Cooking Disaster [2430-1-4-Wed-7:00am]

[Booker]

Booker went over to see what Olive had found. "Hey! That's cereal!" He recognized the names from back on Terra. "That's breakfast food." Then he watched as Cass found sauce and continued with cooking the meat. He took one of the boxes of cereal. 'Bran-O's' "I don't know about you guys, but I'm eating a regular breakfast." He joked.

He carried the box over to the counter. He needed a bowl now. He searched through the various cupboards to find a cereal bowl. Pots and pans, plates, plastic containers. Ah! Here we are, cereal bowls! He set the bowl down, opened the box, and poured the cereal in the bowl. Now what else did he need. He knew he was forgetting something, but what? He thought for a minute.

Milk! He opened the fridge and pulled out a milk jug. He poured it into his cereal, grabbed a spoon and started eating.

[Cassandra Nida]

It took a while, but finally the meat was all cooked and in the saucepan with the sauce. It was thickening in the just the perfect way too. She felt much better. At least she would have something real to eat in a moment. This was really good because she could feel the connections start to get numb. In another ten minutes, she would start getting clumsy and after that...

Cass turned off the stove and put the pan on a cool burner. She wandered over to the cupboard Booker had been poking around in. There was a plate for her breakfast, and a plastic container to put the extra in. Perfect. She could have some later in the day if she still felt sluggish.

Let's see. Meat. Salad. Bread? Cass grabbed the jar of sauce and poked her head in the pantry, looking around. There it was, up near the top shelf. She put the sauce back into the box and reached up on tip-toes to get a bag with buns. The machinery gave a quiet whirr noise. but she didn't panic. It was just Olive here. She would think it was part of the ship.

Cass got her bun and headed back out. Two seconds later, she had herself as close to a full meal as she was going to come. She sat down a little ways away from Booker.

[Olive]

Regular breakfast, Booker had called the boxes. Olive noted this. Good to know for future reference. She watched him carry out a box and then glanced back up at them. Well... they were plants... at some point...

She picked out a box, not knowing which one was going to taste the best, so she went with the one with the best colours on it, and then headed out of the room. She inspected what Booker had done with his, realizing the contents of the box were little crunchy looking things. She hurried to get a bowl for herself and poured some into it. She peered over at Booker's bowl again. There was white stuff in it too.

"Hey, is that milk?!?"

[Cassandra Nida]

Cass was about two mouthfuls into dinner when Olive started asking questions again. She understood boundless curiosity, but this was a bit much. Why couldn't they talk about something Cass was actually interested in? Like robotics? Except that would defeat the purpose of being on the run and not announcing to everyone that you were a completely freak of nature.

She really missed having someone to talk to who wanted to talk about the things she did.

Booker seemed distracted by food, so Cass swallowed her mouthful and said, "um. yeah. that's milk." She was about to eat some more, then realized that Olive would just have more questions about what sort of milk it was, and quickly added, "it's soy milk. made from soybeans. i... don't know how they make it, but real milk is really expensive, so most people drink that instead." Cass was one of the few who had tasted real imported milk. One of the perks of living at the Top meant that she'd spent most of her life eating real things instead of synthetics or replacements.

She had another mouthful of meat. Was it real or synthetic? She couldn't tell, not when it was hamburger, and not when it was covered in sauce. The dressing wasn't a completely unpleasant addition, but she wouldn't add it again.

[Olive]

"Oh yeah, I had milk once!" Olive nodded. "Some farmers gave me some once! They had a cow... it was real funny lookin... like a fat deer or somethin. They said it came from her." She paused, thinking about it more. "Oh, I think babies have milk too, right?" She didn't know. Maybe human babies didn't.

She looked at the milk jug and then at her bowl of cereal. "So you put milk in this stuff? Boy you guys combine a lotta weird stuff!" She decided it was worth a try, so she picked up the jug Booker had taken out--boy it was heavy--and poured some into the bowl, trying her best not to spill all over the place. A little bit splashed out, so she made note to remember to clean it up later, and then she picked up her spoon and dug in.

"Heeey!" she said with a bit of realization. "This isn't too bad!"

[Cassandra Nida]

Cass listened to Olive ramble on. Someone needed to give her an encyclopedia and let her read that for a few... well, weeks probably. Except Olive would probably get distracted and then there would be no point to it. Cass had a sudden realization that this was probably how some of her tutors had felt around a younger Cass. It wasn't a very nice realization to have.

"babies drink milk. adult mammals produce it to feed their young." Cass suddenly found herself interested in the conversation again. Fauns didn't produce milk? Did that mean they weren't mammals? They were made up of two mammals, but that was only the outside. Maybe the inside had completely different plumbing. What if they were reptiles inside? Or closer to insects than humans?

She almost asked Olive, and then realized that Olive would probably have no idea what a mammal was, or if she was one of them, or, well, anything about the genetics of fauns. But her padd would. Cass quickly ate up, finishing the meat and then mopping up the sauce with her bun.

[Booker]

Booker hadn't realized Olive had asked him a question at first. He was busy eating. He noticed and tried to answer but Cass did it for him. He listened to the two talk a little as he swallowed his Bran-O's.

He was excited that Olive liked the cereal. At first it was a little weird to him that she had never had it but then he remembered Fauns were very different from humans. "Well I'm glad that we like the same thing. Cereal is great!" As a kid, Booker always got up pretty early just so he could be the first to have breakfast.

[Olive]

"Oh yeah, I knew that!" Olive nodded, mouth full as she crunched away at the cereal. She paused for a thought. "So I guess technically I had milk more than once... and now now!" She beamed.

She looked over at Booker, noting how fast he was eating. "Wow you must be hungry!" She glanced around, wondering where everyone else is. "Is no one else up yet?? Hey what time is it anyway?"

[Cassandra Nida]

Oh. Fauns were mammals then and Olive was just scatterbrained. That was a lot less interesting than them being secret insects. Cass sagged a little, disappointed that she wasn't about to come across something new and fascinating.

As she washed her plate, she checked the time. "it's seven-thirty." She didn't know if that was early on a ship or not. Probably. Cass scrapped the extra meat into the container and sealed it up, putting it into the fridge. She grabbed a bottle of cold water, and gave Olive and Booker a nod, then quickly fled.

Cass was stuffed and, with any luck, she wouldn't have to come out again for a while. Maybe she could eat again in the middle of the night. Hopefully nobody would be around. It wasn't that talking to Olive had been bad, or Booker even though she felt uncomfortable around him. But the less time she spent around other people, the less likely it would be that they'd guess her secret.

Cass locked the room behind her and set her water and padd down on the desk. Then she carefully removed her right arm and set it down as well. Cass grabbed her bag and dug out her tool kit. Time to fix her fingertips.

[Booker]

Booker nodded when Olive said he was hungry. He was. He almost always was. He ate fast because he like to keep the constant flavor in his mouth without taking a break. He could handle not breathing for a couple minutes. That's why he was a pretty good swimmer. But he didn't get to swim a lot.

He had just scooped up the last of his cereal when Cass left to go back to her room. "Bye Cassie!" He said but it didn't seem like she heard him. Oh well. He put his bowl into the sink. "Hey Olive, How'd you end up with Solomon?" He felt like conversing a little and wanted to get to know Olive a little better.

[Olive]

Olive watched Cass clean up and leave. Oh well. Maybe she'd talk more later. At least she'd gotten to talk with her more than last night, when Cass hadn't even eaten her dinner before she'd left.

She munched on more cereal, kicking her legs under her chair, when Booker asked about Solomon. "Me? I met him when we were kids! Well... he wasn't really a kid. But not grown-up yet either, if you get what I mean. But I found him in the forest, all lost and stuff, cause his little ship had crashed. And we've been friends ever since!" she grinned. "I had to make him my friend though, cause he was a little kinda grumpy and didn't wanna talk or anything. But now he's like my big brother! ...if I had a seventh older brother who wasn't a faun, I mean."

[Booker]

Booker hadn't yet gotten to talk much with any of the crew members. He was happy he finally got a chance to. He nodded as she spoke.

She must mean he was a teenager. He crashed his ship? Why was that? Booker admired Sol for becoming friends with Olive. Most other men would just get annoyed and insult her or something. He liked Olve the moment he met her. She was excited to meet people and so was he. She loved to talk and so dd he. They may become good friends.

"You have a big family then?" He asked.

[Olive]

"Oh yes!" Olive nodded. "Six big brothers! And my mom and dad of course! And my aunts and uncles and lots and lots of cousins. There's lots of us in my family!" Then she grew a little quieter as she added, "sometimes I got kinda forgotten about."

She stuffed more cereal in her mouth. "...but that's ok, cause I met Sol and he was all alone so he always had time to hang out! Well, except when sometimes he went hunting with the Elves, cause they liked him, which usually they don't like Humans so that was cool."

[Booker]

Booker was surprised at her large family. Booker only had two other siblings and like five cousins. He was the oldest of three. A younger brother and sister. Michael and Jenna were very loving siblings. They rarely fought and bickered like normal brothers and sisters.

He felt kind of bad when Olive said tat she was forgotten about at times. He didn't know what that was like because he was practically spoiled to the best of his parents abilities. But it was good that she had Sol.

Elves? Booker had never seen an elf. "Are elves as beautiful and graceful as the stories tell?" He was curious.

[Olive]

"Oh yes!" Olive liked Elves, even if they were rarely seen in her parts. "We fauns saw a lot more of the centaurs than the Elves, cause they usually do their own thing in the forests. But when they came to trade and stuff, they were all very nice! And not a single ugly one!! How crazy is that?"

She especially liked the Elves because they were so different. Sure, the centaurs had four legs, but at least they had hooves like her. She understood hooves. Squishy soft feet with toes... Elves had those, just like Humans did. They weirded her out sometimes, but she also found them really neat. She didn't envy them, though. People with toes had to wear shoes to protect their feet, and that couldn't be comfortable at all.