Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"And so it was a dark, scary night.." Connie teasingly spoke to the two child toons in a spooky voice. "Gigi, Ribecca, and I decided to go on a supply run for ichor!"

Toodles stared at Connie happily, her eyes wide in awe. "Oooo!! And then, what happened?"

Gourdy sat calmly next to Toodles, his leafy tail waving back and forth idly. "Yes, yeah!! I think Ribecca told me about what happened but I forgot."

Connie smirked before becoming invisible and making ghostly sounds. "It was floor five, and Gigi and Ribecca were arguing about whether or not it was a good idea to run in Twisted Razzle & Dazzle's circle very quickly to grab a research capsule for Rodger. And Gigi was on a machine at the same time."

"And, and??" Toodles chimed in.

"I got bored, so I went up to them, and.." Connie suddenly reappeared behind the young toons. "BOO!!!"

"AHHHH!!" Toodles fell over from surprise then started giggling. "That's so funny!! Ooh, how'd Gigi react?"

"And, and- Ribecca!" Gourdy added.

"Yeah, and Ribecca!! Hehe!!" Toodles' smile was bright.

Connie slowly floated back in front of the young toons again. "I scared Gigi so badly that she failed a skill check on her machine. And, y'know, she almost never fails skill checks!"

Gourdy leaned forward slightly. "Ooh!! And what about Ribecca?"

"Oh, yeah, she wasn't startled very much, but I scared Gigi at least!" Connie smirked before going invisible again.

Toodles jumped up. "Connie! Where'd you go! Hehe!"

A few hours later, Toodles and Gourdy were drawing pictures with crayons Toodles had borrowed from Scraps.

"Toodles, look at this!!" Gourdy placed a piece of paper on the ground next to the 8-ball toon. "I drew a pumpkin!"

Toodles glanced at it. "It looks so silly!! Look, I drew a vampire cat! Like, a cat but it has fangs, and a cape like a vampire!"

"Ooh!!!"

The two young toons were drawing for the next several minutes before Toodles spoke up again.

"I had an idea, what if we got ghost costumes and went around scaring the other toons?" Toodles spoke eagerly.

"Wait, yes!! That's a really good idea." Gourdy looked up from his drawing. "Oh- how will we get costumes though? I mean, we might find some old ones in that storage room where i find my Halloween decorations. BUT, I don't know if they'll be ghost costumes or not!!"

"I- I could sew some for you out of blankets!" A new voice spoke hesitantly from behind them.

Toodles looked up. "Shelly!! Hi!! Hehe!!"

"SHELLY!!" Gourdy exclaimed. "Yes, yes please! I really want a ghost costume. AND I'm sure Toodles does as well!"

Shelly's smile brightened at the sight of the young toons so eager to see her. "Yeah, of course. I'll get Tisha to help me find some spare blankets for the ghost costumes, and then I'll sew them!"

"Yippee!!" The young pumpkin toon clapped happily. "Thanks so much, Shelly!!"

Toodles added, "Yeah! THANK YOU!!! Hehe!!"

"And, there we go!"

Shelly lifted up two poorly made ghost costumes. Nevertheless, it made the two young toons joyful at the sight of it.

"THANK YOU SHELLY!!" Gourdy shouted with happiness. Toodles bounced around the room.

Shelly smiled genuinely. "It's not the best- but I hope you two enjoy it! Go out and scare some toons."

As Toodles and Gourdy left Shelly's room, they were debating on who to scare first.

"We should scare Sprout first!" Gourdy argued lightheartedly.

"What about Glisten?" Toodles suggested. "Ooh, or Dandy!"

"Um, I'm not sure about Dandy.. we can try to scare Glisten first!!"

"Yippee!!" Toodles grinned. "Follow me, I know where his room is!"

Gourdy ran down the hallway beside Toodles, quickly putting his ghost costume on, which he had been holding in his hand before that. Toodles copied his actions. Soon, they were two silly ghosts running down the hallway.

Glisten's room's door was propped open, and Toodles spied Glisten doing his makeup. She gestured to Gourdy to step inside the room.

"BOO!!!!!!" Toodles and Gourdy shouted at the exact same time.

Glisten fell out of his chair. "OH MY- Oh! Darlings, you scared me! Wait- did my makeup smudge?" He opened a compact mirror and gazed hurriedly at the makeup he had been dabbing to his face. Glisten then noticed the young toons' ghost costumes through the mirror.

"Ooh, who made those? Those costumes are just lovely!"

Gourdy was grinning ear to ear. "Shelly did!!"

"Aren't they just great?" Toodles added happily. 

"Yeah, of course they are! Now shoo, I need to finish my makeup." Glistenn ushered them out of his room not unkindly.

Chapter Text

As Gourdy and Toodles proceeded to leave Glisten's room and look for another toon to scare, Toodles was grinning happily and Gourdy was even smiling. 

"That was fun!!" Toodles spoke as she headed towards another room. "Hm, should we scare Connie next?"

"Yes!!" Gourdy looked at the signs of each door as he walked down the hallway until he found one obviously Connie's room. Toodles made her way to the door as well, making sure that her ghost costume was aligned perfectly with her eyes. "Now?" Toodles whispered and Gourdy nodded.

Gourdy opened the door. "Boo!!!" 

Toodles jumped out beside him. "Boo!" 

A surprised Connie turned around to see the two young toons. "Wha- you almost scared me, but not quite! Ha!" Connie grinned playfully. "Ooh, nice ghost costumes!"

Toodles was still smiling. "Aww…! Also, thank you! Shelly made them for us!!"

Gourdy seemed to be thinking for a second before he spoke. "Connie, could you help us scare Sprout and Cosmo? Maybe make some stuff levitate?" 

"Always," Connie smirked. "Maybe we'll get some free cookies or something. And, how about I help you scare the rest of the toons if that's what you're gonna do?"

"Yes, yes please!!" Toodles and Gourdy shouted in unison.

After making a visit to Rodger (whom they startled very much) Toodles, Gourdy, and Connie were on their way to the kitchen with the latter invisible.

Sprout and Cosmo were baking cookies inside of the kitchen, and had their full attention on the oven. Connie was probably near some pots already, and prepared to lift them up. Toodles nodded to Gourdy and they both jumped out.

"BOO!!!"

Cosmo accidentally dropped a plate, which thankfully didn't break. Meanwhile, Sprout was staring at the levitating pots and pans. "Connie, I know it's you."

"Aww, man," Connie came out from her invisibility and floated over to Toodles and Gourdy. "Hey, look! We're matching, Toodles and Gourdy!"

"Ooh! Yeah, we are!!" Toodles spun around gleefully.

Gourdy turned to Sprout with a grin. "Did we scare you, Mr. Seedly? I hope we did, hehe!!"

"…Please call me Sprout," Sprout muttered under his breath.

Cosmo was putting the plate he dropped into the sink. "I don't know about him, but you two definitely scared me…! Good job!!"

Toodles was still spinning around and stopped. "Yay!!"

"Speaking of scary stuff, the cookies are ready!" Sprout turned off the oven and took the cookies out using a dishcloth to hold the edge of the pan. "Do y'all want to help me decorate them? And be the taste-testers for the cookies."

"Yes!!!" Toodles and Gourdy shouted in unison for the second time that day. Coonie shrugged indifferently. "I'll help, I suppose."

"Great!" Cosmo grabbed a few cans of colored frosting and some piping bags.

And, soon enough, the cookies had been decorated. Connie had mostly been messing around and seemingly levitating the bags of frosting out of Toodles's reach, before Sprout scolded her. Then, she began to actually decorate cookies. In almost no time, multiple cookies had been decorated in spooky colors by the five toons altogether.

When it was time for Gourdy and Toodles and Connie to leave the kitchen to attempt to scare some more toons, Cosmo waved goodbye while Sprout was cleaning the kitchen table and putting bags of frosting in the cabinet.

Toodles was munching on a cookie while Gourdy had already eaten his cookie. "Goodbye, Sprout! Goodbye, Cosmo!!"

Gourdy was walking at a steadily calm pace while Toodles was skipping along happily, having finished eating her cookie. Connie just floated along.

"Hmm, who should we scare next? Dandy, Astro, Rodger, Gigi, Ribecca, or maybe even Vee?" Toodles chirped happily. 

Gourdy tilted his head. "Astro and then after that, Rodger?"

"Fine with me!" Toodles grinned before racing down the hallway, dragging Gourdy behind her.

"Hey, wait for me!" Connie's voice sounded behind them indignantly.

They were in the lobby.

From what Gourdy could see, Astro was talking to Dandy at Dandy's store. Connie, while being invisble, spoke to the two young toons in a dramatic whisper.

"Alright, so here's the plan! I go up to Astro and Dandy while being invisible and scare them. Then, while they're distracted, you two will scare them." Connie smirked. "Got it? Okay!"

Without waiting for further notice, Connie floated towards the blue-themed toon.

"Boo!"

Astro turned around quickly. "…Oh! Hello, Connie."

Dandy was frowning slightly. "Hi, Connie."

And then, Toodles and Gourdy darted out from behind the bench where they were hiding. "Boo!!"

The mood instantly brightened; Dandy stopped frowning and Astro actually smiled.

"You two scared us…! I see you've been taking inspiration from Connie."

Connie grinned. "Being a ghost is iconic."

"How's our ghost costumes?" Toodles twirled around happily. "Oh, and we're gonna scare Rodger next!! Do you think we'll succeed?"

Gourdy fidgeted with his ghost costume. "Mhm!"

"Well, I think he won't notice you two until you try to scare him, because he's always focused on his research," Connie commented.

Dandy nodded. "You'll scare him very well!"

"Well, Gourdy, let's go scare Rodger now!! Hehe!!" 

Gourdy looked up. "Yeah!!"

"I'm gonna go visit Brightney so I won't be helping you two, see ya!" Connie floated off and Toodles just waved goodbye.

And the two young toons skipped towards Rodger's room happily.

The door to Rodger's room was tilted open, so Toodles did not have to take the risk of opening it and startling Rodger before they actually scared him on purpose.

Motioning to Gourdy, Toodles walked over to Rodger stealthily before jumping out at him. "Boo!!!!!!"

Rodger jumped up quickly before relaxing at the sight of Toodles. "HUH- Oh, hello, Toodles! You scared me. And hello, Gourdy!"

Gourdy was now smiling. "Yay!! We scared you!"

Toodles interrupted. "Connie told us a story so we got Shelly to make ghost costumes for us and we went out and scared a lot of the toons including Sprout and Cosmo and we ate some cookies!"

"Is that so?" Rodger focused his attention on the papers at his desk. "I hope you didn't annoy anyone."

"No, we didn't," Gourdy chimed in. "Not even Mr. Dancifer!"

Rodger seemed a bit surprised by the fact that they even tried to scare Dandy, but he hid it well. "Oh, that's nice! Also, you two should go to sleep. It's getting late."

"Aww," Toodles visibly wilted. "That's okay! See ya tomorrow, Gourdy?"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow!"

Chapter Text

do i make art of this short story? i was thinking abt it earlier but idk

(totally wasnt created so id boost the fic up to the top of the story listings /silly) idk why but it didnt show up in listings on my side once i posted the last chapter?? and i tried to fix it