Happy Halloween!

[mosaic_archive]

It might be a good idea to carry an umbrella when walking in the open area of the Nexus today. Not because of rain, however, but because of a light shower of wrapped fun-sized candies that started when a threshold number of portals reached midnight on October 30th (or the first second of the 31st, depending on how you look at it) and will continue until the same conditions for midnight October 31st.

The free candy is perfectly safe. The ground fog playing over the grassy field, however, carries an LOL with the following effects: If someone is not in costume they suddenly will be (mun's choice), and may have abilities to match whatever they're costumed as. An example would be someone in a ghost costume gaining the temporary ability to float or walk through walls. If someone is already in a costume they might get related abilities, but will otherwise be partly immune. All effects will wear off at the same time as the end of the candy shower.

In other words: Happy Halloween, everyone.

Comments

[dee_lorean81]

"A few hours? And you're already out in the Nexus?" Dee is impressed -- it took her a couple of days of running around Chicago in confusion before she ventured through the scary door into this mess of conflicting timelines. "Well, good place to practice, I suppose. Plenty of room to walk!"

"Yeah -- the video games I was into before shit went down weren't big on plot," Marty says sympathetically. "That all came later. . . That's pretty horrible, though. Must have been tough on those of you who knew the old Wily."

"You'd think someone at some point would have blamed the fellow who sabotaged the teleporter," Alice says, frowning. "He's the one who sounds like he could use blaming."

[pogo_boy]

Little Blaine nods again under the bedsheet. "There is Trick or Treat. Quint didn't want me to miss it, even though I am new to this and new to them. I don think I'm really new, though... but I don't remember how old I am. Big Blaine took most of the memories with him. I have always been smaller than Big Blaine - or Patricia, before she was gone - so now I am smaller than the other Wilybots like Quint. I think this makes sense." And he hasn't been left alone in all of the time since the left Lud.

Quint nods. "Just Blues, and me, really... and I only know what he was like because I met a sane alternate here. He... took care of me when I first showed up here. Then one day the pocket reality he stayed in didn't connect to the Nexus any more."

"I'm not sure the exact person was ever identified, just the group that claimed credit for the explosion. Blues might know, or maybe not. I know he's not saying... except that right after Ragnarok, he told us the last of them had been, um... that they were gone." Had a dinner party to attend, with hungry dinosaurs, to be exact.

[dee_lorean81]

"Well, that was nice of him," Dee says, with a glance back at Quint. "And yeah, age is tough when you're not a human. I'm pretty sure I'm older than a little kid, but I kinda like this body." She sweeps her hand up and down her flesh. "So if what you got makes sense to you, go with it."

The group shares a sad look as Quint explains about the Wily alternate. "We've had that happen too," Marty says. "It sucks."

"Never pleasant to have to give up a friend," Doc agrees. "Hopefully our realities will remain connected for a long time to come."

There's a bit of side-eyeing at that last statement. They may not know what exactly Blues did, but the way Quint backtracked just a little there. . .they can take a few guesses. "Well, sounds like they're certainly no threat anymore," Alice says diplomatically. "Which is the important part."

[pogo_boy]

"Yes, it was. I think he is a nice person. And they tell me candy is nice. I haven't eaten any of it yet. I haven't eaten anything yet..." He's a little worried about the details of it, all that chewing and so on. If it's as complicated as walking, and picking things like eggs up without breaking them...

Quint nods, face serious. He wouldn't have censored it if not for the children present - though, all things considered, he knows Little Blaine has experienced far worse than most of what he could ever mention. "Yeah. At least it's over now. For Dr. Wily, too. And maybe, someday, there will be more good stuff than bad for people to remember."

[dee_lorean81]

"He seems that way," Dee confirms, then grins. "And candy is awesome! Unless it's a gross kind like licorice. Though I guess somebody must like it if they keep making it." She shrugs. "Wanna try a piece? There's plenty here thanks to the candy storm."

Dee's gone through her fair share of shit as well, honestly -- being stolen by Biff, struck by lightning multiple times, that extremely close call with the train. . .but nobody in this group really wants to hear about somebody getting torn apart by dinosaurs, so all for the best he not get into the details. "Someday," Alice agrees. "It just -- takes time."

"Yeah, we're living proof," Marty says with a slight, sad smile. "We've all got our share of bad stuff in our past, but these days. . .I think I've got more good memories than bad."

[pogo_boy]

Little Blaine considers that, and nods slowly. "But not licorice." Because he will believe her that it's gross.

Quint nods. "It's already better for my family. A lot better. But it'll take other people from our world longer than that to see us as something other than... semi-retired weapons of mass destruction." He can't help a chuckle, some of his siblings introduced themselves as such, and it really was reasonably accurate.

[dee_lorean81]

"Good idea," Dee says. She'll start rooting through the available candy for something she thinks Blaine might like. "How about a Kit-Kat?" she says, holding up one of those mini two-bar ones. "They're crunchy."

"Yeaaah, that's not something you shake overnight," Marty says, with a quirk of his eyebrow. "But hopefully things'll keep getting better for you guys. Always gotta look to the future, right?"

[pogo_boy]

Little Blaine nods. "Crunchy... That means it needs to be chewed?" He hopes he gets this right.

Quint nods. "Doing that is what got us where we are, in a way. Not just me knowing some future things that I wanted to make sure didn't happen, but...there used to be alternates here, back when things were busy, from futures we didn't like. And even after that, there were the games... some of those had events that hadn't happened yet for us, even if our own world had changed so most of it couldn't be exactly the same any more."

"I don't know if... Weil might have won if the games hadn't been enough of a clue to prepare for what he was planning. He was just one of those people who... you always feel like they're playing chess ten moves ahead of you." Which is bad, when they're the enemy.

[dee_lorean81]

"Yeah, some," Dee confirms. "There's not a lot of stuff you can eat without chewing. It's not like a Tootsie Roll or Milk Dud, though -- those need a lot of chewing, and they can get stuck to your teeth."

"Yikes -- people like that are scary," Marty admits, grimacing. The Fae had felt like that, a bit -- with the added "bonus" of being able to change the rules of the game whenever they felt like it. "I guess it's really lucky you guys got all that future knowledge to outsmart him."

"Indeed -- my own movie counterpart might panic about that sort of thing, but it seems to have done you nothing but good," Doc nods. "That version of me seemed to be a little overly anxious about changes to the timeline in general. Though I guess having some teenager from thirty years in the future show up on your doorstep after accidentally having prevented his parents from meeting would do that. . ."

[pogo_boy]

That sounded a bit scary. "I don't want anything to be stuck." Learning to chew will be tricky enough.

Quint nods. Enker had made sure he was one of the few let in on the whole content of the games, and Zero had let a few others know when it was all over... "And not just to win. If Zero hadn't known he'd need to have a way to survive a fall out of orbit after dealing with Weil..."

And the mention of the films makes Quint briefly look embarrassed. "I, um, I've seen those, but I know how different things can be. But... I spent most of the third film wanting to smack your alternate," he admits, rubbing the back of his neck and looking very sheepish. "Leaving that woman there was the one thing they couldn't do, because she wasn't supposed to be there any more. They had to take her with them because she couldn't be anywhere in their relative past, because she already wasn't. But the movie kept playing it as completely the other way around."

[dee_lorean81]

"This doesn't stick," Dee assures him. "Here, lemme show you." She opens up the Kit-Kat and breaks off a stick, then pops it into her mouth and chews for a bit. Once she swallows, she opens her mouth so Blaine can see her teeth. "See? All good!"

"A fall out of orbit?" Marty repeats, appropriately stunned. "Sheesh, that's pretty hardcore. Yeah, something you wanna be warned about beforehand."

Doc chuckles. "Very different in our case -- Marty and I never actually lived any of the events of the movies, thanks to the Fae. But it's fine -- I myself was pretty frustrated with my screen counterpart. First he ends up madly in love with a woman after a mere three days -- granted, after saving her life, and she did seem like the sort of woman I'd want a relationship with -- and then, upon realizing he's spared her when she should have died, his reaction is to stay in the past with her instead of explaining properly about the time machine and taking her with him. I was honestly shocked the movie Marty didn't spend more time trying to convince the movie Doc bringing her to the future was the best course of action."

"Eh, movie me didn't seem to like Clara much," Marty admits with a shrug. "Plus he was dealing with that shit with Buford. . .I think he was just done with all the time travel crap and just wanted to get home."

[pogo_boy]

Little Blaine tries to mimic what he just saw with his piece of Kit-Kat, blinking in surprise at the taste. (After all, he's never actually tasted anything before.) He's relieved to find that the same basic reploid 'driver software' that covered the very basics of walking also covers how to swallow.

Quint nods. "It's like the writers spontaneously forgot what can cause a paradox, just to pad out the film. Things like that almost make me glad all my family ever got was dumb platformer games. And apparently this cartoon show that's very way off from us... though I met some people from it here a long time ago."

[dee_lorean81]

Dee watches him as he masticates. At least he seems to come to grips with chewing fairly quickly. "Whatcha think?" she asks once he's swallowed. "Good?"

"I think it's more like they didn't define what could cause a paradox clearly enough," Doc says. "The rules of time travel are a little inconsistent through the series -- which I can understand, given the sequels were apparently initially unplanned and came along a few years later. But still -- it does lead to some dumb behavior for the sake of drama."

"Oh, you guys have a shitty cartoon too?" Marty says. "Great. . .I hope I never meet the Animated Series version of me. I'd probably try to punch him, anti-violence field or no."

"He wasn't that bad," Alice says, shaking her head.

"He didn't get how a tuning fork or sound waves worked. I play the guitar."

[pogo_boy]

He has to think about that. "I like it. Does that mean it's good?" Because he's seen ample evidence, even among his few remaining memories, that just because someone likes something does not make it good. Or bad, just because they dislike it.

"The poeple I met from ours weren't that bad. Just... really different. Their Mega was even more of a rockhead than ours, despite never being named Rock, and their Blues... actually went by Proto and was on Dr. Wily's side instead of... well, Blues is kind of hard to tell when it comes to things like that. And then there were still other alternates who were all computer programs and no one was related - not even Rock, Roll, and Blues - and that Blues had really long silver hair. It was just... weird. But I guess we would have seemed weird to them, too.

[dee_lorean81]

The pause makes Dee worry for a moment -- then he says he liked it, and she relaxes. "Yeah -- it's supposed to taste good. That's why humans make it. Wanna try another piece?"

"Sounds like things were really different," Marty notes, whistling. "Guessing it was made by somebody who knew the games but not much of the story behind them. Still, as long as it wasn't as bad as ours. . ."

"You are taking this very personally," Alice notes, as Victor hides a laugh.

"Look, the guy who wrote the original movies worked on the series. You'd think he of all people would get us right."

[pogo_boy]

Little Blaine smiles, though it can't be seen under the bedsheet - he had to pull the candy under the sheet to eat it before. "Yes, please."

"8-bit platformer games," Quint says. "The early ones didn't really mention what was going on, just had a menu screen for which of my siblings you wanted to beat up next..."

Quint nods. "Yeah, and not realizing a musician would know what a tuning fork is... that's just dumb. It'd be like if someone did a cartoon or comic strip where someone had to explain how a pogo stick works to me... I probably be tempted to show them Sakugarne up close."

[dee_lorean81]

Even if Dee can't see the smile, she can kind of hear it in his voice. She finds another piece of candy, this one a mini Crunch bar. "It's kind of like a Kit-Kat, only the crunchy bits are all through the chocolate."

"Okay, yeah, fair enough," Marty says. "Suppose there are worse alternate realities."

He grins, vindicated as Quint agrees with him about the tuning fork thing. "I know, right? And don't get me started on how that version of me treated his girlfriend." He shakes his head. "Saturday Morning cartoons, man. They're just -- not good."

[pogo_boy]

A little tan hand appears from the hiked-up bedsheet and disappears with the candy. Crunch. After a few moments, he says "I like this one, too."

Quint nods, and then belatedly realizes that one bit of what he'd said might not make sense. "Um, Sakugarne is my primary weapon. It's kind of... well, it's a pogo stick, sort of... mixed with a jackhammer."

[dee_lorean81]

Dee grins. "Awesome! Food's pretty cool once you get used to it." She locates a couple of lollipops among the scattered sweets. "Okay, these are a little different -- you unwrap 'em and then just suck on them, and they get smaller and smaller before dissolving entirely. You can bite 'em, but they're not like chocolate bars." After a moment, she adds (because he is brand new to this), "And you don't eat the stick."

There's a few raised eyebrows at that. "How does that work?" Alice asks.

"I'm thinking -- you jump on something, and it kind of drills down?" Marty says, trying to demonstrate with appropriate hand motions. "Or, uh, hammers down, I guess. . .doesn't sound fun to be on the other side of, anyway."

[pogo_boy]

Little Blaine will accept a lollipop - and then there is no more comment from him for a while, because he has a lollipop in his mouth.

"Um, more like just crushes what I land on, or makes huge holes in the ground... which, no, I don't really understand how it does that, because I know me and Sakugarne together don't have enough actual mass to flatten small tanks, but..," he sighs, "An alternate of one of my brothers once said that Dr. Wily would break the laws of physics just to one-up Dr. Light, and then stuff it in a robot." That comment of the other Forte's had gotten spread around after Zero had repeated it.

"I don't know if this will help, but..," It only takes a split second of concentration to make Sakugarne appear from his weapons datastorage. He doesn't hop on it, though... but instead holds it in a way that might remind some of a child with a teddy bear. "It can work as a regular pogo stick, too... only bouncier." Normal pogo sticks didn't bounce as high as small buildings, after all.

[dee_lorean81]

That's all right, because Dee happily sucking away on a lollipop herself. And making plans on talking her dad into bringing some of this candy home with them.

Doc frowns. "Hmmmm -- there must be something about the weapon that amplifies the force it exerts on whatever it lands on. . .though I'm admittedly not sure how. Particularly with the force you're talking about -- small tanks? Really?"

"I'd blame video game logic," Marty says, snorting at the comment about Dr. Wily. "Well, good for him, I suppose. Less everybody else, but yeah."

Doc leans in for a closer look once the weapon is summoned. "Interesting. . .though it makes its ability to crush things even more confusing. It looks more like it would pierce whatever it landed on."

"How high can it go?" Alice asks, curious.

[pogo_boy]

"I've bounced as high as some of the big Transformers that used to come here," Quint replies. "So... about the same as a two-story building."

"I'd do a demonstration, but I don't want to bury a bunch of candy in dirt or have it fall in a crater... that would just be a waste of good candy."

[dee_lorean81]

Marty whistles. "Holy crap. Doc and I met one of those guys -- well, girl in our case -- before, and -- yeah. That's pretty freaking high."

"I should say," Alice agrees, eyes wide. "And I thought I could get some good height on my jumps when I visit Wonderland. . ."

Dee, overhearing the bit about wasting good candy, shakes her head and pops her lollipop out of her mouth. "Yeah, no. That would be about as bad as just leaving it here all over the ground."

Doc tries not to smile. "Dee, we can't take all of it back with us."

"I'm not saying we don't share," Dee replies, gesturing to Quint, Blaine, and the others.

[pogo_boy]

"It's still going to take a long time to clean up," Quint says, looking around at all the scattered candy. "But it wouldn't be good to just leave it littered either." He frowns slightly, thinking it over. "Maybe I could request some drones to help gather it up at least. Not Metools... they don't have hands. And not Magflies either... candy isn't magnetic... maybe Battons. They don't actually have hands either, but they do have a retractable pincher they usually use when hanging upside down/" A chuckle, and he adds, "They'd even fit the Halloween theme."

[museicalmarty]

"That's for sure," Marty says, looking around with him. "I don't think the anti-violence field protects against tripping on a Snickers." He grins as Quint mentions the Batton drones. "Retractable pincer? Makes 'em sound like a crane game. Hopefully they're better at grabbing stuff."

"I suppose we could go find some shovels, if you think it would help," Victor comments.

"I'm not entirely convinced the Nexus doesn't clean itself up," Alice admits. "I still remember the time I got splatted by strawberry tarts thanks to some cartoon bomb. No sign of it the next time I came for a visit."