Character Meet and Greet: Boo to You~!

[smk_mods]

Rules | FAQ | Premise | Applications

i. Main Street USA: Daylight Hours
The citizens of Main Street greet the coming of fall in a big way! The entire main part of town is decorated in the colors of fall, carved pumpkins on every window ledge, balcony and stoop! Some are rather creative, ranging from The King himself to various spook-tacular versions. There are also plain pumpkins, squash and apples arranged in a rather decorative (and tasty) presentation outside the Opera House!

Enjoy yourselves as The Candy Palace begins to hand out small, caramel and spice covered apple slices. The smell of apple fritters, grilled apples and apple bacon float through the air. Enjoy the rather relaxed daylight hours...

ii.Main Street USA: After Dark

Because the moment the sun sets, and the lamps have been lit- the entire street takes on a strange and unsettling demeanor. The pumpkins glow a soft, red color and bats and black cats crawl around the shadowed corners. You might see several citizens wandering the streets-but look to hard and they will suddenly vanish before you can even greet them.

The stores are still open and the sweets and treats are still pouring; but! Beware of happy haunts~!

iii. Yo ho, yo ho a Pirates life for me!

Ah! Smell that salty, briny air! It gives life to all those who are from or love the sea!

Which would be wonderful and invigorating, if this was the bottom of the beautiful briny sea. It isn't. It's the open garden in front of the train station which is no being over run by some rather fishy, lv. 2 Corroded! Can you help sweep the proverbial beach clean without being washed away by water based attacks? The conductors would be most grateful if you could!

iv.Come out and Socialize!

No need to be number one thousand! Imagination is the real host here, so go on and use your to come up with your own adventure. Just remember to take loved ones by the hand, please, our ghosts are frightfully sensitive to too much mischief~

Comments

[strangeandunusual]

"The roof?!" She frowned, yelping as he pulled her onto the sidewalk, more out of surprise than anything else. "I never went on the roof. The very first time i talked to you, I was on my way to leave Adam and Barbara a note before jumping off the bridge ..."

She listened to him with an intent, puzzled frown. This ... didn't sound like the Beetlejuice she knew, at all. Or even, she realized, much like herself. "I don't," she admitted. "But ... tell me one more thing: why did I want my dad to leave?"

Charles Deetz was ... problematic, and emotionally stunted, and had horrible taste in second wives ... but she still loved her father, and had been at the point where she would have rather gotten rid of herself than him. "If there's anyone in the house I would have hated enough to summon you for myself, it would've been Delia... not Dad. Something's weird here."

[creepyoldguy]

"You were mad because your dad wasn't noticing you, uh, forgetting your dead mom, and was hooking up with Delia. He wanted you to be a little Miss Sunshine and I offered to kill him, you turned me down.

But, yeah, the roof. You had a suicide note that I incinerated. I mean, you were the only living person who'd been able to see me, and I wasn't going to let you throw that away. So, I offered to be your best friend! Even if you didn't want me to kill your dad. Or help you kill your dad. You were very against patricide."

The demon had to agree with her though. Something was weird.

"Okay, okay, so maybe one of us is remembering things wrong. Probably you. Because, my memory is flawless. Mostly."

[strangeandunusual]

There it was,the glaring puzzle piece she'd been looking for. She felt relieved, even as her heart dropped into her shoes. He looked different because it was different, all of it. And no wonder. If her mother had died, instead of Charles having a nervous breakdown...

"But Beetlejuice," she said, shaking her head. "My mother isn't dead. She just... Left. This... I think ... Have you heard of the concept of quantum theory? I only just learned about it a couple months ago, but... I think there's more than one me. And more than one you... which is terrifying."

*spoilers for those lurking*

[creepyoldguy]

"That's where little changes make new worlds or something. They didn't really cover that at Julliard."

But, that being said, he did understand the concept.

"Okay, so. You don't have a dead mom. We apparently didn't bond quite as much...Adam and Babs sound as boring as ever..." The demon rocked back on his heels, trying to piece together differences.

"I'm guessing you still killed other-me with Delia's art? Did he feed his mom to a sandworm too?"

[strangeandunusual]

"They don't cover it at Miss Shannon's either, but I have a couple of friends here who know a lot about it..."

Her eyes widened more as she listened, her eyeliner only exaggerating the effect. If this Beetlejuice was from a quantum universe, there was a chance he was different in good ways. She tried to keep the things she was learning at the front of her mind: that everyone was here because they had something that would help, that it was a new start for everyone, that it wouldn't do anyone any good to judge each other. But most of all, that they needed to share what they knew. So as they kept talking, she kept walking, trusting that he'd follow her to her favorite Catching Up spot where they could sit and have a snack once they got there. (He'd forsaken a perfectly good churro, after all.)

"The other you turned into a giant snake and dropped Dad from the second floor landing. Then you tried to marry me to get out of... something you never explained. Because Barbara tamed a sandworm and rode it straight into the living room. You were the one who got eaten, no one got stabbed with Delia's art, and ... I never met your mom. Why, was she worse than you? That would explain a lot."

[creepyoldguy]

There was no need to worry. Beetlejuice quite willingly followed along, like a cross between a demonic puppy and schoolyard chum.

"BABS rode a sandworm?!"

To him, that was the most shocking piece of information gleaned. The only thing more shocking would have been hearing that Adam had done that instead.

"Whoa. Props to Barbara, then. That's exactly what I did. Because my mom was going to kill all of you."

With the differences in their experiences, Beetlejuice decided to be more forthcoming with information than usual.

"See, that exorcist thing was my doing. Well. Your doing. Because I lied. You agreed to marry me to make it stop, and save Babs. Then you jumped into hell to find your mom. Your dad went after you."

There was the slightest undercurrent of hurt in his tone with the whole jumping-into-hell-to-get-away thing. But, as quickly as it was there it was gone again as he continued.

"Did some torturing while you were gone, you came back with your dad, you agreed to marry me again, and you did, I got to be alive for about a minute, lost my mind a bit, you killed me--warranted, can't really lie--and you guys tried to banish me to the Netherworld."

The demon idly filled his pockets with the spiders still on his hands. "And that's when my mom came through the portal. She was kind of in charge of things and was pissed you had gone to and left the Netherworld. And, uh, wanted to kill you."

Beetlejuice looked up. "Okay, I tried to talk her out of it, but, she didn't want to listen to me and kicked me out, because she was quite a bit more powerful than yours truly, and had never been real fond of me either."

He flicked a spider at a man passing by.

"Anyway, I found the nearest sandworm and rode it back to your house and let it eat mom. Uh. The End."

[strangeandunusual]

Judging by what he was telling her, he could sound hurt all she wanted. If her mother had been in the Neitherworld, of course she would have wanted to see her ... and of course she would have still done anything to save Barbara. Barbara really was like a second mother - she'd seen that even when Emily was alive and elsewhere. She filed many of his not-so-small remarks about torture and his mother aside, and raised an eyebrow as he stuffed the spiders in his pockets. Most of them would creep out on their own and get to safety once he'd forgotten them, distracted by something else, because she hadn't summoned them to end up as ammunition - or a snack. But ... as she put two and two together, she wasn't sure which half of four surprised her the most: the fact that he'd saved her, or the implications of who he'd vanquished to make it happen.

"Your mother," she ventured, remembering everything Adam and Barbara had begun to tell her while she'd been helping them restore the attic, and study for classes. "... was her name Juno?"

The Gibson Girl Cafe was still open, and she marched them both inside to take a spot in line. His honesty was at least worth an ice cream cone. Maybe a full sundae. The victory over the Sanderson Sisters after Halloween had been a huge morale boost for everyone, and she was feeling strangely generous.

[creepyoldguy]

He was entirely okay with getting weird looks for having spiders coming out of his pockets.

The fact Lydia guessed his mom’s name in one go, earned her a small bit of applause and a grimace. “That would be her. Juno Shoggoth. Extremely unpleasant individual.”

[strangeandunusual]

"So Barbara and Adam's caseworker... was your mom. Small Neitherworld." She frowned. "I know they said she was really strict about humans knowing about ghosts, but... She really wanted to kill me over it?! And you ..."

A pause. He'd saved her life. Even after everything else...

"Why?"

[creepyoldguy]

"Oh, she didn't care if you knew about ghosts. It was going to the Netherworld and then leaving the Netherworld that she had issue with."

Beetlejuice supposed the next question was fairly valid, given what she had told him. He shrugged slightly.

"Because, in the brief, brief, time I was alive, I gained an appreciation for it. Life, I mean. And demons are apparently not equipped to handle that range of emotions, but, I digress."

He stuffed his hands into his pockets. "So. An appreciation for life, a fairly deep-rooted hatred for her, and the fact I am your friend."

[strangeandunusual]

"You are ... so, so different."

And not even just in the 'different from everyone else' sense, like they both had been before. Different from the Beetlejuice she'd expected when she first caught sight of those stripes. The fact that he'd actually called himself a demon, not a ghost, aside, it went deeper than that, too. She'd developed a very high-functioning bullshit radar from living with someone who made real estate deals for a living, and he wasn't putting out nearly as much as she'd expected - not even as much as Hades. When he said he was her friend ... something about the way he said it was genuine.

True, there were still bits about blackmail and torture that worried her, but ... Crowley had done those things. Mal regularly stole and teased and lied. Neither of them were awful people at the core, no matter how much they insisted they were. They genuinely cared about some people. Was it possible this quantum, not-ghostly Ghost With The Most was the same?

"Mmmm ... This is a lot to think about," she said, deadpan as she'd ever been, and fell in step behind whoever was in line. "We need ice cream."

[creepyoldguy]

"Thanks!"

He was pretty sure that was a compliment.

"Yes." He wasn't about to turn down ice cream. Not when this!Lydia was letting him stick around.

Although, this did bring him to a question that was weighing fairly heavily on his mind. "Just where the hell are we, anyway?"

[strangeandunusual]

It absolutely was a compliment, and she smiled wider when he took it as one. It was one more step in the right direction - proving that he was a better kind of different. When he spoke up again, she was glad of a few people in line ahead of them. She'd have time to explain, and then they'd each have something to think about while the sundaes got made.

"It's a world outside of time. They call it the Magic Kingdoms: the source of all Imagination. Without it, all the different worlds people come from can't exist. You and I aren't the only ones who have ... different versions of the same world, either. My friends Fenton and Webby come from two different places called Duckburg, and know each other as completely different people, too. It's part of why this -" she gestured between them - "isn't completely breaking my brain. ... Anyway, everyone who lives in my building came through that giant mirror like you and I did. We've been brought here because we've all got really strong Imaginations, and they need us to help save the Kingdoms from being destroyed. We were kind of their last good idea."

[creepyoldguy]

That was a lot to take in. Beetlejuice was a little incredulous.

“A mirror thought I’d be helpful in saving a world?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Lydia. Or that he doubted his own creativity, and of course he’d be an appealing choice for—anything.

But, that was a level of assumed selflessness that he wasn’t sure was warranted, or was appealing.

“Interesting,” he drawled. “But, uh, kinda hard to help anyone when my powers seem to be, ah, nonexistent.”

[strangeandunusual]

She had a feeling he was a few moments away from asking what was in it for him ... which was precisely why she'd brought him for ice cream. She stepped up to the counter. "Hi Bert," she said to the sunny-faced vendor behind the counter. "I wanted to introduce you to a new Apprentice. This is B.J! Can we get a couple of ice cream cones, please?"

"You betcha, little lady," he said with a sunny smile, and proceeded to make them up, topping them generously with extra chocolate sprinkles before handing them over. "Welcome t' the Kingdoms, B.J."

No munny changed hands. Not a single coin or bill. "Thanks! I'll have those photos for the new brochures developed for you by tomorrow." With that, she took her cone and gestured toward a window seat. "The reason you don't have your powers is that they're different, here. You just have to learn how to use the new ones. Like I had to learn mine."

[creepyoldguy]

He flashed the ice cream guy a charming, if entirely off kilter, smile.

Beetlejuice noted the lack of money, which had his attention for the moment. As they sat down, he asked in all sincerity, “So you blackmailing that guy and getting free ice cream? Or are you offering magic protection in exchange for it. Like a witchy mafia thing? Either way, good on you, very cool.”

He shut up and thought about the rest, munching his ice cream quite happily. When he did speak he gestured with his cone.

“I think they got the wrong guy. Mirror had a glitch or something. Because, learning a different power set sounds incredibly boring. “

[strangeandunusual]

"No blackmail. Apprentices may have to learn new powers, but we also get free ice cream, and food, and a few other things from the people here for helping keep them safe from the Corroded."

She focused on keeping her cone from dripping too much as he rambled on a bit, then had a trail of ants come wandering in to investigate their table. You know. In case he still ate bugs, or whatever. Or just to show off. Maybe a bit of both.

"I don't know, you always seemed pretty imaginative to me. And learning can be fun if you have someone to practice with."

[creepyoldguy]

"Okay. So, everyone here is being used. That's not fantastic news, but, not exactly shocking."

He watched the ants with an appreciative eyebrow raise, and, to be fair, a bit of envy too. Beetlejuice could sulk and find Lydia's magic impressive at the same time, he was secure in his talents there.

The violet that had been creeping into his hair vanished with the compliment, however, green going back in its wake. "I am imaginative. Incredibly imaginative."

[strangeandunusual]

"You think of it like Missy does," she observed, smiling a bit as she realized that the two might get along a bit like a house on fire, with possibly the same results.

"I've never seen your hair change like that before," she observed. "That's new. Usually it's just ..." She gestured vaguely. 'Dirty' blond was an understatement. "Gross."

[creepyoldguy]

"Sounds like Missy is pretty on top of things."

"Hey, my hair is plenty gross, thank you." He winced a little. Of course that would stick around. "And...Yeah, it does that. Can't control it."

[strangeandunusual]

"She is," Lydia agreed. "She's really smart, and she's traveled through time and space, so she knows a lot of things. I don't think she really has a job? But sometimes she plays the piano outside the Opera House."

For what it was worth, she had no idea that the colors had meanings: she just noticed that it had happened. "That's pretty cool. Does it feel weird when it changes color? Or do you not notice?"

[creepyoldguy]

"Pfft. Shouldn't an Opera House have a pipe organ?"

Though, it was nice to know unemployment was an option.

Lydia's question got a momentary paused as he finished his cone. "Yeah and no."

Yes, he was aware of having his current mood, but, no, he didn't really notice the color change itself. "Really annoys my mom."