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imtherain · 2 years

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Soup

So here I am again, having feelings about a man who kills people.

This is for, about, around Simon “Ghost” Riley. From Call of Duty, a game I never in a million years thought I’d care about. But here we are.

Warnings? Hurt/Comfort I guess. Some female mentions for “you” (mentions being an auntie etc.) A lot of sort of sad feelings. Talk of trauma, injury, near death, all that fun stuff. Allusions to past relationships. No pancakes. But hey, there’s soup.

I apologize if you misread the title as Soap, as I have a few times. He’s lovely too, but this one is for Ghost.

Anywho

It was one of the hardest things you'd ever done, but after that last mission, you hadn't really had a choice. You'd been just about blown apart by a rain of gunshots. There was an explosion you didn't remember and three weeks of time you lost. Another three lost to a coma.

~~~~~

You had left the 141 six months ago.

And while you carried the scars and some pain the doctors said would never go away, what hurt you most was the look in your lieutenant's eyes when he told you you were going home. The way his eyes were hard chips of stone behind his mask when he told you he wouldn't let you come back.

That was the last time you'd talked to Ghost. And you tried not to think about how much his silence hurt you. You had been so close to him for so long. He always had your back and you always had his. You couldn't count the times you'd spent nights together, trying to deal with all the shit you had to do, there were too many. Maybe there were all of them. Then there were the times when you fell into each other's arms because there was nowhere else to go.

And he sent you home without saying anything that even resembled goodbye.

But that was half a year behind you. You had begun to pick up the bits of your life that could be salvaged. Your sister helped a lot. She was the only family that knew you were back, that even knew you were alive. She lived across town from your apartment, but she made sure to stop by to check on you as often as she could.

You had taken to making food when the things in your head got too loud. You made beef stew and thought of Soap. How he always told you to add more potatoes and made jokes about the Irish in good humor. You made chicken noodle soup for cold nights in safe houses. Leek soup for when it rained and for stomach aches. And you made cakes and pies and cookies for Price and Gaz, both of which had terrible sweet tooths and always tried to steal the batter or taste the dough.

You left a bowl empty for Ghost because you didn't know what else to do.

Tonight you made turkey soup. Lots of root vegetables from a friend of a friend who had a farm south of the city. Good fresh earth still clung to the turnips when your sister brought them to you. She had a whole bag full of turnips, parsnips, carrots, and rutabagas. Onions from the store.

You made the broth with the carcass of the turkey you shared with your sister and her husband two nights before. At their place with their kids. The house, full of color and joy and laughter and life. You got to be Auntie y/n and not a soldier. Not a broken thing left for eternity to find left behind.

Sometimes it was easier to forget the 141 when there was laughter around you.

Sometimes you drove home and cried.

The soup was delicious, warm. Tasted like the stuff that kept you alive with a hug.

You'd gotten good at making soup, as though it was the only thing you knew how to do. Your sister always made bread. Your whole apartment smelled like a Hallmark movie. You sat together at the table, three bowls, two now dirty, and all three empty.

Your sister had stopped asking why a while ago. You figured she knew it was a type of mourning. She always knew you in ways you didn't tell her. Knew how you only wore earrings when you wore dresses. How there was always a knife close at hand. How you slept with a gun, loaded, strapped to the side of your nightstand.

How you always made soup when you missed them.

You had picked up your bowl and your sister's when you heard a knock at the door. All of your alarms went off, thinking the worst at first. But then you remembered how there was a single mother down the hall who you often told could come asking for dinner when she smelled it. Knowing she needed good food sometimes for her and her twins. Remembered just how far your sister’s bread recipe could carry down the hall.

You covered the peephole with your hand before looking through it. In case whoever it was had a gun waiting for you.

There was a shadow outside the door. Tall, broad, black sweatshirt. They were looking down the hall, towards the exit sign that glowed faintly red along the white parts of his mask.

You opened the door and he turned to you.

"Who is it?" Your sister called. You were frozen in the doorway.

"I shouldn't have come," was all he said, turning with his duffle bag to head towards that glowing red light. You caught his sleeve before he could flee.

"Can you do me a favor?" You call over your shoulder back into the house. "Go hide in the bathroom, I'll let you know when you can come out," you stepped out into the hall and closed the door enough that she wouldn't see him. You knew how he was. How he liked his privacy.

"What? Why?" Your sister's confused voice.

"Just do it, I'll explain later," you call back. Ghost hadn't tried to pull away yet. You just held his eyes while you both listened to your sister grumble as she did as you asked.

"You have company," his voice was gravel, just like you remember it. The accent slides around his words like silk.

"She's my sister, she watched my place while I was gone." You told him. You hadn't talked about family, there had been no room for it amongst the gunfire. "If I ask her to go, will you stay?" You didn't want to feel the hope that tried to block your throat. You didn't want to admit how badly you missed him. How being apart had made you realize just how fucked you were, falling in love with your LT.

But he wasn't your LT anymore. Not your commanding officer in any way. So what was he?

"Simon?" Your voice is smaller than he remembers it but hearing his name in your throat brings him back to earth.

"Affirmative," he said. His voice was smaller than it used to be too. As though he didn't want you to hear it. You pulled on his sleeve.

"You can go to my room while I send her home, she wasn't going to stay much longer anyway." You tell him when he resists your tug. "You can take a shower if you want, it'll feel good. Or you can just…" whatever other suggestions you had died in your throat. "Just, don't leave, ok?" This time he only nodded.

He pulled off his boots inside the door and followed you to your room. You didn't see him look around your apartment, didn't see the way he took in the mismatched furniture, the loudly colored rugs, the blankets and pillows that filled the arm chairs. You pointed him into the darkness of your room, flipping the switch to light the lamp on your bedside table. The only light you kept in your room these days.

He looked somehow more massive in the space of your room. He glanced at the dresser which had a mess of body sprays and lotions your sister kept bringing you. There was another chair, filled with clothes this time. The bed was made up with bright colored blankets and more pillows than he'd ever seen in one place before.

"They say the more pillows you have the lonelier you are," He spoke like it was a joke.

"That they do," you didn't agree but you knew better than to lie. "I'll be back in a minute," he dropped his duffle on the floor next to the bed and nodded.

You sighed heavily and went to kick your sister out.

She was worried about leaving you with Ghost. You had told her more than enough to make her nervous about him. But you trusted him still, even if he had sent you away. Even if he hadn't said goodbye.

She promised to call you in the morning and you locked the door with all three locks.

When you came back to your room, you could hear the shower running. The duffle was opened and a few pieces of black fabric were spilling out. You weren't surprised that he wore only black when he played civilian.

"She's gone," you called through the door of the bathroom. "Take your time," you added.

A few minutes later the bathroom opened and Ghost came out. A simpler Balaklava over his face now, a black long sleeved shirt, black pants. The steam from the shower spilled out into the room and backlit him with the harsh light over your sink. He was barefoot as he stood on your carpet.

You didn't know what else to say to him.

He went to his duffle and put his things back. You thought of all the times you'd imagined him here, how he'd look amongst your things. Mourned how you'd never find out. But here he was.

He stood and faced you.

"I didn't know you knew where I lived," you finally said. You weren't surprised he could find you, but you didn't know how else to break the silence.

"I've known for a while," he replied.

"So why now?" You had your arms crossed as you watched him think of what to say. Maybe you imagined it but there was something sharp in his eyes, something like fear or loss or… something.

"I had to see you…make sure you were ok,"

"Why?" You didn't want him to know how fast your heart was beating.

"I had to know," you felt anger flare at his attempt to answer you without telling you anything.

"Had to know what, Simon? Had to know if I was still alive? Had to know if I was still going to the doctor's, to rehab? Had to know if I was living alone or with someone who would actually fucking care about me?" It wasn't fair to accuse him. You knew that. But it had hurt so much when you were sent away. Hurt like a battery acid injection. Hurt like a thousand paper cuts that could never figure out how to heal.

When he didn’t say anything you laughed. Of course he’d stay silent. He never quite figured out how to talk unless it was to give order, to tell off color jokes, or to grind out dirty words into your ear.

“It hurt like hell when you told me to go home,” You said. “Did you know that? It felt like you were kicking me out of the 141, out of all of your lives…out of your life. As though you couldn’t stand to so much as look at me.” You weren’t looking at him anymore, so you missed the way his eyes snapped to your face.

“You almost died, y/n,” He said. “Because of a bad call I made. I had to watch you get shot to shit, watch you bleeding out while Gaz did all he could to keep you from dying. It was a miracle we got you to a hospital at all.” You felt tears gather behind your eyes, pulling angrily at your throat as you tried to keep them inside.

“I never blamed you for that,”

“It doesn’t matter if you did or not because I fucking did,” Ghost snapped. “And then I had to see you hooked up to all those fucking tubes and machines, not moving.”

“You didn’t have to stay,” You tried to ignore the way your heart clenched at his words.

“Three weeks. I had to see that shit for three weeks before you opened your eyes again.” He took a step forward and you watched him cross the space until he was before you. You looked up at him, his frame so large in the dim light. You knew people who would be terrified of being so close to him. But not you. Never you.

“And first chance you got, you told me to get the fuck out… forced me to retire,” His face was hidden by his mask, but you could see the way his shoulders fell as your cheeks grew wet. You wiped at your eyes with your hands and pretended it didn’t kill you for him to see you like this.

“I couldn’t…I couldn’t see you like that again,” His voice was soft now. When you didn’t look at him, he sank to his knees, his hands coming up to touch your legs, gently, as though he was afraid you’d break. “Every time I closed my eyes, I saw you laying there, bloody or plugged up with so many machines…” He shook his head as if to displace the memories. His hands moved up your sides. You didn’t want to forgive him, didn’t want to understand.

“You told me not to die, and I didn’t,” You said. “And you paid me back by leaving,”

His head dipped down into your lap as his arms closed around you. He was hurting too. Just as much as you were. Your hand moved to the back of his head, wanting to comfort him even after all this time. You knew he wouldn’t be here if it didn’t matter, if you didn’t matter to him. But it hurt so much for so long.

“Didn’t know what else to do,” A confession at the altar you built to hide your heart from the world. You felt the walls, the temple you haunted, start to shake and crumble.

“Why are you back?” Your voice was small as your hand traced the back of his head. You’d never seen him like this before, and it meant something to you. It had to.

“Soap said I was a dumb fuck for letting you go,”

“That’s all it took?” You could almost laugh. You used your hands to bring his face up so you could look at him, but frowned when you saw his eyes, dark as always, but more haunted than normal.

There was more to it than just Soap talking shit. “Tell me what happened, love,”

“Bad intel, shit went sideways.” You felt your heart clench.

“Who?”

“Whenever I closed my eyes all I could see was you all shot to shit, bleeding out like you were in a hurry to die,”

“Simon,” You pressed.

“Me,” He finally said. You had his face in your hands, but he pulled away and ripped the balaclava off, showing you his face. You’d seen him before, but seeing him now, his eyes angry and wet, caught you off guard. There were no new marks on his face, but you studied him just to be sure. “I was the one bleeding out… and you weren’t there to see it.” Your heart dropped like a nuclear bomb, but when it hit bottom it didn’t explode. It just sat there, heavy.

“But you’re ok now,” You said. You were telling yourself just as much as you were reminding him. “And me, I’m here, I’m safe too,” Your thumbs brushed his cheeks, something that, even when you were together, you’d rarely gotten to do.

“I thought it would be better if you weren’t there,” He continued. “That I wouldn’t keep looking for you,” You wondered how long he’d been keeping this to himself, knowing he didn’t usually open up to anyone. You wondered if he’d told Soap, and that’s why he’d called him a dumb fuck.

“It sucked being here without you,” You said. “Not hearing from you. Soap calls once in a while, checks in. Price even offered to come visit. But I told him no.”

Simon looked at you for a long time, not saying anything more. You held his face, knowing he’d run out of words. After a while, you just sighed and leaned down to kiss his forehead, holding the kiss for three counts too long.

“Should I go?” He asked. Your hands were on his shoulders now, his still along your waist while he knelt on your floor. You shook your head.

“I made soup, if you’re hungry,” You told him instead. He thought for a moment before he nodded. It took him a minute for him to pull away from you enough to stand. You picked up his mask and handed it to him before taking his hand. He laced his fingers with yours.

If he was going to stay, you were going to have to start over. And if you were going to start over, you’d do it right this time. Soft touches, gentle kisses. Not fast fucks in the desert. Not sloppy quickies behind the barracks. Not moans concealed by gloved hands.

He dutifully followed you to the kitchen and took the chair you offered him. You went about reheating the soup, as it was cold now. You didn’t say much, and he didn’t say anything. But his eyes followed you, face still open and empty of his mask. You weren’t sure you’d ever seen his face this long in a single go before.

It was nice.

“My sister made the bread, it’s fresh,” You told him, handing him a thick slice. You couldn’t help but touch his face one more time before turning back to the stove with his bowl.

You sat with him while he ate. Watching as he dipped the bread in and brought it to his mouth. You wondered if he liked any specific soup best. Maybe squash soup, or tomato, or mushroom bisque.

“What?” He asked after you’d stared at him too long.

“I missed you,” You said, knowing better than to lie. His lips threatened to turn into a smile.

“Missed you too,” He speaks carefully, as if the words were new, before returning to the soup.

You were content, for now. He was here, he was clean, he was eating. You could touch him.

And the empty bowl was full.

[Masterlist]

#simon riley x you #simon ghost riley x reader #hurt/comfort #simon ghost riley #soup #imtherain #lackofpamcakes

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pacthesis · 1 year

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nostalgic food

i’ll want to reference this in the future

gỏi cuốn (spring roll with chicken, egg, rice noodle, carrot, lettuce, avocado)

peanut sauce is just peanut butter+water, hoisin+sriracha sauce, and a tiny bit of sesame oil (tastes good with almost anything imo)

yellow curry

rice noodle with chicken, potatoes, yams, onions, carrots in a creamy coconut milk and yellow curry paste broth

lemon juice and salt mix with garlic chili for dipping

bò kho (vietnamese beef stew)

kho is a cooking technique where a protein is braised in a mixture of fish sauce, sugar, and water or coconut juice to make a salty/savory result

bread dips in stew beef/potatoes dip in lime juice/salt/pepper mix

cucumber slices to offset the salty

xá xíu (cantonese style bbq pork)

the seasoning mix is made of sugar, powdered soy sauce, onion and garlic powder, and spices

the pink color very much freaked out middle schoolers at lunch

cơm tấm (broken rice, grilled pork, egg, pickled carrots/daikon with scallions/oil garnish and fish sauce)

bún bò huế (thick round rice noodle with beef soup)

more "fun" than phở imo

bún bò broth: spicy salty flavor (lemongrass, spicy chili, fermented shrimp paste, fish sauce)

phở broth: earthy sweet flavor (cinnamon, star anise, onion, ginger, garlic, herbs)

bánh mì (baguette sandwich with chả lụa (pork sausage), xá xíu (cantonese style bbq pork) coriander leaf (cilantro), cucumber, pickled carrots, and pickled daikon combined with pâté and buttery mayonnaise)

salmon instead of nem nướng̣ (viet grilled pork) with bánh hỏi (rice vermicelli)

feat nori (dried edible seaweed)

wrapped with lettuce and dipped in nước mắm (fish sauce)

bánh cuốn (rice noodle rolls filled with ground meat, wood ear mushrooms, onions)

topped with chả lụa (pork sausage) and fried red onions and nước mắm (fermented salted fish sauce)

a fav of grandpa's

pizza man mispronounces it as "bun goo" which makes my mom giggle cause the way he says goo sounds like penis

bánh tét (glutinous rice rolled in a banana leaf into a thick, log-like cylindrical shape, with a mung bean and pork filling)

bánh rán (deep fried sesame ball filled with mung bean)

bánh da lợn "pig skin cake" (tapioca starch, rice flour, mung bean, taro, coconut milk)

bánh bột chiên (fried taro rice cake, a fav of pizza man)

phở (broth: earthy sweet flavor- cinnamon, star anise, onion, ginger, garlic, herbs)

ive called phở mid but while eating this i was like huh this is good actually then my dad says this time he simmered chicken bones for hours like he's supposed to instead of using canned broth

improvised bún thịt nướng (rice noodle bowl with chopped grilled pork, egg roll, veggies, crushed peanuts, fish sauce)

a way to deal with leftover noodles from gỏi cuốn

every time i eat this i think of the time me and pizza man were in new orleans and he asked if i wanted to eat at a viet place and i was surprised cause he's not really into a lot of viet food but anyway i got bún thịt nướng

thịt kho (pork with eggs braised in sticky savory caramel of sugar, fish sauce, coconut water)

i have distinct flashbacks of being in the middle school cafeteria with my thịt kho and kids around me going "what is that??", "ewwww" lol

cháo (rice porridge with chicken or a white meat fish- often served with crunchy cabbage salad)

my dad likes it with youtiao (chinese donuts)

being sick means eating this! but we also eat it a lot when we’re not sick!

when my mom was young she would say yes to any dude that asked her out and order an obscene amount of food/the most expensive things on the menu and never hear from them again but my dad took her to a cháo place cause that was his favorite but apparently for cheapskates

he proposed two weeks later and she said yes

my mom is such a menace i wanna be just like her

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throughtrialbyfire · 10 hours

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I'd love to know 29 and 31 for the trio from those elder scrolls oc asks! :)

hi meg!!!!!!!!!!! <3

29 - Your OC sits down at a tavern. What food/drink are they ordering?

Emeros - for food, he's usually partial to a good beef stew, or a creamy crab bisque! he's also very partial to fruit-based dishes, or just topping off porridge with blueberries and honey. he also loves dried fruits as something he can just pick at/snack on if he's not particularly hungry. he denies having a sweet tooth, but if honey nut treats are available, he's grabbing one. or more AHAH. as for drinks, tea/water, especially if he plans on traveling the next day and wants to be hydrated, and mead when he just wants a drink. fun fact: his favorite teas are black tea, spiced chai, and ginger tea!

Wyndrelis - for food, potato soup can always tempt him to sit down and rest, with a side of fresh-baked bread. he's a big fan of sourdough, and will pair it with any soup he can. he's also big on fish, and likes grilled fish with vegetables, or crab cakes! as for drinks, he's always more of a water person due to traveling most of the time, but he's down for a glass of wine here and there or a bottle of ale.

Athenath - chicken dumplings are something he'll always go for if available. if not, then goat cheese with whatever meat's roasting over the fire and sourdough or braided bread. they love grilled leeks and potatoes as a quick, filling meal, especially with a bowl of potato soup, or any seafood if they're near a port town. he's also got a sweet tooth, but doesn't hide it, and if sweetrolls or boiled creme treats or any crostatas are available, they're snagging one. as for drinks, they sing, so keeping hydrated is a big deal. they tend to go for water if they're performing, but if not, a bottle of mead is fine by them.

31 - Your OC is packing for a day-long trip on the road. What is in their travel bag?

if it's only a day on the road, then:

Emeros - his father's hunting knife, dagger, bow and some arrows, waterskin, some provisions, his skinning gloves, sewing kit, gold, a map, and some healing/cure disease potions in case someone may need them.

Wyndrelis - a mace, his spell tome (which hasn't appeared in the fic yet, as he lost it), waterskin and provisions, gold, a book to read, a map, and restore magicka potions

Athenath - comb, tambourine, waterskin and provisions, traveling cloak, a map, their sword, and a ribbon to tie their hair up if they need to.

thank u so much for the asks!! <3333333333

TES oc ask game

#bishop.txt #asks #ask game #oc ; emeros #oc ; wyndrelis #oc ; athenath #dragonborn trio #cycle of the serpent

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crispyfryenperu · 1 year

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I forgot I had a blog

Guao have things changed since I left site. This second round feels much different. One big difference is that the old municipality personnel was in their fourth year when we arrived, so they were already good friends, and a somewhat-oiled machine. The new municipality personnel is just becoming friends and learning their roles. For this fresh group, two foreign volunteers aren’t as exciting as they are one more thing to deal with.

One of my kindest and most consistent socios that I still get to work with - Señor Medina - President of the Japss Calango!

Getting to know the new landscape and it’s inhabitants has been a lot of work that I didn’t expect to do twice. (Although, whether I had left the country or not, a lot of my socios would have changed. The professors are rotated from school to school every year, and the municipality personnel almost all changed along with the new mayor.) Consequently, for my first month being back I was just coordinating and meeting people, only this week was I really able to get any projects started. Because I felt so unproductive, I also procrastinated on writing a blog post. I didn’t have anything to write about, and my panic about being unproductive just pushed me to procrastinate and be even LESS productive.

Being unproductive but happy, hanging with the volunteers

Some of my Calanguine friends!

In addition to all of the new socios, it’s been hard getting used to Peru the second time around. Visiting the US was so fun, going out with a few of my best friends, spending some time with my siblings, parents and pets in the California sun, eating vegan paella, taking hot showers, staying in nice airbnbs and sleeping in my comfortable childhood bedroom. There’s a lot to look back on and miss! Even though I have pretty much the best host family I could have asked for, it’s still difficult to live in someone else’s home, and accept how things are done in that home. Everything from the food, the schedules, the cleaning, the common spaces, is something to get used to, because I don’t own a thing here, just my clothes and books. I think one of the biggest things I can’t stand, is when I am served carbs with carbs. Normal Peruvian meals include mashed potatoes and rice, quinoa stew plus rice, or french fries on rice. Also milk and pasta soup. Okay, Peruvians will often put a chicken leg on top of these meals, but I don’t eat chicken. On these days I just need to take some deep breathes and do some meditation. But i am really lucky to have a host family that embraces me as a daughter and sister. AND that often cooks me a separate version of their meals but with soy meat. (speaking of which, they made yuca en la olla for my brothers birthday, and I had the yuca from the normal version, plus my soy version, and both were DELICIOUS!!)

Exhausting hand washing my clothes. And my cats going crazy like always.

On Saturday I went with Nathy to a flower festival. The municipality organized combis/buses to take tourists from the plaza up into the hills. The dirt road was uneven with constant potholes, and we rode along with locals taking their pots of arroz con pato, chicharron, and camote to sell at the festival. But through the window all you saw were the usual dusty, sandy hills that expand all along Peru’s coast. We finally pulled into a parking lot with other cars, and there were a few people walking along another dirt trail, into some hills. These hills were mostly brown - but you could see that they had a few trees on them. Honestly, at no point had I really thought there could be a hill covered in beautiful flowers in this part of Peru, so I wasn’t disappointed, nor surprised. We walked along the flat road leading up to the festival area, and you could see that the hills had more than a couple of trees, they had a bit of greenery and bushes over there. The festival area was nice, they were selling choclo con queso (corn with cheese), masamora, flan, alfajores, and art. On the other side they were sold arroz con pollo, chicharron, carapulcra, and other meals. We ended up buying the chicharron, which comes with fried camote (sweet potato), an onion salad, and yuca. It was 18 soles - super expensive!!! In the middle they sold bottles of wine for 25 soles, and they had bathrooms for men and women. Incredible, the bathrooms had running water, soap, AND toilet paper. Instead of doors, there were curtains, but still, what an incredible bathroom experience. At this center of the festival there were several trailheads, and you could continue hiking up into the mountains. At this point, yellow tulip-like flowers dotted the immediate area. We started hiking up, and it was truly beautiful. The yellow tulips were everywhere, and there were also tons of orange and yellow butterflies. They looked like monarch butterflies. There were also large grasshoppers burrowing in small holes all along the trail- many peaked their heads out as we passed. We also passed many tourists. Many people from Lima took tours for the day and stayed a few hours at the festival, and other locals from around Mala attended on the municipality bus, or with their own cars. I was pleasantly surprised by everything that day.

The flower we saw is called a flor de amancaes. The yellow bulbs have been a symbol of Lima since the 17th century, and appear on the 10 sol bill. Amancaes only flower once a year though, and are endemic to the Peruvian coast, so they re in danger of extinction.

When I started writing this post I was convinced I had nothing to write about. But a week of editing later and I have plenty more to say - especially everything I’ve been doing during evacuation.

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25mn · 1 year

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The best way to cook pheasant

Of the multitude of game birds that can be found across the UK in pre-winter and winter, fowl is the most widely recognized. Yet, while we could consider the fowl to be an image of the Incomparable English open country, it's really a local of Asia. They were acquainted with Europe (and ultimately the UK) by the Romans, and began to become famous in England from the 11th century onwards. They breed effectively and adjust to environments well, making them the ideal game bird - today upwards of 35 million fowls are delivered into the wild every year.

Fowl is a little, lean bird that is inclined to drying out, so it merits additional consideration and consideration during cooking. The taste is contrasted with chicken and guinea fowl, with changing measures of 'unpleasantness' relying upon how matured the bird is.

warming some oil as well as margarine in a container over a high intensity. Add the filets and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until just cooked through then cover and rest for 5 minutes prior to serving.

To pan sear fowl bosoms, cut them into strips and cook in a hot wok with oil for something like 3 minutes until cooked. Put away in a warm covered dish while cooking vegetables and different fixings prior to returning the bird and blending through.

The most effective way to cook fowl The best way to cook pheasant is to broil it in the stove.

While simmering a fowl, you need to add a great deal of fat to the bird. This will guarantee that it remains delicate and delicate, and that it has sufficient juice to keep up with its flavor.

Here is a bit by bit guide on the most proficient method to effectively broil a fowl:

Remove the bird from the ice chest about an hour prior to you intend to cook it. Preheat broiler to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Put an enormous broiler safe skillet on the oven and set over medium intensity. Add your preferred fat to the skillet. It very well may be unsalted spread, pork, duck or goose fat, or a blend of your top choices. When the fat is hot, place the fowl tenderloin side down in the dish and permit to sear for 3-5 minutes prior to turning to brown on the opposite side. Leave the bosom side down to brown for around 3 minutes. Salt and pepper the fowl prior to placing it in the stove. Following 15 minutes, utilize a thermometer to check in the event that the fowl is sufficiently cooked. The leg ought to learn about 176 degrees Fahrenheit and the bosom ought to find out about 145 degrees Fahrenheit. On the off chance that the bird has not arrived at this temperature, cook it somewhat longer.

Ways to cook fowl Bird can be utilized in a wide range of recipes that call for pork, turkey, or chicken. The regular Fowl flavor is flexible and fits various food varieties. Fowl contains minimal fat, so it is important to add fat to the bird while cooking it. In the event that you cook the bird, you need to ensure it has sufficient additional fat to hold dampness. The bird ought to arrive at an interior temperature of around 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, at that point, you need to cover it and pass on it to arrive at an inside temperature of 180 degrees Fahrenheit. You need to allow the bird to rest subsequent to cooking to permit the juices to sink into the meat. This guarantees that the meat stays succulent. Bird is best presented with basic sauces or marinades, for example, cranberry sauce, which is both sweet and exquisite. This works out in a good way for the game bird. You can serve the fowl with ordinary sides like green beans, pureed potatoes, natural corn, wild rice, and salad. There are numerous ways of cooking fowl. It very well may be broiled, stewed, grilled, sautéed, and cooked in a sluggish cooker. You can cook bird practically a way.

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millenniumfae · 2 years

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Video Game Cooking: Uncle Kiryu's Morning Glory Curry (Yakuza 3)

Curry (serves 2-3 people):

2 bone-in chicken thighs

1 large carrot

1 medium onion

1 large yellow potato

1/8 cup frozen peas

2 cubes S&B Golden Curry Roux (mild)

1-2 cups water

Pickled daikon (three servings):

3 tbsp white sugar

2 tbsp rice vinegar/Ume plum vinegar

1/4 cup mirin

Half cup matchstick-cut raw daikon

Picture this; you're ten years old, orphaned and struggling in the miasmic system that is the Japanese federal child services. Eventually, you find yourself re-homed in a newly established orphanage down south in Okinawa, called "Morning Glory Orphanage", and your new guardian is this ... six foot tall, 250-pound brickhouse of a man approaching his forties, whose appearance just screams "I am involved in organized crime."

But it's not long before you get to know Uncle Kiryu, who's kind, caring, protective, and supportive of all the children in his care. He may be stoic, quiet, slightly intimidating, and the permanent furrow in-between his eyebrows is deeper than the Mariana Trench, but he truly makes for a great guardian. Nothing makes him smile more readily than his kids.

Yakuza 3 introduces good ol' Kiryu Kazama some years after the previous two games, happily running an orphanage after cutting all ties with the Tojo clan. Of course, the series being what it is, it doesn't take long for Kiryu to be dragged right back into the drama that is the Japanese yakuza underworld.

But before that point, we see glimpses of how Kiryu takes care of his kids; he cooks meals, keeps an eye on their schoolwork, and gets heavily involved with whatever worries might plague a gradeschooler's mind - like being bullied, struggling with a crush, and also kid troubles that are sometimes swept under the carpet like racism and poverty.

Today, we're gonna be recreating one of the meals we see Kiryu preparing for the orphanage, while also getting deep into the minds of these gangsters through Yakuza's food symbolism.

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Disclaimer; my Video Game Cooking series specializes in fantastical foods, like Fallout's Deathclaw Omelette and Dark Souls's Estus Flask. That's what makes recipe recreation fun, 'cause you have to rack your brain deciding how to translate fictional ingredients into something you can make at home.

Making video game foods that are, like ... just real-life foods are boring to me. What's the point of making a whole Lord Of The Rings-themed cookbook if all your recipes are just typical breads that are just given a fancy name like "Pippin's Rye Loaf"?

Making your recipe LOOK like it jumped straight out of Breath Of The Wild, that I do get, but actually making the food isn't especially fun 'cause you're just cooking up a cream stew. It's when you have to interpret what the heck 'razorgrain' is, or 'moon sugar', that's what lends you room for creativity.

For this particular recipe, we're not dealing with a fantasy setting, or a science-fiction universe. Yakuza takes place in the real world of Japan, during specific periods of time (December 1988, January 2018, etc), and it all runs solely on (pseudo) realism. Barring the occasional crazy side-story, of course.

This recipe is especially banal 'cause it's a curry dish. Modern Japanese home cooking has a special relationship with curry the same as Americans with mac and cheese. Much of the time, you're not making it entirely from scratch, you're buying jarred or boxed ingredients. It's a meal popular not just for its convenience, but also because it's well liked amongst kids.

(Yakuza 3 boasted tons of brand deals with real-life franchises (like every other Yakuza game), and in the Okinawa levels alone, you can count 13 separate brands like Quickly boba, Blue Seal ice cream, and Orion draft beer.)

Japanese curry is not Indian curry, or Thai curry, or Jamaican curry, and so on. Lots of countries have their own regional traditions when it comes to whatever they call curry. Japan's curry history traces to the Meiji era, AKA the Victorian period, when British forces brought lots of new foods to feudal Japan - famous Japanese yoshoku (western food) favorites such as breaded pork chops, potato croquettes, and omelette rice all sprung from this influence.

Curry, of course, came to Japan from the British, 'cause Britain gained a love for curry through colonizing India. So Japan's curry culture is built not off of Indian curry, but through British curry - which in turn is based off of Indian curry. You get it? It's kinda roundabout, I know.

As far as Japanese curry cuisine goes, it definitely makes for the perfect family meal. You can make a big pot of it, using convenient ingredients, and the taste appeals to many. Japanese curry tends to run the mild, less spiced-up route, thickened with flour and fats, and stewed with water. With one single block of S&B-brand instant curry roux, you can make an entree for four, leaving the curry to casually stew while you start up the rice cooker.

Our goal today is to guess what kind of curry Kiryu would make. Technically, you can throw anything into a Japanese curry base, but there are some typical, preferred ingredients; onions, carrots, potatoes, sometimes peas, and cubes of meat. The only ingredient we see Kiryu preparing is white onions - he cuts them like he's defusing a bomb, and when one of the kids runs into the kitchen asking when dinner is, he tells him to leave. Nothing says 'I'm a home cook' like 'get the fuck out of my kitchen when I'm cooking'.

Yeah, the ingredients in this recipe all kinda falls down to how good a cook Kiryu is. Let's think about this - he grew up in an orphanage back in the 70's and 80's, and probably relied on convenience stores and restaurants from then onwards (in Yakuza 0 you can see 20-year-old Kiryu's shitty apartment littered with instant ramen tubs). There wasn't really a point in his life prior to Morning Glory Orphanage that would prompt him to refine his home cooking skills. Plus, something about his 'seinen protagonist attitude' makes me think he's the type of manly man dude guy who'd eat anything. So we might be dealing with uncle Kiyru making mediocre dad meals.

On the flip side, Kiryu is a very dedicated man. When given just a slight push, he's willing to learn new things that are completely unfamiliar to him, such as how to use modern laptops and internet, or be a shirtless model for performance photography. It's not hard to see Kiryu reading up on cooking magazines in preparation for being a good uncle to his kids. Maybe in the beginning, one or two meals of his bland cooking spurred him to give the children better food, and a popup appeared on screen called "Substory 05: Learn To Cook".

The very first meal we see him make in-game is what looks like steamed fish. It's probably a bluefin tuna, which are plentiful around Okinawa (and he apparently caught it himself using a goddamn trident?? With no scuba gear or anything). When he serves it to the kids, it's whole on the plate with some juices underneath, and garnished with green onions and cilantro, possibly cooked onion slices. Steaming an entire fish is typical in Asian cooking, you put the entire thing into a bamboo steamer atop boiling water in what's likely to be a wok, especially if its a bigger fish. Easy to cook, and easy to spice and sauce.

It looks good. Not only are there multiple garnishes, but it's plated with two extra leaves on the side to make it especially pretty. This was prepared not just with efficiency, but also with an eye for beauty and delicious cuisine. If Kiryu did indeed catch it right out of the ocean, he'd also have to dress the fish by descaling, gutting, and cleaning it, which is harder than it sounds. If we're looking at a properly-prepared 2-foot bluefin tuna, steamed and seasoned, then we can conclude that Kiryu is at least capable of Cooking with a capital C.

(in every cooking scene, Kiryu is always accompanied by Haruka. She's either helping set the table, or gathering the rest of the kids. It's possible that she's having a hand in the actual cooking, too. In the beginning of Yakuza 2, Haruka outright states that she's been cooking for the both of them, and that her cooking has gotten better. Haruka's 12 in Yakuza 3, and raise your hand if you were cooking for your family at that age, 'cause I certainly wasn't. She's taken up a 'big sister' role in the orphanage, being the eldest kid there, and shoulders a lot of responsibility for the other kids without prompting.)

On the flip side, what little we see in the actual curry cooking scene doesn't quite scream 'skilled cook' to me. He's cutting the white onions correctly; using the 'kitten paw' technique to slice the blades lengthwise along the ridges. But then he throws them raw into the stockpot without sweating or caramelizing them. It's possible that he's using the same pot to cook everything in succession, AKA browning the onions first and then later throwing in ingredients that take less time to cook, that's definitely something a lot of home cooks do to minimize dishwashing. But if he's not, then he's just tossing raw onions into a stewing curry and calling it a day.

The actual in-game model of the finished curry is kinda nondescript, no thanks to Yakuza 3's outdated engine. But we can make out red bits, brown lumps, and small green dots. It's also plated with a serving of bright red sticks on the side. To me, it's clearly meant to represent peas, meat, and what's possibly tomatoes or yams. The red garnish I'm not sure, it could be a traditional Japanese side dish like burdock, daikon, or ginger that's been dyed red using umezu vinegar - the leftover brine from making umeboshi.

The actual curry meal we're recreating is from a particularly heartwarming scene. Haruka helps plate the dinner table with a generous serving of curry for everyone. But one child is missing, so Kiryu hunts down a depressed Izumi with comforting words about her parentless status. They walk back hand-in-hand, and find that none of the kids have started eating yet. They were patiently waiting for the both of them all this time, despite their hungry bellies.

English-speaking audiences might not be familiar with Japan's unique stigma surrounding orphans. In Japanese culture, adopted people (kids in particular) struggle with the idea of being 'not actually part of the family'. Even on a government level, orphans are given less options when it comes to lineage, which affects their ownage rights. The stigma is so tied with the system, no matter how supportive the public might be of orphans, their lives are oppressed nonetheless.

So there's a reason why Yakuza 3 is so themed around orphans. Kiryu himself is an orphan. The main villain is also an orphan. A huge chunk of the game surrounds Morning Glory orphanage. Most of the plot gravitates around money that orphan Yoshitaka Mine can afford, but the young Morning Glory orphans can't. The only other Yakuza game with such a prominent theme would probably be Yakuza 6, which is blatantly about parents and their kids - adopted or otherwise.

(Kiryu is 38-40 years old in Yakuza 3, 44 in Yakuza 5, and 50 in Like A Dragon. If you want a quick laugh, take a look at his face at his oldest, and compare it to his 20-year-old self of Yakuza 0. How many of you looked like a middle-aged man when you were 20?)

And the whole orphan theme stretches across the entire franchise, for reasons everyone, not just the Japanese audience, can understand. Who's more likely to get sucked into a crime culture with a heavy emphasis on found family? What's a charity cause a moral yakuza boss might be interested in, and what's a completely unprofitable venture a business-minded yakuza would discredit? Who gets left behind when crime ends up killing? How many of the major characters are orphans, and how many of the villains have blood families that they don't appreciate?

Yoshitaka Mine, the main villain of Yakuza 3, is a fitting endboss for such an orphan-heavy game. He was a poor orphan child the same as Kiryu and the Morning Glory kids. He rose to the top of the corporate chain even before getting involved with the Tojo Clan. It's a very similar story that all orphan yakuza share, whether their rise to success is through crime, or business, or both.

Throughout the game, the player is led to believe that Mine wants to off Daigo to take his place as chairman, but when Kiryu faces him, Mine drops the bomb that he, in fact, is completely infatuated by Daigo because he treated him like an equal. Something Mine, the orphan, is completely starved of. Why does he want to kill a comatose Daigo? 'Cause he can't bear to see his love so weak and on the brink of death. That's not his Daigo.

There's even that mid-game scene where Mine goes to bulldoze Morning Glory Orphanage for (insert plot reason here), but it's obvious that Mine's also doing it because he resents these kids for having something he didn't. Kiryu takes good care of his children, whereas Mine suffered through a childhood that hardened him.

So when we see Kiryu cook for his kids, we're also seeing a life that would have saved the villain, we're seeing the victims of a country's government, we're seeing mirrors of previous beloved characters like Nishikiyama and Yumi, as well as current protagonists like Kiryu and even Ichiban. That curry scene of a huge dinner table with all those kids, they not only break bread as a family, but they also make it a point to wait until everyone's here before eating.

Think about curry - like soups, it's cooked in a big pot before being served in individual servings. It's a communal food. And in Japan, it's something of a 'peasant dish' because you're using cheap ingredients, stretching out the meat using flour and water. There's a lot behind the food of Yakuza 3 beyond 'hehe Kiryu cook curry'.

First up, let's nail down the exact ingredients Kiyru would have used, down to the brand. So head to the supermarket to pick up a box of S&B Golden Curry sauce mix. There's powder forms and mix-in block forms, and either will do. They come in three levels of spiciness - mild, medium, and hot - and since Kiryu's making it for children he'd likely choose the mild version just to be safe - they do all have glasses of water, but that's a very common given whenever you're served Japanese curry and it's more likely that kids are given mild curries. We're using this brand in particular because they're by and large the top distributor of cheap curry roux in Japan. When Kiryu goes grocery shopping in downtown Ryukyu, which is a small town, that is most definitely what he'd find stocked.

Now onto the other ingredients - let's aim for a very typical Japanese home curry dish, and we're gonna buy bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, yellow potatoes, orange carrots, white onions, and frozen peas. You can vaguely make out some beige/light brown lumps in the cutscene, which to me looks very much like curry-fied diced chicken, and not the dark brown of beef. Pork is another option, but it's a much less commonly used ingredient in Japanese curry.

(Some balk at the inclusions of LGBT content spread amongst the Yakuza series, but the majority of the gay/queer/trans characters prompt the overarching moral of 'be true to yourself, don't judge based off of appearances.' Kiryu - and his orphans - struggle with fitting into larger society, and they in turn relate to fellow marginalized people.)

And it might have been a vegetarian curry, but it'd beg to ask what those beige lumps were, then, if not meat. And Kiryu seems like the type of orphanage handler to insist on kids eating meat rather than going without. Morning Glory would have received a regular government pension that'd be their sole income, and it's true that 2008 Ryukyu would certainly up the market price of meat by virtue of it being located on a Japanese island, but chicken (and other bird meats you can find in Asia's traditional markets like duck, turkey, pigeon sometimes) wouldn't be as pricey as beef and pork, which are livestock animals that require a lot of land - something Japan lacks.

If Kiryu's orphanage funds were really low, he'd stick to the local seafood to feed the kids. And not shrimp or albacore, but cheap meats like loaches, small crabs, sardines, and saury. He'd go late in the day when the fishmongers are wanting to get rid of the day's catch, and maybe even dig in the 'free' buckets for barnacle fish and random tiny squids. None of those are typical Japanese curry ingredients, and I very much doubt the in-game curry scene features any of them.

Feeding 9 kids (plus yourself and a dog) is expensive. That's not even getting into their clothes, medical needs, school supplies, toys, tickets to the movies, and the utility bills. But they never seem to want for anything, which tells me that either Kiryu/Haruko is a beast at budgeting, and/or the Japanese government isn't stingy when it comes to monetary aid. You can think of it as a parallel to main villain Mine's super affluent but sad life as someone unloved, but not wanting for money - and by extent, food.

So without further ado, let's make Uncle Kiyru's Morning Glory Curry!

We're following (what little we can see of) Kiryu's cooking expertise, and making a batch that'd serve two-three people - not 10, I doubt any of you are cooking for that many and we don't want to waste food. But before the curry, we need to figure out the red garnish on the side. You're either buying a pickled red side dish from a Japanese ethnic store, or you're making some yourself using ume plum vinegar.

The in-game model features them as thick, almost cube-like slices, which to me rules them out as ginger, which is almost always served as thin peels. And if they're pickled, then they're most likely daikon, which is a very popular Japanese side dish that's often made at home, but also commonly bought jarred. Maybe you can find some store-bought daikon that's been pickled with specifically ume plum vinegar, but if you can't, then you can make some ahead of time.

Find ume plum vinegar in ethnic grocery stores - if you can't, then you can fake it for the purposes of this recipe with some extra ingredients - and slice up peeled, raw daikon into sticks that are 2-inches long, and around the width of a pencil, totalling perhaps half a cup of radish.

Into a medium, sealable container, toss in the vinegar, kosher salt, sugar, and mirin/cooking sake to make into a liquid mixture. Put the sliced daikon in, cover, and refrigerate for at least half a day. If you couldn't find ume plum vinegar, use rice vinegar and toss in deep red fruits like cherries, raspberries, or maybe even just red food coloring if you're really lacking in options. After half a day, the daikon should be crisp, and ruby-red all the way through.

Now for the curry! Get out a big ol' stockpot, the typical 'anime curry cooking scene' sort of pot, and coat it with vegetable oil on low-medium heat. We're using this pot to cook everything sequentially, starting with what takes the longest to cook and ending with the shortest.

White onions are first. Slice them the way Kiryu does; peel the skin off of one entire onion, then you're slicing it in half parallel to the natural ridges. Continue to slice along those ridges to make 'U'-shaped pieces, and then you're throwing it all into the hot oil to sizzle.

Next is carrot. Find a large one, peel off the thick outer skin, then chop it diagonally into half-an-inch-thick slices. It gets tossed into the pot right after the onions.

Stir, saute, and then cover the pot so the two ingredients can cook and soften for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, you can peel and dice two large yellow potatoes into hefty cubes, and de-bone/de-skin a chicken thigh.

At the 10 minute mark, the onions should be pretty translucent (but not totally), and the carrots should be much softer (but not all the way through). Throw in the meat, and you're browning the chicken on all sides for a couple minutes. The aim isn't to cook them all the way through.

Now comes the actual curry roux! Raise the heat to medium-high, then follow the instructions on the box - power packets and curry blocks require different amounts of water. Either way, you add the required water first, wait until it boils, and then stir in the roux. For two-three people, add at least two cubes and start with 1.5 cups of water first.

After you add the roux, throw in the peeled and diced potatoes. Cover, lower the heat once more to low-medium, then you're allowing the entire thing to simmer for 10 minutes.

Finally, throw in 1/8 cup of frozen peas, and then allow it to further simmer for 5 more minutes.

And in-between cooking the curry, you can make the rice. They're almost certainly eating typical Japanese white rice - short-grain, on the moist side. If you're not sure what to buy, go to an Asian ethnic grocery and look for Nishiki or Kohuko short-grain brands. Measure out two cups, rinse thoroughly with water to wash off the cloudy starch, drain, and put it into your rice cooker/saucepan with a bit more water than other rice varieties might require. Essentially, a 1:1.25 ratio of rice to water, so in this case you're adding 2.5 cups of water.

If you're making rice on the stovetop, put the raw rice and water into the pot and cover. Bring it to a boil on medium heat, and turn it to low when it does. Let it continue to cook, covered, for 10-12 minutes. After that, remove from heat entirely and let it stand, covered, for 10 minutes more, to steam itself. When it's done, there should be no water left, and all the rice should be completely soft and sticking together in globs.

Now we can plate our curry - one half will be the rice, the other a hefty serving of curry. Don't skimp, cover the entire plate sans rim with food. On the side, pick out some of the pickled daikon and place it next to the rice. Not too much, perhaps a tablespoon's worth. Serve with a glass of water and a spoon - both items rarely used by the Japanese unless it's curry time.

Enjoy! To me, it tastes exactly just like the S&B-brand curry I ate once or twice as a child, mellow and sweet. To people not used to Japanese curry, it's probably gonna taste pretty different from other varieties you've had. You might find it delicious, or weird, or bland. To my mom, who grew up on this stuff, she loved it and considered it a big throwback to the comfort meals of her day, which was a ringing endorsement on the authenticity of this recipe. Mmm, 2008 Japan!

#yakuza #yakuza 3 #kiryu kazuma #video game cooking

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sansxfuckyou · 2 years

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Good morning

I snapped awake at the sound of a loud thud, I jumped a bit before glancing over the edge finding Danny on his back on the ground.

"Ow." Danny said with a nervous chuckle as he looked up at me before I dropped down.

"Fell down?" I asked sarcastically, putting a hand out for Danny, which he took with a nervous grin on his face.

"Mistakes happen." Danny said in his defense as he brushed down his jeans despite landing in a pile of cushions.

"I know, I've fallen off that ledge many times." I said with a sigh thinking back on the memories before pulling up one of my sleeves and gesturing to one of the scars.

"Where did that come from?" Danny asked me gently running a finger across the scar.

"Fractured my arm." I said with a sheepish smile before pulling my sleeve back down.

"Cool, can we head down for breakfast?" Danny asked me cautiously, before his ears swiveled behind him, he jumped to hide behind me as the door slowly creaked open.

"Ah, I see your awake, Vlad." I claimed with agitation in my voice hidden.

"Yes, I thought I should bring up some food, the day that you end up with a partner is one I thought would never come." Vlad said before placing down the tray of food, eggs, toast, orange juice, even a bowl of fruit loops.

"Thank you for ever so kindly bringing me and Danny some food." I said bitterly, Danny slowly creeping over to the tray of sustenance, most likely having to repress an instinct to just go on all fours and test his luck.

"I can leave you two be if you would like, and I made up my mind, this one is a keeper." Vlad said before taking his leave, he never acts like this, what is his deal? All I have to do is make one friend and he falls head over heels.

"Phantom, you have to try some of this food, fucking delicious." Danny said through a mouthful of egg, snapping me from my thoughts.

"You think?" I asked before crouching down next to him, tweaking my wings.

"Hell yeah man, this is the good shit." Danny said boldly before taking a swig of orange juice, lacking class in every way, shape or form, and something about that alone, is classy.

"I can make a pretty good stew if given a day without nagging from Vlad or stress." I said before taking a spoonful of the fruit loops, the sweet taste bulldozing my partially dead taste buds.

"I'll take your word." Danny said before flopping onto his back with a contented sigh despite hitting hardwood floor, he only flinched at the contact.

"You good?" I asked, having to refrain from laughing.

"Yeah, I'm fine, every now and then I forget where I am and just relax like I'm at home on the couch watching cartoons." Danny said rubbing his head a bit where he came into contact with the floor.

"Want me to show you around the castle, we have access to all the floors up except the last one, plus the one below us." I said before standing up and stretching out my wings, sparks of pain shooting through my body.

"Sounds good to me." Danny said before I led him past my bedroom door into one of the many hallways this castle boasted.

"This place is like a fucking maze, so we start on this floor and try to stay on one general floor at all times." I explained pointing to each door and telling Danny what was behind them, until we came to my favorite room in the house.

"And just what might be behind these glorious swinging doors?" Danny asked almost sarcastically, the scent of some sort of meat wafting from the room taking up most of his attention.

"The best part of this entire castle." I said with a smirk before pushing open the doors, being greeted with white tiles and stainless steel, heavenly aromas bombarding our senses as we drifted through the kitchen, test tasting various sauces and soups.

"Can you show me how to prep a stew, I never learned how to cook, considering I'm an outcast of society." Danny said spreading his arms above his head with a grin plastered on his face, I laughed lightly.

"Sure, we need two pots, stewing beef, chicken broth, shit ton of spices, potatoes and carrots." I said before pulling down a large pot and a smaller pot.

"Spices are?" Danny asked before I crouched down, he climbed up onto my shoulders before I stood back up, he began to raid the pantries.

"Peppercorns, garlic, onions, bay leaf and thyme please." I said putting out a hand, using the other hand to pour some chicken broth in the smaller pot along with a bunch of bones from previous servings of meat.

"Here's the onions, I can skin and cut them up if you want me to while you go get the meat and vegetables." Danny offered before hopping down, I pulled out a cutting board.

"Be back in a minute." I said before opening the door to the walk in fridge, wandering the halls for a hot minute before pulling out some stewing beef and carrots, grabbing potatoes on my way out.

"That was quick." Danny said, tears welling up in his eyes from the onion, I tossed the skins and excess pieces into the simmering pot of chicken broth and bones before handing him a peeler and some three medium potatoes.

"Most of my childhood was spent in this kitchen, learning tricks of the trade from all sorts of chefs." I explained as I diced the beef after removing as much of the silver skin as I could before pushing the pieces to the side, pulling down a saucepan and throwing in the beef and turning up the burner.

"So you spent your childhood learning about food?" Danny asked as he finished peeling the last potato.

"Cut the potatoes into smaller pieces now, and yeah, I spent my childhood on cooking and video games." I said with a sigh before flipping the beef, throwing three bay leafs and ten peppercorns into the broth pot along with some thyme, then moving on to mincing a clove of garlic.

"Sounds better then mine, I was rejected because I wanted to be an astronaut." Danny said as he finished off the potatoes before moving onto the carrots, I tossed half the garlic into the saucepan and the other half into the broth pot, I added more chicken broth into the pot.

"being an astronaut sounds cool though." I said with a chuckle as I poured the remainder of the broth and the onion slices into the saucepan, scraping the potatoes off Dannys cutting board into the saucepan as well.

"Yeah, I came to the conclusion they had closed minds, besides seeing earth from space must feel awesome." Danny said before tossing the sliced up carrots into the saucepan.

"Now we let the broth sit for a bit before straining out the extra stuff and pouring the broth into the big pot along with the stuff in the saucepan." I said with a contented sigh, the scent of beef stew filling the air.

"Pretty simple meal." Danny said.

"Yeah, but once you taste the finished product, you'll never look at cooking the same way." I said as a promise before beginning my search for a strainer, Danny hopping up onto my shoulders almost knocking me to my feet as he reached for a strainer managing to grab one.

"Looking for this?" Danny asked as he hung from the rack, claws digging into the mesh of the strainer.

"Need my help?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yes please." Danny said face flushed red, from either fear of falling onto a counter with knives or embarrassment.

"I got your back, kitty cat." I said before pumping my wings a few times before I was at the same level as Danny before helping him down and grabbing the strainer.

"Don't call me that..." Danny whined as I strained the broth into the larger pot before dumping the saucepans contents into the pot as well.

"You said I had to just last night." I countered with a smirk.

"I- touché." Was all Danny said in response.

"I won't call you kitty cat if you don't want me to." I offered.

"That would be nice." Danny said before taking a whiff of the stew, practically melting.

"Smells good, right?" I asked cockily.

"Definitely." Danny said before going to reach for one of the potato chunks floating atop the the rest of the broth, I let him reach for the potato know he would burn himself, learn the hard way.

"Like the food?" I asked, seeing Danny with the potato impaled on one of his claws.

"Real good food." Danny said before taking a bite of the potato, definitely burning his tongue.

"Any questions other than how a simple meal can smell so good?" I asked before making my way out Danny following close behind.

"Vlad mentioned turning me into a blueblood, not that I could marry you, like specifically stated I could join the legacy, potentially in a more secure way than others, what did he mean by that?" Danny asked, I flinched at the question.

"I don't know the best way to explain the process or importance of doing so." I said in answer, hopefully he would buy that stupid excuse.

"Do you at least know how to turn someone into that of a blueblood?" Danny asked as we walked down the halls, I turned to face him.

"The lineage of bluebloods I originate from has fangs, we can turn normal people with a single bite, at the neck, the mark lasts forever and cannot be undone." I explained pointing to my fangs before turning back around.

"Would you consider turning me?" Danny asked, I tensed at the question, now he's on Vlads side.

"You don't understand, being turned means being locked into a permanent stance of importance with the one who turned you, and the one who turned you is also stuck in that same stance, no more freedom," I explained with a sigh. "Ever, no more free lance adventures, no more nights on the town, no more nothing."

"Scrap that idea, but what if Vlad forces you to turn me?" Danny asked, I shuddered at the thought.

"I don't know." I answered with almost coldly.

"I say you run, I can just hide." Danny offered as I opened my bedroom door.

"Nope, if I have to run, then you should join, kind of hard to leave a friend as potential prey for Vlad." I said before taking a seat on one of the lowest ramps that could be used as a bench.

"Well, yeah, but until your forced to do something obnoxious, I can hang around to trick him." Danny offered taking a seat beside me and laying down on his back, taking up the rest of the bench.

"Thanks, Danny." I said before reaching over to scratch behind his ears, he purred lightly in response.

"I mean, I did say that I would help you." Danny said in response, a lazy, satisfied grin spreading across his face before flipping over a few times, dolphining a bit.

"Once more, thanks." I said before leaning over a little bit to get better reach, rubbing his tail as well, his purring increasing in volume.

"No problem, just, scratches..." Danny said before flipping over onto his stomach.

"Alright, kitten." I said with a smile on my face as Danny continued to dolphin, man I forgot how good cats are.

"I haven't gotten pets in years." Danny said as he flipped onto his back, curled to the side a little bit before I gave him belly rubs, he really enjoyed belly rubs.

"Well, that's stupid, everyone with animalistic traits deserves pets." I said before picking him up and dragging him into my lap, only his torso was only my lap the contact was nice.

"I highly agree." Danny said, pushing his head up against my chin before I gave him some more more scratches.

#danny fenton #danny phantom #pitch pearl #vlad plasmius #vlad masters #phanfiction #phanfic #tw food #tw falling #tw swearing #queerplatonic #tw meat #drabble #writing #fanfiction

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expired-monster-craft-smp · 4 years

Text

Vibes Dream SMP members give off (in my opinion)

Dream

Barked at people in high school ironically but it became unironic real quick

Can’t cook very well but is good with a knife, especially at a fast pace

One of those kids who either purposely spells the first word wrong in a spelling bee to just be done with it right away or tries the hardest and manages to win (there is no inbetween for this heathen)

Bites ice cream with his teeth

Has snorted pixie stix far too many times and sneezed blue after each time

Eats bananas with the peels

Wears mismatched socks

Has taken a bite out of a pool noodle because he liked the texture and impulsively bit it (ADHD things✨😌)

Walks around looking extremely high but he’s just spacin out and stuck in his head

Dreams (lmao) in Minecraft and video games in general

Will flirt with anything that moves but has no idea how to respond to compliments

Makes fun of himself first before anyone else can

Has eaten an orange peel and it wasn’t that bad in his humble opinion

Wears khaki shorts

Eats the wax part of the baby bell cheese

Doesn’t actually know what genre his music taste is cause he vibes to everything

Georgenotfound

Picks at the skin on his lip when it’s dry so it bleeds and he tries not to give in by licking his lips often enough to the point where it became a habit

Wears velcro shoes because he doesn’t feel like tying them (he knows how, he just doesn’t wanna do it)

Eats peanut butter straight from the jar

Makes that disgusting “ants on a log” thing (celery stick filled with peanut butter topped with a row of raisins)

Can’t drink milk plain, it’s gotta have some sort of flavour

Can draw a perfect straight line but his circles look Terrible

Eats cheez-its like cereal without milk

Loves making little noises so much like he walks around his house doin chores and he’s just goin “memememenownownwnkwkshskshkshskhs”

Hates wearing socks

Coloured his tongue with highlighters because they’re non-toxic

Constantly tapping his feet and hands to a song/beat playing in his head

I can’t imagine this man using a bike of any sort, so Imma say he doesn’t know how

Can’t be licked by dogs because he’s used to being licked by his cat so it makes him uncomfortable

Can actually sing pretty well but gets real nervous in front of people so he fucks it up

Sapnap

No idea how to cook anything other than Mac and cheese please help this man

Meows at cats because he wants to confuse them and laughs Way too hard when he does (his laugh is like sunshine so I’ll allow it)

Would be fantastic at braiding hair Idk why

Gives the BEST fuckin hugs EVER

When singing, he makes noises for the instrumental parts too

Wanted to play the drums at one point

Really likes pit bulls but he’s more of a cat person so he loves them from afar

Only vaguely knows how to shave his face properly without hurting himself

Opportunities for him come up out of pure luck but mans is skilled for them so it works out well almost Always

Used to or currently has a skateboard and isn’t too bad

ALWAYS has bruises appearing everywhere for no reason, he doesn’t even know where 90% of them are from

Calls his friends twinks to jokingly bully them and gets away with it because he himself is not a twink

Gets sudden bursts of energy in the middle of the night and just shimmies around a bit to try and deal with it

Favours spearmint over peppermint

Arsonist

Banned from three (3) Dave & Busters in Texas

Badboyhalo

Washes his hands after doing literally anything

Likes the bird exhibits at the zoo (specifically the penguins)

Very good at cooking, best at soups and stews

If he painted his nails they would definitely be a baby blue

Overthinks very simple things and it makes him look less smart than he actually is

Drinks tap water

Probably prefers whiskey over beer

Knows how to tap dance a bit

Surprisingly good at taking and handling shots

Steady hands

Adds extra chocolate to hot chocolate

Plays sudoku and is really really good at it (only uses pen when he plays)

Everytime he sees a Himalayan salt lamp he NEEDS to lick it despite knowing it’s very salty and he’ll pull a face afterwards

Not great at Rock Paper Scissors

Wears sunglasses inside for no reason at all, he just,,,Does

Still has a stuffed animal from childhood perched on his bed

Probably tried his hand at archery

Tommyinnit

He has no idea how to use a baby voice on children or animals, so he just talks to them normally

Wears socks to bed

His fingers are double jointed

Always starts twitching if he stays still for too long because he’s gotta move around

His shoes and have different laces and it bothers everyone but himself

Doodles on himself in class when he’s bored or not paying attention

Has really good hearing, both with pitch and volume

Can’t eat tomato’s by themselves, it’s either gotta be in sauce form or with something else

FUCKING LOVES STRING CHEESE

Terrible handwriting

Favourite part of a slice of bread is the crust

Wants to paint his nails black to be cool and edgy but his hands are far from steady and he has no clue how to paint nails

Pretty affectionate with close friends (like Tubbo and Wilbur) off stream/camera

He likes pears for some reason

Wilbur Soot

Is constantly having to decide between leaving his hair as is or shaving all of it off

He also thinks about adding some colour but never actually does

Most tea is gross to him

Everytime he puts a breath mint thats circular in his mouth, he pretends it’s a pill and he’s taking drugs because he thinks that’s funny

He does that vacant state as a joke but that really what he looks like when he’s spacing out

Likes to aggressively flirt with his male friends but if his female friends flirt with him, he gets a bit flustered

Has probably accidentally swallowed a guitar pick

Once drank two entire jars of pickle juice

Bonks his head on anything and everything

He has broken a pair of glasses by walking face first into a pole outside

Thinks kinetic sand is fun

Has passionate arguments with others about trivial and random topics like chicken feet

Can open a beer bottle with his teeth

Would accidentally pop and swallow a bracket if he had braces

Tubbo

Hates sharp cheddar cheese

Everytime he learns a new word it’s in every sentence he says for the next week or so

Ate candle wax for a dare once

Doesn’t know how to tie a tie and will probably never learn

Wanted to do ballet at one point but decided not to

He has eaten multiple flowers for absolutely no reason other than wanting to know how they taste

Starts vibrating if he’s too excited

Used to bite his nails

ABSOLUTELY DESPISES MUSTARD

Has eaten paper and says it doesn’t taste that bad

Enjoys telling his friends how much they mean to him (this has resulted in Tommy and Wilbur crying on a few seperate occasions)

Spaces out a lot and doesn’t often pay attention to his surroundings

Gets lost inside of Best Buy’s

Likes s’mores but doesn’t properly understand how to make them

Technoblade

Learned to cook purely out of spite and found it’s actually pretty fun

Constantly getting smacked in the face by trees when walking outside

Really likes apple pie

Everytime he looks at potatoes he thinks of all the hours he spent trying to win the potato war

Starts things as a joke and gets too into it

Doesn’t like the taste of most energy drinks

Has rubbed salt and lemon juice into an open wound to just,,see how it felt (he did it once and Hated it but did it again because he forgot what it felt like)

Sometimes hates how quiet he is because everyone he knows is loud and talks over him

Despite how he is portrayed in the Dream SMP, he is extremely loyal to his friends and would kill for them

Over seasons his food because he can’t taste it otherwise

Really good balance

Doesn’t like to wear bright colours, but still enjoys wearing colours

Good at knitting

Quackity

Actually fairly quiet when off camera

Will accidentally use Spanish grammar while speaking English sometimes

Country music confuses him

Doesn’t really like kids but they really like him

Can’t dance

Hardest drugs he’s ever done is second hand smoke from a cigarette and children’s Tylenol

His favourite jolly ranchers are the red and blue ones

He uses lighters as fidget toys basically

Will have a breakdown, take a bubble bath, and call himself the self care king

Dehydrated

Wants a pet rat but he already has a cat and doesn’t wanna risk anything

Constantly questions why his main source of income is playing Minecraft with two 16 year olds

Karl Jacobs

Probably ate a spider once

Would wear those socks that are like gloves for you feet where it separates all the toes

Eats ravioli straight from the can, cold

Can answer an incredibly complex math equation fairly easily but will stumble over 12x11

Loves kids so much and speaks to them in a soft voice

Tried making ramen in a coffee pot and broke it

Drinks 2 monster energy drinks a day on average

Likes to open walnuts with his teeth but doesn’t actually eat them

The embodiment of that one John Maulany joke where he says you could spill soup in his lap and HE’D apologize to YOU

Loves physical affection so so much!!!!

If he moves his wrists in a certain way, they pop Really Loudly

Fantastic at making cookies

Fundy

Lowkey actually a furry but more on like, a cat boy level than fursuit level

Drives a Honda Civic

Likes ABBA

Adds parsley to almost anything he makes food-wise

Loves garlic bread so much, he’d commit a federal crime for it

Middle child vibes

Decent at skiing

Good at singing but isn’t terribly confident

Seems responsible at first glance but in reality he’s pretty chaotic and childish

Bad at spelling

Always cuts his nails way too short so they always feel weird/hurt

Likes bracelets and rings

Thinks pastel colours slap

JSchlatt

Despite the character he plays, he’s actually really sweet

He’s genuinely that cryptic off camera as he is on camera

Can cook but chooses not to most of the time

Would probably say “what pussy size you wear” to anyone who asks him to buy pads

Not actually as intimidating as he appears to be

Lowkey would fight a child

Shuts down when someone compliments him, often using aggression as a front because holy shit they just called him handsome and kind what the Fuck-

Jokingly says his license is suspended but in all actuality he never got his license in the first place

He has two (2) extra teeth but they don’t need to be removed so he kept them

Has a stick n poke of a stickman on his ankle he got in high school

Likes physics

This is already very long, and I still plan on adding more.

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thephantomofthe-internet · 4 years

Text

Read Into Me Chapter 3: The Scarlet Letter

Steve Harrington x Reader

CATCH UP ON THE SERIES HERE

Word Count: 4,420

Warnings: Bad grades, swearing, anxiety, bullying

Tag List: @divinity-deos @thecaptainsgingersnap @wolfish-willow @scoopsohboi @herre-gud-nej @clockworkballerina @maddie1504 @i-am-trash-so-much-its-scary @bajino-in-the-hole @buckysarge @wildcvltre @stanleyyelnatsiii @t0rmenta0 @10blurredsmoke10 @unusuallchildd @n3wtscaseofniffler5 @alwaysstressedout @peterparxour @linkispink1995 @asharpknife @a-big-ball-of-idk @used-avocado @mochminnie @sledgy14 @the-creative-lie

Steve arrived first to Mr. Lawrence’s homeroom, his paper shoved to the back of his notebook. He was happy to have the distraction of Vicki and Tina jabbering at him. He didn’t want to think about his paper. English wasn’t his best subject, but he could hide it from his peers when it was just the teacher and him going back and forth on essays, him writing and them marking. Now, somebody was going to know that he wasn’t good at this. Nancy knew, of course, and while she didn’t say it she always seemed a bit judgemental over his lack of essay writing skill. She was good at everything; it made him feel like he was in good hands when they were together, like they both had something to offer. Apart, it made him feel stupid and secondary, like he was awful at everything. Truth be told, he didn’t exactly know what he had even offered to that relationship, looking back he couldn’t understand why he thought he was worth anything in a relationship at all.

When he sat down, the desk next to him was empty. Steve wasn’t usually early to class, so he was a bit relieved to not see you there. Maybe he could avoid the eminent roasting of his work.

You got to school late. You were absolutely drenched from head to toe. You had walked to school that day, and a sudden rainstorm hit you halfway through, soaking you before you could make it to the building. To make it worse, you’d decided to wear white for the first time in forever. You rushed to your locker in the hopes to change and luckily you’d left a stained sweatshirt there from the previous semester. You’d pushed your wet hair up and away from your face and rubbed away the bits of black eyeliner that had flaked down you cheeks. You looked like shit and you knew it. It was turning into a less than successful morning. You hadn’t even had a chance to look in your locker mirror once you’d changed. You were already late enough for class and didn’t need the write up. You rushed to your English class.

Everyone turned their attention to the doorway when you opened it. You hurried to your desk, keeping your head down and ignoring as Vicki and Tina laughed. You heard Tina say “She looks like a drowned rat.” But you chose to pretend that you didn’t. You were freezing; Hawkins High turned off the heating system mid-March and left the school to stew in whatever weather the state was dealing with to save the county a few bucks a month.

Steve slid his paper onto your desk, keeping his eye on the front of the room as Mr. Lawrence took up attendance. He’d written on the board in chalk ‘how to peer edit’ in thick block letters. You weren’t exactly enthused by the topic, but you were glad to have the dull class to doodle instead of actually listening. You flipped the paper in front of you, looking over Steve’s chicken scratch without really taking in any of the information. You slid it into your trapper keeper, passing Steve your own typed copy of the assignment. You’d made sure to keep the original at home, edited just in case Steve didn’t give you any edits. You left in some mistakes so he could get a grade, but you didn’t want to have to rely solely on him.

You flipped open your sketchpad slowly, keeping your eye on Tracy Lords curly mess of hair piled high on the top of her head like Medusa’s snakes trapped in a golden laurel, or in this case a braided headband. You pulled your graphite pencil from the pink pencil bag you’d sewn in freshman year home-ec. You started with the shape, trying to capture the exact strangeness pile, making little tight curls in the centre of the oval and spiralling in all directions. You felt a pair of eyes on your neck and you turned to see Steve staring over your shoulder. You pulled yourself and the pad inward, trying not to blush. You didn’t like people looking at your art; you hardly showed your work to anyone, even Samantha. All of your drawings sat in their pads, which piled up as the years went by, untouched and forgotten. If Samantha wasn’t allowed to see the pictures of her, Steve Harrington was certainly not allowed a peak.

“Alright, today if you and your partner are ready to begin, we’ll start editing our papers. If you aren’t ready, that’s fine but today is the only day that we’re doing in class editing so I would spend today trying to finish up so you can at least pass your papers on.” Mr. Lawrence explained. You sighed, closing your pad and pulling Steve’s essay from your trapper keeper.

“Now, we want to look for not only spelling and grammar problems, but also sentences that don’t make sense and confusing details within the essay. It’s not about how many big words you can use, it’s if you can accurately and dynamically give your reader information.” Mr. Lawrence explained. He took to the board, writing key points for his marking, specifically to edit in pen and give a letter grade for the paper.

Tina’s hand shot up “You want us to grade the paper? Isn’t that your job?” she asked, smacking her gum violently. Vicki snickered into her palm, reddish brown hair away from her face.

Mr. Lawrence shook his head “No no, I’m not taking your grade on the papers into consideration for my grade, instead I want us to give each other grades to mark the progress of an essay, to give your partner an idea of what the paper might be worth. It’ll be up to them as to whether or not they are comfortable with the grade or if they want to improve.”

You didn’t like that. Who the hell wanted their classmate grading their paper? This was a recipe for disaster. You uncapped your red pen with your teeth, chewing on the lid nervously. You looked over the page. You had made up your mind that you’d be nice. You’d want Steve to be nice to you. It was the least you could do.

But it only took a few lines to understand that this was not a good paper. Spelling and grammar mistakes galore, run on, confusing sentences, no clear subject. It wasn’t even a good story, hell it wasn’t even an essay it came off more like a point form list. As you added more and more red ink to the black, white, and blue it started as. The paper started to become a Jackson Pollack more than a lame essay for an English class, it almost felt beautiful instead of shitty to destroy his essay. It was as though you were turning into art.

Out of curiosity, you looked over at your paper to see how it was fairing. Steve was, as expected, chatting up Vicki from across the aisle, and he’d made two corrections on your page, both small mistakes you’d left in. You rolled your eyes, a pit of annoyance making itself known in the centre of your stomach, as bitter as the cyanide in a peach pit. You made your last two corrects before scrawling a large ‘D’ at the top of the page and initialling next to it.

You flipped the paper over and pulled back out your sketchpad and brought it close to your chest, pulling your knee up to your chest and adding more curls to the back of Tracy Lords’ head, then focusing in on the braided headband until the bell rang. You flipped your pad closed and slid Steve’s essay back to him, quickly putting your stuff away.

“You mind if I take this home and give it to you tomorrow?” Steve asked, waving your essay in front of your face, nearly giving you a paper cut on the bridge of your nose.

You pushed the paper away, squinting up at him. “Yeah, whatever…” you replied, turning away from. You didn’t feel bad for giving him a bad grade now. He was still a dick head. “Don’t forget your paper.” You added, quickly making your way into the halls. You didn’t usually have the confidence to be snarky with anyone you didn’t trust, but something told you that you could handle Steve Harrington. Maybe it was just how awful his essay was, you felt like you could talk your way out of a fight.

Samantha grabbed your arm as you left the room, the pair of you thankful to have the same lunch period every other day. You hurried into the cafeteria. You knew well enough that she was on the prowl, eyes scanning the room for a certain figure.

“I think the band’s practising today, dude.” You said, taking an extra tray for Samantha and getting her serving of lumpy mashed potatoes and chicken surprise slopped on the plate. Samantha was looking for Robin Buckley, a junior on her soccer team who had drawn her attention as of late, and had been trying to get closer to her as of late, inviting her to join them for lunch every time she saw her and leaving you to third wheel.

“Yeah, probably.” She replied, taking the tray you held out for her and paid for her meal. “So, how’d talking sweet, sexy assignments with King Harrington?” Samantha crooned, batting her eyelashes up at you.

You rolled your eyes “Well, for one, we don’t talk period, and for another it’s fucking awful.” Taking your places at the table closest to the emergency exit, you settled into your routine of trying to choke down the awful cafeteria food. You grabbed your trays and had them filled with whatever horrific concoction the lunch ladies had come up with that day. You carried your grey and brown mushy mess to your table, a small four seater near the edge of the room, out of view from the popular assholes who liked the throw food.

“Oh? Is that what makes it awful? Not getting to enjoy the charming conversations he has to offer?” Samantha was trying hard not to laugh. Watching you squirm was hilarious.

“More like because I have to read his writing…” you replied. You jabbed your fork into what was supposed to be pot roast, but seemed to be ninety percent instant gravy and ten percent meat from an undetermined animal.

“Since when are you such a snob?” Samantha’s mouth was full of mashed potatoes, but the words rang clear.

“Since I spent my morning reading absolute dog shit about a vacation to Miami beach. It was pathetic! I mean, and I’m no critic, but if you’re going to write me an essay on your vacation, can you at least make it interesting?” you ranted. The more you talked about how awful it was the angrier you got about it. You spent so long on art and creating, you spent your time working hard and for someone to slide through life made your blood boil.

Steve didn’t usually spend his free time searching through the cafeteria for people, people usually found him. Tommy and Carol had already motioned him over, their new friend Billy already gone somewhere else, and Vicki and Tina had called for him to join them, but Steve had to handle something first. He didn’t really know what he was looking for, he wasn’t certain he’d find it in there, but there wasn’t any shame in searching. He would ask someone for directions, but it seemed that nobody knew or cared where you were at any time.

You gave him a ‘D’. A god damned ‘D’! He was flummoxed, he thought his essay was shit, he wouldn’t pretend that he didn’t, but he had expected you to be a bit kinder. That was like the unexpected rule of everyone in the class, to grade on the curve. But you went in hard. All he wanted was some answers.

He saw first a flash of pencil stained hands in the air, then the shine of your hair under the florescent lights. You were talking with your hands, making Samantha Cameron laugh hard. He’d never seen you that animated, it made him smile for reasons he didn’t quite understand.

He chuckled, coming up behind you in the hopes that your ease would stick around if he didn’t announce his presence. “You really gave me a D on my paper? What did I do to deserve that?” he asked.

Apparently, you really couldn’t smile when he was around. Both you and Samantha’s smiles dropped, your punky friend dropping her gaze as you were forced to turn around. “Oh…um…well I mean it…maybe I need to look it over again, I was probably being too harsh…” you stuttered, unable to keep yourself from burning up. You prayed that he hadn’t heard what you were saying. That would’ve been awful.

“Hey, it’s cool, the paper’s no good, it’s no big deal.” That was a lie of sorts, when Steve saw the big red ‘D’, his heart dropped. And he really didn’t believe that you were as innocent as you seemed. You seemed guilty over something.

“Well…I’m sorry anyway. I didn’t mean to bother you…” you apologized. You hoped he’d go away; you’d never been more uncomfortable around a person than Steve Harrington. You didn’t know why, but something about him made gave you more butterflies than other people did, he scared you for reasons you couldn’t quite understand.

“You didn’t bother me, don’t worry.” Steve chuckled awkwardly. You wouldn’t look him in the eye, it was throwing him off. “So, listen, I don’t want to fail this class,” he huffed out a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck “Could you maybe help me rewrite this thing?”

You looked to Samantha, unsure if you could even speak words anymore, but she was smirking into her pot roast. Absolutely no help at all. You tried to smile “Um…sure, I can’t promise I’ll be much help though…” your voice was hoarse and unsure of itself. You hated that you’d said yes, but you couldn’t bring yourself to refuse. What if he got mad? Or yelled at you? You couldn’t handle being ridiculed or yelled at, you’d die.

Steve chuckled “Any help I can get is good enough. I can meet you in the library after school, okay?” he said, turning his gaze to Tommy’s hollering from across the cafeteria. He waved him over with both hands, like a sailor on a sinking ship, trying to beckon Steve back to where he belonged. Steve nodded, holding up his index finger, he only needed one minute.

“Sure, yeah that’ll work.” You said, fiddling with a thread hanging from the edge of your grey sweatshirt. You’d painted a little pink flower on the inside of the sleeve. When Steve saw it, he couldn’t help but smile at it; it looked so sweet and earnest.

“Alright, I’ll see you then.” He left after that, heading over to Tommy, who was frustrated beyond belief. He took his seat easily, stealing the pudding cup off of Carol’s tray wordlessly.

“What did that freak want?” Tommy asked loudly, his eyes blown wide. Carol was painting her nails, not even bothering to look up from her work. Tommy made no attempts to hide his dislike of you. He’d expected his best friend since the second grade to feel the same.

“She’s nice, we’re doing an assignment together.” Steve replied with a shrug, pulling the plastic covering off the cup, sticking the plastic spoon into the vanilla pudding.

Across the room, Samantha grabbed onto your hands with a giddy grin. “Look at my little girl! She’s got plans, with a boy!” she squealed, swinging your arms back and forth over the table.

“Jesus, can you please stop acting so straight? You’re gonna scare Robin off.” You yanked your hands away, watching with a grin as she turned her attention back to looking around the room excitedly. You let your eyes find Steve in the cafeteria, the buzz of fear filling your ears. You couldn’t believe that you agreed to meet him anywhere. You wanted to disappear.

You couldn’t focus on anything for the rest of the day. Your mind had gone into a feral sort of panic mode, pumping fear through your veins and turning your palms cold. When the final bell rang, it took all your strength and courage to not run all the way home. You knew that if you didn’t show, the problem wouldn’t go away. You’d just have to deal with the results of ditching the next day, and if not done now, then you’d have to deal with it another day. You clutched your books tight to your chest, sitting on the bench outside the library, trying to keep the butterflies from bursting out of your mouth. Your hands kept coming to your hair, trying to fix it or keep it away from your ears, maybe just to comfort yourself. It had dried weird and you worried that it looked ridiculous.

You saw his shoes come up to yours before you saw his face, royal blue Adidas with white and red details and dirty laces. You noted your own dirty white Converse, marked with mud and lyrics to songs that Samantha wrote on the toes. “Hey, you ready to do this?” Steve asked. You looked up and nodded, swallowing hard.

You wouldn’t make eye contact with him again. It was really starting to freak him out. He didn’t know what he did wrong, but it seemed like you really didn’t like him. Still, you’d agreed to help him and he wouldn’t take that for granted. He’d read your essay twice and it was good. He didn’t know much about good writing, but he knew that Mr. Lawrence would like it, that it would get a good grade. And he wanted decent grades too, so he could get into college and get his dad off his back.

The Hawkins High library was fairly quiet after school, most students headed back home or to after school clubs. Only a few stragglers remained, mostly using electric typewriters and returning books to poor Mrs. Mueller, who always kept the library open till four, waiting for her husband, the head of custodial staff, to finish his work. She smiled at you when you walked in. Mrs. Mueller was a nice woman who let you sit in the library during lunch and always checked in on you when you seemed alone. She was your favourite teacher, despite never having a class taught by her.

Steve chose a table in the dead centre of the room, dropping his blue bag on the wooden chair next to him and pulling out his papers. You carefully followed suite, folding your hands in your lap, unsure what to do with them. Steve smiled at you, sliding the essay towards you “So, what am I doing wrong?” he asked.

You narrowed your eyes, unsure where to begin. You picked up the paper, and then open your notebook, writing down everything the story seemed to be about. Steve watched you, utterly confused. Once you had every down, you set down your pen. “Okay,” you didn’t look up from your paper, sliding the essay to the middle of the table. “Tell me what your paper is about.”

“What? You read it, you should know.” Steve laughed awkwardly.

“Humour me.” You replied, looking up slowly to meet his eye. Steve’s smiled dropped, looking at you for a second. You broke eye contact first, but he wished he had been able to hold it for a moment longer.

“Okay, well,” he took a deep breath “I wrote about my family’s trip to our cottage on Miami Beach, and I talked about what I did. Nothing much.”

“Okay, because what you actually wrote isn’t really about that. What you told me is that you went to Miami Beach, your parents own a dirty beach house that was your grandparent’s house and that they’re both dead, that your grandfather fought in World War Two and that the medals were framed in the house, that you met a girl on the beach but she didn’t like you, and that the flight was long.” You explained. You still couldn’t believe that he’d fit all of that into a page of work.

“So?” Steve asked. That was all true of his last trip. Mind you, that was way back in middle school and the details were hazy.

“So, that’s a lot of information that I don’t care about. You can cut all of the stuff about your grandparents, which takes up like half of it. And when you cut that, all I know is that the beach house is in Miami Beach and you met a girl and the flight was long. That’s not bad, but I’d like to know a bit more about it.” You said, taking back the essay from the middle of the page and crossed out every line about his grandparents.

“What do I say instead then?” Steve asked, watching as you crossed out half his page, trying not to sound defeated. You were basically saying that he had to start all over again.

“Well, tell me about the beach? Pretend like I’ve never been. What’s there to do, what’d you like about it?” you shrugged. You found yourself feeling a tad bit calmer; the butterflies had calmed their intense flapping and had let you breathe.

Steve sighed “I don’t know, I’m just bullshitting.”

“What’d you mean?” you asked.

“I mean, I didn’t go on there, I haven’t been to our beach house since I was a kid.” Steve looked away. He was embarrassed to have been caught in a lie, even more knowing that now he’d have to rewrite his whole paper.

“Oh…what’d you actually do on your break?” you hadn’t expected him to be lying about anything, a snow bird spring break trip sounded about right for his family, they were always bragging about their money.

Steve chuckled “Oh no, nothing worth writing an essay on.” You looked up at him again. He seemed a bit sad. You pulled another sheet of paper from your trapper keeper, setting it overtop the last one.

“Tell me about it.” You smiled at him despite yourself. He was bit easier to talk to than you’d imagined.

Steve swallowed, nodding despite himself. “Well, I mean my parents went to the beach house and I tried to throw a party, you probably heard about how that went.” He rubbed at the back of his neck.

“No…” you shook your head. Steve wasn’t expecting that. Everyone had heard about the failed party, he’d gotten shit about it for weeks.

“Well, I couldn’t get any supplies, so I cancelled and hung out with Tommy and Carol instead. We got drunk in my backyard and Carol fell in the pool. She was so pissed. Then, I pretty much just hung about town, helped my buddy Dustin beat Dragon’s Lair at the arcade.” Steve didn’t really like admitting how lame his life was, he purposefully left out how Tommy and Carol only hung out with him when he went to pick up some weed from his older brother and they wanted a hit off it. Admitting that his life wasn’t that great made him feel small and like it was out of his control, which was not exactly a good feeling.

“Okay, tell me about the little party you had with Tommy and Carol. What was the night like? Was it fun? Did you jump in the pool too or did you watch her fall and laugh?” You had written down the few details in a bubble tree and added more details as he explained his time more thoroughly. You managed to get a bit more information on both events, learning more about his friend Dustin and the game they played.

When he was finished, you slid the page over to him. He took it, eyebrow raised in confusion, but you spoke before he could ask any questions. “This is your blue print. I wrote down everything you told me; now just turn it into an essay. The whole trick about these assignments is that you’re telling a story, and to make it interesting you have to give us details, and not about your grandparents or other things that don’t add to the story at hand, about what actually was happening.” You explained, checking the plastic watch on your wrist. It was almost four and Mrs. Mueller had already passed your table twice, her silent warning to leave. Everyone else who had been there had long left and you became very aware of how alone you were with him. The butterflies started their flapping again, churning tides in your stomach.

Steve smiled “Okay, I promise it’ll be interesting though.” He chuckled.

You shrugged “I promise that it’s more interesting than what you had before.” You shoved your papers into your bag, standing quickly “If you want me to look at it again before you hand it in, just bring it to me in class, alright? The library’s closing so I should go.”

“You want a ride home?” you spun around to look at him, crossing your arms over your paint splattered sweatshirt. The rain storm of the morning was long forgotten and you didn’t know what the weather looked like now. A part of you wanted to take the ride, but a much bigger part of you told you to run away.

You shook your head “No, um my friend Samantha said she’d drive me after her soccer practise, she’s probably waiting for me.” You lied straight through your teeth, adjusting your backpack straps on your shoulders.

“Oh…sure, yeah, I’ll see you around.” Steve stood slowly, tucking in his chair. You waved politely and headed out. The rain had stopped, thank god, and you rushed to your locker, grabbing your wet clothes from your locker before making your way outside. The field was muddy, practise was probably cancelled. You took the long way home that afternoon, cutting through the woods and the muddy park to avoid being spotted by Harrington on the way and getting caught in a lie.

The afternoon had gone well. And that scared the shit out of you.

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behealthay · 3 years

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10 Healthy Comfort Foods near me that i should eat everyday

Over the last 2 decades, we’ve piled on a great deal of exceptionally great healthy comfort foods. We love sharing these top 10 best healthy comfort foods, as they’re currently family top choices in a wide range of homes over the world. These comfort foods are what home-cooking is all about. These foods have moved towards becoming the healthy choice throughout the world in the recent years.

#10 Chicken Potpie Tartines

Chicken potpie tartines is one of the best healthy comfort foods for you. It has a blend of mushrooms, frozen peas, matchstick cut carrots and some chicken. Chicken potpie tartines is an easy to cook food, keeping up your health-consciousness. This would spare your times and save you from consuming unhealthy foods. You can give it the extra touch by serving it with some sauce according to your taste.

#9 White Bean and Vegetable Bowl with Frizzled Eggs:

This simple bowl of brothy goodness is stacked with two veggies and umami juicy taste. It’s additionally incredible for times when you’re short on money, as it costs just about a few dollars for around 4 servings. This would be a great blend with the vegetables and eggs providing vitamins with proteins.

#8 Shortcut Risotto with Brussels Sprouts:

Our basic method produces exemplary risotto in a short time. Pre-cooked, dark colored rice stews with a flour-thickened blend of dairy and chicken stock, supported with a pinch of cream cheddar for additional extravagance. This is the mouthwatering recipe providing all the health nutrients being a great addition to the healthy comfort foods.

#7 Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies:

You likely have everything close by to make these chewy, chocolate nutty spread treats. To fit the treats on a solitary sheet container, isolate these cookies into columns. Squeezing the cookies help you to prepare them more rapidly and get flawless fresh edges, else they’ll be excessively round and half-cooked. This would give a great booted edge to your list of healthy comfort foods. These are great for controlling your hunger and sweet tooth.

#6 Sirloin Steaks with Mushroom Sauce and Chive-Garlic Potatoes:

It won’t become more special than a major bit of steak finished with exquisite sauce and matched with rich pureed potatoes. Furthermore, our adaptation figures out how to hold calories under control. The entire dinner has only 300 calories, with simply 3 to 4 grams of immersed fat. To get the full steak house taste, include this with around 80 calories for every serving. You will get obsessed with this healthy comfort food providing a great treat.

#5 Hot and Sour Soup with Noodles:

Some people move towards progressively balanced tastes, while others have cravings for extreme chili to fulfill their appetite. This hot and harsh soup is a take-out essential, but it also can be cooked at home. This winter supper is perfect when you’re sick, yet want to try something according to your taste. This healthy comfort food is great for those who have cravings for spice.

#4 Extra Vegetable Fried Rice:

This is the perfect healthy comfort food when you invite over some friends to your house. You would just need frozen peas and a blend of some vegetables with red pepper. This extra vegetable fried rice won’t feel heavy on your stomach and it provides you with the perfect mix of healthy nutrients. It’s an easy to make comfort food which your guests will love and won’t get over it in one serving.

#3 Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto:

This is possibly the best healthy comfort food you’ll made for this year. You can have this for breakfast, lunch or supper, too. You can serve it with white wine and include a little bit of spinach with the butternut squash towards the end. The shriveled greens, velvety rice, and nutty squash would make irrefutably the ideal dinner. You won’t get over its taste after having one bowl of this.

#2 High Protein Mac and Cheese:

Here and there our most loved healthy comfort foods simply require a little dietary lift. This macaroni and cheese is made with protein-enhanced pasta, at that point makes a sauce from lightly sliced cheddar and without fat cheese, so you get a huge amount of protein and flavor, with less fat and calories. This is a perfect boost for your body as it is one of the comfort foods providing huge amount of proteins with taste.

#1 Sweet Potato and Kale Brown Rice Casserole:

Considerable a lot of us experienced their childhood with mushy rice meals, and this healthy comfort food presents a more beneficial take with a different blend in it. You would require dietary boost like brown colored rice, sweet potato and kale to make it. This sweet potato and kale brown rice casserole is an incredible meal for those who are health-conscious. It would be a protein power pack if you are into athletics.

#health food #health & fitness #health

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a-bit-of-owlish-fun · 4 years

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Quarantine Shopping and Meal Planning

So I asked about this over on @steve-rogers-new-york and there was a positive response, so here we go. Date: 15 March 2020

Before I start, let me be clear that I am not a professional, just someone who deals with stress by planning, and who has some experience with emergency preparedness having lived in New Zealand during the more recent large earthquakes. Feel free to correct me or make positive additions. For clarity, I am currently in Ontario Canada, and cooking for one person, but have made allowances to feed my unprepared housemate in a pinch.

Priorities with this Pandemic Planning

Unlike some other emergency preparedness priorities, power, water, and phone do not appear to be issues. So you have greater flexibility with what you can make and keep. Your priority should be having a comfortable amount of food on hand in case you cannot leave the house. Don’t go nuts, don’t overbuy, and don’t buy thoughtlessly.

Planning What to Get and Make

When thinking about what to buy and what to make, you want to consider a few things:

How many meals do you need to make? That is, how many people are you feeding and for how long? Calculate the number of meals you need in total and make sure you have enough meals planned to cover those. Obviously, if you can prepare for more than that is good, but don’t go too nuts.

How many portions can a recipe make? You don’t want to be making single-serve meals. It’s inefficient and short-sighted. So pick recipes that make large quantities, that can be portioned up in containers to be chilled or frozen.

Am I being efficient with my ingredients? Are the quantities listed in regularly used recipes the most practical for your current ingredient availability? For example, if you’re making a stew with beef, but beef is in short supply, half the amount the recipe asks for, and then bulk up on potatoes, carrots, zucchini, etc.

What ingredients will last best? Don’t JUST get non-perishables! That just sounds miserable. I’ve had no issue so far getting fruit and vegetables, and if you’re smart with your choices and storage fresh foods can be good choices. This when picking items how long they will hold in your fridge or if they’re freezable.

Don’t forget about breakfast and Lunch!

If money is tight and buying ahead is challenging. Think laterally. Make use of dollar stores like Dollarama, Dollar Tree, or whatever your local variant is. They will often have a great range of shelf-stable foods like pasta, rice, canned goods, and other ingredients at really low prices. And from my experience so far, they seem to have passed the attention of many shoppers and are still in good stock-levels. Start there first, hit multiple ones to get a good variety, then shop at supermarkets for whatever you cannot get there. The quality is good, sometimes brand-names, and they can be far superior than supermarket prices.

Do you have a large stockpot, fry pan, and deep baking dish to make these large meals? If not, see about getting them. Large lasagne pans and other kitchen items can be found cheap at many dollar stores.

Don’t have a car? Me neither. Grab a backpack and some good re-usable bags and make multiple trips for heavier items like cans. Also, consider grocery delivery services. They can be hit and miss right now, as it’s harder to adapt to products being unavailable. This being said, they can be a good way to get bulk, heavier items to your house. Also, consider asking friends or family to get you items when they go and drop them off to you.

What Foods Hold Well and Go Far

Non-Perishables that can extend meals

Pasta and Noodles — Pasta is a great item for entending a meal. Be it soups, stir-fry, oven-bake, or just able anything, you can either cook-in, mix-in, or have as a plain side. They bulk up a meal and make it go further.

Rice — Same as above.

Lentils and Other Legumes — Lentils are great for bulking up and extending soups and stews. Also consider chickpeas, beans, and other legumes.

Potatoes — Potatoes are great! The can be a great base, addition, or side to many many meals. While these will not last indefinitely, if you keep them cool and dark then they will last quite some time.

Non-Perishable Ingredients and Flavouring

Canned Vegetables — Don’t be picky. Yes, get fresh veggies where you can, but also suck it up and get some canned goods as a back-up. Carrots, peas, beans, tomatoes, all that. They’re good, they taste fine, and go well in so many recipes.

Canned Fruit — Many fruits have a shorter shelf-life, so consider some canned alternatives.

Herbs and Spices — Make sure you have a nice spread of these. It’s easy to grab the base ingredients for food, but if you don’t have something to flavour those meals with, you’ll have a miserable time.

Sauces — Same as above.

Canned Tomatoes and Tomato Paste — Yes, I’m listing this separately because of their versatility. With canned tomatoes, you can make soups, spaghetti, lasagne, chilli, curry...so damn much. So grab a good stock of these.

Perishables

Eggs — Eggs are so damn versatile. Get eggs. When kept in the fridge they keep for a good long time.

Vegetables — Think smart. Get items you know last well in your fridge, and avoid items you usually have to throw-out or use-up within a week or two.

Fruit — Same.

Breads — Same. Also, consider freezing loaves if you have the space to do so. It tastes just as good as fresh, honest.

Frozen

If you have the capacity to get things frozen or to freeze them. Do it. Frozen peas, corn, stir-fry veggies, meats...they last well and taste good.

My Grocery List

This is what I have been buying myself. Not all at once but in multiple trips over the last couple of weeks.

Pantry

Top-up herbs and spices: ground cumin, garam masala, oregano, basil.

Spaghetti pasta

Spiral pasta

Lasagne pasta sheets

Large bag of rice

Flour

Canned tomatoes (4 large cans)

Tomato paste

Canned asparagus

Canned coconut milk (2 cans)

Lentils

Potatoes (6 large)

Onions

Fridge

Eggs (12pc)

Milk

Cheese

Zucchinis (3)

Carrots (large bag)

Lemons (2)

Limes (2)

Bag of spinach

Bell pepper (1)

Crescent Rolls

Freezer

Peas

1kg minced beef

750g stewing beef

Box stuffed chicken breasts (I love ham and cheese and a good addition to any meal)

500g lamb (for curries)

500g stir-fry beef

Household

ONE pack of toilet paper. Seriously. Just get what you personally need.

A couple of small packs of cheap toilet paper from the dollar store.

Pack paper towels

Any cooking materials like tin-foil, parchment paper, that I use regularly.

3-pack tissues (I have killer allergies so I’ll always need them)

Plastic containers for portioning meals in the fridge or freezer.

Meals I have Planned

These aren’t full recipes, but rather a list of ingredients and volumes for grocery references. I might write-up full recipes later if people are interested.

Lasagne

This is my fav vegetarian lasagne that also have minced meat. It makes around 6-8 servings (depending on home much you eat and size of baking dish).

Lasagne sheets (dried) or just those baby lasagne pasta if you like them better. 4 cups Milk 250g Cheese Butter Flour Nutmeg Chicken stock 3 Large Carrots 3 Large Zucchini Large bag of fresh spinach leaves 400g Canned Tomatoes Fresh/Jarred Garlic 500g minced beef Light Herbs (oregano, basil, etc to taste, but not too much)

Vegetable Stew

Technically a soup, but I never blend it and just eat it as is. Makes 3-4 servings alone and 5-8 servings when served with cooked rice.

2 cups dried lentils (soaked overnight) 1 Large Can Tomatoes (not pre-herbed, just used plain) 2 cups Chicken or Vegetable Stock 2 Large Carrots cubed 2 Large Zucchinis (quartered then cubed) Fresh/Jarred Garlic 1 Tbsp Cumin 1 tsp Ground Coriander Fresh Coriander (lots) Fresh ground peppercorn

Beef Stew

500g Stewing Beef 3 Large Potatoes cubed 3 Large Carrots cubed 1-2 cups Frozen Peas Fresh/Jarred Garlic 2-3 Tbsp Flour Fresh ground peppercorn 1 Large Onion 3-4 cup Beef Stock 3 Tbsp Tomato Paste Rosemary 2 Tbsp Cornstarch

D.’s Curry

This is just and random mash-up curry I make. It can be cooked with or without lamb and both taste great. It is not spicy. Makes 2-3 servings

2 Large Onions (one minces with spaces, one sliced) Fresh/Jarred Garlic Fresh/Jarred Ginger Ground Cumin Ground Coriander Ground Cardamon Whole Cardamon Seeds Whole Cumin Seeds Garam Masala 300ml Uncooked Rice (then cook it, obviously)

Closing thoughts

Once you have these items, don’t use them. Carry on like normal and don't use these items unless you need them. Now I have my meals planned, I am back to making normal meals with what I can get. Always have that TWO WEEK buffer on hand at all times.

Purchase your groceries gradually. Don’t buy out in one go, be considerate. Take only what you need.

Visit multiple locations, sell-outs are not the same everywhere and while one supermarket may be sold out of something, another may still have a fresh stock.

More stocks WILL come. So if you cannot find something, make alternate plans, find a substitute, and return every now and then to check stocks. Supermarkets are constantly restocking as they can.

Be kind to customer service workers. They are just trying to get through this like you are. They are not paid well, have no control over their employers' stocks or decisions. They have the same stress you do and you being an asshole is just causing them MORE stress they do not deserve. Be. Kind. Be. Understanding.

Support others. Friends, family, neighbours, co-workers. We do this together.

DON’T STRESS OUT! Be prepared. Be aware. But don’t become overwhelmed, it will all be FINE. We just have to adapt and ride it out <3

I hope this was helpful. Have further suggestions or any corrections, please do let me know, I’m always happy to correct myself. If you have any questions feel free to comment and message me. And if you want those full recipes likewise let me know!

#COVID 19 #coronavirus #Meal Planning #Emergency Planning #Quarantine #Quarantine Plan #Quarantine Shopping

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healthyfoodforpregnancyus · 3 years

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Healthy Food for Pregnancy

Best Food For Conceiving A Baby – In case you’re attempting to get pregnant, is your eating regimen pressed with nourishments that expand fruitfulness? As indicated by an investigation of diet and richness from Harvard Medical School, dissimilar to different elements that you can’t control, for example, age and hereditary qualities—eating certain nourishments and evading others is something you can do yourself to help improve your ovulatory work. Your body is experiencing a flood in hormones right now, which can incite affliction. The hormone progesterone explicitly can trigger stomach related disquiet, including blockage and reflux.

Mostly women’s take full attention on the best food for conceiving baby. Various moms-to-be find that they need to eat a segment of the healthy foods they used to love in early pregnancy women care, such as new veggies or lean meats (don’t pressure pregnant women, wanting returns the resulting trimester).Women’s must take attention on Food in First Trimester of Pregnancy. Until additional notification, don’t sweat it to an extraordinary if you’re not in the outlook to pile up a full plate for every supper. Taking everything into account, revolve around these bravo foods in the essential trimester to cover your dietary bases.

Essential nutrients full Conceiving Diet for women

Folic Acid

In any case, called foliate when the enhancement is found in sustenance, folic acid is a B supplement that is earnest in helping prevent birth gives up in the baby’s cerebrum and spinal string, known as neural chamber surrenders. It very well may be hard to get the recommended proportion of folic destruction from diet alone. Folic acid isn’t just critical when you’re endeavoring to consider or from the earliest starting point in your pregnancy.

Folic acid associates the body discrete

You’ll have to finish off on it all through the accompanying nine months since it accepts a massive part in the production of red platelets and helps your newborn child’s psyche and spinal rope develop correctly. Folic acid associates the body discrete, use and makes protein, the structure square of our cells. Consequently, the March of Dimes, an affiliation focused on hindering birth deserts, suggests that women who are endeavoring to have a youngster take a step by step supplement upgrade containing 400 micrograms of folic destructive consistently for any occasion one month preceding getting pregnant.

During pregnancy, they advise women to construct the whole concerning folic destructive to 600 micrograms for each day, an aggregate commonly found in a consistently pre-birth supplement. Folic corrosive can be elusive in entire nourishments, so you should ensure your pre-birth nutrient contains 400 to 600 mcg. You can likewise discover it in nourishments like:

Leafy green vegetables:

Spinach, broccoli, Swiss chard, and kale are mostly superb alternatives. Sauté them in olive oil and eat as a side dish or add them to soups, servings of mixed greens, meals, and omelets.

Fortified grains: Search for breakfast oats that contain 100% of the suggested day by day esteem.

Oranges and strawberries: These are so yummy; they’re anything but difficult to fuse into your eating routine!

Beans and nuts: Do whatever it takes not to burn-through such a large number of these immediately since they can add to the stomach-related problems you may effectively be managing.

Calcium

This mineral is used to amass a baby’s bones and teeth. Accept a pregnant woman doesn’t consume enough calcium. In light of everything, the mineral will be drawn from the mother’s stores in her bones and given to the kid to fulfill the extra necessities of pregnancy, as demonstrated by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Various dairy things are similarly supported with supplement D, another enhancement that works with calcium to develop a newborn child’s bones and teeth.

Pregnant women beyond 19 1,000 years old 1,000 milligrams of calcium every day; pregnant young people, ages 14 to 18, need 1,300 milligrams step by step, as demonstrated by ACOG. If your commodities are low when you’re pregnant, your body will take the calcium from your bones and offer it to the creating infant, which may raise your danger of osteoporosis (fragile bones) later on. Attempt to get around 1,500 mg of calcium every day from sources like:

Milk:

The most mainstream calcium source, one cup of 1 percent milk contains 305 milligrams (mg), or around 33% of your suggested consumption every day. Reward: It incorporates a sprinkle of nutrient D, as well. It’s additionally found in soy milk, almond milk, and calcium-strengthened juice. Have a glass as a tidbit, or use it as the base for a smoothie.

Yogurt: One cup of plain, low-fat yogurt contains around 415 mg for each serving — about 40% of your day by day suggested admission. Like milk, you can eat it plain or finished off with the organic product, or use it as a smoothie base.

Cheddar: A 1.5-oz. serving of part-skim mozzarella contains 333 mg of calcium, the equivalent estimated serving of cheddar contains 307 mg, and one cup of 1 percent milk fat curds contains 138 mg.

Kale and broccoli: Vegetables like these are acceptable non-dairy wellsprings of calcium.

Iron

Pregnant women need 27 milligrams of iron a day, which is twofold the aggregate required by women who are not expecting, according to ACOG. Different proportions of the mineral are needed to make more blood to deftly the newborn child with oxygen. Getting unnecessarily little iron during pregnancy can incite sickliness, a condition achieving fatigue, and an extended peril of infections. To grow iron maintenance, fuse an excellent wellspring of supplement C at comparable dinner when eating iron-rich foods, ACOG recommends. For example, have a glass of pressed orange at breakfast with an iron-strengthened oat. Remember that your body assimilates iron better from food. Great sources include:

Fortified oats: One serving of invigorated breakfast oat contains 18 mg of iron.

Lean meats: Beef, chicken, and turkey all contain around 1 mg of iron for each 3 oz.

Spinach: A decent wellspring of iron, ½ cup of bubbled, depleted spinach contains 3 mg for every serving — around 17 percent of your day by day suggested consumption.

Omega-3 unsaturated fats

Not all fats are rancid fats, especially omega-3 unsaturated fats, which fight exacerbation, reduce circulatory strain, and augmentation the extraordinary kind of cholesterol (HDL) while cutting down the dreadful (LDL). Although numerous pre-birth nutrients contain omega-3s, it is likewise essential to get your fill from entire nourishments. You can discover them in:

Fish: Fish that are high in fat, including salmon, anchovies, sardines, and herring, are altogether phenomenal wellsprings of omega-3s.

Grass-fed beef: Hamburger from grass-took care of dairy animals contains more significant levels of omega-3s than meat from grain-took care of bovines.

Nuts and seeds: Pecans, flaxseed, and chia seeds contain omega-3s, as do plant oils like flaxseed, soybean, and canola oils. Add them to your smoothie or sprinkle them on top of a plate of mixed greens for an additional crunch.

Choline

Choline is a nutrient like an essential supplement engaged with numerous physiological cycles, remembering the creation of synapses for the cerebrum. It’s likewise expected to make phospholipids, which help with the structure of cell films.

Sodium

Sodium has a terrible standing and a delicious flavor, yet it is considerably more than enhancing potato chips. A Sodium is one of two minerals found in table salt that endeavors to deal with the body’s fluid, temperature, and pH levels. While it’s extra to various foods for flavor, your muscles, nerves, and organs wouldn’t work properly without enough sodium.

Fiber

Adding more perplexing, gradually absorbable starches like fiber to your eating routine will keep you feeling full for more. Also, suppose you want to get pregnant. In that case, expanding your fiber admission by 10 grams every day may bring down your danger of creating gestational diabetes by 26 percent, as indicated by a recent report.

Some great wellsprings of fiber include:

Grains: Wheat bread, bulgur, oats, and quinoa all contain fiber.

High-fiber oats: Just one serving for breakfast can indeed pack a great deal of fiber into your eating regimen.

Leafy foods: peas, corn, and broccoli are generally good sources, as are pears, blueberries, raspberries, and peaches. Eat the skins or strips for an additional portion.

Beans and vegetables: Lentils, dark beans, kidney beans, lima beans, part peas, and chickpeas are stuffed with fiber. Add them to stews or plates of mixed greens.

Protein

More protein is needed during pregnancy, yet most women don’t have issues getting enough protein-rich sustenance’s in their weight control plans, said Sarah Krieger, an enrolled dietitian and delegate on pre-birth food for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in St. Petersburg, Florida. She portrayed protein as a producer supplement since it helps build enormous organs for the baby, for instance, the cerebrum and heart. Nourishments that are pressed with protein include:

Fish: High-fat fish like salmon aren’t just high in protein; they likewise give a portion of omega-3 unsaturated fats.

Lean meats: Poultry (like chicken or turkey), lean hamburger, and buffalo are generally acceptable alternatives.

Dark beans: One cup contains 15 grams of protein. Use them in a morning meal burrito or natively constructed veggie burgers.

What a Best Food for getting Conceive

It is never too soon to makeover you’re eating regimen. Here are the absolute best nourishments to add to your plate when you want to imagine:

Milk

Dairy items contain protein, potassium, and calcium. Focus on three servings per day, and attempt to pick things that are sustained with nutrients An and D. Utilize braced milk to make oats or as a base for smoothies.

Spinach

Focus on four to five servings of vegetables daily. Verdant greens like spinach are a surprising decision: Spinach is a rich wellspring of calcium, nutrient C, folate, and potassium. Take a stab at adding a modest bunch of spinach leaves to your smoothie, alongside vanilla yogurt and a ready banana.

Oranges

Oranges are likewise pressed with nutrients C, calcium, and potassium. As per the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, nutrient C from organic citrus products can also help your body better assimilate iron from non-meat sources? To work more into your healthy eating routine, take a stab at drinking a glass of squeezed orange or fixing your plates of mixed greens with a couple of cuts.

Braced grains

Whether you’re selecting cooked oats or the prepared to-eat sorts, search for items produced using entire grains and invigorated with iron and folic corrosive, and almost no additional sugar.

Chickpeas

Beans and peas are brilliant wellsprings of protein — and they additionally give a portion of iron and zinc. Chickpeas are stacked with protein, zinc, potassium, and fiber. (Other great alternatives incorporate pinto beans, soybeans, white beans, lentils, and kidney beans.) Use them to make hummus or heat them and sprinkle them on a serving of mixed greens.

Salmon

Salmon conveys a portion of protein, solid fats, and potassium.

Healthy eating tips if you’re trying to get pregnant

You don’t have to eat an ideal eating routine — notice to yourself what you’ll tell your adolescent soon: Do too as can be expected. Also, by starting to coordinate shrewd eating less junk food affinities now, it’ll be less challenging to cling to a healthy eating routine once you get pregnant.

When in doubt, recollect these systems:

Eat more fruits

Produce gives hefty supplements a, supplement C, iron, magnesium, potassium, and fiber. Plan to eat four to five servings of veggies (at any rate, two should come from verdant greens) and three to four new regular item servings every day.

Cutoff your sugar utilization

No one can avoid sugar absolutely, yet it’s splendid to temper your sweet tooth at whatever point possible. The assessment suggests that a great deal of refined sugar — found in foods like treats and candy, similarly as sugar-improved drinks — might intrude with your chances of getting pregnant.

Look at your eating habits

If you follow a restricted eating routine — whether or not that due to singular feelings or because you’re managing a persistent condition — ask with regards to whether you need help filling any dietary openings in your dinners. (A dietician or nutritionist can similarly help.) If you hypothesize that you may have a dietary issue — like bulimia or anorexia nervosa, for example — talk with your master about enlisting the help of prosperity capable and a consideration gathering.

Practice incredible (food) hygiene

Food pollution is dangerous for anyone, yet it’s risky when you’re pregnant. Likewise, some foodborne disorders can impact your newborn child’s prosperity even before you consider them.

Avoid contaminants

For example, methyl mercury, a metal found in some fish, including swordfish, tilefish, and ruler mackerel, and shark, can hurt a baby’s making a tangible framework even before the beginning. As demonstrated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Moreover, white fish contain high methyl mercury levels, so the FDA proposes confining your usage of fish to 6 oz. consistently during pregnancy.

Don’t skip meals

Right now, you may get a kick out of the chance to rest through breakfast or work through lunch. Anyway, once the youngster is prepare. You’ll need to supply him with a steady progression of enhancements for the day. Research your plan now and guarantee you have the energy for three full dinners day by day.

Cut back on caffeine

Regardless of what you may have heard, pregnant women can drink coffee. In light of everything, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and various social events express that moms-to-be should zero in on near 200 milligrams of caffeine day by day, or around one consistently 12-ounce cup of coffee. They were drinking past what that during pregnancy can insignificantly construct the threat of an unnatural birth cycle.

Do whatever it takes not to smoke

Using tobacco can make it harder for you to get pregnant — and once you are pregnant. It can extend the threat of fruitless work. Also, both smoking and taking in utilized smoke can make your kid be brought into the world underweight. And put him at risk for an enormous gathering of natural failures and clinical issues.

Limit alcohol

Several wine glasses may make kids making additionally enchanting, yet an overabundance can make it harder to envision. It’s wise to confine yourself to a few glasses of alcohol for seven days. While you’re endeavoring and decay if you assume you’re pregnant since alcohol can hurt a making baby.

#best ways of getting pregnant #best tips on getting pregnant #best healthy foods for pregnancy #benefits for pregnancy #aid pregnancy

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lucadina · 5 years

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Enigma Girl (2)

Rating: T

Pairing: Eren x Annie

You can read the first part here!

Supper is a predictable occurrence. And kind of gross, sometimes.

The food isn't normally good, nor is it bad. Tonight, however, the main dish may resemble a rendition of the usual potato stew, but might as well be pig slop. That's what happens when the instructors think it's a good idea to assign Connie and Sasha to the same kitchen duty schedule. Eren raises his spoon to his nose, takes a whiff of the greyish-red pudding thing he's scooped up, and tries not to retch. He sets the spoon back down.

'This is disgusting,' Mikasa says bluntly.

Too chicken to agree, Armin opts instead to placate the situation, 'Haha... Well, we've got to eat, since it's another rough day tomorrow.'

Eren remains silent. He's thinking about Annie. Specifically, he's mulling over their encounter earlier in the day, at the forest during hand-to-hand combat training.

Why did he follow her? Was it really an attempt at friendship? No, he's not that pure. Truthfully, he doesn't really know why he’s relentlessly chasing after her. It’s his choice and yet, without so much as an utterance of a word from her, he feels spellbound, like she had beckoned him to year for her - like a fish swimming towards a lure. Not that he regrets it. When she was on top of him, her lips upon his wrist, teeth merely a breath away from his skin; he thinks that moment is a fond memory, one he replays over and over in his head. Weird, considering how Annie is singularly the most terrifying woman he's ever met.

And he's seen some odd ladies crawling the streets at night, none of which have ever struck him as sexy.

Wait. Stop. Not that Annie's—

Going red in the face, Eren chokes on a cry. Mikasa is quick to pat his back and ask what's wrong, but he only brushes her off and hangs his head in shame.

Reiner, who's decided to invite himself and Bertholdt to join Eren's group for dinner and is seated across the table from said suicidal blockhead, has a burning question at the back of his mind. He just doesn't know how to bring it up. Really, a more appropriate setting to do so would be in a few hours at the boys' barracks. But Reiner is a nosy little weasel in bear's clothing who revels in drama (particularly when it relates to a that blonde bitch) and he can't take the suspense any longer.

'Eren, is something going on between you and Annie?'

Every single pair of eyes in the room fly to Reiner.

Even Annie's, if only momentarily.

'What?!' Eren doesn't mean to come across so incredulously, as though the possibility of him harbouring romantic feelings for said girl is preposterous, because he actually might like her but wow— he's never been into girls except the imaginary one with a killer bod that lives in his head and hold on; this is a bold question, even for the outspoken Reiner.

'R-Reiner, please...' Bertholdt clears his throat, throwing a quick glance at the woman they're presently chatting about. Annie’ who's seated three tables over, is unfazed. She simply stares disinterestedly at her untouched meal, 'I don't think Eren wants to talk about that. Let's just enjoy our dinner...'

'Oh, come on. It's just a question.'

'You are the only person she pairs with during combat training.' Armin wonders aloud before backpedaling because Mikasa's glare is that terrifying, 'But of course, it's not practical to get involved romantically with someone, considering we're here to become soldiers.'

Eren frowns, 'Soldiers can have wives. I'd like one eventually.'

'You'd like to wife up Annie?' Reiner wiggles his eyebrows.

'Well, I think Eren's uncomfortable, so we should really move on!' Bertholdt clucks, slapping a palm on Reiner's back with enough force to squash a small animal. Against Reiner's build, it barely registers as a friendly handshake, 'Right?!'

'I'm not uncomfortable,' he bluffs, 'Besides,' a pause to swallow a spoonful of his shit-stew even though it makes him want to gag (he's trying to make a point that he's committed to what he's about to say), 'You guys are seriously making a big deal out of nothing. Annie and I just spar sometimes.'

'Oh, come on,' Reiner snorts, 'I wouldn't blame ya, Eren. I know she's a soulless prune, but she has a nice-'

Mikasa interjects, 'Eren still hasn't eaten. 'You're distracting him.'

It's too late. Eren's offended, for a few reasons. Interestingly enough, that last, unfinished remark regarding Annie's derriere sours him. Annie probably heard that. Did she expect him to defend her modesty? No— she'd probably kick him between his legs and mutter something like I don't need a man to defend me, especially not a boy like you, Yeager! It'll just piss them both off if he says anything.

So much for convincing her that he's interested in who she is as a person, as a human, and not just as a mentor. He can't keep on pretending like he isn't hurt by her, especially after what she pulled in the woods today.

'I don't want to talk about this anymore,' Eren's eyes darken as he gets to his feet, then walks out of the hall.

Mikasa follows him out. So does Armin.

Bertholdt scolds Reiner for his insensitivity.

Everyone else resumes their supper.

Minus Annie, who seethes in silence.

Soulless prune?

Soulless prune?!

Reiner's never been her favourite person, but he's officially on her list. That list. A list that has her preoccupied with thoughts of making Reiner disappear for the next hour of dinner. Before she thinks herself up into actually applying her imagination to reality, Mina interrupts: 'Hey...' she tries to whisper, but she's too loud anyway, 'What's up with you and Yeager?'

Annie shrugs. She bites into her bread, hoping that no one else will start a conversation with her if she's got food in her mouth.

Her plan doesn't work.

Stupid teenage girls; they're unrelenting, and it isn't just Mina anymore either. Now Hannah and Moira and Laura (Annie's guessing their names, they've never spoken to her prior to now) have started shooting questions her way despite not getting a single answer. Perhaps they assume that she'll cave in to their persistence at some point.

'Do you two hang out outside of training?'

'Who made the first move?'

'Do you like him?'

'I'm eating,' Annie snaps— that last question had cut her somewhere deep.

The girls go quiet. Still, they've won: Bingo! Mina shoots Hannah a playful smirk. There's a silent understanding; can't wait to giggle about this later!

The rest of the mess hall reverts back to its usual mild chatter. Jean's bitching about Eren somewhere to the far right, by the door. Marco's trying to calm him down. On the table over, Reiner's giving a speech about how romance is fun, but should be approached with caution since the life they all lead is that of a soldier's.

'Dangerous and unpredictable,' Reiner beams loudly, 'So we should make smart choices. You know— ones we won't regret later.'

Annie scoffs to herself. She knows that he's stupidly aimed that comment at her, which only serves to amplify the murderous intent she already feels towards him. But she'll play it cool, for now. No point in blowing a gasket. She tries to finish the rest of her bread, but only gets to half of it before she drops it onto her cold stew.

The bells chime, signalling the end of the hour.

Annie doesn't immediately get up. She's tired.

Reiner and Bertholdt pass her. The latter's always concerned about her, and this time is no exception, 'You didn't eat much,' he observes meekly. He looks like he wants to say something else, but is intercepted by his fellow warrior.

'It's useless,' Reiner shoots Annie a dark look, 'She never did learn not to play with her food.'

.......................................................................................

Eren doesn't spar with Annie for a month.

Four weeks.

Thirty-one days.

Whatever; she's anxious about it by the time the cold weather rolls in. It's snowing outside, and will probably continue to for the rest of the season. Apparently, in this side of the world, hotter summers bleed into biting winters. Consequently, hand-to-hand combat training is suspended until further notice. The instructors don't want any of the cadets dying on them, after all. Not when the militia is in desperate need of bodies.

Of course, this all means that Annie has absolutely no excuse to interact with Eren.

It's not like he approaches her anymore, not after that fiasco in the forest.

She expected him to put distance. Pushing people away is instinctual for her. But it was even easier to commit to dismissing Eren because his passion frightens her. He's special; so human, but in a way that is foreign to her. Unlike herself, who bends weakly to the will of unknown forces, Eren charges straight into the fray without a second thought. He's defiant, beautifully so, like a single, bright flame flickering a brilliant orange amidst the ice.

Maybe Annie's a little jealous of him.

Maybe she misses him.

Maybe.

'Hey,' she greets him curtly once as they pass each other before roll call.

Eren offers a small, hollow smile. Beyond that, he doesn't say anything and speeds past her.

Annie's surprised by how much his indifference hurts her.

.......................................................................................

There's something that hurts a little more, and Annie deems herself selfish for allowing herself to be stung in the first place.

Eren's a happy person. Despite his history, he's happy.

She observes this in the sparks that go off in his eyes before the instructors introduce a new training course or when he succeeds in what he's previously failed at. He's equally energetic when he's smashing his fist onto Jean's ribs, only to get beaten up right back and whisked away by Mikasa a minute later. That older sister figure of his, together with Armin, scold and console Eren in that order after each of his episodes. Then, the very next day, Eren's got another goofy grin on his face and is ready to fight another day.

He's seen the Titans. Yet, he braves this danger. He dedicates his life, even if it's insignificant relative to the rest of the militia.

He has an unwavering sense of purpose, and because of this, he can be happy.

He knows who he is.

She does not.

'Stare at him any longer and you might as well be eating him instead of your dinner, Leonhart.' Ymir mutters under her breath.

Annie blinks, snapping out of her stupor. She didn't even realise that her gaze has been glued to Eren until now. Aware that a blush blooms across her cheeks, she directs her attention to her untouched bean soup. Is it bean? It's green, with yellow blotches at the sides where the oil separates. Disgusting. She can't do this. But she has to, or she'll be forced to endure another grilling from the girls.

'If you're so into him, why not just go for it?' Ymir continues, nudging her seat-mate with an elbow. Annie's at least thankful that the taller woman is trying to keep her inquiries discreet. The others haven't caught onto their topic. Not even Krista, who's chatting away to the rest of the table about whatever because it doesn't really matter and they all just want an excuse to admire her. 'Leonhart,' Ymir presses while the others are distracted, 'What's stopping you?'

Annie swirls her soup with a spoon, 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'I think he likes you.'

'Well, he shouldn't.'

.......................................................................................

This afternoon, Annie's assigned to do meal prep.

She actually likes to do the cooking because she's a) usually paired with someone too scared to bother her with conversation, and b) it's quiet in the kitchen, away from the hooligans letting loose after a rough day of training. Actually, she seems to have an extra stroke of luck today considering that she's been working for half an hour and yet, no one's joined her. Perhaps she's been tasked to do this all alone, which isn't so bad. She can get it done.

Winter is dogged. Annie doesn't recall experiencing anything quite like it. It's as if the earth itself is rebelling, screaming something like wake up, you fools! There are traitors amongst you!

Annie considers herself.

She's not a good person, but she'd like to believe that she's still a person.

'Hey.'

Annie's heart skips a beat. She recognises that voice, and the familiarity sets off a thrill in her gut that's uncharacteristic of her. Too flustered to even think to put the potato she's been working on down onto the table, she turns on her heel. Potato in her hand and all.

To Eren, it's a strange sight. This strong girl who's given him a hundred bruises and two broken ribs looks harmless in an apron. Domesticated, even. It's not just the fact that she's cooking or that she's dressed for the part; her crystalline-blue eyes are wide, frightened and sparkling with anticipation, like she's seen a friendly ghost. Except they're not friends, so she has no business wearing that expression on her face.

'Sorry I'm late,' he grumbles and reaches for another apron hanging on the hook of the door. He's clearly avoiding her. His back faces her, and his eyes focus on the furthest thing from her body: the empty pot where the stew of the night is supposed to boil in. He busies himself with it. Takes it to the sink, starts scrubbing at the metal. Anything to keep from having to walk over to her.

Disappointed, Annie resumes her potato peeling. Well, more like hacking. She's lopping off the skin in jagged, reckless strokes of a knife. She's bothered by the wordless grudge of a stupid teenage boy who can't lower his fists. What’s worse is she can't even control this feeling she has; of guilt and desire, of a need so tempting that she feels it in her chest now despite having her interest rebuffed by Eren Yeager of all people.

Fifteen minutes pass. Annie knows because she's counting the seconds in her head. She has to, or she won't be able to keep herself calm enough to stop herself from kicking her companion to the ground.

She supposes it won't matter because it'll all be recut into chunks for the stew soon anyway.

Wrong.

Keith Shadis enters, whipping the door open with so much force that the knob hits a wall. His attention immediately flies to Eren, who's started filling the pot with water. As much as Shadis is looking forward to this particular subordinate's next ass-kicking, he can't very well punish without crime, can he? This shred of dignity in the instructor's heart saves Eren, who gulps a hard lump at his throat because he absolutely cannot afford to screw up in front of this guy.

Annie is another story.

'Leonhart, you brainless roach!' Shadis bellows, eyeballs threatening to bulge out of his sockets as he stares pointedly at the naked potato in her hands, 'What the hell is that?!'

She stiffens.

Shit.

She doesn't know what to do, so does nothing.

'Leonhart! You're supposed to skin the potatoes, not maul them! What the hell is this-' Shadis unceremoniously reaches into the wastebin next to her. He grasps the skins she's discarded, brings it up to her face, 'You've taken off the actual meat of it too!'

It's true. She didn't do it properly because she was pissed at Eren and needed to take it out on something.

Annie inhales sharply - she fucked up, can't get out of this one.

'Do you think we can afford to waste food around here, cadet? Do you?!'

'No, Sir.'

'Then do it right! Or I'll have you skip out on kitchen duty altogether and have you scrubbing toilets instead!'

Miraculously, he does not headbutt her. He doesn't so much as touch her, really. Just marches back out as quickly as he'd come, a dozen deep lines expressing his vexation. Although that has less to do with Annie, and more to do with the frustration he feels that he can't psychologically castrate Eren today.

The door slams shut. Annie stares at it, as though she doesn't know how to proceed after what just transpired. It's clear to Eren, who's spent over a decade familiarising himself with Mikasa's cryptic social processing, that Annie is affected by the verbal beating she's received. He can't imagine that she'd take too kindly to being called brainless, let alone a roach, no matter how cooly she tries to play it off.

Sighing, he drops his pot and makes his way over to her. She doesn't react until he takes the knife away from her, to which she flinches.

'Look,' he whispers as he slowly reaches over her side for another potato, careful not to impose on her space with his voice or body, 'You're supposed to do it like this,' he angles the potato diagonally with one hand, presses the thumb of his other onto the straight edge of the knife so that it picks up just a the tiniest bit of the brown skin, which then easily lifts. Thereafter, he secures it with the tip of the knife and gracefully starts to peel.

Annie tilts her head. 'Ah... You're surprisingly good at that.'

'I've had a lot of practice. My mom used to make me help her out in the kitchen sometimes.'

'I see.'

This was meant to only be a demo, but she doesn't make an effort to mirror him. Eren's nostrils flare. Does she expect him to do her work for her? 'Hey,' he presses, miffed, 'Grab a potato and get to it.'

'But you're so much better suited for this task than I am.'

'Oh, no.'

His temperature is rising fast - a natural occurrence around the infuriating Annie. He takes her by the wrist, pulls her to him, back-to-chest, and forcibly takes her hands in his. It's uncharacteristic how tame she is when he manipulates her arms so that they're intertwined with his, his palms nestling on the top of her hands to guide her to a knife and the potato he was working on.

'Alright, Annie— do it like I showed you.'

Do it precisely how I've taught you! That's my daughter!

Annie goes pale (not that Eren can see), and she's once more frozen in place. Green flashes dangerously until he feels her form tremble slightly. She feels fragile, soft, like something human but not quite as durable. It catches him off guard, and he nearly lets her go. He wonders if he frightens her; probably not, although the very thought that he's pushed her into dark corner breaks the chains he's manufactured around his curious attachment to her. Suddenly, he forgets why he's been so upset with her.

He chooses to believe that she's just shaken up from Shadis.

He doesn't fully buy into his own half-assed hypothesis.

Most likely, she won't tell him what's going on.

That's alright. He'll kick it with her anyway.

'Fine, forget the potato,' he whispers into her ear in as soothing a voice as he can muster. His heart is hammering against his chest; she's unpredictable and that's scary, 'Just... I'm here, OK?'

He releases her hands, so the objects she's loosely held onto fall on the table. She makes no move to pick them up, but neither does she swat his arms away. The close proximity of their bodies births a heat that burns him, and he realises the implication of the lack of distance between them.

Awkwardly, he moves to the side so he can pretend to busy himself with a potato and knife. He steals a glance at her; she’s unreadable as always.

'I'm angry with you,' she admits, breaking the silence. She tucks a long bang behind her ear. He observes her fingers; they're trembling. His attention flies back to the potato; it’s less intimidating than the uncharacteristic fragility she displays right now.

Eren swallows, 'Why's that?'

'You've been ignoring me.'

'Thought that's what you wanted, Annie.'

'No,' she smiles at him, knowing fully well that he cannot see.

#ereannie #ereani #eren x annie #eren jaeger #annie leonhardt #my stuff #enigma girl

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