"Hey Damien! Do you know what today is?!" Piper asked me. I was in the lobby watching TV in the morning before my next training session was going to start, and just dressed casually again.
"I don't know a lot of holidays- if this sector or Techlandia has them, and you have the most seniority here so I thought you'd know." I said, trying to make sense of her question and why she asked it.
"Ehh... You sound stumped so let's take a look at the calendar." She offered. I walked over with her to the calendar on the wall. It was a digital calendar that fit with the decor of the room, and it displayed the date in two formats: The Techlandian and Human World dates.
"It's October 31st in the Human World, that's Halloween!" I said.
"Yes! We know a little bit about it as a festival in the Human World, but do you know more about it to celebrate it?" She curiously asked.
"Well, I've celebrated it and I could tell you more--"
"Damien is going to tell us more about the tradition of Halloween!" Piper loudly announced from the lobby. I walked to the couch to sit down and in the next couple of minutes, several of the other OSes gathered into the lobby looking curious.
"I volunteer to take notes and put this into our compendiums of Human World knowledge!" Olympia offered. "I could do this! I write a lot of educational material and help with research papers." She offered.
"Sure! Training can wait in favor of more knowledge!" Piper said.
"...I agree this time." Juna said, sounding like she couldn't believe what she was saying.
I looked around the room and saw them gathered around. "Well, where do I start with this?" I asked.
"We know that for Halloween that humans, usually human children, dress up like entities that might be folklore in their world and go door to door to get candy and that human teens and adults often watch horror movies featuring these entities." Piper said. Her wording seemed oddly specific to me. Olympia had a clipboard with several pieces of paper in it in one hand, and a pen in another, ready to write.
"Did you celebrate it?" She asked me.
"They got those first bits of information about it from me." Piroska chuckled.
"I celebrated it and as a child I dressed in costumes and went door to door for candy. This is called trick-or-treating because the tradition was that kids in costume ask for treats and threaten pranks if they don't get treats!" I said.
"Did you threaten to prank people?" Piper asked.
"I didn't, but when trick-or-treating, everyone greeted the person at the door with 'Trick or Treat' which stems from the tradition." I said.
"I sometimes did!" Piroska chuckled.
I explained more about trick-or-treating and the costumes that were often worn and was surprised to be told that vampires, ghosts, and werewolves do exist in Techlandia! Most of the PrDP members were surprised that costumes could also be of characters that made their way into pop culture and that they could also have their own toy lines and TV shows. Some of the PrDP members thought this was funny and some thought this was confusing or an insult to incorporate copyrighted characters.
Throughout this, Olympia wrote down a lot of notes. "I wrote them all down! I hope it's to your liking." She cheerfully said after I was finished and showed off the clipboard with its papers full of notes. We looked at them and thanked her.
Etta asked to read the notes, which Olympia handed to her. Etta smiled as she read them. "These'll be great additions to our compendium of Human World knowledge!" She cheered.
"I'll be glad to add those." Piritta offered.
"I have a little more to add that I just remembered. Sometimes adults still celebrate it with their own costume parties, and my workplace does that-- oh!" I continued, but was interrupted by another thing about it. "My workplace-- where I used to work has a Halloween party tonight! Could I return to the Human World to say goodbye to some of my coworkers, to my roommate and a friend?" I asked.
"Yes, for a short time." Juna said. "I approve but we need to run it through management." She said and she walked to the dining room to use a video phone.
"We can start now." She said a few minutes later when she returned to the lobby.
"Could I go with too, to see how much the Human World changed since I left?!" Piroska asked, sounding excited.
"Sure, if you can." I said. I didn't see any issue with her joining in.
"My seniority gives me leverage in this and I approve, but let's quickly tell management too." Piper said.
"Would the rest of you also be allowed to visit?" I asked.
"The requirements for us from Techlandia are even stricter." Piritta said.
"I went there recently though." Juna said.
"You did?" I asked her.
"I placed the tape reel you received. I was at your workplace for a few minutes."
"That was you?!" I exclaimed in disbelief despite knowing that she summoned me here, I didn't know or think about the specific details behind it then.
After that was settled, Piroska and I were excited at the thought of arriving at this Halloween party. The other PrDP members and Juna were also excited to know what it'd be like. Piroska started to have second thoughts about it.
"I'll go to this, if I won't be asked anything about pop culture, technology or events after I left in 1969." She said.
"I can try my best to cover for you when anyone starts talking about those subjects." I offered.
"You could also have a cover story to explain why you haven't kept up since then." Piritta suggested to her.
"Those are great ideas!" Piroska said. "I'll claim that I'm Damien's friend or cousin-- we have to know each other somehow, that has been traveling the world for work and sight seeing that I hardly had any time to watch TV! Halloween is about make-believe so that's what I'm going to do!" She sounded excited about the idea and mumbled some things about places she wanted to visit and what she would've seen.
"That sounds very fun." Piritta cheerfully said. "What will you and Damien do for your costumes?" She asked.
"I was thinking about dressing as Frankenstein's monster because he was created by science!" Piroska quickly answered. I hesitated.
"I'm not sure what I could go as." I said.
"You could as a devil. Your hairstyle has the horns! Just get a red suit and trident and you'd be good to go!" Piper suggested. I wanted to argue with her over that but everyone else laughed and she was right.
"There's a crafter I know that runs a shop, and she can quickly create custom gear. We could commission costumes from her!" Piroska suggested.
"Would she be able to on short notice?" I asked.
"A couple of simple Halloween costumes ought to be easy and quick compared to what she usually crafts!"
She sounded very confident about this, and since it's still the morning, I felt assured. There could be enough time, so I agreed to go with her to the shop to meet the crafter she knows.
"Hello, Piroska!" The shopkeeper waved to her moments after we set foot into the shop. The shop's metallic purple diamond-patterned floor immediately drew visitors' eyes to it and complemented the light royal blue walls.
"Hello, Ximena!" Piroska greeted the shopkeeper and walked over to her to chat. Ximena was at the cashier desk. She had long green straight hair in a ponytail with peaked bangs which were partially held back on her left side by a metal hair clip that had orange gems on it. She had orange eyes and was wearing a short-sleeved knee-length two-toned purple dress with metallic buttons. Her dress had a large light purple collar and cuffs with darker purple stripes that in the same shade as the rest of her dress.
Over her dress, she wore a black apron with a gray pattern along the edges of it, and the front had a laced up area with an orange ribbon that tied into a bow at the top. She also wore black fingerless gloves that nearly reached to her elbows and wore black boots. Her desk was kept spotless with only a cash register visible on it.
Piroska was wearing a dark red knee-length overcoat with dark purple trousers and black dress shoes. Her overcoat had a matching shawl that was dark red with trim that had an alternating light red and purple block pattern, had a purple collar with a light red stripe along it, and it had a light red bow with her circular brooch pinned to it. The belt was purple with a red stripe along each edge, with light red buttons. The sleeves had purple straps near the bottom of them.
She and Ximena were standing around the cash register chatting with each other. The desk they were standing around had a white body and glossy black top with a yellow, blue and purple terrazzo pattern had a display section behind glass and there appeared to be some boxes and items on display. However, I looked more towards the other sections.
The large windows at the front of the store displayed a row of mannequins with outfits and pieces of armor. They stood alongside metal and glass sculptures. There was a sign in front that said "Custom-made gear! Inquire inside." which reminded me of why Piroska recommended this shop.
The cashier desk area was along the right side of the shop. Across the shop on the left side, there was an antique Victorian-style wooden couch with white cushions with an ornate wooden table. They were also in a similar style as the chair behind the cashier desk, which stood out from the simpler designs of the desk, the shelves and cash register but was similar to the table that was to the right of the desk.
I focused my attention among the shelves of merchandise along the left and back walls. Some of the shelves showed off larger pieces; along the back wall I saw a display of pieces of armor, boots and gloves. Along these walls were also racks of shirts, dresses and jackets. Above the rack was a shelf of hats, and below the rack was a shelf with stacks of trousers on top, and rows of boots and bags on the bottom.
"How have you been since last time?" Ximena asked.
"Very well. I'm proud of Valencia for her public debut!" Piroska beamed with joy.
"I saw it and yours and Piper's parts in it were also great!"
"Thanks! I think we make such a good team. How's the shop going for you?"
The conversation between them was very energetic.
"I've still been getting steady orders for commissions but will need to plan out what one of them commissioned this morning; a six layer gown with armor on it..." Ximena said while I noticed her looking in my direction.
"Do you know each other?" She asked.
The stage lights arranged along the ceiling felt like they were all directing their beams at me. "Who, me?" I asked.
"Who else is in this shop at this time, silly?" She asked with a cheerful snark.
"Ghosts?" I half-jokingly said, but she looked serious. From under her desk, she brought out a handheld device and used it to scan the room. She pointed it in each corner, along each wall and the ceiling.
"There are no ghost data entities here, but you almost pranked me." She said, showing me the reading on the device. It was a ghost scanner.
"OSes would also be able to sense them without a device, and I didn't sense anything." Piroska added.
"Yes, I'm with her. My name is Damien, and I'm a recent friend." I mustered up an answer to Ximena's question.
"Nice to meet you, Damien! I'm Ximena the Crafter and I run this shop!" She said, and she looked and sounded confident. "I made most of these, and take commissions for custom orders." She pointed to a tall sign on the wall behind the cash register and between the shelves.
"That's exactly what we're here for!" I said.
"Alright, I'll just need to fill out this order form. If your orders are simple enough, I could finish them by this afternoon." Ximena said and walked back to the cashier desk and took her seat. She brought out a piece of paper and a pen from a drawer.
Piroska and I filled out the order forms and handed them back to Ximena and paid the amounts we owed. She set the ghost scanner on top of her desk, looked at the order forms. One of the fields on the forms was if the order was time-sensitive and it was marked for today, but Ximena still smiled. "This'll be easy!" She said.
She brought out a scanner to take our measurements, and it looked similar to the scanner I saw when Juna and I shopped for my suit. After she scanned us, she wrote down some information.
"I have the measurements for both of you, and I'll message you when both costumes are finished." She told Piroska.
"I'll be looking forward to it!" Piroska said. She and I waved to Ximena and walked out of the shop.
