trans_9 | What Some Take For Magic At First Glance [Opentastic]

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What Some Take For Magic At First Glance [Opentastic]

Howard has avoided The Warehouse entirely for the last few days. Something about wandering around in it alone seems like a profoundly unsettling prospect. Even when he returns to it, he decides it's a better idea to work out in the front yard than actually lounge around the living room.

Today's project is a roller fridge. Having found three sets of identical rollerblades (for someone with six legs? Or just three right feet?), Howard's set to dismantling them and fixing them to a mini-refrigerator he found in an unclaimed house down the tracks. He eventually plans on recalibrating the fridge into a freezer and attaching a handle to drag it to and from Hydroponics, but actually putting wheels on it seems to be the most difficult task so far.

After several failed attempts to use a candle-lighter to weld some sort of axle on, Howard gets a drill and an extension cord out. The sound of the drill upsets the cat, whom he's zipped into an old backpack, bar her head. He doesn't want her to run off onto the tracks, after all, or leave her alone in the house, and despite all the random junk he's accumulated, he hasn't yet found a small leash or collar.

She growls at him and struggles to free herself, but he routinely calms her down with cat treats and a sock full of catnip when the noise scares her too much. To keep her attention, he slips one of the cat treats up his sleeve and out of sight. That's just sleight of hand.

The fridge, on the other hand, may require more creativity. He sits with the backpack full of cat on his lap, chewing on a hangnail, trying to figure out how exactly he's going to give it wheels that can swivel.

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Hana tried to imagine it. "I bet that could get pretty annoying." Pulling a lopsided smile he takes a step closer, eyebrow raised at the cat skeptically. "Friendly thing, huh?"

Hana shrugged. "I dunno, I just bought him because he kept trying to follow me."

Emergency Rations seems about as friendly as Howard does, and worms a paw out to bat at Hana as he gets closer. Howard pinches her ear to get her to stop. She hisses.

"I guess that's a better reason to get a pet than why I got Emergency Rations. I got her to piss off my roommate." He shrugs. It's easier to keep the conversation on milder things, rather than the total snafu that was Galilee.

He looked at the other boy, confusion and a bit of surprise on his face. "So, that's really her name?" Not that he'd thought Zouichi was lying, but it was still odd.

"Uh, yeah. That's what she is." He and the cat don't bother to keep up pretenses around each other. It's refreshing. "Makes more sense than 'Taro'."

"Hey!" Hana protested. "'Taro' does make sense. And he likes Taro, it makes him feel bigger."

Taro ruffled out his fur in agreement while Hana shrugged dismissively. "Besides, when we were picking names, Cassandra liked 'Taro' the best."

"Not really, unless it's in some sort of language that isn't English." He starts pulling screws out of one of the rollerblades. "You just let Cassandra tell you what to do?"

"It isn't English." He said bluntly. It was odd to hear someone refer to Sandy as 'Cassandra' other than himself but he doubted Howard remembered Sandy anyway. And even if it did get on his nerves a little to hear him call her that (though he couldn't figure out why) he thought he shouldn't let Howard in on that. "Cassandra's never really told me what to do."

Howard remembers Sandy, though not her name except that Hana just said it. She was The Quiet Brat at the Party.

"She told you what to name the Thingy."

Hana pauses to actually try and remember how Taro got named. "No, I thought up a bunch of names, got it down to about two or three and then couldn't decide since they were all just names so I just asked Cassandra which she liked better. She picked Taro."

He frowns, confused at Howards concern about Taros name. "Besides, we're roommates and Taro's our pet, she gets to name him too."

He's not especially concerned. It's just a topic of conversation that seems to have Hana on the defense, and thus it must be pursued. "Doesn't it bother you that your roommate's a little kid?"

"Little kid?" Hana was tilting his head again. "Guess I've never really thought about it. I know she's short compared to me but is she really that little?"

"Well, younger than most people on the crew, so yeah. Little enough to be annoying."

"Cassandra's not annoying." He bit back the bubbling feeling he felt inside at hearing Howard say such things. "It's not like she's some little brat."

"Are there even any kids on the ship like that?" He remembered Eva's kid been pretty annoying when that age-stuff was happening.

"Right. She's your friend, so she's special and nothing that applies to normal kids applies to her. Face it, little kids are annoying." He pulls a shoelace from his pocket and starts chewing on the tip. "Not many, thank God. I had enough of kids back home."

Shrugs, not wanting to rise to the provocation. "Well, Zouichi likes her too." Knowing that Howard spoke to Zouichi often.

Well, that's... Odd behavior, Howard. Shoelace chewing. Hmm.

"Why? You from a big family?"

"Zouichi also hangs out with me and Ildraniath, so he's a pretty lame judge of character."

He shakes his head. "I wish. Nope, only child."

"Ildraniath... That name sounds familiar. What do they do?"

"Oh, me too. Sort of. Kinda." He shrugged.

"Mostly just looks down her nose at people. Sometimes kills them with her brain. You know. The usual."

He raises an eyebrow. "Sort of?"

"Woah, really?"

"There's these two older kids. They got adopted into the family and lived with us until they were old enough to get their own place but they're more like cousins than anything else." He gives a lopsided smile. "So, yeh, only child."

"I don't know. That's just what I hear."

He shrugs. "I guess it'd be better than having siblings. Obviously, I'm just all arm and fuzzy when it comes to brats."

"Well... You do have a cat." Hana said, as if that explained many things.

"And? I was out of snack bars to take to work."

"Lonely people have cats so--" Obviously, his train of thought is interrupted. "Huh? What did you say?"

"I'm sorry, what were you saying about me being lonely?"

He's completely deadpan.

"Well, what were you saying about snack bars?"

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