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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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A car is just like a carriage, a car is just like a carriage.

Such is Gilbert Nightray's mantra as Ro drives them towards their destination. His hands (gloves now wrinkled) grasp the seat belt crossed over his chest, despite the fact that they're going the speed limit and Rochelle is obeying all of the street signs. It's not so much the speed of the thing, it's more the idea that this vehicle shouldn't exist.

"F-fine!" he answers, a little too enthusiastically. Are we there yet?

Rochelle looks at Gil with.

Pretty much this face. See icon.

"Uh-huh." CUZ SHE TOTALLY BELIEVES HIM. "Deep breaths, Gil. Deeeep breaths."

Which should work for him, because she's pulling into the parking lot now.

Parking lot. MORE CARS EVERYWHERE.

Deeeep breath.

"I-I'm really okay!" he still insists as he peers out the window, looking left and right and behind them to make sure that no one is trying to hit them. Because clearly that's what everyone is trying to do.

You know, obviously.

Her brief glance on him stays brief as she goes back to keeping her eyes on the road, looking for a parking space. Which involves people coming in and coming out of parking spaces. Which involves Rochelle watching out for cars. Nothing unusual, but then there's... yeah, Gil.

After a few minutes of searching she catches someone backing out of a space, and she stops to wait for them so they can take it.

"Feel better now?"

After the car finally comes to a stop, he slowly but surely peels himself off of the seat belt and turns to look at her, face still pale. But he at least manages to clear his throat and give her a weak but obvious nod.

"I...I'm sorry. It's just still strange to me..."

Her eyes glance over to meet his turn. She can't help that grin and she shakes her head.

"You might as well be me on my driver's test." She said with a small laugh. "Hey, if you've lived this far? You'll get used to it."

Somehow, that answer and her expression help him to relax even more. He sighs and leans back against the head rest.

"I'll get used to it...mmh," he repeats, trying to convince himself of it.

Her eyes turn to focus back on the car backing out. It's a big car, and she's half expecting some asshole to be on the other side waiting to steal her place. Thankfully, there isn't, and when the car finally gets out enough and leaves she moves to take it's place.

Successfully so! She parks in, stops the engine, and unbuckles her seatbelt.

"See? That wasn't so bad. And I only had one guy honk at me this time." She rolled her eyes as she grabbed her jacket. "Happenened more than once in a day in Cleveland..."

"Who invented the horn in a car anyways?! It's too - abrasive!"

He unbuckles his seatbelt as well, and then sets about the task of trying to make sure that it actually rolls back up into place properly. Stupid seatbelt work right.

"It's supposed to be for letting people know something's up, like if somebody in front of you's backing up and they don't see you. But.. yeah, now you know how people abuse it sometimes."

Herself included every once in a while, but that's another story.

After getting her jacket on she grabbed her wallet and slipped it into the jacket's deep pockets. She raised an eyebrow at him as she gets out of the car.

"Having some trouble?"

"No, it's just--"

But there, finally the mechanism inside catches just right and it wraps back up the way that it's supposed to. He blinks, eyes innocently watching the seatbelt coil back up into place properly, almost childlike. The wonders of strange modern technology, man.

But he recovers quick enough and gets out himself, straightening his jacket on his shoulders before shutting the door behind himself. Aaaa it feels so good to put his feet back on the ground.

After getting out, Rochelle leans to peer in the window and watch him handle the seatbelt. The biggest generation gap on the planet was between them, so she really shouldn't laugh, but regardless she still smiled as he seemed to slowly figure it out.

"There you go!" She straightened herself out. "The wonders of modern technology, right?"

"I'll get used to it someday."

Because if he's made it this far, then he's definitely pledging to actually be comfortable in a car someday, damn it. He turns towards the entrance of the place, looking up over the brightly colored signs with letters posted over the tops of huge photos of wild animals.

"What was it you wanted to see? Otters?"

"Yeah, you will." She nods in agreement. Hey, she got him into a car and drove him without as much freaking out as she expected. There was still freaking out, but it wasn't as worse as she thought it would be.

THERE WAS HOPE IN THIS GUY YET.

She followed him and stuffed her hands in her pockets.

"Otters and other animals, I haven't been to a zoo since I was a kid." She eyes the colorful signs and letters as they walk up to the ticket booth. Man, it had been a while. "You?"

"I took Oz and Elliot last year," he answers, voice as solemn as he can make it. A year had seen a lot of people come and go, but the only constant was that he was still here. He's tried to pretend as though it means something...that he's prepared for when his young master finally arrives again, but in the meanwhile he's only found himself seeking usefulness in other places.

But then, Oz would probably tell him that this was okay, too.

"I think Vincent and I went to a fair when we were young. It's hard to remember exactly..."

"... Oh." It was gonna feel stupid to say in about five seconds, but that's all she felt like she could say. She's solemn back. She didn't know Oz very well, but she did know Elliot. It was a hard thing not to think about, she could imagine what it was ike for Gil.

"Oh--yeah?" She tried to lighten the mood know. "Anything you DO remember?"

He's silent a moment, expression not betraying him for once before he finally shakes his head a mutters a very quiet, "No." What he does remember will only end painfully for him, and he's promised her as fun of a day as they can manage. His self pity can wait for another day.

"I'm sure it was a lot smaller than this, though," he adds as he steps forward to pay for the both of them. Like a gentleman.

Rochelle pauses again.

"Sorry, I probably shouldn't have brought it up." She looked at him, biting her lip a little. After one more quiet, she smiles. "Well, hey. Today you're gonna remember a lot better, right?"

She took out her wallet to pay for the tickets she told the man at the booth she wanted. She glanced over to him as she was shelling out the right bills.

"So let's get to see those otters everybody keeps talking about."

Well, he's definitely paying for lunch later. His pride won't allow her to pay for that for herself.

Her words do help him to smile, though. For all the new memories he's acquired here, most of them have been painful, but every once in a while (like today) a happy one can finally be created. And with so much going on around them right now, children smiling and pointing towards different pathways, people selling treats, who could really be upset? Even a person like Gilbert had to appreciate this whimsical moment.

"...Yeah. Today feels like it'll be nice," he finally answers. There's a map of the grounds up ahead, so he walks over to look at it, trying to figure out where they're keeping the otters.

And he doesn't recognize half of the animal names on here, so Ro might be better equipped to navigate it for them.

With their tickets in hand and wallet back in her pocket, Rochelle follows Gilbert in. She's looking around herself. All of the kids running around and the chatter in the air was bringing a smile to her own face. This was something she hadn't done as a kid, and it was whimsical for her now too.

She follows him up to the map and glances it up and down.

"We could probably just make our way around and get to the otters eventually. There's--gators, next to us." She made a slightly weirded out face. Gators were a familiar thing for her.

"Gators?"

He has a feeling that this word should be familiar, and he's sure he's heard it, but just can't quite put his finger on exactly what she's talking about.

"Alligators. They're... you know what, we'll see them in a second." She motions for him to follow her in the direction the map pointed out.

About a minute's walk later there's a big railing, overlooking a pit. Currently there's alligators there. Just chilling, no big deal.

Big, scaly things.

"Oh - crocodiles?"

That term he's familiar with, but hell if he knows the difference between the two creatures. He reaches up with one hand to rest against the railing so that he can lean in a little closer. They sure are boring for how scary they're supposed to be...

"Not exactly--but they pretty much look the same." She could go on forever about that. "Alligators have bigger snouts, for once."

She leaned on the rail on her side to glance over at them.

"When we crashed in the swamps back home we ran through a place called Earl's Gator Village. We didn't see any, but I got an earful about them from Ellis."

"He's the one that you said used to talk a lot, right?"

Oh look, one of them moved. A little. THE ZOO IS EXCITING.

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