[Hopetoun] Cooking for the Masses II: The Revenge

[Vega]

128th of Ashan, Arc 721

There was no longer any doubting it - Vega Creede was pregnant. She was not yet at "waddling", but the swelling of her stomach was now both noticeable and, in fairness, rather difficult to miss. Had she chosen to, she could have covered it over by perhaps wearing a baggy cardigan or some such, but she didn't. That was for two reasons. Firstly - and mostly - because Vega was so inordinately happy about being pregnant that the thought of hiding it was just a complete anathema to her. Secondly, she was always running hot. Partly, that was because of her father's curse on her, but also she seemed to be just experiencing this as a pregnancy side effect.

There were others.

Many people (including Gennadiya) had told her that she should rest when she was tired. But she was struggling to sleep because she was more full of energy than usual. She was being well-behaved though, and she was taking no risks, because she was very invested. There were baby clothes and blankets being made, and her excitement was building. She hadn't yet felt the baby move - something she was desperate to do - but she loved being pregnant. Sickness was still an issue, but she didn't care. The main side effect, it seemed, was emotional.

Vega was weepy. Prone to bursting into tears at any emotion, and she was clingy to Arlo. She was unapologetic about that, she found his presence reassuring and she wanted to be with him. She wasn't snappy, didn't get aggressive or shouty - if anything, she was far easier to live with. Other than the tears. However, she was also still herself and she gave him a companionable thump on the shoulder. "Righteo, Arlo Creede." She smiled at him. "I need to learn to cook, an' I've been learnin' quite a bit. Can I help out here?" Vega had, indeed, been practicingCompetent Cooking! quite a lot, and she'd learned a lot about the process from the construction of Nella's Kitchen. "So it's about a hundred people I think, last count. You must need help, surely?" Her hand slipped into his and she smiled.

The smile turned into a cheeky grin and she added. "If you don't want my help o'course, then I'll cry," She knew herself well enough to know that it was probably true. "There might be wailin' too," she added. "An' snot."

Poor bloke. She wished she could say she was joking but, very obviously, she was telling the truth. But equally, she didn't doubt that he would welcome her help. Whether he wanted it or not.

[Arlo Creede]

Date

The rounder Vega got, the more Arlo liked it. It was the circumstances, after all, her condition, and all that it meant. People always talked about the wonderful way that expecting women glowed, and he'd often thought that it was probably flattery and nothing more. Vega though? So far as Arlo was concerned, she glowed. Even through and past the other symptoms that seemed to plague her, now and again.

At any rate, this baby would be one on of the best dressed on the island, if the stockpile of garments and blankets Vega was creating was any indication. Meanwhile, Jonas had taken up a sudden liking for whittling, and had created more than a few toys and curiosities for his grandchild to be. As for Arlo, he was less sure how to contend with her increased penchant for weeping, sometimes just out of the blue, so far as he was concerned. But he'd quickly learned that all he really needed to do was lend a shoulder whenever she wanted.

Cooking for the crowds, the large influx of individuals that had arrived though, was a distraction that he didn't mind at all. He enjoyed cooking, and while preparing meals for large crowds was trickier and often different than cooking for two, three or even a half dozen, it was a challenge that Arlo enjoyed. "It's not the same you know," he said, grinning at her when she asked, could she help? "Cooking for family, and for the masses. First of all, that's a lot of potatoes to peel," he added, glancing at a pyramid shaped pile of spuds, off in the corner of the cooking tent.

"Well alright then," he agreed, grinning before he pointed out a scattering of large, sweet yellow onions nearby. "I figure if you're going to weep anyway, might as well come by it naturally? Those could use peeling and dicing to start, while I start tackling those potatoes." Peeling and dicing for those as well, it seemed. And along with the onions and potatoes, there were baskets filled with sweet corn cobs, carrots, tomatoes and bunches of fresh herbs. "It's about prepping everything to start, peeling, cutting down to size, measuring and sorting. That way," he explained, "when it comes time to start putting it all together, the grunt work is already done."

"Unless you'd rather bake?" Arlo asked, in case peeling and chopping wasn't what Vega would rather do. "Cornbread, but with cheese, diced bacon and mild chili peppers added into the batter." The choice was hers, really. Truth was, he was just pleased that she wanted to help. It would give them time together, no matter how much they actually accomplished. Some of it though, had already been done. He'd made a large batch of stock a trial before, and it was already warming in a large cauldron near the fire. The chickens had already been plucked and cleaned, but not broken down or the skin removed yet. But for what he had in mind, they'd go into the mix just as they were.

[Vega]

128th of Ashan, Arc 721

If she was going to weep, she might as well come by it naturally? Looking at him with a calm expression, she said. "You know, I'm goin' to get a lot bigger than this. This is small stuff, an' I could hide it if I wanted to." It was true. She was past any kind of point where she could hide it from him of course, but that was by virtue of sharing a bed, being physically close. To most people, it could be hidden. She just chose to do the opposite. Maybe, she thought, she should have made a sign. Anyhow. "An' when I get so big that I can barely move, you jus' wait. I'll flop down on you an' squish you," leaning forward she kissed him softly. "Jus' like a bug," she whispered. But, she took up her knife and prepared the surface where she was going to clean and prepare the onions. "No, this is good. Bread in a bit."

Vega had maintained for the arcs they'd been together that she couldn't cook. Since the time that she'd ruined one of his best pots by cleaning it, she'd avoided cooking in their camp. It was just not what she did. There was no need to, after all, because he was so much better than her. But, when he'd been off chasing Jonas in the Misty Miasma like the pair of freerange loons that they were, Vega had learned a little. Then, in planning and building Nella's kitchen, she'd learned a little more. Somewhere along the line, she'd become moderately decent at it, but she didn't really see that yet.

Still, she could prepare things. "All the people from Haven - that's the settlement what Elisabeth an' Balthazar run - they're comin', an' Bao Bao who's the council member for Welfare what gave us all them supplies to build the Inn, an' Saoire an' Xiur an' Faldrass got invited, too. Also the experts what helped. You know, Mavis an' Reggie," Mavis and Reggie - the cadouri mouse and cadouri pig who were married, "An' Mad-Eye an' Rover an' Herman," Mad-Eye, the cat with an eye patch, Rover, the cat and Herman the hamster cadouri. She'd worked with them all during the construction of the Beacon. "Mavis an' Reggie are expectin'," Vega said, chopping carefully but quickly. Her gaze lifted to him for a moment.

"They couldn't conceive. I mean, I couldn't conceive how they managed to try, but that's a different thing. So they asked me to help, an' I did." Vega grinned. "Daia's mark. Anyhow, when I used the ability to make Mavis pregnant, I jus' had to hold their hands, an' I could hear their life. I don't know how to explain it, except it was like their soul-song, you know? An' then I had to combine it an' I made it dance an' it became the song of the new person." She smiled slightly. "It were well beautiful, Arlo. I've never heard anythin' like it before. I wrote it for them, an' called it 'Cadouri Love Songs' an' gave it to them." She pulled a face. "They tried to hug me. Wouldn't have bothered if I knew they were goin' to do that, I tell you." Shooting a grin at him, she knew that she was fooling no one.

"Anyhow, they're comin' to this feast. To celebrate everythin' what we've achieved here." Lifting her head, she paused her hands and looked at him. "I'm right grateful to you, Arlo Creede." Turning her attention back to the onions, she wondered. "Do you reckon I'm goin' to get so fat that I won't be able to reach the counter to chop onions no more?" That thought delighted her and she grinned slightly. Tears ran down her cheeks, but he knew the difference and she was quite happy, just reacting to the onions. "An' come to that, will this baby look human, or biqaj or sev'ryn?" A question which gave her pause. "I mean, I look biqaj, but I'm not, an' I don't look sev'ryn but I am." But then, her eyes widened as a thought hit her, genuinely, for the first time. "Xiur's nips, Arlo! Look at the hair choices this poor child has got. Now, I mean, that's fine when they're older because then they can deal with it themselves." But that wasn't the issue. Oh no. "We are goin' to spend arcs brushin' an unruly mop, whichever one of us it's like." Grinning, she summed up her feelings in that moment. "I can't wait to meet them. But I want to enjoy every bit of this, too, you know? I'm greedy for it. Like a chicken for feed."

Without pausing, as she had done quite a few arcs ago now when they'd been sitting in a tent together in Ne'haer, Vega leaned over and started 'pecking' at him. "Cluck! Cluck!" She chuckled and got back to her work. Poor, poor Arlo Creede, she thought. If she wasn't crying she was laughing. All the emotions, all the time. "So, we've got about a hundred people comin'," she said. "What's for sweet?"

She said no more but he knew her too well to think anything different. She was hoping for chocolate.

[Arlo Creede]

Date

"I'd hope so," Arlo quipped when Vega swore she'd get bigger around in time. "If you stayed that size, I'd be worried we'd misplace our son or daughter too easily, mixed up with the socks in the laundry." As for squashing him flat should he get out of line? "More of you to love and wrap my arms around. And I look forward to the waddling. I've been told there'd be waddling."

And with that, Arlo ducked out of the way right quick, partly to avoid any repercussions that might come his way, but mostly in order to tend to the chickens. "These won't go in right away," he explained as he began to drizzle a light coating of olive oil on the chickens, followed by a liberal dusting of seasoning before rubbing it in with his hands. "We'll roast them down at the start, to almost done but not quite. Then cut them down into sections and drop them in to finish it off." Once he'd seasoned the birds both inside and out, he stuffed each cavity with cut lemons, onions and sprigs of herbs before cinching them up.

Just a few bits more, while Vega chopped the vegetables..."Potatoes and carrots in large pieces and the beans can go in whole."...and then he mounted the chickens on the spit and got them turning over the heat. "Sounds like a large crowd," he said when he rejoined Vega and began peeling the potatoes that had already been scrubbed clean. After that, he'd slice the bacon for the cornbread and begin frying it up on a large, flat heated grill located at the back of the tent where the heat could escape. Next he'd roast and char the sliced up green chilies on it.

Vega's explanation about what she'd done to insure another couple would be able to have a child, brought a somewhat curious expression to his face, and Arlo looked up from his work. "So you caused Mavis to become pregnant without them needing to....you know? I mean, doesn't that skip past the fun part?" It was an honest question so far as he was concerned. But then again, if that particular part hadn't worked, as enjoyable as it might be, then well...needs must. "It does sound like a pretty amazing thing to experience though. For them, and for you. Even with the attempted hug," he added, grinning crookedly.

As for what their child might look like, well, there was no guessing. Would they in any way resemble their Immortal grandparents? More their mortal ones? Or his or her parents? "Probably a good mix to be sure," he figured. "But even with that glorious head of hair that he or she is sure to have, it will be the handsomest child for miles and miles around." Of course she wanted to know about the sweets. Arlo, even before learning of his origins and before his father's touch, had enjoyed an extremely healthy appetite. That had only grown with time. But there was no denying that when it came to sweets, Vega was the one that enjoyed them the most.

"The size of the crowd requires simpler fare than if I was cooking for two...or even our large-ish and closest family," he said. "Petit fours in a variety of different flavors with mixed and match icing and decoration, some with berries, others with a sprinkling of course sea salt or a drizzle of caramel. And yes," he told her with a grin before she could be bothered to ask. "There'll be plenty of chocolate ones.

[Vega]

128th of Ashan, Arc 721

Vega let out a chortle of laughter when he said that he'd heard there'd be waddling. Laughter burst from her spontaneously as she considered the visual image. Why would anyone want to see that?

"You're soft in the head, you are." She grinned at him, shaking her head as her laughter subsided. "You're jus' not thinkin' this through. If I'm waddlin' then you're goin' to be dealin' with a waddlin', grumpy, over-heatin' woman who knows that most people can't stay in one piece when I punch them. But you can." She waggled her eyebrows. "Watch out, Arlo Creede. Careful what you wish for, I'd say." She kept her focus on cutting the vegetables, but she listened to his explanation of what he was going to do. "An' another thing. I'm always hungry. Can I have that apple?" If it wasn't a special apple specifically for a particular task, Vega started eating it. She'd take a bite, then put it down, chop a bit, pick it back up and take another bite.

He seemed intrigued at the notion of Mavis and Reggie, and she chuckled and shook her head when he said that it skipped the fun part. "Well, first off. She's this big." She showed him the rough height of Mavis. "An' he's about your height. So, I've got to try really hard to not try an' work it out or I'm gonna ask." She chuckled as she worked. "Because Mavis has got no filter in between her brain an' her gob as to jus' how much she enjoys her special mousie-love-time with Reggie. Him too. They're like a pair of rabbits. Except, one's really big an' the other's tiny. Anyhow, they've been doin' the fun part, apparently, a lot." She gave a mock shudder. "They tried to explain. I don't need or want to know the details, I'll jus' get kerfluffled an' then there'll be questions. Questions bad, qua'ma, questions very very bad."

But yes, it had been astonishing, she said. To feel that, to experience it. "An' it were Daia, you know, an' it were a dance of their energies, but it's Xiur too. They'd given up hope. Anyhow, yeah. So they're comin'."

He was apparently unconcerned about the hair situation. That was good. "Excellent," Vega said. "So you're on hair duty. I'll do clothes, you do hair, we share the stinky. That sound reasonable to you?" Patting her stomach, she grinned. "Handsome, aye. An' clever, no doubt. Most clever of all of them." As long as it didn't follow her as far as learning was concerned, she figured. "An' kindest an' funniest too. I mean, it's us." Leaning forward she kissed him quickly, stealing a moment. "We made a baby. Of course it's the best one." She meant it completely.

"Those sound yummy," she said, of the desserts. "I've been gettin' a real hankerin' for that salted caramel an' salted chocolate. The really dark an' bitter stuff, with lime an' lemon. You know, that sort of bitter what's so sharp an' tangy that it almost hurts your mouth, but you want more of it?" Nodding her head, she knew what she meant.

"Will you show me how to make bread?" Vega wondered. "I tried in Storms Edge an' it had the consistency of shoe leather with a taste to match." Shrugging slightly she grinned. "The cook person said I hadn't proved it. I reckon I had, though. I'd certainly proved that it can taste bloody awful." She knew exactly what proving was, and she'd believed she had done it. "It grew an' everythin, but then it went all flat an' it were well gnarly." But if anyone could teach her how to make non-gnarly bread, she figured, it was Arlo.

"What kind of bread are we makin' then?"