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]

"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...?"

[its_possible]

He tries to close the door again, but it's not budging.

"Either it's the other door, or none of them," he says. "These are some kind of flying things with tentacles, and they look angry."

[unglitched]

"So open the other door already!" Vanellope tries to close her own door, to no avail.

[its_possible]

If he can do it quickly enough, maybe they can get out of there before the octo-bees get out.

So he scrambles over to the other door, and opens it--

Ice. Not just a solid wall of ice--although it certainly is that--but the wall and floor near the door start to freeze over as well. He steps back, unwilling to risk being frozen.

"No luck."

[unglitched]

The ice continues to spread. It reaches toward the still-present jet of flame, turning to steam that starts to envelop the whole corridor.

"Now what?!"

[its_possible]

"We could try going the other way," he says, already taking a few steps back from the doors. "We're not getting through here. Past where we came in, that must be the way out."

Unless there's no way out at all. But if there's a way in, there must be a way out.

[unglitched]

"Fine by me!"

Her form dissolves into a stream of glowing pixels which stream away from the doors and coalesce ten yards down the corridor.

[its_possible]

That's a handy trick.

Uther has no such option, though, so he has to settle for jogging backward away from the doors, until he's far enough away that he doesn't feel the need to watch for the bees anymore.

[unglitched]

Vanellope is waiting for him, at what she hopes is a safe distance away.

"What kept you?"