My last fic for at least a month. I'm participating in NaNoWriMo again
this year (that's National Novel Writing Month). If you want, you can
check me out at The name's G. E. Musica.
-
The Misadventures of a Rogue Hawking
by Gracelyn Musica
Chapter Five
Happy Halloween, Starwind and Hawking Co!
-
"KOU! Door!"
Koushiro Hawking came out of the garage, oil smeared on her cheekbones. "Wha?"
"Door," Gene repeated, jerking his thumb at the door frame, where a young delivery man stood. The straw-haired man tipped his brown hat to her, smiling.
"Mornin' Kou," he smirked, nodding slightly.
"Charlie," Kou replied, nodding as well and grinning as the man handed her a clipboard. "Ooh, a present?"
"Dunno, that's for you to figure out," he replied, taking the hard wooden board and smiling brightly. "Thank you ma'am."
"Have a good one," Kou dismissed him, smiling as she closed the door.
"See? Why can't you go out with Charlie?"
"Because I like Taylor more," Kou told him in an uninterested tone, but she was flipping him off as she checked out the box. She nudged the wooden crate with the toe of her shoe.
"Who's it from?"
"Hell if I know." Kou shrugged, opening the attached letter. Something heavy and silver fell out of the envelope into her hand. She peered down at the metal, then read the letter. "Oh... My..." The bottled redhead was giggling madly.
Bad sign. "What is it?" Gene asked, worried.
"A present." Kou replied, smiling from ear to ear. "And this is a necklace." She looped the silver around her neck and smiled at Gene. "You like?"
Gene smiled at his sister. "Of course."
Kou rushed up to him, holding the pendant--a studded silver cross--up to the redheaded pilot for closer inspection. Gene held the heavy weight in his hand and ran his thumb over the cold metal. "Very pretty, Koushiro."
The teen smiled brightly, flung her arms around Gene's neck and planted a sloppy, sisterly kiss on his cheek. "Gene... I love you..."
The pilot sighed, stood and began attempting to lift the box.
-
"Jim! Come here please!"
The called-for blonde stuck his head into his older sister's room. "Yes?" Jim smiled at nodded at the other half-resident of the room. "Hello, Tay."
"Jim," the bluenette replied, wincing as her redheaded lover twisted her long blue-black hair into a tight bun.
"Jimmy, how would you like to embarrass our business partner?" Kou asked around a mouthful of bobby pins.
Jim perked up. "Embarrass Gene? Anything, sis."
"Even if it involved you dressing up?" she asked, shoving two into place in Taylor's long, thick hair.
"Ow..."
"Sorry dear."
"As long as I don't have to wear a dress," Jim replied.
"Aw, but Jim--"
"HE ALMOST KISSED ME LAST TIME! NO!" (1)
"Fine!" Kou sighed.
"What are you planning?"
"Nothing..." Kou grinned, smirking.
Jim rolled his eyes.
"However, I did get a letter from an old friend today... She's fond of folklore and such..." She carefully pushed the last pin in and admired her handiwork. "Do you know what Sunday is?"
"Halloween?"
"Correct. All Hallow's Eve. The day before All Saint's Day, still a Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church. In medieval times it was thought that on All Hallow's Eve, Satan and his cronies would cause havoc. People would literally never sleep that night. Over the millenia, however, it turned into an orgy of rampant consumerism--"
"How do you know so much?"
"I know the author," she replied with a wink.
Taylor smacked the side of her hip. "Stop knocking down the fourth wall."
"Yes ma'am."
"So, are we going trick-or-treating then?" Jim asked, getting back on topic.
"You're right, Kou, he is smart for a blonde!" Taylor smirked.
"Ho," Jim shot back fondly.
"Sounds like a plan, ne?" Kou asked, grinning at her brother over her lover.
"I'll go get some hair dye..." Jim sighed.
-
Sunday All Hallow's Eve was a huge problem for the Church, so they moved it to Saturday instead. This gave Kou, Jim and Taylor even less time then they originally planned on. Their plan was highly covert--meaning everyone knew about it.
Finally, the big day arrived. The crate was unsealed (releasing the wrath of GOD!!!! no... wait... wrong series) its contents distributed. Everyone was given a costume (for that is what the crate contained) and one by one they gathered in the living room as the sun sank below the sky line.
Suzuka was curled up on the couch, nursing a bottle of sake. While normally this wasn't unusual, the fact that she was dressed in the black and white habit of a nun was enough to crack a smile on the most stoic of faces.
Melfina sat next to the assassin, fingering the wooden prayer beads attached to the nun outfit. Although she had complained enough that Jim let out the hem of her skirt out a few inches (the boy can cook, fix things AND sew? why is he still single?!), she was still worried that the skirt was short. Mel was dressed as the steriotypical 'sexy nurse', in the tight white outfit with the pointy hat, and she idly wondered what Gene would do to the Hawkings when he saw her.
Aisha was dressed in her normal, everyday clothes with two noticible exceptions--huge drooping dog ears were fixed over her cat ones. She was frowning at them, grumbling about how cats were overall superior to dogs while batting at the silver tag emblazzoned 'FIDO'.
Her fiancee and childhood friend, Zurg, came out of the bathroom where he had been putting the finishing touches on his outfit. The male C'tar-C'tar was wearing an old outfit of Gene's: A black tee, black pants, wide leather belt and combat boots. The astonishing feature was, however, that every inch of dark tan fur was a pale green color. "How did you do that?" Aisha asked, smiling.
Zurg smiled back. Things between them since his appearance had been strained at first, but they were falling back into their old rythm, although Aisha had yet to accept him as her fiancee. "Green Kool-Aid," he replied, tucking his ears under a black wig, giving himself the illusion of having no ears.
"Who are you supposed to be?"
"Um..." the C'tar-C'tar considered his answer for a moment. "You know, it would take too long to explain... Just call me Roman(2)."
"NO! Nononononononononono..." the tortured scream of Gene came from upstairs. The four looked at one another, eyebrows raised.
Taylor giggled knowingly from her perch on the breakfast bar, holding Gillium in her hand. She was dressed in a crisp white shirt and khaki pants, leather suspenders over her shoulders and a purple tie around her neck. A large-barreled gun lay propped against the bar. "Stay still, ya tin can, or you'll lose all your feathers and get glue everywhere! Swear to God, held together by spit and prayer(3)..."
"Polly wants a cracker," Gillium replied in his robotic monotone.
"Oh, for Christ's sake," Jim's voice sighed from the top of the stairs. His mop of blonde hair was covered with a ratty, dreadlock-ridden black wig, complete with braids, beads, feathers, and a bone of questionable origin. A goatee and mustache was pasted on his usually fresh-shaven face, his hand resting on the cutlass strung around his waist. He was dressed in the usual pirate garb--leather boots, loose pants and shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a vest over that. He had a few gaudy rings on his fingers--loaned out from Taylor--and the whole look was tied off with a multicolored head scarf and a tri-point captain's hat. All in all, he looked 23, not 16, and was sure to turn some heads. "This is fucking ridiculous."
"What is, dressing up?" Melfina asked. Normally she would have scolded the blonde for his mouth, but she agreed that this was an extreme that called for such explicatives.
"That, and Gene acting a damn fool."
"I AM NOT ACTING A DAMN FOOL!" came the indignant reply.
"Oh shush. This just proves that you are insecure in your sexuality," Kou told him, using her newest excuse yet again and appearing next to Jim. She was wearing a black suit with a V-neck white undershirt that showed off just enough cleavage to ban her from a Disney cartoon. Dark shades covered her ice-blue eyes, and her hair had changed color yet again, this time to black. The silver chain from earlier dangled around her neck and matching crosses were sewn into the sleeves at the cuffs. A large white cross was slung across her back and she was chewing idly on the end of a candy cigarette.
"Come out Gene..." Jim and Kou called in identical singsong voices, sounding very much like something out of 'The Children of the Corn'. The redhead stepped out of the shadows and crossed his arms. "I hate you all."
"Let the record show that Mr. Starwind hates us all," Kou thundered out in her loudest voice.
"So noted!" Taylor called from her seat.
Jim rolled his eyes.
The rest of the room was stunned silent as Gene descended the stairs in a rather modest dress: A long, high-collared red Chinese style dress. There was a slit up the sides to his knee, and the capped sleeves showed off both his arm muscles and orange star tattoo. Flat black slipper-shoes covered his feet. Everyone managed to keep a straight face for a full five minutes until Zurg, voice trembling with contained laughter, announced, "You know, Gene, red is the color of brides in certain cultures(4)."
-
Ding-dong.
"TRICK OR TREAT!"
The woman blinked at the myriad of adults standing on her doorstep. "Excuse me, but aren't you all a little OLD to be trick-or-treating?"
"We're children at heart," Kou replied, smiling winningly at the housewife. "And if you don't believe that, consider this our trick."
'And I'll be damned, it's working,' Jim thought as the woman smiled back at his elder sister. All seven of them obediently held out their sacks as the lady filled them with sugary confections before bidding them goodnight and shutting her door.
"HOW do you do that?!" Jim demanded for the hundredth time as they turned back to the street, trudging next door.
"The Hawking touch, my dear boy, the Hawking touch," Kou replied, putting an arm around her little brother.
"Hawking touch my ass," Jim muttered as Taylor snickered.
"I hope for that every night."
"TOO MUCH INFORMATION!" the blonde bellowed, covering his ears and blushing.
Behind them, Suzuka, Gene and Mel walked in relative silence, Gene's face taking on a more natural hue. After getting over the initial shock of being out of his element (again, I dare to add. anyone else remember Jenny?), after about thirty minutes he realized that he was not the only male cross-dressing against his will tonight and that he was luckier than most--the group had witnessed no less than four men fall on their asses in stiletto pumps as the night progressed. He currently had his arm around Melfina's waist, contemplating the way things might turn out when he got out of the dress.
Aisha and Zurg brought up the rear, popping candy into their mouth as they all but skipped along. If you thought drunk C'tar-C'tar was bad, just wait 'til you catch them on sugar highs.
Kou snuck up quietly behind a group of children and snuck pieces of candy into their bags without their parental guardian noticing.
"You know, Koushiro, the point is to keep the candy, not to give it away," Suzuka told her. Kou looked upwards.
"O Lord, this world is full of prejudice(5)," she cried, raising her hands and earning odd looks from people across the street. "Gene, your turn to ring the bell."
Gene sighed, blowing a stray piece of hair out of his eyes as he sullenly walked up to the door and pushed the doorbell. Music flowed from behind the door, and lights flashed on and off in the windows.
"Someone's having a hoppin' party," Zurg commented right as the door opened.
And there stood Fred Lowe, dressed as an elf straight from Middle-Earth.
Gene's eyes widened in shock and awe. "Fred! What a... pleasant... surprise..."
Fred simply looked Gene up and down and declared, "I KNEW you couldn't be gay."
"For the LAST TIME TONIGHT, I. AM. NOT. GAY!" Gene shouted, punctuating every word.
"Right, and how do we know you're not so deep in the closet you're finding Christmas presents?" Jim muttered loud enough for everyone to hear, and earned a good-sized bump on his head from his business partner for it.
'So worth it, though,' he thought, rubbing his head as Melfina babied him and Kou covertly flipped his dress, flashing Fred a look at Gene's legs.
"Why don't you come in?" Fred suggested, smiling and turning to give the crew of the 'Outlaw Star' a shot of what was going on inside.
They only saw two things before immediately declining: bobbing for apples in alcohol, which while enticing, they decided against when one of the bobbers threw up in the bucket; and someone running around with a moose head over his face. It was very entertaining to watch him drunkenly smack into the wall, however.
-
Much later that night, Jim sat, peeling the sticky remains of a goatee off his face, wincing as the glue stuck fast to his skin and pulled it off at odd angles. He was sitting next to his sister's girlfriend on the couch at home, who was sleeping soundly on his shoulder and watching as his older brother and sister ran around the company, Gene back in guy's clothing, trying to swat Kou with the black slippers.
"You'll go to Hell for hitting a priest, Starwind! I swear it! Just ask Kurt(6)!"
"Come back here, Hawking, and lemme get a good hit in!"
Aisha and Zurg were curled up on the end of the sofa, the sugar buzz wearing off at about four in the morning. Melfina and Suzuka had long gone seeking their beds. Jim was just up to make sure no one died.
"Jim," Gillium's robotic voice pulled him from watching his siblings try to kill each other.
"Yes Gillium?"
"I still want a cracker."
Jim just blinked at the feathered can.
-
1: Please don't ask what they're referring to. It just seemed appropriate.
2: From Zurg's story, 'Deus ex Machina' ( ). In the character's own words: "Hmm. Well, I am not any kind of humanoid as current science would know it, but rather a complex android. My body is composed entirely of nano robots that were programmed for growth along a fractal curve, and inadvertently assumed a humanoid structure, which I can assume was foreseen by my programmer. Essentially, my body developed like any other animal... I guess that makes me an artificially created humanoid."
3: The 'spit and prayer' line is originally from 'Artemis Fowl' by Eoin Colfer, but a friend (who is the basis of Taylor) loves to use it. Again, it just seemed appropriate.
4: Such as Chinese culture! ::puts on a red dress:: I know this for fact, since my fiancee is Chinese.
5: An actual line said by Nick in 'Trigun.
6: Kurt would be one of my fiancee's best friends, who's grandfather got the whole family excommunicated from the Catholic Church for hitting a nun. In his defense, however, she hit him first.
-
COSTUME KEY (in order of appearance)
Suzuka--Nun Melfina--Sexy Nurse Aisha--Dog Zurg--Roman, 'Deus ex Machina'
Taylor--Millie Thompson, 'Trigun'
Gillium--Parrot Jim--Captain Jack Sparrow, 'Pirates of the Carribean'
Kou--Nicholas D. Wolfwood, 'Trigun'
Gene--Standard Cross-dressing Male Fred--Elf (from Lord of the Rings)
-
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY! ::tosses candy::
-
The Misadventures of a Rogue Hawking
by Gracelyn Musica
Chapter Five
Happy Halloween, Starwind and Hawking Co!
-
"KOU! Door!"
Koushiro Hawking came out of the garage, oil smeared on her cheekbones. "Wha?"
"Door," Gene repeated, jerking his thumb at the door frame, where a young delivery man stood. The straw-haired man tipped his brown hat to her, smiling.
"Mornin' Kou," he smirked, nodding slightly.
"Charlie," Kou replied, nodding as well and grinning as the man handed her a clipboard. "Ooh, a present?"
"Dunno, that's for you to figure out," he replied, taking the hard wooden board and smiling brightly. "Thank you ma'am."
"Have a good one," Kou dismissed him, smiling as she closed the door.
"See? Why can't you go out with Charlie?"
"Because I like Taylor more," Kou told him in an uninterested tone, but she was flipping him off as she checked out the box. She nudged the wooden crate with the toe of her shoe.
"Who's it from?"
"Hell if I know." Kou shrugged, opening the attached letter. Something heavy and silver fell out of the envelope into her hand. She peered down at the metal, then read the letter. "Oh... My..." The bottled redhead was giggling madly.
Bad sign. "What is it?" Gene asked, worried.
"A present." Kou replied, smiling from ear to ear. "And this is a necklace." She looped the silver around her neck and smiled at Gene. "You like?"
Gene smiled at his sister. "Of course."
Kou rushed up to him, holding the pendant--a studded silver cross--up to the redheaded pilot for closer inspection. Gene held the heavy weight in his hand and ran his thumb over the cold metal. "Very pretty, Koushiro."
The teen smiled brightly, flung her arms around Gene's neck and planted a sloppy, sisterly kiss on his cheek. "Gene... I love you..."
The pilot sighed, stood and began attempting to lift the box.
-
"Jim! Come here please!"
The called-for blonde stuck his head into his older sister's room. "Yes?" Jim smiled at nodded at the other half-resident of the room. "Hello, Tay."
"Jim," the bluenette replied, wincing as her redheaded lover twisted her long blue-black hair into a tight bun.
"Jimmy, how would you like to embarrass our business partner?" Kou asked around a mouthful of bobby pins.
Jim perked up. "Embarrass Gene? Anything, sis."
"Even if it involved you dressing up?" she asked, shoving two into place in Taylor's long, thick hair.
"Ow..."
"Sorry dear."
"As long as I don't have to wear a dress," Jim replied.
"Aw, but Jim--"
"HE ALMOST KISSED ME LAST TIME! NO!" (1)
"Fine!" Kou sighed.
"What are you planning?"
"Nothing..." Kou grinned, smirking.
Jim rolled his eyes.
"However, I did get a letter from an old friend today... She's fond of folklore and such..." She carefully pushed the last pin in and admired her handiwork. "Do you know what Sunday is?"
"Halloween?"
"Correct. All Hallow's Eve. The day before All Saint's Day, still a Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church. In medieval times it was thought that on All Hallow's Eve, Satan and his cronies would cause havoc. People would literally never sleep that night. Over the millenia, however, it turned into an orgy of rampant consumerism--"
"How do you know so much?"
"I know the author," she replied with a wink.
Taylor smacked the side of her hip. "Stop knocking down the fourth wall."
"Yes ma'am."
"So, are we going trick-or-treating then?" Jim asked, getting back on topic.
"You're right, Kou, he is smart for a blonde!" Taylor smirked.
"Ho," Jim shot back fondly.
"Sounds like a plan, ne?" Kou asked, grinning at her brother over her lover.
"I'll go get some hair dye..." Jim sighed.
-
Sunday All Hallow's Eve was a huge problem for the Church, so they moved it to Saturday instead. This gave Kou, Jim and Taylor even less time then they originally planned on. Their plan was highly covert--meaning everyone knew about it.
Finally, the big day arrived. The crate was unsealed (releasing the wrath of GOD!!!! no... wait... wrong series) its contents distributed. Everyone was given a costume (for that is what the crate contained) and one by one they gathered in the living room as the sun sank below the sky line.
Suzuka was curled up on the couch, nursing a bottle of sake. While normally this wasn't unusual, the fact that she was dressed in the black and white habit of a nun was enough to crack a smile on the most stoic of faces.
Melfina sat next to the assassin, fingering the wooden prayer beads attached to the nun outfit. Although she had complained enough that Jim let out the hem of her skirt out a few inches (the boy can cook, fix things AND sew? why is he still single?!), she was still worried that the skirt was short. Mel was dressed as the steriotypical 'sexy nurse', in the tight white outfit with the pointy hat, and she idly wondered what Gene would do to the Hawkings when he saw her.
Aisha was dressed in her normal, everyday clothes with two noticible exceptions--huge drooping dog ears were fixed over her cat ones. She was frowning at them, grumbling about how cats were overall superior to dogs while batting at the silver tag emblazzoned 'FIDO'.
Her fiancee and childhood friend, Zurg, came out of the bathroom where he had been putting the finishing touches on his outfit. The male C'tar-C'tar was wearing an old outfit of Gene's: A black tee, black pants, wide leather belt and combat boots. The astonishing feature was, however, that every inch of dark tan fur was a pale green color. "How did you do that?" Aisha asked, smiling.
Zurg smiled back. Things between them since his appearance had been strained at first, but they were falling back into their old rythm, although Aisha had yet to accept him as her fiancee. "Green Kool-Aid," he replied, tucking his ears under a black wig, giving himself the illusion of having no ears.
"Who are you supposed to be?"
"Um..." the C'tar-C'tar considered his answer for a moment. "You know, it would take too long to explain... Just call me Roman(2)."
"NO! Nononononononononono..." the tortured scream of Gene came from upstairs. The four looked at one another, eyebrows raised.
Taylor giggled knowingly from her perch on the breakfast bar, holding Gillium in her hand. She was dressed in a crisp white shirt and khaki pants, leather suspenders over her shoulders and a purple tie around her neck. A large-barreled gun lay propped against the bar. "Stay still, ya tin can, or you'll lose all your feathers and get glue everywhere! Swear to God, held together by spit and prayer(3)..."
"Polly wants a cracker," Gillium replied in his robotic monotone.
"Oh, for Christ's sake," Jim's voice sighed from the top of the stairs. His mop of blonde hair was covered with a ratty, dreadlock-ridden black wig, complete with braids, beads, feathers, and a bone of questionable origin. A goatee and mustache was pasted on his usually fresh-shaven face, his hand resting on the cutlass strung around his waist. He was dressed in the usual pirate garb--leather boots, loose pants and shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a vest over that. He had a few gaudy rings on his fingers--loaned out from Taylor--and the whole look was tied off with a multicolored head scarf and a tri-point captain's hat. All in all, he looked 23, not 16, and was sure to turn some heads. "This is fucking ridiculous."
"What is, dressing up?" Melfina asked. Normally she would have scolded the blonde for his mouth, but she agreed that this was an extreme that called for such explicatives.
"That, and Gene acting a damn fool."
"I AM NOT ACTING A DAMN FOOL!" came the indignant reply.
"Oh shush. This just proves that you are insecure in your sexuality," Kou told him, using her newest excuse yet again and appearing next to Jim. She was wearing a black suit with a V-neck white undershirt that showed off just enough cleavage to ban her from a Disney cartoon. Dark shades covered her ice-blue eyes, and her hair had changed color yet again, this time to black. The silver chain from earlier dangled around her neck and matching crosses were sewn into the sleeves at the cuffs. A large white cross was slung across her back and she was chewing idly on the end of a candy cigarette.
"Come out Gene..." Jim and Kou called in identical singsong voices, sounding very much like something out of 'The Children of the Corn'. The redhead stepped out of the shadows and crossed his arms. "I hate you all."
"Let the record show that Mr. Starwind hates us all," Kou thundered out in her loudest voice.
"So noted!" Taylor called from her seat.
Jim rolled his eyes.
The rest of the room was stunned silent as Gene descended the stairs in a rather modest dress: A long, high-collared red Chinese style dress. There was a slit up the sides to his knee, and the capped sleeves showed off both his arm muscles and orange star tattoo. Flat black slipper-shoes covered his feet. Everyone managed to keep a straight face for a full five minutes until Zurg, voice trembling with contained laughter, announced, "You know, Gene, red is the color of brides in certain cultures(4)."
-
Ding-dong.
"TRICK OR TREAT!"
The woman blinked at the myriad of adults standing on her doorstep. "Excuse me, but aren't you all a little OLD to be trick-or-treating?"
"We're children at heart," Kou replied, smiling winningly at the housewife. "And if you don't believe that, consider this our trick."
'And I'll be damned, it's working,' Jim thought as the woman smiled back at his elder sister. All seven of them obediently held out their sacks as the lady filled them with sugary confections before bidding them goodnight and shutting her door.
"HOW do you do that?!" Jim demanded for the hundredth time as they turned back to the street, trudging next door.
"The Hawking touch, my dear boy, the Hawking touch," Kou replied, putting an arm around her little brother.
"Hawking touch my ass," Jim muttered as Taylor snickered.
"I hope for that every night."
"TOO MUCH INFORMATION!" the blonde bellowed, covering his ears and blushing.
Behind them, Suzuka, Gene and Mel walked in relative silence, Gene's face taking on a more natural hue. After getting over the initial shock of being out of his element (again, I dare to add. anyone else remember Jenny?), after about thirty minutes he realized that he was not the only male cross-dressing against his will tonight and that he was luckier than most--the group had witnessed no less than four men fall on their asses in stiletto pumps as the night progressed. He currently had his arm around Melfina's waist, contemplating the way things might turn out when he got out of the dress.
Aisha and Zurg brought up the rear, popping candy into their mouth as they all but skipped along. If you thought drunk C'tar-C'tar was bad, just wait 'til you catch them on sugar highs.
Kou snuck up quietly behind a group of children and snuck pieces of candy into their bags without their parental guardian noticing.
"You know, Koushiro, the point is to keep the candy, not to give it away," Suzuka told her. Kou looked upwards.
"O Lord, this world is full of prejudice(5)," she cried, raising her hands and earning odd looks from people across the street. "Gene, your turn to ring the bell."
Gene sighed, blowing a stray piece of hair out of his eyes as he sullenly walked up to the door and pushed the doorbell. Music flowed from behind the door, and lights flashed on and off in the windows.
"Someone's having a hoppin' party," Zurg commented right as the door opened.
And there stood Fred Lowe, dressed as an elf straight from Middle-Earth.
Gene's eyes widened in shock and awe. "Fred! What a... pleasant... surprise..."
Fred simply looked Gene up and down and declared, "I KNEW you couldn't be gay."
"For the LAST TIME TONIGHT, I. AM. NOT. GAY!" Gene shouted, punctuating every word.
"Right, and how do we know you're not so deep in the closet you're finding Christmas presents?" Jim muttered loud enough for everyone to hear, and earned a good-sized bump on his head from his business partner for it.
'So worth it, though,' he thought, rubbing his head as Melfina babied him and Kou covertly flipped his dress, flashing Fred a look at Gene's legs.
"Why don't you come in?" Fred suggested, smiling and turning to give the crew of the 'Outlaw Star' a shot of what was going on inside.
They only saw two things before immediately declining: bobbing for apples in alcohol, which while enticing, they decided against when one of the bobbers threw up in the bucket; and someone running around with a moose head over his face. It was very entertaining to watch him drunkenly smack into the wall, however.
-
Much later that night, Jim sat, peeling the sticky remains of a goatee off his face, wincing as the glue stuck fast to his skin and pulled it off at odd angles. He was sitting next to his sister's girlfriend on the couch at home, who was sleeping soundly on his shoulder and watching as his older brother and sister ran around the company, Gene back in guy's clothing, trying to swat Kou with the black slippers.
"You'll go to Hell for hitting a priest, Starwind! I swear it! Just ask Kurt(6)!"
"Come back here, Hawking, and lemme get a good hit in!"
Aisha and Zurg were curled up on the end of the sofa, the sugar buzz wearing off at about four in the morning. Melfina and Suzuka had long gone seeking their beds. Jim was just up to make sure no one died.
"Jim," Gillium's robotic voice pulled him from watching his siblings try to kill each other.
"Yes Gillium?"
"I still want a cracker."
Jim just blinked at the feathered can.
-
1: Please don't ask what they're referring to. It just seemed appropriate.
2: From Zurg's story, 'Deus ex Machina' ( ). In the character's own words: "Hmm. Well, I am not any kind of humanoid as current science would know it, but rather a complex android. My body is composed entirely of nano robots that were programmed for growth along a fractal curve, and inadvertently assumed a humanoid structure, which I can assume was foreseen by my programmer. Essentially, my body developed like any other animal... I guess that makes me an artificially created humanoid."
3: The 'spit and prayer' line is originally from 'Artemis Fowl' by Eoin Colfer, but a friend (who is the basis of Taylor) loves to use it. Again, it just seemed appropriate.
4: Such as Chinese culture! ::puts on a red dress:: I know this for fact, since my fiancee is Chinese.
5: An actual line said by Nick in 'Trigun.
6: Kurt would be one of my fiancee's best friends, who's grandfather got the whole family excommunicated from the Catholic Church for hitting a nun. In his defense, however, she hit him first.
-
COSTUME KEY (in order of appearance)
Suzuka--Nun Melfina--Sexy Nurse Aisha--Dog Zurg--Roman, 'Deus ex Machina'
Taylor--Millie Thompson, 'Trigun'
Gillium--Parrot Jim--Captain Jack Sparrow, 'Pirates of the Carribean'
Kou--Nicholas D. Wolfwood, 'Trigun'
Gene--Standard Cross-dressing Male Fred--Elf (from Lord of the Rings)
-
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY! ::tosses candy::