Maxine has a Day Off

When Maxine is homeless and alone, what is a girl to do? Why, wander on over back to work, of course!

Maxine felt grumpy. The Kitty Burger had been open for more than two weeks, but she still had failed to find anywhere to live. As it turned out, rent was about two hundred dollars more expensive than she was used to back home. Home meant slightly lower than average rent. Here only meant a bit over average, but since Maxine was only a bit over broke, by her own calculations she was going to have to work about a month and a half to two months to have enough for both first month's rent and the deposit. Maxine didn't have much in the way of friends even where she had lived, much less here, so staying with someone was not an option. To make things worse, she had the day off. No free food.

Of course, it was nice to have enough time to wash her hair. She'd even found a bucket -- mostly clean -- next to someone's trash that she could use to haul water from the fountain at the park. Granted, she had to get there quickly enough to snag the water and rush off before someone saw her, and the dog-walkers liked to come early in the day. At the end of it all, Maxine simply gave up and made use of a spigot outside someone's house. She left three dollars underneath a potted plant for the water bill.

That had been a couple of hours ago, and Maxine's hair was almost dry. She didn't want to waste money on a haircut, so her long hair was drying very slowly. Not to mention that it was horribly humid. But there was nothing to do under the bridge, so Maxine put her hair up in a slicked back bun, rubbed it with a bit of leftover hand lotion she'd rummaged from a dumpster, and walked off to town. Only to discover that the library she'd been bumming her entertainment in was closed because of a weather advisory.

"Great," Maxine grumbled. "The exact day when I would need shelter."

She ran possible options through her mind. The local coffeeshop? No. Her old laptop still worked, but the coffeeshop was the sort of yuppie place that immediately communicated its disapproval of someone as shabby looking as Maxine, even if no one actually spoke to her. The other coffee shop with its lonely outdoor area? A formidable pain on the feet, even assuming that city buses weren't shut down for weather as well. Some restaurant? A gas station? One of those post offices that stayed open all day so that people had access to their PO boxes? Maxine briefly entertained the idea of knocking on a random person's door and asking for help, but she never got further than staring through a person's window. Some people had their TVs right across from the outside window. Maxine could glimpse a few images and try to figure out what was going on without sound.

Still, her problem lingered. The skies darkened, and so did Maxine's mood. She gloomily shuffled off to the only place where she knew she would be allowed inside: the Kitty Burger. Maxine had been eating free food there for the past several days, but she figured that there was nothing wrong with asking Pocki if she could borrow against her paycheck for rent. She was too horribly shy to ask for that kind of favor, so she figured she would eat a mushroom burger to build up her strength and resolve.

It occurred to Maxine that she had never actually spent much time with the cats of Kitty Burger, and that she didn't actually know what the cats were supposed to be doing all day. Maxine had heard of the concept of cat cafes before, and she knew that normally the cats were adopted out. That didn't seem to be the case at the Kitty Burger, or at least Maxine hadn't seen any signs about adoption.

The Kitty Burger wasn't very busy. That was to be expected for a Tuesday. As Maxine entered, she saw a few customers sitting here and there, and the Burg-girls casually serving, occasionally posing or taking a picture with a customer. Three of them, anyway, as Irene was out of sight. Maxine didn't consider sitting down. There was something unnatural about the burg-girls' grins and articulated gestures that made her uncomfortable.

Maxine had been alone for the better part of a year, and she needed something to cuddle. Since she was still too unhoused for that to be a boyfriend, Maxine opened the door to the cat cafe area. No one seemed to be cuddling. Aside from the few fallen forms of victims held in thrall by Princess Trixie Puff's fur, all the customers sat on the outskirts of the kitty area. In the middle was a rug, bright orange and painted with basketball court lines. Two full-sized basketball hoops stood at the ends, and a few odd-sized cat towers stood here and there in between. Maxine sat down at one of the seats along the wall the cat area shared with the dining area.

Two cats hopped up on towers on opposite sides of the "court." Judging by the brown and white color of one, and the folded ears of the other, Maxine figured that these were Oscar and Pickles. Then out came Pocki, dressed in his skinny purple pants, a faintly purple button-up, and a matte gold vest. He posed in several dramatic positions, freezing each time just long enough for someone to take a picture (no one was). With his last pose, he presented to the audience a little fuzzy ball, orange and just smaller than a tennis ball.

"Let the games..." Pocki grinned. "Begin!"

Pocki tossed the ball into the middle of the court. The cats jumped for it. Pickles jumped a bit higher, and batted it from Oscar. Diving after it, he snagged it in his mouth and hopped up on one of the kitty towers on Oscar's side of the court.

Before Pickles could do anything else, Oscar jumped at the Scottish fold and batted away the ball. This began a chase from one side of the little court to the other, where each cat briefly had possession until the other batted it away. Finally, Oscar snagged the ball from his rival long enough to get to the top of a kitty tower. Oscar jumped all the way up to the basketball hoop, where hooked his front paws and opened his mouth to let the ball through. The audience applauded.

"Oh, it's a game," Maxine said quietly, to no one in particular. She pretended it was towards the cat that approached her so that no one would say anything to her. "Hi, Rasputin. How's my baby cat today?"

Rasputin stared at her, his little tongue hanging out of his mouth. Maxine reached out her hand to pet the cat, but Rasputin, in a strange twist of character, simply walked away. Not even a hint of his usual spazzy hops.

"Your rejection cuts me to the quick, baby cat."

This appeal had no affect on Rasputin, who hopped over a couple of teenaged girls on his way to the food dishes. They squealed at his antics. Maxine sighed and turned back to the game, wondering if there was another cat that wanted to shower her with the affection she failed to get from every other angle. Her eyes wandered back to the game in time to witness Pickles making a tall leap, casting his entire body through the basketball hoop.

Everyone cheered. Including the blond guy that had suddenly appeared next to Maxine. Maxine nearly jumped out of her skin, especially once she noticed that it was Paul, the skinny knight. To look at him, you never would have guessed that this was the same man. Oh sure, he looked the same, but he eagerly studied the kitty basketball game with almost the passion of a dedicated soccer mom watching her child score. His longish hair waved as his head bobbed from side to side as he enjoyed the cat game. He leaned forward as far as he could go in his seat.

"Um, excuse me, are you even supposed to be in here?"

The man glanced up at her and straightened. The excitement left him, and his face fell into the his familiar guise of a suspicious man on the prowl. He tugged on her sleeve gently and walked away from the kitty basketball game. She thought that he might be going towards the door to the dining area, but instead he went towards Trixie Puff. Maxine followed, if only because she might prevent him from causing more problems.

"Look, I don't know what you're about to do, but Pocki gave me a job, and without that I don't have food and somewhere to sleep. Honestly, if you ruin what I've got going, I'll...well, I'm not very good at fighting, but I will cry. Total sobs everywhere, completely embarrassing."

"It is not my intention to cause suffering." Paul nobly moved into a heroic posture. "If I am to stop the wicked proprietor of cats from his evil scheme, I must watch him and know the extent of his evil. Thus today, I am under cover!"

"...You're wearing the same thing you were yesterday. Except for the armed shoulder-plate, I guess."

He chuckled nervously. "Questing doesn't pay all that well."

Maxine sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Okay, whatever. Just don't cause any trouble, okay? If you're gonna hang around here, you can at least buy a burger or something."

"What? And contaminate myself with the vile foodstuffs of that monstrous fiend?" The stranger glared at Pocki through narrowed eyes, sneering his nose threateningly. It looked pretty adorable, to be honest. "Nay, I shall not allow him control of my heart, for it is through the stomach through which one does so!"

"Well, if you're not going to buy anything, then you're just bumming around. That's kinda unethical."

"Oh? And where is your food? Are you not here as an employee taking advantage of your boss' generosity?"

Maxine blushed for a second, before she realized that even if she was taking advantage of Pocki, then it was his doing, because he always seemed to push food onto her. She realized this quickly, but by the time she did, the blond man had already walked off. As she caught up, he knelt before the big pile of puff that was a giant cat.

"Oh, your majesty Princess Trixie Puff," he canted. "Grant me, thy servant Paul Armadrian, Knight of the Heroes Guild of the local D&D at the comic shop, a boon. Allow me once again the authority to search this place and make known to myself the reason for this darkened feeling in my heart, this dread that bespeaks a foul evil in this cat-scented air."

Trixie Puff lifted her head, and if a cat could laugh, Maxine suspected that the princess would have done so. Instead the cat simply meowed once and nuzzled Paul on each shoulder. Paul stood, and he bowed once more to the cat. Maxine wondered what exactly he meant by "again."

"By your leave, I shall first begin my inspection with your cat-quarters."

Princess Trixie Puff said nothing, but her tail twitched. Paul pretended to pet Trixie Puff. And then he did pet Trixie Puff. And then he inhaled the air sweetened by her softness. And then he shoved his face full on into the fur. With a snort, Trixie Puff batted his limp form away until he was far enough from the fur to regain his sensibility. He straightened, pretended he had some dignity left with a gracious bow, and then proceeded to sneak behind Trixie Puff into the cave behind.

It was at that point that Maxine asked herself a question that she felt silly for not asking herself before. That is, why in the world a cat would want to live in a cave? She wasn't exactly a feline expert, but somehow Maxine figured that most cats would want to live in open space.

Then again, there are mountain lions... Maxine hurried behind Paul, if only to keep an eye on him. What exactly is back, there, anyway?

Maxine satisfied her own curiosity by going ahead. At first there didn't seem to be anything too unusual about the area beyond. There was a bit of crawl-area in the cave, through a small tunnel beyond this and to the left some colorful matting that presumably was Trixie Puff's bed. To the right was a fountain of water, running like a little waterfall into a small, obviously human-carved pool.

"Oh, right, 'cause cats like running water."

Between the cat's bedroom and water fountain was a little nook. Maxine glanced around in confusion. Paul had just come this way, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. She was about to start fiddling with the rocks to see if there was some sort of hidden wall, when suddenly something touched her head.

"Don't look up," Paul whispered. "Is anyone behind you?"

Maxine looked back. Since the stone pathway curved a bit, no one could actually see her or anything to the rear of the cave entrance.

"No, the walls block everything."

"Good. Climb up."

Maxine looked, and up above her the face of the blond weirdo peeked out from a small opening in the rock. Some red light from above made this possible. Paul's arm was stretched out to pull her up, and for a moment, Maxine was reluctant. Then she shrugged and took his hand, because it wasn't as if she had anything better to do that day. So she climbed, and between Paul's help and the irregular stones in the wall of the cave, she made it up into the nook easily enough.

Up there was more cave, lit on the walls by a string of electric lights lining both sides, forward and back. "Back", meaning there was a little cove behind Maxine. It must have sat above the kitty area, probably only as far as Trixie Puff's little cave. Ahead of Maxine, however, the cave extended outward a little (presumably over Pocki's office), and then plunged down and a little to the right. Maxine peeked over this dip in the cave floor. It wasn't a particularly steep dip, but it did go uncomfortably downwards, and the trail of lights on the rugged walls continued down past where Maxine could see.

As she observed all of this, Paul pushed a stone over their little entrance. He rubbed his hands together and turned toward the busboy, suddenly much more relaxed than she had ever seen him.

"I am Paul Armadrian, Knight of the Dimensions," he announced proudly. "I tell you this because I can see from your countenance that you are not evil, despite working in the domain of an evil creature. Specifically, you are too lazy to be evil."

"Uh....well, true," Maxine scratched her head. "But isn't laziness its own kind of evil?"

"Not the kind of evil I fight!" Paul snapped his fingers. "Anyway, your name is...?"

She fidgeted uncomfortably. For some reason, Maxine had always been unhappy to actually tell anyone her name -- she much preferred that no stranger having a pretense to act as though he knew her on a personal level. On the other hand, she worked at a restaurant that made her wear a name tag. She couldn't use a fake name, as it was clear by now Paul was going to be a regular fixture at the Kitty Burger. She sighed.

"Maxine Huff," she said. "But uh, you can call me 'Ma'am'."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Paul teasingly saluted. "In any case, you may now become my assistant to destroy the great evil that is Pocki!"

"Right...and how do you know he's evil?"

Paul leaned up close to Maxine, squinting at her through two of his pinched fingers. He spoke in a deep, husky voice, full of completely unnecessary drama. Maxine tensed.

"It's in his eyes." he said. "I can see it...I see through his facade of burger-mindedness into the true soul of this dark creature. And when I look, I see the black pits of conquest and deception."

"You...you're making me uncomfortable..."

"That is why I explore these caves!" Paul snapped around and pointed dramatically at the expanse before them. "That I might discover the source of his evil power! The great device of evil he keeps hidden! His secret, evil burger recipes! The weakened, suffering prisoners he keeps trapped because of his evil!"

"...In other words, you're looking for some evidence about Pocki to prove the bad feeling you have about him."

"Yes! Onward!"

Paul dramatically lifted his sword and posed with it pointed towards the unexplored cave. If he was hoping that he looked really cool when he did so, his efforts were in vain. The effect was rather ruined by the fact that his arms were almost as skinny as the sword. Before Maxine could make any attempt to disillusion the poor soul, Paul followed his sword down the lit cave pathway. Maxine hurried to catch up.

The dip took them down into a cavern, and as they walked, the cave became more natural and uncarved. Maxine and Paul walked down, down, until she was sure that they were underneath the Kitty Burger, and likely enough underneath all the pipes and electric whatnots of the city. As they went forward, the string of lights continued, that is until they came to where the path came out to a widened cavern. The stringed lights went out to the left, but the rest of the cavern was unlit. Fortunately, for however goofy Paul was, he at the very least had a good sword. It lit up like a flashlight, and even sent out a streak of golden light straight from the tip.

"It hurts to hold that up for extended periods of time, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Paul chuckled.

Paul swept the light over the cavern. To the left the lights trailed off to another cave, not entirely visible at the angle where they stood. The rest of the cavern lowered down a little bit into a bottomed out hollow that expanded from the ledge leading to the leftward cave, sweeping all the way to the right of the two travelers. This hollow was almost its own little biome. A pool of water lingered near the far end, but most of it was solid going, save for a few stalagmites and three heavy natural pillars that supported the ground above. From this miniature "valley" came three more pathways: forward, forward and a bit right, and right. Paul directed them towards the rightmost path, and they both climbed down a little dip to get into the valley.

"Wow...I'm kind of astonished that this is down here. You'd think the city would know about it. Do you think Pocki does?"

"Of course. Who do you think put up those lights back there?" Paul hunched forward as though suspicious that something was going to jump out at them from the shadows. "Pocki made this place for dark, evil reasons. Or else he found it for dark, evil reasons. It could go either way."

"Place looks natural enough to me." Maxine blinked for a second. "Hey, do you know where you're going in here? This place looks pretty confusing..."

"Oh yes, I've been in here before." Paul paused and pointed his sword at the ridge they had just climbed down. "Up there, where the lights go seems to be some sort of private cat lounge. Those other two paths I've been exploring the past few weeks. I haven't fully charted them, but slowly and surely I've been creating maps. Today I've decided to start mapping this pathway, because someone might get lost so I should have at least working knowledge of what's back here in the shaddows. Know that I shall soon know this place like the back of my hand!"

With that, Paul walked forward into the cave. This pathway was an oppressive tunnel, and more than once they had to dodge (or unintentionally fail to dodge) a stalactite. Maxine almost tripped over some loose rocks. Paul reached out an arm to keep her from falling over.

"This must be the most evil path..." Paul muttered. "Its obstacles are like teeth down the throat of a monster!"

"Yeah...okay."

The way was treacherous, at least as far as their shoes were concerned, but it was only the constant wariness that made the going seem longer than it was. They had passed through two or three football fields worth of stalagmite nightmare before the tunnel opened up into a vast, wide cavern, one that they could not immediately see the other side of. But they weren't looking in that direction, because an odd green glow emitted from the bottom of the floor. Paul immediately blocked Maxine with an arm, then cautiously swept his sword-beam around the cavern floor. Nothing besides rock and the floor were there, so Paul cautiously approached the green.

Whatever it was, a little mist hung over it, and Paul and Maxine coughed a little. They waved at the smoky substance, and it wasn't thick enough to stop them from seeing what was underneath. It was a round thing, a ring of gold (color, at least) five feet in diameter with little gold spikes sticking out like teeth into the rock around it. In the middle of this, a round disc of plastic, either green or with a green light behind it, glowed and pulsed. It emitted an odd electrical humming, not unlike a cat's purring.

"Yes...I knew it. This is where Pocki keeps his evil device."

"Uh..." Maxine scratched her head. "But what is it?"

"I don't know. We shall have to discover the purpose somehow..." Paul walked around the golden ring. "Do you see a markings upon it somewhere?"

"I don't know...Maybe we shouldn't mess with it. It might do something bad like collapse the cavern if we do."

"You're right." Paul nodded. "It would be just like Pocki to leave this type of trap for us. We must be cautious and careful...perhaps there is a control panel that would give us some idea of what it is..."

They stared at it. It was a gold ring surrounding a green glow. There simply wasn't any room for a control panel anywhere on it.

"Perhaps the controls are somewhere nearby!"

They both looked around the cavern, reminding themselves that the place was huge and full of nooks and crannies. Maxine bit her lip. Paul lifted his sword beam with a vigorous "hurrah!" and immediately rushed off to go and search for the mysterious control panel that he had no particular evidence existed. He left Maxine behind in the dark, so she sat quietly beside the green glow and regretted ever following the weirdo down into these caves. Paul's sword-beam flashed around here and there, sometimes slowly, sometimes with an odd, and not apparently necessary, rapid pulse. Maxine, bored out of her mind, squinted her eyes a bit, and she let the flashing beam and green glow hypnotize her into a little fantasy of being in some sort of artsy electronic music club, where DJ Hipster was laying down his "avante guarde" beat of raindrops and echoing footsteps. Paul muttered to himself occasionally, and this was the "sample."

Huh, and I guess that weird breathing, growly sound can be the bass...wait, what?

Maxine didn't move, but her hair briefly did, under the influence of a rush of hot, stinky air. She tensed, and the look of utter horror and disbelief she had on her face was lost in the darkness (which was really too bad because it was hilarious). The hot wind came again; Maxine couldn't bear to name it as the breath of some rather large being behind her, but we must excuse her. There times in this life where it's easier to be in denial.

Okay, options. I can turn around to see what's behind me, and get eaten and die. I can call out to Paul, make the thing notice me, and then get eaten and die. I can sit here still and wait for it to smell me out, then get eaten and die. ...I really hope that behind me is a nice, fluffy ginormous hamster. Maybe a friendly unicorn, or a guy with a wind machine and rotting meat who's trying to prank me.

"Grrrrr......rrrrrr....."

The beast's growl revved like an engine, and Maxine began to feel that the advantages of denial had come to an end. Fortunately, Paul had ears, and his beam of light swept over Maxine. It blinded her, but fortunately it also blinded whatever was behind her, too. The busboy had the presence of mind to run to her protector even without the benefit of her eyesight, until she tripped on a stalagmite and fell into a little ditch of water. By the time she'd managed to pull herself up and get the water out of her nose, Paul's sword beam was flashing like mad.

He was fighting some large lizard creature. It wasn't a dragon, but it was as big as one, and its large mouth was succeeded by an even larger chin, which made it look something between a komodo dragon and a giant dust bin. Paul's sword swung around vibrantly, and between the lack of steady light and the continual thrashing of scaly arms, legs, and tail, Maxine had no clue what was going on. Finally, however, the flashing and the thrashing stopped, and a now bloodied Paul pulled out a handkerchief to wipe off his metal weapon with a content pride.

"Holy cow, that was...well, that was amazing!" Maxine hobbled over to him. "Dang...I didn't know Pocki kept a lizard monster down here! Wow, I guess he really is evil, or something."

"Oh no, this isn't Pocki's doing. These beasts are interdimensional predators," Paul shrugged. "They must have gotten through when I arrived in this dimension."

"Wait, what? Beasts? As in more than one? And you brought them here?"

"I can't help who follows me through the portals. It's just one of the hazards of interdimensional travel, you know. It's nothing to be concerned about."

"Just a hazard? Any one of those things might wander up into the Kitty Burger to kill a bunch of people!" Maxine snapped. "And you're saying it's nothing to be concerned about?"

Paul put away his hankie and calmly approached Maxine. "Please, Miss, I assure you that I have everything well in hand. I shall remain in these caves, searching them for not only for beasts but also for any other evil that will surely make its way down. Whether by Pocki's means or no, I swear to you that these caves shall be as safe as the nursery of newborn child."

"Uh, yeah, okay." Maxine rubbed her eyes. "But first you're going to take me back to the Kitty Burger and buy me whatever chocolatey thing my heart desires to make up for this nonsense."

"Hm, yes, about that," Paul nervously glanced roughly in the direction that they came. "I seem to have forgotten to drop my glow stones so that we could find our way back. And well, you know how confusing it was to get here in the first place..."

"Paul..."

Maxine growled fit to rival the beast. Or so she thought. It was actually a pretty adorable growl, but fortunately for her (and Paul's safety), Paul was sensitive enough to be embarrassed. Since his sword beam was pointing to the ground, she couldn't see him blushing, but his silhouetted form sheepishly rubbed at the back of its neck.

"Don't worry, I thought I saw a familiar tunnel up that way." Paul pointed the beam further into the cave. "I'll get us out of here, don't you worry!"

She didn't actually worry. She growled and grimaced and muttered and followed the interdimentional knight, promising revenge if he got them even more lost. Paul noticed none of this, and he led the way while whistling a merry tune through the cold, black tunnels. Maxine's mood only grew fouler, until she noticed that the ground was sloping upwards. She couldn't tell if they had made it back the same way that they came, but they were certainly getting closer to the surface.

"Ah yes, this loops back into the pathways I explored yesterday!" Paul pointed with his non-sword hand. "Do you see that bit of green on the floor? That's one of my glow stones I left for a marker. We're getting near the other side!"

"Other side of what?"

He didn't answer, but as they ascended the slope lights began to appear ahead of them. The floor came to a flat level, and Maxine noticed a little cluster of cave-rooms to the left of this new area. Since a light from some engineer shone from the front of them, Maxine peeked into this new area without Paul. Most of the little rooms were closet-sized, but a bigger room, up over a little bump in the floor, was just barely visible. It was about as large as a combined living room and kitchen, and metal pipes emitted a little heat into the cold cave air. Maxine hmmed to herself, noticing that the puckering holes in the far wall looked awfully a lot like bookshelves.

"Maxine, this way!" Paul called out from somewhere behind her. "I found the exit!"

"Exit?"

Maxine followed, and sure enough, the floor sloped up to the cave ceiling. Behind one particular stalactite a beam of fresh daylight passed down. Paul was already there, pushing up at a drain cover. He shoved it to the side, and climbed up. He pulled Maxine out of the hole, and she stared at her new surroundings as Paul replaced the drain cover. They had emerged between a dumpster and a wall, and Maxine got out from between them to see an off-white fence -- or it would have been off-white if it someone hadn't spraypainted "Ye Olde Gangsta Moff" over its years of accumulated dirt and grime.

"I know this place..." Maxine slowly gazed around. "This is just behind the convenience store. I walk by this place pretty much every day."

"Good, then you know your way," Paul said. "Be gone from the foul air of the Kitty Burger, for this day, at least. I say thee farewell, brave lady."

Maxine peeked back behind the dumpster in time to see Paul disappear back under the drain. For just a moment, she considered doing what Paul said. But of course, it was not to be. "Home" was a shelter in the park, and the roar of none-too-distant thunder was stirring up in the ever darkening clouds. Plus she was hungry. The girl shrugged her shoulders and headed back for the Kitty Burger.

Once she returned, Maxine stumbled into the back, begged food off of a barely tolerant 3R1N, found Irene self-pityingly taking up the job of busboy for the day, and scuttled off to eat in the dining area. The rain hadn't stopped by the time she was done, but that was fine, as she wanted to catch the attention of the wandering afro in the kitty area anyway. Maxine pulled her tired and suddenly heavy feet there, where a couple of customers were squeeing over Hannabelle's cute antics.

Maxine plunked down at the seating against the wall, and there was Rasputin, tongue sticking out of his mouth. She reached out her hand.

"Hey, baby cat, any chance you would like to accept some kitty-loving?"

Rasputin didn't move. He allowed her to scratch his ears for three seconds. Then he hopped up and casually bounced his way to the nearest basketball hoop, still up from Oscar and Pickle's game. He hopped up to it, then hopped all the way through the plastic hoop and netting. Maxine sensed Pocki's arrival, but as always, Rasputin's popcorn locomotion proved to be a pretty interesting distraction.

"There is something wrong with that cat," Maxine said, shaking her head and turning to her boss. "Oh hey, you do know that there's a whole cave system underneath the Kitty Burger, right?"

"Oh yes, I do," he chuckled. "So you and Paul were having a little adventure, were you?"

"Yeah, kinda. Oh hey, there was a big green glowing thing down there. What's up with that?"

"That's an interdimensional drain beacon," Pocki said. "There's all kinds of things in the dimensions out there, so I've got the beacon there to make sure that if something comes through, it's trapped down there in the caves and doesn't come to trouble the Kitty Burger. Labyrinths are handy for things like that."

"That makes sense," Maxine nodded. "Paul thought it was something evil."

"I suppose it could be used for evil," Pocki shrugged. "But for the moment it keeps Paul down there and not hassling my customers. A knight light, if you will."

Maxine snorted. "So uh, you've got controls for the beacon, right?"

"Oh yes, tucked away in my office. I have to keep in control of whatever comes through the dimensions. They truly are dement-sions, you know."

"Ugh," Maxine yawned. "I'm too tired for your puns."

The windows along the far wall revealed a world sacked grey with storm clouds and water, speckling the windows with raindrops. Rasputin hopped up on the windowsill (conveniently kitty-sized) and stared, eyes wide and tongue out, at at the flashes of lightning that crackled overhead. Maxine smiled, and suddenly the exhaustion of the day came upon her all at once. She slumped back into the seat and yawned again.

"Just like a bicycle," Pocki said. "You are too tired. Why don't you go and ask her Royal Fluffiness if you can take a nap in her room?"

"Yeah, okay."

She got up and took three whole steps before she realized how absurd it was that she was supposed to ask a cat for permission to do anything. Given that it wasn't even the most absurd thing that Maxine had been through that day, she accepted the idea without wasting her energy on a shrug.

As she walked towards the back of the kitty area, she noticed with mild shock that Paul was there, surrounded by papers and a scattered mess of crayons all over the floor With one hand and a purple crayon he drew lines across a page. With the other, he simultaneously held Nora the kitten, both petting her hand holding her back from playing with the papers. As Maxine passed by him, he looked up and smiled.

"I'm drawing maps!" he said.

"Sure you are, champ."

Maxine very cautiously waited for Paul to get back to it before rolling her eyes to the high heavens.