How Green Becomes Wood

Dark was pleased with the help: They had fake spiderwebbing to hang, and it was easier with a second person who could see what needed to be done. There were far, far too many decorations to put up in one day, but he guessed by Wednesday they'd all be ready, "The difficult thing is rearranging where things look best to where they are safest. We do not want a ceramic ghost crashing down on Ivy-Qadira's head."

Absolutely delighted, Daizi hurried to the scrapbook. She knew she couldn't see it, but it was nice to show off. The book was, of course, filled with all the greatest hits one would expect. Dracula and Lucy, The Phantom of the Opera and Christine, Gomez and Morticia, Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, Ichabod Crane and Katrina from Sleepy Hollow... But also, less common takes: Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester, Dale Cooper and Audrey Horne, Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler (with Cooger as Watson, of course), Laszlo and Nadja from What We Do in the Shadows.. Not all of them fit the goth theme, not all of them really worked as a couple, but they were always dressed as characters from the same film, book, or TV show. Amongst them, from around the time they would've been around 30, they were Dr. Frank-N-Furter and Magenta.
 
"No," Xander agreed as he held up one end of a spiderweb. "That is not acceptable. But this place can still look like a haunted mansion while being safe."

Alec didn't recognize at least half of the characters, but it was easy to react only to how the costumes looked. He was only too happy to tell Daizi exactly how amazing they looked and remarked on details that were especially impressive. He liked when Cooger was a part of the trio because he always looked like he was having a blast.
 
"Luckily, we have plenty we can use while keeping her safe." Dark commented, stepping back to squint at the spiderwebbing before coming back to adjust it so it sat just so.

Cooger showed up in a number of them: The Sheriff in Twin Peaks, Oogie Boogie, Uncle Fester, and Abraham Van Helsing, for examples. Most stories had a character he could join them in, but sometimes he branched out. The scrapbook also included pictures from their Halloween parties, which always looked absolutely meticulously planned and a ton of fun: the sort of party that people believed only exist in movies.
 
Xander backed off and let Dark adjust to his heart's content. Then he handed Dark the next piece. "I'm surprised you haven't gotten yourself lost in a Spirit Halloween yet this year. Actually, I don't think I've seen one yet, so maybe that's why."

"I don't think I ever realized just how good Ba is at makeup," Alec remarked, squinting at a bearded Dark in a corset. They made corsets that big? "You look really good as Sally."
 
"It is only September 2nd, they typically do not open until October, unfortunately." He sighed, wishing they were open more often throughout the year, "As soon as they open, though, then I will arrive. But the craft stores should be adding their decorations, soon. And that, too, is a journey worth taking."

"He only really puts it on for costumes, except for eyeliner," Daizi said, sitting with her legs crossed on the couch and listening to Ivy's jingle as she crawled around the home. "But he does mine a lot, throughout the year. Unless I'm surprising him, he does it for me."
 
Xander looked around at the totes. "What more could you possibly need? What more can possibly fit?" he asked incredulously.

Alec squinted closer at the picture. "Mama. Is Ba wearing... fishnet stockings? And leather... Those are leather. Oh, Ya Allah, those are leather. And small. How did..." He couldn't finish his question. Instead, he carefully closed the book. "Thank you for showing this to me, Mama. I think I need to be excused for a bit," he said very politely.
 
"You never know," Dark replied, "We could always use more bats on the wall. Or more gnarled twigs around the mantle. Or skulls. That is why you visit, because sometimes there are better things you did not expect to find, which are nicer than what you have. Then, you sell what you have, or give it away. Although much of our Halloween decor we bought at antique or thrift stores, so there is a better chance it is haunted. This is why it does not look cheap."

As hard as she tried not to, Daizi laughed at Alec's reaction, "Of course he was--" She tried to restrain herself, but his horrified response in Arabic was too much, so all she could do was squeak out, "He had to remember doing the Time Warp!" while letting Alec hurry off.
 
Xander sighed. "Fair enough. I guess. The gnarled twigs are pretty cool, but I'm pretty sure you have enough bats. Why not some of those antique Victorian ghost pictures?"

"Nope, nope, nope, I need my own time warp," Alec muttered to himself, hastily putting distance between himself and the book. He stepped into the living room, looked at Dark, looked up and down Dark, shuddered violently, and dashed for the stairs. "Nope, nope, Nope!"

Xander stared after Alec and then looked at Dark. "What did you do?" Then he realized Daizi was in the kitchen cackling. "Nevermind, rephrased, what did she do?"
 
"I have some Victorian ghost pictures, but that is another thing you can never have too many of. I was thinking of suspending bats in flight from the ceiling, so it looks like you entered through a colony of them. And, Ivy cannot reach the ceiling." He turned, hearing Daizi's laugh, and shook his head. "Darling," He called into the kitchen, "What did you do to our middle child?"

Wheezing, she answered in a squeaking voice, "I showed him our old Halloween costumes!"
 
Xander frowned. "Costumes? He loves costumes. What would..." Then he held up a hand. "You know what? Never mind. I seriously doubt I want to know. Not if it made Alec run off like that. I'm good." He looked at Dark. "Flappy pats on the ceiling. If they were made out of a super light material, walking through them could make them seem like they're flying around. They'd flutter and stuff."
 
"Look," Daizi laughed, coming into the room, although without the scrapbook, "All he did was dress as the sort of man who could get you a Satanic Mechanic."

"Ah," Dark smiled, stepping back again and looking at his webbing, "That one, then."

"Makes you shiver with antici..."

"I looked good in that one."

"...Pation!"

"I do not want the bats hung too low, then it will be annoying and they will be at risk of them being knocked down. I want them just low enough."
 
Xander glanced between Dark and Daizi and heaved a resigned sigh. He waited them out before saying to Dark. "That super light paper stuff, the really light kind that sometimes gets used for gift bags, that might be light enough that the air currents from like a foot away should make them stir, right? As long as the structure holding the paper in shape isn't too heavy. Or maybe those things exist already. Not sure. Or maybe there's motion-activated ones you could turn on and off."
 
"I will look into it," Dark answered, putting one arm around Daizi and squeezing her in close to his side, and she wrapped her arms around his waist, thinking about how this was exactly the life she had been dreaming of. It was an almost painful level of happiness.

Still, since Dark was busy, eventually Daizi did force herself to pull away, at which point she said, "I need to start drying out oranges and other citrus fruits, so we can make bags to add to boiling water, so our home smells lovely. It's that time."

"The only time of year you actually use a cauldron."

"I couldn't last year," She said, bending and scooping Ivy, "Somebody got in the way."
 
"They aren't all that massive," Daizi replied, "It's just on the top shelf of our pantry with the bundt pans and the other cooking stuff we seldomly use. I have a second, smaller one in my study for putting incense, or anything I have to burn, like a petition or an omen, but the larger one I save really just for herbs, spices, and other things to fill the house with. It's like sageing the house, but not."
 
"It's the least impressive of my tools, I'm afraid," Daizi said, bouncing Ivy on her hip, "I'm going to take her to play, you two have fun."

Dark looked around the room, feeling satisfied with the immediate decorations of it, "I think we need to add webbing to the rest of the house. It is the least enjoyable of the tasks, but then we can go in with the front stuff. Or we can go outside and work on the lights."
 
With a solemn nod, Dark walked Xander through the rest of the house, occasionally worrying they didn't have enough webbing and may need to go to the store, meticulously adding it to wall corners, light fixtures, the tops of cabinets (but only so it wouldn't get in the way), bannisters, mantles, in certain archways, windowsills, and the decorative table by their front door. A bit was also draped cautiously around Daizi's bowl of salt.

"I want to add it through the archway here," Dark said, pointing to the stairs, "But I think I will need to go to the store and buy more for that. I also need to decorate the upstairs hall. And our bedroom, but I can do that alone." Naturally, their canopy bed and vanity table received the Halloween treatment, "After this, I have garland to go around our round arches."
 
Xander followed Dark dutifully, helping to put up everything and holding things steady for him. His job seemed to be primarily to act as a second set of hands with less reach, but he didn't mind. It was oddly satisfying.

"Are we going to be able to move once we get all that up? That's a lot of webbing and garland," Xander remarked.
 
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