abraxaslogs | [july] keep me in the dollhouse, dressed up

[There's a Bloody Mary joke to be made in there somewhere, but Alucard isn't the one to do it. For now there's just his son in a magic kitchen appreciating the RPMs that a Kitchenaid can do.]

Whisk for air, hook for...dough, I would assume? And paddle for stirring. All with the same armature and basic casing.

[Alucard pauses, just long enough to test the speed controls. It's impressive.

Annnnd he slides it right back down.]

It saves me some trouble in making a decent meringue, that is certain.

Yeah, I think the hook is for dough. I'm not like, a baker, so don't take my word as gospel or anythin'. [ But she grins wider. ] But that ain't the really cool part.

[ She opens the small silver cap on the mixer head, and grabs one of the white plastic pieces -- a chute, of sorts, with several round blades next to it. She places one of the blades into the chute, then screws the entire thing into the opening of the mixer. A small glass bowl is set under the piece, and she retrieves a chunk of cheese from the refrigerator. On second thought, she also grabs a cucumber.

(He might note that the refrigerator is also immaculately organized, and little if any of the food seems to have been touched. She usually just manifests what she eats from the Horizon's magic.)

Flipping the motor back on, she drops the cheese into the chute and then pushes it down with the plunger. There's a grinding noise, and then shredded cheese begins to fall from the open end into the bowl. In just a moment, there's a pile already accumulated. ]

Shreds. Slices too, with this other blade.

[Viktor is along for the ride--he'd told Alucard that all of the listed gadgets were mostly just motors and attachments, but he's not so rude as to reject an invitation, and besides, some casual observation means that he'll be better suited to build Alucard whatever he wants, later.

Suffice it to say that he hangs back during the demonstration, examining some of the other gadgets, most notably the microwave. He glances over every so often, just to see where the conversation is going and what Alucard is most interested in, but he seems quieter than usual. It's probably not hard to guess why.

The noise of the shredder gets his attention, though, and he starts to amble his way over.]

These devices are ubiquitous, where you're from?

[Alucard's not quite as excited with the shredder as he can do something just as good with knife work. What makes it impressive is how the motor is re-adapted for the attachment. It means that any queries about the nature of Julie's refrigerator are shoved aside (he'd have Questions but it'd mostly be do you cook?) in favor of continuing to observe the functionality of the machine.]

So the front is a secondary attachment point that still makes use of the RPM. Huh.

[It is very clever. Alucard knows that, just as he knows that Viktor is humoring him by being here and even considering this. He'll be repaying both Viktor and Julie in food for this of course, but that's for later. The thing has to exist in the real world first.]

And are they still creating ways to make use of the machine and the attachment points?

[ There's a pretty impressive array of attachments on the counter, but Julie chose the one that she actually knows the operation of. But visible among the others are a pasta roller, a meat grinder, a ravioli maker, and a grain mill. ]

Yeah, most people have at least a few of 'em. The toaster, microwave and coffeemaker are probably the most common. This, the mixer, was kind of expensive, but people who liked to cook would save or buy 'em secondhand.

[ Turning back to the fridge, she removes a ball of dough wrapped in cling wrap -- pasta dough. Did Julie actually make this? Absolutely not. She created it with a thought in the past few seconds. But she changes the attachment to the roller, turns it on, then feeds a piece of the ball into it. It immediately produces a properly flattened sheet from the other side, and she repeats the process. (She is probably not doing it exactly correctly, but it's obvious what she's going for.) ]

I don't know how often they come up with new attachments, but I know they work out a new one pretty often. Plus, regular people figure out new ways to do stuff, and they post about it online.

[They both might guess that Viktor is not really a guy who does his own cooking. Moreso now, but mostly because he has to. Back home, it was far too easy to rely on the campus dining hall, or simply to forget to eat entirely.

Suffice to say he won't be making much use of these devices himself, but as a beneficiary of Alucard's cooking, he can at least pay attention.]

Oh. The internet. [Predictably, that's what he zeroes in on, because Viktor likes the idea of the internet very much.] That is the sort of technology that fascinates me.

[No offense to Williams-Sonoma, or anything.]

[Alucard has like, opposite interest in the Internet. He understands the overall concept, but look at all the means of cooking. One is more useful to survival than the other!

The dhampir is immediately fixed on the pasta attachment. The dough will keep getting longer the more that it is worked and rolled, so he moves over to Julie to offer a second set of hands for the process.]

Whereas this alleviates some of the least fun parts of making pierogi for certain people in all of our lives. [He's made so many for Geralt, Jaskier, and Ciri over the past few years.] It'll let me speed production up and focus my dexterity elsewhere.

Edited (WRONG ICON) 2023-07-26 17:21 (UTC)

And there's a different attachment for pasta that needs a specific shape. Plus, it can do stuff like make ice cream, grind grains and nuts for flour, shave ice, make vegetables do that spiral thing. It's kind of an all in one deal.

[ Unfortunately for Alucard, Viktor is the one who has found the magic key in this discussion. Julie isn't much for the kitchen in general, so this presentation has been something she's doing for someone else. But the internet, the internet, that's what immediately catches her gnat-like attention span, and she zeroes in on Viktor with huge, bright eyes and a somewhat intimidating ardor for the subject. ]

Oh my god, the internet. I miss the internet so much, more'n TV or food or whatever. I don't think you can jump straight to the internet, but Viktor, if you ever manage to figure it out, you'd be the most brilliant inventor ever.

[ In an act she generally reserves for only the closest people in her circle, she produces an iPhone 11 in a glittering pink case. It is shoved at him in a way that's almost forceful. ]

Has anyone ever showed you a smartphone? I sorta made a version of the internet for mine, but it only works for stuff I already know. But the apps and the camera and stuff all work right!

[Look. Alucard is now here solely to make pasta. Which means he's just going to listen to this internet discussion as the pasta sheets get longer and longer, and he keeps adjusting the roller dial to roll the sheets thinner and thinner. Ideal set up, so far as he is concerned.]

Oh! Yes, the cellular phones. I love these.

[The touch screen, in particular, is very exciting to him. Viktor seems entirely unfazed by the pink case, taking the proffered device and immediately starting to swipe. Sorry to your pasta, Alucard.]

We have radio transmission, back home, but nothing like this. I understand the concept, but I don't think the necessary materials are available in Cadens to make this leap.

[He sounds slightly broken up about that.]

If I could, though, I would. In an instant.

Edited 2023-07-31 20:56 (UTC)

Probably not. [ She glumly agrees with the assessment. ] I mean, it'd be skippin' like, fifty steps on the timeline. Phones. Computers. Networks. Plus like, a dozen coding languages for it all.

[ And Julie's sure there's so much more that she doesn't even know enough about to think of. The reality of essentially going backward in time, in relation to technology, can be a bummer sometimes. Even in the apocalypse, they still had the technology. They just needed to be able to power and run it. ]

Here, lemme make you one. [ With barely a thought, she manifests a second iPhone, this one in a plain black case, and sets it on the counter. She taps it awake, and the into screen welcomes Viktor before it asks for his thumbprint and face scan. ] I can't guarantee everythin' inside is right -- I don't know much about how they make 'em. I just know they work, so they do here.

[ She glances over at Alucard, just making sheets of pasta. ] I think the ravioli one is probably a huge timesaver too. And the one that makes the tube kinda pasta, 'stead of flat.

[july] keep me in the dollhouse, dressed up

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