HAYDANCE MASKDANCE

[mansionstaff]

Who: YOU
What: Haydance Maskdance
Where: barn just north of the main building
When: October 31st
Warnings: spooky body swapping shenanigans
Info: here

So you've seen the flyers all over the school and have prepared for the big dance, and now here it is!

Thanks to the valiant efforts of student and staff alike, the suddenly appearing barn just north of the main building has been well decorated and is ready for a super spooky Halloween party the likes of which have never been seen before. Various masks will be offered at the door, or you can bring your own. Shamelessly copied from the plotting post, the interior of the barn has cozy rural decor; with haystack chairs, wooden tables, and the heavy scent of crushed autumn leaves that collect near the wooden entrance floor. At night, small lanterns and lights will be strung all over and make the barn look entirely inviting.

Free food and drink is a plenty, not to mention candy and succulent sweets. Enjoy yourselves, the night is young!

- NOTE: after thorough discussion we felt the event set up as it was before with the mask hunting and clues would be too confusing and impractical in practice. We've tweaked the event so it will be a simpler chain bodyswap.
- It will be up to you to decide what kind of spooky cursed magic masks your character is (or isn't!) wearing.
- A list of the body swaps will be posted tomorrow, HANG TIGHT.
- Until then mingle and have fun you crazy kids.

---

Thanks for waiting! The body swap list is below, in one giant chain. (i.e., Hajime's spirit will be inside of Bowser's body; Bowser's spirit will be in Henry's body; Henry's spirit will be in Melia's body; and so on and so forth. A special note: Kumatora's spirit will be inside of Hajime's body.)

Hajime Tanaka
Bowser Koopa XIV
Henry
Melia
Jock (Arcanine)
Vinnie
Pit
Bulba
Pulse
Watt
Max Powers
Ema Skye
Randall
Mondo
Madotsuki
Vivan
Ike
Wheatley
Ian
Kiyotaka
Sable
Eikichi Mishina
Blue
Kumatora

Hagakure Yasuhiro is the lucky duck who's getting Warren's mask. Have fun with that.

Comments

[inspirethefire]

"Please tell me you didn't imbibe before arriving. The punch is sure to end up mixed before long, at least have some patience."

Indeed, no friends, just incessantly nagging roommates. At least his mask hid the judging frown directed at all that flailing and drink-spilling. Approaching, however, his chiding demeanor shifted, to surprise. Hajime had very little experience with matters of possession, but he certainly could see there was something odd going on in terms of soul overlapping on the mystic's part.

"What exactly are you up to? Your spirit's gone off."

Considering Hagakure's skillset, he could be just as easily be performing some bizarre ritual as anything else, but Hajime had never seen him pull a stunt that looked quite like that.

[crystal_ballin]

HELP screamed Hagakure's soul from behind his eyes. I NEED AN ADULT.

[nyamask]

Hagakure twisted on his heel and wobbled to a stop, like the upper half of his body was behind his lower half by a second. Warren recognized the voice but the mask did little to help identify the curious interloper--with an apparent keenness towards spiritual alignments and Hagakure's current lack thereof. This could either prove highly entertaining or cut his highly entertaining entertainment short.

"My spirit's gone off," Hagakure answered, then stiffly added, "dude?"

"I'm having some indigestion, that's all dude. Imbalance of humors!" He gestured, perhaps a little too enthusiastically and in the direction of Hajime's mask.

[inspirethefire]

Now, as little experience as he had in this specific area, he could see a spirit in desperation from a mile away. When it came to Hagakure, a lot of bizarre behavior could be shrugged off or explained away, but that sort of thing wasn't so easily disguised.

Hajime backed off a step to try and keep out of reach of any overzealous gesturing, his crossed arms rapping fingers over each other impatiently.

"Your humors have fallen out of balance, and mine has run out entirely. I must say, I did not anticipate you catching this type of parasite." Plenty of others, though, for sure. God, their room is gross.

"All right then, whatever's in there, I'd much appreciate you quit leeching off my roommate's will, it's anemic enough as is, you're not doing anyone any favors, least of all yourself I imagine."

[crystal_ballin]

HAJIME YOU BEAUTIFUL STARCHILD, I WANT TO KISS YOU.

[nyamask]

The blood red eye-behind-the-eye rolled around in Hagakure's head, as if he couldn't roll his own eyes enough.

"You don't know what you're getting into, dude." 'Hagakure' responded, voice darkening uncharacteristically. By admitting this was his roomate he'd gone and done the ghost a favor by singling himself out. Maybe he wouldn't know his identity now but with this information he'd be able to find out who could see through his guise--information he'd definitely keep in mind for future acts of spiritual possession and not-so-benign mischief.

Until then, there was no sense in not making this as miserable of an experience as possible for both parties.

Like a violent marionette, Warren made Hajime's hands lunge hard and fast for Hajime's throat.

[crystal_ballin]

WOAH, DUDE, STOP I DON'T BELIEVE IN DOING THINGS THAT MAKE OTHER PEOPLE TRY TO ATTACK ME. DON'T ATTACK JIME, DUDE!

So, the roommate's name is clearly Jime.

[inspirethefire]

Perhaps it had been wishful thinking, on Hajime's part, that whatever had taken a hold of his roommate was not so much violent as misguided and inconsiderate. By "perhaps," of course, I mean "come on dude when has that ever been the case here."

At least he'd been suspicious enough to keep on his guard, and jerk out of the way, but the crowd didn't really make possible much maneuvering. Damn it, this was the sort of thing he'd finally started training for. This situation was bad enough without worrying about hurting Hagakure. The best he could manage was to pull him into a grapple. Or, uh, grab his arm sort of awkwardly. Look, Miss Aran had put him in a few arm locks, but he wasn't much experienced at executing one himself.

"This is hardly the place to go making a scene! Be reasonable!"

[nyamask]

suddenly Hagakure's hands were Hajime's and they lunged for his own throat

Even if Hajime was a beginner in the art of self-defense, he, ahem, had an upper hand against Warren's motor skills with a body that wasn't his own. He liked to think of this as a simple test run with which practice would make perfect.

For now it was jerky movements and erratic, unnatural body twists as he tried to wrest his arm free.

"Oh come on now, I think this is the perfect place to make a scene. Everyone's here to watch! Two roommates having an innocent test of strength and fortitude in a public space to get to know each other better. I wonder who they'd cheer for? Me or you?"

That definitely came with the implication that the latter was something to scoff at. And since this wasn't his body, Warren had no qualms about damaging it either. Maybe he'd feel it in the moment, but he sure as hell wouldn't feel any bruises in the morning. Headbutt was go!

[crystal_ballin]

They'd probably cheer for him, dude. I mean, he's generally nice to most people. As long as they're people, LOL ^_^.

He actually thought the characters for LOL and ^_^ out loud in his head, insofar as things inside one's own head are out loud.

ALSO, HEY, WATCH THE DREADS, DUDE! THEY'RE THERE TO PREVENT HEAD INJURIES, NOT GIVE THEM!

[inspirethefire]

"Nnrg--you know, your taunts would work better if people could see who we were." Well, and also Hagakure wasn't hugely popular, as far as he knew. Besides that, sure, any other day comments about not being very well liked would hit home pretty well.

With so much hair to soften the blow, the headbutt wasn't as bad a hit as it might have been, aside from the risk of an eye getting poked out. Still, not the most comfortable sensation. Hajime's grip failed as his nose got smashed under the mask, and with a grunt he tried to kick Hagakure's legs out from under him. He'd be sure to apologize later.

[nyamask]

"That's the irony of it, you simpleton!" And another attempt at trying to unmask the roommate, or at least unnerve him, but either way emoticons and acronyms featured so prominently in his headspace were enough to make the dead cat spiritually retch, and prove distracting enough to fall to the sweep.

He hit the ground ass-first with an 'oof!' Curse this retched, unrefined body! Not one to miss an opportunity to play dirty, instead of flailing uselessly trying to get back up on his feet, Warren made use of Hagakure's failing feet in another way, and aimed an 'accidental' kick to Hajime's crotch.

No one ever said he played fair.

In the official translation, halfway through the game Hagakure starts *talking* in emoticons

[crystal_ballin]

DUDE THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!! (屮゜Д゜)屮

He'd have taken the hit if he didn't have a busy rest of the night retroactively planned

[inspirethefire]

So it was confirmed--the spirit was just throwing insults out at random, to see what stuck. What a bitter little thing, it was.

Any pitying retort Hajime might have had to say as much, however, was cut short by the unrestrained force of a much larger man swinging for his dangle ronpa. Only one dodging option seemed possible, from this angle: falling forward, right on top of his squirming roommate.

He choked on a grunt as he flopped down, stars popping at the edges of his vision; a raised knee pressing into the gut didn't turn out to be a drastic improvement.

wink wonk dingle dong

[nyamask]

This was unexpected. This was unexpected and awkward and Warren was beginning to doubt (any) merit of this particular host. Pinned to the floor and squeezed by the other man's weight, it was the most he could do to groan and roll his shoulder around until the rest of the arm followed in a loud slap.

There was practice making perfect, then there was undignified rolling around on the dirty floor like a flailing squirtle. This was not fun anymore. He groaned, loudly and annoyed.

That meant it was time to make it more fun! At least before Warren gave up and aborted this sad, hairy mess of a human being. If physical wreckage was proving too much of a challenge then surely there could be another way to cause chaos and discord for the sake of it.

"Are you getting fresh with me?" Hagakure purred from under Hajime. It may have been difficult to get up but it was not as difficult to maneuver his other hand to heft up Hajime's mask and then close the very short distance with a sweet, sweet, gross, kind of forced and tongue-involved roommate to roommate smooch.

[forgetbeam]

first of all HOW DARE YOU

[inspirethefire]

Hajime barfed all over him

[nyamask]

warren continued the puke smooch then aborted the sad hairy barf covered man and laughed an evil laugh

then used the move >attract

[crystal_ballin]

(ﾉﾟοﾟ)ﾉAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH DUDE WHAT ARE YOU DOING DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE THAT'S MY ROOMMATE NOT MY GAY MAKEOUT PARTNER DUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!!!!ヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ

[inspirethefire]

Few things can top off the experience of an almost-crotchshot, but being forced into a kiss with your roommate, with whom you have intimate knowledge of their sanitary habits, has got to be the ultimate follow up. Sheer horror and disgust propelled Hajime to move, fueled only by the power of OH GOD WHY, and socked Hagakure right in he jaw.

[crystal_ballin]

ヾ(;ﾟДﾟ;)ｼアイイイイイイイィィィィィィィィィィィ... オレのの美しい顔！

[nyamask]

Basically what follows is: Hajime punched the ghost right out of Hagakure.

Warren was certain he could have tolerated the hit (he's tolerated far worse, after all) but has no desire to when he doesn't have to. Enough was enough for one night of a test-run, he thinks. He got his jollies. The moment of impact starts sending those first signals of pain coursing up and down his nervous system, the nefarious ghost aborts Hagakure's body, and whatever was left of his tilted-mask from the forced smooch falls off with a dull clatter, awful disguise and all.

The clatter is short lived however, before the mask floats up in the air by some invisible force and darts under a nearby refreshment table, Halloween-patterned cloth billowing in its wake. An ethereal laugh follows, coming from the mask's direction but somehow also hauntingly echoing all over and around the two formerly lip-locked men.

[inspirethefire]

Give him a second, here, Hagakure, he's gotta retch and spit for a second. You could call it an overreaction, but you'd be surprised how physically repulsive an unexpected, unwanted tongue in your mouth can be. It can even push long-standing pacifism aside for a second, apparently. Okay, okay, he's... he's good.

"Ha...Hagakure? I--are you--God, I'm sorry, are you all right?"

[crystal_ballin]

Hagakure, staring up at the ceiling, did not move. He lay perfectly still as he thought about the things that had just happened.

"The mask was haunted, dude. There was an evil spirit inside of the mask. It took over my body."

Short, declarative sentences are good indicators of mental health and fortitude.

"And it made me make out with you. That wasn't me, dude. I told it not to, dude."

In lots of capital letters and emoticons.

"And then when you punched me it flew out."

That's about what happened, yes.

[inspirethefire]

"I... right, that's what..."

He looked off after the mask, vanished into the crowd and decorations. It had quite effectively distracted them from stopping its escape, that much was clear.

"I, I know that wasn't you. We can... act like that never happened, I think. Forget it entirely."

Lord knew he would try and completely block it out of his memory.

"You're not hurt, are you?"