#The Crabrifice

[atrocious-fell-child]

The video opens with Scratch just waiting in front of their altar, slouched and bored inside a mausoleum strewn with bones. They’ve been waiting for a while--in fact, by the way that the candles around the altar had burned down, it seemed like they’d been waiting there all night. 

The soft blue-gold light that announces the skeletons' arrival is.. well.. a few hours later than that to put it mildly. But Shorty does actually arrive eventually, and yes, he's bought one (1) chocolate cake with him.

When Shorty arrives, the child immediately jumps up, their face spreading into a huge smile. Their face is all made up like a spooky pagan priest of Crabs, and they're wearing their furry robes from when they went as the Horned King for Halloween. “Shorty!! You're late!!”

Shorty’s pinpricks shrink to thin slits of white light as he gets closer. He breathes in once, holding the breath for a moment, before releasing it as slowly as he can. Then another one before he actually finds his voice to respond. Voice a soft monotone. He's not comfortable and it's already starting to show. “Hey..yeah,.. I.. uhh.. had a couple things I had ter do..that 'nd y'know.. you demanded cake so.. had ter wait for that to finish.

“So.. h-heh.. umm.. 've never act'ly done anythin' like this before... exactly what's gonna happen here?”

Scratch pulls off their hood. They've got their glamour on right now, so their full face is visible and there's no horns. Though the glamour doesn’t disguise their sharp teeth. “....Oh! Oh yeah, the cake! I got some ketchup too.”

They'll come over for it, pulling the ketchup bottle from their inventory. Regular Heinz. It's still sealed. To respond to Shorty, they say, “Hehehe... well! I'm gonna sacrifice you to the crab god, silly! I---it's still a full moon right? It takes more than a couple hours for the moon to stop being full, right? I don't wanna have messed it up.

“You can drink--that--first. And then--mmm--we know which weapon won the polls.”

“Y'know.. you really don't have to listen to the polls right? Just..let's get this done and.. h-heh heh..dusted…” Shorty swallows softly, the pinpricks vanishing completely.

“Here.. eat yer cake at least..'m savin' that.. fer when this is over to help me forget.. especially if yer plannin' on -that- method.” He holds the chocolate cake out to the anomaly, hoping the light tremor will be missed

The child’ll at least stop smiling briefly to lick their lips as they take the cake--their eyes are still focused on Shorty tho. They don't respond to anything he says for a second, just taking bites out of the chocolate cake without slices like a heathen. Shorty can’t quite look away from the display.

A few bites in they finally stop eating, swallowing what they have, and they smile. “Sure, save it for later. I think I might finish this later too.”

No comment on whether or not they'll listen to the polls.

Slowly, Shorty nods. “Then.. lets get this over with before I change my mind.”

Is it too late to change it now? Yeah.. it probably is

If it's time, then Scratch will carefully wipe the crumbs off their mouth--trying to keep from smudging their makeup--and set the cake down in a corner as an after-ritual snack. They point to the altar, with its crab cloth on it. “Then go lay your head down there, sacrifice! And pray that The Most Crustaceanous of Crabs has mercy on your soul!”

“so...what? I just.. kneel there?”

He walks up to it, forcing himself to keep moving.Voice losing all depth of emotion. “Or..am I meant to lie on it? Only.. I'm not big on praying you know? Heh.. find it doesn't do an awful lot honestly…”

“---Uh,” Scratch hesitates. “K-kneel! And put your head down on it. Like I said!” 

They're going to circle around behind him, their own voice getting lower. They're trying to sound spooky! They're trying to be even spookier with the black dust that starts to slowly trickle from their clothes. No prayer? “Then you shall suffer in silence, mortal.”

A blue tongue darts out quickly, licking at the top right of Shorty’s teeth, the grin fading a little more. Glancing backwards. Slowly, reluctantly, he moves forwards, kneeling before the altar, grateful it's short enough he can just kneel as comfortably as it's going to be all things considered.

An odd full broken purr sound is emanating from the small skeleton, and at first sound it could be easy to think he's enjoying it.Until one realises that in reality, it's just his bones vibrating louder than normal due to the shaking and the proximity to the altar

As they approach, Scratch cracks their knuckles and stares down at him, hearing that weird vibrating sound and pausing for a long moment to figure out what it is.

They laugh, just a couple wheezy notes before they stop themselves.

Now a pause. Then. They pull the hood of Shorty’s hoodie away from the vertebrae of his neck. The soft blue-gold glitter of his soul is just visible if one looks downwards through the bones, but they are, luckily, not paying attention to Shorty's soul this time around. They've start humming an unfamiliar tune. You know. Part of the ritual. They're also getting into a good position to kill him according to the way the polls were set up. With teeth.

Little trails of black dust wind around the altar, not doing much except add atmosphere. Scratch’s collected monster dust, manipulated by their necromancy.

The cold air against the bones makes Shorty shiver, and he tells himself that's the only thing..it's nothing to do with those sharp claws brushing the surface of the bone, leaving flakes of dust in their wake.

He shifts automatically at the sense of the other getting closer to bone, closer to ..to -him-. He can't attack.. but his instinct does win out to force a 'check' on the demon child behind him.

And as Shorty's checking them... they lunge to take his neck into their jaws, with as hard a bite as they can manage with their boss monster teeth.

Pain flares through him at the teeth piercing into the neck, magic flowing almost instantly, trying to heal the damage. The taste in their mouth evidently disgusts them, as they make a face. It's not long before the taste of magic also becomes the taste of dust, and Scratch breaks character to spit a little bit as they back away from Shorty. His frame is vanishing and turning into dust against the altar itself.

Then they get the EXP, and everything changes. Scratch's gaze becomes distant and then almost sightless. They've pressed their hands on their face, even though it's smudging their makeup, and they take in a big sharp gasp. It comes out in a laugh. It starts a delighted child's laugh but morphs quickly, becoming louder and sharper and more hysterical. The sound echoes off the mausoleum walls.

And then the video stops there, cutting abruptly to black.

[atrocious-fell-child]

oh well, ready for the crabrifice

i guess my fires are just DECORATION now