if the elephants have past lives

[invoking]

WHO: GIL and YOU
WHERE: anywhere! The park, a grocery store, the streets, around his workplace, etc.
WHEN: between 12/10 and 12/13
WARNINGS: references to Thunderhungerdome events
SUMMARY: In spite of everything that's happened, Gil has to try and carry on with City life.
FORMAT: starting with quick but tagger's choice!


[ If there's anything Gil is always quick to buy, no matter how stingy he can be with money, it's cigarettes and a brand new lighter. He's not too fond of those cheap ones from the corner stores, even if they do work in a pinch. But so do matches. (The odd stare every now and then doesn't both him when he's craving a long drag of nicotine. While he's well are of the laws against public smoking, when he really needs (re: wants) a cigarette, he can't help himself. When he's working, he avoids it as long as he can before he lights one outside the building.

Attempting to quit doesn't cross his mind. There's a lot on it.

He's even lost count of how long it's been since that night in the stadium. There are fleeting moments it feels like it was a decade ago, buried under the other painful events that seemed to consistently plague his life-- and then the vivid moments like it was just yesterday and his senses are overloaded with the smell of copper and screaming ringing in his ears.

It's the brief seconds of remembering Lenalee and Damian's bodies that jostles him out of his daze and he needs to stop and catch his breath. ]

Comments

[invoking]

He actually waits and wonders why the entirety of the time. While Ned comes off as nice, there's a pushy factor to all this. (He recalls how strange the pie pushing came off. Maybe he's one of those "pushy salesmen" types.)

"Leaving work just like that...?"

keywords tbh

[onetouch]

"Oh yes, it's just for a little while. Minako can handle it." He waved to said teenaged animu now. See. He's got this covered, Gil.

"Where did you say you were headed?"

[invoking]

"I didn't," he sighs and starts down the street again.

[onetouch]

"Oh." He trots a few steps to catch up, then falls in line with Gil, Digby between them and a little ahead. Ned's other hand is in his pocket and he seems like he wants to ask Gil something, like it's on the tip of his tongue. But instead he just says, "What a beautiful sunny day."

[invoking]

Gil can't restrain himself from making a face. That sort of comment about the weather is too cliché. He has to wonder what is going through Ned's mind. What convinced him to "accompany" Gil for a walk.

Is this the start of a sales pitch?!

"I... suppose... for winter, I mean."

[onetouch]

Only if his pitch is being a very lonely pie maker :(

"You don't like Winter?" he asks, carefully. It was Ned's second-favorite, next to Spring.

[invoking]

He rolls a shoulder in a half-shrug, stuffing his gloved hands into his coat pockets.

"It's cold and often dark during this time." He doesn't hate it, but it's not the most pleasant season.

[onetouch]

A small smile came over Ned as he puzzled out how to explain what he loved about Winter. "Though it can be unpleasant at times, it's like the whole world is hibernating; just waiting to burst forth into Spring. And there's truly nothing more beautiful than sunshine after snowfall."


That was enough sap for today, surely.

[invoking]

Gil thinks about it. True, spring is going to be beautiful, even for a crowded city like this. The weather is much nicer then compared to the sticky, heavy summer air. He's not accustomed to the air during that time.

Hibernating... well, that's quite a way to put it.

"It hasn't been a difficult winter so far," he finally admits. No harsh gusts of wind and ice coating everything.

[onetouch]

"No, it hasn't," he agrees. "It's been nice, almost." Though there had been a few cold days, Ned really didn't mind.

"With any luck, it'll stay this way." He sounded wistful, and like he meant more than just the weather.

sorry i keep losing your tag here :(

[invoking]

Sometimes Gil associates the cold with unpleasant memories from his past. It seemed in his most troubled and darker corners of life, the cold had always been there. He remembers running out into the cold and wet rain, choking on his sobs and thinking he had lost Oz forever to the Abyss.

... But really, who likes to have to wear layers upon layers in a season like this?

"What do the people call it here... a 'White Christmas'?" he wonders aloud. "I've overheard some want more snow before the holiday."

GOD WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH YOU NITA

[onetouch]

"It's sort of traditional. Though where I'm from... it's usually snowing by now. And doesn't stop until February." He shrugs, thinking about home and Chuck and warm down comforters of-- well. That's not really appropriate for this conversation, is it. "Coming in from the cold is the best part, that long thaw in front of the fire with a cup of homemade cocoa and little mini marshmallows..."

He smiles, though it's crooked and a rare candid moment for him. "Though that's the sort of moment that's enjoyed best with friends."

[invoking]

"Friends, huh..." the word escapes him without notice. His mind drifts to Oz and the others back home. The City feels larger and lonelier than usual these days. No one from his world, but many of the friends he had actually made here were gone.

... Or dead.

[onetouch]

He smiles, though it's the tight sort of smile you do to reassure yourself, and not necessarily another person. "Or family." A beat. "But friends hold a better connotation." For him, especially.

[invoking]

Is it appropriate to ask? Gil quietly contemplates for almost a minute.

"Do you have family here?"

It seems far out there, but who knows, right? Donna and Diana were here together at one point, so it is possible.

[onetouch]

He shrugs. "I don't really have family anywhere." Not at least, that he acknowledged. "Except, I suppose, my twin half brothers who only recently came into contact with... myself."

"They're not here , though."

[invoking]

"Oh." Gil regrets asking immediately, if only because that might be a sore subject for Ned as much as it is for Gil these days.

Not that he can condemn Vincent in spite of everything he's done. They're still brothers. It's just complicated now.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have pried."

[onetouch]

"No, it's..." He sighed. It wasn't okay, but. It was nice that someone cared enough to ask. "Okay."

Maurice and Ralston hadn't even done anything wrong, Ned was the one who had trouble accepting them despite it, though. But he was trying, because that's all anyone could do. Right?

"You can't choose your family." It was cliched, of course, but it fit.

[invoking]

"No," he nods, agreeing with that statement. Vincent is his only brother, after all. He would never pick him over anyone. He still cares and loves him, as conflicted as he feels about everything. "It wouldn't be family if you could."

[onetouch]

"But you can pick a surrogate family. Which is what this place seems to be all about, some days." It was more than he'd usually share, unprompted. But he had his group back home, and his group here. And it felt only right to acknowledge them, especially to someone who might understand.

[invoking]

Ada and Oscar were like family to him. It seems that happens no matter where one goes.

"Is that what you did?"

But it sounds pleasant, having that sort of support around oneself.

[onetouch]

He smiles, a bit wanly. "I didn't set out to. But there are... certain people here I trust."

[invoking]

There are a couple of people like that for Gil; Zatanna and Sue seems pleasant enough. He couldn't completely understand why they were so kind to someone like him, especially after that video went on the internet, but he's grateful.

He's not very good at being alone, even if he can't admit it.

"It would be lonelier otherwise," he rambles to himself quietly. He shakes his head suddenly and clears his throat, "Never mind. I was just rambling."

[onetouch]

"Even if you were, it's true. It's lonelier, the more alone you are." Ned knew it all too well, himself.

[invoking]

The comment evokes another round of awkward silence. He's feeling much too sensitive for the topic at hand and wants to wave it off already.

"Where did you say you were going again?"

Ned didn't, but Gil pretends otherwise.