8140/Happy Harbor: Operation Halloween

Happy Harbor: Operation Halloween
Date of Scene:	11 October 2021
Location:	Exterior - Happy Harbor High School
Synopsis:	Halloween is in full swing. And Todd almost ruins it!
Cast of Characters:	Morrigan MacIntyre, Madison Evans, Albert Rothstein, Eve Wilkins, Sam Wilson

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Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Halloween is right around the corner. It is Morrigan's favorite time of the year and this is not something that has been kept secret over the time that the school has been open. Having some normalcy means that the school likes to put on events for traditions and things that might not be known to those that are new to Earth or others that just haven't been able to partake in holidays.

There are Halloween decorations of every style and size that are sitting out for anyone that feels festive to decorate windows. There is a table filled with pumpkins and pumpkin carving kits. Thankfully one of the art teachers decided that they were going to man that table. Just inside the hallway into the school has tables set up with refreshments for the teens and teachers. Plus anyone else who stops by.

The crown jewel of this Halloween though is the twelve foot skeleton that is being set up near the entrance to the high school. Morrigan's looking way too delighted by this development though as she helps her assistant with directions, "We'll have to see if we can find a shirt big enough for him!" she calls up to Duncan who is on the ladder.

He just rolls his eyes at her.

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison comes running down the steps from the school - bearing a piece of paper. She excitedly pins it to a pumpkin, and starts punching in the intricate design with a push pin, humming cheerfully to herself as she works. It would be clear to anyone that glances over that the teen will be hard at work for a while, and that the chance of failure is reasonably high, given the thin pieces of pumpkin that will be left remaining between the negative space she intends to remove, but should she succeed... The results will be epic. Completely epic!
    And of course, on brand.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein has stacked quite a few pumpkins around the Gym, there is even a couple pumpkin piles for kids to take ones big ones small ones all shapes and sizes, but next to the table for carving them is a huge pumpkin, it has to way at least half a ton. Not night enough to win the state fair but plenty huge for the school. Albert himself is there wearing a black suitcoat, and plack pants over a grey shirt. He has painted himself green, and has bolts clued to the side of his neck.

Eve Wilkins has posed:
Through the open doorway, Eve Wilkins strolls in. She's wearing jeans and a light green sweater that hangs open, revealing beneath a t-shirt from a local restaurant. She has a purse over her shoulder as the redhead wanders in, looking around at everything going on.

She doesn't tend to be the rah rah type when it comes to things like holidays. But usually is happy to quietly help out with whatever the school event of the moment is. Halloween in this case.

Eve's head tilts to the side a bit as she looks at all the pumpkins waiting carving. Or maybe just to be used as decorations. She looks over towards where the giant skeleton is going up in front. "Wow, where'd you come up with that thing?" she asks the Headmistress of the school.

Sam Wilson has posed:
    Sam's first order of business once he'd got all the administrative work done that he needed to, after his extended absence (man, that was a lot of paperwork) is to decorate his office. He's not on Morrigan's level by any means, but most of the kids really like it when the staff put in some effort, and Sam is happy to oblige. Given the purpose of many visits to his office, though, he's held off on anything truly scary. A few legit antiques and some excellent thrift store finds has transformed his office into a 19th century gothic parlour worthy of Edgar Allen Poe, with a lifelike raven making its roost above the door.

    And now he's out front with a cup of punch, staring up at the skeleton. He has nothing to say, only offering a shake of his head and awed laughter as he turns away to survey the students running around.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
"It would have been a lot easier if you had just...magiced this guy up. I could break something." Duncan huffs as he starts to climb down the ladder after securing the huge skeleton. He hops down and then looks up at it, "Honestly...just leave it up. Dress for every holiday." he tells the redhead.

Morrigan's hands are clasped together as she looks up in awe at the skeleton, oh yes, Morrigan was one happy death person. "They had one more left at Home Depot. I was so excited!" she tells Eve. "We should name him. And something not Boney McBoneface." she muses to the others.

"We've got pumpkins that can be carved, decorations that can be put up. If you want to do your own little macabre scene we can section space off for everyone." she smiles to that.

Then she looks at Sam as he wanders off, "Your office was looking rather well put together, Sam." she tells him.

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison has, of course, dressed for the occasion in her own style - that means a Star Wars themed Halloween shirt. This one shows a series of Star Wars characters walking in front of a large orange moon, all carrying pumpkin-shaped trick-or-treat buckets. A smaller, white circle set into the surface of the moon implies that it is in fact the Death Star.
    With her pin-pushing accomplished, Madison pulls the template off, and rubs her pumpkin with a white powder - then she settles into place to start carving out each piece of the design with tiny carving tools - a look of concentration on here features as she works.

Eve Wilkins has posed:
Eve Wilkins gets a warm grin as she senses Morrigan's passion for the giant skeleton, or maybe just for the holiday itself. "Well it looks amazing," she says. "Should probably get a small army of normal sized ones and have them scaling the school walls," she suggests. And if so she hopes Rex doesn't start throwing explosives at them the first time he sees them!

Eve continues on further into the room, walking along where students are carving at pumpkins. She pauses by Madison where she is hard at work on her jack-o'-lantern. "What's it going to be, Madison?" she asks, from the other side of the pumpkins so she can't see the pattern.

She looks over at the giant pumpkin that Albert has set out by the table. "What's that one going to turn into?" she asks curiously, glancing at Albert and at Sam Wilson.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein will move to walk about. He is checking to make sure things are where they need to be. He will look over to Duncan "Hey at least she did not make ya climb on my shoulders." He jokes, and then to Eve. "I am leaving the carving to one with more skill that me, only think I know for sure it will eventually be pies, and bread." He tells her.

Sam Wilson has posed:
    "Still trying to find an actual bust to go above the door," Sam says over his shoulder, to Morrigan. Then he spins on his heel to address her properly. "Thinking I might have to get a foam head and make one myself at this point." Or bribe one of the art teachers into doing it. Yes. Money can be exchanged for goods and services.

    He's not in costume at the moment, though he has a t-shirt for an old slasher movie on under his jacket. "You going to do anything with the seeds?" he asks Albert, as he looks on in amazement at the biggest pumpkin he's ever seen in his life. Sam lets out a low whistle. "Real impressive, that."

    He starts moving down the line to inspect the carving work of some of the students, and though he doesn't interrupt Madison, he stands behind her for a few moments, nodding his head. High hopes for this one, that's for sure.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh, it's going to be Darth Maul. Hopefully. I mean - it's got some real thin bits here, and here, and here - see? So I have to be careful how I take the rest out.... But I have some wire to try to put things back together if there's problems." Madison really hopes there won't be problems. But there probably will be. She talks in a slightly distracted tone - without looking up as she keeps her gaze focused on her work. She does manage to add a slightly belated, "Are you going to make a pumpkin, too?" She doesn't seem to even notice Sam's presence, given the focus of her gaze.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
"The pumpkin is really impressive, Albert. We'll have to see about starting a pumpkin patch for next year." Morrigan grins at that. She then gives a look to Eve, "You know what...a skeleton army for the big guy here sounds like a good idea. I'll have to see if I can get those delivered." she grins at the idea. "I know our shirts will fit normal size skeletons." she ponders thoughtfully as she looks off into the distance thoughtfully.

Oh yes...they would have an army.

Ahem! She looks to Sam and there's a smile, "Well, one should be fun to make or can order one." she tells him.

Tyler and other familiar student faces are also here, enthralled by all of the different decorations that they sift through.

Duncan gives a smile to Albert, "Yeah, that would have ended poorly if one of us fell over." he muses to the other big guy.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein looks over and says "Figured may want to bake some of the seeds for a snack, but yea we can plant some, have to give the farmer I got it from a good 3 dozen or so, but should be a crap ton in it." He offers. He looks around the place to see if anything else is needing his assistance. HE will move over to the snack table to get a drink.

Sam Wilson has posed:
    Once he's made a survey of the pumpkin carving table, Sam nods his head several times. "Great work," he calls out lightly as encouragement to the kids (and adults, no judgment) who continue work on their jack-o-lanterns, and then as he passes Albert by, he adds, "If you don't mind saving some for me, I've got a few recipes from my ma that could put some pumpkin seeds to good use."

    His attention shifts to one of the students sorting through the decor. "Not finding anything?" he asks, and she shakes her head.

    "I like pastels, but I want it to be creepy."

    And that may be a big ask, but Sam doesn't doubt that Morrigan has provided a wide range of decor items, so a search begins.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "No no no no- darnit!" Madison says - with a little dismay creeping into her voice. Yes - she just managed to break one of those thin bits of pumpkin. "Awww many - does anyone have the mutant power to repair pumpkins?" There's a mutant power for everything, right?
    Rather than waiting fo a response, though, the girl is clipping off a bit of wire, and piercing it through the broken piece to hold it back into place. "Com'on, you can do it you can do it- yes!"

Eve Wilkins has posed:
Eve Wilkins moves around to where she can see the pattern better. "Oh wow. That's far better than I could do. Never really had much of a gift for arts and craftsy sorts of things," Eve says. Though in truth that's mostly because ever since her power manifested as a girl, she'd just use her power to make what she wanted rather than do it by hand.

She considers briefly helping Madison out, but can't come up with a suitable explanation for the pumpkin becoming whole again where it was accidently broken through. "Won't even notice it," she says approvingly of Madison's repair job, and touches her shoulder lightly as she gives her a smile.

Eve moves over to where Sam is helping the pastel-loving girl with the decorations. "Have anything you need help putting up, Mr. Wilson?" she offers.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
"I think there are a ton of pumpkin recipes that the cafeteria staff and home ec teachers would love to have fresh pumpkin for so I'm sure they'll get their uses. That or we're going to have a lot of broken pumpkins when the teens start doing their shenanigans on Halloween night." she muses. "Thank you for helping with things tonight you all. I know that my love of the Holiday is...a lot, but I think that it's one of those things that all the kids should get to take part in. Plus free candy and Halloween is a night you all can have fun.: she smiles.

"Pastel's are in the third box. There's pastel gothish decorations and foam pumpkins to carve for dorms so that they don't have candles. Since things keep getting knocked off." she chuckles. "Feel free to take a pumpkin home as well if you like. We have a ton." she adds as she starts to clean up the trash from the skeleton box. Woof. That was going to be fun to store.

Sam Wilson has posed:
    "I told my nephews about how much you love Halloween, Mo, and now they both want to come up and visit. They love the toy cars you sent them, by the way, they've been trying to get me to ask you for a ride." Sam crouches down next to the box Morrigan's indicated, and sure enough, plenty of soft pinks and purples. The girl he's helping lets out a screech worthy of a barn owl before she all but dives in, carefully sorting through. "What about this?" Sam asks as he holds up a skull with flowers on vines crawling over it, and apparently this girl is just communicating in bird noises now.

    She likes the skull, though! Sam's helping.

    He shakes his head at Eve as she comes over. "Though apparently we're getting an army of skeletons so it'll have to be a team effort to get all those set up." The way he grins at Eve says he knows it was her who suggested it! Which means she's automatically part of the skeleton team. "We do need a name for the big guy, though. Napoleon Bone-a-part?" He pauses for effect. "Come on, one of the history teachers has to be out here, they'd laugh!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    Over-hearing Sam's name suggestion, Madison obligingly lets out a loud, exagerated groan - it's basically culturally mandated that she do so, after all. But she's grinning as she does it, so she must not mind the name all that much.
    Towards Eve she adds, "Anyone can do this stuff! It just takes patience. And determination. And wire!" She glances up for a moment with an encouraging smile - then her gaze is back down on her work. Almost... got it...

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
There is a sputtering laugh from one of the History teachers after Sam gives his name suggestion, "I vote for that name." he calls out.

Morrigan gives a look to Sam, gaze warming when he talks on his nephews. It makes her cheeks redden just a little, "I'm glad they liked the cars. I know that they liked mine a lot so I figured that getting them those would be nice." she tells him. "I'd be happy to take them for a drive when they visit. If their mother is okay with that." she adds. She wasn't going to chance making Sarah angry. Nope.

There is a groan that joins into the chorus, "You know...it's so bad that we /have/ to use it." she shakes her head at Sam's HORRIBLE name. "We'll have to find him a hat..." she looks up to the skeleton.

Then she gives a little eureka moment, "Oh, I know what we can do!" she cackles a little. "It's going to be brillaint." she looks pleased with her idea.

Eve Wilkins has posed:
Eve Wilkins gets some of the decorations, going over and fixing them on windows or walls as appropriate. "I won't something other than lunch lady Hazel's normal meals," she says of the pumpkin-inspired dishes.

Another student grabs some orange and black streamers and motions Eve towards a ladder. She gets it and stands it up over by a wall, climbing up to start affixing them up high while the other student goes to the other side to hang them there. "Where do your nephews live, Mr. Wilson?" she asks idly as she joins in the decorating.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein looks over and says "Aint he a bit tall for a French general? " He asks paraphrasing the Star Wars quote. He hmmms and says "I think I may try a pumpkin I saw on line, but will need to make some supports for it first I think. He looks over and listens in as the talk goes to cars.

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison bursts into a fit of giggles at Albert's question - because of //course// she does. Then, with a final triumphant crow, she wiggles out the last piece of pumpkin and sets her masterpiece back on the table. "I did it! Whoa! ... I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull that one off," she admits - grinning excitedly, and popping up to her feet. She looks around to Dyani, or Irie, or Theo, or any of her friends to show them but- alas. None of them are in sight.
    "Aww. They're missing the whole darn thing," she complains.

Sam Wilson has posed:
    Sam turns to shoot a grin over his shoulder at Madison when she reacts to his name suggestion. Hey, he's hit the big 3-5, he's officially middle aged, so what does he care about being cool or hip any more? Now it's all about embarrassing the kids. When a few other people contribute their own opinions to the name and it ultimately gets picked, Sam's smile only widens. Does he maybe fistpump to himself a little bit? Yeah, don't make a big thing about it. Let him have his moment now that he's old.

    "I'm sure Sarah wouldn't mind," he says, and definitely starts trying to figure out how to convince Sarah to let the boys go on a drive with Morrigan. "They're going to do the Zombie Run on the 23rd before they go to the Halloween parade in the French quarter, but I'll fly them up sometime after, show them around."

    The pastel goth princess makes off with her haul, headed to decorate her corner of the campus no doubt, and Sam gathers up some of the fake cobwebs to start stretching it across shrubs and low-hanging tree limbs. "How tall was Napolean really?" he asks.

    Then he looks over at Eve. "They live with my sister down in Louisiana. Half my family's from down there, the other half's from right here in the city, Harlem. We grew up here, but when my folks died we moved down to live with family." He pauses to take a step back and decide if his cobweb application is sufficiently cobby and webby enough. Hm. Might need some fake spiders. "Does your family have any Halloween traditions?" he asks.

Eve Wilkins has posed:
Eve gives a quiet chuckle. "At my house? Dad grumbles about giving kids cavities and mom nodding her head along with him, all while hiding a few bags of candy to make sure they have enough for the kids. And knowing my dad is going to snack on half of it before the night is through," she says while hanging up another streamer before looking back down to Sam. "Such a traditional family, I know."

She stretches out to place another streamer without having to move the ladder. Meanwhile, nearby Todd and a few of his friends have shown up. Mostly just to oggle the girls and make crude comments about other students. Something one of them says results in a shove of Todd.

Never one to hold back, Todd gives the other student an even harder shove. It sends the boy staggering a few steps, and he slams into the ladder that Eve is perched at the top of, and leaning out to hang something at arm's length to boot.

The ladder tips over and Eve starts to fall!

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein will see the girl starting to topple and will move without much thought. He knows he may not get to her in normal time, and so as he steps, he will grow as well, reaching his arms out catching Eve cradled in his arms, and asks "You ok?" He stand looking eye to eye with Napoleon Bone-a-part." Once he knows she is ok, he will let her down looking over towards the boys, and sighs as it is Todd who is causing the trouble. "20 laps for horse playing around ladders." He tells the young man.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan sees the teens shove and there is that moment that she realizes that the ladder has someone on it, "ENOUGH!" the redhead practically bellows. "Todd, we've had this discussion before, you can't shove others. And you could have seriously hurt Eve!" she states in an exasperated tone. "I'm calling your parents and letting them know why you've got detention for the next two weeks. You'll be lucky if there isn't more." she states with a snap.

"Are you alright, Eve?" Morrigan calls over, trying not to look too angry while making sure someone is alright. "I think we should start winding down as well. It's getting late and we can continue tomorrow." she explains.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh no!" Madison gasps as the ladder starts to fall - reaching out with a hand to try to steady it. Not physically, mind - she isn't close enough for that. No, she tries to use her gift, which isn't strong enough to stop it from falling while Eve's weight is on there, helping unbalance it. Once Eve has tumbled free, though, she manages to stop the ladder from tumbling onto any of the other students - and she forces it upright again with a gesture of her hand.
    "Are..... are you alright?" she asks Eve anxiously, looking up towards the other student.

Sam Wilson has posed:
    Sam's on the opposite side of some shrubbery from Eve, but he sees the ladder start to tip. There's no way he'd make it over there on his own without his wingpack, but thankfully there are other people nearby who step in. And step up. Way up. After things settle down and Eve is on solid footing again, he nods up to Albert. "Nice save," he calls out.

    He looks Eve over for a moment, always on stand-by if his medical skills need to be put to use, but until it becomes apparent that they do, he instead steps back. "Come on, let's give her a little space," he says to some of the other students who have started to gather, shooing them back to the other activities.

Eve Wilkins has posed:
Eve Wilkins doesn't know what she'd have done if Albert hadn't been there in time. Reveal she has powers, or take the fall and maybe end up hurt? She might have just reacted before she could decide.

But thankfully, Albert was there. When he sets her down, she smiles to him. "Thank you sir," she says, looking only a little frazzled by the experience. Todd is taking it much worse. "What! Two weeks!? But I'm supposed to go sailing Friday after school! That's not fair, Miss MacIntyre!" he protests.

Eve looks over to the Headmistress. "I'm ok. Thanks everyone," she tells them. "I think I'm going to go get a drink or something."

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein will just cross his arms and slowly goes back down to his normal seven and a half foot tall, frowning at Todd, but letting the principle handle it.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan turns slowly to look at Todd, like some Horror movie villain really, "It's Doctor MacIntyre and do you know that falling could break bones or kill someone? You're a little too self absorbed to realize that when you're showing off for your friends." she points to the others that were with him. "Keep it up and it'll be three. I'll explain to your parents what you've been doing this year. You've already been on the radar." she tells him.

Public dressing down probably doesn't help Todd's mood...but Morrigan doesn't care. "Go home." she tells him. "And don't do anything else tonight that would get you in deeper trouble." she warns.

Then she turns to the rest of the group and smiles, "Thank you all again! We'll be the best decorated school ever." she nods to this. Then she's heading inside.