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
"Gross," he says, clearly meaning it as compliment. The amount of effort put into it is icredible. "Are those real eyeballs?"
He knows they're not, just playing along.
no subject
Except when it comes to the eyeball cakes. "Th-there's no way! Nobody here's missing eyes!" Still...she eyes Max suspiciously. "You don't expect us to actually eat them, do you?"
Look, his baking might be good, but only when it's normal!!
no subject
"Sure I do! Here, try one!" He grabs a bowl of 'eyeballs' (they are actually just peeled grapes suspended in Jell-O) and offers it to her.
no subject
He picks up another grape. "On three?"
no subject
"You...you can't be serious, can you? Th--they might be fake, but that's still gross!"
no subject
no subject
He pops the grape in his mouth.
"Seriously, Rita, it's tasty. You like sweet fruity stuff."
no subject
He seriously ate it.
"F...fruity? That?" A beat. "Hang on--are you saying these are gels?!"
no subject
"They're just peeled grapes surrounded by cherry Jell-o. It's nothing dangerous. It's all for fun."
no subject
no subject
He's sure Ava is intangible, but it's harmless - just in case.
no subject
no subject
There's the giggling, which already has her whipping around, and when the lights flicker? Well, she jumps, tail puffing right back out again. "Wh-who the's hell watching?!" She might be gripping Natsuno's sleeve too. It's fine! She's definitely not scared.
no subject
"Maybe one of the ghosts did stick around."
no subject
no subject
But then Max takes on the spooky voice again, which she's definitely not fooled by okay, even as she stares at the fake eyeball with wide eyes and mouth set in a nervous grim line like she's about to walk the plank on a ship.
"But...when it looks like this..." Ugh. She has to just get it over with, then! Finally--maybe with some more support (or needling) from Natsuno, she squeezes her eyes shut and pops it in her mouth with a shudder. "--Dammit! It is good!"