Second floor common room, Friday evening

[sairis]

Having received a thorough grounding in how to use the internet from Arden, Sairis had been making use of it ever since. It was frustrating that he couldn't be sure how much was true, but he'd learned to research and cross-reference texts, and that seemed to help.

He'd learned a lot about electricity! And how stoves worked. He had his priorities.

So here he was, having found some eggs and meat and carrots in the icebox, and cooking them in a pan on the stove. There was a spice rack, and most of them made no sense, so he'd tasted them. Which was why he was using salt and pepper (those he knew) and something called "chili powder" to season it all.


[Open common room is open!]

Comments

[thatsmysword]

Truth be told, Henry wasn't in the best spirits. Spending all that time alone with his thoughts wasn't good for him. But-- at least there was the smell of food as he stepped out onto the second floor.

"D'you smell that, Mutt?" Henry asked. "What do you think-- Mutt!"

And off went the dog, running into the common room.

[sairis]

Sairis heard someone behind him and turned. Whatever he'd been expecting, it wasn't a dog.

"Whoa! Hi there. Where did you come from? Hold on, yes you can have a piece." Sairis pulled his knife out and sliced off a small piece of meat. "Do you belong to someone here?"

[thatsmysword]

Mutt wasted no time jumping for the piece.

"Mutt!" Henry yelled, as he burst into the room a moment later. "... Sorry, he's not well-trained or anything."

[sairis]

Sairis laughed and let Mutt have it. "More enthusiasm than brains?" he guessed. "Or is he just too headstrong?"

[thatsmysword]

"He's loyal," Henry offered, as he tried to get his hands on Mutt. It wasn't working. "Have only had him for a few weeks so I haven't the faintest which one it is otherwise."

[sairis]

"Fair enough. Mutt!" Sairis held another piece up, out of reach, to try to help him hold still.

[thatsmysword]

And Henry quickly wrapped his arms around the dog, pulling him back. "Thaaat's it, Mutt," he said. "We'll feed you properly, all right? No stealing-- ah, what's your name?"

[sairis]

"Sairis," he introduced himself. He gave Mutt the piece; it seemed mean not to. "That's okay; I can always make more. I can't believe how much food there is around here."

He eyed Henry's pourpoint curiously; it was a lot more like what he was seeing people wear in his world to dress up than what most people here wore.

[thatsmysword]

"Right, but we don't want to get into the habit of stealing Sairis's food, do we, Mutt?" Henry asked.

He flashed Sairis a good-natured but apologetic smile. "I can take him back to the room if that's easier?"

[not_a_haint]

When Caleb was a kid he'd been afraid of dogs, but a very good boy named Sam the Beagle had cured that.

"Well hi there!" he greeted the dog. "And hello to you." he greeted Henry.

[thatsmysword]

Mutt very enthusiastically went for Caleb's hands to sniff, barking all the while.

"Hello," Henry said, with a hint of resignation (for the dog). "I'm Henry."

[not_a_haint]

"Pleased to meet you Henry, I'm Caleb. I hope I'm not disruptin' your friend's schedule too much." he thought he detected 'tired dog dad' in Henry's tone. "I guess meetin' new people can get in the way of what they're supposed to be doin' sometimes."

[thatsmysword]

"Ah, everything's still new to him," Henry sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "He only found his way here a few weeks ago."

[not_a_haint]

“Heh, me too. Glad he found a place, specially given the weather. Are you new th’ island?”

[thatsmysword]

Henry shook his head. "Been here since last summer," he said. "Well. Off and on. Picked up Mutt here on my last journey back home. Yourself?"

[not_a_haint]

“Yep, just arrived at the behinnin’ of the year from Earth, ‘bout 90 years in the past.” He was tempted to exaggerate and round it up to 100. Maybe next time.

“It’s been a lot to absorb.”

[thatsmysword]

"It is a bit," Henry agreed. He gestured at himself. "Six hundred years ago or so."

In case it wasn't obvious from the pourpoint or the suspicious-slash-confused way he eyed anything with a screen.

[not_a_haint]

Caleb was either a specific type of nerd (though he hadn't heard that word yet), or had some variation of neuro-spicy (also a concept he hadn't come across yet) because he had a separate notepad he was using to compose rough drafts for his journal.

But he decided he needed a distraction from the topic of said entry so here he was. "Evenin' Sairis, utcha doon? I see you've figured out the stove."

[sairis]

Sairis smiled at him. "I did! Arden showed me how to use my phone to learn things, and that helped a lot. You want some food? I could add a bit more."

[not_a_haint]

"I'd love some, thank you. I still haven't gotten one of those, though she told me where I could. And that I should. I'm sure some dire need will arise and I'll think 'gosh I wish I had a phone right about now', but it's still not seemin' like a priority. I've been usin' the computers in the computer room."

[sairis]

"My mentor, Magus Liliana, gave me one," Sairis said as he went to get more food to add. "You're welcome to use it if you want, though apparently they're meant to be carried with you."

[not_a_haint]

"Maybe a bit of practice couldn't hurt. We had phones in my day but that was all they were, and they were a lot bigger. Definitely not portable."

He didn't immediately realize that he'd just used the phrase 'in my day' unironically. At least he hadn't been grouchy when he said it.

[sairis]

"I've never seen anything like them," Sairis said. He took out his phone and handed it to Caleb. "Apparently each of the little pictures is an 'icon', and each one does something different. So far I've looked at the phone, the messages, the music, the pictures, and the Google Chrome."

[not_a_haint]

"Huh, well it's a good thing Miss Arden gave me a quick internet tutorial so I recognize the google chrome. Looks more like a rainbow, but it's their product. The other icons seem fairly intuitive to me, but I guess I have some context for 'em. That one looks like a camera so I'm guessing that's the one for takin' photos..."

He touched it and suddenly was looking at his own feet through the phone.

"Good golly."

[sairis]

"Isn't that one amazing?" Sairis asked. "There's an icon you touch at the bottom that turns it around and you can see yourself! And when you touch the icon in the middle, it 'takes a picture', and you can look at it whenever you like!"