quickattackjack | 29 days till Halloween [video]

[Today instead of looking cheerful, Jack's feed flickers on to reveal a somewhat weary face. He's sitting hunched over and doesn't look nearly as attentive as he usually does. Edgar is on his shoulder with her head under her wing, snoozing away.]

Good mor-- I mean afternoon, Johto. How is everyone? I hope everyone had a better night's sleep than I did last night. You know, I love a good nightmare as much as the next dead guy, but I have the strangest feeling that it wasn't a dream. I think it might have been a memory. And I died. I've been dead for years, it shouldn't shake me so--

[He pauses to yawn. The ex-skeleton had woken up in the middle of the previous night and tried to power through the day by training for the gym extra hard. Now that it was getting close to bed time again, he DREADED it.]

--excuse me. But...I noticed another thing. In a week or so, I will have been here an entire year. I haven't been away from Halloween Town this long before--not even to do research. Someone told me that time stops back home, so I'm not too worried... but I don't think anything can stop me from missing it...

But I'm very glad to have met all of you. You've all taught me so much about being alive...listen to me ramble. I'm half asleep, I apologize. I normally don't drink coffee but I think tonight I just might make an exception. I don't think I want to sleep.

Haha, let's see how long I can stay awake. I bet I can pull fourty two hours-- how do you all say it? Like an employer?

...no, that's not right.

[YAWN]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[Jack snaps back from momentarily spacing out.]}

Oh, yes. Or I was--or rather. Let me start over. I wasn't...like anyone else. Then I was dead for a long time and that was nice. Now I'm not.

_{[Yes, Jack, that makes a whole lot more sense.]}

Being dead isn't as bad as you might think. Though I suppose that all depends on where you go.

So you're saying that...

[No, he still can't wrap his head around it. On one hand it's a comfort to hear that dying isn't all that bad but on the other it really shouldn't be something you could ever call nice. Or remember. Or talk about long after the fact.

It doesn't really help that he still can't shake the feeling that this is some sort of odd afterlife. That he's dead and not just crazy.]

I'd like to say that this makes sense - and it kind of does. But... where I'm from death isn't something you come back from.

I'd believe that...I've met so many people from so many different places, I'm not surprised death works differently. It's so strange to think of a world without ghosts though.

_{[don't mind him, he's just delighted to have someone to talk to that isn't automatically calling him out as a Crazy Old Man (tm).]}

If you don't mind my asking, how long have you been here, Mr. Hawkeye?

[From one Crazy Old Man™ to another... it's actually pretty nice to talk to someone who is a bit more lighthearted, even if the subject is grim. ]

It's uh... [Math.] It's been almost two months now.

Ah, then you've been here long enough to know about other worlds, people being changed, ledges, and all. Alright! Then you'll probably understand.

_{[SIT BACK, HAWKEYE. YOU'RE ABOUT TO GET LEARNED.]}

Where I'm from, a lot of the folks were dead, but not everyone. I'm from Halloween Town. It's our job to make Halloween happen every year. I'm sure you're familiar with Sandyclaws. It's a little like the job he does. Only instead of spreading joy, we spread terror!

All in good fun, mind you. There's a difference between frightening people and murdering them in their beds. Not my jurisdiction. Now there is the possibility of frightening someone to death, but it gets a little messy after that and I don't want to bore you with politics from beyond the grave.

_{[BLAH BLAH BLAH]}

[He feels so edumacated now. Also a little giddy, for some strange reason. Never mind the odd pronounciation of Santa Claus, this is really quite exciting and deserves further investigation.]

So... let me see if I got this right. You make Halloween?

_{[Jack nodded, though Hawkeye couldn't see that.]}

Yes, sir, organizing thunderstorms, rangling black cats, deciding on placements of cobwebs, shrieks, wails, moans, haunting districts, all of those things. It's a lot of work! And yet...less and less people are believing in ghosts these days.

_{[The old king trails off momentarily. He wondered if it was his fault. If they were scarier, if they were more willing to toe the line of human belief and be more daring in this technological age where blurry photos of bigfoot were a dime a dozen, he could change that. WOE.]}

That's one career choice my guidance counselor never brought up. Y'know, I never really thought Holidays was this big of a business endeavour but I guess it makes sense in some way.

[Yeah he's just. Going to accept this for what it is and save himself the headache of doubting]

I don't know about that though... I think there's a lot of people who say they don't believe in ghosts but show them one and they'll be just as scared as anyone else.

[Once again his timeline handicap comes into play - the technological advances of the early 50's weren't really that spectacular compared to modern day and there's still plenty of superstition running about. Believing in ghosts - at least around Halloween - isn't really that strange.]

Well, it's not so much business as it is...what we do. Sandyclaws gives toys to the children because it's what he does. It's what he is. It's what you people have made him...and made us!

_{Look at me getting all philosophical at absurd-o-clock at night. I apologize.}

No no, there's no need to apologize! Waxing philosophic is exactly what this hour was made for.

As long as I'm not a bother-- now...now...well there went my train of thought. I'm not sure where it was going.

I just hope this year's Halloween goes better. There were glitches everywhere last year.

Not at all! This is fascinating stuff!

Yeah? What happened? Was the spiderwebs not webby enough?

It's a little hard to explain. But the world itself glitched and turned flat. Choppy looking cosmic horrors all over.

Yikes. I'm not sure I really get the visuals here but it does sound horrifying and not in the good way.

29 days till Halloween [video]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]