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

[iitrebel]

[As if some sort of reward, he flings a small pack of milk bread at her.]

Good choice. Want to invite anyone?

[twoscompany]

[She catches it with one hand. Milk bread, huh?]

A few of my friends are...under the weather, unfortunately.

...

Well, you could invite Koumei and Nariko, if you haven't yet. And Sabo. I'm sure they'd love to come. Pinkie and Trucy, maybe, also.

[iitrebel]

Yeah, I already invited Pinkie. She, uh, hauled ass in eagerness.

[Sure, let's call it that.]

But Nariko, good call! I don't know whoever the hell else you're talking about, 'tho.

[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.]

[iitrebel]

System Crash...

Wait, is she a tiny brunette?

[twoscompany]

[A nod.]

That's the one.

[iitrebel]

Okay, I take back what I said, I know her.

We went ghost hunting, on the basis that ghosts are douchebags. Don't think we caught anything, honestly, besides yelling from the cleaning staff.

[twoscompany]

Oh. Of course.

[Her face visibly falls at this.]

Well, what are ghosts? Probably it was just stress.

[iitrebel]

Ha. Yeah. Fuckin' sure.

[Sure is some impressive stress that lead to my best friend getting his leg broken is on the tip of his tongue, venomous and angry, but Artolo manages to avoid saying it. He does, in fact, sometimes know that there's a time and place.]

Anyway, I need to go bribe someone. Everyone is meeting up front in like ten, so gather whoever you want for lion theft by then. Cool?

[twoscompany]

[The same stress that nearly killed Steven, hurt Terry...]

Yes, of course. Maybe once we're out we can talked about how to...you know. Relive stress.

[iitrebel]

[...Well. That's a weird statement. Downright suspicious, as a matter of fact, even if it's hard to see Artolo's suspicious squint behind his glasses.]

...Sure. We can talk on the shuttle, if you want.

[twoscompany]

Probably for the best to do that. Just let me know when you're ready to go.

[She turns to leave. Hopefully, she didn't say too much to arouse suspicion with the guards.]

[iitrebel]

See you in fifteen.

[And he scoots away with his bread cart.]

[Sure enough, some time later, and it seems like everyone who wants to come is there, and the shuttle starts piling up. Artolo makes sure Tooru's wheelchair is secure and that enough milk bread is piled on him to last him a goddamn year before looking around for some square hair. When he spots her, he flings himself lazily into the seat besides her.]

Sup.

[twoscompany]

[Aw, crap. Garnet looks at the wheelchair, staring at it until Art suddenly blocks it, speaking to her and bringing her out of her distracted state.]

Oh. Hey.

[iitrebel]

Got a problem there?

[It's not even Garnet, really. It's just that Tooru obviously isn't in the best place, here, and Artolo is ready to literally fight the first person who says shit.]

[twoscompany]

What? No, of course not.

[Even though she obviously looks worried.]

I was just thinking what kind of lion you'd be getting. Male, female, ah, maybe cross-species?

[iitrebel]

[There's a suspicious twist of his mouth, but Artolo, for once, lets it go. It's not for her sake, trust him. He just hates talking about what happened to his bandmate.]

...Two. I'm thinking of a pair, since why the fuck not.

[twoscompany]

Two?

[Well, that does mostly get her attention towards Artolo's quest. She turns fully towards him.]

They'll let you do that?

[iitrebel]

Apparently?

[Easing up minutely, he gives a jerky shrug.]

Apparently the higher ups like me, for some god forsaken fuck of a reason.

[twoscompany]

I see. My condolences.

[Good lord, which is worse? Lesedi hating you, or liking you?]

I guess that begs the question where you're going to keep them. You've optioned them with your bandmates, I hope?

[iitrebel]

[He'll get back to you on that one, Garnet.]

I already know. There's this house, blah blah, let's just say it's covered, alright? The only reason I'm even getting the house is to store the somehow legal exotic animals.

[twoscompany]

...The label's letting you get a house?

[wait WHAT?!]

[iitrebel]

[YEAH, HE KNOWS]

More like, just, 'land', but there's a house on it, so...

[twoscompany]

No wonder you think they like you. They clearly do!

And you really get to live away from the tower? Damn.

[iitrebel]

For a while now, actually. See Cat Pit apartments.

But I don't think I'll move in permanently.

[A glance back towards Tooru, fingers jittery against one knee. It's obvious why.]