Camo officially loved Gravity Falls.
Halloween was one of her favorite holidays and, according to Jason, it happened twice a year here. Summerween! It's awesome and she loved every bit of this concept.
She usually had a lot more time to make her costume, though, but there was no way she was going to just buy a costume. That would be too bland and boring. She had a really cool idea for a low-budget, homemade costume, and it was going to be awesome!
First, to collect the materials. She found a basic black hoodie in her closet—it had been there since day one, but she'd literally never worn it because it was too boring—and three sets of black socks. She had worn those, lightly, but she had another pair of boring ones, so it wasn't like she'd be going without. Then, she rushed to the Shack to get a hold of Mabel's crafting supplies. She didn't have to worry about them not being there, because Stan had just given up and told her where he hid the key, because she was there so often.
She rushed up to the twins' room and found the stuff, hidden in a box under the girl's bed. She hot-glued eight googly eyes to the hood of the jacket, cut out white felt triangles and sewed them to the inside of the hood so they'd go on her forehead. She stuffed the socks with crumpled-up fabric scraps—how many arts and crafts projects did Mabel do?—and sewed all three sets to the sides.
She then went to where Stan kept his fishing supplies—she'd seen it on the day she went fishing with him—and took some string. She attached it to both sleeves and socks so that they were loosely connected. She checked to make sure it was all super duper secure, then put on the hoodie and looked at herself in the mirror.
She made an awesome spider and, when she lifted an arm, all the "arms", or socks, on that side moved with it. She did a little dance, and it worked perfectly. She grinned at her reflection and pulled it off. She wouldn't want to spoil her costume to anybody.
Then, she went back home. She had to wear the perfect outfit (as well as something light underneath the hoodie. It was the middle of summer in Oregon, which would probably be around typical Florida-Halloween temperatures, meaning HOLY SCUFF SHE WAS GOING TO MELT.)
Oh, scuff, she was so excited!
Camo was sitting in the Pines' living room. She wasn't wearing her spider-hood yet, because that would spoil the surprise, but it was in her bag, which was sitting next to the armchair. Speaking of the armchair, Soos was sitting in it, wearing a strange wrestling costume that showed off his love handles. The twins and Camo sat in front of him, scheming about their night.
"I am so excited!" Mabel said, and both of the other kids vehemently agreed.
"We're gonna have the best costumes, get the most candy . . ." Dipper said excitedly.
"And have the biggest stomachaches ever!" his twin finished off.
Camo scoffed. "You two can't have the best costumes, because I already made it. Nothing will be able to rival mine."
"Well, why don't you show it to us?" Dipper argued. "It can't be that great."
An evil grin came over her face and she laced her fingers in that classic villain way. "Oh, I'm just biding my time."
"Dude!" Soos said. He still had his cap on, despite his face mask, which only added to the strange effect of the costume. "I've never seen you guys so pumped!"
"Well, back at home, me and Dipper were kind of the kings of trick-or-treating." She flipped through their memory book, revealing tons of cute twin match-ups. "Twins in costumes, the people eat it up." Kitty cats, salt and pepper, zombies. Oh, wow, they were so cute. Camo looked at Dipper now, trying not to let her disgust show on her face. What happened?!
She puffed out her chest. "Well, usually I have more time to prepare and I end up coming up with a wicked costume in, like, February. Then I wait until the beginning of October to start making it, because, well, duh. But anyway, my costumes are always homemade and always super duper epic." She turned to the twins and asked, "Have you guys ever gone as each other? Because that would be simple and really funny to the people who know you."
Dipper made a face, possibly at the idea of wearing one of Mabel's sweaters. So, no.
"Well, you dudes better be careful out there," Soos warned. "It's a night of ghouls and goblins. Not to mention . . . the Summerween Trickster!" The handyman stood up, turned out the lights, and shone a flashlight under his face for effect at that last part. Camo didn't know how people could stand doing that. It hurt her eyes whenever she tried to be ominous like that.
"The Summer what, what-what?" Mabel asked, confused.
She could practically hear the spooky music that would be playing if she was in, say, a TV show. But, this was real life, so obviously there was none playing. "The Trickster goes door to door, so the legend goes, eating children who lack the Summerween spirit."
"Well, you don't have to worry about us," Dipper said confidently. "Between the three of us, we've got spirit to go around." He tried to eat a piece of candy, all chill, but nearly choked on it. Camo got into a position where she could possibly perform the Heimlich maneuver, not that she'd ever done it before. "Oh, what is this stuff? I've never even heard of these brands. Sand Pop? Gummy Chairs? Mr. Adequate Bar?"
She narrowed her eyes at the gummy chair. That seemed like the sort of thing to have the artificial sweetener that caused awful pooping.
"This is all cheap-o loser candy!" Mabel said angrily.
"Well, yeah, Stan bought it, what do you expect?" Camo deadpanned. If Stan bought things of actually good quality, then she'd own a party crown.
Soos picked up a plastic lip from the bowl. "Quiet your discontent, children, lest the Trickster overhear."
All Dipper had to say was "Your cape is caught in your fly, Soos" as he went to throw out the bad stuff, which was most of it.
"Hey!" she said, annoyed. "No need to waste it. If all goes well, that'll go to the trick-or-treaters that come here, and we'll get the good stuff from everywhere else."
The doorbell rang, and she perked up. Stan yelled something about the loser candy, but she wasn't paying attention. She was running to the door to see if it was who she thought it was . . . And it totally wasn't. She shrieked and ran off to the side so that Dipper could come with the loser candy. As if she was going to face Wendy and Robbie! Ew!
"Oh, hey Dipper, Camo," Wendy greeted. The couple came inside. She did have to admit, Robbie's hoodie did make a pretty good casual costume. Not as good as hers, though! Hers would be so much more epic than a simple skeleton hoodie.
"Wendy! Ha ha ha! Ow," Dipper muttered that last part after bumping into the stairs. "W-what's up, guys?" he asked as he rubbed his foot.
Wendy groaned. "I left my jacket here, again." She pulled it off the coatrack, and happened to glance at Camo, who was scrutinizing her outfit. "What's up?" she asked the younger girl.
"You should've gone with a patchwork-zombie style. You know, to go with your skeleton boyfriend," Camo commented, and everyone gave her a weird look. "What? No one? No one understands that reference? What the scuff, guys?" She scoffed, annoyed.
"Hey, what's with the candy?" Robbie asked, his attention back on Dipper. "You going trick-or-treating or something?"
The preteen looked like he had no clue what to say, so she saved him from embarrassment. "Well, typically, the person who comes to the door with the candy isn't the person who goes trick-or-treating, Robbie. Because then all the little kids wouldn't have any candy." She was pretty snide with that comment, she had to admit.
He laughed awkwardly. "Yeah! Uh, trick-or-treating is for babies! I guess . . ."
She narrowed her eyes at him. How dare he insult the most treasured of all Halloween activities! "Well, I'm going trick-or-treating, so I'm going to go put on my costume. See ya." She waved goodbye to the teens. It was almost time, anyway, and she didn't want to share air with someone who insulted trick-or-treating.
She slipped on her hoodie, careful to make sure the fishing line was still intact, and then she ran into the room, screaming the Spiderman theme song at the top of her lungs, or at least, the part that she knew. It was so worth it to see the look on everyone's faces, because their friends had shown up while she was putting it on. "Ta da!" she said, striking a pose with over-the-top jazz hands to make all the socks wiggle.
Mabel was dressed up as strawberry jam, Candy was candy, surprise surprise, Grenda was a witch, and Jason had a super awesome pirate outfit on. She gaped in awe at his awesomeness, and vowed to dress up as a pirate next Halloween, in honor of her friend.
"Grunkle Stan, these are my best friends!" Mabel said happily. Stan was dressed as a vampire. "Candy and Grenda! Jason is Camo's best friend."
"I am so sweet I could eat myself," the Korean girl said.
Grenda, in her deep voice, said, "Hello, Mr. Pines!"
Jason, his face a little red, waved and quietly said, "Hello." Now that it wasn't just the two of them talking about Ducktective clothes, his characteristic silence was back.
"You got a cold, honey?" Stan asked Grenda. Somehow, he could speak normally, even with his fake fangs in. She vaguely wondered if he practiced talking with them in, simply for Halloween/Summerween. "Something wrong with your voice there?" Well, she wondered about it, up until she kicked him in the leg. Screw his status as her boss, that was impolite! (Though she wasn't sure why she expected anything better from Stan, of all people.)
"What do you mean? Why would you say that?" Grenda asked, hurt. Stan didn't respond, and just flapped his cape and stalked off. Limping a little bit, Camo was proud to note.
Candy turned to Mabel. "Is Waddles coming with us?"
Camo discreetly made a face. She hoped not. Pigs were disgusting. Thankfully, Mabel replied, "I wish he could, but he's got some very important meetings to attend." The pig in question walked in, wearing an adorable suit costume intended for a dog. She knelt down and rubbed the animal's chin. She might not like him, but she could see when she was in the presence of an awesome costume.
Mabel picked up her pet and said in a funny business voice, "File these documents under 'I', for 'I have a curly tail!'" Everyone laughed at that joke, even Jason, though his was more of a light chuckle.
She walked over to her friend. "So, how's it going, you scallywag?" she asked, lightly flipping up his pirate hat. The spider arms wiggled when she did, which felt funny. "I think I'm going as a pirate next year, in honor of your epic costume."
He went a little red. "Thanks. I wasn't so sure about it . . ."
"No, it's great," she assured him. "It treads the line between awesome and casual, which only makes it more casually awesome."
He blinked a little at that statement. She couldn't blame him for being confused.
"Anyway, while we wait for Dipper, do you want to go sit outside, in the crisp night air?"
The night air was not crisp. It was pretty soggy and miserable but, since she was used to living in Florida, it wasn't that bad. They sat down on the porch and watched the distant procession of trick-or-treaters. It was a shock that kids came so far for the garbage candy Stan gave out, though she supposed there were a couple other houses along the road.
"So . . ." she said, more to break the silence than anything. "What's your favorite Halloween/Summerween movie?"
"Uh . . ." Jason went red, but he still answered. He was getting better. "The Fear Guy from Terror Town Street." She snorted at that, loudly, and he looked like he might die of embarrassment. "Look, it's mostly because it's so dumb it's funny, and they play it every year for Summerween, so there's no lack of it," he tried to defend himself.
"Yeah, yeah," she laughed, waving her arm, as well as the three socks underneath of it. "So it's playing tonight?"
He nodded. "Later, but yeah."
"Well, we might just have to watch it, so I can see just what kinds of stuff you like." She elbowed him, which was rather awkward, what with the fishing line and the socks obstructing a lot of movement. She was going to tell him what her favorite was when— "Who the scuff is that?!" she demanded quietly. When she glanced back at her friend, his eyes were as wide as saucers. They crouched down and hid behind the couch, getting as small as possible.
"Trickster," was all she heard him whisper, and her eyes got nearly as big as his. The Trickster was real? Oh, well. Not the strangest thing she'd seen in Gravity Falls. Dipper had a podcast/YouTube channel or whatever, for Pete's sake.
They watched as the Trickster knocked on the door, asked "Trick or treat," and loomed ominously. They heard Dipper turn him away, and she nearly facepalmed. He was such an idiot! He wasn't even wearing his costume! They watched as he knocked again, and was turned away again by that idiot boy. He knocked a third time, the tension growing—third time's the charm—but this time, Mabel was the one who answered, and though she was significantly nicer, it wasn't enough. "Silence!" the Trickster boomed. "You have insulted me! And for this you must pay, with your lives!"
Camo and Jason exchanged a look. Well, at least we aren't in there. We aren't the ones cursed by the trick-or-treat demon, was Camo's expression. Jason's was a much politer variant on the same idea.
"Oh! What a cute little mask! You're a funny guy, aren't you?" Mabel said, and the stress in her voice was obvious. They watched as the Trickster walked inside the house, and they themselves crept off the porch and around the house, to safety.
"So, random tangent," Camo said, panting. "You know how it goes 'trick or treat'? Well, once I screamed out trick and sprayed the trick-or-treaters with silly string when I was supposed to be giving them candy—"
Jason looked at her incredulously. "Shut up! They're in there getting cursed and you're talking about silly string?"
She shrugged. "Humor helps defuse tension."
They heard screaming, and the sound of strange limbs on the roof, and only when they were sure the Trickster was gone did the two of them come back out front, where everyone (plus Soos) was wearing expressions of horror, except Mabel, who was just excited about Dipper having to go trick-or-treating.
"Wait, so what happened?" Camo asked, one eyebrow raised.
"We're cursed! We have to get 500 pieces of candy before the last jack-o-melon goes out or he'll eat us alive!" Dipper shrieked. "Where were you guys?!"
Both of them just gave him a matching deadpan look. "Uh, not getting cursed!" Jason screamed, with surprising force. Even Camo was shocked. "What do you think we were going to do, waltz right in and get added into your nonsense because you're a jerk?!"
"Uh, yeah! What he said!" Camo added, because he'd basically just read her thoughts.
"But how are we going to get 500 treats in one night?!" Dipper asked, starting to pace frantically. Camo massaged the bridge of her nose from underneath her glasses.
She sighed. "Look, dude. You're twins, there's five of you counting Soos, seven counting us since we'll help, out of the goodness of our hearts. But the key word in that sentence was twins. You need to milk that fact for all it's worth."
"Yeah!" Mabel agreed, and she climbed on a hay bale for a pep talk. "Some might say that being cursed by a bloodthirsty holiday monster is a bad thing. But that monster messed with the wrong crew! With Candy's spirit, Grenda's strength, Dipper's brains, Jason's style, Camo's . . . uh, snark, and . . . Soos here, we'll get 500 pieces of candy, and have fun doing it, too! Even if it takes all night!"
"Which it will," Camo muttered under her breath while everyone else cheered. Still, she walked off with everyone and ignored Dipper's complaints. She didn't have to be there—if he was going to complain about it, he'd deserve being eaten by the Trickster. He'd doomed all of his friends with his total lack of cheer.
Camo and Jason went on ahead, earning a lot more candy than the main group got. When you walked fast and had epic homemade costumes, you tended to get more candy. Plus, everyone knew Jason and at this point had a basic understanding of Camo, so it was mostly familiar faces. (Though, she would admit to eating a couple pieces of the familiar stuff. Of course, they came from Tad Strange. It was completely understandable that the most normal person in town would have the most normal candy-buying habits.)
Of course, it wasn't enough to pick up the slack of Dipper being without a costume, so she got to see him in that adorable peanut butter suit. Still, she bet the two of them were having a lot more fun than everybody else, since for them, it was only trick-or-treat, not trick-or-treat-or-die. So, more of a fun competition than life-on-the-line rush.
Eventually, they only had one piece left, so Jason went to hang with the girls while Camo stayed with Dipper and the wheelbarrow of candy. "Ah. The perfect time to go to Wendy's party and no one needs to know I was trick or treating." He said it soft enough that he probably thought she couldn't hear, but she did. She whirled around to look at him, and he froze, realizing his mistake.
"Dude. Seriously?" she asked. "That's why you didn't want to do it? Fine. Go to your party. I'll watch after the candy and tell your sister about your betrayal."
"Maybe I will," he huffed, and she rolled her eyes. He stalked off, and she watched over it.
She noticed just how dark the street was. Almost all of the melons were out. If they hadn't been moving with the same efficiency, she might've suggested to kidnap a couple and hide them where they couldn't go out. It technically would've worked, yeah?
Mabel and the rest of the group came back. "Where's Dipper?" she asked.
"He wanted to go to some dumb party," she said. "That's why he was trying to hurry you guys. So, he left. Jerks don't deserve any of this candy."
"A party?" The younger girl looked crestfallen. "He was going to leave? On Ha-Summerween?"
Camo patted her friend's back. "I'm sorry, Mabel. You guys should probably talk about that later. Communication, you know." It didn't console the strawberry. She sighed. "Look, I know it scuffs. But, now you know for the future. Next time he tries to pull something like this, maybe you should talk about it beforehand. We finished with enough time that he would've been fine."
"But . . ." Mabel looked very upset. "He wanted to leave . . ."
"Yeah, and he's a jerk for it," Camo agreed. "The two of us should confront him later and threaten to revoke his candy privileges unless he promises not to try it again."
That earned her a weak little smile, and the younger girl tossed the last piece of candy in the wheelbarrow.
"Hey, Trickster!" Mabel screamed, and the misshapen form fell onto the street in the distance. "We got your candy!"
The way she said that makes this feel like drug trafficking.
"Did you?" he said in his deep voice. It was actually a pretty cool villain voice. He picked up a piece, and shook his head. "No, you have not."
"What?" the whole group said as one. "But . . . five hundred pieces! Just like you asked for!"
The Trickster turned his face towards them. Aw, there was a cute little smiley face on his mask! "No," he said again. "Almost a hundred of these were collected by an outsider."
Camo furrowed her brows. "What, me and Jason? Well, we gift them to them."
"No!" the Trickster said yet again. "It must be earned. Come again when you have collected 500 pieces on your own." And then he left.
"Ugh!" Mabel groaned. "We have to collect another one hundred pieces?!" she asked incredulously. "Without Dipper or them?"
Camo shrugged. "Sorry. Apparently, we're not allowed to help." She turned to Jason. "So. Do you want to head back to the Shack and help Stan scare kids?"
Her friend shrugged. "Sure," he said noncommittally.
They arrived at the toilet-paper-covered Shack just in time to see two kids run away screaming. Stan was laughing triumphantly, wearing nothing but underwear, slippers, and one of those shower net things. "Whoa," Camo said, her eyes wide. "What happened here?"
"Oh, it doesn't matter. Wanna eat some candy and watch TV?" Stan asked, jabbing a thumb at the bags the kids left behind. They shrugged and settled down in the living room for the movie marathon. Camo found herself wondering how cool it would be if each of her spider arms were real arms that could also hold candy and bring it up to her mouth, which was a pretty typical Camo thought.
Eventually, everyone else came back. Apparently, they hadn't met it in time, and the Trickster had tried to kill them. However, the Trickster himself turned out to be made of candy, so Soos ate him alive. Mabel and Camo cornered Dipper and made him promise, just like she said they would, and then everyone watched the movie.
Jason's favorite came on, The Fear Guy from Terror Town Street, and she had to admit, it was better than it sounded. The twins had their little make-up, like they always did, and at some point Stan came through with a little nugget of wisdom. "You know, kids, I've been thinking. At the end of the day, Summerween isn't about candy or costumes or even scaring people. It's a day when the whole family can get together in one place and celebrate what really matters. PURE EVIL."
So, of course they did their best evil laughs, which of course Camo was the best at, and they ended that little conversation with an eerie comment from Soos:
"I ate a man alive tonight."