A Spook-tacular Night In Capital Crocus

It was time for another Halloween Festival and Leona was more than ready for it because it would be a welcome break from her usual routine. Clad in her Valkyrie costume with black bike shorts on underneath the long skirt with side slits that were just a bit too high for her liking, Leona also carried the toy sword in a scabbard on her left hip and wore the long braided blonde wig plus the winged helmet. It was her only Halloween costume and she had worn it several times before, but she liked wearing it because the Valkyrie look fit her in more ways than one.

The Wizard Saint of Courage strolled into Capital Crocus to find that the city was more than sufficiently decorated for Halloween. There were orange and black banners liberally festooning buildings, both "traditional" jack-o-lanterns carved with wide smiles and jack-o-lanterns carved with designs such as bats, witches, and other items associated with Halloween positioned on the sides of paths leading into the city. There were even Halloween-themed signs boasting a skeletal hand in place of an arrow that pointed the way to event attractions.

As Leona walked on the streets she could not help but to notice a dazzling array of costumes worn by festival attendees. She saw people dressed as mummies, vampires, medieval knights wearing genuine full plate mail, doctors and nurses, a werewolf that was so detailed that she momentarily mistook the wearer for the real thing, and so many other costumes she could not recognize. Some of the costumes were obviously homemade, but others looked professionally made and had intricate details appropriate to the costume. Leona was pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of costumes people were wearing... they really brought the Halloween event to life.

Leona was about to go further into Capital Crocus when she realized that Masha was not here yet. She walked off to the side of the street and stopped in front of what looked to be a convenience store with a smiling paper skeleton hanging on the glass door, then briefly thought about what to do. After giving it some thought she decided to return to a point just outside the main path leading into the city and wait for Masha there. It was not the best plan, but it was the best she could come up with on short notice.

With that Leona walked back to the entrance to Capital Crocus to wait on her alluring red-haired friend and guildmate. She wondered what kind of costume Masha would be wearing to the festival. Whatever it was, it was bound to look good on her.

Leona's Valkyrie Costume:

[Post Word Count: 440]
[Leona's Word Count: 440/2,000]

Masha moved through the streets, trying to take everything in. The banners, the decorations, the lights, the smells, the sounds of this festival of Halloween, she wanted to absorb it all. The redhead followed her nose to a delicious looking tray of food. "One candy apple please." Masha asked after checking the sign. It amazed the slayer just how many things there were to explore within the world. How many things had she forgotten, only to rediscover for the first time all over again?

The redhead's thoughts turned to her son. He was growing quickly, much more quickly than normal children according to most others. Masha felt like she had blinked and he was walking around on his own. She half expected him to use magic any day now, accidentally setting things on fire. He had to be loving this holiday. It came with candy galore for him to explore. Masha giggled at the thought of his face covered in chocolate. Somehow Giovanni had found the small stash she'd made and eaten his way through it. The redhead couldn't even get mad because he'd looked adorable. Masha touched her iLac reminding herself to show the pictures to Leona.

A knight went by reminding Masha of Leona as well. Her hand slapped into her forehead. She was late, very late for an important date. No time to see costumes or grab more candy, she was late, late, late! Masha hurried through the crowd the best she could. It turned out that a witch costume got in the way when one was in a hurry. Snatching the witch hat off, Masha hoisted the dress up and cinched it showing off a great deal of her legs - not that the costume did much to hide them. A few people whistled or called out but the redhead ignored them.

She found Leona through the guildmaster's scent. Skidding to a halt, Masha righted her costume. "Leona, I'm so sorry! I totally forgot what the time was cause I was like exploring everything around here. Its so colorful, the smells are amazing, - by the way, caramel apple? - I couldn't stop myself from like trying to absorb everything! Anyways, I'm sorry. You look amazing." Masha moved around Leona, admiring her from every angle. Moving her costume staff from one hand to the other, the redhead cocked a hip. "How do you make that look so effortless? Mine makes me feel awkward like I stand out." Masha smiled wanly.

WC: 414
TWC: 414/2000

The witch costume:

"I don't mind, Masha. The festival's all about having fun." Leona said cheerfully, not at all concerned about how long it had taken Masha to get here. The blonde wished that she could find wonder in things like Masha did. The only thing at the festival that had really stirred Leona's sense of wonder was the costumes of other people. The variety and creativity of the costumes were something to behold for a busy mage who normally had little time to stop and look at the world around her.

Leona had taken Masha's tardiness in stride because the blonde was not one for strict schedules at festivals. This was not a life-or-death matter. This was a festival and it was supposed to be fun, not stressful. The blonde was about to answer Masha's question when the former took a look at the redhead and found herself looking at the redhead a bit longer than she had intended to.

Masha looked amazing.

"You look amazing too, Masha." Leona informed Masha how she looked simply and honestly. The alluring redhead had much more confidence than the blonde to wear such an outfit... not that Leona minded. The redhead was easy on the eyes and Leona found her eyes lingering on the redhead again. It was obvious that the blonde was admiring her companion. Masha's choice of costume was appropriate because she had certainly cast a spell on the Wizard Saint.

"For some reason this costume spoke to me, Masha. The look fit me and I've been going with it ever since." Leona finally got around to answering the redhead's question with an answer that might or might not be satisfactory to Masha. It was up to her to choose whether it was a good answer or not, but the truth of the matter was that the costume fit Leona both metaphorically and literally. The winged helmet, the colors of the outfit, the sword... all of it fit the Wizard Saint of Courage.

"I don't think the costume makes you look awkward, Masha. You don't look awkward at all." Leona tried to offer some reassurance to her companion. Leona liked how Masha looked and it was plain for the redhead to see and hear. The Wizard Saint found herself wishing that she had half the confidence Masha possessed.

[Post Word Count: 386]
[Leona's Word Count: 826/2,000]

@Masha

Masha cocks her head as she listens to Leona explain her costume choice. She pouts, looking down at her own. "Does that mean I have to wear the same costume repeatedly every year? That's so sad! I wanted to try on a bunch of them but the store owner where I tried this on was giving me a super creepy look. Which is too bad cause they had some neat choices. I wanted to try on the nurse outfit, the cat burglar - that one spoke to me for some reason - and something called a police officer. They all looked super fun but the creepy store manager had me buying the first one I tried on." Masha looked around at the various costumes. Her mouth turns down even more until a thought pops into her head. "Wait! I know! After this, would you like to watch me model a few costumes for you? I'd really love someone else's opinion about the costumes and yours... yours would mean the world to me." The redhead looks up through her lashes at Leona, hoping the guild mistress will say yes.

The sound of Leona's appreciation and the mirroring look stilled Masha, even as it made her heart beat faster. "You really do like it? I'm glad, I was worried." She twirled for the guild mistress. Holding a hand out toward the blonde, Masha smiled slowly, knowingly. "This Halloween is a time for treats, isn't it? My heart soars that I can provide one for you. If you want some more..." Masha let the end of the sentence dangle as she perused the activities of the festival. Her face lights up as one grabs her attention.

"Oh, those coffins look cute!" Masha exclaims, turning back toward Leona. "Let's go get some candy!" She grasps for Leona's hand, not ascertaining if she had it before taking off. A veritable vapor trail is left behind her. Stepping up to the coffins, Masha watches as a candy is put into the coffins. She tries to keep the right coffin in mind as they are moved around rapidly. Will she get the candy? Will she get the candy? Her eyes dart toward Leona on several occasions as the game runs toward its conclusion.

WC: 379
TWC: 793/2000

@Leona Jarnefeldt

"You don't have to wear the same costume every year, Masha. You can get a different one if you want." Leona told her redheaded companion. Leona would not mind if Masha wore the witch costume every year, but the redhead would probably want to change costume at some point and that was understandable. Leona herself might change to a different Halloween costume at some point, but that was not a guaranteed thing.

"I wouldn't mind watching you model costumes for me, Masha." Leona agreed to the request. Masha could make any outfit look good. However, there was more to that than how attractive the redhead looked. Leona had been taking so much from Masha in their relationship and Masha had been forced to conform to what the former wanted. To Leona it felt like she had been taking so much from Masha while giving very little in return and agreeing to watch Masha model costumes was a small way to begin giving something back.

Leona was not trying to control Masha because she got pleasure or amusement from controlling another person, especially someone who clearly liked her. The blonde was trying to get through her own hangups regarding her relationship with the alluring redhead. The blonde was still carrying the values of her home village with her even though she was painfully aware that she was not in her home village anymore. That was a large part of the internal conflict.

Another part of the internal conflict was Leona's desire for something for herself. She had plenty of money saved from years of adventuring and lived frugally, so money was not a serious concern. She had also accumulated several weapons and kinds of armor, so those were not items that she absolutely had to have. Leona wanted something else, something that was hard for her to describe because she had done her best to keep it out of her mind.

Leona's face turned red when Masha offered another "treat" if the blonde was interested. Maybe the Wizard Saint was reading too much into the statement; she was not the sharpest tool in the shed and sometimes misinterpreted things. An unexpected rescue from the awkward silence and awkward feelings came when Masha's attention was drawn to something else and Leona was drawn along with it. Leona's hand was grabbed and she was pulled along for the ride... the resulting high-speed movement took Leona's mind off of the offer and focused it instead on keeping her equilibrium.

When the pair stopped moving they stood in front of a trio of small coffins that were moving about on their own. Leona was not sure what made them move on their own and hoped that there was nothing sinister in them because the sword she had on her left side was a toy and was not able to hurt anything... unless the target was allergic to plastic. She saw Masha's interest in the proceedings and had a question for the redhead.

"How do you play this game?" Leona asked Masha.

[Post Word Count: 506]
[Leona's Word Count: 1,332/2,000]

@Masha

For the Coffin Candy

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

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'Normal Dice' :

Masha smiled at Leona's agreement to join her for trying on costumes. She felt the little thump thump in her chest. The slayer almost jumped up and down but didn't want to make a scene or embarrass Leona. Drawing attention toward the Wizard Saint and guild mistress would only take Leona's attention away from her - something she selfishly didn't want. She wondered if her previous self had ever tried on clothing with another person, wanted their opinion the way Masha desired Leona's. The redhead didn't want to push anything on Leona. They had ended up as parents together due to her own misunderstanding of herself. Masha wished they could have more, for both Giovanni and for her but it didn't seem fair to ask consistently.

The redhead watched the coffins moving until they stopped. She heard Leona's question and looked up. "I think its pretty simple. The coffins go round and round. You pick one.." Masha reached out, plucking a coffin off the table. A candy rested inside. The redhead smiled widely, holding out the piece towards Leona. "And you get a candy." Masha found she didn't want the candy so much as to have Leona accept it. The act of offering food felt important to her somehow. She hadn't missed how Leona hadn't answered her question. Or more precisely, how Leona had seemed awkward.

"I've been trying to do some reading. I realize there are cultures that don't really approve of same sex couples." Masha said carefully. She looks away from Leona. "I think you mentioned that one of the times we talked, your village was more traditional. Would you like me to stop... flirting with you, Guild Mistress? I want us to be good friends so we can parent Giovanni. The rest of it, while I want it, can stop if it makes you uncomfortable." The redhead wrang her hands even though she tried to hide it. The little games of back and forth were hurting her heart. She needed a real answer from Leona on whether to pursue this or to let it die.

WC: 348
TWC: 1241/2000
@Leona Jarnefeldt

Leona Jarnefeldt rolls one Normal Die for Coffin Up Candy.

The member 'Leona Jarnefeldt' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

Having heard the rules of the game from Masha, Leona decided to give it a shot.

"I'll think I'll try the game." Leona said to her companion. She then accepted the piece of candy offered to her by the redhead.

"Thanks for the candy, Masha." Leona thanked her redheaded guildmate for the unexpected gift, then turned back to the coffin game. The attendant, a tall, slender man dressed as the old movie depiction of Dracula with movie-accurate clothing that was accurate down to the last detail, set the game into motion. He wordlessly put a piece of candy into the coffin on the left. Leona watched closely as the attendant raised his hands to chest level above the small coffins and they began to glow red, which in her experience was a sign of something bad about to happen. The coffins then started moving on their own in a tight circle.

The Wizard Saint watched closely and when the coffins were thoroughly shuffled she tried to recall which one held the candy. She hesitated for several moments, then picked the coffin in the middle. She pointed to it and the attendant opened the coffin to reveal a small plastic skeleton waiting for her inside.

"No candy for you, but you do get this Skull Token!" The attendant informed Leona that she had made the wrong choice before offering the Wizard Saint a coin-sized item with a grinning golden skull on the front. Leona accepted the token and took it with her right hand, then turned back to Masha. Masha had been the lucky one during this game, but that was OK with the blonde.

Leona made eye contact and listened to what Masha said to her. Masha's words drew Leona's attention to the fact that the blonde had not exactly been committed to their relationship. Leona did not have a wandering eye nor did she want to be with anyone else... her hangups were what was hurting their relationship. The blonde did not have to think very long about it to know what the source of her hangups was.

It was her home village.

Leona had not lived in the village in over four years. She found it funny that ever since she was a child she had wanted to get away from there but now that she was far away from the village she was still letting it influence her. She had to change that for Masha's sake and for her own sake. She needed to start deciding what she wanted, not what a bunch of people in Desierto wanted.

"It's true that my village has a traditional outlook on relationships." Leona confirmed what Masha had stated earlier.

"But I'm not in my village any more, am I?" Leona asked the redhead a rhetorical question. Leona walked a little closer to Masha before stopping and facing her again.

"I'll be honest with you, Masha. I don't mind you flirting with me... it's just that I'm not used to having someone as attractive as you flirt with me." Leona started off. She paused for a few moments before speaking again.

"I like you, Masha. You're the closest friend I have besides Samira Nassar. But don't worry... there's nothing going on between me and Samira. We've had a platonic friendship for years and it's gonna stay platonic." Leona informed Masha of her special status in the blonde's esteem. That was probably not very reassuring to the redhead, who seemed like she wanted something more than just honeyed words to go on. Before she tried to give something more than carefully chosen words Leona wanted to know how Masha felt.

"Be honest with me. Do you feel like... like I've been stringing you along all this time?" Leona asked Masha plainly. That was probably not the best way to ask that quetion, but the blonde had to know. Leona herself felt like she had been stringing Masha along and using the redhead to avoid ending up alone... Leona needed to change that, but she had silently vowed to do better before and she had come up short each time. She was not sure if Masha had had enough of her and wanted someone who would treat her better.

[Post Word Count: 706]
[Leona's Word Count: 2,038/2,000]
Leona has completed the Coffin Up Candy activity. She now has one out of three Skull Tokens needed for event completion.

@Masha

For Witches brew and Whack a ghoul

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

---

#1 'Normal Dice' :


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

#2 'Normal Dice' :

Masha listened quietly, letting Leona work things through on her own. Realizing she'd forgotten her own skull token, the redhead scooped it up. She grabbed a lock of hair, starting to twirl it about her finger. Her eyes never left Leona's face. She smiled slightly at being called a close friend, not bothered by Samira in the first place. Jealousy didn't even peak at the mention. Something Masha decided to explore later. Was that due to Samira having been brought up in the past or Masha simply not feeling threatened by Samira's friendship with Leona or some other reason?

"I want to say no." Masha admits after giving it some thought. "I want to say that I know you are working through your own hang ups and that I foisted the possibility of this relationship upon you without warning. Yet, we've said that before. We've danced around this issue every time we get together with or without Giovanni. Until you said 'I like you', just now, I didn't have an inkling of whether I was anything more than an irritant to you." Masha grimaced and gently took Leona's hands. "If you don't like me as more than a friend, I would like to know. I need to know if I should just be friends with you. I can be happy with that even if it might take me some time to be so." Masha pauses and frowns. She kept putting it into too many words. Looking down at their hands, she said simply. "You and I keep batting around the possibility of more consistently. I'd like to know if you actually want more. We can work through your hang ups and mine together if you do. If not, we can just be friends and mutually raise Giovanni." Masha looked up and smiled at Leona.

With that off her chest, Masha waited for Leona's answer. She hated having to push the stoic Guildmaster but they hadn't made any progress despite getting together for dates like this. Each of them kept putting off the actual question. It was hurting Masha and she didn't know if it was bothering Leona either. They didn't have to go fast. Masha would take things as slowly as Leona needed but she still needed to know if that possibility was even on the table for her potential partner.

WC: 391
TWC: 1632/2000
@Leona Jarnefeldt
(Rolled those activity dice a little prematurely ^^;)

Leona's face reddened in shame as Masha made good point after good point. The blonde had been stringing the redhead along with promises that the former had not yet kept. Masha had every right to want an answer as to whether things would go any further here and now. One way or the other it was time to finally make a choice, but it would not be an easy choice to make.

Did Leona just want to be friends with Masha or did she want to take their relationship further?

Leona knew that she wanted Masha's companionship. That much was for certain. The degree of companionship was what the pair was having trouble figuring out. That was the impasse that was keeping both blonde and redhead from finally moving forward. Leona decided to lay it out for Masha.

"I admit that I wasn't expecting the kiss to make you pregnant, Masha. But it led to something great because I found you and we have Giovanni." Leona started off.

"I feel like I'm constantly taking from you, Masha. I take and take and don't give very much to you." Leona confessed. Her words had as much subtlety as a bull in a china shop, but now was not the time for subtlety. Time and time again Masha had been forced to do what Leona wanted without the blonde giving much of anything in return and what Leona gave the redhead was not nearly as much as what Masha had given her.

"You like me for who I am and that means a lot." Leona continued in her rambling, inelegant way. As a Wizard Saint and Guild Mistress a lot was expected of her. She felt that she was always expected to have the answer to every problem and be able to defeat any enemy that she encountered. In reality she did not always have the answer and she was far from invincible. Her social skills were also not very good, as Samira and Masha herself knew.

Despite all those faults Masha still liked her anyway.

"I want to have something in my life other than adventure and fighting." Leona said next. She liked adventure and she liked fighting, but she wanted something more. She wanted something else, something that was hard for her to describe.

"You've given me so much. Now I want to give something back to you. I want to go further with our relationship." Leona told Masha.

"I've promised that several times and I've come up short each time. Now I want to try for real. I just hope it's not too late for me to try and make it happen." Leona said to the redhead. It might have sounded like yet another empty promise, but that was for Masha to decide. Leona had said what she wanted to say without trying to make it sound pretty. Now it was Masha's turn to say how she felt about the idea.

[Post Word Count: 492]
[Leona's Word Count: 2,530/2,000]

@Masha

Once Leona began, there were several times that it was clear that Masha wanted to speak. She didn't, wanting to let her potential partner finish her thoughts without interruption. There was a faint spark of hope that lit on her face as Leona talked more and more. By the end of it, the redhead wanted to pull Leona into her arms and shout in happiness. With that chance of scaring the blonde off, Masha decided against the course of action.

She pulled Leona close, wrapping her arms around the blonde. "I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that - again. As you say, you have promised it before. I want to give you a family, to give you a home to come back to that is wholly ours. Something other than what your adventuring and fighting." Masha reached up to cup Leona's cheek. Her eyes are warm, her smile welcoming. "There won't be another baby unless we want one so I'd like you to kiss me, Leona. Let your lioness show me the true worth of her words. We can work together on giving equally in the future." The redhead giggles.

"So Guild Mistress, Wizard Saint, Leona, parent to my child, my golden lion... what say you?"

WC: 210
TWC: 1842/2000
@Leona Jarnefeldt

Leona had expected Masha to show cynicism, if not call her out on her past failures to deliver on the promises. Instead the redhead showed great enthusiasm. Leona let herself be pulled in by the alluring redhead with no resistance on her face or in her body language and felt relief that she had not been rejected as a liar. Being held by Masha right now felt comforting in a way that was hard to describe, but it was not just physical comfort that the blonde was feeling right now.

Leona had been born and raised in the unforgiving desert and did not have much time for romance because there was always work to be done and there was always the threat of bandit or slaver raids looming over her home village. The one time someone had approached her with romantic intentions it had ended with her being exiled from home for beating up the chief's son  after he repeatedly touched her chest without her permission, so the blonde had opted to shut herself off from romance to avoid something else bad happening to her when she rejected the potential partner. She did not have to worry about that any more because Masha would not treat her like an object or a romantic conquest. Masha would treat her like a person.

Leona let her cheeks be touched by Masha without resistance and listened to the redhead's words, hearing everything that was being said to her. Masha eventually requested a kiss from the blonde, a request that Leona was going to grant as proof that she was truthful about taking the relationship further. Leona was not going to hesitate any more.

No more promises that would not be kept.

No more stringing Masha along.

Leona leaned in and kissed Masha on the lips, lingering for a few seconds before pulling back.

"I hope that I did a decent job. That's only the second time that I've kissed you." Leona said to the alluring redhead. Years ago such a radical reversal of her stance on relationships with other females was unthinkable, but Leona was not the same person she was years ago. Leona wanted something out of life other than adventure and fighting and she had made this choice of her own free will.

This was something she had chosen for herself.

[Post Word Count: 390]
[Leona's Word Count: 2,920/2,000]

@Masha

Masha felt giddy as Leona's lips pressed against hers. Her heart soared from the taste of her lover and the promise behind the action. The promise that had made her heart ache for so long and desired from before her memories were lost. A surge of something darker also rose inside. The redhead tamped it back down. That hunger, that aspect of herself, wouldn't steal from this moment. She looked into Leona's eyes, smiling at the blonde's uncertainty. "We have plenty of time to practice now, sweetling. I found it quite enjoyable though."

The redhead leaned in to kiss Leona gently, swiftly once more. When she leans back, Masha takes Leona's hand. "Why don't we enjoy the rest of our date first?" She asks, her thumb stroking the back of Leona's hand. "Maybe afterward we can... talk, I guess about how we want this to go?" She suddenly felt very nervous. A relationship may have been her eventual goal but she'd never even thought she might succeed. Further, Masha had never been in a relationship that she could remember. Now that she had one... could she keep it up? Could she make Leona happy?

Masha pushed the thoughts out of her head, but they had shown clearly on her face. She leads Leona to a nearby stand. "Shall we get a drink?" Picking up a plastic potion's bottle, Masha drained it without thinking. Her skin turned a deep shade of blue almost immediately. Masha blinked down at her new skin shade. "That will teach me to drink things without looking." She laughs and accepts the skull token offered by the vendor. "Do I still look pretty?" Masha lets go of Leona's hand and turns around for her, putting on a little show for her new girlfriend.

When she finishes, Masha waits to see if Leona will take a drink. Something catches the eye as she waits. Seized with excitement, she bounds away toward another activity. The vendor hands her a mallet to hit the ghouls. However, Masha keeps look around for her girlfriend. The thrill of that word through her mind distracted her. At one point, the redhead ended up staring at her blonde for several long moments. Then the game was over. Masha laughed at her silliness as she was handed a skull token as a consolation price. She bounded over to Leona. "Your beautiful face distracted me, my lion." Masha chided jokingly. "Can you give me a prize even though I did so poorly?"

WC: 417
TWC: 2259/2000

@Leona Jarnefeldt

Leona Jarnefeldt rolls two Normal Die; one is for Witch's Brew and the other for Whack-A-Ghoul.

The member 'Leona Jarnefeldt' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

Leona let her be kissed and let hand be taken while listening to the alluring redhead talk to her. The subject of the extent of their relationship came up and the blonde was paying attention. She was perfectly fine with discussing the subject because she wanted to give something substantial back to Masha after all the redhead had given her.

"Sure, Masha. We can talk about it later. Our date should come first." Leona said to Masha without hesitation. They could talk about the future in a bit, but at this moment the blonde wanted to live in the present with Masha. Their date took priority over anything else right now.

Leona followed Masha to a nearby stand, pick up a bottle, and drink a beverage she grabbed at random. After consuming the beverage Masha's skin quickly turned dark blue, a development which Leona did not anticipate. Then again, this was a Halloween event and Halloween frequently featured tricks that were often surprising. Masha's turquoise eyes and red hair made the transformation even more striking.

"You're still beautiful to me, Masha." Leona complimented her redheaded companion with sincerity. The redhead's red hair and turquoise eyes were quite attractive and her figure was amazing. Those things would never change no matter what skin color she had, but Masha's beauty was more than skin-deep. She liked Leona for what she really was, not the image the blonde was supposed to have and to uphold. That was very attractive to Leona.

Deciding to follow in Masha's footsteps, Leona turned to the stand being run by a slender white-haired older woman dressed as a storybook witch wearing a black outfit complete with pointy black hat. A short distance away from the stand was a bubbling cauldron, which was undoubtedly the source of the beverage Masha had consumed. The witch made eye contact with the blonde and reached for a bottle full of liquid.

Leona received a bottle of beverage from the old woman. Leona turned away from the stand and drank the contents of the bottle on the spot. The liquid was pale blue and had a mild but pleasant blueberry taste that lingered on her tongue. Within seconds of finishing the drink the Leona felt rather light on her feet, but that was not all she noticed about herself. She looked at her body and noticed that she had turned translucent and was now emitting an aura of pale light that was somewhat unsettling for her to look at, a look that reminded her of ghosts she had encountered many times in the past.

Leona now looked like a ghost Valkyrie.

She hoped that her new appearance was not a portent of the future.

The blonde did not have long to express marvel or dismay at her spectral appearance because the redhead soon moved on, hurrying to another activity and leaving the ghost Valkyrie behind. Leona received a Skull Token from the witch manning the activity booth and carefully moved through the crowd and soon joined her companion, who had just completed her game of a game named "Whack-A-Ghoul." Leona wondered how it worked and looked around to see if anyone else was playing so that she could observe the game in action. While she watched someone else play it Masha spoke to her about her performance in the game and showed the Skull Token she had been given.

"What kind of prize do you want? Another kiss?" Leona asked without awkwardness or sarcasm. The game was simple enough. There were nine holes arranged in three rows of three and she had a minute to banish the rubber zombie heads back to whence they came by striking them on the head with a rubber mallet. It was an unlikely weapon, but she was fighting fake zombies, not the real thing.

"I want to play the game, Masha. I'll talk to you afterward." Leona said to her companion, then turned to the game and took up the rubber mallet so that she could strike down the undead menace. She waited for the game to start but it did not begin. A few seconds later she saw a medium-sized red button labeled "START" in white letters and tapped it with her left index finger, finally setting the game in motion.

The zombies began to emerge from holes while making moaning sound effects that sounded a lot like the real thing. Leona watched the first one pop up from the hole in the top right corner and narrowly missed it when it ducked back into its burrow, but she was on time to nail the second one in the head when it popped up from the bottom left hole. Leona missed the third one when it popped up from the top center hole but was able to hit the fourth one when it emerged from the center hole.

The pattern of missing one zombie but hitting the next one in line continued until the game ended. By the end Leona had managed to hit slightly over half of the zombies and received a Skull Token for her efforts in battling the rubber zombies with a rubber mallet. Putting down the mallet and holding her own Skull Token in her right hand, Leona faced the redhead and spoke to her.

"Now, about that prize... what was it you wanted?" Leona asked her companion.

[Post Word Count: 896]
[Leona's Word Count: 3,816/2,000]

Leona has received Skull Tokens from completing Witch's Brew and Whack-A-Ghoul. When combined with the Skull Token received from completing Coffin Up Candy, Leona now has all three Skull Tokens required for event completion.