FRIDAY NIGHT PARTY Gunge vote 5 - Melissa vs Clarissa
Written by Iron-K

The last of the camera crew scurried into position, and the studio audience erupted into applause as the lights went up on the reworked Friday Night Party set. The backdrop had been decorated to look like the foyer of an old-fashioned country house, with mock wood panelling on the back of the set and an arched front door taking up a large portion of the left wall. A conifer decorated with lights and baubles stood in the corner, and behind the presenter's desk and red interview couch, a short set of stairs with garlands entwined around its banisters led up to a small raised area and the back entrance of the set. A couple of cheers went up as a dark-feathered avian with long, very large fluffed white hair emerged into view from the backstage area, dressed in a pale blue suit and tie.

"Good evening!" Rossi called, pausing on the raised area before descending the stairs towards the main part of the stage, and he walked off the carpeted area to the front as he acknowledged the audience's applause with a bow of his head. "Yes, we're back once again to start the year with the end of the year, assuming that makes any sense. Once again, we're very pleased to be back, and on a more personal level I'm pleased to still be alive..."

He smiled as there was another solitary cheer from somewhere in the audience. "And at least someone seems oddly pleased to see me! It's an enthusastic crowd tonight - the cold evenings mean that we can drag more people off the streets to come in and join us..."

He continued with his opening script for a few minutes, before one of the rounds of laughter from the audience was punctuated by the sound of an electronic doorbell. Rossi turned to the large door built into the back of the set before addressing the audience once more.

"Ah! And that noise means that our sound department bought a new library disc and came up with a gimmick based around... what?" He leaned forward as someone among the cameras tried to get his attention, and cupped his hand to the side of his head, leaning out before straightening with a sigh.

"Okay, okay - well, that's what you hire editors for." He cleared his throat and addressed the audience again. "And that -"

The doorbell sound went off again, drowning his words out, and he smacked his hand on to his forehead, dragging it down over his face, before waving down the audience's laughter with both his hands.

"No, we'll get this - are you ready?" He nodded at the crew in front of him, straightened his suit and tapped his foot as there was a moment of silence before the sound effect went off for a third time.

"And that noise means my first guests of the season have just arrived!" he said, speaking over his shoulder as he stepped back on to the carpeted floor and made his way to stand beside the large door. "I know that despite the outside temperature you're all going to give them a warm welcome, because we've got two very special guests to start us off..."

He stooped over to turn the handle, and the audience erupted into cheers as he opened the door - behind it was a gray-brown mouse girl with slightly darker tousled headfur. She was wearing a low-cut peach-colored dress, its neckline revealing the lighter fur on her chest, and she held her hands behind her back, the puff of her tail swinging as she waved it back and forth.

"We rang three times!" she said brightly as she stepped through the door on to the set, blinking her large green eyes as she glanced up at the darkened audience stands. As she moved out of the door frame, a lighter tan mouse in a fiery red dress was spotlit behind her, wearing a red hat with a fur trim and bauble on top of her long strawberry blonde hair. She grinned and blew a kiss to the watchers as a few more whoops and wolf-whistles came up from them.

"Yes, I'm sorry to have left you both out there, especially dressed like that..." Rossi's eyes dropped for a moment before he cleared his throat and closed the door behind them. "Come in, take a step over here..." His voice was just audible under the applause as he put his hand out, indicating to the curved couch opposite his desk. As the two mice linked arms and moved to sit down, he moved back to his own seat, budging his chair forwards to face the two mice.

"Oh, I forgot about the mistletoe!" he realized as he looked at the door again, the two mice twisting around to follow his pointing finger as he indicated the sprig above the door frame. "That's what you call throwing away an opportunity - who have I got on next..." He grabbed one of the stray pieces of paper at the end of the desk and held it up as if reading a list from it. "Male... male... male... well, I'll take what I can get."

"Come here, you..." Clarissa slid forwards again and stepped forward on her high heels as Rossi replaced the sheet of paper, and he turned around and jumped as his face was suddenly right up against the mouse leaning over his desk. Taken by surprise, he scrabbled back a little before half standing up himself. With a smile, he leaned in towards her cheek, but then gave a muffled squawk as the mouse girl grabbed his beak and planted a kiss right on the end of it.

"Oh, sympathy kisses are always the best," he chuckled above the appreciative whoop from the audience as Clarissa pulled away from him with a smile, dragging her fingers down her arms before letting him go and stepping back. "Wow, you're tall..." he mumbled as he looked down at her large heeled shoes, and she swung her hips exaggeratedly as she stepped back to the sofa and sat back down beside Melissa, crossing one leg over the other.

"How do women do that?" he asked, facing out to the audience. "I mean, you're on these massive things that come down to a little... spike..." he mimed using his hands, "I'd have thought you'd fall over, especially with..."

He stopped suddenly and cleared his throat, but the brown mouse filled in the silence as she looked down at her own flatter heels. "It's a talent," she smiled. "And people think we have it easy..."

"I think I'd probably get a fear of heights if I had to be much further off the ground..." Rossi coughed and wrenched his eyes up to their faces again as Clarissa rejoined her partner on the couch.

"So... Playmouse!" he exclaimed, clasping his hands together as he glanced down at the prompt cards on the desk in front of him. "You've both just presented the end-of-year awards - it must be about the tenth time?"

"Nine years, now," Melissa answered. "We're already planning the ten-year anniversary..."

"Nearly a decade - that's a very impressive time to be around," the avian nodded. "I know that there's been a lot of competition in that field, especially from the other big names like ZZ Studios..."

"Yeah, we've actually done some crossover work with them," said the mouse, turning a little to look at her partner. "Clarissa's been... quite personally involved...!"

The tan mouse gave a naughty grin, stretching her arm out along the back of the couch and flipping her hand up to acknowledge the audience.

"That's..." Rossi chuckled awkwardly, shaking his head. "I'm sure that's a career goal that half our audience would be happy to have!" He looked down at his cards again. "So how did the whole thing get started?"

The mouse tapped her fingers together as she thought. "Well, when I first moved to the city I joined up with a small modeling agency," she said. "I got a lot of attention from the agents, but I didn't find one who I really trusted for a couple of years - after that I did a couple of shoots solo, and it just kind of... spiralled from there..."

"It says here that its aim is to be 'sexy and classy'..." Rossi glanced down as he read from his card, "and I think that that's a good description for them - if that's the aim then they certainly have a good figurehead for it," he added with a slight bow of his head. Melissa smiled, her white cheek fur reddening just a little as he turned to the other mouse. "And Clarissa, Pentmouse joined up with them a couple of years later - a little more daring?"

"Yeah, you could say that," she grinned. "We split it in two, so people can pretend they only look at her pictures if they want a cleaner image..."

"That's... nothing I'd know about, of course," Rossi smiled. "And you've been in every issue, if I'm not mistaken, since Pentmouse started up... with the last one of the year out now, are you having the chance to wind down now?"

"No, we've got the Playmouse New Year party next week!" Melissa said. "For everyone who works with us, or appeared this year..."

"Or... close personal friends," Clarissa added.

"Oh, yes - that sounds like it's going to be quite an event..." Rossi said as he remembered. "Just so you know, I didn't get my invitation..."

"I'll see what I can do," the brown mouse smiled back.

"Hmm... that worked better than I thought," he nodded. "And you, Clarissa - will you be there as well?" He turned as he addressed the lighter mouse.

"No, this year I'm going to be spending it with my family," she answered.

Rossi smiled. "That must be something you don't get a lot of time for these days... incidentally, what do your parents think about your career choice?"

The tan mouse snickered, and clasped her hands on her lap as she drew a breath in. "They... we just say I'm a model," she answered with a smile.

"I think that's truthful enough!" Rossi extended a hand to the back wall. "Even if it involves 'modelling' in pictures like this..."

A projection screen turned on, and the two mice laughed a little with Melissa putting her hand to her mouth as a photo of them was shown - wearing baking aprons and little else, standing either side of a rabbit girl and slathering her in chocolate sauce.

"That was for Easter, of course..." The avian twisted to look up at the screen himself, and pointed up at it. "And for the easily confused... we added those ourselves," he said, indicating the two rabbit head icons placed over the picture just above the extremely low line of Clarissa's apron to preserve her modesty. "Did all of that come off her okay?"

Melissa laughed as he indicated the bunny's chocolate coating. "Yeah... eventually," she said.

"But we got a lot of people offering to lick it off instead!" Clarissa added with a smirk.

Rossi returned the smile. "And has anything like that ever happened to either of you for a shoot?" he continued.

The tan mouse looked up at herself, then to her partner. "No..." she said as Melissa shook her head. "But I've kind of wanted to!"

"Ah - well, we may have a treat for you," the avian grinned. "Though perhaps it's mostly for us - let me get this to bring it out..." As the mouse's eyes widened, he stretched down to reach for something under his desk, and the two of them leaned forward to watch him nervously as he rummaged around.

"Now, our stage crew gave me this," he announced, twisting around in his swivel chair a little so that the audience could see what he was holding - it was a small silver bell with a wooden handle. "I'm not sure what kind of image they're going for - am I in an old folks' home summoning help or something...?"

"That would sorta suit you," Clarissa giggled. The audience laughed at the interruption, but the noise quickly became a groan of sympathy as Rossi did his best to look pained by the comment. He smirked through it as he got the reaction he wanted.

"It's okay, I won't hold it against her - she doesn't know what's coming..." he announced as a couple of knowing laughs went up from the audience, then he turned his attention back to the prop in his hand.

"I suppose I could do it town crier-style... which, before Clarissa says anything, is what we had instead of the evening news when I was her age." He turned the bell upside-down and brought it up, swinging it back and forth over his head to ring it. "Hear ye, h-"

The clapper shot clean out of the bell as he flicked it forwards, and the two mice squeaked and ducked as it flew right between them. As Melissa slowly took her arms off her head, she put one hand on Clarissa's bare shoulder and turned around, looking over the back of the couch and watching a camera operator scurrying on to the set to capture a close-up of the length of metal lying on the carpet. She laughed relievedly and turned back to face Rossi, who had slumped forwards with his head on the desk, one arm wrapped around his hair.

He pounded the surface with the remains of the bell a couple of times before rising from the desk again, running his hand down through his hair and slumping back into his seat. "So, this is going well, isn't it?" he said, holding it up. "We're ten minutes into the new series, I've nearly hospitalized two of my guests, and the clapper's gone from my bell..."

"Hey, that happens to a lot of men your age," Clarissa interrupted again with a huge grin.

Rossi opened his mouth, then sagged back, a small smirk appearing on his face as the laughter from the audience slowly died down. Clarissa stood up from the sofa and took an exaggerated bow, saying something inaudible to Melissa as she clapped along with them.

Straightening his tie, the avian turned back to the two mice. "She's quick tonight, isn't she?" he said. "Well, they say don't give it out if you can't take it - but I've got something else to give out, because I can still use this..." He stretched to stay facing the two of them as he felt around for one of the pens on the end of the desk, and held one of them up. "You know, I've asked before why they have these here - but they make good stand-ins in an emergency..."

He held the bell up by its handle and tapped it rapidly with the pen. "You can bring it out now!" he called to the back of the stage, making the two mice turn to see where he was looking.

As a sleigh-bell-themed version of the show's theme music played over the stage speakers, there was a twitch from a pair of red curtains on the back wall of the set, and they billowed out as they were pushed from behind. One of the studio lights swung back to spotlight the arrangement behind them as it came forward, guided by rails in the floor - a six foot high booth decorated to look like an old wooden telephone box, with the front replaced by a clear door that came up to hip height, showing a plastic seat inside. On its top, to cover the upper section, someone had fitted it with a gigantic Santa hat.

Clarissa turned wide-eyed back to her partner, who clasped her hands over her mouth to disguise her shocked smile as her eyes flicked up and down the booth. As it stopped, Rossi smiled at the reaction from both the audience and the mice in front of him.

"Yes, this is something that proved very popular last year, so we had to bring it back - you recognize it, don't you?" He nodded towards the tan mouse.

"It's... the slime shower," she answered with a nod, ducking down and trying to look up at its inside ceiling.

"Yes, that's not quite what we call it, but that's a pretty good description of what it does..." Rossi drummed his hands on the desk as he turned and looked it up and down as well. "The decor's not bad this year, is it?"

He turned to see Clarissa smoothing her dress out, preparing to stand up. "No, there's no need to get up yet," he said, holding his hand out. "Because we've got two of you, and only one seat in the booth..."

"No, she can go ahead!" Melissa called over him, poking her partner in the side enthusiastically.

Rossi chuckled along with the audience. "Well, I'm glad to have such a keen volunteer - but as a gift to our watchers, and just to make things fair, we thought we'd put your fate in the hands of the audience..."

"You... devious bird," Melissa laughed as she ran her fingers through her hair with an anxious smile, her gaze going between the booth and the audience stands as her tail flicked quickly behind her.

"I promise, I've got nothing to do with this!" Rossi said, shaking his head and holding up both hands in front of himself. "Our producer, though - he's the one right in the front center there - he was very keen for me to use this on you..."

The two mice followed his pointing finger as a figure at the front did his best to duck back into the shadows. "And now that I'm looking, I think a few of our audience look pretty enthusiastic too..."

A couple of whoops went up as Rossi got up from his desk, pointing back at the booth. "Okay - audience, if you haven't already found them, your voting pads are under the seats - if you don't have one, just... beat up your neighbour or something to get theirs, it's the season of goodwill..." He moved to the back of the sofa, putting his hands on its backrest as the two mice looked up at him. "You know how it works - the mouse with the most votes when we count them up gets our special makeover. We're going to take a short break - just to prolong their nerves..." he added as he patted Melissa's shoulder reassuringly, watching her giggle from behind her clasped hands. "And we'll be back very soon to tell you which of these beautiful mice is going in there!"

---

"So, the moment you've all been waiting for..." Rossi broke into a laugh as the audience noise died down, glancing over to the couch opposite him as the two mice clasped each others' hands. "And I think that these two are waiting for it more than most! Our viewers have chosen who they want to see in that thing..." he said as he pointed backwards over his shoulder at the decorated booth behind him, "...and here's how they voted..."

The projection screen at the back of the set turned on again, showing a shot of the two mice on the couch, and Clarissa twisted up to watch, tapping her fingers on her lap as it showed two vertical bars overlaid on the sides of the screen next to each of them. As they began to fill slowly, crawling up the screen as it counter through each vote, Melissa closed her eyes and slumped against Clarissa's shoulder, and the tan mouse rubbed her hand up and down her partner's back as she anxiously watched the bars race each other. Isolated cheers from the audience encouraged each side on, until finally, a roar of approval went up as the bar for Clarissa flashed, barely edging out the other to fill all the way. The tan mouse raised her free hand in the air, patting Melissa on the back as she dared to look up, and she laughed relievedly as Clarissa looked towards the gunge tank with a nervous smile.

"Want to come this way?" Rossi said with a grin, getting up from his chair behind the desk and walking over to the couch. Clarissa's smile didn't change as the audience cheered her on, and she accepted Rossi's outstretched hand as she got up, standing half a head taller than him as he walked her over to the booth. Melissa followed close behind, giving the audience a smile and an encouraging clap as she scampered over to the booth with them.

"I've got to say, Clarissa, you looked pretty keen about this - are you having second thoughts at all?" the avian asked as they approached the cubicle, watching the mouse girl stoop down, her hands on her knees as she looked up at the barely visible opening on the tank's ceiling.

"Well, I don't want to get slime on this," she said, tugging at the hem of her red dress before turning around and pointing at the zip at the top of its back. "Can you help me out?"

The avian stood still for a moment, his beak hanging slightly open as Clarissa stretched over to tug the zip down a little. "...Certainly," he said eventually, and gently put one hand on her shoulder as he stepped forward and slowly pulled the zip down. "You realize I've had dreams like this, don't you..."

Clarissa stretched her arms in the air as he unzipped the dress to her lower back, and took a step backwards, only to yelp as the mouse brought her tail up to brush between his legs. With a grin over her shoulder at the whistles from the audience, she wriggled her hips and let the dress flop to the floor, revealing a very small set of bright scarlet underwear underneath it.

Melissa laughed, shaking her head and putting a hand to her forehead as Rossi swallowed and felt behind him for support. He grabbed on to the frame of the tank as he mimed fainting backwards. "You know all those times that our producer's told me to keep things clean and broadcastable... I don't hear him complaining now!"

He glanced towards the cameras again and cleared his throat, linking arms with the near-nude mouse girl as he walked her around to the front of the booth, reaching down to swing its clear waist-height door open. Letting go of him, Clarissa stepped out of her heels, leaving them at the side of the booth, and stepped inside. As she took her seat, she looked up into the covered mechanism above her head, then sharply down at the plastic door as Rossi clunked it closed in front of her.

"I know you don't have much clothing left here, but I feel I've got to take this off..." He stretched over the door and tugged the red Santa hat off her head, leaving her shaking out her long strawberry blonde hair as he walked away.

"Melissa!" he said to the other mouse, handing her the hat as she giggled at the sight of Clarissa waiting in the booth. "I know she's been stealing the spotlight here, but it's your turn now - if you could just see to that lever over there..." Both mice turned to see where he was pointing, and Melissa crossed in front of the tank as she headed for a large switch built into an ornate carving effect on the set's right wall. "Yes, if you could just hold that for a bit - don't pull it yet, whatever you do..."

"Oh, this doesn't really do anything - it's someone backstage..." she said, turning to face the two of them as she grasped the handle of the lever.

"It does - that's wired right to it!" Rossi said over his shoulder as he turned back towards the booth. "So make sure you keep it steady while I'm anywhere near this thing..."

He looked down at the seated mouse. "Clarissa..." he started sympathetically, breaking into a smile which he quickly tried to contain as the mouse girl inside the gunge booth looked back up at him, pushing her lower lip out a little before a laugh broke through it. "Oh, I know - I'm sorry, but it had to happen to one of you - I just wanted to ask, is there anything you want to say to Melissa before it happens?"

The near-nude tan mouse leaned forward and looked out at her partner with her hand on the lever, who bounced on her heels a little as she looked her up and down. "Yeah, come in here with me," she said, bringing her arm up and beckoning her with one finger.

A chorus of encouragement came up from the audience as Melissa's mouth fell open a little, looking from Clarissa to the lever in her hand and back. She shook her head a little as Rossi approached her.

"You know, I think that's a fair suggestion..." he said with a smile, slipping his hand around the mouse's back and moving a hand over to unwrap her fingers from the handle. The mouse cupped her hands over her nervous grin again then moved them up to cover her whole face, whimpering behind them as he gently guided her towards the gunge tank.

"This thing's exchanging hands a lot, isn't it?" Rossi said as he plucked the Santa hat off her head with his other hand, looking down at it as Melissa peeked over her hands at the tan mouse clapping to encourage her. Glancing at the avian's hand, Melissa stooped down suddenly, grabbed the hat back off him and then stretched up to jam it on to his own head, wrenching it from side to side through his fluffed hair to put it on firmly.

Rossi smiled through his cringe, pushing the front of the hat up from his eyes and brushing his flattened hair out of the way. "I think this suited both of you better than me..." he said as he flicked the bauble behind his head, opening the door of the tank. But then, so do inanimate objects..."

He looked up at the huge prop hat covering the booth's reservoir as Melissa kicked her shoes off and ducked inside, giving a laughing squeak as she glanced up at the chutes in the ceiling. With Clarissa's encouragement, she slid herself sideways to sit across the tan mouse's lap, her arms around her neck as Clarissa moved her hands to support her under her back and the backs of her knees.

"How about you?" Melissa turned to ask with a grin, as Clarissa enthusiastically beckoned to Rossi.

"Well..." Rossi laughed awkwardly as there was a roar of approval from his audience, and he shut the gunge tank's door, shaking his head as he stepped back to the lever. "I know I must be the only person in the world to refuse getting into a tight space with Melissa and Clarissa, but I'm hoping to use this suit again for the New Year party..."

He wrapped his fingers around the switch, and Melissa looked up at the mechanism above her, then cuddled down into Clarissa's shoulder again. The tan mouse patted her on the back, with a slightly nervous grin up at the ceiling.

"I think that's all we need to say, so, Melissa and Clarissa... happy new year." He tugged the lever down, and Melissa cringed down and closed her eyes at the sound of the gunge booth siren.

A thick column of mixed white and green gunge dropped from the ceiling of the tank, and Clarissa squeaked and hunched as it splashed across her, hitting the front of her head and hiding her from view behind a slimy dome that spewed out to splatter against the walls. Melissa shrieked as the opaque slime splattered across her chest, splashing up to her face as her partner wriggled underneath it. As she leaned back and turned her face away, she unhooked her hand from Clarissa's neck, a curtain of slime drizzling down from it as she twisted to hold on to the tank's frame instead. With her face in a shocked gasp, she glanced down at her slime-drenched dress, her shoulders shaking in a giggle as more of the stuff slapped on to her shoulders and slithered down her back.

Clarissa tilted her head to the side, revealing her face as the dome of gloop twitched, one side of it arcing out and splashing on Melissa's head. She patted her partner on the back as she shook her messy hair, sloppy strands of it plastering themselves to her neck and shoulders as a drizzle of goo crept down her face and dripped off the end of her nose. Screwing her face up and bowing her head down, she gave a laughing shriek as the flow tilted diagonally towards her, engulfing her in the upturned bowl shape again and splashing crazily around the booth as two rivulets of the off-green slime slipped around her neck and pooled in her top.

Melissa looked up at the watchers again, flicking her hair and sending a streak of slime from it flying up and behind her, just before the gunge tilted back towards her, leaving Clarissa dripping with opaque goo. She put a hand up under her sloppy hair and pulled it out to reveal her face again, then gave a squeak as the klaxon hooted again and two sprayers at their feet started up, pumping out bright yellow foam and quickly beginning to fill up the booth. Clarissa curled her toes as the foam swallowed up to her ankles, then Melissa yelped and looked down as she caught a glance of the bubbles heading towards her. She sagged relievedly as the flow of gunge from the ceiling eased off and straightened again, leaving her hair flattened with a coating of slime, before she yelped as Clarissa tugged her over to hold her underneath the blobby remains spluttering out of the chute above them. Leaning around her partner, Clarissa's grin was just visible on her messy face as the gungy drizzle slithered over the cringing mouse girl who was now sitting straight up on her lap.

Four thin streams of yellow gunge suddenly started up from the corners of the tank's ceiling, and Clarissa ducked back behind Melissa as they came together and splattered out over her head. A yelp came up from behind the sloppy dome, and a pair of gungy hands poked through it, catching the slime as it spewed off her messy hair. Melissa wriggled forward and to the side to get out of the downpour, her mouth open in a screaming laugh as the slippery goo slithered down her face and dripped from her chin. She squeaked as the foam suddenly bubbled over her lap, then hesitantly brought a messy hand up to wipe at her fringe, twisting around to see Clarissa getting covered by the yellow streams of slime. Curtains of the stuff fell away from her as she sat straight underneath it, the streams flicking back and forth across her before finally slowing, making Melissa duck as one of them crossed over her as it drizzled to a halt.

Clarissa put one hand in the air, a mixture of foam and gunge dripping from it as she acknowledged the noise from the audience, her other arm firmly around Melissa's tummy. As the other mouse waved exhaustedly as well, she slipped forwards, tentatively finding her footing on the bottom of the tank and standing up, stepping to press herself against the slimy wall and giggling at the sight of her slippery partner in the chair. As Clarissa parted her hair, she grinned slyly up at her, and batted a handful of foam in Melissa's direction.

Rossi joined in the applause as he stepped away from the switch, not disguising a laugh as he looked in to the booth at the two gungy mice, and waited for the noise to die down before he spoke. He twitched back as another streak of green splashed down from the ceiling, showering Clarissa again and making her shudder as she shook the slimy blobs off herself.

"You know, some people have asked us what happens to people backstage once we send them off like this..." he said, looking at the two of them as they wiped their hands over their slime-coated faces. "If it reassures anyone, they get a towel and a shower and they're soon fine... though we only have two dressing rooms with ensuites, so... I should say to any future guests that if you get one of those rooms, you're probably going to end up in here..."

He smiled as Clarissa lifted her arms out of the foam bath, scraping down them with her opposite hand one by one to push the heavy slime away and leaving a sheen on her fur. "Feeling okay?" he asked. "People tell me that there's something in this that actually makes it quite good for you..."

"Yeah... my fur's had worse on it," she nodded, flicking the slippery strands of her hair back behind her shoulders. She looked down and grasped the cups of her top, pulling them out to tip the pooled slime out before hiking them back up her chest a little.

Rossi gave a small laugh. "Let's just leave that line of conversation there... how about you, Melissa - did you enjoy that?"

Melissa opened her mouth to speak, drizzles of the yellow goo falling across her mouth from her nose. She looked down at her gunge-stained clinging dress and dragged her fingers down through her messy hair. "...No!" she answered, a giggle creeping into her voice.

"Well, I'm sure Clarissa appreciated you coming in and sharing the spotlight - and some of the slime..." He glanced down to the seated mouse, who nodded enthusiastically. "And... oh, hold on..."

He faltered as Melissa carefully stepped around to the front of the tank and leaned forwards with her arms outstretched, long strings of slime dripping down from them as she reached forwards. With a sigh, Rossi stepped forwards and accepted the embrace, putting his hands gently on to her slippery hips as she rubbed her arms around his back, smearing green and yellow slime on to his suit jacket.

"You're lucky that I still can't refuse hugs from..." he started, then yelped as Melissa's hands went up to his head, grabbing Clarissa's Santa hat back and pulling his face towards her chest, rubbing the remaining slimy foam through the back of his white fluffed hair as he struggled before she retreated back into the booth.

Rossi spluttered as he stood up, shaking his head. "Yeah, the only trouble with this booth is that it doesn't really stop people getting to me afterwards..." he cringed, patting his slightly green-stained hair and then pointing in at the mouse in the slimy dress. "That wasn't very ladylike!"

"What, and a gentleman leaves mouse girls alone to be gunged?" Clarissa asked, pulling her hands out of the foam and letting it slip down through her fingers.

"A fair point," Rossi admitted with a nod of his head. He stepped to the side and turned to face the audience, gesturing into the tank. "But even after that, you still both look absolutely stunning - don't they?" He smiled at the reaction, watching the two mice acknowledge the applause, Clarissa putting her hand up and circling it in the air.

"Thanks for being with us tonight, Melissa and Clarissa..." He stepped back as the booth slowly began to slide back towards the curtain. "And I hope your new year just gets better from here - please give them a massive hand for going through this for us!"