Mmhmm. See? She looks into the lobby they're passing, where there's a signboard showing the names of the various companies in that building next to an information desk.

people care about this here.

He's never lived in a beautiful city before, or really spent much time in this kind of area. It's all new.

Yeah. Daisy wasn't kidding when she said they're known for their architecture.

(There are a scattering of shops along the sidewalk; they pass the sushi place that last night's dinner came from.)

she really wasn't.

He tries to use the wrong arm to wave to the sushi place and gives up immediately. It's the thought that counts.

hi, blue sushi. gonna miss you when we're gone.

Too bad seafood doesn't travel well, we'd be able to have it imported. ...we could do it anyway, maybe, live.

i'm into blue sushi, but maybe not smuggled-from-another-planet into it. unless we, like, raised crustaceans in our spare time.

Or hire somebody to, once we've settled down. If you want to, I mean; it's an option.

are we really hire-somebody-to-raise-us-sushi-crabs rich, now?

Yeah, we are. Maybe not rich enough to do a bunch of things like that - but maybe we are, I'll have to actually check - but we can definitely do one or two.

i guess we’ll see if blue sushi is that much better than other stuff.

Yeah. We aren't going to be settling down like that soon, anyway.

The business district gives way to the commercial sector, where the murals are more common and more intricate, the surface underfoot goes from plain concrete to decorative tiled brickwork, and the empty planters are replaced with trails of artificial ivy that reach halfway to the ground, shimmering deep green and waving slightly in the breeze. There's quite a variety of shops - the first block alone boasts sporting goods, fancily decorated cakes, underwater hunting supplies, specialty jams and honeys, and miscellaneous souvenirs on this side of the street, and party supplies, gardening supplies, candy, electronics, and toys on the other side.

Is it possible to die of aesthetic exposure? Like...with warming someone up from hypothermia? Good thing they’ve been in that room with the fish tank or he’d have been done for.

He doesn’t think he was even that into cake, but he drifts towards the shop window all the same.

She chuckles slightly, following. Want one?

dunno what we'd do with a whole fancy cake.

He so does.

They probably have little ones. Or we could find some people to share it with. She puts an arm around his waist to tug him inside; it's not quite subconscious, how she's been guarding him on the left.

She won't have to do that anymore, soon, he's hoping. It's still so good that she does it now.

Once inside he inspects the fancy cakes on offer thoughtfully.

It smells wonderful inside, all butter and sugar and fruit, and Pradnakt stops for a moment to take it in before looking around further. The cakes on display range from tiny petit fours by the half-dozen to a tiered masterpiece nearly as tall as a Dorfu, decorated with fish and fronds of seaweed in bright colors on a deepwater-blue background. A sign at the back of the shop lists easily two dozen flavors available for custom-made cakes, from familiar to completely unrecognizable, and a holoprojector nearby cycles through pictures of various decorative themes.

After a minute, a clerk emerges from the back room. "Let me know if you need anything," he offers, "or if you'd like a sample. Our flavor of the day is shiato fruit, fresh picked yesterday."

“—ooh.”

He doesn’t know what that is, but he wants it.

“Can we try?”

"Of course, sir." He removes the lid from a platter on the back counter and offers them the revealed cake bits: dozens of little orange cubes, each speared with a decorative toothpick in a cheerful yellow with a little blue flag. "Have you been on Sacovis long?"

He shakes his head as he reaches for a cube.

"This is our first day out."

Nom.

The cake is pleasantly but not overly sweet, with a berrylike tang complemented by a hint of smooth bitterness, like chocolate or coffee.

"Welcome to the city, then."

Ooh. Nice.

He is still thrilled by the existence of flavors.

"Thanks."

He glances at Pradnakt.

do you like this one?

Yeah.

"What do you have in samplers, for the little ones?"

    "I can make you a custom box with any combination of our basic flavors - that's anything on the left side of the sign - or if you want to try everything, we have a sixty-piece sampler with two of each of our flavors, right now. Or if you don't mind waiting until tomorrow, we can put together anything you like, we'll just need time to bake it."

"We'll take the sixty-piece one." She doesn't ask the price, but the number she has in mind could have fed him for two weeks, before, if he was careful enough about it. "When do you need the order, if we want something custom?"

    "We close at nine; any time before then is fine unless you need it first thing in the morning."

"No, afternoon will be fine."

    "All right. Can I get you anything else?"

Love?

nah, that's     that's okay.

They just–did that? They just spent that much at once for, holy shit, sixty tiny cakes. That's a lot of tiny cake and that could have been a week of good food or two of stretching it.