Fourth Floor Common Room, morning

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel always thought better when she cooked. That was why Friday morning she could be found in the common room making muffins. Lots of them.

Hopefully the smell would draw people in to eat them.

Comments

[by137.livejournal.com]

"That's what I said," A.J. grinned as he lifted a hand in a wave to Hoshi.

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"The food at this place is great as long as you stay out of the cafeteria," said Hoshi with a grin.

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Hey!" A.J. laughed, which ruined his attempt to look offended. "I like that cafeteria food. It's a hell of a lot better than anything I could make for myself, anyway."

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry. I heard people making jokes about the cafeteria food and assumed that everyone complained about it," said Hoshi, taking his offense seriously.

[by137.livejournal.com]

Once A.J. realized that Hoshi'd taken him at face value, his expression instantly fell. "Oh, no, Hoshi," he said, building up to a chuckle. "I was just joking. It can be pretty bad sometime,s you're right, but actually it's still an improvement on my old school. I don't think most of that stuff was even technically supposed to be edible."

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"Maybe it's edible for other species but not for humans?" suggested Hoshi with a small smile.

[by137.livejournal.com]

A.J. grinned. "Which would be great, if it weren't for the fact that my old school was pretty much entirely human."

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"Hmmm, that could be a problem," said Hoshi. "At least you're not there now."

[by137.livejournal.com]

A.J. nodded. "This school blows the pants off of that old one, that's for sure. But I have a feeling this school has a bit more funding..."

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"Or maybe they have a really good protein re-sequencer," suggested Hoshi.

[by137.livejournal.com]

There was a long pause from A.J.

"You know," he finally said, "I know exactly what that is because it's a sort of self-explanatory name, but I still feel like I gotta ask. A what?"

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"We have them back at home," said Hoshi. "They take protein strands at the molecular level and re-assemble them into other things, mostly for food. It's not really good food, though, and some things taste kind of funny. But at least no one goes hungry anymore."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Can you, like....do they have, like, flavors? And then, I mean, you can reassemble the proteins and stuff and then have this little bottle and add it to it, so that you can make it taste like whatever, too. Kinda like, um, you know...the flavoring you use for shaved ice and stuff. So that the grape and cherry doesn't really taste like they really do, but close enough?"

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"The ones I've seen so far just do things like coffee, tea, milk, stuff like that," said Hoshi. "I've heard rumors of things like replicated cheesecake, but usually you find those on deep-space cargo ships where they don't have room for food storage. The rest of us on Earth still prefer real food."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Like delicious muffins," A.J. decided, holding up such a muffin before having a small bite. "I think I much prefer real food, too, gotta admit. If they didn't make it taste so good, y'know..."

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"Exactly. You have to be really hungry or living in outer space to eat replicated food," said Hoshi, smiling. "Hopefully by the time I join Starfleet, they'll have improved on the technology."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Starfleet?" A.J. asked with a grin. "Well that sounds pretty cool."