Goo and Gorgons [Private]

[dopiko]

Beryl was sitting on the sidewalk, her gooey arms coated in dirt. She had just finished weeding and now was resting. Gardening was hard and tiring, but the flowers were pretty and she wanted to take good care of them.


Her small home had an even smaller front yard, but she had to make do. All around her was businesses and bustling people. Her home was smack dab in the middle of a decently crowded city street, with restaurants and stores surrounding it. Normally, she would be scared of so many people, but her garden helped her to feel calm.

 

[chiannehere]

"Eyes...check. Makeup...check. Wig...."


Sacharissa looked at herself in the mirror for the umpteenth time, the snakes in her hair still limp and lifeless-looking from sleep. Even though she had showered beforehand, it didn't look like they were gonna get up anytime soon. 'Thank goodness,' she thought. She reached towards her closet and opened it, revealing shelves and shelves of mannequin heads, all with wigs of different sizes and colors. There was a small shelf on top which held lots of lenses of varying colors and sizes as well. To the unsuspecting human, it would look like she liked getting dolled up. To her and her parents, it looked like too much of an effort to fit in.


Charissa bit the inside of her lip as she imagined what each wig looked like with her eye color, and settled with an ivory white bob. Her sea-green eyes would match her skin color today, as she didn't feel like covering whatever showed of her skin with the foundation that just seemed to flake off. When would the modern monster world come up with good makeup that fit every skin color, including dead?


Once she was all done getting dressed up, she grabbed her keys and wallet and left. She started walking towards the direction of where the center of the city was, in order to start. Charissa decided to go on a job hunt, and she decided that a personal visit to potential places would prove more useful to her than just signing up to whatever online.

 

[dopiko]

After a few more moments, Beryl stood up and walked over to the hose. She had used it earlier to water her flowers, but now she was going to use it to rinse the dirt from her. Beryl was happily cleaning herself off, and her skin was almost spotless, when her grip on the hose loosened. The goo caused the hose to slip and go flying, spraying her from head to toe with water. Her flower-print dress was already sticking to her enough, but now it was so, so, much worse. The hose thrashed about with the water pressure as soon as it hit the ground, and Beryl hurried to shut off the water.


When it was finally over, she had water droplets dripping down her leg. Beryl shivered, finding the feeling uncomfortable. Now she had to sit outside even longer and dry off in the sun. As she plopped back down onto the sidewalk, she thought. She probably looked all stupid and sloppy with her wet dress. What would others think? She could feel herself panicking, and tears welled in her eyes. Beryl tried to convince herself that it was okay, that she didn't look that bad, but it didn't help at all.

 

[chiannehere]

Sacharissa had been keeping up a good pace, making sure that the beating sun didn't melt her makeup off, until she caught sight of an awfully obvious goo girl. She cocked her head to the side, wondering why she hadn't seen her before. That, and how (if she was a goo girl) would she be able to try to 'blend in' with the humans? Slowing her pace, she took in the scenery around her. There was a wonderful garden that the goo girl was tending to, there were only a few cars milling about on the streets, humans were laughing as they walked in pairs. Charissa took a deep breath and it was, almost, like she belonged there for a split second. Almost like she forgot she was an accursed gorgon.


A few seconds after, the goo girl had lost control of the hose and had water unfortunately splash all over her (most likely due to her goo-iness) and Charissa frowned in response. She wondered how difficult it was to live with something almost humanoid but not really there quite yet. The girl sat on the sidewalk to dry, the goo around her slowly pooling. Charissa made a wry smile and shrugged to herself. It was the first time she saw another monster that wasn't the usual vampire or werewolf. She, slowly but surely, made her way to the goo girl, still unsure how to approach her.


"Isn't it such a nice day outside?" Charissa asked, her voice almost a little too loud. She stood right next to her and looked down. She made sure that her contacts and wig were in place, but as she reached out a hand for her to shake, so almost reeled from how green her skin looked. How sickly. She stomached the feeling and gave the goo girl a small smile. "Uhh, hiya. I'm Sacharissa. Charissa for short. I haven't met any monsters around here yet and you're the first one I've seen I'm pretty sure."

 

[dopiko]

The tears in Beryl's eyes dried up immediately when she heard the voice. It startled her at first, but then she looked at the girl. She had a hand extended, and a smile on her face. She was pretty, and had really nice hair. She introduced herself as Charissa, and identified herself as a monster. Well, Beryl should've known from the green skin, but it still surprised her. Charissa was right; there weren't many monsters around here.


"H-Hi! I'm Beryl! Nice to meet you, Charissa." Beryl shook her hand, but regretted it immediately when she left slimy residue on Charissa's skin. "I'm so sorry! You can wipe it off on my dress!"

 

[chiannehere]

"Beryl's a really pretty name," Charissa mused, shaking her hand in response. When she let go of her hand, there was slimy residue encasing her fingers and sticking on her palm. She raised her hand to look at it, and remembered all the human hands she shook at her time here. Some were slightly sweaty, others were icy cold, but now her hand was slimy. At least it was from an actual goo girl instead of a human.


She shook her head. "Oh gosh, it's totally okay! Uhh.." Charissa looked around, trying to find a place to wipe her hand, but then settled on her shorts. They were jean shorts anyway, it would dry. "I'm kinda used to the slimy stuff, don't worry about it." She showed another small smile, and her eyes quickly darted over all of Beryl to make a quick observation. Beryl was a cute girl!


"I saw the whole thing with the hose. I hope you aren't too soaked!... Do goo girls get colds?" Charissa asked, suddenly regretting the words that came out of her mouth. 'Maybe mentioning an embarrassing moment isn't a good way to make friends, you numbskull,' she thought.

 

[dopiko]

Beryl felt a bit guilty that Charissa had wiped her hands off on her own clothes. She got distracted from that pretty quickly when Charissa mentioned seeing her 'incident'.


"Y-you saw that?" she stuttered. Her cheek goo turned bright pink and she looked down at the ground to answer her question about colds. "We can. Our goo turns into mucus, it's so nasty..." As soon as she said that, she clasped her hand over her mouth. Too much information, Beryl. The poor green girl probably was picturing a person made out of mucus. That couldn't be pleasant at all!

 

[chiannehere]

"Huh... so your whole body turns into mucus..." Charissa imagined a Beryl covered in mucus, a thought to disgusting to comprehend. "That's...kinda gross..," she muttered to herself, but then stopped. "Uhh, unless you like that?!" She asked, in the same 'little-too-loud' voice. With an exasperated sigh, she sat down right next to Beryl and pushed some stray strands out of her face. "We're both too awkward to each other to be talking like this, "Charissa laughed. "We should be happy we found some monsters around here! I just moved here a few weeks ago, so."

 

[dopiko]

Beryl felt a bit more relaxed when Charissa laughed, and was able to look in her general direction for her response. She still couldn't make eye contact, but hey, progress.


"Really? I've lived here my whole life. I have seven siblings, and my mom. Other than them, I don't know of any monsters around here. Well, besides you of course! I'm glad to meet you, I have some human friends that are really nice but it's still a bit awkward."

 

[chiannehere]

"Seven? Gosh, I can't even imagine having that many siblings," Charissa mused. When Beryl mentioned that she hadn't met any other monsters in all her years of living there, she frowned. "Hmm, that's sort of a downer. I moved to the city hoping that it would be a little bit more monster-tolerant." She made an apologetic smile. "Maybe we haven't been to every inch of this city as we thought."


"Hey, since you live here, what places have you been to? I'm actually looking for a job myself."

 

[dopiko]

"I've been to a lot of places! I work at a clothing store sometimes, they might hire you. It's human owned but they don't seem to mind monsters."


Beryl motioned to her dress. "I got this dress there. They sell really cute stuff! It's pretty nice to work at."

 

[chiannehere]

"Huh." Charissa took another look at the dress that Beryl was wearing. It was pretty cute, not sure if it was her style, though. "I'll keep that in mind! Thanks, though. Also," she got up and then stretched a little. Sitting on the concrete wasn't the best way to promote good posture. "You should show me around! I'm sure we'll also find other new things if we went together." She could feel the snakes getting a bit antsy. Her anxiousness rose; she would need to get to a bathroom or something to let them air out. "On second thought, is there a bathroom nearby that I could use? It's kind of urgent."

 

[dopiko]

"Uh, you could use mine!" Beryl exclaimed. She stood up. "I'm sure my mom won't mind!"

 

[chiannehere]

"Awesome, I won't take too long!" Without another word, Charissa zoomed into her house and raced around, trying to find the bathroom. She made sure to not be too rude, it was the first say she'd met Beryl after all and she didn't want to make a worse impression. In a few minutes, she found the bathroom and took a deep breath. "Thank goodness..." she muttered to herself.


She slowly took off the wig and the snakes on her head began to hiss their complaints. It was no use apologizing; you would think that they would get used to the whole wig thing by now. Charissa just looked at herself in the mirror as the snakes moved around her head. The only thing different about her was the contacts. If she took those off, she'd be her whole gorgon-y self. She noticed the scaly flakes falling from her skin. How would she hold a job in the human world like this?


Shaking her head, Charissa put the wig back on and readjusted it. Her doubts about holding a job in this state only grew. She left the bathroom and began to look for Beryl. "Beryl? Thanks for letting me use your bathroom."

 

[dopiko]

Beryl had moved into her home as soon as Charissa had run in, and was waiting for her at the kitchen table.


"Ah, no problem! I hope there wasn't goo everywhere! Sometimes so much gets all over the house that it becomes too much of a burden to clean up. It's really gross, I know! I should really try and take better care of things..."


She looked down sheepishly, feeling disgusting.

 

[chiannehere]

"Oh gosh, it's no problem! I hardly even noticed," Charissa shook her head. She sat at the table with her and gave her a small smile. "I don't know if you could discern what sort of monster I am, but I'm a gorgon," she introduced with a small shrug. "I'm wearing contacts so that I won't do that whole 'turning to stone' thing. And even then, it's just a little paralysis."

 

[dopiko]

"Really?" Beryl looked up at her excitedly. "Do you have snakes for hair?"


She covered her mouth. "That was a bit rude, sorry."

 

[chiannehere]

Charissa flinched a little at the mention of the hair. "Uhh, yeah! I usually wear wigs to not upset people so." She shrugged. "I'm not really comfortable with showing anyone my hair but you'll probably see it soon one day!" She shook her head at the comment. "Honestly, you're just curious, and that's alright!"

 

[dopiko]

Beryl still felt ashamed. "I'm really sorry, Charissa." She sighed and looked at her again. "Do you live alone, or?"

 

[chiannehere]

"Ah, please don't worry, I'm kinda like this with everyone." Charissa reassured. She wasn't sure if that sounded reassuring but oh well. "And yeah, I live alone ahah I'm usually at home since I'm not totally sure where things are yet," she answered, an apologetic smile on her face. She made it look like she was a hermit, even though that's not really the case.

 

[dopiko]

"I can show you where a lot of fun places are!" Beryl said with a smile. "I don't really go out a whole lot, but I know some cool stuff. The library is really nice, and there are some really good restaurants, and parks, and malls, and the art museum, and the zoo, and movie theaters...."

 

[chiannehere]

Charissa's eyes brightened. "There was more to this city than I thought," she mused. Getting up, she stretched a little bit. "Well, do you want to show me around? Unless you have something else to do today.

 

[dopiko]

"I don't have anything to do today!" Beryl grabbed her purse, which happened to be nearby. "Let's go!"

 

[chiannehere]

Before she knew it, Beryl was already out the door, really excited that she would hang out with another monster just like herself. Charissa smiled and shook her head. What a monster, full of life! Quickly rechecking her reflection on a nearby mirror, she followed quickly behind Beryl, a small smile on her face. "So, where are we headed to first? Oh, wait you mentioned you work at a clothing store? I'd like to see that, and if there's other stuff along the way, we can definitely look at those, too."

 

[dopiko]

"Okay! I can take you to Pixie Dust- that's the name! It's got a lot of cute stuff, and I have an employee discount, so if you ever want to buy anything, you can ask me to buy it for you so you can get it for cheaper!" Beryl started to walk down the street and towards a nearby bus stop.