+ 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

Grendel | OTA

[oneagainstall]

Rise up and take the power back (First day)

[Grendel does not appreciate being chained up. The charges he's facing are bullshit, too. He's not about to dig up a bunch of fucking skeletons just because some dickshit with a pumpkin head says he has to. Obedience doesn't come easily to him and it's not going to happen now.

As such, he drops his glamour- he can do more damage his way, if he needs to. He tears his chain off, tossing it at one of those pumpkin-headed weirdos - it doesn't actually HURT the freak, which does nothing for his bad mood. He turns, in all his seven-foot tall monster glory to the person next to him.]

You know what? FUCK all of this bullshit. We don't got to do shit. I say we get the fuck outta this line and leave them dig up their own fuckin' fields.

[And not long that, he's off looking for his friends you want to be released from this chain gang nightmare, he'll help you out.]

His brutal blood caked claw (Skeleton)

[Grendel has only ever died once in the mansion, in his true form. So there's a very large skeleton wandering around. Much like the living one, he's grouchy and doesn't take to people talking to him. Unlike the living one, he keeps glancing worriedly at the sky, as if he's expecting something to rain down something awful on them at any minute.]

[holyshihtzu]

[ Juliet was expecting someone to finally have enough, but she wasn't expecting Gren to lose it quite... this way. When he turns to look at her, she's gripping her shovel, her hands shaking uncontrollably. ]

Can you... be person-sized again? I'm not ready to deal with whatever is happening right now.

[ She's still wrapping her head around the creepy pumpkin people. ]

[oneagainstall]

[Gren can always be counted on to crank a situation up to eleven regardless of if he needs to or not. He growls at the comment, rolling his eyes.]

Yeah, well boo-fuckin'-hoo, we;re stuck in this bullshit if we like it or not, you just gotta-

[He pauses, squints down at her. Oh. Wait. This is the chick from Shawn's world. He lets out a soft 'ugh'. ]

I don't know. You gonna put down the fuckin' shovel?

[holyshihtzu]

[ Julia looks at the shovel like she wasn't aware she was still holding it and manages to drop it slowly to the ground, rising with both her hands up to show how unarmed she is.

She might be overreacting slightly, sure. But just because Gren is Shawn's friend doesn't mean he won't eat her or something. ]

There. We good?

[oneagainstall]

Fine, whatever.

[There's a bright green glow and suddenly where once there was a seven foot tall monster stands Human-Looking-Gren. He's not keen on it, but the pumpkin freaks don't seem to be that aggressive. He probably doesn't need the glamour off.]

I mean, it don't really make that much of a fuckin' difference. That's still me. This [he gestures at his human self] is just a fancy-ass magical disguise. But whatever makes you less shovel-happy. You want outta those chains?

[holyshihtzu]

[ It takes Juliet a second to catch up with this conversation. So, is this how it's going to be? She's going to keep finding out that people who look normal are actually vampires or immortals or seven-foot tall giants who can look shorter than they are.

At least she already knows that Shawn is a psychic so she won't have to deal with any surprises from him. ]

I just need to get used to it, I guess. I'm not exactly accustomed to people I know shape-shifting around me. [ She glances down at the cuff around her ankle. ] I'd appreciate it, this thing kind of itches.

[oneagainstall]

[Yup, that one one thing she can be sure of, no surprises from Shawn at all. N O P E.]

It's not really- [he stops, it's not important] I mean, it's just regular, I guess. Lotta non-humans here.

[It would be a lot easier to get rid of it in his true form, but as is, he'll just settle for good old-fashioned lockpicking. He pulls a sharp piece of metal (one he'd broken off his own shackles for just such a reason, and goes to work opening her shackles.]

You alright otherwise? Not hurt?

[holyshihtzu]

[ Nope not a single one surely there isn't anything important Shawn has been hiding from her for two years. ]

Besides being in need of a really hot shower and prescription strength deodorant, I think I'm okay.

[ She lets out a sigh when the shackle unlocks and reaches down to disengage it, rubbing her ankle tenderly. ]

I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to be rude. You just look pretty human when you're not... not human.

[oneagainstall]

[Not a DAMN THING. He's an open book.]

Well, looks like you're gonna have to wait for those until the mansion starts being the mansion again. Doubt these pumpkin jackasses have anything like that. They got a real fuckin' Amish vibe going on.

[He huffs out a laugh.]

That's kinda the point. I gotta blend in with you guys, back home. Them's the rules. Been that way since we had to come to the mundy...uh. Regular normal Earth, I mean.

[holyshihtzu]

Regular normal Earth.

[ What she would give for regular normal Earth, especially after all this. ]

Well, you don't need to blend in here. So why do you still do it?

[oneagainstall]

[He shrugs, making an 'I dunno' sound.]

Got used to it. Been doing this for centuries now- if we didn't it was at best a prison sentence and at worse a fuckin' capital offence. You got into a habit of not turning your glamour off if you didn't want to be fucked over by the Sheriff.

[He considers.]

Also it's a lot fuckin' easier to move around the mansion.

[holyshihtzu]

[ Second point is fair, first point is terrifying. ]

So it's a lot like where Misty is from, a place where you have to hide who you are all of the time. [ She can't fathom it. Juliet has always been just... herself. Having to pretend to be something else, to lie to people just to stay alive, it sounds horrible. ]

I'm sorry I acted so scared at first. [ After all he has clearly been through, the last thing she wanted to do was hurt his feelings. ]

[oneagainstall]

A little, I mean, there's witches where I come from, but they ain't like Misty's coven. Misty was born in her world- Fables? We had to move to the one we live in. We hide so the mundies don't know we're there- so we don't draw attention to the fact we fuckin' exist.

[Because if the mundies were aware all their beloved fairytales were real and living among them...well, it probably wouldn't go down so well. At her apology, he gives a shrug.]

S'alright. I've dealt with worse. You didn't try to fuckin' kill me so you're already miles ahead of some people.

Skeleton

[twirlier]

[Fearing her own possible skeletons, not realizing that her deaths do not count in this, Misty has not been thinking about the other options. Those that she cares about deeply having died in this place.

But then there's a skeleton before her. One with a single arm, and large and hulking and...]

Oh God. Oh Gren.

[Covering her mouth with both hands, unable to stop the instant tears that filled her eyes, burning and stinging, and just staring at him, whispering his name.]

[oneagainstall]

[Skele-Gren doesn't recognise Misty at all. He met her months after he died, after all. He's not used to anyone shedding tears over him, let alone a complete stranger. He cants his head, which is about as close to an 'expression' as he can manage.]

Jeez, lady, calm down. It ain't all that fuckin' bad.

[twirlier]

[Learning that Gren had somehow died in this place is hard to deal with. Harder than Misty might have imagined until now facing it. If only because he's always been so quick to assure her that he is hard to kill!

Him not knowing her though? That is a pain that strikes too deeply to a woman dead in her own life.

So there's only more tears then, the press of her palm to her mouth not hiding the sob that escapes her as she shakes her head. Even if Misty knew the right words, she wasn't capable of speaking them in that moment, knowing she will only start sobbing if she tries.]

[oneagainstall]

[Stranger though she is, Gren isn't half as monstrous as his form belies. The same goes for his skeleton. He pauses, confused, not quite sure how to deal with this. He eventually settles for shambling forward a little. ]

Uh. Okay. Shit. You okay? I mean, I'm okay. See? Just...goin' to a fuckin' party apparently and really glad I'm not in the goddamn ground any more.

[twirlier]

[She waves a hand at him, snuffling and sniffling and trying to stop herself from crying though she knows it's an impossible task.]

R-right, course. Glad not to be...

[She shudders, having been buried alive once though she doesn't remember most of it.]

It's just... I c-can't... I...

[She shakes her head, pressing the heel of her hands to her eyes.]

M'fine. Promise. It's... nothing.

[oneagainstall]

[He pauses, because she sure does not look okay at all.]

...You say so.

[He considers just...walking off, but-]

You knew my name. How?

[twirlier]

[Clutching the ends of her shawl, she considered lying then, giving some lame answer about the book, myths, anything.

Instead she shrugs, feeling as helpless as the gesture is.]

We know one another. Kind of in another time and place, I guess. Both in this form and your glamour.

[The words rattle as she draws a shaky breath.]

I just never knew you had died.

[oneagainstall]

Oh. Yeah, I don't remember you at all, but I guess that's Wonderland being a dickhead.

[Is he dead? Oh...right. He looks at the sky again.]

The Reapers showed up. Killed a lotta people.

[twirlier]

Yeah, that's all it is.

[Least that's all she can manage, nodding though as she wipes her face.]

I don't... I don't think I was here for that.

[oneagainstall]

Great. Thanks a fuckin' lot, Wonderland.

[He hates it fucking with the people who matter, and he guesses she does- otherwise, she wouldn't be shedding tears over him.]

Maybe not? It was really fuckin' hectic. The bastards went to town on just about everyone.

[twirlier]

I would remember that. I know I would. You die enough and you remember all of them. Even the one I was knocked out for I kinda remember.

[Trying to use talking about it not to think about Gren, and about him not telling her, and who else she knew and cared for who had died then.]

I wonder what happens...

[She stops, shaking her head, realizing he will just vanish. A form of Gren gone.]

[oneagainstall]

I don't know. One second I was dead and now I just got dug up for a party?

[It's not the REAL Gren, after all. Just an echo of the real one.]

I don't think it was all that shitty?