How Zib appears
Tired, cynical, sarcastic, indifferent
Who Zib is
A deeply depressed man who, in spite of this, cares a great deal about the people around him, and longs for solid personal connections
He cares about the welfare of his fellow band members
This extends to its newest and most self destructively Mitzi pleasing member
Rocky
Zib is very aware that Rocky is in danger of getting in way over his head and cashing in his chips early in his eagerness to please Mitzi, and tries to gently dissuade him from getting more deeply involved in the rum running side of the business
Note Zib instinctively dragging Rocky along behind him by the collar to make sure he doesn't do something stupid like go back towards the men with guns to help Viktor
This extends to the woman whose membership of that roaming nomadic band now seems like something from a different lifetime, but who was once the nearest and dearest to him
Mitzi
Zib and Mitzi may not have been anything as formal as boyfriend and girlfriend, being more like close band mates in an ill defined situationship
But its clear that despite Mitz's marriage to Atlas, Zib still cares for her deeply, and feeling like that connection was being severed hurt him very deeply
He has stuck around in the dying speakeasy because he held onto hope that with Atlas gone, they might go back to the "good old days" and hit the road together again
Only to be bitterly disappointed once again
Strangely enough there is someone else I think we can add to the list, and this one isn't even a member or past member of the musical troupe
Wick
This one seems a little out of left field at first
After all, Wick is a millionaire industrialist, a member of the unofficial American aristocracy in St Louis. He is also a man with a romatic interest in Mitzi, which she has been trying to use to seduce him into "investing" in the struggling bootlegging business
On paper, Zib has just as much reason to dislike and resent Wick as Rocky
Both live very precarious lives without a permanent home and barely a penny to their names, while Wick lives in a mansion and runs a successful business, and is a rival for Mitzi's attention and affection
But aside from some playful teasing in the animated pilot about Wick's respectable public image contrasting with his sipping an illegal substance, we don't see any sign of hostility to our friendly fancy cat
Not only that, but as far as Mitzi's plans for Wick, Zib's sympathies from the start seem to be with the latter, with Zib seemingly very disturbed and repulsed by the idea of Mitzi manipulating and taking advantage of him
Its also noteworthy that Zib has twice used the word "friend" to describe Wick
The first time it seemed like he was calling him an old friend of Mitzi's, but during their alley talk he calls him "our last friend in the world"
He may mean it in the general sense of him being someone with a friendly relationship with the gang, but combined with the wider context, it seems like Zib actually has some regard for Wick as a person
In another sign of Zib's good nature behind that bohemian cynicism, he was very quick to make sure all the blue blooded civilians got away quickly during the raid instead of just racing to the door himself, shoving Wick out the door in particular
Why, despite sharing Rocky's reasons to be either hostile like him, or as indifferent as he likes to pretend he is, would Zib be so opposed to Wick being exploited, or care about him getting harmed?
Aside from that brief moment in the pilot, their short interaction at the door in the main story, and some non canon comedic side comics, we have not seen the two interact very much
Its not clear at present how well the two actually know each other
Its possible that with the number of clientele at the bar reducing to a few core loyal patrons post-Atlas, and Zib's frequent prescence on it, the two could have come into contact more often
Maybe Zib, who can be pretty observant through that smokey haze, has noted that behind the superficial differences (money, grooming, clothing, chipper vs cynical, polite vs sarcasm etc) that Wick is a man that is also in his own way socially isolated and and missing something in his life, a man in danger of being badly hurt due to a complicated situation with Mitzi May, a man who is also pretty unhappy and trying to conceal that fact
Or you know, maybe Zib is just such a disaster bisexual that he just hates the idea of something bad happening to such a pretty man XD
