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[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

Clementine folds his arms across her chest, lifting her eyebrows when she realizes she recognizes the voice, muffled as it is. She has never known him to wear pumpkins on his head before or to dig a bunch of holes everywhere. This is definitely kind of concerning. People have been acting weird... or there was the whole situation with Louis where he knew her even though she doesn't know him.

"...Wirt?" Uh. She moves forward, eyeing a hole closer trying to figure out what the hell he wants to bury in one of these things. "What's... going on?"

"Oh, you know," he says, as though this is a perfectly ordinary thing to be doing. "Just digging holes for the Harvest in a couple days. Gotta get ready early or there'll be nothing to dig up, right?"

He's friendly enough, as though he expects her to already know what all of this is about. Even if Clementine doesn't always understand, he definitely thinks he's told her about all of this before.

"Do you want to help?"

Clementine stares at him in utter confusion, shaking her head. She doesn't want to help with something she doesn't get. It's clear by her expression that she has never heard anything about a Harvest before. This is not- This is not how Wirt usually acts. People in general have been acting kind of off, but this might be taking whatever this is to new levels.

"...what's the point of burying stuff just to dig it up later? What Harvest?"

He doesn't seem too phased that she doesn't want to join in. Frankly, not many people have ever taken him up on the offer in the time he's been in Wonderland.

"Well...tradition, I guess," he says. "Back in Pottsfield, they celebrate the Harvest by digging up the skeletons of the departed so they can come join the celebration! But since people come back right away when they die here and we can't really do that I'm just burying random stuff I pulled out of the closet."

It's all totally normal, of course. Wirt even reaches into his bag and pulls out a cheesy skeleton decoration. He drops it in the hole he's standing in and climbs out, moving to start filling the hole back up again.

Clementine stares at him, because she's never heard this story before but he's talking about it like she should just... know... it or like it's just casual, and uh. What. Digging up skeletons. It hits a little close to home except dead people in her world are rarely ever buried.

"...and the skeletons like are able to... join in?"

Cause. Uh...

"Oh, yeah," Wirt says, happy to explain. "By the time they're dug up they're really looking forward to joining the party. They have to wait like, forever down there."

He points up to his pumpkin head as he goes on. "Once they're up they don pumpkins and vegetable clothes, ready to finally live their afterlives and celebrate with all their old friends."

Clementine is still making a face that might be impossible to describe. She's not sure what emotions she's actually feeling inside of her. She grimaces.

"So their afterlife is being a skeleton who wears a pumpkin and vegetables on their bones and... that's somehow a celebration?"

She's trying to actually wrap her head around this.

"Well...yeah," he says. "They have a big party for everyone joining them. And the vegetables are more like...I mean, they'd basically be naked without them, since they don't have skin anymore? They're modest skeletons."

That might be the stupidest thing that has ever come out of his mouth, and he looks like he knows it is, but he's sticking to it.

"This is... really weird," Clementine says bluntly, because yeah. It is. Skeletons aren't too creepy to her. They come back, and they're nice, and it's honestly fine. But the fact they wear vegetables when they're skeletons? That's the part that's. strange.

"How'd you get mixed up in all that? I don't remember ever hearing this from you before."

And it seems like kinda a big part of Wirt's life. So.

He can't really tilt his head with a giant pumpkin on it, but he does seem a little confused.

"Well. I was passing through Pottsfield. I had been lost, but they invited me to stay in their town with them. So, I took them up on it and decided to live there. Then...some point after that, I came to Wonderland?"

He says that very carefully, since he doesn't want to come off too accusatory, but the whole thing is super weird.

"I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before? I mean, maybe not but...I can't imagine not mentioning it?"

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