milliways_bar | (no subject)

Baze is at the bar, ordering a few things he needs for fireworks making: two cutting boards, a sharp knife, wax paper, and a few drying screens. Bar provides all of the items in paper bags, which he hefts off the bar top with a smile.

He spots the non-human on his way towards the stairs, and cocks his head.

"Excuse me," he says, approaching, "are you all right?"

Nepeta blinks up at the unfamiliar human.

"... Yes?"

"Oh, okay! Sorry to intrude, I just... You didn't look all right," Baze says, sheepishly. He'd rub the back of his neck, but a) he's holding paper bags, and b) he'd have to wash his hands again.

"I'm Baze Malbus, by the way. May the Force of others be with you!"

"I'm Nepeta," she says, and ... there's just enough of an unsteadiness to her voice, as she continues, that Baze may decide his first impression wasn't far wrong. "I am all right, really, I just had sort of a purrplexing dream and I don't know what it means yet."

Oh, no, this is awful. Baze's heart goes out to her, even though he doesn't know her in the slightest. He shifts on his feet.

"Did you want to talk about it? I mean, I know I'm a stranger, but perhaps a sounding board will help."

She looks at him uncertainly. "I guess meowbe ... if you want to? It looks like you were busy with something else, though."

Baze sets the paper bags on the floor, to rest against his legs. He brushes his hands together, and then holds them palms out to show that they're empty.

"Nope! I was just gathering supplies for fireworks making. I've got all the time in the multiverse to do that."

Wonder of wonders, she brightens a little. "You make furworks?"

(No, she doesn't actually think he's talking about anything to do with fur.)

Furworks! Aaaah, that's really cute.

"I do," Baze says, beaming at her, and not worrying about the subject change.

"I'm just starting, and it's just a hobby, but I've got a workshop and everything. Would you like to see?"

"Sure," she says, and scrambles down from her seat. A distraction would be more than welcome right about now.

She's still carrying the broken sword.

Baze picks up the paper bags by the handles and leads the way upstairs to his workshop. He palms open the biometric lock, and opens the door.

The room is immense. It's tall enough that the ceiling is lost in darkness, intended for fireworks to be shot off inside. By the door is a counter made of polished wood with a stool nearby draped in a pair of rubber gloves. Various chemicals rest in their respective packages on the counter, near a stainless steel sink.

"Here's where the magic happens." Baze says, setting the paper bags down near the sink.

Nepeta's looking around with interest. "It's like a cave in here."

"It really is, yes," Baze says, rifling through the bags. He draws the drying screens out and sets them aside on the counter.

"I haven't set off a successful firework yet--they've mostly been flower pots, which mean they go off on the ground and shoot upwards. I think the fuses have air holes around them, but I'm not sure. But I have some fireworks I bought from Bar to dissect, and we can launch those, if we want."

Nepeta has perched on the nearby stool and is peering interestedly over his shoulder. "I've nefur dissected a firework before."

"Well, we can do that if you like!" Baze says cheerfully, setting the bags aside and picking up a brightly-colored, fist-sized sphere wrapped in gaudy packaging.

"This, as you can see, is a spherical, aerial shell. It shoots into the air using a mortar, which is what the tube that launches it is called. There are several different sizes of shells, mostly spheres and cylinders."

He selects a scalpel from a pencil holder--which also holds things like paintbrushes, pens, and of course, pencils--and starts cutting off the packaging.

"This shell has been pasted together using craft paper, and probably some commercial glue. I like to use wheatpaste, which is flour and water heated together to make an unholy, sticky mess. The craft paper is layered on the outside of the shell in strips. I've been told it's like paper mache, but I don't know what that is."

Carefully, Nepeta prods a bit of the cut-off packaging with a claw.

"What's inside the shell?"

Baze chuckles. He slices through the craft paper and cautiously splits the shell in half, careful not to let any of the innards escape.

"I'm getting there. All shells have stars, which are those squat, cylindrical things around the perimeter of the shell hemisphere, and black powder. Stars are what give the firework its color. They can be rolled, cut, or pumped. These stars are 'Tiger Tail,' made from potassium nitrate and charcoal, so they're orange."

She looks ~~pawsitively~~ positively enchanted.

"What a purrfect name."

Baze grins at her. Nepeta is charming, he thinks.

"The cylinder at the bottom of the shell is filled with black powder, and is called the lift charge. That's what forces the shell out of the mortar and into the air."

"So how do you put it back together after you take it apart? Or does that just show you how to make a new one?"

"I'd have to rearrange the stars, and paste the shell back together, but I could reuse it," Baze says, pointing at the firework innards with his scalpel.

"And it's a good idea to do so, because letting it go to waste would be awful."

"I agr33 compurrletely," she says firmly.

(She might be bouncing on her toes, just the tiniest bit.)

"Helping me paste the shell together would probably be boring, so we can just set this aside for now," Baze says, and does so, carefully setting the two halves of the hemisphere onto two toilet paper rolls.

"Would you like to launch one?"

Nepeta's face says: :D :D :D!!!!

"If it wouldn't be inconvenient," she says primly.

That's quite a juxtaposition. Baze laughs, and locates another commercially-made, 'Tiger Tail' aerial shell. He brings the firework to the middle of the floor, far away from the counter. He stuffs the shell into a long, plastic, day-glo orange tube--as he explained, the mortar--and retrieves a lighter from his pocket.

"Well, it'll be loud, in here," he says, apologetically.

Then he lights the firework and bolts away. With a whistling sound, the shell shoots upwards, exploding high in the air into an orange peony with a resounding boom. Baze grins at Nepeta, shielding his eyes from the glare.

Nepeta draws a swift breath and stares in delight at the fountain of colored sparks.

It's a good thing they all burn out well before drifting down to floor level, otherwise it would be an irresistible temptation to try catching them.

Baze watches her more than the firework, delighting in her delight.

"Would you like to shoot off another?"

"... meowbe just one more?"

Baze chuckles, and sifts through his commercially-made fireworks with a fingertip until he finds one he thinks she'll like. It's another spherical, aerial shell, and he carts it over to the mortar and stuffs it inside.

Lighting the fuse is the work of a moment, and he bolts away from the lit firework, back to her side. The shell shoots into the air with a whistling noise, and explodes with a crackle into a golden palm tree, with trailing quills.

"This one's a palm tree made with charcoal stars. That's what gives it the gold color."

Kanaya draws near with the due caution of one troll approaching another in obvious distress, making sure Nepeta can see her approach.

"Hello, Nepeta."

"Hi Kanaya," she says, without looking up.

And then, after a beat, she does.

"Could you meowbe come look at this fur a moment?"

There's a slow, thoughtful blink from Kanaya before she nods, approaching to sit beside Nepeta on the couch.

"What Is It That You Wanted To Show Me?"

She scoots over, further into the booth, to make room for Kanaya.

And then slides the broken-off sword hilt over to her, on the table.

"Do you recognize that?"

It's not hard for Kanaya to recognize the broken sword, picking it up to inspect it anyway.

"It's Dave's Sword," she says softly, shifting to look at Nepeta. "How Did You Get This?"

"It's half of Dave's sword."

Nepeta reaches out for it back.

"We were playing, in a dream, and right when I started to wake up I was pulling this out of something and it was whole -- and I saw him, fur just a second, we were in my cave and I saw him, and then he disapurred but this was still there."

"He Uses Half-bladekind, Sometimes," she says a little uselessly, allowing Nepeta to take the sword back.

"I'm Not Certain What It Means, Though. Dreambubble Shenanigans? Perhaps Something To Do With Your Aspect?"

She draws it close, in an unconsciously protective gesture.

"Pawssibly? It ... felt like it might be, but now I don't know what I'm suppurrsed to do with it."

There is a young red-and-white cat, not a kitten any more, rather a gangly adolescent, approaching her with curiosity.

Nepeta glances up from the half-sword, and her eyes widen.

"Oh hi," she says to the cat, very softly.

The cat comes closer, wanting to know about what the cat-human is making. It reminds him of the things the other humans make in the forge.

The cat is very curious, young and friendly, and his name is Kyber -- depending on how much cat one speaks, some or all of these things may be obvious.

The curious, young and friendly part comes through, anyway.

She extends one hand for the cat to sniff, in approved making-friends fashion.

The cat not only sniffs her hand, but rubs his face on it.

... :D!!!!!

Nepeta slides down to the floor to meet the cat on its own level, and makes a coaxing sound halfway between a mew and a purr.

Oh hello! The little cat sniffs her nose, then rubs his face against hers.