[Task] Trick or Treat: Treat [Xala + Alva]

[Baneful]

It was an absolute mystery to Liang why people kept on favouring Xala and only had to assume it was the convincingness of her outfit. There wasn't really any other explanation for it, perhaps they did not trust foxes, which was strange considering that it would be a very bad decision to do anything but reward a visiting kitsune.

"Alchemy?" he said with a slight look of distaste. "It all sounds very messy to me."

The next house was answered by a very polite and very old human who gave him some candy and called him sonny.

+9 candy
5/10 houses  

[Toshihiko Two]

"Oh," Xala sighed with near ecstacy, eyes fluttering as she looked skyward, "it is."

At least, it was messy if you did it properly.

And even if all the preparing ingredients went cleanly, there was, of course, the results. She got another gob of candy.

+9 candy
5/10 houses  

[Baneful]

Liang looked only more horrified at this. "I paint sometimes certainly but even that is hardly what one could call messy. I prefer to be clean, it is only respectable of one from a noble line." And yet, there was part of him which was at its happiest up to the elbows in viscera and blood, letting his hair down literally and metaphorically. But that was a rare and secret longing and for the moment was not one he trusted Xala with.

He was handed a small card with small text telling him he had to find someone named Jesus. It sounded like a quest and he pocketed it for later.

+9 candy
6/10 houses  

[Toshihiko Two]

Xala took the same card.

She put in in between her teeth experimentally, and surprised it wasn't sugar, tore the top.

She shook the flat, paper card and stared at it expectantly, waiting for something to come out.

+9 candy
6/10 houses  

[Baneful]

Liang wasn't sure he liked this halloween thing, a creature such as him was used to being feared and at the very least respected, these humans simply were not generous in the least.

Perhaps he should have gone with another costume he thought, but perhaps another costume would have been even worse.

The person handing him just one solitary candy did not receive so much as an acknowledgement.

+10 candy
7/10 houses

 

[Toshihiko Two]

Once she was sure the torn paper would produce zero candy, she pointed at the proselytizer and hissed, "There will be a reckoning! You will rue the day that you refused to make a conciliatory offering!"

The next house must have heard her, because they gave her two.

+11 candy
7/10 houses  

[Baneful]

At the very least he was getting candy now and then, even if it wasn't quite the amounts Xala was seeing handed out.

At the very least he wouldn't have to come back empty handed.

+11 candy
8/10 houses
 

[Toshihiko Two]

All the bustling houses seemed to be winding down towards they got to the end of the street. Xala wasn't sure if it was because others had gotten there first, or if this side of the neighborhood was going through some kind of sugar shortage.

She looked longingly at a round, brightly-colored sucker, but put it in her ingredient collection bag instead.

Maybe they'd let her lick the wrappers.

She nudged Alva with a hip, eyes bright.

"Usually the missions they send us on are a little more intimate. I haven't heard the first scream."

+12 candy
8/10 houses  

[Baneful]

"It is almost tame." he said as the next house appeared to appreciate grown men in pajamas a great deal and gave him more candy than the previous one.

That or they just were overall more generous.

+13 candy
9/10 houses  

[Toshihiko Two]

Yep, this one they were just handing out candy by the handfuls. Apparently their luck (and resources) hadn't run dry at all.

"Your suffering will be extra long," Xala promised cheerfully.

"Happy Halloween!" the nice-looking older man in glasses said.

+15 candy
9/10 houses  

[Baneful]

The last stop was no better than the previous stingy properties, offering only a single meagre candy.

It was a reassurance that one day they would trample this entire race underhoof.

+14 candy
10/10 houses  

[Toshihiko Two]

Xala accepted the last, solitary piece of candy and closed her bag with a final, happy snap.

"Well! That's everything! I hope they make good use of it all. Yes. ....Really...good use...." She looked at both their bags, then confided more quietly to Alva, "Probably just going to grind it all up to make another bug-food elixir. I could make it last until next year."

+16 candy
10/10 houses  

[Baneful]

Liang shook his head, he did not frankly trust the alchemists very much, but presuming they were all vaguely on the same side, what was the worst that could happen? He didn't express his feelings on bugs to Xala, because he had only really just met her and that sort of thing was not becoming a conquest horseman. Instead he asked if they should head back, rather keen to get out of the costume which was more uncomfortable than he had actually expected.

 

[Toshihiko Two]

Xala gaged his stern silence to be disapproval.

"R-right, but I'll...hand it all over, of course. Um, for the good of the clan..."

She trotted ahead to find the opening back to their world.

Candy: +16