trans_9 | Summertime [Open]

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Summertime [Open]

Zouichi sat by a the mirrored black water of a small pond. Nearby, a wisteria plant was coming into bloom, dangling its delicate, curved violet flowers toward the earth.

As promised, a tray of chilled watermelon slices was set to the side, near the wooden steps leading down to the garden and free for any passersby to take. For his part, however, Zouichi occupied himself with feeding a small group of googly-eyed baby goldfish, who darted back and forth through the water to gobble up stray flakes of fish food.

It was nice to take a break from exploding ghost ~~wolves~~ lions once in a while.

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Emergency Rations jumps up on the table and sniffs the watermelons. She licks one with mild interest before walking away from it, tail up in the air like a banner.

She's far more interested in the goldfish. She pads over to the other side of the pond from Zouichi and starts swatting her paw under the water at them.

Howard, you're eating that one.

The goldfish dart out under the lilypads at the sudden appearance of the new intruder, instinctively driven to hide.

Sorry, Emergency Rations, no fish for you.

Emergency Rations goes and sits at Zouichi's feet, staring at his as if it's his fault the fish left and therefore his responsibility to give her an adequate substitute snack.

She yowls at him to reinforce her argument.

"Hey, don't look at me," he said. "You're the one that scared them off. All I have is some cactus fruit candy."

He took one out as if to show her the Geartopian candy. "You act like Howard never feeds you."

Well, they do say pets become like their owners.

Emergency Rations sniffs the candy in Zouichi's hand, picks it up in her mouth and spits it back out onto the ground. She gives a displeased meow at Zouichi and bites and bats at a strap on Zouichi's boot.

That was gross, Emergency Rations. Zouichi picked a piece of grass up off the bank, then waved its tip slowly in front of the cat.

Zouichi is clearly inviting Emergency Rations to attack his hand. She bats at the grass and then just gives up on politeness and starts biting his knuckles and thumb.

All Emergency Rations gets is a mouthful of bio-armor glove. "No," Zouichi said, flicking a little water at her.

Sheesh, Howard, was your cat ever poorly behaved.

Have you ever tried to train a cat, Zou? No. You haven't.

Emergency Rations hisses at the flicked water and swats at Zouichi some more returning her attention to the pond and waiting for the goldfish to come back out.

"Hey, Zou, can you get your bird to stop trying to talk to me while I'm napping?" Howard meanders out, looking a bit like he's only half-awake still. "There's still watermelon left, right? Right?"

Zouichi pointed to the slice Emergency Rations had mouthed. "Right there. By the way, your cat keeps trying to eat me."

Alan just wanted to play, Howard.

"Why would you eat Zouichi when there's perfectly good watermelon?" Howard asks the cat, although it's difficult to make out because he chose the moment before that to stuff nearly an entire slice in his mouth. "Did you grab the hair on the back of her neck? That usually calms her down a little."

"No. I just splashed some water at her and told her to stop." Zouichi put away the fish food, looking at Emergency Rations. Fish were pretty smart, cat; the more you bugged them, the faster they learned to avoid you.

"You mean by the scruff of her neck? Is that all right?"

"Cassie just told me it was bad if I picked her up like that." He takes another slice of watermelon and sits on the grass, coaxing Emergency Rations over. After a few moments of ignoring him she walks over and headbutts his knee. "Why's she trying to eat you, anyway? Most animals love you."

"I don't know, I was just playing with her and apparently that was an open invitation to try and swallow my hand. Did you train her as an attack cat?"

Maybe she was just mad Zouichi liked Alan better.

Nah, Zou. Emergency Rations is still just chafed about those goldfish.

"Nope. Should I? Do you think she'd be good at it?" Howard rubs behind her ears. "You have to play with her with strings or sticks, otherwise she bites."

Just wait, Emergency Rations. Maybe those goldfish will turn into giant, alien, cat-eating goldfish.

"Maybe. She has a pretty poor attention span, though. You should really warn people about the biting thing."

That's why she has to eat them now.

"Cats don't need great attention spans. It's not like they've got to solve puzzles or take tests or anything. Besides, do you really want her concentrating on how to eat your bird?" Although the cat and the bird have been getting along very well lately. It's almost like they're friends.

"Why? The only people I care about who she could actually hurt would probably just bite her back until she stopped."

"Not unless they're a in a puzzle box (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thorndike#Connectionism), anyway." Besides, Alan would never lose to Emergency Rations. Never.

"Because... it's responsible pet ownership?"

"Wait, wait, I know this one. Schrodinger's Cat, right? Something about the cat being alive or dead and in a box for some reason?" Not quite what Zou's talking about, but at least it's somewhat theoretical.

"She's not really a pet, though. I mean. I don't know. Maybe. I never thought of her that way."

"Not quite. A man named Thorndike once put cats in a series of puzzle boxes to see how fast they'd learn how to make their way out. It was a study on animal learning."

He blinked. "If she's not a pet, what is she? A smelly roommate?"

"What were the results? I mean, I like Rat, but I don't think she's all that bright." Or maybe she'd be better at getting those fish.

"Hey, she smells better than Alan does!" Howard pulls the cat up into his lap and sniffs her just to verify. "I don't know what she is. She's like, still Albert's cat and kind of a lunchbox with a tail."

"He concluded that cats learn mostly by trial and error. The cats would simply repeat behaviors that seemed to coincide with success, such as wandering around in the area with the release switch. Eventually, they'd isolate the behavior that opened the box for them, but only through repetition. Apparently, watching other cats get out didn't really help all that much. Nor did trying to teach them to put their paws on the escape."

"She doesn't have to be your pet if you don't want. But she is a pet."

Howard looks at Emergency Rations with newly critical eyes. "You're even dumber than I thought, cat." And he scratches under her chin affectionately at that.

"Pet's just such a...I don't know." He doesn't want to think of Emergency Rations as a 'pet', that implies too much responsibility, and while Howard's fine cleaning up after her and feeding her and cuddling with her at night, he doesn't want to feel like he's responsible for some emotional aspect of Emergency Rations' life. "I guess she is. I don't know if I'll let Albert have her back when he wakes up."

Not that there would be much of a custody battle.

"When that happens, perhaps you can have the Council deliberate on who the legitimate owner of the cat is." Don't worry, Howard. If you ever get repodded, Zouichi will totally find a nice place for Emergency Rations.

"By the way, that Geartopia planet? If you go down there, don't mix the red and blue powders."

"Will you give a witness testimony on how she should belong to me?"

Howard angles his head and looks to make sure Zou still has his eyebrows. "Oh. Alright. Can I ask why?"

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