Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Trick or Treat: Ferid's Fairy House

Ferid's house was normally in the fairy realm, and in a way it still was, but the veil was thin this month, and it was visible and accessible from a normal suburban neighborhood looking like a normal suburban house decorated for Halloween. Until you got onto the property, that is, and the mundane house shifted to that of a fantastical tree house- a literal house made from a tree, its branches in true autumn splendor.

Tiny firefly-like faerie-creatures zipped around the property, putting the finishing touches on the decorations. Spiderwebs clung to the tree-house's branches, whimsical lights lined the foggy path up to the house, and a mini graveyard made up one half of the front yard.

The other half was a gated-off garden full of rows of plants with varying shapes and sizes of fantastical fruits- some that looked like mini pumpkins growing from a bush but were squishy and sweet, some that looked like blue and purple spirals, others that looked like crunchy chili peppers or yellow acorns. The garden had a sign out front that read 'Caution', because the fruits could have strange properties if ingested-- so any mischievous trick or treaters were warned! If they even so much as wandered too closely, the plants themselves or the fireflies might just drop one of their fruits in a trick or treater's bag. Not to mention, nothing was stopping the trick or treaters from grabbing one of the fruits if they felt so inclined.

Ferid himself was waiting on the porch of his tree-house, looking very much like a half-tree himself; he was humanoid in shape, but his skin was bark, his beard was moss, and his feet were more like intertwining tree roots than anything. Little berries dotted the sparse autumnal foliage sprouting from him. Despite his unusual appearance, his eyes were kindly, and he wore a genuine smile as he waited for trick or treaters to come onto his property. Of course, he held a giant cauldron of candy- fullsized bars. Another cauldron off to the side held other snacks and treats if someone couldn't or didn't want all that sugar.

[If your character eats one of the fruits from his garden, feel free to roll a 10-sided die for some interesting effects! You can also just pick an effect from the list below, or roll multiple dice to get multiple effects- it's up to you how long the effects last!]

1: Your character feels better than they have all day! Negate any bad status effects from the other fruits they've eaten.
2: Too spicy, too spicy! Find some milk, quick!
3: Your character feels.... oddly light? Hey, you're floating!
4: Hey, I can see through your arm! Your character is transparent, like a ghost.
5: Your character gains one trait from an animal of your choosing (ie, ears/tail from a cat, the eyes of a wolf, the bioluminescence of a sea creature)
6: Your character sees strange shadows at the edges of their vision.... the veil is lifted from their eyes; congrats, they can see into the spirit world!
7: Oops, nothing happens! Your character is either very lucky or very unlucky. Do they want to try again with another piece of fruit?
8: What are all these animals doing here? Your character attracts certain animals, such as cats, bats, or spiders!
9: Your character feels strong- very strong! Time to cancel that gym membership.
10: Uhoh, your character feels a little nauseous.... Don't worry, Ferid can heal them!

Gracklin was once again, on the hunt through different garbage cans of this neighborhood. That is, until it came across a house that ... wasn't supposed to be there. It paused, head tilted in brief hesitation.

... Normally a house appearing where it shouldn't be would be a "caution" sign for most, but this little raccoon was hardly normal by any definition.

Special magic trash??

It scampered directly up the path, eyes sparkling with delight at the array of dazzling leaves and lights. But really it was headed for the prize:

MAGIC PUMPKIN?!

Upon arriving, the raccoon hardly heeded Ferid, eyes rounding with shock at what it perceived as high value "garbage" (a compliment coming from Gracklin!) just sitting for the taking. With a fanged, mischievous grin, Gracklin leaned back onto its haunches and held its pawhands pleadingly together up at the humongous fellow with the marvelous trash.

"May I dig through your uh, pumpkin trash?"

Ferid looked down to the non-candy cauldron at his feet- it had water, apples and candy apples, other food.... He almost pulled out a candy apple to eat, when he saw someone scampering up the path. Someone that looked like a- what did people call them nowadays? A trash panda?

The treeman smiled, leaning down as the raccoon held up its little people-y hands, and he offered up the cauldron of candy. "Happy Halloween- yeah, feel free to take some; there hasn't been anyone else yet, so you get first pick. Have you gotten much candy so far?" Hm. "-Do you need a bag?"

A few of the firefly-like faerie-creatures buzzed around Gracklin, interested in the newcomer. They held some of the fruits from Ferid's garden in their little hands.

Dean might've been a bit too old for trick-or-treating, but a youthful face, a pair of devil horns, and an old pillowcase was all it took for him to nab himself from candy. Gleefully, he crossed over from the previous house with his little horde of candy and onto Ferid's property, where he was met with what was either the world's best disguise, or something supernatural. He took the scene in waves, only noticing the raccoon after he spied the candy, which he was quickly walking towards.

A person was never too old for trick-or-treating! Not that Dean was old, but he did kind of tower over a band of ten-year-olds dressed up as Monster High characters on the way over. The Monster High kids took a left away from Ferid's house, while Dean headed straight there. Ferid brightened as he saw Dean, and smiled; there was something familiar about that smile. Had Dean seen it before? "Hello, Pierce," he rumbled in a woody baritone, and he outstretched his cauldron of candy to him. "Would you like some treats?" One of the glowing fairy-fireflies flitted from Gracklin to Dean, buzzing around his devil horns, before diving into his pillowcase if it was opened.

Dean stared at the upright raccoon, trying to find the seams of its costume. It looked so real, right down to the way its muzzle was twitching. Some parent must've dropped a couple grand on it. Some people had all the wealth. Unfair.

Speaking of expensive outfits, again, he assumed the treeman was another one. Maybe he was the raccoon's father. He had a familiar, fatherly aura about him. But then he heard his voice, and it came back to him like a distant memory. "...Ferid...?" He nodded, "Oh yeh. Trick or treat or whatever," he mumbled as he reached into the cauldron for an apple. The fairy made him twitch, and he swatted at it, but missed. He didn't notice it as it slipped into his pillowcase. "Y'make these yerself?" he asked, holding up the apple.

Speaking of wealth, it must've take some cost to decorate Ferid's house like this- but given the fact that he could talk to woodland animals, he could've just asked the spiders to decorate his abode. ...While crafting other decorations himself, of course; it also came in handy being able to manipulate wood. Ferid nodded to Dean. "Hey, Pierce." He held out the cauldron to him- the apples were covered in varying things; some plain caramel, some caramel and chocolate, some caramel and sprinkles; there were also ones sitting off by themselves with candied pecans, and some with peanuts, so they wouldn't contaminate the others with nuts, in case a kid was allergic. "Yeah, I did. Hopefully you enjoy them- I'll have extras tomorrow, too, if you want to take some home then." The fairy in Dean's bag shimmied around, making itself comfortable in its bed of candy, and dropping the fruit it had been carrying, unwrapped a snickers and took a big bite. It was definitely making itself at home. "Have you gotten a lot of candy so far?"

"Sup," Pierce replied, as peered at the offerings, mulling over the choices as though it were the most important decision of his life. Each was as tempting as the last, and it was only when Ferid offered the leftovers that he was finally able to make a decision: caramel and chocolate - and ONLY because he knew he'd likely get a taste of something else later, but that this one would probably 'sell out', so to speak. "Holy shit? Yeh, I'll stop by tomorrow 'an take whatever y'want off yer hands." As he examined the apple in his hands, he was oblivious to the devious little critter dropping fruit in his bag and stealing his hard-earned snickers. He would likely notice soon. "A good haul so far, ye. Y'want some? I think I could spare a few."

Saph was what you'd call conflicted. On the one hand, he was LOST. The sheer amount of wizard shit hanging in the air had his skin itching like nobody's business. Not that he NEEDED his peculiar allergy to tell there was magical nonsense about—cripes almighty, that guy was a TREE, for crying out loud!

On the other hand... free candy. Which hey, was suspicious as hell, but Saphir knew better than most you didn't pass up a meal. Even ones that were probably gonna rot your teeth and turn your stomach.

And honestly, the thought of lining his pockets with candy made his fingers twitch—and tempted the degenerate gambler in him to roll the metaphorical dice. Despite his better judgment, even.

He paced for a good while, inching toward the impossible treehouse, backing RIGHT off again. After a minute or two of sweaty indecision, Saphir decided to hell with it!

There was at least ONE normal-looking guy who'd risked it ahead of him—even if he was dressed like some kind of demon devil?

What was WITH people doing that tonight, anyway?

“PST. Hey, uh, buddy. Pal.” Saphir whispered discretely, sidling next to the red-head as he nervously glanced at the tree-man. Who could, in all likelihood, probably hear him, too.

“You do any samplin' of this shit on offer?” he asked. Somehow, his voice even sounded sweaty. “Feelin' any—I dunno—curses or nothin' comin' on?”

There were many to choose from, and Dean had first pick, so hopefully the choices shouldn't be -too- bad-- unless they were just too overwhelming. "Perfect. I can put away -some- candy, but not all this," he said with a laugh. He started to shake his head towards Dean's question. "Oh, no, I'm alright--" a pause. "Unless you've got an Almond Joy you're willing to part with." People had a love-hate relationship with them. Apparently Ferid's was love. "Oh, and if the critters that keep flying around decide to offer you anything, don't take it- it does weird things."

Oops, Saphir could potentially hear that; Ferid noticed him in the distance. Once the other got closer, Ferid could hear him whispering to Dean too, but he didn't want to spook the already-shy guy, and he turned, pretending to busy himself with organizing his candy and treats.

Dean snorted: with the treeman's large constitution, he figured the man would easily DESTROY a bag of candy, and yet, apparently not. "Huh." He then looked closely at his apple, then back at Ferid, then down to his apple again. "You didn't...y'know...make this, did ya..?" Hey, he was a tree after all! At the timid request for an almond joy, Dean opened his back and riffled around in search. The 'bug', as he saw it, was given a swat of his hand and an angry chuff, before he grabbed hold of a mini almond joy and noticed the fruit already in his bag. "Yeh I got one t'spare, 'ere." The almond joy was given to Ferid, the fruit...he almost chucked it out, but that would be wasteful, so he tossed it in his mouth to 'get rid' of it. "Got it, don't eat weird fruit from weird flyin' shit," he said, oblivious to the fact that he'd literally done just that.

In Dean's defense, Ferid said if the creatures offered them. He just figured the fruit had been in the bag the whole time.

He was about to say something else when Saphir scooted into his line of vision. From what he could tell, he had no halloween costume. Buddy? Pal? He barely managed to avoid telling the twitchy fella he didn't know him. The nervous question was met with a stare of disbelief. Granted, when he'd originally met Ferid he thought the guy was out there kidnapping people, so maybe the nervousness was justified. "Eeeeeeh? Nah, I feel fine," he whispered back, giving him a reassuring thumbs up. No curses for him, no sirrie!

Except, he'd just eaten the forbidden fruit. And a simple roll would determine what would happen soon.

Saphir considered the kid's reassurance, carefully squinting at Dean's face as if waiting for him to sprout an extra set of horns.

"Y-yeah?" He raised a thumbs-up in solidarity. "Hahh. I mean, y'don't LOOK you're gonna melt inta magicy goo! Ahaha... eheh..." He managed a cautious laugh, though his wobbly smile suggested Saph was straining rather HARD to be convinced.

"I'm tellin' ya, kid, these days, you can't be too careful! Fairies, man, they come at ya all whimsy and moonbeams and BAM! You're, uhh... a toad, or a frog, or... wait, shit, is that witches?" He shrugged, roughly dismissing the idea with a flippant wave of the hand. "ANYways. You just let ol' Saph know if you're feelin' off, yeah? I promise I'll find a nice pond ta plop ya into."

Saphir at least seemed a little braver thanks to Dean's company, raising his confidence to the heights of a wet noodle, more or less. The sweaty man raised his voice a little—signalling that he was no longer hoping/pretending the tree man wasn't totally in earshot.

"Eheh... heya boss," Saph began, inching a little closer to the literal tree of a man, who seemed quite intent on tidying his treat cauldrons. He... seemed alright, honestly? The kinda guy who you'd wanna duck behind in a fight, and also the sort who wouldn't be too fussed about letting you do it.

"You, uh... givin' out snacks over here?"

There was a limit to how much even Ferid could eat- and bucketfuls of candy was just that, apparently. It took Dean looking at the apple, then at him, then the apple for it to click with Ferid. He laughed, waving his hand. "Oh no, no, I don't make apples. I'm a rowan tree- I make rowan berries. None are in the Halloween candy." He didn't notice the faerie creature in Dean's bag, otherwise, he would've given it a scolding. "Oh- thank you." He took the almond joy, unwrapping it slowly and eating it as Saphir and Dean conversed.

He gave Saphir smile and a nod once the other approached him. "Yup, take a couple. There's normal candy, candy apples, granola, you name it." He offered both cauldrons. "And don't worry. I'm a Changeling, so even if I did have the ability to turn you into something, I wouldn't dream of it." He'd been kidnapped by faeries and changed, which was part of what Saphir was probably afraid of.

Some of the firefly-esque faeries began to fly closer to Saphir and Dean, taking an interest since they were all up on the candy.

"It's okay, I know this guy, it's safe," he reassured. "He's got dad energy up the whazoo." He tilted his head, letting out a relieved sigh at the fact that he wasn't munching on Ferid's berries. "Kaaaaay good."

Although Dean did not sprout an extra set of horns, something did happen, if a little delayed. His face quickly became red as all the flaming vengeance of capsaicin punched him from within. He squirmed, simultaneously fanning his face and doing what looked like CPR on a ghost. "HOOO HOOO HAAAA! HOOO HOOO HAAAA!" Whatever the hell that fruit was, it was S P I C Y. And the one thing he needed most right now felt out of reach, but he still managed to shriek out a distressed, "COW JUICE!" Or maybe Saphir's offer wasn't so bad after all. "POND. GIVE POND. OF MILK." If he could speak properly, he'd reassure the other it had nothing to do with Ferid's apples. Alas, he could not.

Saphir grumbled at Ferid’s very reasonable stipulation of only taking ‘a couple’ treats, but didn’t seem too keen on pushing back. Which wasn’t to say he didn’t consider making off with the lot of it—that bit of mental math CLEARLY played itself on his face—but hey. Curses or no, he kind of didn’t wanna do that to the guy?

Hmph. Musta been the dad energy.

Sapir leaned over the cauldrons to inspect the offerings, just a tad less wary than before. His fingers wiggled a little until he made his selection, setting on just a COUPLE (sigh) of candied apples. He held them one-handed by the sticks, and took a massive bite.

“Oof. They tree’d ya, huh?” he asked, commiserating as he chewed. A fleck of two of apple stuck to his sad little beard, though he scarcely seemed to notice. “I SWEAR, pal. The whooole world’s got a sick sense of humor, an’ I’ll be damned if the joke ain’t always on us.”

He chomped at the apple again, shaking his head. “Welp. Seems like you’re makin’ the most of it. You candy a mean apple. An’ your setup here ain’t half bad—”

Saphir stopped in his tracks—behind him, the devil-horned started dealing with some serious heat. At that, Saph yelped and flinched in a manner not befitting a grown-ass adult, sending those two mean apples hurdling onto the lawn.

“WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TA—oh YEAH, lemme nip on down to the DAIRY FARM real quick! Aww damnit, aww JEEZ…!” Saphir frantically looked around in stupid, abject HORROR, his gaze finally landing on the grass beneath their feet. Panicked, he sunk his fingers in, pulling up a wad of uprooted plants and soft earth, which he offered to the kid desperately.

“DIRT? Eat some dirt?! SHIT, I don’t know!” Suddenly, it seemed like the friendly little firebug-things took on a distinctly more menacing aura, as if they were closing in on them.

“D'YOU MIND?!” Saphir chastised their glowing onlookers, “A MAN IS DYIN’ HERE!”

Handing out self-made food was one thing, but handing out food that -literally- made by your body was another thing. That would be a little weird, though he -had- used The Google to look up rowan berries, and people did make jam out of it.

He waited patiently as Saphir selected some candy apples. "There's some normal candy, too, if you're wanting something a little more." That candy wasn't home-made, though! "Yeah... they did. And it sure feels that way sometimes, but nothing I can do about it now." He shrugged, then smiled at the other's compliment. "Thanks. Yeah, I do what I can." Always thinking of the positives- oops, and Dean got a flaming inferno.... something. That certainly wasn't one of Ferid's apples.

"Oh, Pierce--" He started, wondering what Dean had just eaten. Speaking of eaten, Saphir was trying to get Dean to eat, er, dirt. "Hold still." He reached out to touch Dean on the shoulder or arm, whatever he could get, and Ferid's wooded hand began to glow faintly green. Dean would gradually begin to feel better, even as Ferid let go a few moments later, and shooed off the firefly-faeries with Saphir. "Shoo, shoo!" They briefly scattered, converging again in Ferid's fairy-fruit garden, snickering their heads off. "Sorry, they tend to have a mind of their own. -Are you alright, Pierce?" RIP, the two apples Saphir had instinctively thrown. Something would eat them, at least, and there were more.

Dean spat and wiped his tongue on his forearm to get the spice off, only for it to make his skin burn, too. He let out a few yowls before he noticed Saphir offering him a 'solution', so to speak. The plants and dirt were shoved in his mouth before he had time to fully register just what he was given. It was the soft, cake-like texture with grainy bits that gave it away almost as soon as Saphir's words. "DIRFFF?!" He began spitting anew, arms now flapping like a fledgling trying to leave home for the first time. Worst was, as far as he knew, this was a terrible, jerkish prank from a human world neighbor that must've hated him.

Thankfully, the dirt did a surprisingly good job at neutralizing the spice. And what it missed, Ferid's healing hand solved. He gasped for air once he finally could without filling his lungs with burn, then waved a hand dismissively at Ferid. "Mm'fine. ******'...stupid-ass neighbor musta doused some shit in hot sauce or somethin'. **** my LIFE." Upon seeing the two apples on the ground, and having already eaten a bit of dirt, he glanced at Saphir and pointed to them. "You gonna eat those?"

Despite Ferid proving to be nothing less than patient and helpful, Saphir still flinched, and gave that glowing wizard hand a WIDE berth. It was a testament to Ferid’s bedside manner that Saphir didn’t outright run for it then and there… though he DID think about it pretty damn hard.

Soon enough though, the treeman’s miracle healing seemed to kick in, and Dean was back to forming full sentences.

“Ehehh… Heh. Hot sauce, huh?” Saphir laughed weakly, though it was only funny in the way that cosmic jokes sometimes were. “Jeeeez, kid. Ya really—REALLY—had me goin’ for a minute there!”

As Saph wiped his dirt-covered hands onto his slightly less dirt-covered jacket, Dean gave him a look and an unceremonious question—’was he going to eat those?’

Saphir’s eyes landed on the two apples now covered generously in both candy-coating and grit. He considered it.

“Y’know, I feel like any self-respectin’ guy oughta say no here. Like, immediate hard pass, right?” Saph inhaled. He exhaled. His hands formed a little existential steeple-shape in front of his chin.

“...Kid. I don’t think I’m a self-respectin’ kinda guy.”

Of all the things Ferid was expecting the others to do, eating dirt wasn't one of them. It seemed to help Dean, at least, even before Ferid straightup healed him. He expected his once-two-year-old child to eat a fistful of dirt.... not a twenty-something-year-old. But desperate times called for desperate measures, he assumed. Hmm, hot sauce, or...? Ferid looked to his fairy-fruit garden with a very light frown of concern. "Maybe." Well, they were back to their normal selves, at least. And Saphir -was- going to eat the candy apples that had fallen to the ground, and how.

"I'm flattered," he said with a chuckle. "Really, you guys don't have to if you don't want to. There are plenty more." That said, depending on where they'd fallen, they probably weren't too dirty? And what was a little dirt to Dean especially right now, hah? And Saph, too, since his hands were probably a little dirty for feeding it to Dean.

While the three of them were (hopefully) distracted, the mischievous firefly-faeries buzzed out of the garden again, hoping to drop more little fruits in their respective candy receptacles.

Dean wiped dirt from his tongue, eye twitching, "Probably, yeh. I can handle my spice, so whatever the hell they used, it had t'be STRONG." Wait a minute. "Kid?! I aint no kid!" Dean shouted, while pretending to be one so he could trick-or-treat. He made a grumbling noise, then lowered his head closer to his shoulders to make himself look smaller, "I-uh. I mean I'm 1...4...? Totally allowed t'trick or treat. Yup. Totally aint old 'nough t'drink. Nooope." Nailed it.

His jaw dropped when Saphir, who'd so callously discarded Ferid's apples, announced he would indeed eat them. His face turned red in annoyed anger and he stomped a foot on the ground. His simmering temper tantrum was undercut, thankfully, by Ferid's offer for more apples. He inched closer and took one triumphantly. "Yes, this'll do."

And better yet, there was no dirt on this one.

"What's with all the fireflies, man?"