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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"Good you found him, at least. Does he need a leash or something?" Because if so, he can get right in line behind Emergency Rations, who is now trying to squirm her way out of the bag. She bats at Zouichi with one declawed pay, snarling at him and biting at Howard's hand. "She doesn't like authority, I guess."

"I'd rather not leash him, honestly. He's pretty obedient, and aside from this time, good about not flying off somewhere."

Zouichi frowned at the snarling cat. "Why did you bring her here? She doesn't look to happy about it."

"Just make sure it doesn't turn into a habit, I guess. Someday he really will get eaten." Or get sucked up into one of Stacy's bacterial filters or something. Who knows on this ship.

"So she wouldn't run around near the train tracks. And I don't know, she's purring." That's actually growling, but Howard doesn't know the difference. "Wanna go find that piano?"

"Why all this sudden concern over Alan? I thought he gave you death glares all the time." Which was silly, of course; Alan was the most sweet-natured bird ever.

"...that's growling." Zouichi would try to let Emergency Rations out, but out here, there's no telling where she'd run to. "Is it far from here?"

"He does. With those creepy, beady little birdy eyes." Howard does his best approximation of one of Alan's death glares, but he really doesn't capture the avian nature of the expression without the beak. "But you seemed pretty upset that he disappeared, so it's better he doesn't. Duh."

"Oh. Then what does purring sound like?" He tries scratching her behind the ears, but she just growls louder, so he slips a treat between her teeth. "Only a mile-ish, I think. I'll have to just recognize the building. I should keep a map at some point."

Zouichi stood. "You look like you forgot your car keys or something. Anyway, Alan's a parrot. His eyes are supposed to be beady." Also, Zouichi was rather fond of beady little bird eyes.

"It's kind of like a vibration. It's different from cat to cat, though." He looked dubiously at Emergency Rations. "You've never heard her purr?"

"Yeah, nature didn't exactly gift him with the 'cute' gene. At least he's got all is feathers now."

Howard starts walking, twisting his lower lip as he tries to remember which direction the building's in. "I don't know. Maybe. She's only been mine for like a week, Zou, jeez."

"What are you talking about? Alan is adorable. Have you ever seen him roll over?" Because clearly it is the cutest thing ever.

Zouichi followed him. "I thought you had joint custody. You sure you know where this place is?"

"Okay, the rolling over thing is kind of cute. Kind of. I guess you could have a mole rat or something really uncute."

"She was Albert's cat. I only took care of her when he'd lock her out of his room because he didn't like her." He pauses at an intersection in paths and takes the left one. "No, I'm not sure. Why, you got somewhere to be?"

"I'll relay the stamp of approval to him."

"Why did Albert even have a cat if he didn't like her? And not really. I'd just prefer not to wander around the City until dawn."

Also, at least some of it is haunted, so.

"I kind of gave her to him." Probably best not to mention that he knew Albert hated cats.

"If it gets to be too late, we can just retrace our steps. I swear it's around here somewhere. Don't you have GPS in your systems or something?"

Although they seem to be getting further from the buildings and more into geography. When they hit a clearing, Howard pauses. "Whoa. Deja vu. Massive deja vu."

"GPS requires navigational satellites. This place doesn't even have an upper atmosphere." Zouichi looked around at the clearing, puzzled. "Deja vu? Have you been here before?"

Because Zouichi doesn't recognize the place.

"Hold the cat for a second," he says, handing Zouichi the backpack and pulling his flashlight out of his pocket. He sprints up a hill and disappears over a bluff, before popping back up again and running back to Zouichi. "This is from the FAYZ."

He's not sure whether to be happy about that or not. There's are quiet a few elements of the FAYZ he'd rather not show up on the ship, but the cliffs seem fine enough. The mine, which he saw a little down the way, is another issue. "There's, um. We might need to check out the mine or, like, report it to security or something."

Zouichi took Emergency Rations, following Howard at a walk. "What's wrong with the mine? Are you sure it's from your world? Geographical landmarks can be common between different versions of Earth."

He nods. "Definitely mine. That's where Crazy Mary tried to mass murder all the toddlers." He motions over to the cliff.

"The mine's got...well, I'm not quite sure what the mine's got, but it could be radioactive-contaminated, or still have a dead kid in there, depending on what Stacy brought with it."

Zouichi had almost started to think he'd heard all there was to hear about the FAYZ. Apparently not. He stared at Howard for a moment. "Do I want to know?"

Then he looked back at the mine. "I'm not detecting any ionizing radiation. We could get closer and have a look."

How far down did the mine go? He was reasonably sure the ship hadn't taken the entire thing. There must be a cutoff depth beyond which they'd be unable to reach.

"Probably not. Not exactly a highlight of the FAYZ's history." He takes the backpack back, clutching Emergency Rations close to his chest. "Not that I blame her, I mean. I'd have gone crazy too, being in charge of all the little kids and dealing with freaking Astrid breathing down my neck."

The last time Howard was at the mine, it had been night, and he was selling out Lana to Drake. He'd run off rather than stick around and find out what horrible thing was causing the terror that mine exuded. Now, in relative daylight (although Stacy's sun is going down), the mine doesn't induce fear so much as apprehension.

"Okay. You first, I guess." But he'll stick right next to Zouichi.

Zouichi took out his flashlight, clipping it to one of his front pockets, then started forward, heading down toward the opening of the mine. "How stable are the tunnels? Do you know?"

The rapidly setting sun isn't really an issue for him, but he's a little surprised Howard volunteered to follow him so readily. Not too many people wanted to explore a mine tunnel at night.

"Probably pretty stable. I mean, they're still up, aren't they?" That doesn't sound right. He vaguely remembers all those safety videos they had to watch in third grade explaining that mines are always dangerous, but he was always more distracted by the video clip of the kid with the motorcycle falling down the well-shaft.

"There's a tunnel in here too from the meteorite, probably. You'll tell me if the air's going bad in here, right?"

Howard doesn't necessarily want to explore the mine, but Zouichi seems interested, and he trusts Zou to keep him safe. Even from Space Jesus or whatever the hell was down here back home.

Okay, that was maybe not the answer Zouichi wanted to hear, but at least it hadn't been, 'oh yeah, those mines, they cave in all the time'. "The meteorite? Is that where this radiation is supposed to be coming from? And yes, although I'm not even sure we'll be able to get down far enough for that to become an issue."

He paused at the mine entrance, glancing back at Howard. "You don't have to come along if you don't want to, you know."

"No, the radiation comes from the fact that some dumbass decided to chuck a ton of uranium down here at the evil space alien. By the way, last I checked, that dumbass was our king." He rolls his eyes. "Ended up taking out the power plant, too. Most of our radiation came from the power plant, though. That's why we call Perdido Fallout Alley."

He catches up to Zou, still cradling Emergency Rations. It's a tempting offer, and the mine is intimidating.

"What, and let you have all the fun without me? But how will you ever defend yourself all by your lonesome?"

Zouichi looked at Howard, considering. "You never really displayed any symptoms of radiation sickness, from what I could tell. Did you not get a very high-level dose?" Not even going to ask about the evil space alien thing.

He sighed melodramatically as he stepped into the tunnel. "You know, Howard, you can't protect me forever. Some day, my magical princess powers will be needed, and I'll have to leave this tower."

"I wasn't around for the 'chuck a rod of uranium into a giant pit at the alien' shenanigans, and my dad always said living around the power plant didn't mean the water was contaminated or anything. Totally safe, according to the California government. Who knows, after the FAYZ, though." He shrugs. "Might've been what caused the death cough or something."

He turns on his flashlight and follows. "Well, just don't run off with any princes or anything. I can't afford to pay for a wedding."

"Sometimes I'm kind of at a loss to decide which of our worlds sound more ridiculous. Whose plan was it to throw uranium at the space alien, and why?" Zouichi swept back and forth with the light, but thus far, there were no collapsing, rotted beams or methane gas or even horrible radiation.

"...You're not the boss of me."

"The telekinetic megalomaniac. The evil alien was using its psychic powers to mind-control him and tentacle-boy and convince them he was a hungry god. I'm not even kidding. Then they threw an eleven year-old at him and he let up for like, a month before releasing an army of kid-eating bugs." Howard pauses for a moment, then looks up at Zouichi with an ironic grin. "So, do I win or can your world top that?"

After taking a turn with the tunnel, the sun's completely blocked, and the flashlight's the only significant light source. Howard keeps close to Zouichi, though at the moment the mine seems like just a normal mine. Cart tracks, arches of wooden beams, stone walls slick with underground water and algae. Nothing unusual yet.

"More like the sidekick. It's cool, though. I like it this way."

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