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 Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 1:10 am
Quote: As Halloween draws near, a good number of the shops at the local mall have decided to take part in the festivities by handing out candy bars and bite-sized goodies to all of the customers who stop by. You score a fair amount of sweets while you're out and about. After you consume a handful of them, though, you discover you don't feel.. quite right. You can't put your finger on why you don't feel right but soon the side effects from your candy munching come to light. When you sweat, your perspiration is noticeably brown and smells sickeningly sweet... almost like chocolate. In fact, your natural scent has seemed to take on a more sweet approach, as if you were a walking candy bar yourself. You've got no clue which shop handed out the cursed candy but the saccharine effect on you lasts for an entire day, until the candy has made it out of your system.
How corny was it that knight rings sent letters instead of texts? He had to take advantage of the aesthetic, seal and all, when he and Cybele corresponded. Alhambra waited at least a week out from The Autumn incident before bringing up the date, because he was just that classy. In as fancy a cursive as he could manage, he wrote the following:
Lady Cybele,
Now that we hast spoken ere long, I desire to return to a warrant that I made 'i the heat of that broil some seven days past. There I offered thee a chance meeting some moonlit eve to take thy company and walk about the town side. And yet, I wot that thou prefer thy privacy when it concerns our civil selves. I'ld be moe than fortunate to accommodate for thy personal boundaries and doth so as our other selves. If it would please the lady, I shall be atop the roof of ye olde Costco at this address at seven pm to-morrow. Should ye not, I shall consign myself to despair in this wicked month of darkness but understand.
By your friend at arms, Alhambra
It was admittedly dramatic, but he rarely got to show his Arthurian love. Well, Olde English interest. Only this wasn't in Olde English but some generator-made facsimile. Of course, who the hell wanted to be subjected to a language that wrote "if" as "yff" anyway?
That next evening, Alhambra settled on the rooftop some fifteen minutes early, so as to scout the area and be sure they weren't going to need to be on high alert. Granted, Cybele probably would be anyway as was her nature, but he wanted to have some fun. And fun required sweets! He had a small, plastic cauldron with him full of candy from the mall. It seemed that day there was either a surplus or a sale, as people were just giving it out like...well, candy. He chomped down on one bar as he waited.
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Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 11:24 am
The fight at the theater had hit Cybele hard. She could handle carnage these days, but being turned against her friends was something else entirely, something that she didn't know how to deal with. So, as she tended to do when she got overwhelmed, she went between extremes. Once or twice, she powered up and went out hunting, sharp and determined to find something. The rest of the time, she went through two boxes of tea, threw herself into her other work, and she did a decent job of not thinking about it. That was, until a letter appeared out of nowhere and landed in her lap. Alhambra. He was actually following up, even after he'd seen her in that state. Still, she couldn't help a grin as she peeled back the paper and saw the language. The Shakespeare scholar in her knew it wasn't quite grammatically correct, but he had clearly put the effort in. And that was how she ended up powered up for a trip to Costco. She saw him sitting on the roof, and she waved from a distance and then gave a deep curtsy as she got closer. She could play this game, too. "Alhambra, my good sir," she said, "It was a pleasure to receive your correspondence and it's a greater one to be in your presence once more." Was that too much? It was just hard to talk like that without getting swept up in dramatic gestures and proclamations. She dropped the act for a moment. "How' have you been?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2018 2:54 pm
Hearing her play along, his face lit up. "My lady," Alhambra said in turn, bowing deeply but being careful not to smear his half-eaten bar against his clothes. "It gladdens my heart to see you well this night. I know not whether 'tis to your liking, but I had earlier procured a selection of sweets from the market whose vendors were of hawkish delight to offer without so much as a coin in turn. One might have thought them goblins in disguise."
Although it was clear he didn't seem to care, because free candy. It was also equally clear that Alhambra was ready to ride the medieval wagon all the way home, and that there wasn't such a thing as "too much."
Still, he dropped it just in case Cybele was only humoring him. "Been alright," he told her as he picked up his grocery bag. "Forget me, though, what about you?" Alhambra offered the bag for her to peak through, if she wished.
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 7:30 pm
"I've been fine, too," Cybele said. "As far as I can tell, not too much has happened since I saw you last." Not in the sense of the war, at least, and despite their outfits, that wasn't what this was supposed to be about. Instead, she smiled at the offered candy and started rummaging through the bags. "The goblins are slippery things," she continued, slipping back into the old language and slightly more dramatic voice. He liked it, too, and it was nice getting to act as something besides a cold blooded hunter for once. "It's possible that these delicacies have not escaped their foul touch," she said, fishing out a chocolate, and looked up at his eyes. They were a very striking blue, she saw. "Beware, good sir, lest your energies are stolen in the night, but that should be the worst of it." There were quite possibly draining schemes around that she didn't even notice, but that sort of thing did not concern her as much as the rest of it. She unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth. "If luck is with us, they are simply humans disguised as goblins." She frowned at that and broke out of the voice again. "Humans disguised as goblins disguised as humans? Something like that. Anyway." She resumed. "The festivities of All Hallow's Eve approach."
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Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2018 2:47 am
“‘We must not look at goblin men/We must not buy their fruits:/Who knows upon what soil they fed/Their hungry thirsty roots?’” Alhambra recited before popping another piece of chocolate back. He grinned. “Good thing these’re too processed to count.” Looping the bag through one wrist, he offered Cybele the other arm, becoming more gallant and theatrical, if that were possible. “It would be my honor to walk these streets with you,” he said. “For it is known that the festivities invite many disturbing creatures to walk the night, here from another realm to terrorize and take from the innocent. This is our duty: to strike out at the darkness before it engulfs everything! And whilest I be a mere page, my sword arm will remain strong and true as the day, sworn to protect you on your own sacred pilgrimage.” This might have been better if said weapon wasn’t just chimes. Or if Cybele hadn’t already proven she was more than capable of handling herself.
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Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2018 8:37 pm
Cybele cocked her head at the quote, a soft smile slowly creeping across her face. From a man who had barely been able to keep a straight face in the middle of battle, this was quite the surprise, but it was the nice sort of surprise. "Should you be mistaken and find yourself snatched away, I'll quest until I find their foul stronghold and free you," she said, voice light, "Or would, rather, if I hadn't also fallen to temptation." She didn't mind the sickly sweet aftertaste of chocolate in her mouth, but thinking too much about this story they were telling, this narrative, brought corruption to mind, and that was never pleasant. Linking arms seemed clunky so she reached for his hand, instead, grateful for the feeling of warm skin against her own, though she kept a careful distance between them, not wanting to impose. "But I'd much rather hunt the darkness side by side with you, sir, so it is my desire that you're correct and all is innocent." She took a moment to focus again on auras, but there was nothing, just as there had been nothing on her way over. "Not to be anticlimactic, but the darkness might be staying home," she said, then took a deep breath to center herself and make sure. There were still no auras, but she did notice then just how strong the smell of chocolate was. It was lovely, actually. Her smile widened. "You smell good," she murmured, not really thinking.
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