SystemofEleven

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver perked slightly when Shock and Lock both reacted to something beyond her range of awareness. When Shock moved over to listen at the slide, the pumpkin creature proceeded to get up and go put her head on. As soon as she heard Barrel's frantic tone of voice, she fell over laughing.

---

Several hours earlier...

Carmilla's echolocation came in handy for sensing most of the trickster's trip wires, alarm sensors, and booby traps. Most. Her vampiric speed and small size helped with the rest. "Helped" in that when she set them off, she was able to avoid getting impaled, beheaded, or -- wait, was that a bear tazer?? Carmilla squeaked loudly as she folded her wings in and dodged.

An alarm bell and a few crashes into the disturbance, Lock slapped Carver's arm then rattled her cage with his tail to make sure she woke up. "Yurr turn. Go chick it..." He then flopped over and went back to sleep. There was one alarm loud enough to instantly wake them all up and get them immediately into Dealing With It mode, but that one hadn't gone off, so for the most part the group trusted their traps to take care of whoever or whatever had been stupid enough to wander into the lair. Still, someone had to go double check.

Carver gave Shock a light kick as she got up, retrieved her head, and went down the slide. She made sure to keep her descent slow and quiet. When she reached the bottom, she peaked her head out and looked around for a moment before closing her eyes. The ruckus had died down, so it was likely one of the traps had gotten the invader. Buuut... Nope. There they were. In the kitchen.

Carver made her way across the lair. When she got to the kitchen and saw who was there, she leaned casually against the doorway and waited to be noticed.

Carmilla was poking around, opening cabinets and closing them again, looking for something. She had a sack hanging from one arm, and a white rectangle poking out from the space between her breasts. After a moment, she found the cabinet she was looking for, and began scooping its contents into her sack.

"Interesting choice for a thief," Carver said casually. "Particularly since Your Highness is plenty capable of affording such luxuries on your own."

The vampiress spun around. "Carver!" She looked around nervously, before quickly regaining her composure and steeling herself. "The others send you down here to do their dirty work?"

The pumpkin head smirked. "Oh, I'll wake them up if I decide to do something particularly entertaining to you... But right now, I'm more curious what you're even doing down here."

Carmilla narrowed her eyes and tried to stare down the person across from her, but Carver just continued to smirk and wait. Finally, she sighed. "Agatha wanted me to give Barrel a taste of his own medicine." She pulled the card out from her chest and handed it over.

Carver looked at the curly handwriting, the simple words, the i's that were carefully dotted with hearts.

You can buy them back when the glue is dissolved.

Carver slowly formed a grin. She passed the card back, barely managing to hold down a gleeful cackle. "Well, then, carry on. Try not to let the guillotine catch you on the way out!"

She waved and left Carmilla to finish her mission, climbing up the slide back to the tree house. Head back on the shelf, she crawled back into the sleeping pile.

"Bat flew in the window. I dealt with it. Now move over." She shoved Lock out of the way and yanked the favored pillow away from Barrel.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Despite a brief interruption in the night, wherein the pumpkin creature had drawn the short stick and been sent to investigate a disturbance in the lair, rest had been pretty full for everyone in the group.

Carver was hugging one of Shock's arms like a teddy toy despite having her head and feet turned round opposite her friend. Barrel's head had been resting on one of the chunkiest parts of her leg. She limply reached up as if to smack Shock, then suddenly lashed out and snatched the blanket out of Lock's grip. She didn't give it back to Shock properly, though; a part of it fell over the oldest trickster's head and shoulders, but mostly she haphazardly covered herself with it. One vine flopped about lazily, taking a couple attempts before tapping out,

Food.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver patted Lock on the head as she released him. She had to pull the pajama bottoms back up, as they had slipped down the metal frames when she released the vines out the waistband to envelop her prey. Once her legs were properly reassembled, she walked over to flop down on Shock's other side from the boys. She decided to leave her head on the shelf for the time being; Shock was in a rather good mood, which meant there was a higher chance of taking an elbow to the face in the middle of the night.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver yanked his tail again just as Shock threw the pillow, then quickly took advantage of the momentary distraction. She unraveled the mass of vines that generally formed the "muscles" of her legs, used a few to tie the now-useless metal "bones" into place around him, then threw her weight to one side. His intention to slam her into the wall gave him just enough uncontrolled momentum to allow her to pull him to the ground. All of her available vines immediately went to work pinning his arms to his body. One vine was left just enough freedom at the tip to cheerfully tap out a quick message:

Say "uncle"!

Banding Together in Halloween Town

With her head detached and deactivated, Carver couldn't taunt Lock anymore. On the other hand, the lack of eyes to use immediately snapped her spacial awareness into focus. She didn't need to see Lock to know where he was, how he was positioned, or what he was doing. Of course, that only really helped when she wasn't already holding on to him.

When he slammed her against the wall, she lost control of his arms. But she quickly wrapped her legs around his torso to make it harder for him to get the upper hand. She responded to the bite by pulling on his tail.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

"Barrel," Carver said sweetly, "Would you be a dear and put my head on the shelf? I'd like to get a bit more comfortable as I rock Baby Legs here to sleep. He's had such a tiring day, trying to keep up with the Big Kids..."

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver cackled, tempted to give him a second to try to figure out how to get the pants back while she was wearing them. When he turned to punch Barrel, she whipped out a vine to grab him by the tail. He quickly came tumbling back into her, and she helped pin his arms down with the rest of her vines while his siblings pulled on his pant legs.

"I think they'd make him feel taller if he hung them up, but when he's wearing them, they just make him look like he needs a mommy to go shopping with him and help him pick out the right size!"

The pumpkin creature carefully kept her comparatively soft head out of butting range as she added, "Maybe you guys should help trim them down, so he doesn't trip?"

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver offered to help Shock get out of Lock's hold, snickering at the glare she received in response. When dinner came round, she grabbed a cookie of dried fertilizer for herself, stuck it in some water, and heated it up to a good soaking temperature. She alternated which vines had their tips dunked in and periodically re-heated it as they practiced and went over the plans. She kept a few vines clean so she could pat Barrel on the head whenever he walked past.

Come bedtime, she nabbed a pair of Lock's pajama bottoms. She likewise didn't care that they were in the room when she changed; she didn't have any parts that counted as private, and she didn't care about potentially seeing anyone else's. Not that she thought she was at risk of seeing anything from Barrel; he never took off more than his hoodie unless he was about to take a bath, anyway.

"Wow, Lock, I think you're getting shorter! These pants don't even go past my knee joints!" She waved a leg at him mockingly.

---

Meanwhile, Agatha had mostly gotten past her sullen snacking self-pity party, and was starting to allow herself a bit of anger. How dare Barrel use her affections against her! Pretending to be interested in spending extra time with her doing something she loved, being all gentlemanly and helpful, just to bait her out of the way so his siblings could cause mischief in the shop! Why if she wasn't such a nice person, she'd... She'd...

The young witch slumped back in bed with a huff. Well, she supposed it didn't matter what she would do, since she refused to stoop to his level.

...

Although...

Maybe stooping to his level was the exact thing that she needed to do. Make him understand how she felt, see things from her point of view...

Agatha got up and grabbed the phone from the other side of her room, carefully carrying it as far onto her bed as the cord would reach. It took her a moment to remember the number and dial it.

"Hello, I'm dreadfully sorry to disturb you so late, but I need to speak with Carmilla..."

Banding Together in Halloween Town

"Noooooo," she whined back at Barrel with a grin.

Carver groaned when she realized she probably wouldn't have access to Igor's treats -- or anything else -- for a while. She quickly perked back up again, though. "I bet Sally would be willing to get some for me! She can appreciate how controlling and dramatic he is, and this is probably the least troublesome thing I've done in a couple decades..."

Banding Together in Halloween Town

As Lock playfully punched Carver, she playfully stuck out a leg to trip him. "Nah, if we do that, Jack will make us fish him back out again and nurse his ego as if her were physically injured, meaning you guys will have to be close enough to listen to his lectures for an extended period of time."

She followed them down into the lair and tagged along wth Shock as she got various things done. "Debating," she replied. "Kinda like the ragged knee look, but it'd make it harder to hide stuff up there." She cackled. "Though after this whole fiasco, I doubt anyone would trust me to go anywhere without being patted down, anyway!"

When they stopped by the bedroom door, Carver cheerfully piped up, "Maybe you can use the scorpions to practice sticking to a script!"

The lightning and thunder crash helped clear the atmosphere just enough for the last few RRRRRR's to be heard in the distance. Carver did fall over from laughing. "I didn't think he'd do it without me there directing him! Merry mayhem, I need to buy a whole box of bone biscuits for Igor before we set everything off tomorrow!"