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

[sageprincess]

[Halfway there. For a Ruana game, this one certainly seems more "winnable" than most, and idly Zelda wonders if that's also because of Riki's intervention.

Or maybe it's just because she hasn't yet needed to beg for help with her "visitors."

As always, she's in her room by the time the shadows start appearing, this time unoccupied aside from her thoughts.]

[animusnpcs]

[It seems to come through her door, though the door never opens. But it approaches and smiles as its words rip into her mind.

i want a three-course meal. an appetizer, an entree, and something extra special for dessert. but there are things i don't like: i don't like things that are too crunchy, and i don't like bugs. i don't like chocolate in my dessert but i like it in my appetizer as long as it's not only chocolate. as for the entree... you should know what i want for that.]

[sageprincess]

[... Jesus Hylian Christ that's a lot to take in.]

One moment...

[Okay. Simple terms. Three things, nothing crunchy, nothing solid chocolate. Those worm things can be set aside as well. Hopefully the shadow won't mind her doing this one piece at a time. The "voice" is grating and unpleasant, but whatever might happen should she fail will likely be far worse.

She thinks back to the second night as she mulls over the criteria for the appetizer, and pulls out a raspberry-filled chocolate]

It looks like chocolate, but it is more than it appears, I promise.

[animusnpcs]

[It takes the raspberry-filled chocolate, sniffs it, and then scarfs it down. It doesn't growl or snarl; instead, it just holds out a hand and looks at Zelda expectantly.]

[sageprincess]

[And at the lack of a negative reaction, she lets out the breath she had unintentionally been holding. One down, two to go. Entree next.

"You should know what I want for that"... It's such a vague statement, but she has to be able to puzzle it out just from that, right? Something simple, something common, something...

Her eyes fall on one of the candy pumpkins in her pile, and she holds it up.]

We have been eating these all month...?

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow child snatches it away from her, almost hungrily, and looks back up at her for the next part.]

[sageprincess]

[Right, then. One more. Something extra-special for dessert, but not chocolate. She sifts through her bowl once more, and as much as she hesitates to give away something she has only one of, it's the best idea she has for something "extra-special."

Her final offering is a giant gummy bear.]

I only have the one, so...

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow's smile widens, and it hugs the gummy bear to its chest - the thing is huge, almost as big as it is. They almost make a cute pair... until the shadow bites the bear's head off and vanishes.

Zelda has given out the correct candy.]