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]

"If it's another bunny, I did not bring enough bags for this!" Rikki announces before breaking out into a jog in that direction.

[capture_eternity]

Dorian follows, and the bagged bunny bellows as it bounces on his back.

[girlwithout]

Poor bunny. Rikki may or may not be nicknaming it Mr. Fluffikins in her thoughts even now.

- Or, at least, up until she catches a glimpse of what's making the noise in the trees. It is definitely not a demonic bunny this time.

It stares at her with its one stupidly-giant eye and licks its... lips, for lack of a better term.

"No way."

[capture_eternity]

"It's purple!" Dorian says. "It doesn't look like Father Christmas, though..."

Not like anything he's every seen, actually.

[girlwithout]

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't have... any of that, yeah."

It flaps its wings. Menacingly.

"So, thoughts?"

[capture_eternity]

"If that's the monster which has Father Christmas," Dorian says, "we're probably supposed to find out before we raise the alarm."

[girlwithout]

"Good idea."

She takes a tentative step forward. "I mean, it's not really doing anything, is it? Maybe - "

In a flurry of activity, the purple thing launches itself in her direction. She gets the shield up in time to deflect most of whatever it was going to do, and it flies upwards, staring down at them through the trees.

Great. Now her cheek's bleeding.

[capture_eternity]

The thing in the tree stares down at them with its one big eye.

"I jus' wanna get a job in a rock 'n roll band" it declares, sadly.

"What?" Dorian says. "What are you?"

"I'm a Purple People Eater, that's my line?
I like eating purple people, and it sure is fine!"

[girlwithout]

Is this what having a stroke feels like?

"Uh, I don't think either of us has a band," Rikki points out. "And we're not purple."

Well. Her coat is purple. Does that count?

[capture_eternity]

Dorian's shirt is purple as well, but he's wearing a coat over it.

"We can't help you there, my good fellow," he says. "But there's a lot of people in the bar who make music."

He turns to Rikki.

"Then this definitely wasn't the monster who kidnapped Santa. Let's go and look somewhere else..."

But at that moment, an unearthly wail is heard, and the are called to another part of the forest.