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Ina stared up towards the night sky, watching the expanse of stars blinking in and out above her head with a soft, longing smile. She was so high up, she felt as though she could reach out and touch the stars with her hand.
She wondered if she could spot her friend from here. Maybe one of the stars was her. She probably was lingering closer, after all, it was Halloween, and the Speaker loved Halloween quite a lot.
She is there, little one. The voices in her head whispered, calm, comforting. Ina smiled, nodding as she opened her book.
"...Think you can do me a favor AO-Chan?"
Of course, Ina'nis.
"Good, because I have something in mind..."
“I’ll get it!” Gura called over her shoulder as the doorbell rang. She scampered across the party, footsteps offsetting the steady thump of bass-boosted Halloween classics blaring from the speakers.
“Howdy campers, what brings you here?” Gura gave a toothy grin, pulling down the big hood of her raincoat to greet the new arrivals. Said new arrivals were Holoh3roes, all dressed in their costumes. Zeta was, ironically enough, dressed as a robber, an old cartoony one with the striped shirt and everything. Kaela was dressed as a pilot, though it seemed more like an excuse to keep her goggles and bandanna, it looked less like a full on costume and more so something made of stuff she found in her closet. Did beg the question of why she had a pilot jacket…
“Trick or treat!” Beamed the smallest and most costume-y of the three, aka Kobo dressed up in a cheap looking but endearing princess costume, looking absolutely thrilled.
“Would say smell my feet but we all know what you’d pick.” Zeta gave a shit-eating grin that was quickly met with a glare as Gura stepped aside with a grumble. Immediately Kobo raced in, grinning ear to ear in excitement and quickly getting the phoenix’s attention.
“Aww, I love your costume, liebling!” Kiara cooed immediately, rushing from her place on the couch to scoop Kobo up into her arms with a big smile, giving her a little spin. Kobo giggled at that, kicking her legs with childish glee.
“Yeah, you look great kiddo.” Calli smiled softly as she made her way over. Kobo giggled excitedly, reaching over and pulling her cowboy hat over her eyes.
“Thanks daddy!” She beamed, pulling both of her adoptive parents into a hug in spite of Kiara carrying her. Kiara just gave a bright laugh and Calli gave a flustered and embarrassed grumble in response.
“Well look what the cat-burglar dragged in!” Giggled a different voice from inside, and when the other two new arrivals glanced over, they were greeted with the sight of a certain detective with a… Paper bag on her head? It looked like a pair costume with Gura’s big raincoat, weirdly enough.
“Oh hush up Watson!” Zeta pouted, throwing her prop money bag directly at her head and knocking the bag off. Amelia didn’t even seem phased, she seemed more amused than anything else as she raised her glass of punch in a mockery of a toast and downed it like a shot in spite of mostly being cherry sprite and raspberry ice cream.
“Zeta, please stop being embarrassing.” Kaela sighed, shaking her head in disappointment. Zeta just gave a sheepish smile and the two walked into the party, making their way to get drinks and the like when-
“OH GOD DAMNIT!” Screeched the normally soft spoken Tempus guild leader, perched in an almost gargoyle-ish crouch in spite of the clunkiness his knight costume gave him as he frantically tried to regain his previous lead in Mario Kart.
“Get Magged, bitch! GET MAGGED!” Magni cackled like a maniac, somehow managing to keep getting shells to throw at Altaire in spite of how his usual strat of using all his hands at once wasn’t possible at the moment thanks to him swapping his cape out for a mummy costume.
“Children, all of you.” Vesper remarked, calmly sipping his punch. It hardly looked like he changed outfits at all, sans his suit being a tanner shade with a steampunk sort of hat on his head.
“Shut up boomer.” Kronii growled from her spot in last place, trying not to get tangled up in the cape of her vampire costume as she stewed in rage.
“Kronii, calm down.” Fauna pouted, nursing her cup of punch as she sat calmly on the sofa, adjusting the witch's hat on her head and fumbling with the pumpkin decoration pinned to the band.
“I AM CALM! I AM PERFECTLY CALM!” Kronii shouted, nearly throwing her controller with her fangs bared and her teeth grit, hands gripping the switch controllers so hard she was nearly cracking them.
“If you break those you’re paying for the replacement!” Gura shouted over her shoulder as she grabbed another bag of snacks, taking a seat next to the detective. Kronii grumbled, but relented, though her swearing didn’t lessen whatsoever.
“Aww, no one likes a sore loser, but I’ll still like you!” Mumei beamed from under her hockey mask, her sweet tone contrasting quite a lot to her creepily on model Jason costume complete with dried fake(?) blood that was swiftly ruined by the stupidest looking toy chainsaw she could find that didn’t even make actual chainsaw noises, it was just someone saying the words ‘vroom vroom!’ Very… Mumei.
“Yeah yeah…” Kronii sighed, trying to ignore her girlfriend leaning fully on her with a big smile. She’d like to keep some shred of her dignity after all…
“You guys- Youuu guys having fun over there?” Bae slurred from her place near the jukebox, currently on her… Well. Non-punch drink. It was her first cup, but Chaos wasn’t known for holding her liquor well, though the mad hatter costume definitely helped with making it a little less obvious.
“I mean Dez seems like he’s having fun.” Irys giggled, arm around the embodiment's shoulders, fully content to rest her head against hers, looking as happy as a cat curled up to their favorite person. Fitting, considering she was dressed as the Cheshire cat.
“SON OF A FUCK-”
“Don’t think Altairees havin’ funnn…” Bae giggled, leaning more heavily into the nephilim as Magni won the sixth race of the evening with a triumphant cheer and victory screech.
It was delightful and hilarious chaos for several minutes, that is until one final doorbell went off and everyone went quieter. There were only two guests missing, after all. All eyes turned as Gura went to open the door, revealing Ina and a much taller figure wearing matching Team Rocket costumes with the latter wearing an especially goofy looking Meowth mask.
“Prepare for trouble!” Ina grinned, striking a silly pose. It took about all of two seconds before the latter let out a familiar excited giggle and pulled up the mask to reveal the Speaker of Space grinning from ear to ear.
“And make it double!” Sana struck a similar goofy pose, making for a rather silly looking pair. Everyone was quiet for a few moments…
Emphases on ‘a few.’
“SANANAA!” Kobo yipped, racing towards them and nearly bowling over Gura in the process, jumping up and latching onto the Speaker with her arms and legs like a koala, looking absolutely beside herself with joy.
“Hey Kobo, long time no see! It’s not a barbie, but I hope this sort of counts for now!” Sana smiled brightly, looping her arms under the shaman to keep her from falling off and hurting herself.
“Mhm mhm!” Kobo nodded excitedly, dropping from her perch and back to the ground with some help from the Speaker, still visibly bouncing in excitement.
“Welcome back, Sana.” The Keeper stood and walked over, smiling a small and soft smile. Sana gave her own dorkier and awkward smile, rubbing the back of her neck.
“Glad to be back, hope I uh, didn’t crash the party too badly. You, u-uh, look nice.” Sana stumbled through the sentence, avoiding eye contact with the Kirin. She just giggled at that, going in for a hug that made the Speaker jump a little.
“Not at all, we’re all happy you’re here. Your costume’s cute.” Fauna smiled as she pulled back, giggling softly. Sana’s smile widened at that, cheeks darkening slightly before a chorus of exaggerated ‘awww’s mixed with gagging went across the room from their many grinning friends.
“She’s been back for three minutes and you guys are already making fun of her, what has this world come to?” Ina pouted, making her way over to the couch to peek at the leaderboard.
“Being little shits to each other is a love language.” Amelia answered seriously, taking a comically loud swig of her punch that was met with laughter and groaning of equal measure at the sheer volume.
“Well anyways, since you’re here, why don’t we put on some Halloween movies? I think Altaire and Kronii are one more round from breaking Gura’s TV.” Kiara suggested with a big goofy smile. There was a murmur of agreement and even a few excited nods at the prospect, though there were a few angry grumbles from the two who got called out.
“Oh, should we watch HalloweenTown?” Gura suggested, tail thumping against the couch with how hard it was wagging.
“A Christmas Carol?” The detective suggested, only for the bag to get pulled down further over her eyes.
“Of course you would want to watch a scary Christmas movie and call it a Halloween movie!” Gura huffed, though her smile betrayed her attempt at an annoyed tone.
“Oh come on, it totally is one! Ina, back me up here!” Amelia whined, hanging off of the Atlantian and looking over at the priestess for support.
“Sorry Ame, you’re on your own on this one. Also isn’t you two dressing like that a little. Uh. Morbid?” Ina asked, tilting her head and headflaps twitching at the memories associated with those costumes.
“I mean, I didn’t die die, did I?” Amelia shrugged, an arm instinctively going around her shark that immediately leaned into her with a bit of a protective embrace.
“...I feel like I’m missing some context here.” Axel piped up as he entered the room after a quick idol meeting, thoroughly confused as he was in the middle of putting back on the jacket of the werewolf costume that had already gotten him plenty of jeers and laughs from how ridiculous the fake fur looked next to his actual tails.
“Eh don’t worry about it. Anyways, where we droppin’ boys?” Amelia handwaved the concern, picking up the TV remote and opening up the selection screen for streaming services.
“Oh wait, what if we do a little marathon of Halloween movies so we don’t have to fight over which movie to watch?” Altaire suggested as he politely went to turn off the Switch itself.
“Oh yeah, great idea! Doesn’t help us figure out what to watch first though.” Amelia hummed, quickly accepting her fate of being one big pillow for the shark to lay on.
“What about Hocus Pocus?” Calli suggested, being met with immediate excited cheers from a good chunk of those present. That is until there was a small tug on her sleeve and she looked down, red meeting ocean blue.
“What’s Hocus Pocus?” Kobo asked, tilting her head in confusion. A moment of silence came across the Americans in the group before she was quickly plucked from the ground by the reaper and promptly set in her lap on the couch.
“We’re watching Hocus Pocus.” Calli said with such seriousness and finality that it drew a chorus of laughter from the group. At first Calli glared at that but eventually joined in on the laughter, rolling her eyes with a fond smile.
“You heard the woman, press play!” Kiara ordered, taking a seat next to Calli and Kobo, much to the former's chagrin and the latters delight.
“Alright! Let’s do this!” Amelia cheered as everyone went to gather around the couch, pulling up their own chairs when they ran out of couch space as the iconic opening to one of the greatest Halloween movies started rolling…
“Alright, we probably should get going, we have a quest tomorrow.” Altaire gave an apologetic smile as Tempus made their way out the door. A quiet murmur of goodbyes and ‘see you soons’ were given, and then they were gone, much like the two older members of Holoh3roes a half hour before them for similar reasons. Now they would’ve been much louder about saying goodbye to their long lost senpai, but volume would’ve been… Problematic.
Kobo had managed to stay awake throughout the entire first movie after insisting on staying the night with the others, but by the time they got to the second HalloweenTown movie she was well on her way to dreamland, snuggled up to the reaper and sleeping soundly there without a care in the world. Calli couldn’t help but smile gently at that, wrapping an arm around the girl and resting her chin on top of her head.
Kiara just smiled softly at that in of itself, leaning over to rest her head against her shoulder. Calli paused for a moment, glancing at the phoenix, but after a few moments, her smile grew small and more vulnerable, leaning her head against the girls. Kiara just smiled brighter.
A certain shark was starting to doze off too, though the detective gently rubbing her back and a hand through her hair was definitely the culprit. Her tail whisked about lazily, fully content right where she was.
Bae, quite frankly, was passed out from the singular can of 5% beer she had earlier. Irys didn’t mind at all considering they were sitting on the floor and Bae’s head was in her lap and the rat girl wasn’t awake to pretend she didn’t like doing so, so a win-win for her.
Kronii on the other hand was clearly trying to act fully awake, but the exhaustion of preparations and her general duties practically came off of her in waves. …Which is why Mumei had promptly decided to get up and plonk herself down right in the Warden’s lap, much to her embarrassment and chagrin, but Mumei had just smiled and leaned back into her, making it clear that she wasn’t going to give up her perch. Kronii just sighed and resigned herself to her fate as her girlfriend’s pillow. The Guardian’s plan seemed to work considering Kronii was out like a light, arms curled around her waist and face buried in her hair. She just smiled softly at that, snuggling further into the Warden…
Sana was being flanked on both sides by the priestess and Kirin, not to say that she cared all that much about being trapped between two of her favorite people in the universe in a house filled with the rest of those most important to her. She was starting to get a bit tired, after all this was a lot of energy after not interacting much with others in space, but she was perfectly content with being tired if that meant being with her friends again. She struggled to keep her eyes open, not quite wanting this night to end yet…
But, as time went on, one by one, the rest of EN started nodding off, the adventures of whatever Disney Channel star of that particular era quickly forgotten and left to drone on as white noise more than anything else. Eventually the only one left awake was mother nature herself, looking over the peacefully sleeping forms of her friends. She smiled softly and hesitantly moved from her place next to the Speaker to grab blankets when everyone started shivering a little at the night’s cold chill. Slowly and with care she placed blankets over and around her friends, biting back ‘aww’s at the state of most of them. When she made it back to her seat with the last blanket, she was immediately met with distantly familiar arms wrapping around her, tugging her close like a teddy bear. She couldn’t help but give a soft giggle at that, eyes sad, but fond.
“I missed you too.” She whispered, pressing a soft kiss to her temple, wrapping the blanket snugly around them. Sana just buried her face in the Keeper’s hair, letting out a soft, contented sigh.
“...Love you….” She mumbled.
Her heartbeat paused for a moment.
She was probably asleep. Probably dreaming. Probably not talking to her. But, right now, in the dark, surrounded by the people she cared about and warm blankets and a warmer body, she could let herself pretend for a moment that this was anything but temporary.
And that was enough for her.