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

[great_king_of_evil]

[ If the phantom could hear Ganondorf's mind in return, it would get a clear and audible 'Shut your mouth off and get away from my pipe-organ' in reply.

After a moment anyway, Ganondorf disappeared only to appear back into his room, sighing and looking through his impressive bowl of candies. It was most likely a huge bowl. Ice and fire? How was he supposed to know what that meant?

Ganondorf started by showing three peppermint to the shadow child. Maybe that was the fire part? He had no idea and was honestly wishing he could just backhand the shadow away. ]

[midgarhorizon]

[When night fell this time, Reno is laying on his own bed, the blanket pulled over his head so he didn't have to look at the bowl. Exhaustion wore on him; he has nothing to drink himself into oblivion and let him fall asleep, though he desperately could use something. Pain flared through his wrists and ankles again, yet one more torment keeping him up. The sensation brought back the memory of those thorns digging clawing tearing into his brain.

He just wants to sleep... just some sleep, that's all.]

[animusnpcs]

[Something will tap Shiro on her shoulder, but if she looks, it won't be there. When she turns her attention back to where it was before, there will be a shadow sitting in front of her on the bed, cross-legged and grinning.

Words sear themselves into her mind.

if i could eat clouds i would want them to be sweet and pink]

[sageprincess]

[Well, that's unsettling. She winces at the mental pain caused by the shadow's "voice," brows furrowed in obvious displeasure.]

So you are the "they" she wrote of.

[And it wants sweets that would be it-- her best friends. That... makes little sense to her, but she has to be able to puzzle it out somehow. It wouldn't be much of a game otherwise.

She shoos the shadow off of her as she gets up to rummage through her candy stash, trying to find something that could be construed as a "girl's best friend." Lollipops, no... candy blood, definitely not... roses, maybe... ah!]

The ladies at court were always rather fond of their jewelry.

[She presents the shadow with three candy gems and hopes for the best.]

[animusnpcs]

[There's nothing there, and then she blinks, and something is: a shadow staring up at her with too-sharp too-white teeth. Words claw their way into her mind.

i want two treats but make sure they don't have any thorns

[animusnpcs]

[Drip, drip, drip - squelch...

A shadow emerges from the showerhead, twisting and expanding until it comes to full size and rests at Sephiroth's feet. It stares up at him hungrily and reaches up with clawed hands, and words rip themselves into his mind.

you can't buy happiness but i'll be happy if i get five]

[animusnpcs]

[There is motion on the ceiling, and then a shadow drops down onto his bed. It lands with a soft thud - more solid than it has any right to be - and words claw their way into Rick's mind.

one, two, three chirping pests with a satisfying crunch]

[savedbyasong]

Hey! [He frowns, so it wasn't that. The child wanted something black... and what was it. Something healthy, but these were all sweets... None of them were healthy. To trick his mama... okay something that could be healthy. Some of these were fruit flavoured...

He rumaged around until he saw the jelly raspberries, they wouldn't really trick an adult but maybe...] Is this what you want? I don't have any black one's though...

[animusnpcs]

[A shadow emerges from under the table, taking a seat next to her and grinning before words sear themselves in her mind.

i want five sweets that are good for my heart, small enough to all fit in the palm of my hand]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow emerges from behind his bird and then comes around to stand between them. It smiles, its too-white teeth glittering, and Prussia will feel words rip themselves into his mind.

give me two tasty badges of honor give me them give me them]

[bashfulshifter]

[For the first time in several hours, both of Rick's hands remove themselves from his bowl of candy so they can instead grab at his temples. The creature's words hurt, too much for him to think of moving away or interpreting what it's telling him at first. He has to repeat the riddle out loud to actually internalize it.]

...Three ch--chirping p-pests...?

["Pests with a satisfying crunch"--sounds a lot to him like a bug. What bug candies has he found...?]

[A moment of searching later and he manages to procure a single, chocolate-covered cockroach, obtained yesterday in the frozen castle on floor 73. He's never known cockroaches to "chirp," and he only has one, but they are pests with a crunchy outside...hopefully this will be sufficient.]

[The intelligent idea of going around and asking for help does not occur to him--Rick wants the shadow off his bed and out of his mind as soon as possible. He carefully offers the chocolate bug.]

...W-Will this w-w-work? S-S-Sorry, I...o-only have the o-one...

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow emerges from under Claudia's bed, brushing against her feet before tilting its face up to look at her. Once again, the words rip themselves into her mind.

i need help just this once and i want to see into two souls

[animusnpcs]

[Reno won't see it because his eyes are covered, but he will feel it when a shadow crawls onto him, arms wrapped around his waist as words rip themselves into his mind again.

always so sour, sour, sour, sour, sour, sour...]

[animusnpcs]

[It's not there one moment, but is there the next. The shadow smiles like it's greeting an old friend and holds out its arms to Ryoji, almost benevolently; the gesture would seem friendlier if not for the searing pain accompanying its words in Ryoji's mind.

i can't see i can't see ... i can't walk ... i can't touch

i need replacements for all these things]

pretend this was in the right place the first time

[cursedchosen]

[Zelos is relaxing in the fourth floor lounge, reclining on one of the sofas. There's a small collection of candy in a bowl next to him, but he doesn't seem worried about his lack of sweets.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow snatches up two of the peppermints, then bares its teeth at Ganon, growling lowly. The third peppermint hits the ground and vanishes.

It wants something more.]

[animusnpcs]

[It snatches up one raspberry, then eyes it before popping it into its mouth. And then a word rips itself into his mind -

TRICK!

Shion will feel as though his blood is boiling - as if what is under his skin is simply too hot. However, because he got the raspberry part right, this sensation will fade after half a day.]

[sicharia]

[Claudia lets out a soft noise, more like a squeak than anything, as something brushes against her. Automatically, she hops up, taking a few steps backward to find another shadow looking up at her. This time, at least, she's more prepared for its appearance, as well as the way the words insert themselves into her head. She winces, but the reaction is muted this time.]

"See into two souls"...

[She repeats the word to herself as she rifles through her stash of candy. There are the hearts, and that single ghost... But then there are eyes, too, if they want to see. And there's that saying about eyes being windows to the soul...]

[She waffles for a short while, before finally deciding to offer the gummy eyes.]

Are these it?

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow's mouth twitches into an even wider smile and it vanishes along with the apple.

Sealand has given out the correct candy.]

[notachickenhawk]

[Tobias had been looking for candy, but no such luck. Instead, he ended up doing his normal routine, trying to find food and check out more levels in detail. Nothing really interesting came up though, which is why he's back here in his room at sunset, perching on the end of his bed.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow takes the gems, seems to cuddle it to its chest with a cooing noise, and twirls around - and has vanished in the twirl.

Zelda has given out the correct candy.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow snatches up the cockroach and bites into it, severing its head from its body with a sickening squelch. And then it spits it out, snarling.

TRICK!

For the rest of the week, Rick will feel as though countless bugs are crawling just beneath his skin.]

[great_king_of_evil]

[ Two... Alright he had gotten the ice one correctly. Even though he had assumed it was the fire one, but details.

How was he supposed to know? If looks could kill, the phantom would be dead already. ... Well, technically speaking, what with being a phantom it was probably dead already.

Sighing, Ganondorf tasted a few of the candies in his bowl. This way he wasted a jelly beans, a sno-cap, a gummy-worm, a piece of piece of saltwater taffy and a piece of cinnamon candy. He stopped at the cinnamon candy-- It tasted hot and spicy enough. He grabbed three more cinnamon candies and showed them to the phantom. Better be satisfied with that. ]

[no_longer_a_king]

All right. Give me a moment to tend to my dishes.

[Because even if those words are annoying and make her head hurt, she won't leave a mess behind her. So she puts her dishes with the dirty ones, then beckons for the child to follow her upstairs. Once there, she looks through her bowl of candy. She isn't sure what would be good for the heart, but she knows what she has five of that can fit in its hand.

She gives him Five chocolate rocks. Because chocolate is good for the heart.]

Will this satisfy you or should I look further?

[bydefacto]

[Shaken from the first night the shadow had visited, Sealand again stays in his room, for most of the day this time, guarding his candy supply.

He hides in the covers of his bed, sitting cross legged with the duvet covering him. He wears his power ranger costume, and his seagull lies down next to him.]