You'll Never Be Alone in the Bone Orchard

[francia]

Who: France and Jack Skellington
Where: Near Goldenrod City
When: Evening, July 13th
Summary: Following France's anonymous love advice posts, France and Jack conveniently run into each other.
Rating: G/PG?
Log:

Work at the restaurant had been long but not particularly difficult today. People here in this world never fail to faintly amuse France in how much milder they are from those he's used to serving back in his world. There does seem to be less of them, though, so perhaps people are more dedicated to being nice to each other as it's likely they will meet the majority of people in this world at one point or another.

As the evening starts to fall, France heads out of Goldenrod City for his daily run with Marianne. The two of them move in unison due to habit and dedication to this ritual. They usually keep to the main path of both city and routes, but today they veer a bit off, Marianne eager to find a bit of competition with wild pokémon and France for the change of scenery.

Comments

[quickattackjack]

On down the path a very tall man was sitting against a tree with a couple of notebooks across his lap. He was furiously writing in one while flipping through the other. He only had so much daylight left. A large backpack sat next to him on which a Murkrow was roosting. Fester, his Gastly, hovered nearby and terrorized a couple of wild Jigglypuff who were trying to eat berries in peace.

"Edgar, I'm going to have to teach at least one of you Flash if I'm going to get anything done."

[francia]

It's Marianne that came on the man and the pokemon first. She lowered to a slow trot when she heard the commotion of Jigglypuffs and located the Gastly as the source of their distress, her tails swishing in warning. France, several paces behind her, noticed that and slowed down himself, coiling for a fight out of instinct.

"Marianne."

They both halt completely, France's hand coming to rest on the curved top of one her tales; it stopped her from unleashing a Flamethrower on the group but little for her general air of hostility. France frowned slightly at the Gastly before his peripheral vision picked up on the less active components of the scene: the Murkrow on a backpack and the very tall man. Despite himself, France took a moment to get past the feeling he had made a literal encounter with a trinity of bad omens, centuries of superstition deeply engrained as they were.

He cleared his throat. "Excuse me. Are you alright there?"

[quickattackjack]

Jack didn't respond at first. His pen flew across the pages and his face was pinched in a determined little frown as he muttered. Edgar had to lean over and peck him on the hand.

"A-ow! What are you--oh!" Jack adjusted his glasses and looked up. "Just fine! Just trying to get in a few more lines before I run out of light. I must'v been talking to myself..."

[francia]

France hovered awkwardly for a moment while he waited to see if the man would respond or if he should take his leave. He winced in sympathy to the peck, smiling apologetically.

"Sorry to interrupt you." He couldn't help but glance curiously at the book. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you working on?"

Meanwhile, Marianne communicated her disapproval of Edgar's behaviour with a thin stream of flame in his direction. France, as usual, failed to notice.

[quickattackjack]

Edgar puffed herself up and clacked her beak at the Ninetales. SHE CAN TAKE YOU, BOUFFANT BUTT.

"It's not a problem at all!" Jack sighs a little and shakes his head at himself. He's fooling himself if he thinks he's going to get any more work done. He's got a night of haunting ahead of him. "I'm just writing letters home. Helps the homesickness. It gets hard after so many years."

[francia]

Marianned bristled, eyes flashing. Excuse you! What an unpleasant creature! With self-control that had only really developed in the past year, she managed to hold herself back from immediately attacking. Her hostility, however, made it clear she would if France was not here, though.

France's expression softened noticeably, his hand drifting unconsciously to where he would usually be carrying his bag if he hadn't been out for a run. The hand dropped back to his side once he caught himself.

"I've been writing letters as well since coming here nearly four years ago. How long have you been here?"

[quickattackjack]

Jack closed the book, only to open it again and leaf through its pages. He hadn't gotten terribly far in it but he was still proud of the amount he had filled.

"The same--this Halloween will make four. Time flies, doesn't it?"

He sounded both a little amused and a little sad at that.

[francia]

France's expression turned to one of knowing sympathy. He took a couple steps forward to kneel down in the grass, a hand drifting out of habit to pull Marianne close. She followed this without question, her head tucking against his chest as he settled his arm around her. It made France look down. When she was small, she used to fit in his arms, and he had a habit of squeezing her just to the side of discomfort. France had become more secure in this place since those early months, but she will always protect him.

"It does," France said, absentmindedly stroking her head as he looked back up at Jack. "I came here in the middle of October that year. Did you arrive when things went -"

He wiggled his fingers on the crown of Marianne's head, looking for the right word. He shook his head.

"Ah, well, I'm still not sure how to describe that."

[quickattackjack]

The monarch tried to think of a way to describe it. The general WEIRDNESS of it all seemed to be what they both remembered...but weirdness seemed to be the order of the day some days around Johto.

Jack took out his gear.

"Things looked like when you sneeze on your gear screen."

He doesn't know the word for pixel.

"And flat!"

[francia]

Sneeze on the screen. France blinked a couple of times, his head tilting to the side. His expression clearly communicates how he had never thought of that at all. Marianne butt her head upward slightly, miffed that France had stopped stroking her, and that seemed to jar him back to reality.

"I suppose so," he said, turning his full attention back to Jack. "Did you not have this sort of technology back in your world?"

[quickattackjack]

"Not at all! The human world had telephones and televisions but nothing like our 'gears or pokeballs and nothing like Pokemon."

He reached up to pat his own magical battling animal. Edgar clacked her beak in appreciation.

"But our world, Halloween Town, our technology was much simpler. We got by alright."

[francia]

France opened his mouth to ask what exactly Jack meant by "human world", but the second part was much more interesting. Or shocking. Either way, France's demeanour took on an air of intrigued wariness.

"Forgive me--this is a completely uninformed question--, but when you say Halloween Town to refer to your world, do you mean that it's world based around Halloween? Or is it in and of itself Halloween?"

[quickattackjack]

The ex-skeleton broke into a wide grin.

"Both!"

That's helpful, Jack.

"I'm sure by now you've heard about how Sandy Claws brings joy to all the children for Christmas. Well that's what we do for Halloween. Except...well I don't guess we bring joy."

He tapped his chin thoughtfully.

[francia]

France mouthed "Sandy Claws" for a brief moment of incomprehension before he caught onto what Jack most likely meant.

"Ah, the ever more popular image of Saint Nicholas," he murmured before the rest of what Jack said registers; he stared at Jack, perhaps not in the most flattering manner. "Wait, so you are -"

He had started to gesture, but he couldn't seem to hold onto the thought. His expression would not look out of place on an owl. His grip on Marianne tightened, not much but enough to cause her to glare at Jack and Edgar again.

"You are from a world of spirits?"

There was a definite stilted texture to the words, France's natural fear of spirits and such warring with his equally natural fascination.

[quickattackjack]

Jack nodded, his grin not fading.

"I am! I've been feeling homesick for a real Halloween for years now...last year I was the one who put on that haunted house. Did you get a chance to go to that? We'll be doing it again this year!"

[francia]

France wondered not entirely idly what this person considered a real Halloween. Outwardly, he smiled, a little self-depreciatingly.

"I did hear about that, but I have to admit that I don't do very well with being tricked or scared. I tend to take things personal in the heat of the moment."

It's something of an understatement. France settled down a bit more in the grass, allowing Marianne to stretch across his lap fully.

"I wouldn't mind contributing a bit to the operation, though!" he said, brightening a little with the thought. "What's your name? I can send a few costumes your way if you're in need of some variety."

[quickattackjack]

Jack chuckled. He could understand that. If everyone involved wasn't having fun, a scare wasn't any good.

Except when it came to terrorizing campers because man that was hilarious.

"That would be fantastic! I'm not much of a tailor and all the costumes we used last year were bought from the stores." He sighed. Sally made such wonderful costumes.

[francia]

France mistook the sigh for despairing over the offerings of products in this world. He sighed himself, face twisting in a grimace.

"This place seems at once vast and utterly limited. I still haven't figured out how the economy works, and, considering that you can subsist entirely off the land and by defeating other trainers if you wanted, I don't understand how even the Goldenrod Department Store survives with its perennial stock."

He shook his head. How does Johto and Kanto survive with such limited fashion? This had always been once of France's primary questions.

"Let me know when you need the costumes by and what you'd like. I'll probably need details; you likely have the better imagination of what goes best on Halloween. If you leave it up to me -" France laughed a little, somewhat self-conscious suddenly. "Well, better you don't. Halloween is supposed to be scary but in a lighthearted way, yes?"

[quickattackjack]

Jack stared out into the woods as France spoke. He had a long night ahead of him. He nodded, though he didn't catch every word the man said--not until the end. He looked up again and grinned mischievously. Lightheated for him, maybe. Spinetingling for everyone else.

"For the most part. I'll give you a call sometime in September. We won't have as much preparing to do this time since all of the halls and doors have been built already."