week one

[airlockedmods]

Week 1

[After the initial introduction of the Overseers, the Champions were left to their own devices in investigating the part of the ship they have access to to their hearts' content. However, the doors that Blaze Dudely and Rox came through are locked tight and cannot be unlocked via PIP.

On Wednesday morning, the same voice that awakened them the previous morning chirps at them again from their PIPs at 7 am on the dot.



Enjoy your week, Champions.]

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Comments

cafeteria

[immaculacies]

Not to your tastes?

[Yeah, so. There's a very petite young lady sitting a table of so away from Lucina, eating her own space food with a completely unreadable expression.]

[challengesfate]

[Huh? Oh - Lucina hasn't met this girl yet. Though she does vaguely recognize her from the profiles. This is the Champion...Mother?

...

Yeah no there is probably a collective "what the fuck" on that one, even Lucina thinks that's fairly weird.]

Erm...it's just not something I'm particularly used to. It's very...heavy.

[immaculacies]

It makes sense that it would be. Fewer meals need to be packaged if just one is enough to fill a person up.

[...But.]

Maybe you should see if there are any plain rice meals available. That's filling, but since it's a plain grain, it should be lighter on your stomach than what you have now.

[challengesfate]

Plain rice...I'll have to look and see, thank you.

[Though she'd feel bad if she didn't at least clean her plate for now. Hoo boy, she's gonna feel kind of sick tonight, probably.]

I don't believe we've spoken before today, have we? My name is Lucina.

[immaculacies]

No, we haven't. My name is Manaka.

[And, apparently... She isn't very good at small talk!!]

[challengesfate]

It's good to finally make your acquaintance, then.

[There's a distinct dip of quiet after that as Lucina...tries to take another forkful of mac and cheese. It's really, uh. Got an interesting consistency.]

Might I ask...if this is usually served as food where you are from? I can't help but notice how...bright the color is.

[immaculacies]

Mm.

[That's fine. They'll just eat in silence for a little bit. Manaka looks up again when Lucina asks that question, glancing to her face and then down to the plate of food in front of her.]

It isn't as common in the country I come from, but yes. It's eaten widely throughout the world. If you're worried about the color, don't worry. It's probably artificially enhanced.

[challengesfate]

Enhanced with what? I...don't think there's anything that can turn something this orange.

[And it doesn't taste like any orange-colored fruit either, it's definitely cheesy.]

[immaculacies]

Food dyes. They're usually derived from things like beetle shells and plant seeds.

[She's starting to get a picture of the environment Lucina comes from, just based on her reactions to the food in front of her... But she keeps going anyway.]

Because of top-down processing, color is an important part of how humans perceive taste. Brightening natural colors that already exist makes people think food is more flavorful. Though... I guess it's having an adverse effect for you, isn't it?

[challengesfate]

[...Okay, ew. Beetle shells are not something she wants to imagine on her food, but, guess who's going to stomach it anyway?]

It...it's already heavy and powerful, I don't think changing the color would intensify it further...

[immaculacies]

You wouldn't think that, but it's true. If the color was thinner and more yellowy, someone might think it has a sickly taste, even if its exactly the same aside from that.

[challengesfate]

I...have never given color in food much thought, beyond checking if produce was rotten. Is it similar to that in concept?

[immaculacies]

Yes, something like that. If you eat fresh fruit, don't you naturally gravitate toward the one with the most robust color?

[challengesfate]

That's one way to put it, I suppose...bruises usually dull the color of the fruit, and when it's bruised and rotted, it would make you sick to eat it.

[immaculacies]

Right. When I say that it makes people think the food taste better, I don't mean that they think that in a literal sense. It works on a subconscious level. Your perception of the food affects how you believe it tastes.

[challengesfate]

Hmm.

[This is kind of interesting, actually, but Lucina can't help but think someone like Laurent would get more out of this conversation than she would.]

Then...perhaps if I tried something like this, but it was a different color, it might be more palatable. Do I have it right?

[immaculacies]

It would still be heavy, so I don't know how much it would help, but it's entirely possible that you wouldn't find it so off-putting if its colors seemed more natural to you.

[challengesfate]

But there might be a way to make it lighter if the ingredients were a different color. Perhaps if a different noodle was used, or...the cheese wasn't so...gooey.

[immaculacies]

The noodles being so dense is what makes that food so high in energy. If you wanted to keep the same efficiency, but make it lighter on the stomach, then you would need to focus on the sauce. Probably by making it something thinner, or more...

[...]

Natural.

[challengesfate]

Oh...so, perhaps, if you started with the base of the sauce, and not...however this is made, then you would have something easier to stomach. And since it's...cheese, the base would be milk, wouldn't it?

[immaculacies]

To being with, cheese sauces usually have a milk base outside the cheese. Just reducing the amount of cheese added to the base would create a sauce that's thinner and less rich.

Of course, there are many other kinds of sauces that can be added to pasta. Some already use milk or cream as their base. I would stay that you should experiment yourself, but...

[Her eyes lift away from Lucina, in the direction of the kitchen. It's not...the best conditions to try making new foods for yourself.]

[challengesfate]

[Her own eyes follow Manaka's towards the direction of the kitchen.]

...Are...there not sufficient supplies for cooking in there?

[immaculacies]

No. If you're curious, I suggest you take a look for yourself.

[challengesfate]

Hm. I think I will.

[Watch her be utterly befuddled by freeze dried everything.]