Day 182

[freedom_engineer]

Who: Colin Starfury, Rin Okumura, and anyone else with opinions about meat.
What: Colin wants to make a purchase, but he needs opinions first.
When: Day 182
Where: The Distillery
Format: Action, Prose, Whatever you like
Open: Open
Warnings: Talk of meat, possibly blood and slaughter of animals. Also, Colin again.

Once again, it seems as though Colin is up to something. This morning, after getting breakfast and making a smoothie, Colin doesn't head out for his daily routine like he usually does. Instead, he's going to head for the kitchen and knock on the door frame. Rin's the cook for the place, and if he's going to be bringing in meat, he needs to know what she's going to be comfortable with.

And the fact that he'd prefer to bring in technology to make meat is probably going to ruffle a couple of feathers.

"Rin, you got a moment?" he asks.

Comments

[hellpyre]

"I'm in the pantry!" her voice calls out from that area, the door open and the light inside on, her tail sticking partially out from it. She seems to be doing something in there that's got her preoccupied enough to not really care that it's Colin interrupting her work.

[freedom_engineer]

Colin smiles and heads towards the pantry. Spying her tail is more than enough to let him know that he shouldn't get too much closer, as she's probably handling something near the entrance.

"I've got a whole bushel of shards," he says. "I was considering the needs of the Bastion, and I realized that we're still lacking some basic needs. You mind if I pick your brain on one of them? It concerns food."

[hellpyre]

She is, apparently trying to pull... something out. Trying, because it's stuck, and even her strength isn't getting it out without breaking either the floor or the object.

She huffs and straightens, stretching out her back with her hands on it.

"Yeah, sure, I need a break anyway..."

[freedom_engineer]

"Maybe when we're done, I can see about giving you a hand with that," Colin says, stepping back to give her room.

"Anyway, my thoughts. We're still lacking a reliable source of meat," he explains. "Paar brings in the occasional mammoth, and we've got fish in the river, but those can't fill all our needs. And I'd rather not get into the practice of slaughtering the animals we've got out at the farm since they're in small quantities."

He leans against the wall, and he gestures at her. "Since you do the majority of our cooking... Would you be open to the possibility of synthetic meat?" he asks.

[hellpyre]

"Please... it's stuck on somethin' and I don't wanna break it."

She moves out of the pantry after that, going to hop up on the counter so she can listen to what Colin has to say.

"Synthetic? What, like... processed stuff?"

[freedom_engineer]

"Close, yes," Colin says, nodding. "Synthetic meat is meat that's grown through artificial means, rather than by raising and slaughtering animals. With the process I'm thinking of, we can grow whatever meat we want, right down to the cuts we need."

[hellpyre]

"... what... does it even taste like? Is it normal or is it more like tofu?"

Which is fine, she can deal with either, but the idea does sound... strange. If it's not processed (like so many things were back home) what should she be expecting?

[freedom_engineer]

"It's essentially the same as normally farmed animals," Colin says. "Beef tastes like beef, pork tastes like pork, etetera etcetera. The technology came about through a derivation in medical research and was perfected on colonies with an inability to grow their own food through normal means."

He glances out the window in the direction of the farm, and he cocks a grin. "The other option, of course, is buying a herd of animals to raise and slaughter. We'd need a slaughterhouse and a butcher for that, though."

[hellpyre]

"Oh..."

She frowned, moving a hand over her head. It was all a bit much for her to understand, but...

"I'll take your word for it. I think you've probably got the right idea, if it can be done without spendin' a whole lot."

[If anyone else wants him, here he is.]

[freedom_engineer]

Now that he's done with Rin, Colin has ventured out to the farm. He's wandering the grounds, taking basic survey measurements and trying to decide where and how his latest addition to the Bastion will best be placed.

[findsrisks]

Nanaki is often out at the farm, since it's one of the few things she can actually do around here. She's actually working on something when Colin shows up and starts doing his thing, and every so often she'll glance over in his direction to get a glance of it.

Finally curiosity wins out, and she sets down her things and goes over to him. "What are you doing?"

[freedom_engineer]

Colin gives Nanaki a wave as she approaches, and he gestures around. "I'm checking out the layout of the facilities around here, trying to decide how to add a new building to the place without upsetting anything," he replies. "I had an idea, and I need to see how well it can be implemented before I actually go and do something ridiculous like doing it."

[findsrisks]

New buildings were always useful! And hey, maybe Colin has come up with a solution to their problem of fresh food going bad too quickly.

"What's your idea," she asked, "Some kind of canning building? Because if we can find a way to preserve food, that would be really useful."

[freedom_engineer]

Colin pauses, and tilts his head, his thoughts turning to preservation. "A cannery is doable," he says. "I hadn't even thought of that need. Food preservation... interesting. Freeze drying is also a possibility, as is long term refrigeration. I'll have to pick your brain on that, it's definitely something we need to consider. I think I have the shards to take care of that too. VERY good thought."

He shakes his head, and he smiles. "I was actually thinking on our protein deficiency, and the fact that our protein sources are limited to fish and mammoth chunks. Both are reasonable, but the quantities are smaller than I like, and in terms of variety, we're going to start hitting the point where people say 'I'm SICK of this!' sooner as opposed to later," he tells her. "I was thinking of introducing a synthetic meat lab."

[findsrisks]

At this point Nanaki is torn between 'getting compliments for thinking smartly is a good feeling' and 'oh god I'm giving him ideas this is terrible.'

But the rest of what Colin says, that sounds a little weird. Synthetic meat is not something that exists in her time, and it actually sounds kind of gross. "Synthetic meat," she says, raising an eyebrow, "Wouldn't it be easier to just get cows and chickens and stuff and get meat that way?"

[freedom_engineer]

"Traditionally, yes," Colin says, nodding. "But it's actually pretty easy to grow meat. Just not very traditional. Plus, if we want meat by growing animals, we'd need to purchase the animals, tend to them, slaughter them, and butcher them."

He gestures out towards the Dragonfield, since it's the largest open space in the bastion. "We'd need more grazing land, a slaughterhouse, and a meat locker. Plus, we'd need people who have the stomach to do the slaughtering and butchering. That's... kind of in short supply, actually."

He frowns, and shakes his head as he ponders the logistics. It's DOABLE, but it requires a lot more resources.

"With the lab, we can grow exactly what we need. And it's no different from the farm-raised meat, other than the fact that it won't produce bones," he says. "No baby back ribs and T-Bone steaks, in other words."

[findsrisks]

Nanaki grimaces at the mental image of having to slaughter animals. She has a strong stomach for a lot of things, but butchering is not one of them. She'll stick to fish, she can actually prepare those without getting sick.

"I don't normally eat those anyway, so I think I'll be alright without it," she says, "But if you're going to do this synthetic stuff, you need the shards, right? Do you have enough?"

[freedom_engineer]

"Yeah, that's about the reaction I'm picturing from most of the people here," Colin tells her. "I've got over a thousand shards, I imagine that we shouldn't need more than five hundred to get a facility added on to the farm."

He gestures towards the barn nearby then, and he smirks slightly.
"I just don't want to put it in too close to the existing structures. I don't want to throw off the land apportionment here, it seems like this place is probably a comparatively fragile eco-system."

[blackblooded]

Crona is at the farm, just wandering. There are things Crona does, habits that the meister has developed, and wandering around the farm every day after a trip to the Skyway is one of those habits.

Seeing Colin at the farm is not one of those habits. So Crona stops, and just watches.

[freedom_engineer]

"Hey there, Crona," Colin says, giving the meister a little wave as he walks around the farm. "How're you doing today?"

[blackblooded]

Crona shrugs. Everything is proceeding as normal in Crona's life, and the meister is doing as well as any other day.

"You don't usually come here."

[freedom_engineer]

"Usually just to get my fruit, or help Rosethorn with something," Colin says in agreement. "But today I'm surveying for a new facility."

While he talks, he reaches into his pocket. Good, there's something there in case he needs it.

[blackblooded]

Crona watches Colin reach into his pocket, expression wary. Colin is not a bad, but not a trustworthy one either, and the meister is a very skittish person.

"What... what kind of facility?"

[freedom_engineer]

Colin hasn't missed the line of Crona's vision. In fact, he's made a habit of following the track of Crona's pupils to see just what's being studied.

The fact that the line of sight is on his pocket makes him blink, and snicker in spite of himself.

"Sorry, sorry," he says, drawing his hand out of his pocket and producing a lollipop from it and holding it up for the Meister to see. "Anyway. I've been realizing that we've got something of a protein deficiency here, so I've been considering a meat packing plant."

It wasn't exactly true, but it wasn't a lie either.

"Nanaki also pointed out to me that we're lacking food preservation, so I'm also considering a cannery," he says. "Or some other preservation facility."

[blackblooded]

It's protection, really. Things that are hidden can hurt, people grabbing things that Crona can't see usually means that something's about to be thrown at the meister. The lollipop is not at all what Crona was expecting, and the meister's eyes go slightly wide. What in the world is that?

"M-meat would be nice. I don't know anything about canneries. What is a cannery? That doesn't sound like something real."