You're easier to love from afar (open)

[youwonscience]

WHO: Cosima and open
WHAT: Open post/catchall for Wintermarch
WHEN: Throughout the month; if you need to back or forward date due to Orlais plot, feel free
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: No warnings to start except for the potential of sad Cosima in some threads.

Tavern

Cosima's been moping long enough. She says this silently and firmly to herself several times a day, in fact. Enough moping. Get out, do some good, meet some people.

And while she's generally inclined to constructive action, Cosima isn't made of stone. After all, she's seen with her own eyes how possible it is she could be gone any moment without warning. (Home or ... wherever.) Carpe diem.

Which, loosely translated, means "have some wine at the tavern and flirt with ladies, because fuck it, you're in another world and you might as well." (Unless she sees a friend first, of course.)

Barracks (semi-closed; you know who you are)

While Avery is at work, Cosima has the room to herself. This makes it an excellent place to hold a meeting, and there's some unfinished business to attend to. She gathers Church and Jamie and does some digging to see if there's anyone else Ruby had roped into this idea before she left. Cosima is, by no means, a natural entrepreneur. But it felt like something she owed her friend.

"So. Who's ever run an eatery before?"

Points Around Skyhold (choose your own adventure)

As far as Cosima can determine, there's not just one place to declare: "Hi, I'd like to formally join the Inquisition" if you're not a fighter, a healer or a mage. She knows she can be useful, surely, but she doesn't know exactly where and she isn't entirely sure who to ask.

But she's seen a little of this world now - run up against Venatori and seen some of the effects of rifts that are much more destructive than spitting rifters into Thedas. She's determined to help.

So she'll keep trying to find a way in. There's a lot of research that goes on in Skyhold; surely someone can use an off-world research assistant.

Comments

[wontforgetyou]

Jamie also nods along with Cosima's words, agreeing completely with her point - although he does chime in with what he knows as well, figuring it wouldn't hurt.

"Aye, whiskey'll need months at the very least. Even longer then that, maybe. Depends on what quality you want."

And a lot of other factors which he knows he knows a little about...but hasn't really had a chance to try out for himself. It might be worth having a go at later on, however. Assuming they can pull this off, anyway, and he purses his lips briefly before glancing back and forth between the others.

"Might be a thought once we see if this works, mind...but aye, vodka for now. What sort of things would you need for a real lab though, Cosima? Maybe we can put something together for that too. Or something close, at any rate."

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Not sure we'd have anything around here for a 'real lab'. Could try and commission the smiths for some piping and glass, I dunno, if we need?" He's seen Ruby's set up, obviously, and for what she had to work with, it's impressive. (Maybe Adelaide pulled a few strings.) "And we could always lean on people in this country who make their boozes. It's not vodka, but I mean, they still make wines and ales and beer and shit. Is it that different?"

[youwonscience]

"Um, kinda different? You don't distill wine or beer, generally. Besides, people can already get good ale. They don't need amateur rifter ale. Easier to make the best vodka in the world when it's the only vodka in the world, you know?"

She rubs the back of her neck, thoughtful. "I mean, besides a way to look up instructions, I'd want a way to accurately measure temperature. And a heating element with finer control than a fire. But people made vodka centuries before they had either. We'll probably want to flavor it, because we won't have the resources to get all the impurities out."

A pause, then she adds, "A blooming onion is going to be way easier, even though we don't have a deep frier. Just saying."

[wontforgetyou]

"The dwarves might have something that could work there. They build a lot of things, so could be they've developed the heating element, say."

This time it's Jamie's turn to pause, a few seconds where he goes silent just long enough to allow his brows to knit his together, lending him a vaguely puzzled air.

"Er, what's a blooming onion, though? And why do we want one?"

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Blueberry vodka! Oh, oh, whipped cream vodka, that shit's wild. Does...does elfroot have a flavor? Would elfroot vodka work?" Do we even want people possibly getting high and/or possibly getting healed while drinking vodka?

He stares at Jamie for a few seconds in almost-horror. "Dude! Blooming onions? Are a gift to humanity. You take an onion, and you cut it so that the layers fall open, kinda like petals of a flower." Let him show you his hands to demonstrate said blooming action. "Then you cover it in a batter, like, flour or something? And then deep fry that sucker and enjoy with a dipping sauce. Easy breezy beautiful. All we really need for a fryer is just a big pot over a fire with oil and fashion some kind of basket or bucket to pull it up out. I mean, kind of still needs some kind of temperature gauge, too, but I feel like that's more wing-able than with something as delicate as drinkable booze that won't make you blind."

[youwonscience]

"Yeah, with the onion you can test it by dripping a little batter in the oil to see if it sizzles. The harder part is keeping the temperature consistent, since adding the battered onion immediately lowers it."

Science!

"Elfroot vodka might be on to something, but we should find out if it has bad interactions with wine or ale first. Like, we don't want anyone hallucinating or something. Or hallucinating not on purpose, at least."

She shakes her head. "Blooming onions first, though! I think we can probably do that, as long as we're careful and no one burns themselves. I mean, if you guys want to give it a try."

[wontforgetyou]

Science, indeed - and science that isn't too science-y, and that means it's something that doesn't go right over Jamie's head. He can appreciate that. And between that and Church's obvious enthusiasm for the meal, he finds himself more than a bit curious to see what it tastes like besides onion.

Besides, it's food, and it's a rare occasion where he's not thinking of his stomach. So this plan? It's one he's all in for.

"So long as they've the stuff to make the batter and the dipping stuff with, I don't see why we can't have a go at making one. All this talking about frying things is making me hungry, anyway."

[motherfucking_ghost]

"The great thing about frying is that you can fry anything and it'll still come out good." Do not ask the man who has never actually eaten modern food how he knows this. But he knows it with all his heart. "Cheese. These guys dig their cheeses. We can try mozzarella sticks. And I think it's called tempura when you do it with like just about any vegetable? Someone needs to invent a twinkie so we can deep fat fry that shit and have Skyhold state fair! State fair with booze."

[youwonscience]

"We could get someone to invent Oreos while we're at it." For Jamie's benefit: "It's two chocolate cookies - um, sweet biscuits? - and you have this creamy filling in the middle. They're amazing. And sometimes people fry them."

Presumably in order to make them even more amazing.

"I feel like we're going to get the hang of fried foods before vodka, so we might as well lean into it."

[wontforgetyou]

"I know what a cookie is. They existed back in my time too, you know."

He'll just leave out the part where 'cookie' is also another word for 'bun', because even though he doesn't mind the odd cream bun, it'd probably just confuse the situation more than it's already confused. Best to just keep it to what they can work with for the moment, anyway.

"I'll agree about frying things, though. Especially cheeses. Er...maybe not that one that tastes of sorrow, though. Think we'd give the nobles apoplexy if we tried to fry that one. What do you think we've got around here we could try in the meantime, though? Some of the vegetables? Or apples, maybe?"

[motherfucking_ghost]

"When actually are your times? Cuz far as I know, I'm like, waaaay ahead in the 2550's." Might be good things to know. Is it heartening or depressing to find out that people like Church still act...like Church that far in the future?

"Deep fried apples? Huh...I dunno if it would work, but there's no reason we can't give it a go. Do we have some squash? Zucchini? What if, hear me out, fried meat pie. And then we gotta slice up some potatoes and make fries and chips."

[youwonscience]

Cosima holds up her hands, unspoken apology for doubting Jamie's familiarity with cookies.

"Apples might work if we sliced them first? There's a lot of water in apples, though, it might get the breading soggy. But we could see, it's not like apples are that expensive. And fried meat pies are basically empanadas, which I hear a great, so."

A pause, then: "One of us should probably take some notes."

[wontforgetyou]

"Pan fried, maybe," Jamie comments to Cosima, which is about as far as he gets before Church's question has him reaching up to itch at a spot just behind his ear. It's not so much that his ear is itchy, in this case, but more that it gives him a second or two to figure how best to put things there. He's talked to Cosima about part of this already, so he has no worries about that. Church, on the other hand...well, he has no idea how the man is going to react.

"To answer your question, though, when I left home the first time it was seventeen forty-six." There's a pause as he lets that sink in, but it's brief - only a second or two passes before he pipes up again. "I can write, mind, so if you've something to write with I'll have a go at getting us some notes."