animusmods: (Default)
Animus Moderators ([personal profile] animusmods) wrote in [community profile] towerofanimus2013-10-25 11:02 pm

If You Don't

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.
neverbeamemory: (Not Impressed)

[personal profile] neverbeamemory 2013-11-02 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[He sneers at the shadow child, didn't it hear him last time? There was no need to rip so intrusively into his mind like that. He has half a mind to throw the candy bowl at it but manages to refrain - clearly this is a test of patience.

Crunch underfoot. Sephiroth is confident at least he has some of the candy that might be needed. But to test they are the right type first, he fishes only 3 chocolate-covered crickets out of the bowl first and offers them to the shadow child.

If his hunch serves him correctly, he's going to have to go out and see if he can't obtain some more from somewhere. Though, this isn't ideal at all as Sephiroth has no idea yet how long the shadow will stick around after they appear.]


---

[It's not successful, though Sephiroth does happen upon Dorm 01-16 which wasn't locked. Not a single aversion at all to the corpse that might still be on the floor as he mercilessly raids Rick's candy stash for chocolate bugs. Finding nothing of any use to his current predicament he'll empty most of the stash out of the bowl after picking out a few pieces for himself.

Shortly afterwards, Sephiroth returns to his own Dorm to deposit his new acquisitions and gives the shadow the remaining 2 chocolate-covered ants. But he has nothing more to give.]

[[ooc: Adding +1 candy heart made of spun sugar and filled with a strawberry goo that seems to be beating, +10 sno-caps, +1 severed hand made of spun sugar and +2 small bags of blue cotton candy to his candy stash]]
Edited 2013-11-02 19:55 (UTC)
animusnpcs: (♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜)

[personal profile] animusnpcs 2013-11-02 08:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[It accepts the crickets and then the ants, but stares up at him expectantly afterwards.

one and three is four and i want things that go crunch underfoot, but some can't be alive and i don't want more than three of the same thing

There is more that it wants, and though it is somewhat pacified by the ants and the crickets, it also looks a little impatient. Because it asked for more than one thing, Sephiroth has one last chance to think over his options, but will have to speak up and say so if he doesn't intend to give anything more.]
neverbeamemory: (Not Impressed)

[personal profile] neverbeamemory 2013-11-02 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[Could it be only bugs that the child wants? This thought itches at Sephiroth for around about an hour that he'll be sat there, expecting something to happen because he doesn't have any more insects to give. That gaze that the shadow child is giving him knotting up his nerves no end.

But "some can't be alive" - maybe it would have been wrong anyway to give over only bugs? Eventually he stands and rifles through his stash once more, trying and failing to not look at that expectant shadow. Was it worse to give the wrong type of candy or to give nothing at all - whatever the consequence at least it was worth an intelligent guess?

With something of a concerned frown, and that knot in his stomach not loosening Sephiroth crouches to offer 2 newly-acquired sno-caps and 2 peanut butter cups]
animusnpcs: (♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜♜)

[personal profile] animusnpcs 2013-11-03 08:14 am (UTC)(link)
[The shadow snarls and bats the sno-caps and peanut butter cups away; they vanish upon leaving Sephiroth's hand. It vanishes, too, a single word echoing behind it.

TRICK!

Sephiroth will feel as though his limbs are weighed down - as if there extremely heavy rocks under his skin, keeping him from moving his arms or legs as fast as he would like. He will also feel as though there is a single bug scuttling about somewhere under his clothing, but attempts at locating it and crushing it will fail. However, both these sensations will fade after 24 waking hours, because he solved part of the riddle.]