This is Halloween!

[we_bring_hell]

The Bar loves her holidays, but she is also capable of respecting religious strictures. That's why she put a lot of thought into finding a Halloween costume for Harrow that works with her face paint and general insistence on the monochromatic.

Harrow, for her part, is baffled by the white-pinstriped black suit and the oversized bow, but the gloves are very cool, and the buckled shoes suit as well. She has no idea what's going on but she can live with this.

The Bar seems even more unusually populated than usual, and there are a lot of gourds around. Hm.

Comments

[we_do_bones]

"Oh damn!" she says, grinning hugely. "Looking good, Wei Wuxian."

She also grabs a chocolate cupcake and rips into it without waiting. Gideon will help you tackle this mound of desserts, Wei Wuxian! Like a true friend!

[acrookedpath]

Truly, her commitment to decimating a plate of confections, lest the poor Yiling Patriarch go into a diabetic coma, will be sung throughout the inn.

"Thank you!" He snags a cupcake of his own to join her in this shared quest. "I have no idea why Madam Bar saw fit to change my eyes, too, but I have no complaints. She is welcome to do all she wishes if it means I get free desserts."

He gestures to Gideon's outfit with the cupcake.

"What about you? Have you discovered what your costume is meant to be?"

[we_do_bones]

"Ingress said it's from a movie," she shrugs, with her mouth full of cupcake. Having never seen a movie, she's not really sure what that means, but she's happy to roll with it. "And that Bar dressed me and Harrow up in matching costumes."

She looks like a skeleton with aspirations as a mafioso, kind of. Gideon's into it.

"These are for your birthday?" She looks at the pile of cupcakes with wide eyes. "Is this what usually happens?"

She's never celebrated her birthday, aside from by trying to find her mother's skeleton in the snow leek fields.

[acrookedpath]

"Well, whatever you are meant to be, it looks very nice," he says before taking a bite of his own cupcake. "And -- I suppose? I never had anything this elaborate for my other birthdays. A small treat or gift, perhaps, but not... this."

He pats the bartop affectionately.

"If it is what usually happens here, you have my great thanks, Madam Bar."

[we_do_bones]

The cupcakes are tooth-achingly sweet for someone with a Ninth House palate; the difference between Harrow and Gideon is that Gideon likes it.

But she's also thirsty, so she's pleased when Bar manifests a glass of creamy white liquid for her. Whatever it is (it's milk), it washes down the cupcakes perfectly. "So how old does this make you?" she wonders.

...is he even aging, anymore? How would that even work?

[acrookedpath]

Thoughtfully, he chews his cupcake, squinting into the middle distance as he ponders this. "Twenty-one, I think?" he hazards. "My birthday was still some time away when I died, and I have not lived at the inn a full year, but..."

An unconcerned shrug that rustles his wings, and he polishes off the cupcake.

[we_do_bones]

"Many happy returns," she says, thinking of Harrow and her felicitations on the anniversary of your espousal.

Nerd.

"I know you'll be shocked by this," she continues, dry, "but birthdays weren't really a thing on the Ninth. At least, not for me."

[acrookedpath]

"Ah, but that just means," he says, pointing to her, "that you can celebrate at the inn as much as you want. Whenever you want! You could choose a day, even if it is not your birthday, and say, 'this is to make up for all the birthdays before.'"

[we_do_bones]

"Wei Wuxian," she exclaims with no small amount of admiration, "you're a genius. That is obviously exactly what I should do."

Will there be a piñata of Naberius Tern's pomaded head and a game of pin the rapier in the construct? Only time will tell!

[acrookedpath]

He beams, pleased. "And if it needed to last more than one day just to be certain you've celebrated every birthday, ah, well, surely you couldn't be blamed. Plenty of desserts, plenty of drinks -- wait."

Wei Wuxian wrinkles his nose slightly.

"You cannot drink either, can you?"

[we_do_bones]

"Harrow would rather I didn't," she says, a little regretfully.

(That comment about not stacking up to Ortus is going to haunt her for a long time.)

In truth, she'd had a little wine at Magnus and Abigail's dinner party and tried a little bit of frozen mudslide, and she'd liked both but not enough to want to drink to excess. Partly because she could be ambushed at any second by a murderous giant construct in Canaan House and she wants to keep her head clear, but not entirely.

"But there would obviously have to be plenty for the guests!"

Anything else would just be rude.

[acrookedpath]

"Yes," he declares with a firm nod. "Ingress and I will help you pick some out. Well, perhaps Ingress more than me -- she has had more time to taste Madam Bar's wares than I have. But I will still help!"

A thought strikes him.

"I wonder if Ingress could take everyone to London Above for your birthday."

[we_do_bones]

She pauses in the midst of demolishing another cupcake.

"Do you think she could?"

[acrookedpath]

"I don't see why she couldn't."

Oh, this will be fun, if Ingress is willing.

"She has brought me there before. It was mostly to drink," he admits, "but there are places to go that are not solely for drinking! Like dance halls. There was an enormous one we visited, with all kinds of people dressed nearly as creatively as this."

He sweeps a hand to indicate the bar.

"And, ah. Sometimes as scantily, too."

[we_do_bones]

This sounds like the kind of trip Gideon would love and Harrow would hate, and Gideon desperately wants to make it happen.

"Let's ask her," she says decisively. "Next time I see her, I'll see what she says."

[acrookedpath]

He beams. "It seems we have a plan," he says, with all the mock solemnity he can muster. (Which isn't much.) "And soon we will have an adventure, if all goes well!"

A raucous outing with everyone. Well, hopefully everyone.

With a small, rueful laugh, he goes on, "Poor Lan Zhan. If he comes along, I will have to bring some portal talismans so he can get home quickly."