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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.
❅ 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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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?"
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"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.
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(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."
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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.
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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.
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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?"
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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?"
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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.
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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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He steps forward, looking over Jack's arm. "We have people who may be able to fix that," he says after a moment before moving to crouch in front of Jack. Jack isn't a child, but he is sitting. He's hurting. It's important not to be towering or imperious about this.
"Crowley has a point," Dick says quietly. "Though I understand why you're doing it. The one loss is bad enough. The very idea of putting anybody else in that position, where they may also not return to Halloweentown? It's scary. It's paralyzing. Makes it feel like it's better to stay in one place, not moving forward or back because nobody can get hurt that way."
And in that moment, it's all over Dick's face. The fact that he's been there. That he truly understands where Jack is coming from. The very reasons he'd walked away from the Titans after Donna's death. The fights with Bruce after Jason's death. He doesn't realize he's tapping into his Center, but that power as a Guardian is there.
"You tell them to go without you, but you know they won't do it. You're their leader, especially on Halloween. So it keeps them safe, right?" Dick pauses, then adds, "But they aren't your only responsibility, I don't think."
It's a feeling. One he's had since arriving. "When you first arrived here last year, did you hear anything strange? Something about the children of this world choosing you?"
It's maybe a long shot. Halloweentown had arrived early, maybe, but not TOO early. Jack Frost had had to deliver Christmas presents last year with the help of some of the other Guardians, because North had been taken. It's not impossible that, with the power of belief on a day like Halloween, the Man in the Moon had drawn in some early reinforcements.
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"The moon in the other world told us all of Halloweentown had been connected to that version of their world for a reason. That the children of that world had drawn us all in."
Jack wasn't a Guardian. All of Halloweentown had been drawn in to become their Halloween.
Because they were a far more beloved form of Halloween, shown on TV often. A safer Halloween. Safer than the actual dangerous creatures of that world. The Pumpkin King was a safer alternative to the Nightmare King.
He was someone who made mistakes but, in the end, was willing to save Sandy Claws so Sandy Claws could save Christmas. And Sally was good too, caring and kind, and the first to try to save Sandy Claws before Jack even showed up.
Jack doesn't know about her love yet, but that made them safe, too. The children of Earth have seen it long before Jack has and know love is a thing that true monsters can't feel.
The children knew, rightly, that Halloweentown would provide a safer Halloween than many other creatures and characters that made Halloween their home.
That thought, that there could be innocent children crying out, did matter. Halloweentown had its own monster children that were cared for and so it's not hard to see the children of Earth as equally precious. There's a reason they only offer scares - scares at a time they want to be scared - than actual harm.
But most importantly of all...
"Why's it your decision to make for them? Maybe they'd want to help, even with the risk."
Jack knows they would want it. He knows that they're also capable of putting fear even into the hearts of the fearsome - they'd done it last Halloween, even if the Nightmare King had proven to be a more dangerous threat than Jack had expected to find.
"You're right."
When he finally raises his head, his bony face morphs into an expression of resolve. Of anger on behalf of innocent children, denied their proper scares. Of indignation over the mess they've made of their holiday!
He jumps to his feet with spider-like grace, an explosion of outrage and starts bounding around the room with intense and furious energy. The words are said in deep and ghoulish tones, the booming voice of someone ready to bring some fear into the hearts of the cruel. "How dare they?"
His voice calming just slightly, he carries on, "How dare they make such a mess of our holiday?! How dare they deny innocent children proper scares and actually bring them to harm?! It's completely unprofessional and needlessly cruel! This is the second Halloween in a row that something truly wicked has tried to claim Halloween for its own in that world." He pounds a bony fit into his other hand for emphasis with a bony clack. "Clearly, we were brought in close to that world for a reason!"
He bounds over to the window facing the town.
"Everyone, listen up!" The residents all turn to look up at him. Sally, worried about what was going to happen next and having turned back from home, peers around the corner of a building across the street. "My friends, I'm afraid I haven't been the most honest with you. Last Halloween, I ran into a being called Pitch Black, the Nightmare King. He - he - overpowered me. He's the real reason poor Zero is gone."
Jack reluctantly shows them the bolted together arm and they all gasp.
"He threatened all of you, too. That's why I wanted to discourage everyone from heading to the Otherworld this Halloween. I was afraid that some of the beings in that other world might bring you all to harm. But..." He briefly looks back at Dick and Crowley. "The newcomers to town have just told me that this Halloween, yet another group of terrible beings has started bringing the humans to harm - a horde of witches targeting children. They don't want to just scare them, they're trying to kill them!"
Soft and worried murmuring, tinged with outrage, ripples through the crowd.
"How awful!" cries out one of vampires.
"How terrible!" cries out one of the witches.
"Completely unprofessional," says the mayor. "You can't kill the humans! Who does that?!"
"The human kids just wants scares on Halloween," says a mummy child. "It's not right to actually hurt them."
"Precisely," says Jack. "I've decided I'm going to the Otherworld to help stop these witches and provide a proper Halloween, and though my instincts tell me to make sure you stay behind, safe, the newcomers have pointed out something important: it's not right for me to decide for you." He holds a hand to his chest. "You should get to choose if you want to undertake the risks - and those risks are great. I'm fully prepared to go alone."
The townspeople quickly murmur between themselves. There's an edge of anger to the crowd, though, even mingled with alarm and fear. The witches take to the air on their brooms first.
"Try and stop us from going! They're giving witches a bad name! And not the right kind of bad!"
"Yeah!" cry out more of the townspeople.
"How fiendish of them! And not in the good way!" cries out the swampwoman.
"How needlessly cruel!" calls out the clown with the tearaway face.
"Completely irresponsible Halloweening!" cries out the creature that hides under the bed.
The crowd calls out their agreement. There isn't a single hold out.
"We'll follow you anywhere, Jack!" cries out the mayor.
Across the street, where she's peeking out, Sally smiles. Jack sees her, sees it, and is even more sure he's making the right choice.
"Then prepare for a fight, my friends. Halloween is back on!"
The crowd cheers and then they run to busy themselves, knowing they may need to be a little more...aggressive this year.
Jack turns back to his two visitors, holding a bony hand delicately to his chest.
"Thank you. I've been so scared for them I lost sight of what they might want. And those children deserve to be properly terrified on Halloween."