Iron Stars - Cooking team

A small stamped earth area has been prepared and there are all manner of building materials and cooking supplies here. The kitchen is made to assemble as it were, but remains in assembled

Ana start to look at the kitchen, curious of what is available.

Dr. Truffles looks on excitedly. "I get to tinker and cook today! Lemme get out my tools and whatnot. Y'all got any culinary specialties yourselves y'all wanna make?"

Parsnips ruffles through his bag and pulls out a bottle. “It ain’t just for drinking, Doc. This here gives any sauce we make a nice little ‘fuck-you’.” Taking a swig before putting it with the other supplies, he adds “I mean, it’s also for drinking.”

“As far as specialities go, if our foraging team finds any sort of starchy root vegetable, I can probably mash it”

Thulee enters the kitchen area with Mushk in tow. "Hey... well... not sure I've got specialties as such but I do like to pot cook - soups, stews and the like. I also enjoy roasting. If we end up with a suitable animal maybe we could spit roast on an open fire? A sticky berry type glaze could be nice..?" (edited)

Dr. Truffles nods excitedly. "I reckon I got just the thing for the glaze. My mammy used to make it all the time when I was growing up in Delphos. There was these berries we called cramberries cause they grew crammed in these real dense clusters in the scrubland outside the town, and she'd make em into cramberry sauce. It were downright delicious on all sorts of meats. Maybe we can add Parsnips' vodka for a bit of kick and some extra sugar?"

“My mouth is already watering, Doc. Oh! We can’t forget to put a pan under the spot where the meat is roasting! Those drippings are gonna form the base for a sort of meat sauce that you put on meat.”

"Yes, yes, yes... That sounds a great combo 'Truff!! mmmmmmm.... we can also roast and mash whatever other vegetables or carbs are foraged. "Hey Parsnips... umm... so... is it possible to taste test the Vodka... for science? I like to know what flavours I'm working with." Thulee winks and giggles.

“Well, as long as it’s for science” Parsnips smiles as he pulls the cork and hands Thulee the bottle

Dr. Truffles chuckles. "Or diplomacy. Or celebration. Or a Tuesday. I'm trying to think of the other's you done mentioned."

“Versatile stuff. You make a great point, Doc”

9:19 PM

“Should we toast to it?”

Thulee starts rummaging around in the Kitchen "any small glasses around here..?"

9:20 PM

"Ah, here we go... yes yes... lets have a toast" he hands out some intricately carved shotties.

“Oh! These are neat!” Parsnips pours three shots as Thulee hands out the glasses. “We should probably start setting this kitchen up after these”

"Hang on... gotta get another glass for Ana!"

9:24 PM

Thulee finds another glass and passes to Ana. "OK... so a toast... then we get started!"

“No need, I got the math right.” Parsnips hands out the three glasses and gestures with the bottle

3

Dr. Truffles smiles broadly and toasts the others. "Y'all know, reckon I'm getting used to this stuff. Wish I had some of the brownies from the factory on Shalini on me when I teleported. They always go real well with the drinks you send. Makes sense they're our biggest export, folks can't get enough of piggen cooking."

“You know, Doc, it’s funny. I had one of those brownies you gave me for dessert one night, and like an hour later I was hungry for dinner all over again”

"Isn't it too much to drink in one go ? " Ana return the smiles and toast with the others.

Dr. Truffles grins at Parsnips. "That's there's the thing with piggen cooking! You get yourself one taste and you just can't stop!" He turns to Ana. "I seen Parsnips drink twice that before a meeting, never you mind before dinner."

Parsnips smirks at Truffles and pats his belly. “I am a hungry, growing boy after all.” (His own belly, not Truff’s.) (edited)

"To food and friends..." Thulee toasts up. He squints a little, swishes the liquid around his mouth and gulps. Muskh sneezes in response. "Speaking of Brownies... what about dessert plans, do we want to cook up something sweet? Also... what about peoples who might not eat meat?"

“If we get some berries or fruit or whatnot, we should make some dessert. As for our vegetarian friends, fret not. The sides are always the best part of a meal like this anyway.”

Dr. Truffles nods excitedly. "A fruit tart with them berries maybe? Possibly some fritters. We gots endless possibilities."

“But not if we don’t get this kitchen assembled!” Parsnips clicks his meta tool into place on his wrist and starts sorting through the pieces for assembling, trying to take an account of everything they have, and what they need to do (edited)

Dr. Truffles nods and starts to help Parsnips.

Parsnips pauses while laying out pieces that seem to fit together. “You know, this is a lot like those ancient drawings of the man with no neck and an impossibly wide mouth assembling shelves, step by step”

(How would the Piggen generally cook their food? Figured its probably tailored to Truffs as far as the heavy lifting)

(I feel like it's a lot of really hearty rich food, prepped in more traditional manors. Roasted meats, robust stews, both sweet and savory pastries, things like that.)

(We can rp through setting up the roast pits and stuff while the other groups are going )

Once the prefab pieces are in order, Parsnips gathers some large rocks, arranging them in as best of a circle as he can manage. Checking to make sure his axe isn’t still covered in dried blood and gore, he sets off to chop firewood. “Hey, I think I I saw a couple of fire grates back there in the pile, if someone wants to start getting those together we can get the fire started .” (edited)

"Yep. I'll sort the grates... and prep things for the fire. Just like back home." Thulee starts poking around in the pile, grabbing what he needs, humming as he goes.

Dr. Truffles scratches his chin. "Reckon I can sort through the gear we got and the stuff I got with me and we can get the pot and all whatnot we'll need set up."

(Can we 'make up' dishes ? For example, if I want to create a 'Saliv dessert' ? )

(yes)

"If I have the correct ingredients, I would like to take charge of the dessert. One from my childhood, the 'Saliv EggNull Surprise'. It's two bowls of chocolate fused together to form a sort of ball, they are around 6 cm and each egg are filled with different flavours. If I counted correctly we are 26, if we create 5 different flavour we would need to do 130. The Saliv custom is also to have a unique EggNull surprise with a bean on it, whoever gets it is said to have luck and love until next year." Ana look at Thulee and Parsnips preparing the fire, she then put both her index in her forehead and think out loud. "Chocolate appears. Chocolate appears. Chocolate appears." After a few seconds of unsuccessful materialization, she sight. "I can replace the chocolate with a standard shortcrust pastry if needed." She then decide to help Truffles to assemble the kitchen while waiting for their reply.

Overhearing Ana’s description, Parsnips calls out from the Firepit area. “Yes, please! Yes to all of that!”

Mushk starts licking her lips dramatically... she's picking up Thulee's thoughts as he listens to Ana. "Fantastic Ana, sounds amazing! Love it!" He turns to Muskh and stares at her for a moment. "...no. No. You can't do sweet," He shakes his head and stares again, mentally communicating "...makes you sick, right!?" "She never learns..." Thulee goes back to preparing the fire pit.

Noticing Mushk for the first time, Parsnips tries to hide his excitement and glee, but fails spectacularly. "Can I pet her? Does she like ear scritches?"

Dr. Truffles grins at Mushk as well and reaches out to Knock. Got a playmate for ya buddy. A round but muscular blue otter comes bounding out of the woods and rolls in front of Mushk. Dr. Truffles smiles at Thulee. "This here's Knock. Can't promise them playing ain't gonna get em into more food though."

Seeing Knock, Parsnips fully loses his cool, drops his ax mid-chop, and falls to his knees, inviting both critters over for vigorous pets and scritches. "BUDDIES!". Parsnips looks up at Truffles and Thulee just before being tackled and covered in frolicing animals. "Fair warning, I am a total sucker, and if either one of these fine creatures so much as glance at me with those 'can I try some?' eyes, I am letting them eat directly off my plate. I can try to resist it, but I will absolutely fail." (edited)

Dr. Truffles laughs. "It ain't gonna hurt him. Especially likes shellfish."

Now on his back, blissfully withstanding a full-on cuddle assault, Parsnips reaches to scratch behind Knock's ears. "Hear that, buddy! Doc says I can give you all the clams!"

Thulee laughs out loud as Mushk gets involved with Parsnips and Knock. Muskh takes a fancy to the blue otter, rubbing up to it as she revels in the attention from Parsnips. Maybe its the oil on fur combination..? "Yeah she's totally friendly... loves a pet and tickle... go for it!" Turning to Truffles... "aaaaaw, buddies already, so cute!" (edited)

Parsnips starts to sit up, now giving both critters ear scritches with either hand. "ohh, buddies, I'm gonna have to get back to work soon. I knnoowww! I don't wanna, either! Don't give me that look!"

Dr. Truffles grins knowingly at Thulee. "Reckon all three're going to have a fine time."

Looking at the love Parsnips give the two pets, Ana start to laugh. "I would probably jumped on them if you didn't do it first." She look attentively at both animals. "There is no fauna that look close to them in Saliv. What species are them ? "

"How rude of me! I'm being a total buddy-hog! But there's always room for more buddies!" Parsnips scoots over and releases his grip on one of the critters, although due to their roughhousing with and on top of him, he's not entirely sure which.

Mushk gives Parsnips a last nuzzle before bouncing over to Ana for a pet. Thulee taps Mushk’s emotions and laughs as she engages with Ana. “She’s an archaic ‘Caracal’, a type of large Cat… a wilderness hunter. She’s a native of Rawhani, although I don’t think thats where her kind is from. Our… ah… families… grew up together on the land.

Dr. Truffles scratches Knock on the head. "We call him a Shalini Seafoam Otter, on account of the color and the similarity to the Terran animal. We're still studying them, but we done found out they love shellfish."

Ana smiles when the Caracal move to her. She stop what she is doing and start to play with the animal. "Do you think you can come with me ? I'm sure you would ! "

Finally managing to get back on his feet and giving the critters a final pat each, Parsnips brushes himself off a little. "Thanks for that, that was a lot of fun. I should probably get back to it." It is entirely unclear whether he's addressing Thulee and Truffles here, or their animal companions directly. He finds his ax and continues chopping wood for the firepits.

Mushk rubs up to Ana and starts to vibrate roughly as the attention continues. Thulee laughs "haha... right... so we are purring now are we Mushk!? She's loving it Ana, this is the most people she has hung out with in a looooong time" Thulee shakes his head in amusement and gets back to preparing the fire pits.

The stone lined firepits will provide even cooking and Truffs seems in his element- remembering many celebrations at home on Gudrun with his own immediate family. All the time being forced, and then volunteering to cook seems to be coming back to him now effortlessly. A silent thank you to his home and family for the skills he can now use in the field is whispered, and the grates and suspensions for them begin setting into place

3

2

Dr. Truffles smiles broadly at the others. "Ain't nothing like cooking over an open fire like this. Though I imagine we'll gotta leave some raw for the critters!"

"I hear ya, Doc. Something about a meal that's cooked outside on a wood fire really brings all the flavors out to party."

"Haha, yes! Those flavours also seem to be better with Friends Present. I've spent many a time cooking in the wilderness just myself and Mushk... nice, but not the same."

The cooking team returns with etherfruit just as the animals begin really playing with one another. A sled and bag full of the objects rattles on the uneven ground

Parsnips examines the fruit before dipping his finger in the nectar and sampling it. He ponders for a second before lifting a melon out of the sled and taking a sip directly. “Hey! This is booze! These are booze-melons!” He takes another sip. “Really good, too! Tangy, a little sweet. I bet we can do something with the fleshy bits, too.” Parsnips stands silent for a moment, as if in deep thought. “I’m in charge of after-dinner cocktails!” He runs to grab the now half empty bottle of Pelasgon’s Finest that the kitchen crew were toasting with earlier, refills it with nectar from a melon, and starts shaking the bottle violently. (edited)

Teucer begins the process of unloading the sled, looking to one of the others to direct where they want them or what they want done with them.

"oh, hey Teucer! How the hell are ya?"

Helping to start unload, Iracus responds to Parsnips"s comment about the melons, "I know if we have any cranberries, but we could possibly use the flesh in place of them and make a nice sauce from it."

"That sounds good, Iracus! We could chop the flesh into tiny cubes, and simmer them in their own nectar"

Dr. Truffles nods excitedly. "That there open fire'll give a nice smoky flavor to it too!" Knock grabs one of the raw fruits and excitedly starts to peel it and shove pieces in his mouth.

“Woah! You’re going to splash all the open air fermented juices if you’re not careful!” (Reposting picture:) https://images-ext-2.discordapp.net/external/FVtRFUA7F9_t0pjmHQe7APzWXYbnm_HXtV5y2QrcedU/http/www.worldanvil.com/media/cache/cover/uploads/images/2c270c6a767d7fae3ee2dfe86ab43286.jpg

4:25 PM

“They are used for alcohol making! Among other things.” Pax looks rather pleased with himself as he tips a small one up like a drinking mug.

“Ana, do you think you could make your dessert with this if we can’t get chocolate?”

"I have never see this fruit, can I test it ? We could remove the flesh, keep the skin intact to use it as recipient to do a salad fruit and then mix it with the nectar. "

“Yeah, give it a try! I haven’t tried the meat yet but the nectar is delicious.” Parsnips hands one of the melons to Ana before heading over to the kitchen supplies to find a large container that he can drain some of the nectar into so he can start peeling and chopping the fruit

"Thanks" Ana follow Parsnips and do the same things, she remove carefully the nectar but remove the interior of the etherfruit with a spoon to try to keep the form of the fruit intact in case she will reuse it. Ana put immediately the first bit removed in her mouth.

Once enough of the melons are butchered, and Parsnips sees Ana getting through them at a steady clip, he gathers kindling, gets a fire started in the pit, and starts stacking firewood around it, using a box formation for a longer and more even burn

Nodding as Ana explains, Dr. Truffles grabs a large salad bowl and chops some fresh herbs to offset the flavor of the fruit.

"Parsnips! it is good to see you though I didn't expect these to be the circumstances of our next meeting. Let me know what you need done" Teucer will act as a Kitchen porter, moving ingredients or conducting less skilled tasks.

(we can all move into the big thread now that we're back together)

11:11 AM

(I know we're jumping around a lot)