FRIDAY NIGHT PARTY Gunge vote 4 - Tawna vs Coco - RESULT

Written by Iron-K

"Now," Rossi cleared his throat and addressed the audience as the applause for his last two guests died down, turning away from the two squirrels on the red interview couch opposite him and leaning on his desk as he made to get up. "Gemini are going to be playing us out tonight - like I said, they're at number 1 just now and we hope for you both that you stay there over Christmas..." He glanced at their smiles of acknowledgment. "But before that, our last point of order tonight is the gunge vote..."

"Oh, not us...!" the black squirrel gasped, his eyes widening slightly as he pointed at himself, clapping his other hand on the other's shoulder. His white bandmate laughed at his reaction, putting one arm around him and shaking his head.

Rossi flashed a smile over at them both. "No, you two are perfectly safe - I love that moment of realization, though... I should try saying that for everyone just to see their faces!" The dark squirrel grinned back embarrassedly, catching the other's arm as he theatrically rubbed up and down his back. "No, we've got two special guests who might end up in the booth this evening, and I think our audience might have fond memories of both of them..." He got up fully and slid out from behind the desk, taking a couple of steps into the clear area on the set behind them. "So please give a huge welcome to Coco and Tawna!"

He raised his voice above the noise from the audience as he finished, raising a hand up towards the back of the set as the large red panel behind him slid aside to reveal the ornate phonebooth-like contraption. The cheering intensified as a pair of lights on the overhead rack swung back to show the two guests seated on either side of it, following the slow movement of the platform beneath them as it moved forwards on to the stage.

In the chair on the right was a tall, shapely reddish-brown-furred marsupial, wearing a pink figure-hugging top and shorts. She greeted the audience with a pose, stretching up to put one hand behind her voluminous blonde hair. Opposite her was another bandicoot girl a few years younger than her with slightly lighter fur and hair, wearing a pair of jeans and a sports top that left her midriff bare. As the platform came to a halt at the back area of the set, she smiled nervously, grasping the arms of her seat and budging herself to sit up straighter as she skimmed her feet slightly back and forth on the floor.

The two of them giggled as Rossi mimed being blown back a couple of paces by the noise from the audience. "They're enthusiastic tonight, aren't they?" he said, rubbing the side of his head, and they both nodded. "I don't know whether it's for both of you, or at the thought of getting either of you in there," - he pointed to the booth in between them - "but we'll find out..."

He stepped towards the girl on the right, and put one foot up on the six inch high platform, bending the knee of his back leg a little as he held one hand out. The attractive blonde sighed with a smile, folding her arms and turning her head to one side as she crossed her legs.

"Tawna, it's been a while since we first saw you, but you're looking as lovely as ever," he started, then turned to the tittering from the studio audience. "What, is this too much?" he asked, gesticulating downwards as he straightened up again. "I wanted to get a rose to hold in my beak as well, but they couldn't find me one in time..."

"There's such a thing as trying too hard!" the girl he had been addressing called with a laugh. Smiling back at her, he stepped up to stand beside her seat on the platform.

"This... gorgeous creature is Tawna, and I'm sure that a lot of you remember her from... possibly an impressionable time in your lives..." he began, nodding as a few wolf-whistles came up from corners of the audience. "Yes, I know I do - when I first saw her I couldn't have been a day over..." He trailed off into muttering rather than admitting to a number, and then broke through the laughter of the watchers again. "Tawna, I've got to say personally, it's wonderful to meet you at last, even if it has to be under these circumstances..."

"Oh, thanks," she responded with a roll of her eyes. "You're going to make sure that she goes in, aren't you?" she asked, pointing through the booth to the younger girl watching them.

"Absolutely, yes, we're going to keep you nice and clean," he answered with a smirk, then glanced through the booth to the other girl, whose eyes widened as she put her hands on her hips. "Let me just go and have a word with her..."

He stepped around the front of the booth and walked up to the other seat, where the shorter bandicoot girl was glancing between him and the seat next to her inside the tank. "Coco, you're into the mechanical side of things - ever seen anything like this before?"

"No," she laughed, raising her eyes to the mechanism just visible on its ceiling as she shook her head, and distractedly brought a hand up to pat at the pink flower in her hair.

"I know, it's quite something up close - but like I said over there, we're going to make sure that we gunge her and keep you clean..."

Coco snickered at his sudden change of heart, clapping her hands together as she leaned back. "Can you not do it to one of them?" she asked suddenly, her light blonde ponytail flying out behind her as she twisted up to face him, pointing to the pair of squirrel boys watching from the couch at the front of the set.

"No, I promised them they'd be let off because they're performing for us later on - but I know, I'd love to gunge at least one of them as well. No offence meant," he added as he looked out to the two squirrels. "Besides, we've got something to settle here..."

"Yeah...?" the bandicoot girl asked, an anxious smile on one side of her face as she bounced slightly in the seat.

"Yes, because I remember the rumour that you were selected to replace Tawna because she was deemed inappropriate for the target audience..." A couple of shouts of agreement came up from the audience. "Yes, they know what I'm talking about - as you can see, the damage had already been done by that stage..."

The tall avian walked around beside Coco's seat and knelt down so that he was face to face with her. "Is that true, by the way?"

"No!" she insisted with shaking shoulders, looking out towards the rising noise from the stands in front of her. Tawna nodded quickly, encouraging the audience with a wave of her hands. "It was just..." Coco continued, then glanced over to Tawna who suddenly changed to calmly shaking her head.

"Perfectly innocent, no bad blood, still on speaking terms and everything?" he asked.

"That's right," she said back. "Isn't it?" she called through the booth at Tawna, who looked up in silent consideration, tilting her head from side to side as she tapped her fingers together. The younger bandicoot girl trailed off into an awkward laugh, looking back down at her feet.

"Okay, so now that that's been established..." the avian beside her grinned. "Just to give you a fair chance, is there anything you'd like to say that might keep you out of that booth this evening?" he encouraged.

"Um..." She thought for a moment, then cleared her throat, closing her eyes and then silently staring up at the audience with a bowed head, exaggeratedly batting her eyelids a couple of times. A groan of sympathy was audible from a couple of the watchers, mostly overwhelmed by a murmur of laughter.

"Too cute to be gunged?" Rossi chuckled. "It's an approach that's worked before - we'll see..." As Coco collapsed into another helpless giggle, he got to his feet and stepped forwards away from her seat.

"I should warn you, Tawna... in these votes I've tried to set other people up as the villain before - it never works," he called over to her as he stepped down from the platform, turning his palms up in a shrug. "This audience have a mind of their own - just remember I did my best, whatever happens to you, and to the lovely Coco over here..."

"Sure..." she said, drawing the word out as she nodded slowly. She turned and looked up to the covered top of the booth again, leaning back and combing one hand through her long hair. The younger bandicoot glanced up at the nozzle as well for a second before shivering, a nervous grin on her face as she wriggled in her seat.

"Well, we'll find out which one of you ends up inside there just after this - the lines are open now! When we come back, we've got Gemini performing, and one of these ladies is going to have the best seat in the house for it..."

---

"Ready for this?" Rossi looked back over his shoulder as he was silently counted in from the advert break, looking between the two bandicoot girls seated on either side of the tank. He grinned as he got two shaking heads in response, Tawna's hand going up to cover her eyes.

"Welcome back," he called above the noise of the audience as he snapped his head back around to the front, "Gemini's still here, they're going to be playing for us in a minute, but we've got one last thing to do first..." He looked up behind him again - Coco had her hand over her mouth as she waitied, while Tawna drummed her fingers on the arm of her seat.

"Our audience have chosen which of these ladies is in for a surprise tonight - you two, have a look over there," - he pointed towards one of the camera monitors at the front of the set - "and we're going to show you the votes in the order they came in..."

The view on the monitors above the audience changed to show the two bandicoot girls as they watched the results, a bar graph between them beginning to count up the votes that had been received for each of them. Tawna leaned forwards, her hands on her knees as her bar leapt ahead of her opponent's, and the younger girl's mouth fell open in a smile, glancing between the two sides of the screen as she tensely watched her own bar crawl upwards towards it.

"C'mon, c'mon..." Coco's voice was audible above the cheering of the audience as she pumped her fists in the air beside her, seeing Tawna's vote bar nearly reach the top of the screen and tensely waiting for the last part of it to fill. Tawna worriedly gripped the sides of her chair, then jumped as the bar on the opposite side of the screen shot upwards and lit up. Coco's cheer became a shriek of surprise as she saw it was hers, and the older bandicoot girl's expression became a smile of shocked relief as her opponent leaned back in her seat, cringing and shaking her head.

The avian strode casually over to the younger bandicoot girl's seat and smiled down at her, catching her eye as she gave a nervous whimper. "I'm really sorry, Coco, but... would you like to come with me?" he said as he offered his hand.

"Oh..." She whimpered and looked at the ground, resignedly stretching her hand up as her shoulders shook. As Rossi took her hand, she budged herself forwards out of her seat, pulling the flower out of her hair as she got up and tossing it on to the chair behind her. The avian put his arm around her back, leading her over to the front of the tank, and leaned forward to swing the door outwards.

"I don't know if it's any consolation, Coco, but it was really close and as you saw, Tawna was looking like she was headed in here for a long time... how are you feeling about this, by the way?" he asked as he leaned around the booth to address her.

"Oh, very good," she nodded quickly.

"No sympathy at all?" the avian asked her with a smirk. "Well, I think you can forget what I said before - the 'too cute to be gunged' routine never works, in fact, I think that might have given Coco that late surge..."

He patted Coco on the back as she whimpered once again, facing into the gunge booth, then took her arm to encourage her to step inside. From the safety of the outside, the older bandicoot watched with a smile, looking the tank up and down once again.

"Coco, thanks once again for coming on and making our Christmas special..." he said as he let go of her, watching her as she stepped hesitantly into the tank. "And I think we're about to make your Christmas quite special as well..."

He waited for her to step fully inside and then clunked the door closed in front of her. The bandicoot girl sat down and squirmed backwards on the chair, looking up into the large nozzle above her with a cringe and then laughing helplessly as she bowed her head forwards. A groan of sympathy came up from the audience as she put her hands over her face and shook her head from side to side behind them.

"Oh, you do this every time!" Rossi exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger out at the watchers and then flinging his arm to the side as he took a couple of steps towards them. "You were the ones who put her in here, you know..." He spun around once more and stood on his tiptoes to look over Coco's hands, catching her eye. She lowered her hands again to reveal her anxious grin, her shoulders still shaking as she dropped her hands to her lap, crossing her fingers over each other.

"Coco, don't believe for a moment that they feel sorry for you now - they're the ones doing this to you, not me!" he said. She giggled and shook her head, and Rossi did the same as a renewed groan came up from behind him. "But Tawna's going to have a hand in it as well..."

The young bandicoot looked out through the side of the tank, watching Rossi offering his hand to her opponent. "Tawna, if you would be so good as to come with me..." he started, taking her hand gently as she got up, flashing a grin at the girl in the gunge tank beside her. Happily, he offered the crook of his arm to her as she stood up, and as she took it, he walked her over the couple of paces to the lever at the side of the platform.

Coco budged up tightly against the back of the seat, staring up at the main opening in the tank's ceiling and bringing her eyes down to try to see where it was going to hit her. She glanced over towards Tawna again, and gasped as she saw Rossi guide her hand to the top of the lever, her own arms going up to clasp over her head.

"Just think of it as... very belated justice for the laptop battery incident," the avian smiled. The girl in the tank closed her eyes, shaking her head with a smile, and hunched down as Rossi flicked his hand towards the lever, which Tawna tugged backwards enthusiastically.

The younger bandicoot gave a high pitched whimper and ducked forwards, her hands still clasped over her head as the gunge tank siren rang from the ceiling. Above her, four streams of thick red goo spewed out of nozzles at the top corners of the tank, and she yipped as they poured over her back, splashing heavily outwards in a wave that splattered against the walls and back of the tank. Two streams of the slime poured forwards over her shoulders, and she slipped her hands down to cover her face, wriggling against the thick liquid coming down on to her back. Ducking down further, she slowly opened her hands, revealing a shocked open-mouthed smile, and straightened up a little before leaning forwards again as the streams began to rotate slowly, flinching under a streak of slime moving across her blonde hair.

The red streams began to ease off, sputtering as they died back, and the bandicoot girl grimaced as they parted, slithering across her back fur. Still holding her hands up next to her face, she straightened up and grinned nervously as she watched the goo drip down the corners of the tank in front of her. Running her hands through her hair, she flicked it back behind her ears, just as a column of mixed green and white gunge splattered down from the ceiling, catching across her muzzle and splurging heavily into her lap.

There was a scream from underneath the thick downpour as Coco's mouth fell open, visible for just a second under the crazily splashing slime before it formed a smooth dome over her head, hiding her top half from view with just the tips of her hands poking out the top of its glistening surface. As she tossed her head to the side, her face came back into view again, gunge dripping across her eyes and around her short muzzle as the slime flew out across the back of her head.

Putting one hand on the back of the chair to steady herself as she hunched her shoulders against the continuing downpour, Coco brought her other hand up to her chest as she breathed out heavily. The column of gunge pouring down on to her was beginning to thin out, the green and white colors mingling and flowing into each other as they slithered down her. As she felt the goo slide down her arms, she looked down and bit her lip, raising her arms out to the sides and shaking them off, leaving a slimy handprint across her chest fur and top.

The dome of gunge splattering over her back slowly folded inwards as the tank above her slowly ran out, and the young bandicoot girl wriggled up in her seat, her head going underneath the sloppy drizzle. With a smiling grimace on her face, she stayed still as heavy blobs of slime spattered on to her head, dripping down the sides of her hair and landing on her shaking shoulders then falling forwards to slip down her chest. As the last of the gunge sputtered out of the tank, the hooter blared a final time, and Coco's squeamish smile became a grin as she gave out a laughing whimper, strings of gunge dripping down across her muzzle. She straightened up but ducked again as a wave of gunge spilled forwards off her hair and splatted into the lap of her sodden jeans.

The gungy bandicoot girl cringed as there was another noise from above her, and hunched her shoulders up once more, but relaxed them as a gentle rain of white flecks of foam floated down from the ceiling. As they landed gently on her head and shoulders, sticking to the gunge on her fur, she gave a nervous laugh and brought her arms up to wipe the thick slime away from her eyes with the backs of her hands. As she blinked them open, ducking down against the falling foam, she squeaked as it began to be pumped in from the slots at the bottom sides of the tank as well, creeping up her legs as she wriggled up and away from the rising white bubbles.

Rossi took his arm off Tawna's shoulder and shared a smile with her as the younger girl batted down the foam with her hands, eventually giving in and letting it bubble up over her bare tummy. She looked over at him, blinking through the green and white slime still dripping off her matted hair, and he raised his hands to join in the applause for her as he stepped forwards.

"You know, we've done this to a lot of people now..." he started as the cheers from the audience died down, then moved aside as the bubbling foam spilled over the door of the gunge tank, slipping down the outside to form a pile at its base. "But that's the first time we've turned someone into a snow-globe." He leaned on the side of the foam-filled booth as Coco nodded slowly, bringing her white-coated arms back up and picking strands of her slimy hair out of her face. "It looks strangely beautiful in its own way..."

"I bet it does..." The bandicoot girl spoke up and then giggled helplessly, leaning tentatively forwards. Tawna caught her eye and shared a smile with her, but kept her distance as Coco leaned back into the seat, looking down into the white mixture surrounding her as the specks of foam from the ceiling shut off, leaving her covered in a layer of bubbles. She planted both hands on her head and dragged them off to the sides, flicking her hands in the air to try to clear them.

"Well, the good news is that it's over now, and we've got Gemini playing us out..." He paused at the audience's applause, then leaned down again. "Do you want to stay here and watch?"

"Yeah, okay," Coco looked up hesitantly, the gunge mixture still slithering down off her fringe, and nodded her head as she held her slippery hair aside with her forefingers.

"Good, it's a good seat to have for it if you can see out through all of that..." He straightened up and stepped down off the tank's platform as the introduction for the band started, and sped up as he talked over it. "That's it from the Friday Night Party until the new year - thanks to Tawna and especially to Coco for going through this, and until we see you again, we hope you have a great Christmas and holiday season..." He glanced behind him at the filled gunge tank as the lights moved to the opposite side of the set. "I think that hers can only get better from here..."