Tag: Halloween

“Broke the wall? Looked at a camera…?” Crystal frowned a bit as she tried to piece it together. He was called the ‘Fourth Wall Repairman’. After a few moments it finally clicked with her, her eyes widening. “Wait, ‘breaking the fourth wall’? You mean that’s what you fix?”

“…I don’t follow,” was all Falcon could say, looking between Crystal and the Repairman in quiet confusion.

“I’ll explain later,” Crystal repeated to the masked demon with a small sigh. She managed a small smile as she watched the inkblot Toon retrieve his costume. “Well… I guess if you gotta go, you gotta go. But… feel free to drop by if you can, broken fourth wall or not. And no problem! If you want, you can take some snacks with you to go, at least. I hope you have a Happy Halloween!”

The Repairman nodded at Crystal’s question. Though he found it concerning that Falcon didn’t know. It was always either the comical or the curious that made the Repairman’s life more difficult, and he wondered if Falcon was the latter.

Still, that could wait. There was a job to do, and treats to pack.

“Thanks a bunch! You too!” he said cheerfully, grabbing a few snacks before going to grab his costume. As he put the shell on, a cross appeared where his siren light was. This addition had a faint red glow to it. He was proud of that detail he made.

Giving one last wave, the Repairman left the house and started to make his way to one of the New York variants.

Everyone instantly backed away when the siren popped out, a bit weirded out by the sudden appearance of the siren light.

“…what’s that all about? Your cue for what?” asked Crystal, quirking an eyebrow at the Repairman.

Bedlam, on the other hand, was starting to feel irritated at how bored he was. “Ugh, forget you guys! Falc, I’m going out. Hit me up when you’re ready.” With that, Bedlam flew into a dark corner to meld into the shadows and slip away.

Falcon watched his friend go away before slowly looking back towards the Repairman. He had to admit, he was just as curious as Crystal was, and he had all night to go trick-or-treating with Bedlam.

The Repairman barely noticed Bedlam leaving, as he was currently trying to push the light back in, to no avail. However, he did note the way the demon exited. Some use cars, some use portals, some (like the Repairman) walk, but it was always neat to see how characters in a universe made their exits.

Pop.

He successfully pushed the light back in, only to have it spring up on the other side of his head. Ugh. Guess there’s no chance of that this time. He wished it would stay a nagging in his head, instead of on it.

“Oh, that just means someone broke the Wall again,” he clarified, jerking his thumb behind him. "Apparently someone in some New York or other can’t keep their eyes off the camera.“

He pulled a ratty, ink-grease-and-jam-stained towel out from behind his back and wrapped it around the light. There was still a glow, but at least it wasn’t as obnoxious.

”…So,“ he said unenthusiastically, "that’s my cue to head there. Thanks for letting me drop in for a bit.”

He turned to pick up his tombstone costume, then stopped. Perking up, he looked back.

“Oh, and thanks for the treats!”

Crystal took a bite of a pretzel spider, thinking on what sort of question to ask before she finally thought up a reply.

“Well… you said you’re a Toon, right? So …. what does that mean for you? Can you be stretched and pulled and not get hurt or….what?” she asked.

Bedlam rolled his eyes. “Ugh… look, as much as I’d love to stay for Q and A, I’ve got better things to do. Falcon, you coming? I’m going out haunting,” he told the masked demon.

Falcon looked between Crystal and Bedlam, seemingly a bit unsure as to what he should do. “…in this form, I might not be suited for hiding along with you…” he replied.

“Oh, go out and have fun. Maybe you can go trick-or-treating for a bit?” Crystal suggested with a smile.

“Hey, yeah! I’ll show you to how to do that! And while you’re grabbing treats for us to share, I’ll be pulling all the tricks!” Bedlam chuckled mischievously.

“Well, yeah,” the Repairman replied, happy that the subject changed, “we can shake things off really quickly. You saw me wake up just a minute after I was knocked out.”

He rubbed his temple a bit. It didn’t hurt anymore, but it felt right to illustrate his point.

“Doesn’t mean we don’t get hurt, but we do bounce back all the time.”

The Repairman blinked and looked up at Bedlam, somewhat curious about his intended activities.

He smiled encouragingly at the suggestion that Falcon trick-or-treats. With a getup like that, Falcon would definitely fit in.

However, he found Bedlam’s chuckling a bit concerning. Just how much scenery would the demon be chewing tonight? The Repairman would have to keep tabs.

But that would have to wait, as the inkblot suddenly felt a jolt from the siren light emerging from his head. Apparently someone in one of the many New Yorks glared at the camera or something.

He was very glad he had pressed the mute button on the thing long ago. Having that siren was awkward enough without it screaming.

“Heh….” he laughed nervously, “I guess that’s my cue.”

“Warner lot, huh…?” Crystal watched plenty of cartoons growing up. It was difficult not to know  what the Repairman was referring to. She actually couldn’t help but chuckle a bit; the nostalgia of it was getting to her.

However, the Toon’s question caught her a bit off guard. “What do we do? Well, I got some secretary work at the local police station, if you’re talking jobs. But if you mean for fun or hobbies, well… I’ve taken up the routine of physical training. It’s actually kinda therapeutic,” she laughed nervously.

“Yeah, yeah, train all you want, girlie. I say you should be working on your cooking instead. Bet you’d start making big bucks at restaurants if you worked at it,” said Bedlam. “And if you ask me what I do, I like scaring the pants off humans. Never a dull moment. And they never know it’s me, so no harm, no foul!”

Falcon shook his head before turning his mask to face the Repairman. “I don’t think I do much. Most of my time I spend focusing on improving my form or training with Crystal.”

“Oh really~? What about those fashion magazines I found under your bed, huh~?” teased Bedlam, smirking at his friend.

Crystal quirked an eyebrow as she looked towards Falcon, who seemed to be stunned into silence for a few moments.

“….I believe that would go with ‘improving my form’,” the masked demon managed to reply. The tone of his voice made it obvious that he was a bit taken aback that Bedlam went through the things in his room.

The Repairman saw Crystal’s reaction. He coughed, realizing how abrupt his question was.

“Sorry, I just like to know this stuff about the places I visit. Helps me keep track.”

That aside, it was clear that Crystal wouldn’t cause too much problems with his job. Few who spent so much time training did. What a relief.

The Repairman caught himself starting to nod in agreement as Bedlam suggested cooking. He quickly stopped. It was clear that Crystal wanted to do something else.

This was not the kind of universe where a chef befriending some demons was appropriate to the tone, anyhow.

The food really was quite good, though, he reflected as he picked up a monster mouth and began chewing on it.

It was funny to see Bedlam boast about liking to frighten people after seeing him be the only one to panic when he was noticed. Granted, the Repairman had seen folks like that before, but he had never been a part of that scenario. A slight sign of smugness briefly crossed the Repairman’s face.

Over the years, he had learned to watch for comedic characters, as well as quirky friends. Bedlam seemed to fit the bill. Ah, well. Looked like he might have to revisit this place sometime.

…Not that that was a bad thing…

The Repairman was shocked that Falcon was concerned about his form. As far as the Repairman could tell, Falcon had an excellent illustrated design. Clean, distinct, a bit of classy menace, fitting well within a world with other well-formed characters… What was he worried about?

However, the Repairman kept that to himself. Even he could see that this was not a good time, especially since Falcon just had a secret outed. Not that the Repairman hadn’t seen that kind of secret before, but he knew it was usually a sore subject.

“So, um…” he asked tentatively, after a small pause, “anything else you want to know?”

Crystal nodded. “Sure thing. I’ll go first, if that’s okay. You said you took a ‘big detour’. Where did you come from?” she asked.

Bedlam was floating next to Falcon, playing with his ‘monster sandwich’ by opening and closing it and making roaring sounds as he did so.

The masked demon watched his friend mess around with the food, chuckling a bit as his goopy mouth formed into a soft smile. Bedlam was always a goofy one, and thus a joy to be around in his opinion.

Bedlam laughed in return before finally putting the sandwich in his mouth to take a bite.

“Oh, I just came here from the Warner lot,” said the Repairman, swallowing his pretzel. 

He sighed, dropping his forehead into his hand as he remembered why he was there.

“You wouldn’t think they’d be able to smash the screen after they’d been off the air for years,” he grumbled, “but that’s ‘90s Toons for ya.”

He looked back up to see Bedlam and Falcon enjoying themselves. Gosh, that kind of joy was contagious. The Repairman’s mood noticeably lifted.

Still, he had to find out what kind of universe this was. His job depended on it.

“Anyhow, what do you guys do around here?”

Huh… well, umm… if you want, you can help yourself to the food on the table, too. Better hurry before Bedlam eats it all though. Same goes for you too, Falcon,” said Crystal as she glanced back at the masked demon.

Falcon nodded as he slowly made his way over to the table to start sliding bits of food onto the fringes of his sleeve. However, since his goopy-looking mouth was now placed where his neck was, he didn’t need to slide the food into his sleeve as he usually would’ve done.

Crystal couldn’t help but smile back at Falcon at seeing that he seemed to be eating normally and enjoying himself. However, she slowly turned her attention back to the Repairman. “So… is it okay if I keep asking you questions cause….yeah, never ran into a living Toon before.”

The Repairman sighed with relief. “Thanks. It’s been a bit of a big detour, coming here.”

With that, he walked over to the table and plucked the nearest “spider”. He noticed Falcon picking up snacks as well, and he realized how inconsistent his physiology seemed to be, as well. Maybe having a solid form wasn’t that important, if major characters could get along just fine without it.

He smiled a bit, and was about to start eating when Crystal turned to him.

Well, this was a first. The Repairman paused, wondering if he was the best Toon to ask, as well as what kinds of questions he would have to answer.

“Well…” he replied, hesitantly, “All right. I guess I can.”

He gestured around himself vaguely. “As long as you can tell me about this place.”

“A Toon? Like…a cartoon?” asked Crystal, blinking a bit in surprise.

“…what is a cartoon?” Falcon asked, turning to Crystal for an explanation.

“I’ll show you later,” she told him quickly before looking back towards the Repairman. “Umm, well… my name’s Crystal. I live here. And this masked guy here is Falcon…”

Falcon made sure to wave to the Repairman with his sleeve when Crystal introduced him.

“And that guy with the skull-head who’s scarfing up all the party food is Bedlam,” finished Crystal, pointing in the direction of the shadow demon near the table.

“Hey,hey! I’m not scarfing, I’m sampling…. and you cook pretty decently, by the way. Everything tastes awesome,” Bedlam told her before stuffing a few more pieces of food in his maw on the upper side of his skull-like head.

“Yep, a cartoon,” replied the Repairman.

He was somewhat surprised to learn that the demon didn’t know what a cartoon was. It was the first time he had ever heard that question.

Still, they all seemed friendly enough, and it was nice to know that, yes, Crystal was a main character as well.

“Charmed,” the Repairman said, waving back at Falcon.

Bedlam’s compliments to the chef reminded him of something he’d forgotten in all the confusion. The smell came back into his nonexistent nose at full force, and he began to unconsciously stare at the spread.

“I’m sure it does…”