+ I know she's never late - Still, anxiously I wait +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: EVERYONE and any skeletons they might dig up!
Where: Anywhere in Pottsfield!
When: 11/9/18 - 11/13/18 - the duration of the event
Rating: PG-13, warn if going higher
Summary: Catch all for the Pottsfield event! Everyone's been sentenced five days of manual labor by Enoch, the Great Pumpkin - who knows what they'll dig up out there?
The Story:

When you wake up, you will find yourself on the floor of a dark barn with only the clothes on your back, surrounded by pumpkin-faced on-lookers. They whisper amongst themselves, talking about the strange person who has woken up too early among them. Then one cries out "Enoch! What shall we do with them?"

And Enoch, an ominous fifteen-foot tall pumpkin creature, will lean in close to examine for himself. He will list off a number of crimes your character has supposedly committed – trespassing, destruction of property, disrupting the peace, murder, maybe some other things here and there – and by the order of the Pottsfield Chamber of Commerce, he will sentence you to what he has sentenced everyone to: five days of manual labor.

This is how you will wind up in a field in a colonial New England town with a ball and chain attached to their ankle, tending to fields, harvesting crops, and digging holes. You might have to contend with some absurdly large turkeys but...the town is strangely peaceful for a place where you just got arrested and charged with crimes you (probably) haven't committed. Sure, there are pumpkin people around who might look at you funny if you slack off, but there is food to eat and water to drink, and Enoch is graciously allowing everyone to sleep in some of the old homes in town. There even seems to be a festival going on for anyone who wants to take a break and dance and bob for apples. There is no way to leave Pottsfield, as trying to leave the town just loops you back around to the town again like it does in Wonderland. It's a little weird, but no one is actively trying to hurt anyone.

However, there's something alarming under the fields.

If you're digging holes in the fields as the great pumpkin has told you to, you will eventually start to find skeletons – but not just any skeletons. Skeletons belonging to people currently in Wonderland who have died there at some point. Death in Wonderland is terribly unnatural, you see, so Wonderland has taken the liberty of filling Pottsfield's fields with a skeleton for every “death” that has happened in Wonderland. These skeleton versions of characters will be fundamentally the same in personality, but they will talk about finally being able to join the harvest and will want to go and join the pumpkin people's festival. The pumpkin people – presumably also skeletons - will welcome them with open arms. They can be identified by their voice and by what they choose to wear for their vegetable clothing (maybe they will have a vegetable version of that hat they always wear, or maybe they've been given pumpkins that look like their usual armor) – or maybe they'll recognize you first and come say hi to their old friend!

And so the event goes, digging skeletons, harvesting crops, and celebrating the Harvest of skeleton versions of your friends. If you don't want to join the party now? Well, that's fine. You'll join them someday...

[OOC: Plot post is over here for anyone who needs it!]

Comments

Hard labour

[bibliocorn]

Sunburst is definitely a stranger to physical work. He's used to spending time with books- sitting down and certainly not being outside in the dirt digging holes. He can be found levitating a shovel around, making a very half-assed attempt to dig in the ground, muzzle wrinkled in disgust. When he catches sight of Jean, he looks over.

"You know, I'm fairly certain these holes are a little too big to harvest just vegetables. It's creepy and I don't like it."

[angewiesen]

Jean was about waist deep into his next hole when Sunburst wandered over. He looked at the levitating shovel with thinly-veiled jealousy. He didn't struggle with his work, but that looked like a damn convenient way to get things done.

"A punishment's a punishment. 'Doesn't have to make sense," he replied, and stopped a moment to lean on his shovel. "Besides, did you see the size of that pumpkin head? Maybe they grow Titan potatoes or something too."

[bibliocorn]

It's less convenient than he'd think, it still required effort- the strain is just a mental one, rather than a physical. Sunburst sighs, dropping the shovel into the ground, where it can, quite frankly, stay there.

"Maybe. It seems very...excessive," his ears flick back. "But we're being punished for things we haven't done. I don't even know what jaywalking is, so I'm fairly certain I've never done it."

[angewiesen]

It was kind of funny to see the yellow glow disappear from around the shovel and fall limp to the ground, like an animated thing suddenly losing its life. Jean smirked a little.

"It's when you cross a street against the flow of traffic. It's only a 'law' in fancy cities, and even then it's never enforced," he explained. "Jaywalking, huh? Apparently, I stole someone's cart-turkey. And I didn't either, but have you seen them? They're monsters. You could feed a whole barracks with just one."

[bibliocorn]

"Does that sort of thing even matter? Like...other than the fact you can get run over?" he has only the very vaguest ideas of how the hell cars even work. "It's still dumb, giving me a crime that I can't possibly be guilty of."

He nods, because the turkeys sure are a thing.

"We have nothing like that back home and we've got a lot of very, very strange creatures. They don't seem to be sentient, so I guess you could eat one if you felt the need. Maybe they cook one up for the feast."

He doesn't sound thrilled with the idea, but he's not about to rain on the non-herbivores parade.

[angewiesen]

"Well, I ain't guilty either, 'cause I sure don't have a giant turkey to show for it. But here we are. 'Doesn't make sense, but since when has that mattered around here?"

Jean had been around in Wonderland long enough to desensitize to the ridiculousness. A year ago he would be complaining and lot more militantly. Now he'd been reduced to a low grumble.

"If they do, I might actually stop by that party they're having for a taste. Just one drumstick off of those things would put you in a food coma for a week."

[bibliocorn]

"Heh, I don't think logic has ever had that big a part to play in Wonderland in general."

Wonderland is what it must be like to spend time with Discord 24/7. Not a fun time for anypony. Except Fluttershy, maybe. He wonders how she'd cope here. Probably better than most of them.

"I'll take your word on that one," he smiles, despite the fact his muzzle wrinkles a little at the thought of it. "Though you know the party is probably going to be something horrific and emotionally scarring. I'd be surprised if it wasn't at this point."

[angewiesen]

"Now you're getting it. Pretty soon people'll think you're a local."

Ah, right. Pony. Sunburst would be relegated to bobbing for apples, and not much more. Jean briefly wondered if their ilk ever simply bent their heads down and munched on grass. There was plenty of hay here.

"Horrific? What gives you that idea?"

"--Y'know, besides everything in this town being weird and creepy. And that these holes are perfectly shaped for coffins."

[bibliocorn]

"Lucky, lucky me. I think I'll pass on wearing a pumpkin head, though."

Also on the whole...skeleton thing. No thanks. Also wow, Jean, wow. He ate his grass prepared on a plate thank you. He glances down at the aforementioned holes with a wry smile.

"Yup. I'd say it was probably that. It's been a rather big tell. Coffin holes."

[angewiesen]

"Yeah, I don't know what the hell's going on with that. I don't think they're monsters like Sans or Asgore... They seem too human for that. Maybe they were human once."

It bothered Jean a whole lot less than he thought it would, probably because he was acquainted with the likes of Sans and Papyrus. They day he first arrived at Wonderland, Sans greeted him, and he flipped the fuck out. He thought the souls of those he had killed had come back to haunt him.

These skeletons, while creepy, didn't seem intent on haunting him for anything, so he got used to them too.

[bibliocorn]

"Maybe. Perhaps in being dug up again, they go through some kind of metamorphic spell. It's definitely possible. And would explain why they can...still talk."

Sunburst was at least a little more lucky with that. His world is full of strange creatures- certainly not this strange though. This is a bit much even for him.

[angewiesen]

"Magic is your territory. I have no idea how that's supposed to work."

Jean dug his shovel back into the earth with a clang. He took a step back and cautiously poked at whatever he'd hit-- but it was only a rock. He sighed at himself in irritation for being such a nervous nellie, picked the rock out of the soil and tossed it aside.

[bibliocorn]

"It's complicated, I won't bore you with all the painful details. I doubt I'd be able to figure it all out before the event ends, anyway."

he's glad Events only ever last a few days, but it never gives him enough time to work it out. It's both a relief and frustrating at the same time. He does pause at the sound of the rock, ears perking up at the sound. He relaxes when it's not, you know a SKULL.

"...This place is creepy."

[angewiesen]

"You think you could make any headway on the Mansion itself? No one's been able to figure out that one yet."

Might as well try for a distraction instead of continuing to ruminate over the feeling that they might all end up in these holes and springing out of the dirt themselves. Jean continued to dig as he waited for Sunburst's answer.

[bibliocorn]

"I'd like to think so, one day. I just know the information is there somewhere. It's just a case of putting the pieces together the right way."

He's sure he can work it out if he just had enough time.

"Unfortunately, I fear a lot of our answers lie with the core and messing around with that is generally an awful idea."

[angewiesen]

"Not to mention you have to go through the Rabbit Hole to find it, and that thing only shows up when it feels like it. It's hard to find someone who's been here long enough to get close to it more than once or twice."

And then there was the fact that it absorbed memories like a vacuum, but everyone already knew about that.

[bibliocorn]

"Exactly. Trying to track it down is nigh impossible, and honestly, I'd rather not risk my Mirror crossing over here unless we're prepared for it."

Because, as Jean well knows, Sunburst's Mirror is a Celestia-damned psychopath. Also the whole Absorbing Memories Bad Time thing, too. That too. Yep.

[angewiesen]

"It's not just your Mirror. Practically everyone's Mirror is some kind of murderous psychopath. I've literally only met one that isn't totally crazy... And if that isn't ominous enough, no-one's ever met mine."

"The Queen of Hearts was the worst too, but she's been taken care of. Not that I trust the White Queen a lick either."

[bibliocorn]

"That's unfortunately true," that could be VERY TRUE for Starlight's too though hers had the added misfortune of being exactly the pony she used to be. "I suppose they're the ultimate deterrent for us going over there- the thought of what our Mirrors could do over here. "

Smart play, on Wonderland's part.

"I don't trust her, either. It seems too easy- to suddenly have a Queen who wants peace after having the Queen of Hearts for so long. Something's up there."

[angewiesen]

"Most of them hate us right off the bat, and I can understand why. I don't think I'd be all that happy if there were someone out there that I was a copy of. And a bad one at that."

Jean would call it a clever and well built defense too. And if the Queen of Hearts really wasn't the one creating the Mirrors like she had claimed for so long, a good ploy of Wonderland itself.

"It's possible, but it's too farfetched for me too. The world doesn't work that easy."

[bibliocorn]

"And to know you only exist because that original one does. I mean, what happens to a Mirror when their original leaves Wonderland? Do they just...stop existing? Did the Queen unmake them?"

He shakes his head. Equestria might be a world where "friendship" is a legitimate magical force- but this sounds far too easy. This isn't Wonderland's way.

"I'm just...what's the human idiom? Waiting for the other shoe to drop?"

[angewiesen]

"We guessed that the Queen unmade them. She apparently threatened them all with it all the time anyways. They basically only listened to her because she was constantly threatening them with erasure."

Jean couldn't help but snicker. This whole human-to-pony thing would probably never get old to him.

"Yeah, that's what we say. You could say... Waiting for the last hoof to come down."

[bibliocorn]

"Well, yes, death threats do tend to get the masses moving a little quicker. I guess it stands to reason when they become surplus, she unmakes them to remind the others she can."

He lets out a soft chuckle of his own, canting his head.

"I don't think it works as well in translation. "

[angewiesen]

"Could be. Or maybe Mirrors can't exist without us being here too. Even so, Hearts could have been taking the credit for it to keep them all in line."

It sounded like something she would have done. "She punished them with 'marks' too. They were like brands that always hurt, and it stopped the closets on their side from working for them."

"Eh, technically horses have shoes too, right?"

Jean had never seen the bottoms of his hooves before.

[bibliocorn]

"No doubt she'd do that. Fear is a great motivator," he raises an eyebrow at that. "So she marked them and stopped them from getting resources they needed? That's...really cruel."

He chuckles, raising a hoof- there's no shoe there, it's just a regular ol pony hoof. Given his white socks, his hooves kinda look like marshmallows.

"We do have horseshoes in Equestria, but they're either worn for fashion, or farmers use them to help them get better traction on the ground. I don't do either of those things, so it's plain hooves for me."