005 | Dictated/Spam

[hellofist]

Halloween is... for candy and costumes, right? Scary movie marathons, haunted houses. [There's a short, thoughtful pause here.] Or haunted castles, I guess.

This is first Halloween, for me. Not really sure... how it works. What do you do, where you're from?

Will need a costume...

[For anyone who happens to be out on a walk today, Cass can be found sitting on the grass outside the castle with a rather large pumpkin, a set of plastic carving tools, and an electric carving knife that's been kind of tossed off to the side. Apparently, the castle decided to get cute with her when she asked for something to carve her pumpkin with.]

Comments

[whichwayyoulean]

Yeah, we do. I mean the Grinch is mostly this big fable thing, but it's tradition and we always do it.

[hellofist]

[Interesting. She's still not sure if he's trolling her or not but hey.]

Doesn't sound like... very fun tradition. Is there even candy?

[whichwayyoulean]

[You never can tell with him. Never]

Well, we do get to spend some enforced time together with our families, so there's that.

Yeah, still lots of candy. Kids just don't come door to door asking for it.

[hellofist]

[Dare she ask...]

What do they do, then?

[whichwayyoulean]

They hide in their homes and eat candy.

[hellofist]

Your world is weird.

[Says the girl who dresses up like a bat and fights crime.]

[whichwayyoulean]

I like to think of it as excessively quirky.

[hellofist]

... I'm using that, next time.

[It can't hurt to have more things to say when someone calls you spooky, right?]

Do you... do the decorations? Or just hide?

[whichwayyoulean]

I think it works well.

Not really. We save all out decorations for Christmas.

[hellofist]

Must mean, no hell dimensions... for Christmas.

[That starts out as a joke, but then-]

... Right?

[whichwayyoulean]

[He laughs]

Naw, no hell dimensions then. There's a story about how the Grinch stole it once, but Christmas is just a great holiday to be with the people you care about.

[hellofist]

[You just keep saying confusing things, Once-ler. This isn't very nice at all.]

How do... you steal holiday?

[whichwayyoulean]

You can't, that's the point of the story. He got everyone's presents and food and decorations and everything in a bag and took it away, but people still sang their songs, spent time together and kept the holiday spirit anyway.

[hellofist]

Like that story better. Will you sing songs, for Christmas?

[whichwayyoulean]

You better believe it. They'll be heaps of Christmas songs.

[hellofist]

Good. I like the... magic hat one.

[Otherwise known as Frosty the Snowman, of course.]

[whichwayyoulean]

The magic...

[It takes him a moment, before he hums the first few bars of it]

That one?

[hellofist]

[His reward is a soft laugh. Good job Once-ler.]

Yes, that one. Can you play it?

[whichwayyoulean]

[He feels so accomplished, always glad to make her laugh, and it's there in his voice]

Of course I can. That'll be a special Cass request.

[hellofist]

Looking forward to it. Which one... do you like best?

[whichwayyoulean]

It's called Welcome Christmas. It's a song from my own world. Hang on.

[He'll grab his guitar to stum out the tune]

[hellofist]

[She stays quiet as he plays, not wanting to interrupt him. Once the song is over, though, she claps for him.]

Forgot, how good you are... at playing songs. I like that one.

[whichwayyoulean]

Awww, thanks, Cass. It's a really good one. We sign it with our loved ones under the Christmas tree on Christmas day. It's how we greet the holiday.

[hellofist]

Must be... really big tree...

[If the Once-ler can fit under the thing it must be like twenty feet tall.]

[whichwayyoulean]

Oh yeah, our trees are huge.

[They decorate them with ROCKET LAUNCHERS]