Welcome to Gaia! ::

A pair of beady eyes looked around the festivities, the creature unnoticed. Sometimes it paid to be an entirely anonymous and rather unimportant gnome whom major plot events revolved around.

In his hand were two crates of - contents questionable.

Unbeknown to everyone else, one day the gnome would destroy all of Halloween just you watch, just you watch...

For now, he jingled one of the crates, unlatching the front of the door, nodding to the pair of beady yellow eyes inside. "You know what you do, sic em."

A blur of black sped out from within the cage.

Damien could have sworn he smelled the acrid stench of gnome failure in the air.

But Hell-o bacon wrapped hotdogs on a plate.

That suddenly didn't matter anymore.
((Nuk come back so Demi can argue with you over life))

At first, the tikbalang remembered not being able to move, obeying and following the whim of someone else. His first instinct was to open his eyes and when he did so, he found himself...

Where was he? His memories were fuzzy for the time being. Perhaps it was for the best that all he could recall were sensations and emotions. Because he managed to brush them aside in favor of orienting himself with his location. He felt, rather than saw, other people brushing past him, and realized he was in a throng of bodies.

FEAR-rich bodies.

And this comforted the monster horse enough to notice something was in his hand. His fingers twitched, accidentally dropping it and Petro was quick to kneel down to scoop it back up, along with a handful of silver seeds. That was when it occurred to him that there was something on his head.

His free hand reached out to touch and feel, eventually concluding that it was a carved pumpkin head. Removing it, he was greeted with the familiar sight of Halloween. But underlying the feeling of relief and happiness, there was a sensation of dread and worry he could just not shake off.

((sn: randonimity))

sent

"Thank you," she all but purred at Yosuke. Compliments were always welcome, and the ghoul couldn't help but preen, colorful feathers flaring as she flexed her wings, then folded them neatly along her back once more.

Pale fingers squeezed the darker ones that had taken hold of her hand, and she let the fae-hound pull her along, laughing softly at his enthusiasm. "We're going to be covered in glitter by the end of this." She didn't sound terribly upset about this, but she was a very colorful individual, quite literally, so a little more couldn't really hurt much.

A familiar robe caught the chimera's eye as they moved through the crowd, and at once soft ears perked. "Nahm!" The grue had quite easily caught the ghoul's fancy at least a year ago, and she had never yet missed a chance to pay him and his twin a visit.

She wasn't about to abandon Than though. "We're headed to the sparkle house if you want to come with," she called after him, still letting the mutt pull her along. "If not I'll find you later!" And that was a promise.

In spite of the wall of sound surrounding them as the party raged on, the silence from Mort was palpable as he chewed over Alex's words.

Dead. Dead. No Fear, no pumpkin patch, no hospital or nurses. Just . . . gone. He shivered and hugged himself, feeling what was left of his insides churn. Like Alex, he found himself swallowing breaths to keep the nausea down, to keep calm, to try and smooth out the thinking processes of his stuttering brain.

Crystal - Fear fragment. Distortion. The blessing and curse from Medea that in the end had brought, birthed, an answer in the middle of madness. The one thing that he had never been able to tell Be-

A sharp pain went through him and, peeling his hand off the zomboil's shoulder, he briefly curled into himself with a noise issued through clenched teeth.

Too much. Too much behind that name. No facing it, not yet. He turned his mind to something less painful.

A fight. So many fights blurred together during that time. Hunters and Halloweeners, leaders and once-corrupted icons, shadowy figures that directed without conscious thought to their partner. A plea hidden in a bargain, an exchange - equivalent exchange. Lives for lives. Sorrow for salvation. And now Alex mentioned time, and Mort had to wonder how long it had been, how much had happened since . . .

The grip on his arms loosened, but he was still wound tight at the sound of her name.

"Yin." Equivalent exchange. If he was to suffer through her name, then Alex would suffer through his. "Sh-Should go find him." It was obvious that Mort was trying his best to look more in control of himself, more solid than he actually felt, as he turned his gaze to the other zomboil. "M' . . . gonna sit here for a bit. Head's not clear, not yet. Wouldn't do, coming back broken."

Like he had so many times before.





~ ~ ~

>[ Fine, don't share. Silly ghoul. Kyrie huffed and dropped her avaricious look, replacing it all too quickly with the same girlish smile she had first given - as if she hadn't just insinuated she wanted to get somma dat loot.

She waved a hand daintily as if to say "no big deal" when the other ghoul apologized for bumping into her, followed by an eager point towards the buffet table. Somewhere over . . . there. Past the multiple groups of people and through a huge line circulating the perimeter of the food-covered table.

*AAA* Much better than candy stuffed in someone's purse! The ghost tilted her head towards her expectantly, questioning if she was willing to brave the crowds for better fewds. As she did so, Kyrie caught sight of a funny pumpkin-headed creature across a small distance form them who . . . Wait, had he been there before?

She passed the ghoul a OwO look, beckoning her to follow her towards the funny boil instead of fewdssss and floating right on up to the tikbalang with wide red eyes, intent on finding out about his need to wear jack-o-lanterns - not that they were out of fashion, but he clearly didn't finish the costuming if so.

Ashford settled on watching the crowd, hazel eyes watching them move and mingle about. When Thackery approached, the reaper grinned toothily, and turned the given hug into a full on spin, lifting the other boil off his feet.

"Happy Halloween," he replied in his raspy timbre. "I presume you made the scarelings quake in fear of their house keys being taken?" The tone was serious: and Ash quirked a brow as he questioned Thackery.

As he set the demon down, Ash wound an arm around his waist-- warm, comfortable. Where it should be.

"Are you peckish, Thackery? Or do you wish to see the house of sparkles before getting a bite to eat?"

He was lazy, unhurried. They had all the time in the world.

Taima could only ignore her instinctual dislike for tightly packed crowds for so long before the need to escape, to get out and stretch her wings took over. It was a shame; she had been having a good time, but now it was time to get some air. With a bit of reluctance, she made her way back through the crowd, dancing around other people. Her progress was slow, going against the tide as she was, and she found herself being pushed around more often than not.

It was inevitable, with so many bodies packed into one place. Taima was trying to get around someone and wound up tripping over them instead, and at the same time was bumped in the back by someone else. Her momentum sent her hurtling uncontrollably forward. "Ow," she yelped as she fell against what felt like a brick wall, her fingers scrabbling for purchase as she tried to at least stay upright. "Sorry," she said even as she tried to right herself, "it was..." Taima trailed off as she got a good look at who she had run into. The good cheer that had kept her going all night immediately took a back burner to other things: suspicion, disbelief, relief.

"Petro?" Taima asked, her smile twisting into a confused frown. She straightened, but didn't step too far away, not wanting to let the crowd get between them. "Is that...how is that you? We all saw you--" she started, and then thought better of it. There would be plenty of time to question him later, if he was, in fact, no longer the weapon she had seen him turn into in the Haunted House. "Well. Welcome back, I think. Are you okay?"