sirenspull_logs | (no subject)

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Who: Rochelle and Gilbert Nightray.
When: 2/24
Where: The zoo!
Summary: Gil and Ro hang out and do stuff.
Warnings: NOTHING.

Despite the Infection, Rochelle was still a pretty good driver. Ellis was the one who insisted on driving any time they actually HAD to take a car during the apocalyse anyway. But regardless, Gil was still... Gil. It hadn't suprised her, and she expected it coming.

That's why she made sure to drive EXTRA careful for him, just in case, to hopefully show him it's not so bad.

"How you doing?"

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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."

Rochelle frowned and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You sure?"

He smiles weakly, but it doesn't reflect in his eyes at all.

"We can't really do anything to keep it from happening, so..."

Gratefully, he reaches up to rest his fingertips on her hand, just for a second.

"It's probably pointless to be so upset about it for so long."

Welp. She didn't think that would be very helpful, knowing Gil. She didn't mind the fingertips on her hand, not seeing it as that forward a gesture or anything like that. Slowly, she nodded and pulled her hand away.

"It usually it. I miss the hell out of Ellis and Coach, but I had to stop moping after a while."

"We'll both get back to them all someday...one way or another."

As they both had very different views on the preferred world to exist in, he leaves this answer vague. For as horrible as this place could be, it's still better than returning to a zombie plague in her case.

"Yeah... I know."

Sometimes it was hard for her to believe it, especially since it had been so long, but... Zoey came back. Ellis and Coach had to come eventually, right?

Okay, it was time for some cheering the fuck up and enough of this shit.

"Hey. I heard they got lions here too. And little cubs."

Yes. No one can be sad while looking at baby animals, screw this noise.

"Really? I don't think I've seen a lion up close either..."

He swears he's been here before, okay.

Yeah, fuck this bullshit. Why did you convince her into talking about mildly depressing things in the first place. GAWD.

ANYWAY, she smirks.

"Yep, I think there's up ahead."

AND SURE ENOUGH, THEY WERE. Like the alligators, the older lions were lazing around. There were baby cubs too, a couple of them horsing around with each other.

A-aww, precious baby cubs. Wow okay yes we're stopping here to watch them play.

Holy crap, Gilbert is really into this.

Rochelle crosses her arms and watches the cubs with a smile on their face. They're cute, but at the same time she's glad she doesn't have to play with them and get bit with those teeth.

Then she turns to Gil and notices his fascination.

"I take it you like them."

He never got to do this sort of thing as a kid! There was always someone to run after or take care of. And the only horses that he saw were the ones that drove the carriages.

"They're bigger than I thought they'd be."

She worked can eyebrow. Not out of mockery, she was just bemused. It was actually pretty interesting seeing someone from that long ago either get introduced to something she was pretty used to, or just get introduced to something that was entirely new to the individual.

"How big did you think they'd be?"

"I don't know...they just seem smaller when they're drawn in illustrations."

Or humorously large, as the case might be. They also look different enough from cats that he doesn't want to turn and flee, so that's a bonus.

"So you never even saw a picture of a real one here?"

Or anything on TV. Or ever been here. Rochelle grinned a little.

"Well, there you go."

He was here...he just spent the whole time chasing Alice around and didn't get to actually look at anything. And the TV only gets turned on when someone else turns it on.

He opens his mouth to reply to her, but at that moment one of the bigger lions opens its mouth to yawn, the large tongue curling and uncurling. Okay, that action looks too much like a sleeping cat. He chokes on his words and shudders, backing away a step. Maybe he can't do this after all...

She turns to him and... oh boy. She looks to see what gets his attention, then turns back to him.

Oh god. How could she forget about this, too? Here we went. Okay, how does she calm him down...

"You know, they eat zebras in the wild."

Cats don't eat zebras, right???????????

And he turns to stare at her like she's grown five more heads.

"H-huh?!"

That's horrifying no matter how you look at it!

WHOOPS.

"... okay, that was a bad idea to mention."

"W-what's next...?"

He turns and looks up at the signs that designate which animals are in which directions. Something fluffy that can't be mistaken for a cat -

Ah, there we go. Penguins. LET'S GO SEE PENGUINS.