Forums » General Roleplay » Trick-or-Treat: Don't be SHAI (closed)

"Oh, hey, wait!" Shai said quickly, before Flux could leave. "You like the chips, huh? I think I have more I can give you!" They reached back into their treat supply again, and tossed (yeah, literally tossed) several more bags of chips in Flux's direction, with one or two even landing right in the garbage bag. "Enjoy. Also, there's this really nice mech guy, I'd recommend visiting him- if you can find him- 'cause he has all sorts of stuff."

Flux gleefully picked up the bags of chips scattered on the ground and put them into its garbage bag. "Th-Th-Thaaaannnk you...!"

With a giant, toothy grin on its face, Flux waved at Shai before finally taking off. Flux was having fun with Trick or Treating, so why not go visit more places? It decided to take Shai's advice and keep a lookout for that mech guy....

Whatever earthlings would end up doing in the face of a strange alien ship sat in the middle of a field, it was far and away nothing like Starlit-Wisdom's reaction. Sensors had been going crazy since it had arrived, and now in the middle of the trick-or-treat ritual which they had opted to take part in, they had an excuse to check it out.

The cyclops-like alien was presently wearing a fairly elaborate cowboy costume. From fake pistols to a ten gallon hat, not to mention a neck bandana and beige wasitcoat, they might have looked the part... if not for the midnight blue skin, large central amber eye, four ears... oh, and the hooves (which they still managed to fit spurs to despite not having found any actual boots that worked for them). They were confident in the knowledge that the blue crystal that they wore around their neck would hypnotise humans into not questioning their alien physiology. Of course, that cloaking technology only worked on one species at a time. Another alien would see Starlit-Wisdom for what they really were.

Despite having no mouth to eat it with, Starlit-Wisdom carried a small sack of candy that they had collected. They hadn't decided what they were going to do with it yet, but they certainly needed it to properly observe this festival. A festival the void-dancer was quite enjoying at present.

Starlit-Wisdom stopped outside of the entry hatch. was there any kind of comms panel here? Well... thankfully they didn't have to go snooping around. Reaching into one of the pouches tied to their belt, Starlit-Wisdom pulled out what looked like an electronic key and gently pressed the button on top of it, letting out a simple pulsing energy signal that they were quite sure most if not all sensor systems sophisticated enough to work in space flight would be able to pick up. Who needed to find a doorbell when one could bring their own?

Shai had been getting bored, just sitting around in their ship while they waited. Bored enough to organize their supply of treats by type, rather than just leaving it in the messy pile it had been in before. It took them a minute, but eventually they noticed the blinking light that was present on a screen nearby. Shai stared at it for a moment. What had the sensor picked up? It seemed like a signal, like someone was trying to announce their presence.
"Could've just knocked..." They muttered, before opening the hatch to see if someone was really outside. And indeed there was. Shai noted that this was definitely not a human. Actually, they had only seen one human that day, despite this being Earth. They also took note of the alien's costume, and opted to focus on that, instead. After all, what did it matter to them if their visitors were from Earth or not?
"Oh hi. Nice costume," They said cheerfully. "What kind of treats do you like?" Shai was trying to remember if they had ever encountered an alien of this type before. Would this species even understand the words they spoke? Shai knew a lot of languages from throughout the universe, but defaulted to whatever was most common in the area they were in. Here on this part of Earth, that meant they were speaking English. But of course, their visitor was not from Earth, so Shai didn't know for sure if they'd understand, but figured this was the best bet. (It was only AFTER this entire thought process that Shai realized their visitor didn't have a mouth, so likely couldn't answer verbally - or at least, not in any conventional way. Of course, the point still stood that this alien either could or could not understand them, so Shai was just going to wait to see what happened next and figure this whole communication thing out from there. Maybe they were overthinking this, anyway.)

Starlit-Wisdom's eye widened slightly and their ears flickered. Thankfully, they had just the thing for a situation like this. Slowly, they reached into one of the pouches on their belt and pulled out what appeared to be a pair of goggles with some sort of technology built into them. Very clearly the goggles were not made for one of Starlit-Wisdom's anatomy. They held the device out to Shai eagerly.

It wasn't quite as advanced or capable as the abilities of Starlit-Wisdom's cloaking field when it came to communicating, but all the same, the sophisticated AI programmed into the goggles' built-in camera was highly accurate at reading the dance-like gestures of Starlit-Wisdom's language and displaying the result as text on a built-in HUD. The only real downside was that it wasn't very good at guessing what was being communicated if too much of the dance was obscured. Things seemed quiet enough around at present that such a thing was unlikely to be a worry, Starlit-Wisdom figured.

Curious, Shai took the goggles and put them on. They couldn't help but wonder how many useful gadgets this visitor had on their person. In any case, they weren't immediately sure what these goggles were for, but it wasn't hard to guess that the purpose was somehow linked to communication, since that seemed to be the only issue at the moment. Once the goggles were on, Shai struck an exaggerated, dramatic pose, just for the fun of it. Then they tilted their head to one side and gave the visitor a big, goofy grin. Also just for the fun of it.

The void-dancer nodded their head slowly for a moment... then began to dance. It was an elegant display that was tribal yet fluid. Like an interpretative dance, but of raw feeling and emotion. Every small movement, every tilt, every angle... everything was precise. Meaningful. The exact directions hands travelled. The exact placement of the hips. Any steps, head movement, even every curl of every finger. Everything was precisely calculated.

And the end result... much like subtitles on a television screen... was transcribed in the lenses of the goggles.

<Trick or treat.>

There was a pause. A small huff of air as six nostrils exhaled at once. Then, Starlit-Wisdom started moving again.

<Are you offering a choice? I do not consume matter, but collecting consumable matter is an integral part of the current festivities. My preference would be something aesthetically pleasing, but also capable of maintaining peak quality for long enough to be viable for offering to charity when festivities are complete. I hope that is not too much to ask for.>

They paused again, then exhaled loudly, this time purposefully to be heard. Almost like the equivalent of an 'oops'. And once again, they started moving.

<It is, by the way, a pleasure to make your acquaintance, fellow star traveller. I go by the name of [TRANSLATION NOT FOUND], but you may find it easier to call me Starlit-Wisdom.>

Shai was momentarily taken aback. Both by the beauty and intricacy of the dance, and by the onslaught of words displayed on the HUD. After gathering their thoughts, they said, "It's nice to meet'cha too. My name's Shai, and I'll see what I can find for you." Although they were still slightly uncertain if Starlit-Wisdom could understand them.
Turning to their stash of candy, Shai took a moment to glance over the now neatly organized piles. Most of this stuff was nonperishable, but what counted as 'aesthetically pleasing'? There was a bag of fruit-flavoured hard candies... They came in an array of bright colours and each one was wrapped in crinkly translucent foil, and Shai thought those were kind of pretty. They picked up a handful, including at least a few of each available candy colour, and turned back to face Starlit-Wisdom, in order to show them the candy.
"How about these? They're all colourful! Oh, and definitely nonperishable. I heard that's just kind of how sugar works."

The bow that Starlit-Wisdom performed for Shai was obvious as a 'thank you' even before the goggles translated it. A few more thankful gestures later, and a quick twirl that followed, and more text added to the response.

<That will do quite nicely. I am grateful for your considerate offering.>

Starlit-Wisdom took their candy sack and held it open for Shai. Their eye widened expectantly, ears spreading slightly.

"Oh yeah, no problem," Shai nodded. "And. I mean, uh, you're welcome. Also that." Formality was not their thing.
They reached back to grab another handful of the colourful candies, and deposited all they held into Starlit-Wisdom's bag. It was probably more candy than most people would hand out on Halloween, but it was getting a bit late and Shai still had a fair amount of treats left, so they figured it wouldn't hurt to hand out a lot to one person. (The same reason they had given all of their chips to someone earlier in the day.)
With yet another big grin, Shai stepped back. They gave a thumbs-up and said, "There ya go!"

Starlit-Wisdom bowed their head politely, then reached out with one hand and beckoned casually toward Shai's face. Or perhaps more accurately, the pair of goggles that were still sitting upon it.

Quickly, Shai took off the goggles. Then they held them out for Starlit-Wisdom to take back.

Starlit-Wisdom gently took the goggles and put them away, before tipping their hat cowboy-style as a farewell... and proceeding to skip away from the ship in very much a non-cowboy-like fashion.

Shai smiled and waved as their last visitor departed. And indeed, this WOULD be the last, for Shai had decided it was time for them to get going. It had been a good Halloween, and although they still had some candy left, they felt that it was about time. First though, they scooped their remaining treats into a bowl and set that in the grass outside (for a wandering human, or wild creature... they didn't much care.) Then, climbing back into their ship, Shai cast one more glance back over their shoulder before closing the hatch, and prepared for flight. They were quite ready to leave Earth (one of their least favourite planets ) behind for the forseeable future.
And so it was that the small ship took off, speeding into the sky and exiting through the atmosphere (oops, most of the flimsy Halloween decorations adorning it were burned up) - and Shai continued their space-wandering, sugar-drinking ways. ((OOC note: Yeah, I'm closing this even though there's technically a bit of time left in the event. I've been feeling pretty burned out; I don't want to do this thread anymore... Anyway, happy Halloween and thank you to those who participated, and also to those who didn't ))