boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange...

[alittlefuninstead]

For those of you keeping track (which, why would you? You're busy living your own lives), you may come to realize that nearly a year has passed since you've been accosted by snowflakes. You might be looking forward to the seemingly annual holiday festivities that will eventually come your way. Hell, you might even just be some completely random stranger who has no idea what's going on but are about to experience something weird. But the thing is...well. It's too early for that, so it might come as a real shock to you to suddenly be approached by a small elf in what appears to be a zombie costume. It waves a golden envelope at you, and as soon as you open it—ah, yes, there's the flurry of snowflakes blasting you directly in the face as the letter unfolds to reveal its contents.



The moment you register the words (whether by willingly reading the letter or as an attempt to placate the zombie-elf attempting to bite you), the snowflakes encase you in a cyclone of winter-y chilliness. You feel as though you're shoved inside a freezer, like the kind you'd find at a supermarket, and everything around you goes dark as you slip and slide your way down, up, side to side and upside down.

Unlike the usual holiday festivities, you find yourself dumped out in a dark, silent forest. The fog creeps around you, and the only sign of light appears to be coming from the large house ahead. As you look around and gain your bearings, a few things begin to stand out. For one thing, the forest isn't quite as dark as you initially thought. Several jack o'lanterns and white Christmas lights have been placed strategically around the immediate area to give you a bit of light, leading toward a small clearing housing a cul-de-sac of decorated houses. All around you, you can hear the sound of chattering and music, and the smell of something sweet and something like fire fills the air. And most importantly?

You are definitely in a costume of some sort. Is it something you'd pick out yourself? Is it something you're unfamiliar with? What a good question...but keep in mind if you try to remove it, you'll find yourself back in costume after a short period of time. It might even be an entirely different outfit to see if that suits you better.

Since you're already here, why don't you take a look around?

Though please take notice of the large, hand-painted sign directly in front of you that kindly states that murder is prohibited, as usual.

🎃 Spooky Hayrides
The age-old question of "where do these horses keep coming from" is relevant once again. For those of you who wish to explore the forest a little more rather than join the party right away, you won't have to wait long before the sound of bells reaches your ears as a horse-drawn carriage arrives. Are these horses...? They look a little skeletal. But like your traditional Christmas horses, these ones are just as friendly. Climb aboard and have a seat amongst the bales of hay for a ghost tour through the woods. It seems to be a self-guided one though, because the horses seem to know the way and the ghosts you're seeing? Why, they may look familiar as ghosts of friends lost, regrets, or different choices made. Don't worry, they won't follow you...for too long.

🎃 Trick or Treat
If you follow the path down to the cul-de-sac, you'll find a perfect little neighborhood with brightly lit houses, and several ghostly apparitions dressed in fun and silly costumes. A large stack of candy buckets sit on a table near the first house, and chalk drawings on the sidewalk point you in the right direction. March on up to the door, ring the bell, and give your best "trick or treat!" Some houses will be nice and give you copious amounts of your favorite sweets, but others may have different ideas such as dousing you with a bucket of water, candy that turns your whole mouth black, glitter bombs that explode upon contact, and other harmless pranks. But never fear! There are plenty of houses to try your luck and see how you score. But if you'd rather play it safe...

🎃 Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze
At the other end of the cul-de-sac there are two fields. The pumpkin patch is filled with large, brightly colored pumpkins ready to be harvested and carved into whatever creative design you can think of. All of the appropriate tools such as carving knives, spoons, lights and paint are spread out on various tables to help you bring your vision to life! But you can't work on an empty stomach, can you? Feel free to browse the various snack carts as well filled with small treats such as apple cider, popcorn, and build-your-own charcuterie stations.

For the less artistically inclined and more adventurous, why not give the corn maze a try? Take a friend or two and disappear among the stalks, winding your way through every twist and turn to try and find your way out. The longer you stay in the maze though, the more it begins to feel as though someone's following you. No matter where you look, you'll always be alone, and yet you can't quite shake off the feeling.

Just ignore the random passerbys with their chainsaws. They won't be that interested in you...unless you look them in the eye. Then you might wanna run. Good luck!

🎃 The Party
What's Halloween without a party? After all, you ended up at the haunted mansion for a reason. It isn't hard to catch on that most of the action's inside the house, and you'll find that it's relatively easy to walk up the dirt path and cross through the threshold past the spiderwebs and dust. The inside is just as decorated as one might expect, though no two areas are quite the same. The music here is louder, but not enough to drown out conversation, and everywhere you look there are rooms to explore. Board games and decks of cards can be found throughout the house, along with spare paper and markers to make your own games/write up rules for drinking games/etc. Fingerfoods of all kinds can be found on different tables and buffets throughout the house, though if you have special requests the usual staff (dressed in their own costumes) are more than happy to oblige.

Additionally, there are several open bars with all kinds of beverages of both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variety. Specifically, there are also lots of specialties, though you might want to be careful since all drink effects are on.

Several of the rooms have also been boobytrapped with silly pranks, and should you fall victim to one of these you may hear the sound of laughter and see a faint vision of your ghost host in his own costume before he disappears from sight.

Most notably, there's a room up in the attic of the house with a question mark and an X spraypainted on the door. Should you choose to enter it, you'll find yourself in a simulation of some of your worst fears and nightmares. Maybe you shouldn't go alone, hm? You'll have to face your fears head-on in order to escape.

...is that it? It seems as if you're safe from the ever-dreaded mistletoe for once, so have fun mingling, gorging yourself on delicious googies, and filling the night with tricks and treats. Happy hauntings!

(And don't forget, winter's coming...)

[ooc: it's once again mgcu mingle time! this mingle is open to characters from the following: reapsody, grimmoired, plasmatio, subdivided, thotordie, bluesclues, tropicalgetaway, notagain, redactable, snowend, 7rings, seasonality, chasma, uturns, chroma, courtrooms, suitedreams, superhell, homophonic,becomehero, spacecoast, scawwy, & wenis

however. you may also bring special guests in the form of characters you considered playing in previous games or characters you are anticipating playing in the future, sort of like a TDM for potential options! this also includes any characters you may have brought to past endgame mingles for extra shenanigans because honestly, we've all had the itch of "OH X WOULD BE SO FUN OFF OF Y" and our castmate missed connections. otherwise, have fun mingling with strangers!]