Tasha feels a bit sore when she wakes up, but mostly sore in a good way. She's also feeling a bit smothered, since she's sandwiched between Gabriel and Katherine in the bed.. and has Hakeber flopped across all three on top of the covers. She doesn't quite remember when they all got back to the ship.. and it's not like she was drunk or anything. There may have just been too much going on at the time for her to pay attention to details like that.
Tasha takes a moment to gather her wits, deciding this really is the best sort of grogginess. If there's anything better, she doesn't know what it is, and if it does it exist it must be a wonder of the universe. She also wonders where she put her underwear, along with everything else. A quick glance and the answer proves to be: everywhere. She also notices just who is with her, the memories coming back as she wakes up. She smiles; she'd always hoped for this outcome, to get everyone together. She hopes it lasts.
Hakeber is only drooling a little bit too, and actually rolls off Tasha slightly to scratch herself, giving a bit more breathing space. For someone with wings like Tasha has, a bit of breathing space helps. It's a wonder nobody is sleeping on her wings this time.
The hybrid woman wonders if she's getting better at this, or if she's just very pushy when asleep. It's probably both, she decides. Reaching over, she picks up Hakeber and gives her a hug, then carefully lays her back down as she works to extricate herself, putting Hakeber in the space she's vacated. There's only one thing to do for something like this, and she has to sneak off to do it right:
And that's make sure every wolf and half-wolf gets an amazing breakfast! She'll have to wake Liza. No, she corrects herself, she'll have to find then wake Liza.
The array of clothing scattered about is confusing and expensive. A bathrobe is probably good enough though, if Tasha can find it.
In the end Tasha grabs what she can find: Gabriel's bathrobe and what she thought were her's but she decides in hindsight are probably Katie's underwear. She can't exactly be flashing half the crew, after all, but she doens't need to maintain the same level of professionalisim she had to as a cadet -- or whatever professionalisim level she had as a sailor for that matter. She also can't tip-toe, lacking toes, so she slow-canters on out, trying not to wake anyone.
The lounge area only has two expensive dresses and other bits of clothing scattered about, leading into Liza's room. She's usually a lot neater, and has even left the door half-opened (probably because of the pants across the threshold.
Tasha decides to pretend not to notice. She knows how much Liza values her personal assistant slash maid training and ability, so the young woman thinks she'd take it her noticing the slip harder than the others would. She creeps up on the door, then gently pushes it aside and peers in. "Liza?"
There's a pile of lumps under the cover of Liza's bed. Part of it rustles, and a familiar long-eared, brown face pokes out from under the foot of it. "Tasha?" Liza asks. Lapi don't have to whisper when talking to smaller-eared folk. "What time is it?" she then asks, followed by a cute yawn.
"Time to make a lot of breakfasts. I want to make sure Gabriel, Katie and Hake the smell to wake up to. Very important. I'll help out," Tasha whispers anyway, because she's been told she's loud.
The Lapi woman extracts herself from under the covers and stretches. Her fur is the most disheveled Tasha has ever seen it. "I'll need to wash my hands really well first," Liza apologizes, then goes to fetch her own robe.
Tasha takes a moment to look down at herself. "I'll wash up too," she admits, now that she's more awake and the lights are brighter. "Then you can tell me what to do in the kitchen." And so the hybrid follows after the bunny.
The stop at the bathroom brings things to a halt when they are assaulted with squawky singing. It.. might be Lacci taking a shower. Shojo was part of the Templar Choir after all.
"Change of plans," Tasha whispers, thumbing down the way. "Lets not bother them. I had to interupt last night, and she probably hasn't forgiven me. Barging in will make things worse. Lets look elsewhere."
There's the bunkroom restroom on the main deck, which shouldn't be in use because nobody actually uses the bunkroom yet.
And so that's where Tasha heads, taking the lead once again. "You know how Lacci is. I think she needs some distance from me so she can grow on her own, someone quieter. She's been sticking to Shojo, which is good because he had been keeping to himself, but I'm a little worried our two Vartans won't integrate at this rate and I don't want to give them more reason to resent me." A quick check down the corridor, then the young woman keeps going. "Once they seem at ease, can you try and work it so they spend more time with the others?"
"Me?" Liza asks. "I suggested a game of cards to Yue and Aaron when we returned from the party and.. it got out of hand quickly," the assistant admits, and looks around for something to step on to make using the sink easier.
"'She who makes the food controls the castle'," Tasha quotes, an old quote from back on Sinai. Yet, it remains true. Liza can arrange meals and do other things Tasha can't, especially now that she's trying a 'hands off' approach. "Just see if you can get them to share more meals with the others and tell me if they seem reluctant to be part of the group. But enough about that, we have breakfast to manage." And so she quickens the pace pushing on.
Liza has to jog to catch up with Tasha. Of course they aren't the first to reach the Galley. Shojo is making coffee since Aaron hasn't escaped from Liza's bed yet, and Jonas is also there reading something on his datapad. "Good morning, boss lady," the doctor greets. "You really look you could use some touching up. Half of your fancy hairdo is coming undone. Was somebody chewing on your braid?" he asks.
Tasha pauses to consider that. "Yes," she answers after a moment, head tilted andeyes rolled up in thought. She nods. Definitely chewing. "I hope you won't think I'm any less respectable, seeing me like this." And not as, say, a Titanian. "We're here to make breakfast; I want it to be special, so I'm helping this morning."
"How would you like to help?" Shojo asks. The kitchen is usually his domain. His voice has no inflection, but he might be a bit territorial about it.
"You can still stand upright, so that is respectable enough for a Belter," Jonas notes.
It's a bit of a chalenge to stand up and walk, but Tasha isn't about to admit to that. Gabrielw as extra eager last night, though she wasn't sure if it was her outfit or the presence of both Katie and Hakeber, which is new. "I just need a Liza extra special bacon-and-everything-meat-plus-eggs-and-coffee for four, before the three wake up. Very important. As long as it's done in time, I can help, or if you think my helping will not help, I can wait by Jonas and sit on my hands."
Liza enters into the kitchen area (where there is a handy stepstool) and starts to gather ingredients from the strange stasis pantry. "How big of an appetite are you expecting?" Liza asks.
"The biggest," Tasha replies. She knows when she's entering dangerous territory and so decides to sit by Jonas, where she hopefully can't ruin the meal by proximity alone. "Heavy on the meats, but with eggs and toast too. Coffee. Orange juice. If you're not sure, include it."
"There is a roast that can be cut into steaks," Liza reports. "Enough eggs.. and waffles. Would steak-and-egg sandwiches using waffles instead of break be alright? We haven't restocked the bacon yet."
"That's fine, just do what you can. I trust your judgement," Tasha insists, moving her hands from under her butt to under her head as she props her head up. "In fact don't even ask me! Just do your magic, every second counts!"
Liza does enlist Shojo's help, and has things well underway when Lacci appears, also wearing a bathroom and with her feathers fluffed up a bit. "Good morning.. is that some new sort of coffee or is it meat?" she says.
"It's an amazing breakfast for an amazing night, that's what it is. Well, okay, a bit ad hoc, but the night was a bit ad hoc, too," Tasha answers. She then yawns cavernously, blinks, then flicks her ears. She decides now's as good a time as any to get the wind blowing for interupting Lacci and Shojo's conversation, so she adds, "And by the way Lacci, I am sorry I had to interupt your conversation last night. I had it on good authority there was an alien power masquerading as something else and I was digging for information. Security related, but I couldn't exactly say so."
"Oh, that's fine.. old birds will peck your ear off. It's different with Clan Vartans, who have actually been to lots of places. Most of his stories were from his friend anyway," Lacci says, and sits across from Jonas and Tasha. "How can you think about food though? I worked my way down the buffet twice. I could barely get up this morning."
Tasha taps her pointer fingers together under her head. "I was involved in a lot of 'extra-party recreational affairs' last night. Besides, all Karnors love a good breakfast, and it's traditional for us." And so Tasha grins lopsidedly, giving a little shrug. "Besides I didn't eat much last night, had to mingle, and I wanted to dance. Then I needed to talk to Sam, and Sam told me about our secret guest, so I was doing that until the dancing started and Id been dancing until just before we left."
"Where is our resident demon?" Lacci asks, a bit nervously. "I feel more relaxed if I know where it is. Otherwise I sleep with the light on."
"Oh you know how he is, follows the whims of his master, lurks in the shadows. Did you know he's an amazing dancer? In more than four dimensions." Tasha does sit up though, looking around. "I hope he's not still stuck hiding in that corner. He really didn't want the secret guest to know he was there. Whoever was at that party, they made Sam nervous."
"Well.. glad you told me after the fact, or I wouldn't have enjoyed myself," Lacci admits. "I don't remember any priests being there. And.. I did enjoy the dress. But I wasn't about to try dancing."
"Dancing is good practice," Shojo says as he thin-slices the roast.
"I'm thinking of asking that Kuja-- um, the Aquilian couple to teach us how to dance. Maybe get Mr. I. to talk to them, work out the details. You're welcome to join us." Not seeing Samael anywhere, Tasha has a thought to wonder if maybe their special guest cornered him somewhere. Would Sam call for help, or try to face the stranger alone? Of course he could just be grabbing his uniform, she conceeds. "At least the rest of the party was nice and relaxing. I'm glad I talked to the Seeders when I did, they've been a big help."
"We don't have the tails for that sort of dancing," Lacci laughs. "I noticed that the dolphins didn't dance, so I don't feel left out. It was tiring enough just watching things. Is Katie a professional singer?"
"Katie's taken some time off from her career as a professional entertainer to join us here on the Dark Horse," Tasha answers, her attention returning to Lacci as she mentions one of her favorite topics. "She's been at it since she was just a girl. I heard the old music, it's still wonderful. Sometimes I wonder if she might want to pursue a greater galactic career, but then I also want her to stay here."
"I thought she was.. well.. military," Lacci says in a whisper. "She moves like someone who's been trained to defend themselves. But so does Gabriel. You and Hakeber seem to be the only relaxed people here, and the bunnies are worrisome too the way they just.. stand still and go quiet."
"They both have military backgrounds. Gabriel was a captain with the TerraGens a long time ago, now he's, um, retired. Katie got her start in entertainment through the military. Mr. I. and Miss N. are Katie's manager and stylist respectively, if you wondered." Tasha tilts her head. Yes, she thinks, that accurate enough without saying too much and not being a lie. "Hake's job is probably obvious, she was a researcher and scholar. I did ... Well, what I'm doing now actually, just on a smaller scale."
"Being still and quiet is natural for Lapis," Liza claims, as she whips up the eggs. Shojo lays out the slices of meat, and heats them up one the hot-or-cold metal stovetop. "Today's breakfast will be an exercise in unconventional food wrappings."
"You people and your chewing ways, always making layers of food," Lacci teases, "instead of eating it on sticks."
Tasha gives the cooks a thumbs up. "That's fine, last niiii- neeevermind where was I oh. Did anyone notice our mysterious white Eeee was there? I talked to our host and a few others, no one knows what she actually does or where her money comes from, and she was clearly testing me because I've pulled that exact same routine on other people." She then turns to Lacci and smiles. "When you have lots of sharp point teeth, you want to use them. Biting and tearing fulfills an essential Karnor need."
"That Eeee was the vagrant passenger?" Lacci asks. "That seems.. extreme and suspicious. But you can't really trust Eeee anyway," she notes, with typical Galactic prejudice (although it's pretty common on Sinai too).
Tasha wonders about that, how the Eeee somehow gained such a bad reputation, and especially how these civilized Galactic Eeee became the evil goddess worshipping nation back on Sinai. Ashdod was a fun, if very dangerous, place for The Rake's crew to have shore leave and for that reason Captain Eyeshine was always thrice as cautious about where they went and with whom. "Well, lets give her the benefit of the doubt for now. I mean, we do have a demon on board -- a real demon and not some sort of metaphor -- so I'm sure we can manage to get along with her. And besides, she may be trying to talk to us, she just can't do it until we're away."
"I wonder if she'll be crazy, or just pretend to be, sort of like you," Lacci notes, and then quickly dips her back into her coffee mug to hide her grin.
Tasha's stare of suspicious is focused on Lacci for a long moment, eyes narrowed, but then she laughs. "You try doing these things and not being a little crazy. And as Egypt reminded me, crazy can be a good cover, and a good defense. If nobody knows what to expect from you, they have to suspect everything, and that takes time. It's like jamming, but with acting."
"I smell something good," Hakeber says, poking just her head around the doorframe. "And you need more bathrobes, Tasha. I didn't want to get my nice clothes grubby. So is breakfast ready, or should I actually put something on?"
"Nearly ready," Liza announces.
Tasha both sits and perks up, ears going straight as Hakeber appears. She waits a moment to answer to see if the others show, then replies, "You're supposed to wake up to the smell of breakfast in bed, so Hake-bear, this is clearly just a dream and you're not seeing my plot to deliver breakfast."
"We can't all fit and eat, unless we're eating off eachother's belly!" Hakeber notes. "But I can help you serve it. Although I'll be naked for it. Well, I can carry the coffee, since I have incentive to not spill any."
"I've got Gabriel's robe, you can hide in here with me," Tasha assures her friend. She stands up and walks to the door, then holds up an arm so Hakeber can slip inside without flashing half the ship. If Tasha looks like a child wearing Gabriel's robe, then Hakeber looks half that child's age. The robe drags in the floor, and Tasha has to keep pulling up the leaves or risk her hands vanishing in to them.
"How can we carry anything if we're both wearing the same robe?" Hakeber asks with a laugh. "Just stand in front of the door, and I'll hurry past to get my own robe."
"Oh fine, avoid my trick to hug you," Tasha laments. She blocks the doorward like a hybrid curtain, though she also has to keep an eye out down the corridor because she's not wearing much more the Hakeber under the robe. "Did I tell you Hake's a scholar?" She repeats to the group in the Galley. "Not the stereotype at all, huh?"
"She seems like a college girl to me," Jonas notes, while Hakeber sashays past Tasha, wagging her tail and hips all the time before vanishing into the room she shares with Yue (and occasionally Aaron).
Tasha stops herself from mentioning she isn't exactly sure what college girls are like, after all she was in college all of two weeks, tops. Once Hakeber's inside, she heads back to her seat. "Sooo, any questions for me? We should be heading out soon with our passengers, it will hopefully be less stressful than our last outing."
"Do you want cheese in your sandwich?" Liza asks Tasha.
"What's this about Sam wearing a uniform?" Lacci asks. "Is it so he'll stick to the same body?"
"Yes, thank you Liza," the hybrid answers. She pools the large bathrobe, then sits down on it. It makes her look like some sort of shrunken imp. "Oh, well, I thought maybe I had treated Sam a bit badly before. We got to talking about his kind, and I didn't like how that went. I thought it'd be a nice gesture to show he's part of the crew, too. Now that you mention it, he probably will have to stick to one body, but then I think he can copy a uniform just as easily."
"All of his clothes so far have just been part of him then?" Lacci asks. "But.. well, they'd have to be. He's just.. black goo or something isn't he?"
Tasha cocks her head to the side, clearly needing to think on this particular question. She chews her lip a moment, then speaks. "I think what he is can't be easily expressed in terms related wholly to our universe. He's probably a hyper-universal entity composed of more than four dimensions, with an inner and outter plane that varies depending on his will. He might even be a sort of living, self-contained universe attached to another universe, such as ours. I think while he's in our universe he experiences linear time, too, unlike some of the Ogdru-hem who experience non-linear time and even multiple timelines simultaneously. His form is probably him manipulating his expression in four dimensional space from higher dimenions. Oh, and he's also made from material from outside our universe, which has its own properties."
"So we see his shadow, which is three-dimensional to us?" Lacci asks, cocking her head in an avian manner. "All that, and he's just a servant?" She turns to give Liza a contemplative look.
"Yes, we're probably only seeing Liza's shaaadooow. When you're not looking she's always judging your appearance, making appointments, and being everywhere at once," Tasha whispers in a mock-spooky voice, lifting her hands to wiggler her fingers. The oversized robe really helps.
"Now I'm going to have nightmares about Lapi," Lacci complains, as Hakeber returns in her better fitting robe (she doesn't have wings to awkwardly stick out. "I'm back, load me up!" she says.
"I guess I can let you eat early, but I am going to load a few plates and head up to the owner's deck in a moment," Tasha notes. She stands as well, then makes ehr way around the table towards the kitchen, looking like an undersized gargoyle with, perhaps, a cold.
"I mean load me up with stuff to carry," Hakeber says. "I may not have been a barmaid, but I'm an expert at not spilling liquids."
The first of the sandwiches are done. The scrambled eggs are more like loose omelets with cheese mixed in, wrapped in the thin-sliced meat and stacked together between two waffles. They definitely have a direction for eating, given how the meat-rolls are oriented.
"Oh. See, I'm not really awake yet." Tasha does so, filling two plates for Hakeber to carry, then stacking four for herself along with their glasses. She, after all, was a barmaid.
"Sure you aren't going to trip over the robe?" Hakeber asks.
"Watch the master," Tasha insists, and she does not trip over the robe. She'd been on the wrong end of so many tail pulls, butt pinches, catcalls, birdcalls, wolfcalls and attempts to feel her up dropping something because of a robe would bring shame to barmaids everywhere. "This. Is. Nothing!" And out she goes.
Hakeber trails behind, and helps to kick the looser parts into the lift so the doors can close. They enter the lounge to see a naked Yue picking through the underwear on the floor. "Is one of those for me?" she asks.
"Stay away, you sneaky Human!" Tasha makes a show of edging around the perimeter of the room, keeping an eye on Yue in case she pulls some sort of Terragens agent food snatching technique or tries to psionically compel sharing. "These ae for Gabriel and Katie. I will defend the food!"
"And one's for me," Hakber adds in.
"I'm more of a yogurt in the morning person, don't worry," Yue laughs, and continues to sort through the clothing.
"One's for Hake," tasha confirms. Yue gets suspiciously eyed as Tasha closes on the door to her quarters. "Hake, I can't hit the door button and watch Yue at the same time," she hisses.
Hakeber comes over and presses the door contact, causing it to silently slide open.
Tasha carefully backs in to the room, having to push bathrobe back and out of her way with a hoof, making the way going slow. She can't even turn around, her wings are in the way and who knows what Yue might try if she did.
As the human gets her underpants on, it doesn't seem like she's going to make a raid on Tasha's special breakfast. Inside, Gabriel is sitting up in bed and Katie is starting to stir.
Once fully in, Tasha turns in place and promptly announces, "Breakfast! I went and go breakfast. Special breakfast." She puts the trays down on the bed, all four, the shrugs out of the bathrobe and offers it to Gabriel. After that she helpfully fans the breakfast, so at least Katherine will wake up to the smell.
Katie's nose pulls the rest of her into a sitting position. She's still got her metallic fur look of course, making her shiny. "Hey, are you wearing underwear?" Katie accuses once her eyes focus.
"Your underwear. I didn't notice until I was already heading out, but you'll forgive me because it was all for the cause of breakfast." And then Tasha scoops up a tray and hands it to Katie, picks up her own, then flops in to bed against the Karnor starlet. "You can take your underwear back at any time."
"After coffee," Katie notes. "And you wore my bathrobe," Gabriel points out. "Did you wear anything of Hakeber's too, or was the robe just to make sure I didn't get out of bed?"
"It was whatever I could find on short notice, because I wanted to get breakfast ready before you woke up, so you'd wake up to breakfast! I tried very hard." Tasha gives Gabriel a pout, which is then turned up towards Katie. "Very hard," she repeats, laying her ears back melodramatically. "Besides if I wore Hake's stuff I'd just break it. Even these are really tight."
"So you made this?" Gabriel asks, holding up one of the odd sandwiches and giving it a sniff.
"Oh don't look so worried. I did not make that, I oversaw and directed its creation by exercising leadership skills -- such as waking Liza up. asking Liza, then not helping and letting Shojo help instead. I've matured." And again Tasha looks up to Katie. "Matured." She makes a patting gesture over her own head, indicatively.
Katie obligingly reaches up to pet Tasha's head while sipping at her coffee. Hakeber has already made half of her own sandwich vanish... and may be eyeing Tasha's untouched meal already.
Tasha mantles her wings, hiding her meal from view even as she gets petted. She reaches beneath and emerges with her own sandwich, as well as her coffee. "So I guess everyone enjoyed the party?"
"The dancing was nice," Gabriel says. "And not having a lot of military types was refreshing."
"I notice you always gravitate towards the military types. Is it because you want to, or just an old habit? You don't have to do it anymore, it's not like we're Terragens agents or anything. Well, except Yue." Tasha shrugs, as if to say who knows with Yue. She takes a sip, then admits, "It was nice just being civilized for the most part and not politics civilized. I mean, sure, I did that too, but it wasn't like back on Abaddon."
"Oh, there really weren't any military types there.. at least not active, as I think most of the Vartans were retired," Gabriel says. "Lots of policymakers though I suspect.. or those who can influence them. And scholarly types."
"Yup, lots of scholars, and not even the grabby kind," Hakeber agrees.
"Am I a scholar, a military type, or a policy maker?" Tasha muses, head tilting to the side. She nibbles on her sandwhich a moment in thought. "I'm a policy maker, right? I feel like I change things."
"You're a troublemaker," Katie suggests, feeling more awake. "So a bit of everything."
"That does sound like me," Tasha agrees. The admittance comes with a sudden squeeze of Katie behind while the hybrid woman eats her sandwich with exagerated and focused innocence.
"I'll have to call Mr. Invention to arrange for our passengers to be smuggled over," Gabriel says, finishing his sandwich and turning to coffee. "We should probably clean up first."
"I guess we do have to actually work. I'll, um, figure out where Sam went and see if he knows more about our secret party guest. I have a feeling that as we keep stiring up trouble, we're going to attract increasing notice from the 'special players' who will come to see what we're doing. That was true with some of the recent big players we met." Tasha wiggles until she's comfortable, then sips her cofee again. "But first, breakfast. Then work. Can't work without food! I'm sure Jonas will back me up on that." She looks down, and begins on her meal in earnest.