Chapter 2 - Barter System

[duck_duck_laser]

[Action - Thursday, September 1st, 458 Stone Street, Morning]

[Dakki is up early, as usual, checking the mail after fixing the household's drone children toast for breakfast. Again. Toast is easy, and they haven't started complaining yet... although that could change soon. But the package on the doorstep jostles her out of breakfast-related

Comments

[phone]

[weiss_tank]

Yeah, those books assume that you got taught by your mom as you were growing up or some sorta thing like that. What are you having trouble with?

[duck_duck_laser]

I've got a list of things I've been wondering about, actually.

[There's a faint sound of crinkling paper.]

How do you "fold" something in to a mixture? Also, how brown is brown when they ask you to brown something? Light brown? Dark brown? There are a lot of shades of brown.

[weiss_tank]

Folding, when you get the hang of it is pretty easy. It's basically a way of gently mixing things together, like uh...[how to describe this] Kinda like folding a cloth over something that you're wrapping.

[duck_duck_laser]

Ooh. Gently. So you... bring it over. And then you repeat? Because it should be well-combined, right?

[One would suspect that she's taking notes.]

I'm also unclear about the best way of boiling an egg... do you leave it in the shell? Or take it out?

[weiss_tank]

Shell on. There's a ton of ways to do it, so you're gonna have to experiment on that one. But it's better to screw up on the side of undercooked then over.

[duck_duck_laser]

I see. I think one of the books lists the necessary length of time for various boiled eggs. I'll refer to that.

...there's still the whole thing about "browning". If you let something go too long, it goes clear on to "blackening", which isn't any good...

[weiss_tank]

Uh...lessee...browning is a bit dependent on what you're cooking. Like for ground meat, browning just refers to cooking it all the way through. For everything else, I guess it's kinda a bit of a golden brown?

[duck_duck_laser]

Hm. It still sounds a bit subjective. This is one of those things that I'll have to see for myself by practicing, I think.

...how do you know so much about cooking, if you don't mind me asking?

[She sounds curious, and amused.]

[weiss_tank]

I don't know that much, just a few of the basics. Though to be honest I've gotten a bit better since coming here. The people I live with don't cook themselves.

[duck_duck_laser]

You know more than I do, at least. But I suppose you'd have more reason to pick the skill up. I'm not much of an eater. I'm happy to live off of PeroriMate, and to occasionally go out for smoothies.

I'm encouraged to hear that I'm not the only non-cook in Mayfield.

[weiss_tank]

Pero-what? And don't worry, there's plenty of people here who don't cook.

[duck_duck_laser]

It's a concentrated food product. Comes in a little block.

I'm not too worried for myself. I'm more worried about the two kids in my house. I can't keep making the daughter put together all the meals. It's not fair to her, even if she's droned and seems happy enough to do it. It must bother her.

[weiss_tank]

It doesn't bother the drones. She's a girl one, so she's programmed to enjoy cooking. I mean, I'm glad you're learning so you can too, but I wouldn't say it bothers her.

[duck_duck_laser]

She used to be someone, though. She's not one of the town natives. Someone came to visit, to help out during... er... "milk week", and he recognized her.

My friend Gat was droned at that time. He said he remembered some of it. I don't want to be purposely miserable to the person locked inside.

[weiss_tank]

Ah, that's different then. Sometimes they remember, sometimes they don't, so it's best to not be too horrid then. [Ken clearly approves of this.]

[duck_duck_laser]

Her name's Euphemia. I don't suppose you knew her? [She's asking cautiously, gently.]