2019-10-31 - Masquerade: Family Fun in the Park

Children, parents, and candy-lovers of all ages gather in Addington Park for family fun and games. It is a time of warm fellowship, spooky fun, and absolutely no stabbing.

IC Date: 2019-10-31

OOC Date: 2019-07-28

Location: Park/Addington Park

Related Scenes:   2019-10-31 - Magic Candy   2019-11-06 - Candy Like Lies   2019-11-07 - Cold November Rain

Plot: None

Scene Number: 2459

Event

Addington Park is tricked out in grand array for the Masquerade, the elaborate decorations given an additional mystery and intrigue by the ever-present fog. Right now, the sun is trying to peek out from behind the cloud cover, and the fog has been burned back to shadowy banks that are about chest high on adults, but still swallow the many small children running around in their depths. The day is cool, with a gentle rain: it’s the Pacific Northwest, so umbrellas are few and far between, but many parents have covered over their kids’ costumes with bright yellow rain slickers, and are keeping a careful eye on the munchkins as they race about.

There’s a lot to get distracted with, too: this part of the Masquerade is meant to be family friendly, so the carousel is running with free rides for all, there are games set up along the park paths, and there are the ‘safe candy stalls’. Each one sponsored by a local business or organization, here to give the kids the feel of trick or treating, without having to worry about razor apples or toothbrushes. At each booth, smiling representatives hand out little goodie bags of candy to kids and adults alike, compliment costumes, and basically do Community Relations.

Minerva is apparently costumed as her spirit animal tonight. Because Lydia Deetz arrives. Dressed in a pair of black leather leggings, black long sleeved top and over it is a red top with spider web design that falls to just her knees and leaves a trail in the back. The underneath is a purple color. Her hair is in a high ponytail on top of her head that leaves her bangs framing her pale face. The ponytail is held in place by a purple scrunchi that has a pink stripe in the middle.

She is accompanied by Wednesday Addams! Her niece Ashira is dressed in one of those little black dresses with the white collar and she's carrying a headless doll as well. Min even braided her hair. "Now we aren't going to the carousel, it gets bitey." she tells her as she looks to her. She was holding her hand so she wasn't going far for the moment. With the fog and all.

She's dressed in the pantsuit she wore in the City Hall meeting, Isabella walking in a quick clip through the festivities while checking her smartphone with a faint, absent frown. The time is taken note of, quelling a faint groan at the way it seems to have gotten away from her. The surrounding hubbub seems to capture her attention gradually, however, and green eyes lift upwards to the brightly lit carousel nearby, senses captured by the lights and the music it plays as it goes around and around and around...

She stops to watch, a hand in her pocket while her free hand lowers her device to her side - in spite of the stories she's heard of it, especially recently (brain worms with teeth??), she immerses herself in nostalgia, also.

Of course the Addington family has a candy booth. Why wouldn't they! But it's not like Marge and Tommy are going to come down here and man the thing themselves; that's what all their stupid relatives are for, including Patrick. His 'costume' is a Dracula cape tied around his shoulders; fortunately, it works with the white dress-shirt and dark trousers that he was also wearing at Cit Hall however-long-ago that was. He and a couple of his many cousins are employed in doling out tooth decay to costumed monsters, with his particular responsibility being to smile at all the moms and come up with something flattering to say. "...agree with you completely. A pumpkin really is the perfect costume," for a chubby child who wants nothing more than to sit like a lump and shove candy into his face.

The boy's mother teehees and tries to suggest to her rugrat that he get up now, honey, it's time to move on, please. The boy whines at her; Patrick keeps his cringing on the inside and dumps some candy into the kid's stupid bucket.

A mythical monster appears, or at least someone dressed as one. Juniper has her braided hair plaited into 6-7 thick ropes, styled with some botanist's wire into curls and sinuous shapes, each tipped with a pair of googly eyes and a snake's forked tongue. She's wearing a grey cotton tunic, Grecian-style; fixed at the shoulders and hips, with a sash about the waist and grey leggings beneath, with stone-dust applied in liberal streaks on her arms and legs, feet tucked into sandals. A grey mask with a snarling expression covers her upper face.

She is carrying a tray of turnips cut into silly faces, with an LED candle in each, delivering these to one of the stalls to be given out to kids.

There are a few kids at the trailer park whose parents had to work tonight and with Lyric and a few friends, they'd each claimed one. Lyric had Emma and the two were both dressed as angels. Lyrics may be a little more risque than the little girls, but she's a grown up. It's allowed! (desc set) They both have bags though, because if candy is the question, their answer is yesplsthx, trick or treat! They've gone to a few of the booths already and while Emma is peering into her Safeway bag (identical to Lyrics) Lyric is leading the way to the Addington group. "I heard the Addingtons give full size candy bars. They used to when I was younger, let's check it out!"

Among the booths are some real high achievers - many have their own elaborate themes (the bakery that's gone all Gingerbread House with theirs, including edible 'tiles' of gingerbread that they're letting kids pull off a special section of wall, for example) or costumed helpers who are passing out various bits of swag and advertising. Not far from the Addington booth is one emblazoned with, rather than a company or organization logo, just a big old smiley jack-o-lantern. It has a group of helpers in pumpkin masks who are roving away from the booth, handing out little cloth bags of...handmade candies! They look delicious, they smell delicious, and they're swirled like marbles, although some seem to be soft and others are hard, some smell sweet or floral, while others smell savory or spicy. They're not just handing them out to kids, either.

A broken-tooth pumpkin head gives a bag to Minerva and her niece, reaching out to ruffle little Wednesday's head as it chirps, "Happy Halloween!"

A tall pumpkin masked person wanders over to Patrick, sounding amused as it offers him a bag and a, "No one should have to do this without being high on sugar. Try one of these!"

A pudgy pumpkin mask bounces over to Isabella, interrupting her reverie with an offer of a bag. "You look like a lady who enjoys something a little bolder than the kids. Try these - Aztec-spiced dark chocolate and coffee!"

Juniper attracts a pair of younger pumpkins who descend upon her with squeals as soon as she delivers her tray. "We love your costume! It's so cool! Please try one of these, and just direct people towards our booth if you like them!" They wave vaguely towards the cluster of booths.

Lyric and Emma are accosted by a devilish pumpkin mask who offers two of the cloth bags, one to each of them. "Heavenly sweets for the angels," it booms in one of those jolly but slightly overloud voices. "Try them out!"

A series of excited yells goes up from one of the game booths. A group of small, be-raincoated children are competing fiercely at ring toss for the grand prize: an actual shiny crown! A dozen pairs of little girl eyes gleam - this is their chance to be a real princess, they are all hopped up on sugar, and they will cut anyone who gets in their way.

Wednesday grumps when her head is ruffled, but she recovers with a smile and a dip of her head when she's given a bag of candy. "Thank you!" the little girl states. She doesn't start to sift through the bag though. That was for after, "Aunt Riya, can we go see the carousel?" she asks Minerva.

Minerva takes the bag and gives a smile, "Happy Halloween." she tells the toothy pumpkin, but much like her niece, she doesn't go sifting through the bag. She gives a look down to her niece, "Alright, but just for a few minutes, Ashira." she whispers to her.

<FS3> Alexander rolls 6: Great Success (8 7 7 6 6 5 3 2) (Rolled by: Alexander)

Candy isn't usually a draw for her, having opted to live a mostly sugar-free existence (wetsuits are absolutely unforgiving to the physique), but when the pudgy pumpkin rolls up to her and offers her the bag of candy, there's a long and considering pause. Isabella doesn't want to hurt the kid's feelings, so she reaches out to take the bag. "You could tell that just by looking at me?" she inquires of the pumpkin with a hint of a wry smile. "Thanks." She fishes one out and takes a quiet sniff of it, before popping it in her mouth.

Leaving the carousal area, she starts wandering through the Park, slowing down as she espies the Addington booth, brows lifting upwards - the faint confusion clears up, however, inundated with vague recollections of childhood Halloween events when they would have something similar. It has been a decade and change since she's seen one.

Joke's on Lyric. The Addingtons are giving out healthy treats this year, so all that mention of 'candy' in the previous pose was really a misnomer. They have granola bars (full-sized!) and boxes of raisins and dumb stuff like that. If she ever makes it over here, Patrick will be happy to dump some on her. Barring that, he finds a grateful sigh for the pumpkin-mask that's made it so he no longer has to watch the parenting travesty unfolding in front of him, totally takes that bag of candy, tears the thing open, and eats some of whatever is inside. With an amiable, "Thank you, sir, and Happy Halloween."

It's SAFE Halloween fun for the whole family, he'll be fine!

<FS3> Alexander rolls 6: Good Success (8 6 6 5 3 2 2 1) (Rolled by: Alexander)

<FS3> Alexander rolls 6: Success (8 5 4 3 2 1 1 1) (Rolled by: Alexander)

OH HEY CANDY. Juniper grins at the pumpkin-head kids and chirps a cheerful, "Thanks guys!" before popping one of the softer, chewy ones in her mouth. Mmm! "Wow this is.." she begins aloud, then stops, brows furrowing, as tiny motes of sparkly light fall from her lips, blooming into all sorts of weird flowers as they fall; blue roses, rainbow-hued daisies, black tulips. "Um." An awkward look around, to see if anyone noticed that, pink staining her cheeks darker.

It's always been safe to eat the candy before! Lyric has done this almost every year of her life! Disappointed at the healthy snacks on Halloween, she drops hers in her bag and Emma takes her own and whispers in an aside too loud, "Don't they like little kids no more?" Lyric laughs and then meets up with the person giving the heavenly candies. She smiles, "Thanks!" While Emma drops hers into her bag and eats on her popcorn ball she'd gotten earlier, Lyric tasts the heavenly treat she'd been given. Because candy was much better than popcorn or raisins!

<FS3> Alexander rolls 6: Good Success (8 8 7 4 4 4 3 2) (Rolled by: Alexander)

The background noise of the festival is changing. In some cases, it's getting quieter. In others - well, there's a kid charging down the path, making amazingly realistic lion roars to match his costume. One of the booth vendors has started speaking - is that Farsi?? It's okay, though, because at about chest height, she's apparently getting...subtitles. Yes, just floating in the air, subtitles to whatever she's saying. They're not well translated.

Only a few of the festival goers seem to notice anything at all odd about this, although one couple remarks on just how FUN everything is this Halloween! The fog grows thicker. Off at the booth, one little girl has been declared Queen of the Ring Toss, and is being crowned. "I'm not a QUEEN! I'm a PRINCESS!" she insists.

Once it's in her mouth, Isabella finds that she doesn't regret it at all - whoever concocted the recipe is a genius. She rolls the confection in her tongue as she finds a few people she knows in the crowd, lifting her hand to wave towards Minerva by the carousel and Juniper by the pumpkin-head kids. She even greets Patrick with a cordial nod, spotted by the Addington booth - it doesn't take much to put her in a good mood.

Which is about to experience a plot twist when she sees subtitles fall out of the nearby booth.

Minerva gives a look over the carousel as she and her niece approach and there's a shudder that runs down her frame, "Are you alright, Aunt Riya?" she hears her niece ask and there's a small smile and a dip of her head, "Just memories. It's nothing you need to worry about, Ash." she tells her. She then looks back to the carousel and remembers what had happened there. She keeps things at bay though. "Come on darling, we'll take a walk around it." she gives a black lipped smile to her niece.

After making some surprised and pleased little noises in the back of his throat - like, hmm, is this any good? OMG IT IS GOOD! - Patrick calls after his candy-giving friend, "Fuck you very much." And, like, all the moms around him collectively GASP in horror. He smacks his candy-wielding tongue against the roof of his mouth, attaching his apology to the smile that he flashes. "That was supposed to be 'fuck you v - '" Yep, he shuts up and attempts to disappear behind the giant ADDINGTON FAMILY banner draped over the front of the booth. It doesn't work, so he's still there to return Isabella's nod, smiling like he wasn't just firing off unintentional profanity.

Probably, this is just sarcasm, coming on the heels of the girl over there insisting she's lesser-royalty as it does: "Exactly how I hoped this day would go."

Keeping her mouth closed, Juniper takes a moment to think. Okay. This has a horribly familiar feeling to it; not the specifics, but the sense of enclosing space and motion, the fog and the surreal effects. She looks around slowly to see if there's anyone she knows - and spotting Isabella as she waves, the Medusa-costumed gardener begins to head over her way, lifting a hand in return greeting, looking for strength in numbers. Or at least, two is a start. Assuming this really is Isabella of course.

The subtitles are really weird, but what does Lyric care? Emma can't really read. So no biggie, and it doesn't affect Lyric. Especially as much as she is enjoying the candy! "Mmmm," she says.. "Baaaaa.." is what comes out. DUDE! Did she just baaaa like a sheep? Patrick has her covering Emma's ears and scolding him. "Baaa, baaaa. Baaaaaaaaaaaa!" Her eyes widen and she holds a hand over her mouth.

Patrick's sudden encounter with the case of Tourette's has Isabella's brows winging upwards, though at the loud gasp of outrage from the mothers nearby nearly splits her face with a grin that she attempts to smother. Before she could actually say anything, though, Juniper's approach pulls her attention that way, her smile pulling upwards in the corners. Lips part to speak, a greeting on her tongue. "Hey, Juniper, how are you?"

At least, that's what she intended to say.

Instead, what comes out is a very loud, very insistent "EEKEEKEEEKEEEK" dolphin chitter before she claps her hands over her mouth, eyes wide with shock.

Patrick gets bleated at by Lyric, which leaves him brow-lifting at her in a mute display of fascination. After the third or fourth baa, he glances down at the bag of perfectly normal candy and offers it across to Lyric. "I'm sure it's perfectly safe," he says, and GOD does that make him smile hugely. "Unless you're enjoying the bleating," with a slight retraction of that offered bag o' candy. "I'm finding it wonderfully alluring." He tries not to laugh, but it doesn't work, so many giggles leave him.

Minerva gives a look around when she hears all of the weirdness, but nothing feels off to her. She does however reach to take Ashira's bag of candy back, "I will replace this for you." she tells her. Then she takes the bag over to one of those trash can like things and dumps both bags in, "Nope." she shakes her head. Then she turns to pick her niece up and she moves towards where her car is parked, "In you go." she tells her. She then takes the time to take off the poncho like top and tosses it in the back. "Do not get out of the car. Or I'm returning ALL of your Christmas presents." she tells her quietly as she starts to head back towards the weirdness.

Ashira gives a wide eyed look and then slams the car door shut on her own and locks it.

Reaching Isabella, Juniper offers her a smile of relief - before hearing that sound, startling back slightly with eyes wide behind her snarling mask. "Oh my god! It's all of us?" she asks, sparkles falling from her mouth, exploding into beautiful if somewhat surreal blooms as they drift to the floor. She snatches one out of mid-air - a green poppy - and offers it over to Isabella, looking helpless.

Is it all of us?

Isabella stares at the sparkles falling out of Juniper's mouth and they turn into flowers. Why couldn't she have that one?! The poppy is taken with a tentative smile, and after hesitating visibly, she attempts to speak again.

What comes out is a loud, realistic and leonine ROAR instead that threatens to blow off Juniper's mask, and perhaps her face with it, before she claps her hand over her mouth again and flashes her a look of absolute apology. She starts rummaging through her candy bag, eyeballing the spheres within. Oh god, oh god, this better not be permanent!

"Mama! Mama look! I'm a DRAGON!" There's a high pitched squeal of delight - accompanied by a gout of flame, reaching out from a little boy's mouth at least a foot as he shouts in triumph.

"That's nice, honey. Don't set the booths on fire. We'd have to pay for that, and then there's no Disneyland for you over winter vacation," is the parent's bored response. The kid sticks his tongue out, then torches one of the holiday decorations by going, "RAR DRAGON!"

Meanwhile, over at the ring toss booth, the kids have gone oddly silent. The losers are arrayed around the Queen of the Ring Toss, like a formal court procession of some sort. And, oh wow, where did those kids get those big ol' knives? They must be rubber. Surely no one gave actual children butcher knives.

Nope, wait, one of the kids, who now seems sort of...blue and scaly, darts out to swipe that big ol knife at another kid's candy bag. It parts like paper, spilling delicious treats on the ground. "We claim this candy in the name of the Queen!" the group of kids shouts together, and the others start looking for new loot.

Lyric grumbles that doesn't sound so grumbly at all. It sounds like bleating that tickles Emma to no end. She's holding her stomach and giggling so hard. Crossing her arms, she realizes she was still holding more of the heavenly candy in her hands and pops another in her mouth before sticking her tongue out at the Addington. She chews and chews, fully intending to say something, but right now the candy is too good.

<FS3> Alexander rolls 6: Success (6 5 5 5 4 3 2 2) (Rolled by: Alexander)

"Oh shit. We're going to be murdered by tiny psychos. And they wonder why I quit the practice." Minerva chuffs out in a laugh as she starts to job. "Isabella, I think it's the candy...I didn't eat any...and I feel fine, just can see all this weird bullshit." the one eyed woman tells her. "Those kids are looking for more people to loot...and those knives look real." she frowns. Was she going to have to tase an eight year old?

She can't seem to keep herself from talking when another familiar face approaches her. Isabella turns to Minerva and opens her mouth to reply - the oinking sound of a pig emanates from her mouth.

She lifts a finger to signal her to wait a moment, before she rummages around the candy bag and fishes out another sugar marble. She takes a few deep breaths, girds herself, before she pops it in her mouth and crunches into it.

"You know what's going to be good, wholesome family fun?" Patrick points off toward the nearby commotion is after he gets the bag back into his keeping, having smiled down the barrel of Lyric's tongue-poking-out without missing a beat. "Going to see what's going on over there." He says, "Fuck you for a minute?" But with the intonation of politely excusing himself, and then he just strides off toward the kids with the butcher knives. Along the way, he calls in the manner of a person used to being heeded, "Let's start stabbing people!"

<FS3> Alexander rolls 6: Success (7 5 4 4 4 3 2 1) (Rolled by: Alexander)

Stabbing people? The court of kids looks up at Patrick as he approaches. Except they look a lot less like kids and more like three-foot-tall lizards with various colored scales, covered in raincoats, with a big ol knife in one hand, and a glowing bag of candy in the other. Oh, and one of them is wearing a crown.

She gestures with her knife. "Yes! Stabbing people and taking the candy! It is the command of your PRINCESS!"

"All hail the Queen," the other kids shout, and then start charging. At Patrick. Because he didn't specific WHICH people, and that jerk's been handing out healthy treats on Halloween. He must pay.

Holy crap. Tiny lizard kobold kid things with knives. Juniper nudges Isabella and points to the kids, beginning to back away through the crowd, getting away from the overly violent ones and - absent-mindedly - popping another candy into her mouth. They're just so tasty, and she's barely aware she's doing it even as she nods to Minerva's call.

<FS3> Alexander rolls 6: Great Success (8 7 6 6 6 3 3 2) (Rolled by: Alexander)

She swallows the candy fragments once she's chewing it, and turns back to Minerva and Juniper. There, she's ready to address everything that has been communicated to her in the last few minutes. "I think we should-- "

Good news, Isabella can talk again. They can understand her.

Bad news? A foot of white-hot flames bursts out of her mouth in the doing, threatening to burn Minerva and Juniper's faces off. She staggers back a few steps with a yelp, trips on a Jack O'Lantern and falls into one of the booths. She cries out on the way down, flames shooting upwards.

...and catching the canopy, setting it on fire.

<FS3> Minerva rolls Mental (8 8 8 6 5 3 2 2 2 1 1 1) vs Tonberry Pack (a NPC)'s 9 (8 7 7 6 6 5 4 4 3 2 2)
<FS3> Marginal Victory for Tonberry Pack. (Rolled by: Alexander)

<FS3> Juniper rolls Composure-2: Failure (5 5 4 3 1) (Rolled by: Juniper)

<FS3> Patrick rolls Athletics (5 5 2 1) vs The Nearest Tall Thing (a NPC)'s 2 (5 5 4 2)
<FS3> Everyone failed! (Rolled by: Patrick)

<FS3> Patrick rolls Athletics (6 4 3 2) vs The Other Nearest Tall Thing (a NPC)'s 2 (8 7 5 1)
<FS3> Marginal Victory for The Other Nearest Tall Thing. (Rolled by: Patrick)

"Stabbing people?" Of course when Lyric says it, no words come out. But there are these wonderful speech bubbles like a text message hovering in the air, announcing her thinking about stabbing people. She tries to wipe away the evidence, but they just go highter and hover over her head. "Oh no!" More speech bubbles float up forming a one sided text conversation over her head. Emma pulls out a twizzler to try and emulate others around her and rounds on Patrick, closing in on him with that sharp red licorice.

Also, Isabella? You're definitely getting a bill for that booth, later! The booth tenders are cursing (in German and speech bubbles) as they try to put out the fire.

Minerva sees the pack incoming. Sees them going for Patric and even though the Addington gives away healthy stuff, she was sure that getting him not murdered by kids was a good thing. But, the illusion fails and she sighs. "Welp, better get to higher ground." she shrugs to that. She was going to have to tase a bunch of kids...if she didn't get stabbed first.

"Oh lovely," announces Patrick when they turn on him. He takes a couple of wary steps backward, failing to find a smile that convinces children not to butcher him. "Why don't you all just rush me at once and - " Nope nope nope, he stops trying to talk his way out of this, and attempts to climb onto the nearest tall thing - which is a booth manned by some high school kids who are probably way too stoned to find this all that weird. Alas for Patrick, the Dracula cape and the dress shoes and his general incompetence at climbing shit ruins it for him, and he winds up with his foot stuck in some lattice-work and these knife-wielding monsters closing in on him.

He's definitely panicking a little now. "Don't help, just leave me here to get butchered, everyone!"

Startling back, falling onto her ass as Isabella breathes fire right there in her face, Juniper cries out, "Jesus, man! Could you keep on doing that?" she demands, then blinks a few times as what she wanted to say didn't quite come out as intended. Scrambling up to her feet, leggings and tunic now a little muddy, she turns to the horde and takes a deeeeep, steadying breath.

Isabella tries to subdue Red_tonberry but FAILS.

Patrick tries to distract Blue_tonberry but FAILS.

Red_tonberry attacks Isabella with Knife and HITS! Flesh Wound wound to Chest. (Reduced by ARMOR)

Green_tonberry attacks Juniper with Knife and HITS! Graze wound to Right Leg.

Juniper tries to distract Green_tonberry but FAILS.

Blue_tonberry attacks Minerva with Knife and HITS! Graze wound to Left Leg. (Reduced by ARMOR)

Queen_tonberry attacks Minerva with Knife and HITS! Impaired wound to Left Arm.

Minerva attacks Queen_tonberry with Ranged Electrokinesis and HITS! Impaired wound to Chest.

Purple_tonberry attacks Isabella with Knife but Isabella EVADES EASILY!

Minerva has been *KO'd* ! (Damaged This Turn By: Queen_tonberry)

"No no, Emma, don't stab the Addington. Your mama doesn't have enough money to pay for that." The bubbles form over her head in speech text and she just shakes her head. "Leave Patrick alone." Emma recognizes the name Patrick though and dances around giggling. "He should be wearing PINK and be as STARFISH!" Like she'd said the funniest thing ever, she just giggles and giggles. "Swim away Patrick! In your ballerina shoes! Hurry cause there's a fire!" Emma is just having fun now and hangs with a few of the other kids so Lyric can get over there into the fray without worrying about the kid.

Minerva spends a luck point and is back in the fight!

She attempts to apologize to the Germans manning their sausage booth but at least her flames didn't hit the propane tanks they were using to cook the hot dogs.

With Patrick in terrible danger and his not-so-subtle attempt to get everyone to pay attention to his plight, and clearly in danger of getting butchered by the Tonberry pack, Isabella runs off with the sausage people still cursing at her and attempts to reach the Addington, who seems a little stuck. Her hands reach up in an attempt to get him loose.

...except a Tonberry dressed in red comes up with a knife and she shrieks when the tip of the blade slices at her chest. But the sound sets off another foot-long gout of flame...and poor Patrick has a cape. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" She's still talking, she can't help herself, so more flames erupt. She ends up backing away before she can do more damage than actually help, fishing hurriedly for another candy and shoves it in her mouth, and lifts up a leg to kick the attacking Purple Tonberry away from her, because oh my god.

"This is why I'm never having any rugrats," she hisses under her breath.

Trying to distract the green lizard-thing, Juniper gets grazed with the knife it is holding for her trouble. Frowning, she steps back and lifts her hands, the snarling face of her mask doing justice to how she's feeling right now. Angry. "You big shit! Come closer to me!"

Patrick pulls bits of decorations off this booth that he's too incompetent to climb and throws it at these kids. Who are also monsters. Bits of wadded up crepe paper and plastic pumpkins bounce off the blue one's head, but it doesn't seem to actually care. Still, it gives him time to get his foot out of the lattice, falling backward onto the grass with a loud, "FFFFFF-" Not that F-word, don't worry. "-antastic!" And now his cape is on fire, so he'll be here, rolling on the grass and beating at the flames and telling Isabella, "Thank you, love," with so much hate in his voice, it's ridiculous.

Maybe his plight will distract the stupid blue tonberry better than the crepe paper did.

<FS3> Alexander rolls 6: Success (7 7 5 4 2 2 1 1) (Rolled by: Alexander)

Minerva gets rushed by the blue tonbetty and the Queen of the Sugar Rush Psychos. This is what she got for always wanting to tase people or protect others. She gets stabbed in the chest and takes takes a moment to right herself as she spits out blood. "Alright. Now is the time for all of you to learn that Santa isn't real!" she shrieks at them as she wipes the trickle of blood from her mouth.

Adorable lizards of death swarm forth, filled with sugar and righteous rage!

A red-scaled lizard screams up at Isabella, "I WANT CANDY!" and then raises that giant knife and stab stab at her chest. Man, that kid has an arm on her.

Meanwhile, the green-scaled kid is charging Juniper, his knife swinging wildly at her legs. Aside from some minor cosmetic costume damage, though, she's fine!

The blue lizard and the Queen (PRINCESS) prove surprisingly adept at squad tactics and climbing - they scramble up nearby booths, then launch themselves at the woman. Although the queen (PRINCESS) takes a solid hit of lightning to the chest, she brings her knife down deep into Minerva's upper arm, while the blue tries to cut her Achilles' tendons. These kids are not here to play, man.

The purple lizard sneaks up on Isabella and tries to pounce on her, but sort of ruins it by shouting, "IMMA GET YOU!"

Patrick tries to distract Blue_tonberry but FAILS.

Lyric attacks Blue_tonberry with Telekinesis+Small and HITS! Impaired wound to Chest.

Blue_tonberry attacks Minerva with Knife and HITS! Flesh Wound wound to Chest.

Red_tonberry attacks Isabella with Knife but Isabella EVADES!

Green_tonberry attacks Juniper with Knife and HITS! Flesh Wound wound to Chest.

Queen_tonberry attacks Minerva with Knife and HITS! Flesh Wound wound to Chest.

Purple_tonberry attacks Isabella with Knife and HITS! Graze wound to Head. (Reduced by ARMOR)

Minerva attacks Queen_tonberry with Ranged Electrokinesis and HITS! Incapacitated wound to Chest.

Juniper attacks Green_tonberry with Spirit and HITS! Incapacitated wound to Chest.

Isabella attacks Purple_tonberry with Unarmed but MISSES!

Green_tonberry has been *KO'd* ! (Damaged This Turn By: Juniper)

Queen_tonberry has been *KO'd* ! (Damaged This Turn By: Minerva)

The grass around Juniper begins to GROW. Like, for real, from little inch-long blades to full on jungle undergrowth, entangling and curling around the green tonberry until it can no longer move, and the angry medusa-costumed gardener can step away and look around for the next danger. The red tonberry is gonna get it this time, more of the same.

Patrick's rolling around on fire and Isabella's eyes are wide with horror. "I'm so so-- " But the vitriol in his last remarks has her narrowing her eyes. Lips part to speak...

...and god knows what she actually tells him, because it comes out in very loud and very angry German. Though at least it isn't incomprehensible. The subtitles are scrolling past pretty quickly though the words NO CAPES!!! can be read repeatedly through her tirade.

She manages to evade the rush of the incoming Red Tonberry, though, because his costume is easily spotted, but that leaves her back open to the Purple Tonberry, who jumps on her back. The tip of its knife drags against her temple and she flails around in an attempt to throw Purple off her while punting Red away. She misses Red. More German expletives spill out of her, the subtitles indicate that this tirade involves an archaic medieval torture device, because even when being attacked by bloodthirsty rugrats, she still manages to be a nerd.

Lyric finds a string of orange lights and tries working on tying up the blue one. She manages to sort of impair him a little, but fails at keeping him down and away from who he is attacking. Emma is still having fun, thinking it's all a game, laughing and cheering.

Minerva gets ahold of the knife wielding queen and puts her hand on her head, holding her back, watching those little arms flail everywhere. She doesn't let her go, "Shhhh....shhhh....sleep now." the woman states in a soft tone, it still sounds creepy. Then she lets her drop to the crowd. Then she swivels that one eye to the blue tonberry and huffs out a breath. Little monsters!

Patrick is ON FIRE , and the blue tonberry still won't so much as glance at him. He has no children, so he doesn't understand how this can be possible - how children can have such tunnel-vision as to blind themselves to everything except their singular purpose. Hence his lament, "I love children, they inspire hope and faith and MY PANTS HAVE NOT CAUGHT ON FIRE! You're making perfect sense, keep at it." After flashing a thumbs-up to Isabella's subtitles, he beats at the flames on his legs, a little more frantically the higher they climb, because not wanting kids and not being able to produce them are entirely different issues.

The blue tonberry is going to glance his way sooner or later, god dammit, so he sticks with 'distract.'

Before Juniper can quite complete her green bindings on the green lizard, it leaps up and slashes her with the knife. And then it's dragged down to the ground, and immediately starts crying, "Mommy! MOMMMY!"

The Queen gets in a good hit with her knife on Minerva, going, "You have to bow to me! I'm a pretty...pretty...Prin...cess..." And then she's down. Zzzzz. Awww, she's so cute (but scaly) like that.

There's a moment where the last three children stop and stare at their fallen Queen. Then one shouts, "WINNER GETS THE CROWN!" And they scream and charge, knives flailing.

Red_tonberry attacks Isabella with Knife and HITS! Impaired wound to Chest.

Lyric attacks Blue_tonberry with Telekinesis+Small and HITS! Impaired wound to Chest.

Juniper attacks Red_tonberry with Spirit and HITS! Incapacitated wound to Abdomen.

Minerva attacks Blue_tonberry with Ranged Electrokinesis and HITS! Incapacitated wound to Chest.

Purple_tonberry attacks Isabella with Knife and HITS! Flesh Wound wound to Chest.

Isabella attacks Purple_tonberry with Unarmed and HITS! Incapacitated wound to Chest.

Patrick tries to distract Blue_tonberry but FAILS.

Blue_tonberry attacks Minerva with Knife but MISSES!

Blue_tonberry has been *KO'd* ! (Damaged This Turn By: Lyric, Minerva)

Purple_tonberry has been *KO'd* ! (Damaged This Turn By: Isabella)

Red_tonberry has been *KO'd* ! (Damaged This Turn By: Juniper)

Minerva gives a wide eyed look to the incoming swarm and she reaches out to swat the crown off the sleeping and it goes flying over towards Patrick. They would be crownless in their defeat. Minerva reaches up to her hair to pull the ribbons from it as she takes down the Blue tonberry. She sits on him, unceremoniously and starts to hog tie the child. "I didn't know we had so many tiny kaijus in Gray Harbor." she chuckles.

More grass grows around the red tonberry, rooting it to the spot, wrapping arms and legs up snugly. Not so tight that there's danger of limbs losing sensation, but enough to keep them down. Panting somewhat, lowering her hands and briefly touching the wound on her chest, Juniper begins to make her way towards Isabella. "Are you unharmed? Can I make you worse?" she calls out, looking slightly panicky, even though all the lizard-children are now subdued, disarmed, no longer a threat. At least, right now.

The knife from Red ends up buried in her chest - thankfully it misses anything vital and the pain is ridiculous enough that Isabella's green eyes start to water. With a grunt, she presses her hand into the rugrat's forehead and shoves, just to help Juniper along. Purple, though, doesn't let up and as the pesky kid charges at her, her temper snaps, and she cocks her fist back and simply punches him, or her, right in the face.

She breathes raggedly after that and sinks down to her knees, hands braced on the grass. Oh god, everything hurts.

With that same string of lights, Lyric ties up the blue one that Minerva ultimately ends up sitting on. The speech bubbles appear again when she smiles at her. "It looks like a lot of weird here, like usual." But her light colored eyes fall on Patrick and she winces. "I'm not a healer, or I'd help you. Want me to call 9-1-1?"

Dropping to kneel beside Isabella, Juniper reaches a hand out to touch her shoulder. "Will you deny me the chance to make you worse?" she asks softly; it's not what she meant to say, but the low, sympathetic tone of her words hopefully carries more weight than the candy-twisted words coming out of her mouth. She doesn't do anything yet, consent being quite important to her.

Where are these kids' parents, anyway?

Oh. They're over there by one of the vineyard booths, 'sampling' West Coast wines and chatting with each other. They don't seem to notice how close their kids came to murder, nor do they seem to notice that two of the parents are speaking in Klingon, and one is using bright red speech bubbles. One idly looks over to their kids sprawled out in the grass, and nods. It's so great when kids tire themselves out playing!

There's a grateful look cast at Juniper. "You alright?" It's still in German, but the subtitles are in English, at least, pouring out of her in multicolored letters. The words she speaks, though, leaves an uncertain ripple on the young woman's features. After a pause, she tilts her head back. "Oh god, why not?" Isabella tells Juniper with a groan, slowly keeling over sideways and dropping on the ground. "Why deny the inevitable?" She dramatically spreads out her arms to welcome sweet, red death, because at the moment it's honestly preferable to the sordid reminder that she just got her ass kicked by two psychotic trick-or-treaters who didn't even go above her hip in height.

Patrick gets the flames out, so \o/

He sits up in time to see someone sitting on a monster over yonder, to see Isabella punching one in the face, to shake his head and hold up a staying hand at Lyric. "Yes," he says of calling 9-1-1, then frantically shakes his head. "I'll almost certainly be dead any moment now." The exhale through his nose is an intensely frustrated sound, one that ends with a groan, and he shoves himself off the grass to his feet. "The German woman looks like she's doing quite well." With a helpless shrug, he walks over to Isabella and points at her: the German woman, see?

As Patrick's Addington self points down at her, Isabella stares up at him with the knife sticking out of her, and then flops back down like a limp fish, groaning again.

"See? She's fine." Patrick Addington is very helpful.

"I hate you," Isabella groans at Patrick.

It sounds even super angrier in German.

Juniper spent a Luck Point on +2 to their attempt to Mend a wound.

Minerva looks over her bloody self and then looks like she's about to say something when she notices that Isabella has a knife sticking out of her and she hurries over, "Hey, you gonna be okay?" she asks the woman. She didn't have any healing mojo. So she leaves it to someone else. "Everyone else okay?" she asks.

Lyric watches and idly eats another piece of the heavenly candy as she does.

<FS3> Alexander rolls 6: Success (8 8 5 3 3 2 2 1) (Rolled by: Alexander)

Well, there are a couple of gashes on Isabella's chest, but one is definitely deeper than the others. The glow of glimmer around Juniper flexes and shimmers as she 'feels out' the damage done, then sets the very lightest touch of her fingertips at the stab-wound that seems the worst, drawing upwards as if.. zipping up the wound? Miraculously, it does just that, the injured flesh resealing, turning from angry, red and bleeding to healthy tanned skin, perhaps a touch paler than the surrounding flesh but otherwise perfectly fine. "Oh, damn, it didn't work," the medusa-masked gardener mutters with obvious relief.

Patrick isn't sure what Isabella just shouted at him, but he's sure the appropriate response is to kiss the ends of his first two fingers and blow the kiss at her. It translates into all the languages, and even transcends his current difficulties with unintentionally sounding like a sarcastic prick (vs the times he's doing it on purpose). "No, the rest of us are dead," he answers Minerva distractedly.

Lyric hears Patrick and goes to the hot dog area, taking their jugs of water. Just taking them, and she opens them one at a time, dumping the water on Patrick's legs or whatever is on fire.

Minerva gives a sigh of relief when Isabella is healed, "Thank you." she tells Juniper quietly. Then she looks to Patrick and there's a shrug, "Welcome to the afterlife then. I have a book you can read. First thing to know, don't trust the living." she tells him with a big smile. "Have fun." she nods to him. Then she looks around and gives a shake of her head, "I need to get my niece home and away from the weirdness. You guys stay safe." she tells them as she starts to head off.

The knife is pulled out, and the associated stab wound is healed. Isabella stops writhing dramatically on the ground and sits up slowly, grass in her hair and blood smears on her tanned skin. "I owe you," she breathes to Jupiter, though she can't help the look of surprise; she knew the woman glimmered, she just didn't know with which aspect. There's a smile cast the woman's way, and despite the grateful words, since she's speaking in German, she sounds more like she's cursing out all the ancestors that enabled her to walk this world. To Minerva: "I'm alright, Minerva, thanks to Juniper here." Again, it sounds angry, because German.

Patrick's non-verbal riposte earns him a glower, and some German invective about unwanted cooties or whatever similar term is in the language - most likely, it sounds angry, too, but then Lyric is dousing him with water, and her cheeks puff out visibly in an effort to stay her laughter. It doesn't work. She's still laughing as she waves a hand in goodbye to Minerva.

Around them, the festival hums on! Some things are on fire, because giving kids the ability to breathe flames never ends well, but most people don't even seem to notice that their children have learned new languages - and the ones who notice that their kids are now speaking in speech bubbles look downright GRATEFUL. Several little girls and a few boys are babbling to each other while roses pile around their feet. They shriek with delight and stomp on the flowers, which causes more flowers, which causes more shrieking. It's a perpetual flower engine.

<FS3> Alexander rolls 6: Amazing Success (8 8 8 8 7 6 6 6 ) (Rolled by: Alexander)

<FS3> Patrick rolls 1d6: Success (8 7 4 4 4) (Rolled by: Patrick)

Splash~! Patrick sucks in a breath when that water douses him, reeling a step forward in a physical response to the sudden change in temperature and dampness all down his legs. "I hope that you ladies have a lovely rest of your day," he shouts irritably at Lyric, then spins on his heel in the muddy grass and goes off to get some new pants. He only has to tell three people to go fuck themselves (have a nice day) on his way across the park, so it could be much worse.

Now that the battle is over and the worst of the wounds taken care of, Juniper treats herself to a third candy - she's earned this, damnit! There's a contented little 'mm' from the gardener as she chews and swallows, and a sigh of pleasure. They really are ridiculously good candies. She looks to Minerva and smiles, voicing, "Munje eobs-seubnida. Seobiseuui ilbu-ibnida!" It sounds like.. some foreign tongue, Asian maybe? Korean if anyone would recognise it. Fortunately little subtitles pop up at about boob-height. "Is no problem! Is service!"

"There.." Lyric was about to say more when a flower drops from her lips. She tries again. "There you go, no more fire!" A beam of delight because good had been done here today. More flowers come out, brightly colored flowers, rainbow colors, beautiful flowers fall from her lips. "Don't kiss me." The words bring a giggle as even more flowers come. "Unless you like to eat flowers." She blows a raspberry and a whole bouquet flourishes from her lips to tumble down. "Let's go Emma! We can play Hansel and Gretel in the woods and make a trail of flowers." She takes the girls hand, the giggles continue just as much as the flowers do and they leave a trail in their wake as they move around to get more candies.


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