what a horrible night to have a curse.

[multichromatia]

[Halloween, as with many other holidays, suffers from a long, long history of synthesis and appropriation. The Gaelic Samhain, the Christian traditions across the ages, the secularized forms -- Emerald London sees fit to consume them all. That's just the nature of the city. That's just how things are.

So how does it look on this fine autumn night? Somehow, some way, even worse than usual. Idiot teenagers trying to prove a point let transformed relatives loose in the streets. Tomorrow, there'll probably be a handful of murders reported in the paper, but so it goes. It's really not all bad. The local covens, in honor of Nyarlathotep, litter the same streets with free food!

Free food laced and cut with all manner of drugs and toxins and god-knows-what, leaving the optionless poor... also rioting in the streets. So it... goes?

So it goes you should stay out of the slums and residential areas. The local honey dens and other clubs are offering fortune telling services tonight for a reduced price. Some wealthy socialites are hosting costume parties, with such fun games as "hey let's sacrifice someone to try summoning this horror" or "let's prick your fingers to see when you'll die." Beggars wearing horse heads go from door to door demanding funds. Assholes in masks and outfits make it difficult to distinguish friend from foe from monster tonight - it's no surprise the death rates skyrocket around Halloween.

But it's nice. It's warm, and the air is crisp and cool. It's a perfect night for an outing.

If you're lucky, maybe you'll even find a group serving unpoisoned food.]

Comments

[concealingeyes]

[Kido knows of magic similar to that, though she can't do it herself, but it still amazes her to see. This girl can't be much older than her and she still she perform magic like that without any effort? From the way it feels, her connection to her gods must be very, very strong.

She's a little jealous.]

Huh? Oh, uh, well... [She rubs the back of her neck, looking away. It isn't really something you discuss with a stranger but then again, the stranger just hid the corpse for her.]

...I did. Sometimes I get too stressed out. It's better someone like him than someone who matters, right?

[overfull]

Yes. Certainly such people are the dregs of society. As he had been forsaken by both God and the government, you should instead consider your actions a service to him. I'm certain that this man wanted to die.

You aren't to blame for that. If you hadn't killed him, then another person would have. In fact, you're very kind, Miss!

[Her expression doesn't change at all, of course. This is just as natural a conversation as any.]

[concealingeyes]

[It isn't exactly normal but then again, Kido doesn't have a lot of experience. The Tateyama family seemed normal and they wouldn't have approved of senseless killing. Probably.]

Huh, yeah. I didn't think of it that way but he was useless. He might have become a threat to someone someday, right?

[In fact they don't even have to waste more time thinking about him. She might actually have found someone decent to talk to.]

Whatever, forget him. I'm Kido. You said you wanted a live experiment right? Are you in the Congregation?

[overfull]

Oh, yes - I am seldom able to attend services due to poor health. I'm sorry if I never saw you there... my name is Elaine.

[It's slight, but she does seem genuinely apologetic - it's because she wants to go and can't.]

[concealingeyes]

It's all right. I haven't been there in a while. My parents were pretty big into it but mother died, so... [She shrugs. that sort of thing happens. Mom dies, dad goes crazy, sister dies, dad goes crazier.

Really, it's not the worst family story she's heard.]

Nice to meet you though. If you start feeling sick, well... [She hesitates. She shouldn't do too much for someone she just met.] ...I have some water on me that's clean.

[overfull]

Were they? You may know my father, in that case. His name is Carol. My mother is dead as well, but he used her loss as an impetus to better provide for the Congregation.

[He learned what it was like to lose something and became better for it. It's best if she uses that logic.]

Miss Kido, are you Japanese?

[concealingeyes]

Huh? Oh, yeah, I am. My family moved here for the business opportunities. [She isn't sure how to say "and then shit happened and I got sacrificed and it sucked" so she shrugs.] I was expendable though. Anyway my parents after that were Ayaka and Kenjirou Tateyama. I think mother was especially popular, since Carol sounds familiar...

[A beat.] Do you like Japanese stuff? [She knows how Victorians are. Hell, she doesn't mind it. It's usually to her advantage.]

[overfull]

Carol Felkin - he researches primarily within the astronomy department, I believe...

[Well, she would've opened her mouth to go into this long spiel about how much she likes shounen manga and learned to read to understand them and so on, but she gets distracted by those names. Her face just lights up.

It's not that she'd recognize them anywhere - she's never met them, after all, but she does know them. She doesn't know too many people's names that could be related back to anyone she's actually able to talk to.]

Mr and Mrs Tateyama are your parents, Miss Kido?

[concealingeyes]

[Carol Felkin? It did sound familiar but she didn't remember him having any children. Then again she probably just forgot it. She didn't meet him ever and only heard about him in passing as another researcher Ayaka liked to pester.

But that means it isn't too surprising that Elaine knows her parents then.]

Yeah. Well, we were adopted. But they treated us like their own kids. Mom was always going on about her research into the worship of snakes and all. It was her bedtime story to us. Did you read her stuff?

[overfull]

Yes! I've read a few of your father's as well, during my religious studies - due to his preoccupation with the Deep Ones - but your mother's research was always much more interesting! I'd like it if I could become a researcher on her level...

[It's a pretty odd contrast from the expression she's been wearing; I said her face lit up, but her excitement is seriously palpable. Even her presence rescinds a bit from it.]