animus_network

[Jenna is smiling but it is fairly clear that she feels a touch awkward using this thing's video function. It was nice that someone had explained it to her, but she still didn't get how it worked. As long as it got the job done, though...]

Hi, everyone! My name is Jenna. A lot of you probably don't know me, since I only arrived here earlier this month.

This is probably really bad timing with everything that's going on, but I wanted to ask for some help. I don't know how the months from my world carry over here, but based on the seasons, I think my friend's birthday is in a month or two, and I wanted to do something nice for her. I'm a terrible cook, though, [A twinge of annoyance is fairly clear to see on her face,] so I was wondering if it might be possible for someone to give me some quick cooking lessons so I can actually make something for her on her birthday.

I'm not asking you to do this for free! We can work something out if you want payment of some kind. I'm a warrior, so I can provide protection if you're a good cook but you're not one of the people with powers here. I'm also pretty good at hunting, so I can get you some actual food instead of that nutrition bar crap. And we used to make our own clothes where I came from, so I can sew too! That kind of thing. There's more I can do too, if none of that sounds good to you.

[She smiles brightly into the camera.] Thanks a lot in advance!

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If you're able to work on this for a few weeks, we could make a friendship cake. It takes slightly more than a month to prepare, but the ingredients themselves are...simple enough, and very delicious.

i,m willing but what is a friendship cake i,ve never heard of one before

what goes into it

It's a...kind of fruit cake. Back home, one person would make the base:

[What follows is a list of the ingredients - various fruits, sugar, and brandy.]

They'd mix all of that together and let it ferment for three weeks. Then they'd send it to their friend, who would use it to make the cake:

[Another list of ingredients - more fruit, lots of sugar, nuts, eggs--he remembers there being pre-made cake and pudding mixes involved, but they should (hopefully) be able to make their own out of what can be found in the cafeteria. Or they could find someone that knew how to make them more competently?]

The other person takes ten days per fruit to prepare their ingredients, using sugar and the starter. On the last day, they mix it all together and cook it. Then they'll have some juice left over...which can be saved and given to someone else for their own friendship cake! That's how it got the name.

Edited 2013-08-31 18:54 (UTC)

[Jenna likes the idea so much that she switches over to video feed again to reply. She doesn't want her struggles with technology to keep her from expressing her excitement over the idea.]

That sounds perfect! [She's beaming.] I don't know where we would get some of the things we need just yet, but we have some time! I'm sure we can figure it out, or figure out something we can use instead.

I'll get started looking for fruits right away. There's got to be some on some of the floors, right? I mean, we've got forests and meadows. Surely there's a fruit tree somewhere.

[Rick would like to do the same--he's happy that he's made someone else happy--but trying to communicate over video would probably have the opposite effect than it does with Jenna. He's cripplingly camera-shy.]

I...think so? If not, hopefully next month's menu will have something with fruits in it. You can usually get whatever ingredients are used to make the cafeteria food without any trouble...I've done it before, I mean.

Great! I'll start hoarding food as soon as the menu changes.

Even if it doesn't have fruits, I bet there will be something she likes. I just have to keep my eyes open and be flexible, right?

Thanks a lot for all your help!

That sounds like a good plan! Just let me know if you need me to show you how to prepare the different parts or something.

I'm always happy to help! We'll keep in touch...?

I will! And of course we will. It's always great to meet people like you in a place like this, so I'd like to see more of you even when we're not cooking.

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