---Date---
---Tuun’s perspective---
As much as there can be such a thing on a planet where it’s never night, it’s quite late now.
Citadel’s single sun, Beacon, set a few hours before we got here and it’s been some hours of helping the Mazurzy get settled in, since then.
It’s, locally, the middle of the night but it’s still as bright as an hour or so before sunset on Fennoscandia, thanks to the most breathtaking starfield I’ve ever seen!
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) It’s only been about 6 hours since I woke up, due to shiplag, so I’m waiting outside the ODR building for a certain someone to show up for our date, right now.
“Hey baby…” comes a voice from behind me to my left.
I flick my long ear that way ahead of turning to face him and break out into a toothy smile.
“Hey yourself!” I answer and he pulls me into the action that’s a third of his name.
When we break from the cuddle, he smiles up and says “So… you ready to go?”
I nod.
Keeping one of his thick arms wrapped around my trunk, he turns to face the same direction as me and we start walking along the side of a canal that’s crystal clear enough to allow the various aquatic species using it to be seen distinctly.
“I’ve… never seen such a diverse planet…!” I say to Victor as we walk “…Like, I’m seeing body plans I never even knew existed! There are so few humanoids!… Every thirty seconds or so I see someone who’s species I don’t recognise!”
He cocks an eyebrow up at me and says “That’s the galactic capital for you!… You realise they’re probably all thinkin’ the same thing about you, right?… Little Miss One-of-Only-Three-Hundred-off-Her-Cradle(!)”
I roll my eyes “Three hundred and twenty six on Nova Fennoscandia!” I correct “If you count all the escapees not living in my brother’s enclave but just out and about in the universe, that probably brings it up to a few thousand!”
“Whiiiiich… still makes you one of the rarest species in wider space…” he muses, not meeting my eyes.
I look directly at him and pout.
Seeing the face I’m making with his peripheral vision, he bares his teeth and laughs “I’m sorry baby! I’m just teasing… please don’t sulk!”
I turn my nose in the air and answer “…I might be persuaded to forgive you… it certainly wouldn’t hurt if you were to get us some of whatever that divine smell is!”
One whiff and he identifies “Spitroasted nunagorandathanvum fish… you want some?”
Momentarily distracted from my hunger pangs, I say “Bullshit! There’s no way! I went to a Terran school! I learned about your olfactory anatomy! There. is. no. way you just did that!”
He gives a closed mouthed chuckle and answers “It’s got quite a distinct scent profile… once you know what your smellin’ for!… Don’t believe me? Ask!” gesturing to the streetvendor who looks like a 3.5m tall Jumba Jookiba (though, like me and unlike Jumba, he has four arms!)
I narrow my eyes, extricate my waist from it’s enfoldment by Victor’s strong right arm and stride up to the vendor.
“Excuse me, Sir…” I start, causing him to turn his massive head in my direction “…Could you tell me what you’re cooking that’s making that amazing smell?”
He gestures to the grill with the three, thick fingers of one of his left hands and answers “They’re called gorbuonthabs…” slightly perplexed.
I turn to Victor and shout “Ha! I knew it! Don’t pretend to have talents you don’t have, Victor!… Very unsexy(!)”
Not missing a beat, he answers “And… would you mind telling us what gorbuonthabs are made from, Ma’am?” smiling with closed lips and placing just enough emphasis on the word ‘Ma’am’ to let me know that I didn’t get away with my accidental misgendering!
The giant woman frowns “Spitroasted nunagorandathanvum fish… dressed with condiments from my cradleworld, Yornathamat… Are you two going to buy some or…?”
“We’ll take two… smalls…” says Victor, clearly feeling very smug.
I’m just thinking that one small each might not be enough… when I see what ‘small’ actually looks like!
Most gardenworlders need proportionately less in the way of calories than roughworlders (and certainly deathworlders) so, despite the fact that gardenworld food is often quite calorie poor, portions still tend to be quite dainty!
I suppose it would make sense that such a large species would consider a ‘small’ serving size to be something the size of my head(!)
I don’t think I’ll be able to fit that in my stomach, no matter how good it is!
Victor reaches into his shoulder bag for his holo, pays and hands me one of the portions.
I thank him and we find a low wall to sit on while we eat.
I’m absolutely starving hungry so the world outside this alien streetfood entirely disappears for a while.
The fish is so light and tender that it melts in my mouth.
The sauces it’s dressed in are… suggestive of spice…
Like someone briefly showed it’s ingredients a picture of a hot pepper and gave them a vague description of the desired effect(!)
The ‘spiciness’ comes across sort of like Helga, at age three, when she went through a phase of making strongman poses!
It was the funniest, cutest thing, seeing a toddler enter a room, flex her arms with a guttural yell and then walk off without a word!
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I’m just noticing how half of the enormous helping of fish has somehow disappeared without putting anywhere near the dent in my hunger that I would have expected, when I feel a pair of eyes on me.
Midway through sinking my fangs into the food to tear off another bite, I freeze and turn to Victor.
He’s about as far through his portion as I am through mine… though, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of the speed he’d have needed to match me!
There’s no sauce on his face or hands which, I realise, to my embarrassment, there is on mine.
He doesn’t seem like he’s trying to get my attention… just staring at me with a serene smile.
My face flushes purple (not that I know what ‘purple’ looks like… outside of full dive VR at least) and, mouth muffled by fish, I ask “Whoh…?”
He gives his head a tiny shake and, with a long blink, answers “Nothin’… Just thinkin’ about how beautiful you are right now…”
“Shuh uf…” I say, my mouth still full and cheeks still burning.
“It’s true…! That’s what I was thinkin’… I like seeing you enjoy things…”
With some effort, I swallow the mouthful and, speech now unobstructed, I respond “You like seeing your girlfriend scarf down enough food to feed a small village for a week, while she makes a mess of herself in a way you seem to have mysteriously avoided(?!)” cocking my eyebrow.
“I like seein’ you do things with relish, yes… As for the mess, the trick is to shear with your incisors… Your hunger’s workin’ against you. That pullin’, twistin’ motion is bound to make a mess… not that I particularly mind you bein’ messy!” cocking his eyebrow to match.
I frown and try his suggestion, shearing with my incisors.
As he said, it’s much less messy… not that that does me much good at this point(!)
I manage to finish off the ludicrously sized portion and Victor hands me some napkins to clean my hands and face.
“You ready?” he smiles “There’s a place nearby I’d like to take you that has an absolutely stunnin’ view…”
I smile back and nod “Sure, lead the way.”
We stand, Victor takes my lower right hand in his left one and I let him lead me.
“So… you’ve been to this planet before?” I ask while we walk.
He keeps looking forward and smiles “Yeah… a few times… Smack dab in the centre of the galaxy, it’s on the way from a lot of places to a lot of other places… You knock about space long enough, you’re bound to find yourself here eventually!”
“And… how did you find out about this spot with the amazing view that you’re taking me to? You didn’t happen to go there with a previous girlfriend, did you(?)” I tease.
He puffs and shakes his head “I promise you’re the first person I’ve ever taken there romantically, baby… I found it a few years ago when I was on this planet for a few weeks and just needed to see some trees!”
“Mmmm, mmmm…” I agree “…it does feel very urbanised on this planet… Doesn’t that remind you of home though?”
He wobbles his head, consideringly, before answering “Earth’s… a bit different… Yeah, most people on Earth live in megacities (myself included)… but, since the Reset in the early 22nd Century, most of Earth’s been set aside as a nature preserve… There’re some exceptions, like the Sahara, Arabia and most of Australia… Places that used to be deserts but, these days, are breadbaskets that produce most of Earth’s food… but the rest of the Earth has been restored to forest or grassland so, even when you live in a city, you’re never far from nature… Maia made sure to take us outta the city regularly to let us see plants and animals and stuff… I liked that…”
“And why didn’t they do that on Citadel, do you think?… That whole living in concentrated megacities and leaving most of the planet alone thing?” I ask.
He shrugs “No idea… I’d guess they never thought of it until most of the planet was already built on… There’re a few parks, like the one we’re headed to, where they won’t let you build and you can see the native wildlife but the largest of ’em’s only a few dozen square kilometres… kinda sad really…”
“You’re quite well informed on all this…”
He grins and turns to face me “I know I often don’t give this impression, Tuun, but I consider myself to be quite a cosmopolitan guy(!)”
I giggle at that.
We turn a corner and begin walking along the side of a 4m or so tall wall with a canopy of white wooded branches protruding around 15m overtop of it.
I’d guess this is the park he’s taking me to.
We come to a gap in the wall and he stops, gesturing up an empty paved path, ascending the hill.
I turn to him, eyebrow cocked and quip “You knooow… my mothers warned me about strange men trying to lead me into secluded places in the middle of the night(!)”
He smiles and his chest bounces in mirth as he pulls me into a kiss, after which he smirks “They obviously didn’t do a good enough job of warnin’ you away from strange men, given the utter weirdo you’ve chosen to date(!)”
“Why do I not get the sense that you consider ‘weirdo’ to be in any way derogatory, Victor(?)” I smirk back.
“No idea… You still wanna go, or would you like to go somewhere less ‘secluded’(?)”
“No, nooooo… lead me into abduction park(!)” I smile down at him.
Chuckling, he takes my hand and we begin walking up the sloped path.
Rather than steps, Citadel’s paths seem to favour hairpin bends as a means for ascending inclines.
I suppose it makes sense on a world meant to (as much as possible) cater to every sapient there is… not everyone has legs… not everyone’s legs are the same length… the same step could either be a tripping hazard or an insurmountable barrier to different species!
It’s very fortunate that most of the known sapient species have roughly similar biochemistry. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I was one of the few who had to permanently wear an EV suit to walk around on most planets. Even being aquatic (like roughly 5% of species in the GU) would be massively inconvenient if you wanted to go anywhere above water!
We don’t see another soul as we round the many hairpins on the way up the hill through the trees.
Eventually, we come out to a wide open platform.
“Oh… wooooow!” I say as the view takes my breath away.
I look out across the crystal clear bay, buildings clearly visible beneath the water.
In the distance, I can see the gigantic, stadial Parliament building.
Much closer (though still far enough to make me realise how tired I am from the walk) are the recognisable Terran motifs of the ODR building we came from beside the canal.
Here and there, hills like this one jut above the skyline but, other than those, the only things that can be seen are the twinkling lights of the city, the stars and the water.
I run to the wall at the edge of the platform and spend some long moments drinking it all in.
The way that 30,000 species unique design styles have been thrown together to make a city should look like ugly chaos but… the way they naturally synergise with one another… it’s beautiful!
“Victor, this is absolutely incred…” I smile, turning behind myself and stopping, confused.
He must have dropped something because he’s knelt on the ground in a very unnatural way… Except… he’s not looking at the ground… he’s looking at me…
He extends his arms toward me and I see he’s holding something…
He opens the box.
My eyes go wide and my upper two hands shoot up to cover my mouth as I gasp at what’s inside.
“Tuun… since we went to your homeworld… since before that actually… I’ve been thinkin’…” he starts, his voice level and his smile calm but noticeably apprehensive “…Katrín told me not to rush into anythin’ with you… told me I should give it time… but… well… I’ve had all the time I need to know that you’re the one for me, Tuun… I’ve never been happier than when I’m with you… I can’t imagine ever wantin’ to be with anyone but you!… I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Tuun… Everywhere I go, I want to go there with you! Everythin’ I have, I want to share it with you!… Nothin’ would make me happier than you bein’ my one and only for the rest of our lives… So… Tuun… would you do me the honour of…”
“YES!!!” I interrupt before he can finish.
I’m worried I ruined the moment for a second but a broad smile breaks over his face as he takes the ring from the box and holds it out to my left side.
I falter a moment.
He notices and his face falls.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, looking as if he’s watching me threaten to murder a puppy.
“I’m…j-j-j-just… n-not sure… w-which f-finger…” I quiver, examining my two left hands which are turning into a tangled mess of tentacles in my mind.
He breathes a relieved sigh and smiles “Whichever one you want!”
There’s a moment more’s hesitation before I pull back my lower left hand and hold out my dominant upper left to his right.
He beams up at me as he pushes the perfectly fitting ring onto my middle finger.
He stands up but I’m only distantly aware of that fact as my every conscious thought is on the ring and everything it represents!
Suddenly, I find his lips on mine and his strong arms enclosing my back.
Joyful tears fall as I kiss my future husband.