EVENT ➜ COSTUME BALL TAKE FOUR

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4SPOOPY
➜ If this event looks familiar, it should! It's almost the same thing we did last Halloween and the Halloween before AND THE HALLOWEEN BEFORE with some added stuff thrown in. Most of this will be copy pasted from last years post, but look out for the new stuff! I'll try to make it more noticeable. If you're new/didn't go here last Halloween then pay attention to everything. Veterans can just look at the new stuff and get the picture!

➜ Part of Halloween is not only trying to scare the piss out of someone, it's also about dressing up, getting your drink on, and eating a shit load of candy and other confections that you'll regret in the morning. Since the last rounds of events have been pretty stressful, here's your chance to just relax and live it up. But honestly it wouldn't be a true event if there wasn't a chance to get something back.

➜ On the night of the 31st of October at 7 PM CST the log for the party will go up. The specifics you ask? Well, since it is a party, here's your invitation specifics:

WHERE: The 4 school's main gym, just like all good parties
WHEN: October 31st, 7 PM CST - November 1st 4 AM CST
WHAT: Halloween Costume Ball
HOW: Driving your happy hiney down there, man
WHO: Everyone and their skeleton (yeah it sounds strange now, but there'll be more on that later)
OTHER: Please bring food, costumes are optional, but please dress formally.

➜ Because it's held in a school, it's going to be geared for a younger crowd, but every party needs chaperons, meaning adults are welcome and will be treated with liquor and whatever else your heart desires. Decorations, food, and all that jazz are left up to the mind of the players, but it's too be assumed that there is music playing, lots of food, balloons and cobwebs, and all that good Party City junk strewn everywhere. The type of decorations, the type of music, and the type of food will be up to the players discretion. Keep in mind that the Landlord typically knows what kind of stuff you're into, so expect a plethora of cultures and styles of food/music/etc included.

➜ Costumes aren't necessary, but would make the event more festive! Cat fights over wearing the same costume are welcome and encouraged. This year, wearing a costume will get you an advantage when it comes to a certain category of a certain competition.

SO ABOUT THOSE SKELETONS...

➜ Those who were here last year will remember that on the 7th, there was a certain setting change that involved decorations in relation to Halloween everywhere. This year, this will happen on the 13th, aka tomorrow.

➜ The 2SPOOKY part of the event is thus. The same time you get your invitation? The same time your skeleton comes to life. Don't be alarmed, though, fair residents! The skeleton won't do you any harm, and will actually just act like it lives with you. They have access to your house without keys, have a penchant for taking long baths and using all the hot water, and hiding in the food cupboard. However, trying to shove them out or antagonizing them in any way will make them, for lack of a better term, come at you. The good news for you is that the skeletons can't leave your yard. Also, removing the skeletons will result in another one popping up, creating two skeletons. If this is the case for your house, this goes for however many skeletons you have.

➜ But what on earth does this have to do with the costume party? Because if you decide to go, this is the only time your skeleton can leave your yard and house space because guess what, it is going with you, come hell or high water. So basically, your party is going to be 2/3 residents, 1/3 skeletons knocking stuff over, eating stuff (aka putting it in their mouth and having it fall through their rib cages), and just causing a big scene.

➜ In this same vein, the bats too will come to life. They will of course be rubber so there is no need for concerns about horrible guano everywhere, but this also means they aren't nocturnal and fly about all the time, get into your food, and generally make your life hell. Naturally, the outside hanging bats will just be outside doing pretty much the same thing. Attacking people, hiding in mailboxes, making horrible noises constantly. You're welcome. There will be some bats at the party.

➜ This will be new to the 3rd Halloween cycle. In accompaniment with the bats and skeletons, the NPCs during this time will become, well, undead. It may not be a big inconvenience on the zombification front: don't worry, you don't need to go into survival mode and fear infection.They will simply be very traditionally zombified. Typically, they will just be roaming around, doing stupid zombie things. Trying to get into your cars, coming into your house for no reason and falling apart in the living room, getting stuck in a bush. They're more comical than scary, honestly.

➜ NEW So it has come to my attention, and the attention of higher powers thanks to Suruga, that a certain chain text has been making its way around HH. As a little bit of Landlord mischief, these texts will actually play into the event as well. For every text you received with this message, or every single message if you received a text with multiple messages inside, you will be haunted by one spirit. Don't worry about them too much. They aren't vengeful or mean, and are pretty much like cartoony little ghost pals. About the size of a basketball, these transparent little critters will follow you around and do as the skeletons will do: knock stuff over, bug you, and whisper gibberish at you. Not very scary but very obtrusive. If you want to punish someone with some of these and would ICly do so, you have until the end of the week to send your text messages. Ghosts will begin popping up on Sunday.

➜ NEW As per a player suggestion, anyone who does not plan on participating in the Halloween party or isn't sure of their costume will be forced into a random one at the exact time the party starts and cannot remove it until the party ends, whether or not they are physically there.

BUT WAIT, HERE'S THE BEST PART

➜ The best way to think about this dance is a Halloween Prom. The way to get your items back is pretty simple: you have to be elected Ball Royalty:

BALL PRINCE: The title for the elected male in a child slot. ( PRIZE: a crown, a sceptre, a sash, a regain of their choice )

BALL PRINCESS: The title for the elected female in a child slot. ( PRIZE: a tiara, a sceptre, a sash, a regain of their choice )

BALL QUEEN: The title for the elected female in a spouse slot. ( PRIZE: a tiara, a sceptre, a sash, a regain of their choice )

BALL KING: The title for the elected male in a spouse slot. ( PRIZE: a crown, a sceptre, a sash, a regain of their choice )

COURT JESTER: This is the joke title, but still gets prizes. Nominate anyone for this. ( PRIZE: $1000 cash, a jesters hat (halloween coloured) )

BEST COUPLE: Each person in the couple will receive the prize; this can be two people who are together/are almost together, or two just random people you want to just crack ship the hell out of. ( PRIZE: $1000 cash each, sashes for each person)

BEST COSTUME: The title for the best costume at the party. Only self nominations. ( PRIZE: $1000 cash, a sash)

➜ Nominations for the first round will take place in the threads below. You may nominate your own characters, other people's characters (with or without permission because it's Halloween, time for tricks and treats), and you can nominate the same character for two categories. FOR EXAMPLE if you'd like to nominate X and Y for Best Couple, but also nominate Y for Court Jester and X for Ball Prince, then that's perfectly okay. Only one title per person, however.

➜ If you won last year you may not be nominated for that category again. So there will be no returning champions. You can, though, be nominated for a new category and win that one!

➜ From each nomination pool, there will be a randomized drawing of six names so as to keep it fair (for instance, if things were on a seconded, thirded, fourthed, etc basis, then it would be likely that casts and friend groups would have a bigger power over those with smaller in game friend bases and lone canon warriors). From those six, a poll will be put up on the night of the dance. How long the poll will run has yet to be determined, but at the end of the poll period, those in the lead will win the titles and the ability to get an item. Also, voting for yourself is okay if it's IC and voting for characters your friends play is fine if it's IC. Try to keep this to an IC popularity contest and not an OOC popularity contest. Keeping the voting IC will dispel this. Also, they don't have to vote if they don't want to.

➜ Nominations will be OOC, but voting will be ICly decided. For instance if you play Character A and you want to nominate Character B and T and G, then go right ahead. But as Character A, if you are more in character to vote for C than for T or S, then vote for C. Nominations are what the player would like, voting is what the character would like. ICly, also, a voting box will be at the door to the gym on the night of the party.

➜ Characters will not know they've been nominated until the night of the party. There will be no IC interaction with this until the day that voting will take place.

➜ Also, the Landlord will have a gift for each resident that can be received at the party.

➜ Any and all questions can be addressed in the thread here. For any confusion on how to nominate people, just go here to see an example of how to do it. Plotting and etc can take place on the post as well.

➜ Other mini event shenanigans may be put up throughout the month. Stay tuned!