LePouvantail

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Shock fought the vines when she saw then unravel from the framework, but with Barrel hindering her movements, it didn't take long for Carver to tie her wrists together, then pull them into her chest. She bit at the vines to try to make Carver let go, and tried again to free her legs from under Barrel, to no avail.

With nothing else she could do, Shock let out a frustrated shriek. Barrel snorted awake again, acknowledged the shriek, then shifted for comfort.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Shock growled and pushed Carver's cage, as it was within her reach. Lock laughed and tossed a game piece into Carver's open cage, then dodged another vine.

"See you downstairs!" he said cheerfully, before he dove down the slide.

Shock threw another game piece at him right before he disappeared. It hit his foot and ricocheted back to the floor.

"I hate you both," she muttered.

She tried to shift again to get out from under Barrel. She managed to slide her legs out from under him on the other side, so now his body only pinned her across her waist and back. Shock then kicked his side to try to wake him. Barrel again snored louder, and clumsily tried to brush her foot away. Shock tapped her fingers along the floorboards for a moment, then kicked at Barrel from one side and sharply elbowed him at the other. That got him in mid-snore.

"Wh-wha--?"

"Get. Off."

Barrel sleepily nodded and rolled over, now completely pinning his sister's legs. He hardly noticed Carver's legs falling off his chest as he did.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

By morning, most of the town's spirits - literal and figurative - were still down. The streets were still nearly empty by noon. The witches' shop remained closed. Agnes and Aggie slowly took stock and noted anything they needed to replace. Agatha was free to roam for today.

Wolfman had passed out on the steps of Town Hall. The Mayor frantically scrambled for plans for the next Halloween and tried to comfort himself in that the biggest surprises would be even bigger next year to make up for the loss. The Wind rattled around town in a huff, just as dejected as the rest of the town. Jack, however, was keen on getting to the bottom of this.

Things were going do well yesterday...well...what was he doing yesterday? He placed around and his tower as he tried to retrace his steps. Sally had at some point sat down on the one window ledge with a seat and fallen asleep. Zero curled up in her lap and snoozed himself. Jack shot a glance to both of them with a smile, but then went back to his pacing. He bit back a yawn as he once more tried to focus on yesterday's events.

That for some reason, didn't come to mind.

Surely he spoke to the Mayor at some point? Jack glanced out some his tower windows to the square. Even from here, the fountain water shone with slime in the dull pumpkin sunlight. That sparked something.

Fountain...Mayor...it felt like it was starting to come together, but what else was there? Jack glanced at the plans on his desk. No, those were probably more important. Surely he was finalizing...something the day before Halloween. Rehearsals? A last-minute change?

Jack took a seat at his desk and looked over the plans again. All of the graphs, diagrams, charts, and notes made his skull hurt. He placed his skull in one hand and yawned again as he tried to look them over. He'd been up all night. Maybe some sleep would...

As soon as he closed his eye sockets, he started to drift off.

~~~

Lock was the first to wake up in the morning dogpile. Something soft, yet lumpy was under him, and as he shifted, he realized he'd at some point climbed on Barrel to use as a mattress. Barrel was sprawled on his back and snoring. Shock was curled up under him, her hat askew, and her crossed arms serving as a makeshift pillow. Carver was nearby, sprawled on her back with her legs over Barrel's chest, her cage completely open, and her vines spread out over the floor. Aside from pulling off their shoes, none of them had bothered to undress for bed. Lock stretched and climbed down from the pile - then screamed out a curse as he stepped on something.

Looking down, he noticed the black cat from Conquerer under his foot. Lock picked it up and threw it back in the box. Several more cards and game pieces were just as haphazardly thrown back in to clear a path to the slide. Hunger gripped him, and he didn't feel like waiting for Barrel to get up - or whine about the spices again.

Shock stirred a bit at the scream.

"Keepitdown," she said in a tired slur.

Lock used his tail to flick a game piece in her direction. It smacked against her hand. Shock brushed it away as it hit, then tried to roll over - a difficult task with Barrel collapsed on top of her. She groaned and tried to shift, and only when she failed two more times did she better wake.

"H-hey!" she cried as she tried to squirm out from under her little brother. "Move it, deadweight!"

Barrel only loudly snored in response, which got Lock to laugh at her misfortune. Shock grabbed a nearby game piece and threw it at Lock. He grinned and threw another one back.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Lock quickly snatched the hearse piece before Shock could. Barrel casually took the cauldron while they fought over it so the loser would be denied their second favorite.

The rest of the night would be chaos as they teamed up, back-stabbed each other, cheated, flipped the board twice, and ended the game as they always did in a brawl, until they finally tired themselves out. The floor was a mess of Conquerer pieces, with Carver the closest one to winning by right of having a bigger chunk of the board under control before it got flipped the second time.

~~~

Most of the rest of Halloween Town simply went home for uneasy unrest. A few citizens found themselves kept awake by the events, none more than Jack.

All of the year's preparations - gone! How did it come to this? Who could have done this? Even Sally didn't have an answer, and quietly tried to reassure him. Neither of them got much sleep.

Dr. Finklestein couldn't sleep either, and immediately went to work trying to puzzle out how they could have missed it. Wolfman howled in sorrow. Behemoth dejectedly tended to his pumpkins. The witches closed shop early, though not without questioning why their brooms were stuck to the walls and ceiling. A matter for the morrow, as the loss of Halloween weighed more heavily on their minds.

In Vampire Castle, the four vampire brothers paced together in a perfect circle. An outsider looking in might consider their perfect pace and distance from one another akin to a dreary carousel moving in perfect time.

"All of that time - wasted!" the smallest cried.

The largest one - Vlad - shook his head as he paced.

"My dear daughters," he said with a sigh. "All that practice, and for what? We've seen many Halloweens, but they've only just started."

"It's a shame for us all," another piped in.

They continued their pacing as they tried to ponder what to do.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

"None of us did," Lock said with a shrug.

"Nothing we can do now " Shock said.

She gave a pointed glance to Barrel.

"And I mean nothing. Let's not set anything off sooner than we have to."

Barrel pouted at her, then went to one of the shelves. It was high up, and only held his things. All three of them had a designated shelf that the other two didn't touch, with Shock's right below his, and Lock's under hers for ease of access. After pushing aside some strange objects he found in the sewer and his old teddy bear, Barrel accessed the snacks he kept for himself. He grabbed a box of bone biscuits that was dwindling down and sat down to finish it off in a huff.

"So what now?" Lock asked.

"I'm sure we can find something to do while the rest of the town is in a tizzy," Shock said sweetly.

Barrel shoved a bone biscuit in his mouth.

"Lith whath?" he asked as he chewed.

"We could always practice," Lock suggested.

Barrel grimaced. Shock shook her head.

"Not tonight. We're supposed to be dejected, remember? Although..."

She went to the armory and came back with with a board game, one she knew was bound to start a fight eventually. That was normal for them, and if any of the graveyard ghouls heard them, they'd be ignored.

"Conquerer?" she asked.

Lock and Barrel perked up.

"Dibs on Ghouls' Gulch!" Lock cried.

"What? No, I want it!" Barrel whined.

Shock grinned.

They'd end tonight on a good note.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

The high fives were accepted with much enthusiasm. After a few more rounds of laughter, the trio settled down.

"It's gonna be hard to top this one," Lock said. "It might be the greatest trick we've ever pulled!"

Shock settled down beside Carver.

"And it was my idea," she said with a grin.

"I should make something to celebrate!" Barrel said gleefully. He got up to do just that, before he remembered the empty spice cabinet and instantly deflated. "Oh. Wait..."

That got Lock and Shock to start laughing again.

"Forgetting something there?" Lock asked.

"Guuuuys!" Barrel whined.

His misery only lasted a moment.

"Although...she doesn't remember, right?"

"Not a thing," Shock said.

Barrel grinned.

"So we should be able to get them back!"

"Gotta be careful, there, bro," Lock said. "If she catches you and asks why, she'll start to remember why she has them."

Shock quickly perked at that.

"...The brooms are still glued in the shop."

She gave a quick glance to Carver.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Lock, Shock, and Barrel barely managed to hold in their laughter. In lieu of it, Shock threw a mini tantrum decrying it wasn't fair, Barrel started pulling candy from his hoodie to munch on to "comfort" himself, and Lock just buried his face in his hands as his tail twitched in a frantic mess behind him.

They kept it up as they headed back to the tree house, as some of the ghosts, shadows, and other incorporeals trailed with them for a time to make their way back to the graveyard. Once in the safety of their home, Shock lost it first.

"You were right, Carver! The Mayor's head almost came completely off!"

Lock fell over as he howled with laughter.

"The looks on all their faces!"

Barrel's giggles joined in the chorus.

"Even Jack didn't know what to do!"

He stopped for a moment.

"Well...I kind of feel bad about that..."

Shock scoffed.

"Jack will bounce back. I bet when he recovers, he'll think this was great!"

"We're going to-going to be in so m-m-much trouble when he does!" Lock exclaimed through another round of laughter. "W-w-worth it!"

What genres do you like?

I'll dabble around in a lot of things, but I find mystery, horror, and the supernatural tend to be my go-tos. Even if those aren't the base plot, they always end up creeping in sooner or later. If it has monsters, I want it.

Superheroes is another one I'm more likely to get behind, simply because it's so easy to AU. If you don't like modern day, try putting some of those characters in another era and see what comes up.

I also like slice of life, but it has to be with extraordinary characters/situations (fandom-specific, give me a handful of inmates at Arkham just getting on each other's nerves, forming alliances, and making enemies over who took the last pudding cup). I don't care about Susie worrying about who's going to take her to prom; I want the Riddler and the Music Meister being forced to share a cell, learning each other's tics, eventually planning an escape utilizing both of their talents, then becoming on-again-off-again partners in crime (did that once; it was tons of fun).

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Shock turned to her and pondered that as well.

"The fog should be clear by then," she said, "but you might be right. The best thing we can is observe--"

She shot a glare to both of her brothers.

"--And not screw anything else up. Got it?"

Barrel shrunk back with a gulp and a nod. Lock rolled his eyes and flicked his tail.

"Fine," he said.

"I'll periodically check to make sure it's safe," Shock said, with an indication towards the broom. "Once it clears, we'll go from there."

~~~

It took several hours for the fog to completely disperse. Shock used the broom to keep a safe distance, not only from the fog, but prying eyes. Remembering what Lock said about memory triggers, if someone saw her and questioned it, it could lead to further questioning. On her final check, she avoided the main gate and instead flew close, hid the broom, and climbed up the brick wall to peer over.

Everyone was going about their business. No one had noticed the clock yet. Shock then went back to the tree house to get Carver and her brothers. After stashing the broom again, they all went back into town to legitimately assist with preparations, making sure to be in or near the square. They also worked to keep their fellow citizens from taking a close look at Town Hall.

At long last, a frantic, desperate howl echoed throughout the town. It took all of the tricksters' effort to not laugh, and instead, they came running with the rest of the town to see what was up.

"What's going on?" cried the devil.

All three witches came running from the shop.

"There isn't a full moon!" Agnes cried. "What's he howling about?"

"It sounds urgent," Aggie said. "Hurry, Agatha!"

Agatha trailed behind her aunts and quickly joined the crowd. The Mayor and Jack both rushed out of the doors of Town Hall.

"What's all this?" Jack asked.

Wolfman desperately pointed to the countdown clock. Thanks to Shock's tampering earlier, it now read, "365 Days to Halloween" once midnight had passed.

"It's Halloween!" he cried with a frantic growl. "We missed it!"

A wave of panic surged through the crowd.

"No scares?" cried Clown.

"No blood-draining?" the vampires exclaimed in chorus.

"No tricks?" Lock, Shock, and Barrel said in fake solidarity.

Jack stared at the clock.

"I--how could this happen?"

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Lock glared at Carver.

"Oh, like you'd do better against Lillith's speed!"

Shock glared at him.

"Regardless," she said, "you still screwed up!"

Lock glowered as he sucked on the cigarette. A thought came to mind, and he smirked as he slowly let out the smoke.

"Actually..." he said, "this could be a good thing."

Barrel reached over to take a handful of popcorn, intrigued. How was his older brother going to worm his way out of this one?

"A good thing?" Shock asked. "What can possibly be good about this?"

Lock glanced at her, then at Carver.

"How long was my memory wiped," he asked, "and what brought it back?"

Shock's glare darkened, then softened as she realized what Lock was getting at. This was something they hadn't actually considered.

Or tested.

"...Filling you in," she said.

"I also pieced some of it together myself," he said, "when I saw and heard certain things."

Lock took a final drag to finish off the cigarette, then snuffed it against an already damaged part of the wall, where a few other round, cigarette burn marks were etched into the wood.

"And I can tell you, even with reminders, it takes time for a monster to remember something, but once it's triggered, it'll start reversing the forget-me-lots' effects. I still don't remember everything, but it's coming back."

"You also only had a small dose," Shock said. "It'll probably take longer for the rest of Halloween Town to get their minds back in place."

"True," Lock said, "but if they see or hear something familiar enough, even by accident--"

"--They may start to remember sooner than we want them to," Shock finished.

She paced the room a few times as she pondered it.

"...Then we need to strike--"

"--As soon as--" Barrel continued as he picked up on it too.

"--The fog clears," Lock finished.