singlelogbridge | Inbox: Ximilia

[ the bursting of innocent dreams: we hate to see it 😔 ]

No, sorry. But there is hot sauce over there if you want to add some.

[ gwen blinks. ]

I want to try that now.

[He gets up to get the hot sauce and pours a generous amount of it on his corn dog before passing it over.]

Everything is better spicy. [And yes, it was a good choice on the corn dog. A+ would eat again. He makes quick work of it after that, surprised by how much he enjoys it. It's been a while since his appetite has been anything but a dull prodding.]

Maybe one day I'll figure out how to make something from my home for you. Do you like fish? I grew up surrounded by lotus lakes and we cook fish every way you can imagine!

[ gwen adds her (more modest) amount of hot sauce to hers and concludes immediately that her entire life led her wrong: she should have been doing this from the start. ]

Yes, please. New York's basically a series of islands. Not as many lakes, but we have rivers, bays, and access to the Atlantic Ocean, of course.

[ she snaps her fingers. ]

I've been working on a simulation of the City. It's still incomplete, but once it's done you're the first invited. [ though not the first to field test it—that particular honor goes to ziggy. ]

[The smile he sends her way is exceedingly warm. Showing him her home is kind of a big deal, he knows, because the idea of doing the same makes him feel extremely complicated feelings. For one, Lotus Pier isn't his home anymore.

But that's not relevant now anyway so he only nods and says] I'd like that. Will you tell me what it's like?

Like nothing you've ever seen, I guarantee it. [ she holds a hand toward him. ] This isn't a knock against you, by the way. New York is just nothing like any other place in the world.

First, picture eight million people crammed into one spot. Not enough space, right? So rather than expand laterally, [ and here she opens her hands to the side to demonstrate, before swiveling to point up, ] New York built vertically. Imagine these hundreds of skyscrapers jutting up in the air in defiance of God and sense. And I'm talking hundreds of feet in the air. Look-down-and-everyone-looks-like-ants type of high.

To that you add that people from everywhere in the world come to New York. You step out on the street and you'll hear at least fifteen languages and encounter people from, like, thirty different cultures by the time you reach the end of the block. And they bring their food, and their music, and their way of thinking and seeing the world… The energy is unmatched. I love it.

[ gwen leans back in her seat, taking another bite of her corn dog. she covers her mouth as she speaks. ]

It has its downsides, I'm not gonna lie. We have rats the size of cats, traffic is hell, the pollution is so bad. But I, [ pulling her lower lip between her teeth, gwen shakes her head. smiling helplessly, she finishes, ] I'm Queens born and raised. I couldn't live anyplace else.

[She's right, it doesn't sound like anything he's ever seen, but it does sound wonderful. He doesn't get all of her descriptions, some of the words lost in translation, but the picture she paints is a vivid detailed one, and he finds himself wishing he could see it because he knows the things she's speaking of are beyond his imagination. Buildings so tall they touch the sky? Millions of people? They sound impossible. He's always loved seeing people shatter the impossible.]

Every place has its good and bad, but it sounds amazing. [More importantly.] It makes sense you would come from such a home. [He grins and offers her a wink.] Bold and wondrous just like you.

[ smiling despite herself, gwen thwaps him on the shoulder. ] Shut up.

Inbox: Ximilia

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