SystemofEleven

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Agatha had several dawning realizations when Lock referred to "Corvin" as Carver and mentioned a new body. Not the least of which being that she was pretty certain she knew how an invisibility potion had gone missing from inventory. Luckily, before she had a chance to reflexively call the tricksters out on it and risk temporarily redirecting Shock's wrath, Sobki's human friend excitedly joined the conversation.

"Housebreaking party? AWESOME! Count me IN!" The new guy pumped his fist then pulled a beer can out of a pocket to start chugging.

Agatha and the vampires blinked a bit in confusion and surprise before turning to the Egyptian monster questioningly.

He just shrugged. "This is Chad. He just kinda... shows up, roundabout once a month. For some reason, the first place he usually goes to is my place, so we've started hanging out."

"That doesn't really really explain... any of that." Carmilla gestured toward Chad's... everything. Jacket, backward baseball cap, faded blue jeans, awkwardly half-brushed blond curls, can of low quality beer, dopey grin, the works.

Sobki shrugged again. "Don't ask me. That's just... Chad."

Agatha cleared her throat. "In any case... Do you guys need something to break down the Finkelstein's door with? It's only made of wood, but it's like nine inches thick," she reminded them, "and the stairs don't really leave a lot of room to balance while kicking it with one foot."

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Agatha was making her way back toward the shop after running some deliveries to the [[insert appropriate grave-dwelling monsters here]] when she heard three sets of heavy footsteps and a fourth set of heavy metallic thumping footsteps approaching from behind her. She turned to look, and upon seeing Shock's obvious threatening intent walking toward her, let out a rather undignified yelp.

The youngest witch stumbled backward a few steps, trying to figure out how the trickster knew she was responsible for the messed up prank the day before. Shock's siblings were close behind, as was-- Wait, Corvin? -- all with varying levels of the same rage. He and Barrel were angry, too? But her boyfriend was the one who asked her to do it in the first place!

It took a few seconds for it to click that the trick-or-treaters weren't alone. Lillith and Carmilla were trailing at the back of the back -- the younger twin looking almost as enraged as the trio, and the elder looking... relaxed, but resolved. This helped quiet Agatha's fear. Carmilla in particular had enjoyed the backfire, and Lillith was known to generally try to keep the peace between the teens and the rest of Halloween Town. That she wasn't trying to stop the group made it clear that, whatever they were all so angry about, it almost certainly wasn't directed at her, and was definitely a valid complaint not to be taken lightly.

Agatha patted down her skirt to help ease the last bit of adrenaline, then slowly approached them. "Hey, guys. Umm... What's going on?"

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver broke the stillness between himself and the vampires first. He pushed Carmilla off of him and scrambled up the ladder, right on Lock's tail. He didn't know what Shock could do to force Finkelstein to change his mind, but whatever she was going to try, the Doctor definitely deserved it, and Carver was not going to miss the chance to watch. If nothing else, he'd get a chance to feed on the evil scientist's suffering.

"Hey!" Carmilla rose to her feet, graceful as ever despite her current state of discomposure. "Where are you going? You can't just cancel practice like that! We can keep going without the xylophone, just this once! I can-- We can still sing, and play the other instruments!"

Lillith calmly moved past her sister and followed the others toward the exit.

"Lillith! You're going with them?"

"I wanted him to calm down, not to sit down and shut up. He's right; he wasn't given a choice, and it's not fair." She smiled blithely at her sister. "Besides, I did make a promise in the name of the Pumpkin King to accompany Carver back to the lab after practice is over. It wouldn't do to go back on my word, after all."

With that, the older twin shifted into a bat and flew out the window to meet up with the others above ground. Carmilla made a show of grumbling about it all, but followed suit. If anybody asked, she could easily enough rationalize to them that it Finkelstein's fault that she'd lost her chance to sing lead for an entire session for once.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Lillith stood up from her stool and lifted her hands. "Carver, calm down. We can... find a way to work around this. The xylophone parts don't have to require six mallets. Music can be re-written. I know everything else is... bothersome, as well, but we can probably find a way to work around those things, too."

"What, you think all my new, unwanted, unnecessary limitations should be nothing more than inconveniences, too?" Carver snarled, turning on the vampiress. "You sound like my dad!"

He lunged to throw a punch at Lillith, but Carmilla used her vampiric speed and strength to grab him by the wrist and shove him away.

"Don't you dare hit my sister!" she hissed, baring her fangs.

Carver screeched and launched himself at her. At this point, it didn't matter who his target was; he needed someone to take his anger and frustration out on, and Carmilla had just volunteered for the job.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver stuck a vine out of his mouth at Lock before rolling off of Shock's back. He made his way back to his xylophone and picked up his mallets.

Lock got the rhythm going and the music started up -- mostly. It came to a cacophonous halt a few moments later as Lock stopped playing to demand why Carver wasn't playing his instrument.

"I can't."

"What?" Lillith asked, lowering her hands as she turned to look at the pumpkin creature in confusion.

Carver stood in his place, three mallets in each hand, vibrating with barely contained rage. "I. Can't. Play!"

Suddenly, he threw the mallets against the wall as hard as he could and slammed his knee into the underside of the xylophone, flipping the the bulky instrument forward and sending it crashing to the ground.

"I can't soak my vines in nutrient muck, can't jump, can't access my cage for storage, can't eat popcorn with Barrel when something funny is happening, and now I can't even play my FATHERSMASHING XYLOPHONE!" he screamed.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Since Lock decided to spend the first part of practice focusing on the singing, Carver took a moment to tap each key on the xylophone with a finger to ensure the instrument was still in tune, then wandered over to Shock. He gently but unceremoniously flopped on top of her, rested his chin on her shoulder, and proceeded to quietly read along with her until the warm-ups and voice solos were over.

Carmilla maintained her grumpy countenance just long enough to be sure she wasn't going to lose her chance to sing solo this time around. Her mood immediately improved the minute warm-ups began. She took a bit of time expanding her warm up pattern to show off her full range, but otherwise didn't nettle at Shock. There was no way the vampiress was going to risk the oldest trickster re-joining practice just to spite her. Besides, she didn't want to waste such a rare and precious moment thinking about the purple bitch; she wanted to enjoy this as much as possible for as long as possible.

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Lillith rolled her eyes, but transformed into a bat and flew out of the lair. She landed a couple yards away from Jewel before shifting back. "On my honor as a vampire, and in the name of the Pumpkin King, I hereby swear that Carver will have my accompaniment and supervision on his way home immediately after band practice ends. Is that fair enough?"

Jewel nodded. "Much appreciated. Thank you. You all have fun. Tell Carver I said goodbye."

Lillith waved as Jewel left, then turned back to Lock. "The next time you weaponize my sister like that, I'll point her right back at you. See how you do against an angry vampire who isn't interested in enjoying the struggle."

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Jewel smiled at him, eyes twinkling. "I would appreciate it if she came up here herself, to confirm that. I don't think my husband would be quite content to take your word for it."

Banding Together in Halloween Town

"Oh, sorry. Of course, I didn't know about that," Lillith replied. Carmilla just glared at Lock; she better not have her singing time cut short!

Carver shrugged. "Mostly a response to the boobs I didn't ask for." He flicked the solid bumps that were giving a slight shape to his tank top. "I generally wouldn't care about my pronouns, except dear old Dad clearly does, and his opinions on the matter are stupid."

The older twin chuckled. "Right. Well, anyway, I don't mind walking you home. I just would prefer if I had been asked directly."

"Yeah, that's fair. My bad." He paused. "And Lock's bad, since he did it first."

Banding Together in Halloween Town

Carver perked up. "Actually, yeah! Can she?"

Jewel had mostly only been able to pick up general tone from most of the conversation after the initial yelling stopped, but she rather clearly heard Lock's question -- and its accompanied comment -- as well as Carver's reply. "Why don't you come up here and ask me directly, rather than forcing me to shout?"

Lillith blinked, then crossed her arms. "Why don't you ask me if I want to escort her, first?"