[IC] Banding Together in Halloween Town

[LePouvantail]

Lock sleepily answered the phone after Shock kicked him towards it. Once he realized what Carver was getting at, he kicked Shock to hand her the phone.

"Thisbetterbeworthit," she mumbled.

Upon hearing Carver's suggestion, she immediately shot awake and grinned at this new development.

By morning, the countdown clock would be back to normal.

~~~

Upon entering the square, Jack looked up at the countdown clock. Why did it now say 14 days? Perhaps there was a malfunction...but it still didn't explain the town's memory loss.

"I'm going to speak with Dr. Finklestein," Jack told Sally. "Maybe he can look at the countdown clock."

"And I'll see what I can find about the water," Sally promised. "There was a fog a few days ago..."

Jack leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"Tell me what you find."

He then made his way to the Finklestein household. Sally walked to the little courtyard bordering the square to enter the witches' shop. At the ring of the little bell, Aggie perked up, happy to have a customer.

"Oh, hello, Sally!" she said brightly. "What can we get for you today?"

"I actually just have a question," Sally said. "Is there anything that can cause temporary memory loss?"

"Forget-me-lots," Agnes replied matter-of-factly, as she climbed up a stool to stock some inventory. She frowned as she wished she had her broom to assist. "Why?"

Sally brightened. Of course!

"Jack and I were trying to get to the bottom of what happened with Halloween," she explained, "and noticed that no one can really recall what they were doing. I think maybe something affected the water."

Aggie started to pick up on it.

"And it might be forget-me-lots." She crossed her arms and put a thoughtful hand on her chin. "Forget-me-lot powder would do it - if it were dry. It loses its power in the water."

"Unless mixed with an activator agent," Agnes reminded her, "like sundew sap."

"You would also need quite a few of them," Aggie said. "One whiff of a fresh forget-me-lot can make one lose their mind for an hour or so, but dried and powdered, they lose their potency."

"And if mixed with fog juice," Sally said, "we have a recipe for disaster."

"But who would--" Aggie started, then stopped.

They all knew exactly who would go to those sorts of lengths.

[SystemofEleven]

Agatha poked her head out from a supply closet. "What's this about a disaster?" Her aunts gave her a quick summary, causing her to frown. "But why would anyone do that? What would there be to gain from making everyone miss Halloween -- or make us think we missed it?"

Agnes pointed disparagingly at the broom on the ceiling. "Someone who thinks it would be amusing to inconvenience us all." Granted, they didn't have any proof who the culprits were there, either, but there likewise was only one logical conclusion.

The youngest witch shrugged and gave a small nod. "Fair enough." She suddenly blinked, narrowing her eyes as she let out a heavy sigh. "Something tells me there was probably a lot more to that bag of spices than I realized. They were pretty interested in it... I think I'm going to go double-check all of the wards around the shop. Make sure they didn't have anything to do with it."

She spent the next several hours examining every nook and cranny of the building for even the smallest space that the wards didn't cover. While she was at it, she took into account that the effect of forget-me-lots can wear off more quickly if the person is subjected to enough reminders in a reasonable amount of time, and ran through all sorts of information she new about the tricksters and the spices she had found. The first thing that came to mind was Barrel's higher propensity for cooking compared to the other three. Immediately after that was his higher interest in the unexplained spices, which was in turn followed by Carver telling him to knock it off and Shock dragging him away. She followed a few reasonable trains of thought, ditching those that didn't feel quite right.

By the time she was certain the shop and living quarters were trickster-proof, she had mostly pieced together where the spices had come from and why. She had some regret for the ones she had given away in the human world. On the other hand, Carver had pretty casually bought some of the less human-friendly ones in the late evening, and Agatha was pretty sure those would end up back in Barrel's claws rather than in the Doctor's food. Too bad her revenge scheme was foiled, and Barrel wouldn't have to actually work for them...

[LePouvantail]

Jack strolled up the path to the Finklestein home. He gave a warm greeting to Igor as he passed. The hunchbacked assistant waved, then went back to sorting assorted junk in one of the side yards. Jewel answered when he rang.

"Jack," she said. "We've been expecting you."

Jack nodded. He'd been off and on checking on with the doctor for thr last two days for any new theories.

"There's definitely something wrong with the countdown clock," he said. "It changed again."

He followed Jewel up the ramp and into the lab. Zero floated behind them, happy enough to be with Jack.

"And Sally thinks there might be an issue with the town's water supply. That might be something else to look into."

~~~

Jack and Sally weren't the only ones to notice the clock. Clown saw it on the way to the sewers, and quickly wheeled around town in a panic. It wasn't too much longer before other monsters came from their homes and crypts to see what was going on.

[SystemofEleven]

Werewolf stalked out of his alley to see what Clown was making so much noise about. Upon seeing the countdown had jumped forward another... What was it, eighty days? Two hundred? Had it gone backwards?! He howled and began scratching at the fur on his head frantically. The Mayor came running out of the Town Hall, carrying an armful of scrolls, papers, and framed placards.

Werewolf howled again. "The countdown! Something's wrong! What day is it?!"

Mayor dropped several scrolls as he saw the numbers and began shaking. His head spun to the frowning side. He bent over to pick up the scrolls, only to drop one of the placards from the motion. The more he scrambled to pick everything up, the more fell from his arms. "All our careful planning! How are we supposed to keep a schedule if the countdown is broken?" he wailed.

Corpse Kid clutched his mother's hand. Mummy Boy climbed up onto the shoulders of his big brother, Sobki. Various adults chattered amongst themselves to varying degrees of discomfort and panic. Sally and Agnes came running from the shop to investigate; Aggie stayed behind to watch the shop in case the ruckus was a diversion of some kind.

Carmilla passed overhead with a paper calendar hanging from her claws, two of the older vampires trailing behind. When the bats saw the ruckus beneath them, they changed course and shifted form just in time to land with the utmost grace in front of Sally.

"What is going on?" Vlad asked. "Where is Jack?"

---

"The water supply?" Jewel asked. "We had intended to check that as well, but it was lower on our list because several of the monsters in town prefer to keep dry and have minimal contact with it. What does Sally believe is wrong with it, exactly?"

She kept walking up the ramp. "As for the countdown, we already examined that. We couldn't find anything wrong with the timing mechanism or the rotational controls. But if you say it's changed again... Hmmm..." She mumbled thoughtfully to herself as she went, though she maintained enough awareness of her surroundings to wave at Carver as they passed in the the lower part of the main laboratory. The pumpkin creature was cleaning a large number of beakers and test tubes with a mild scowl. Her creator had also apparently decided to attach a chain to one of her metal leg frames to make sure she stayed put until she finished.

Up in the topmost of the lab, the Doctor was examining a table full of strange devices and muttering his frustrations as he recorded his findings.

[LePouvantail]

Sally quickly made her way to the front of the crowd. She heard the murmurs and chattering, and knew she had to do something. As she carefully stepped forward, she felt several eyes on her. Sally bit back her nervousness. They needed words of comfort, and as Jack's special monster, they looked to her for answers in his absence.

She walked up the steps of Town Hall, closed her eyes to gain her bearings, then turned to face the crowd. Sally waited for the panic to die down before she spoke.

"Jack is currently with Dr. Finklestein," she said.

Sally chose her words with care. She would bet her stitches that she was right, but making an accusation right now would only rile the crowd up further. She needed to assuage them first.

"We have a theory as to what's going on, but Jack's still investigating. Please be patient. We'll have some answers for you soon."

~~~

"That's what she's trying to find out," Jack replied, "but several citizens couldn't recall what they were doing before Halloween. She thinks something affected the water to affect so many monsters."

Jack gave Carver a wave and a smile as he passed as well. It wasn't unusual to see her doing chores while chained to the wall. The stunt at the witches' shop had started to come back to him, and he figured that was tied to her current punishment. Once they arrived at the lab, he approached the old scientist.

"Anything, doctor?" he asked.

[SystemofEleven]

The chattering immediately picked back up again as they all started asking about the theory and how long it would take to get answers and what they should do in the meantime. Vlad lifted his arms, flashing his cape as he did so, and everyone quickly settled back down.

Carmilla crossed her arms. Honestly, you'd think they were all children! She looked up at the count down and frowned a bit deeper. Did it change back? How would the problem have been fixed if Jack didn't know what it was yet? She tapped her father on his shoulder and motioned toward the tower. He furrowed his brow, then nodded to her that he recognized the discrepancy.

"I believe we have something to discuss with Jack regarding the matter, as well. Would you mind accompanying us, Sally?" he asked with a small bow.

[LePouvantail]

"Of course not," Sally said. She then addressed the crowd. "We'll be back shortly. I promise, we'll have an answer when we return."

She stepped down to join Vlad and Carmilla. Sally walked with them to Dr. Finklestein's home. She greeted Igor as they passed, then rang. After a moment with no response, she tried the door. It was open.

"Doctor?" she called. "Jewel? Jack?"

Her voice hardly echoed up, but Jewel was coming down the railing.

"What is it?"

"I think I know what happened," Sally said, then gestured to the vampires with her, "and they have something that might help."

Jewel nodded, then gestured to follow.

"This way," she said, as she lead them to the lab.

[SystemofEleven]

Everyone headed up to the lab proper. Carver waved to Sally as they passed her, quickly hiding a screwdriver under her vines as she did so. She planned to detach her legs, listen in on the adults' conversation, and then book it out of there before they could ask her any questions. Of course they would find this suspicious, but on the other hand, if she didn't sneak out under all their noses, that would be out of character and even more suspicious. Plus, she wanted to go update the other three on the situation.

Doctor Finkelstein had gotten rather engrossed explaining to Jack what the devices on the table were and what they were measuring. He was using highly technical language that was confusing the concept more than clearing it up, too excited about the science to realize Jack wasn't really following.

"We have some more guests, dear," Jewel interrupted. "Perhaps it might do for you to play the part of the listener, for a moment."

[LePouvantail]

Sally briefly returned the wave, then continued on her way. In the lab, Jack was actually quite grateful for the distraction, and perked when he saw his girlfriend.

"Sally!" he said brightly. "Did you find anything?"

She nodded.

"I certainly did, Jack," she said. "I spoke with the witches. It's possible that the memory loss was caused by forget-me-lots, in the fog that cropped up the other day."

"Forget-me-lots?" Jack asked, then frowned.

Dr. Finklestein perked up.

"Forget-me-lots, hmmm?" he asked. "Wouldn't it take quite a few to cause such a grand effect on the entire town?"

Sally nodded.

"That's what Aggie said." She turned to Jack. "And for the sheer amount of them needed to work, and how to activate them...it had to be planned."

Jack pondered on that, then frowned as he came to the same conclusion as the witches had. This had the tricksters' claw marks all over it. Particularly Shock's, with the sheer amount of thought, effort, and misery caused by the aftermath.

Vlad spoke up then.

"I believe my daughter also has a piece to this puzzle," he said, then gently ushered Carmilla forward.

[SystemofEleven]

Carmilla became distracted by a thought as something Sally said got her attention. When her father gave her a slight nudge, she shook her head clear and stepped forward to offer her paper calendar to Jack. "This is a human calendar that tracks the days according to the lunar cycle, rather than from one Halloween to the next. I have to manually update it every day." She pointed first to the box that was labeled Halloween in small letters (almost like an afterthought, for some reason), then to the last box that had been crossed out in red ink. "I hadn't marked it off for three days that I remember, but it's two weeks farther behind than that."

Igor came into the lab and began stacking clean glassware in the proper cabinets. Jewel and Sally smiled to him as he entered, then focused back on the conversation at hand.

The vampiress frowned deeply. "Strangely enough, when I looked at the countdown clock on the way here, it matched up with my calendar again. I was too occupied to check it since Halloween passed, so I can't be certain this is actually the correct date." Her expression contorted into a suspicious glower. "It's pretty obvious who would do something like this. I think we can all agree it wouldn't be unfair to assume they're not above changing both the countdown and my calendar to increase the confusion once the initial shock wore off."

Doctor Finkelstein reached up to take the calendar from Jack. He turned it this way and that, examining the pages and construction. "Hmmm... Yes, well... That is a reasonable worry... I could chemically remove the ink from the paper, and perhaps find a way to date it. Mmmm, or maybe measure the moisture content and compare the dryness..."

Jewel tilted her head. "I think it would be simpler to simply chart the stars and compare them to their annual location in comparison to the poles. Though there is another potential option."

Her husband looked up. "Oh?"

"Why don't we ask--"

"CARVER!" the Doctor snapped. He dropped the calendar in his lap and wheeled himself down the ramp to the next level. A low growl could be heard, slowly rising in pitch and volume, as he stared at the leg frames still chained to the wall. Unfortunately, Igor was a few seconds late getting to the electrical switch. Finkelstein's voice rang out into the relative silence, to be joined by the lightning just as he finished yelling:

"CAAAAAARVERRRRRRRRRR!"

[LePouvantail]

Jack looked over the calendar. They weren't too unusual - after all, he knew Christmas Eve was December 24th, and had figured out the days quite easily - but most of the town relied on the countdown clock. He gave Carmilla a nod.

"But how would they even would know you had it?" Jack asked. "They're not normally welcome in Vampire Castle, are they?"

Vlad's frown deepened.

"On occasion, we have allowed Lock into our home, as he is Lillith's current lover. While he is supervised at all times when given an invitation, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume he's seen it in our daughters' room."

Jack nodded. He was still certain that Shock was the mastermind, but her brothers would assist her in any way they could - whether they wanted to or not. He let the doctor take the calendar, then went to Sally.

"I think we have a pretty good idea of what happened," he said.

Sally nodded, but frowned.

"They're not usually this troublesome before Halloween, though, Jack. Do you think--?"

She didn't get to finish her sentence as Dr. Finklestein's yell echoed up to the lab, complimented with Igor's delayed lightning.

If there was any doubt as to who was behind it, Carver's sudden absence only confirmed it. She had to know why they were there, and got out of dodge.

Jack turned to Carmilla.

"We'll figure out the dates later," he said softly. "I think right now, the town needs some answers...and afterwards, I need to pay a certain set of tricksters a visit."

~~~

Back in the square, Jack was greeted with desperation by the rest of the town. Several citizens spoke up at once.

"What's going on?"

"Jack!"

"Did we miss Halloween?"

"What do we do?"

"Jack!"

"Is something wrong?"

"Were they involved?"

Jack held up his hands for silence. The crowd quelled down again as he positioned himself to be heard by everyone.

"After a bit of investigation, I believe I know what's going on. First and foremost, we have not missed Halloween."

That got a series of relieved sighs and chatter.

"But when is it?" Corpse Kid asked.

Jack frowned.

"I'm...not quite sure, just yet, but this next bit is more important. I need the graveyard's patch of forget-me-lots to be checked at once."

"Already done, Jack!" Agnes perked up. "I sent Agatha to go check while we were waiting for you."

"Excellent!" Jack exclaimed, before turning to Agatha. "What did you find?"

"There's a few new blossoms," Agatha said, "but it's otherwise been picked clean."

Jack frowned, but nodded.

"I'd imagine any patches in Hinterlands would be found in a similar manner."

"There's something else I remembered, Pumpkin King," Agatha said. "I sold Barrel some sundew sap last week, and some fog juice a little before that."

Jack's frown deepened. Sally had explained the forget-me-lot process on the way back to square. There was the proof that the trio was behind this. On hearing Barrel's name, the crowd started their murmuring again, a lot of it now mixed with anger as well as confusion. Of course those three had something to do with it! Jack once more held up his hands for silence.

Agatha's mention of Barrel triggered something in one of the vampires.

"Shock was on Town Hall's roof on the day of the fog," he said. "I remember asking her what she was doing."

"Probably watching for the best time to strike," Jack said. "A trick of this magnitude would require a lot of finesse and timing."

He crossed his arms.

"I can now say with confidence that Lock, Shock, and Barrel, at least, are behind this. Possibly Carver too. They tainted the fountain with fog juice laced with forget-me-lot dust, and changed the countdown clock. As to when Halloween actually is...I suppose I'll have to ask them."

[SystemofEleven]

Carver took the sewer route to the lair. Without her legs, she was slower than usual, and it would be too easy for a vampire bat to find and intercept her if she stayed above ground. Plus, with all the commotion in the square as the town noticed the countdown change, there was a good chance even the sewer dwellers wouldn't be down and about to interfere. She paused just long enough to snicker at the sound of thunder, then made a mad dash across a particularly deep area. Her vines enjoyed the nutrients in the muck, but she definitely didn't want to give it time to seep into her cage and onto her things.

She slithered up through the trapdoor and into the lair. Diving behind a suitably sized piece of furniture, the pumpkin creature gave a couple of light raps against a wall with the tip of a vine. Anyone else might simply assume it was the local rats and oversized beetles moving about, but the tricksters would recognize the rhythm.

All clear?

She didn't think the Pumpkin King had beat her here, but he did have long legs and a more direct route to take than she had taken. She wouldn't risk hollering if she didn't have to.

[LePouvantail]

Lock, Shock, and Barrel were down in the lair. Lock was helping Barrel with drum practice, now that they were sure their trick wouldn't last much longer anyway. He actually took Lillith's advice and tried to be more patient, with...mixed results. Barrel switched between playing better and upping his antics to try to get a rise out of him. Shock was in the living room area with a comic book and ignoring them.

She perked when she heard something between Barrel's sets and got up to check behind one of the old torture devices pulled in here for storage. She listened a second time to be sure she heard it correctly before responding.

"All clear," she said.

In the room over, she heard Lock forcibly trying not to lose his cool as he once more went over the current set with Barrel. Shock frowned when she noticed Carver's missing legs. That combined with the lightning strike not too long ago told her enough. Carver had something to report, had to escape quickly to report it, and she had a decent guess as to what it was.

"They finally figured it out," she said.

[SystemofEleven]

Carver nodded. "They figured out the how and guessed the who." She grinned and wiggled what passed for a browline over her top pair of eyes. "They don't know whether to believe the countdown anymore. Apparently Carmilla has a human calendar, and she thinks we might have snuck in and messed with that to trick everyone twice."

The pumpkin creature then narrowed her bottom two sets of eyes and splayed her lower vines outward, flopping down to rest her cage on the floor. "Though of course when I say we, I mean they blame you. I barely got side mention for maybe helping you and probably knowing what you were up to."

She crossed her arms. "Nobody trusts me to not get into trouble, because I'm friends with you, but nobody ever gives me credit when I actually do get into trouble, because they just assume you guys put me up to it. Even when the pranks are my idea!"

[LePouvantail]

Shock cackled at the mention of the calendar. That would give them a little leverage when Jack inevitably got here. She smirked at Carver's rant.

"And that gives us an advantage," she reminded her. "They trust you more than they trust us, which makes all of our trouble more effective."

She turned to head back into the lair.

"Never forget that, Carver. That they underestimate you is invaluable to us."

Barrel was working on a new set. Lock stood nearby, his arms crossed, but his posture loose, as their little brother was actually doing well this time. His tail even tapped against the floor in a beat.

"Practice is over, boys," Shock said as she entered. "Jack's coming."

Barrel stopped playing and grinned.

"We're in for it now!" he said.

Lock flicked his tail and shrugged.

"Guess the fun is over," he said.

"Maybe not quite," Shock said, with a knowing glance to Carver.

They could use their newly-acquired knowledge to fuck with him.

[SystemofEleven]

Carver grumbled as she followed Shock into the other room; it might be useful, but invaluable was probably going a bit far. Didn't make it any less irritating, either. She made her way over to Barrel and climbed up his body to perch on his shoulders, wrapping her arms around his forehead to hold herself up. It wasn't as comfy as riding Behemoth, but it worked well enough to give her a good line of sight.

"Jack doesn't know what day it is. He doesn't believe the countdown. My parents can probably use their SCIENCE," she threw in a dramatic flail of a couple vines, "to figure it out, but it'll take them a while. Until then, we can probably keep messing with them, going back and forth about what day it really is. Unfortunately, I doubt Jack'll bring the Mayor down here with him, so we don't get to watch his reaction, but... Should still be fun!" she cackled.

[LePouvantail]

Barrel let her position her vines, and felt her cage against the back of his neck. He put the drumsticks down and stood up. Lock smirked as he headed for the rope ladder.

"Then let's--" Lock started.

"--Go up--" Barrel continued, as he followed his older brother.

"--And wait for him," Shock finished.

The three of them grinned and started up the rope ladder. Lock scurried up, and then up the tree itself to climb on top of the overhanging roof that served as the elevator shelter when they were kids. He sat with his legs on either side of the slant and dug his feet into the shingles. Barrel came up next and took a seat on the edge of the ravine. Shock came up last and remained on the rope ladder leading up into the tree house, perfectly in Jack's sight.

The three of them then patiently waited for Jack to arrive.

~~~

Once he got the crowd under control, Jack headed for the outskirts of town, with Zero trailing behind him. Briefly, he recalled a similar urgency on that first Christmas Eve, when he needed to get to Sandy Claws. As he approached the tree house, he saw each of the tricksters' forms near the front, clearly waiting for him, which meant they knew he was coming. Maybe Carver gave them a heads up; maybe one of them was spying and came back to alert the other two. That didn't matter as he reached the top of the hill and slowed his pace so he wouldn't skid when he reached the bottom.

He saw Shock first, sitting on one rung of the rope ladder like a swing, her arms carefully entwined in main ropes as it swayed with her weight.

"Hi, Jack!" she said cheerfully. "What brings you to our humble little tree house?"

Jack sternly crossed his arms. Zero didn't notice his master's sudden disproving pose and flew up to Shock at her friendly tone. He playfully barked as Shock reached to pet him. Jack ignored it for a moment.

"I think you three--" Jack noticed Carver on Barrel's shoulders, then quickly corrected, "--four know perfectly well why I'm here."

Lock flicked his tail as he glanced down at Jack, then beckoned for Zero to come to him. Zero happily obliged as the middle trickster gave him a thorough scratch behind the ears.

"Why would we know that?" Lock asked, despite the obvious tell to their guilt that they were waiting for him. "We can't read your mind."

"Though it seems a lot of monsters lost theirs," Barrel said with a shrug and a grin.

Shock smirked.

"Seems to be going around."

The three of them cackled as though in on a private joke. Having gotten proper attention from Lock, Zero flew down to Carver and Barrel.

"Drop the act," Jack said. "I know about the forget-me-lots and the countdown clock."

At Jack's decidedly serious tone, Zero perked and glanced to him. Barrel ignored it and just ran his hand through the ghost dog's sheet. Shock pumped her legs to make the rope ladder sway even more.

"We wouldn't--"

"--Know anything--" Lock said with a grin.

"--About that," Barrel said.

"I think the near-empty forget-me-lot patch in the graveyard and the fact that Barrel bought the other needed ingredients is all the proof I need," Jack told them.

Barrel mockingly snapped his fingers.

"Darn," he said. "Looks like he caught us."

"Looks like," Shock said.

She never lost her sharp smile as she swung again.

"Great trick, wasn't it?" she asked, then leaned through the rungs to better face Jack. "Did you bring us a treat?"

"No."

Jack uncrossed his arms and placed his hands on his hips as he glanced from Shock, to Barrel and Carver, to Lock.

"I need you four to stop playing games for a moment," he said, "and tell me if the countdown clock is accurate."

[SystemofEleven]

"I think you three--" Jack noticed Carver on Barrel's shoulders, then quickly corrected, "--four know perfectly well why I'm here."

@LePouvantail

Carver reached a vine in through her cage, up into her head, and out her mouth. It was the closest she could get to sticking her tongue out at him, and she was still salty about being relegated to a side note again.

The pumpkin creature booped Zero on the nose and ran a vine along the top of his head between his ears. She let the trio take the reins in this conversation, partially because Jack clearly didn't think she was worth the trouble anyway and partially because it would break up the flow when the other three were talking in sync. She finally joined in when he included her in the question about the countdown clock.

"Oh, it's absolutely correct, Jack!" Carver piped up sweetly. She made sure to say it in exactly the way they had spoken when they were lying through their pointy teeth as children. The Pumpkin King had picked up on it after a few decades, and she liked using the resulting suspicion against him. "We would never make the town actually miss Halloween!"

[LePouvantail]

"Never," Lock and Barrel agreed.

Both of them grinned brightly. Shock twisted the rope ladder to make it twirl. When her back faced Jack, she mockingly leaned backwards and wrapped one leg in the ropes to keep herself positioned there.

"...Although..." she said.

"Although...?" Jack asked, as he leaned down closer to face her.

"Forget-me-lots are tricky to deal with," Shock said with a devious smirk. She shot a glance up to Lock. "There might have been an incident."

Lock's tail twitched as he picked up on it.

"It's possible that--"

Barrel grinned even wider.

"--We don't know either!"

Jack glared at them. He tapped his foot as he pondered it, then smiled. He turned his attention to Shock specifically.

"A trick of this magnitude is nothing less than a work of art," he said, "convincing the entire town we've missed Halloween. So surely, a mind that thought of something this clever also thought of every possible contingency?"

His smile crawled a little more as Shock narrowed her eyes into a glare. Jack knew he had her - or more accurately, her pride - caught in the spider's web. There was no way she'd let herself look like a fool on front of her posse.

"And you of all would have planned for such an...incident," Jack said. "Right, Shock?"

That she didn't have an immediate response told him everything. She knew - they all probably knew - the correct date.

[SystemofEleven]

Carver chirped, "We cover most contingencies beforehand. But we didn't really think to account for, say... Lock getting distracted by his girlfriend and dosing himself with the potion, or Barrel going off script because somebody mentioned food. Really, there's all sorts of ways things can get messed up when somebody forgets how to focus on the job they're supposed to be doing."

She laced some of her vines together like fingers and rested her chin on them. "Of course, I wouldn't get the count down wrong. But then, that wasn't my job. So who really knows?" she asked sweetly.