Much like the library, the Baskin-Robbins fleet ended up kicking her out after they closed, although here they gave her until 22:00. In that time, she'd experimented with ten other flavors, and although some had a bizarre flavor to them, she couldn't say she hated any of them. Overall, the experience had cost her around thirty-one dollars. Had she used too much, compromising her logistics capabilities, or was this an efficient use of her money? She probably wasn't going to know until she tried to procure more supplies, either to restock her hold or procure tools to aid in her repairs. Her engineers were insistent they didn't need any help from human tools, but Trinitite wasn't going to let a bit of pride hamper her repair efforts.

Either way, Trinitite was going to have to limit herself to six or seven different flavors, next time. Even if it wasn't costly, Trinitite was having a hard time keeping track of all the flavors she'd had over the last three hours. It would be better for her time, stockpiles, and knowledge if she didn't overwhelm herself like that.

Another drawback of spending so much time in that Baskin-Robins was how much of it she lost. When she was banished from the building, almost every other human fleet had shut down, powering its lights off. Oddly, none of these places seemed to have a guard, even though the only thing apparently protecting their supplies from the outside world was some brittle glass.

What was that Elizabeth had said back at the warehouse? Something about the 'poe-lease?' To her, she'd only said they'd call the Navy if Trinitite tripped some automatic alarm, but if humans bothered to set up their advanced technology to alert this fleet after someone entered their business uninvited, they had to have some deterrent ability. Maybe they alerted everyone else as to what had happened, removing the aggressor's ability to peacefully deal with others? Perhaps they dealt with aggressors via force, either by calling the Navy, such as in her case, or using their own fleet's firepower. Most human fleets she'd encountered hadn't seemed particularly combat-capable, but the 'uniformed services' certainly were, and they couldn't be the only exceptions.

Knowing the aggressors would use your valuable base of operations as a battlefield probably wasn't an ideal situation for a human fleet commander, especially since Trinitite had personal experience in how destructive human weapons could be, but she guessed the threat of facing a strong fleet no matter who you raided had its advantages. Not having to pay money for weapons yourself, for example.

Following her chart, Elizabeth ventured east, into an unlabeled portion of the map she assumed would provide cover. Sure, she didn't need to sleep right now, but with most human fleets closing their bases and leaving the streets, there wasn't much else for her to do. Maybe, with it being night, Trinitite would have an easier time scouting the nearby naval station, but that was still much more dangerous then just waiting for the library to open again, and Trinitite hadn't nearly explored that option enough yet. Better to figure out what she couldn't learn there, then take any more unnecessary risks.

Plus, she needed to eat. Ice cream was amazing, but not particularly filling, and the sparse lunch she'd had with the humans hadn't been enough for her even then, despite only having one boiler running. Perhaps that was another reason she'd gotten so lost in the Baskin-Robbins. In the future, she'd have to resupply before ice cream.

Passing a few buildings that still had their lights on, but not much labeling to give Trinitite a hint as to their purpose, Trinitite ducked under a tree and entered a small forest. What little light filtered in from the fixtures lining the roads faded away, leaving the uncanny glow that permeated the sky as Trinitite's only light source. It was saying something that even through the trees, this mysterious light was enough to help her navigate.

Was there just so many lights that it was reflecting off the clouds? That felt like a ridiculous idea! There must be some sort of princess around. Guess 'Human Princesses' needed to be investigated, especially if she planned on getting any closer to the installation at Everett.

After crossing a small creek and settling in a tight collection of trees, Trinitite disembarked a small contingent of marines to establish a loose perimeter. While her landbound scouts waddled into the underbrush, ready to report any threats they noticed, The abyssal allowed herself to slump against a tree, sighing. It had been a long day, and while not particularly dangerous, it had been a storm of emotion. Now that she was sitting, some rest didn't seem that bad.

Seems... clear.

The tepid reply from her away team didn't inspire that much confidence, but Trinitite couldn't give her marines too much flak for it. Beyond basic damage control, they'd never really been trained, after all. Even Wa's dedicated to amphibious assaults didn't use them much, as while they had a low profile, they weren't too stealthy, were quite fragile, and grew tired far too quickly to see much use. Better to stick to their armored fighting vehicles, as they were at least somewhat resistant to enemy fire.

Not that they felt like it. The horror stories she'd heard of combat inland made her very glad of Her Princess's stance on the war. Abyssals were meant for the sea, and Installations were a rare exception, rather than an example.

Choosing to trust in her scouts, Trinitite allowed light to return to her tower, eyes flickering to light and bathing the area in front of her in a faint blue-orange glow. The ambient light was good enough for her to navigate, but if she wanted to read the labels on food, she'd need a bit more illumination, even if it made her nature pretty obvious.

As she shuffled through her hold, The Abyssal's thoughts drifted back to Dan's meal this afternoon. He'd had some sort of meat shaped into a disc, surrounded by that white stuff she'd had on the Pacific Lilly. Judging by the color of the whole thing, there had been some dark sauce involved as well, giving the whole thing a bit of a flavor. Despite the Wo-Class's reservations about any sauce, if it worked for Alton…

First step was the white stuff. Trinitite ruffled through her supplies, eventually withdrawing with a fairly distinctive bag of labeled 'White Rice.' So far, so good. For a moment, the Abyssal pondered the clear bag, wishing she'd held onto one of the Baskin-Robbins cups. The bag was full enough that Trinitite would probably lose half of the rice if she tried to eat from it, meaning she needed to pour some out before she could eat from it. Biting her lip in frustration, glanced around the cluster of trees she was hiding in. Alton had had some kind of container to eat from, and Trinitite hadn't thought far enough ahead to prepare one. Would something else work?

Fetching a flimsy box from her storage, Trinitite held its label to her face. Her eye's dim glow became a firm light when it came this close, and Trinitite quietly read the label aloud.

"Oops, all Berries?"

Oops? As in, 'I made a mistake?' If you put the effort into writing that on the box, then why not fix your mistake in the first place? The bizarrely distorted image of a human in some kind of uniform didn't help either.

Well, Trinitite didn't really care what was in the box, she just needed the box to eat from. Finding a seam, Trinitite popped the box open, sliding a bag filled with colorful... somethings out. Come to think of it, it probably wasn't a good idea to throw this back into her hold unlabeled, so it was looking like the Abyssal was going to have to eat something before she could get to the meal she wanted to try.

Sighing, the abyssal hefted the bag, giving it a bit of a shake. It felt far too light to be filling, and at the moment that was all she really cared about. Opening the bag, Trinitite spared a look at what she was about to eat. Maybe the dry balls of food looked better in natural light, but under the blue-orange glow of her eyes their unnatural color was a little unnerving. These were supposed to be berries? Bracing herself, Trinitite tipped the bag back, pouring the 'berries' into her mouth.

Crunch.

It was sweet, like the ice cream she'd just had, but instead of the smooth, creamy sensation she loved, the pellets sucked up moistrue, retaining their shape until Trinitite's teeth broke them apart. Before she knew it, the 'berries' had been reduced to a fine powder that stuck to her teeth, tongue, and the inside of her mouth, and the abyssal found herself unable to swallow. The Wo-class tried to spit it out, lowering the box and bag to her side, but her attempts to spit out the dust was quickly reduced to a dry cough. Trinitite shifted to her knees, hacking and heaving, but the dust still stubbornly clung to Trinitite's throat. Some saliva finally returned, and the Wo-class was finally able to clear her cheeks, but not much else. It was still too dry to swallow.

Drink. She needed something to drink.

Her crew offered a plastic container of 'Orange Juice' from her fridge, and almost desperately she spun the top off and took a swig. Like she'd expected, the yellow liquid purged her mouth and throat of the annoying dust, allowing her to finally swallow.

Alright, that hadn't gone well, but perhaps that was her fault. Trinitite lifted the bag again, this time removing a pinch of the dry nuggets and eating that, instead of filling her mouth like she was drinking avgas. With only six or seven of these things in her mouth, Trinitite found she didn't necessarily need the orange juice to break them down, but nevertheless she still took another swig from the bottle. Then another, because while she was still undecided on these fake berries, the Orange Juice was pretty darn good.

She continued like that for about thirty minutes, growing increasingly frustrated as to how long it was taking to eat. Like she'd suspected, the 'berries' were roughly 80% air, and since Trinitite was trying to resupply it felt like she was putting a lot of work in for not much progress.

Eventually, finally, the bag had been emptied, Trinitite crumpling the useless plastic up and stuffing it into her hold. Dealing with that was an issue for tomorrow's Trinitite. Now, she had a nice cardboard box to eat from. Sitting so the opened top was facing her, Trinitite took the face of the box and tore it away, leaving a fairly decent tray if she made sure to rest it at a slight angle. Retrieving the bag of rice from a bush next to her, Trinitite tore a corner off, pouring a pile of the small grains into the box.

Placing the bag back next to her, Trinitite turned her attention back to the box of rice in her lap. Contemplatively, she gave it a few small shakes, studying the food as it was shuffled from a pile to an even layer of rice. Cautiously, she stuck a finger in, shifting the rice around a little more.

Deep, she'd had her suspicions, but it seemed like the consistency was all wrong. Instead of the tender filling she'd had aboard the Pacific Lilly, the rice was solid, like she was messing with a particularly fine gravel. She plucked one of the rice particles out of the box, popping it into her mouth and chewing speculatively. Crunchy, too, but the taste wasn't all that off from what she remembered. She wasn't doing this right, was she?

Well, it wasn't like she was going to be able to un-rip the bag of rice. She was committed, now.

What else had Alton eaten? Some kind of meat disk, but there were several of those in her freezer. Eventually, she settled on what she had the most of: Hamburgers. Removing the package and untying the wire keeping it closed, Trinitite removed three 'patties,' plunging them into the box of rice so they stood on their sides, partially submerged. It didn't quite look like the right color, but no doubt Alton's meat disk had been coated in some sauce, and given the light she wasn't going to be able to get an accurate read on it's color anyways.

She returned the rest of the patties to her hold, allowing for her crew to return it to the freezer. Now, for a sauce. Trinitite suppressed a shudder, especially as that would disturb the rice and precariously-balanced hamburger patties in her lap. It wasn't like all sauce was bad, just… strong. Trinitite just needed to find a sauce that would complement the taste of rice and hamburgers!

That got a chuckle out of her. Like she'd know any better. Better to go with that bottle of… war-chester-sher sauce, or whatever it was called, that she'd already opened. That didn't seem all that terrible, although Trinitite had an urge to bomb whomever had named the damn thing.

Fishing the bottle from her hold, Trinitite held it up to her face, trying to read it again.

"Work… No, Workest… uh… ter, shi, re?"

Scratch that, bombing was too impersonal a punishment. Trinitite needed the chance to ask them how to say this damn name.

Whatever this stuff was, Trinitite popped the lid open, upending the bottle and sloshing some onto the hamburgers and rice. She'd hoped adding liquid would soften the rice up, like with the loosely-defined 'berries,' but no such luck. It slid over the hamburgers and through the rice, only slightly staining it. Where she'd dripped too much sauce, it soaked through the cardboard and into her pants, leaving a spot or two on her legs noticeably wet.

Whatever. She'd done it wrong, obviously, but this was still a meal. The Abyssal took one of the hamburgers, stirring the rice a bit to mix the sauce in, before taking a bite herself.

Snap.

It tasted like ice. Only by furiously rubbing the bite with her tongue could Trinitite get a faint taste of the meat, and she was far too hungry to do that much work. Sighing, Trinitite reached into her box of rice, scooping out a handful of the white grains and pouring it into her mouth.

Crunch. Crunch.

Well, it tasted good, at least. Like she had guessed, the sauce added an interesting dimension to the rice, now that it was diluted by something. Still, Trinitite found she had to take another swig of Orange Juice, following it up with another bite of the frozen hamburger.

…

She really needed to read those cookbooks. It was becoming very clear that some human food was fine to just eat, out of the packaging, while others needed preparation of some kind before it was worth the time to eat it. She'd have to look into those after she'd finished the rice, hoping to figure out what she could use and what she couldn't, at least. Best case, only about 20% of her haul from the Warehouse raid was currently unusable, but Trinitite wasn't hoping for that.

She was still going to finish that bag of rice, though. This wasn't particularly good, but it wasn't all that bad, either. With a more content sigh, Trinitite scooped another handful of rice into her mouth, the sound of her chewing fading into the sparse rain pattering against the trees above her.

I'd say you shoulda cooked all of that, but since you're galley's trashed, I guess you were in a lose-lose situation, huh Trin?

Anyways, I didn't expect to write another Trinitite's food blog chapter, but when I was trying to timeskip the night I realized we had a unique opportunity of seeing an Abyssal attempt to reverse-engineer her coworker's cooking. Seemed interesting enough to write, and since it ballooned into chapter size here's some unplanned fluff.

I've never had the cereal I mentioned, but I imagine it probably isn't much to speak about when eaten dry.