The Holiday Warriors

"Mmr..."

It could move. It couldn't move before. B Ut it could now. It could breath. It could feel. It could move. It was...

alive

"Mr." He mumbled again as he looked down at his hands. Black. Clawed. Smooth. Large. It felt its face with its new hands. Smooth. Little stubble. Hair on its head. One nose. Two eyes. A mouth. Fangs.

It felt its body. Limbs. A beating heart. It was alive. It was alive. IT WAS ALIVE.

And it was filled with anger.

He didn't know why, or how. He was just born, but he felt so much ANGER, SUCH RAGE. It felt like a curse. Like it was something that shouldn't be. Was this existance? Nothing but hate? Anger? Rage?

He didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.

He used his new feet and walked forward. He stumbled, not use to moving. He could feel light on his back. He looked back to see a street lamp above. The light burned. He didn't like it. He didn't like pain and rage and anger.

"Hey. Are you all right sir?"

A voice. Innocent. B Ut he could smell the rage that dwelled inside of it. He shot the young boy, no more than eighteen a look. Bright green eyes met dull grey ones. Dull grey eyes opened in surprise. Dull grey eyes clouded and the form fell over. The life was gone.

"Mr." He groaned again, shakily rising to his feet. That felt good. Felt real good. Maybe that's what he could do?

Yeah, that sounded awesome.

So he closed his eyes and walked down the street. He had a lot of work to do. So much anger. So little time.

...

"Ready! Aim! FIRE!"

Sssssh-THWOOM!

The sky exploded in a multicolored burst of light, which quickly died away in a matter of seconds. The sky turned back into its dull red, white and blue pattern it always had.

"Ha! That's what I'm talking about! Good job men!"

Fourth of July grinned at the soldiers who quickly saluted the man, their hands still smoking from the display. "Sir, thank you sir!"

"All except you, cadet." He said as he approached the shivering soldier, the youngest of the group. "That was one of the weakest I've seen. What's the issue?"

"Nerves, sir." The boy said, his voice wavering.

Rather than grow angry, Fourth gave him a wide grin and slapped him on the shoulder. "Nerves ain't nothing to be nerved about! The real power of that blast comes from in HERE, soldier!" And jabbed his finger into his chest. The boy grunted and stumbled a little bit. "Look, let's try this. Take a deeeeep breath."

The boy did as instructed.

"Good, now I want you to think about the happiest memory you've got in that empty melon of did."

He followed.

"Now! Concentrate it all in that hand of yours, and don't stop thinking about it."

A whirling orb of light and color started to build in the boys hand.

"Now! With as much strength as ya got! I want you to reel back and CHUCK it into the air! Hard as ya can kid!"

The boy grunted and threw the orb as hard as he could. It swirled in the air for a moment before it reached its peak and ultimately exploded in a bright burst of color.

Fourth laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "THAT'S what I'm talking about kid! Good job!"

He took a deep breath as he smelt the fire from the works and grinned.

"Damn it's good to be me."

In a random square, in a random town, sat a man. Legs crossed, head bowed so that his hat covered his face, he played.

The man was dressed in what most would think to be a halloween costume, a black suit covered with cartoony bones mimicking a skeleton. As people passed, some to try and give him money, some to get a closer look at this odd individual, he would give them a brief nod and reveal an intricate skeleton mask that seemed to swallow all features underneath.

But, the attention of mortals did not bother him, he was mostly over-looked by them as strange and to be avoided. He didn't mind though, he wasn't there to play for them. He was there to play for the lost.

Unseen by mortals, but seen by him. The souls of those not yet passed would come to hear him play, as they were doing now, and he would show them the way beyond. Where they went was up to them, but he helped any way he could.

As he continued to play, one by one the souls in the square would fade, moving into the beyond, until eventually none remained.

And with that his song ended.

If you look up the "most useless holidays in the world", Arbor Day would either be on the list or the be number one on the list. No one did anything to celebrate Arbor Day. Sure, an organisation might throw a "help the trees" party, but in the end, it would be an excuse to get drunk, and the result would be huge sacks filled with trash that would be later used to pollute a random forest.

But, you see, Arby didn't care. Does she want to be a famous holiday? Well, yes, of course, everyone wants to be a famous holiday. But Arby doesn't care that people call her holiday the most useless. As long as one person in the entire world takes their time to go into a park to get some fresh air on Arbor Day, she was happy.

Right now, she was sitting on top of a tree, playing a melody on her accordion. It was spring on the area of the world that she was in- so her eyes and clothes were green, like the leaves that surrounded her. There were no animals nearby, but she knew that they were enjoying the sweet, calm melody that she was playing, just like the leaves. Play more, they said, their words being carried by the wind. And Arby did as they asked, a smile on her face as she continued to play.

"Well, that's a fine sin isn't it, not only drinking but working on a Sunday. Piety is all forgotten for epods these days and it's a damn shame," An old man muttered from his side of the bar.

"Sir, I didn't pick this shift," An exasperated bartender replied, "Now do you want to be topped up or not?"

Wordlessly, the man slid him a handful of silver dollars and his empty glass of Guinness, "I mean no harm in it mind, only to say that a sin is a sin and no one these days will offer so much as a second thought to it."

"Actually I'd kind of like Sundays off too..."

"To the Divil with ye, ya lazy bum," He said as he took the first time of his drink, "You don't get Sundays off because you enjoy time off, you do it because you aren't allowed to work. You're supposed to want to."

With that an exasperated Bartender and confused server shrugged and returned to their routine.

edited 30th Sep '12 12:29:07 AM by Fauxlosophe

It was a day like any other, in the place where the town ended and the park began. People wandered up and down the road to get to their places of work, cars beeped and honked in the distance, ducks bobbed about the grass aimlessly, looking for food. But there was one that stood out from all the rest, and did so in its own way: by going completely unnoticed. A person walked in on their hands, humming a tuneless song. It appeared to be a child, with long hair of a light colour tinged dark, wearing gloves on its feet, socks on its hands, and a back to front dress with intermingling colours. She, because surely only a girl would wear long hair and a dress, carried a camera-phone in a small satchel looped around her, and every now and then, she would roll into a strange, flexible position, and take photographs of whatever may be in the area. She took a photo of a bush, she took a photo of a squirrel, she took a photo of a lake, a ball, a cloud, a tree, and a leftover carton of juice.

Suddenly, something else caught her eye, and she rolled over to take a closer look. It looked like a father and his daughter were struggling down the path. The man was over thirty, wore a business suit, and needed to be somewhere in a hurry. The girl was under ten, wearing more colourful clothes, and was actively resisting with pulling and howling, only wanting to be with her friends. It was a golden opportunity for the strange wanderer. She stared at the pair, held out her hand, screwed her eyes shut in concentration...and when she opened her eyes, the scene had changed along with the people in it. Now, it looked like a son and his mother were struggling the opposite way up the path. The boy was under ten, wearing a smart suit, and clearly needed to be somewhere in a hurry, but was actively resisting with pulling and howling. The woman was over thirty, wearing somewhat more colourful clothes, indicating she wanted to get this over with so she could go 'play' with certain friends.

It was a successful swap, but nobody would think twice looking at either outcome. She focused again, concentrating on changing the two. Suddenly, the mother remembered she used to be a daughter, and the boy remembered they used to be a man. They proceeded to panic and react to their sudden transformation. But the switcher was still unsatisfied. Something like this was the sort of thing that the Friday person would pull off. There had to be a more fun combination. Deciding to come back to the pair later, the girl wandered off along the park, scoping out the surroundings.

Then suddenly, she noticed something along the path. On the bench, she saw a rather hapless looking chap with love in his eyes, trying to talk to or kiss his girlfriend, who was done up in expensive looking clothes and makeup and preoccupied on something on her phone. Now, this was something in need of switching, but the obvious ones weren't going to cut it. The girl picked up her camera, and proceeded to scroll through the pictures, until she found a picture of a dog. She looked from the picture of the dog to the scene in front of her, and focused again. Suddenly, the girlfriend was now very interested in the young man, so much so that she was crawling over him, and licking and slobbering all over his face. The young man, bewildered by this turn of events, nevertheless tried to go along with it. But the unseen girl switched to another picture and focused again. The high maintenance girl now had the clothing, the smell, and every last bit of the hygiene of a homeless person. The young man now ran off as fast as possible, away from this madwoman and hopefully to find someone who was much more right for him.

The swapping spirit wept with amusement. Now this was fun, not to mention a much better outcome, at least in her mind. But there was no time to dawdle. A buzzing sound went off, and she checked the text she'd received on her phone. It told her that in half an hour, someone in a small canadian town would declare that it was Opposite Day. Most holiday spirits had one day to work, and were certain of what day that was, but Redivider's work was never done, and never assured. She rolled onto her hands and trotted away, idly replacing a toy plane with a bird, as she left the park for pastures new.

-The city was just waking up, yet already the noise was deafening. Vendors trying to drown out the competition, the buzzing of flies above, dogs barking, revellers waking up as the ladies of the night went to sleep... All in all, a postcard-worthy sight, though the man sitting by a fishmonger's stall paid no attention to it. Rather, his gaze was fixed upon the severed heads swinging gently in the breeze, chains clinking gently. They had belonged to a judge who tended to weigh on the side giving him the most money, a rich merchant who thought taxes were for lesser people, and a man who had been denounced by his wife as unfaithful. Fortunately, these minor setbacks on the road to Freedom had been quickly tried and decapitated, and thus displayed to remind the populace of the dangers of abusing authority.-

-Hébus gets up and wanders the streets, attentive to any wrongdoing that could result in an edifying moral lesson to passersby. Yes, this place exists only in his head, but until he is called forth again to celebrate the freeing of prisoners from the yoke of aristocratic enslavement, he is resolved to maintain himself in peak condition.-

edited 30th Sep '12 4:09:28 AM by Chabal2

There he was. In the dark alleyway. Hiding. Watching the street. A man walked past. Halos chuckled a bit and concentrated. The man, suddenly looking worried, started to look around, slowly increasing his walking pace until he was basically running. There was another one. A woman with a handbag. Halos floated over and slid a spider into her handbag. Returning to the alleyway, he once again disappeared in the shadows, grinning.

Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania probably isn't the first town that pops into one's mind when thinking of famous landmarks or people. It was a fairly small town, populated only by a few thousand with a total area of 3.4 square miles. Hardly a tourist attraction. However, there was one amazing thing about the city. It had a groundhog.

Not just any groundhog. This groundhog is named Phil, the official Groundhog Day groundhog. This was mostly the only reason the town has any visitors at all. His weather predictions are famous, despite it not really being a prediction so much as a manipulation. The tourists don't know that, however, as each year, on February 2nd, thousands of visitors gather outside of his borrow, waiting for his weather prediction.

But February is over now, and Phil now spends his time in the library with his wife, as he always does the rest of the year. It's a good life for Phil the groundhog, being loved universally and living for so long. He truly was the luckiest groundhog ever.

Summer didn't like big cities. Sometimes, if she was attracted to some certain family that had decided to make a big deal out of the equinox that year, she might venture into one and watch them. She particularly liked watching children; the delight in their eyes as they stood eggs on their ends and watched them balance gave her a thrill—so much so she would occasionally slip inside and hold up a rebellious egg.

But that hadn't happened this year; the equinox was over, and Summer was relaxing in a small Australian town, spending her time bringing heat to the town and watching the people go about their lives while she watches from various perches. Much as she enjoys celebrating her holiday, Summer is very happy to spend the remainder of the year wandering whatever part of the world was currently in summer, and observe the children at play.

Just...a...little...more... Nobody on the busy city street took notice to the strange, pink-haired girl croched down on the other side of the street, pointing at a fire hydrant and twirling her finger in a circle. She grinned and chuckled to herself. Oh man, oh man, this is gonna be sweet! Just then, she stood up and took a look to her right; her target was just coming into view. A middle-aged gentleman, dressed in a snappy business suit was hurridly walking down the street, taking occasional glances at his watch. It was obvious that he was late for something.

Jinx tittered with anticipation. She'd been giving this guy a hard time all day, and it was about to culminate in one of her grandest pranks ever! Here it comes...Here it comes... Just as the man was about to trot by the fire hydrant, Jinx extended a pair of fingerguns at the hydrant. "BAM!" As if on cue (which it certainly was) the plug blew off the hydrant, spraying the unfortunate businessman with gallons of water with enough force to blow him onto the street. Tires screeched, horns blared, people fell off bikes, it was a scene of chaos. The spirit of Friday the 13th grinned as she surveyed the calamity. In all, she counted at least 17 people who were directly or indirectly affected.

"Woo! Not bad for a Tuesday."

At that exact moment, in front of all of them but only to their eye appeared a person. However, to each of the Holidays, she appeared different to each one. She was the same, but her age differentiated between them all. Ranging from Fourth, who looked like a thirteen year old girl, to Jinx, who looked to be in her late eighties. Her age ranged from them all, but she still spoke with that serious tone in her voice.

"Holiday." She spoke to her selected recipient. "You are needed elsewhere. Follow me."

There would be no discussion. There would be no questioning. All she did was take a step back, and the air rippled around her as she vanished. The ripple was left in mid air for the holiday warrior to jump through as well.

Fourth stared for a moment, dismissed his soldiers and shrugged, walking through the ripple in time. He wound up on the other side, from what looked like the inside of a gigantic clock. Gears and pistons were turning and grinding against each other in a loud cacophony of insanity, enough to cause a headache to anyone unprepared. Floating through the air were translucent calenders, floating as their pages were torn off to reveal the next month beneath it. The pictures that of the holiday warriors themselves, often grouped together in a group pictures if they shared that particular month. Fourth walked past the floating calenders and focused his hearing elsewhere so he could concentrate.

"So, Eve." He spoke up as he approached a massive spinning gear on its side, where the one known as Eve stood, looking outside of a massive clock face. "Must be pretty important to need ME."

"We shall wait for the others." Was all she said, not bothering to turn and look at the Holiday.

Jinx gulped after stepping through the portal.

"So...am I in trouble? Because I know that I'm mostly limited to one or two days a year but sometimes I- Oh, hey Fourth."

Upon entering the Gearworks and seeing the familiar Holiday, she sighed a bit in relief. At least she wouldn't be the only one getting a talking-to. But the question was what had he done? Fourth was usually a pretty upstanding guy. A real Boy Scout, that one was.

She edged closer to him and whispered, "What's going on?"

"Oh great, what´s up now..."

As Halos floated through the portal, he found himself inside that clock again.
Upon spotting Fourth and Jinx, he floated closer.

Bwahaha! So you´re here too. Any idea, why we`re here? I am missing some excellent chaos..."

-Hébus stares at the apparition, or rather where she had just been. Then he grins. Hefting his axe, he strides confidently through the portal. Already he pictures the vast downtrodden masses crushed by the aristocratic few, just begging to have their heads removed and used for an object lesson in Freedom, Equality, and the basic liberties of Man.-

edited 11th Oct '12 11:29:14 AM by Chabal2

Redivider followed through the portal, and into the strange clockroom. Her walk was peculiar, as if she were being tugged forward by a strand of her hair, and then she came to a sudden halt, standing stock still with the others. She looked around, wide eyed, blank of expression. Every now and then, she would look at a fellow holiday and stare at them.

Phil stared at the portal in wonder, having no idea what he was supposed to do. Follow, maybe? He cautiously reached a paw out to to the portal... and was instantly sucked in. He came out tumbling on the other side, and saw several rather strangely dressed people. People he recognized as fellow holidays. He stood up on all fours and looked around with a quizzical expression, wondering what was going on.

Summer leaped through the ripple with a last glance at the lazy street, and immediately stumbles back a pace at the sudden onslaught of noise. After taking a few seconds to recover herself, she notices the knot of other holidays and approaches them, a little nervously.

These were some of the big shots, she thought, noticing Fourth and Redivider especially. She wondered what could possibly have happened to call all of them together.

Arby stepped into the ripple, and a big smile appeared on her face as she entered this new place and as she spotted her fellow Holidays. "Guys!" she said, throwing her accordion into the air, and grinning as it transformed into a necklace made of diamond-like leaves that she placed around her shoulder. "You're here too! Oooh... it's so great to see all of you!"

She walked (the correct term would be skipped or even danced) towards her friends, trying to hug all of them. "You guys wouldn't believe what just happened to me! There was this little girl, and she appeared out of nowhere, telling me to follow her. I did that... and look at this! Now I'm here with you guys! Isn't that just great?"

Bone Jangles got to his feet, dissappearing from mortal view as he did so, and picked up his guitar. As he grasped it, the guitar shifted into a long, skull-capped walking cane which Bone Jangles used to help lift himself and stand on his long, thin legs. He was a fairly tall man and had, as he would often joke, the body of a skeleton.

With his long-legged gait, Bone Jangles entered the portal. Spotting the already arrived holidays, he greeted them in a raspy voice "Beunos dias fellow holidays. What is the occasion?"

"Jangle!" Arby yelled, running up to the newly arrived holiday and giving him another hug. "Oh, it's so good to see you here!... It's so good to see all of you here! It's been quite a while since we had a holiday meeting... and we've stopped doing those Christmas reunions a few years ago, didn't we?" She then scratched her head, raising an eyebrow. "Did we even do Christmas reunions?"

edited 12th Oct '12 9:01:19 PM by Stratofarius

"We do not," Paddy said emerging from the portal, "And if we did, I wouldn't want to spend it with such sinners and slaggers as the lot of ye."

He looked around. There was an angry French Atheist, A Spanish Pagan in a thin disguise of Christianity, Some newfangled politically correct holiday, some silly thing the kids made up, a beastly little furball, the celebration of blood and warfare for the creation of a Godless Protestant state and someone he didn't recognize but didn't like the look of.

It was to be a fun evening.

He took a sip from his flask.

"Hey!" Jinx replied, "I am not a slagger...whatever that is..."

"But...I think you're right. We don't do Christmas reunions, Arby. That's only for the Big holidays. No 'ffence, Jangles."

Redivider had now taken to staring, wide eyed and quizzically, at Paddy.

"It is good to see you too Arby.." Bone Jangles tipped his head to Jinx.

"None taken Senorita, I know my place is in the shadows. I exist to help those move on and return. Nothing more. You raise a good point. It is... extraño that we are all here."

"Oh, but we should!" Arby said, clapping her hands. "I love seeing all of you guys! And I've been working on some really amazing places. I've just finished putting the last touches in this clearing on Brazil that has a great view of some mountains and a river! Since it's hot down there in Christmas, we could have picnic! And I could play music!"