SystemofEleven

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carmilla scowled at him. "What are you talking ab-- MY DRESS!" Her attention drawn back to the stain, she started frantically trying to wipe it clean. "What did you do?!" She glared at Lock accusingly.

Carver cackled. "I guess your mind is as pale and cloudy as your skin! Can't remember what Your Highness spilled on yourself?"

Lillith ignored the tricksters' teasing and her sister's panic-wrath, slicking her hair back and finger combing it. She wasn't really sure what had happened, but it wasn't sticky and didn't smell particularly bad, so she was more focused on making sure she still looked presentable. It would probably dry by the time they got to... wherever they were going, and she could wash it later if it was a problem.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

"Forgive you for wh--" Lillith didn't get to finish her question. She stood there with her hair sopping wet, trying to see through the fog and... More importantly, trying to figure out where she was, and why she had water running down her face. The fog cleared a little bit, and she looked around in confusion. The graveyard? Why was she here? She managed to catch sight of Carmilla coming toward her, and headed to meet her.

The younger vampiress had woken from a dreamy haze, saw her sister a few yards away, and drew the natural conclusion that they had been together, going... somewhere? When she'd zoned out, and Lillith had walked on ahead of her.

"Sorry, I got distracted," she said. "What were we talking about?" Carmilla motioned for Lillith to lead on, refusing to admit she couldn't even remember where they were heading.

Carver held in a giggle, and sneaked over to pounce on Lock. She hadn't caught most of the show, but she had seen the middle trickster's confused expression and tail flick as he came out of his stupor. Obviously, he'd gotten caught in his own backsplash.

"Way to go, loser!" She punched him in the arm. "You're never gonna win at hide-and-shriek if you come out of hiding every time you see your girlfriend walk past!"

Banding Together in Halloween Town

"Fun with what?" She leaned forward until her face was a few inches above his.

Meanwhile, Carver had heard Carmilla's shriek, and was running over to "investigate". Which was to say, she wanted to see what she could pull on the vampiress while she was still dazed from the initial memory wipe.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carmilla and Lillith were chatting about girls as they took a stroll before dress rehearsals when a water balloon suddenly crashed into the younger twin.

"MY DRESS!" Carmilla shrieked. "Do you have any idea how long it's going take to clean this?!" She was about to continue when she noticed the fog spreading from the still-dripping stain. It quickly enveloped her, leaving neither route nor time for escape.

Lillith, being less concerned with the stain, reflexively shot away from her sister the moment the fog started to form. When the fog dissipated enough to see Carmilla through the haze, she was looking around and blinking slowly, as if she had been unexpectedly awakened before sundown. It seemed she was too confused to even think to hide her confusion, something her pride would normally never allow her to forgo.

Her sister dodged a second ballon, then whipped her head around to find the source. Lock was small, but not enough to completely hide himself in the shadows when someone was actively looking for him. She used her vampiric speed to launch herself at him before he could loose another balloon, knocked the slingshot out of his hand, and loomed over him menacingly.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver went with Shock to the pumpkin patch, retrieved her walkie talkie, then split off to head for the graveyard. After she confirmed that the graveyard was empty of corporeal denizens, she directed Lock to take a post near the entrance. She went deeper into the graveyard herself, ad waited. At the signal, the pumpkin creature immediately started making an utter ruckus around the mausoleum, banging on the great echoing doors as if they were drums, knocking over tombstones, and so on. It didn't take long for the ghosts, creeps, and shadows to come out to see who was causing the noise.

"What's all that racket?" one of the ghosts grouched.

"Jack's called a town meeting," Carver told them, knocking over another tombstone.

"Why didn't the Mayor alert us with his hearse, then?" a creep asked suspiciously.

Carver snickered. "Horn's clogged up, and the cat's missing its crank."

"By your doing, I expect," a second ghost grumbled.

"Wasn't that show at the Witches' Shop enough for you?" the wolf shadow growled.

Carver shrugged, still grinning. "To be fair, we clogged the horn two weeks ago. Not our fault it took so long for anyone to notice." She used her slingshot to bounce a rock off a headstone the two-headed shadow was resting against.

"Oh, how rude!" one of the heads exclaimed.

"Don't you have anything better to do than harass us?" the other head asked.

She put another rock into her slingshot. "Hey, I'm only on message duty 'cause Jack told us we had to fill in for the hearse until it gets fixed. You guys are the ones sitting around like open targets." She loosed her ammo through one of the ghosts.

The incorporeals chattered indignantly, but headed off into town. Carver casually shot at them a few more times before making her way back to Lock. She cackled to herself, but was inwardly rather relieved that they'd fallen for that; a water balloon wouldn't be able to hit them, and if the tricksters had to aim for the ground near them, there was a chance they'd be able to get away before the smaller clouds of fog could envelop them. But this way, they were flying directly into the thickest fog entirely willingly.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver took a few moments to perfectly line up her last little pumpkin, then backed up and did an impression of examining it like an artist judging their work. Finally, she nodded in satisfaction and headed back to Shock.

"I don't think his hat is the right cut for you anyway, Shock," she said cheerfully. "It's so long and skinny, it makes it look like the wearer is compensating for something. At least the Mayor can say he's only compensating for his tiny legs!"

The pumpkin creature offered her arm to Shock so they could skip away in a delightful manner that would leave the Mayor very uneasy and hopefully leave Jack assuming that their presence and cheery behavior was purely for that purpose, such that neither would think the check the fountain again.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver pouted.

"It's almost like--" she started.

"You don't trust us--" Shock continued.

"Jack," they both finished.

The pumpkin creature moved her armful of pumpkins out of the way and partially unwove her chest vines so that the Pumpkin King could get a relatively clear view of the cage's contents. While he wasn't foolish enough to assume there were no possible way anything in there could be used for mischief, the various assortment at least looked innocuous enough that he couldn't think of any major problems likely to be caused.

"...Okay." He straightened up. "I'll ask Sally to pick up some daphnius antidote when she has a free moment. You can come over to our house this evening, and we'll apply it then."

Jack had no reason to disbelieve Carver's injury, given the witches' report mentioned a daphnius stain on the floor and nearby glass shards, but he also didn't trust the tricksters to use any kind of potion just for its intended purpose.

...Bones. Carver wasn't expecting that. How was she going to get another daphnius potion to actually apply to-- Wait. Duh. The Prank. Jack wasn't going to remember this conversation by the evening.

She nodded with a smile. "Thank you, Jack."

With that, she headed over to the fountain to set up her pumpkins and slip the bottle into one of the larger jack o'lanterns sitting atop the fountain wall, trusting Shock to distract the twin-headed monster and skellington as she did so.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver looked visibly relieved when Shock brightened again. She did feel rather guilty for not thinking of the possible consequences of letting Carmilla continue, especially since she didn't stay to monitor the vampiress until she left. But she did trust her observations about the in-and-out attitude and nervousness when caught. She didn't think Carmilla was being extra devious and using the spice cabinet as an excuse.

Carver nodded. "Speaking of which, I'll get those reset while you guys finish getting ready for the day."

---

Carver and Shock made their way through the gate, arms lightly loaded with small pumpkins and jack o'lanterns. Carver had the broom tucked up her leg and woven into the vines again, and a long, thin bottle of fog juice tucked up the other leg. She had a light limp, but didn't milk it the way she had done when leaving the witches' shop the day before. It was just enough to keep up the ruse of a minor injury, but not enough to draw extra attention and garner inspection.

The square was mostly empty, save for the Pumpkin King and the Mayor, who were heading toward the Town Hall. The two tricksters gave no indication of paying them any mind, and headed for the fountain.

The Mayor was mid-sentence in a happy discussion with Jack about how well this year's plans were going thus far, when he noticed Shock and Carver. His smiling face quickly swiveled around to show the frown.

"J-Jack!" he said. "They're back!"

Jack turned, noticing the duo himself. He also noticed Lock and Barrel were nowhere in sight.

"Just out for a morning stroll, ladies?" he asked, with an air of suspicion.

"And helping," Shock said, sweetly.

"Helping or 'helping'?" Jack asked.

Shock held up one of the pumpkins for him to personally examine.

"Helping," she said.

Carver rolled her eyes, annoyed at the eternal suspicion aimed their way. "We're not always causing trouble. I do actually like carving up decorations, you know."

"Yes, well, after yesterday's little 'accident', I hope you understand why I have to double check," Jack replied diplomatically. "For the confidence of the citizens, of course."

The Mayor nodded, trying not to be too obvious that he was putting the Head Skellington between himself and the two tricksters.

Carver scowled, but dutifully allowed him to inspect all of their pumpkins. Having foreseen the suspicion and planned around it, of course there was absolutely nothing undue about any of them. Shock was cleared first, and went to deposit them at the base of the fountain wall. The pumpkin creature impatiently tapped her foot vines in a repetitious rhythm until hers were likewise deemed acceptable.

"I noticed you limping on your way over here," Jack commented. "What happened?"

She grunted. "Accidentally dropped a bottle of daphnius potion when the swamp smoke fell. Tried to catch it with my leg by reflex. Parts of my pants and vines got turned to hardwood." Carver shrugged. "I'll apply the antidote to it when I get a chance to buy some. Can I go now?"

Banding Together in Halloween Town

All three of Carver's eye pairs blinked in turn. Shit, she hadn't thought past the amusement to consider if there were another motive to Carmilla to break in. She thought hard for a moment, then slowly shook her head.

"There was a lot of trap noise while I was coming down, so I don't think she had time to do anything besides a bunch of dodging before I caught her. I watched her for a bit while she didn't know I was there, too, and she was poking around in the kitchen like she was looking for something. As soon as she found the spice cabinet, she immediately started dumping everything into a sack. She had the sort of demeanor of someone who wanted to get in, get a thing done, and get out as fast as possible."

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver's laughter could faintly be heard echoing down through the slide as she pulled herself to a standing position, periodically doubling over again whenever Barrel's complaints got loud enough to be heard up the pipe. Eventually, she managed to make her way down to the lair. See didn't bother changing; her pants needed repaired, Lock had more than one pair of pajama bottoms, and even though he was welcome to fight her for them, the odds of that were pretty low given their plans for the day.

She waited patiently for Shock to finish eating, then subtly motioned for the two of them to step out of earshot from the others. Once they were alone, Carver looked her friend in the eye and made her confession. "The traps and alarms detected an intruder last night. I went down to deal with them, and when I found out what the purpose of the visit was, I allowed her to finish. I know it's your turf here, but I figured you'd find it more amusing than bothersome."

She shrugged. "If you want to tie me up again and leave me on the lab doorstep for my dad to deal with, that's fair, but you should probably wait until we get the important stuff done, first."

She put the slightest stress on the word "important". Defying or ignoring Shock's authority was a big no-no, but the worse thing would be if it cost them the biggest prank of the century.