Comfort Food (Pregame 2 LA, Cafeteria)

[John Slaktare]

"I'll tear them up. I do want to move my lasers though. Get them onto the same arm, so I can make use of all my firepower and my hatchet," he says with a nod.

"And if any of them junior techs give you a hard time, let me know and I'll get them in line."

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"I'll tear them up. I do want to move my lasers though. Get them onto the same arm, so I can make use of all my firepower and my hatchet," he says with a nod.

"And if any of them junior techs give you a hard time, let me know and I'll get them in line."

"Aha! Seems like a good project for your favorite Mechtech. Right up my alley too. You can put your lasers and hatchet right up my alley. Wait...yeah I think that's the right way to say that. That's a big job but I'm good with big jobs. We'll make that mech of yours an unstoppable jugglenaut."

[John Slaktare]

"Almost, but not quite. Modifications are right up your alley. But saying that someone can put something up your alley sounds sexual," he explained, unabashed, and sighs.

It could be difficult talking with her sometimes. Not because he disliked it, but those little moments where she made unintentional innuendos or double entendres... those were frustrating?

"No rush. I know you do good work. I prefer you to take your time and work at your own pace."

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

She let the sippy cup float in front of her and tilted her head in confusion at John. "I don't get it Big J. It's an alley, right? You put things there to work on and oh I think I get it." Hrafna smiled at him for a few seconds before shaking her head. "No, I really don't get it. I'm sorry I said I did, but I trust what you are saying. So the alley in this case is my...hair? Boots? Stop me when I nail it." John never mixed words with her and she had come to rely on that when navigating unknowns, which for Hrafna there were many.

[John Slaktare]

"Alley in a sexual context would be a vagina, or the butt if the alley is assumed to be a back alley," he explained. "People may guess sexual meaning from such things you are they say that something is being put in a person's alley."

"Example from what you said before, someone might say they wanna put their hatchet in an alley. Because a hatchet could look like a penis from the side and upside down. And an alley is a narrow or tight area. So it would be like saying they wanna put their penis in a tight area. Implying they wanna have sex."

Again, he doesn't seem to have any issue explaining it. But it's also a bit disheartening to explain it to someone with whom you wouldn't mind playing hide the hatchet.

"Of course, saying it the other way, that you want someone to put their stuff in your alley, can be seen as the same. Also called innuendo, which can be difficult to understand sometimes. Using non sexual words to mean sexual things."

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"Oh. Oh? Oh! Ooooh." Well now, that was the kind of explanation she came to John for. Right to the point. "I defin...I def...I surely understand now. I should...um...I should probably be more careful about how I use some words and stuff. I should probably takes notes, like 'nothin' in my alley' but it sounds like an alley is fine. In fact..." And with that she started parting herself down as she looked for something. Unable to find it right away she unbuttoned the top part of her coveralls and fished around inside until a small pad of paper was produced. A pen appeared in her hand and she got to writing.

"Stay away from talkin' about alleys to be safe. There we go. Now all I have to do I look back at this and I'm good."

[John Slaktare]

"Glad to help out," he replies with a nod, finishing off the last of the potatoes.

"You did use the first part right. Modifications and changes to mechs are definitely", emphasized for example, "up your alley. Notice how it's a hobby, job or activity. And its present tense already in the alley? Just have to remember not to do future tense with objects in reference to your alley."

"Hope it's not too difficult to keep stuff separate. You can always practice and experiment with your words around me, even if you are trying to be more accurate with others. I got your back. But is it hard to keep that in mind around different people?"

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"Ugh, it's so frustaking. I'm grateful for that ear of yours Big J, it's been a good few years since I left home but puttin' those words together is still hard. No, difficult. Difficult. I should try to use different words too. Had I known I would be here I woulda been practicin' more as a girl. Plus we got some people out here speakin' three or four or more. I want to sound like I know what I'm doin', you know. So maybe I'll use that ear of yours more for practicin'. And in turn you can use mine if you need, I'm not one of those who thinks the sun comes up to here me crow, right."

[John Slaktare]

"It's certainly frustrating I imagine. But you're doing really well and I don't get tired of it at all. Practice as much as you like," he offers.

"How have you been doing on this trip? Been good?"

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

The smile on her face spread even bigger at John's words. "Great! I'll practice all over you....nope. Nope. That sounds like one of those things you just told me about." Out came her notepad and she scribbled a few words under her previous notes. It could be seen that Hrafna wrote 'do not say you you will do things all over people'.

"So far so good, J man. I've been tryin' to get to know those other mech pilots better so I know what to expect. Also get those mechs of theirs set up just how they like 'em. Yup. Thooooough it's been hard to be away from home for this long, sometimes I don't know what I was thinkin' in my head when I left but then I see all of this and the people and I know. Still gets tough though. How about you?"

[John Slaktare]

"Good catch. It's certainly not a common innuendo," he says, repeating the word for her benefit, "but it definitely sounded like it."

"Even if it's hard, I think you should stick with it. You will get lots of opportunities to do great things out here that you can't back home. I get the feeling, missing the place you call home, but it changes every day. It even changes when you are there. It's never really the same place, even two days in a row. So why not go out and see really different places huh?"

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"Even if it's hard, I think you should stick with it"

Hrafna's eyes lit up and she slapped the table. "Hah! That's what she said! That's what she said! Nailed it!" She slapped the table again in glee.

"In-you-en-do. In-you-en-do." Hrafna repeated the word a couple of times to try it on for size. While she didn't care much for it she'd have to give it a try. It's not like she could pick and choose which words she would use and which she wouldn't when she was trying to learn. "I'm glad I'm out here, seein' these places and meetin' these people of course. Heck, I wouldn't be sittin' here with you if I had never left that farm back home. It's a good thing and not like I can't find myself back there one day. Definitely with more money. Oh! I could have a farm of my own. Or, or, or, like some sort of repair shop. I was doing that before I left anyway. Maybe I'll think bigger."

[John Slaktare]

He... smirks. For just a moment. She'll probably think its cause he thought it was funny. But honestly, that kind of humor never did anything for him. It was because he was happy she was catching on so quick.

"I'll retire to a farm one day, if I don't die in a fight," he says with a nod. "So I don't expect it to actually happen. But..."

He eats the las bit of pouch beans.

"... I wouldn't mind having someone to work the farm with. Or having a mechanic I trust around."

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

The rest of the water is drunk as fast as it can come out of the sippy cup which is to say not very fast. "Aha! Farm partners! That's not a bad idea ack-shoo-wally, one I think I like. Hey now, how about this? We give ourselves a time limit and if we still want that farm, we'll get that farm. Ten, twenty years, either way. I'll be out there fixin' those tractors and you'll be out there lifting up the cows when they get out. That means you gotta come back with that mech of yours when you go out there each time. Sound good? Sounds good."

[John Slaktare]

"Ten," he replied with a nod. "Already have the farm. Just a question of getting it running again, and fixing it up after 15 years of not being in use."

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"Ten? Ten. Teeeeen. Ten!" Hrafna was always good at covering many emotions with just one word. "I wouldn't mind seeing that farm of yours. I'm sure we could get it up and runnin' in no time. We had a few animals, mostly chickens and ducks, but we had some of those big ones too. Cows, horses, pigs. Not many but enough to get the job done. Sooooo many chickens though. Like think of a lot of chickens, then double it. Then add some more. Finally add one more. A lot. Same with those ducks. Had a couple of those ducklings follow me around for a while. I wish I could have that again. The farm! Yes! Let's do it. Family farm? I like it."

[John Slaktare]

He nodded at that. "As a dairy farm, we had a few dozen milk cows. We also bred them too, rather than buying when they passed away. The male calves would get sold or become veal or a beef steer for personal use. Didn't do a lot of others, though we had a couple goats we kept more like pets than working animals. The pasteurization equipment and the milking equipment do take regular maintenance though. And we rotated three fields, corn, soybean and fallow to help with feed."

He didn't know why he was going into it. He usually didn't. Most people didn't care about specifics. And there was that term she used... family farm. Should have a family on a family farm.

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

Hrafna's hand slapped the table. "Aha! It seems like you got everything to need. You got the farm, which is a big part if having a farm. But more important is that know how, right. I haven't run the number on duck eggs for a while but I'm sure I can fall right back into it. How much we need to turn a profit, C.P.D. cost per duck, turnover rate. Hoo boy Big J, let me tell you I have some smarts when it comes to duck and chicken eggs. We're set there. So here's the plan, we come back here after each one of those times you're out there in that mech of yours so you can see that farm. Good? Good. Deal? Deal."

[John Slaktare]

"Wouldn't say I got enough know how to get it done myself, but I remember enough to know how it's prolly supposed to go. Can hire a few hands to help with specific stuff."

"Always try my best to make it back. Don't hurt to have more reasons though."

The last of the potatoes were finished and the packages tucked away. "Did you name the ducks back home? Only ask because I used to name the cows."

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"Always good to have a few more reasons, always good." Hrafna nodded at that. While she had never been in combat she often wondered how it would be, especially since she had volunteered more than a few times.

"I named them all! Every last one. It was hard coming up with new names all of the time but I got creative. The last brood of ducklings I was around for were named Gunnar, Anna, Helga, Einar, Johann, Sigrun, Freyja, and of course Hildur. I wouldn't mind having another one of those broods following me around here. Maybe again one day. No, for sure again one day. Oh! What did you name the cows?"