a/n: Near the West Gate of New Los Angeles is a busy skell refueling station. Sometimes, in the evening, business slows and the crew had a chance to talk about stuff. Lots of planning gets done then. Important planning.

All the good things belong to Monolith Soft; obviously none of these NPCs are their fault.

The West Gate skell refueling station personnel were sitting around, bouncing ideas off each other. Two humans, both on the smaller side, sat comfortably in the lawn chairs usually reserved for customers. The largest of the group, a bulky figure of a man, sat cross-legged on the tarmac, his lap forming a spacious seat for the fourth crewmate. The dinner pizza order was only a few minutes from arrival, and the crew still hadn't come up with anything good.

"Bunny suits."

"Drop dead."

"You said you wanted something that would get people to come to the station to see the joke, Lila."

"I doubt anyone, and I mean anyone, would come to see us in bunny suits."

"I can think of one," Gino leered back, "but he doesn't have a skell. And what's wrong with my legs?" Gino stretched his legs out and examined them. Lila didn't respond. Even clad in thick protective overalls, they were clearly scrawny.

"Bunny ears for the skells," suggested Lila. "Come for a skell wash, get bunny ears for your skell."

"Too expensive, those would be custom jobs. Did you preorder them or something?"

"No," Lila said with a touch of embarrassment. "I kind of forgot about April Fools. We could put a rush on it?"

"Nuh uh," Gino said firmly. "I saw the spread sheet for last month. Not in the black."

"Not in the red either," Lila pointed out. "But you're right. Plus it really isn't very April Foolsy."

Tyleth, small, grey, and long snouted, had been listening quietly from the comfort of Ricky Bobby's broad lap. She finally piped up in her squeaky voice. "What exactly qualifies as an April Fool's joke?"

"You gotta fool people," Gino replied. "Which means handing out skell decorations wouldn't fit anyway."

Lila shrugged. "Fine, fine, less bunnies, more fooling."

Gino pulled his legs back and sat up energetically. "I got it! We get Yardley to swap up our looks. You look like me, I look like Ricky, you get the drift."

"Custom skell bling for the entire city would be cheaper," Lila replied.

"I'm not sure I want anyone looking like me," Ricky Bobby said anxiously, his voice a surprisingly soft tenor. "I worked really hard to be me. Am working hard." Twyleth immediately wrapped her tiny arms around his neck and gave him a supportive cuddle. He rubbed the dainty points on the top of her head with his chin, something he did whenever he wanted to calm down.

Gino and Lila watched the pair of sweethearts for a moment, then glanced silently at each other. A twist of Gino's lip, a slight lift of Lila's eyebrow, and that suggestion was dropped without another word. Gino flopped around in the lawn chair, Lila tugged her braid, Twyleth and Ricky Bobby murmured to each other.

"What were some of the better pranks you ever saw?" Lila asked.

"The one last year, where everyone was swapping outfits, that was okay," Gino said.

"Okay, first off, it's been done, and besides we all wear coveralls, so ... boring."

"You could all dress as as as Ma-non maybe?" Twyleth suggested shyly. She smoothed the hem of her pale blue tunic shyly.

"I am not wearing a dress and talking like a Ma-non."

Now Lila was the one sitting up with interest. "No, no, Gino, that's actually a great idea! Not the outfit, but changing up our voices would be pretty easy. A few tweaks and we could sound like any of the xenos in town."

"I'll only do it if you sound like one of them garbage-eating Zaruboggans."

Lila grinned and gave an extended hiss. "You be Orphe. I wanna hear you buzz."

Gino gurgled back at her, a smile lighting up his narrow face. "Fine with me. That way Ricky can try out the Ma-non sound."

"And me?" Twyleth said.

Lila thought a moment. "Well, we can't swap your voice, since you're organic and all, but I'm sure we can rig some kind of mechanical voice box. You and Ricky can work on it. Record his voice, a range of phrases you use most at the station or something."

Gino's shoulders sagged slightly. "Can we get it done by tomorrow?"

Lila laughed. "I bet we can get it done in less than an hour."

a/n: And they did, as did I. Hope you have a happy day with silly things to make you laugh.

If you have suggestions for Apriltober, shoot them to me and see what happens. Is that a promise or a threat? I'm not sure.