It's that time of year again, when a cold chill clings to the air and there's just something spooky about it…
This contest is simple! Write a Halloween-themed solo and post it in this thread! How you choose to interpret this is up to you—is your character shopping for a costume? Telling ghost stories? Exploring haunted buildings, buying candy or baking pie? If it screams Halloween to you, write something up and let us read! We have an array of tickets to give out, so if you're itching for a solo, have at it!
Rules:
1) You may choose the topic for your solo and have free reign to write about anything you like provided it is in some way related to Halloween! The solos will be judged in several categories, so just write whatever you like! Spooky, funny, sentimental—there will be multiple winners and prizes for participating in this contest!
2) There are many categories to be judged, but you may only submit one solo, sorry! Solos should not exceed two thousand words, however we will not exclude entries that might be a few words over the max. There is no minimum word count for how long your solos should be, however if you would like to use them for requirements (and, you may!), then these must have at least 500 words.
3) If you do not have a character in the shop but would still like to participate in this game you may!. You may write a solo with a disposable or you may write a hypothetical solo with a character you are questing! (You should not mention any powered names, however you may use a civilian name! These solos will not be considered canon unless you win your character and cannot be used to grow a disposable/quest character unless you win within two weeks after the contest ends! This might be confusing, but if you have questions you may PM the shop mule and we will help explain!)
4) The contest will run until Midnight PST Thursday, the 29th; judging will conclude within roughly twenty four hours so that winners will still have time to post and claim their raffle tickets! First place for each category is guaranteed 3 tickets, and runner-ups will receive 2. All participants will immediately receive one ticket per solo (up to one ticket) and they may post to claim as soon as they post their solo submission in this thread!
To post your entry for this contest please use the form below!
[size=18][b]Halloween Solo![/b][/size]
[please either link out to where your solo is written or post your solo in this thread!]
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 11:02 pm
Halloween Solo!
Link It's the one right at the bottom, listed as posted today and dated as October 26th.
Briar had been sitting in the corner of the school playground whilst waiting for the morning bell and reading the choose your own adventure book that he had checked out of the big Destiny City library a couple of days back but up until now had not had the chance to read.
His part of the playground was okay - quiet - which was just the way he liked it, although not as great as his favourite reading spot in the park. It was starting to get a little too cold for the park however, was starting to get dark sooner too - to the point where his Mum was starting to make a fuss about wearing coats and stuff again.
Briar really, really wished that she wouldn't. After all it wasn't as if he was a kid... In fact he was going to be thirteen at the end of the month - October the 31st to be precise - aka Halloween. Then there was the fact that this was to be his last year at Knightside as this time next year he was going to be at High School and if he was old enough to be a nearly High Schooler then he was far too old to be fussed over.
Either way he had been sitting in the playground, with his book and immersing himself in the city of Kharé when he had been interrupted by the act of someone snatching away his book.
He'd been kind of irritated when he had looked up and found Thomas Logan grinning down at him since he'd been at a really, really good part, although Thomas hadn't been particularly bothered by the annoyed look he shot his way, most likely down to the fact that he was kind of a friend when he wasn't off being annoying.
At some point the two of them had ended talking about Halloween and their plans for it and Briar had mentioned his upcoming birthday and he had also mentioned that he was going trick-o-treating and that he was finally being allowed to go on his own.
He wasn't quite sure when it had all turned into a bet about who could get the most candy whilst dressed up in their Halloween finest - but given that the loser had to buy the winner cookies for a month - it was one that Briar definitely didn't intend to lose.
First up Briar knew that he had to find a costume and the costume had to be the bestest baddest costume he could think off. Well okay the second bestest baddest costume - because the bestest baddest costume would have been going into superhero mode as Oort.
Being Oort was for secret superhero stuff though - like looking for and fighting the monsters that most people didn't seem to know about and so whilst Briar knew that he would totally ace the bet as Oort, he had instead tried to hunt around for an actual Halloween costume.
There had been plenty on sale in the shops, but Briar had wanted just the right one - after all he was going for badass - even if it was the second bestest.
He had rejected dressing up as a vampire because the costumes looked fussy - way, way fussy and whilst the cape was kind of neat the frilly tie thing that so many of them had was a definite no-no.
Dressing up as a ninja had seemed promising because ninjas were stealthy and sneaky and cool and a lot of the costumes came with a neato ninja sword - which looked kind of bad a** despite being made out of plastic... Although the pirate costumes on sale were also pretty cool and there was the whole hunting for treasure thing - or in this case candy.
In the end, with about ten days to spare before the whole Halloween day, Briar had decided to go with making his own costume and had gone with making a scarecrow costume.
It wasn't just any old scarecrow costume though, but a creepy one with real straw and red paint to make it look like blood - he'd even gotten a decent-sized pumpkin which he was planning to carve by himself and make look as creepy as possible - with whole idea being that he could carry it around with him. In fact to that end he had even managed to hunt down a tea light so that it would be all lit up and everything come Halloween night.
It had taken him up until three days before Halloween to get everything ready to his satisfaction, but now it was and here he was. In fact he had finally finished carving the pumpkin to his liking just that very evening.
Flopping out on his bed Briar lazily eyed the costume hanging proudly up on the wardrobe - although the hanging up was more his Mum's doing rather than his - after some debating Thomas and he had agreed that they'd get their older sibs to do the judging over who had gotten the most candy, particularly as Thomas only lived down the road to him and his brother Scott was down for the weekend anyway.
Briar hadn't actually mentioned that little factor to his brother yet, but he was pretty sure that Scott would go for it - especially if he offered him some of the candy...
Just as he was pretty sure that he was going to ace the whole thing.
After all the costume had turned out pretty swell and the pumpkin looked pretty bad a** if he did say so himself and he did because he had spent next to forever on carefully carving it just so with narrow-looking eyes and lots and lots of pointy teeth... After all when all was said and done there were cookies at stake - a whole months worth - and Briar fully intended that they were going to be his cookies.
And so here he was with just three days left to go.
Three days to his birthday and three days to the bet - a bet he was going to ace.
“Hey, you want to come out with us tonight? We’re going to go to a haunted house!”
At first Anelie didn’t even register the words. She was in her own world, chin on her palm and elbow leaning on her school desk. It was a few minutes from lunch time and the teacher was talking to another teacher in the hallway, leaving everyone to chatter excitedly about how close Halloween was and how cool their costumes were going to be.
She felt weirdly detached from it all. Idly drawing circles and squares on her notepad, scribbling vines down the lines and going back to add leaves and flowers. When you’d seen people die and been attacked by a youma, Halloween was suddenly much less interesting. She couldn’t care less about dressing up and wandering around the streets at night as just a normal girl.
“Yooo Anelieee, are you listening?”
The green-haired girl blinked and finally looked up at her grinning classmate.
And that was how Anelie found herself standing outside an old abandoned house, on the outskirts of the city and somewhere her parents were going to be really mad about if they ever found out. Not that she wasn’t extremely talented at keeping things from them but even she had to admit they’d upped their snooping game.
She looked sideways at the three other girls, all of them clutching each other and giggling madly, taking a selfie for posterity. Anelie rolled her eyes. This might have been fun if Dio was here but he wasn’t, instead she’d accepted the invitation of three popular girls who she knew had only invited her because they thought she was weird.
They were probably going to abandon her in there.
Well, they were going to have to make other plans.
“I’m going in!” She declared and marched up to the front door.
They scurried after her with shrieks of protest but she’d already opened the door with a long, high ‘creaaaaaaaaaaak’.
“Ladies first,” she said to herself and stepped inside.
When her eyes adjusted, Anelie did have to admit the place was a bit creepy. White sheets covered the furniture and everything had that cold, abandoned feel. A layer of dust covered everything.
“Torches,” she suggested and four of them came to life, one with a jiggle to beat the batteries into submission, and the bright beams raked across the scene.
Stairs going up and stairs doing down.
“We’ll split up,” one of the girls, Meredith, suggested. “You and Connie should go up. I’ll go down with Pria.”
Anelie shrugged and agreed. Connie looked too terrified to move already, so Anelie took her hand and led her to the stairs. “Don’t worry. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
The upstairs was creepier than down. There was something about a dusty bedroom that sent a shiver up your spine, especially when the floor was littered with discarded clothes. A one-eyed doll stared at them from the bed.
“Are you okay?”
“I want to go home now. This is horrible. I was reading about ghosts last night and-“ Connie rambled, clinging to the door like it was her only lifeline.
Anelie made a noncommittal sound and stepped further into room, poking at a grey (probably once white) nightie with her foot. Was that a bloodstain?
“I only came because Meredeith is super popular and I guess I wanted to be popular too and she promised to tell Greg how nice I am and where are you go-“
“GRAAAAH!” “Aaaaaaah!”
The scream that echoed from downstairs was echoed by Connie as the girl nearly jumped out of her skin. Anelie squawked in surprise and grabbed the other girl to pull her forward, slamming the door shut just as something large hurtled into it with a dull thud.
Not a youma. Not a youma. You’re okay.
For one thing the door probably wouldn’t have held and for another, she’d heard a soft ‘ouch’ as she’d closed the door on their assailant. A very girly ouch. She wasn’t in possession of any Senshi strength right now but she had learnt a few trips, so when she opened the door and the ‘monster’ charged in, her foot was in the way.
The ‘monster’ went over and hit the ground with a thud. Anelie was surprised and quietly delighted, when Connie, having risen to the occasion, smacked the creature with the one-eyed doll.
And kept smacking until their attacker pulled their mask off with an ‘ow ow ow stop it please! Oh my god, what is wrong with- OW!’. And that was how Meredith arrived at school the next day with a black eye.
But the night didn’t end that quickly. Pria had been videoing the debacle on her phone and she looked embarrassed as she gathered up her fallen friend, barely giving the other two a glance as they left the scene of their failed prank as quickly as possible.
“Well, that went well. You should keep that,” Anelie grinned, pointing at the doll Connie was still holding on to. “You were pretty awesome.”
The other girl flushed. “T-thank you. So were you.”
As they stood in that dusty old room, a monster mask at their feet, Anelie felt the first stirrings of a new friendship. It felt nice. She’d felt lonely at school for a long time now. Cut off from her fellow students because of the life that she led as a Senshi. To have someone who might want to sit with her at lunch, or talk on the phone about silly things or even just invite to her birthday. Yeah, that would be nice. The simple things.
“Hey-“ She started to say and then there was a howl, but a real one, from somewhere not too far away. “Hey, um, I’ll see you at school tomorrow. Be careful going home!”
Then she ran out of the room, felt the unraveling of that fragile friendship, as she burst out of their haunted house and transformed. Just as she’d suspected a youma was nearby and Aludra made a beeline towards it, her smile bitter and her heart hammering in her chest as no silly building could make her feel. This was the real deal.
Being a Senshi came first. Having a normal life would have to wait.
The next day, to her surprise, as Anelie ate her lunch on her own, someone sat down beside her. Connie smiled shyly and said, ‘hey’.
You guys had some really awesome entries and it was difficult to pick just the ones we did!
Solos that received first place in a category will earn three tickets for the raffle! (Staff will be adding these in, so don't worry about posting to the thread! We just wanted everyone to see how they placed!) Thanks so much for sharing your solos!
Sleet Tempest Snape: Most Bittersweet NovaCracker: Saddest Solo Litian: Most Fun Ruriska: Most Heartwarming Natsuko-Neko: Most exciting Felyn: Most Action Packed LP: Most Creative Divine Saturn: Most Thoughtful
