fandomtownies | The Park - Sunday morning

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The Park - Sunday morning

The island was calm. The people here were calm. It was weird, after being in a high-tension environment for most of his life. Fenris sought the unacknowledged comfort of trees. The bench was unoccupied, the ducks unspoken to.

He smirked a little. "Hello, ducks. Where's your human friend?"

The ducks didn't answer. He hadn't truly expected them to.

The bench was unoccupied, but why sit on a bench when that tree right there had a branch that begged? Catching it, he pulled himself up and took a seat. Leaning against the trunk, he pulled one leg up and let the other hang free.

[Open! Brooding McElfEars is in the tree looking elvish af.]

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"Hopefully the slavers ended up somewhere worse," Zack noted, frowning a little. "And me? I've got people here, I came back after some time away to be with them."

... This was more or less true-ish. While also being a blatant lie.

"I'm one of those people who happens to be here by choice. We're a rare kind."

By choice with no say in the matter. It was complicated.

"That is the hope, yes," Fenris smiled a little, "If they aren't already and I find them, I'll ensure it."

Slavers went to hell. That was the rule.

"Interesting. So far I had only heard of the unwilling residents."

Zack just smiled. His smile, usually friendly, took on a slightly darker, slightly more satisfied tone.

Just for a moment.

And then it was right back to pleasant, all smiles, as he offered, "I find there are three kinds of people here. The ones who have no idea how they got here, and now they're stuck. The ones who are here by choice, and the ones who are here by necessity. It's hardest on the first ones. At least the other two kinds knew what they were getting themselves into before they showed up."

Fenris saw the change and gave a minute nod in acknowledgement. Zack held that sword like he knew how to use it.

"I appear to be the first sort," he said wryly, "though I'm finding it more baffling than hard. I've only been here a couple days, I'm sure that will change soon enough."

It always did.

"The first few days aren't the ones that make or break a person," Zack agreed. "They might set the tone, but they don't really prepare a person."

He tilted his head up at Fenris, considering him for a moment.

"It's a few months before winter here," he noted. Because that seemed like a good starting point. Nobody ever seemed to be prepared for that one. "What are winters like where you're from?"

"I doubt there's anything that could have prepared me for this place," Fenris agreed.

He considered the question. "The Imperium doesn't have winter, as such. The air might cool a little or it might rain. I've spent the last few years in Ferelden - Kirkwall. The winters there are brutal, full of snow and starvation."

"Months, you said?" He had no idea how the calendar worked here but the names of the days seemed to match what he knew.

"Months," Zack agreed. "We're edging toward the end of summer, soon it'll be fall. Winters were tend to get pretty snowy, so you'll probably want to look into warmer clothes."

Unless you were, like Zack, something of a freak in that regard.

"... Starvation, at least, isn't something we deal with, so much. Food's not hard to come by, here."

Which was a welcome change of pace after his year of running from Nibelheim.

Fenris glanced down at the clothes he was wearing. He should possibly buy a cloak. If only to keep people from asking him if he was cold all the time, as happened in Kirkwall on the regular.

"There does seem to be plenty of game around," he agreed.

"And, uh, the local shops tend to have food brought in. Even vegetables and stuff. And there are preserves and things too," Zack offered.

... He didn't do 'game.' There had been this whole thing with a reality full of vampires? And drinking someone's blood to survive while completely in his right mind had not been a fun time for him. Having to go back on the resulting vegetarianism just so that he could eat while he was on the run hadn't been great, either.

"It's pretty convenient."

"Ah. I haven't been to many of the shops yet," Fenris allowed, "Though the tea shop was nice, even if the proprietor did stare at my ears."

"... Why would he do that? I mean, they're fine ears, I guess?"

It should be noted, for the record, that Zack had really never seen an elf before in his life.

This was just the way Zack was wired anyway.

He lifted a shoulder, "It seems to be a human thing, the fascination with elf ears. I don't know why. True on my world, true here."

".... Huh." Zack blinked his blue - far too blue - eyes, and then shook his head a little. "I guess plenty of people don't know what to make of things that are different from what they're used to."

He ran a hand through his hair, and then smiled wryly.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry about humans being weird at you. That's, uh, kind of rude."

Hey, they weren't a weird silver-gray all the way across, so Fenris didn't mind.

"True of all people, including me," Fenris smiled wryly, "No need to apologize. Staring, I don't mind so much. Spitting.. well. That would have provoked a different response. He seemed nice enough, the tea man."

"We don't put up with spitters," Zack replied, that smile of his giving way to a sudden frown. "Is... that something? Where you're from?"

People usually just ran from people with eyes like Zack's. Here was a welcome change of pace from that, but for different reasons.

Fenris gave a single nod, then a shrug, then thumbed toward the hilt of his sword. "Not so much toward me. My kind in general, yes. In the Imperium, we're a slave class. Outside the Imperium, there aren't many enclaves and most of them are slums."

He nodded with his chin toward the town, "I heard it's outlawed here. Sensible."

"Sensible," Zack echoed. "Decent. Here has its ugly things too, but that really isn't one of them. I can't really speak to the history of the place, though. Not my world."

"The past is the past," Fenris shrugged. "So far on this island, it has been.. pleasant."

He didn't expect that to continue. It never did. Not for long.

"So far," Zack agreed. "It really does have its moments, though. Not just the weather."

"Oh?" Fenris asked, "Something else to worry about?"

"On occasion," Zack supplied. "Things might attack, or people might get grabbed away to somewhere else. This stuff never lasts really long, usually it's just a chance to stretch and swing the sword around for a while. But sometimes it's pretty serious stuff."

He'd stopped his vampire self from becoming an issue in the other world by throwing himself into the sunlight.

Sometimes Fandom asked too much of people.

"I almost never turn down a chance to swing the sword around," Fenris smirked, "Good to know. Everyone's been so nice and helpful so far, I was worried I'd stepped into some sort of feel-good Fade realm."

"Oh, the people are great," Zack laughed. "Which is good, since it usually takes everyone pulling together to drive off whatever it is that's trying to kill us from time to time."

He considered the man in the tree for a few moments more.

Considered his sword.

"Hey, I don't suppose you spar, do you? I know it's probably a pretty random question, but, uh, finding other people with swords that can even hold up to mine around here is... hard."

That was because your sword was basically a sharpened Buick, Zack.

Fenris smiled, "I do. The gentleman I'm staying with also does, but his is a single-handed blade."

He gave Zack's ~~freakishly huge~~ sword a look and said, "My sword could hold up. The Mercy Blade can't be broken." He smiled at the other man, "We could always find out if my arms can hold up."

"Just let me know if they can't, and I'll stand down," Zack replied, smiling brightly. "I'll understand if the answer's no. It usually is."

There weren't other members of SOLDIER here. Not many people had that sort of strength.

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