What would the Daemos think about Halloween?
Especially if there is an unholy amount of free candy readily available...
Emerald knocked softly but firmly on Ava's door. "Hey, Ava?" Silence was her only answer. "Look, I know you're awake, but're probably pretending to still be asleep because you don't want to deal with anything today. I'd just like to remind you today is Halloween and was wondering if you'd like to - "
The veteran jumped back as the door to Ava's room flew open, the shorter woman staring at her with wide, almost glittering eyes. "It's Halloween?!"
"Uh, yeah. Today is October 31st, which makes it Halloween." The taller woman grinned. "How would you like to take the guys out tonight?"
"A-are you sure that's safe?"
Emerald cocked an eyebrow. "Do you really think I'd be suggesting this if I didn't already have a plan in place?"
Ava let out a small huff of laughter. "Yeah, I guess that's true. So what did you have in mind?"
"Mrs. Oates asked me if we could take Marlene out to trick-or-treat this year. There's a huge community party at the park, and Mrs. Oates's Crocheting Club is hosting one of the booths. She was wondering if we could take Marlene around to the different events and just generally keep an eye on her."
"That sounds amazing!" Ava's face almost immediately fell again. "Oh, but I guess people would look at us weird if we showed up in costume..."
"Not true." Emerald gave a conspiratorial smile. "There's an entry fee, but it's only a dollar per person if you come in costume. If we don't mind hanging out for a bit, there's even a costume contest we can have the guys enter. Given how 'convincing' their costumes will be, we're sure to at least place and win something."
"So, let me get this straight: we get to go out without worrying about the guys giving anything away and we get to fully participate in Halloween fun?!"
"That about covers it."
"Hell yeah!"
The veteran let out another chuckle. "Then it sounds like all we need to do is get our own costumes ready and let them know what we're going to be doing tonight."
As expected, the Daemos were absolutely ecstatic about the idea.
"You are taking us out properly?" Asch's face was one of disbelief, in spite of his efforts to hide it. "Our own clothes, no hiding our horns, we can roam freely?"
"Well, 'freely' as in you can explore the party and play the games without having to basically be attached to us at the hip." The veteran gave him a small smile. "But yeah. You guys'll get to see a proper Earth celebration however you want. It's perfectly safe, so you won't need to bring along your weapons or have to use any magic."
"Well, that's no fun..." Leif muttered under his breath.
"And...there will be other humans there for us to observe?" Rhys seemed barely able to contain his excitement at the opportunity to observe humans in their "natural" state.
Ava nodded. "Yep. And there's going to be a ton of different foods to try, too!"
"Like popcorn? And pizza?!" Noi was practically bouncing in anticipation.
Emerald grinned at his enthusiasm. "And a whole bunch of new kinds of treats as well. There's even a Trick-or-Treating event where if you visit certain booths and get a card stamped, you can trade it in for a goodie bag full of candy."
"Can-dee?" Pierce furrowed his eyebrows at the new word.
"You know those Halloween decorations you guys tried to eat? It's kind of like that, but actually edible." She paused. "Or, if you're not sure, you can always bring them to me or Ava and we'll let you know if it's safe to eat."
"And there's even a costume contest!" The shorter woman shot her a look. "Speaking of which, we don't have a lot of time to get our costumes together. What should we go as?"
"Well, I know there's a few different categories for the contest." Emerald glanced over at the guys. "Maybe we could enter as a group?"
"You mean, dress up as Daemos? That sounds awesome!"
"The only problem is, I don't know how we're going to do the horns. We don't have a lot of time, and I'm not exactly swimming in extra cash to spend on expensive last-minute stuff from the costume rental place..."
"Wait. You want to...become Daemos?" Rhys looked between the two humans in confusion.
"Correction: we want to look like Daemos. Just for a few hours while we're at the party." Emerald paused. "That is, if you guys are okay with it."
"If you ask me, it only seems fair," Ava interrupted. "You guys have spent your entire time here so far having us teach you how to appear human. Why can't we ask you to teach us how to act Daemos?"
"Within reason, that is. Remember, you guys aren't actually on Daemos, so there's only so far we can go. But as far as appearances go..." The veteran held her arms out wide, flashing them an inviting smile. "Let's see what you can do."
The spectacled Daemos looked over to Pierce. "If you're willing, I can teach you what to do in order to give them temporary Daemos horns." His gaze returned to the humans. "I feel the need to warn you: this might hurt a bit."
"How much is 'a bit'?" Ava didn't look so confident anymore.
Emerald thought for a bit. "Tell you what: I'll go first and let you know how bad it is."
"Are you sure? I mean, you're not exactly a fair measure for pain tolerance - "
"- or you could quit whining and find out for yourself."
"These things are kind of heavy." Ava motioned to the horns Rhys had made for her. They were basically ram horns in a pink ombre, curling forward over her ears. They matched the outfit she and Emerald had picked up at the thrift store, which was a fuchsia, short tunic-like dress with long princess sleeves. She wore a pair of black leggings underneath, along with a pair of black sneakers.
Emerald gently bopped the back of her head. "It's only for a few hours. You'll be fine." Her own horns weren't as large as Ava's. They were thinner, tapering back from her temples and gently curling upwards at the back of her head. The color scheme was similar to Pierce's, but lighter all over and fading to white at the tips. Her costume consisted of a knee-length dark sapphire skirt with slits almost to her waist, but also with a pair of black leggings. The top was a matching long-sleeved halter top with the shoulders cut out. She wore a pair of tall black dress boots, the tops coming to a stop just under her knees.
"I can't believe how awesome all your costumes are!" Marlene gushed. She was once again wearing her princess costume, although now there was a stereotypical coned hat on top of her head, complete with flowing ribbons. She looked over at the Daemos, decked out in their natural clothing. "The horns look so real!"
"Well, it did take a lot of work to get everything ready," the veteran cut in smoothly. She felt it was better not to let the girl know how both she and Ava had passed out for a few moments after Pierce and Rhys had performed the spell, nor how it took a while for the headaches to fade enough for them to get ready for the party.
"Hey, is that where we pick up the cards?" Ava interrupted, pointing towards a booth near the entrance to the park. A large banner between the two streetlights flanking the sidewalk declared Welcome to the Apricot Vale Halloween Fest! in bright orange and black letters.
"Yep." Emerald stepped to the front of the group, the Daemos still hanging fairly close to the two human adults as she slid $10 across to the attendant. "Could we please get eight of the stamp cards, please? And you can keep the change."
The oddly-familiar woman manning the booth raised her eyebrow slightly at the veteran, but then shrugged her shoulders and counted out the cards. "Please be sure to discard any wrappers or trash in the proper receptacles." She held the cards out. "Enjoy the event."
"Thanks." The veteran led the way into the park, veering off to an open area nearby and dividing out the items. "Now, here's how this is going to work: I'm going to give you guys these stamp cards. All you have to do is visit the booths written on the cards, get the stamp, then go to that big stage area over there." She pointed towards the gazebo, which was lit up with multiple strands of the same Jack-o-lantern lights Ava had hung in the apartment. "Hand over this card to the lady standing up there, and she'll give you a bag stuffed full of Halloween treats. We can also visit some of the other booths to play games and pick up extra snacks, if you want to try them."
"Are we allowed to go wherever we want?" Leif spoke up immediately, barely holding himself still in his excitement to explore.
"As long as you stay within the fences of the park, yes." Ava gave them a serious look. "You can explore the party, but don't leave the park. Other than that, have fun and try not to get into any trouble."
"If you want to, you can tag along with me, Ava, and Marlene. We'll be going to the booths first before we start visiting the other events, so it's probably your easiest chance to get the goodie bag. But before we do that, we need to go register for the costume contest."
The evening quickly began to devolve into chaos almost immediately.
Due to scheduling conflicts and general mismanagement, none of the prizes had been delivered for the costume contest. As a result, the entire event was cancelled without anyone thinking to let people know, which led to a number of very grumpy children who were swiftly pacified with extra bags of candy.
The Daemos followed along only as long as it took to complete the stamp cards, which also didn't last as long as Emerald had expected: only five of the booths were participating, so it took barely fifteen minutes to complete the challenge.
They all soon found themselves back near where they'd started, everyone looking through their bags.
"Can...we eat these?" Leif glanced up at the humans, his fingers twitching as he tried to wait until one of them gave him the "All Clear" sign.
Emerald let out a long-suffering sigh. "Yeah, go for it. These were pre-packaged just for the party, so you guys don't need to worry about unwrapping them first."
Immediately, all the others began scarfing down the contents of their goodie bags, oblivious to everything else while they consumed the free sugary treats.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Pierce paused mid-bite in his feeding frenzy as he observed the veteran just standing there.
"Huh? Oh, no. I'm not really big on candy." She gave him a slight grin. "I'll probably end up giving mine to Ava later in the apartment once she runs out of her own treats."
"I can see what you mean," Rhys spoke up, closing his own bag. "While these 'can-dees' are quite good, they are not nearly as fulfilling as ice cream."
"Yes." Pierce closed his own bag as well, turning to Emerald. "Is there anything else to do?"
"Well, there are a couple games we could play and I think there's also a hay bale maze. It's kind of like the Haunted House at the Fall Festival, only without the ghosts and spooky things. We could try that out, if you guys are interested."
"Do the games give more 'can-dee'?" Noi's voice was perceptively faster than he usually spoke as he gave her a starry-eyed, sugar-crazed grin.
"Um, I'm not sure. I think some of them mi -"
"Onward!" Asch shouted, tossing his empty candy bag to the ground as he led the way back towards the game booths. Leif and Noi were hot on his heels, Marlene and Ava close behind as they clutched their candy bags close.
"Well, guess that answers that question," Emerald muttered under her breath as she bent over and picked up Asch's trash from the ground, tossing it into a nearby garbage can.
"Is there anything you would like to do?" Rhys spoke up. It was only then the veteran noticed he and Pierce had not run off with the others.
"I'm fine tagging along with you guys." Her smile was warmer this time. "Ava's out of the apartment, you guys get to have a bit of freedom to observe some human stuff, and I'm just glad everyone seems to be enjoying themselves for once."
"I am intrigued by the maze you spoke of."
"Okay then: let's go check it out."