I'm glad I used the title 'Origin Story: Lantern's Adventures' instead of the other title I came up with- 'Everything You Wanted To Know About Lantern But Were Afraid To Ask'. Yeah. Not one of my finest moments.
I'm going to be going on a weeklong hiatus. Maybe a couple days more. Bye!
Let the fun begin, mysteries unravel and chaos ensue!
This is how I got the Jack O House.
There was yellow police tape around it and monsters dressed in what looked like Police uniforms surrounding it. The yard was made of mostly dirt and there was one of those wrecking ball machines poised to knock it down.
Hoodwink hopped off my shoulder and asked what they were doing.
"It's getting knocked down since the original owner's whereabouts are unknown teddy."
"It's Hoodwink." Hoodwink responded, obviously miffed at his new body change. "Was the owner's name by any chance Alcatran Louver?"
My eyes widened and I looked in surprise at my bear uncle. Was he saying I was supposed to inherit it? "Yes?" said the 'policeman' uncertainly, flipping through a couple pages on a clipboard.
"Well, this here-" he jumped up onto my shoulder. "-is his daughter."
The cop straightened his glasses. "Al didn't have red hair."
"Ah, but his wife did!"
In the with span of a couple days I'd inherited a house shaped like a Jack O Lantern. So... I was Lantern living in a Lantern? Talk about corny.
All of this was… pretty hard to take in. I was in my dad's house. I didn't like him, but if he came back saying, "Hey! Give me my house back!" I'd lock the windows and doors and not let him in. (That's what I thought back then anyway) Either that or punch him in the face.
I spent a long time rearranging the place; I changed rooms to my own liking, I bought and made stuff with magic and got thousands of books that I kept scattered through many rooms. (there was one room with most of them) Hoodwink taught me magic. It's weird getting told what to do by a nine inch tall teddy bear.
I also noticed something over the years- Hoodwink's activeness was decreasing. He spent less time hanging out with me and more time sitting in the front of the TV drinking soda. (how he drank it we will never know) He developed a weird liking towards the Madagascar moves; he kept watching them over and over again. It became that the only time I ever saw him was about twice a month. Then twice a month became once a month and then once a month became- well, you get it.
It was then I realized I hadn't left the house in- a really long time. Now, I didn't know how long; I have a terrible sense of time. Plus, only one room had a clock and the one that held in the calendar was in the basement. My estimate was about a couple weeks. However, I also had always been terrible at math.
I left the house to take a nice little walk through town. I didn't tell Hoodwink; I didn't even think he cared anymore. Anyway, I was roaming down a street when I spotted one of those old newspaper boxes. I bought one and read some of it. The Afterlife had always been an old timey place. (some TVs were still in Black and White!) But when I causally glanced up to the date, I dropped the newspaper in shock. It had been two hundred years since the day I came here. And I still looked 13; many mirrors in the house confirmed it. But how was this possible? Suddenly a thought struck me.
My mom.
I hadn't ever tried to go back to my home dimension, but now was the time to try. Hoodwink had only spent a week teaching me how but this was a risk I was going yo have to take. I opened my palm, stretched out my arm and a white and green spiraling portal formed. Sparking with electricity and most likely unstable, but there.
With one last glance at the Afterlife, I jumped in.
I landed exactly where I had left. The hospital room. Actually, the air outside the hospital room. So I flailed in the air for a bit, cartoon style before falling to the ground, 20 floors below. I was alive and thankfully this time I didn't black out. But not dying when I should have was still weird.
With that, I turned on my heel and headed for my old apartment.