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By the time Emily had tumbled out of the Umbilicus and onto the somewhat sticky floor of the Satellite of Love, the belated Halloween party was already in full swing. Rather ungracefully, she grasped the edge of the console and stood, brushing off the crumbs from her plasticine tube dress before adjusting the angle of her oversized hat.
‘Oh wow, is that really the Bride of Frankenstein over by the punch bowl? Her hair looks immaculate! I wonder how long that’d take me to do…’
‘Yeaaah, I don’t know if you have the right face shape to pull that one off, Em,’ Crow replied, nudging Servo’s shoulder with a gloved hand as he let out a small snicker.
‘Ouch… Tough crowd tonight.’ Emily quickly scanned the room until she spotted the third bot a short distance away, her eye partially obscured by an overly-shiny brown wig. ‘We’re over here, GPC!’
‘And just who do you think you are?!’
The loud voice from behind caused the trio to jump in surprise. When Emily turned, she was suddenly trapped between her own bots and a pair of identical copies — or maybe it was that hers were the copies? She still didn’t quite understand how it all worked out, but it was confusing to witness nonetheless.
‘The absolute gall of these two, I swear!’ Jonah’s version of Servo thrust a springy arm at the Crow she knew and (mostly) loved. ‘I’ll have you know that my body does not look like that! I’m a full-figured bot! Your little cosplay doesn’t even feature my trademark globe, ha!’
‘Yeah,’ the Crow that lived with Jonah chimed in, ‘and I’m supposed to be a tall, svelte, golden god! Why the heck are your legs so short, you imposter?!’
Her own Servo flapped a claw near his head, as if trying to flip his non-existent hair in defiance. ‘I make this body look good.’
‘WHY I OUGHTA—!’
‘Hey now, everyone settle down!’ Emily shouted over the squabbling bots before things could get worse. ‘Nobody on our SOL could decide on a real costume, so we just went with opposite outfits this year. Tom is Crow, Crow is Tom, I’m GPC—’
‘—And I’m Emily!’ GPC 2 finally emerged from the crowd, her bob now in the correct position while a hastily sewn purple jumpsuit covered her shortened tubing. ‘Sorry I’m late, guys, I was doing human stuff like… um, doom-scrolling on Facebook! Grr, my ex is getting married and I haven’t even gotten a match on Tinder or Bumble in years!’
Emily rubbed her arm, a flush of color rising on her cheeks. ‘…O-kay, this might be getting a little too real.’
‘Well, at least we’re not dressed as some random guy no one even knows,’ Emily’s Crow said. ‘Talk about embarrassing!’ The group set aside their differences and shared a laugh, unified on their stance on too obscure costumes.
‘Hey guys!’ Jonah bounded over, still dressed as, apparently, Tom Atkins – whoever the hell that was.
After a brief moment of rather awkward silence, the bots all exploded into more laughter; Emily, being the adult in this situation, put on her best polite smile to hide the bubbly giggle still threatening to escape.
‘Jonah! It’s, uh, so great to see you! And your costume, it’s… well, it sure is unique!’
‘Oh wow, thanks Emily!’ Jonah responded earnestly. (And oof, if that didn’t make her feel even worse.) ‘I see you guys did the ol' outfit swap, it looks great!’
Across the room, a great domed shell appeared, red metallic streamers covering their appendages as if covered in flames.
‘Thanks! Oh, I didn’t think Gamera would be able to make it tonight – he looks a little, uh… shorter in person?’
‘What?’ Jonah turned his head to follow Emily’s gaze. ‘Ah, that’s just Joel – he’s so great with costumes, isn’t he?’
The older man carefully held his glass of punch high above the crowd as he made his way towards them, an array of what could only be described as apologetically midwestern sounds rising over the nearby chatter.
‘Have you kids been behaving yourselves?’ Joel greeted cheerfully as he clapped his free hand against Jonah’s shoulder, the edge of a tassel dangling from his wrist. ‘Great party, by the way – can’t believe you convinced Kinga to actually let you throw it after all.’
‘Yeah, so about that… She’s out on a family thing, maybe? Like with Pearl and Synthia and Mega Synthia for the long weekend, I think, so… What she doesn’t know can’t hurt us, right?’ Jonah quickly waved his hand in a dismissive fashion; a nervous laugh, too loud and sharp, cut through the air. ‘Uh, nevermind guys – so yeah, party! Woo! Totally 100% kosher party, definitely not a threat to our air supply if anyone else ever finds out about it!’
Emily’s eyes widened slightly, glancing between the party’s host and the all-too-calm man next to him.
‘I’m sure it’ll be fine, you two,’ Joel reassured. ‘We have a satellite full of movie monsters, a turducken in the oven, a bunch of those little butter sculptures everyone loves, and I even brought over a vegan meatless loaf just in case – I think it’s shaping up to be a rather memorable Thanksgiving. Live a little and enjoy it, won’t you?’
Just as Emily opened her mouth to say thanks for de-escalating the situation, the view screen lit up and lights began frantically flashing around them in warning. It appeared as if Pearl’s van finally kicked the bucket after all those years of interplanetary travel – and Kinga looked pissed.
‘It’s the fuzz!’ In unison, both Crows smashed a pair of nearby glasses, sending something green and overly fizzy spilling across the console. ‘Everybody scatter!’