2024-12-02 - Corn Dogs and Purple Clogs

Heaven Leigh is looking for dinner. She worked some overtime at the spa and the first thing she saw walking out was the lurid, glowing sign that reads "Pet's Corn Dog Palace." She's a simple woman, and hunger doesn't discriminate.

She strolls toward Pete's, eyes on her phone, if anyone crosses her path -- disaster might strike.

A Corn Dog Palace? Now who could argue with that.

Certainly not Artemisia, who is blissfully walking out of Pete's Corn Dog Palace with a fully loaded corndog in hand. It is already half eaten. She wears layers of black and red and black and pink windowpane plaid with a layered skirt, black tights, and combat boots with ribbons in the place of laces. She looks like she could have just stepped off a ride, but these are her 'plain' clothes.

Rather than spot the Heaven Leigh hurricane that is head her way, Artemisia trips over the blonde and tumbles ass over feet into the bush, smearing corndog over - well, everything.

Groaning at the impact, Artemisia wiggles. "Shit."

She's stuck.

Heaven is wearing a bunch of loaded corndog on her person. Thank god she isn't wearing white. She stares straight as she takes a deep breath. Then she realizes that Artemisia is ass over teakettle in a bush and she grunts, pushing to her feet.

"C'mon now. Fuck. Are you okay?" They both look like they just went through the most gnarly food fight.

She manages to get Artemisia unstuck. "Hi."

"I am so sorry," Artemisia manages once she is sitting on the ground, a smear of mustard/ketchup acting as eyemakeup and a glob of green 'blush'.

"I will pay to get your clothes cleaned."

Then. "Hi."

"Don't worry about it, I work at the Spa and you wouldn't believe the shit I get on my clothes on a near-daily basis," Heaven says with a bright smile, holding a hand out toward Artemisia -- it's covered in mustard.

"Heaven." A beat. "And you are?"

"Goodness."

Aretmisia blinks at Heaven and then laughs, a brilliant smile on her lips. It's like an emoji almost. SMILE. "I'm Arte," she says, offering a hand that's been lightly attacked by the bush. It'll go well with the mustard. "Artemisia if you wanna get fancy."

"I like fancy. That name is right out of a novel, or it should be." Heaven considers her new friend and purses her lips. "You look like you lost your corn dog, think we should get you another, and me one too?"

She leans in to dust Arte off a bit, frowning. "You've got.." She reaches to pull a leafy stick out of Artemisia's hair. ".. something here. There we go."

"She was a painter," Artemisia admits, just a little shyly. "All my siblings have equally arty names. My brother is Amadeus." She nods, brushing off her skirt as she rises to her feet, finding herself a little short of Heaven.

"My treat," she offers. As the leaf comes out of blonde curls, Artemisia grins. "Thanks! So you work at the spa? That's so cool. I wanna do a treatment there next time I have some time off."

"Oh, Amadeus. I know where that's from at least." Heaven perks up as Arte says that the corn dogs are her treat, and she claps her hands. "Excellent!" She pauses and then adds, "I just got off work so you can pay for the first one, but I might get like two or three more. I won't make you pay for all of that."

"I work at the spa, and it's a lot of fun. You should stop by and we can give you the primo scent and scrub treatments."

"Girl, I covered you in corn dog," Artemisa points out, grabbing some napkins and passing them to Heaven before dabbing off herself. She orders several corn dogs. Really. It's a corn dog sampler. And some drinks which are non-alcoholic no matter how big Arte's eyes get. "Come on," she says, waving them over to a table to sit while their order is worked on.

"I - don't even know what that entails? It sounds super nice though." Artemisia looks down at her poor, chipped nails. "I'm really tough on my hands - so I try to get them massaged when I can. Especially into winter."

Heaven follows Arte, shadowing her a bit so she doesn't trip or drop the items. "Well we do massages on all areas, we do mud wraps, pedicures and manicures, and aromatherapy." She sits and crosses her legs, leaning in to snag a corn dog. "Well there is plenty we can do to be nicer to your hands, if you'd like, you can book an appointment and I could get you in really quick."

"I'll do that." Artemisia flashes Heaven a brilliant smile, blonde curls twisting around her ears as she bops her head to the side. "Hands from Heaven, I'm sure."

"Hands from Heaven, I like that." Heaven says with a bright grin on her features. "I should do something spectacular and hype my services up more. I was thinking of posting something on the employee boards to see if people would like something done."

"That's a thought. I'm sure it's the people working who need massages most of all," Artemisia declares with a bite of corn dog.

"Possibly." Heaven says, and she gazes at her corn dog like she is in love, and takes a big bite of her corndog. Her eyes drift closed as she makes a noise. "This is amazing. It is all that I wanted and more." She opens one eye to gaze at Artemisia. "It must have bene kismet when we ran into each other helter skelter."

"Corndog kismet?" Artemisia takes another bite and chews it thoughtfully. "Yeah. I'd believe in that."

Heaven nods, and she blinks and gets to her feet. "I need cheese fries!" She dances over to the ordering window and orders herself some cheese fries that also has some sweet chili sauce on them because fucking A that's the best modification anyone can make.

She carries them back over to the table, sitting and dragging out a fry smothered in cheese and sweet chili. "This.. this is very yes."

"What did you put on them?" Artemisia says, leaning over to smell. "It smells like Gochujang! On fries? Brilliant."

"It's cheese fries with sweet chili sauce. I put that shit on everything. Big pretzels and egg rolls, I actually have a bottle in my bag, but the owner of Pete's Corn Dog Palace, put a bottle out for me too." Heaven blushes a bright pink, and she leans against the table and plucks out another fry.

"Gochujang, I think I have tried that. Do you think it would be good on corndogs??"

"It's sweet chili paste," Artemisia explains, stealing a fry without asking. "Mhmm. Yeah. Very similar. I think it'd be awesome on corn dogs. I'll bring some next time."

"Awesome, so we're going to have corn dogs again someday?" Heaven gives Artemisia big puppy dog eyes, blinking quickly. "Cuz I would really love to have a food friend or just a friend, I'm kind of awkward in the whole friendship thing."

"Girl. I'm so in. We can do Monday corndogs. It will be our tradition," Artemisia promises with a corndog in hand and a hand on her chest.

"Traditions sound amazing!" Heaven takes another bite of her corndog and closes her eyes with happiness. "Where do you work in the park? You mentioned your hands, and now I'm curious."

"Oh!" Artemisia blinks and holds up her hand in front of her mouth so that she can finish chewing. Licking her lips, she explains, "I'm a performer of sorts. I play the piano for park atmosphere, but I'm starting at the spookeasy too. I also do caricatures and drawings/paintings for the park. So I wear a lot of hats designwise depending which area I'm in."

"Piano? That sounds amazing. I never was coordinated enough to play instruments, I lucked out that I do well at the Spa, it's a fun job, and the scents in that building are amazing." Heaven gives Artemisia a look and then she leans in to ask, quietly. "Could I maybe stop by when you're doing some drawings and paintings to get one? That sounds freaking amazing."

"We can just incorporate it into a corndog night. Or you can come over. I live in the quarters on the island," Artemisia says, pointing in the complete wrong direction.

"Oh.." Heaven looks in the direction Artemisia pointed, lips pursed lightly. "You'll have to show me how you get there, you can meet my roomie and maybe she can hang with us too, not that she seems like the type to hang really. She's always working out and stuff." A beat. "Do you have a roomie?"

Artemisia completely pointed in the wrong direction. She seems blissfully unaware. "I dunno. I just get on the right boat mostly. And I do! Her name is Poe. She's fantastic, she does like security. She's very good at making things safe."

"That sounds amazing. My roomie's name is Zoe, but I don't know her very well. I know that she's great." Heaven finishes up her first corndog and dives into the french fries. The cheese drips off, and she tries to get more of the sweet chili sauce on them.

She doesn't mention where Artemisia points, because she isn't that type of person.