"Mmm," Juliette nodded with a half smile on her face. "It would be nice to have some fall decorations around, and pumpkins are the best kind. I'm sure some of the kids wouldn't mind carving a few, either. It would be a good distraction from everything that's been going on lately." The Odessa shootings, the riots, the general atmosphere. Things in the mutant community had been more heated than ever.

"I can try," she nodded. "But no complaining if it's a mess, alright?" She didn't mind the idea of help, either. She harmonized quietly with his humming, trying not to dwell too much on the sad nature of the song. They were going pumpkin picking, after all. It was the happiest time of the year.

Juliette stepped out of the truck and stretched. The farm looked big, and there were clear signs towards a corn maze, the pumpkin patch, and the hay ride. There was even a little shop set up with hot cider and what looked to be apple fritters. 

"Looks like they have everything," she grinned broadly. "I'll show you how it's done, my liege. Pumpkin patch first?"

She glanced at the sweater and then at the sun. It wasn't that cold yet, and she didn't want to completely block out the sun, so she shook her head. "I'll be fine without it."

Sam mocked a bow, ”Of course your majesty.” Sam left he jacket in his vehicle and shut the door. Sam was more than happy to use his body heat to keep her warm so when he locked his truck he did just that. Walking up next to Juliette and sliding his hand into hers he pulled her close but still followed to the pumpkin patch.

”So when picking pumpkins what does one look for? Size, color, hardness?” he asked leaning over and kissing the top of her head ebfore looking on to the patch in front of them. It was to say the least a large field of pumpkins. Sam smirked, ”I for some reason never thought that pumpkins were an actual farmed thing, but pies…” Sam shrugged, ”I’ve seen the farm. It exists more than just pies.” Sam smirked.

”So how many times a year do you personally pick pumpkins?” Sam asked spewing the potential tongue twister.

"Depends on what you want," Juliette explained as Sam grabbed her hand and kissed her on the head. She smiled to herself as she continued, "if you want to carve it, then you want a big round one. If you want to display it, then you can pretty much get whatever you want. Just don't get a soft one."

Soft ones were good for smashing, but that was about it. There wasn't much you could do with them.

Juliette continued to walk with Sam along the designated path to the field dotted with orange. "Only about once a year. It makes it more special somehow if you only go once," she shrugged. Plus there were only so many pumpkins that one person could get. Unless you lived in a school full of mutant teens.

"This one looks good," she stopped and pointed to a large, round pumpkin. It would be a good one for carving. "You want to do the honours?'

”Yeah, I don’t think a soft one would be good.” Sam laughed trying to imagine him getting one and it just falls apart. ”No soft one, round for carving and anything for display.” the icemancer nodded his head reciting what she just told him.

”Well, I’m glad you chose me to accompany you on your special day.” Sam said as he nodded his head crouched and then lifted the large round pumpkin and held it under his arm. He grunted slightly from the weight and re adjusted his hand. Sam reached out and touched the stem and with a quick touch managed to freeze it over so the vine would part.

”So, carving.” Sam said looking down at the orange ball under his arm, ”What were you thinking Cat or witch or you haven’t decided yet?” he asked walking over to another pumpkin and then asked, ”Pie?” he smirked. The pumpkin he pointed to was a small round one with a large stem.

"Yeah, well, it was too short notice for Robert Plant," Juliette joked and stuck out her tongue at him. "You make a pretty good second choice, though."

"Cat or witch?" Juliette chuckled. "Man, you need to open your mind a little more. Definitely not doing either of those. I was thinking of trying a double decker one this year, which means we'll need a few smaller ones to stack with."

"No," she shook her head with a frown. "Pie pumpkins are a special type. They usually grow them separately. I think they had some on display by the cider. We can just grab them on the way out. Don't worry, I won't forget."

"Are you alright carrying that, or do you want to figure out a different way to do it? We're going to have a lot, after all," she pointed to the pumpkin under his arm as she inspected a second one. It was a little skinnier than the other one, but it was also taller and had a lopsided top. It would be a nice display one, or even a carving one if they ran out. She stomped her foot on the stem to free it and brushed off the dirt before hoisting it into her arms.

Sam smirked at the idea of a totem pole of pumpkins, as long as there was an eagle on top it made sense to him but Juliette would need some impressive skill in carving to pull that off. ”What’s wrong with a cat or witch? They are classics.” Sam smirked as he looked around at all the large pumpkins it’s clear he needed more hands.

Shifting his weight and then setting the pumpkin down gently he took a step back from Juliette and pointed both hands at the ground. A jet of blue erupted from his hands as he started crafting a wagon. Four thick spoke wheels followed by what looked like an open pumpkin carriage. If she could see the details it might remind her from Cinderella, the Disney one there was even a little ice figure holding some reigns that went to the handle. It took a minute or so to craft but when he was done he turned to look at Juliette. ”How’s that for creative?” he asked if she was happy with the design.

A smirk and Sam picked up some hay, which made a nice padding so the pumpkins weren’t just sitting on ice. The ice mancer didn’t know much about pumpkins other than they were a veggie and when veggies get too cold they have a tendency to turn to mush. ”We can make multiple trips, or I can add another carriage.” Sam said picking up his pumpkin and placing it in the cart. Turning to Juliette and offering to take the one she was holding, ”I think I’m the only one who can pull it anyways. Might be a good work out. Hardcore curb stomp to that stem though, that stem didn’t stand a chance.” he joked ignoring a few of the kids and parents who were pointing at his creation.

"Classics, but a little overdone," Juliette shrugged. She had done cats and witches when she was little and had an equivalent amount of imagination for carving, but as she got older, the more she tried things that were more out of the box. A stack of pumpkins was definitely out of the box, and one that she hadn't tried before.

"But, if you really want to do a cat or a witch, I'm sure we could get enough that you could try one," she smirked at him and turned back from examining the pumpkins, shifting the weight of the one she was carrying to her hip.

Juliette watched in awe as Sam created a carriage next to the row of pumpkins that was the perfect size for carrying the pumpkins. She grinned at him and handed over the one she had perched on her hip. "See? Thinking out of the box is great," she nodded to the carriage. "And helpful. Thanks. Just be careful not to bump it around too much; if they fall off they might smash."

"It was softer than it looked," she shrugged with the hint of a grin still on her face. She picked up a lopsided pumpkin and held it up to the light. "What do you think, carving material?"

”All of my thinking is typically outside of the box.” Sam said with a smirk as he shook his head. ”I put some rims and shocks on this puppy here.” Sam said exaggerating his abilities, ”They are going nowherses.” the ice mancer said imitating the greatest wrestler of all time ‘Macho Man Savage’.

”Well if the stem was weak wouldn’t the pumpkin be bad?” Sam asked teasing the light absorber. ”Hold on…” Sam set the handle of the ice carriage down and walked closer to Juliette and placed his arm around her back then looked to her as he placed his ear to the pumpkin. He waited for a second as he continued to stare at his date. He then took his free hand and flicked the pumpkin revealing a hollow sound. ”I don’t know what that means.” he said as if it was a piece of wisdom. ”Sounds hollow?” he asked not sure what it meant.

Giving her a quick peck on the cheek he took a step back and crouched for the handle to the pumpkin carriage. ”Set it in if you are unsure, we can use some for target practice if we can’t eat or carve it, right?” Sam asked with a smirk, ”We can work on your shooting.” he teased, he pointed his finger like a gun then ‘shot’ at the pumpkin in her hand.

Sam then pointed his finger to another pumpkin with a thin stem and shot a small beam of ice at it. The stem froze over and Sam scooped the small orange ball, ”Decoration?”

"Alright, as long as you think so," Juliette shrugged as she looked the cart up and down again, the allusion to the famous wrestler going right over her head. It didn't look as stable as Sam claimed it was, but she also didn't know all that much about the physics of ice carriages.

”Sounds hollow?”

Juliette let out a soft chuckle and let her head fall to one side as she listened intently to the reverberations inside of the pumpkin. "Very funny," she told him with an eyebrow raised, "but they all sound like that. That's how you know it's ripe."

She nodded and set the orb in the carriage carefully. They were going to need a lot more than that if they were going to use them for carving, decoration, pie, and target practice. Though she wasn't entirely sure how keen she was on shooting guns anyway. They would probably even need more than one carriage. 

"I'm sure it's fine, but we should really focus on the good ones. We want to get enough for the students to be able to carve, after all. And maybe one or two for them to throw off the roof," she grinned at the idea of her last comment. It was something she had done in high school, and it worked as a great stress-reliever. 

Juliette nodded to the little pumpkin that Sam had just picked, "definitely. It might even work for stacking. We'll need a few sizes in between as well though, so we'd better pick up the pace." There was still cider to be had, and it was useless picking pumpkins after dark. Not to mention the fact that she much preferred to be somewhere lit after the sun set, and they still had the hay ride and the corn maze to go through.

She bent down to examine a large pumpkin that laid on its side on the ground. She flipped the thing over slightly to get a good look at what was underneath, but was met with resistance. The stem of the pumpkin wouldn't seem to relent to the force of her pulling it. She tried to tug again harder, but the stem snaked away from where she was pulling, taking the pumpkin with it. The orange globe dragged the earth underneath it as it travelled away from the pair.

"I've never seen anything like that before," Juliette said softly, a look of bewilderment on her face. Perhaps it was an animal or something that was trying to take the pumpkin for itself. She stepped forward to examine it closer, only to find a tendril of pumpkin stem wrapped around her ankle.

She had a brief second to let out a,"what the-" before she was pulled forwards, just as the pumpkin had been. 

Sam nodded his head, ”Yeah they throw then we can shoot.” Sam said lifting his finger as if it was a gun again. Clearly, Sam liked the idea of smashing some pumpkins or in his case freezing them. If they kids wanted to throw them off the roof that was fine by him.

Placing the pumpkin in question and another two slightly bigger than the one he was asking about upon request he spotted the pumpkin Juliette had in her sights and raised an eyebrow. Sam wasn’t sure what he was looking at. At first glance he just thought it had something to do with ‘haunted’ theme so he just went back to grabbing some medium size pumpkins.

>>>>"what the-"

With his back turned to Juliette he grabbed another large pumpkin and hefted it, ”You know I’m not a big fan of horror movies… Not sure how I feel about a haunted….” Sam stopped talking as he turned to see Juliette being pulled by her ankle.

”Where you going?” Sam asked quickly as he turned and gently rested the large pumpkin in the carriage. They were going to need a bigger carriage but he’d worry about that later because he had a date to catch up to.

”Where you going?”

"You know, Im not really sure," Juliette called back, her tone a mixture of sarcasm and fear. She was being dragged along the ground at a decently fast rate by some sort of sentient pumpkin vine.

She grabbed at the stem wrapped around her ankle, trying with all her might to slip it off her foot. There was no use; it was definitely stuck. Tugging it away didn't work either. The thing was stronger than she was. 

She attempted to shoot a blast at the vine, and the green tendon immediately released her and snaked back into the ground from where it had emerged. Juliette stood up instantly, with her eyes wide and tried to see where it was going. It was difficult to tell, but it appeared that there was some sort of tangle of vines near the centre of the field, all surrounding a con-caved patch of earth.

Juliette brushed herself off and turned to look at Sam. "We should probably check that out," she mused with her brow furrowed. It was definitely no normal pumpkin that they were inspecting, and it didn't seem very friendly.

Perhaps it was a mutant, or something similar? Juliette shook her head with a sigh. Maybe it was a prank or something, put on by some kid with too much time. It seemed a little bit early for Halloween, though, and it was a stupid prank at that.

Judging by Juliette’s tone this wasn’t part of the intended date so he was starting to get a little more curious. ”You okay?” Sam asked as she finally stopped moving. Her blast of light seemed to do the trick. ”Well if it wasn’t part of the date I guess we are gonna have to add it.” Sam said smirking slightly as he looked down to Juliette’s leg to see if there was any abrasions or cuts from the vine.

”Then again…” Sam looked at the giant mess of vines in the center of the field where everything else seemed to avoid it leaving only dirt. ”Starting to look like a horror movie. Attractive couple in a field on a date… something needs investigating…” Sam said as he stood tall behind Juliette. Folding his arms and smirking he just added, ”Jinkies… let’s go find a clue.”

Smirking and walking towards the vine his body gave off a little mist as he expanded the influence of his mutation causing the air to go a little colder. ”What are the odds if it’s just the disgruntled famer?”

"I'm fine," Juliette nodded distractedly. She hadn't been hurt at all by the vine, just a little banged up by being dragged on the ground. It was nothing she couldn't sleep off. "We might have to forgo one of the planned things, though. This might take a while." She frowned at the hole in the field that they were staring at. They couldn't really just leave it, but she felt bad that it was ruining Sam's first time pumpkin picking.

”What are the odds if it’s just the disgruntled farmer?”

Juliette grinned despite herself. "Angry about the lowered interest in the art of pumpkin growing, or maybe even bitter about big grocery store chain selling them for him? We're going to need a dog if that's the case."

She stepped closer to the hole, careful not to step close enough to fall in or be taken down by a vine again. "Do you think it could be some sort of mutant?" She asked curiously, bending down to get a better look.

From where she was standing, there didn't seem to be anything other than dirt and vines, but she knew that there was likely something underneath the dirt. Whether or not she actually wanted to find out what it was was the real question.

”How big of a dog?” Sam asked thinking in his head how big is too big in a situation like this. If there was a vine taking people against their will to the hole full of vines then maybe it should be removed mutant or not. He could just freeze it but then if there was any connection to the mutant if there was one it could potentially hurt them and while he had no problem killing someone to save a bunch of lives he doubted that Juliette would appreciate it. She was a healer, not a destroyer. Not like the ice-mancer.

Sam shifted his weiht closer to the hole as well when Juliette decided to get a closer look. He was curious now as well. ”Mutant or not, the vines took you here against your will meaning if this is the first time it happened it will be the last.” Sam said very confidently. Nobody messed with his girl, folding his arms and feeling manly he looked backwards and then raised his hand creating a dog from ice. It was about a foot taller and wider than Bruno but it looked a lot like his dog.

”Go on boy.” Sam said as the dog opened it’s mouth to issue a bark if it had any vocal cords, which it didn’t. the ice beast took two steps onto the dirt and started to dig furiously. He only got a few inches down till some vines erupted far faster than the ones that took Juliette. The vines started to surround the dog of ice and then pull him underground in the dirt. Sam could see or feel anything of his dog after that so either it was destroyed or it was far enough down where he didn’t have any immediate control over it. ”So…. Got an answer, that loose dirt is bad…” he said taking a step forward onto the loose dirt. With his foot and leg iced up Sam waited. ”Guess we should knock”

Juliette grinned slightly at the dog that Sam had created in response to her comment. If not for the fact that it was made of ice, it could have very well passed for real. It also seemed to have a great resemblance to Bruno.

”Mutant or not, the vines took you here against your will meaning if this is the first time it happened it will be the last.”

"Yeah," she nodded. If it showed signs of violence with very little pushing, there was no telling what it would do with actual retaliation. As she watched the dog dig, she watched carefully for what it would do. She jumped a little as vines exploded from the earth and pulled the dog down below the surface.

If it had been a real dog, she might have done something to help it, but she kept having to remind herself that it was just made of ice. Juliette stepped forward and glanced at the hole again, trying to decide what to do about whatever was inside.

Knocking was a good idea, but she wasn't about to stick her hand in the dirt and do it physically. Instead, she aimed a blast at the centre of the hole and shot. 

The vines closest to the top instantly retreated into the dirt and disappeared. 

"Looks like it feels pain," Juliette noted, figuring that she had hurt it.

Just as she was finishing her sentence, the vines erupted again from the ground, only twice as long. They circled back onto the ground and pushed, almost like arms pushing on a surface. Something orange quickly followed, supported by the vines as it rose from the dirt.