Krampus plot

[unglitched]

This just isn't Vanellope's day. One minute she's in Milliways minding her own business, the next some hairy horned monster thing is bundling her up in a sack and carrying her off.

The next thing she knows, she's being dumped in a... huh. What is this place, exactly? It looks like something out of an old-school FPS, all bare stone corridors going off in different directions. And the hairy horned monster seems to have vanished completely. Where is she, and how the heck is she supposed to get back home?

Maybe that big guy in the leather armor knows something. She approaches him and clears her throat.

Comments

[its_possible]

He's been stranger places, and been brought there in less dignified ways than being carried a sack. Not much less dignified, but some.

Still. That creature hadn't offered any answers, and he's not sure where he is or how to get back. This could take a while.

At least he's not alone?

"What is this place?" he asks. Maybe she knows.

[unglitched]

"I dunno. I was gonna ask you," she admits.

[its_possible]

"There was a creature," he says. "With a bag. I don't know what he was. Some local spirit, maybe. And now this."

He's got his wirecutters, though. No wires to cut, but maybe there'll be some later.

He pats his pocket. Yes, they're still there. Good.

[unglitched]

"Did he have big horns and lots of really gross hair? And tell you you were naughty?"

[its_possible]

"And said I was his now," he nods. "Wouldn't say what he wanted, just told me to come along. Creatures are like that, sometimes. Cryptic. They like to watch people squirm."

And the best thing to do in those cases is to entertain them.

[unglitched]

"Okay, sure, whatever." She rolls her eyes and looks around again. "None of which explains where the heck we are or how we can be someplace else."

[its_possible]

"Normally there are stories about things," he says. "Creatures don't just start appearing--they have patterns, and people know about them. I'm not from here, though. I don't know the stories."

[unglitched]

"I dunno either, but I know how I can find out!" says the little girl cheerfully. "I'll just put up a post on the message board. Somebody must know what's goin' on here."

She reaches into her inventory and retrieves... a rubber duck on a chain attached to a bathtub plug.

"Awww, man, you gotta be kidding me!"

[its_possible]

Well, that's... different.

He has no idea what it is. No rubber ducks where he's from. It looks brutal, though.

"Not what you were hoping to find?"

[unglitched]

"No, it was supposed to be my T-Minus doohickey! Don't tell me I overwrote it..." She fishes in her hoodie pocket, but comes up with nothing.

[its_possible]

"Oh, those... things people at the bar have? I've seen those."

Which is terribly helpful in this current situation.

"All I have are wire cutters. No wires here, though."

[unglitched]

"So let me get this straight," says Vanellope. "We got captured by a goat monster, we're trapped in a rejected Doom level, and our weapons consist of wire cutters and a toy duck."

[its_possible]

"It could be worse," he says. "It could be on fire."

He taps the wall. Seems solid enough.

"We should probably pick a direction. They all look the same to me."

[unglitched]

"Wait, there are mazes that are on fire?"

Vanellope's not sure if that's terrible or awesome.

[its_possible]

"Possible Towers," he explains. "They're simultaneously everything they could possibly be, and some of those things are on fire. It's all real at the same time, and there's just one of you across all these realities."

This seems to be just one reality. He can handle that.

[unglitched]

"Wait, if they're everything they could possibly be, does that include them being not there at all?"

[its_possible]

"There and not there. Nothing but ruins, or designed by an infinite number of different architects. They can't be mapped--if this turns into one of those, stay very close."

He wishes he hadn't left his sword back in Armada.

[unglitched]

"What, so you can electrician your way out?" Unimpressed glitch is unimpressed. "I can handle myself, thanks."

She strides purposefully down the corridor. (Of course, given how short her stride is, she's not exactly going to be hard to catch up to.)

[its_possible]

He follows along, with the wariness he always has when off on a mission for his captains. Paying attention to what's there, not letting his thoughts influence what he thinks he hears or sees.

No jumping at empty shadows, here.

"I'm attuned to Possible things, that's all. I can navigate them. If that's what this turns into, I can get us out. But it doesn't feel like that; the energy's not there."

[unglitched]

"Good for you," says Vanellope dryly. "If I need any more information about what something isn't, I'll give you a call."

It's hard to tell in the dim light (and where is that light coming from anyway?), but they seem to be coming up on the end of the corridor.

[its_possible]

"If you don't know what something is, start with what it isn't."

Not that there's much he can rule out, at this point. Featureless walls don't give much to work with--maybe whatever that is up ahead will help.

"Were you given your duck recently? I was given my wire cutters. I don't usually carry any."

[unglitched]

"Yeah, and I have no idea who gave it to me, either. Do you know a 'Father Christmas'?"

[its_possible]

"I've heard mention of him in the bar, but I don't know him myself," he says. "Do you think this is his doing? Send us a gift, and then send that creature to bring us here?"

[unglitched]

"I...guess?" She shrugs. "What's the point, though?"

[its_possible]

"Either his own amusement, or maybe--if you got the same announcement about bad behavior I did--to make us change our ways. Or both."

There could be other reasons, but those are his leading theories right now.

Leaning toward 'both.'