Aw bleep, Lullaby is a new multipart.
Lullaby
2
3
Jack was hip-deep in fresh snow by the time anyone braved the elements to fetch him back inside. Even then, it was Sandy who set tiny hands on his shoulders and steered him into the mudroom, swirling sand brushing chunks of ice from Jack's head and neck.
Bunny slid one furred foot delicately away from the quickly-melting slush on the mudroom's floor. "Jackie. Frostbite." Sand streamed away from under Bunny's grip, as the Easter Bunny bent just enough to look Jack dead in the eye. "You still in there?"
"... Yes," Jack murmured, quiet and hollow, all his ice and snow blown out. "It's. I don't understand," he said, gaze lifting. "The fairies. The googies. Sandy's sand..."
"If we could've helped like that, we would've. Ages ago." Bunny's whiskers drooped. "It's one of the drawbacks of belief, mate. It makes us powerful, yes. No other spirit can cover the world in a night." His fingers tightened. "But it also limits us. The kids don't think the sand tells Sandy how they are, so it doesn't. They don't think the Tooth Fairy does anything but swap coins for teeth... so she's probably sent fairies after hundreds of teeth knocked out by parents, but it doesn't register. My googies..." Bunny made a sick, pained little sound in his throat. "I send them out, and they never come back.
"North, though." His expression hardened. "Believe you me, Jackie, I'm gonna be having a chinwag with him. Between his lists and the letters kids write, they believe he can do all sorts of impossible things and he should ruddy well know about it by now."
Behind them came a heavy, pained sigh. "Da, I know."
The temperature in the mudroom plummeted.
"I rescue children, once," North continued, rubbing his face with one hand. "Many centuries ago. Terrible conditions. Live in sewage," he hissed, accent thickening with emotion, "sell little selves, freeze to death by Christmas! So I take many, so many, bring to Workshop. And then..." he opened his hands helplessly. "What do you think happened? Cannot return children -- there was no place to put them! But cannot have adults in Workshop, they lose belief, cannot see shelter, cannot feel warm fire, freeze to death at North Pole, da? So you would think, but no."
Jack, Bunny, and Sandy all blinked. "... No?" Jack ventured.
"No. Magic happens, magic I cannot touch. I do nothing, watch helpless as children change!" And he bent, plucking an elf out of a passing swarm. "Play all day, put things in mouths, eat everything in sight, few words, much mess. You see how tiny child remains?"
Bunny made a sudden, horrified sound deep in his throat, which Jack echoed a half-second later at the memory of kicking a couple of the little elves out of the way.
North nodded, and let the wriggling elf slide back to the floor, where it scampered off and vanished. "I cannot take children, so I change work. Bring gifts and wonder, yes, but make bigger! Make better! Make stronger, more lasting! And slowly, slowly, change begins. Children grow up with lingering wonder, lingering innocence, little twinkle-light stars in their eyes, and begin to think of protecting that for all. It becomes illegal to beat children, to throw out on street, to," North swallowed, "to take them to beds. Still happens, yes, crime always still happens, but now adults work to stop it."
He stomped his feet, cracking his boots free of the creeping ice. "Is not enough. Is never enough."
It's never enough, is it.
Kaito shook his head.
"But you see problem with rescuing children?" North asked. "Jack. We must know what spirit is doing with children after rescue."
"He's not--!" Jack bit back the rest of the sentence. He didn't know what Shin'ichi did, after leaving Pitch with new nightmares.
"Of course, he is not," North said. "But, elf." He made a little gesture towards the floors. "Process is set much faster than is noticed. Please summon your friend of reflections."
Jack grimaced, but they had a point. A quick look around -- and an absent pull on his magic to make the ice around Bunny's ankles crumble ("brr, thanks mate") -- and he zeroed in on a polished copper strip inset like a chair rail around the room. "Tell the man in the mirror what you did, what you've done..." he murmured.
In the tiny, golden reflection, he could see a shiver bristle up Bunny's fur and perk his ears. He covered Bunny's face with his hand, fingertips resting lightly on the bright metal, and as he finished the rhyme, he leaned in. "I have a secret... for you," he breathed, misting over his reflection.
It cleared to a tiny image of Kid.
"I got you an invite," Jack told him, before Kid could say anything. "Come on through?" Please.
Gloved fingers gripped his tight, and Jack closed his eyes as Kid eeled out of a space that should've been too narrow for anything more than his hand. Behind him, he heard Bunny make a pained little sound, which meant he'd been watching as non-Euclidean space opened up around Kid.
"Sorry about that," Kid said. "Jyaki Fuyu-kun, good to see you."
Jack couldn't help but smile just a little, as Kid's other hand joined the one already clasped warmly around Jack's. "Likewise."
Kid's grin widened just a little at that. "That bodes well for me! It's not every day I'm summoned to such exalted company. Come, come, introductions all around, yes?"
Right. "S--"
"No, no, let me guess." Kid flapped a hand at Jack, and something invisible settled lightly over his mouth. It wasn't particularly strong, whatever it was, but Jack could tell it would take a bit of effort to break. "Santa Claus, I know of," he continued with a slight, courtly bow. "Very popular even in my lifetime."
"Nicholas St. North," North said. "Charmed."
"So quickly! My prowess amazes even myself sometimes." Kid turned one bright eye on Sandy. "Now I don't have much to go on, here -- Jyaki and I tend to discuss my work, not his, so I'm afraid my sources are a bit biased, but... Surfer god's beachy little brother?"
Sandy stared, question marks forming over his head. One turned into a small child tossing restlessly in bed, then a shimmer of sand sprinkled over the genderless little form and it stilled, little z's floating up.
"Is Sanderson Mansnoozie," North explained. "Sandman. Brings good dreams."
A moment later, Sandy blinked, and all the sand reared up to make a dog, teats heavy with milk. But Kid didn't notice Sandy's fuming glare, instead turning his attention to Bunny. "As for you... hm."
Bunny's muzzle twitched.
"Aha." Kid snapped his fingers. "Furry's wet dream."
North, Bunny, and Jack all choked, and Jack broke through the light silencing geas. "I take it you're a little mad at us," he managed to say.
Kid turned his smirk on Jack. "Juuuuust a bit," he replied, fingers held a centimeter or so apart.
One meaty hand landed on Kid's shoulder. "Come, then. We explain why," North told him. "Then ask what mystery spirit does with children."
For just a moment, Kid's open bewilderment made him look painfully young. "He... takes them to hospitals?"
Something in the set of North's shoulders relaxed. "Then is not emergency. We have hot chocolate, discussion, become friendly." ("Not bloody likely," Bunny muttered, Sandy's sand hissing in dire agreement.)
Once settled in one of North's many cozy parlor rooms -- all of them with furniture sized and overstuffed to fit yeti rather than humans -- and plied with cider, cocoa, or eggnog according to choice, North lured an elf out from behind the furniture with a plate of cookies.
Kid offered one curled hand for it to sniff, then, when it didn't bite, picked it up curiously. "Well, hey there," he said.
"This one was..." North peered at the little face, chipmunk-cheeked and covered in crumbs. "... Mairead, I believe. Edinburgh Old Town, 1773. Found on street near Nor Loch, up to knees in filthy gutter. Grown-up homeless had taken up cleaner parts of alley, prostitutes were working up against walls. Looked at me like I hung the moon when I gave her oatcake. How could I leave her there?"
Kid went very, very still, his only movement his fingers scritching the elf under her chin. After a long moment, he exhaled slowly. "Natural result of keeping a kid too long?" he asked.
"Da."
"How long is too long?"
"I'm not sure," North admitted. "Time variable... well, is variable, depends on moon. Next full."
"Hm." Kid considered that for a long moment. Then he raised a finger. "What if a kid is rescued at the full moon?" A second finger went up. "How long is a full moon?" A third. "What if a kid's rescued during the day?" A fourth. "What if the moonlight is blocked?"
North's brow furrowed. "... Full moon magic is three days. Seventy-two hours, thirty-six before and thirty-six after exact full."
"Unacceptable," Kid snapped. "That's nearly a tenth of the month."
"Do not be shooting messenger," North replied just as sharply. "Is only answer I have."
In the chair between Jack and the fire, Bunny snorted. "Not quite the only answer, old man," he muttered sourly. "We all know one place where the moon's magic is blocked, don't we." Jack twitched violently, half-empty cup sloshing onto the carpet, as Bunny's face went even more bitter. "Can't exactly be taking kids there, though."
"Where?" Kid asked with entirely too much innocence. The elf escaped from his gentle grip, gleefully pouncing the floor, and Kid stood to pry the carpeting out of her mouth. "Hey, no, sweetheart. That's dirty." He tapped her pug nose, getting a gurgle and a snap at the cocoa-stained rug in his fingers. "No."
"Would've thought you'd run into him before," Bunny said. Little golden images of nightmares and a hawk-nosed figure loomed over Sandy's head. "Pitch Black. King of Fear, Lord of Nightmares, cackling psychopath trying to resurrect the Dark Ages and cover the world in terror. Can't believe he hasn't been lurking under abused kids' beds waiting for scraps."
Kid kindly dropped the elf into a bowl of party mix. "That explains so much."
"You've met him?!" Bunny's chair hit the floor.
"Met isn't quite the term I'd use," Kid mused. A silver pocketwatch puffed into existence in his hand, and he glanced inside it. "He's quite the grumpy conversationalist. Dear me look at the time." He flashed the interior, a blank mirror, at them with a cutting grin. "It's siblings o'clock! I'm afraid I have a pressing appointment, to -- what's the phrase -- see a man about a horse. Good evening, gentlemen." And with a press of his thumb to the mirrored surface, he flashed bright silver and vanished.
The watch fell to the carpeted floor with a thump.
Slowly, Jack picked it up. There, engraved under the silver lid, was inscribed:
Look in the light from no yellow sun
Look with the eyes from no righteous face
Look for the found who know only of loss
Then will I show those answers you seek
2
3
Jack was hip-deep in fresh snow by the time anyone braved the elements to fetch him back inside. Even then, it was Sandy who set tiny hands on his shoulders and steered him into the mudroom, swirling sand brushing chunks of ice from Jack's head and neck.
Bunny slid one furred foot delicately away from the quickly-melting slush on the mudroom's floor. "Jackie. Frostbite." Sand streamed away from under Bunny's grip, as the Easter Bunny bent just enough to look Jack dead in the eye. "You still in there?"
"... Yes," Jack murmured, quiet and hollow, all his ice and snow blown out. "It's. I don't understand," he said, gaze lifting. "The fairies. The googies. Sandy's sand..."
"If we could've helped like that, we would've. Ages ago." Bunny's whiskers drooped. "It's one of the drawbacks of belief, mate. It makes us powerful, yes. No other spirit can cover the world in a night." His fingers tightened. "But it also limits us. The kids don't think the sand tells Sandy how they are, so it doesn't. They don't think the Tooth Fairy does anything but swap coins for teeth... so she's probably sent fairies after hundreds of teeth knocked out by parents, but it doesn't register. My googies..." Bunny made a sick, pained little sound in his throat. "I send them out, and they never come back.
"North, though." His expression hardened. "Believe you me, Jackie, I'm gonna be having a chinwag with him. Between his lists and the letters kids write, they believe he can do all sorts of impossible things and he should ruddy well know about it by now."
Behind them came a heavy, pained sigh. "Da, I know."
The temperature in the mudroom plummeted.
"I rescue children, once," North continued, rubbing his face with one hand. "Many centuries ago. Terrible conditions. Live in sewage," he hissed, accent thickening with emotion, "sell little selves, freeze to death by Christmas! So I take many, so many, bring to Workshop. And then..." he opened his hands helplessly. "What do you think happened? Cannot return children -- there was no place to put them! But cannot have adults in Workshop, they lose belief, cannot see shelter, cannot feel warm fire, freeze to death at North Pole, da? So you would think, but no."
Jack, Bunny, and Sandy all blinked. "... No?" Jack ventured.
"No. Magic happens, magic I cannot touch. I do nothing, watch helpless as children change!" And he bent, plucking an elf out of a passing swarm. "Play all day, put things in mouths, eat everything in sight, few words, much mess. You see how tiny child remains?"
Bunny made a sudden, horrified sound deep in his throat, which Jack echoed a half-second later at the memory of kicking a couple of the little elves out of the way.
North nodded, and let the wriggling elf slide back to the floor, where it scampered off and vanished. "I cannot take children, so I change work. Bring gifts and wonder, yes, but make bigger! Make better! Make stronger, more lasting! And slowly, slowly, change begins. Children grow up with lingering wonder, lingering innocence, little twinkle-light stars in their eyes, and begin to think of protecting that for all. It becomes illegal to beat children, to throw out on street, to," North swallowed, "to take them to beds. Still happens, yes, crime always still happens, but now adults work to stop it."
He stomped his feet, cracking his boots free of the creeping ice. "Is not enough. Is never enough."
It's never enough, is it.
Kaito shook his head.
"But you see problem with rescuing children?" North asked. "Jack. We must know what spirit is doing with children after rescue."
"He's not--!" Jack bit back the rest of the sentence. He didn't know what Shin'ichi did, after leaving Pitch with new nightmares.
"Of course, he is not," North said. "But, elf." He made a little gesture towards the floors. "Process is set much faster than is noticed. Please summon your friend of reflections."
Jack grimaced, but they had a point. A quick look around -- and an absent pull on his magic to make the ice around Bunny's ankles crumble ("brr, thanks mate") -- and he zeroed in on a polished copper strip inset like a chair rail around the room. "Tell the man in the mirror what you did, what you've done..." he murmured.
In the tiny, golden reflection, he could see a shiver bristle up Bunny's fur and perk his ears. He covered Bunny's face with his hand, fingertips resting lightly on the bright metal, and as he finished the rhyme, he leaned in. "I have a secret... for you," he breathed, misting over his reflection.
It cleared to a tiny image of Kid.
"I got you an invite," Jack told him, before Kid could say anything. "Come on through?" Please.
Gloved fingers gripped his tight, and Jack closed his eyes as Kid eeled out of a space that should've been too narrow for anything more than his hand. Behind him, he heard Bunny make a pained little sound, which meant he'd been watching as non-Euclidean space opened up around Kid.
"Sorry about that," Kid said. "Jyaki Fuyu-kun, good to see you."
Jack couldn't help but smile just a little, as Kid's other hand joined the one already clasped warmly around Jack's. "Likewise."
Kid's grin widened just a little at that. "That bodes well for me! It's not every day I'm summoned to such exalted company. Come, come, introductions all around, yes?"
Right. "S--"
"No, no, let me guess." Kid flapped a hand at Jack, and something invisible settled lightly over his mouth. It wasn't particularly strong, whatever it was, but Jack could tell it would take a bit of effort to break. "Santa Claus, I know of," he continued with a slight, courtly bow. "Very popular even in my lifetime."
"Nicholas St. North," North said. "Charmed."
"So quickly! My prowess amazes even myself sometimes." Kid turned one bright eye on Sandy. "Now I don't have much to go on, here -- Jyaki and I tend to discuss my work, not his, so I'm afraid my sources are a bit biased, but... Surfer god's beachy little brother?"
Sandy stared, question marks forming over his head. One turned into a small child tossing restlessly in bed, then a shimmer of sand sprinkled over the genderless little form and it stilled, little z's floating up.
"Is Sanderson Mansnoozie," North explained. "Sandman. Brings good dreams."
A moment later, Sandy blinked, and all the sand reared up to make a dog, teats heavy with milk. But Kid didn't notice Sandy's fuming glare, instead turning his attention to Bunny. "As for you... hm."
Bunny's muzzle twitched.
"Aha." Kid snapped his fingers. "Furry's wet dream."
North, Bunny, and Jack all choked, and Jack broke through the light silencing geas. "I take it you're a little mad at us," he managed to say.
Kid turned his smirk on Jack. "Juuuuust a bit," he replied, fingers held a centimeter or so apart.
One meaty hand landed on Kid's shoulder. "Come, then. We explain why," North told him. "Then ask what mystery spirit does with children."
For just a moment, Kid's open bewilderment made him look painfully young. "He... takes them to hospitals?"
Something in the set of North's shoulders relaxed. "Then is not emergency. We have hot chocolate, discussion, become friendly." ("Not bloody likely," Bunny muttered, Sandy's sand hissing in dire agreement.)
Once settled in one of North's many cozy parlor rooms -- all of them with furniture sized and overstuffed to fit yeti rather than humans -- and plied with cider, cocoa, or eggnog according to choice, North lured an elf out from behind the furniture with a plate of cookies.
Kid offered one curled hand for it to sniff, then, when it didn't bite, picked it up curiously. "Well, hey there," he said.
"This one was..." North peered at the little face, chipmunk-cheeked and covered in crumbs. "... Mairead, I believe. Edinburgh Old Town, 1773. Found on street near Nor Loch, up to knees in filthy gutter. Grown-up homeless had taken up cleaner parts of alley, prostitutes were working up against walls. Looked at me like I hung the moon when I gave her oatcake. How could I leave her there?"
Kid went very, very still, his only movement his fingers scritching the elf under her chin. After a long moment, he exhaled slowly. "Natural result of keeping a kid too long?" he asked.
"Da."
"How long is too long?"
"I'm not sure," North admitted. "Time variable... well, is variable, depends on moon. Next full."
"Hm." Kid considered that for a long moment. Then he raised a finger. "What if a kid is rescued at the full moon?" A second finger went up. "How long is a full moon?" A third. "What if a kid's rescued during the day?" A fourth. "What if the moonlight is blocked?"
North's brow furrowed. "... Full moon magic is three days. Seventy-two hours, thirty-six before and thirty-six after exact full."
"Unacceptable," Kid snapped. "That's nearly a tenth of the month."
"Do not be shooting messenger," North replied just as sharply. "Is only answer I have."
In the chair between Jack and the fire, Bunny snorted. "Not quite the only answer, old man," he muttered sourly. "We all know one place where the moon's magic is blocked, don't we." Jack twitched violently, half-empty cup sloshing onto the carpet, as Bunny's face went even more bitter. "Can't exactly be taking kids there, though."
"Where?" Kid asked with entirely too much innocence. The elf escaped from his gentle grip, gleefully pouncing the floor, and Kid stood to pry the carpeting out of her mouth. "Hey, no, sweetheart. That's dirty." He tapped her pug nose, getting a gurgle and a snap at the cocoa-stained rug in his fingers. "No."
"Would've thought you'd run into him before," Bunny said. Little golden images of nightmares and a hawk-nosed figure loomed over Sandy's head. "Pitch Black. King of Fear, Lord of Nightmares, cackling psychopath trying to resurrect the Dark Ages and cover the world in terror. Can't believe he hasn't been lurking under abused kids' beds waiting for scraps."
Kid kindly dropped the elf into a bowl of party mix. "That explains so much."
"You've met him?!" Bunny's chair hit the floor.
"Met isn't quite the term I'd use," Kid mused. A silver pocketwatch puffed into existence in his hand, and he glanced inside it. "He's quite the grumpy conversationalist. Dear me look at the time." He flashed the interior, a blank mirror, at them with a cutting grin. "It's siblings o'clock! I'm afraid I have a pressing appointment, to -- what's the phrase -- see a man about a horse. Good evening, gentlemen." And with a press of his thumb to the mirrored surface, he flashed bright silver and vanished.
The watch fell to the carpeted floor with a thump.
Slowly, Jack picked it up. There, engraved under the silver lid, was inscribed:
Look in the light from no yellow sun
Look with the eyes from no righteous face
Look for the found who know only of loss
Then will I show those answers you seek