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ximilialog2021-10-22 07:39 pm
🦇🎃 🦇🎃 Halloween Mingle Log 🎃 🦇🎃 🦇
LOCATION: All around the station.
DATE: Last two weeks of October.
CONTENT: Time for some Halloween holiday shenanigans: spooky decorations, scary movies, pumpkin carving, sweets and a costume party.
WARNINGS: None, will update if needed.
[ Peter contacted Viveca to request some Halloween food and items in the next supply drop, but until it happens, he has decided to decorate the stations the old-fashioned way: making the decorations himself.
He can be seen in the communal room, surrounded by color markers, scissors, glittery papers in varied colors, and doing different kinds of arts and craft: cutting papers plates in the shape of black cats, doing some spiderwebs, ghosts, and even a few origami pumpkins. One of the markers has rolled off of the table and onto the floor, anybody who comes by should be careful not to slip on it by accident.
Or perhaps someone spots him in the kitchen, doing what Peter would call 'cooking' and any other normal person would classify as biological warfare. He's a bit of a messy cook, please ignore the chocolate stain in the ceiling (who knew souffle could explode?). He will clean the kitchen later, now he's busy adding the finishing touches to the spider peanut butter cookie cups, while the covered orange slices he's making for Yelena cool off in a tray.
There's flour in his hair, a streak of chocolate in his cheek and the apron he's wearing has seen better days, but Peter looks honestly happy, and he's humming a song under his breath as he works.
Another day, he's on a ladder trying to hang some paper bats and spiderwebs on the station walls. His right shoulder is still healing, so he can't raise it with ease, making the whole process a bit slow. some help would be welcomed. Maybe some orber happened to walk by Peter when one of the giant balloon spiders he was trying to stick to the ceiling falls off on their head. Or perhaps it was one of the bedsheet ghosts, obscuring their vision for a little while. Peter looks down once he notices; ]
Oh, oops, sorry about that. Could you give it back?
Welcome to the simulation room, ladies and gents, and variations thereupon. The moment someone crosses the door, they'll find themselves transported to the wonderful 80s. Bright lights, colorful clothes and questionable hairstyles.
There's a massive theater across the street, and it's clear the place is the main attraction. The giant marquee sign and the movie posters on the walls announce four different movies available to watch: The Shinning (🎥), Poltergeist (🎥), The Little Shop of Horrors (🎥), and Night of the Living Dead (🎥). Grab some popcorn, something to drink or snack on, and take a seat. It's all free, worry not.
A sign at the entrance of the movies reminds people that this is fiction, that no real people or animals got hurt making the movies, and that zombies ( probably ) aren't real. No such claim is made about talking alien plants from deep space, because Peter did end raising one as part of his family, after all. Leaving the simulation is possible at any moment, just wishing to do so will make a door will appear, allowing to return to the control room.
[ On the large tables in the kitchen, pumpkins of different sizes and colors are waiting to be disemboweled, next to them there's also a large tray with the ghost cupcakes Peter promised The Doctor (11). Next to them, one could find several sharp knives and large, empty bowls perfect to use to keep the pumpkin entrails. That way they can be used later to make soup or perhaps bread. Wasting food when you are stuck in space is a crime, be mindful of the resources.Or...not. Perhaps some orber gets fed up with how sticky is everything, or frustrated that their pumpkin isn't looking the way they wanted, and thinks it would be more fun to start a food fight. Peter's no one's dad, he will let people run wild and have fun as long as it's not the knives that start flying.
If anybody needs him for anything, or they have questions about what exactly is pumpkin carving, he's busy working on his own project, but he won't mind being interrupted. The music that can be heard comes from the Guardian's Zune, connected to a portable speaker on top of a shelf. It's now playing "Dancing in the Moonlight," the 1972 hit by King Harvest. ]
↠ IV. Party Time | October 31th | Common Area
[ People can choose not to come to the party in a costume, but it's highly encouraged. Viveca even brought costumes and supplies for the occasion in the last supply drop. The costumes are a variety of different ones, and not all of them are Halloween-related or even unique. Are you in the same costume as someone else? Damn, awkward. Maybe you can convince other people that you're doing some sort of group costume.
Like the rest of the station, the common area has been thoroughly decorated, although some decorations here are a little...off. There are balloons resembling eyes, ghosts, or pumpkins, and the eye ones sometimes follow people across the room or blink at them. The purple and black curtains as well as fake spiderwebs covering the walls are as normal as they get, but the plastic skeletons seen in corners or handing from the furniture are of a questionable nature. Some have the wrong number of arms and legs, others have horns, and a few show bones where no bone should be. The skeletons with top hats let out squeaky laughs at random, scaring the shit out of anybody walking near them. There are black paper bats handing from lamps that flap their wings on occasion and, to complete the look, LEDs candles of different colors give the room some ambient light. Viveca has tried her best to bring decorations for the party, but multiple universes make for a varied and complicated mix to chose from.
If there is a Halloween party, then of course the pumpkins are also a must. On one of the large tables, the different messy masterpieces created during the pumpkin carving contest can be admired or even grabbed if you want to take a picture with them.
On the left side of the room, there's a small stage with a haunted mansion backdrop, different boxes with spooky props, and what seems to be a Polaroid camera. Black cats and wolf plush toys, fake bloody weapons, giant glasses, plastic tombstones, all sorts of different hats, a vampire cape, and a plastic skeleton dressed as a firefighter are available to play and pose with. That's right, it's a selfie corner! Come take some pictures or drag someone to the stage with you to pose and complete the scary look.
The big cleared space in the middle of the room is the dancefloor. The music playing once again comes from Peter's Zune, so enjoy those 80s and 90s playlists, currently blasting Michael Jackson's thriller. Get out there and shake your bones, try not to step on anybody's toes.
For those who aren't into dancing or get tired, there are plenty of chairs available, party food, and all sorts of drinks -alcoholic and non-alcoholic- by the buffet and bar. There's enough candy to give people a sugar coma: pumpkin buns, fondant ghost cupcakes that make the person slightly see-through for 10 minutes after consuming them, Halloween brownies, candy apples that make people fall asleep for 30 minutes unless someone wakes them earlier with a kiss, pop rocks candy, oreo cookie bats, a variety of halloween themed drinks, and voodoo doll cookies...some of those might look like the orbers. If you find a cookie that looks like you, well...eat it or protect it, it's all about personal choices. ]
no subject
but the notion of taking things for granted? that part he understands, he's sure.
Blue falls quiet with these thoughts in his mind, wearing a contemplative frown as his gaze loses focus on this-person or that-notion as he instead tries to imagine what such a thing as this would look like for his own people. he can imagine the children and the young ones delighting in the novelty...and just as easily imagines his elder peers as reticent and distant as he is now.
he wonders why they never thought to do such things before, why...it was never inherently in them to try. was it their nature, or was it a byproduct of the system's mental grooming?
in the midst of his musing:] So many...seem to take to these things...so naturally...
no subject
But his attention does turn back as soon as Blue speaks. ]
... Part of it is human nature, I think. Generally, we're social creatures. It's part of how we have fun, relax, decompress. Some humans even need things like this.
[ That could be the crux of it, he thinks. A divide between cultures and species. Finn definitely feels that first one for sure. ]
no subject
Their closeness...it's not for themselves anymore. It's for the system.
But then...wanting to be near other people...even when under such a pretense... [hm. is it still wrong, then? he's not sure.]
no subject
Finn licks his bottom lip and shakes his head, debating on even putting his thoughts into something he knows nothing about. ]
I think it's natural to not want to be alone. [ Not really alone, at least. ]
no subject
And at the same time...so many fear being close. Too close. I wonder...if that is natural, too. Or born of something else... [fears or monsters or other things that can do harm to someone in their most vulnerable states. he can only speculate, can he?
after a beat, he seems to pick up on Finn's own hesitations in considering the subject, and his gaze flicks back to him.]
We don't have to talk about it. And you can go rejoin your companions. The party.
no subject
I don't mind talking about it. [ He even pulls up a smile in case Blue doesn't really believe him. ] I just... haven't thought much about this stuff before. I'm really used to being alone, too. Sort of just recently began to realize that we need other people in our lives.
I see what you mean, though. About not wanting people too close. Some just don't want to feel vulnerable to anyone, others don't want to lose anyone else. I can understand it. Whether it's natural or learned, I don't know. Both?
[ Blue is the party and he's perfectly happy talking to him, is what he's saying. ]
no subject
what he does cling to is I'm really used to being alone. it's curious, considering how welcoming Finn is...perhaps too eagerly so.]
If there weren't others to fight for...or be around...what was it you worked toward all alone, Finn?
no subject
Though, he still tries to think of a good way to put his answer. ]
Survival.
I wish I could say something better than that. That I was fighting for freedom the whole time or that I was fighting to be near better people. But I just wanted to survive.
[ Right up until that wasn't his biggest motivation anymore. People died if that's all he thought about it. Took too many deaths for him to realize it, though. ]
no subject
Efforts for freedom...for connections...they're contingent on surviving in the first place. It may not be noble simply to live, but...I don't think it's dishonorable, either.
no subject
Thanks. You have a good point. I am glad I was able to stick around as long as I have.
[ Meeting the people he's met and all, y'know. Blue included. ]
no subject
Blue mirrors Finn's expression in his own, smaller way when he actually looks over to see it; he's too easy to be endeared to, isn't he? even if Blue tried to be colder and more distanced, he'd very likely fail.
he is, after all, the closest to Mu that Blue can find here. selfish or not, it's a comfort.
they remain there and chat for a bit longer, but Blue's stamina dictates him being the first one to tap out whether he wants to or not. so at the point he can feel fatigue threatening to overtake him, Blue puts his hands on the table and pushes himself up to standing.]
Thank you for spending time with me, Finn. [it helps.]