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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"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."

"You have to do what you have to only if you choose to stay or we can't get you home. This shouldn't have to be your fight. Not when it's the result of our failings with Pitch - "

Here her eyes flashed to Bunny and Jack in a way that wasn't accusative but rather guilty.

"The myths of the world stood back and let the Guardians fight our battles for us. After Pitch unleashed Kuk, instead of joining in, we hid, or we helped in small ways that let us fool ourselves into thinking we were making a difference, and because of it, we were picked off one by one as we let them fight alone." There was bitterness in her voice here, anger at herself. "If anyone should have to fight, it's those of us that didn't stand up to do it the first time."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a strange device, a little sphere made of clockwork parts. Winding it up, she held it in her hand and watched it start to spin.

"In any case, if we can get you home, we will. That's what this is for. It's why I brought you here." The little thing whirred over all of their hands and light started to shoot out of it, scanning them all.

"The villagers in Santoff Claussen helped me design it. It's fueled by the joy of children. This theme park is imbued with years of accumulated happiness from countless children that enjoyed themselves in it over the years; it only closed because of structural damage in the 921 earthquake. Hopefully, that means I'll get clear readings and that the information it provides me will be able to help me manufacture a way to send you all home."

While listening to Katherine, Zac folds his arms, then tilts his head side to side once she's finished, considering her words. He looks a bit amused, actually. "Now hold on - you go and tell us that this shouldn't be our fight despite our worlds being threatened, then kick yourself over inactivity that caused this?" His hands move to rest at his hips, and his expression grows a bit more determined.

"If anything, that's plenty of motivation to throw in. I dunno about everybody else, but having to say that kinda thing to the people at home isn't on the list of stuff I wanna do."

"Okay, aside from the sheer super-villainy of the phrase 'fueled by the joy of children,' which I'm prepared to overlook because you seem like a very nice myth...lady, I am all for this plan."

Yeah, he says that, but he's still keeping a cautious eye on the whirring sphere while he talks, because you never know.

"Mostly because Goo Boy's right; it would be extremely awkward to go home and tell my best friend he has to miss the new season of True Blood because I was too lame to step up. So I'm sure all of us—with the possible exception of Misdemeanor over there," yes, Howard, that was aimed at you, "—are up for saving the world. Worlds. Plural. All of them. But there's no reason we can't multitask with the magic Santa ball."

"Uh..." Sam blinks, then points at the new guys. "Pretty much what they said, honestly. Though less with the True Blood and more with...well, you guys are in danger. We'd have to be pretty big assholes..." He pauses, glancing to Howard. "Or, you know. Have other things on our minds. What I mean is that I'm all for finding ways for people to get home if that's what they want to do. But I can't just turn my back on people who are in trouble."

Especially when those people were kids. Or entire worlds.

"Well then call me an 'asshole', 'cause I'm perfectly happy to walk, run, or freakin' crawl away from a fight if it keeps me and my friends breathing," Nico said, rolling her eyes at Sam. "Especially when I'd otherwise have to deal with people whining about how people who actually try to deal with the problem get to be 'protagonists'."

She stared mulishly at Katherine, chin up and eyes hard. "But that requires that we have somewhere to run to. And if Jack and Bunny's boss trusts us to be useful more than he trusts you and yours, that's not exactly a ringing endorsement of 'go home, everything will be fine'."

Katherine's jaw set much like Nico and she took a step forward, her goose sensing her agitation and honking angrily at Nico.

Katherine was held back by the crook of Jack's staff, which he reached out with right after he stopped pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Let's just get a few things straight. One, no one is an as -- a jerk for not wanting to help out, whatever the stakes are. Some people just should not have to fight this thing and there's nothing wrong with them not wanting to."

He stepped in between Katherine and Nico now.

"Which brings me to two, yes there are some myths that are living with their heads under the sand and letting us take a bullet for them and yes, they need to go fall down a hole, but most of them are the equivalent of civilians. Powers or no, they don't know how to fight or their powers aren't really that great. Once you take an oath to be a Guardian, if you get enough believers it's like the difference between Superman and - and that Wonder Twin that can only turn into a bucket of water. A lot you are probably more experienced at dealing with this than the myths that are left, and plenty of the stronger ones went out fighting. That doesn't mean you should have to fight this fight but a lot of the people left can't hack it power-wise like Bunny or I can or couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag."

He went on, "Which brings me to three..."

He turned to look at Katherine, his face softening into a look that was incredibly sympathetic considering their contentious relationship.

"You're not a fighter - I mean, you can hold your own, sure, but what you've been doing, the scouting, the spying, the research - you're the only one left that can do that. You have more resources than Bunny and he doesn't have the time to chase what ones he has left down. We'd have been sunk long before these guys showed up if it weren't for everything you brought us. If you're on the front lines and you get caught, we don't stand a chance."

He went on, "So, yes, we could really use the others stepping up, but you're being too hard on yourself, and it's pretty obvious why."

His voice went very, very soft.

"I know you're worried about him, but we'll get North back, Katherine. And the others, too."

Edited 2013-06-16 07:43 (UTC)

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