And Suddenly To My Surprise

The member 'Iroha Ikegami' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

#1 'Normal Dice' :


--------------------------------

#2 'Normal Dice' :


--------------------------------

#3 'Normal Dice' :

This necessitates an additional roll.

The member 'Iroha Ikegami' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

Job: Halloween Spooktacular
Character: Profile
Approval: Here.
WC: 2982

"Whoa there little lady," Said the smooth-talking suit wearing gentleman, "Don't turn me to a frog until you see the wares I'm peddlin'." In his right hand he had a large, thin book that seemed to be something akin to a journal or sales entry list. She looked him over. The joke about turning someone into a frog actually came from several hundred years ago and its true meaning had fallen out of fashion, leaving only the remnants in the current lexicon. At any rate the chances of getting turned into a frog by a mistrusting wizard or witch is always a number closer to zero. Not zero, but a number quite close to that. Still, the tone of his voice was disarming and she lowered her hand, realizing that he was likely one of the attractions of the event.

"Ah," She said as the attire dawned on her, "A flim-flam man." She turned full on to face him and properly engage in her portion of the sales pitch. Though she realized that whatever he was selling would likely be nothing but novelty, this was exactly the type of thing that she had come here to experience.

Playing his part well, the wares peddler tipped his hat and in mock offense said, "Well now just a doggone minute there, missy, you'll find I'm nothing of the sort!" As he spoke he opened up the book and a curtain fell from the edges, at which point he released the book then lifted the curtain a bit to reveal the book had transformed into a podium, of sorts, "Why, I carry here the real deal, a one hundred percent magical tonic that's guarantee to put a pep in your step, a smile on your face and a bee in your bonnet if you're fond of bees."  Reaching underneath the recently conjured platform, he produced a flask and flipped off the top onto the tabletop. When it hit the surface, it seemed to elongate into from just the small lid to a full cup. Pushing the cup to the side, the Salesman revealed and re-revealed more and more cups until there were five available. He spun them around as though on a lazy susan, expertly pouring a small amount of liquid into each one.

"Take one, just one, just one! Of my miracle drinks and it'll set you right on the path to adventure. Might be bound with some spooky spirits, might turn into one yourself! Turn your hers into a his, your his into a hoo-mamma-jamma where did those come from, if you're willin' to catch my who there without givin' me what-for," He gave a playful wink, tapped the surface and one of the drinks bounced off of it and landed right in her hand, "Or hey, who knows, could just be plain ol' juice. You a bettin' gal?"

She sat still for at least ten seconds while her brain processed and dissected everything that he had said. All of his hand gestures and movements were designed to disguise simple sleight-of-hand tricks but she wasn't above allowing herself to be amazed by magic just because she knew it was magic. The movement, casting and preparation for it must have taken quite a long time to become familiar with, not to mention the affected style of speech. Plus, this was the kind of thing she had come here to do. Glancing over she could see that other people were interested in the makeshift booth that had just mysteriously been set up right before their eyes. They were lining up behind Iroha herself.

"Come on, little lady, no time like the here-now. Tell ya what, I'll have a chug with you." He grabbed up one of the other cups, tapped it against hers and chugged. Ever the mirror to normal people's actions, Iroha chugged her cup as well.

A familiar taste of cherries, oranges and the faintest hint of banana danced along her tastebuds. She felt good! She felt energized! She felt… a normal sugar rush, this was just juice. A little let down, she set her cup back on the table (where it quickly vanished) and looked up in disappointment just in time to see—

"Well I'll be darned, looks like our swigs got swapped!" Said the Salesman, now with a much higher, yet no less energized voice. Iroha realized that the tincture that the Salesman had poured himself had somehow, at least visibly, swapped his gender. Had that been intended for her? Could it be that the Salesman mistook her introspection for hesitation and did something to exchange their drinks, even as she held hers in her hand? That, if possible, would have been a real magic trick.

"Well, you can't win 'em all, young lady. Enjoy the games, enjoy the night!" She gave Iroha a courteous bow, flicked a golden skull coin at her and turned to the next person in line. "Well well, what have we here!" The Saleswoman started her new pitch.

Iroha continued her way down the path towards the festival proper, staring at the golden coin and contemplating the hesitation as well as what it had potentially cost her.

Unfortunately her introspection continued as she entered the festival, robbing her of the very enjoyment in which she had come to partake. She was still distracted from her surroundings and another, identical coin came into her hand after a tussle with a hammer game, something she figured she would be good at due to her proficiency with her own Subspace Hammer. Unfortunately, taking the time to calculate the appearance of each of the ghouls caused her to lose several points in the beginning of the game, and although she made up for it with considerable speed towards the back-end of the challenge, there were a number of times in which her simple whacking strength was not enough to cause the ghouls to go back down, thereby not counting as a hit. Had she been paying attention to her surroundings, she would have noticed that this visible weakness caused some mocking laughter or mentions of cringe from other spectators, but luckily these comments weren't enough to break through the dense fog of her indifference.

After more walking around, enjoying the sights and even talking to two people for a total of eight minutes and seventeen seconds, she reached the line for the entrance to the Field of Screams.  She entered into a long line with others, craning her neck to look towards the entrance proper. There were several lacrima set up around the Field of Screams to give glimpses into the maze within. Not enough to show a map, of course, but just enough to show an instant of this round's Killer "taking out" some poor victim, or a near miss that drew cheers from the spectators. As Iroha came to understand while waiting in line, each round had a different killer and five different contestants who were given the task to either escape or survive as they were hunted down. The Killers had names like "Ravager", "Mutilator" and in one strange case, "Goremouth".

The sound of a leaf crack just to the left of her was enough warning for her to jerk to the right and raise a hand in preparation, electric energy sizzling through her hand. The festival attendant who had been about to tap her on the shoulder stood still as a statue until she lowered her hand, "Uh… sorry," The attendant said. "I was going to ask if you'd like the opportunity to go on a special tour. You've been selected by lottery."

"Oh," Iroha said, her hand sheepishly flexing as tendrils of electricity faded from vision. "I apologize, I don't like to be touched without proper preparation, it is a startle reflex. I hope you'll forgive my sudden reaction. Yes, I would very much like to join in a special tour, if it is available!" By the end of her statement, there was untempered excitement in her voice, which was perhaps equally as surprising as the initial shock response.

"Great!" Said the attendant, who definitely didn't get paid enough to care about that, "If you'll follow me please." She gestured Iroha out of the line.

"Thank you!" Iroha said happily. Others looked on for a moment then turned their attention back to the line.

Once she was out of ear-shot, the attendant said, "Actually, you've been selected randomly to join in on the Field of Screams as The Killer!" The attendant said the last two words with the practiced spookiness of a true professional. "If you choose to accept this lucky role, your job will be to track down and tag the unsuspecting victims before the fifteen minute timer is up! Do you think you're up for it?"

Contemplation overtook Iroha for just a second before she saw the mental image of the flim-flam man tapping her drink, taking away some of her fun just because she hesitated. This festival worker would be forced to do so as well, and Iroha would once again be relegated to merely a spectator rather than someone who does something. "Yes!" She said, in the world's worst stage whisper, "I will accept this spooky task."



Standing before the entrance to the maze itself were five teenagers, ready to run for their lives. Over the speakers, loud enough for those nearby to hear and be attracted to join in the fun, a narrator announced the proceedings. "Participants: Josh, Julia, Claire, Hazma and Stefan. You have fifteen seconds before the killer is released. This round's killer is the… The Spooky Killer." The narrator cleared his throat before deepening his timbre to match the true horror of the situation, "When you hear the drum beat, run. When you hear the scream… flee for your lives, for the Killer walks among you."

The bang of a single drum sent all five teens running into the maze. Although they had likely made a plan to stick together or follow the general "right hand rule" for escaping a maze, the burst of adrenaline in each of them scattered them in separate directions. The clock ticked down fifteen seconds before there was a loud, horrified shriek, indicating The Killer's entrance into the maze.

For eight minutes, nothing happened. There were no epic chases, no near misses this time, and seemingly no captures. In fact, before anything of interest happened, it seemed as though Claire and Stefan had escaped without issue. However, at the exact ninth minute mark…

As Hazma stumbled his way through the leftmost side of the maze's twists and turns, he realized that the ground beneath him was becoming less and less visible. Fog was rising from nowhere and now swirling around his ankles. "Is this… is this part of it?" He called out. There was no answer. "Hello? Did something break?" He patted his pockets, muttering, "They didn't give me like a flare if something happened, how am I supposed to get out or whatever?"

Beneath the fog, there was movement. Hazma tried to track it, backing up, "Aww man no one said there would be snakes! What the hell?" A definite, very real presence appeared in the cloud formations, completely enshrouded by the darkness, looking for a minute as though it was expanding and becoming bigger. But no, another creature had seemingly sprouted out of it and was gliding around him, the two pushing him back towards a corner. From just behind them, a third creature flickered into existence, the form connecting it rising out of the darkness to reveal a strange, horrifying monster with a mammoth snout, two tusks ready to gouge his eyes out, and an alien yet familiar hunger in its eyes. Hazma continued to back away as the creatures drew closer and closer. His back touched one of the walls of the maze—

A loud scream caused Julia to freeze in place, looking in its direction. As if the fog rising hadn't been scary enough, she recognized that scream. Hazma wasn't the bravest guy but this was just a game, right? What would cause him to cry out like that? She continued onwards through the maze, figuring that getting out was the safest way to end this, if there was something more sinister coming. Maybe they'd leveled it up as the night got later and later? She hadn't heard anything about that in the festival's brochure. Should she have asked for an… easy mode?  No, that wouldn't be as fun. Still… the fog was making it more and more difficult to see the lighting and move around. And she—

Something furry brushed against her arm. She screamed and jumped to the side. Nothing. SHe looked around for a moment and nothing revealed itself. She spun in a full circle, as though trying to catch something in the corner of her eye, without there being anything in the corner of her eye. "Hello?" She called out, immediately feeling stupid for doing so. "No yeah it's just gonna wanna chat." As she turned a corner, still looking behind her with all the paranoia of a war veteran, she turned to see the maze exit right in front of her. Before it, however, was… something. A massive shadow at least twice her size, dimming the exit but at least forty feet away from her. From what she could see, however, it didn't seem to be looking in her direction. She began to back away, hoping to lose it in the maze, double around and get out as quickly as possible. Had that been what touched her? If so, how did it get away so quickly?

She ducked around the corner and then glanced down the way where she had seen it. It was gone. Nothing stood between her and the exit, if she could run fast enough. As she scrambled back to her feet, she noticed that the lights around her had dimmed again. Turning her head to look back in front of her, she saw it. A colossal creature, covered head to toe in fur, standing just before her. Haunting red eyes stared down at her. "Ah, hell." She didn't bother screaming.

Wherever the others were, they were slow as fuck. Josh had been hiding out in a corner for a few minutes, waiting for them to be picked off. However, when he heard that screaming or whatever, he knew it was time to book it. Judging by how far away it was, the killer was probably super far away. Plus, he had a trick up his sleeve. He'd gotten a peek at the map before entering and even took a quick capture of it on his iLac. Now he could navigate the best way out and get that free slice of pizza. Or whatever the prize was. He was just doing this because Julia wanted to, and she had a rack gifted to her from god himself.

Looking at the map, he realized that he would either have to go around this route for a while to get to the next area and risk getting caught, or he could jump the maze wall right here, hope no one saw him and he would be just a few feet from the exit. That was a no brainer. Hopping over the maze wall, he was so close to the exit he could taste it. So… why wasn't it getting any closer? Images of a wind-up pocket watch flashed in his mind, and everything started to move so slowly. The counter on the clock just beyond the exit seemed to almost go in reverse.


"What?" He responded.  He tried to turn his head to look, but his muscles were so heavy. Moving seemed to take so long, like he was covered in molasses. "Who the fuck said that?"


He tried to look over that way and said, "No way! Julia and I have only been together for like two months, I can still sleep with whoever I want!"


"Oh. Fuck you. Why can't I move?" Josh asked. Even as he asked it, he regained his movement abilities, but it was just in time to fall forward into the quickly collapsing ground in front of him. Something had merged with the ground below to create… quicksand? With each step he took, he sunk deeper and deeper into the ground. Still, full stubbornness beat out any semblance of logic and he continued to walk into the quicksand, sinking further and further as he did.

Even so, the clock counted down. And down. And down.

Josh was so close to the finish line. If he could just… reach… out.

Tap. "You're dead."

Iroha tapped him on the head with her "Killer's knife" just a moment before the final buzzer rang.

The narrator's voice rang over the maze, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have never seen a match like this! Utilizing some kind of ghostly magic, our Killer… Spooky Killer, has managed to give both the contestants and the audience quite the fright! Unfortunately for her, she only managed to actually 'kill' one person, the still loudly cursing Josh. So it seems the other four, while quite understandably startled, are still survivors of this game and will be awarded with the free pizza and a golden skull token. The ghouls that pretended to attack them are, in fact, assisting them out of the maze as we speak. Josh, however, has unfortunately been disqualified due to cheating and once he's dug up, he'll be removed from the festival grounds. Who cheats in a free game, honestly?"