Beyond the Horizon | Expansion!
The following is the second chapter of our first Gooeys lore book, Beyond the Horizon. Lore chapters will arrive once a week for three weeks each month, with the last week dedicated to our Team Medium updates.
Be sure to check in often so you don’t miss out on the Gooeys world!
Presto was an unimpressive Gooey in every sense of the word. His features were hopelessly mismatched, with vibrant green ears, a deep purple body, and smiling (though notably uncommanding) gray eyes.
Yet, ambitious wouldn’t soon begin to describe the plans and machinations that sprung forth in his mind. Representatives of every Gooey faction would be gathered here today, something their domain had not seen in quite some time.
Not only was Princess Amelie roaming about the last remaining chambers of the Palace Ruins, both the Vagrant Goo factions were present and shockingly polite. Presto supposed they had just as much to gain from this meeting as everyone else:
A chance to curry favor with the Princess.
But for Presto, his objective was loftier than when the Primal Goo stood tall… expansion was the true reason for this meeting — and the Gooeys’ dear princess was the bait. Now, it would be prudent for Presto to represent his intentions thoughtfully and persuasively.
“Perhaps I shall draft a manifesto,” he trilled under his breath.
Of course, the odds were against Presto’s hopes and desires; the poor Gooey was not just mismatched, his voice was a special sort of irritating. Too high to be remotely assertive, and too off-key to begin presenting as eloquent — given his long-winded nature.
And yet, he’d found himself in a unique position.
As fate would have it, he happened to be standing next to the Gooey who’d removed the magical seal on Princess Amelie’s magic prison. But when that magic was completed, the old Gooey had toppled over with exhaustion, leaving Presto to take credit for releasing the princess.
Pacing back and forth as he gloated to himself, it occurred to him that for a festival grounds, these ruins seemed neither festive nor palace-y. With this area’s dusty winds and pulverized buildings, Presto realized 3 things in this order:
1. When he had seen Amelie yesterday, she had seemed rather bashful, gruff, and secretive
2. His “royal escort” seemed rather… inconsistent with the Droplet Society guards and messengers
3. He may, in fact, be quite stupid
As the late morning sun began to bring the purple Gooey great discomfort, he clumsily rushed to the royal changing room and swung the doors wide. Inside the drab stone room stood the silhouette of Amelie.
“Oh my oh my, Presto dear! P-please I require privacy,” she squeaked.
“Hahah nice ‘un. Now let me try,” a gruff voice whispered harshly. “Mu’ Dares’ Prasto! Fetch mu’ some watta!”
Darting forward — humiliation contorting his smiling eyes into something quite foul — and shrieking as only he could, Presto grabbed at the silhouette’s hair, unveiling two Vagrant Gooeys stacked tall and holding a long stick (where the “hair” was haphazardly attached with Sticky Moss).
Supremely bothered that their game had been spoiled, they hopped in stacked tandem and leaned forward. Eyes narrowed and with their skull-shaped facemasks nearly touching Presto’s, the gruff-voiced Gooey with red eyes, gray body, and matching long ears barked:
“Whatcha gon’ do about it, Presto?” His mask was chipped, appearing charred at the edges. His heavy breath reeked of old bananas.
The other of the tricksy duo had a translucent body and dark blue eyes. Her ears were flattened under the weight of her companion. The pair cackled in an awful cacophony as Presto realized his fate.
Why must this world only favor the garish and brash, Presto sulked to himself.
Glowering and groaning, Presto pushed through the old doors. Just as the scorching sunlight illuminated Presto’s forehead, the squeaky Gooey called after him.
“Sage Gumbo sends his politest regards!”
Presto heard the gruff one mutter, “But wasn’ the ol’ man supe’ mad?”
“Yeah, yeah but that’s what makes the whole… Ah, forget it.”
After moving North for a few hours, Presto discovered he was a full day’s trip away from the Palace Ruins and was likely to miss everything. So he found a suitable tree to perch under and began writing his Manifesto de la Slimé — something that could teach even those vagrants to be more civilized.
