Day 2: Seasons

August was in full swing in Satisfaction Town, and to many residents' delight, so was the transitional nature of the month. Some types of trees were already turning yellow, and other trees were shedding their pods all over the streets. Many houses were beginning to display celebrations of Harvest in their yards, from decorative scarecrows to wooden or metal signs featuring pumpkins and gourds.

Scotch, of course, was in seventh Heaven planning his yearly haunted house. He spent hours designing all the rooms and determining what scary things would appear in each one. Biff tended to stay far away from him during such planning sessions.

Radley chuckled one evening as he leaned over the counter with clasped hands and watched. "Scotch wishes it was Halloween every day, and this is around the time of year when the rest of the world starts to catch up," he remarked.

Kalin sighed. "I found Halloween morbidly wonderful as a Dark Signer," he said. "The gorier and more grotesque, the better. The kid-level displays were a joke to me. Of course, no matter how sick some of the displays and haunted houses got, they paled in comparison with what I could do or make people see as a Dark Signer. I laughed a lot about that too."

Radley frowned a bit. Kalin didn't often discuss his time as a Dark Signer, especially not willingly. For him to bring it up now meant that his Halloween views had made a pretty big impact on him and still did. "And now?" he asked.

Kalin shrugged. "I'm not sure. The focus on death might have been fine to me when I first returned, but now that my mind is clear and I've almost lost you more than once . . . not to mention remembering what I almost did to Yusei . . ." He shuddered.

Radley straightened and went over to him, gently pulling him into a sweet hug. "It's okay if you're not comfortable," he said softly. "I'm not the greatest fan of the macabre aspects either. The cute costumes are fine, and the candy, and the games that are more Harvest-oriented, but I don't really get the love of gross and disgusting stuff or celebrating death."

Kalin clutched him close. "You like supporting Scotch, though."

"Well, of course I'll make that exception for him and go through his haunted houses," Radley smiled. "I always have. I do appreciate that at least he's not into the really sick imagery even though he loves the spooky ghosties."

"That's a good thing," Kalin agreed. He sighed. "I guess I can make that exception too."

"It means a lot to Scotch," Radley said. "He hoped you would check out his house this year."

Kalin quirked an eyebrow. "He did?"

"Oh yeah. You're part of the family, you know. Your opinion holds weight." Radley chuckled. "Even if he doesn't take whatever suggestions you might make for changing things."

"Scotch is confusing. He wants every day to be Halloween, but he also loves Christmas that much," Kalin commented.

"And combining both things is his dream come true," Radley said in amusement. "Hence why The Nightmare Before Christmas is his favorite movie."

"What about you?" Kalin wondered.

"I can take or leave the movie," Radley chuckled. "I do like the friendship parts."

"I mean about holidays . . . seasons," Kalin said.

"I like Thanksgiving and Christmas way more than Halloween," Radley said. "But seasons . . . I like any that's good for motorcycling. Even winter usually works for that around here. Summer . . . summer's usually too hot. Spring and Fall, they're the best as far as I'm concerned."

"I don't think I ever really had a favorite," Kalin said. "Not because I liked them all, but because there are things I don't like about all of them. You're right about the extremes being the worst, though. Winter in the Satellite was brutal and summer wasn't much better."

"At least you can finally enjoy some nicer winters and summers here," Radley said.

"Yeah." Kalin hugged Radley as Scotch continued to blissfully sketch. Radley was a lot of the reason why he could enjoy them. And from the way Radley leaned into the hug and returned it, he understood that too.