Forums » General Roleplay » Trick or Treat: Xavier Ostrovsky

Xavier had a love-hate relationship with Halloween. On one hand, it was the one night he could go outside without getting some weird looks, but on the other hand, it reminded him too much of the night that everything went wrong. A year ago, he just wanted to play with a Ouija board, and now he had goat legs and horns because the demon he summoned sure wasn't happy with him and decided to curse him. What a stupid idea. His horns and legs weren't even the last of it. The grey skin, goat ears, snake's tongue, claws, voice that always hissed, and eyes with black scleras and white irises tended to freak people out, too. He had to deal with all of this because he decided to play with a Ouija board last Halloween and got cursed by a demon, but, hey, that wasn't Halloween's fault.

He still loved the holiday, and not doing anything would practically go against his moral code. He was a bit too old to be trick-or-treating, so he stocked up on candy and threw it all in a plastic, orange bowl, decorated with cartoon bats and jack o' lanterns. He wanted to be festive and decorate the house, but the only thing he did was carve a generic, triangle-eyed face on a pumpkin, shove a candle in it, and sat it on the porch. Wow, he was practically screaming at people, "Don't come here, I'm boring."

Since he actually wanted to get some trick-or-treaters, he threw on his jacket and went to sit on the porch steps, candy bowl resting in his lap. He knew he was pretty freaky looking, so he hoped he didn't scare off any little kids and make parents angry at him. He wasn't sure how to explain that he wasn't wearing a really elaborate costume, he just actually looked like this. "Sorry my entire face and body scared your young child." Yep, that sounded super genuine.

Xavier hummed absentmindedly as he waited for trick-or-treaters to show up.

"Hey, sweetheart," Basil hummed softly as he walked towards Xavier's porch. "Guess what! I'm stuck taking Beare tick-or-treating," he said with a soft chuckle.
Beare, who's face was painted to have a light blue tint and dark bags, piped up, "Guess what! I'm stuck having Basil bothering me for two hours because I wanted to go trick-or-treating, for the third year in a row," she said. The whole get up wasn't hard to figure out. A neat, well tailored suit (that their family probably made) nearly combed (but incredibly long compared to the real deal,) hair, and the face made it obvious that she was supposed to be Heartfelt.
Basil rolled his eyes, and leant forward to press his forehead against Xavier's in a form of Dryadic greeting done in the name of sweet love.
Beare blinked at them, "Gay. Now give me candy," She said in her usual blunt tone, much different from her own retail voice.
"Be polite," Basil said sharply.
Beare violently rustled her candy bag.

"Hi, Basil!" Xavier chirped. He squinted at Beare, trying to figure out what her costume was. A tired, middle-aged businessman? Now that was scary, the reality of life after college.

Wait, wait, wait..

Xavier burst out laughing when he figured out who she was supposed to be. His loud laughter faded into the soft, occasional giggle, but he still found the Heartfelt costume hilarious. "Oh, my God," He continued to laugh, reaching into his candy bowl and grabbing the first thing he touched, "That costume's great."

He dropped a mini-Snickers into Beare's bag. "I don't know why I'm giving you candy when you're bullying me and your brother," He joked.

"Because we both know Basil is going to steal it later," She said.
"She has a point. That snickers is mine," Basil said. He smiled and looked to Xavier, "How's your day been?" He asked.
"If you two start chatting, I'm going on my own. Dad will have a fit, but I will," Beare threatened.
Basil rolled his eyes and sat down beside Xavier, "It'll just be a minute, Beare," He said.

Kaelin was probably too old for this. No, Kaelin was definitely too old for this. That's what his sister had told him when he left the house. Or at least, that what he thought she said. He may or may not have left too quickly to hear the rest. But, in his defense, he was, technically, only fifteen. And fifteen was only, like, two years older than thirteen. And he was pretty sure that plenty of thirteen-years olds went trick-or-treating. So, ha. Kaelin wins. He huffed under his breath, scurrying past a highly undecorated home as he did so. Wait- what?

Kaelin looked over his shoulder, at the house. There sat one, single, lonely, glowing pumpkin. Its little eyes seemed to call to him, begging for companionship. Oh, there was also some sort of weird creature on the steps. Yeah, that was slightly more alarming than the pumpkin. Kaelin turned around, making his way towards the lonely pumpkin. He fished into his paper bag full of treats, and brought out a marker. He had not completely understood why an old man was giving out markers to kids on Halloween before, but now he finally got it. It was destiny.

So, he proceeded to kneel in front of the pumpkin, ignoring the other creature (possibly a human in a costume?) on the steps. Kaelin scribbled unremarkable drawings on the pumpkin, shivering as a breeze swept by. Then he finished, leaving the pumpkin a bit more exciting than before. It now wore stitches across its eyes, and, for some reason, also what appeared to be ears. Ears. Drawn on a pumpkin. Spooky, indeed. He turned to the creature, or whatever-the-heck, and gave him a smile. "You're welcome. I'll take candy as payment."

(that took so long to write that you two managed to write three responses. well, heck)

Xavier didn't notice someone drawing on his pumpkin on the other side of his porch, he just smiled over at Basil. "It's been okay, you two are the first I've gotten tonight," He said. "Good start!" He added as his smile only grew.

He looked over to his jack o' lantern when he heard the unfamiliar voice and he rapidly blinked in surprise. "Um.." He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be angry because, hey, that was his pumpkin, that was practically his son, or if he just shouldn't care because he carved that thing in, like, two minutes tops. Oh, whatever, it was Halloween, who cares? At least this kid didn't smash his pumpkin, it could have been a lot worse.

He just chuckled and hopped up, heading over and holding out the bowl. "Take one. Or two, since you gave him ears," He said as he observed the changes made to his jack o' lantern. Maybe he would let everyone mark on it now. That could be fun!

Basil smiled wider.
Beare had noticed the other fifteen year old, and had watched the entire thing with a look of confused disgust. She guessed it was a bit more okay because Xavier was fine with it, but did that kid just magically assume it'd be fine to walk up to other people's stuff and scribble on it? What the hell?
Basil looked over and squinted, then hopped up to look at it himself. "Nice," was his only comment, as he was honestly thinking the same thing as Beare. At least Xavier was okay with it.

Kaelin picked out two candy bars, taking a noticeably long time to do this, because, well, not every day is Halloween. You gotta choose wisely, or you'll spend the next year crying about the fact that you got taffy when you clearly could have picked gummy bears (Kaelin knew this from experience). After dropping the two into his uncreative little brown bag, he let his eyes wander two the other two people on the scene. His eyes narrowed at Beare, as her disgust with his actions was far more apparent than anyone else's. From his point of view, the actions were noble. Like, Kaelin was nice about it, and it was so nice that he ever offered to help with this problem, and if she didn't appreciate that then-

Kaelin let out a frustrated huff for the second time that night. "I'm.. I'm Kaelin." He waved at her, deciding introductions would be first, and fuming at her lack of appreciation would be.. never. Because he was a nice person and he wasn't going to blow up at a stranger and- "Uh, I gotta go." He fumbled to get down the steps, and waved as he walked away.

Beare gave Kaelin a dead-inside finger gun and looked over the pumpkin.
Basil turned to Xavier, "We should probably get going, soon. I'll text you later, or at various moments between stops to make fun of people's weird inflatables," he said. He wrapped an arm over Xavier's shoulder and pulled him in for another head bump. Then he remembered the normal human-y thing to do, and kissed him on the cheek. He giggled to himself and nuzzled Xavier one last time before backing away.
"Gay!" Beare said loudly.
Basil shot her a glare, and then smiled at Xavier, "Bye!" He chirped and started down the path.
Beare gave him a nod goodbye and followed Basil.

Xavier frowned in confusion as he watched Kaelin leave. Typically, introductions weren't followed by leaving, and he was expecting more of a conversation after that. Huh. Okay, then. "Well, uh, bye?" He called after him, "Have a nice night."

He turned back to Basil, shooting him a look that he hoped telepathically communicated "What in the world just happened". He smiled and kissed him on the cheek back before waving as the two walked away. "Don't get hit by a car," He advised.

He's had a lot of weird things happen to him on Halloween, including being literally cursed by a demon, so he felt like he had no right to be weirded out by this whole pumpkin situation. He was, though, he really was. Why did that kid even have a marker? Where did that come from? Was he..like, planning on doing this? Xavier's confused expression grew even more confused-looking as he pondered all of this. Oh, well. Since his jack o' lantern son was already marked on, he figured might as well go grab a Sharpie from inside and let everyone else draw on it.

Xavier sat his bowl down on the porch steps and hurried into the house, hoping no one would steal his candy while he was inside. He rummaged through a drawer in his kitchen before retrieving a Sharpie and racing back outside, placing it down next to his pumpkin. He would actually feel genuine sadness if no one else marked on this thing.

"I'm going to jump directly in front of every car I see." Beare decided in retaliation.
"Beare, I swear to God," Basil said softly before they were out of eyesight.

Xavier snorted. "It's kind of ineffective if the car's not moving," He yelled back, watching them disappear from sight. He went back over to his candy bowl and sat down next to it before placing it back in his lap. He was incredibly excited, it's already been a really good night! Weird, but good.

It was a night of spooks and fright -- or at least, that was how the Evians described this festive holiday. There were many names for it, so Oroth had learned. Samhain, All Hallow's Eve, Halloween... she was sure that there were more, but these seemed to be the most common ones that she heard when she and Laucio had asked humans about their traditions and carried over holidays from the Old World when they were visiting Eve on one of their travels.

This year, Oroth had been excited about the aspect of visiting others' houses, asking for treats with that phrase that the humans seemed to throw around. 'Trick or treat'? Yeah, that sounded right.

Adjusting her diadem and carrying herself with a straight posture, Oroth had travelled down along the pathways that led through neighbourhoods and past homes. Keeping an eye out, Oroth soon saw someone sitting out in front of their home, a bowl of wrapped sweets in their lap, and what seemed like a costume for the festivities.

Lighting up at the sight, Oroth's pace quickened as she put a slight hop in her step once she started making her way over.

"Hi! Happy Hallow's Eve! Trick or treat!" Oroth greeted, hoping that she said that right in regards to the holiday.

"Hi!" Xavier chirped. He didn't know there were people out there that still referred to Halloween as "Hallow's Eve". Huh. He kept that thought to himself and held up the bowl.

"Take one," He told her, "and feel free to go draw on the pumpkin over there, if ya want."

Xavier tilted his head to the side as he observed Oroth and tried to figure out what she was going as, but he was dumbfounded. Wow, he was kind of bad at this whole costume guessing thing.

"I don't know what your costume is, but I like it," He said with a grin.

"Are... are you sure?" Oroth asked, her brow raising in surprise as she stared to the proffered bowl. She reached out for the bowl of candies and took one as allowed. Smiling a bit to herself, the wood nymph put the treat away in her satchel.

"I don't know what your costume is, but I like it."

Looking up at that comment, Oroth looked confused for a brief moment before looking down at her own clothing and considering the rest of what her accessories were. She gave a lopsided, sheepish smile and went ahead to say, "I... I dressed up as a princess for the holidays. People told me just to dress up in costume, and I figured I already had this one."

Oroth tried to pass it off as a lighthearted thing, though she felt a little exposed all of a sudden.

Xavier stared down into the bowl. Did he really have enough candy to let everyone take two? He wasn't sure how many trick or treaters were going to show up, but he stocked up like every single candy-making company in the entire world was about to shut down. He'd feel terrible if he let some people take two pieces, but not others. "Nah, you can go ahead and take two," He said.

Oooh, she was going as a princess. Xavier admired her costume, and felt pretty stupid for not understanding what it was earlier. He wondered what other holidays she dressed up for, and figured there was just some other holiday he didn't know about, or maybe it was a family thing..or something? Or maybe she meant that she dressed up like that for past Halloweens. Xavier didn't know, but he would have felt rude for asking, so he didn't say anything about it.

"That's neat!" He complimented with another smile. He figured he might as well act like he was wearing a costume, since it was easier to explain than telling people he actually looked like this.

"I'm going as a.."

Xavier's mind completely blanked.

"..spooky goat?"

Brilliant.

Almost immediately, Oroth's expression grew even brighter than it had been before.

"That's really nice of you, thank you!" Oroth said as she reached for a secondary piece of candy. She placed it into her satchel along with the other piece that she had gotten prior. Giving a small hum of satisfaction, the wood nymph looked back to Xavier as he spoke.

"A spooky goat?" Oroth looked thoughtful for a moment before she went ahead and questioned, "like a satyr?"

Smiling once she felt like she had the answer, Oroth then went on to say, "I really like your horns! They look really nice whether it's a spooky goat or a satyr!"

Xavier smiled, though this one was a bit more forced. “..Yeah,” He said, “like a satyr.” He still had no idea if he actually was a satyr, considering he wasn’t born looking like this. He decided he’d think about it later because Halloween was supposed to be fun, and thinking about that mess wasn’t very fun at all.

His smile became more genuine at the compliment. “Oh, um, thank you!” His hand flew up to touch his right horn as he spoke, but he quickly put it back down.