saveourearth | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

A very merry Halloween! [Mingle]

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Threadwrap in next tag or so?

Sounds good!

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

Scene?

Ayep!