Video + Action

[singloversing]

[It takes Wirt a few minutes to set up the video in a way that's kind of comfortable, but eventually he settles on propping it up in a nearby tree facing him. He's gone back to wearing his blue cape, something that he abandoned wearing almost a year ago, but that isn't the most noticeable change.

No, that would be the large pumpkin head he's wearing, carved into a friendly jack-o-lantern. His voice is a little muffled, but he's still clearly understandable.]

Isn't this time of year beautiful? I know autumn happens all at once here, and isn't so much about the gradual decay and inevitable demise of all living things, but the leaves are still kind of pretty, right?

[He looks up at the tree above him as much as he can with the pumpkin head on, which isn't much. Then he sighs, heavy with the weight of nostalgia.]

I've been thinking a lot about The Harvest - it's only a few days away now, or it would be if I was still in Pottsfield. It's really a shame that Wonderland prevents anyone from really joining - we are all frozen in place with our woes, no better than Edelwood, never able to truly decompose and rise removed from our troubles.

Sooo... [He reaches just off screen and pulls out a shovel, and holds it gently in his arms.] I thought it might be good to, you know. Have our own Harvest! I mean, we're all a little too soon, but I was too early when I got to Pottsfield and that didn't stop the townspeople from welcoming me to the party. Anyway, uh-- I've been going around burying a bunch of stuff to get ready, and when it's time for the Harvest we can dig them all up! It's not quite the same but, oh well. We do what we can with what we have, or whatever.

[For once, he doesn't seem anxious. If anything, he seems a little too calm.]

So yeah, that's about it. If anyone needs me, I'll be around digging a bunch of holes outside. You're welcome to come help if you want - the more the merrier, right?

[Then he waves, and shuts the feed off there. He'll still respond to people's concerns messages, but he can also be found pretty much anywhere on the grounds, digging deep holes and burying things.]

Comments

video;

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji's a bit...hesitant. About this whole message. But that doesn't come across when he responds.]

What's The Harvest, exactly?

video;

[singloversing]

[He could be shocked or offended that Souji doesn't know, but since he's asking nicely enough Wirt just looks excited to explain it to someone.]

It's the most important festival in all of Pottsfield! You see, when the time is right and the rest of their bodies have rotted away, skeletons are harvested from the field so they can come and join the party with the rest of the town. They're welcomed with open arms, and with costumes made lovingly from crops, and everyone celebrates their arrival. It can be a long wait, but everyone who dies will one day join The Harvest.

[He's completely serious, and not at all disturbed by his own words.]

video;

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji listens just as seriously.]

But you're not dead, are you?

Action

[shslliar]

[Kokichi wasn't really expecting to dig a bunch of holes today, but when he sees Wirt burying stuff with his weird pumpkin getup, he can't help but laugh.]

NEHAHAHAH! Hey, scarecrow boy! Halloween's not until Wednesday, ya dork!

Action

[singloversing]

[A long time ago, Wirt would have cared. He would have cared so much about getting laughed at, but he knows now deep in his heart that when he is one day Harvested, this won't matter. No one in Pottsfield will think it was weird he wears a pumpkin.]

I know! That only leaves a few days to prepare the Harvest!

[And then, without explaining that whatsoever, he returns to digging his hole.]

[shslliar]

[And the laughter dies out. Mainly because that sort of reaction was completely different from what he was expecting.]

Uh... Prepare what harvest?

[Wasn't the Fall Festival last month?]

[video forever]

[shrimpheavennow]

I think you're doing gardening wrong. And jack-o-lanterns.

...What'd you bury, though? [The weirdness is just too interesting, to be honest.]

[video forever]

[singloversing]

Oh, you know. Stuff. I mean, pfft, it's not like I can bury real skeletons out here.

[Obviously.]

[shrimpheavennow]

What?

Why would you have skeletons?

Real skeletons?

[adaptiveimmunities]

Uh.

Look, I know "normal" is a pretty low bar around here, but...

You know you're wearing a pumpkin on your head, right?

Also, as someone who has seen the dead rise... I gotta say, they're not really "removed from their troubles." Kind of the opposite. Are you feeling okay? Can you even breathe in that thing?

[singloversing]

Well, there's eye and mouth holes so...yeah, I can definitely breathe in here. I'm fine.

[The holes are actually cut on the larger side, so they don't perfectly align to his eyes and mouth.]

But oh, you're from one of the zombie worlds, right? [He tsks at the thought, out of sympathy...though not for the usual reasons one might.] It's such a shame they can't stay dead long enough to properly decompose. They're not removed from their flesh, so they're not...

[He tilts his head up thoughtfully, trying to think of the right word. Only one comes to mind though.]

They're not, you know. Ripe for The Harvest.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Blink. Blink blink.]

That is fucked beyond all reason. I'm kind horrified and grossed out and impressed at the same time. No wonder Maggie likes you so much.

All right, I give. Tell me more about this Harvest thing.

[Yeah, even over video that capital H is loud and clear.]

[talesuntold]

I'm sorry, honey, but this really looks like the setup for a horror movie and I have some concerns about the holes you're digging.

What are they for? Tell me about Pottsfield and the harvest.

[Also, pumpkins are not good headgear Is that a real pumpkin?]

[singloversing]

[It is absolutely a real pumpkin. As far as he remembers, he regularly carves pumpkin heads and changes the old ones out for fresh ones. It's nothing unusual by now. What is a little unusual is Maggie asking about Pottsfield. From what he remembers, he's pretty sure he's told her by now...but, he shrugs. He doesn't mind explaining it.]

Well, pretty much everything back in Pottsfield revolves around The Harvest. It's a big festival that happens every autumn, as the leaves start to turn and the grass starts to brown. Everyone in town puts on their best vegetable costumes and they dance around a maypole and bob for apples, as they celebrate the successful harvest of more townsfolk.

[He hasn't misspoken, and he doesn't stumble over the morbidness of this tradition - if anything, he relishes it.]

You see, when the Harvest comes, the people of Pottsfield dig up skeletons in the fields and then the skeletons don their vegetables and join the party themselves. They've waited so long to join the harvest, and they can live in peace now that every bit of their former life has rotted away from them to feed the earth.

[talesuntold]

...uh huh. Well, that's a much nicer version of the dead getting up again than I'm used to. Do you wait for the townsfolk to die naturally, or do you hasten the process by getting them into the ground sooner rather than later so that they can start feeding the earth?

[These are important questions to ask.]

Video

[teamfun]

[Before all the mess with the Delta, Louis would have laughed at this. For how insane it all seems. Probably made a stupid joke about Pumpkins. Instead, he's tentative. He isn't here to make friends, and this? This sounds like it could be sketchy as all hell.]

What do you mean, rise?

Video

[singloversing]

I mean, you know...rise? Like, climb up out of their graves. Literally. After people dig them up for the Harvest.

[It's not that complicated, but it is just a little more awkward the more he tries to over-explain it.]

video;

[powerofmabel]

...Y'know, I've been prepping for Halloween since the month started, but even I haven't managed to make anything as creepy as you're being right now. Good... job? Heh.

{Wirt what the hey.]

video;

[singloversing]

Uh. ...Thanks? There's nothing creepy about The Harvest though - especially not in Wonderland. Like, there aren't even skeletons to dig up here because no one dies long enough to be buried and decompose!

[There is objectively nothing to be creeped out by about this, in his personal opinion.]

[action]

[waitin]

Clementine is out on the grounds. She isn't paying attention as much as she ordinarily might so she nearly trips over one of those deep holes, letting out an Oof. This is a Clementine used to having someone watching her back so she's less wary, but she does stare at the-- the person wearing a pumpkin head?! with... a shovel? Is that where the hole came from?

She doesn't recognize them at first.

"...uh, what?"

[action]

[singloversing]

That is indeed where every single one of these holes has come from. Wirt looks up from where he is, knee-deep in the next hole he's digging, and spots Clementine watching him. He hasn't had much of a chance to talk to her since she came back to Wonderland older, but he still recognizes her and gives a friendly wave, pointedly ignoring any discomfort from her about what he's doing here.

"Hey Clementine!" he calls out. The pumpkin muffles him a bit, but he definitely says her name.

action

[krmvgivv]

[Oh this is. Not great. And Dipper's seen this from Wirt before. Pottsfield, he called it. He goes down to the grounds to find Wirt and approaches cautiously.]

Hey, Wirt? You okay, buddy? You... join any weird pumpkin death cults lately?

action

[singloversing]

[Wirt sighs. It's probably hard to see it through his pumpkin head, but he definitely roles his eyes.]

Dipper, I've told you like a million times - it's not a cult.

[So, yes. Yes, he has.]

video;

[entreats]

[ Wirt, what are your fashion choices right now. Besides, this whole video seems.. kind of weird. There's at least one thing he said there that definitely stands out to Ange, even though she doesn't seem nearly as fazed by it as most people would be. ]

Are you supposed to do this Harvest thing with corpses or something? With that talk about decomposing and all.

video;

[singloversing]

Eh, kind of? It's not really corpses so much as...living skeletons? They're not all gross and zombie-like. They just get up and put on their vegetable suits and they're good to go.

[Everyone gets so weird about the decomposing, but it just makes them cleaner in the end! Who wants to dig up a body that hasn't rotted all the way first? That's just gross. Even he has standards.]