........guys have you not been feeding him

this is not how you care for your pet clown head

I wanted to figure out what Aeryn's favorite foods were, so like an insane person, I stood in front of the market board for an hour reading through all the meal options. And now I'm going to ramble about food lore/headcanons. In excess.

It doesn't take Aeryn long to adapt to infrequent meals and a lifestyle of grazing, when possible, as a result of her adventuring lifestyle. In early ARR, she is too uncomfortable in her own skin to eat in public places, let alone among company, unless forced. (I suspect Mother Miounne would have some concerns about her perceived lack of nourishment and might occasionally do something about it.) As such, she develops a habit of keeping various edible foodstuffs on hand so she can eat on-the-go when hungry - or when reminded by others that she needs to eat.

Things she would keep stocked, both at "home" and while traveling: teas and coffees, various breads, dried fruit, nuts, and cheese - when she can get it.

Despite this preference, however, she will never turn down a free meal when offered. Aeryn doesn't know anything about herself as of game start, and that includes her favorite foods! Everything is new to her, and part of her quiet desperation to "find" herself includes figuring such things out as quickly as possible. As such, she has tried many, many things in her travels, enough to pinpoint she is a fan of meat-based stews, curries, and other predominantly rice-based dishes - typically anything hearty, warming, and (preferably) mildly spicy. She also hasn't yet met a form of popoto she doesn't enjoy. None of these are things she takes the time to make for herself, but she considers it a treat when she is able to indulge in meals like this prepared by others.

(Though she doesn't know it, this preference comes directly from her past life: such dishes as potatoes and stews would have often been prepared in bulk and served aboard the ship.)

She is most weak to (and might overindulge in) the following: sweet breads and pastries, coffee in any form, and tea with milk or cream.

Some of her favorite in-game foods:

Honey Croissant/Almond Cream Croissant

A couple silly food headcanons that have latched onto my brain since I put them in fic: honeyed sweetbread is a popular holiday treat in Gridania; and spiced sweetbreads/pastries are common in parts of Thanalan. (The scent of spice and baking bread is something Aeryn associates very heavily with Vesper Bay.) There are myriad other bread/pastry foods in-game she would like, but these two most closely resemble those I'd already written about.

Espresso con Panna

Any coffee beverage would suffice, but I imagine the first time Aeryn has espresso con panna, she would be delighted by the richness of the bitter/sweet flavor meld.

Chilled Popoto Soup

She's generally not a fan of soup at all. (She would quietly argue it's a beverage, not a meal, and that it's wrong to drink something with chopped up bits of stuff in it.) But the cream-based soup and the mesh of leek and popoto, well pureed, just works for her. I like to think of Thancred as the soup-making scion, and I imagine he would smirk and be pleased as pie to win her over with this particular meal. It becomes one of her favorite comfort meals, and she would like it both hot and cold.

La Noscean Toast

I imagine Baderon suggested this to Aeryn at some point, and she gladly accepted, thinking it would just be simple toast - maybe with some citrus jam from nearby Summerford. When she instead experienced for the first time what amounts to the Eorzean equivalent of French Toast, she was immediately obsessed. She makes a point of having this whenever she can stick around long enough in Limsa, because she finds it doesn't taste right anywhere else but at the Drowning Wench. (Baderon actually makes sure the cooks add orange zest to hers, because he knows how much she loves all things citrus.)

Thavnairian Chai/Masala Chai

Any latte-style tea (including Steppe Tea) is a favorite, but she especially likes the blend of spices in chai and considers it a treat to indulge.

Baguette and/or any leavened bread

It is not abnormal to see a half-eaten baguette poking out of her chocobo's saddlebag when Aeryn is on the go. Likewise, there are various forms of leavened breads available across Eorzea (of note the Crumpet and the Ishgardian Muffin) that I assume she would pack for her journeys and nosh on while traveling.

And a few honorable mentions, if not favorites:

Coffee Biscuit

Aeryn prefers pastries to cookies, but she does still love all things coffee. I headcanon she can't get this one frequently. (Maybe they're only common in one specific area she doesn't visit as frequently.) She would also prefer a stronger coffee flavor in them compared to how they are usually made.

Papanasi

I had never heard of this, but the description sounds AMAZING, and I assume Aeryn would probably love it as it encompasses quite a few of her favorite things.

Walnut Bread

The perfect travel snack, packed with nuts and just a hint of sweetness. Again, my daughter is weak to her sweet carbs.

And just in case all of the above wasn't obsessive enough, I also skimmed through the ingredients list. A few favorite foodstuffs that are labeled as crafting ingredients include:

Cheese. Mostly those of a milder flavor that won't stink up her bag. She will pack wedges of cheese to enjoy with her bread and fruit and thankfully eats through it quickly enough that it doesn't spoil. A specific favorite would be cream cheese, which she would enjoy during brief periods of rest where she can acquire it.

Oranges. I do think Aeryn is more inclined to eating dried fruits, since they travel better and tend to be less messy. That said, I think she fell in love with the various citrus fruits she was first introduced to in La Noscea, and despite being messy, they travel a bit better than some other fruits. She would likely carry oranges with her when possible and would try other citrus along her journeys, like lemons, limes, and persimmons.

Nuts. I mentioned this above, and almonds are the only one I can think of that she might keep on hand and actually snack on. But she would try to ensure she always had some form of crunchy protein on hand.

That's it! That's the food lore. \o/

Thanks for reading!

I saw one of your Tensura headcanons from your post, so for a headcanon monster: how about slimes? Or maybe you could do a (personal) headcanon of Rimuru Tempest?

Can you be more specific? Or do you just want hc about slimes in general?

Because in general, i feel like they're kinda like what would happen if a slime mold decided to be a glob instead of spreading out. As such, sentience in the same way we view it is rare--though it canonically happens enough that no one is.. well they ARE surprised, but mostly that one did something with it other than going "i will now eat everything". Because when your whole body is technically your brain while also being your stomach, you have some limited options on what you think about at lower power levels. Which is partially why Rimuru is kind of scoffed at. At best, absolute best, a sentient slime would probably consume, divide, repeat, until eaten by something else. They're considered a food in some cases by other monsters-- so a slime being in charge is wild. It'd be like if you had a marimo ball as mayor, as far as most people are concerned.

That said, slimes are probably just as unknowable odd as molds and fungi irl. So, given enough time and magicules, you could probably get one able to communicate with other monsters or humans [if panic doesn't happen], and eventually it wouldn't surprise me if one kinda like rimuru happened. Not the power level, naturally, but one that's had nothing to do but soak up magicules and grow? Just building a super dense body that sparks a Thought? Totally possible. And assuming it doesn't go mad with realization of the fact it's now sentient and alone, i could see it having similar issues being taken seriously. Which is interesting because i imagine Tempest would be the only place, initially, where they'd be able to live. Because its possible Rimuru could have just been a naturally sentient slime that spawned from Valdora's magicules and slowly developed a personality. But because his reincarnation thing plopped his personality into a body that is 100% brain cells technically, he's rolling at hyper speed. And i highly doubt Rimuru would be unaware of this-- he's him, looking into what's known about slimes is a thing he'd do. Partially to know about himself and partially just in case theres some that'd like to be part of the party. Also because he's had bits chopped off and he'd want to know if those could accidentally become people if he didn't absorb them. He took biology in school, for all he knows his clone trick could = mitosis.

I'm rambling. My point was that Rimuru would be down to vaguely adopt any sentient slimes that wandered/spawned in Tempest due to magicule levels, provided that they were chill. Just because i like the idea of him doubling down on the teaching thing, while also getting a better read on just how strong a basic slime can actually be. Helps him bullshit that he's a normal slime when he knows how much power he can actually use. Also bc i like the mental image of him having this family of slimes that attached to him emotionally because him naming them/mentally communicating with them let them become more than their desire to Consume. Just so he's got some slime family.

Main Rimuru headcanon re: being a slime is largely that he keeps having... weird urges. Like, he was born with his human personality from the jump, so he never really got to just go "as a slime, this means i'm hungry, this means i need moisture" in context of his new body. Another reason he looks into slimes, really. Because sure he'll have a drink or food--he doesn't technically need it in the same way--but its not... "i'm thirsty/hungry" it's "i need to consume". Because his mass increases, decreases, and alters based on what he's doing with it-- the density of his ball form is higher than his Shizu-like form, for example, and he's more likely to want to consume in that form. Because in ball form he can just vibe until something takes some material off. So he gets weird urges to engulf things he already analyzed, for example. Or he'll look at a deer thing and wanna go blob on it, but the human part of him says no. I also imagine a lot of things get stuck to him that he has to wash off, when in ball form. Because while he's not intrinsically sticky, things are and its not like he'd care if its like. dust or a leaf, until it got gross to feel. Ranga has shed on this poor man so much. Most the time he can just absorb it, but when he's feeling particularly gross he just lives in a nice warm tub for a while. I also think he's probably had the urge to divide at some point, like after a huge festival meal and biologically his body went "oh, we're large enough to become smaller" and he sat there not knowing what that feeling was because he'd never ran through the slime paces properly. I think he'd ask Great Sage wtf the feeling was and then have a Crisis about it before going "no thank you body, i have a country to run i do NOT have time to be a dad" and just. treats the urge with the sort of beleaguered annoyance as someone having their period. "This again? I said no-" I feel like he'd only divide if he knew 1000% for certain it'd not just be a 1:1 clone of himself and its own person. Because he can handle other things, but he's read and watched enough things to know one of them would be an evil twin and he doesn't want it to be him. Or fight himself because he knows himself. He also doesn't know if fully dividing--not just making a dummy clone--would copy his skills. It's one thing to be a weapon of mass destruction, its another to purposely make one whenever you've eaten too much bbq. That said i think this means he's just. Gathering mass. So if you weighed him it'd be.. surprising. He's just sitting here becoming denser than a poorly made poundcake and Shion yeeting him in ball form could be a valid way to breech a castle wall.

Echoes of the Past: Day 10, Cuisine

Dema is... not a good cook.  She’s essentially useless in the kitchen, and with Asra being a rather adept cook who can literally make a decent meal out of anything (personal headcanon), she never learned.  This failing created all sorts of mistakes and one or two small fires once Asra left during the plague.  Post plague, when Asra leaves, she relies on food stalls in the market and Artemis + Selasi for meals.

Despite frequently forgetting to eat when she’s hypomanic/manic, she very much likes food and will try pretty much anything once.  Moderately spicy things are among her favorites, and she doesn’t mind pushing herself to try something very spicy every now and then.  She developed a bit of a drinking problem while in school, and never really kicked it after she moved to Vesuvia.  The Plague didn’t help.  That addiction stuck with her even after she was brought back from the dead.

Excerpt from “Leaden Trumpets Spit the Soot of Power”

Four years ago.  January.

“It's gauche.”

“Have you ever met Lucio?  Of course, it's gauche.  Everything about him is gauche.”

“Well, okay, this is extra gauche.”  I shook the rinse water from the kale I had picked earlier and flipped the leaves over to cut out the toughest parts of the ribs.  Asra had a trick of caramelizing the greens with onions that I hadn't quite figured out yet, but the batch I fixed the night before had been closer to his.  If I defined closer as merely edible.  Maybe I'd get the proportions of onion and garlic right this time.  Or the level of heat.  Or any of the other possible variables.

“But you'll still come with me, right?”

Julian - even more useless than I am in the kitchen - leaned against the counter, watching me roll the leaves and chop them into wide strips.  Even with half the city dead or dying, the Count was still planning to host a multi-night masquerade for his birthday.  And apparently, the Count insisted on Julian's attendance.

“It just doesn't seem right.”  I tossed a handful of the kale into the skillet and jumped back as the grease crackled and splattered everywhere.  Ah well.  At least I had managed to saute the onions and garlic instead of burning them.  Progress.  “Besides, how will he even know if you're there?  Everyone's in masks and there are a lot of people.  Just spin some lie about missing him if he asks later.”

“He'll know.”

“Why's he so obsessed with you?”  I grabbed a pinch of salt from the cellar by the stove and sprinkled it over the greens.  I hadn't cooked them with salt last night and adding it at the table hadn't made them taste right.  The baker told me this morning that when you add the salt does matter, as it draws water out of the vegetables and changes how they actually cook.  “If someone cut off my arm, I probably wouldn't much care to see them again.”

“I didn't actually cut off his arm.  Hell, they, uh, still barely trusted me to carry off amputated limbs.”

“I stand corrected.  If someone walked off with my arm that had just been . . . Good lord, this conversation got weird.”

Julian groaned and covered his face with his hands.  “We had, um, a thing for a while.  I was young and stupid, and really, he wasn’t bad to me . . .”

“Seriously?”

Julian nods at me, eyelids flickering with apprehension.

“Okay, so the Count is an ex-lover from back when you were both mercenaries, and he’s decided he’s interested in you again?”

“Didn’t quite know if or how to tell you.  Um, I mean, I'm not interested in him, not now, ugh . . .”

“Should I be jealous and threatened?”  I reach up and touch his chin.  Nothing to be gained from jumping at the shadow of each former lover.  We could play at that game for a long time between the two of us.  “I mean, I can fake it if you want.”  

A huge, relieved sigh leaves Julian’s chest, and I feel his lips press against the top of my head.  “Sorry.  I should have told you before; it’s just an overwhelming amount of awkward, you know, with Lu being well, Lu.  But I'd still rather not piss him off.”

“And you need me there because -?  I’m not mad at you.  I just really don’t think he should be throwing a party right now.”

“Can't I just want to see you in a pretty dress?”  He looped an arm around my waist, spun me away from the stove, and dipped me back.  “And if I'm dancing I'd much rather dance with you.”

“So you need me to come to keep you safe from the big scary count?”

Julian affected a pout.  “Pretty please.”

“Oh, all right.  I'll go.”

He laughed and picked me up again, kissing each of my cheeks, then my mouth.  I smacked him with a wooden spatula until he put me down.  The greens had already started to burn.  I push them around with the spatula, then grab a towel that’s already been scorched multiple times to lift them off the heat.  Too late.  Probably still edible though if I'm careful to leave the charred bits in the skillet.

At least the cornbread hadn’t burned.  And it actually rose this time, thanks to some fresh baking powder that Selasi had slipped me with a laugh when I complained to him that I could have used my last attempt as a lethal weapon.  With that improvement and a bit of goat cheese, I’d traded eggs for, the meal was almost worth eating.  Not that Julian has ever complained. 

“I do have something I can wear.  It's just, maybe a bit daring.”

“Oho?  I like the sound of that.”  He folded his hands under his chin and stared intently across the table at me.  “Can I see?”

“That's actually a good idea.”

“I had a good idea?”

“Yes, I should make sure it still fits.”  I glanced away and then looked back at Julian with half-lidded eyes.  “And it's a bit easier to get into with two people.  Well, maybe not easier.  More fun.”

“Now, I really like the sound of this.”

“Of course you do.  Lech.”