starter dispatched to @solasuperstes
— halloween at mother base this year had turned out to be quite the surprise to the diamond dogs.
the long-time veterans, few remnants of militaires sans frontieres especially, were understandably the most shocked by the sudden shift in the holiday status quo. the diamond dogs would only celebrate a universal gift exchange in the winter, and a cheesy field day of sorts mid-summer every year.
none of the staff complained of a lack of celebration — in fact, the xo, miller, had outwardly OPPOSED this third holiday predominantly charged towards children anyway. but the boss’ word was final, and even begrudgingly, he would need to comply. or merely tolerate long enough to order all the necessary decor and supplies for the jarring new holiday.
it didn’t take extraordinary deduction skills to realise that the reason for celebration lead back to the children now on base. easily bored and forced into an environment safer, but nearly as equally cold as their last, the boss’ heart proved a size much too large as he personally asked each child what they would like to be for halloween.
“ an angel! ” “ i want to be a werewolf! ” “ can i be a princess? ”
the answers were as innocent and light as snake could have ever imagined, having seen these kids forced through hell and back. it made him smile.
that genuine smile that eli despised from across the platform.
of course, eli did not care for halloween. or christmas. or whatever shitty, lame holidays were to come. all he cared about was the free stuff that came with the “ festivities ” and perhaps the temporary heightened positive attention towards him.
when the boss had caught up to ask him what he’d like to be for halloween, eli merely replied with a classy “ your worst nightmare ” . snake got the message not to ask again, and in return would offer him as much candy as he’d like on halloween day, if he would assist in the decor department for at least a few hours. eli glared, arms crossed and huffy, but snake could recognise his non-aggression as a... sort of agreement to his proposition.
the next day, eli set out to complete the tedious task of being remotely helpful to the diamond dogs, kicking a nearby staff member’s boot several times as he followed to their destination. in the corner of the cafeteria, he wearily spotted a gaudy assortment orange, purple, and black decorations in a pile next to a table of real pumpkins.
eli couldn’t understand the point of any of this, much less why HE had been assigned to do anything in the realm of typical childish fun, until he spotted a single pumpkin placed further from the large batch — carved.
was that why he was chosen? had his skills with a knife finally been recognised by the big boss? he couldn’t help but feel a slight swell of material pride fill his chest with the motivation he needed to head over to the halloween goodies and see what was in store.
all alone. just him, a carving knife, a bunch of highly stabbable pumpkins, and embarrassingly cheesy decorations — notably quite a bit more stabbable than the pumpkins.
halloween couldn’t be too bad like this, could it?
