Shipping E3 - Meet Ugly
Fall Bingo D4 - Tomb
Setting D1 - Labyrinth/Maze
Stacked With: Ship Bingo; Fall Bingo; Setting Bingo; Shipping War; Rum; Mea; Individual Challenges; BAON; Star; Fence; Shower; ER; LiCK; FR; RoIL; TY; NC; ToS; FPR; StL; SIN; LL; MLG; O3; SN; T3
Individual Challenges: Short Jog (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Greatest Gift; Bard MC x3; Neurodivergent (Y); Rowl in her Grave; Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Lovely Triangle (Y); Setting Sail (Y); Ship Sails (Y); Zed Era (Y); New Fandom Smell; Marvelous Cinema; Best Stories (Y); White Stripe; Purple Stripe; Adult Activities (Y)
Representations:
Primary & Secondary BCs: Call me Dantes; Sitting Hummingbird; Bad Beans; Morrigan's Tentacles; Second Verse (Grease Monkey; Found Family; Nontraditional' Sneeze Weasel; Zucchini Bread; Middle Name; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Three's Company; Car in a Tutu; For the Vine; Casper's House); Chorus (Endless Wonder; Unicorn; Bee Haven; Fizzy Lemonade; Machismo; Peddling Pots)
Tertiary & Generic BCs: Mea (Rampant); RoIL (Satisfaction; Workstation); TY (Ntaiv); FR (Satisfaction; Evolution); O3 (Oust); SN (Rail; Intercept); T3 (Terrarium); LiCK (Poppy; Yarrow)
Team: Frost Iron; Chaotic Vines; Agent's Variant; Prodigal Love
Ship: Loki/Tony/Sylvie/Mobius
Warning(s): Mild Manipulation & Name Calling; Mild Head Injury
For: Aya and Magi
~o0o~
Tony had seen real terror. He'd felt the cold grip of fear on his heart. He was no stranger to the horrors humanity had to offer, so why the hell couldn't he get through a single haunted house without having nightmares for weeks after the fact? And for that matter, why did he keep letting his friends convince him to go to these things? Probably because he was in his forties and couldn't keep spending every Halloween watching kids' Halloween movies. Scariest he could stand was Coraline, but even then he knew he wouldn't have passed up an Other Family and it took him checking his entire house for hidden doors before falling asleep that night.
Every year since he had befriended Rhodey, his friends crowned him the Hallow-Weenie. He would have chosen that name himself if he wasn't the winner every year. He kept telling them that he was forfeit, but he ragged on them the other 364 days a year so this was probably a way to get back at him.
This year, they went to a new haunted house. This one claimed unique frights to terrify all walks of life. Tony had gone in promising to stick with Rhodey the entire time and some zombie separated them.
Because of course it did. So far, nothing jumped at him and he wondered if he had somehow ended up in the space employees used to get around the house. He had to remind himself that they were just people in costumes. He paid to be scared. He didn't willingly pay to be scared, but he still paid. They were actors. That was all. Nothing to be scared about.
He pushed open a door to see a blue zombie-demon rise up over him, hissing to show off long fangs.
"YOU DARE TRESPASS THROUGH MY DOMAIN?!" they roared.
Tony did something he would never admit to doing. He screamed and jumped sky-high. Pain shot through his skull, stars danced across his vision, and he was out.
When he woke up, the blue demon was still there looking an impressive mix of concerned and amused.
"That's quite a bump you got," they said in an elegant British accent. "Though, I must say even the best performance of my life never got a reaction like that."
"Right, I aim to please." Tony sat up and felt a wave of nausea.
"You shouldn't get up too fast," said the zombie-demon. "You likely have a concussion."
"You're quite eloquent for a zombie-demon."
"Actually, I'm meant to be a Frost Giant," they said, seeming slightly miffed at his attire being misunderstood.
"Yeah, that was my second guess. How long was I out for?"
"Not terribly long, but you should put ice on that."
"Great, do I pull one of your horns and you spit it out like a fridge?"
That didn't get a laugh, instead the "Frost Giant" held up a bag of ice.
"You'd be surprised how many injuries happen in a haunted house," they said. "Mostly to my performers."
Tony took the bag and held it on the goose egg that had appeared on his skull. If he stood up right now he'd pass out, but every second spent here meant another second not getting the crap scared out of him. All in all a win-win situation.
"If you are frightened so easily, why did you come to this place?"
"My friends drag me along every year," he said. "The person who gets scared the most is crowned the Hallow-Weenie and that is always me. Tony Stark, nice to meet you."
"Loki." They got a mischievous smile on their face. "How would you like to see your friends get terrified quite entirely?"
"I'd pay good money to see that happen."
Loki slowly helped him up and brought him to the next room, which was full of televisions broadcasting security cameras. Two people were manning the cameras: A blonde woman with features like a pixie, and a man with grey hair and a wonky nose. Both had headsets. Loki rested their hands on the pair's shoulders and stooped down in their stilts to see the cameras.
"Where are these friends?" they asked.
"Right there," said Tony, easily pointing them out. "Well, they all seem to be having a fun time without me."
"Sylvie, Mobius, we're going to focus on this group," said Loki. "Mr. Stark has promised to pay us."
"Oh, yeah?" said Mobius. "And what are we charging him?"
"I was thinking coffee to start."
"Why not skip ahead to dinner?" Tony suggested.
"And if all goes well, we can have a different, equally fun sort of screaming," said Sylvie, running a finger down a clipboard. She tapped a red button on the board. "Attention all zombies and ax-murderers, we have a new focus. Group of six: Appears to be five men, one woman, currently on the path towards Loki's Chambers. Show them what it really means to be afraid."
"Have a seat," said Loki, pulling up a chair for Tony. "Get comfortable. I'll see you all later."
"Hey, stop eating my snacks when you're in makeup!" Mobius called, throwing a blue-stained piece of popcorn after him. "And they're gone."
"You love them," said Sylvie, pressing buttons on the board in front of her.
Tony realized that this console controlled the entire haunted house, changing the lighting and sound effects.
"You know," he said. "I bet I could really juice this up for you. Open and close doors, break people up, create a bigger and better labyrinth. Turn this into the best haunted house in the world. Year-round."
"Well, if we could do this full-time, that would be a bonus," said Sylvie.
"You know, I was thinking a Santa theme for Christmas time," said Mobius.
"How many times do I have to tell you that Santa isn't scary?"
"Please, he surveilles you year round, then breaks into your house and doesn't even steal anything? What kind of creep does that?"
Tony broke into a grin as he watched everyone go wide-eyed with terror as a hoard of zombies raced towards them.
"Please tell me that I can have this on DVD," he said.
"That'll cost you extra," said Sylvie. "Breakfast, too."
"I've been hit on by three people at once before but never like this," said Tony.
"Does it bother you?" she asked.
"Not at all."
Tony grinned, seeing Steve practically jump onto the rest of the group in terror. Maybe next year they'd do what he always wanted on Halloween night. Or maybe this time next year he'd be helping Loki, Sylvie, and Moby pull aside the people who clearly didn't want to be there and scaring the hell out of the rest.