Christmas Eve

[skeleton_king]

Jack doesn't attempt to leave the custody of Gene as he leads the search party into the forest, map in hand.

There are a great many more doors now, each with a pumpkin, and as Jack comes into the vicinity they seem to give a little click.

He turns to the search party.

"Spread out and search each area of the forest." he says. "There is likely to be monsters behind these doors, preventing the retrieval of the first Santy Claws. Your Santy Claws is, I think, in the hands of a creature called Oogie Boogie, the former king of Bug Day, who appears as a big sack full of bugs. If you find him, or you get into trouble, shout for help at once. The other monsters should not hurt you too severely, but they will attack, so your best bet is to force them back into the door."

Comments

[girlwithout]

So she's going to be the one here that's actually prepared. That's cool, she's okay with that. She's prepared enough for the both of them.

She accepts the hand. "So what way do you want to go first?"

[capture_eternity]

"Away from the others," Dorian says. "Because we need to search as wide an area as possible, don't we? So we spread out."

[girlwithout]

"Our direction is away," she says with a jaunty salute before picking a direction no one's gone in yet more or less at random. "So how'd you get roped into this?"

[capture_eternity]

"I volunteered," he says. "I've never before been in a winter forest at night, searching for a kidnapped Father Christmas. It sounds like an awfully Christmassy adventure to have, don't you think?"

[girlwithout]

"It totally does. I feel like I'm in Santa Claus Conquers the Venusians right now."

Are there snarky puppets watching them right now? It would probably be appropriate.

[capture_eternity]

"A play about Father Christmas conquering an alien planet?" Dorian asks, laughing. "That must be so lurid, wild and fantastical!"

[girlwithout]

"He's actually kinapped by the inhabitants. I think the conquering part is when he brings joy and the spirit of Christmas to them, making them decide that maybe they didn't want to keep Santa Claus captive anymore."

Or something like that.

[capture_eternity]

"What are the Venusians like in that story?"

[girlwithout]

She considers that for a moment.

"Really low-budget. It wasn't a very good movie."

[capture_eternity]

"So we'll be searching for low budget vaudeville monsters?" Dorian says, cheerfully, as if he'd always wanted to to meet that kind of creature.

[girlwithout]

She grins back at him. "We can only hope."

[capture_eternity]

"So, come on!" Dorian says, cheerfully striding into the forest, away from the others. "Let's go find some vaudeville monster that ---"

He stops.

"What was that?"

There is a movement in the undergrowth. Dorian grabs a stick and walks right towards it.

[girlwithout]

With the potential of danger, Rikki's brain immediately switches gears, going from congenial chatter to protect the civilian.

Even if the civilian is being kinda dumb. She grabs hold of his arm and tugs him backward. "Come on, seriously? Why do we even have a buddy system?"

She grabs her flashlight and flicks it on, pointing it in the direction of the noise. "Come out, come out, whatever you - "

And squints in confusion. "It's... a bunny?"

[capture_eternity]

It is a rabbit, black of fur and with glowing red eyes, rushing towards them with a hiss, spitting venom from its fanged mouth.

"What the hell!" Dorian exclaims, raising his stick and smacking that the thing. "Take that, low budget vaudeville monster!"

[girlwithout]

She was totally taught how to deal with disgruntled animals at some point in her training, but none of them were focused on possessed rabbits.

She activates her shield, a glowing thing that appears to be made of hard blue light, and does her best to push the rabbit back with it. "This is so not normal!"

[capture_eternity]

The rabbit bites the end of Dorian's stick and just won't let go, hissing and growling.

"It could be one of the demon bunnies people talk about!" Dorian says, pushing the stick and the scrabbling rabbit in the path of that glowing shield.

[girlwithout]

Rikki uses her free hand to dump out the stuff in her pack. It's just big enough to shove a bunny into if they're careful. "I totally thought those were a joke!"

[capture_eternity]

"That's not what they mean by bagging rabbits!" Dorian says, nevertheless pushing the critter towards her.

[girlwithout]

"If you have a better idea, share with the class!" Between his stick and her shield, they manage to corral the rabbit into the bag, at which point Rikki closes it up quickly.

"I didn't need this bag anyway."

[capture_eternity]

"We could have killed it?" Dorian says. "While it was attacking? Not now. It's not sporting to kill something that's in a bag, not even a raging, possessed black rabbit. Let me take that bag."

He holds out his hand for it.

"We can't just leave it here."

[girlwithout]

Rikki shrugs. "I don't kill things if I don't have to. Not when there's an alternative."

She hands over the bag full of enraged rabbit and gathers up her stuff again, leaving whatever she doesn't need. There's some pockets in her clothes for the smaller stuff. "Not how I was trained."

[capture_eternity]

Dorian puts the squirming pack on his back, then picks up most of the things she's leaving to stuff them into his coat pockets.

"We can't leave it, or its colleagues will eat it. That would be unsporting."

[girlwithout]

She grins lupsidedly. "Maybe we could tame it and make it a pet. Or at least have it exorcised."

[capture_eternity]

Dorian marches on.

"Or we set it free when we're done," he says. "I don't know if the priest they have hear will exorcise rabbits."

[girlwithout]

"If this is a thing, maybe the priesthood should branch out."

Do chaplains do exorcisms? Maybe she should ask Ellen.