milliways_bar | (no subject)

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When Matilda entered Milliways that afternoon, she's already aware of Halloween, she'd read of it in books and had seen the decorations in Milliways. The garden even had these terrific pumpkins that they could carve and have fun with. Her own pumkin with a fanged smiley face is right by her door back home.

This time when she entered, Ms, Bar thought to go a step further and Matilda found herself dressed in what was thankfully not a princess or fairy costume. One of the older form students introduced her to the movie and to suddenly see that she could have a costume for it was great fun-and it even came with the gun.

Even better, when she went to order some lunch for herself, she also got a something that looked like a white jelly shaped like a skull. Before she could eat it, she shook the plate, watching it giggle.

Now if someone could find a way to play the ghostbuster's theme song, it would just cap things off.

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Unfortunately, Cadfael has no idea what Ghostbusters is - and consequently doesn't know what she's dressed as, or what she's holding.

He watches her with the same amused affection he gives to all small children, anyway.

"Good evening, daughter."

She looked up, almost responding to correct him, but then she sees his robes and determines he's just being polite. "Good evening, happy halloween."

"Halloween... All Hallows' Eve?" He smiles. "Is it a custom to dress so for the holiday in your home?"

"Yes, I think that's how it used to be said." She took a bite of the skull jelly: it tasted like coconut. "Not here, in America. They sell all sorts of costumes. Some are scary,pretty and others are silly."

"In England we have Guy Fawkes Night on November Fifth. There are bonfires in the center of town were we burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes, because he tried to blow up parliment in the 17th century. Then there are also fireworks and treats being sold."

...he didn't understand a word of that, but he tries hard and latches on to 'treats'.

"So a fair, of some kind?"

"That's exactly it. Only it's at night, not during the day." Her parents occasionally took them to fairs, but only once and awhile. "It'll be November in a few months through my door, and the second form is to go around asking people for money so they can make an effigy."

"Fire is best enjoyed after dark", he says with a nod. "How much money is required to make these effigies?"

She thought a moment, trying to recall what her brother told her. "Umm, most of the clothing is from second hand shops, so only ten p. or so. Then there's a pumpkin and mask for the head. I think most of the time it's made with old castoffs, I haven't had the chance to help make one yet. I just know from what I've heard."

Hopefully she'll get to experience it in a few years.

"So the money is... a kind of alms, then? Not just for the construction costs?"

"Not entirely." This was said as a sort of conffession. "I think some of the money is saved for sweets, but I don't think it happens much. Most people don't give anything or they find they don't give enough. And again, this is just what I've heard, I still have another year or so before I can help build one."

She was still six years old and this was mostly for seven and eight year olds.

Cadfael nods.

"Children will be children, of course you'd expect the money to be spent on sweets and enjoyment."

He doesn't sound the slightest bit disapproving.

"And comics." She enjoys novels and real stories, but comics can also be fun, especially when traded. "I can get a few comics for 50 p and trade them with the other boys for comics I haven't read yet or sell them back."

"Comics?" he asks curiously. "I'm sorry, I don't know the term."

"Comics are stories." Clearly this man was from the past, so she tried to think of the right way to describe it. "They're told with pictures and speech or actions are written in white bubbles on the page. Most comics are series, so you'll have issue one, which tells the first part, all the way to maybe issue one hundred."

"My favorite are the super hero comics. They're stories of people, sometimes with special powers, who go around fighting crime."

"I see." And he sort of does. "What manner of special powers do these people have?"

"All sorts." Her eyes got wide and expressive. "Some can control fire or ice, some have super strength or super speed, others control items with their minds or read thoughts."

"One of my favorite super heroes is Spiderman. He's a college student that was bitten by a radioactive spider and afterwards could climb up walls and sense vibrations around him-like how a spider can sense of something's caught in its web. He calls it his 'spider sense' and he uses it to sense when danger's around."

She's delightful, even if her words make little sense to him.

"And there must also be those they fight who can stand up to them?"

"Of course." She said this as matter of fact. "It wouldn't be interesting to just read about someone with super powers and does nothing but show off. All super hero comics have supervillains inside them. Like superheros, they can have powers, but sometimes they don't and the danger just comes because they steal a lot of money to make weapons or take over and don't care who gets hurt."

She may not own a lot of comics, but she has read a lot of them. They're cheap and she could read through a lot of them quickly-which was both a good and bad thing.

"Other times, it's not about money, but to prove a point. The Joker villian in the Batman series doesn't care about money, he just likes causing trouble to cause trouble-anarchy he called it."

"All too realistic, I'm afraid, there have always been men of that kind - rare, fortunately."

She gave a solumn nod, thinking back to the Trunchbull. "The thing I like about superhero comics is that it's reading about people who stand up for men. Doesn't matter if they have powers or don't, but it's nice to think that there are people who use their power for good and not gain."

Considering her own power (both literal and in her mind), Matilda wondered if maybe she could look into joining the police force, maybe as a detective.

"There are, daughter", he says gently. "They may not have powers of that kind, but the world is not empty of those who wish to do good."

"I wouldn't go that far." Matilda could only grin at that, the sort of grin one has when they know something.

She then turned her attention to the skull shaped jelly infount of her-or it would be skull shaped if she hadn't eaten part of the jaw. Matilda stared at the plate, focusing on it.

The plate moved half a foot towards the monk.

"One thing I learned since coming here-nothing's impossible."

He looks at her curiously before the plate moves, then his eyebrows shoot up.

"You... are a most remarkable young lady."

She could only shrug in acknowledgement. She couldn't deny she wasn't completely like most children, but she didn't feel different then most either.

"I used to be able to lift furniture, but since I've moved up several forms in school, it's just every day items I could lift. My mum thinks it has to do with my.." She tried to think how to describe it. "Well, with my brain. When I first started school, it was at the bottom form and I was already ahead of the other children, so my brain was buzzing and trying to use energy."

"I'm in the top form of the school now, so my brain has to use energy for other things now."

That was the best way to describe it anyway. She might be well read, but even she had a time explaining her power.

"Remarkable in more ways than one, it seems", he says, impressed. "We have few schools in my time, and they have no - forms, that would be for children of different ages?"

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