Mrs. Hobbes met me at the library at 11:00. She says it is on her way to "church". I have not seen an Earth temple yet. I should visit one some time.

Before she left I asked her if the library had anything on the Allagan Empire. She had not heard of it; I suppose it was only in Eorzea. But when I mentioned they made advances in magic and technology, she showed me the Fantasy section. It has books with pictures on the front of people with swords, dragons, imps, odd-looking elezen and, often, something large looming in the background. It is also considered fiction. This tells me something of how magic is thought of in Earth.

I had taken off my coat and beret when I got there. Mrs. Hobbes' eyes did twitch from time to time, but mostly stayed on my face. Perhaps for her I am a person who likes books more than a person who has not-hyur ears. Perhaps this is what is needed...to be seen as a person who does things rather than a person who is things.

Husband and I got together and picked up the eastbound bus to get pizza. We passed two shopping centers that had signs saying "PIZZA", but Husband did not suggest we get off until he saw a sign that said "Pizza Hut".

It was a hut, if a hut can be made of bricks with tall glass windows. Husband ordered two pizzas, one with sausage and onions and the other with mushrooms and "pepperoni". Pepperoni looks like slices of sausage, while the sausage on the pizza looked like ground meat.

Neither used flatbread like what Husband made in Limsa. One was a puffier kind of bread; Husband called it "hand-tossed". It was easier to bite and chew, though it also tended to bend easily if one picked up a slice.

The other, called "pan", used a spongier kind of bread, and that sponge seemed to be filled with oil. Seeing how it was stiffer around the side as well as the bottom, I guessed it was indeed cooked in a pan. The oil made it both more and less filling than the hand-tossed. It did not feel like I was filled with bread, but rather filled with oil.

"This is 'real' pizza?"

"A couple kinds. There's variations on the theme, the crust, the toppings..."

"Which one is correct?"

"Whichever one people like eating."

"It is very different from what you made."

"I was improvising. I didn't have this kind of cheese or crust. So what do you think?"

I pointed at the hand-tossed. "I like the bread with stuff on it, but I get tired of the bread by itself."

"Yeah, there's people that leave the outer crust. How about the pan?"

"Very...oily."

"Some people consider that a feature."

"People like this?"

"Very popular in much of the world."

"People in Wyatt would buy it?"

"We could open an entire restaurant that served just pizza. If we could open a restaurant. And sell that much without worrying about taxes. And health inspections."

"Which is why we use the diner."

"Right. The Hartmans get to worry about all that."

"So you want a pizza recipe with holes in it to fill with..."

"Toppings, yes. Maybe seasoning."

I peeled a pepperoni off of a slice and looked at it. "I do not know how to make this."

"We can work on it. Buy it in the meantime."

I chewed the pepperoni, trying to guess what it was made of. Meat, and peppers, and I think vinegar. Another research item.

We had much pizza left after eating, which Husband said was normal...that "leftover pizza is a thing." I took the hand-tossed box; he seemed happy with the pan.

We found a quiet place to Return from. Husband wanted to sleep in the afternoon, since he would be up late following Sam, so he headed to the house. I switched to Ninja, Stealthed, and went to May's store.

The store closed at 3:00 on Sunday, but May stayed inside a while sorting boxes and moving things to shelves. I went around the store to see if there was another door and found what Husband calls a "pickup truck" parked near one in the back. Many people in town have them. May might need it for the boxes.

I did not know how to get into it, and there was not much space inside, so I climbed into the back and waited. May came out after a while, got in the front of the truck and drove. Riding in the back of the truck was not as comfortable as Myra Stillwater's car, since there was no padding and I needed to hold on to the sides so I would not tumble as May drove.

She stopped at a house with two mailboxes, rather than one like the Hartman home. She went around to the side of the house and up some stairs to a door. I had to get close to her to get through the door as she opened it, but she did not notice me.

There were letters on a small table near the door. The name on one was "Resident", on another was "May Fergusen", and on another was "Mrs. May Fergusen". The home was not large, but I did not see a sign of Mr. Fergusen.

I saw cats. May's home is full of cats. Cats made of glass, cats made of stone, cats made of clay, pillows shaped like cats, pictures of cats on the walls, and one actual cat. I thought at first it was another pillow until it opened its eyes and looked at me. May petted it as she walked by it and called it "Snuggles".

I do not think Snuggles likes me. It watched me as I moved through the room. Though I could not tell if Snuggles likes May either, but it did get off the couch and go to the kitchen when May put food out.

There were some pictures on the wall that were not cats. One showed May looking younger with a taller man, one showed May with a tall boy, one showed the man and the boy, and two more showed the boy doing what looked like sports.

I looked around the home and only found signs of May living there. I did not see clothing for a taller man or a shorter boy. So May Fergusen lived alone in a home full of cats. I do not know how long she had lived that way, though it was a small home, part of a house, so Mr. Fergusen and their son had likely not been with her since she moved in.

Perhaps, when May heard about my ears, what she wanted to find in me was a cat she could talk to, a "cat person". But unlike all the cats she had at home, including the actual cat, I was angry with her. Now she is afraid of an angry cat who comes into her store. I am a cat that does not want to be petted. If she thought of me as an angry person she might have acted differently.

I am not a cat, and I will not be one for May. Some miqo'te did act like cats, meowing and purring and making fish jokes. I never understood why. Perhaps they found it funny, or thought not-miqo'te liked it. But I will not be something I am not, even in this world where I need to not be something I am.

I left when May went to take a bath. I worried I would need to keep Snuggles from leaving, but it was happy (if it was happy at all) to not move other than to watch me.

I got outside, Returned, switched to Earth normal and walked to the diner. Husband was not there when I arrived, so I sat at the counter and read for a while. When he arrived, I asked him about Snuggles staring at me.

"Cat teevee."

"Teevee?"

"Television. You got a cat that spends a lot of its life inside the same place, never sees anything new, until you come along. The cat stares at you because you're the most interesting thing in the room. Probably doesn't mean anything more than that. Except apparently Stealth doesn't work on cats."

"Would it have attacked me?"

"Sounds like it's too sedentary to work up an interest. Maybe if you were small and running around under its nose." He frowned. "Now I wonder about dogs. Stealth kept us from getting attacked in Eorzea, but dogs are a different kind of territorial. We might have to experiment."

We ate dinner and got to work. I removed my beret and coat to see if things would be like in the Pit. Working at the register, people only saw my ears at first, and tried not to stare. Later, when Husband went out to watch Sam, and I was cleaning tables, I walked past people with my tail visible. No one said anything, and I was relieved no one tried to touch it. But the room did get quieter.

I am not my ears and tail. I need to make people know that.