saveourearth | A very merry Halloween! [Mingle]

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A very merry Halloween! [Mingle]

Date: 31st of October
Characters: Open!
Warning: Non-sexual desecration of formerly buried corpses

On the morning of Halloween, when people first step out of their houses, they will almost step into something.

A bucket of water. Every flat and every house in the Mossgate Boundary has a bucket placed in front of its entrance door (and sometimes, especially in Folkton and Moss Manor, the back door too), in which scary apples are floating. A little sign taped to the bucket reads: Have fun bobbing!.

But that's not the only thing that happened. The second thing that people will notice is that there are billions of spiders of all sizes crawling all over the town and villages, the military base, the Manor House... everywhere. And they certainly did their job - trees, lanterns, the higher attractions on the pier, and everything else that is high all over Mossgate Council is covered in thick layers of cobweb.

And lastly... those who pass by a church will notice something about the graveyards around them. Namely, that someone placed skeletons on top of most of the graves... Awfully real looking ones. Really, really awfully real looking ones. To some of them, the soil of the graveyard still clings, and the graves underneath them are in a state that betrays that they were dug up during the night. DNA tests would show that, indeed, the skeletons belong to the individuals buried in the graves.

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And that 'unsaid' part goes well noticed.

"If he has that level of control over it, then he's been active with his Number far longer than any of us have."

Certainly more than the past few months...

"I couldn't agree more."

He's torn between wanting to turn away out of respect, and-

"Do you think he actually touched any of them, to bring them up?"

If 'earth bending' from the Four Worlds could be real, then of course no one would have had to touch the skeletons personally.

"Maybe..." Sadie walks over to one of newer graves to get a look at the date. "Jesus Christ!" Sadie backs off in alarm. "This grave is only two years old!"

Walter reaches out to Sadie - as much to steady her as it is to encourage her to keep distance.

"Whoever's behind this knows how to clean a skeleton as well, apparently."

Which made one wonder if they could do that to the living...

"Wonder what the security footage shows - if there is footage, even."

Sadie looks at Walter, clearly horrified by that particular notion. "That's even more horrifying! What sort of person would dig up a partially decomposed body and strip it of its flesh?!" Whoever they are Sadie does not what to meet them in a dark alleyway at night.

"Closer to the church," Sadie assures Walter. "It's an old church, they would have them where the large stainless pieces are and dotted about to stop people nicking the copper from the roof. So the cameras might have just caught something going on with the graves closest to the church."

"Unless someone has an Echo to deal with that problem too."

Someone devoted to the skeleton ideal, a rather snarky part of him says. He doesn't give voice to that thought, fortunately.

"Or technology is somehow unable to perceive the paranormal - it's a common trope."

And an annoying one, to boot.

... It'd explain the Network, come to think of it.

"The paranormal believers would have an absolute ball if they knew what was going on in this town. It still annoys me how bizarre this whole state of affairs is."

She frowns, "What sort of message is someone trying to send with this, surely it's not just for Halloween?"

As Sadie speaks the word "message", both her and Walter will suddenly feel terribly hollow, to an almost overwhelming degree - as if there is almost nothing inside them, their minds, their bodies, their souls, as if they are missing almost entirely. And then, into that hollow, a loud, calming, comforting heartbeat drums, emanating an air of quiet and reassurance. Almost like a mother holding them close, protecting them from all there could be.

This time, there is no feeling of dizziness at all, only a lasting impression of being protected in a loving parent's arms. And also a fresh, new plot echo.

Edited 2018-10-30 22:27 (UTC)

Walter inhales sharply - is this the message, then? is his first clear thought.

And then he's distracted by an entirely different kind of message. Text, apparently; an IM chat.

You msut rsepnod in fuor secdons or I wlil feroevr temrainte cnotcat. You hvae no atrleantvie and tihs is the olny chnace you shlal get. Waht is the lsat nmae of the psredinet of the Utneid Satets?

I beg your pardon?

There's a jolt as he realizes that response is his - that here in the now, he can recognize what's happened to the words, but that in the then they didn't make sense - because they were spelled wrong!

But then, more;

I knew that she knew that you knew that they knew that you knew that I knew that we knew that I knew that. Did she know that you knew that I knew that you knew that I knew that you knew that? Did you know that I knew that they knew that she knew? Did I know that she knew that you knew that we knew that you knew?

Yes. No. Yes.

Again; part of him could follow the logic exactly - but also he, as a human, was stumped.

And then one more, with misspelling like that in the first:

Wit you're aide Wii knead to put the breaks awn the cereal Keller their B4 this decayed is dun, weather ore knot we aught too. Who nose if wee will secede. Dew ewe?

Again, your pardon?

He's not dizzy - which is also surprising! - but the underlying implication, that whoever or whatever these memories were from was- some kind of digital intelligence - still shakes him.

And then the sensation of feeling impossibly empty gives way to something worse.

That sensation of quiet and reassurance is almost drowned out as he retreats into himself, curling into a ball and feeling like he is drowning-

Sadie's breath catches in her throat at how...peaceful the sensation was this time. It didn't feel like the usual plummet in her stomach, this time it felt oddly comforting, her skin prickling up in goosebumps at the phantom sensation of being hugged. The thudding dies down, but the tingling feeling just underneath her skin remains as Sadie becomes aware that she is holding something. A large, red gem, almost perfect in its clarity except for its shape and the strange symbol carved into it.

However, instead of examining it closer, Sadie immediately shoves the stone into her satchel as she watches Walter pale dramatically. One step takes her to his side and she gently grabs his arm, her other free hand coming up to rest on his back, rubbing gentle circles into it in a mirror of how Walter had helped her the last time they both received an Echo together.

"Walter, focus on my voice. You're fine, you're here with me and I will do whatever you need okay?"

For Walter, the sensation's more like a hotcoldhotcold - the warm, comforting embrace versus the totality of the unavoidable, self-inflicted ~~how could hetheyit have been so STUPID-~~ dissolution of self, the everything and the nothing, the-

"- okay?"

Walter twitches, Sadie's voice coming to him as if from a long distance away, just another channel, another feed he can't turn off, he-

"Nononononononono..."

That's his voice, coming out in more of a squeak, trying to pull his hands close to his head to shut everything out. Sadie's grasp stops him short, but only just.

That gem is going to have to wait a while to be analyzed, unfortunately.

Sadie would happily admit to herself that she was very concerned and just a tiny bit freaked out. Not that she would let that sway her resolve to help Walter. But it was something she was aware of even as she tried to think of what could be happening to Walter.

She pulls Walter fully into a hug, rubbing his back gently and starts to purr. She stays quiet aside from that, just remains a physical anchor for him until he comes out of whatever the Echo has done.

The purring, oddly, helps more, Walter's hyperventilations slowing down into deeper breaths.

There's no filter, there's no filter, this is not now...

For one second he just stares ahead, trying to take in what's around him ~~is it too much is it too much is it going to happen again?~~.

Then another second.

He doesn't scream, though his breath hitches again.

Sadie feels Walter's breath hitch and ever so gently tightens the hug, her purring getting louder as she continues to try and comfort her friend.

"You're here with me Walter, in the graveyard in Mossgate." She whispers, "Just keep up those deep breaths for me."

The words make more sense now, in that he can follow them and recognize who's speaking- how long have I been out how much time have I lost ~~did I nearly just die? Or- that other being...~~

"It-" He can't get out more than a word under the pressure he's feeling.

It's good he didn't scream, some surprisingly coherent part of the back of his mind whispers. It would be a bad thing if they were to be noticed out here, all of that attention on them-

His shoulders slump down, and the deeper breathing continues.

Sadie is happy to stay there as long as necessary, it is the least she can do for Walter.

"That's it, just keep breathing just like that. Don't force yourself to speak alright? Let's focus o on getting you through this first."

Not being able to forget things means that new memory won't quiet down, so Walter keeps shuddering intermittently as reality struggles to reassert itself for him.

"Y- yes-" Sadie had said not to talk, though, so he cuts himself off.

"Are you alright to move Walter?" She Sadie asks him gently, "It'll probably feel better if we go somewhere less morbid."

Afterimages - that's all they can be, now; whatever he was 'seeing' in the Echo didn't line up with any place he'd ever been ~~as a human~~ in his life.

"I- yes," he gets out, hesitant, but a touch off-put by his own overwhemlmedness, now.

Away from the graveyard. Away from finding out what it's like to die.

"Come on, let's go." Keeping one arm around his shoulder Sadie starts to guide Walter out of the graveyard. "Where do you need me to take you?"

He hesitates then, seconds piling up.

The flat?

The most obvious answer, but somehow... he doesn't want to go back there. Not yet.

The hospital?

Definitely not. A sensation of wrongness slaps him, and he drops that thought in a fraction of a second.

Sadie's family's place? Or Ben's

No, and no. It's not the same as with the hospital, but he does not want to impose, not when there's already other people there, with so much going on-

"Jim's," he gasps, in a voice that can't be more than a whisper, yet still seems too loud.

"Just- nearby is fine."

Sadie needs to get home too, after all. Right?

Sadie nods, all stubborn determination as she continues to guide Walter out of the graveyard.

"Jim's... Alright, I promise I'll get you there Walter."

Walter nods, fighting down a spike of nausea again and preventing any further verbalizing.

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A very merry Halloween! [Mingle]

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Time to TL;DR! =D

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Threadwrap in next tag or so?

Sounds good!

Walter is not firing on all cylinders here. 8'D

Scene?

Ayep!