Léa hummed softly to herself as she finished setting the table.

Behind her, from the replicator alcove, she could hear a subdued digital warble as the computer finished its analysis of some of her favorite recipes and scans of homemade French dishes, adding them to the available menu for synthesis. She brought them on a PADD wherever she traveled, and while they could never quite match the subtle intricacies of food made fresh over a stove or in an oven, the recreations the replicator could manage were pretty close. Léa had once teased an old friend in Engineering that the computer lacked a certain creative flourish, leaving little room for the variations that made cooking feel so alive and human.

The mood was casual, but elegant—just the way she liked it, and her chosen attire matched that perfectly. A simple gray sweater, black slacks, and comfortable flats. She wanted her guests to feel somewhat at home and, to put it bluntly, off their guard.

The friendship and camaraderie she had shared with Captain Halladay were still influencing her.

“It’s easier to work with someone you like than not,” she repeated with a slight smirk. It was a simple platitude. One of many her old commanding officer would reach for whenever the moment seemed right, and she and her fellow senior staff had liked to tease him for that simplicity, much to Halladay’s amusement. “And it’s easier to like someone you know than not,” she finished, stifling a chuckle as the smirk broadened into a full smile. She wondered for a moment where in the Shackleton Expanse the Kiowa and her stalwart captain were, and what sort of adventure they might have been up to.

“Computer. Music, please. Subdued volume. French classical.” A moment later the soft, unhurried—dare she say conversational—strains of Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane, Op. 50, began to filter into Léa’s quarters.

“Lovely. Thank you,” she complimented. - (OOC Notes: Lea setting her Quarters -> https://i.imgur.com/NzLKnR6.jpeg <-, Faure - Pavane Op.50 https://youtu.be/mpgyTl8yqbw)