I was working on mounting the window in the shed in the afternoon when Tsu'na gave me a scare.

"Do you have the camping kit, Husband?"

"Yeah. Did you want to go exploring tonight?"

"We should put in time at the diner, I think. But I finished some venison pies. Perhaps we can have dinner out here with the mats and a lantern."

"That sounds good. Gimme some time to finish with this?"

She nodded and disappeared into the Pit for a while. Around the time I got the window stable, she returned with a couple cider bottles. I went into the shed and pulled out the camping kit. We dug out the mats and lantern and made ourselves a picnic on the shed floor.

The pie was decent. The meat was a little chewy, but so is antelope. "Not bad. I might've preferred more onion, but this should be good for the diner crowd."

"I used an entire onion in the recipe."

"The little yellow ones or the big white ones?"

"Hm. You are right. For three servings I should use a bigger one."

"So...this is nice, but what made you think of it?"

"We need to talk."

Except in certain dungeons, it is impossible to die in Eorzea from falling damage. You might get taken down to minimal health, but you won't die. Which sometimes makes jumping off cliffs the fastest way to get places. Still, there's that sickening feeling of falling, even when playing the game on a PC. Which is what I felt right then.

"...Sorry?"

"We need to talk."

"Heh, you know, in this world, whenever there's a romance story and someone says 'we need to talk,' it means there's a problem with the relationship."

"There is a problem with our relationship. We need to talk."

"...Is it something I did?"

"It is something you do not do."

"Is this about the sex?"

"That is part of it, yes."

I scrambled for something to say. "I love you."

She blinked at me. "And I love you. What does that have to do with this?"

"You said our relationship was in trouble. I thought you were talking about...breaking up."

She stared at me. "I never said anything about that. Why would we break up?"

"Well, then, what's this about?"

"We do not talk about things we should. I do not think we are working together correctly. We are not communicating. We need to talk."

Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. Tsu'na is from Eorzea.

"...Oh."

"Why did you think I was talking about breaking up?"

"Well, like I said, that's what people say in romance stories when there's a problem with the relationship."

"I do not know this world's romance stories. Should I?"

"Eh, for cultural awareness, maybe. So, we're okay?"

"So long as we talk."

"Right, talk. About what?"

She sipped at her cider as she gathered her thoughts. "I think I need to know how this world works."

"Anything in particular?"

"Do you think Sam is a scholar?"

"I doubt it."

"Yet he told me about 'evolution'. If he knows about it, does that mean everyone here does?"

"Pretty much, yeah. There's strongly religious people who don't believe in it, but they still know what it is. Um...why were you talking about evolution with Sam?"

"I wanted to know where apples come from and why they are all different."

"Okay...but why Sam?"

"Because you do not like to tell me things. We need to talk."

I sighed. "Gotcha. Do you know why I do that?"

"I made you explain it once."

"And that's not working for you?"

She picked up her cider bottle and contemplated it while she chose her words. "I showed Sam some apples I had harvested. He said they were weird because they were all the same. I did not know that until he told me. I might not have known before I tried to sell them or give them away. I do not know enough about this world to know whether what I do is weird. I feel this is bad."

"Everything you do is wonderful and I don't care if it's weird. But yeah, we need to worry about appearances."

"Because Earth people do not crystallize aether."

"Among other things." I sipped my own cider as I crafted phrasing. "What I worry about is telling you that things are done a certain way here and you then don't think they can be done some other way. We don't know what-all we can do in this world, and I don't want to limit possibilities through doubt."

"You do not think I can keep both worlds in my head?"

"I suspect you can. I just...You think about things the Eorzean way with no doubts and no hesitation. I can't help but doubt just because we're here. I guess I'm trying to keep you...pure."

Her brow furrowed. "'Pure'? Pure what?"

"Not a great word, but...I mean, free from doubt. Free from any tendency to second-guess anything you'd do naturally in Eorzea."

"That happens every time I am in the bathroom. It is a constant reminder that this is not my world, or even my body."

"Yes, and I wish you didn't have that reminder. I honestly wish you didn't need a bathroom, that your Eorzean thinking was enough to make it unnecessary. It seems like it wasn't. But if I'd told you you'd need it before you felt the need we'd never know if you then needed it because I told you."

"You cannot keep me in a box, Husband. If you do not tell me things, others may. Or Google. If I am to see this world and understand it, you not talking to me will not help."

I sighed. "You're right, my love. I'm sorry. I just...we just...need to remember that there is more than one way of doing things. There's the Eorzean way, and there's the Earth way. And there might be more. If there are more, I want to find it out. And that means not limiting the way we think."

"More...ways to do things?"

"Yeah. A cook might look at a recipe for this pie and wonder what kitchen utensils to use. You look at it and wonder what aether shards you'll need. An industrialist might wonder what kind of machine to build to make them. And maybe there's...some other way to make a pie that's different from all those, that we might not think of because we think like a cook or a crafter or an industrialist."

"We are making new recipes."

"But we're still making recipes. What if we could make things without recipes? Or without aether?"

"Or utensils or machines?"

"Exactly."

She considered this. "How can I do something I do not know how to do?"

"By doing something other than what you know how to do."

"And you think keeping me ignorant will make me think of these new things?"

"I...kinda hoped, yeah."

"I am your test subject again."

"No, my love, this is research. You are my partner in a double-blind research study."

"At least I am your partner now. So what sorts of things do you want me to do?"

"You want a list?"

She pursed her lips in thought. "That would not work, would it? If you want me to act without doubt, would I not know everything on your list is something you have doubts about?"

I blinked. "Blah blah fucking brilliant blah."

"I love you too."

I started to understand all this would be harder than I thought. "Okay, how about this...we start a to-do list, or a wish list, or a project list, things we think should be done or we'd like to be done. It'll give us direction, and help us understand each other's priorities, and I can put stuff on it that I don't know how we'd do mixed with stuff I know we can figure out. That make sense?"

"I think so. But I think you have a long list already, do you not?"

"In my head, sure. I'll start a doc. You can add to it."

"And will you tell me about this world if I ask?"

"Yes, my love. Where would you like to start?"

"How do apples work?"

We spent the rest of the time until the diner shift talking about the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees. After we packed up, we stood, slipped our arms around each other, and simply held each other for a long time.

It's scary that so much tension can build up that we don't even know about until we feel it draining out.