São Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday Evening

[brat_inslayage]

"Where are you going?"

Kennedy stopped with her hand on the doorknob and tapped the stake sticking out of her pocket as she raised her eyebrows at Willow. "On patrol?" Massive tones of duh in that reply, if in an indulgent kind of way.

"On Halloween?" Willow, sitting on the couch surrounded by books that looked like a mixture of homework and magical texts, was totally looking at her like she'd just said she was going to renounce her entire life and join a convent.

"Yeah?" Kennedy blinked at her. "What's the big?"

"Let's move this conversation on to someplace that doesn't involve question marks, and point out that it's Halloween," Willow replied, slowly but not in a spelling this out like you are two years old kind of way. (If she had, Kennedy would've made an effort not to get mad about it, too; after the first few such incidents that had gone badly, they were learning.) "The slowest night of the demon-fighting year?"

Also, she had that halfway-pleading look that she knew damn well Kennedy couldn't resist, so Kennedy sighed and came over to perch on the arm of the couch. "Big ol' cliché, night off, all that, right," she reeled off. "Does that count, though? I mean, we're not exactly living in a place that's big on Halloween. Do they even celebrate Halloween here?"

"Well..." Willow opened up her laptop, pulled up a browser tab, and did her Google-fu thing; Kennedy leaned over to peer at the screen. "It looks like it's been catching on in the last few years. Except they don't call it Halloween, they call it--" She trailed off and frowned at the web page.

"What?" asked Kennedy, confused for the couple of seconds before her shakier grasp of Portuguese caught up to what exactly 'Dia da Bruxas' meant. "Oh."

"Stupid stereotype," Willow grumbled.

"Think of it as a holiday in your honor?" Kennedy suggested, hoping to cut off any impending crankiness at the pass. "With a big party, 'cause you know they never turn down a chance to party here."

Willow gave her a you're not helping look. "See, my point stands. No patrol for you."

"Fine," Kennedy relented, as if anyone would be surprised that she'd give in. "It probably would've been the most boring patrol in the history of patrolling... so that whole story about costumes gone wacky when you guys were in high school, was Andrew making that up?"

"Okay, point, but that was someone messing with dark magic, not demons. The thing with the frat house, okay, technically a demon, but not the time Dawn went out partying with vampires and..." Willow made a face. "I'm making my point a lot less standy, huh?"

Kennedy tried her best to hide a smirk. "Little bit, yeah." Then she caught a glimpse of some of the pictures on the website Willow had pulled up. "Oh my god." Apparently, Halloween Brazilian style involved a pretty good number of very realistic-looking zombies.

"Uh huh." Willow pointed at one picture. "I think Buffy killed something that looked just like that once."

From what she knew of Brazilian parties, Kennedy realized there was no way she'd be able to pick out actual demons from people in costume in crowds that size. Anyway, she'd already encountered several benign, fun-loving demon species that fit right in at Carnival, so...

She went over to the weapons trunk by the bookshelves to swap out her stakes for textbooks, then settled in on the couch. "Well, I had a lot of homework to do anyway."

[[this is what happens when i google "halloween around the world," and i haven't had enough sleep. open for calls/whatever, why not?]]

Comments

[wwiii]

Was that a delivery for Kennedy? Why yes! Yes it was! And what was in that delivery?

... Actually not Halloween stuff. Warren wasn't too enamoured with the holiday after what had gone on in the frat house this weekend. But it was full of other things. Fancy, ridiculously expensive junk food, mostly. It was difficult to go wrong with junk food.

The note was short and sweet.

This gift basket company is either going to love or hate us, aren't they? - Warren

[brat_inslayage]

Hey, one person in this house would completely understand the source of Warren's newfound Halloween aversion! It just wasn't Kennedy.

Which was not to say that Kennedy didn't appreciate the gift basket. Hey, it was like the trick-or-treating came to her! Sure, first she spent a few minutes laughing until she cried at the note (while Willow went through the basket wondering aloud if junk food this fancy defeated the purpose of the term 'junk food'), but after that she didn't waste any time digging in.

They'll probably love us AND hate us, she tapped out on her phone with the hand that wasn't rifling around inside a tub of incredibly fancy cookies. You know this is totally war now, right?

A second message followed right on the heels of that one: Oh, and thanks.

[wwiii]

Warren, who had decided to spend his Halloween in his room watching movies about racing tonight instead of going out to enjoy whatever madness might be going on out there in crazyland, read the text and couldn't help but laugh a little, himself.

War, huh? Good. I need practise on the battlefield, and I think I'm actually equipped to deal with this one.

[brat_inslayage]

Not that Warren could see the way Kennedy was smirking, but it'd be a very familiar smirk if he could. Bring it, then. Stuck at home tonight so I'm already planning my counterattack, FYI.

[wwiii]

Oh, I'll be ready and waiting, Kennedy. Ready. And. Waiting.

He would be! It wasn't as though Warren got many huge thrills on the average day in Sunnydale. So far as weirdness went, it seemed to hit him on a much lower scale than it did on the island.

So far.

So he'd probably be in his room doing homework whenever revenge arrived.

[brat_inslayage]

Those not-so-average days were a doozy, though, or so Kennedy heard. (She wouldn't go so far as to call any of the time she'd spent in Sunnydale average. That'd be a stretch.)

Guess we'll find out if you are, she replied, looking so schemingly gleeful about it that Willow glanced at her and raised both eyebrows.

This was going to end so, so badly, wasn't it? But in an awesome way.

[wwiii]

If it ended in anything less than a yacht crammed full of animatronic teddy bears or something, they were both doing this wrong.

Trust me, I'm a Worthington. We do what it takes in order to not disappoint.

[life_inshadow]

The fact it took Tara two solid weeks to make a phone call did not mean she hadn't appreciated her birthday present.

But on Halloween night, bored and alone in her room and not a hundred percent there after the spooky house excursion, Tara decided to actually call Kennedy to thank her.

Ring ring, Kennedy.

[brat_inslayage]

"Hey," Kennedy said as she picked up the phone, sounding a little bit hyper thanks to way too much sugar. (This wasn't helping her do any homework.) "What's up?"

[life_inshadow]

"I missed you," Tara said, because that wasn't embarrassing or weird at all. "And also? I kind of realized I've been wearing your bracelet for weeks now and never said thank you.So. Thank you."

[OOC: Sorry -- crashed early last night.]

[brat_inslayage]

Maybe a little bit weird, but what wasn't, these days?

"Hey, I'm just glad it arrived-- on time, hopefully," Kennedy told her. "Also you're welcome. It seemed like a you kind of thing when I saw it, so..."

She glanced at the biology textbook chapter she wasn't really paying too much attention. "Missed you too. How're things?"

[[all good, i was stuck in traffic for approximately ever anyway!]]

[life_inshadow]

"It is," Tara confirmed. "Very me. You have good taste."

She settled in against her pillows to answer the question. "Things are all ... thingy. We had our first actual creepy Sunnydale weird last weekend, but besides that it's .... classes, reading, um, I'm studying a lot..."

She hadn't exactly made non-Warren friends yet.

[brat_inslayage]

"Sounds wild," Kennedy teased lightly; she had a fairly good hunch that establishing a presence in the campus social scene wasn't high on Tara's list of priorities.

Well, that answered the question she wouldn't have asked for the sake of timelines, curious as she was. Convenient, that.

"Creepy weird, and not bad weird?" she had to check. "You're okay, right?"

[life_inshadow]

"Oh, yeah, we're all okay," Tara said quickly. "There was, um ... some frat does a haunted house for Halloween, so we went 'cause it's a big thing here? And ... it got a little more real than we expected. Like, rubber spiders came alive, that kind of stuff. And then it got - worse."

She wouldn't say it, because timelines, but she was curious if Kennedy had ever heard about anything like that.

"Turned out they used a real rune for atmosphere and it called a demon," she added disparagingly. Mundanes shouldn't mess with spellbooks, there should be a law. "I guess somebody else knew how to undo the magic. I didn't."

[brat_inslayage]

...yeah, Kennedy had heard about that, a little bit, though most of what she did know came from asking annoyed questions about a couple of offhand references that felt like Scooby injokes, so it was a little garbled. Frat house, fear demon, Buffy-go-squish: that was about the extent of what she knew.

"Someone did it by accident? Of course," she said, rolling her eyes. "Someone's always doing that sort of thing. There was a thing here with disappearing tourists last week-- long story but kind of similar. Though maybe not as creepy... I'm just glad you're okay."

[life_inshadow]

"I'm glad you're okay," Tara returned. "Are the tourists? Or is that a question I don't want to ask, 'cause the answer will make me sad?"

[brat_inslayage]

"They're fine. I kind of want to know how they're explaining their vacation to their friends, though, since I kinda doubt they're going to tell people about how they bought a cursed wood carving that did the magical wacky with their subconscious 'cause they were overwhelmed from culture shock," Kennedy told her. "Apparently this is a thing that happens. But, we tracked 'em down, broke the curse, it's all good. Like your frat house thing. W--"

She'd been about to say 'We were just talking about that,' but that seemed like a bad idea that she even recognized as one.

"We heard about that one, yeah."

[life_inshadow]

"I'm not surprised," Tara said. "There was this waiter guy there? I think I saw him at homecomings a couple times, back in Fandom. It's all ... converging. is that the word?"

[brat_inslayage]

"Sounds right," Kennedy decided, wondering if she meant Xander, but again not asking. "It really kind of is, huh? This is so weird. You telling me stuff that's sort of already happened here. I had a feeling that was going to happen eventually, but... is that a thing you can even prep for?"

Because she was so much about forethought and preparation to begin with.

"I like it, though," she added. "It's cool."

[life_inshadow]

Xander it was! Not that Tara would learn his name for another six weeks or so.

"I don't think so?" she said thoughtfully. "I mean, I could prep for you telling me things that you know that I still have coming up, but the other way round is just ... weird. B-but maybe in a good way."

[brat_inslayage]

"It's fun," Kennedy agreed. "It's almost, sort of, like I get to be there."

Okay, that was a huge stretch, but sometimes it was hard not to feel a little left out whenever the Scoobies lapsed into nostalgia.

"Besides," she added a little more forcefully, "if I told you that stuff it'd just be me assuming things are going to happen the same way."

[life_inshadow]

"Which they won't," Tara said stubbornly. "And anyhow, I ... don't really want to know? I kind of like being surprised."

[brat_inslayage]

They were both going to cling to that belief, weren't they?

"Like I'd spoil that for you? It's way too much fun hearing you get all excited about things," Kennedy replied. But thinking about that too long was likely to meander toward the gloomy. "Speaking of which, has the new-and-shiny of college classes worn off for you yet? I totally forgot what it was like actually having homework."

[life_inshadow]

They would cling to it until it shattered in their grasp.


"Oh god, homework," Tara sighed. "I mean, I like art, art history should be fun and ... painting-y? But having to write about different styles sorta spoils it."

[brat_inslayage]

Well, a certain degree of denial seemed to be a Scooby prerequisite anyway.

"Seriously," Kennedy groaned. "This major has way too many science classes. Swear to god, that's almost my entire load this semester, and I'm gonna have to take statistics next semester."

Unlike Willow, she didn't think that sounded like fun.

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

Sookie was bored, though she had a whole bag of candy to herself (and the ability to chuck Snickers over to her boyfriend and have instant-frozen Snickers) and thus, there was texting.

Happy Halloween! Did you go trick-or-treating?

She cared not that they were all old. She'd still ask.

[brat_inslayage]

They weren't that old! Not yet.

Turns out Halloween in Brazil is a different and funky thing, Kennedy texted back. Not so much trick-or-treating. People in the streets dressed like zombies, though.

Kennedy's natural impulsiveness plus Slayer instincts plus realistic fake zombies: bad combination. It was entirely possible that Willow had just been diplomatic enough to not mention that concern.

I got a huge basket of candy and snacks from Warren, though! So it's like room service trick or treat.

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

Do they do the Day of the Dead thingie? Or is that just Mexico? Sookie wondered, feeling sort of culturally ignorant.

A pause, while a frozen candy bar hit her in the side of the face (her own fault for not paying attention) and some words were exchanged.

Bobby says hi. And I am so sending you a care package. I will not be outdone by Warren!!!!

[brat_inslayage]

They do that here too, in some places. Also they call Halloween Day of the Witches here. Will's all cranky about it. It's cute.

Kennedy glanced over at the basket and laughed.

Say hey to him for me, and hey, the more the better. I'm putting together a bunch of stuff for you guys, too.

Be afraid, Sookie. Or, you know, not.

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

THERE WILL BE MUFFINS. That was a vow. They'll help appease Willow, too!

Muffins were the best idea all around, always. Obviously.

[brat_inslayage]

No one in their right mind would turn down muffins, right?

I knew there was a reason I loved you. Platonically, of course.