Second Floor Common Room, Sunday Morning (Jan 4)

[not_a_haint]

Sleeping in for Caleb generally meant an hour or two after sunrise, and his internal clock tended to wake him even if he didn't have an alarm or a rooster.

The night before, he'd glanced into the common room on his way to his dorm room, just long enough to see a couch, comfy chairs, and a kitchen. So once he was fully awake he came in to see about breakfast.

And found himself utterly baffled as to how most of this worked. That looked like a stove but he couldn't see how to light it. He at least recognized the icebox from pictures. Enough so that he knew to look there for milk.

Thank goodness there was cereal.

"Right. The future. Gonna have to figure some stuff out. I wonder if there's a manual for the new fangled fake lookin' stove."

[Open like an open post that is open.]

Comments

[sairis]

His roommate was similarly inclined, though once he woke and found the bathroom - with actual indoor plumbing that was hot! - he was at a loss what to do, with no birds or plants to care for and no lessons yet.

So now clean and redressed - in modest linen tunic and trews rather than his master's castoffs this time - he wandered out to see what was going on.

"Good morning," he said to Caleb. "Have you seen the bathroom in this place yet? It's amazing!"

[not_a_haint]

The compound he'd grown up on still used outhouses and the extent of the running water was a hand pump in the kitchen sink. They also were mainly reliant on gas lights though improvements in that regard were slowly being made.

The coming thing came slower when you were trying to keep out of sight.

"Mornin', yeah I washed up a bit, earlier but I'm gonna have a longer look later." Caleb was dressed in trousers and an undershirt, another accommodation he made to a morning without specific tasks.

"I was gonna make breakfast but I dunno how to work that." He pointed with his spoon at the stove. "There's plenty of cereal though. At least I think that's what most of what that is." He then pointed to the array of boxes with colorful comic characters on them. He'd only recognized Corn Flakes.

[sairis]

Sairis was used to pumping water from the raincatchers to wash up with, and using magelights or oil lanterns.

And cooking in a brick oven or firepit.

He came closer, peering at the oven. "What is that?" He examined the boxes Caleb said were cereal, but they didn't seem to have grain inside. The boxes were fascinating, though.

[not_a_haint]

The gas stove back home had been a recent addition. (Granny had been quicker to get an automobile) but he knew the basics of how that worked.

And theoretically the cereal was made of grain.

"I think it's a stove and an oven but it's of a make I never seen before." He'd have thought by now food would just be zapped by some sort of ray. "I'm hopin' to find some kinda instructions somewhere."

He'd done just enough exploring of the cabinets and drawers as to find the utensils and bowls.

[sairis]

Sairis came over and looked at the stove, frowning. The oven door was fairly easy to open, and the racks inside made sense, but... "I don't see any wood to put in here. Or a chimney to vent the smoke."

[not_a_haint]

"Yeah that's a new...ish development where I'm from too. We had a woodburnin' stove and oven most of my life. Last year we finally got a gas one and Granny wouldn't let anyone but her touch it." She'd said it was because of safety issues but Caleb suspected she just wanted the new toy all to herself.

"There was a vent above it but I can't pretend I knew how it all worked."

There weren't even any visible dials or buttons on the thing. For all he knew in the future you operated it by thought.

[sairis]

"Gas?" Sairis thought about it. "The capital has some gas lamps, but I haven't heard of it used for cooking." Which didn't mean it hadn't been; most of his experience had been university lectures via mirror.

"How would it work if that's the case, then?" He leaned into the oven to see if he could spot gas vents.

[not_a_haint]

"Careful, if there is gas involved you don't wanna get a lungful of it. I dunno about the oven but the stove had rings of metal where these black circles are, and just under them were little vent pipes that would let out a little bit of gas that you lit so you were cookin' over a flame, but one caused by gas and not wood."

And if you didn't know what you were doin' you "could blow the house sky high!" as everyone had been cautioned. Caleb had also read about people ending it all via the gas oven so he was ready to pull Sairis out of there if he started to cough.

[sairis]

Sairis nodded. "I don't see any vents, though maybe this metal is pipes for it? Though I don't know why it would have to go through so many turns."

He straightened and looked at the supposed stove. "No clue about this. Again, maybe those are pipes for the gas? But I don't see any holes to let it out."

[not_a_haint]

Taking a closer look at the thing, Caleb saw what looked like up and down arrows, and numbers from 1 to 9, with 0 right below them. He ran his fingers over the display and it beeped.

[sairis]

Sairis frowned and eyed it. "Well, that did something."

[not_a_haint]

Numbers had appeared in what had been a blank black square. Caleb was reminded of an illustration he'd seen in one of the pulps of cavemen poking at an automobile.

"Okay I gotta look for a manual I don't wanna break anythin'."

After rummaging a bit he found a whole stack of short instruction booklets.

"Okay lessee here. Something called a microwave, which I guess is this thing here," he placed the booklet next to the box that seemed to have a similar kind of control panel as the stove. "Not sure why the icebox needs one but it's the future so who knows, the toaster...that actually doesn't look all that different than the ones in the Sears-Robuck catalogue, something called a television...more things I never heard of. And of course the stove is on the bottom of the stack."

There had also been assembly instructions for one of the chairs written in Martian as far as he could tell.

[sairis]

Sairis had picked up the microwave manual when Caleb set it down. "This says it's for cooking."

He pulled the door open and frowned at the empty box inside. "How?" The manual talked about setting times and buttons to press, but nothing about how it worked.

[not_a_haint]

"This is goin' to sound glib, but...maybe magic? I been lookin' at all this from a future of my world standpoint but there's magic around here too."

There was magic in his world as well but as far as he knew no one used it for cooking.

"Though I think the stove here uses electricity to generate heat, so maybe that thing does somethin' similar."

Hadn't there been something like a miniature oven in the Sears catalogue as well?

[sairis]

Sairis looked at the microwave and shook his head. "There's no magic in it. What's electricity?"

[not_a_haint]

Oh boy, how to explain it? Even if electric lights were relatively new where he was from, the extent of his knowledge was generally "I pull the cord and the bulb lights up".

"Uh well it's...something we take enough for granted that I'm not sure precisely how to...far as I know the lights are powered by it...people managed to harness the same kinda energy that lightening is?"

Being a scientist might not be in the cards for Caleb.

[sairis]

"The lights?" Sairis looked up at them. He'd honestly assumed they were magic or lanterns and not paid much attention. "The same thing as lightning?" He thought about it. "That must take a massive amount of power to harness."

He would definitely be looking up electricity to find out more.

"So it generates heat. That makes sense." Lightning set things on fire, after all.

He smiled wryly. "Of course, I've got nothing to cook, so it's all a bit moot at this point. I take it there's a kitchen somewhere we can get food from?"

[not_a_haint]

"Well, I found some pots and pans, and if I figure out how the stove works..." he went over to the fancy space-age icebox, "There's eggs in here and...I'm hopin' this is all meant for general consumption..." he then commenced to rummaging finding the usual things one could find for making breakfast if one wanted to put actual effort into making it.

"I'm no chef but I know how to cook a basic breakfast."

Maybe the Feed Yourself class would have a unit on how all the appliances were operated.

[sairis]

Sairis frowned again and came over to the refrigerator. "Cold storage in the middle of a room?" And some of the containers in there...he had no idea what they were. Even the one that said it was milk had so many other words on there that it was more confusing than enlightening.

"I can cook eggs, meat, and beans. Even vegetables or bread if there's the makings. If we can figure out how these things work. What if it's not for general consumption, though?" He didn't want to be stealing anybody else's food.

[not_a_haint]

Caleb frowned thoughtfully. No one had written anything down one way or the other but he didn't just want to assume. "I mean either way I gotta get a job, and I figure contributin' to the food supply would be a reasonable thing to do. So if we were eatin' something someone wanted saved...I dunno, the promise and intent to replace it might alleviate any sore feelin's."

How did universities work in that regard? Maybe there was something in literature they'd sent him that said something about it.

[sairis]

"Oh, gods. A job. I only have a little coin. I hope people here can use charms, too. Speaking of which - I hope you don't mind if I ward the room? Just enough to keep out anything dangerous. If you're not magical, you'll probably barely notice it."

He'd have to find somewhere to do spellwork, too. Their room wasn't really big enough for a summoning circle.

[not_a_haint]

"No please by all means. I should probably tell you then, I got a condition, it's magical in nature. I got it under control so as long as I ain't threatened it shouldn't be a problem, but I dunno how it might affect your wards."

[sairis]

Sairis frowned. "Do you mind if I take a look? I should be able to tell."

[not_a_haint]

It was frightening, talking about this with someone he'd only just met, but if they were going to be rooming together this felt like the right thing, regardless.

"Go, go ahead, yeah."

[sairis]

Sairis looked at him like he had the microwave. There was definitely something there, though it didn't seem to be active or harmful. Nature-related, with a hint of death, but not precisely necromantic. Not exactly demonic, either, but maybe similar? He frowned and nodded. "I can work around that. It would help if you're there when I do the wards." He tried to think of how to explain it. "So I can key them specifically to allow you instead of leaving a vaguely you-shaped hole in the defenses, if that makes sense."

[not_a_haint]

"It does, yeah. Do you need me to do anythin' or just keep quiet?"

[sairis]

Sairis smiled a little. "You don't even have to do that, just don't disturb the runes while I'm writing them. I'm used to talking and doing other things while I work."