October Catch-all!

[good_ideas]

WHO: Shiho and you! Yes, you!
WHERE: A few places
WHEN: During October!
WHAT: Questing, shenanigans, let's just do things
WARNINGS: Shiho with a bigger knife than strictly necessary for carving pumpkins


a. pumpkin option
[Shiho is not an artistic person by nature. Being able to borrow the tools of an artist and using psychometry to make really good forgeries was not the same as art.

Which is why she tried, destroyed her first attempt and is now sitting on the porch of her new house in Ruga, surrounded by pumpkins with a message scribbled over the front of one (with a knife sticking out of it):]

Stupid Squash Free to A Good Home
Knife Sold Separately

[Actually the knife is just stuck. Come laugh at her! (If you don't value your life...) Or offer to teach her maybe?]

b. the prompt where skeletons are only about half a step up from ghosts
[The scariest thing about the skeletons was definitely that they shouldn't be able to move.

Shiho could handle a real skeleton. Or even a partially skeletonized anything. But dealing with something moving around that shouldn't be able to?

She's out, rounding a corner to get away. And as she does? She runs right into you and pulls back with a scream, closing her eyes and pulling gun on you. At least she hasn't pulled the trigger...?

c. the sacrificial option
[Maybe you were just minding your business somewhere. But either way Shiho is coming up to you with a smile:]

I need you to be the witness for my sacrifice.

[She's carrying a small bag which seems... suspiciously bulky? (It's one of her flower crowns, dried and carefully preserved for the past month but now? She's going to use it.)]

c. wildcard option!
[I'm up to doing anything, honestly. Maybe they can clean the library since someone apparently started waving their swords around in there? Let me know either on plurk or discord!]

Comments

c

[troubadamsel]

[wh... WHY WOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT]

Pardon me?! Did you just say... sacrifice?

[good_ideas]

[Shiho raises the bag with a cheerful smile:]

Yes? What did you think I said?

b.

[messianic]

[... Oh.

Minato lifts a hand up in the most peaceful gesture he can manage when she pulls out her gun--though he reaches for her hand immediately with his other, resting a hand over her white-knuckled grip on her gun.

...]

Sannomiya-san... it's me.

[good_ideas]

[Shiho feels guilty almost immediately. "Almost" because she knows he could have been a skeleton too!

But the touch of an actual person does calm her down somewhat. A skeleton would be a whole lot more bony and she relaxes, lowering the gun with the most remorseful expression she can manage.]

......I-I knew that. [She didn't.] H-Hey.

a

[stripedown]

[ ... What the heck happened to this poor pumpkin. Rather, what's even going on with all of these pumpkins?

Pardon Kisa, she's just going to look at all of them, a little confused. ]

[good_ideas]

[DON'T LOOK AT HER SHAME, KISA]

Welcome, customer! Can I help you with something?

c;

[dualtone]

[ Fushimi Stares at Shiho with a look that is clearly a Stare, capital S and all, mouth in an unimpressed line while still managing to convey a distinct what the actual hell.

But he knows the quest, at least, which means he's a little less liable to immediately what the hell directly at her. (Besides, she helped him that one time... He probably owes her.) ]

What are you sacrificing. [ It's very flatly asked, like it isn't exactly a question even though it is, because he needs to know what he's getting into before he witnesses anything. Like on a scale of "don't care" to "don't care but let me not wear my good clothing in case there's blood", basically. ]

[good_ideas]

Don't look at me like that. [Also she's not sure how he's managing to sound so unimpressed with sacrifices?? (Shiho, don't have so much fun with sacrifices...)

Holding out the bag, she gives him an innocent smile.]

It's something I loved a lot, of course.

c

[queenofminiskirts]

[She doesn't even bat an eye at the wording.]

Sure. What are you sacrificing?

[Just leaning over to see if she can see what's inside. Shiho doesn't strike her as the sort to sacrifice something important so she's curious about what it is!]

[good_ideas]

[Kaoru is the only one who gets a straight answer:]

I was thinking of trying to sacrifice the flower crowns. [Because she does think of them as precious to her. But at the same time even if they're not there any longer, the memory will still be there.]

b ;

[underwraps]

[Aizawa's reflexes kick in before he realizes what's happening.

But thankfully he recognizes Shiho almost as soon his own hand shoots out, and in the end he only uses just enough force with his forearm to knock her aim upward so that her gun isn't pointing directly at him.

However, now Aizawa's on high alert, and he's casting a glance over her shoulder as he reaches out for his capture weapon with his free hand as if expecting an ambush.]

What's wrong?

[good_ideas]

[He's probably taking this whole situation way more seriously than it deserves. But then again so is Shiho?

She doesn't resist when he knocks her aim upward, though she does look briefly embarrassed that she'd overreacted like this in the first place. And she only gets more embarrassed when he asks her what's wrong.]

Ah, nothing, just-

[It's at that point that the skeleton shambles into view behind her, moving at a snail's pace. (Or at the pace of a pile of bones held together by magic.) The moment she hears the clicking of bones on the ground, she's tense all over again and pulling her arm back so she can duck behind him.]

G-Get it!

A

[whereabout]

[ A long, quiet pause while Joshua considers that knife.

Is this judgment? Joshua being Joshua, it's kind of hard to tell whether he's judging or really just seriously thinking. ]

[good_ideas]

[It might not be judgment but since he hasn't said anything? She's taking it as judgment and dragging the pumpkin closer to herself.]

W-What?!

b

[retrobeats]

[ Michael does the ONLY REASONABLE THING to do when someone screams and pulls a gun on you!!

which is to say, he SCREAMS JUST AS LOUD and puts his hands up in the air like a total goober! ]

Shiho! Don't shoot, it's just me!

[good_ideas]

[It's the first, perfectly mundane reaction she's gotten so far and even if she hadn't recognized him, she realizes that screaming means it isn't a skeleton.]

O-Oh, it's you. [She lowers the gun but definitely keeps it handy, ready at a moment's notice to shoot something even if it isn't him.]

I was going to shoot.

a

[parodeity]

[ that sure is a terrifying pumpkin? ]

How much extra is the knife? I actually kind of dig the aesthetic. It looks like you tried to murder a pumpkin bitch.

[ thanks, dave, for that. he drops down to sit on the porch next to shiho, eyeing the pumpkin a little dubiously out of the corner of his eye. ]

[good_ideas]

[It's not terrifying, it's just getting in the spirit of Halloween!]

I'd take two apples for it if you buy the pumpkin too? [She's joking. It's probably not even her knife.]

And don't look at it like that. I tried.

a

[glaciers]

[He looks... baffled by this poor pumpkin.]

Are you really selling a knife?

[good_ideas]

Someone might need a knife for carving pumpkins, right?

[Besides, this isn't even her knife. She'd never sell her own knife, of course.]

b

[organfarm]

[ He's just minding his own business at the moment when something comes barreling around a corner right into him. He's caught completely off-guard and it's enough to wind him a little -- but not enough to keep him from reacting when there's suddenly a gun being pointed at him.

Lax as he always is, he's still been trained to defend himself, and he acts without thinking. He immediately jerks sideways out of the path of the gun, arm shooting out to grab at her wrist and jerk it away from his direction. And he's about to try and wrestle the gun from her hand when he realizes just how small and dainty her hand is and stops. It's ... just some girl with a toy gun? He gives a tense exhale. ]

Aw geez, I'm sorry, I -- shit, you scared me! [ He sounds more frazzled than accusatory or angry, and he does look genuinely apologetic. Jion loosens his grip, though he doesn't completely let go of Shiho's wrist just yet. ] Hey, I'm sorry, I'm not anyone scary, okay? But uh, you really shouldn't go pointing guns at people so casually, that coulda been dangerous ... Is this thing even real?

[ Clearly, he has yet to realize why Shiho was even running in the first place. ]

[good_ideas]

[Having psychometry and having a good idea of how to judo throw someone doesn't give her the reflexes to do it so it's easy for him to nearly disarm her. Much more easily than she would have liked.

But he doesn't sound angry, doesn't look very scary and also doesn't seem to be planning on trying anything else. Yet.]

Of course it's real. [The gun is actually named "the nonlethal psychometry gun".] I know what I'm doing-

[Which was supposed to be running away from the skeletons that are now slowly creaking their way into the alley. With a strangled sound that probably started its life as a scream, she tugs at her hand in the hopes that he'll let go so she can hide behind him.]

A

[whichcraft]

[As it happens, Summer lives in Ruga, so it's probably not altogether surprising that she can sometimes be found wandering it. And, well, when you're wandering around and you spot a pumpkin with a knife jammed into it, you sort of can't help but stop and take notice.

Which is why she pauses in her walk, whistling softly under her breath.]

Damn. What'd that pumpkin ever do to you?

[good_ideas]

[Shiho spares the pumpkin a glance before she shrugs:]

It took my knife and then it wouldn't give it back. [translation: it's stuck]

[queenofminiskirts]

[It was inevitable that Shiho would want to have extra carved pumpkins. Since they were supposed to ward off spirits and all.

Kaoru removed the guts from inside the pumpkin with psychokinesis and set them aside.]

There's a guy on my squad that knows a lot of about ghosts.

[good_ideas]

I've met a lot of other people who know about ghosts too. [Shiho is leaning on her elbows, an array of knives in front of her. The one she selects is a nice serrated one which she pushes over to Kaoru to pick up and carve the pumpkin with.]

Apparently there's a guy here who helps them out as a job. And Minato was living with one? [Ghosts: they're everywhere, apparently.]