Party in Fantasyland! (Open to All)

[caycep]

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[a_good_man]

Daniel arrived wrapped in his best sheet-and-blanket approximation of the* robes he'd worn on Abydos. Better than that, though, was the food he'd managed to procure. The Doctor had happily provided him with a quail he 'just happened to have sitting in the back of the fridge', some figs, and some barley Daniel'd found in the back of the Time Lord's pantry. Best of all, he'd had some clay pots that, while they probably weren't really intended for cooking, would fit the bill none the less.

He set up early, and made a small fire pit off to one side, sort-of near the food tables, into which he had set two large clay pots, one with a lid on it, the other filled with a bubling stew that smelled of cumin, coriander, onion and garlic. He sat on a rock, stirring it occasionally with a wooden spoon, and people watching.

*please ignore the black-robed guy. SG-1 stole the idea from Star Wars

[a_good_man]

Daniel lifted his glass in John's direction, and greeted Aeryn in Sebacean. It was a fascinating language, and he'd already gotten her to teach him a little of it. She seemed to find his interest no end of amusing, but she was a pretty good teacher. Having had to learn English not that long ago had probably helped.

He took a sip of the rum, and then grinned approvingly.

"Hey John, check it out," he said, offering the cup to him.

[ruined_mylife]

"Hello Cayce," Aeryn answered her with a smile, and then corrected Daniel's greeting, which he happily repeated back to her with more success. For her own part, Aeryn had brought what John had rather dubiously termed, the first time he'd had them on Moya, "Sebacean okra and other vegetable tangy jerky strips." Having tried both beef jerky and okra on Earth since, she had to disagree with him; both of those foods were rather nasty.

They hadn't been able to find any of the vegetables she'd have normally used in the Doctor's pantry, but he'd had a tangy sort of round vegetable from some planet and a long thin squash from another that they'd both agreed made pretty good substitutes. Braised in vinegar (like pickles!) and a few spices, they'd come out well enough that she'd decided to bring them to Cayce's little gathering. It had also given her a greater sympathy for John's attempts to cook on Moya.

And the biscuits were really good.

[always_confuzed]

"Grandma's secret family recipe." He held out the tray to Cayce to let her grab a biscuit if she wanted one, then snagged the cup from Daniel and took a sip. A sip was really all he needed. "Damn! That rum is more serious than Cher after another facelift. Who made this?"

[caycep]

Cayce swiped a biscuit. "The dread pirate Barbossa," she said, nodding her head in the man's general direction. "Yes, that is genuine pirate rum you're drinking there. You boys have a competitor."

[always_confuzed]

"So we've got genuine pirate rum and genuine Abydos moonshine." John considered. "I think we should end our quarrel and set up shop together. Infuse the moonshine with fruits and mix the rum with soda pop and supply it to the restaurants. That'd fix some problems." He refrained from mentioning exactly which problems those were; he'd already filled Aeryn in on the Crowley situation.

[ruined_mylife]

Aeryn, after a little too much time watching Television with Chiana and Rygel, knew what a facelift was. She also was pretty sure she'd heard the name Cher before.

"Didn't you call me Cher once, John?" she asked, voice deceptively light.

[always_confuzed]

John did a quick look back a forth between the three people in his immediately vicinity. He cringed. "Well, that was with the Halloween costume on. The 60s one?" Which didn't mean anything to her. So keep going, John. "Which would mean that you looked like her before the facelifts. When she was actually, you know, still looking like a normal person. A very attractive normal person," he added hastily.

[caycep]

There was a quiet, only somewhat sympathetic sporfle from Cayce's direction.

[ruined_mylife]

"Mmm-hmm," Aeryn nodded, and cocked her head at him.

[always_confuzed]

John turned his head in Cayce's direction, opened his mouth like he was going to say something, then thought better and closed it again. He focused on the tray Aeryn was holding. "You want me to set you up on the buffet table too? Then you could show off your pulse pistol, and use me for target practice to demonstrate your culture?" Ha ha, yeeeaaahh, that's not funny either, John.

He blinked on his own behalf, looking contrite. "I'm just gonna... go. Over there. Before I say anything worse." He couldn't really be blamed, after all. This was the result of over a year of separation. She'd whip him back into shape right quick; wasn't like she hadn't done it before.

[ruined_mylife]

"You do that," Aeryn agreed, patting him once on the shoulder and handing him the tray.

Once he'd turned away, though, an amused smile spread over her face, and her gazed flicked to Cayce in what could only really be read as the rather universal female declaration of 'men.'

[caycep]

Cayce answered the smile with a grin of her own. "Don't know how they manage without us to keep them in line," she said in an undertone, referring to everyone with a Y chromosome.

[swordandchalice]

The best way to get Setsuna interested in anything was either games or food. Daniel had the latter, so it was only a matter of time until Setsuna wandered up looking wide-eyed at what was being stirred, lured in further by the aroma.

"...what's that? I mean, it looks like a soup," someone didn't know what stews were on a personal level, "but smells like no soup I've had."

[a_good_man]

"No, it's not soup," Daniel explained. "When you're cooking over a fire like this, boiling is one of the most economical ways to do it. See, put the meat and the vegetables together in the water, plus the seasonings, and everything gets cooked at once. The water either gets saved for another meal or drunk as broth from clay cups.

[swordandchalice]

"If it's not soup what is it?" Setsuna asked, expecting some. Now.

"It smells good, whatever it is. Gimme some?"