Mess Hall / Commissary

[Nolen Syaira]

“Major Ashwood; XO of SG1,” she introduced, “you must be new to Gaia.”

Nolen looked up from his food and put down his knife and fork. He got up quickly and stood at attention giving the superior officer a salute. "Ma'am, 1st Lieutenant Syaira. Yes Ma'am I'm a 302 pilot that was transferred here to help out" he said standing at ease when Ashwood told him too.

[Ryn]

<<From Quarters, via Showers>>

Ryn looked around from the door, hands shoved deep into her pockets. Some kind of unconscious habit whenever she was feeling like it. Not that it suggested she was nervous or anything.

Plenty of officers, it looked like from here. Though none that she was even vaguely familiar with. Maybe she was just too early and they hadn't gotten up yet ? Or were they out training ? What *was* the morning routine for officers in these parts ?

All that and more was mulling through her head as she walked towards the counter. She was ravenous, what was for breakfast ?

"What can I get ya..... Sergeant ?" The man at the counter asked, leaning over it.

It took Ryn a few seconds to realise he meant her. The glimmer in her eye intensified just a second then she nodded.

"Okay. Uh... Can I get a full English breakfast, please ? Double ?"

"Full English. Double." He seemed to contemplate what that meant.

"Yeah. You know what that is right ?"

The airman snapped a lazy finger, as if remembering suddenly. "Ohhhh yeah. You're the big eater..."

Ryn just shrugged and smiled brilliantly. "That's me."

She kept smiling while watching the man start to fill up a couple of plates with food.

"Don't drool. It doesn't become you, Sergeant."

"I'm not drooling."

"Coulda fooled me." He started arranging the food.

Now Ryn was becoming impatient, and sure he was teasing her from the way he was working. "Oh, come on. Give me my food already, I'm starving !"

Finally, without too much other banter, she was served up her food, and carefully she carried the extremely full tray towards an empty table. Ooooh, what to begin with ? The bacon-and-eggs seemed to scream for attention, so Ryn took the soldiered bread and started dipping it into the eggyolk, spooning it out that way. She kept munching heartily, watching the goings-on. It was always fun and interesting watching other people eat and talk. You could learn a lot that way, even if she would probably never see this particular crowd again.

[Ryn]

<<also from Quarters>>

There was another lonely figure sitting in the mess hall. David had seen the redhead enter, although she had never noticed him. The linguist was glad for it though. This morning, he just liked to be alone. Which was why he had picked this particular corner to sit. Also a good vantage point.
In contrast to hers, his own plate was rather empty. Just a few sandwiches, and a piece of fruit. Oh, and tea, naturally. Never a breakfast without tea. The green, flowery kind of tea they served, was actually rather nice. He suspected it was from a trade arrangement of some sort, because Gaia probably didn't cultivate a tea plantation yet. He wasn't too sure about the necessary climate for growing tea. Wasn't Japan damp and wet and tornado-rich ? Was that necessary for tea, he wasn't even sure of that. He only knew it had been grown on mountain slopes back on Earth.

He carefully sipped from the tea, and continued people-gazing. At one time, his eyes met those of the redhead's and he just nodded his head in greeting. She flashed him a smile and continued eating.

[DragonGate]

<<from Quarters>>

Walking with a confident ease from a good night's sleep, having a plan, and being senior, Jen came into the mess. She scanned for anyone she knew, identifying the young marine from the lounge.

She did a double take at the gunnery sergeant's stripes. 'She can't be older then her mid-twenties, must have joined as soon as she could. Must have been high-speed in her own reality.'

The back of her mind still had the lodged idea of getting a proper historical team member as she got breakfast. The only person in the room who wasn't obviously military was a blond man. For an instant, scrambled memories from the age of five tripped. 'No, too young, glasses, too tall. Not him.'

Still, civilians had exactly two fields of study here. 50/50 was good odds. She carried her tray over towards his table. In her typical brusque manner, "Major Stevens, SG-5. Rest of the table taken?"

[Ryn]

"Hmmmm ?" Still lost in the tea-induced reverie, David looked up at the newcomer, a woman, and hey, was red the colour of the day? Hmmm. "Oh, of course, Major, take a seat." He was glad to have remembered the so necessary manners. Watching her sit down, he extended a hand. "David Williams. Linguist, historian. Uh, I run the lab on level 3, actually. How are you this fine morning ?" Pushing the glasses further up his nose, Williams smiled at her, not put off by her brusqueness in the least. He was quite forgiving with other people these days. It was a stressful time for all of them.

[DragonGate]

Jen set her tray down and joined the linguist. 'Perfect, and he heads a lab. Must be good. Base patch, so he's not with a team.'

"That's great. I actually have a scientific background, too. Biologist, but I don't get to do much research in the field. Commanding a team takes up most of my time. Pretty good this morning, came back from a training trip a few days ago. Looking to get a fifth with a historical background haven't really had one since my first lieutenant left field duty." She preferred not to mention the mission that had caused MacDoreign to leave field duty.

[Ryn]

Again, a lot of what she said passed right by him. Maybe he just wasn't awake yet, he normally didn't get up so early. David did pick up some words here and there, though, enough to try and make a coherent story out of it.

"Sorry, ah, major." He apologised a little sheepishly. "I'm, ah, not entirely awake yet." The linguist smiled a little. "Um." He counted on his fingers. "Let's see. Biology. Um. Yes, interesting. Any specific ... branch, as it were ?" Not waiting for an answer, he went on. "A fifth, you say. I don't think you meant as in plead the fifth, no, from what you said I highly doubt it." He scratched his hair, as if still trying to work it all out. "Sorry. I'm not um... at my best right now. I tend to take it slow in the mornings. Used to not get out of bed by eleven hundred back when I lived in Foreston... Had to come back here, it just..." The mumblings became incoherent, and it seemed he was just mumbling to himself now, the conversation was forgotten for the moment.




((like I said before DG you'll have to work hard to get him on your team ))

[Teal'auc]

The elevator stopped at Sub Level 2. Jennifer was kind of glad she didn't bump into anyone, except few enlisted airmen, who didn't pay too much attention to her passing through the corridors. Her steps were rather rapid, as if she was in hurry, heading to the north-west corner of the Sub Level 2. Probably one of few places on the base, where people could just mingle with each other - the Mess Hall.

As she entered the Mess hall, she quickly peered across the room, noticing few people. She couldn't recall their names, their faces were somewhat new to her. She slowed down, walking towards one of the tables, which were empty. She couldn't even look at the others, who were sharing the same table. Suddenly, she felt like complete stranger on the base, like she wouldn't even belong here. Sitting up, she glanced once more at the smaller group, sitting nearby.

'Way too near', she thought.

Pulling out a small note book and pencil, she began to write something, becoming lost in her own train of thoughts, letting her surroundings to disappear from her mind.

[DragonGate]

Spoiler:

Again, a lot of what she said passed right by him. Maybe he just wasn't awake yet, he normally didn't get up so early. David did pick up some words here and there, though, enough to try and make a coherent story out of it.

"Sorry, ah, major." He apologised a little sheepishly. "I'm, ah, not entirely awake yet." The linguist smiled a little. "Um." He counted on his fingers. "Let's see. Biology. Um. Yes, interesting. Any specific ... branch, as it were ?" Not waiting for an answer, he went on. "A fifth, you say. I don't think you meant as in plead the fifth, no, from what you said I highly doubt it." He scratched his hair, as if still trying to work it all out. "Sorry. I'm not um... at my best right now. I tend to take it slow in the mornings. Used to not get out of bed by eleven hundred back when I lived in Foreston... Had to come back here, it just..." The mumblings became incoherent, and it seemed he was just mumbling to himself now, the conversation was forgotten for the moment.

Jen had to exhale hard at the rambling. Still, she was the one who had decided that Kari, competent XO that she was, didn't quite fit the bill for truly being the soft sciences team member. She knew people with advanced education were usually like this.

God know her own UCLA professors back in the day could ramble for hours about the time a highly venomous spider in the streets of Rio De Janeiro had bitten them and they'd seen dancing penguins for days.

"Tropical zoology, mostly mammalian, though I know what I'm talking about in botany and other animal groups." And it was obvious he had completely wandered off mentally.

"What I'm saying is I'm looking for somebody with your background and education, Dr. Williams. I have a fifth position on my team if you'd be interested in getting out of your lab once in a while."

[Ryn]

Aware that she was speaking again, David's mind quickly backtracked on what it'd picked up during its owners' ramblings. Again, the main essentials. It was trained to do that, to sift through - on a subconscious level - the important and non important bits and pieces, and to keep that ready for the doctor's use.

He pretended to not have noticed the offer of being the Fifth, though it was tempting to blurt out an affirmative right that second. He was bored enough to do it, anyway. But still, he needed to be cautious here, since he was not entirely sure he was medically fit for duty. At least not of the team kind. Dr Carrie needed to confirm this first. David mentally filed away this notion under 'important' on his equally mental to-do list.

"I'm curious, Major." He smiled at her. The eating utensils he was still using, paused once again to give her his full attention. "You studied tropical zoology. That means exotic, mostly African, creatures. How does that compute with your current military background ? The travelling part of it maybe ?" He knew that the military often travelled (used to, he reminded himself, let's not forget...) to the more exotic places of the world, especially those places that happened to have these study-worthy creatures the Major seemed so fond of. Added to that the state-of-the-art equipment that was used, David began to get an inkling into her reasoning. He could be wrong, of course, though he was prepared to give it a 80% probability that he was correct.




((wooo! I found his muse again! ))

[DragonGate]

Jen was knocked for a loop by the unexpected deeper query of her own scientific background. Most people didn't look beyond her rank and team command. And most people would have just pounced without thinking, talking about themselves more before agreeing.

"I was more focused on the Amazonian basin as opposed to the sub-Saharan rainforest. To be honest, I hadn't much opportunity for actual work in the biology field since college. At least not until the SGC. Before I ended up with this job, I did more field work on my team then I'd done since writing my thesis. Now," Jen gestured, implying the burden of command outweighing her scientific work. He seemed to have ignored her offer of a team slot. She had time, she'd told her team to focus on their other responsibilities for a couple of days.

[Ryn]

"Hmmm." David muttered, thinking. OK, so I was wrong... SGC ? Did they hire her and turned her military or....Nah she seems way too embedded in it all.

"Yes, I can imagine. An alien galaxy is just full of all that ... weird and wonderful stuff." He did a small hand wave, sort of an encompassing gesture. "Each more exotic than the other. Though, you know, I'd've thought that all of that would lead you more into say, a medical kind of field rather than a shoot-it-up kinda field. It's puzzling to me, but, I guess, to each their own." He smiled again, hoping to not have pushed her buttons too much. If he was going to be on her team, he needed to know what kind of person she was. Was she a thinker or was she more of the 'trigger-happy' disposition ?

[DragonGate]

Jen shrugged. "Family tradition, more or less. Though I kind of broke things by becoming an Air Force officer instead of enlisting. Couldn't ignore the desire to fly, even over the animals."

As she ate, she was making her plan for the day. Probably go to the surface and get some early morning readings on temperature and humidity, plant cuttings and observe behavior as the nocturnal flowers closed up and the diurnal ones opened to the sun. It would still be dark out now, considering they were in Gaia's fall and the days would shorten from the autumnal equinox.

Had they passed the equinox? Someone studying the transplant populations would probably know, observing equinox and solstice celebrations. "Have there been any autumnal equinox celebrations in Foreston, Doctor?"

[Teal'auc]

Jennifer raised her head, glancing across the Mess Hall. Her stomach was growling and she realized she haven't eaten yet. Putting her small note book and pencil to one of the breast pocket hidden inside of her blues, she stood up and slowly walked over, to the kitchen. Once arriving there, without any attention from other residents, she noticed the small waiting line in front of serving line. Two airmen, waiting for their bit of meal. Jennifer looked down, on the ground momentarily, af is she was drifting in her own mind again.

"Ma'am?"

Young Captain raised her head, noticing she was up, for her meal.

"I'll have this, this and this... and, don't forget this." She said, pointing to large portion of steak, potatoes, next to rather large fruit cup and a mug of coffee. Young man, who was serving the food blinked few times, but he didn't say anything. Jennifer nodded curtly her head, after she received a big plate with her meal.

"Thank you, Airman." She said, with stern voice, turning and heading over to her previous spot - the only unoccupied table, near the small group, who was still caught in lively discussion. One of them, a male, appeared to be a civie, the other one, a female, had insignia of Major. Jennifer took one last glance, not interfering into their discussion at all, and returned her attention to her meal, while sitting down on the chair. She took a bit of her steak, shifting focus between her meal and the Mess hall, enjoying her first meal in her own solitude.

[Oranos]

At one table, Hughes noticed as he entered the mess, Major Stevens sat in deep conversation with an individual that was quite obviously a civilian. His eyes continued to scan the room. Also present was a young redhead--a marine, he noted--and an Air Force captain.

He balanced his tray--his bandaged arms giving him some difficulty--as he proceeded to get breakfast, the plate's contents rapidly growing; a carryover from his football days, he was still very selective about what he ate, but what he did eat, he ate a lot of.

He then turned his attention to selecting a seat; he briefly considered joining Major Stevens, and then dismissed that notion, making quick strides towards his fellow marine.

"Gunnery Sergeant. Mind if I join you?" He winced; that had been a little too formal for him. Clearly Major Stevens was getting to him.

((Yeah, yeah, I know. This is the most I've posted in...well, a while.))