What's This? (Open)

[Betelgeuse]

Betelgeuse landed with a thud. Some idiot had called his name 3 times and sent him flying, only this time he didn't join the sand worms on Saturn or the AstroTurf of Adam's model. Quite frankly, he was happy. He hated sand worms and his little life was getting rather boring in his cardboard coffin. He looked around. Where was he?

He walked up to large irregular gates. He studied them momentarily with his eyes before examining them with his fingers. Odd. The gates looked as if they were to flake rust, however they were relatively smooth to the touch, as if made of clay. Opening the gate slightly he slid through to what looked like a cemetery. It was different but still his element. Not only that but what he could see of the town beyond looked like a place he would feel more then comfortable. MUCH better then the afterlife.

I could get used to this, he thought to himself while walking past misshapen tombstones and oddly carved pumpkins. He spotted a hill with a large spiral a the end of it. Maybe if I climb to the top I can see the town, he thought. He began climbing the hill. It looked steep as if he'd slide right off but it was eerily easy to climb. Once at the top he began looking around when suddenly...

THUMP! The strange hill had uncurled itself! He had slid right off onto a pumpkin! He stood up with a start wiping off his backside and looking around making sure no one saw. He looked up to examine the strange hill, which was once again curled.

Suddenly sound came to his ears. Footsteps. Crunching of earth. Someone was coming! But who?

Please don't be a sand worm!

He was frightened but didn't show it much. After all he had a rep to protect and if this was someone coming he couldn't let the word out that he had been scared. Still he ran behind the hill and peeked out the side watching to see who or what was coming.

[Jack Skellington]

A Jack-o’-lantern sun hung brightly in the autumnal sky, casting it’s soft orange light across the angular roofs of Halloweentown and stretching their bizarre shadows across the old cobbled streets and uneven rock walls. Guillotine Square was quiet today, aside from the soft tinkle of water pouring fourth from the mouth of the fountain, the majority of the Towns residents seemed to be opting for a stay inside day, and no exception to that was the Towns King.

Down one of the many avenues and side streets which made up the strange town, a huge set of uneven iron gates jutted up sharply into the front garden of a tall, sharply angled house which rose up at first like a regular home up until the sloping roof met the sharp ascending scaffold of tower branching off on the left side of the roof. Precariously balanced on what could only be called a small but high cliff which looked over the Graveyard beyond the boundary wall below, the house was a landmark on the Halloweentown skyline and at the very top of the tower, Jack Skellington sat bent over a large blueprint of something called ‘The Cats Eye project’, a mathematical compass in one bony hand and the other, flat on top of the paper.

His eye sockets narrowing in a concentrated frown as he used the compass to measure something on the blueprint, the hand that had been lying comfortably on top of the desk moved quickly up to his chin as he scrutinized his work and across the room from him, tucked away in a basket laythe ghost of a small dog, snoozing absentmindedly in the afternoon sun, his master concentrating on the project he was determined to finish by the end of the week.

After a few moments of staring at the same formula he’d been working on for the past few hours, Jack lay the compass back down on the desk again and pushed his chair backwards with a loud grating noise, stirring the dog, one Zero by name from his afternoon nap.
“Well Zero.” he started, standing up and interlocking his fingers together in order to stretch with a loud cracking noise (the sure sound that his joints had stiffened indefinitely after hours of sitting in the same position!).
“I believe its time we went to see the Doctor! Perhaps he can figure this out”.
Now Doctor Finklestein, being an incredibly clever man with a scientific brain, was Halloweentown’s resident mathematician, physicist, biologist, chemist and inventor. He'd made his afterlife name from the experiments he produced and if one ever found themselves particularly stuck on a scientific problem, he was just the man to see, particularly if he could solve the problem while the project was still in it's design stages.

Striding around the desk and across the floor, Jack started down the spiral staircase which protruded from the center of the room, followed closely by a still rather sleepy looking Zero and a few minutes later, pulled his front door shut behind him before tottering quickly down the front steps and, wrenching the iron gates open with ease, pausing momentarily to look at his sleepy companion.
“It’ll have to be a secret though Zero! The Cats Eye Project is a surprise for the town residents you see! And it certainly wont be a surprise if they know about it will it now?” he chuckled before starting down the avenue and heading towards Guillotine square.

Halfway to the Doctors lab however, a sudden thought struck the Skeleton. If he was going to call unexpectedly on the man, it only seemed polite to take him a gift and whirling around he changed direction quickly and headed towards the towns Graveyard. When Jack had last spoken to the Doctor, he'd mentioned that his stock of Belladonna pods was running low and he hadn't had the time to collect some more from the Plant itself, which grew in abundance in a corner of the graveyard so slipping with ease through the gates, he strolled cheerfully along the labyrinthine pathways and in no time at all, arrived at Spiral hill.

"Now then Zero! I believe Bella grows somewhere over...that way!" and picking up the pace, he wandered absentmindedly by the make shift hiding place of someone who often called himself 'The Ghost with the Most'.

[Betelgeuse]

Betelgeuse moved further behind the hill while he stared in awe of this interesting character. All bones! Lucky! He didn't have to deal with decomposition. Betelgeuse flaked off a piece of old skin and flaked it to the ground, suddenly thinking about his own lot in the afterlife. Quickly snapping back to reality he studied the man. He seemed to be accompanied by a ghost dog. Betelgeuse was familiar with ghost dogs and he shuddered hoping the dog wouldn't blow his hiding place.

He listened to the man speak to his trusty companion. He didn't seem evil or foul like most of the deceased he'd come across. He felt no threat here. If anything this man would be the perfect person to help him find out where he was.

Slowly he stepped out from his hiding space, making sure his footing was secure and that nothing else was going to move or uncurl itself.

"Uh... hey," Betelgeuse cleared his throat to hide his slight fear and uncertainty. He put on a deeper and stronger tone. "Hey there," He said with a snort. He spread his arms and looked around in confusion. "What is this?"