VIDEO | 04

[patchricide]

[As the camera turns on, your eyes are immediately directed towards a massive pile of leftover Halloween candy spread out over a table. At least, most of it is Halloween candy, and some of it is really good, like those peanut butter cups and little candy-coated morsels. But there's not a lot of quality control here, so some of it is terrible Halloween candy, and some upon further inspection is not Halloween candy at all.]

[In fact, there's some Christmas candies as well, including those really good hazlenut chocolates, and a few peppermints. There's also some of those mysterious strawberry hard candies that old ladies keep in candy bowls, tiny boxes of raisins, and... cough drops? Yup, those are cough drops. At the edge of the screen, a pair of mouse are helping themselves to one of the oddities, a small bag of peanuts like you might find on an airline.]

[And then there's Allura, sitting at the table with a pout of discontent on her face. After all, she had been invited to a Halloween party at the last minute, and she didn't have roommates to stay home on Halloween, so...]

If I had known I wasn't going to be handing out any Halloween candy, I would never have bought so much.

Particularly since I can't feed most of this to my mice. [As if on cue, a bigger, chubby yellow mouse picks up a bag of sour gummies and starts inspecting it — and without looking, Allura reaches over and pulls the bag out of his tiny little paws.] In fact, some of it I'm not sure if I ought to be eating.

This one is made with boiled animal bones, and coated in dried, powdered acid. It's supposed to be so sour that you will start crying in pain. Is this actually supposed to be a 'treat'?

[She gives a long sigh.] What am I supposed to do with all this? No matter how dubious the ingredients are, it seems like such a waste to throw it all away...

Comments

[legionnaires]

You could just hold onto the candy until next Halloween if they don't expire until then. Otherwise I'd donate what you can.

Did you find any you like?

[patchricide]

That did cross my mind, but I'm not sure there's any place I could store them where Platt wouldn't eventually find them.

[She takes a lollipop away from him again, and tries to direct him to a bag of pretzels instead. Based on how this year's going, next year she's probably just going to get packages of crackers.]

I did like these ones. I think most of these ingredients are just fruit. [She holds up a pack of gushers. Fun fact, no gelatin in those!]

[legionnaires]

I'm sure Haru wouldn't mind me storing candy at the apartment for you if you don't want Platt to get to it.

[ Though, if the space wolf got to them then he doesn't know what to do. ]

Nice. I remember those.

[patchricide]

If you're doing that, you might as well take it for yourselves. Does she happen to like candy?

[... actually.]

And what kind of candy do you like, Keith?

[legionnaires]

You know? I'm not sure. She grows a lot of vegetables in her garden but that doesn't mean she wouldn't be. I'll ask her for you.

[ A pause. ]

There were these little gummy sharks that my pops used to buy me as a kid.

[ It's so weird talking more openly about his father. ]

[patchricide]

Perhaps I should ask her to teach me more about gardening. The more I learn about food at the stores, the more it scares me.

Sharks? I believe I saw... worms, and bears, and even fish at the store, but not sharks. Are those harder to find?

[legionnaires]

You'd like it. It's about tilling the earth and growing things. I could introduce you two some time, if you'd like?

I don't know. I haven't seen them recently.

[ But he sends a photo of them that he finds online. ]

[patchricide]

I would like that. ... perhaps I should be getting to know my neighbors better, in general, instead of hearing about them from the mice...

[After studying the candy closely, she decides...] ... they look like whales.

[legionnaires]

It's kind of nice getting to know other people.

[ He chuckles a bit. ] Yeah, but they were marketed as sharks.

[patchricide]

Maybe I need to come up with an excuse to throw more parties. Socializing at the Aegis party was a wonderful time.

Some of these names are incredibly confusing. For example, these ones are called "smarties", yet they don't make you the least bit smarter!

[legionnaires]

I don't really do parties.

Earth candy doesn't really do anything for mental stimulation. Though I know with kids can get real hyper if they eat too much.

[ Has anyone explained the horrors of how sugar can rot teeth yet? ]

[patchricide]

Oh, you don't.

[That... that was meant to be a question, but her tone sort of shifted and betrayed her lack of surprise. Keith, you don't seem like a wild, party-going kind of guy.]

[See her impression of you in the icon.]

Someone did mention that. I'm a bit surprised you have a holiday that practically encourages children to act this way — it makes it less surprising some of them started doing crazy things like throwing eggs.

[Actually, that's probably because Allura's house didn't have anyone passing out candy...]

[legionnaires]

Nope.

[ He quirks an eyebrow at her, but it's easily noticeable that she's not surprised by it. ]

It wasn't always like that, from what I understand. It was to scare away demons or to trick demons into thinking that there weren't humans around or something. It's been a while since we went over the history of Halloween.

[ Wait. ]

Did someone egg your place?

[patchricide]

Yes, they did. Do the eggs scare off demons as well?

[Is. Is it good luck. Or something besides extremely rude.]

That second one actually sounds very clever. Tricking your enemies into thinking you're one of them... oh, but wouldn't that make the demons comfortable enough to come out and join the parties?