with how many dead/characters that died we have...

[beguiledcard]

Who: Akira, Goro, Kurama, Mint, Shido (and anyone else on Team Decorations or Team Sweets)
What: Halloween decorating party + cooking/baking
When: Backdated just by a few days to a week, or so. Time is fake.
Where: All around the mulberry bush station, but dedicated prompts within the post are primarily in common area + kitchens.
Warnings: It's SpooOOooo00ooOOOOpy time~~



[ Akira loves Halloween.

That's one part of why he's been working a lot in the kitchen, whenever there's an area free, to get the art of candy-making down. Throughout the entire past month, or so, he's been in there whenever he had the free time/space, working to put sugary sweets into various shapes - while also tasting good and holding the right texture. It... took a bit, but he can finally be seen with entire tray of homemade chocolates and hard candy (in a variety of flavors, but mostly strawberry or citrus-y!), on occasion! A lot are shaped like flowers.

Or, most recently, like spiders or like little stereotypical sheet ghosts. ]


Open: Team Decorations

[ If you've expressed interest in Halloween, or if you happen to just be walking through an area that decorations are getting made/put out in, there's a chance you've been recruited as a helper.

Akira, Goro, and Minato (otherwise known as Mint, now) can be seen excitedly making a variety of spooky decorations, and there's a station for making them and a station for carving pumpkins set up in the lounge! If you don't know how to do or make something, Akira or Goro will happily teach you! Both Minato and Shido can be seen... trying to carve some decent pumpkins, but.............. well, at least they're trying?



It's probably best not to look directly at the one Kurama tried to carve. ]



Open: Team Sweets

[ Over in the kitchens (yep, both) we have Akira, Akana, and Goro hard at work! On top of the candies, Akira will be making/decorating some cookies and pies. Anyone who tries to steal anything will most likely be caught. Anyone who comes in just to chat and potentially distract, might get offered dishes duty, while anyone who comes in and tries... and then fails to help, might get taste-testing duty.

Asking nicely does get you a sample...! At least by Akira.

There will be trays and trays of pumpkin cookies, sugar cookies, witch hat cookies, macarons... On top of the many pumpkin pies, pecan pies, sweet potato pies, apple pies, and all the little candies. And, if you're looking for something more spoopy, there's a key lime jello pie with gummi worms inside of it (it definitely looks slimy, too).


>Offer to help.
>Try stealing one.
>Stand around uselessly. ]

Comments

[foolishjustice]

[Decorations]

[It's quite possible most people here have never seen Goro this lively. She's darting - practically bouncing - from craft table to pumpkin stand and back, black wings out, and alternately working on a wide variety of decorations (including...what looks like the top half of a soda bottle, taped to a pie tin?) and carving pumpkins. She even stops to offer instructions to those struggling...though ends up deflating a bit when certain people only get worse.

Despite her usual meticulousness and outright distress at being seen messy, she doesn't seem to mind when she gets pumpkin guts, glue, and other assorted stray bits of decoration on her. In fact, she seems to have deliberately draped pulled cotton cobwebs over her wings, with a rubber snake draped around her neck. People who get roped into helping run the risk of being similarly adorned.]

[Baking]

[Once upon a time, Goro Akechi was a kitchen disaster. Now, it's evident her hard work has paid off, as she's the one responsible for the bulk of the pies, as well as...well, she tried to make caramel apples, but it looks like the caramel didn't quite stick right. Come help her get rid of those? On the other hand, the inside-out caramel apples came out perfect, with slices of cored apple stuffed with stiff caramel.

All during the baking process, she can be heard attempting to whistle 'This is Halloween', but...she's kind of off tune.]

[redmeguca]

[Of course Kyoko's been hanging around the kitchen, what else do you expect?]

Those caramel apples didn't come out quite right, did they? If you're not gonna use them for the party, I'll take them off your hands.

[foolishjustice]

Leave a few in case other people want some, but I won't object to whoever wants them. It's not like I can just re-dip them without it coming out uneven.

nongraphic dismemberment cw

[sendintheclown]

[Gogol just happened to be passing by, and, my does that decorating look fun. Especially the pumpkin carving. Mostly the pumpkin carving.

He walks up to the strange character with the wings, unable to tell for sure if they're real or an elaborate costume, and lightly clears his throat. One arm is folded behind his back, hand tucked into his cloak, and appears, disconnected at the wrist with a void-y little portal, in the palm of his other, which he holds out to Goro in offering. He tries to stifle his giggles, but can't do much about the grinning.]

Need a hand?

[foolishjustice]

[Given the way they poof up as she starts at the appearance of the hand, probably real. But she's able to brush off the start, half covering her mouth as she laughs. Those longer-than-normal canines look real, too.]

I could use one, but it looks like you need it more.

[hairpincurves]

[And over here we have the one responsible for the majority of the cookies. Anyone making eyes at what she's made will likely get offered some of the... well, they're definitely supposed to be macarons and that much is obvious, but the decorating makes them... Well, they're not pretty.

Although, speaking of which, hanging around also runs the risk of getting roped into helping decorate cookies.]

kitchens

[nojohnyouare]

[Mai's already busy washing cookie trays, but she blinks at the decorations.]

...What are they supposed to look like.

[Bear-san, meanwhile, is vacuuming up spilled flour off the floor. He probably doesn't mean to be making himself useful so much as he just likes to pretend he can eat things, but it works.]

[hairpincurves]

Well, the intent was to give them jack-o-lantern faces, but...

[Well, the pumpkin macarons mostly just look kind of sad instead. They'd probably be passable if Akira wasn't being a perfectionist about how they look...]

I might take a break and do some other kind of cookie before coming back to macarons.

[foolishjustice]

[Don't mind her just bouncing over while her latest pie is in the oven to snatch one of those sad looking macarons.]

I think this is the best part about baking.

[hairpincurves]

What, being the quality control?

[She chuckles before taking one for herself.]

Of course, I think my favorite part is seeing people enjoy what's been made...

[fifthreplacement]

[While he's not really a food person, so to speak, the smell of what seems to be clearly a lot of baked food makes him curious as to what's going on. So Sync wanders into the kitchen and peers around curiously, his coeurl right behind him]

What's with all the food?

[hairpincurves]

Holiday nonsense, mostly.

[As of right now, Akira's in the process of decorating! Chocolate cookies are laid out on the counter, with Akira putting icing on them and a chocolate kiss in the center.]

There's going to be a party for it, so we're making sweets and such for it. I'll probably look into more savory things to make too, but getting the baking out of the way now sounded like a good idea.

[She picks one of the finished cookies and offers it to Sync.]

[makejapangreat]

[Decorations]

[Shido's helping with decorations because of course he is; it was his son's idea to throw this thing, and he could hardly say no. He isn't sure there's a word strong enough for how he feels about Halloween, but... the kids are acting like it's Christmas, so... at least there's that. One good thing about this... holiday...

Granted, he actually seems to be enjoying himself at the pumpkin carving? Even if he's not really doing well... it's kind of fun to do something as mindless as this, to have chaotic, troubled thoughts completely occupied with such a simple, straightforward task.]


[Sweets]

[Shido doesn't much care for sweets, so he'll be assisting with dishes. He is, however, also making something that isn't sweet, to add to the variety of foods available, particularly for those who don't feel like going into a sugar coma.

But... what... what exactly are these...]

Decorations

[foolishjustice]

[Hey Shido. Shiiiido. Don't look now, but Goro's walking up behind you with a fake cobweb in hand, intent on draping it over your head like a hat.]

sweets

[beguiledcard]

[ ... What exactly are those, indeed.

He's staring at it, his lip twitching just a bit for a couple of seconds. But, he'll try to be nice! He offers a sheepish smile as he asks: ]

Uhhh... Is this an... octopus, maybe?

also sweets

[coagmentatio]

[ So.

AFTER EVERYTHING THAT'S HAPPENED, Aiden's mood is crap. But, it's sometime after that, he wanders over to the food Shido made... and then comes to a stop. He's blinking a couple of times at the attempted food, only to snort softly...

Excuse him, he's just going to start... laughing really fucking hard? ]

[coagmentatio]

kitchens / paging all healers - cw: fairly severe hand injury, blood

[ Aiden can be found in either kitchen, attempting to help wherever he can. "Attempting" being the key word there. Because, quite frankly, he once again hates having his kind of memory.

After having spent so much time cooking and baking with Ignis... Well, that makes it next to impossible to be in there without thinking about him. It makes every movement during meal prep another reminder of the lessons. It makes thinking back to how it had been his Palace that Ignis vanished during... As always, it feels like he's lost a dear friend... just yesterday. They're always so fucking vivid, and he-... hates almost wanting to not remember him, at all...

... Being distracted in the kitchen is a dangerous thing, too.

It's as he's fighting against his mind's attempt to twist things, warp them, and dwell on all the bad, he's slicing right through the palm of his left hand. There's a jolt as he snaps back into the present, his eyes widening as he quickly drops the knife onto the counter. ]

Damn...

[ Though, even as blood starts pouring out of the impressively long injury, he's not... really reacting all that strongly? In fact, he's just frowning hard at it, as though it's some kind of nuisance...

With a soft hiss, he carefully and quickly moves over to the nearest free sink, aiming to run some cold water over it for now. After that, he's looking around for something to wrap around his hand. Paper towels... might not be enough... ]



resetting the murder counter - cw: exploding pumpkin death

[ After the incident in the kitchen, his mood is pretty... sour, honestly.

He's determined to stick around and continue helping - it feels like something a family would do, after all, and he's finally accepting that this is something he really needs in his life. To feel like a part of something special. To feel like he has a place within a group of these wonderful people.

Yet, taking a break honestly wouldn't have been a bad idea, in hindsight.

Once again, he's slipping into thought, and he's really fucking hating how every pumpkin-carving attempt is turning out. It's as he's grabbing yet another pumpkin - this one... kind of large, compared to the others he's been trying - the swell of frustration starts to really tug at him. He begins drawing a face on the pumpkin, one hand firmly pressed against the side of it.

Anyone nearby might start to feel a bit... warm. Hot...?? Ummm........????

Well, needless to say, the pumpkin is the one feeling the most of the heat. Aiden probably should have let it just sit there. Instead, he's grabbing it to go over to where the carving itself happens. Put simply, an overheated, large pumpkin getting dropped apparently leads to guts flying out of it??

RIP the pants/legs of anyone nearby... ]

Godsdamnit...

Kitchen

[foolishjustice]

[Oh...that doesn't look good. Goro's going to be heading over, excitement replaced by concern as she reaches for Aiden's wrist.]

How bad is it?

pumpsplosion

[daughterofthemark]

Aaaah!

[Arianna jumps up, dropping her knife, and a staff appears in her hands--

Oh. She's not being attacked, okay.]

[fullmoonfool]

I - Decorations

[Minako honestly has never done Halloween or anything like it before. Not having a place to really call home does that to a person. So when she wanders by and sees all the decorating, she has to pause and think for a moment as she watches]

...I guess this is the kind of thing people do for Halloween? [She's a little confused, but also curious as anything, looking around at it all]

II - Pumpkins

[After seeing the pumpkin carving stuff, Minako decides she might as well have a try! It makes her think a little of her friends, particularly those who worked with food, so she's going to do her best!!

...admittedly, her best is not great, from the mess she's made, but that's not stopping her sitting and determinedly trying, a look of intense concentration on her face, complete with tongue sticking out a little.

Anyone approaching makes her glance up and grin] I didn't think this'd be quite so hard, but it's fun, isn't it?

III - Sweets

[>Wildcard: See all the food and try not to get really hungry. Fail a lot.

After failing a lot, she does pull herself together and offer to help. After all, she's a pretty decent cook! Or at least she's really good at following instructions and recipes, and that's really all that counts here]

Maybe I can help Fuuka-chan learn some of this when I get back home.

Pumpkins

[foolishjustice]

[Given that it's pumpkin carving, some kind of mess is inevitable. But...oh, that poor pumpkin. She wanders over, rubber snake still hanging around her neck, to take a look at it.]

Did you try drawing your pattern on it before you started cutting?

Decorations

[have_hat_will_travel]

Yeah, I guess. I'm still learning all of it myself, so... This is neatly new to me!

Decorations

[tomatowizard]

Someone needed to put decorations on the higher parts of the room that were too high up to reach normally.

Actually, no one technically NEEDED to do that, and even so there were several people here who could fly, but Samata was not one to pass up a chance to show off. Plus she thought this whole "Halloween" idea sounded positively charming.

So that was why she was standing on top of a flying carpet, hanging up strings of paper bats and pumpkins.

[foolishjustice]

[Don't forget your personal decoration! Goro, with cotton cobwebs draped over her wings and a rubber snake around her neck like a stole, is going to float up with a string of paper ghosts to drape over Samata.]

Having fun?

Re: Decorations

[have_hat_will_travel]

".... Okay, genuine question, how are you keeping the carpet steady enough to get those pinned where you want them?", came the questions of one Succubus. "I was never quite able to make the carpet I was using this one time hold steady - it would've made a few tasks a lot easier if I could..."