FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 2

Dinner date, The things people will put on their pizza.

Timmy was glad to open his eyes and look up to the bright sun, a shining nuclear explosion as the center of the Megelostructure. There weren't any planets circling in view, but even if there were it would be hard to see one through the atmosphere so it generally wasn't worth one's time to look for them. Timmy had no idea why, but for some reason that irritating and mysteriously "Invisible" glow from Harry was far more bothersome than some billion atomic bombs going off in slow motion. That might have something to do with distance, or the fact humans evolved with sunlight, but it still spoke volumes.

"Hey! We have a seat at the Omni-Diner Pizza place, do you know where it is or should I lead?" Roda called from somewhere to the left.

Timmy looked around amidst the crowds for Roda's mouse like face, a few passing robots walked into an auto-repair shop, fallowed by a girl in leather for reasons unknown. A feral lion strolled down the street on four legs, taking the time to sniff at each sign to make sure she was going in the right direction. The audible buzzing of a what looked like a human with wasp wings rose and fell as someone flew overhead, but it was hard to tell the gender on that one. He looked just a little to the left, orienting towards the sound of her voice until he could spot those massive eyes and large round ears next to a green box with smaller boxes extending from the sides. With so many different species with any variety of limbs and limb types passing through there needed to be more than one phone design, and there wasn't enough space inside the phone booth to fit them all apparently.

"I know where it is, I just need to get something before I eat. You go on ahead I'll catch up." Timmy called out.

Roda responded with a curt nod and for some reason went in the opposite direction of the restaurant. Timmy found that odd, but no reason to ask her about that now.

'I hope she doesn't get lost, that could put a damper on any dinner plans.' he thought to himself as his stomach grumbled louder. 'Just what could she and Harry mean by goodwill? And how on dirt does one use that as payment?'

He had to look up and duck to one side of the sidewalk so a rather large dragon walking in bipedal form could pass without Timmy smashing into it's wings. But as soon as the path was clear again he returned to his thoughts.

'So lets see, it's an omnivore restaurant on the outer edges of town where the most diverse population is. Last time I was there I couldn't stand the smell of so many different types of food, heck I'm pretty sure whatever was on one of those pizzas was still alive and screaming. Not what I want to think about when I'm trying to eat for myself. It will be in the middle of the day so there should be more humanoids and carbon life forms than the more nocturnal ones. But that's such an overgeneralization I can't count on it in the slightest. I could try getting something to block sounds out, earmuffs perhaps? I know I really don't want to listen to screams. But then I wouldn't be able hear Roda'

Timmy stopped in his tracks at that thought ... just a few blocks ahead of him was an aroma-therapy salon.

'Granted, Roda screams a lot ... unless that counts as a squeak. But I don't mind listening to her nearly as much. So lets see, I know she likes rotting things so there will probably be some kind of mold or ground up insects on her pizza. Sweet, chocolaty slime will be on mine and that might gross out some other customers, canines included. And then their's the smell ... I am not sure how much it costs but I have got to find a way to negate the smells so I can eat properly. Or wait a minute, can I? Taste is directly linked to smell in humans, so if I block off my sense of smell I might also make the pizza tasteless. Thus defeating the purpose of even eating a pizza."

His stomach grumbled loudly, almost as if to protest his most recent thought.

'Ok, I'll still be full even if I can't taste it. And the whole reason I want to go is so I can figure out what she forgot to tell me ... GAH! If I had known it would be this much trouble I would have just given her directions for free, no sense wasting time doing all this for a pleasant conversation.' the moment he thought that, a voice in the back of his mind rose up to contradict him 'what am I saying, it's not like I had anything better to do or anywhere to go. At least this way I'm doing something, and it IS a pleasant conversation so long as I can stay awake through it and she's not hurting my ears. Hmm ... Now I really have no idea how I feel about this'

But before he could begin to piece together that puzzle he was at the door to the aroma-therapy shop, entering the store with an odd buzzing sound to indicate there was a customer.

"Oh hello there sir, may I interest you in a fine sugar smell, or perhaps a cinnamon or lavender if your senses are geared more towards human?" An odd sounding voice called out from the right. Timmy turned his head to spot what looked like a fur covered bee, almost ten feet and with human proportions, but multiple pitch black limbs and the creased joints of an exoskeleton instead of the fleshy look, or the standard four limb pattern humanoids are defined with.

"Actually, I'm ... I'm really having trouble hearing you sir or ma'am, do you have some sort of translator device, or would it be too painful to speak a little louder?" he asked as politely as possible while still managing to sound bored.

The insectoids behind the counter paused for a moment, then reached down behind the counter with one of her hands to pull up a perfectly smooth black box. Her mandibles clacked together noisily like the keys of a keyboard, and a petite feminine voice called out from the box:

"My apologies sir, I'm not sure why I keep trying to speak English it's just that I find relying on translators annoying. I'll indulge if it will speed up sales though, what are you interested in?" all the while she spoke her arms would randomly reach out and dip into little scented bottles with some sort of liquid.

"Well, I'm going on what my friend says is a date, just an interesting conversation with a nice girl while were eating dinner and- ...:" but he was cut off.

"Say no more sir!" the box translated from her tappity clicks. "So lets see, human pheromones to attract that special someone. There's a generic love scent to incite immediate and lasting attraction in females, my own special blend of estrogen and gland extract from a prinon insect in case you'd rather attract a male counterpart. I have ...:"

But it was Timmy's turn to interrupt "W-whoa wait! I'm not trying to attract a partner with smells, and she's not human so I don't think those scents would work out well"

The insectoids behind the counter buzzed softly as she contemplated this. Looking directly into Timmy's tired eyes.

"You know, you're an unusual customer, not average. Humans and non-humans aren't all that common for dates, and generally not second dates. It's too hard to work out which scents to use and make sure that they don't combine to make something mutually horrid. I think my sales would go faster if I stopped making assumptions and just asked what you wanted, yes, yes that should work."

Timmy smirked "I should think so, I'm having dinner with a rodent who as far as I know really likes the taste of rotting foods, but if I smell them for too long or watch her biting into a mold covered chunk of dough I might throw up on the table."

The saleswoman raised one of her many hands as if to say something but Timmy spoke fast to cut her off.

"And before you ask, among humans throwing up means "get this stuff out of me before it poisons me" it doesn't mean I'm trying to share. Throwing up is decidedly a bad thing for us"

"Oh, I see then ... so you want a smell that will stop you from throwing up?"

"No, well ... that might work, what I want is something, anything that will make it so smells don't bother me. Some way to get rid of smells entirely for a short period of time, nothing permanent, or to block a smell before I can detect it."

The bee woman buzzed a moment in contemplation "I think I have just the thing" she reached behind the counter to pick up a completely white bottle. "Here you are, that's about ten credits"

"How does it work?" Timmy asks as he reached into his pocket for the plastic card his money was recorded on.

"You just open the bottle and sniff it, then any smell that your brain finds distasteful will be blocked. Its supposed to work on all creatures but I've been told by my client base the package isn't especially accurate, so this one is designed specifically for humans." after a slight pause "Just to be sure I'm not making assumptions again, you are human right?"

Timmy glared at her, but it was as unusual for an insect to read human emotions as it was for a human to smell insect emotions "Yes, yes I am human thank you. And how long will it last?" he'd ask while handing his card over.

The bee used one black hand to swipe the card across her register, another hand to pass the bottle down to her customer, and a third to hold the box up to her mouth for translation.

"It should last about an hour, which should be enough time to finish your meal in time. But that's with one sniff. So long as you put the lid on and keep the bottle safe you can sniff it again and again and turn your sense of repulsion off, so even if things run late or you find you want to kiss her while her breath smells horrid you can just use it again."

Timmy nodded as he took the bottle, slipping it safely into his pocket along with the card, now minus ten credit. "Good to note, and thank you ma'am."

"My pleasure, it's always to aid in the pursuit of romance"

Timmy blinked a moment before asking "Oh um ... before I go, just what do you mean by kissing?"

"At the end of a date most humanoids seem to enjoy kissing each other as a part of their long standing mating rituals, I don't understand the appeal but I know romance when I see it"

Timmy stopped at the doorway "No, I mean what is kissing? I didn't know it was a mating ritual before and I suppose that's helpful, but just what is it?"

The bee buzzed quietly as it tried to wrap it's head around the question ... Timmy was held in place for almost two minutes waiting for a response before she finally figured out an answer.

"You are an odd customer. How can a human on a date not know what kissing is? Very odd, very, very odd ... kissing is when two people perform the ritual of putting their mouths together, supposedly to enjoy the feel of that goop salivary glands produce or how soft each others lips are. An extend form of kissing involves putting each other's tongue into the other's mouth as an exchange of bodily fluids but without any food or nutrition like us more sensible creatures."

Timmy thought about that for a moment as his mind flashed back to how Roda cleaned her face with so much saliva, then to how her race was known for eating undead bones and all. He quickly made up his mind about weather or not to initiate a kiss with the little rodent.

"That sounds more gross than intimate, but I think I see how the ritual could have gotten started. But with a rodent who can fit my whole head in her mouth I am pretty sure I'd try to avoid such an activity." the thought of having her spit enveloping his head was unerving enough to change his expression from bored to nervous for a full five seconds. But as always the change of expression didn't last "I'll see you later Miss"

"Come back anytime, I've got lots of useful scents at very affordable prices" she called just as Timmy was leaving the building.

'Ok, I have what I needed now I just need to make it to the pizza place. Lets see ... the school is that way, the upper cliff is to the right, so the restaurant should be to the south of here' he thought to himself before giving himself a mental boot to the head 'well duh! Roda said it was to the south when she mentioned it, I didn't need to calculate anything' And so the boy started walking.

He passed a molten hot spring, seeing scaled drakes, humanoids with molten skin, a few horse sized dragons walking on all fours with childlike expressions possibly indicating they were young, even a handful of demons with their black or red wings in one corner. All of them enjoying the heat and bubbling sulfur that rose from the artificial volcanic pools. Not the best place for your average human seeing as most could only breath properly for a few minutes before the heat and poor oxygen quality got to them. And there wasn't much any non-silicon life form could do there seeing as carbon based life forms generally have a much lower melting point. But the ambient red glow and the serene look on so many otherwise dangerous creatures did have an interesting beauty to it. But it was only passing, seeing as Timmy passed it on rather than stand and watch through the clear glass doorway.

There were a few other businesses, a medieval weaponry shop, a store titled "Computer repair and sentient chip detailing service" whatever the Fell a sentient chip was. A store that clearly held advanced weaponry for insanely high prices, but seeing as the guns in the window could talk and aim for themselves it had a rather aggressive advertising method. Timmy crossed the street to avoid passing by that store for some reason. And as he kept moving farther and farther south, away from the central mass of the city, there were fewer and fewer humans around. A succubus was standing on the street with a cardboard sign "Will sex for food" but then with their race it was very unlikely for someone to take her up on the "service" for obvious reasons. Sure the professionals were well known and respected for getting their energy off the mating rituals alone, but it was far-fetched and dangerous to expect the average succubus to pass up a delicious soul. Much less a starving one off the street! In retrospect, it was an excellent option for depressed people who intend to commit suicide. So much more economic than jumping off a building and expecting a whole department to talk you out of it.

Timmy ignored the sign and made an effort to walk around.

"Timmy!" He heard a small, familiar voice calling from just a block down. Quickly scanning the area and ignoring anyone or anything he didn't recognize he spotted the adorable mouse face just outside of a red building with pictures of pizzas painted on the walls. Timmy broke into a run to catch up to the waving little girl, only noticing her change of cloths once he was closer. Instead of short, cut off blue jeans she was in remarkably tight fitting pink shorts that somehow managed to cover even less than her previous cloths. A few more inches of her thighs were showing. Her top was still pink, but instead of a tight fitting tank top she wore a long sleeves jacket with some sort of fuzzy fluff all over it, giving her the illusion of being even softer than her own fur looked.

"Um ... H-hello Roda"

"You like the knew cloths?" She asked playfully while angling her side towards him as she had during their first conversation. From the side her well formed, well shaped breasts were emphasized, her massive left eye and a small part of her right one emphasized her expression, which was currently playful. Her tail was curled around her stomach almost timidly as she were worried about something, while her large round ears were perked strait up and angled at Timmy. At the base of her tail, in slightly shorter shorts now, one could detect the folds in her skin that the muscles along her rear end formed as she flexed. None of the crack bellow her spine, but a decent enough hint to it. He thought that was either to show off how pink and fluffy they looked on the inside, or perhaps to hear his response better. Timmy had no idea what she was trying to do here, but answered with the simple honest truth.

"You look fine, but those cloths seem a little tight on you ... we aren't going to beach or something are we?" he asked, sounding more worried than bored.

Roda's expression changed drastically from happy and playful to confused and hurt. "Er, no I was ... I just thought I'd get a little dressed up for our date."

Timmy nodded "Hmm ... I wish I'd thought of that. Still those things don't look very comfortable, from what everyone keeps saying thick or long sleeve clothing on fur can rub painfully. Do you need some new cloths or something?"

Her ears dropped significantly, she turned to face him and her tail tightened it's grip on her halfway exposed belly button. "No-no, I have plenty. Don't worry about me too much" she turned to head into the building, but stopped just long enough to wink and add "Besides, I don't expect this jacket to stay on for very long"

Timmy pondered over the situation as he walked in himself, expecting to see randomly placed tables with a vast assortment of disturbing dishes. Pizzas with glowing souls on them for demons or Demi-Liches, Pizzas crawling with live insects on them, Pizzas with fingers, toes or other assorted body parts and a layer of blood instead of tomato sauce, even Pizzas with fried shrimp instead of pepperoni. Timmy shivered visibly at that thought, how could anyone possibly enjoy the taste of shrimp?!

What he saw however, was far more mundane. Just a room with large red boxes where tables and seats would normally be.

"Ah! You must be Roda and Timmy, your seated on table six, and both the scent and sound wards are activated for the next two hours so no one will be bothered by anyone else's meal. Just look at a menu and we'll be with you shortly."

Timmy was surprised by just how mundane everything was. No clicks, no screams, no werewolves noisily and violently tearing into their food, everything was perfectly concealed behind thin red walls. Roda grabbed him by the hand and pulled him near a numbered box, pulling on one side of the walls to show a normal looking table with large rectangular menus on it and two wooden chairs behind it. Both the boy and girl walked inside, sat down, and Timmy at least watched in amazement as the door sealed itself up.

"Wow, this isn't like the last time I came here"

"Oh? What do you mean" Roda inquired.

"These wall things, last time I was here all the tables were out in the open for everyone to see."

"You know, I really don't think that would work out. What if a feline ordered mice on it's pizza and every rodent in the restaurant was forced to watch?"

"Exactly my point, I stopped coming here when I saw a pizza covered in blood and human fingers. It makes sense that they changed it though"

Roda giggled "Human fingers don't taste that bad, I seem to remember some humans even suck on their thumbs because it tastes so good" she gave a wink that was probably supposed to mean something.

"Yeah well, I am not one of them ..." Timmy grumbled as he picked up the plastic menu and pressed his finger to "cheese pizza" then "three slices" and the large red "select" picture up in the corner. A large number three appeared in the center of the menu and counted down to zero, at which point the menu itself disappeared in flash of light. The order was made so now there was no need for a menu. Roda however, was still mulling over her choice.

"Hmm ..." she hummed to herself, one finger poking into her left cheek as she tried to decide.

"Having trouble?"

"Yeah, I um ... I really don't want to make you uncomfortable but I can't find anything I know tastes good that doesn't have a horrible - ..."

"Smell, by human standards at least?" Timmy finished for her.

Roda's ears perked up a little and her whiskers started twitching "Yeah, I'm really sorry abo- ..."

But Timmy cut her off again "Way ahead of you, what do you think I was out getting?" he said while reaching into his pocket to pull out the white bottle.

"Hmm? So wait, what's that?"

"It's supposed to selectively dull my sense of smell, it doesn't matter what you get or how putrid I think it smells, one sniff of this and it won't bother me" he popped the cork off, took a quick sniff of what smelled exactly like air, then put the lid back on. "I'm not entirely sure about rodent sense of taste, but it can work over and over again with just a quick sniff so long as I keep the lid on the bottle. So if my food smells horrible to you I can share the stuff"

Roda blinked, her tail straitening out behind her and her ears perking to their fully erect state "Oh wow! I wish I'd thought of that, it makes perfect sense. If that's the case do you mind if I try the two year old chicken marinated in puss filled bird flesh seasoned with just a hint of gangrene? It sounds sooooo good!" She practically squealed, her tongue extending past her lips and buck teeth while a single droplet of drool spilled onto the table.

"Sure thing. I'll just try not to think about what it is" in the back of his mind he added 'or ever eat fried chicken again'

"Oh Yay!"

"You might want to keep your mouth closed though, your starting to get spit on the table."

Roda blinked then wiped her arm across her mouth "Oh, sorry about that. Wow that's really embarrassing"

Timmy chuckled playfully "I'd noticed kind of reminds me what the bee at the aroma shop said about the end of a date" but immediately afterward he looked bored again.

"And what did she say?" Roda asked while leaning forward onto the table. Her tail waved around wildly, her whiskers couldn't decide where to stop, her eyelids closed only halfway to give a suggestive look, though what she might be suggesting Timmy wasn't sure of. Meanwhile her fingers lazily pressed the words on her menu to place the order.

"She said at the end of a date with humans and most humans it's a common early mating ritual for two partners to kiss. Never heard of it before but she felt I should have for some reason ... something about exchanging spit I think" he tapped his chin while Roda's menu vanished in a flash of light.

"Oooo!" She squeaked as if suddenly nervous. Her ears grew stiff, her whiskers twitched madly, and her tail curled up behind her back into the shape of a heart. "So you've never heard of kissing before?" she'd ask while scooting her chair closer and closer to Timmy's.

Timmy just shook his head, trying to fathom what all of her expression changes meant. He still looked utterly bored. "Nope, not until today. Is it something rodents do?" he asked just out of curiosity.

Roda didn't quite believe his bored expression had anything to do with his feelings and took his question for a suggestion. The rodent continued scooting closer until she could lean forward from her chair to put her face directly in front of his. Each of her floppy oversized ears curled forward and fwapped onto either side of Timmy's face. Her whiskers twitched across his cheeks, strong yet springy fibers that seemed determined to tickle him as much as possible. Her breasts poked into his chest slightly, but those were soft so it tickle nearly as much. So now with her ears wrapped around him all Timmy was able to see was the pink fluff inside them to either side and strait up. If he looked forward he'd see a close up of her very large eyes and pink triangular nose. If he tilted his eyes down his view would be blocked by her chest.

"How about I show you right now cutie?" she asked in a seductive manner.

"Uh ..." he started to say. Unfortunately opening his mouth to do so.

A slight shift in weight was all it took to initiate the kiss. It was a sweet, discreet act carefully concealed to the rest of the world behind fluffy brown ears, and it ended the moment Timmy started coughing and shoved her out of the way.

"H-hey! Wh- *cough* what the Fell was that for!" he exclaimed while feverishly wiping his arm across his nose.

"I, I was just ..." Roda asked in utter confusion.

"Ugh! I think I got some spit in my nose!" it must be noted that as he struggled to clean himself Timmy no longer looked bored.

Roda placed her hands across her mouth in a defensive or startled posture, wondering if perhaps she'd just done the kiss wrong and messed everything up. Timmy however was too busy cursing to notice. He put one finger over one of his nostrils, closed his mouth, then breathed outward hard until his own mucus and some of the bothersome saliva flew out, and repeated the process with his other nostril.

"Are ... what's wrong?" Roda asked nervously, trying to stomach the revolting feat this human was performing at a diner.

As soon as he could breath properly and stop rubbing his nose he answered "A couple things actually, one of which being that your mouth opens nearly three times as wide as mine, you aren't supposed to fit the other person's nose into the kiss ... or at least if you are I don't personally find it comfortable. And most importantly, sense when did you get the idea we needed to kiss?" For the moment anger had replaced his bored expression, but it was swiftly turning to annoyance now.

"I er, that's what you do on a date isn't it? We have the same custom as humans, I thought the only difference was that you don't use it to exchange food. We haven't eaten yet so ... er, I mean ... I'm sorry about your nose" she rubbed her arm anxiously, her ears drooping down and her eyes looking downcast. Privately she was trying not to think about the odd shape a human's nose was or just what could come flying out of it if one tried. It just seemed unnatural.

Timmy coughed, loudly "I was told that's for the end of a date. Wasn't pleasant conversation supposed to come first?" his expression finally went full circle and back to his default of boredom.

"Well, usually but you hint- ... your odd for an adult human male. I was always told they only had one thing on their minds"

"I'd rather not have anything on my mind, Rit parasites always give me a headache when they pass the blood-brain barrier. And your not the first to say I was odd today."

"Rit par- ... I meant thoughts, desires. Not aliens trying to control your nervous system"

"Really? How can you only have one thought?"

Roda busted out laughing "You know, that's rather comforting to hear. I meant reproduction, sexually mature human males have a reputation for being indiscriminate over who or what they mate with."

Timmy nodded "And for the most part that's true, but I'm not an adult nor sexually mature"

Roda's went completely silent at this, her eyes somehow opened even wider than they were naturally, her ears were perked strait above her head, and her whiskers were completely still. She just stared at Timmy in disbelief, the shock quite evident in her face.

"I, b-but ... how the- ... just how old ARE you?" she practically yelled. Having to fight to stay in her seat and not charge out from behind the red walls of their box in embarrassment.

"I'm fourteen, still in school."

Roda relaxed visibly after hearing this "Oh well thank the Mods, so why d- ... wait, I thought you said you weren't an adult? Fourteen is well past adulthood, your even older than I am!"

Timmy's expression remained that of boredom. "So how old are you then?"

"I'm ten!" she almost yelled.

"And how old does your kind generally live to be?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Ratio's ... now can you answer the question? I'm not an expert on the numerous variations of rodent biology."

"We can live to a little over thirty years old at best, I became an adult at age six and left home a year ago when I got sick of the conditions back there. And for us old age is between nineteen years of age and twenty. Past that people aren't expected to live for very long. Unless they can pay for immortality that is."

Timmy tapped his chin "I see ... so that explains a few things"

"Explains what? ... er, just how old do humans live to be then?"

"Humans live for decades, adulthood doesn't start until I reach the age of twenty-one, though sexual maturity starts at sixteen. We don't reach old age until were fifty, past age eighty we aren't expected to live very long or do very much, and the absolute maximum is a hundred and thirty years old but it's far more common to reach a hundred."

Roda fell over backwards in shock, her chair crashing loudly into the floor "A h-hundred!?"

"Well ... yeah, about ten decades or one century. There are a lot of races who call us short-lived"

"B-but the- ... wow, I mean ..." she struggled back into her chair and managed to compose herself, but Roda seemed unable to finish a sentence."

"What?"

"Its just, that blows my mind! Sure I know undead or some supernatural races can live for far longer because their already dead ... but to go that long without ... wow. So is fourteen years old actually ... I mean, is that young for a human?"

Timmy nodded "I haven't even finished school. That's what Harry meant when he said I wasn't a scholar."

Roda whistled softly "I'm sorry then, I'd ... I thought you were flirting with me"

Timmy blinked "I've never been told that before, just what does flitting mean?"

"Er, what? Wow you ... flirting is when your trying to start into a relationship without saying it directly, sort of hinting at what you want and expecting the other person to- ...!" she was cut off as the door to their box opened.

"And how's the lovely couple doing tonight?" asked a polite, English sounding voice from outside the box as a two blue tentacles reached inside. "Your diner is served Sir and Madam"

Timmy blinked, wondering just how difficult it must be for a waiter in any restaurant to get the titles right on a hub world where there can be more than ten genders.

"Were um ... doing fine. Real fine" Timmy answered without bothering to bring up the technicality that they weren't a couple. If it fooled Roda it probably fooled others. Or perhaps it was the restaurant itself, this was one of the very few places where interspecies dating stood a chance of each partner finding something edible.

"Ah, but of course. Just tap three times on the plates when your finished eating and I'll come in with the bill" the faceless entity stated as two more tentacles snaked towards the table with a plate and round metal cover on each. One was set down near Roda, the other near Timmy, and the smells from each pizza wafted up as the metal cover was removed. As suddenly as they'd appeared, the tentacles vanished leaving just the plate and the food. All Timmy could smell was the melted cheese on his own pizza, but that was a relief considering what was on Roda's.

Roda inhaled deeply as soon as the waiter was gone and looked eagerly at her own pizza. It didn't quite look like a chicken, if it was poultry at all then it must have been run through a blender or meat grinder to make it spread across the dough. But the fact there were hundreds of tiny, cracked bones was a pretty good indicator that Rodas toppings were once alive and had an endoskeleton. The dough was crispy and normal colored, but instead of red sauce what covered most of it was green. And some of it moving.

"Oh I just love when they forget to screen the incubation chambers and a slime mold grows spontaneously. There isn't much, but all that black flesh from the gangrene will do nicely. Odd that none of it's fluffy though, I guess it wasn't given long enough to spore."

Timmy stared at the meal for a moment then swiftly decided it would be better not thinking about it "I hope you enjoy the pizza, mine seems about right. Nothing special but nothing to stop me from eating it. Do you um ... need the bottle so the smell doesn't- ...!" Timmy never got to finish that sentence as Roda busted out into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

"Dislike the smell of CHEESE!? Do you even know what a mouse is? Hahaha! No-no, a cheese pizza is perfectly normal to me, moldy or melted it doesn't smell bad."

Timmy looked relieved, then bored all over again "That's good to hear. So um ... what now? I think I've forgotten what we were talking about earlier" he says as he took off one slice and took a tentative, careful bite. Just in case something was messed up with the order.

Roda however took her slice eagerly and jammed the whole thing into her mouth. She didn't even bother to chew and swallow before picking up a second slice, but that was probably so Timmy wouldn't see ground up spit covered pizza as she answered the question. It was a marvel just how much food most rodents could fit in their cheeks without struggle.

"Well, we were talking about kissing and dating ... and age difference" her eyes dropped a little, but perked up as she said: "But we can always talk about something else, I think the whole point of this dinner-date was an excuse to discuss undead"

Timmy glanced at the green pizza with shreds of what he hoped were chicken bones before taking a second bite out of his first slice. "Yeah, from what I can tell you still seem to enjoy all the stuff undead are made of, so if your race is known for eating them why would you be so afraid? Is it some sort of revenge thing, the living dead tried to get back at you for it?" He speculated.

Roda carefully chewed, then quickly swallowed her slice whole before taking a bite out of the second peace. This time she only bit off half of it rather than the whole thing, an effort to mimic Timmy's much slower eating perhaps? But once again spoke perfect English while the food was in her mouth.

"Not really. It's more of a bad experience sort of thing, like how if your stung by a bug when you're a young child you might end up afraid of bugs the rest of your life."

"So then ... an undead clawed you and now your afraid of any food that fights back?"

Roda shook her head "No ... not at all, in fact I'll still eat insects whole if I tell them to back off and they don't take the hint. It's more emotional trauma than physical."

"So then ... an undead called you mean names as you were tearing his limbs off and he happened to strike a nerve?"

Roda glared "Your guesses are getting father and farther off you know" but she ended with a smile "At least their starting to get funnier"

Timmy just looked bored "I'm not trying to be funny. And so what did happen?"

"I'm ... not really sure it's the best dinner conversation with a human, I don't want to make you loose all the pizza you've just eaten"

Timmy took a large bite of his slice, now halfway through with his first. "If it isn't good diner conversation then why did you offer to discuss it over diner?" Roda just tossed the whole half of her second into her mouth and swallowed without chewing.

"I thought it was a date not just conversation. And I also keep expecting you to get grossed out and stop prying, a lot of humans I've met started avoiding me after I told them how it went."

Timmy almost snorted "If I haven't thrown up and ran away screaming after I saw what your doing that chicken I honestly don't think your story will have any significant effect. I might be uncomfortable with parts, or even all of it, I'm not going to lie about that. But it would idiotically shallow to treat you any better or worse after knowing. This is a hub world remember? Its dangerous to be shallow, the only acceptation being when your talking with someone who tends to kill you on sight." under his breath he muttered 'stupid Damitriz' as he remembered a specific race he'd met before.

"Ok, point taken" she sighed loudly, taking out a third slice and biting off just a fraction of it "I've already told you what my race is, how long we've been around, and what we do for a living. It's a really cushy job being literally paid to eat a food you happen to love, but when I was only seven and a few inches shorter than I am now, I was called in to eat a whole, unprocessed undead for the first time. Until then I'd only tasted scraps that were torn off and cooked, or marinated in something to make it taste better, but this particular undead was recently turned and needed to be dispatched quickly. It ... the girl hadn't even risen yet and only had a little decay"

Timmy blinked "So, was it just too 'alive' for your tastes or something?"

Roda looked downcast "No ... it's worse than that, there was ... have you also heard how some humans with an extra unused chromosome are sociopaths? A lot of sociopaths like to become undead to make it easier for them to attack random people. Or so they can spread misery by turning random people into mindless zombies and sending them in to attack their loved ones. Well some moron posing as Jackie the Rip, some lame play on words from an infamous earth killer, was rampaging around human villages and turning people in their sleep. Just a quick slice across the throat, then bite the open wound before they get up. In viral undead if enough of the virus is transferred then the recently killed human will wake up as a zombie some twenty-four hours later. But if you want to make a mindless, easily controlled zombie to do your bidding them you need to stay there infecting and re-infecting directly to the brainstem for at least three hours. I'm sure in some Planetary Diameters there are undead who can infect with a simple touch or a single bite and create an army of mindless zombies, but I hear their only allowed in ZombieLand and have to be modified if they want to mingle with others outside their PD."

"I think I've heard of that place, and I'd assume your kind aren't allowed in a safe haven for undead either."

Roda flashed a toothy grin "Your correct on that, we'd have to be turned human if we wanted to pass through" and her teeth weren't for show, as she was talking she chewed and gulped her third piece of pizza as if it were nothing. Anticipating another long explanation, Timmy took the whole half of his pizza and experimentally jammed it into his own mouth to see if he could.

"Well, Jackie the Rip as he liked to be called didn't anticipate a- ... Hehe, cute ... might want to chew it though." she commented on his failed attempt at mimicking her "This monster didn't anticipate the building having an electronic alarm system while most of law enforcement went around wielding swords and spears, so he was caught and arrested before he could turn the poor woman he'd killed into a mindless zombie. /but/ he still infected the girl so police had twenty-four hours to figure out what to do with her before she arose from the dead in horrible pain and a decaying body. They didn't want her to suffer, so their solution was to give the body to us so we could eat it before she revived. It didn't look like a bad corpse either, most of the blood was gone and as I think I've said before it was decaying some, and could be easily flavored with any number of slimy fleshy things if we chose."

Timmy listened quietly while his mouth struggled to shred and mangle the last half of his pizza, cheeks and lips ensured nothing was shown or falling out, but the moving lumps and the fact he could barely close his jaw made his efforts visible.

"I fallowed ... I went with a few others from our village to finish off the corpse, they had this big ceremony and a lot of customs I had to fallow for my first whole meal. One mouse doesn't get the whole thing mind you, but it's to emphasize the difference between taking off a body part yourself and having someone else do it for you, or having it saved in some jar" Her expression was rapidly changing from downcast to genuinely sad. Her ears drooped low, her tail rested on the ground with her feet. Her whiskers even seemed to angle downward "I was awarded the honor of taking off the head, it was a simple thing to remove, just a quick snap here, bite through the brainstem and twist off so parts of the spine don't slide out when you pull."

Timmy gulped his entire mouthful all at once, he felt sick to his stomach at her descriptions of decapitation, it was a reminder that she could be dangerous to a living person if her knowledge of human anatomy were put to use in assassination. But also that she must not focus on humans as a specific target seeing as she didn't know their lifespan. His last thought was just how painful it was to swallow so much! Gyah! Timmy felt his throat could be sore for a week! Combine that with queasiness and it is simply not fun.

Roda showed the hint of a smile as she saw Timmy struggling to do what was easy for her, but as she continued the tale her face grew exponentially more depressing. Cute, large, expressive eyes were good at conveying emotion it seems.

"I put the whole thing in my mouth, the whole head ... the poor girl, murdered in her sleep. She was supposed to stay dead and never revive, but somehow, somewhere, someone miscalculated the time of death or the rate of infection." She closed her eyes, cringing slightly at an obviously distressful memory "Sh-she woke up. She woke up as I started chewing"

Timmy blinked. The implications of that statement only beginning to sink in.

"She started screaming first, I ... as long as I live I'll never forget that scream. I ... I was so startled"

Timmy lowered his voice to barely a whisper "Did you spit her back out?"

Roda shook her head violently "I'm from the Rodentia family, I'm sure there might be some primate genetics in my bloodline somewhere considering my feet, but I can't spit ... my, my muscles just don't work that way." She shut her eyes tight, Timmy could see small tears forming in the corners. Odd that her eyes didn't look nearly as large when she closed them. "I was s-so startled I swallowed by accident. The whole thing ... my throat crushed part of her jaw on the way down."

"I ... don't know what to say" Timmy admitted. He looked concerned, not a trace of boredom in his expression. "

Roda took another slice of pizza, she was on her fourth while Timmy hadn't even started his second, and in a flash she had already downed it "She was still conscious afterward ... her headless body was even trying to move around"

Timmy just stared at this point unsure of if he should even say anything.

"She was terrified, she kept screaming about the pain, demanding we tell her what was happening ... even with her mouth half crushed and inside my stomach she was still talking." Roda wiped her arm across her eyes to keep tears from blurring her vision. "I, I was panicked. I didn't want to hurt anyone innocent, much less the victim of an attack. But the way her body thrashed, the way she just kept screaming ..."

Timmy didn't feel like picking up a second slice of pizza right now.

"She was a mother you know, she asked me what I'd done to her son, and her husband. She called me a monster, and said there were so many things she wished she'd done with her life. Sh- ... she kept talking for a half hour, that's how long it took before the bones in h-her jaw were too dissolved, too deformed to work. I just kept saying I'm sorry, over and over again. All I could do was apologize, tell her this wasn't meant to happen. I cried just as, just as loudly as she did"

Roda sniffled quietly, having to wipe her eyes clear yet again before staring directly into Timmy's eyes. Never mind the fact all the dark black skin around them was creepy looking for a white skinned human, she wanted to make eye contact with someone (anyone) to keep from bursting into tears and crying all over the table.

"Y-you know, you know what her last words were before she finally stopped talking? She wishes she'd gotten to see her son just one last time. Jus-, just one last time. To say g-goodbye to him, to say everything would be alright"

Timmy nodded "I, ... I'm sorry" was all he could think off. Hard to look bored when your listening to something like that.

"I'm not even sure if that was the end of it, the others finished off the rest of her body and the local shaman cast a spell to cut the connection. But I can't be entirely certain that she wasn't still conscious after her skull was dissolved. I ca- ... I can't ..." she paused.

"And so from then on you won't eat undead anymore?"

Roda nodded. "I just ... I just couldn't. I still eat plenty of other things, Draco-Liches, insects both alive and dead. Rotting meat from livestock, ect ... if there were an undead squibly I needed to take care off I would eat it in a heartbeat, but not human or overly humanoid zombies."

Timmy thought about that. "So it's just the human shaped ones then? That shouldn't be too limiting"

Roda shook her head once more "Humans are the most common species of undead there is, from Vampire to demi-lich, to ... this whole concept of linking entire planets into a chain and wrapping them around the sun is a world of human design. They dominate this place and have been sentient for longer than any race, even the dragons, can remember. And ... humans are the most prone to infection, so zombies of all sorts will tend to flock towards them. The vast majority of monsters my kind is supposed to get rid of are humans. But-but ..."

"But every time you see a human corpse moving around it reminds you of that first one" Timmy finished for her.

"Exactly. I grew into adulthood as the freak, the girl without a job or any means of earning credit. The best I could do was find a job growing plants or something, or enlist in any one of a thousand military units where my life couldn't last longer than a month. No mate would ever consider pairing up with me for mutual support because doing so would mean no more traditional family dinners, not to mention so many just felt I was weird. So, so I ..."

Timmy was starting to get the hint "Is that why you're here, rather than back at your own PD?"

Roda nodded, picking up her fifth slice of pizza and nibbling at the crust. Considering how fast she could eat when she wanted, taking such small bites with only her front four teeth made Timmy feel it was a more for the calming effect of having something in her mouth than any genuine effort to eat.

"Someone told me that I should become a Traveler, see the worlds he said. It doesn't matter if a Traveler is a freak or not because you auto-conform on any regulated PD. The only places that don't regulate Travelers are hub worlds and ... as you can see here the word "freak" doesn't seem to have much meaning. So for the past year or so I've been walking across PDs trying to see if there's somewhere that I could do something useful" Her eyes still looked damp, but one quick wipe and she no longer looked about to cry. She glanced in Timmy's general direction muttering 'Or someone that I'd love to be with' under her breath.

"That's ... both distressing and interesting. But if you only started traveling last year then this place is ideal. What with all these diverse shops and insane blending of various Genres" Timmy heard her muttering something, but the phrase 'quite as a mouse' didn't start out of nothing.

Roda smiled lightly "I know, I walked a strait path to this place for just that reason. Everything from weapons to illusion patches to ... hehe, anti-scent perfumes is available at an affordable price because so much of it is junk back in the PD it came from."

"I'm sorry your ... back-story as it were, was so personal. I didn't think things were that complicated"

Roda paused for a moment, before adding with a playful undertone that seemed to creep back into her mannerisms just as surely as Timmy's bored look did.

"I know how you can make it up to me though, what's the story behind those eyes?"

Timmy blinked at the sudden question, then smiled toothily and closed them "You mean why do I look like this?"

"Gyah! Er ... I wasn't scared ... and yeah, that look. It's um ... not creepy at all, it looks good on you" this time her smile was twitchy and nervous.

"Oh, if were going to start lying I could just say I got into a fight and lost this badly. Would that answer the question?"

"Nope" Roda responded while pouting and sticking her tongue out.

"Alright then, it's just a genetic defect. A discoloring that occurred because mix and match genetics. My mother was an abnormally short black Amazon from some ... gah, I can't remember the name but it was a jungle PD with spiritual magic and a lot of mind control spells. My father was tall, lanky, skinny no matter what he ate, white skinned, and a hypnotist by trade."

"Oooh. Aren't mind control magics and hypnotism the same thing?"

"Yes and no. Mind control in this sense refers to the shamanistic spells my mothers side of the family were known for that relies entirely on spiritual magic's. You know, auras and that everything has a soul, yadda yadda. Take one out of a PD that supports that artificial quark of physics with a reality bender and it's just some idiot waving their arms around and shouting non-sense. Hypnotism, at least what my father used, relied on words and ideas, which if used carefully could reshape the physical structure of any adaptive brain. It's supposed to work on any brain that can rewire itself to conform to a passing thought, but all he was trained for were humans so I'm not sure what all falls under that category. It works no mater where you happen to be, and it does so with the default physics of this dimensional existence." he paused for a moment "At least, if this existence's physics have a natural default. If not then at least the default for this galaxy."

Roda thought that one over "Oh, so it's just a more powerful, but magic reliant one, and a weaker form that works anywhere? Thanks for the clarification."

"No problem."

"But then it still doesn't make much sense, it doesn't matter what color the human's skin is, black, blue, purple, whatever ... the offspring of multicolored parents is always a blend of the two colors favoring the dominant traits. How can you be part one color and part another color without the two blending at least slightly? Look at your eyes, it's not even a smooth transition but a complete cut-off from one type of skin to the next. It looks more like someone painted you."

Timmy yawned before answering, this time his eyes closed out of the comfort of keeping them closed. The fact it gave Roda a better look was just a pleasant side effect.

"Mutations occur all the time really. It's no exceptional for something new and unexpected to appear. Though, my teacher always suggested they were bags under my eyes that just kept growing and growing until they were permanent features on my face"

"Eeep! So that can happen!? Who the Fell glued little baggies onto your eyes!?" Her whiskers straitened, her ears perked up directly above her head, and her tail went stiff.

"No-no, having "bags" under my eyes is something that happens to humans if they don't get enough sleep, or enough moisture on their eyelids. Sometimes the blood vessels will burst and let blood spill into area's beneath the skin where it's not supposed to. Eventually the skin around the eye starts to stretch and sag, looking like really big wrinkles, and for whatever reason their called "bags" ... I have no idea why."

"Eep! So if you don't fix them for long enough they turn into that?" She pointed at his face

"Er, no ... my teacher was joking when she said that, an attempt to mock my appearance. There is no precedent, or at least there isn't any I know of, where an otherwise normal human can get such a discoloration naturally. All tests have shown is that's it's genetic, and that I am one hundred percent earthbound, terrestrial human."

Roda tapped her chin with one finger while her other hand held the half nibbled slice of pizza. "So it's a heavily exaggerated result of something that normally happens to the pink, furless monkeys if they don't get enough sleep, yet completely natural for you and related to your genetic makeup. I feel like there's something I'm missing here"

Timmy yawned toothily, his eyes never opening as it just felt too good to keep them closed "Basically. Though I wish I were hungry enough to eat more of the Pizza. You seem to be outshining me in more ways than one." he finally reached down to pick up his second slice and take a slow, tentative bite out of it.

Roda stared into the child's throat as he yawned, anything to draw her attention away from those black orbs on his face, when it dawned on her.

"Wait a minute Timmy, that's the second time you've yawned. Us rodents do that too when we are waking up and when we're going to bed, so I'm pretty sure among primates it's a sign your tired. Right? Just how much sleep have you been getting?"

Timmy chewed his mouthful carefully and swallowed before answering "Now let me think ... last time I actually fell asleep was ... yeah it was the tenth of Runal month, so about three weeks ago. Give or take a few hours." As soon as he said it a high pitched squeak surprised him so much his eyes shot open and he had to grab the table to keep from falling over backwards.

"MEEeeep! You haven't slept in three /weeks/!? How-does-that-even-happen,-how-does-anything-do-that-if-their-not-in-stasis-or-of-supernatural-origin? That's-even-more-insane-than-the-thought-of-living-for-a-hundred-years!" Her voice squeaked together at a very high speed, making the sounds blur together until they grew harder and harder to understand.

"Whoa, I'm an insomniac. Just a very severe case of one. No need to get all excited I've been doing without the recommended eight hours of sleep for all my life."

"And your parents didn't try to do anything to fix it? There's supposed to be drugs you can take, treatments you can try" her voice slowed back down to normal and resumed it's deeper tones to match a human female's frequency as opposed to a chipmunks. "Because really that's just dangerous, all mammals need to sleep and dream or the brain can't repair itself from the were and tear, all those electro-chemical shocks of daily use. How are you even still sentient after- ...!"

"My parents died when I was two years old, too small to remember much about them. I grew up in a foster home where they didn't particularly care if I lobotomized myself and got out as soon as it was legal to get a house of my own"

"Wa? But you ... you recalled so much about them? Their race, their homeland, their professions."

"Those were all impersonal facts, no feeling to them. I know I don't show emotion well but, still ... I only know about them because I got bored one day and decided to access the public records."

"So, er ... but then how are you still ..."

"How does my brain still work? Honestly I have no idea. I've heard of some rare anomalous cases of severe insomnia where a human will fall asleep, use the improper half of their brain for rational thought, and in essence keep moving around and talking as if they were awake. But I'm not like those because I can remember every moment of my life beyond the age of five save the times I can remember falling asleep in my own little bed. According to the medical records on such cases this waking sleep can last for hours, or be over in just a few seconds. Sometimes they'll even switch in and out of sleeping as they're speaking, which leaves for annoying pauses. But obviously I'm not like that" He yawned again. Struggling to keep his eyes open. His expression as such was back to the default bored/tired look.

"Your parents ... oh that's so horrible! Where, how do you?"

"Haha! Now who's getting into the personal questions? I live in a tree house to the north of here out in the woods. It isn't much to look at, but it reeks of human so most creatures stay away from it, it's close enough to the outer city where all the best restaurants and shops are, and most importantly I get all the quite, peaceful time I want to just sit back and watch the plants grow. If the solar panels aren't blocked by anything I even have video games to play and a decent enough Outernet connection. As for the parents, I've never needed them. I've never really needed anyone, and prefer to be alone if I can help it."

Roda lowered her ears mournfully before asking, in a quiet, tentative voice "May I ask then, just why did you want to spend time with me? Was hearing my life story really that interesting?"

Timmy blinked, looking into her eyes he saw this could be an excellent opportunity to sent a major insult. That was something he wanted to avoid.

"Well, I believe I've mentioned this before, you are very, very cute. Just so unbelievably adorable. Second, hey, I was bored. I really had nothing else to do and found you nice to talk with."

"I'm ... cute ... wait, aren't you too young for any rela- ..."

"Yes, yes I do think I'm too young. But by cute I meant the same way a baby mouse is cute, or a baby human. Or a baby kitten. Or a baby anything really, your small, fuzzy, you have big eyes and a squeaky voice, your very expressive and bubbly. Because human infants are so unbelievably helpless for so long after birth the only humans to survive early evolution are those with a natural inclination to care for and protect the weak. As opposed to most predator species who find anything with a limp ten times more appetizing. I don't have to attempt mating rituals just to say your astatically pleasing to the eye."

Roda's ears flopped down then perked back up, her whiskers twitching back and forward "Oh, that's ... I don't know how to feel about that."

"Though, now that cuteness comes to mind, what did you mean when you said I was cute?"

Roda's eyes grew wide with shock, her cheeks started to change bright pink as if trying to match her outfit, and her whiskers stopped dead in their twitch. "Oh, I um, I-I-I ... I meant what I said. You look good by mouse standards."

"I er, hope that's not just a way to say I'm short"

Roda busted out laughing "Short? Your about normal height for my race, a little on the tall side actually. Other than height there really isn't anything about you that makes you look mouse-like, save the two hands and two legs deal all of us bipeds have going for us. But you don't have to look like a mouse to look cute you know"

Timmy tapped his chin "That's ... mildly disturbing but I can't complain. I wonder just what I'd look like if I were a mouse"

Roda smiled "You'd be about as tall as my kneecaps and look like an adorable cuddly stuffed animal. For a rodent your young if humans generally live past fifty."

"Erk, point taken ..."

The mouse had apparently finished with her meal, there were still a few slices left but she pushed the plate away. Timmy was still eating his one small, slow bite at a time, and his was mostly complete.

"Soo ..." looking for a way to continue the conversation "Is it true that humans are blind in the dark?"

Timmy pondered that one "It depends on who's eyes you compare them to, and how often the human you test has experienced darkness. For the most part yes, we have a natural, genetically inclined fear of darkness and can't see without at least some light. Are eyes are also slow to adapt compared to most things of original Earth or any Earth-Force creation. But as unnatural hunters our original planet had this massive moon, a really, really big one, big enough and close enough that it moved landmasses around and made the oceans move towards it! But more importantly during most of the month it reflected light from the sun, the amount of it varying from none at all to full brightness, but each of those extremes are only for one day in the month."

"I really hope your talking about a celestial body and not some giant butt circling around your planet" Roda interjected with a half worried smirk.

Timmy just yawned "By celestial body I mean a hunk of rock, this was well before anyone had encountered a celestial demon so the term "body" in that sense didn't apply to things larger than a planet. No I am certain it wasn't some idiot with a cruel sense of humor out to "moon" the little bugs on a water filled rock."

"Good! I was worried for a moment. And so, it is true humans can't see in low light and don't like darkness at all then?"

"In general, yes. Our eyes, with a pure human at least, is specifically designed to pick up the exact frequency of light that sunlight bouncing off the grey, silverfish moon we used to have. It was a low light, but under a full moon humans can actually see better than if it were direct daylight, much less glare to work with. And so all hunting strategies with early humans revolved around an ancient lunar cycle in which they'd hide or defend against their predators when it was the darker portions of the month, but go out in packs to hunt things when it switched to the lighter portion of the month. As for humans being afraid of the dark, lots of things hide in the dark to get closer to their prey. We should know, we do it all the time and to great effectiveness. Because we have no means of detecting which patch of darkness is completely harmless, which one is a twenty-foot cliff of death, and which one is a giant monster just waiting for you to get within reach, the most sensible thing to do on an evolutionary scale is to avoid every bit of darkness. That also lead to the frequently commented upon "fear of the unknown" in which if we don't know about something it's only safe to assume it's dangerous until you have confirmation that it's not"

Roda snorted "Oh I know all about fear, rats, cockroaches and mice use a similar tactic for survival. And rats especially even share that characteristic "pursuit of knowledge" to investigate things and make sure rather than avoid them indefinitely. What I was curious about was fear of darkness itself ... I really don't get how someone could be afraid of a lack of light, I feel at home in a nice cozy burrow with no light source my whiskers scraping the walls."

"Roda, I think you've answered your own question, humans don't have whiskers of any sort."

She blinked a moment, then nodded "I guess that's true ... don't have much hair either"

"To be honest though, I don't get it either. There's a lot of cool stuff that only goes on at night, and the planets themselves are really pretty to look at when light from Central is cascading around them."

"W-wait, you agree? But I thought you said ..."

"I said /most/ humans /generally/ don't like darkness. I'm an insomniac Roda, I don't sleep when it's dark out, and it's incredibly boring to try and hider under a blanket for hours waiting for the planet to pass. So I just go about my business normally, each day, every day ... save the rare occasion I get tired enough to sleep for an hour or two."

"Oh ... why do I feel like I really should have seen that one coming ... "

"Because you should have" Timmy stuck his tongue out playfully, but it ended in a yawn.

Roda just stuck hers out right back.