It was surprising to the boy Aldous how intricate the personal area of this new person was. "Oh. So you want me to be your kitchen assistant." Aldous spat, not entirely agreeing to help, though doing so simply as a gesture of kindness and perhaps pity. Aldous never cooked before- he always had assistants to do such a thing for him. He was always busy doing other things which he had deemed more important. "Your language. It's incredibly crude." Aldous murmured a remark as he played with the fatty piece of pig in his hand. He nearly wanted to vomit. It was definitely differently from the steel he was used to working with.

His jacket was hung up by the entrance and his sleeves were rolled up. His tie was removed and placed in the pocket of his jacket.

Though normally he would have simply walked off, Tao had been cordial for the most part, even if his speech was a little low-brow. Aldous prepared the recipe, more or less simply listening to the other boy. Aldous did not want to admit, but he was much less experienced in such a field and did not want to appear so.

When he finished cooking the meal, Aldous leaned down, back against the foundry-grill to rest briefly before removing his refined ingots from it. As he did, Aldous took a peek toward Tao who seemed to breaking his own metal down. Aldous washed his hands and donned a pair of work gloves, which he carried in a satchel.

"Alchemy?" Aldous asked. He was melting down his own pieces, getting them hot enough to be worked. Of course, he did not want to over-produce his iron, otherwise he would introduce far too much carbon into the product through the process of heating, making it far more rigid than he would like. The soft metal was extruded like taffy between a hammer and anvil into a thin, lengthy bar. It was the core of Aldous's blade. "It's not a very common occurrence in my own kingdom and the smiths I've trained under had little experience with it. I'm fascinated that you of all people had the ability to use such a thing." he remarked, curious about the other boy's process.

The pieces of black steel were also processed. This time, Aldous had no problem working it, taking his time in the production in order to get the perfect final product. The steel was twisted and worked into a strange shape, though still more-or-less a bar. It was part of Aldous's signature technique- his pattern welding.