Home Grown (open)

[Roger Davis]

Sidney's response was a nice way of saying 'Yes, probably. The crew is falling apart.' The man was now in charge, something he apparently did not embrace, odd considering his natural talent and his war history as an officer. Even before the tragedy of James' death, Sidney seemed a little reluctant to be acting captain though he was the logical choice, really the only choice from what Roger could tell from his brief time on the ship.

Before Roger could continue what was sure to be a thrilling conversation of short sentences exchanged between the two fairly terse men, Kalli and Meilin noticed them just outside the galley. Kalli was apparently doing better having partially recovered her composure.

"Apologies. I didn't mean to intrude." Roger said as he entered in response to Meilin's invitation.

[Sidney Bainbridge]

Sidney froze a moment when Kalli and Meilin noticed him and Riger out side the room. He thought about walking away and getting out of there. Tari was the smart one, took off before she was noticed. Sidney though, he stalled to long and now he would be noticed leaving, but at least he would have Roger there to walk with him.

Scratch that Roger decided he would walk in and leave Sidney with no choice. Sidney reluctently walked in behind Roger and found himself a seat at the table. "You sure we are not getting in the way Meilin. We can leave it would be better." It wasn't that he didn't want to be around them. Well it was a bit of that, but more that he just didn't know how to deal with them in this start. He liked both Meilin and Kalli but crying wasn't his specialty. Of couse he knew at this point he wouldn't be able to walk away. "Glad you finally decided you could come out of your romm Kalli." Yeah not the best way to phrase it but it was to late now. He smiled at Kalli then looked back up to Meilin. She was offering tea and Sidneys mouth was drying "yeah I'll take some please."

[meilinalbright]

Meilin took a deep breath and brushed away her own tears that had started forming in response to Kalli's. "You ain't intruding." She poured tea for all of them and passed out the mugs. "Besides, no one's really sat down together since-" Meilin paused, looking for the right words in her tea. "Since everything happened."

[Kalli Ann Bernett]

Kalli wiped her eyes and smiled as Sidney. "Yeah your not intruding at all. i think I am done with the overly emotional stuff now. So you are safe." Kalli took a sip of her tea and sighed, she didn't really understand how everything had turned out the way it did. She wished she could go back to how things were, honestly she wished for things to be back like they were on the Orlando. It was easier then and she had Jamie there to talk to, to keep her feeling safe.


Sid was great and all but she just couldn't really talk to him. Meilin had become her closest person she could confide in. All the guys seemed really hard and battle worn. So did sakura and well Tari she had forged a relationship with but she just didn't seem like the person to talk to about things like this.

[Roger Davis]

Roger took a seat at the table after Sidney. Even though both the girls said otherwise, they almost certainly were intruding. Nothing could be done about that now though, at least there were no options for Roger. He had been called out and had been straight forward with them. He had the feeling that Sidney had contemplated slipping away and pretending he hadn't heard or seen anything but the thought of doing that hadn't even crossed Roger's mind.

They were all together in the open now and there was still nothing to talk about that wouldn't lead back to their recent loss. Talk of the ship's next plans, the progress of ship repairs, being stuck on New Canaan... it all led back to why they were stranded in the first place. Maybe Roger would be a more talkative person if life wasn't filled with so much tragedy, so many chances to say the wrong thing. Often times it was better to just say nothing. The only real thing to talk about that was 'safe' would be a droning autobiographical story about his own past. Now didn't seem like the best time for that either.

Roger took a sip of the tea offered to buy some time to think. He was startled at how great it was and that it was exactly what he and probably the others needed at the moment. Meilin had been on the ship for as long if not slightly longer than Roger had been yet he really hadn't had a chance to appreciate her cooking that often. Every meal seemed to be interrupted, hurried, or skipped entirely whether it was conflict between the crew or all the external troubles they had been facing since the job began. The gunhand looked up and gave a small smile to the Meilin to show his satisfaction over such a little pleasure like good tea. It had been far too long since he had a chance to enjoy a seemingly small things that could have such a profound impact on one's current state.

[Sidney Bainbridge]

The girls had invited Sidney and Roger in to join them but the group had pretty much gone silent at this point. Everyone knew that it was going to be hard to find something to talk about that wasn't going to lead back to what had just happened.

Sidney looked the group over for a moment as he thought about what he would say, also hoping someong else would speak up first. "I know as well as everyone else we are all worried about what to say next, so lets just agree to avoid the subjest and find something better to talk about. Meilin, I know we picked you up on Newhall but where are ya really from?"

It wasn't anything really important but maybe taking a bit of time to just talk about anything that wasn't related to James was a good thing. He was going to be captain of the Trinity now and maybe this would be a good chance for him to get to know these few members better and draw the attention from the fact that James was gone.

[meilinalbright]

Sidney hit the problem right on the head with all of them wondering what to say next. Though she wasn't expecting him to ask her to share her background. "Me, really? Not that much to tell." She sat down in her chair, crossing her legs beneath her and took a long sip of tea. It was a proper batch. She loved lavender, nice and calming.

"Well, I was born on a little moon of Athens. Ma wasn't married. Said my Pa was some space traveler just passing through, didn't even know he'd gotten her pregnant. That's why he never came back. She filled my head with stories of the adventures he must've been having. I think she wanted to inspire me to travel too, not marry young and get stuck on the moon like most of the other girls." Meilin shrugged. She didn't think marriage would be bad at all, but she'd still choose traveling instead. "So I worked and saved up. Got a job tending bar where all the travelers stopped. It's how I got my first job. Listened around for people looking to hire on a cook." She of course didn't mention the part about hoping her Pa would come breezing back through. Meilin knew how silly that notion had been.

"Didn't stay with that first crew long. They weren't a very good bunch. Left them and bounced around a little until I ran out of credits at Newhall. Got a job there, and started saving up again until Sid here apparently decided he had to take my cookin' with him." She chuckled, giving Sid a grateful smile. Despite everything that had happened, she still felt like this was a crew she wanted to stick with.

[Kalli Ann Bernett]

Well Sid came right out and said it they needed to be talking of something else and he got the ball rolling on that one. Kalli was actually happy that he had taken that step to skip past the subject. He had saved them all from the emptional roller coaster of Kalli that came with it.

Kalli actually laughed a little when Meilin told her story. the fact that the last crew wasn't the best of people and all. She could understand the idea of getting away from that. "Well I think the Jury is still on on whether Sidney is good folks or not. The rest of us sure but him, well we will see I guess." She was happy to learn a bit more about her fellow crew, Meilin especially she seemed a lot like Kalli, well definatly different but still similar. "He has a way of getting us out in the stars though doesn't he." After leaving the Orlando it was Sidney who had landed her a spot here on the Trinity.

[Roger Davis]

Sidney took the words right out of Roger's mouth. Of course Roger wasn't going to say those words but Sid was a bit more blunt with such things opting to speak and get it over with rather than tiptoeing around. Meilin's story was what you might expect; young girl trying to get out away from home in search of better opportunity and adventure. She was right that there wasn't much to tell. Cooks rarely had all the more exciting stories and scars to aid in the telling that someone like Roger had.

Kalli spoke up after Meilin had finished and poked a little fun at Sidney. It was all good to hear coming from her, proving that she wasn't a complete emotional wreck but could push past it to talk and even joke. Assuming Kalli was truthful about it all and the jest toward Sidney could be discarded, it was nice to know she thought them all to be good folk. After all, how long was the trail of corpses they left on their last job? It might give anyone second thoughts about those who killed so easy. Perhaps it was the fact that the entire crew had taken up arms that made it more acceptable.

"My turn now?" Roger asked as he looked around the table at the others. "Our first introductions never really got too far. I'm sure that y'all can tell by my manner and speech that I was born on Londinium." Roger grinned wide, perhaps overly pleased with himself for the little joke. "My folks uprooted us though and we left for more distant lands. Raised on a farm hence my actual manner. Then o' course I got picked up in the war which is another story altogether. Couldn't find any honest work after it all no matter how hard I tried so I ended up takin' to the skies like y'all. I had a few past crews like Meilin. Some were good folk that I just parted with over time, others I left, and a few left me."

[meilinalbright]

Meilin laughed at Kalli's little jab at Sidney. He might not fall into the category of the best sort of folk, strictly speaking, but he was still in the realm of good folk. That was enough for her. Meilin's gaze wandered over to Roger as he started sharing. She knew he was an Independent vet, but that was about it until now.

"I think it's kinda a shame that you soldiers have so much trouble finding honest work nowaday." No matter what side of the war they were on, a soldier deserved a little respect. She pushed herself out of her chair and moved back to the stove to check on the filling. All done and ready to be poured into the crust. Meilin pulled two potholders from a hook above the stove and used them to lift the pot of filling.

She poured the contents of the pot carefully into two large tins containing pastry dough that she'd made earlier. Once those were full, she set the pot aside and put a sheet of dough on top of each tin. Both were slid into the stove. She'd leave the mess on the counter for later. "Sorry. Had to get those in if we wanted dinner on time." Meilin returned to her seat at the table and picked up her mug of tea again. She was really enjoying hearing about everyone's stories.

[Roger Davis]

Roger slowly shook his head. "I'm sure it was bad for some Alliance folk too but I didn't get turned away 'cause I was unqualified or there were no jobs to be had. I'm sure most other Browncoats have similar stories." Roger replied. "There was a major plant going up back on Verbena, thousands of jobs springin' up out of nowhere. Funny that they couldn't find a place for me ever just for the construction phase. Any Alliance job turns you away as if you were a convicted felon and of course we don't got any veteran benefits." He slapped his side where he'd been injured.

Roger didn't want to overly drag it out and make a huge deal of the hardships of the surviving Browncoats but it was conversation... better than talking about James. Most people who weren't directly involved also didn't know just what it was like anyway, how desperate people were for work and how badly the were mistreated by the triumphant new government. Roger had actually applied for the Alliance military and was nearly accepted into the program before they finally found out about his past. You'd think the winners wouldn't be the ones to hold such a grudge.