Tricks or Treats?
Posted on Tue Apr 18th, 2023 @ 4:13pm by Fleet Captain Maxwell Culver & Lieutenant Rowena "Rena" Campbell & Lieutenant S'Tera
3,185 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
Good Will Tour: Mountain Home [Part Two]
Location: Triton Seabase: Exploration
Timeline: MD23: 1800 hours
She wasn't that sure about the rumors of this "candy man," it sounded...fanciful, like the old tradition of Santa Claus or something. Still, she was intrigued, and she had to admit-she liked candy, and it gave her a reason to spend time with S'tera. When the Caitian arrived at her quarters, Rena smiled.
"Hi! Are you ready? Aurora said she'd originally found him on Deck Five, so...I guess we should start there?" The weird thing was that neither she nor the Captain or Vianola could "sense" him/her. Suspicious. There WERE species that weren't readable, and she was only half Betazed, anyway. She led them towards the turbolift. "Computer. Recreation deck, please." She turned to S'tera. "I plan to start on the entertainment deck. Aurora said she'd found him there once. But couldn't remember WHERE. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a candy shop on that deck, either, but maybe it's some kind of thing where he's there a few days a week?" She shrugged.
"Oh honey! I am so ready! This ought to be fun! Of course I get to spend time with you and that's always fun!" S'tera said.
Rena still wasn't used to it, and she blushed a little. "Yes! It is. Maybe we can have dinner later, too..." She suggested. As the turbolift stopped and the doors opened, she stepped out. "Uh...Let's go this way first, I guess." She shrugged but pointed to the left. She took S'tera's hand in hers, and led the Caitian down the hallway.
"Right behind you! And yeah dinner would be wonderful! So I wonder what we will find?" S'tera said. She didn't really care that much. it was just an excuse to spend time with Rena. She loved holding Rena's hand.
Rena smiled. "I don't know, Aurora said it was a traditional candy shop, but the conversation worried her. She worried ME but otherwise seems in her right mind, so I suppose she's being truthful." Rena thought it seemed TOO fantastical, even for Aurora. "What should we have for dinner? Want to eat at the Lounge?"
"I have heard rumors of this magical candy shop that's never in the same place twice. I dunno but it could be fun to find out. " After Rena mentioned the lounge "Yeah that would be fine. Lounge sound great!"
Rena nodded. She began to look at each shop carefully. "Are we supposed to just...walk? We should've invited Aurora to join us." She said. "Is there a magic word??" She didn't know. "Alright, the lounge sounds good to me, too. I am a bit tired and don't feel like cooking." She normally did; she ate actually fairly healthily but preparing to move everyone to a new home "base" of sorts took time for the Department heads.
The Candy Man wasn’t so much lurking as watching with interest. These two seemed to be on the edge of going home, but they also had a mission from their Commanding Officer, Mad Max Culver. Ah! If only anyone knew the etymology of that nickname.
The foot tall being floated silently through the air, disappearing before either could glimpse him first. He was waiting for the women to enter the lounge, not necessarily to trap them, but to bring them to the candy store. C’mon enough with the chit chat,’ he thought, only slightly aggravated.
The normally astute counsellor was stuck in her head-a problem that Max had pointed out-and was trying to not be but it was...awkward. She was carefully looking at each shop; nothing was catching her eye that was out of the ordinary. A couple of shopkeepers were trying to entice them in-she would go back after their task because she DID like to shop for new things occasionally, but now she was on task. "I hope we're not missing something," she said, biting her lower lip.
“What in the name of me?!” the little being grumbled. Mad Max was right about the empath, too stuck in her own brain and the cat had reflexes like a sloth…for a cat!
With a bit of shimmer, a little glimmer and a pop of orange and purple glitter (which wouldn’t ever hit the floor), the strange little man appeared. With a too large smile on a slightly too large head, he had to admit he had a silly little flair this time. “Good evening ladies, the shops are closed,” he told them, checking his absent watch. He had a silly voice, but never the same twice. “Dinner you seek, but something else is on your mind?!”
He shifted his purple bowler hat, pulled back his purple gloves and tugged down his orange shirt in a fashion much like someone else they all knew. He crossed his legs as he hovered in the air. “Must be something strange in the air. Perhaps, you should come in here?!” He pointed to the bright orange door!
"Aha! You're the Candy Man, I'm guessing! Rena, I think we found him, or he found us! Either way! Let's check it out!" S'tera said.
The tiny man rolled his eyes at the Caitian. ”The first is lost, but sweet. The cat’s still evolving, since she doesn’t seem as bright as the Aquadian hybrid,” he thought.
Rena about shot ten feet into the air when the strange little man appeared. THIS...was the Candy Man?! What the hell? Startled, she grabbed a hold of S'tera's hand and sputtered. "What....is...are you the Candy Man?"
The little man stood and bowed. “At your service. I had heard you were tasked with finding me. Well!” he announced, “here I am.”
She looked to S'tera. SURELY they were in some kind of sim? Was this a holographic novel in her dreams?! She bit her lip. OW. No, it was real. She got really quiet, and realized she couldn't "read" the little man. "Ok, I'll bite. Lead the way." So against her better judgement, she was following a...fairy? godfather...to get candy in a fake shop.
Life was weird out here.
"Rena! Honestly hon, if you keep doing that, you're going to give yourself a heart attack! Take it easy baby!" She squeezed Rena’s hand to reassure her again, but mostly that she liked holding Rena’s hand.
“Through the orange double doors, ladies. Says “Candy!” just above the top of the door. I also have some ears around the base and I hear you need candy, which is good for me. None of these doldrum Romulan crew eat anything that deviates from their seven day meal plan.”
Rena just nodded. "Sorry! I just wasn't...sure what to expect!!" she said. "Why can't I read you? You appear humanoid...are you part of the Q continuum?"
“Because the Q are the only species you can’t read,” the small man asked amusedly. “Myself and your Romulan colonel, the two people in the Quadrant that you can’t read. Before she could comment, the Candy Man moved off almost with the puttering sound of a vehicle.
Rena followed S'tera into a room. Indeed, it was piled high with treats of all kinds. "Oh boy. Five year old me would've loved this."
Twenty six year old Rena already had a stomachache. "Thank you, sir..." She said, turning back to the little man.
“Nonsense,” came the lyrical response. “A tummy ache over candy, really?” His tone drifted low and slowly, even almost sinister for a moment until he popped his hand out. Inside was a small vial. “A small sip or the entire thing and you can eat anything here and as much as you like, Miss Rena!”
Wow, he could read HER. She made her mind blank upon the realization, and nodded. She looked at S'tera, who was looking around the shop. Against her better judgement, she took the vial, and downed it. She just hoped it wasn't poison.
"What kind of candy do you like, S'tera?" She realized that she knew very little about the other woman.
"Oh chocolate for me! Chocolate and caramel! Now on Cait, sweetmeats are considered kinda of candy, but I think this place is more the traditional kind of candy. That's fine with me!" S'tera tried not to indulge too much, but she did like her sweets.
“And why restrict yourself to chocolates and caramels when I’ve got a whole room full of sweetmeats?! One of my favorites really,” the little man professed. “If you’d like, I can take you, though I’m not certain the Counselor would be interested, hmmm?!” He warbled his bushy eyebrows at her quite quickly. “I rather like the savory treats after the sweets.”
S'tera smiled, "Probably not! She's not a carnivore like us Caitians! Mmm, okay Candy Man! Lead on! I an anxious to see your sweetmeats!"
Rena smiled, and indicated that she should go with the Candy Man, himself. S'tera was correct; she wasn't that interested in sweetmeats. In fact, the thought made her shudder.
“Right through here, dear pussy cat, and I’ll show you treats such that are a treasure even on Cait!” He bellowed with a smile. “This Candy Man is like no other you’ll ever meet and you’ll be VERY lucky to meet me more than once.”
Entering the room packed from floor to ceiling as high as a Borg cube you could see the sweetmeats packed on bone, on skewer of metal or wood. Sticky sweet with natural juices or made that way by maceration, even honey or sugar. Some on shelves, sticky in bags and skewers and bones hanging from the endless ceiling.
“I’m pulling double duty today, excuse me Lady S’tera,” the Candy Man said as he pulled odd his hat and another version of him popped out underneath. “I’m with the Caitian, can’t you see?” the original asked the copied version.
The hatless man just shrugged and answered, “It’s so difficult being the other half of me!” He struggled through the top portion of his shirt before removing another purple bowler hat. “There! That’s better! This way she won’t know it’s we!”
Rena picked a few pieces for herself, and realized she hadn't gotten the man's name to ask for help. Instead, she called out loudly. "Ummm....Sir?!" Was he a ‘sir’? "I need some help, please?"
The twin version Candy Man popped back into the ‘front room’, which varied by invited customer. “I’m sorry, Miss Rena, it’s usually only one customer I help, not two. But this is a special occasion isn’t it?!” he wondered in his bizarre sort of way.
She tried not to stare; it wasn't polite. "Right! Our um... Commanding Officer has tasked us - me - with getting enough candy for the Romulan - and Starfleet civilian - children at a parade we're hosting. Can you help me?" she asked. "I'm not sure how much we'll need, but... At least a few dozen pounds." Math wasn't her strong suit.
“Romulan and Starfleet candy for a city? Methinks you’ll need more than a couple dozen pounds my pretty. A hundred, or more, pounds of Romulan candies and considerably less for the Federation families if the rumors I’m hearing are true. Do you even know how many Federation or Starfleet families there are in Mountain Home?!”
The little man sat and crossed his legs. “Give me a moment while I put on my thinking cap,” he said, he rummaged around in his shirt and pulled out a college graduate’s cap to match the purple and orange outfit he already wore. “Hmmm,” he muttered as he seemed to be drawing numbers and calculations. “Carry the three…ten to the twelfth…divide by nine.”
Looking at Rena, he asked, “Don’t you agree?”
Rena shrugged. "In my job, I am not really privy to that kind of information. I just did a rough guesstimate of the number of children-though I suppose adults would like to be included." She knew there were at least 50 Starfleet people with families, including children of various ages, and so she'd just multiplied that by two.
"But yes!! That sounds like a more accurate number." She thought for a moment. "How am I going to get all of this back?? Can I use the transporter from here??" She had a LOT of questions, but maybe S'Tera was right. Maybe she just needed to go with it.
“Oh pish posh!! Fifty five kilos of candy to be delivered to Cargo Bay before the arrival of Triton Seabase at the Romulan City Mountain Home. Well, that’s as easy as giving candy to a baby…speaking of which, you haven’t chosen any Candy of your own.
“Lady S’tera is back there loading up on sweetmeats, so what’s it you’ll like Miss Rena?”
Rena smiled. "I like sour candies!! Hard candies, specifically." She could feel her mouth water a bit as she thought about the tingle of the sweet and sour sensations on her tongue. "Do you have any mint flavored chocolates, too? I like that!!" What a weird combination, she realized.
The tiny man looked at her for just a moment. If this is your persuasion. With a snap oh his fingers, a small box rolled down into an empty area that seemed perfectly sized for them. “Please take as many as you like dearest Rena. A woman that must shoulder the burden of the pain of every other species on this base takes a skilled woman…a woman, I dare say, who deserves a freezer full of frozen mint chocolates. As man’s as the heart desires!”
Rena smiled. "Thank you!!" She took two boxes. "That's all, really!!" She was trying to take better care of herself. "Maybe one more for S'Tera to try?" She took a third. S'Tera might not like it; you had to get used to that strong flavor. "Could I ask for sours, too?" She inquired.
“Sours? I’ve got walls of sweet and sour candies. Sweet and sour bears, worms…um patch kids? Sour balls that you can suck until your stomach can bear no more, but of course the collection doesn’t end there. Miss Rena, you’re far too smart to listen to a man whose least favorite candies are sours, but here we are.
Before them was a ten by ten room that smelled of the sour candies and was filled, like S’tera’s sweetmeats, from head to endless ceiling of sours and sweet and sours and spits and sours.
Rena stepped back a moment as sour candies of all kinds appeared in in the room in front of her. She stared in amazement for a minute, and then smiled.
“Please, you’ve talked so much about everyone else today except Miss Rena. Here’s a bag,” the little man handed over to her. Fill it your favorites: far and near, new and favorites, squishy, mushy and some you don’t have to chew - in fact, I think there’s some you don’t even have to swallow!! Eewww, but that’s not up to me, that’s up to you!”
Looking up, he flashed a bag and handed it to Rena. “Fill it as high as you like, ya hear!” And just when you think the bag is gonna split, fill it some more! Over and over until the last time you think you won’t fit another handful…then fill it it some more!”
Meanwhile S'terra was going crazy over all the varieties of sweetmeats! She couldn't help herself. She took nice sized selections of all of them, or at least a good many of them. Many were flavored with Caitian spices, some earth spices and many other with flavors from different culture though out the Federation.
"Ktals claws! This is the greatest selection of sweetmeats I've ever seem. Different meats with different flavors!" She knew her favorites and picked those out first then picked a few that smelled good but she had never tried. After gathering her haul of sweetmeats.
The little man appeared full of cheer and with a bag that he handed to her. “Fill it as high as you like, ya hear!” And just when you think the bag is gonna split, fill it some more! Over and over until the last time you think you won’t fit another handful…then fill it it some more!”
After she had her fill, S'tera came out to Rena. "Hey cutie. How are you making out?"
Rena's black irises were shining and she smiled. "Look at all of this!!" She threw her hands at the room full of sour candies. "SOURS!! My favorite. Did you get good stuff?" She put a few of her favorites in a bag that the Candy Man had given her. She didn't dare ask questions about it. "Do you want to try one?" She asked S'tera.
To the Candy Man, she spoke. "Thank you, Candy Man. I think I am well set. Do we owe you any Quarks or??" She asked. At this point, she wouldn't be surprised if the Easter Bunny showed up to ask her for her baby teeth. Or however that legend went.
The two little men reappeared now restored to one. ‘Let’s see,” he said as he tapped away at the calculator that now had a trail of paper behind it. The trail grew and grew and grew until he seemed satisfied. He was about to rip it off when he remembered, “Oh right! Your captain’s bit of stuff. He typed away again and the receipt grew double and then triple the length. “All right! It’s well past closing. Off you go!” He fairly shouted, the bizarre little man in one’s face and then the other’s.
Once out the doors, they shut. Then opened again and taped a receipt to Rena’s bag. When the doors closed and the women’s eyes looked at the long receipt, he could see them look up to see his door had gone.
"Wow! now that was interesting. What an unusual little man. Well, I got a lot of great stuff. It will take me a while to get through all these sweetmeats! Some of them I've never even tried. I am very curious to see what they taste like. How about you? You get some good stuff?"
Rena shook her head. What was HAPPENING? "Yes. I got some mints and some sours!! I would like to try a Sweetmeats. Maybe." She said. She pulled the reciept up with her hands. It was nearly two tapes long! The total was $0. and the delivery date was the morning of their arrival at Mountain Hope. Odd.
"Well. To the lounge? I am suddenly hungry! What'll you have?"
"Yeah, funny…me too! Umm you?" Rena said teasingly! "Mmm Tarakian steak! That sounds good tonight!"
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