Chapter Nineteen – Where the Heart Might Be

Chapter Nineteen – Where the Heart Might Be

“With the world almost-ending as often as it has in the last few decades, it’s no wonder that the less robust parts of our society have failed. The economy went to shit sometime in the late 90s, we didn’t really see it collapsing in full until the 2020s though. By the 2030s there were more new types of currency than you could shake a stick at.

Now we have the handy credit. A monetary unit that means nothing, that’s tied to nothing, and that’s accepted everywhere!”

–Ramblings off the Street, Episode 385 Interview with a Homeless Economist, 2041

***

“Lucy!”

“Cat!”

Lucy hugged me, and I hugged her right back. I didn’t care much that some of the kittens were nearby and making disgusted sounds. They could fuck off for all I cared. “How’s the moving coming along?” I asked as I pulled back a little. Not so much that she could escape from the hug, but enough that I could see past her and into the lobby of our home.

The kittens seemed… a bit bored? There was a large table in the centre of the room, a few of them were sitting around, and the twins were hanging off the side of the staircases leading above. I heard some laughing from the sides and glanced over in time to see Nose running out of one of the bedrooms, soon chased by Tim.

“The Kittens are alright so far,” Lucy said. “They’re a bit bored, but hey, the place has wifi so they’ll live.”

“Cool, cool. Did you figure anything out with the hotel?” I asked. The entire home was still barren. It worked, in a minimalist sort of way, but minimalist wasn’t exactly my style.

“Yeah, I’ve figured something out. I met Rac, she’s off somewhere right now. Anyway, she made like, fifteen of these turrets?”

“Yeah, I gave her the blueprint for those. Or I gave it to the machine above, whatever,” I said.
“Right, so I called up the hotel, got on the line with someone important, and we struck a deal. We give them fifty of those turrets and they’ll furnish the entirety of our home at their cost.”

“Fifty?” I asked. “That’s a lot, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but they’re providing the raw materials. I got Rac to give me a list of how much of every material each turret takes, then I rounded that up generously. The hotel gives us materials, we give them turrets, and they furnish things for us.”

I nodded along. Fifty laser turrets around the hotel would probably do a decent job of protecting it. Or they could put some inside, in lobbies or open spaces.

“They want you to do the delivery yourself. At least the first one. Uh, they’ll probably turn it into a minor PR thing. Is that alright?”

“I guess so,” I said. “We’ll have to see how many turrets we can make in a short period. If Rac made over a dozen in half a day… yeah, maybe fifty won’t keep the printer too busy. We still need some for around the house.”

“I was thinking we set aside half of those we make,” Lucy said. “Use the other half to arm the kitten house up.”

“We’re not calling this place the kitten house,” I said.

“The kitten place?” Lucy asked with a growing, shit-eating sort of grin. “The Cat Tree? Oh, the Cat Palace?”

“Cat Palace isn’t too bad,” I muttered.

“Does that make you the queen of the Cat Palace?” Lucy asked. “Oh, does that mean I’m the King?”

I sniffed. “You’re the other, hotter, queen,” I said before giving her a peck. “Oh, right, speaking of gayness, I invited Gom and Franny over for dinner.”

Lucy’s eyebrows shot up. “You know we don’t have cooking appliances. Or know how to cook.”

“I figured we can order out,” I said. “Maybe eat upstairs, away from all the brats.”

Lucy nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. We’ll need to order for the kittens too. They’ll start complaining soon. You know, it only took a couple of days for them to become complacent and used to eating as much as they want.”

“I… don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.”

Lucy shrugged. “It isn’t. Well, maybe it’s not too healthy to overeat, but whatever. We’re all too thin anyway.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Right, I need to call Peter. You know, the non-profit guy? We need to arrange things a bit better and I want to stay on top of things. Made a few points today, so I can afford to get some of the shit we’ll need.”

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“Nice,” Lucy said. “Did you fight a lot of aliens?”

“Eh, a couple. Mostly let some grenades melt them. Then Gomorrah and I dropped a bomb onto a hive. Oh, I need to show you that later. It was awesome. There was a mushroom cloud and everything.”

Lucy giggled. “You sound enthusiastic.”

“Lucy, it was one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen. Metaphorically and literally.”