SystemofEleven

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Lillith gave Barrel a lecherous smile and set her glass down. She rose to her feet and sauntered forward, turning after a few steps to stand directly in front of him. She reached down and ran her fingers along his collar, before gripping it from the front to lift him so that he was slightly above her level. She slowly walked her fingers up his chest. With a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows, she leaned in so their faces were almost touching…

Then she pecked him on the nose, dropped him, and casually returned to her seat with a completely demure expression.

Carmilla smirked when she saw where the bottle landed. She wasn’t cruel enough to wish Lillith – or anyone, really – would have to kiss Chad, but the boyfriend’s brother was still an awkward roll. She took a quick sip of her wine while she waited to see how it would play out.

She choked on that sip a little as her twin suddenly switched into an incredibly lustful mode. Once she saw how the trick played out, she took a moment to clear her windpipe, then scowled and sipped again more slowly.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Agatha mused on why Lock didn’t take either opportunity to kiss her. At first she wondered if he was just [/i]that[/i] in love with Lillith, but she wasn’t sure. Suddenly, she felt a lightbulb moment overtake her. He must be in on it too! He’s helping Barrel steal our first kiss, and just pretending he doesn’t want to take advantage of the spin as an excuse. She sighed blissfully, unaware that it wasn’t just an internal sigh. When Barrel started chasing and wrestling Lock, she had another thought that made her eyes widen a bit. I wonder how much of their fighting is just an act, to keep people from realizing how loving and helpful they really are to each other…

Chad grinned at the sight of the tussle. This was just like the stuff he and his frat bros got into during all of their ragers! Not that he could remember any specific parties off the top of his head at the moment, but that was irrelevant. He started cheering the brothers on with whoops and hollers, waving his beer around. “Kick his butt, big guy!” He spilled some of his drink in his lap as he pumped his fists in the air. Oblivious to the mess on his pants, he continued shouting, “Come on, Lock! He’s just a big pile of brawn! Use your dexterity, dude!”

Agatha somehow mentally blocked the other siblings cussing and only swooned further when they shut down Barrel from cursing. She thought to herself, Awww, his siblings are teaching him to use polite wording in the presence of ladies! “Now I see where he learned his gentlemanly behavior from...” She could almost feel the invisible hearts floating above her head, blissfully unaware that the thought had quietly escaped her mouth.

Carmilla raised an eyebrow at her friend. She knew the two of them were dating and that Barrel was rather polite about it, but that line of thought was a stretch that even outdid the Melting Man’s slow descent when the trio had glued him to the rafters of the Town Hall.

Lilith stared at Agatha, wondering where the thought even came from. When she noticed her sister’s comparatively understated reaction, she made a mental note to ask some questions later when they were at home. For the time being, she pursed her lips and took another sip of her wine.

Carver covered their uncontrolled laughter by pretending to have something caught in her throat tube. Obviously she couldn’t choke, but it was still a reasonable excuse to pound her metal arm frames against her cage and cover up the sound of both her guffaws and any further thoughts that Agatha might have brought to the surface. The momentary amusement was excellent, but it was incredibly lucky that it happened to come out while Barrel was distracted with a sibling tussle. He would have to consider toning down his manipulations for a while to make sure the overly romantic witch didn’t spoil the game by saying something to her supposed-boyfriend, accidentally or otherwise.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carmilla vaguely noticed herself feeling a little buzzed, but was too focused on not murdering half the people in the room to really care about watching her limits. She was caught in a situation where any response would be the wrong one. Her grip tightened around her wine glass. It didn’t shatter, but a few cracks appeared at her fingertips and began to slowly spread along the surface.

Carmilla, not wanting to draw any further attention to herself, downed the rest of her drink and put the glass down behind her where the others couldn’t immediately see the damage she had done. If anyone noticed the cracks later, she could feign ignorance and insinuate they had already been there; all of the dishes belonging to the trio were in some damaged state anyway, so it wouldn’t be too unbelievable.

The burn of the vodquila-tainted wine and act of hiding the glass distracted the vampiress long enough to bring her rage back into check. At least enough to not attack the tricksters on their own turf, anyway. She still remembered the incident with the fucking bear tazer. There was no level of drunkenness that would drive her to risk another experience with that.

Agatha looked at Chad with a grimace of disgust. She glanced at Barrel, thankful her boyfriend was completely beyond such gross ideas. She remembered the flowers he had left for her after their first date. Ethereal remnants of their lovely gray petals seemed to fall around her as she envisioned the two of them holding hands and walking towards the moonset. She hummed quietly as she basked in the image, already forgetting the blond boy’s existence for a moment.

Lilith turned Lock’s head toward her own and gave him a passionate kiss. It lasted several seconds longer than humans would be able to go without stopping for a breath. Then she turned slowly to Chad, running her tongue over her fangs as she smiled. “Darling, you have nothing to teach him. You could barely hope to match him if you practiced for another hundred years.”

She pulled her tongue back in to bare her fangs properly at him. “As to a twin sandwich, the only way that might ever happen is if we decided to drain your probably alcoholic blood together. Otherwise, we have no interest in acting carnally in each other’s presence.”

That last part wasn’t entirely accurate. There had been plenty of occasions where one of the twins -- usually Lillith herself, if she was being honest -- was fully prepared to start bumping headstones in their shared bedroom, and the only reason the other sister wasn’t “in their presence” was that she saw the bra go flying and left. Still, there was absolutely no harm in making sure Chad didn’t have anything to take as an invitation to watch.

Not that it really mattered. He didn’t register a word that came out of her mouth after seeing her make out with Lock. His eyes were glazed over a little bit as he grinned and muttered, “Hot...”

Carver cackled along with everyone else, holding back the greater volume of her glee to avoid letting on to the others that there was more to the current situation than a bit of sniping. After the group’s laughter died down, he toasted Barrel with his popcorn and shot a wink at Agatha with his right eye.

The motion brought the young witch out of her reverie. Right! The Plan! she thought. It was her turn next!

Agatha reached for the bottle to take her turn, spinning it a little too enthusiastically. She tried to force herself to appear calmer as the bottle spinned. Should she act surprised when it landed on Barrel? Or would he find that to be too non-subtle? Should she get up to kiss him, or wait for him to come to her? Did the rules specify? Did etiquette have a say in situations like this? She squirmed in her seat, planning her course of action for when it stopped.

After a torturously long few seconds, the bottle slowed enough for the players to start making guesses on where it might stop. It passed Barrel four clear times, each time so much slower than the last. Agatha let out a tiny squeal at the fifth rotation, where it creeped toward him -- only to somehow manage to pass the larger brother and stop on Lock.

Agatha stared at the bottle, aghast, dismayed, deflated, and just downright disappointed. Could it be possible she had been wrong? Had she been misreading the signals between Barrel and Carver?

Carver’s front mouth widened.

No! Of course! Agatha realized. It simply wouldn’t be subtle if she landed on him in the first round! She quickly recovered her mirth and cheerfully moved to refill her -- and Carmilla’s -- drinks, momentarily forgetting that the bottle had still landed on someone.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carmilla glowered at Lock’s comment, then turned to Carver. Carver winked with their middle eye - or did they simply blink? - and grinned. With a scowl, Carmilla took a sip of her drink to somewhat hide her disdain.

The bottle slowed down as it approached Agatha. Carmilla eased a bit as the bottle slowed down. At least she could give her best friend a quick peck and be done with it. Unless the tricksters made it a rule to be a kiss on the lips? She wouldn’t put it past the boys to snog each other for the chance to make someone else uncomfortable… But it kept moving.

Please stop on the empty panel, Carmilla chanted internally. Please stop on the empty panel.

It didn’t stop on the empty panel. The bottle crossed the barrier and very distinctly pointed to Lock before it stopped.

Carmilla stared at Lock intensely while he pretended to deliberate, almost daring him to try it. Bad enough that he was a guy, but a trickster and her sister’s boyfriend? Not going to happen. She’d wring his little neck and turn him into a wall decoration. Maybe hang him over Lillith’s coffin as a reminder to pick better boyfriends. Yeah. Make both of them regret dragging her into this stupid game.

She relaxed for a moment when he said, “Pass.”

Then he said that there wasn’t any difference between herself and her sister, but that Lillith was also somehow better. She immediately wound back up again, much to the cackling amusement of Carver.

Carmilla bristled and sneered at Lock. “Leave it to a guy to confuse quantity with quality.”

Chad, on the other hand, was so shocked by Lock’s pass that he missed everything Carmilla had said and almost talked over her. “Dude, why’d you pass?! You could have completed the set!”

Then he paused, and leaned in with a poorly concealed whisper. “Unless you think maybe you’re not a good enough kisser to convince her to be part of a twin sandwich? I can give you some pointers if you want. Go for gold, bro!”

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Chad grinned and reached out to give the bottle a hard spin to the left. It spun quickly, taking several moments to slow down and giving almost everyone in the circle time to wonder how likely it would be to land on them. Carver played a few scenarios in their mind while they watched the bottle decelerate as it passed Agatha and Carmilla, but it didn’t stop on the pumpkin creature and even managed to inch past Sobki. It stopped with the spout pointing almost directly at Chad.

“Boooo!” Two voices rose at the same time. Chad lifted his beer to his lips, expecting to have to wait until his next turn to get another shot, but Carver continued.

“That’s boring! Let him get one more try!” She winked with the eye Shock had made in the middle of her head. “I don’t wanna see him try to kiss himself, but I want someone to pucker up!”

Considering whose party this was -- and how much the trio enjoyed everyone squirming in dread -- no one tried to argue with him.

Chad tried spinning the other direction and a lot more gently this time. It made its way around the circle once, twice, and was on its third rotation when it became clear it was going to stop soon, well before it got back to the boys. Chad’s eyes lit up and he leaned forward in anticipation as it slowed down approaching Carmilla.

The vampiress hissed and clenched her fists. She pulled her feet under herself, preparing to smash the bottle and storm off if it stopped on her.

Luckily, despite slowing to a crawl, it managed to continue past her. Chad was less ecstatic about the possibility of kissing Agatha, but still quite happy to do so.

The teen witch gritted her teeth, but by some miracle, the bottle seemed to hit some kind of rough spot in the wood. With a tiny plink it came to a momentary halt and then rolled backward a few inches, finally coming to a complete rest squarely in the panel between the two ghouls.

“Awwwww…” Chad leaned back with an attempt at keeping his pout ‘manly’. “Too bad we’re all spread out so much. But next time, I’ll definitely land on someone!”

He quickly switched back to his usual dopey, upbeat attitude and cheerfully passed the bottle to Sobki.

Carver was pretty much the only one who considered commenting that no one specified that he couldn’t spin again if it landed between two people, but she quickly decided against it. He would catch on if he kept spinning over and over with no result, and wouldn’t be as effective as making the others dread his turn coming back around again -- or possibly almost landing on him themselves.

Agatha sagged with visible relief. What luck that the seemingly smooth surface had just enough of a rough spot to save--

Carmilla slumped back into a proper seated position and silently held her half empty wine glass toward her best friend, making a pointed look at the bottle of vodquila.

Oh. Right! Agatha smiled at her. Carmilla had joined the game to make sure she and Barrel got their first kiss, after all. Of course she wouldn’t let Chad land on her! And if the cost of that help was a bit of something to make the game more tolerable, then well, it was the very least the young witch could do. Agatha poured as much as the glass could hold.

Sobki took his turn and with a quick flick of his wrist, sent the bottle spinning. The bottle spun for a good several seconds before it landed between Chad and Barrel. He shrugged.

“Guess that’s my turn,” he said. He passed the bottle to Carver.

The pumpkin creature took it and yanked the two ends in opposite directions. It came close to stopping on Chad, but ended up passing him and coming to a halt between him and Sobki. The mouth on the back of Carver’s head pouted as they passed the bottle to Carmilla. Chad would have been fun to mess with -- would he be more weirded out going for the fanged mouth at the front with no lips and three distinctly inhuman eyes, or the kissy lips at the back with a nose which, at such a close visual range, was still clearly designed around the shape of a “man hammer”? And as to Sobki, well, it might have at least been an interesting experiment to see what monsters get out of kissing heartthrobs.

Carmilla looked at the bottle silently, wondering again if this was worth it. She looked around at the circle of waiting teens, then turned to glance at the only person not participating. Shock fluttered her fingers in a cheeky wave.

The vampiress downed half her drink, gripped the bottle tightly, and gave it a hard twist.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Chad grinned and chugged some more beer. “Now that’s getting into the party groove! Count me in!”

Agatha hesitated. On the one claw, she could use it as an excuse to kiss Barrel without having to try and navigate his preference for nuance and subtlety. And it might be nice to get a small chance with Halloween Town’s favorite heart throb.

On the other claw, she didn’t want to potentially interfere with whatever relationship Sobki was in currently, and she definitely didn’t want to cheat on her own boyfriend, even as part of a game. And what would happen if she landed on Chad? She grimaced slightly at the thought.

But… It did provide a potential opportunity to finally cross a relationship benchmark with the person she most wanted to.

But what if Barrel wouldn’t want to sully the experience of their first kiss with the casualty of the game? What if he was saving it for something special? Was he already planning a particular set up?

Agatha fell quite silent for a long moment as her thoughts drifted to all the possibilities of such a plan. A dark tunnel, perhaps? The air filled with the fluttering noise of bats dancing in the air around them, a curtain of poison ivy and African strangler vines parting before them…

Lillith gave a glance about the room. Like Sobki, she didn’t particularly see anyone among the normal Halloween Town teens that she would have any real issues kissing. Chad was a different story. He might be reasonably good looking by mortal standards, but she was far from mortal with far different standards, and his low level of physical attractiveness was further washed away by his abysmal personality. Of course, she was perfectly capable of reaching forward to tap the bottle away at a speed he wouldn’t be able to track with his eyes…

The elder vampiress shrugged. “I suppose I see no harm in playing.”

And she definitely saw no harm in her current boytoy rubbing teeth with her old one. The two of them had parted ways amicably, and Sobki was still the heartthrob of everyone in their age group (or at least those who swung that direction) for a reason. Lillith knew the two boys wouldn’t mesh well enough to go particularly far, but she would still very much enjoy watching them at the starting line.

When Barrel chimed in with the most casual, “sure,” he smiled like he knew something no one else did. Agatha’s thoughts stopped in their tracks for a moment.Then they suddenly went into overdrive as she began to connect all the pieces. Of course! This was his plan! He must have set the whole thing up with Carver ahead of time.

Tricksters have to be subtle, Agatha reminded herself, so he prefers carefully applied nuance. A grandiose display of romance wouldn’t be in his style, but manipulating a supposed game of chance to guarantee a kiss from his sweetheart would be.

Of course, that would only work if she was playing the game with him. So his casual response must have been intended to indicate it was alright!

Feeling rather proud of herself for having caught his hint, the teen witch took a moment to calm and compose herself before trying to make an equally casual, “I’ll join.”

Carmilla scowled as she surveyed her options, and bit down the jealousy that her sister had the whole room of her choosing, while she… had Agatha, which would be weird given their friendship, Carver, who she might consider just for this, and… Shock.

Ugh. Why did a part of her enjoy that option?

The purple bitch’s current outfit really wasn’t helping. Well, either that, or it was helping, but her personality was working heavily against it. Those shorts barely covered what they needed to, and the high top socks… tended to drive one’s gaze in a particular direction.

Yech! No! Not going there! Carmilla shook herself and tore her eyes away before anyone could notice where they had wandered. There was no way she was going to get pulled in by that!

...Hhhnnnnnnng. But maybe if she landed on Shock, she could get the whole thing over with and be able to shake herself out of it easier in the future, after knowing from experience how bad it was.

...But what if it wasn’t bad? Would that make things worse going forward? Wait, no! There was no way it wouldn’t be bad; it was Shock! How had her thoughts even gotten that far?

When the oldest of the trio decided to sit the game out, the dilemma pretty much solved itself. Regardless of how she felt about the trickster being the only solid option for her, the removal of that option left her with no reason to play.

“No, thank you. Not worth my time,” she sniffed.

Carver waved the tips of his vines at Shock and Carmilla. “Alright, then. You two can hang out in the corner and have a pleasant conversation with each other while the rest of us play.” The pumpkin creature put the slightest emphasis on pleasant conversation.

The younger twin’s eyes widened, before she quickly snapped, “Fine! I’ll play your stupid game.”

Carver smiled innocently up at her. “Whatever you like.”

Agatha blinked in surprise at that turn of events. There’s really only me and Carver for her to kiss. I’m not sure she’s into Carver, and if she landed on me, it’d be a courtesy to just turn it down. Unless…

OH! Right! With so many people playing and watching, Barrel wouldn’t have a way to manipulate the game without getting caught. But Carmilla could, using her supernatural speed.

Of course her best friend was in on it!

Banding Together in Halloween Town

“What?” Chad asked with an innocent shrug. “I’m just looking! I’m not touching without permission, or anything.”

"Touching without permission will get your arms ripped off," Carmilla interjected with a glare. She hadn't seen him staring, but she'd heard his response well enough to understand the situation. She continued, "And looking without permission will get your eyes gouged out. I suggest you avoid doing either."

Agatha’s heart fluttered. Of course Barrel, gentleman that he was, would defend the ghouls from unwanted attention! And he even specified that it was for all the ghouls’ benefit, not just his sister. She wasn’t surprised, but it was just so nice to have such constant reminders of his good nature, despite the unscrupulous behavior of and disrespect he seemed to receive from his siblings. She almost had to wonder if she even deserved him. Or if he was faking some part of his good nature...

And then she saw him dancing. Oh, good. At least there was something he wasn’t great at. She couldn’t believe she had almost entertained the thought that he might be suspiciously too perfect!

She laughed at how much fun he was clearly having, and joined in the strange chaos of goofy dancing.

Carver noticed Chad’s gaze on their little group and subtly shifted their position to not only block cut-ins, but also to block the idiot’s line of sight. Luckily, Barrel gave him some helpful “direction” before Shock noticed.

Depends on what we’re betting, and how we’re playing, she responded to her friend’s silent question. And whose turn it is to be the ball, of course.

Shock slipped behind Carver in another move so she could get a longer thought out to them.

I think I can offer an incentive for our guests to play, she tapped out. Immunity from a trick tends to be a pretty good motivator. As for the ball...

Shock let Carver take her in his vines and bring her forward again. She shot a quick glance to Chad, then put her focus back on the pumpkin creature.

...I’m on a roll with the possibility.

Both of Carver’s mouths widened into feral grins.

Oh, I am absolutely in! But just in case he’s actually smart enough to leave after that, there’s something I wanna do first.

It’s your party.

Carver turned around and gave Sobki a twirl. “Anybody up for Spin the Bottle after this?”

Banding Together in Halloween Town

With Shock distracted by Sobki and the trickster boys both occupied with their respective girlfriends, Carmilla let down her guard a little and helped herself to a few snacks. She wrinkled her nose at the insinuation made by the uninvited guest. Not because he was wrong, but because he lacked the manners to realize he shouldn’t say it in front of polite company. Or, well… company which included at least some polite people. The vampiress was pretty sure Shock couldn’t fit the description if her unlife depended on it, and the other tricksters were only slightly better.

Chad chugged some more of his beer, happy that his joke had gotten some laughs and completely unaware of the discomfort it had resulted in. He decided to take a moment to appreciate his surroundings -- namely, the girls he was pretty sure weren’t taken yet. Carmilla had more to look at, shape-wise, but Shock was clearly not shy about showing off and rocking her long legs in a much shorter skirt than the vampiress. He let his eyes wander up and down a bit while he drank.

Agatha beamed. She was finally getting the hang of communicating with her boyfriend on his level! She fell into step beside him and lightly rested a hand on Barrel’s elbow.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Lillith started to make a sly response to Lock’s comment, but before she could get a single syllable out, she was cut off by a single boisterous guffaw.

“Well, you’re the right height for it! And I imagine with a girlfriend like that, you’ve probably got plenty of experience,” Chad added with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle.

Lillith immediately stiffened up, her claw-like fingernails digging into Lock’s back as she held him in the dip. The glass on her foot teetered dangerously for a moment. She quickly regained her composure, and in one fluid motion pulled her boyfriend to his feet and brought the glass back to her waiting hand, denying Lock that kiss in the process.

Agatha grimaced and shuffled over to Barrel. Now seemed like as good a time as any, but she suddenly felt nervous. If she was too blatant about asking her boyfriend for a dance, would he turn her down for lack of finesse? Or worse, would Chad make a crude comment about their relationship? She definitely didn’t want to risk the mood getting entirely ruined before they could even work it up properly. She had to find a way to get Barrel on the dance floor without without drawing the blonde boy’s attention.

“Hey, umm… Would you mind accompanying me to the dance floor?” She refrained from calling him ‘dear’ just in case. She did tilt her chin down and bat her eyelashes up at him, though. “It’s getting a little crowded over here.”

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Chad returned and cracked open a new beer. In his pained and panicked hysterics, he had completely missed Shock’s “hot stuff” comment. As such, he was completely oblivious to the intended revelation that the spiciness of his previous drink had been an intentional retaliation against his earlier comment to her.

“Man, who knew backwash could carry that much of a kick? Explains why none of you took drinks afterward to help with the burn. You guys must have tongues of steel to eat more than one of those puffs! Truly badass, my bros,” he added with a grin. He held out his fist for Barrel to bump.

Lillith continued dancing with her boyfriend for several minutes, periodically taking a sip of punch or wine and slowly relaxing once the double-pronged prank on Chad was determined to be a relatively harmless way to keep him out of the way and out of trouble. Well, the kind of trouble the trio didn’t appreciate. In any case, he wasn’t hurt, and he wasn’t giving poorly chosen commentary. She was therefore allowed to put her order-keeping duties on the cool side of the cauldron for the time being.

After a while, she glanced down and noticed Lock was just a bit too interested in his drink, and decided to get his attention squarely back on her. With a smirk, she kicked in her vampiric speed and grace to suddenly grab the glass from his hand and hold it above her head. In the same motion, she swiped his feet out from underneath him and caught him mid-fall, such that he ended up nearly horizontal with her free arm hooked under his lower back. Her own glass ended up resting perfectly balanced on her foot, which she lifted up to keep her leg parallel with her upper body as she bent forward to hold him in the deep dip.