[IC] Banding Together in Halloween Town

[LePouvantail]

Shock got up and fixed her clothes. She retrieved her hat from where it fell on the floor, then kicked a few loose game pieces away from her.

"We observe," she said, "and see who remembers what. I want to see how long those idiots actually think they missed Halloween."

Lock scooped a few more games pieces and shoved them back into the box.

"Sounds good," he said.

Shock looked around for wherever her boots got tossed the night before. She recovered a few more game pieces and unceremoniously dumped them into the box before she continued her search.

"And if things are starting to come back, well...we certainly don't know what happened," Shock said.

"Might want to stay away from the witches' shop, then," Lock said casually.

Shock found one boot and pulled it on.

"Right," she said. "I don't think they'll tie the brooms to this, but they might remember it was us, and work back from there."

[SystemofEleven]

"What I wouldn't give for an invisibility potion right now..."

Carver went to work gathering up the remaining scattered game pieces and money, periodically slipping one or two into her cage when the others weren't looking.

"Anybody mind if I take a fertilizer soak before we head out? I'll scrub out the tub after, I just have a feeling I'm going to need my energy to avoid my parents when.... either somebody remembers and tells them, or we have to fess up to prevent them from actually missing Halloween."

[LePouvantail]

"Those are highly restricted," Shock said with a smile.

"Wonder why," Lock said, his own smile matching hers.

Shock got the rest of the cards and threw them in the box.

"Certainly not because of anything we did."

The two of them turned to Carver.

"Go for it," Lock and Shock said together.

Shock headed for the slide once the game was cleaned up.

"I'm gonna get something to eat," she said, "and then we'll head out."

~~~

It took a while for the tricksters to get ready and head into Halloween Town proper, but they made sure to act just as dejected as yesterday. Shock pushed Clown out of her way on the way in, just to cause some ruckus, but otherwise, she and her brothers didn't go out of their way to cause too much trouble.

The skies were overcast, and not many other citizens were out and about. The Corpse family passed by without incident. With business being as slow as it was, Agatha was actually out today, talking with Lillith and Carmilla near the steps of Town Hall, where the twins could safely be shaded for a moment and not have to hold up their umbrellas indefinitely. Lock made it a point to quickly hang behind his siblings so they could pass by and hopefully not risk reminding them of yesterday.

"It's just the strangest thing," Shock overheard Agatha say. "I don't know where they came from, but I've got a bag of spices in--"

She turned to the tricksters.

"You three!" she exclaimed. "Mind explaining how our brooms ended up stuck all over our shop?"

Shock stepped forward first.

"Got any proof, Hagatha?"

Agatha placed her hands on her hips and pouted.

"No, but who else could it have been?"

Shock smirked and shrugged.

"Beats me," she said. "Maybe the gremlins decided to change things up."

Barrel looked her over, and was already wondering if there was a way to trick her into giving him the spices. Without alerting her to why he wanted them, of course.

[SystemofEleven]

LIllith waved to Lock but didn't leave her shady spot to go over to him. Her smile told him she remembered nothing, though, and he was welcome to come to her.

"What do you mean, stuck all over the shop?" Carmilla asked.

Agatha crossed her arms with a huff. "When we closed up yesterday, we found our brooms glued down around the shop. Aunt Agnes's broom was on the ceiling!" She pouted again. "Still is. We can't find any of our glue dissolver." Something twinged at the back of her mind, but she brushed it away. She was too annoyed to try to chase a blurry thought.

Then she scowled. "I bet you three did it after Mr. Werewolf howled and everyone was busy freaking out!"

Carver puffed out her chest vines. "Hey! We were in the crowd getting upset just like everyone else! And then we went back to the tree house! Ask anyone who resides in the graveyard, they walked part of the way with us!"

[LePouvantail]

Lock grinned and happily walked over to his girlfriend, though he knew to be careful. He stood beside her and avoided nuzzling against her in case it brought anything back, though his tail flicked in annoyance at Agatha.

"If they didn't hear the fight we got into last night."

He chuckled. Shock and Barrel joined in for a second, though Shock sobered first.

"We didn't get a chance to play tricks last night," she said with a scowl. It became a smirk as a thought seemed to come to mind. "Though, the day's still young. Any volunteers?"

Barrel looked to Agatha.

"What's this about spices?" he asked.

Lock and Shock both forcibly refrained from rolling their eyes.

[SystemofEleven]

Agatah pouted a bit more, then frowned thoughtfully at Barrel's inquiry. "Yeah, I found a sack of spices in my closet when I got up this morning. I can't think of any reason they'd be in there. I do a little bit more cooking than my aunts do, but I've never taken spices out of the kitchen, before. And the spices that belong in the kitchen were still there..." Her frown deepened. That niggling feeling in her mind was coming back.

Carver smacked Barrel upside the back of his head. "Can you think of anything besides food, you dolt? The spice cabinet at home is perfectly well stocked, you don't need any more." Hopefully that little tidbit would draw Agatha away from the memory of sending Carmilla to steal them. Very hopefully it would draw Carmilla away from the memory of actually stealing them.

Carmilla had a sour look on her face, but that may have just been because that was her default expression in Shock's presence. Then she suddenly smoothed it out to a bland pleasantness. "By the way, Lock, we're having band practice tomorrow, right?"

Lillith petted Lock's hair idly while she waited for him to answer.

[LePouvantail]

"Ow!" Barrel cried. "No it's--!"

He quickly realized what Carver was getting at. He thought.

"I was just...um...gonna offer to take them off her hands?"

Lock perked as he tried to calculate the days quickly.

"Um..."

He gave Shock a quick glance for help. Maybe she better remembered, because it definitely slipped his mind. Shock realized it too, but made no indication of such.

"...I, uh," Lock said, then suddenly twitched his tail as he thought of a way to salvage this. "...Well, with Halloween being over already, what else is there to do?"

He nuzzled against Lillith as she pet his hair.

[SystemofEleven]

Both vampires raised an eyebrow at Lock.

"That was a lot of hesitation," Lillith commented. "Are you sure you're up for practice? It's fine if you need some more time. Missing Halloween has... thrown more than a few people for a loop."

Carmilla tsk-ed, but didn't say anything. Certainly she hadn't had trouble continuing on with her undeath. She was, of course, angry and upset that all her practice had gone to waste, but Lillith was the only one who saw the tantrum when she initially found out, and she had been quick enough to move on once she calmed down. She had a date planned on November 3, and she wasn't going to miss it just because there had been the FUBAR of the century. Lock supposedly cared about his band as much as he cared about his girlfriend, so if he couldn't handle the situation, well that was a fault on his part.

Agatha shook her head to Barrel. "You and I both have plenty of spices. It would take a decade for us to go through double the amount." She shrugged. "I think I'll drop it off in the human world, if nobody else in town claims it. There are some shelters and things that would probably appreciate the variety."

[LePouvantail]

Lock took the deathline for what it was.

"Y-yeah," he said. "Maybe it's better to wait until next week."

He flicked his tail.

"Give everyone time to adjust."

Shock turned to Agatha.

"Be careful which ones you send out," she said, with the faintest hint of sweetness in her tone. "Mortals can't hold their arsenic, after all."

Barrel caught that note of sweetness along with his sister's agreement to give the spices away, and knew exactly what she was doing.

"Hey!" he cried. "You're already punishing me for--!"

Shock quickly reached up and clamped her hand over Barrel's mouth. Even with her gloves mitigating some of the sharpness, Barrel felt her nails digging into his skin. He gave a startled, muffled cry and grabbed Shock's wrist to try to pull her vice-like grip from his cheeks, to no avail. Shock's tone became even sweeter as she made him face her. Her glare combined with her sharp smile sent Barrel shuddering as he realized how badly he nearly screwed up.

"Why don't we see if Behemoth found our little present in the pumpkin patch?" she asked. "Since we couldn't play tricks last night, I'll settle for other trouble."

Barrel wondered what trap they set up, then realized as his sister pulled him away from the group that she was making an excuse to bow out and keeping him from saying anything else. He whined, but since he couldn't pry her fingers away, he had no choice but to go with her. Shock shot Carver a knowing glance as she passed by, to keep an eye and ear out for any damage Barrel might have caused. Lock watched them go, then flicked his tail.

"He screwed up one of her pranks the other day," he said truthfully, and to try to draw the girls' attention away from Shock and Barrel. "Shock's still a little sore over it."

Lock carefully nuzzled against Lillith, making sure to tactfully choose his movements and avoid triggering something in her mind.

"Better him than me."

[SystemofEleven]

Lillith picked Lock up and set him on her hip so she could nuzzle him back. Carmilla rolled her eyes at the affectionate display.

"Of course," Agatha replied, though she frowned at Barrel's distress and Shock's behavior toward him. "Um... What present? Do I even want to know?" She didn't get an answer as the tallest trickster was dragged away.

Carver snickered as she watched them go. "He'll be fine. She's just gonna make him miserable for a few days." She turned back to Agatha. "If you're planning on getting rid of the spices, I'd be willing to buy most of them off you. I played a particularly large prank on the Finkelsteins and could use the suck-up points to keep from getting grounded. And a good way to my dad's cold, unfeeling heart is through his stomach."

Agatha narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "How do I know you're not going to use the spices to mess with the food you make him?"

Carver crossed her arms and leaned against a pillar with a smirk. "The prank I pulled before... involved corpse flowers. I made the Doctor get.. distracted enough to miss the timing on one or three of his SCIENCE projects. The amount of sucking up I need to do outweighs the potential fun of adding way too much of... I don't even know." She shrugged. "Barrel would be better at thinking of what spices would be hilarious to overdo, but he wouldn't anyway because he'd consider it culinary treason, or whatever."

[LePouvantail]

Lock let her, and rested his head on her shoulder. For now, he was content and comfortable. He glanced to Agatha as he slid his tail behind Lillith and gently curled it around the back of her legs.

"Beats me," he said. "Knowing Shock, something wonderfully unpleasant, but since we like Behemoth, nothing too serious, so I wouldn't worry about it."

He perked as he listened to Carver explain the prank on the Finklesteins. Slowly, his mind put two and two together as he realized the nondescript prank that backfired on Shock had to be this one, as Carver hadn't caused any trouble there since. The corners of his mouth lifted into a grin, before he started laughing so hard, he almost fell off of Lillith's hip.

"No wonder she was so pissed!" he exclaimed. "Go big or go home, right Carver?"

[SystemofEleven]

All six of Carver's eyes suddenly widened. She had forgotten about that. They immediately turned downward and narrowed to slits as her vines suddenly unraveled from her arm frames and shot out to wrap around Lock's neck. "You will say nothing about it," she hissed, "or we'll both kick your ass until you can't stand up anymore!"

Lillith calmly let go of Lock. She wasn't sure what or who exactly he was referring to, but she had learned not to get in between any of the tricksters when they were ready to brawl.

Agatha, on the other hand, blinked and stepped back. She hadn't seen more than bickering and the occasional arm-punch from them. The sudden violence confused and worried her. She looked to the twins, hoping they'd know what to do.

Carmilla ignored the fight and continued on with the original conversation as if the four hadn't interrupted in the first place. "But you still don't know where the spices came from in the first place? That is strange. And why in a sack?"

[LePouvantail]

Lock's grin remained even as Carver grabbed his throat and pulled him away from Lillith. He grabbed the vines near his throat to keep his own weight from pulling him down, then swung his body to hook his ankles and tail around her vines to further mitigate any damage to his neck.

"Oh, come on, Carver," Lock said cheerfully. "She already got you back for it."

His tail tightened around her vines to bind them together, but that he didn't otherwise try to fight back said enough: all he wanted was a laugh at her expense for the moment, and nothing more.

"And bringing it up now will just put a target on both of our backs. I'd rather keep her attention on Barrel."

Which would unwittingly clue in to the rest of the group what sort of mishap happened with who, but he didn't care. Lock hung like a sloth from Carver's vines, then turned to Carmilla. He gave her a weird shrug while he held onto the vines.

"Wasn't us," he said, then gave a knowing glance to Agatha. "For some reason, we can't get into the building if the shop's not open."

Lock grinned at her. He knew perfectly well about the hexes the witches put on their building to keep him and his siblings not only out of the shop when it was closed, but the living areas upstairs as well.

[SystemofEleven]

Carver snarled at him for good measure, but reluctantly let him go. "I don't want to hear anything about it again, either. I swear by all the leftover shadows in Oogie's lair, I will hang you upside down from the Town Hall, butt naked except for a necklace of made of everything that any monster in town can't stand to get close to."

The girls all grimaced as they considered the specific things Carver would use for each of them. Carmilla and Agatha weren't as likely to try to help him get down anyway, but as his girlfriend, Lillith knew the pumpkin creature wouldn't stop with just a simple garlic clove to be sure.

[LePouvantail]

Lock stepped down to the ground and unwound his tail once Carver loosened the vines from his throat. If anything, his amusement at the whole matter gave Carver's story a bit more weight. His smile never dropped.

"Of course not," he said.

Lock was tempted to cross his fingers. Carver's threat kept his hands where she could see them. While her vengeance couldn't rival Shock's, he knew the pumpkin creature picked up most of her troublemaking lessons from his older sister, and that was enough to allow him to think twice. His amusement having run its course, Lock gestured for Lillith to pick him up again. He had been quite comfortable before Carver pulled him away.

"So you guys doing anything else today besides solving the mystery of the mysterious spices?"

[SystemofEleven]

Carver squinted at him a little longer in suspicion, but decided to drop the subject. Still... She'd see about picking up some useful items from the shop, just in case. Take advantage of the short time before the witches remembered she was temporarily banned.

Lillith obliged, picking Lock back up again. "We were going to pop over to the human world to do a bit of shopping. Carmilla has a date she wants a new dress for, but it slipped her mind to order one from Sally soon enough for it to be made. And I wanted to go out and see some of the decorations before they all get taken down."

Agatha merely shrugged again. "I don't really know. I don't really... do much, besides work. But business is slow and I'm not needed so..." She looked at the twins. "Mind if I tag along?"

The vampires had a silent conversation for a moment before Lillith nodded with a smile. "Sure, we can make a girls' day of it."

[LePouvantail]

Lock settled himself on Lillith's hip again, then glanced to Carmilla. Without Shock there to give the younger vampire sister a headache, he often got along with her on his own terms.

"Who's the unlucky girl?" he asked, with a curious flick of his tail. "Or is this another fling?"

As the twins turned the conversation to a girl's day, Lock began to lose interest, more for the lack of trouble to cause than anything.

"Guess I'll leave you to it, then," he said. "I've got tricks to play."

In a moment or two. He'd just gotten comfortable again.

[SystemofEleven]

"They're usually flings," Carmilla reminded him. "There aren't a lot of girls in town that interest me, and it's hard to establish a long term relationship with someone who can grow old and die."

Lillith stopped nuzzling Lock for a moment. Something he had told her before started to really sink in there. He was growing up. Would he grow old? Could he die? She shook off the thought and quickly went back to giving him affection. Whatever; she'd cross that bridge if she ever came to it.

The younger twin managed a small half-smile as she continued, "She's cute, though. It'll be nice if this one lasts a few years."

Carver decided to leave them to their relationship chatter and headed off to the shop. She made a list of things as she went. She needed to grab some bone biscuits for Igor (she still had to reward him for pulling the switch, not that he probably remembered that), a jar for frog's breath (bonus if there was already a frog in it)... Was there anything else? The last few days had been rather hectic; hopefully anything she forgot wouldn't be that important.

[LePouvantail]

Lock's tail flicked in agitation. Carmilla didn't know, of course, but given his recent conversation with Lillith, it stung, possibly more than it should. He quickly reached up to kiss her cheek so there wouldn't be an awkward pause, and felt more than a little relieved when she became affectionate with him again. Lock rested his head on Lillith's shoulder and made a soft noise of contentment when she nuzzled him again. He watched Carver wander off towards the shop, and just quietly sat on Lillith's hip as the girls hashed out their plans to visit the human world until he got bored enough to slip away and find his siblings.

The rest of the day went by in an awkward tension as more citizens started to regain their memories and tried to figure out what they were doing the day before. Most came to the conclusion that they were doing some sort of preparation or other. Dr. Finkelstein took a look at the countdown clock to check for any malfunctions. Jack made rounds around town to check on various citizens and try to piece together what could have possibly happened. Sally assisted where she could. What could have possibly affected the entire town like this?

Lock, Shock, and Barrel wandered around town to observe, though they never stayed anywhere for too long. Their prank would likely wind down within the next day or two, and before the sun went down, Shock made the executive decision to make one check tomorrow, but otherwise stay in the lair.

[SystemofEleven]

Carver ended up having to sleep in her own room at the lab that night, otherwise the Finkelsteins had an increased chance of noticing the pattern of constant sleepovers. That would, of course, increase the odds of them noticing how much time had passed and the likelihood they'd draw the conclusion that the four were up to something. Not that Carver was particularly worried about that; she'd already accepted that she was going to receive the punishment of the century for this, she just wanted to enjoy the confusion for as long as possible. A few hours after the Doctor's snores began echoing through the lab, the pumpkin creature suddenly shot out of bed and ran -- as quietly as possible -- toward the phone.

"GUUUYS," she whispered desperately as soon as the connection was made, not giving them a chance to even answer the phone properly. "I KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT BETTER!" They spent the next few minutes discussing one last use of the broom before the town woke up. She cackled under her breath as she hung up and snuck back into bed. This was gonna be awesome!

---

Around noon the next day, Carmilla rolled out of her coffin early. She had a lot of primping to do for her date in the evening, and wanted as much time a possible to make sure she got everything just right. She glided toward her human calendar with a yawn. She had learned a long time ago that it was hard to schedule things around days-til-Halloween when the person she was scheduling with didn't have a countdown clock like the one in the town square. She stifled another yawn as she uncapped a pen. She needed to cross off three days, as she hadn't been in the mood to deal with it after the Halloween fiasco.

The vampiress blinked as she saw that October was less than half crossed out on her calendar. Surely she hadn't forgotten to mark on it for that long?

Meanwhile, Jack was pacing across the work room in his home. He'd been interviewing the citizens the day before, trying to understand how everyone had somehow not noticed Halloween coming and going. The Mayor in particular had been rather strange; every time he had tried to describe exactly how he had been spending the time, his head spun around out of control in a panic. It was as if he was trying to pull up memories that simply weren't there. And now that Jack's attention had been drawn to it, he couldn't remember what he had been doing the day before Halloween, either. Or the day before that...

"I just don't understand it," he finally said out loud. "The Mayor and I can't remember what we were doing before this happened, and the other citizens seem to be filling in the blanks with assumptions based on their normal habits." He spun on his heel and paced back in the other direction. "It's possible that we didn't miss the holiday, that we've just forgotten how it went... But what could possibly cause everyone in Halloween Town to forget such a thing? What could possibly affect the entire town like this?"

Zero had hunkered down in his bed for most of the morning, unsure of how to make Jack feel better, but had eventually moved to Sally's lap as she worked on her sewing machine. She ran a hand along his body as if she were petting him. A thought came to mind. "What if something happened to the fountain?" she asked. "It connects to the sewers that run under the entire town, and it's right at the center of town, too."

Jack stopped. "You think it could be something in the water?"

"well... Or the air," she said with a tilt of her head. "Sometimes we put fog juice in the fountain for ambiance on Halloween, and there was that time I put too much in to-- Umm, well.."

"To sabotage my attempt at taking over Christmas," he finished for her, his eye socket twinkling. "A valiant attempt at curbing my foolishness after I had refused to see reason." The he got serious again and tapped his chin. "So you think something might have tainted with the decorative fog? That certainly is plausible... Hmmm..."

Jack decided to pay a visit to the Finkelsteins, to see if they had an ideas. Sally had to go shopping anyway, so they linked arms and headed into town together, Zero happily floating about their feet.