With the first week in October officially over, the first visitors who were planning to take part in Spookyville began arriving. While they were mainly those who were helping turn Animalia into Spookyville, others were actors who were going to be the "monsters" in Spookyville. There were also some projects going on, mainly for souvenirs or new attractions:
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"So why are these being filmed?" asked Maggie, as the latest in 'horror erotica' was being shot. It involved a Victorian-era female sorceress summoning a reptilian (Animalian) demon and then proceeding to perform a ritual/mate with him.
"Because, in a way," said Lord Chumlee, still annoyed at his new nickname, "Victorian era aristocracy, especially in England, were known for being so jaded to their existence that they would latch on to anything out of the ordinary to put some meaning in their lives. In fact, many of the secret societies in London were in fact groups of said jaded aristocrats who were looking for thrills throwing wild parties in secret. One thing that resulted from this was interest in the occult."
"I believe you." said Anne, who was nearby, "One famous occultist, at least in Paris, was the Count of Saint Germain. One of the things he was known for was the appearance of a blood-red specter on his grounds.
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Other things that were being done was a hunt for pumpkins, either for jack-o-lanterns or fall foods. There were some that were confused that the origin of the jack-o-lantern was actually made from a carved turnip, but pumpkins were easier to use as the years went by. There were also other Halloween traditions that were explained in special articles, both in Animalia Magazine and similar magazines. One of the more surprising ones was how vampires and coffins becoming inextricably linked together via the bodysnatching trade. This was because sometimes when a coffin was opened, gases that built up in the corpse caused the corpse to sit up, giving quite a scare to those who were stealing it.
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One of the businesses that was on an upswing was Wiccan's Woods. While Lucy, or Miss Greenwall as she liked to be called (similar to Miss Vivian), while being one of the few Animalians who not only ran a business of his or her own, was also one of the few known practitioners of "real" witchcraft (depending on what you believe). While most of what she was selling were herbal medicines and protective talismans, the source of some of these were a little unbelievable (or believable, again depending on what you believe). According to her, her former owner was a genuine practitioner of witchcraft who left her grimoires to her shortly before she died only a few weeks after she was uplifted. This caused many to claim that she was a former witches familiar, which was a concept that Miss Greenwall was unfamiliar (pun unintended) with. This also caused a rumor that she and Miss Vivian were part of a so-called Black Coven, which wasn't really true but greatly amused Miss Greenwall and Miss Vivian.
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With 22 days to go before Spookyville, it was shaping up to be quite interesting, even if it wasn't really ready yet.