cautious this time after her failed guess last time. She didn't want to make any assumptions now!"

"Is it?" the Chimera asked. She slowly opened the box...and then ripped the lid open to reveal a piece of cork inside. "Very nice! What can I get you as a prize?"

Cal peered over the counter and pointed to a box. "What are those?"

"These?" The Chimera picked them up and inspected them. "Scream bars. Seem to be pretty popular this year. Haven't seen them before, though, so they might just be a novelty for this year."

"I'll try one," Cal said. She took one from the Chimera and shoved it in her bucket.



So now, once more, it was Teo's turn to try a box. There had been six boxes so far--Teo wondered how many of them were left! The adult running this stand seemed to have an awful lot of imagination. He wished he could come up with something as clever as this. "Do you do all of the school festivals?" he asked as he extended his arm.

The adult gently pushed the box around his arm. "Well, technically this isn't a school festival. Not entirely, anyway. It's a joint coordination between the school council and the township. But to answer your question, this is the first festival I've attended as a vendor. I graduated from the Academy last year," she explained. "But I've had this idea for a while."

Teo nodded. "I hope we see you again at the Winter's End festival," he said. He felt the object inside. "I think it's a piece of rubber."

"That it is. And thank you! I'm hoping to go too. I'll have to bring a lot more boxes than this, though, you three are too good at this!"

Teo smiled. "Thank you. I have, um, a lot of practice. May I have some chocolate please?"

The adult handed Teo a bag of candy. Teo sniffed at it--yes, definitely chocolate. He slipped into his bucket. "Thank you!"



Okay, now Chries was starting to feel bad about trying to abandon the kid. He seemed pretty badly affected by the incident with the juniors. How come teenagers needed to be so mean? Was it some sort of unspoken rule that Anchriesel had never learned? A memo that everyone else got that had somehow missed him? He sighed. No, he didn't like this little kid, but that didn't mean he had to be mean to him. "Come on, let's go over here." He steered the kid towards a table with a bunch of cards laid out.

The game master inside seemed to have fallen asleep. Chries tapped the table with a claw to wake her up. She blinked at Chries and Perigor and straightened up. "Oh, sorry about that! Getting late... Would you like to play a card-matching game?"

Chries looked down at Perigor. The freshling shrugged. He looked back up at the game master. "Sure. How do we play?"

"You turn over six cards. If you get one pair of matching cards, you win a minor prize. If you get two pairs, a medium, and if you managed to find three pairs, you win a big prize!"

"Okay." Chries reached forward and overturned the first card. An orange pumpkin. The second card...a yellow star. Third, a purple bat...okay, here was where it got scary. The fourth was a red candy. Drat. No winning the big prize, then! But the fifth card was another yellow star. The sixth, then? Ugh. Blue flitterrat.

"Minor prize it is, then! We've got popcorn balls, assorted hard candies, gum--"

"Gum," Chries said quickly. "I'll take the gum."



A card-matching game, eh? Peri shook himself out of his funk and took a step forward to the table as Anchriesel took a step back. Peri cracked his knuckles, frowned, squeezed water out of his costume, then turned back to the game. The game master had shuffled the cards and was laying them out again. Peri frowned and picked a random card. Yellow star. He picked another. Blue flitterrat. Another blue flitterrat! Red candy, and...another red candy!

The game master surveyed his cards and nodded. "You get a medium prize, then," she said. "Scream bar, lollipop, or bag of candy?"

"Bag of candy," Peri said. "And can we play again? I know that's probably not allowed, but I'm greedy and I really like your game."

He frowned when the adult laughed, but she nodded. "Sure you can! You two will be my last players before I close up for the night, how's that?"

Hallowed Haunt was always fun for Ash. Last year she and Chi had walked away with a lot of familiars and various treats, and she was hoping this year she'd get even half as lucky. Recently she'd been too into her crafts to remember to prepare a costume, so this time around she was dressed in a rather simple and generic witch attire, with black robes and a pointy hat.
As she wandered around the village, she searched around for her sister, knowing she was out there somewhere as well. While she wasn't looking, a passing senior boy slipped a piece of gummy poo into her pail. Just as she noticed it and was about to voice her disgust, something small slapped right into her face. Nearly falling down, she flailed around for a moment before realizing a young Nezubat had flown into her. It didn't seem like it belonged to anybody, so she could take it home, right?


Ugh. Rusalka was bored already. She'd lost Siren a while ago, and she was getting fed up with the noise all the kids running around the village were making. A group of freshlings she'd passed were particularly noisy and made her ears hurt. She hadn't even bothered to put on a costume, in her opinion dressing up was for freshlings. She was too old to run around dressed as a monster or whatever. But even she had to admit she liked all the games and various treats that came with the holiday. The litch decided to try her luck at a little lottery booth, and while she didn't get a grand prize, she did manage to walk away with a pretty stylish bracelet. Not the worst start for a festival.



Eriu was really excited. The orphanage didn't really have enough staff to arrange trick-or-treating for all the kids, so this was the first time she was able to properly participate. Amber had wanted to come with her, but sadly was swamped with a science project that had a strict deadline coming up. After a lengthy discussion the imp had agreed to let the child go out alone - after all, it wasn't all that likely she'd actually run into anything bad. She was happily checking out games and enjoying candy, but eventually she came across a particular game booth, with familiars as prizes. She'd noticed Amber really, really liked Nezubats, so she wanted to try and get one for her new mom. Ring tossing was actually pretty hard for a small child, but after a few attempts she actually managed to hit the target enough times to pick a black and orange Nezubat to take home, along with.. a box of raisins. Well, it could have been worse. With the bat perching on her head, she thanked the booth keeper and continued onward.


Rowan had insisted on going trick-or-treating alone, but now that they were actually out in the village they couldn't help but try to search for their sister. Ella had left a little earlier, since she'd had friends to meet up with, whereas Rowan hadn't really been able to make any connections at the Academy so far. Even now they honestly felt they would've preferred being home, listening to Lyra read out loud. Or working on a coloring book.
They did like all the cool costumes and decorations, and candy was always nice too, of course.. if only they'd had any luck with trick-or-treating.. instead, so far their only haul was a gross-looking poo gummy. It probably tasted better than it looked, but still..


Truth be told, aside from all the candy, Mana wasn't such a huge fan of Hallowed Haunt. Even if mostly for the fact they were terrified of monsters and scary stories. They also weren't very outgoing, so actually walking up to houses to trick-or-treat was a bit of a challenge. So, instead they had been spending most of their time sitting near the festival booths, trying to stay in the more well-lit areas. Groups of students of various ages passed by, and sometimes an older kid would stop and try to talk to them, but Mana just stayed quiet. Soon enough the strangers would give up and continue on their way. One senior, however, left a cute little Nezubat plushie in the child's pail, along with a piece of expired gum. Well, the plush was very soft and cuddly, so they didn't really mind the gum.

"So what did you get?" Odessa held up some of the old candy that the last haul had given her.



Sweet! Another bat! They'd have the whole collection in no time, they were sure!






"Oh man, that stuff is always so bad!" Kara giggled and held up her candied apple. "I can't wait to get this thing home and eat it though!"





Anara had managed to sneak up on another booth, relieving it of an orange tiger skeleton plushie without being seen! She smirked and placed it carefully in her bucket, they didn't stand a chance against her!



Treats Total: 16
Odessa = 6
Kiessi = 7
Kara = 2
Anara = 1



Odessa-


Kiessi-


Kara-


Anara-

Items


Points

Ares, glad to have the night looking up, made his way back to the haunted house he'd been helping out at. To his surprise, there had been a few additional volunteers while he'd been gone and they didn't need his help any longer. He flashed a smile and thanked them then turned to head back towards the festival. There were more games to play after all, no need to worry about helping out if they had enough people.

Among all the games and booths Ares spotted a stall selling caramel apples and some things to drink. Now that the thought crossed his mind, he realized his mouth was parched. Without a second thought he got himself a bottle of water and one of the caramel apples. His first one had been great and he could use this one as a snack for later on. Downing half the water in one big gulp, he tucked the apple into his pail, thankful it was wrapped.

Azura has long since let go of the other their sleeve, but kept a good locked grip over Sivar probably because of the fact if they let go Sivar would have just turned and walked back home. This allowed Glitch to trail steadily behind at a comfortable pace surveying the scene.

Sivar hadn't gotten a so gle treat so far, and whatever Azura acquired they are almost instaniously. This made them the prime target of candy theft out of their group, and was especially so thanks to the lack of Freshling out on the street now that it was starting to get late.

Glitch: "This is the golden hour rookie. Now that there are less people out its easier to spot our guy assuming they haven't already snatched some poor sucker's candy, but we also gotta play it cool."

Their group having been led by the adventurous Azura ended up finding its way towards a haunted house. A really creepy one at that. No cheap store purchased props here. Everything was hand made. Man some people just have messed up priorities, this musta cost a fortune to make, and forever to set up.

As the group approached the entrance of a maze of cardboard wallpapered and painted to look like brick Glitch started to get secobd thoughts. Standing next to the well designed cardboard gates Glitch felt imencly small and the overwhelming feeling that someone was watching them was only getting stronger at this point.

Glitch: "I'm no sour Sally, but this place doesn't look like its dishing out any candy that fast. We should go on to the next house."

Azura: "Come on, where is your sense of adventure? I bet there is loads of candy at the end of this thing. Anyone who puts this much time and money into props probably has the best candy on the block. I bet they got full sized chocolate bars!"

Nervous but not wanting to show it, especially after gaining no support from the apathetic Sivar, Glitch shrugged the feeling and followed the two of them in letting them go first so they wouldn't get as surprised from the jump scares. Meanwhile they took a long stare towards their rear as they walked past the cape covering the gates of the haunted house. For a moment they could have sworn they had seen those gleaming eyes again.





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Sivar didn't spend much time outside of the school grounds. In fact he probably wouldn't have gone at all if it wasn't for his more ecetric friend nagging him to go and by the time the evening did roll around Sivar probably would have changed his mind to turn around and go home if it wasn't for that very same friend tugging him along door to door.

Sivar: "What a bother. . ." He grumbled to himself not caring whether his friend heard or not. Even so his friend didn't seem to let up their optimism over the evening.

Friend: "AW cool! A haunted house! Someone went all out on decorations this year. Let's go!"

Sivar: "I would rather not." He expressed pulled his sleev out of the grasp of his friend. This however didn't seem to deter his friend. Were they just purposefully ignoring him now and choosing to drag him along to suffer? That's pretty sadistic he thought, the idea of which somehow didn't bother him anymore. How much worse can it get though, they already got him out her dressed up in a stupid costume well past the age he should be out spazzing over candy.

Sivar: "Fine, let's just get this over with." Sivar soghed somewhat defeated just wanting to get the night finished with vomplide. To his friend this was the best thing Sivar said a night and yanked both himself and Sivar forward in to the opening of the haunted house with newfound vigor.

Sivar: "This is going to be a long night."





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Cosette having just moved in with their adopted mother was still struggling to get used to this abnormal way of living. She missed her friends at the orphanage and wasn't entirely sure if she enjoyed living out in the middle of no where by the sea. It was too quiet and ominous for her. Next to her city life upbringing she was the silence was unsettling as she had gotten used to the background noise of the city bustle.

Argona was nice to her though, and she didn't want to make her feel bad, so Cosette kept her feelings to herself. She just had to believe what everyone else at the Orphanage said, that she was lucky to get adopted especially to someone with money. Cosette didn't seem to think this sea side cotage looked lavish, in fact next to the expansive school grounds of the newly built Nightmare Academy she thought of this place as a little run down. But that's not why she agreed to come. Yes Argona seems patient, quiet, understanding and something about her kind face told her that she was the right one.

Cosette: "This is just going to take some time is all." Cosette mumbled to herself as she facend the last button on her costume. "Argona, I got my costume on! Ready to see?!" She hurried down the stairs giving the last two stepsa jump before pivoting around the corner and giving Argona a twirl before curtseying. "I'm a fairy princess!"

"Hurry up or we'er gonna be late. We have to get there before sundown!"

In fact Argona was so understanding that she noticed Cosette's yearning for the city and decided despite the distance and cost to take the portal into the city for the evening. Cosette filled with excitement hoped to meet up with her friends from the Orphanage, but having been so caught up with everything going on hadn't realized she had grabbed Argona's hand and tugged her along in search of candy and friends. Argona however smiled warmly at the first few signs of affection and traveled along happy to see Cosette smile like this for the first time.



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Janine (9)


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