milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Halloween has come to the Greenbrier Colony once again. And this year the kids are just old enough to understand, and anticipate, the holiday. Which means that Gordon and Alyx have been hearing "Is it Halloween yet?" on an endless loop for the past week.

But the night has finally come and (mostly) gone, and the Vance-Freeman family is returning home with their candy haul. Or trying to, only to end up in Milliways instead.

The population of the bar has increased by one man dressed as Chewbacca, one woman dressed as Han Solo, twin toddlers dressed as Luke and Leia Skywalker, a hovering robot with blue astromech stripes painted on, and a combat droid with a hand-drawn C-3P0 mask taped to his face.

(It was either this or dress as Muppets.)

[ooc: Three pups and two muns! Open through the weekend or until it falls off the front page, whichever comes last.]

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Gordon's pretty cool with the whole Chewbacca thing. No need to talk, after all. Just the occasional 'groooar' noise.

Even if the Wookiee outfit is a little itchy, he'll take it.

Hope seems to have hit a sugar crash; she's dozing on D0G's back. Eli, meanwhile, is just getting warmed up. "Hawoween! Hawoween! Hawoween!" he chants, bouncing up and down in place.

"GROOOOHNK," Gordon informs him solemnly.

As solemnly as one can manage with a big ol' grin on your furbearing face, anyway.

"Hawoween! T'ick-o-t'eat! T'ick-o-t'eat!"

"We're done trick-or-treating, honey," says Alyx.

"T'ick-o-t'eat!" says Eli insistently.

The Wookiee catches Alyx's eye, then glances meaningfully towards the Bar. Maybe it'd be worth a try?

(It's not often that Eli raises his voice and gets insistent. Gordon is dreading trying to quiet him down.)

Alyx considers for a moment, then shrugs. "Go see if Bar has any candy for you," she says encouragingly to Eli.

Eli takes off for Bar before his mother is even done talking. "T'ick-o-t'eat!"

Bar, it seems, does not have any candy for him. But she does have a felt skeleton doll dressed in a sequinned mariachi outfit.

Hey, nice. Gordon offers a fur-covered thumbs up.

Good thing Hope's asleep. Gordon's pretty sure she'll want to do her own asking when she's awake.

At some point, probably while Gordon is in the bathroom or possibly after he's taken a fussy child out for a walk or something, there's a faintly embarrassed, "Ma'am?" from nearby.

This is not really Shephard's idea of an ideal uniform, let's leave it at that.

Alyx quirks one eyebrow but doesn't comment. At this point Shephard's Halloween costumes fall under the category of Just One Of Those Milliways Things.

"Sergeant-Major."

And as he mentioned in a discussion with Kreyu, at least this time there are no mandibles involved and he has actual pants.

"Happy Halloween, ma'am," Shephard says, if only to acknowledge the mildly awkward nature of the occasion. "Got some news for you."

"Oh?" She glances toward the Bar and back at Shephard; should they be sitting down for this?

"It ain't that kind of news," Shephard says; he's seen that look on her face before. "But I might've got us a line on some folks who c'n git us proper livestock again. There's a lady here name of Greya, one of the shape-changin' folks, who's offered to trade me some live chickens for me teachin' her how to skin animals so she c'n sell the pelts. Seems to think she might be able to git us bigger livestock down the line, too."

"Oh!" Alyx perks up immediately. "Thank you, Shephard. So are we talking broilers or layers or both?"

"Ain't sure just yet," Shephard admits. "Greya's first language ain't English. Tell you the truth, I ain't sure Greya's first language is human. But whatever they are, they're gonna be from right spang in our climate zone. Turns out she's from right around Jefferson County, Virginia- and that ain't all that far from where we are now."

"But English isn't her first language."

A beat.

"Is that... typical, for Virginians in her native reality?"

"I'm pretty sure she was born a wolf, ma'am."

"Which doesn't necessarily answer my question," she says with a teasing smirk.

"Tell you the truth, ma'am, I didn't ask about what the language situation is back home for her," Shephard says. "Got a little more wrapped up in things like what kind of knife she'd need to bring me for her project, and makin' sure I'd be around when she brought the chickens through."

Alyx nods thoughtfully. "Do you have an ETA on that?"

"Two days, ma'am," Shephard says. "I realize that ain't much time to git shit ready, but there's plenty of folks from Rowlesburg who'd know just what to do even after all this time."

"I'll see what we can throw together," Alyx promises. "Thank you again, Shephard."

"Just doin' my job, ma'am," says Shephard. "Got to grab the opportunities for our people where I see them."

"Good man," says Alyx with a nod. Then: "Oh, and word to the wise? Apparently the way to avoid getting an unwanted costume on Halloween is to already be costumed when you come in."

"I'll remember that next time," says Shephard. "Least they gave me an actual Marine Corps uniform. This one just wasn't worn nowhere but the USS Constitution since about eighteen-twelve."

"The sideburns are an... interesting look on you."

"Bar showed me a picture," Shephard says. "They could've been worse. I ain't complainin'."

Quin has had a few minutes to adjust to this strange holiday and so when he spots the happy family, he smiles. Although, he wonders, is the man supposed to be a wookie? And is the one child meant to be wielding a lightsaber? And is the other an astromech?

Lost in his thoughts, it is quite probable that the man whose is unbenounced dressed as Aquaman, is in fact staring.

Actually, both kids have construction-paper lightsabers, because their parents knew that Hope would be Very Unhappy if she didn't get one. But since Hope is curled up and dozing on the combat droid's hunched back, Quin can be forgiven for missing it.

Eli, on the other hand, marches right up to Quin and holds out his already bulging bag of candy. "T'ick-o-t'eat!"

Quin smiles, remembering his own children at this age.

"I am sorry, I do not know this custom. Am I to give you something or are you offering me something?" It could be either.

"It's an Earth custom," says Gordon. "He's asking for candy. It's part of the holiday- people wear costumes, and children go around asking for candy or similar stuff."

"I am afraid I do not know what candy is, but..." He says as he looks for, and hopes for, an inner pocket of his pants which he keeps small food supplements. "I hope simple carbohydrates and fructose are okay for your bodies? My own children are half-human and they enjoy these treats. They're from a place called Mandalor."

"They should be fine," says Alyx.

Better give 'em quick, Quin, the kid's looking pretty anxious.

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