A Party of Corpses [Shunny, Open]

The music was loud... loud enough to drown out the shrieks of the figures swaying to and fro like skeletons in a storm.  An unholy congregation fervently danced to appease their deities in a dark, grisly graveyard.  Tombstones littered the ground and a mist rose from under the dancers.  Scattered about were coffins that, if anyone cared to peer inside, held rotten remains.  Occasionally, blood squirted from a pump in the ceiling and showered the monsters.  Every time they felt a gush of semi-cold liquid splatter onto their bodies a sense of rejuvenation filled the nightclub.  The dance floor was certainly packed with customers donning their favorite costumes.  Some were scary, others chose the sexy route, but one thing was common amongst the crowd: each had their face covered with some sort of mask.

Each person was hiding themselves from all the others.  Even if two had chosen to dance together, there would still be two pieces of plastic separating the two.  The dancers could only see the others’ masks, and that is all they had to judge them by.  They could not reveal their true face to their partner, because that was against the rules tonight.  All masks must stay on.  Chris didn’t make the rule, but he sure was happy that the rule was in place.  The rule protected him.  It kept him from exposing an opening to who he really was.  

Instead, tonight, Chris was a plague doctor and the macabre air of the club seemed to match his façade.  It wasn’t Halloween, but it was close.  For some odd reason, The Wave’s Peak had decided to throw a costume party early.  The rules of the party were simple.  Each guest is to wear a costume.  Each costume must have a mask.  Each mask must stay on all night.  Patrons may reveal their names, but they could not unmask their face.  At the end of the night the three best costumed guests would be given a prize and a bloody Sabbath would be held in their honor.

The rules had piqued Chris’s interest, and Chris had decided to go all out for the competition.  Chris had felt that the plague doctor look was common enough, but he decided to put his own spin on the idea.  His costume had a typical plague doctor mask, but it could be opened to reveal a mouth.  Inside the mouth were rows of sharp teeth and a long rubber tongue.  The mask also contained red splatters that ran from the eyes.  Chris’s mask was accompanied by a tattered, black suit.  Patches of the suit were made to look as if feathers were protruding.  Chris’s costume was rounded off with the customary black top hat.

Chris had enjoyed dressing up and had expected to have fun when he went to the club, but by the time he had arrived.  The dark rituals had already begun, and the dance floor was completely filled.  Instead of trying to squeeze into the crowd, Chris made his way to the outskirts and took a seat at the bar.  The bartender asked him for his order.  Chris responded simply with “Uh, water.”  It was the only drink he had learned the name of.  The bartender gave a chuckle and brought out Chris’s water.  After complimenting his outfit, the bartender returned to his other customers.  Chris turned toward the crowd to take in its glory.  Chris thought out loud “Tonight will be fun.”

Chris's Costume:

Chris was more than surprised when he saw a metallically dressed figure walk towards the bar.  From a distance, the figure seemed rather effeminate, but as it drew nearer Chris could make out distinct male features.  Through the haze of the room, Chris could make out a slight Adam’s apple in the man’s neck.  Chris had never seen anyone quite so foppish.  Chris was intrigued by the style of the man’s costume.  It wasn’t something that he would ever consider wearing, but it was definitely engrossing.

Chris drew close to the person, but made sure to keep a seat’s distance.  Chris watched the person for a minute and then decided to speak up.  “Hello, my name is Chris,” the first sentence flowed like a river.  It was one of the many phrases that his father had recommended that he learn upon arriving to the Azores Region.  The next idea was something much harder to convey.  “I like your… eh, how do you say… dressing .  I like the dressing of you,” despite the struggle Chris managed to get something similar to the correct words out.  He thought he was, but waited for the reaction of the other person before getting too proud of himself.

“Yeah, costume,” Chris responded.  That was close enough to what Chris wanted to say.  He had seen the word on the various advertisements for the club that were scattered around and knew what it meant, but didn’t quite remember the word.  Chris watched the other person spin towards Chris revealing a full display of the flashy costume.  Chris noted some of the prominent features in the stranger’s costume, notably the mask and the shoes.  While Chris was examining the costume, the stranger asked Chris a question that Chris did not recognize.  He thought of the words for a second and knew the meanings of most, but couldn’t tell what was being asked.  Chris decided to respond to the question with a simple “Yes.”

The stranger spoke again and Chris was able to understand him for the most part.  Chris recognized that the stranger was complimenting his costume, but he failed to understand the idiom ‘outside of the box’; instead, Chris responded with “Thank you, but it was not out of box, I made all.  And, yes kudoas.”  Chris felt his words were muffled and in correct. He began to feel a tad insecure.  Chris added, “Sorry if I am bad English.  I’m from Sweden and moved now.”  Chris hoped that his excuse would allow room for error in his speaking and answer a question that the stranger probably had.  Finally Chris asked the stranger “What is your name?”

Chris, caught off guard by the question, stood absolutely still for a moment.  A flash of sadness came over his eyes, but it wasn’t noticeable unless one was actually searching for it.  His reason for coming to the Azores region was much more painful to Chris than a simple foreign exchange program.  Chris wished to avoid the question, but didn’t want to break correspondence with Kurosawa.  Chris had struggled in finding words to say.  After an obviously awkward silence, Chris said “I am student, but not exchange.  I’m here permanently, or until school is completioned.”  There was a slight pang of sadness hidden in the tone of his voice.

At this point, Chris noticed how young Kurosawa appeared to be.  Much of Chris’s vision was blocked out by Kurosawa’s mask, but the features that he could see looked as if they were soft and unpronounced.  Chris assumed that Kurosawa was in fact younger than him.  “What year are you?  I am second.”  Chris then noticed another strange thing.  Kurosawa was drinking what looked to be alcohol, yet Kurosawa seemed to be younger than Chris.  As such, Chris was curious and nodded to the cup. “What are age laws here?”  Chris asked in a somewhat playful, but also concerned manner.  In Sweden, the age laws on alcohol were pretty tight and were separated based on concentration of alcohol.  The alcohols were also taxed more the more concentration of alcohol in the drink.  Chris was genuinely curious as to what the laws were in such a foreign land, and he hoped that Kurosawa wouldn’t take his intrusion in the wrong way.

The air around the two seemed to grow heavy.  Chris could tell that Kurosawa wanted to drop the alcohol topic, and Chris was willing to relent.  Chris wasn’t going to preach to another about how to live their life.  If Kurosawa wanted to consume alcohol, who was Chris to stop him?  Chris gave it one more thought before his musings were interrupted by a series of questions.  They weren’t questions Chris particularly enjoyed the answers to, but he was willing to offer the truth if it helped to rid the awkwardness that seemed to be growing.

Chris wondered where he should start.  He had gone through so many things in the past year, but there were things that he wanted to share and things that he wasn’t really ready to share with this stranger he had just met at the bar.  Chris decided to give an abbreviated version.  “Is gud,” Chris replied.  It was a lie of course.  Chris had been having a terrible time.  He always seemed like an outsider wherever he went.  Even his own father didn’t want to connect with him, but he couldn’t really blame Azores for that.

“I live in dorms.  They are nice.  I came to stay in my father, but din’t work gud… So yam alone now. And jou?  Where jou live?”

Chris was struggling with his words now and seemed to be very perplexed.  He wanted to say more, but he didn’t quite know the way to word it.  At this moment Chris wished he was back in Sweden or at least that Kurosawa spoke Swedish.  He would easily be able to say the irksome things that he wanted in his native tongue, bit not being in his native land, Chris dropped the topics he wanted to talk about.  Instead he asked a rather innocent question, but one he was deeply curious about.  “What is fun in here, Azores?”

Chris smiled from under his mask.  He hadn’t expected to meet such a kind stranger in this place, but so far Kurosawa had definitely proved him wrong.  Chris failed to pick up on the nuances in Kurosawa’s final statement; instead, Chris took the sentence literally.  Chris’s father had told Chris about all of the islands and what he could do there, but it was somewhat refreshing to hear the list again from someone closer to his age.  Chris was interested in the football stadium in Standasen, but he didn’t really know the layouts of any of the islands yet.  Chris also wasn’t sure how popular football even was in Azores.  In Sweden, there was a professional league, but it wasn’t incredibly popular.  Chris wondered if being closer to the United States had any bearing on the popularity of the sport in Azores.  Chris opened his mouth to ask about it, but before he could start speaking he was cut off by a loud speaker.

“The costume contest will now be beginning.  If you are here to enter, move to the dance floor at this time.”

Chris looked at Kurosawa and nodded to the dance floor.  Chris had anticipated that this moment would come, and he had been waiting for it the entire night.  Chris wasn’t sure that his costume would win, but he figured it would be fun nonetheless.  Chris hopped off his stool and downed his last glass of water.  Chris laid the glass back on the counter and stared intently at the costumes filling the dance floor.  Perhaps he had a chance after all.  It seemed that his greatest competition would be the person he was sitting next to.  

“Are jou completing in the test?”  Chris asked his new friend in a hopeful tone.  Chris wanted the competition.

As the contestants filled the dance floor, the speakers surrounding the arena began to vibrate.  The sound waves shook the entire club and some of the patrons made visibly pained faces.  Nothing exuded from the speaker except white noise…  And then it played.  It was a song performed by one of the hottest – in more ways than one – idols on the charts, but the song was unfamiliar to the crowd.  The song was surprisingly upbeat and catchy (perhaps too much so for a Halloween party) and after it had finished, most of the dance floor continued humming its tune.  After the excitement died down, a voice was projected from the speakers.

“Hello contestants, you just heard the new single ‘Love Me ★ Love Me’ by number one superstar and our guest judge for the costume contest, HANA!”

The crowd erupted and under this eruption a slow grumble formed.  As the grumble sped up and intensified, it was morphed into a loud and repeated chant of HANA’s name.  The dance floor was immediately covered by the exhaust of many smoke machines.  Green strobe lights reflected off of the smoke giving the air a green tint.  Music began to blare from the speakers once more, and HANA jumped out into a break in the smoke.  She was a young girl who looked to be around sixteen.  Her body was slender in most places and curved in all the right places.  She had a cute face, though it was difficult to make out in the smoke, and bright amber eyes.  Her hair was short and an irregular shade of green.  Her outfit consisted of a teal sleeveless tuxedo coat with long coattails and a pink tie.  Her lower body was covered with pink shorts that hardly covered what needed to be covered and long teal stockings that matched her shirt.  Her outfit was completed with a teal magician’s hat and various pink accessories.  In one word, she looked magical.

When she entered the dance floor, she immediately went to work examining the costumes of the competitors.  Those that got too excited were asked to leave the club.  As she judged, HANA wore a beaming and bright smile on her face.  She made her way through the crowd handing out red and blue tickets.  Those that received red tickets were asked to leave the floor, while those that received the blue tickets were encouraged to stay.  Many people received red tickets and subsequently the dance floor became much less crowded.  Very few people received blue tickets and were permitted to remain on the dance floor.  Eventually HANA got around to the part of the dance floor where Kurosawa and Chris were loitering.  Upon looking over Chris’s costume, she stopped and stopped for a moment. “Interesting idea, but it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi~” HANA, fingering the costume a bit more, pulled down the beak of Chris’s mask.  She was immediately impressed by the detail on the inside. “Actually, this is just what I am looking for~ Congratulations!~”  HANA handed Chris a Blue ticket.

Chris had been ignorant throughout the entire display.  He did not know who HANA was and he did not really listen to the genre of music that she made, but he felt himself being filled with vigor as he listened to ‘Love Me ★ Love Me’.  Chris decided that he would look into her previous work after the contest.  As the celebrating continued, Chris was drawn more and more into the crowd and when HANA appeared Chris was amazed by how beautiful she was.  As Chris watched her hand out tickets, he couldn’t get past her cute face long enough to realize that the contest was taking place as he watched.

When HANA walked up to Chris and began examining his costume, Chris became unbearably nervous.  His heart began to beat at twice the tempo of the music that was being played.  Chris wanted to say something to HANA, but all attempts were blocked by his traitorous tongue.  He didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of her by revealing his maladroit English skills.  When she told him that his costume lacked something, Chris was crestfallen.  He had worked so hard with his mother on that costume and to let that go to waste was unacceptable.  Chris felt relieved when she gave his mask one more look over.  When she opened his mouth, he was slightly stunned.  Seeing the dazzled look in HANA’s eyes, Chris became more comfortable.  When she handed him a blue ticket, Chris was able to give an emphatic “Thank jou!”  Chris wanted to say more, but he didn’t know how to articulately express what he was feeling in English. HANA then moved on to Kurosawa and Chris’s chance was lost.  

HANA spent a considerably less amount of time looking over Kurosawa’s outfit as she had spent on Chris’s outfit.  Rather, she seemed rather smitten with Kurasawa’s fashion sense.  She beamed at Kurosawa and her bright eyes grew brighter.  HANA shoved a blue ticket in Kurosawa’s left hand and attempted to hold his hand with both of her hands in a position that showed admiration. “I absolutely love your costume!  I would kill for something like that to be made for me!~”

HANA:

The idol gave a smile at the elaborately dressed man and shook her head slightly.  “I would if I could, but this is more than just a costume contest.  I can’t tell you too much to spoil the surprise, but there are going to be other events to judge.  And the grand prize is something special.”  On that note, HANA gave a wink towards both Kurosawa and Chris before turning away from the two.  She took a few steps forward, but turned around and got close to Kurosawa. She drew her face to his shoulder. Her lips were almost touching his ear.  From her lips escaped a secret.  Two simple words.  “Bottom Left.”  Once again the idol bounded away and continued her judging.

Chris turned to Kurosawa and wore a look of surprise from the previous event.  “What was this?” Chris asked. He was curious as to what the dreamy idol had just told Kurosawa, but he also didn’t quite understand what her previous words had meant.  So it wasn’t just a costume contest.  But, what would the other parts of the competition be.  Chris was curious as to what Kurosawa thought of the matter.  Chris doubted his potential to win.  He had barely escaped the first part of the competition without being knocked out.  Who knows what the next part could hold.  Eventually, Chris’s worry shifted to excitement as he pondered on the possible things that the next round would hold.  Chris decided to consult Kurosawa on his thoughts.

“That was interested.  Just as I thought, jou were an easy pick, but no me.  I barely made it out of it.  I wonder what HANA meant by more rounds…  Perhaps bobbing for äpplen I heard that is popular here, no?” The thought of a bobbing for apples contest seemed absurd to Chris, and he immediately regretted suggesting it.  The next event would obviously be something much more exciting, but what, Chris could not even begin to guess.  Instead, Chris’s mind slipped to the return of HANA and her whispering in Kurosawa’s ear.  Chris was more than a little jealous, but not outwardly so.  He was amazed by how quickly Kurosawa seemed to be able to connect with the idol.  She was famous and cute, and still there was no hesitation in Kurosawa.  Chris seemed to have stumbled across a very interesting person.  Even still, Chris was curious as to what those whispers held.  “What did she whisper to jou, curiously?  And jou handled jourself well in front of an idol.  Do jou have expertinence with that sort of thing?”