diff --git a/app/javascript/mastodon/components/emoji/picker/emoji-picker.stories.tsx b/app/javascript/mastodon/components/emoji/picker/emoji-picker.stories.tsx
index 31f5631aa1e..826c61ba119 100644
--- a/app/javascript/mastodon/components/emoji/picker/emoji-picker.stories.tsx
+++ b/app/javascript/mastodon/components/emoji/picker/emoji-picker.stories.tsx
@@ -2,12 +2,12 @@ import type { FC } from 'react';
 import { useState } from 'react';
 
 import type { Meta, StoryObj } from '@storybook/react-vite';
+import type { CompactEmoji } from 'emojibase';
+import { flattenEmojiData } from 'emojibase';
 import { action } from 'storybook/actions';
 
-import {
-  importCustomEmojiData,
-  importEmojiData,
-} from '@/mastodon/features/emoji/loader';
+import { putEmojiData } from '@/mastodon/features/emoji/database';
+import { toSupportedLocale } from '@/mastodon/features/emoji/locale';
 
 import { MockEmojiPicker } from './index';
 
@@ -17,18 +17,19 @@ const meta = {
   title: 'Components/Emoji/EmojiPicker',
   render(_args, { globals }) {
     const locale = typeof globals.locale === 'string' ? globals.locale : 'en';
-    return <StoryComponent locale={locale} />;
+    return <StoryComponent locale={locale} key={locale} />;
   },
 } satisfies Meta;
 
 const StoryComponent: FC<{ locale: string }> = ({ locale }) => {
   const [loaded, setLoaded] = useState(false);
 
-  void Promise.all([importCustomEmojiData(), importEmojiData(locale)]).then(
-    () => {
+  if (!loaded) {
+    void loadEmojiData(locale).then(() => {
+      action('emoji data loaded')(locale);
       setLoaded(true);
-    },
-  );
+    });
+  }
 
   if (!loaded) {
     return null;
@@ -36,6 +37,15 @@ const StoryComponent: FC<{ locale: string }> = ({ locale }) => {
   return <MockEmojiPicker onSelect={onSelect} />;
 };
 
+async function loadEmojiData(localeString: string) {
+  const locale = toSupportedLocale(localeString);
+  const emojis = (await import(
+    `../../../../../../node_modules/emojibase-data/${locale}/compact.json`
+  )) as { default: CompactEmoji[] };
+  const flattenedEmojis = flattenEmojiData(emojis.default);
+  await putEmojiData(flattenedEmojis, locale);
+}
+
 export default meta;
 
 type Story = StoryObj<typeof meta>;