Sweet Like Chocolate

Posted on Fri Mar 7th, 2025 @ 8:18am by Ensign Mercy Mourne & Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D. & Lieutenant Darru & Ensign Madelyn 'Madi' Moore & Chief Petty Officer Manishie Karalo

Mission: Remnant
Location: Around the Campfire
Timeline: Day 408 - evening
2437 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Mercy was about as happy as a person could be as she prodded at the campfire with a stick. "I've never been camping before!" She said for the fifth time as she grinned and then set the stick to one side. "Well except for survival training but that felt like... well survival training." She huffed out a laugh. "Oh! We found a thing!" Not waiting for any response Mercy dived into the little tent that she had enthusiastically put up, but looked like it could fall down at any moment. The small ring of standard issue tents looking strange against the backdrop of the crumbling city. Emerging a moment later she is clutching sample canister.

Duncan grinned as he looked over and took a swig from his flask before putting it back into his pack. “What thing?” He wondered moving a little to look at the canister over the fire. It had been easy to find combustible material so to make it feel a bit more normal he had lit a fire, the only thing he could not provide was marshmallows or anything. He had not thought that far ahead.

Mercy grinned and came to plonk herself down beside Duncan. She had the same kind of excitement that a child doing show and tell might have. “A remarkable case of evaluation Aru convergence. Which is just a fancy way of saying one hell of a coincidence.” She then twisted the lid of the sample container off and thrust it towards Duncan.

“Smell this.” She said with a small chuckle.

Huddled on a fallen branched dragged over as a bench on Duncan's other side, Madelyn had spent most of the time after the campsite had been secured trying to make something of the stew currently bubbling away in the pot nestled amongst the coals. It was mostly experimental, the product of an afternoon's effort scouring the nearby woodlands for signs of edible roots and leaves, and smelled very heavily of wet dog and aniseed. Nobody had been game to try it yet, and the entertainment had rested more in seeing how far it could boil down before it solidified entirely. The plop, plop, plop of a serving spoon on the surface didn't improve its appeal, though the Ensign looked strangely content as she glanced up at the other pair and smiled at what Mercy was holding. Not all their fossicking had been in vain.

Duncan turned to the woman and looked at what she was holding out in the container and sniffed it. “It smells sweet.” He said taking it from her hand to look at it properly and get a better smell of it. “It literally smells like chocolate or cake.” He realised finally putting his finger on what it was like. He held it out to Madi. “What do you think?”

"I think Mercy had to convince me not to lie down in a whole thicket of them," came the contented response. Something about the presence of a fire, one that she had watched Duncan build, had been a mood enhancer Madelyn hadn't anticipated. There had been heating elements all over Realia, of course, but it wasn't the same. This felt a lot more like...home. Squinting up at the pair, Madi grinned. "Our resident expert here is almost nearly certain they aren't viciously poisonous too."

Mercy giggled then pulled the canister back towards her and gave it another sniff. The mischievous glint in her eye might suddenly reminded that she had younger brothers and a juvenile prank was never entirely out of the question. “I’m almost certainly of it, still only one way to find out… don’t tell the doc unless I start to go green!” She then reached in and plucked a berry, popping it into her mouth. She had already run a number of scans on the berries so was 99% certain that she wouldn’t die, still there was always the possibility of an allergic reaction. Her eyes then wrinkled and her mouth made a smacking noise as she tried to work out the taste. Chocolate, but with something extra she had never tried before. And sweet, so incredibly sweet she almost needed something else to counteract the flavour. “That’s odd, yummy but odd. Would be good with a little something bitter, maybe watered down into a drink?” She then gave Duncan a sly look, before tilting the cannister towards Madi so she could have another sniff if she wanted.. “I think this could be easily fermented, wouldn’t you agree Mads?”

There had been a priceless moment where Madelyn had frozen in wide-eyed tableaux, not exactly poised to intervene immediately if her friend showed signs of a reaction but at least wholly absorbed by the possibility. She was slow to animate, deflating in miniscule increments as she released the breath she'd been holding, at which point her features crumpled into incredulous amusement. "I'm pretty sure Duncan will try either way." Her eyes flicked towards the man to fix him with faux innocence before Madi returned her attention to Mercy, frowning just slightly. "No purple polka dots yet, at least."

Returning to the circle of light created by the fire Avira was holding three small rodents. They seemed bunny like in their builds, they had certainly had the same gait. She plopped them down on a log near the fire and got out a knife before looking up and seeing Mercy putting some sort of berry in her mouth. "Tell me you tested those, or at the very least put some of its sap on your lips without incident at least thirty minutes ago." She pointed at the scientist with the small pocket knife she had taken out to skin the game she had brought.

Duncan winced at the doctor appearing just as the Mercy stuck the berries into her mouth. He had already pulled out his scanner to reconfigure it for medical but at least with her there his poor first aid skills would not be completely needed.

“Didn’t even scan them.” Mercy said once she finished the berry. “I’m joking. I put some of the juice on the inside of my wrist earlier when I we were picking them and didn’t get any reaction. And yes I scanned them, and yes they are safe for everyone to eat… well almost everyone. Might want to keep them away from Darru unless he’s looking to drown his sorrows.” Mercy watched Avira skinning the leporine creatures and wrinkled her nose. “We’re going to cook those separately right? Don’t think everyone eats meat.”

“If you are worrying about me please do not, I am quite content with rations.” Darru commented following with the Captain in tow who looked at the rodents.

“Found more wildlife other than the creature that knocked over Mourne and Darru hmm, Doctor?” Beth commented sitting a little away from what was about to happen to the animals.

Avira looked up, then over at Mercy. A short shake of the head, before turning her attention back to the task at hand. "They're very shy creatures. That alone would tell us that there's something dangerous to their survival." These critters were certainly not the apex predator on this planet. She had separated from the group for a bit in order to catch them and it had taken some time for the creatures to show up in her scope.

Mercy made a choked noises, the berry juice suddenly sticking in her throat. She then coughed to clear it swallowing hard. “Ahh! Captain… you uh… heard about that huh?” She shot Darru a look of confused betrayal.

Darru inclined his head but said nothing. There was no reason for him to deny anything as he had no choice but to speak about it to the Captain when others had seen something.

"Hard not to Ensign when there is a report of wildlife on a somewhat deserted planet." Beth commented quietly with a smile. "Did you get a good look at it by any chance?"

Mercy looked away and rubbed a hand over the back of her neck. She the looked to the Captain and shook her head. “No, sorry Captain… I was… well honestly I was startled. It was small though. I suspect it might have been whatever the Doctor has there and is skinning.”

Beth nodded. That was to be expected she supposed and she would have felt similar in all honesty especially as Lieutenant Darru could not remember himself. "What about everyone else?" Beth wondered. "What have we all found?" She carried pointing out exactly what she meant even as she watched Iryna disappear off.

As the impromptu Show-and-Tell unfolded, Madi found herself slowly deflated by the realisation that she had no amazing discovery to add to the mix. A quick wander around the nearby area had turned up a few viable food sources, but that had really been more traipsing after Mercy whilst she excitedly trampled unsuspecting bushes in a rush to examine their offerings. Some of the species of insects had been interesting to watch, but the real appeal lie in the exploration of abandoned infrastructure and that wasn't something she'd been privy to yet. There had been a brief moment of hope that she'd been included in the away team more for her Xenology background than as a hydroponics representative but, at this rate, chasing butterflies seemed about her best option.

Then again, the main priority was fuel. She didn't have much in that regard to share either.

"It seems quite peaceful," she pointed out quietly, hesitant to speak up but feeling like she should. "There's not really any sign of what drove the civilization to collapse. Nothing obvious anyway," she amended.

"My group found some almost storage cassetts I believe is what the chief called them." He pointed to the storage box under the table that had the stove on. "We have been unsucessfull in finding soemthing to play them on yet but we have more options to explore tomorrow."

Mercy nudged Madi's shoulder. "Avira and I found berries and Madi is going to help me harvest more tomorrow and work out if we can grow them, right Mad- storage cassetts? Woah really? That's... that's great! Imagine if we can hear these people in their own media?" Mercy was bouncing slightly in her seat, so excited to bring this once thriving civilisation back to life.

"Don't get too excited just yet," Manishie commented before handing Avira a bundle of herbs she had be asked to collect when they were out hunting. "We have no way to get to the data inside. I'll be on an early shuttle back up to hook it up and extract whatever is on there. For all we know it's just a catalogue of dirty magazines." It would still give them quite a bit of insight into the culture if that were the case, but with their luck it was probably just an inventory of a bottling plant or something.

"Manishie!" Mercy choked slightly on the berry she had just popped in her mouth, and handed the jar to Darru for him to help himself if he so wished. Once she had finished her wheezing and caught her breath she handed the canister of berries to Darru for him to try, hand briefly brushing against his before she could correct the grip on the jar. She shot him an apologetic look. Then she turned her red face back towards Manishie and gave them a sheepish grin. "Although to be fair, even the p-porn of a lost civilisation would offer valuable insight into the culture and... uhm biological practices of whoever once lived here. Although I am glad I won't be the one to find out if that is what it is. I don't even know I would begin that personal log." She rubbed her cheek, wishing she didn't blush at mere joking about alien porn. Because it was definitely that which made her blush, not the casual brush of her hand against someone else's.

Darru looked at the jar and shook his head and passed it to Madi. Duncan looked up from where he had been working away and took a couple of the berries from the jar as it was so close. He cringed with how Mercy carried on speaking and did not stop. "You should try them, Lieutenant." He said smiling. "Anything from the civilisation would be interesting," Duncan assured kindly hoping everyone else would just carry on as normal.

Mercy scootched over slightly and gestured for the Captain and Darru to sit down with them around the fire. “So what’s everyone’s plan for the morning? I was hoping to take Madi up to a strange structure the Doc and I passed on the way to camp if we can both be spared that is?”

Beth looked at the woman and nodded. She wondered just what kind of structure the pair had found but in some cases she just did not need to know. "You can be spared if Lieutenant Darru has no plans for you both."

"I do not." He assured quietly looking over the media cassettes that they had found.

Mercy gave the Captain a polite nod of thanks before she smiled warmly at Darru. Already she could see his sharp, unmatched focus being drawn to the cassettes. She then blinked and forced her eyes back to the campfire, hoping no one had caught her fond look. “Th-thank you. I appreciate the chance to explore.”

“I have plans to survey around the edge of the settlement for more things that could be used on the ship.” Darru explained what he would be doing the next day. “Ensign O’Connery has agreed to come with me if no one else is interested.”

“Oh that should be fun. Maybe we can compare findings later to help build a more cohesive picture of the people that once lived here?” Mercy managed to get the offer out without stumbling over her words. It was perfectly professional offer to compare research. “But we should probably… that is I wanted to get up early so I’m going to turn in. Nights everybody.” Mercy gave those around the fire a little wave as she stood.

“Don’t let the undiscovered space bugs bite! And if you do squish them, grab a sample cannister so we can study it later!” At that point she let out a jaw cracking yawn and it would be impossible to tell whether she was joking or not.