Some Things Just Can't Be Understood

"Oh I can cook decently, it's just more convenient to eat something pre-prepared," Maple answered. "Don't have time to go check on a steak if I'm fighting with anomalies or if I'm lost in some half-corrupted dimension. The cookbooks are actually leftover from various guests who wanted to make good ol' meals from home and left them behind for me to try sometime. I give them a shot every now and then."

"Oh~" Pheobie nodded. "Well I don't believe in cookbooks much. You need some experimenting to get really good food."

"Ah, good for you then!" said Maple, as they arrived at the storage room. "As I said, I'm a decent cook. A miracle-worker, however, I am not. Disaster-worker, maybe."

Maple soon proved his point by tripping over something and consequently getting himself buried by an avalanche of falling junk.

"...I'm fine," his muffled voice said under a pile of jackets.

"You're just a little clumsy" Pheobie giggled as she unearthed him. "It happens. Is there anything you would like me to cook?"

"Hmm...actually I just want ice cream," Maple admitted, standing up and dusting. "Mint with chocolate chip sounds swell. Think I still have some in the fridge..."

His GS device rang. With a sulky expression he turned it on speaker. He had left the headphones at the control room.

"Yes?" he said in an overly happy voice. "Whatever may I help you with?"

"Professor! Is everything alright?" asked a boyish voice on the phone.

"If he wasn't alright he'd sound a lot crosser," added another, still-younger voice, though his tone was more mature. In the background a dog barked.

"Ah! Falcon! Dalios!" Maple greeted, his expression relieved. "I assume Razekar is there as well?"

Pheobie waited quietly. This wasn't her conversation so it was her job to stay out of it. She didn't want to do anything to get her in trouble. She nibbled her lip and thought about how to organise the room so Maple could talk.

"Yeah, he's just piloting the ship," the first boy said. There was a deeper voice in the background. "He says hi."

"How could your ship isn't moving?" asked the second boy. "Did something break down?"

"Did something...?" Maple paused, before remembering. "Oh no, I just haven't put in a new destination. I've been, ah, busy."

"With what?" asked the second boy, a dog barking again.

"...Redecorating," Maple finally replied. "Trying to make this place somewhat livable. Anyway, carry on, my pups! This will be awhile!"

"Okay, we just wanted to make sure you weren't hurt or broken-down or something," said the first boy. "Well, see you later then."

"Inevitably," replied Maple with a smirk. The GS call ended.

"...Anyway, those were some friends of mine. Not colleagues exactly, more like fellow travelers. They're a good bunch," Maple explained, beginning to pick things up.

"Its good to have friends." Pheobie chirped. "And they must be nice if they're your friends. Is everything just in here randomly?" She asked, digging the mop out from where she saw it earlier.

"Yes," Maple replied, with a grin that was half-wolfish and half-sheepish. "Never really had much free time to organize it. Whenever I do I feel like doing something else."

He plucked a platypus figurine off the floor.

"...Where did I get this anyway?"

Pheobie looked at it strangely. "What is it anyway?" She countered. "There isn't anything like that where I come from."

" 'Tis a platypus," Maple explained in a (somewhat) scholarly manner. "It comes from a place called Australia. When explorers first bought some back to their old world, they were accused to taking animals parts and forging a fake creature. It is a mash-up of things, isn't it?"

Pheobie nodded slowly. "Its weird looking is what it is. Those really exist?"

"Yep. Saw a live one myself. Just as weird in person...animal as you would think," Maple said with a laugh. He remembered watching the odd creatures sliding around in a zoo, a long time ago. "But they can really swim, I'll tell you that. They actually look graceful when they swim."

"Hmm. Neat. What else can they do?" Pheobie asked, moving over for a closer look at the figurine.

"Let's see...well they can lay eggs, even though they are mammals. Only it and...something other weird mammal can do that, you know. I don't know why that is. Never did get it," Maple rambled on. "I know they still exist today, at least last time I checked...ah, that's what we should do! Go to a zoo!"

"I've been to a zoo" Pheobie chirped. "Once. When I was really little. My dad took my cause mom was sick."

"Oh really? What kind of animals did it have?" asked Maple, genuinely interested. Some world seemed so close to his own, until some six-legged horse strolled by.

"I don't really remember. I was little" Pheobie replied sheepishly. "I just remember the elephants"

"Ah yes, elephants! Huge things they are!" Maple mused, trying to remember the last time he had seen an elephant. "All big and gray - well, I've seen some pink and purple - and with such long noses. I wish I could pick up things with my nose. Well, maybe not. I think I still prefer platypuses. You know, I got turned into a platypus once. Pissed off the wrong sorceress."

Pheobie's eyes got wide. "Really?" She asked breathlessly. "How did you get back to normal?"

"Oh, it wore off after a while," Maple said casually. "She wasn't an evil sorceress or anything. I just got on her nerves like I do most people. Anyway, it was awkward, trying to walk around on four legs instead of two. Kept tripping over them. Think it lasted, hmm, maybe a couple of hours. Long story short: don't piss off sorceresses."

Pheobie nodded. "Okay! I'll remember. I'll be really nice to them."

"Now," Maple began, before finally remembering what he was supposed to be doing. "...We haven't gotten much cleaning done, have we? No matter! I'll go look up some zoo to visit and then I'll mop."

"Alright." Pheobie smiled. "Don't forget to check the thingy." She giggled before getting to work.

"Which thingy?" asked Maple. He knew he needed to look up a zoo, mop, maybe pick up some ice cream when he was done. Or was she talking about the platypus?