Welcome to Gaia! ::

This was it. Gilles held the package triumphantly over his head, which was difficult, owing to the floating hair and the horns and all, but he was triumphant, and he was going to look the part whether it was easy or not. Here it was, finally, after all the endless searching. The box proclaimed "OKAY RABBIT FOOD!" in large, green letters and made a shake-shake noise when he...well, shook it. Which would have probably made a lot more sense if Gilles was thinking clearly, which he wasn't, but he should have been. Anyway, the point was that finally, finally Gilles had found Mr. Hoppo's rabbit food, and he could go back home. He rustled up to the cashier, produced a handful of shiny coins, and exited the store with an air of great self-pride.

Gilles was just about to head back to the bar when he noticed a costume shop across the street. He dashed across and gazed into the window, only vaguely registering the presense of two people - a toddler and her mother(?) - at his side. He did notice the potato costume, however. What were they thinking? "That's weird." He announced to himself, running his tail along the glass of the window display. "Why dress up like a potato? Why dress up at all?" Gilles frowned. Costumes seemed to be sprouting up everywhere recently...and Chikara was making plans for some sort of party...thing. Pumpkins with faces cut out lined the streets, and the menu for the bar had changed, featuring things like "Oogie Spooky Delight" and "Pumpkin Brandy."

Probably the early warning signs of a quickly approaching doom.

Gilles blinked, confusion easily showing on his young, expressive face. Candy day? He had no idea what that was; Chikara hadn't mentioned it. Gilles deduced that the events Chikara and this girl were talking about were separate. That was too bad, he liked candy and days in general, and combining them with orange-and-black decorations seemed kind of cool, sort of in a way. Oh well, it seemed to involve ritualistic costumes that resembled garden plants, so Gilles wasn't having anything to do with it. He smiled at the little girl and said, "I'm Gilles. I live just down the road. Are you shopping today?" The last question was directed at Smerdle, since she was obviously the adult in charge. Gilles had learned something from his escapades with previous Shattered - Brim, specifically - that making sure you knew the adult in charge was generally a good thing. "Brownie's a pretty name. Like the cakes, brownies, or the color, or both?"

Gilles blinked up at the woman and hugged the box of rabbit food closer to his body. He didn't need help! This was Mr. Hoppo's food! His rabbit's food, and he was quite capable of carrying it himself, thank you very much. "I like brownies." Gilles said, swiveling back and forth from his torso. "I don't think I came in a basket of them, though. Chikara found me under her bed. Or I was on top of her, and then under her bed. I didn't like going out into the sun, so I had to use this umbrella. See?" He twirled his ducky umbrella round once for good measure, then set it back against his shoulder. It wasn't very bright outside, but he had taken it as a precautionary measure.

"What are you going to buy? Are you going to buy costumes? Be a potato?" Gilles asked Brownie, frowning slightly, as he took in her peculiar wings and hair (not that he could say anything about the hair - after all, his was floating and blue). "I was going to go home now, but maybe I could look at costumes, too?" It was a simple request, and he didn't feel that he would really be following Smerdle and Brownie around, because he was on his own and the world was his lobster, or something like that, but it still seemed polite to ask.

"Thank you, very much, Brownie! And Miss...er...miss?" Gilles did a brief-double take, then smiled happily as he was invited (it was polite, after all) and stepped into the store, closing his umbrella in the process. He had to manuever around a bit, because his horns got caught in his hair, and his hair got caught in his umbrella, but after hopping on one foot for at least forty-five seconds, he righted himself and inhaled deeply. Gilles turned and offered his hand to the young girl, though he stumbled a bit because he was now holding his umbrella and the box of rabbit food in the same hand. It was an uncomfortable position, saying the least, and he was afraid he might drop one or the other on his foot. "I should maybe get a costume for my momma, too?" He asked Smerdle, frowning slightly. He didn't know what Chikara was doing for Halloween, but maybe they could find matching costumes? Gilles blinked and realized his question probably didn't make much sense. "I mean, grown-ups dress up too, right?"

Gilles smiled hesitantly back, making a silent note of the name. He re-adjusted the bag of rabbit food and tried to close the umbrella, looking around the store. "No yarn heads," He agreed, eyeing the gigantic - masks? - lining one wall. "Maybe she'd like that one?" He suggested, pointing to a costume of a giant bottle of ketchup. He cocked his head to one side, probably nearly taking someone's eye out. Maybe not... Then a thought occured to the boy, and he said, "Are you dressing up, Miss Smerdle?"