LAST EDITED ON Sep-28-20 AT 00:49 AM (EDT)
 

Sakuya had just taken the special items she'd made out of the oven and set them aside on the counter to cool when the sisters wandered in.

"It smells amazing in here," Flandre declared. "What's for dinner?"

"We'll be having pot-au-feu this evening," Sakuya replied, smiling.

"Oh, good choice on a rainy night," Remilia said. Then, noticing the sheet pan Sakuya had just put on the counter, she approached and peered at what lay on it. "What's this? Some kind of... crisps?"

"It's a delicacy from Meiling's homeland," Sakuya explained. "They're called—"

Before she could get the name out, Remilia had darted out a hand, snagged one of the small orange-brown wafers from the pan, and popped it into her mouth with a crunch.

"—flaming fire flakes," Sakuya finished.

Remilia chewed judiciously, swallowed, and stood there for a moment in thought. Her face went slowly red, but her expression remained neutrally thoughtful, as if nothing odd were happening.

"Hmm," she said nonchalantly. "Interesting flavor. A trifle unsophisticated, perhaps, but... interesting."

With that, she went casually to the icebox, opened it, and started looking around inside. The rummaging became markedly less casual after a few moments, ramping up to what sounded like a frantic search, and then Remilia's voice, no longer nonchalant but slightly panicky, came from within: "Sakuyaaaaa there is no milk in here~!"

Barely suppressing laughter, Sakuya took out The World, then presented the mistress of the house with a pint bottle of milk instantly retrieved from the siege cellar. Its contents disappeared almost as quickly as the bottle itself had arrived.

Meiling appeared in the doorway then, and as she entered the kitchen, she got the distinct impression that she had missed a moment, though there was no hard evidence of it now; just the reddened and slightly-out-of-sorts look on Remilia's face as she stood there with an empty milk bottle in hand, and the way both Sakuya and Flandre were striving valiantly not to laugh.

"Uh... what'd I miss?" Meiling wondered. Then, noticing the pan, she brightened with delight. "Are those flaming fire flakes?! Aw, Sakuya." She swept the maid up in a bear hug and bussed her noisily on the mouth, then put her down and said apologetically to Remilia, "Uh, sorry for the PDA, but best if I do that before I eat these things."

"I quite understand," Remilia replied.

Ah, weapons grade snack food is always entertaining. For the viewers anyway.

I am sort of hopeful this hints at a bit of Meiling's backstory now, because if her fondness for Fire Nation food means what it think it does it would explain why I keep getting 'earth bender' vibes from her.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "This Space For Rent."

>Ah, weapons grade snack food is always entertaining. For the viewers
>anyway.
>
>I am sort of hopeful this hints at a bit of Meiling's backstory now,
>because if her fondness for Fire Nation food means what it think it
>does it would explain why I keep getting 'earth bender' vibes from
>her.

This would also neatly explain the whole "technically I'm not a woman" bit, too.

Country dragon indeed.

Heh-heh-heh.

While cinnamon candies aren't my favorite, one carefully enjoyed now and then is nice.

I'm surprised she went straight for the milk. While that does work better than basically anything, given that Remilia has been isolated from the world since the early 19th century at the latest you'd think she had no experience with capsaicin spiced food.

Well, she's a noble so she probably would have experience with pepper. Just not nearly so spicy, given how expensive it was.

I'd expect her to go straight for water to try and quench the burn, and only then find out it didn't work or make it worse.

The Scarlet family's resources are clearly vast, her father demonstrably well traveled, and her mother involved with alchemy rather deeply. It seems quite possible that a potent pepper plant or two existed in the mansion for culinary or curiosity purposes, and that a younger Remilia might have eaten one of its oddly pretty fruits, with all the expected aftermath.

Or perhaps G prepared something spicy at some point during his stay and we just didn't witness it because the potency and portion weren't of comedic magnitude, but that experience still taught Remilia the value of milk.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "This Space For Rent."

Also, she likes milk, and who drinks straight water? Plebs, that's who.

;)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Also, she likes milk, and who drinks straight water? Plebs, that's
>who.
>
>;)

Not to be pedantic, but there's also the fact that milk works better at clearing away the capsaicin. Remilia having lived as long as she has would probable know this.

(Can you believe I just had to add "capsaicin" to my spell checker's dictionary? Ugh. I hate having to restart from a fresh install of Windows. The computer may run smoother, but damn it all, those personal touches are all gone!)

Actually, she could just like "spicy" food anyway! There's a type of chilli pepper called the Espelette that's very common in the cuisine of southern France and the Basque region, especially in piperade (Basque vegetable soup), and cayenne pepper is moderately common in French cuisine too. The thing is, Espelette and Cayenne peppers are really not that spicy in the grand scheme of things, so being familiar with those could lull her into a false sense of security about just how much spicy food she could handle. =]

I am a font of information and some of it is even useful. =]

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

They can't have been all that strong; after that last line, she didn't cough and puff out a little cloud of smoke.

At least, that's what I felt like that one time I accidentally ordered chicken in chilli honey sauce. Tasty, but... <flames shoot from ears>

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

I imagined Remilia's guard metwr starting to drop as soon as she ate one of the fire flakes. It was blinking by the time she cried out to Sakuya for help.