[Gabe Alim]

Gabe was still not entirely sure how he got shunted into this role. That was a lie. He knew exactly how he got shunted into this role. He just couldn’t entirely believe it. One of his contact’s neighbor’s kid’s elementary school was having a party, and another contact’s friend’s aunt’s sister in law was actually the baker in charge of making sweets for an event. And somehow in all this mix and mash chaos, he was revealed to have cooked a couple of times here and there and was deemed good enough to help the baker in dire need of it. And he still wasn’t over that.

Now he was standing there adjacent to another person both watching the backer shuffle about preparing the setup for them. “This should be everything. You said you know how to make cake pops right?” she turned around addressing them with a particular strain in her voice only brought on by the desperation of the situation. Gabe bit back the fact that he had distinctly said he knew how to make a cake— not cake pops, and just nodded his head. The baker nodded back and looked the tiniest bit relieved. “Perfect! Then I’ll leave you two to it, alright? Thank you so much again!” and with that, the baker was out the door to another kitchen to work on Arceus knew what. Gabe knew what— as her thoughts still radiated in the air after the fact— but he didn’t care too much what.

Slowly rubbing his forehead, he looked sideways at the young woman he was working with, only then fully registering her there. “Ah, sorry, I don’t think I caught your name?” he ask-stated. “Call me Gabe.”

---

Kh|qXlgCp_Cooking (+9)  , Words: 287
Sonia Antoni

Instructions
Posts must be at least 100 words to qualify as a post. Each character present in the thread must post at least four (4) times to meet the minimum requirements for the job. You must successfully complete at least one batch of goods or large baked good. Your Cooking skill can help you succeed on rolls.

You will not receive rewards until you close the thread. Chosen Task: make a batch of decorated cake pops [very hard].

Rewards: 50 Pen + 25 additional Pen for each rank in difficulty (125 Pen for very hard), 1 Rare Candy, and +1 skill point in Cooking per level of difficulty (+4 points for very hard). Also earn + 25 additional Pen per random event. For each post interval past the minimum [8, 12, etc], earn an extra 50 Pen and 2 Rare Candies.

[Sonia Antoni]

So, Sonia hadn't expected this anymore than Gabe. Sonia had just come here to ask about getting a batch of cupcakes done next week for a coworkers birthday party. It was fine that they were booked, Sonia could probably do them herself and said as such. But then the girl behind the counter had exclaimed, asking if she knew how to bake. And yes she could! She wasn't the most professional at it, didn't have all the tools a proper bakery did but she totally could do it.

And that was how her and Prince had ended up in the back with the request to make a bunch of cake pops that of course she would get paid for it. The kitchen was quite nice actually, and the head baker was setting everything out for them (as someone else had been roped into this she guessed) and then asked if they knew what to do.

Sonia did actually, so she nodded. And then the baker was leaving the two strangers together and Sonia couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Was she really that desperate for these cake pops that she brought in the first two relatively qualified people they found? Sonia shook her head and gave a muted sigh. This person with her was interesting though, his mind felt much different, more open than any other mind she had encountered before. And there was a certain.... power to it?

"My name is Sonia, and this is Prince." Sonia introduced to them, not really masking the fact that she was a psychic. Why bother anymore? She had found that people were a lot more accepting here, and it was a much easier way of communicating. She tilted her head at this Gabe person.

"So, how would you like to get started on this? I've made a few batches of cake pops before, but not anything on this level." She looked about the kitchen again, these were some good ingredients too. "I think we should start with the cakes themselves if they haven't been made yet as they'll need time to cool."

---

Active Party
Prince, Ralts, Lvl 10
Word Count = 350
9mF4VAOGp_ + 10 Cooking

[Connor Tavarin]

Nothing happened!

All rolls were passed.

Gabe Alim


Despite the misunderstanding and rocky start to this endeavor, the ingredients nearby seemed to be of outstanding quality. There was hope yet!

A random event has occurred!

What will you do?

Sonia Antoni

Except...where were the pans specifically for making the cake pops? You two weren't really given a proper tour of the entire kitchen...time to look for appropriate pans.

[Gabe Alim]

The reverberations of Sonia’s psychic power radiated out into words that resonated in Gabe’s mind, and for a hot second, he froze. Every hair on his body stood on end, and he felt the distinct need to immediately bolt out of the space. But then… as she kept talking mentioning the work and how to tackle it, the tension slowly receded. Ah, ah ok. Ok. This was, yes this was fine. This was…. this was not fine, but he was going to pretend it was fine and try and keep as many stray thoughts under control as possible.

“Nice to meet you… Sonia… Prince.” Perhaps he should have released one of his own Pokemon, but they were all stupidly big and questionable when it came to this kind of delicate stuff with the sole exception of a few he didn’t actually have right now.

In the meantime, Gabe could actually bother to focus on this cake issue. “Right…” he answered Sonia’s words aloud. Looking at the numerous ingredients all laid out, he was pretty sure he could at least bake a regular cake and then figure out what needed to go into pops after the fact. “Do you think we’ll need more than one cake?”  Gabe slowly shifted to grab his phone and search for a quick cake pop recipe. Checking what was there against what was laid out for them, he hummed softly.“…We should probably make sure we can find everything first before anything…” Gabe glanced up and around the kitchen again. Starting to walk around, he began opening and checking cabinets to be reasonably sure of what was there before pulling down a few of the bigger mixing bowls to get started with. 

---

293 words.

I1gAagRUp_ +10 Cooking

[Sonia Antoni]

Wait, there was a key thing missing. Where were the pans? Or the moulds? Just how did they usually make cake pops here? Sonia inhaled, filling her cheeks as she looked about the kitchen before letting the breath out slowly. "I'm pretty sure we'll need more than just one. Depends on how much we want to be overachievers." There was a soft giggle as Sonia looked about the equipment laid out. Maybe she just hadn't noticed the pans yet and they wre under her nose?

Then, there was a big red flag. Arceus, where was her manners?!

"Oh no! I'm so sorry! How rude of me!" She berated herself quickly, squishing her cheeks at her behavior. "I'm a mute." She quickly spun on her heel to look at Gabe as she explained. "So I can't speak out loud. Are you familiar with psychics? I am one, and I have made it a habit to use my telepathy regularly as it's convenient. But if it makes you uncomfortable, I can just use my phone. I have a text to speech app I can use instead." She finished her explanation, waiting for his preference while she instead looked for the pans needed.

Maybe under the counter is where'd she find them? She'd take any cake pan at this point. Or if they had the actual cake pop moulds where they just poured the batter in and baked them, that would be great. Gabe was already working on the batter right? She was pretty sure that is what she saw him doing.

Word Count = 259
LIjQqDtKp_ + 10 cooking skill

[Jenesis]

A random event has occurred!

What will you do?

Gabe Alim

You pull out a lot of pots and pans and trays and molds and then realize none of them are actually what you're looking for.

Nothing happened!

All rolls were passed.

Sonia Antoni

But hey, at least you found the right cake pop molds!

[Gabe Alim]

More than one cake. More than one cake. Gabe guessed it was feeble considering they had a full oven rather than a half. They didn’t need two different temperatures if they made the same cake twice or even three times depending on the cake pans they used.

Speaking of which, all of these bowls looked far too small for the batter they were going to use. Frowning, he searched a little harder but didn’t find anything near substantial enough. Pulling down a few of the smaller ones for the things that were small enough to be mixed together in those sorts of things, he continued to search for a big mixing bowl.

…Actually, come to think of it. He bet this place had an industrial mixer somewhere, and he bet that was where the bowl also was. Now where the fuck was it?

Gabe stopped as Sonia spoke up again. Yellow eyes flickered sideways to her and stayed there. As she explained what she was and how she was, Gabe felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end again. “Ah it’s fine,” he smiled after a moment despite the soft pounding in his chest as he tried to clear his mind. “If it’s for ease of communication, I can get behind that…. That said, do you see an industrial mixer around? Maybe with a bowl attached?”

---

Words: 234
6FUMlBDkp_

[Sonia Antoni]

Alright! She had the molds, so now they had options! It was just a matter of seeing how Gabe was doing to see if they could start making batter. Then they had to decide how they wanted to do them. With the molds, they could just pour some batter in, bake them and then all they had to do was decorate them. Or if they made full cakes and cooked them, they could then be broken up, mixed with frosting and after they had chilled dip in chocolate and decorate!

And now for Gabe. He seemed alright with how she was speaking to him, though he seemed a little tense about something. She didn't want to dig too far and invade his space, but felt like reassuring him anyway. "I'm not going to hear your thoughts, even like this unless you start thinking very loud or repetitive. As for the mixer..." Sonia bit her lip. An industrial sized mixer, preferably with a bowl though Sonia didn't imagine that one would be without it's bowl unless it was getting washed.

Considering it's size, and need for a power outlet. "It should be against a wall, I think it's over here." Sonia gestured beside her. It wouldn't make sense to have it too far from the ovens or the prep stations, moving one of those bowls filled with batter must not be the easiest thing to move. They could hold how much batter again? So Sonia checked the machines against the wall, going over what was what.

---

Word Count = 255
OtfPu8ZPp_ + 10 Cooking

[bone]

Nothing happened!

All rolls were passed.

Sonia Antoni Gabe Alim

Finally, you found something in one try! Sure, that something was huge and literally bolted to the wall, but baby steps.

Now for the fun part: mixing the frick outta these c'pops.

[Gabe Alim]

Gabe felt the corners of his lips twitch a little at Sonia’s words. Either she was lying, or she was lucky, and he couldn’t decide which he believed. For now, though, he’d go with the latter. At least for the both of them, whether she knew it or not, it was a two way street.

For now, though, Gabe needed to pay attention. His attention flickered to the wall, and sure enough as he looked along it, he found it. A slow breath drew in and out of him. Ah good this was going to make making a lot of these easier. They just needed a decent recipe, and they were golden. Well, and to make sure that they had all the other food-stuff items, but Gabe wasn’t as worried about those. Surely a chef would keep all the cold stuff in the fridge and all the noncold stuff in the pantry.

His eyes dropped to the molds that Sonia had and then raised to her right after. “Know how to make anything from scratch?” Gabe sked already shifting to grab his phone and dig up a recipe if not. They could size up whatever kitchen one they had and go from there, he guessed.

Wods: 209
ieOSl9Gzp_

[Sonia Antoni]

Alright! Just like she thought, the mixer was right there against the wall. How it had been missed before, she wasn't totally sure. But that was a pretty damn big bowl, she had never made that large of a batch of anything before. That was actually somewhat intimidating. Had she even made enough cake batter in her entire life to fill that bowl?

"I could probably fit in that bowl." Sonia couldn't help the thought, still raising her eyebrows at the sheer size of it.

"I know a recipe off by heart." The blonde admitted, leaning her elbows on the counter as she began trying to do the math. "But never such a large amount so that will be a challenge." She already had to double the recipe to make a two layer cake. But it would probably be easiest to use the base recipe. She still had her notepad right? Yes, she did!

"Okay, dry ingredients. One and a half cups flour, one cup sugar, one and three quarters of a teaspoon of baking powder. Then half a cup of butter, two eggs, two teaspoons vanilla, and half a cup of milk." She wrote out the measurements before looking at just what they had to work with. Which was a much bigger bowl, and much bigger supplies of ingredients. And if they scaled the recipe up wrong, they could ruin the batter and have it not come out right.

No pressure huh?

She began scribbling down on the pad as well. "One pound of flour is about three and one third cups of flour. One pound of sugar is about two cups. And an 8oz container of baking powder is about..... 47 teaspoons?" The girl blinked rapidly before groaning and letting her forehead fall onto one of her arms. "Too much math....."

Words = 303
b2ccxZobp_ + 11 Cooking

[bone]

Nothing happened!

All rolls were passed.

Gabe Alim

You've got this kitchen scouted out so well, you might as well call it your mind palace. No chance you'll ever lose track of where you are now! As Sonia rattles off ingredients and denominations, it should be trivial for you to get the right ingredients in place.

A random event has occurred!

What will you do?

Sonia Antoni

Meanwhile, you're dying of an awful math-headache. Are you underestimating? Overestimating? At this point, you're not even sure! If you keep mathing at this rate, your pad's gonna be full of frustrated scribbling before you know it!

[Gabe Alim]

Oh? Oh. Gabe blinked a little surprised by Sonia’s confidence. Putting his phone away again, he straightened. “Want to walk me through it, then?” he asked. As she started to write down the measurement of ingredients, Gabe set about looking for those ingredients. They weren’t as hard to find now that he had been up and down this damn kitchen a couple of times. Flour, sugar, and baking powder were in the pantry. Butter, eggs, and milk were in the refrigerator. It took him a hot second to find where the vanilla was again, but Gabe quickly recovered from that again.

Gabe paused, however, as Sonia seemed to be struggling on calculating the numbers. “Ah, hang on, I can check,” he spoke up, fishing out his phone and Chuugle searching a good enough conversion system. “Can you read off the base again? What are we scaling it up to?” After that was answered, he quickly punched in the numbers and read off the new ones. “That should be right…” Chuugle, don’t let him down now. “So what do we do next? Mix dry ingredients or wet ones?” That was kind of where all of baking started if he remembered right.

Words: 189

8gK10zy8p_