Happy "Cthulhu Day"! (Open RP)

[shoggies.livejournal.com]

((The Shoggies have decided it is 'Cthulhoo Day' because in the HPL story "The Call of Cthulhu, April 25th is the date on which Cthulhu woke up to munch on a few fishermen. None of the food at the party is necessarily hexed, unless you feel like your characters finding something a house-elf got creative with, or any magical products the Shoggies might have brought back from Hogsmeade. Your characters don't have to interact with the Shoggies if they don't want to, of course. =D They're just all over the tower, since there's lots of them.))

((Gets NSFW by the end of the Dethklok sub-thread.))

The Shoggies weren't usually aware of dates, but, they were sensitive to the stars and their varying degrees of rightness. And, today, Shoggy 10 awoke from whatever dreams it was that Shoggies had during whatever it was that passed for Shoggy sleep. "Oh my Great Cthulhoo!" it announced loudly, waking Shoggies 3, 4.6, and 18, who all simultaneously popped out of their drawers and annouced, "It's Cthulhoo Day!" For, the Shoggies had all realized that on this date 85 years ago, sunken R'lyeh had briefly arisen, and Great Cthulhu had eaten a few fishermen. This was a day to celebrate! "We gots to have a party!" insisted Shoggy 3, and the others agreed enthusiastically. They squelched down from their drawers and set out to find the rest of the Hogwarts Shoggies.

It was only a couple hours later that the first of the weird signs started appearing in the halls. Shoggies 3, 4.6, 10, and 18 had suggested to the others that they use construction paper and paint to make their party announcements, since it would be faster than carving them out of stone, and so, they had. The signs were all quite colourful, and had been decorated with paintings of a corpulent, squid-headed creature with small wings, often shown with a handful of tiny little men splattered in red paint, and the words 'yum yum'. The signs all said basically the same thing, and it was evident from the grammar that Toki and Skwisgaar's Shoggies had done most of the lettering. The lettering was quite crude, as, Shoggies were used to complicated hieroglyphs, and not the simplistic shapes of the alphabet.

IT IS CTHULHOO DAY! Comes to our party and celebrates!

The party is ats Andy's McGraw Tower ons the grounds.

Comes when it gets dark! Brings a sacrifice if you wants!

Don't worry, we cans say Fhtagn right!

There wills be chickens and beer and candy and sandwiches ands other foods.

It'll be SOOO COOL!


By early evening, the Shoggies had everything ready for the party, and gathered it all together at the unholy version of McGraw tower which had graced the campus since they'd transported it from the past for Andy's Christmas present. The chimes of the mostly-manifest tower were playing an eerie, unnatural music. House-elves had helped the Shoggies with the food, and so there was beer (ridiculous quantities of it, as, the Shoggies had learned about beer from Nathan Explosion), and there was chicken, and there were sandwiches as promised- eyeball sandwiches were the Shoggies' current favorite, so most were these. A close examination would reveal that the eyesalls were some sort of wizarding candy. There was also a huge heap of other wizarding candies, as Shoggy 10 had had talked its "Master Toki-Dad" into giving them the galleons to send a delegation of Shoggies to Hogsmeade. Some of the less civilized Hogwarts Shoggies had brought their contributions to the party as well, which included a dead acromantula brought by those who usually stayed with Smaug. It was arranged as a sort of centerpiece for everything else, lying on its back with its legs in the air. They'd painted a large mural one one wall, of the same squid-headed creature eating little men from a boat.

Once the Shoggies had everything arranged, some of them waited expectantly for partygoers. Some of them had already been distracted by the piles of food, and yet others had wandered off into the rather Escher-esque staircases of the tower.

Comments

[charlesofdensen.livejournal.com]

Now, parties were not Ofdensen's thing. If it had been anyone else, he would have just stayed in his office.

But who else would use the phrase 'soooo cool!'?

So he went. The Shoggies probably worked hard on this party, after all. And he did justify it by saying that he was here to make sure Dethklok didn't accidentally summon anything again.

[shoggies.livejournal.com]

A little horde of Shoggies rushed up to greet Ofdensen as soon as he'd arrived, including all four of Toki and Skwisgaar's 'eyesball throw-up children'. "Sooo cool, you cames to the party Master Charles-Butler Uncle!" exclaimed Shoggy 18, while Shoggy 3 started rubbing against Ofdensen's leg in it's inside-out cat type way. "We gots candy, and we gots beer, and we gots chickens and all sorts of stuff." Shoggy 10 told him. "We're sooo happy you came!" Shoggy 4.6 squelched off a moment, and hurried back, offering Ofdensen a beer with one of its pseudopods. Amazingly, it was cold, as, the house-elf had suggested the Shoggies keep the beer on ice.

[charlesofdensen.livejournal.com]

Ofdensen smiled. They were lovable, in their own little fucked up way.

"So I see," Ofdensen said, crouching down to...pet, I guess, pet the Shoggies. "You've done a good job with it. Thank you," he said to Shoggy 4.6, taking the beer.

[shoggies.livejournal.com]

The Shoggies enjoyed the attention, what with Hogwarts being the only place where people would pet them, rather than running away or going insane. "We never mades a party before! It's the first time," replied Shoggy 18 proudly, while Shoggy 4.6 explained, "We asked our parents about what we needed ats the party, and Master Toki-Mom said beers and candy! And we hope someone will brings the sacrifice!" Presumably, Smaug hadn't brought all the screaming Muggles just yet. The Shoggies figured that a sacrifice was mandatory at a Cthulhu Day party- after all, whenever all the cultists were having their little robed parties and mispronouncing "fhtagn", there were usually some sacrifices involved, often in the form of scantily clad ladies, but, sometimes whoever was convenient.

[charlesofdensen.livejournal.com]

Ofdensen was skeptical as to whether the sacrifices would work-the no kill rule, after all-but he didn't voice his concerns to the Shoggies. "Hopefully someone will," he said, taking a drink of beer. "Are you trying to summon something?"

[shoggies.livejournal.com]

"Well, we gots the sacrifices, which means that maybe Great Master Cthulhoo will comes to get them!" Shoggy 10 replied hopefully. "But he might be sleeping," explained Shoggy 3, "Because he does that sooo much! But he doesn't mind getting woken up much if he gets the sooo cool sacrifices," added Shoggy 18. The Shoggies weren't too concerned about the no-kill rule, since they presumed that Cthulhoo would most likely take his snack home, if he did show up. Luckily, the odds of the Shoggies managing to evoke him properly were really quite low.

[needsanewliver.livejournal.com]

Nathan's reasons for going needed no justification: There was free beer, and his nephew-niece-whatever-they-were Shoggies were involved. Either of which would have been reason enough on their own for him to attend.

That Charles eventually showed up, too, was just an unexpectedly awesome bonus. Nathan hadn't even thought to invite their manager along, since he didn't usually seem to care for shit like parties with free beer, and always seemed to be busy with something or other, anyway.

Nathan unsteadily made his way over, almost tripping over Shoggies several times on the way. "Heeey Charles," he slurred, clearly already well on his way to drunkenness. Which meant he'd already had enough alcohol to kill a normal person. "Didn't think you'd want to come." He leant in and gave Ofdensen a kiss on the side of his jaw, surprisingly not sloppy despite how inebriated he was. Ofdensen was a classy guy who probably wouldn't appreciate being slobbered on, was Nathan's logic. He held up what looked to be a broken off acromantula leg dipped in chocolate and covered with rainbow candy sprinkles. "Hungry?"

An even more intoxicated Pickles stumbled by, giving Nathan and Charles both a drunken salute with all three beers he was carrying, inadvertently dumping one of them over his own head in the process. This barely seemed to faze him as he continued on his way to harass Toki and Skwisgaar for a bit, since 'Dadderface' wasn't there to pal around with and threaten him with red-ass spankings.

[charlesofdensen.livejournal.com]

Ofdensen smiled and said, "well, someone has to make sure you boys don't accidentally summon anything." No, he's not going to let them forget that.

"Besides," he said, breaking off a piece of the leg, "the Shoggies worked hard on this and would be disappointed if their uncles didn't show."

[needsanewliver.livejournal.com]

Nathan apparently wasn't too drunk to be embarrassed, and ducked his head and mumbled something about the Finnish Necronomicon and just thinking it was a cool song idea.

The troll had been pretty cool—and tasty—too.

"Not a bad setup," he said, referring to the party, "considering the little goofballs don't even have... brains. I don't think. Huh. Wonder how they managed all this on their own." He gestured to the mural of the squid-headed creature eating humans. "I want one of those in my room."

[charlesofdensen.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure if you'd ask, they'd do it. I think they like it because they're good at it, and vice versa." Ofdensen leaned against the wall, watching everyone.

Fthagan?

[adm-zex.livejournal.com]

"What sort of custom is this?" Zex asked, taking an eyeball sandwich and stroking it curiously. "I've never seen these creatures before. Some of them look almost Vux. What part of the universe do they hail from?"

Re: Fthagan?

[he-was-born.livejournal.com]

Jherek Carnelian wasn't one to miss a party if he could help it, and, he'd noted the strange posters around Hogwarts. He still didn't know how he could read them, but read them he did. So, he dressed up in one of the rather filmy white robes his closet had produced, and made his way to the tower.

When he arrived, he was bemused to encounter the swarm of amorphous eyeball creatures. He paused to thank the little group who welcomed him for their hospitality, before wandering over to observe the weird banquet the Shoggies had put together. He smiled brightly at Zex, not at all surprised to encounter an alien. There were quite a few alien inhabitants of the End of Time, and in Jherek's opinion, people were people, regardless of the amount of tentacles they might have. "I'm not sure what sort of custom it is, but, it's interesting! I've met many aliens, but, none like these fascinating pink creatures. I haven't met an alien like yourself either- you have very nice tentacles."

He squatted down to be more on level with one of the Shoggies who was squelching by, Shoggy 26 to be specific. "Where do you originate from?" he asked, adding, "Your race is splendidly amorphous." Compliments were always good manners. The Shoggy blinked at him a few times before replying, "We were in Antarctica, and before that, we were under the under, and before that we were sooo far off in sooo cool space!" It didn't seem that a more specific answer was forthcoming.

Re: Fthagan?

[adm-zex.livejournal.com]

Zex blinked in acknowledgement.
"Thank you! I love compliments. And I was wondering the same myself. I would love to have one aboard my ship."

The Shoggies replies made very little sense to Zex, but he nodded. "I agree- the amorphousness is certainly attractive. Maybe sometime we can compare notes on space travel." Space was so big, though (so huge, mind-bogglingly big) that he had doubts they'd ever visited the same places.

Turning to Jherek, he added. "Pardon me, did you say that you've met many aliens? That would be very unusual for a human in my time."

Re: Fthagan?

[he-was-born.livejournal.com]

Jherek flashed Zex a bright smile at the acknowledgment of his compliment- some of the inhabitants of Hogwarts hadn't reacted very politely towards his attempts at friendliness.

"Sooo cool! We've seen some ships. They're mostly made of wood, but, they've got the sooo yum yum squishy bits inside!" Shoggy 26 told Zex- the Shoggies hadn't actually been on a spaceship, as, beings like the Elder Things or their 'Great Master Cthulhoo' simply flew through space on wing-like appendages. So, the Shoggy presumed that 'ships' meant boats.

Jherek nodded affirmatively to Zex. "Oh yes, I've met a lot of aliens. Many have visited Earth, and, sometimes they stay. I'm from the End of Time, you see, it's millions of years in the future. But, even though we've met many aliens, I've not met any of your species." Which wasn't much of a surprise- space remained mind-bogglingly huge at the End of Time, and, the inhabitants of Earth had ceased to bother with space travel themselves. They merely met whoever happened to drop by.

[smaug-thegolden.livejournal.com]

Smaug hadn't seen any of the signs, since he wasn't a resident of the castle, but he had been told of the celebratory gathering by his group of Shoggies who had insisted he come. He had become rather fond of them after his own fashion, and he also knew it might provide him easy access to 'Arioch' or his companion, the Potions professor, so he decided to attend. It would simplify his plans with Ancalagon considerably if he happened to run into either Man outdoors, rather than trying to squeeze through the tiny corridors of the castle in search of them. The shrinking enchantment left him itchy all over besides.

Once it was dark out he winged his way to the tower the Shoggies had told him about, bringing with him the sacrifices he'd spent the afternoon collecting especially for the party, which consisted of about a dozen or so screaming, terrified Muggles taken from a nearby town. The humans were carried in his hands, and he took care not to inadvertently impale or squish any of them as he carefully landed near the tower and balanced on his hind legs. Lowering his hands closer to the ground, he unceremoniously dumped his catch in front of a group of Shoggies and rumbled a greeting.

"The sacrifices you wanted," he informed the little amorphous blobs, recognising a couple of them as his own.

When the humans recovered from the drop and predictably began to flee the area, the dragon deftly plucked each one up and redeposited them in front of the Shoggies, and eventually curled his long barbed tail around the group in an attempt to better keep them together. The combination of fear and exhaustion soon proved too much for a few of the group, who promptly passed out. Smaug hoped they'd still be useful to the Shoggies.

[charlesofdensen.livejournal.com]

Ofdensen couldn't help the smirk of amusement at Smaug actually bringing a sacrifice to the party.

"Perhaps you should have Stupefied them."

[shoggies.livejournal.com]

Smaug's arrival brought a veritable horde of Shoggies to greet him, which of course included those which were living in his lair, as well as Toki and Skwisgaar's. It also included the errant Shoggy 21.5, who had been lured out from beneath the Baron's sofa for the occasion of the party. It had moved in after discovering what it found to be some especially nice darkness beneath the piece of furniture, and all of the Baron's attempts to dislodge it had failed. So he'd tried ignoring it. That too had failed, since the Shoggy never failed to emerge at mealtimes, and, would stare at the Baron and the food with all its randomly-placed eyes. At this point, the Baron was treating it as if it was some sort of talking inside-out dog, and having his house-elf feed it, averting the starting. The unfortunate side-effect was having the occasional conversation with his new pet, which usually involved it asking many pointless questions. Shoggy 21.5 had invited the Baron to the party, but, sadly for Smaug, he'd declined the invitation and sent it along with some wine and secret hopes it might find another couch to live under. He'd wisely decided that hanging out on the grounds of the castle with a swarm of Shoggies seemed a very questionable idea, since one Shoggy under his couch was enough of a challenge. And because his mun's already going to end up with multiple chars at the party without him, once Toki and Skwis arrive.

The swarm of Shoggies was absolutely delighted that Smaug had brought some sacrifices for their "Great Master Cthulhoo", and the simultaneous muttering of "Soooo coool" from every Shoggy present was a rather eerie sound. The sight of the Shoggies didn't help to calm the horrified Muggles at all, and likely hastened the unconsciousness of a few. Their presence definitely caused instantaneous madness in a few of the unfortunate humans, who were now screaming nonsensically, and clearly ready to be hauled off to the nearest asylum. The Shoggies were used to humans behaving like this, having only encountered anything different at Hogwarts, and seemed quite capable of handling their attempts to flee. The Shoggies now formed another ring around the dragon's tail, and a number of them began discussing exactly how to give the sacrifices to "Great Master Cthulhoo" to eat. One of the Shoggies was attempting to interrogate a terrified Muggle, telling it, "It's the cultists who usually calls up Great Master Cthulhoo or sometimes us. And then they give us sacrifices! Do you know some cultists maybe? Do you remember how we sacrifice you?" "We just gotta say 'Fhtagn' right!" another Shoggy chimed in. While a group of Shoggies got this matter sorted out, most tried to guard the Muggles. A few, namely Shoggies 5, 13 3/4, and 17, which all lived with Smaug, stuck close to the dragon, looking at him adoringly, while Shoggy 4.6 was filling Smaug in on how Toki and Skwisgaar got the Shoggies a 'sooo cool balls pit'. Shoggy 21 still lived with Smaug, but ended up joining Shoggy 21.5 in the Muggle-terrorizing. Both Shoggies seemed to get a particular amusement from it.

[best-guitarist.livejournal.com]

Skwisgaar and Toki would be remiss as parents if they'd missed their eyeball-throw-up childrens' big party that they'd planned with their -- brethren? -- so of course the two musicians were among the first to arrive, bringing "sacrifices" in the form of person-shaped desserts, which had been Toki's idea. Skwisgaar had even made use of the transdimensional portal in the hot tub room to go back to Mordhaus and get black suits for them to wear, figuring such an important occasion warranted the extra effort. Nor did it hurt that he especially enjoyed taking his time undressing Toki on the rare occasions when he wore a suit, so it was a win/win situation all around.

It was freeing, being back at Hogwarts. They didn't have to worry about the paparazzi hounding them or potentially outing them and having a field day with their relationship, and this naturally led to Skwisgaar barely being able to keep his hands to himself as he and Toki mingled at the party. Subsequently the Swede wasn't paying much mind to what he was eating and drinking, deciding to try a little bit of everything -- even a few bites of the dead acromantula -- despite his professed dislike of flavour which continues to amuse his mun. He trusted the Shoggies, and assumed they wouldn't poison their parents, after all, nor try to turn them into women, which continued to be the only thing at Hogwarts that Skwisgaar even half-feared. Although if he or Toki ever did temporarily get turned into women, he'd of course be happy to make the most of it...

At some point later in the evening, Skwisgaar suddenly found himself on the ground (http://pics.livejournal.com/best_guitarist/gallery/00011eff), supporting himself with webbed hands tipped with long talons. Long blond hair still framed his face, but his skin had become an iridescent, mottled dark blue-grey with brighter shades of green dappling, and was now sandpaper rough like a shark's. His eyes were luminescent in the dark, two bright points of blue flickering with each confused blink as he as awkwardly twisted around on the ground, looking at his new body. Each of his arms and ears now sported long, jagged, flexible sail-like fins tipped with violet, and an even larger one followed the line of his spine, lying flat and inactive against his back for the moment. His legs had been replaced with something more suited for the aquatic environment he belonged in -- the solidly muscled lower body of some kind of fish or shark. He had been around six and a half feet tall as a human (relatively speaking, since he'd never been entirely human to begin with), but was closer to eight or nine feet long as a mer-creature, most of it tail.

The gills lining either side of his neck flared as he coughed and sputtered, gasping for breath, until some inborn instinct kicked in and his gills closed tight, enabling him to breathe again, however shallowly, through his humanoid mouth and nose. It still felt as though his lungs were slowly being constricted, but at least he wasn't actually suffocating.

"Whats de fuck?" he demanded of no one in particular, his voice raspy, better suited for speaking underwater. He cursed under his breath as he accidentally nicked his tongue on the several rows of razor-sharp teeth he now possessed.

On the upside, at least they hadn't summoned another giant homicidal lake troll.

[isnotabumblebee.livejournal.com]

Toki had enthusiastically agreed to getting dressed up properly for the party- it was indeed an important occasion, and Toki was practically glowing with parental pride when they'd arrived at the party to find that their 'children' had done such a good job with it. He'd thought that the acromantula was an especially brutal addition to banquet, and, was happy that they'd indeed spent the galleons he'd given them on candy, rather than returning from Hogsmeade with entirely inedible substances.

Like Skwisgaar, Toki found being back at Hogwarts a breath of freedom after having to try and hide their relationship from the media. Having to keep his hands off Skwisgaar during parties when they were back home had been rather miserable. Toki was just as open with his affection towards Skwisgaar now that they didn't have to worry anymore- fortunately, Shoggies 3, 4.6, 10, and 18 had been sticking around their 'parents' since they'd arrived, and their constant chatter made it rather difficult for Toki to try and start sexy!times right in the middle of the party. It would have been terribly inappropriate in front of all the Shoggies, not to mention that the Shoggies might have thought their efforts were going somewhat unappreciated if Toki and Skwisgaar had only been paying attention to each other. And Toki hated to disappoint a Shoggy.

Toki had been trying bits of everything too, including the acromantula- which was about on par with exploded lake troll, he decided. Mostly, he'd been drinking beer and munching on the wizarding candy. He'd been amusing himself with the discovery of Fizzing Whizbees and their levitating side-effect, and was floating and laughing beside Skwisgaar when suddenly, Skwisgaar was on the ground and. . . a fish? "Wow-wee! You's turned into an underwater friend!" he exclaimed, staring in awe at Skwisgaar's new form, which was obviously still him, but, turned into some sort of shark or sailfish merman. The Shoggies didn't appear to have expected it either, and began squelching around Skwisgaar and poking at him. "Sooo cool! You's a Deep One! We didn't know you were relateds to Master Dagoon!" Shoggy 10 told him- none of the Shoggies appeared phased by what had happened. People turning into fish was normal in their experience. It happened to the folk of Innsmouth all the time.

After the initial shock of seeing Skwisgaar suddenly turn into a mer-creature, Toki started to panic. "Cans you breathe?" he asked Skwisgaar, "Cause fish can'ts breath ins the air! We might needs to get yous water!" He looked around, trying to figure out what do with Skwisgaar- they could dump him in the lake for the moment, perhaps? Toki reached down to try and pick up Skwisgaar, who obviously wouldn't be walking to any lakes or bathtubs until whatever enchantment had afflicted him went away. When he went to grab Skwisgaar, however, he hadn't accounted for his sharkskin, and quickly released him with a loud "Fuck!". He looked down at his hands, which thankfully weren't skinned like he thought they might be, just a bit abraised.

[best-guitarist.livejournal.com]

Skwisgaar was still examining his peculiar new body when the Shoggies started poking at him, prompting him to look up. Though he wasn't irritated with the Shoggies, he had the strangest desire to bite first and ask questions later. He thankfully (and surprisingly) had the sense to realise the desire wasn't really his own, but one belonging to the weird creature he'd become -- not that he'd have been able to truly hurt the little amorphous monstrosities, anyway, but he still would have felt pretty bad afterward. Parents shouldn't try to eat their children.

He was also experiencing an overwhelming craving for -- fish, maybe? Meat? Flesh. Something. Then Toki attempted to lift him, and he was suddenly surrounded by an absolutely mouth-watering smell that only worsened the unfamiliar craving. He reflexively tried to inhale more deeply to figure out where the smell was coming from, which brought on a wheezing fit and caused his lungs to burn painfully. He seemed able to breathe air, just not very well.

"Whats happened?" he asked after Toki swore and let him go, thinking maybe he'd pulled a muscle. Skwisgaar did feel much heavier than usual. He awkwardly wriggled around until he was in a sitting position and was able to use his muscular lower body to push himself upright a bit more. "I don'ts feels too good," he said, answering Toki's question. "Can kinds of breathe, nots very much. Ams hungry, too. And mys skin itches..." He absently scratched himself, then stopped when it only made the itching worse. His skin felt too tight and dried out. Noticing that Toki was looking at his hands, he reached for one, still wondering what was wrong. Well, aside from the fact he'd been turned into some kind of shark creature and Toki was floating -- which gave him an idea. "Hey, whats did yous eat to floats like dat?"

[isnotabumblebee.livejournal.com]

((Sorry to be a bit slow on the reply, but, wanted to knock out the rest of a project so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. And now I don't have to worry about it anymore. =D The little Ofdensen mention's included with his mun's permission, since he'd definitely notice Skwis turning into a fish. If Toki alone can't get Skwis to the lake his mun's given permission for him to help, but, I expect they've solved any transport problems with wizard candy. XD))

The Shoggies hadn't meant to turn Skwisgaar into a mer-creature, or, as they thought of him now, a 'Deep One'. They also couldn't see anything wrong with it, and mostly found it interesting. "Now you cans swim withs us in the sooo cool lake!" Shoggy 3 told him- they'd actually discovered the lake along with the other Hogwarts Shoggies, due to those slowly constructing the Dethtower. They were entirely unaware that Skwisgaar possessed any desire to chew on them, but, had they known, they'd have appreciated that he didn't. The Shoggies wouldn't have really been injured, but there might have been a few more afterward, and, they'd have found it quite rude.

Toki was less relaxed about the situation than the Shoggies- the fact that fish needed water was blindingly important. He probably should have been a bit more shocked by Skwisgaar's new form, but, they were at Hogwarts, and, at the moment, Toki's main concern was for Skwisgaar's well-being, not the fact that he had a tail. Besides, Toki liked fish, and, this was a sexy half-Skwisgaar fish. "I don't knows what happened!" he told Skwisgaar, his voice all high and quavery with his panicking. "All of a suddens you turns into the fish-guy. And you's all scratchy, and bluish." Toki was momentarily distracted as he examined Skwisgaar's skin more closely, peering at his face as he lighly ran his finger along his cheek. His now-glowy blue eyes were rather startling- despite the changes, Skwisgaar was still amazingly sexy. Toki quickly noticed that Skwisgaar's skin only seemed abrasive in one direction, and remarked, "Your eyes are glowy. And yous not all scratchy. Just scratchy in one direction, and yous heaviers than I remember. Probably cause you gots the huge tail now. . ."

Skwisgaar mentioning that he wasn't feeling very well and couldn't breathe very much distracted Toki from his brief exploration of his mer-body. One of the Shoggies was still talking about the lake, which they could see from where they were. This was probably why the Shoggy was still talking about it, and it seemed to Toki that the best idea for the moment would be toss Skwisgaar in the lake until they could find somewhere more comfortable for him to stay. As Skwisgaar could still kind of breathe, Toki felt a question about candy was important enough to answer. He dug another of the Fizzing Whizbees out of his pocket, having stowed a few away for later upon their discovery, and gave it to Skwisgaar. "I'm pretty sure it was that one, made me floats." A bit slow on the uptake, it was a few seconds later when Toki realized, "Hey, maybe if you eats that, we can gets you to the lake easier!" He also realized that they needed to hurry, as, Ofdensen was looking in their direction, and had surely noticed what had befallen Skwisgaar.

[best-guitarist.livejournal.com]

((Nate-mun had similar ideas. :P Nathan and Smaug and in later replies Nidhögg included with permission... considering their player wrote their parts.
Repost to fix something. Durr Toki's still in a suit.))

Well, at least he'd have company in his new form, if the Shoggies could swim. Their forms didn't look very aquadynamic to him, but then, they'd moved through the ball pit with surprising ease. Perhaps water was no different. He did recall that they'd apparently lived in Antarctica before.

As Toki touched him, his eyes narrowed to slits and he made a low vocalisation that was akin to a purr, his gills opening slightly and causing him to wheeze more, and the large fin running down his back fluttered, a sound like tearing paper accompanying the action. And it had indeed torn -- his skin was simply too dry to function normally -- though the tears also quickly knit back together and healed.

Ofdensen wasn't the only one who'd noticed his predicament. They were bathed in a dim reddish light caused by Smaug's similarly luminescent eyes as the dragon peered down at them, curious. Nathan was also headed their way. Slowly. He was obviously drunk.

Skwisgaar took the candy and ate it, nervously reaching to hold onto Toki's suit jacket as he too started to float, worried about how high he might go. He was relieved when he stopped a few inches above the ground, and experimentally flexed his new tail. "De Shoggies ams gots a good idea. I needs water..."

Nathan had reached them by then and was drunkenly pawing at Skwisgaar, sounding almost like a Shoggy himself with his exclamations of how cool his new body was, like 'a Water God from their Murmaider II song'. Skwisgaar weakly smacked the singer with his tail, causing him to stumble back -- and surprising them both. Though Skwisgaar didn't know it yet, a well aimed flick of his tail would carry more than enough force to break bones. He tugged on Toki's suit jacket which he was still holding onto. "Will yous take me?" He didn't want to admit that he couldn't make it to the lake very well on his own, never mind that it was obvious he couldn't.

Nathan wasn't deterred for long, and was soon back to trying to touch Skwisgaar. "You should stay like this," Nathan was saying, "at least for the next tour. It'd be brutal. You could perform in a fish tank on stage. I mean, perform as in play guitar. Oh! But you could do tricks too, like, uh, Flipper. If Flipper was a shark-guy. Most metal thing ever..." Nathan continued to ramble on about Skwisgaar's new life as the band's mascot slash lead guitarist slash sideshow act.

Skwisgaar would have sighed loudly if he'd had the breath to spare.

[j-whitlock.livejournal.com]

((The raptor was included courtesy of his player, no god-modding here. Just tossing Jasper in for possible future inclusion in the Toki/Skwisgaar thread to eventually facilitate some wrongful Vlad-perving on Sharkgaar, so no need to bother replying to this. :) ))

Party at night? You could expect at least one sparklepire to make an appearance. Nothing killed the partyin' mood faster than having to worry about bursting into embarrassing glittery sparkles in the sunlight. Bursting into flames would have almost been preferable, so far as Jasper was concerned.

This was really the first proper school event (if such a term could be applied to something the Shoggies had planned) he'd been to since the horrifying incident with George following one of Vladimir's classes, and he was determined to at least try to have a good time instead of constantly obsessing over the fact he was a horrible monster who had no business staying at Hogwarts. Frankly, angst just got so damned boring sometimes. And at least he hadn't killed George. Just doomed him to a life of blood-drinking and sparkles.

Accompanying Jasper was, as ever, his faithful raptor companion, wearing his kawaii Prefect kitty hat (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1838832.html?#cutid11) that was kept pristine through regular magical cleaning and mending courtesy of Jasper. The raptor helped himself to some of everything, especially enjoying the wizarding candy, while Jasper wandered along with him, occasionally chatting with the Shoggies who were milling about. Eventually the raptor trotted off to check out Smaug and the human sacrifices he'd brought, leaving Jasper by his lonesome, since he wasn't about to get involved with what looked to be a massacre waiting to happen.

He noted the tall green tentacled alien chatting with what appeared to be a guy in a dress, but he didn't know either of them. He recognised Skwisgaar, though—it looked like almost all of Dethklok and their manager had come. He would have gone over to talk with Skwisgaar and Toki, since they were both radiating the sort of contented happiness Jasper naturally gravitated toward, but he didn't want to interrupt. Nathan and Ofdensen likewise appeared to be busy with each other, which left the drummer. Well. He seemed friendly enough.

Barely a few words into his conversation with Pickles, he noticed Skwisgaar changing into a... mercreature?

"Doooooood," Pickles said as he swayed in place, waving his bottle in Skwisgaar's direction. "He's a FISH. Heh. Fishy fishy fishy," he muttered to himself in a sing-song voice. "Gahtta feed 'im—" a belch "—sem worms or somethin'."

"Fish can't breathe out of water," Jasper replied, only half paying attention to Pickles now. He wanted to help, but wasn't sure it would be appreciated. He knew Skwisgaar—and his emotions—well enough to know he'd likely be offended by any offers of assistance. At least he appeared to be able to breathe air. Maybe he'd follow the two Scandinavians just to make sure things were really okay...

[senorcyborg.livejournal.com]

((OOC- AND so I am barging in with permission.))

Jasper had mentioned earlier in the day that he would be going to the shoggy hosted “CTHULHOO DAY” party later that evening. Coming from the often diffident vampire, it was practically a gold-plated invitation and an opportunity Victor wasn't going to pass up.

Their weird one-sided flirtation had been carrying on for months, partly because Victor had yet to meet anyone else who interested him as much as Jasper did, and partly because Jasper hadn't put a stop to it yet. Nor had he exactly encouraged any of it (had, in fact, pointedly mentioned his wife Alice on several occasions), but still. With his empathic abilities he had to be aware of Victor's--his--his thing. Crush. Attraction. Jasper, always so eloquent, had probably come up with a more appropriate term for it.

Victor wasn't sure he wanted to know what it may be.

At least they were friends first.

He made an effort to dress up rather than down for the party, wearing a white dress shirt and dark pleated slacks, and a dressy wizarding robe of an apparently stylish cut, custom tailored, although he'd been hard pressed to notice much of a difference between it and the ones off the rack. Aside from the cost.

Arriving at the party, it suddenly struck him as odd that he'd never actually seen Jasper with his wife, whose name wasn't anywhere on the Popcorn Plaque--he'd checked, several times--but who also didn't seem to be anywhere else around the school. He didn't think Jasper was lying, there were school records of Alice, of course, and he'd even seen the room Jasper shared with her, but her absence was nonetheless puzzling.

Sometime after Pickles left to follow the rest of Dethklok down to the lake shore, Victor headed over to where Jasper was standing. His eyes were first drawn to the plain wedding band Jasper never took off, the more ornate Harkonnen signet ring seeming nearly gaudy in comparison, each ring representing a claim on him. Victor smiled to himself and wondered what the vampire would think if he were to offer him something to wear like that.

“Hey, Jasper. About time somebody threw a party at night, huh? Looks like they even got one of the dragons out,” he said and glanced toward Smaug, looking impressed. Dragons were as cool as the superheroes he fanboyed. And a lot more intimidating, especially the intelligent ones like Smaug. He grinned. “Isn't that the same one who almost ate the Muggle Studies and Potions professors?” News traveled fast at Hogwarts.

[j-whitlock.livejournal.com]

((♥ They definitely needed a chance to pal around.))

They would always be friends first, no matter what else happened—unlikely as that may be, without hexed food being involved—and that was the reason why Jasper had thought to extend his subtle invitation to Victor without making him feel obligated to attend. They needed more opportunities to just... enjoy each other's company. The way normal people did with their friends.

"That would be the very one," Jasper replied mildly, turning to look at Victor rather than Smaug. There was something about the dragons at Hogwarts that had always disturbed him, possibly the fact they were among the very few beings at the school who could actually kill a sparklepire with little effort. It took more than simply fire to do the trick, and even a torn apart and mostly incinerated sparklepire could still eventually heal, so long as some part of them was not ash. In the stomach of a dragon? Not terribly likely to survive.

The glance toward his hands hadn't escaped his notice, and he wondered at it. Victor was not as easy to read as he might have thought, though Jasper was indeed aware of his—particular regard for him. It was rather difficult not to notice, with the way Victor tended to let down his guard and broadcast his emotions at full volume around him.

He smiled. "I'm glad you came, Victor. I'd say you needed to get out as much as I did. Being cooped up inside the school for too long... Well, maybe it's something in the air. Besides the constant stale reek of hexed food and sex, that is. Be grateful you can't smell it; it is not very pleasant, being confronted by that in every hallway and common room and even the great hall..." Speaking of hexed food. He carefully examined the piece of wizarding candy he'd been about to try, then pocketed it instead and gave Victor a wry look. "Careful what you eat."