"Yeah." I clear my throat. "Yeah, it's just you humans do this? Keep pictures of everything?"
"The important stuff, yeah." He pauses. "Jo kept more than most. But she had a lot to remember."
We move on.
Leo leads us to a room at the back of the house. It’s small, windowless, contains two of the most evil-looking contraptions I have ever seen.
They’re large, boxy, made of white metal. They sit side by side like sentinels guarding a doorway to some mechanical underworld. One has a round glass eye in its front panel. The other features a series of dials, knobs that look designed to confuse, intimidate in equal measure.
"What are those?" I ask, and I'm not proud of the fact that I take a step back.
"Laundry machines," Leo says. "Washer and dryer. You put dirty clothes in one, it cleans them. You move them to the other, it dries them."
I stare at him, then at the machines, then back at him.
"They clean clothes. On their own."
"Well, you have to push a button."
"You push a button and the machine does the rest."
"Basically."
"Leo." I grab his arm. "Whoever said humans don't have magic clearly lied. This is sorcery. These are enchanted objects. There is no way fabric goes into one of these things dirty and comes out clean without some form of arcane intervention."
"It's called engineering."
"It's called witchcraft, and I respect it enormously."
Kevin buzzes at the dryer's vent, where warm air is leaking through, and settles on top of it with the satisfied posture of a bee who has found his calling.
"Don't get attached, Kevin. We're not staying in the laundry room."
Kevin doesn't move. He's made his decision.
As Leo leads me back out, I spot something on a shelf beside the door. A red can with white lettering. I pick it up and turn it over in my hands.
"What's this?"
Leo glances back. "Dr Pepper." He pauses. "Elle's favorite. Grandma Jo always kept a stockpile. There's an entire case in the pantry."
I know about Dr Pepper. I've heard Elle talk about it. I've heard Peeble talk about it. It's achieved an almost mythical status among our group. This human elixir that Elle consumed in quantities that suggested either addiction or a death wish. I've been on this planet multiple times and somehow never tried one.
I pop the tab the way Leo shows me. The can hisses, releasing a smell that is sweet, sharp, entirely unlike anything that exists in Wynmire. I take a sip.
The world changes.
It happens entirely inside my body. I have zero control over it. The flavor hits first. Sweet, deeper than fruit, more complex, with a bite at the end that fizzes across my tongue, climbs into my sinuses.
Then the carbonation. Tiny bubbles exploding against the roof of my mouth, tickling my antennae from the inside. A sensation I didn’t know was possible. One I definitely never needed.
"Oh," I say.
I take another sip. A bigger one.
"Oh no."
"You okay?" Leo asks.
