nightlogs | TOIL AND TROUBLE ❄ PART 1

TOIL AND TROUBLE ❄ PART 1

The streets of Burgess under attack. They fly through the air on broom sticks, spreading in all directions, under the direction of the three who offered them something special: immortal life.

And at the expense of children, no less!

The Grand High Witch has made her orders clear. All witches are to cause chaos and draw the attention of those who might stop the Sanderson sisters from recovering the book and brewing their potion. The dark being that explained things to them made it very clear: after this All Hallow's Eve, when dawn comes, all of them might disappear or be drawn back into their worlds.

The Sandersons may be doomed but even for the other witches, being drawn away from such a precious possible source of immortality, one that will allow them to drain the life from children, is unthinkable.

They need to draw the attention of these Guardians they're expecting to see. They need last longer than the dawn.

And so the witches descend, casting broomsticks aside as they land, their cackling scaring the children. In areas where they land, the children go running in fear into their homes - but tugging on their parents' arms and trying to draw attention to the problem outside is to no avail.

For one, the adults cannot see the witches outside - they're myths in this world, after all. And two, a powerful spell has been cast on the area causing them to mindlessly continue their normal activities. Parents are staring at the TV like zombies, or washing dishes over and over, humming to themselves and not answering. Leaving their children only one recourse: hiding in their homes or trying to run away and hide somewhere else.

The Witches are fortunately able to be pegged as witches on sight, taking off their massive hats and wigs to reveal bald heads, wearing their frumpy outfits and sensible shoes. They have wide mouths and jagged, rotten teeth, nails like claws, and smile wickedly as they snap heir fingers to magically open the locks on doors.

They are delighted to have such extra power right now, and so many extra allies, and such free reign tonight to find all the ways they can possibly eradicate disgusting little children.

PROMPTS

a) Work, Witch

The children run and are chased through woods and parks in their little Halloween costumes. Or after finding that their parents are locked up and frozen, mindless like zombies, they lock themselves in their rooms and hide under beds and closets, sometimes grabbing siblings, cousins, or the nieces and nephews of much older siblings, and making them hide with them. Some silently cry themselves as they hold baby family members in their arms, trying to hush them and keep them quiet so they won't be found.

The old ladies wander through houses that don't belong to them, ignoring the vapid and nonreactive parents, sniffing and following the scents of the children to try to find them.

"Ooh, dearie. No need to hide. I'm just a dear sweet old auntie you've never met yet. Why don't you come out and introduce yourselves? I have chocolate."

The Guardians are going to have to take this fight house to house, stopping the witches at the doors or fighting them inside. Despite the guise of older ladies, the witches are young and spry, able to do damage with their claws as well as their magic.

b) Sanctuary

A local rec center has nothing going on today. They did their Trunk R' Treat event the Friday before and close earlier on alternating week days. Since it's a community rec center and not a specifically child-oriented place like a school, it's the perfect place to funnel some of the rescued children and teens.

They need to be brought here where they're safe. When there, they need to be soothed and entertained, given food and drinks, and need to be told why they have to wear sound-canceling headphones in case Sarah starts to sing her song.

Those who aren't used to children will be a little challenged here in having to do the most important part of a Guardian's job, in convincing the children they're taking them to safety, and that they're safe while there. They need to be prevented from panicking and running.

Those who truly struggle at it still can find something useful to do. Salt and some of the Pole's supply of dream dream sand needs to be poured in massive protective circles around the edges of the basketball court. The court fortunately doesn't have windows, it's in more of a large warehouse-like room, but it does have doors that need to be reinforced.

Fortunately, it only has to be a staging area, Bunny is able to tunnel the children to temporary refuge in the Warren. But doing them one by one by one would be quite the effort. It's easier to collect them together in the rec center, temporarily keep them safe, then tunnel them there in groups.

c) Grocery Run

The rec center refuge needs a lot of supplies. The Warren has food Bunny has grown and water, but they still need that staging ground for the kids to be gathered first. Right now the basketball court is surrounded by a ring of protective dream sand and salt - but the salt ring could afford to be thicker. They could also use more ear plugs and noise blocking ear phones. Toys, too, to calm the younger children.

Fortunately, human adults just can't comprehend their wares just walking out the door on their own and entirely glaze over what might be causing it to happen. Unfortunately, witches seeing myths carrying armfuls of salt canisters and toys are kind of noticeable.

For those who need a breather, they may be able to catch a quick chat with an ally without interruption. For others, it will be the grocery store run from hell. At least stores have lots of produce to throw, or shelves to knock down on enemies.

c) WILD CARD

Got something else in mind? Go for it!

OOC DETAILS
❅ Plot Parts: This part of plot is open to all characters, and players can have their characters be in more than one prom[t. Part 2 of plot will have several plot parts with sign ups, such as talking Halloweentown into helping, the plan to sing and blast speakers to drown out Sarah's song, etc. Player sign ups for the 2nd part of plot will be limited to 1 character per player, with each player only allowed to pick 1 prompt. Part 3 of plot will go back to letting all characters in on it, in taking the Sandersons down.

❅ NPCing: The mods won't be npcing in this particular part, but players are free to npc any witches. Handwave the levels of magic you want them to have, ranging from magical fireballs to transformation to stealing a lock of hair and improvising doll proxy they can injure to induce injuries. Spells can require chanting as needed (such as if you want to have a spell interrupted.)

❅ Enemy damage: Players can have their characters successfully kill the villain npcs. There just will be more of them, they'll just keep coming.

❅ Status effects: Witches have magic and that means curses and other injuries the myth healing might not instantly fix. (Magical burns, etc.) You can play with this as you want. Spells and effects can either wear off in a short amount of time, wear off when the plot is over when day breaks, or need magical healing intervention at the Pole. Player choice.

❅ Long-term effects: Players who go with some kind of status effect for a character can optionally have long-term consequences from it if they like.

❅ Environment: Feel free to manipulate the environment. You have a whole town to work with. You absolutely can hotwire a car to run over a witch.

❅ Experimentation: We'd like to encourage people to experiment! Obviously ask other players if they're down first, but it could be fun to do something other than 2 person threads, like maybe 2 PCs banding together to rescue an overwhelmed 3rd.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Are we, though? You've come in late to the game, half the work's already done.

[The accusations never cease, clearly Aziraphale is the lazy one of the two of them, not the demon that would rather take a nap than do like 90% of things.]

Well.

[ He never!!!! How dare Crowley launch these accusatory volleys at him. ]

The world where I walk off halfway through Winnie the Pooh to do something else isn't a world I plan to see. But if you'd like me to leave you to do all the rest...

[ Then he'll come up with some other bullshit reason to stay around, probably. ]

[The world where Crowley asks Aziraphale to walk off halfway through Winnie the Pooh also isn't a world he plans to see, but saying that out loud isn't as fun.]

Be my guest, let everyone see that the demon is the hard-worker of the bunch, while good sits around on its arse.

[He's gonna get smote.]

[ There's some quarter to be given for the fact that Crowley is hurt and he feels bad about not being able to fix it properly. However much quarter can be given without tipping over into blatant feeling-sorry-for, because Crowley really did do something very brave and very kind when he took that injury. ]

And there you'd be in the trenches, still setting an example.

[ How can good be sitting on its arse entirely if Crowley is by definition still up and doing a good thing for noble reasons, demon or no? Check and mate. ]

[Crowley has literally forgotten that his injury is relevant to any conversation on account of: it isn't.]

A bad example, I should hope.

[Hm. Wait. Logic has caught up to him and he sort of pauses for a second, squinting into the middle distance.]

Showing people that demons work hard isn't much of a temptation, is it? That'll not make people want t'come over to Hell's side.

[Because obviously he's still trying to win the war for Hell.

This is very much not the case.]

Edited 2023-11-07 03:58 (UTC)

[ Demon squinting at algebra and ancient runes dot gif. Although... gosh, that is sort of a philosophical quandary, isn't it. The sort one only really gets with Crowley around. ]

Depends on the human, I suppose. [ Doesn't everything, at the end of the day? From his own dabblings in temptation, there's certainly no cookie-cutter approach that works for every single one of them. It's a bit the point of humanity. ] I can't imagine it being terribly effective on the large scale, though, no. If you were trying for that sort of thing.

[ By the book, quite a lot of the industrious, value-hard-work sorts are likely to be naturally inclined towards virtue. Well. As he always understood it. But that's the same metaphorical book that posed poverty as an objective virtue. And looking back, the entire kickoff for Armageddon revolved around the idea that Hell was going to be doing things to make it happen, and Heaven was going to let them. So.

???

He literally has no idea. Maybe another thing to file under "ineffable" and disembark from the thought train so that life can continue moving apace. ]

[Bold of anyone to assume that Crowley is trying for anything aside from flirting with Aziraphale.]

I suppose I could just be demonstrating that demons are better than angels. More hard working, cleverer, that sort of thing.

[This very mean statement is ruined by the fact that he used the word "cleverer" and also by the fact that he's grinning at Aziraphale and clearly trying to get a rise out of him.

Neither of them really believe in this nonsense, but sometimes it's fun to play at their silly old games.]

Cleverer? [ Bitch??

Oh, that's Crowley's troublemaking smile. Fine. ]

How very apples to bananas of you, Crowley. [ Comparing of them. Because they're fundamentally different. Yes. ] I've yet to see any evidence.

[There's a brief moment of concern that's he's pushed too far, but it passes quickly and his grin broadens as he makes a sweeping gesture, indicating himself.]

I'm standing right here, angel. What more evidence do you need?

[The lion, the witch, and the audacity of this bitch.]

Ohh, I'm not certain letting you set the standard for demonkind presents a very accurate picture.

[ The temptation was Crowley all along, looking posh and being clever and creative? That actually could work. Not that Aziraphale is blatantly biased towards Crowley and against Hell or how they've treated Crowely historically or anything, of course. He's completely impartial. ]

[Yet another good point by Aziraphale, who is ruining all of Crowley's attempts at nonsense by being logical and reasonable.

The audacity of him, honestly.

But also it's sort of a compliment, at least a little bit, that Aziraphale isn't lumping him in with other demons.]

You may be right there, I am a bit of a rubbish demon. What with the whole business of attempting to stop Armageddon.

[That's definitely the only reason he's a bad demon. It has nothing to do with the Arrangement, or the fact he's in love with an angel, or that he doesn't especially enjoy excessive violence.]

[ He can't in good conscience go "babe, no, you're a great demon" because Crowley's about as good a demon as he personally is an angel. It's simply a standing quality.

At least he doesn't seem offended by it. ]

Yes, that does probably look a touch unsavory in the files. [ Does Hell have a filing system? They must. Filing is dreadful. ] Attempting to save Earth. Bit of a non-starter.

[His feelings about being a demon, and a good or bad demon, are a bit complicated, but right now he's focusing on Aziraphale being complimentary and not his own stupid emotions.]

Attempting to save Earth, consorting with the enemy, stealing pens from Beelzebub's desk. The list goes on.

[So many crimes that he's committed.

He makes a face, nose all scrunched up.]

I've lost the thread of this. What was I even going on about?

[ It's only fair for Crowley to step around the complications and find something else to focus on. Aziraphale is also not thinking about the complications of anything. His brain is going ooh, ✨consorting✨. As a treat.

He wishes they were dating so that he could wiggle his eyebrows about it instead of it being a sort of war crime term.

No matter. He pauses for a moment mid-scrawl to shoot Crowley a faux-scandalized look for daring to steal those pens. ]

I'm sure I wouldn't know. [ Remembers exactly. Probably. ] Oh, it's a shame we didn't think to take notes.

[Is the scandalized look for consorting or for thieving office supplies? The world (Crowley) will never know.]

Are we taking notes on what we're doing on the walls, or on whatever argument we were having?

[It's important to make that clear before he decides how much of a bitch to be about it.]

[ C'est la vie (only badly mispronounced even in the narration because this is an Aziraphale account). ]

The argument. I won't have any trouble remembering what we do to the walls.

[ Dear diary, touched Crowley's wings, gave him compliments, hoping to provide him better aid for his injury in the coming days. Here's an exact transcription of all the wards we put on the community centre walls together, fascinating stuff really. And here is a sketch of Crowley's best Pleased Grin™️, for posterity. XOXO Aziraphale. ]

[HM!!

Crowley, feeling a bit silly, hops down from the bench he was standing on so he can stalk over to Aziraphale and dramatically circle him while squinting at him. It's very clear he's doing a bit.]

First you want to schedule arguments, now you're suggesting we take notes. Lots of administrative nonsense. [He stops in front of Aziraphale and lets his glasses slide down his nose enough that he can peer at him over the top of them.] You're not missing writing reports, are you?

[The most ridiculous accusation.]

[ Being dramatically circled and squinted at by your crush is something that can be so personal and delightful. Pretty yellow eyes privileges... they're real. ]

So you remember my administrative nonsense, and not the point of the argument we were just having. [ There's no way he could get away with darling, I'm very nearly flattered no matter what he did with his tone, he thinks. Aziraphale must simply have it there in spirit. ]

None of the paperwork quite makes the list, though. It took up far too much of my good stationery.

[ He considers all his stationery the good kind because he's a nerd. ]

[Obviously Aziraphale's nonsense, administrative or otherwise, is more important than a silly little argument, but he can't exactly say that out loud without making a few things incredibly obvious.]

You'll get all huffy about it if I don't keep track of the administrative nonsense.

[This is somewhat true. It'd be a feigned huffiness, since Aziraphale knows how to play this game as well as Crowley does.]

Not the good stationary. [said with an over-the-top sympathetic pout, because he's an asshole.] Shame you couldn't have just gone out to buy subpar stationary to use for the reports.

[ Crowley is right and it's fair for him to say it. Sometimes it's fun to pretend to be huffy with him about stupid nonsense. Most times. Every time. Same difference.

Case in point: ]

And lower my standard of quality? Out of the question.

[Crowley looks at him for a looooong second, and then points to the wall.]

You're writing on the walls in chalk, I think we're a bit past stationary standards.

[And yet Crowley is already thinking about where he can buy some nice stationary for Aziraphale so he can maintain his standards here.]

We are warding the walls with chalk. That's in another category entirely.

[ Fruity gesture, for emphasis. No one's putting a stamp on the wall and shipping it Upstairs.

Not that any sort of pop of color whatsoever would go amiss up there, in his very personal opinion. But. That was never his business and now it's even less of his business. ]

It's writing, it's heavenly, it's exactly the same as a report to Heaven.

[The logic is flawless, there's no arguing against it.

Love is stored in starting new petty arguments because you forgot what the last one was about.]

[ SCOFF. ]

You know full well that it isn't! [ Exactly the same. Ha. As if. ] I'm not getting into the finer points of reporting to Heaven with you. It isn't even relevant anymore.

[ You use the good paper! You stamp and send it! You go to the next meeting and they clearly never bothered to read it and anything you want to try to bring up feels like it's actively wasting important time! Rinse and repeat.

He actually doesn't need to get into the finer points because it's basically just reports to Hell but palette swapped. ]

[Crowley doesn't know shit fuck, a fact they're both well aware of.]

What, is it secret heavenly knowledge that a demon isn't allowed to have?

[This is the face of a demon who is absolutely baiting Aziraphale, because he can.]

TOIL AND TROUBLE ❄ PART 1

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