Ow.

Whoops.

She sprawls a bit more into El, then regains her balance - fortunately not actually falling off her lap.

She braces a bit better, for the next turn.

Let it never be said the Elric sisters are incapable of learning from experience.

One of the things they're best at.

Bellona snugs quite cozily in El's lap until they reach their stop.

Ah, the wonders of public transportation.

Not the worst imaginable.

Still, Bellona's happy to be back on ground that isn't (perceptibly) moving.

The zoo's still a bit of a walk from here, but not too far - and instead of an open air affair, it appears to be built into one of the larger building complexes, with more plants growing around it than most other parts of the city. It's a bit quieter, too - there's people here, mostly families, but not a lot. They need tickets, but nothing Ruby can't get around.

Very useful, this Ruby person.

There are some advantages to a variety of magic systems...

Inside, there's a map of the zoo - it looks like they don't have many animals that need a lot of space to roam, but there's a bird house and a bat house and a reptile house and an aquarium, and there's smaller animals with less space needs, organized by biome. Lots of burrowing animals, sounds like, and small cats, and monkeys, and the like. Large animals mostly seem to be more lethargic species - bears, giant sloths. Instead of set enclosures for most species, there's animal trails throughout the zoo, so animals can move around and at least see each other (though ones that might prey on each other or fight aren't able to interact).

Open concept zoo, huh. She's heard of that for offices.

The animals seem less stressed, at least... Though it's hard to tell with the weird alien animals, there's some that are basically Earth animals but there's also 'weird toothed tentacle thing' and 'medium-small dragonish thing that moves like a dog' and 'who the hell thought cats and ferrets should be crossed' and 'six winged snake thing'. (The ferret cat seems very interested in them.)

It's a pretty big place, even with restrictions on what sorts of creatures they have - Ruby discovers a flying insect house and completely and utterly fails to stand still long enough for the weird alien butterflies to land on her, Bellona and Ruby both agree on the prettiness of the snakes (there's one that's over thirty feet long and has really lovely iridescent scales), there's some very cute super round and fluffy reddish purple bears... Easy enough to spend lunch and a significant part of the afternoon in. (The restaurants are, of course, biome themed.)

The dragonish thing is cool, though the insect house is... not her favorite.

Bellona can sit outside with El, then, while Ruby harasses the butterflies. (...Also she wants a pet dragon dog.)

The catferret mightn't be bad either, though she's always thought were already a snake-cat hybrid...

"We'll have to filter for 'gets along with cats,' of course..."

"Putting up with you is a reasonable proxy."

She headbutts El. Gently. "True. I'm the best cat."

Pet pet.

"Most certainly."

Nuzzle, and a very crude imitation of purring.

Hee.

"Good kitty."

She meows and rubs her cheek against El's shoulder.

"Should have called you Housecat."

"Lions can purr and meow! And I've got myself a pretty good roar."

"Still on the small side, though."

Nuzzle. "The better to cuddle you. If I was full sized I'd have trouble fitting in your lap, after all, and laps are a very important place for kitties."

"Something tells me Ruby is a lap kitty even as a full-size tiger, and I don't think you'd significantly differ from her in this regard."