the zoo

[instar]

There is one visit during the day from a lady down the street who has made the girls a casserole, on the grounds that it can be hard to remember to eat when bereaved. Bella thanks her sincerely, sniffles a little, and sends her on her way. The casserole is shared around for lunch. Bella asks Ax what Andalites eat, and when she finds out, she locates a bag of grass clippings in the backyard that he pronounces acceptable. She also asks him how he eats them. By way of illustration, he steps both forehooves into the bag of clippings.

Night falls.

They can all go to the Seattle zoo and acquire everything they can get their hands on.

Comments

[hold_infinity]

"Yeah," says Robin. "Snake time?"

[aeskhyne]

"Snake time. Rattlesnakes are the only venomous species I recognize here," he says, checking the map again.

[hold_infinity]

Robin double-checks for him. "Yeah, looks like."

Off they go to the rattlesnake!

[instar]

"Try not to let it bite you. Time for that during downtime after Ethan has it," Bella mutters.

[aeskhyne]

"I'll be careful, promise."

He is careful. The rattlesnake does not bite him. In fact, it does not even wake up.

[instar]

And then everyone has the snake.

[aeskhyne]

And as they are leaving the snake, Trouble happens to catch sight of the reticulated python in the next enclosure over.

"...Fuck, I think I'm in love," he murmurs. "Ethan?"

[palmofyourhand]

"Of course, darling," he says, and kisses Trouble on the cheek, and picks the lock for him.

[pandion]

"It's a pretty snake," agrees Andi. She squints in the dark to read the placard on its tank. "I can't tell if, like, two-thirds of the animals we're getting are boys or girls."

[aeskhyne]

"Does it matter?" wonders Trouble.

[pandion]

"A little. I guess not that much."

[aeskhyne]

He shrugs. "Doesn't matter at all to me."

[palmofyourhand]

"Yes," says Ethan, "I wonder why that is? Can't imagine. Go and get your pretty snake now."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble goes and gets his pretty snake.

[pandion]

Everyone else may as well get the pretty snake, too. "Wait, there's a specific reason that it doesn't bother you?"

[aeskhyne]

"Kinda, yeah," says Trouble.

The snake is sleeping, and sleeps through everyone acquiring it. Since there is more than enough snake for everyone to touch at once - it's about twenty feet long - this doesn't take much time at all.

[pandion]

"What is it?"

[aeskhyne]

"Mmm..." says Trouble, not like he's evading, more like he's trying to figure out how to put it.

[hold_infinity]

Robin, as the last one out of the enclosure, shuts the door behind her.

"Trouble doesn't seem to think that changing his sex or his species makes him any less essentially Trouble," she offers as a partial explanation.

[pandion]

"Well, yeah. It's just morphs, we're still us," says Andi. "It's just weirder for me to be boy animals."

[aeskhyne]

"Right," says Trouble. "But it's not weird for me to be girl animals, because... I'm not not a girl."

[pandion]

"You aren't not a - what?"

[aeskhyne]

"Girl," he repeats. "It's not a one-or-the-other thing for me; morphing Robin or a female bear or whatever doesn't make me feel like I'm doing something against the nature of who I am; I don't correct people when they say 'he' or whatever, because I'm also not not a guy, but if you all suddenly decided that you were going to treat me like a girl from now on it wouldn't be weird or upsetting or hard to handle. It would be just as okay as treating me like a guy is."

[pandion]

Andi scratches her head. "That's a thing?"

[instar]

"It's at least sort of like a thing," says Bella.