vocaloidressing | It is *perfectly* natural to feel scared.

[When you wake up this morning, it is still dark out. At first you question the time, but all your clocks tell you that the sun should be up. Perhaps it's simply overcast? But when you look out your window, you find that this is not the case.
Instead, it would appear that entire Dressing Room has been transformed while you were sleeping. There is no longer a sun, only a starch white, lonely, full moon that is occasionally covered by storm clouds that rumble and light up with barely contained electricity every now and again. Meanwhile the buildings, while remaining the same on the inside, all look gothic in architecture and dark in color; though almost all of them have brightly glowing jack-o-lanters outside them, wearing sinister grins. In fact, all the buildings seem to have Halloween decorations outside of them. Skeletons, graves, and giant spiders now litter the city...all of which turn out to be far less fake than they seemed when you were peering out your window, once you at last wander outside to satisfy your growing curiosity.
Venturing out you can now see the impossibly sized arachnids moving about their gigantic webs that stretch across entire alleyways, their hundreds of eyes gleaming as they watch you hungrily. You now notice that the pumpkins that appeared harmless change not only the color of the lights glowing within them, but their expressions as well...and the skeletons. You are almost certain that you have noticed the skeletons moving out of the corner of your eyes, and thus you try to always look directly at them as you pass.
But the scenery isn't all that's taken an ominous turn. The once cheerful sound of the birds has been replaced with the sporadic calls of crows and vultures, along with the distant shrieks and howls from creatures unknown. You begin to question your decision to head out into this new, more menacing dressing room, and attempt to head home; but you're lost. Somehow, you've gotten turned around; and now you feel as if there are many eyes upon you.

You keep going.

Surely, home must be around here somewhere. Surely.

But instead of the comforting embrace of home, your path only leads you down darker and darker roads. Roads where actual bodies hang from the dead and gnarled tree branches. Roads filled with the horrid smell of decaying flesh, where random blood stains and unclaimed body parts litter the sidewalk. You start to run, you must get out of here. You must find somewhere safe.
Then, in the distance, on the top of a hill, you spot it. A black castle, surrounded by a graveyard. The lights are on inside. Do you go up to the doors? Do you seek help?

Or, do you think yourself safer out here? It's up to you, friends.
It's up to you.]

((OOC: In which the mun has been listening to too much Nightvale. BUT YES, this is in fact a mingle so that anyone with creepy muses can torture people. Night wouldn't want to hog all the fun, after all~

Oh, and if anyone wants their muses to randomly go axe murderer or something that's welcome as well. A perfectly reasonable occurrence considering there are nightmares running amok. Have fun ♥ ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Certainly doesn’t mind. He honestly feels a lot safer now.

He raises an eyebrow at her confusion, but refrains from saying anything rude.]

This place does get confusing when stuff like this happens, huh… We’ll have to just look everywhere, won’t we?

[Look everywhere? But the morph will terminate far sooner than that. Why not simply find a place to hide?]

But if we find somewhere safe...can't we just stay there?

Well, if you think so… I guess as long as everything goes back to normal, no one should get stuck in this weird place. But we’ll search anyways, until we find a safe place, so Saul can stowaway with us if we do find him.

[No, that's true, they shouldn't. But that was a disturbing possibility she hadn't considered. Did people really get trapped in these morphs? Even if someone died in them, they were usually returned to the host dimension proper. The idea of getting spirited away by one of these things didn't sit well.]

[But it also hadn't happened before, not in all the time she had been alive, and neither had she heard of it from anyone else. That was good enough reason to dismiss it for now.]

I'm glad to hear he would be welcome.

[She worried for him, but there were times she considered it unnecessary -- particularly with as reckless as he sometimes was, hopping off to different places.]

[...But come to think of it, she recalled a tale of what occurred during one of the previous Halloweens. What if he was alone and helpless somewhere? Afraid?]

[The thought wrenched her, despite her muted assurances that he would be alright. Even if that were true, should she leave him alone, to endure this by himself? That would not do.]

[It would be better, then, to secure the safe place as planned...and then go out to look for him herself. Not that she intended to inform Receiver of that just yet.]

Of course he would. I mean, he’s my friend too, you know. A little weird, but a good guy. I’m not about to abandon him.

[Receiver seems fairly oblivious to Momo’s current plans, still just leading the way with his flashlight beam and scanning the area for any monsters looking to jump out at them.]

((OOC: That moment when you look back at your old replies and wonder where you were going with some of the text...))

Mm...

[If you're close enough to call each other friends, that's a good thing, and a point in your favor, as she generally trusts Saul's judgment in such matters. Not that you strictly needed it...Momo's fairly inclined to trust Receiver on what she's seen of him; she might like the idea of meeting him again and chatting once this is over.]

[Now, here's the odd thing. As they're making their way through the city, what monsters are here seem to be ignoring them - often shambling off in some other direction entirely. Like, imagine Resident Evil if the zombies never noticed your character's presence. And to top that off, they seem to be getting fewer.]

[For that matter, the buildings of the city... "sparse" isn't quite the right word, but you get the feeling that there's a bit more space between them. Like you're headed toward the edge of town where nobody visits or wants to go. And that means there's more grass and dirt than pavement and walls. Trees too, for that matter. It's also brighter than it should be, given the lack of obvious lightsource, but that could just be the stupidly huge full moon in the distance.]

[...Momo feels uneasy. Is this where they're supposed to go?]

[It doesn't feel like it. No, she's pretty sure she wants to head back into town...]

[Receiver is still heading along in the opposite direction, but when the zombies are avoiding them, he starts getting a bit suspicious… and then Momo starts acting stranger than the zombies. He shivers. He… isn’t supposed to head back, is he? That can’t be right.]

...Hey, you alright? We have to keep going.

[Keep going...]

I'm fine. [Perhaps. At the least, there's no immediately threatening distress.] But can this truly be the right way?

[Many of the structures they could've thought to use as a safe haven had been transmuted by the Halloween morph, usually into monster nests...and occasionally monters themselves. ~~(lol monster house)~~ But Momo couldn't help but feel uncertain about moving away from the city. Realshifted though it was, it had at least proven somewhat familiar - and its dangers fairly easy to avoid. What would be waiting if they went further out?]

[Rec gives her a disbelieving look.]

Are you serious? Of course this is the right way! There’s nowhere in the city to go at this point… it’s overrun.

[Receiver knows there might be a few safe places, but it’s unlikely they can reach them until everything returns back to normal. The outskirts of the city might be more open… but well, at least they know what’s coming.]

I don’t think we should start heading towards the place all the zombies are attracted to.

[that peculiar moment of blankness - and then suddenly she seems to wilt, shrinking away from him as though scolded. She even releases his hand.]

You're right...you're right. I'm sorry. Please don't be angry with me...

[And then several thoughts run through her at once. What if it weren't just Saul? What if other loved ones were in that city still? What if they'd been killed already, trapped or tortured by the horrible monsters?]

[No. That goes against how she had always understood these morphs to work. Why, then, can't she shake that fear?]

[She looks back toward the city in despair, but is not pulling Receiver toward there.]

What? I’m not mad… hey, calm down.

[He reaches back for her hand, maybe a bit forcefully, but he scared letting go will cause something terrible to happen to her, leaving him alone.]

Don’t let go of my hand, okay?

[He sighs.]

Listen, if you really want, we can go back there, but only if you tell me why it’s so important to go back and you’re sure you can handle how dangerous it is. Otherwise, we have to keep heading away from it.

[A perfectly reasonable fear, given what they've seen already. She really needs to work on not letting her emotions sway her so, enviromorph or not.]

[She's a bit startled, and even winces as though expecting something else - but...she calms somewhat, and accepts his grasp.]

Alright...

...I am one machine. I cannot withstand everything we've seen there.

[Would that it were only zombies, but apparently getting into the Halloween spirit meant conjuring up some real threats.]

I don't want to us to be the only ones alive. Even if they come back later, that doesn't mean innocent people have to suffer. [But with that being said...]

But...we haven't found anyone else. [She hasn't. You have. Wherever did that other Len get to, anyway?] I hope that means they haven't been shifted here...

[Halloween was supposed to be about spooks and thrills, but as usual, the VD-city was taking it much too far. ~~(Remember that one Valentine's Day?)~~ There were real dangers here...and she was starting to get a Bad Feeling. A real bad feeling, like a nightmare creeping on them.]

[On her.]

...If they're in the city, we're abandoning them. Leaving them to face those monsters alone...

It is perfectly natural to feel scared.

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Assumptions made since I was a bit durr and didn't think of them in earlier posts. :'D;

No worries!

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