SystemofEleven

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver suddenly remembered wording Barrel had used and connected the dots. She tried to resist but was unable to prevent herself from falling over in a fit of silent laughter. She hugged her head to her chest and flopped her vines against the ground in uncontrolled hysterics.

The flailing motion finally snapped Agatha back to the present. "Bbbhuhh? What.. What's going on? Is something wrong?" She looked down at Carver, wondering the the pumpkin creature was in pain or having some kind of breakdown. No response was forthcoming.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Agatha watched a drop of pumpkin juice slowly roll down the youngest trickster's chest as he spoke. She opened her mouth to say something back, but suddenly found herself imagining Barrel in the trio's trademark bathtub, with just enough suds to hide, errr... particular parts of his otherwise naked body. She continued staring, but it was less at Barrel now, and more through him. He had been replaced in her mind by a vision she couldn't shake off.

Carver stopped examining her head and tried to get a "feel" on the witch. Usually when Agatha was directly addressed, her almost aggravating level of politeness was enough to pull her back to the present and force a response. She should have gotten over Barrel's shirtlessness by now. Why...?

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver slowly brought herself to a calmer state, but continued to examine her head. Leaving it off allowed for the potential of suddenly breaking out in laughter again without having to think of an excuse to pull her head off twice. She could put it back on quickly enough if she needed to say something to divert the conversation. Plus, she did have that pumpkin stashed for a new head; it'd be a good idea to know approximately how much time she had to work on it without her current head turning to mush before the new one was finished.

Agatha snapped her head slightly to the side as she pulled herself out of her daze. "Um, yeah. Right. Ahh... Did you want me to clean you up, too, or just... just the clothes?" She tried to rip her gaze away from his chest, but found it slipping downward again as she spoke. "The spells aren't, um, too different. One just takes a bit... longer."

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Agatha's eyes glazed over as she watched the feat before her. Well, it wasn't a massive feat, but it was still impressive, and had the added benefit of making his muscles just a bit more... visibly accentuated. Was he showing off just to impress her? Or to test how well she could maintain a stable level of subtlety and nuance?

"IIIIIII ummm... Well, ahhhhhhhh...." As the witch tried to figure out what would be the appropriate response to this situation, she didn't even notice Carver trembling beside her.

The pumpkin creature pulled her head off to prevent the laughter from breaking out and giving herself away. Still shaking a bit, she made a show of examining the back and underside of it for signs of rot.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Agatha stared mutely at Barrel's bare chest, trying to figure out what to say. He definitely had some flab in the gut area, to be sure, but he was not, in fact, a flabby guy. His skin wasn't pulled tight over bulging muscles, but the muscles were still very definitely there. She wondered how much he could actually lift.

Carver smirked ever so slightly and tapped out a message as she spoke. "Yeah, well, Agatha here didn't trust me with the detergent, but she did offer to help out." I'll replace one of your spices if you pick up that full trash can and hold it over your head with one hand. "It was her idea to come to you, though." Two, if you ignore that you're doing it.

Agatha blushed and shrugged; she was grateful that Carver was giving her credit for being helpful and talking her up to Barrel, but she was afraid he'd get turned off to her if it got layed on too thick. She didn't want to look like she was trying too hard. Or that she'd forgotten how he'd stared into her eyes earlier.

...Or that she'd stopped being mad at him for staring into her eyes to get her to forgive him.

Damn it...

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Aggie pulled it back, just out of her reach. "No, you will finish cleaning it off here. If it were the real broom, I would have no reasonable excuse to allow you to take it out of sight, let alone out of the shop. If you want this secret kept, you will continue as you would if everything were completely above-board."

She slowly offered it back to Shock.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Aggie blinked. Wow, that was a rather sudden turn. She expected, if Shock gave in at all, there would be some amount of haggling to get to a reasonable bribe. A whole jar, as a first offer?

The witch made a fair show of considering it. A part of her wanted to see how far she could drive the deal, but she wasn't a greedy fool. Shock was a hard push on a good day. Whatever Aggie might get extra would not be worth the wrath she got if she overstepped and Shock came out swinging.

"Mmmm... I think I can find a way to sweep this under the rug." A slight cackle escaped before she continued, "But you'll still have to get the glue off the double if you don't want anyone else catching on. I'll hide Agnes's until you're done."

Aggie passed back the wedding broom, and tucked the flying broom behind a shelf where the trickster wouldn't be able to retrieve it without garnering attention.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

"You're already in trouble, hmm? So what would be the problem of coming clean? Is it perhaps because this," the witch motioned toward the brooms again, "isn't actually part of what you're already in trouble for?"

Aggie might have let it drop already, but she found Shock's consistent non-answers and poorly reasoned excuses to be both fascinating and suspicious. The tricksters may have a knack for avoiding the consequences of their actions, but they were never shy about taking credit for their work. She wasn't so much worried that whatever Shock was hiding was dangerous or especially problematic, but she was becoming increasingly curious as to why the teenager was being so blatantly secretive.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

"Obviously. But why be so secretive about the second switch? Why not simply return the real broom once the trick was done and have a good laugh at our confusion?"

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Aggie gestured toward the spot she had pulled the decoy broom from. "If you really expected to get away without further retribution, I rather doubt you would have gone to the effort to hide the act of switching them back. Which leads me to wonder," she added, "whether it it really was all part of the one trick, or perhaps if you've something else to hide. Perhaps my sister, Jack, and I should do some more investigating, hmm?"