[Event] Solitary Evening (Akeya Kuusai)

Event Details:

Akemi enjoyed the aesthetic of the town of Talonia as she walked through the streets, for now mostly ignoring the festivities that were occurring all around her. Autumn had come around again, and just like every year that meant that people were gearing up to celebrate All Hallow's Eve. It was always interesting to her how engaged Fiore was when it came to such celebrations: it probably was a sign that the country was prosperous, that it could afford to dedicate so much effort and resources to having fun.

Unlike Joya: Akemi imagined that the inhabitants of that country weren't feeling quite as festive. By this point months had already passed since the incident that had reduced their greatest city to a crater, but the scars left behind would be felt for many years to come.

Well, not like that was her business. She'd helped safeguard the meeting against troublemakers, and the incident had taken place after she'd fulfilled the requirements of her contract and left the place. Right now she was enjoying the atmosphere of the festivities without taking part in them herself. She found Halloween more interesting than most celebrations, which for a large part had to do with the origins of the festival.

That said, as she kept walking around and watched other people enjoying themselves, she realised that she was becoming increasingly bored. She could return to the guild hall and resume training or studying, but she imagined that if she went back there the entire place would be lit up with holiday decorations as well.

Instead, it'd be better to just entertain herself for the remainder of the evening by partaking in some of the activities. A lot of the stalls were aimed to be entertaining to both children and adults, which she wouldn't consider very interesting, but it wasn't like she had many options.

Current Appearance:

WC: 310
TWC: 310/2,000

Rolling for Coffin Up Candy.

The member 'Akeya' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

Golden eyes moved from side to side as Akemi glanced at the various stalls she walked past, trying to decide which ones to spend her time on. While Talonia wasn't as crowded as other cities there were still quite a number of people enjoying the festivities, which meant she sometimes had to stop walking and position herself to see past the eager kids and the jovial adults to get a glimpse at what caught their attention. In theory she could have used magic to fix that issue, but if she started casting magic out of the middle of nowhere she might draw unwanted, or at least bothersome, attention.

Given that the festival focused on scary themes (in the modern day, anyway) most stalls didn't interest Akemi too much. A haunted house was fun for children and people who went in with their friends, but by her lonesome, it meant a trip through some hallways with people and props jumping out in front of her. Combined with the fact that she could see perfectly in utter dark thanks to her elemental powers, there wasn't much point to it. Standing in front of the haunted house Akemi frowned and folded her arms, listening to the sounds from within. Other people certainly seemed to be having a grand old time in there, although she suspected that some of them were hoping that they'd found themselves a nice secluded corner where they wouldn't be found.

Shaking her head she walked further, past a stall where a witch was serving free punch to anyone who was brave enough to try it despite the scent of magic that practically wafted from the cauldron. She was familiar this one, and it was such a staple of the holiday that the assassin wondered if the event was nationally sponsored: the punch would contain numerous magical effects, and which one you were afflicted the drinker was up to luck. If you were very lucky none of the magic would take hold and you'd just enjoy the punch, but the most common result was a temporary gender swap.

Akemi kept her distance from the stall as she watched other people drink the freely offered punch, some of them walking away satisfied while others suddenly found themselves in a different body, or in some cases with no body at all as they took on an ethereal appearance. Most interesting were the ones who started looking around as if they were seeing ghosts: it seemed this punch could mess with your senses as well as your physique.

While the raven-haired female was intrigued by the effects the punch had on others, she eventually decided against trying it herself as she moved on. She didn't have the patience to deal with whatever effect the punch would have on her.

"Come try your luck! Can you choose the right coffin, or will you find naught but bones? Step up and give it a shot!"

Her step halted as she heard one of the stalls cry out what sounded like a challenge. Looking around she quickly located the man in question, dressed like a rather cheerful skeleton as he waved at the passersby to draw them in. On his stall three small fake coffins were laid out in a row, with a bowl of candy at the edge of the table. As Akemi observed the stall a child walked up and the skeleton man grabbed some candy, putting it in one of the coffins before using some magic to shuffle them too fast for the naked eye to see.

A variation on the shell game then. Not exactly the height of entertainment, but she could appreciate the aesthetic of having a small skeleton jump out if the wrong coffin was chosen. After the child walked away with a handful of candy Akemi stepped forward and came to stand before the stall, planting her hands on her hips as she regarded the skeleton man who smiled cheerfully at her.

"Good evening miss! Come to try your luck?"

"I did, yes. It's been a lucky evening so far."

The man nodded as he grabbed another candy and put it inside of one of the coffins. Akemi closed her eyes as the man performed his magic, shuffling the coffins in the hopes of confusing her. Her magic could have allowed her to cheat the game, but if she wanted to enjoy the evening she should at the very least play according to the rules.

Once the shuffling stopped Akemi opened her eyes, the three coffins looking identical to one another. The assassin paused for several seconds, then tapped the middle one.

"Straightforward."

"All right then! Let's see if luck's on your side miss!"

The skeleton man opened the coffin, taking a moment to pause for effect. Once the lid was off a small skeleton jumped out, doing a little dance as the stall owner laughed benevolently.

"Better luck next time! I'd say the dance is worth it though."

Akemi tilted her head as she watched the little skeleton finish its dance and neatly fold itself back into the coffin, then nodded.

"It's a well-crafted performance. I'm sure the children will enjoy the candy more than I would."

With those words she turned and walked away, the skeleton man waving goodbye at her before returning to trying to draw more people in. The assassin could already hear two teenagers approach the stall, both betting that the other wouldn't be able to choose the right coffin.

Current Appearance:

Activities:
Coffin Up Candy

1x Skull Token

WC: 916
TWC: 1,226/2,000

Rolling for Whack-A-Ghoul.

The member 'Akeya' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

In the distance Akemi could hear loud voices, some of them enthusiastic and others less than pleased. Of course, with kids running around everywhere excitement was available in generous amounts. Still, some of these loud voices definitely belonged to older individuals unless children were developing some very deep tones at an early age these days. Letting her curiosity guide her Akemi moved straight towards the stall from which the voices originated.

The stall was bigger and more expertly crafted than most of the stands that filled up the streets, and in return, it also had a lot more people around it than average. With her non-bandaged hand, Akemi gently made her way through the crowd, at least until she could get a look at what the excitement was all about.

There was a small circle of space in which a single person was standing in front of the stand, with nine holes arrayed out before her. She was holding a rubber hammer with both hands, and as a puppet popped up out of one of the holes she quickly raised the mallet to smash the ghoulish doll back into the hole. Another popular game, but the owner of the stall had definitely gone all-out with this design: the ghouls would groan as they emerged, and if successfully whacked they'd let out a squeak as if the air was driven out of them. As Akemi watched closely she also noticed that the ghouls popped up faster and faster and unless she was reading too much into things they were also primarily showing up in the mallet holder's blind spots.

After a minute had passed the game ended, with the challenger having hit about half of the ghouls by Akemi's estimation. While she'd started off strong it was clear that by the end she was having a hard time keeping up with the many ghouls that kept popping up where it'd take her the longest to bring her hammer down on them. The owner either was quite good at this or had some skilled friends to help set this up.

The owner in question, dressed like a mummified king, certainly seemed to be proud of himself, congratulating the woman for her good performance before challenging someone else to step forward to give it a try. Curiously, Akemi didn't notice anyone else having much inclination towards taking up the mallet. As her gaze went from the game to the onlookers it became clear that while they all enjoyed watching someone give it their best shot, they'd already realised that the game was challenging enough that they'd never get all the ghouls. It might even be the case that getting half of the ghouls was already an impressive achievement.

However, to just stand there and wait for someone to take up the mallet would be a waste of time, so Akemi decided to be the one to step forward. She ignored the cheers that went up as the onlookers got to watch someone else try to get a perfect score on a seemingly impossible game, instead turning towards the owner who beamed at her.

"Welcome, brave challenger! The ghouls are rising up, and it's your task to beat them down! You have one minute to try and put them all back in the ground! Are you ready?"

As answer, Akemi picked up the rubber mallet, checking its balance and weight before nodding.

"I'll give it a go."

"Wonderful! Your minute starts when the first ghoul appears!"

With everyone staring intently at her Akemi took her position in front of the nine holes, holding up the mallet and inspecting it carefully. There didn't appear to be any magic attached to it... But she could smell the magic emanating from the holes. This game clearly had been designed to make life difficult for the player.

As the first ghoul popped up Akemi immediately lashed out, her weapon landing squarely on the puppet's head and pushing it back down the hole. Just like with the person who came before her, the game started out easy, with it taking a couple of seconds before the second ghoul showed itself only to receive the exact same treatment.

It was only after half a minute had passed that Akemi began to really concentrate, as the ghouls were now showing up frequently enough that with every strike you had to be ready to immediately move on to the next. The speed wasn't the problem, however: what was causing her to start missing was her earlier suspicion that the ghouls were intentionally showing up where she least expected them and where it'd be the hardest to hit them. She could also swear that the difficulty was higher than what the former challenger had dealt with... did the owner adjust the difficulty to the challenger?

Regardless of the mechanisms that hid behind the challenge, Akemi had resolved to not use any tricks or abilities that weren't accessible to the average person, which meant she had to watch as near the end quite a few of the ghouls returned to their holes untouched. It was rather irritating, although it'd have been much more embarrassing if she'd cheated to win. As it was, she just ignored the crowd around her all the way up until the end, when she placed the mallet down and the owner proclaimed that a minute had passed.

"And a minute has passed! You beat down most of the ghouls, but others escaped unharmed! Maybe the next challenger will be able to put them to rest?"

As the owner got to work enticing another person to try their luck Akemi slipped back into the crowd, coming out on the other side as she walked further down the road, towards where a large maze was set up.

She wouldn't exactly say that this evening had been a huge success so far, but it wasn't like she was hating every moment of it either. She imagined that the maze might provide a more interesting experience than the stalls she'd visited so far though... If only Leila was here.

Current Appearance:

Activities:
Coffin Up Candy
Whack-A-Ghoul

2x Skull Token

WC: 1,015
TWC: 2,241/2,000 (Completed)

Rolling For Field Of Screams.

The member 'Akeya' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

The maze was large enough that it covered the entire cornfield that had been prepared for it. Even from a distance, Akemi could see the magic suppression field that covered the maze like a dome, invisible to most. This was definitely something that had been set up by more than one person, and they wanted to make sure that everyone who took part in the maze did so without relying on supernatural abilities to quickly get out.

She remembered when she visited a similar maze with Nymara during Easter, where the organisers had forgotten to disable magic. Given her apprentice's fiery temperament which had quickly resulted in her burning down part of the maze once she got frustrated, she couldn't fault the organisers for being more cautious this time. Maybe it was the same group...?

There was already a group forming before the entrance, with a wide variety of costumes of widely varying quality. Some of them looked like they'd just gone to the store and bought something cheap, while with others it would be difficult to tell whether they were really human underneath. Akemi, looking like herself, couldn't really judge other people for the amount of effort they put into their costumes, but she did like paying attention to such things.

Joining the group she looked at the man standing on a small stage next to the entrance, who was already explaining the nature of the game. They'd all enter the maze, and shortly after a killer would be released who'd hunt them all down. Once the killer caught them they'd be teleported out of the maze, signalling that they were out of the game. To win they'd have to either escape the maze without being tagged by the killer or remain untagged for fifteen minutes. Simple, although the difficulty would depend on the complexity of the maze and how many advantages the killer had. The field that covered the maze was designed to prevent people from cheating, but unlike an absolute anti-magic zone it would still be possible to use some tricks inside... at least, for the organisers.

As the clock announced the arrival of the next hour all the participants, Akemi included were teleported into the middle of the maze, with the announcement that they better start running if they want to make it out alive. The assassin waited a couple of seconds, waiting for the other contestants to spread out, but by the time she began to move a bloodcurdling screech already resounded throughout the maze, signalling that the killer was on the loose.

Heading into the depths of the maze Akemi ignored the uncomfortable feeling she always suffered when entering an area where magic was suppressed or nullified. At least this wasn't like the Neutral Grounds, where there was no magic at all... That place made her feel physically ill.

Thinking back to her visits to that place distracted Akemi more than she thought, and as she got to work figuring out the pattern of the maze a rustling behind her told her that she was no longer alone. Turning around her eyebrows raised up as she beheld the killer. They'd certainly gone all-out on the design, multiple fake arms sprouting from their shoulders with large, vicious claws at the ends. They'd also given themselves an extra pair of legs, which mimicked the movements of the real pair to make it look more realistic.

Behind the demonic-looking mask, Akemi could tell that the person playing the role of the killer was feeling a certain amount of awkwardness, however. Rather than immediately tagging the assassin the killer spoke up after a second or so.

"Shouldn't you try running?"

Akemi shrugged.

"You found me. Might as well get it over with."

"It's more fun for everyone if you play along, you know."

"Sorry, my mind was somewhere else."

The killer shrugged as well, then stepped forward and tapped Akemi on the shoulder.

"Better luck next time then."

Current Appearance:

Activities:
Coffin Up Candy
Whack-A-Ghoul
Field Of Screams

3x Skull Token

WC: 660
TWC: 2,901/2,000 (Completed)