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"Thank you." he said, and he meant it too.

"So, hmmm, wildly diverging accounts" Peregrin said to himself, pointing at various locations in empty space as he thought "common elements. Naming collisions? Well, possibly, but we cannot simply ... So where, where, how would, cultural segmentation? .. No, one of the accounts carries distinct histories. So, inheritance by filtering? That could be it. Yes. Yes."

He looked at the two kids he'd been talking to again. "Were your home universes partly defined in the same place, say, World One?" he asked. "No wait, that is rather technical wording. Is there, ah, a universe I could go to where I could find stories about both the canons you came from? And is Halloween a holiday there?"

"Halloween began in the days of the second alliance between children and adults. It seemed a successful partnership at first, with chore duties shared, and children once again had access to Earth's many environments they hadn't been able to enjoy during their exile on the moon.

"The peace, of course, couldn't last. When adults built the brainwashing institutions called 'schools,' children began to rebel against the tedium of the school day and the time wasted on homework. On cool, dark nights in autumn, small groups of children would put on disguises and cause mischief for adults. Most kids didn't want to terrorize the parents assigned to their family units they had come to know and love, but would sneak around to the houses of neighboring adults.

"At first, the children only wore frightening disguises, terrorizing the adults into giving them food and other treats to make the kids go away. Soon, though, the adults learned what was happening, and were no longer frightened. Then, the kids changed tactics, using one to ring the front doorbell and distract the adults through talking while the rest of the group infiltrated the home and took what they want. Eventually, the adults learned it was easier to keep a bowl of candy near the door, always ready to bribe any children at the door to go away so they could stay inside and guard from intrusion—they had come recognize that their choice was a treat, or be tricked.

"After many decades, "trick-or-treating" had become a tradition among kid culture, with a special day set aside for its observance. Adults eventually forgot its true origins, and began to celebrate it in their own, curious way, with terribly uninteresting parties without enough candy. But we children still remember the truth behind the so-called 'holiday:' a period of rebellion and empowerment against the rigid structuralism that adults impose upon us all year long."

Harry stared at her with an open mouth for a moment. Then, he turned to Peregrin and said, "Really, it's just an excuse to knock things over and crast stuff with your droogs."

((Actually, as far as I can tell through memory and research, the Kids Next Door don't seem to attach much importance to Halloween. Call this a fringe theory, call 3721 an AU character, whatever works.))

Dax grinned widely. "Eberron, specifically. I'm a changeling—I'd show you what I can do, but I think without all the scaly bits people would get a little upset at me."

He handed one to Thoth - who once again downed it - and a considerably less horrific one to Derik.

Thoth nodded to Gall. "I am Thoth, of the XVth legion Astartes, otherwise known as the Thousand Sons. I am - or was - the unwilling servant of the Architect of Fate, and have my origins in the Warhammer 40k continuum. My partner is Tom Andrews."

Tom bowed. "Tom Andrews, computational demonologist, at your service. I'd tell you where I'm from, but then my brain would fry. It seems there was only so much DoSAT could do about that."

((If you're curious, Tom's from the Laundry continuum. So he's not exaggerating: if he tells you where he's from or where he worked or anything of that sort, he'll probably start smoking. DoSAT loosened it a bit, but they could only do so much.))

((I can appreciate the Wolves for similar reasons - Vikings are cool, and I do have that same soft spot. And they're a good legion. But the Sons... ah, there's just a bit too much of the Sons in me for me to prefer anyone else. Because I want to know the universe, to understand it. And if I am to be guilty of any crime, I want it to be the pursuit of knowledge. I also share some of their flaws... :-(

As for it not being their fault... I kind of disagree. But I'm not going to get into the reasons why, because it would take ages and I'm typing this on my phone. But I also have a soft spot for villains who are doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. And many of the Sons fit that to a T, especially Ahriman.))

"Yes, that's the important part." She looked a bit more closely the other woman's 'disguise'. "So, shapeshifting. Well, you know where I come from, but what about you?"

She took off her hawk helm, revealing a head of dark, wiry red hair plaited against her scalp, and mopped off her face. To Thoth's comment, she replied hoarsely between heavy breaths: "I'm Gall Knutson, Fellrazer's rider, of the Hairy Hooligan tribe. 'Interesting' is what we do. If by 'interesting' you mean brave, stubborn, and just a little bit insane." She grinned—no hard feelings. As far as she was concerned, anyone who could outdrink or outfight the likes of herself was to be admired. "The hell are you made of, jötunn?"

Derik, meanwhile, sank his ale in a few steady gulps and slammed the glass down on a nearby table. "One. And, in good news, I think I just spied Nurse Robinson as the spitting image of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Maria Hill. I think she keeps Purple Stuff handy for occasions like this."

(( I didn't know about the Rubric, but I looked it up, so now I sorta do. Yikes!

(( Can't speak for everyone else, but I like the Wolves because a: I like Vikings and Viking analogues in general, and b: I have a soft spot for big, hairy, unpretentious warrior-types. The Wolves are bloody awesome at what they do, but they know their place, and their limits, and there's a lot of heart under all the gruff, too. All the Legions Astartes have that warrior-brother thing going on, it seems, but I suspect the Wolves take that to a relatively high level what with the wolf traits making them a pack, too. I 'unno, but they're not what I expected from Space Marines going in, and I like it.

(( The Thousand Sons, on the other hand, are nice enough guys, and pretty cool, but make me want to pull my hair out with frustration at their basic lack of common sense. That said, I don't think what happened to them was really their fault. I blame the Emperor for trying to make a bunch of addicts quit cold-turkey and getting mad when, shockingly, it didn't work. {= P ))

Dax's cheeks somehow managed to go an even darker shade of blue. "I'm terrible at sewing anything larger than tears in a cloak, so I kind of cheated and went naked." She nodded at Marina. "That, though—that's impressive. I was able to recognize it immediately, after all, and that's the important thing, yeah?"

"It's ale, you know. Not mead. Not that it makes much of a difference with that stuff. Just be glad you hacked it up: I don't have any Klatchian Coffee handy." He produced some rags. "That's for your mouth. Here, Thoth, take a few to wipe off your armor with. And don't try to burn it off or anything: the smell will get everwhere."

He turned to Derik. "Sorry about that. Anyways, I think I saw some of the spice ale at the table..." He went off and grabbed a glass. "There you go."

Thoth frowned at Gall. "That was... an interesting decision." He had managed to wipe most of the ale off of his armor... before burning the rest. Thankfully, the smell was minimal.

((The Wolves ARE cool. But I'll always come down on the Sons side of that particular debate. Besides, I don't seem to like The Wolves as much as everybody else...))

((Now Ahriman... Ahriman is an interesting case. He's actually self-conscious enough to recognize his flaws a good deal of the time, and he's reasonably sensable, but he ultimately has the same flaws as the rest of his legion. Primarily, arrogance.

As for going full dark lord... he actually doesn't. Which is one of the cool things about him. Heck, he has no particular desire to serve Chaos at all (a trait he shares with several other named characters most people barely discuss). After the Rubric (I assume you know what happened with the Rubric), he was... distraught. And so he dedicated himself to reversing its effects. Imagine Edward Elric with absolutely no limits, nothing he won't do, and a devotion to his goal that is arguably even more fanatical. THAT is Ahriman, or at least the closest approximation I can give with a simple analogy.

DISCLAIMER: Ahriman is probably one of my favorite characters in all of 40k. Take that as you will.)

"'Efforts'? I... pretty much leaped on the idea while my partner was agonizing between disguises. The staff is a work in progress, and I took the coat and amulet he had prepared. He's the guy wandering around there, with the black coat, the mask and the curly hair. He cheated too, but belive me, that's for the better for him. I didn't really care for a particular disguise at the time, and was fully ready to go as myself and tell I was actually disguised as a wizard. Richard pointed out how ironic it was that I was one coat away from being disguised as Dresden, and the idea was just impossible to ignore. Besides, it did help him to make his own choice. He was thinking about throwing a dice to make his decision before that."

"But taken all together, it's pretty obvious," Dax said. "I like it, though—it looks like you put a lot of effort into it. I just cheated on mine."

She held up her glass and swirled the dark, viscous fluid—more like petroleum or blood than beer or ale—around the bottom. The substance had a strong, chemical reek that made her cough, but she turned the reaction into a noise of derision. "You call this muck mead, do you? When this is over, I'll introduce you to the real thing."

"Gall..." Derik's sense of caution broke through his anger. "Maybe you shouldn't—"

"Shut up, Derik," she snapped. She was committed, and there was no backing out now. With a deep breath to fortify herself, she locked eyes with Thoth and knocked back the whole shot.

It was fortunate that HQ was governed primarily by the Laws of Narrative Comedy, and by that token, what happened next was completely predictable: Gall shuddered and tried valiantly to hold on, but her stomach was smarter than she was. She convulsed, retched, and spewed the noxious brew right back up again, saving herself from committing suicide by stupidity. It was quite unfortunate to be standing in front of her.

Derik shook his head and patted her on the back while she hacked up the last drops of mjød. "On second thought, some fights aren't worth fighting. I'll stick to pumpkin spice ale."

(( If the Comedic Laws are in full force, Thoth will need to go clean his armor, but that's up to your discretion. {= D

(( And yes, I've read approximately two and a half Horus Heresy books now: Prospero Burns, A Thousand Sons, and the first few short stories in Tales of Heresy. I'm an extreme noob, but Phobos has been reading these books for a while now, and he finally talked me into starting. I'm afraid we're a Wolves household through and through, but I do feel sorry for Magnus and the Thousand Sons.

(( As for Ahriman, I don't get him. Half the time I thought he was the one with the most common sense of the lot, but the other half he was making the same dumb mistakes as everyone else, and from the fanart I've looked at, he seems to go full-on Dark Lord down the line. What on earth made him think making the same mistakes as Magnus was a good idea when he'd lived through the consequences, eh? ))

"Name is Marina and yep, I'm a wizard. A rather easy disguise, eh? That said, how did you guess it? Irony aside, a brown trenchcoat, a silver babble and a staff aren't that distinctive."

A startlingly perfect recreation of Mystique approached Marina, her teeth startlingly white against her blue skin. "Harry Dresden, unless I'm mistaken?" She held out a hand. "Dax. Just... Dax. Intelligence."

"'s your funeral. Take it in sips and you just might make it. Don't gulp, and don't get cocky. You're pressuring your defects here - breaking down is inevitable." He grinned. "Anyways, Thoth?"

Tom produced two glasses, and Thoth, giving a glare that could cut stone to Gall, poured some of the liquid into each. "I feel that you would work well with those I came dressed as. A pity then: I am not them. However, the necessity of Bleeproducts in our line of work means that I have learned to drink like them." He casually took a glass and quickly downed it.

((You've read Prospero Burns? I've been meaning to get to that. Newbie that I am, I've not read many of the novels yet. I started with A Thousand Sons (for reasons that should be obvious), and I was working my way through the Ahriman books when Real Life happened. Crimson King is sitting on my floor right now.

What? I like to be informed about my faction! :-D. It helps that McNeil is pretty good usually from what I can tell, and that John French nailed everything that makes Ahriman great - a fact he managed to convince me of over the course of a two page introduction. I suppose I'll see if his writing can match.))

((And yes, Gavin - that is, Miracle of Sound: he's a one-man band - is awesome. Tom agrees with this statement. Anyone up for Spot The Reference? :-D))

"A lot of it was learning legal process, actually," Ix said. "Everyone thinks being an Auror is really amazing and all, duels with Dark wizards every day, but most of it is sitting at a desk doing paperwork and the like. They even said on our first day—if you're here for excitement and glory, get out."

"I can do the same, yanno," Charlotte said. "Break the sound barrier, I mean. Can't go much faster than that, though—especially not as fast as you." She grinned. "On the other hand, I'm willing to bet I'm much stronger."

"Oh, no," Derik muttered.

She burst into song:

Drinking mead in the halls of Whiterun
The maidens and the men!—

"Gall, please, not this," Derik groaned, but she ignored him.

We swig our brew
Until we spew
Then we fill our mugs again!

NORD MEAD!

This was by way of being her answer to the question. Having not the slightest notion of what she was actually asking for, she held out a hand and beckoned eagerly. "Bring it on!"

"You know I hate that song," growled Derik, ex-dragonrider of Pern. If looks could kill, Gall was lucky his expression was partially masked.

"Yeah, but you're gonna drown your sorrows in booze anyway." She turned back to Thoth. "Come on, jötunn, show me what you got." She winked.

(( "NORD MEAD" by Miracle of Sound. I was hoping for an excuse to drop that. It's awesome. So are their other Skyrim songs.

(( Tom and/or Thoth may feel free to assume that Gall is merely stupid, not suicidal, and hand her something normal. But I'm perfectly willing to send her to Medical to get her stomach pumped, too. I recently read Prospero Burns; I know what toxic jet fuel the Vlka Fenryka drink. {= D ))

"Hey Derik, Gal." Tom shook Derik's had firmly. "Tom, and my that's partner Thoth. RC 65536+3i."

He scratched his head. "Anyways, I guess we're up for the first drink. For the mortals, Mjød or regular?"

Matt chuckled, looking at Charlotte and Izzy.

"Look... Ix, was it? Yeesh, that's a bit hard to pronounce smoothly, sorry." He cleared his throat. "Look, Ix, in my book you're as much an auror as Mad-Eye was. Charlotte said you only missed graduation? You've done the training part and that. is. awesome." He pointed out the last three words by tapping the air with his finger. "So why not skip the bragging, if that's not your thing, and tell me a little bit about the training itself?"

~~~

"You know you're talking to a girl that can break the speed of sound in her pajamas?" Izzy grinned, as her conversation with Charlotte developed. "I can prooobably restrain you before you move one foot to hurt anyone... no offense, I'm sure you have it in you to not actually do that, but... y-you know, I think we've got the issue of safety covered."

"I, er, thank you," she said. "But I'm not an Auror, I'm really not—"

"Don't be so modest!" Charlotte said to Ix. "Look, you go brag about yourself to Matt for a bit, I'm gonna talk to Izzy." She stepped around Matt to do just that. "I don't think the Flowers would like me doing that, since I'm not supposed to be eating fellow agents," she said. "But it would be really neat to find out—the only problem is, I've been off human blood for years now, and if I went back, bad things could happen. Makes it harder to keep control when someone gets hurt, you know?"

Ix turned to Matt, face still red. "Uh... I'm not really good at bragging, sorry."

Izzy leaned a little closer, her eyes starting to lit up the more she talked. "Like, you know, if it's possible to transfer the Speed Force energy through my meta connection, to maybe increase your natural speed? Or what eye color you would gain? Or what would—"

Matt cleared his throat, gently elbowing Izzy, before pushing in front of her.

"Did you just say 'Hogwarts'?" he turned to Ix, starting putting on a similar expression to his partner's. "Are you kidding me!? That's, like, the greatest thing in the fictional worlds! And it's a no-brainer you're a fully-fledged auror! That is beyond cool!"

"You've got that smell in your blood," Charlotte said. "And I'm not trying to be creepy when I say I bet your blood would have a lot of zing to it if I tried it. Not that I would, because that'd be wrong, but it's kind of interesting to speculate—"

Ix nudged her and she coughed, grinning sheepishly. "Right. I'm a Twilight vampire, if the telling people they smell good wasn't enough of a tip-off for you. And Ix is a witch! Hogwarts graduate, Auror, the whole nine yards!"

"I got kicked out before I finished tra—"

"You were like four days away from graduating, it was all but formalized at that point," Charlotte said, folding her arms.

"And I... have a Speed Force stink on me?" Izzy looked at and around her costume.

"Answering your question, yeah, she is... kinda," Matt added.

"Yeah... very kinda."

"What about you two? Earlier you said 'vampire', but there's so many representations... and you?" Matt asked, looking at both Ix and Charlotte.

"You smell like the Speed Force—that kind of ozony smell, you know? And that would explain all the food."

"Charlotte, you can't just tell people that," Ix whispered.

"Why not? I'm just asking," Charlotte said.

"I wouldn't be roaming the literary worlds if not for this one." He pointed his thumb at Izzy, smiling. "I still don't know why she keeps me around."

Izzy, who finally got caught between one eating moment and another, grinned and wrapped her hand around her partner's neck. "Come on, you've been a great help!"

"Yeah... In making you food, definitely." Matt looked to the side, blushing slightly.

He polished off the last mouthful of his pumpkin ale. "I've already handicapped myself. Against most people, I'd say that was fair, but..." He eyeballed Thoth and shrugged. "I suppose a man must sometimes fight a losing battle if only to say he fought." He stuck out his free hand to Tom. "Derik, by the way. My partner is Gall. Our response center is number 1110. If we both pass out, please make sure we get back there."

Gall rolled her eyes. "Ugh, defeatist. Haven't you ever heard the expression 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall'?"