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

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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You wanna use our SAVEs to figure out if it's trick or treat behind a door?" Frisk asks, torn between amused and exasperated. The thought of delicious candy behind the door...fills you with determination? They've been filled with determination by more ridiculous things (Temmie village comes to mind) but still.

All Frisk's bag has so far is chocolate bars with almonds, but they don't fight when Chara rummages around in there. It's chocolate anyway, so they'll like it regardless, probably.

"It'd be easier than trying to map it out, I guess," says Frisk.

So why not?

They move to the next door and feel themselves filling with determination.

They can feel Frisk willing a SAVE into existence. Feel the tug in their shattered SOUL, even if they aren't the one drawing on that power. Good, saves them the effort. (Ha. Saves.)

They pull a chocolate bar from Frisk's bag, unwrap it, help themselves to a bite. You'd think the week they survived almost exclusively off chocolate bars and depression would have curbed their appetite for the stuff, but nope. Still good.

"Trick or treat," they announce around a mouthful of chocolate, knocking on the door. A pause. It opens. It spits out a few toothbrushes and packets of dental floss that clatter sadly to the floor.

Hmmm. All right, that was a trick, even if it wasn't quite as explosive as that little glitter prank. Frisk scowls at the output.

"All right, time to see if this is what we get every time."

They reach for their SAVE file...

And this time Frisk knocks on the door.

"Trick or treat!" they call out cheerfully. Does Chara still have the taste of chocolate in their mouth? Probably not, but maybe the doors can sense whether or not someone was eating the candy they were supposed to deliver to the Trickster. There's all sorts of possibilities, honestly.

This time, the door deposits several bags of Skittles into their open bag.

"Guess it is random," Frisk says matter-of-factly.

"You realize what this means?" Chara asks, repeating their actions from the last trial. Namely, helping themselves to a chocolate bar from Frisk's bag. Keep this up long enough, and they could basically cheat their way into enjoying the same mouthful of chocolate or so into infinity!

"We can game the system. Beat Wonderland at its own antics. All we need to do is SAVE each time, and just reload if it doesn't give up anything good." After all, this world was the one that set the rules down. Not Chara's problem if they can turn the rules to their own advantage, is it?

Yes. They're going to do it. They're going to SAVEscum Wonderland.

Frisk feels like maybe they should protest this, like maybe this could take the fun out of it? But heck with it, they can use this to help other people get more candy too, right? Yeah. Exactly.

"We can get the Trickster his candy," says Frisk slowly, grin slowly creeping over their face, "and have lots to spare."

So they can have their chocolate and eat it too!

Silly Frisk. Breaking the game utterly through probably-unintended exploits IS fun!

"Exactly," Chara beams. "We could turn a thankless, Sisyphean task into a game that could actually be winnable. Why, I bet having frequent SAVEs to fall back on could also keep a soul or two from slacking off at the wrong time and falling into Jack Skellington's wily hands!" Great Pumpkin, Jack Skellington, Decemberween Thnikkaman, Trickster. Whatever. Frisk knows who they mean.

"In fact, this may be the most globally beneficial use of our powers that I could think of. It would be more irresponsible to leave everything up to Wonderland's whims, wouldn't it?"

"Sans isn't gonna be happy about it, is he?" Frisk says, hesitating. That's...really the only thing holding them back, even if they would be doing it for the greater good. Kind of. Helping people, like they should be with their powers! It's important stuff.

"Maybe he'd be all right with it if he knew we were using it to help people, though," they add thoughtfully. Well, why not? As long as they SAVE periodically to keep their candy bag full, they could even help other people if they're low on candy, or aren't getting nearly enough treats to satiate the Trickster's demands.

"Sans ought to be grateful, if you ask me. We both know there's no chance he's gonna be able to put in full-enthusiasm trick-or-treating the whole event. But if we SAVE, then we can basically trick-or-treat efficiently enough to count as 2.5 people. More than enough to pick up his slack." Makes sense, right? Surely he'd look the other way if he benefits from it. People are all the same, deep down. For the right bribe, morals change in an instant.

Or, you know. Not a bribe. Altruism! Friends share, don't they? Help each other out. That's what they'd be doing. Carrying him through the moments where he just sucks too hard to do it by himself.

"I mean...I guess once we explain it to him, he'd be okay with it, right?" They're nibbling on their finger anxiously, even as they proceed to the next door and form a new SAVE. Luckily, this one gives them a handful of chocolate bars, so there's no need to LOAD. And they don't think Sans can detect when they form a SAVE, so that's fine too.

They make a new SAVE after they rake the spoils into their bag.

"We're filling up faster this way anyway," says Frisk more to themself than anyone else, privately just needing to rationalize what they're doing every step of the way because, yes, it does feel kind of wrong to use this power for something so objectively silly.

Chocolate! Hit the jackpot on that one. If they could just keep doing that well, they probably wouldn't even need to LOAD once. Nothing to worry about then, right?

Except this door produces a bunch of packages of tamarind candy. Chara stares at it, utterly baffled. They've never tasted it before - how are they supposed to know if it's trash candy or good candy? "Uh... what about this?" They venture. "Think it's good enough, or should we have a do-over?"

"Um." Yeah, they've never had it either. "I think we can say...yes? It's better than risking more glitter, right?"

Oh, but if only they'd SAVED before that little hubbub. They might have evaded being thoroughly coated in the stuff.

"It's candy. That's what counts, right?"

"Right. Fair. If we don't like it, we aren't the ones who have to eat it, right?" So into the sack it goes!

They decide to be the one to SAVE at the next door. See if they can get to it before Frisk. They try, and... it's like the inner equivalent of banging your shin on a coffee table in the dark. An unexpected wall in the way. Oh. Great. What, is Frisk's last SAVE too recent for them to lay one? When's the time limit on it being a Determination vs. Determination thing?

They're not gonna get licked here. Not now. A good excuse to get some practice in, right? See if the "intent is might" rule applies to this like it applied to fighting monsters. If it's easier if Frisk isn't guarding their SAVE, is willing to toss that point away for the next one, whether it's theirs or Chara's.

Strain. Draw on the SOUL-deep ache, press a fraction against the might of a whole.

* Determination.

Ha! Did it! A feeling like letting go of a held-breath, and a rush of a weird sense of triumph. "Allow me," they declare, even if the SAVE is already laid down.

There's that familiar rush and tingle of a forming SAVE, but Frisk isn't the one doing it. They let Chara take the lead there, because this might be the first time they've used their SAVEs to prank the mansion, and there's a sort of novelty in that.

Frisk sweeps toward the door with one hand, dipping the upper half of their body in a mock bow.

"After you."

"Why, how thoughtful of you, Mx. Frisk," Chara declares, and lightly and politely raps on the door with all the decorum of a young monarch. They offer their candy bag, graciously...

And the door pours a stream of spiders directly into it.

"Ew," Chara mumbles, squeezing their slightly-squirmy candy sack shut before anything can crawl out. "At least press 'em into cider first."

They glance at Frisk. "I mean... they were edible Underground. Do we count them, or is this a trick?"

...Oh. Frisk stares, grateful that Chara reacted quickly enough to prevent the spiders from getting all over. They don't mind spiders, especially after Muffet trapped them so many times, but they're not really eager to be covered in them, so to speak.

"Trick, I think," says Frisk. "I don't think the Trickster eats spiders. Maybe only spiders eat spiders?"

And don't think about the legs that might be in your Spider Donut as you eat it.

"LOAD," they add decisively.

"Really?" Chara questions, voice honey-sweet as they plunge their hand into their candy sack. "Golly, Frisk, but why? Don't you like spiders?"

They pull out a handful. (This could have gone very badly if these had been the large, hairy, and venomous sort.) Slowly start shoving their squirmy little fistful toward Frisk's face. "Don't you want a nice, juicy, wriggling handful of freshly-squeezed spiders?"

But, obediently, considerately, they tease no more than that.

Instead, they LOAD.

* File loaded.

"Don't worry, spider didn't," Chara chirps. Another old callback. A joke that isn't quite as witty when there aren't any Spider Donuts in sight and there are no longer limitations cramming their speech into a mash of consonants, but one of their better ones, right?

This time, the door vomits up a stream of gummy worms. Much better! Unless you're really into spiders, they guess. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or something.

"We went a pretty long time without using SAVEs, didn't we?" Chara observes as they shut that pointless door and move on to the next. Last event they even brought it up for at all had been the deep caves, and Frisk had declared it unnecessary.

...Ha ha.

"We could have used them for much more important things than this," they mutter.

Frisk may not dislike spiders, but that little stunt of Chara's certainly gets a jump and a startled sound out of them, just that glimpse of the way they skitter all over and crawl up Chara's sleeve and -

And they're back here again. Okay. As long as they're all right. It's nothing more than a scare, after all, and that's what this holiday's supposedly for.

"I...guess we did," says Frisk, frowning. * SpiderDont. That's right. Sometimes it's hard to keep track. There were times when Chara whispered * ButtsPie because they were Chara, but also there were times when it was simply just * Pie.

* Don't worry, spider didn't.

"I guess I just haven't been feeling very determined lately," says Frisk, as they move onto the next door, a weak attempt at a joke. "Have you?"

"Determination is the only thing I'm made of," Chara points out. The only thing that lingered when their and Asriel's shared SOULs went to dust. Essence and determination. The only thing that keeps a modest handful of splintered bits hovering sort of near each other rather than spinning off into shattered nothingness. The only reason they woke up, the only reason they keep waking up.

Isn't it?

"How we feel is irrelevant. It's a matter of function." Functional. Not the same thing as "okay," but it's what really matters. You can do as you're told, you can do as you're supposed to. They stretch their hand out, mimicking the gesture that comes before the formation of a SAVE.

"If we have power, then it should be used. Because we can, and nobody else can. We should. If we had exercised this power all along, you would not have needed to die. We could ensure the ideal outcome for every event. Isn't that what you taught me, Frisk? If we have the power to solve people's problems, then it would be remiss not to."

Well, they both know that's not true. No one subsists entirely off determination, not even the Amalgamates. But Frisk doesn't press the point. Today's a day for fun, not arguments regarding the nature of their existence.

Frisk frowns, shrugging their shoulders.

"Because we can, we have to?" They feel a little guilty regurgitating those words again, but it's the thing that springs to their mind most easily. They can, and therefore they should? But then again, it's not...wrong, exactly. They have the power to save people from a lot of fear and potential death. They can solve those problems, and help people with little cost to themselves.

So they turn instead to what else Chara said, knocking on the next door and catching a pair of peanut butter cups neatly in their bag. "I can't SAVE unless I feel determined. You had to give yourself a minute to make your SAVE just now, right?"

"I suppose," Chara answers, reluctantly. "But I had to push back against your SAVE. You'd made one only a few minutes ago, right?"

Perhaps it's paradoxical. A tautology. Because they're determined, they have the power to force change. Because they have the power to force change, Chara can make themselves be determined. Is this just another aspect of being a chameleon? Something more insidious and deeply-rooted than that? Mistrusting what you feel. Forcing yourself to feel. To keep going, even when you don't really have it in you. Being nothing more than your function. Your power.

But... "It seems easy to me. If I were not up against a SOUL like yours, I can't imagine it being hard at all," they reply breezily. "You try a SAVE this time, then. Let's see if my SAVE is a deterrent, or if it's your own self you're pushing against."

"I...guess." Frisk looks at their hands, flexing the fingers open and shut in a fist and out again. Reaching out and forming a SAVE. Sometimes they showed up at different points. Sometimes they only appeared after a monster had spoken to them, threatened them, told them what was to come, and they felt themselves filling with determination.

Synthetic, organic, or what? It's not just a feeling, is it?

"I just remember the last time we...SAVED over each other?" Loathe as they are to bring up memories of that confrontation, it is relevant. "I couldn't SAVE after you did. You being able to do that, it - it wiped away all my determination, at least for right then. It wasn't easy anymore."

It's never easy to SAVE over Frisk. They... decline to say so out loud, however. Same principle that pried control over SAVEs from Flowey, right? There's less of Chara than there is of Frisk, so that whole SOUL produces more determination. Unless... unless they focus? The... soul equivalent of an adrenaline rush letting someone pull a superhuman act of strength off?

But if that's the case... if it's just a short-term fluke, then why did it hinder Frisk's ability?

Funny. All this time, and they only have even more questions about their own abilities.

"Correlation or causation, I wonder. Was it the SAVE itself? Or was my creepy face just that effective?" It really had only gotten better after they'd been buried, forgotten, hollowed-out, hadn't it? They're not going to dismiss the argument itself, or the powerful, intimidating momentum Chara's capable of gathering behind themself.

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