#when a dude with a (fake) chainsaw managed to spook me and i sprinted out of there so damn fast

[empressapprentice]

arcana headcanons: halloween with the main 6

Happy spooky season! Halloween is the best holiday, change my mind. You could consider this a slight modern AU because of pop culture references but it could theoretically exist in the canon universe! Very mild references to blood/gore in the context of special effects/Halloween (no one is actually hurt but I don’t want to upset anyone!) :)

Asra:

He will make your costumes from scratch and incorporate Faust

Since Masquerade costumes are usually animal-themed, he’ll use Halloween as an opportunity to try something different

He thinks it’s funny to dress up as witches with pointy hats, black robes and broomsticks

Otherwise, his costume ideas are clever, coordinated but not matching, and very colorful

The two of you use magic to enhance the effects of your costumes--one year you dressed as flowers (Faust was a butterfly) and enchanted the costumes to smell like a garden

The costumes look homemade, but in a good way. The attention to detail and care that goes into the costumes is apparent and not something that is easily purchased

Julian:

The most invested in the Halloween Aesthetic, especially the campiness of the holiday. He appreciates gore done well but is rarely impressed (“Ugh that is not what exposed intestines look like”)

Will decorate your shop and his clinic while you’re asleep to surprise you but keeps things cutesy to not scare children

The two of you dress as iconic horror/Halloween movie duos--think Gomez and Morticia Addams, Jack Skellington and Sally, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein

He will dress as either character, so if you’re uncomfortable with presenting as a woman he will gladly do so and do it flawlessly

The two of you won’t make the costumes yourselves, but you won’t just buy a pre-made one either. You’ll go shopping for separate components and make small modifications to make everything as accurate as possible

Obligatory “Julian plays Frank in a Rocky Horror shadowcast”

Nadia:

You know that when you and Nadia dress up together, you’ll have the most impeccable and stunning costumes in the room

She favors simple concepts but always chooses elegant themes for the two of you. She makes appearances at many different Halloween celebrations, so you have several costumes over the course of the holiday

Often bases costume ideas on her Prakran culture, drawing on the folklore she grew up with

As Countess, she doesn’t have time to create costumes but sends a tailor her ideas and as usual, spares no expense

The mechanical things she builds take on a spooky theme for the entire month of October. She makes little wind-up spiders, ghosts with light-up eyes and other creepy-cute decorations. She leaves them in strategic locations around the Palace and will signal you to activate them with magic, scaring the Courtiers (the spider caused Valerius to spill his wine) and livening up boring meetings

You once took her to a haunted house and she was Not Impressed…until the very end when someone popped out of nowhere and chased her with a chainsaw. For one glorious moment, you saw Nadia lose her composure

(side characters under the cut!)

Portia:

Just like her brother, LOVES Halloween. While Julian tends to prefer the campy, costumey aspects of the holiday, she loves the horror and gore

The two of you dress as zombies and other gross, creepy things, but it’s cute because she’ll introduce you as her zombie husband/wife/partner and make up a little backstory about how death and dismemberment couldn’t keep you two apart

You catch her asking Valdemar questions about anatomy for a costume. Valdemar is delighted, you are terrified

She is weirdly good at special-effects makeup, but you help make things a bit more realistic with magic. She is ecstatic when you perfect a blood-spurting effect and scare Julian with it

Expect to cuddle up with her most nights in October and watch horror movies/plays or read scary stories to each other. She’ll make you cocoa and burrow under a ton of blankets with you, comforting you during the jump scares. Even if you’re not scared, you’ll take the opportunity to get close

Muriel:

Although he hates crowds and dislikes (most) social interaction, he can appreciate the disguise element of the holiday

Since he lives off the land in the woods, his costumes are simple. This is despite you and Asra trying to coax him into something more intricate and special

You understand that because of his height and general size, it’s hard for him to blend in. So you are ultimately happy to let him choose something simple that doesn’t draw much attention

I have a very strong image in my mind of him as a sheet ghost. You join him, but insist on at least enchanting the sheet to flow spookily and sneak in a smoke effect to follow him around

The two of you never get any children trick-or-treating at the hut in the woods, so you set up in the shop on Halloween

You can’t help but smile as you watch how tenderly Muriel treats children: complimenting their costumes, pretending to be scared when they yell “BOO!” at him and sneaking extra pieces of candy into their hands. Next year, you need to buy double the supply of candy because your teddy bear of a partner is so generous

Lucio:

As we know, Lucio has questionable taste. I think he would dress in sorority girl costumes AKA something kind of basic and prefixed by “sexy”

He has 100% dressed as a sexy cat before. The costume was luxurious, with real fur and enough gems to make him sparkle with every movement. That doesn’t change the fact that he was a sexy cat.

He insists you don’t have to coordinate costumes with him but he loves it when you do (you can embrace it and be slutty too or let him be the exhibitionist)

Instead of doing themed couple’s costumes, you will basically wear the same thing in different color schemes--his in red and white, yours in your favorite colors

He hosts fabulous Halloween parties each year. His aesthetic actually suits Halloween quite well even if it’s slightly unconventional (rich reds, weird animal imagery, sharp gold claws, etc.)

Asra and Nadia show up to the party dressed as white goat ghosts and Lucio goes absolutely berserk. Unfortunately, that leaves you to do damage control, but he’ll be fine after a few glasses of the blood-red wine