Gaz's Horrible Halloween of Doom is a one-shot Invader Zim fanfic by Zim'sMostLoyalServant.
On the day before Halloween, Dib prepares to make a sacrificial offering to Samhain, the Celtic god of death and the harvest, in hopes that he'll be blessed with good luck that will allow him to catch Zim. However, his sister Gaz destroys it out of sheer spite. Unbeknownst to both of them, Samhain himself witnesses this brazen act of sacrilege, and, well... let's just say Gaz isn't going to enjoy the punishment he gives her for interrupting the ritual. Like, really isn't going to enjoy it.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- All for Nothing: After the entire Humiliation Conga that Gaz goes through trying to get her trick-or-treat candy, especially the rare Mondo Deluxe Poop Candy Bars, Samhain makes it so that she gets multiple cavities right before she can eat any of it. As a result, her father throws all the candy out so he can treat her teeth, rendering the entire night moot.
- Appeal to Force: When Iggins refuses to tell Gaz which house is giving out Mondo Deluxe Poop Candy Bars unless she bows down and admits he's the superior gamer, she neck-lifts him with one hand and threatens to maim him even worse than she did the last time they met. He immediately caves and tells her where it is.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite knowing that aliens and other weird things exist, Gaz doesn't consider the possibility that gods might also exist as well. Or that they might not appreciate rituals in their name being deliberately interrupted and desecrated.
- Bullying a Dragon: Despite knowing what Gaz is capable of from firsthand experience, Iggins still mocks her for her costume and tries to extort an ego-stroking from her in exchange for telling her what she wants to know. Unsurprisingly, she Neck Lifts him into submission, and after getting what she wants from him, throws him down the street.
- Call-Back:
- Dib is eager to try and catch Zim on Halloween night because he thinks the alien will be rattled from what happened last Halloween, in "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom".
- When Iggins makes fun of Gaz's costume, she threateningly asks him if he wants to get dropped down another elevator shaft, referring to the events of "Game Slave 2".
- While trick-or-treating, Gaz hunts for a house that's handing out Mondo Deluxe Poop Candy Bars. Miss Bitters' class had to sell regular-sized Poop Candy Bars as part of a fundraiser in "Door to Door".
- Gaz gets kidnapped by Bill the paranormal investigator when he mistakes her for a Sugar Fairy. She recognizes him because Dib partnered with him in "Career Day".
- Canon Welding: The events of this story were later made canon to the timeline of Ruby Pair. A year later, Gaz stubbornly refuses to admit that her wrecking the ritual led to Samhain cursing her with bad luck on Halloween and believes it was a coincidence.
- Clothing Damage: While walking home after escaping Bill's truck, Gaz's fairy princess costume gets torn up when she trips and falls into a thorn bush, preventing her from returning it to the store for a refund.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Bill, as per canon, is a paranormal investigator who believes in extremely outlandish things. In this case, it's "sugar fairies", and he mistakes Gaz for one just because of her costume, ignoring her protests when she points out the obvious.
- Covered in Mud: While walking home in the rain, Gaz gets covered in mud when it splashes on to her from the wheels of a passing truck.
- Cue the Rain: Invoked by Samhain, when he starts making it rain just as a very angry Gaz is asking how the night could possibly get any worse.
- Didn't See That Coming: Samhain manipulates events so Gaz has to dress up as a fairy and gets kidnapped after being mistaken for a real one, intending for her to be humiliated by being put on display in a paranormal convention, but he doesn't realize that she would be strong enough to break out of the truck that Bill shoves her in. So as she's walking home after escaping, he improvises by making her trip and fall into a thorn bush (getting her costume torn up), creating a thunderstorm so she has to walk home in the rain, getting her splashed with mud from a passing truck, and making cavities appear in her mouth when she finally gets home and bites into her candy.
- Disproportionate Retribution: After Gaz finds out the store lost her witch costume and she has to wear a fairy princess costume instead, she beats Dib senseless for merely suggesting that she's suffering from bad luck because she interrupted the ritual in Samhain's name. And when she later gets home after her night-long ordeal, her reaction to him seeing her bedraggled state and asking what happened to her is to punt him through a wall.
- Divine Punishment: After Gaz destroys a sacrificial offering that Dib was going to make to Samhain, the angry god curses her with bad luck on Halloween. She ends up having to wear a girly fairy princess costume, gets kidnapped by a lunatic paranormal investigator, has to walk home in the rain, gets splashed with mud by a passing truck, and then when she finally gets home and prepares to enjoy her candy, several cavities spontaneously appear in her mouth when she bites down on a single piece.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: After Gaz destroys a sacrificial offering that Dib was planning to make to Samhain, the Celtic god of death and the harvest, the god himself retaliates by cursing her with terrible luck on Halloween night.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: It's in the title, in true Invader Zim fashion.
- Drives Like Crazy: While driving to the paranormal investigators' convention with a kidnapped Gaz in the back seat, Bill runs over about a dozen people, five mailboxes, and a cow.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even though she hates Iggins, Gaz doesn't stoop to mugging him for his Mondo Deluxe Poop Candy Bar, and simply asks him where he got it. She does, however, throw him down the street for making fun of her and calling her "Tinker Bell".
- Eye Scream: While trying to catch a Sugar Fairy, Bill hands out Mondo Deluxe Poop Candy Bars to trick-or-treaters by shooting them out of a tube. One unfortunate kid gets nailed straight in the eye with one.
- Geniuses Have Multiple PhDs: When preparing to treat Gaz's sudden cavities at the end of the story, Professor Membrane mentions that one of his many PhDs is in dentistry.
- Girls Love Chocolate: On Halloween, the candy Gaz wants most of all is the Mondo Deluxe Poop Candy Bar, a nougat/caramel/peanut-filled dark chocolate bar that's nearly a foot long.
- Guinea Pig Family: The last horrible thing that happens to Gaz on Halloween is getting a bunch of cavities in her mouth and her father Professor Membrane dragging her down to the basement to use her as a guinea pig for his newly invented dental surgery equipment.
- Halloween Episode: The whole point of this story is putting Gaz through karmic misadventures on Halloween night.
- Humiliation Conga: Gaz suffers from a magically induced one as a result of destroying an offering that was intended for Samhain, Celtic god of death and the harvest. She's forced to wear the pinkest, frilliest, girliest fairy princess costume imaginable after the costume shop mysteriously loses the witch costume she pre-ordered (and her rival Iggins sees her wearing it), gets kidnapped by a paranormal investigator who mistakes her for a "Sugar Fairy," has to walk home in the pouring rain after escaping, falls into a thorn bush, gets her costume torn up (meaning she can't even return it for a refund), and gets splashed with mud by a passing truck. After she finally gets home and prepares to enjoy her candy, several cavities spontaneously appear in her mouth as soon as she bites down on one piece, prompting her father to throw out all her candy and haul her down to the basement for a round of painful dental surgery.
- Innocently Insensitive: Several of the adults giving out candy tell Gaz that she looks adorable in her fairy princess costume, unaware that she hates it and is only wearing it because it was the only costume in stock.
- Jerkass Gods: Samhain wouldn't have blessed Dib with good luck even if he had successfully completed the sacrificial ritual, but is happy to punish Gaz with bad luck for destroying the offering that was meant in his name (although it is a fitting comeuppance).
- Kick the Dog: Gaz destroys Dib's sacrificial offering that he was going to make to Samhain, for no real reason. Samhain is not happy about this and decides to punish her for it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Gaz discovers the hard way that if you destroy an offering to a god, they just might use their godly powers to punish you in quite unpleasant ways. Even on—no, especially on—your favorite holiday.
- Mythology Gag: Gaz being forced to wear a fairy princess costume may be a call-back to one of the author's earlier stories, Sweet Payback
. - Narrative Profanity Filter: When she gets caught in a thunderstorm after already having had a terrible night, Gaz stands there for a few seconds in Stunned Silence before "screaming out a long string of obscenities someone her age really had no business knowing."
- Neck Lift: Gaz does this to Iggins with one hand when he tells her to get on her knees and admit he's the better gamer in exchange for telling her which house is giving out Mondo Deluxe Poop Candy Bars.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Normally, deliberately ruining a child's Halloween by forcing them to dress in a humiliating costume, getting them kidnapped, making them walk home in the rain and creating cavities in their mouth would be very mean. However, since it's Gaz whose Halloween is getting ruined because she pissed off a god by destroying an offering made in his name for no reason other than petty spite, it's pretty satisfying.
- Seen It All: Gaz's reaction to seeing a house handing out candy to trick-or-treaters by means of shooting it out of a giant tube is to note that she's seen weirder.
- Shout-Out:
- Iggins makes fun of Gaz by calling her "Tinker Bell" when he sees her wearing a fairy princess costume on Halloween.
- When Gaz throws Iggins down the street as revenge for the aforementioned insult, there is the sound of breaking glass, screeching cats, and at least one shout of "My leg!"
- Spirit of Halloween: Samhain, the Celtic god of death and the harvest, is presented as the default spirit of Halloween. Dib attempts to make an offering to him in exchange for good luck, only for Gaz to destroy it to spite Dib's beliefs. This pisses Samhain off, and he curses her with bad luck, leading to a night-long Humiliation Conga.
- Sweets of Temptation: While Gaz is trick-or-treating and finds out that a certain house is handing out Mondo Deluxe Poop Candy Bars, she threatens her rival Iggins into telling her where it is. It turns out to be a trap set by a lunatic paranormal investigator who's trying to catch "Sugar Fairies," and since Gaz happens to be dressed as a fairy princess at the time, he kidnaps her and throws her in the back of his van to show her off at a paranormal investigators' convention.
- Sweet Tooth: Gaz's favorite holiday of the year is Halloween because of how much candy she always gets. So, naturally, it's only fitting that her comeuppance involves having a horrible Halloween (of doom!) because she angered a god associated with it.
- Tempting Fate: After Gaz has to wear a humiliating (by her standards) fairy princess costume, gets kidnapped by a crazy paranormal investigator, has to walk all the way home after escaping from his truck, and gets her costume shredded when she falls into a thorn bush, she yells, “Can this night get any worse?!” At that moment, Samhain uses his godly power to make it start raining.
- That Poor Cat: Gaz throwing Iggins down the street somehow produces the sound of breaking glass and screeching cats.
- They Called Me Mad!: Bill invokes this trope when rambling excitedly to himself after he's captured Gaz, who he thinks is a "Sugar Fairy."They all said I was crazy. They all said, "Oh, Bill, there's no such thing as Sugar Fairies that come out on Halloween." Oh, yeah? Well, who's laughing now, huh?
- The Tooth Hurts: Samhain's final curse on Gaz involves making several cavities suddenly appear in her mouth just as she gets home and bites into her candy, which makes her father throw all her candy in the trash and take her down to the basement for some dental surgery.
- Unwillingly Girly Tomboy: Gaz's horrible Halloween begins when the costume shop mysteriously loses the witch costume she pre-ordered, and the only costume they have in her size is a frilly pink fairy princess costume. She finds it humiliating to wear, but she can't stand the thought of staying home on Halloween and not getting any candy.
- Weather Manipulation: Right after Gaz gets her costume torn up by a thorn bush, Samhain decides to make her night a little more miserable by using his power to start a thunderstorm so she’ll have to walk the rest of the way home in the pouring rain.
- When It Rains, It Pours: And it pours pretty hard when said rain is being generated by a vengeful god punishing a certain misanthropic goth girl on Halloween for disrupting a ritual in his name.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: As revenge for destroying an offering that Dib was going to make in his name, Samhain curses Gaz with terrible luck on Halloween, her favorite holiday.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After a terribly unfortunate Halloween, Gaz makes it home while covered in mud and with her costume torn up, and prepares to enjoy her candy. The second she bites into one of the Mondo Deluxe Poop Candy Bars, she feels a terrible pain in her mouth from a cavity.
- Your Costume Needs Work: Inverted — while wearing a fairy princess costume on Halloween, Gaz gets kidnapped by a nutty paranormal investigator who mistakes her for a real fairy, specifically a "Sugar Fairy" that only comes out on Halloween.
