A Graveyard Smash

[vivariummods]

Happy Halloween Vivarium! The day will start not with Calhoun, thankfully, but with Monster Mash playing. Well, that's cute. That's what you might think if it didn't play again immediately afterwards. Then again. And again. It won't stop all day, enjoy. Anyone who goes to the first floor warehouse will be greeted by the entire room decked out in the cheapest, cheesiest Halloween decorations available- plastic bats that vibrate angrily, ghosts that make obnoxious sounds and lights when passed, orange and black streamers every five feet. Calhoun is sitting at his equally decked out shop, dressed in a little witch outfit. When anyone approaches he'll seem pretty upbeat. "Happy Halloween, Test Subjects! I figured you sorry lot would enjoy a little festivity, so here you go! Don't say I don't do anything for you ungrateful subjects." "I have a little gift for you too! Seeing as it's Halloween and all, I thought hey, why not play a little trick or treat? In this case with memories! So here's the deal, everyone gets a free memory, but I'm gonna guarantee you here it's going to be a spoooooooky one!" He cackles. "Of course that can mean a loooooot of things, huh? Your choice! Just go through door number one over here-" He gestures to the door always used when people are taken away for memories. "-or just sit back and enjoy! Boy, it sure will be interesting to see what people pick! I'm on the edge of my seat here." Shockingly he isn't. BASIC INFO ✖ MEMORY ✖ MINGLE

Comments

[babygangsta]

Not having ears was a blessing in this situation. Hershel should have been grateful. Kuzuryuu, clenched his jaw, shoving his hands into his pockets roughly.

"Yeah... sure. Even if it just covers it a little it'll be better than this."

[detectiveofthewest]

"...I still feel cheated," said Heiji. Like, machine. Please give him back the two seconds it took him to read that dumb joke. He pressed the button again; this time another joke came out:

"'What is a vampire's favorite sport? ...Casketball...'"

Suddenly, the machine rocked back and forth and spat something else out. At first Heiji thought it was wire or something, but no. It was a small clump of long brown hair.

"What the heck?"

[puzzlinglad]

He's evolved past this bullshit you see. Be amazed and despair. "It's worth a shot. Other than that I suppose we could try drowning it out in the lounge." Hershel offered, making a face. "Though I doubt there's anything better than this to listen to."

He started heading towards the garden as he continued. "Did you get a memory back?"

[babygangsta]

The bright smile was decidedly unappreciated. "Bull-fucking-shit it is! There's no way anyone with any ounce of taste could enjoy this!" Kuzuryuu paused, sneering at Clive despite how agitated he was. "Tch, actually I guess that makes it perfect for you."

[babygangsta]

A little surprised that Heiji seemed to have been waiting for him, it takes a few seconds for Kuzuryuu to collect his thought enough to reply. "Oh, uh-" he started, frowning.

"I was lost in the woods in the middle of the night."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Yeah? That sucks." It also sounded pretty normal, which was something he hadn't been expecting from Kuzuryuu. Don't ask him what he was expecting...

"Like by yourself? You remember why you were out there?"

[puzzlinglad]

"Yes, probably." Friendship was shounen and great. He headed out, sighing a little once the decorations became an issue. I hope you like hearing ghosts tell you what a scare you're in for and spookily say boo, because that was going to be the whole trip there. Even with a haircut Hershel's hair was too much for the Halloween decorations not to knock into.

When he got to the door he let out a soft sigh, giving Heiji a small smile before heading in. After a fun wait he came out, looking kind of bamboozled.

"Ah well... that wasn't bad." Is apparently all he has to offer at first.

[detectiveofthewest]

"Well?" said Heiji, all curiosity now that he'd been waiting for Hershel to get out. "Were ya 'in for a scare'?"

A ghost decoration near his head started wobbling, lighting up, and making "WoooooOOOooooo" noises.

[babygangsta]

That was significantly more creepy than the jokes and Kuzuryuu was already pretty sure he wasn't a fan of this new development. He eyed the clump of hair with trepidation.

"Where... did that come from? It that supposed to be in there to try to scare people or something?" Because it was kind of working.

[babygangsta]

"At least it'd be different." Even if it was awful repetitive music from some cheaply made indie game.

Kuzuryuu kept stride with Hershel, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah, I did. Thought'd be worth it even if it was scary. Can't really afford to pass up opportunities like that."

[detectiveofthewest]

"I dunno," said Heiji, pulling out one of his gloves and putting it on. He picked up the clump of hair and frowned at it. Then he tried looking in the back of the machine, but it was pretty clear that wherever the hair had come from, it had to be in the heavy, covered metal section of the machine and not the part with the glass case. The fortuneteller puppet had grey hair, not brown.

"Guess the only way to find out is to try it again."

[babygangsta]

Kuzuryuu shook his head. "Nah, I wasn't by myself. I was with my friend. I think we were both pretty young at the time." Not that he could say for sure how old they were, but he knew it had to be far younger than he was now.

"She was trying to act calm, leading the way and saying she'd make sure I got home and... things like that." Specifically she'd also said she'd 'protect' him but that was a little embarrassing to admit. "But I could feel her hand shaking and when she turned around to look at me I could see she was scared." He exhaled lightly.

"Would you believe that was the scariest part of that whole stupid memory? Seeing her look so freaked out?" He'd been afraid before that - hell, he'd been crying - but that had been the nail in the coffin. "Anyway, we were out there because we we'd run away from... somewhere. Some people."

[detectiveofthewest]

He listened to Kuzuryuu's story, then shook his head. "Nah, that ain't hard to believe. I mean, it's bad enough when you're in trouble, but you've got someone with you in the same situation, tryin' to be all tough..."

Heiji let out a breath there was somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. "Anyway. Sounds like you guys were good friends. And you must've had a good reason to be runnin', or else you wouldn't be out in the middle of nowhere. She must've kept her promise, too. I mean, you're here, ain't ya?"

[puzzlinglad]

"True. Different and loud." Worth a shot, right.

He glanced over, unsure if he should ask but- "What was it? If that isn't too nosy."

[cursedchosen]

Hey, look! It was the other bratty kid. He looked pretty angry.

Of course Zelos is going to do the mature thing and walk up to him to make sure he's okay.

"Alright there, kid?"

With the biggest smirk possible, of course.

[blind_badass]

*Snake is looking decidedly twitchy after coming back from the memory pod room. At least he doesn't seem to be screaming his head off this time.*

[blind_badass]

*Snake is just looking...nervous as opposed to terrified this time. Perhaps because he's nervous, he's not concentrating as much as he doesn't know he's about to run into Heiji if he's not careful.*

[blind_badass]

*Snake's earlier nervousness is burning off into rapidly growing irritation. Why? It's not even for the music, which is irritating. It's all the decorations he keeps running into. He's good at moving around rooms and objects of some size. But not with things that don't reflect sound enough that he can't tell where they are. Or those wispy spider webs that get caught in his hands. So you might find him cussing out a plastic skeleton just because.*

That icon is impressive

[blind_badass]

You sound about as angry as I am, Kuzuryuu.

[blind_badass]

*Snake is being less than graceful today, just about to trip over Sasuke if he's not careful!*

[blind_badass]

*Well, if Clive is moving around, Snake might be calmed down enough to recognize it's him by his footsteps since he's known Clive for quite a bit.* Clive?

[detectiveofthewest]

It was probably telling that Heiji plain bumped into Snake -- remembering traumatic past events did not an attentive walker make. The impact wasn't hard, but he reached out to steady Snake by the arms on pure reflex.

"O-oh. Sorry." Heiji paused for a second. "You okay? You look a little... off-balanced."

[not_that_sasuke]

"It still sounds pretty traumatic." Putting it mildly. And, after a moment of hesitation: "...When you got the memory back, did you actually feel it, or...?"

[not_that_sasuke]

Mm. It's supposed to be on the 31st, isn't it?

[If. Calhoun actually cares about dates. And since this cookie hasn't killed him yet, he'll go ahead and take a larger bite this time.]

[not_that_sasuke]

[Ah...]

Hello, Snake.

[It's mostly just to alert the man that he's there, first and foremost.]

Are you alright?