[imabanditø]

☆ Trading Tent ☆
—————————————— ——————————————

Looking for a quiet retreat from the festival’s activities, you make your way to a secluded field populated by a single tent and small groups of other dragons. Some are excitedly chatting, and others are happily carrying plastic treat buckets around. Three dragons notice your presence, one of whom walks up to you with a smile, the bell on their tail band jingling.

“Hello! I’m Chalk,” they begin. Their front legs are adorned with various bracelets; the bucket they’re carrying contains just as many, or even more. “Would you like to trade with my friends and I?” Chalk points to the other two dragons - the first one has even more accessories, and looks hard at work on creating another. The second waves at you, silently hoping you’ll come and chat.

— —

hello! welcome to the trading tent :3 !! this is an event-long prompt booth. the amount you write/draw will determine what prize you can receive! you’ll have the whole event to answer up to 3 prompts from the list i’ve provided below :]

this booth will close on november 3 at cs rollover (2 —> 3); a results post confirming everyone’s final prize(s) will be posted sometime after then

— —

please use the following form to participate:

Code: Select all

[center][size=150][b]☆ [color=#800040]I want to trade![/color] ☆[/b][/size]
[b]username + id:[/b]
[b]chosen pd:[/b]

[b]chosen prompt:[/b]
[b]prize of choice:[/b]

[b]response:[/b]
[b]word count:[/b] if applicable[/center]

please fill out a new form for each prompt answered, and put all of them into one post! you may edit your post/add to your response(s) as many times as you’d like until the booth closes.

additionally, please write the entire prompt in your form ^^ thank you!

— —

As you approach Chalk’s friends, they begin introducing themselves. The dragon creating the bracelet speaks first: “Hey, I’m Candy Corn!” Bat flicks bats long, multicolored tail as the other quickly perks up.

“And I’m Crescendo,” he adds. “If you have any fun trinkets to trade, we’d love to give you one of ours in return!” He reaches into the bucket to show you some examples. “If you want to trade but don’t have anything to offer, we’ll give you something in return for answering an interview question for our scrapbook.”

1. What's your PD’s favorite memory of the festival?

2. What is your PD wearing to the festival?

3. If your PD could (or is!) host a stall at the festival, what would it be?

4. Why did your PD decide to visit the festival?

5. What made you laugh the most at the festival?

6. What's the spookiest encounter you've had at the festival?

7. I want to make a craft to trade!

8. I want to find a trinket to trade!

you may answer a maximum of three prompts, and you may not repeat them if answering multiple. responses don’t need to be booth-related; happenings can be up to your imagination!

if you don’t have a pd, you can use our mascot plato!

you’re allowed to mention my npc plate dragons in your responses if you’d like! their pronouns are: chalk (they/them), candy corn (he/they/it/bat), crescendo (he/him)

— —

here are the prize options ^__^ you may pick one option from the tier that matches your response. please mention the name of the item(s) you’re picking! (plural if you’re choosing items from a lower tier)

☆ Tier One ☆
Requirements: Less than 100 words OR 1 colored sketch

— Bat-Shaped Fidget Plush — [c] Ear Edit

— Spooky Hairclip Set — [c] Hair Style

— Bronze Leaf Pendant — MYO with 1 Halloween trait of choice (Floating Head, Dark Shadow, Candle Wax, Haunted Doll, Swirling Charms) and unlimited NR traits

☆ Tier Two ☆
Requirements: 101-500 words OR 1 colored headshot/bust

— 2 prizes from Tier One

— Sparkly Owl Charm — [uc] 1 Shaped Plate

— Glow in the Dark Kandi Cuff — [uc] Glowing Parts

— Silver Leaf Pendant — MYO with 1 Halloween trait of choice (Floating Head, Dark Shadow, Candle Wax, Haunted Doll, Swirling Charms), 2 uncommon traits, and unlimited C/NR traits

☆ Tier Three ☆
Requirements: 501-999 words OR 1 colored fullbody

— 4 prizes from Tier One

— 2 prizes from Tier Two

— Double Kandi Rotator Cuff — [r] 2 Tails

— Apple Cider Air Freshener — [r] Nose Edit

— Gold Leaf Pendant — MYO with 1 Halloween trait of choice (Floating Head, Dark Shadow, Candle Wax, Haunted Doll, Swirling Charms), 2 rare traits, and unlimited UC/C/NR traits

☆ Tier Four ☆
Requirements: 1,000+ words OR 1 colored scene

— 6 prizes from Tier One

— 4 prizes from Tier Two

— 2 prizes from Tier Three

— “Anatomy of a PD” Patch — [m] Exposed Bone(s)

— Festive Animatronic — [m] Robot Part(s)

— Prismatic Leaf Pendant — MYO with 1 Halloween trait of choice (Floating Head, Dark Shadow, Candle Wax, Haunted Doll, Swirling Charms), 1 mutated trait, and unlimited R/UC/C/NR traits

trait items can add the corresponding trait to a pre-existing pd or myo!

— —

Candy Corn hands you bats interview notebook and a particularly fancy pen. “Here you are! Feel free to take your time,” bat smiles.

—— ——

[imabanditø]

closing post

Code: Select all

[center][size=150][b]☆ [color=#800040]Results[i]![/i][/color] ☆[/b][/size]
[b][strike]——————————————[/strike] [img]https://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/image/image.php?id=4355271&size=large&format=png&rev=1760908950[/img] [strike]——————————————[/b][/strike]

[color=#BF0000]“Thank you so much!”[/color] Chalk gleefully exclaims. [color=#BF0000]“We hope you have a wonderful rest of the festival!”[/color]

[quote][b]Bat-Shaped Fidget Plush[/b] — [b][c][/b] Ear Edit[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]Spooky Hairclip Set[/b] — [b][c][/b] Hair Style[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]Bronze Leaf Pendant[/b] — MYO with 1 Halloween trait of choice (Floating Head, Dark Shadow, Candle Wax, Swirling Charms) and unlimited NR traits[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]Sparkly Owl Charm[/b] — [b][uc][/b] 1 Shaped Plate[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]Glow in the Dark Kandi Cuff[/b] — [b][uc][/b] Glowing Parts[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]Silver Leaf Pendant[/b] — MYO with 1 Halloween trait of choice (Floating Head, Dark Shadow, Candle Wax, Swirling Charms), 2 uncommon traits, and unlimited C/NR traits[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]Double Kandi Rotator Cuff[/b] — [b][r][/b] 2 Tails[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]Apple Cider Air Freshener[/b] — [b][r][/b] Nose Edit[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]Gold Leaf Pendant[/b] — MYO with 1 Halloween trait of choice (Floating Head, Dark Shadow, Candle Wax, Swirling Charms), 2 rare traits, and unlimited UC/C/NR traits[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]“Anatomy of a PD” Patch[/b] — [b][m][/b] Exposed Bone(s)[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]Festive Animatronic[/b] — [b][m][/b] Robot Part(s)[/quote]
usernames

[quote][b]Prismatic Leaf Pendant[/b] — MYO with 1 Halloween trait of choice (Floating Head, Dark Shadow, Candle Wax, Swirling Charms), 1 mutated trait, and unlimited R/UC/C/NR traits[/quote]
usernames

[b]— [img]https://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/image/image.php?id=4355271&size=large&format=png&rev=1760908950[/img] —[/b]

idk write something here to close out the booth

[b]☆ this booth is now closed! ☆[/b][/center]

— —

credits
all pds featured are mine! divider art by me as well :P

—— ——

[imabanditø]

☆ Let’s trade! ☆
—————————————— ——————————————

☆ this booth is now open! ☆

[Galaxytale]

☆ I want to trade! ☆
username + id: Galaxytale #646813
chosen pd: Graves

chosen prompt:
What's your PD’s favorite memory of the festival?
prize of choice:
“Anatomy of a PD” Patch

response:

Graves took the pen and notebook from Candy Corn and wandered over to sit down in the shade of a large tree. What was his favorite memory from the festival? He'd need to stop and think about that for a moment. There were so many festivals over the years and so many great memories from them to choose from... Picking just one moment from them all would be difficult. It had to be something that'd really stand out, something that people would want to hear about! So what memory would it be?

Was it the year he'd gotten into a really strangely competitive apple bobbing session with Elektra and Castor that lead to the three of them accidentally overturning the large bucket and soaking the small audience they'd gathered with water? The apples had ended up rolling around everywhere and some dragons managed to get tripped up on them. It was all in innocent fun, and no one had gotten seriously hurt, though some folks' costumes had gotten wet... He, Elektra, and Castor had gotten scolded rather harshly for it - threatened with a ban from next year's festival if they didn't help clean up the mess. Though... what kind of Plate Dragon wouldn't help clean up the mess they'd made? Even on accident? Graves wasn't sure he'd enjoy being around that type of person. Oh, but that memory seemed so silly and trivial in retrospect. He wanted to write about something impressive, and something that'd be interesting...

Maybe it was the year he'd won "Best Costume" in the costume competition? It was his first year entering and that year the competition had been pretty stiff, in his opinion. There were so many cool costumes, many of them being characters he recognized from horror movies and gothic novels. He could remember there was a novel-accurate Frankenstein's Creature, an extremely impressive Mask of Red Death from Phantom of the Opera, and a trio of dragons dressed up as Dracula's brides from the Van Helsing movie that had released that year - how they didn't win was beyond him! Being up on stage with the others, Graves was so sure he was going to lose. He'd come as a two-in-one costume he'd made based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - so maybe that's what had done it? A combination of it being his first year, his handmade costume (though he was sure all the other dragons' costumes were hand-made as well), and the two-in-one swapability? The judges' rationale behind their choice was lost on him. He would've picked either the Mask of Red Death for its complexity or the trio of Brides for their coordination. Though, now that he thought about it, the dragon who'd worn the former costume had been a winner several times before and he wasn't sure it would be fair to pick a group when everyone else had entered on their own... Hmmm... maybe he wouldn't write about that experience.

Or, perhaps it was the year he'd seen that bright streak in the sky -- yes! That had to be it! Graves put the pen to paper, scribbling away madly.

--

It was the last night of the Festival. Graves had been spending the whole Festival week with his book club friends Pollux and Abyss that year. A world famous horror novelist, the dream girl from his best nightmares, and him - an Edgar Allan Poe wannabe. What a group, huh?

They were on their way from one Festival event to another, taking a shortcut path through the autumnal forest, when there was a thunderous explosion noise and a great ball of fire streaking through the sky. Not just through the sky, though. No, the three of them had stopped in their tracks, stunned as the flaming object's decaying arc caused it to pass right over their heads and go crashing deep in the forest a few miles to the east. There was a deafening boom as the ground quaked and a shock wave rattled them and the surrounding trees.

And then all things were quiet.

Abyss was the first to recover, he remembered. She'd sprang up, energized in a way Graves had never seen before. "Did you guys see that? I think a meteor just landed in the forest! We gotta go check it out!"

She was running off in pursuit of the object before either he or Pollux could respond. Graves looked at Pollux, and though he couldn't see the other Plate Dragon's eyes, he knew well enough the dragon would've been blinking in confusion, still processing what had happened. "We can't just leave her alone with it," Graves had told them, "you know Abyss will try to get herself into some kind of occult demon-summoning, world-ending situation!" Or, she'd at least give it a good try.

Graves didn't want to miss it.

He took off as well, and he could hear Pollux wasn't far behind him. The mad rush through the trees wasn't difficult - there was a strange glow and a large column of smoke visible in the moonlight that made tracking down the fallen star easy. He and Pollux caught up with Abyss at the edge of a crater.

It was obvious why she'd stopped there.

The three of them were peering down not at a smoking meteor as they'd expected, but at a flaming wreckage. Something had crashed landed. Abyss looked at him and Pollux, and then charged down into the crater to investigate without a word. Graves and Pollux were hot on her heels. There would've been no reasoning with her and they were just as on-board with investigating.

Broken, sparking electrical cables hung from twisted metal and strange chemical smells in the air burned their lungs as they approached. What was left in the crater had clearly been some kind of spaceship. The three of them had engaged with enough alien-related media to recognize a UFO when they'd saw one. An alien ship, even a crashed one, doesn't come without an alien though. But there was no Little Green Plate Dragon to be found in the area.

Graves did, however, see clear paw steps leading up and out of the crater though...

word count: 1,030 Words

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☆ I want to trade! ☆
username + id: Galaxytale #646813
chosen pd: Equinox and Solstice

chosen prompt:
3. If your PDs could host a stall at the festival, what would it be?
prize of choice:
Festive Animatronic

response:

Equinox and Solstice excitedly strolled through the field to the Trading Tent, their forelegs loaded up with kandi to trade with Chalk, Candy Corn, and Crescendo. The two of them always had little crafts to give out and trade, but the process of making and trading more with friends was always a blast! With the tent in view, the girls could see the trio of hosts gathered outside. Overjoyed to see their friends again, Equinox and Solstice dashed over with matching excited squees and giggles.

"Crescendo! Chalk! C-Corn! Hi! Hi! How you guys been?" Solstice called out as they neared the booth's hosts. Each of the Plate Dragons happily returned the greetings, already familiar with Equinox and Solstice from the local scene.

"As you can see," Equinox drug out the -ee sound in 'see', proudly displaying all the kandi loaded up on their forelegs in sync with Solstice, "we've got bunches and bunches of things to trade with y'all!" Her tail slapped excitedly against the ground. She was so, so ready to show off everything that she and Solstice had made for the others. They'd spent several weeks preparing for the festival, making bracelets, cuffs, and other things to trade with or give away to other Plate Dragons. "Look Crescendo, I made this one just for you!" Equi proudly pointed at a large multicolored beaded cuff on her leg. It had an intricate pattern of flames with little decorative music notes and mini glow sticks hanging off it.

As those two were busy starting up the PLUR pawshake, Solstice noticed the notebook in Candy Corn's paws. "Ooo, whatcha got there?" Bat happily informed her that they were also conducting little interviews at tent for their scrapbook. Solstice clapped her paws together and giggled excitedly, "Oh I love answering interview questions! Hit me with one - I know we're here to trade trinkets and stuff but I wanna play twenty questions with you now too!" Candy Corn quickly clarified that bat only wanted her to answer one question, not twenty. Solstice let out a little disappointed noise which caught Equinox's attention and the two Plate Dragons looked at Candy Corn's list of interview questions to pick one to answer.

"Oh! Oh! Sol do that one!" Equi pointed down at the third question on the list, reading it aloud: "'If you could host a stall or booth at the festival, what would your stall/booth be like and why?'"

Solstice was nodding excitedly, "Oooh, I like that question, that's a good question!"

"Isn't it?!" Equinox looked at Candy Corn pleadingly, "Let me answer it too after Sol? I have such a banger idea for a booth!" Bat happily reassured her that multiple Plate Dragons could answer the same question, they weren't accepting only one Dragon's answer per question. Equinox cheered, throwing her paws up and flapping them happily.

Solstice, for her part, took bat's notepad and pen, tapping the pen against her snout as she thought about how to describe her dream festival booth. "I think I'd also wanna do something like this Trading Tent, to be honest," she thought aloud. "I like the idea of engaging Plate Dragons' creativity and encouraging people to make friends with others by making things together or trading things they made with others!"

"Yeah, this is a pretty great booth," Equinox nodded along happily.

"Really though, all I think I'd personally make different would be that it needs some bumpin' EDM music playing and fancy lights. And glow sticks..." At the mention of glow sticks, Equinox and Solstice looked at each other in horror.

"We forgot the glow sticks!" They shouted in unison. Solstice's shoulders sagged and Equinox banged her paw on the ground dramatically a few times. How they'd managed to leave their glow sticks at home was beyond them.

"Ugh! I knew we were totally forgetting something when we left!" Solstice pouted.

"Man this totally sucks! I was so looking forward to playing with them later when it gets dark," Equi sighed, hanging her head. Usually she was on top of that. She was like the Queen of Glow Stick Management.

"Totally, right?" Something occurred to Solstice right then, "Buuuuut~ that does mean there's more left over for tomorrow night!"

"Oh-em-gee! You're so right!" Spirits successfully buoyed, Equinox looked down at the pad of paper Solstice was still holding. "You're done writing right? Can I steal that from you now?" Solstice nodded and handed the pad and pen over happily. Equi had a very clear image in her brain of her dream attraction. "Okay, so, it'd be like this massive tent right? With a small stage inside for a DJ booth and a space for dancing." Solstice was nodding along, having known exactly what Equi would be thinking for her dream booth this whole time. "There'd also be huuuuge speakers, laser lights, and a fog machine! Plate Dragons would be able to come down and really let loose and get wild y'know? With some sick spooky tunes, a real raver's fantasy type deal!" She really just wanted an excuse to party all night with her friends. "We could all, like, trade kandi and dance - it'd totally be great!"

"Okay but you have to have something to do right? Like an activity?" Solstice pointed out.

Equinox tilted her head, like she hadn't considered that maybe there needed to be an "activity" portion of the booth. "Well we could hold nightly dance-off competitions then! In addition to just being a cool place to hang out." Solstice giggled at the 'we,' happy to know Equi had already factored her inclusion into the idea. She'd never turn down a chance to party with her bestie anyway.

"Oh totally, like there could be bigger prizes for the winners and then participation prizes for everyone." Solstice tilted her head, as if something just occurred to her "But how would you decide who 'wins' the dance competition fairly?"

"By audience applause, silly! Whoever's moves gets them the most hype gets to be the Dancing Queen of the night!" Equinox paused her explanation momentarily to scribble it all down in the notepad. "Plus even if you don't wanna participate in the competition you could just enjoy a fun night on the dance floor with your buds!" She nodded animatedly to herself, satisfied with her explanation. Clearly, she thought that this would be the best idea ever.

word count: 1,063 Words

---

☆ I want to trade! ☆
username + id: Galaxytale #646813
chosen pd: Dracula

chosen prompt:
4. Why did your PD decide to visit the festival?
prize of choice:
Prismatic Leaf Pendant

response:

Dracula looked down at the offered notebook and pen. He looked back to Candy Corn. "I will tell you why I have come to the festival if you would like, however," he lifted his own gargantuan paws, flexing the bones and letting bat see how the goop dripped around them, "for the sake of your interview materials' integrity, I would suggest that perhaps I dictate my words to you and you write them down for me." This wouldn't be an unusual practice for Dracula. Usually Hyades would be the one to take down his words for him, but Dracula had wanted to be alone during this excursion.

Candy Corn looked at Dracula's massive paws, then looked up and squinted at the massive Plate Dragon sitting before bat. Dracula could tell it was getting the feeling that he was no ordinary Plate Dragon, and that whatever answer it was about to get would be fairly out of the ordinary as well. Maybe it was the huge fangs and the skull covered in goop that gave them that impression, though. Nonetheless, Candy Corn nodded and told Dracula that bat would be happy to take down his answer on bat's pad for him. Dracula smiled as pleasantly as he could down at the smaller Plate Dragon.

Drawing a great breath, he began to answer the question. "My name is Vlad and I have come down to visit your festival because..." he could be honest with this little dragon. The past was in the past, and it had been a long time since anyone he'd once known had come and gone. "It gives me a sense of normalcy," It wasn't just that, though, and Dracula knew that, "and it reminds me of days long, long since past." The words tugged at something in his chest and he steeled himself.

"I am very old, and I am from a world long-forgotten by time," all for the better, in his opinion. Things were... better now, the world had moved on from everything. Maybe he hadn't. Maybe he would never get a chance to, should never get a chance to. The Plate Dragons of today had largely forgotten their fears of the things that used to go bump in the night. They were better for it. "I do not often come out from the shadows, where I belong, but occasionally, occasionally... a lonely old dragon may wish to see the light again. Everything I once knew and loved..." Dracula trailed off, looking down at his own claws contemplatively. While the rest of the world recovered and forgot, he sat alone with his memories. Madness long since lifted, but he still knew the shame of his actions. Sat with it for all those years, and he knew he would continue to grapple with it.

"At this festival I am almost normal. Here, no one knows who I am. I almost blend in amongst the common folk and their costumes and games. Almost." He barely had to use his magic on the mortals during the festival days. The size difference was the main issue. Dracula stuck out in crowds, but that was something a little vampiric suggestion could easily fix as long as he was mindful enough to stay away from large groups of dragons. Larger groups were harder to convince. A passive suggestion was good enough: 'I am simply slightly larger than average, and in a very elaborate 'Vampire' costume.' If someone accused him of being himself during the festival days, he would simply thank them for the compliment to his costume design skills. Not many Plate Dragons thought that Dracula was real now. He was the stuff of legends, of novels, of so called 'movies' - ones that always got him wrong. Got the story wrong. The ending. Completely wrong. It was better that way, though. Let them rewrite it and rewrite it until it was forgotten. Let everything truly from the past rest peacefully. Everything except himself.

But that was his burden to carry, after all. He would carry it alone.

"I come to the festival because it reminds me of how things once were, too."

Before fangs and claws, before betrayal and pain. Before the grief. Before the darkness and madness. Before burning and doom and a cycle that should have ended in golden light and triumph but only ended in pain and misery.

Dracula stared into the distance, and he could almost see the festivals of yester-years overlaying. Could almost see them again, alive. Could almost see his tiny son dashing ahead of them in earnest excitement for his first harvest festival all those years ago as the sun set. The sun would always set. Night comes, night goes. The sun rises again, and the days move on. The days move on, ever on, and the mortals forget.

It was the burden of the immortals to remember. It was for the best that there were few true immortals around these days. Most of the ones Dracula had known simply were too dangerous to be allowed to share space with mortals for extended periods. Himself included in that lot. Hyades, perhaps, was the only exception. Then again, Hyades had once been mortal, hadn't he? Then again, so had Dracula himself, once upon a time. He'd given up his right to see himself as akin to mortals though, hadn't he? His son was right about him, in that regard. He'd long since died alongside his love, and, after everything, he'd sealed away any chance of it's return when he'd sealed his son's tomb. He lived only so their memories, their wishes for the world, would live eternal. Nothing more.

It was probably for the best.

Dracula stood slowly, "I have come to the festival to see better days, past and future. I see them again and again, every year. It is the only time I allow myself this reprieve from my typical duties. Now, though, I must return from whence I came." He needed to return to his solemn vigil over the creatures of the night. They would be becoming active soon, as the sun set. As long as he kept them bound and cared for like a proper King of the Night, the mortals would be free to know peace. That is what they deserved though. Peace.

It was the only way he knew to pay his proper respects to his son's wishes.

word count: 1,067 Words

---

[receptions]

☆ I want to trade! ☆
username + id: receptions 476606
chosen pd: Hal

chosen prompt: 7. I want to make a craft to trade!
prize of choice:

— Prismatic Leaf Pendant — MYO with 1 Halloween trait of choice (Floating Head, Dark Shadow, Candle Wax, Haunted Doll, Swirling Charms), 1 mutated trait, and unlimited R/UC/C/NR traits

response:

word count: N/A

[SylphTheDragon]

☆ I want to trade! ☆
username + id: SylphTheDragon 1097719
chosen pd: Pippin

chosen prompt: 6. What's the spookiest encounter you've had at the festival?
prize of choice: Prismatic Leaf Pendant

response:
Pippin ran her tongue over her maw, cleaning off bits of sticky sweetness that had remained from the maple cotton candy she’d gotten from one of the stalls, near the festival entrance. She looked around, only to find that the group she’d arrived with had scattered every which way, off buying sweets of their own or ogling the many stalls lining the busy paths.
She shrugged and continued on her way, figuring they'd all meet back up eventually, and that for now she’d take the opportunity to get to some of the stalls she was sure the others wouldn't be as interested in as she was. She passed a winding dirt path leading into a forest for what looked like a haunted hayride (might be something fun for later), and booths selling all sorts of sweet treats and trinkets, taking in the colorful sights with bliss. The air was just as sweet as the cotton candy she’d downed, lined with the scents of pumpkin spice and apple cider, crunched-up leaves and other still-baking goodies, the ongoing aroma of fall layering every sense.
With the thick fur layering her neck, she hardly felt the growing chill, which is why she almost didn't notice the strangeness of the sudden breeze whisking through her pelt, ruffling at her ears.
Not until the already plummeting temperature seemed to take a sudden sharp dip, piercing through to her skin like needles. A dark figure seemed to flicker out of the corner of her eye, and she turned her head half-expecting to see one of her friends, but there was no one there.
Oookay. She frowned, shaking her head. Just a trick of the light, then.
She continued on, suddenly aware of how few other dragons were over in this part of the festival, stirring something inexplicably uneasy in her gut.
And then, she saw it.
A figure, black as night, painted against one of the trees; a shadow so unnaturally sharp it couldn't possibly be real in the dim light of the setting sun, but yet it was, and worst of all, there was no one to cast it.
She swore it seemed to grin at her, putting a single claw to its lips, before it disappeared as quick as it had come.
Oh no. No no no. Oh heck no, no way, no how, nada. She wasn’t doing this; this wasn’t happening. Apparently, she was seeing things now, her internal mantra chanted repeatedly, as if denial alone could save her. Her heart climbed into her throat as she scanned the rest of her surroundings with frantic eyes. She briskly turned back to where she had come from and made her way further into the intermingling crowd of dragons without ever dropping her gaze or lowering her guard, hoping that sticking among the others would dissuade her (probably imaginary) stalker. She hardly dared to breathe, to blink, every inch of her being poured into remaining hyper-aware. Every movement out of the corner of her eye, every flicker of shadow, every suspicious shift hidden between the clamor of dragons surrounding her, just out of sight, that she was only noticing now that she was aware of it. She was so focused on trying to keep track of the presence dancing at the edge of her vision, that she didn’t even notice the fluffy gray plate dragon until she practically walked right into them.
“Oof! Hey, you alright there? …You seem pretty distracted,” Leo, one of the friends that she’d come here with, tried to meet her gaze while he helped to steady her.
“Oh, um, hey,” her face flushed a bit, feeling embarrassment creep in through the choking haze of paranoia, but her eyes still darted around. Only to freeze as she saw the same thing reappear, shadowy wisps coalescing against the wooden paneling of one of the stalls closest to them. “Do— do you see that?”
The dragon next to her turned towards where she was looking. “Uh— see what?”
She blinked, and the shape was gone.
Oh. Oh, great, so she really was just going insane. “Um. Nothing, sorry, forget I said anything.”
Despite herself, a cold chill crept up her spine, curling around her throat, attempting to choke out her speech. “I just— hey, wanna check out one of the stalls over there?” She managed, pointing in a random direction.
Following her sightline, there weren’t actually any stalls over there, but rather what looked like a corn maze that— wasn’t even open yet, apparently. Just her luck, now she probably looked like an idiot.
They seemed to hesitate, considering her for a moment, before apparently shrugging off her odd behavior. That was one thing she appreciated about Leo; they never pushed if they felt it was none of their business, instead letting others come to him when they were ready— that is, if they were ever ready.
“Uh, sure.” He grinned. “Although if you wanted to get me alone, you could’ve just asked~”
She scoffed, shoving at his arm, but his playful remark had done its job of easing some of her anxiety. Not all of it, but some. She knew he meant it all in good fun, and so never took it seriously. She was pretty sure he didn’t like anyone like that, anyway, so it was sort of a running joke between them —that he was just a bit of a flirt, sometimes, to lighten the mood and occasionally mess with people, but it was never more serious than that.
But already, she felt just a bit safer, with him by her side. Safety in numbers, right?
…Right?
Ugh, even so, her fear lingered, always at the back of her mind, especially as she kept catching whispers of movement out of the corner of her eye. She remained watchful as the pair made their way around the festival stalls, hyper-alert to her surroundings. Whatever that thing was (if it wasn’t just her mind playing tricks on her), it wasn’t going to catch them off guard— she refused to let it.

Unbeknownst to the pair, a little ways away, a dark figure stepped out from their shadow, solid paws meeting the ground to crunch the dry grass underneath.
Salem giggled quietly to themself, chest constricting to stifle their laughter. Ah, another day, another successful scare. Their gaze moved towards the winding dirt path they'd noticed earlier, a bright red painted arrow marking the way. Whelp, time to see what else they could get up to.

word count: 1,083

[imabanditø]

☆ Results! ☆
—————————————— ——————————————

“Thank you so much!” Chalk gleefully exclaims. “We hope you have a wonderful rest of the festival!”

“Anatomy of a PD” Patch — [m] Exposed Bone(s)

Galaxytale 646813

Festive Animatronic — [m] Robot Part(s)

Galaxytale 646813

Prismatic Leaf Pendant — MYO with 1 Halloween trait of choice (Floating Head, Dark Shadow, Candle Wax, Swirling Charms), 1 mutated trait, and unlimited R/UC/C/NR traits

Galaxytale 646813
receptions 476606
SylphTheDragon 1097719

— —

thank you everyone who participated ^__^ !! i love everyone’s entries so much AAA <3<3

☆ the trading tent is now closed! ☆