#Leo Nighstide | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

save-the-spiral · 5 years

Text

InkWizTober Day Thirty-One: Ripe + Celebration

Welcome to day thirty-one of inktober! Final day! Wrote something cute- a costume party event. It quickly became a more fun and magical version of what the elementary/middle school I went to would throw, with a significant decrease in dead inside high schoolers. No warnings, besides a bit of internal social awkwardness.

(link to prompt lists) (link to inktober tag)

There were a lot of ridiculous rumors about necromancers- especially around October, considering how often these rumors are treated as practical jokes or ghost stories. None of the rumors were right, of course, but the ones about how death wizards observed Halloween were definitely wrong.

Ianthe glanced around the brightly lit library, emptied of books for tonight, and instead full of excited young wizards in costumes and munching on sweets. This was about as far from a ghost hunt, or a seance, or a demonic Earth ritual, or some weird serial killer antics as one could get.

She grinned, bearing her glow-in-the-dark plastic vampire fangs. With a dramatic swish of her violet cloak, she welcomed another guest, playing up the fanged lisp to the amusement of a young student dressed as a tree. At her side, Leo laughed, his plastic fangs on display as well, but he made a fake-serious face at her nudging elbow, only causing the new guest to laugh more.

The boy introduced himself as Elijah, and excitedly watched the magical decorations moved as he entered the library.

“There’s already so many people.” Leo remarked dryly. To others this would seem sarcastic or annoyed, but Ianthe knew it was worry.

“No one will go looking for books to vandalize. They won’t harm the animals either- Irisi seemed fairly confident she could take control of the petting zoo.” Ianthe replied, nudging her partner. “You can go look over the place to make sure- it’s six thirty, I can handle any stragglers coming in.”

Leo held one of her hands, likely from instinct, he hated public displays of affection, and as he left the welcome desk, she overplayed the dramatics again, reaching out, quoting Titanic, all to see him snicker again, even if it was quickly replaced by a blank face.

Leo was worried. His books, his animals, they were like his babies, defenseless.

Well, some of the animals could bite back.

And some of the books too, for that matter.

Either way, he was sure his friends and other volunteers would be doing fine- great, really!- but it wasn’t the same as keeping tabs on things, making sure it was all going well.

The event had been his idea at first, stemming from ridiculous ideas for his partner’s mothers’ bakery, a joke really. But it quickly spiraled out of control, and now he was standing in the middle of his library full of students (most of which he has never seen in his entire life) and there was even a full catered buffet of sweets.

Morae was so excited to bake for the event, she even created a tall wedding cake creation straight out of a cartoon- it swayed on five tiers, all of them odd shapes, decorated in black, purple, orange, and lime green. Hundreds of cookies and cupcakes were all around the room as well, courtesy of Morae’s two employees.

Leo stopped by Morae’s table first- listening to her instruct parents and kids alike on how to frost their pumpkin or ghost shaped sugar cookies was so fun- she always treated everyone like an adult, a fellow professional baker, which often left the kids confident and wanting to come back for more cookies. When he caught her eye and raised his eyebrows, she just grinned and gave a thumbs up, so he moved on.

Noah and Haley were taking turns reading from a piece of paper, dramatically reenacting a story with ad-libbed words. Leo sat down on a chair near the back of the group, hoping Noah’s awkwardness wouldn’t lead to self doubt. Haley’s idea for the game seemed to be working, though, because of course the random, and usually juvenile words led to everyone laughing.

“But be careful! On this spooky night, wizards are known to lose their- okay who wrote bananas again?” Noah turned to the crowd, exaggeratedly frowning, only for all the children to giggle when his top hat fell off his head from the sudden movement.

The next booth was face painting, and even if he didn’t personally know them, Irisi’s recommendation to put Julia and Adrien on the job seemed perfect, even if their flirting distracted them a bit. Julia was very serious as she painted a flower onto a young girl’s face, talking to her about the fairy wings they both wore.

Entranced by it, Leo bumped into someone. “Sorry!” He instantly snapped out, backing away-

Only for one Caleb Deathleague to be looking at him, confused. “Hey, you alright? You look tense.”

Leo sighed, still on guard. Caleb was once an overbearing, rude kid, though rumor had it the boy had changed. “...Yeah, ‘Mfine.”

“Hey! You organized this, right?” Caleb’s eyes brightened up, any intimidation Leo felt completely gone when he realized the other necromancer was dressed like a... mouse? His costume was made of paper and tape as well.

“...Yes?”

“Great!” It was then that Caleb lightly tugged on whatever was behind him- a child, by the looks of it. “Fledge here hasn’t ever gotten to have a Halloween before- what do you recommend for a more quiet activity?”

Leo looked at the kid, recognizing the prodigy fire wizard by their beaded dreadlocks and intense eyes, though their feathered cloak’s hood was pulled up now. “Uh... You could probably grab some of the cookie decorating stuff and take it to a side table- Morae wouldn’t mind. I think some ice wizard- Alamina?- is taking care of a kinda quiet time and reading area- pretty sure she’s just napping in a ghost sheet costume. But Artur and Susie have some puzzles, word searches and jigsaws and stuff. And Penny 'n’ Marla are probably having too much fun DJ-ing the cake walk, you don’t have to actually talk to other people for that one.”

Leo stopped himself, trying not to ramble and overwhelm them.

“Thanks.” Caleb smiled at him, genuine. “Happy Halloween.”

With a nod, the two passed him, and Leo could almost sigh with relief. Social interactions with people who weren’t Ianthe or her moms was hard.

“Leo!”

Leo had to take a whole second trying to contain his instinctive gasp or flinch, instead turning towards a nearby booth and smiling. “Hi Ceren.”

“I wanted to show the kids why it’s better to cut the bottom instead of around the stem of their pumpkins- can you help?” The gentle life wizard was out of place in this usually dark library, his face painted to look like a bright green zombie.

“...Sure?” Leo walked around to Ceren’s side of the table.

“So, this is how we grow our pumpkins, everyone watching?” Ceren nodded at the chorus of ‘yes’s that replied. He pulled out a rather simple wand, bright green magic glowing and the life emblem imprinting onto the plain pot of soil on the table, the rest of the surface crowded by in-progress jack-o-lanterns. Then, a bright green sprout shot up to every child’s awe, and a vine burst forth.

A kid yelled something about Cinderella, and the rest agreed, watching the sped up growth of two pumpkins- the bright yellow blooms, then the growing gourds that settled heavily on the cleared space of the table. Once it stopped, everyone clapped, even some kids who were drawn from other booths.

“Now, see I’ve got this knife- make sure an adult handles the knives, everyone- and I’m going to cut these pumpkins with the same amount of stem. Here, Leo, cut the top of this one the ‘usual way’ for me? Okay, so Leo’s is the normal way, but mine is upside down, cut from the bottom. Everyone see that? Okay! Now, Leo, could you use some death magic to speed up the rotting?”

Leo nodded, putting the knife down and grabbing his own wand- a gnarled branch from Mortis’ tree, a rare gift- and began to cast a general spell, careful to limit it to plants. The pumpkins began to lose their bright orange-ness, now both upright and in clear sight on the table.

The one he had cut began to sag much quicker than the other, which was only slightly discolored, and it continued. The kids cheered as the one he cut finally collapsed in on itself, quickly thrown into a garbage bag upon the loud sounds of childish disgust.

“Thanks Leo!” Ceren grinned at him. “So, that’s why we’re cutting from the bottom, so our pumpkins stay pretty and orange for longer!”

With that, Leo escaped, waving at some of his friends- looks like Mari had a wardrobe malfunction, if her loose hay and scarecrow hat were anything to go by, and Irisi was trying to make sure his few younger animals stopped playing tug-of-war with her mummy bandages. Emrys was silently watching people play his dart toss game, snorting every time an older kid claimed it was rigged, and giving the younger kids candy even if they missed.

Yeah, yeah everything was fine- he was not going to get himself dragged into another kindergarten class on temporary tattoos or something, nope!

When he finally made it back to the welcome desk, Ianthe was grinning at him, plastic fangs left on a candy wrapper while she ate a lollipop.

“I think my mom’s trying to sneak in with as many different costumes as possible in one night.” Ianthe finally said when he flopped down in his desk chair, slightly panting.

Leo glanced at the doorway. “Hi Morelle.”

The masked person began to shout incredulously and leave, long black hair obviously revealing them as Morelle.

With one shared look, Ianthe and Leo broke into laughter.

And the night had just begun.

6 notes · View notes