If You Don't

[animusmods]

Characters: All who are signed up for the If You Don't event!
Setting: Everywhere
Format: Anything
Summary: The shadow children come out to play, hungry for their candy...
Warnings: Psychological horror, possible character death.

As those who are participating in the event wake up on the morning of the 26th, they'll see clawing hands at the edges of their vision that dart away as soon as they're fully awake. Maybe it was just a lingering dream? But there's another note left for them to find:

trick or treat
smell my feet
give me something good to eat

i f y o u d o n ' t

There is a drawing of a heart at the bottom of the paper, as usual for notes received during Ruana's games, though it's wet and red and appears to be fresh blood.

Still nothing, will happen until the sun begins to set. Once it does, skittering, shifting shadow children will come out to play, tracking down one of the characters participating in the game. They will request a specific kind of candy--not with a normal voice, but with a penetrating, tearing sort of mental intrusion.

You will have until 11:59 PM to figure out what they want, and woe betide you if you get it wrong and give them something they don't like...

Reply to the subthread for each night to receive your character's riddle for that night. Note: While you can request riddles in advance, you will not receive the riddles for nights 2 and on until your character has solved or failed to solve the riddle preceding it and received their consequences, if applicable.

Riddle Subthreads:
October 26th
October 27th
October 28th
October 29th
October 30th
October 31st

Feel free to create your own top-levels for IC mingling during these days - to have your character trying to puzzle out their riddles, search for/negotiate with people who have the candies they need, make attempts to steal candies, and deal with any consequences they get later on for not giving their shadow children the correct candies - but be sure you indicate which night it is in the subject header.

Some other things to note:
- Now that all the remaining candy in the Tower has been put into bowls, it can be perceived and interacted with by everyone, even those who are not signed up for the event.
- Candy that is removed from a bowl will remain in existence so long as it is in a character's hand, but will vanish if set down, put into a bag, etc. If it is transferred from one bowl to another, that is okay. If it is taken from a bowl and handed to a shadow child, that is okay.
- Only the character being asked for candy will be able to hear the shadow child that is doing the asking, though others will be able to see it.
- The shadow child will follow your character until they fetch the candy from their room and will repeat the riddle at any time, when asked; this can be handwaved without a mod response.
- The shadow children will not take any notice of characters that are not the ones they are asking for candy from.

Mod replies will only occur in the riddle subthreads, to 1. give out the riddle and 2. respond with any consequences once a character has given (or not given) a shadow child their candy.

Comments

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow gathers up the peppermints and vanishes.

Amelia has given out the correct candy.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow snatches up the pieces of konpeito.

Quark has given out the correct candy.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow snatches up the six coins.

Kachessa has given out the correct candy.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow snatches up the four worms.

just one pool of life... leave two gifts for those who can't survive...

The words are accompanied by a slight, impatient growl; the shadow shifts its feet. Shion has one chance to solve the rest of the riddle before it acts.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow snarls and bats the crosses away.

What this place needs to make its garden bloom is NOT the water of life! TRICK!

The shadow vanishes. Zelos will feel as though there are countless thorns digging into his skin, all over his body - whenever he picks up anything, the thorns which are not really there will seem to dig deeper and deeper into his fingers and hands, when he walks they will seem to dig deeper and deeper into his feet, and so on. However, because he solved one half of the riddle, this sensation will fade after 24 waking hours.]

[savedbyasong]

What... I... [Pool of life... was it not blood then... He couldn't think of anything else it could be... He stared into his pot and picked up the last blood bag] This? Is this what you mean?

[neverbeamemory]

[Sephiroth stands much like a sentinel, with his arms folded as he watches Enoch look through the candy bowl. After all, he trusts no one - even if he hadn't wanted to play this game in the first place and was left with no choice in the matter.

When Enoch looks back, he slowly unfolds his arms.]

Don't mention it. [Pause.] The coughing-

It's a punishment, right?

[notachickenhawk]

[He nods, and sits up slowly, reaching over to pick out candy from his bowl. He takes out ten chocolate rocks and ten chocolate crosses, and sets them in front of the shadow.]

How... how about these?

[provenworth]

[And she nearly screams when there's suddenly somebody blocking her, hands pressing against her chest in fear that her heart was going to burst through. So the games began.]

...Stars?

[Her eyes move to the bowel on her bed, frowning. She didn't have anything that looked like stars. Raising a hand for the child to wait, she moved to dig through her small collection, frowning. Nothing star-ish, nope. Though, if one was creative enough, maybe...

Turning back around, she held out her hands, three chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil resting in her palms.]

I don't have any stars, but in the right light these can look like shimmering stars...

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow appears as usual, and it seems not to care that Veronica is uncomfortable. It stares up at her as she paces, and words rip into her mind.

...ten ------- from the jar... ten things to keep the doctor away...]

Re: OCTOBER 30TH

[cursedchosen]

[As the sun begins to set, Zelos can feel the last of the thorns leaving his body. The last twenty-four hours hadn't been very pleasant, and he was glad for the day to be over.]

[But he'd be happier once this stupid week was over; he just wanted to get through the next two days in one piece, unharmed.]

[Once again, Zelos is in the lounge at sunset.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow gathers up all of the pieces of candy, grins, and vanishes.

Sephiroth has given out the correct candy.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow takes the eyes and the hands, then vanishes.

Claudia has given out the correct candy.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow looks them over, gathers the chocolates up... and then vanishes.

Tobias has given out the correct candy.]

[stitchedupbodyguard]

[She hates you so much. Not the shadow specifically, rather the one controling the.

To keep the doctor away. She'd heard that saying enough times to think of apples. She offered one to the shadow.]

You're controlled by Ruana right? Do you know where she is?

[OU] Sephiroth - OCTOBER 31ST

[neverbeamemory]

[How many more days is this going to go on for? It had to be nearing the end of the month now - Ruana's game has to be nearly over.

It's much too routine to be going back to his Dormitory every Sundown to pacify some shadow child, the brethren of which had killed him two months prior. Sephiroth is sat, somewhat irritatingly bored on the end of his bed waiting for that shadow to appear again.]

[terra_nullius]

After the previous day he's a bit more nervous. What if he doesn't have enough this time? He got away with general insects, but there's no telling how generous they are or how much leeway he'll get as time goes on.

Today he's pacing about the room, not even looking at the bowl. Each lap he heads a little closer to the door. He's not sure if he wants to keep doing this, but at the same time he wants to know what will happen...]

[animusnpcs]

[And once again, the shadow sidles up to him.

sometimes things are good for cooking and sometimes things are good on their own... i want twenty-five each of two things that are good alone or to cook with...]

[warriorscribe]

*He asks around for a moment before remembering - Lucifel had gotten one! Naturally, there's no problem in getting it from his friend, and, bent over in another caramel coughing fit, he offers the spun sugar hand to the shadow.*

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow shakes its head, snarls, and bats the chocolate coins away; they vanish upon hitting the ground.

TRICK!

The shadow vanishes as well. Elena will, quite literally, see stars - from time to time her vision will be replaced by visions of distant, twinkling stars, though these flashes will never last for more than a minute at a time. This will stop by 11:59 PM on the 28th.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow takes the hand, appeased.

two of these will make you shout, make you shriek, make you weep...

But there is still something else it wants.]

[brbtalkingtogod]

[Okay, that wasn't there a moment ago. Is this what it feels like to Enoch when he suddenly appears out of nowhere?

Either way, Lucifel thought about the answer for this riddle for a while. Soft and cold and sweet but at the same time it's not...?

A moment later he had possible answer, offering the shadow child two packages of freeze-dried ice cream he had found with Enoch, vanilla and strawberry.]

Have fun with it.

[animusnpcs]

[There's more than just coffee in the cup. It's a shadow, small at first, but then small hands claw its way out of the cup and onto the ground in front of her and it grows bigger until it's a fully-grown shadow child.

i want six things on sticks... one sour and one sweet and one sour and one sweet and one sour and one sweet...]

[animusnpcs]

[It snatches up the bag and devours it hungrily, but then looks up at him with teeth bared.

TRICK!

The shadow vanishes. Shion will feel as though his hands and feet are covered in thorns; when he steps, they will dig deeper, and when he picks things up, they will dig deeper. However, because he solved the part of the riddle involving the worms and blood, this will only last until about noon the next day.]

[animusnpcs]

[There seems to be a shifting shadow on the page of the book he is looking at, and that shadow gets bigger and comes out from the pages, and suddenly there is a shadow sitting where the book had been.

five smaller versions of things you have no choice but to eat... five pieces of a trio of colors... and also three bricks to melt down and drizzle over the top...]