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

[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.'

[unglitched]

Vanellope snorts a laugh. "Good luck with that. I'm not changin' for nobody."

A few yards away, the corridor ends in a small round space with three seemingly identical wooden doors.

[its_possible]

"Neither am I."

Doors. Fairly unremarkable doors, all things considered--but then, they rarely have signs on them warning about wild animals or spike traps on the other side.

He approaches one, and listens for sounds of movement.

"They like to make you choose."

[unglitched]

"Aaaaaand I'm guessin' that we won't get to go back and pick a different one if we guess wrong?" She raps on the left-hand door experimentally. Nothing happens.

[its_possible]

"Sometimes you can go back, but sometimes the door locks behind you and that's it. If there's magic, it might not let you open more than one. Or you might be able to open all of them, but two of them contain wild animals."

He takes a step back, glancing between the doors as though he'll somehow be able to see something he isn't currently seeing.

"Or it could be a perfectly ordinary intersection. Maybe the doors cut down on drafts."

[unglitched]

"How 'bout we try two doors at once?" suggests Vanellope. "That way we double our chances of not getting a trap or whatever."

[its_possible]

"We can certainly try," he says. "Do you have a preference for which two?"

He'll overthink it, if given a chance. Sometimes you just have to open the door.

[unglitched]

Vanellope steps back and considers the three doors for a long moment. Then she steps over to the center door. "I'm goin' with this one. You pick the other one."

[its_possible]

He puts a hand on the door he's already standing near. It's as good as the third door, probably.

"Whenever you're ready."

[unglitched]

"On 'three'. One... two..."

[its_possible]

He readies himself to open the door.

Whatever's on the other side, he can handle it. Animals, zombies, bees, angry housekeepers... anything.

It'd be nice if it were a way out, though.

[unglitched]

"Three!"

Vanellope yanks her door open.

And immediately leaps aside to avoid the massive jet of flame that comes shooting out of the doorway.

[its_possible]

Uther's door is more deceptive. It's dark on the other side, with at first nothing but the faint sounds of water, like waves lapping against a pier.

But when the occupants of the other room are disturbed by the light, there's another sound--the ominous buzz-slurp of a hive of octo-bees getting ready to defend their territory.

They're nasty, but they're slow.

[unglitched]

...Vanellope does not know that sound, but it does not sound good.

"What...?"