Sallie & Raguel's hot date

[un_fallen]

"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.

Comments

[un_fallen]

"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."

[realmrsreynolds]

"Aviary it is."

As they leave, two schoolkids look at each other.

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

[un_fallen]

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.

[realmrsreynolds]

"Absolutely.




"Though if there's a reason why I shouldn't want to, you need to tell me."

[un_fallen]

"No, I'm sure it's fine," he says. "If anything supernatural got caught by mistake, it's long gone."

Why do I have bad memories of the entire animal kingdom? he wonders as they go inside.

[realmrsreynolds]

This does not do as much as Raguel might hope to ease any concerns on Sallie's part.

She opens the door to the aviary anyway, and spends a solid few minutes just staring upward.

"I have never understood why birds would ever be blue or red, or other colors that weren't nature-like."

[un_fallen]

"Got me," Raguel says, staring the same way from right beside her. "As long as they get you there, why do you have to have feathers in day-glow purple? 'Course, I guess it wasn't up to them."

[realmrsreynolds]

"Speakin' from experience?"

[un_fallen]

"Well, not really. I was never that flashy; had to keep a low profile, you know, even when there were feathers everywhere." He shrugs.

"I know a few with odd colors, but nothing that intense. Mine're gray."

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie bites her lip, whether in thought or confusion is anyone's guess.

"I suppose...I suppose I hadn't really thought of you like that.

"Hidden...talents, I mean." She opens her mouth to speak again, but gives up whatever thought might have been uttered to plop her elbows down on the railing and stare up at a macaw that is appearing to pose for that bright yellow camera in Sallie's hands. "Rutting Milliways."

[un_fallen]

"Of me?" he says, still staring upward. "Hey, look at that one-- damn, it's flown away. I swear, it was electric blue."

His chin comes down for a moment and he rubs the back of his neck.

"Oh. You didn't know I was, er. One of the flying types?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"Not...not that I can be sure on?

"You folk really ought to come with some sort of educational material. A pamphlet? Data sheet? Somethin'."

[un_fallen]

"If it makes you feel any better, I wasn't a flying type till a year or so ago. Almost two, now. Well, once I was, I guess, but that was before there was a universe, and-- and I should just go back to bird-watching."

[realmrsreynolds]

"I'm thinking that'd be a good plan for the both of us, really."

Except, now? Sallie's still watching the birds go about their business.

But -- also watching Raguel.

More specifically?

His back.

She's not staring. Polite women do not stare.

[un_fallen]

Raguel nods, turning back to the birds, but Sallie's divided attention is hard to miss. He leans over to speak quietly.

"Kinda hard in here. But I'll show you when we get back, if you want?"

They were long enough coming, so it's not hard to get him to show them off.

[realmrsreynolds]

"Oh! O...of course. But...

"I'm more curious as to how you hide them. But okay. Bird time. Yes."

[un_fallen]

"Oh," he says, now completely ignoring the birds. "Well, it's been suggested that it's something to do with shapeshifting, but I don't really think so. It's sort of an... out or in, up or down thing rather than forming them. But I don't change shapes otherwise so I guess I wouldn't really know, would I?"

He laughs, completely unaware that he's starting to shed a few tiny feathers. His wings are still nowhere to be seen.

[realmrsreynolds]

Squawk!

Sallie jumps with the nearness of the noise, but laughs along with Raguel, even if it's at a bright scarlet bird's quarrel with another of lesser authority over branch position instead of her companion's original topic.

"What do you say we move on?" She points to the dueling birds. "Folk're getting a mite antsy."

[un_fallen]

"Oh. Yeah," he agrees, eyeing them. "Wouldn't want to come between those two."

They duck out of the aviary, Raguel with some sense of relief to be leaving the flashy creatures behind.

"You know, I think that fuchsia one looked like it was up to something," drifts back to the birds as they wander deeper into the zoo.