skeleton_king | Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

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."

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Autor nods, clutching his wrist gently. "Yes, thank you. I really appreciate your willingness to help, Lucas," he says. "Please be careful of the forest tonight--there are monsters in there."

"Shoot, you think a monster'd get me, Autor?" he asks. "Th' Dark Dragon's bigger'n most anything that could be out there, reckon."

But enough jawing. Lucas cracks his knuckles and takes a moment to concentrate. Then he calls out, "Healingα!" directing his PSI to Bonnie to tend to any conditions that come about from hitting the head. He follows it up with, "Lifeupα!" leaving her in tip top shape.

"How's that?" he asks her before preparing to treat Autor the same way.

Bonnie blinks.

"Awesome." she says, surprised. "Am I fixed? How did you do that?"

Autor smiles. "All right, you've got a point there, Lucas," he says, playfully ruing his words.

Then he turns to Bonnie, gesturing once with his bad arm, regretting it, and finishing the gesture with his good arm. "It's called PSI--his special ability. It's neat, isn't it?"

"It's kinda like magic," Lucas says with a shrug. "I've had it my whole life, only I didn't know 'til recent. I can do other stuff with it, too, like teleport an' talk to animals an' stuff."

He gives Autor the same treatment on his arm, not a bead of sweat to show for his effort. "Give that a try now, Autor."

Autor flexes his fingers, and rotates his wrist. "It's perfect. Thank you so much, Lucas," the boy says, grinning. He's relieved that Bonnie's all right, too, more so than he is with his own arm being treated.

"We were lucky to run into you. Thank you," he says. "How are you feeling, Bonnie?"

"Doin' good." Bonnie grins.

"Say, Lucas, I'm settin' up a youth group in the new year, some fun stuff fer teens who got a lot of responsibility back home. Are you roughly thirteen or older?"

"Yeah, I'm old enough fer that," he says. "Only I don't really got a 'back home' anymore. This's my home."

"Well that works just as well." Bonnie smiles. "You'd be welcome there if you want to come join us."

Autor wraps an arm around his friend and holds him tight. "We're happy to have you here, Lucas. And you're working on it, yeah?" the boy says. "And having you in the youth group will be great! We'll make badges."

Lucas pulls away on instinct at the word "badges" before going, "Sorry, no... no badge fer me, please."

"Oh, you don't have to!" Bonnie says. "You can just join in if you prefer."

"No badges, then," Autor says, nodding, concerned. "Is sledding all right or is that out, too?"

"....I don't gotta do it in one of the big white boxes in the kitchen, do I?"

"No no, we were gonna build 'em and race 'em." Bonnie says.

"But the others will be doin' badges sometimes so I don't know if that'll affect you or nothin'."

"Yeah, both the sleds and the badges will be things we make on our own, so we can assign our own meanings to them," Autor says gently. "And the sleds are just meant for fun--no refrigerators involved."

Now that's a story he's not sure Lucas wants to tell.

"I just don't like badges is all," Lucas says. "You guys can do whatever."

He shrugs when it comes to the refrigerator. "I guess I could try the sleddin' as long as it's not in one of those boxes. An' as long as it's not too high up. The last time wasn't too great."

"You can do as much or as little as you like, but you'd be very welcome." Bonnie says.

"That's completely understandable, Lucas," Autor says, nodding. "We don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to do. We're supposed to have fun with this."

"Well, I'm good with whatever. 'cept those things, I guess. But I'll give the sleddin' a try."

"Awesome, I'll see you there." Bonnie says.

"Maybe we should go back to the edge of the forest, in case the others come back and need our help, even if we're not doin' any more battlin'."

"I hope it will be fun for you, Lucas," Autor says, and inclines his head. "And thanks for your help."

Then he turns to Bonnie. "Sounds good to me," he says. "I don't mind helping out further."

Even though he's still a little shaken up by the clown with the tear away face.

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Christmas Eve

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor

Re: First Aid for Bonnie and Autor