Spooktober 2020: How is babby feared

[bc56]

Did Aries just try to change the subject and then... dive into the Buttercup persona? Either way, the change is alarming to Jade. "Woah, woah, slow down. What was that?" But Buttercup shows no signs of stopping. Jade shrugs. "I know you don't care anymore, but I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable. I didn't realize." She has to treat her shape with levity. If she doesn't, she starts to feel bad about how she's not what she's supposed to be. But if being a woman is feels more like an adventure, a game, or a joke, it doesn't feel as weird. Then she follows up by answering the most serious question Buttercup asked. "I didn't even consider staying a woman for weeks after I was cursed. I met some people, and they helped me get a hang of it, so I was fine with staying, but would go back the first chance I got. Then, a couple months ago, this weird thing happened to me that caused the curse to change. I got some powers out of it, but..." she pauses. She hasn't told many people about this. "I can't ever go back now, even if I wanted to. Nothing can make me male again."


Meanwhile, Eao is still talking with Shan. "I don't have to keep it secret, but there are some people who want to hit me with brooms because of it. And some people are scared." She twirls around as if showing off. "So I look like a human! Sometimes I even look like a grown-up human!

[5a Violista]

Reinholdt doesn't have to feel that self-conscious. After all, Harley thinks it looks good. Especially the abs and the shoulders. Plus, compared to her own outfit, his looks really good. "Yeah it is kinda nice," she says. She was originally going to say that it's okay, he didn't have to come, but. Y'know. This early into the party, he might just leave.

She looks around, trying to find if there's anyone she knows.

...

There isn't.

Honestly, she should have expected that. She's been very unpersonable recently.
Disappointed, she bites her lip and instead looks for somewhere to go. It has to be somewhere that has a lot of people, so that she doesn't feel like the only people she knows are the people she came with. But also it has to be some place where she can pretend to use the baby as an excuse for why she's not doing anything. But also, she doesn't want to get in the way, so...

"Wow, there's a lot of people here," she says to her Rein. "You already know everyone here?"

[Rebonack]

Well, mostly she was bringing up things that they could talk about that weren't the thing that made her feel terrible and alien in her own body. But Jade didn't seem to want to talk about those things and Buttercup doesn't want Jade to feel bad talking about stuff she doesn't like so she'll just talking about the really fun thing Jade likes!

That's just easier when stuffing one's face fully in the Buttercup mask.

Because after all!

When you're Buttercup everything you do is fun!

"Don't worry Jade, I don't feel uncomfortable I feel great!" Buttercup says with scarcely contained enthusiasm. "We can talk about whatever makes you happy since that makes me happy, too!"

This statement is earnest and one hundred percent true.

It might take a bit of effort on Aries' part to slip out of the full-on Buttercup persona. She basically retreated into it because she was feeling terribly alone.

Anywho!

Buttercups gasps!

"Oh wowie, what sort of weird thing? What kind of powers! Did you know I've got magic powers, too?" Buttercup says, then points at the band around her upper arm. "But I'm wearing this thingy so my magic won't work right now. I think there was a good reason but I don't remember what it was... anyway! Magic! What sort of magic did you get is it fun?"

[bc56]

Jade was honestly trying to help Aries by talking about what made her feel weird in her own body and finding ways to alleviate that, but it looks like it was too soon. "I can change people's genders. And I can shift what I look like to be more attractive. And my clothes always fit right." Useful powers indeed. Well, the third one is. The other two... Less so. "The weird thing? There were a couple things. I got this blessing of beauty from a spirit priestess, then I fell down into a hole into this weird hellscape full of oil derricks, and then I got turned into a centaur by a farm god. After each of those things, the curse changed a little." The things in question were days, sometimes weeks apart, but they still led to this circumstance.

[Rebonack]

Nah nothing about too soon.

Buttercup just likes exciting things.

Weird, strange happenings and new magical powers are exciting! Also fun!

Fun and exciting!

"Your clothing always fits AND you can look prettier?" Buttercup gasps. "Wowie zowie those sound like the BEST magical powers! My sisters and I had to get special clothes made for us so they would fit just right! Buttercup said that the fit was REALLY important because if they didn't fit then our Cerberus costume would be bad."

And no one wants a bad costume.

"I think your costume is really fun, too! You're a pretty vampire right?"

Important questions here.

"That first one sounds nice, and the second one sounds scary, and the third one sounds nice too!" Buttercup observes. "The nice ones must have been a lot more fun. Was the goddess pretty? What about the god? Was he a handsome stallion? What about the scary place! It sounds really gross."

[bc56]

Jade shakes her head. "I didn't meet the goddess, only her high priestess. She was nice, but she was also displaced in time, which was weird." The farm god, on the other hand, is a different story. "Yeah, he was hot." Jade blushes to admit that. She hasn't really come to terms with the idea that she now finds guys attractive. Especially muscular shirtless hunks like Walter... No, focus, Jade. "But being a centaur wasn't that great. I was tall and fast and strong, but I couldn't fit through doors, or wear a lot of types of clothes, or climb stairs or ladders, and I had to eat a ton to feed my horse half." She doesn't even mention the weird cravings for hay and grass. "The other one... Well. I found this weird tar amulet, and a monster showed up to try to take it from me. It tackled me into this pit full of tar and metal, but I managed to climb out of there, with help from a friend. And then later I found out that the amulet was actually a locket and the monster used to be a person and that locket was the last memory it had of who it used to be. I wish I could find it again and give the locket back and apologize." Now Jade is sad. Great job, Buttercup.

[Reinholdt]

[Magical Girls]

If it's any consolation to Harley, Rein thinks she looks very nice herself. Maybe even called her cute before they got here.

"Know everyone? Hah, not a chance. I barely know anyone. Umm..." Reinholdt looks around and it actually takes some time. "One... Tw-oh!" Rein blushes and immediately looks away from wherever he was looking, desperately hoping Tovia didn't see him.

"J-just one. Over there. You see? That's Wenomir, I'm pretty sure." Rein says, pointing in the direction of the great Knight Artorias.

[Rebonack]

Buttercup giggles when Jade blushes. She might be a ditz but she sees what's going on here!

The gaiad's expression falters slightly, however, when Jade recounts the story of the boogie she met. She can tell her new friend is sad.

And that's terrible!

Friends shouldn't be sad!

So she moves in to give Jade a hug.

Hopefully Count Jadeula doesn't take this opportunity to bite her on the neck with her scary fake vampire teeth!

One way or the other, an odd change passes over Buttercup as she embraces Jade. Depending on how closely Jade is watching it might not even be caught. First? There aren't any maple leaves tucked into her fur anymore. They're all plum tree leaves. Second, the buttercups in her hair have been replaced with cute little magenta flowers. The third change won't be immediately obvious, however. All the white spots in her fur and hair are gone, replaced with delicate white wild plum flowers. Her skin tone has changed slightly. Her fur has darkened to more of a grey-brown rather than auburn.

Once she steps back from the hug it'll be clear that her face has changed, too. She doesn't look exactly like all the Buttercups anymore. She holds her hands on Jade's shoulders for a moment, then giggles.

"Hehe... I think maybe we both needed a hug," she says. "I'm sorry about going... umm... Buttercuppy. I need to get better at telling people how I'm feeling instead of hiding it. It... umm... it sounded like the monster you met was a boogie? I've never been to the Bottomless Pit it sounds scary but... maybe my sisters and I can help you return the locket?"

Wow. Going into Literal Hell to help someone she just met? Lambslaural must be really kind.

Wait... Lambslaural and Aries. Those are the two names she said she goes by, right?

Her brow creases slightly, her eyes wandering. "Wait... I think... did something just change? I don't feel so Buttercup-y anymore...," she mutters, glancing at her sisters.

The same changes have fallen over them as well, but they don't seem to have noticed. The triplets are STILL identical, save now for the flowers in their hair. But they definitely don't look like Buttercups anymore. Leona is sporting bright golden dandelions and Drakania is rocking candy red snapdragons.

[Deathkeeper]

Koshal giggles. Which is quite the rarity from him.
"Well, you pull off the hood better than I did. Your nose doesn't stick out." he points at Wenomir's face.
It's true. A lot of costumes don't work as well when it's no figure of speech to say your face is mostly nose.
"And you can wear the shoes" Hooves can cause lots of fashion-related problems. Not just trouble getting pants on, when yours are as big as Koshal's.

Lambslaurel might find the wolf-guy walking past. He seems notably relieved. And somewhat sad about something.
"Looks like you ate some of the Buttercup-ness and became your own Gaiad like my sister. Good for you. Certainly a relief. Guess your sisters deserve to know...
And for the record, boogies really are the worst." He pauses, realizing that eavesdropping is pretty rude.
"Sorry, I'm still getting used to these. Hard not to hear everyone's conversation." he points at his big fuzzy ears. And yet, he might almost seem...off to the nymph. Like there's glamour involved.
Still, it looks like he's going off to talk to Dandelion if they don't stop him.
Guess he was just glaring at them because he doesn't trust Buttercups. People have good reason not to.

[bc56]

Jade is hugged! She's not a huge fan of hugs. It feels weird when other people touch her chest, even if they don't mean anything by it. She ends the hug as soon as she can. Then Lambslaural suggests returning to the pit, and Jade gets an odd expression. Because two things. First of all, "You can do that?" Second, "You did change." Jade has a good knack for faces and voices. It's part of being a superhero. She has to be able to identify crooks. "Your face is different, and your voice. The flowers in your hair are pink and your leaves are different. You're not Buttercup anymore, are you?"

[5a Violista]

[Magical Girls]

That is a somewhat of a consolation prize.
She accepts it.

Tw-oh?
Harley looks in the direction Reinholdt was looking, but nobody and nothing really stand out. Maybe an acquaintance? Or he mistook someone for someone else.
No point thinking about it, she supposes.

"Oh." She looks in the direction he's pointing. Wenomir?
She quickly looks away, once she confirms that it is, in fact, Wenomir. "...Yeah. I've heard of him. He's pretty famous."

"..."

Seriously, Harley?
I thought you decided that you didn't want to lie or hide things from Rein. Especially over things that are so inconsequential. What happened to all the progress you were making?

After mentally chastising herself for that, she finally relents. Her voice drops, like it's a secret that she doesn't really want to be overheard. "W-well, okay. I have met him before. Like, three times. He thought so highly of me that he didn't even bother to remember me...ever. But I did fight him once. It was kind-of fun."

[Morty]

[Khannie]

You know who else came over here with the pokemon themed goblins?

KHANNIE!

She had gone over to their home to play and since they were going to the party ANYWAY she may as well just come over here with her friends right?

She is also wearing a pokemon costume!

...sort of.

See, Khannie almost always uses illusions to disguise herself as a human girl. But she's REALLY a young kangaskhan. Technically she's like some sort of Pokemon Fusion between kangaskhan and haunter. She's in that awkward, lanky middle stage evolution. And since she's Ghost/Normal that means just being herself is the perfect Spooktober costume!

She moves at a measured pace so she doesn't ditch the other children. She's twelve AND she's a human (sort of) so she's got WAY longer legs than her friends. At this point she has grown pretty accustomed to being the biggest kid in the group. Khannie gives the silly deer person an appraising look. She thought she had heard something on the news a few days ago about deer people and daddy told her she had to come inside but this lady must be safe since she's here and playing with the kids.

"Okay what game are we playing?" Khannie asks as she joins the others.

Brinika, dressed as an odd-looking Pokemon, is walking near Khannie and her sister. Little goblins seem oddly quick on their short stumpy legs, but Khannie does need to slow down a little quite often.

"I see Tuskfang has already run off to find his friends. Their parents are organizing this year's party. They've got so many kids. More than most goblins even." To Khannie's question, she says: "First order of business is go get some candy and see what cool costumes people have this year. We'll figure the rest out as we go."

[Koshal]

Koshal giggles. Which is quite the rarity from him.
"Well, you pull off the hood better than I did. Your nose doesn't stick out." he points at Wenomir's face.
It's true. A lot of costumes don't work as well when it's no figure of speech to say your face is mostly nose.
"And you can wear the shoes" Hooves can cause lots of fashion-related problems. Not just trouble getting pants on, when yours are as big as Koshal's.

Wenomir spreads his arms wide.

"This warrior does look more like me than you. Human. Or human-like at least. I think I once learned a move that looks a lot like his. The one where I just fall down on something with a greatsword pointing downwards."

[Rebonack]

Lambslaural isn't sure how to respond to the person who just walked past. They had changed like his sister? Then that means...

Before she can come up with something that feels right to say to a person who had one of their siblings Named the little fellow walks off.

"Umm..."

Yeah.

She isn't as spontaneous or as bold as her sisters. She thinks about the right thing to say for too long and then the moment has passed.

Lambslaural watches him walk over to her sister at the snack table.

Jade's comment brings her back to the present. "Oh... I thought so."

She furrows her brow in thought. A few seconds pass before she realizes that maybe she should voice those thoughts. "Have you ever had something happen to you right in the moment but when you think about it you're sure it happened a few days ago? That's what this feels like."

Sort of like...

Reverse de ja vu or something.

Lambslaural touches one of the flowers in her hair, squeezes her fingers around it, and plucks it out.

A new little magenta flower grows back almost immediately.

She twirls the stem between her fingers, watching the petals spin.

"This happened a few days ago," she says. "When my sisters and I took root and grew into Plum Mountain Park."

A beat.

"Oh, um... and we can get to the Bottomless Pit. It's a terrible place. I wouldn't say literally hell since there are literal hells, but close."

Meanwhile!

Dandelion approaches the snack table with a single thing in mind.

The best part of Spooktober.

Anyone who disagrees, and there are a LOT of people who disagree, is an idiot.

Which means the world is full of idiots but Dandelion knew that already.

What is that thing you ask?

"YES they have the pumpkin shaped ones!"

Candy corn.

Her sisters hate it (she can forgive them but they're still idiots). Dandelion, though? She LOVES it. The little pumpkin shaped ones are the best. The orange ones with the green tops.

She hovers over the snack table, grinning down at her prize. They had been cooped up in Plum Mountain Park for the past few days trying to make sense of the whole gaiad thing (what's to figure out? They're like, trees and rocks and stuff. Even Dandelion knows how to be a rock. Any moron could do it.) and that meant that Dandelion had already missed out on several days of prime Spooktober candy.

She reaches into the candy bowl full of pumpkins, grabs one between her fingers, pops it into her mouth, and bites down.

"NNNGGG!"

A spasm of nausea wracks her body as the most vile thing she has ever tasted assaults her tongue.

"UGH! PAAH! THBBB!"

She spits out the glob of green and orange goop into the grass, panting and "GUUUUH!"ing with her tongue. After a few seconds she glares at the offending piece of candy corn with a look of absolute disgust and betrayal.

"What the hell?" she demands of it.

The half-chewed lump doesn't reply.

"Whatever," she snorts, turning back to the candy corn bowls. She'll just get one of the chocolate flavored ones next. Those are her second favorite. "Probably just a bad batch or something."

[Deathkeeper]

Hector feels awful. He had stared at that gaiad the whole time but she wasn’t a Buttercup. And then he eavesdropped on their conversation and he heard her totally lay her heart out on the floor and she’s just like him but then he admitted to eavesdropping the whole time like an idiot so his only course of action was to walk away. If he could he’d be already moving to another city under a new name after a stunt like that. This was so much easier when he was just Hector’s shadow. Was his Other this awkward? He could swear he was. Being formerly the same person. Why was it easier for him on the train with Beth and the nice mage lady?

Oh, but here he can help this other naiad. Yeah. Help this one.
Unlike the two you totally murdered. One for very little reason. No shut up stupid meat-brain fae don’t die. They just reincarnate. They’re not alive in the same way. But they screamed in the same way.

”Don’t do that.” he sticks an illusory hand in front of Dandelion.
”Fae can’t eat mortal food. Take it from someone who once tr-saw a barghest try to eat a cooked steak.” That might go down as one of the saddest moments in his brief independent life. Along with failing to keep your trainer safe for literally one day.

[bc56]

"Weird." Jade comments. It's like a paradox. She can remember two things at the same time, one where she met Lambslaural and one where she met Buttercup. It makes her head spin. "Is there any way to find that particular... Boogie," wow, that sounds weird. Not threatening at all. "Down there? It seemed like a big place." Bottomless, in fact. When she returns, she'll be geared up, that's for sure. Last time she was in ordinary clothes and high heels, and they made it very difficult to escape.

[Rebonack]

Dandelion freezes when Hector speaks up, briefly meeting his eyes with a scrutinizing glare.

"Sounds fake. If you're lying to keep me from this delicious candy corn I'm going to turn you into a toad," she says.

Can she actually turn him, or anyone else for that matter, into a toad?

She has absolutely no idea. Lambslaural totally aced the nature magic stuff. She's a friggin' natural. Maybe Dandelion should ask her if she knows how to turn people into toads.

That's a fae thing, right?

Or was that witches?

Whatever, candy corn down the hatch.

...

Hector wasn't lying.

One flurry of spitting, gagging, and feeling really gross latter, Dandelion is MAD.

Not mad at Hector. He tried to warn her she'll give him that. Mad at whoever decided that replacing her delicious candy corn taste-buds with cat poop flavored dog vomit taste-buds was a good idea. It doesn't occur to her that since she's made almost completely out of gossamer that maybe eating mortal stuff will mess her up. That's more of the thing that somebody clever like Snapdragon would realize. She'll probably make the connection later and then be smug about it.

"Nothing! I can't eat anything? SERIOUSLY!?" Dandelion fumes. "What am I supposed to do, then? Sit in the dirt and photosynthesize?"

Well, it's actually night time at the moment. Most of the metabolic activity in Plum Mountain Park is going to be heterotrophic activity. Animals and mushrooms feeding, mostly. Anything that's living and consuming and growing in the park is feeding Dandelion and her sisters. So long as the park is healthy so are they.

"UGH! The snacks are the best part of Spooktober! And all I can do it look."

God they still smell good, too. This isn't fair.

Dandelion gives a snort of irritation. She's half-way tempted to grab a handful of candy corn and choke it down in spite of the taste while using the other hand to throw up the finger at the Universe.

But there are kids here and her sisters would get mad at her. Especially if she made herself sick over something this dumb.

The snort gives way to a sigh. She rubs the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Sorry about snapping at you, dude. You tried to help and I acted like an idiot. I just-" a sniff. She rubs one wrist across her eyes. She isn't crying, shut up. "I just wanted to do something normal tonight, you know?"

She quickly stands up straighter and crosses her arms, trying to look chill and collected. "So anyway. I'm Dandelion. Or Leona, I guess. Whichever name you think sounds cooler."

Meanwhile!

Definitely weird.

"Maybe," Lambslaural replies after thinking about it for a while. "I've been learning how our magic works. How... all the things we do work. It's a lot to take in, being a magical forest and everything in it. You still have the locket, right? I feel like... um... we might be able to use it to find them. Let me... check?"

She bites her lip and glances over one shoulder.

And then?

She digs one hoof into the earth.

It churns a bit, as if something where moving under there.

Roots.

Roots spreading. Symbiotic fungus linking. Carrying sugars, vitamins, water, information, and most importantly eldritch magic. Connecting her to the network of the forest surrounding the Frescot house. Connecting her to the edge of Inside. Connecting her back to Plum Mountain Park. Connecting her to the Threshold Tree. Connection her to the Enchanted Forest and finally to the Dreamheart itself.

She takes in a sharp breath, her eyes closing and her back arching slightly.

A second passes.

Two.

Three.

A gasp and her eyes open as she pulls her hoof out of the dirt.

She offers a sheepish smile to Jade. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure we can use the amulet to... umm... target? the threshold in our tree."

[Deathkeeper]

Hector nods.
”You can call me Hector, then.” he always phrased it like that, even though Beatrice told him Pokémon basically can’t have their Names stolen despite being mortal. It’s weird.
”You should be grateful. You can still eat natural fruit and gossamer-food. Heather has been making due. You don’t have to eat being part plant so you don’t have the cravings to eat things that nobody wants you eating and-“ he freezes, ears standing up. He realizes he went and started babbling again.
”I used to be a boogie, okay? I got better, all mortal again.” Was there a barely muttered “mostly” coming right from his feet just now? Surely no one would have heard it, unless they had giant ears or something. ”Everyone wants to do something normal tonight, I think. Me and Heather were going to go, but...” But then they got into a fight about what they should be doing with their lives now that Hector the Lit Major is now Heather the Gaiad and Her Tiny and Very Dependent Fox Hector.

Meanwhile!

"Wouldn't that be really bad for your sword, though?" Mostly if you missed.
Then again Wenomir's regular sword is indestructible under normal circumstances so maybe he's able to take that risk.

[bc56]

"I don't have it with me, but yeah, I've got it at home." Jade couldn't get rid of it. Not after she found out what it was. Getting rid of it would've made her feel super guilty. "You just did magic there? I've been trying to understand magic for a while. It's been a major pain in my side, and my lower back, and now I have magic powers, so I really should try to learn how it works." Horsetail said she had "chaos magic" or something, but it seems pretty focused on the twin points of genderbending and looking good. That's not that chaotic. Right?

[FireFox]

" 's not my fault there was only one decently dressed choice. Rebekkah got to pick the theme." Leah says, walking in behind them. She's wearing a snappy burgundy suit with a draped untied tie and a pair of fingerless gloves. She was wearing sunglasses, but has taken them off, much to Rachel's chagrin. Not worth wearing those.

"You have to wear them! It's purrt of the meowtfit!" Rachel insists, the only one to have actually have colored her skin orange and attempted to match the character identity perfectly. She's wearing a red outfit with short skirt and a horde emblem emblazoned on the front, practically screaming eighties cartoon.

"Whatever. Let's just begin Operation: She-Ra." Said Operation was not discussed with Rebekkah at all, because it is all about finding Rebekkah a cute blonde girl to meet and/or date. At least, that's Leah's goal. Whether Sarah and Rachel even bother is another story.

"Wait, wha-" "Commencing Operation!" Sarah shouts and immediately walks away from her sisters, heading deeper in the party in search of a victim tall blonde.

Rebekah looks at Leah in suspicion. "You mean we're looking for Carlylean Great Men, right? Significant individuals, heroes or villains, who are capable of altering the course of history. That's the only reason a stuck-up prude like you agreed to come to a fun party, riiiight?"

Last in is Reinholdt, wearing an unbuttoned white suit with a red undershirt and a pair of sunglasses. "How are they supposed look around if they don't ge-gah!" Rein trips over one of the jack-o-lanterns on the ground. He keeps on his feet at least, the incident no more than a stutter. Normally it's pretty hard to trip over the clearly lit up obstacles, but it turns out sunglasses in this ambiance is not the best. "If they don't get to run around?"

That IS a pretty efficient way of looking around, if not a particularly safe method.

"I just think we should see who is here before we all let our guard down." Tovia Solomon reflexively reaches out to grab Rein's arm before he can fall. A classic blunder! He kept his footing regardless and the splitting of attention let's slip the puppers of war. With a cry of havoc, or at least candy, Klaire dashes forward and is immediately lost in the crowd. Lauren, less inclined to troublemake, stays close to her parents. She does move from Tovia's side to Reinholdt's, so her mom can't just grab her again.

Needless to say, the woman dressed as Lucifer is a bit too distracted right now to notice the other Reinholdt with Harley and baby.

[Recaiden]

Meanwhile, Eao is still talking with Shan. "I don't have to keep it secret, but there are some people who want to hit me with brooms because of it. And some people are scared." She twirls around as if showing off. "So I look like a human! Sometimes I even look like a grown-up human!

"Why would you hit an angel with a broom?"
Shan seems excited by that last bit.
"Oh wow. Being a grownup must be really fun, right?"

[Rebonack]

Dandelion frowns slightly, tapping a finger just above the elbow of her crossed arms.

"I didn't ask for your name, dude. Don't phrase it like I'm a thief," she says, vaguely offended at the implication that she's some name-stealing hustler.

She gives another snort and looks over the snack table again.

There.

Little orange cherry tomatoes. She picks one up and pops it in her mouth and-

-eh.

A little bland. Definitely not faerie food but it doesn't make her feel like she's going to puke up her gossamer guts.

"Still not candy, though," she mutters under her breath. An idea occurs to her and she kind of... digs her hoof at the lawn. She isn't reaching far, so it isn't hard.

Hey Snapdragon?
Huh?
Hey, is candy corn, like, a thing you can just MAKE?
Yeah? Why wouldn't it be?
I dunno, I was just wondering.
Not sure why anyone would WANT to make it, it tastes like sweetened earwax.
You're an idiot.
Snapdragon, be nice!
Hahaha, I love you guys toooo~

Then Hector starts saying something and Dandelion is pretty sure she catches a 'mostly' from somewhere. It makes one of her ears twitch. Boogie? There's a way to stop being fae? That would mean she can eat real food again... but she can't be selfish about this. Snapdragon absolutely LOVES having her own body and Lambslaural is really into that hippy nature communing stuff. She files that idea away for later.

"Who's Heather? Your werewolf girlfriend or something?" she asks, trying to strike a good middle ground between sounding disinterested and curious. Honestly she does an amazing job of it. Dandelion is good at this sort of thing.

Meanwhile!

Lambslaural smiles sheepishly, tapping her index fingers together. "Um... I guess it's magic," she says.

That reply hangs awkwardly in the air for a few seconds too long.

"I don't really know about magic," she clarifies. "Not like Snapdragon knows things. I'm not clever like she is. I'm just good at getting a feel for things. For connections. And... umm... this is all about being connected."

She doesn't have any sort of scientific or empirical understanding of the mechanics underlying magic. But she DOES have a good intuitive grasp of it.

"You said your magic can change someone's sex?" Lambslaural asks after a few more seconds of silence. She opens her mouth to continue, closes it again, and averts her eyes. Her face is turning beet red. "Do... do you think you could make me a guy again? Maybe for just a little bit? If... um... if you don't want to that's okay."

[Deathkeeper]

Hector visibly cringes. He just can't get anything right today, can he? "Oh, sorry. Old habits die hard when you spent time as something that does instinctively want to steal names. I kind of do it to everyone. The phrasing, I mean. Not the stealing."
Idiot!

He tries to look like he's innocent as she does her little hoof-thing which is probably a nervous habit or something.
"Heather's my...okay so when I got made as a barghest in this spooky Weald out in the countryside I was like...Hector's shadow? And then Hector got Named Buttercup but she got better so she's Heather now? Um, you might have met her at some point, she has pink heather flowers, but there's a lot of Buttercups around so you probably wouldn't have remembered anyway." Heather told Hector that it's okay if he uses her old Name when he has to explain stuff like this. She wouldn't have spent so much time to get it back if she wasn't going to keep it.

[bc56]

"Yeah! Being a grown-up is great! Nobody tells you when to go to bed or anything! Watch this!" With a disconcerting twisting movement, Eao appears to suddenly age 15 years. Even her clothes changed, to something less childish, her dress smooth and more tight fitting, a pair of short heels on her feet, glasses perched on her nose. "Wow! You look so small from up here!"


Meanwhile, Jade nods understandingly. When she first changed, she really wanted a chance to be a guy, even for a short time.
"I have to warn you. It doesn't work on everyone. I don't know how it will interact with... What you are, so I can't expect it to be reliable either. But I'll try. Now just look at me." She strategically positions herself so that when Lambslaural looks back, she should be staring right down Jade's cleavage. Once the gaiad has gotten a brief look, Jade unleashes her magic. Of course, if Lambslaural isn't attracted, it will fail outright, and even if it successfully latches on, it might not have the desired effect. Who knows how it interacts with gaiad magic. It might backlash onto Jade, or change Lambslaural in a different, unexpected way, or any number of unusual interactions.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Here, let's add a couple more characters to our ghoulish gathering (although neither of these two are particularly ghoulish)

Emerging from the trees is Atreyu, the grey-haired werewolf (distinctly not-wolfy for the moment) sporting a rather elaborate druidic outfit. A crooked wooden staff in one hand, a motley mismatched green and brown garb of preserved leaves and animal hides cloaking his body. Antlers adorned with woodland ornaments stick out from his hair, beneath a wolf's head hood - a surprising choice, perhaps, given his wolfish nature, but it was taken from one that died naturally in the forest. His face is adorned with green and brown marks, made from some manner of woodland ingredients. At his waist, a pouch adorned with a sprig of holly gives off a distinctly herbal aroma. All in all, he very much looks the traditional druid...very much in contrast to his usual form of druidism.

...

Elsewhere, a rather large, buff, gunmetal grey dragonborn has arrived, doing his best to look as bookish as possible, in a scholarly outfit with an almost comically large, floppy hat. A pair of tiny spectacles sit pointlessly at the end of his snout. In one hand he's clutching a black leatherbound tome, adorned with a number of eldritch symbols that faintly pulse red in colour, suggesting something more sinister at work. And he's not alone.

[Deathkeeper]

Coming over to the druid is a familar bronze-silver dragonfellow, wearing a cheesy set of costume greaves and breastplate with a cape. He was supposed to get sleeves but he got distracted helping Adir decorate the place with the kids. It took him quite some time.
"Oh, uh, hello Atreyu. Your costume is interesting. Is that fur real?" he asks, surprised.

Meanwhile!

Along with the grey dragonborn is a shinier, deep-sapphire colored dragonborn of equal size, dressed in a deep red suit. A little red spade has been tied to the end of his tail.
"You know, it would have made more sense the other way around." insists the scholar. But then, that was the point, wasn't it?

[Earl of Purple]

Assorted Preteens

"Hopefully they've got a nice low table for us. But if not, you'll help us, right?" Cheasadh likes sweets, and really hopes there is a low table so she can see what's on it and help herself. If not, she's going to have to rely on Khannie on passing her and Brinika stuff. "I think I've met some of them before, the host's children I mean. I'm not sure though." It seems a bit unlikely that she wouldn't, when her cousin is friends with them and they're visiting GLoG regularly and she used to live there. But she might not have done much with them.

[Rebonack]

At the apology Dandelion says, "Not mad at you, dude, just cut it out okay?"

Dandelion responds to Hector's story by laughing.

Not a giggle. Nothing terribly feminine about it. Just a bold, loud laugh. But at the same time Hector will have the pretty clear impression that she isn't laughing at him.

She's laughing at the situation.

"Holy hell, dude, you got hit with the same stuff we did," she says, wheezing a bit. Apparently she thinks this is hilarious. "We show up Inside, get smacked with weird stuff. Get mostly back to normal. Then get friggin' Buttercuped. So you were his shadow? That's wild. I was like three twins mashed together when we were just blobs of cells. I guess it's called a chimera? I met these witches at a park Inside that needed, like, chimera parts? I thought it was a quest, you know? Like kill these monsters return their tongues for a magic sword or whatever? So I agree to help them and BAM I've got three heads and my brother and sister are the other two."

Another gruff laugh.

"Hah! We get back to normal and then more weird. That's how life goes. So you're sister? She's still a gaiad like me? I probably don't know her I've mostly been trying to figure out the whole park thing. If she talked to us she probably got Lambslaural. She's crazy good with the nature magic stuff," Dandelion explains, then moves to slap Hector on the back. "Buck up, dude! It isn't the end of the world. This is the Nexus, right? Crazy stuff happens. But crazy stuff unhappens, too."

Meanwhile!

"Umm... okay?" Lambslaural says, looking at Jade.

Her pupils dilate ever so slightly. Wowie... now that she's really admiring her, Jade is very pretty.

Aries' cheeks flush a little more.

So!

Good news?

It works!

Aires is a guy!

Bad news?

OH NO HE'S HOT!

Not only is he hot, he's about as hot as a guy can get based on Jade's person aesthetic tastes. That is to say, rugged good looks and muscular. His costume has rearranged itself to be an absolutely debonair suit. And he even lost the deerbutt! It seems as though his own fae magic somehow resonated with Jade's 'look like what is attractive to someone' shape shifting.

Aries notices the differance instantly and gives a little gasp. He touches his face. His (normal) ears. His tone (and boobless!) chest. He checks over his shoulder to make sure that his sensation that the deerbutt is gone isn't false.

Then he looks back and Jade and smiles a wide, genuine smile.

"Thank you," he says in about the sexiest sounding voice imaginable. "You don't know how much this means to me."

He manages to resist hugging Jade, though. She seemed uncomfortable last time. So instead he'll try to cup one of Jade's hands in his own.

He also casts a worried look toward one of his sisters.

"Snapdragon is going to be upset about our costumes not matching anymore..." he says, a faint hint of worry in his tone. Not at his sister being mad, just at the thought that she might have less fun tonight as a result.


[Assorted Preteens]

"If the table's too tall I can get you guys stuff," Khannie insists. "I don't mind."

Over to the snack table she goes!

Aside from all the cool looking candy there's... a werewolf guy and a deer-butt woman wearing a red and black suit?

...how is that even a costume?

Khannie doesn't get it.

Anyway, on to more important things!

"Okay we've got assorted candy and little candy bars," Khannie reports. "Spooktober themed cookies and brownies. And a plate of vegetables?"

She pulls a face, sticking out her Haunter-style tongue.

"Gross! Why would they put out vegetables for Spooktober?" is Sakura trying to poison them or something?

[Deathkeeper]

Hector smiles a little.
"Yeah we kind of got split, too. And now being totally separate is...weird. Like we were always autonomous but now Heather actually chose to ditch me tonight and we've almost never been apart for more than an hour or two and it's just...weird you know? I've never really been alone." Hector actually manages to not babble that Lambslaurel expressing similar feelings was like someone reading his mind.
He should really tell Dandelion that her sister is sad and needs her around but he can't just blurt it out or he'll look like a creeper for having eavesdropped on her. Though in his defense he thought they were troublesome Buttercups. It's an easy mistake to make.

And then she claps him on the back! Poof! Poor Hector's costume vanishes, revealing a fluffy black fox with a number of orange and black ribbons around his neck.
"Aw, man. I was really hoping the disguise would last longer." but he shakes his head valiantly! He must keep control of the conversation or it'll get diverted by how cute everyone seems to think he is!
"You three are the Park? That big new one? I needed to talk to you, actually! I-" he tilts his head and eyes the flowers on her deerbutt. "I guess it probably should have been obvious from the flowers. I'm a lit major, not a botanist. Sue me." he mutters.

[Recaiden]

"You're lucky. Some people don't ever get tall."
Like Shan, maybe. Although perhaps they could get some bigger bones.
"No wonder you're here by yourself."
Eao can just be the adult supervision!

[bc56]

Jade watches Aries turn around and turn into a guy. That well-built physique. That wave of hair, that jawline. That red and black suit that fits so perfectly. She can't help herself and stares for a second, then blushes deeply and looks away, awkwardly. Things are only made worse when he speaks to her and takes her hand. That smooth, deep, confident voice. That grip, so firm but gentle. Why does she feel this way? Why is her heart beating so quickly? If only Aries would sweep her off her feet and... No, don't think about that. She remembers that he said something to her. "You're... welcome..." She actually does know how much it means to him. She was a guy freshly turned into a lady before too. She's just had a much longer time to adjust and accept her new circumstances. But she doesn't even think about that because she's too busy trying not to be obvious about how she's looking at him (and too flustered to have any luck at it).


Meanwhile, a now adult Eao is looking down at Shan. "I get to live all by myself! But my sister is here somewhere. She lives in that floating island place. But I live on the ground where you don't fall." She really is the only supervision on her life. Zee is a pretty hands-off mother. Of course that means the little seraph gets into trouble frequently. "Watch this! There are drinks here for grownups only. You want some?" Eao begins heading to a table where bottles of festive beer are resting. She sure looks older than 21, even if she's actually younger than a year old.