FRIDAY NIGHT PARTY Gunge vote 3 - Susi vs Scani - result

Written by Iron-K

The sound of the small portable TV in the corner of the dressing room was suddenly interrupted by three sharp raps at the door. After a couple of seconds, the handle turned and a small, tubby, slightly frazzled-looking yellow-furred rabbit girl pushed the door open, looking around it into the dressing room and looking into the eye of the black and red avian who had half-jumped out of his seat at the sound of the knock.

"Mister... Susi and mister Scani?" she asked, glancing down at the bundle of papers in her hand and then leaning further around the door to see the gray wolf seated on the couch behind the avian.

"Er... yes?" the gryphon answered hesitantly, still hovering halfway between standing and sitting.

"Good..." The bunny kept on distractedly glancing down at her notes as she spoke. "They've gone to a commercial, so we'll get you into the studio now - follow me, please."

She opened the door all the way and stepped aside briskly, only half paying attention to the guests as they got up, sharing slightly nervous smiles with each other before they stepped out into the corridor with her. Both of them were wearing shirts and suit trousers, with their fur or feathers brushed and dusted in readiness for the studio lights. As soon as Scani had closed the door behind him, she bustled away down the corridor, a couple of pages from her notes fluttering out behind her as she dropped her hand to her side.

"Here..." Susi ducked down to retrieve the floating pieces of paper as he and the gryphon hurried to catch up with her, and offered the sheets as he skipped alongside her. Distractedly, she took them without acknowledging him, turning a corner to a more dimly-lit section of the corridor, then she stopped abruptly next to a door with an "ON AIR" sign lit up in yellow above it.

The rabbit girl put one hand out on to the door, and reached the other one up to her left ear to pull it down and talk into the receiver clipped to its side. "OK to bring them in...?" she asked, and paused as she listened to the voice on the other end. At the pause, Susi nudged the avian next to him and leaned closer.

"We're about to be on...!" he whispered, the white teeth of his grin showing up in the dim light around them. Scani nodded, clenching his beak and tapping both his feet as he looked down at the back of the rabbit girl's head.

Suddenly, she nodded, brushed her hand over her head as she let go of her ear and turned to look up at them both again. "Okay," she started, feeling behind her for the handle of the large door, "If you just step inside and wait at the side, he'll announce you - just walk on and he'll take it from there."

She tugged the door open and shooed them both through. Scani tensed his shoulders, walking through into the darkened studio and listening to the murmur of the audience stands to the right as the wolf put a reassuring hand on to his back.

They were at the side of the set erected in the studio, a few support struts visible around the curved edge of its back. Just visible next to the far side of the stage, the navy-feathered host of Friday Night Party was visible at his desk, exchanging a few hurried words with a stagehand before he dashed around the back of the set. After watching him go, the navy-feathered avian turned, leaned over the front of his desk and put his hand to his temple in acknowledgment before turning back to the audience.

"There he is..." Scani jumped again at another nudge from the wolf, then turned to face Susi's smile. "Another avian! He'll either be really nice to you, or really mean, I bet!"

"I'd prefer nice..." the gryphon mumbled, looking over at the face he'd only previously seen on-screen as the host glanced down and straightened his tie. As they watched, he put both hands up in front of him and waved them upwards, smiling as he encouraged the audience into applause for coming back from the commercial break.

"Okay!" he called above them. "We've got a couple of unusual guests on this week - and I don't mean any offence by that," he said as he suddenly leaned over towards them, holding one hand up. "They're a couple of viewers who we wanted to invite on for reasons that will become clear very shortly..." A laugh crept into his voice at the end of the sentence, and he paused to clear his throat. "Excuse me... for now, please just give them a big welcome - Susi and Scani, everyone!"

Susi blushed a little under his cheek fur as his name was mentioned, and smiled nervously out towards the darkened stands, waving in response to the cheering. As he saw Rossi getting up from his chair behind the famous desk, beckoning the two of them onwards, he hurried forwards to join Scani as he dazedly moved up into the lights trained on the stage.

He almost stumbled as his nervousness came back for a moment, half-listening to the sound of the applause and looking up into Rossi's smile as he shook the gryphon's hand in front of him. He glanced around again as he stepped forwards - the Friday Night Party set was done up for a Halloween episode, with giant cobweb decorations strewn over the front of Rossi's desk and the panels of the backdrop behind it. Beside him, the red interview couch had green ectoplasmic "splat" marks made out of plastic on its seat and back. He jumped as Rossi moved to him for a handshake, and looked into his face for a moment before he stepped away.

"Come on in, take a seat..." The navy-feathered avian took a couple of steps backwards around his L-shaped desk, his right hand still outstretched towards the splattered couch. Susi was the first to move, taking the side closer to Rossi's desk and shifting himself to avoid sitting on one of the green plastic marks as Scani sat down next to him, folding his hands together on his lap. Rossi ran his hands down the lapels of his gray suit before stepping back to his chair and seating himself, drawing it over to face the two guests as the applause died down.

"Welcome to our Halloween party, both of you," he started as the two of them settled into their seats. "Sorry about the sofa, our... last guest didn't have a handkerchief..." He grimaced a little as he said the line, nodding at a couple of smiles and nervous laughs from the guests. "Like what we've done with the place?"

He leaned forwards and hooked a couple of fingers under the string cobwebs on the desk, tugging them up before allowing them to snap back. Susi picked at his shirt, feeling the hot studio lights on his fur as he struggled for a response.

"Uh, yeah!" he started, then smiled as something came to him. "Cleaning crew went on strike, eh?" His racing heart slowed a little as there was a small murmur of laughter from the audience.

"It's, er, very homely..." the gryphon next to him added, turning towards the back of the set as he looked around.

Rossi smiled along with the audience. "Yeah, that's better than the last guest I had on - she said they suited me! Now..." He glanced down for a moment. "I wanted to get this out of the way just before we get down to business here... I don't know if you've been watching from your dressing room, but for each of our guests, I've been bringing out a Halloween-related product that the crew have given me - so here's yours. I think this one's got to be my least favourite of the lot..."

His words trailed off into mumbling as he ducked fully below his desk, and the two guests craned their necks to watch as he turned his head from side to side. After a moment, he emerged, combing over his large fluffed white hair with one hand as he rose up and leaned forwards, holding an orange plastic thing up by its handle with the other.

"Can you guess what this... thing is?" he asked them as he held it out towards them. It was a cheaply made round plastic gourd, with a bulb visible inside through the carved face complete with cut-out goatee. On its top, it appeared to be wearing a baseball cap back to front.

"It's, uhh..." Susi raised an eyebrow at it.

"It's frightening, I can tell you that..." Scani said during the pause, leaning forwards as he looked into its face.

"A rapper-o-lantern?" Susi shrugged, then widened his eyes as Rossi pointed straight at him.

"It is!" he announced. "Yes...!" he added, nodding as a smattering of applause came up. "Actually, that's even better than the name they gave me for it - it's a rapping pumpkin."

"Hah, seriously?" the wolf said back, beginning to forget his nerves as he watched Rossi wind something on the pumpkin's back. "Not one of those motion-sensing things...?" He glanced beside him, where the avian was wearing an apprehensive look.

"No, really..." the host said as he placed it ceremoniously down on the desk, then tipped it forwards, examining its back as he put a finger on its switch. "I don't really want to start it seeing as it's my show and all, but they told me I had to - listen..." He dropped it down again, and held both hands out beside the awful thing as it burst into a tinny drum rhythm, the bulb inside glowing on and off to the beat. As Susi fell against the backrest of the couch with a cackle, a couple of whoops came up from the audience, a group beginning to clap along before giving up.

"Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse than the singing fish..." the wolf said as he looked at the thing producing the noise.

"Oh, this thing beats any singing fish, I didn't think they could get any worse..." Rossi started. The audience reaction was suddenly renewed as the pumpkin's baseball cap began to bob up and down as well, making Susi double over in laughter.

"Tell me truthfully, because I know you're from another generation and everything..." the host turned to the avian, who inched back on the sofa away from it. "Would you seriously have this thing on your doorstep or... anywhere near your house at the end of the month?"

"Never in a million years," Scani spoke up, smiling as he shook his head in disbelief at it, his shoulders shaking a little as well as he looked to the helplessly laughing wolf.

"No, I wouldn't either - which is why I've come prepared with another product of my own..."

Rossi reached under his desk again and produced a large wooden mallet, which he held up to the audience, turning to them and grinning at the cheering reaction. He dunted it on the desk to adjust his grip, then raised it up to bring it down sharply on top of the baseball cap. With a sickening, hilarious crunch of thin plastic, the top of the pumpkin caved in, the music and light abruptly cutting out as plastic shards flew up into the air. With a satisfied smile, Rossi pulled the mallet out of the remains and turned it to face the audience, the twisted face grinning lopsidedly.

He got up from his chair for a second, leaning over to see the pumpkin's new visage as the two guests enthusiastically joined in the laughter and applause for its demise. "I think that's an improvement, if you ask me..." he said as he seated himself facing the guests again, shoving it aside with the back of his hand.

"I definitely agree!" nodded the wolf. "So does the mallet come as an... expansion kit for the pumpkin or is it sold by a rival company?"

"'Expansion kit?' the gryphon beside him repeated, with a raised eyebrow and smirk.

"Well... compression kit, I don't know..." He giggled to himself again, his nerves all but gone.

"No, this one's by me..." Rossi held up the mallet again and turned to the camera. "Just $15.99 with a self-addressed envelope for the solution to all your noise and decoration problems..." Pointing at the wolf, he threw the mallet under the desk with a clunk. "But I like your marketing style - we'll talk later on. For now - what?"

He glanced out at the camera crew in front of him, then pointed above his forehead, mimicking a gesture by one of them. Patting his head, he smiled as he found what they'd been trying to indicate, and pulled a piece of bright orange plastic off his hair.

"They could have told me earlier...!" he said, shaking his head and running his hand back over it again as he threw the plastic shard behind him. "For now, let's move on to the real reason you're here - you both wrote to us, volunteering the last guests we had on to go up for our vote. But we found out... quite by coincidence... that you're not strangers to doing that to other people yourselves, are you...?"

The gryphon had just leaned back on the sofa and begun to look relaxed, but suddenly jumped and tensed at the new direction of the conversation. He opened his mouth, but the wolf spoke first with a snort of surprise.

"Eh, no, I guess I'm not..." he started.

"No, Susi, you're definitely not!" the gryphon beside him agreed with an enthusiastic nod.

Susi grinned back at the avian, noticing his careful word choice. "How did you find out about my, er... our exploits?" he asked Rossi.

"Well, when we first looked up your name, we were very interested in your website for Splat Attack, the stage show that you do..." the host replied, then pointed out to the camera monitors. "And for the audience, here's a video from its last performance, which you two can watch over there..."

The wolf turned sharply, obviously surprised, as the view changed to show him drizzling a bucket of slime over a cringing otter kneeling in a blowup pool. As the stuff slumped down over the otter's face, he raised both of his arms up to the cheering of the audience in front of the stage, and the view froze on a closeup of his wide grin.

"Very impressive," Rossi remarked with a half-grin, half-grimace as his own audience gave a similar mixed reaction of cheers and groans.

"Yeah, I remember that game!" Susi nodded as he turned back to him. "That fellow was loving it to pieces... but... somebody's been holding out on me, I didn't know there was any video!" He turned to the gryphon beside him for the first time since seeing the clip, and froze as he saw his nervous expression.

"Uh..." Scani's beak cracked open into a smile as he glanced over at the other avian, who was grinning at the rising laugh from the audience.

"Wait, you took that?" the wolf asked him, and watched as he leaned back on to the sofa again, smiling at the ceiling to avoid his gaze.

"Yeah, I... snuck a camcorder in..." he said with an anxious laugh. "I figured it was the best way to capture you in your element... I never thought Rossi would get his hands on it, though!"

"You've been holding out on me...!" Susi teased, poking at his side. Rossi smirked, his face propped in his hands as he put his elbows on his desk, allowing the two guests to carry the conversation.

"I think we've revealed more secrets than we intended to tonight!" he started as they both turned back to him. "When we - " He stopped abruptly as there was an unearthly moaning noise from beside him, and with a shocked look, he turned towards the ruins of the pumpkin beside him as the bulb glowed again weakly, a distorted slow version of the rhythm and voice continuing. He leaned over, brought it down sharply on the desk and then threw it to the floor under his chair.

"So, where were we..." he started again. "Scani, you've been involved with the setup of this show as well?"

"Promotional work and, er... playtesting, yeah," the avian nodded.

"He's a great publicist, really," the wolf added. "I give him a hard time, but he really did a wonderful job. We've been trying to get the show ready for a second run together..."

Rossi nodded. "Good! Well, as you're both so good at getting other people slightly messy, we thought we would take our chance to turn the tables here tonight..."

The gryphon's beak fell open, as Susi clapped a hand on his knee, grinning as the host confirmed what he'd been expecting from the start.

"I love that reaction moment, don't you?" Rossi said aside to the audience, then turned and called to the back of the stage. "Come on, let's stop stalling - bring it out!"

The large panel at the back of the set moved aside as the studio lights swung to focus on the gap being revealed, and to an organ-led version of the show's theme music, the gunge tank platform moved out from behind the stage area. The place where the booth usually stood was covered by a giant gray cloth with an attempt at a ghostly face sprayed on to the front, with wrought-iron chairs placed on either side of it.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me..." Scani mumbled and cringed back in his seat as the imposing arrangement made its way towards them.

"I'm gonna make sure you end up in there!" The wolf beside him nudged him in the ribs again as the platform stopped, the cloth billowing out to the front before falling back.

"Not a chance..." He chuckled anxiously as the avian opposite them got up from his desk, stepping around its corner with a wide smile.

"If you'd like to come up and take your seats...!" He gestured towards the black chairs on either side of the covered tank, and put his hands on the guests' backs as they hesitantly got up from the couch and made their way towards the seats on either side of it.

"Okay..." he began as Scani took his seat on the left hand side, and Susi sat opposite him, looking the gray cloth up and down. Rossi stepped back from the arrangement and pointed dramatically at the ghost face on the front of it.

"The cover is pathetic - that's not a good start," he announced. "But hopefully they've saved their effort for what's underneath..." He spoke to the audience over his shoulder as he reached behind him for a string being lowered from somewhere in the lighting rack. "Now, you might not think there's much point in covering this if you've seen the show before, but we've got something special as it's Halloween..."

The wolf's ears perked at the announcement, then flattened as he glanced above him for a second. The gryphon opposite him cringed down, wringing his hands in his lap and reaching down to the bottom of the cover, then he quickly leaned away as the cover twitched upwards. Rossi tugged the string down, feeding it hand over hand and winching the cover up away from the stage. As the top of the tank was revealed, a laugh came up from the audience behind him as the lights swung towards the giant prop pumpkin looming above it, an obvious nozzle jutting down from its base - the wolf stared up at it as the gryphon shuddered once more.

"Wow, it actually looks like one..." Rossi looked up at it, sounding genuinely impressed at the stage crew's efforts this time.

"Doesn't rap, either," Scani added quickly.

"No! That's always in its favour, it looks more... grunge," he said, then stopped the audience's response with a wave of his hand. "Yeah, I wish I knew what I was talking about as well... let me just explain what's going to happen here, for the benefit of any thick audience members..."

He stepped forward to open the tank, then turned and spread his arms out to the sides. "Each of these two gentlemen is up for the vote. The one with the most votes from the audience is going to be our winner, although perhaps not in the traditional sense..." He spun again and slapped the bench-like seat underneath the overhead nozzle. "Because they're going to have to sit in here, we're going to pull that lever, and they're going to get covered in our pumpkin-flavoured gunge." He indicated to the side of the platform at the switch, chuckling at the nervous whimpers from his two guests. Closing the booth behind him, he stepped down from the platform. "And it looks like it's got a fair capacity on it..." he remarked as he glanced back over his shoulder.

"Wait, don't we get a chance to defend ourselves?" the wolf called from behind him. "You know, petition for why Scani should get it?" he grinned.

"Hey," came the reply from the other side, "You were the one flipping the buckets, wolf...!"

Rossi wagged a finger at them as they continued, then turned back towards the viewers. "If you're at home, I'm afraid you don't get a vote this time because we're not going out live... so it's up to our studio audience. Audience, reach under your seats and you'll find a remote each that we stole from the game show in the next studio... hit the button for Susi or Scani!"

The lights above the audience pulsed slowly as they stooped down to retrieve their pads. The gryphon on the left of the tank looked out at them, crossing his fingers and pointing them towards Susi once or twice as he watched the first couple of rows press their buttons and return them to under the seats. Eventually, a sudden chord sting interrupted them.

"That's it! It's over, put them down..." Rossi stepped backwards towards the tank platform as the two guests looked back to him. "Just before we give you the total score, you two might have noticed that we've also brought a few of your friends along - stand up, pre-arranged friends!"

At the call to the audience, a few figures and groups dotted around got to their feet, cheering as they were spotlit from above. The wolf and gryphon exchanged another glance, then cringes or grins of acknowledgment as they recognized the faces.

"So let's see how your friends voted..." Rossi indicated towards a camera monitor again, and the two of them quickly looked towards it as the bars counting up the votes were overlaid on the tank and began to fill one by one. The wolf cringed, glancing back up to the pumpkin as his bar shot up into the lead at first, with the gryphon opposite him calling something as he leaned forwards, cheering Susi's bar on. As it neared the top, his own bar began to crawl upwards again, and he clutched the sides of his seat anxiously as he watched it rise to almost equal once more.

"We've got one more to go, with the standings at 11-10 to Susi..." Rossi announced. Scani put his hands up to grip his beak as Susi leaned forward and stared intently at the screen, then with a final blip, Scani's bar drew level with his own, neither of them at the top.

"We have a tie!" Rossi nodded at the cheering from the audience and paced back to the tank.

"I'm almost glad my boyfriend had another commitment tonight..." Scani said as he approached, still shuffling his feet on the floor.

"So, do we get a tie-breaker?" the wolf asked eagerly.

"Well, I've... never been in the position of having a tie before - we can break it with what the rest of the audience thought." He put his hand to his earpiece and called into it. "What was the vote from the rest of the audience...?" He paused, and started repeating what was being said back to the audience. "After eight hundred and ninety-seven votes... which is rather more than we have in the audience... I'm being told that it's near enough as makes no difference as well...!"

"You're kidding!" Susi reacted, bouncing in his seat. "897 votes and it's still a tie?"

"I don't know, you wouldn't believe how corrupt our voting system is," Rossi improvised.

Scani joined in from the other side of the tank. "No, how can you have a tie with an odd number of votes?"

"That's right!" the wolf agreed. Rossi froze in place, then looked over his shoulder towards the audience, pointing over at the gryphon.

"That... is a very good point," he said, then raised his finger to his earpiece. "Come on, save me here - who actually got the most votes?"

He stood in place, tapping his foot as he waited for a response. Gripping the arms of the seat tighter than ever, Scani looked through the tank at Susi as they waited.

"Susi had the most votes," the avian in front of them confirmed, nodding and turning to the wolf. The wolf's jaw dropped as the gryphon breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"But... it was supposed to be his defeat!" he stuttered above the cheering of the audience, pointing over at the pleased-looking gryphon as he slowly and shakily stood up.

"It is my defeat - I got the least votes!" Scani answered him with a grin. "Democracy is wonderful..."

"Come on, you asked for this," Rossi smiled as he took the wolf's hand, leading him up to the middle around the open door of the tank. "Would you like to share any condolences, Scani?"

"He's going to pay for my cleaning bill," the wolf smirked.

"Nobody said that you had to keep the clothes," Scani shot back, and grinned wider as there was a roar from the audience.

Rossi quickly turned round and waved them down, but not without his shoulders shaking in a laugh. "No, I'm afraid those are staying on - like the crew keep telling me, we do want something that we can actually broadcast..."

He budged the wolf into the tank, and the canine grudgingly dumped himself down on to the seat underneath the nozzle of the gigantic pumpkin. "But just before this happens..." he continued, leaning on the open door of the tank, "Scani, I think you're going to disappoint... well, at least eleven people watching this, if you stay out of there..."

Susi grinned savagely at the announcement. "And you wouldn't want to do that, would you?" he joined in as the gryphon's face instantly fell into nervousness once more. Rossi held out his hand, a chant for Scani going up from the front row of the audience. "Come on, there's room on my lap," the wolf continued to encourage him, then pointed out towards the audience. "And like you just said, democracy is wonderful!"

"Mmrf..." Scani mumbled through his beak.

"I think they know what they want to see, Scani..." Rossi said to him, keeping one hand on the door of the tank but swinging himself around to push the gryphon gently forwards.

"I think they do, too..." he agreed, then sagged. "All right, get comfy, Susi - gryphon coming in!"

The audience erupted into another cheer as the gryphon stepped over the threshhold of the tank and into the cramped cubicle. Gently, he seated himself on the wolf's lap, looking out at the people cheering for them and then around at the perspex walls surrounding them as Rossi clunked the door closed in front of them.

"This is what you get for keeping that video secret from me!" the wolf grinned from underneath Scani, budging him up with one knee.

"You never thought this was going to end up any other way, did you?" Rossi called as he moved to the lever, watching the two guests squirm with nervous anticipation. "I think it looks like they're both ready, so Susi and Scani... happy Halloween."

He wrenched the lever towards him, and the studio lights dimmed to leave the tank spotlit. The gryphon buried his face in his hands, slipping his hands down to his beak as the familiar alarm noise blared and the wolf whimpered behind him. A rich squelching noise played over the alarm as the nozzle above them burst open, spewing a cascade of thick orange-brown slime down which burst over the gryphon's head and splattered behind him into the wolf's face.

"Euuugh!" Scani yelped as the gloppy substance rolled down the sides of his head, hiding the top half of his face and leaving only his beak visible as the goo spilled down on to his shoulders and crawled down both sides of his shirt. Behind him, the wolf turned his face away briefly with a grin as the gunk rebounded out from the gryphon's back and slathered his face and chest, the thick mixture painting the back wall of the tank in a messy arc behind him. An air pocket bubbled out of the nozzle, making the flow twitch towards him, the orange gunge doming off his head for a moment before his smiling face was revealed again. Feeling in front of him, he theatrically grabbed the gryphon's wings and pulled them over his head.

Scani let out a squawk as his wings were tugged, and shaking his head to dislodge strings of the still pouring gunge from his feathers, felt behind him to smear more of the stuff over the wolf. Ducking down, the wolf's shoulders shook in laughter, before he yelped as the foam sprayers underneath them started up, spraying out a thick green mess onto his feet and then rapidly beginning to fill up the tank. The gryphon twitched, wriggling out of the gunge flow and letting it pour on to his shoulder, looking down with his beak open but speechless as the foam crept up his legs to spill into his lap. Above them, the orange downpour spluttered and drizzled, becoming a rain of heavy splats from the edges of the nozzle.

Susi, unrecognizable under a mass of lumpy orange stuff, raised his hand up and gripped the gryphon's shoulder, leaving finger marks in the thick slime sitting on his feathers as he slipped his hand down his back. As Scani bowed his head away from the blobs sputtering downwards, he dragged his wings inwards across the wolf, then gasped as four more sprayers just below the pumpkin at the sides of the tank started up, spraying out stickier green and yellow goo in streams that pulsed in and outwards across them. He hunched his shoulders up and squeaked at the unexpected new feeling, wriggling up against Susi's chest as the streams rotated over him, a long string of green goo dripping down off the tip of his messy beak.

The wolf took his arms off the gryphon and stretched them out to the sides, pressing against the walls of the gunge tank and watching as curtains of the sticky goo slipped down off his fur at either side. The alarm blared once more, leaving only the cheering of the watchers as the drizzles over their shoulders and heads subsided, leaving only a rain of colorful drips sputtering down from the corners and middle nozzle above them. As Scani turned his arms over, letting the gunge slip down from them, he bowed his head down and tentatively blinked his eyes open, looking down at the mess of the little of him still visible above the foam.

Rossi stepped forwards again as the lights came up, applauding and not disguising his laughter at the scene of the gunge-stained tank and the covered guests inside it. He stood at its near corner as he watched the wolf and gryphon run their hands over themselves, then leapt back as piles of the still-rising green foam bubbled over the door with their movement.

"Aaagh..." Susi was the first to speak as he dragged the gunge away from his eyes. "This stuff is unbelievable!" He looked up at the strings of sticky green slime stretching a little between him and Scani's back.

"You mean you want the recipe...?" Scani asked as he ran his hands over his bowed head, trying to clean himself off but only getting more foam on to himself. He shuddered, then looked out at the audience, turning his head to find Rossi.

"It looks... yes, 'unbelievable' just about does it!" he grinned back. Look at this, they've put... seeds in it and everything!" He stepped forwards and leaned in to pick one of the tear-shaped wooden cutouts off the gryphon's head, wiping the gunk away and then holding it up to the audience.

"Is it real pumpkin goop?" the wolf asked, ducking down to sniff at himself. He yelped as Scani flapped his wings a little, smooshing more of the goop into his face.

"It's, um..." Rossi brought the seed to his beak and then away again. "God knows where they got it from, I'm just happy to stay out of there!" He yelped as a splash from the booth sent a wave of the gunk flying up and splattering on his back, and skipped forwards as he hunched over, turning around.

"Sorry you had to end the evening a little less clean than when you came in, you two..." he said to the orange and green blobs inside the gunge tank, reaching up behind him to wipe at the back of his suit. "Have you enjoyed yourselves anyway?"

"Yeah, that was something else," the wolf smiled as he pursed his lips and spat a blob of orange gunk away from them.

"I don't think I'll soon forget this!" Scani nodded, holding his dripping hands out in front of himself. He closed his eyes again as splats of the pumpkin gunk continued to squelch down from the nozzle, slipping down from his head to cover his face.

"I... don't think I will, either," Rossi laughed. "Okay, we're going to send you off to get cleaned up now, and bring on our next guest, who I'm told is looking very relieved that we've got this section out of the way..."

As he spoke, Susi scooped a large heap of the stuff up from his chest and smooshed it into the gryphon's face, who squawked and leaned away, then twisted around to splat his foam and gunk-covered hands on to the wolf's head.

"We'll leave them to it, I think..." he said as he turned away from the ongoing gunge fight, kicking at the splatter of orange stuff that had sprayed out on to the set floor and raising his hand as the tank platform was slowly carried backwards. "Susi and Scani, everyone!"