UStuck RP: The Dark Arts and Crafts

Ms. Farina came out with the green tea, saying that Lorcan was coming soon. Greg smiled, took the drink, and took a sip. Delicious, just like everything Ms. Farina made.

"Thank you," Greg said, voice gritty and clearly not a voice for singing. "Kitty, we're going to have company."

"Oooh, is it Vulk and Lorcan? Is it Aki? OH! Is it Melody?" Kitty asked, bounding over. "Also, how come you aren't singing?"

"Ms. Farina made me a drink to help with that side effect," Greg said, grabbing the third apple Kitty had apparently ended up with. He took a bite, and enjoyed the ambiance the apple made him more susceptible to.

Kitty pouted. "Aw, but that's the best part! You won't sing the songs otherwise."

"Kitty, I'm dressed as Elsa. We really don't need to sing the songs. All your going to say to people is trick or treat. Lorcan's coming with. Apparently Vulk doesn't do Halloween," Greg said.

"Oh, right. Vulk doesn't do Halloween," Kitty said, winking. Greg raised an eyebrow, wondering what the wink was about. Although, did this mean Vulk and Kitty kept in contact? That...that was concerning.

Before Greg could ask Kitty what she meant, the omen went off, signaling the occasionally friendly not a necromancer had arrived.

 

Ugggh, the omen was still working? Great. Great, great, great. And it was Halloween, which meant a higher-than-average number of mages in attendance, which meant a higher-than-average number of people who might recognize why he was wearing a set of voluminous black robes and sipping on a box of grape juice.

Lorcan scanned the restaurant, looking for Greg's neon yellow hair. He wondered what Greg would be dressed as--oh, that fucking figured.

"I thought I told you not to mess with that Disney shit," he said once he and Trick reached Greg and, presumably, Kitty. "Are you going to be singing the entire night?"

 

"Not anymore. Your mother made me a nice cup of tea to prevent singing. And I wasn't going to. I had a great costume set all picked out. I was going to go as Kevin from Ghostbusters, since I'm clearly Chris Hemsworth's twin, and Kitty was going to go as Holtzmann. But Kitty disagreed, and stickyhanded me like this," Greg said, glaring at Kitty who was looking at the ghost next to Lorcan. "Who's with you?"

 

Lorcan looked at Greg. Looked at him again. Opened his mouth. Closed it. You know what, there really was no good way to explain how very, very wrong that comparison was, and it'd kill whatever self-esteem Greg had somehow managed to accumulate. He'd say something later.

Instead, he put his hand on where Trick's bedsheet draped itself into the shape of a shoulder. Overall, the thing looked like a kid about Kitty's age in a very simple ghost costume. Lorcan had offered to put eyes on the ensemble, but the thought had understandably weirded Trick out. "This is Trick. Trick, this is Kitty and her older brother Greg. They're going to be joining us trick-or-treating. Say 'hi', Trick."

"You scrubs better not jack my loot," was all he said. Lorcan sighed. Such a fucking brat.

 

Kitty narrowed her eyes. "I can get more loot than you without stealing anything of yours, just by being cuter."

Greg debated whether or not he should correct Kitty that the point of Halloween was not to compete for the most candy, but seeing as he was getting half of Kitty's candy, he had a vested interest in Kitty getting more candy. He'd let Lorcan be the bad guy. Unless Lorcan was getting a share of Trick's candy, in which case he might not stop Trick.

"And on that note, let's start going?" Greg asked.

 

"Yeah, let's get to forking work!" Trick fixed Kitty with an angry glare and rolled up his sleeves. Except, since Trick was just sleeves, he was effectively rolling up his arms.

"Okay, roll those back down, kiddo," Lorcan told him. "Don't want to blow our cover."

Trick sighed, but dropped back into a more visibly human shape. Lorcan waved to his mother, who looked to be busy re-spiking the punch, and said, "Sure. Might as well get this over with. I've got things to do tonight."

 

Several leaves blew down the street past Aki, and disappeared into the darkness almost before they registered in visual sight. The temperature had dropped several degrees since the sun had gone down, and clouds were moving rapidly across the moon. The overall effect was that of a quintessential Halloween movie, as it had been the previous several years, ever since this date had been added to the list of official holidays that Mr. Cartwright had taken over weather watching.

Aki blinked and picked up the pace. Admiring the atmosphere was all very well and good, but haste would be needed to finish the trick or treating route quickly enough to be able to make a second lap before the crowds of young children started to trickle off and it became harder to wheedle candy out of people. Too much longer, and people would start to remember some of the more unusual costumes. Fortunately this was an area heavily trafficked by the magical community, and Halloween was the one opportunity most took to show off their particular skills, which meant that even Aki's costumes tended to be able to fly under the radar for the first half of the night.

As Tea 'n Charmalade came into view, several familiar figures stepped out onto the sidewalk in a flurry of feathers. Aki stared. Was that... Lorcan? In a...huh. Apparently dorky holiday bowties weren't completely restricted to Christmas. Festive.

 

Lorcan shooed away Edgar as they stepped outside Tea and Charmalade with a practiced flap of his hands. He was getting way too used to that.

He contented himself with scoffing at the store-bought costumes on display. Wow, they got away with calling that a wig? At least Greg and Kitty's Elsa-and-Anna duo were made with magic and thus, pretty quality.

Other costumes were laughable only for their concept. Like Rave Party Umbreon over there. The black plush footie pajamas made sense, he supposed, even if the addition of the ears looked a little unwieldy, but the big yellow shades and blue glowstick bracelets for the stripes made it look like this person was going as the sweatiest clubbing experience ever.

Wait, was that Umbreon getting closer?

 

It was Lorcan! And Greg and Kitty and some small child dressed as a ghost!

Perfect! Small child escorts were key to obtaining candy when past a certain age, and no one had taken Aki up on that offer to rent out their children for the night. This was just what was needed.

And, now that Lorcan had made eye contact and clearly recognized the costume and the person in it, it was the perfect time to run over and give him a hug, which Aki promptly did.

 

Oh fuck why was Rave Party Umbreon glomping him? It wasn't like he knew anyone who would be caught dead dressed like that anywhere but--oh fuck. Oh, fuck.

"Listen, buddy, I don't know where you think you know me from," Lorcan hissed, trying to free himself, "but you are sorely mistaken, got it?"

He really hoped that got the point across, because no one could know. No one. Lorcan was allowed some secrets, and unfortunately his current company already knew most of them.

 

Oh no, if Lorcan didn't remember who Aki was, maybe he'd had a bit too much of Farina's punch already. Or else Aki's costume was just that good, which was entirely possible.

"Nonsense, Lorcan, you remember me! I see you just about every week, remember?"

 

Greg was looking between the Umbreon that had just assaulted Lorcan, and Lorcan, who was...turning a little pink? Maybe this was the guy that Lorcan's siblings had been muttering about trying to set him up with. Well, the denial didn't look like a good start, but what did Greg know about romance. Apparently Musić had been dating Greg in middle school, but no one had thought to tell him that. He had just thought that friends do things together. Like see movies and go to restaurants.

 

Aaaand this person knew his name. What? Why would he tell someone that? Had he been drunk?? Had he somehow forgotten the lesson of his wild college years, got wasted one night, and then consequently blacked out so thoroughly he actually tried to talk to someone?

"Okay, wow, you remember a lot more than I do, sorry but please leave now," he said.

"Dad." Oh no. This was just perfect. Trick crossed his arms. "Who's this?"

 

Wow, Farina must have gone all out on the punch today. Or messed with Lorcan's cup specifically, which, fair, totally in character.

At the sound of the small child's voice though, Aki leaned over to wave at Kitty, before turning to him.

"I'm Aki, I'm one of your dad's best friends. I don't know if he mentioned that ghost from last spring? Or the Elsa adventure from a few months back, which, Kitty, love what you did with Greg's costume by the way. There was also that one time with the pigeons? Stop me if I'm ringing any bells here, Lorcan."

Since he was hanging out with Greg, he clearly hadn't forgotten everything from the past several months then, just some specific stuff.

 

Greg let out a quick breath. Clearly he wouldn't have to cover Kitty's ears. No unintentional bird and bees information getting out. Although, how often did Lorcan actually...Nope, nope. Greg was not going there. Not at all.

"Hey Aki, your costume doesn't look as sparkly as I thought it might be," Greg said instead. He wasn't surprised Aki was out here. Dressing up for candy seemed like something Aki would like. He was surprised that Aki hadn't managed to snag a child to take trick or treating as a front to get candy from those annoying people who didn't give people over seventeen candy.

 

"..Aki?" Lorcan asked weakly. Okay, okay that made a lot more sense, and was a lot of a relief, but fuck. Although--did Aki think that crossing paths in his mom's restaurant counted as "seeing" each other? That was honestly kind of sad.

He shared Greg's thoughts on Aki's costume. He would have expected something like a disco ball. Or a human bedazzle. Or maybe Aki would just skip the costume and be a sentient mass of glitter.

"Lorcan doesn't have friends. He never goes anywhere if we don't make him," Trick said.

Damage control time. "Sorry, Trick, this is Aki. I do know them, and yes Aki I remember all of those. I'm still finding feathers in my apartment." And that might have come out a bit harsh, but seriously how could he forget that? "You're wearing a full body costume and you just glommed me out of nowhere, sorry if I was a little concerned why some stranger thought they knew me!" Smooth as silk. Fingers crossed his earlier slip-up didn't come back to bite him later.

"You're lucky you didn't try that on me," Trick informed Aki. "Lorcan says that stranger danger means I should drop the disguise and go for the eyes."

At least Trick seemed to have moved on. Knowing his attention span, that should be the last of it for the night. Which suited Lorcan just fine. No one, and especially not the things, could know about his secret love for Saturday night rave dancing.

 

"Well! Now that Lorcan's punch has worn off, time's a-wasting! Come on, let's go, I've got a route all mapped out, and we've got to move!"

 

"I'm not giving you any candy!" The voice was loud, and angry.

Lorcan looked up from where he was drinking juice and awkwardly avoiding small talk with Greg near the end of the driveway. "Well, that doesn't sound good."

It was honestly a surprise they'd gotten this far in the route before anyone objected to an obvious adult in a full-body costume asking for candy while kids were still out and about. There were two houses left in the route (at least, two houses left before Aki proposed they go home, change costumes, and hit all the houses again, a strategy Trick had gleefully agreed with until Lorcan reminded him he didn't have another costume).

"Geez. Come on," Lorcan said to Greg. "We've got to be responsible adults and defuse this. Just let me finish my juice box." Another slurp, then he leaned back on his Heely's sneakers and skated up the driveway.

 

Greg could hear Kitty raise her voice in defense of her 'new best friend and adopted brother' Aki the Umbreon. This might cut into tonight's profits.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Greg sighed, following Lorcan up the driveway.

 

"Hey, man," Lorcan said when he got there. "If you don't want to give candy to our friend--" He'd let Aki and Kitty bitch him out later. "--that's fine, but the kids just want their candy, so can we get that and get out of your hair?"

The man in the doorway was wearing a dollar-store Frankenstein mask as his only concession to a costume. Clearly he was a man of taste and discernment, Lorcan thought. "You should be careful who you let your kids hang out with," he said, giving both Lorcan and Greg a skeptical look.

"And you should be careful about telling a parent how to raise his son, but I guess tonight we both made some questionable decisions," Lorcan shot back. He fucking hated Halloween parents. "Well, you also chose to answer the door wearing that mask, so I guess the score's one-to-two so far."

The man scoffed, holding the bowl more protectively now. "Oh yeah? And what are you supposed to be?"

Lorcan crossed his arms over the outfit Doug had picked. The dress shirt was a garish orange, the vest shiny and black, and his bow tie was covered in pumpkins. Over it all was the big black robe that Greg and Aki had yet to ask about, even though it was possible they actually were aware of why he was wearing it. Not that this man could really understand. And then, well, the Heely's. "I'm an angry dad with a midnight appointment for some casual necromancy," he said. "So I would choose your next words carefully if I were you."