Brawln, Efnir, Nomi and Vic

It is into the evening one night, en route to the Hapes Cluster when Nomi hears rummaging around in the kitchen and enters to find Brawln hard at work over a stove on something that loosely resembles food. For how little is in the pot, it is a little surprising how much seems to have ended up matted into the Wookiee's fur. There is flour that has settled into the fur on his shoulders and back, and something on his right arm that looks like it should be dripping, but as he moves, the bead of liquid goo jostles up and down with his arm but never quite lets go. Upon seeing Nomi, Brawln turns (revealing a splash of something on his forehead) and explains.

HC helpfully chimes in, "Brawln here has recently been in contact with his mother - something about things to work on for his 'throws'. She mentioned a dish that Brawln apparently loved when he was a child - so Brawln here is attempting to recreate it in the hopes that it will remind him of a time in his childhood that he doesn't have terribly reliable memories about. I'm not sure how well versed you are in the kitchen, captain, but my understanding of food preparation is such that I don't believe this is how it is supposed to go."

From the stove, Brawln waves a dismissive hand at HC-7, then calls something over his shoulder. "He says it is almost finished," adds HC-7, who then looks a bit more pointedly at Nomi, and adds, "say, Ms. Amersu, you enjoy food also, don't you? Are you interested in trying some?"

Nomi tilts her head to the side. "Are you working from a recipe, Brawln?" She asks. Nomi crosses to the stove to stand on her tip-toes and look down into the pot at Brawln's dubious dish. She sniffs it. "Yes, I enjoy food. I enjoyed many of the things that we sampled on Kashyyyk." She turns and picks up a towel, wetting it and reaching to capture the bobbing bit of goo on Brawln's arm before it drops into the pot, taking hairs with it. "If there is nothing in it that will give me a tummy ache due to not being a Wookiee, I would be happy to try it." She gives him a brave smile. Nomi's courage extends farther in the direction of unknown foods than heights, apparently.

"Talking about childhood foods reminds me of these little savory cakes that my sister Jiljuu used to make. I could try my hand at those. They are quick and good for soaking up wet stuff." Nomi glances pointedly at Brawln's pot. Stepping companionably back into his space, Nomi drags the bag of flour to herself and pours some out into a bowl, adding some water, oil, some spices, space onion and green cheese from the cooler. She uses her (washed) hands to mix it, apparently making sure the mixture is right by feel rather than any actual measuring.

"What type of food is it that you are making?" she asks Brawln as she works on her little cakes. "Was it for a specific meal or time of year?"

Brawln gestures at a data pad that he has propped against the wall on one of the counters. There is a very detailed recipe written. Brawln starts to speak and HC calls over the translation from the other side of the room.

“Brawln would not try to cook something like this without a recipe. He’s not terribly comfortable in the kitchen, but he thought he would give this a try. His mother always called it ‘pup stew’, something more like a staple food typically meant for the young to consume. I don’t think there’s anything in it that would be harmful to non-Wookiees…” He gives you a meaningful look, as though about to say more, but decides against it.

After a moment of silence, Brawln gestures at the cakes Nomi is making and says something in a questioning kind of growl as Brawln sniffs the air. However, though it’s clear Brawln is asking something about what Nomi is making, it does not get translated, and after a moment you realize that HC-7 is no longer present.

A moment later, a message comes over the loudspeaker from 3D6. “Curious announcement- it would seem cakes and ‘some Wookiee dish’ is being made in the kitchen, for any and all to partake in, or assist with making. Anxious request! Oooh - any and all suggestions for music would enthusiastically be provided for an impromptu social event.”

Brawln hides his face in his hands, and when his hands come away there is more of the stew he has been working on wetting the fur on his face.

Nomi recognizes the tone of Brawln's question, but her Shyriiwook is not yet up to snuff to catch the meaning of all of the words. She is about to take a stab at answering him anyway when Gigit can be heard over the loudspeaker. "Hm. Maybe I will need to double the recipe." She says, pulling the flour over again and adding more to the bowl.

"You should try not to touch your face while you are cooking. I'm afraid you are ending up with more of your dish on you than in your pot." Nomi says with a smirk as she hands him the towel that she had used to wipe his arm earlier. "Let's see, what did you ask? No, I don't have a recipe. Jiljuu never used one and when she showed me how to make it was always by how it felt in the bowl. You can use many different kinds of ingredients and keep the base the same - whatever is on hand. They're not usually sweet, so cake is maybe a misnomer. So once the batter is done, they get fried in the pan. Nomi takes a pan and pours some oil in it to heat over the burner. They end up flat, not like a cake you bake in the oven. So, like a flat... bread? But the consistency is more cake-like. They're really good. I promise." Once she has the batter in the bowl doubled, again by feel, she lets it rest a moment while she washes and dries her hands.

"Now for the fun part." She says as she takes a ladle, stirs up the bits that have settled to the bottom of the bowl and pours round circles of batter into the pan. The green cheese is a stark contrast to the white batter, which Nomi lets sit and sizzle for a moment. "The trick is to let the edges dry and the bottom turn nice and brown without burning it." She tells him. "You think anyone will come to HC's invite?"

Brawln takes the towel and wipes at his fur a bit, though it doesn't do too much to get him clean. He starts to answer Nomi's question, but in the middle he makes a dismissive gesture, as though realizing words will not help this particular situation until HC returns, instead making an exaggerated shrugging gesture, before returning to his stewy, soupy concoction he was working on earlier.

A little later a very upbeat HC-7 re-enters the room. "That 3d6 has quite the musical collection. My apologies, Nomi and Brawln - did I miss anything?" After a couple of guttural barks from Brawln, "Ah, it seems that Brawln is quite looking forward to trying the cakes, Nomi. They look quite delicious. His attempts may not be going nearly quite so well." After a few moments, cantina music fills the room, coming from PA system in the corner of the room. Over the music, you hear Brawln's voice.

"It seems Brawln would like your opinion, Nomi. He is curious whether you usually taste your recipe before it is done, or if you finish it and let the final product be a surprise."

Vic pokes his head into the kitchen, a place he has spent very little time while on board. "I am here for the impromptu social event, if not the stewed cakes." He says the next in his usual monotone translated voice that does not carry the exasperated sarcasm that ought to be there. "I would remind all involved that I remain comprised of a vastly different chemical composition than the rest of you and would not like to try some. Even, and I'm quoting here: 'just this once.'"

Vic situates himself in the next room outside the kitchen to be out of the way and perhaps out of the splash zone of the Wookiee cooking (the wooking?). He can see most of what is going on and is within easy conversation range.

Hearing 3D6 starting up some music, Efnir comes out to the common area. Seeing Vic he comes over and sits down. “I heard the announcement of some cooking going on and thought that the music meant it might be ready.” Looking into the tiny kitchen which felt cramped with one person, let alone one with a Wookie, “apparently not quite yet.”

Nomi gives Brawln a surprised look. "A cook must always test what they are making. How else can you know if it's any good or needs more salt before you make a whole batch of inedible food?" With that Nomi flips the flat cake/bread/thing which has browned pretty evenly. The second side cooks even faster. Nomi whips the item off of the skillet, tears it into three pieces and blows on one before popping it into her mouth. She smiles a bit nostalgically. After the moment of self-indulgence Nomi hands the second piece to Brawln and the other over the counter in the direction of Efnir. "Here. Test?" She says to Brawln.

In the direction of Efnir she says "Alright, make yourself useful and come try this. There's always a first test. Maybe it needs a little more cheese." Nomi grins at him, almost flirtatiously. She's in a good mood. "And no, Vic, no matter how many times you ask, you may not remove your face mask to try my delicious, childhood food. I do not want your face to explode today, ok?"

The thin "cakes" as Nomi called them are bready, chewy, heavily spiced (but not overly spiced, just having a lot of flavor) and have little bits of cheese and onion creating pockets of salty, sharp and creamy surprise.

Apparently satisfied with the taste herself, Nomi pours more dough into her reheated pan. "Efnir, do you have a favorite food you used to eat as a child?" She asks as she watches the cake closely to avoid it burning.

Brawln puts a spoonful of soupy, bits into his mouth. He considers for a moment before starting to crunch on whatever is in the soup. He looks puzzled, but goes for the salt shaker. Having added a few shakes of salt, he turns back in time for Nomi’s offer of cake.

He pops it into his mouth, and gives an appreciative nod to Nomi. HC translates his response, which has a intermittently muffled tone to his voice while there is food in his mouth. “Brawln says they taste quite good Nomi, and lack any unexpected crunching. He approves.”

He puts the lid back on the pot, and turns to listen to the conversation happening in the kitchen. After listening, he calls out in Vic’s direction.

HC says, “Brawln is wondering - if Skakoans do not eat food, what do they do for fun, bonding activities amongst friends or family? Or is that- his words here- ‘not a thing’?”

Vic thinks for a moment before responding. He is watching Nomi and Brawln cooking with what appears to be morbid curiosity. "Many Skakoans go into business with their family or study in the same or similar fields. Even if they do not, they may keep up with the current advances and events in the industries of their family members so they will be knowledgeable to offer informed opinion or engage in debate about a controversial subject of the day. They may be asked to take part in an experiment or assist in research related to an important work. It's considered quite an honor to be asked to check the work of one of your elders in your family. Skakoans don't view the separation of work and home life in the same way as many other species, so all of this is considered rather normal family bonding behavior. Some who have less in common with their families tend to see them less frequently and can instead become very close with their research group or business partners."

He pauses and redirects his explanation. "If you refer to what Skakoans do for recreation, there is exercise, meditation, or attending an art exhibition or scientific demonstration. With so many of us interested in scientific endeavors, and so many wanting to show off their achievements, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone advertising a seminar for their newest discoveries." Vic looks very startled. "What is a cat and why would you swing a dead one at someone? I swear, that one has got to be a bug." Vic fiddles with his translator and then looks something up on his datapad. "No, that one's real too." When he sets down his datapad, there is a picture of a Loth-cat on the screen.

Efnir takes the offered test cake and pops it into his mouth. “I have no reference to how this is supposed to be, but I think it is tasty. Was it small because it was a test or are they supposed to be bite sized? Food on Iktoch was generally simple and quick to make, in case we had to relocate quickly due to an approaching sandstorm. Being able to predict when they were coming helped of course, but sometimes preparation time was still short. Things small like this would have fit in nicely I think as long as prep time was short. I can’t say I have a favorite item based on taste but I did like gathering around with family and community when a storm came through and we had to set up in a cave for shelter. It was cozy and the adults would make what you might call… storm stew in basic. It really was just the things we had on hand heated up in a large pot for everyone, but it was comforting.”

Pointing at what Brawln is doing, “that looks more familiar to me, though we tried to keep the food in the pot instead of on ourselves.”

Nomi has added more dough to her pan and is busy lifting edges to test for doneness and flipping those that are completed on one side. "I've always wanted a cat. Maybe we can get one for the ship. I hear that if you get a good one it can be quite cuddly. Though they do like to bite." She pauses. "On second thought, perhaps we'll forgo the cat and I will come to terms with my lack of cuddles." She quickly stacks three completed cakes on a plate and starts to laddle out more. "Usually Efnir, these are the size of a hand, easy to hold and good for scooping or dipping. I guess the size depends on the hand. Like when Jiljuu used to make them for us younger siblings they were quite small because our hands were small. This one is for Brawln." She points to a larger cake she has set in the pan. "If it makes you happy, I will make you as many little cakes as you want. Where did you live when you weren't in caves? How much time did you spend of your early years in caves? Most Twi'lek live in caves. The surface of Ryloth is not very hospitable- too many things that like to eat Twi'leki."

Nomi looks around Efnir in the direction of Vic. "Are there any recreational sports or sports exhibitions on Skako?"

Vic looks fascinated by the conversation about growing up in caves running from wildlife/weather.

To Nomi, he responds, "Yes, we do have sports exhibition. They are...not well attended. Those that devote their life to that sort of thing are not very well regarded in Skakoan society. I was rather surprised to discover that in many other cultures, those who excel in sport are venerated while those with success in academia are overlooked. Certainly there are those who are fiends for sports competitions, but it is generally considered an unproductive vice. Most Skakoans just don't understand the appeal."

Vic leans forward in what is probably intended to be a conspiratorial manner, but of course his tone comes across exactly the same as before. "My brother Ori took me to a podrace once. There must have been twenty thousand screaming fans and we were seated in the middle of it. It's a little hard not to get swept up in it all under those circumstances. I have to admit, it was a very...enlightening cultural experience." Even in this company, Vic doesn't seem to want to admit how much fun he had.

Having listened to this conversation for a bit, Brawln goes back to his soup, which he ladles out into a bowl and sits at the table to eat. His eating still makes very audible crunching sounds as he chews. After eating a bit of the soup and drinking a little broth, he sets the spoon down and turns his focus back to the conversation at hand.

HC says, “Brawln is indicating that Wookiees almost exclusively favor sport of some variety, though the primary sports there tend to be those centered around survival- like hunting or fighting. He’s never been involved in the recreational variety, but he heard plenty about it as a pup.”

“Also, he would like to indicate that the soup is done, if anyone wishes to try it, though the expression he used was rather…um, let’s just say if you spoke Shyrriwook you’d expect that the soup might be bad.”

A Wookiee roar.

“Oh please,” HC says and some recorded sounding Wookiee noises - although not Brawln’s voice - come out of HC-7. “Hard to sound any less confident than that.” Brawln looks upset but doesn’t argue any further.

“Brawln wonders, Nomi, if much in the way of sports existed or were part of your life on Ryloth.”

Nomi nods as she piles the last of her flat cakes onto a heaping plate and brings them to the table. She carries two other plates as well, one with two Wookie-sized cakes and one with 10-12 bite-sized cakes. She gives the first to Brawln and the second with the small cakes to Efnir. The other plate she puts in the middle for communal taking, though no one else has shown up yet. Nomi returns to the kitchen as she answers the others. It appears she is peeling and cutting some sort of long root into sticks, likely for eating.

"Ryloth has sports. There are quite a few only Twi'leki can play as they require Lekku." Her Lekku lift, make a circular motion and then settle back on her shoulders. "I did not have the chance to go to many sporting events. More popular though are events where desperate people fight with desperate odds to try and make desperate money. Such things can be bloody. I'm not sure it should be rightfully called 'sport.' That's the reason I really liked going to the bot-fight actually. It's the same adrenaline producing excitement without actual pain, blood or death." She looks up from her cutting at Efnir, perhaps to see if he felt the same. "Well, one of the reasons."

Nomi disappears behind the kitchen counter, bending down and reaching far back into a recess of a lower cabinet. When she comes back up she is holding a large jug only Brawln recognizes, full of orange liquid. Nomi carries the plate of cut up root sticks, some cups and the jug to the table. She pours a small glass for each of herself and Enfir, a larger one for Brawln. "This is a Wookie specialty, Efnir. It's delicious, a little spicy and you want to take it slow, it can sneak up on you." Finally, she gets herself a bowl of Brawln's pup stew before sitting down at the table. "Cheers" She says, taking a sip of the orange drink. Nomi takes a moment to tap out a message to 3D6 and moments later the music that has been piping into the speakers is replaced.

"Excited announcement: The Captain says that the food is ready and 'all crew are requested to gather'- confused interjection: I am not sure if the last part is meant literally. 'for familial social interaction and to partake of pup stew, or else'."

Nomi smiles in satisfaction and then takes a bite of the stew, carefully schooling her face to show no reaction, good bad or otherwise. "Brawln." She says, once she has swallowed and taken another sip of the orange drink. "What is it that crunches?"

Efnir takes the cakes and stew, using the cakes to scoop up glops of the stew to his mouth, without comment of taste or texture. “You really should make sure Vesper is not around first before all this talk about swinging dead cats, cuddling them as pets and whatnot, it might be offensive to our friend.”

“There was not much of sport of Iktotch probably because the spectators and players seeing outcomes ahead of time takes the fun out of it. We certainly would run around and play as children, but not the kind of organized stuff you are talking about. It was quite fun to see the bot fight, since when away from our home planet the precognition is weaker and I could actually enjoy it more like it was meant to be. I would like to see something like that again Nomi, but maybe with less bounty put on me next time. It makes the future outings a bit easier. Where is everyone? You would think a chance at actual cooked food would bring out a larger reaction.” He pulls out a hunk of something he bit into. “I think they might be shells?” He then forgets Nomi’s warning and takes a large gulp of the Wookie drink to wash down the food mixture.

The soup itself is a confusing experience, it looks hearty, but has a sweet taste to it, and not in a tasteful way, as though someone tried to make a soup with a juice or soda as the base. But the most distracting piece of it is the crunchy bits, which are in some spots brittle but in other spots, nearly impossible to chew. It is not fun to eat.

HC-7 relays Brawln’s response. “Brawln says that it is not supposed to be crunchy. Nothing crunchy went into it.” Brawln shrugs and shows the recipe that his mother sent him. There is nothing obviously crunchy in the recipe, and nothing which should have a shell on it. It is pretty inexplicable. The Wookiee turns to HC-7 and utters a few words in Shyrriwook.

“I am an interpreter, Brawln, not a chef,” HC corrects him, “I have little knowledge of which of those ingredients could have made something crunchy.”

Brawln looks around the room thoughtfully but says nothing further on the topic, instead partaking of some of the offered Wookiee drink, and takes another mouthful of Nomi’s cake.

“Brawln wonders if the people who live on Dathomir eat those spiders - or whatever - that made its way onto the ship,” HC says, as Brawln speaks through a mouthful of cake.

Nomi shudders. "I don't think anyone could ever convince me to eat a spider. I'd rather eat one of those things that lived in the water, I think." She puts her spoon down to pick up another cake, but doesn't pick it back up again.

Looking to Efnir she says "I don't know where they are, but they are certainly missing out on an experience. I would go to another bot fight with you, if you want. Or any other outing you might be interested in. And if you are really worried about it, you could wear my belt. I wouldn't mind loaning it to you and you could blend right in wherever you want. You can't help but draw attention. I mean, your appearance is so striking. But I don't think that you have any universal bounties on you."

The Wookie drink is spicy and sweet and causes an immediate heady effect, which builds up as more is consumed. Nomi sips it, remembering how much it went to her head when she was on Kashyyyk. She takes a bite of the root vegetable she cut and once this is chewed says to Brawln. "Maybe you should try making the stew again and see if it comes out without the crunchy bits. Sometimes it takes practice."

Efnir coughs and chokes a bit on the last bite of food, pounds his chest to clear then looks at Nomi, then Brawln and Vic “Shtriking me? Lookit all youu! I would loof to go more date on Hades constrium mutav many funs there. WHooo this came up all sudden.” He takes another large swig of the Wookie drink, stumbles off the stool falling to the floor. As he reaches up to try and catch himself he Force Moves a bowl of stew straight up to the ceiling which then falls right on his head. Standing up a bit wobbly and a deeper red color than usual he says “uhhh scuze me” and runs off to his room as best he can.

Nomi's eyes go wide and her mouth forms an "O" in her surprise as she watches the disaster unfold. "Oh, no." She says, as Efnir stumbles from the room. "I didn't mean for that to happen... Someone had better go check on him..." She stands, a little wobbly herself, but her small glass is not empty as she knew what to expect and how to pace herself with this orange drink. "Thanks for the stew Brawln." Nomi follows Efnir out, moving a bit slowly. Leaving Brawln to clean up the mess from dinner.

Brawln remains fairly expressionless as this all happens. He looks around the room and sighs. He briefly makes eye contact with HC-7.

“Well don’t look at me,” HC says, and leaves the room. Cantina music continues to play over the loudspeaker as Brawln walks over the get the mop.