Mingling with the Fishes

[save_the_souls]

Who: SS Blue Fish and Anyone visiting!
Broadcast: MAYBE???
Action: SS. Blue Fish!
When: After the Shuffle to...idk whenever

[Welcome new crew and visitors to the SS Blue Fish! There's been some additions to the crew, some grievous losses and some activity as they prepare these finale days to leave the planet of Mor. Don't mind the two cats and large amounts of meat being stored. Since Blue Fish lacks a pilot, the ship can still be found docked in Mor's volcano until they leave the planet for anyone who wants to drop by for a visit!]

[In other words, get in here and mingle!]

Comments

[dancingmd]

Theoretically, yes.

[She sets down her coffee and plops the dough into a large bowl, which she covers with a checkered dish towel.]

I am attempting to make croissants, but I've never baked them from scratch before and I couldn't find a recipe for them in the ship's databases, which are disappointingly lacking in much useful information. It seems to be mostly recordings of the past six months here.

[save_the_souls]

So....you're guessing and hoping it works out?

[Sadly, Allen knows nothing about baking. But he might be mildly unsure here]

[dancingmd]

Basically.

[She crosses to a sink and runs her flour-covered hands under some hot water. Wiping her hands on a towel, she turns back to Allen.]

Nana taught me how to bake bread and cakes and the like, but I'm afraid croissants are not part of traditional Scottish cuisine.

[Setting the towel on the counter, she takes a seat on one of the kitchen stools and looks wistfully at the slowly-rising dough.]

Jean-Luc and I [there is the slightest blush at the mention of his name] have breakfast together almost every morning. Coffee and croissants. I just... need some sense of normality here.

[save_the_souls]

Oh- I didn't know you were Scottish!

[Future accents are so different from what he's used to gosh. But he looks sympathetic at the story]

But...I see. I can understand that. I wish I knew how to make them, but I've never really baked before.

[dancingmd]

[Oh, Allen, Trying to apply common sense to accents of the Federation will get you nowhere.]

I'm Scottish in a very roundabout sort of way. My maiden name is Howard, which we trace back to Scotland many generations back. I was actually born on the Moon but Nana and I left after my parents died. We moved to a colony on another planet which was terraformed to resemble the Scottish highlands and the colonists have recreated old Scotland in their architecture, food, music, dress, that sort of thing. Such colonies are fairly common, a lot of people worry about traditional Earth cultures fading away.

[She smiles at him.]

Even if you haven't baked before, you're welcome to stay. I could use the company. Besides, I will need a taste tester!

[save_the_souls]

[He laughs] I can definitely handle being a taste taster! And company.

An entire planet that's like the Scottish Highlands... [He genuinely sounds awed by that. His travels have taken him through Scotland a number of times- but it was so much smaller than what she's describing.] That's incredible. I know about groups of immigrants who set up communities that preserve their culture even while in other countries, but they're usually no bigger than a neighborhood or a town! Certainly not a whole world.

[dancingmd]

You're right, it is incredible. I think I can appreciate it more now than when I actually lived there. As a teenager, I couldn't wait to leave. Everyone in my town seemed so terribly old-fashioned. And it would be a while before I fully understood the importance of maintaining and celebrating my cultural heritage.

[save_the_souls]

[There's a smile]

I think that's the case with a lot of teenagers. Especially if they're the adventurous type, which you seem to be.

I'd like to see it though. I've been to Scotland, but an entire planet like it sounds like something to see!

[dancingmd]

If I could, I'd gladly give you a tour. I wonder if they have such things as holodecks in this universe?

[save_the_souls]

A holodeck?

[dancingmd]

Oh, right! [What with them being in space and all, she doesn't always remember that people don't have the same frame of reference as her.] Do you know what holograms are?

[save_the_souls]

[HAHA noooope] Ah...no. I can't say I've heard of those before.

[dancingmd]

Holograms are a way we have of projecting images three dimensionally. At first, they started out pretty simple: just a static projected 3D image. Now though, we can create whole worlds and characters with holographic technology. Most Federation starships have at least one room, or even a whole deck, dedicated to projection of holographs. Sometimes we use them for recreation, other times for work... say, for flight simulators or running experiments that can't be done in a normal lab setting. We used them often in medical school to train for surgery. If we had one here, I could recreate Caldos for you. Or any number of planets, for that matter.

[save_the_souls]

Oh...

[He thinks about it]

That actually sounds like the Danger Room that was built in the last place I stayed. People would use it for fight and training simulations.

[dancingmd]

[She raises an eyebrow.]

The "Danger Room?" That's a bit of an alarming name, don't you think? But yes, holodecks can be used for martial training as well. Really, they can be for anything, as long as someone knows how to program them correctly.

[save_the_souls]

[A shrug] Perhaps, but it was a place full of fighters so there were all sorts of names like that: The Danger Room, the Deathmatch, the WildKat. Things like that.

But I see! I wish we did have a holodeck then. I'd like to see your homeworld, even if it's just an illusion.

[dancingmd]

[Lovely. What, was he staying on Qo'noS?]

Where was this place?

[save_the_souls]

Paradisa? I think that was just the region's name though. I'm not really sure about the planet's name itself.

[dancingmd]

I think I've heard Paradisa mentioned before, somewhere. Are there other people here from your universe?

[save_the_souls]

Not my universe, I'm from Earth actually.

But yes, there's a few others who spent time in that place.

[dancingmd]

So ... this isn't the first place like this you've been?

[save_the_souls]

It's not, no. I was at Paradisa for about seven years, actually.

[Nevermind he looks about sixteen.......]

[dancingmd]

[Her eyes widen. Seven years?]

And... you haven't been able to go home in all that time?

[save_the_souls]

[I have no home to go back to. Not anymore. The Order was the closest thing he had to a home and he knows he could never return.]

...Sometimes I'd go back for a couple months without any memories of the castle, before going back to Paradisa. It's...hard to explain. But it's been awhile since that's happened, a couple years I think.

[dancingmd]

Oh, Allen I'm so sorry.

[She's not very good yet at fathoming that there are people here who don't want to go home. It's almost all she can think about.]