Day at the zoo (intro and open to whoever's in the area)

[leafygreenvagoo]

Mrs. Grekova had told her she was in danger of growing roots herself if she stayed in the shop any longer that day -even though it wasn't even lunchtime- and had practically shooed her out the door with her pay for a full day, and the promise of a bonus if she didn't come back the next day, just for her own health, because working all the time wasn't good for a young woman.

So she'd laughed, as she always did, since this was something that happened every few weeks, and went home to stash the money she wasn't going to use and to collect Bob -who always passed as some kind of art project or puppet if he perched on her shoulder while she was out in public- so that they could go for an outing, she figured that a trip to the zoo would do them both some good.

She debated packing a lunch, but after re-counting her day's pay, decided against it, because she could afford a lunch at the cafe, or she'd stop for a sandwich on the way home. And so it was with Bob in a small dog harness that she headed down the street to hop the bus, too warm to walk the whole way to the zoo, even though it wasn't far.

Comments

[lil_hulk]

Jay Walters-Wingfoot was heading to the zoo. While it was probably frowned upon to take a miniature giant space hamster to a zoo, Jay thought Boo could use seeing that the animals on the tv came from an actual place.

Also, just a day out away from everyone occasionally felt nice. He hadn't done it since... since he rampaged through New York as a Hulk.

The sometimes green teen packed Boo comfortably into a backpack. It was partially open for the space hamster to breathe. Though Jay hoped Boo would not get the wiggles in front of any of the zoo staff. That could go wrong.

He hummed a tune as he walked deftly around people despite his 6'5" frame.

[leafygreenvagoo]

The thing with being nearly a head taller than most of the crowd, was that Alexis tended to notice when other people were on a level with her line of sight, which was how she ended up giving Jay a crooked smile and a nod that was both acknowledgement and almost a greeting from the other side of the crowd at the lemur exhibit.

At that point Bob -still on his harness- was draped over her shoulder like the world's saddest half-deflated water balloon, and since he wasn't moving, no one seemed to notice that he wasn't some sort of weird purse. Something that suited her just fine.

[lil_hulk]

Jay was around very tall people often, considering his mother and the team he belonged to. Though he did kind of notice a mossy waterballoon hanging out on a tall redhead. He would never understand fashion. No matter how much Aunt Janet tried.

He felt his backpack wiggle. Rather than let someone behind him spot the small, furry creature inside, he unslung his backpack and put it on backward so Boo would be in front of him.

While Boo was watching lemurs, Jay couldn't get that weird purse thing out of his mind. Because it was that odd to him. Maybe Aunt Jan could tell him something about it if he found who made it. He angled himself toward the redhead who had nodded to him.

He eventually made it over by her without smashing anyone's toes or mowing down any small children. He gave her a friendly smile.

"Hey."

[leafygreenvagoo]

Well now that was a surprise. She wasn't really used to getting any further than smile-and-nod, and wasn't entirely sure how to proceed except to smile again and give a: "Hiya." Back, because that seemed like the polite thing to do.

Of course, the next thing out of her mouth was: "Your bag was on the other way before. Kind of feels like I walked into one of those 'spot the difference' games." She did, at least, manage to stop herself from rambling any further in that vein, cutting herself off with: "I'm Alexis, Alex. Well, Lex mostly."

[lil_hulk]

"Easier to grab things out of it this way." Or keep something in it as it were. He shrugged a bit. He didn't appear to be bothered by the observation. Though he did press down on the top of the backpack to keep Boo from introducing himself.

"Well Alexis Alex Lex Mostly, I'm Jay. I saw your... purse-thing?" He eyed whatever was on the harness. That was most definitely not a purse. Unless it was avant garde beyond belief. "Or what exactly is that?"

[leafygreenvagoo]

She couldn't help but smile, because she'd still rambled, but he'd rolled with it, and that put her at ease a little, though her brow creased at the descriptor, at least until he finished, "Oh! You mean Bob. He's, uh, a puppet?" She really hadn't meant that to sound like a question, it was just that most people assumed he was a puppet and she only rarely had to say so herself.

"Project that I got too attached to." And that part was true, it was just that he wasn't any kind of class final project, he was someone else's science project. At hearing his name, he drew himself up a little, sitting on her shoulder and looking more like some kind of fuzzy shell-less garden snail than anything.

[lil_hulk]

Jay scratched his head as he sussed out the information. "So, you're a theater student of sorts?"

While his hands were busy not holding the top of the backpack, part of it pulled down so a pair of brown eyes could peep out. The backpack wiggled as a short, trill came from the interior of the bag.

[leafygreenvagoo]

"Yeah." She nodded, then shrugged, "Well, not any more, I was. For a while." Because while she hadn't learned any espionage at the Facility, she'd learned a whole lot about pretending to be something she wasn't. Most of it pretending to be a good little test subject who wasn't planning another escape.

At the trill, Bob gave a noise of his own, some combination of dial-up modem and rusty hinge.

[lil_hulk]

Jay startled a bit at Boo offering a greeting. He flailed slightly pushing the top of the backpack to an upright position. He got a low grunt of annoyance from inside the backpack for his efforts.

Then his attention was torn away from Boo to the puppet. Which was making a noise remeniscent to something that happened in a horror movie when an ax murderer popped out.

Jay looked at the puppet. Then at Alexis Alex Lex. Back to the puppet. Back to her to try to figure out how the hell she made that noise.

[leafygreenvagoo]

While Lex hadn't startled at Bob's noise, she did turn a glare on him, pushing him back down flat on her shoulder with one hand while she explained: "He does that. I think the batteries in his ...voice box thing are dying."

To his credit, the next sound -now that he was deflated and draped over her shoulder again- was a pitiful warble, sounding rather as if he was under water.

[lil_hulk]

"Wow. Uh. The batteries hard to change?" He put a firm hand against his backpack to keep Boo in it. The under water sound was possibly making the teddy bear-sized creature curious. The last thing he needed was a miniature giant space hamster running around the zoo chased by a horde of children.

Jay's ability to roll with things as a human was sometimes only paralleled by his ability to make large things roll as a Hulk.

[leafygreenvagoo]

"Not really." She replied, "Just finicky, takes time and a certain amount of finesse." Another underwater sound came next, sounding more mournful than the last, and Lex reached up absently to pat at the lump, it was a reflexive movement, as was scritching up under the edge of the harness.

It was the sort of movement that came from someone handling a long-time pet, knowing sore spots and favorite scratching spots, an almost muscle-memory. She shifted her weight a little, one foot to the other, "So, uh, you had a chance to see the dinosaurs yet?" It was one of Bob's favorite exhibits, so she always made sure to do at least one walk-through before they left.

[lil_hulk]

Jay watched the automatic motion. One of his eyebrows raised a little. That wasn't the action for a puppet. He picked up on the connotation. Though like he had any room to talk with Boo hanging out in his backpack.

"Nope. Haven't seen them yet this visit." A slightly soft trill came from the interior of his bag on his chest.

[leafygreenvagoo]

She nodded towards the bag, "Not missing an important phone call or anything, are you?" Because while that didn't quite sound like a cell phone, it didn't quite sound like anything else, either.

Considering that she'd been the one to distract him, well, Bob had, but close enough, she wanted to make sure that she wasn't accidentally making someone think he'd been kidnapped or something.

[lil_hulk]

He glanced down at the backpack. "Nah. Important things would ring my pocket."

Where his Avengers ID was.

He stuck his hand quickly inside the backpack. He gave Boo a quick scratch on its head.

[leafygreenvagoo]

"Makes sense." She replied, nodding once, "Easier to pick it up that way, let people know you're not in trouble." Because in her experience there wasn't much other reason for someone to call.

"So, uh, anything else I can do for you?" She laughed a moment later, shaking her head, "That sounds wrong, apparently I'm not good at conversations in the wild, used to dealing with people at work."

[lil_hulk]

When Jay tried to take his hand out of his backpack there was a black and white furry creature clinging to it. He grimaced and tried to shove Boo right back in.

"Uh, no. Just came over to talk." He gave a slightly wider than normal grin. "Puppet and all."

[leafygreenvagoo]

Her brow creased a little, because she was pretty sure there were rules about not bringing pets to the zoo. Not that she'd ever followed them herself, there were a lot of rules that mostly just applied to other people as far as she was concerned.

She nodded all the same, giving her own too-broad smile, "Well it was good to meet you. Jay, right?"

[lil_hulk]

"Jay Walters-Wingfoot. Nice to meet you, too." He nodded as he tried to shake Boo off of his hand. He got an annoyed squeaking from his miniature giant space hamster for all his effort.

[leafygreenvagoo]

She nodded once, "I'll probably see you around." She paused then, brow creasing just a little, "Unless you want to tag along to the dinos. Might be harder for two giants to knock people over than it is for one."

Not that she really knocked people over, she was good at dodging even the biggest of strollers and the fastest of screaming children. But with two of them, people might steer clear on their own.

[lil_hulk]

"I can if you don't mind the company." Boo had to be getting restless. Jay eventually managed to shake his tiny, furry buddy off his hand.

"Maybe less people bouncing off me if there's another skyscraper with me." People shorter than six foot were like birds. Some of them smacked right into his windows.

[leafygreenvagoo]

"I don't mind." She said, giving a shrug, "Besides, might be a fun not-entirely-scientific experiment, just see how many people clear out of the way, you know?"

Besides that, she was curious and kind of wanted to keep an eye on him, at least for now, and that seemed to be the easiest way to do so without being suspicious about it.

[lil_hulk]

"Well, Uncle Reed would like it if I did it for science, so why not?" Jay did not tend to call most of the Avengers by family terms. But the Fantastic Four were part of his family. Not that totaly strangers would pick up on that.

He settled the backpack better on his chest. If Boo tried to escape again, he didn't have to try to stuff his arm backwards into the backpack.

Though Boo had settled in low in the backpack. Jay's shadow profile looked like he was pregnant.

[leafygreenvagoo]

She nodded once, a quick, decisive movement, smile sliding into place again, easy and open, "Decided then. For science." She headed back down the walkway, she had an easy, comfortable pace, the kind that could eat up distance without wearing herself out. It was something that she'd had some practice at, the kind of pace that people who walk everywhere settled into before long.

Bob had settled as well, still just a deflated blob on her shoulder, getting a few stares, but not as many turned heads as they tended to get when he was sitting up and interacting.

[lil_hulk]

Despite the slightly pregnant backpack appearance, Jay did not waddle or put his hand to the small of his back like it hurt. He was a tall, brawny guy. The couple pounds against his belly did not throw off his groove much.

"So which flavor of science will you be testing at the dino exhibit? Puppetry kinesthetics?"