Participants:
| Scene Title | Making Halloween |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Silas calls in help to give the Nouvelle Vue a Halloween makeover. |
| Date | October 7, 2019 |
“Ahoyyyy!”
Seren is jumping up and down on the pier, waving both arms in the air and laughing at their own antics as they look up at the ship known as Novelle Vue, Devi by their side. Baird swirls in the air near them both, a long green snakelike dragon with tufts of fur down his serpentine body while he swims effortlessly through space. “Permission to come aboard?” Seren calls up to the deck, grinning wide.
Hopefully they’re allowed. After all, they’d called ahead to let Silas know they were on the way. And after all, they were volunteering themselves to help get the ship ready for showtime.
Seren couldn’t look more excited about that.
Fiddler’s Green at Novelle Vue
11:15 am
October 7, 2019
"Ahoy! Permission granted!" a recognizable voice booms jovially down from the deck — albeit with a decidedly more piratical affect than usual. Silas comes into view a moment later, grinning broadly down the gangplank. Thankfully he's not wearing a tricorn or eyepatch (though it's not because he doesn't have them — he'd come across some interesting articles of clothing while gathering costume supplies at Red Hook, and what good is it coming from the oceanic apocalypse if you don't at least have the option to look the part?)
"Good to see you!" he calls, with a little less Long John Dantes this time. "Come on up!"
Devi stands beside Seren with tatted arms crossed over the bosom of her revealingly cut vintage tee. Her gaze is trained on the side of the vessel, her irises already having disappeared into consuming, miniature black holes that had been pupils only minutes before. For all her effort to appear the stoic, dangerous part of Biker Bitch, Seren’s exuberant shouts inspire a quirked smile. With a slow blink, her pupils shrink back to a less unsettling circumference and she turns her attention to the silhouette at the peak of the loading ramp.
“Alright, Baird, I’m trusting you to help keep these goofballs in check,” Devi teases towards the little sky guardian before turning a wink on Seren and joining them up the gangplank. She whiteknuckles the chain-link railing the whole way up, but the heavy thud of her boots and ambient noise of the docks and sea disguise her occasional mutterings.
Seren looks back after bounding their way onto the deck to check out the view from the higher, more unique vantage point, grinning shamelessly as they turn in Devi and Silas’s direction. “It’s good to see you too!” Baird gives a knowing twitch of his small, horned head in learning he’s in charge, and he continues to swim loops in the air like a ribbon tied to the end of a child’s stick. He streamers into a curving line past Silas, fixing him with meaningful gold eyes before zooming off, wordless as ever. He’s watching.
His human rocks on their heels, warmly regarding the two. “So, so!” they clamor, attention split between them both because what Silas says and what Devi sees may end up being two different things. Either way, they’re here to roll up their sleeves. (metaphorical ones, but they digress) They’re in a faded Pink Floyd tee, the iconic prism of light into color still plainly visible on the black of their narrow chest. Well-worn jeans spattered with dried paint accompany it, along with an old pair of black boots.
“What’s on the agenda, captain? What needs done, still?”
Silas arches an eyebrow at Baird's little flyby; given what he'd last seen of Baird, he has more than a few questions about how Seren's ability actually works… but this get-together isn't about indulging idle curiosity. No, he's got plans.
"We're gonna give the boat a Halloween makeover," he says, giving a broad and toothy grin that practically drips with gleeful anticipation of mischief. "Come Halloween, the Nouvelle Vue is gonna be the Ghost Ship of Long John Dantes, sailed in from the mists of the Sargasso Sea," he chuckles ominously. Then, suddenly switching to a more chipper tone of voice, he adds, "We're gonna do a haunted house, on a boat!"
"I've already got a course planned out through the underdecks that I think should keep our visitors away from anything sensitive, and we've already got a security system onboard, which I figure'll let us keep track of our guests; Devi, that's where I'm counting on you. To make sure I didn't screw up on planning the course, and make sure that our equipment's up to snuff — the security equipment, and later the theater stuff, when we get ready to start working on the special effects," he explains to the engineer. "As for you, Seren… you said you did interior decoration. I'm counting on you to help us make sure everything is as spooky as possible. And I'm counting on both of you to speak up if you have any good ideas on how to make things better!" he finishes, grinning widely.
"I figure we'll open on Halloween night, maybe run a repeat on November 1st or 2nd. We'll creep em out, then at the end we'll have free food and candy and such; the 'pirate treasure' at the end of the trip. Nothing says treasure on Halloween night like full-sized candy bars, right?" he asks, chuckling.
Devi’s pale silhouette is almost befittingly ghostly behind a thin curtain of errant, dark locks. Looking out to a fixed point on the docks, arms still crossed, the woman appears to be muttering to herself. “On a boat…mumble mumble…I’m on a boat motherfucker take a look at-…” The dark femme’s gaze snaps back around, brows raised, as her name falls from Silas’s lips. Her left eye gives a little twitch and she sets her hand on a nearby railing, but ultimately indulges a toothy, cheshire grin. “Ooo, yes. Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins. Fuck yeah, let’s scare the shit out of some people!” She stomps a boot in place of clapping her hands, keeping the one still anchored to the railing. Her freehand, though, she uses to make a witchy-wiggling gesture in Seren’s direction.
That gesture from Devi is enough to break the seal of cool Seren had attempted to put on when Silas shared just what needs done. They had tried so so hard to not overreact (though maybe the little gasp of delight gave them away), their eyes gleaming with interest despite every effort to keep a poker face. But shit, if everyone else is grinning about this, why not them too?
A cackle of delight erupts from them as they leap off the deck, hands clasping together with a loud clap before they land. “Oh my god, this is gonna be awesome. A haunted boat? Up north, you get the odd haunted house every now and then, but a haunted boat sounds… sounds…”
Baird’s tiny mouth opens, the deep bellowing sounds of eldritch, demonic laughter escaping before it ceases and he returns to look non-menacing. Whatever it means, Seren emphatically agrees with a loud, “Exactly!” and a point at him. Quickly after, their gaze finds Silas. Pure excitement gives way to mischievous glee in the curl of their grin. “What kind of budget are we working with? There’s a lot that we can make up for with just lighting and elbow grease,” read: a lot of carefully-done painting, “But I bet I can find a thing or two we can add to the set to really make it stand out.” Finally, they remember to breathe— the realization they’ve not done some bringing some hollowness to their continued glee as their cheeks start to color.
Silas arches an eyebrow at Baird's surprisingly deep creepy laugh; he'd been planning to bust out a sinister chuckle, but after that it'd be anticlimactic, so he settles for grinning at the obvious enthusiasm his co-conspirators are showing.
"Our budget… isn't great," he admits. "But. We do have plenty of theatre equipment onhand — lights, fog machines, speakers, lapel mikes and earpieces, some set-building stuff. If there's something we don't have that you two think we really need, though… well, I'm willing to splurge a little, within reason. This is gonna be our big introduction to the public, after all."
At that last comment, some of the anxiety he's been trying to keep suppressed bubbles up, and for a moment his face takes on a hint of grimness… but it's something he manages to push back down quickly. "I've also got a trick or two up my sleeve, come to that, to make sure that our surprises are… sufficiently surprising," he says, and he does indulge in a moment's sinister chuckling at that.
Only for a moment, though; there's work to be done, after all. He takes a deep breath and rubs his hands together briskly, full of nervous energy. "So. You ready to take a look at the course?"
Baird’s underwordly cackle earns him a shiny-eyed grin from the biker bitch. This little creature and his keep never fail to surprise. “Atta boy,” Devi encourages the construct of personality with a nudge of her chin. Devi chimes in on the topic of resources, throwing her hat into the ring. “We can always pull in some tools and materials from the garage if needed. But, I think with three evil masterminds of this magnitude…” She pauses here to make a show of dusting off one shoulder and then the other. “We got this.”
With that she makes a small show of encouraging Silas to lead the way, but even as she steps in line she adds one last condition of her involvement. “I totally expect to get the role of murderous monster clown and chase some pamby bitches around the course.”
Baird curls up, chest 'puffed' in pride at Devi's approval— before he pinwheels away to start looking for work. Seren hms after him with a grin before looking back between Silas and Devi. "If I want something fancy, I'd be willing to put in for it. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, after all." Arms swing by their side as they begin to saunter across the deck.
"I'm excited," they announce frankly, looking back. "So if you're doing the Long John thing, you thinking pirate vessel? Haunted, I assume…" Seren rotates on their heel, curious and hanging onto the explanation as they craft their addition to the vision.
"A haunted ship. Lost on strange currents, carried to seas you'll never find on any map, come back again on stranger tides, to linger in port on Hallows' night…" Silas intones ominously, his expression grave… then he laughs, grinning to Seren. "Yeah, something along those lines. I mean, we've got a boat, and we've got Halloween; seems a perfect opportunity!"
He glances to Devi thoughtfully. "Hmm… monster pirate work for ya? If not… well, we can probably fit a clown in somewhere," he says with a grin, gesturing to the others to come along as he walks.
"The good thing about being on a boat is that we'll be able to control access pretty easily; unless they want to swim up and scale the sides, they're gonna have to come up the gangplank. And if they actually do swim up… well, if they want to see the boat that badly, fine by me. Anyway! I figure we'll have a path across the deck — maybe we can rig up some ghost lanterns or something, scatter some spook decor off the beaten path to look scary. We'll guide them up to the access door… here. Once they're inside… that's when we start getting serious about the spooking," he says, giving a fiendish grin as he opens the door up.
He pauses, though, before he steps inside. "Hmm… maybe I can give em a spook here at the door, too. Hide outside and pop up behind em? Maybe hide the door…" he muses aloud.
“Monster pirate? Fuck yeah!” Devi’s steps take on a bounce, much the same way a boxer’s do moving around the ring. The biker lags behind slightly at the mention of rigging, turning her eyes over the various high points and anchor points around the deck. One can almost see the gears at work behind her dark gaze before, with obvious effort, she pries her attention back around to the others. “Maybe we can steal a Spot Bot from work to hide behind the door. That thing’s scary as fuck as is. Throw some tentacles and glowing red eyes on…” She shudders visibly, muttering.
Seren grins despite themself at Devi's discomfort. "That sort of stuff keep you up at night? The thought of kraken Spot Bots?" they tease, nudging her arm with the back of one hand. "They're only as harmless as you design them to be, miss Devi."
Following along with Silas' explanation is easy enough, and when he points at nearby areas suggesting what could be where, Seren furrows their brow thoughtfully. Ghostly grey shapes pencil themselves into existence, a live mock-up of the ideas that Silas has detailed out.
Along with some of their own.
The shift toward the doors cleans the slate, though, and they creep inside to see the work-in-progress within the hull. "Wow," Seren voices, walking forward through the 'hall' created by wooden walls erected on either side. They trail fingers along the black, leaving behind webs of ghostly green that link together like rigging… or chains. The shape is inconsistent as they go, their thoughts awhirr.
Suddenly they turn back, the edges of their irises limned with silver as their imagination goes. "Have you thought about a blacklight??" they ask urgently, and a flash of pale green appears over their face, the image of a skeleton overlaying their features.
Silas definitely notices Seren's little tricks as he's describing his thoughts; he manages to avoid stumbling in his descriptions, but seeing what Seren can do when they're giving serious consideration to something is… pretty damn impressive, honestly.
Devi, meanwhile, seems to be doing a more nuts-and-bolts inspection of the deck; his grin widens at Devi and Seren's back and forth. He's not familiar with this Spot Bot thing, but krakens…
"Krakens are definitely approved pirate decor, and that goes double for a haunted Halloween ship," Silas says, nodding to Devi. "If you can manage to, ah, borrow one of these Spot Bots and it can help with that, I'm onboard." He pauses a beat. "Something like that might be better with a room all its own, though…" he muses, the ghost of an idea tickling at the back of his brain.
Seren's question about blacklight catches him offguard, though. "Blacklights, huh?" he asks, studying Seren; his eyes widen a bit at the sudden skeletal overlay… then his smile grows still wider. "I hadn't, actually. Whatcha got in mind?" He thinks he has an idea — based on the glowing skull mask on their face — but he's not about to put words in anyone's mouth. Better to let them articulate it and see where it goes.
"Hell. Good intentions. Paving. And… you have met the Chief Technology Officer, right?" As Devi's sarcasm-laced retort comes to a close, her gaze sliiiiides back towards Seren and a thin, dark line of a brow POPS. "Only as dangerous as you program them." She grins impishly and shakes her head.
"I think a Spotbot Kraken will scare the pants off people." Devi sure as hell will be circumventing that part of the ghost tour. "I'll work up some simple added appendages, but you lot are going to have to dress it up from there." She gives skull-face a smile, but then looks off into the middle distance. "I bet I can lure it with a box trap and a mis-alphabetized file …." she mutters to herself and wanders deeper into the vessel.
Seren's so taken by everything all they can do is clap their hands in excitement, fists clenched afterward. "I'm gonna call home tonight—" is all they say to explain. "See if I can't get some good glow-in-the-dark paints shipped down. This is going to be so awesome, Silas!"
They reach out to clap him on the shoulder before taking off after Devi to flag her down with waving arms, all enthusiasm. This leaves Baird behind with Silas, giving him a knowing look. Was he really prepared for what these inventive minds were about to do to his ship?
The creature's body rapidly turns a ghostly black with green accents like the glow-in-the-dark paint Seren had reference. And then he tapers away into nothingness barely a moment after.
Silas grins bemusedly, watching as Seren takes off after Devi… and Baird, for a moment longer at least, remains, eying him. "This is gonna be great," he says quietly to Baird, nodding. His grin only broadens as Baird fades out eerily. "That's the spirit!" he says, chuckling at his own bad pun… then he rubs his hands together. "It's gonna be great," he repeats, grinning broadly as he moves to follow his fellow conspirators into the depths. Better than great, come to that; with the likes of Seren and Devi helping him, it's going to be spectacular.
He's just sure of it.