5th Floor Common Room, Friday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

After last year, Kathy wasn't going to try trick-or-treating around the dorms again, but that didn't mean she couldn't celebrate the holiday anyway. She'd splurged on a really awesome angel costume and had even gotten Minako into the spirit of things. (She'd also gotten a little kitty costume for Artemis, but he'd seen her come into the room and fled under Minako's bed and no amount of cajoling would get him to come out.) Rather than wandering the town, however, she settled for decorating the common room with crepe paper, plastic decals, and big bowls of candy and finding a channel on the TV that was playing all the Halloween specials she remembered from her childhood, with promises of scarier fare later in the evening.

Sure, at some point, Kathy was gonna have to trade her angel wings for her karate gi and go patrol the streets of Baltimore, but until then, she was going to live it up Halloween style.

Best holiday.

Comments

[not_every_mage]

Anders had no idea it was a holiday -- or, to be more accurate, he'd heard it mentioned but ignored it because he didn't see what it had to do with him. So it was with a faintly bewildered air that he stumbled into the common room.

"Is it someone's birthday again?" he asked, poking at the candy bowls for anything with peanut butter.

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He would find plenty of peanut butter cups in there!

"Nope, it's Halloween!" Kathy said from where she was tossing puppy treats to Minako. "It's a night for dressing up in fun costumes and eating candy!" Beat. "And, okay, there's historical precedent for the night being about the souls of the departed and stuff, but these days it's mostly spooky stories and sugar highs."

From the way she was bouncing a little as she spoke, the sugar high might already have been kicking in, yes.

[not_every_mage]

Anders took a few peanut butter cups, looked at the handful, and then snuck a few more into his pocket for safekeeping.

"Your holidays are weird," he informed her, good-naturedly. "Our day of the dead at home was months ago. We're onto the one about masks and fools now." A pause. "Though I suppose the costumes and the treats are the same..."

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"Masks and fools?" Kathy asked, holding up a hand for him to toss her another candy as well. She wasn't going to admit which number this made for her, no. "What's that one about? I mean, we say 'Trick or Treat' when we go door to door in costume, so it doesn't sound too terribly different from what yours might be."

[not_every_mage]

"Satinalia?" Anders asked, tossing the candy straight to Kathy. "It used to be for some old god, but now it's to celebrate the second moon and get one last feast in before the cold weather sets in. Most towns have a big party with masks and costumes, and the local fool gets to be arl for a day. I tried to get a Templar selected in the Circle a few times but they weren't having it. Not that they need more days to be in charge, really."

But the idea of a Templar parading around dressed as a fool? Priceless.

"Some religious people give gifts, but I never have. Don't know where that tradition fits in."

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"For Halloween, it's generally considered the night where the veils between the spirit world and our own is the thinnest," Kathy said, trying to sound extra spooooky. "And so we dress up to--I don't know, honor any stray spirits or confuse them about whether we're the living or the dead."

Kathy was probably going to go wiki Halloween after this, since she was surprised to realize she had very little idea about the historical roots of Halloween. Huh.

"Little kids go from door to door asking for candy and stuff, but apparently we're too old for that. Boo."

[not_every_mage]

"But I never got to do it to start with," Anders complained, and soothed himself by claiming a little packet of sour gummy things before taking a seat catercorner from Kathy's. "Wait, I thought you didn't believe in the spirit realm. How do you have a holiday about something you don't believe in?"

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"I tried last year and everyone just laughed at me," Kathy said with a sigh. "But if you wanna get dressed up, I'll totally go trick-or-treating with you."

You know, as back up. Certainly not because Kathy thought it was still fun or anything, really!

"Most people don't believe in spirit realms anymore, but we used to. A lot, way back when. Over the years, though, belief has waned and the holiday has changed. I don't think anyone who celebrated the old holiday centered around the spirits would recognize half of what we do nowadays."

[not_every_mage]

"I don't even know what I'd dress up as," Anders shrugged. Which wasn't exactly a no. "And oh, okay. I see where if you don't have anyone talking to spirits and telling you about it it would be harder to believe in."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You could be...a prince," Kathy suggested. "Or we could dress you up like a wizard from Barry Plodder or King of the Bracelets. Or...hmmm. Maybe a cowboy or a cop or...one of the earlier incarnations of Mister What."

She looked around the room, trying to find inspiration. "I mean, we could pretty much dress you up like anything you'd want to be. The question isn't so much what you could be, but what we have on hand to put together for a costume."

It seemed the TV agreed with her, as the cartoon that was on had a song on that very topic.

[not_every_mage]

"I liked the prince idea," Anders said brightly, only slightly distracted by the cavorting orange cat on the television. "I have the homecoming crown, and I could find some velvet for a cape."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You'll make a very fetching prince," Kathy assured him. "I can even crown you and you can say you're divinely appointed by an angel of heaven!"

A velvet robe, a crown, maybe something for a scepter--yeah, Anders could definitely pull it off.

[not_every_mage]

"Oh, is that what you are?" Anders asked,turning his attention away from the TV. "I thought maybe you were some kind of fairy or elf or .... bird-person."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Close enough," Kathy said, leaning back carefully so she didn't break the wings. "Angels are the special helpers of our version of the Maker, I guess. Benevolent celestial beings that act as helpers and guides and intermediaries between God and earth."

She tilted her head at him. "No angels in your religion, I take it? Your Maker doesn't have, like, helpers or messengers, or anything?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders shook his head. "Not really. There are spirits of specific virtues, but they don't usually come out just to chat with us. But the belief is that he abandoned man because we're too sinful. Sending messengers would ruin that."

His tone was lightly mocking: the Chantry's explanation for why the Maker didn't seem to have much to say had always struck him as quite convenient.

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"That sounds like a douchey thing to do," Kathy said, before realizing that, oops, she was talking about Anders' god here. "Sorry." She flushed. "I just mean--I know how much it sucks when my dad stops talking to me because he's mad and that rarely lasts longer than a week. I can't imagine taking that to eternity."

[not_every_mage]

"Don't be sorry," Anders told her, smiling a little. "Douchey's a good word for it. But there's no law that the creator of a universe needs to be particularly pleasant, is there? It's just a legend, anyhow. For all I know, maybe the Maker doesn't talk to us because he's too busy sticking his tongue down Andraste's throat."

[spin_kick_snap]

"...That's an image of God and the Virgin Mary I'll never get out of my head," Kathy sighed. "Does everyone in your world believe in the Maker? And the Chantry's teaching?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders shook his head. "Most elves and dwarves don't," he said. "Qunari, either, I don't think. But for humans, if they have a religion at all, it's that one. Which doesn't mean everyone takes it seriously."