thesearesocks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thesearesocks) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
bakerstreet2022-08-15 08:57 pm
thesearesocks) wrote in bakerstreet2022-08-15 08:57 pm
Denny's
Except Denny's.
RULES
1. Post to the meme.
2. Find somebody to eat with. Figure out why the hell you'd do this to yourself.
3. I don't think they have the Hobbit menu anymore, fuck. Maybe you should ask the waiter or something.
no subject
[Paul politely finishes a mouthful of his eggs before he talks again, then leans over to get a closer look at Chrissy's book. He's interested, not taking it but craning his neck so that he can see the cover. It is an attractive book.]
The Hobbit. I've...never read it. But I've got a lot of reading to catch up on. But when you're finished, and if it's all right, I could borrow it.
[How is he going to explain that he's not from her planet...or her time period? This could get very complicated, very quickly. Paul figures he'll things to Chrissy explain when the time comes. How they're becoming friends, he owes her an explanation.]
I read more nonfiction than fiction, actually. I enjoy reading about different places and people.
no subject
[She sounds completely fascinated as she asks that, leaning forward in her seat. Her elbows rest on the table, and her chin rests in the palm of her hand.]
Do you actually get to travel and see different places? Or is reading enough to make it feel like you're there?
[She's fascinated by the thought of actually being able to pack up and travel like that. Sometimes she wishes she could. It'd have to be better than living where she does now, stuck in a life where she feels she has no control.]
no subject
[Paul can't help but chuckle a little, more at the irony than anything. His first time off his home planet and he's on humanity's ancestral world.]
Well, this is actually the first time I've been away from home. It's a very long way from my home, though. I'm from far away.
[Paul's already thinking how best to explain his origins to somebody from late 20th-century Earth, where space travel is in its early stages. It'll be difficult, but probably not impossible. He's willing to bet Chrissy has never met a teenager from outer space before.]
no subject
Her curious smile remains though, and she sits up straight in the booth.]
It's your first time away from your parents and they let you come here all by yourself?
[If she sounds shocked, he'll have to forgive her. She can't imagine her parents letting her go a town or two over without someone with her. The fact she's out here this late is definitely because they have no idea where she is.]
no subject
No, I didn't come here intentionally. I don't really know how I got here, which is part of the problem.
[Time to be more specific. Paul takes a sip of coffee for courage - he may as well bite the bullet and explain things to Chrissy as best he can. He'll start with explaining where he's from, and then that he's lost space royalty pulled from his universe and needs to find away back home.]
I'm not from this country. Or this planet, for that matter.
no subject
[Okay, so she sounds a little shocked to hear that. And her eyes do widen, but she doesn't seem to be about to grab her book and run. Her nose does wrinkle up as she laughs a little, trying to figure out if he's joking with her. It doesn't take long for her to realize that he's serious.
And wow, he also seems pretty hungry too. Chrissy's only ordered a piece of toast, and feels like maybe she should be picking at it a little more. He's starving, and she's wasting food. She pulls the crust off her toast before tearing off a small piece and popping it into her mouth.]
So are you from Mars?
[It's the first planet she can think of.]
no subject
[A reasonable guess - Mars was the planet closest to Earth, after all. Paul decides to clarify things a bit. But his tone and his expression are completely serious. He knows it will be a difficult sell. If he brought something from his homeworld, he might have proof, but he only has the clothes on his back. Noticing that she's eating, he picks up the pace a little.
Even if he wasn't very hungry, it's not bad. Nothing to compare with Caladan food, of course, but Paul doesn't want to make comparisons, especially when he's a guest here. And his title wouldn't mean much of anything. With his very limited knowledge of this country, he's pretty sure they don't have ducal heirs, or dukes for that matter.]
In the time and place I come from, humans have spread throughout the universe.
[He smiles a little, to show that he's friendly.] My home planet is named Caladan. It's not a world in your solar system.
no subject
[Chrissy whispers the name of it, nose scrunching up a little as she manages to not say it exactly how he does. She's definitely never heard of it before. And it really doesn't seem like he's lying to her. As trusting as she is, she thinks that maybe she should believe him.]
Oh my gosh. You're from another solar system, and you wound up in a Denny's.
[That she has to laugh about, because it's probably not the place she would pick to take someone from another country. Much less another world entirely.]
How long have you been here?
no subject
[Paul nods. It seems like his explanation is working and Chrissy believes him. And that's not a bad start at all. In some ways telling her that he was from another planet would be the hardest part, he thinks, or at least the one that might be the most unbelievable on face value.]
To be fair, there are also worse places I could have ended up. And I've been sleeping in the street for the past two nights I've been here so I'm not fussy.
[He shrugs a little. Without much choice, he couldn't be. Paul badly misses his homeworld and his family, but he'll survive.]
Not really fit for a duke, but what can you do.