[b]Lion:[/b]

He glares for a moment, rolls his eyes, mugs a camera as if to say - [i]‘Can you believe this idiot’[/i] - and walks into the parting crowd as his bodyguard has extracted themselves from Eli’s body-prison using taser fibres in their suit jacket. Not a shining moment for anyone involved. It’s only when he’s got some distance from Red and it’s not as easy for her to shut him down he starts up again - “See, this is the problem, these creatures talk about being inclusive, about being welcoming, about just being expression, but even when you show up looking like one of their own-”

Guys like him are like the McDonalds of ideology - you can autofill the rest based on that, he sounds like every other guy who’s ever started a rant like that, there’s nothing new here you can’t already guess. But that’s the appeal of them, too, to their base. Maybe it’s more accurate to say they’re all cover bands playing for an audience that keeps making the same song request. 

“Smartest thing he could have done, honestly.” Pope sounds a little impressed. “Only chance he has you might be wrong about any of that is just act like you are. Going to make a great shitfight on social media now, lots of people are going to be debating who won that. 30% of the station are going to think you came out of that looking hysterical. That can’t have been easy for him to pull off, did you see his eyes when you mentioned the gas station toilet? He looked like a spanked hog.”

“Does it ever get to you? That you can rub the truth in someone’s nose like that, understand the world and a person in it so completely that there’s no argument that could be made, no debate, no counterfactual… and if they still deny it, there’s nothing more you can do about it?” He’s more interested in Red than the Governer by far, doesn’t bother to watch him go even to laugh at him. “Sure, we’ll ruin him. It’s just not going to change him.” 

[b]Unicorn:[/b]

“You’d love to, then. Let’s start with that, because I think it’s the most important thing.” Crystal squeezes. “We don’t have to do everything at once. Maybe let’s start with some cheese toast? No, no, I think I might like a bowl of cereal more. So why don’t we just go through that?”

Just two ingredients in a bowl, nothing to cook, nothing to burn, nothing to ruin. It’s the safest thing she can think of, one of the few things simpler than a sandwich. Even this is enough to trigger the hell out of Pink’s pantry memorization though, right?

She hugs Pink tighter and says softly against her ear; “Just one step. The longer you don’t take it, the more power the story of this has over you. Something you could have done ten years ago becomes something that has defeated you for ten years. Just take one step with me, and this is no longer about something impossible. It’s something you’ve started fixing.”

“If I’m being honest? I expect this is about to go horribly.” Crystal leans out of the hug for Pink to see her face when she says it, wry and knowing. “But I think I’ll be even prouder of you if it does. Because it means you tried anyway, even though the problem is exactly as bad as you say.” 

[b]Panther:[/b]

Black Panther looks at Green with an appraising look, as she comes back to step around her and close the hotel room door. That is, close the hotel door [i]behind[/i] Green. Click. This close, you can smell her fur is damp with sweat. You must have interrupted her during her first chance to sit down in hours. She smells like - no, the panther is too far gone now. If Green buried her face in that fur, though, her head would be filled with more precise and specific adjectives. 

“Think I’ll call you Spearmint.” She decides. “You’re the same colour as the packs of Winter Breaths I used to buy. Trying to be real cool, but I bet you’d go all sweet on me if I chew on you a bit.” 

It seems like Green’s impassioned plea is undercut somewhat by the panther definitely noticing how much Green was staring at her butt. 

“I want to hear some more about this apocalyptic level of heat.” Her tail swishes, like it’s flicking flies out of the air. “I’ll ask again. You going to help me set up, or what?”

Does she believe you? Does she think you’re lying? Does she think you’re stupid? Does she just think you’re underestimating what she can handle? The panther is shrouded in too many impenetrable layers, and Green’s not in a good position to penetrate her. 

What she needs set up is a bathroom covered floor to ceiling with instrument cases, and it’s unlikely any of them contain a single musical instrument. She needs to move, sort and open them before she can so much as take a shower here. This… does add some context as to why she’s still willing to pressgang Green into this, after that.