nightlogs | TOIL AND TROUBLE ❄ PART 2

TOIL AND TROUBLE ❄ PART 2

They say to never split the party but this Halloween, they absolutely need to. A quick flyby of the Sandersons' house shows it's empty - they're out trying to find the children that stole their magic book.

In the meantime, they have other problems. They are seriously outnumbered by the witches and there are still un-evacuated children in the town. They know that Sarah Sanderson will likely soon sing her song to lure children to wherever the Sandersons' intend to feed on them. There are also allies to try to gather, and other witch problems that have surfaced.

There is nothing else for it. The Guardians have to split up in the hopes the situation will get stable enough they can find Jamie's classmates who stole the book before the Sandersons do.

Or hope they can run down the clock until dawn, when they'll disappear in the light of day.

OOC DETAILS
❅ Format: The mod will be using prose because multiple npcs may need to be written speaking but players can pick any format they want, including actionspam.

❅ NPCing: This part of the plot will have mod npcing. If you can, please try to tag at least about once a day to your respective threads so the mod can try to block out some semi-predictable time for npc tags.

❅ Status effects: There will be more dangerous witches here. 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 in each setting location. You will often have whole setting areas to work with or even the whole open town. In some places, you absolutely can hotwire a car to run over a witch.

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Dick's not really paying that much attention to the fact that people don't find him as attractive as normal. He's trying to keep track of anything behind them. Or to their sides.

Halloween isn't the best holiday in Gotham, between Joker and Scarecrow, after all.

Still, he IS listening, and he comes back around to the...talking pumpkin.

Not the weirdest thing he's seen, but it's getting up there.

"We are, but I'm also interested in finding out who said that Halloween was cancelled this year. It's certainly the first I've heard about it." He didn't MEAN to say that in a faux Romanian accent, but it was still there.

"Not entirely sure the reason," says the Jack O'Lantern. "The vampires usually bring us the hot goss when any decisions are made. They must all be still trying to figure something out. Maybe fixing a problem."

"I think it has to do with Jack," says another Jack O'Lantern, with a female voice, its eyes lighting up. "I mean if there was a problem he'd have it sorted much quicker than this."

"That's true," says the first Jack O'Lantern. "Even when the mayor can't figure it out, Jack does."

"Go find out for us," says the female Jack O'Lantern. "Just follow the road towards the buildings with lights. It'll pass through the hills. Let yourself in the gate to town, it's always unlocked. Just let us know what's going on if you swing round again."

These are the most helpful Jack O'Lantern's that Crowley has ever met, not that there's been all that much competition. Good to know, too, that the vampires are the gossips of the town, if they do need to get further information from people who have a little more freedom of movement.

"Of course." It's unnecessary, but Crowley dips into a playful little bow to the Jack O'Lantern's. "Thanks ever so much for the directions, I'll be sure to stop in on the way back."

Hopefully that's a promise he can keep, but it isn't really the priority right now.

"Come along, then." That's to Dick, before Crowley takes off in the direction that the Jack O'Lantern's indicated. He could try to bend space around them to make this quicker, but that particular skill hasn't been working as well in this world, and this part of the world is even stranger, so he won't take the risk.

Dick takes a moment to bow to the Jack O'Lanterns as well, following Crowley out of the graveyard. "Well, that would certainly explain why they didn't show up. If they think that Halloween's been cancelled, why expend the effort?"

The terrain is grim grim grim, black and gray and full of fences with intimidating spikes.

In short, it'll possibly come off basic as shit to a demon and a guy from Gotham City who hangs out with Batman. But to many, it'd be spooky. The massive gate outside town reads "Halloweentown" in crooked letters. The gate is unlocked. When they get into town, they see all kinds of fretful beings, talking amongst themselves in concern. A swamp thing woman, your classic vampire, wart covered witches, a little mummy boy with one cyclops eye, and others that are stranger still.

Sometimes fleshy and deformed, walking around with weapons stabbing their bodies, or completely inhuman. Beings with spiders for hair and snakes for fingers. A clown with a tearaway face.

They all seem extremely pleasant, politely talking amongst themselves and not causing any mayhem, albeit they're clearly upset about something.

"- do you really think it'll be cancelled -"

"- hope the mayor can change his mind -"

"- what if we left on our own -"

"- wouldn't be the same at all -"

The swamp thing woman notices them. "You must be new in town, from the other world," she says with a deep and sultry voice. "I'd remember such stunning horns."

Apparently, she's a flirt.

"You have the worst timing, I'm afraid. Halloween has been cancelled this year. We're hoping it will get un-cancelled but it's not looking good. The mayor's made no progress."

"Please, Jack, open up!" calls out a man with a little badge that says "Mayor" knocking on the door of one of the most castle-like of the buildings. The man has a head with a face on the front and back. The one on the back is happy. The one rotated to the front is miserable right now. "We can't just do Halloween without you! It'll be a disaster if we try!"

There's a sigh from a window above and a voice airily calls down, "I'm sorry but I'm not going."

"Why won't you go?"

"I couldn't even begin to explain the depths of my ennui right now," he says grandiosely but sympathetically. "Please, just go on and enjoy yourselves without me."

"But it won't be the same."

The narrator is not incorrect; the town and its citizens aren't anything too spooky or terrifying to Crowley, although he is currently wondering if he'd be allowed to visit when there isn't a crisis going on. It's kind of a fun vibe, for someone who loves spooky things. He is keeping an eye on Dick, though; nothing here seems overtly threatening, but he has no idea how they might react if they realize there's a human amongst their midst.

There's a brief moment of being taken aback by the flirting, before he decides to roll with it and graces the woman with a grin. "Oh, gosh, that's certainly flattering coming from someone with such gorgeous scales."

A little flirting never hurt anyone, especially not when they have an objective to fulfill. His gaze tracks briefly to the mayor, then back to the swamp woman. "Do you think anyone would mind ever so much if we popped in to have a quick word with your Jack? We're terribly disappointed that Halloween has been cancelled and were hoping to talk some sense into him."

Could he ask that question of the major? Sure. But elected officials are kind of a mixed bag, and he'd rather get an idea of how a normal person in town might feel about them just slipping through those locked gates. He doesn't want an angry mob on his hands, after all.

This is...honestly, it's mild. It's almost cheerful in its grimness, actually. Not being grim and dark for the sake of it, but because they actually enjoy this kind of world.

It's about as dissimilar to Gotham as it's possible to get. It's almost relaxing.

They near the house and Dick listens to everything, watching and judging body language. "Well. That the traditional Halloween has been cancelled," he interjects, still watching the window where Jack is apparently sitting.

The swamp lady gives Crowley a coquettish roll of a shoulder to show how flattered she is.

"Unfortunately, he hasn't been willing to let anyone in," she says. "I'm going to go sharpen my teeth just in case someone talks some sense into him, but you won't be getting through the door. Maybe the mayor will have some luck"

With that and one last sultry look at Crowley, she leaves.

The teeth sharpening might not be just for Halloween. She's hoping Crowley will still be around so she can flash him a smile when she's done.

That seems to be that except...

"Excuse me," says a very soft voice from a nearby alley. "Did I hear you right? That you want to talk to Jack about Halloween?"

The source of the voice is a young woman who's beautiful even despite the fact she fits in well with everyone else in the town. While she does seem to be stitched together from various corpse parts and her neck is perhaps a little too long, she's also tall, long-legged, and doe-eyed, with flowing red hair.

She looks around the corner anxiously at the crowd. She's not supposed to be out right now but she'd heard a terrible fuss, had snuck out, and had been watching.

There isn't any point in mentioning that doors aren't really a hindrance for him; he's happy enough to know that the townsfolk won't be up in arms of it does come to a little breaking and entering. Or slithering and entering, if he just changes shape to sneak into the building.

He's in the process of turning to Dick to say as much when Sally catches his attention. Alright, a Frankenstein's monster kind of deal, that's fine, he's definitely seen demons in worse shape, all things considered.

Crowley looks at Dick, shrugs, and wanders a little closer to the alley, trying to look as casual as possible about it, since Sally seems nervous. "Yes, ma'am. We'd like to see if we can't talk some sense into him and get the proper Halloween back up and running."

Dick shifts a bit so that he can see past Crowley, given that the guy is a couple inches taller than him. It's easy enough to follow, shifting to the side a bit so that she could see both of them more easily.

He tips his head toward Crowley in agreement. "We are, yes. Something has gone very wrong in the other world. Somebody taking advantage of the fact that the people here have been kept away from the celebrations."

"Oh, that's awful! The other world is so new. It used to be a different version of it we went to on Halloween. I know there are beings there that are - well, they just don't understand the way it's supposed to go. We ran into some of them last Halloween when we went there and Jack scared them away from trying to actually hurt people."

Her expression is soft and empathetic. Clearly, she's both caring and quick on the draw to guess what may have happened.

She waves for them to follow her through the alley around to the back of the building.

"Jack is my friend. Sometimes I visit him. There's a back way in but please don't tell the others. Everyone wants Jack's attention and sometimes he just wants a little time to himself."

She leads them to a gate that looks like it's locked but she pulls on a little metal rod, barely noticeable that pops it open. The lock is fake.

She leads them through a twisting hallway to an imposing door, embossed with bones and skulls.

"The stairway is on the left right after you go in. I can't stay." She casts a look at a castle in the distance. "Please tell him I'm sorry for showing you in the back way but this sounds awfully important, even aside from how Halloween is canceled. My name is Sally."

Well, it's good to have some confirmation of Jack's theory that these folks won't approve of anyone trying to actually hurt people. That makes it more likely they'll get the help they need, once they can shake this Jack out of his current ennui.

In another world, it might be a terrible idea to follow a stitched together corpse up into a creepy tower to meet the Pumpkin King, but Crowley's fairly confident this is like, chill, so he follows after Sally, keeping an eye on Dick to make sure he's coming, too.

He could've, technically, popped the lock himself, but he still appreciates the assistance, and it's certainly better than having to find their own way through the castle. "'Course, love, I'm sure he'll understand."

A subtle little gestures puts some protection around her, after that nervous look. "And thank you for the help, s'much appreciated."

Once she's gone, Crowley takes a moment to turn to Dick. "Any thoughts before we head in?" He's not a diplomat, that's for sure, so he'll let Dick take the lead if he feels confident about the situation.

"Thank you, Sally. We'll let him know, though I'm sure he knows that you'd only do this out of concern." Wouldn't stop Jack from being upset to start with, but the Pumpkin King's anger tended to burn out quickly.

Once she's gone, Dick spends a moment looking up at the building. "This isn't unusual for Jack," he says after a moment. "Not from the movie, at least. He's been doing the same job for centuries, after all, though I think it's changed as celebrations have changed in the world. But he's a 'the show must go on' type of performer. Even when he's tired of the job, he knuckles through until it's done and only then does he give in to this sort of listlessness."

Which makes him frown. "So something may be amplifying it. Or even creating it. How are you with detecting magic?"

Well, that's certainly familiar, though he can't help a small scoff at the idea of centuries being a long time to be stuck with the same job.

"Depends on the magic, really. It doesn't exist, as such, where I'm from, so it can be hit or miss." Miracles aren't magic, even if he might call them that sometimes, and he hasn't done extensive experiments on the magic he's run into here, so he can't give a definitive answer. "Either way, seems our best course of action is to focus on the kids in danger. We don't necessarily need to talk him out of his ennui, we just gotta make it clear that there's more important shit going on."

Just trying to convince Jack to start the Halloween celebrations for the sake of it might not work, but if Sally is right, they should be able to use the angle of protecting kids.

Centuries is a long time to a creature that was created to do the same thing over and over again. And while he knows that Jack enjoys Halloween, it's easy to get disillusioned.

(Not something Dick would know about. Ever.)

(That he'd admit to, at least.)

"All right, well, keep an eye out for anything that seems out of place?" Like that's going to be easy, and the grimace Dick gives shows he knows it is. "Yeah, you're right. Especially if Sally is right that they seem to have tried this last year." He pauses. "Which, actually, makes it stranger that he HAS cancelled Halloween this year. If he knows it was in danger last year, why give free reign now?"

It's definitely something to think about, but Dick puts it to the side a bit as he opens the door. "Of course, we're not getting anywhere down here. If we want to get anything done, we need to go up."

"I'll do my utmost best." A little bit sarcastic, but his train of thought is similar to Dick's, in that it isn't going to be easy to pick up on something being out of place when they're unfamiliar with how this world is supposed to be on a normal day.

He hums at the comment about it being extra odd, "Could be he's just a cocky bastard and assumes they handled the problem for good." Someone calling themselves the Pumpkin King doesn't exactly strike Crowley as the sort to be humble, but he could be wrong.

Still, they meet as well get moving, so he gestures for Dick to head up the stairs and will follow close behind, keeping an eye and ear out for anything odd.

"In the movie, he took over Christmas. But made it too scary. So...cocky bastard isn't necessarily a bad description."

Dick takes the lead, heading up the stairs Sally had mentioned. Keeping his own eyes and ears out for anything odd as Crowley follows him to Jack's room.

He considers what to say as they reach the room, then decides the best way may be just to not beat around the bush. Since this is the back way that only one person is meant to know about, he takes a chance on it not being locked. So he reaches out, turns the knob and tries to push the door open. "Jack Skellington. We need you to save Halloween."

The voice may be Nightwing with a slight detour into Romania, but it's still fairly commanding. And attention getting.

Jack's whole house is very Themed, decorated with gnarled black lamps covered in bat wings, adorned with skulls in random places, et cetera et cetera. Black seems to be a favored color. One section seems to be a mad scientist's lab but it isn't just decor. Plans on a vision board show off grim looking little items that would perhaps be used as props in scares. Jack is a bit of a engineer of spookiness, it seems.

The place is scary but not quite actually scary. It gives the sense that if he moved out, the house would immediately have an orange sign unfurl outside it advertising a new Spirit Halloween.

That makes it perfectly reflective of what he's about, though. A veritable Spirit Halloween housing a true spirit of Halloween.

He is laying in the chair dramatically, spider limbs sprawled with the same despairing posture in its arms like one might find in a Renaissance painting or sculpture. He is going full Pietá here. Woe is him.

He is so depressed he doesn't even fully react to them being there, only abruptly turning his head to look at them, bony features twisting into surprise and irritability. His face is very strange, clearly a skull, but mutable and flexible, expressive in a way a real skull can't be.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my home?! How did you get in here?"

The main concern on Crowley's mind right now is whether or not he's allowed to come back here once all this is over so he can look at spooky engineering. Nothing could be more up his alley, the only tragedy is that he has to focus and can't just start talking to Jack about it.

Instead, he slinks into the room behind Dick, and after that lackluster greeting from Jack, decides to ham things up a little.

He takes a couple steps towards Jack, squinting at him like he's some strange contraption that Crowley's trying to figure out, or maybe more like he's making a very important assessment. The results of such assessment are going to remain a mystery.

"Never mind all that." The nitty gritty isn't interesting, "You've left a bit of a power vacuum by skipping out on Halloween this year and a bunch of awful witches decided to fill it, which is unfortunate all round, on account of them eating children."

Is that actually what the witches are doing? Crowley generally has no idea, on account of him not paying attention. It sounds close enough, though, to get the point across.

What happened to not being a diplomat and letting Dick take the lead, Crowley?

It's enough to make Dick roll his eyes at Crowley before stepping forward. "Blunter that I would have gone with, but he has a point." He jerks a thumb toward Crowley before looking back to Jack. "Sally says she's sorry for showing us the back way in, but she felt that saving Halloween was important enough to do so."

Invoking Sally IS probably the best way to get Jack to actually listen. "While you've been here, there are a bunch of witches from various stories that have taken over the holiday. And yes, some of them would rather like to eat the children." Roald Dahl had some weird ideas, but that had been kinda central to the book and the movies. "There's at least three that want to kill some children to extend their lives. From what we were hearing outside and from Sally, this may have happened last year? That you were instrumental in helping to keep them at bay and keep the kids safe?"

He holds out his hands in a placating gesture. "I get it. You do the same thing day in and day out, year after year. Nothing changes, and you don't get to stick around to see the results of your work? I get that it makes it hard to keep getting out of bed, keep going out and doing it, even when it's something you're good at. Even great at. And if it weren't important, we wouldn't even be here. But the kids are depending on you, Jack. You and all of Halloweentown."

Jack frowns, though he also looks confused when Crowley mentions witches eating children. It just seems so...excessive, it's initially hard to believe. Then he frowns more because it's not that hard to believe, given what he's seen of the new world so far.

But before he can say a word, Dick naturally invokes Sally and, well, that makes Jack actually sit up to listen, planting spidery legs on the floor and sitting in the chair normally rather than lounging around as if he's a debutante currently suffering from the vapors.

If Sally thought this was important for him to consider then surely it must be.

"Last year, it wasn't witches, but there were some Halloween spirits who wanted to hurt the people they were trying to scare. We met those spirits of the other holidays, the Guardians, and realized it was a different version of the Other world Halloweentown is now attached to. There are far more spirits and creatures in this version of it."

He splays out bony fingers in a gesture indicating something exploding into some kind of excess.

"Of course we helped them fend them off. Why, it was terribly unsporting! Can you imagine? Actually harming the people you're trying to terrify? The nerve! No, the unmitigated gall! Completely unprofessional. They made an absolute mess of Halloween."

He gets up and starts pacing back and forth, hands clasped behind his back.

"Especially since it was children they mostly targeted. The poor things deserve proper scares, to happen unexpectedly when they're expecting it, and naturally, you have to go easier on children than the adults."

While a few kids were perhaps left with some nightmares last year courtesy of Halloweentown, they're generally good at tempering their handling around kids to make a fun horrifying day. Kids and teens are expecting to be surprised and spooked on Halloween, and especially for the older children, the spookier the better.

Still, Jack's shoulders droop slightly, as he leans dramatically on a window sill looking out from the side of the house, one facing away from the people on the street. There is a weight on his bony shoulders.

"But it's not as simple as all that. Not this year. It's just best my people stay away." Despite the fact he just told them to go without them, he clearly knows they won't go. "Hopefully, next year, our world will somehow reattach to the old one again."

While his professional pride has made him annoyed about the witches, enough to put a little fire under his bony feet, it quickly fades. Absentmindedly, he rubs at his bony forearm, body language oddly vulnerable.

This is nothing like the staggering braggadocio Dick has seen in the movie. It's so far in the other direction that maybe it's a step beyond him just being bored and depressed with his role.

For some reason.

Edited 2023-11-30 05:56 (UTC)

Crowley may or may not have got caught up in the excitement and forgot about the plan; he's old, it just be like that sometimes. But he does shut up and listen, especially to Jack once he starts talking. That doesn't stop him from sort of matching the energy, stalking around the room in almost a counter to Jack, not quite circling him, but there's still the sense of an evaluation being made.

What happened last year isn't really the concern, right now. The concern is whatever problem there is right now, because this is more than just boredom and ennui. It's best my people stay away is what sticks out to Crowley.

"What makes you think it's better if you stay away?" If they can solve that, maybe they can get Halloweentown to help out.

This is a massive change from the character that Dick has seen in the movie. (Seeing the skull contort the way it does SHOULD be creepier, but Dick's seen worse under a good dose of Scarecrow's fear toxin.)

He steps forward, intending to take a better look around the room, when his foot lands on something that...well, screams. Sort of. Jumping back, Dick looks down to find a duck, in the same sort of scary-but-not-too-scary motif of the entire place. As soon as his foot is off of it, the scream dies down into more of a wheezing squeak.

He blinks at it for a moment before his eyes start darting over the floor. To the dog bed beside the fainting couch Jack had been lying on. To the various toys on the floor. The sorts of things that any dog owner would have, which is probably why Dick missed them to start with. He's gotten too used to that sort of mess with Haley.

The thing is...

The thing is that Jack's dog is loyal. With Jack in this sort of apparent mood, Jack's dog would never have left his side. Hell, he'd barely left Jack's side in the movie other than at the very beginning.

Which raised the question.

"Jack," he finally says after a slow turn, taking in the room. All it has and all that it lacks. "Where's Zero?"

Crowley matching his energy unnerves him a little but also strangely makes him feel like someone is trying to meet him where he is.

Then he looks up at Dick suddenly, surprised at mention of Zero. there are multiple places they could've learned he had a pet though, though, including from the rest of town.

Had.

He then looks profoundly sad and collapses in his sprawlin' chair again, only this time he doesn't sprawl. He sits with his hands clasped in front of him.

"I'm afraid my dear little friend has moved on to a place beyond his first death."

He looks to Crowley, to answer his question.

"I went early this year. Last year was so perilous I wanted to scout ahead, to see if any particular dangers were waiting to ruin this Halloween, just so we were prepared."

He scowls.

"And that's how the Pumpkin King met the Nightmare King. He sees fear as his sole domain and took offense to our presence last year."

He rolls up a skinny sleeve to show the arm he'd been rubbing at.

It's obvious that it had been sliced through with a clean slice, at a diagonal angle. Right through the bone like a razor through paper. Though some kind of magic animates the rest of him, binds all his bones together sans joints, that part was not meant to be separated. No magic holds it together.

It looks like the bones have been braced and bolted together again with metal - Dr. Finkelstein and Sally had helped him reattach it on the sly, before the town could find out and fur-eak.

Jack's expression morphs into one of anger.

"And he dared to threaten my people!"

Sure, the mayor's the town leader on paper but Jack still sees them as his much-loved friends and neighbors to protect.

The anger drains away again, and is replaced by the sadness.

"Zero tried to protect me, loyal to the end."

Jack still hasn't had the heart to pack up his little toys or move his little dog bed.

"So you see, it's best if we stay away. The other world is far too dangerous and I must keep my people safe. It's only one Halloween, and hopefully by the next, either our world will have reconnected to the old one, or those Guardians we met will have fixed things. I haven't told everyone in town the truth because I don't want them to be afraid."

The new Guardians would've all been briefed on Pitch Black, the Nightmare King. Long-time enemy of the guardians, wants all kids to be miserable and revels in fear, opened the Oldest Door and accidentally unleashed Kuk, etc etc.

Apparently, killing a dude's dog has to be added to his list of sins.

Edited 2023-12-01 03:52 (UTC)

Crowley looks at Dick, mouthing who the fuck is Zero? before Jack starts explaining, and although it doesn't actually reveal that Zero is a ghost dog, there is enough for him to piece together that Pitch killed someone that Jack cared about. It's enough to know he's trying to protect the town, the people he feels responsible for, but something about it rubs him the wrong way.

Because he thinks about Heaven, always deciding they know what's best for people. He thinks about Aziraphale, hiding Adam from him in those last few hours, and how things might have been different if he'd just trusted him with the truth.

"Why's it your decision to make for them?" He keeps his voice gentle, a genuine question rather than an accusation, because he's not a complete arsehole and Jack is clearly grieving. But why does Jack get to keep this information from people, instead of letting them know the truth?

"Maybe they'd want to help, even with the risk." If they care about Halloween, about the kids, maybe they'll think it's worth it.

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