Utterly Mad

Roxanne was very nice, Branches thought. A nice lady who moved about with elegance and purpose, and whose words dripped with wisdom and experience. Anyone else would have told her otherwise but Branches found herself as trusting of Roxanne and her words as Mica was. The house was a fine example of pre-cataclysm ranch, heavily modified after the fact but still standing even after everything had gone to hell. Roxanne led the Homunculus through the house and into the 'inner sanctum,' a bedroom fancifully and heavily adorned in the trappings of Roxanne Luna's particular decorative tastes and post-cataclysm necessity. Now, after a bit of chit chat and Branches introduction, they found themselves seated at the small table in front of a window. Roxanne had opened the curtains to let in a bit of light and give a view of the farm proper should the view of the room around them begin to grow stale to Branches eye.

"So," Roxanne broached, "What exactly can I do for you sweetie?" She took out from a hidden fold of her robes a pair of fresh icecream sandwiches. Using her glamour in small ways like this, no matter how insignificant it was, always made Roxanne feel clever. Branches took the offered ice cream without much comment though, as though it was a trick she'd seen a hundred times before, and that disappointed Roxanne a little. The homunculus unwrapped it and gave it an experimental lick.

"I think I see why Illiana likes vanilla so much..." She commented, side stepping Roxanne's question.

"Oh? You know that lady?" Roxanne asked.

"Yeah, she said I was to be your attorney if you couldn't find one for yourself. Looks like it might never happen since she keeps issuing postponements though." Branches explained, not noticing the color rise a little in Roxanne's face and the sudden flicker of color in her eyes.

"Well uh, I suppose you came here for some other reason though?" She swerved back. Branches own color rose and for a long time Roxanne didn't think the girl would tell her. Then, Branches gave her ice cream another lick and let her gaze drift over to the window.

"W-what do you do... when you have a crush on someone?" Branches asked. She sounded not all there, but Roxanne immediately understood much more than she had when the girl had come knocking on her door. After a very brief internal conference with Eris, Roxanne gave the homunculus another look over, judging not as a person but as her potential as somebodies girlfriend. Average height, average weight, striking gold cornsilk hair and even more striking amethyst eye. Roxanne didn't think she could do much for the girls appearance, but she could at least give her something to wear so that she wouldn't look like some kind of homeless waif. On top of all that though, the girl also had an obvious touch of the arcane about her, and if she was associated with Illiana then that "touch" was more likely than not a veritable well of arcane touches.

"Well, I could tell you generically sweetie, but the generic approach doesn't really work on everybody." Roxanne explained, putting one hand on her chin and licking her own ice cream, "To really net you a successful catch, I need to know what sort of person this guy is. It might even help if you told me exactly who you had in mind." That last was more for Roxanne's own amusement of course, but it was true that it could help. If it was someone Roxanne knew, that was.

"Well..." Branches said dreamily, "He's tall and handsome and strong and kind and... and..." Roxanne noted that Branches seemed to have drifted off, a sure sign that the homunculus had begun to day dream. She'd seen Mica do the same thing before. The empty gaze, the daffy grin. Branches ice cream dripped onto the paper beneath it, and she didn't seem to notice the impending mess. Her eye was fixed firmly on... Roxanne's head twisted like on a pivot to trace the gaze of the girl across from her and immediately had to stifle herself.

'Oh. My. God.' She thought in tandem with her internal other.

"Girls got good taste Luna," Eris whispered a little tauntingly in her head, "Really fine taste!"

Outside the window, just to the side of the house Hector rarely stayed in, was the new workshop Catnip had set up for him. Hector rarely used the work space, preferring to use the old space in the shadow of the sacred birch simply because he liked to see people coming and going to and from the farm. Today though, Catnip could be seen seated on the round pole fence surrounding the forge space, talking to Hector hard at work on some piece of metal work. The knight had decided to remove his armor for the day and replaced the shirt he usually wore under it with a leather apron that did nothing to hide Hectors not inconsiderable and rarely seen muscles. As Roxanne watched, he wiped the sweat from his brow and readied his hammer for another blow at the anvil, then noticed the ladies watching him and waved. Roxanne grinned and waved back, then quickly glanced back at Branches. The homunculus had sunk into her seat a bit, but had turned an obvious bright red.

"This could be fun." Roxanne thought to Eris, then aloud shouted, "Oh ho ho! So that's the way it is then!?" She leaned across the table and pinched Branches cheek. Branches snapped back to, instantly looking guilty like she'd been caught in the act of theft. "You've got good taste sweetie, really good taste! It's a good thing you came to me. Don't worry, Roxanne will help you land that big fish! I'll give you some advice to get started, but ol' Hec is a bit oblivious so give me some time alright?"

Internally, Roxanne and Eris were already hard at work making plans. They had they're own fish to fry first, but when that was done then there would be all the time she needed to have a bit of "fun" with this.

---

Catnip snuffed the cigarette, much to Hector's relief, and tossed it into the forge to incinerate. Hector didn't really understand why he was working at this forge rather than 'his' forge, but figured it might just have been a momentary desire for a change of scenery. A byproduct of this temporary move was that Catnip had come out to watch and chide. There were worse things, but the situation was akin to one expert trying to tell another how to do something they already knew how to do.

"You need a press." Catnip insisted, "Otherwise you're gonna get de-lams." Hector didn't need a press. At least, not that he believed. His own augmented muscles and a sufficiently heavy hammer was all that he thought he'd need, which was true enough. When he wasn't on official business or out fighting Hector had found in the post cataclysm a talent in himself. Talent as a hobby smith. More than that though, he'd discovered that some people would even appreciate the effort he put into his craft. He wasn't a savant like Catnip, but that didn't mean he was bad or even half bad. It turned out, he was very good.

"I'm not going to get delaminations Nip. I've got this under control." He said, putting down his main hammer and taking out one with a flared flat face.

"Planishing isn't going to take the de-lams out Hector." Catnip commented. Hector growled at that, knowing she knew he wasn't trying to get any mythological delaminations out of the piece. She'd gone over the work he'd done with a master's eye, considering every bit of effort he'd put in and the workmanship he'd worked so hard to develop. Her response had been entirely unexpected though. A simple "it's fine enough." She had been sent away to Arizona and had come back with a sacks worth of ego.

"It's not for getting any delaminations out!" He said sharply. He glared at her, and she grinned back playfully. It was then he realized that she wasn't at all serious. Catnip was pulling his leg. She had come back with a bit of ego, but not as much as she sometimes pretended to have.

"Calm down, calm down." She said, "It's fine. Better than that scrap armor you made anyway." Hector had begun to calm, but that nettled him a little.

"Oh come on, it was a clever idea that came up after you got... You know, teleported and slash or turned into a rat. We had all that scrap power armor turned robot metal left over and I thought it would be poetic to make new armor out of it." Hector said, fuming a little. Catnip scrutinized him and the work he was doing, then Hector had a thought and corrected himself. "Well, after a few of us thought you got turned into a rat. Most of the reasoning there was kind of stupid really..."

"You should never try to heat treat hardened steel tin can," Catnip chastised gently, "who knows what you may have done to it internally..." She kicked her feet a little, then asked "do you think it's strange?"

"What's strange?"

"That I know all this stuff. Minx says it's weird, if Mica and I grew up in a lab, that I should know so much." She explained. Hector made a perfunctory non-committal gesture at that.

"Nip, you have a passion. Considering all the things you don't know, personally I think it's normal. I mean, what's this thing called?" He said, holding up a fork shaped object at his question before picking up a second tool. "Or this?"

"Er... A fork prying thing and a spinny soft wheel?" She said cautiously.

"A picklefork and a buffing wheel." He corrected, setting them down. "Nip, for all the tools you have, I know of only about a fourth of them you can name properly. I'd say you are doing just fine in terms of being a savant."

There was a long silence between them, in which time Kathrine brought out a pair of glasses containing sweet tea, and the announcement the the ice maker had broken down again. Another thing Catnip would have to look into. Catnip stopped watching Hector so much and instead examined the sword he'd laid aside on the forges stout table. The old arming sword he'd carried with him throughout his post cataclysm career onto a hundred fields of battle. It looked, despite the sharpening and buffing and repeated treatment, like it had been thrown into an oversized blender.

"I really should replace that old thing." Hector said wistfully when he noticed Catnip examining it, "But the fact that it hasn't fallen apart yet is just a testament to it's reproduction quality."

Catnip stayed silent for some time, then suggested, "eh, if it does break, bring it to me. I've got something I'd like to try. Speaking of metals and craft works and stuff like that, I'd like to try to build some specialized armor at some point after Dee and I get Medeina built, could use some help with that. Also wanted to know if you had any idea concerning that list I gave you yesterday." Hector swiped a hand at his brow and raised his hammer again. Then he saw the girls watching him and waved. "Putting on quite a show." Catnip mused while watching Roxanne and her guest while they watched Hector.