Friday, March 30, 2007

[Log]

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Crew Commons, Grace O'Malley [?]
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Hatch chuckles as he gathers himself together a cup, "I don't know about the handsome part, want anything else while I'm over here?" He offers as he slogs over into the kitchen sipping at the steaming mug carefully, and pulling the towel off the top of his head to hang across his neck. "Everybody has secrets, sometimes they don't mind talking about them.. other times they get buired in the sand." He raises his shoulders in a shrug and drags out a large mixing bowl, then goes poking around for strawberries.


"Fine, you're just rugged then," Josephine agrees, to Hatch, from where she sits on the couch, holding a cloth to her head and looking sleepy. "And, yeah, I know it's all about decisions and choices, Ara," she is saying to the woman seated at the table who is looking at a PDA, "But I just..well. I worry, is all. Yet I don't suppose you'd be bringing anyone on board whom you thought would be trouble for us all... Kitchen slave, might I have some hot tea, when you have a moment?" she inquires, politely to the rugged man sorting out the strawberries.

Taking another bite of the green apple in one hand, Aradia munches on it for a few moments as her gaze drops back to the screen and she says, "If you've got honest concerns about it beyond that, then you know I'd have you voice 'em but if all you got is 'she could be making a lot of money and instead she'd rather travel with us,' then I don't know as that's anything more than something to be mindful of." Glancing back over her shoulder to where Hatch is poking around in the galley, she shakes her head and says, "No thanks. I ate already this morning," as if the apple in hand she's currently consuming doesn't actually count as food.

Not finding any strawberries, Hatch scowls a shade but continues about what he's doing selecting another route to get done what he wants to get done. Cream, butter, lard.. eww lard.. sugar, eggs. Then molasses? Yep a healty heaping of that into the mix before he's sifting cinnimmon, salt, ginger, ground cloves... the list goes on as he works. The dry is mixed into the wet, and as he's chatting mixed into a smooth batter. "I can make you some tea oh mistress, would you like it with honey and lemon or just straight?"

"Kitchen slave?" enquires Saienne as she enters the common area, just catching the tail end of the conversation. "Now I'm startin' to wonder what kind of a ship I've booked myself passage on..." A pause, and she frowns - not entirely seriously - round at everyone. "You ain't expectin' me to cook, I hope?" The frown dissolves into a lop-sided grin. "Because it surely wouldn't be in your best interests if you were. Mind," she says, glancing over at Hatch, "Looks like you've got it well in hand."

"Honey and lemon would be sublime," Josephine replies to Hatch, lazily. "And that smells really good.. What is that fragrance..cloves?" she is wondering, just before she starts laughing at the newcomer's words. "You must be our new passenger," she says, with a warm smile to Saienne as she stands up to greet the woman, offering her hand. "I'm the 'official' cook, actually, as much as there is one. But it's fun, on occasion, to give orders to the XO. Especially when he listens to me. My name's Josephine, by the way. The first officer is Richard Halpin, but we usually call him Hatch. I presume you already know the Captain."

No longer in a dress but looking no more like a Captain than she ever has, Aradia looks up from her PDA with a grin as she says to Saienne, "He's her willingly bonded servant actually. I'm sure they got plenty o' other names 'n titles they call each other but I don't think anyone wants to hear it outside o' their bunks." Bringing the bottle up from the table beside her, she gulps down a good half of it and says with a nod of her head toward the galley and the large urn on one counter. "Coffee's hot 'n kind of fresh. Only been sitting a few hours since I got up."

"Well I'm only really one persons kitchen slave." Hatch admits with some amusement, "Every so often everyone else makes use of me.. but the offical cooks giggling on the sofa." He says about the same time Jo makes the same statement and with a grin fall silent while she explains. "Howdy Ma'am." Hatch says in the end of it all as he pulls out a waffle iron and starts to heat it to make it ready. As thats starting to heat, he starts to steep a pot of tea for Jo. "Would you like anything while I'm at it?" Hatch asks as he continues to meander about the kitchen, starting to whip a bowl of cream in to submission.

Saienne's eyes widen a little - but only a little - and the crooked smile remains in place. "Is that so?" she asks, good naturedly. "Pleased to make your acquaintances, Josephine, Hatch." And, although she is not wearing her hat indoors, she lifts a hand to her brow as if to tip the broad-brimmed thing in their direction. "I'm Saienne," she says, by way of introduction and, turning to the Captain, says: "An' a coffee sounds pretty much perfect, thank you." She starts towards the galley counter and the urn.

"Oy you!" Josephine exclaims, blushing fiercely and feeling strongly enough to toss a throw pillow at Aradia in the hope that the woman will maybe possibly hopefully think twice next time before direly embarrassing her in front of a guest. Not that it's likely to change anything. "Anyway. Yes. So. As you can see, we're pretty informal around here, when the situation allows for it, of course. There's milk and sugar for that coffee, if you want some, somewhere or other where it makes sense for it to be. Hatch'll point you in the right direction."

Hatch shakes his head at Ara's comment, "Aye, a few whispers now and again.. other noises. Yeah." So much for making it into a joke about halfway through the sentence he's already turning a nice shade of red. His attention rather rapidly goes back to the cooking, soon enough a wooden tray of tea is carried out pot and all, along with toast and a bit of jam to settle down on the coffee table next to Jo. "Be right back hun, waffles are on." He says and darts back into the kitchen to start to finish that up as well. The sweet scent of gingerbread continues to waft from whatever he is working on, and soon that becomes apparent as he starts to close down shop and walks out to plant a platefull of gingerbread waffles on the table, along with freshly whipped cream, flavored with brown sugar and a hint of maple.

Grinning impishly, Aradia ducks her head and brings her hand up to knock the pillow off to the side just a fraction of a second too late as it swipes across the top of her head. Looking over to the waffles, Aradia just shakes her head and says, "Enjoy it while we can still afford to eat like this," before she shuts down her PDA and says, "I need to prep for flight."

Saienne turns to Hatch as he comes back round into the galley. Rubbing a hand across the stubble on the back of her head, she asks: "Er, you ain't got a coffee cup handy...?" Her stomach grumbles loudly as the smell of real food wafts around the common area, and it is her turn to blush a little. "Good gorram, I am sorry," she says. "Ain't that rude."

"You're both incorrigable.." Josephine lectures the Captain and First Officer as few cooks are likely to do. "But at least the rugged one brings me tea." She settles back onto the couch to prepare her cup of tea just before she sniffs at the air looking perplexed. "My goodness. What is that heavenly smell?" To Saienne, she smiles. "There isn't any reason to be ashamed of hungry. Just..enjoy. Ara, you need any of my incredibly useful help on the bridge?"

Hatch plants his hands on his hips for a moment, "Ain't so expensive when we can make it from scratch Ara." He says with a shrug, but all in all she's right and he knows it. He turns back into the kitchen and comes back out with a pile of plates, silver, and viola one coffee mug. "There yah go Saienne was it? Forgive me I'm horrible with names may take me a bit to recall it." He smiles at the woman warmly and nods.

The chair she's sitting on scrapes back against the plating of the deck floor as Aradia nibbles on the core of her apple and tucks her PDA away into a pocket. "You know you're always welcome Jo," Aradia says toward the woman as she heads over to toss the meager bit of apple left dangling from the stem into a trash receptacle and heads back to snatch up her bottle off the table. "Enjoy yer waffles. I'll announce when we're ready to launch," she says with a smile before she turns and makes her way to the fore corridor.

"Well, no," says Saienne, addressing Josephine. "It ain't the hunger that's rude, so much as the grumblin'. Ain't hardly met you yet, an' all." She receives the coffee cup with gratitude and another lop-sided smile. "Most obliged - an' Saienne is correct. Ain't no problem to me if you forget it - I'll just remind you." A grin. "Most probably loudly." She pauses, and then asks: "Any of you folk need a top up while I'm here?"

"Hatch grumbles all the time," Josephine says, cheerfully, bringing her tea to the table to come investigate these most unusual waffles. "No thanks, I've got my tea. Now I just have to decide whether I love the Captain more than I love Hatch and his waffle creation. It's a tough call, there."

Hatch circles back around to gather his mug of coffee, and dump his plate into the sink after a good rinse. As he often seesm to do, he manages to get some food into himself while cooking. One of those joy's of being the chef. "Dig in if you want any, if not I'm gonna freeze em for later." He offers as he sneaks in behind Jo to slip an arm around your middle. "Hope thats not to hard a decision... and has alot less to do with the waffles." Hatch intones as he leans in from behind her to press his lips to the side of her neck for a moment.

"Well, hell, that ain't a call I'd ever like to make." A beat. "Those waffles smell gorram gorgeous." She pours herself a cup of coffee and the rich smell mingles for a little with the smell of the just-cooked waffles, before both smells are diluted and wafted away into the rest of the ship by the life support. She takes a seat on one of the benches around the dining table and pulls a shiny PDA out of her pocket. "You ain't got any objection to me catchin' up on a bit of correspondence in here..?" she asks.

"Well that's no fair," Josephine mutters as Hatch puts his arm around her, clearly losing any interest to go anywhere else, even if it is to the very interesting bridge. "Sure, Saienne...you take care of whatever you need to do." She's eyeing the waffles thoughtfuly, "I suppose I might have a small taste of those myself, really. Gorram gorgeous indeed!" the little cooks repeats the other woman's words gleefully, even though she never speaks like that herself.

"Now now." Hatch says as he gives Jo a squeeze, "Why not show Saienne about the ship once she's done, I've got to do the dishes anyway." He starts to slip away to do just that with a very content expression resting upon his features.

"Ah, I got a drop to make on Greenleaf an' I just need to check the schedule - make sure I ain't goin' to be late." She turns the PDA on and it glimmers faintly, burbling as it connects to the local Cortex. As Hatch makes his suggestion, Sai replies: "I ain't here to be a burden - if you folks have things to be gettin' on with, there's plenty I could be doin' an' all."

"One of my primary jobs here, official or otherwise," Josephine explains, after watching Hatch go away to do dishes. How impressive is that. He does dishes! "--is to make people feel welcome here, for however long they'll be staying. You want a tour after you finish your waves, you just say so and I'll be happy to show you around."

Saienne nods once, looking up at Josephine, "Well, that's might kind of you," she says, "An' I may well take you up on it when I've got all these tangled wires uncrossed an' sorted out." She glances down at whatever data it is scrolling along on her PDA. "Mind, I expect the activity caused by the complications to this job are what keep me from gettin' bored." She grins again, crookedly, and settles down to work.

Josephine smiles warmly. "Well, then. You just give a holler and, whenever you like, I'll show you around." She picks at a piece of waffle before she goes off to do whatever it is she does around here.

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