A Timeless Day At HalcyCon

#### September 7th, 2020, HalcyCon 2020.

Fearless parked Aphrodite and took a look over the convention center. Maria and Elena had gone day one just casually as themselves but today was going to be extra special.  Faer face becomes a soft smile as they pass EliZe a badge. Fearless was excited, to be honest they would be noticed. Elena had run into a Sappho Sweets but Maria's pretty particular about privacy despite being in a band. It would be nice to have someone who knew her as a hero.

However, she wasn't dressed as faer self but instead as Twister from Work In Progress. It was totally their favorite Super Streets series. The best part about being on Big Team was getting access to all of Gaia’s features including the costume printer which saved Elena a lot of sewing time for a last minute idea. Fearless turns around and says “Welcome to Halcycon EliZe.”

EliZe holds the badge in her hands, staring at it in wonder. Her fingers run over the thick, clear plastic. She holds it up against the light and admires her name written on the badge slid into the plastic holder. It was the first time she had seen her name written down by someone other than a close friend or herself. Seeing it was almost more miraculous than everything around them. “Behold…” She said to herself in a hushed tone, growly and excited. She turned and looked at Fearless. “Yes! Yes, I am EliZe, my badge says so! But also, I am--”

She threw open her dark cloak. “BLACK HORIZON! The stalker of Prague, the eater of Nazis, the inventor of the three-point landing!” EliZe’s face was beaming. Her outfit underneath her cloak consisted of a very dark gray uniform with gold lines, two rows of buttons on the chest, a pleated skirt and black tights underneath, and boots that lit up and spew tiny puffs of smoke when she stomped her feet down. Her violet hair was put up as much as she could put it up, with a tricorne hat atop her head and her face seemingly covered in smears of dark gray paint and soot under a domino mask.

EliZe jumped forward and landed next to Fearless, puffs of smoke coming from her shoes. She rose up with a big smirk. “Okay! So, Fearless--oh, should I call you Twister right now?--where should we be off to first?”

Fearless’s eyes sparkle as EliZe excitedly declares who she is today, she was so damn cute! Internally the other two were in agreement joining in in sparkle eyes. Fearless said totally hyped up “That’s so cool! You look amazing.”

Fae smiled at EliZe thinking of it for a moment to consider if that was more fun, was that what people did at conventions. However they ended up saying “Call me Fearless, should I come up with a not hero name for me? Is it weird that I just have a hero name? Anyway, Fearless works for me.”

Fearless started to lead the way taking EliZe past crowds moving towards her goal as she spoke “There is this amazing thing called an artist alley, none of us had heard of it before but it’s got a ton of artists just selling their art and stuff. It’s like the best place in the whole con! ”

Heading towards the ally the fusion realized as they moved forward “Oh, do you want me to call you Black Horizon or EliZe or both?”

“Call me…” EliZe began, then her voice dropped two octaves and sounded more gravelly. “When you need me.” She smirked. “Call me Black Horizon! Artist alley sounds very cool, I hope they have those pretty sheets of paper that stick to things so you can decorate cars and computers and walls.”

EliZe’s steps were quick and soft, occasionally coming ahead of Fearless, before she’d stop to stare at something someone clearly put a lot of work and love into. She’d fall behind a little bit, then run after Fearless and repeat the whole process. Walking beside Fearless, she said in a stage whisper, “Fearless! There’s so many people here! So many costumes. How do we know who is a real hero or villain if everybody is dressed like one?”

Fearless giggled a bit, gosh they were in love with a walking cartoon character but damn if she didn’t love it. She nods her head, given all the things EliZe had told her happened with Big Team while they were apart it should have been obvious she loved getting into character. Fearless explains “Black Horizon, those are called stickers, they are very cool and I know there was lots when M and E were looking the other day.”

Looking past the crowd as they spoke they made it to the art utopia. Fearless explains “I don’t think you really can and isn’t that cool? Here people can be who they want to be, Maria would probably say something about that dynamic but I think it’s cool, a space to explore yourself where you can try on something that represents a part of you that you want to embody.”

“Stickers!” EliZe responded happily, her voice negating any effect the Black Horizon costume might have on onlookers. “Oh yes, everything is so cool here. People look great in their outfits. Hmmm, yeah, Maria would probably have a thing or two to say about that one…” EliZe said as she turned around and walked backwards so she could keep looking at someone that walked past them in the opposite direction. She tilted her head a little, trying to grasp what their costume entailed, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of it and shook it off.

Turning back around and matching Fearless’ pace again, EliZe adjusted her hat and domino mask and looked at Fearless. “Your costume is the prettiest though.” She said, without an ounce of sarcasm or sounding overblown. “Are you going to enter a costume competition? You totally could!”

‘SO CUTE’ Fearless thinks to faerself  blushing thinking it was only cuter that EliZe was in the Black Horizon outfit. She looked at the two people grinned holding back from Maria chiming in externally and saying “Ya, she would probably want to figure out what their costume is with you.“

Fearless smirked with confidence at being told she was the prettiest, they really were cute, they were like the combined favorite parts of two mega hotties, it wasn’t a big shock to them that they looked good.  Regardless, Fearless was flattered and said “I’d only enter if you did, cuz you have the coolest costume and I’d want to be able to spend that time with you.”

Fearless put their hand on EliZe and said “look over here!”

Fae pointed to a batch of monster stickers that ironically looked similar to Maria’s old friends at Wolfe High. This person was selling a whole bunch of stickers from other brands too and some stuff that looked to be OCs that one should not steal.

“I suppose I could enter a cosplay competition… I don’t know, I don’t think it’s that on-point. We can’t enter as a duo either unless the characters are from the same thing, right? Hm. Maybe I--” EliZe was shaken out of her musings by Fearless’ touch on her shoulder. She mentally yelped. It was sudden and yet so gentle. She turned her gaze upon the batched things.

“Oh! Oh that’s cool!” She almost leapt towards the table in her excitement, running over to it at Fearless’ pointing. “This one is like that vampire girl! Oh and this one is a were--” She narrowed her eyes to read the text on the sticker. “A werewuff? A werewuff! Oh, and they even have a human girl! Those are rare. ‘Norma McNormieson’. That’s the perfect average human name, for sure!”

Fearless assures EliZe "I'd vote for you but I think you always rock whatever you wear."

Fae had the biggest cute grin on faer face. They were just thinking about how adorable they would look as a duo or as a trio or a quad if she could find a way to make her own body too.

They turn their attention to a cute blue eldritch girl sticker with an adorable bow. She grabbed it and said "I'm getting this one for sure. She's just my type. "

Fearless asks "which stuff do you want or should we wait until we see some other booths?"

EliZe laughed, a little shyly when Fearless said the girl on the sticker was just her type. Didn’t she look a little bit like her? To divert her attention, she took out her wallet and stared at the cash within. Electronic payment still puzzled her. At least coins and paper money she could count and understand. “Hmmm, I do want to come back here, but there is going to be so much to see, I have foreseen it. If I spend everything now, I won’t have anything left. Hmmm… maybe just one?” Her hand floated over the stickers and picked up one that looked like a girl with horns and fiery red hair standing in front of a motorcycle.

Fearless flirted a bit looking at what EliZe was picking “Looks like we both have a type.” Fae put faer hand on EliZe assuring her “I can pay for whatever you want if you're worried about money but it’s smart to wait to go all out.”

Fearless took a moment to really look over EliZe and wonder what they were to each other, clearly friends but were they also something else? Seeing all the heroic couples on the team just made Fearless imagine it, them being like Boon and Atlanta or Tay and Ellen. They pull out their own cash and say “Two stickers for now.”

They were also adverse  to digital money for multiple reasons, on Maria part of her mind it’s like, can’t trust banks or people being able to trace the cash and Elena’s end just being from the 50s. It would save people at the con a credit fee though so that was good, plus there was some money in their card in the worst case. Regardless she slip over the cash to pay for the sticker EliZe wanted and her own.

“Oh! Uh, th-thank you, Fearless! You didn’t have to do that. But I’m still happy you did!” EliZe admired the sticker and put it away. “I guess that makes it a gift. Hmmm… do people give gifts outside of birthdays and Christmas? And chocolate on Valentine’s? Or things for the dead on Dia de los Muertos? Or…” EliZe paused in her questions for a moment. “I suppose there’s a lot of occasions to give gifts. Is today a gift-giving occasion?”

Fearless giggled internally, it was hard to remember that EliZe knew much more than they could ever hope to know and yet so little because it’s all so tiny in that grand span of things. She moved in closer to EliZe and smiled handing EliZe her sticker “When you like someone sometimes you’ll get people a gift or like if this was a date it might be proper for one of us to get each other a gift too.”

Fearless blushed a bit, was that too forward? Was that the right call. Internally a tiny Fearless meets with Tiny Maria and Elena to discuss the best move forward. Maria was a little jealous it wasn’t them making the move, Elena thought it was smooth, Fearless however, still felt a bit nervous. Fearless snaps back to reality adding “Anyway, It doesn’t matter if something is normal to do or not, nothing about me or the other two is really normal, we’re weird and proud so we want to shower you in gifts.”

EliZe’s mind wanders off as it imagines herself getting literally showered in gifts. Her mouth hangs open a little, her eyes sparkle and the Tiny EliZe in her brain dances and ‘washes’ under her armpits while many boxes wrapped in colourful paper and ribbons fall down upon her. Tiny EliZe laughed and Big EliZe softly laughed with her. “Hehe, shower in gifts.”

She took her phone out of a pocket and made a note in a notes app about appropriateness of gift-giving. “When… you… like… someone. There. Hm. Say, Fearless? When is something a date?” EliZe looked at faer with curiosity. She knew she’d done things that other people had described as ‘dating’, but she’d been confused about where the dividing line lay between when an activity was dating and when it wasn’t. Other people seem to have done dating-type activities while saying it wasn’t a date.

Fearless smiles like she was having the best day in her life. Hearing EliZe’s laughter, was one of the finer joys in life. She pulled in closer and said “Desire I think is the biggest factor. I am pretty new to the world too and Maria and Elena aren’t much help being from another time and Maria being...ya know Maria but I think it’s desire. Like hypnotically if you wanted this to be a date, you could tell me and then I would share my desire and if it was also yes, then it would be a date.”

Fae try to give examples explaining further “Like a date could be causing failures to feed you at a beach or it could be going to a fancy place to eat or going to a prom or whatever but you would need to want it to be that otherwise it’s like hanging out I guess. Dating is like an individual thing like gender or sexuality, only you can define it really.”

“Oh, okay! So like this could be a date, us going to prom was definitely a date, but us hanging out at the house, or the bookstore, or the base, or going on missions with the team, those aren’t dates. Got it!” EliZe smiled. “Those sound like pretty fun things to do, anyway! I like those things.”

While they walked further through the artist alley, EliZe admired the gorgeous and time-consuming works on display by all the people there, pointing them out to Fearless and babbling on to faer about things she liked about the art. After admiring a picture of two otters holding hands while floating in a literal sea of stars, she turned back to Fearless. “Say, Fearless, I have a question about the ‘desire’ thing about being on a date. Doesn’t ‘desire’ mean something sexual? Or does it mean more things?”

Fearless blushes a bit as EliZe declared things they had done together had been dates potentially. Her heart was racing a bit but they didn’t mind at all. Fae smiled and said “Ya, I have fun with everything I do with you EliZe. You're a fun person.”

To that end Fearless loved EliZe just talking about things she enjoyed, there was simply a lot of passion in it. Another amazing thing about EliZe really is just that raw feeling of newness in getting to actually engage with the world in a way that wasn’t to feed off of it. Fearless did a bit of the same pointing out pieces that might look cool on their wall and included one rant about how the swords being sold at the con were of fairly low quality and not worth considering.

Fearless hears the question about sexual desire and well this wasn’t a thing fae felt nervous at all about. Fearless explains “Desire doesn’t mean sex, like you could desire to kiss someone, or hold their hand, or snuggle them. Some people don’t have sex in relationships, Elena hasn’t and some people have sex without relationships, Maria has. Who knows if those things will change but desire is personal. From the desire to foods to the desire to love, it’s special to you.”

Fearless reached faer hand out to EliZe looking at the photo expressing her own desire although not forcing it.

“Oh, okay!” EliZe acknowledged her newfound understanding. She looked at Fearless’ hand reaching out, then at her own. “I think I desire to hold your hand too.” She reached for faer hand and took hold of it. She stood still for a moment, looking at their hands. She gave Fearless’ hand a little squeeze, then looked up at faer face and smiled. “Yeah! That feels nice. I’m happy to be here with you, Fearless. This is a new place to both of us, so I don’t feel weird with you here, because we’re both weird.”

Fearless felt like the world had shifted itself and they had experienced stuff like that, this was nicer. Fae felt this warmth like her heart was being protected by some aura of care. Fearless’s smile matched EliZe “I’m glad we can be weird together, to see new things together.”

Fearless grabbed the picture of the otters with her free hand and asked “I think this would be perfect in our room, like right over our bed, what do you think?”

“Oohh, yeah! The walls are all bare, we should have things like paintings or posters or banners or things there. This would be a good start!” EliZe gave Fearless a thumbs up and commended faer on faer good taste. The two otters looking cute and holding hands while sleeping reminded her of one time she found Elena and Maria asleep on the couch together. “That is totally worth the money. We should find more stuff for the house! Oh, and maybe like, a cute pin for our jackets, or or or like, a comb for in your hair! Yeah!” EliZe rambled on about the possibilities of things they might find at the con, while the two walked to the owner of the stall to pay for the picture.

With that the hours went by, they went to panels, the cosplay contest to watch, they went back to buy lots of things to cover their walls with and it was about time for the con to end. Fearless had been holding the hell out of EliZe’s hand any chance fae got.  She yawned “Today has been so much fun. You ready to get back to Aphrodite and go home?”

They smiled at EliZe, honestly Fearless was having the time of faer life. It was nice to do something like this with EliZe, no violence required, just getting to explore themselves. Fearless knew that outside of Maria and Elena, fae had feelings for EliZe too, it was nice to feel that.

When Fearless yawned, EliZe couldn’t help but yawn along with her, baring sharp teeth and making a noise reminiscent of a pair of lions roaring from inside a pillow fort. “Yeah. I’m sleepy. I’m… sleepy? Huh. I’m actually sleepy! Wow. Missions don’t tire me out like cons do, I guess. We better put up the otters soon or I might--” she yawned again “--not make it.” She made some mouthsounds through a half-lidded gaze and put her head on Fearless’ shoulder as they walked back to faer motorcycle. She mumbles tiredly. “It’s a good day. Thank you. Come again.”

Fearless giggled happily looking at EliZe’s adorable teeth and extra cute yawn, the one of a kind person Fearless admired so.  Fearless gets EliZe on the bike and hands them a helmet “it was the best, thank you for coming with me. It wouldn’t have been special without you.”

Fearless adds hopefully “We’ll be back here again next year, maybe next time Maria, Elena and I will be able to have our own bodies and all four of us can enjoy what magic next year brings.”

EliZe nodded and put on the helmet. “Yeah!” She said, her voice dimmed by the helmet. EliZe imagined the possibility. It floated over her head like a crayon-drawn thought bubble in which future EliZe holds hands with all three of the others. It seems like a wholesome future, but the eldritch girl darkly wondered how achievable it will prove to be. She said nothing of her doubts, instead just nodding again. “Yeah… we’ll definitely be back next year. All four of us.”