Post by wileyk209 on Jun 14, 2020 15:40:47 GMT -5
Those who know me well may recall I have suspected Shaggy might be a furry, but nothing like those negative portrayals in the media (like that darn "CSI" episode.) Well, when watching some episodes of "Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?" the idea came to me, particularly as I was watching "The Sword, The Fox and Scooby-Doo!" and "The High School Wolfman's Musical Lament." Shaggy and Scooby-Doo are having fun at Coolsville's first furry convention, but then a freakish zombie-werewolf type of creature with a canine skull face starts terrorizing the con, and so Shaggy and Scooby have to call their friends over to solve the mystery and save the con! And yes, I based Shaggy's fursona off of early Hanna-Barbera character Hokey Wolf, complete with giving him his prototype name "Wacko Wolf." A few of my real-life fursuiter friends also make cameos in this story as well, for added authenticity...
FURY AT THE FURRY CON
It all began at the first annual Coolsville Fur Con, held at a deluxe hotel near the downtown area. Shaggy Rogers couldn't resist attending, especially after telling his friends that also made up Mystery Inc. about his being a furry and how the hobby was nothing like the media often negatively portrayed it. And so, he and Scooby-Doo registered for the con and were staying at the hotel the weekend it was occurring. So far, things were going great. Shaggy's fursuit of his own fursona, "Wacko Wolf," went over well with the furry crowd. But because he was unsure about Scooby, a real dog, being allowed at the convention, Shaggy had Scooby-Doo pretend to be a friend of his in another fursuit, and so far, the masquerade was working.
But on the Saturday morning of that weekend, the second full day of the convention, this was when things began to turn into how things usually do for Shaggy and Scooby. First, they were about to enter a panel about fursuiting for beginners. As they stood in line, Shaggy was already wearing most of his Wacko Wolf fursuit, a brown cartoonish lupine with a big bushy tail and a white shirt-like collar on the neck with a lavender bowtie, and he was holding the mask in his hands, wearing a pale green porkpie hat.
Shaggy chuckled and told his dog, "So far this is a great weekend, eh, Scoob? Lots of fun dressing up and playing pretend, getting to know fellow furries, partaking in fun activities, convention dining, and of course, no mysteries!"
"Ryeah!" Scooby agreed and did his distinctive laugh. "EeHEEheeheeheeheehee!"
"Wow," a fursuiter, dressed like some kind of purple cartoonish bird, said to Scooby. "Great dog voice!"
"Rank you," Scooby said, waving one of his paws.
Someone from inside the panel room called out, "All right, everyone who's here for the fursuiting for beginners panel can come on in!"
So, they did. A little way into the panel, the hosts were talking about how one could commission to have their fursuits made, or one could learn the skills and make the fursuits themselves. Mystery Inc. had some connections with a few costume designers that some of the past crooks the gang apprehended forced to make their monster disguises for, and one of the said designers was on such good terms with Shaggy and Scooby that she helped them out in making Shaggy's Wacko Wolf suit.
But just as one of the panel hosts continued talking, one of the panel room doors came crashing down, and a huge menacing gray shaggy wolf-like creature with a fanged canine skull face with spooky glowing yellow eyes bounded into the room, drooling and snarling! The hosts let out a shriek, and some other attendees got scared. And naturally, Shaggy and Scooby began huddling in fear.
But Shaggy then let out a nervous chuckle and said, "Wait a minute, Scoob! Why are we scared? That's just another fellow furry showing off an awesome suit." But as this scary zombie skull wolf creature approached Shaggy and Scooby, he noticed something. "Wait... like, he has no con badge. So... he can't be with the con!"
The creature roared menacingly at Shaggy and Scooby, and they both hightailed it out of the panel room, up the elevator, and into their hotel room, where they collapsed on the bed to catch their breaths.
"Oh no..." Shaggy moaned. "Like, I knew it was too good to be true. Scooby, next time I start to say something like I did before we entered the panel, please do something for me."
"Rhat's rat, Raggy?" Scooby asked.
"Snap me out of it!" Shaggy said, shaking Scooby around a bit. He panted for a few seconds and added, "Like, it's a good thing I remembered to bring my fursuit head in here as well. But we can't spend the rest of the con hiding in here! Besides, checkout time is tomorrow at noon! Like, as much as I hate to do it, we have no choice."
"Call the gang?" Scooby said, knowing what was coming up.
"You got it, Scoob," Shaggy said, pulling his Smartphone out of one of his wolf suit's body pockets and starting to dial Fred's phone. "Fred, Daphne and Velma have needed us before. Now we need them!"
...
In less than a half-hour, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo were meeting up with Fred, Daphne and Velma in the hotel lobby. Convention security allowed the three to enter the con, since they were friends of two of the attendees (Shaggy and Scooby) and they could capture the zombie-skull-werewolf monster and solve the mystery.
"So, it was something like a werewolf," Fred was saying, "but he had a canine skull face with glowing eyes, and he had shed some fur?"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh!" Scooby and Shaggy said in unison.
"Jeepers," Daphne said. "You'd think for a furry convention, a more traditional werewolf would've been the monster showing up to scare people."
"That's too ordinary and predictable," Velma explained. "But the creature Shaggy and Scooby saw... Jinkies! Since Shaggy told me about what furries are like, I completely understand it."
"Exactly!" Shaggy said. "And this fur is not with the con, either!"
"Ryeah!" Scooby added, holding up the con badge with his name clipped to the lanyard around his neck. "No ron radge!"
"This is all too strange," Daphne noted.
"Well gang," Fred announced, "it's like Shaggy said. We have another mystery on our hands!"
Shaggy and Scooby both grinned sheepishly, and then Shaggy slipped his Wacko Wolf fursuit head over himself.
They entered the con space. But Fred quickly caught sight of someone wearing a green fluffy Dutch angel dragon partial suit and exclaimed, "Hold the phone! I suspect someone!" Sure enough, he ran over to the Dutch angel dragon and yanked off her mask, revealing a young girl roughly around his own age.
"HEY!" the girl exclaimed. "Gimme that!" She swiped her fursuit head out of Fred's arms.
"I'm sorry," Fred sheepishly said. "I thought you were the one behind the monster attacks."
"NO," the girl firmly answered. "I wasn't even attending the panel that skeletal werewolf attacked at." She pulled her mask back on and walked off.
The rest of the gang ran up to Fred, who nervously said, "This is going to be harder than I thought. LOTS of people are wearing masks here! Look, even Shaggy is wearing a mask!"
"Aw, come on, Fred," Shaggy protested from inside his Wacko Wolf fursuit, the jaw moving fairly decently with his own mouth. "Like, you saw me wear this fursuit BEFORE the con!"
Daphne and Velma eyed each other. "Something tells me we may need to keep an eye on Fred," Daphne said.
A slender young man with brown hair approached the gang. He was not wearing a fursuit, but in addition to his con badge he had a customized badge with a puma character on it, the name tag reading "Santino." The man said, "Don't worry. Not all of the con attendees are wearing fursuits. I don't even have one!"
"Oh," Shaggy/Wacko said. "Hey there, Santino!"
"Heya, Wacko!" Santino replied as he gave Shaggy a high-five.
Velma was surprised. "Wow, Shaggy," she said. "Interesting how you're already somewhat well-known here."
Shaggy chuckled from inside his fursuit head and said, "Well, I DO have a life outside of solving mysteries and eating food."
"Yeah." Santino added. "And for a first-time congoer, Wacko here sure knows how to have fun at these things!"
...
A little while later, inside "The Zoo" lounge area of the convention, the Mystery Inc. gang was seated at a table as Shaggy and Scooby were telling the others about the fun they were having so far at the con. Santino was not with them, as he was going to check out something else. Shaggy had removed his "Wacko Wolf" head once again and had it sitting on the table.
"So yesterday," Shaggy was telling his friends, "Scoob and I attended a fursuit photo room session, and then last night I participated in the fursuit games! Like, this con is a lot more fun than I thought it would be!"
Daphne chuckled a bit. "I'm glad to see you're enjoying yourself, Shaggy," she said, "even if this monster is on the loose."
"What else is on the schedule for today?" Velma asked.
"Well," Shaggy said, "later today we are supposed to do a fursuit group photo and parade."
"Hmmm," Velma thought. "That sounds like a good opportunity for our creature to strike."
Shaggy looked over and said in a terrified voice, "Like, so does now!!!" He and Scooby yelped and clutched each other in horror as the wolfish creature ran into "The Zoo," snarling and growling.
Over half of the other con attendees in the room, in and out of fursuit, panicked as well and tried to get out. Shaggy and Scooby were running around to others that were still sitting at their chairs, with Shaggy calling out, "That wolfish monster is not with the con! I repeat, he is NOT WITH THE CON!"
That got some of the others running for the hills as well. After what seemed like minutes of chasing, the Mystery Inc. gang made it out of "The Zoo" safely and had lost the monster.
Fred caught his breath and said, "Well, gang, it's time to split up. Daphne and I will check out the upper floor where the panel rooms and such are. Velma, Shaggy and Scooby, you look around on this level."
"But, like," Shaggy pointed out, "doesn't Velma usually go with you two?"
Velma explained, "If it was just you two, you'd both be tempted to forget about the monster and take our whole investigation way off track." Shaggy sheepishly smiled once again as he lowered his Wacko Wolf mask over his head.
...
Now Velma, Shaggy and Scooby were looking around in the Dealer's Den, which had apparently been somewhat messed up from the monster's shenanigans. They looked around for a while, and then as someone in a raccoon fursuit with a blue T-shirt approached Shaggy and Scooby, his name tag and custom badge reading "BEETON," he said "Hey there! It's Wacko and Scooby again!"
"Like, hi again, Beeton!" Shaggy said from inside his Wacko Wolf fursuit, as he and Scooby hugged Beeton.
But then they heard Velma exclaim, "Jinkies! I found something Shag, er, Wacko!"
Shaggy turned towards Velma's direction and called out, "Coming, Velma!" Then he told Beeton, "Pardon me and Scoob a moment. Like, our mystery-solving friend must have found something relating to that creepy wolf skull creature haunting the con!"
"All right," Beeton said from behind his raccoon mask. "I do have a hunch that creature might just be a fursuiter, but I don't know which one..." He then left the room.
Shaggy/Wacko and Scooby hurried over to Velma, holding up a small tuft of gray fur near a toppled badge artwork booth. "This tuft of fur appears to have come from the monster," she told them. Then she rubbed the fur against her fingers a bit and looked with a magnifying glass. "Just as I suspected," she said. "It's faux fur! Let me look at your fursuit, Wacko." She leaned over and inspected a bit of Shaggy's fursuit with her fingers and magnifying glass. "I thought so!" she exclaimed. "The creature we are going after is also just someone wearing a fursuit!"
"Even so," Shaggy said, "I don't think he's a con attendee. Like, I didn't see any tags or badges on him. He's still definitely an intruder!"
"All the more reason we should catch him and find out his motive," Velma explained.
And of course, the creature bounded into the Dealer's Den and roared threateningly at the three. They yelped in fear and ran off, with the creature in pursuit. They chased through the lobby and right into the hotel's revolving door, where they kept going around and around in it for a while before running right back into the lobby. Then Scooby, Shaggy and Velma ran into an elevator, having supposedly lost the monster and rode it up to the upper level where the panel rooms were. But somehow the monster had joined them in the elevator for some reason and chased the three out among arriving at that floor! It was there when the three lost the monster again and met up with Fred and Daphne.
"Hey, what's going on?" Fred asked.
"Like," Shaggy explained, "w-w-we saw the monster, and he went after us!"
"But we found a clue," Velma added. "A piece of fake fur from the creature. He's obviously just another fursuiter, but since he does not have a visible con badge, we don't know who he is!"
Daphne looked at her rumbling stomach and said, "Forgive me for acting like Shaggy right now, but I think we could use some lunch."
"Of course!" Shaggy said. "There's a great diner right near the hotel we can go to. Let me drop off my fursuit in my hotel room first, just so I don't freak out anyone at the diner who might already know about that wolf-like monster."
...
Shaggy was able to do that without any trouble. A little while later at the diner, Shaggy and Scooby were pigging out on burgers and fries while the other three had their own sandwiches. Daphne was look at a copy of the con book she picked up...
"Jeepers," Daphne said. "This con isn't entirely what I expected. Look at some of these panels and events. Dealing with social anxiety, video game tournaments, learn beekeeping, origami lessons, an escape room..."
"Yup," Shaggy replied with a grin. "The Coolsville Fur Con's got it all! Though of course Scoob and I don't do ALL of the panels and events."
"I thought not," Velma said as she glanced at the con book. "Scooby hates bees."
"Ryeah," Scooby said with a shudder. "Rey really hurt!"
"It says here," Velma continued, "the gathering for the fursuit group photo and parade begins at 2:30. And it's 12:39 right now, so once we get back to the hotel we should really crack down on this mystery so that event can go without any problems."
"No sweat," Fred assured the rest of the gang. "We can often get a mystery solved in just 22 minutes!" They all shared a high-five.
...
Back at the hotel, while Scooby-Doo was taking a restroom break, and Velma, Fred and Daphne were speaking with con security about the progress they made on the mystery, Shaggy was making his way back to his hotel room to don his fursuit and become Wacko Wolf again. But on the way, he encountered a slender woman slightly older than him, wearing animal ears and paws. She was wearing a badge with her cat character Fanny illustrated on it. Noticing Shaggy's con badges, she said, "Hey Wacko, where's Scooby?"
"Oh," Shaggy answered, "he's using the bathroom."
"Are you sure?" Fanny asked. "I'm starting to wonder if Scooby really IS a dog and not just someone in a fursuit."
"Are you kidding?" Shaggy replied. "A dog standing upright on two legs and talking being a real dog?" He let out a nervous chuckle. "How could that be?"
"Well," Fanny explained, "I noticed he had that distinct smell that comes with a real dog."
Shaggy chuckled and tried to explain, "Like, he goes all out with the authenticity. Even talks in a dog voice! Ha-ha-ha-ha..."
"I'm just saying," Fanny said, "because if you brought a real dog in here that's not a service or security dog you might get in trouble..."
"Look, I'll prove it to you," Shaggy said as he zipped open his backpack and started rummaging through it. A few seconds later, he pulled out a full-head rubber Scooby-Doo mask. "See?" Shaggy claimed. "Like, I have part of his costume right here!" He opened the bottom of the mask, raised it above himself and tugged it over his head, and then attempted to imitate Scooby's voice. "Reah! Ruh-roh! Rike, ree-HEE-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
Fanny was convinced. "Ah, I see. Sorry for the misunderstanding." She walked off again, to which Shaggy ran back to his hotel room with the Scooby mask still over his head.
...
Back in the hotel room, the real Scooby-Doo managed to get back in without anyone suspecting something or with any run-ins from the skull-faced wolf creature. Shaggy, now wearing the body and footpaws for his Wacko Wolf fursuit, was holding up the Scooby-Doo mask and the body costume and paw gloves that went with it as he was telling Scooby, "Like, it's a good thing I packed this Scooby costume from one of our past mysteries to use to throw people off getting suspicious of your identity, Scoob."
"Roh brother," Scooby said, rolling his eyes and knowing his charade was starting to become a mess.
"Don't worry, Scoob," Shaggy assured him. "We're halfway through the con now, and aside from that freaky zombie wolf monster, things are going pretty well!" He then slipped his wolf fursuit head back on, followed by the paw gloves, and said, "All right, let's meet up with the rest of the gang."
...
Back on the main level, Shaggy/Wacko Wolf and Scooby-Doo were walking around, with Scooby still on his hind legs. Another fursuiter, Talcott Otter, waved to them and Shaggy waved back. Scooby stopped and stared at Talcott's mask for a bit, noticing that it kind of resembled his own face. "Rhuh?" Scooby asked as he gently felt around Talcott's noise. Talcott was doing the same with Scooby's face. Wacko noticed and laughed, "Like, the resemblance is kind of uncanny! Let's go, Scoob." And so Scooby shrugged it off and followed Wacko to find the rest of Mystery Inc.
Sure enough, in the main hotel lobby they noticed Fred yanking the mask off a guy dressed in a lizard partial suit. "Hey, whaddaya think you're doing?!" the guy exclaimed.
"Sorry," Fred said, "unmasking others is kind of my job."
"Well then, why are you even here? I don't see a con badge," the lizard guy asked as he snatched his lizard mask back from Fred.
"We happen to be here to solve a case," Fred explained, "involving that zombie werewolf creature that's been terrorizing the con."
"Duh!" the guy reacted. "This is a furry con. Lots of people are here in fuzzy costumes! Though I will admit that zombie wolf creature does seem suspicious. He could be a vandal trying to sabotage the con or something." He slipped the lizard head back over his own and said, "Well, I'll watch out for him." Then he walked off.
A male hotel clerk dressed in an elegant business suit, his name badge reading "SID," came up to the gang. "What are you kids doing?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, mister... Sid," Fred said, taking a look at the clerk's name badge. "We were called here on a case. Catching bad guys in disguise is a specialty of ours."
"Oh," Sid said. "You mean that scary wolf skull creature. Well, if he's trying to sabotage the convention, I hope he succeeds. I don't like this event going on; it's a strain on the service, and some of the guests may not follow the hotel rules."
Velma pointed out, "Well, do the other hotel employees feel the same way as you do?"
"I never asked," Sid admitted. As he said that, a female hotel clerk walked up, and Sid turned to ask her, "Hey Brea, you don't like these furries, do you?"
"Actually, I don't mind them very much," Brea said. "They seem like a fun bunch, but I do have to agree they need to follow the rules and keep the hotel clean and safe."
"Yeah, but..." Sid started to say, but then he groaned and exclaimed, "Oh, never mind!" He walked off fuming while Brea followed with a smile on her face.
"Hmm," Daphne said. "We've got ourselves a potential suspect. Now what?"
"Come check out the video game room," Shaggy/Wacko told his friends. "Like, it's so cool!"
...
On the way to the video game room, Daphne stopped and noticed something on the floor. "Hey, look what I found!" She leaned down and picked up a white resin fang.
"A clue!" Velma exclaimed.
"Ewww," Daphne said as she dropped it in Velma's hands. "It feels slimy!"
Velma examined the fang more closely. "Jinkies!" she realized. "This resin fang is covered in fake saliva. And I clearly remember our monster drooling a bit and being the only one here to do so."
But then the zombie wolf creature approached from behind them and roared, causing the gang to all let out a frightened yell and start running for it. They chased through the hallway, and then up some stairs to the level where the panel rooms were. Soon the creature supposedly lost sight of them, but as he walked down the hall keeping an eye out for them, Shaggy poked out of one of the open panel room doors with his fursuit head off, grabbing the creature's hand.
"Like, are you here for the 'How to Ruin a Furry Con' panel?" Shaggy asked. "You're just in time!" He dragged the werewolf into the empty panel room and seated him in one of the chairs, then joined Scooby at the front of the room with a presentation board reading "HOW TO RUIN A FURRY CON." Shaggy cleared his throat and started, "Hello, and welcome to our panel on how to ruin a furry convention! I see there's only one attendant, but that's fine, as it means less conventions to ruin!" He and Scooby laughed together.
The monster let out a low animal growl. He wasn't that amused.
Then Shaggy flipped a page on the presentation board to reveal a drawing of the skeletal-faced zombie wolf creature and explained, "Like, one good way to ruin a furry convention is to devise a scary creature of some sort to scare everyone away!"
The zombie wolf creature snarled, not enjoying being made fun of here.
"And you can also make a mess, like this!" Shaggy continued as he grabbed his Wacko Wolf mask in one arm, and then with his left footpaw, he and Scooby knocked over the folding table and presentation board, and then ran off.
The creature leaped up, knocking over a few chairs in the process, and let out another roar, running out of the room to pursue the two.
But Shaggy and Scooby were quicker, and they met up with Fred, Daphne and Velma at the bottom of the stairwell to the main level.
"Good work, guys," Fred told them. "And now it's time to come up with a plan!"
"Let me guess," Shaggy unenthusiastically said, "Scoob and I are the bait."
"Somewhat," Fred said, "but you two can just go around and have fun at the con before luring him into our trap. In a way, at this con it seems almost all the furries here are possible bait, and since one of the furries is a close friend of mine, i.e. you, Shaggy, a.k.a. 'Wacko Wolf,' it's just about perfect!"
Shaggy chuckled, feeling a bit at ease, and said, "Well, like, when you put it that way, Fred..." He put on his Wacko Wolf head again and told his dog, "Come on, Scoob, for once it'll be fun being the bait!"
"Ri guess so..." Scooby admitted.
...
A short while later, Shaggy/Wacko and Scooby-Doo were talking with another fursuiter friend of theirs, Cyan Glaciertooth, a large icy blue feline wearing a Polar Wildcats shirt. "Like, it's great we got to finally meet you, Cyan," Wacko was saying.
"Thanks," Cyan replied. "I heard of your mystery-solving team, but I never would've suspected that one of the members was also in the fandom. And don't worry, Scooby, your secret is safe with me." He leaned over and hugged Scooby.
"Raww, thanks," Scooby said as he blushed a bit.
"Well," Cyan said, "I'd better head off and get ready for the fursuit group photo gathering in an hour and..."
But the zombie wolf monster leaped at them and let out a terrifying snarl.
"Please excuse us!" Shaggy/Wacko told Cyan, and then he and Scooby ran off, with the monster pursuing them.
"I guess this is where they finally trap the monster," Cyan noted.
Sure enough, they chase led them towards a trap Fred had set up in the main lobby, using a springboard he kept in the Mystery Machine and some foam novelty pool noodles tied up in circles ahead of the springboard and suspended in the air from spare sign stands, all of which the con staff let Fred borrow. Shaggy and Scooby saw it up ahead and shifted towards the sides of the trap so they wouldn't set it off.
Fred stepped out and announced, "Here goes!"
And indeed, the creature stepped on the springboard with his big footpaws, sending him soaring right into the noodle loops, to which he collapsed on the ground as the springs suspending the loops snapped.
"YES!" Shaggy cheered. "We did it!"
"Scooby-dooooo!" Scooby howled.
Other people at the con, furries and con staff members alike, ran up cheering as well.
"I love it when a trap comes together," Fred said, giving a thumbs-up. "And now the moment I've been waiting for: unmasking the monster!" He walked over to the front of the trapped creature and yanked his mask off, revealing the head of Santino underneath.
"Santino?!" the Mystery Inc. gang and some other furries all exclaimed in unison.
"But, like," Shaggy/Wacko said, "I thought he DIDN'T fursuit!"
"Why did you do it?" Daphne asked Santino as she and a few con security officials looked right at him.
"All right!" Santino began. "I was mad that they rejected my con panel; 'Furry horror creatures.' I've also submitted it at other previous furry cons, and they all rejected it as well. Even when one con had a horror theme to it! Then when I heard Coolsville was starting up its' first furry convention, I registered and thought they'd accept my panel, but they didn't."
"Gosh," one con official said. "We're sorry; we didn't realize that. We were getting so many panel submissions we didn't have room for it."
Santino continued, "And I figured if the Coolsville Fur Con wasn't good enough to accept my panel submission, then it shouldn't survive to happen next year! So, I designed and came up with this creature, a zombie werewolf of sorts with a canine skull for a face, as I thought a regular werewolf would be too ordinary and predictable."
"Now where have I heard that before?" Velma said, pretending to think.
"I thought vandalizing and terrorizing the convention as a scary anonymous creature would convince people not to come back the following year, because if I can't have fun here, nobody can!" Santino explained. "And I would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for that meddling Wacko Wolf and Scooby-Doo hiring you kids!"
Shaggy/Wacko and Scooby looked at each other, and then they folded their arms and nodded in unison.
"Well," Fred told Santino, "even though I'm not a furry, Daphne and Velma and I fully support Shaggy, er, Wacko's interests and hobbies like this. We all feel great when he and Scooby are having fun."
"Raww shucks!" Scooby said, blushing.
"Double shucks," Shaggy/Wacko chuckled.
One of the con officials grabbed Santino's right arm and said, "I think it's time for us to have a talk about this, Santino." He started dragging him to the con office.
Shaggy "tsk-tsk"ed from behind his Wacko Wolf mask and said, "It's always the one we least suspect..."
...
A while later, Shaggy in his Wacko Wolf getup was talking with Fred, Daphne and Velma not too far from the hotel's ballroom entrance. "Like, I'm so glad you guys were able to help save the con," he was saying. "I was hoping for a weekend with no mysteries, but in this case, what happened was even better than that!"
Fred, Velma and Daphne all beamed. "I'm glad we could help," Fred said.
"And," Shaggy/Wacko added, "the con officials didn't even mind us telling them that Scooby-Doo is a real dog who was just pretending to be a fursuiter, and they allowed him here for the rest of the con as a special exception and thanks for helping solve the mystery!"
"I'm so glad things are working out great for you and Scooby," Daphne said.
"Anyways," Shaggy/Wacko continued, "I have to get ready to get in line for the fursuit group photo and parade soon. You three gonna find spots to watch the parade?"
"Of course," Velma said, and then noticed something. "But what about Scooby-Doo?" she asked.
"Oh, he's joining me for this," Shaggy/Wacko said. "He found a fursuit to wear after all!"
Daphne raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is he wearing that silly costume of himself you brought along to throw off suspicious people?"
"Uh, not exactly..." Shaggy said as he put his Wacko Wolf mask back on.
Sure enough, the zombie-werewolf creature approached the gang and let out a very familiar snarl. He had Scooby's con badges on as well.
"I should've known," Fred chuckled to himself.
And with that, the wolf-like creature removed his mask to reveal Scooby-Doo's head underneath. "Rurprise!" he grinned. "Ee-HEE-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
"Like I've often said," Velma said with a grin, "what a ham!"
They all had a good laugh together, and then Scooby said, "Scooby-dooby-dooooooo!" and gave Shaggy/Wacko Wolf a big hug.
END
FURY AT THE FURRY CON
It all began at the first annual Coolsville Fur Con, held at a deluxe hotel near the downtown area. Shaggy Rogers couldn't resist attending, especially after telling his friends that also made up Mystery Inc. about his being a furry and how the hobby was nothing like the media often negatively portrayed it. And so, he and Scooby-Doo registered for the con and were staying at the hotel the weekend it was occurring. So far, things were going great. Shaggy's fursuit of his own fursona, "Wacko Wolf," went over well with the furry crowd. But because he was unsure about Scooby, a real dog, being allowed at the convention, Shaggy had Scooby-Doo pretend to be a friend of his in another fursuit, and so far, the masquerade was working.
But on the Saturday morning of that weekend, the second full day of the convention, this was when things began to turn into how things usually do for Shaggy and Scooby. First, they were about to enter a panel about fursuiting for beginners. As they stood in line, Shaggy was already wearing most of his Wacko Wolf fursuit, a brown cartoonish lupine with a big bushy tail and a white shirt-like collar on the neck with a lavender bowtie, and he was holding the mask in his hands, wearing a pale green porkpie hat.
Shaggy chuckled and told his dog, "So far this is a great weekend, eh, Scoob? Lots of fun dressing up and playing pretend, getting to know fellow furries, partaking in fun activities, convention dining, and of course, no mysteries!"
"Ryeah!" Scooby agreed and did his distinctive laugh. "EeHEEheeheeheeheehee!"
"Wow," a fursuiter, dressed like some kind of purple cartoonish bird, said to Scooby. "Great dog voice!"
"Rank you," Scooby said, waving one of his paws.
Someone from inside the panel room called out, "All right, everyone who's here for the fursuiting for beginners panel can come on in!"
So, they did. A little way into the panel, the hosts were talking about how one could commission to have their fursuits made, or one could learn the skills and make the fursuits themselves. Mystery Inc. had some connections with a few costume designers that some of the past crooks the gang apprehended forced to make their monster disguises for, and one of the said designers was on such good terms with Shaggy and Scooby that she helped them out in making Shaggy's Wacko Wolf suit.
But just as one of the panel hosts continued talking, one of the panel room doors came crashing down, and a huge menacing gray shaggy wolf-like creature with a fanged canine skull face with spooky glowing yellow eyes bounded into the room, drooling and snarling! The hosts let out a shriek, and some other attendees got scared. And naturally, Shaggy and Scooby began huddling in fear.
But Shaggy then let out a nervous chuckle and said, "Wait a minute, Scoob! Why are we scared? That's just another fellow furry showing off an awesome suit." But as this scary zombie skull wolf creature approached Shaggy and Scooby, he noticed something. "Wait... like, he has no con badge. So... he can't be with the con!"
The creature roared menacingly at Shaggy and Scooby, and they both hightailed it out of the panel room, up the elevator, and into their hotel room, where they collapsed on the bed to catch their breaths.
"Oh no..." Shaggy moaned. "Like, I knew it was too good to be true. Scooby, next time I start to say something like I did before we entered the panel, please do something for me."
"Rhat's rat, Raggy?" Scooby asked.
"Snap me out of it!" Shaggy said, shaking Scooby around a bit. He panted for a few seconds and added, "Like, it's a good thing I remembered to bring my fursuit head in here as well. But we can't spend the rest of the con hiding in here! Besides, checkout time is tomorrow at noon! Like, as much as I hate to do it, we have no choice."
"Call the gang?" Scooby said, knowing what was coming up.
"You got it, Scoob," Shaggy said, pulling his Smartphone out of one of his wolf suit's body pockets and starting to dial Fred's phone. "Fred, Daphne and Velma have needed us before. Now we need them!"
...
In less than a half-hour, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo were meeting up with Fred, Daphne and Velma in the hotel lobby. Convention security allowed the three to enter the con, since they were friends of two of the attendees (Shaggy and Scooby) and they could capture the zombie-skull-werewolf monster and solve the mystery.
"So, it was something like a werewolf," Fred was saying, "but he had a canine skull face with glowing eyes, and he had shed some fur?"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh!" Scooby and Shaggy said in unison.
"Jeepers," Daphne said. "You'd think for a furry convention, a more traditional werewolf would've been the monster showing up to scare people."
"That's too ordinary and predictable," Velma explained. "But the creature Shaggy and Scooby saw... Jinkies! Since Shaggy told me about what furries are like, I completely understand it."
"Exactly!" Shaggy said. "And this fur is not with the con, either!"
"Ryeah!" Scooby added, holding up the con badge with his name clipped to the lanyard around his neck. "No ron radge!"
"This is all too strange," Daphne noted.
"Well gang," Fred announced, "it's like Shaggy said. We have another mystery on our hands!"
Shaggy and Scooby both grinned sheepishly, and then Shaggy slipped his Wacko Wolf fursuit head over himself.
They entered the con space. But Fred quickly caught sight of someone wearing a green fluffy Dutch angel dragon partial suit and exclaimed, "Hold the phone! I suspect someone!" Sure enough, he ran over to the Dutch angel dragon and yanked off her mask, revealing a young girl roughly around his own age.
"HEY!" the girl exclaimed. "Gimme that!" She swiped her fursuit head out of Fred's arms.
"I'm sorry," Fred sheepishly said. "I thought you were the one behind the monster attacks."
"NO," the girl firmly answered. "I wasn't even attending the panel that skeletal werewolf attacked at." She pulled her mask back on and walked off.
The rest of the gang ran up to Fred, who nervously said, "This is going to be harder than I thought. LOTS of people are wearing masks here! Look, even Shaggy is wearing a mask!"
"Aw, come on, Fred," Shaggy protested from inside his Wacko Wolf fursuit, the jaw moving fairly decently with his own mouth. "Like, you saw me wear this fursuit BEFORE the con!"
Daphne and Velma eyed each other. "Something tells me we may need to keep an eye on Fred," Daphne said.
A slender young man with brown hair approached the gang. He was not wearing a fursuit, but in addition to his con badge he had a customized badge with a puma character on it, the name tag reading "Santino." The man said, "Don't worry. Not all of the con attendees are wearing fursuits. I don't even have one!"
"Oh," Shaggy/Wacko said. "Hey there, Santino!"
"Heya, Wacko!" Santino replied as he gave Shaggy a high-five.
Velma was surprised. "Wow, Shaggy," she said. "Interesting how you're already somewhat well-known here."
Shaggy chuckled from inside his fursuit head and said, "Well, I DO have a life outside of solving mysteries and eating food."
"Yeah." Santino added. "And for a first-time congoer, Wacko here sure knows how to have fun at these things!"
...
A little while later, inside "The Zoo" lounge area of the convention, the Mystery Inc. gang was seated at a table as Shaggy and Scooby were telling the others about the fun they were having so far at the con. Santino was not with them, as he was going to check out something else. Shaggy had removed his "Wacko Wolf" head once again and had it sitting on the table.
"So yesterday," Shaggy was telling his friends, "Scoob and I attended a fursuit photo room session, and then last night I participated in the fursuit games! Like, this con is a lot more fun than I thought it would be!"
Daphne chuckled a bit. "I'm glad to see you're enjoying yourself, Shaggy," she said, "even if this monster is on the loose."
"What else is on the schedule for today?" Velma asked.
"Well," Shaggy said, "later today we are supposed to do a fursuit group photo and parade."
"Hmmm," Velma thought. "That sounds like a good opportunity for our creature to strike."
Shaggy looked over and said in a terrified voice, "Like, so does now!!!" He and Scooby yelped and clutched each other in horror as the wolfish creature ran into "The Zoo," snarling and growling.
Over half of the other con attendees in the room, in and out of fursuit, panicked as well and tried to get out. Shaggy and Scooby were running around to others that were still sitting at their chairs, with Shaggy calling out, "That wolfish monster is not with the con! I repeat, he is NOT WITH THE CON!"
That got some of the others running for the hills as well. After what seemed like minutes of chasing, the Mystery Inc. gang made it out of "The Zoo" safely and had lost the monster.
Fred caught his breath and said, "Well, gang, it's time to split up. Daphne and I will check out the upper floor where the panel rooms and such are. Velma, Shaggy and Scooby, you look around on this level."
"But, like," Shaggy pointed out, "doesn't Velma usually go with you two?"
Velma explained, "If it was just you two, you'd both be tempted to forget about the monster and take our whole investigation way off track." Shaggy sheepishly smiled once again as he lowered his Wacko Wolf mask over his head.
...
Now Velma, Shaggy and Scooby were looking around in the Dealer's Den, which had apparently been somewhat messed up from the monster's shenanigans. They looked around for a while, and then as someone in a raccoon fursuit with a blue T-shirt approached Shaggy and Scooby, his name tag and custom badge reading "BEETON," he said "Hey there! It's Wacko and Scooby again!"
"Like, hi again, Beeton!" Shaggy said from inside his Wacko Wolf fursuit, as he and Scooby hugged Beeton.
But then they heard Velma exclaim, "Jinkies! I found something Shag, er, Wacko!"
Shaggy turned towards Velma's direction and called out, "Coming, Velma!" Then he told Beeton, "Pardon me and Scoob a moment. Like, our mystery-solving friend must have found something relating to that creepy wolf skull creature haunting the con!"
"All right," Beeton said from behind his raccoon mask. "I do have a hunch that creature might just be a fursuiter, but I don't know which one..." He then left the room.
Shaggy/Wacko and Scooby hurried over to Velma, holding up a small tuft of gray fur near a toppled badge artwork booth. "This tuft of fur appears to have come from the monster," she told them. Then she rubbed the fur against her fingers a bit and looked with a magnifying glass. "Just as I suspected," she said. "It's faux fur! Let me look at your fursuit, Wacko." She leaned over and inspected a bit of Shaggy's fursuit with her fingers and magnifying glass. "I thought so!" she exclaimed. "The creature we are going after is also just someone wearing a fursuit!"
"Even so," Shaggy said, "I don't think he's a con attendee. Like, I didn't see any tags or badges on him. He's still definitely an intruder!"
"All the more reason we should catch him and find out his motive," Velma explained.
And of course, the creature bounded into the Dealer's Den and roared threateningly at the three. They yelped in fear and ran off, with the creature in pursuit. They chased through the lobby and right into the hotel's revolving door, where they kept going around and around in it for a while before running right back into the lobby. Then Scooby, Shaggy and Velma ran into an elevator, having supposedly lost the monster and rode it up to the upper level where the panel rooms were. But somehow the monster had joined them in the elevator for some reason and chased the three out among arriving at that floor! It was there when the three lost the monster again and met up with Fred and Daphne.
"Hey, what's going on?" Fred asked.
"Like," Shaggy explained, "w-w-we saw the monster, and he went after us!"
"But we found a clue," Velma added. "A piece of fake fur from the creature. He's obviously just another fursuiter, but since he does not have a visible con badge, we don't know who he is!"
Daphne looked at her rumbling stomach and said, "Forgive me for acting like Shaggy right now, but I think we could use some lunch."
"Of course!" Shaggy said. "There's a great diner right near the hotel we can go to. Let me drop off my fursuit in my hotel room first, just so I don't freak out anyone at the diner who might already know about that wolf-like monster."
...
Shaggy was able to do that without any trouble. A little while later at the diner, Shaggy and Scooby were pigging out on burgers and fries while the other three had their own sandwiches. Daphne was look at a copy of the con book she picked up...
"Jeepers," Daphne said. "This con isn't entirely what I expected. Look at some of these panels and events. Dealing with social anxiety, video game tournaments, learn beekeeping, origami lessons, an escape room..."
"Yup," Shaggy replied with a grin. "The Coolsville Fur Con's got it all! Though of course Scoob and I don't do ALL of the panels and events."
"I thought not," Velma said as she glanced at the con book. "Scooby hates bees."
"Ryeah," Scooby said with a shudder. "Rey really hurt!"
"It says here," Velma continued, "the gathering for the fursuit group photo and parade begins at 2:30. And it's 12:39 right now, so once we get back to the hotel we should really crack down on this mystery so that event can go without any problems."
"No sweat," Fred assured the rest of the gang. "We can often get a mystery solved in just 22 minutes!" They all shared a high-five.
...
Back at the hotel, while Scooby-Doo was taking a restroom break, and Velma, Fred and Daphne were speaking with con security about the progress they made on the mystery, Shaggy was making his way back to his hotel room to don his fursuit and become Wacko Wolf again. But on the way, he encountered a slender woman slightly older than him, wearing animal ears and paws. She was wearing a badge with her cat character Fanny illustrated on it. Noticing Shaggy's con badges, she said, "Hey Wacko, where's Scooby?"
"Oh," Shaggy answered, "he's using the bathroom."
"Are you sure?" Fanny asked. "I'm starting to wonder if Scooby really IS a dog and not just someone in a fursuit."
"Are you kidding?" Shaggy replied. "A dog standing upright on two legs and talking being a real dog?" He let out a nervous chuckle. "How could that be?"
"Well," Fanny explained, "I noticed he had that distinct smell that comes with a real dog."
Shaggy chuckled and tried to explain, "Like, he goes all out with the authenticity. Even talks in a dog voice! Ha-ha-ha-ha..."
"I'm just saying," Fanny said, "because if you brought a real dog in here that's not a service or security dog you might get in trouble..."
"Look, I'll prove it to you," Shaggy said as he zipped open his backpack and started rummaging through it. A few seconds later, he pulled out a full-head rubber Scooby-Doo mask. "See?" Shaggy claimed. "Like, I have part of his costume right here!" He opened the bottom of the mask, raised it above himself and tugged it over his head, and then attempted to imitate Scooby's voice. "Reah! Ruh-roh! Rike, ree-HEE-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
Fanny was convinced. "Ah, I see. Sorry for the misunderstanding." She walked off again, to which Shaggy ran back to his hotel room with the Scooby mask still over his head.
...
Back in the hotel room, the real Scooby-Doo managed to get back in without anyone suspecting something or with any run-ins from the skull-faced wolf creature. Shaggy, now wearing the body and footpaws for his Wacko Wolf fursuit, was holding up the Scooby-Doo mask and the body costume and paw gloves that went with it as he was telling Scooby, "Like, it's a good thing I packed this Scooby costume from one of our past mysteries to use to throw people off getting suspicious of your identity, Scoob."
"Roh brother," Scooby said, rolling his eyes and knowing his charade was starting to become a mess.
"Don't worry, Scoob," Shaggy assured him. "We're halfway through the con now, and aside from that freaky zombie wolf monster, things are going pretty well!" He then slipped his wolf fursuit head back on, followed by the paw gloves, and said, "All right, let's meet up with the rest of the gang."
...
Back on the main level, Shaggy/Wacko Wolf and Scooby-Doo were walking around, with Scooby still on his hind legs. Another fursuiter, Talcott Otter, waved to them and Shaggy waved back. Scooby stopped and stared at Talcott's mask for a bit, noticing that it kind of resembled his own face. "Rhuh?" Scooby asked as he gently felt around Talcott's noise. Talcott was doing the same with Scooby's face. Wacko noticed and laughed, "Like, the resemblance is kind of uncanny! Let's go, Scoob." And so Scooby shrugged it off and followed Wacko to find the rest of Mystery Inc.
Sure enough, in the main hotel lobby they noticed Fred yanking the mask off a guy dressed in a lizard partial suit. "Hey, whaddaya think you're doing?!" the guy exclaimed.
"Sorry," Fred said, "unmasking others is kind of my job."
"Well then, why are you even here? I don't see a con badge," the lizard guy asked as he snatched his lizard mask back from Fred.
"We happen to be here to solve a case," Fred explained, "involving that zombie werewolf creature that's been terrorizing the con."
"Duh!" the guy reacted. "This is a furry con. Lots of people are here in fuzzy costumes! Though I will admit that zombie wolf creature does seem suspicious. He could be a vandal trying to sabotage the con or something." He slipped the lizard head back over his own and said, "Well, I'll watch out for him." Then he walked off.
A male hotel clerk dressed in an elegant business suit, his name badge reading "SID," came up to the gang. "What are you kids doing?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, mister... Sid," Fred said, taking a look at the clerk's name badge. "We were called here on a case. Catching bad guys in disguise is a specialty of ours."
"Oh," Sid said. "You mean that scary wolf skull creature. Well, if he's trying to sabotage the convention, I hope he succeeds. I don't like this event going on; it's a strain on the service, and some of the guests may not follow the hotel rules."
Velma pointed out, "Well, do the other hotel employees feel the same way as you do?"
"I never asked," Sid admitted. As he said that, a female hotel clerk walked up, and Sid turned to ask her, "Hey Brea, you don't like these furries, do you?"
"Actually, I don't mind them very much," Brea said. "They seem like a fun bunch, but I do have to agree they need to follow the rules and keep the hotel clean and safe."
"Yeah, but..." Sid started to say, but then he groaned and exclaimed, "Oh, never mind!" He walked off fuming while Brea followed with a smile on her face.
"Hmm," Daphne said. "We've got ourselves a potential suspect. Now what?"
"Come check out the video game room," Shaggy/Wacko told his friends. "Like, it's so cool!"
...
On the way to the video game room, Daphne stopped and noticed something on the floor. "Hey, look what I found!" She leaned down and picked up a white resin fang.
"A clue!" Velma exclaimed.
"Ewww," Daphne said as she dropped it in Velma's hands. "It feels slimy!"
Velma examined the fang more closely. "Jinkies!" she realized. "This resin fang is covered in fake saliva. And I clearly remember our monster drooling a bit and being the only one here to do so."
But then the zombie wolf creature approached from behind them and roared, causing the gang to all let out a frightened yell and start running for it. They chased through the hallway, and then up some stairs to the level where the panel rooms were. Soon the creature supposedly lost sight of them, but as he walked down the hall keeping an eye out for them, Shaggy poked out of one of the open panel room doors with his fursuit head off, grabbing the creature's hand.
"Like, are you here for the 'How to Ruin a Furry Con' panel?" Shaggy asked. "You're just in time!" He dragged the werewolf into the empty panel room and seated him in one of the chairs, then joined Scooby at the front of the room with a presentation board reading "HOW TO RUIN A FURRY CON." Shaggy cleared his throat and started, "Hello, and welcome to our panel on how to ruin a furry convention! I see there's only one attendant, but that's fine, as it means less conventions to ruin!" He and Scooby laughed together.
The monster let out a low animal growl. He wasn't that amused.
Then Shaggy flipped a page on the presentation board to reveal a drawing of the skeletal-faced zombie wolf creature and explained, "Like, one good way to ruin a furry convention is to devise a scary creature of some sort to scare everyone away!"
The zombie wolf creature snarled, not enjoying being made fun of here.
"And you can also make a mess, like this!" Shaggy continued as he grabbed his Wacko Wolf mask in one arm, and then with his left footpaw, he and Scooby knocked over the folding table and presentation board, and then ran off.
The creature leaped up, knocking over a few chairs in the process, and let out another roar, running out of the room to pursue the two.
But Shaggy and Scooby were quicker, and they met up with Fred, Daphne and Velma at the bottom of the stairwell to the main level.
"Good work, guys," Fred told them. "And now it's time to come up with a plan!"
"Let me guess," Shaggy unenthusiastically said, "Scoob and I are the bait."
"Somewhat," Fred said, "but you two can just go around and have fun at the con before luring him into our trap. In a way, at this con it seems almost all the furries here are possible bait, and since one of the furries is a close friend of mine, i.e. you, Shaggy, a.k.a. 'Wacko Wolf,' it's just about perfect!"
Shaggy chuckled, feeling a bit at ease, and said, "Well, like, when you put it that way, Fred..." He put on his Wacko Wolf head again and told his dog, "Come on, Scoob, for once it'll be fun being the bait!"
"Ri guess so..." Scooby admitted.
...
A short while later, Shaggy/Wacko and Scooby-Doo were talking with another fursuiter friend of theirs, Cyan Glaciertooth, a large icy blue feline wearing a Polar Wildcats shirt. "Like, it's great we got to finally meet you, Cyan," Wacko was saying.
"Thanks," Cyan replied. "I heard of your mystery-solving team, but I never would've suspected that one of the members was also in the fandom. And don't worry, Scooby, your secret is safe with me." He leaned over and hugged Scooby.
"Raww, thanks," Scooby said as he blushed a bit.
"Well," Cyan said, "I'd better head off and get ready for the fursuit group photo gathering in an hour and..."
But the zombie wolf monster leaped at them and let out a terrifying snarl.
"Please excuse us!" Shaggy/Wacko told Cyan, and then he and Scooby ran off, with the monster pursuing them.
"I guess this is where they finally trap the monster," Cyan noted.
Sure enough, they chase led them towards a trap Fred had set up in the main lobby, using a springboard he kept in the Mystery Machine and some foam novelty pool noodles tied up in circles ahead of the springboard and suspended in the air from spare sign stands, all of which the con staff let Fred borrow. Shaggy and Scooby saw it up ahead and shifted towards the sides of the trap so they wouldn't set it off.
Fred stepped out and announced, "Here goes!"
And indeed, the creature stepped on the springboard with his big footpaws, sending him soaring right into the noodle loops, to which he collapsed on the ground as the springs suspending the loops snapped.
"YES!" Shaggy cheered. "We did it!"
"Scooby-dooooo!" Scooby howled.
Other people at the con, furries and con staff members alike, ran up cheering as well.
"I love it when a trap comes together," Fred said, giving a thumbs-up. "And now the moment I've been waiting for: unmasking the monster!" He walked over to the front of the trapped creature and yanked his mask off, revealing the head of Santino underneath.
"Santino?!" the Mystery Inc. gang and some other furries all exclaimed in unison.
"But, like," Shaggy/Wacko said, "I thought he DIDN'T fursuit!"
"Why did you do it?" Daphne asked Santino as she and a few con security officials looked right at him.
"All right!" Santino began. "I was mad that they rejected my con panel; 'Furry horror creatures.' I've also submitted it at other previous furry cons, and they all rejected it as well. Even when one con had a horror theme to it! Then when I heard Coolsville was starting up its' first furry convention, I registered and thought they'd accept my panel, but they didn't."
"Gosh," one con official said. "We're sorry; we didn't realize that. We were getting so many panel submissions we didn't have room for it."
Santino continued, "And I figured if the Coolsville Fur Con wasn't good enough to accept my panel submission, then it shouldn't survive to happen next year! So, I designed and came up with this creature, a zombie werewolf of sorts with a canine skull for a face, as I thought a regular werewolf would be too ordinary and predictable."
"Now where have I heard that before?" Velma said, pretending to think.
"I thought vandalizing and terrorizing the convention as a scary anonymous creature would convince people not to come back the following year, because if I can't have fun here, nobody can!" Santino explained. "And I would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for that meddling Wacko Wolf and Scooby-Doo hiring you kids!"
Shaggy/Wacko and Scooby looked at each other, and then they folded their arms and nodded in unison.
"Well," Fred told Santino, "even though I'm not a furry, Daphne and Velma and I fully support Shaggy, er, Wacko's interests and hobbies like this. We all feel great when he and Scooby are having fun."
"Raww shucks!" Scooby said, blushing.
"Double shucks," Shaggy/Wacko chuckled.
One of the con officials grabbed Santino's right arm and said, "I think it's time for us to have a talk about this, Santino." He started dragging him to the con office.
Shaggy "tsk-tsk"ed from behind his Wacko Wolf mask and said, "It's always the one we least suspect..."
...
A while later, Shaggy in his Wacko Wolf getup was talking with Fred, Daphne and Velma not too far from the hotel's ballroom entrance. "Like, I'm so glad you guys were able to help save the con," he was saying. "I was hoping for a weekend with no mysteries, but in this case, what happened was even better than that!"
Fred, Velma and Daphne all beamed. "I'm glad we could help," Fred said.
"And," Shaggy/Wacko added, "the con officials didn't even mind us telling them that Scooby-Doo is a real dog who was just pretending to be a fursuiter, and they allowed him here for the rest of the con as a special exception and thanks for helping solve the mystery!"
"I'm so glad things are working out great for you and Scooby," Daphne said.
"Anyways," Shaggy/Wacko continued, "I have to get ready to get in line for the fursuit group photo and parade soon. You three gonna find spots to watch the parade?"
"Of course," Velma said, and then noticed something. "But what about Scooby-Doo?" she asked.
"Oh, he's joining me for this," Shaggy/Wacko said. "He found a fursuit to wear after all!"
Daphne raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is he wearing that silly costume of himself you brought along to throw off suspicious people?"
"Uh, not exactly..." Shaggy said as he put his Wacko Wolf mask back on.
Sure enough, the zombie-werewolf creature approached the gang and let out a very familiar snarl. He had Scooby's con badges on as well.
"I should've known," Fred chuckled to himself.
And with that, the wolf-like creature removed his mask to reveal Scooby-Doo's head underneath. "Rurprise!" he grinned. "Ee-HEE-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
"Like I've often said," Velma said with a grin, "what a ham!"
They all had a good laugh together, and then Scooby said, "Scooby-dooby-dooooooo!" and gave Shaggy/Wacko Wolf a big hug.
END