Homestuck Halloween Dating Sim

Pumpkin Carving

"Let's carve pumpkins," you suggest after some thought. "That's always a fun thing to do for Halloween."

"Pumpkins?" Nepeta asked, ears perking up, "What pumpkins?"

"These pumpkins!" Jade cheered. She unloaded her sylladex and seventeen pumpkins came tumbling out. She smiled, "I had a feeling this might've been on the table, so I took it upon myself to bring enough for everyone!"

You laugh and glance over at the trolls, "I'm interested to see what the trolls do for this. I assume they've never carved jack-o-lanterns before."

Karkat wrinkled his nose, "Any relation to the Jack we had to fight?"

John shakes his head, grabbing a pumpkin for himself, eager to get started. "Thankfully no," he says, motioning for the others to follow suit.

Rose procured markers and knives for everyone from her sylladex and you wondered for a moment why she had so many knives on hand. Then you quickly decided not to ask and explained the concept of jack-o-lanterns to the trolls instead.

"Carving jack-o-lanterns is a human thing, you hollow out the pumpkin, carve some holes into it, usually to make a face, and then put a candle inside so that the face glows."

"That sounds incredibly stupid," Karkat declared, already getting to work drawing a face on his pumpkin.

John gives you a thumbs up. "This was a great idea, [Y/N]," he tells you, "I can't wait to see how everyone does!" He looks over at Karkat's growl of frustration and fights off a laugh, "Maybe we should show them how to hollow out the pumpkin first though."

"Good idea," you say, hiding giggles of your own.

One quick demonstration later, and everyone settled in to quietly working away.

One large pile of pumpkin guts and several carved pumpkins later, Kanaya declared that she was done and everyone else indicated that they'd already finished as well.

"Since this was your idea, [Y/N], why don't you go first," John suggested. "What did you carve?"

You turned your pumpkin around to face the group, "It's a [Carving of Choice]," you said, explaining a little bit of context for the trolls who seemed a little confused. 

"Can I go next?" Feferi asked excitedly.

"Go for it," you said, letting her take the floor.

Feferi held out her pumpkin proudly, presenting it to the group. "Ta-dah!" She said, showing everyone the simple yet cute smiley face she'd carved into pumpkin.

"So cute," Nepeta squealed, "But mine is cuter!" She held up a pumpkin with a cat face carved onto it. "Equius broke his," she giggled, "But he helped with mine." Equius nodded stoically, the only indication of embarrassment being a slight indigo flush in his cheeks.

Jade went next, "Can you tell what it is?"

Karkat blinked, "You carved Jack onto the jack-o-lantern. You said this had nothing to do with him."

Jade stuck her tongue out at him, "It's Beq, silly!"

"Oh, right, I knew that," Karkat scowled, looking away.

Dave grinned, "Now you match your pumpkin, Karkles," he teased, gesturing to the angry face carved onto Karkat's pumpkin.

"Oh yeah? Well what's your supposed to be?" Karkat asked, trying to change the subject.

"The scariest thing of all," Dave said as if it was perfectly obvious. When no one immediately followed up with an answer he sighed. "It's Cal, duh."

John smiled, "Looks just like him Dave."

Dave nodded seriously, "Of course it does. My pumpkin carving skills are legendary, John. Just call me Jack, king of the pumpkin patch."

"Is this the same Jack as the Jack of the lantern?" Kanaya asked, a look of confusion on your face.

"Nope, Dave made a movie reference!" John cheered. He pushed his pumpkin forward, "I guess I should show off mine next. I'm not that creative so it's just a face. It has a mustache though."

"It's very cute, John," Rose reassured him. She spun her own pumpkin around. "It's kind of hard to tell what this is right now, but." She trailed off and closed her eyes, concentrating hard. A moment later, the lights flickered before going out completely and her pumpkin began to glow.

Everyone oohed and ahhed as they realized what Rose had done. She'd carefully peeled back the skin without breaking through so that light could come through but the pumpkin stayed intact despite the beautifully intricate fractal pattern that now covered its surface.

"I helped Kanaya do something similar," she said, transferring the light from her pumpkin to Kanaya's, which bore a geometric rose, carved with the same technique.

"That was amazing," Tavros said, his voice full of awe, as Rose brought the lights back to normal. "I made a silhouette of a fairy," he lifted up his pumpkin, "See?"

Vriska snickered, "So many of you made such cutesy carvings. Halloween is supposed to be scary and cool!"

Tavros frowned, "Well what did you do?"

"The most badass thing of all, of course. Me!" She showed off her carving of a face with eightfold eyes. "I can't believe you even had to ask."

"Please be civil, just for tonight," Kanaya chided and looked around the room. "Aradia, you still haven't shown us your pumpkin yet, why don't you go next."

Aradia lifted her pumpkin which simply had the word 'B00' carved into it. "Sollux and I kept it simple," she said softly, nudging Sollux who held up his pumpkins.

"I made two," he grinned, "They're the same though." Sure enough, each pumpkin had the symbol for pi carved into its face. "Get it? It's pumpkin pie," he explained.

Jade frowned, "Wait, why do you have two pumpkins? I only gave each person one."

"I stole one from ED," Sollux laughed, pointing at Eridan.

Eridan rolled his eyes, "As if you could ever steal anything from me, Sol. I let you have it."

Sollux scoffed, "Is that what you told yourself when I-"

"Keep things frond-ly!" Feferi interrupted, holding her hands out to both of them.

The two looked away from each other sheepishly. "Sorry FF," Sollux mumbled.

"Yeah," Eridan said and cleared his throat. "But anyway, scooping out pumpkin goop is below me. So I sat this one out."

"Fair enough," Karkat said, taking charge of what looked about to turn into a volatile situation. "Let's just move on from whatever this is, who's next? Gamzee?"

Gamzee smiled lazily and held up his pumpkin. "Motherfuckin' honk face," he said, "What else?"

Karkat shrugged, "Yeah, I figured. And that just leaves Terezi right, what did you make?"

Vriska laughed, "A mess."

Terezi grinned, pumpkin goop still dripping off her teeth. "It was delicious," she said, "I'm not sorry."

You laughed as well, looking around for a napkin to give her.

Aradia brought out candles for everyone to place inside their pumpkins and soon enough, fourteen jack-o-lanterns sat proudly around the room. They bathed the room in a warm and cozy glow, making you feel safe and happy.

"What's next?" Dave asked.

If you would like to do another activity, pick any one of the next three chapters. If you would like to continue the story, go to the chapter title Midnight. Enjoy!