2012-10-30 - Early Trick or Treats

 Halloween is... well, it&apos;s an unusual thing to celebrate in the eyes of the Amazons. That might explain why the embassy isn&apos;t really decorated. As one might imagine of such a place, it seems perpetually busy, a blur of motion: guards at their posts, politicians, businessmen, the curious, and the staff themselves. A large group of women, headed by Wonder Woman herself, enters from a rear doorway. Questions are raised about whatever it was they were doing; the murmurs are lost in the greater din of the room. Still, Diana seems to hear them, and she turns, stops the group, and addresses the question so all may hear.

 A strange girl enters into the embassy. Strangly colored hair, held up in pigtails that rise several inches from her head, and out to the sides of her head at least a foot. Tied off by several colored little metal ribbons, the hair itself is shiny, tickles the floor, and is metal. Her costume is one of Wonder Woman. A shirt meant to mimic Wonder Woman&apos;s top, a half-pair of jeans, coming down to her knees, and a long jacket of red, with the initials &apos;W.W.&apos; on the back in gold. She holds a lasso in one hand, and a plastic halloween pumpkin. The strange thing is that her clothing, the whole outfit shines..it too is metal. Needless to say that she&apos;d set off any metal detectors. She holds out her pumpkin as she approaches random people threatening/asking "Trick &apos;er treat!"

 Thankfully, at least, the Amazons do know about Halloween. And though it&apos;s a day early, they have prepared. The woman at the desk - an Amazon judging by her garb - smiles at the girl and her costume. "Aren&apos;t you a day early?" she asks, though she indulges and deposits two half-sized chocolate bears in the pumpkin. No metal detectors here to set off. "I think the Princess would be flattered someone dressed as her for Halloween."

 Aeryune looks into the pumpkin, then smiles "Oh! Thank yae&apos;, thank yae&apos;! Ah&apos; like tae&apos; hit early because there are going tae&apos; be lots of people tae&apos;morrrow. They aren&apos; always th&apos; nicest sometimes." She rests her hands on her hips "Ah&apos;m wonder woman, defender o&apos; justice! Ah&apos;ve got mah&apos; lasso o&apos; truth, and super powers tha&apos; let mah&apos; be empowered tae&apos; stand up against wrongdoing!"

"I don&apos;t really sound like that, do I?" Wonder Woman stands just behind Aeryune, her walk with the group having brought her to this point. She doesn&apos;t sound mad or upset, however. Far from it! Instead she&apos;s amused and, as the woman at the desk said, flattered someone would dress up like her. A few of the woman behind her laugh and one pipes up.



 "Sometimes, Princess!"



 More laughter, to which even Diana joins in. "All right, I suppose I do. Sometimes."

 Aeryune turns around and holds out the pumpkin. "Trick &apos;er treat!" she offers/demands. She peers up at the group, specifically Wonder Woman. "Oh! Um..am ah&apos; supposed tae&apos; give yae&apos; candy now?" She takes a step forward as she looks up a little further. "Amazons are really tall..". She keeps the pumpkin held out, jingling it a little bit as her metal pigtails flow behind her a little, moving from right to left, swinging even though there&apos;s no breeze.

 Wonder Woman has to move around the desk to grab one of the bags of candy there. Likewise, the women do the same, and each gives Aeryune a bit of candy before they depart. Some exit through the front door, some head up the stairs to the rooms above. "Happy Halloween," Diana answers with a big smile, dropping a few pieces of candy into the pumpkin. "That&apos;s a lovely costume. You really wanted to go as me?"

 Aeryune nods "Mmmnhmmmn. Because if yaer&apos; Wonder Woman it doesn&apos; matter if yaer&apos; poor or homeless or a mutant. Ah&apos; know someone who said this was a safe place faer&apos; homeless girls, sae&apos; ah&apos; decided tae&apos; come here.". She gives a soft little &apos;Thank yae&apos;!&apos; to each candy drop. "Some o&apos; our heroes don&apos; see th&apos; homeless, or don&apos; stop for th&apos; fights, the bad things because they happen all th&apos; time."

 Wonder Woman&apos;s eyebrows lift. "Who told you that?" And then the smile returns. "Because we give shelter to those that need it." She kneels a little, so that she&apos;s not towering over Aeryune. "What&apos;s your name?" she asks, curious. "I know. Sometimes it&apos;s harder not to see the stuff that happens every day, because they&apos;re not big and flashy. That&apos;s why we try to help people locally, with this embassy."

Aeryune nods softly "It&apos;s nae&apos; easy..there&apos;s lots o&apos; people that suffer because people prey on us..um, them ah&apos; guess. Mah&apos; name&apos;s Aeryune. I was a homeless girl. But today ah&apos;m Wonder Woman! Ah&apos; can use mah&apos; mutant powers tae&apos; make a difference!" She hmmns. "Who told mah&apos;? It was a woman named Donna Troy, she&apos;s the girlfreind of Richard, who was sick. She was going to stay in his bed with him tae&apos; make sure he gets better. It&apos;s better tha&apos; way because if he needed somethin&apos; she could get it for him."  "Donna is my sister," the Amazon Princess says. The family resemblance should be there, if one looks closely. "If she&apos;s the one that sent you here, then she knew what she was doing." Diana&apos;s expression softens. "Do you need a place to stay, Aeryune?"

 Aeryune nods "Oh! Ah&apos; didn&apos; know that. Ah&apos; jus&apos; started at a special school. Sae&apos; ah&apos;m nae&apos; homeless anymore, they gave mah&apos; a room there. But there&apos;s lots o&apos; people out there tha&apos; still need yaer&apos; help. It&apos;s nae&apos; safe..there&apos;s nae&apos;where safe faer people lik&apos; mah&apos;. Yae&apos; see, we&apos;re mutants. People don&apos;t look in on us. And when yaer&apos; homeless...it&apos;s even worse. It&apos;s so scary out there. People look for mutants too, use yae, use yae&apos; body for what they want, make it do all kinds o&apos; crazy things..tha&apos; happened tae&apos; mah..they still come around lookin&apos; sometimes."

<p style="margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0pt;margin-right:0pt;text-indent:0pt;line-height:13pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"> Wonder Woman smiles brightly. "Good. I&apos;m glad you&apos;ve got a place." She firmly believes everyone should have a home, which is why the Amazons are doing their part. "But since you know my sister, she must have told you we offer a variety of classes for free." She retrieves a pamphlet from behind the desk, offering it to the teen. "Here. Just in case you find something you might be interested in."

<p style="margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0pt;margin-right:0pt;text-indent:0pt;line-height:13pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"> Aeryune looks at the pamphlet. "Free classes? Wha&apos; do yae&apos; teach? Ah&apos;ve started learnin&apos; some math n&apos; writin&apos;. What do yae&apos; have?" She peers a little harder, resting both hands on the plastic of the pumpkin&apos;s handle. "Ah&apos; didn&apos; know yae&apos; had classes..sh&apos; didn&apos; sae&apos; that."

<p style="margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0pt;margin-right:0pt;text-indent:0pt;line-height:13pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"> "Probably nothing you&apos;d learn in a proper school," Diana admits with a little laugh. "We strive to pass on the schools we&apos;ve learned. Gardening, pottery, art, sculpting, sewing, self-defense." She ticks off a few examples, gesturing to where they can be found within the pamphlet. "I teach self-defense and pottery myself. Sometimes gardening, though usually one of the others handles that one."

<p style="margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0pt;margin-right:0pt;text-indent:0pt;line-height:13pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"> Aeryune doesn&apos;t touch the pahmphlet, but holds the pumpkin up so that it can be put into it. "Pottery? Is tha&apos; like organic things?" She considers seeming to like the idea as it pulls a rather intent look of curiousity onto her face. "Well..can ah&apos; sign up? What do yae&apos; do for self defense classes? It&apos;s nae&apos; scary is it?"

<p style="margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0pt;margin-right:0pt;text-indent:0pt;line-height:13pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"> "Like... hmm... aha!" Diana retrieves one of the many bits of Amazon culture out on display for the newcomers, holding up a clay pot for Aeryune to see. "Something like this. You learn how to shape the clay, create designs, fire a kiln. The two sisters who run it are very good at their craft." As for the self-defense. "It depends. Usually Tuesday and Thursday nights. And no, it&apos;s not scary," she promises. "We do it just in the back of the embassy. A group of twenty women. Some young girls, about your age, come too."

<p style="margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0pt;margin-right:0pt;text-indent:0pt;line-height:13pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"> Aeryune nods softly. "Ah&apos;d like to sign up. Ah&apos; dunno about th&apos; pottery? Ah&apos; have some kind o&apos;..different issues tha&apos; could make tha&apos; kind o&apos; hard. Ah&apos; kind o&apos; have magic fingers n&apos; well...they&apos;re going tae&apos; ruin anything ah&apos; touch with&apos; mah&apos; fingies. Turns anything ah&apos; touch except organic things lik&apos; people n&apos; food intae&apos; metal. Lik&apos; mah&apos; outfit..kind o&apos; like mah&apos; hair too."

<p style="margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0pt;margin-right:0pt;text-indent:0pt;line-height:13pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"> Wonder Woman smiles. "Come by on Thursday, then. Seven o&apos;clock in the evening." She slips the pamphlet into the pumpkin. "Oh, and... in case you don&apos;t around for trick-or-treating properly tomorrow..." She grabs a few more chocolate bars, depositing them into the pumpkin, too. "Here."

<p style="margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0pt;margin-right:0pt;text-indent:0pt;line-height:13pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"> Aeryune gives a soft little giggle. "Ohkay!" She shakes the pumpkin with a big smile. "There&apos;s lots o&apos; chocolates in there nae!" She dips the pumpkin to rest against her in front of her and stands up straight. "Ah&apos;ll come, Ah&apos;ll come. It&apos;s somethin&apos; ah&apos; should learn, but it&apos;s pretty scary. And ah&apos; scare pretty easily. Ah&apos;m kind o&apos; a coward b&apos;cause ah&apos; run away a lot."

<p style="margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0pt;margin-right:0pt;text-indent:0pt;line-height:13pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"> "Well don&apos;t worry, everyone that comes to these classes is very nice, and nothing we do is scary. Promise." Diana has one of those voices where it&apos;s obvious to anyone that she&apos;s been completely honest. It helps that her voice is warm and friendly at all times. "There&apos;s nothing wrong with running away, Aeryune."

<p style="margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:0pt;margin-right:0pt;text-indent:0pt;line-height:13pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"> Aeryune purses her lips. "Sometimes..sometimes it is. Ah&apos; mean..ah&apos; was told ah&apos; had th&apos; devil in mae&apos; and mah&apos; parents couldn&apos;t beat it out o&apos; mah, sae&apos; they handed me to fancy doctors who couldn&apos;t get it out o&apos; mah..they made it worse. Sae&apos; ah&apos; started livin&apos; on the street when ah&apos; got away. Ah&apos;ve been runnin&apos;..and it&apos;s sae&apos; scary. If ah&apos; was strong, ah&apos;d just turn everyone t&apos;shreds, but..ah&apos; dun&apos; have tha&apos; kind o&apos; shreds. Ah&apos; just..jus&apos; cower because it&apos;s sae&apos; scary when people get pushy or violent."