2nd Floor Common Room Saturday Afternoon

[not_a_haint]

It was really, very, incredibly cold outside. Which was unfortunate for a number of reasons, one of them being that Caleb was feeling poorly, emotionally speaking and his usual remedy of going for a broody walk was, well not out of the question but seemed like it would be counter productive.

So instead, he was listening to the radio, as he attempted to make pizza. Well a few pizzas as the pre-made crusts only came in so many sizes.

The current music selection was actually doing a fairly good job at alleviating some of his angst.

Comments

[sairis]

Sairis came in, lured by the sound of music. "Is this something from your home?" he asked, gesturing at the radio.

[not_a_haint]

"No, actually this is new to me. Though it does sound like somethin' Granny Amburgey might enjoy. Somethin' from 'the old country' which could be anywhere, really."

[sairis]

"It sounds more like the music I'm familiar with than the things I've heard on my phone so far," Sairis said. "Is the old country where your family is from?"

[not_a_haint]

"I think it's where most peoples' family are from, less they're..." he almost said Indians but remembered he'd read that was not polite. "Cherokee. Or...other...that bit's a longer answer.

"This part o' Earth, America there were people here, then folks who look like me came from 'the old country' an' took over. The Old Country is just kinda a nostalgic catch-all for wherever folks' ancestors came from. I dunno where my people came from, they, they died when I was real young.

"The lady who raised me, Granny Amburgey never talked about where her people came from, but but she when she could find it on the wireless she liked to listen to this kinda music." As best as Caleb could guess, given his limited knowledge on the subject.

[sairis]

"My master liked to play the fiddle," Sairis said. "When we had spare time. That's most of the music I had growing up."

[not_a_haint]

"Yeah the fiddle's popular where I come from too. That and the banjo, and piano if you can get one." And then Caleb thought of other instruments people from his neck of the woods played, but he didn't want to get too into the reeds on that. "I did okay on the piano but never quite managed to learn to read music."

[sairis]

"What's the banjo?" Sairis asked.

[not_a_haint]

"It's a stringed instrument, like a guitar. It's got a..." he found that he often had a notebook to hand these days and was able to draw a rough sketch of a banjo. "It's got kind of a twangy sound."

[sairis]

"Huh. Interesting." Sairis wasn't sure if he could picture a 'twangy' sound, but he could look it up later on his phone.

"What are you making?"

[not_a_haint]

"This is pizza, or...an attempt at it. It's somethin' I've heard about, but never tried before. I'm cheatin' a bit 'cause the crust is pre-made. I figure the rest is fairly simple." He'd spread on the tomato sauce and the cheese, only guessing/hoping about how much he should use. And then he had added chicken and sausage to one, and peppers and mushrooms to the other.

Someday he might try pineapple but these things take time.

[sairis]

"It's a...bread with toppings?" Sairis guessed, looking at it.

[not_a_haint]

"Yeah that's essentially what it is. But it's...I dunno, a specific type of bread? The package for these specifically labeled it as pizza crust. Word of it trickled into the rural areas from the big cities but..." he shrugged. "Hadn't caught on by th' time I left for Fandom."

[sairis]

"Looks odd, but not bad," Sairis mused.

[not_a_haint]

"I am hopeful. And if it turns out bad I will blame my inexperience with an oven." He said as he slid the prepared pies into said oven.

"It beeped so I think that means it's done pre-heating."

Having the timer built into the oven was convenient but as with many of the modern innovations, Caleb missed the tactile nature of the older technology. The barely perceivable press of touch screen just wasn't as satisfying as cranking the dial of an egg timer.

[sairis]

"That's what the manual said," Sairis agreed. Look, he was a geek, he read things. "Convenient."

[not_a_haint]

"I'm sure the cooks of my day would scoff at such precision." Caleb chuckled. "But they might forgive that if it helps someone like me actually cook somethin' more complicated than a can o' beans."

Especially since he wasn't using the microwave. It tickled him to think of how scandalized Miss Marcie or Granny Amburgey would be at such a cheat.

"So, how're your classes goin'?"

[sairis]

Sairis smiled. "Never underestimate beans." They'd been a mainstay of his diet.

"I'm still not sure about the combat class," he said. "And a few of them were nothing but watching 'movies' this week. Which are frustrating." There were so many cultural references he didn't understand! "What about yours?"

[not_a_haint]

Caleb grimaced about the movies. "Yeah I got dropped into th' deep end with movies. I'm not sure what Miss Dooley or whoever was in charge o' signin' me up for classes was thinkin' 'Cinema Studies' would be, but I doubt it was this. Course I dunno if they thought any of it was gonna be how it is. I been tryin' t' ease myself in a bit on my own which has been goin' fairly well.

"Other'n that, I'm takin' creative writin', Feed Yourself which has been very helpful, and Th' Long Con. I think that's the one that's gonna give me the hardest time, but it might also be th' one that'll be of th' most use."

[sairis]

"The Long Con? What's that?" Sairis asked.

[not_a_haint]

"Do you got snake oil salesmen where you're from? Folks who come into town hawkin' some potion or other they swear will cure what ails you, then leave before anyone figures out it's all a fake.

'Parently another word for 'em is con men. A long con, I have recently learned is a scheme that can take weeks, maybe months t' complete." He hesitated, but decided that it was probably safe to confide in Sairis about this. "There's folks who mean me harm that might still be lookin' for me back home. So I need t' learn how t' pretend t' be someone I ain't."

[sairis]

Sairis grimaced. "That makes sense. A lot of people back home would want to kill me, too." Not that he had much hope of pretending to be someone else. Not for long, anyway. It seems an odd thing for a class, though."

[not_a_haint]

"It does. This school isn't quite what I was expectin'," understatement of the year, "But then nothin' about this entire island was. Although, given' my relatively isolated upbringin' I'm not sure I could say exactly what I was expectin'.

"My learnin' was pretty basic. I got my letters, learned basic 'rithmatic, maybe a more balanced picture o' history than some, but not a lot 'bout anythin' outside o' Appalachia. Mostly we learned how ' survive in the wilderness, fix stuff, take care o' animals.

"Oh an' Appalachia is a pretty big swath o' land in the Appalachian mountains."

Oh! He'd found an atlas lying around. Where had he put it?

[sairis]

"I have no idea how I even have classes, since I certainly didn't intend to come here," Sairis said. "I grew up with one old man in a tower, though I did manage to watch some classes at the university remotely." He shrugged. "My master taught me just about everything I know."

Well, he'd known some basics before that, but he tried not to think about that time in his life.

[not_a_haint]

As usual, when it came to hard luck, or weird experiences, Caleb had been one upped. "That is a puzzle. I wonder if...could a portal to this place have spontaneously opened, and then the universe just kinda adapted to your presence?" Caleb had no idea what he was talking about, and he knew it.

[sairis]

And Sairis hadn't even been trying for that!

"I have no idea, honestly. I've been told the island is partially sentient and may have done it itself, but I have no way of knowing how to communicate with it."