First Stream Preparations. Sazzy the helpful ? assistant

The first thing we had on our list was to get permission from Margret and Jack. Surprisingly, both of them were pretty lax about it. Then came gathering information about the background of the ingredients. This ranged from their cultural influence, to the reasons behind their names and how they were used in day to day life.

An example was the mud that we used. It was discovered by an ancestor that had gone digging in river bed soil for treasure, was left abandoned in the sun in his search, and then taken back when its color change had been noted. It was said that this was a humble gift from god, a big stroke of luck, or even a fortune favors the fool situation. The background for this ingredient was incredibly messy, considering its founder was a treasure chaser with a horrible history of trying to gather money through both white, gray and black methods. Even this ingredient was discovered only because he thought it would produce gold, and then ate it out of frustration.

Then after he died, people began to adopt mud into their cuisine considering it was one of the few ingredients nearby that was not naturally poisonous. But since the rate at which mud collects in the river is slow, its dishes were more often associated with luxury, festivals, or with food-loving children.

Through Jenny's family, I managed to get several short interviews with other villagers. There were a myriad of interesting and unique backstories and folklore behind everything.

Rain powder was discovered by a man who had ingested too much poison and went insane, chewing on branches and trees. One day someone had discovered him eating the red berries, a notorious poison. But he was alive. In one hand was the berries, on the other was rain powder bark with a large bite taken out of it. From then on, rain powder barks' use in cuisine skyrocketed, and since the tree was an incredibly common tree on the planet, it became a staple ingredient in food.

The story of the green berries was the exact opposite. In fact, it was even connected to the original discoverer of mud. Due to his previous luck of finding mud, he switched profession from a treasure hunter to a scavenger. He would dig up tree roots, bite into tree trunks, and cook every animal on site. One day, he discovered that large animals occasionally ate green berries.

Convinced that God had favored him, he broke off an entire branch and brought it home. There, he passed away from poisoning due to ingesting too many green berries. But his servant, who he often bullied by using him as a tester for poison, was fine after only a few berries. That was how the knowledge that overconsumption of green berries leads to poisoning came about.

[I guess his favor ran out.]

Sazzy commented as she read the notes I had taken from the interviews.

[These stories would certainly be good to insert in your livestream while cooking. Except for the one about mud. Since it's a rare resource it might be better to not mention it for now. Besides, the red mudcakes take quite a while to make so it may be too time consuming for the first livestream. For the information regarding religion, it might be better to lightly touch on it but not mention too much. Religion has always been a sensitive topic so if you see any comments about it, it would be best to ignore them. It's not like we are in any position to comment about anyone's religion anyway.]

Sazzy stood up from her seat and stretched.

[For a brief introduction into an ethnic group's culture, this amount of information is actually quite decent.]

Opening the counter drawer, she took out a small round device.

[Remember I mentioned that Jolt.kek has taste sharing software! While you were busy with the interviews, I ordered some equipment for us! This is a drone camera that will allow the audience to virtually share the space with you. We can set its boundaries so it only shows the kitchen and not the living room. Furthermore, if you look to your left, you will see the taste analyzer machine.]

On my left, right on top of the table, was what looked to be a circular mat.

[When you put your food there, a small little analyzer will come out from the little red corner of the mat and digitalize your food. This will totally dematerialize the food though so it's recommended to make two servings, one for visual and one for tasting.]

Pulling up her personal terminal, she went to the Jolt.kek page.

[I have already applied for a creator's account for Jolt.kek as well as filled in all the appropriate information. I have also analyzed the naming styles of popular and trending food videos. But, in all honesty, I don't think they are appropriate for the type of livestream we plan to do, so we still have to think of a title. Also, I should probably explain about the two main types of cooking livestreams that are popular on Jolt.kek.]

Sazzy returned the drone camera to the drawer and leaned over to show me her personal terminal.

[The first main types are restaurant type livestreams, where people who have good cooking skills cook a large number of dishes or a set of dishes, just like a restaurant, and serve them to the viewers in the stream. They sometimes include performances mixed in with cooking, and generally serve the audience.]

[Since the taste sharing function is only limited to livestreams, people usually treat these livestreams as a visit to an actual restaurant. Some streamers even take orders for the next stream using either popularity votes or volt votes. The audience can give 'volts' in exchange for real money, and there is even a leaderboard of people who give volts to streamers, so some streamers will prioritize those who give volts over others.]

[The second main type of livestreams are atmosphere cooking livestreams, where the most popular type is dating cooking livestreams. The streamers lead the viewers through a storyline that involves cooking, usually following common romance tropes like 'dating a chef' or 'dating a celebrity that cooks for me' and the like. The second most popular type would be comfort cooking livestreams, which sometimes overlap with dating livestreams. But the streamer can roleplay as either the viewer's significant other or even their parents. ]

[Both types of livestreams aren't really suitable for us. So we have to build up our branding from scratch. Of course there are other types of streams that don't follow these styles. However, they focus more on being entertaining than cooking so we can't really base our streams off them either.]

Glancing at the exotic thumbnails and titles of the livestreams, one streamer caught my attention.

With the title ""Crab vs Lobster! Whoever loses, becomes dinner!", the thumbnail was filled with red text and exclamation marks. One crab and one lobster seemed to be having a facedown. And in the corner was a person with a hungry expression, slightly drooling while looking over their fight.

Clicking into the stream, the first thing that caught my eye was that the person seemed a little strange. He almost looked kind of flat.

[This person is using a virtual avatar to stream. It's very common for those who want to remain anonymous. However, it does have its own set of issues, which include being confined to a smaller space for the rigging to work, as well as the camera angles being slightly more limited. There is also a decrease in the subtlety of expressions available so it's not widely used in cooking streams.]

I looked at his username, "DogPot". His avatar was a dog-like creature in a blue hoodie, the creature his avatar was based on resembled a spotted dalmatian in my previous world, and on his color was a little fish with what seemed like a bow around its neck.

I heard the sound of the chair against the floor as Sazzy got up to leave.

[It's late already, so we might as well go to sleep. Since we already know what we are going to stream, we can start preparing tomorrow. If there's anything you need to know, you just have to text me from your personal terminal. I'll be watching your stream so you can add me as a moderator and I'll help make sure nothing too bad happens. Now, good night!]

Closing her room door, Sazzy left me alone in the kitchen to my thoughts. Then shaking my head, I headed towards the sink to wash up. Leaving DogPot's stream on, I listened as his laughter rang out in the empty house.

Could I really become a streamer like this?