📚typical DARE commercial (spooksoween spooktacular)

A casual royal visit by Athena takes a turn for the worse.

For Dainty Halloween Battle 2023; Halloween petting zoo (and also a monster encounter, kind of)

Characters: Athena, Daichi

Warnings: Sudden unreality

Wordcount: 1,550

Vibe: DAICHI THIS ISNT WEED

im less happy with this one but i kind of needed to speedrun it 😛 i still want to get the full 6 done, but idk if i’ll be able to do so before halloween itself. anyways thats why the render titlecard is lazy this time

some addtl context; poyote is a fantasy creature within the setting, name is a mix of coyote and peyote. you do the rest of the math as to how it works

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A small crowd had formed around where the carriage was set to arrive, and began to hum with activity when the anticipated carriage finally pulled in.

Nothing much happened around here, after all.

After being firmly parked for a moment, the carriage doors swung open, and Athena exited with her queenly grace. The onlookers – mostly children – seemed to be taken aback in awe by her refined composure.

It wasn’t a super high-profile visit, but Athena figured she should give her best example anyways.

“Can y’all give me some room here?” a familiar voice said through the crowd, prompting others to step aside to make room.

“Welcome, ‘The… oh man, do I sure look underdressed?”

It was Daichi, the ambassador of the area and the one who had invited Athena to visit – the two were already good friends, but found it hard to visit much with their busy schedules.

“Oh no, no, you’re fine! If anything, I’m overdressed, considering this is, what? A glorified petting zoo?” Athena said with a laugh.

“It’s not! Well… it kind of is. It’s more like… a farm fashion show?” Daichi replied.

“It’s a bit of a loaded explanation, I’m sure you’d find it neat, though! Though I was sort of hoping Coco would be with you, since she’s more into that kind of thing… is she sick today?”

“No, but Atmariani does have a bit of a cold, and Coco didn’t want to leave her unattended.” Athena said, shaking her head.

“Ah, I see. A shame, but I hope you’ll enjoy things enough to tell her about it once you get home!” Daichi replied with a smile.

“Here, I’ll lead the way!”

Daichi gestured for Athena to follow her, and the crowd of admiring locals trailed along.

It wasn’t… quite the environment Athena was used to.

While her home kingdom was a glittering, bleached-white desert, this was a dusty prairie that was much more teeming with life… and dirt. While Athena was already trying to put on her best example for the locals admiring her, the grossout factor of the way the tall farm grass felt brushing against her legs was already a bit much for her.

Daichi led Athena into a large hangar that had been repurposed into an event hall – and at this point, the unfamiliar and unpleasant sensations reached its peak. There wasn’t quite a way for Athena to describe it, but it sure did smell like… a farm.

“So! Here’s the ‘grand hall’, haha! There’s all kinds of critters in all kinds of outfits, so I figure I’ll start the tour from the top!” Daichi said, not quite catching on to Athena’s strained expression.

“Sounds… good…!” Athena replied, doing her best attempt to breathe in as little as possible so she didn’t have to taste the smell in the air, too.

In the first stall, there was a large, silky-haired creature with long horizontal horns. It seemed preoccupied chewing cud, but gave a glance as Athena and Daichi approached, swishing its tail.

It was wearing a neon-colored tulle skirt, as well as socks on its front legs of the same color – and was covered in glitter. Athena thought it was kind of tacky, but… kind of cute?

“You should really see this girl’s rancher’s outfit – they match so much it’s kind of creepy, ha!” Daichi said with a nod.

“You know, I have a feeling that if Coco wasn’t so busy, she’d be able to blow this entire competition out of the water.” Athena replied smugly.

“Well, hey now, it’s not exactly a competition! It’s just something that the ranchers around here do for fun and to show off their livestock!” Daichi huffed.

“Though, I guess the whole concept of ‘fashion show’ in your culture is so much different, so it makes sense why you’d think that.”

“I see…” Athena nodded.

“I’m… a bit familiar with the types of livestock from this area, but do you have anything really exotic?”

“Oh, sure! Don in stall 24-D has always been kind of… out there with the types of critters he likes to keep! It’s a ways from here though, but we can just skim through!” Daichi said in response, and she started to lead the way once more.

Athena followed in suit, quickly glancing at the assortment of creatures and their costumes. Some odd, some tacky, some creepy… none were genuinely impressive, though.

That was, until…

“Oh my goodness! Daichi, stop, look at this!” Athena said with a squee.

It was less the costume, and more the creature itself – it was a quadrupedal canine-like creature, but its large eyes and head compared to how small the rest of it was made it evident it must’ve been a puppy – and it was adorable.

Its costume was rather unique too, with two extra heads made of paper mache affixed to its collar.

“Oh, hey! Look at that little rascal! I think its costume is based off of some Outside World myth.” Daichi nodded.

“I bet it’s here for some help socializing, I’m not sure if you have poyotes in the desert, but-”

Daichi was sharply cut off, and her calm demeanor was replaced with a panic as she saw Athena crouch down to pet the puppy.

“But, uh… I’d maybe hold off on petting it, because poyote…”

But Daichi was too late.

The poyote puppy licked Athena a few times as she giggled, but after a few more licks…

“OW!!” Athena yelped, recoiling her hand back after the puppy sunk in a bite.

“…Oh geez.” was all Daichi could muster.

“Sorry, Daichi do you have bandages?” Athena asked as she turned back to Daichi, flapping her hand a bit to deal with the sting of the bite.

“…And was were you saying about these little guys?”

Daichi looked incredibly concerned, but as she opened her mouth to speak… a viscous black fluid started pouring out, along with her entire expression and body freezing in place.

Athena screamed and jumped back, and tried to reach out to Daichi… but before Athena’s eyes, Daichi just seemed to… melt into that same black goo, along with the bystanders and nearby livestock.

“What… in the name of…” was all Athena managed to mumble under her breath, before the goo in front of her started to vibrate and coagulate into… something.

Athena continued to backtrack, looking on in horror as the goo turned into some kind of red-eyed beast – the goo on its exterior hardening into shiny, sharp points. The beast was massive, but just small enough that it wasn’t taller than the hangar. Regardless, it felt so… familiar to Athena.

The creature let out a deafening roar, and Athena figured that if she had any cue to start running, now was the time.

It was an adrenaline rush similar to Athena’s experience with a different large beast in the ruins, but this time, she was alone.

As she ran, the landscape around her changed nonsensically – the hangar walls crumbled into nothing, leaving Athena in a strange, twisted looking landscape, with nothing but lifeless dust beneath her feet.

Suddenly, a familiar voice.

“Quick, follow me! I know a place where we can be safe, I promise!”

It was her royal assistant, Frank. Why was he here?

But before Athena could question it further, the very ground beneath her began crumbling away, with nothing but a void below.

Frank flew across a gap that had cut off Athena’s path, as the large beast was closing in behind.

“Quick, jump! It’s only a little bit farther now…” Frank shouted.

But the gap looked far too big for Athena to jump, and an intense dizzy feeling was starting to close in as well.

“Athena! Athena?” Frank continued to call, but as he kept calling out, his voice started morphing into that of…

“Athena? You’re making a lot of noise, are you-”

Athena’s eyes burst open as she jolted up – but because Daichi was leaning overhead, she quickly bonked her head against hers, and the two both recoiled back. Thankfully, Athena’s horn just caught some of Daichi’s hair.

“OW! FUCK!” Daichi yelped, holding her head for a moment from the pain, as Athena did the same.

It took a few seconds for the intense pain to subside, before both were able to look at each other again. And while Athena still felt incredibly dizzy, she was able to make out her surroundings – she was laying on a bed in what appeared to be a camping trailer. Her hand was thoroughly bandaged, and still stung a bit.

“What… what happened?” was all Athena could muster – she’d be more shocked in her expression, but moving too much made her nauseous.

“Bad trip, I’m guessing?” Daichi asked rhetorically with a sigh.

“I had tried to tell you but… one of the most notable things about poyote is the psychoactive chemicals in their saliva. It’s not deadly, but when one bites you, it often spells for a bad time. Makes them a pain if not trained properly…”

“So that was… just a dream?”

“I’d assume so, whatever it was. You’re safe now, Athena.”

“Mmm…” Athena hummed as she thought.

“Maybe so, but…”

“But?” Daichi asked, cocking her head a little.

“I think once I get home, there’s some things I need to ask my royal advisor about.”