Meadowood: Home Sweet Home

[Leda]

The white bat rested her chin against her slender arms as she peered over the edge of the rail. There sure had been a chaotic storm going on; Nik's presence seemed to be gaining a plethora of reactions -- including from him. It was pretty clear that he was extremely naive as to what was going on in the world. Rouge wondered if he would ever relax enough to divulge what kind of upbringing he'd had, but at the same time, she doubted it.

What she did know was that there would probably be a lot of hungry bellies growling very soon, since most of them hadn't even had breakfast yet. It'd be wise to get some water boiling and start preparing food for her neighbors. The bat tilted her head and continued to stare down over the railing. Need to get to work. ... As in, now.

Well, she was familiar with what her neighbors liked (or in some cases, what they had to settle with), but what about Nik? It wasn't simply a matter of pickiness; he could possibly have allergies or intolerances that Rouge was unaware of. She frowned at the idea of their new overlander resident having a serious health risk over her careless cooking.

[Jamie Lee]

Holding a bag of ice in one hand and his head in another, Rob stifled a groan of both exhaustion and soreness as he headed for the direction of his lodge. It'd been a loooong morning, having followed an equally frustrating day, and all he wanted right now was to close his eyes and sleep his headache off with an ice pack.

[Qesun Vendak]

Unlike poor Rob, Chester was a morning person. Chipper and fully awake, he was already out and about. He had decided to head in the direction of the kitchen and help again. It was one of the things he enjoyed that didn't get him yelled at. Off into the branches he went, avoiding taking bridges when he could. It was simply his way at this point, if not simply because he enjoyed that fashion of travel, simply because he was like that.

He was on the way over to the kitchen himself before catching sight of Rob on his way, coming to a stop on one of the branches above. Perched there as he was, looking down at the hedgehog, one might entertain the thought of whether it was a hawk or a cat that was about to swoop down on Rob. Regardless, of their final decision on how to look at it, a cat definitely came down to play with his 'prey.' Making his way down carefully enough to be sure of his steps, he aimed to intercept Rob's path.

"Morning!" He stated in that sunny fashion only a morning person could manage, a big grin glued to his face that would rival that of any other grin. "Your escape from this nightmare has passed, and you once again return," He states, opening with his right arm outstretched as if on stage for a Victorian age drama. He quickly skitters over to the side of Rob, placing his hand on the hedgehogs back as if a good friend and leaning in as telling a secret. "Would it ever be that we ever stop dreaming this nightmare so collectively? Alas, every night we escape to return again to share in it. Enough of that subject, though," he states, breaking off again, "Let us enjoy the beauties it allows us, the songs of the birds and the light of the morn."

[Jamie Lee]

Rob gingerly massaged around the sore area of his forehead, lost in the recesses of his own pounding thoughts. His mind danced vaguely around the idea of chores and other such projects he'd have to do whenever he got up.

He twitched slightly in agitation under the weight of Chester's arm, headache swelling further at the sound of his voice. He fought to stave off the grimace he so desperately wished to make.

"Bloody well not in the mood for your nonsense," the archer stated in almost a growl, pulling his hood down to cover the mark on his forehead and shrugging away from the feline.

[Leda]

It was at that moment that Rouge, who apparently was finally motivated to work, happened across them with a dripping pail in hand. "I'm going to start making breakfast," she stated abruptly, with no additional explanation to accompany it. "Are either of you hungry?"

[Lans]

"I AM!" said Manic popping up behind the group. Judging from the lack of smell, he'd apparently bathed and changed since the mission to Mercia. "Oh, did Lindy fix the iron yet? I've, like, totally got a craving for waffles!"

[Leda]

The bat's ear flipped backwards, shortly followed by the rest of her head. "I don't know. If it's not, I can make pancakes instead." Rouge paused to glance skyward to the sun's position. It was actually getting a little late in the morning, yet still a couple of hours too early for lunch. "...Or something else, if you'd prefer."

[Qesun Vendak]

"Ha!" barks out the cat. "The world is nonsense, and two nonsense make a positive!" Chester holds out his finger and waggles it in a fashion as if he's correcting someone, despite Rob having already covered his face and unable to see said wagging. It seemed like Rob wasn't going to be too receptive though, so another audience was to be sought. Not to mention food. He hadn't had anything all day. "Escape though you may try, you'll eventually be back here, on this world of terrible dreams."

The cat scrambled back into the branches above, and began making his way again towards the kitchen, still smiling. Always smiling.

[Jamie Lee]

Food. Rob realized suddenly that he'd never had a chance to eat anything. And as these things often work once the thought entered his mind his stomach eagerly began to reinforce it, noisily begging for nourishment in the only way it could.

Rob lingered there on the end of one foot for a long moment while the others spoke amongst themselves (and ignoring Chester), staring down longingly at the bag of ice in his hand and debating whether or not his stomach was important enough to acknowledge at that moment.

Eventually his stomach won out, and he turned to Rouge, attempting to hide his tired expression. "Hmm. Are there any bagels left?" he asked, then quickly corrected himself, "Actually, nevermind, I'll check myself," he began to heard toward the lodge in question.

[Leda]

"You can rest if you'd prefer," Rouge replied, her voice surprisingly icy. "I'll probably have to make another batch. I'll bring one once they've cooled."

[Jamie Lee]

For a brief moment Rob actually entertained that idea. It was fairly rooted in his psyche that woman were the ones who were supposed to be responsible for such domestic activities. Then shook his head. "Nah, tis alright. Maybe I could help with something?"

He wasn't in the mood, of course, but manners were manners even when you don't feel up to it.

[Qesun Vendak]

Windows were always a convenient way to make one's way into a place. Usually less watched and less often locked. Or just happened to be where he was. One of those many varieties of usefulness. Doors were over rated anyway. Chester made his way into the kitchen through one of the windows, plopping himself happily onto the floor, looking around trying to decide what he wanted. There were many wonderful options. The afore mentioned pancakes were good, as was eggs with sausage, or... Yes. That would be wonderful. Eggy bread was a particular favorite of his.

He began scrounging the kitchen for supplies to make his Eggy Bread, starting with grabbing milk and eggs and making his way to a counter before moving to collect bread as well. And utensils were required as well. Bowls, spoons, etc. He began humming to himself as he collected the goods.

[Lans]

"Meh, waffles, pancakes, even crusty muffins, whatever, I'm easy," Manic said with a shrug. "I just, like, want some grub! Rescuing dumb overlanders makes a hedgehog hungry."

[Leda]

Nodding at the various feedback she received (and deciding not to comment on Manic's remark), Rouge finished the walk to the kitchen, still toting the pail of water. As she approached the stove, the bat set her bucket on the floor, let out a short breath, then grunted and heaved it atop the range with as little spill as she could manage. It was one of the larger pails, and even without her weak upper body strength factoring in, the weight of the water was considerable.

Upon setting the water to boil away the bacteria, Rouge turned her focus to what was available to her hungry neighbors. Chester was already causing chaos, so inventory of feasible foodstuffs could prove troublesome. Still, it was doable, and the white bat quickly found many of the previously prepared foods to be missing -- half a loaf of bread, freshly gathered fruits, week-old vegetables, all but a handful of the cookies, and naturally, Rob's desired bagels. Rouge let out a quiet breath and began measuring out flour. "Seems someone had a craving or two," she stated to no one in particular.

[Jamie Lee]

Lucky for Manic the older hedgehog wasn't in the mood for a verbal sparring match, the only response Rob giving being a irritated wrinkling of his nose and a barely audible grunt. Upon noticing what Rouge had, however, he frowned.

"Smashing. Anything I can help with?"

[Qesun Vendak]

"One or many," Chester says in response to Rouge anyway as he mixes a few eggs and some of the milk together to make his meal. Even that would make more then he needed himself. Which brought along one of the more intriguing habits of his. He really didn't acknowledge the supply situation as a sane person might. To waste food to him was almost a sin, causing him to be rather conservative in the end anyway. For all he didn't care about, here in the kitchen was the one thing he would. Little mess, if any, followed in his wake.

"A basic need, still capable of folding into addiction." As his skillet was being brought up to temperature, he started dipping his bread in and dropping it on the skillet. This was followed by popping out one more plate for the finished product.

[Leda]

Rouge cleared her throat after a slight pause, doing her best to stay out of Chester's way as he went on about.... whatever his latest ramble was about. Instead, the bat focused her attention on the requested item that would take the longest: Rob's bagels. Casting the ailing hedgehog a glance, she quietly replied, "You could measure out the yeast, if you wanted." Noting that the water had come to a boil, Rouge again struggled to get the pail down -- now with twice the effort, as the last thing anyone wanted was a scalding burn.

[Jamie Lee]

Rob snapped out of whatever trance he was in when Rouge spoke, suddenly noticing her struggling and kicking into action.

"Ah, dove, hold on!" he said, grabbing onto the pail and helping her to move it.

[Leda]

With a grunt of effort, and Rob's assistance, Rouge managed to guide the bucket aside to a nearby stool, keeping it off the floor but still at hand-level. The bat panted twice for air. "Thank you," she said, casting the hedgehog a faint, fleeting smile. Returning her focus to the task at hand, Rouge shuffled toward the spice rack and pulled several herbs. She rarely made plain food; most of her dishes included some sort of personal touch on the seasoning. In this case, cinnamon and brown sugar were to be included. It was hardly any time at all before she'd already mixed the batter and set about beating the dough.

All of a sudden, the bat stopped in her tracks, and glanced over at the oven. She'd forgotten to preheat. "Shoot."

[Qesun Vendak]

At this point, eggy bread were in a skillet cooking, Chester humming away a tune happily, now oblivious to what was around him at this point. Or was her. He seemed to notice Rouge's 'shoot', and now curious, he wanted to see what was up. He finished the current pieces and moved over, looking on for a moment to try and figure out what it was about. ...Oven, not set, and Bagals ready to toss in. Chester had an idea. "Well, if it warms up slowly on a little fire, how warm would it be in a few minutes if Bean used some of his toys?" he asked with a big, innocent grin before moving back to his skillet and moving to the next set of eggy breads. "Ohhh! I bet he could show me how, too!"

[Lans]

Manic entered then, heading over to one of the tables and plopping himself into a chair, setting his feet up on the table. "Uh, hey Rob? You should probably know that Espio's, like, throwing a major snit about something or other..."

[Jamie Lee]

Rob returned a smile, tired though it may have been, twice as wide. For a moment, he had actually somewhat forgotten the massive throb in his skull as he turned and began to gather up the yeast and measure it per suggestion. He gave a small glance over toward Manic, and just as quickly as it seemed forgotten, his headache aggressively reminded him of its presence. Giving a rough sigh and pausing to compose himself, he reluctantly turned.

"Brilliant. Where is he?"

[Leda]

Meanwhile, Rouge hurriedly set the oven to heat to 350 degrees, casting Chester an awkward glance. "That... won't be necessary. The oven works just fine." And it'd be wise to keep it that way.

[slomoto]

The door swung open wide and clattered against the opposite wall, rattling some of the ceramic objects on the wall. Ridgy Didge the opossum archaeologist trotted in as easily as if he'd crept in on his tip-toes. "Hey-yii-ohhh..." He froze and sidestepped Rob, who had a look on his face that clearly said 'I have problems of my own.' Ridgy was often 'Mr. Personality' when addressing the head of Meadowood colony and leader of the Freedom Fighters. Right now even he knew better.

Ridgy stood, and scanned the room. Lacking an opportunity to rub elbows with Rob, he instead set his sights towards Rouge. Bellying up on the counter and leaning his hands against the cheeks, he gazed at her with a twitterpated grin on his face. "It sure smells nice in here..."

[Lans]

"In his room," Manic told Rob, glancing towards the opposum that just entered. And cue possum boy strike out number 62... he thought to himself with a smirk, waiting for the entertainment to begin.

[Jamie Lee]

Repressing an urge to groan, the archer scratched at the top of his head through the fabric of his hood. Recalling the previous night's events and Espio's outburst he could only imagine what he was in store for if the rambunctious boy had been that upset this entire time.

"Alright. I'll go talk to him then." he said, turning and heading toward the door.

[Leda]

The oven situation apparently culled, Rouge had quickly thrown herself back into the food preparation, quickly separating the pile of dough into several rings on the baking sheet, then tossing them into the at least partially heated oven. With those out of the way, the white bat then rummaged about for the waffle iron, as well as gathering ingredients for Manic's breakfast of choice.

At the approach of her oppossum neighbor, Rouge responded with an unemotive glance. "Would you like something to eat?" she asked flatly.

[slomoto]

"No, that's fine," Ridgy said in a boisterous tone. "Delicate hands like yours should not be burdened for my advantage. Besides, I've already eaten. I've been up since four writing a dissertation on the congregations of numerous religious leaders on Holly Summit in the 12th century. Given that it occurred in an age of great religious tolerance, it was quite a phenomenon: Colonies of puritan parrots...druidian dromedaries....and a group of monks that were also monkeys...all in the same place." As he rambled, he had stolen into the kitchen and was now in the middle of putting a pot of tea on the boil.

[Lans]

Manic fought back a snort. Why on earth would he think that they'd care about religious monkeys or whatever?

[Leda]

One ear forever turned to the possum, Rouge continued with her work with no other indications that she was listening. Luckily for the green hedgehog, waffle batter took far less time to prepare than bread dough, and it wasn't long before the device for making such a treat was plugged in and awaiting its first batch. Rouge quickly dipped a finger into the mixture and sampled it; it wasn't bad, but the bat felt something was missing. Sliding her gaze once more to the spice rack, she quickly pulled out the canister of basil and gave the batter two shakes, then mixed it vigorously again. She didn't actually know if it would turn out well... but she hoped so.

In any case, it was now time to pour the batter into the griddle, and a moment later Rouge pulled down the cap with what was undoubtedly to Manic a satisfying sizzle.