melodiesofeternity | Spooky Scary Skeleton (And Other Friends) [Closed]

Spooky Scary Skeleton (And Other Friends) [Closed]

Who: Frisk, Papyrus, Baiken, Kuja, and Chara
When: All throughout October
Where: The spookiest of spookplaces in Vaikuntha
What: Frisk gets a'exorcisin', and they call on a few friends to help out.
Warnings/Notes: General fun spoopiness, will tag further as needed

Frisk was always a fan of haunted house rides. At least when the staff wasn't chewing them out for sneaking in. The real thing, surprisingly, wasn't all that more creepy, and definitely more cute. At least sometimes.

[OOC: Separate toplevels for separate quests.]

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Frisk cannot help but gawk in awe at Kuja's amazing fashion sense. They actually feel rather flattered that he coordinated his gear to fit the rods they gave him, but that might just be Kuja being Kuja. Frisk finally pulls themself together to smile at Kuja, eyebrow raised. "Nice outfit. Looks good with the rod." Likewise, Frisk has also dressed for the occasion, although in a far less ostentatious manner than Kuja. Their outfit is a pleasant blend of soft gold to match the wheat fields and dark undertones suitable for skulking around at night.

They do their best to contain themself when Kuja mentions flying. They succeed, at least partially. "I haven't, at least not on a dragon. I expect it's pretty different compared to airship flying." OKAY BUT SERIOUSLY NO LIE THAT DRAGON WAS EVEN COOLER UP CLOSE

"It is a bit different, yes. And thank you." He reaches up to stroke Opalescence behind the crest, stepping up to seat himself in front of the shoulders. "In front of me, if you will. You're smaller than I am, and it will be easier for you to navigate from the front, since I've no idea where this is."

Frisk looks genuinely surprised at the suggestion, and offers a smile that looks a lot less like it's been practiced in return. "If you say so." With a bit of doing, they manage to climb up in front of Kuja. Once in front of him, they take out their slate, opening up the maps application. "Alright. So, I think the first place to check is this random, spooky burnt-out shack that showed up in the middle of a bunch of cornfields at the beginning of the month. Pretty obvious place for a maybe-ghost to be haunting, but the locals are too scared to check it out themselves. It's a few miles southwest."

There's a faint rush, as the Silver Dragon takes to the skies, seemingly guided without effort, in that direction. It may be slightly difficult to keep in one place without a saddle, but the genome seems practiced at it.

"Too scared? Why? It's only a ghost, hardly anything worth worrying about, as the undead go."

"Woah!" Frisk says as they ascend, but it's more out of instinct than anything else. The flight is surprisingly, even pleasantly smooth. Way more than Frisk had expected of a dragon, to be perfectly honest.

"It's probably the season, honestly. All of this weirder than average stuff happening and the regular monster attacks are freaking people out."

Kuja feels a not-insignificant amount of pride as Opalescence soars through the air. She has a lot of practice, of course, with a rider.
"Hm. I suppose. The increased monster aggression is somewhat worrisome, but you find all sorts of things. Samhain was a common holiday, on Gaia, with all sorts of superstitions surrounding it. Perhaps the monsters are merely more aggressive in the fall due to increased need for food as winter approaches?"

Frisk shrugs. While ghosts were a distinctly not-undead thing back home, and the spookiness in the Underground was generally far more on the spoopy side, they didn't want to fall into the trap of skepticism in a world like Vaikuntha. "Probably. I don't think we should totally discount the idea of something weirder going on, though. We're riding through the sky on a silver dragon towards a shack that suddenly appeared in the middle of nowhere to exorcise something that might be a ghost. Skepticism is healthy, but considering the world we're living in right now, we shouldn't totally ignore 'impossible' ideas."

Kuja nods. "It's not impossible, certainly. But people do have a tendency to over-react to things when- you said the shack suddenly appeared?" Hmm.

Opalescence angles towards the ground, as the location approaches, turning in an arc that swings around, circling gently towards the ground. "I hardly want to give in to hysteria, but you may have a point. Something is off..."

"A-greed." When Opalescence finally lands, Frisk hops off without hesitation. Would patting the snout of the dragon be a bad idea? Yeah, probably. Very much so. Looking at the ghost shack, Frisk rolls their shoulders. "...burning it down prooobably won't work and might make whatever might be in there ever angrier, so... I guess we should check it out inside?"

Kuja slides off onto the ground, taking a moment to adjust his hair and clothes, doubtless ruffled from the flight. "A fair guess. Though I think we ought not discount the burning entirely if things start to go wrong." He conjures a flame in one hand, for light, holding it aloft as he approaches the shack.

Frisk opens their mouth to agree, but before they can say anything, a loud, hellish screaming comes from inside the shack, something like a bunch of high and low pitches "NOs!" being exclaimed at once. They're frozen for a moment, and in that time a black shape flies out, through one of the shack's back walls and away from Kuja's fire.

"...I..." Frisk shakes their head. "Okay then. No fire or it runs, I guess. I'll run after it. Follow us on Opalescence, hopefully you can catch it if it's distracted with me."

"Oh, damn." The fire is extinguished promptly and he's running back to the dragon, leaping on and taking to the sky. "Nothing. Why can nothing ever just be simple- We were only trying to talk, you know! Get back here!"

While Kuja is mounting Opalescence, Frisk is taking off at a... okay, wow, it's frankly quite unlikely that it's even physically possible for somebody with such short legs to run that quickly, but here we are. It doesn't take that long for Frisk to catch up with the mysterious shape, running it around in tightly contained circles and giving Kuja an opening to swoop in.

Kuja takes the moment to dive, swooping in to land in front of the fleeing figure, no magic charged in his palms this time, but still clearly irritated. He's already slipping off, approaching with hands raised. "Please stop running- We certainly have no intention of opening hostilities unless they're opened in kind, but we need to talk to you." Honestly, some people.

The shape of the figure is quite difficult to make out in the dark, but what little Kuja and Frisk can see is... wrong, somehow. This isn't the uncanny valley, what they're dealing with is the Uncanny Mariana Trench. The effect is somewhat diminished by how the "ghost" is quite clearly quaking with fear. "Y-you swear it, kupo? You will bring no harm to me?" they stutter, accent surprisingly sophisticated. Frisk looks at Kuja from behind the creature, eyebrow arched.

Kuja crosses his arms. Why lie? The grotesquely-deformed moogle has been nothing but trouble so far-

He catches that look from Frisk, and there's a pang of... guilt. Kuja sighs, places one hand on his hip, staring down at the creature. "I'm not going to lie and say that I'll do absolutely nothing to hurt you under any circumstances... but I will promise your safety provided you don't attack. Are those terms acceptable?"

Edited 2018-10-12 18:46 (UTC)

"...Very well, kupo," the creature says, some of the dignity in his voice returning. "Why do you pursue me, then? I cause no harm living as I do out here, kupo."

Frisk opens their mouth to reply, then closes it, thinking better of it. "Um... because we thought you were a ghost terrorizing the townspeople?" they eventually settle on.

"That is what the reports say, yes. Of course, given your immediate instinct upon being presented with something as relatively harmless as a candle-flame was to run screaming, I have significant doubts about your ability to terrorize anyone."

Kuja sighs. Why, then, would they be bothered to come out here to find some slightly-deformed moogle? Surely there would be a better use of their time?

Frisk looks just as lost as Kuja. It's clear that they weren't exactly expecting this either, even by the standards of their other moogle exorcisms. "I..." They look at Kuja, shrugging, then back at the Frankenmog. "Okay then. So, uh... just stick to your shack and try not to scare anybody, I guess?"

"Please, I beg of you, don't go!" he says, flinching. "I have not had proper company in so long!"

Something is wrong here. Something is desperately wrong. The pieces aren't fitting together-
"Moogle. I'm telling you this ahead of time so you aren't startled, understand? I'm not casting a spell to harm you, only making a little light." He conjures a faint orb of White Magic, this time, the same spell that's proved so useful in keeping the house clean. It's a weak light, but a light just the same, dim enough to see more than mere silhouettes in the darkness.

After a few seconds, the light is extinguished. "I see. It makes perfect sense, now." Something about this... hurts. Badly. "They think you're a monster, I take it. Because you bear obvious marks of manufacture. That you're somehow lesser because you were made and not born."

"...indeed. My creator fell faint at the very sight of me, and others have had even less kind reactions to my visage, kupo," the moogle intones.

Frisk would never admit it, but... for the brief moment that the moogle was illuminated, a visceral fear gripped their gut. They push it down, but they can't help but to feel guilty for even feeling a flash of horror at the poor moogle's appearance. They open their mouth to suggest something, then think better of it, turning to whisper into Kuja's ear. "Um... maybe we should offer the poor guy some dinner or something? If he eats? I dunno, I kinda feel bad that he's stuck out here in this shack."

The genome stands there for a long moment, silently weighing the options before him. "Very well. I suggest you listen clearly, because this conversation has put me, I confess, in an extraordinarily foul mood. I'll not tolerate you being made to live in a shack just because you're different. I've a spare bedroom, it's not furnished but I've blankets and pillows to spare, and you'll have use of a washroom and kitchen for... a night or two, at least."

Kuja sneers. "And if the mob intends to come knocking at my door to find the monster, we'll see if a pile of ash can wield a pitchfork."

It was kind of funny in an odd way that while this was the nicest that Frisk had ever seen Kuja act, it was also the most terrifying they had seen him. For a moment, Kuja was faaaar scarier than Frakenmog ever had been. At least he was directing all of that scary energy to a place of goodwill. "Maaaaybe fire a few warning shots instead of outright incinerating them first thing, my guy, but I agree," Frisk says, bemused. "You good with dragon flight? It's pretty cool and the quickest way back to his house."

After a moment of hesitation, the Frankenmog nods. "I accept. Thank you for your kindness, kupo. It will not be forgotten. And yes, I will be happy to accompany you on your... dragon, kupo."

Kuja pauses at Frisk's words, and some of that seems to fade. "Well. Yes, that's much more reasonable, obviously I wasn't going to jump straight to indiscriminate casting of Fira that would be, ah. Wrong." He clears his throat, before stepping up to mount the dragon once more.

"Don't... don't think anything of it. Consider it a gift, from one failed creation to another."

Something about the way Kuja said that made Frisk think otherwise, but they'll remain from commenting. For now. They don't even raise a skeptical eyebrow! Look at this paragon of self-restraint!

Frisk and Frankenmog climb up on top of Opalescence, although the moogle displays some understandable misgivings before getting on.

Spooky Scary Skeleton (And Other Friends) [Closed]

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