longestnight_old | Everyone Loves the Sleigh

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Everyone Loves the Sleigh

They'd had a few days to get settled in. In that time, the Yetis and Elves had been nothing but welcoming, making sure the gang had a never-ending supply of treats, cocoa, and eggnog, as well as more wholesome food to nosh on. Even though they had work to do - and seemed to enjoy doing it - the Yetis had been helpful in getting them all settled in, into rooms specially designed to each of their specifications. If anything had a want or need of something, like new clothes, or a new pair of shoes, they'd been quick to provide.

Jack and Bunny had done their part to make the new folks feel welcome, as well, by showing them around and socializing, but they'd been in and out constantly during the last few days. Some of the times they'd come back in, they'd looked a touch on this side of ragged.

True to their word, despite the fact that they'd been busy putting out fires caused by Kuk and Its minions, they had reached out to a few contacts of theirs to see about helping the others get home.

That was why Jack was gathering them all up on the balcony in front of the globe.

"Okay, guys, we have some good news. We managed to get in touch with an ally of ours. We think she can give us more information about what exactly you are. Like...how much you were changed to be like us, how the mechanics of the world have changed to pull you in. It might give us some headway in figuring out how to get you back home. She wants to meet you."

[ooc: Bendytimed to after they negotiate Tony being allowed to stay at the Pole.]

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An abandoned amusement park was an odd place for a meeting but Katherine had given them good reasoning for it when she'd chosen it.

It wasn't as creepy as it could have been. The rides were busted down and rusting, but the forest had started to reclaim the area. Far be it from making it look depressing, the natural world flourishing here looked more like all the abandoned equipment had been overcome with life. Flowers bloomed on the vines threaded between roller coaster tracks and the whole area was filled with the chirping and chittering of birds.

Jack brought the sleigh in for a landing on a path that was nearly overgrown with weeds, then pulled his staff out from the part of his belt he'd looped it through.

"Everybody out. Keep close to Bunny and I, keep your voices down, and keep your eyes open. If you notice something odd, say so. Our contact is a lady in her twenties, auburn hair, yellow coat. Might have a big, cranky goose with her."

Edited 2013-06-06 05:16 (UTC)

"I thought she was the goose." Howard doesn't get out of the sleigh immediately. Instead he keeps his eyes about him, scanning the surroundings for any threat and keeping an eye on which high places he can climb up and which nooks and crannies he can hide in.

Well, that and his legs are shaking a bit too hard for him to walk right now. Damn sleigh ride.

"Nah, she's the Mother."

Bunny kept his head high, sniffing the air, his ears twitching in every direction to catch stray sounds. He held both boomerangs at the ready.

Occasionally he'd stop moving and listen a little too intently in one direction or another, but whatever was out there must not have been too threatening (yet), because he always turned back to the group without a word.

"Hello, Bunny. Hello, usurper."

A young women melted out of the shadows of a half-collapsed building, as if appearing out of nowhere. She had auburn hair, gray eyes, and a yellow coat lined with fur. A snowy white goose waddled out next to her, staring at the newcomers with great suspicion.

A saber with an intricately designed golden sheath was strapped to her waist and she clutched a book in her hands as if it was a precious thing.

Jack jumped at first when he heard her voice, relaxed when he saw it was her, and then rolled his eyes.

"'Usurper'? When are you going to let that go? I didn't steal the role of 'primary protagonist' from you or whatever it was. This isn't a story."

"Of course this is a story. Our entire world runs on stories. I should think that spending time with Anansi would have taught you that by now."

She eyed the group.

"Mind you, it looks like this is becoming much more of an ensemble piece."

She opened her book, flipping through the pages.

"I reached out to some of my contacts and found some of the myths that are in hiding that understand the nature of our world better than others. They think there's a 95% chance the newcomers were indeed pulled from their worlds and converted into what we are and a 5% chance they're newly made Tulpas - thoughtforms - like Frosty the Snowman was. There's extensive damage to the Horizon - the barrier that separates our world from other realities and the Umbra -"

She glanced at Jack.

"- which, for the uninitiated and inexperienced, is the field of belief that powers the myths of this world - it's overactive. It's been growing thinner for centuries, as humanity's moved away from their animistic beliefs and belief in individual spirits, but it's swelled in power since Kuk started invading. It's now dangerously overactive, in fact. If it keeps on this way, humans are going to start being able to shape reality with mere thought. An alarming prospect when there are seven billion individual people that will be affecting reality around them. The mix of a thin barrier between worlds and over-active field of reality-altering belief made it possible for our new friends here to be pulled through from realities where they're real - or created whole-cloth."

"G'day little Sheila," said Bunny. Over his shoulder, because he was still scanning the area around them for threats.

A stray breeze blew a scent from her direction his way, though, and he frowned as he leaned to catch it. "Who're your friends?"

There was more than the smell of goose and mythgirl around her. At least one of the smells was strange, even for a myth.

And focusing on that was, at the moment, a little easier to do than examining too closely the notion that human belief was getting that powerful.

Edited 2013-06-06 20:26 (UTC)

"You're not the only one that's run into newcomers. I believe these two might best be left in your company," Katherine said, gesturing for the two castaways to step forward.

Edited 2013-06-06 20:36 (UTC)

Shawn steps forward, a little less swagger in his step than usual. He had a rundown of the basics earlier, but he's still trying to wrap his brain around it.

"Shawn Spencer. Everyone else heard the bunny talk, right? Not just me?"

One of the duo was a large, green mass of translucent goo in the shape of a rather muscular person, if the person had proportions like certain spinach-gobbling sailors and had a monstrous head. There was a big, jagged-toothed underbite for a jaw, solid yellow eyes, and a whiplike protrusion coming off of where hair might be on a human. His gait has a bit of a bounce to it as he steps into view. He's rather tall and imposing, but once he comes to a stop, he waves a big hand at the visitors. When he speaks, however, his voice is rather calm and smooth.

"Hey there, name's Zac. Always liked meeting new people, though I wish the circumstances were nicer."

"The bunny can do a lot more than talk," Bunny put in, finally turning away from sentry duty to get a good look at the newcomers. "I'd wrap your head around it now if I were you, mate."

He sized the two new myths up without apparent surprise at either of their appearances. Shawn was the usual sort of human-shaped sassy, but Zac seemed adaptive in the way things that didn't automatically expect everything to be neat, normal, and human-shaped were. Good. The more people on this team already prepared to accept the unexpected, the better.

"Bunnymund. The Easter Bunny. And this is Jack Frost."

He hadn't spoken his title around any of the new myths before, and the translation magic that allowed them all to understand each other turned it into a reputation, as much as a title. The 'bunny' part had one obvious interpretation but the '-mund' at the end suggested many meanings, from many languages. The mouth, the hand of. Protection. Guardian. I overcome.

There was a whisper in it of "elevated," as if over a grave. Fitting, perhaps, for a myth attached to a holiday of spring and rebirth, but maybe there was more to that.

"I expect Katherine gave you the proper rundown. There's protection for you at the Pole, and the kids need your help if you're up for it."

If Katherine thought they deserved protection at the pole, her judgement was good enough for him.

Edited 2013-06-06 21:21 (UTC)

Yeah. There was a lot of information being passed and Sam did his best to take in the information as it was given. He made a mental note to ask the Yetis for a notebook. He missed having one and he was going to need a place to work his thoughts out.

Sam looked around, making note of Bunny's full...name? Title? Whatever it was. And while he knew the breakdown, it was something to think about more later.

"Okay, okay. Wait. Hell of a lot of info to take in right now." He took a breath, brushing his fingers through his hair and over his face. "Right. So, I'll go ahead and say that I'm not so thrilled at the idea of being a Tulpa. I met one once. That was a freaking bear of a case." He was just...not going to think too hard about that case, thanks. "And the whole 'belief field' thing is probably going to make our jobs--whatever exactly those are--a lot more difficult."

He shook his head slowly. "There's likely to be a lot of dragon-slaying in our futures."

Molly, in all of her 12-year-old wisdom, could take or leave Shawn. After all, he's just another adult. She's not going to trust him without reason, and she'll kick his butt if he gives her or Nico (or Howard, probably since even if he's a jerk, he's another kid) crap over anything. Not the teasing sort, but the "I'm a grown-up and you're a kid, you do what I say I know better" sort of crap.

Bunny's name-title-thing doesn't faze her much - it's magic, right? And she already know some words can be really powerful and mean a lot. Protection, Guardian, these are meanings that just make her love him more. He's safe, he's good, he's strong. She likes it. Even if she mostly trusts Jack, Bunny is safe. She can trust him, after all - he's the EASTER BUNNY.

And then there's Zac. Who is a big green goo thing. And that is very interesting for curious 12-year-olds - which is probably good, otherwise she'd be inclined to wander off and give Nico a heart attack. She walks right up to him and peers up curiously, head canted slightly. "Are you an alien or a mutant?" she asks.

It's a lot to take in - new guys, jargon about the power of belief, the fact that Mother goose is, in fact, two entities - but Howard is both very good at accepting the unacceptable and keeping up. Which doesn't mean he likes what he hears; in fact, given his dim view of human nature, the idea of people just being able to think things into creation makes him shudder from his ankles to his fingertips. He pretends it's just that he's cold and wraps his XS jacket around himself tighter. Hunching his shoulders makes his clavicles protrude like something out of Alien.

He doesn't really pay much mind to Shawn or Zac. Zac's far from the weirdest thing he's ever seen, and Shawn seems downright boring. And the only interesting thing about the goose so far is that it hasn't talked. Howard wonders if it lays edible eggs.

Howard slips to the side of the group, to an old funnel cake cart, and picks some moss of it. He slips a small pair of rusted tongs into his pants pocket and busies his sticky fingers taking interesting scraps of utility.

Bunnymund gets a nod upon inquiring about knowledge imparted onto them. "Situation sounds pretty weird to me overall, but if folks need a hand, I got two of 'em to lend," Zac answers. After all, it seemed pretty straightforward - he was here because help was needed, so he'll give it.

Molly's question, however, gets a pleased grin. He stoops down on one knee, getting down on her level. "Neither - more like a science experiment that didn't turn out as planned."

The understanding that accompanies the word is strange, because it doesn't feel the same as when he remembers an obscure piece of trivia. There is no memory that accompanies these definitions; he simply knows them. But he shrugs off the feeling- I mean, hello, the Easter Bunny?! How freaking awesome is that? Okay, so he's not as cute and fuzzy as his pictures on greeting cards, but also person-sized and talking and not a hallucination, so Shawn's inclined to believe it.

"Wow, you are so much crankier than when I met you at the mall." An incident which occurred during his mid-twenties and not, say, age five as one might reasonably suspect.

He notes Sam's use of the word "case,"—a rival detective perhaps??—and more or less ignores the kid playing 20 questions with Zac since he covered that topic exhaustively while they were waiting. Seriously, if you can think of a weird or awkward thing to ask a gooey green guy, Shawn probably covered it.

Continuing to address Bunny, "If the kids need me, I can't disappoint them. So I guess I just have one question. What do you need me to do? -Wait, sorry, two questions! Are we going to get to meet the Keebler elves?"

"What are Keebler elves? Are they cobblers?" Mami wondered. The words sort-of sounded alike, didn't they?

She'd been fascinated with Lady Katherine and the new stories, and was still hoping to hear more. By now she trusted that their new allies weren't witches---her Soul Gem would still warn her of any danger, wouldn't it? So she simply curtsied to the newcomers and listened, waiting.

Edited 2013-06-07 06:34 (UTC)

"So, what I'm getting is that the we're-not-really-real-people theory is probably not true -- yay -- and that Kuk is basically going to turn this place into the Gone-Away World," Nico said, deciding to ignore the fact that Molly was befriending a science-experiment-gone-wrong and to ignore Shawn entirely. "I've read that book; it was good, but I don't wish it was non-fiction. Any thoughts on how we can make it not happen?"

"I'm not sure I know the reference, but I don't think you understand the scope of this. Kuk's actions are damaging the Horizon and it's getting thinner. That means when this world is overtaken, It will be able to travel between worlds."

She looked to the group of newcomers, her expression filled with deep concern.

"That means It will be able to travel to your worlds eventually - to all worlds. This is just the start. It seems as if he's trying to use this world as a stepping stone to end all of existence. Which is why I wish a had a different answer to your question of how to stop it, because I don't know. None of the myths I've spoken to do."

"Hey hey whoa whoa whoa," Jack said, his voice cracking and taking a higher pitch and his hand making flaily gestures.

"All of existence? We have to stop It from destroying all of existence?"

Jack looked over at Bunny with wide eyes, and then said wryly, "No pressure."

Edited 2013-06-07 20:35 (UTC)

"My world deserves it," Howard mutters to no one in particular. "Maybe it'll put the FAYZ out of its misery."

He slaps a butterfly away when it lands on his wrist and keeps looking through the food cart. After a moment, he licks the insect splat off his hand.

"Bingo." He brushes away some ivy and starts picking the lock to the cart's stove battery.

Mami looks at Howard with clear concern in her eyes. She knows he was starving when he arrived, he's had a terrible life, but there can't be an entire world ruled by despair, can there?

And now all of existence might fall as well. She looks away from Howard's insect-eating with a faint nose-wrinkle of disgust and sighs.

"This doesn't change a thing. Every life we might protect is important, and we absolutely must succeed---that's as true now as ever. We learn what we can, form a strategy, and win, no matter how impossible it looks. Right?"

Maybe they'll let her add her firepower now, she hopes.

Sam watched Howard closely. "Yeah, well. The FAYZ may deserve it...whatever the FAYZ is. But there are always going to be people who don't. And, frankly, that's not a chance I'm willing to take."

He'd pulled Lucifer and Michael back into the Cage rather than let them take the world apart. This wasn't any different for him.

He nodded to Mami, hands in his pockets. "I think that's pretty much exactly what we're going to have to do. It's probably going to take a hell of a lot of work, especially if we're trying to find a way to get some people back to their worlds at the same time."

"I wasn't talking to any of you," Howard snaps, going back to picking at the lock and listening.

Zac straightens up once Katherine starts explaining more, and Jack gets a sympathetic look as he points out the scope of things. Mami and Sam get a grin, however. "Yeah, it's a pretty tall order, but we gotta do what we can. I know I didn't get pulled here to stand around and look pretty, that's for sure."

Katoli's World - Dakeng Scenic Area, Northeast of Taichung

Re: Katoli's World - Dakeng Scenic Area, Northeast of Taichung

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