Who: Dan and Open Where: The park What: Some work, a vision or two, the usual When: September 23, before Kat's text
Dan was up in the park, checking on Kat's weird displacer cats, her horses and his current favorite, Mercurian the stag.
The cats actively didn't like him for some unknown reason, so he'd fed them and checked their area for damage first, although he wasn't quick enough to avoid a "gentle" smack round the back of the head from one of their shoulder tentacle things as he was leaving.
The horses were indifferent to him, except for when he brought them their food. Binky (What the actual fuck? Who named a horse that?) nosed at him in case there were treats in his pockets (there were) while Nari ignored him completely and Logi just shoved him out of the way - Dan was very careful to avoid getting burnt by that one's mane.
Mercurian, though. The stag was gorgeous, with his pale coat and slightly-glowing antlers, and very very calming to be around so Dan had started finding reasons to go up and check on him. He usually kept his checks until last, too, so he had something to look forward to while the cats were smacking him round the head. He'd checked Mercurian's area for damage and found none, put out food, and then he'd decided to groom the stag just so he'd have more time to spend with him. While he was doing that, he sang quietly to himself. He'd always done that, to some extent - some of the friendlier ladies in his hospice had taken to giving him requests so they could sing along, nobody cared if he was working outside as long as he wasn't being too loud, and Mercurian seemed to love it. Any time he paused, the stag would look round at him or gently nudge him in the side as if to say "keep going!" which was encouraging. He'd gone through Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie and of course his beloved Stevie before he needed to go get a drink from his bag. "I'll be back soon," he told the stag, who snorted in reply and headed over to get some food from his trough.
Dan walked back to where he'd left his bag, and as soon as he picked it up, he could hear music. Music from a carnival or a funfair or something like that. He looked around to see where it was coming from, especially when he heard someone announcing a circus in the distance. He could even smell hot dogs and peanuts. Then he saw it, in the direction of the horses' feeding trough. There was a wooden carousel horse, wedged into the ground where he'd just been a few minutes ago. "Aw, fuck," he muttered, and ran his hands through his hair as he watched it go up and down even though there was nothing attached to it.