Travis waved over at Peter. To his surprise, his friend was able to skirt around the shadows of a few classmates by sliding along the floor instead of the wall. Peter's figure always kept a vaguely human shape, but it was remarkably fluid as he closed the distance. Finally, he two stood by the headless horseman's shadow, looking the figure over.
It was tricky not being able to gesture out to the room itself, but Travis eventually got Peter to watch as he nudged the horseman's shadow's arm again. Peter seem to pick up on the idea pretty quickly.
So... now they just had to get someone's attention, right? The horseman unfortunately had his backed turned to the two of them... Hmpf.
Travis reached down, pulling on the back of the headless horseman's jacket. He didn't want to horseman to stumble again, he just needed him to turn around...!
As Travis pulled on the shadow however, it simply... stretched instead. The headless horseman's costume was mostly the fact that he was holding a pumpkin in his arm and had hidden his head whenever Victor did... whatever he did. He was wearing a simple tan jacket, but as Travis stretched out its shadow, the garment began to shift in real life. It gained another foot or two of material, effortlessly shifting into a proper Victorian horse riding tailcoat.
Huh. It seemed like people reflected their shadow just as much as their shadow reflected them.
Alright, time for a less direct approach. Travis tried to give the horseman a proper shove. He put all of his weight into the headless horseman's shadow and pushed with all his might.
To his surprise, Travis was suddenly met with zero resistance.
Peter watched in confusion as the entirety of Travis' shadow slipped effortlessly into the headless horseman's cast off figure. Peter mimed pulling out his hair in distress as he wordlessly watched for any sign of his friend.
In the middle of the room, the headless horseman suddenly spun around. Travis could move again! Really move! He was in the center of the common room, but... His vision was all wrong. He was staring out at the room from waist height...?
The headless horseman held up his pumpkin head curiously. Travis suddenly found his vision lifting up into the air. The horseman spun the pumpkin around, and sure enough, Travis could see the victorian tailcoat up close now. What the- That body was miming his movements! He was the headless horseman!
Travis set the pumpkin down on his shoulders. There we go, now that was the proper perspective. He turned towards the wall, giving Peter's shadow a thumbs up.
Time to finally get some help. Travis turned towards the zombie beside him. The undead college student hadn't been paying particular attention to the horseman's flailing around, but now that Travis had a body he could finally explain what was going on.
He opened his mouth to speak, and then realized it was already open. Travis reached up, feeling the front of the pumpkin head. It's mouth was stuck in a permanent Jack-o-Latern grin.
Great. Just great. He had chosen the only other guy in the party who couldn't speak.
He'd have to try again with someone else. Which... raised the question. How did he even get out of-
Travis slid effortlessly out of the headless horseman's shadow. The partygoer seemed completely nonplused, and had resumed trying to figure out how to get his pumpkin head to drink beer.
If he could still smile, Travis would be beaming. He gestured over to Peter with the best, "Did you see that!?" energy he could muster.
Peter bounded up and down excitedly as he watched Travis' antics. He started to mischievously rub his hands together, clearly plotting something. Naturally Travis couldn't ask what it was, but he could already see Peter's figure slide through the crowd.