Room 303, Wednesday Morning

[bitchprince]

Arthur was in his room and p-- all right, he wasn't packing. Someone else had dealt with that before. He was, however, preparing himself for a trip off into a place he didn't know and he'd weeded every trace of red and gold out of what clothes he was wearing. Just in case anyone out there would make a target out of him for it.

Still, with that done, he still had some time, and he'd already managed salle practice for the morning. Ergo, he propped himself up on his bed with something to read.

Predictably, it had a lot to do with 21st century firearms strategy.

[[ open post, open door ]]

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[future_sandworm]

He shrugged. "I don't see why that would be necessary."

[bitchprince]

"Good," Arthur simply had in reply to that. He put his book aside. "How is Lady Alice? I haven't seen her in quite a while."

[future_sandworm]

"She is well," Leto replied. "Although she wasn't quite pleased with the fire drill, I think." He looked at Arthur. "Why?"

[bitchprince]

"Very few of us were," he said, and refrained from pointing out how much of a girl Leto had been about the whole thing. "I am acquainted with Lady Alice, you realise," he continued, lifting an eyebrow at his last question.

[future_sandworm]

Leto had not been a girl. Leto had been Fremen. At least that was his own opinion on the matter. "You haven't seen her lately?" he asked.

[bitchprince]

Arthur shrugged slightly. "She hasn't made it to Monday practice," he noted, "And Groovy Tunes does not generally lie on my path. There's Superhero class, but..."

He spent more time being indignant about his outfit.

[future_sandworm]

"Ah." Leto glanced at Arthur. "I'm sure she would give you an introduction to contemporary music if you did stop by the shop."

[bitchprince]

Arthur rolled his eyes. "As would Priestly. I'm not interested."

[future_sandworm]

"No, I am sure you have better things to do." Leto got to his feet again.

[bitchprince]

"Right now?" Arthur cast his packed bags a look, "Yes."

[future_sandworm]

"How is the reading going?" Leto asked, looking out the window.

[bitchprince]

"I've worked my way up to the present," he said, returning his attention to the book. "I really do need to get my hands on a gun one of these days."

He had only just mastered the Blackberry, after all. "Would you by any chance know anywhere on the island where horses could be purchased?"

[future_sandworm]

"Isn't there some kind of stables in town?" Leto hadn't paid much attention. "And I can lend you a lasgun if you like." He wasn't using them often, after all. "Although I'm not sure how they interact with magical shields." He threw a glance over his shoulder at Arthur.

[bitchprince]

"We could burn that bridge when we came to it," Arthur said, amused, "But while I thank you for the offer, I wouldn't want to deprive you of your own arms."

Or be in Leto's debt, at that. "I know there's stables, but they have but few horses. I promised Reno I'd try to find him some."

[future_sandworm]

"Then I don't know," Leto said. "I don't believe there are a lot of horses on this island. Perhaps you will have to ask someone to bring them here."

He laughed. "Yes, that might be a bridge to burn. Lasguns create a small nuclear explosion when fired against a Holtzman shield. You don't' exactly get a second chance."

[bitchprince]

"That would be a bad thing, then." Just because Arthur wasn't modern didn't mean he didn't know how bad nuclear explosion meant. A pause. "...It wouldn't level the island, would it?"

There were a lot of reasons why he hated this time. Nuclear bombs were a big one.

[future_sandworm]

"Not quite that bad," Leto replied. "But bad enough." Clearly Arthur had been taking that reading seriously.

"There is a reason why atomics are forbidden in my time."

[bitchprince]

Strike one towards Leto's time. "As well as they should be," he said, simply. "And they consider my time barbaric."

At least back home, you were close enough that every death demanded your conscience.

[future_sandworm]

"Who does that?" Leto didn't consider Arthur's time barbaric, whatever other opinions he might have about it.

"But they have been more developed in my time, compared to the ones you have been reading about, I expect. Before I was born a Stoneburner was detonated in Arrakeen. It destroys the eyes of anyone within a certain radius of it."

[bitchprince]

"Several of the locals," he said, idly, "I haven't taken their words at much face value." A pause. "...That also sounds unnecessarily cruel," Arthur said, "At least when unleashed on the civilians."

[future_sandworm]

"Yes. That's why they are banned." Leto looked out the window again. "My father was the target. He offered the victims the choice of receiving Tleilaxu artificial eyes afterwards."

[bitchprince]

"Artificial eyes?"

Well, Arthur knew that was exactly what it sounded. He shook his head. "I don't need an explanation of that."

He glanced at Leto. "Your father sounds like a proper king," he offered.

[future_sandworm]

"In many ways, yes." There had been worse.

"He lost his own eyes that day." And as he mentioned it, Leto remembered the physical sensation of the Stoneburner, and he shivered.

[bitchprince]

Arthur frowned a little, because that was odd. "Are you having a fit of some kind?"

[future_sandworm]

"No," Leto said, his voice distant. "Just bad memories."

[bitchprince]

Arthur narrowed his eyes at him. "Sometimes you worry me," he said, vaguely, then shook it off. "But whatever. Horses. I need to find some."

[future_sandworm]

Laughing, Leto replied: "I'm sorry if I make you concerned. And as I said, I can't help you with the horses."

Then he paused, threw another thoughtful glance out of the window. "I should go and find Alice."

[bitchprince]

"I realise that," he said, dryly. "Merely a statement of intent. I wouldn't want to strain your faculties." Pause. "Offer her my well-wishes?"

[future_sandworm]

Ignoring the first comment, Leto grinned. "I will." And he left the room to his roommate.