Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Halloween was a curious holiday where – for a scant few days before winter- every Mobile City and Mobile Platform in all of Columbia took on a spooky appearance. It is said the holiday was introduced by some mercenaries working with Rhodes Island and Maylander called Team Rainbow or Team 6.

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Fiammetta and Mostima were out trick or treating in Trimounts. It was evening. Along the thoroughfare the streetlights – which were adorned with Jack - ’o – lanterns cast the wide street in a deep orange glow and the buildings were adorned with skeletons and cobwebs. The pedestrians all around them wore various costumes and masks. There were skeletons that glowed in the dark evening, witches and vampires, sarkaz and sankta, cautus and feline and there was even a giant with a wendigo mask. It was impossible to distinguish the real persons or races behind those costumes and masks.

The atmosphere reminded Fiammetta of a siracusan Carnevale but with a more eerie aura thanks to the orange lights. She wondered if maybe some more secretive races and people took this opportunity to walk around without worry just being themselves.

Fiammetta wore in a supposedly scary zombie costume consisting of green makeup and a fake scar going across her face which she did herself, with the rest of the outfit made from some of her spare clothes with aesthetic patches and tears added and a cloak with a hood draped over her head. However, as much as she tried to “puff up” her scary and mysterious side with this costume, she just looked cute.

Beside her, Mostima was dressed in a modified Lateran Cardinal outfit which showed a lot of leg paired with fishnets and a pair or low, bright red heels. In short, she was a slutty nun.

Fiammetta did in fact almost faint when she had seen Mostima try on a wide brim hat with this slutty outfit back at their hotel room. She looked like a devious and mischievous witch that would “trick” her any moment (more so than normal Mostima).

The two were going to a Halloween party in a city park.

“Look over there, miss Eight Armed Chainsaw Man there’s someone looking like the One Armed Chainsaw Man.” Mostima called out, pointing somewhere in the crowd towards a man wielding a chainsaw on his arm.

“aughhhhh” Fiammetta cringed at the name and pulled down her hood hard to hide her embarassment. “Please don’t call me that. At least for today.”

Fiammetta generally hated Lemuen for all the dumb codenames she came up with for her, but Eight Armed Chainsaw Man was the worst one yet. Ever since Lemuen saw that movie at the last family reunion she gave Fiammetta that codename and even started quoting the movie.

Mostima laughed and wrapped an arm around Fiammetta. “Alright my cute zombie.” Fiammetta in turn pulled harder on her hood and blushed hard.

And so they walked together through the thoroughfare to the party.

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Mostima and Fiammetta glanced around the park amazed at the effort put in the whole event. On top of all the cobwebs and skeletons present throughout the city, fog machines created a gray flowing carpet which was illuminated by electronic Jack-O’-Lanterns hanged above in garlands which flickered and changed color from green to blue to red to orange.

But that wasn’t all. To one side of the park was a full on buffet and mobile kitchen convoy set up that sold various snacks and alcoholic beverages. On the opposite side various photo booths and decorations were set up.

And yet the thing that gathered the most attention in the whole arrangement was the big stage with band singing Halloween songs.

Calling all the monsters

Calling all the monsters

Oh yay aye aye,

Oh yay aye aye.

Heart thumps and you jump

Coming down with goosebumps…

Mostima looked and Fiammetta and Fiammetta looked at Mostima and they both grinned. This was going to be an amazing party.

Tonight all the monsters gonna dance

We’re coming to get’cha

And the song agreed.

Chapter Text

Mostima was sure punch should not have this much alcohol in it. ‘Was it made with whiskey or tequila or something?’ she thought as glanced towards her beautiful zombie friend, Fiammetta, who looked absolutely hammered and steeped in to stop her from pouring her even more of that abysmal punch.

“Come on, you’ve had enough drinks. Let’s do something else.”

Fiammetta responded by dragging Mostima to a photo booth on the other side of the park and shoving her inside. She was unexpectedly strong and forceful which surprised Mostima, but before she could dwell on it further Fiammetta entered the photo booth and grabbed Mostima by the arm and squeezed in close to her.

The inside of the photo booth was decorated with pink and red fake roses and hearts in total opposition to the Halloween atmosphere outside. There were heart shaped pillows and a few plush toys inside and around them which were cute and fluffy. The decorations -while nice- reminded Mostima more of Valentines than Hallowee… “OH NO!” Mostima thought right as the racing epiphany hit her harder than the absurdly alchololic punch or any of the physical hits she ever took in a battle and she instantly sobered up.

This was a photo booth meant for couples.

Mostima was blushing like mad at the realization. Furthermore could smell a pleasant floral perfume she ,until now, didn’t notice Fiammetta was wearing. She was in a coupple’s photo booth with a cute friend that smelled like flowers and they were both drunk and Fiammetta’s chest was pressed tightly against her arm, and worst of all…

Worst of all was that her adorable airheaded redhead friend hadn’t even noticed any of this and just started picking cute couple frames for the photo session. She switched between heart frames and teddy bears and flowery frames almost too fast to see. She added stickers and wrote something on the preview.

“Fia. Wait a bit.” Mostima began however Fiammetta was already finished setting up the camera.

She heard Fiammetta say “trick or treat” before two things happened at the same time. The camera flash illuminated the booth several times and Fiammmetta kissed her deeply for several seconds before she pulled back leaving a thin thread of saliva from Mostima’s mouth to hers, a fragile reminder of the link between the two.

Mostima, offended by the surprise attack, demanded revenge. ‘An eye for an eye, a kiss for a kiss’ she thought and so she grabbed Fiammetta and kissed her back. Too caught up in the moment she went a little further and used her tongue to tease Fiammetta a little.

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When Mostima kissed her, Fiammetta trembled in Mostima’s arms, confused and happy and kinda scared. This was never the way she planned, not her intention. She got too brave drinking and lost her discretion. She had kissed Mostima to tease her, as payback for all the times the devilish angel teased her one way or another. She never expected her friend to kiss her back. Then she felt Mostima’s tongue poking into her mouth and her mind went blank.

The party outside was still getting louder and, with how preoccupied with partying and drunk on the punch everyone was, no one bothered to check on one lone photo booth with two lovebirds inside.

Inside the couples photo booth, amids heart shaped pillows and plushies, the two lost track of time and each other, kissing, biting and drunkenly touching each other in all sorts of wild ways. Mostima bit Fiammetta’s neck, careful enough to avoid ruining her makeup and Fiammetta responed by grabbing Mostima’s exposed thighs and squeezing. One forcefully grabbed the other’s chin and the other countered by leaning in close and whispering sweet nothings in their ear. As the minutes wore on, they passionately battled for victory in a game that existed only in their foggy minds somewhere on a tightrope between the Firendzone and the Freakzone above the crevasse of Strangers.

Were they friends? Enemies? Lovers? Friends with benefits? None of those. They were drunk as fuck and a pair of idiots who put walls between each other for their own reasons but still couldn’t help being apart.

Fiammetta had left Laterano all those years ago just to be with Mostima wherever she may go and Mostima for her part secretly appreciated the company. After being exiled and losing her Empathy, Fiammetta was always there for her. The two have been through thick and thin all across the world, watched each other’s backs and gave eachother a shoulder to cry on when needed. Like peanut butter to the jelly and the straw to the berry, Fiammetta was the one for Mostima and Mostima was the one for Fiammetta.

They were the perfect two.

Chapter Text

A while later the two exited the photo booth as if nothing happened. It was already almost midnight, the twin moons of Terra peeking through the hole in the fake sky. Moonlight bent around the edges of the hole in the Starpod and shimmered as it fell upon the mobile city of Trimounts and the raging party in the park.

First to come out stumbling into the light was Fiammetta with her hood pulled over her head followed closely by a blushing Mostima following right behind. The latter was busy looking at the photo they took together in which the fateful kiss was captured in colorful ink. As her slutty nun outfit didn’t have pockets of any sort she -ever the resourceful- gently tucked the photo in between her breasts.

Mostima then brought a hand up to her lips touching them where the sensation of her kiss with Fiammetta lingered. It was her first kiss. And then she remembered all the things they did inside that booth and grinned. She had wanted revenge for that sudden kiss and she got what she wanted and more.

Only a few seconds passed since they emerged from the booth and so she quickly caught up to Fiammetta and grabbed onto her cloak.

Fiammetta looked back at her, still dragging her hood down to cover her face and said with a grave voice: “Do not speak of this ever or I will add pumpkin spice to your coffee from now on. Understood?” Underneath the hood Mostima could see Fiammetta was grinning and blushing.

Mostima just grinned in response and dragged Fiammetta by the sleeve to the stage where the band used to sing until now. Curiously, on the stage, engineers placed and calibrated various devices and prepared flying drones with antennae and speakers.

Soon the engineers left stage and a well dressed man came on the stage and presented himself as the organizer of the party and gave a speech.

“Did you have fun?” he began with a shout.

“YEEEESS” cheered the crowd around Fiammetta and Mostima.

“I DIDN’T HEAR YOU!!!” He shouted.

The crowd shouted in agreement as one and Mostima and Fiammeta shouted too without knowing why.

“Well I am glad to hear that, everyone. Because to end the party with a BANG we partnered with Rhine Lab and acquired this bad boy.” He pulled out a vial from his pocket and pointed to the silvery metallic liquid inside it which moved as if it was alive. “This. Is a Transmitter and in short it can fuse with living beings and allows people to share thoughts and coordinate. Furthermore, the punch you all drank contained this Transmitter. Sorry we had to make the punch so strong, the alcohol helped hide the taste of the Transmitter.”

Gasps sounded through the crowd but he gestured for everyone to calm. From off stage the band arrived and prepared to sing one last song. “Relax. It is perfectly safe, it cures hangovers AND it will be out of your system in a day at most. This also isn’t an experiment, as this product has already went through rigorous QA and is perfectly safe. It is, however, part of the surprise planned for this event. I’ll leave the demonstration to the band, it will answer all your questions.”

“Take it away boys and girls. Make this the best Halloween party ever and have fun. Happy Halloween everyone.” He ended the impromptu presentation with these words and calmly walked off stage.

For a moment there was silence as everyone was too shocked to respond in time. Then, instead of a furious crowd erupting into a blind rage, the band started playing and everyone present at the party moved in unison to the beat.

It’s close to miiidnight

And something evil is lurking in the dark.

Under the mooooonlight

you see a sight that almost stops you heart.

All of a sudden Fiammetta could feel where everyone around her was moving, the distance between them and she knew how to dance despite the fact she had never learned the moves. She could feel everyone’s intent to dance and fun, distinct from her own feelings. To her side she heard Mostima chuckle and say under her breath “This is different from a Sankta’s Empathy. Like, this is so funky I could get used to it. Hey Fia, watch this!”

Mostima continued to laugh and let herself loose in the dance number. She moved efortlessly and also perfectly. It was an enchanting sight to behold to those around them garnering quite a few cheers from the crowd, mostly thanks to her sexy costume choice. Fiammetta however could swear she saw the white edge of a photograph from that fateful photo booth in between Mostima’s breasts.

You close your eyes

And hope that this is just imagination.

But all the while

you hear a creature creeping up behind

You’re out of time

Cuz’ THIS IS THRILLER. THRI – LLER NIGHT

After finishing the verse, the band played only the instrumentals of the song while the crowd marched out of the park dancing out into the city streets close to midnight.

And so, with eerie and jerky dance moves akin to a zombie from the movie “RE:Undead And Three Armed Chainsaw Man Two: The Revving of Twin Chainsaws (part one)”, everyone at that Halloween party danced in sync across the city of Trimounts while funky music played around them from drones. There were small Liberi and tall Sarkaz and pretty Feline and hot Perro and brave Ursus and people of all races dressed in colorful spooky costumes so well made you couldn’t tell who was what or if they were even dressed as a real race or a fictional monster.

It was the most epic Halloween party on Terra EVER.