“That’s a fuckton of cookies…”
Gath watched as the six tiny Rethans ran around the kitchen, all neatly organized in their pursuit to bake lots of cookies. He had no idea why the hell they were baking cookies, but it amused the giant Ethran-type, seeing them acting all busy.
“It’s actually only about a hundred and forty cookies…” a little blue Rethan muttered as he threw more cookies onto a large pile.
“That’s still a lot of cookies for six little Rethans!” Gath smiled. None of the little Rethans were young, he was just treating them like kids because he knew it annoyed Kass, who was diligently putting cookies in piles of three then wrapping them up in plastic and tying them with rainbow-coloured ribbon.
Gath’s jesting had finally caught Kass’s attention. He rolled his eyes, then sighed under his breath.
“They’re not for us!” Psiksi, a particularly small, green Rethan, exclaimed. He seemed much more quirky than the others. Slightly younger too.
“What are they for then?” Gath asked.
Another voice chirped up from the back of the kitchen. This one Gath recognised, it was Kass’s friend Arkay. “We’re going to give them away to people at a giant, uh, cookie party.”
“Why?” Gath was full of questions today. But normally he didn’t have six tiny Rethans running around his partner’s kitchen baking vast amounts of sweet treats.
Arkay glanced at Psiksi, who was still smiling. He took a cookie from the gigantic pile and offered it to Gath for him to try.
“Tell me, Gath, are you a registered Rethan?”
Psiksi’s question though only got him an elbow in the side from Arkay. “Bro, he’s a former general of the Stratos…”
“Oh. Oops… Sorry, ser… But…”
“Yes, little one?” Gath was incredibly amused with Psiksi. Something about him triggered that parental feeling deep inside Gath’s mind.
“But you know a lot of Rethans here aren’t registered, yes?” Psiksi continued.
“I do.”
“That means they can’t vote. Or get any of the other nice benefits that registered Rethans get. They earn less money but everything else is supplied for, it’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?”
Gath looked up towards the other Rethans. They didn’t seem as thrilled as Psiksi was. Well, Arkay seemed pretty thrilled. Probably because they were both Ksa, programmed to mostly be positive about Rethan society. Gath wondered if Psiksi was related to Arkay. Despite their colouring, they looked very similar.
“Are you planning on trying to get Rethans registered to vote by luring them in with cookies?” Gath finally asked.
“Pretty much, yes,” Arkay explained. “Since we can’t vote, we might as well make sure that everyvok else can.”
“You can’t vote?” Aysee, the white Rethan at the back suddenly exclaimed, only to be punched by Kass.
“They’re Apogen Ksa, of course they can’t!” Kass snapped.
“But you can vote!” Aysee looked almost as confused as Gath did.
“I’m not an Apogen Ksa though!” Kass sighed. “But even then, if I was on active duty, I wouldn’t be able to vote either.”
“That’s not very fair,” Fotin, a bright red Rethan, tutted as he mixed bowls of cookie dough.
Arkay and Psiksi both smiled weakly, then turned their attention back to Gath.
“Yeah, basically, Arkay and I are spreading awareness. Using cookies. Voting is stupidly simple to do, but cookies make voting even better. It’s not bribery if everyone gets a cookie, and it means that we can still be useful and make other vok’s lives better. Right, bro?”
Arkay’s smile grew. “That’s right!”
Gath looked down at the little Rethans and how adorable they were, before taking a bite out of his cookie. Suddenly, Gath found himself overcome with emotions.
“Fuck me, this is a good cookie! Can I have some more?”
Psiksi spotted an opening and took it. “Only if you help us raise awareness.”
“Sure!” Gath grinned. “Anything for more of those cookies!”