Notes:
I didn't expect to get this whole thing done in time for Halloween, and I didn't xD so here's the first of three parts!
This is tentatively set somewhere in sort of mid season 3 with Adrian and Solara, except One is alive because fuck him being dead, and Four and Six are around because I like having the whole original gang together.
Hope you enjoy some silly spooky shenanigans with the Raza crew, with hints at a budding One/Three – and happy Halloween!
-o~o-
"Halloween?"
"Yes!"
"Seriously?"
"Yes!"
Five wasn't taking no for an answer. As soon as she'd heard of this 'Halloween', she knew she wanted to do it. It sounded like so much fun. Dressing up in costumes, carving pumpkins, decorating everything with spider's webs and bats and ghosts – and, of course, trick or treating and getting loads of sweets. What was there not to like?!
Of course, as expected, a few of the crew could apparently find plenty not to like.
Three was making a face like she'd suggested they all go roll around in a big pile of mud. Four had yet to say anything, but it was pretty clear what he was thinking too: 'I will not be taking part in any of that childish nonsense.' Solara seemed to be in a similar camp.
Thankfully, the other five seemed a little less disgusted by the idea. One of them, in particular, was the opposite of disgusted.
"Halloween?! That's the thing with the spooky decorations and the costumes and the trick or treating and stuff, right? Oh, yes! I am so in!" Adrian was grinning like an overexcited kid, and it made Five really happy to see someone was as into this idea as she was.
"Great!" She grinned back at him.
The others seemed okay it with too, though they mostly looked amused at her passionate insistence and over-the-top excitement – but even if they just joined in to humour her, she'd take that. She'd soon get them to love it, too.
"You guys are in too, right?" she asked, half pleading, as she looked at Two, One, Six and the android.
Two, smirking a little, said, "Sure, I'm down."
Still grinning, Five turned to One. He shrugged, with a small smile curving his lips.
"Yeah, why not," he said.
The android looked intrigued.
"I am also interested in taking part," she confirmed.
Lastly, Six laughed a little when Five turned her grin on him.
"Sounds like fun," he agreed.
Triumphant, Five turned back to Three, Four and Solara.
"That's six against three," she told them.
Three just looked at her in dismay for a long moment, as though waiting for her grin to fade. But he was out of luck.
Eventually, he looked desperately around at the others instead. They just shrugged.
"Why not?" Two said. "It won't hurt you. And it might be fun."
Three just kept gaping in disbelief. Solara was also looking mildly disgusted.
"Well, I have no problem with the rest of you putting on this event," Four said steadily, "as long as you don't expect to force me to take part."
With that, he turned and left. Five watched his retreating back with a mixture of disgruntlement and disappointment. But definitely not surprise.
"That goes for me too," Solara said firmly, and then she followed him out.
Adrian looked like he wanted to call after her, but thought better of it, and just fell into a slightly sad expression.
Three gave Five a tired look. "Something tells me you're not gonna let me get away with that, are you?"
She returned a winning smile. "Nope."
-o-
So it was settled. They were doing Halloween… with the exception of Four and Solara, who Five didn't really have the courage to try and persuade. Three, on the other hand, she was totally fine with forcing into participating. And he knew not to mess with her.
So on the next station, they went shopping (with a couple of exceptions of course, and one highly reluctant companion). It took them a while to find somewhere that sold Halloween decorations – the holiday wasn't really celebrated all that much nowadays –, but eventually they found a little homeware shop that had a section at the back with seasonal decorations. Five and Adrian grinned at each other and ran straight for them, while Two, One and Six laughed softly at their eagerness. Three groaned and dragged his feet as he followed slowly behind everyone else.
A short while later, they left the shop with bags bursting, full of fake cobwebs and spiders and bats to hang from the ceiling and banners with little pumpkins on, and more besides. The android also found a Halloween cookbook that she could use to learn how to cook all sorts of spooky treats for them all.
Next, they headed down to the food markets to look for pumpkins to carve. They soon found some, in a variety of sizes – and everyone that wanted to do one picked out one they liked. Three, after Five gave him a look, grumbled and picked out the smallest one he could find, which wasn't much larger than a tennis ball. Five sighed, but let it go. She also chose a couple of smallish ones for Four and Solara just in case they changed their minds, and they found some packs of candles to go inside the finished jack-o'-lanterns, along with matches to light them.
After that, they looked around the food stalls more generally, the android picking up anything she needed for her cooking. They also stocked up on drinks for after the trick or treating, when they were planning to have a mini party in the mess hall. This was the only bit that Three seemed enthusiastic about, making sure they had plenty of whisky as he 'was going to need it to get through all this kiddy bullshit'.
They then headed back to the ship to drop everything off, before splitting up to go buy their costumes. Five wanted them all to be a surprise. They'd also pick up their individual supplies for trick or treating, and any more decorations they wanted for their quarters. Five was also going to look for any music she could find. She had been trying to fix an old CD player she'd found for a while, and was finally pretty much done – but she only had two CDs so far, and they'd want more than that for the party. Maybe she could even find some spooky songs.
Before they parted, Five met Three's disgruntled expression with a strict one of her own. She didn't need to say anything – it was pretty clear exactly what it meant. 'If you come back without a costume and something for trick or treat… you'll regret it.' He sighed, but looked unhappily resigned.
"I am not happy about this, kid. I hope you get that."
She just smiled. "I do."
But she knew that would change. Three was just stubborn, and didn't want to be into something as cheesy as this – so he refused to be. But she knew, if he let himself, he would definitely enjoy it. Especially the party bit.
So the seven of them split up and began the search, and about an hour later, they all met back at the ship with full bags. Three's was rather small, and Five eyed him suspiciously.
"I got something!" he said defensively.
She kept eyeing him, but didn't say anything. She just hoped for his sake that he had.
-o-
Later that day, the decorating began. They split up into three groups, and were each allocated to a couple of the main areas of the ship – the mess, the bridge, the training room, the infirmary, the larger storage rooms, some of the the primary thoroughfare corridors, and the Marauder too, even though they weren't planning to use it. They covered them all in spray-on fake cobwebs, hanging up orange and green banners, dotting fake spiders and skeletons around on the tables and boxes. Five climbed up into the vents to help hang bats and ghosts from the ceilings. They dipped their hands in washable red paint and left bloody marks and handprints on the walls and floors. It took a while, with how big the ship was – but with all of them helping it wasn't as daunting a task as it could've been. Even Three, while complaining loudly the whole time, did chip in enough to make a difference. Although he did also mess around more than was probably helpful. He was with Five and One, and he kept getting distracted 'decorating' them instead of the ship. Cobweb spray went everywhere, more than once he threw the pretend spiders at Five and made her scream, and he managed to get his fake-bloody handprints all over both his companions – including both their faces, by sneaking up behind them when they were sticking banners to the walls. One was thoroughly fed-up by the end of it, though he did look like he was forcing himself not to laugh too, on principle – especially as he saw how ridiculous he looked in the mirror, like a red and white monster, clothes and face covered in paint, hair white with cobwebs. Three hadn't stopped laughing either, which didn't seem to be helping One's desire to join in. Five probably should've been annoyed at him wasting so much time, but she wasn't. For once he'd actually been enjoying himself, and ultimately that was the whole point of this.
By the end of the day, they had a fully decorated spooky ship. They all met up to look around at it all together. When the others saw Five and One, all covered in 'blood' and spiderwebs, they struggled not to laugh.
"What happened to you two?" Six asked, badly suppressing his smirk.
"He did," One said wearily, pointing at Three.
Three grinned back innocently, and the others' expressions instantly became ones of complete understanding.
They began their tour of the newly decorated ship as a group. And it all looked fantastic. Five saw that everyone else's sections had turned out just as good as the ones she, One and Three had decorated. She grinned around at everything, eyes lit up in wonderment.
"It looks amazing!" she said gleefully.
"Yeah, it does," agreed Two. "Great work guys."
"This is going to be such a fun night!" Adrian squeaked excitedly.
-o-
The next day, it was pumpkin carving. They all located the pumpkin they'd picked out on the station, grabbed a knife, and got to work. First they had to cut out a circular section of the top, to lift off like a lid. Then, using a big spoon, they scooped out all the insides, piling it into bowls for the android to use later in pumpkin pie.
Three grumbled the whole way through the process, as usual, deliberately taking forever to scoop out his pumpkin's innards. And given how small it was, that was an accomplishment in itself.
"Oh, come on – cheer up!" One finally said to him. "It's just a bit of fun!"
Three just glared at him. "This is not fun. It's stupid."
"You were having fun yesterday, getting me and Five all covered in paint and cobwebs," One pointed out.
"Well, I can cover you in pumpkin if you want –"
"No! Never mind!"
Three smirked a little as he carried on slowly scooping. One huffed and left him to it.
Once they each had a hollow pumpkin, they started on their faces, using a knife to carve holes out of the pumpkin's tough outer layer. When Five spotted One carving something into the top right corner of his, she was curious.
"What're you doing there?" she asked.
"Oh…" One looked a little embarrassed as he turned it slightly to show her. "I'm just… carving my number," he said.
Sure enough, she saw that he was partway through carving the number '1' into his pumpkin. Five couldn't help thinking that was kind of adorable.
"Oh, that's a great idea!" she said brightly. She looked around at the others. "Guys – we should all carve our numbers in as well! Then we can put them in order when we display them."
The others were all up for that idea too (Three just rolled his eyes). Then Adrian stuck up his hand like a kid in school.
"Um… what about me?" he asked, looking a little sad to be left out.
Five thought about it for a moment.
"You could do an 'A'," she suggested. "And the android can be zero? As she never got a number, but she's part of the original crew. Plus it's like binary – zeros and ones."
The android smiled a little. "Okay."
Adrian grinned eagerly. "Yeah, that's great! Thanks!"
So as well as coming up with a face for their pumpkins, they also added their numbers (or letters) in the top right corner. Three did his number and then just sat there scowling at his pumpkin for a few minutes, until Five and One looked at him, and then he sighed loudly and grabbed the knife again. In a sudden and violent motion, he jabbed the knife into the pumpkin, and roughly hacked out a small triangle. Then another. Then two lines for angry, downturned eyebrows. And finally one big jagged hacked out hole for the mouth. Then, with his ugly, rough-hewn face complete, he thumped the knife down on the table and gave a wry smirk.
"Done," he said, as he shoved his chair back from the table and stood up.
Five looked at him in frustration, but he just kept smirking complacently – she never said his face had to be good. And then he turned and left. Five sighed.
"Well, he did it," she said exasperatedly. "Guess I can't complain…"
One shook his head in annoyance. "He's such a miserable bastard," he said. "And he'd try and say I'm the party pooper on this ship."
Two and Six chuckled.
"He's just being stubborn. We'll get him eventually," Two said, smirking. "I know it."
Soon enough, they'd all finished their pumpkins. They exhibited a variety of facial expressions, from happy to angry to scared to evil. Some were fairly complex, with eyebrows and noses and other facial features; some more simple, just eyes and mouths with jagged teeth. Adrian and Five, in particular, had gone all out, creating very detailed pictures in their pumpkin canvas. Five's was as close as she could get to a skull, grinning widely and looking very cheerful; and Adrian had done a dog, with floppy ears and its tongue sticking out. Five had also carved Four's number in his pumpkin, and 'S' in Solara's – not that she expected them to turn up and carve one, but just because she wanted the complete set.
They got out the candles, opened their pumpkins and placed them inside, before lighting them. Then they set them up around the room in order – 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, S –, and the android dimmed the lights in the room so they could get the full effect. They looked really quite impressive. The golden glow of the fire spilled out of the carved holes in their pumpkins, illuminating the faces and the numbers and letters. It was a little disheartening, having Three's scruffy hacked out face and Four and Solara's blank pumpkins ruining the line-up – but the rest of them were delightful, so they couldn't be too bummed.
"Don't they look amazing?!" Five exclaimed, grinning around at everyone.
"Yeah, they do," Two agreed, smiling.
"I'm not so sure about mine," Six said, laughing a little. "I'm not a natural artist."
"Me neither," said One, looking a little sheepish and tilting his head slightly to the side. "The eyes are lopsided…"
"Oh, don't be silly," Five said to them both. "They're both great! And they don't have to be perfect – they're not meant to be real faces anyway, right? Maybe your pumpkin is meant to have wonky eyes to look more creepy!"
One chuckled. "Yeah, I guess that's true."
"Yours is amazing, though, Five," Two said, and the others nodded.
"Yeah – you're definitely the best artist among us," One agreed, smiling at her.
She smiled back, feeling a little self-conscious. "Thanks," she said shyly. "I really like Adrian's too."
Adrian looked flattered. "Oh – thank you! I took an art class once on Rigel 7 and I always thought I had a bit a talent, but, you know, I never thought about actually doing more with it…"
He trailed off when he saw everyone looking at him in amusement, and grinned sheepishly.
"We, uh, mainly did dogs though, so…"
"I'm quite proud of mine," the android chimed in. She had done a fairly realistic looking smiling face, and it was definitely one of the more technically proficient pieces of art on display.
"Oh, yeah – yours is great too!" Five assured her with a smile. The others all nodded.
"All in all, I think the only one who could really do with an art class is Three," Six concluded, shaking his head.
"Well, I guess it is scary," One said.
Five laughed. "There's something to be said for that…"
"Should we… do something on Four and Solara's?" One asked. "It looks so… bad, just having those blank ones…"
"Yeah… but…" Five's brow furrowed a little. "I don't know. I think we should wait. Just in case they change their minds."
One looked a little sad, knowing how unlikely that was. But he nodded. "Yeah. I guess you never know."