SPOOKTOBER 2023: Occult Night at the Oasis

[Earl of Purple]

Post Maze

Cheasadh remains baffled by Asami. Is she... Does Asami fancy one of them? Is it Cheasadh, Khannie or Micah? Does it matter? It's probably Micah, he's a guy, but Cheasadh's heard Brinika talking about Naku, so she knows it's not certain. Khannie's a horse at the moment, that's... maybe not the ideal target of a crush, but Cheasadh doesn't know how these things work. Maybe it is.

Which does leave Cheasadh with the conundrum of what to do right now. She prefers dealing with her cousins; she doesn't have to worry about them getting crushes on her! Yet. Oh, now she's falling down a mental rabbit hole. "I'm... going to get the cousins now." Awkwardness averted! Why's she blushing? Doe Cheasadh fancy Asami? Oh, she's not thought about this and now is not the time! She'll run off to the candy table and hopefully nobody noticed the blush and it will never be brought up again.

[Rebonack]

[Post Maze]

"It'll definitely be great with you helping me out," Khannie confirms, floating some more candy over to Blue. Keeping children occupied with sweets isn't a terrible plan. "Hey it sounds like your sis is gunna do some singing with Brinika, you wanna watch the show too?"

No doubt the answer is yes.

Blue doesn't strike Khannie as the sorta kid that would want to be in the center of the limelight.

As for Micah, he gets a nod. "That sounds pretty cool. I don't really know much of anything about metaphysical playing card magic, that's definitely not one I've studied, haha! But if it's anything like what I do I might be able to give you some pointers or something! A big parta shadow magic is being creative since it's so flexible."

She's about to say something else encouraging to Asami but then! Oh heck. She's having one of her meltdowns. Glowing so bright she sets some kid's homework on fire might be kinda funny at PREP but there are a buncha little kids around and that isn't safe here. It seemed like she was getting along pretty good with Cheasadh (were they crushing on each other or something?) maybe she could help calm her down?

"Hey Cheasadh could you-"

Whoop.

There she goes.

And she was blushing really hard, too. Um. Heck. Now what?

Khannie lights her horn, the shadows deepening around Asami like a dimmer switch. This magical darkness trick should work, right? The infused shadow bits absorb most of the light that hits 'em so that should help, right? This always seems to happen when Asami gets knocked off kilter emotionally. Which... doesn't seem hard to do. Trying to talk her through it last time didn't work. She just sorta snapped outta it when she started bullying Agate instead.

Maybe...

"Hey Micah what does that thing Asami called me mean?" Khannie whispers.


[Dances With Babs]

Annie skips to a halt at the raised arm. Why were they stopping?

Oh.

Because all the grownups are dancing here. Well... Annie has a good dancing dress! The other two girls, not so much. But all the grownups aren't wearing dancing cloths either so maybe that's okay?

But then a question!

"I'm a yeth hound," Annie admits, saying 'yeth hound' like it's just the lamest, dumbest, and most terrible thing a person could be. "A scary looking faerie dog. I don't like being scary, though. It isn't any fun. Being a princess is better."

And not better by a little, either. Better by a lot! For example, princesses can wear pretty dresses and dance!

"Are we allowed to dance, too? There aren't any kids dancing."

[quillpleasant]

Dining Floor

"Yes. Exactly. My old tastebuds may be wasting away, but they are, unfortunately, still the same ones from my youth." She peers curiously at Lia when she sets about making her own food grow mushrooms. "Can you just... sprout decay at will like that? How... wonderful." Idly, Tespa wonders what it could do for her own magic. Accelerated rot could pack a hell of a nasty surprise if laced into a curse or ray.

"A private room works, if you wish. I have my knucklebones upon me, and... one or two other things, which should be enough. If you want the complete, true experience though, we shall have to find some place outside."

Lia nods readily at the question. "Technically I'm creating spores, and they speed up the decay for me. Growing larger things takes more out of me, but spores are easy, and since I use them to eat I replenish the mass anyway." She's being quite literal- growing mushrooms directly out of her uses up her own biomass, giving her limited resources to work with. Dealing with a temporarily hollow torso or a withered limb is par for the course.

"If outside works better for you, I'd prefer that anyway. This place has been lovely, but buildings in general can get so... stuffy." Especially the floors. Lia does not like anything touching her feet except dirt, thank you very much. "Shall we?" Reaching over to take Tespa's arm, Lia will steer them towards the exit, taking a last hungry glance at the dancing spirits.

[Murkus]

[Post-Maze]

Brinika isn't normally eager to share the spotlight. And Laurana isn't dressed as a zombie or Michael Jackson. But can she say no to those doe eyes? She cannot.

"Sure! You can be my backup singer."

[Post-Maze]

Laurana squeaks out a high-pitched, piping "Yaaay!" and from there on will dutifully follow Brinika around. At least, at a reasonable distance. She doesn't want to be annoying, and she doesn't have to get up on stage if Brinika doesn't want!

Blue just nods while continuing to munch. Of course she'll watch! She is indeed perfectly comfortable being in a nice dark corner and munching candy while she's entertained.

[Morty]

[Post-Maze]

"Alright! I hope you can keep up with a dozen of tiny gob- aaah!" Brinika covers her face with her hands, ears pressing down against her head, when Asami glows so brightly. Hopefully Khannie's shadows can help.

[Gold]

[Post-Maze]

Micah's smile fades as Asami's glow intensifies. He doesn't exactly know why Asami glows or what strobing signifies, but he has a feeling it's nothing good.

Holding a hand up to his face and squinting against the harsh light, Micah glances over to Cheasadh since she seemed to have the answers last time - only to see her running off, blushing for some odd reason. That's... not great.

Micah is about to say something, but stops when Khannie tries her darkness trick to cool Asami down. He breathes a quiet sigh of relief that somebody's doing something about this, which opens him up to being mildly startled by that somebody whispering a question in his ear.

"Oh! Uh... well, it means something like 'edgelord wannabe'. Picture a 14 year old... and that's pretty much it."

[Murkus]

[Post-Maze]

Blue probably winces away from the light as well, as do the other Frescot lil'uns who are close enough. Adir, the tall, antlered man who appears to be their father, currently dressed in a sasquatch costume, probably does his best to get his arms out in front of his charges and turn them away. He feels like he needs to either say something (being one of the few adults around) or else move his kids a bit further away.

"Hey, um," He'll ask Khannie as much as Asami, squinting against and half-turning away from the light, "Everything okay?"

[[brackets lover]]

[Post-Maze]

As Asami notices everyone reacting adversely to her light, her condition worsens. Of course, Khannie's darkness manages to reduce the light to a safe, lamp-like level. Asami herself, however, starts hyperventilating, blushing and sweating profusely. "^{Yeah I'm fine this is normal}," she says in response to Adir, her voice cracking to a mouse-like squeal as she forces a smile.

[Rebonack]

[Post Maze]

Khannie, for her part, will float Blue over to the bab-pile behind Adir. She's a bit worried if she explains what's going on in front of everyone it'll mess up Asami's emotions even more and make the situation worse. Khannie's spell is keeping things contained right now but if it keeps growing more intense? Instead of explaining things she meets Adir's eyes with her own and gives a nod, "Yeah, you guys go watch Brinika's musical number. I'll hang out over here."

Then the unicorn folds her legs under herself and lays down on the floor next to Asami.

"So how did you pronounce that? Chunyioo?" Khannie asks.

That is totally wrong, Khannie, and you know it.

Mostly she's just giving Asami a chance to correct her for getting it wrong like a dope.

[Murkus]

[Post-Maze]

Adir meets Khannie's eyes, sensing some significance there, and lets it go. He doesn't want to make Asami any more upset. His natural instinct is to do a little adulting, but Khannie seems pretty grown up herself. "Alright," he says, smiling at the young ladies, before turning and ushering his kids away with spread arms. "Let's go watch Brinika, huh? You've bothered the horsies enough for one night."

[Gold]

[Post-Maze]

As Asami's light is dimmed down, Micah notices that some of the others are leaving to go and watch Brinika's musical number and decides to go do the same, excusing himself with an "Okay, yeah, I'm gonna go watch Brinika's dance too. See you guys later, I guess." Right before Micah heads for the door, though, he whispers one last thing in Khannie's ear: "Whatever you're doing, I hope it works."

Truth be told, Micah's a little glad to not be in the same room as Asami anymore. Not because he dislikes her or anything like that, but harsh light never really did agree with him. A product of having big tareme eyes, he supposes.

[Gullara]

[Dances With Babs]

Annie skips to a halt at the raised arm. Why were they stopping?

Oh.

Because all the grownups are dancing here. Well... Annie has a good dancing dress! The other two girls, not so much. But all the grownups aren't wearing dancing cloths either so maybe that's okay?

But then a question!

"I'm a yeth hound," Annie admits, saying 'yeth hound' like it's just the lamest, dumbest, and most terrible thing a person could be. "A scary looking faerie dog. I don't like being scary, though. It isn't any fun. Being a princess is better."

And not better by a little, either. Better by a lot! For example, princesses can wear pretty dresses and dance!

"Are we allowed to dance, too? There aren't any kids dancing."

[Dances With Babs]

Jillian looks quite confused at this information. "Huh? Why can't you just be like this all the time if you like it more, though?" If she can be like this now, surely she can be this way other times, right?

Lucy's attention has already drifted, as it's wont to. "Why shouldn't we dance? This is where the dancing happens, so if we wanna dance this is the place to do it." She concludes quite certainly. Was dancing even an objective? Well it is now.

[[brackets lover]]

[Post-Maze]

Asami takes a deep breath, doing her best to relax as some of the others go on ahead. Her ability to open her mouth is a bit inhabited by her intense feelings right now, so she's only able to make an "uh-uh" sound in response to Khannie. Khannie laying down, however, leads Asami to crotch down in kind and instinctively stroke Khannie's back to relieve stress. Khannie's attempts to manage the light proved quite effective and it will eventually dim back to normal at this rate.