Simon hovered over the masquerade’s makeup stand. All of the obvious skin tones had been dabbled with a bit. The eye-shadow tones were clearly missing a good bit of their stock, but most of the exotic colors were left untouched. Which made sense. After all, what could you do with a bunch of green-
Hmm.
He reached down and grabbed one of the makeup brushes. He dabbed it in the green face paint and then dragged it across the back of one of his palms. It felt... pretty high quality to be honest. Probably not latex based?
Was there anything he could make out of this though? Simon scanned the costume supplies again. Everything was leaning pretty hard into Halloween tropes. Torn werewolf pants, monster neck bolts, vampire teeth. Nothing that really jumped out at him.
Unless…
Simon picked up the vampire teeth. He flipped the fangs upside down and walked over to a nearby mirror. Chomp! Oh wow, the inverted fangs actually kind of did look like tusks. They poked out a bit from his lips. It might be a little awkward to keep these in all night, but an idea was starting to form in his head now.
He was going to be an orc!
It was going to take a little bit of effort to get this much makeup applied, but he shouldn’t keep Clark, err, Chesh waiting that long. Simon started dab his face with a bit of foundation. The trick was to accentuate the shadows and break up the uniformity of the face paint…
Thankfully his hair was pretty short. Most orcs he could think of were bald or had big exaggerated mohawks, but this shouldn’t be too jarring. Simon moved the brush quickly, completely coating his face in green paint. It… honestly looked pretty cool! No mask? No problem! He had to work to get his ears fully coated, but the neck wasn’t too much of a pain.
After coloring his face in, Simon reached down and started brushing the exposed part of his arms. He really hoped this paint wasn’t latex based. His head was covered, his arms were covered, and he was wearing long pants. Every part of him was mean and green.
Simon heard someone clearing their throat by the doorway. Mister E was standing there blankly, “I do believe I instructed you to cover your eyes?”
“Gah! Right, sorry! I uh-“ Simon scanned the room. He knew he saw something earlier… Right! He slid on a stereotypical pirate eye patch. Thankfully there weren't any hokey skull and cross bones. His depth perception failed him as his left eye was consumed in darkness, “One orc, at your service!”
“In business casual?” Mister E asked bluntly.
Business- Shoot! Simon had been so focused on painting his face he forgot to consider his outfit first! A polo shirt and khakis weren’t exactly the first thing that came to mind when one thought of mid-level Dungeons and Dragons enemies. He could try and change, but he’d totally ruin his shirt and smear his face paint trying to get out of his work clothes. Time to improvise.
“Yes? Me Klarg! Orc Accountant!” Simon propped his leg up on a chair for emphasis.
Mister E swatted his foot off, “You realize how ridiculous that sounds, right?”
“You dare mock Klarg? Klarg slay improperly filed balance sheets by day, and hearts by night! Surely he worthy of your little masquerade?” He tried to smile and show off his impromptu fangs.
Mister E’s blank face masked stared back at him. A few moments passed between the two. Finally the host snorted and patted him on the back, “You know what Klarg? Have a great time at the party.”
“Why thank you! Now then puny mortal, please direct me to your finest meads and roast beasts!” Simon may have been putting it on a little thick. "Klarg need to celebrate after a successful quarterly review!"
“Snack bar and drink table’s the second door on your left.” Mister E ran a white glove down the length of his porcelain mask, “I hope you know what you’re getting into.”