Tenpony Tower - Shopping!

Flim and Flam practically drag Gwendolyn off, while Miss Lace cheerfully waves them farewell.

The twins take the griffin bodyguard a few floors upstairs, where there's an old "retro" diner with a bar, booths, a functioning jukebox, a soda fountain, and waitresses in bright pink serving outfits. The twins guide Gwendolyn to a red bar stool, before taking seats on either side of her and beginning to point out the various menu options.

Poor Gwendolyn probably soon finds her head spinning...


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Tenpony Tower - DJ Library

Homage giggles. "Yes, you heard me right," she grins. "It's alright, you're not being negative. It's..." she looks up and ponders, idly waving a hoof, "Complicated..."

She raises said hoof to her chin, and looks thoughtful for a moment. "How do I put this..."

After a moment, she leans back and clops her hooves together. "Yes, I have had lovers. And you're concerns are valid. It can be unsafe, and it can be quite draining for the other party, in multiple senses of the word. Granted, lovers can be lovers without the actually act of lovemaking, you know. One does not need to be intimate in such ways to have such a relationship. But..." she flashes a wry smirk, "It helps."

Homage sighs. "But yes, it can take a toll on the other party, but sharing and returning the absorbed sentiments helps to reduce the net loss for the 'victim,' to some extent. Especially if the Changeling is already sated before such acts. It's usually not something agreed to lightly or done for fun, obviously. It's..." she looks off to the side, her expression unreadable. "A dangerous act for both parties. Meaningful. Symbolic. And a powerful expression of trust, emotion, and... love," she observes with a sad smile.

Homage sighs. "As for the legitimacy of such feelings... That, too, is complicated. Yes. I know it feels hollow. And if you're anything like me, you have at times wondered and worried if such feelings are even real. And I am sorry to tell you, those books will not give you answers. For some reason, pony scholars were reticent to study personal relationships with Changelings in great detail," she remarks with a bemused roll of her eyes.

"It's general accepted, even among our kind, that it is impossible for a Changeling to feel emotion. True emotion, at any rate, beyond a hollow 'shadow' of a feeling," the incognito shapeshifter explains with a small sigh. "Well, just because something is impossible, doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be attempted, striven towards, yearned for. And even if that emotion is still but a shadow of its true self, it still has... backing. A desire for it to be real. A need for it to be real, in some cases. And for some, that's... close enough. You know the old saying..." she smiles sadly. "It's the thought that counts."

Homage slowly drops her gaze to the floor. "There's... one other thing..."

Her shoulders slump slightly, and Swiss may see a certain sadness creeping into her eyes. "A certain truth I have learned. It is both painful... and comforting, in a way..."

She inhales, and releases a deep sigh. "Loss... it's painful. The loss of a friend is agonizing. The loss of a lover... even more-so. It hurts... Truly, it hurts. Worse than any wound, worse than any hunger. It leaves you feeling more hollow than you ever were before. So you have to wonder... You have to ask..."

There's a tremor in her voice.

"How..."

She sniffs.

"How can you miss something... if you never had it?"

A single teardrop falls.