It's Halloween! Kind of. Sort of. Not Really, But Close Enough.

Rolling for Coffin Up Candy...

The member 'Aliarey Casady' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

It was time. Finally! The special round of holidays where festivals were happening everywhere. More exciting and important though was the free stuff that came with them. It was the highlight for a certain blonde mage who was slowly feeling more comfortable getting back into her habit of just stealing what she wanted after years of avoiding it. Climbing the mage ranks of power had its benefits and it was to the point where she was certain that she no longer had to be afraid of consequences from most. Just as long as she avoided the more obvious superpowers of the world, who were few in number and thus easier to steer clear from before she got herself into trouble. The little holiday festivals made even worrying about them nonexistent because she didn't need to think about stealing anything. Everything she wanted was already free anyway. How all the cities and towns of Fiore could continue being so generous was beyond her understanding but like hell was she about to complain about it.

Much like last year, Aliarey chose to participate in the event in style just like almost everyone else. Although instead of her cute little magic girl outfit she had decided to go with a different one that was somehow in her magical closet. It was a type of uniform fit for some...soldier? Commander? Stylish sailor? Hell, she didn't know what it actually was. The odd blonde just knew it was something she would never actually choose to wear and so it was dubbed as a neat costume for Halloween. The logic was there was enough to satisfy her easy-to-please mind. Besides, she didn't have all day to pick out a costume. She couldn't keep Diana waiting. It was practically tradition now for them to meet up for any and all festivals.

As always, Diana was flooded with messages to her iLac about the Halloween Event. The original invitation, the time, the place, all those silly details that for some reason they never worked out before which always resulted in them wandering aimlessly until they found one another. Well no more! The entrance to the festival grounds would be the meet-up place! God, she was such a genius that she amazed even herself.

At the entrance Aliarey stood, waiting. She wasn't as impatient as she normally would have been. She was thoroughly entertained looking at all the other costumed individuals. There were the classic witches, vampires, ghosts, and werewolves, but the more hilarious ones were people's takes on the famous mages of the world. She was all but certain many would be quite offended if they were to see them with their own eyes. The unknown guildless mage couldn't help but laugh and thank her finicky luck that she was not someone others would want to copy. She's probably have to shoot them for making such a cruel and unfunny joke, however unintended.

There was another distraction there that worked to pass the time when watching the crowd go in and out of the festival became boring. The Coffin Up Candy booth was set up right by the entrance so people could have some easy fun before they even fully entered the festival grounds. Probably for people like her who stood idly waiting for their buddies or whatever else. Eh, why not? It was a classic game that was fun and could earn her some free candy. Aliarey walked on over and before she knew it it was her turn to take a guess.

A mummy was the one in charge of the game, although honestly, she couldn't tell if it was someone in a costume or an actual real mummy that some necromancer raised. The costume was that damn good. The slight smell of decay included. She wasn't about to ask about the details regarding that. No way. Best to just ignore it and get on with the game. Besides, the guy was completely in character even when it came to dialogue. Only grunts, moans, and raspy sounds came from him. No actual words that would make answering questions in a way she could understand possible. Things were already weird and she hadn't even walked past the banner that marked the entrance yet. She and Diana were in for a heck of a night if it kept up.

Anyway, the mummy man grunted and used magic to control the little coffins that were placed side by side on the booth. They all opened to reveal candy in one and small plastic skeletons in the other. The tiny coffins then closed and began to switch places with one another repeatedly. Aliarey tried to keep her eyes focused on the one with the candy but somehow she failed along the way and lost track of it.  Once her chosen coffin opened it only revealed a small plastic skeleton. No candy. Bummer. Had she ever won that game before? Probably not. Her mastery over guessing games was atrociously bad. At least she got herself a little participation prize in the form of some kind of ticket thing. That was stuffed into one of the pockets of her costume. She'd figure out what she could get with it later. For now, it was back to staring at costumes and laughing.

(Word Count: 879)

Aliarey has received one Spirit Ticket from Coffin Up Candy

Diana rolls one Normal Die for Coffin Up Candy.

The member 'Diana Winchester' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

Wearing her "shipgirl" costume because it was the only costume she had and not wanting to fix what was not broken, Diana walked into Hargeon Town dressed as the shipgirl named Warspite. As usual Diana had spared no expense to look as similar to the character as possible, but she also added her own touch in the form of makeup to conceal the long, thin scars concentrated between her shoulder blades on the off chance her hair got moved by the wind or by the actions of another person. Those scars were proof that horror existed in real life as well as in fiction. Her mother Elizabeth was an abusive drunk who literally whipped her on more than one occasion because she felt Diana did something wrong, she did not like how Diana talked to her, or because Diana did not speak fast enough when addressed.

Diana shoved those thoughts aside and walked towards the entrance to Magnolia Town with practiced ease. Wearing the same high heels for several consecutive years had given the green-eyed blonde plenty of practice in walking in them until doing so was almost second nature. Diana spotted quite a few costumes that ranged from creatures associated with the season to anime characters she had never seen before to even a few faces she did not recognize but probably should have recognized. Oh well.

The green-eyed blonde did not care about that because she recalled the message her good friend Aliarey had sent her... or messages, to be more precise. One of the numerous messages had designated the entrance to town as their meeting point so that they could meet up right away and avoid how things usually went. Diana was entirely on board with that and did not object to a simple but good idea. When she approached the destination she saw someone who looked like Aliarey dressed in an elaborate costume that looked like something out of a stage play or musical standing not too far from a booth for something called "Coffin Up Candy."

Diana approached the booth, which was manned by a person wearing an impeccable mummy costume that had every last detail down. When the being made noises that might have passed for speaking the green-eyed blonde saw the three little coffins on the counter and began to fill in the blanks with context clues. She watched a piece of candy be placed into one of them and saw small skeletons already occupying the other two before all three lids closed on their own and they began to spin about by magical means. Diana did her best to try and keep up with the coffin holding the candy, but her attention slipped at the wrong moment and the coffin containing the sugary sweet got lost in the shuffle in the literal sense.

When the coffins came to a stop Diana picked the one on the right. It opened to reveal a plastic skeleton, which meant that she would not be getting any candy. At least she got a consolation prize in the form of a light blue ticket, a prize which she clutched in her right hand for the time being. She thanked the mummy for hosting the game and walked over to the elaborately clad person in the costume, who was a blue-eyed blonde who turned out to be Aliarey after all.

"Hello, Aliarey." Diana calmly greeted her old friend with her customary two-word greeting.

Diana's Costume:

[Post Word Count: 576]
[Diana's Word Count: 576/2,000]

Diana has completed Coffin Up Candy. She has received one Spirit Ticket from the activity.

"This is so hilarious. Diana is so missing out on this!" Alia thought aloud to herself. She couldn't stop grinning as she continued to spot one ridiculous costume after another. Some would say mocking the costumes of others would be horrible and immature. Diana was probably one of them. But god was it so much fun. It was like the horrible karaoke that sparked hilarity for the ears but instead for the eyes.

So distracted was she by the funny over-the-top costumes that she didn't notice Diana walk up to the coffin game. It was only when she heard the familiar hello that she realized the wait was over. A swift turn later and she was staring at the fancily dressed version of her friend. Probably staring too long actually. It couldn't be helped. Diana looked so adorable. In truth, Aliarey was a bit envious that she could pull off that look so naturally. She herself wouldn't look nearly as innocent or adorable in that outfit.

"The shipgirl costume again, huh? You must really like the cutesy look." There wasn't any offense intended by what she said. She was kind of just joking. Still, in the back of her mind, she truly was thinking that Diana needed to expand her wardrobe. Maybe she would offer to help Diana pick out a new costume next year. Wearing the same one another year in a row would just be so sad and depressing.

"We might want to skip the costume contest," Aliarey quickly added. I don't think either of our outfits will win and I'm kind of scared to see what gets on that stage thinking they can win. Some costumes I've seen so far have been terrifying and not in the good spirit of Halloween way." She resisted both the urges to shudder and cackle as the memories of her time spent waiting for Diana flooded her mind. "Anything you want to do first? Now's your chance to get it out before I take over and lead us into something that kind of sort of may end up leading to some trouble. You know, the norm for us."

(Word Count: 357
Aliarey Total: 1236
Total So Far: 1812)

"This costume has a certain appeal." Diana dropped a cryptic hint that she indeed liked the costume she was wearing. She liked how the dress looked... it was the right shade of white or beige for her preference and it and the skirt were long enough to keep her covered and decent even if the wind picked up. Another bonus was that wearing something fancy like it would not draw any suspicion on Halloween. The only problem with the garment was that it did not cover her back, forcing Diana to cover the scars on her back with makeup and her hair.

She was not sure if Aliarey would pick up on the hint or not since there was no change in tone to indicate that what was said was important, but the blue-eyed blonde showed flashes of perception from time to time. After dropping the hint Diana quickly moved on to focus on what she had just been told. Tonight the green-eyed blonde was granted the privilege to choose the first activity before Aliarey reclaimed said privilege and chose the activity. Diana folded her arms across her chest and began to think.

"I agree that the costume contest is off the list." Diana concurred with the blue-eyed blonde. She hated being the center of attention and entering a contest like that was guaranteed to put her in the uncomfortable position. She tried to think of something else they could do and glanced around until she saw a sign a short distance to the left advertising "Brewing Up Trouble."

"I would like for us to do Brewing Up Trouble." Diana confidently stated to her friend, pointing towards the sign that had just saved her bacon. The timing of that sign was nothing short of miraculous. Without it she might have had to let Aliarey choose and hope that they did not get into a situation they could not get out of without a lot of difficulty.

[Post Word Count: 326]
[Diana's Word Count: 902/2,000]
[Total Word Count: 2,138]

Diana spent a few minutes waiting for her chance to participate in Brewing Up Trouble because there was a long line for the activity. She silently went to the back of the line of twelve people and waited her turn. As she waited she could not help but to notice that her presence made her the thirteenth person in line and spent a few moments in a state of something approaching concern.

Whenever that number came up bad things tended to happen to her.

Diana shrugged the feeling off and waited until it was finally her turn to brew something up. When that time came she approached the cauldron, which was manned by a black-haired young woman with bright blue eyes who was dressed in a witch costume that was black and had a short skirt with knee-high black boots. She gave a wide smile to the blonde and explained how the activity worked: Diana listened patiently and when the explanation was over she went over to the wide selection of ingredients and looked them over.

She picked out a small plastic test tube of a cherry red liquid and a handful of gummy candy shaped like cherries and walked over to the cauldron, then gently dropped them in. The inside of the cauldron flashed blood red and Diana took the plastic beaker that was offered to her, then carefully dipped it inside to fill it with the brew she had just made. Being careful not to stain the sleeve of her outfit with the liquid while raising the beaker, the blonde lifted it out of the cauldron and raised it to her lips, then drank the contents until the container was empty.

When she was finished a pleasant cherry taste danced on her tongue and she heard a gasp from the witch.

"Oh my... you were pretty cute as a blonde, but as a redhead you're to die for!" The witch told her before walking over and giving Diana a quick kiss on the right cheek. Diana's displeasure abated when she was handed a light blue object called a "Spirit Ticket" and shown what she looked like in a hand mirror. The mage saw her new look of long, flowing copper red hair and was oddly satisfied with it.

At least she did not look like a vampire again.

The young witch bade Diana farewell and the blonde-turned-redhead departed with the Spirit Ticket clutched in her right hand. She was going to look for something else to do. Anything but Bobbing For Apples was an option... when she was a child her mother Elizabeth had been fond of forcing Diana's head underwater in bathtubs and sinks until she nearly drowned as a form of punishment, so Diana was not going to do any activity that required her to put her face near water unless her life depended on it.

[Post Word Count: 480]
[Diana's Word Count: 1,382/2,000]
[Total Word Count: 2,618]

Diana has earned one Spirit Ticket from completing Brewing Up Trouble. She now has two of four Spirit Tickets required for event completion.

After getting turned into a redhead by the effects of the potion she had made Diana had went looking for another activity to do. She had made a lap of the town and had not found anything that caught her interest, so she did another one to see if she could spot something she had missed the first time. The only thing she had gotten out of the second lap was that Bobbing For Apples was not an appealing option and neither was the Spooktacular Dance-Off. Diana was starting to wonder if she would find an activity worth doing as she walked down a practically deserted street.

Diana walked next to a lightpole with a particularly dark shadow and did not see anything strange about it... she did not pay much attention to those details since she was in a town full of people and she was a strong mage who could hold her own against almost anything. The next thing she knew she heard screaming all around and the rapid footsteps of people running for safety. Before she could look to see the source of the panic she was consumed by darkness that had attacked her from behind and saw only pitch black.

When the darkness faded Diana found herself standing in the middle of a fairly large room with light yellow wallpaper. On the left side was a large window with yellow curtains on the sides and soft sunlight was beaming down on the carpeted floor. In the left corner of the room sat a grand piano made out of dark wood and a bench with red cushioning. On the right side was a bed with a light yellow comforter folded back partway to expose white bedsheets.

"Hey Baby Sister. Long time no see!" A female voice said with mock friendliness. Diana froze and exhaled sharply when she heard the voice. In between the grand piano in the corner of the room and the yellow curtains and comforter on the bed the blonde mage had a feeling she knew where she was, but she received confirmation when the room's owner materialized in front of the piano bench.

The new arrival was a young blonde woman with blue eyes and medium-length blonde hair done in a style that had part of it hanging down in between her eyes. The other blonde was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a long denim skirt. On her face was a smile that hid considerable cruelty behind a friendly face.

"Melody." Diana uttered the name of her older sister in a tone of audible displeasure. That statement was not only a declaration of who she was facing but also a greeting. There was no love lost between the Winchester sisters and it showed on Diana's face, which had lost its neutral expression and showed a visible frown.

"And here I was wondering if you'd forgotten about me after all these years. I'm so glad that my baby sister remembered me!" Melody said playfully. The older Winchester sister began walking slowly towards Diana, her blue eyes fixed on her sister and the smile still plastered on her face.

"How could I ever forget you?" Diana asked bluntly. Melody only laughed. Diana's skin began to crawl as her older sister continued to approach her at a walking speed that was best described as one meant for intimidation.

Melody Winchester:

[Post Word Count: 562]
[Diana's Word Count: 1,944/2,000]
[Total Word Count: 3,180]

Melody giggled at Diana's response. There was no amusement behind it, only the sound of someone pretending to be human. That charge could apply to Diana herself, but at least the younger Winchester could admit that she was faking it... Melody sincerely believed that she was a functional human being who had positive traits.

"Now that's no way to treat your older sister! Remember all the fun we had together when you were little? Remember the games we used to play?" The other blonde scolded Diana and snapped her fingers. In front of the younger blonde sat a wooden chair with a lengthy coil of rope in the seat. Diana shuddered and stepped back at the sight of those objects. Melody giggled again.

Diana heard the sound of laughter mingling with a child's screaming and crying as she flashed back to all of the times her older sister had tied her up when she was a child. Melody frequently tied Diana up and told her that she was an unwanted child, the product of their mother wanting a second son but getting yet another daughter instead. Other times Melody would tell her that their mother should have stopped after having the second-youngest Winchester sister Jessica because Diana put a strain on the family finances. In another case when Diana was seven years old she forced Diana to watch her threaten to cut the head off of latter's favorite childhood doll with a pair of scissors and smiled every time the younger girl pleaded with her. Melody would move the open scissors towards the doll's neck and slowly close them but not quite make a cut, causing Diana to plead with her not to hurt the toy until she began crying... only when the latter broke down in tears did Melody take the scissors away while laughing.

Although Diana was the most frequent target of Melody's cruelty it was not limited to the youngest Winchester daughter. The second-oldest Winchester sister was fond of stealing her sister Katrina's glasses and watching the latter stumble after them while Melody played keep-away, pulling them just out of reach and laughing whenever the nearsighted Winchester fell down after reaching too far and losing her balance. In one memorable case Melody played that game at the end of a flight of stairs and laughed as Katrina rolled down them after losing her balance at the edge and falling over.

Their sister Gloria was another frequent target because she had light brown hair... Melody tied her to a chair and told her that she was an adopted child because she was shorter than most of her sisters and did not have blonde hair like all of the other Winchester women. Gloria was sensitive about both features and was told that she was an orphan who was adopted out of pity over and over in various ways until she cried. Melody found those occasions to be amusing.

Diana heard the protests and crying of other young women she identified as Katrina and Gloria Winchester mingle with her child self's protests and crying as Melody stopped in front of the chair and picked up the rope. Melody uncoiled it and held a length of it horizontally, clearly preparing to tie Diana up as she walked towards the latter.

"Why don't we play a game for old time's sake?" Melody asked playfully. Diana's reaction changed from a frown to one of sheer horror. Her eyes were wide and she trembled as the other blonde drew closer until she was only an arm's length away. Only then did Diana muster the will to react.

"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Diana screamed in terror. She raised her left hand and prepared a Spirit Drain Beam, firing it at her sister's body. The spell hit and Melody began to laugh as her body began to fade.

"I wanted us to spend some time catching up and you attacked me. That's not very nice of you." The other Winchester chided her with a smile. Diana shuddered as Melody reached out for her with her right hand. Diana stepped back to make sure she was out of her sister's reach.

"We'll meet again one day, Baby Sister. The next time we meet we'll have some real fun." Melody calmly told her before fading away. Moments after the older Winchester faded away the room faded and Diana was back on the deserted street of Magnolia Town with another Spirit Ticket in her right hand. While Melody was gone the feeling of horror remained with the temporary redhead.

Diana did not bother to look around her as she hurriedly walked away from the site of her encounter with whatever had attacked her. She just wanted to find something else to do to take her mind off of the unpleasant memories she had recalled.

[Post Word Count: 806]
[Diana's Word Count: 2,750/2,000]
[Total Word Count: 3,986]

Diana has completed The Shadow Of Trauma. She now has three out of four Spirit Tickets required for event completion.

After her encounter with her departed older sister Melody the temporary redhead needed to do something to take her mind off of what she had seen and heard, so she went looking for a festival activity, any festival activity. She was so eager to forget the encounter that Bobbing For Apples looked like an appealing idea, but before she rushed off to do that she was going to check all of her options first. A third lap around the entirety of the festival area had come up with only one good idea... a Graveyard Tour. It sounded macabre, but anything was better than recalling what her older sister had done to her when she was a child.

Now Diana was standing in the presence of a tall black-haired young woman with green eyes and long black hair that extended to just past her backside. She wore a blue anime school girl uniform with a green headband in her hair and black thighhigh stockings with brown shoes. In her hand was a Lacrima lantern styled after old-fashioned glass lanterns that used candles as the light source. They waited for other people interested in the tour to join them and after fifteen minutes passed and eleven other festival attendees joined them the black-haired event staff member got the tour started. Diana could not help but to note that the number thirteen had come up again tonight.

The last time that number had come up nothing had happened to Diana, but she was not wanting to tempt fate by relaxing just yet.

The tour group of twelve plus the guide walked through the town and eventually entered the cemetery, which was a well-kept area with neatly trimmed grass and immaculate tombstones that had recently been cared for because they were so clean they practically glowed. There was a tall wrought-iron fence that separated the cemetery from the rest of the town and it too was cared for. The full moon was in a cloudless sky and bathed the resting place of generations of Magnolia Town residents in soft silver light.

Diana listened quietly as the tour guide started the tour by telling some of the history of the place they were in. She looked around the area and felt her anxiety start to slowly melt away as she listened to the black-haired young woman talk in a soothing voice that reminded her of Lucia's but was of a higher pitch than her older sister's voice. Diana was not sure if her mental state was the best since she had voluntarily joined a graveyard tour, but she was starting to relax a little until she heard screaming from a young blonde woman dressed as a soccer player who was pointing behind the tour guide.

Diana followed the pointing and rising from the ground was a small horde of zombies that numbered thirteen strong. Diana felt a little anxiety creep in as the number she disliked came up for a third time. The tour guide and the tour group fled the cemetery while screaming in terror, leaving Diana alone with the zombies, who had all fixed their milky white eyes on her and were slowly shuffling towards her with their arms outstretched and hands reaching for her. They all stunk of an advanced stage of decay and most of them had missing limbs due to them falling away upon revival, but their clothes were intact and due to them wearing dresses and suits the mage knew that she was dealing with seven female zombies and six male ones.

The temporary redhead stood her ground and prepared a Spirit Drain Seekers spell to dispatch all of her enemies in one shot. Diana moved the Spirit Tickets she was holding into her left hand, then channeled magic into her body until a pale blue aura was formed around her body, then cast the spell by jabbing her right index finger towards the zombies. The aura erupted and sent thirteen seeker projectiles towards the enemies. Since they had no concept of dodging or other defensive measures all thirteen projectiles hit their targets one after the other... Diana could not have planned that any better.

The zombies fell to the earth and did not move again. Diana remained calm while listening to the sound of shuffling behind her. Unlike with the recently dispatched undead the movement was too fast to be a new group of enemies, so Diana turned around and spotted the tour guide from earlier. She was holding a Spirit Ticket in her left hand and presented it to the mage, presumably as compensation for dealing with the undead menace before it spread beyond the cemetery.

Diana accepted the offered ticket and added it to the three she already had. The tour guide rallied the other festival attendees, who still looked a little nervous about continuing the tour after what had happened. Diana decided to continue the tour as well because if more zombies rose from their graves the group would need protection. She was not sure if more shambling corpses would rise on this night or not, but if they did she would be there to make sure that they went down a second time and stayed dead.

Deciding to walk at the head of the festival attendees, Diana followed the black-haired young woman as she led the tour group past the recently defeated zombies and deeper into the cemetery.

[Post Word Count: 904]
[Diana's Word Count: 3,654/2,000]
[Total Word Count: 4,890]

Diana has completed the Graveyard Tour. She now has all four Spirit Tickets needed for event completion.