Submission (#854) Approved

Stinker's knife dug sloppily into the pumpkin, mercilessly carving through the fruit as Millie watched in what can only be described as disgust or pity in her odd anatomy. Their tail bat against the floor, the wormlike appendage wrapping around the failed pumpkins.
At first glance this was almost too perfect of a holiday for them, it was laughable honestly. A rat terra that quite literally is a mad scientist that experiments on things, how could it not?
Well, they couldn't carve a pumpkin correctly for one. As evidenced by the ruined pumpkins surrounding them.
"Try to be more gentle-" Millie tried to speak, before the squelch of a caved in pumpkin inturrupted her. The rat sighed, tossing it into the pile. "How come you can do this so well, Millie?" They asked, the small rat looked up to her, as frustrated as its owner.
"Well, for one, i handle the pumpkin with care" she said, scooching next to them. She held the pumpkin between them. A simple grin etched on its face with triangular eyes. "..then plan a bit, y'see. You cant just hammer away at it then expect a good outcome darling" Stinker was handed the pumpkin, observing it closely. The lines between the eyes and mouth were thick, unlike theirs. There were no finer details to make it notable, but the simple face has done its job.
"That's.. kinda boring looking Millie" Stinker mumbled, in which she giggled.
"Well, sometimes less is more. Try it out for yourself, yeah?" She hummed before sitting up, dusting herself off as she left them to their thoughts.

The terra watched her as she left, presumably preparing the candy for the trick or treaters. They looked back down to the pumpkin and gently placed it down. The words Millie said werent that important, but it dod make them think at least a little. Overachieving led to failure.. but they havent tried something like what she did yet. With high hopes, they reached for their scalpel once more, and grabbed a suitably sized pumpkin.


Meanwhile, Millie was indeed making a simple honey candy when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked back to see a very happy rat with a large pumpkin, with a face successfully  carved into it.
They showed the pumpkin off to her proudly, seeing that it was indeed not ruined like the others. Millie clapped a bit in glee.
Well, that was until it too fell in. It took a few moments for it to settle in, and the poor rat almost looked close to tears. It seemed that this pumpkin was rotten, and the rodent just didnt know.
"Now now" millie said, patting their furry head. "Dont be so down.. we can carve a pumpkin together" They nodded "but, i worked so hard on that one" frustration was seeping through their voice. The taller terra nodded. "Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, the experience bears no fruit. But we learn from it"
Stinker, still distraught, nodded sadly and looked back down to the pumpkin unable to retain its shape.
The next few hours were slow, agonizing even for Stinker, but both eventually made a pumpkin. Slowly planned and drawn on, the rodent learned that freehanding wasnt the ideal way to go on certain projects. It can work certainly, but slow planning will lead to better results.