#american style biscuits

[beths-favourite-recipes]

Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

[mousegirlheart]

[Australian] Arnott's are biscuits, Kooka's and Mrs. Fields are cookies.

[Failed] Mrs Fields is American so it doesn't count and Kooka's are biscuits

[aixelsyd13]

New Year’s Day Pork & Sauerkraut II

I came to blog my recipe then through a search, discovered I posted one last year! That was in the roasting pan though, and it was a pork loin rib half. This year, I put a pork shoulder roast in the crock pot... and made some dumplings 2 ways too!

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

IN PRAISE OF THE BIG BOYS -- BY THE LATE, GREAT GLEN "SPOT" LOCKETT.

PIC(S) INFO: SPOTlight on SPOT (✝), recording BIG BOYS' “Fun Fun Fun” at Third Coast Studio, Austin Texas; March 14 1982. 📸: Fotobill/Bill Daniel; The BIG BOYS themselves (1979-'84), c. 1983. 📸: Naomi Petersen.

"BIG BOYS were kinda like when I was a kid with my first record player and first records sitting in my room and playing 'em over and over again and each time was better than the last. I don't listen to records much any more and, in fact, I never really had many of them to begin with. Vinyl is useless, really. But that first experience is priceless. Kinda like good Irish fiddling jumpstarting my emotions. Kicking 'em upside the head and the heart and knocking 'em down to the floor. Then someone else's emotions walk up, hold out a hand and help me back up. The BIG BOYS shows were a lot like that."

-- Glen "SPOT" Lockett (1951-2023), opening CD liner notes to "The Skinny Elvis" Touch & Go compilation

In memoriam -- SPOT and "Biscuit" Turner, more legends lost, and God rest them both forever. HAIL!!

Sources: www.picuki.com/media/2651008823483804947, www.soundonsound.org/stories.html, & www.mixonline.com/business/glenn-spot-lockett.

[clusterbungle]

Hmm. It's come to my attention that I possess a lot more mayonnaise than I'd previously thought.

Wtf do I make with 2 jars of mayonnaise before it expires???

[hasufin]

State of failure

I am currently making hardtack.

This is a mistake. The year is 2023 and there is no good reason to make hardtack. The stuff is an inherently bad idea. There is no practical use for hardtack which is not met today by a product which is superior in every way.

Hardtack existed as a solution for a particular time and application: a way to create portable calories which did not require any cooking in situ, which could be transported in almost any condition, and could be stored for years at a time with no significant detriment.

Today, we have a great many options to meet these requirements. We have MREs. Canned foods. Dehydrated foods. UHT packaging. Freeze-drying. Energy bars. Every one of these options manage to be better-tasting, more nutritious, and just overall more pleasant than hardtack.

Throughout much of history, the idea of going an extended period of time without being able to cook at all would have been ridiculous. What could your circumstances be, that you could not, just once every few days, start a fire? and if you can start a fire you can, at minimum, make waybread. Which isn’t particularly pleasant, sure, but is worlds better than hardtack.

But for a certain period of time, hardtack was indeed the solution. it’s mostly synonymous with sailor’s food, but was also a significant part of a soldier’s diet; certain forms of the stuff, known as “hard biscuit” were used even through WWII. It does have its advantages, mainly in durability. Actually, that’s pretty much it. Hardtack, if kept dry and free of insects, will last pretty much indefinitely.

What, you may wonder, is hardtack?

Well. It’s basically the worst, most basic form of bread you can imagine. It’s unleavened and as dry as possible. It consists of nothing but flour and salt, with just enough water to form into a stiff dough, then baked and dried. That’s literally it.

The hardtack above used 2 cups of whole wheat flour (plus a bit more for the working surface), about a teaspoon of salt, and somewhere between 1/2 and 5/8 of a cup of water.

I combined the salt with the flour. Note - no fat, no sweetener, no flavoring, no leavening. Then, I added half a cup of water and proceeded to knead it. And knead it. And knead it some more. It is impossible to overknead hardtack, because it’s going to be indistinguishable from masonry no matter what you do.

Now, there is some skill to this. You’re up against two competing needs. First, you must make your hardtack as dry as possible. Water is your enemy. If there is water, it could mold, or grow bacteria, or fungus.

On the other hand, you want your dough to be completely smooth. Any seam or fold in the dough will become a crack. The biscuit may break apart; some mold spore or insect could get in.

So, while I started with half a cup of water, I found that amount inadequate and added a little bit of additional water to make it work into a smoother dough. As you can see, it still wasn’t perfectly smooth but I successfully incorporated all the flour.

Once I had a terribly stiff dough, I rolled it out on a floured surface. There’s plenty of leeway here on how you can do it - some people would simply take pieces of the dough and pat them flat. Especially into the 19th century, this could be done with machinery, to make very consistent biscuits. That’s actually pretty important, since sailors and soldiers would want to be sure they were getting a fair ration.

Personally, since I have round biscuit cutters, that’s what I did. This is the style largely favored by the British, to be packed in barrels for Naval usage. Americans tended to make squares or rectangles for most efficient packing in tins. If these were being made professionally, the biscuits would then be impressed with a seal, usually indicating the company which manufactured the biscuits.

The next, and more important, part is to poke holes in the biscuits. These are not for show: they are meant to release steam when the biscuits are baked. If there are no holes, steam may accumulate in pockets, resulting in bubbles. While this might yield a moderately more pleasant hardtack - one that can be more easily broken apart - it also makes it less durable and more prone to spoilage. The holes need to be poked all the way through, which isn’t quite how most such baking is done, but there is no elegance to hardtack.

Next is baking. To be honest, hardtack is not baked. It is sterilized and dried. The simplest method is to bake the biscuits in a low oven for many hours - four is typical, but sometimes the hardtack is baked several times, or overnight. It should be baked just hot enough to assure anything in the flour is killed, and for long enough to remove almost all moisture from the biscuits.

I have opted for a compromise, in large part because I already had my dehydrator out. I baked the biscuits at 250°F for two hours, then transferred them to the dehydrator, where they are currently drying for.... well, until I decide to shut it off. Probably when I go to bed. Sadly, my dehydrator tops out at 160°F, which is 40°F too cool for proper sterilization. If it went up to 200°F, I could put the biscuits directly in there without needing the oven at all, but such was not to be.

So far, it smells surprisingly pleasant, and the one piece I have tasted confirms: it’s terribly bland, of course, lacking even the sourness of yeast. It’s also - as one could predict - quite hard, requiring prolonged dipping in tea to make it soft enough to bite. In short, the flavor is inoffensive while the texture is weaponizable.

I made this stuff knowing what it would be. I started out with the complete expectation that it would be akin to eating a roofing tile. Why do I do this?

Curiosity, I suppose. Now, sometimes I try to improve these historical recipes - I recognize the limitations under which they were made, and try to make them pleasant by adding spices and seasonings which were not available, applying techniques which would have been impractical, and adding fats and sugars which were uneconomical.

Not this recipe. You cannot improve hardtack without compromising its purpose. But I’d seen so many references to it, I knew I wanted to make it for myself, just to experience it.

I’m not going to share the stuff with my friends, though. Not anyone I want to keep as a friend, at any rate.

[cleolinda]

Weekend links, April 14, 2024

My posts

Honestly, I spent much of the week coping with storm migraines. You can tell, because I was reblogging a lot from under a cold compress rather than doing anything useful with life. 

Reblogs of interest

The Hot Vintage Lady Polls are rough out there, y’all. Round three started closing yesterday (see what’s still open here), and as of this writing, we have lost Bette Davis, Alla Nazimova, Theda Bara, Myrna Loy, Barbra Streisand, Fay Wray, Lucille Ball, Ginger Rogers, and Olivia de Havilland--and it looks like Catherine Deneuve, Clara Bow, Lana Turner, and Mary Pickford are on their way out. Meanwhile, I learned about a ton of actresses I’d never heard of before, only to shriek when Sharmila Tagore, Nadira, and Waheeda Rehman lost this round. (Edwige, I will never forget you.) 

Let me remind you (and me sometimes, too): Not everyone has the same taste or childhood attachments or cinema experiences as you. And everybody in this bracket loses. Everybody but one. 

(I can tell I’m not cut out for brawling because I’m like, “I will be very sad to see Norma Shearer go, but Hazel Scott seems nice!”)

--

“Actually, Mr. Musk, I am an attorney. Do you know that?” Here’s the highlights of Mark Bankston, the man who brought down Alex Jones, coping with Elon Musk and Elon Musk’s Lawyer, who is not even licensed in Texas, for 100 pages of deposition. 

Hozier Watch 2024: “Too Sweet” has now charted higher in the UK than “Take Me to Church,” and it’s getting real close on the US charts. This is a song that didn’t even make last year’s album. I am endlessly fascinated. 

Happy Leland Melvin Day!

Happy Neil Banging Out the Tunes Day!

“Posting endless DNIs because we can’t (or don’t know we can) make spaces just for the people we do want to interact with” actually makes a lot of sense in this centralized social media hellscape. 

There is a 20k mg weed gummy and nobody needs that. “Forget meeting the Hat Man this is what turns you into the Hat Man. This is worse than that torture drug that makes you experience 600 billion years in a second. This is the secret to honest to god shifting.” 

One of the best uses of the Kate Beaton Poe comic I’ve ever seen

“Americanisms that tell you to check on your American” (they are all correct)

“Tuxedo Mask is the first example of being ‘Kenough’”

Just this once, I will allow this AI rendition of a “traditional Polish family” and their traditional Polish woodchuck. 

I am absolutely not saying there is anything wrong with being into tentacles; I’m just saying that Pyramid Head doesn’t even have them and thus is a pretty tame choice to complain about. 

Little Guy, a game

A cursèd chair called “Oops!”

Sparrow Tarot: Honestly, this is one of my favorite takes on the Hanged Man.

This dog is a biscuit and she is precious

Video

One of the things that’s so great about this Ilia Malinin free-skate program is, he makes it look so effortless that I would have never figured out on my own, without Tumblr’s commentary, that there’s a couple moves in here that no one in the world can do but him. Like, the very first jump and the announcers start screaming. 

A journey from fearing moths to raising them

A dude puts on a dress For the Meme and then discovers that he loves it (and then he styles it as a full outfit and it looks SO GOOD)

Watching this cat ride around on a roomba on a sped-up surveillance camera is self-care.

So is this (although it’s a bit strobe-y)

Bat type: hi doggy

Was the jello for the tuna salad lamb supposed to be lime?

The sacred texts

Holy Shit, Two Cakes

The origin of “Me, an intellectual”

#AllMyLifeIHadToFight

Personal tag of the week

Designer Roberto Cavalli, who passed away this week at age 83. I reblogged several fashion posts--I hadn’t even realized myself that he had designed Beyoncé’s famous yellow dress in Lemonade.

[thehollowwriter]

The Official Bio of Nancy "Pidge" Brooks

Basic Info:

Name: Nancy "Pidge" Brooks

Homeland: The Shaftlands

Nicknames: Pidge, Pufferfish (courtesy of Floyd)

Species: American Cocker Spaniel Beastman

Birthday: 22 June

Age: 16

Height/length: 154cm

Dominant hand: Right

Unique magic: None

Family:

Unnamed father

Unnamed mother (deceased)

Preferences:

Hobbies: Reading, sewing, sketching, taking pictures, collecting old things

Likes: Biscuits, sweets, fashion, nature, the night, fireflies, mysteries

Dislikes: Very loud noises, the rain, water, rude people, small spaces, being alone

Favourite food: No specific one, but she likes Italian dishes

Least favourite food: Chocolate

Appearance:

Nancy is a short young lady with bushy hair tied into pigtails and is brown and gold like this:

She has dark brown eyes and lots of freckles. She likes dressing in the 50s style, especially the dresses. (If you ask her, the men's fashion at the time was very boring). She has them sharp canines.

Personality:

Nancy is a quick-witted, short-tempered but friendly girl. She's very curious and imaginative and is always excited to find something new to learn about. She's very bold and fierce despite her small size. She can also be very loud.

Some Fun Facts/Extra Info:

•Nancy is based off Lady from Lady and the Tramp

•Her father is a very succesful lawyer who, after her mother died, mostly just ignores her and leaves her to her own devices, so now she wonders if maybe she did something wrong (dw sweetie it's just that lawyers are evil)

•She has magic, but it's too weak for her to be accepted into magic schools

•She likes travelling to Sage Island during the holidays and is good friends with Yizé because of this.

•She is a big fan of Vil

•She and Jack met during Portfest, and they have a good friendship going now

•There's this annoying af gal who lives on Sage Island that always comes to say hi and gets on her nerves (she likes her, lol)

Tagging: @distant-velleity @br3adtoasty @rainesol @theleechyskrunkly @jovieinramshackle @galaxies-and-gore @cyanide-latte @cynthinesia @officialdaydreamer00 @krenenbaker @kitwasnothere @elenauaurs @boopshoops @am0nline @1dont-really-know @kazumify @minteasketches @whspermy-name @elysia-nsimp @skrimpyskimpy @casp1an-sea @offorestsongs @the-banana-0verlord @skriblee-ksk @quartztwst @ramshacklerumble

[twisted-wonderland-but-gayer]

Imagine a yuu as a really crazy stereotypical cowboy

They come out of the coffin with a cowboy hat and leather boots

Azul and riddle wouldn’t need to use magic to capture grim cause yuu just whips out their rope and lassos him

This yuu would speak in the heaviest southern accent ever. Their vocabulary consists of “howdy Y’ALL” “partner” “hold your horses”

Anytime someone tries to pick a fight with yuu they demand a duel, Wild West style

Because who needs magic when you have a loaded pistol?

Yuu carries their holster at ALL times

This yuu is most confused once deuce starts talking about the live chicks in the eggs

“What’d you mean? There ain’t no damn chicks in those eggs!”

Vil loses it when he sees yuu making some sweet tea that’s 30% tea and 70% sugar

Tho they make some GOOD biscuits and gravy/syrup 🤤

Yuu has some nice arms from all the farm work they do

Epel and this yuu are besties for sure

Yuu has thought about lassoing some savannaclaw students before. Will they do it? Who knows…

American Rook...

No but i love this. Vil is screaming at them when they see greasy fried steak covered in butter with a side of chicharrones and a block of sugar disguised as tea. Jack understanding how Leona feels when Yuu grips onto their chickens and threatens to kill another wolf. Every time they smolder and give a speech, an eagle cries out.

[two-red-lungs]

Could you write reader finding out food tlb liked from when they were human/their childhood and making it for them as a gift?

I know you wanted a fic but I have so so many thoughts about each of the boys that I'm gonna collect them all in this post!

The Lost Boys: Their Favorite Old-World Foods

Marko:

The little Italian stallion <3333

I HC him as growing up in inner Florence, Italy, during the artistic revolution. He was fairly elite/in high demand as a model

Basically, a brat with an ego

Still despite rubbing shoulders with the greats, he loved to come home to his family’s little city house and eat his mamma’s cooking

I think Marko’s favorite ‘old world’ dish is Garmugia: a simple springtime soup with cured pancetta, lima beans, scallions, and all sorts of other green veggies

It’s not fancy or especially delicious at all. But I think the smell, the taste, would make him freeze up, flooded with memories

and maybe for a second he’d stop being a feral, combative, snapping undead animal, and you’d catch a glimpse of the athletic young human from centuries ago

Dwayne: 

My personal HC for Dwayne is he got put in a residential school for native Americans at a young age, basically ripped away from his family

He probably escaped, hightailing it out at around 16, and then survived alone on the streets of early 1800s colonizer cities with the rest of the dredges of society 

(Which to me gives him a very strong “I fucking hate capitalism I truly hate this country and deep down I do genuinely want to see this broken system burnt to the ground, also FUCK cops” mentality)

I think Dwayne’s most memorable old-world food would be Gingerbread. Not the gingerbread we know: a soft, cake-like bread flavored with molasses, ground ginger, and cinnamon. Very dark and not very sweet

He worked odd (and illegal) jobs to stay alive and when winter rolled around street vendors would sell big hot slices of the stuff

Bringing him some real, legit circa-1810-gingerbread would probably make him remember the far-distant, little moments of actual joy he had in his human life

AND you’d probably be able to convince him to actually talk about his past for once

Paul:

Country boyyyy, I love youuuu

In my mind Paul is rural midwest, late 1800s when the industrial revolution was really kickin’ off and the cities were poppin (with drugs and alcohol lmao)

He was probably raised on a farm & did farmwork most of the time. Picture him in a low ponytail and work duds, pitching hay. That was probably for the best because that dude 100% has dyslexia and a math learning disability

But oooooh he was prettyyyyy and he knew it: I think Paul eventually ran away from his family’s farm and basically became a partyboy in a big city, like New York, and was changed there

I think Paul’s favorite old-world food is (brace for the cliche) Apple Pie!

Probably a rare treat his momma and sisters would cook up in the autumn and winter: smelling a good, home-style pie now makes him think of barefoot evening sitting on the farmyard porch, listening to cicadas

Unrelated, but I think Paul- that’s right, partyboy druggie bonerboy Paulie- still remembers how to tie a hog

David:

I have conflicting thoughts abt this motherfucker

His backstory HC for me is still a little elusive, but I have some basic details for him

He comes from a pretty fucked-up biological family (probably a crazy-abusive dad and absent mother), was 100% drafted in a war at some point (I suspect the civil war), and 100% deserted his station in that war. Out of cowardice, fear, or distain, I don’t know. 

I don’t think David really has a favorite food?? He’ll eat plain rice. Plain, oily noodles. Hard-tack biscuits. Literally anything like whatever it’s not his personal thing

David like drinking and smoking. I think David’s favorite old-world vice is Irish Whiskey. Again, not the drink we think of. A lot less refined, very rough and coarse: it was the most popular and easily-accessible spirit in the 1860s 

I think it reminds him of ‘simpler times’: just him, alone, human, in a dingy old bar, getting the cheapest drink he can get, ducking his head to avoid being seen by military officials and wondering where he can run away to next

Give him a straight shot of Irish whiskey in an old-style enameled bar glass and it’s one of the only times he won’t be full-on Mansplain Manipulate Manwh0re: he’ll probably sit on a beachside bench with you, drinking in silence, watching the waves crashing far away. Lost in thought. Looking as old as he really is.

[phyllistines]

Ted Lasso s1e3 Analysis

I recently rewatched the third episode of Ted Lasso’s first season, and I noticed a ton of stuff. I’m gonna preface this by saying I know that trent wasn’t written to come back, and it was in fact James Lance that inspired Jason to add Trent in more, but there are a lot of things that tie back to tedependent, things that show it was here from the beginning, and Jason could have easily decided to just build off of that. Ok, now into this weirdly complicated analysis about nothing at all.

The first season of the show, specifically the first three eps, is dedicated to introducing what’s important to ted. Of course every first season of every show ever is for introducing characters, but there is a clear effort in the first three episodes to showcase what will motivate ted and what will be important to him.

first ep: beard,(his friendship with him) and his job

second ep: rebecca, family, the team

third ep: team functioning properly, friendships, trent

immediately trent is established as something important to the show and to ted. the first big (one on one) interaction between them is literally a date. besides that, it’s the first time we see trent (sort of) drop his guard. the reason for this is the spicy food, it catches trent off guard, and distracts him enough to not only stop talking about journalism, but actively struggle to talk about work. it’s a forced type of opening up, and it’s barely anything at all, but it is still there. it’s almost foreshadowing, the way trent is forced to drop his journalist facade when around ted can point to how he later fully drops it on purpose. there are some other themes that loosely tie back to season three as well, specifically the next episode (ep 9 as of writing this). The main conflict between roy and ted in s1e3 is about ted refusing to stop jamie from picking on nate. the fighting is the main story w roy and ted in the episode, and it eventually leads to ted and trent bonding. trent even chimes in to a convo between roy and ted to add some clarification. the next episode could really lead to some classic tedtrent action, seeing as the main conflict is sure to be colin and isaac fighting, and trent is arguably more involved with them than he ever was with roy’s storyline. Another interesting little theme i noticed was the fact that ted connects with people through food. (very basic but bare with me) He brings rebecca biscuits everyday to get to know her better, (he calls trent a cookie at one point too) he gets sam food when he’s homesick, he and beard have a weekly sandwich swap tradition, and his friendship with keeley begins to develop when he innocently feeds her a sandwich. Almost every meaningful relationship in the show surrounds food, with Ted having the most out of anyone. (other food relationships include Sam naming his restaurant after Ola and cooking with him, nate meeting his gf at his favorite restaurant, and then ted’s whole experience at the american restaurant aka “home”) we also see the entire team connect over a big meal three times in separate seasons. trent is present for one of these, establishing him as a person worth connecting to, even if he’s not officially part of the team yet. The final little piece from s1e3 is something that trent says in his lil voiceover at the end of the episode. “His coaching style is subtle. It never hits you over the head. Slowly growing until you can no longer ignore its presence.” Sound familiar? It’s incredibly similar to his lil speech/rant he gives to Ted at the end of “The Strings that Bind Us”: “By slowly but surely building a club-wide culture of trust and support through thousands of imperceptible moments, all leading to their inevitable conclusion.” Trent’s presence in this show has been prevalent and it’s all been leading up to this final season.

[arctic-hands]

@thetabirb: I'll save these three [American style, for the record] biscuits for later. That's a lot of sugar for me.

me: Skill Issue.

theta: Yeah well you can't eat these biscuits at all so I'd say THAT'S a skill issue!

me: THAT'S ABLEIST

[dollsahoy]

it's funny seeing rants about how "digestibles don't go on s'mores WHAT EVEN IS A DIGESTIBLE???" because it's showing, unintentionally, the parallel here, because Americans in general (yes I know some do know) know no more what a digestive biscuit is than Europeans know what a graham cracker is.

Because Europe does not, in general, have graham crackers.

(nor do they have American-style cream cheese, and I have seen forums full of US expats in Europe who desperately want to make American-style New York cheesecake)

[noloveforned]

we're wrapping up the week with four hours of no love for ned on wlur from 8pm until midnight tonight. if you can't join live, catch up with last week's show on mixcloud on your walk this weekend!

no love for ned on wlur – february 16th, 2024 from 8-10pm

artist // track // album // label hootie and the blowfish // only wanna be with you // cracked rear view // atlantic dumb things // self help // self help digital single // coolin' by sound the bv's // i can't stand the rain // taking pictures of taking pictures // shelflife savage mansion // total columbia // the shakes // lost map la la delivery // lax-a-daisy freaks // (bandcamp mp3) // (unreleased) omni // pg // souvenir // sub pop brittany howard // power to undo // what now // island split system // the wheel // volume two // goner wussy // new american standard // split 7" w/ the paranoid style // bar/none lower plenty // land lovers // no poets // bedroom suck david nance featuring pearl lovejoy boyd // tumbleweed // david nance and mowed sound // third man katy kirby // cubic zirconia // blue raspberry // anti- the american analog set // too tired to shine i // new drifters // numero group grandaddy // you're going to be fine and i'm going to hell // blu wav // dangerbird el perro del mar // between you and me nothing // big anonymous // city slang yirinda // dhangalim (fly) // yirinda // chapter music joel ross // nublues // nublues // blue note cassie kinoshi and seed ensemble featuring xana // afronaut // driftglass // jazz re:freshed elza soares // vejam só // sambas e mais sambas // odeon ed crook // that's alright // eccentric northern soul compilation // numero group david porter // thirty days // into a real thing // stax crimeapple and preservation // quanto te quiero // el león // rrc music co. they hate change featuring charlie // biscuits // wish you were here... cassette // Jagjaguwar angélica garcia // juanita //gemelo // partisan beyoncé // texas hold 'em // cowboy carter // parkwood entertainment crushed // respawn // extra life ep // funeral party aka jk // olive juice // olive juice cassingle // teenbeat the infinites // the ghost // archetypes // meritorio

[k-martins]

Words: + 2K Prompt: Pocky Game Warning: We don't have many spoilers here, except that this takes place after episode 6 of season two. Maybe alert to swear words and Megumi's bad mood. A/N: I can say that I became obsessed with pockys after I saw them in that Yuji bag, and then I discovered this game and my hands itched to write something, although I don't know if I'll do a part two of this. If you don't know the game, it's more or less this: "The Pocky game is a party game played with Pocky, a Japanese chocolate- or candy-coated biscuit snack. Two participants place the Pocky between them “Lady and the Tramp” style, and try to be the last to hold onto the biscuit, often resulting in a kiss." So yes, someone needed to write this with ITFS!

“Did you spend all your money on sweets?” Kugisaki clicked her tongue as she looked inside the paper bag, looking irritated, but Megumi knew she had a wicked smile on her face. "What's wrong with you? Five years?"

“ Hey ! I need to be fueled up for the movie!” Itadori defended himself, throwing himself awkwardly next to Megumi, causing the table to shake. “They are promising that this will be the most exciting film in the saga. I have to be ready to face any anguish!”

As serious as Itadori's tone was, as if he truly believed this, Megumi had His doubts. There is little chance that a generic American horror film – which had as its main theme people with mutant loveworm genes, by the way – would be so exciting to the point that Itadori would buy a bag full of various sugary freaks. Honestly, this was much worse than the purchases Gojo made for home when he took care of Megumi, and the man with white hair and eccentric taste in facial accessories had soda flowing instead of blood through his veins.

 Kugisaki shook his head lightly. She cast her sharp, questioning gaze at Megumi.

“Since you read about this thing and aren't a lunatic fan, respond. That is true?"

Megumi sighed audibly, ignoring for the sake of his sanity the delighted look Itadori had on his face. Instead of thinking about how the boy next to him seemed overjoyed with the information, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and opened the cinema's official website, turning the screen to show Kugisaki the information about the films currently showing . If the girl was surprised that he had found her so quickly, she didn't show it beyond a mischievous smile. It's not like Megumi has visited the site several times since Itadori mentioned how excited he was for the film, reading the synopsis and wandering through reviews of the previous films to find herself in the middle of the low-budget Hollywood mess. Of course he didn't do that. He just coincidentally had the site saved in his bookmarks bar.

“In an audience of thirty, twelve people gave a score equal to or above six.” He read it with a frown. Thirty people watched this? He expected a little less...

“Oh, that’s actually good!” Kugisaki praised, punctuating his words with a slap on Itadori's arm, which Megumi only escaped being hit by cowering closer to the wall. “Looks like your Worm Man movie isn’t that bad.”

“It’s a Human EarthWorm, Kugisaki.” Itadori whined, taking a pink rectangular box out of his – apparently inseparable – paper bag, with simple drawings of strawberries decorating the packaging.

“Oh, whatever.” Suddenly, the girl's chocolate brown eyes lit up in what Megumi could tell was pure ecstasy. He shrank further between Itadori and the wall. Somehow, that look was much more worrying than Kugisaki 's evil smile . “Oh, is that strawberry pocky ?! Give me one!” She jumped across the table, snatching the package from a very confused Itadori's hands, taking out one of the artificial strawberry flavored sticks. Her face was flushed with excitement. “Man, I was so excited to buy them! I've always wanted to try it ever since Saori mentioned the game, but my grandmother never let me. Something about 'being modest' or something.”

Kugisaki 's flawed and agitated logic . What did strawberry pockys have to do with games and her grandmother?

Beside him, Itadori laughed brightly as he pulled out a toothpick from the box, placing it between his lips like a cigarette.

“Ah, I know this game.”

"You?"

"It is clear!" The boy exclaimed, looking particularly offended by Kugisaki 's skeptical look . “I played this with my classmates in elementary school all the time. It was like a ritual throughout the party.”

Megumi is starting to feel uncomfortable with this conversation. Not that it was the first time he couldn't keep up with Itadori and Kugisaki 's energy and high spirits . Normally he would be content to just listen to the exchange and offer a shrug if asked about anything. Only this time, it really seems like these two are speaking another language.

As if he had read Megumi's thoughts, Kugisaki pointed the pocky at him, the broken tip over the separation between the strawberry topping and the chocolate rod.

“What about you, Fushiguro? Did you also play pocky when you were a delinquent ?”

“Can you not call me that?” He snapped, hoping he could hide his two friends' blushes behind his uniform collar. His times in elementary school beating up bullies weren't shameful after all, he never regretted it, but ever since Kugisaki and Itadori found out they both became insufferable about it. With a sharp frown due to the direction that strange conversation was taking, he questioned back: “And what the hell is this pocky game you guys are talking about?

Both Kugisaki and Itadori – after all, they were definitely sharing the same neuron before they even met – looked at each other in a silent conversation before gasping in surprise and dramatic scandal, with their hands on their chests like Victorian virgins and wide eyes. They learned that from Gojo , obviously.

“Fushiguro, how come you don’t know the pocky game?!” Itadori asked, loud enough to make Megumi's ears feel hot. “This is the most popular game among us normal teenagers.”

Normal teenagers? Megumi could retort against that.

“You, as a popular delinquent at school should know!” Kugisaki followed, nodding as if he couldn't believe what he heard, feigning Oscar-worthy desolation. "Deplorable. When I thought you were a little fun….”

With that, Megumi was one wrong word away from ripping off those damn pink pockys from Kugisaki and punching Itadori in the head to get that mocking smile out of him, but after noticing the looks of two eavesdropping couples, he was content with just crossing your arms over your chest and sulking. He's not going to give these two any more reasons to publicly embarrass him. That ridiculous scene of hugs and needy whining whenever he talks to some random girl is enough .

“Are you going to continue acting like children or are you going to explain to me what you’re talking about?”

If he noticed the bite and harshness in Megumi's tone, Itadori didn't show it. In fact, he boldly laughed as he rested his face in one hand, a chopstick between his fingers.

“It's just a silly joke. You put a pocky between your lips and try to eat it with small bites.”

Megumi waited longer – something really interesting and worth noting – but apparently Itadori had already finished the explanation, diverting his attention to the spinning movements he was making with the pocky between his fingers. Megumi wasn't the type to notice other people's abilities outside of battle, but there was a certain beauty in the way Itadori could handle the fragile stick without breaking it.

His attention was distracted by Kugisaki who was extending the pink box towards him.

“Live a little, big boy! Get one and try it.”

Something is wrong. A little voice in Megumi's mind whispered.

Kugisaki 's almost genuinely docile smile – and when it says 'almost', it means that Megumi doesn't believe in the softness of the girl in front of him at all –, or maybe it was Itadori himself sitting next to his with an amused and kind of curious, seeming really interested in his next move, which made the hairs on the back of Megumi's neck stand up like those of a skittish cat.

Something is very wrong.

Hesitant and perhaps too suspicious, Megumi took one of the pockys and placed it cautiously between his lips, feeling the sweetness of the glass on the tip of his tongue. The taste was predictably sweet and artificial. The strawberries were lost in the exaggerated amount of sugar, but the memory of them was still there, a note just for memory. Maybe it was a little greasy and easily too cloying for his taste, but it was a bearable sweet treat. It would hardly become his favorite snack, but the vanilla and dark chocolate cookies were delicious.

Kugaisaki 's smile grew, now revealing white teeth, cheeks pushed up.

That's when he realized his mistake.

Honestly, Megumi was waiting for something terrible to happen. He waited for the taste of pepper, or Kugisaki 's loud laugh as she revealed that there was no game of pocky , that she only invented it to see Megumi eat the sweet stick like a rabbit devouring a carrot. Anything like that. However, he was caught off guard by Itadori's palm manipulating the back of his neck so that he was looking at his face from just a few centimeters away.

The dirty glassy lips opened to bite the other end of the pocky , inching just a millimeter towards Megumi's own lips. It was a very close call that their noses didn't touch, but Megumi could still feel the ghost of Itadori's breath mixing with his own, even hear the clicking sound as the boy's teeth closed the distance and devoured the toothpick between them. Two more bites and Itadori would touch his lips. One more and then Megumi would taste the taste of strawberry glass directly from Itadori's sugary lips.

The world seemed to catch fire around them.

Maybe it was, because when Megumi jumped back, his mouth open in shock and shame, his entire face seemed to have been licked by flames, putting embers in his ears. Even though there was now quite a distance between Itadori and him, the vivid memory of honey-colored eyes sparkling with amusement and flirtation still echoed in Megumi's vision, painting his face the same shade as the strawberries drawn on the pocky box . His heart beat wildly inside his chest and cold sweat ran down his back.

What the fuck was that?

As if that wasn't enough, Megumi's breath caught as he watched Itadori, who hadn't looked away from him, finish the pocky , greedily devouring the part where Megumi's lips, teeth and tongue had touched. The pink-haired boy finished by wiping his lips with his thumb. He had a satisfied smile.

“Mm…” Itadori hummed. “Looks like I won.”

“Huh , what?” Megumi stammered uselessly, having a faint awareness of how pathetic he looked with his face red and his mouth open like a fish out of water. Damn Yuji Itadori !

A click and a flash were what took him out of that limbo.

"There is! Just look at your face!” Kugisaki cackled, turning the phone screen to Megumi. In the small illuminated rectangle was displayed for all to see the red, pathetic mess he had become, a reflection of his state of mind. Humiliating. “I'm going to send this to Maki-san ! Let’s put it in our graduation video!” Before Megumi could give any response to that – what, he doesn't know, but he would think of something at the moment – Kugisaki slammed both hands on the table and stood up. “It’s our time! If we don't want to miss the worm man movie...”

“Human EarthWorm, Kugisaki !”

“Alright, you crazy fanboy , let’s go!”

Megumi barely registered what was happening. He couldn't have imagined what had just happened. Or can you? He was so tired after that mission and being dragged by Kugisaki to meet that girl – Ozawa I-don't-know-what – who could very well have hallucinated with Itadori's face so close to his, their noses almost touching, their lips mere centimeters away?

Maybe Megumi should go home.

Take a long nap and think about anything other than the way Itadori's lips look shiny with glass . Would it taste as sweet as it looked?

Then, as the world hated Megumi and his entire family generation, the said boy with strawberry pocky hair and bright smile, turned to him with the most delighted and amused expression he had ever seen. Much happier than any memory that a past crush could generate – not that Megumi was being petty about it.

“Aren’t you coming, Fushiguro?”

Oh yes. They were going to see a movie.

Megumi needed to get his head on track.

“ Su-sure .” He stuttered, hoping that his quick movement in standing up had hidden his still red face.

It didn't work, as Kugisaki elbowed him, his feline smile even wider.

“ Wow . You didn't really know the game. She looks like a schoolgirl.”

“Shut up, Kugisaki .”

The response he received was just a loud laugh before she went off to buy popcorn, probably intimidating the attendant looking for a discount on the themed buckets .

As soon as Kugisaki was out of earshot, Itadori leaned into Megumi's space, his voice low and warm near his shoulder, while his caramel-colored eyes still continued to stare at him with amusement.

“You don’t need to be shy, Fushiguro.”

“I’m not shy.” Megumi retorted, perhaps too quickly and defensively.

That's when Itadori let out a bright laugh that certainly didn't make his heart skip a few beats.

Of course!

It's just the heart attack taking him early.

“Ah, fuck .” He grumbled, turning towards the exit.

That was it. Megumi was leaving.

Fuck Yuji with his movie and Nobara with the pockys .

“ Hey ! Wait!"

Itadori grabbed Megumi's wrist, his grip firm yet surprisingly gentle.

The pink boy looked genuinely sorry as Megumi looked at him, his tanned face contorting into a kicked-puppy expression that would have been adorable, if Megumi hadn't been fuming with embarrassment, anger, and distrust.

Nothing good came when Itadori looked at him like that.

As if noticing Megumi's emotions, Itadori smiled tenderly.

“Sorry about that. I wasn’t trying to embarrass you.”

“You didn’t do a good job.”

“Okay, I think I deserve this.” Itadori scratched the back of his head, before his countenance radiated with a dangerous glow. “Hey! If you want, I can teach you how to play later. That way you don’t have to run away like a scared cat every time you play.”

“Do you want to get punched, Itadori?” Megumi huffs, impatience beginning to throb. He pulls his wrist from Itadori's grip, who wisely steps back with his hands raised defensively. “I will not participate in your silly games with Kugisaki. Forget it."

"Okay, okay. It was just an idea.” Itadori hummed, crossing his arms over his head. His gaze didn't leave Megumi's face for a second as he added, more carefully: "But, if you want, the invitation is extended."

Megumi sneered.

Why would he accept this invitation? He didn't mind Kugisaki and Itadori's childish pranks as long as they didn't harm him. Playing pocky will be no different. Plus, it's not like they have many parties to go to or opportunities to play these types of games. It wouldn't make any difference. Kugisaki and Itadori can stay with their games while Megumi stays with his books, completely at peace, without thinking about how Itadori's lips looked unbearably seductive when tilted towards him, nose almost touching his, brown eyes burning with a different fervor. and totally chilling. No, he wasn't thinking about that, much less about how easy it was for Itadori to handle him easily, firm despite the tenderness of the touch, his calloused palm holding Megumi's neck as their faces got closer and their breaths mixed.

No, Megumi definitely wasn't thinking about that.

In fact, he was starting to find Itadori's worm man poster very interesting, completely forgetting that brief moment when Itadori wiped his lip, insatiated after devouring the indirect kiss with the taste of strawberry pocky .

Yes, he totally forgot about that...