Gwen Stacy (chocolate_house) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-10-28 22:19:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, gwen stacy (ghost spider), r |
Who: R(oger) and Gwen Stacy
When: Early October
Where: R’s place
What: Checking in
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete
Gwen knocked on R’s front door. She’d been thinking about him a lot lately, and was worried what was becoming of him. Things were changing in her personal life, it felt. She had this huge crush on her friend Claire’s roommate, Michael, who was so handsome she nicknamed him ‘the archangel’ in her head. And he’d agreed to go on a date with her. That was the shocking part.
Even more shocking than the idea that Gwen had had the guts to ask him out in the first place.
But that wasn’t enough of a distraction to keep her mind off of her friend the zombie. She knocked on the door, then stepped back and waited for … him to answer, or for a voice on the other side.
Roger was still a zombie. Thankfully, he still didn’t crave blood or brains or people in general, though his consumption in things like burgers had gone up a lot. Too bad it took him so long to make them. And over the past few days he’d really powered through a lot of Netflix, and currently he was staring absently at some deep sea documentary. If people thought zombies were freaky, they had clearly never seen what some of these sea creatures look like.
The knock on the door happened, and his reaction was a bit delayed before he got up and shuffled over. Seeing that it was Gwen was a nice surprise, and he fumbled a bit with the lock to let her inside.
“Hi.”
“Hey.” Gwen said, breaking into a smile at the sight of him. It was sad, and she felt a little… like… should she be speaking slowly? Using small words? She had no idea what the inside of his head was like. “I just… wanted to check in. See if you’re okay?” She stood awkwardly on the doorstep, watching him carefully.
“Uh. Yeah.” Well. As okay as he could be. But he could be worse, so, really, there was the silverlining. Roger shuffled away from the door a bit, in case she wanted to come inside. “And you? You’re … Good?”
“I’m good.” Gwen said, nodding. He moved aside, so she took that as an invitation and stepped carefully inside. “I… do you need any help around? I could do dishes or something while we talk.” She had a hard time imagining a zombie doing dishes or folding clean laundry.
Oh, Roger did them. It just took a very long time. “I … Guess?” He wouldn’t say no to the help, and he didn’t want Gwen to feel awkward or anything. He shuffled toward the kitchen, which was, for all intents and purposes, pretty tidy.
Gwen rolled up her sleeves as she followed him to the kitchen. “I’ll just… get started. Stop me if I start doing anything wrong,” she said, almost teasingly, and started to wash the dishes in his sink. There weren’t many. She assumed he hadn’t been hosting all that many parties in his current condition. “... are you hungry?” A slight wince at that thought. “I mean, I can cook you something.”
He winced a bit, too, then shrugged. “Don’t want … To be a bother.” He was more than content to just at the table and watch her. Then, he realized that it was probably creepy, so he turned his unblinking gaze elsewhere. “Music?”
“I don’t mind. Really.” She turned to him just in time so that he wasn’t staring at her, but turning somewhere else. “Oh, sure. I like music.” Gwen gave him a smile. “Whatever you want to listen to.”
Roger nodded, then made his way over to where he had his record player. He really did prefer it over CD players and iPod speakers, and with his dreams and all he thought it was sort of funny that zombie him enjoyed records, too. After flipping through some cases, he picked one by The Eagles and set it to play.
Gwen finished up with the dishes, and broke into a grin at the sound of The Eagles wafting into the room. Then she followed after him and settled on the arm of one of the chairs in his living room. “...Good music.” She said, giving him a little smile. She was a bit more relaxed now, feeling a bit more safe around him.
He cracked a grin. He loved classic rock. He blamed it on his parents, mostly, but there it was. And records just produced a better sound than any old iPod. Roger sat down across from her. “What’s … New?”
“I’ve got a date.” Gwen said, breaking into a shy grin. Her face erupted in a blush. Normally she didn’t blush like this, or grin like this, but something about the idea of her date with Michael made her… happy. Very happy. And shy. Giddy, almost.
Roger perked up, looking happy for his friend. Gwen deserved it. “Great.” He was trying to sound enthusiastic, but he wasn’t sure if it worked. “Tell. Me? About him.”
“His name is Michael,” Gwen said, going a little more pink at the mention of his name. She had a bit of a crush. She was smitten. “He’s my friend Claire’s roommate. He’s very handsome.”
“Handsome is good,” he teased. At least he could sort of be Gwen’s friend in some capacity still. “What else?”
Gwen laughed. “Handsome is good. We… he came over one night after work and I fell asleep on his shoulder while we were watching some crappy movie on Netflix.” She said, the pink slowly draining from her cheeks. “I feel really comfortable around him, you know?”
“Good. I’m happy. For you.” Roger almost looked amused, if it was possible for a zombie to look that way. “Tell him … If he upsets you. Your friend is a zombie.”
Gwen was grinning, and then the laugh came back. Happy and loud, almost an outburst that she couldn’t help. “I will. I’ll tell him that. And I hope it’ll scare the pants off of him.” It took her a moment to realize that was a double entendre.
He laughed, too, and that was a surprise even to him. But a good surprise. Anything remotely close to human-esque was good. “Wow.”
The laugh was good! It made Gwen smile even more brightly. “You sound good! Happy.” Her cheeks were flushed and she was glowing a little, watching him. He looked green, but the laugh really helped remind her that Roger was still in there somewhere.
Roger just shrugged a bit. “Apart from … This. Nothing to be not … happy … about.” Which was true. Sort of. He was trying to stay fairly optimistic. The best thing he could see on the horizon right now was Halloween, which meant he could go outside and people wouldn’t wonder what was wrong with him. They’d just think he had a sweet costume.
Gwen nodded. “You haven’t left the house much, have you?” She asked, looking a little concerned. The sunshine would probably do him some good, wouldn’t it?
“Uh. Have you … Seen me.” He raised his eyebrows. A little bit, anyway. “Not really made … For outings.”
Gwen’s grin faded the rest of the way and she nodded, thoughtfully. “You could… put on some clean clothes and make-up. Then you could get a little sunshine.” She suggested.
Roger just wrinkled his nose. He’d rather wait for this to pass, thank you kindly. “I’ll think about it.” Not really. It took too long to think about anything anymore.
“Okay. Let me know if you want to borrow some make-up.” Gwen said, breaking into a smile. Actually, she’d have to go buy some fresh for him--she wouldn’t want to share. No offense, Roger, or anything, but she didn’t want to catch… the zombie thing… by sharing mascara. “I should probably get going. I just wanted to check in, see how you were.” She added, standing up from her seat.
“O … Kay.” He shambled himself up to standing, and gave Gwen a slight smile. “Thank you. For … Visiting.” And he meant it. Roger was beyond appreciative of Gwen, and he’d have to do something nice for her when it was all said and done.
Gwen nodded. "You're welcome, of course." Then, against her better judgement, she took a deep breath, lunged in, and hugged him tightly. Just for a moment. It was a flash of a hug, but strong and heartfelt. Then she pulled away, as quickly as she could. "I'll see you soon." Then she bolted for the door.
Roger was a bit surprised by the hug, but it wasn’t unwelcome. He felt, for the first time in days, a warm sort of human pulse from it, and that was promising. He didn’t really have time to try and hug her back before she skittered away, and so he just gave her a slight wave and a mumble goodbye.