Ava Starr (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
decohere) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
come_sailaway2023-10-10 10:13 pm
decohere) wrote in come_sailaway2023-10-10 10:13 pm
and it starts sometime around midnight
Who: ava & co, lots of volunteer opportunities!
What: shadow aftereffects where ava's a bit Off, and halloween festivities. open mingle haunted house!
When: early through mid october, pre-event
Where: featuring the coffee shop and a haunted house in the bowling alley
Warnings: n/a
o. then she leaves with someone you don't know
(ota early October, interactions around the ship, Maxwell getting his book back...)
The flowers have died off and their effects with, but the damage roots deep in Ava's heart where the shadows lurk, nourishing them. She said things she regrets, did things under the influence of flowers that she holds herself responsible for. Refuses to make excuses, because she much rather believe herself a terrible twisted person rather than confront the vulnerability of her mind. There's nothing more terrifying than losing control over the one thing she's relied upon to survive. It doesn't help her memory of September is spotty after the forget-me-nots wrecked so much of it, leaving her filling in the blanks.
The shadows left behind from Maxwell's interrupted ritual whisper to her during the nights, how to be stronger. More powerful. It doesn't manifest in Ava as it might some others, this desire. She doesn't seek to take control over others, doesn't pick fights to assert dominance. When the shadows finally fully manifest, her form defies the natural cast of light, bending around her. Her staticky afterimage loses its iridescent glow and becomes swirls of pitch black. As does her blank gaze.
Her voice becomes toneless, usually relaxed posture stiffening. Even those that don't know Ava well should be able to immediately recognize something is off.
"Nothing is wrong," she flatly insists otherwise.
Sometimes she can be found thumbing through a certain spell book, eyes narrowed in concentration as she's determined to make meaning out of it.
i. but she makes sure you saw her
(ota, bars and cafes etc)
She's aware that half the ship's population doesn't know what Halloween even is. And that the other half that was here during the last one probably isn't eager to repeat. But the closer her favorite holiday approaches has Ava itching to celebrate. It's the one year anniversary of her first kiss with Peter, after all.
It starts with hanging little ghost and bat-shaped paper cut outs in some of the common areas, trying to make the place feel more festive.
"Do you want to decorate this one?" she offers a paper pumpkin and black marker to somebody sitting nearby. "Just draw a scary face on it." Maybe if she can teach enough people about the holiday, they might want to join in. Her ultimate goal is to convince enough people to dress up and pass out candy for trick-or-treating.
ii. she looks right at you and bolts
(ota, cafe)
She starts wearing the collection of costumes that she saved, doing laundry to get out all the storage wrinkles. Alternating each day between an oversized pumpkin sweater that's her favorite for reasons she only secretly smiles, a wrapped mummy dress, a silly vampire costume complete with fake teeth, and a black cat onesie that she looks particularly comfortable in.
Ava takes up post behind the counter of the cafe again, humming 'spooky scary skeletons' on repeat between customers because she can't remember any other Halloween songs.
It's been awhile since she's practiced latte art, and it clearly is taking a bit of trial and error. She's surrounded by mugs of endearingly wonky looking animals drawn into the foam. Bears and cats and frogs and something that was supposed to be a rabbit... "Take one. It's pumpkin spice."
iii. as she walks out the door
(ota curious onlookers and set up volunteers, Spirit Halloween, path to the bowling alley)
Halfway through the month she begins raiding the Spirit Halloween for decorations. Hauling cackling animatronics and bundles of fake spiderwebs and buckets of fake blood through the promenade, into the glass elevator and up, to the bowling alley where she's piled her supplies. It seems like the perfect location to set up a haunted house with its ambient black lighting and open lanes. Anyone caught watching or asking what she's up to might be recruited to help out.
But constructing the barriers to the maze turns out to be more of an ambitious endeavor than she anticipated. She arranges a few mirrors, huffing slightly in annoyance, before sending off a come help me texts to her friends that seem more construction inclined.
iv. your blood boiling, your stomach in ropes
(ota, haunted house prep and spooky volunteers)
Once things start coming more together, she begins recruiting more friends and particularly spooky looking passengers to participate in the scaring. "You just wait for somebody to wander in and go..." dramatic pause. "BOO!" she tosses her hands up in a very spooky way in demonstration.
v. oh, and your friends say, what is it?
(ota, haunted house opening mingle)
The day it's ready to open, Ava posts various signs around the ship advertising the haunted house. "ENTER IF YOU DARE!!!!" is written across the floor in dripping fake blood, awaiting guests. She's dressed rather self-indulgently as the corpse bride at the entrance, directing anyone brave enough in to the awaiting horrors.
Do you dare?
vi. you look like you've seen a ghost
(ota, wildcard)
What: shadow aftereffects where ava's a bit Off, and halloween festivities. open mingle haunted house!
When: early through mid october, pre-event
Where: featuring the coffee shop and a haunted house in the bowling alley
Warnings: n/a
o. then she leaves with someone you don't know
(ota early October, interactions around the ship, Maxwell getting his book back...)
The flowers have died off and their effects with, but the damage roots deep in Ava's heart where the shadows lurk, nourishing them. She said things she regrets, did things under the influence of flowers that she holds herself responsible for. Refuses to make excuses, because she much rather believe herself a terrible twisted person rather than confront the vulnerability of her mind. There's nothing more terrifying than losing control over the one thing she's relied upon to survive. It doesn't help her memory of September is spotty after the forget-me-nots wrecked so much of it, leaving her filling in the blanks.
The shadows left behind from Maxwell's interrupted ritual whisper to her during the nights, how to be stronger. More powerful. It doesn't manifest in Ava as it might some others, this desire. She doesn't seek to take control over others, doesn't pick fights to assert dominance. When the shadows finally fully manifest, her form defies the natural cast of light, bending around her. Her staticky afterimage loses its iridescent glow and becomes swirls of pitch black. As does her blank gaze.
Her voice becomes toneless, usually relaxed posture stiffening. Even those that don't know Ava well should be able to immediately recognize something is off.
"Nothing is wrong," she flatly insists otherwise.
Sometimes she can be found thumbing through a certain spell book, eyes narrowed in concentration as she's determined to make meaning out of it.
i. but she makes sure you saw her
(ota, bars and cafes etc)
She's aware that half the ship's population doesn't know what Halloween even is. And that the other half that was here during the last one probably isn't eager to repeat. But the closer her favorite holiday approaches has Ava itching to celebrate. It's the one year anniversary of her first kiss with Peter, after all.
It starts with hanging little ghost and bat-shaped paper cut outs in some of the common areas, trying to make the place feel more festive.
"Do you want to decorate this one?" she offers a paper pumpkin and black marker to somebody sitting nearby. "Just draw a scary face on it." Maybe if she can teach enough people about the holiday, they might want to join in. Her ultimate goal is to convince enough people to dress up and pass out candy for trick-or-treating.
ii. she looks right at you and bolts
(ota, cafe)
She starts wearing the collection of costumes that she saved, doing laundry to get out all the storage wrinkles. Alternating each day between an oversized pumpkin sweater that's her favorite for reasons she only secretly smiles, a wrapped mummy dress, a silly vampire costume complete with fake teeth, and a black cat onesie that she looks particularly comfortable in.
Ava takes up post behind the counter of the cafe again, humming 'spooky scary skeletons' on repeat between customers because she can't remember any other Halloween songs.
It's been awhile since she's practiced latte art, and it clearly is taking a bit of trial and error. She's surrounded by mugs of endearingly wonky looking animals drawn into the foam. Bears and cats and frogs and something that was supposed to be a rabbit... "Take one. It's pumpkin spice."
iii. as she walks out the door
(ota curious onlookers and set up volunteers, Spirit Halloween, path to the bowling alley)
Halfway through the month she begins raiding the Spirit Halloween for decorations. Hauling cackling animatronics and bundles of fake spiderwebs and buckets of fake blood through the promenade, into the glass elevator and up, to the bowling alley where she's piled her supplies. It seems like the perfect location to set up a haunted house with its ambient black lighting and open lanes. Anyone caught watching or asking what she's up to might be recruited to help out.
But constructing the barriers to the maze turns out to be more of an ambitious endeavor than she anticipated. She arranges a few mirrors, huffing slightly in annoyance, before sending off a come help me texts to her friends that seem more construction inclined.
iv. your blood boiling, your stomach in ropes
(ota, haunted house prep and spooky volunteers)
Once things start coming more together, she begins recruiting more friends and particularly spooky looking passengers to participate in the scaring. "You just wait for somebody to wander in and go..." dramatic pause. "BOO!" she tosses her hands up in a very spooky way in demonstration.
v. oh, and your friends say, what is it?
(ota, haunted house opening mingle)
The day it's ready to open, Ava posts various signs around the ship advertising the haunted house. "ENTER IF YOU DARE!!!!" is written across the floor in dripping fake blood, awaiting guests. She's dressed rather self-indulgently as the corpse bride at the entrance, directing anyone brave enough in to the awaiting horrors.
Do you dare?
vi. you look like you've seen a ghost
(ota, wildcard)
no subject
A small frown. It feels like she ruined the experience though. "Um... yeah. I wanna see it. Sorry, it's probably less fun without playing pretend."
no subject
There's cabinets and a table in the small kitchen set up, and a smoking oven in the corner.
no subject
"I gotta be the detective today, huh. Is the door behind us completely locked?" She goes to give the handle a shake just to be sure!
no subject
"Can't go out the way we came in, because then you don't get to see the rest. But if this house is designed to be scary, where's a place you wouldn't want to go?" she hints.
no subject
A thoughtful pause, trying to find another spot that could be an opening. Another door. The cabinets? But Ava said it would be a place she wouldn't want to go. Her gaze drifts over the oven.
"Hm. You said you were gonna 'eat' me..."
no subject
no subject
Fio steps closer to the smoking oven. Even with the earlier teasing, she tries to treat part of this scenario as if it's real. She holds a hand out, just to see if there's any heat radiating from it. Will she get burnt?
"Is the fire still burning?"
no subject
Max (the baker) is waiting on the other side of the oven entrance... but he's an adorable softy so she doubts he'll give Fio too much of a real fright.
no subject
Fio sticks her arm further into the oven as if to double check even if she trusts Ava's words. Who knows, maybe she might be thrown into a similar situation where this is real. No flames licking at her arm though, as expected.
"Safe! Here goes..." And she goes through the oven to the other side.
no subject
"Mmm. What a sweet little treat you are."
no subject
A little gasp, not expecting someone else beside Ava to be around. Fio grips Max's hand, allowing him to help guide her out. Her experience probably wasn't as terrifying as some previous haunted house visitors, but she still had a bit of a thrill!
"Nooo, I'm not a treat! Don't eat me!" She says with a laugh.
no subject
"Little girl is off the menu," she says solemnly. "What else do you have cooked up?"
no subject
Luckily, Max has prepared some actual treats just for this. The room is decorated with 'bloody' cakes and cupcakes adorned with fake eyeballs and fake fingers made of modeling chocolate.
He even has a bowl of 'eyeballs' that he brings down in front of Fio. "Here! Try an eyeball." The bowl is actually a bunch of peeled grapes meant to look like eyeballs sitting on top of red Jell-o blocks. "It's a delicacy."
no subject
She plucks one of the 'eyeballs' up and pops it in her mouth, chewing, then gulping it down. "Oh, it's..." Grape! But she tries to play along. "This is... a very tasty eyeball!"
no subject
no subject
Max is perplexed for half a second by Ava's comment until he finally connects that dots that "Duggy" is Skulduggery.
"Nah," Max jokes, "I think he looks better without any, don't you think?"
no subject
Little lady. Oh, she likes the sound of that. It makes her feel somewhat grown up! Even if right now, they're all being a little childish playing with their food. Amused, she grabs two grapes, mimicking Ava by putting the grapes up to her eyes.
"I think Daddy looks better without 'em." ...She's grown too used to seeing that eyeless skull. For some reason, she's drawn to people without a 'face'. Her friend Levania didn't really have any eyes either.
"But maybe he should try them on anyway. I think he'd look funny!"
no subject
"Daddy? Oh, I don't think I knew that. But, you're totally right. Maybe he could wear them as a costume."