A very merry Halloween! [Mingle]

[ourearth]

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.

Comments

[vernal_miss]

Still laying on the floor when the door of the shared room opens, Nel groans quietly. Dazed from the fading Echo, she opens her eyes when her Mummy calls her name only to promptly close as she properly registers her new headache with hands reaching up to curl her fingers into her hair by her temples. Squirming, she pulls both her legs up to bend her knees and plant her feet on the floor, nose wrinkling with a bland mutter, "...ow."

She hears talking and people moving while making an effort to gather herself, and when she peeks open an eye again to her name, she finds her Mum with her instead. By all appearances, she had a clear fall to the floor. Taking in a deeper breath she answers with a faint nodding, "Yes, Mum. I'm okay, jus' got dizzy and fell over." She got up in a hurry, but this felt different than simply getting up too quickly.

Not wanting to prolong her mothers worrying, she puts one hand down beside herself and starts to move to sit up if she can get that far.

[catted]

She won't be able to get that far, mostly because a hand comes up to rest on her shoulder and very gently push her back down.

"Stay there for the moment, darling. We'll see about getting up in a moment." She throws a quick glance towards the door and then asks: "Did you have another echo?"

[vernal_miss]

The block of a hand at her shoulder is a clear signal, and although she sighs, the child relents and lies back to the floor without resistance to the gentle push. At least all that hair sprawled under her has gathered somewhat with the brief lift and can act as a thin cushion for her aching head.

Her Mum directing her to be still is given a faint nod, but she stops when asked about whether she had an Echo. Gaze turning to what little of her terrarium that she can see on the nightstand, Nel thinks about it carefully before she answers. That empty feeling, the dizziness, the hearbeat... Looking back to her Mum, she frowns slightly, “...I think so.”

That was much more intense than she had expected, but she can immediately eliminate one possible option, “I don’t remember anything funny.” Which means something else has changed.

[catted]

That is not necessarily good news. At all.

But she can't see any physical change at least, so... well. As interesting as Sadie's eyes probably are to a child, she really would rather not have them happen to her own daughter. Too visible.

"Let's get you up to sit on the bed, then. Your Mummy should be back with a glass of water in a moment.

...Can you tell if anything else is off?"

[vernal_miss]

Nel follows her Mum's instruction with both hands used this time to push up to sitting on the floor to begin. Upright with her head aching less already for the change in position, the puzzled child pauses a moment to glance around herself on the floor. She didn't have anything fall on her that she can recall, but she had dropped over, so perhaps if she gained any strange items they would have fallen too. An initial search however yields nothing more than her usual toys and crafts. Including some beads that rolled under her bed.

Reaching for her Mum to have that steadying contact, she turns to her knees and pushes to stand upright. Nel sways as she comes up, but keeping contact, she manages to clamber her way up onto the bed to sit.

Asked if she can tell if anything happens to be off, Nel looks down at her hands and turns them over thoughtfully, "Not really I..." only to stop as she notices one odd thing. She reaches a hand up to her chest and lays it there. It feels unexpectedly warm, as though she were still laying under the blankets. Not feverish by any means, but comfortably warm. The rest of her skin has cooled already with the autumn temperatures, so this seems a tad off. "I'm warm right here."

[catted]

Mary Ann cautiously supports her daughter in getting up, never offering more help than seems wanted but always there to catch her should she fall.

As much as she now has an explanation for the sudden fainting, this is still all very worrying. The discovery of what changed is almost a relief, just because it is a lead to what might have happened.

She pulls Nel into her lap and brings up a hand to lay a finger to where Nel indicated. "Here?"

[vernal_miss]

With little delay, Nel pushes through her legs to aid her mother and shift over into her lap quite readily. She sinks in against her mother, relaxing into the support as much to have it as to simply be close. When her mother puts her finger lightly to the right spot at the center of her chest on level with her heart, she nods her head, “Yes.”

The warmth persists, and any check to her skin on her chest or back will reveal no marks or visible changes.

“All I did was get up to look in my terrarium...” she offers.

[catted]

"...You're right. Strange." She looks over at the terrarium, and then smiles. "Oh, it came up!" She'd been a bit worried that her daughter would have to experience the disappointment of the greenery not coming to life, but it did. Excellent.

[vernal_miss]

Sharing in the smile, Nel looks quite proud of herself as she casts a look to her nightstand where the container sits, “Yep! I’ll make sure they grow up all the way and stay healthy.” Faster than she realizes...

As she hears steps in the hall, she hushes her voice as she looks up to her Mum and speaks to the matter of her fresh Echo with some concern, “Mum? Do I need to hide being warm?” If so, hugs will be difficult.

/attack of the wonky timelines

[catted]

"No, you won't."

She had needed to talk to Janice about this anyway.

Ideally, she would have done it before it became necessary. But it became necessary far sooner than she expected. So all her attempts will have to go out of the window in favour of not making this harder on her daughter than it already is.

"We'll tell her as soon as we can."

Or it gets put off for *reasons* (finding time?) because hugs are warm anyway

[vernal_miss]

The tension that had begun to creep into her muscles fades in an instant when her Mum assures her she won’t have to evade hugs with her Mummy or siblings. Nodding with a smile, she’s thankful for the inclusion, “Maybe Grandpa can help, cause being warm like a cat in one spot isn’t going to be much to show her.”

Making it real for her Mummy will be harder without being able to use the Network.

Once her Mummy returns to the room with the water, she’ll gratefully accept the glass to sip at it. Nel will be left with a goose egg on the back of her head for a day or so, but that’s the worst of it with her headache continuing to diminish gradually.

[catted]

They start talking about all kinds of practical things almost immediately when Janice gets back into the room - if Nel should stay in bed that day, how to go about breakfast, the news, and various other things, so they end up not telling Janice.

Not immediately, anyway.

But in the evening, Mary manages to arrange it so that when all children are out of the house or in bed, her and Nel and Janice end up in the same room, so they can tell her together. Janice doesn't fully buy it at first, but she has to admit that it explains a few things, and eventually reluctantly accepts their story. And promises to not tell anyone, and also says that if anything should happen, they can come to her as an uninvolved person any time.

[vernal_miss]

Content to let her mothers talk together, she tucks in against her Mum after drinking the water to close her eyes and rest with one hand settling over the warm spot of her chest. Her imagination takes off with the subtle change, wondering what it might become if there happens to be more to it, but such thoughts are put aside as the day resumes in normalcy.

When the opportunity to reveal the Numbers and all that goes with it to her Mummy is created, Nel follows her Mum's lead to manage such a difficult explanation in a way that makes sense by pitching in details as she can. A promise made to keep the secret and assist, Nel expresses her gratitude with hugs and a kiss. She lingers until given a nudge to go to bed, then heads off to her room for a night of sound sleep with one critical matter set straight.