Ough, dear. It smelled /awful/ here. Emmeline’s parade had been much nicer. Now, she was in this… /Interesting/ outfit, in the smoke, with a malodorous stink spreading through the air. Emmeline’s parade hasn’t been received very well. Clover would do better. She would wave at the strangers staring at her, the strangers anticipating her suffering. She would wave, smile. She would wink at a specific cat in the crowd every so often, even though she had no idea who they were. Though her acts were fake, they didn’t look so- She has spent years mastering this act, after all. Just another mask to switch out with the old one. Keep smiling, keep winking, keep waving. Even if you just want to scrunch up your nose and spit on the ground. Even if you want to run away, run away, run- Keep pretending, keep acting like you’re having fun, like you care about these cats you don’t know. You’ve been doing this for your whole life. And you can keep doing it now. And she continued, smiling and waving and winking and pretending and pretending and pretending and pretending and pretending and at least it looked genuine.
