i saw lon cheney walking with the queen

[hellzone]

Who: open to all!
What: The Aqours Spooky Get Yohane Magical Powers Halloween Extravaganza...which is a super extra way of saying a Halloween party. It's a Halloween party, y'all.
When: early October
Where: a local restaurant in Olympia
Warning(s): none!

The Halloween party is in the back room of a local, family style restaurant. What used to be a banquet hall is decorated with fake cobwebs, crepe paper, and garlands of pumpkins, ghosts, and cats. A lot of the decorations are hand-made, courtesy of Yoshiko and You. There's an open space in the middle for dancing and mingling, some food tables along one side of the room, and some games and entertainment on the other side. There's a table with various hats, animal ears, and crowns for people who didn't bring a costume. Most of them are made out of cardboard. There's a very beat-up boombox in the corner, obviously borrowed from somebody, playing the El Nysa version of hokey Halloween songs like "The Monster Mash" and "Flying Purple People Eater."

The food is fairly standard Halloween fair. There's a large bowl full of candy, as well as some pumpkin flavored breads and muffins. There's a large punch bowl of something that's green, but is really your bog-standard lime sherbet/lemon-lime soda combination. The oddest thing on the table is some jet black takoyaki, labeled "Tears of a Fallen Angel." The label does not tell you that these things are spicy as hell and flavored solely with Tabasco. There's enough space on the table to fit more food, should your character decide to contribute something that isn't 'way too much sugar' or 'something that will melt your tongue off.'

The Halloween games are simple enough. There's a 'pin the tail on the donkey' though you're pinning a broomstick to a witch. There's a large tub for bobbing for apples. There's also a table dedicated to touch and feel mystery boxes: you reach in blindly to touch what's inside. The labels say things like 'eyeballs' (they're really peeled grapes), 'worms' (they're really cold, cooked spaghetti), and 'hearts' (it's a peeled tomato). The party's going past the closing time of the restaurant, so enjoy some slightly spooky nonsense!

( ooc: feel free to make a starter and tag around! Even if your character didn't reply to Yoshiko's post, it's possible that they heard about the party from somewhere else or just came in from the street: Yoshiko isn't turning away anybody. )

Comments

[thedarkbond]

[Ren pouts a little at her ignoring the bloody cupcakes, but at the mention of the jelly, he sets the container down again and taps his chin thoughtfully, as if he doesn't actually remember.]

Hmm...I must have forgotten with everything else that was going on... [He remembers perfectly well that it's peach flavoured, despite the weird hot-dog texture to its look, but he just shrugs after a few moments like he can't answer the question.] Why don't you try it and see? I don't make any prank foods or anything.

[It would've been amusing, but also a little predictable.]

[hellzone]

Or you can tell me what it is, [ Yoshiko responds, as she eyes the brain jelly with a very wary frown. ] I'm not gonna eat it if it's mikan flavored, after all.

[ Granted, it's more pinkish than orange, but you never know! Food coloring's a thing! For all she knows, this could be brain mikan jelly! ]

[thedarkbond]

I don't remember, though... [His tone is a little whiny at that. It doesn't sound like he's lying, at least?] But I know it's not mikan, I couldn't find an equivalent of that here yet.

[He's been having to experiment a little, since he's definitely found some of the same ingredients he's used to here, but not all of them.]

[hellzone]

Good, [ Yoshiko responds. Veeery carefully, she cuts herself a slice of the brain jelly.

She looks at it for a moment, frowns...and then takes a bite of the jelly. ]

[thedarkbond]

[The texture is fairly hard for jelly, more akin to something set with agar than gelatin. It tastes very fruity, though, and while peach is always a subtle flavour, it's still pretty identifiable as that fruit.

Ren, for his part, seems pretty pleased at having gotten her to try it despite her misgivings, and he gives a light smile.] How is it? Hopefully it doesn't taste too much like brain...

[hellzone]

[ Yoshiko chews...and chews...and her face brightens up a bit when she finally places the flavor. She swallows, before she starts talking, ]

Hey, this isn't too bad! [ It's pretty good, but Yoshiko's prone to understatement. She takes another bite of the brain-jelly as she starts to chew and swallow. ]

[thedarkbond]

[Ren gives a quiet laugh at that, pulling over a new plate and starting to move the glass-shard cupcakes over to it.] That's good to hear. It's been a while since I made anything like that...and I wasn't sure if that was going to set the same way as the stuff I'm used to...

[Though honestly, gelatin and agar both aren't exactly difficult things to produce, to his knowledge, even in a world like this one.]

[hellzone]

Do you cook a lot at home? [ Yoshiko asks, mouth full of jelly. Sometimes manners can be overlooked, okay. ]

[thedarkbond]

I think it's fun to do sometimes, but I also get to watch others cook a lot. [Useful points of having lots of friends who are also good at cooking. Ren also doesn't seem to mind the lack of manners, thankfully.] So you can pick things up by doing that, too. What about you?

[hellzone]

I do some cooking, [ Yoshiko says, obviously a little proud of herself. ] See those takoyaki over there? I made 'em myself.

[ They're jet black and flavored with Tabasco. Even when she cooks, Yoshiko stays firmly on the #aesthetic. ]

[thedarkbond]

[That is...definitely an unusual colour for takoyaki, but it's an exciting enough sight to see takoyaki at all that Ren ignores that for now, bringing his hands together excitedly.]

Oh, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make those here...takoyaki is one of my favourite foods~ [So he will...probably try the black takoyaki later, however bad a life choice it may turn out to be.] I like the colour, too.

[hellzone]

[ r.i.p. Ren's taste buds ]

Isn't the color great? It's perfect for a sinfully spooky time such as now. [ ~dramatic pose~ ] But yeah, I was shocked that I found a takoyaki pan as well. I was doing some shopping for the ingredients and found it stuffed in the back of one of the stores. I don't think the shopkeeper knew what to do with it.

[thedarkbond]

[Ren looks a little surprised at that himself, then taps his chin with a rather thoughtful look.] Maybe another refugee left it there somehow...I've met a lot of people who seem to be from different versions of Japan...

[Honestly, he considers it pretty noteworthy what with the seeming randomness to who's been waking up overall.]

[hellzone]

Same here, [ she muses, with a sigh. ] Every time I hear that someone's from Japan, we'll talk for a little while and then I'll mention Love Live and they'll look at me like I grew another head.

[ it's weird as heck and Yoshiko isn't a fan. ]

You'd think these things would be universal, but nope.

[thedarkbond]

[Ren laughs at that, like he sympathises to some degree.] With me it's Vanguard, but I don't think I've talked to many of the people I've met here from Japan about that either...

[Still, it's as ubiquitous as any given spectator sport in his world, so to hear no mention of it at all is certainly a little bit weird.]

I guess there's a lot of things we might think are universal but turn out not to be.

[hellzone]

[ Based on Yoshiko's expression, she has absolutely no idea what Vanguard is. Still, she gets the sentiment: it's something important from Ren's world that isn't important here. And that...well, something like that obviously sucks. She gives him a little nod before she continues talking. ]

I wonder what's the next universal but not thing we can find...watch some of these other Japans not have Tanabata or something like that.

[thedarkbond]

[The idea of any version of Japan not having Tanabata makes Ren's expression immediately transform into a surprise that runs close to faux offended.]

What? But that would be no fun at all, how unfair... [He gets the point, though, because really, he feels like it's kind of unfair the other worlds don't have things like Vanguard.] Though I guess that goes for everything else they don't have too, doesn't it...?

[hellzone]

[ And thus, with her 'no Tanabata world' idea, Yoshiko accidentally says the scariest thing that'll be said in the entire thread. ]

I suppose you're right. [ a pause, before. ] My world doesn't have Vanguard, by the way. Sorry.

[thedarkbond]

[At that, Ren gives a slight half-smile and rubs the back of his hair as if trying to look apologetic.]

Mmm, well, mine doesn't have Love Live either, so I guess we're even. [At least they can commiserate in the absence of things that are important to them.] It's kind of a shame...it'd be a lot easier to introduce something like Tanabata here, honestly, but I'd only barely arrived when it would've been the right time...

[Nadril did not exactly seem like a nice place for a festival when they got there.]

[hellzone]

If we're both still around and still in Olympia next year, we should have a Tanabata festival then. It'd be fun!

[ And, it's entirely possible that Yoshiko's gotten bit by the party planning bug thanks to this. ]

[thedarkbond]

[It's a good way to distract Ren too, apparently, because he immediately looks enthusiastic as anything about the prospect.]

We really should, it'd be a great celebration to introduce everyone to~ [Even if it's based on a legend that doesn't exist in this world - they can still pass the story on.] Even people who don't know the story should be able to enjoy things like wishes and romance, right?

[hellzone]

[ Yoshiko gives Ren an enthusiastic nod: she's buying what he's selling. ]

And the legend's simple enough that most people should be able to understand it. [ says the person who's had to explain Halloween to soooo many people by now. ] This'll definitely be great!

[thedarkbond]

Right, right~ [He remains cheery about that for a moment or two longer, before he actually thinks about it for more than a second or two.] It's just a shame we'll have to wait so long, though...almost an entire year...

[He'd arrived around the time it would have been, so that's a little unfortunate.]

[hellzone]

It's not like we can go anywhere, [ Yoshiko points out, with a small little frown. You know. Cause their worlds are destroyed. ]

Assuming neither of us go into stasis, we can have a Tanabata party every year.

[ haha she's depressing herself a little. ]

[thedarkbond]

[That...sure is an abrupt turn into a conversation Ren doesn't really want to have, so instead of even remotely addressing the point of the possibility they'll go into stasis, he instead decides to leap on the subject of parties.]

Are there any other holidays that would be fun to bring here, do you think? I guess with what the culture here is like they'd have to have something like Valentines and White Day...