Day Two

Owning It

2026-07-08T16:00:00.000Z

#302. Owning It

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 17

*flips frantically through the script* What page are we even on? Who the hell is this guy!?

Chloe (through gritted teeth): "I don't need your sarcasm, I need your help! He's still here!"
Zia (heads toward the kitchen, grinning): "Okay, I'll make some breakfast." "You think he likes eggs?" "Bacon?" "Pancakes?" Chloe (angrily): "Zia!"
A curly-haired satyr man slips past behind them, grimacing, holding his underwear and shirt over his waist. Chloe (startled): "!" Zia looks back.
Chloe (disgusted): " — the heck!?"
He slips out to the living room while they watch.
He slips in front of the TV and turns the apartment doorknob.
He darts out the apartment door. Zia (brightly, holding up her hand like a phone): "Call me!"
Chloe (steaming angry): "You goddamn HYPOCRITICAL LITTLE GREEN —" Zia (gestures with coffee cup, with a dark smile): "The difference between you and me, Chloe my dear, is that if I'm gonna make a mistake, I OWN it."

The Mistake

2026-07-12T16:00:00.000Z

#303. The Mistake

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 18

Oh, Chloe. 🤦‍♂️

Chloe (whispering fiercely): "Zia! What are we gonna do?" Zia: "I think I'm gonna make some waffles. You think your boytoy likes waffles?"
Chloe (starting to panic): "Zia!" Zia (serious): "Chloe, you're a grown woman. You slept with a guy. It's the most normal thing you've done all year. This is good for you."
Chloe (constrained panic): "No, you don't understand!" "How do I tell him without hurting him that I made a massive mistake?" "That I never should've done — what we did!" "Not now, not ever with this goddamn horse stuck to me!" "And it was my idea — not his! — to come back here, I dragged him into my bedroom, and I — oh God, this is completely my fault, and I wasn't even drunk, and that just makes it worse!" "This is a horrible mistake!" "What was I thinking!?"
Zia: "Chloe, you were thinking with your butt. Welcome to the human race." " — I mean, sort of."
Chloe (full-on panic): "Zia, this is a DISASTER!" "I have to figure out what to SAY to him!" "I let my guard down for just ONE MINUTE, and I friggin' picked up a guy at a bar and SLEPT with him!" "What did we — what did I even DO last night?" "Oh my GOD, I don't even want to THINK about it!" "This was a HUGE MISTAKE — I need to — "
Mark (behind her, softly): "Was it really that bad?" Chloe (frozen like a statue, crumbling as metaphorical lightning strikes).

Hurt

2026-07-15T16:00:00.000Z

#304. Hurt

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 19

Oh, man. First rule of being in a hole: keep digging. ... ...I can't believe Zia is now the voice of reason.

Chloe (horrified): "That's not what I meant, Mark, I — " Mark stomps past to the door, frowning.
Chloe: "Please, I'm sorry, I — " Mark keeps walking, angry.
Mark (at the door, glancing back): "I thought we had —" "I thought you —" "You know what? Never mind." "I guess we both made mistakes last night."
Mark (waving from outside the door, frowning): "Bye, Chloe."
Chloe stands frozen at the door.
Chloe stands frozen and stunned.
Zia appears next to Chloe.
Zia (frowning): "Well go after him!" *slaps Chloe*

Sorry

2026-07-19T16:00:00.000Z

#305. Sorry

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 20

...oof.

Chloe darts into the hall after him, but he's gone.
Chloe races down the stairs.
Chloe races out of the building.
Chloe stands outside in the middle of the street, still half-dressed, staring into the distance, horrified.
Camera pulls back. People are walking, and cars are driving.
Chloe (reaching out, whispering, camera far away): "I'm sorry —"

Help

2026-07-22T16:00:00.000Z

#306. Help

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 21

Zia, we really need to talk about your moral framework again. Crime equals bad, remember?

Chloe in bed, sobbing and wailing into her hands.
Camera pulls back to show Zia beside Chloe's bed, and a wallet on Chloe's bedstand next to the alarm clock. Zia: "I'm thinking I should just pick up some bagels for breakfast instead." "Blueberry bagels?" "Chocolate?" Chloe (still wailing).
Zia (sighs): "Chloe —" " — do you like him?" Chloe (sobbing and snuffling): "I —" " — he was nice" "and he was cute" "and he was tall" "and I — "
Zia: "Do you LIKE HIM?" Chloe (cringing pathetically): "I mean —" "I think I do, but —"
Zia (sips coffee sagely): "Then the right thing to do —" "— is to go apologize."
Chloe (irritable, still crying): "Zia, I don't even —" "How am I supposed to do that?" "I don't have his number —" "I don't know where he lives —" "I —" "I don't even know his full name!"
Zia (picks up wallet off the bedstand, flips it open): "Hmm, you might want to return this wallet to someone who lost it." "It says 'Mark Reed, of 513 Los Robles, number 27.'"
Chloe (fuming angry): "You SERIOUSLY didn't PICKPOCKET —" Zia (sipping her coffee again, shrugging, holding out the wallet to Chloe): "Would've if he hadn't left it, horsegirl, but you didn't need my help on this one."

Proof

2026-07-26T16:00:00.000Z

#307. Proof

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 22

Look, at least she's angry instead of crying, this is progress.

Chloe holds up the wallet, her tears starting to dry. Chloe: "I can't just — go up to him with this."
Zia: "Then mail it back." Chloe: "I can't just mail it back!"
Zia: "Then I'll return it." Chloe: "It shouldn't be you!"
Zia (holds up a finger sagely): "Then it MUST stay here. Q.E.D." Chloe (shouting): "It CAN'T stay here!"
Zia (sips coffee): "Nope, sorry, Law of Noncontradiction. Invalid proof." Chloe (angry): "Zia!"
Zia (snidely): "Listen, you can do anything you want with love, horsegirl, but math and logic are mine." Chloe (fuming angry).

Army of One

2026-07-29T16:00:00.000Z

#308. Army of One

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 23

Chloe, can you please not go full stereotype? Maybe dial that eleven back to like an eight? Also, why do I get the feeling this isn't the first time Zia's talked to her tail?

Chloe sits in her bed, wrapped up in blankets, eating cookie-dough ice cream from the carton while emo music blasts in the background.
Zia (fully dressed now, arms crossed): "You really ought to do something." "You can't just stay in here all day eating ice cream and playing Evanescence."
Chloe (irritably takes another scoop of ice cream): "Like fudge I can't."
Zia: "Okay, in your best interest, I'm not going to let you stay here all day eating ice cream and playing Evanescence."
Chloe (grouchy): "Yeah, you and what army?"
Zia looks at Chloe.
Zia's tail points back at her as if holding a conversation with her. Zia: "Hmm —"
Zia's tail points back at Chloe. Zia: "Just measuring troop strength, I get that there's two of us and only one of her, but she's in the cavalry..."

Hate Bargain

2026-08-02T16:00:00.000Z

#309. Hate Bargain

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 24

Forever seems to be shorter than I remember.

Chloe, still in bed eating ice cream with music blasting. Zia: "Listen, somebody's gotta return his wallet, and if it's not you, then I'm gonna do it."
Chloe: "No way." Zia: "He's gonna come back for it if one of us doesn't."
Chloe: "Argh!" "Fine, I'll do it, but I'm gonna hate you forever!"
Zia (shrugging, walking away): "Okay, but we half-changed Sophia back yesterday..."
Chloe glares at her, bending the spoon in half.
Chloe: "Okay, fine, but I'm gonna hate you for at least an hour!" Zia (holds out hand, grinning): "Deal."

The Walk of Shame

2026-08-05T16:00:00.000Z

#310. The Walk of Shame

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 25

😬 ... <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAEhWEOrlnc">musical accompaniment</a>

Chloe walks through town. Camera far away. Skyline in the distance, and car traffic on the street. Chloe looks very small.
Chloe walks in front of buildings, with pedestrians and cars around her. Camera closer.
Chloe walks across the street at a crosswalk. Camera closer.
Chloe walks in front of a building, head hanging. Camera closer. A pedestrian walks by, looking at her phone. Blue news box with the "Los Angeles Guardian" newspaper inside with headline "Airstrikes in Baku". Red news box with "The Star" newspaper inside with headline "Princess Outrage".
Chloe stops, holding Mark's wallet. Camera close up.
Camera behind Chloe. Mark leans on the railing of the balcony of his second-floor apartment. Potted plants in the windowsill. Mark (dully looking down at Chloe): "Oh. It's you."

The Actual Problem

2026-08-09T16:00:00.000Z

#311. The Actual Problem

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 26

...she — actually said it?

Chloe (holds wallet up): "You, uh, forgot your wallet." Mark (dully, still on the balcony): "Thanks."
Chloe: "Listen, I — "
Mark: "It's not the first time I've been dumped." "I'm a big boy." "I can handle it."
Chloe (looking up, slightly panicked): "That wasn't — " "I mean — "
Mark (stands up, arms crossed, looking down): "What do you want, Chloe?"
Chloe (looking away and looking miserable): "Honestly —" "— that's the problem. I don't really know."

About Last Night

2026-08-12T16:00:00.000Z

#312. About Last Night

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 27

I think he would, Chloe.

Mark frowns, standing on the building steps now. Chloe is at the base of the steps, holding his wallet. Chloe (looking up): "I didn't mean to hurt you." "I'm sorry." "I didn't do anything right today."
Mark: "So — " " — last night, I meet this pretty girl, and she's smart and clever and snarky and super hot." "And she whips my horse ass in bar trivia, and get this, she's even my species too!" "What are the chances on that?" "And I would've been happy just to go on a date with her."
Mark (voiceover): "But instead, she hangs around, and we talk for hours, first in the bar, then in the park where it's quieter." "And at midnight we go get burgers and fries." "And she takes me back to her place and we start a movie." "And I'm having the best time in years with her." (Flashback shows Mark and Chloe in the park, talking and laughing.)
Mark (voiceover): "And then ten minutes into the movie, this girl takes her shirt off and completely blows my mind." "It's literally the best night of my damn life." (Flashback shows Mark on the couch, and Chloe starting to lift up her shirt.)
Mark (voiceover): "And this morning I still can't believe it." "And I'm like, I have to take her to Disneyland, or the mountains, or France or something." "Forget work this week, I have to impress the hell out of this girl before she meets another centaur guy and I'm last week's news." "I'm thinking hard about it, and I hear her talking out in the other room, so I get up to at least insist on buying breakfast." (Flashback shows Mark laying shirtless in bed, looking a bit stunned.)
Mark (glaring down from the steps): "And then the first words out of your mouth were that it was a mistake." "A mistake." "That I was a mistake." "And just in case there was any doubt in my mind, just in case I didn't believe it, you said it over and goddamn over again."
Chloe (head hanging): "I swear it's not what it sounded like." Mark: "Then what was it?"
Chloe (looks down, deflated): "Would you accept that I'm a mess?"

Radioactive

2026-08-16T16:00:00.000Z

#313. Radioactive

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 28

Maybe before. ...also, not a Green Day reference, and also, not an Imagine Dragons reference, but this is 😈

Chloe: "Last night was amazing, all of it, but I —" "— shouldn't have done — it." "I got one drink in me and it was just enough to — to — loosen me up a — little." "And I haven't felt that good in a long time, but — "
Chloe: "I just don't know who I am or what I want anymore." "Ever since I turned into this." "— maybe before." "Everybody else seems to have life figured out, but me, I'm half human — and half nervous wreck." "I don't know — anything for certain anymore." "All I know is that until I have me figured out at least a little, I should act like I'm radioactive."
Mark: "You don't have to have all the answers, Chloe." "You don't have to have any answers." "Nobody really does." "I got my issues too." "You just have to not be an ass about it."
Chloe: "But — this morning was me too." "Last night wasn't really me — I mean, it was — but I don't let — that Chloe out because being that — that open — doesn't feel like me." "The real me — " " — is an introvert and a basket case and paranoid and an anxious mess and — "
Chloe: " — and I have to like me before anyone else can like me, but — I don't think I like me yet."
Mark: "I was willing to like you enough for both of us." Chloe (blushes nervously).

Head Case

2026-08-19T16:00:00.000Z

#314. Head Case

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 29

shakes head at third panel In a former life, I swear she was a puppy dog who peed on the rug.

Mark: "I honestly thought you were great, Chloe. The real you." "Paranoias and anxieties included." Chloe: "You barely know me."
Mark: "You told me a lot last night." "About your family, your sister, growing up in Ohio." "Moving out here. Your crazy roommate. Working at the museum." "I think I met the real Chloe." "And I liked her."
Chloe: "I know, but — ." "I maybe screwed up last night, but I screwed up worse this morning." "You're a really nice guy." "You deserve better than a head case who can hurt you this bad."
Mark (shrugging, grinning): "No pain, no gain?"

Taaallll

2026-08-23T16:00:00.000Z

#315. Taaallll

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 30

Well, at least she's consistent? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mark looks down at Chloe, frowning. Chloe looks up sheepishly.
Mark sighs, softening. "Maybe —" "I might regret this, but —" "Let's start over."
Mark: "Do you — want to just try a normal date?" "— no sex. Just a date."
Chloe (nervously, blushing a little): "I'd — I'd be willing to try a normal date." "If you still want to."
Chloe stares up at Mark, her face pink.
Chloe (melting): "Taaallll..." Mark (grinning): "Now don't you start that again."

Date Night

2026-08-26T16:00:00.000Z

#316. Date Night

Ch.9 - Date Night - page 31

Well, who knew, we actually somehow arrived at the title. tosses away the script

Chloe (walking beside Mark, still blushing): "I'm not good at relationships, you know."
Mark: "Is anyone?" "Come on, let's try one real date." "You can pretend to be good at it for a couple hours, and only I'll know your secret."
Chloe (still blushing): "Could we — maybe — just do dinner and a movie? Isn't that what normal people do?"
Mark (grinning): "I wouldn't know what normal people do. I'm a horse."
Mark (turns to her): "But — that sounds nice. Friday?" Chloe bites her lip.
Chloe (nervously fiddling with her hair): "Seven o'clock?" Mark: "Meet here, or your place?"
Chloe (gulps, shaking): "I'll — see you then." "And here."
The door slams shut inside the apartment (*WHAM*). Chloe stands in front of the door, her arms wide as she braces against it. Zia looks up from the couch. Chloe looks panicked and wide-eyed and terrified. Chloe (weakly): "Zia —" "I have a date."