Prompt Collection

It’s an annual tradition of theirs really - they buy about 5 or so pumpkins and promptly split two open. For war. It’s a free-for-all once the first fistful of pumpkin guts is thrown, nobody and no piece of furniture is safe from their wrath for the next ten minutes or so. It’s certainly a non-traditional use of a pumpkin, but it’s fun nevertheless, and isn’t that really the only point? By the time that they’re done and the room that they were in is covered in the fruit’s innards, it’s time to actually carve a pumpkin in the traditional sense. It’s then and only then that Aspen will stop smearing the goo everywhere and actually take the time to clean off his paws somewhat. 

“Aspen,” Callum begins, in that voice tone that only big brothers manage to pull off, “you need to wipe all of that off, otherwise, you’re going to impale one of us in the eye or something.”

“Yeah yeah I know, no need to nag me,” Aspen replies irritation leaking into his tone, “And besides, it’s not like I’m stupid or, you know, a toddler anymore.”

Callum snorts and continues placing down large trash bags over the planned carving surface. He smooths them out to the best of his ability, flinching in surprise when something wet hits him in the face. He looks over to see his younger brother, sly smirk on his face as he holds his sopping wet paws up. 

“I thought you might want proof that I’ve washed my hands big brother,” Aspen mocked, “since I’m obviously oh so clueless.”

On his way to retrieve the pumpkins that they planned on carving, Callum makes sure to playfully bump into his brother’s shoulder in retaliation. He grabs their two pumpkins, one taller and more on the skinny side, the other being more stereotypically shaped in nature. He places both on opposite ends of the table and takes his seat at the more traditional one. Aspen returns from wherever he was, and sits across from Callum. 

Aspen literally just picks up his knife and starts hacking away at his pumpkin, seemingly uncaring as to how the end result is going to turn out, when in reality Callum knows just how skilled his brother is. Callum, on his part, just sits there for a few minutes, contemplating how exactly he wants to go about this task. He could go for just the traditional scary or happy pumpkin face, but something about that feels pretty lame. On the other hand, he needs to keep it simple because he’s really not the best at artsy things. 

“You know,” Aspen begins without looking up from his own work, “it isn’t going to carve itself no matter how long you sit there bro.”

“Oh shut up, not everyone is as spontaneous and skilled as you are.”

Aspen grins and goes back to his work, concentration not bothered in the slightest. Callum goes back to his….uh, brainstorming? It doesn’t take too much longer for him to finally comfortably settle on carving a crescent moon and a bat onto the pumpkin face. Simplistic design in nature, but it’s not like the bat is particularly easy. So he picks up his knife and hesitantly places the tip on the left side of the pumpkin - they had thankfully cleared out these particular pumpkins the other day, so that they wouldn’t be tempted to throw them at each other once more.

It only takes about two more minutes or so after Callum has begun carving for Aspen to finish. He turns his pumpkin around with a proud look on his face. It’s not really anything recognizable in terms of subject matter, just a nice little pattern that he decided to adorn the entire front with. From far away it will honestly probably look like some kind of big blob, but once you get up close and personal with it, everyone will be able to see all the little details that there really are. 

“Hmph, show off,” Callum responds good-naturedly. 

Callum returns to his project, of which there is, as of so far, just a moon. He does his best to ignore Aspen as the other keb searches through a drawer in search of the little candles that they had bought earlier in the week. He insisted on getting a bunch of them just because he likes to light up the pumpkins even when it isn’t Halloween night. Callum’s knife slips a bit in a direction that he really hadn’t wanted it to go, but that is far less worrisome than the current sight of his brother with a lighter in his hands.

Aspen sticks his tongue out in concentration and squints his eyes in what could only be described as a pitiful attempt at a simple task. Once the candle has been safely lit, Callum goes back to his work. Once finished he takes a small step back to look at the monstrosity that is his newly carved pumpkin. The moon came out pretty well all things considered, and the bat is at least recognizable but certainly not pretty. 

“Hey that’s actually not bad this time” Aspen exclaims from just over his shoulder.

“This time?”

“Well it’s just-” he stutters, shifting back a bit nervously at the glare he’s receiving, “I just meant that it’s better. Y-yeah, better is what I meant.”

“Just give me a candle.”

With both pumpkins now successfully carved and lit, the brothers carry them outside. Aspen places his on his porch, a decidedly safer place than just the sidewalk. Callum placed his on a windowsill, angled so that it would point out towards the walkway rather than towards the front door. 

“You know, I’m not really sure yours even counts as scary Aspen.”

“Yeah well, it’s a pumpkin isn’t it, all that matters is that it’s Halloween-y.”

“Yeah I gue-” Callum is then promptly cut off by a handful of pumpkin guts hitting him smack dab in the face. Typical.