Gwen Stacy (chocolate_house) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-07-20 21:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, gwen stacy (ghost spider), r |
Who: R(oger) and Gwen
When: After the Zombies Husks go away (sorry for the non-PC comment there. XD)
Where: Coffee Shop
What: Hanging out
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete
Gwen showed up a little early to the coffee shop where she was supposed to be meeting with Roger. She wanted to make sure there were no crazy zombie alien things running around. There weren’t, there hadn’t been for days, but she was still a little paranoid.
She purchased her “why bother?” (a nonfat, sugar-free vanilla, decaf latte) and moved to sit at a table near the back, with a good view of the window.
Roger shuffled his way into the coffee shop and shot Gwen a wave when he saw her. After ordering just an iced americano for himself, he sat down across from her, cracking a bit of a smile.
“Hey. Good to see you managed to stay safe.”
“They had all these crazy precautions at Stark. And uh... I don’t know, I’m just safe at my place, I think.” She always felt safe around John, she had no idea why. He was an incredible friend. She sat up a little and gave him a smile.
“And you? No zombie attacks, right?”
He nearly laughed. Instead, he snorted and choked a bit on his drink. Once he cleared his throat, he shrugged and shook his head.
“No. I’m zombie free. More or less.”
“Good.” Gwen said, lifting her drink for a sip of her own. She didn’t choke on it, though. “I think I prefer my friends to have a pulse.” A little grin crossed her features.
“Ha ha ha.” Roger rolled his eyes, a little, and shrugged. “It’s a good quality to have, I guess.”
“Yeah. So.” Gwen set her drink back down. “Besides the alien zombies, how has life been?” She asked, trying to think if anything was new in her life to talk to him about. She couldn’t think of anything. It was a little sad, actually.
His life was pretty much the same way. He avoided the crazy situations as much as possible, his job wasn’t really exciting, and half of his time lately was spent being half-zombie. So he just shrugged again.
“It’s been good. Can’t complain, I guess. You?”
“Same old same old.” Gwen had an amazing roommate and best friend. She’d been out on a few dates with guys who were cool at the time, but nothing really lingered. The only real thing she had to deal with on a daily basis was her feelings for her ex. Since she came face to face with him a lot. “May be doing some extra work. Contracting, on the side. I’m thinking about saving up for a nice vacation.”
“That’s good. You work hard, you deserve a vacation.” Roger nodded and sipped at his drink. “Where are you thinking of going?”
Gwen chuckled. “Hopefully that’ll help motivate me, you know? Get me working. Sometimes I feel like I’m scraping by.” She sipped again, between sentences and whatnot. “I don’t know. Hawaii? I’ve never been and it looks beautiful. It might be a shame to go on my own, though.”
“Hawaii sounds nice. I mean, if you take away the fact that there could be hurricanes and volcanic eruptions.” Roger wasn’t really paranoid about that sort of thing, but the reality of it did seem to damper his idea of a nice holiday. “Which I guess is rare at best. It’d be relaxing.”
“I think so. That’s what I’d like, anyway. Relaxing. Something where I won’t have to work, to think, to even open a computer unless I want to.” She leaned back a bit in her chair. “What about you? Had any time off lately?”
“Uh. Not really.” He shrugged. “I just had to use pretty much all my sick days, so I’d feel bad if I suddenly took a vacation, you know? Which is fine. I’m trying to save up for graduate school and all.”
“Wait, why’d you take sick days?” Gwen asked. Was she forgetting? Did she know?
She didn’t know, not unless she’d picked it up on the Net, but Roger was keeping such things mostly to himself. He shrugged, hiding behind his drink a little. “Just, you know, sick. It was pretty bad for a few days.”
“Oh man, I’m so sorry.” Gwen said, frowning. She reached forward to touch his arm with her hand. “I hate being sick. I wish you’d let me know. I could have brought you soup, or something. Y’know. Something.” She felt really alone in California, even though she had a fantastic roommate and a couple of best friends. She hated to think of other people alone.
“It’s all right. I saw a doctor, he fixed me up. But I’ll keep it in mind for next time,” he said. It wasn’t really a promise. He was mildly terrified to have people near him when he got in those phases.
“Good.” She didn’t really think it was a promise. Even if it was, sometimes Gwen was a bit iffy on the sicky stuff. She might drop off food on his front doorstep, then text later to say it was there. Not exactly germophobic, but pretty close. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re better, and fingers crossed nothing like that comes up again. I hate being sick.”
“Oh, trust me, my fingers are completely crossed. It’s not fun.” Roger shrugged. “Ah well. It’s passed.” For now.
“That’s good! How have you been besides? Are you having those bizarre Dreams like everyone else on Valarnet?” Gwen asked, lifting her coffee for a sip.
“Bizarre seems sort of like an understatement.” He cracked a smile. “So, yes. I guess you are, too? What are they?”
“I’m a teenager in the bulk of them,” Gwen said, leaning back a little. It actually hurt a little to talk about it. “And my boyfriend is a masked, vigilante, superhero. Well, he’s not my boyfriend at first, and then I find out he’s actually a... “ She shook her head, trying to shake off thoughts of swinging around New York in the arms of Spider-Man.
“Wow. Guess it’s never dull, anyway?” He offered a smile, seeing Gwen’s discomfort. “If it makes you feel better, in my dreams, I’m a zombie.”
It wasn’t so much discomfort as straight out pain. She was head over heels in love with Peter in the dreams, and had been in this lifetime, too. But in this lifetime, she’d given that up, and now Peter was blissfully happy with some other girl. A chunky brunette. Who, apparently, hung around the apartment naked.
Both of Gwen’s eyebrows raised. “Oh? A... zombie? How is that... possible?” She asked, confused.
“Uh. Well. Best I can, uh, tell, it’s some sort of … Virus? I think. Some people are just, born with it, and then, you know, you can get it if you get bitten or something? It’s hard to sort of figure out because zombie-me doesn’t remember anything before death. Looks like some sort of apocalypse hit and from that came the zombie rising.” He shrugged. It was all a bit touch and go as far as backstory. “I was in a zombie attack on a plane.”
As Gwen listened, her jaw became more and more slack, and her eyes more wide. “Really? So, that... zombie stuff. That’s your dreams. Really? Really??” She asked. “Like, full-on, Shaun of the Dead stuff?” Best Zombie movie Gwen had ever seen, actually.
“Um. Not really?” He scratched the back of his head. “It’s … Not really typical zombie at all. We have like. A community. We go to some sort of church, and we have - uh. They’re like the oldest wisest of zombies and they oversee us all. And we get married, and then we’re given zombie children and they go to hunting school and … I don’t know. Zombie-me thinks a lot. Really introspective.”
Gwen was absolutely floored. “...wait, you get zombie married??” As if that was the most ridiculous part of that whole explanation. “Hold up, you get zombie married, and you’re given zombie children??”
“Seriously!” Roger laughed. How could he not? It sounded weirder every time he talked about it. “We go to Zombie Church and get married. I got married to what I think used to be an airline stewardess? We have one boy and one girl. The sanctity of zombie marriage isn’t really that bonding.”
“Wow, that... So you’re zombie married in your dreams.” Gwen couldn’t help but smirk a bit. It was funny. She could hardly believe it. “You should write it all down. That’s... I bet people would pay money to read about that stuff.”
“Maybe.” He looked amused. “It’s definitely interesting. But it’s … Well. Just dreams. Not as weird as some stuff I’ve heard of.”
“Yeah?” Gwen asked, breaking into a gossip-loving grin. “What’s the weirdest you’ve heard?”
“Well. There are people who deal with, you know, demons. And hell. And vampires. Oh, and all those ponies.” Roger grinned a bit.
Gwen laughed again. “The ponies! Oh my God the ponies. I read that on Valarnet, and I’m like “...the hell?” It’s wicked weird.” She said, shaking her head a little. “Makes my dreams look really tame in comparison, an I’m dating a superhero.”
“Who would have thought, right?” He snickered, finishing off his coffee. “I guess I should maybe get heading home, though. I have some stuff I need to do for work. Unfortunately.”
“Right! I’ve got to... whatever it is I have to do.” Gwen said, pulling herself up to her feet. “I’m sure there’s something. My phone will go off in a minute with a calendar reminder. But... we’ll talk again soon, yeah?”
“Yeah, of course. We don’t talk enough anymore.” He stood and took their cups to throw out on the way, and gave her a smile. “It was good seeing you again. Take care?”
“We’ll correct that.” Gwen nodded, following him to the trash. “Yes, definitely. You, too. Don’t let the dreams get you down!” She said, then headed out the door and on her way.