Who: Rey and Finn What: Rey introduces Finn to Star Wars Halloween Costumes When: Saturday Sept 7 (Backdated) Where: Target Rating: low
Rey didn’t want Finn to be surprised by the time Halloween came around - or even be surprised if he wandered into the ‘wrong’ aisle in a store. She had told Poe and he had taken it similar to how she thought he would. Finn, on the other hand? Rey was worried about him.
She invited him out to Target to go shopping, but really she had some ulterior motives. Right now, she was explaining the concept of Halloween while in the candy aisle. “I’m not sure the religious significance, if any, but people on Earth like to dress up as things other than themselves and go door-to-door. We hand out candy to people who show up and say trick or treat. Which is why we need to pick some of these up.” She gestured to the boxes of little candies.
– Finn didn’t spend much time wandering shops. He stuck to the space ports these days, it gave him something to do now that there were ships coming in and out. He’d convinced them to give him a job, so he had something now at least. But branching out wasn’t his strong suit. He was still getting used to things on Earth. Idly browsing isles as Rey brought him here and there within the large shop.
“So basically we’re giving people rations?” He was confused at the idea. Could they not just buy their own? “This planet is fucking weird.” He looked over at her with a raised eyebrow and obvious question marks on his face. “Why are there so many holidays?”
–
“Rations that taste good.” Rey liked candy, though she didn’t eat a lot of it. It was very sweet so it was eaten in extreme moderation. She still missed some treats from home, though she was thankful she had stocked up on some with their last trip to Naboo.
The question about holidays made Rey smile in soft amusement. “I’m not sure. Maybe they look to celebrate things as much as possible because they understand how short our lives are… or maybe this is what happens when there are so many religions and thoughts left to thrive unhampered… but this one seems to be centered mostly around children, though adults partake.”
– “Then I guess we should try a few of these.” He’d not tried candy yet. He’d had some sweet things sure, but candy wasn’t something he knew to go out of his way for. He did like ice cream though.
“They have so many choices.” Choice wasn’t really a thing Finn had most of his life. They browsed through the costumes. There so many of those too. A brown furry thing that looked a little familiar caught his eye. “Why does this look like Chewie?” Did people want to dress up as a wookie? The idea made him smirk. “Han would hate that.” If Han were there. Han was dead though, which made him frown for a moment as he put down the big fuzzy looking monstrosity of a costume. Gears were clicking in his head, but it hadn’t quite caught up with him yet what was happening.
–
Rey hadn’t really been sure how to handle this, but she had been hoping to warn him before he found some of the items ‘from home’. She felt a surge of panic, but she kept it hidden in her chest instead of on her face and took a breath. Exhaling, Rey decided to go for it.
“Our world. People know about it. Like how we tell stories of other worlds not of our own -” Though she realized saying that to someone who was raised as a Stormtrooper might not go over well. Did they tell stories? “They tell of ours here. And because of this, there are children who wish to pretend to be us. As a compliment.” She wasn’t sure how else to explain it. Though she had a harder time reconciling why people wanted to be a Trooper or Darth Vadar.
She could see the white of the telltale sign of a Stormtrooper further down, but she found something else instead to demonstrate. She held out a plastic lightsaber.When she turned it upside down, the coloured plastic ‘beam’ folded out to form a make believe lightsaber.
– Finn raised a brow. “A compliment?” He frowned a little not really sure what to think. There were pants that looked a lot like the ones Han wore, even a cheap blaster gun to go with it. He picked up the blaster gun and held it with a bit of unreadable thought processing on his face. “This is a compliment?” He touched one of the plastic storm trooper costumes as they approached it and seemed a little uncomfortable. How could it be a compliment? The gears were turning again. Trying to really put things together.
“How do they know these stories?” He let go of the costume all together, not really wanting to touch any of it just then.
–
Rey wasn’t too sure her answer was going to be well received. She probably looked a little uncomfortable coupled with some guilt. “Many people… think we’re cool.” It felt weird to say it. The ‘why’ to that she had no answer. “Sort of like home -” She listed a few well known oral stories of Jedis that might be seen as similar, though as far as Rey knew people didn’t generally dress up as them.
“As for the stories…” She paused, clearly trying to sort her words. “Remember when the Wonderland portal appeared? Some people had read the story of the land, though the person here from Wonderland explained how many of our notions were wrong.” Not necessarily Rey’s since she had not known what Wonderland was. “It was explained to me by someone who travels through time and space that lives and worlds bleed into one another, often forming ideas. And so in some people’s worlds, there are stories of us, but equally there are worlds where there are no stories, just as we have none of Wonderland.” She wondered if she was making any sense at all.
– Sure, people thought Jedi were cool. Storm Troopers though? Didn’t often get associated with the word cool. Finn knew that. He frowned a little at the idea, not sure what to say except to nod. “Maybe we should go back to look at the rest of the food instead?” He was more interested in that as they passed by a storm trooper costume. He needed a little time to process. That much was obvious, but he hadn’t freaked out anyway. He was just sort of indifferent while doing said processing,
–
Rey nodded, but her expression remained troubled as she changed directions. It was only when they were looking at the candy again did she finally speak up. “... Are you alright?” She was trying to gauge how Finn was feeling about it all. It had come to a shock when she had learned, but she’d been here for a while now and so she accepted things more readily because of it.
– He gave a bit of a shrug as he watched a few school age kids run up to various costumes to sort through things and pick things out. “I don’t really know what to think of it. Is that weird?” He was sort of indifferent. He’d not yet experienced Halloween beyond looking at some terribly plastic looking costumes. Poe’s departure had some unfortunate timing. Finn was starting to get used to things a bit, but he struggled to meet people outside their little group. He wasn’t the social one that Poe was.
–
“I don’t think it’s weird.” Honestly, Rey thought it was better than having a monumental freak out, so she’d take the indifference at the moment. “I only wanted to tell you so you weren’t shocked on the thirty-first of October. No one really prepared me when I was here by myself and I had to learn a lot on my own. But you’re not alone here.” Rey didn’t want Finn to struggle as much as she did.
“I have to still speak with Anakin to prepare Leia… I am not sure to even go about that considering a lot happens to her and she’s only a child here.”
– He didn’t really feel like having a full blown panic attack just then, so he decided to suppress it. Maybe later it’d happen, but for now he really wasn’t feeling it? He was just sort of low key and confused. His brain felt sort of tingly and unhappy, but he didn’t say much about it. Instead he just browsed some of the Halloween themed food. “Maybe we don’t need to tell Leia at all. What comes from telling her except for stressing out a child?” He asked her as he picked up a bag of reeses and other mixed treats. “Just tell her what you told me. About the stories. She acts pretty grown for her age already.” Finn had been hanging around her a bit. “Took her for ice cream the other day.”
–
She was a kid, but Rey wondered what she’d do when she saw Princess Leia costumes. Or the more scantily clad costume when she’d apparently been a slave. Rey still didn’t know that whole story.
“I’m glad she’s here, even if she’s a child and has no memories of us. And I’m glad for Anakin too.” Though much like when Luna left, Rey worried about what would happen to Anakin if Leia left. She knew now she could hold her own against Anakin, but she didn’t like fighting him again.
“Alright - this should be enough candy I think. Shall we go home?” She looked at Finn, offering him a way out.
–
Finn was pretty uncomfortable to say the least in that store. The whole idea of people wanting to be them made his skin crawl. He accepted her way out and nodded. "Yeah, think I've had enough Halloween for one night." Maybe he'd just choose to stay inside that night and eat since of the things they'd bought.