milliways_bar | (no subject)

"I...have no idea, actually. Except that it involves a lot of work."

Faith shrugs. "I thought you'd like to see it."

"Yes."

He turns to glance back at her,

"I am fond of growing things. Almost as much as of the ocean. Thank you."

Faith smiles.

"I can show you that, too, on the way back, if you like. Manhattan is an island."

"Please."

He says it politely enough, but with a hunger that bleeds through his pores.

"It has been years since I even saw an ocean...I miss it."

Faith grins. "I can do that, then. There's lakes and stuff in the park here, too...and a zoo. Animals."

He doesn't flash money in Central Park. He's from an underpopulated world, not lacking in survival skills,

"Please? I would like to see...not all of it, but much of it. If not now than at some other time."

"'Course."

Faith grins. "Zoo's that way," she says, and points.

He turns, and then heads that way.

"Zoos hold animals, yes?"

Faith nods. "Yes. This one has a petting zoo, too, so you can touch some of them...and an aviary for the birds, they'll land on you and you can feed them."

"How strange."

He blinks up at her, lips quirked,

"We don't have anything like that at home either."

Which statement probably gets odd looks from passersby.

Oh please. This is New York City. There's a guy who walks around wearing nothing but artfully arranged Saran Wrap. Arithon's nothing that special.

"I'm sure there's a lot you don't have at home. Wait until you see the pandas."

"Panda?"

Point. He looks at the animals with wonder tinged with pain.

Wonder because he's never seen most of these things.

Pain because on his world things run free.

"Panda."

Red panda, actually, the Central Park zoo doesn't have the regular kind.

"It is beautiful."

He ignores the signs saying "don't put hand over railing" and does so. The panda doesn't come close, but the prince can't resist the motion.

"They're an endangered species...that means they're on the verge of dying out completely, due to hunters and deforestation and stuff," Faith says. "A lot of the animals in zoos here are."

"Sithaer."

He looks at her, the pain worse,

"This is why the Fellowship had to limit human development, you know. On Paravia, which is the only continent the Paravians would allow us to settle on."

"I think China used to have laws about that, but they don't anymore? I don't know." Faith shrugs. "People are stupid."

"Laws? No, Jiask. We can develop our magics, but not our science."

He leans on the railing and looks up at her,

"There will never be cars on Athera. There will never be towers like this New York. The planet that humanity came from, in my universe, died. We were lost, wandering the stars. The Fellowship...the same Fellowship as now...was drawn to Athera by magics; they were needed to stop the Khadrim from destroying the world as much as humans had.

Because they helped, they were allowed to bring their people to Athera, but the sciences were denied us. For a time those who studied the forbidden were sent to a splinter world...and from that came Desh-theire, which I was born to fight.

Now they take even the memory of what was thought from those who seek to study what should not be recreated."

His voice is matter of fact.

Faith doesn't know what to say to that, really.

And nothing she could say would help.

So she doesn't speak, just puts her arm around his waist and leans against him in an odd sort of half-embrace.

He returns the half-embrace, and then straightens up again. A last look at the panda, then up at her,

"I think I am ready to return. You world is overwhelming, beautiful in many ways, but overwhelming."

Faith nods, then smiles faintly.

"Quick trip to the seashore, and then home, or do you want to save the water for next time?"

"Let us save it for when we return for my suit."

He says with a smile for her,

"Parceling out joys is often best."

She smiles back, nodding.

"OK, then," she says, and takes his arm again, leading him out of the park and back toward home.

He's got quite a bit to think of, but still keeps his eyes open for...

that. A gentle tug on her sleeve,

"Jiask? Can we look in the swords shop, there?"

Blink.

"...Arithon? Have you ever known me to turn down weapons shopping?"

Grin.