[Indigo]

Well. This was a new one.

Normally, Gallagher was not inclined to go out alone at night. He rarely left the house alone at all, usually only to replenish his stores of ingredients or to run the odd errand for Avida, and neither of those things were suited to this hour. Except tonight, since technically this was also an errand, if a very odd one.

Trick-or-treating. Usually done in costume, or so his research suggested, but it was difficult to find a costume suited to one of his shape, so he had chosen to go without; he was under the impression no one much would notice anyway, on this particular night. It wasn't the activity he would have chosen, but it was his job to obey Avida's commands, and this seemed harmless enough.

He had asked, after doing a bit of research, why she didn't go herself. It was a difficult question to phrase politely, but he had quite a bit of practice.

"Don't be ridiculous, Gallagher," she'd said. "I'm too old, and someone would notice. You're only three, even if you are a robot, so you probably count as a child. Besides, if I go out tonight I might accidentally brush up against someone or something."

And now here he was, trying to figure out how to knock with his pincers; it had never been a necessity before. There was a child dressed as a pumpkin on the steps behind him, who, after several long seconds, ran out of patience and knocked for him.

[Indigo]

The door opened on a familiar face, startlingly so; Gallagher had not realized this was Miss Isaacs's house. Or was it Mistress? It didn't matter much at this specific moment, but his programming on the subject was conflicted. In any case, he had never actually been here before, but Miss Isaacs had occasionally brought Newton with her on one of her rare visits to the house, and Gallagher had spoken to him once or twice.

The child mumbled "Trick or treat", then an even less distinct "Thank you" when a piece of candy was dropped into their bag. Gallagher extended the tray that he usually used for carrying groceries, and said in a much clearer voice than the pumpkin child, "Trick or treat."

If he analyzed the Sabbit's facial expression correctly, Newton was even more surprised to see him.

"Gallagher, what on earth--" Newton shook his head. "No, I'm not really surprised. I'd try for more enthusiasm in the voice, if I were you. It makes up for not having a costume. Is that tray all you have? You'll melt everything if you carry it that way."

"I had not considered that."

"I'll get you a bag, here. Most places should have doorbells, around here, you don't have to knock. Good luck."

[Indigo]

"Trick or treat." He tried for enthusiasm, and failed. His voice wasn't really designed for displays of emotion of any kind, and while he could usually get a point across by blinking his lights at Avida, no one he spoke to out here would know what he meant.

"Oh, my gosh!" The Kuhna actually clapped, which wasn't what he'd been expecting. "Are you a real robot or just dressed as one? You're real, aren't you? I don't think anyone would put that much effort into a costume, except maybe me, and I'm staying in." She giggled. "Here, you can have three--that's one more than I give the kids, but don't tell anyone, right? Hey, what's the name of your manufacturer?"

"I...do not know." He hadn't been prepared for the flurry of words, either.

"Hmm. Maybe I can find out, I can probably find your employer pretty easily since I can't imagine there are a lot of you around, and then I could..." She trailed off into incomprehensible mumbling. "Oh, don't mind me. I just need to look at--" The door slammed shut.

[Indigo]

The door opened. "What the--oh, seriously?" The door closed. Gallagher wondered if he should have stuck to following the pumpkin-costumed child instead. But it seemed unfair to make a random child do all the work for him, and he'd been terribly curious about what was up the narrow flight of stairs. He decided, with what he realized was a fair amount of optimism, to wait around for a bit and see if the door-opener returned.

To his surprise, she did. This time she was partially coated in liquid metal, which seemed to have some kind of enchantment on it, though he didn't have the equipment to determine the details beyond that. "Trick or treat?" he said, holding up the bag.

"You're not supposed to come to unlit houses," she said. "That's the entire point of not putting the lights on."

"There is a light on," he said, pointing. One of the windows glowed faintly behind its curtain. The Kuhna looked, and swore.

"Damn Heath and his weird experiments," she said. "Fine. Here." She dropped something slightly melty into the bag. "Don't come back." The door closed again, and after a second he heard a lock click into place.

[Indigo]

This place wasn't a house, or at least it didn't look like one. There was a big sign calling it The Printing Press, and glass-paneled doors. On the other hand, it was lit, and he wasn't sure if shops counted or not; his information had indicated that it varied somewhat, and he had spotted a few children wandering down this street, though he had no idea whether any of them had come here.

He knocked on the glass, though the door was ajar.

After a few seconds a Malphas came out of the back, and sat down on the other side of the door to stare at him.

"This isn't a house," she said. Her voice was raspy and distant, as though she'd just awoken from a long sleep, but she looked perfectly alert. "Brent sleeps upstairs sometimes, but customers aren't allowed up there. I guess you're not a customer given the night but that's not the point."

"Does that mean you do not have candy? I am in desperate need of it."

The Malphas cocked her head. "A programming thing, yes? Very well. There should be some, Brent got it for me because it was cheaper than oranges and I've been busy. Then I suggest you go right at the next corner and you'll find some more houses."

[Indigo]

To his utter surprise, this house was occupied by a human, or at least someone appearing to be human--her hair was a touch too glittery for this to be her true form. Normally he didn't deal with humans, since Avida didn't and he was usually with her. This one was wearing a witch costume, and holding the largest bowl of candy he'd ever seen. There was a line of children going to and from her open door, like ants. One might actually have been dressed as an ant.

"Oh, hello," she said. "I haven't seen you around here before. Who sends a robot to do their trick-or-treating for them?"

"Miss Avida Lambert."

"I don't know who that is, but she doesn't sound particularly nice."

Privately, Gallagher had to agree.

"Anyway, here you go. It's hardly fair to turn you away just for being a robot. Mostly I get young children, for some reason the older ones seem to stop. I don't know why. Everyone likes candy." She laughed. "I might go myself if I could. Go on, now. Have a nice night."

[Indigo]

He wondered if it was standard to answer the door in costume. This was only the second person he'd seen doing it, but to be fair, it seemed that most of the people he'd visited had not been expecting him. The human's costume had been easily identifiable, but this Drakel...he was just wearing a black and red cape with a high collar. Curiosity overwhelmed protocol. "What are you supposed to be?"

"A vampire, of course!" The Drakel laughed, as if this were a hilarious joke. Gallagher spotted fangs, and couldn't tell if they were fake or not. "Since you're not a creature of flesh," the Drakel continued, "you're not of much use to me, so I suppose I can spare you this once." He winked dramatically. It was rather odd.

Gallagher whirred. "Trick or treat?"

"Yes, yes, one moment. Dean!" A pause, and someone held out a bowl over the Drakel's shoulder. "Take as much as you like. We don't get a lot of people over here." Gallagher scooped up a clawful and scuttled away, slightly unnerved and unable to say why.

[Indigo]

This place was well-lit, and there were a number of creatively carved pumpkins on the front steps. A sign hung on the door that said "Trick-or-Treaters Welcome!" Yet, when he rang the doorbell--with some difficulty still, given the shape of his claws, but still better than knocking--nobody answered. He wasn't sure what to make of that. Perhaps the house was just very large, and he would have to wait.

After about five minutes had passed, at least according to his internal clock, he heard someone behind him say, "I am so sorry! How long have you been waiting out here?"

He turned around. There was a small Kuhna at the foot of the steps, keys held in one tail and a large bag of fun-size candy in the other. "Four minutes and fifty-eight seconds," he said.

"I'm sorry! I ran out of candy, so I had to run out and get more. Guess I wasn't fast enough." She smiled and climbed the rest of the way up the steps, then sat down in front of the door and began haphazardly tearing the bag open with her claws. "I usually give out two per kid, but you can have extra for waiting so long."

"It was not so long."

"Well, no, not in the scheme of things, but it seems to me that Halloween is all about speed. Hitting as many houses as possible as fast as possible. Consider it a reward for patience. Maybe an unnecessary one, but I feel bad." She deposited the candy in the bag before he could protest further, then turned to unlocking her door. There seemed nothing more to say.

[Indigo]

This was another of those small apartments up a winding stair, and Gallagher wasn't quite sure he should go up. But there were multiple lights on up there, one over the front door and a bright glow from the window, not as dull as the one that had misled him before, so he figured it was worth a shot. "Trick or treat?"

The Kuhna smiled. "Would you believe you're the first to come by tonight? It's probably the stairs. I think if no one else comes in the next half hour or so I'll go sit at the bottom with a lamp or something. Or do this." The end of one of his tails burst into flame, though he was not of the type that usually had them as far as Gallagher knew. He laughed at Gallagher's whir of consternation. "Don't worry, it's fine! It's magic."

Gallagher's bag was not exactly heavy, but it was reaching a point of reasonable fullness, and it was beginning too get too dark for him to see; he wasn't designed for night use, except perhaps in a well-lit kitchen. He didn't quite have the system to map his way home, but he knew roughly the correct direction, and headed that way.

[Indigo]

The front door was locked when he arrived, and he had never quite figured out how to manipulate a key. Fortunately the back entrance to the kitchen had been left open for him. He had occasionally mentioned the poor security of this to Avida, but she dismissed him, saying she was capable of defending herself and an intruder would make a boring night more interesting. He still wasn't sure how to feel about that. But it wasn't as if he could dissuade her.

Avida herself was curled in a corner of the couch, tails lashing, brooding over something. Maybe she'd lost a fight, though she didn't look at all injured. Something else, then. He scuttled over to her, feet making little indents in the carpet, and dropped the bag. "The spoils of trick-or-treating, ma'am."

She lifted her head. "Oh! I forgot I'd asked you to do this. Thank you, Gallagher."

"It was no trouble."

"You should probably get downstairs, shut yourself down for the night. This overtime can't be good for your...whatever it is that makes you run." She waved a paw. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Indeed, ma'am," he said, and left the room.