"This is so not going to wo-oooork!" Travis yelped as Peter ran a cold wet paint roller up his back.
"Hold still!" Peter chided. "This is the fastest way of getting it on."
"No, I just mean- Who goes to a costume party as a shadow?" He looked down at himself nervously.
"Two desperate pledges?" Peter laughed, re-applying paint to his roller. "Arms up please."
Travis struck a t-pose. At least he could see the paint go on now that Peter had gotten to his arms. This paint really was absurdly black. He remembered being weirded out by it the first time they used it on some float over the summer. Rather than light bouncing off in some glossy sheen, it just seemed to get lost entirely. As long as you took the time to fill in every last crack and fold in the surface you were painting, it truly did end up looking pitch black.
"I can't believe you talked me into th-issssss!" He yelped again as Peter dabbed the roller on his neck.
"We're just lucky we both have dark hair." He grinned, "Now go dunk your boxers in the paint bucket."
Travis stared wide eyed, "Are you serious?"
A few more embarrassing minutes later however, and he was finished. Brushing around his face was tricky, but Peter thankfully had a steady hand.
"Go stand by the wall, I'll take your picture." Peter waved his smartphone around, "Then you can do me."
"My picture?" Travis stared, "Uh- This isn't going to be one of those things that makes me unemployable in the future, is it?"
Peter laughed, "You look good! I just want to show you." He wiggled his phone in the air, "I can delete it afterwards."
Travis stood by the wall, gently pressing his back into it. Peter took a few pictures, then stared down at his device.
"Wow... I think this is going to work." He held his phone up. There was the black outline of a figure on the wall, but it was hard to make out any specific details. The only thing that wave it away was a pair of floating eyes, and then the appearance of an anxious grin in the later pictures.
"Alright, your turn then," said the shadow, stepping out from the wall and picking up the paint roller.