All Around the Dorms, Thursday Evening

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Kathy loved Halloween. It was the one night of the year back home when she could pretend to be anything other than quiet, bookish Kathy and become someone loud, exciting, and colorful. Even here, where she was doing a semi-okay job of that by herself, Halloween remained the best holiday ever

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[voiceoverdue]

Cecil was kind of missing Halloween back home. There was always all kinds of fun things to report on around then!

He hadn't had any luck buying the traditional good-luck charms and poisoned bits around here, so he'd just made a few of his own to hand out, just in case.

Charms. He hadn't managed to find the right kind of poison for the other. You were welcome, Fandom.

Now he was just sitting in his room with Carlos's lab coat wrapped around him and a pair of fake glasses on, waiting to see if anyone would come.

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And lo and behold, there was a knock on his door and a muffled, "Trick or treat!" from the other side of it.

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Cecil scrambled up and answered it, beaming. "Hello!"

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"You're in a costume!" Kathy said excitedly. "Yay! You're the first other person I've seen in costume all night!"

She looked at his coat and the glasses. "Scientist?" she guessed.

A doctor probably would have had a fake stethoscope or something.

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"Yes!" Cecil beamed back. "It's sort of really my boyfriend's, so it doubles as a security blanket," he confessed. "And you're a mouse?"

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"Awww, that's the sweetest!" Kathy said. "Does he go here, too?"

One of the best parts of living in LA? Being told about a guy's boyfriend didn't even rate a blink.

"And, yeah. I'm Minnie Mouse!" she said with every expectation of Cecil knowing exactly who and what that was.

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"No, he's back home in Night Vale." Cecil sighed. "He did visit that one weekend, but." he shrugged. "Very cute," he grinned at her costume. "I was hoping someone would do something. Here!" He found his bag of charms and dug out a really good one for her.

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"Hey thaaa--" She looked at the thing he was holding out for her, confused. "Err, I don't mean to be be rude, but what is that?"

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"Oh, don't worry!" Cecil hurried to reassure her. "It's a treat, not a trick. I wasn't sure what people around here might want, so I just went with general 'good luck'. Can't go wrong with that, right?" He hoped.

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"Good luck?" she asked, looking at the thing again. "Like...a charm or something?"

It did sort of look like something she might see dangling in the doorways of the more traditional shops and homes back in Koreatown.

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"Of course!" He shrugged, a little embarrassed. "I know it's not very fancy or anything, but I didn't want to chance any embellishments going wrong. One year I added sparkly beads, and...well, never mind." The less said about that, the better.

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"You make charms for Halloween?" Kathy asked, now far more intrigued than weirded out. Of course, she thought that the worst thing that could happen with sparkly beads was that they'd turn out tacky. "That's pretty cool. Like, a cultural or religious thing, or...?"

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"I don't think so?" Cecil frowned. "I mean, doesn't everybody?"

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"You're the first person I ever met who makes Halloween charms," Kathy said awkwardly. "But I'm sure there are lots of cultural norms that I don't know about. And I think that it's really cool that you took the time to make these!"

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"Probably another weird thing about here." Cecil dismissed it with a shrug. Fandom definitely was weird. "But thanks. I hope it brings you a bit of luck, anyway!"

[spin_kick_snap]

Right, Cecil. It was the school that was weird.

Okay, it also was, but that didn't automatically make you normal.

"Thanks!" she said, giving him the V-for-victory sign. "I'll hang it up in my room to ward away all the spooky spirits wandering around tonight!"