𝙼𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝙶𝚘 𝙰𝚠𝚊𝚢 - H&S

“I distinctly remember,” Nico began, brows raising, “that when I challenged you in the pit fight room, I won. So yeah. I’ve challenged you plenty of times before and it worked out just fine.” A small smile crept on his face as he said that, gently nudging Kelsier with his elbow. “Besides, the fact that you couldn’t be liked by Hades at this point means you’ve succeeded, because as far as I’m aware you’ve made it your goal to be hated by him. You can’t have it both ways.” He leaned his head back against Kelsier, shifting so he could watch the city race by over the side of the bus. They were probably going to get somewhere exciting soon, at which point he would remind Kelsier to put his earbuds back in and listen to the tour guide. For now, though, he was much more willing to talk with Kelsier and just… enjoy spending time with him.
“This is why nobody can ever talk you out of things,” Nico grumbled softly, but he didn’t really think it would be an issue. If Nico managed it, they wouldn’t be going to Olympus, and Kelsier wouldn’t even have a chance to fight Zeus. If he did… the issue was whether or not Zeus would survive the fight, if Kelsier found a way to win. The entire idea of fight between them was… stupid. One of them was going to die, and even though it was likely going to be Kelsier, a lot of bad things could happen if Zeus died. Nico had fought two wars trying to keep Zeus alive.
If Kelsier was an option, Nico was never going to turn to Hades. It wasn’t so much that he was upset with Hades or anything, just that Kelsier was the one who would actually try to help. Who would never hold having to help against Nico.
“Not anything like Hook, huh?” Nico asked, rolling his eyes just a bit. “Infamous thief who thinks he’s a little bit more charismatic than he actually is and is a little too quick to kill the people he doesn’t like and tries to make his outfits as dramatic as possible.” He shifted, looking up to see Kelsier’s reaction. “Obviously you’re better than he is, but you’re lying to yourself if you think you aren’t similar.”

“It absolutely counts!” Nico retorted, shaking his head. “I won, and you admitted I won, and it’s not the only battle I’ve won against you!” He looked around, blushing a little bit as he realized that others were very clearly listening to their conversation, even if they couldn’t understand a word of it. Luckily, they just seemed to be annoyed by the volume of it. Their reactions would have been much, much worse had they actually been able to understand what was being said. He breathed out, trying to reign himself in. “I’m just saying I’ve challenged you before and won.”
Nico couldn’t help but wonder how strange it must be for Kelsier to be on a bus. He knew his world had horses, but a horse and carriage was a lot different from a car that could more or less drive itself. It wasn’t as though they could actually see the driver or anything, so it probably looked like the vehicle was moving of its own accord. Nico was lucky that automobiles had been popular when he was little – otherwise he would have been a lot more confused when he’d stepped out of the Lotus Casino.
If Nico thought Kelsier were actually going to try to kill Zeus, he would have put up a bit more of a fight. Still… it wasn’t a battle he wanted to see, no matter how much Kelsier was itching for it.
“I’ve never seen him steal anything,” Nico admitted, shrugging a little bit. “And the only time I’ve seen you steal something was from that museum room. So I have no idea which of you is a better thief. And he’s not that bad. Other than the killing me thing he’s… tolerable.” This wasn’t an argument he was going to win. Kelsier was better than Hook. “Look, I’m not saying he’s better than you or anything, I’m just saying you’re similar, even if he’s the dollar store version.”

“Ha,” Nico replied, a thin smile curving his lips up. He knew Kelsier was practically unbeatable, but the two of them were fairly evenly matched (even if he knew that Kelsier was technically pulling his punches when they fought. In a real fight, Kelsier would win every time). He didn’t mention that. The one weapon that could ensure Nico’s defeat was the weapon that Kelsier had promised him he’d never use again. Nico trusted him on that, was more than willing to take his word and believe he wouldn’t use it against Nico.
Nico probably knew better than most people what Kelsier’s experience seeing his world for the first time was like, but that didn’t mean he really understood. Coming from the late 1930s was entirely different from coming from a different world entirely. The world was already starting to change when Nico was little, and Kelsier’s world… if it was ever going to look like Nico’s it had a very, very long way to go. Still, he was willing to be a little more understanding about how different everything must seem to Kelsier, because he had experienced the difference as well. It probably helped that Nico wasn’t entirely well versed in technology. Other than the House phones, there wasn’t much technology available that Nico could use without drawing the attention of any monsters nearby.
“You’re not wrong,” he murmured, peering at the map for another long moment to make sure they weren’t getting close to anything interesting enough to draw Kelsier’s attention to it. They were getting close.
“Dollar store,” he repeated, folding the map back up and sitting up straight. “We use paper money for larger denominations, and a dollar is the smallest of that paper money. At a dollar store, everything costs either a dollar or even less than that, but it’s often lower quality than the same thing would be if you bought a more expensive version from a different store. I mean it’s passable, but it’s usually not as good.”

Nico didn’t know how much Kelsier had done to try to get rid of the weapon. He didn’t know how much Kelsier had been through after that room. They had talked, reached an agreement, but… they didn’t talk about the aftermath in their own worlds. It was easier to just try to move on together, to not dwell on it. It was in the past, and if Nico woke up sweating after nightmares of it happening again, it wasn’t Kelsier’s fault. And he knew they wouldn’t have a repeat. He trusted Kelsier enough for that. Trusted that he may even be able to defeat the House if it tried to make him use bronze against him again.
Still… it meant that their battles weren’t true battles. Because they both knew that Kelsier could take Nico down in a second, if he really wanted to. That fact didn’t bother Nico, however much it invalidated his wins against the Mistborn. Their sparring matches were as much for practice and learning to fight people with different styles of fighting as it was for the thrill of competition. Although… they were plenty competitive when they wanted to be, which was almost all the time. Both of their fighting styles had shifted since that first match. They were both now a combination of the best fighters of two worlds. Unbeatable. In theory.
Nico had never seen Scadrial. He only had Kelsier’s world to go on, and that wasn’t much. Still… he got the sense that his world was more different than he could even begin to imagine. He hoped it lived up to Kelsier’s expectations.
“I guess it’s easier to rip?” Nico replied, giving a small shrug. “It’s more of like… cloth mixed with paper than actual flimsy paper, so it doesn’t get wrecked when it rains. And it’s harder to tear than normal paper, but bills do get ripped up pretty often. But I guess it’s cheaper to produce than coins are. I think… money is more complicated here. Do you even have banks on Scadrial?” That was another thing Nico didn’t know very much about – how money worked. He had gotten most of his meals for cheap or for free the year he’d been alone, and Camp provided his meals the rest of the time. He had never really had to worry about saving money, because anything he found went immediately towards surviving.
“Yeah, snacks and stuff,” he said, grateful for the change in subject towards something he could actually speak on. “It’s pretty good, if you want to try to find a dollar store while we’re here.”

Nico didn’t like dwelling on bronze. Didn’t like thinking about what it had done, or what it could do. It was a weapon that he knew Kelsier had, but one that he trusted him never to use again. Kelsier may have been a thief, a king of deception, but he wasn’t the kind of person who would break a promise to Nico. And Nico was more grateful for that than he had the words to express. He shook his head slightly, instead focusing on answering Kelsier’s questions. He needed to stop bringing things up that he didn’t really understand. It was just going to make things more confusing for Kelsier.
“You pronounced it right first try,” he said, pride shining through his voice. Kelsier was learning fast, and English was a terrible, terrible language. It was Nico’s least favorite of all the ones he knew, which was unfortunate, seeing as it was also the most widely used. If he could have gotten away with teaching Kelsier Greek or Italian, he would have. But that would mean Kelsier would be even more overwhelmed here than he already was.
“Banks store money for you,” he exclaimed, trying to use his incredibly basic understanding of economics to explain it to someone from a world that was very, very different. “You can put your money in the bank for safe keeping and withdraw it later. And some accounts have this thing called interest, which means that the longer it sits in the account, the more money you have in the account. Banks also supply loans, so if you need to borrow money for something, you can go to the bank. Of course… that doesn’t always end well. I guess a lot of people don’t really remember the Great Depression, but the banks in the United States crashed so badly that the economy in Italy wasn’t very good either. People took too much money from the banks, and there wasn’t enough money to go around, so people… ended up taking out loans, and when they couldn’t pay them back, the banks took their houses and cars and… banks are good in theory, but not always in practice.”
“Oh.” Nico’s voice was soft as Kelsier explained why he had asked about the dollar store. “Yes… it’s not always the healthiest food. McDonalds is nice ‘cause it’s affordable, and it’s actually protein, too. Except some people don’t trust it anymore cause there are lots of rumors about the food not being good. But I ate there for like… two years straight and I didn’t die, so…”

“I mean bank robberies happen sometimes,” Nico replied, shrugging a bit. “There were some folk heroes back when I was really little that were really famous because they robbed banks when the banks were taking people’s houses away from them cause they couldn’t pay for them. I don’t actually know if they redistributed the money or anything, just that they were really popular because of it. I guess… people like having someone to look up to who stands against society, even if they can’t do it themselves. But… you know that already.” Kelsier was an awful lot like a folk hero, but Nico didn’t give voice to that thought. Kelsier already knew he was a hero. He already knew Nico thought he was a hero. Telling him again now wouldn’t make any difference – it meant more when it was said in times of stress.
“They don’t get robbed much now, though. They have really good security, and if you rob a bank you’re almost guaranteed to get caught on security cameras and stuff, and they’ll track you down and put you in jail. Even your style of theft wouldn’t work, and you’re a lot classier than most bank robbers I’ve heard about.”
Nico knew they were going to have to be a lot more careful about what they said if they were to start speaking English, so he was more than happy to continue on in Scadrial. Unless they found a world-class linguist, nobody was even going to notice that the language didn’t belong on this world. That was one nice thing about New York City. He doubted they’d be as inconspicuous in Scadrial if they had decided to speak English.
“French fries are delicious, thank you very much,” Nico retorted, playing up the indignancy in his tone. He didn’t actually care whether Kelsier liked them or not, but… he wanted to make it possible for him to try them.
“Oh!” he exclaimed, practically launching himself to his feet. “Good timing! There’s one right there, you can see the golden arches!” He glanced at the map, considering their options. “We should… probably get you some new clothes before we bring you to a McDonald’s, though… so we should still stop at Times Square first. I’m pretty sure there’s one somewhere around there. Oh… mmm… next stop is Central Park. You’re gonna wanna listen to the tour guide for that bit. It was meant to bring a bit of nature and… and flowers and stuff to the people who didn’t see much of it because they live in the city.”

“The thing with folk heroes,” Nico murmured, pulling his knees up to his chest as he watched the scenery pass by, “is that you need an entire group of people to be upset with the government, and someone who stands up against it being put into the public spotlight. Things are… well, I don’t think the world is set up for folk heroes anymore. If someone does something against the government, they’re vilified. People are taught to think that the government does nothing but support them, and when they start to believe otherwise, they’re ostracized and isolated. And… well, I’d say that the president of the United States is a lot better than the Lord Ruler, certain people are still silenced and hurt for things they can’t control. I guess it’s not as bad as it was when the bank could just take your house, but… all I’m saying is that it’s not perfect. You know that, though. The thing is… a lot of people who live here don’t know it.” Nico fell silent for a few moments, searching Kelsier’s expression as he tried to figure out exactly what he was saying. “In your world, the skaa don’t want to fight back because it’s dangerous. In my world, a lot of people don’t want to fight for their rights or the rights of their neighbors because they think the government is infallible. I… well, I lived in Italy at a perfect enough time to prove that it’s not, even if everyone believes it is.” He blushed a little bit, realizing he’d probably been rambling for longer than Kelsier had anticipated. It wasn’t his fault he had strong feelings about it – he had plenty of reasons to have strong feelings.
“Security cameras,” he repeated, gently hitting the syllable Kelsier had gotten wrong. “They put them in corners and stuff so they can see what’s happening even when there’s nobody around watching. They can see what happened hours after the fact, and they have systems that can recognize someone’s face, so they know who committed the crime. If you really want to rob a bank, you have to disable the security system.”
McDonald’s was an excellent distraction – although Nico would have loved to help Kelsier figure out how to rob a bank. It wasn’t like he needed the money, it just sounded… fun.
“It’s not supposed to be impressive, it’s a fast-food restaurant that’s notorious for being cheap as hell. But good. Really good,” he added, looking up at Kelsier. “We’ll go as soon as you’re not blood soaked. And you’ll see plenty of flowers after we eat – maybe we can find a bench in Central Park, but I don’t know how many flowers are actually there. If there aren’t very many, then I’m dragging you to the botanic gardens.”

Nico didn’t like the Lord Ruler. No, that was an understatement. He hated him. He hated what he had done to the skaa, what his nobility had done. You didn’t get to be treated with dignity just because of who your parents were, especially not when thousands were humiliated and treated with the utmost disrespect because they weren’t ‘chosen.’ Frankly, he thought it was crap that the nobility was still seen as ‘chosen’ when they weren’t the ones who had done anything to deserve being chosen. It was their ancestors from a very, very long time ago. Of course, compared to that… America was a miracle. It was practically the promised land. Nico was grateful that Kelsier was able to recognize some of the problems, though. It was better than Scadrial, but that didn’t mean its problems could just be ignored. That would be dangerous. That was how progress moved backward instead of forward.
“People believe what will keep them safe,” Nico murmured, shaking his head just a little bit. “Even if they’re wrong. Because… because sometimes stability seems safer than change, I think. Even if the stability is harmful.” Nico couldn’t relate to that – he just knew that was what a lot of people were like, from experience. While he wouldn’t say he welcomed change, he couldn’t keep in a stable environment for very long. He needed things to do. He had had questions that needed answers. A world (or, since Kelsier had managed to blink himself here, worlds, plural) to explore.
“Some governments aren’t terrible,” Nico replied quietly, though he didn’t have any specifically in mind. “No government’s going to be perfect, though, so… I guess good enough has to be good enough. You can keep pushing for perfect, though. I think you actually have to push for perfect, otherwise they all just become complacent. And people get hurt.” He made a face at that.
Bank robbery was a more pleasant topic of conversation, even if he thought it was a monumentally stupid idea for Kelsier to try.
“I don’t know how technology works,” he replied, rolling his eyes a little bit. “If you want someone who can turn off the security system, you’re not going to find a demigod who can do it. Unless you want it blown up, and that’s… not particularly subtle.”
Nico fell silent for a few moments, letting the city pass him by until he saw their stop coming up ahead.
“Get ready to get off,” he told Kelsier quietly. “Just… the same way we got on. No jumping off the bus or anything that might draw that sort of attention… please.”

“I’ve heard Finland isn’t bad,” Nico replied after a long moment, trying to think it through. “But I don’t actually know anyone Finnish, I just know they have really, really good healthcare. Which probably sounds really stupid to you, because you don’t have to worry about good healthcare versus bad healthcare, do you? You don’t really get any healthcare at all…” he pursed his lips, considering that. His world was leaps and bounds ahead of Scadrial. “I think Finland is also the world’s happiest country, if I remember correctly. And a happy populace is probably a signifier of a not-terrible government. I’m not saying their government is perfect or anything, because it’s probably not, but… it’s better than here. And it’s better than Scadrial.” Nico thought for a few more seconds, running through all of the governments that he knew about from history (though in truth he cared less about the government side of history than he did about the people being people side of history). Most of the governments that went down in history did so because they were overthrown, somehow. Because the people who lived under them weren’t happy. You didn’t hear very much about the parts of history where people were happy. You heard about the Revolutionary War and the French Revolution and all sorts of uprisings where people decided their governments were terrible.
“Give me some time to think of a second one. It might take a while, but that’s only because I don’t know very many governments here. I’ve only ever lived in two countries, and Italy was pretty terrible when I was there.”
They weren’t here to think of the negatives, though. Nico couldn’t just ignore them, and he couldn’t let Kelsier think his world was perfect, but that didn’t mean they had to fixate on them. Somehow, bank robbery didn’t count as a negative. It was just… an option. That Nico was fairly certain Kelsier was kidding about, but he could never be sure. Kelsier was, after all, a thief by trade. He probably did it almost instinctively.
“Good luck,” Nico replied, rolling his eyes just a little bit. “If you find a hacker or something let me know.” Honestly, he wouldn’t put it past Kelsier to find someone with that skillset, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to encourage it.
“You and I both know you’re insane, you don’t have to prove it,” Nico murmured, shaking his head just a little bit. “I’m not saying don’t do it because I think you can’t do it – I know full well that you can – but we are not alone on this bus. Please don’t jump off.”

Nico hesitated, frowning as he tried to figure out how best to explain healthcare. He didn’t know all the details – he wasn’t an adult, and the adults he knew were few and far between. They didn’t tend to have to worry about things like healthcare, and those who did didn’t tend to talk about it with fourteen-year-old kids who weren’t even part of their family. So all Nico knew was what he heard in the news, sometimes. Which was, unfortunately, not much. He just knew that healthcare wasn’t what it should have been.
“Healthcare is sort of like… guaranteed access to doctors and stuff. It means that you get some of your medical expenses paid for by the place where you work, and that if you have to take time off of work because you’re sick or injured, you get paid for that time like you were working. It’s a really good thing, but other countries are doing it a lot better than the United States are. I guess… it wouldn’t really apply to Scadrial because I get the sense that most noblemen don’t really have jobs in the way we think of them here.” Of all the things Scadrial struggled with, at least Nico knew that capitalism wasn’t one of their issues. Or… if it was, it was very different from the way the United States handled capitalism.
“I think your people will be happy with the government that you build,” Nico murmured, though he knew his vote of confidence didn’t really count for much. He didn’t live in Scadrial. “The nobility might not be, but you can’t please everyone, and honestly… I don’t think you should try to. But I’m not the one who has to plan your new government, so…” he gave a soft smile, still looking over Kelsier’s shoulder to see the city racing by. They were slowing down, pulling up to the stop… and Nico wasn’t as preoccupied by the bank robbery plan as he was by the fact that Kelsier jumping off the bus was a very, very real possibility.
“Good,” Nico managed, the relief practically tangible in his words. “You can do all sorts of insane stuff when you’re a little less likely to be seen. And… bus jumping wouldn’t get you killed, probably. Maybe not even arrested, just… you’d have a lot of really concerned people and I don’t really want to have to explain Allomancy to a bunch of strangers…” He stood up as the bus stopped, leading the way off.

Nico shook his head a little bit at that, distaste flooding him as he thought of the noblemen not even working while people they probably had a lot in common with starved and died on the streets. He was certain the nobility thought they had more in common with the Lord Ruler than they did with the Skaa, but how true was that, really? The Lord Ruler was a tyrant. He claimed to be a god, but Nico had dealt with gods. They weren’t terribly different from Kelsier’s description of the Lord Ruler, but they were different enough to matter. If the nobility stood with the Skaa… if they all fought together against the Lord Ruler… Nico shook his head a little bit, as though trying to clear the thought. The way the world was worked just fine for Kelsier’s nobility. They had no reason to believe they should fight the Lord Ruler, because they were “chosen” by him. He could ruin their lives any number of ways, he could make things difficult, make them live with ash and without flowers, but… but they would never know how much their lives were missing. That was how propaganda worked.
It did strike Nico that Kelsier’s plan seemed to require a complete wiping out of the nobility. How many people was that? Were any of them innocent? Not in Kelsier’s eyes, it seemed. But surely they had children… were the children to die, too? Nico resisted the urge to rub at his cheek. Discomfort burned deep in his stomach as he remembered the dream the House had forced on Kelsier all those months ago… the dream where Nico had been Mistborn. Where Nico had been noble. Kelsier had killed Bianca in that dream… would he orphan any real noble children? The thought sent a shudder down Nico’s spine, so he pushed it away, making no effort to continue that particular conversation.
It was good timing for the bus to stop. Nico ran down the steps, just managing to control himself before he tried to take them two at a time. Times Square stretched out before them, everything Nico loved and hated about the city jammed into one place. Jammed was a good word for it. Everywhere you looked there were hundreds of people, many stopping to take pictures, others performing, still more forcing their way through the crowds and very purposefully staring straight ahead like they couldn’t see anyone else.

Nico didn’t know what Luthadel was like, he just knew it didn’t count as a city, because… well, because New York was a city, and Nico was fairly confident there were more people in New York than Kelsier had ever seen in one place in his life. Maybe that was because people tended to hide in Luthadel. Maybe that was because there was no thriving tourist industry on Scadrial, which seemed odd to Nico. He wasn’t the biggest fan of tourists, but he couldn’t imagine a city without them.
“Okay,” Nico said, pulling Kelsier off the bus and towards a garbage can. “Ground rules… which I know you don’t want to follow, but unless you’d like to be yelled at by a bunch of New Yorkers who actually know what they’re doing, you have to. If you want to stop and look at something, pull to the side and stand next to a garbage can or a streetlight or a fire hydrant… those bright colored things, like that. Otherwise you’re going to be in the way of people walking, and that’s not what you want. We… probably won’t take the subway, but if we do there are other rules for that…” he considered for a long moment, glancing around to see if there was anything else. “You can look up, but if you do, don’t stop walking to do it. They’ll see you as a tourist if you’re looking up, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s a bad thing if you stop in the middle of the sidewalk. People will start trying to push past you and I don’t think either of us want that.” He shuddered a little bit at the thought, but tried to brush it off a few moments later.
“For now…” he scanned the area, trying to find someplace for them to buy Kelsier some new clothes. “There,” he said, pointing at the Old Navy about a block away. “They’re reasonably priced, and they might have something dramatic enough to suit you. If not… then we’ll figure it out.”

Logically, Nico knew that New York City was very different from Luthadel, but not having been to Luthadel, all he had to go on was Kelsier’s world. Seeing him now, though, attention thrown in at least five different places, Nico thought he had a sense of what Luthadel might be like. The key was what was drawing Kelsier’s attention. The children, alive and grinning (except the kid across the street who had dropped his ice cream and was now crying hysterically), the blue sky and the green plants growing on street corners and in little flower boxes.
Nico highly doubted that Kelsier was willing to follow the ground rules… perhaps he shouldn’t have introduced them that way, but it was done now. If Kelsier wanted to make a menace of himself, then that was his prerogative. It was just that Nico was automatically going to get lumped in with him and yelled at by locals if Kelsier was going too slow or was walking in the wrong parts.
“Exactly,” he said, a small smile working his way across his face as he followed a step behind Kelsier, keeping an eye on the Old Navy on the off chance that something was going to happen. Nothing happened.
“The door is going to open automatically,” Nico whispered to Kelsier, trying to keep his voice down in spite of speaking Scadrial. He didn’t know the rules here… if there was even the off chance that someone might be able to understand his conversation with Kelsier, he needed to be careful. “Someone from the store is going to try to ask us if we need help with anything. I’ll… take it from there.”
Going into a store with Kelsier was both nerve wracking and exciting…. It was to be Kelsier’s first “real” store. Nico just hoped there was still a store standing when they left.

Nico was about to head into the store when Kelsier bounded away from him, heading towards the street to do… something. His brow furrowed, but he didn’t have time to argue before he threw himself into the crowd after Kelsier. Fortunately, Kelsier stuck out, even somewhere like Times Square, where everyone stuck out.
“Dad!” he called, eyes wide as he watched Kelsier walk straight into the middle of the street. “You have to use the crosswalk!” He’d… have to teach Kelsier what a crosswalk was later. Fortunately, the cars were all stopped at a red light anyway, so Nico had no problem as he weaved after Kelsier, raising an apologetic hand to the drivers as he passed them. Of course Kelsier had located the one crying child in the entire block… of course he was doing something to help. It was very Kelsier, even if it took them out of their way. He was grateful that Kelsier was wearing his jacket… he couldn’t imagine the mother’s reaction if a bloodstained stranger had approached her child.
As it was, the mother seemed about ready to yank her child out of Kelsier’s reach until she realized what he was doing. Her eyes narrowed a little bit as the small child turned their attention towards Kelsier, the anguished sobs stopping almost immediately once there was something more interesting to draw their attention. They rubbed the tears from their eyes, glancing up at their mother before daring to take a small step forward.
“Another world?” they managed, chin still wobbling from the tragic loss of ice cream. “Like Germany? My pop-pop’s from Germany and they have cool coins, too.” The child held a pudgy hand out, eyes wide as they examined it. The ice cream was all but forgotten, and the child’s mother breathed a sigh of relief even as she stepped closer to make sure that the kid never left her sight. It was a big city, after all… she had no doubt that some people would be cruel enough to try to take advantage of a child. Still… the man in front of her seemed genuine, if a bit strange. It wasn’t often a stranger noticed when a child dropped some ice cream. She was fairly certain it was a common childhood occurrence.
“Thank you,” she said after a moment, placing a protective hand on the child’s shoulder. “I don’t have enough cash on me to get another ice cream… I was headed for the currency exchange, but you know how that is… the rates are pretty bad right now for the pound, and I was hoping they would be better at our hotel. I don’t think we could have made it to the hotel without another meltdown, though, so… thank you.”