As much as Laura loved all the weird things that happened around Christmas time in Atlantis, one of the best parts was that there was no more school. It was only for a couple of weeks or so until after New Year’s, but Laura would take advantage of it as much as she could while the break lasted. Her classes had gotten a little easier from a social perspective over the last nearly two years, but the classwork itself had gotten a lot harder. She was behind the other classmates her own age, but she didn’t feel as lost as she did at one time.
She still wished she didn’t have to go.
No school meant that she was able to spend more time helping out at the zoo on a daily basis instead of a couple of afternoons each week. She made her rounds most every day to visit her animal friends, but the lions were still her favorites. Augustus was sleeping on his sunning rock as she called it and wasn’t paying any attention to the people calling out at him to do something. Laura knew better than to try to wake the lion, but watching him was still fun for her. They’d shared a few moments in the times Laura had snuck into the exhibit, but today wasn’t one of those days. No, one of the trainers had told her that a lioness was set to give birth to her cubs soon, and she could watch her latest check up from behind the glass of one of the observing rooms. She was hoping that she would be around to see the actual birth, but she knew that might be a long shot.
As she turned to start heading back and away from the exhibit, Laura stopped when she saw someone else standing there. She didn’t really recognize her but wondered if she might have been one of the big group of people who had shown up recently like Boston had.
“Hi,” she said in her usual way and pointed to the big lion sleeping on his sunning rock. “That’s Augustus.”
Brigitte Lindholm was a cat lover, and the only way to see big cats was to go to the zoo. There weren't many zoos in the parts of the world that she frequented with Reinhardt (assuming they even had time to explore), so getting to visit one in Atlantis while she was here was a special treat. Plus, one of the perks to being 6'3" even without her combat boots meant that Brigitte rarely had trouble seeing over others when it came to looking at the exhibits.
When she was approached by a younger girl, she squatted down to be closer to eye level and nodded in the direction that she had been pointing. "Augustus is very beautiful. You can tell he's a very proud lion, tired of the demands that people seem to think they can make of him. I bet he still has plenty of fight in him when it counts!" Brigitte grinned, but she could as easily be describing Reinhardt as well as Augustus. She made a mental note to drag the old man out to see his feline counterpart.
Laura nodded. Most people who knew her knew that she was a big fan of the lions, even if Dyson probably would have preferred to her to be a wolf girl when he'd been here, but she wasn't going to shy away from introducing other people to the big cats if she had the chance. It was a relatively new thing for her talking to strangers openly, but that had gotten easier too the longer she stayed in Atlantis.
"Do you come see them a lot?" She asked and pointed to the open exhibit. Laura didn't remember seeing her around, but that didn't necessarily mean she hadn't come by before now.
"I come most days after school. I like watching them." And running and playing with them. That only happened a couple of times though, and Laura had been sternly warned not to do it again. She wasn't scared of them and it wasn't like they could severely hurt her anyway.
"I may start," answered Brigitte, turning her head to look at the lion again. "I haven't been in Atlantis very long, so this is my first time here." Turning back to Laura, she continued. "I do spend a great deal of time with the rescue cats at the animal shelter near the hotel I am staying in." She'd read that there's three different locations around Atlantis and hoped to visit them all, but she also didn't want to tempt herself to go around adopting them if they'd be stuck without her when she was sent back home, either.
"I love cats of all sizes," he noted, taking in the other girl. She didn't know her, but from her body language and blunt, short sentences, it made Brigitte think of war orphans and she decided that she wanted to be this girl's friend in short order, hence her opening up a bit about her love of cats. "Did you know that the big cats love to sit in boxes just as much as house cats?"
While Laura did prefer the big cats, she had to admit that some of the smaller ones were cute. She’d never really thought of getting one of her own, mostly because she was too busy trying to think of ways to convince her guardians, whether Dyson, Cat, or Alicia, to let her get something a little more exotic. Sebastian the mini cow lived down at the stables with the horses, but she’d at least convinced them to let her keep Carlos the goat after Derrick left. He hadn’t eaten anything too valuable… yet.
“No,” she said with a small headshake. “I didn’t know. I’ve never had a house cat though to see them do it.” Carlos liked eating boxes and standing on top of them rather than sitting inside of them. She noticed that the older girl mentioned staying at the hotel, so she must have been one of the people who’d just shown up over the last couple of weeks. “They probably don’t let you keep them at the hotel, I guess, right?”
"I think they'd be worried that the pet would have no one if I left," answered Brigitte, a bit of sadness apparent in her voice. But she also knew if she stayed, she'd miss all of her kitties back home, too. "I did convince my friend Reinhardt to adopt an older cat that reminded me of him. Maybe you'd like to meet him sometime?" Wilhelm the Cat was a older cat with regal bearing who looked grumpy but was actually incredibly sweet - unless you cross him, just like Reinhardt.
"Reinhardt's last name is Wilhelm, and the cat was named Wilhelm. Now he is Wilhelm Wilhelm and Reinhardt spoils him rotten, it's so adorable."
Laura nearly volunteered herself to take any pets that might have been left behind, but she knew she might be pushing it with Alicia even with a small cat. She perked up though and nodded at the mention of meeting her friend’s cat. “I like his name,” she said with a small name. Small things like names for pets seemed probably more of a big deal for Laura since she hadn’t always had a name of her own. So, she wanted to make sure the animals she liked had real names too.
“I have a goat named Carlos and a mini cow named Sebastian,” she said. “Sebastian doesn’t live with me though. He lives with the horses. And Alicia has some dogs.” Laura looked up at Brigitte and smiled a little. “You can meet them sometime too if you want.” She was still working on expanding her collection of barnyard or exotic animals, so time would tell what Atlantis might want to give her next. Maybe a monkey. “Carlos is funny.”
"I love goats, but I've never seen a mini-cow. I wasn't even aware they could come in smaller sizes, so yes, I would absolutely love to meet them," answered Brigitte, both amused and surprised at this little girl's collection of assorted animals. And at that thought, she realized she'd never actually introduced herself or asked her name, either. So she extended her hand in greeting, slowly, because she knew a lot of wartorn orphans (assuming her hunch was right) tended to not like quick movements.
"I'm Brigitte Lindholm. I'm from Sweden and I like to help people."
“Atlantis gave me Sebastian,” Laura said. Even if Dyson and Cat wouldn’t let him stay in her room for more than a couple days. “Carlos came from the world where we weren’t really ourselves. He showed up here too.” With someone else, but Derrick had left, and Laura managed to convince Alicia that she could keep him. For now, at least. So far he hadn’t eaten anything too important. Sebastian was a little more friendly than Carlos, but Carlos just showed his… affection in other ways sometimes.
Laura looked at the handed extended towards her. It wasn’t a usual gesture Laura received from people, especially since they usually treated her as a kid, but she smiled a little and took Brigitte’s hand to shake.
“I’m Laura,” she said. She didn’t give a last name because even though she’d technically taken on her father’s, it didn’t always seem right to tell people who she was when he wasn’t here. “I lived in Canada before here.” That was the simple way of putting where she was from. She didn’t want to talk about Mexico. “Where’s Sweden?”
Brigitte was extremely pleased to receive the smile and returned handshake and it showed in her smile. She didn't really fully understand how Atlantis could give pets or worlds where you weren't yourself, but she did realize that weird things happened here, so really it wouldn't be out of the question for either situation to occur - logically speaking.
"Hi Laura! Sweden is north of Europe, sandwiched between Norway and the Baltic Sea. It's close to Finland, Poland, and Germany, if you're familiar with any of those. We are one of the countries that originated with Vikings, if that helps?" She grinned, hoping any of those references would help. "Your pets sound fascinating. I have eight cats back home."
There were a lot of places that Brigitte listed off that Laura had no idea where they were. She knew about Europe, and she was pretty sure she’d learned about Germany in school and that Norway was one of those countries hanging off the top of Europe somehow. If she understood her right, it sounded like Sweden was one of those other ones hanging off the side too. She got the basic idea anyway. “Oh.” She thought for a minute. “I’ve heard of Vikings. They sound like they’re cool.” Warriors, sea people, and stuff like that.
Laura’s eyes widened. “Eight? That’s a lot.” Alicia liked animals, but there was no way she’d ever let her have that many of anything unless it was maybe a bunch of fish. “They let me help out with the animals sometimes when I come after school,” she said and paused for a brief second then pointed to the lion exhibit. “I’m supposed to go see the keepers give one of the lionesses a check up because she’s having babies. Do you want to come?”
Brigitte's eyes lit up at the suggestion and she got to her feet. "Absolutely! That sounds like a wonderful way to experience the zoo." She added a grin down to Laura, commenting "It seems I have made a wonderful friend." With that, she gestured for Laura to lead the way to the expectant lioness, prepared to follow her into hell itself if it meant getting to see something that special.