A Zoo on the Mainland, Tuesday Afternoon

[intraspective]

This... wasn't how she'd planned to spend her day, but spontaneity didn't hurt no one and Ino was in a great mood as she and Sparkle hit up the zoo, of all places. It was a hot, sunny day and the zoo was crowded.

But since it wasn’t yet school holidays and it was just a Tuesday, it wasn’t too bad, all things considered. (Ino was pretending that she hadn't noticed the number of children present on field trips.)

Ino peered at her map of the zoo grounds as they got through the front gates. "Where to first?" she asked. "You hungry? Guess I should’ve asked first."

She’d sent Silly home. It had seemed like a bad idea to bring a baby bird to a zoo.

[For Sparkle, yo! NFB.]

Comments

[myownface]

"Usually it's a corgi," Sparkle muttered, rolling his eyes and then starting off in the direction she'd indicated. "This one time, it was a chihuahua. But that was only when it changed Atton at the same time."

Because of course it had. Sigh.

"How about you?"

[intraspective]

Oh, yeah, yeah she could see both of those for him already.

Ino giggled, folding her map away into her pocket. “Maybe it ain’t turned me into nothin’!”

[myownface]

To Sparkle's eternal lament, really. Make him a cat, island! Make him something cool!

"Oh, come on," he laughed, shaking his head. "Anybody with more than, like, a month of experience with the island has something."

Okay, a bit more than that, but still. He wasn't buying it.

[intraspective]

Maybe the island was trying to tell him something?

“Oh, fiiiiiiiiiiiine,” Ino said, rolling the word out like she was annoyed but smiling to take the sting out of it. “A baby boar.”

[myownface]

Step up and be the new puppy, since Zack wasn't up to it so much these days?

"... Oh my god that sounds adorable, though."

[intraspective]

“What?” Ino grinned. “You ain’t never seen one?”

[myownface]

"I mean, I've seen pictures of baby pigs," Sparkle said, laughing and shrugging. "But you're talking, like, wild boars? Don't they have stripes and things?"

[intraspective]

“Let Google solve your pain for you,” Ino said grandly, digging out her PHS to pull that up. “They are goddamn precious and don’t you forget it.”

So there.

She offered him her phone. "See?"

[myownface]

"Oh my god." Sparkle stared at the pictures for a few seconds, and then said it again. With more feeling. "Oh. My. God. Look at them! They're so precious!"

He paused, and then grinned at her.

"You think maybe they have some here?"

[intraspective]

“I—“

Ino had no idea, but she wanted to find out now.

“I vote we look for them,” she said, “and pet them if at all possible.”

[myownface]

"We did have nefarious plans to pet whatever we can," Sparkle agreed brightly. "But for one of those, hell, I'd be tempted to try to smuggle one home with me."

It was tradition.

[intraspective]

Ino contemplated that.

“I couldn’t,” she said regretfully. “It would set a bad precedent with Zack.”

Seriously bad precedent.

“I could help you get one though. If they’re here.”

Ino was a terrible person.

[myownface]

Sparkle considered that, too.

"Nah," he sighed. "Atton would kill me if I actually came home with a pet. The fish was okay, but something that can actually, like, process thought might be pushing it."

Cats had already been vetoed. It was basically like Sparkle Hell.

"Ugh, being responsible sucks. Let's eat ice cream instead of burgers until everything hurts."

[intraspective]

Being responsible was the wooorst.

“At least one burger,” Ino said stepping into line for that. “Mostly because that way we’ll have more energy and won’t crash quite so hard after all the sugar dies off.”

[myownface]

"Okay, that logic, I will allow," Sparkle decided, shrugging and stepping into line behind her. "Wouldn't do to have a crash at the zoo, would it?"

Especially not before they could make faces at the monkeys.

[intraspective]

It'd be a tragedy.

"Well," Ino said, pretending to think about it, "it would mean we'd have to come back some time."

[myownface]

"And, I mean, such hardship," Sparkle laughed, "having to come back to the zoo."

However would they survive?

[intraspective]

"Not to mention, I'm pretty sure most zoos take more than a day to really look through them properly," Ino mused, slanting a grin at him. "We might have to come back anyway."

[myownface]

"I, for one, and willing to take one for the team and come back to explore the zoo at every possible opportunity," Sparkle mused. "At least until we can be reasonably certain that we've seen it all.

[intraspective]

"And, I mean, I'm sure there's plenty about strange animals that I don't know anything about," Ino said, all wide-eyed innocence. "I'll need to make sure I know everything really well."

[myownface]

"Education is indeed a lifetime process." Sparkle gave a sage nod. "And we're nothing if not dedicated."

[intraspective]

"Extremely dedicated," Ino agreed, though now she was squinting at the options the stand had available. "What do you want?"

[myownface]

"Some terrible part of me wants to suggestively eat a corn dog and see how long it is before I get kicked out of the park," Sparkle said, smirking. "Which means I should probably just get, like, a cheeseburger or something. Extra pickles."

[intraspective]

"Tell you what," Ino said, grinning at him. "If we remember at the end of this, you can totally try and get kicked out of the park that way."

[myownface]

"Deal," Sparkle replied with a bright grin. "Anyway, I'm not gonna get chased off until we've had ice cream and seen little wild pigs."

They had a course set, here! A plan!

[intraspective]

"And made faces at the monkeys for an hour," she reminded him. "Did you want a drink too? I think I'll get one and a hot dog."

[myownface]

"Yeah, some kind of juice, maybe," Sparkle mused. "American soda is still super crappy."

It was flat. Even with carbonation in it, it was freaking flat.

[intraspective]

How even?!

"Fanta isn't too bad," Ino said. "I think they've just got the standard apple and maybe orange if you don't want that."

[myownface]

"Apple juice it is, then," Sparkle decided. "I've got a soft spot for sugar that pretends to be healthy for you."

[intraspective]

"Shut your face," Ino said, laughing. "Apple juice is totally healthy!"

No, no it wasn't.

[myownface]

"It might have, like, looked at an apple once or twice," Sparkle laughed, shaking his head, "but I promise, it so isn't a health drink."

[intraspective]

"I'm going to keep living in denial and you can't stop me," she said cheerfully, rattling off what they wanted in the next breath to the people at the stand.

[myownface]

"It's okay," Sparkle laughed, "I won't try too hard anyway. I still pass off Pop Tarts as a breakfast food, I mean."

It drove Dr. Lecter nuts.

[intraspective]

Ino paid and then glanced at him impishly. "You mean they aren't?"

[myownface]

"Well, I mean, not when you've got other options," Sparkle drawled. "You know, like Cookie Crisp and Captain Crunch..."

Breakfast of champions.

[intraspective]

"I usually just have a granola bar," Ino admitted shamelessly.

They could be terrible breakfast buddies at this rate.

[myownface]

"You are my breakfast hero," Sparkle gasped.

Somewhere, Hannibal was facepalming and didn't know why.

[intraspective]

"I've never been someone's breakfast hero before," Ino mused as she passed Sparkle his food. "Are there perks to that?"

[myownface]

"Only the coffee kind," Sparkle decided after a moment's thought. "Unless you don't like coffee. Then I'll steep you tea instead."

[intraspective]

"I'm more of a tea girl," Ino admitted. "Or a hot chocolate girl."

Well.

Mostly a whipped cream sort of girl.

[myownface]

"Is there such a thing as a hot chocolate perk?"

Sparkle asked the big questions here.

[intraspective]

"... maybe I can purchase it as an add-on?" Ino suggested.

[myownface]

"... Something like that probably exists out there," Sparkle decided. "And if it doesn't, we should patent that."

[intraspective]

"The real problem would be convincing people to buy it," Ino mused. "But I suppose we could drop it on someone with tech more advanced than us and see what they come up with."

[myownface]

"I mean, hot chocolate should be reason enough on its own, right?"

At least, Sparkle thought so.

[intraspective]

"You'd think so," she agreed. Since, well, hot chocolate. Ino was a fan. "But it's hard to tell, you know? Especially in the summer..."

[myownface]

"I was gonna suggest we just tell people to serve it iced," Sparkle noted, "but I'm pretty sure once you start heading in that direction, you just get chocolate milk."