sirenspull_logs | (no subject)

He's glad that she's gone to help the child down first, because he would have done so as well if he'd been paying attention. Years of chasing after Oz have him on edge for things like that usually. When there weren't really cool things to look at like flamingos.

But he smiles at the scene. Oz had always wanted to visit a farm or see the horses in the stables at his family's home, but his father had always forbidden it. He steps in to stand at Rochelle's side, also curious to where this zoo was. Maybe if Oz ever returns he can take him here too.

"Yeah! Why don't you go ask your teacher?" Rochelle said with a soft grin, nudging her head over to where the teacher (or so she guessed he and the other couple of adults) was not too far away... still not really noticing them. Though at the same time she was kind of glad she wouldn't give them some kind of creeper impression, she would have taken a bad impression over the boy not being supervised at all.

But the petting zoo suggestion did the trick, because after a glance back at his teacher, he nodded to her and then scurried back looking pretty damned excited. Ro tilted her head and kept her smile there as she watched him go off. As she straightened herself up, she shook her head in bemusement.

"Anything that's got 'petting' and 'zoo' in the same sentence always get kids excited. Who woulda guessed that?"

"A few years ago, Oz would have reacted the same way."

So would Ada, for that matter. But this time, he mention of his young master doesn't make him look sad. Or if it does, he hides it with a fond smile.

"You're good with children."

Rochelle brushed her jeans off and glanced over her shoulder at him. She was still fancing the flamingos. She shrugged, but seemed bemused. She knew she was decent with them. It never occured to her as a magic touch, it just came naturally.

"Thanks. I got experience. With kids and guys who ACT like kids."

He sort of has a feeling that he's included somewhere in that list, but it's to be expected. He steps forward, following the direction that the kids were all headed, towards a sign that promised red pandas and cranes.

"Do you mind telling me more about them?" he asks quietly. 'People from home' is a sore topic for a lot of people in this world, and he doesn't want to be intrusive, but he's curious about her words.

There were men worse than Gilbert than Rochelle knew, but if she had to think about it... yeah. She would put him somewhere on the list. At least he would be closer to the bottom.

An inner warning light was going off in her head, but she didn't show it. In fact, she seemed fine with the question. Most times? She didn't mind talking about people back home. Though it could be a sore subject, she handled it better than other people. Even if she missed Ellis and Coach like crazy. Her real, blood family though... that had the potential to be a sore spot. It depended on what was asked.

"Which ones?"

"Any of them," he answers, just as quietly. A few children run by, and though they're easily avoidable, he's forced to take his eyes away from hers for a second to make sure that he doesn't lose his footing in the process.

Okay, good. She got to pick. She's still looking out at the flamingos, not really paying attention to the kids now, thinking about who to pick.

"... Coach and Ellis are pretty good guys. They're part of my group back home. It's--WAS probably--me, Nick, and those two." A small breath of a chuckle came out of her. "You know how in stories it's usually the unlikeliest band of people? We were a TV producer, a conman, a mechanic, and a high school football coach."

He blinks, turns his attention back to the birds and thinks about that. An unlikely band of people...he'd never expected to meet Break, to wind up facing Leo as a Baskerville or even considered that the Abyss could be a real place, but out of that unlikely scenario came his life.

"It's best it ended up that way, though, no matter how unlikely," he finally says. "You survived."

"... Yeah." She said, still watching the birds. One of them bops it's head around, as if looking for something, and she focuses her attention on that. "We all did, 'cause of each other. My world's the kind of place that it's figuratively and literally impossible to be on your own, now."

Another pause passes. She motions for Gilbert to follow her. Next was a cage of other, various exotic birds. It wouldn't be too far off.

"I guess you could say Coach was our leader. Big guy."

He'll never admit it outright, but he's always enjoyed watching birds. As a child, they were something that he and Oz would only ever be able to observe from the windows of the Vessalius study, and as a young adult they served as a reminder of his goal; obtaining the Raven. Now the sight of them is nostalgic, in enough good ways that they outweigh the bad.

He watches the cages with great interest as she speaks, but it's clear that he's paying close attention to her.

"He's strong?"

"Yep. He looks like he's had one too many cheeseburgers, but he's also pretty muscular. He used to be a defensive lineman in college, I think. I'm pretty sure I remember from all the times he mentioned it." She chuckled. "But yeah. He's a good guy. Kind of the 'dad' of the group, if you wanna put it that way."

He's been called 'Papa' by Oz more times than he'd care to remember, but always in such a teasing fashion. So that much he can understand completely.

"What's a defensive lineman?"

He's imagining it as some sort of military term.

"Oh--right. Generation gap." Ugh, okay. How does she explain this in the simplest way possible for a guy who she KNOWS knows nothing about football? "It's part of--something you do in football."

See, she actually knows this. But explaining it to this dude made her had to simplify it to... pretty much that.

When they got to the bird cage she watched all the colorful birds waddle and squawk and flap around in fascination.

"He's also the only one who could scare Nick into submission too."

Okay, he recognizes the word football, at least. It's one of those games that they play in the big sports arena that he keeps meaning to go see, but never does. It's just as well that she doesn't go into detail, there's no way that he would be able to picture it. So he just nods and follows her towards the pretty birds.

"Someone who scares Nick? He would have to be big..."

He's only met the man once or twice, but he knows enough about him to be able to picture this intimidating person a little easier.

Rochelle rolled her eyes at that. "Oh please, Nick's mostly just hot air and a bad temper. Coach is big but he has a lot of authority to him too."

"If they're both people that you respect, then they must both have something special about them past that," he replies, tone cautious as he's trying not to overstep his bounds here.

Rochelle tips her head back in thought. She doesn't seem too bothered by the question, yet, her mind's just turning to come up with the right words for this.

"Yeah... all three of them do, really. One's my boyfriend now, but I guess you could say they're practically my second family now."

Especially since she has no idea what's happened to her real one.

He pauses for a moment, bird squawks and children's shouting filling the silence between them.

"A second family? It's not really 'second'. A family can be...close to you, far away, large, small, antagonizing and supportive. But it's all just one 'family' in the end."

Rochelle lulled her head back and looked at him.

"Right, good point. Scratch that, then they're just family to me." She grins a little. "Even Nick."

Okay, for all the shit she gave Nick they still liked each other and were dating and shit.

"How is he, by the way?"

So many people have come and gone lately, he's been a little afraid to ask something like this.

She nods as she walks on.

"Nick? He's about the same as he ever is, so he's doing okay." She chuckles. "I mean, if you know how he is. What about everybody at your place?"

...Ah. He should have expected that question. He turns his attention down to the ground, trying to not make it obvious that he's having trouble answering it.

"A lot of them have gone home...but the ones still there are all doing fine."

Oh. Whoops. Just because she could handle her tender spots better didn't mean some people did. She almost forgot about it.

"Oh, shit... sorry, sweetie. If you don't wanna talk about it, it's okay."

"No, it's fine."

He's done enough moping, spent enough hours staring at the walls of the house in the middle of the night with anxiety and sorrow keeping him up. He should be used to this by now.

"It was Jack this time."