Hey! My name is Roxy Goth. Like everyone else I've seen the backlash to 'Velma 2023' and it inspired me to write this. This is not a rewrite of Velma 2023, but it is mentioned. It focuses more on the gangs bond and will involve other properties from WB throughout.

I do not own any character except Gregory Goof.

It was a rare occasion that the Scooby Gang were called from Toontown to a meeting with W.B.

"Like, what do you think they want?" Shaggy asked, a bit nervously.

Velma rolled her eyes. "Probably another series."

"Like, how many more ways can we go?" Shaggy asked, as they all walked towards Mr Plotz's office. "We've been to nearly everywhere on earth, we've tried every single combination I can think off-"

"Not every combination, Shaggy." Fred said, meaningfully.

Daphne gave a short laugh and shook her head. "Oh Freddie. I keep telling you, they're not going to make a series with just you, Scooby and Shaggy. They'd be accused of sexism."

Fred frowned and said, slightly petulantly. "Maybe so, but I hope they're not getting rid of me again. Why is it whenever they want a new direction they get rid of me?"

"Don't flatter yourself." Velma said, adjusting her glasses. "They don't want me either half the time."

"Well this time, no more!" Shaggy exclaimed, throwing his arms out. "It's all or nothing. Remember?"

The gang all nodded. After 'Get A Clue' Shaggy and Scooby decided it wasn't really worth doing a solo deal again.

"Ah, gang." The door to Plotz's office was opened by the man himself. "Please, come in. We have a new director who is eager to meet you."

The new director was a Goofy Toon, one of the many background Toons that filled out the 50's Goofy shorts. This one was wearing a smart suit and a slightly nervous smile. He stood up as soon as the gang came through the door.

"Ah hello!" He stuck his hand out slightly aggressively, smile threatening to split his face. "I'm Gregory Goof and I am de-light-ed to meet you. Please, sit down."

With a slightly amused glance at one another the gang took their seats.

After a few preliminaries, Gregory launched into his vision for the show. "So, we've focused on a few of you these past years, but now I think it's Velma's time to shine-"

The brunette laughed and joked. "Well, it's about time!"

Gregory gave a tight smile and carried on. "It's going to be an adult-orientated series-"

"Wow, like, are we going to be allowed to be actual adults now?" Shaggy said, excitedly.

Gregory held his hands up. "Not exactly. You'll still be teenagers, but you - well, Velma specifically - will be investigating a series of murders."

"Murders?" Daphne said, with more excitement that was probably socially-acceptable. "Like Agatha Christie?"

"Yeah, basically teenagers in your school are being murdered and Velma is implicated in one. So she starts working to free herself, but she's slightly reluctant because her mother went missing ages ago-"

Velma raised an eyebrow

"-Daphne's an ex-friend and you two solved mysteries together when you were younger-"

Daphne and Velma exchanged a surprised glance.

"And Fred is a prime suspect in the murders-"

Fred had chosen that moment to take a drink of water. On hearing this he started choking and Shaggy had to slap him on the back a few times.

Undeterred, Gregory carried on. "And Norville-"

A sharp intake of breath from all the gang as Shaggy's eyes narrowed.

"Like, it's Shaggy." He said.

"You're still going to love snacks, but your cowardliness will be downplayed. You'll also talk a lot about how you hate drugs."

Shaggy frowned. "I do hate drugs." He said.

Gregory grinned and clicked his fingers. "See? We're on the same wave-length already!"

Shaggy gave Velma a look as if to say. 'Is he joking?'

"Also in this show you'll go by Norville and not Shaggy-"

"What!?" The beatnik nearly leapt out his chair. "Like, no way man, no way! My name is Shaggy, not Norville! It's been that way for nearly 60 years and it's, like, sure as hell not going to change now!"

"Mr Rodgers-" Plotz said, trying to intervene. "-Please, this isn't set in stone-"

"And, like, what about Scooby-Doo, huh? What? You're going to insist on calling him 'Mr Doo?' or, like, just 'That Dog', huh!?"

"Actually, Scooby isn't in it." Gregory said, casually.

There was a pause. For quite a long time. Then an explosion of 5 different sentences.

"Like, what!? How can you have a Scooby-Doo show without Scooby-Doo!?"

"Reah! I'm the star! People rove me!"

"As flattering as the idea of a show based on me is, I can't do it without Scooby-"

"You can't get rid of Scooby like that! He's the heart!"

"Yeah, who am I going to get for my traps otherwise?"

Daphne gave her husband a look. "Really? That's your point?"

"Oh, yeah." Gregory said, as if the thought had just occurred to him. "You're not doing traps in this series."

"What!? No traps?"

Gregory shrugged. "They don't fit the theme we're going for."

"Which is, like, what?" Shaggy asked, practically vibrating with anger. "Because it's sure as hell not Scooby-Doo!"

Gregory looked genuinely surprised at that. "It's not?"

"No!" Shaggy exclaimed, throwing his arms out. "Like, the point of Scooby-Doo - note the name, by the way - is that we're five friends, like, travelling around various places and most times we stumble across across mysteries. Sure, like, that might make us the unluckiest group of friends ever - that's why I'm always complaining about it 'in show' - but at the end of the day we're, like, friends and we love each other and YOU-" Here Shaggy pointed aggressively at the Goof, who clutched his clipboard across his chest protectively. "-are not going to change that! Understand?"

"Ok, Shaggy." Fred leaned across and rested a hand on his friends shoulder reassuringly. "Take a breath. We get it and I'm sure Mr Goof here isn't going to go foreword with this now he's heard our views, right friend?" The blonde looked at the Goof in a meaningful manner.

Unfortunately the goof didn't get the hint, lowering the clipboard slightly and saying, tightly. "Actually, I think you'll find that as you have a contract-"

"-I was hoping you'd bring that up" Velma said, smoothly plucking the contract out her hammerspace. "As you can see here in section D, subsection 2 it says 'the Scooby gang are required to do any adaption that Warner Bros requires as long as the idea does not go to far outside the realm of the established Scooby-Doo lore.'" She gave a bright smile to Gregory. "And I'm sure that you must agree that a Scooby-Doo adaption, without a Scooby Doo is definitely outside the lore. So-" She exchanged a quick glance with her fellow toons and they all nodded. "-We're going to say, thanks but no thanks."

As the gang got up to leave Gregory, in a slightly panicked state, got up and said. "Wait-" He knocked the table a little with his knee and let out a gasp of pain before carrying on. "-Look, it's a good deal! Don't you want to-"

"No." Shaggy said, firmly. "We don't. Like, bye." And with that the gang all headed out. Gregory looked like he was considering following them, but was distracted by Mr Plotz telling him to sit down.

Outside the gang were complaining to each other.

"Like, can you believe the nerve of that guy!?" Shaggy was saying. "A Scooby-Doo show without Scooby! What a ridiculous idea. We love you to much to ever do that to you." He assured the great dane.

Scooby smiled back and held his arms out. "Roup Rug?" He asked.

The rest of the gang laughed and hugged.