Scarie LeVeau Presents: New Goreleans

[Nero de Sphinx]

Nero sputtered and coughed as the the Red Ghoul obliterated his dream, the with the sup...duck...models...and something about....lemons? I couldn't recall, but his throat burned.

"Whathappenedwhatisthisterribletasteinmymouth?!" he gasped.

But the gates were creaking open and everyone else was intensely focused on getting into the market first.

"OHmanthisisitisn'tit!?"

Nero squared his impressive shoulders and as pushed his way inside. Glen rocketed off to parts unknown, Nero was sure minibro would return with a lot of novelty hats. Kai b-lined straight for some canvases but in the next aisle over Nero saw hexactly what he'd been hoping. Elderly zombies selling off vinyl.

He plowed through the crowd, small monsters bouncing off him like the prow of a mighty ship, until he reached the table. The two zombies manning the booth were somewhere between the traditional type seen around New Salem and a mummy. Their limbs were so dry and wizened they practically creaked.

"Sirs, do you have anything by Deadpeche Morte, Jackie Gilson or Chuck Burny?"  

[Rorrim Rory Bludworth]

Marceline LaGhede

Rory's iCoffin buzzed just as he was paying for a rot-iron picture frame from a very sweet swamp monster. She'd even sympathetically given him a 5% discount because of his chronic hiccuping.

Rory looked at the message and felt a double-feeling of joy and dread at Marceline's message.

A chance to be alone with Marceline! Joy!

In an orchard....somewhere he'd never been before. Dread!

But with Marceline! Joy!

In danger of possibly falling apples! Dread!

Marceline smiling at him, offering to share an apple with him. Joy!

Rory hiccuping so hard that he smashed head-first into an apple tree, reducing himself to nothing but shards. Dread!

Rory weighed the possibilities, hiccuped a few dozen times, and then responded.

edehGaL enilecraM : oT

?yako, ereht teg ouy nehw em nommus tsuJ !taerg sdnuoS

 

[Rorrim Rory Bludworth]

Rory rejoined Nero, the easiest of their group to spot amongst the monster masses. Nero was checking out some old vinyl records.

"Hey, Nero!" Rory greeted his bluddy fearfully. Nero gave a slight nod, he was clearly deep in thought about some of the albums.

"So, do you think I should get Bark Side of the Moon by Pink Werefloyd? Or the Fright Album by the Beastles?" Nero held up the two disks with each hand, displaying them to Rory. Rory shrugged.

"I've never *hic* heard of either of them." He confessed.

Nero nearly dropped the albums right there in shock.

"Never....never heard of the Beastles? Or Pink Werefloyd? Where were you raised?"

"In a silent black dimen-*hic*-sion on the other side of the mirror." Rory raised an eyebrow. "Duh."

Nero let out the saddest of sighs. He turned to the seller with a look of determination.

"I'll take them BOTH." He informed the zombie resolutely. "And your turntable. There is a wrong here that must be righted!"  

[Marceline LaGhede]

Rorrim Rory Bludworth

Marceline swiped her fingers across her iCoffin screen, busily generating a plan of action for the orchard as she sat in the backseat of the family car.

"Okay, so I think what I'll do is get a pound each of Groany Smith, Ghoulden Delicious, McUrntosh, some Eye-da Reds--"

"How much apple butter do y'want me to make, child?!" Maman Brigitte interjected from the front seat, her eyebrow jutting up into her faded copper locks.

"Enough so I won't have'ta be without it until summer! And b'sides, I'll be helping you make it!" She leaned forward and hugged her mother's shoulders from behind the seat. Brigitte patted her daughter's arms and rolled her eyes with a smirk.

"I ought'a get you a Croak Pot for your doomitory... Then I won't have'ta waste a Sata'day making enough apple butter to feed a horde'a zombies..."

"Somethin' to consider for Cryptmas, maybe?" Marceline shrugged. "Oh, should I get some of those cider groanuts for Papa?"

"He doe'n't need them, ghoul... but get some for y'self and y'boofriend... speakin' of, where is he?" Brigitte tilted the rear-view mirror down and peered into it, looking for more than just her reflection.

"Oh! He's out with the boos, I have t'summon him." She hopped out of the backseat and reached into her bag, digging for her compact mirror. Feeling her fingertips brush against cold silver, she clasped her hand on the mirror and snatched it from the bottom of her bag.

"So. this ability'a his... Y'know, to come and go at will through mirrors..." Brigitte's nose twitched as she carefully chose her words, and she adjusted her pince-nez as it slid out of place. "...Just how much does he take advantage'a that?"

Marceline rolled her eyes. "Now don't start actin' like Papa on me, Maman. He appears when he is summoned, simple as that."

She leaned into the car window and gave her mother a kiss on her cheek, and Brigitte sighed. "Very well, then. He seems like a nice boo. Just, quiet, and a bit jittery..."

"He's just nervous, is all. Give him time, he'll warm up to y'all. Now..." Marceline opened her compact and began chanting Rory's name...  

[Rorrim Rory Bludworth]

"-get out of here!" Rory suddenly appeared in the backseat of an economy-class hearse.

"Augh!" He jumped up, startled.

"Seat belts!" Marceline's Maman warned from from the front driver's side seat. Rory took quick stock of his surroundings.

"Marceline! *hic*" He hexclaimed, grinning at her, still covered in makeup from his unplanned 'hexcursion' to the Maul.

"Seat belts!!" Maman Brigitte warned again. Marceline scrunched up her face and raised an eyebrow at Rory's visage.

"Rory, what in th' name of Charon have those boos been doin' to you?!" Marceline choked back a laugh.

"I-*hic!* was at *hic!* and then *hic!* and I *hic!*" Rory tried to hexplain something, but his hiccups kicked up even worse than they'd been since last night. Maman Brigitte cleared her throat pointedly.

"If there is not the sound of seatbelts clicking in the next ten seconds, I am turning this hearse around!"

"*hic!* Sorry. *hic!*" Rory dutifully pulled out the seatbelt and clicked himself into place.  

[Marceline LaGhede]

Marceline clicked her seatbelt, and after making sure Rory did so as well, locked eyes with her mother through the rearview mirror. Brigitte nodded and without another word drove the car through the rot iron gates of the LaGhede Estate.

There was a pointed moment of awkward silence as they drove before Marceline grabbed her bag from between her knees. She rustled through it for a moment before finding a gossamer handkerchief, and waved it to Rory.

"Here," She pursed her lips in sort of a strange smile, as if trying not to laugh at his bizarre makeover again. "If y'wanna take all that off before we get to the Gore-chard."

As Rory wiped the handkerchief against his glossy skin, Marceline's eyes flicked back forward, noting that Maman was fixed on them through the mirror. How she was able to drive like that, Marceline was uncertain... but she cleared her throat and focused back on the road, her lips curling into a genuine smile.

"So, Rorrim." She said. "Marceline tells me you're a part of the school's Debate Team."  

[Nero de Sphinx]

"Now the Bones broke up in the 80s but that gave them the chance to explore solo...Bro'ry?" Nero looked around, "Aw manster, where'd you get to in this crowd?"

The market was teeming with monsters, jostling one another for a better position or hunkering down around booths to examine their wares. Nero had a pretty good natural view but still couldn't spot his woefully uninformed chrome bro.

He shrugged and pulled off his sunglasses, polished the mirrored lenses scarefully and began chanting.

"Rorrim Bludworth, Rorrim Bludworth, Rorrim Bludworth..."

A couple lamia next to him stopped looking through the Rhythm and Boos section.

"Hey, that'ssssss got a pretty good beat," one said. The other began nodding along.

"Yesssssss, I haven't heard that one but it ssssssssounds like you could sway to it."

When Nero finished, Rory popped into existence beside him to the sound of light applause.

"...I'm good at *hic* research, *hic* preparedness is *hic* half the debate....*hic hic hic*?"

"There you are! It's easy to get lost in this place, bro, you should stick with me."

"Lost?"

"No shame, we've all been there. But no worries, I was just about to tell you about Gravid Bowie."

"Oh! We love Gravid Bowie, essssspecially the Sssssiggy Stardust era. I'm Ssssssandra and this is my twin ssssissssster Ssssasha," the first lamia chimed in. Her skin glittered in the sunlight in bands of black, red and yellow. Sasha brushed a hand through her long hair and smiled.

Nero put his arm around Rory and grinned.

"We've got a lot to talk about then, Rory here know nothing about boosic, we need to educate him!"  

[Glen da West]

"Oh. My! OZ!"

Glen's outcry and zipping toward his boos caused quite the parting of the Monster Sea (literally as many dove for cover) as he sped toward them on his skateboard! The lamia ghouls cried out and latched onto Nero -- oh I bet he was just LOVING that -- and Glen flew around the quartet in rapid circles until the lamia were tangled together, Rory staggered on his feet and Nero felt a tad queezy.

Glen skidded to a halt in front of his cousin and flapped his arms about in wild abandon.

"Nothing! Not a single Spellbound card to be found! I hexted Drakie but she hasn't answered! I neeeeeeeeeed that Bleak Friday card! Rory hasta find it for me!"

"Me...?"

"Look in the mirrors! Check out the other markets! Port us to the maul if that's what it takes!"

Glen grabs Rory by the shirt and starts shaking him!

"Calm down! We'll get through this! We'll find that card! Why are you so erratic cousin, mine!? IT'S JUST A SPELLBOUND CARD!!!"  

[Rorrim Rory Bludworth]

"I-*hic* was-I mean-I was just *hic!* at the-" Rory tried to hexplain, but there was just too much chaos going on now that Glen had latched onto him with the intensity of a vampire at a blood drive.

"Aw, come back, ghouls!" Nero called after the Lamia sisters as they dashed off to fix their hair after Hurricane Glen had subsided a bit. Just as he was about to turn around, however....Glen and Rory blinked out of hexistance.

"Bros?" Nero asked, looking left and right. "Bros? Where'd you go?!"  

[Marceline LaGhede]

"Now, where did Rory go? We were just gettin' somewhere." Brigitte flipped the turn signal of the hearse and motioned to pull over.

"No need, Maman. He prob'ly just got summoned somewhere..." Marceline waved off her mother.

"Does this happen a lot, then?"

"Sometimes, but he ain't usually this popular..." She locked eyes with the rearview mirror. "Rorrim Bludworth, Rorrim Bludworth..."
 

[Ronan Aalto]

Ronan wasn't about to let go to Rory, so wherever he was summoned, the Selkie ended up too.
He blinked a few times as he found himself no longer in a crowded maul, but rather in the back seat of a moving car.

"uh... " He began.

"Seatbelts!" Maman Brigitte watched them through the rear view mirror.  

[Marceline LaGhede]

"What in the---!?" Marceline sputtered as the backseat of the hearse suddenly got much more crowded. "Rory... and Ronan?!"

"I said seatbelts! Don't make me turn this hearse around!" Brigitte said firmly from the front, and Marceline readjusted her seatbelt before leaning over to Rory.

"What hexactly is goin' on here, Rorrim?" She hissed close enough to his ear that her breath created a fog against his cheek.  

[Ronan Aalto]

Ronan wasn't about the argue with the intimidating figure of Maman Brigitte, he obediantly found a seatbelt, shifted off of poor Rorrim and clicked into a seat of his own.

"Um... good... morning Marceline?" He managed, clearly about as confused as she was.  

[Rorrim Rory Bludworth]

"*hic!* Oops." Rory's head was spinning from all of the summoning. Is this how his mother felt during normie sleepover season? Thank goodness so few monsters knew about the summoning curse.

Marceline, Maman Brigitte and Ronan were all staring at him, looking for a hexplanation. Rory swallowed back a couple of hiccups and tried to make them understand.

"W-well, you see, if somemonster's holding on to me when I get summoned, they sort of, *hic* sort of get caught in the, uh, teleportational backlash and-*hic!* Oh gosh! Glen!" It suddenly dawned on Rory that neither Nero nor Kai had any idea where he or Glen had gone.

"Well...at least this is better than the maul." Ronan said quietly. Yes, he was hundreds of miles away from anywhere he'd ever been before...but it wasn't crowded. "I'll hext Dashner and let him know where we are."

"I'd better hext a lot of monst-" Rory replied, before blinking away again. Marceline's mouth screwed up into a little bit of a scowl and she sighed.

"I'm givin' him five minutes and then I'm bringin' him back. This is S'POSED to be our together time!"  

[Kai Merha]

"-ers!" Rory gasped out as he appeared back in the Open-Scare market, next to Kai and Nero, standing in front of a little stand-up selling dozens of antique mirrors. Kai let out a sigh of relief.

"It worked!" He and Nero high-fived. "Great idea, Nero!"

"Woo-woo-woo, you know it!" Ner replied, reciprocating the five. "Now, just tell us where those Murks took you so we can re-rescue Glen, and then we can go look for those lovely lamia sisters!"

"Murks?! *hic!*" Rory jumped, almost into Nero's arms. "Where?!"

"We don't know, you tell us! You're the ones they monsternapped, after all!" Kai hexplained. "It figures they'd try for their revenge so quickly, guess they didn't learn their lesson the last time."

"Oh, no, that-*hic!* that's not-*hic!* not what happened!" Rory tried to hexplain, before dissolving into hiccups. All of this mirror-jumping was disorienting him a little bit, and that just made the hiccups worse. He wished whoever this darn prophecy was for would just hurry up and be alone with him so he could say a darn sentence without interruption for-

"I think that's them over there!" Nero cried, pointing at a shadowy corner of the open-scare market. "Give us back mini-bro, you fiends!"

And with that, Nero went charging. Kai slapped his forehead.

"Great. Now I'll never find him again....Look, Rory, stay here. Whatever you do, don't move from this spot. I'll get Nero, and then we'll come back and get you and rescue Glen. Got it?"

"Uh-" Rory started to speak, but Kai had already slipped into the crowd to try to recover Nero before he wound up taking an inevitable wrong turn to nowhere. Now he was all alone at the open-scare market, Glen was at the Maul back in Salem, and Ronan was on Rory's date with his ghoulfriend!

"What a *hic!* mess..." Rory lamented.