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nijiyume momo [oc]

[video]

[Momo sets the book up and waves. She's back in the kitchen, which still looks like the weird mix of time periods and foreign items that states "alternate fantasy world," and she's rolling pastry out into a pie pan.]

Hi! The community looks like it's back to stay, which means it needs content or it's gonna blow up again? Probably. I'm trying to study whether it's got anything like an algorithm and that's why it makes accidental posts sometimes or what. I mean, aside from just asking the people in charge, 'cause you never know for sure, right?

Which means it's time for Cooking with Momo-chan... 2! Last time, I was showing you all how I make mochi here, which takes a lot of adapting and, uh, took a lot of trial and error to get it to work right 'cause half the ingredients are different and they haven't invented the microwave. So this time, I'm gonna show some of the stuff we actually eat in Iden!

Which is, uh. A pie made out of peas. It sounds gross and looks weird, but stay with me.

[She finishes rolling it out and lifts up the pie pan.] Okay, so this is kind of a deep pie pan, but that's 'cause there's a lot of peas in this. I guess it's 'cause they grow pretty much all the time. We have a bunch here.

[Momo sets the pan down and moves so the camera shows the wood stove behind her, where a pot of water appears to be boiling.]

Like, a loooooooooooooooot.

[She proceeds to pull out a bowl of peas and just dump them into the pot. It's at least five cups' worth. Why are there so many peas.]

And sheathing and shelling these takes forever, which is why I didn't start posting this when I was doing that, 'cause who wants to watch that all day? I also have a bowl of cold water, too, I'm gonna move the peas over there in a bit. While I'm waiting, how are you guys?

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[A slightly singed, blue unicorn comes up on the reply video. Her mane seems to be suffering from a bad case of static. Trixie has no idea why she's getting this, but after the day she's had... A pea tart? Sounds really good. Even if she only gets to watch someone else make it.]

That looks amazing so far...

[To Momo's credit, she's only slightly surprised by the unicorn before she smiles and waves.]

Baking's a lot of work, but at least we're past the really boring part. Lemme see, are these blanched yet?

[She checks on the peas, takes them off the flame, and strains them into a bucket, then drops them into the cold-water bowl.]

I guess you'd use an ice bath for this on Earth, but they haven't invented refrigeration here in Iden. I don't know about where you live.

I'm not all that great at cooking, but from what I know of potion making, either an ice bath or use a spell. Granted, we do have ice boxes so it's not difficult to keep things cool.

[You'd think that her potion skills would translate to cooking, but unfortunately it didn't.]

Potion-making? Wouldn't that be pretty similar, though? I mean, they're both chemistry.

[Says the actual child.]

You would think so, but sadly not.

... granted my experemental potions do blow up fairly often...

If they're experimental, then that's normal, right? I guess unsafe, too, but still.

We have like a bjillion dried peas in our rations.

Might have to try this.

I dunno if it'd work with dried, but probably. After all, you do put them in water. Can you guys taste now? Probably, 'cause you have your other senses.

Sure do. Our healing potions taste like someone made tea out of the whole herb garden and wheatgrass juice, and then added honey syrup so we wouldn't notice.

The giant enemy crabs, thankfully, taste like crab.

I make it as safe as I can but sometimes... I guess it is normal with potions.

[She looks sheepish]

Not quite sure how I managed to blow up a pot of soup though.

[She makes a face, cutting a small square off of a chunk of butter.]

Ew. Healthy. But I guess anything that's supposed to be medicine tastes bad, huh? Like, I read someplace that people in other countries think root beer tastes good 'cause children's medicine is flavoured like cherry there instead, and they hate cherry stuff. At least artificial cherry stuff. So it's some kind of psychological association.

[Momo pours the peas and water through a strainer over a bucket.]

Kinda wish we had a running water system, this would be way easier. Uhh... did you not take the lid off the soup or something?

Can confirm that I grew up in California and love root beer, and that the dentists here use awful grape flavor stuff and I hate it.

It's even worse cause I'm Jewish and that ruined ritually drinking grape juice when I was too young for wine.

Gross. Do you guys have medical toothpaste like they do in Japan? Like, the stuff in the green tube?

[Trixie watches curiously because hands. It was interesting since all ponies could do such things without fingers and thumbs. Twas such a foreign thing to her.]

Running water is nice, but eh... I spend most of my time traveling with a cart. I can't say I use it all too often myself.

[There's a long sigh from her at the mention of a lid.]

I can't even blame it on a lid... It just went 'bang' and there was tomato everywhere... It's a good thing I'm fast with barrier spells or I would have been washing tomato off me for weeks...

[ Azra caught sight of this in her book, so she swung by to check on what exactly Momo was doing.

And...

What exactly IS Momo doing? Or, more to the point... why?

So have an Azra peeking into the kitchen. ] Are you... cooking? For an audience?

You mean you're nomadic? That's kinda cool. Are you an adventurer?

More enchanter and potion creator than strictly an adventurer. I don't go out of my way to get into trouble, but it's much cheaper to travel and gather my own supplies and ingredients. Plus knowing exactly where it's been, how it's been preserved and so on, it takes a lot of the guess work out.

[A small laugh]

I have enough trouble keeping things from exploding on me, I don't need to add questionable ingredients on top of everything else.

Is that a common thing? I guess it would be. Hope it's fun anyway, though.

It's called content creation, Azra-nee.

[She smiles and waves. The peas are now removed from the fire and are currently in a bowl, where Momo is adding butter and spices.]

My theory is, if the community gets enough intentional posts, then whatever algorithm is in charge of posting won't kick in and cause accidental posts! 'Cause I know you were having trouble with those before.

You would think it would be, but... I see so many unicorns buying their components... I mean I can't complain since I make a good bit of money selling my extras, but some things you just can't go buy.

[A shrug]

It's fun a lot of the time, but it's hard work too. I pull my own wagon around so it's not for the lazy.

I guess that is what a horse would do, right? Sounds pretty hard. Oh, right!

[Momo claps and starts measuring out some spices.]

'Kay, aside from putting the butter in with the peas now that the water's drained, you put in spices. Those are kinda expensive here, especially the saffron, 'cause... what did Bellflower-san say about it? It's not just dependent on trade routes like other spices, it also has to be harvested from plants at a specific time right when they open, which takes forever and you can ruin it pretty easily. I guess that makes sense. So even though we grow it in Sengeis, it costs more than even a lot of the stuff we gotta import.

[She puts a tiny amount of saffron in the bowl, followed by fraction teaspoons of salt and pepper.]

So you only really gotta use this much, 'cause who wants to spend that much money? I mean, we have money here, but I guess it's still kind of a waste. We gotta use that on important things.

You might be surprised at how few ponies do their own hauling.

[Whatever train of thought Trixie had was derailed as she watches Momo putting the spices in the peas. Her own dinner was going to be... quite a bit more basic. Not that a mixed herb salad was bad, but...]

I wonder if there's a way to trade actual items through these things? [She taps a hoof to the scroll gently.] I normally end up with a surplus of herbs and spices that I don't end up using...

I dunno, maybe if you have some kind of dimension magic. But I guess that's sending stuff through a portal, not through the network, right?

I wonder...

[Trixie can't help but look thoughtful, then shakes her head.]

It's might be possible in theory but... not knowing where to set the end... then again with this... Hmmm...

[Sorry Momo, Trixie is somewhat lost in thought. She has ideas now.]

[Nothing wrong with that, Momo is stirring in the spices anyway.]

Just don't send stuff here. We kind of have an Invader problem.

But... surely nobody wants to watch somebody else cook.

Or is that the point? Show them the most boring thing possible to divert attention away from us.

I see.... smart.

Hey, cooking shows are super popular! I mean, unless they suck. You guys don't have anything like that? I thought they were around forever. Or at least since, like, the sixties.

We have bards, minstrels. Sometimes people who do... [ searches for the right words ] ....acrobatics and tumbling. Some people spar for an audience, or show off their spells. But that's certainly much different than... cooking.

[ And obviously Azra's idea of a show is different than Momo's. ]

I guess all those are pretty popular, but I don't know if I can do any of that. But cooking's useful 'cause it teaches other people how to make the thing. Or they just think they're learning but all they do is sit and watch it and go eat frozen dinners and never cook.

[Well, she was going to suggest swapping spices for other ingredients but...]

An invader problem?

Yeah, people from other worlds who come here and cause problems. That's why Azra-nee's suspicious of everyone on the community.

That's a common thing? Huh. Granted, I'm likely not as surprised as I should possibly be. We've had a few issues with a similar situation in our past.

[She thought about that a moment, knowing that the Princesses had handled things like Discord and Tartarus in the past. but Trixie herself? Had no idea how it worked beyond the theoretical. Passing a few items back and fourth was one thing, dropping in and causing issues on the other hoof...]

Do you know how they're getting there? I don't know if there's anything I can do, but I may be able to pass along information on shielding if I can find it...

I think it depends. I know there's portals sometimes, but some of them talk about getting hit by a truck or getting stabbed, and there's a bunch these days dying of overwork, so I guess they get diverted from the afterlife? Pretty sure there's a god doing it, but I'm fuzzy on the details. There was a lot going on.

[Trixie looks a bit shocked and quite taken aback by the methods of arrival.]

I... don't think there's much that can be done if it's a higher power doing it...

[Because what did she say to that?]

Maybe not. The IDF do impossible things all the time, though. It's kinda part of fighting people with cheat powers all day, every day.

Well, if I come across anything I'll try and pass along the information.

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