Demon Festival

[Deskfan45]

Skylar stared off into space as Reiko spoke with the attendant, not noticing a thing as the girl stealthily removed her knife from the pocket in her sleeve.

When she was handed the hannya mask, she smiled, listening to Reiko's instructions."Will do, or uh... won't do." She nodded, before looking down at the mask. It was creepy, for sure, but... it wasn't her thing. She had another idea.

Picking up a transparent pouch of fake blood, she turned to the attendant. "Ay, mind if I use this?" She asked. When an attendant nodded his head, Sky SLAMMED the pouch into her face, causing it to burst like a water balloon, covering her in an artificial crimson mask. A grin spread across her face. "Ahhhhhh yeah, now we're talkin'." She smiled, turning to her friend. "Lead the way!"

[dlamp]

She wasn't too surprised by it, but Reiko felt her nerves stand on end as Skylar refused the mask. And while the attendant seemed to not mind, Reiko's jaw tightened as her friend continued on. And as Skylar grabbed the blood pack her eyebrow twitched. "Hey, don't-" The loud splatter and cut off Reiko's words, and the red liquid stained both her and Skylar's outfits. My clothes... Her eyes darkened a moment as they scanned Skylar's splattered yukata. The attendant only gave a shrug as Reiko's visage started shifting to a harder expression. I worked on that... for 3 hours with mom... Her lips twitched to forced neutral expression, and she let out a short, sharp exhaled. There went being civil and having simple fun.

"Don't cross the red markers." It was all she said as she started walking forward as she put on her mask. Alright, I guess Amano-Jaku will have to become a guardian youkai now.

[Deskfan45]

With permission from one of the attendants, Sky thought she'd be doing no wrong to use the blood pack for her look. And it worked well, adding a menace to Sky's grin. Yet, as she read the room, it became obvious she'd done something to make these people angry. Sky rolled her eyes at the lead attendant's glare. Did this idiot not see his colleague give the ok? She looked for the man who'd given her permission, but he was long gone. Safe to assume he'd seen his boss's reaction, and bailed. What a fuckin' asshole.

She felt everyone's glare, clenching her fists. She was familiar with this feeling. Everyone was looking down their noses at her. They were alllllll looking at the stupid, obnoxious foreigner. How dare she open that blood pack. Not like they were replaceble or anything. It'd be so damn inconvenient to get a new one! Fuck 'em. She grit her teeth as Reiko repeated the instructions as if ordering a dog. "Ya said that." She replied, barely hiding her anger. "Like, ten seconds ago."

God, if Reiko weren't here, she'd beat all pf them to a pulp with whatever blunt object she could get her hands on. Hell, why should that stop her!? She'd been talking to Sky as if scolding a child since they met. She oughta deck the uptight bi- No.

The brunette took a deep breath, thinking of all the things she liked about Reiko. She was an entertaining wrestler, and a respectable martial artist. When Sky wanted to go to a festivap, but doubted she'd have fun without understanding ahat was going on, Reiko had happily accepyed the request to be her guide. Sure, she could be uptight and bossy sometimes, but it was clear she had a good heart. She'd come here to have fun with her friend, and she wasn't about to let her anger issues fuck that up. The smile returned to her face. Yeah, keep glarin' assholes. I don't give two shits.

Besides, making people feel afraid had always been her go-to for taking out aggression...

---

A young couple walked through the darkened halls, trembling and holding hands. They'd endured jumpscares and grizzly scenes of mannequins well disguised as bloody corpses. But as they walked through the final stretch of the haunting, they were sure something was following them.

The malevolent spirit stalked her pray, girlish laughter echoing through the halls. Now and again, a woman's shadow would appear, yet it's source stood just out of sight. Eventually, footsteps began following the couple, soundling only a few feet behind them. Summoning the courage to turn around, they saw a tall woman, her face covered in blood, wearing a sadistic grin.

Both man and woman screamed, jumping out of their pants, and landing on their asses, much to Skylar's amusement. But, her work wasn't done just yet, lest the adrenaline and fear wear off. She stepped forwars, reaching out as if attempting to grab them.

The couple leaped to their feet, running all the way to the exit, their blood curdling screams echoing all throughout the building. The so-called spirit that'd tormented them disn't bother to give chase. She was too husy rolling on the floor, laughing her ass off.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHH!!! She cackled, looking to Reiko. "You see that shit? Comedy. Gold!"

[dlamp]

Reiko's lips twitched again, trying to fight against scowling at Skylar's retort. Don't, it won't fix anything. An argument at this point would just ruin the whole night, and it already felt like Reiko was playing babysitter for most of the festival so far. Is this how Onee-san feels with Ane-san and me? The act of hovering over a loud, rowdy person while trying to do damage control from behind the scenes... that definitely felt like something Nanase did a lot when she was with the stable, both on and off the ring. And it was only now that Reiko was realizing how draining that was to one's mental and physical stamina. I think I'll apologize to her later if I see her.

As the two started to move through the area Reiko kept her eye on Skylar during the whole session. Making sure they weren't crossing the barrier, double-checking the props to make sure they were in working order, keeping an eye on the participants to make sure they were running in the appropriate directions as Skylar and the others scared them.

How did Nanase do all helper stuff without dropkicking someone? This took too much mental energy to keep up for more than ten minutes.

And just as Skylar finished stalking and scaring off a couple and turned to Reiko all she could do was give a kind smile and nod. It was all she had the energy for at this point as she held back the sigh of relief. Skylar didn't cross the marker, didn't do harm to the participants, and didn't go too crazy with the act. It was honestly praiseworthy given Reiko's lowering expectations. "Yeah, it was." She admitted, giving a light chuckle. It was all she had the energy for after tonight's events and-

Oh shit, so this was why Nanase was so demure and calm all the time.

I'm seriously going to have to apologize to her tonight. But that can wait. For now, she had a friend to attend to. "You sure get into it. I thought I was the Demon here."