3 ♊ Take your dark days

[iitrebel]

Who: Artolo Apemis and any Pride who will put up with him for an extended period of time
What: Art is going lion shopping. This is not slang of any sort. You've been invited.
When: Throughout the day of February 11th
Where: Roman's Animal Sanctuary
Warnings: None planned. Feel free to treat this as a mingle log

For there to be any extended space in Vista City, things tend to be... crowded. It's the obvious solution when a city gets big enough. Roman's Animal Sanctuary has the delightful honor of having established a space the size of a baseball field some time before the city swallowed it up. The problem became when they needed to expand, but simply couldn't.

The solution: Get with the times and build upwards.

With high ceilings on all floors meant to cycle through different times of day in accordance with actual daytime, enormous windows, and certain measures taken to mimic appropriate weather, Roman's is half a zoo (to help fund its upkeep) besides just being an animal sanctuary for various abused or abandoned animals of the more exotic sort.

This includes lions.

Coincidentally, lions are why you're here.

Somehow, one Artolo Apemis has invited you to go what he called "lion shopping" and that, as it turns out, is not slang even remotely. Roman's been alerted of this high profile visit from a bunch of Pride jackasses, and is more than happy to allow the musicians to check out some of the staff areas behind the scenes instead of just being stuck in the public areas. Yes, you can feed the publicly approved llamas and goats plus large animals with sharp teeth. Under strict supervision, of course.

Comments

[traumatizing]

Yuffie...

[He clambers up on the fence to sit on it and watches Yuffie closely. He's super worried, but he can't exactly jump in after her in case he freaks out the birds.]

[sailorlaughter]

Pinkie sniffles, tilting her face away from the pony's neck to look at Artolo. "Yeah, I guess..." She doesn't sound entirely convinced; nor does she look like she's about to get up.

"I dream about ponies sometimes, but I've never really met one before." They aren't really dreams. It happens during the day, and she knows daydreams don't work like that. It just seems like the best way to put it. How do you explain to people that you think about being a pony a lot?

[sailorlaughter]

Pinkie swallows, turning her head to press her face into the pony's shoulder. Luckily the animal seems pretty tolerant of all this, even if it is nibbling on her hair a little bit.

"I don't know." She's not really...doing anything. Not really, and when's she ever done anything? Half the time she feels like she can barely even look at herself.

[cleartranquil]

[Yuffie holds out a hand, and for once seems to be perfectly still.

The bird gives her a look and then after a moment it takes a step closer.]

That's a good girl. [When it's in reach she puts a hand in it's feathers. She grins, but doesn't turn to look at Terry because she might not be scared but she's not stupid enough to take her eyes off the bird while she talks to him.]

See? She's nice.

[This is about the point that the bird decides to start picking at Yuffie's hair, and she just laughs.]

[traumatizing]

[He takes a picture of this to send to Maxxie ("Look at what I'm dealing with here.") and frowns loudly.]

I'm telling you, this is a bad idea.

[cleartranquil]

I'm telling you. This is an awesome idea.

[She continues petting it's flank, making clicking sounds with her tongue. She burrows her fingers in next to the wing, grinning madly and letting the bird have it's way with her hair. It's mostly just entertaining itself. It's not acting angry, and the others aren't either.]

You wanna come with me, girl?

[ She hooks her hand in around the wing and directs it towards the fence. She's going to need some height to pull this off. ]

[traumatizing]

[This is terrible. It's awful. Terry doesn't have anything to say anymore, he just looks worried. There's a couple of hushed "Yuffie..."s in there, but mostly he's just staring and hoping she doesn't die. The birds seem to like her, but how quickly could that change? Probably super quickly.]

[He's gonna text Luci. Maybe she won't kill him if Yuffie dies here today.]

[cleartranquil]

[Yuffie, of course, is completely ignoring his distress. She pulls the bird closer to the fence so she can get a foot up on it, all the while still trying to keep the bird calm. It's starting to get a little unsettled, but she's not too worried. Not really.]

Heey. Heeeeey girl. You're okay.

[She continues talking calmly to it as she hooks her foot up, and then she says something indistinguishable about a saddle before dropping down onto it's back. She resettles her legs under the wings just in time for it to take off, darting forward in surprise because of it's passenger, Yuffie whooping in delight the entire time.]

[traumatizing]

[Terry pulls back a little when she has the bird near the fence and makes an incredibly undignified noise of distress when it takes off. How can this just be okay? Hasn't she seen these things? Nope nope no nope.]

Alright, come on. [It's probably hard to speak with any authority when he has his legs pulled up as high as possible without falling off the fence, but he's gonna try anyway.] That's enough, right?

[cleartranquil]

[ Yuffie's cackling and has her grip on the back of the bird's shoulders, just behind the wings, trying not to injure it by twisting feathers in the wrong way. She lets out another shriek of happiness before turning and sticking her tongue out at Terry. ]

Oh hush you big worry-WOAH!

[Of course, this particular bird is not really meant for long term riding, so this is about the point Yuffie goes flying off the back of it. The bird just keeps on running, and then there's Yuffie laying back in the grass, laughing her ass off at her own failure.

Sure, that kinda hurt, but totally was worth it.]

[traumatizing]

Yuffie!

[Terrifying giant birds be damned, when Yuffie goes flying he leaps off the fence and runs over to her. And then punches her shoulder when he realises she's laughing.]

Jesus christ!

[cleartranquil]

[Yuffie is just continuing to laugh, even though she fights him off with both hands just attempting to slap in his vague direction so he wont hit her again.]

That was so awesome!

[Yuffie looks ridiculously happy all things considered, when she finally sits up, though she does have grass in her hair and is probably going to be sore later.]

Ya know, you should totally try!

[traumatizing]

No. No way.

[He picks a blade of grass out of her hair and frowns at it.]

You couldn't pay me enough to do it.

[cleartranquil]

[ Yuffie seems to debate that. Is there some bribe she can think of? She's got nothing.

After a moment, her grin grows and goes sharp around the edges. ]

Scared ya, didn't I?

[traumatizing]

Yes! [This time she's getting shoved.] Ugh, you're an asshole.

[cleartranquil]

[She lets him shove her over into the grass again, and Yuffie cackles obnoxiously. ]

I am the most amazing girl you know!

[She sticks out her tongue at him again, now that she's not on a bird and can do it without threat of actual personal injury.]

That was the best.

[twoscompany]

Trucy's from System Crash. She's a good kid, she might like lions.

Sabo's our new drummer.

[...And that's apparently it for Sabo! Sorry,Sabo.]

[twoscompany]

What can she do for Pinkie? What...what would...what would Steven do? She thinks, looking back on those memories of him, before she decides on an action.

"...So, what's the pony's name?"

Xanxus | OTA

[variaboss]

Scanturary
Was he actually invited to come along? Who knows. But somehow, Xanxus has shown up anyway. It has to do with cats. Very large cats. He's always loved cats. That seems true enough. There's just something about felines that make him a little gooey on the inside.

He is giddy as a school boy. No way he can actually afford a lion, even though he does have some money. But he'll be damned if he doesn't enjoy himself while he's here. He leans against one of the enclosure railings, watching some tigers at play.

"When I get rich enough, I'm going to build me a huge place. And on the grounds, I'm going to have a big cat rescue just like this one."

Later on, Xanxus can be found, where else, but with the liger cubs. He really really likes them. They're cute and fluffy and he really really wants one. There's a male one that's all white that he really really likes.

Please feel free to mock the normally unpleasant asshole as he cuddles with adorable kittens and baby talks them. Because he totally is. Cooing to the white one he's cuddling with. "Who's the bestest little kitty evers? You are. You're bester than every other kitty here."

[scalpedsociety]

It's kind of disturbing, what with his eyes all contrasting red and blue, even the sclera.

"Calm down... can you see?"

[iitrebel]

Cautiously, because for some reason hooved things bring that out in him against all odds, Artolo starts his way to her. Other ponies are given as much of a birth as he can manage, considering he's in the pony pen. It's not really successful.

"What kind of dreams?"

[iitrebel]

that iis for ppl w/self preservatiion

[And Artolo is the jackass who clinged to Xanxus' leg all the way to the Carnie house, so he's clearly lacking in his supply.]

[Whenever Yuffie is ready, however, she can find a shuttle ready on Pride main floor. Artolo is leaning against it, blocky sunglasses hiding his eyes and flicking about on his cell.]

[iitrebel]

System Crash...

Wait, is she a tiny brunette?

[iitrebel]

"I wouldn't have made it to my room otherwise!" After a moment, however, he flicks down the light switch so that the only light is that which is coming from the direction of his room. It makes the room dimmer, although not impossible to see through.

Okay. Yeah. This is better.

"Light hurts like a motherfucker, although that might be the hangover, I don't know."

[sailorlaughter]

Luckily, the ponies generally seem pretty calm. They're inclined to ignore people who don't look like they're going to give out food or affection.

"I dunno," Pinkie lies. "Just dreams, I guess. Not like, ohmygosh I really want a pony kinda dreams! I don't think Jin would let me do that anyway." She pauses thoughtfully for a second before asking: "How come you're allowed to get a lion now?" Last she heard, Artolo's manager wasn't even all that cool with the cats.