Nightmare Nonsense

Nightmare Nonsense
Date of Scene:	02 November 2013
Location:	Inner Town
Synopsis:	What's This? What's This? Father Christmas is a robot!?
Thanks to:	Lionheart as Santy Claws
Cast of Characters:	Tifa Lockhart, Avira, Deelel, Maira, Vespa, Aerith, Freya Crescent

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Lionheart has posed:
Last time on Final Kingdom: Halloween Adventure...

The Halloween festivities had been disrupted by a sudden kidnapping. Rumors of other missing townsfolk lead investigators to the Graveyard, where they were met with a gun-happy groundskeeper and a horde of strange little gremlins. After a fight which left the graveyard covered in little imp bodies, the group were left with one path to follow...

The creatures had taken Deelel down into an unmarked grave which seems to lead into a tunnel system below.

After resting and possibly calling in reinforcements, it's time to move on and discover the true face behind the threat to Halloween.

Are you ready to delve into the darkness?

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart doesn't like darkness. But she's not sure where to rank it compared to this place in general. Considering those little green imps that just kept multiplying, hard to tell what's worse. What about that guy that kept shooting at her? Ugh.

But back on darkness, even back home she puts a light up, even if small, in her room. Especially when she's alone. Call it part of her trauma after what happened back in her hometown, not something she told lots of people either, but a few do know about it. But this is a different story.

Right now, they are on a chase for missing Jack and disapearing people. And they were led to a graveyard full of those critters. And they haven't reached the goal yet. She sighs a bit, running a hand through her hair... that actually feel alot less ilky and clean as usual thanks to this world. "I hate this place." She mutters a bit. This isn't a costume either, she can almost feel her body parts rotting away slowly. "We should stick together, I don't think we'll get a warm reception..."

Avira has posed:
Avira is ready to put her foot down on kidnapping! It keeps happening to all of her friends lately and it makes her a very sad mutate.

After the woman has shook off the dust of the graveyard, she took off for that grave/tunnel that she saw Deelel disappear down in the middle of the fight. "I dunno about that, Tifa." Avira grins a toothy grin, "If we run into more of those imps that can set themselves on fire like that, I bet we'll get a lot of warm receptions indeed!"

She takes a second to laugh at this before squeezing her fuzzy mutate body down that tunnel.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart hrms at Avira, smirkign "Well, that much I'll agree with you, just make sure we don't set fire to ourselves in the process, its not the kind of warm reception I'd enjoy. And honestly I don't feel too 'hot' looking like this either." Adding up to the double meanings there.

Vespa has posed:
"I hope someone has some light", Vepsa says looking down into the unmakred grave. She been in deep dark places before she just didn't expect to go into one tonight. She lightly curses to herself reminding her to always carry a glowstick or two in her pockets from now on.

"I think all the puns might kill me before the monsters do.", she follow everyone into the grave/tunnel.

Maira has posed:
Maira is disproportionally nervous about this. She's not afraid of the dark--she's a walking torch generally. She's not afraid of the dead--in fact, her best friend for ages was a ghost. She's seen them all her life. She's fought wave upon wave of zombie in their camp at Golmore.

So why does she look so scared?

Maira laughs nervously at Avira and Tifa's conversation. "I'll try to handle the fire imp things...I should be able to sort of...leech the heat out of their fire. Done it before," she replies. Hopefully, she was well enough to do it again.

Freya Crescent has posed:
Venturing into the darkness didn't scare Freya so much, even if she wasn't currently dressing in a black cloak and sporting fangs, though she wished for a lantern, or even a bit of a taper candle, or the like. The halloweenification hadn't exactly given her night vision, despite how good her eyesight might have been. Cursing the lack of such, she would try and lead the way, or at least stick in front of some of the less melee-inclined folks such as Aerith or Maira.

Lionheart has posed:
Down, down, down into the grave.

At first, it seems like this is just a ditch, with no distinguishing characteristics. Yet, it doesn't take long before the dirt gives way to old wooden floors. The tunnel exits out into what is obviously the basement of some old house. There are scurrying sounds of footsteps from above, likely the escaping imps, but there are some quite loud thumps, too.

There's a sound of squeeking and chattering, as well as slithering. Could that be Deelel? There are sounds of protest from above.

The basement itself is fairly empty, with the regular layers of cobwebs and dust, a flurry of little footprints leading up the stairs.

By the time that people reach the stairs, it would become clear that whomever is in charge here has been kidnapping many people. They all seem to be in various cages, including the mayor. A horde of little green imps are trying to shove Deelel towards a cage, but she is probably giving them a fight.

STOMP. STOMP.

Someone is coming from upstairs. "What is all the racket?" A deep, booming voice sounds.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart uh ohs. Jokes about setting fires and warming up the place will have to wait. She motions to the others to hide. Well, not much space to hide, but there must be someplace to get out of sight... like under the staircase or against the wall next to it, anything to not be immediately within sight... and perhaps get a surprise in if need is.

Vespa has posed:
"Cleaning maid!", Vepsa shouts. Whoever they are they know someone is here Vespa might as well get into the part. "Do you how hard it was to out here?"

Avira has posed:
"I know we can count on you, Maira." Avira grins, ruffling her best friend's hair. She's trying to defuse Maira's odd fear she seems to be displaying right now. But suddenly...they roll into the room with the cages and the remaining gremlins dragging Deelel into her own cage. Avira narrows her eyes and finally reaches for the Spine...

In Halloween Town, by the way, the Spine looks like it's made out of real bone instead of a spine covered in shiny metal.

Someone makes the noise of coming upstairs. Tifa hides. Vespa claims to be a maid. Avira herself hides-and does so by leaping into the air and clinging to a shadowy spot on the ceiling. Her black fur and feathers camouflage her pretty nicely.

Freya Crescent has posed:
"Well, this is quite creepy," Freya raised a brow as she suddenly felt splintery, dirt filmed boards underfoot rather than the cool soil from before, tiny pebbles and bits of crusty earth crunching as she went. She held her spear up, though she usually did not keep it raised so defensively--it was just that it was so difficult to see! She strained her eyes to make out shapes in the dark, the bars of cages coming out vaguely, her eyes widening. "This place..." she frowned as she realized this room's soul purpose was the capture and imprisonment of living beings.

Maira has posed:
Maira smiles a little to Avira. Its not even that she's worried about. She has enough moxy to do her part here, she's sure of that!

When they make it down to where the people had been taken, Maira rushes forward to start peeking into the cells, looking for familiar faces frantically. No...no...no...not him, not him, not Deelel...

Maira squeeks then as a sound comes from upstairs and everyone makes to hide. Maira shuffles into a dark corner and hopes for the best.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is not a happy Lamia program right now she's clearly is struggling as they are trying to throw her into the cage she's fighting back she's making use of her tail and otherwise fighting with them. She's also been unable to get to her disc or this would be very different she could use some help from the looks of it.

"LET ME GO!"

Lionheart has posed:
STOMP. STOMP.

The first thing that comes down the stairs is a set of massive black boots, then filthy red pants, an oversized belly, a dusky white beard... No, children, this isn't your usual happy, jolly, Santa Claus. It is... Santy Claws. The zombie version of our favorite holiday figure steps down, his head turning nearly completely around to look over towards Deelel.

"What's this?" He doesn't seem to notice the various people hiding, not even those hiding in plain sight. The monster-elf glares towards Deelel. "This isn't one of those Halloween ghouls. You were supposed to be kidnapping /THEM/." He kicks at one of the imps, sending it flying into the wall near Maira with a squeak-splat.

"What are you doing here?" He demands of the program-lamia, threatening her with what looks like a moldy candy cane.

In the mean-time, the imps have begun to squeak and jump and try to draw attention to the various hiding people. Santy Claws turns, eyes glowing demonic red. "Looks like you've been bad children..." He stomps down on the ground, sending out a shockwave around him, intending on trying to make them show themselves.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart acks as the stomps sends her to the ground, well in sight of the bearded menace. Alright, so much for surprise attacks. She quickly flips back up to her feet, a distance away from the new enemy "What is that even supposed to be!?!" She doesn't know about christmas in her world, she did see a few things from last year in the new world, but that's about it. Santa Claus or evil warped, all the same to her, that is : unknown.

But she doesn't let that stop her from defending herself and everyone around her. Clearly a menace, and one that captured a friend, and ready to kidnap more from the looks of it. Won't go down with just talking obviously. Zombie for zombie, she moves right up to him, in a quick motion, and aiming a kick toward the fat belly... but missing target, mostly due to the difference in size. Still, it hits *something*.

Freya Crescent has posed:
Freya is seemingly on the ball and hops back quickly--cape fluttering like the dry beat of a bird's wings as it snapped against the air. Landing deftly on her feet, she turned her spear up and held it ready with both hands. "Release these people!" she called out, and there was the steel of command in her voice. Though she was usually not the high and mighty type, she felt emboldened by the situation and her instincts took over to help the people there--the steel of her weapon taking careful jabs at the imps and the large red suited zombie.

Maira has posed:
S-S-Santa...? Sure, just what she needs, a fear of Santa.

Maira draws away from the thrown elf, leaping up in apparently perfect timing to avoid the effects from Santy's booming footstep. "Ah!" she yells, then makes a break for Deelel's cell. "I'll try to get you out of here!" she tells her, turning her finger into a blowtorch to burn her way through the lock.

Avira has posed:
Avira carefully angles her head so she can peer down at the approaching 'master of the house' so to speak. The master of the house revealed to be...!

Zombie. Santa.

Suddenly it all makes sense. Kidnapping the Halloween Town members. Ruining the celebration. Showing up /here/ during halloween, the gall! THE UNMITIGATED GALL!

Avira drops from the ceiling onto Santy Claws. "ALRIGHT YOU! I'M CHECKING IT TWICE! BECAUSE I'M GONNA BE WRECKING IT TWICE! WAIT YOUR TURN FOR HOLIDAYS YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE PUNK! RAWWWR!"

Vespa has posed:
"Your very early! ", Vespa says as the claws scrape her chest. "Come on Al time to put this Christmas present back under the tree!"

Her massive axe comes out. "..and to get into the real spirt of the Haloween season I put a curse on you!", she show the flat edge of the blade to the undead Santa and the eye of in blinks! at it. She then swings her axe trying to deal with the undead creature.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is very lucky Maira does what she does. The blow torch cuts through the bar and she uses her coiled up tail to help blow it open. She is not sure just what is going on. Other than she had no desire to be well locked in a cage and put up for show. She springs out like the spawn of a certain video game snake and calls out.

"Okay that is enough I am going to clobber you for doing this!"

She'a already runing comands to get ready for the fight but well she's caught off guard and owe that kinda hurt a good bit. She's really not used to dodging without legs...

Santy Claws has posed:
Have you ever poked jello just to see it wiggle? That's what it looks like when Tifa kicks this strange, gelatenous version of Santa Claus in the stomach. He sort of stands there and wobbles in a way that defies all physics. "You don't recognise SANTY CLAWS!?" The zombie-elf roars, laughing hartily. "Soon, everyone will know my name, as soon as this pathetic holiday is destroyed!"

True to his name, he lifts his hands, which warp into huge metal claws. This, is clearly not your ordinary fat elf. He blocks part of Vespa's attack with those hands, and there is a sound of metal against metal. It's almost as if... this thing isn't flesh, at least not completely. The blade cuts into his arm and out spews a spray of black, candy-scented liquid. Gross.

Freya manages to skewer a few Elves, who end up lined up on her spear before she prods it at him. He catches it in his hand, but not before it pierces part of his blubber. "Why thank you, I needed those." He pulls the imps off, tossing them over his shoulder... where an equally demonic reindeer waits, bending down to... eat the brightly colored imps. Double-Gross.

As Avira drops down on him, the giant, bloated corpse grunts and sways a bit on his feet, her claws easily digging into his coat. The flesh doesn't quite feel right, though. It's... squidgy. "Everyone knows that Christmas is the ultimate holiday!" He protests. "All other festivities should be destroyed. Everyone should be focusing on making me cookies and farming carrots for my reindeer!" What a strange villain.

He swings around, trying to unseat the mutate, reaching into his pocket as he pulls out what looks like a wrapped gift. Except... when he sets it down, the whole thing explodes. "Rudolph, get your sorry tail over here. I need you!" The deer raises it's head, rushing over on clattering hooves. It might even look cute, if it weren't for the glowing red eyes as the deer stands in front of his master.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart doesn't know what she hit... but apparently, the fat elf either, considering how it didn't phase him at all it seems. In fact, it just pretty much brushed her off. And the counter attack just sends her flying upward instead, knocked out of her feet like a doll that he distributes to the good little girls during the holidays. Although, not sure this one actually cares about presents, most about himself it would seem.

While she's more at ease fighting on the ground, she's not completly vulnerable either. Using the upward motion, she flips her legs up, catching one of the suspended cages, staying perched there for a moment, as she thinks about the next attack. It only takes a second though, she doesn't want to stay there for long either. She launches herself at Santy, overshooting him just a tiiiiiny bit. But that was part of the plan. As she moves over him, she turns on herself in the air, hands grabbing the thick neck, using the momentum and all of her body weight to literally chuck him over her head with both arms. She can piledrive dragons, this shouldn't be more harder, don't you think?

Freya Crescent has posed:
Cringing due to the horror of the zombie Santa's appearance and bravado, Freya pulled back as the tip of her tri-bladed spear gave the creature a poke in the stomach, watching the creatures behind him gnash teeth and feast upon their freshly fallen cohorts. She pulled her cloak back, along with her spear and turned the next assault away deftly, countering with a sudden but brutal lunge of her spear! She ducks to keep out of the vaulting Tifa as well, of course.

Vespa has posed:
Vepsa finding it a bit hard to move around in here as Santy Claws claws slash her again. "I'll give you a gift 'Santa' how about my axe into your head!", she says swinging her axe at the undead holiday obination.

Avira has posed:
"All holidays are awesome!" Avira shouts back, digging her claws in further. She does not get flung off and instead manages to hold onto the jolly bowl of decayed and rotted jelly. She even gives him another punch for good measure before extracting herself to evade the explosion. She hovers in the air above him for a few moments before dropping down on him.

Feet first.

Onto his head.

"And what the hell, Christmas ain't about feeding you cookies!!"

Maira has posed:
More explosions. Maira and explosions are really not getting along lately.

She flies back from the force of the blast, though she just so happens to crash into one of the cells, effectively knocking it open. At least the poor creature inside can escape while Maira is trying to pull herself back together.

Deelel is free, soon the others will be as well. Perci's not here. Maira, despairing, walks out of the cell and prepares to do what she does best; light <goosehonks> on fire. "I want to go home, so get out of my way!" she shouts, then heaves a fireball at jello-claus.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is quite confused about this Santy Claws but but Deelel hersel is ready this time fort what's coming at them. She stare at the moment. She knows it has its roots as an user relgion but it kinda spread everywhere after a w hile it seems. however She's ready fo the attack as she uses both ehr tail and her disc to bat them away before coil jumping into the air and launching a powerful disc strike in reply.

"Get glitched!"

Santy Claws has posed:
The moment people start attacking, the reindeer rears up, shooting a powerful laser beam out of his nose which sweeps across Tifa and Vespa. The Jolly old elf, on the other hand, seems to take the brunt of the damage, even with his red-nosed defender.

A fireball blasts him backwards, a mutate slams his head down, a disc slashes across his chest, and then a mouseling's spear pierces through his shoulder, tearing away a huge glob of dripping 'meat' to reveal... something metallic beneath. This thing isn't just a zombie, it's a (you guessed it, folks) ROBO-ZOMBIE!

The deer is furious, clomping and stomping all over the place, but he doesn't seem to be paying attention anymore, which means that he kicks over imps and cages indescriminately, and seems to ignore the people fighting his master now. Maybe someone severed something that let Santy Claws control him? Bweep. Bweep.

"Of course it is!" He protests, voice sounding more and more robotic. "Christmas is about GREED, and ENVY, and GLUTTONY and all those who want to not be punished as bad little children must appease the great and all-mighty SANTY CLAWS!" Crackle. Spark.

As he starts to laugh, a foul smelling smoke seems to start coming from the zombie-Santa, the imps around him starting to explode one by one, making little popping sounds and bursts of peppermint scent. "Raaaaaarrrr." He swings out his gigantic belly, threatening to knock people over with it's horrific girth.

Freya Crescent has posed:
Though confused as to why the creature seemed to have metal underneath, Freya is not balked by this display of tenacity and redoubles her efforts.

"Watch out, the people in the cages!" she shouts, concerned for them as the laser deer knocks them side and begins to look like the situation has become more dire than she anticipated. This time she vaults herself up and drives the spear down with both arms, intending to bury it deep in the zombie's torso.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart doesn't get a good grip on the fat christmas elf. Its not that he's too heavy, but slippery in this case. She ends up crashing behind him instead of gripping, but it has the added bonus of getting her out of range of the exploding imps at least. Which is a good thing considering she's already bruised in many places. Well, as a zombie she already looks kinda wounded, but she looks even worse now.

"Stop with that laugh already!" She grabs one of the remaining, unexploded imps, attempting to fit down into that giangantic laughing mouth as she rushes past him >_<

Vespa has posed:
"Bla. Bla. Bla. All talk..", Vepsa says as she brings her axe blocking the undead Santy claws attack.

"I don't know all that much about this Christmas thing but kindapping people in my book is very wrong! Take my punishment of my axe! Ramming speed!", she rushes forward into is 'bowl full of jelly' slashing away with her axe.

Avira has posed:
Avira gasps in horror, "That's not what the holidays are about after all!" She pushes off Santy Claws, well out of dodge, and lands atop one of the now-empty cages. "It's about peace on earth! Spending time with loved ones! Giving gifts to other people! Christianity-related things! That!"

She pauses, then gasps again, "Wait you're not Santy Claws, you're an evil robot double!" One that might explode, in fact. Avira stomps a clawed foot and in response, ice rises beneath the zombie robot santa.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel feels pain she feels a good deal of pain as well they got a Robo-zombie to deal with. How does that even work? She has no idea to be honest but she's goign to fight it she catches her disc as she caught again by some sort of smoke it feels terrible. She flails a bit losing her footing? Is that even the right word she's not sure, but she's still alive and she's still got some fight left in her as she pulls up her disc and springs into the air using her tail to get a bit more air then she normally would and throws her disc with everything she can muster at them.

Santy Claws has posed:
The laugh gets cut off by an imp being shoved into the fat man's mouth, only to have him chew and swallow it dramatically, burping bubbles of peppermint. He side-steps Freya's spear and in the same motion manages to wobble away from the sting of Vespa's axe. For a fat, not-so jolly elf, he can move pretty quickly sometimes. He even manages to only lose one of his boots to Avira's ice, which greets everyone else with the most disgusting foot the world has seen to date. It's green, and moldering, with huge grotesque toenails.

On her second swing with the disc, though, Deelel manages to make quite a dent. In fact, the disc actually ends up /lodged/ in the fat elf's belly, glowing there as he looks down, surprised at it being there.

"And you probably think Halloween is about children dressing up in costume and getting candy." Santy Claws shakes his head. "I won't let that Jack Skellington take the bluster away from Christmas. Halloween will /never/ be the best of the Holidays!" Apparently, there is some sort of competition between the two? Then again, Jack isn't among those in the cages. So where is he, anyways?

"Now be good little children, and /DIE/." Santy Claws swings out his disgusting toes towards them, followed by another of those exploding presents which threatens to take the building down with another huge explosion.

Freya Crescent has posed:
The head of Freya's spear lunged past the zombie and bit wood, the splintery squeaking as she pulled it up and back and forth, trying to withdraw it--and did so, with a final jerk backwards. The explosion hits home and sends the Burmecian flying backwards--landing on her feet amazingly, thankful for the black leggings that protect her feet as she skids and finally staggers regain her balance.

One hand down on the floor, the caped rat lady launches herself into the air, throwing her spear in mid-jump--intending to withdraw it after and follow up with a series of strokes and thrusts.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
One moment she's there, and the next moment, she's gone. Narrowly escaping the missile-toes by movign even CLOSER to the fat elf, its a strong punch right under the chin that greets him "We're not kids, for one thing!" Slightly airborn from her blow, she lands with a bit of a twist on herself, with her back toward Santy Claus, as some light can be seen charging up around her right fist. "There is no best holiday, just many for different occasions, for everyone to enjoy themselves!"

As soon as she touches ground, she spins on herself, sending the glowing fist straight into Santy's stomach, releasing the explosive ki at point blank range. It doesn't matter if that fat can absorb most impacts, it surely can't abosorb an explosion that easily!

Avira has posed:
"Halloween's also about scaring the crap out of people! And vandalizing houses with toilet paper! And recognizing the weakened dimensional fabric between reality and the netherworld! Don't discount halloween! It's import-"

Avira's promply /exploded/. She goes flying into the bars of one of the now empty cages with enough force that the metal bends and breaks. She groans and doesn't get up for a few agonizing seconds.

When she does, though, she grasps one of the cages and lifts it up over her head. "Happy Halloween to all! And to all a /good night/!"

With gusto, she brings the cage down atop Santy Claws.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is hanging back at this point she's hurt but not out of it, however she knows she needs to recover a bit more as her allies are still in the thing of hting so the rather snakey program is hanging back and preparing for something i she can just not got splattered across the walls she should be able to pull something off. For now she needs to rest and recover for a second.

WHAM she gets no such luck her program nature is also very plainly rveal as the lower snake part of her body has a very large glowing rent in it which one can see the voxels with in. She's just got to hang on a little longer and hopefully end this.

"You have really made me mad...whatever you actually are!"

Aerith has posed:
Of course, she's not alone in that regard.

Aerith sits tight next to Deleel, using the knowledge granted to her by the materia in her bracelets to heal the both of them. She's taken a roughing up as well, but at least she's still able to move. This is a tad crazy though, even for her, and she's perfectly fine trying to do something that doesn't involve fighting for once. "You okay there?"

Santy Claws has posed:
Freya's spear seems to catch the fat elf in various places, causing more wounds and the somewhat acrid smell of burnt candy to come off of the zombie-Santa. Tifa's blast of energy seems to only add to this by blasting away more of the flesh, revealing a robotic skeleton beneath it. The mecha-santa smoulders a bit, his glowing eyes staring at them. "You, cannot beat me... I am Christmas! Christmas is better than Halloween!" The voice croaks.

Then, like something out of the best wrestling show ever... Avira beats the robo-zombie-santa over the head with a cage and the machine crumples to the ground, sputtering.

A few of the captured ghouls from Halloween Town let out a cheer. Rudolph the laser-shooting robot manages to break through a wall and escape into the night, and what remains of Santy Claws just sits, sparking now and again and occassionally muttering something in a robotic voice about 'destroying Halloween' more and more slowly as the batteries give out.

Strange, though. Who could have created such a monster? Who would want to destroy Halloween? There are still no signs of Jack Skellington, but the Mayor seems happy enough when he is finally released from his cage, naming all of those gathered as the heroes of Halloween! Oh, and there are promises of candy... and those eye-balls that Avira had been wanting to try.

For now, Santy Claws has been defeated and Halloween saved. Two epic fights and the promise of candy isn't too bad for one night's work, right?

Freya Crescent has posed:
Seeing the attack hit home and wrenching her spear free, Freya sighed in relief as apparently they had saved the prisoners from the horrid zombie, reaching up to wipe her brow.

"Well, we saved the one's being kept here, but is there still someone missing?" she looked around a tad confused, but would otherwise see to releasing the prisoners.