Melaka Fray (ex_melaka_fr396) wrote in btvsal, @ 2011-03-30 15:34:00 |
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Current mood: | happy |
Zoo Outing
Who: Gabriel and Melaka
Where: A random park, then the zoo
When: Monday, March 28th
Gabriel had decided to go out and get some fresh air today. Oddly enough, he had ended up in a park of all places. LA actually had plenty of parks, and he was sitting on a bench in one of them, simply enjoying the nice day out, wearing a pair of jeans and a button up shirt that had the first couple of button undone. He looked a lot more loose than normal. Good for him.
Mel was out in the park as well. It was about time that she got used to where things were, after all. That, and it was a beautiful day and why spend it cooped up inside? She was currently out walking, dressed in green cargo's and an orange tank-top, her multi-colored hair tied back in a haphazard ponytail. She smiled as soon as she saw Gabriel and made her way over to him. "Haven't seen you in a while."
It was hard to miss the multi-hued girl, even in LA. He had been relaxed back onto the bench, mostly watching the sky, but had spotted Mel as she walked up. He smiled up at her. "You, neither. How have you been doing?"
"Can't complain," she replied honestly. "I made a few friends," she added, thinking of Kayla, Jodi... and oddly Cyd, who she wasn't sure what to do with right now. "What about you?"
"Doing fine. A little better each day." He needed to get in touch with Kayla so that they could begin their training regiment again soon. "Glad to hear that your making friends."
"It was bound to happen eventually, right?" She smiled faintly and looked him over, as if assessing as to whether he was telling her the truth about his mental state. "Been up to much?"
"I suppose so, yes," he admitted, moving over so that she could sit with him if she wanted to. "Can't say I'm not glad of that. And I haven't been up to much at all, honestly. What about you?"
She smiled faintly and sat down beside him, crossing one leg over the other and setting her hands in her lap to keep from fidgeting. "Just training with some of the girls, mostly," she replied with a faint blush. "Getting a bit antsy, though. I don't do well staying in one place for any length of time," she told him. "I mean, I guess living there's fine, but most of the time I feel... confined." She nibbled her lip thoughtfully. "Sorry, I shouldn't burden you with this stuff."
He nodded when she said that she was feeling antsy, sitting up a little so that he could talk to her better. "Feeling antsy is a bit normal for Slayers," he told her. He knew that her background as a Slayer had included NO knowledge about herself, so he knew that she needed to hear these things. "Training is a good way to purge some of the energy, but just getting out and 'getting about' in the city should help some as well."
She nodded as she listened to him. She didn't really have the chance to talk to anyone about what was considered 'normal' for Slayers, so it was nice to finally hear it. "That's actually a pretty good idea. Guess that kinda explains why I'm out now," she realized, looking over at him.
"Some of the girls have gone out and gotten jobs, or go to high school or college...and some just run around and have fun. There's no one way to make the most of your life out here, I suppose." Gabriel gave her a smile. "Going out to parks is definitely a good way of doing it as well."
"You know, I like learning. Just not in class rooms," she replied. She was actually quite smart when she put her mind to something, that was for sure. "But I've been thinking about getting a job lately. My, uh... previous job wasn't exactly reputable, though." She was a good thief, however.
"Well, LA has some great libraries, if you prefer, plus there are more books around the Hyperion than most can keep up with." Not Gabriel, but most.
"That's a good idea," she replied, giving him a soft smile. That would likely keep her occupied for a while. She leaned back in the seat and swung her legs, taking a brief moment to look at where they were. "Thank you for talking to me about all this."
He couldn't help but return her smile. When she wasn't looking so 'hard,' she was actually quite pretty. "It's my pleasure to talk to you," he said to her. "Feel free to come and talk to me anytime."
"I think I will," she replied. She liked talking to him and spending time with him, after all. She gradually got to her feet and stretched out her limbs, never one to sit still for very long. "Wanna walk for a bit?"
He nodded and stood up. "Sure," he said to her, starting to walk down one of the concrete paths that the park had set up.
She walked beside him, sticking to the inside of the footpath rather than near the curb. "We never got days like this back home," she told him, taking in a breath and letting it out slowly. She just couldn't get over how FRESH everything felt in LA.
"May I ask...what exactly was it like where you are from?" Gabriel couldn't help but be interested in just what it was like that far into the future. While all of the others had come about eighteen years in the future, she had come A LOT further than that, when things actually had the chance to change.
Mel nibbled her lip thoughtfully, wanting to be sure that she worded it right. "It was pretty chaotic where I lived. A LOT of people in a small place. There were two main districts in Haddyn, the uppers and lowers. Uppers were rich folk, lowers were poor working stiffs. I lived in the lowers. It was... pretty dirty, sure, but you grew up learning to hit back real fast." She smirked. "I probably learned to be self-sufficient a lot sooner than people these days have to. But I'm not complaining."
"Plenty of people these days have to learn to be self-sufficient quick as well," Gabriel said, actually thinking of Faith. From what he had read in her file, she had had a very hard life growing up. "Still less than in your time, though."
She nodded. "I guess I'm just used to that than being mollycoddled. I can't stand when people are capable, but refuse to do things for themselves." She sighed. "Anyway, yeah. It was busy and dirty, but it was home. Completely different from here."
"Admittedly, I'm sort of right along with you in that opinion." He just couldn't get past the idea that, if you could help the world in some way, then why wouldn't you do it? "It sounds...much like how I had pictured cities growing up, actually."
"I don't think some people expected it to get as bad as it did, but somehow, we persevered," she replied, looking over to him briefly as they walked. "What's it like where you're from?"
"England? I lived on a country estate growing up mostly," he told her. "We had a veritable forest all around us with no neighbors at all. We had horses, too, but they didn't like me much." Horses tend to not like shadow demons, usually.
"That... actually sounds really nice. Except for the part where the horses didn't like you, obviously," she added with a giggle.
He chuckled. "I'm not sure why we had the horses. They didn't like my father, either. I think we just had them because my mother thought we were supposed to." He was just glad that his parents didn't have the idea that he should help take care of them.
"I think that was her logic, yeah," she replied, shaking her head. They didn't have much in the way of animals where she was from, apart from the domestic ones like dogs and cats, mind you. Something occurred to her then. "There's a zoo here, right?" She'd read about those. "I think we should go to one. "Unless.... ALL animals hate you?"
"Just those particular horses," Gabriel pointed out to her. "We can go to the zoo if you like." Gabriel actually enjoyed cats and dogs, so it wasn't an animal wide hate of him that he had going on.
"Good," she giggled. "Wouldn't want to take you somewhere where you're gonna be on edge the entire time. And if you wouldn't mind? I'd love to go. It just kinda occurred to me that we could, you know? Plus, it'd be interesting to see animals that were extinct in my time."
He tilted his head at her slightly. "What animals were extinct by your time?" he asked. He started to head in the direction of the zoo. "I think it's just horses that hate me. Not terribly sure why, honestly." Horses are haters, apparently.
"A lot of things are," she told him, nibbling her lip as she tried to think of the different species. "Most gorillas and tigers are extinct, elephants, giant pandas... most whales, from over fishing, I think. I guess I could point 'em out to you if I see 'em?" Since she didn't know specifics.
"Pointing them out could work, although I don't think we'll see any whales here. You'd have to go to some sort of Sea World water park to see them." At least you still could, though. "I think we have the rest of those here, though."
"Cool!" She replied, actually doing a little dance on the spot. Wow. Find something that truly excites Mel and she turns into a little girl. Good to know. "THANK you for coming. I hope it's not really mundane for you."
"Not at all," he said, smiling as she danced. "It's actually the mundane things that I think we should all be doing more often. You have to see the world that you'll soon be saving, you know?"
"That's a really nice way to look at it." She smiled up at him. Sometimes people tended to forget about the little things in their line of work, sadly.
Gabriel, blessedly, wasn't one of them. They walked for a few minutes in silence until they reached the zoo. Once he paid for their entrance, they walked inside. He grabbed a map from the nearest vendor. "Where would you like to go first?" he asked, handing her the map.
Instead of taking the map from his grasp, she turned into him so that they could read it together. "Oh cool. Miniature donkeys," she laughed. "Um, maybe we'll go around the park, along the left trail?"
"Sounds like a plan to me," he said. "And I didn't know that they made miniature donkeys," he admitted to her. Neither did the mun, actually.
"I'm... pretty sure that whole area's for kids under the age of ten, but I still plan to take full advantage," she told him as she led him along the path, gasping and making grabby hands ever-so-often.
He shrugged. "I don't think it really matters about ages as long as you don't try to ride the little train that goes around the zoo as well," he pointed out. He couldn't help but be amused as she oohed and ahhed over all the little animals.
"Well, I'll just have to ride on the big-girl train," she replied, before blinking, having realized what she'd just said. Apparently being around cute animals dropped her IQ IMMENSELY. Once at the Komodo dragons, she tilted her head to one side. "Wow, it moves fast."
He couldn't hold back the laugh at that. He had been around Kayla so long that he actually caught it, which was amusing enough. Once they looked over the Komodo Dragon, he nodded. "Seems like," he said. "Wouldn't get too close to that, though."
"Nooo," she agreed, looking at the thing with wide-eyed wonder. "It looks big enough to EAT me. And I'm LITTLE." She giggled and took one of his hands briefly, tugging him along to see the llama's, emu's, gorilla's and whatnot for the better part of the next hour, before stopping in a shaded area. "This is fun."
He had actually enjoyed his day out at the zoo. Frankly, he had never seen many of the animals that she had shown to him, so it was an experience for him as well. "It was fun," he said, sitting down on a bench in the shaded area.
She sat down beside him again, bringing one knee to her chest to hug as she took in a breath and let it out slowly, just enjoying the scents, sounds and being in his company. "I like spending time with you," she told him. "It's nice to talk to someone so openly and easily, you know?"
He smiled at her. "I like spending time with you as well," he said. "It's easy talking with you as well." That's really what Gabriel needed: someone that he could talk to. Isn't that someone that they both need?
She smiled softly at him, silently glad that he felt the same way. "Well, once we're rested and rejuvenated, I think I spied jellies at that vendor over there. I'm gonna buy you one," she told him matter-of-factly.
He laughed. "I think that might be a good idea, actually," he said. Even though it was only March, it was still incredibly hot outside. Damn LA.