Late Arrival (Open!)

She turned her attention back to him when he said there was more... that infectious smile of her slowly faded as she heard more bad news. Destroyed... everyone else was gone. All that remained of humanity then.. was on this ship. Her eyes drifted slowly down to the carpet as her mind just... let it all register. "H... how?" her voice broke for a moment as she felt the this sudden feeling in her chest and her eyes started to glitter with the first hints of tears.

Again this was a feeling she didn't understand... slowly she lifted her hand and placed it on her chest above her heart, it was such a heavy feeling. As though she had ruined someone's favorite dish. Her dark lashes batted... the first tear slipped out of her right eye and down her soft pale skin as the feeling in her chest only seemed to grow and now it was almost physically painful. "It.. it hurts.." She turned to the doctor, her eyes were confused as she continued to clutch to her chest.

Her dark magenta eyes studied his face and she did as he said, taking a deep breath in through her nose, and then slowly exhaled through her mouth. She repeated this a few times as her eyes wandered back to the floor and she tried to calm herself. She took a bit of time to calm down, but slowly she managed to. After giving a few minutes her fingers uncurled from her chest and she let her hands drop back to her lap. More silence as she let her mind go blank. She didn't want to think about all the lives that had been lost, or about the fact that they were humanity's last hope.

"Are you hungry?" her eyes went to him, fingers moved to grasp the end of her shirt. It may have seemed silly to him but as she felt his pain in her chest somehow she knew the only way to fill this hole was to make something... something delicious. Recipes were flying through her mind as she gazed at him with a little bit of hope still there despite there still being slight glitters of tears. She had to focus on something else... surely making herself useful would do that.

When Jordan's stomach growled she couldn't help but smile wide. She watched him rise, quickly following suit. She felt relieved when he was indeed hungry. "Then let me cook for you! The body cannot thrive on such terrible food." she smiled happily at the idea. "I seem to.. have knowledge that my father used to say food nourishes more than just the body." she turned, going over to her closet and opened it.

There was a black bag inside and she carefully opened it up to see the beautiful chef knives inside. They weren't standard knives like the rest of the cook crew was issued. On each blade's black non slip handle were her initials LZ carved in and done in golden. As she pulled the 8 inch chef knife out she felt the balance was perfect and she brought it up to the light to examine it. VG-10 super steel is composed of carbon, chromium, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, silicon and vanadium meant it was high quality and custom made. She flipped between her fingers, rolling the blade around to feel the sheer perfection. She could have been a high trained assassin with the way she flipped and handled it before sliding it back into the case.

"These.. must be from my family." she whispered to herself, but then refolded up the bag before grabbing her socks and non slip work shoes. She also grabbed a hair tie, quickly taming the brown locks and pulling them up tight. Once full dressed she turned back to the doctor and moved to him. "Now that I'm geared.. shall we go find out your favorite flavors?" She was excited, an extra bounce in her step as she headed to the door.

She heard him speak to the tablet, it was strange but somehow comforting to know that people waking up from cryo sleep had to be cleared first. With an early awakening it meant that many people's training may not be complete or that their health wasn't ready. Lian felt physically fine, and with company and the hope of getting into the kitchen she could feel her heart mending as well from the pain of the loss.

As they headed down the hall she bounced as she walked, leading him towards the kitchen. "I think I shall make many little samples for you to try. The more of a challenge I have the more my mind shall be occupied. Besides everyone should know their favorite taste." she clasped her hands together happily before leading him to the staff entrance of the kitchen.

"This one should be empty... it is the prep kitchen but since it's so late no one will be using it." she grinned and opened the door but halted quickly when she was greeted by darkness so dark she could not even see the kitchen. "Lights Full." she called out, for a moment almost forgetting the command but her body relaxed as the lights switched on.

The stainless steel of the counters, the shine of the metallic fridge and the one stove to the side. Her body relaxed again as she moved to set her knives down and look around slowly. "It feels like home." she couldn't help but feel like a kid in a favorite toy shop as she unrolled her knives again.

She glanced to him as his stomach growled loudly, showing that it was indeed very hungry. She smiled brightly and went to the fridge, pulling out two nice steaks, one green and one red apple, some onion, and some mushroom. "Well first we test your tongue." she placed them down and picked up a dainty pairing knife, quickly slicing apart the green apple and red apple.

Her fingers were skilled and quickly split it into eight parts and pulled the core off each. She set them onto a place for him. "Try these.." she pushed it to him and then went to the oven to place a cast iron skillet onto the stove. The flames burst to life before she settled them to a lower temperature and went back to season one side the steaks. "You know it's strange.. but I can remember books written by both my mother and father. They were both cooks. I can remember their writings, their teachings, and their faces. But not their scent, or the sounds of their voices." She picked up a green slice and put a little bit of salt onto it. "Now try this one."

Lian worked with the mushrooms next, getting them to thick cuts before putting them to the side and carefully sliced an edge off the onion. She then cut the edge into thin quick strips before going back to the pan to lay the steaks down using a set of tongs. Immediately the pan sizzled to life as she made sure they were both on there.

As she walked back she couldn't help but laughed when he put too much salt on it, shaking her head a bit as she handed him a mushroom slice. "Try this. The flavor is called Umami... it is the pleasant savory taste. It will also dilute the salt." she assured him and then went to go get the plates. It was late so the steaks and some apples would be fine for their midnight meal.

"I'm sorry to hear about your mother. Death at a young age must be so hard." she gathered the dirty dishes and brought them to the sink, giving them a quick wash before placing them on a clean towel to dry and then went back to the steaks to sprinkle a little more seasoning on top. "Death... seems hard all around." She remembered the news from earlier and turned back to him from the stove. "I bet the library would have any articles your father wrote."

She was happy he enjoyed the mushroom, giddy that she was opening up his pallet to the amazing things that existed in the kitchen. Her eyes went a bit wide with surprise when he said his father actually worked on the Titan project. "What an honor that must have been!" she exclaimed as she watched him lean against the counter.

"I kind of wish we had been a little older before leaving Earth. I would have liked to see just once.. or at least from orbit." she smirked a bit as she thought about it. "But alas.. one day we will have a new planet I suppose." she pointed out but glanced to the pan, tilting her head up to give a sniff of the air before heading over to the pan.

She used the tongs to flip them over, there were beautiful sear marks from the pan and she laid the onions and mushrooms over the steak before turning to walk back towards him. "Do you know any status on how the ship is since we crashed?" she was curious.. the unknown didn't scare her but the idea of the ship being in very bad shape would make her nervous.