Yennefer of Vengerberg (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tellmehowstuffworks) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2022-07-11 10:02 am
tellmehowstuffworks) wrote in fandomhigh2022-07-11 10:02 am
Coping with the Non-Modern World, Monday Period 5
Once her students had assembled this week, Yennefer told them, "Once you have identified what you absolutely cannot live without, or what is going to make you enough money to make your life at least tolerable in your home reality, you need to consider the steps necessary to recreate it. For example, Belle mentioned Pop-Tarts last week, which at first I brushed off as merely a hand pie, simple to recreate."
Yennefer set a box of Pop-Tarts on her desk and opened it, then opened one of the packets inside it and extracted a single pastry. "For those of you who don't know, this is a Pop-Tart," she said. "Strawberry flavor, although I must admit I was astonished when I read the ingredients to learn that there are, in fact, real strawberries in it. As you can see, it is currently quite pale; you need to warm it in a toaster to finish cooking it, although many people do eat them in this state for convenience. So. How do you make these? You need flour, fruit, sugar, some kind of fat," she said ticking these things off on her fingers. "If your world doesn't have electricity, you can toast it over a fire; perhaps crafting some sort of basket on a stick for the purpose. Seems simple enough. But sugar has been, in some places and times, a luxury item, and isn't the real point of the Pop-Tart its convenience? These little shiny packets, how are you going to recreate those? What can you use instead to preserve your approximation of a Pop-Tart for later use? And that is leaving aside, of course, how unfair it is that now you have to do all of this yourself rather than popping down to the store to pick up a box.
"This week I want you to think through the steps necessary to recreate the thing you'd miss most about this world if you had to go home, and what you might need to work around or do further research on in order to be prepared. Some things, of course, are going to be rather more complicated than Pop-Tarts; some might be less. Where do you find surprising stumbling blocks such as, 'Wait, what is this stuff,'" Yennefer held up a Pop-Tart packet, "'anyway?' Let's discuss."
Yennefer set a box of Pop-Tarts on her desk and opened it, then opened one of the packets inside it and extracted a single pastry. "For those of you who don't know, this is a Pop-Tart," she said. "Strawberry flavor, although I must admit I was astonished when I read the ingredients to learn that there are, in fact, real strawberries in it. As you can see, it is currently quite pale; you need to warm it in a toaster to finish cooking it, although many people do eat them in this state for convenience. So. How do you make these? You need flour, fruit, sugar, some kind of fat," she said ticking these things off on her fingers. "If your world doesn't have electricity, you can toast it over a fire; perhaps crafting some sort of basket on a stick for the purpose. Seems simple enough. But sugar has been, in some places and times, a luxury item, and isn't the real point of the Pop-Tart its convenience? These little shiny packets, how are you going to recreate those? What can you use instead to preserve your approximation of a Pop-Tart for later use? And that is leaving aside, of course, how unfair it is that now you have to do all of this yourself rather than popping down to the store to pick up a box.
"This week I want you to think through the steps necessary to recreate the thing you'd miss most about this world if you had to go home, and what you might need to work around or do further research on in order to be prepared. Some things, of course, are going to be rather more complicated than Pop-Tarts; some might be less. Where do you find surprising stumbling blocks such as, 'Wait, what is this stuff,'" Yennefer held up a Pop-Tart packet, "'anyway?' Let's discuss."
Re: Discuss!
There was a grumpy older sorcerer with murderous tendencies in her future who would certainly make an effort if asked.
Re: Discuss!
His last month in Fillory before getting to Fandom had been an extra couple levels of Hell, and not just because Margo had been MIA.
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"Oh. And that happened in your world? I'm so sorry!"
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"Magic couldn't help with the famine?"
Re: Discuss!
His sordid past growing up on a farm, yes.
Re: Discuss!