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[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

Extreme Sports: Pandora Style, Take Two

Quaritch comes into the Bar and orders a whiskey, straight. Thankful as he is for being able to be in Milliways tonight, he is a very unhappy camper at the report one of the chopper teams just filed with him. On top of the usual stuff going wrong on Pandora, the antics of one particular private are just making the day...more exciting than he needs.

Comments

[not_his_pa]

William also has a whiskey and a book, he looks over at the man and quickly back, those scars look bad.

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

Quaritch notices William sitting not too far away, and catches the glimpse out of the corner of his eye. "Can I help you?"

He's not trying to be threatening, but Quaritch has a way about him that...well, let's just say that often he doesn't bother yelling because he doesn't have to yell.

[not_his_pa]

"No, sir, just readin',"

He holds up the book which has a picture of some boys running down a city street on it.

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

Quaritch nods, turns back to his drink for a moment, and then takes a mental note of the book. "What're you reading, son?"

[not_his_pa]

"The newest Beadle's, sir. This one's got stories about London and New York in it."

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

"Beadle's?" The name is entirely foreign to the good colonel, and so his repeat of the name is clearly asking for clarification.

[not_his_pa]

"Publisher, sir, I mean it ain't great stuff but its only a dime."

[sunbaked_baker]

The door to the kitchen comes swinging open, eventually, as Rae carries a tray of baked goods both savory and sweet in from the kitchen. Admittedly, there are more sweet than savory, but that is because Rae was in the need of sweet things. The news back home was still quiet, which she should have been enjoying, but the waiting - knowing the peace would end - is starting to fray her nerves.

The red-head sets the tray on the bar a little ways down from Quaritch, and starts to set little price signs near each group of baked goods - hearty loaves and rolls with fragrant herbs mixed in, crumbly-moist tea breads smelling of fruit and citrus, a stack of chocolate cake and vanilla-almond frosting spirals, a grouping of dessert with what must be nine different kinds of chocolate, a half-circle of slices of deep, dense chocolate cake as dark as sin, and a pyramid of gooey, fragrant cinnamon rolls each as big as a human skull, still warm and moist.

As she's writing out the prices, she glances over at the person sitting at the bar. "Evening," she greets with a slight smile. Someone looks like he's had a long day when he really wasn't in need of a long day.

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

Quaritch nods in reply to Rae's greeting. "Evening." The tray of baked goods both look and, yes, smell good.

"Are those made with real grain?" On his version of Earth, that is a very good question to ask.

[sunbaked_baker]

The question gets a slightly startled look from the young woman. "Of course. The quality of flour I use isn't something I take lightly."

"Real cinnamon, too," she says, nodding at the cinnamon rolls. Secretly, she loves the fact that she can get actual cinnamon from the bar's kitchen, rather than the cassia one can only get back home (since imported cinnamon is on the far side of prohibitively expensive).

"And real rosemary and garlic in the rolls, real oranges and ginger in the tea bread, real chocolate in.... well, everything else," she grins. "This place is even better stocked than my own bakery back home."

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

Quaritch is impressed, to put it mildly. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm the commander on an outpost on Pandora, and...as expensive as the real stuff is on Earth, you can imagine how much we get there." The answer being 'not enough for even Parker Selfridge to manage to get real coffee'. "How much would one of your rolls be?"

The idea of "real" food pleases Quaritch (it's one of the things he likes about Milliways), and real, fresh "homemade" food is even better. He's not going to pass on an opportunity like that.

[sunbaked_baker]

"I don't know Pandora," she shrugs, smiling slightly, "but we'll call the first one a free taste-test."

There are napkins on hand (she knows some people don't lick their fingers like they should). She gets one and sets one of the large, gooey cinnamon rolls on it, coming down the bar to set it down in front of him.

"There you go, commander," she smiles slightly. (A new customer's first bite is one of her favorite things to watch. The looks on their faces are often the best sort of unconscious compliment.)

The light, yellow cotton jacket she has on over her tank-top does nothing to hide the sickle-shaped knife scar over her heart, wide and shiny, healed clean, but obviously a slash delivered by one holding her from behind, to one who could tell such things. The scar is crossed by another scar, a burn scar thin as wire, looping her neck like a necklace.

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

Quaritch nods in response to the mention of a free taste test.

The bite is...well, it's the best he's had in a while. A long while, and the smile on his face shows it. The fact that he takes a while to finish it is also a complement in and of itself.

"Excellent."

[hallelujahpilot]

"I take it that whiskey's on me, sir."

Chacon sounds resigned - so far, Quaritch's predictions are coming true far more than hers. This is slightly galling.

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

Quaritch nods. "I appreciate it." Beat. "Though I wish I was wrong. Andrews pulled another stunt and bailed on his chopper." Sip. "Other than sending him out on patrol without a mask, any suggestions on how to deal with him?"

He'd never ask the question like that on Pandora...hell, he'd never openly ask it on Pandora if there wasn't some rule he was trying to get around and needed a hand on making up an excuse...but here, he could use a hand.

[hallelujahpilot]

"Hmm, tempting. I'd say make him clean and count all the rounds of ammo in storage, so at least he's doin' something useful. But probably not a long-term solution."

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

Quaritch laughs in response. "Yeah, he'll just find a way out." Beat. "Since his job isn't exciting enough, you got any use for a new door gunner?"

And there's a scary smile on Quaritch's face as he asks that.

[hallelujahpilot]

Oh, that's not fair.

Quaritch knows she's been bitching, and complaining, and petitioning, for at least ONE door gunner that she could keep on at LEAST semi-permanent basis.

He KNOWS.

(Mostly because she's been bitching to him)

"I-"

Fuck it, she walked straight in it, didn't she.

"-yes, sir," she says, sounding very resigned.

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

"Sounds good. He'll be on every shift you can use him on. That should solve your shortage."

And then he throws her a bone.

"If he bails on his own, you're on no obligation to try and retrieve him. I'll make sure he knows this."

[first-runihura.livejournal.com]

Tarik is sitting at a nearby table, sipping tea from a smallish glass, when he notices Quaritch. You don't live a military life as long as Tarik's without learning to recognize another career soldier.

"Bad day, I take it." It may be the whisky, or maybe the generally-not-sunny disposition of the man ordering it.

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

"Something like that." Laconic, isn't he? And of course, then he looks up to note the man asking him about his day. "I've had worse."

[first-runihura.livejournal.com]

"Goes with the job, I'd say." He won't push the conversation further. If the other man wants to talk, he will.

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

"You get pulled in here much on your bad days?"

That seems to be par for the course for Quaritch, at least.

[first-runihura.livejournal.com]

"Let's put it this way. It wasn't a good day when I first found this place... Or it found me, if you believe some of the patrons, and I don't think I've had an actual good day since then."

He doesn't sound bitter about it, rather a bit fatalistic.

[not-inkansas.livejournal.com]

"This Bar tends to be like that." Pause. "I'd doubt it more if Chacon wasn't having much of the same experience as I am."