>>5571072"But hardtack stew?" you ask. "I know what hardtack is. I don't know what's in the rest of the stew, but it could be some magic fairy stew, you wouldn't put hardtack in it."
"Hardtack is in the rest of hardtack stew."
"What? Are they cursed to serve people hardtack into perpetuity?"
"It's what they ate."
"They can't buy biscuits that aren't staler than rocks?"
"Izzy, you know old people get set in their ways. These are very old people, and they are very set in their ways. Now, to be fair to them, they do heat it up heat it up and mix it with water so that its sort of like a pudding."
"A pudding? The stew is like a pudding? Do you have any idea how horrifying that sounds after eating at the cate-teria?"
"Credit where credit's due, Izzy, they've managed to find a way to be frightening in an age where di manes have been thoroughly demystified."
"If they can make a...I don't know if it rightfully can be called pudding, but a pudding like substance out of hardtack, then why not take some rum, because of course they have rum, right?"
"And grog. But believe it or not, that's just dilute rum."
"Well take that, add rum, and you got a bread pudding. You could even put some fruit with it!"
"Hey man, go right ahead and bring your complaints to the cook. He'll give you your choice of dessert--walking the plank or keel haul."
"I can getcha something, Izzy." Edith offers. "It doesn't even have to be from Johnny Winter's, just name it."
>Yeah, we're taking take-out.>No. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of hardtack pudding, we're going to eat like a pirate with the pirates tonight. 