[hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/QIUSezo.png[/img]     [img]https://i.imgur.com/ycOCuCr.png[/img][/center]
 [right][b]Interactions:[/b] Emily/Miranda/Jacqueline [@Punished GN], Lila/Lynn/Jasper [@NoriWasHere]
[code]Food Line -> Drink Line[/code][/right][hr]
They were getting closer to the front of the queue for pierogies.

Luca was practically vibrating in excitement about trying something new, nibbling away at his candy apple. He wasn't talking much thanks to it - he had to eat slowly so as not to hurt his teeth, and chew it up a lot so it didn't scrape his throat. But it was good! And he couldn't wait for some proper food-

Thunderous caws filled Luca's ears, interrupting something he was about to say to Jasper.

It was loud and distressed. He froze, head snapping towards wherever it had come from. He couldn't see the source but the crows... He could see plenty of them. They were almost at the front of the line now, but there was only one person that many crows would gather for.

Lila.

Shit. 

Was she in danger? Was she hurt? It didn't matter. Crows didn't just get aggressive like that. Food wasn't important compared to his friend. His breathing quickened, uncomfortable fluttering clutching his chest.

[color=6B8E23]”Jasper, we need to go!”[/color]

He didn't actually wait for Jasper's response, and just assumed he'd follow. Luca darted his way through the crowds, weaving through small gaps that he could fit in without touching people. At his size it was much easier to slip through the throngs of people. He left a trail of pain behind him, quick enough to not be damaging, and a candy apple that slipped out of his fingers and dropped to the floor, ignored. All he was thinking about was getting to his friends and making sure they were alright.

He arrived as Emily fell on her ass, thankful the drinks stands were close to the food ones. There were crows everywhere, Lila looked more pissed than he'd ever seen him - he could guess what had happened, just about. He didn't stop moving, sprinting towards them.

[color=6B8E23]”Lila!”[/color] Luca jumped in between the two, physically putting his body in the way of Emily's kick. Thankfully for her it hit the long, white socks covering his calf rather than any bare skin, sending pain shooting through his leg. He winced but stayed standing, holding out a hand towards both of them as if he was fending off two wild beasts. His chest heaved up and down in heavy pants as he struggled to breath. He struggled to get enough air into his lungs, completely winded, but ignored it in favour of stopping whatever was happening here.

He twisted his head to look pleadingly at Lila - only to be met by a bottomless black gaze that wasn't quite hers. There was a familiarity, like the flickers of rot that he caught in his own eyes every time he looked in a mirror. The maiden, whatever she was, wasn't gone. Luca's heart jolted in his chest, breathing running even more ragged. What did he do? He didn't know how to handle this. He'd spent the last ten years barely retaining his sanity, pushing down his own apparition, how did he help someone else suppress theirs? The Rot's laughter rang in his ears, the apparition stirring from its slumber within him to press up tauntingly against his mind. He ignored it. 

First, he needed to de-escalate the situation.

[color=6B8E23]”Miranda, Jacqueline, lovely to see you again, can you please take Emily away?!”[/color] he looked over to the twins with a forced smile. A cursory scan told him there were no other 8th Street members there right now... Thankfully. The situation would only be made worse if someone like Vashti was there too. He then looked down at Emily, eyes narrowing. There was a swirling chaos in his gaze unlike the pure joy that normally filled them, anger at his friend being possibly hurt and wrestling with the eroding of his own mind as he was thrown into a stressful situation. [color=6B8E23]”Try to touch her again and I'll rot your hand off."[/color]

Luca turned to face Lila, showing Emily his back in the hope her sisters would stop her from doing anything... And if not, he'd follow through on his threat. He could take a hit. It would only hurt her more. While he didn't trust her, he trusted them. He reached out to try and grab Lila's hands. He suppressed the rotting of his skin as he did, even with his gloves offering a protective layer between them. Just turning it off hurt him, his arms beginning to shake and his mind filling with static as the rot started to slither through the forming cracks. But he didn't want her to touch any of his bare skin and begin to rot. His aura filled the air around them, slowly but surely stabbing against Lila's skin in an invisible attack he couldn't control. But he couldn't risk moving further away and having her attack Emily again, or vice versa. He needed to calm her down somehow.

[Color=F0E68C][i]She's let her in now. It's too late.[/i][/color] [color=6B8E23]It isn't. She can force her out.[/color] [Color=F0E68C][i]Do you think it'll be that easy? Let me take over and I'll talk to her.[/i][/color] [color=6B8E23]No. I won't fall for that. I'm not that stupid... I can do it myself.[/color] [Color=F0E68C][i]Can you really reject my help?[/i][/color] [color=6B8E23]To make things worse? I won't listen to you. I know what you want to do.[/color] [color=F0E68C][i]Oh but wouldn't it be so nice to let go? Let me out, rot away the one that hurt her, protect your friends.[/i][/color] [color=6B8E23]I just want her to be alright. I don't want to hurt anyone.[/color] [color=F0E68C][i]You will.[/i][/color] [color=6B8E23]I won't.[/color]

Luca shook his head, ignoring the rot, even as it continued to laugh in his head. He had to concentrate on Lila. He stepped closer to her.

[color=6B8E23]”Lila, please, you have to calm down.”[/color] He hoped that she'd recognise him even like this - and if not, perhaps the maiden would recognise the Rot where it lingered at the edge of his consciousness. He tried to take up her entire vision, difficult when he was so slight, and hold her gaze with his own. Erratic energy danced across his eyes while flecks of rotten green and yellow infected their normal dark brown. [color=6B8E23]”Emily isn't worth it. Force the maiden out of your head.”[/color]

He glanced over at Lynn, mouthing at her, 'stay back.' He also signalled behind his back towards Miranda and Jacqueline for them to leave, if they hadn't dragged Emily away already.

Luca didn't know how unstable Lila was right now - how much she'd let the maiden in, how much of this was her. He'd never fully let the rot in but there had been times when it hadn't entirely been him, or when they'd shared his body for a short period of time before Luca had been able to suppress it again. Each time the rot pushed itself in longer and decayed his mind further. It was always dangerous, and no matter how much of the maiden was in control, this situation was too. He could take it - maybe not physically, but his body was already so damaged what was a little more? But Lynn with her bad luck should keep a safe distance away. 

[color=6B8E23]”Hey, come on, Lila. Let's just ignore her and go have some fun, yeah?”[/color]
[hr][h1]Lihn Phan[/h1]
[right] Interactions: Tayla [@silvermist1116]
[code]The Halloween Festival, Kids Section[/code][/right][hr]
Just under half an hour into storytime, [URL= https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1638889589125-ef148d285c94?q=80&w=2574&auto=format&fit=crop&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D]an unassuming, Asian woman[/URL] sat down at the other end of the bench Tayla was on. She was dressed up as a low effort witch, with an oversized black hat, a layered black dress and her dark hair tied up in a low bun. She couldn't be much older than thirty, with a youthful face but a tired, gentle gaze that moved from all the children gathered for story time to Tayla. The empathy she was automatically spreading around her lightly brushed up against Tayla's emotional field. Her eyes widened slightly and her eyebrows raised, raising further when a hint of emotion was read upon Tayla lowering the headphones over her ears. The emotion reading was subtle enough that Tayla wouldn't necessarily notice it unless she paid attention, and Lihn pulled it back once she realised she'd been doing it in the first place. 

It was difficult to turn off sometimes. She naturally read the emotions of those around her like it was a sixth sense. 

"Sorry," she turned to Tayla with an apologetic smile, gesturing to the bench they were both sitting on. She was apologising for the accidental emotion reading as well, if Tayla had noticed it. "I should have asked before sitting here."

She sat in silence for a short while, fingers gently tapping against her thighs. After a few minutes she shifted in her seat so she was angled slightly more towards Tayla.

"Do you have a kid here?" Lihn asked. She wasn't normally so social outside of work, using all of her energy on her clients during long hours, but something about Tayla drew her in. Her therapist's intuition was telling her this was some with... Issues. And assuming she had a child, which she must do to be at the Halloween festival during the children's events, then that was another reason for Lihn to want to talk to her. She looked young, and Lihn knew what it was like to be a young mom. She'd had Thanh when she was only twenty three, after all. "Silly question, you wouldn't be here this early if you didn't... That's mine over there."

She pointed to a nine year old girl sitting among all of the toddlers and parents at the story time. The young girl was short with her long black hair tied back into two cute pigtails. On her head were a pair of cat ears and she was in all black, completing the outfit with a tail and full painted face with a cat nose and whiskers. She was animatedly listening along, leaning forward as if she couldn't get enough of it.

"She pretended to be sick to get out of school and come here earlier. Almost had me cancel all of my appointments... She wants to be a writer when she's older so supposedly this story time is 'imperative' to attend. I think if she knows the word imperative at nine she shouldn't be going along to toddlers events, but who am I to ruin her fun? She also insisted it wasn't cool to sit with her mum during toddler storytime."

Lihn laughed lightly. She looked back over at her daughter, who seemed to feel her gaze. Thanh turned around and grinned, before seeming to wave her away. Lihn laughed again and waved back.

"Ah, I should introduce myself. My name's Lihn," she smiled gently as she turned back to Tayla, eyes curving up to make it look soft and genuine - though it also highlighted the dark circles beneath her eyes that she could never seem to get rid of. The price of working long days while having a child. "Don't feel you have to tell me your name if you don't want to, I understand, I'm just a stranger. I don't get a chance to talk to other moms often because of work so I got a bit ahead of myself."