(Untitled)

[easy_aspie]

Who: Ned and OPEN.
What: the Piemaker has interesting coping mechanisms.
Where: kitchen
When: the night of his arrival
Warnings: multi-thread me!

Comments

[fireintothesky]

Henrietta poked her head into the kitchen, intending to find out if she could take a little more sugar for her tea. It was always mostly tasteless, these days, so a little extra layer of sweetness never hurt. What she found instead was a very nervous man leaning against the fridge, nerves humming off of him almost as clear as the hum of the machine supporting him. Henrietta hesitated, made nervous herself by the steady drumming.

"Ex... Excuse me, sir..."

[easy_aspie]

Ned started violently. He had been taken unawares, so focused was he on the little hand which was quietly and slowly - unbearably slowly, in Ned's opinion - methodically clicking its way around the timer's face. He hadn't expected a quiet-as-a-mouse girl to interrupt his frazzled train of thought.

After he jumped, Ned placed a hand to his pounding heart. "Oh! Jeeze. Sorry - you s-startled me." He let out a breath, obviously making an effort to calm himself. "Hi. Sorry. Hi. I already said that," he said, frowning slightly at himself.

[fireintothesky]

"I'm sorry, sir." He twitched. It fed her own anxiety, in some small way, that building tension she'd been feeling over the last day or so while she sat up in bed and waited for someone to come tell her it was time for treatment. Nobody. Silence. Long, long nights and silence.

Henrietta eased herself into the room, watching him like the unknown quantity he certainly was. The smell of pie distracted her. It drew her attention to the oven, even made her relax, though fractionally. "You're baking?"

And lo, there was an epiphany. "Oh! Oh, are you Mr. Ned?"

Can Costigan hop into this thread after a bit more exchange?

[lost_undercover]

[lastconfessor]

Kahlan was restless and couldn't sleep. Her mind had been on Richard more than anything and she missed him terribly. She hadn't expected to be back on the barge after what seem to be such a long time to her. In reality it had only been a couple of days. Not to mention, she had offended her inmate and he refused to admit she had hurt his feelings.

So, instead of moping in her cabin until she fell asleep from exhaustion, she decided to head to the kitchen for a glass of milk. Mayne it would be just what she needed to forget her worries for the moment and rest.

Upon entering the kitchen, she stopped. She hadn't expected anyone else to be there. The smell permeating from the oven was delicious. "Hello," she said, with a slightly tired, but pleasant, expression on her face.

[easy_aspie]

Ned blinked at the bleary-eyed woman. "Hello," he replied. He wasn't sure who she was, and he wondered at the chances that another Barge passenger would wander into the kitchens in the middle of the night. Did people often walk the halls at night? Did they often come into the kitchens? Ned felt a gentle rush of tenderness for his own quiet, personal kitchen, before he quashed it and turned to the woman with a cautious smile.

"Were you looking for something? I could, uh, y'know, make you something. If you wanted."

[lastconfessor]

She smiled kindly. "I was going to get something to drink. I can't sleep," she explained. She walked further into the room, heading for the fridge. "What are you cooking? It smells wonderful."

[easy_aspie]

"Pie," Ned answered simply, then elaborated, "Pecan and custard. Nectarine, in a moment. Maybe cherry later, if I can find enough fruit. Pie is sort of what I do." He gave her a sheepish smile, and continued scooping out the pits of the nectarines before him, a slight furrow in his brow. "Where does this come from, anyway?" he asked suddenly, as if the thought had been bothering him for some time now. "The fruit, I mean. We - well, we're sort of, in space, aren't we? Seems odd that we'd have produce lying around."

[i_cantakeit]

Prentiss had been reading in her cabin for a few hours, trying to relax. You never knew on the Barge when the next big bad thing would go down, so Emily tried to enjoy the downtime between her security shifts and her meetings with her inmate when she could, even when it got boring. Boring was a sign they were doing it right. However, the book was one she'd read before, and Bill was at the top of her mind; what to do with him, how best to help him, would he react well if she treated him one way, what about the other?

Finally, she threw the book down on the bed and left her cabin. She headed for the deck, vaguely thinking about taking a walk around under the stars and planets she still thought were amazing, but those plans were derailed by a lovely smell coming from the kitchen. Was that... pecan pie? Why was someone baking at this time of night? Emily decided to have a look for the person responsible, and walked into the kitchen, calling out as she entered. "You know, that smells seriously good."

[easy_aspie]

Ned had the look of someone who had just been caught doing something very embarrassing - and he had, in the sense that he was trying to cover the tiny surprised sound he had made when Emily breezed into the room. "Sorry. I mean, thank you. I mean - hi." He was blinking at her, then, one hand moving to the back of his neck in an expression of self-consciousness. "It's, uh, custard. Custard and pecan, that is. You're welcome to have a slice, as soon as -"

The kitchen timer chimed, and Ned moved towards the oven, skillfully removing the pies and slamming the door shut with his hip before depositing the sweets on the counter to cool. Coming back to himself, he spun on his heel to face Emily. "I'm Ned, by the way."

[i_cantakeit]

Emily heard that little noise and tried to suppress her laugh. He was so awkward; his body language was absolutely screaming that at her. She smiled at him, and gave a little wave, hoping to put him at ease. "Hi. I'd love a slice, thank you. That's-" The rest of what she was going to say was interrupted by the timer, and she waited until he'd taken the pies out of the oven before continuing. "That's really kind. I'm Emily. It's nice to meet you, Ned."

"So," She sauntered over to the counter, and leaned against it, still smiling at him. "Do you always do your baking in the middle of the night, or is this a special occasion?"

[easy_aspie]

Ned went to work slicing the pies, probably so as to have something to do with his hands and something to focus on other than Emily. "No, not always," he replied, his words coming in a steady stream. "Not usually. But I couldn't sleep - just got here," he explained, tossing a glance at the woman beside him, then continuing, "So, I thought: pie. It might sound kinda, kinda weird, I guess, but it makes me feel better, pecan or custard?" He turned to Emily, pie server held aloft and ready.

[young_idealist]

Even though he doesn't get along well (in his own mind anyway) with the person who normally runs the kitchen, when Armand looks in to see if there is any more lemons for his tea, he's surprised to see someone else entirely cooking. Well, it was the middle of the night.

He enters fully, a confused look on his face, but he can smell the pies baking. "Monsieur, why are you baking in the middle of the night?"

[easy_aspie]

Ned turned to the newcomer, looking a bit like a deer in the headlights. "Because, I just thought... I - maybe... It makes me feel better," he finally admitted, pulling one arm to his chest in an unconscious gesture of self-comfort. Then, as if realizing something, he queried, "Why are you wandering into the kitchen in the middle of the night?"

[young_idealist]

Armand smiled in response. He liked this man already. His own answer was simple though, and not fraught with self-consciousness. "For tea. It is one of the few things that isn't completely locked away at all hours. How did--" He breaks off the query to instead sniff the aroma of the pies. "Your pies smell delicious."

[easy_aspie]

"Thank you," Ned said, then asked, "Why would they lock things up? Oh. Inmates?" The timer rang suddenly, and Ned moved purposefully to the oven, removing a pecan pie, covered in a thin, golden layer of caramelized sugar, and a cream-colored custard pie which had the faintest brown sheen around its edges. "Pie?" Ned offered simply.

NED! <3

[notarrowette]

Cissie was restless. She couldn't sleep; she wasn't used to the place yet, and even though she had signed up for this, she didn't really like change very much. So she went exploring. She wandered into the kitchen and stopped short when she saw Ned.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't know anyone was here."

:D!

[easy_aspie]

"Oh - er, don't worry about it. Just, y'know, me." He waved his hands around a bit, in a gesture that was meant to be unassuming but had the slightest touch of the frantic to it. Dropping this, he gave Cissie a small smile. "Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

I want to squish him, but it would traumatize him.

[notarrowette]

Cissie smiled back, relaxing slightly. She shook her head. "Not really. I'm new here; I don't sleep very well in new places, so I thought I'd do a little exploring." She held her hand out and introduced herself. "I'm Cissie. I'm not interrupting, am I?"

XD He'd be like "ER. UM. EXCUSE ME. HUGGING? WHY? CAN IT STOP?"

[easy_aspie]

"Oh, no. I'm used to people walking in and out of the kitchen." Ned thought suddenly of the girl and the life he had left behind, of Chuck in her dresses and Emerson, knitting sweaters and counting his stacks of money and Olive, blonde and insane but his friend nonetheless. He missed them, and no amount of pie in the world would take that fact away.

But he wasn't in The Piehole anymore, he was here, and so he said, "I'm Ned. I'm new, too. I just - felt weird. Y'know. In my room. It's not really mine yet. I haven't really settled," he explained. "And so I thought pie might... well, anyway. Would you like a slice of custard?" As he had been talking, the timer had gone off. Now he moved to the oven and withdrew the desserts, setting them on the counter to cool.