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]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[Was gonna comment on that "dead for years" thing, but he'll save that for later--]

Dude... i-it's "like a boss." Not "like an employer."

..........whups. I was almost right!

... Nightmare? Were you-- ... um... y'know? _{[... SHE MEANS THE SHEDINJA FOR THE RECORD. Jeez, Heather, lrn2clarify.]}

... And, uh-- ... _{[SNERK. Like an employer?]}

Was I...? Oh! Oh, no. Just your run-of-the-mill nightmare. I'm fairly sure I stayed put.

_{[He pulls a face. What was THAT snort for?]}

Dead implies the spirit was once animate and attached to a living body, so that makes sense to me.

[Eyebrow quirk.] It's funny how something that claims to be dead can still be so emotional.

Well, I guess you could say I got better.

_{[Jack has explained his dead-ness a dozen times and has just started telling folks this. It was just easier.]}

Funny how that works sometimes.

[She looks skeptical, though.]

I guess when it comes to this place, you really did get better. Everything that comes through becomes human again. If they were dead, they're revived. If they were anything remotely inhuman to begin with, that gets fixed too.

...Imagine, reviving the dead. I bet a lot of people would do nearly anything to get the secret to that.

I'm not sure I want to think about what mankind would do with that power...or what the dead would have to say about it.

As nice as it is here, I think I sort of prefer being dead. You can't break your nose when you're dead.

Almost, yeah. At least now, you know for next time?

It's the nature of souls to decay over time, even in life. It's difficult to retrieve what was lost when that happens, and even if it weren't, the problem is keeping the information contained there in one piece. People have struggled for a long time to keep themselves alive beyond their body's limit, or to try and resuscitate the already dead, but they've all been faulty and imperfect practices at best.

...I'm not sure the dead have any need for noses anyway.

Die...?

Oh... well, I guess that's good news.

_[...]

... What does someone like you have nightmares about?

_{[He was, after all, the King of Halloween.]}

I feel so silly complaining about it. But for a long time, I haven't even thought about who I was in my previous life. I dreamed about my death.

You're going to laugh.

.........._{There was a ledge.}

_{[Jack sort of stares at his gear. He's too tired to process half of that.]}

No, we don't have need for them. Not really. Though they're pretty hand if you've still got your eyes and need somewhere to hang your glasses.

_{[Whu oh...looks like a little kid. Jack tries to tone down the morbid.]}

Only in the dream!

[....let's leave that whole dead thing for later, it's a little too much to deal with on a first-impression basis.]

I'm no headshrink but if I've learned anything it's that sometimes dreams and memories are the same thing. Your mind is trying to remind you of something you forgot that you need to remember again. Whatever it is... you're not done with it, even if you think you are.

_{[Well there's a new voice...Jack starts to reply, but pauses for a moment.]}

I think you're right, sir.

Really? I don't think anyone's been that quick to agree with me before.

This is a strange place. I'm not in any position to disbelieve anyone. Heh.

Still, a little healthy skepticism never hurt anyone.

Though, if you're so willing to put your trust in me I should at least give you my name. I'm Hawkeye Pierce. Hawkeye for short.

Well, yes, but you made a lot of sense! Dying is a pretty important part of anyone's life. It's not something you should forget. Like your birthday!

_{[ Which...he'd also forgotten. Good job, Jack.]}

It's nice to meet you, Hawkeye. I'm Jack Skellington.

Maybe you shouldn't but it sure seems like something I wouldn't want to think too hard on.

Likewise, Jack.

[.....with a name like that he can't really ignore the whole death thing anymore. It's been a constant theme in his life for way too long and this is just. Bizarre.]

So uh... you're really..? You know. Dead?

_{[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?

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29 days till Halloween [video]

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[voice] ADKFSD MAS*H <3

[voice] right back at you! <3

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29 days till Halloween [video]

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[voice] ADKFSD M*A*S*H <3

[voice] right back at you! <3

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[voice] ADKFSD MAS*H <3