• Solo • Another Meeting with the Builders

[Devin]

Previously:
Lunch for the Builders
Meeting the Builders

Ashan 41, Arc 721

On the 41st of Ashan, Devin Thorn, masterful bard, medical genius in progress and newly appointed Baron (Somehow, he had ended up with the job even though he’d just wanted Alyssia to have it!), was standing in the kitchen of his house in Scalvoris Town, deep in thought.

Saoire’s builders would pay him another visit this trial in order to discuss questions of interior design and such. This time, they would meet in the afternoon, which meant that he wouldn’t be able to make lunch or dinner for them because you didn’t eat those meals in the afternoon.

He really wanted to prepare a meal for them again though because Saoire was his second-favourite Immortal!

After he had thought about it for a bit, he decided on some sort of desert. When the meeting would take place, it would be almost five o’clock. Five o’clock was tea time, and what did you usually eat with tea?

Something sweet!

The Cadouri had seemed to have liked his glowing breaded chicken that he had served them during their first meeting, so he would make something nice and colourful again, and he had just had an absolutely fantastic idea that would be a whole lot of fun!

Doing a little twirl because he was just so very excited, the young Mortalborn opened one of his cupboards, removed a cookbook from it and leafed through it – because he wasn’t sure how exactly you went about making the main ingredient for what he had in mind. A moment later, he assembled the various ingredients and tools on the kitchen table.

“This is going to be great!” he decided as he poured cream into a large bowl, added sugar and vanilla to it and started to whisk the mixture vigorously – because he was making whipped cream. As the bits passed, his excitement started to dwindle rapidly though – because the contents of his bowl refused to even remotely resemble whipped cream!

Muttering something under his breath, he checked the recipe again, frowned as he noticed a particular detail and continued to whisk … and whisk … and whisk … and whisk!

After half a break, he finally had something halfway presentable, but his hands started to hurt, so he abruptly left the kitchen, walked into the living room, plopped down on his couch, put his feet on the table and lit a cigar (a very luxurious one from Rharne) because he really needed one right now.

He would, he decided, as he took a deep drag, invent super-fast whipped cream because nobody should ever have to spend half a break of grueling work on something like that. It was just unacceptable!

[Devin]

After he had finished smoking his cigar, and his hands started to feel a bit better, the Mortalborn went back into the kitchen because he only had a break or so before his visitors arrived. He did not turn to his whipped cream again right away though, but checked his cookbook in order to see if there was a recipe that resembled what he had in mind.

Having found something, he began to chop the assortment of canned fruit that he had acquired at the market the trial before (this early in the season, fresh fruit were hard to come by) into a lot of very fine pieces.

He put them right into the center of half a dozen big plates.

A moment later, he removed half a dozen small bowls from the cupboard, put a bit of whipped cream into each one and finally produced a couple of spices such as paprika and turmeric. He added a small amount of a different spice to each bowl and started to whisk the contents some more.

The result was… well, it was not the brightly colored whipped cream that he had envisioned after checking his cookbook, but kind of pastel-colored, and definitely not uniform, but that didn’t matter – because he planned on adding sprinkles and a whole lot of chocolate shavings on top. Nobody would be able to notice that the color was kind of weird!

With that thought in mind, he surrounded each heap of chopped fruit with dollops of whipped cream in different colors so that it resembled some sort of circular rainbow - if you didn’t look too closely and didn't mind that the green part was missing (Devin hadn't found anything to make green whipped cream with.). And finally came the sprinkles, the chocolate shavings – and more sugar so that his guests wouldn’t notice the taste of the spices that he had used to color the whipped cream. The result looked absolutely awesome in his opinion!

Since just looking absolutely awesome was not good enough though, Devin produced a spoon and started to give one of his deserts a taste. It was … it was actually edible, he decided. In fact, it actually tasted nice, mostly due to the copious amounts of sugar and chocolate and vanilla!

Feeling overwhelmingly happy, the young Mortalborn stuck tiny, bright pink paper parasols into each desert. He had just changed into new clothes – a brilliant white, and very extravagantly cut suit with fine purple and black embroidery and opened one of the living room windows for a few moments in order to get rid of the cigar smell when he heard a knock on the door. It seemed as if Herman McGerman, the Cadouri builder who was also kind of a hamster had arrived. He wondered if he had brought Miranda and Marvin, the two mouse Cadouri along again.

He’d really enjoyed their company!

[Devin]

“Oh!” Devin said once he had greeted his three guests (Miranda and Marvin who were still learning about matters of logistics and construction and such had indeed come along again!) enthusiastically, but not too enthusiastically because they were quite a bit smaller than him, and he didn’t want to accidentally hurt them. “Do you want anything to drink? I can quickly make some hot chocolate or tea while you get settled and enjoy the meal. I also have wine and juices and such though”, he added.

Five o’clock was a good time for tea and something sweet, but in his opinion, there was nothing wrong with having five o’clock tea without tea. And he wouldn’t hold it against the Cadouri if they decided to have wine with their incredibly sweet desert either. In his opinion, there was nothing wrong with combining wine and desert, no matter what any cooks or meal planning people said. On the contrary, unorthodox combinations were totally awesome!

“I’d like some tea, please”, Miranda said a little shyly and smiled, and the other two Cadouri nodded which caused Devin to quickly dash into the kitchen (they were eating in the far fancier living room, of course), heat some water and prepare a tea mixture (bought from the merchant, because he was unfamiliar with the finer aspects of making tea).

“This is a most interesting desert”, Herman told Devin, his whiskers twitching, when the young Mortalborn returned and tried to scoop up several different colors of whipped cream in one go. Miranda nodded while her brother Marvin just started to dig in. The young Cadouri, Devin had already learned during their last meeting, seemed to forget everything else when there was food which was fine with him because he loved to eat as well!

“Does it have a name though?” the hamster wanted to know.

“No”, Devin replied, because he hadn’t considered that yet before he smiled brightly as he had just had another excellent idea (He seemed to be getting a lot of those recently!). “But you can name it. Consider it a gift. A dish with a name of your choosing!” he offered which caused the Cadouri to deliberate in between eating fruit and whipped cream.

To his surprise, it was not Herman who was by far the more experienced out of the three Cadouri who suggested a name, but Marvin who had barely said a thing so far because he had been so busy eating. The mouse Cadouri looked up for a moment and said in a very serious tone of voice,

“Greenless cloudy mountain.”

Upon seeing the confused and surprised looks from the three other people at the table (Devin was of course eating whipped cream and fruit as well now that he had taken care of the matter of tea!) Marvin explained, “It’s kind of rainbow-colored, except that the green part is missing, and those dollops of whipped cream look like clouds. Very lopsided clouds, to be fair, but still, they look like clouds. And the fruit in the center of the plate are, obviously, a mountain”, he added, his tone of voice now extremely dry.

Having said that, he nodded, as if to emphasize his statement and went back to eating – and not saying a single word.

Devin looked at him for a moment, his eyes wide, before he beamed all over his face and remarked, clapping his hands (with fingers that ended in perfectly manicured black nails), “That’s perfect!”

“My I ask you why there are six plates on the table? Are you expecting any guests besides us?” Miranda wanted to know in a very soft and gentle tone of voice after a while. “Also, I’m surprised that a Baron like you is preparing his own meals, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

“I thought that I’d make more in case you want seconds”, Devin replied in a cheerful tone of voice before he proceeded to shrug his shoulders. “As for my preparing my own meals. I happen to love cooking! It’s one of my favourite hobbies!”

“I’ll probably hire a cook for the manor though”, he decided because the idea of having servants and such really appealed to him. He’d cook for fun, and they’d take care of the rest!

[Devin]

“So”, Devin said once they had eaten and moved over to the couch in front of the fireplace. While the three Cadouri inspected all the curious little knick-knicks on the shelves, such as an unbreakable bowl and a magical quill, that the young Mortalborn had collected over the course of his adventures with unmistakable interest, Devin retrieved the box of decoration materials that had arrived a few trials earlier.

“As we discussed during our last meeting, marble would look good on some of the interior elements. Marble tiles would probably look quite nice on the floor”, he decided and grinned as he imagined a grand ballroom. He could almost see himself dancing on a floor that had been polished so much that it could have doubled as a mirror. The fact that he didn’t actually know how to dance was completely secondary in his opinion!

“Marble would work well for the floors, but some wood would make the rooms look more comfortable and cozier”, Herman pointed out - which Devin nodded in agreement - and opened the satchel that he had brought with him, spreading out plan after plan and paper after paper on the low table that stood in front of the couch. Miranda and Marvin who had been busy admiring Devin’s various treasures so far joined him and bent their heads over the plans, inspecting them with nearly as much interest as they had inspected those shiny things before.

(They just looked so … no, they definitely did not look adorable. A vain and selfish Tarouz didn’t find Cadouri adorable, and Devin definitely did not wish that he could pet them!)

“I would also suggest paying attention to the movement of the suns when you decide where to put the windows and how big you want them to be”, he suggested and pointed at one of the papers. “Of course, in Saun, you’ll be dealing with sunlight throughout the trial. Blinds can help keep the worst of the heat at bay though”, he told him and looked at Devin questioningly, his whiskers twitching slightly.

“I’d like some of the windows to be made of stained glass though. And I’d like wall panels and fine wood, with carvings for the furniture, luxurious, but tasteful stuff”, Devin decided before he smiled and proceeded to pull a few pieces of fabric out of his box. “We could use something like that for the curtains!” he decided and gestured for the three Cadouri to take a look.

“I don’t know”, Miranda said softly and touched the fabric in question before she shook her head slightly. “I’d use something that were a little less delicate”, she admitted and looked at both Herman and Devin in order to try and find out what they thought, her brown eyes wide.

“This would be better”, Herman decided and pointed at a different fabric before he wanted to know, “Have you already given the furnishings of the private rooms of Baron Nir’wei, Baron Darius, yourself as well as your two charges some thought, sir?”

“Glitter!” Devin replied and struggled to suppress a grin because he was so excited. “A great deal of glitter. I want shiny furniture, maybe something rainbow-colored as well. And I want a mural of a goat. I really like goats. And Delroth. And a small balcony. That would be nice as well. Furthermore, I want a to have a big four poster bed. With curtains!”

A big bed was very important in his opinion, although he didn’t say why (There were some things you better kept to yourself!). There needed to be room for a potential boyfriend though, or maybe for a girlfriend – or for the old Baron Smooglenuff, in case he ever returned from the dead. He still hadn’t given up hope that someone would resurrect him.

And if someone resurrected him, he would marry him!

“The other Barons, Lady Alyssia and Lady ChiChi will choose their own living quarters as well as the furnishings thereof though”, he added in a much more serious tone of voice. Not everybody liked shiny things, which was a shame, but he wanted the others to be comfortable. He didn’t want Alyssia in particular to sleep in a room that she hated. She only deserved the best after she had been homeless for so long in his opinion!

“Oh, and can you make sure that the basement is not too damp and dark and unpleasant?” he added because that was a concern of his. Basements were often lacking compared to the rest of the house; he didn’t want that in Smooglenuff Manor though!

“I hate damp and dark basements”, Marvin who was mostly watching and listening agreed.

“We can make sure of that”, Herman decided, looking at Marvin in amusement for a moment before he continued in a much more serious tone of voice, “A damp basement is a sign of constructions flaws anyway, so we definitely don’t want one.”

“And excess ground water. Excess ground water can lead to a damp basement as well”, Marvin interjected before he went back to watching and listening to them once more.

“Indeed”, Herman confirmed, his whiskers twitching slightly, before he gestured for Marvin and Miranda to hand him the papers that they had brought (they had of course not come empty-handed). For the next half a break they discussed the plans, looked over the papers that Devin had gotten during the meeting with Saoire the season before, and talked about matters of interior design and construction in general and how much progress had been made since their last meeting the cycle before. Herman, being a mentor at Saoire’s School, also wanted to make sure that the new Baron understood everything.

Devin for his part really enjoyed playing the part of the noble and the generous host. He’d always, always dreamed of being someone rich and famous one trial, since he had been a little boy in Lowtown, the poorest part of Andaris, and now, his dream had finally come true. And what more, he was a Mortalborn rather than a boring human who only lived for a couple of decades and got old and ugly in the process!

He just hoped that his Immortal parent was Edasha because she was the most beautiful Immortal, apart from Delroth!

Eventually, the meeting came to an end. Herman had taken a whole lot of notes, Miranda and Marvin had taken notes as well, and Devin – well, he had listened attentively because he really, really wanted to be a good Baron and not disappointed Saoire!

When the time to bid the Cadouri farewell came, he did so enthusiastically, and he bowed deeply because he was just so very happy. He just hoped that the wall he had told Herman he wanted to have during their last meeting would be sturdy enough to keep the dangerous stuff away.

He hated dangerous stuff!

[Avalon]

Review & Rewards

Name: Devin

Points awarded: 10


Knowledge:
Cooking: Making whipped cream
Cooking: Using spices as food coloring
Discipline: Struggling to suppress a grin
Endurance: Whisking can make your hands hurt
Logistics: Planning the interior of your new manor
Logistics: When planning a meal, consider the possibility of your guests wanting seconds

Renown: 5 (for inviting the builders for another meeting/dessert)

Skill Review: Appropriate to level.

Consequences: The little Cadouri builders have raved to other Cadouri about Devin's generosity and creative cooking skills. As such, other Cadouri tradesmen (a lot of other Cadouri tradesmen) will be contacting/stopping by/accosting Devin in the street regarding working with him on the Manor or other projects! And they will be very insistent that their meetings occur during mealtimes...

Notes:

I have to confess, Devin cooking threads, for me, are so much fun to read. He is so passionate and enthusiastic about cooking that it makes me feel happy just reading the threads.

Devin desperately wants to not adore the Cadouri - the struggle is real - but I'm not sure he's going to win that battle.

As always, your npc writing is superb. I'm always amazed at how well you balance your npcs and allow them to highlight the story without overtaking your own character. Npc writing can be a juggle but you do it exceptionally well.

I really appreciate the humor instilled in Devin threads. The world can be a serious place and I feel lighter each time I read one of his threads, so thank you for that.

That being said - please let the Cadouri builders misunderstand and put glitter in Darius and Nir's rooms too!

For knowledges, I struggled with your discipline knowledge as you have something extremely similar already listed in your cs. "Discipline: Trying not to smile" is remarkably similar to 'struggling to suppress a grin'. However, I think this is one of those rare knowledges that can have several ways of manifesting, so I'm happy to allow it.

Well done! Enjoy your rewards!

Avalon