Trick-or-Treat

Phoebe was excitedly bobbing up and down, running around the house, and just generally not paying attention to her homework or her training lessons. She was just too excited, today was Halloween and in about thirty minutes she would be going to Hyacinth's house. Phoebe was having a hard time restraining her excitement, it took a lot of pleading and persuading from Aurelius and the fox servants for Phoebe to calm down to the current state that she was in. 

Ding!

[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, allows you to go put on your costume]

Phoebe vanished in a cloud of dust as she ran out of the pocket dimension and straight toward her room. She threw open her closet to reveal her Halloween costume hanging ready for Phoebe to wear. Phoebe put it on without hesitation and then ran to her full-length mirror. Phoebe was beaming as she looked at her reflection, she was without a doubt Sakura Bloom the Guardian of Fruit. Phoebe jumped around happily, twirling a few times in front of the mirror, and imitating a few of the poses seen in the show. 

Phoebe's modeling ended abruptly when she heard a knock on her bedroom door, she turned around to see Aurelius in human form wearing the Gluttonex costume. Phoebe threw herself into his arms giggling with jubilation. 

"Dad, you have to pose with me," Phoebe pleaded, "I want to do the Strawberry Soufflé scene please!" 

The constellation sighed but agreed to Phoebe's request allowing the girl to guide him into the right position. Phoebe stood tall making a triumphant pose as she pointed her magic whisk magic towards Aurelius who for his part was on his knees as though he was injured. 

"Don't look down on me just because I'm so sweet! Get a taste of my Strawberry Soufflé Serenade!" Phoebe recited as waved her magic whisk wand around. 

Aurelius acted as if he was in terrible pain which seemed to satisfy Phoebe enough since she stopped posing to lightly bop Aurelius' nose with the whisk wand. 

"Are you ready to leave or do we need to do more poses," Aurelius asked as he picked himself up from the floor. 

"I'm ready to leave!" Phoebe responded, grabbing the plastic pumpkin bag off her dresser. 

The pair walked out of the house and into the car. The drive was short and relatively peaceful, Phoebe and Hyacinth lived only twenty minutes away, an observation that made Phoebe quite happy. Aurelius drove the car up to the driveway of a beautiful suburban house and once it was parked Phoebe burst out of the passenger seat and rushed to the front door. She managed to ring the doorbell three times before Aurelius got up to the door and stopped her. 

It wasn't very long before a Hyacinth with wild hair wearing a feathered tricorn hat and a simple pirate costume opened the door and hugged Phoebe. The two girls couldn't stop gushing about their costumes, slinging compliments back and forth. When the two girls stopped talking for a moment to catch a deep breath Phoebe introduced Aurelius to Hyacinth. 

"Hyacinth this is my dad. Dad this is my best friend, Hyacinth." Phoebe introduced. 

"Nice to meet you Mr. Phoebe's dad!" Hyacinth said. 

"It's nice to meet you too," Aurelius responded gently. 

"Are we making introductions without me?" A voice whined in exaggerated sadness. 

A woman in a purple witch costume walked towards the group as she sighed melodramatically. 

"How sad my daughter doesn't want to introduce me to her friend. I must be the saddest mother in the world." Evelyn continued her fake sad complaint. 

"Mom stop! Phoebe this is my mom, mom this is Phoebe and her dad." Hyacinth grumbled as she rolled her eyes. 

The two parents shook hands while Phoebe just waved politely to Evelyn. 

"Now that we are here can we go," Phoebe asked politely slightly bouncing on her toes in excitement. 

"Not quite yet my dear. We are just waiting for one last group of people to arrive." Evelyn spoke in a sing-song manner. 

"Who?" 

"It's a surprise!" 

Not long after that, a black Honda rolled up to the driveway and parked. Phoebe looked at the vehicle in anticipation, not sure who was going to come out of it. Coming out from the car was Jiwoo in a superhero costume that Phoebe didn't recognize, and a beautiful Korean woman dressed as a fairy. Hyacinth chuckled mischievously as Jiwoo and his mother walked up to the group to join them. 

"I didn't know you were going to come trick-or-treating with us!" Phoebe exclaimed as she attempted to hug Jiwoo but was rebuffed by the boy. 

Jiwoo glared at Hyacinth while she gave the angry boy a shit-eating grin. Clearly, something Hyacinth did something to motivate the boy to go against his better wishes, and Hyacinth was laughing at the boy's misery. 

 "Thank you for inviting us to go trick-or-treating with you. Usually, Jiwoo doesn't like to participate in these types of activities, so I was so pleased when he told me about the invitation." Jiwoo's mother mused. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Ji-Yeon Han and I'm Jiwoo's mom."

As the parents talked amongst themselves, Jiwoo took Phoebe off to the side. "How is your dad here? Isn't he a ghost?" Jiwoo asked puzzled as he stared at Aurelius.

"He's not a ghost…um it's hard to explain…he's possessing a doll I think…sometimes he's a ghost and sometimes he's not," Phoebe mumbled struggling to explain Aurelius' transformation. 

Hyacinth burst into the middle of Phoebe and Jiwoo's little huddle. The kids talked to one another, growing increasingly impatient as the adults talked (mainly Evelyn and Ji-Yeon). Eventually, Phoebe couldn't wait any longer, so she grumbled in frustration and ran up to Aurelius and tried to drag the man away, the two other kids following suit. 

"Wait Phoebe before we go, we should take a picture of all three of you. You all look so wonderful in your costumes." Evelyn pleaded. 

Phoebe whined in annoyance but ultimately relented, walking back towards the garage door to pose for pictures. While Hyacinth and Jiwoo's mother immediately took out their phones and readied their cameras Aurelius stood still in confusion. 

"Elric, aren't you going to take pictures of Phoebe?" Ji-Yeon asked looking back at the confused man. 

"Well, my late wife was the one who liked to take pictures, so I'm not well versed in this," Aurelius said the lies coming out easily. 

"I would be willing to assist you. I'm a professional photographer so I can show you a couple of tips." Ji-Yeon responded expertly. 

Ji-Yeon demonstrated a couple of tricks on how to improve angles, lighting, the model's pose, and so on by taking pictures of her son. Jiwoo responded quickly to all his mother's requests as if he had been forced on several occasions to participate in photoshoots. Aurelius easily picked up all these tips and tricks and after guiding Phoebe into the right pose, he finally took his first picture. 

Aurelius looked happily at the photo, momentarily he thought about his future as an immortal constellation. Memories of people and champions had begun to fade, he could hardly remember faces or voices, but one day in the far future when he began to forget about Phoebe he could look back at this picture and remember the sweet child who was once a treasured, a champion of his. His body moved before he could process what was happening, Aurelius began snapping more pictures in quick succession, expertly guiding Phoebe into new poses as he tried different angles for each photograph. Ji-Yeon and Evelyn looked at each other awkwardly, they felt pity for the small girl since it looked like Aurelius had awakened an obsession with taking photographs. 

Phoebe ran away from the impromptu photoshoot after five minutes had elapsed, complaining that she wanted to get candy not take pictures. But even Phoebe's little tantrum didn't stop Aurelius as he simply followed behind the girl taking pictures as they walked down the street. This charade continued for two hours as nothing stopped the man from taking pictures of Phoebe not even Phoebe herself. Aurelius' obsession with taking pictures was so intense that after returning to his home and putting the girl to bed, he decided to condense a new Divine Skill. 

For constellations Divine Skills were a culmination of knowledge, power, and abilities. It was a very sacred act as it demonstrated the strength and versatility of a constellation's power. There hadn't been a new Divine Skill since the last Constellation War, which was three eons ago, yet here Aurelius was crafting a Divine Ability to allow him to take pictures of Phoebe in a way that wouldn't create a supernatural occurrence around her. If any of Aurelius' constellation friends witnessed what he was doing they would have lost their minds, this was truly unheard of. 

The house shook slightly, and the air warmed up to an uncomfortable degree. Phoebe, who had been put to sleep at this point shifted uncomfortably in her bed, responding to the power that Aurelius was commanding. Aurelius' phone which was being used as the base for the Divine Skill was glowing red, if someone were to touch the phone they would receive third-degree burns, but even with how hot the phone was it was still functioning. Aurelius condensed his powers into the phone and after about a minute the shaking and intense heat died done as a small white glowing orb emerged from the phone and flew straight toward Aurelius' chest. Aurelius inspected the orb a bit before proudly letting it sink into his chest, he had succeeded in creating and new skill called [Take a Picture].