+ Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright! | OPEN +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: EVERYONE (if they want to live)
Where: EVERYWHERE (inside the mansion, knocking on doors)
When: 6/24 - 6/27
Rating: PG-13?
Summary: The Summerween Trickster has made his decree - Trick or treat...or die! This is a mingle log for Trick-or-Treating!
The Story:



On the morning of the 24th, everyone will find that the mansion was inexplicably decorated for Halloween...sort of. The idea behind the decorations is mostly the same, except that every jack-o-lantern is made out of a watermelon instead of a pumpkin. No, this is SUMMERWEEN.

For the first day it will be harmless enough, just a change in décor and a little spooky summer fun. However, by the second day there will be sightings of the Summerween Trickster, a creepy fellow made entirely out of unpopular loser candy, and he is not happy. In the entrance hall, there will be a giant jack-o-melon container with a counter and a count-down clock ticking away to the end of the event.

Your job, Wonderland, is to trick-or-treat for your lives. You have until the end of the event to deliver one million pieces of candy to the jack-o-melon before the end of the event, to appease the Summerween Trickster.

What was that? You'll just sit this out and wait for the event to end? I wouldn't do that if I were you. You see, the Summerween Trickster could be lurking around any corner. If he catches someone not fully embracing the spirit of Summerween (refusing to trick or treat, not wearing a costume, etc), they will not survive the experience. The Trickster will kill them and swallow them whole, making them part of his horrible loser candy body.

More details about trick or treating can be found here. This is a mingle post for trick-or-treating, if you'd rather use this than make a post! [Brackets] or prose are both welcome.

Comments

trick

[rosswood]

Who's got two thumbs and is dressed as a skeleton for kicks?

Alex. It's Alex. He didn't set out to offend, honestly, but it occurred to him later that some of his least favorite people here are skeletons. So why not search them out?

His costume isn't very flamboyant, and as a result he's definitely got a faceful of silly-string one or twice. He's just stumping through the mansion when he witnesses someone getting a plush toy to the skull (literal skull, he notes sourly). It ricochets off, and by luck and pure reflex, it ends up in Alex's hands.

"Guess so," he remarks dryly.

trick

[punful]

Oh good, it's Alex. Once upon a time, Sans actually kinda liked this guy. His sense of humor was a bit too sarcastic and bitter for Sans's taste, but whatever, they had some good conversations. Ah well. So it goes.

And of course Alex is dressed as a skeleton. Normally people don't go out of their way to spite Sans, unless your name is Chara, and if this was anyone else Sans would gladly believe it was a coincidence. But it's Alex. It's pretty convenient that they ran into each other at all.

Sans wonders if Alex intends all this to be offensive. There's probably a cultural appropriation joke in here somewhere, but Sans doesn't really care. Though it is a little annoying at how anatomically incorrect the costume is. Do humans think that tarsals and carpals are just one big glob of bone or something?

He grins at Alex.

"looks like wonderland isn't the only one. and hey, you made a friend." He gestures at the plush toy. Might as well keep this semi-civil for as long as he can.

[rosswood]

Alex eyes the plushie with distaste before chucking it over his shoulder.

"So what're you supposed to be? A human?" It's a joke that maybe would've worked if they hadn't parted on such sour terms - or on Alex's sour, Sans's...whatever, does he get sour? - the last few times they encountered one another. Frankly, skeleton costumes are traditional, and his is entirely half-assed. Sans doesn't have a leg to stand on here, Alex tells himself repeatedly.

[punful]

Aww. Poor plushie. It was kinda cute too, though Sans has no idea what it's supposed to be. Some kind of...skeleton hatching from an egg? Sure.

"actually, yeah. sorta. like, an anime human, so i'm not sure how close that is to the real thing. guy named 'tuxedo mask' i guess. apparently i'm supposed to throw roses at people and say something dramatic. not too good at drama, though."

He's pretty damn good at throwing things, though, so he chucks a rose right at Alex's head. His aim is scarily accurate. If Alex doesn't move, the rose will hit him right between the eyes. Fortunately for everyone involved, there are no thorns.

[rosswood]

"Yeah, I got no clue what you're talking abou-AHH!"

The rose thwacks him cleanly between the eyes and drops to the ground. Alex rubs the spot, glaring at Sans. That didn't hurt, but it spooked him and he didn't like it.

"Nice aim," he snaps, for lack of a better comeback, and snatches the thing off the ground. No thorns. Well, that's a blessing at least. He snorts, tossing it back at Sans with a scowl. "But no thanks. I'm taken."

[punful]

Wow, he did not expect quite that reaction from Alex. Sans can't help a chuckle. He catches it when Alex tosses it back.

"yikes. did i startle you?"

Ah, so throwing flowers at people can be interpreted as...what, flirting? He kinda wishes Alphys had told him that, but maybe she didn't know either.

"oh, trust me, it's just an anime thing. if i was flirting it'd be way more embarrassingly obvious for everyone."

[rosswood]

He's taking way too much pleasure from that little maneuver. Alex continues to glower pointedly in his direction. He's too damn jumpy for his own good.

"Good," he says, his look becoming increasingly withering. "All 'boner' jokes aside, I don't even wanna think about how it'd work."

Except he is anyway. Jesus. Now that is a mental image he wants gone from his brain forever. Where would the - and the - okay, no. Thinking about something else now.

"And just so we're getting this out of the way, this?" He gestures in the vague direction of his own costume. "Was in no way intentional."

[punful]

"yeah, i never actually understood that one. people keep saying that, but i'm not sure what a boner is."

He is ten thousand percent lying, but Alex has the look of someone who just fell on an entire herd of Moldsmals and it is hilarious.

"but hey, i wouldn't stress too much about it. pretty sure it's not gonna be on any upcoming tests."

Though given Sans's luck, who knows? An event from the Underground has to happen at some point, and if it could be literally anything then, well...

Yeah, sans doesn't want to think about it either.

"really? aww. here i thought you were trying to mock me or something."

[rosswood]

He is not going to explain what a boner is. Jesus Christ. He has limits, he's a man with standards here, and Alex stares at Sans in a mixture of outrage and horror.

"First thing my closet spit out, hand to my heart," Alex says dryly. "Do I look like a guy who cares about this dumb...make-believe holiday? No, I just don't wanna die because this place is weird about candy."

[punful]

He starts chuckling at the look on Alex's face. Yes, perfect. Exactly what he was going for.

"yeah, that'd be pretty, uh. embarrassing, huh?"

Given the crowd here, though, someone's probably gonna die from this event and never be able to live it down. Hell, maybe it'll be Sans. Chara would never let him hear the end of it.

"though you might be better off with a more cando attitude. apparently this guy appreciates effort. and you know, you're uh...missing at least forty bones."

[rosswood]

"Again, not my fault." Oh, so now he's going to be picky about the accuracy of Alex's stupid dollar-store costume. Ugh. He didn't dislike Sans before, he'd actually found the guy to be occasionally hilarious, but after everything that's happened, his sheer unwillingness to say anything even when asked, Sans happens to be fairly high on Alex's list of suspects who might be ratting people out to the Queen.

"Not sure where you get off saying that, anyway," he says, eyeing the skeleton dourly. "Aren't you Mr. Zero Effort over here? About, like, everything?"

[punful]

"sure, sure." He's mostly just giving Alex a hard time. He's pretty sure the average human doesn't know the first thing about the skeletal structure. And frankly skeleton monsters aren't really the best example of anatomical accuracy.

He gives the most languid shrug possible.

"yeah, but i like to be hypocritical once in awhile. can't let people go thinking i'm a decent person."

[rosswood]

"No. Can't have that at all, can we."

It's not a question. He surveys Sans coldly. Still hasn't forgotten how incredibly goddamn evasive the guy is, wrigglier than an eel greased in butter, or some other absurd analogy.

"But if we're being honest here, I don't think you have to pretend." And can't go another five minutes without slipping some kind of underhanded comment in.

[punful]

Well that escalated quickly, as the kids would say. He raises a brow ridge at Alex. The cool thing about having about as much self-esteem as HP is that nothing really gets under your skin. Heh.

"yeah, well, some people would disagree. and they're the sorta people i don't like disappointing."

[rosswood]

"Bit too late for that, I'm sure." The guy mopes around acting like a lazy shit all the time. How could he not be disappointing the few people that give a damn?

"I knew a guy kinda like you, actually," says Alex, almost wistfully. "Kinda laid-back. Mostly just joined at the hip to a close buddy of his." Disgustingly codependently, he should add. But he doesn't.

"Yeah. They're both dead, I'm pretty sure."

[punful]

That was a bit too on the nose for Sans's liking, but whatever. He knows he's a disappointment. Practically embraces it. Why fight what you can't change and all that.

He tilts his head slightly at the last part, wondering if that was some kind of veiled threat. Thinly veiled, if anything. Alex has proven himself unstable enough that Sans honestly would not be very surprised if he just outright tried to murder Sans right now.

"well, that's too bad. sorry for your loss. maybe the two of 'em will show up here. wonderland's all about reconciliation under the guise of ill-timed catastrophes, after all."

[rosswood]

"Well, I'll tell you what. If they show up, I'll point in you their direction. You deserve each other."

Always stuck their noses where they weren't wanted, anyway. Like assholes. Deserved what they got. No, no they didn't, they couldn't - but they got it anyway. That's just how life is. It's not his fault. It's not.

It was never his fault.

But while he's on the subject, he adds, semi-casually: "Don't think I'm buying your little act, by the way."

[punful]

"always down for making more friends." He says it as casually as physically possible. Alex might be a threat, but thus far he's been all talk. Nor is he particularly skilled at insults.

And of course the conversation veers into actual accusations. Sans was wondering when it would happen. His grin widens. Boy, what's it gonna be this time?

"well i mean, it's halloween. summerween. i'm not actually tuxedo mask, last i checked. maybe i'm not at the right stage of the holiday spirit."

[rosswood]

Alex blinks his eyes shut for a short minute, breathing through his nose in exasperation. God but everything about this conversation has been insufferable. This guy, from his smug exterior to the sheer lack of what Alex knows about him, is gonna drive him up the goddamn wall.

"That," he snaps after a lengthy pause, "is what I'm talking about. Your whole sidestepping the issue thing. You can't run forever."

He knows that little tidbit from experience anyway.

[punful]

There's something genuinely kind of wonderful about pissing someone off so much. It takes barely any effort, after all. Sans doesn't usually go out of his way to piss people off, partially because he doesn't really have to go very far out of his way. Plus he generally prefers being nice to people. But Alex has decided to hate Sans, and has been an all-around jerk the past few months.

All this because Sans reminded Alex of something from home, huh?

He shrugs again. "not too big a fan of running. sounds a lot like exercise."

[rosswood]

"Well, then you can't dodge forever." Any sympathy he might've once felt for the guy has all but evaporated. Sans is just too damn mysterious for his own good, which puts him, oh yeah - right at the top of Alex's list of suspects for people who might be reporting to the Queen on the sly. He fits the profile perfectly: been here for some time, knows everybody, externally looks harmless, but there's gotta be more to him than he lets on.

Alex folds his arms, forgetting for a moment that a man in a shitty dollar-store skeleton costume is probably the least intimidating thing on the planet. Whatever, though. Whatever.

"Whatever your deal is, I'm gonna figure it out."

[punful]

*Keep attacking.

"heh."

A thought comes to his head: what if it had been anyone other than Frisk that had fallen into the Underground? What if it had been Alex? Alex tossed into a world of weird monsters, Alex given the power to Reset. It hadn't really occurred to him to think of things that way before. It could have been anyone--any of the people here. Someone like Alex.

There's probably no point in wondering how things would have gone, but still. It's a thought experiment if nothing else. Alex, jumpy and paranoid as he is, probably would have started killing monsters right away, just out of self-defense or fear. Understandable, really--one of those reasons that still isn't a good reason. Sans is sure Frisk and Chara did that at least once.

But after that? After the first Reset? With his curiosity and driving questions and desperate need for answers he doesn't really need?

Sans wonders.

"so you keep saying." He says it breezily, lost in thought. "guess there's no point continuing to try and convince you there's really nothing special going on with me. it's too bad. being friends with you was pretty okay."

[rosswood]

Pretty okay. That gets a moment of something from Alex, a flicker of an emotion approaching confusion. Did they ever count as friends, really? He'd like Sans well enough, hadn't particularly imagined that feeling would be reciprocated in any great fashion, but he'd never gone out of his way. Neither had Sans, he's reasonably certain. But then, he doubts Sans goes out of his way for anything.

So it doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter, so therefore it...doesn't. Yeah. There we go. Simple, and to the point. Alex scowls.

"We weren't friends." Saying it somehow feels worse, and he can't have that. That's not how he is. He cuts out the extraneous things, like excising tumors, and moves on. "I'm pretty sure friends give a damn when things start going wrong."

[punful]

Nah. Using that word wasn't going to work. It never really does. Ah well. It really is too bad. Sans always prefers having friends to anything else, and for all that he hides literally everything from people, he always does make friends pretty easily. The thing is that as far as he's concerned, you can be friends with someone even if never tell them anything and can't fully trust them. Hanging out and being nice to each other is all that counts.

It's the most low-effort kind of friendship. Like Alex says, the real deal requires a lot more work.

"guess not. but, uh, you're gonna have to be more specific about things going wrong. a lot's gone wrong the past few months, yanno?"

[rosswood]

"I won't get into that whole deal with the kid," he says, reluctantly, glowering at the patch of wall to his left. "You could've handled it better. So could I. But that's not even the beginning."

Oh, but he's been holding onto this for a long time. He starts ticking the offenses off on his fingers.

"You talk up shit about 'timelines'. You never give me a straight answer. For anything, no matter what the fuck it is. You don't tell me or anyone else shit about whatever you know even when I ask. So that's your problem, fine. You got your own issues. I get that. But then?"

He feels a tad ridiculous spouting this frustrating, escalating diatribe in a skeleton costume of all things, but he's been bottling this up for too long. Too damn long. He advances, the muscles in his neck hard and taut.

"Then you don't do jack, with a side of fucking squat when that knife-wielding maniac goes after Max. Your best advice when I ask how I can help her? Hide her. Like that changed a thing. You're lucky they had a goddamn change of heart! And then, 'cause I had the audacity to go after a kid that gladly murdered one of your weird monster buddies, you just jump to the fucking conclusion that I'm suddenly some kinda murderer. Like that's, that's just second nature for me."

Well, in some cases it is. But that's beside the point. Sans wouldn't know that. Would he?

"You're shady, and you act like you got this moral high ground. But you haven't got a fucking leg to stand on."