There weren't many things that amazed Hal as much as experiencing a new alien civilisation that he hadn't read about on the archives. The Bekkorian Prime City of Bsgrdd was an incredibly advanced place. It was bustling with all kinds of activity, including plenty of native Bekkorians as well as interplanetary visitors. Most of these off-worlders were traders and mercenaries. Some had made a home for themselves on Bekkor mostly as professionals who brought foreign ideas with them to the mostly monocultural planet. Hal stood before the tallest building in the entire Primacy; the Central Spire, where the city's Emperor Lord resided and controlled his territory. Every Prime City was enclosed by high-security walls patrolled by members of the City Guard. You needed a license to leave or enter a Primacy. Any residents of the Out-Zones, the 12 anarchical states that surrounded each Primacy, would be shot on sight by the City Guard. Licenses were granted after a long verification process and usually were only given to travelling traders, slave driversand hired hunters doing work in the Out-Zones.

All around him were a great wealth of pedestrians carrying on with their business. The structures surrounding the Central Spire were marketplaces that traded in just about anything you could want. Weapons, armour, raw materials, foodstuffs, animals, vehicles, you name it.

Hal simply watched all the people come and go as he waited for Vell, who was at the local food vendor searching for consumables that were compatible with Hal's human physiology. The majority of Bekkorian people he saw wore little clothing. Human equivalents to their clothes might've been fitted short-shorts and sports bras for the women, or full-legged tights and tank tops for the men. Vell was wearing something that matched these. Hal noticed that only scarce individuals wore nothing at all, and they all seemed to be women from where he stood.

The only ones who were fully covered were members of the Primacy's City Guard. They were heavily armoured soldiers armed with phased plasma rifles, charged with maintaining the laws of the Emperor Lord. There were quite a number ofthem patrolling around the Central Spire.

"Okay, I think I got something for you." Vell called. The human turned to see Vell approaching him, a tray filled with an assortment of wildly different pieces of meat and plant matter. The platter was a rainbow of vibrant colours. "I'm sorry if your taste buds don't like these. We don't really have any."

"Wow. Really?"

"Yeah, we just eat to sustain ourselves. As long as we absorb nutrients from a balanced diet of flora and fauna, we're happy."

Hal plucked a purple slug-esque item from the tray and frowned. He swallowed, closed his eyes, then popped it into his mouth. He started chewing and was not exactly pleased with the taste but wasn't disgusted either. He decided to change the subject to distract himself from the odd texture. "Wait, so if these Prime Cities have heavy resource restrictions to try and make all their food and power last for the longest amount of time, why is it okay if I show up and start eating your food?"

Vell shrugged as she continued holding the tray out for Hal's perusal and they began to stroll through the plaza. Here in Bsgrdd, there were no land-based vehicles. All of the 'cars' and what not flew twenty metres above the ground and were indistinguishable from aircraft. "One job of the Emperor Lord and his cabinet is to calculate how much of everything we can't afford to waste. There's a set bracket of goods that we're allowed to trade to visiting people every day. Once that's spent, local goods are barred from being purchased by off-worlders until reset on the next day."

"Wow. That's...surprisingly complex for a society that publicly executes people. The whole population cap is related to that expenditure of resources, right? The Lords try not to have too many people in their cities so all the stuff doesn't get used up too quickly."

With a grin, Vell replied "Yeah, exactly. You seem really interested."

"That's because I am." Hal answered charmingly before he ate a strange black-coloured, worm-like object.

"I guess it's a bit weird for you. This is all so normal to me, so explaining it is strange. I know how you felt back on Earth now." She mused. "Speaking of Earth, I still can't really understand why you make fake things for entertainment.That's just...odd to me."

The two crossed into the Plaza Marketplace which was still open for off-worlders since the local trade cap hadn't been hit yet. Vell continued "You could just watch real things. You could watch real people killing each other, but instead you get ten people responsible for maintaining the recording device and its sound paraphernalia, another person to write down what the people will say in the recording, one person to sit down in a chair and tell people what to do, and hundreds of people to pretend to be other people just for the recording. By the twin moons...it just sounds like way too much effort to me."

Hal laughed and kept eating, much to his surprise. "I wouldn't really want to watch real people get killed."

"But...you'd watch something that's trying to believablyrecreate someone getting killed?"

"Yeah, because it's not real. The times I've had to watch that stuff either for Lantern work or just back on the internet back home, I end up thinking about the person. Feeling angry...sad for them. Empathy."

"What's empathy?" Vell asked, signalling to Hal that this was another English word that had no translation in her native tongue.

Hal rubbed his chin and placed another Bekkorian slug into his mouth. "...Uh...it's the ability to put yourself in someone else's place to try and think about what it would feel to be them. We have a phrase on Earth; to put yourself in someone else's shoes."

Vell was gestured to stop by Hal, who saw a homeless Bekkorian begging for food by the end of the marketplace. Vell instantly explained the situation "Begging is despicable here. We don't think helping the weak is a good use of our resources. As soon as the City Guard finds him, they'll banish him to the Out-Zones."

"Yeah, I assumed as much. Just more waste, right?" Hal sighed. "Look, why don't you try being empathetic. Imagine that was you. Imagine for whatever reason, you had no GL ring, no home to stay at, and no sure way to make sure you didn't die of starvation every night. How would you feel?"

Vell tensed her brow in mental strain. "...Alone. Sad. Longing for death."

Hal was somewhat taken aback by that last morbid answer but decided to glaze past it. "Good, that's what we call empathy."

"Interesting. We don't have a word for it. We do it, you know, since we're organisms with low-level intelligence like you humans, but...it's not important enough for us to name, or even think is a positive thing. To us, charity is only temporary. If you keep giving someone something whenever they need it, they'll become dependant on you; they'll be weaker. But if you teach them how to survive, how to take what they need, you never need to lend them anything ever again. You'll both be stronger for it."

Hal struggled to unroot himself from his position as he watched the beggar. His face dropped in pity.

"I know what you're thinking...but if you give him food, you won't be helping him. Unless you can give him housing, a job, stable income of resources for trade, then he'll be banished all the same when the guards find him." Said Vell.

"I'm sorry...I'm trying my best to leave my human values in orbit...but it's hard."

"Tell me about it." Vell quipped as she latched onto Hal's arm and dragged him away.

At this point, Hal had taken the food tray from Vell as he asked "Oh hey, I meant to ask you something but I forgot. I saw some people not wearing clothes, but they were all women. What's up with that?"

"Men do it sometimes, but it's more common for women."

"Weird. Isn't that...I dunno, a little...degrading?"

"Not really. Do you think it is?"

"Well, a little. I think it's my culture. Clothes are a symbol of status. They kind of separate us from animals. Do you know where this came from?"

"In ancient times, it was a way for women to attract mates. It was the woman's place to seize partners; a position of strength. It was traditionally a thing for women, but slowly its trickling outward."

"So it's not for attracting partners anymore?"

"No, absolutely not. People just do it if they feel like it."

"Hm. Okay." Hal said with his mouth full. "So...you're just not feeling like it?"

Vell arched an eyebrow with a suggestive smirk.

Hal's face flushed bright red. "U-Uh. No. No. N-No, Vell."

The Bekkorian grasped the bottom of her top and pulled it up and over her head. Hal's face was crimson as he glanced around nervously. No one seemed to care about what Vell was doing...except the one human present. She tossed the piece of attire onto the floor and reached down for the shorts she was wearing.

Promptly, as Hal was stunned and speechless, Vell slipped out of the shorts and dumped them on top of her shirt. "Hey, I'm trying to teach you something here. Remember that time on Earth where I was about to let that guy die but you saved him and told me that I should always protect people on Earth? This is kinda like that. You want me to do something that's more in line with your culture back home, and I'm telling you that it's not like that here. But hey, I listened to you and didn't kill him, so maybe you should do the same." She said, crossing her arms.

Hal blinked rapidly. "Uh...this is going to take...a-a lot of getting used to."

"You could say 'I'm sorry kee'lavah, you're right and I was being a closed-minded poozer'."

"I'm not going to say that."

Vell grasped Hal's hand and started walking with him again. "Cool, just don't start acting weird."

Promptly, the pair went by a Security Station manned by members of the City Guard. These were basically checkpoints scattered throughout the city dedicated to monitoring the area for any signs of criminal behaviour. As they approached, a soldier raised a hand into the air. "Velleuxanertorrgelloknartu? Is that you?" The man asked, his voice gargled by his helmet.

For a second, Hal completely forgot that he was using Vell's full name and was trying to figure out who the guy was talking to. He was dressed in the full-body armour that was uniform for the Bsgrdd City Guard; it was grey in colour and angular in design. His face was covered by a helmet with a cold blue visor.

Vell laughed and pressed her hand against the soldier's. "Nxelnaltoenmeortebaleneoabotane! It's been a long time."

After they retracted their hands, the soldier peered at the scars on Vell's face. "Wow, those facial scars make you so much more attractive. I really like them on you."

Hal widened his eyes.

"Thanks. So I'm a Green Lantern now." She said raising her ring.

"No way...! You're a GL? How'd you go from being a mercenary to a Lantern?"

"The last one died, and I got chosen. That's basically how it goes. This is my life partner, Hal." Vell said, dragging Hal forward.

The soldier, who Hal just mentally named Nxel for convenience's sake, stared at him for a while. "That's a really short name. Surely there's been someone else on your planet with that name. How do you people tell each other apart with names that short? Wow. You're pink, that kind of makes you look stupid."

Hal wrinkled his forehead. "Uh. Thanks, pal."

"Hal's a Green Lantern too."

"Oh. Interesting. Is sexual intercourse difficult in an interspecies coupling? Always thought about that."

Hal almost coughed up the last piece of food he swallowed.

Vell planted her hands on her hips and said "No, actually. We lucked out; we're actually pretty similar to humans biologically. We have the same orifices and reproductive organs. If anything, I think it might feel better with a human."

This remark helped calm Hal down, who felt very proud of this.

Nxel cocked his head in curiosity. "Interesting. I might have to visit this human planet." He said jokingly.

"It was nice to see you again. I'll be around!" Vell said as she once again thuggishly dragged Hal along with her as she walked away.

"I hope so! I enjoy looking at you!" Nxel declared loudly.

As they left the proximity of the security station, Hal muttered to Vell "Who the hell was that?"

"Oh just a person I know."

"Really? It sounded like he was hitting on you?"

"Hitting me? What?"

"Ugh, it sounded like he was...presenting himself to you."

"Oh, right. Nah, that's just how we talk here. If we like something, we say it. If we don't like something, we say it."

"Man, this is so weird."

"That's exactly how I felt on Earth, thank you very much." Vell chirped.

Hal, who was full from that plate of food, then asked "So where are we going? What would a Bekkorian couple do on a date?"

"Most of us would go to watch a public execution, but that's probably not something you want to see. So I was thinking that we go back to my place and have sex."

"...Um. Okay. Really? That isn't really a date. That's kind of just...you know, normal. I guess. A date is usually outside, somewhere nice."

"We can just have sex out here. Does that count as a date?"

"Vell. Stop. Stop it." Hal, for what felt like the hundredth time today, growled under his breath.

Vell snorted with laughter. "I was joking! Ha, you should've seen your face! That's kinda socially frowned upon."

"Oh thank god." Hal sighed.

"Okay so apart from executions, there's the gladiatorial matches which also involve people dying, so I'm assuming that you don't really wanna do that."

"Yeah, nope."

"There isn't much else. Bekkor doesn't have as much time and effort dedicated to wasting time as Earth does."

"Okay. Your place it is. I'm not complaining."