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Gotham City: Halloween of 2012, the apartment of these two guys

On a rare time where someone thinks it's a good idea to let apartment complexes open for trick-or-treating, there is one apartment in particular of true note. It's marked by an orange and purple wreath of garish plastic witches and cats, with a sign that reads "Trick or Treat" hanging from it. Inside things only get worse. There are strings of ghost-shaped lights and fake Jack-o-lanterns sitting everywhere. Fake hands litter the table tops. A bowl of eyeballs (read: grapes) are on the kitchen counter. There's a dead body in one of the beds.

Johann had no idea his roommate would go to such bizarre lengths to get ready for Halloween (though he's sure the body is a fake)--at least it beat werewolves and demonic cults from back home. The Dark elf is perched on a stool, watching as his human companion fills up a large bowl of candy. The younger blonde man is dressed in a black plastic bag with holes cut out for the arms and neck. There's even a bowler hat sitting on his thinning head of hair. Apparently he's 'white trash', but the elf finds it very tasteless. At least he had better sense of apparel, and his 'costume' didn't require changing at all. Neither is going trick or treating themselves, mind you-- they have a party to attend later in the night with a few friends-- but William the blonde 'trash' wants to make the kiddies happy first.

Well, in such a wretched hive as Batman's local territory, making them happy before one of the Rouges starts celebrating seems logical enough.

"And you get to hand out the candy!"
"...Excuse me?"
"C'mon, Johann, it'll be a hoot! Look at you! You're obviously in the world's best costume right now!"

If the elf hadn't needed the human as a business partner, he'd be punching his face in right about now. William hands off the bowl to his friend without another word and wanders off to his bathroom to do DarkseidHighfather-knows-what. Johann just puts on his best scowl and runs his tongue over his teeth to make sure they're sharp enough to put on a scare. He might as well get some fun out of this job he's stuck with.

"Trick or treat!!!" Yelled a small girl outside the door of the apartment. She was fully dressed in a long black dress and had a little fake blood around her mouth. Her mother came up behind her, panting from having to run and keep up with her energetic daughter.

Victim #1

With a world-weary sigh as if William had asked him to move Arkham Asylum itself, the elf pulls himself out of his chair and readjusts the bowl in his arms. He takes a quick glance into it before reaching for the knob: Snickers, M&Ms, Reese's Cups, Smarties... all things boring Muggle children would like, yeah?

Making sure this is indeed his best scowl he's putting on, the Dark Elf opens up the door and tries to glower at the little Jennine and her mother. He manages to uphold the unpleasant, sharp-toothed look for about, oh... two seconds, and then it falters, and he tries to put on a good-natured smile instead. Damn, so this is why William wanted him to do this! He just didn't have the heart to put a big scare in a child.

"Evenin', ma'am. Happy Halloween and all," the remarkably tall fellow greets the girl's mother before he looks down at Jennine and fishes out a few pieces of candy to put in her bag. "And ohoho, what a scary little, ah, vampire, yes?"

Jennine's mother smiled at the man when he opened the door.
"Yup! I'm the scariest vampire around!!" Jennine hissed then showed her biggest smile, complete with both of her front teeth missing.
She looked longingly at all the candy in the bowl and eagerly held her pumpkin shaped bucket out.

Johann chuckles, much like a father would at a child's antics (be it their own or someone else's). There are at least twenty lame vampire puns he could make at this moment, but he resists the temptation.

"And you're doing a fine job at that with such a winning vampire's smile. Here you go." He drops a few pieces of candy into Jennine's bucket, simple as that. "Have a fun and safe Halloween," he adds, addressing both mother and child.

Somewhere in the apartment, there's a noticeable thump, and the dark elf winces and dares a glance over his shoulder-- nothing looks amiss, thankfully, but the last thing he wants is to have to detour to the hospital tonight.

"Speaking of 'safe'..."
"I'm okay!" William calls back from his bathroom.

Jennine looked around curiously when she heard the thump, but reluctantly let her mother lead her away.
"Goodbye mister!!" She yelled as they left, flashing one last vampiric grin.

The dark elf warmly smiles,nods back at Jennine, and then starts to turn back to head into the apartment.

When the door is closed firmly behind him, he walks over to his stool and sets the bowl down upon it. He probably won't have a chance to sit back down again anyway. William emerges shortly after, nursing a sizable bump on his forehead.

"... idiot," the elf scoffs as the blonde gives him a wide grin.
"I had a wrestling fight with the bathroom counter."
"Yeah, well, go wrestle some candy out of the bowl here for the next kid who shows up. ... by the by, that was not a suggestion, William."

Nero and West had different objectives for the night. Nero was in it for the candy. He marched down the street several paces in front of his friend, wearing a carefully crafted pirate costume. Already, he was chewing on the candy he had been given.

West on the other hand was always looking for any opportunity to be devilish, and for one year a night a year it was practically expected! He was dressed as a ninja - only because the dark colours would be perfect for sneaking into people's back gardens unseen. Nero found the fact that they were a pirate and a ninja amusing; West did not get the joke.

Eventually they wound up in an apartment complex - in the long corridor of faceless doors, one stuck out from the rest. This one was rich with the Halloween spirit. Nero pranced up to it, West a few paces behind with his usual lack of merriment. After a few seconds straightening his costume, Nero rapped on the door hard.

Inside William's voice can be heard taking on a pleasant trill: "New arrivals!"
Johann's gruffer tone overtakes it easily: "Stop being stupid and open the door."

And William does just that, flinging the door open... to a pair of gentlemen a bit younger than the two men are! The human and the dark elf stare curiously through the doorway at Nero and West, amazed by the audacity of two men trick-or-treating, and further amused by their opposing choices in costume!

"... don't tell me you couldn't get ladies on a night like this," Johann is very quick to snark, and William glances over his bag-covered shoulder to give him a sharp look. As he turns his head back around to regard Nero and West, the look on his face is entirely apologetic.

"Don't mind him, gents," the blonde begins to say. "He hasn't had any holiday spirit in years--oof!" Johann takes the opportunity to dope-slap his roommate, nearly knocking his bowler hat off.

Someone else who doesn't get the pirate vs. ninja joke abruptly appears outside Johann & William's apartment. There's no fanfare, no smoke, no sound, just one moment there's an empty space behind the two trick or treating men and then there's a horrible tentacle faced monster dressed in the black robes of a super villain. A neon orange bag hovers in the air in front of the creature, suspended without any kind of support.

It stands there silently, raising one hand to shield its eyes from the halogen lights in the hallway, and waits. Maybe for its turn?

“TRICK OR TREAT!” An eerily jovial voice booms through the appartment, deep and rumbling, like a row of sub-woofers all turned up to 11. It sounds like it might be coming from outside the window...

The window in question is filled by a giant eyeball, as if something very large were peering in through a tiny little hole. There is something a little bit off, however, the structure of the eyelid and tiny bit of flesh visible around the eye is wrong. It only takes a half a heartbeat to realize that the problem is that the eye is neither a left, nor a right eye. It is a central eye.

There is a tiny looking bugbear's face stuck just below this central eye and above the mouth. The face is bloody around the edges and is clearly stretched unevenly, making it almost difficult to determine the fact that it was once(recently) attached to a bugbear. Maybe this face is this creature's idea of a “Costume” but only if he is very unclear on the definition of the word Costume.

Nero's expression went flat at William's comment about women. "I can get girls," he snapped defensively. "I get girls all the time, in fact," he quickly added. West groaned, he knew this spiel all too well.

"Look, just give him candy and we'll be on our way," West told the older man. Suddenly, West heard footsteps coming up the hallway - more trick or treaters were approaching. Those costumes -- surely they were costumes. Creatures of that kind didn't knock on doors for sweets?

Nero was still irritated by William's comment - and now these guys were showing him up on their costumes. "Nice costume," he commented towards Aethaerraent. He pointed at the being's face "But... uh, I think you missed a spot. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice costume anyway."

William can sense Johann's unpleasant, sarcastic grin behind him.

"Sure you can, pretty boy."
"Johann!

The blonde gentleman jabs an elbow backwards, right into his roommate's side. The elf winces and raises a hand to whack William upside the head in retaliation--

--but that's when the two new arrivals show up. Plans of candy and dope slaps are put firmly on hold as the two men first regard Aethaerraent, and then Zilethipereskis as it's voice gets their attentions. For a few achingly long seconds the two men are completely silent, as if neither really knows what to say when confronted with two powerful beings they don't recognize in the least.

"... someone tell me before we get on with the night's activities," Johann finally breaks whatever silence there may be, "are we still in Gotham City, or did the entire complex just dump itself into Japan?"

... Owch. That stings!

(I think something got misread! There weren't any footsteps, and only one of the new arrivals is in the hall. Aethaerraent appeared in the hallway. Zilethipereskis appeared outside the window of the apartment.)

As Nero points at Aeth's face, the creature's tentacles wriggle in disgust at this sign of disrespect. The candy bag floats forward toward the apartment residents. Not Halloween special cutesy floating thing that's obviously bobbing around on wires -- oh no. It glides forward steadier than a monorail. Gotham or Japan, you must still choose between Trick or Treat. It's like the creature speaks right into the brain. Surely no sound came from it? Surely it must have some kind of fancy speakers hidden inside that elaborate robe to make the words sound like they don't come from any direction at all.

Most major changes in one's environment come with some warning. If a tree falls in the woods, in your direction or not, you hear about it well before it hits the ground. Most car accidents come with a telltale screeching of tires(unless the driver is asleep), even falling objects make noise one could hear and thus get out of the way. Even the surprisingly sneaky catastrophes tend to make a great deal of noise after they happen, such that nearby observers are likely to be startled or alerted that something just happened.

No such event just happened.

What /did/ happen may be made slightly more surprising, or even disturbing by the total lack of fanfare, and genuinely blase manner in which it occurred.

The wall is simply gone. A great big sphere of apartment building is simply missing, gone in a puff of smoke(more accurately ash for those who collect some and look into it). Future damage repair efforts will reveal the missing piece to be a perfect sphere, and 12 feet in diameter. Even the most casual observer would note that this exceeds the height of the apartment ceiling by a considerable margin, a fact made immediately obvious by the naked man with a very surprised look on his face who falls through the apartment wearing nothing but a hair net, and holding a back scrubber and a bar of soap. It is likely that he will be thankful in a few minutes for the fact that the downstairs neighbors appear to have conveniently placed their king sized bed directly below him, but until then surprise is likely to continue to dominate his emotional spectrum.

“I don't know where Japan is, but you are still wherever you were a few minutes ago. It is we who have arrived.” No longer yelling, the Beholder's voice is still very deep, and clearly powerful and ominous, but also surprisingly pleasant to listen to, and exceptionally well articulated.

Nero knew where Japan was located, and even if he was unable to point it out on a map, West recognised the name. They knew somebody there, but the less spoken of her the better. There were far more important things to worry about at the moment. Like how that octopus-face guy spoke right into his head. Surely, it was a mere Halloween trick, but very intimidating!

But the sudden departure of a large part of the apartment complex... that was terrifying. Nero swallowed hard and looked over at his friend. West's usually taciturn face was twisted into complete fear, his eyes flicked between the two creatures. Nero grabbed his friend roughly by the sleeve, snapping him out of his daze.

And then they left, slowly at first, unwilling to take their eyes off the Aethaerraent or Zilethipereskis before turning and dashing as fast as their scrawny legs could carry them.

There is one rather distinct reaction from only one of the men as Aeth speaks--well, 'speaks' is a relative word here, but the reaction is still the same. The bowl full of candy, plastic thankfully, tumbles to the floor with a loud clatter as its holder has just drops the poor thing in surprise. William, unaccustomed to mental intrusions, bristles in fear as he stares wide-eyed at the mind flayer.

Johann turns his attention back around and gently lofts a brow, as he tends to do; he gives his friend, Nero, and West a quizzical look.

"What in the Overseer's name wrong with all of you?" the elf inquires in a calm tone that's ever-so-slightly offset by an edge of agitation. Will simply points at Aeth and stutters out, "M-m-mind speak thing trick thing!"

Oh. Or in more eloquent terms, telepathy. In one deft ill-spoken phrase, William has proved his grasp on the otherworldly isn't entirely composed yet-- nor is his sense of tact, but who needs it at a moment like this anyway? The elf unleashes a sigh of epic annoyance proportions and reaches up to rub a growing ache in his right temple. The telepathy didn't cause it.

"You'll have to excuse my candy-dropping associate. He's a little slow someti--iim-ah...?" Johann trails off in an awkward fashion at the sudden feel of a draft and the sound of someone falling behind him. Grabbing at William's arm, he turns them both around... to the missing piece of apartment wall and Zileth.

"Dalharuk d' natha elg'caress, dos waele... klez*," the elf utters in what may or may not be broken Drow. It sounds rather unpleasant, even if his tone is relatively calm--then again, this may just be because he happens to be speaking Drow at the moment. The reaction overall however is more fitting of someone slapping him than ruining a home.

"O-our apartment!" William wails, staring in disbelief at the beholder. His poor little mind is probably about to give out from all this supernatural and magical overloading! Johann gently pats the blonde on the arm and points at the candy. He begins to speak, this time returning to English, "Here's the candy. Have at it, and then please go so we can attend our party and twist a few arms behind some backs to find a new place to stay."

He's got a lot of gumption in the presence of two beings that could probably put a hurt on him. Perhaps the dark elf isn't aware of to whom or what he's speaking to. And West and Nero never got their candy! Maybe someone could throw some over the new 'window' in the room for them on their way out of the complex.

(OoC: "Son of a bitch, you stupid... thing" Unless the translator I use is a little off. That's what I intended, at least.)

Aethaerraent rotates on the spot, smoothly and silently, to watch poor Nero and West go running. At least it's Halloween, so this kind of thing is festive, right? Right?

Take what you want, the illithid seems ever so slightly impatient as it addresses those assembled, but perhaps its words are mostly intended for the giant Beholder. So we can find something more substantial to eat.

The Beholder edges into the apartment, the hole only barely able to fit its circumference, including the sections of the upstairs and downstairs neighbors' apartments. As it drifts slowly into the gap, all the eyes change slowly from brown to purple. “I am neither stupid nor thing.” While it so far has only spoken in the common tongue, clearly it understands Drow.

“I am Zilethipereskis, the essence of perfection itself. You may refer to me as Ocular, as your puny mouth cannot bear the weight of my name.” (It is important to note that while Zilethipereskis, as written, is merely hard to pronounce, it is also not written correctly. There is no way to use our relatively simple language to represent the true name of a Beholder accurately.) Recently Ocular has exhibited quite a range of vocal prowess. Not only can he easily shout through a wall, he can manage conversational volume comfortably in a small space. His latest declaration exhibits yet another option entirely. Ocular's voice resonates like he is standing in the center of a perfect amphitheater. This room is far from acoustically perfect, but Ocular is able to modulate his voice such that it sounds like it is. If the occupants didn't know better, they might think his voice was coming from all around them simultaneously.

Apparently satisfied, for now, with his self-aggrandizing, Ocular lets his declaration reverberate in the small room(which it does surprisingly well) and the minds of its occupants. With nothing more than a glance from a single eyestalk, the offered candy begins to levitate of its own accord off the floor, out of its bowl and/or bags toward an orange sack that is attached to the bottom of Ocular's equipment harness. The rest of Ocular's eyes watch the room and its occupants carefully, each eye monitoring a relatively small field of view in what looks like a very habitual motion.

Johann appears to be unaffected by the continued use of Telepathy, but the unfortunate blonde beside him grows more and more weirded out by the second. He starts trying to cling to his roommate's arm, and the dark elf promptly bops him upside the head in retaliation while giving the beholder an intrigued stare-down.

"You've certainly proved my wrong just now," the elf remarks coolly. "Well, I suppose in a... roundabout way, it is pleasure enough to meet you, Ocular. ... William, say hi to our perfected guest and his companion--or so I assume."

The blonde continues to stare in horror, and this feeling only grows at the absurdity that is Johann acting so calmly in this situation. He finally manages to tear his eyes away from their guests to give his friend the same expression.

"H-how... how can you... they just... they're taking..." He catches onto the eyestalks' movements. "Whyisitlookingatus?"

The dark elf unleashes a sigh of deeply embarrassed proportions and gives William a non-too-gentle shove towards the bathroom. "Go hide out in there, you polite-lacking pansy." The human starts stumbling in the direction he's been shoved, knocking his bowler hat clean off his head.

"Whatareth--" The human's frantic, tactless inquires are cut off by a sharp glare, but he doesn't dare move farther than the few feet he managed between the two of them.