- Theo's costume:
"Kekekekeke!"
There was a madman running through the mansion, randomly pelting people with pumpkin seeds. He wasn't very sneaky, since he was also adding a little 'pew pew' noise every time he pulled the trigger, but he seemed to be having a blast. And in a way he was, he was also scared out of his mind and trying to cover it up.
See, there was weird crap going on in this mansion.
As soon as he'd gotten his collar, which felt too tight around his neck but the lady wouldn't let him take it off, and his neato looking gun, he took off into the haunted house on a mission. Life had been tense and honestly taken a big, steaming dump on him for quite a while now. Happening across this would give him just a little break from his thinly veiled gloom and let him blow off some steam. Theo Silversong was a quirky guy who could get into anything if it was silly enough. The sugary goods in the snack foyer only gave him more hyperactive energy for this event, so not unlike a sugar-cracked-out child, the Silver Wolf ace had not even hesitated to enter the chaotic fray deeper in the house. Many took the stealthy approach, but not Theo. He was the cackling idiot running from room to room, screaming as he rained down seedy destruction and took his own shots with dramatic, self-choreographed death scenes.
Eventually, though, he ended up alone in the deeper parts of the house that others had yet to reach. Good, he needed a small breather. Running around like a derp was more cardio than he was used to. But...that's when it started to happen. It began with the kids. Out of nowhere, and scaring the pants off of him, the trick-or-treaters appeared. They didn't have guns or collars, so he wondered why they were here, but they wouldn't answer. Little turds! All they wanted was candy and compliments for their gory murder victim costumes. They were lucky to choose him, since he always had candy on him. He was unfortunate that he now had to hand over his stash so they'd leave him alone. But then, as soon as they left the room full of furniture ghosts, a mist appeared. A spoopy mist. "Nnngh..." he groaned in growing fear, now hating that he'd come up alone. "I treated you candy, kids! Why are you tricking me?!" he called to those trick-or-treaters, though deep down he knew this wasn't the prank of a young mage. He just wanted to blame them because it was less terrifying. Even though he wanted to close his eyes and pretend this was all not happening, he turned around to see a shadow coming toward him. If it was a person, he couldn't tell who. "Uh..Uh I gave all my treats away, okay? So...like....
no to all of this creepy crap pleasedon'tkillmeMr.Shadowman nngh nghhhh..." he begged, and just as he was certain this thing was gonna suck out his soul or something, it dissolved just as it touched him and sank into the floor. "...Ngh?" Theo asked, peeking down, then going white as a sheet. "Here lies Theo Byron Sinclar-Ragnos," he read in a monotone voice, before repeating it in a more disbelieving scream, "HERE LIES THEO B-B-B...." he trailed, then quirked his head to the side. "...My middle name is Byron? ...Ew, that doesn't feel right at all. I don't have enough waistcoats to pull off this name at all, what were they thinking?" mumbled the distracted man, forgetting about his terror for a second. "Oh...right...AAAAAAHHHHH WHY AM I DEAD?!" he resumed freaking out, turning around as if to ask whoever he felt behind him if they saw what he did. Except when he did that he only saw a black cat, which he blinked at, then accepted that he'd just asked a random black cat about his fate and even paused for its response. When it gave none, he sighed and looked back to the tombstone thinking it might tell him what killed him or when he died so he could either look forward to it or avoid it, but....it was gone.
"WHERE DID MY DEATH STONE THING GO?" he exclaimed, searching around the room and under sheets as if the gravestone just grew legs and wandered off. No dice. It was gone. What wasn't gone, though, was the cat. Even as he left the room, blaming it for all the freaky crap that just happened, the cat followed. And followed. No matter how fast he walked, the cat was always a few feet behind him when he turned to look, judging him, knowing things he didn't. This cat knew why his middle name was Byron. He could feel it. It was in that stare...
Once he finished his staredown with the cat for the twentieth time, he turned to try and catch up with other people and rammed face-first into a very tall man. Yay a person--WHEW THE BOOZE SMELL! Was this guy a person-sized bottle of the stuff? He felt drunk just smelling him. The man only wobbled and giggled, accidentally spitting out his fake vampire teeth into a spitty puddle on the ground. As Theo stared in disgust, the man pretended to grab an invisible mic, as if he was in a comedy club. "Ay ay ayyyyy, where all my *hic* zombguys and ghouls at?" he punned, starting some sort of routine.
"Quick, wha did the vam*hic*pire say to the ghost at the *hic* hallerween party?"
"...what?"
"WHY DON'T YOU LIVE A LITTLE! HAHAHAHAHA!"
"...oh god..."
"What kind of dessert does a *hic hic* ghost like?"
"Neh?"
"I SCREAM! BAHAHAA!"
"...heh."
Encouraged by the half laugh, the drunken vampire pulled out his best material. "Finally! What did the ghost wear to the Ha Ha Hallenqween par*hic*y?"
"What?"
"BOOOOOOOts..."
"Pffft, hahahaha!" Theo broke on the last one, falling into a peel of giggles. "Booots...heh, that one was good," he told the guy, clapping him on the shoulder as he passed him to find someone else to afflict with his jokes.
Even still, as the man wandered, trying to find his way back to seed-shooting civilization, he couldn't help but wonder what kind of spell had been put on this place. He was normally very good with his sense of direction. How else could be he a treasure hunter, given that the best treasures weren't marked on any map and definitely had no instructions other than old rumors? It was as if the rooms and halls were seamlessly blending together. Maybe he was walking in a circle?
Just as he rounded yet another corner in the vacant halls, he rammed into a snack cart and fell over. Somehow the old woman pushing it kept it from toppling its goods on top of him, but she didn't seem angry in the least that he'd almost ruined everything. In fact, she smiled like Granny Bon Bon would when she was about to stuff him full of sweet treats. Theo should have been wary of her, since he'd run into nothing but the weird and scary since getting lost up here, but...that would require extra thought. "Fancy a sweet, darling?" her old voice crackled, holding out a Pumpkin cookie. Theo was a sucker for sweet stuff. "Yes, ma'am," he answered in polite awe, taking it from her and munching on it without hesitation. What was she doing up here? Did she get lost, too? Ah, he didn't care. "This is delicious!" he mumbled happily through the cookie crumbs, and the cackling dessert peddler peddled him some pie and a latte as well, all pumpkin themed and tasty. Once his belly was satisfied and she was content that the whippersnapper had had enough, she slowly pushed her cart around the corner and disappeared.
"What a nice old lady!" Theo chirped warmly to himself (and the stalking cat) as he once more resumed his task of trying to find his way back. It didn't occur to him to ask the old lady how she'd gotten here or if she knew how to get back, nor did he consider he should walk with her to benefit them both, but such was Theo's way. He pressed onward, taking halls at random until he finally got frustrated enough to dart back into a room to peek out the window to get his bearings. The window was much higher up than he thought, but at least he could see people out in the spooky yard ducking from behind dead trees and gravestones to shoot each other. When had he climbed so many stairs?
As he peered out the window, a bone-chilling development took place behind him. "BWAKAKAKAKEKEKEKEKEKEKEEEEEEH!" rang out a hollow, haunted cackle. Theo froze in place, wide eyes still staring out the window, but no longer seeing anything. The haze and seeing his tombstone had been scary, but whatever this new horror was, it felt much more dangerous to his life as of this moment. "TURN AROUND, BOY!" the new threat screamed after an impatient pause, to which Theo complied.
What Theo saw was frightening indeed. With the legless body of an old-timey rich man in fine but tattered threads, nothing was scary until his eyes reached the head. There was no human head, but instead a jack o' lantern carved with thin but menacing features. It glowed from within, but not from a candle, but from some spoopy magic. His outside glowed too in a soft orange aura. "BOY!" he roared again, but this time more amicable. As amicable as a menacing, pumpkin-headed ghost could be. "My name is Sir Jacky Pumpolian the 3rd, a master of the dark arts and season bound demon," he began, waving the ornate lantern in his hand around for creepy effect, "and I have manifested before you to ask three riddles!"
Theo shrieked.
"WHY DO YOU SCREAM? I HAVE NOT YET FINISHED?!"
Theo silenced but didn't answer. In truth, ghosts freaked him out in general, but this one also claimed to be a demon. He'd dealt with demons. Not a fan. Also....riddles. Nothing good from asking someone stupid to answer riddles.
"Ahem, where was I-- OH YES, I will ask you three riddles! Should you answer them wrong, you will suffer a TERRIBLE FATE!" Sir Jacky Pumpolian the 3rd finished, raising both arms into boney-handed claws as his aura spiked. "BWAKAKAKEKEKEKEK-- Why are you not shrieking? This is where you shriek, boy. You may shriek now!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
"OKAY THAT IS ENOUGH!" the pumpkin demon cut off Theo's unending shriek, growing tired with the dumb lad. Time to move on and get to the fun parts, which would hopefully be the killing. "FIRST RIDDLE! The person who built it sold it. The person who bought it never used it. The person who used it never saw it. What is it?"
Theo just gaped at him, eyes bugged out. Was he even thinking? But then he answered. "A back scratcher."
"Wha...INCORRECT. The answer was COFFIN. SECOND RIDDLE! What do you call a skeleton that makes you laugh and giggle when you’re sad?"
More gaping from Theo. Maybe this was his thinking face. "Funny...bone...."
"I feel like that was a fluke," Sir Pumpolian wheezed, but he sighed and accepted it. "Fine, you get that one. THE LAST RIDDLE! I have a name but it isn’t mine, you don’t think about me while in your prime. People cry when I’m in their sight, others lie with me all day and night. What am I?"
More glazed staring. This boy just wasn't bright, which was frustrating, but also ended up with the result Jacky wanted, so beggars couldn't be choosers. "Uh..." Theo grunted, his brows furrowing. He was giving it all the brainpower he had. He gasped like he'd realized something, paused again, then made a fart noise with his mouth as whatever he had escaped him. "Iunno,"
"FOOOOL! A GRAVESTONE!" roared Jacky, flying up to put his pumpkiny face in Theo's terrified one. "Whilst you may have managed to answer one riddle correctly, YOU FAILED THE OTHERS AND NOW YOU SHALL SUFFER THe CONSEQUENCES!"
Theo started screaming again as the fruity wraith flew backwards, thrusting his narrow arms out as his outfit split open to reveal festering dark magic. "BWAKAKAKAKAKEKEKEKEEEEH!" he cackled, his ghostly voice echoing all around and right through Theo, quaking him right down to his toenails. The gravestone prophecy? SO SOON? HE WASN'T READY TO ACCEPT THAT BYRON WAS HIS MIDDLE NAME!
"NOOOOOO!" Theo cried, dodging a trio of dark tendrils that whipped out and tried to either stab him or drag him inside Jacky's expanded torso of nightmares. The fight continued like this, where Sir Jacky Pumpolian the 3rd lobbed some sort of dark spell at him and he ungracefully dodged while screaming and failing to escape. It wasn't until the glass of one of the windows was busted out by an orb of dark magic and the glass that rained down on those below caused a scream from the other players. That's right. It wasn't just his life here, there were others. Theo stopped screaming, turning around to face his enemy with no less fear, but with much sharper and determined eyes. Sir Pumpolian had to be stopped here or he'd ruin this fun event and hurt people.
Rustling up some previously thought dead heroics from his Rising Star days, Theo surprised the Halloween demon. He was quite strong for such a dull and fearful boy. Before he could even recover from his surprise, Theo went for the obvious weak spot. The jackk o' lantern head. For what happened to old jack o' lanterns? They were smashed in the street by punk kids. Stretchy jello arms whipped out and snatched the head right off the ghost's shoulders and brought it back closer to his body. "What-- HEY! RELEASE MY HEAD HIS INSTAN---"
*splat*Theo smashed the jack o' lantern on the floor and watched the hollow gourd bust into various sized chunks. The orange glow from within was released and rushed back to the body, which disappeared in an orange flash. For good measure, Theo continued to stomp on the pieces until it looks like a piece of dropped pumpkin pie from the old lady's cart earlier. Once he was satisfied that it was over, he simply turned and walked out the door of the room, shutting that whole memory into the back of his mind. Nope. Not dealing with that right now. Getting back to the game was what mattered.
Once he'd made it back to where people were playing the game and not where he'd encountered some of the weirdest crap he'd run into in a long time, he resumed shooting up everyone he saw with a jittery, nervous craziness. The cat was still following him and staring like it knew all the secrets he could ever want to know, but wasn't going to tell him, and he couldn't get seeing his grave out of his head. Was it a fortune or a prank? He had to distract himself with pumpkipew carnage!
Theo was terrified of death. He had every right to be. He'd died three times already, and he could firmly say that the process and the result was horrific.
What brought a pause to his projectile massacring were the unhappy sounds he caught amongst the laughter of both himself and others engaged in the war. Following the noise, it took him into an empty room. While was spooked by walking into another empty room and desperately hoped no more weirdo stuff would happen to him, he was spurred on by the sobs coming from the corner. Locating the source, his icy blue hues landed on a boy. A man? He wasn't sure of age, but it didn't matter. "Hey, dude, why're you crying?" he asked, poking him with the tip of his Pumpkipew, just to make sure he was a real person and not some ghost that had lured him in only to jumpscare with some sort of ghoulish face and shriek.
@Roosko Lambet[wc: 2685 ||
OOC NOTE: You can ignore most of the post between the lines. I was satisfying the event's prompt challenge for tickets. xD]