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

[sicharia]

[Claudia is somewhat delayed getting back to her room tonight, thanks to certain eating difficulties. The burning has abated now, but she skipped lunch because of it, and getting through dinner was a bit difficult... In any case, she has only just reached her door at sundown, though she's quick to open it and step inside.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow is waiting for her when she walks into her room, sitting cross-legged on her bed.

tonight i'm going to test your knowledge. give me ten things that are berries that you wouldn't think of when i say "berry"... if you can't do that, then give me fifty each of the things you would think of.]

[sicharia]

[Claudia shuts the door behind herself, but she doesn't draw any closer to the bed once she has done so. For a moment, she simply stares at the shadow... But then she moves to the bowl of candy, digging through it.]

[She certainly doesn't have fifty of these jelly berries, so that's out of the question. She doesn't know for sure, but... Pumpkins seem like the kind of thing that would technically be a berry, don't they? She doesn't have ten candy pumpkins anymore, but maybe she can figure out something else to supplement them with...]

Here. [She offers a handful of candy pumpkins. It's not all eight, simply by virtue of the fact that she can't comfortably hold all eight of them in one hand.] Will these do?

[animusnpcs]

[It takes the pumpkins and looks mostly satisfied, though there is a low growl.

two more or ten each of the others.]

[sicharia]

[She relinquishes all eight of her candy pumpkins, then turns back to her bowl with a frown. At a glance, of things she has that are fruit without the word berry in their name, there are apples, and there are lemon-flavored lollipops and some jelly beans. Hopefully mixing and matching will be okay...]

[After debating her options briefly, she offers a lemon lollipop. If that's accepted, she'll give the shadow a second as well.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow bares its teeth with a low growl and smacks the lollipop away.]

[sicharia]

[The lollipop falls to the floor, disappearing. Of course, that makes her reluctant to risk anything else as a replacement, so...]

I'm sorry. I don't have any more of the pumpkins, or enough berries. [Automatically, she smiles apologetically, as though she's talking to a real child.] If you want more, you'll have to take something else.

[The idea of asking around doesn't occur to her, because of course other people need their candy to stop themselves from being punished.]

[animusnpcs]

[This is enough of a rejection that the shadow snarls before vanishing.

TRICK

Claudia will, from time to time, feel as though she has grown roots - that she will be unable to move and unable to pull herself free. This will happen once every three hours for the next 24 waking hours she experiences. Each time she finds herself unable to move, her vision will blur and fade into an image of a pumpkin patch, which she will feel as though she is running through with someone in close pursuit. Each time she is rooted to one place, her pursuer will get closer and closer; in the final vision, she will be caught and thrown to the ground, and her pursuer will raise an axe. However, because she solved part of the riddle, she will wake before the axe can fall on her, though she will have a slightly unsettling feeling, as if someone is following her around, for the rest of the week.]