"Oh- I- you did? Ma'am? I'm- grateful? I- I'll eat- anything?"

"No worries- if you do find something you don't like, I won't be mad if you change your mind."  You don't need to be grateful is maybe not a helpful thing to say right now.

"So, uh... after lunch, how would you like to learn how to put the emitter back in a microwave?"

"Oh, I- I wouldn't want- to be in the way, ma'am."

"It's fine, there's actually a ton of room in there, they don't need to miniaturize anything.... You could just watch, though, if you're nervous, or if you'd rather you could do something else?"

"I- uh, whatever you- think best, ma'am?"

"Uh."  How does Mercy do it.  "Well- we don't have to decide now, d'you think you could drink the rest of your milk and have at least a little more rice?"

She takes a little bit more rice, to reassure Cassie more than she's hungry. But it won't do her any harm to eat a little more.

Cassie has meanwhile taken her samosa detritus back to the other side of the table and is hurriedly finishing up her own rice and cauliflower.

Blaze finishes the rice, and then sips at the glass of milk.

Oh good, calories are going into child.

Once it looks like Blaze isn't going to eat any more, Cassie starts putting lids back on the tubs, spiciest first.  "Could- if you'd like to help get these back in the fridge, that'd be cool?  I've actually still got all the original pieces of the microwave, I took it apart because I thought the wave guide might work in my flash-freezer, but it didn't, and I just haven't gotten around to putting it back together yet."

Having something to do seems to be reassure Blaze some, and she helps move the tubs to the fridge, head tilted just so, so that's it's obvious she's still listening to Cassie.

Cassie leaves the last couple of tubs to Blaze and heads over to collect the microwave parts that have gone astray.  "So this is the magnetron, that's what actually generates the microwaves..."

Blaze drifts towards Cassie when she starts speaking, definitely paying attention.

"Oh, actually, I'm setting a bad example- the first step, whenever you're working on anything, is to make sure it's turned off and unplugged."  She holds up the end of the power cord as a demonstration.  "You'll see me skip it sometimes, but that's because I haven't been working around people in a while, and I can cheat."  She taps her temple with two fingers, glancing up at Blaze with a lopsided smile.

That gets a the tiniest of smiles out of Blaze, and a slight nod.

"So the magnetron connects up to the transformer like so- you also wanna discharge the capacitor if you're working on a microwave specifically, I'll show you how next time I open one up, I put the clips on there so I'd know I did it.  And then the antenna on the magnetron lines up in the waveguide liiiike- so."

-the words mean nothing to Blaze. She still pays attention, but she doesn't really understand what's going on.

Cassie glances up, sees Blaze's expression, and tries to backpedal a bit.  "So the microwaves come out here, that's the antenna, and they travel along here- that's why it's called a waveguide, it guides the waves- then they bounce around in the actual oven bit and cook the food?"

That does make more sense, but-

"I- you- shouldn't- I'm- I'm not- I won't-"

"Aww, hey, I'm sorry."  Cassie straightens up fully and takes a step away from the microwave.  "I get caught up in things sometimes, forget to talk so people can understand me.  'S not your fault."

She shakes her head, not in disagreement exactly. "I- I'm- I'm not smart enough. Ma'am. I- I should- shouldn't have let you...think. I was."

"Oh.  Um."  Cassie starts twisting at the hem of her cardigan again.  "Look, I- don't know you that well but I think you're plenty smart enough, I was just starting from way too far in.  I had a teacher used to say if you can't explain it to a five-year-old you don't understand it."  She bites her lip and glances up.  "But if you don't- if you're not interested we don't have to."

"I- no- if you- if you wan't to- it's- we can- I can try to- understand. I-"

"I- no, this is just for fun, okay?  I mean, and also so we'll have a working microwave.  But if it's hard work or it's upsetting you it's not important enough to keep going over that?"

She twists her hands together, tries to explain. "I- you seemed- happy? I-"