Chapter Six

Chapter 6: Halloween Trilogy, Part Two

Home Alone
With the Crumpets’ successful other-side debut the Halloween season in Zeitgeist had officially begun and the Crumpets were more than on their way to becoming truly Hallular. Over the next few weeks, pictures and videos of the girls would appear all over the place, their music sales would jump, and Pumpkin-fever around town reached an all-time high. So really, other than Tinsley being burdened with the nickname of “Buttercup” (if you ask Sarah, Tinsley’s new nickname actually belongs on the success side of the equation), things were going quite swimmingly.

On the evening following the Crumpets’ show, one of the LGC’s annual Halloween parties (in this case the Halloween Comeback Party, or HCP) would be held at Thornbury Hall. At EinBe’s insistence, other than attending and having fun, there were to be no party related responsibilities for the girls, so they could get some rest.

At Crumpet Hall, having finished going through some revback, Bess, Enid, Dean Eobseo, and even KySi headed out to run party-related errands, leaving the girls home alone. At first this seemed nice, but almost immediately they began to feel bored and left out. Still sitting around the dining room table, they just stared blankly at each other.

“What the heck is wrong with us,” Yulia blurted out. “We have a day off and we are just sitting here.”

“I know, right?” Tinsley said, adding, “But we aren’t supposed to help set up the party, or practice, or do homework. Eotteokhae na (what can I do)?!”

After a moment of silence, Sarah said, “Remember when we were poor trainee students and we would just wander around downtown to kill time?”

“I don’t know about you, but other than no longer being a trainee, I am still pretty darn poor,” Yulia exclaimed. “But kick’n around DT like we used to does sound fun.”

The girls agreed on the idea, got ready, and strolled across to the West side of the campus.

“Dang, not a soul in sight. Everyone must be running errands or setting things up at Thornbury,” Analey observed.

“Considering that it is 8:30 in the morning, I am guessing that a lot of students are still sleeping. Meh, kids these days,” Tinsley said snarcastically.

Tabitha decided to call her out on it, saying, “Kids these days? Who is it that we just had to wait for because she forgot her mini travel Harey, and who is it that I routinely have to give repeat wakeup calls to, regardless of how late it is getting, hmmm?”

Turning on her best aegyo (cuteness), Tinsley sulked pitifully to Tabitha’s side, where she leaned in, and batting her long eyelashes, said, “I am completely mature and responsible.”

Whereupon she grabbed Tabby’s water bottle, squirted her on the back with it, and then sprinted away at full-speed toward one of the campus’s catwalk elevators, which would take her up to the bridge level (there are five catwalk bridges at the LGC, allowing pedestrian access to the outside world, without having to set foot in a crosswalk.) At any rate, Tinsley is surprisingly swift and she managed to get through the tower doors and hit the elevator call button well ahead of her mates, who were now in hot pursuit.

Prancing and whispering to herself, “Come on, come on, ppali, ppali,” Tinsley anxiously waited for the elevator.

Looking back, she realized that her time was fast running out. Suddenly the elevator “binged,” the door opened, and Tinsley darted in, frantically pressing the button for the bridge level. She almost escaped but her efforts were for naught. Just as the doors began to close, Kari raced in and slid her foot in between, causing them to open. Kari and Analey held the doors open, while Yulia, Sarah, and Tabitha sauntered menacingly into the elevator and surrounded Tinsley, who was now cowering on the floor.

As the elevator doors closed, Tinsley started shrieking loudly.

“Geez, we haven’t even squirted you yet!” Tabitha exclaimed.

At about that moment, Gracie Ann appeared on the elevator’s monitor screen (most public areas of the LGC have communication screens and sensors that monitor for sounds of distress).

“This is Officer Miller, what is going on?”

Tabitha and her mates turned around, rather embarrassed mind you, and chimed out, “Hi Gracie!”

Tabitha went on, “We are very sorry for the false alarm.”

“Who is that on the floor?” Gracie asked.

Tinsley, who had stayed crouched down due to mortification, popped up and said, “Hi, Gracie, it’s me. I’m okay, they were just punishing me.”

Gracie shook her head and said, “Tinsley, Tinsley, Tinsley, what are we going to do with you?”

“Aw, admit it, Gracie, I am your favorite,” Tinsley said with a healthy dose of aegyo.

Gracie replied, “Sure. Ladies, please administer Tinsley’s punishment away from the safety monitors.”

“Thanks, Gracie, we’ll see ya at the party tonight. Peace out,” Tabitha said as she started herding the Crumpets off of the elevator.

Skeeter to the Rescue
Having used up much of their walk-around water to punish Tinsley, the girls decided to head to the coffee shop (the one across from Radio Z) to get some warm refreshments. (Tinsley, in particular, needed this as it was a crisp fall day, and she was now a bit damp.) Even though it was a little chilly, the sun was shining on the coffee shop’s patio, so the girls decided to take their tea outside. Basking in the sun, they began to feel like they were back in their trainee days, when they would imagine themselves to be famous idols out on the town.

Despite being in their street clothes, having very little makeup on, and wearing dark sunglasses, it didn’t take long for a group of Elpoeps to recognize the Crumpets. It all started with a clutch of middle school students who were walking up the street.

As they approached the coffee shop, one of them said, “Isn’t that the Gothy Crumpets?!”

“Don’t be an idiot, Dave, idols don’t just hang out in public,” responded one of his cohorts.

Overhearing this, Analey felt bad that Dave was being teased, so as they passed by, she lifted her sunglasses and said, “Hey Dave, ‘sup?” while reaching out to shake his hand.

Dave’s eyes got very big as he nervously shook her hand, whereupon the rest of the Crumpets lifted their glasses and exclaimed, “Hi Dave!”

Analey shot him a wink.

Dave seemed to understand her meaning and casually replied “Hey, good to see you. By the way, great show last night.”

Barely missing a step, Dave kept his group moving and said over his shoulder, “See ya! Crumpets fighting!”

The girls waved goodbye and watched as Dave was excitedly overrun by his friends, who were saying things like, “Dude, you know the Gothy Crumpets?!” and “I can’t believe that really was the Crumpets!”

The girls giggled and Kari said, “Wow, we were so like Sochi there for a minute!”

Sarah chimed in, “Daebak, Analey, way to make that guy's day. I wonder what he will say about knowing us?”

“He seemed pretty decent; I think he will cop to the truth after he lets his friends freakout for a bit,” Analey replied.

Unfortunately, what started out as a simple and surprisingly smooth public idol interaction moment, or PiiM, began unraveling into chaos. The excitement of the unexpectedly well-mannered students drew the attention of a group of twenty-somethings, who overheard the exchange while they were entering the coffee shop, came over to say hi and ask for autographs. The girls happily complied, but before they had finished with this group, another appeared. Soon they were surrounded by a seemingly endless flood of excited fans.

While this situation was probably (“probably” being the key word) not dangerous, it was becoming rather intimidating, not to mention being rather disruptive for the coffee shop. So, while the crowd was clamoring for the girls’ attention, Tabitha discreetly sent Skeeter a text asking if there was any chance that he could come and pick them up, as they were “...in a bit of a pickle.”

Fortunately, Skeeter, like many of the LG staff, lives on the campus.

Moments later, he texted back, “I'll be there directly. Should I bring security?”

Tabitha replied, “No, no, just you and the bus, thank you.”

When Skeeter arrived he immediately understood what the problem was.

He pulled up, opened the door, and using the bus’s public address megaphone, said, “Sorry, folks, but I need to take the Crumpets away now.”

At first the crowd was just startled. Turning around, they stood, staring blankly at him.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable, Skeeter cleared his throat and said, “Uh, because they have a meeting with... to go... to.”

It didn’t make much sense, but it was enough of a segue for Tabitha to say, “Oh, is it time already? Well, I guess we need to get going.”

Unfortunately, this just ignited a frenzy of people trying to get last-second pictures, prompting Skeeter to hop off of the bus, and cut his way through the crowd to help the girls make their way out. All of this was done while being mindful of the fact that these people were fans who meant no harm or disrespect; it was the situation that had gotten out of hand, and not, for the most part, the individuals. Ah, the challenges of being an idol.

Once on the bus, the girls waved goodbye to the crowd while Skeeter slowly pulled away (with people running around the bus taking pictures; Skeeter had to carefully watch out for them, because they certainly weren’t paying attention to anything but the Crumpets).

Once they were clear of the chaos, the girls breathed a sigh of relief as the throng of excited people began to recede into the background.

“Well that was crazy,” Yulia said, adding, “But thanks to Skeeter, we are back on home turf. Three cheers for Skeeter!”

After they finished their cheer, Skeeter said, “Boy, them Familiars are a bit high-strung.”

“Oh they weren’t Familiars,” Sarah responded. “They were just regular fans or even people who just happened to get caught up in the excitement. Half of them probably didn’t even know who we are.”

“Well that's a shame you girls can’t even go get a cup of coffee now. You sure you want to be idols?” Skeeter queried.

Tabitha answered, “It was a bit unnerving, but we will get better at dealing with it, and it is just part of the job. As for being an idol, if I weren’t a singer, I have no idea what else I would do. It’s all I know.”

“Seriously, Tabby? If you weren’t a singer, you would be a race car driver or a scientist. ‘It’s all I know,’ trying to sound all bohemian and such,” Tinsley teased.

Tabitha pouted and replied, “That’s true.” Then with uncharacteristic aegyo, in a small, high-pitched voice she added, “But I really do like to sing.”

“Oh, Tabby, you must never again attempt aegyo. It doesn’t suit you,” Tinsley said, while shaking her head and looking rather unimpressed.

Back at the ranch, the girls attacked Skeeter with thank yous, and sang him the “Saranghae” song. Then, after they got off of the bus, they were greeted by Bess at the front door.

With a look of confusion, she waved hello to Skeeter and then said, “I thought you girls were going to walk around Downtown?”

Inexplicably, Tabitha started to answer with aegyo, but a side-glance and poke in the ribs from Tinsley took care of that.

She quickly switched off her aegyo (of which she apparently has very little), and in her normal character began, “Well, about Downtown…”

Jimmy’s Spooky Story
That prevening (late afternoon), after going over the morning's events with EinBe — and later with Dean Eobseo — the Crumpets came up with a few protocols to prevent future “pickles,” and sent a nice apology letter with some tickets to their “Goodbye Halloween” show to the owner of the coffee shop.

With the PiiM incident behind them, the girls headed down to Thornbury Hall for the first of many Halloween shindigs. In case you are wondering, Tabitha went as Kaonashi from Spirited Away, Sarah went as Lydia from Beetlejuice, Yulia went as Merida from Brave (she always goes as a redhead), Tinsley went as a Steampunk Airship Pilot (this made Kari rather jelly), Kari went as Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family (which made Tinsley a bit jelly), and Analey went as Emily from Corpse Bride.

Once everyone had a chance to circulate and admire each other’s costumes (cosplay is a big deal at the LGC), Jimmy told his annual spooky story, which he reads as the official-ish start of the festivities. This year’s story was a creepy one about a prospector named Cornelius, who lived alone with his dogs in an isolated cabin near the Arctic Circle. Jimmy explained that winters in extremely high latitudes are dangerous times, not just because it is stupid-cold and that blowing snow can block your view, such that that you can easily get lost just a few meters from your house and freeze to death, but also the fact that the sun doesn’t rise for several months can seriously mess with your mind.

Having set the scene, he went on to tell the story itself. The lights in Thornbury were dimmed so that the glow from Jimmy’s computer monitor lit his face in classic ghost story fashion (by the way, he was dressed as Hannibal Lecter in that creepy mask). Using his slower speech cadence to his advantage, he unleashed an epic psychological tsunami onto the party goers. Unfortunately I am not a skilled enough writer to properly convey the icy tone of this story, but the pertinents went something like this:

Cornelius was well-seasoned at surviving the long black winters of the frozen North. As such, he could sense that a storm was brewing in the darkness, so he brought in a good supply of firewood before setting foot out of doors would become too dangerous. He fed his dogs, trimmed his beard, and cleaned his pistol (which didn’t need cleaning but it was something to do). After taking a shot of whisky, he sat down in a creaky old rocking chair to read a book by the light of an oil lantern.

Cornelius knew that it was a bad idea to read anything scary or disturbing during the long winter night, when it didn’t take much to send a person into a spiral of madness, but flirting with danger seemed more interesting than reading something bland and soothing. From his stack of books, he picked one about an alien abduction wherein a couple disappears for several days, but were then unable to remember where they had been. Over the course of their story, through nightmares and hypnosis, they discover that they had been taken by extraterrestrials, experimented on, and returned to their car on the side of a remote rural road.

The story sent chills down Cornelius’s spine, so he decided that it was best to put the book down, and not think about disturbing things. With little else to do, he sat listening to the crackle of the fire, the ticking of his old mantle clock, and the howl of the frigid wind blowing relentlessly outside. As the storm intensified, he dozed off in his chair.

Cornelius had fallen into a deep sleep, and the fire was beginning to die out, when suddenly there came a very loud pounding on his cabin door. Shockingly wrenched from his slumber, he looked blurrily around the room. The dogs weren’t barking. Instead they were staring intently at the door, growling low in their throats. Since no one could survive long enough in this weather to make it to his cabin, not to mention finding it in the white out, he thought that it must have been a dream. But what about the dogs? Why were they behaving so strangely? Cornelius slowly got out of his chair, and reached down to pet one of his companions. When he touched the dog's back, her only reaction was to flinch nervously; she didn’t take her eyes off of the door, and Cornelius could feel that her muscles were as tight as could be.

At that moment, another pounding came to the cabin’s door. Cornelius’s heart raced wildly. Stumbling backward, he fumbled for his gun. With the pistol in one hand, and the lantern in the other, he gathered himself and slowly approached the door.

He would have called out, “Who’s there,” but the drone of the growling dogs and the howl of the wind did not want to be disturbed. Blocking the door with his foot, he took a deep breath and used his elbow to lift the wooden latch. He moved his foot back just far enough to let the wind push the door past the latch’s catch point. Then, taking one more deep breath, he stood back and let the door swing open.

Outside was a dark abyss, save for the dimly lit blowing snow. Standing there on the cabin's porch was something. Something white. Something not like a plant, but also not like a terrestrial animal. Something more like a creature from the ocean's depths. Whatever it was, its many tentacles were pulsating in the wind, and from a grey, mouth-like opening in its trunk came a terrible, deep, moaning wail. Cornelius recoiled in terror, wildly firing his pistol into the night. Once all six shots were spent, he slammed the door and stumbled backward through a sea of motionless and still-growling dogs.

Panicked and trembling, he struggled to reload the gun. With bullets clattering across the floor, he finally managed to ready it for more action. Huddled in the corner by the fireplace, hands shaking, he pointed his gun toward the door. As he waited, he heard no sound, save for the wind howling outside. His dogs kept growling, and the fire finally flickered out, leaving only the light of the lamp. After what seemed like an eternity, he struggled to his feet. With his lantern and pistol in hand, he returned to the door and opened it as he had before. There in the darkness was nothing — no creature, no blood, no trace that anything had been there. Only blackness and blowing snow.

Come spring, a group of Inuit, who stopped by Cornelius’s cabin twice a year to trade with him, found the door hanging wide open. Neither Cornelius nor his dogs could be found. Other than some snow that had blown in and was slowly melting on the floor, the cabin was in good order. Even his remaining stores of food were untouched by the bears who were fresh from hibernation and ravenously hungry. No one ever saw Cornelius again, nor could anyone be convinced to live in his cabin or even to take his belongings.

The light from Jimmy’s monitor faded to black. Thornbury Hall was dark and silent when, suddenly, all of the lights came on and he shouted, “Happy Halloween!”

Now you might think, by my narration. that Jimmy’s story wasn’t very scary, but I can assure you that his telling of it was such that when he yelled “Happy Halloween,” the surprised screams of the party-goers set off safety monitors throughout Thornbury.

Chuckling to himself, Jimmy rolled over to the DJ console, put on a set of headphones, and said with a smirk, “Okay, people, let’s pull it together. It was just a brilliantly written, expertly told story by yours truly.”

While the crowd was cheering for Jimmy, a cleanup crew comprised of his dorm-mates (dressed in Robin Hood-themed costumes) rushed in to mop up the many drinks that had hit the floor.

“Huzzah! Three cheers for the Merry Men!” Jimmy exclaimed as his mates did their annual and very over-acted cleaning routine. With the party officially started, he declared, “Now is the time when we dance!”

Kaonashi at the HCP
The first song of the evening (which, frankly, has nothing to do with Halloween) was Orange Caramel’s “Gangnamgeoli.” This was a request by Tinsley, who successfully argued that both the orange and the caramel in Orange Caramel make any of their songs Halloween-appropriate. At any rate, it is one of her favorites, for which she has her very own painfully odd dance that makes the other members cringe. (I should probably point out that it is her dance and definitely not the song itself that makes the Crumpets wince.) Strangely, while Tinsely was dancing spastically by herself, Kaonashi came over and joined her.

Tinsley was surprised by this, as Tabitha usually avoided her whilst she performed her “Gangnamgoeli” dance, so when the song ended Tinsley exclaimed, “Daebak!”

Kaonashi, in a very strange voice said, “I am glad to see that you survived your punishment earlier today.”

Tinsley froze, staring at the dark figure, when suddenly another Kaonashi appeared behind the first, causing her to let out quite a shriek (Jimmy’s stories usually leave Tinsley a bit rattled).

The first Kaonashi was startled, and stepped back, saying, “Tinsley, it’s me, Gracie Anne.”

Gracie took off her mask, as did Tabitha (who was, of course, the second Kaonashi). Tinsley just stood there looking rather freaked out.

Tabitha and Gracie both said in unison, “Aw, Tinsley, sorry we scared you.”

Before they could get to her to give her a hug, a voice rang out from the kitchen, “Who’s ready for some fresh hot Bungeoppang?”

Tinsley let out a little squeak, and spun around on her heels, saying, “Mmm, Bungeoppang!”

Whereupon, she trotted off, completely forgetting the whole Kaonashi scare incident.

While they watched her happily scamper away, Gracie leaned in and whispered to Tabitha, “I worry about that girl from time to time.”

“Indeed,” Tabitha replied while nodding her head. “So do I."

The balance of the night was filled with good fun and dorky mayhem. Dean Eobseo sang a killer version of “Jack’s Lament,” followed by Amber singing “Sally’s Song,” and the Screaming Beets performed “Kidnap the Sandy Claws.” A good many party-goers mercilessly tormented Kari with fake bugs, which is a fun, but risky tradition, as she tends to kick and punch wildly, with her eyes closed, when faced with her mortal enemy. (To avoid ruining Kari’s Halloween season, the fake bug pranks are allowed only at the HCP, so everyone tries to get a good scream out of her while they can).

Sarah won at the Bobbing-For-Apples competition, which was a surprise because she had consumed a fair bit of chocolate beforehand. Enid, who went as the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland, won best costume. Skeeter took home top honors for Monster Mini-Golf, Headless Limbo, and Boomerang Bats, which was the first time that anyone won a triple crown at the HCP. At any rate, in the end, a good time was had by all.

Haunted House
For as long as the Looking-Glass Academy had existed, the students set up a Haunted House in the “Boiler Room” at Consortium. Even though the Consortium Campus is almost entirely made up of modern office buildings, there is one old building that remains from when the campus grounds were a railroad hub. The 'Depot,' as it is called, is a beautiful Vicwardian (Victorian/Edwardian) brick structure on the south end of the campus, and was once the passenger depot for the Zeitgeist railroad. The basement, which held the boilers for the facility, had been partly gutted before the city’s Historical Society stepped in and put a stop to the building’s demolition. At any rate, it was this very building that attracted Dean Eobseo to the site, and inspired much of the LGCs design.

The Boiler Room, which was now mostly open space, with a few big pipes here and there, was the perfect place for the students to set up their Haunted Houses. However, starting with the Crumpets’ debut year, the Boiler Room was no longer available. You see, as had been predicted, once the Glass moved to its new campus, Consortium quickly grew and filled in all of the newly vacated space, and still needed more. So, even before the LG move was finalized, plans were being made to turn the Boiler Room into studios. Of course, Dean Eobseo knew this. He was, after all, a major stakeholder in, and a board member of, Consortium, so he had long planned on hosting the Haunted House at Ravenhurst (he even designed many aspects of Ravenhurst with this in mind).

Now, you already know that Ravenhurst has a “graveyard” and a Grand Ballroom, but you may not know that the basement of Ravenhurst is perhaps the most epic part of the manor. The basement’s west wing is dominated by both a Steampunk-themed movie theater and a dungeon room that is actually an exercise facility which is filled with equipment designed to look like the torture devices that exercise equipment really are. There is a tunnel leading from a crypt in the graveyard, into the dungeon, and the Dean was sure that the students would find a fun use for it in their Haunted House build.

The central area of the basement, which is called the “Wine Cellar,” is indeed lined with shelves of countless bottles of wine, which encircle a Parisian 'street café,' complete with a central fountain, oodles of benches, bistro sets, street lamps, and indoor landscaping.

Finally, the east wing of the basement, which is my favorite, is a massive mad-scientist-themed 'nightclub,' named “Finkelstein's.” The entire wing is filled with crazy, old-timey, scientific gadgets, spinning and sparking while lighting arcs across numerous Tesla Coils. There are several bar areas where guests can have their fill of crazy-colored slushies, dispensed from riveted metal-and-glass lab equipment, or cheese and crackers prepared by a wheezing, buzzing contraption that looks like something from a Jules Verne novel. There is even a brass robot named Hildegarde or “Hildie,” who rolls about, delivering drinks and snacks. Finally, the middle area of “Finkelstein's” is an open dance area, with a ginormous video screen for a floor, so it can look like anything, from appearing to crumble into a molten pit of lava, to a deep, dark chasm that one has to cross on a narrow beam.

About six months or so before Halloween, both LG and Consortium students begin submitting designs for the Haunted House, whose elements are chosen through a process involving voting and occasionally ga-wi, ba-wi, bo (scissors, rock, paper). Once the design is finalized, fabrication usually begins by mid-summer. Unlike in previous years, the Ravenhurst builds had to be somewhat mobile, so that they wouldn’t be in the way, and could be easily and quickly put in place just before the period that the house was open.

Even though most of the logistics of changing the Haunted House’s venue were easily managed, Dean Eobseo wrestled with one obstacle that troubled him — what to do with Kyan and Siera. Even though KySi were very friendly and gentle as lambs, having 70 kilos (about 160 pounds) worth of Dangi Black Leopard running around a busy haunted house would be much too risky. Also, it wasn’t that there wasn’t enough room in the manor for KySi to be comfortably isolated; there were about 1,400 square meters (15,000-ish square feet) of house that wasn’t part of the Haunted House. Instead, it was that he didn’t want the girls (the fuzzy ones) to feel left out. He originally thought that he would need to take them on a vacation while the Haunted House was open, which, of course, meant that he would have to miss it. However, after the cat doors and gates had been installed at Crumpet Hall, KySi had begun having regular sleepovers with the Crumpets, so Dean Eobseo started to wonder if they would be content with hanging out there during the hours that the Haunted House was open. Of course he needed to run this by the Crumpets, but assuming that they were okay with it (and they were), and that there were people willing to stay with KySi and entertain them (again, not a problem), the Dean felt he just might make things work without having to leaving the campus. So it was agreed upon that the Crumpets, their managers, the future members of Interrogative, Gracie Anne, and even Ava (who is one of the very few Familiars lucky enough to have been inside Crumpet Hall) would all take shifts hanging out with KySi at Crumpet Hall. As it turned out, KySi loved this, and seemed to think that they were the stars of their own reality show, delighting in all of the extra attention.

Unfortunately, between being crazy-busy with their debut, and because they couldn’t just go over to the Boiler Room for the occasional peek, the Crumpets were positively expiring with curiosity about what this year's Haunted House would be like. In fact, legend has it that a small streak of white hair that runs down behind Yulia’s left ear was caused by the stress of this curiosity. Now, in reality, her white streak appeared long before she even became an LG student, but it is still a fun story. Regardless, the girls were quite eager to check things out.

Officially Haunting
While Sarah, Enid, Yulia, and Dean Eobseo settled in to babysit KySi, the other members, who were wearing their costumes from the HCP (except that Tinsley and Kari had traded), made their way up to the southwest gate of Ravenhurst. It was a perfect autumn twilight, complete with a rising harvest moon and plenty of fallen leaves to crunch through. At the gate, an Addams Family-style prop house, with a large archway running through it, had been set up to keep the greeters dry in the event of rain. Upon their arrival, they were met by Percival Dollarhyde — an accountant at Consortium, who dresses as Lurch (also from The Addams Family), and has been a greeter from the very first Haunted House. Now, Percival is already very tall, standing some 193cm (about 6’4”), but the shoes for his costume have lifts that take him up to 203cm (6’8”). This, coupled with the fact that, even though his voice is normally much higher in pitch than you would expect, he can do the deep gravely Lurch voice perfectly, making him an imposing, but strangely friendly character.

When Kari saw Lurch, she squealed, “Look! It's Lurch! We are officially haunting!”

Whereupon she rushed over and started pounding on him like he was a door that she was desperate to go through. Other than having trouble hiding a smile, Lurch was completely unmovable.

Amber, who had arrived just as Kari starting spazzing out, leaned into Tinsley and said, “‘Officially haunting?’ What the heck does that mean?”

“I have no idea. She does this every year. We just wait until she is done and move on.” Tinsley replied, as if she were a bit irritated.

“Well, I guess it is a bit awkward, but it is also kinda cute,” Amber observed.

“Oh, it's cute alright, but what bugs me is that, aside from being a bit short on her, my pants look better on her than on me,” Tinsley stated with derision.

“If it makes you feel better, in my opinion anyway, you make a way better Wednesday Addams than Kari; she is a bit too svelte for it,” Amber responded empathetically.

“Uh, thanks, I think,” Tinsley said with skepticism, as she was unsure about this business of Kari’s svelteness, and her implied lack thereof.

She wasn't given much chance to digest this, which I am sure was the idea, because Amber suddenly shouted, “We’re officially haunting!” and joined Kari in her harassment of Lurch.

While Lurch, who was now grinning ear to ear, endured the assault, Tinsley proceeded through the entry, mumbling to herself, “Too svelte, meh, well, she's too tall to kill it at aegyo… .”

At precisely this moment, Kari stopped her attack, and in an obnoxiously high voice, said to Lurch, “Oppa, you’re the best Halloween greeter ever!”

Tinsley spun around just in time to see Kari striking a cute pose and flashing Lurch a ‘heart’ sign that was clearly turning him into a blushing lump of pudding.

“Seriously, she can still kill at aegyo!” Tinsley exclaimed out loud.

Since everyone was now staring at her, Tinsley struck her best aegyo pose, complete with big eyes and a puffy cheek pout, which just confused Lurch and Bess, Analey and Amber cracked up, but Kari got it and applauded. Unsure of whether Kari was being sincere or mocking her, Tinsley held her pose as she processed the situation.

Meanwhile, Tabitha, who had been watching from the sidelines, went over to her, patted her on the back, and said, “Even though you dissed my aegyo, I continue to think that you are the aegyo queen of the Crumpets.”

Still holding her pose, Tinsley whispered out of the side of her mouth, “Thanks. Unfortunately I have no exit strategy. Got any ideas?”

Unwittingly, it was Jimmy who rescued Tinsley, when he rolled up and said, “Wednesday Addams, doin’ aegyo. Super cute, however, it is time for LuLu Belle’s comeback performance.”

Jimmy’s announcement caused everyone to perk up at the mention of LuLu Belle. Tinsley would have been relieved that her cohort's attention had been diverted, had it not been for the fact that, even before Jimmy had finished speaking, she had already spun around, stuffed her ticket into the taker’s hand, and raced up the hill to see everyone's favorite dragon.