[IC] Banding Together in Halloween Town

[LePouvantail]

Barrel watched her carefully. He knew enough about the witches to know their cackling didn't always mean something was funny. They often used it as the sign of a fantastic bargain being made. Barrel readied himself to get the scarab, when she spoke again.

"O...kay?"

But his relieved smile said enough that he wouldn't have to trade the scarab or deal with Shock.

"Thanks. I owe you one."

[SystemofEleven]

Agatha cackled again, though this time a bit more softly. "Oh, I'll definitely hold you to that." She winked at him again, then finished ringing him up and sent him off.

A short while later, the little bell over the door rung again.

"Welcome to the Witches' Shop!"

"Hello, Agatha. How are things today?" Lillith stepped all the way into the building, tugging on the leash to make sure her 'pet' made it in before the door closed on him.

[LePouvantail]

Lock followed in behind her. The choke chain tightened at his neck, but it hardly bothered him as he went where Lillith wanted him to go. Barrel noticed his older brother's hands were behind his back, though he was unable to see the modified wrought iron shackles that not only kept his wrists bound, but had a special custom shackle between them to shackle his tail at the base of its spade. The shackle was tight enough that the little devil wouldn't be able to slide it out to use.

Something jingled at Lock's throat. It wouldn't be the first time he was seen in town with a collar, or the, "Lillith's pet" tag hanging from it. But it would be the first time a key hung with it.

Barrel giggled, not because of Lillith pulling his older brother around on a leash, but because he caught a few tells of Lock's frustration, particularly whenever the key chimed against the tag.

"A bit locked up there, bro?"

[SystemofEleven]

Agatha raised her eyebrows under the brim of her hat. "Oh, going quite well..."

She cleared her throat. "Barrel, dear, if you've gotten everything you need, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave, now. There's a policy against more than one of you four being in the shop, anymore. You understand..."

On the one hand, the youngest witch fully agreed with the policy. When they weren't pulling pranks, they were often only a few choice words from starting a full out brawl with each other. On the other hand, though, she really wished she could be like all those girls in the books whose boyfriend could come visit them at work and hang around waiting for their shifts to end. But, Barrel's change of focus to mocking his brother quickly reminded her that unless they fully banned the rest of the tricksters and only let him in, that would never happen. His family was just... too wild for it.

"Oh, that won't be entirely necessary, at least for today. I've got this one quite under control." Lilith moved closer to the counter, pulling Lock behind her, then turned to him and flatly ordered, "Sit."

[LePouvantail]

Lock gave his little brother a smirk. He didn't mind his bonds, as they were quite comfortable. The jingling key simply reminded him he couldn't hold or touch Lillith the way he wanted to at the moment.

"I'm being punished," he said, with an edge to his smile and a wicked note in his tone.

Barrel didn't bat an eye.

"What for?"

"I might have misled Lillith about our plans for Halloween," Lock said with a shrug.

He would have flicked his tail if he could. Instead, Lock sidled up to Lillith and rested his head on her hip for a quick nuzzle.

"So I'm making it up to her."

Upon hearing Agatha's use of, "dear," Lock started snickering, only to stop when Lillith tugged the chain. Barrel stuck out his tongue at Lock, then turned to Agatha.

"I had to finish my shopping anyway," he said with a shrug.

"We're out of bat milk," Lock reminded him.

"It's on the list," Barrel shot back.

He watched as Lillith pulled Lock to the counter. And on her command, the little devil crouched down and carefully shifted his feet until he sat cross-legged beside her. The chain tightened at his throat, just enough to go taut. So long as he sat beside Lillith, even the displays by the counter were out of his reach.

The prior conversation was quickly forgotten as Barrel laughed at Lock's unquestioning obedience. Lock shifted his hands enough to show Barrel he was flipping him off, then calmly rested his head against Lillith's knee.

[SystemofEleven]

"Good boy." Lillith patted Lock's head as he got situated on the floor. "Stay."

Agatha tried not to stare as the vampiress ordered her restrained boyfriend about like an animal. One the one hand, using chains and leashes to keep unruly children from wandering off was hardly abnormal in the town, and "unruly" was generally an understatement when it came to the tricksters. On the other hand, Lock was hardly a child, and shouldn't two people in a romantic relationship be treating each other as equals?

The teen witch took a moment to feel relief that at least Barrel was a true gentleman, and she would never have to choose between breaking up with him or maintaining their relationship through control and demeaning behaviors.

"In any case," Lillith interrupted her reverie, "there's still business to attend to. Did that shipment come in that I ordered?"

[LePouvantail]

"Yes, mistr--ma'am," Lock said.

Right. They were in public. Regardless, he happily took in her touch, before Lillith got right back to business. Barrel just shook his head.

"I've got to go so I can get dinner started," he said. "See you later, Agatha."

Barrel playfully nudged Lock with his foot as he passed. Lock barely managed to elbow him back before his little brother stepped out of his reach. His tail shifted on instinct to trip him. It strained in its bound out of frustration that such a simple trick was out of his reach.

Trouble denied, Lock stuck his tongue out at Barrel. Barrel gave him a cheerful mocking wave before he left the shop.

[SystemofEleven]

Lilith gave the leash a sharp tug when Lock nearly used the wrong honorific, and again as he tried to elbow his brother, discouraging any further trouble or fighting, but didn't bother to look down at him. A small smile played on her lips as she continued making idle chatter and encouraged Agatha to ignore the current situation in favor of running her transaction.

When Agatha ducked behind view to retrieve the box from underneath the counter, Lilith quickly leaned down to hiss, "Expect a punishment for that later." Then, with a small boost of unnatural speed, she was easily back up in the exact same position as before by the time Agatha straightened up to look at her again.

"Okay... Twelve jars of black river leeches, and four jars of dried candy cap mushrooms. Will that be all for you today?" Agatha forced herself to be a little extra professional, to make up for the starting earlier.

Lilith tapped her chin, then slowly formed a smirk as an idea began to take shape. "Actually," she piped up, "do you have any piranha teeth in stock? I've been thinking about giving acupuncture a try..."

[LePouvantail]

Lock, for his part, took the yanks in stride, but corrected his behavior at each tug. He shrunk back a little when Lillith loomed over him with a harsh whisper.

"Good or bad?" he asked.

He knew the answer. Another tug of the chain confirmed it. Lock sighed and glanced over at a display of dried lizard tails and started counting them to occupy himself while he listened to Lillith speak with Agatha. He perked up at the mention of piranha teeth. Chills of excitement slid down his spine, though he glanced up at Lillith with a look that shifted between intrigue and wariness.

He liked biting. He didn't care for single pricks of pain.

Lock knew he was in for a long, thrilling night.

The shop bell rang again. Lock heard the familiar laughter and immediately smirked. Agatha was about to get a true test to that new policy.

Shock walked in with Carver, and by the state of their laughter, one of them - or both - just finished a really good trick. The oldest trickster quickly found the salve she needed. Something infected one of her scorpion tanks, and she was low on supplies to nurse them back to health. Shock composed herself long enough to find a few more items, then went up to the counter. She glanced down at Lock. Shock wouldn't have given him a second glance had she not noticed the knowing smirk on his face.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," Lock said.

Shock rolled her eyes and patiently waited behind Lillith. Lock just waited to see how Agatha would handle Shock and Carver.

[SystemofEleven]

Agatha held up a hand to Shock. "Sorry, Shock, there's a new--" She stopped, realizing she didn't recognize the eldest trickster's companion, an orange creature with large black eyes in a straw hat and overalls. The youngest witch hesitated, then leaned back to call across the back, "Aunt Agnes, it's your turn to run the shop!"

A grumpy voice called back a moment later, "No, it isn't, dearie. I still have another forty minutes, almost!"

"Shock is here, and she's with a new girl!"

"New, guy," Carver corrected mechanically. His voice echoed differently in the steel hollows of his new body, compared to the dull semisoft flesh of a pumpkin.

"Huh?" Agatha asked. She ignored her aunt's immediate response that she'd be right down.

"I am, the new guy, in town," Carver repeated. He smiled affably. "It is, nice to meet, you. I am, Corvin. I am, an animatronic, scarecrow."

[LePouvantail]

Some of the eldest trickster's good mood deflated.

"A new what?" Shock asked.

Her mood soured even more when Agatha called for her aunt. She didn't like this sudden change in behavior. But as soon as she realized Agatha didn't recognize Carver, her mood lifted. Shock quickly took the cue to play along.

"I found him chasing crows in the pumpkin patch," she said sweetly, with a small grin just wide enough to show the tips of her teeth. "It seems Halloween Town got a new monster, so I took it upon myself to show him around town."

Her grin widened and her tone sweetened even more. Lock barely kept himself from sniggering.

"I wouldn't want him to get the wrong idea about how things work around here," Shock continued.

She patted "Corvin's" shoulder.

"I'm nice like that."

[SystemofEleven]

Lillith left her money on the counter and turned around. "It's nice to meet you, Corvin," she said. She offered him a hand to shake. "My name is Lillith, and this little mischief maker is Lock. Say hello, pet."

She didn't tug on the leash this time. She didn't want to do anything that might make the new monster suspicious of her when she inevitably had to explain to him that Shock was setting him up for something nasty. His first impression of the vampiress would have to be at least as pleasant as his first impression of Shock, for him to consider what she had to say.

Carver shook her hand, then looked down at Lock. He tilted his head to the side as if examining the little devil, than said, "It is nice, to meet you, Lock. Are you, having fun running, errands with, your mother, today?"

Agnes landed her broom on her stool behind the counter, prompting Agatha to wave. "Nice to meet you. We'll have to get to know each other some other time, though. I have something to do, umm... in the potions room..." She quickly ducked out of the front area of the shop, leaving her aunt to deal with whatever Shock tried to pull upon finding out about the new policy.

[LePouvantail]

"Hello, pet," Lock said with a grin.

He intended to take advantage of getting in even a smidgen of trouble while Lillith was trying to a make a good impression on "Corvin." He gave him a soft growl.

"She's not my mother," he said, clearly displeased at his height being used against him. "We're just playing a game."

Lock rested his head against Lillith's knee to calm down. His tail twitched again, as much as it could in his bonds. Shock cackled at his misery, then set her items on the counter.

"Don't mind him, Corvin " she said. "He's been a bit short lately."

[SystemofEleven]

Carver bit back the urge to snark, "Lately?" as it would most definitely ruin the trick. 'Corvin' wouldn't know to mock Lock on purpose, let alone that his height was a running joke. He had to play the first bit off as an honest mistake; continuing would just make things more difficult. Luckily, he didn't have time to figure out a proper Corvin-ly response.

The bell rang above the shop door. Carmilla gave Shock a none-too-gentle shove to get past to her sister. "Healing salve?" she sneered, seeing Shock's armload. "I think you're going to need more than that to fix your issues."

Agnes sharply gestured for the vampiress to cut it out. "Not in the shop, you two. Not after the last time, and especially not with a newcomer still getting their bearings. It would be quite unfortunate if your behavior left a sour taste in his mouth and he didn't get the chance to learn the sort of bargains he can get here." She watched all the teenagers -- minus Lock, who was just outside her field of view -- with an impatient glint.

'Corvin' turned around and offered a hand to Carmilla. "Hello. It is, nice to meet, you."

Carmilla blinked in surprise, but took the hand offered. "Countess Carmilla," she introduced herself. "It's... a pleasure. When did you arrive, exactly? I'm surprised the Pumpkin King isn't here making the introductions. We vampires serve directly under him, you know."

[LePouvantail]

"You can't fix perfection, Carmelia," Shock said deviously. "It's for my scorpions. Who are more well-bred than you."

She calmly waved off Agnes.

"Yeah, whatever. You saw her start it. I was just here minding my own business."

Lock softly snickered, but quickly stopped. He noticed Agnes hadn't addressed him. No need to get her attention. Shock rolled her eyes at Carmilla.

"And if you'd have been here five seconds earlier, your highness, you would have known when Corvin arrived. But that's the price of being, as you like to put it, 'fashionably late'."

She let out a soft cackle, then turned to "Corvin".

"Don't mind her. She's a buzzkill on a good day."

[SystemofEleven]

Carmilla growled slightly under her breath. "Don't listen to anything she says," she told the newcomer. "She's only nice to people when she's setting them up to make them miserable, later."

Agnes stared at the bickering girls silently for a long moment. Finally, she interrupted, "In any case, I must inform you that there is a new policy in place at the Witches' Shop. As a result of your last..." she glanced at 'Corvin' before continuing, "little trick, with the godzilla glue and forget-me-lots, only one member of your family is allowed in the shop at any one time. So if one of your brothers comes in while you're here, one of you will have to leave and come back later."

Lillith raises an eyebrow. Had the witch not heard Lock just a moment ago? Or just been too distracted by Shock and Carmilla to take proper notice? Not that it mattered, she decided; she just needed to finish her transaction, and then she would be leaving and taking him with her, anyway.

Carver tilted his head in the other direction, looking back and forth between Carmilla, Shock, and Agnes as if in confusion, but was in fact having a good bit of thought over the fact the witch had specified only one member of her family. Carver himself was apparently not included in this, once again. And once again, he was torn between feeling offended at the lack of credit, and amused by the obvious loophole presented.

"I do not, understand. Shock has been, very helpful, to me, thus far."

Carmilla focused entirely on Carver as her sister motioned to get Agnes' attention to finish paying for the box of supplies. "So, what exactly are you? You don't look like any kind of monster I've seen before..."

'Corvin' smiled politely. "I am, an animatronic, scarecrow," he repeated.

"Animatr-- Wait." Carmilla thought back to her last human fling, and the posters on her wall. Large robotic creatures with false flesh and fur, holding their arms out welcomingly despite apparently being from a video game in the horror genre. "Actually, yeah, that checks out. Welcome to Halloween Town."

[LePouvantail]

Shock pretended to take offense.

"How could you say such a thing, countess?" she asked, with her back strategically turned to "Corvin" so he wouldn't see her grin. "After all I've done for you."

The way she stressed the word insinuated the more accurate "done to you." She placed a hand on her hip and leaned her other elbow on the counter.

"Such as letting you onto my property after you insulted me so."

That time, she added an edge to her tone to warn Carmilla to drop it. While Shock already made Carmilla pay for destroying her most prized possession, it certainly hadn't been forgotten.

At that moment, Agnes got her attention to inform her of the new policy.

"Is that so?" Shock asked. She made sure not to look down at Lock, but cackled, having caught the loophole as well. She smirked as she turned back to Agnes and put on her sweetest tone. "I'll certainly let them know."

Eventually. When she felt like it. Lock, at least, she didn't have to worry about.

Shock let Agnes and Lillith get back to their transaction as she turned back to Carmilla and "Corvin".

"Isn't it terrible the sorts of the new monsters we get these days?" Shock asked. "Always keeps this town interesting."

She glanced at "Corvin".

"You'll fit right in," she said reassuringly.

[SystemofEleven]

Lillith ignored what was going on behind her as she finished paying and picked up the box to leave. "Well, it was nice to meet you Corvin. We'll be seeing each other around town, I'm quite sure. Lock, up. Heel." She gave him just enough time to get to his feet before she began walking toward the exit with the leash held short. Carmilla sniffed disdainfully and followed her sister out.

'Corvin' politely stepped off to look around the shop while Shock went to make her own purchase. He noticed Agatha peeking out at him curiously, and waved to her. She gave a tiny wave back, then ducked back out of the line of sight to wait for the last of the trio to leave.

[LePouvantail]

Lock quickly did as Lillith said and shifted onto his feet.

"We sure will," he said with a tight smile.

He subtly flipped "Corvin" off, then walked beside Lillith, careful to keep pace with her. His tail strained in its bonds as a hint to his urge to cause trouble.

Shock just gave Carmilla her sweetest smile, then slid her items to the register to pay for them.

"Never a dull moment in this town," she told "Corvin". "But don't mind Carmilla. All she has to cling to is her title. It's why she reminds everyone she runs into."

[SystemofEleven]

Carver turned to look at Shock, hesitating for a moment before lifting his shoulders in an awkward shrug. 'Corvin' didn't want to pick sides when he just got here, and he certainly didn't want to cause any trouble.

Agnes eyed Lock when his head popped into view, but said nothing as he was clearly leaving anyway. Instead, she kept a curious eye on the newcomer while she silently rang Shock up and sent her off.

As she was leaving, Carver deliberately wandered back across the store with just the right timing to bump into her "accidentally". As she was steadying herself and started to move forward again, his foot got ever so slightly in front of hers.

"Oh! I am, so sorry!" he exclaimed, quickly helping to catch her items before they fell to the floor with her. He continued apologizing profusely as he offered a hand to help her back up, though he kept his back to the counter so Agnes wouldn't see his expression. He stared intensely at Shock to silently remind her that if she started a fight, the consequences would range from blowing his cover and costing him a grand trick, to being punished for antagonizing an innocent stranger on his first day.