paradisa | Chapter Seventeen [Action/Written, forward-dated slightly to tomorrow]

Written, filtered to Kate Beckett

Kate? I haven't been able to find you since things went all Leave It To Beaver-ville on us. Are you okay?

Action, forward-dated to December 23rd

[Well, hadn't that been a blast from the past? But now that things were back to normal in Paradisa, Castle couldn't find Kate. It shouldn't have been that difficult, considering that they lived together, and yet there was no response from her. She hadn't gone home, since her name was still there...

And then he finally understood when he found a mockup of a Nikki Heat book on his nightstand. She'd become fiction. It was one of those losses that sometimes happened, but Castle wished it didn't have to happen NOW.

In a fit of very un-holidaylike grumpiness, Castle had wished up an unadorned metal pole and gone to the lobby, spending some time setting it up and hanging a sign next to it reading "HAPPY FESTIVUS!"]

Written, December 23rd

Paradisa, I am disappoint. We got sent back in time to the 50's and not any of the other nice suggestions everyone else provided? Unless something happens in the next week or so, I guess the betting pool for this month is a bust.

[A pause and some pen taps before he continues:]

Kate Beckett's gone missing. Not missing as in gone-home, but I think she's having one of those temporary losses that's turned her into an inanimate object. The place could have picked a better time to do it, but oh well. It's a Festivus miracle. I'll be silently airing my grievances into a pint of my own beer.

[Open to either action or written responses. Also, for those who are wondering what the heck Castle is on, here is an explanation. A FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US]

Threaded | Flat

I'll keep an eye out for any strange inanimate objects moving about the place, then.

...What's Festivus?

[Aaand she's out of Christmas Card, USA, and not a moment too soon! She has her old hair back, her old clothes back, and she hasn't been turned into a deer or a doll or anything weird like that... all in all, things are pretty good, by Paradisa's standards. Then, she sees the pole.]

Huh...

[Wanders up, fiddling with the sign a bit]

Kinda funny for a Christmas ornament, isn't it?

[Speaking to herself more than anything. But, hey, maybe this is how they celebrate the holidays in some places. Or maybe this is a non-Earth holiday. Or maybe it's just a joke. Who knows! It is a mystery.]

Dictated forever

Action!