The ship had a room labeled "dedicated deathworlder hobby location". For some time, this was considered to be sufficient. Then, they got a second deathworlder...and after the third time both deathworlders had to report to medical due to crafting tool related injuries stemming from frustration spawned combat with regards to shared airspace causing one project to be ruined by the airborne particulate from another project, well...
Something had to be done. -- Anon Guest
Human hobbies are baffling to most cogniscents in the Alliance. Most of it seems to involve methods of creation that have long since been automated or superceded by advances in technology. Why anyone would -for example- wish to make their own ink from oak galls and then use that to write on ethically-sourced parchment with an equally ethically-sourced goose quill was beyond most of them. And that was just one example of the Human peculiarity that was Hobby.
The crew of the Valiant Deal thought they had solved the issue with Humans and their pastimes by reserving a single, large room for any and all Deathworlder hobby activities. With all the safety and hygiene protocols anyone could desire, because hobbies tended to expand to occupy all possible space[1], including all the necessary tools to do them with. They were very proud of themselves until they acquired two Ships' Humans with incompatible hobbies.
"You got your knitting in my woodwork," was frequently countered with, "You got woodwork in my knitting." The argument was cyclical, involved the word "fallout" and had attempted and then failed to operate on the "you stay on your half" peace protocol.
"One wood shaving," argued Human Lyle. "One wood shaving on your borders and you think it's all right to dump a whole basket of rollags on my carving bench?"
"I told you I'd not tolerate a single infraction," said Human Ren, still calmly knitting. "You crossed the border, so now you have lanolin grease on your carving work."
"It wasn't even over the border."
"I was able to keep my organised chaos on my side of the line. You should have been able to do the same."
"Nobody said the border itself was no-mans-land!"
Companion Thex was having a Human-induced headache. The real part of the headache was how to solve the issue, fix the damage done, and create a lasting peace between the Ships' Humans. All so they could survive with their ship intact until they reached Rest Stop Station, where they could swap out Humans for a better matched set.
No pressure.
Finally, it was Thex's whimper that halted the Humans' yelling at each other. They stopped mid-rant and froze in place. Their reaction was a mutual, "Aw shit, we broke the lizard..."
The woodworker sighed, deflating. "We're grown-ass adults, we shouldn't be bickering like a couple of kids."
"To be fair, I'm not comfortable with anything that reads like passive-aggressive antagonism, and you hit all those check-boxes."
"And I don't exactly handle pedantic rules-lawyering and I felt like I was stewing in it. Neither of us made any rules clear until after the fact."
"I should have given you more time to get that wood shaving. It wasn't even that big. I overreacted. You want my store of nanite cleaners to get the lanolin out of your work?"
"Wait, you have that?"
"Yeah, I gotta give them a stop command or a halt circumstance once they're loose or we could have them going after our lipids."
"Eesh. Yeah. Gotta be careful with that. Can you keep them away from my wood oils?"
"Sure, I can confine them to your carving bench no worries."
Thex stared in stunned confusion. The Humans, formerly about to kill each other, were now solving their problems without further intervention. Ze would get praise for this tactic, but would forever feel like a fraud for the gain. All ze did was express a purely psychological pain and the Humans... did what Humans did best. They worked together to protect the crew.
[1] Ask a craftsperson about SABLE - Stash Above and Beyond Life Expectancy.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / fffranz]
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