fandomtownies | The park, Monday afternoon

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The park, Monday afternoon

Cecil didn't have any classes today, and it was the official End Of Summer. So, while Fandom didn't seem to hold the same ritual sacrifices as Night Vale, he saw no reason why he shouldn't at least go to the park and let Foucault wander and eat.

It was sort of a symbolic sacrifice of shrimp or krill or whatever. That was good enough, right?

[OOC: Open park, no OCD!]

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Nathan was on his way to the preserve for the evening because his technology class always left him feeling more nauseous and queasy than any other class and he needed to be outside for longer to recover.

He passed through the park on his way and stopped when he came across Cecil and Foucault.

"Cool bird," he said by way of greeting.

"Thanks!" Cecil grinned at him. "His name's Foucault. And he's really a sweetie; don't let his size intimidate you. Oh, and hi, I'm Cecil!"

"Nathan," he said, nodding and tilting his head while he watched Foucault. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone have a pet like him. He do okay in the small rooms?"

"Well, he mostly sits right up against me wherever I am, so yes," Cecil answered, rolling his eyes. "I just have to take him out and let him walk around a bit. And fly, when I can convince him to. He's a little lazy," he confided.

Nathan laughed quietly and looked back over at Cecil.

"That why you guys are out here tonight? Getting him his daily walk so he doesn't go bloody insane in the room with you and your roommate?"

"Yep!" Cecil agreed. "Plus it's sort of the official end of summer. Even if I hope it doesn't get too cold too soon."

"You don't like the cold?" Nathan guessed. He didn't have any real preference but sleeping outside tended to be a little easier when it wasn't snowing and freezing. "Should be a season shoved in between summer and winter, at least. If I'm remembering correctly."

"Fall," Cecil agreed. "But I'm from a desert. We pretty much have hot and night-time. Which is sometimes also hot, but the rest of the time you can bundle up. What about you?"

"England," he supplied. "There's a lot of rain and snow near the mountains. Not very hot during the summer so I was caught a little off guard when I got here. I came from winter right into summer and felt awful for awhile."

"Oh, that does sound pretty awful," Cecil agreed. Granted personally it sounded wonderful, but he could see how the extreme difference could be a problem. "Your home runs on different time too, then?"

"Yeah, I think so." He nodded. "But, I didn't know that until I stumbled into one of their portals and ended up here. Unintentional and unwanted but it hasn't been a terrible time here. Strange, though."

"Night Vale time runs a bit slower than here. Well, mostly. As much as time is real, anyway. England's a lot different than here?"

"Mine is, yeah." Much, much, much different. "I don't know if time runs fast or slow because I can't get back there."

Still. And that was going to continue to bother him.

"Different rules, different people, different responsibilities."

Cecil nodded. "It's pretty different for me here, too. For everybody, I think. It's not too bad, though. Just strange, like you said." He hesitated a bit. "Can you...call home, or anything?"

"No one to call," he answered with a shake of his head. "That sounds a lot sadder than it is, I promise."

Or maybe it was exactly as sad as it sounded.

"I don't much care for phones anyway. They make me a little ill to use."

"Like that thing where they might cause brain tumors?" Cecil asked. "Or do they bleed and howl and infect you with things? Verizon's the worst."

Nathan blinked at the latter part of that question before he shook his head.

"No no, nothing like that," he replied. "Technology in general makes me nauseous. It's just a...trait of who I am. I don't like phones or television or computers but I can tolerate them."

"Oh, okay." Cecil nodded. "Sort of like being allergic. It must be pretty hard sometimes; everything's technology!"

Well, maybe not everything. But lots of things!

"Yeah, you're telling me," he said with a shake of his head. "I'm not used to that. We lived in a very rural area back home. Not a lot of technology. No television, mobile phones, tablets, anything like that. I think we had a radio and that wasn't used that much anyway. My sister used it sometimes but she shut herself in her room so no one else could hear it or use it."

"But radio's important!" Cecil protested. It was possible he had a bit of personal interest in that. "How else do you know everything that's going on?"

Nathan shrugged. "We got letters. And my gran sometimes found an old newspaper that she read and relayed to us. Other than that, I didn't really care."

"But..." Cecil was trying to be understanding here, really he was! "What if something dangerous happened and you didn't know about it?"

"What kind of dangerous thing do you mean?" asked Nathan curiously.

Cecil shrugged. "Well, like street cleaning day! Or an unexpected holiday. Or an escaped librarian, or anything!" You know, all the everyday sorts of dangers!

"...none of those sound like anything that would require us to hear it immediately," Nathan told him. "Not where I'm from. We didn't own a car, I barely know what the actual holidays are and...escaped librarians?"

"But if you don't have a car, you need extra time to escape!" Cecil protested. "And if you don't know the holidays, you need to find out if it is one, and if you need to run, or hide, or howl, or whatever. And...wait, are you from another 'librarians aren't dangerous' world?" he asked, rolling his eyes.

"There...could be dangerous librarians but I've never met one," Nathan confessed. "That might be because I don't go into libraries. I can't read."

"Oh, okay," Cecil answered equably. "That sounds much safer." After a moment's thought, he added, "Maybe annoying sometimes, though. There's a lot of reading out there, isn't there?"

"You don't know the half of it," Nathan said, shaking his head. "Everything involves reading. And not everything has pictures for me to kind of follow along."

"I'd offer to draw some for you, but I'm not that great at art," Cecil said apologetically. "Maybe you could get one of those things like blind people have, to read text and things to you?"

"Barry gave me a tablet," Nathan said though he wasn't sure if that's what Cecil meant. "It's kind of helpful. There are some programs on there that help me figure out some small words. I know a few things now, at least."

"Oh, that's good! And maybe you could find an app or something to read what's on the screen for the others? And if it's got a camera, I bet it could read out anything it sees, too!" And if it didn't, Barry could probably make it; he was pretty smart.

Night Vale had created a computer interface for a girl that was just a detached man's hand; they were pretty big on accessibility.

"I actually hadn't thought to look for something like that before," Nathan said, actually sounding intrigued by the concept. "So, it could read for me and I'd be able to understand what the heck was going on around me."

"Right!" Cecil agreed. "Just point it at the words. Much safer than learning to read."

"I'll look into that," Nathan decided, nodding. "I'd still like to learn to read but it's going to take awhile so something like you're suggesting means I wouldn't feel too dumb."

Cecil shrugged. "If you don't mind the extra danger of learning, you are at a school. Why would you feel dumb, though?" he asked curiously.

"How many people my age do you know that can't read?" Nathan wondered. "Not many, right? I'm dumb."

"I don't know a lot of people your age," Cecil answered, shrugging. "I'm not sure how many do. There were a few kids in my Night Vale class whose parents opted them out of reading on account of the danger. Sometimes it's best to make an informed decision once you're grown up."

He gave Nathan an eyeroll. "Anyway, it doesn't mean you're dumb. That's if you can't speak. It means you're illiterate."

"That's the technical term for it," Nathan decided, shrugging. "I heard enough to make me feel dumb. But, it doesn't bother me anymore. It's just stupid words anyway."

"You don't seem like that kind of dumb to me, either," Cecil offered. "Some people are just pretty intolerant of anybody different from them."

As opposed to Cecil, who hated them for sensible things like trying to kill him.

"I do my best with what I have," he said, shrugging. "As long as I don't have to read, I'll be fine."

Mostly.

"That sounds like a great way to be!" Cecil said enthusiastically.

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The park, Monday afternoon

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