The Cute And Fluffy Halloween Meme

[dreamsofthemagi]

The Cute And Fluffy Halloween Meme

[The Rules]

1. Post as your characters, and write down the name, canon, preferences, etc.

2. Choose a prompt, or any combinations of prompts. You can just make up your own prompt, too.

3. Tag away, and be excellent to each other!

[Prompt List]

1. Halloween Shopping - Let's go buy witch hats, costumes, and food!

2. Halloween Cooking - Try making all those yummy halloween delights! Can you make that pumpkin cake actually look like a pumpkin?

3. Trick or Treating - Don't worry, all the candy is perfectly safe. Even the enchanted ones are quite safe, and will just do cute and safe things like make people float for a couple of minutes, or make them have a crush on any nearby person for about 30 seconds. They may also turn people orange or make them giggle for about 2 minutes.

4. The Haunted House - Filled with cute ghosts and other things that go bump in your night. Oh, my, is that your character's dearly departed mother, taking this occasion to come and visit her child?

5. The Costume Party - Fun for the whole family. Even if they magically turn into their costumes, nothing really dangerous happens - If you want your character to be a cute fluffy vampire or werewolf for a few hours, feel free to do so!

6. Wildcard/Make up your own prompts!

Comments

[keepitsimple]

[It's tempting to tease him a little again, but that hadn't gone over so well the first time, and they really need to work together right now, so Piper does something that Leo could NEVER do and resists that temptation.

And Nico might be dreading the prolonged and fairly close physical contact, but Piper was bothered by a different part of the rules. Namely the BE READY TO RUN line. That...didn't bode well, especially if they were going to be literally tied together.

Still, there's nothing for it, so she takes the proffered handkerchief and kneels beside Nico, pressing the side of her shoe right up against his before wrapping the cloth around their ankles.]

I'm gonna tie it as tight as I can, okay? I don't know about you, but we had to do this sort of thing back at the Wilderness School that Leo and I went to--"team building exercises" that were supposed to help us learn to get along with each other--and the looser the ties were, the more likely you were to trip over each other and fall.

[Finished with the first one, she reaches for two more, just to be sure. Those lame team building exercises had generally only made people fight even more, but useless as it had otherwise been, she'd still learned a trick or two from it. If something was going to be chasing them, she definitely didn't want to have to worry about falling for a reason as dumb as having the handkerchiefs tied too loosely. Last of all, she takes one more handkerchief and uses it to tie her still-dripping, completely slimed hair back out of her face a little.

When she stands, they're too close together for her to stay on her feet without putting her arm across his (also completely slimed) back a little already.]

Ready?

[ghostking]

That's fine. Do what you have to do.

[He can vaguely remember doing something like this with Bianca once when they were kids. It wasn't a whole lot of fun. It involved a lot of tripping and screaming and falling on his face. He didn't like it then and he was certainly not going to like it now. Especially not with a warning like that.

He sways on his feet when she stands, trying to keep his balance. Awkwardly, he puts his arm around her back.]

I'm as ready as I'm going to get. On three?

[keepitsimple]

[For her part, Piper hadn't thought "the bond of friendship" would be made of tacky red and blue paisley-printed cotton, though she wasn't sure what she would have pictured it as if she'd had to give it physical form. It would probably depend on who the bond was between...but...that wasn't important right now, and focusing on the task ahead of them was.

Once she has Nico's permission, she takes a firmer hold of him, fully expecting him to flinch at the sensation of her arm pressing tight against his back and her hand grasping at his shoulder, but not loosening her grip or moving her hand even slightly even if he does. It's basically a side-hug, and there's nothing wrong with sharing a side-hug or two between friends and comrades-in-arms.

She nods at his question.]

Sounds good. One...

[ghostking]

[Pleasant is not the word Nico would use to describe the cringe-worthy sensation he feels when Piper pulls him closer, but he forces himself not to move. Instead he responds in kind and takes a moment to secure his grip on her shoulder.

Truth be told, Nico doesn't expect anything to happen. He has yet to sense anything malicious and the Charmingly Treacherous Den of Eternal Misery hadn't really been all that treacherous. It's no reason to start getting lazy and he doesn't intend to. He'll stay on his toes despite the obvious lack of imminent danger. Even stupid quests can end up surprising you in the worst ways.

He heaves a sigh, readjusting slightly to get ready to run.]

Two...

[keepitsimple]

[She's actually a little surprised that he doesn't react to the side-hug, but that can only be a good sign, right? Maybe he's getting used to her just a little. Anyway, she doesn't have time to dwell on it at the moment: they've got a ma(i)ze to run and a belt to find.]

Three!

[Aaaaand they're off! Piper does her best to follow Nico's lead and match his strides; since she's done this before, it's easier for her to do that than it would be for him, probably. They're actually moving at a pretty decent clip, too...and for a few moments, Piper is silent, focusing on keeping her steps synced with his.

But finally, she has to say it.]

...I know just saying this is probably asking for it, but...what are we even supposed to be running from?

[So far as she can tell, there's nothing chasing them. So why are they running?]

[ghostking]

[It's a very good thing that Piper's follow his lead and not the other way around. More than likely it would have ended up with them face-planting within the first five steps.

Now that she's said that Nico can't help but wonder the same thing. What were they running from? He turns his head to look behind him as they run and what he sees makes him groan.]

... Something we definitely don't need to be running from, that's for sure.

[He slows from a run to a walk, holding Piper's shoulder tightly to keep himself balanced while simultaneously being mildly impressed that she's able to match his movements so well.]

Cardboard ghost alert. Look sharp.

[keepitsimple]

[.........................Really.

Really?

Piper can't hold back a groan of annoyance, because somehow this place just keeps getting lamer and lamer. She'd thought nothing could be worse than the sparkly vampires and the Cucumber Melon slime. It looked like she had been way wrong there.]

Oh no, it's gaining on us. What ever shall we do?

[She says in the deadest deadpan voice ever.

And, well. It really is gaining on them, actually...but now that she's looking for it, she can see that it's running on a near-invisible track in the floor, and the ridiculous level of this place has now just about topped out, because it's got a bedsheet attached to the back of the cardboard, billowing out behind it. Billowing was too generous of a description really, considering the speed it was moving at. It was really more of a gentle flutter.]

[ghostking]

[If he hadn't been so massively annoyed and angry at this place Nico probably would have laughed at that. He stops walking, turning (well, more like hobbling) to face their deadly pursuer and carefully unsheathed his sword.]

Well, this is supposed to be a treacherous den of eternal misery. [He quips back in what is perhaps the deadest of all deadpan voices of all time.] Might as well get rid of it.

[Though honestly he's just so fed up with this that he wants to break something and this dumb mockery of a ghost would look much better with a stygian sword going through it's very corporeal body.]

[keepitsimple]

[Clearly this is a deadpan contest, and Nike is nowhere to be found, but Piper still seems bound and determined to win.]

I don't know, that bedsheet is pretty spooky. Maybe we should just keep running.

[...Although, even as she says that, she sort gets a bad feeling about this. Her gut was telling her that not running might just be a mistake here, and usually she listened to her instincts, but she was actually pretty fed up with this place too. What could it hurt to 'kill' one little cardboard ghost?]

[ghostking]

[Those bad vibes don't seem to be hitting Nico because he's standing fast. Maybe he's just too angry at this place to notice or care.

He shakes his head and the dead in his deadpan voice just seems even more deadpan than anything that has ever come before it.]

What kind of demigods would let a creature so evil roam free?

[The stupid ghost approaches at a steady pace and once it's close enough Nico lifts his sword, swings, and ---

CLANG!

He freezes, eyes widening]

That... that doesn't sound good.

[keepitsimple]

[Doesn't sound good is something of an understatement, actually. Up until this point, the ghost had been moving steadily along on its track with minimal sound, just a low electronic whine of gears.

Now...there's a definitely a lot more whirring, which soon gives way to an almost angry sounding clicking and grinding. The whirring seems to have dropped a few octaves as well, growing stronger, louder, deeper; whatever Nico just took a slash at...is apparently a lot more substantial that just cardboard and wire.

That bedsheet's turning out to be pretty spooky after all, since it was apparently there to conceal whatever's behind that cardboard ghost.

...Which gradually begins to come into view as the gaping rent Nico's sword made in the badly-painted cardboard s l o w l y tears wider and wider.

It's mechanical, lots of sleek black and grey metal, and as they stand there gaping at the unexpected, partly-revealed whatever-it-is...the whatever-it-is suddenly gives a low snort, spraying them with twin plumes of (...pumpkin-scented?) dry ice.

Piper keeps her voice low and calm, but the hand gripping his shoulder is gripping it noticeably harder than before. Trying to fight this thing while tied together is a bad plan any way she looks at it, which leaves them basically one option here.]

...Run for it?

[ghostking]

[He wastes no time answering her. Quickly giving her a solid nod.]

Run for it.

[Gears whir and grind louder and louder. The metal creaks and groans and he swears he can hear it building up to something. Winding up to charge. He turns back around as quickly as he's able and as soon as he's steady on his feet he glances over at Piper.]

On your mark, get set...

[Once she says the word, he'll start running.]

[keepitsimple]

[Piper stumbles and hops a bit in an effort to match his movement and stay on her feet as Nico turns around, and it probably looks pretty comical, but she manages it fairly easily. Part of her wonders if, just now, he subconsciously trusted that she would keep her balance and mirror his steps once again, but most of her is too concerned with their present situation to linger on or truly appreciate the implications of that thought.]

GO!

[There's a hint of charmspeak in that word; the portion that's aimed at Nico is intended to inspire him to make a quick getaway, while the rest of it is aimed behind them, at the clanging, clanking machine that's methodically building itself into some sort of bulky, imposing monster.

Leo would have been very impressed with it all, and Piper is suddenly very grateful that it's Nico, not Leo, that she's here with for just that reason. She could practically hear the Repair Boy now: Run? Are you kidding? This thing is awesome! Something-something-its mechanical workings, something-something else-about how cool it is, and it probably even makes great julienne fries!

Piper gives a little shake of her head to clear it of that train of thought, then risks a glance back over her shoulder. The whatever-it-is hadn't stopped Transformer-ing itself into a more and more hulking, threatening shape, so apparently it wasn't affected much, if at all, by her order.

After that glance, she focuses completely and utterly on hanging onto Nico and getting them both around that far corner as speedily as possible, though she does let him know what was up.]

Looks like my charmspeak didn't work too well. Must be completely mechanical, and not too smart.

[Festus had listened to her despite being a machine, but he'd been the exception, not the rule. Unless they were really intelligent and sentient, or at least self-aware, most machines didn't 'think' enough for Piper to really effect them.

Just their luck that this would be one of them.]

[ghostking]

[The power in Piper's voice is nearly palpable. Under normal circumstances it might have bothered him that she was using her charmspeak to get him to do something, but this wasn't exactly normal circumstances. The intent was clear -- move now and move fast. It wasn't anything he was about to argue with. That little push in her voice is more than enough to spur him forward and as soon as she says go he hits the ground running.

Once again he puts his trust in her to get around the corner. He doesn't even realize he's doing it. Doesn't have time to realize he's doing it. The noises the mechanical whatever-it-is is making are getting louder and as they turn the corner it lets out a deafening metallic roar.]

It worked well enough for me!

[The ground shakes beneath their feet and Nico spares a brief, slightly panicked glance at Piper. The whatever-it-is is moving.]

Faster. Run faster!

...Their running icons match PERFECTLY haha X'D <3

[keepitsimple]

[It's just part of being a demigod, that even if you're under extreme duress and are literally running for your life, if someone tosses a quip at you, you have to toss one back. Seriously, it must've been hardwired into their DNA, just like the inclinations towards ADHD and dyslexia, because Piper honestly can't help from shooting back a retort--or the start of one, anyway.]

Yeah, well you're smart, and not a—

[Killer robot moonlighting as world's least-scary ghost, was what she'd been planning on saying, but at just that moment, two things happened.

First, they reached the corner, and despite Piper's desperate grab at a stalk of corn, which would hopefully act as something of an anchor, they still took it a little wide. Both had to scrabble to keep their balance, and that was when the second thing happened: Piper happened to catch another glance of the thing behind them...and it was Not Good At All.]

—Giant minotaur robot!

[There was no mistaking it for anything else: the brawny (metallic) upper body of a man, the razor-sharp bull's hooves, the yellow eyes glowing like headlights, and most of all the unpleasantly sharp-looking horns on its head made it pretty distinctive.

...OH yeah, definitely running as fast as possible now. Thankfully there was another turn up ahead...

Unfortunately, it wasn't just a turn; it was a T-shaped branch. They'd have to choose which way to go, and Piper didn't want to think about what would happen if they chose wrong.]

Which way?!

[What a time for her to NOT have any gut feelings about either.]

hahah oh no that's great!

[ghostking]

A what?!

You can't be --

[He turns his head very briefly to look behind them and instantly he can agree that it is Not Good At All. Not now. Not ever.

Kind of cool, though. Like, really cool. It's a minotaur and it's a robot! Something like that would have been an awesome action figure or maybe even some sort of special card in Mytho--

STOP IT, DI ANGELO. YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW.]

What in Hades' name is a minotaur robot doing here?!

[If he wasn't running as fast as he possibly could before he sure is now and they're coming up on that branching path pretty quickly.]

Nevermind! Doesn't matter which way, just run!

[And as he says those words the temperature of the air around them seems to drop and everything under Nico's feet starts to wilt. It's a chain reaction that spreads around him on all sides and little by little the stalks of corn shrivel up and fall to the ground.

They don't have time to run around looking for an exit. Best thing to do is make one himself.]

[asksverynicely]

[Piper would've been lying if she'd said that killing off all the corn like that wasn't a little off-putting. The fact that he had that kind of power at all... Then again, he was a child of Hades, so it made sense.

And in this case, it made things easier for them. Well, sort of, anyway.

Thanks to Nico telling the corn to lie the fuck down clearing the area, the middle of the room is soon visible, as is the scarecrow in the middle.

A scarecrow that just so happens to be wearing a (rather gaudy, to be honest) belt.

On the downside...it's pretty hard to run straight through a corn field without getting your feet caught on the corn stalks, and being tied together doesn't help matters. Also, without corners to duck around, the mechanical minotaur is free to simply charge straight at them.

Still, the belt is almost within reach, which Piper feels obliged to point out, just in case Nico missed it somehow. (Maybe by being distracted by the HUGE METAL MONSTER chasing them down or something.)]

There, on the scarecrow!

[It might not be the belt--it could be a decoy or someone's idea of a joke--but it's the most likely thing they've seen so far. Maybe, for once, they'll be lucky enough for it to be this simple.]

[ghostking]

Good! Grab it and let's go!

[He's not going to sit around here and wait for the minatour to catch up to them. He's going to make sure they get out of here in record time as soon as she has her hands on it.]

[keepitsimple]

[Somehow, somehow, they manage to get across all the corn without falling on their faces. Piper's pretty sure Nico's shirt is going to be ruined though--if not from the slime, then from being stretched out oddly by her grip on him and it. (The slime actually helps a little bit there, though: it's dried enough to become tacky, which means...her hand sticks to him just a little, and is less likely to slide off.)

They're really only going to have one chance to grab the belt, and Piper is determined not to miss the pick-up.

Now that they're closer, she can see that it's even more ugly and gaudy than she'd thought--it looks like someone went at it with a bedazzler while they were having a seizure. Still, ugly or not, she makes a valiant grab the instant they're withing arm's length; and the second her hand has closed around it firmly, she all but rips it off the scarecrow (whose pants promptly drop).]

Got it!

[ghostking]

Close your eyes and hold on tight! We're going dark.

[The world around them warps and twists instantly as they plunge into complete and utter darkness. The rumbling mechanical roars are drowned out by sounds far more unsettling than anything they heard in the Charmingly Treacherous Den of Eternal Misery.

They both tumble out of a shadow -- the sensation not unlike going 100 miles an hour and then slamming on the breaks as hard as you possibly can. Once Piper is able to focus she'll be certain to recognize where they are. They're just outside of Camp Half-Blood, tied together and covered in sticky green goo under Thalia's tree.]

[keepitsimple]

[Shadow travel was actually pretty cool. If she'd been asked to describe it, Piper would've said that it was a lot like riding Space Mountain at Disney World, only with creepy noises, spine-tingling chills, and at least 50 times more speed. And disorienting as it was, she'd pick shadow travel over getting smashed flat by a robo-bull any day.

Part of her had wanted to keep her eyes open, but she'd decided to trust Nico on this one. He was the expert and he might have a very good reason for telling her to close her eyes, so she just tightened her grip on both the son of Hades and what was hopefully Aphrodite's belt, squeezed her eyes shut, and waited.

Almost before she knew it, she was being dumped in the grass on a very familiar hill. It's mid-afternoon, judging by the position of the surprisingly warm autumn sun, and Nico is sprawled on the ground next to her. He looks tired (more tired than usual, even), but it's plain that he's still breathing, which is always a plus.

After she's sure they both made it through okay, Piper puts her head back down, and for a long moment she doesn't so much as twitch a finger. She's replaying the quest they'd just completed over in her head, because...already even she's finding it hard to believe, and she was there. The slime plastered over the two of them and the belt in her hand are incontrovertible proof that it really happened though, never mind the paisley handkerchiefs binding their legs together.

She lets the silence linger for a few seconds more, then breaks it with a compliment of sorts.]

...You know, I think every roller coaster in any theme park ever is gonna be disappointing after that.

[Congrats, Nico, you've ruined her for thrill rides forever. There's a smile in her words though, so she clearly isn't upset about it. In fact, he can see that smile for himself if he looks over at her right now.]

Thanks for the save. I don't know what I would've done if it had just been me.

[Other than fight like crazy, of course.]

[ghostking]

[A wry smirk tugs at his lips as he nods his head.]

Yeah... yeah, sorry about that. Didn't mean to suck all the fun out of theme parks for you, but there's nothing quite like it.

[There's a heavy, sleepy drawl in his voice as he tries to pull himself up off the ground. A useless effort because he slumps back down just as fast.]

Well, you either would have done something to brilliantly save yourself or... you'd be demigod fertilizer for the dead corn.

I think... I think I might've overdone it. You know what they say, right? With great power... comes a great need to take a nap.

[keepitsimple]

[The fact that he even thinks it's a possibility that she could have brilliantly saved herself makes her warm towards him a bit more. Sure, he'd mentioned it as one of two very different possibilities, but he hadn't laughed outright and said she'd have been doomed.

It was nice to get a hint of something like acknowledgement from someone like Nico, who didn't pull any punches when it came to his opinion on most things.

Piper can't help giving a soft chuckle at the last part of what he says, though.]

That's quite not how I remember that line going, but hey, it fits. Go ahead--you've earned it.

[In the mean time, she'll just use Katoptris to cut them free of each other...or...that had been her plan, anyway. Somehow, she finds that her blade can't even put a dent in the seemingly normal cotton fabric.

Apparently the 'bonds of friendship' that hold them together were a lot stronger than they'd realized.]

...Uh, though if you can, maybe you might wanna wait until we're actually down...in camp...

[She'd probably added that just a little too late, hadn't she. Did he just totally crash? He did, didn't he. He's snoring already.]

[ghostking]

[Yeah, he is totally sleeping.

He does look strangely peaceful though. The name di Angelo is quite fitting right now. Or it would be if he hadn't started snoring.]

[asksverynicely]

[...No, even with the snoring, he still looks pretty angelic.

Enough so that Piper knows that she'd feel extremely guilty if she really tried to wake him up. Especially since, now that she had the chance to study his face at fairly close range, the dark circles under his eyes looked even more pronounced. Sleep could be unpleasant for just about all demigods, so that wasn't anything usual...but after all the things Nico had been through, it was probably a safe bet that his nightmares were on a whole different level than most of the rest of them.

...Actually, a nap didn't sound like a bad idea. They were safe inside the protective barrier, trying to move Nico might wake him up, and she couldn't cut herself free--though even if she could, it would have felt wrong to just leave him there by himself. They'd left on that quest together, and they'd return from it together too, or not at all; Piper wasn't going to lose anyone else, or leave anyone behind ever again if she could help it.

So, for lack of better options, Piper loops her arm through the extremely tacky source of all their problems today and flops backwards in the grass, staring up at the sky and watching the clouds through the gaps in the trees before drifting off into a light sleep herself.]