Carlos nodded. “Sure thing, honey,” he said as he pat his face dry. He looked at Magnus. “Want to do it in here, or should we move to the kitchen to give you more room to be… artistic.”
“Um, the thing with ice cream, Hancock, is that it’s frozen. It’s literally frozen milk and cream ingredients. And if we did find a container of it, it’d probably have not only melted but spoiled and petrified. I guess there’s a possibility that dehydrated ice cream still exists. It tastes the same, just drier. But if there was any to be had, I would assume that it would have been one of the first things to go.”
Carlos wished more than anything in that moment to have somehow rationed even a single piece of chocolate or a small package of dehydrated ice cream just to share it with Hancock – share as in give it to him since he had never tasted any of it before. But Carlos knew how ridiculous that thought was and tried to shake it away.
“I–– yeah, I s’pose that makes sense. Ya don’t think anyone’s figured out how to make it again? I mean, we got workin’ refrigerators now, it could be possible, right?” It was probably wishful thinking, but if he were being honest, it really didn’t matter that much, he didn’t know what he was missing so he couldn’t exactly miss it in the first place.
“Not unless someone’s got a recipe book from pre-war,” Carlos said a little sadly. But then an idea came to him. “Oh – but I can show you how to make popsicles! Some day, we should get some mutfruit juice and some clean skewer-type sticks and I’ll show you what my dad showed Mikey and I. You might like it.”
When it got warmer, of course – Carlos didn’t want Hancock to have any more issues with his circulation than the winter already gave him.
“I’m not sure,” Carlos said. “We had it in the Vault, so… maybe Vault 88 carried it out?” Carlos didn’t know much about Diamond City’s history past the Broken Mask incident and a little bit about the process of the ghouls being kicked out of Diamond City. “But basically… it was candy time.”
“I get like, the basics of it, I’ve heard somethin’ about it and seen the decorations still up from before the war, just never really got what it was about.”
Carlos nodded. “That’s alright,” he said. “It was some kind of harvest celebration maybe four hundred years ago, but turned into people dressing up in costumes for sweets and candy. Just… something about offering the the harvest to spirits of the land or something…”
Carlos set his tote bag on the coffee table and pulled out the funnel cakes. He offered the box to Hancock. “Wanna give the first one a try? I don’t know what a funnel cake is… but it looks good. If… squiggly.”
Carlos smiled after them. He went to the bathroom to set a towel down on the toilet and wash his face. After that, he pulled the clippers and attachments from their spot under the sink and left it on the counter for Magnus to reach.
Carlos beamed at him and he pressed another kiss to Hancock’s mouth.
“Well, I try to be,” he said. Another kiss. “Happy Halloween, babe. I
know it’s really only Diamond City that celebrates, but… yeah. Consider
that an excuse to get sugar.”
“Wait, what?” He looked a little confused by that, he’d lived in Diamond City most of his life and never knew about that tradition. “When did they start that up? I never got to do anythin’ to celebrate when I was a kid there.”
“I’m not sure,” Carlos said. “We had it in the Vault, so… maybe Vault 88 carried it out?” Carlos didn’t know much about Diamond City’s history past the Broken Mask incident and a little bit about the process of the ghouls being kicked out of Diamond City. “But basically… it was candy time.”
The Perfect Scientist 