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[tragic_mask]

Arriving at the Visitor's Center, Melpomene takes a look around.

"Well, this is it. In all its touristic glory. "

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[mechanicalswans]

"Come now, my dear," he says, deadpan. "I'll have you know I'm so much more than that--I'm a bored Leviathan with an unlimited expense account."

[tragic_mask]

"Hmmm." She raises a brow. "So, are you implying that I should stick with you merely for your magic credit card? That'd be terribly shallow of me."

[mechanicalswans]

"Of course not. Merely that, unlike most sea monsters, I would not insist on staying in or near the sea. I can go anywhere you'd like."

[tragic_mask]

Her first thought is: home.

... but that was thousands of years ago. Now it's just another mountain by the sea.

"Where would you want to go, then?"

[mechanicalswans]

"Somewhere new," he says after a moment. "I've been so many places, but there are still so many I haven't seen. Still some surprises left in the world."

[tragic_mask]

"That's true. It's a big place."

[mechanicalswans]

"I haven't traveled as much in the eastern world," he says. "It might be worthwhile."

[tragic_mask]

"I was just thinking that," she says. "Our thoughts must be in sync."

[mechanicalswans]

"Is there anything you've always wanted to see, but never had the chance?" he asks. "Now's your chance. Well, not now, but soon."

[tragic_mask]

"The Taj Mahal, for the East," she says, after thinking. "Though it's so tourist-oriented, now. There have to be beautiful places like that that no one knows."

[mechanicalswans]

"One could always go and then ask the locals where they would go to visit," he says. "Hire one as a tour guide."

[tragic_mask]

"That could work, if you pick the right local."

[mechanicalswans]

"I would leave that up to you," he says with a smile. "I think you'd be the best judge of a guide's potential."

[tragic_mask]

"That may be true. I can certainly see things, though sometimes I've misunderstood them."

[mechanicalswans]

"Whereas I could just bribe or bully someone," he chuckles. "Some random person we found on the street. Which could work, but... there's no control involved."

[tragic_mask]

"And they'd probably only show you the nastiest places in town, and mutter nasty things about you in their native tongue."

Pause. "Though I could translate. Still, the point remains."

[mechanicalswans]

"Exactly," he says. "'You wanted local color. Are slums not colorful?' That's the last thing we'd need... although, it would certainly be new."

[tragic_mask]

"Yes... there's few greater tragedies than what you find in the slums," she says, slow and dark.

[mechanicalswans]

"I get a lot of materials there," he says. "Life is short and cheap, and the emotional resonances are stronger."

[tragic_mask]

"Certainly true.

"It gets to be painful, when you can't shut it all out."

[mechanicalswans]

"I've lived in slum neighborhoods," he says. "Not often, but... a few times. It's overwhelming."

[tragic_mask]

"Why'd you do that?" she asks, softly.

[mechanicalswans]

"To try to blend in," he says, "to be ordinary for a while. It never really works."

[tragic_mask]

"No?" she says, looking up at him, a little amused.

[mechanicalswans]

"No," he says. "You can live among the people, but never really be of them. There's always a separation."