Lazlo is very nervous in letting anyone in to his spotless kitchen. He is very much a person who has everything in its place with in the kitchen. Cosmic looks the place over, then on a work table she carefully empties her food items, to see what she has to work with.
Lazlo's eyes are bugging out as he realizes that those bags are holding on top of food preservation. Also the packaging and such is blowing his mind away. Plastic is something he has never seen, for example.
"How far away is your peoples lands from here ?" He ask as he marvels over the gallon of milk.
"Truthfully, in another universe. I fell through a dimensional barrier in to this world the day before the girls found me." she confides in him.
He slowly nods, having heard of others that have had that happen to them. The enemy seems to find more of them than they have. But he knows its hit or miss if the ones found have any skills worth anything. Cosmic is an advanced sort, and that gives her skills that are useful.
"So the enemy found you first, but you dusted them from what I understand." he says while marveling over her food items.
"Suine found me first really. I was badly injured and she made me a deal. She healed me and enchanted my bags to holding types, that was a bit of a bonus really as I was making jokes despite being in massive pain. Being able to laugh even while dying takes a lot of will to tell the truth. But my deal is to use my spiritual abilities to help with this war. I really think its a good deal to tell the truth, though I am sorely out of practice. I have not really used those skills in years." she confides in him.
He nods in understanding. Seeing her passion and resolve is inspiring. He taps the jar of mayo, "Part of your reason to use my kitchen was to hide these items wasn't it ?"
"My people have higher levels of technology than yours. The packaging on these items would cause to many questions that I can not really answer and despite what it seems like I am not really all that trusting a person. But the goddess, she keeps sending me little signs on people I can trust." she grins up at him, which makes him look surprised, though he thinks he understands. She told him the first time he met her. He had a good aura. Suine put a mark in his aura, that he was someone she could trust. Makes him feel nice really, that the goddess thinks so highly of him.
He picks up this bottle of powder, "What is this ?" he suspects but he can't read her language.
"Ground cinimon. 36 oz worth." points to a bottle of white stuff, "This sauce is called Mayonaise, or Mayo for short, its got a light tangy after taste and is good mixed with other things or used on sandwiches." picks up this tall yellow metal bottle, "This is called Pam, its a mix of different vegitiable oils and used to keep foods from sticking to pans really. Its lighter in flavor than most oils and I prefer it over things like olive oil for most of my cooking." he nods to that, she points to these strange packages, clear with other clear things with yellow slices in them, "that is sliced cheese, sharp chedder. The matterial is plastic, there are different kinds of plastic, the jug of milk and the mayo are in plastic containers to as an example. The cheese is packaged this way as it tends to stick together otherwise. Just got to remember to pull the plastic off the cheese before using it. Plastic taste nasty and smells worse, if it gets melted. Its made in part from the sap of a tree and some form of ground oil, which is all I remember on that." she looks up at him, "I am a carpenter and alchemist not a chemist or engineer." he chuckles over that.
Pointing to the cans, "These are actually made of steel, the waves in them have to do with heat, allowing the metal to expand or contract with heat and cold, so they don't rupture when stored. The substances in the cans are actually types of soups. The small red ones are cream of mushroom, it is already cooked, but condensed so its thicker. Just add half to one cans worth of milk or water when heating it up. Milk makes it richer. Its also good as a marinade for chicken or beef. The tall cans with the white and yellow lable are a type of clam chowder called New England clam chowder to be precise, its made with a cream base, and has potatoes, celery and onions as well as small pieces of clam in it." she picks up a silver can, "This is not a soup. This can has peas in it with some sliced mushrooms and baby onions. I like to mix it with salt, pepper, and mayo to make a kind of salad. I can eat a whole can by myself and normally do so as a treat as they are a tad expensive.
The problem with working out prices between my people and yours is we have a much higher rate of inflation than you do. Meaning in your terms that coffee, pumpkin spice I mentioned before. Well in straight exchange would be around 800 copper a bag in my peoples terms, or 80 silver or 8 dollars. There is 100 copper pennies in a dollar, or 10 silver just to be clear. In truth I lied a bit about saving up to get them. They are a seasonal thing, but I made around 700 dollars a month. Which really is well below the poverty level back home. Poverty level is anyone who makes under 15,000 dollars a year, or 1,250 dollars a month."
He is floored as he understands what she is saying. The amounts to him are terrifyingly high. But he thinks he understands some of it to. Completely different society, so the amounts are harder to work out in an exchange rate sort of way with out some serious understandings in math and economics. But he understands Why she put out the high price for the drinks to. There were others listening in and she was putting forth that she was not rich. She maybe from a rich people but she herself is not rich compaired to her people. She is a working class type, a commoner in their way of thinking. Skills levels or no.
"I tried to work out the exchange rate, but gave myself a splitting head ache instead." she sighs as he nods. He has no idea how to do that himself, but he is not a money lender either, so that may work in to it some.
He ends up helping her cook up the burgers as she calls them and some of the eggs with some of the cheese sliced in to strips and mixed with the scrambled eggs, which are served with the meat and a couple pieces of her very nice bread, which she lightly toasted. She herself put some of the mayo on one slice, a slice of the cheese, and then the hot burger on top of that, sprinkled a little salt and pepper over them and the eggs for herself. He got to try a little taste of the mayo and agree's its an interesting taste that probably blends well with other things.
She is true to her word to, she cleans up the kitchen nicely, pots, pans and all she used. Though she did it with a combination of elbow greese and magic. He did not mind as the magic got those hard to reach place that usually take him hours to clean properly.
She shared her food with him and Esmerelda but no one else as she put it, she has very limited supplies.
He was SO tempted to try and charge her some of that cinimon for the use of his kitchen. Then she surprised him by getting a small bottle and putting about an ounce of the dark powder in to it and handing it to him. As a thank you for letting her use the kitchen. That tickled him as he has some recipes he loves to do, but for the price of the spices. He himself does not care for cinimon, but a fellow he knows does like it and he can trade the cinimon for some other spices and make up some good stuff.
"Something just occured to me, do you have any money ?" he ask as they eat.
She nods, "I sold a necklace I had to the temple for a bit of coin and line of credit through them. Its one of those type things though that was cheaper in my homeland than here."
Esmerelda is grinning and nodding about it, "Her grandfather is a jeweler and gifted her with some low value items. Well in Her homeland they are low value, here though..." she whispers to him.
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He glances around then quietly ask, "how much did she get ?"
She states, "Small stone, on a simple silver chain, which only cost about $10 dollars back home, sold it to the church for 50 gold."
He freezes a touch, then sighs. She told him about the level of inflation and all, and as such he gets that is a cheap item where she is from. So she made a huge profit here. Then slowly he realizes they also mentioned 'line of credit' and he gives them a wider stare, "How much credit."
"Finish your food." Cosmic states.
He does so, but he is very curious now on how much credit she has with the temple.
After they have finished eating, she takes the plates back to the kitchen to wash them. He follows, watching her think. "So ?"
"900 gold. The pendant has a small fire opal on it." she confides in him.
He ends up staring at the walls, he knows those are sacred to Suine and as such pull a much higher price. So its understandable really. Still in effect she went from very poor, to fairly rich, just from a money stand point. Though the cost, as he is well aware, is never being able to go home again. Not sure if that is good or bad in her book though.
"I am wondering about something else though. Dragons Eye opals, they are really cheap where I come from. Average about 2 dollars for a good sized one. But here ... I don't know."
He nods, "While Dragon eyes are not really opals, they are made of volcanic glass. They only occure around volcano's or similar places."
She stares at him, "My people make them. Special glass with metal poured through them. Considered to be a kind of costume jewerly really."
He looks very surprised, "ok wow. Probably should not tell anyone else that." she shrugs.
"I was told mages like them cause they take to enchanting well." she says as he dries the plates they used.
"I am not a mage, so I can't really say. But from the sound of it, you had some things which were cheap from your lands, but are worth a lot in our lands."
She nods, "Makes me wish I took up jewerly crafting instead of carpentry now." he chuckles about that, "Though my grandfather taught me how to recognize and identify stones, I am not as good at appraising the value, mostly as I don't know the local market. I can also appraise weapons and armor for quality as I was a collector of such for a time. But again not value for the same reasons."
He nods, those are good skills to have really. Even if she does not know the value of them.
"What did you do in your old world, occupation wise ?" he ask.
"Truthfully for the last 20 years, not a lot. I was badly injured in an accident. Shattered my left shoulder, broke my right one in 2 places, messed up my knee's. After that, well I cared for the family home, took care of the pets. I could still drive the carrage, so I ran errands for people, or drove around others who could not get around on their own very well. Mostly my friends, or friends of theirs. Suine put me back together, made me healthy. Gave me a purpose, something I have not had in a long time. I was not a mage before. Mystic, scholar to some degree. I studied things to give myself something to keep my mind active." she is quietly telling him this, scrubbing the design off a plate as she stares in to her past, remembering her old life and the hollow feelings she endured. "I wrote stories as a hobby. Ones in which the main character was magically sent to another world, gained friends and special powers. Sometimes I even managed to finish a story, but not that often. Never got any published, never really tried, well I let people read some of them. Printed them up myself and shared them around hobbiest types. Some even liked my stories, I got compliments on them. Others did not, but that was fine to. Gave me critizism, that I used to improve my work.
Then the worlds went strange and I ended up here. The hero of my own story, close to ones I used to write in some ways. Different in others to. This world is very different from my stories. Which really is a good thing, as most of my stories took place in the bronze age." grins a bit at that, as he chuckles over that bit. "My world lacked the magic of this world. Elves had left long ago. Dwarves were still around but rare in my part of the world. Not sure on gnomes or hobbits. Few other sorts existed. I kept up with my studies on spirits and did the occaisional pest removal kind of exorcism. I told the High Priestess here that I specialize in Legion demons. But I don't think she really understands what they are. They are a kind of parasite really. They feed on all the negitive emotions, and in doing so make more such emotions in people. Increasing anger, and fear and similar things. They speed up enthropy by removing hope. To most they are minor demons, but I have seen worlds where they were left largely unchecked, the levels of depression and despair can destroy a nation. The ironic thing is, they are easy to fight. Just takes joy, happiness, making people laugh. One of the big reasons I faced life with humor really. Laughter, happiness, love, they are poisons to such things. They give Hope to the world, the dark Hates hope." she puts the plate up and sighs, "Hope is something I did not really have for the longest time. So I know how important it is.
So now I am here, I do miss my old world, my cats. I had two, Older black cat called Sister, and a yellow one called Betelguise. He was yellow All the way through, scared of everything bigger than him, loud noises and all kinds of things. I was the only person he trusted. Me he tried to bully in to doing things. Sister on the other hand was my tough girl. She was friendly, out going, curious. She would lose every collar I got her till I got a studded leather one for her. She loved that, made her feel like a tough girl. Collars were manditory, so people would know they were not strays." he nods, "Betel was special that way. He was the only animal I ever knew who had the same collar from the time he was a kit and beyond. He took really good care of his collar. Most animals, in the course of things, the collars got beat up, scratched or torn or stained. Not his, his was like new, almost no wear or tear on it at all. He was proud of that collar. I think cause he knew it meant he belonged somewhere with someone who cared for him." she is crying now, missing her pets, the only family she had in the last few years of her life. Lazlo understands, she is mourning her old life.
He already worked out that the Goddess really had reincarnated her. It really explained the amount of power she has. But also some of the strange things she says, or odd turns of phrase.
She is quiet now, focused inward even as she puts things away and organizes her box, again really. Then sitting on the lid of it, "Before that time, I worked in restraunts and stores. Did everything from warehouse work to prep cook, bus boy, dishwasher and so on. More clerking which I did while putting myself through school. Studied business and stuff you all have no words or understanding of. I know I have said the words but nothing comes through the translation magic I use to communicate with you all."
He looks a bit surprised about that, then grins some. More technologically advanced, so skills in things from that point of veiw. The kinds of skills that are not worth anything here. "Yeah the two people who came here before you are like that. Higher technology and most all their skills are only good for that sort of thing. One was a road worker, made roads but only the way his people did it. The other worked with some kind of machine, called himself a programmer."
"Computers. Programming is a difficult thing to learn. Computers have specialty languages that must be used to work with them. Takes a really smart person to use them properly. I am thinking that maybe people asked them the wrong questions on skills. Ah, what did the first one call his skill set ?"
"Civil Engineering. Used to make roads he said."
She rolls her head forward, "Civial engineering is a high education level thing. Planning out how to lay our roads, cities, and such. Working at maintaining them all to. Lots of other engineering skills go in to that and that sort of skills are used even in this world as they are how you build and maintain cities. I am not explaining it well. But I am betting they have other skills that no one thought to even check them for."
He has this thousand yard stare and slowly nods, its very possible they have skills that are useful, but the names are just different. She is making a good point. The one point he has gotten is the two are highly educated sorts of persons. Which means, given the right environment, they could learn other skills to. He will mention this to some of the merchants around there, see what they think.
"Say Lazlo, is there a barn or such I could use. I want to retrieve my carrage and store it somewhere, as well, my father left it to me really. Also I was thinking I maybe able to salvage a few things from it."
He slowly nods, "Actually yes. The building on the far side of the practice yard is my stable. Not many animals in there and I have a good sized store room that is mostly empty. Come on, I will show it to you."
He leads her outside and over to the building. The room he shows her has a large set of double doors and is where wagons and such are normally kept. He has 1 large wagon next to the main stable, but this smaller area is largely empty. To her mind its a little bigger than a one car garage. Still she walks it out, uses her telekinesis to 'sweep and clean' it. Then nods, "This will work. You sure ?"
"Rent is a silver a month." he states. She nods and hands him a gold coin to which he just grins. "So how are you going to get your carrage ?"
"I thought to just teleport it here really. I got both clairvoyance and teleport spells memoriezed." she shrugs as he nods. Makes sense to him and its safer than trying to go out in to the woods to get it herself. So he leaves her to it and heads back inside, so he can make note of the deal and how much she paid up front.