come_sailaway

[ hidden inside is... nothing spooky at all! it's a cute little halloween card that would be more fitting for a small child than three grown adults. there's also a three small chocolates wrapped in foil meant to resemble a ghost, cat, and bat.

inside of the card is another handwritten note, this one in pen. based on the writing the author tried to stylize it but it's a little clumsily done. it reads: ]

" Trick-or-Treat!

October is the time for tricks, treats and ghoulish galas! Find all the treats or you'll be tricked!

Where does the ghost go to get his boos?"

[ there's a piece of candy drawn next to treat and a ghost drawn next to boos... it seems like someone is trying to play a game with them to lighten the mood? it's not very festive with the ship falling apart. ]

Edited 2022-10-11 19:24 (UTC)

[Izzy's turn to step forward now. This seems like some bullshit to him because he's never even heard of Halloween, and now there are decisions to be made. The chocolates are decorated in shiny foil (a plus) this sounds like a treasure hunt (pirates of his standing do not stoop so low as to hunt treasure, a con), and it's all in fucking riddles (another con).

Still, things have been very weird this month and Stede's words weigh heavily (gross) in the back of his mind. Something is coming, and looks can be deceiving.]

Where does a ghost go to get his boos. The fuck... a shop? We haven't got a shop for that aboard, it must be one of the bars. Booze comes from a bar.

[The pun is lost on him, English was fast and loose in 1717]

Edited (how is babby (english) form) 2022-10-11 20:09 (UTC)

Booze...

( Oh. Ohhh... You can probably see the pieces of the pun clicking into place in Castor's mind as Izzy says it. Not that it means anything in particular to Castor. He leans back from where he was peering over Pollux's shoulder, looking bored. )

I have no interest in human holidays.

( This is something he'd do for Fio, not for some random person's note. Y'all can go on ahead. )

Our ghost is an alcoholic.

( or maybe they just like to drink, and it sort of reminds her of jack as he's normally the one with a drink in hand or searching for one. it's fitting this game as it seems to be more for adults than children, and so she looks to izzy with a smile as though he's done something unbelievable. )

Isn't it cute, Brother? Boos... ( she points to the different color "h" on the paper, pointing it out to everyone. )

Do you think this is a hint for us to go to Hurikane? If that's wrong, we could go to Tauva next! Oh, Brother, Izzy! Let's join in, we can't ruin someone's hard work for us!

( she's going to look at them, but is also going to grab them both by the arm and drag them. might hurt, lil bit. )

[ good your ghost friend will be sad if you don't, there's only a handful of these ghastly puns and there's even a grand prize at the end to make up for it

their instincts are good! the hurikan is exactly where they need to be. There is a poison cocktails sitting out on the bar counter. if any of the three care to inspect it, they would find that the glass is still cool for the touch and has bits condensation dripping off of the sides. resting next to it are a few a few poison apples next it (none of which are poisoned.) and... a severed human arm!?

... just kidding, it's not a real arm! it's as hollow as the hand attached at the wrist. it would be reasonable to assume it was taken from a doll or marionette from the backstage. the hand is made of a different material, though, soft to the touch and being dislodged the moment it's touched and revealing that it wasn't so much attached as it was carefully positioned to give the illusion of the same. in it's curled fingers is the next card. this one has a skeleton on it.

It reads: ]

" Great job! Easy as apple pie, right?

You'll be done in no time! Why did the skeleton go to the hospital? Because he broke his funny bone! "

[ there's an small drawing of a pie next to the first question, a skull by the second, and a bone by the last sentence. they're not the best drawn, but they're passable enough. ]

( upon entry to the hurikane, she'll finally let the boy's arms go— they might hurt just a lil bit... in favor of walking over to the counter. she glances around wondering if she can find a bartender, but she guesses the ones that she knows must be out today. she has to say the set up is adorable with the severed arms and treats, after admiring it, she reaches for the card in its hand before offering it over to izzy in the same fashion that castor had done pollux for him to read. )

You did well the first time Izzy, so we hope to rely on you again.

( with that said, she picks up the beverage to hand over to him as something he can have as well. she'd rather her brother not drink at the moment considering he can't hold his alcohol, but she believes the drink to be nicely made. her attention moves to castor next, curious. )

What do you think of the display, Brother?

( WHERE is my icon of Castor eating that fruit in the Olympus CM... Need that... Because that's what he's gonna do with the apple—he doesn't need Pollux pulling him along after all, not when he'd follow her to the ends of the earth and also to the bar. He's not too interested in the drinks anyway, so hope you make good not-poison apples, mysterious punster.

He's really just here for the ride though. Not even looking at Izzy for the card details, just kind of watching Pollux smile and have fun. Isn't she so cute when she's having fun? So cute. Also talking. Wait, give him a moment as his eyes flicker back to what hasn't been taken out of the display, and he'll shrug. )

It's fine.

( Pollux, though? Pollux is cute. )

My god, the two've you.

[Izzy takes the drink, gives it one single looks, decides he would rather drink seawater, and resigns himself to holding it until they can leave again. Thing is...he's a little sus about being in here. There's no ghostly bartender to contend with, but the last time Izzy stepped foot into one of these bars he nearly lost his life.

He knows, like Tauva, that Hurikane is the embodiment and prison of a soul. A soul that Izzy would very much like to be in possession of. The display is unsettling in the way cheap horror can be, because it seems so...nothing. Obviously fake. All of this feels so obviously fake. It's clearly not a real arm or corpse and thus not scary at all. Big tough dude over here, but he can't keep from scanning the bar, it's bottles, or the ceiling for signs of anything nefarious. When he speaks, he's addressing the general nothing, just for a moment.]

Hu-Rakan, I know you're in here. I'll be coming for you shortly unless you intend to pull any funny business the way your brother did.

[Alas that is not the matter of this ridiculous game. The card in the fake hand is. Oh goody.]

Because he broke his funny bone... fuck's sake. [He could not sound more bored.] I assume that means the infirmary.

[ taste is subjective but they're like the ones that are sold at disney so they're amazing. it's all very charming and campy, with nothing along the way to hurt them except for each other, and it does seem to be the sort of game that one might play with a friend. halloween is a time for that too.

izzy is two for two, as the infirmary proves to be a point of interest. it's looking rather barren these days with nothing being refilled, but of more interest might be the doll laying on the bed. it's presumably the owner of the arm that was found in the previous area, as it seems to be missing - aside from the hand, which is sticking out of the trash as though it were reaching out for help. it's dressed nicely, but there's a verticial incision running down its torso. it's been pried open, with fake organs carelessly shoved in by some person who only have the barest idea of how they're arranged. there's red paint dumped into it and spilling out, all over the bed and onto the floor, splattered onto the walls and cabinets.

there's a cut in the skull as well, just big enough for a knife to be sunk into, but fortunately the paint around here is all beneath it because there's another card slotted into it.

next to this tacky display is a plate with chocolate eclairs with tombstones chocolate mousse and dotted with white chocolate bones. as for the card, it comes out easily and reveals itself fully to be a caramel corn card that reads... ]

" Boo-tiful work! You’re like M&Ms - marvelous and magnificent.

You're almost done! There's just one more stop for you... Pumpkin spice and everything nice, there's just one place where you can find it all now that the ghosts have scooped up all the i-scream and a latte of shops have stopped restocking!

Be careful though... I hear it can get pretty crabby! "

[ god has forsaken this world and they will be treated to cute little drawings to match the puns once more, including what is probably a crab by the last line. ]

Edited (no slouches on decorating here no sir) 2022-10-12 00:33 (UTC)

[He's only two for two because he has two gods who are entirely complicit and happy to make their pet human solve riddles about a holiday none of them know or care about.

Well...Pollux cares, but only because Pollux cares about everything. Don't let castor lie to you, he doesn't give a shit. He only cares that his sister is enjoying herself.

Mystery game runner, your decorations do not go without careful scrutiny. A wrecked, painted poppet is, Izzy has to admit, quite unnerving. It's the beady, lifeless eyes. The card is read. The colors in the script are noted. He still looks entirely unamused.

If someone is going to do a murder this is the longest way to go about it. Bonnet, if this is you attempting a fuckery, he takes back everything he had about potential.]

( pollux cares about what both izzy and castor care about, mister! but while the two are looking over their new room, she does find the decorations to be exciting! a nice splash of red that just makes the room pop, and even the mannequin like doll that has its organs played with. she's not crazy about bloodshed, but she can appreciate the find art of the holiday like halloween!

she'll leave the note to both izzy and castor, but she pulls out her phone to send a text message out. with that done, she'll look up from her phone before pocketing it... somewhere in her clothes. anyway, while she has him on her mind. )

Izzy, you know the young gentleman Sou that stays in our room from time to time? ( the green-haired man with the odd pair of eyes and rat tail? yes, him. ) He's an esteemed doctor who cares for his patients, if you ever harm yourself you should seek him out. I do think highly of him.

( but not only that, she decides to add a little more. ) I'm glad you both are here to enjoy this with me! Halloween is a marvelous holiday, don't you think, Brother?

Edited 2022-10-12 01:33 (UTC)

Hm. ( Let him think about that for a minute. ) All Hallow's Eve, the day to remember the dead, and where children disguise themselves to receive sweets...

( It's kind of a weird mix if you ask him. Not unlike the eclairs and the gorey display with the doll. His expression might give these thoughts away; luckily, he has a tried and true answer to give when Pollux asks him something like this: )

As long as you're happy, it's fine.

( Izzy has him completely sussed out, it's true. Strangely enough though, he hasn't picked their next destination, and with Pollux enjoying this little venture as she is, Castor isn't about to give up on it halfway. He'll pluck the card back so he can give it a read himself, looking similarly unimpressed as the pieces click together. )

The buffet.

( He says it simply, and... that's it. "It's called the Windjammer." He doesn't care what it's called. He cares that he's going to hand the card to Pollux to confirm, then take her other hand in his and start towards the door. )

[ they're learning about the magic of halloween now! it's scary decorations, autumn foods, threatening notes, and the occasional dead body. don't worry about it. there's also no need to worry about the cute display that's been set out for them on one of the tables. a black and orange checkerboard tablecloth with cats and pumpkins covers the table and falls all the way down to the floor and the table itself is decorated with little trinkets that fit the mood - witches and bats and cats oh my!

a skeleton takes a bath in what seems to be a halloween chex mix as it holds a chocolate bar that reads bone appetit!" and black cats perch on miniature moose cakes while ghosts peek out from behind things. there's even a graveyard - a take crumble dirt bread with chocolate stick fencing and cupcakes with tombstones that read rip. pressed into it that have tombstones with rip carefully written onto them. there's a large fake pumpkin in the center filled so full of candy that it's spilled out on the table around it, making the real mystery how anyone has the time to put together this convoluted mystery or why they would.

there's another card: ]

" Congratulations! That was a fang-tatstic performance!

I tried every trick in the book, but you've found all my treats and won the grand prize! I think you'll find that it comes in candy.

I hope this helped you to get into the holiday spirit! Remember, not all ghosts are so ghoulish! Some just play hide-and-shriek.

Happy Halloween!

- Kit, the Catty Ghost "

[ a bat, a piece of candy, a ghost, and a jack-o-lanten are drawn next to the corresponding lines and little doodles around the margins, making the second great mystery how this person hasn't been thrown overboard yet. but perhaps there's one final riddle hidden within the card. there's little dips of dried red paint leading from behind the card in a little half-circle around the pumpkin before moving up and staining a few pieces of candy. with any luck, they've realized that nothing is going to bite them or stab them or anything that else involves puncturing skin. ]

Edited (my cupcakes ):<) 2022-10-13 01:31 (UTC)

( with the note in hand, she reads it as her two boys stand behind like always, and she takes note of the letters off in another color. handing it to izzy, she claps her hands together with glee as though she's excited for how far they've came. )

You've both done well accompanying me on this journey as we must see this through, now... surely this can't be the end.

( even if there's nothing else, she can't say she's not disappointed in the outcome— piles and piles of candy isn't quite her thing, but the thrill of the friends she made along the way is. the experience with both her bad boys who would rather not deal with this, but they've gone through it anyway which means there will be thousand of pictures like this in the photography room for them to look at.

she thinks to grab one to put up in their room. )

Hm...

( pollux reaches out towards the pumpkin, her fingers tapping at the rim before she sticks her hand inside. they should follow the trail of blood as it stands out the most, and then they can think on the text next. )

[ it's buried under a fair bit of candy, but toward the bottom pollux will find something about the size of the baseball. the object is slightly warm to the touch and velvety. there seems to be a cord attached to it as well. If she takes it out she'll find that it is, in fact, a red velvet pouch with something inside of it.

will she open it? ]

( she looks to izzy and then to castor as she contemplates what's in her hand, it's heavy enough, but... this is about the experience. turning to castor, she hands it over to him for her brother to inspect. she did the hard part by digging in the pumpkin, and she has half the mind to take it with her in order to give it to hiyori. )

Let's see what brother has in store for us.

( with that said, she's going to stand beside izzy with a big smile excited for what castor will find. )

( Castor was paying attention mostly for Pollux's sake, but then she hands the bag over to him and he just kind of. Looks at it. )

Very well.

( Let him pull it open and peer inside... He's not gonna dump the contents or anything, just look. )

[ :(

inside is... another hand! this one also appears to belong to a doll or something similar if the weight and lack of blood and foul smells are anything to go by. in fact, it seems to be the companion to the hand they found at the bar. maybe somebody was caught stealing. the fingers are curled tight around something, though it's impossible to tell just from looking what it's holding onto. ]

Edited 2022-10-13 04:23 (UTC)

( No!! Don't frown!! To be honest, Castor's about ready to just accept that it's another hand. It's probably just holding more candy or something, though there is the question of where someone got such a flexible doll hand. It's like, human-sized? So maybe the human knows what it have to do with Halloween—in that case, all it takes is a moment of inopportune eye contact for Izzy to be the one who gets the bag next. )

You can have it, Human.

( Then Castor looks at Pollux. Look how generous he's being!! )

[Oh for fuck's sake, he's never looking at you again. Izzy gives Castor a flat, unimpressed look and reluctantly holds out his hand for the fuckin' thing. It isn't that cursed monkey paw from the jungle, so there's a small mercy but it could be just as bad or worse. The last time Izzy touched anything magical his hand went dead for ages.

Who knows that? Oh yeah, you two bozos.]

Bully for me. Thank you so much, Castor.

[He can not sound less pleased. And yet, like the fucking clown he is, he still takes the object. Izzy pulls a small folding knife from his pocket and uses the blade to carefully pry open the fingers.]

[ :)

the twins are setting izzy up because he's the only one who knows how to be a team player. though the hand seems to be made of an unusual material, it seems to be harmless, and they're conveniently jointed and flexible, so with a little bit of effort he'll be able to pull the fingers free. what falls out is a torn scrap of paper, one that's been crumpled up. the paper has scribbled drawings of cats in different colors and lines on it on it. while the ones on the cards were passable, these almost seem to be the crayon scribbling of a small child. upon review, it seems to be a graph.

it's a bit messy, but the group should be able to determine it to be intended to measure the amount of different halloween items individually as well as the total number. in total. there are thirty cats, ninety-seven pumpkin, and fifteen ghost. aside from these three the rest have been torn off, as only half of what would presumably have been a bat, and the corresponding numbers as well. the other half doesn't seem to be present and it's best that they don't make a mess trying to find it, but the trio can add up the remaining numbers if they'd like. ]

[Wow. The most anticlimactic booty, ever. Where's the gold? The blood? The razor's edge of glory? Izzy crouches and retrieves the note, tossing the gross fake hand on the table in favor of opening and looking at the graph.

Shitty pictures. A lot of them. Which means counting.

Nah, fam. He doesn't do stupid math. This is what you made him risk his hand for, Castor? Really?

Izzy rolls his eyes and hands the note over. There you go, big man. There's your fucking prize.]

( ↑ Guy who was also waiting for the blood.

The note instead has him frowning, and he gives it only a cursory glance before passing it back to Pollux. It's safe, so she's allowed to have it now.

...

Give him a minute, and he'll wander back up to the table to pick up the hand and inspect it a little. Is it warm? Was the bag itself warm? Where was the warmth coming from that is so sketchy... )

( ^ would be lying if she wouldn't have gotten pumped up over blood.

...

she takes the paper, looking it over to see what they have in store. it's math, are they passing this all over because of math? she looks to izzy, and then to castor...

... )

Starting next month, you two are coming to the library with me.

( we WILL be fixing this problem at hand. besides, izzy's been answering these riddles before so what is stopping him? looking up from the paper over to castor, she notices the hand in his hand... and how izzy hands is with them. alright. )

We're going to split up! ( why? ) We'll acquire all the body parts!

( crafting a corpse in their bedroom? more likely than they think, of course, adding up the numbers of what's here has them one off, but if they add the spare bat... )

Brother, you'll go to Hurikane, and Izzy you'll depart to the infirmary. I'll stay behind here to see if there's anything else. We'll regroup back at our dorm room, do you all follow? Great.

( she's turning around to inspect some other part of the buffet, bye team. )

[ unfortunately for them this is not the story in which we make red velvet cupcakes with blood as the secret ingredient or ruin a batch of perfectly good candies with unsanitary methods, your specter friend isn't so unsanitary and wasteful! there are other body parts hidden about, though they all seem to be taken from various different dolls, as though a person were attempting to create the doll version of frankenstein's monster - unfortunately, even if they slotted together it's features would be anything but a proportional creature with such beautiful features.

it's a bit out of place with halloween activities, and the head and right right appear to be missing, but perhaps it really is just someone who wished to share the spirit of halloween with three individuals unacquainted with it...? there's always a suspicion associated with something that takes up so much time and energy, and perhaps the fact that there's red paint splattered and the faint metallic scent present here and there will only add to that to that thought, but nothing jumps out and nothing seems to be of immediate danger.

either way, when they regroup they'll find that two orange arrows form a branch path between rooms 142 and 143. they're done in orange paint (apparently our ghost would rather not be associated that other guy who keeps writing blood letters,) each with an item in front of them and words written on on the doors themselves. on the door for the former is written "tricks," with a phone sitting in front of it, and on the latter is "treats," which has the missing doll arm in front of it. of interest might be the fact that this door, while not having blood letters, does have red handprints all over the letter and marks and scratches on it - as though something were trying to break in.

halloween isn't a time to be greedy, so pick one option please - room 142, room 143, or stop here to end the game. if this were a horror movie, they might find the latter to be the correct choice. ]

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