Celebrating with the Dead PV

tags: @Victoria Blythe @Gabriele Ricci-Armani @Pamela Graham @Mikey Forville @Hana Suzuki @Livia Machavariani @Aleks Drašković @Damien Dragonclaw| date: 31-10-2025 | fit: x

Avis' eyes only narrowed further at his cheeky comment. "It's not too late to let me be a ghost. I'd pay to see you piss your pants and scream like a little kid," she retorted haughtily. Merlin, wiping that smirk of his face would make her whole year as a matter of fact. Hopefully, whoever was haunting these woods would do their job well and scare the shit out of her companion. Perhaps then she wouldn't regret coming to this party so much. The thought of Gabriele acting like a whimpering fool made a small smile surface for a second...until he ruined it with his reply to her demand to switch groups moments later.

The boy using her name with a casual tilt of his head caught her severely off guard and for a moment she stood frozen, not quite sure what to do and not quite sure how she felt about it. Finally, Avis snapped out of her daze and furiously told herself that she hated it very much and never wanted to hear her name out of his mouth again. She raised an eyebrow, glancing dubiously at his almost comically skinny arms.

"Fat chance I'm jumping anywhere near those twigs," she replied. It really wasn't an exaggeration. She wasn't any bigger looking herself but Gabriele was hardly built. Leaning in closer with a smirk of her own, Avis opened her mouth again, eyelids drooping into a satisfied expression. "Besides, I doubt you'd be able to hear my screams over your own. I'll be ready to catch you if necessary," she shot back, folding her arms. No doubt he would have some sort of retort for that particular phrase but in the moment, it felt rather satisfying.

Avis stood back, the smirk lingering on her lips until she realized she was channeling her inner Gabriele and frowned. How she was going to complete this ghost trail without killing her own companion was beyond her but words would have to do for now.

Want this banner? Buy it in my shop

Interacting with @Avis Greymond @Pamela Graham @Mikey Forville @Victoria Blythe @Gabriele Ricci-Armani @Olivia Williams @Livia Machavariani @Aleks Drašković @Damien Dragonclaw

Dialogue
Thoughts

Hana simply smiled sweetly when Damien shook her hand, just the first impression that she wouldn't want to scare anyone away. Looking at the boys standing in front of her, she smiiled to herself. They seem nice and she thought or hoped that they would be good companies for this ghost trail in the creepily cold October night. Standing there, with the ghost-sounding-like-wind blowing onto her face, she just enjoyed the night, listening and sometimes offering useless comments. But when Damien mentioned that he wouldn't run away, Hana raised her brows suspiciously, " Oh really? So you're so sure that you wouldn't run away? I'll hold onto that. But you better not leave me alone in the wood, hunting for you two." Hana chuckled, tone teasing more that a warning and her eyes betrayed a sparkle of amuse.

Thinking of the endless possibilities of the different types of jumpscares and pranks. Hana giggled, " I'm really excited to see the things Gabriele prepared. They must be really chaotic, trust" As someone who is hardly to be scared, Hana was actually really excited, and she hoped really, really that it will be extremely scary.

Staring blankly somewhere, Hana caught the word 'Slasher movie'. She blinked rapidly at the boys, focusing back on the conversation. "What? Slasher movies, you don't know them? It's basically movies with a killer trying to kill a bunch of people. I watched it once when I'm young but I almost cried, so I kinda want to attempt to watch it again."

Made by the awesome Prat Pass

interaction: @Avis Greymond @Pamela Graham@ Mikey Forville @Hana Suzuki @Gabriele Ricci-Armani@Livia Machavariani @Aleks Drašković @Damien Dragonclaw wc: 351 dialogue thoughts

When Victoria noticed the blonde girl extending a hand toward her, she blinked several times as though her mind needed a moment to catch up with the gesture. Still, she reached out with quiet politeness, clasping the girl’s hand lightly and giving it the faintest squeeze.

“...Mhmhm. I think we met during the summer,” she murmured, her tone soft, nearly swallowed by the air around them. She released Pamela’s hand with deliberate care, as if it were something fragile, and drew in a deeper breath than she intended. “And yup. Let’s begin.”Her voice was so faint she could not be sure it had carried, not even to the girl standing right beside her.

As they started forward together, Victoria fell into step with Pamela, her heartbeat thudding so fiercely that it seemed to echo in her ears. Why had she come? She could have simply delivered Gabriele’s gift, then retreated to the comfort of solitude. She could have avoided this entirely. Foolish, foolish Victoria.

The brunette girl pressed her lips together, determined not to let the fear show, and walked on in silence beside Pamela. At least she was not the only one wrestling with nerves—the blonde seemed tense as well, shoulders tight, her own silence heavy but telling. Somehow, that realization soothed Victoria, if only slightly; there was an odd comfort in not being alone in her discomfort.

Then, without warning, the sharp crack of a twig beneath her boot jolted through the stillness. Victoria flinched violently, her chest constricting as though her heart had attempted to escape her ribcage altogether. She had read once that heightened nerves made the human body more sensitive to sound—an observation she now believed without question. Almost instinctively, her hand darted out, seizing Pamela’s arm in a firm grip.

It was only when the worst of the startle had ebbed that Victoria realized what she had done. Heat surged up her neck as she quickly released the girl, fingers slipping away as though burned. Her gaze darted elsewhere, anywhere but the blonde’s face.
“...Sorry,” she whispered, her apology nearly inaudible, tasting of embarrassment.

Mikey went under the bent sign with his head and felt that the air has changed. It seemed as if the forest was holding its breath, the light of the lamps behind them dulling down to a mere twilight. Only darkness, which was thick and looked like it was waiting before him. He took his wand out and held it in his hand.

“Don’t go tripping, don’t make a run for it,” he said, half to himself, half to the others. “And don’t answer if any thing that hisses our names.” He gave the wand an automatic flick and lifted it. “Lumos.”

A bright light came from the end of the wand of which white glow spread across the ground in a big circle. The leaves looked silver at the edges, the spider threads were like little harp strings, and the narrow path was also showing that it was winding with roots and trees that were too close to each other and leaning. Without specifying it, the three of them walked shoulder to shoulder, Mikey walking with his wand up so the light would be continuous.

Every time he turned his hand away the shadows vanished for a little but came rolling back when he tuned again. Suddenly as if only remembering the words, he said “Tripline” and blocked both Hana and Damien with one arm. Between two roots, the light had found a thin ribbon. He crossed over carefully. The light further on showed a crooked piece of cardboard nailed to the trunk: BEWARE.

The forest responded with a soft bell chime just one time, very faint and far away. On his left, Hana moved a little closer, on his right Damien was brushing against him. Mikey waved the light higher and directed it to the canopy. Overhead were branches like the ribs of a ceiling and dust was moving in the light like sparks.

For a brief moment, he noticed that all of their breaths were pale in the air. A slight turn brought them to a small clearing where a low branch was extending across the path. A string was hanging from it and a plastic skull was at the end of the string waiting to be the right moment and swing. As soon as it dropped the Lumos light that was on its sockets and flared them blue.

Mikey was shocked and moved back with a low noise sounding from his throat as the skull reached knee height and was bouncing with a jaw clacking a loud “chomp chomp.” He sighed and stepped around the second trap knowing there luck would run out eventually.

He saw a pale ray of light going down the trail. “We don’t leave each other. We don’t split. And if anything asks to follow…” His gaze moved to the trees. “…We don’t.” The path was still there in front of them, the white light going across the dirt like a drawn line was leading them further into the dark that was waiting.

Speech -- Thoughts

Guess she doesn't have as bad a memory as me after all.

The girl— Victoria's words did jog her memory, "Summer.." Pam mumbled, trying to mentally run through all the people she had met during camp. A vague memory gradually surfaced, and Pam grabbed it gleefully, "Right! I remember now, the sea shells booth right?"

The booth in question had been Pam's number 1 at the Arts Expo. Ignoring the part where she wished she could've brought the whole display itself, Pam had spent time afterwards wishing she could've bought one of those combs or clips she would never use in her life. Or maybe she would've used the clips. It was hard to say; back then, she had been short of money and had therefore chosen to buy necessities instead of ornments. Too bad.

On the bright side, the dark-haired girl was as stiff Pam felt. Between the two girls, the temporary silence was stretched taut like a wire; you could cut it with a knife.

This manifested in the form of a twig snapping under Victoria's feet. The sound startled Pam, even as Victoria's sudden grip on her arm caused her heart to leap out of her mouth. That's one way of breaking the ice, that's for sure.

Pam smiled softly, hoping it was reassuring, waiting for her heart to stop beating out of its ribcage before responding, "It's alright. We're both too alert, I think. I'm sure it won't be too—"

Pam's words stuttered to a stop, as her arm brushed something soft and she turned her head in time to see a "Spider!" The girl screeched, stumbling back in horror. The fact that the spiders were most likely fake (since they had no reaction to her whatsoever) registered vaguely, but her momentum sent her stumbling into the brunette, clutching onto the girl's arms in an attempt at protection. "Sor-sorry! Um.. took me by surprise."

Date. 31/10/2025 | Dialogue. #1E361C | Tag. @Avis Greymond @Pamela Graham @Mikey Forville @Hana Suzuki @Victoria Blythe@Livia Machavariani @Aleks Drašković@Damien Dragonclaw
────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Gabriele could have made several inappropriate comments about Avis being willing to pay- metaphorically of course - to see him piss his pants, but then she might actually beat him up. As fun as that would be, he rather it wait until after the trail, so his party wasn’t a total fucking loss before it barely had begun. Instead he mused, clearly thinking less than innocent thoughts, “I didn’t know you had such interests. To each their own, I guess. Though it would cost you more than six sixles.” He flashed her a provocative grin. “I don’t judge, though I'm keeping tabs.” For all the possible leverage he needed later. In this case, it was his own imagination running wild with ways to embarrass her.

Twigs was an appropriate word for his still lanky, prepubesent frame. If he was right in assuming his genetics was majority to blame on Beppe, he would remain a skinny bitch all his fucking life. Still, Gabriele acted offended by her body-shaming. “Twigs?! Wooow. That’s a low blow, even for you.“ For him, nothing was technically off-limits when it came to bullying. His smile betrayed him immediately. Matching her leaned in posture, leaned in even further, until their noses were threatening to touch. “Sounds like you really want to hold me. So… planning on swaddling me now or later?” While it was extremely unlikely that he would be scared shitless and jump into Avis arms, since well, since he built the whole fucking trail by himself, it was still fun to imagine.

Being smaller than other boys his age was inconvenient in fights, but he wasn’t insecure about much. There were other things to be insecure about than his body, like how many people would come to his birthday party. The now thirteen-year old had actually been nervous about the outcome, prior to seeing how many he could apparently consider his friends. Except Avis, who was more into torturing herself by going to her enemy’s birthday party. Gabriele was not complaining, though, since this way, she couldn’t ignore him even if she tried.

When he pulled his eyes off of Avis to glance at the group, Pamela and Victoria had already disappeared. Who knew for how long, but the second group with Damien, Mikey and Hana were already walking down towards the edge of the forest. “Remember, guys! Don’t be fucking pussies!” He yelled after them, hands around his mouth as a make-shift megaphone, though he didn’t know if they heard him by the time they were hidden behind the trees.

Finally alone - with the exception of his NPC brother and cousin behind them - and waiting for their next turn to walk down the path, Gabriele turned back to his enemy expectantly, wiggling his eyebrows. “Looks like it’s only me and you now…” he trailed off, no need to finish his sentence, his tone suggested enough.

[quote]


Interacting with @Avis Greymond @Pamela Graham @Mikey Forville @Victoria Blythe @Gabriele Ricci-Armani @Olivia Williams @Livia Machavariani @Aleks Drašković @Damien Dragonclaw

Dialogue
Thoughts

interaction: @Avis Greymond @Pamela Graham@Mikey Forville @Hana Suzuki @Gabriele Ricci-Armani@Livia Machavariani @Aleks Drašković @Damien Dragonclaw wc: 349 dialogue thoughts

When Pamela first recognized Victoria, the brunette merely gave a shy dip of her head. “...Mhm. Shells Booth.” The exchange between them was brief, yet Victoria’s memory for faces was sharp; she filed the blonde girl away instantly.
As they walked on, Victoria reluctantly let go of the girl’s arm—an absurdly embarrassing gesture in retrospect—and even Pamela’s reassuring smile couldn’t stop the faint pink blooming across her pale cheeks. Brilliant, she thought. First minute, first blunder.

Then Pamela’s words were cut off by the one thing Victoria hated to hear most, and her eyes widened with sudden panic.
“Spider? Where-”she squeaked, the word escaping before she could swallow it down. She hated bugs. All of them. Especially the eight-legged ones.

When Pamela clutched her arm in turn, Victoria swallowed hard. At least she wasn’t the only one overreacting, was she?
“It’s… fine,” she murmured, voice pitched low, though her heart was hammering in her ears. “Let’s just keep walking. The faster this is over, the better.”

They moved on together, steps faltering, the path—stretching out before them like something from a bad dream. Victoria tried to steady her breathing, but her grip on her wand tightened anyway.

Then her sweater snagged on a tree branch. She stopped short with a hiss of frustration, glancing up to see Pamela still moving forward, eyes fixed anxiously on the ground as though searching for another spider. Within seconds, the blonde girl was a few paces ahead, her outline already blurred by the dim light.

Victoria tugged at the knit fabric, but it only stretched wider, threatening to tear. Great. Perfect timing. She glanced up again; Pamela hadn’t noticed she’d fallen behind. The gap between them widened with every heartbeat.

“Pamela—” she started, but the word caught in her throat. She didn’t want to sound panicked. Surely she could free herself quickly, quietly. Yet the branch held like a hook. She exhaled through her nose, a sharp sigh.
“Perfect,” she muttered under her breath, feeling the first prickles of being alone—behind, half hidden, and with fake spiders somewhere nearby.

Made by the amazing Matthew Campbell