OPEN ♞ SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS

[tarotcards]

WHO: Souji Seta and anyone else
WHERE: Various parts around Recolle
WHEN: All month
WHAT: Catch-all for all of Oct's wacky monster events
WARNINGS: A lot of fighting and bitter feelings

ONE

The feelings of paranoia aren't lost with Souji. He's just as much human as everyone else and even with his normally calm demeanor, he can't help but occasionally look over his shoulder or try to stray away from large crowds. However, he's quite good and experienced at swallowing his feelings and pushing through like nothing bothers him so he does exactly that.

Getting into the Halloween spirit (even though it's a few weeks away), he's dressed in a simple magician's outfit, complete with the top hat and cape. He dramatically tosses back his cape and bows with an arm across his chest to whoever dares to get even close to him. While he's still bowed over, he tilts his head up slightly and gives a smile.

"Would you like to see a magic trick?"

TWO

To Souji's dismay, these thoughts of paranoia don't leave. In fact, they're accompanied with other types of intrusive thoughts and feelings of wanting to lash out at people and push their faces into the mud. These impulses are better controlled during the day, he finds out, but he finds himself slowly losing himself in them. To make matters worse, he notices a physical change occurring as well and he takes to layering up in thick clothing, using the excuse of the cold weather to get away with using his scarf and hood to cover parts of his skin hardening and taking on an unpleasant grey color. He even puts on a pair of sunglasses to cover the strange dull glow that his eyes are giving out and wears a thick pair of gloves.

However, despite his best efforts to shrink away and avoid interacting with others, he still slips up. As he walks down the street, anyone bumping into him, even if it was a very small one, he immediately snarls:

"Watch it--!"

However, not even a second later though, his scrunched up face of angry melts away and is replaced with... guilt? Surprise? Apologetic? It's difficult to describe the combination of emotions that go through him all at once, especially with the uncharacteristic sunglasses on, but regardless, the energy behind that snarl immediately disappears and he bows his head slightly.

"... sorry."

THREE

And eventually, these changes consumes Souji completely. Although still recognizable as Souji, he's a shell of his former past. Parts of his skin have now fully turned into a hard and rock-like material that cracks and splits off in random locations but as for the parts that haven't changed, they take on a pale ashy colour. His hands, while hardened just like the other parts of his body, are unusually glossy and there's this strange, almost exaggerated, glow to his eyes. In addition, there just seems to be this chill that surrounds him, as if the temperature has dropped just around him. While afar, characters might not notice this change in temperature, anyone close enough will notice that it's like standing by an open fridge. He just exerts cold air, though he either doesn't seem to notice or care.

On top of these physical transformations, Souji's entire personality and demeanour changes. The seemingly carefree smile is gone and it's replaced with a scowl. He no longer welcomes people towards him and invites others into a conversation. Instead, he pushes others away and almost seemingly looks for a fight. Should anyone even give him a quick glance, whether it was intentional or not, he growls at them:

"What are you looking at?"

FOUR

And it gets even worse. On top of all of the previous physical changes, he gains a few new traits a few days later. No longer standing up straight, he has a slight hunch and walks as if he has a limp. He has dark rings under his eyes and although his hands are now clumsily wrapped in bandages (was that done by him or something else...?), there's still this strange shine to them. Even worse, Souji's unstable new personality takes another dive. If he seemed to be on a slippery slope before, he has essentially fallen completely over and is no longer even on the slope.

Out in the middle of the streets is Souji with his hand wrapped around a middle-aged man's collar, holding him up as he repeatedly punches him in the face with no hesitation. Even as the man pleads and begs for him to stop, Souji continues. Depending on how long he's been doing this uninterrupted, the bandages on his hands would be stained with a dark red but this doesn't seem to faze him. Nothing at all seems to faze him and until someone forcefully tries to get him to stop, he'll just keep on continuing.

FIVE

Or maybe it's not even an NPC man that Souji has suddenly attacked, maybe it's you. He grabs anyone he can to start throwing fists. Maybe he has a reason for this. Maybe he doesn't. Regardless, with his new golem-like hands, it isn't pleasant to be punched anywhere with them. In addition, be careful. That strange slime covering his hands? Make sure it doesn't touch your skin. You don't want to suddenly get infected, do you?

SIX

What's worse than an infected person with an unstable mind? Perhaps an infected person with summonable creatures who can cause mass destruction. Lost in a vicious sea of emotions that he has surpressed for years, he explodes all at once and he lashes out at others. His main Persona, Izanagi-no-Okami, stands out with him and if anyone comes even remotely close to Souji (it could be two feet, it could be ten, there is no set definition on "close"), the Japanese God will immediately wave its hand to either cause a large explosion of fire to erupt right by the person or push them back with an unbelievable strong gust of wind.

"Leave me alone!"

Regardless of whether this person was just simply walking in the vicinity of Souji or actually wanted to bother him, it makes no difference to him. He will simply lash out to everyone and attack with little provocation.

WILDCARD

Anything is game! PM me or toss me a private plurk at northpaws if you want to do something outside the above options or to discuss anything! Let me know if you want your character to get infected or not.

Also for clarification, Souji is infected with the ghost, golem, and slime traits for prompts two and three while in prompts four and five, he has gained the mummy infection as well!

Finally, will be replying with action tags rather than prose!

Comments

[tarotcards]

[ unfortunately, being part-golem now means that souji is now slower than he used to be. no longer is he agile and quick on his feet, being able to dodge things as soon as he sees an incoming attack, but he's now slow and his reflexes are dulled. lucy's claws come in direct contact with the side of souji's face and he lets out a pained cry. he doesn't stumble backwards though, standing firm in place, and he immediately retaliates by throwing a punch at her. he doesn't care where his fist might land, as long as he can get her back. ]

[long_live_the_queen]

[Fighting Lucy was sadly used to. Scuffles after school, in abandoned lots, in places she was unwelcome in. This brought her right back.

Souji came right back despite the blood on her hands--claws--and his fist smashed right into her shoulder like a cinderblock. Unlike him, the harpy's structure was much lighter and she was knocked back, talons scrabbling at the sidewalk. Her arm felt numb from the shoulder down, but that didn't stop Lucy from responding.

She didn't use her vectors. Whatever was possessing her mind overrode that, and instead Lucy lunged back with her elongated arms and claws outstretched to grab his shoulders. The right arm Souji had struck responded sluggishly.]

[tarotcards]

[ she successfully manages to grab him by the shoulders and should she want to dig her claws in, she is more than free to but might find it difficult to do so. the skin around that area has already hardened into a thick layer of rock-like material and unless she's really determined to find that rare patch of human skin on his back to injure, she might not have much luck with his shoulders. ]

Let go--

[ should he can, he'll grab onto her wrists and grip tightly, as hard as he can in an attempt to have her loosen her grip ]

[long_live_the_queen]

[Lucy's claws rasped over stone, grabbing on securely but finding nothing to satisfactorily latch onto. And then Souji grabbed onto her wrists with with visegrip-tight grasp, squeezing hard enough it felt like the bones in her arm were rubbing together.

With a snarl, Lucy twisted her arms back--and curled her legs up from the ground, driving the talons into his torso to push herself away.

Hope you brought your body armor today, Souji.]

[tarotcards]

[ unfortunately, he forgot his body armour in his other pair of pants today. his torso hasn't hardened over just yet so she successfully manages to dig her talons into his flesh. it's enough that he lets out a pained cry and he lets go of her wrists, pulling back. ]

[ he immediately puts a hand pressed against his new wound, hissing at the pain. he stays slouched over, like a wounded animal, and he doesn't immediately move. does she take this chance to recover? talk shit? attack? ]

[long_live_the_queen]

[RIP his organs.

The harpy beat her wings backwards once her arms were free, gaining just enough momentum and height that she could land and scrabble onto a fence. It wasn't the most graceful of landings, with some of her feathers pulled out in Souji's grip. But it was enough for her to crouch there and growl imperiously.]

The fuck is your problem?

[tarotcards]

[ he doesn't take his hand off his stomach, keeping it pressed there as he tries to bite down the pain. he doesn't dare to take his eyes off lucy, not trusting her to not do something shitty like attacking him. ]

Like you actually give a shit.

[long_live_the_queen]

[She could have backed off; Lucy didn't particularly want to deal with any broken bones today. But Souji kept sticking his fingers in the hornet's nest.

The harpy's claws twitched, and her mouth pulled into something between a horrid smile and a grimace.]

Aren't you clever.

[Her head wasn't calm enough for her vectors to respond. Too many conflicting thoughts, too many strange voices.

But she didn't need them right now. With a guttural noise that was only a step removed from a snarl, she lunged at Souji again. There was more weight and force behind her claws this time, with something in opalescent pink spreading over her arms like bruises.]

[tarotcards]

[ souji doesn't have time to dodge her attack. dodging just isn't something that he can anymore as a golem so he takes it. he hopes that wherever she lands her claws, it's somewhere that won't kill or severely injure him because the moment she digs her talons in, he will attempt to grab one of her wrists with an iron grip to hold her while he reaches over with his other hand to wrap around her neck in a tight chokehold. ]

[long_live_the_queen]

[Normal people, when choked, found the entire experience a bit demoralizing.

Lucy was not normal people. There was that grasp at her arm again, of course, but more important were the fingers locking onto her neck like a vicegrip.

And it made her angry--angrier, the longer and longer it dragged on. The harpy's momentum came to a stop, any response she had choked off.

But her other arm was still free. It could still reach Souji--and it did, sweeping at him in a furious arc for his face. Not the eyes--her claws might bounce over the sockets. Instead she raked her claws across his forehead, so the blood got in Souji's eyes.]