username : PrincessAlexis
goob name : Anubis (named after the Ancient Egyptian god of death and afterlife)
goob pronouns : he/him
prompt :
When Anubis was a little goo, he loved that he was so scary and spooky to others. Sometimes he would go to the beach and dig a hole, then hide in the sand so someone would find the skull. Then he'd jump out and holler "Raaaah!!" to scare them. Halloween was his favorite holiday and he rarely bothered to go out, because he liked that others often thought he was already in costume. But someday he realized something -- the attention he got on Halloween was kinder, more outgoing and friendlier than the attention he got the rest of the year. This made him sad and caused him to wish that he had more friends.
He began trying to hide his creepier features, wearing hats on his head and hanging ornaments from the bones of his tail. This made him less jarring to look at because further away he seemed like such a little cutie playing dressup, especially because of his shorter stature. Even as he grew up, he didn't get much taller, and he didn't eat much because he didn't want to get "bigger and scarier" as he would glumly say...
This caused him to remain pretty skinny, to the point where he was grateful that his skull and his tail were black rather than bone white, because others began to mistake him as quite a slim and starving little bean, whom they wanted to care for (at least as long as he was wearing a pair of sunglasses).
He ended up with one primary caretaker, a kindly neighbor named
Neteru who delighted in giving out full-sized candy bars every Halloween and on whose doorstep the little skeleton pup often found themselves after there was no one left to care for them at home. Neteru would invite the little one in and cook them all sorts of scrumptious meals, which fattened them up a little bit but this added weight never showed in his face or his tail.
"My my, much as I feed you your head and tail don't seem to be getting any plumper," Neteru remarked one day, while simmering a pot of vegetable stew. From the corner of his eye, Neteru began to see Anubis shift nervously in his seat.
"Well," Anubis began, pulling their hat lower and fidgeting with the many charms adorning their tail,
"it kind of runs in the family. My parents were the same way.""Were?" Neteru asked, a little surprised by this answer.
"If you don't mind me asking, who do you live with now?"Anubis suddenly stood up and started toward the door,
"Well I really should be going now, thank you for inviting me in.""Wait, wait," Neteru said,
"you don't have to tell me anything, but please stay and have some of this stew with me. Nahla and Toxic won't be home with the goos for a few hours, and I would hate for all of this to go to waste..."Anubis nodded and sat back down. They talked about other things, everything else except for the elephant in the room. And that night when Anubis left, Neteru sent him home with a new scarf and a pair of gloves, 'because it might be chilly out tonight'. Anubis suddenly realized that Neteru understood, without being told, that Anubis had no one to care for him. He was already aware that the goos were adopted - Chaos had been found in a graveyard, living on mushrooms and grass, and Anemone swam out of the ocean and followed them home from the beach one day. Anubis had never heard the story about how Butterfly came to live with them but instinctively knew that he would be welcome here, especially now that the cat was out of the bag.
Still, he didn't want to rush things but he began going over to Neteru's house earlier in the day and staying later in the evening. One day, when it was snowing, Neteru finally asked the question that Anubis had been waiting to hear.
"Would you care to stay here? I mean, it will be very cold tonight and you know that you're always welcome."But there was still one big hurdle to face. Anubis was very embarassed about his scary appearance these days and worried greatly about whether the others would accept him if they knew the truth.
"Before you ask me that, I think you should see how I really look. You know, see if you'd still want someone like this around."Neteru already knew the answer, even without seeing what was behind the goofy clothing, but he knew this was a big moment for Anubis.
"Alright, I think that's fair. Show me the real you, and let's see if you can frighten me off."Anubis slowly removed his hat, showing off his little diab horns. Neteru was an agel, but there were plenty of diabs in the family... this was the easy part... he pulled the hat lower then, showing his skull, of which only the very tip usually poked beyond his hat.
"Aww, you've a cute face, little one. I don't see what there is to worry about." Neteru said, smiling warmly.
Then Anubis pulled the charms from his bony tail, wagging it a bit to show how the bones and goo don't quite connect, but rather float in space a bit. In response, Neteru reached up and wiggled his own halo, with a chipper,
"This isn't really attached either."Finally, with great reluctance, Anubis removed his sunglasses. It was apparent that he had no eyes, only two bony sockets that led into the depths of his skull. A less tactful goob could have marveled at the fact that he could still see, and what a blessing that was, but Neteru knew that Anubis didn't see anything positive about his appearance or else he wouldn't have been trying so desperately to cover it up. That was what he needed a compliment on,
"Well well well there, I think you'd bet I'd be surprised but you're forgetting that you came to me this way several times, one Halloween after another. I always thought you had the very best costume, but what I realize now is that you just look fantastic in general! Imagine, no one could have created such a marvel from plastic or rubber masks, this is the real you, and you are absolutely amazing! However, I have to tell you that going trick or treating without a costume is cheating and if you want to live in this house you will dress up for Halloween or you have to be the one who stays home and passes out the candy."Neteru winked then, and Anubis was overcome with such happiness that he felt his heart would burst. No one but his parents had every loved or accepted him for his appearance, and hearing from them that he was handsome had always felt a bit fake, like of course they would think that, they were his parents, duh! But knowing that someone who was once a stranger could really care for him despite his looks raised his spirits so high that he felt as though he were soaring through the sky on the fluffiest of clouds!
When he was properly introduced to the rest of the family, they accepted him without batting an eye, having not really known as Neteru did the true depths of his struggles with body image. They didn't know how hard it was for him to reveal his true form, but when he did so they embraced him with open arms and he felt quite at home.
These days, if you asked Anubis how he felt about his appearance, he would say that he likes it just fine. He knows he is a bit spooky, but it keeps away those with impure hearts, who wouldn't see beyond the surface, and he likes that type to stay as far away from him as they please, thank you very much! After all, his true friends don't see his body, they see his
soul.
((Sorry the story is so long, TLDR; he liked being scary as a baby, when he got older he felt self-conscious about others feeling weird around him, then when he finds a family who loves him despite his looks he accepts himself and starts to feel happy that he is keeping the shallow people away because he doesn't want them in his life if they're not good people)).
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