Log:Gingerbread House

2008/12/23 	 Chrysalis Ferryl Knockout Lightray Spirit Imaginary Girl 1

The Colonial Bay Winter Festival has come to Buckingham Garden Park. It's an annual affair where the athletic fields are converted into a fairground with tents and booths and activities for families. There's face painting, snacks of all varieties for sale, ice sculptures, Santa and his elves, and even a gingerbread house. Nearby there's a small rink for ice-skating.

Joseph sits on one of the benches overlooking the lake in the assigned smoking section. He is bundled up against the cold as he slowly smokes one cigarette after another. He seems to be watching the holiday fair with a small smile on his face.

Dorian is walking through the park with Zeal on his arm. The two of them are enjoying a stroll through the festival grounds, and they stop to look at the ice sculptures for a bit.

Chrysalis wanders about the place in fur - her own. She's adopted a sort of small-polar-bear look, though she's also wearing a purple and turqoise scarf. Currently she's looking at the ice sculptures.

In one section of the fair, there's a bit of a commotion. A group of adults are gathered around a uniformed police officer, barraging him with questions. The mood of the group seems edgy, anxious.

Dorian furrows his brow, and looks over toward the commotion, but stays with Zeal, looking at the ice sculptures. After all, there's a policeman there. Surely the police can handle something minor.

Chrysalis similarly pays a bit of attention but stays with the ice sculptures.

Joseph gets up from his seat casually crushing out his cigarette as he does so. He then makes his way towards the commotion.

The crowd continues to ask questions of the cop: "What is going on here?" "I want to talk to who's in charge." "Have you seen my boy..?" "Her name is Jenny..." The cop seems a little overwhelmed by the situation. "One second people..." He's speaking into his radio. "Come in. Rogers? Come in."

Chrysalis walks toward the crowd now, suspecting there might be a little more going on than it first seemed.

Zeal pats Dorian on the arm, smiling and looking towards the commotion. "It's alright. Go ahead and check it out. It's probably nothing, but it's better to be sure, right? Just meet me over by the gingerbread house when it's all over. I'd join you, but this reporter is on vacation until the New Year."

Imaginary Girl draws the attention of the group of adults. "Imaginary Girl! Maybe you can help us..." one man says.

Dorian nods, "Alright. But leave your PDA on, just in case. I can track the signal and find you if I need to, then." He smiles, and gives Zeal a kiss on the cheek before walking over toward the commotion.

Josephs route to the commotion takes him behind one of the Christmas displays and out of sight of most people. There is a brief flash of sunlight and Lightray continues the stroll up to the group.

Chrysalis says, "What's going on?"

One man stands with is arm around a woman says, "We can find our son, Timmy." Another person quickly follows up: "Our daughter is missing." And: "My husband was here just a moment ago, and now I can't find him..."

Most of the people have similar complaints of missing people. Finally, the cop weigh in too. "I can't seem to reach my partner." He tries his radio. "Rogers? Come in, man."

Dorian furrows his brow, "Excuse me, officer. Where was your partner last? That's a starting point."

Lightray lets his gaze travel from face to face of the worried people. He then asks in a resonant voice, "Where did you last see your loved ones?"

Chrysalis says, "And what do they look like?"

What follows is a jumble of stories and answers from about fifteen people trying to talk simultaneously.

Dorian shakes his head a bit, and starts to look around slowly, his eyes going solid white.

Ferryl moves closer to the apparently dangerous festivities, curious to see what all the fuss is about aside from the vanishing people. She perches on a tree branch, looking down at the heroes and their conversation persons. "Okay. That wasn't a helpful question." She points at one person rightmost from her perspective. "YOU! You speak first."

Chrysalis tries to get

Chrysalis decides she's better not ask any more questions.

Lightray moves back slightly to let Imaginary Girl and Ferryl try to get information out of the crowd. He looks over at Dorian, then turns to gaze at the testival grounds.

Dorian shakes his head, and looks to Lightray. "No police transmissions in the area, aside from this radio here." He then considers something, and changes into his Spirit form in a flash of light. He starts to fly upward to get a better look around, leaving a trail of light behind him as he floats upward.

Between Ferryl and Imaginary Girl, the people start to report their stories in turn, starting with the man that Ferryl singled out. All in all there are ten people missing: 7 children, two adults, and one cop...

Chrysalis still waits for an actual description, and where they vanished from.

The children went missing from the fairground (as opposed to, say, the ice rink). The cop and the adults disappeared while looking for some of the kids.

Chrysalis changes shape into a giant bird and takes to the air, to fly over the fairground and look for anything unusual.

Ferryl grins. "So, sounds like we have a lead. All we have to do is go looking for them and we can all go missing."

Spirit tilts his head. "I might have something. Keep asking questions. I'm going to check out the gingerbread house. Back in a moment." And with that, he flies off in the direction of the gingerbread house, leaving that telltale trail of light behind him.

From the group of people, the heroes can gather the descriptions and cellphone photos of the missing folks.

Ferryl moves with Spirit's general motions, keeping her eye on his location and ready to provide cover fire.

Lightray spreads his wings and folows after Spirit. He smiles slightly as he flies over the crowds.

The cop nods to Imaginary Girl. "I will. Thanks, Imaginary Girl."

Spirit doesn't fly overly quickly on his way, but he lands shortly thereafter outside of the structure.

Chrysalis flies close to Spirit. "That gingerbread house is strangely cold."

Spirit tilts his head, "Cold. Great. Last thing I need to hear." And with that, he opens the door, and peers inside.

Chrysalis says, "You sure it's safe to go in?"

Lightray lands behind Chyrsalis and Spirit. He turns to keep an eye on the rest of the festival as Spirit and Chrysalis look inside.

Spirit chuckles. "Nothing is sure in life. And it's never stopped me before."

Chrysalis changes shape again, to a rather strong-looking woman.

The doorknob to the house is a gumdrop, and it feels squichy to the touch, like the genuine candy would. Also the house smells of cinnamon and quite delicious at that. The interior of the house is a small 10x10 room with a couple of candy coated chairs and not much else. Lighting comes from a lantern that looks made of a burning wick of licorice.

Ferryl looks in from her position, staying well out of reach of the nasty house of eating people.

Chrysalis ventures inside, touching the house as she goes.

Lightray brings sunlight close around his body as if armoring himself, then turns to look at the house. He shakes his head, "All it needs is a kindly looking old woman and two Bavarian children, no?"

Spirit steps inside, "Huh. There's no other way out, huh?"

Chrysalis heads on in.

The door leading in seems to be the only entrance or exit.

Lightray follows Spirit and Chrysalis into the house, his attention on the lantern. He muses, "I wonder what is burns? Vanilla oil?"

Spirit shakes his head. "There's another way out. There has to be." He starts looking around the room. "No idea on the smell. I can't smell anything in this form."

Chrysalis says, "The house is gingerbread as far as I can tell."

After Chrysalis, Spirit, and Lightray, followed by IG step inside, the door begins to swing shut.

Spirit touches the chairs, looking more closely at them.

Lightray shakes his head as he looks around. "Its enchanted. I do not know how but this is a supernatural place." He then reaches towads the closing door.

Chrysalis tries to get her foot in the door!

Ferryl pulls back an arrow at the door motion, pausing to see what happens. Scientific curiosity never killed any cats.

Chrysalis says, "May we can find something to hold it open?"

Spirit tilts his head. "You know...if you don't let it close...we won't be able to find the missing people."

Lightray smiles slightly. "Well, actaully, I think a fwe of us should remain inside while the others wait outside for the bloodcurdlijg screams, no."

The chairs appear to be made ot of confection as well. Gingerbread, with marshmallow cushions. Someone's actually taken a bite out of one of the seat cushions.

Chrysalis says, "So should we let it close?"

Chrysalis says, "Or does someone want to leave first?"

Spirit nods, "Yes. If someone wants to wait outside, that's fine. But it needs to close, I think."

Chrysalis says, "Anyone want to leave?"

Lightray nods. "Yes, I think we should." He moves to the door. "I will wait for you outside. If you are not back out in a fwe seconds, I will come in." He then steps outside.

Chrysalis lets the door close

Suddenly, the heroes are elsewhere. The portion of the house that that held your focus at the moment remains the same, but the rest of the house seems to have changed, expanded into a n home of much larger dimensions than before...

Ferryl shakes her head. "Well, that was interesting." She returns to the gathering, to update them on what she witnessed. "And you just know they're going to be okay, because there wasn't any blood or anything when they vanished."

Chrysalis says, "Well... I guess you were right...."

Chrysalis checks what the place is made of now.

The heroes stand at one end of the giant hall. 10" away there is a kitchen like area, where a fat witch dressed in black with a inhumanly long nose toils over a cauldron. Behind her there is what seems to be the door to a giant oven. The door is transparent and in side there are 5 people banging on the door, calling for help. One of them is Zeal! The witch seems to be assisted in her kitchen by 6 Gingerbread Men.

Lightray waits for a few seconds, then opens the door to the gingerbread house again.

Chrysalis tries to get over to the oven to free people.

The seams that formed the outline of the door are gone. It's just a doorknob and a wall right now.

Spirit points at the witch with his fist, which starts to glow brightly. At the same moment, he brings up some light shields around himself which flicker in a pattern around his body. "You're going to release those people. Now."

The Witch stops stirring her cauldron which looks to be filled with gingerbread dough. She smiles upon seeing the heroes. "Oh! More guests. And special ones at that. You'll make the most wonderful Gingerbread Men!"

The Witch gestures to Gingerminions. "Get them!"

Lightray frowns at the featureless wall with the gumfrop handle on it. "Well, that was unexpected."

Ferryl moves nearer to Lightray, getting in earshot. "I talked to the people about what just happened. I assured them it was going to be okay."

Lightray nod as he looks over at Ferryl. "I hope so. And I hope the door reforms so we can get to wherever this house leads."

Ferryl asks, "Want I should try to splinter it?"

Ferryl grins. "You can go in if you want to. I'm going to stay out here and shoot it if it tries to come after me.

Lightray opens up the door and looks inside the house. "Well, not unexpected." He glances over his shoulder. "I will see you ;later then." He steps inside and shuts the door behind himself with a wave.

Spirit blasts at the witch.

Imaginary Girl hears the witch order the gingerbread men to attack. "Okay... so I guess you don't wanna do it the NICE way!", she says, rushing at the witch in a literal flying tackle, aiming to bash the witch right into the oven itself - through the oven doors!

The fat old witch is faster than she appears. She narrowly manages to sidestep Imaginary Girl's attack.

The Witch wears a pointy hat, which she straightens atop her head. She turns towards Imaginary Girl and gestures with her fingers. "Are you feeling well dearie? Perhaps it's something you ate..."

Chrysalis just goes for it, running at the witch and trying to punch her out the way with her now-large fists, the better to reach the oven - and hopefully stop her from doing whatever she's attempting.

Chrysalis's fist connects solidly with the witch, knocking her aside.

Spirit flies closer to the witch, keeping a bit of distance from her. He then reaches out with his hand, and with a grasping motion, a beam of light reaches out toward her. "You're a quick one...let's slow you down a bit."

The Witch slides to the side, with one hand managing to hold her hat down onto her head. She seems ready to spring back into the fight, however.

Spirit's beam latches onto the witch, and energy seems to surge out of her body, and dissipate into the surrounding air.

The Gingermen split up and attack Imaginary Girl, Chrysalis, and Spirit, two apiece.

Lightray seems to step out of the wall where the door should be. He looks around for a moment with a bemused expression, then says in German to the witch, "Old woman, where did you put the children?" For some reason he is smiling.

The Gingerbread Men attack Imaginary Girl and Chrysalis with cinnamon crusted fists.

Two of the G-Men run across the hall to close to hand-to-hand range with Spirit.

In the oven, Zeal holds her arms protectively around a child. "Don't worry... they'll get us out of here," she says, trying to comfort the little boy. She calls to Spirit. "In her hat! I think that's where she keeps the wand she uses to control everything!"

In German, The Witch replies: "You are looking at them, my friend. I'll keep them as my servants until I decide to eat them! Don't worry much for them -- you'll be giving them company soon."

The Witch stands back on her feet and begins to rub her hands together, summoning a flame. It builds and she throws the ball of fire at Chrysalis.

Meanwhile the cursed gingerbread continues to twist and churn inside of Imaginary Girl.

Spirit ignores the two gingerbread men, with the exception of moving around the room a bit more to make it harder for them to catch him. He flies to the right, past them, and takes another shot at the witch...this time spreading his fingers as he blasts light energy at her.

Spirit misses wide, and he shakes his head. "Wonderful."

Lightray's wings flex and he moves closer to the witch. He shakes his head as he says in German, "Not this time, crone." He targets the hat atop her head rather than the witch directly with a bolt of sunlight.

The bolt of sunlight blasts the witch's hat from her head. As it flies off and slides along the floor, Lightray shouts, "Spirit, get the hat and the wand!"

The witch scowls at Lightray, clearly annoyed. In German, she says: "I think I'll have something special in store for you..." She throws another ball of fire, this time with Lightray as the target.

The two Gingerman who were attacking Chrysalis move on to Lightray, getting into position to strike him. Meanwhile their friends team up on Spirit and Imaginary Girl.

The whole is just large enough for the kids to squeeze through. Zeal urges one of the children to shimmy out of the oven... hopefully it's not into the fire of the combat raging outside.

Spirit floats over to the Witch's hat and grabs it. He starts fishing around inside of it. Soon he's in the hat up to his armpit.

Lightray shouts to Spirit, "Tell the hat to give you the wand! Its worth a shot!" He then zips over to Chrysalis and brings sunlight into his hands as he stands over her. He tips it into her saying, "Time to rise and shine!"

Spirit says, "I think I can feel the wand!"

The Witch eyes Spirit messing with her hat. She casts a spell and the hat grows teeth around its brim. It bites down and tries to keep Spirit from pulling free!

Spirit grunts as the hat chews on his arm.

The whole call from the cops was one thing. Knockout's had those before. But when the officer said, 'Gingerbread house' she actually paused and said aloud, "Are you serious?" knowing intellectually that she should just keep her mouth shut. But she headed off to investigate. She's not a superfast type, and she can't fly. What she -can- do, is hail a taxi like nobody's business. Showing a lot of leg helps at times too. So it is that she arrives at the edge of the park, turning to make a 40mph dash into all of this. And *poof* huh? Kitchen? What the deuce?

Chrysalis rolls to her feet and attempts to clobber the witch - on the theory that a lot of the weirdness might go away if she's knocked out.//9d6 punch, OCV 8

By now, 2 of the children have squeezed through, leaving one more child inside the oven, and two adults.

Chrysalis is still unsteady from being unconscious and fails to connect.

The Witch floats up from the ground and lands lighting on her feet. "I'll teach you to meddle in my affairs!" She responds by hurling fire at Imaginary Girl.

Knockout narrows her eyes as the scene plays out before her. That witch is blasting fire at folks. Good thing the target.. who she inexplicably -knows- in her memories.. is resilient. So without further ado, she launches into a run, leaping into the air with a Karate 'Kiai!' and leading with her right foot.. the left lifted up beneath her. Excellent form at the very least.

... And the connect of foot to witch thuds even as Knockout lands on her feet and the witch is collapsed to the ground. Knockout then speaks up, "Anyone else here want a case of my foot in their mouth?" she asks, watching the Witch rather warily.

Two of the G-Men occupy themselves with fighting Spirit. One of them recovers, leaving three of them to attack Knockout, Lightray, and Imaginary Girl.

Lightray is pummeled hard by one of gingerbread men. The cinnamon flaked fiend smashes Lightray into the ground next to Chrysalis. Lightray slumps into unconssiousness, the glowing field of sunlight around him fading away as he does.

Chrysalis can barely stand on her feet after being unconconscious. But she has hidden reserves to draw on for her shapeshifting abilities themselves. She grows her hair at and extraordinary rate and attempts to entangle the witch in it!

Chrysalis looks like she's have a really bad hair day, but the witch is tangled up in the hairball!

The Witch struggles to break free. "Help me, my Gingerbread Men. Help me!" She fails to break loose on her own.

Knockout sees the witch getting stuck in a mass of hair. She grimaces and mutters, "That's gonna leave some massive split ends. You'll need to use a ton of conditioner after that." But then the Gingerbread man is thrown, and she reflexively moves to capitalize on that, striding over and doing a bit of a leap-wpin to come down with a foot aimed towards the prone enemy's body.

And, anyone ever seen a Gingerbread man bounce? Knockout plants her heel in the middle of the torso before snapping her foot forward to hit it in the face. The thing stops moving and she throws a thumbs-up towards Imaginary Girl, "Nice! Thanks for the setup?!" she calls across the room.

The Witch tries to break free again.

Chrysalis, seeing the witch doesn't seem to be escaping with ease, staggers over to the nearest gingerbread man and attempts to ensnare him in still more hair.

The gingerbread man is entangled in still more hair. The very perceptive might notice Chrysalis is slightly smaller than before.

Knockout shakes her head and stuttersteps over towards the free Gingerbread men, the nearest one of course. She leans in and goes for a quick jab punch, trying to keep their attention on her and not the girl prying open the oven.

Ferryl continues giving the crowd a good mental picture of the horrible things that probably aren't happening to the lost heroes.

And the quick jab does basically nothing BUT get the guy's attention, "What'samattah?" asks Knockout as she stutter steps like a prize fighter. She grins and makes sure she's between the oven and the enemies, "That's right, you can't handle it, can you?" she asks, trying desperately to keep the enemies focused on her. She can take it.

One G-Man attacks Knockout and the other tries to free the Witch.

The Gingerbread Man swings at Knockout, but misses.

A Gingerbread man tears away some of the hair trapping the Witch.

Knockout figures it's time for the old one-two. She had her jab connect, leaned away from the counterstrike, and now she hauls off and goes for an uppercut that'll place her a bit out of position whether it hits or not. But she's not really trained for avoidance. She counts on taking hits.

Chrysalis has a bit more colour in her cheeks now but still clearly isn't feeling up to witty repartee as she moves back to the witch and attempte to ensnare the gingerbread man trying to free her.

Chrysalis doesn't seem to be able to get her hair to do what she wants!

And as the uppercut zips near the target's head, she mutters, "Hold still you overgrown cookie.." Then she eyes the witch and offers a comment, "You know, warts are so last season..."

Lightray misses a Gingerbread man with a blast of light.

A Gingerbread man attacks Knockout with another punch.

Meanwhile his friend continues to try and free the witch.

Imaginary Girl opens the hole larger enough for Zeal to squeeze out. That just leaves the policeman in the oven.

Knockout is struck by the gingerbread man. This is the gross part. The large cookie-fist strikes her in the chest and blood speckles from her lips as she's sent back into the wall, her arm twisting at an unnatural angle. The thing is, by the time she kips up to her feet, all those broken bones are healed, and she dashes past the target she had been working on, trying a desperation maneuver of a lunge-kick on the one working to free the witch.

Chrysalis can't chance the witch getting free. Rather than attack the gingerbread man she adds more hair to the tangle around the with.

And.. *thud* A potent kick strikes the enemy. Knockout mutters to him, "Come on, if you're here to fight, then fight. She's too ugly to be worth listening to anyway."

Chrysalis says, "Thanks for the help!"

By now, Imaginary Girl has freed the Cop as well from the oven, the last hostage is free.

Knockout follows up, pressing the advantage. These guys are likely too strong for her to hold onto, so she doesn't go for a wrist-lock. She simply spins in place to try a wheel-kick to the thing's head. At least this one will make her harder to hit in return.

Chrysalis goes to add hair to the gingerbread man she's already entangled. Keeping him and the witch out of the fight is the most she can hope for, really.

Chrysalis says, "Guys - I can barely stand. I think I've only got one more of those left in me.... At which point I wouldn't bet on me against a kitten...."

The Ginger-Man tries to bash Knockout again.

He misses.

Knockout ducks and weaves, dealing with two of these guys now. She feints towards the one she'd been fighting previously and then turns and leaps into the apr to try to plant a knee into the other's head. She'll land a bit off balance of course...

The Witch stays wrapped up.

Knockout drives her into the head. *Whud!* Down and back on its booty goes the target. "No more cookies for you, you walking fashion mnistake." She says to the witch before turning and launching another quick jab at the first one she was already fighting.

And the jab strikes right between the eyes. Knockout turns to face the witch even as the Gingerbread man stumbles back a few paces and then topples to the ground. She crouches down and grins, "See? Ugly never wins." That said, she asks aloud, "Lord... is your hair okay?" towards Chrys

Chrysalis pants, "I'll be able to fix it... once I've caught my breath....."

Spirit manages to finally wrestle the wand out of the animated hat. "Now what to I do with this...?" Suddenly the whole house starts rumbling. The door magically reappears.

Lightray slowly wakes with a groan shortly after combat ends. He feels the rumbling, then shakes his head. "Is that me or something else?"

Chrysalis says, "Dunno, but don't give it to the witch - and lets get out of here - wait, aren't these gingerbread men transformed people or something?"

On the outside, Ferryl can see the house shifting and rising up from the ground, perched on chicken legs!

"It's not my stomach.." mutters Knockout as she gets to her feet and turns her back on the witch. "Ack, they're people?!" she asks as she moves to scoop two of'em up. She's pretty strong after all. "Let's get everyone out!" she calls as she starts heading for the door.

Chrysalis says, "I'm not sure but the witch said something and there are people missing otherwise...."

Chrysalis looks to Zeal for confirmation.

Ferryl stays away from the house. "The good news is, it's a chicken hut. The bad news is, not the kind you'd like it to be."

Zeal helps wrangle the children towards the door with IG's help. "Yes... the Gingerbread Men are the other missing people. She meant to do the same thing to me!"

Chrysalis says, "Do you know how she did it? How to undo it?"

Chrysalis uses what little strength she has left to try to get the gingerbread men out the door, which is the best she can think of for now...

Lightray slowlystands and looks at the old witch. He murmurs, "Hello little grandmother. We shall take the children and adults and go. Please leave us alone in the future, Baba Yaga."

"I don't know, it's a magic oven, I think!" Zeal says. "I'd feel better abotu figuring it out once we're out of here."

"Are you kidding? I Think Ugly Bugly there's gonna go find out what prison uniforms look like to match her warts and frizzy hair." offers Knockout as she comes back inside from carrying those two Gingerbread men out. She heads for the Witch, planning to pick up the hair-wrapped gift and she says, "Good thing it's close to Christmas. I owe the police a giftwrapped present."

Chrysalis says, "Lightray - maybe we should bring her with us in case she has to undo it?"

Chrysalis continues getting the transformed people to the door.

Lightray grabs one of the gingerbread men and starts to drag them to the door. "Time to go, gingerbread man, my boyo." He looks over at Knockout. "We can certainly try."

Zeal hops down to the ground -- it's almost 8 feet down to the ground. The house sways uneasily as it starts to walk away.

Chrysalis just throws the gingerbread men out. They've been shown tough enough to take that.

Knockout whoas and shakes her head, "Alright, the house feels like it's walkin'." She pauses and asks, "Hey, what did one shepherd say to the other shepherd?" There's a brief pause before she delivers the punchline, "Let's get the flock outa here." And she leaps out with the witch in tow, provided all the victims have been removed from the house already.

Chrysalis meanwhile, having recovered some strength, shapeshifts to look like Knockout. "There - how's my hair now?"

Lightray flys out with the gingerbread man. He sets the figure down by the others. He then turns to watch the house wlk away on it legs.

Once outside, the witch evaporates under the crisp winter air. The wisp of dark smoke rushes back into the house before the door closes again. With everyone safely outside, the house begins to walk up into the sky as if on an invisible staircase. Slowly but surely, the Gingerbread Men begin to revert to their original human forms.

Chrysalis only jumos down from the house once the last gingerbread man is out.

Knockout erms.. letting go of the hair-package as she disintegrates. "Wonderful..." she mutters and she then looks back towards Chrysalis as she's spoken to. A grin spreads over her face and she shakes her head, "Well, you look flawless -now-." she offers. Yes, the superheroine is quite vain.

Ferryl tells the gathered people, "See? I told you they weren't eaten by ravenous werewolf hunters."