Thank you Mirasol for your steady contributions! Your art is always a delight. BTW the commission piece from you is one of my favorite "fan arts" but as it's not strictly speaking fan art (or is it? There is a squirrel cookie!) I didn't put it on my list. But it's on the dining room wall close to my teapots and it makes me happy to see it
Thank you everyone, and especially
Wave!Here's a little backlog, with our most beloved
Cat Tank. Not even a full month late!
EDITED to add that I meant to say translations are omitted for dialogue flow. The required translators are present. The Cat Tank does not have babelfish functions!
Stepping out of the Cat Tank, Emil stumbled on the stairs. Again. “Stupid useless tin can! Why does it have to be so complicated!”
“Useless? Do you really think so?” Mikkel was mildly amused. “I’m certain it’s rather useful. Walking all this way would have taken much longer.”
“Well, ok, yeah, I’ll give it that. I acknowledge we need transport.”
“What is it?” Tuuri joined the conversation.
“It’s nothing” Emil mumbled.
“Emil thinks the tank is useless” Mikkel supplied, always helpful.
“Useless! How can you say that!” Tuuri was indignant over such an insult at her beloved machine. “It transports us AND the books. You wouldn’t want to carry the books, would you?”
“Well ok, it does help us and the books move.”
“I will have you know it is excellent transportation equipment. It can go both forwards and backwards! It even has this handy mirror, where I can see where I’m driving when backing up. I don’t know how it’s only on the left side, but it’s still very useful. And with the floodlights I can drive even in darkness.”
“Hey guys! What are you talking about?” Reynir joined in.
“Emil seems to think the tank is useless!”
“Oh no, surely not! The tank provides us with warm water for laundry! And your decontamination baths!”
“Speaking of decontamination, it also has the decom chamber.”
“Oh yes, that is very useful! Otherwise, I would have to wash everything every day! And! Not to forget the food storage! It’s thanks to the tank we have so much food with us!”
“Yes. Food storage, indeed.” Mikkel agreed. Very, very nonchalantly.
“What is this? You have found a food storage?” Sigrun sounded enthusiastic.
“Sorry, no. We are talking about how useful the tank is. Like how we can store our food inside it.”
“Oh yes! And it can also store you, the non-immunes! You would be dead already if we didn’t have it for protection. It’s almost like a moving fortress. Especially with the perimeter warning system! Well, that can’t be set up while moving, but you know what I mean! It protects us! And! And! I have just had a marvelous idea! Imagine, it would be even better if it had a biiiig gun in it! Imagine how big bullets it could fire! Really, such a thing would be most best!”
“Okay okay okay” Emil threw his hands up. “So maybe it does provide transport, carrying capacity, two-way movement with a reversing mirror…”
“And lights! So it moves forwards and backwards, day and night!” Tuuri was very proud of her tank friend.
“Yes. Floodlights. And, storage space, warm water, decon, protection and a warning system. But other than that it’s just an almost useless tin bucket!”
“Mrrh?” Lalli popped his head from the doorway.
“Emil doesn’t like the tank! He thinks it’s useless” Tuuri complained to her cousin.
“I agree it is clumsy, slow, noisy and stupid looking. But all of you like sleeping inside, especially him. So, we had to bring the stupid machine.”
“See, Emil, even Lalli thinks we need the tank. For sleeping.”
“I give up! The tank is fine!”
“It is the most best tank! I knew you would eventually understand it, with my tutoring!”
