un_fallen | Sallie & Raguel's hot date

Sallie & Raguel's hot date

"I have to say, I'm glad that you chose the zoo," Raguel says enthusiastically, piloting the battered pickup along a climbing, winding road toward Griffith Park. "I spend as much time as I can in this area, but I don't get to wander that part of it much."

Once they enter the park, the road takes them through an area that has clearly been devastated by fire, now with signs of new growth here and there as the greenery starts to come back. Around and around goes the road, Raguel taking turns confidently enough but with no apparent reasoning. He points out landmarks as they go, some more recognizable through the devastation than others.

"There was a fire here last year," he says by way of explanation. "A few of these roads are still closed, but I think it's worth the detours to come this way instead of the freeway."

He glances over at her hopefully. Though at this point he should be mostly hopeful that she's not about to be sick.

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Raguel glances at the building labeled HOUSE OF SPIDERS warily. There are a lot of children going in, talking with a lot of gesturing about how cool this will be, and an equal amount coming out looking alternately awed and shaken.

"Yeah, I'm not really stuck on that one. How about the marsupials? You remember kangaroos?"

"That I do -- lil' furry things, hopping and what not. I approve."

Old ladies are generally predictable, in the fight between furry creatures and...well, theoretically spiders can have something like fur, but Sallie doesn't equate the two by any stretch of the imagination.

"After you, then," Raguel says, grinning. They stroll into the building and blink around at the animal enclosures. A couple of kangaroos are visible already, one scratching its belly, unconcerned.

Farther over, there are also a few koala bears visible. Raguel stares at them.

The kangaroo might be unconcerned with Sallie, but Sallie is staring quite intently at it, leaning on a post of the barrier between them.

"How neat. Like bein' born with aprons on."

"Yeah," he says, still distracted. "Think it's only the females that have them; gotta be convenient, though. Look at those, asleep!"

He gestures to three or four visible koala bears, most of them asleep in the trees.

"Only the female humans with the aprons too, in my experience," Sallie jokes.

Sallie 'oooh's appropriately, then asks, "What's a capture look like, here? I didn't want to bring one from home..."

Raguel blinks away long enough to look confused.

"A capture? How do you mean?"

Something over there smells really good.

"Um. Lord, how do you explain a capture?" There really needs to be an official introduction to Earth-that-Was written down someplace. "A machine, that captures images, so's to have them saved for later?"

"Oh, like a photo," he says, nodding.

"Well, I don't have a camera myself," he says, frowning, but his hands are in his pockets and he brightens.

"But it's possible I got a disposable one from the gift shop," he adds, and pulls out a bright yellow camera from one of the coat's pockets.

:O!

"You are a wonderman." Sallie does wonder a second why the ... camera, has to be such a bright yellow, but it doesn't really matter.

There are marsupials. Malcolm'll never believe it.

"Sometimes it works out," he says with a modest shrug. "Too bad it's not that reliable. You look through there," he adds helpfully, "and you push that button."

Yeah, that's really all he knows. Fortunately, that's pretty much all this camera is capable of.

"Works for me. Didn't think a capture would work here, though. I at least attempted to think ahead and what are they eating?"

Referring to the koalas, here.

"I don't know, but it smells so nice," he says. "The sign says--" he skims through. "--Eucalyptus. Must have some kind of fruit or something that - oh." He looks suddenly crestfallen.

"It's toxic."

Crushed!

"Humans always get the boring end of the food chain."

One schoolchild overhears and gives Sallie a look that distinctly reads Time to get away from the weird old lady.

"They're just all...relaxing in the trees. Must be nice."

"Yeah. Must be," he agrees. "Can't be very comfortable, though, sleeping like that." One koala in particular is bent almost double, head resting on the same branch that its feet are gripping with powerful claws.

"None of them even look depressed."

This wins Raguel a somewhat dubious glance, back and forth between the koalas and him, from Sallie.

"Are they supposed to be depressed? Or is that just the default emotion for anything sleeping in a tree?"

"Uh. It might be," he says uncomfortably. He watches Sallie looking back and forth between himself and the fuzzy creatures in the trees. Come to think of it, he's willing to bet that they're looking at him a little funny as well. It seems further explanation may be required.

"Milliways," he adds in a dark undertone.

Sallie isn't following.

She is remarkably naive of some of the more transfiguration-like tendencies of the bar.

"What about Milliways?"

Raguel looks surprised, then distressed. He glances back at the koalas and could swear there are more of them awake now than there were five minutes ago. Watching.

"You, uh. You know how Bar likes to play strange tricks on people? Putting her patrons in funny clothes and stuff?

"Actually...shi a."

Oops, she'd forgotten.

"My son got turned into a puppet, once. Bit Senator Tam."

"He bit him?" Raguel repeats, snickering right up until he realizes that his own experience is actually equally embarrassing. To him, anyway. He looks back at the koalas.

"It's a little fuzzy." No, that's not quite right. The fuzzy creatures stare at him balefully.

"Hazy, I mean. Bar was on an animal kick or something, maybe an object in the bar. Anyway, I was one of them for a night."

He jerks his head toward the trees. "It was, uh. Uncomfortable. And depressing."

"He was a puppet. It couldn't've hurt."

Sallie listens to Raguel explain.

And does not laugh.

Really. She's enjoying the zoo too much.

"What do you say to an aviary or some such? I've got my koala pictures," Sallie attempts to be magnanimous.

"What kind of a puppet?" he asks with some suspicion. If Gabriel Tam had thought it would be amusing to stick a hand up Mal's... well. Raguel couldn't really blame him. On the other hand, it didn't really sound like the Senator's style.

"Yeah," he agrees quickly. "Yeah, let's get out of here. They're kinda giving me the evil eye."

"Aviary it is."

As they leave, two schoolkids look at each other.

Did they really just say 'What kind of a puppet?'

They duck out of the marsupials building - Raguel with a certain sense of relief, though he'll miss that tantalizing scent of food. The nearest aviary isn't far; they find it easily by the sound of chirping, squawking and hooting that rises from the screened-in building.

"Sure you want to go in there?" Raguel asks warily.

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