Character’s Name:Toby Yates Age: 15 Appearance: Green eyed, light skinned boy with short dirty blond hair and one streak dyed green on the left side of his face.
Today, he's wearing a white jacket with blue marks, a multi-colored scarf draped loosely over it, and a light colored pair of pants.
Personality Traits: (Full descriptions in quest) Virtues: Assume the Best of Everyone: if it isn't obviously malicious, it clearly isn't. Just Do It: No procrastinating or waffling from him Count on Me!: He does what he can, as much as possible Flaws: Too Trusting: Very easy to abuse his trust Nosy: He wants to know. So much.
The Space Cauldron
Prompt:
It’s fall and pumpkin spice is everywhere. A local coffee shop has some great new recipes and there’s been a lot of buzz about it—only, if you’ve indulged you may find yourself with some unusual side effects. Due to some very defective pumpkins (and who knows what else), pumpkin spice lovers are suffering from nausea, vomiting and—perhaps worst of all—your skin has turned orange on top of it all. Thankfully the discoloration and illness seems to wear off within a few hours, but you probably shouldn’t go back for a second cup.
It was morning. A good morning, in fact. There were no giant spiders trying to eat his face, no creepy dolls watching every step, no weird laughter echoing from nowhere.
And it was his birthday. Always nice.
Toby decided to be bold and adventurous (he was 15 now, after all!) and suggested to his new friend from the Spider Party, Michiko, that they go try some of those new Pumpkin Spice coffees at this swanky coffee place in town. School started late enough that they could grab some and make it in just fine, he reasoned. Make the day even better.
Have a nice, normal day for once. (Yeah, good luck.)
In contrast to how he'd dressed at the Botanical Garden, he actually was wearing rather bright colors: A white jacket with blue marks, a multi-colored scarf draped loosely over it, and a light colored pair of pants. His hair with the green stripe had not changed, though. He had his hands in his pockets as he approached the coffee shop, almost exactly at the time he'd said on the phone the night before. He was feeling good about the day, and was smiling to reflect that.
Midnightglow18
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 7:23 am
Tolin Kalin
Michiko was meeting up with her new friend Toby who she had met last night at the crazy botanical garden party, she felt like they bonded surviving the crazy party. Michi was a little sad that they hadn't gotten to play any games or win any or see any rare plants. That was really depressing to Michiko since that was why she had gone to the garden in the first place since Michiko loved plants so much. Michiko was wearing a lot more clothing that day then the night of the party, since it was chilly out she was wearing a red hat.
A red coat and a green sweater. Michiko was also wearing red gloves that matched her hat, after the party or spider attack depending on what you wanted to call it. Michiko had exchanged phone numbers with Toby and agreed to meet up with him at the coffee shop for his birthday. Since neither of them had many friends yet it seemed like a good idea. Michiko smiled when she spotted Toby, she waved her gloved hand at him and went over to met with him. She figured they could talk a moment before they went into the cafe. Michiko figured that coffee couldn't be harmful right?
Toby spotted her as she approached, and grinned at her, pulling a hand out of a pocket to wave. It's funny how meeting someone in a costume can color your perceptions of them...he was rather expecting a butterfly again, for some crazy reason. Although the color Michiko was wearing were pretty flowery, it just wasn't the same. Not that it was a problem, of course, just one of those odd thoughts you're bound to get, now and again.
Once she was close enough, he said cheerfully, "Mornin', Michi! How're you?" His smile faded ever so slightly as his eyes briefly darted from side to side and he asked, "Haven't, uh...seen any of those spiders again, right?"
Midnightglow18
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 8:59 am
Tolin Kalin
Michi smiled at Toby and she went up to him and said: "Hey Toby it's nice to see you again, better today." She scrunched up her face at the mention of the spiders. "No I haven't seen any more since the party, but some parts of the city are covered in spider webs, so you should be careful." Michiko felt bad that she couldn't tell Toby all she had learned but as far as she knew Toby was just a normal guy and didn't need to know what was really going on so he could stay safe and wouldn't get hurt.
Michiko opened the door to the cafe and turned back to Toby "Come on let's go celebrate your birthday I don't want to think about spiders right now." Michi shivered, she still wanted to kick some spider but. Well if you considered if spiders had buts anyways. Michiko went into and looked at the menu to decide what she wanted to order. She looked at the pumpkin spice and shook her head and instead ordered a mocha latte with two shots of raspberry. She looked to Toby and smiled "You can order whatever you want my treat for your birthday." She said in a warm tone.
"Oh, really?" Toby responded cheerfully. "Great! Thanks! My mom gave me some money to get some, but if you wanna..." He patted his pocket with a grin, and looked back to the menu on the wall. He ordered the fancy seasonal pumpkin spice latte. After ordering, he told Michi, "I've never really had one of these before...I hope it's good!"
It was certainly true that the boy had no idea what was really going on in this city, but he was starting to get the idea that, at the very least, something very odd must be happening. What it was, he couldn't fathom, and for the moment he was content to just wonder.
While they waited for their orders, Toby asked lightly, "So...you just moved here too, right? How'd you end up here, in what's looking like the craziness capital of the world?"
Midnightglow18
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 10:08 am
Tolin Kalin
Michi nodded and smiled a little as she said "Yes I want to, it's your birthday and you were very brave last night against those spiders." Michiko said softly. Michiko smiled and nodded listening to Toby order what he wanted. "I hope so too, it wouldn't be much fun to get a bad drink on your birthday." Michiko scrunched up her face in distaste at the idea. Michiko waited for their drinks, then she picked hers up and went over to the chairs and tables to sit down and wait for Toby to join her. Michiko nodded and then said "Yes my parents moved us to this city not long ago."
If only she could tell Toby how crazy things really were, but she couldn't she had been told she couldn't let others know the truth without a lot of thought. "Umm yea I guess it is, but maybe those spiders were just like jungle spiders that got loose from the science center?" Michiko didn't want Toby to be afraid, she liked him and wanted to learn how she could protect him. Michi wanted to get stronger so she would have the power to keep her friends and family safe.
"I guess they could've been that," Toby allowed, as he began to sip his drink. He doesn't notice anything off about it at first, in fact finds it rather pleasant, so he keeps drinking as they talk. "But...the way they disappeared like that, that was weird, wasn't it? And I've never heard of bugs so big!" He rubbed his head, considering. "I thought I heard that bugs couldn't get much bigger because they'd squish under their own weight...but those...whew." He sipped again, and obviously decided to change the subject.
"My mom got a job here, musta been pretty pay to get her to do it, but she's a tv producer." He shrugged and grinned sheepishly for a moment. "Though, uh, honestly, I dunno what it is she really does as a producer, just that it sounds really cool to say she is."
His drink was disappearing relatively quickly, and his stomach gurgled once, although he didn't connect the dots soon enough to stop.
Midnightglow18
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 11:04 am
Tolin Kalin
Michiko listened to Toby as he spooky, and then she pulled up a picture on her phone of a bird eater tarantula. And another picture of a coconut crab, and another picture of a camel spider. Showing him many examples of different large bugs from around the world. She shook her head and then said "Nope you never know what you'll discover in the world." She said softly "Huh I wonder why your mom decided to do that." She said softly. Michiko blinked and rubbed her eyes wondering if she was seeing things as she drank her raspberry latte. She thought Toby was turning orange, she hadn't gotten much sleep last night dealing with the cursed doll that was left at her house, but people didn't turn orange drinking pumpkin spice that was just crazy. "Umm Toby are you ok?" Michiko asked softly.
"Hmm?" he intoned, setting his drink down. "Yeah, yeah," Toby waved his hand dismissively. "I'm fine...though I think I'm done..." He pulled out his phone briefly and looked at the time. "C'mon, we should get going!" His stomach churned uncomfortably, but he still thought he'd be alright.
And since most of his body was covered in clothes, he hadn't noticed the orange tinge seeping into his looks...but it was definitely there, and getting more orange by the moment. Was starting to make his dyed patch look like a stem, really. He stood up, and instantly felt a bit woozy, and visibly swayed, blinking before recovering and rubbing his head.
"Woah, ugh." He shook his head to clear it again and smiled at Michi, doing his best to ignore the sudden feeling of illness. He did not want to be sick today. Absolutely not. "Thanks for the coffee!"
Midnightglow18
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 12:06 pm
Tolin Kalin
Michiko frowned and said "Once your feeling better give me a call and I'll make you dinner at my house to make up for this." Michi said softly. Poor Toby was so orange and sick this was crazy, there must have been something really wrong with this pumpkin spice or it was cursed with magic. Michiko remembered then that they needed to get to school but Toby looked so sick. "Do you want to go home? You look really sick." Michi said softly "Or maybe I should help you to the nurses' office?"
"Nah, nah, I'll be okay," he replied with a slightly strained smile. "Let's go..." He held out a hand to guide her up from her seat, and then set out with her.
He even made it a decent amount of the way there before betraying how bad he felt. "Ugh, hang on a sec," he said, and leaned over a bush. "Guh, maybe that...latte wasn't so good after all," he said, then, the very picture of grace and poise, barfed into the bush. "Bleh," he said after. "Sorry...Guess I should go to the nurse after all..." He retched again, but straightened up and sniffed once. "I can make it."
