“What…is happening here?”

A crowd of nearly a baker’s dozen gathered in Old Sharlayan Friday night to witness something truly extraordinary: A single crafter preparing exactly 9,615 pearl chocolates in a row.

Valerie Belemne chose a spot near the local mender under a canopy, and got to work. “But why 9,615 pearl chocolates?” someone asked. “That is the amount of ingredients I have in my inventory!” she replied.

I had been standing around in Limsa Lominsa when I saw the notice on Party Finder, and just had to see things for myself.

When I first arrived, it was just sunset in Old Sharlayan, and only a few stood cheering. But by the time the night was over, a large crowd had formed.

“I put out a post on Party Finder and now I have an audience, somehow,” Valerie said. “Yeah, you’re making over 9,000 chocos, had to see!” said Sahiri, another onlooker. “But why?” Zook Foodle of Midgardsormr had to ask again.

“It was the amount of chocolate materials I happened to have on hand!”

For several hours, Valerie crafted pearl chocolates, running out of water shards more than once. At her first break, she excused herself and ran to the market board, returning with a mountain of new shards. “Okay, we’re back,” she said, grabbing her skillet and once again becoming an Elezen chocolate machine, “I just spent three hundred thousand gil on shards.”

“This is more interesting than any venue,” said Zook.

Some offered to donate shards to the chocolatey cause, but Valerie refused. “I would,” she said, “But it’s funnier if I spend obscene amounts of personal wealth for something I am just going to distribute to other people.”

Valerie has been known to hand out chocolates to passing adventurers, and did the same as she worked toward her 9,615 that night. “I just like giving people chocolate,” she explained. “I think you gave me one in Limsa a few days ago!” said Lizzie Borden, another chocolate enthusiast.

“I probably did!” said Valerie, “I’ve been doing this for months.”

“You’ve been doing this for months?” a stunned Kruxt Foo asked, “Why?!”

“It’s fun,” said Valerie, “I like giving people little pieces of chocolate.”

“Do you hand them out one at a time?”

“Usually, yes.”

Time passed, and the conversation turned from chocolate to fashion, hats, Miqo’te cocoa tolerance, and even gear repair bills. Valerie eventually had to stop to get even more shards. “I spent 70,000 gil,” she said. “Honestly, the only reason I was able to afford these shards tonight was because I won third place in a fashion show at a club I went to earlier, completely by accident.”

As the hours stretched on, the crowd thinned, but those truly dedicated to chocolate remained, and the final countdown began.

“Not many people can claim to have crafted an absurd amount of chocolate in one sitting,” said Sanchi Rin of Adamantoise, “I congratulate you!”

And the plot twist of the night? That was only in addition to the pearl chocolates Valerie had already been carrying in her inventory.

It was truly a night to remember, and I left with a few new friends and at least two pearl chocolates of my own!

If you ever see Valerie Belemne out and about on Jenova, prepare to possibly receive a pearl chocolate. Just remember that it isn’t just any pearl chocolate - it was crafted on a night that will go down in Eorzean Chocolate History!