trans_9 | Far below the rolling tide [Open]

Strangely enough, even after the events of the past few days, Zouichi had not developed an aversion to the ocean. Or axes! Or giant squid! It helped that he, unlike some of the other crew, hadn't been in imminent danger of drowning. He was, however, busying himself with preparing some of the food they'd bought on shore leave, as well as supplies salvaged from the Deepstar 7. No sense letting it go to waste, right?

He'd started work in the early morning, and gotten so absorbed in what he was doing that he didn't quite notice that he was making more than was absolutely necessary. What? Cooking was relaxing. And anyway, he thought as he waited to pull a piece of battered shrimp out of its cooking oil, someone would probably eat it all. For the people living in the inn, he was careful to set aside boxes of prepared food. But there was an increasing amount left over...

Stop by, enjoy your ridiculously overprepared lunch. Or just a simple one, if you're an acquaintance. The front door's open!

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Now what kind of a question was that, Zouichi? "Hah, you bet!" She peered at some of the boxes he'd already finished. "Wow... these are real fancy!" She plucked a piece of broccoli out of one of them and took a bite.

She wandered over to the bowl of filling, feeling vaguely guilty about him having done all this cooking while she was off sulking in the city. "How much more of this stuff are you gonna make? I can give you a hand."

"If you want," he said, demonstrating for her. He placed a small amount of the mixture in the middle of one of the skins, folding it into a semicircle and using egg white as a glue to seal it shut. Then he placed it on a tray with the others.

"It's going to take a while to make them all, though. You might as well eat before it gets cold."

Allenby watched carefully as she crunched up the broccoli. Seemed simple enough! She pulled off her gloves and stuffed them into her vest pocket, deciding to follow his advice.

Grabbing the bento box she'd stolen the broccoli from, Allenby almost started to dig in before remembering... chopsticks. Hoo boy. "The only bad thing about Japanese and Chinese food is these things," she said ruefully, clicking them together. That is, she tried to. Dang chopsticks.

He smiled. "Well, you know, you can eat sushi with your fingers. Or silverware. I won't tell anyone."

Chopsticks were so convenient, though, Allenby!

"Hope you don't mind seafood. I guess you could kind of look at it as a small bit of revenge." This piece of squid? That big old squid's cousin. Om nom nom, delicious comeuppance.

"Nope. I'm gonna learn how to do it right." But being disinclined to waste food by dropping it, Allenby's definition of 'right' soon became 'use chopstick like a spear.'

She grinned evilly when Zouichi pointed out the reason behind today's menu. "You know what, I like that thought." She stabbed the piece of squid with much more force than was really necessary. "Who's squeezin' who now, huh?!"

Zouichi laughed a little. "'Revenge is a dish best served cold'?" He was glad she seemed to be in high spirits, even though those past few days had certainly been trying.

"Maybe we should try fishing on the next planet. You know, come face-to-face with our enemy. Have you ever been?"

Allenby popped the squid into her mouth. For such ugly-looking bastards they sure were tasty. "Nope! Never in my life." She'd seen it in pictures and stuff, of course. You put a worm on a hook tied to a stick tied to a string and waited for some fish to try and get a free lunch.

"But it looks easy enough. We just gotta make sure it's not accidentally poison fish, right?" And not, say, whether it'd be legal to fish there.

Zouichi secretly though that even the squid were rather cute. "Yes, you make a good point... we can't be sure that alien fish aren't poisonous. Or at least not poisonous to us. But then, there are some fish in the River, aren't there? Maybe we can head over there sometime. Not quite the same thing as the ocean, but..."

But sitting very still for a long time was something Zouichi was surprisingly good at. Besides, it sounded nice and peaceful.

"There are? I never noticed 'em--but I probably scared them off whenever I was there," Allenby said. That was probably the case; she usually went to the river to go swimming. "We should definitely check it out! And then we can make, like... tuna fish sandwiches! Only with the river fish."

It might say a lot about Allenby's upbringing or current life situation that she thought being able to make fish salad sandwiches would be one of the best things ever.

Zouichi nodded. "That's the story, anyway. You know, one of these days we should get some fish on shore leave and put them into the river. Just to stack the odds in our favor."

"Wait, do you like tuna? I had no idea."

"Yeah, that's a great idea!" Allenby began picking the rest of the things out of the bento box. "Maybe we can ask for some fish along with whatever else we're gettin' out of the people we're helping."

She started working at the gyoza skins again. "Sure, tuna's great! Not that there's a lot of food I don't like."

He smiled. "Well, I did buy some tuna long with the rest of the fish... although I'm not sure it's the kind you like. I've never had it in a sandwich before."

Although to be fair, there were lots of things he hadn't tried before. "And while we're at it, we can also ask them for a pony." He was mostly joking. Even though ponies were totally cute. "So, bets on where we'll go next?"

"Uh... if it didn't come in a can, I probably haven't tried that kind." Prior to traveling to Neo-Hong Kong and meeting Sai Saici the fighting chef, Allenby had considered Ikea Swedish meatballs to be haute cuisine.

...actually she still did; she just had more to include in the category now.

She chuckled at the pony remark. "Lemme see... we had a creepy planet and a shore leave planet. I think that means the people on the next planet are luring us into a trap specifically to kill us."

"Ah. Sorry, I didn't buy any canned tuna. I would have if I'd known." Canned tuna. He had to remember that for later.

Zouichi rolled his eyes, placing another gyoza on the tray. "That would fit the pattern, I think. 'Go find some artifact or do some impossible task. Everything will try to off you. In the meantime, enjoy being in the dark'."

"Hey, I won't complain about not havin' canned tuna when you're busy making all this," Allenby said, giving him a playful jab with her elbow.

She smiled grimly at Z's assessment of... about half of their missions. If not most of them, but not everything had an artifact. "Yup. My favorite part is when she said she was going to fix it and wound up letting SHODAN out. Too bad there's no such thing as unions here."

Zouichi laughed a little, partially dodging the jab. "Honestly, I think the ship needs an attitude adjustment a lot more than GLaDOS does. But you'll notice it didn't volunteer itself for the chopping block."

Grr, the ship. How he hated it.

Far below the rolling tide [Open]

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