skeleton_king | 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."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

a1enzo

Enzo strides between the trees, dry leaves crunching underfoot, and shines his gauntlet's flashlight around.

"Why does Christmas need saving so often, anyway?"

From:

ami_imperfect

"Because jackasses who hate it exist," is Dani's succinct answer as she walks beside him.

From:

a1enzo

"At least your usual rogues' gallery don't."

The ghosts' Christmas truce means her one guaranteed day off. If he has to personally squish all this Oogie Boogie's bugs so Dani can chill tomorrow, then that's just what he'll do.

From:

ami_imperfect

"Oh, shoot! That reminds me," Dani exclaims with a sudden snap of her fingers "I still have to get a present for Boxie."

From:

a1enzo

"Cutting it a little close. Got anything in mind?"

The flashlight's beam strikes orange: pumpkin door at 1 o'clock!

From:

ami_imperfect

"Not really. And I have been a little busy, you know." Trying to track down Santa Claus and who kidnapped him does kind of cut into shopping time.

"You ready?"

From:

a1enzo

Fortunately, this is Box Lunch they're talking about, the ghost of prepackaged food products. She'd probably be quite happy with a gift purchased at a convenience store.

"On three." He lays a hand on the knob and readies his left arm. "1... 10... 11!" and he flings open the door.

SUDDENLY, DUCKS. Dozens of them, well under the height Enzo was aiming at, rushing out the door, snapping their wooden beaks, rolling over each other in their haste.

From:

ami_imperfect

Dani'd had an ecto blast all ready to go as Enzo opened the door, expecting practically anything.

Anything but toy ducks, that is.

"The hell?" She jumps from foot to foot, trying to avoid the snapping beaks. "Okay, whoever this guy is, he is severely twisted."

From:

a1enzo

"Gah! These things are worse than the one Hex gave me."

He tries to close the door on them, but they're blocking it, and anyway, too many are already out. He tries to kick them back in; one latches onto the toe of his boot. It is neither strong enough of jaw nor sharp enough of tooth to puncture it, but it takes some shaking off.

"Try to... get them... back... in the door!"

From:

ami_imperfect

"Whatever happened to that thing, anyway?"

Somehow Dani manages to extricate herself from the middle of the duck swarm. She flies in front of them as they make their way into the woods and starts firing blasts at the ground, hoping to force or scare them into turning back.

From:

a1enzo

"It's in the closet. I've thought about letting Minus play with it, but it's so hard to get back in the box."

Enzo loads a byte of Hugh's specialty bolts into his gauntlet. As Dani herds the ducks back in his direction, Enzo fires at the flock, and a net springs out of the bolt, pinning ten or so ducks. Several more shots, and the task is even looking manageable.

From:

ami_imperfect

Unfortunately Dani doesn't have any containment tools with her, although she's not sure if any of her parents' tech would work on creepy toy ducks.

"What do we do, just leave them out here or toss them back through the door?"

From:

a1enzo

Enzo nets a few more and eyes them. They're pinned to the ground pretty well, but it might be difficult to pick them up without their escaping. He'd rather wait until he can focus properly on the task.

"Leave them for now. As long as they're not underfoot, I'm happy."

From:

ami_imperfect

"All right then."

She looks at the open door.

"Well, shall we?"

From:

a1enzo

"Yeah, that's enough of them."

He fires a tracking bolt into the side of the ducks' tree, just in case the grating quacks aren't enough to locate them again.

Back to searching.