songerein | Halloween Nightmare: Part II

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Halloween Nightmare: Part II

✵ HALLOWEEN NIGHTMARE: PART II ✵

When the full moon is at its zenith and supposed to be at its brightest, the moon's toothy grin opens wide and seems to laugh before it suddenly turns black, casting everything into pitch darkness. Screams and howls fill the air as the natives cheer, as if this event is an expected occurrence. Then there's a loud CRUNCH from somewhere and in the next moment the light, but it's now dyed as red as the moon looming above, its size larger than before. Everyone looks around in some confusion, a sign that something isn't right.

Fears are confirmed when those from the graveyard suddenly rush in yelling that a large chunk of the land had disappeared and parts continue to crumble away. Terrified, everyone starts to panic wondering what could have caused it while others rush out to investigate. Those who can fly will exclaim that the giant hole looks as if something has taken a large bite out of it. Many already look to the moon and its eerie grin, but yell that it's impossible. Others blame "that witch" Baba Yaga and claim it must be her doing!

As the panic continues to grow, the ground and even the skies seem to tremble in response. The tapirs warn that the dreamscape may be coming to an end, but the dreamwalkers should try and figure out what happened to help stabilize it so it doesn't turn into a nightmare.

NIGHT FRIGHT

A. Rescue Residents. A portion of the graveyard closest to the massive hole is torn up with earth, tombstones, and coffins strewn about and many residents need help getting out. It's only fortunate that most were out enjoying the festivities. Still others were injured in the initial rush to escape, and many need help in calming down.

B. Nightmare Manifestations. Black, inky pools suddenly appear both in town and in the graveyard. Should anyone step near it, a tangible manifestation of their nightmares will spawn from the pool and rush out to wreak chaos. These manifestations must be contained and destroyed or they will turn into noctaere which will cause undue harm to the dreamscape. Clearing up the pools will also be necessary to stop the process, and this can be done by throwing magic potions that suddenly appear nearby. No time to question where they came from!

C. Villainous Wraiths. There are red-eyed wraiths that appear from the hole and will attack anyone in their path. However, instead of trying to hurt them, they enter their victim to possess them and transform them into storybook villain caricatures. The forms are familiar to the original source but will be more grotesque with exaggerated movements. Only the dreamwalkers will be able to destroy the wraiths. To save the possessed without killing them, dreamwalkers engaged with them will find their costumes temporarily changed to match the villain's rival, usually the hero of whatever story they are from. Defeating them while in this costume will release the victim, cast out the wraith, and return the dreamwalker to their original costume.

» BONUS: PAGES LEFT BEHIND. For every wraith defeated, they will turn into a strange ash and ink-like substance and will leave a charred piece of paper behind with strange writing on it. Collect them as they will return with everyone after the dreamscape ends.

D. Baba Yaga's House. Many residents are clamoring for "Baba Yaga" and a search is on for the legendary witch. However, despite all their bravado, most are too afraid to venture into the haunted forest beyond the graveyard. A select group is formed and led to the witch's house where they find it has sustained strange damage. With the door open and the owner clearly not around, the chance is now to investigate. [Mod Note: Designated groups have received their clues and are free to thread them out or skip to post-investigations for more open discussion with everyone else (or both!).]

[Mod Note: This is Part II of our event! For a refresher on the details or need to drop a question, refer to our Event Details post. To submit bonus prompt threads for the whole event, submit them here.]

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[In Toge's experience, rumours, urban legends, and cursed spirits go hand in hand. When things began to take a turn for the darker, Toge tries to help out the others at first, but when he hears the residents blaming Baba Yaga for the dangers happening, he figures it might be worth seeing if that was the source of all of this mess. So when he's given the chance, he will join the group who goes to investigate the witch's house.]

[Except... when they get there, it looks strangely damaged. That's not exactly normal... Toge's brows knit in confusion. Did this house sustain damage like the rest of the dreamverse did? Or did something else happen here? He steps forward, eyes flicking around for anything suspicious. He's about to enter on his own when someone approaches him, making him pause.]

Kombu.

[He blinks in surprise. Go in together? It's still a strange thing for Toge. He's still getting used to the idea of those he would consider civilians getting involved in supernatural occurrences... But then again, this world isn't like his own, and this isn't the same as dealing with Cursed Spirits. And at the end of the day, two pairs of eyes are better than one. So after a brief delay, he nods.]

Salmon.

[The guy does have a point. It might be better to go in together.]

Edited 2021-10-24 05:57 (UTC)

[That...is an interesting way of communicating, but even with his relatively short experience in this world, Momo is going to assume that it's happening for a reason. So after a momentary blink of apparent bemusement, he grins, making a gesture towards the house.]

Thanks. [He lowers his voice a bit, so those who escorted them won't overhear.] I'm not that experienced with magic, so even if I did find something, I'm not sure I'd know what to do with it.

[He starts to walk towards the house, scanning over it with his eyes. Despite his generally cheerful demeanour, there's definitely something shrewd and calculating about that look.]

Looks like we might be a little late to the party, though. [The damage isn't escaping his notice either - with chaos in the city at the moment, why and when did this damage happen? It's just adding to his impression that all isn't quite what it seems.]

[Toge nods, following Momo towards the house. He sends a glance back to the ones who escorted them here, but then turns to Momo. He's not surprised to hear that the other isn't versed in magic; even in his own world, those who could be called jujutsu sorcerers were few and far between. He points to himself.]

Tuna mayo. Salmon.

[He's trying to imply that he's pretty well versed in "magic", though it might not convey easily. Not having his journal handy in this dreamscape was a bit of a hindrance...]

[But still, he does let out a little hum, looking up at the damage to the house. It definitely looked like it was damaged, but... what caused it?]

Mustard leaf?

[He makes a little clawing motion with his hand, tilting his head. Did something attack the house?]

[Momo's definitely keeping a closer eye on Toge's gestures now, knowing that it seems to be his primary way of communicating. Given context, he's going to assume that first remark is an indication that he knows more about this kind of thing than Momo, but he could be entirely wrong about that.

The clawing motion definitely makes Momo grimace a bit, though, because it does seem like the most likely reason.]

Yeah, I can't imagine any other reason the place would be this damaged besides...something attacking it. Especially with this kind of timing...the locals don't seem to like Baba Yaga, but I kinda got the impression that they were too scared to try attacking her.

[It felt a lot like one of those "complain a lot but don't actually do anything about it" situations. That said, Momo glances aside slightly for a moment, as if thinking - they might be able to get a bit more of a productive exchange happening if there's another option for communication, so he taps one of his pockets.]

Do you want something to write on at all?

[Toge nods, humming a bit in confirmation. It’s hard to think of what kind of damage could have been caused by this other than some sort of strange attack. But then that begged the question of just what had caused such an attack. Was it a nightmare manifestation? Those candy corn golems? Or was it something else? Heck, it sounded like Baba Yaga wasn’t exactly popular among the locals, either…]

[Toge blinks and turns to Momo. He stares for a moment, before nodding once.]

Salmon, salmon.

[Yes, that would actually be pretty helpful if he had something!]

[Momo is at least glad for the fact that his tendency to keep physical information on his phone quite frequently back home meant he wanted something to keep physical information on while he was here. As such, he withdraws a small notebook and pen from his pocket, flipping over to a blank page before offering it to Toge. The prior pages are primarily observations about the town, people and things he's noticed while they've been there, though there's some pages of lyric-writing interspersed with the information. It's also structured somewhat vaguely in how it's written - Momo knows how to keep his information secure, but he did have to account for the risk a local might find written info, and make it as un-cover-blowing as possible.]

Didn't think I'd need my notebook much this trip, but with the house free to check out, I have a feeling I would've been wrong about that even if it didn't turn out it'd help you.

[He imagines there'll be plenty of fragments of information to put together after this. There's certainly a curiosity about him as they get nearer the entrance, even if it's interspersed with a calculating eye.]

[Oh, look at that. That's pretty handy! Maybe Toge will have to invest in one of these when he gets back to town.]

[He takes the journal, and can't help but glance at some of the pages as he searches for a free page to write. Observations, what looks like song lyrics, what are probably personal musings... It makes him a little curious about what kind of person this guy is. Ah, but perhaps he could ask another time, and it's not exactly polite to pry. So he doesn't linger on any page until he finds a blank one, and he takes a moment to write a few quick words before showing them to Momo.]

Thank you for the help. If I knew I wouldn't have my journal with me I would have come more prepared.

[But hey, now he knows for next time. He follows Momo into the house, looking around with a careful eye. It's quiet, but he keeps a hand hovering close to his zipper, ready to pull it down at a moment's notice.]

Kombu...?

[Anyone home? Doesn't seem like it...]

[Honestly, it goes against Momo's habits and nature to hand off that much information to anyone he doesn't know extremely well, but needs must and, besides the lyrics, it's entirely information about things other than him, so that eases it a bit. At home, he tends to hold large amounts of sensitive information about his loved ones, as well as the things that can potentially come back on himself, so he's extremely cautious about giving away any of that.

But this does make detailed communication considerably easier, and Momo glances over to scan the page once Toge shows it, giving a bit of an understanding grin.]

Yeah, I don't think any of us were prepared for this, but at least we know now for next time.

[Because there's definitely going to be a next time. Momo knows these sorts of wild events don't come as just a solo act, but they do need to focus on getting through this one first.

Inside the house is certainly quiet, and Momo's stance shifts slightly as well. He has no weapon on him, but he's no stranger to hand-to-hand combat, and that's what the slight adjustment to his positioning and how he's carrying his weight lends itself towards.]

Maybe the uninvited guests left already. And the lady of the house. [But even in saying that, he's scanning the surrounds closely as they move further in, for any signs of movement. It's too early to let his guard down.]

[If they're going to be working on saving these dreamverses, Toge will definitely make sure to be prepared for next time. Jujutsu sorcerers need to be prepared for anything, after all.]

Salmon.

[Toge lets out a small hum, nodding slowly. Sure looked like whoever was here was gone... and that includes the candycorn golems and cackling witch he had seen before. He begins to scribble in his notebook, before tapping Momo on the shoulder and offering him the book to read.]

I came here before with someone. Lots of activity, a witch making those candy golems. But when we tried to go in, we got blasted back to town.

[Momo takes the book and scans over it, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. So it seems Baba Yaga might've been responsible for some of what was going on, but not necessarily all - the candy corn golems had been more in the range of persistent annoyance than actual threat.

He hands the book back, clearly now trying to put some things together in his head and spin out some potential connections and theories.]

I was here earlier as well...but I wasn't paying as much attention to the house, since there were a bunch of scattered papers. Looked kinda like talismans, and looked like there had been a fight over them. I didn't hear anything that sounded like the fight was still going on, so maybe someone attacked and then came back for another round?

[The house was a bit damaged last time he saw it, he recalls, but this seems a bit more questionable.]

Salmon...

[It's quite possible, if there were signs of a struggle beforehand. But that blast that had sent him and Kazuma back to town was pretty strong. That meant whoever had come to pick a fight with Baba Yaga had to be strong enough to get past that barrier.]

[He takes the book back and writes one more quick question.]

Then who's picking a fight with her?

[It's clear she's not a crowd favourite here in town, but everyone seemed too chicken to attempt to do anything about her.]

Edited (HTML fail, oops!) 2021-11-04 19:48 (UTC)

[Momo looks equally like he's pondering on that question, his mouth twitching into something like a grimace as soon as he sees it. It's times like this his lack of experience with worlds like this is standing out, but he can at least work off his ample knowledge of human nature, and the nature of people who want to start shit.]

Probably not the townspeople. They talk a big game, but most of them are too scared of her to actually do anything, because people love the status quo and from how they talk about her, most of them probably realise she could seriously upturn things if she really wanted to. This almost seems like...a preemptive strike, to clear her out before someone got things rolling properly? The stuff that was going on in town around when we arrived was pretty harmless overall, but that seems to have been when the attacks started. And things have just escalated. It's possible whoever's behind this only actually managed to drive her out today.

[Which would mean the townspeople have this totally backwards, in theory. Which Momo would definitely buy - it's also feasible that the pranks escalated into something worse from someone coming after her about them, but given what he's seen of the townspeople, that doesn't seem massively likely.

After the entranceway, things seem to get a bit more winding. There aren't any obvious open doors yet, but there are certainly options for which path to take off the hallway, and Momo looks cautiously into each of them.]

Any preference on which one we take?

Hmm...

[Toge hums again, considering those words. That would make sense. The town did seem full of a sort of spooky, trick-filled atmosphere, but like Momo said, it all seemed relatively harmless. Whoever had come here clearly wanted Baba Yaga gone... but then it's a matter of who would do such a thing. Why someone would want Baba Yaga gone completely. Why she was deemed a bigger threat.]

Salmon, salmon.

[He agrees with Momo, and agrees that there's puzzle pieces starting to line up, but still many more missing. They'll have to keep looking to find them.]

[Following the other boy, Toge peers down the other hallways. Hmm... After looking down both, he shrugs, then points down the right path.]

Mustard leaf?

[Momo isn't really applying much logic to which path they're taking either, since he figures they'll probably find something regardless of direction. So the right path is good enough for him, and he starts down it with a bit more visible caution than he'd had in the initial corridor. The deeper they go, the more likely it is they hit something someone else hasn't found yet.]

I hope this house isn't bigger on the inside or something... [Even as he says that, the hallway slopes downwards a bit - there's a short set of stairs that seems to lead down into another room. There's also a tiny fragment of something orange on one of the stairs on the way down, looking like it might've been dropped or fallen off something, and Momo crouches down to peer at it more closely on the way past.]

Candy corn? [It'd make sense, in a way, considering those candy corn creatures that had been roaming earlier in the week.]

Salmon.

[Geez, if this house was somehow bigger on the inside... Toge's heard of Incomplete Domains before, knows how they can twist and bend reality once you were inside them. He really hopes this house isn't like that.]

[Further into the house they go. When Momo stops to pick up some of the candy corn fragments, Toge looks down at it and nods. It does make sense that there's candy corn here, but weren't they coming from the cauldron upstairs? What were they doing here?]

[Toge continues on with Momo, heading to one door and peering inside of it. He pauses, his eyes widening a bit, before looking to Momo to get his attention.]

Tuna, tuna.

[He's pointing inside the room, which appears to be some kind of work station. There's more candy corn fragments inside, as well as... weird vials of stuff. What the heck was all this?]

[Momo straightens up from the candy corn on the floor, since there's only so much they can learn from dropped crumbs. The workstation area itself is much more interesting, and after a moment of hesitation from his general lack of experience with this sort of thing, Momo steps in more cautiously. Candy corn aside for the moment, his attention goes straight to the vials, though he doesn't touch them yet.]

Looks like she got interrupted experimenting on something. [He bends down, eying the vials closely. They look familiar to him, and it only takes him a moment to click onto why.]

Aren't these the potions that were appearing in the city? And these vials look like they're testing effectiveness on what the potions helped clear up, too.

[He points out the black inky stuff being eaten away in various ways by various liquids. He might not have seen this in a magical context before, but in a way, it's not a whole lot different to scientists testing different kinds of antibiotics.]

Salmon...

[It really does look like some experiment that went wrong, doesn't it? Toge reaches forward to carefully lift one vial up, eying the material inside. It's some sort of weird ink for sure, but the others...]

[Momo ends up voicing his curious thoughts out loud, and he turns to look at Momo before nodding.]

Tuna mayo.

[It looked like it to him, too. Even from a non-magical standpoint, this looks like some sort of science experiment, testing this ink stuff with the contents of those weird potions that had appeared. There's definitely something weird here. But if that was the case...]

...mustard leaf?

[Give him a minute to write some more in that journal, before offering it to Momo to read.]

Was she trying to get rid of this ink stuff? But then why attack with the golems?

[Momo looks over the vials one by one, trying to see if there's any other patterns or hints besides just the presence of the ink and candy corn. Nothing obvious so far, but then, that could just be his unfamiliarity with magic talking.

When the journal comes out again, Momo looks over to read the message, then straightens up a bit to curl a thoughtful hand under his chin.]

It's possible if whatever caused things to get to this point wasn't the first attack, since her house looked pretty ransacked already a few days back, that the golems were meant to be a defense system that got out of control. Or they were meant to be a prank, since the townspeople mostly didn't seem all that bothered by them. I haven't seen them during all the stuff that's been going on today, so I'm guessing they've all been destroyed one way or another.

[It does present another thought, though.] I wonder if she tried to have them target things that weren't from this world, or something...us being around to confuse things would explain why they wandered into town, then.

[It's just a theory, but he might as well float it. It could honestly just be that she didn't have enough time to perfect them and they went out of control on their own.]

[Trying to target things not of this world... that would explain why the golems were so hostile against them, and the townsfolk didn't seem too bothered by them. Toge nods in agreement for that.]

Salmon.

[He writes down one more line to show to Momo.]

Definitely feels like there's more going on here than just a mad witch, then.

[While Momo reads that, Toge decides to go in and carefully pick up one of the vials, gently tipping it to see how it reacts to being sloshed around. Weird... But he's definitely starting to think that there's layers here. Something a lot deeper than just an evil witch or wild nightmare magic.]

[Momo nods along after reading that, a bit of a grimace crossing his face. If Baba Yaga has been targeted while they've been here, and they're here because something is going wrong, there is one potential conclusion this all could lead to. He may just be too used to dealing with manipulative garbage back home, but sometimes that does come in handy for seeing the threads.]

Hard to tell until we find out more about the exact cause of all this, but I get the impression she knows what's causing everything that's going wrong in the town, and it's not her. What's happened around this house all feels targeted, and someone else could easily frame her since the townspeople already hate her guts.

[It wouldn't take much finessing to convince the townspeople that Baba Yaga was behind it all, because they'd already proven she's the first port of blame when something goes wrong in town. In this case, though, it means the townspeople have potentially lost themselves their last line of defense short of the dreamwalkers.]

[A frame job? It seems a little far-fetched, but given the evidence they've found, and what he'd seen earlier... it's definitely possible. And it would be almost perfect, given Baba Yaga's reputation around town.]

Salmon...

[But that just left one thing, then. Which he writes in Momo's journal before offering it to him.]

Who would do it?

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Halloween Nightmare: Part II

WALKS IN 500 DAYS LATE WITH STARBUCKS

the late with starbucks party is right over here

The best party \o/

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