CHAPTER 8

Fig and Newton's house is tiny. It's a prefab trailer, in theory, but it's well furnished inside and feels like it's been looked after. It's a house, but smaller. Poppy likes how no space is wasted, how each room feels like it was designed intentionally. The living room is also bike repair, the dining room folds away to make a space for morning yoga. The kitchen is kept pristine despite signs of use. A small dishwasher whirrs away on the counter. It's a space for two, no more. Already Poppy is making apologies.

"As soon as I find an apartment I'll be out of here, I'm already touring."

"You can stay as long as you need. The couch is comfy enough, but let us know if it doesn't work for you."

The couch is a lovely shade of brown, and is covered in hair, so so much hair. The money that can be made in just cleaning some peoples shedded fur would make anyone wealthy. But then again, who wants to scrape carpets forever? Hardwood is a popular choice for this very reason, carpet is a luxury item for those who can afford to upkeep it.

The first night goes off without a hitch. Fig and Newton sleep in separate rooms since they both snore and it wakes the other up. Poppy goes to sleep at 4pm so she can wake up at 10 and make her way to the station. She does the show and bikes home, getting there at 3:30. She sleeps until 10am, by which point her new roommates have already gone to work. She gets herself ready, trying to use as little of the food in the kitchen as possible, and leaves to run some errands. It's weird living like this, trying to split the day between day and night. She only lives a few hours in each, and she feels like she's missing both.


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Amoras fan club is gaining major traction, and Poppy agrees to join them one night. The address she was given leads to a small church, and signage suggests festivities in the basement. She climbs down the side stairs into a pit and opens the door to find a few dozen people standing around sipping drinks. Most of them are on their phones, and with the music playing they don't notice her entering. One does, another lagomorph, but shoots his eyes back down to the floor he was so preoccupied with. Maybe he just really likes his sneakers or something.

Amora must have noticed too, coming over to greet her. Amora goes for a hug, and Poppy feels obliged to accept it. She sheep may know her, but the feelings aren't mutual. "Thanks for coming tonight, I didn't tell anyone just in case you flaked out. You wanna say something to the group?"

"S-sure? But don't expect it to be anything worth writing down."

"Don't worry, I'll tape it!" And Amora pushes her to a small stage with a microphone and speaker set up. She taps the microphone, everyone looks up at her. At some point the music stops, too.

"Everyone, I brought a very special gust to tonights meeting. She can't stay long because she needs to go off and record tonights episode, but for a little while... Poppy herself!"

"Um, hello everyone." Applause, a good 15 seconds of clapping for a hello. "How are you all doing tonight?" Cheering now. She could say anything and get a good response, she's a celebrity to these people. "The stars are bright, and big at night..." DEEP IN THE HEARRRRT, OF TEXAS!!!

"Had to try that. Forgive me, I'm not the greatest with public speaking. Numbers on a screen are one thing, but to see other real people interested in my program is incredible. I thought that a show at goes live at midnight wouldn't get too much traction. In my.. ignorance? Oversight more like, I forgot about the people who occupy this town while the rest of us sleep. It's funny, trying to cater to 2 parallel cultures. I've had to spend weekend nights out on the town to get a grasp on the culture, to better appeal to y'all." More applause at this. "I hope the show continues to be.. entertaining for a good long while. Thank you." She stepped off the stage and into the lions den of the people who idolized her.

She spent an hour and a half there before having to leave for the studio. She talked to someone who was making their own merchandise, who shoved a T-shirt from their bag into poppy's arms. There was a cat who was making daily playlists of the songs played on the show that were getting serious traction (and who was very disappointed at the music segments being cut down in the recent weeks.) Multiple people, much shyer, came up to her when she wasn't engaged with anyone else and talked about how the show was good company on nights when their depression flared up. They made point to mention their names, and Poppy agreed to mention them in the show at points. Maybe she should do more affirmations for people, couldn't hurt.

As the hours winded down and she was getting more and more anxious about making it to the studio Amora came up to her again and thanked her for coming. "You mean a lot to these people, We hope to see you again sometime soon. It's a shame you can't stay, we do a listening party when the show goes live."

"Well I can't exactly be two places at once. See you around Amora, take care."

"I'll try."


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