It was the second day. The curtains to his hotel room did well to cover the daylight. Sil decided to sleep through it as most of the planet's inhabitants were awake at night. The sky was dark, but not as dark as before, a mid tone blue, indicating it was early in the night.
Sil woke up to a notification on his device.
Normally, he'd be the one to open up the logs, and his sister and brother-in-law would answer as they did not have the power to make their own. He had administrative access to the logs while they were simply given permission to look at them. Through sleepy blurry eyes, he turned it on, and looked at who it was that messaged him.
{Swinn} Were you able to get a room just fine?
Sil immediately shot up, and kept rereading the message, over and over. He wasn't used to getting a message from someone other than Vicky and Logan. He began to type, but wasn't sure what to say.
He took too long in typing and deleting then retyping his message as Swinn was the one to send a message first.
{Swinn} Why are you taking so long to type?
{Swinn} Don't tell me you spent too much on me and that waiter and couldn't afford It.
{Swinn} You didn't need to sleep outside right???
Sil just had to bite the bullet and respond with a short and easy answer.
{Sil} Yeah I got a room.
{Swinn} Oh thank goodness.
{Swinn} That's great!
{Swinn} Anyways…
{Swinn} I just wanted to say, I would like to meet up again.
{Swinn} You wanted me to tell you stuff about things I think a traveler would need right? I only told you about the blacksmith and the hotel.
{Swinn} I'm just getting off of work soon, so we could meet up.
{Swinn} If you don't mind, of course.
{Sil} Sure, what time? And what place?
Sil had to look away from the device as he was getting excited over someone messaging him first. He didn't get to talk to people much outside of Vicky, Logan, Shiro, Raten and Vorden. He had to calm himself down, he's done this a thousand times before.
{Swinn} How about the bar?
{Swinn} The same one from yesterday.
Sil smiled at seeing the message and got ready for the day.
He went back to that one bar, and looked around for Swinn. It was going to take a bit before Swinn was done with his job, so Sil decided to take a seat and examine the menu. The contents of the drinks and food items seemed to mostly consist of fruits with a few exceptions. He ordered some food. Not long after, it arrived and he began to eat.
He had a meal that resembled pomegranates, but purple, and had a bright pink sauce drizzled over it.
"I guess like fruit bats…" Sil mumbled, thinking about his food.
"Like what?" A voice said next to him.
Sil spun, spotting Swinn with one hand on the table, and the other on his hip. He was staring at his head, his curly hair that was pointed towards his face, and his large eyes gave him such a pleasant look.
"I'm kidding! I heard what you said." Swinn said while raising his hands up and giggling. "We're pretty good at hearing. So, what are these fruit bat things?"
Swinn took a seat opposite to Sil as he was trying to figure out how to explain this to him, "Well, you guys do resemble a species from my home planet. They're called fruit bats, but there's other kinds as well."
"Really?" Swinn looked surprised. "What's your home planet called?"
He wasn't sure if he should say the name of the planet he did come from, what if celestials or some other enemy force use that information to attack earth? He was just gonna have to come up with a fake name for now, but he really didn't know what to say.
"I'm from… Bearth." Sil said, slightly embarrassed that he was following Logan's stupid naming scheme. He really needed to talk to someone outside of him.
"Birth?" Swinn replied.
"Yeah… Bearth… Um… So, I still wanna see around town. I'm going be here for a week until my gear gets made."
Swinn thought about potential locations to take Sil. "There's some places I have in mind."
The two began walking around town again, this time instead of showing Sil important buildings, Swinn showed him some of the more scenic sights. There were a few art installations that Sil didn't quite get but appreciated the effort into creating it, and finely crafted buildings with intricate decorations. Sil got curious about the red street lights.
"Why are there these red lights?" Sil asked.
"Red?" Swinn looked at what Sil was looking at. "Oh! Those! Yeah, we can't see them."
Sil was confused.
"Okay okay, so…" Swinn cleared his throat, "Us Chiropteras don't really go around at day time, but a lot of alien species do, and with us being a planet that has a lot of trading opportunities, a lot of travelers and trading officials from different planets come here."
"So we installed these red lights because we can't see them, but plenty of other races can. Pretty neat, huh?" Swinn said with stars in his eyes.
The place was rather peaceful all things considered. It was a strange change of pace for Sil as he was used to fighting frequently. He had yet to see an actual scuffle on the planet.
Eventually, as they traveled, they came across an area that Swinn was getting antsy around.
"I really, uh, should warn you to avoid this place," He said with a tone of embarrassment.
"What's wrong?" Sil asked.
"It's uh, this place is called the Lupanar zone. It's where we go to… destress." Swinn said while flustered. He was fiddling with his hands. Sil couldn't help but think the gesture was cute.
"Like a spa?"
"No, more like… getting out certain kinds of frustrations…" Swinn became rosy cheeked, which was surprising to Sil considering the fur on his face. That was when he realized what Swinn meant.
"OH! Yeah, don't worry, I'll be aware of this area," Sil took mental note of the place's location. While Sil didn't actively add to his scientific logs as much as he used to, Logan was still intrigued by them and appreciated his 'scientific' efforts, so Sil would add to his logs whenever he felt like it.
The two continued on their walk together, chatting about the scenery, and what Sil did in space, before heading back to their homes. Sil went to the hotel, and plopped onto the sofa. He took out his messaging device, and began typing away.
[Log 208,755] {Sil} Found a place called the Lupanar zone. Who knows, maybe I could find some research partners. It's been a while since I've added something to the alien rating.
{Vicky} Research partners?! OMFG just call em your fuck buddies LOL.
{Logan} …
{Sil} What's up, Logan?
{Vicky} Wait, I hear him laughing even from here.
{Vicky} He's a room over and I can hear him CACKLING.
—
Back at the Green mansion, Logan was in his bedroom, on the floor, crying with tears in his eyes. Vicky slowly creaked open the door to his room, and spotted her husband dying of laughter.
"What's so funny?" Vicky chuckled, as the sight was slightly humorous.
"He– He-" Logan tried to say, but was unable to get out.
"Spit it out!" Vicky picked him up like a ragdoll, holding him by his sides.
"He doesn't know that Lupanar means prostitutes and brothels!" Logan blurted out.
"Okay and? I'm sure he already knows what to expect there."
"You do not understand the historical meaning of this," Logan wiped a tear from his eyes, "The prostitutes were called a lupa which meant she-wolf. What are wolves doing on a planet of bats?"
Vicky dropped him, disappointed by the response. She thought it was going to be funnier than that, but her husband was just being too technical.
Logan picked himself off the floor, dusting himself off. "Let me explain this to you in simpler terms, this would be the equivalent of a duck guy zone."
Vicky thought about it, before laughing so hard, she fell to the floor, and Logan joined her. They were slamming their fists in fits of laughter.
—
{Sil} Helllooooooo?
{Sil} Are you guys there?
{Sil} Come on, my ethernet box can't be THAT old, my internet shouldn't go down now!
{Logan} Apologizes, Sil, I was explaining to Vicky about the meaning of Lupanar.
{Vicky} No, don't tell him!
{Sil} Should I be worried?
{Logan} It is nothing for you to be concerned about. Continue about your day.
{Sil} …
{Logan} Remember your protection, Sil.
{Sil} Fuck you, I'm ending this log.