[OPEN] The monster mash

[theearth]

Who: Badri and YOU.
What: Impromptu halloween masquerade
When: Halloween night, 10pm onwards
Where: A wedding chapel in Vegas. Y-yeah.
Warnings: None - shoot me a PM if anything needs adding!


[ Any of the Numbered who have set foot outside today are likely to have seen some of the rather unique posters plastered around on every available building/lamppost/fence/beloved family pet. Observe the glitter-saturated horror. ]



[ Y E A H. Regardless of which echo boundary they're in, the notices are everywhere. Some lucky Numbered may even have had one shoved into their mailbox! GOSH. There's also an address for a weddng chapel in Vegas (confusing many Fussen locals in particular) and a note that masks are mandatory and will be provided to people who don't already have one. How considerate!

C'mon, Numbered Specials. Party with Badri and forget all the horrid stressful things that are happening. ]

Comments

[chalicejoker]

[Hajime lifts up the mask to get a better look at her--and so she can get a better look at him. He's definitely scarier without it on.]

That's right.

[welovetointerviewyou]

[She jumps]

Whoa! You are actually Bugman. Whoa.

[chalicejoker]

I'm usually the only bug who shows up at these parties. The Lord of the Bugmen, that's me.

[Shows up and sort of flounders around in a clear sign of "what is party what do with party help social situation help," but hey, he's there in some attempt at PR...]

[welovetointerviewyou]

Uh-huh. And are there other Bugmen?

[chalicejoker]

Enough of us.

[One is enough. One is plenty. But the more bull Hajime puts out there in the media, maybe the more distance he'd get between the Lord of the Bugmen and the guy who managed his family's restaurant. He is so full of crap. So very full of it.]

[welovetointerviewyou]

And how many is "enough of us"?

[chalicejoker]

[Hajime actually takes a moment to start acting like he's counting things off on his fingers before answering.]

About a hundred, give or take a couple.

[Give or take about ninety-nine, really...]

[welovetointerviewyou]

[A Look]

Uh-huh. Got a source for that number?

[chalicejoker]

[Is she seeing through his crap? Crap, she might be seeing through his crap. Hajime is glad that bugs don't sweat.]

It's been a while since the last Bugperson census. I haven't had time to hold one. Been busy walking among the humans and all that. But there's--

[And here, he'll say a word in his horrible bugmonster language that probably sounds like some horrible curse.]

--and--

[He says another word in the horrible bugmonster language, and he continues on in this fashion, ticking them off on his fingers. The overall effect is sort of like he's just listing off names and trying to take a headcount from memory.]

[welovetointerviewyou]

Uh-huh.

[She's honestly not sure if she believes him but she's been at this game for a few years now and she has a feeling he's bullshitting her]

I'd love to get some interviews with some of these, uh, Bugmen. Could you arrange some for me?

[chalicejoker]

[Hajime actually freezes for a moment, because he is indeed full of it. It's probably more of a sign of guilt than he would like, but he recovers quickly.]

As the Lord of the Bugmen, I am the only one permitted to roam about on the surface. And I am the only one who can handle the human tongue.

[At some point, he's going to get stuck hauling around a tank of those hissing cockroaches and babbling at them in his monster language, isn't he?]

[welovetointerviewyou]

Damn. Only interviews with the people tend to be more popular than interviews with people in charge.

[chalicejoker]

Human language is kind of difficult to wrap your mandibles around. Harder for them to speak it.

[He shrugs, and he breathes a silent sigh of relief that this seems to be working.]

[welovetointerviewyou]

[Nah, she's just bored]

You manage it just fine.

[chalicejoker]

My mandibles open this way.

[And he'll move his hand sort of like he's making a puppet talk in an approximation of how a human mouth moves.]

Their mandibles open like this.

[And he'll start moving his hands in a sort of scissor motion, kind of like he's mimicking ant mouth parts.]

[welovetointerviewyou]

Interesting.

[Sorta]

Any reason for that mutation?

[chalicejoker]

[Oh. Right. Reasons. Reasons other than making it really convenient for him to be the only talking bugman out there. Awkward.]

I'm the Lord of the Bugmen. It's my job to go out and...do lord things, and it's their job to be workers and warriors.

[Yes. This sounds good. He hopes this sounds good.]

Different mandibles, different functions.

[welovetointerviewyou]

...so did you basically just get lucky?

[chalicejoker]

[Yes, lucky, to go through a Kafka-esque transformation into a giant murderbug in the first place...]

Luckier than all the other bugmen.

[welovetointerviewyou]

You're not Numbered, then?

[chalicejoker]

I'm a numbered bugman. I wouldn't be as strong or as fast as I am otherwise. Or as smart.

[Which is pretty much the truth, save for the smart thing. He would like to think he was smart before all this happened.]

Or be able to fire energy blasts.