The Roof, Wednesday Evening Before Radio

[bitchprince]

Sometimes, he had to confess, coming up here had a certain charm to it. It reminded Arthur of the times he and Morgana, sometimes his father or someone else, would find themselves up high in the castle, the wind roaring past, and talking.

As always, he wasn't brooding. Or homesick. Or troubled over Merlin's future situation, should they actually return home. Or any other number of flaws that weren't his to recognise.

He crossed his arms and stared out over Fandom Town. He'd thought about bringing some of the ale, but he'd be drinking plenty with the squirrels later. Instead, he'd just exercise his right to be thoughtful.

[[ the roof is, of course, open ]]

Comments

[bitchprince]

"You claim to stand for your entire society, boasting its positives, so I'll treat you as such," Arthur said, matter-of-factly. He ignored the rest of Priestly's questions. "Clueless and charming is cute," he continued, "It doesn't keep food on a table."

[lovemykilt]

"I'm not speaking for my society, I'm acknowledging that I'm a part of it. I'm offering to help you understand it at least a little bit better, since whether you like it or not, you're in Rome now." He held up a hand. "Not the literal Rome. And as for the clueless and charming . . . that pretty much depends on whether or not you find people willing to pay you for it. Which Edward's subjects are apparently willing to do for him."

[bitchprince]

"And I'm sure Edward's subjects will thank him at the next famine." It was hard to tell whether Arthur was being sarcastic or not. (He probably was) "You're insisting your society wishes to see me humbled," he noted, "I disagree with that."

[lovemykilt]

"And you clearly know my society far better than I do, having been here for a grand total of four months."

[bitchprince]

"And you were choosing to contribute anything useful to discussion when?" Arthur asked him, dryly. "I'm not of your time. You can rant away all you like, but it changes nothing." Besides that Priestly was very annoying.

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah, dude, we get it already, you're the grand teeton of your barbarian world." Yeah, Priestly had just completely run out of patience. "You not being from this time has nothing to do with you having any idea what people from this time want. You get that? You are not smarter than me, you do not understand my society better than I do. I tell you that the people of my time are most likely gonna want to see you humbled, you don't say 'you're wrong', you say 'thanks for the heads up' and keep an eye out for people trying to bust your balls. It's not that hard, Arthur, get with the program."

[bitchprince]

"'Barbarian world'," he echoed. "Priestly, you are not any better than me because of your time." A few months ago, that statement would've been sharp. By now, he was used to it, and the statement was simple, no frills on. "I'm fairly well aware of the attitude of the locals by now."

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah, well, you're not better than me, either. And you don't know jack shit. The people here are not your average 21st century Americans. Hell, more than half of them aren't 21st century, aren't American, or aren't either. You can't assume you know all about how people behave in this time and place based on books any more than I can about where and when you're from."

[bitchprince]

And this was why Arthur found many individual people distinctly irritating in life. "So. Let me summarise your argument," he said, dryly, "You can tell me all there is to know about society because you are of this time. Except I can't assume anything about the locals, because they're not at all all of this time. Am I right?"

[lovemykilt]

"No. I can tell you about modern America because I've spent my entire life learning about it, and offer a perspective you won't find in any books about war. You can't assume things about the society I'm from from the people here, because they're not all from my society." Priestly crossed his arms and sighed. "How about a deal? I won't assume to know anything about where and when you're from based on what I've learned from history books, and you don't assume that I don't have anything to teach you based on where and when I'm from that you can't get from history books."

[bitchprince]

"I hear something distinctly uneven in that deal," said Arthur, who was rapidly losing interest in this conversation. "But thank you for the offer."

Politeness might be a way to get Priestly to shut up without worsening this whole affair.

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah, well, I'm not in fucking Rome."

He had a feeling that was going to go right over Arthur's head.

"I'm trying to fucking compromise here, man."

[bitchprince]

"Actually, going by both your metaphor and your argument about the local people," Arthur said, "You are in Rome."

Again, Arthur wasn't an idiot. He'd just given up on the argument at this point and was trying to milk as much amusement out of it as he could.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly scowled. "Yeah, well, you're more in Rome. You're in, like, the Vatican."

[bitchprince]

"Mmm," Arthur said, thoughtfully, "I'm sure they have a great deal of gremlins where you're from."

[lovemykilt]

"And lots of cars, computers, and running water in good old Camelot."

[bitchprince]

"And castles," he said, glancing at the building, "And magic, and fierce beasts." He didn't actually know whether Priestly's home did or didn't have any of that, but it seemed a good point to make.

[lovemykilt]

"And punk music and artists and sandwiches and democracy."

[bitchprince]

"And I wish you good luck with them," Arthur said, magnanimously, with only a tinge of sarcasm.

[lovemykilt]

"Fuck, man, you gotta at least appreciate the music." Priestly was practically pleading with that one. There was a lot of fucked up shit in his time, he knew that, but dammit, his world had some seriously good tunes.

[bitchprince]

"You mean the noise they insist on playing at prom?" Arthur asked, eying him, "Or the kind Leto insists on blasting through our room? There's only so much 'Creedence Clearwater Revival' any sane man can take."

Which said a few things of what he thought of Leto, too.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly made a face. "Yeah, no. I'm talking about the good stuff, man. Sex Pistols, Arctic Monkeys, Flogging Molly."

[bitchprince]

"Now that sounds appetizing," he said, dryly.

To be completely fair, Leto had only told him what he was listening to once, and Arthur had mostly assumed the rest of it was by the same artist. But.

[lovemykilt]

"Talking about it's no good. You gotta hear it. It's . . . the things people do with sound, man, it's amazing."

[bitchprince]

Arthur should not be entertaining the childish idea that it'd be fun to get back at Leto by blasting his own music through the room. He was just... going to brush that aside.

"I'm sure it is," he said, diplomatically. Then, as it finally caught up with him, "...You have bards singing about sex and flogging."