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

Sanctuary

[sailorlaughter]

Pinkie feels bad about leaving before they're even out of Pride HQ. But she's barely left the penthouse since Tiger came back and Kido left, and she can't stay inside anymore - she just can't.

She's pretty quiet during the trip, and once they're arrived she doesn't seem particularly interested in the lions and tigers that were the actual object of the trip. Instead she wanders off towards another part of the shelter. She can be found in a pen with a few ponies, kneeling down with her arms wrapped around the neck of a particularly calm gray mare. It's not an excited hug. She just seems to be holding onto the pony and talking quietly to it.

[iitrebel]

"Hey."

Unlike the usual rating arrogance he displays... just about anytime, anywhere, including the ride here, Artolo's own tone is pretty subdued when he finally figures out where Pinkie is. He's still wearing is thick sunglasses, which hide even his eyebrows, but he's frowning a bit.

"You alright over there?"

[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?

[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?"

[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.

[iitrebel]

That is a fantastic question. One that Artolo doesn't answer right away. He just focuses on making his way to stand near Pinkie, frowning a little with his hands shoved into his pockets.

"So." A pause and he clears his throats. "Lesedi Santiago talked to me. Earlier. Like, to my face, in person." It's an experience he's still not really over, honestly. He wishes he could say it's for positive reasons.

[sailorlaughter]

"Oh." Pinkie blinks, raising her head from the pony's mane, though she keeps her arms lightly looped around its neck. "That's...what happened?"

She talked to Lesedi once, and she thought it went okay. She'd actually thought they could've been friends! But, well, that was before a lot of other things happened. Maybe it didn't even happen the way she remembers it.

[iitrebel]

"Yeah." More than awkward, he rubs the back of his neck. The sudden raise, well, frankly, even he'd chalked it up to some sort of clerical error. Apartment? Well, even An could only tolerate his complaints for so long.

It's a lot harder to make up excuses when the CEO of your label actually comes to meet you face to face.

"I guess I'm doing well... somehow."

[sailorlaughter]

"I thought your manager didn't like you."

Pinkie's got just enough tact not to mention that she thought most of the higher-ups disliked Artolo. Managers are a different matter - it seems like nobody really gets along with them anymore. She can't imagine that it was always like that.

[iitrebel]

"She... didn't." A weird kinda grimace crosses his face. The whole thing is kind of freaking him out, honestly. "I guess the boss ass bitch herself coming personally for me has put her in a good mood. She hasn't been riding my ass nearly as much as she used to when I first got with the band."

He knew he had done a few things that had turned out popular... But he hadn't figure they were that well received.

[sailorlaughter]

Pinkie sits back on her heels, tucking a stray curl behind her ear as she frowns. "Weird. But I mean...I guess that's good, right?" Lesedi scares her, frankly. She wouldn't want to spend a lot of time with her. But even so, it's better for her to like you than to not.

[iitrebel]

"I guess." Artolo doesn't really sound sure. Still, he guesses it's happened whether he likes it or not. "If nothing else, now I have two places outside the penthouse to fuck off to whenever I'm getting annoyed. If HQ ever gets too goddamn weird for you, you're free to call me and just hang out at either Cat Pit or the soon-to-be Lion Hole."

[sailorlaughter]

"Okay."

Pinkie leans back and stares disconsolately at the pony. "I mean, that's super nice, but I dunno if it'll help. Things are just plain weird, y'know? Like, not even just there." It's her, really. She doesn't want to say that, but it's true.

Re: Sanctuary

[twoscompany]

Garnet's own feelings about Steven are raw, hard, making her think and talk crazy about things she knows, deep down, she's potentially endangering herself with. Yet at the same time, she can't help but feel for Pinkie. She had Steven, and Kido, and she was taking care of them as well. It wasn't easy with one; with two, it's like being a pinball.

Garnet finds her in the pony pen, and when she gets to her, she bends down and brings a hand towards her shoulder.

"Hey there. You hanging in there?"

[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.

[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?"

[sailorlaughter]

Pinkie frowns a little. "I don't know."

There are names she could give her, of course. This pony doesn't look or act like any of those other ponies - in a lot of ways - but she could do that anyway. If she wanted.

She doesn't really want people to think she's crazy though. Sure, people thought that before, but in a fun kind of way. "Oh, Pinkie's crazy, she'll party all night!" Not "Pinkie literally wishes she had hooves!" Those are two pretty different things.

"Maud," she decides suddenly, without quite meaning to. "I mean - I guess? That's a pretty good name, right?"

[twoscompany]

Maud, huh.

"Well, I'll be honest." Garnet tilts her head. "I probably would have given it a worse name, myself. Like...Ash. Or...Smoky."

...She's trying, Pinkie, she really is.

[sailorlaughter]

Pinkie sniffs a little. "Those aren't bad names." She guesses. They don't entirely sound like pony names to her, even if those are totally the kind of things you call your pet. What are pony names supposed to sound like?

She sighs, letting go of the pony's neck to fall back into a sitting position. "I'm not - " Pinkie shakes her head, curls bouncing. This is something she's kept to herself for a while, and she's not even sure how to explain about it now. "I don't even know if I like ponies or not. They kinda freak me out."

[twoscompany]

Garnet looks at the pony staring at Pinkie, and gives it a few pats on the snout.

"Why do they freak you out?"

[sailorlaughter]

Pinkie squirms a little. "Iiiiiii...don't know. It's like - "

She falls quiet for a second, thinking about it. "I mean, they're nice. They're fluffy and warm, and this one's being really good! But they're sorta like...those weird mannequins you see in nice clothes stores? With the eyes." They're almost, almost something - and then at the end, they just fall short. It's not right.

[twoscompany]

"They are?" Garnet blinks at the horse, which she continues to pat. "You mean the eyes don't look right?"

Is the horse disabled?...Or...

[sailorlaughter]

"Ehhhhh." Pinkie waves a hand in a vague gesture. They don't, but that's not all of what she means.

Leaning back, she rests her forehead against Maud's, looking into her eyes again. Yeah. That's weird. Well, it's close enough, isn't it? "I guess so," she concludes, though she still sounds doubtful.

[twoscompany]

Well, if that's off, maybe there's another explanation aside from 'Pinkie's on drugs'. Namely, because Pinkie didn't do drugs, from what she could gather.

"...Have you been thinking about horses lately?"

[sailorlaughter]

"Ponies," she's quick to correct, because there's totally a difference. Horses are bigger. Also, in her weird visions or whatever, she's not entirely sure they exist. Is that big one with the wings and horns a horse? She only remembered that one once, and not very clearly - but she'd been in charge and hadn't hurt anyone, so there's that.

"But yeah. I guess."