- username; fruitbat
goob name; Daxter
-- The prologue
If Dax had to be honest, he's not really into Halloween. His 'spooky' appearance, combined with his rather mysterious demeanour, stereotypically places him into a position where others expect him to go all out for the holiday. However, there's nothing more frustrating than receiving mountains of candy when you're a diagnosed celiac. Dax won't hesitate to inform you that many hard and soft candies, as well as most baked treats, include the deadly group of proteins found in wheat. Some include pretzels, wafers, liquorice and milky way bars. He stays clear of those, otherwise, things so south very, very quickly...
That is just one reason why Dax doesn't get overly enthusiastic about Halloween. Another is that he actually lives quite far from the nearest population of Goobies. The birds and deer and other local inhabitants of the forest don't quite understand what Halloween is. They'd definitely think he's absolutely bonkers if they saw him setting up tiny fires in pumpkins with unusual carvings. Despite this though, Dax does participate in the holiday to some extent. He enjoys dressing up, and often finds himself being more invested in the project than he ever intended to be.
This year he plans on becoming a pumpkin, in every way, shape and form! He usually starts preparation the month before, and at the very latest, in the first week of October. This year he has decided to paper mache a giant, wearable pumpkin. With the help of the woodlands, he has been hoarding sticks for a while in order to make a solid base. With string he ties the sticks together, then places the stick skeleton on top of chicken wire. The sticks create perfect ridges, bumps and lumps, just like a real pumpkin would have. After the few days of perfecting the base, he starts the paper mache process. It starts with many layers of gluey paper stacked onto the stick and chicken wire. Being made of goo to start, Dax was not happy when the glue dried up. Can you imagine being totally unaware of tiny little glue pieces floating around in your goo, only to find them days later pressing into your back when you're trying to sleep? No thank you.
Because of the impeccable frustration minor setbacks, it took Dax about a week to get the paper mache right. He would work on it for a few hours, get incredibly gluey, leave it for a day then go back. But once it was finally dried and ready, it was time to start painting. He enjoyed painting much more than he thought- maybe it was because he was much more careful after the glue incident, or maybe it was just because he was finally getting closer to being done? Once the bright orange was finished and the details were applied, such as little green stripes and dark orange patches, Halloween was 5 days away. Dax was happy with the progress- now all he needed was something to hold the pumpkin in place. What could work better than suspenders?
He made two incisions into the top of the pumpkin and threaded through black suspenders. It was now almost complete. The final touches had to be made on the night of Halloween.
-- The main event
It's finally Halloween and Dax is weirdly nervous. He doesn't usually get butterflies, but the entire day was full of nervous anticipation. Why you may ask, but Dax honestly would not tell you. Maybe he was just super proud of his creation and wanted everyone else to be proud too, or at least enjoy what he had come up with. The entire day was spent looking for the perfect vine leaves to glue on top of the pumpkin, just to bring an element of the living into his costume. Also, why not utilise the natural resources he had?
As the night drew closer he stopped fluffing around and started getting ready. Dax slipped into the bulbous pumpkin costume with overwhelming anticipation- super excited to see how everyone would react. It was surprisingly easy to move around in too, which made the Goob hold his head high with pride. The sun started to set and the sky was dyed a large array of pinks, oranges and purples. He sighed loudly before turning all the lights off (so no one would make the mistake of approaching his house), grabbing his bag full of candy and making his way down to the town. Halloween night had only just begun.
Walking into town was no drama at all. Dax seemingly blended in with all the other dress ups, but was occasionally pointed out by young goos with large smiles on their faces. It took a while before others would approach Dax though, probably because beneath the costume he looks quite intimidating, and the type that would not be willing to give out lollies. However, his trusty candy bag was full of treats he couldn’t eat, so why not give them to others? He willingly dropped candy into young goos bags and buckets, bringing instant, toothy grins. Dax, being the big teddy bear he really is, couldn’t hide the smile that it brought him either. This is what made Halloween worth the effort, even if he tells others he’s not really into it.
