[ 1v1 ] work a miracle ( thezil v hattie )

[its me debz]

Effect

Rolling a 3: ALL DAMAGE HAS NO MODIFIER (ie: you don't need to subtract -6 ). You feel something brush against you, unsettling as it literally envelops you in a blanket of cold. You feel stronger but more distant, as if the battle around you is happening to someone else...

 

[its me debz]

Thezil loped through the haunted house, gloved fingers dragging against the wall. He had his pumpkin head, today, and ever since that running stretch in the human world, his limbs felt....more natural. Like something had finally clicked into place.

He did not move sinuously, not yet, but it was like old bones and joints were finally connected in ways that worked with each other, rather than against.

The room, this time, was warm, and almost tropical, all sorts of strange things growing on trees that shouldn't have. Skulls, for one. Mirrors, spiders as fruit. It was quite surreal, and he kept stopping to investigate at every turn, curious.

enoh love

 

[Enoh Love]

Hattie had never been here before. Somehow, in the length of time she had been on the island, she had never been dealt the infamous Haunted House Duty. In fact, to date, she had not even met a legitimate creature. Not Halloween, not Horseman, not something in between. Nothing. Only Lament, who barely counted, because they shared a headspace.

"-WHOA-" She cried out, unable to help it, as she rounded the rocky corner of the room's entrance to see a lanky thing with a pumpkin head. "-HOW COOL!" Slipped out before she could stop it, pointing at the too-human creature which was still a safe distance away. Lament whistled in her head, a wordless demand to be summoned, and Hattie obeyed subconsciously. Her partner was nearly forgotten in the wake of this cool new thing.

"What are you? Headless Horseman?"

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

Thezil visibly started, whirling to face Hattie. There was a candle inside of the pumpkin, illuminating his face, the flame flaring and flickering.

"I am not a horsemen," he said, and the words came out in a wheeze, plumes of smoke emitted from his mouth and nose and eyes. "But I do have a horse. Does this count?" Thezil peered closer at her, ducking down-- he'd grown taller, over the years, and could loom a little bit easier, even though it was on accident.

"And you are a hunter, yes?" The coat gave it away.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"There's a legend of a headless horseman! Not like…a clansman but like uh…a Dullahan?" She tried to explain a bit, but she was too busy looking up at him. It wasn't too far to look up - she was a fairly tall woman herself. He did his best to loom over her, frightening in his own right, but not enough to shake her.

"Err - yeah. But I don't want to start trouble! I just need to ask you to leave the house without a fuss, though." Though she looked like she really regretted having to say such a thing. He was fascinating; she only wanted to talk to him!

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[its me debz]

"Interesting," he breathed, mostly curious more than anything. "We are likely related. But I am an Object Head, as I have several, as I look for that which is mine. The pumpkin, however, is festive, given that it is Tenth October, the True October."

Thezil shook his head to decline her suggestions, though, no matter how polite it was. "I will leave on my own terms, I am afraid. I wish to explore. It is not your territory or dominion to control. The Haunted House is its own self."

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Yes it's very…Halloween-the-Holiday-ish." She tilted a hand side to side, downplaying just how much he looked like the terrors in the horror movies. It was brilliant.

Hattie paused for a few seconds after his polite decline of her suggestion.

"Well. At least I tried!" Her weapon vanished, returning to a belled bracelet on her wrist that chimed quietly with every little motion. "So, you lost your head, but you can fashion temporary ones out of objects? Is there anything you can't make a head out of?"

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[its me debz]

Thezil bobbled his pumpkin head appreciatively. "You are welcome to walk with me, if you wish to explore as well. I find the contents of the house fascinating. I have never seen the same room twice. Many rooms do not connect to each other correctly. If we were to leave through the door we came in, we might end up in another room entirely."

He sounded sort of fond, almost. "I did. They are simply placeholders until I find my own. But it has to be Good and Right. I only have two, but I feel as though I am on the cusp of a third. My other is a skellyvision, but it is much more difficult to speak through it."

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Oh, no, I can't explore with a member of Halloween." She lifted her hands and shook her head slowly in polite refusal, but that didn't quite stop her from stepping after him anyway. Sure, she couldn't explore with one, but she could certainly follow one. Yes. Totally trailing him for their safety. Naturally.

"Fascinating! And how can you tell that it is 'good and right' for you? Do you know what your real head looks like, or where you might have left it? How would you talk through a skelevision - and how can you talk now?"

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[its me debz]

"Why?" he asked, curious. "We have worked together, before. To save humans, just recently, in fact."

He did not quite grasp the difference between coming with him, and following him-- but Thezil supposed he appreciated the company either way. Hunters were so curious about him, and he had to admit it made him feel...interesting, appreciated.

"I wish I could tell," Thezil said, frankly. "It is simply a feeling placed in the gut, instinctual. As if you'd be able to pick your own severed hand from a lineup, finding one in the wild is-- I know, as sure as anything, that the sky is orange, that there are 12 Octobers. It is ...knowledge."

But at the question of his original head, Thezil sighed, shoulders slumping. "I do not know. It is beyond my memory. I woke up without it, and knew that my purpose was to find it. That is what I exist to do, pulled together pieces from a junkyard."

He paused, rolling up one sleeve to reveal patchwork toned skin, without the stitches, just smooth lines of pieces coming together.

"It is my Natural Ability. My fear is, from what I grasp, which is shaky as I am but two years old, the conduit in which my chosen object head and core connect, communicate. The skellyvision cobbled together voices, and did not parse well. Static, feedback, and tone jumping up and down was common. This one, it utilizes the flame and smoke, harnessing it with fear."

All the while, the candle flickered as he spoke, the thin white smoke floating around him almost in time to the cadence of his words. "You are very curious. How does your weapon work?"

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Well, yes, but we're not technically supposed to." Hattie whistled innocently, wondering if they could hear her breaking a lot of their rules.

"Very interesting! So your gut tells you what can and can't work for a head, and you go with that? I hope you find yours. If you find it while I'm still alive, can you show me? I'd love to see your real face." She nodded along, not quite understanding the whole concept, as she was born with hers and would be considerably less alive should she lose it, but she felt that she could understand. It was a life goal, engrained into his very core. A quest that not many people ever had in their whole lives, let alone from 'birth'.

"You 'woke up' - so you aren't Halloween-born? That means you used to be Human, doesn't it? Would that make you a ghost, or an undead?" She rubbed her chin in thought, wondering if perhaps he had been beheaded in his previous life - and subsequently, if it would be possible to research every single case of decapitation in the whole world, from the beginning of time.

Or in the last two years, anyway. Assuming time worked in a linear fashion in Halloween.

"Two, huh? The terrible twos." She mused, teasing, after she leaned in to see his smooth seams. "You look pretty grown up and put together for two." He was describing his skelevision head, and she suddenly longed to see it; if his pumpkin head was this interesting, his other one would be mind blowing. He pointed out how curious she was, and she pointed at herself, seemingly surprised.

"Huh? Me? Oh, I guess. It's kind of what I do." When asked about her weapon, she tore her gaze from him and looked down at her bracelet. "I'm not entirely sure on the specifics. But she used to be Halloween, and now we are bonded. She's an extension of myself as much as she is my protector." Her hand raised, fingers spread, and the bracelet vanished to instead form an axe. Once-spread fingers gripped down on the smooth handle, and the weighted end of the skull-like blade hit the ground with a small thud. "Her name is Lament." There was a small pause. "Oh, and uh, I'm Hattie." Her free hand extended, offering it for a shake.

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

"That is dumb," Thezil said, bluntly. "Cooperation can only be helpful, so long as we are aware of the risks that come with such acts."

In his opinion, anyway, which was the only one that was right and mattered.

"Thank you. When I find it, I will try to seek you out." At the next question, he grew baffled. Being...human before? "I do not know. Sometimes, creatures form into existence out of nothing, being born is not strictly necessary, although pumpkins are the only intentional way to procreate. Sometimes, a fear is great enough that it forms on its own."

He shrugged. "Or so that is what I have learned. I am Undead, though. I am not translucent, nor do I float. I am sturdier than that."

He laughed, puffs of smoke forming around his head in a perfect series of rings. "The body is closer to being an average age for school. Some dragons there are hundreds of years old, but are mentally around the same age as me. Halloween is varied, in this way."

When she talked of weapons, Thezil listened intently. Curious, that she had once been Halloween. "That is interesting. I was not aware such a conversion could occur."

Thezil grasped her hand with his own, covered with a crisp, white glove. "I am Thezil."

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Oh, I agree. But rules are rules, right?" Rules were clearly meant to be broken, as often as possible, with as little threat to the breaker as possible.

"Oh. So maybe not, then." Well, there went a pretty cool opportunity to stretch Deus' databases while wasting a godawful amount of time. She had been looking forward to researching each beheading on record in the entire world for the last forever. Maybe she should try it anyway. You know, on a saturday, when she had little else to do.

"An Undead Object-Head. Very cool!" He had seams, which should have struck her as Undead, but the confirmation always helped. "Ahh, so time is definitely not an entirely linear thing? It's very subjective." After all, it would be worth everything to a creature with a short life span, and nothing to one who could live forever. There was no set pattern to follow, it seemed. "That must be frustrating to keep track of." Especially if one had friends in varying species.

"Yeah! I do know that the process is called Weaponization, and that the majority of our weapons are willing Halloween people, who wanted to help us make a difference." She nodded, patting her axe lovingly. "Lament is my partner, and I love her, even if all she does is whistle at me." Her head mate couldn't speak actual, coherent words. It was the only downside to this partnership. "--Also, I'll never pee alone again, which is really kind of weird, but-" She shrugged, then went onto more important things: such as shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Thezil!" Her own handshake was firm, and when she slid her grasp away, she also dismissed Lament, once more returning her to her bracelet form. "I wonder if you'd be so kind as to let me take a sample of your FEAR? For study purposes, of course."

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

"Rules have no bearing on me. I do as I wish. I did not agree to them."

It maybe explained why he never really went to class. "I would say time is linear, but our aging process is not. We live for a very long time, until we fade into nothing. Halloween is always growing, eternally stretching and accommodating for growth. Or... that is what my books say. I do not know for certain."

Thezil looked very interested at the idea of weaponization, although it was a professional curiosity more than a personal one. "That is very interesting. I have no interest in serving anyone but myself, but-- I suppose it is for those that do?"

At the request, he looked thoughtful. "I am not sure how you'd contain it. But of course, you are welcome to it. Might I have, in turn, an object of yours?" Thezil thought of Reese. "Not for myself, you see, but for one who collects such trinkets."

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Unfortunately, I did." Being a Hunter and all. She was pretty sure there was paperwork at some point, but she was also equally sure she talked her way through it.

"...That's very interesting." She mused, blue eyes lifting to the ceiling-sky. "I imagine it would be determined by species, yes? Like, some would live and age longer than others? Like uhhh...I don't know...Dragons? Are Dragons a thing?" Dragon Lore in the Human world often ended with they are ancient-old. "If I found a way to visit you, could you show me your books?" She wanted to read real, legitimate Halloween literature. No. Not just want. She needed to. Badly. She didn't know how badly until precisely that moment, either.

"An object?" She parroted, already thinking of what she could offer. She pat herself down, seeing if she had anything that she could give. The pockets of her rather short shorts yielded nothing but her phone and some lint, which hardly seemed fair. Her coat pockets were empty, except for her Portable FEAR sampling kit and a pen, both of which were technically not hers either. Her hair band or earrings she wasn't going to give up, which really only left her with one thing.

"Uhh...Would some of my hair work?" She pulled some of the curly mass of red over her shoulder, holding up some of it to let him appraise it if he wanted. "It's the only thing I have that I can give easily." Unless he wanted like, a chunk of her flesh or something...but that would require her shield breaking. She liked Thezil, he was interesting...but not enough to warrant that kind of pain.

lurks beneath