The Spooky Night Scare Celebration

[de_lux]

Warnings: SPOOPY. Also potential violence and/or drinking.

Location: Various locations in Freesia, especially the Park and Cathedral.

Characters: Anyone and everyone and Lux.

When: Night of September 9

Summary: Most of Freesia is celebrating tonight. Ward off the darkness with lanterns and masks and maybe chat with the local light god.

In a change from their usual behavior, the citizens of Freesia are out and about during the night in order to celebrate another festival.

Called “Spooky Night,” the atmosphere of this holiday may seem familiar to some of Freesia's outsiders. Lanterns patterned after all manner of monsters and other creepy things are visible everywhere, resting on doorsteps, hung from trees, placed in windows, and there are smaller ones strung between buildings and across streets.

Equally creepy masks abound as well. They're mostly worn by the children, but some adults can be seen indulging as well, the eyes and mouths of their masks glowing like jack o' lanterns.

Most of the citizens seem to be enjoying themselves, chatting and laughing with one another, jumping around and trying to scare each other, drinking and buying snacks from opportunistic vendors. Many of the festive citizens have gathered at a bonfire in the park, but groups of people can be found just about anywhere tonight.

But despite the party atmosphere, you may want to pay close attention to the city tonight...

A: The masks and lanterns mentioned earlier aren't going to be hard to find. The lanterns are visible everywhere of course, and more can be found for sale in the shops and stalls, alongside a wide variety of masks. Most of the designs are generic monsters, such as ghost or skeletons or werewolves, but if you look around, well... Whatever you're afraid of, if it's something you can put a face or likeness to, you'll run into a mask or lantern of it eventually. Creepy as that might be though, anyone who dares carry or wear their fears will be rewarded with an extra bright glow emanating from it, something that may come in handy if they run into any of the Nox tonight.

B: If you head down to the park tonight, but stray away from the bonfire, you'll notice that the cathedral is active for once. A very small group of citizens has gathered there, primarily consisting of the elderly- and at least one person you may find familiar. There isn't any laughing or drinking going on in this part of town, and everyone in the cathedral is either silent or speaking to each other in hushed tones. As far as can be observed, they've gathered here to place candles and flowers everywhere.

C: Autumn isn't quite here yet, but the nights have been getting longer lately, the shadows deeper. Don't wander too far tonight and if you do, take care to bring some light with you. The Nox are especially active tonight and will happily attack anyone who wander into the shadows, local or not, not to mention breaking anything they can get their shadowy hands on. A few of the bolder groups will even stray to the edges of the festival in order to knock down the decorations. They're in a vicious mood tonight, but if you thought to pick up an especially spooky lantern or mask before confronting them, their viciousness will evaporate and you'll have them running scared instead.

Comments

[panspermia]

"Guess they've got a different calendar than us. Same kind of idea, but less candy. So that's a few more points against it."

Looking around at the festivities, most people seem to take it with the same sort of seriousness; namely, not much, and mostly relegated to children. (It is called Spooky Night, though, it's not hard to imagine why older people aren't too engrossed.)

"None of the look scared or nothin', either." Greg scratches at his beard. "Wonder if this whole business is something special for us, or if it's another one of those things they learned to keep out of."

[jonesiseverywhere]

"Well, I know they wouldn't've made that thing look like a Technodrome if they weren't tryin' to tell me somethin'..." Casey shot a look to some of the citizens, "an'
they sure never seem like they wanna get involved in much of anything."

Casey lets the hand lantern drop. "So what's the story here?"

[panspermia]

"Not everyone's got magic and sports gear, man." Greg has a hard time holding any locals' reluctance against them, no matter how dreary their dislike gets. He's far more used to being in their shoes.

Tucking his thumbs into his pockets, Greg fixes the hand with a scowl. "There was an alien ship that showed up. They came for Steven, and the Gems." He shrugs, but it doesn't look nearly as dismissive as he hoped. "Everything worked out in the end, but. It was a little tense, you know?"

[jonesiseverywhere]

"Well, that's why we're here. Gotta operate in the shadows back home, but it'd be nice to hear a thanks once in awhile, ya know?"

He tucks his hand into the front pocket of his hoodie. "Wicked! Did it grab 'em with the big fingers or were they just the blaster part?" -All spaceships have a blaster, right?- "Feel kinda ripped. The technodrome was just a...big glowin' ball!"

[panspermia]

"My experience, keeping it out in the open just makes people kind of sick of it. Loads easier to focus on what's going wrong." It's a sad fact, but true. It was a lucky thing the Gems weren't in it for the thanks, but it still seems unfair.

Greg clears his throat, glancing away. "I wouldn't really know. I, uh, evacuated with everyone else, before it got too close." Again, Casey. Not everyone's used to this sort of thing.

[jonesiseverywhere]

"That's dumb. You'd think it'd make people feel better when someone's takin' care of all the crap." He grinds a rock into the ground with his shoe. There are a lot of reasons he and his friends operate in the shadows, but it'd be nice to have someone appreciate what they do sometimes.

"Hey, at least you guys got time to evacuate. We got blindsided by the Kraang both times. I mean, yeah, I totally got to kick some alien butt, but it was kinda tense when all the portals started openin' and the armies started pourin' out."

[panspermia]

"Portals? Just out of nowhere?" How on earth does Casey keep saying these things like they're nothing? It scares Greg enough to think if the Homeworld Gems got access to the warp pads, popping in and out all over the place.

"Well... there's got to be a point, though. Right?" He still grimaces, looking over the two miniature glowing ships. "Unless the Nox put things together, people don't really go out of their way to mess with us like this."

[jonesiseverywhere]

"Heh, yeah! Me and my bro Raph were lookin' for my best friend's lost sister, just randomly out on the street, when portals started poppin' up everywhere, Kraang soldiers marchin' out like ants, and the technodrome," he nudged the pink lantern again, "-which is way bigger than that in real life, by the way- went flying around blowin' up the city! Nearly got flattened by an exploded car!"

That part, at least, was a GREAT memory, and he's getting wound up. "It was wicked! We only lived because we ducked between two other cars which caught it before it could smash us under it!"

"So I figure," he continues, "what the Kraang and the Nox got in common is that they both appear outta nowhere in the street through portals, right? And if the powers that run this place got somethin' to say, that's where to start!"

[panspermia]

There's a terse pause. Not only is that a lot to take in, Casey tops it all off with comparing it to their current situation. Whatever bright side Casey's getting out of it with that chipper tone, Greg sure isn't seeing it.

"Wow," Greg finally says, his voice gone a bit up in pitch. He clears his throat. "That, uh. Hoo boy. Did you, uh. Did you guys ever find a way to, uh, stop their... portal... stuff?"

[jonesiseverywhere]

Sometimes when Casey talks, Greg gets really tense for some reason. Which doesn't make much sense to him. He should know that the story has a happy ending considering Casey Jones was involved!

Sort of. "My bros kicked the Kraang back to their home dimension! I mean, I totally shoulda been in that fight, but I guess someone had to brave the monsters and robots to get food and medical supplies."

[panspermia]

In contrast, Greg simply can't wrap his head around how Casey thinks--constantly itching for excitement in the form of danger and risk. The Gems do it as an important part of defending Earth, but not even Amethyst craves it like this kid does.

"Maybe not as glamorous, but it's no less important." Even in an alien invasion, you need to be practical about some things. "Guess that's why they call you such a go-getter." Dad jokes fix everything, right?

[jonesiseverywhere]

A dad joke like that gets a little huff that might be laughter. It's more an acknowledgement that a joke was made than anything.

"I guess. And it's not like there weren't tons of looters and thugs to clean up while they were rebuilding the city..." But that story doesn't have a cool ending. Greg's still might.

"But I wanna hear what happened with your hand-ship thing!"

[panspermia]

"Um. I dunno. I wasn't really there for it, so." There's still a small part of him that feels he should have been, even if the logical brain knows he'd have done nothing but get in the way.

"The ship tried to blast our home. Steven and the Gems took care of it, got it to crash." He rolls a shoulder, trying and utterly failing to look casual about the whole affair. Even if he were there for it, it's not really his story to tell, is it?

[jonesiseverywhere]

"Too bad," Casey shakes his head. What a shame. "Watchin' an enemy ship go down is pretty freakin' sweet."

It's gratifying. You get to see the end result of all the tough butt-kicking you did...Not that Greg would do much of that back home, but maybe he knows what he's talking about from being here in Freesia. "Like when you beat a monster but...10 times that!"

[panspermia]

Well, he did see the crash, but it hadn't done much to ease his concerns. "I haven't taken down ten monsters yet, so I guess I haven't got a good comparison."