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

[scarsolderthanyou]

First things first, Sam puts a hand on Feste's shoulder to steady them. "Hey, look at me. You still with me, kid?" While he asks that, he's swiping at cobwebs and spiders with his other hand, making sure he's not swiping at anything obviously poisonous, just in case.

[fairfeste]

Feste nods, taking in a deep but shaky breath as they feel the steadying hand on them. "Y-yeah, I just got... really dizzy, for some reason..." They've never really been scared of spiders before, but... maybe it was just so overwhelming with all the spiders that they panicked? That seems reasonable, doesn't it?

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam pauses to squint at them, but only briefly, because getting Feste free takes precedence over figuring out whether that dizziness is a pulse thing or not. "Any other funny feelings? Just the dizziness? They didn't bite you, did they?" Which is, come to think of it, probably a more important question to ask when one is being accosted by spiders.

[fairfeste]

"I don't think they did." Feste frowns, pulling up their arms to look but they're in long sleeves so that actually doesn't help at all. They mess with their hair to make sure all the spiders are out, just in case. "I don't like these spiders anyway though." Because that was intensely creepy and unsettling.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam brushes the last of the cobwebs away (wiping them off on a the tree trunk), glares at the spiders in question, and says, "I don't, either. That was definitely not normal spider behavior-- none of this is. Now do you understand why I was in that tree trying to get a better look?"

[fairfeste]

Feste nods, shuddering a little. "Yeah... I get it now. But I still don't know what they are doing. Or how." They were definitely real spiders, this isn't some prank someone just put up. How does someone make spiders act like that?

[scarsolderthanyou]

"A lot of funny things have been happening lately," Sam says grimly. "I don't know if they're connected, or how they're happening, but it doesn't change the facts. Are you okay?" He'll have to test for network connection at some point; he's kind of dreading finding out if yet another member of his family has gotten themselves in danger.

[fairfeste]

"Yeah, I think I'm fine..." No spider powers for them. Probably? They can't decide if that would be cool or not. "...What other stuff's been happening?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"The bomb thing, for one," Sam reminds them. "The open tours of the caves was new. The aurora lights at the wrong time and place. These crazy spiders. And, well. Other things." He shakes the last couple cobwebs from his fingers. "Come on, lets get you out from under this damn tree, in case they decide to try again."

[fairfeste]

Feste frowns, thinking through all of those. That... they hadn't thought about it, but those are all weird things that have happened recently. Huh.

They snap back to attention once Sam brings up the spiders again. "Oh, uh. Yeah. Good idea." They'll just... get away from this tree now. A little bit further away than is probably strictly necessary, but they don't want to take any risks. "...None of them got you, right?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"They're surprisingly non-bitey for a hoard of very busy, very nosy spiders," Sam assures them. "I half-expected a bite, there, and didn't get one." He looks his hands over just to be sure, but they look fine, to him. "You're the one who just about fell over."

[fairfeste]

"Well yeah but. Maybe they didn't want to bite me? But you were ok for biting...? Don't some bugs do that?" You're thinking mosquitos, Feste. Except still kind of wrong.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Spiders bite when they're threatened, or they want to eat something," Sam says, shaking his head. "And I was definitely threatening them." He turns back to Feste again, now that they're out of tree-spider range. "When did the dizziness start?"

[fairfeste]

"Uuuuuh..." Hang on, it all happened so fast... "I guess... when they dropped on me? That's why I was having trouble getting them off."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"This might sound like a strange question, but when you got dizzy, did you feel anything else?" Sam asks soberly. "Think back. It might be important."

[fairfeste]

...This is a familiar line of questioning. "I... yeah. Are you dealing with the Numbered thing or whatever too?" They only just found out about it this morning, and they knew Mum and Nel were involved, but...

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam pauses, then scowls at them. "Well, shit. You already knew?"

[fairfeste]

"I mean. As of like... two hours ago." Don't scowl, they're still getting used to this!!!! "I knew about Mum and Nel, but... not you, yet. Haven't really gotten the chance to talk to Mum about it."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I started on this thing before your mum and Nel did," Sam admits. "Not that any of us know why or how or even really what is going on. It's just a thing that's happening, and making strange things happen around the township."

[fairfeste]

"...These spiders definitely count as weird." But frankly all of this new information is kind of overwhelming. They're wondering if they're just having a very, very elaborate dream.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Yeah. Yeah, they do." Sam gives the tree they'd been dealing with a little glare. "If you have any questions, I can try to answer them, at least. I might have to tell you I don't know, though."

[fairfeste]

"Yeah... ok." Feste stares at the tree before looking back to him. "...I'm still getting used to the idea." Which is to say, they don't have any questions yet because this is way too overwhelming.