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Alex happily handed over the plate of food and followed Yin up the stairs in his slow and steady shamble. Upon reaching the top he slouched along next to his friend, thinking of what he might prefer to do. "If you're feeling up to some more family time, then I'd like to just give it some food and then go back downstairs and eat with everyone else." He answered, then waited for the door to be opened to his bedroom before entering.

He immediatly turned towards the kennel, lowering himself to the floor clumsily and managing to spill some of the contents of his plate on to the floor as he did so. Well...his new pet could just eat that stuff. He put his plate down beside himself on the floor and reached out to open the kennel door. The strange looking creature inside was awake, flicking it's table back and forth as it looked at Alex curiously through narrow eyes, sniffing at the air. Alex picked up the bloody chunks of meat off of the floor and held it out in his hand towards the little creature in it's kennel. It stepped forward, bending it's head down as it's...incredibly creepy mouth opened and snatched the meat out of Alex's hand, nearly taking a chunk of Alex's flesh with it. He yelped, pulling his hand away.

"Well..Uh..I guess he likes it?" Alex was rubbing his hand on his leg, still able to feel the graze of razor sharp teeth against his skin. Was that what it had been like for Yin, when Alex had almost bitten into his shoulder? He looked over at the other boil, suddenly feeling horrible about that whole fight again. He then reached down and grabbed the rest of the meat that was lying on the floor, tossing it into the kennel and shutting the door again. He then pushed himself to his feet, picking his plate of food off of the floor.

"Shall we go back downstairs then?" He asked, possibly a little more quiet and subdued then usual.

Alex snacked on the food sitting on his plate as they walked, unable to help himself with so much deliciousness in abundance sitting right there in front of his greedy zombie face. By the time they made it to the end of the hallway, down the stairs, out the front door, around the house, and to the small clearing in the forest that they had all sat in the night before, Alex's plate was more then half empty of food. He also waved at the cousins as they arrived, though none responded except with small nods or shrugs as they were all too busy stuffing their own faces as well, though they were nearly finished at this point.

He found a place with room beside him for Yin to sit (if he wanted to, of course), and begain finishing off his meal. It wasn't long before several of the members of their party were finished their own meals, and began laughing and starting up new conversations.

"Hey Alex, you tell Yin the toy shop story yet? We'd love to hear your rendition!" One boil guffawed while the others laughed along with him. Alex gave them a scowl but chose to ignore the comments as he was still too busy finishing off his dinner to respond.

Then Justin was speaking. "We still got some cider left over from last night hidden out here. You want any, Alex?" Alex stopped eating, dropping the bone he'd been gnawing at back on his plate and putting the plate on the ground to his side as he shook his head.

"Nah, it's...I've decided it's not really my thing," He answered, pulling his knees up to rest his arms on.

Justin just scoffed at Alex, "Scareling. How about you, Yin? Want some?"

Alex may have raised an eyebrow at Yin accepting the offer of cider. The zomboil might have considered having some again tonight but after how he felt this morning...and after having already said to Yin he was never drinking cider again, it would probably have been an extreme act of foolishness on his own part if he did. So he kept his mouth shut and watched as Justin rummaged around in the undergrowth for wherever he'd hidden the unopen bottles from the night before, pulled them out, and began passing them around to whoever wanted one. He did note with some satisfaction that not everyone was taking a bottle. Olivia for one, but she hadn't really the night before, either.

He felt like he aught to at least warn the weremantis, in case he liked the taste of it and decided to down the whole bottle. "Don't drink it too fast..." He murmured quietly, leaning in close so only Yin would hear him. "It goes straight to your head quickly if you've never had it before."

Talking like the truly experienced already.

Louder, he said, "So guys, any other plans for tonight or is this about it? I wouldn't mind a game or something..."

Justin just shrugged, along with a few of the other boils, taking a swig of his cider before answering. "Drink these first, since theres not many left, then we'll figure it out."

That seemed to be the best answer he was going to get, so he just sat in silence for now, bored already.

A couple of the boils in the group might have snickered behind their hands at the face Yin made after taking his first sip of cider, but Alex honestly didn't blame the weremantis. The stuff really did taste awful, but after the first bottle, Alex hadn't noticed the taste nearly as much anymore. He felt an almost overwhelming sense of relief that Yin decided not to drink anymore of it after the second sip, handing it off to the zomboil on the other side of him. Alex gave him a small smile.

"Well...sometimes we play hide and shriek, or capture the severed head, which personally, I'd rather play. It's actually pretty fun, especially at night time when it's harder to see. Oh, and I tend not to lose my leg when playing it." He grinned, making light of the earlier situation.

A few of the other boils in the group, speaking up to say which of the two games they would rather play, but the general consensus seemed to be for capture the severed head.

"We'd need to get more people involved for that game though, so it will have to wait until all of the adults are finished eating."

Alex turned and nodded at the weremantis, smiling happily. "Ya, it's a pretty fun game. Basically you have two teams, and each team has there own...section of land. On that section they have to hide the severed head on a pole, and then the opposing team has to find it, capture it, and take it back to their teams home base. But there are guards set up to protect the head, and if they tag you before you can get the head and take it back to base, you become their prisoner and have to wait in a specified area until you are either rescued or the game is over."

Alex thought that pretty much covered everything, and he was more then a little amused by Yin's beheading question.

"No no no. Zombies really don't like to...lose there heads." Unconsciously, Alex reached a hand up to his own neck, fingers brushing against his stitches as though checking they were still secure. "So we just use an animal head and have it on a pole, like I said. Would you be interested in playing? Maybe we can even be on the same team this time!" He grinned, liking that idea better then getting beaten by the weremantis for a third time this weekend. They could either win together or lose together.

"Nah, just about everyone will join in, and theres no set number on how many people are allowed to play, so you should be good. And uh..ya, we'll get seperated up somehow. Maybe draw straws or something...." It would all work out anyways. Alex pretty much had the same sentiments on not wanting to be teamed up with the cousins who were busy filling their undead bellies with alcohol, and was getting a little bit tired of their japes, so he opted to go and see if the adults were finished eating, standing up and waiting to see if Yin would follow him before taking off.

Inside the house there were a lot of groups standing around, chatting, laughing, drinking. The usual adult conversation occurring while most of the youngins were out and about, up to their own devices. Alex sought up the massive frame of his dad, making his way through the crowds to where he stood.

"Hey dad! Capture the severed head?" He called out, obviously eager to get a game started. His dad grinned at him broadly and nodded, which indicated that he'd take care of getting the masses outside and ready to play, and then it was back outside for Alex, to await the coming together of the horde in another game of sport.

"I really hope we get put on the same team this time. I don't know how many prizes I have left to give you for winning." He joked, trying to make light of the fact that Yin always seemed to come out on top.

"How are you feeling, anyways? Not too overwhelmed, are you?" He asked, clearly just concerned for his friends well being.

Alex grinned at the other boil, glad that things were more..normal between the two of them again. "Give me time. I have to prepare myself mentally for such a dramatic retelling of a classic story." He said, while watching the horde slowly trickle out of the house and into the yard. His hands eventually found there way into his pockets as he waited.

"Though if you want to change your prize at anytime, or save it up for later, you're more then welcome to do so." He might have sounded the faintest bit hopeful at that idea.

Eventually the yard was filled, with boil and ghoul zombies alike, Adults, scarelings, and those inbetween who were ready to play. One zombie came forward with two animal skulls, likely hallow deer from earlier during the hunt. Alex's Dad was easy to spot, hovering almost a head taller then most of the zombies around him. He held up a hand and most of the idle chatter on the lawn stopped. He was pretty much center of the lawn, and he looked left, and right, among those standing around, He then shambled down the middle, pushing zombies left or right, until the there was an empty line directly down the middle of the yard where nobody stood. With a grin, he pointed to the group on the left, then on the right "Groups made. Get your skull. Thirty minutes to hide and the game begins."

Well, that was easy! Alex smiled at Yin. "Come on, let's go and see what we should do. Maybe we can get on the gaurd together."

Of course Alexander was stalling. Nobody wanted to tell the person that they liked a highly embarrassing story, one that would possibly embarrass Yin more then it did Alex, really. The story of the toy shop that was not actually a scarelings toy shop? Ya, no. Yin would probably regret the decision of asking to hear about it, and Alex would probably continue to try to lure him towards a different prize.

Just not right now.

"It's..one of the important jobs, yes." He said, "Our job would be to hide somewhat near the skull, but not near enough as to give away it's location to scouts from the other team. If anybody comes close enough and we believe we can capture them, we 'tag' them, and they become a prisoner of war." He grinned. "We will have an area to take them to, which will be a designated prison. They can be rescued by other members of their team by being tagged back out again. Unfortunatly...since it's dark it might be hard to tell who is on one team and who is on the other." He glanced over to see that all of the boils on the other team were taking off their shirts, which would be helpful, but the ghouls did no such thing.

"Just...look over their now and try to remember the faces of all of the ghouls. Or, better yet, stick with me and I'll tell you who's an enemy and who isn't."

Since Alex, of course, recognised them all easily. His mom was on the other team, as well as his cousin, Olivia, and a couple of aunts and other cousins. His sister, Isabella, appeared to be on their own team. She looked fairly happy, quite different from her normally solemn self.

It wasn't long before a group of zombies were taking off into the forest with the head, and Alex was nodding towards them. "We should go with them. I'm really no good at all for being a scout or a skull retrieve unit. Too slow and clumsy, especially in the dark." He smiled at the weremantis. "If you'd rather do one of those jobs though, go ahead. I can talk to you after the game."