Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 46: Sydney, Gold Coast, LA

A/N: I'm inadvertently mentioning some controversial things in here, so, a disclaimer: this chapter gives no opinion whatsoever on Barangaroo development, Dark Emu's accuracy, or the Gold Coast. Actually, that last one is a lie, the Gold Coast is such a weird place now and the 'kinda Vegas vibes' tourist-town opinion is absolutely my own and the bad weather I'm writing for their trip there is because when I was there in January last year there was torrential rain the whole time. Tropics, huh?

Anyway, on with the fic (and sorry it's late today, busy busy busy post-Christmas work)

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They don't have any convention events in Sydney, but they travel there anyway for a couple of other things. They spend their first day – the day after the convention in Melbourne – doing some of the more touristy stuff, taking the ferry over to Manly, although the weather is gross so they don't actually bother with the beaches. In the afternoon they do an impromptu little meetup with a bunch of fans that find them near Madame Tussauds, before they head inside the wildlife park next door to actually film something for their channel.

It's a weird setting for an animal park, inside a building in the middle of the city, but they manage to spy some good animals and get some good footage. They get a tour through some of the less public areas of the facility, too, and they get all get to hold koalas. Shayne, for his part, finds himself inwardly squealing at how damn cute the koalas are in a way he does not normally do, but he lets a little bit of the reaction out for the video. And then he makes a bunch of jokes with his face as close to a koala as the staff from the wildlife park will let him be, too.

"Anyone want to hold a snake?" their guide asks, not long after he koalas. Shayne is less enthused this time, backing away and staying at the edge of their camera's framing.

"Oooh, yes!" Courtney volunteers herself, and he raises an eyebrow at her in surprise. She looks over at him as if to call him over to join her – it's a two-person job – but she evidently sees that he is not on board with the idea at all, going for Damien instead.

"Sorry, but that thing was fucking scary," Shayne tells her after they have left the wildlife park, Courtney laughing.

"Oh, big scary Shayne is scared of snakes?" Ian picks up on their conversation, teasing him, "why you apologising to Court though?"

"I'm not- okay, that thing was huge, dude," Shayne defends himself, "and because she was going to ask me to hold it with her."

"You guys having silent conversations in videos again?" Matt jokes, and Courtney rolls her eyes.

"Actually, not in the video, that's the point of them being silent," she tells him.

They go exploring on their second day in Sydney, much like they'd done on their first day in Melbourne. The weather is dreary again, although it isn't raining like it was the first day. Ian comments on it when he strikes up a conversation with a waiter at the place they go to for breakfast, and she tells them that it's high smoke haze that isn't low enough to smell but is there just enough to block out the sun. They try not to think about that.

After filling in their morning, they have a late lunch at a café just beside the harbour, on their way to the huge gardens that wrap around the edge of the harbour. They shoot bits and pieces of footage as they move around between scenic vantage points and giant-ass trees, figuring it can be added into their Smoshstralia vlog. And, of course, some of it goes on Instagram in a slightly more immediate sense.

"You look like such an asshole doing that. A hot asshole, but still," Courtney teases Shayne, when he asks her to take a photo of him posing on a hill with the city in the background.