Spookyville for 2021 went off a lot better than it had the previous year, largely as things in their part of Nevada were far better regarding Covid issues with high levels of vaccination among Lyre's Human population and the Animalian population in both Lyre and Animalia. With many of the Human vaccines now beginning to be cleared for children it was also expected that soon those numbers would increase with vaccines becoming available to more people and becoming something that might truly turn the corner against the pandemic, given that thus far all the vaccines were for adults. And Animalia Ambassadoria was there to cover all of the events for Spookyville with a small group set up around the one large open area that was between Lyre and Animalia with the creek running along its western edge where "Spookyville" was set up.
Betsy Talbot, Louie Ringo, and Ben Willer were set up across the street from Spookyville on the Lyre side where they could see the sign for the camp. In many ways it was set up like a carnival, which was a big part of why that area had been left open even before Animalia, so that carnival groups in the summer could come in and set up their rides and amusements if they came through Lyre that year. With Animalia it became something that Animalia and Lyre set up for fun. During December, they would either shape fallen snow or bring in artificially made snow for the "great snow war" and during Halloween they would have booths and stages set up for various things that related to "Spookyville." Most of these haunted house type things, though one of them was set up to look like an old ruined monastery. Miles and Jennifer were there to operate the camera for the group that would essentially host the main part of the Spookyville coverage.
"Yes, we're here outside Spookyville, where a lot of Animalia's celebration of Halloween is underway," Betsy spoke and then waved to the grounds behind them where there was plenty to see and here that would indicate that they had drawn a decent sized crowd, "there may be those out trick or treating... but here is where the main party is at."
"And it's also something that is a testament to the success of vaccination and everything else," Ben added, "Lyre and Animalia large managed to avoid the worst of things last year mostly by turtling up and actually limiting access in a way that many other places either didn't or couldn't. And there was genuine fear that things would get worse once things opened up. But most of Lyre and Animalia got the vaccine when they could and that has gone a long way toward allowing this year's Spookyville be more open and more "normal" than it was a year ago. There have been a handful of breakthrough cases here and there, as people came in over the summer, but there were no fatalities and no massed problems in Lyre and Animalia. Which shows what good vaccines can do."
A startled scream that came from one of the haunted house areas was heard that came in after Ben's comment, which would surely attract some joking in the comments section when the video was to be posted, but they decided to let that be. It'd be something that would allow for some fun and would sit within the spirit of Halloween.
"And sets up what Halloween should be about," Louie finished the intro, "as people get into the spooks and goblins of the night. A night where the supernatural is real and fun to be had along with it. And our field reporters will try to cover all the fun spots."
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Kendra Tykes was among the field reporters that had gone into Spookyville and was presently going by some of the various booths that were there to sell or give out candy and treats. They were arranged in standard sorts of booths that took up little space and would likely be easily disassembled after Halloween ended. The treats varied from booth to to booth and there was often a sign on each booth that indicated whether or not the treat was for herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores, or if the booth gave out candies that were things that Animalians couldn't easily digest. Some included games that played to the season, such as throwing darts to pop balloons that had ghosts or bats on them, and Kendra noted that people were having fun with that, some were kids others were not.
One of the bigger areas that was set up for various herbivorous Animalians as a booth manned by two familiar Horse Animalians, Martin and Josephine Brown. They stood beside a fairly large barrel that had water in it with a sign before it that read "bob for apples," the chief crop that the Browns presently raised and grew. There was a crate behind them in the box that had various ripe apples in it that were there to refill the barrel when needed. One thing that Kendra noted as she walked by was that there were fewer apples in the crate than she would have expected otherwise, that was enough to get her to come over and center the camera phone to focus on the Browns as she approached.
"Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Brown," Kendra spoke, "I trust things are going well?"
"Reasonably well," Martin answered, "Abby and Samson are at their second year of college and are pretty busy there at the moment. I think they made friends with someone that invited them their home for their fall break, and things have been good for them. Which is nice."
"And with things doing better here, we've been able to have our booth set up and can get customers," Josephine added.
"And you've gotten a lot of customers?" Kendra asked.
"A fair number," Josephine answered, "mostly herbivorous Animalians with some Humans as well. And that's worked fairly well..."
"And you have enough apples?" Kendra asked.
"We hope so," Martin answered, "though the past summer was a bit harder than what we've normally had. It was hotter and dryer than normal and the water we've irrigated didn't fully make up for it. The trees didn't die, but our fall harvest wasn't as big as we would have wished. But that's ultimately still a bit beyond our ability to control."
"Something that plays a role in agriculture," Josephine added, "but we've also had decent sized surpluses in previous years... so we might have fewer apples this year, but could still break even with regard to demand."
"Well... I wish you the best," Kendra said to them and then continued on her way.
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Lara Wilkerson, meanwhile, was tasked to go over some of the other sights to see as part of Spookyville, and this was part of the largest part of the attraction. In a sense it served as a sort of "haunted house" kind of thing, though as per the standards they often had different monsters, not just "ghosts" as part of the intended frights. It was something that started with some tours with the staff from Lyre and Animalia that managed the "haunted house." This let her get a look at what the monsters were in each section of the "haunted house." Many times the monster was an Animalian in costume who'd practiced running the maze in a section of the structure to know all its ins and outs, though this year, one of the big attractions was a sort of "slime monster." And before Spookyville started one of the promotional techs showed it to Lara.
"That doesn't really look like slime..." Lara said slowly as she looked at the "monster," which had the shape of a blob, but looked more like it was latex kept open thanks air being pumped inside the sack.
"Well... realistic slime would likely stain people's costumes and the point of Spookyville has always been to give a small startle to those that come in," the tech answered, "we don't want to do damage to people's costumes. Not to mention that even if we were going for that, because of the economic problems that the pandemic is responsible for... even at a point where in some places it is finally starting to see fewer cases... it would be wasteful to construct something out of gelatin or paint. We didn't want to do something that would drive the prices on those sorts of things up further than they already are."
Lara nodded and remembered some bits that Melvin Eco had done with zoom calls and other things that asked businesses in Lyre and the other colony cities on how Animalia helped or hurt local economies. He'd even mentioned a couple of calls made to some bigger research firms that followed many of these things closer than others. He got a lot of non-responses beyond "thank you for your interest," but when Animalia Ambassadoria had had meetings to plan its coverage, Melvin had managed to have some things that would explain some of the cost issues and this played into what the tech guy was explaining.
"And since the section of the "haunted house" aspect of Spookyville that our slime monster will be in has a lot of trap doors and a central area, we can easily move the monster through the trap doors at random to "spook" those in that area," the tech guy explained, and the pully systems we have to move are quite effective should the electric motor that wheels it breaks down."
"Sounds like you're prepared for everything," Lara commented.
"We're prepared for most things," the tech guy answered.
The last piece Lara covered was the fake church that was set up at the back of the Spookyville grounds and made up like that to suit both as the last punishment for Hector and as an added theme to it. By the time, Lara arrived there, Hector's punishment had ended and he'd left with Mercy providing escort and had left Danya behind to sit as the sort of "werewolf" that hunted the church. It struck Lara as something inspired by what was considered a sub-par werewolf movie that from reviews was a let-down to the movie it was supposedly a sequel to, but that wasn't entirely on what Lara was there for. She approached as a couple of people left chuckling and blowing out sighs of relief with some comments, "man that was fun" and "her scare was better than the movie's" and then one counter of "only because you wanted her" coming after. Lara entered to find Danya setting things up for the next round and when the next batch would be scheduled to come in.
"Halloween seems to suit you," Lara said calmly and getting Danya to jump a little.
"You're with Animalia Ambassadoria... I... I remember you from the videos," Danya said slowly as she caught her breath after Lara's entrance.
"Yes," Lara nodded, "I'm one of the first set of Humans that joined the cast after Sophie and Roland became Dinotopians. And the cast has then since changed when the first group graduated from WSA and has gone off to college and now we have an all new Animalian cast as well. Part of the assignment for me is to look over how the latest representative of Canis Dirus is doing."
That got Danya to chuckle a little bit, "In many ways I'm doing fine. I got back at Hector in a way that may well last longer than what most other methods may do. Probably won't become the most upstanding citizen, but I might have put enough of a scare into him that he'll either seek therapy or do more to control his temper. From there... I'm just having a bit of fun as the "werewolf nun" in the haunted chapel."
"The people that have come in have seemed impressed," Lara commented.
"Which is good," Danya commented, "though... I must comment on something that you mentioned..."
"On what?" Lara asked.
"The reference to Canis Dirus," Danya answered.
"Isn't that the right scientific name for all wild dogs?" Lara asked.
"Not all wild dogs," Danya gave a small smile, "though for a time, many paleontologists grouped the Dire Wolf with Grey Wolf as simply the largest representative of the genus Canis. Though a lot of this coming from the fact that a Grey Wolf's skeleton and a Dire Wolf's skeleton look so similar with the latter simply being bigger than the former. However, after the first person to become a Dire Wolf Animalian converted, scientists were actually able to get a DNA type study and found that the Dire Wolf came from a lineage that diverged from what would lead to the Grey Wolf some 5.7 million years ago. That was in a lot of the material I had to read. The theory is that the Dire Wolf is now part of its own group and has the scientific name Aenocyon Dirus."
"Interesting," Lara said slowly, "I hadn't heard of that..."
"Before converting, I hadn't either," Danya smiled, "though... becoming an Animalian representative of an ancient ice age mammal is still very interesting. And in some ways fits with the holiday."