SOMETHING DEAD THAT DOESN'T KNOW IT'S DEAD.
» THE CITY — INTRODUCTORY NOTES
Now that Halloween is just around the corner, the city is starting to come alive with seasonal cheer. You start to spot decorations scattered around the city: plastic skeletons sitting on benches, jack-o-lanterns decorating front stoops, and even a few places in the park near City Hall where the trees themselves have been decorated. It's clear that the autumn season is in full swing and the city is making the most of it.
From the morning of October 19, you also start to notice flyers hung up around the city that advertise the local university's homecoming Halloween party. They're cheerfully decorated much the same as the newsletter that was delivered to residents earlier in the month, and they're hung from light poles, pinned to bulletin boards, and occasionally fluttering on front stoops of apartment buildings. There might even be one taped to your door when you open it in the morning.
The flyer announces that the Halloween party will begin on October 22 and will run through October 31. It runs every night from sunset to midnight, and residents are encouraged to attend in costume! If they have their own costume, perhaps found at the Halloween Superstore, that's perfect—if they don't have a costume, though, one will be provided to them by the party organizers. Doesn't that just sound like fun? And the flyers really are everywhere, and that makes it hard not to take notice—but once you take notice, you really can't stop noticing.
Indeed, once you read one of the flyers, you just can't help but read the flyer every time you encounter another one. And every time you read one, you find yourself feeling a little more curious about the party being advertised. Will it be anything like the Halloween I know? you may think. Or, I don't even know what Halloween is, I wonder what it'll be like. It's not quite enough to compel you to pay a visit to the address on the flyer, which is one of the dorm buildings on the university campus, but it's definitely enough to get you thinking about Halloween. Maybe you ought to go find a costume…
But Halloween parties and costumes are not all you're thinking about. It's easy enough to write off at first, as tricks of the light or a figment of your imagination: flickers of shadow at the corner of your eye, cold spots in your apartment, creaking footsteps in your empty living room. There's nothing there when you turn your head to look, nothing there when you flick on the lightswitch to see if someone's in your house—but somehow, that doesn't reassure you.
By the evening of October 21, every resident in the city has been visited by some sort of entity haunting their house, and every resident of the city has been left a gift: a dorm room key, each differently numbered. You may find the key in your pocket, or on your bedside table, or in your favorite coffee mug.
Should you decide to attend the party, it will be up to you to decide: Is this just the City getting in the spirit of the season? Or is it something more… malevolent?
The flyers will be strewn about the city in various locations beginning on October 19. Characters who read them will find themselves feeling oddly compelled to go check out the advertised Halloween party, which will run from October 22 to October 31 between sunset and midnight. For the most part this will just feel like a sense of curiosity about the party, and astute characters may be able to pick up on the fact that they're being emotionally manipulated a bit.
Characters who choose to go can wear a costume of their choosing from the Halloween Superstore, or the City will provide one if they don't have a costume of their own yet. (Read on for more information about how characters can get their hands on a costume!)
Lastly, every character will find a dorm room key somewhere on their person before the party starts on October 22. This key may or may not correspond to a room in the dorm where the party is being held—of course, characters are not obligated to use the key, but they may want to know what's hiding behind those closed doors.
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ALL THESE GHOSTS COME STREAMING DOWN.
» THE CITY — GETTING THE PARTY STARTED
On the morning of October 22, every device in the city starts to buzz.
The screen illuminates, displaying a white page not unlike the orientation survey that welcomed you into the city. Unlike the orientation survey, though, there are no questions—only a single phrase in bold, dark text. THE GOOD OF THE MANY, it says, with a single "OK" button below.
For a minute, nothing else happens. You try to turn the device off, but the screen stays lit; you try to reboot the device, but the screen stays lit. It seems that the only way to get rid of the screen is to press the button.
…Have you done this before? Or are you having déjà vu?
At sunset that same day, the Halloween party will open for the first time. The party's entrance is located on the ground level of a large three-story dorm building in the western half of the university campus. The double doors into the building are fully decorated with folded-paper bats and ghosts, cotton batting pulled apart to make spiderwebs, and a cut-out sign that says "HAUNTED HOUSE" in bright red, dripping-blood letters. The decor looks almost… corny, hokey in a way that can't possibly be threatening. Right?
But the decorated double doors aren't the only way that residents may enter the party. Of course, the organizers would prefer that you use the front doors, but if you'd prefer not to, they have other ways of getting you inside.
After the party begins on October 22, any door in the city that you walk through has the potential to become a door into the first level of the dorm building. You may exit your apartment and find yourself standing in the darkened lobby; you may walk out of the bathroom and run right into a handful of cotton spiderwebbing. Unfortunately, there's nothing to indicate whether or not a door might lead to the party until you're through it—and once you're through it, there's no turning around. The only way out, as they say, is deeper in.
Were you wearing a costume in preparation for the party? Fantastic, you'll keep that costume on! But if you weren't wearing a costume, don't worry—the party's organizers have you covered. You look down and find that no matter what you were wearing before, you are now wearing a costume of some kind. Maybe it's one you would have chosen for yourself, or maybe it's totally not to your taste. If you truly hate it, you can try to take it off… although you may not find it easy to remove.
Once the party begins on October 22, as stated above, any door in the city has the potential to become a door that leads directly to the first level of the haunted house. Characters will not be able to tell by any means whether a door is pointed there or not; only once they're fully through the door will they realize that they're actually standing in the lobby of the decorated dorm building and not in whatever room they intended to enter. Once characters are inside, there's unfortunately no way to get out, not without making their way through the haunted house itself.
Whether a character enters the haunted house via the main double doors or through another door somewhere else in the city, they'll need to come in costume. (Their own canon clothes do not count!) If they're already wearing a costume, they can keep it on arrival; however, those who enter the haunted house costumeless will be assigned a costume at random by the city. The actual costume is up to the player's choice. It may end up being something that suits the character, or it may end up being something totally embarrassing—that's completely up to the player.
Regardless, characters will have a difficult (but not impossible) time removing the costume until they have exited the haunted house. This includes both physical difficulty (feeling as though the costume is fused to their skin, feeling physical resistance to undoing zippers/buttons, etc.) and mental difficulty (an overwhelming sense of dread or vulnerability). Characters are able to overcome both of these difficulties to remove the costume if they're dedicated enough; the clothes they were originally wearing may be still on under the costume or might be awaiting them at home when they return.
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THEY GO TO GROUND AND ROT.
» THE HAUNTED HOUSE — LEVEL 1
CONTENT WARNINGS: One image containing fake spiders, mention of spidery feelings; mention of zombies (but no images)
The ground floor of the dorm is decorated much how one might expect a haunted house at a university to be decorated. The entrance to the haunted house proper is through a tunnel of cotton spiderwebs filled with little plastic spiders, so narrow that it forces you to hunch down and squish together to get through. Although it feels claustrophobic, and you may imagine the sensation of little spider legs crawling over your body, once you make it through the tunnel it becomes clear that the spiders never actually moved. Whew!
The tunnel lets out into the first-floor dorm, a long (too long?) stretch of hallway with doors leading to rooms on either side. Some of the doors are closed and locked, but many are open, allowing you a glimpse as you pass. As you walk down the hallway, you make sure to peer into each of the rooms. Some of the doors lead to total blackness; others lead to rooms decorated like an elaborate Victorian haunted mansion, and yet others even lead to perfectly normal dorm rooms, like someone forgot to get around to decorating. And sometimes—not every time, but often enough—when you peer into one of the rooms, there's something peering back.
Most of the frights you get on the first floor come in the form of animatronics, realistic-looking ones that jump out at you as you pass and give you a fright. There's a man with a bloody knife, or a zombie with flesh hanging from its teeth, or a clown with sharp, venomous-looking fangs—they leap out of the doorways with a startling quickness, but never come close enough to touch. They just brandish their weapons, then retreat back into the room they came from as if satisfied with the scare they've given.
There are also a handful of real scare actors on the first floor as well, perhaps even some faces you recognize. They lurk in the darkened rooms and leap out with growls or shrieks, then chase you a few meters down the hall before leaving you to run away. Just like the animatronics, though, they never get close enough to touch or harm you—they just want to get your blood racing.
The rest of the scares come from paintings that abruptly change form to show a ghost's face, or candles that swoop down across your path and then move back up. And behind it all are the spooky sounds of groans and screams and tearful begging, a solemn soundtrack to your trip through the haunted house.
Oddly, you never do see a speaker. And even more oddly still, none of the rooms on the first floor match the number of the key you're holding…
The first level of the haunted house consists of fairly cheap scares, mostly relying on animatronics, voiceover tracks, and tricks of the light or optical illusions to deliver scares to the residents. Players should feel free to use their imaginations to come up with potential scares or animatronics—think something moderately more scary than Haunted Mansion but less than Halloween Horror Nights. The animatronics may feature enemies or monsters from characters' home worlds, or may be simply generic creatures you would find at a Halloween store.
In addition, the first level is also populated by characters working as scare actors. These characters may be those who attended Robby and Tsuruno's house party, or may simply be characters with a sense of humor who enjoy making other characters jump and shriek a little. Either way, these scares are harmless and non-contact. The scare actors won't harm anyone going through the haunted house, even if they do a little chasing down the hall.
Although the hallway looks oddly long and is perhaps a bit more winding than it ought to be, there doesn't seem to be anything particularly odd about the dorm building itself. Characters may, however, find that the trip through the haunted house feels shorter when they're accompanied by another.
For characters who don't wish to venture up the stairs to the second level, there is a well-hidden emergency exit tucked out of sight behind the staircase that leads upward. This is the opt-out for players who don't wish to engage with the events in the second and third levels of the dorm.
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WE WILL NOT REMAIN UNSCATHED.
» THE HAUNTED HOUSE — LEVEL 2
CONTENT WARNINGS: Generally spooky images including some ghostly ones; mention of hanging. Prompts include violence (such as mutilation) potentially leading to serious injury or death. As always, please warn appropriately!
It's once you reach the second level that you realize something has shifted.
The metal door at the end of the hallway swings shut behind you, and you immediately realize it's far too dark and far too cold. Even with your eyes wide, you can barely make out the shapes of the decorations around you; they are lit mostly by the flickering orange of electric candles and the glow of the emergency exit sign above your head. Your breath condenses into steam as you exhale, and although you rub your hands together, you can't quite seem to gain any warmth. You feel a little bit dizzy and off-kilter, and from the distance you can hear the sound of a voice murmuring in quiet, urgent tones, interrupted by brief bouts of sobbing. You try the door behind you, but it doesn't give: you are stuck here, and must make it out.
The hallway is decorated, but even the same decorations that felt corny downstairs now give this floor an air of discomfort and desperation. As you make your way down the hall, you notice that many more of the doors on this level are open, and in the sickly, dim light cast by the fake candles, you're able to catch glimpses of what's inside: shadowy figures moving in the blackness. These are creatures that seem made of the dark itself, congealed into something more or less resembling a person. There's one sitting at the desk like a good student, its too-long fingernails rasping over the surface as it scratches something into the wood. There's one sitting on the windowsill, its too-long limbs hanging out into the night. There's one hanging from the ceiling, its feet at eye level, swaying slightly in an unfelt breeze. There's one standing dead in the middle of the room and staring straight at you, its eyes two embers in its featureless head.
You lock eyes briefly and the creature starts to move: this ghost is coming after you, and this one means it. There's no animatronic rigging to stop it and pull it back into the darkness of the room, and it's no scare actor that will stop after a few meters of pursuit—no, its hands reach for you, for your hair, your throat, fingers clutching and grasping. You turn and run, but it pursues, and that voice you heard murmuring earlier is now a fever pitch of syllables behind you, half-whispered, half-screamed in a language you can't understand. The noise of it draws more ghosts out from their rooms, and they follow as you sprint down the too long, twisting length of the hallway. You can see the glow of the exit sign at the end lf the hallway, drawing closer as you madly dash for it—
And then you trip. Or maybe you're pushed, you're not sure. You hit the carpet hard and then the ghost is on you, its hands scrabbling at your throat, fingers prodding at your eyes. Of course you fight back—if you don't, you're going to die—but as you fumble blindly for something with which to beat the ghost off, you realize that this ghost has weight to it, that the fingers trying to tear out your throat aren't incorporeal and ghostly but rather the fingers of a pair of very human hands. As you blink, eyes straining in the darkness, the features of the ghost begin to resolve into those of a person.
And it is a person. It's a person you may even know, a friend of yours, a fellow resident of the City. Not a mannequin facsimile, but someone real, someone who fights you with everything in them as you struggle to break free.
Your grasping hand grips something firm, maybe a flashlight or a fire extinguisher, and you swing it as hard as you can at their head. You don't want to, this is your friend, but what choice do you have? After all—it's either them or you.
Once characters enter the second level of the haunted house, those attuned to energy flow will immediately be able to recognize this as a place full of negative ghostly energy. Characters may sneak extremely carefully and quietly through the hallways, avoiding every single ghost; they may be pursued by ghosts, but ultimately make it to the exit, beyond which the ghosts will not pursue; or they may be caught by a ghost (or "ghost") and be forced to fight for their lives.
Not all of the "ghosts" on the second level are truly ghosts. Players may opt to have their characters participate in the event as the considerably more deadly "scare actors" of the second level. Only they won't be acting: to these characters, anyone who passes by in the second-floor hallway (the "partygoer") is an absolute threat that must be dealt with immediately. Scare actor characters will be possessed by an irrepressible need to hunt down and attempt to injure or kill any partygoer or other scare actor they encounter, and can only be stopped by either death (of either the partygoer or the scare actor) or being knocked out and removed from the hallway.
These characters may also be those who attended Robby and Tsuruno's Halloween house party and ended up getting a little too in-character in a negative way (see their plotting post for more information). However, characters do not have to attend the house party in order to participate in this mechanic. Any character who enters the haunted house can become a second-floor ghost if the player so desires.
Either the scare actor or partygoer may be seriously injured or even die. If this happens to the partygoer, the haze of bloodlust will immediately lift from the scare actor and reveal to them what they've done. (If the scare actor is knocked out or dead, obviously this realization will take place after they've returned or regained consciousness.) Killing and death as a part of the October event is not subject to murder or death consequences.
If a character chooses to sneak through the second floor and avoid the ghosts, and does so by entering any of the decorated dorm rooms, they may find shorthand messages scratched into the desks, closets, or doors. These messages might just be names, familiar ones belonging to people from home, or might say things like HELP ME or ITERATION 4█ or LOOK BEHIND THE APOCALYPSES. Characters may also find small, non-magical, recognizable personal effects belonging to people from their home worlds, tucked into drawers or kicked under the bed or in some otherwise unobtrusive location, easily overlooked.
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WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING TO SAY, SET SOMETHING ON FIRE.
» THE HAUNTED HOUSE — LEVEL 3 AND CONCLUSION
After the second level of the haunted house, the only way to go is up… assuming you survived, that is. Exhausted and battered, you make your way up the stairs—perhaps alone, perhaps with a friend, or perhaps dragging the unconscious body of your assailant-friend—and let yourself into the third-floor common area.
This is where the Halloween party is taking place! Congratulations, you made it! There's a bass-heavy soundtrack throbbing in the background, and the room is decorated once again in the cheesy Halloween decor of the entryway. A large casket full of ice holds beers and sodas, and a table in the middle of the room bears all sorts of spooky snacks: peeled-grape "eyeballs," candy corn "teeth," sour gummy worms in brownie dirt, and any other kind of snack one might imagine.
If you made it through the haunted house with a friend, you will find a letterman jacket in your favorite colors, with your name embroidered on the back, hanging on a peg on the far wall of the room. You can take it with you now, or when you go home, or you can leave it on the peg forever—it's your choice, but it is a symbol of having survived the haunted house, so it might be nice to have. Don't you think?
You may have to do this again, you realize. Now that the doors in the city occasionally open straight into the haunted house, there's no telling how many times you'll have to survive this before the Halloween party draws to its close. Maybe you do need a beer after all…
Oh, and you still don't know what dorm room that key goes to. Maybe you had better just hang onto it for now.
The topmost floor of the dorm building, the third floor, is where the "party" part of the Halloween party is taking place! The food and drink is abundant and, of course, free. There's just about any type of drink or Halloween-themed snack imaginable, so characters can help themselves. When they're through partying, there's an outside staircase that leads directly from the common room back down to ground level.
Characters who survive the haunted house in a group of two or more will find that that there is a custom-made letterman jacket with their name on the back, perfectly their size, hanging on a coat rack on the far side of the room. While wearing this jacket, characters will be less susceptible to the scares in the haunted house, and the ghosts of the second floor will not pursue them as intently (although it has no effect on scare actor characters). To any characters who are particularly sensitive to this sort of thing, the jackets do have a moderate protective effect against various negative status effects, so to speak; this effect does not diminish after the event is over. Characters can only get one jacket, their first time through the haunted house; subsequent trips through will not result in additional jackets.
The dorm room key is not a usable item during the October 2023 event, but will become usable in November and December, so characters are advised to not lose them.
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WILDCARD.
The city is by no means small, and there are plenty of things for you to see. There's no rush in exploring, so feel free to take your time looking around and peering into various nooks and crannies and alleyways—and don't worry, you're not very likely to find anything peering back.
If none of the above prompts appeal, feel free to check out the Locations and Maps pages and write your own freestyle prompt using one or many of the available locations.
This month's event headers come from "Landscape with Fruit Rot and Millipede," a poem by Richard Siken.
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citylogs2023-10-19 09:00 pm
Reno | Final Fantasy 7 (Original)
LEVEL 1 (with Fearne)
⇢ they go to ground and rot;
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...
and then she's going to smack them both again for good measure. ]
Foul! Curs! Villains! Thou hath provoked my wrath, for I shall not be made a fool of! Accept thy punishments without complaint, Ser Reno, Miss Fearne!
[ this is the worst punishment she's given fearne since she usually just grabs her cheeks. ]
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- Ow!
( but still, she's giggling like a madman even as she rubs at her nose and cheeks. that smarts, and part of her did expect it, but she thought she'd at least do better at dodging it. alas. )
Mercy! ( not the face....... she needs that... ) Nice swing though. No wonder Angela sics you on people.
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really, all things considered it could be worse: Don could have run them straight through on it. ]
Yeah, you really got an arm on you. Where'd you learn to slap people with that thing?
[ or does it come naturally when you walked off the page of a Cervantes novel? ]
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I thank thee for the compliments, but I am still cross. For thine information, Ser Reno, I have trained with many weapons; the rapier is not my favored, but it is one I am used to. Miss Fearne, lower thyself.
[ so she can squish her cheeks. that'll get her frustrations out. ]
Are the two of thee having fun? No ill will?
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( a lesson she will barely remember probably. it's the hubris. but, being that she's used to this and would rather have her cheeks squished than get another firm whack with a rapier - she'll lean her hands on her knees so she can bend juuuuust enough for don to reach. here you go shortie. )
What's your favorite weapon then? Is it the charm?
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No ill will, lots of fun. Nobody got me in the face until you though. [ there had been a couple of close calls, but not so much on purpose, just people flailing in shock and nearly getting him in the nose. Don was the first one who actually hit his face and meant to. ]
Are you havin' fun?
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I do not know what charm thee speak of, but it is the lance. They are quite handy for running one through; I should like mine returned to me someday, if possible, but a hero can make do with whatever she is handed.
[ her fixer emblems which are safely at home are emblems. not charms. sacred pieces of etcetc. ]
And I am! To be frank, I do not mind the chance to protect others on the floor above this, but the first floor is not too much to my liking. There are far too many threats that do not show themselves as easily as thee, and it is annoying.
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OTHER PROMPTS
⇢ we will not remain unscathed;
WHEN, ALAS! OUR BRAINS ARE GONE
⇢ we will not remain unscathed;
WHAT NOBLER SUBSTITUTE THAN WINE?
⇢ when you have nothing to say, set something on fire;
Prompt 3 (meeting face to face :3c ? )
Is there no way to go back to the city? I wonder what's with people that didn't get in here. [Probably had more fun than them.]
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[ Reno winks, shameless. equally shameless is the way he lets his gaze rove curiously over the outfit Dorian is wearing. he's not unfamiliar with the way the haunted house is choosing to dress them, that's how he ended up dressed like fucking Genesis Rhapsodos of all people (without the jacket, though, long since abandoned to its fate in the second-floor hallway), but the city's choice of outfit for him certainly isn't as pretty as the one it chose for the other man. ]
Sure, you could get out if ya want. [ Reno gestures toward the far end of the room, where there's a door leading out onto an external stairwell that leads down to the ground. ] But once ya leave you gotta accept the possibility that any door you go through brings you back. I ain't quite in the mood for that yet, so I'm stickin' around.
[ he gestures at the couch next to him, indicating that Dorian's welcome to join if he likes. ]
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I-- [he turns to look at the door and frowns-] how do you know-- oh. [Yep, it finally clicks; the guy does look like he went multiple rounds in this place. Dorian didn't reach outside, or this floor, up until now. His friend "held him back" on the second floor.
With a defeated sigh, he picks up a big glass of wine from the nearby table and drops himself in a chair next to Reno.] So we're stuck either here or in a loop. Great.
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he does offer a sympathetic grimace as he sees the logic of it click into place in Dorian's head. ] Yup, basically. I'm on round... [ he counts briefly on his fingers. ] Four, I think.
[ that's not including the first couple of days, which he'd spent on the first floor being a holy terror and popping out to scare people just trying to make it through. no, Reno's on his fourth trip through the second level and up to the party, by no fault of his own, despite his penchant for getting himself in trouble.
he lifts his own glass to tap it lightly against the rim of Dorian's wineglass, a toast to the shitty circumstances. ] It ain't every door, though. So there's a real chance you walk outta here and never come back. Can't figure out the rhyme or reason for it.
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Oh dear... [he actually feels bad for the guy. Although, if he chose to run the rounds by himself, then a little less so. He clinks the glass with a small smile, clearly a bit bothered by the sudden revelation.]
I am not sure if I want to take a chance and lose, I really don't want to go for another round through the house. [He can only sit and hope that the magic of this place will run out without causing any more trouble for him or anyone else. The fear factor novelty has worn off a while ago.]
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also, to be fair, Reno is the fighting type and he also doesn't want to go for another round, so. he tips his glass in the general direction of the letterman jackets hanging up on the wall. ]
But you did get your jacket, I see. [ there had been one with his name, too, earlier on. he's not wearing it, it doesn't go with the costume. ] What a gift, eh?
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He sighs, looking at the jacket, and shakes his head,] I really hope it's not cursed. Or haunted. Or the mix of it. [And thinking about it, he downs the glass of wine to the end, a bit unusual for him, but his nerves are pretty thin right now. Liquid courage?]
The proper gift would be answers, not many more questions.
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closed — @onlythans
⇢ they go to ground and rot;
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But for all that he might be looking like Urianger right now, his sneaking skills are all entirely his own; he's grown accustomed enough to the background atmosphere of the haunted house that he can generally distinguish between what's real movement and what are special effects, and he's moving easily past a room with some sort of odd ritual set up inside when —
Well. It all happens fast from there.
Urianger doesn't have the instincts of a spy, a rogue, or a gunbreaker; Thancred has all three, and while the shock of the jumpscare preoccupies his conscious thoughts for the flash of a moment, his body is already reacting long before his mind has caught up.
There's something on his arm; he shifts his own weight on instinct, following its momentum, letting it carry through and adding to it in a reaction clearly targeted to break his assailant's hold and put distance between them, and possibly throw them into a wall for good measure.
He just threw something into a wall; his legs know what's meant to happen next, and he dashes to press the advantage, forearm up like a crossbar against the enemy's throat while the other looks instinctively to his back for a handle, to his hip for a blade.
His fingers find cards. That's not supposed to happen.
He blinks, the whole of the reaction passing in a half of a moment, and feels annoyance starting to rise at the back of his neck as he squints in the gloom at — whoever he's just unceremoniously pinned.]
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[ is all Reno manages before his back hits the opposite wall and the wind gets knocked out of him. almost immediately, there's a strong forearm across his throat, pressing into his windpipe, and from the way Thancred's other arm moves Reno can guess he's looking for a weapon. he won't find one, lucky Reno, but the gesture sends a thrill of real danger through him, the keen awareness that if they'd had possession of all faculties and all gadgetry, Reno would probably be a dead man.
it probably speaks volumes about the type of person Reno is that the idea turns him on. when he grins it's sharp-edged, too wide as he brings his hand up to curl long fingers almost tenderly around the narrowest part of Thancred's wrist, thumbing over the bone there. ]
You look good like this. [ there's no fear in Reno at all, no sheepishness over having been flung several feet and slammed up against cinderblock. his voice does come out a little strangled, though. ] I got you, huh?
[ if his gaze is a little wilder than usual, blame it on the atmosphere. ]
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[The other thing he doesn't notice at first, that he's done wholly on instinct, is widened the stance of his feet, one a short ways in front of the other, to more thoroughly enable him to really put his weight into keeping his assailant pinned. It's not until fingers brush softly against his wrist (bare, for once, so there's vulnerable skin to feel, where normally a sturdy fingerless glove would be protecting it) that it seems to occur to him that the reaction he's just had might just be a little disproportionate to the setting he's currently in, and potentially the person who's just been caught up in his web.
Then the voice hits him. He's always had an ear for that sort of thing, and it wasn't so long ago that he'd heard it on the network, complimenting him in much a similar way on a hilariously impulsive thirst trap he'd seen fit to play along with.]
Well, well. Reno Lucky-Twice. Seems your luck ran out this time.
[DID IT, THOUGH. LOOK AT HIS FACE, THANCRED. DID IT, THOUGH.]
Just what did you think would happen, jumping out at me like that?
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[ the way Thancred has him pinned means their bodies are pressed together from chest to thigh, with one of his legs between Reno's, his body weight keeping Reno pushed up against the wall. Reno shifts a little, getting comfortable, but he's clearly in no hurry to get out from where he's at right now.
he does, however, bring his free hand up to trace along the edges of the gold collar currently adorning Thancred's neck. it's impressively intricate, and Reno is absolutely just appreciating the craftsmanship of it and not at all the contrast of its warm shine against Thancred's skin. (yeah, right.) ]
Worst case, you didn't spook. [ Reno grins, his hand dropping down to play with what he can reach of the chain around Thancred's waist. ] I figured, best case, I scared you and you probably took a swing, but this [ and here he shifts again, his own thigh sliding between Thancred's, shameless, ] is way better than best case.
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The one downside of the way they're situated is immediately plain; with most of Thancred's stance already put into keeping Reno pinned, he's at the disadvantage of only one unoccupied hand to play with, while Reno has both of his free and at his disposal. And right now they might merely be lingering over the jewelry, but he's not fool enough to think they'll stay so curious for long.]
Better than best case, you thought you might get lucky?
[IN A CITY-INSTITUTED HAUNTED HOUSE THAT IS ALMOST DEFINITELY REAL-ASS DEADLY SOMEHOW???]
Well. I suppose I have been playing a bit hard to get. Small wonder you took drastic action.
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[ and it very well really might be enough to make a guy self-conscious! if Reno were a guy capable of feeling self-conscious, that is, or at least capable when it comes to things like sex and attraction. instead, he just toes the line, testing where the limits of Thancred's patience with his antics might lie.
his fingertips continue to trail along the hard edges of the jewelry, although he leaves the hand on Thancred's wrist where it is for now. Reno's absolutely a flirt, that's for sure, and clearly not bothered by something so minor as ~*locale*~ (that they're in a haunted house with real potential for danger doesn't bother him in the least), but he's not going to put his hands anywhere Thancred doesn't want them.
that said, it doesn't escape his notice that Thancred also isn't moving away, that he's had his body keeping Reno's pinned for longer than strictly necessary to make the point. ]
So, whatcha think? [ he tilts his head up a little. when he swallows he can feel the pressure of Thancred's forearm against his throat. ] Is my luck runnin' out or not?
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[And it's not as though he's really one to talk, if the way that his hips surreptitiously rock forward is any indication — less by intention, more just the natural reflex of feeling satisfaction dancing just a hair's breadth out of reach and being unable to resist chasing after it. A shame indeed that the skirt of his mage gown is far less conducive to such an effort than his gunbreaker's trousers would be. On the upside, the more concealing drape isn't altogether a bad thing, and nor is the breathing room it leaves by comparison.]
And I'm a bit more concerned about our mutual luck — of not being discovered as yet, out in the open like this.
[But in his first outward tell of actually letting his guard down somewhat, he wets his lips with an absent flick of his tongue, and brings his free hand up from where it'd been searching for a dagger to drag his thumb along Reno's cheekbone instead.]
So I'd say the real question is, are you going to come quietly if I let you go, or are you going to make even more trouble for me than you have already?
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