milliways_bar | (no subject)

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[OOM: This is Peter Tarzey. He used to work for the Enclave, and his side lost.]

Paladin Rama's taken over the robot factory operation, and Ellen's been transferred, for now, back to Megaton. She's fine with this. Several other Knights and Scribes have been asked to move into the area as well, in the interest of protecting Brotherhood supply lines. Ellen is fine with that, too, especially the Scribes part. She doubts she'll have duty as peaceful as Megaton long, but she'll enjoy it while she can.

Especially since Moira's Page'n'Purge operation- what Moira calls the drive to blank the pages of unreadable 200-year-old books so that they can be used for printing new material- is in full swing. It'll be a long time before all of Arlington Library's archives are reprinted, but the works is chugging along, and Ellen's got her pick of reading material. She's taking advantage of this to read to the toddler on her lap- you're supposed to read to babies, she knows that much.

"'A complete meal in a dish... hearty and delicious! Creamy macaroni and cheese is even a bit elegant, polka-dotted with peas and "checkerboarded" with Cram slices.'" She looks down at the baby. "I probably should've found another book. Now I'm all hungry."

The baby seems quite happy to hear about how best to prepare Checkerboard Bake from Blamco Mac-n-Cheese, Cram, condensed soup, and the like, so she shrugs and goes on reading. More verbal company would be equally welcome, so far as Ellen is concerned.

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Charles picks up his tea as he hears Ellen read, "Cram, is that like spam?"

"Maybe?" says Ellen, looking up. "Is Spam a kind of canned squishy gelatinous meat that'll still be good in two hundred years as long as nobody damages the can?"

"Yes, its awful. My stepfather wanted us to learn about it and made our cook use it when he was working on the bomb shelter. Horrible stuff."

"It was the only meat I ever had, growing up," Ellen says with a small smile. "They stocked Vault 101 with a lot of it. And other canned food, of course."

The image on the page looks something like this. Ellen's currently entertaining a fond memory of something similar, though not quite so fancy, as a birthday meal.

"I"m sorry, but that would make sense. That's how you're meant to prepare for nuclear war. Well, that doesn't look too bad. What are the red things?"

"Pimiento peppers," says Ellen, peering at the ingredient list. "We didn't have those. You'd have to use something like canned tomato sauce to get that color in the Vault."

"Those can be good. It looks like it could be just as tasty with another meat as well. Though I haven't done that much cooking,"

He just has fond memories of things being made in the kitchen.

"The texture would probably be kind of weird," Ellen says, and resettles the baby. (The baby is pre-verbal, and mostly thinking of what it feels like to gum her teddy bear.) "I mean, Cram is ... squishy. Other meat has actual muscle fiber to it, you know?"

She turns the page. She peers at the next picture for a while.

"Wow. I think that's ham... you could probably do that with mole rat, actually."

"Is that fish?" Charles smiles at Marie and sends her some soothing feelings.

Ellen runs a finger down the page as the baby gurgles happily. "Nope. Toledo Ham, it says. And eggs. And ketchup, and cheese. And half a teaspoon of anise seed and some butter and onion. Sounds kind of interesting, but that's kind of a lot of that ketchup, isn't it?"

(She honestly doesn't know. They didn't have it in Vault 101 and she's only ever seen it used on French fries, usually by American soldiers at Milliways who tried to get her to eat real food, not the stuff she was used to from the Vault.)

Edited 2013-02-01 01:59 (UTC)

"It could do with a little less but ketchup can be good. I know I do enjoy it on many things, though I don't think I'd eat that."

Ellen nods and tries to turn the page. Marie lets out a 'gaBLAH!' kind of noise and grabs for the book herself. When Ellen gets her hand away, she's turned several more pages to something completely unrecognizable.

"Huh. Does... does that look like anything you know?" she says after a bit. "I feel like I ought to be able to tell what it is."

"Well, its in gelatin and looks to be a variation on some kind of tuna pasta."

"I don't think I've ever had tuna," Ellen says thoughtfully. "What is it, anyway?"

"A kind of fish, its good for making lots of dishes as you can get it canned. I ate a lot of tuna salad in my childhood."

Ellen nods. "I might have to look into that," she says. "This actually looks pretty good, at least to me. I like noodles."

"Oh it can be. Tuna casserole was a staple of many of my dinners when my parents were away. Raven and I liked it since it was comforting."

"I'll have to try that while I'm here, then," Ellen says. "Can it be mushed up soft enough to give to someone with no teeth?"

"Yes, it can especially if egg noodles are used. How old is she?"

He focuses on Marie and gives her a smile.

"Around eight months," Ellen says. "Her name's Marie. She's not mine- I'm fostering her for a few months at her parents' request."

Her thoughts are of a bearded man in power armor patched together with leather and steel and a cow skull for a shoulder, and a brown-haired woman in a lab coat with a revolver in her hand.

"I see. She looks healthy and well. I hope its not too long before you can return her to her family."

"It'll probably be four or five months," Ellen says. "Then she'll either get to go home, or her mother will come down from the Pitt and stay in the Capital Wasteland until it's safe for them to go home."

"That's a good bit of time. How are you handling having someone else to care for?"

Ellen gives a lot of herself and Charles doesn't want her to work too hard.

Ellen sighs and sets the cookbook down to rub at her face with her free hand. "I've got help," she says, "a lot of it from the Brotherhood, but it's ... taking a lot. One day I'll have kids of my own, I know that, but at least I'll have prep time for that. This was a surprise."

"Of course, taking care of someone else always does. Are you sleeping enough?"

"When she lets me," Ellen says. "She sleeps a couple of hours at a time and then wakes up wailing."

Charles runs a hand over Marie's hair,

"What's setting you to wail, little one?"

Marie really likes the texture of her teddy bear when she chews on it. Or cold, wet rags. Or any number of objects-

Long story short, she's teething, and it's going to be a while before that stops.

A teething ring appears on the counter as well as something to put on her teeth,

"Maybe these will help."

"Thank you," Ellen says, and carefully offers the ring to Marie. The baby doesn't seem to understand what to do with it, but it doesn't take her long to figure out. "I've been doing what I can, but the resources are a little limited."

"I understand but hopefully Milliways can fill in some of what you need."

Ellen nods. "Mostly I've been coming here to sleep and get away," she says. "I leave Marie with the Scribes or with Sheriff Simms."

Not with Scribe Cancio, though. She's not about to make him take care of another man's baby- she likes him far too much to do that.

"That's good. Let me know if I can be of any help."

"I will," says Ellen. "Thank you."

Marie just gurgles.

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