COOKING SHOW - 5PM PST - pep!pep!

[idolpro]

[ Your unit-colored kitchen has all the basic necessities for cooking, but strangely, there's no refrigerator. There's just a table full of pebble-sized crystals. . . There are candies available in bins next to the crystals as well.

Though you can technically turn the stove on, you can't actually hurt yourself on it. It's like the flames are illusions. Huh.

Upon entering your unit-colored kitchen, you'll find that you can't see or hear anyone from any other kitchen. You're aware that this whole area is magically sight- and sound-proofed; no other unit will hear or see any conversation you have. ]

Comments

INSTRUCTIONS & RECIPE

[idolpro]

Today, you are making Salmon Quinoa! You will need the following ingredients:

• Quinoa (1 salty, 2 savory)
  
• Tomatoes (1 sweet, 1 sour, 1 savory)
  
• Salmon (1 salty, 2 savory)
  
• OPTIONAL: Cilantro (1 sour, 2 bitter)
  
• OPTIONAL: Cucumber (2 sweet, 1 bitter)

(Optional ingredients are there in case people show up late—they will otherwise not affect your score.)

Total Required (not including optional):

• 1 Sweet (happiness/excitement)
  
• 1 Sour (embarrassment/shame)
  
• 2 Salty (sadness/regret)
  
• 0 Bitter (anger/bitterness)
  
• 5 Savory (adrenaline/fear)

On the tables are pebble-sized crystals. Hold a handful of the crystals and share your memory (through talking or memoryshare candies) and the crystals will turn into that food!

Characters are aware that the cooking process will be done with guidance, so all they need to worry about are the ingredients. Tasteless ingredients such as flour and cornstarch will be provided for them, so those ingredients are not listed.

There are no rounds, nor any discussion headers. Please make a toplevel with every new memory/memory discussion. At 4 hours, please turn into the comment below.

TURN-IN

[idolpro]

For every shared memory, please give a 1-4 for how open they were about it, with 1 being cagey as fuck and 4 being as open as they could be:

# of candies consumed:

For every unitmate, please give a 1-3 for how much they learned about them/how much they were affected by this new knowledge, with 1 being a little/unsurprising and 3 being a lot/shocking:

<b>For every shared memory, please give a 1-4 for how open they were about it, with 1 being cagey as fuck and 4 being as open as they could be:</b> HERE <b># of candies consumed:</b> HERE <b>For every unitmate, please give a 1-3 for how much they learned about them/how much they were affected by this new knowledge, with 1 being a little/unsurprising and 3 being a lot/shocking:</b> HERE

Totals

[we_meet_again]

Quinoa
Salty | Gladio - Openness: 4 / Affects: 2, 1, 2, 2 - Cloud Nine
Savory | Kino - Openness: 4 / Affects: 2, 3, 3, 2
Savory | Pink - Openness: 4 / Affects: 1, 2, 2, 2

Tomatoes
Sweet | Ren - Openness: 4 / Affects: 1, 1, 1, 1
Sour | Cobalt - Openness: 4 / Affects: 3, 3, 3, 3
Savory |Cobalt - Openness: 4 / Affects: 1, 2, 3, 1

Salmon
Salty | Ren - Openness: 3 / Affects: 1, 2, 3, 3
Savory | Gladio - Openness: 2 / Affects: 1, 3, 2, 2
Savory | Kino - Openness: 4 / Affects: 2, 1, 1, 1

Bonus: Cucumber
Sweet | Cobalt - Openness: 4 / Affects: 1, 2, 1, 1
Sweet | Gladio - Openness: 4 / Affects: 2, 2, 2, 2
Bitter | Kino - Openness: 4 / Affects: 3, 3, 3, 3

Candies consumed: 0

Savory

[we_meet_again]

Savory - Cobalt gets slapped by a behemoth

Openness: 4

Sour

[we_meet_again]

Sour - regrets over early pep mistakes

Openness: 4

Sweet

[romanticlove]

Sweet - Childhood memory!

Openness: 4

Sweet

[we_meet_again]

Sweet - Mom's gallery

Openness: 4

Savory

[worldlyafflictions]

Savory - Pink was scared when talking to Scythe about going home with him

Openness: 4 (Pink scale)

Savory

[quickpersuader]

Savory - Kino vs slave traders.

Openness: 4

[we_meet_again]

[Looking at the rules and instructions]

Oh my gods, what

[worldlyafflictions]

Maybe this is my punishment for complaining that the truth games didn't have worthwhile rules...

[quickpersuader]

This doesn't seem too difficult.

[They don't even have to put everything together themselves!]

Which ingredients would everyone like to handle? I can add some savory I'm sure.

[worldlyafflictions]

It's so heavy on savory stuff...

[romanticlove]

[Oh no... why this? She just wanted to cook.]

I hate this already.

[send_noods]

[hello. He's C9'd, shirtless but wearing an apron, and might be flexing a bit for the audience??]

Really? It's one of the nice ones!

[send_noods]

This one time? My dad died.

[This first part is a bit muffled, as Gladio's busy taking off his shirt. That done, he takes a kitchen apron and ties it on, taking a few of the crystals. His tone is fairly unbothered, probably due to Cloud Nine]

Kind of a bummer, but I didn't wanna whine about it. I mean, a lot of people in the city died, imperial invasion and all.

[we_meet_again]

[Cobalt appreciates the shirtlessness a little, but he's also kind of concerned about this attitude.]

It's not whining. You're allowed to grieve about the loss of a parent. That's perfectly normal.

Healthy, even.

[romanticlove]

[Ren picks up a handful of crystals, smiling to herself. She has stopped using Cloud Nine for now.]

When I was younger, my sister and I were playing house together and our father was passing by on his way to the shooting range. My sister was hesitant to let me go watch him, as I was very young, but he allowed it anyway when I asked. While we were watching him practice, I told her of my desire to protect other people and her, just as my father did for other people. I've never lost that desire to be like him.

[worldlyafflictions]

And that's how ya became a gun fanatic huh.

[Amused about that part, though neutral on the rest of the family fondness.]

Savory - Fear

[quickpersuader]

[Picking up a crystal, none C9 here. we talk about our trauma like badasses.]

This is a story about some danger I faced on the road. I had been helping some men stranded on a snowy mountain without food, and they'd regained enough strength to get moving again, so I was supposed to help them get their truck back on the road. So when I turned to find all three of them pointing guns at me, it was... surprising to say the least.

Since I had hunted food for them, they knew I was armed and told me to remove all of my weapons. So, one by one, I removed all of the knives I had on me, as well as my guns. They were sharp and didn't let me get away with hiding my second gun on my back.

Finally, I took out the final knife. My heart was beating fast in my chest, but I had to stay calm if I wanted to survive. They were slave traders, so they didn't want to rough me up too much so I could be a pristine "product," but they were on edge waiting for me to fight back.

[They're a surprisingly good storyteller, keeping the tension taut even with their level tone.]

But the one thing they didn't realize was this: that final knife could act as a single-shot gun. And when one of their own suddenly died from a bullet to the brain, the other two panicked just long enough for me to retrieve my own gun and attack.

Honestly... even now, I'm a little surprised I was able to get away with it. I really thought I was done for.

[That's an openness of 4 from Kino.]

Re: Savory - Fear

[romanticlove]

[Wha-what the heck, Kino??? Excuse her while she's quiet for a long moment.]

I'm so glad you're okay.

Savory

[we_meet_again]

[He feels a vague distaste relating this. It was an unpleasant time in his life, even though it had its silver linings, sorta.]

This one time, Thorn and I went out hunting with two newbie recruits.

—Er, this was after the Darkness fell, and the two of us had been working for a while as part of the city defense for Lestallum, which was an outpost where people from all over were taking refuge from the daemons.

Anyway, we'd been working there a while, doing stuff like transporting goods, or defending construction workers who were repairing power lines outside the walls and stuff. This one day, we got paired up with two new guys who didn't know the ropes very well, so we were helping train them up by having them tag along with us to do what was supposed to be a relatively minor errand retrieving some equipment from a broken-down chocobo ranch.

Well, it turns out there was a behemoth living in the woods around there, and somehow it snuck up on us. I don't know how something that big can be so sneaky, but... y'know... it was dark...

[vague gesture]

...Well, the animals were just as starving as the rest of us, so even though we weren't much of a meal, it still came after us anyway, and they have long legs so they're stupidly difficult to outrun, it turns out! So Thorn sent the two new kids on ahead while the two of us distracted it.

We were doing okay for a few minutes, but the behemoth's ice magic was making my muscles dull or something, probably [sheepish, a little embarrassed]. Right as I was flying through the air after a warp toward a treetop, he swatted me straight out of the air, with a claw larger than my whole body. I hit the ground before I was even aware of it, and I think I managed to heal myself a little while going in and out of consciousness, but I can't really remember all that well.

Somehow, Thorn took the behemoth down all on his own, which seems, frankly, impossible. But he's very determined when he wants to be, I guess! I could see it.

Anyway, it turns out I broke my back, most of my ribs, and my arm. I spent three days in the hospital basting in some of the strongest healing magic in Lestallum before they punted me out because they needed the bed. I still couldn't walk very well with a slightly broken back so I spent a week sleeping in an alley until I felt better.

The end.

[Whew okay it's over. Relief, a little anxiety due to the unfamiliar sensation of talking about himself so much at once. IT'S WEIRD]

Re: Savory

[romanticlove]

You-you had to sleep in an alley?!

[That's clearly the important take away. Hold on she's processing.]

Were you in a lot of pain? That must have been terrifying!

Salty; cw very mild description of body horror but thought i'd cw anyway

[romanticlove]

[Right. She got a happy memory out of the way. Should she even talk about this one? She picks up more crystals, looking sad and remaining quiet for a moment before speaking.]

When I was first learning to be a Hunter like my father, he took me with him to detain a woman and her child. The woman had kidnapped and killed a group of men who killed her husband in front of the child. We had gone there hoping that no one was hurt, but we were too late. Stricken with grief driven mad, they had killed the men and we found them huddled together, surrounded by the bodies. My father had no choice but to execute them, because of what she did and because they were both a danger to other humans as they were. I... I couldn't do anything and I regret not being able to help them. He assured her before they died that he would make sure the incident was reported, as no one else had tried to help them before he was sent to step in.

Re: Salty; cw very mild description of body horror but thought i'd cw anyway

[we_meet_again]

[ngl, a little bit of horror over the situation and pity for the woman and child.]

Oh... oh wow.

Is that kind of thing something you had to do often, as Hunters...?

Savory - adrenaline/fear

[worldlyafflictions]

[juggling a few crystal pebbles between his fingers.]

Alright, well I dunno if this counts as a specific memory, but for the past however long, whenever we ended up on the topic of Scythe-kun goin' ta my world, it was super scary. Probably 'cause I kept thinkin' it'd be nice if he did.

The end!

[Despite how short that was, his openness is actually around a 4. He's turned off C9 by now and there's some echos of that internal screaming feeling, which is certainly partly also talking about this with anyone. There's also the usual sad ache of being left, though at least there's a little core of warmth about where Scythe did end up.]

Re: Savory - adrenaline/fear

[romanticlove]

[Must not tease him for finally being open about something.]

It's scary because it would be nice? Is that because of how you feel about him?

SAVORY

[quickpersuader]

This one is about a time when I was hired to protect a band of travelers from bandits that were known to hang out in the forest outside of the country they were passing through. I didn't have very strong feelings on it, but... one of the women had a baby with her, and I thought it was pretty cute, so I figured I could try to make sure they had a safe passage...

I scouted ahead on my motorrad and found the bandits. I used a sniper rifle to shoot around them to scare them off before circling back to the other travelers to lead the way. But when we were going along the road, we came across some trees that had been chopped down to block our way. I tried to get the group to clear the trees since it would be faster, but they veered off the road onto a side path that definitely had to be part of a trap. The last thing I remember of that particular instance was reaching the ruins of a fortress and looking around to figure out how to defend it whenever the bandits came around to finish the job.

[They're honestly still annoyed about it.]

I knew it was dangerous when I took them up on it, but I didn't expect that level of risk right away. I should have thought harder about their lack of experience.

[Openness: 4]

Re: SAVORY

[worldlyafflictions]

[This isn't a funny story but Kino keeps punctuating it in a funny way HE CAN'T HELP IT OK. He'll vaguely feel bad about the situation but it's like a passing breeze.]

How come all your regrets are like this...

Sour

[we_meet_again]

[He scratches his head, SUPER uncomfortable and embarrassed just thinking about this.]

Ugh, I hate this.

Ages ago, when pep!pep! had only been here about two weeks, someone committed the first out-of-game murder in Tokyo-F. There was a lot of political tension between the units at the time so I was already pretty spooled up about it, and then the murder itself was broadcast on a live for everyone to see, and it was really gruesome. When I saw it I absolutely.... lost my entire shit. Honestly, I don't know if I've ever been so mad before or since.

Me and some of the other peps at the time completely flipped out and did our own extremely ill-advised live where we threatened not to revive anyone in Imeeji at all. This was before we knew about Lilith, even. It was really stupid.

I'm ashamed of this because it was a kneejerk reaction, lashing out at people who didn't deserve it, when I should have taken a deep breath and calmed down before trying to body-slam the whole community with a bad idea. We should have waited until we had a better idea of what happened. We didn't even wait to talk to Pink about it, who was the one doing the actual revival. Part of the reason I was so furious was because he was one of the youngest members of our unit at the time, and I thought he was going to be traumatized or something, but that was a gross underestimation of who he is as a person and what he's capable of handling. I didn't know him very well yet. I should have talked to him first, and I'm ashamed of the assumption I made.

[By the end of the story his heart is tight with feelings of guilt, shame, and also still some ancient bitter anger.]

Re: Sour

[worldlyafflictions]

[Oh he knows this story--same guilty hat--]

savory

[send_noods]

[well, the sad memory's done, so he's gonna turn off C9 with a sigh]

You've all seen Noctis and the other two guys in my memories, right? We were in Altissia, that one city with all the canals and waterfalls... [waves a hand vaguely, it's enough to paint a picture]

And it was getting wrecked, between the angry gods and the empire dropships. We barely dodged a bridge falling on us... I thought my friend was dead until he got back on comms.

Had to spend a ton of time helping to get the city evacuated before I could try and find 'em. Found him and Noct both laid out on the ground, had to check both of 'em were still alive.

... those ghosts better enjoy their damn food.

[openness was a 2 on this one]

Re: savory

[worldlyafflictions]

[Won't say anything about it yet, but he's definitely thinking gratefulness at him about sharing. Enjoy the rare Pink cooties.]

BITTER - ANGY

[quickpersuader]

This is a story about a certain country... to be honest, I don't really remember how or why I ended up in this situation, but I'll do my best with it.

It was a country where anyone who entered would be placed in a coliseum match. If you turned down the fight, you would be enslaved by the country. If you surrendered during the match, you could survive if your opponent accepted it... but the people were so bloodthirsty, most of the time they'd rather kill. The audience was cheering loudly for bloodshed, and the king himself had a glass viewing box high above to watch it all.

Even though I don't remember how I came to be there, I remember being furious with the king and the death matches. I suppose... well, regardless of how I got there, the king must have enjoyed the show, or else they wouldn't be a feature of the country. So, I decided to force every single one of my opponents to surrender to me, since there wasn't a good way to get back at the king directly.

I only remember one day of matches, but I didn't take a single hit, and I didn't kill a single opponent, either. So I'd say my plan was working well.

[Also all of theirs are a 4 on openness because Kino is just Like This.]

Re: BITTER - ANGY

[worldlyafflictions]

[admiring clapping at this story]

Sweet

[we_meet_again]

One of my favorite memories from home is of my mom's gallery! She was an art dealer and had a really prestigious gallery downtown where she sometimes showed the art of famous people. In one of the first memories I took here, I remembered helping her prepare for opening night of a really big show, and it was really fun.

After I took the memory, I bought a copy of my favorite painting in the show. It's hanging in my room!

[His chest is full of joy, and fondness, and pride, and a little bit of old, well-worn grief that he's mostly come to terms with.]

Re: Sweet

[quickpersuader]

...Oh. That explains some things.

sweet

[send_noods]

The guys n' I stopped by at the chocobo post a lot, and took hunts from the owner. He has us go track down a rare black chocobo nest... didn't track any adults but we found one egg.

Noct cradled that thing in the backseat lookin' nervous as shit. Probably didn't help that blondie kept giving him instructions. But we got it back to pens in one piece. And when Wiz called us up after the egg hatched, we pretty much dropped everything to go see it... King's orders n' all.

So many baby bird pics happened.

[openness 4]

Re: sweet

[we_meet_again]

That's so cute! I'm so jealous!!

[Envious. he means envious.]

RESULTS

[idolpro]

[ You made a Salmon Quinoa! You even managed to slide some cucumbers onto it! While it isn't 10000% perfect, it's also full of heart and emotion; ultimately, it's a little on the sweet and bitter side (must be the cucumber)—it could definitely stand to be a little more salty—and but importantly, it gets you a 95/10 score!

. . . That's not how scores work but whatever!

You can head to endgame, though maybe some of you might be coming back for an encore. You can take some of your food with you as you go! ]