milliways_bar | (no subject)

"I meant that even we don't know. Sorry; I got into that highfalutin' style of speech while talkong to that poor other Dark God just now."

Asar-Suti smiled, slightly apologetic.

"I see. A soldier doesn't need to learn flowery words."

Many of them couldn't even read. Of course, Peacekeepers were trained to be intelligent.

"That's why we never had armies; we always poked other people's armies into action," Asar-Suti says. "I wonder why they still have soldiers in a technical advanced world like yours."

He doesn't realised that he's probably quite offensive; he's just proud of his clever Ihlini who never needed to keep an army.

He isn't offensive, personally she doesn't understand how he got by without soldiers.

"To fight battles, obviously."

"I would have thought that in time, people would invent machines for that?" Asar-Suti smiled, lifting an eyebrow.

"Machines are never a substitute for people."

She couldn't imagine a machine thinking up on-the-spot tactical maneouvres.

"There are some people here who are machines," Asar-Suti points out. "One of them, Kitt, is a very good friend of mine."

"I keep forgetting that things are different here. It's not like that on my world."

She didn't think she'd ever get used to it. It made her feel very helpless and if there was one thing Aeryn hated, it was helplessness.

"I know; it's not nice to have your mind forcibly expanded," Asar-Suti says, remembering the time when that first happened to him.

And he didn't have to go through a lightning-speed pregnancy like poor Aeryn.

If she could read minds, she'd probably have kicked him. She hated pity.

"Sometimes it's just what you need. I'm used to it."

"You're strong and independent and from a very advanced world; you can probably take it without sufering too much of a culture shock. But you should meet one of the cars; they are very nice," Asar-Suti says, with a smile.

"Cars? Those things they have on earth?"

She didn't really approve of Earth, still.

"Yep. They look a bit like this - but the ones in the bar are black, and much sleeker," Asar-Suti says, turning into car-shape. There is suddenly much less space beside the fireplace.

Aeryn blinked, but was too used to his changes to register much more surprise.

"Are you operational?"

"Yep," Asar-Suti's voice says from near the car. "Gil drove me once, in winter, through the snow - it was eormous fun!"

"Well, he would be used to having such intimate contact with you."

She grinned.

"From what the cars say, drivers are truly very special."

Asar-Suti is not going to tell about Bonnie, Karr, the dolphin shape-shift and the pregnancy scare, but you can hear the grin in his voice.

"I wouldn't know. My prowler isn't a car."

She much preferred it to one.

Asar-Suti shifts back.

"What's a prowler like?"

"Pointy, fast."

Was there really any other way to describe it.

"It's hard to describe."

"Does it have wheels? Does it fly?"

"It flies, of course."

Cars were impractical.

"Well, it might crawl, being called a prowler, huh?" Asar-Suti suggested.

"Hmmm..."

She scrutinized him with the air of someone who was used to ignoring silly chat.

"I best be off and actually discover where my prowler is."

"Awwww - it flew away without you!" Asar-Suti jeers.

The nasty little purple god probably needs bapping on the head.