semiautonomous kitchen

[thaumobabble]

The remaining two days of the walk are much more affectionate, and also much more free of wizards and snakes than the first two days were. Somehow, all three travelers manage to not realize that Bella has not yet produced her name, even though on at least one occasion it would have been convenient for Tony to have.

And there is the castle, and there is the -

"Skyvault," sighs Bella, diving into her hat for her specs.

Comments

[thaumobabble]

Bella starts writing things down after it is clear the list will have more than three people on it.

Hey, look! Is that a guest bedroom suitable for containing a Bella?

[calendarofcrime]

Yes!

[thaumobabble]

It is pretty! Bella likes it.

She unpacks into it a bit. Not most of her stuff - her sleeves are perfectly serviceable for holding a lot of things - but spare changes of clothes and so on are put in appropriate locations.

"Should I start on the kitchen now or later?" she asks, when this has been done.

[calendarofcrime]

"It may as well be now."

[thaumobabble]

"All right then." She hops into Tony's arms again. "About the fake leather, when I run into someone I can ask do I need to produce money for it, or what?"

[allthebrightest]

"Only if you feel like it."

[thaumobabble]

Bella takes that as a no. "Okay," she says, nuzzling Tony's neck.

[allthebrightest]

Tony turns her head and kisses Bella's cheek.

[thaumobabble]

Hurray!

Here is the kitchen. Bella scopes it out, specs on. There is some spell residue. She guides it into her marble with coaxing murmurs and little hand motions so the space will be clear for her to work, and then she inventories the tools and all the compartments for ingredients in the cupboards and the pantry.

[calendarofcrime]

The kitchen is extensively but somewhat eclectically supplied. For some reason, they have six crepe pans.

[thaumobabble]

"You have," Bella observes, "six crepe pans."

[calendarofcrime]

"They were there when I got here."

[thaumobabble]

"Huh. Well, it's not going to throw off the spell or anything." Bella starts placing little glass droplets as markers in key locations around the kitchen. "How often do you acquire new kitchen equipment?"

[calendarofcrime]

"Infrequently."

[thaumobabble]

"Okay. If I skimp on the seamlessness of adding new things - it'll still work, it'll just take a bit to get used to anything you bring in - then that makes having dishes wash themselves easier." Bella places a marker near the sink.

Soon enough there are little markers all over the kitchen. "Do you want multiply-opening cabinets or are you satisfied with your existing storage space?"

[calendarofcrime]

"Would they conflict with any other conveniences?"

[thaumobabble]

"Cabinets can open themselves, but they can't switch between multiple compartments themselves, so it does mean that you have to manually close and reopen the doors or drawers or whatever if you need things from compartments other than the last one opened."

[calendarofcrime]

"Then let's leave the storage as-is."

[thaumobabble]

"Okay." Bella counts the tokens she's placed, and pulls out a notebook and flips through it until she finds what she's looking for and checks something, and then she counts the spice jars, and then she peers into the ovens, and then she peers critically at the organization of the preserves jars, and then she inspects the arrangement of the silverware. "Can you think of any customizations you want that we haven't already talked about?" she asks, making small tick marks in various places in her notes and then nudging the placement of a glass token.

[calendarofcrime]

"I cannot."

[thaumobabble]

"Okay."

Bella sits crosslegged in the middle of the kitchen. She holds her notebook up in front of her face, and recites a series of verses that is about half nonsense words and half vernacular. (The exact proportion of the two isn't perfectly clear, since some of the sequences of syllables that could be ordinary words have no clear purpose in a kitchen spell.)

Her glass tokens glow, and all of them stretch out ribbons of light to connect to each of the others till she's sitting in the middle of a web of beams.

They go dark - not all at once, but staggered, in ones and twos - and Bella grins and gets up again and starts retrieving them.

"It should have enough place-memory to already know how to help you with things you've made here a lot in the past. It'll pick up on new things much more efficiently going forward, though. You can talk to it. It's not a person, but it'll respond to the attitudes behind the words."

[calendarofcrime]

"Thank you," says Sherlock, and impulsively hugs her.

[thaumobabble]

Hugs! Bella likes hugs. She hugs back.

[calendarofcrime]

Hugs and kisses?

[thaumobabble]

Oooh yes please.