interstellar5555 | 3 ♊ Take your dark days

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I guess the people I see have the tattoos," Pinkie replies, somewhat doubtfully. Can you tattoo fur? Is it some kind of dye? But she doesn't have enough hair on her legs for that to work now.

Gold Helmet Guy is an easier topic! "Yeah!" She nods furiously, curls bobbing. "He's cool! We're like, jam buds or something! I mean, it's only been once or twice, but he seems nice!" She'd like to be friends with him. Admittedly, Pinkie would like to be friends with most people. Maybe it's because the helmet makes him seem super mysterious!

Once or twice, huh? Artolo rocks on his heels a bit. Maybe he's reading too much into things, but, still, an appearance like that, the weird request... He rolls his tongue in his mouth thoughtfully.

"...Do you think they did something?"

Pinkie thinks about the question for a moment, sucking on her lower lip. "Yeah...I mean, we jammed together, and it was sorta weird? Not like normal music, I mean." Maybe for some of the others; she's seen Greg and his special effects. But she's never experienced anything like that herself.

There's too much adding up. Too much weird nonsense to dismiss it. Artolo wants to go run around the entire enclosure nonstop, because his brain is pumping out too much energy. Instead, he stays, jittery but in place.

"Think we should do that again? With that guy?"

"I don't know."

Pinkie looks down at her hands, laying still and curled up in her lap. "He's gonna make us more like we are in those things, right? I dunno if I can do that, but...I don't like being like this either." She thinks she might be more at ease if all her weird long limbs and skinny weak fingers were just gone. But you can't just be a horse. It'd be the end of her career for sure, and then what?

Aw shit.

This is some Feelings Territory, and Artolo realizes he should have seen this coming, but he didn't, because he's a jackass. Shit. He freezes up for a moment, wondering how the hell he's going to respond to this.

"Well... What's not to like about how you are now?"

Pinkie looks down at her hands and chews on her lip a little.

"I dunno." What doesn't she like? What does she like? "I like my hair? And...my clothes are okay." She sort of likes her tattoos, maybe. They still don't seem quite right, but it's nicer to have them than to not.

Hair and clothes, alright. That's simple enough. Good and aesthetically pleasing, he can roll with that. Rubbing the back of his neck. Is there anything about himself he doesn't like? He thought no, but then weird eye nonsense happened, and here they are.

"Maybe... You won't figure out what you like until it shows up." He fiddles with his glasses. "Like, I thought I was okay with my eyes, but now they're like this, and it doesn't... feel as weird as I guess it should be." He shrugs. "Like, this is how I want them, and I just didn't know it before."

Pinkie nods, then leans her chin down on her knees. She likes the sound of that, in a way. "I don't think I can be how I wanna be. Like, you know you can't let them see your eyes." She doesn't mean it as advice, because he obviously already knows that. It's just that he knows the danger too.

"But you can't hide everything that easy." Particularly not a persistent desire to walk on four limbs and not have fingers anymore.

"Yeah, that's what Tooru said." Sure, he said a lot of things, some of them just plain shithive maggots, but it's hard to deny now that the adrenaline has... sort of eased up. Artolo still thinks it's a temptation to go running out the nearest window, but that's just him.

"I guess if it ever got that bad... Shit, I cannot even believe I'm repeating this, but maybe, like... Staying in Pride wouldn't be viable or something, you know?" Every single word is practically dragged out of him reluctantly. Considering his own condition, he doesn't want to consider it either. Things could very easily get worse, after all.

Pinkie blinks at him. The words don't seem to really make sense. Well, it does, but at the same time it really doesn't.

"What would I do then?" She can't go back home. She doesn't even really remember where it is she used to live. Pride is sort of a terrible place lately, but it's not like there's any other options.

"Fuck if I know." Yeah, he's got nothin'. In theory, it's the obvious solution, but putting it into practice seems impossible somehow. "Think maybe Helmet would let us crash on his couch?"

Pinkie considers this suggestion seriously for a moment.

"Do you think he even HAS a couch?" He always seems to kinda just...appear. And then vanish. Pinkie's not even entirely sure he's not a ghost. "It's kinda weird to think about him with like, a house and normal things."

"Have you see the freak's wardrobe?" Artolo counters immediately. "I refuse to believe that there is a hobo walking around looking that good. I mean, come on."

Pinkie frowns thoughtfully. "I guess. His helmet is super shiny." She honestly never took close notice of his clothes - the helmet and the magic music stuff is awfully distracting - but she knows he generally dresses nice too. "He looks like he lives on a spaceship or something!"

Normally, he'd blow a raspberry at that. Nowadays, well, shit is just too damn weird. Wouldn't that be the cherry on the bizarre shit sunday? So instead he just makes a nasally "Eeeeeeh."

It's so dumb. He can't believe this might be his life now.

"You know, when things calm down, maybe we can all just crash at my place. So long as no one is allergic. I mean, it'll be hard to find room with all the cats, but hey."

"That could be cool! I bet they'd let us, too." Artolo is still with Pride, so it's not totally like they'd be leaving label property. It's not a permanent solution even if he was okay with letting them stay forever, but it seems like some well-timed vacation could do a world of good. "Thanks, I'll think about it! I don't even really mind the cats!"

"Glad to hear it." Relaxing a bit now that they're shifting away from the serious topics, he smirks a little. "The cats beat everyone else when it comes to hierarchy anyway. That's why they have their own place to live."

3 ♊ Take your dark days

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