I love you. I want you to eat well. — a TSCOSI drabble
It's been a long time since their awe-struck faces at first tasting some of Brian's food and it will be a long time until they've tasted their last.
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Brian is good at what he does, filling the mold made by the people around him. The Rumor needed a chef. While Sana could cook and Arkady could prep (not nice-versa) it was a rare occasion that they could both be available at the same time, with the needed supplies, to actually get the job done. And even then, they'd both be too tired to do the dishes.
It's been a long time since their awe-struck faces at first tasting some of Brian's food — quick and simple, the recipe was veritably etched into the back of his hand — And it will be a long time until they've tasted their last.
The spice cabinet flies open beneath his fingers, welcoming Brian home. He reaches for the coriander, cumin, and chili powder, swiping each under his nose to get a sense of their potency in the ship's current atmosphere. Then a pinch of ground fennel and celery salt. Those have never done him wrong.
They largely disperse in the boiling water, but Brian gives the rice a greedy stir, knowing he technically shouldn't, to watch the final traces fade away.
From another pan, the smell of onion fills the kitchen, steaming and hissing as the vegetables brown. He makes a space in their midst on the griddle to lay skirt steak in strips, remembering fondly the first time he'd witnessed a proper Maillard reaction. It had scared him. Then, on another pan, he lays strips of meat-substitute.
Keeping his eye on all the stove's activity is like a game to him now, one he's good at. Brian notices the threat to his dinner immediately, holding up a wooden spoon (and one eyebrow) when RJ follows their nose to the spot next to him, fork hidden behind their back. They reach for the lid of the rice. Brian uses the spoon.
More of the crew dribbles in. McCabe retreats into setting the table with Sana's help, leaving more of Brian's immediate space to Krejjh, which they fill eagerly and naturally.
Park enters, the furrow of a hard day fading from his brow when he sees how much of the work has already been done. Sana waves him off, but he insists, and then takes with great honor the task of distributing silverware, RJ getting the cups. Sana sits, chin in her palm, and sighs with upturned lips.
Then Arkady and Violet, hand in hand, make the group a crowd. They make their way to their seats with several 'excuse me's.
Brian uses the spoon on Krejjh.
He insists on serving all of them individually before setting up the spread for free access to seconds. It's a ritual, of sorts, and worth every moment. Krejjh helps. Brian takes a bowl from one of the crew, Sana's first, and spoons it full of rice, Krejjh adding the rest, before he carts it back to the table and gets a 'thank you' for his trouble, watching as they turn hungry eyes to the food in front of them but keep their hands hidden from sight. Krejjh sits, and Brian serves them last, placing a kiss on their forehead. Finally putting on his oven mitts to make use of the lazy Susan, and serving himself.
Then they eat. He feels a special kind of pride, watching as Violet takes a bite, eyes flaring for a brief moment before she brings her hand to her mouth, smiling guiltily. And Brian eats, and the food is good, and he's fulfilled himself too.
The place smells lovely, like home, and the conversation takes its lulls and crashes of conspiratorial stage-whispers and the uproar that follows. A warm feeling settles in Brian's stomach, which aches from laughter and eating a touch more than his fill. He wipes the beginning of a tear from his eye, and sighs, looking around at table of smiles all focused on Park as he tells an anecdote, then Arkady as she one-ups it, and on Park again as he returns the favor, lingering on his drink before the punchline. McCabe laughs so hard they choke, and cough, and after the 'are you okay?'s they laugh some more.
They've been TELLING me to put my TSCOSI headcannons on tumblr but I haven't yet and I'm starting now. It's very evident that these won't be posted in order. TWs in tags.
TSCOSI headcannon dump No.1 — no theme this time.
It's ALL about the tiny ways of staking claim to your humanity despite everything and how it'll always be there whether you want it or not. All of it. ALL. EVERYTHING.
-my McCabe design has their hair bleached on top. Yadda yadda I've talked about how McCabe in my headcannons grew up with the idea that being a good citizen (evil flavor, not recycling or whatever) meant success and shaped themselves around that idea just so effectively, kick-ass but misguided. But like, and they don't realize it until they're in space and bleach is something they actually have to consider, their hair was just one small thing to stand out. For very related reasons I'm considering changing my Iris!McCabe so that their hair is something neon but I'll sleep on it.
-we've seen married-for-ages Brian but consider single-and-ready-to-mingle Brian as chivalrous. I really don't have much more to say than that
-personally I think it's more fun if Brian been knew he liked dwarnians before he met Krejjh for a few reasons but mostly to avoid "I'm not a lesbian but she makes me wanna cheat on my husband" romance vibes cause characters knowing themselves is cool. Also it'd be funny if that's what originally motivated him to learn dwarnian and then he went ":o? I'm actually so good at this?" And became a linguist, follow you're heart, king—I mean not like that but ok that works too.
-krejjh doesn't particularly like the secret shrimp colors
-i maintain that park likes to sketch. He has one of those little aesthetic notebooks. It fits in his pocket. He'll let the crew doodle in it sometimes as long as they sign and date their stuff (so he can remember the moment) Its a love language. They burnt his last notebook at zone Z when they saw he had it with him. It was full of Shelly's drawings and little motivational notes and he looked at it a lot in season one when he was too swamped with the case to spend much time with her. And its a big part of what broke him. And my broke I mean just made him Really Pissed. Oof. Ouch.
-something @/thevoicefromthestars said in my reblogs so I can't take credit for it but Sana and Arkady doing eachothers hair as Their Thing. "scarcity is a bitch but as long as we try really hard not to loose our Bobby pins we can be the hottest people at the smuggling store."
- consider that Krejjh was just real bad at english in school, right, that's cannon— but they drilled their pronunciation on human names they'd overheard and repeated them in private when they started to think it'd be easier to stop caring.
-i'm a "Sana uses music to cope" truther. Singing for catharsis. The drama, the tension of her wanting to sing and being cramped on a ship with other people who she want to keep her emotions secret from. slaps roof of sana This One Can Deserve So Much Better Than This like, in general.
-and back to the hair thing. Pre-violet era life could not have been easy on the trauma. Especially for "I have two middle names, one is Danger and the other is Dedication to the cause" Arkady. Maybe Sana can't get her to sit down and properly process, but she can have an idle chat while you she fixes Arkady's hair.
-there is no definite thing here yet but Brian has STRONG thoughts on shakespeare and dunno enough about shakespeare to decide what that means.
