Glowpussy! Oh dear Christ on a crispy cracker that is fucken funny!!!!!
Eden's Edge (Worm/Sonnie's Edge [Love, Death, and Robots])
Lab_Accident
A 2D 1D4
- Location
- Your dreams
Reading Carol is always... Tense. Even her comedy skits set my teeth on edge. Not because I think she's a mean person or desires to be cruel, but... Carol to me epitomizes the road to hell being paved with good intentions.
Holy hell, this was so damn charming and hilarious.
Right serious question time.
If Carol is hitting Taylor in the face with her ball...
does that count as teabagging?
If Carol is hitting Taylor in the face with her ball...
does that count as teabagging?
This felt like an omake, to be honest. For all its adorableness.
I never knew "throw Carol face-first into dealing with details of her kids' sex life" was a story arc I would appreciate this much.
Love the relaxed feel, and the crew deserves it since we all know PRT are going to start being even bigger assholes in short order. Let them have this respite, and maybe they will find a new relationship configuration that works for them now and will let them cope with the shitty circumstances coming their way with a modicum of grace.
Love the relaxed feel, and the crew deserves it since we all know PRT are going to start being even bigger assholes in short order. Let them have this respite, and maybe they will find a new relationship configuration that works for them now and will let them cope with the shitty circumstances coming their way with a modicum of grace.
- Location
- Norfolk, England
Glowpussy is fucking hilarious, but what really set me off laughing was the fact that Amy was getting off on 'The Thing', during a family movie night!
SolarFlare
(Verified Cape)
- Location
- Brockton Bay, USA
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If you don't like it, don't read it. Fun fact: Writing nothing but unrelenting misery and drama isn't fun. Sometimes, you want to lighten the mood. Which a chapter like this is good for.
Yes, curious.
It's guilt, Tay, you're smelling Carol's guilt about her own unfaithfulness. Amy is the queen witch of guilty pleasure, and you know that smell.
I missed this detail the first time I read it; nice work subtly weaving future plots in there
.We know this iteration of Carol is definitely not a through-and-through bitch like she is often painted as, because she was self-aware and dorky enough to ask Taylor about her kink through her giant blush.
- Pronouns
- Masculine
Aaaaah, I didn't know I needed a more... sane Carol getting tormented with sex talk by a large dinosaur in my life.
But I am glad I got it.
Poor Amy is both completely confused and going to drag Taylor into her bedroom when all of this is over.
Shaper is probably going [DATA! Have the good drugs!] to Amy's brain throughout all of this. All the happy juices flowing in the most lewd, encouraging ways. If Shaper has anything to say about it, Carol WILL be Mom in Law sooner rather than later.
Heh. Torment the bouncing ball~! Torment the bouncing ball~!
...Also, one wonders more about all of Carol's hang ups. God she has been through hell in her life. But she hasn't let it utterly destroy Amy. Which is god damn surprising considering canon. I mean, she has still been Carol. But things are better.
And Vicky is all tatted up now! That's going to cause some innnteresting reactions.
But I am glad I got it.
Poor Amy is both completely confused and going to drag Taylor into her bedroom when all of this is over.
Shaper is probably going [DATA! Have the good drugs!] to Amy's brain throughout all of this. All the happy juices flowing in the most lewd, encouraging ways. If Shaper has anything to say about it, Carol WILL be Mom in Law sooner rather than later.
Heh. Torment the bouncing ball~! Torment the bouncing ball~!
...Also, one wonders more about all of Carol's hang ups. God she has been through hell in her life. But she hasn't let it utterly destroy Amy. Which is god damn surprising considering canon. I mean, she has still been Carol. But things are better.
And Vicky is all tatted up now! That's going to cause some innnteresting reactions.
Hah, agree 100%. A beasty-Tay barking "Glowpussy!" while bounding after a lightbulb Carol is positively wholesome to my weirdly warped brain, compared to the grim storyline of canon.
Quick question: What was up with the tattoo that Vicky had going up (iirc) her chest?
Seemed silvery and metallic, and looked odd to Taylor's eyes even when it wasn't glowing in the dark. Did Amy give Victoria scales or something?
Seemed silvery and metallic, and looked odd to Taylor's eyes even when it wasn't glowing in the dark. Did Amy give Victoria scales or something?
I think that was from Sarah's point of view, not Taylor's? Ooh, now that you mention metallic, I wonder if it's a tattoo of knight armor like Victoria wanted?
Kreivan Reyhers
The Edgebringr
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He
I think they meant going down actually
The initial/in the dark description was Sarah's, but I was referencing:
Which is from Taylor's POV
R3N41SS4NC3
Professional Carol Understander
- Pronouns
- It/Its
Okay so i just reread edens edge (third time thru, now) immediately after reading it a couple weeks ago, and just. Wow. Fantastic. This is probably my favorite wormfic of all time. The characters are all full and real and feel so good, the story and character arcs are amazing, and just. Somehow you've made Carol - fucking CAROL - my favorite character. Like, i can barely read her and Taylor's heart to heart without tearing up, and i reread her interlude between rereads of EE and it just makes it all hurt so much more/better because with your Carol i absolutely get where shes coming from, how shes thinking, her overwhelming need for control and clarity wrestling with her insecurities and fears of control and clarity, and i just!!! Wow. Seriously, this fic is master-class marvelous.
(also i love the body morphing horror lesbians, its perfect)
(Rly hope this isnt a necro lol)
(also i love the body morphing horror lesbians, its perfect)
(Rly hope this isnt a necro lol)
PrognosticHannya
Far Too Enthusiastic About Etymology
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Malcom X was a member of the Nation of Islam that later left the organization, the Black Panthers were a radical Maoist organization founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. And unlike the Nation of Islam, they were non-violent.
I Am In Disguise, an Eden's Edge Halloween Special
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I now have a Ko-Fi! And people are amazing @~@ you are all amazing and I don't know how to repay your kindness
Special thanks to my lovely co-author and wife, @hellgodsrus, without whom I would never would have been able to take part in creating half my fics, and our girlfriend @SolarFlare for being awesome and also betaing! Also special thanks Prime Betas @Tamahori and @32nd_freeze and @Ganurath for being betas and feeding me validation and feedback between updates! And also new Prime Beta Lucky! Who is on Questionable Questing and writing most of the NSFW omakes~
I Am In Disguise
An Eden's Edge Halloween Special
-.-.-
The first sign of things to come was being woken up by a wavering voice over her going, "OooooOOOooooOOOO!"
Despite the bed being unfamiliar, the action wasn't. She cracked her eyes open slowly to the faint sight of someone in a sheet floating in the darkness. "Victoria, it is… two in the morning on October the 30th."
"WhoooOOOoooo is Victoriaaaaaa. I am a spooky ghost! Gimme candy!"
"Urgh…" Carol groped blindly beside the bed, eventually finding the handful of sweets she had prepared for this, hurling them into the air before closing her eyes.
"The ghost of SpooOOookoween is satisfied for now!"
"Go away." She buried her face in her pillow. "I am attempting to sleep."
"I will retuuuuurn!"
The sound of the door opening, and the door closing.
Carol shifted restlessly, and attempted to return to slumber. But she couldn't, because with Victoria's arrival over her bed, she knew what time had come round on the dread hands of the clock of the year.
It was Halloween once again.
-.-.-
Halloween. A time of costumes and charades, a time of candy and horror. A time of tradition and tale-telling.
And, despite all the lights, a time of darkness.
See, Carol didn't like the darkness. It reminded her of her orb, of the Basement. The fact that a significant portion of the lights used in the decorations served more to highlight the darkness than to illuminate it - well, she didn't usually have a good time.
Add to that fact that in Brockton Bay, a lot of people chose to dress up as Capes - well. It left her on a bit of a hair-trigger at times. The only saving grace had actually come from the Marquis, of all people, who had called a neutral meeting back in the day - everyone who had attended (or sent someone to represent them, at least) had agreed that, in the interest of not causing mass civilian casualties from mistaken identity, they would avoid going out in costume. And if they did, they wouldn't start any fights. No antagonising. At the time, Carol had been loath to give any ground, but the rest of the Brigade had overruled her, and after some discussion after the fact, had convinced her.
Brockton Bay, known primarily for being the Cape Capital of America, had a city-wide truce for Halloween. The day before, the day and night itself, and the day after. It wasn't until the first Halloween that Carol realised the day after was for everyone to recover from the inevitable hangovers. Though, she wasn't sure if that was for the leaders or the others until the second, in which she had realised the answer was yes, all of us need some time to recover from that drunken shitshow, I can't believe I almost axed a child's face off for dressing like the Marquis.
As the Brigade became New Wave, taking Victoria and Amy out in their costumes to trick or treat - she had managed to foster it off to her sister, in exchange for several paperwork responsibilities she'd rather not do, but would happily do instead of going out on this dreadful night (not that it stopped the yearly tradition of 'ghost Victoria begs for sweets', which only intensified after she got powers that allowed her to project 'an aura of spookiness' and actually fly). As the girls got older and stayed at home instead of trick or treating - or happened to be grounded and unable to go to the Stansfield boy's party - they answered the door for trick or treaters, happily handed out candy and gushed over cute costumes - Amelia in particular seemed more relaxed, yet stressed at the same time, seeing all the possibilities children came to their door with. Carol supposed that first year, when a child vomited all over her jeans, suffering from - had it been simply too much sugar or laced candy from the bad parts of town? She couldn't remember, but - it had definitely soured the experience for Amelia, surely.
And now… this.
Halloween at the Garden of Eden.
Why? Annette had proposed the idea after Sarah mentioned the truce that went on, something the Travelers - understandable, they weren't local - and the Undersiders - who had no excuse bar their youth - hadn't been aware of.
Well. Annette hadn't been aware either, but she was so new to the life it was entirely understandable. Most capes learned after their first Halloween, often through the PRT if not one of the gangs or New Wave. Uber and Leet always did a 'Halloween stream', unfortunately, but it had consistently been their least… damning endeavours in the last few years. She still wasn't looking forward to whatever they planned to do this year, but she could be confident in it being someone else's problem.
She hated it, but she had to take her hands off the wheel sometimes, lest she crack.
Something scuttled across the floor, Carol barely catching a hint of yellowed chitin-like skin before whatever it was vanished under a cabinet.
She wasn't entirely sure how, but either Annette or Amelia had made… things. They called them 'decorations', but - in a town where the PRT Director was a survivor of Ellisburg, biotinkers and biostrikers making 'decorations' was not what she would have called a bright idea. Especially these ones.
Speaking of which, one was leaping at her right now.
She bisected it with a whip-flash of light, glad that these recreations didn't have acidic blood as its legs curled in on itself and green goo dripped onto her shoe as she kicked the wriggling remains aside. According to Sarah, who had let herself be facehugged four times already for fuck's sake they would all be dead if it was real xenomorphs, they 'laid' a small piece of chocolate on your tongue then left, but Carol wasn't going to allow an experimental, likely rushed piece of biohardware anywhere near her mouth. Especially not one based on the movies where doing that was invariably a very bad idea.
She had to find Annette and convince her to stop making these things before the evening started properly.
-.-.-
The communal eating area was no help. Partly because there was only the vehicle tinker there, and also because there were dancing skeletons in the corner.
"Yeah, haven't seen the boss today." Carol would have been eyeing the slumped over woman's despicably slatternly and horribly cliched nurse outfit if she wasn't incredibly distracted by the skeletons who were - was that the dance from Pulp Fiction? How were they even moving, they didn't seem to have any muscles or tendons - "You sticking around for the movie marathon later? Already invited your sister and her husband."
"Movie marathon?"
"Yeah! We're watching a bunch of like, classic terrigood Stephen King adaptions. So - Maximum Overdrive first, to get in the mood."
This drew Carol's attention enough to look over. "The one about the killer truck."
"I mean, there's more vehicles than the killer truck, but sure. Then Christine."
Carol was beginning to sense a pattern, but two data points - "The killer car movie."
"Yeah! Then there was this TV show adaption of From a Buick 8 a few years back with the special effects done by this dimension shift tinker, so I'm hoping to get some good inspo from the behind the scenes stuff - aww where are you going - ?"
Carol didn't even bother with a response. She just left.
-.-.-
The main arena wasn't abandoned like she assumed it would be. Instead, it was filled with… decorations. Vines twisting up supports and hanging from the ceiling, each vine a different colour and yet none of them the colour vines were meant to be.
And that wasn't even mentioning the eyes some of them had. Blinking and staring at her whenever she moved.
And she knew immediately this wasn't Annette's work. Lilith's work. Because, like a lady in her bower, sat Amelia bracketed by thorned vines and with a beast's head in her lap.
Taylor's, specifically.
"Amelia?" She called, striding down the steps to the edge of the pit and trying not to shudder as all those eyes turned to look at her with the intensity of a mindless thing. "Wh- … are you green?"
Amelia's head shot up. "Carol! Um. It's just a thin film. It's actually a kind of algae mimicking a body paint - " And what was she wearing? It looked like a literal - leotard of leaves and vines under a dark green jacket and bright green tights.
"Amy won't give me pigtails!"
"You put your human body's hair in pigtails I don't need to give this body - and how would pigtails even work - "
Carol cleared her throat. "Have… have either of you seen Annette anywhere?"
"Uh. I think Mom mentioned something about philistines? Or - I dunno I kind of tuned it out she was having another one of her Professor rants." Khanivore shifted and started glowing. Designs of fanciful skulls and plants and dots - "Like my tattoos?"
"That's…" Carol wracked her brains for a moment, trying to remember. "Day of the Dead? I thought it was spanish."
"Yeah but now I'm bright and colourful!" Her tails were wagging. "Anyway that's costume idea three but I also need costume idea two in this body - "
"Absolutely not." Amelia poked at Khanivore's hide. "We're trying to avoid you becoming a horror monster, remember? PR Friendly. Khanivore in satin short-shorts is not -"
Carol hurriedly exited stage left.
-.-.-
"Why, our gorgeous commander? I haven't seen her I'm afraid." The girl waved her fan in front of her face, dressed in impeccable black lace and a corset that was doing disquieting things to her figure, her face half-shaded by a veil with stitched flowers picked across it.
Carol frowned at her. "... Tattletale?" she guessed.
"No, I'm Regent actually. I am the gothic heroine - " they pronounced it like the drug but with a drawn out drawl on the last syllable, " - doomed to fall into the arms of the muscular, romantic hero after being haunted by frightful nightmares, like the orange juice spitting bats I saw earlier. Tats is being a Lovecraftian protagonist who sees unspeakable horrors and in understanding them is driven mad, so no change required from her."
"Actually -" another one of them, Grue, who had merely put on a pinstripe suit and painted his motorcycle helmet to look like Jack Skellington's, interrupted. "I think she found an octopus and duct taped it to a hat before proclaiming herself to be the head priestess of our lord and devourer Cthulhu while cackling maniacally."
"Like I said. No change."
Carol left.
-.-.-
Finally, finally, she found Lilith, who - wasn't dressed up. Well, she was wearing her Lilith costume, but didn't seem to be getting into the swing of things, which Carol wasn't sure if she appreciated or should be concerned about. "Lilith!" she called, because it was only polite since she was in costume, "Where have you been?"
"Hello." Lilith turned to her and smiled widely. "I am in disguise."
"I - I can see that."
"I am in disguise."
Carol frowned. That - that was concerning. "Are you… okay?"
Lilith nodded, her smile growing. "I am in disguise."
"What do you mean, you're in disguise?"
And that was when Lilith unravelled into a ball of tentacles and flesh that leapt at her.
-.-.-
Sarah's head perked up. "Did you hear that?"
Annette paused mid-rant to frown. "Hear what?"
Rolling her eyes, Sarah just shrugged. "Must have been my imagination."
-.-.-
Carol shuddered, shivered, and tried to get the goop out of her hair. Again. She was coated in it, a bright pink slop that reminded her far too much of highly oxygenated blood. And that - she idly flinched and flicked another stray tentacle away from trying to coil around her arm - was only the start of it.
"Got caught by one of Amy's little surprises, huh?" said a young woman with an octopus on her head and a tweed jacket. "She's got two kinds running around. Monsters from the Thing, and ones who say they're going to hatch the first soldiers of the skeleton war at midnight."
Carol stopped to stare.
"She also fixed my hat for me!"
The octopus, hearing the word 'hat', started flailing its tentacles about, slapping the girl's cheek twice.
"The… Thing?" She remembered that movie. Vaguely. Parts of it she wished she didn't.
"Yeah. Weird choice given how attracted to the monsters in it she is, but I'm not one to kink-shame."
Attracted? She shoved that information as deep into the dark depths of her mind that she refused to touch as she could. "And the… leaping?"
"Simple, don't ask about their disguises, and they don't try to glomp you. By the way, do you have a minute to talk about our great lord and devourer -"
"No, sorry, I'm looking for Lilith."
"Well, I'm not going to tell someone who raised a repressed soul like Amelia where she is. See, I'm actually the greatest horror of all." The girl wiggled her fingers. "Confronting your trauma."
Carol fled.
-.-.-
"Victoria?" Carol tried to keep the pleading tone out of her voice as she stared at the sheet hovering two feet off the ground. "Please tell me that's you."
The sheet said nothing.
"If it isn't you, please tell me now to save me the embarrassment."
The sheet turned to her.
"... say something? Anything?"
"I am in disguise."
Carol shrieked and ripped the sheet off - there was nothing under it!
She ran.
-.-.-
"That was cruel." Noelle poked at a comatose Jess's shoulder. "Funny, but cruel."
"Worth it." The sheet floated over. "Anyways, I think that's four people we've gotten now?"
"Yeah." Noelle looked off to the side, where Lindsay and Marissa were still making out, vampire fangs flashing in the evening light. "I hope those two don't dehydrate themselves too much."
-.-.-
Why. Why did she ever let herself hope things would be better with more adult supervision at the Garden than at home. She collapsed onto the couch in the breakroom, completely uncaring that she still had her clothes somewhat covered in congealed 'Thing' goop. If anyone had a problem with the stains, they could take it up with Amelia. Or else.
"Hey, Mom!"
She cracked open her eyes. "Victoria, thank - what on Earth are you wearing?"
"Uh, a costume? It's Halloween."
"That is not a costume, that is - "
It appeared to be a series of studded leather belts wrapped asymmetrically around her daughter and displaying far far too much. For some reason she'd wrapped a red cloth around her head as well as some sort of bandana -
"Uh, yes it is a costume, Mom. I'm Drillbitch. She's this minor villain, part of this like road group - the costume's entirely accurate apart from the lack of mask and wearing a bandana to show I'm not actually her, which is a tradition among the Mexican caped community which isn't quite Texas where she originated but it's close to it and there's a common theory she's actually white passing Latina - wait, is this cultural appropriation? Is my costume cultural appropriation? I would ask Lilith, but she seemed… busy. Anyway, do you like it?"
She spun, which made parts of her Carol did not want to think about shake distractingly. She had thigh high platform boots for fuck's sake.
"... hrm." On one hand - it was accurate. On the other hand, it was a villain costume. A scandalous villain costume. Back to the first hand, if she did say she liked it - perhaps she could get Lilith's location out of her.
"I even hand distressed the leather, and kept the burn marks and scars from her fight with, uh, that pyrokinetic hero… Flambe, that was it."
"It is… impressively accurate." Not that she would know, having never had the time or energy to investigate capes outside the immediate area or worth inter-state attention, but… if what Victoria was saying was true, then. It was impressive that she would go to such efforts. "Where did you see Lilith?"
"Oh, she was talking to Amy about those things she made that mimic that one horror movie about the sexually transmitted demon somewhere in the warehouse area?"
The what.
She frowned heavily, and asked, voice stern, "Explain."
-.-.-
"Neil, what are you wearing?" Her voice was tired, her bones were tired, her soul just wanted tonight to be over already.
And then Mark stepped out wearing something similar and -
"I. Do I really want to know?"
"Mexican wrestlers." Neil grinned widely.
"Why?"
"Well, after Taylor decided on the Day of the Dead tattoos, we thought it'd be a great way to just… show off I guess." Neil shrugged. Because of course he was shirtless, wearing nothing more than what looked like satin pants and a macho mask. His was red. Mark's was blue.
Carol groaned into her hands. "Please just tell me you've seen Sarah or Annette somewhere?"
"We've… seen a few of them, actually." Mark looked up. "It's weird."
"Have you tried calling them?"
Carol could regret the headache she got from slamming her forehead into the locker doors tomorrow.
-.-.-
Director Piggot glared at the assembled capes. "What the hell makes you think Panacea needs a Stranger rating?"
Everyone - including Assault - turned to look at the smiling Assault, who replied with great glee, "Hello, I am in disguise!"
"What do you mean, you're in disguise -"
-.-.-
"Hey, Amy?" Taylor looked over Amy's latest creation, a zombie-like creature that was hopefully going to shamble instead of sprint around like a chicken with it's head cut off like the last one. "The uh. Things. How are we going to deal with them when Halloween ends?"
"Oh, they'll just starve." Amy mentioned casually, like it wasn't a horrifying experience - actually, considering the Things probably didn't have pain nerves or any instinct beyond telling people they were in disguise and glomping anyone who asked… "They don't have stomachs and only enough nutrients to keep moving at their light wandering pace for… forty eight hours at most. Every glomp cuts that down by another eight or so."
"Huh. And the facehuggers?"
"Same, but they'll all probably die out by four in the morning."
"Phew. That's one problem solved."
-.-.-
The doctor looked at the woman laying on the gurney with a smile, and then back to the patient sheet clipboard. "Ma'am, I don't know how the hell you survived to this age without a stomach, but we're putting you on a feeding drip immediately."
The woman just continued to smile. "I am in disguise!"
-.-.-
"Anyways," Taylor continued, "Amy, do you want to have kids?"
Amy froze as the zombie she was working on screamed, let out a 'hurk!', clutched its chest, and fell over, dead.
"... did you just outsource your heart attack?"
"Sh-shut up."
-.-.-
As Carol headed to where she now knew the people she were looking for had gone, she passed through the hall. Right about the same time as Taylor - two Taylors, three Victorias, and one Amelia stepped out, joining a singular Victoria in the hall.
"That was fun." Taylor purred - Carol realised none of them had seen her.
"Yeah, it was," one of the Victorias nodded, causing Amy to freeze.
"U-um."
"Hello, I am in disguise," offered the other Victoria, who had been waiting in the hall.
"Victoria?" Taylor's eyebrows were raised as her doppleganger said hello. "You switched out of your costume pretty quickly."
"... Hello, I am in disguise?"
Carol could… think about this never.
-.-.-
"There you are!"
"Hello, Carol." Annette raised her head from where she was slumped over the table, half-empty wine bottle in hand. "Care for a drink?"
Carol snatched the bottle and eagerly gulped down what she could before her lungs protested. "Why. Why did you make facehuggers?"
"Oh, here we go again," Sarah muttered, dropping her face in her hand and shaking her head.
"I didn't. This crass - popular culture phenomena is not my doing. Hallow's Eve is not some sort of opportunity to pretend to be a princess or watch movies, nor is it about gothic horror. It, traditionally, is a time of wild magic, spirits of the dead, and religion - highly problematic, yes, but undeniably so - " She pulled at the roots of her hair. "I do not enjoy Halloween."
Annette - hated it too?
Carol couldn't - wouldn't stop herself. She opened up her arms towards Lilith as the door opened again and voices started calling out. She ignored them. "Kiss me."
The horrified screams of their children were music to her ears.
-.-.-
Special thanks to my lovely co-author and wife, @hellgodsrus, without whom I would never would have been able to take part in creating half my fics, and our girlfriend @SolarFlare for being awesome and also betaing! Also special thanks Prime Betas @Tamahori and @32nd_freeze and @Ganurath for being betas and feeding me validation and feedback between updates! And also new Prime Beta Lucky! Who is on Questionable Questing and writing most of the NSFW omakes~
I Am In Disguise
An Eden's Edge Halloween Special
-.-.-
The first sign of things to come was being woken up by a wavering voice over her going, "OooooOOOooooOOOO!"
Despite the bed being unfamiliar, the action wasn't. She cracked her eyes open slowly to the faint sight of someone in a sheet floating in the darkness. "Victoria, it is… two in the morning on October the 30th."
"WhoooOOOoooo is Victoriaaaaaa. I am a spooky ghost! Gimme candy!"
"Urgh…" Carol groped blindly beside the bed, eventually finding the handful of sweets she had prepared for this, hurling them into the air before closing her eyes.
"The ghost of SpooOOookoween is satisfied for now!"
"Go away." She buried her face in her pillow. "I am attempting to sleep."
"I will retuuuuurn!"
The sound of the door opening, and the door closing.
Carol shifted restlessly, and attempted to return to slumber. But she couldn't, because with Victoria's arrival over her bed, she knew what time had come round on the dread hands of the clock of the year.
It was Halloween once again.
-.-.-
Halloween. A time of costumes and charades, a time of candy and horror. A time of tradition and tale-telling.
And, despite all the lights, a time of darkness.
See, Carol didn't like the darkness. It reminded her of her orb, of the Basement. The fact that a significant portion of the lights used in the decorations served more to highlight the darkness than to illuminate it - well, she didn't usually have a good time.
Add to that fact that in Brockton Bay, a lot of people chose to dress up as Capes - well. It left her on a bit of a hair-trigger at times. The only saving grace had actually come from the Marquis, of all people, who had called a neutral meeting back in the day - everyone who had attended (or sent someone to represent them, at least) had agreed that, in the interest of not causing mass civilian casualties from mistaken identity, they would avoid going out in costume. And if they did, they wouldn't start any fights. No antagonising. At the time, Carol had been loath to give any ground, but the rest of the Brigade had overruled her, and after some discussion after the fact, had convinced her.
Brockton Bay, known primarily for being the Cape Capital of America, had a city-wide truce for Halloween. The day before, the day and night itself, and the day after. It wasn't until the first Halloween that Carol realised the day after was for everyone to recover from the inevitable hangovers. Though, she wasn't sure if that was for the leaders or the others until the second, in which she had realised the answer was yes, all of us need some time to recover from that drunken shitshow, I can't believe I almost axed a child's face off for dressing like the Marquis.
As the Brigade became New Wave, taking Victoria and Amy out in their costumes to trick or treat - she had managed to foster it off to her sister, in exchange for several paperwork responsibilities she'd rather not do, but would happily do instead of going out on this dreadful night (not that it stopped the yearly tradition of 'ghost Victoria begs for sweets', which only intensified after she got powers that allowed her to project 'an aura of spookiness' and actually fly). As the girls got older and stayed at home instead of trick or treating - or happened to be grounded and unable to go to the Stansfield boy's party - they answered the door for trick or treaters, happily handed out candy and gushed over cute costumes - Amelia in particular seemed more relaxed, yet stressed at the same time, seeing all the possibilities children came to their door with. Carol supposed that first year, when a child vomited all over her jeans, suffering from - had it been simply too much sugar or laced candy from the bad parts of town? She couldn't remember, but - it had definitely soured the experience for Amelia, surely.
And now… this.
Halloween at the Garden of Eden.
Why? Annette had proposed the idea after Sarah mentioned the truce that went on, something the Travelers - understandable, they weren't local - and the Undersiders - who had no excuse bar their youth - hadn't been aware of.
Well. Annette hadn't been aware either, but she was so new to the life it was entirely understandable. Most capes learned after their first Halloween, often through the PRT if not one of the gangs or New Wave. Uber and Leet always did a 'Halloween stream', unfortunately, but it had consistently been their least… damning endeavours in the last few years. She still wasn't looking forward to whatever they planned to do this year, but she could be confident in it being someone else's problem.
She hated it, but she had to take her hands off the wheel sometimes, lest she crack.
Something scuttled across the floor, Carol barely catching a hint of yellowed chitin-like skin before whatever it was vanished under a cabinet.
She wasn't entirely sure how, but either Annette or Amelia had made… things. They called them 'decorations', but - in a town where the PRT Director was a survivor of Ellisburg, biotinkers and biostrikers making 'decorations' was not what she would have called a bright idea. Especially these ones.
Speaking of which, one was leaping at her right now.
She bisected it with a whip-flash of light, glad that these recreations didn't have acidic blood as its legs curled in on itself and green goo dripped onto her shoe as she kicked the wriggling remains aside. According to Sarah, who had let herself be facehugged four times already for fuck's sake they would all be dead if it was real xenomorphs, they 'laid' a small piece of chocolate on your tongue then left, but Carol wasn't going to allow an experimental, likely rushed piece of biohardware anywhere near her mouth. Especially not one based on the movies where doing that was invariably a very bad idea.
She had to find Annette and convince her to stop making these things before the evening started properly.
-.-.-
The communal eating area was no help. Partly because there was only the vehicle tinker there, and also because there were dancing skeletons in the corner.
"Yeah, haven't seen the boss today." Carol would have been eyeing the slumped over woman's despicably slatternly and horribly cliched nurse outfit if she wasn't incredibly distracted by the skeletons who were - was that the dance from Pulp Fiction? How were they even moving, they didn't seem to have any muscles or tendons - "You sticking around for the movie marathon later? Already invited your sister and her husband."
"Movie marathon?"
"Yeah! We're watching a bunch of like, classic terrigood Stephen King adaptions. So - Maximum Overdrive first, to get in the mood."
This drew Carol's attention enough to look over. "The one about the killer truck."
"I mean, there's more vehicles than the killer truck, but sure. Then Christine."
Carol was beginning to sense a pattern, but two data points - "The killer car movie."
"Yeah! Then there was this TV show adaption of From a Buick 8 a few years back with the special effects done by this dimension shift tinker, so I'm hoping to get some good inspo from the behind the scenes stuff - aww where are you going - ?"
Carol didn't even bother with a response. She just left.
-.-.-
The main arena wasn't abandoned like she assumed it would be. Instead, it was filled with… decorations. Vines twisting up supports and hanging from the ceiling, each vine a different colour and yet none of them the colour vines were meant to be.
And that wasn't even mentioning the eyes some of them had. Blinking and staring at her whenever she moved.
And she knew immediately this wasn't Annette's work. Lilith's work. Because, like a lady in her bower, sat Amelia bracketed by thorned vines and with a beast's head in her lap.
Taylor's, specifically.
"Amelia?" She called, striding down the steps to the edge of the pit and trying not to shudder as all those eyes turned to look at her with the intensity of a mindless thing. "Wh- … are you green?"
Amelia's head shot up. "Carol! Um. It's just a thin film. It's actually a kind of algae mimicking a body paint - " And what was she wearing? It looked like a literal - leotard of leaves and vines under a dark green jacket and bright green tights.
"Amy won't give me pigtails!"
"You put your human body's hair in pigtails I don't need to give this body - and how would pigtails even work - "
Carol cleared her throat. "Have… have either of you seen Annette anywhere?"
"Uh. I think Mom mentioned something about philistines? Or - I dunno I kind of tuned it out she was having another one of her Professor rants." Khanivore shifted and started glowing. Designs of fanciful skulls and plants and dots - "Like my tattoos?"
"That's…" Carol wracked her brains for a moment, trying to remember. "Day of the Dead? I thought it was spanish."
"Yeah but now I'm bright and colourful!" Her tails were wagging. "Anyway that's costume idea three but I also need costume idea two in this body - "
"Absolutely not." Amelia poked at Khanivore's hide. "We're trying to avoid you becoming a horror monster, remember? PR Friendly. Khanivore in satin short-shorts is not -"
Carol hurriedly exited stage left.
-.-.-
"Why, our gorgeous commander? I haven't seen her I'm afraid." The girl waved her fan in front of her face, dressed in impeccable black lace and a corset that was doing disquieting things to her figure, her face half-shaded by a veil with stitched flowers picked across it.
Carol frowned at her. "... Tattletale?" she guessed.
"No, I'm Regent actually. I am the gothic heroine - " they pronounced it like the drug but with a drawn out drawl on the last syllable, " - doomed to fall into the arms of the muscular, romantic hero after being haunted by frightful nightmares, like the orange juice spitting bats I saw earlier. Tats is being a Lovecraftian protagonist who sees unspeakable horrors and in understanding them is driven mad, so no change required from her."
"Actually -" another one of them, Grue, who had merely put on a pinstripe suit and painted his motorcycle helmet to look like Jack Skellington's, interrupted. "I think she found an octopus and duct taped it to a hat before proclaiming herself to be the head priestess of our lord and devourer Cthulhu while cackling maniacally."
"Like I said. No change."
Carol left.
-.-.-
Finally, finally, she found Lilith, who - wasn't dressed up. Well, she was wearing her Lilith costume, but didn't seem to be getting into the swing of things, which Carol wasn't sure if she appreciated or should be concerned about. "Lilith!" she called, because it was only polite since she was in costume, "Where have you been?"
"Hello." Lilith turned to her and smiled widely. "I am in disguise."
"I - I can see that."
"I am in disguise."
Carol frowned. That - that was concerning. "Are you… okay?"
Lilith nodded, her smile growing. "I am in disguise."
"What do you mean, you're in disguise?"
And that was when Lilith unravelled into a ball of tentacles and flesh that leapt at her.
-.-.-
Sarah's head perked up. "Did you hear that?"
Annette paused mid-rant to frown. "Hear what?"
Rolling her eyes, Sarah just shrugged. "Must have been my imagination."
-.-.-
Carol shuddered, shivered, and tried to get the goop out of her hair. Again. She was coated in it, a bright pink slop that reminded her far too much of highly oxygenated blood. And that - she idly flinched and flicked another stray tentacle away from trying to coil around her arm - was only the start of it.
"Got caught by one of Amy's little surprises, huh?" said a young woman with an octopus on her head and a tweed jacket. "She's got two kinds running around. Monsters from the Thing, and ones who say they're going to hatch the first soldiers of the skeleton war at midnight."
Carol stopped to stare.
"She also fixed my hat for me!"
The octopus, hearing the word 'hat', started flailing its tentacles about, slapping the girl's cheek twice.
"The… Thing?" She remembered that movie. Vaguely. Parts of it she wished she didn't.
"Yeah. Weird choice given how attracted to the monsters in it she is, but I'm not one to kink-shame."
Attracted? She shoved that information as deep into the dark depths of her mind that she refused to touch as she could. "And the… leaping?"
"Simple, don't ask about their disguises, and they don't try to glomp you. By the way, do you have a minute to talk about our great lord and devourer -"
"No, sorry, I'm looking for Lilith."
"Well, I'm not going to tell someone who raised a repressed soul like Amelia where she is. See, I'm actually the greatest horror of all." The girl wiggled her fingers. "Confronting your trauma."
Carol fled.
-.-.-
"Victoria?" Carol tried to keep the pleading tone out of her voice as she stared at the sheet hovering two feet off the ground. "Please tell me that's you."
The sheet said nothing.
"If it isn't you, please tell me now to save me the embarrassment."
The sheet turned to her.
"... say something? Anything?"
"I am in disguise."
Carol shrieked and ripped the sheet off - there was nothing under it!
She ran.
-.-.-
"That was cruel." Noelle poked at a comatose Jess's shoulder. "Funny, but cruel."
"Worth it." The sheet floated over. "Anyways, I think that's four people we've gotten now?"
"Yeah." Noelle looked off to the side, where Lindsay and Marissa were still making out, vampire fangs flashing in the evening light. "I hope those two don't dehydrate themselves too much."
-.-.-
Why. Why did she ever let herself hope things would be better with more adult supervision at the Garden than at home. She collapsed onto the couch in the breakroom, completely uncaring that she still had her clothes somewhat covered in congealed 'Thing' goop. If anyone had a problem with the stains, they could take it up with Amelia. Or else.
"Hey, Mom!"
She cracked open her eyes. "Victoria, thank - what on Earth are you wearing?"
"Uh, a costume? It's Halloween."
"That is not a costume, that is - "
It appeared to be a series of studded leather belts wrapped asymmetrically around her daughter and displaying far far too much. For some reason she'd wrapped a red cloth around her head as well as some sort of bandana -
"Uh, yes it is a costume, Mom. I'm Drillbitch. She's this minor villain, part of this like road group - the costume's entirely accurate apart from the lack of mask and wearing a bandana to show I'm not actually her, which is a tradition among the Mexican caped community which isn't quite Texas where she originated but it's close to it and there's a common theory she's actually white passing Latina - wait, is this cultural appropriation? Is my costume cultural appropriation? I would ask Lilith, but she seemed… busy. Anyway, do you like it?"
She spun, which made parts of her Carol did not want to think about shake distractingly. She had thigh high platform boots for fuck's sake.
"... hrm." On one hand - it was accurate. On the other hand, it was a villain costume. A scandalous villain costume. Back to the first hand, if she did say she liked it - perhaps she could get Lilith's location out of her.
"I even hand distressed the leather, and kept the burn marks and scars from her fight with, uh, that pyrokinetic hero… Flambe, that was it."
"It is… impressively accurate." Not that she would know, having never had the time or energy to investigate capes outside the immediate area or worth inter-state attention, but… if what Victoria was saying was true, then. It was impressive that she would go to such efforts. "Where did you see Lilith?"
"Oh, she was talking to Amy about those things she made that mimic that one horror movie about the sexually transmitted demon somewhere in the warehouse area?"
The what.
She frowned heavily, and asked, voice stern, "Explain."
-.-.-
"Neil, what are you wearing?" Her voice was tired, her bones were tired, her soul just wanted tonight to be over already.
And then Mark stepped out wearing something similar and -
"I. Do I really want to know?"
"Mexican wrestlers." Neil grinned widely.
"Why?"
"Well, after Taylor decided on the Day of the Dead tattoos, we thought it'd be a great way to just… show off I guess." Neil shrugged. Because of course he was shirtless, wearing nothing more than what looked like satin pants and a macho mask. His was red. Mark's was blue.
Carol groaned into her hands. "Please just tell me you've seen Sarah or Annette somewhere?"
"We've… seen a few of them, actually." Mark looked up. "It's weird."
"Have you tried calling them?"
Carol could regret the headache she got from slamming her forehead into the locker doors tomorrow.
-.-.-
Director Piggot glared at the assembled capes. "What the hell makes you think Panacea needs a Stranger rating?"
Everyone - including Assault - turned to look at the smiling Assault, who replied with great glee, "Hello, I am in disguise!"
"What do you mean, you're in disguise -"
-.-.-
"Hey, Amy?" Taylor looked over Amy's latest creation, a zombie-like creature that was hopefully going to shamble instead of sprint around like a chicken with it's head cut off like the last one. "The uh. Things. How are we going to deal with them when Halloween ends?"
"Oh, they'll just starve." Amy mentioned casually, like it wasn't a horrifying experience - actually, considering the Things probably didn't have pain nerves or any instinct beyond telling people they were in disguise and glomping anyone who asked… "They don't have stomachs and only enough nutrients to keep moving at their light wandering pace for… forty eight hours at most. Every glomp cuts that down by another eight or so."
"Huh. And the facehuggers?"
"Same, but they'll all probably die out by four in the morning."
"Phew. That's one problem solved."
-.-.-
The doctor looked at the woman laying on the gurney with a smile, and then back to the patient sheet clipboard. "Ma'am, I don't know how the hell you survived to this age without a stomach, but we're putting you on a feeding drip immediately."
The woman just continued to smile. "I am in disguise!"
-.-.-
"Anyways," Taylor continued, "Amy, do you want to have kids?"
Amy froze as the zombie she was working on screamed, let out a 'hurk!', clutched its chest, and fell over, dead.
"... did you just outsource your heart attack?"
"Sh-shut up."
-.-.-
As Carol headed to where she now knew the people she were looking for had gone, she passed through the hall. Right about the same time as Taylor - two Taylors, three Victorias, and one Amelia stepped out, joining a singular Victoria in the hall.
"That was fun." Taylor purred - Carol realised none of them had seen her.
"Yeah, it was," one of the Victorias nodded, causing Amy to freeze.
"U-um."
"Hello, I am in disguise," offered the other Victoria, who had been waiting in the hall.
"Victoria?" Taylor's eyebrows were raised as her doppleganger said hello. "You switched out of your costume pretty quickly."
"... Hello, I am in disguise?"
Carol could… think about this never.
-.-.-
"There you are!"
"Hello, Carol." Annette raised her head from where she was slumped over the table, half-empty wine bottle in hand. "Care for a drink?"
Carol snatched the bottle and eagerly gulped down what she could before her lungs protested. "Why. Why did you make facehuggers?"
"Oh, here we go again," Sarah muttered, dropping her face in her hand and shaking her head.
"I didn't. This crass - popular culture phenomena is not my doing. Hallow's Eve is not some sort of opportunity to pretend to be a princess or watch movies, nor is it about gothic horror. It, traditionally, is a time of wild magic, spirits of the dead, and religion - highly problematic, yes, but undeniably so - " She pulled at the roots of her hair. "I do not enjoy Halloween."
Annette - hated it too?
Carol couldn't - wouldn't stop herself. She opened up her arms towards Lilith as the door opened again and voices started calling out. She ignored them. "Kiss me."
The horrified screams of their children were music to her ears.
-.-.-
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- Location
- Teutonia
Wow the heart attack was funny.
But seriously, creatures that leap at peoples faces are a bad idea. Even the pranks where someone is getting chased in fear are bad taste and can easily get people hurt.
But seriously, creatures that leap at peoples faces are a bad idea. Even the pranks where someone is getting chased in fear are bad taste and can easily get people hurt.
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I mean, even Scare Tactics (Reality show around scaring you) did have a few times they had to break character to avoid anyone getting hurt.
And this is in a gang city. Their response is more likely to be fight vs flight.
Ganurath
Literal Enthusiast
- Location
- A Valid Location
- Pronouns
- He/Him
1. The kid dressed as Marquis was either wearing a wig, or lucky they weren't doing so.
2. Hope the face huggers don't find anyone with chocolate allergies.
3. Squealer, you need more variety. Didn't the Ghostbusters have a cool car?
4. Taylor canonically took Spanish for her foreign language course, so it's not surprising she'd be interested in a Day of the Dead aesthetic.
5. Assault, you're fired, and I love it.
6. I see the Merchants won't be giving out the best crack this Halloween.
2. Hope the face huggers don't find anyone with chocolate allergies.
3. Squealer, you need more variety. Didn't the Ghostbusters have a cool car?
4. Taylor canonically took Spanish for her foreign language course, so it's not surprising she'd be interested in a Day of the Dead aesthetic.
5. Assault, you're fired, and I love it.
6. I see the Merchants won't be giving out the best crack this Halloween.
- Pronouns
- Masculine
Whelp.
Piggot is dead.
And so am I. My fucking SIDES! BAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!
Oh god that was amazing! Flawless, WhoAmEye! Flawless!
Piggot is dead.
And so am I. My fucking SIDES! BAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!
Oh god that was amazing! Flawless, WhoAmEye! Flawless!