#spoons level dangerously low

[gallusrostromegalus]

I am constantly procrastinating working on my original fic by writing fanfic. Any advice for how to refocus and finish my novel?

Well. The novel probably needs a nap.

Procrastinating is a symptom that something is preventing you from doing the thing you "should" be doing. Most of the time it's an unrelated, but actually higher priority task like resting after an illness (society is fucking lying about anything else being more important) or filing your taxes (actually this one is pretty important).

...but if you're procrastinating on one creative project with another creative project, you're not procrastinating: something about the novel is off right now, the fanfic is more appealing to you.

Consider the following:

You may be writing fic because it brings you more joy than the novel. If you really want to get back to the novel, figure out what would make working on it more enjoyable. Engagement from a beta-editor? Skipping this really boring scene and coming back to it later? Adding more smut?

You may also be writing fic because it's got a lower spoon coat than the novel and you need to conserve your spoons right now. Any extra stress in your life? Moving? Toothache? Recovering from Covid? Annoying roommate? Sick family member? It's an election year? ANY of those could soak up extra spoons and make your novel too expensive for your spoons budget. Let it take a nap, and come back when you're feeling better.

You may be sharpening your artistic skills on a lower-stakes project before going back to the novel. This is pretty normal- even Michaelangelo took breaks to work on other pieces while sculpting The David, both for a change of pace and so he could try something out without fucking up the big block.

Fortunately, you're writing, so you can always try writing the challenging scene a dozen times in different docs or save the parts that were good but don't not in a spare parts bucket doc.

Or keep working on that fic, it's helping you learn on a subconscious level.

You don't love the novel right now. This is alright. This is usually temporary, and the solution is the same- put it aside and work on something else.

Maybe you are just bored of the novel. That's fine and normal, you just save all the documents to your hard drive and come back later. When the fic inevitably gets boring too, you'll come back to the novel and either go "oh hey this kicks ass!" And return to it with renewed enthusiasm.

...Or you'll come back to it and go "oh. This is actually a piece of shit" And that's okay too, because there's nothing more useless than polishing a turd, but that turd is still valuable as compost. You learned things writing it, and you can still rifle through the novel for good lines or scenes or turns of phrase and put those in your spare parts doc to ferment into The Good Shit in the back of your mind.

HOWEVER:

If you are experiencing a different phenomenon wherein you are actively distressed while writing the fic- either out of misplaced guilt, or the fic isn't actually fun you just feel compelled to do something, or absolutely every creative endeavor is stressing you out, you may be experiencing a serious mental or physical health issue and you should see your GP or a specialist ASAP. Pain is an indicator that something is wrong. Do not ignore your body's warning light.

That sounds really dramatic and hyperbolic but realizing I was not enjoying ANY creative work was the symptom that finally got me to sit down and go "huh. All these random pains, irregular sleep cycle, frequent migraines and weird bouts of vertigo aren't normal either, I should get this looked at." And it turned out I had dangerously low blood oxygen at night from undiagnosed sleep apnea. I have a CPAP machine now and it's AMAZING.

I really hope this is regular artistic shuffle and not a serious health concern, but if you're experiencing creative stress AND a bunch of other shit, it may be serious.

[matsutoy]

Translation of character introductions from anime comic "Eiga no Osomatsu san"

Osomatsu

Eldest son of the Matsuno family

ver. ADULT

NEET, virgin. Miraculous idiot with the mentality of an elementary school student. Loves pachinko, horse racing and girls.

ver. age 18

Every day he runs after girls' butts and suddenly thinks to himself. What is a sextuplets? What is an eldest son? Graduation??

Karamatsu

Second son of the Matsuno family

ver. ADULT

NEET, virgin. Always immersed in his own world and trying to look cool....but no one takes him seriously.

ver. age 18

The tense atmosphere in the house frightens him. More concerned about his brothers than himself.

Choromatsu

Third son of the Matsuno family

ver. ADULT

NEET, virgin. He seems serious, but he's not. He has high self-consciousness and gets angry when someone points it out to him.

ver. age 18

The pitch of his voice, the way he walks and the way he turns is just crazy. He seems to be the only one who looks positively on those days.

Ichimatsu

Fourth son of the Matsuno family

ver. ADULT

NEET, virgin. A dangerous guy with half-closed eyes speaks in a muttering voice. He has a low opinion of himself. Loves cats.

ver. age 18

Age where he still tries to do his best in many things. He is consciously trying to get out of the circle of his brothers.

Jyushimatsu

Fifth son of the Matsuno family

ver. ADULT

NEET, virgin. He is in charge of the excitement levels and physicality. He is kind of impossible to understand.

ver. age 18

He's sharp as shit. But even he doesn't really know why. Once he lets his guard down for a second, he immediately becomes an ordinary Jyushimatsu.

Todomatsu

The youngest of the Matsuno family

ver. ADULT

NEET, virgin. He is calculating, mocking, heartless. Nickname Totty.

ver. age 18

He is very attached to his brothers and wants to remain that way after graduation. Hates change.

Totoko

ver. ADULT

A heroine with beautiful looks but an outspoken personality. She says what she thinks as it is. She is good at body blows.

ver. age 18

A heroine who has known sextuplets since childhood. She is almost crushed by the “title” that those around her have hung on her.

_________________________________________

Images taken from Bookwalker. Translated by DeepL translator and my corrections. The translation may seem a little strange, but the meaning is fine. Jyushimatsu's profile could be more incorrect (I had a little help from Chockie with it)(and I took a part of the translation from kaleidion (they translated Spoon.2Di profiles)(there was the same line)).

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Trust

part 9 of DLM ao3

After the stew was done and Danny got out of the shower they all sat down to eat. They ate in silence for a while neither one of the bats wanting to push Danny into feeling uncomfortable, but Jason had a question he wanted to ask. He probably should have asked earlier, but he’ll blame it on the shock for not thinking of it sooner.

“Hey, Danny?”

“Yeah?” Danny said, setting his spoon down.

“How did you know it was me?”

Danny tilted his head and squinted, “What do you mean?”

Jason gestured with his spoon, off to the side Dick was watching them, his gaze analytical. “I mean, how did you know the guy in a red helmet was me?”

“Oh.” Danny settled and picked up his spoon again, through a mouthful of soup he answered, “It wuz th’ same ectoplasmic signature.”

Jason stared. He glanced at Dick, but he also looked confused.

Across from them Danny paused and glanced between them warily. He stared at Dick for a moment before turning to Jason. “Like I mentioned before, we’ve both been… death touched. And when someone’s been death touched a bit of ectoplasm gets incorporated into their system, the amount of ectoplasm varies depending on the situation. But when ectoplasm binds with a person it develops its own unique chemical signature. You can think of it like DNA. Ghosts and some machines can sense the differences, so when I came across Red Hood, I could sense that it was you.”

“Huh.” Jason said unable to come up with anything else in the face of discovering that he gave of what probably amounted to his own unique radioactive signal.

“And you said some machines can track this?” Dick asked. Jason was thankful that his brother was here because he wasn’t sure if he was up for asking all the necessary questions.

Danny looked hesitant again and looked at jason.

Jason nodded at him and Danny looked a little reassured.

“Yeah. There are a few. That’s how the GIW are tracking me. I don’t think they were around Jason enough to latch onto his ecto-signature so you shouldn’t need to be worried about them tracking you down. Gotham has plenty of low level ghosts so their scanners should be pretty muddled. But that’s also why I should go. My signature is stronger than the shades of Gotham and They know how to track it. I don’t want to give you any more trouble.”  Daanny wasn't looking at either of them, instead he was completely focused on stirring his stew.

Jason and Dick glanced at each other.

“Hey, Danny, look at me.” Jason said.

It took a bit, but eventually Danny looked up.”

Jason smiled slightly, “I told you I’d protect you, didn’t I?”

Danny looked away, biting his lip. “I don’t want to put you in danger.”

Jason reached across the table and placed his hand over one of Danny’s. “I’m Red Hood, kid, I can defend myself. And there are plenty of bats in Gotham who would love to help.”

“The GIW are different. They don’t care who they have to hurt to get what they want. They’ll just keep bringing in more agents until they get me.”

“Well then we’ll bring in the Justice League.” Jason said, Bruce would be okay with it if Jason told him it was to protect a kid. 

“I don’t want you to get caught in the crossfire. I won’t let you get hurt.” Danny said, shaking his head. 

Jason glanced over at his brother. Dick was always better with the emotional talk.

“We’re vigilantes Danny. We’ve been trained in defending ourselves and others.” Dick said.

“And they wouldn’t be able to take us down without causing people to go after them for attacking vigilantes.” Jason added.

Danny shook his head harder, he was staring at the table, his eyes slightly glossy. “They won’t care, they'll lie and say you were defending dangerous creatures, that you were being manipulated by evil ghosts.” Danny laughed bitterly. “Or they’ll claim you’re also contaminated and capture or exterminate you. They’ll do anything to get what they want.”

There was more to this, Jason knew. Something bad had happened to the kid, apart from the obvious scar, but now wasn’t the time to push for information. Right now, they needed to convince Danny to stay with them, to let them protect him.

Jason got up, walked around the table and crouched by Danny’s chair. “Kid, look at me.” Jason said gently. He waited till Danny did before continuing. “I know you’re scared,” Danny opened his mouth and Jason continued before he could argue, “and I know you’re worried about us getting hurt. But this is what we do. We fight to protect people. And there are a lot of powerful people on our side. And I’m sorry we haven’t been there for you before, I’m sorry we didn’t get to you in time in the past, but we’re here now. Together we can take down the GIW. Let us help you.”

Danny’s eyes started watering, and Jason reached up to give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Then Jason was falling back as the kid launched himself at him. Jason held Danny as he started to sob. “I’ve got you, kid. I’ve got you.”

“Thank you.” Danny whispered as he cried. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

[obsessedwrhys]

|| RHYS DATING HEADCANONS ||

ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ reader is gn, lots of fluff (I can't english but i love him, also i have low knowledge of the game lore cuz im stuck on a level 😭)

The definition of an airhead, buuuuut he has a big heart

How you guys met was when you had stumbled upon him hiding behind one of the villages houses

As it turns out he was hurt from a fight against some outlaws, so feeling bad at the sight of him trying to treat himself with one arm, you decided to help him out

Your kind gesture touched his heart which led to him frequently visiting you everytime he comes back from a dangerous trip

Just imagine you're outside sweeping the front porch and then you hear him call out your name which you look up to see him waving at you with a toothy smile

It was almost like he considered you his personal nurse as you're the one he always goes to when he's hurt anywhere

When talking to him, you found his behaviour strange since he always talked to you in a rhythmic way, but you also found it amusing

It didn't take long for Rhys to start developing feelings for you since he was very much attracted to you and enjoyed spending every second he could with you

Once he was sure he had a crush, he would start to get you pretty things he found when he's out exploring.

"Look! I got you this! 😊" He'd say with his hand holding out a beautiful yellow flower.

Loves it soso much when you thank him but if you're awkward with receiving gifts, a simple smile is enough to send him over the moon

Would definitely introduce you to his bird mount, 'Plumecharger' who took a while to finally warm up to you

Will also let you feed his bird, his hand would be guiding yours towards the beak very slowly to get them to trust you more, but secretly he was liking the feel of your hand in his

If we're talking about flirting, this man has no idea how to, his vocabulary is already struggling itself so his only way of showing love would be lots of gift gifting and spending quality time together

He had given you so much gifts that you needed to install another shelf to store them

Your personal favourite would be a flower crown he had tried to make himself, the work was a bit sloppy as some of the flower stems were poking out or been worn out from his constant struggle to tie it together. But hey, it's the thought that matters!

I'd like to think that this man would go around asking his friends how to make the first move which resulted in him getting mixed ideas

"You just gotta brag about how much of a man you are! It worked for me!"

"REALLY?!"

Cue him bragging about his criminal stint with the Quicksand Claw that you had to listen with an awkward look, because from what you heard from the other villagers, he was just there to feed the birds

After his epic failure of trying to have you fall for him, you laughed at his poor attempts and ended up being the one to confess, which had him so overjoyed he was actually jumping on his feet

While dating Rhys, he would always follow you around the village when he's not busy with his line of work

Lots of the villagers found it cute how he was always trailing behind you like a poodle. If you're buying groceries for dinner, he's willing to help you hold the basket to show you how much of a big boy he is 😼

LOVESLOVESLOVES CUDDLES

Fine with being big spoon or small spoon depending on yall's mood

He likes it especially when you're both cuddled together with Plumecharger laid down for you guys to rest your heads on, that's when you'll see him at his most vulnerable

His helmet and gears are taken off, his arms wrapped securely around you, a soft smile on his face as he's nuzzled against your chest

PLEASE PLAY WITH HIS HAIR WHEN HES SLEEPING IT MAKES HIS HEART ALL SOFT AND MUSHY

Though, he's very ticklish so if you poke him on the side he'll laugh and start a tickling war

Considering how fluffy his hair is and how he doesn't really know how to take care of it, you'll have to be the one to teach him

He melts whenever you braid some strands of his hair together, so everytime he's out on another trip, he'll run his fingers across the braids thinking about you

Now onto kisses

This man will admit to you with no shame that he has no idea how to kiss, since he never thought he would actually find someone who loves him :(

Once you teach him how to kiss, it's over for you.

Oh? You're busy cutting the veggies? KISS. Now you're trying to clean the house? KISS. You've just finished cooking his favourite meal? SHOWERS YOU WITH KISSES

Since he loves you so much, you have the honour of naming one of his terrabirds.

Without even realising, he would start to give that specific terrabird special treatment that it started to make Plumecharger jealous

Honestly, his pet names would contain just the simpler ones like baby, honey and his personal favourite, babe.

This man cares about you a lot so if you get sick or hurt, he'll drop everything he's doing just to take care of you.

"Rhys where are you going?! We have work to do!"

"Sorry! It's an emergency!" He shouts while running away from his friends.

Doesn't care if you say you're capable of taking care of yourself, he just wants to always be there for you

If you're up for it, he's willing to teach you how to ride Plumecharger, of course he'll be close-by and ready to catch you if you get knocked off or anything.

He's honestly very insecure about his laugh when around you because he's scared you'll stop loving him for it so you'll have to assure him that you love his laugh very much 🥺

If you happen to be insecure on anything about yourself, he'll shower you with even more love, he really doesn't care about your imperfections, he finds you being human more perfect than anything

Dating Rhys also includes lots of dates where you guys are either out stargazing, shopping at the market or doing self care routines together, which is his favourite.

I'd also like to add that this man is SUCH A TEASE!!!!

He likes to make you pout or beg for something so he'll be one of those people who put your things high up or hidden somewhere in the house to have you ask him for help

"Did I hear a please?" He'd said with a smug everytime.

HE ALSO DOES THAT LITTLE HEAD TILT THING LIKE IN THE GIF

If you get frustrated and just decide to ignore him, he'll follow you around like a fly that won't go away.

"Awwwww! Don't be mad, you're just so cute!" He'd say, giving up and handing you your stuff back.

If he could he would squeeze your cheeks right after.

Personally, 10/10 golden retriever boyfriend material

[loudlittleecho]

Too Late to Save Them: Frozen in Time.

Previous

Part 3

Paul had moved the Ice Growler into a shed. He had needed that field, after all. The ice had repaired itself from the previous chips, but never grew larger or smaller. It was just one of those things one keeps in a shed. Out of sight, out of mind, unless you need something.

It had been a year. Two, maybe? From Paul’s estimates, when his son found it. His kids visited every so often. Becks, his oldest, worked as a librarian. His son, Nathaniel, was a. . . stock broker? Banker? Paul was never sure what his son did, but Nathan was always talking about his ‘next big break’. Paul loved his kids, and he and Sara had made sure the two had a decent enough education, and that their wills were fair between the two. Especially when Sara’s cancer diagnosis revealed itself.

Well, Nathan was fit to be tied about the ice in the shed.

“Dad! Do you know what this means?”

Paul added another helping of green beans to his plate. This was a ‘dedicated meal’. Sara had made the kids promise- you will visit your father once a season- this was one of those meals.

Rebecca– Becks- visited more often, though Nathan typically visited only the four times a year.

Nathan continued. “This could be my big break! Ice that never melts?? Dad, I could compete against the Stanley and Yeti brand- I could sell it to medical companies- I could sell it to anyone! I– we could make millions! Why did you not tell me earlier?”

Paul took a swig of sweet tea. Nathan always got very animated when he got a new idea. That’s what he was, an idea man. Becks had a concerned look on her face.

“Dad, have you checked if it's safe, though? What if it’s dangerous?”

Paul loved his children. Becks, the overthinker, and Nathan, the optimistic.

“Bits of it have been in the fridge for a few months now. Nothin’s gone bad. Fridge hasn’t been plugged in for awhile.”

Becks placed the spoonful of corn down. The little family shared who brought what to their dedicated meals. Paul had supplied the iced tea, corn and green beans. (this year he hadn’t managed to shuck and peel like he used to. These were from cans, but he had made sure to rinse and season them thoroughly) Becks had brought the ham and mashed potatoes, and Nathan brought Bluebell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream and store bought brownies. (the brownies had a discounted sticker from the grocery bakery. Paul was just glad Nathan was there).

“Dad. . .” Becks said worriedly, while Nathan jumped up. “The fridge! Really!”

The rest of the evening had a different pace from previous dinners. Nathan was on the phone with different “investors”, while Becks was on theirs researching about unmelting ice and effects of low levels of radiation in humans. Paul thought Becks had finally mastered Sara’s tater recipe. It was the butter. For a few years Becks had tried a ‘fat free’ healthier butter. It seemed to Paul that this year Becks had finally admitted that regular butter (and a heaping spoonful of it) made the best mashed potatoes.

. . .

It had been two weeks. Becks had bought him a new fridge and had brought replacements for everything he had in his other fridge. She told him she loved him and was just worried about the untested ice. (He mentioned twice about paying her; Becks just shook their head both times with a “Dad, I don’t need your money. I just want you".)

Nathan had asked him to borrow the ice. Have it tested. Have his investors look at it. Of course, Paul agreed. He wasn’t getting any younger, and if this really was something Nathan saw as helping people, “of course dad! Think of the diabetics!” Well, who was he to stop progress?

. . .

Nathan had asked his dad to give him the ice. Paul wasn’t sure. If what Nathan said was right, this could make Nathan a lot. . . and he needed to be fair between his two children. Nathan snapped at him. “Give me the ice. Becca can have the farm.” Paul still gave Becks a call. Becks had murmured something he couldn’t hear, but did say: “If you want to change your will that’s your choice dad. If Nathan’s plan doesn’t work. . . I’ll make sure Nathan’s ok. Don’t you worry.”

Paul trusted his children. The overthinker and the optimist.

He updated his will.

Part 4

[topazy]

Tomorrow's promise

Pairing: Daryl Dixon × reader, Rick Grimes × sister reader

Warnings: Swearing

Chapter: 3.05

There is a striking absence of noise during breakfast aside from the occasional sound of Jace’s babbling and spoons scraping bowls. It was too quiet—no conversation, no small talk of any kind, not even gunshots lingering in the background outside. The uneasy tension causes the hairs on your arms and neck to raise.

In-between observing Jace attempt to feed himself mushy oatmeal, you watch as Carl picks at his food; he looks so lost. Everyone present was trying their best to look out for him, but he was only beginning to mourn his mom’s death. Sensing you were being watched, you look across the table you’re sitting at to the concrete steps leading to the next room and meet Daryl’s gaze. You hadn’t spoken to him yet that morning, and since there was an unspoken vow of silence, it didn’t feel appropriate to even say good morning.

With the feeling of Daryl’s lips pressing against your own, heat rushes to your face. Just as you start to feel lost in the moment he pulls away, his lips are now ghosting yours. You start to grow nervous when he doesn't say anything, but he finally breaks the silence, whispering, “Fuck, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

Placing your hand on the back of his head, you pull him in for another kiss.

“Everybody okay?”

You’re almost startled to hear your brother's voice. As part of his grief, he had been avoiding everyone, including his new baby. You spin around to face him and are glad to see he looks better than when you saw him in the early hours of the morning, his hair, face, and clothes soaked in Walker blood.

After a long pause, Maggie answers, “Yeah, we are.”

You share a look with Hershel, who’s sitting beside you at the table; he had already tried to get through to Rick that he was being reckless and putting his life in danger, but he didn’t listen. The older man looks up at him and says, “What about you?”

“I cleared out the boiler block.”

You hear concern in Daryl’s voice when he asks, “How many were there?”

“I don’t know. A dozen, two dozen. I have to get back. I just wanted to check on Carl.”

You try your best to keep any hints of frustration out of your tone. He could hardly look at the sweet baby girl sleeping in Beth’s arms. “Stay here; rest. We can take the bodies out; you don’t need to do this alone.”

“No, I do.” He walks past you and goes over to Daryl. “Everyone has a gun and a knife?”

Daryl briefly meets your gaze; he swallows the rest of the food in his mouth before answering. “Yeah. We’re running low on ammo, though. Lily and Glenn are going on a supply run this afternoon to get bullets and baby formula, and we cleared out the generator room. Axel’s they’re trying to fix it in case of emergency... We’re going to sweep the lower levels as well.”

“Good. Good.”

When Rick walks out of the cell block, Hershel yells his name, but your brother ignores him. The older man sighs, “It might be time for tough love from a sibling.”

You both nod and settle Jace into Hershel’s arms before standing. Just as you go to leave, you feel a presence behind you and turn to see Carl looking up at you. His eyes widened with worry.

“Aunt Lily?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I go with Daryl and Oscar to clear out the ground floor? I asked Daryl earlier, but he says I need to check with you first.”

His words stung; right now, you were his only parental figure. You straighten the sheriff’s hat on his head and force a smile. “Sure, as long as you listen to what he says.”

“Do you think you’ll get through to my dad?”

“I hope so, munchkin.”

—

“Rick…Rick…” When your brother doesn’t respond to you calling his name for the third time, you say the one thing you know will get his attention, “Richard.”

He freezes just as he reaches the door leading outside. Rick slowly turns back around to face you, frowning. He says, “Nobody ever called me that, but dad.”

“I know,” you say, shaking your head as you walk towards him. “But it got you to stop, didn’t it?”

You had spent roughly twenty minutes trying to find him, and with each passing minute, you became terrified that something bad had happened. He had gotten himself killed by trying to take on too many walkers at once. When you open your mouth to speak, he waves his hand dismissively. “Lily, just don’t.”

Irritated, you clicked your tongue. You felt for Rick; it was obvious he was suffering, but if he continued acting the way he was, Carl and the baby would soon become orphans. When he goes to open the door, you slam his door shut and step in front of it. “I’m worried about you, Rick. I’m worried you’re going to get yourself killed.”

“I’m fine.”

He tries to pull the door open, but you press your full weight against it, stopping him. Rick’s grip on the ax in his hand is so tight, his knuckles turn white. You could hear the walkers outside snarling close by, and Rick was in no fit state to take them on himself. “But what about Carl and your daughter? They need you; I need you.”

You don’t even realize you’re crying until you taste the saltiness of tears on your lips.

“How do I move on from this?” He asks. “How do I even begin to recover from this?”

“I don’t know,” you admit. “I sometimes think about the way we were before the world went to shit, and when I do, it hurts like hell, but it was different for me. The man I fell in love with died long before he died on the farm. I’m not going to tell you how to grieve, because hell if I know, but risking your life isn’t the way to do it.”

His eyes became glossy with unshed tears. “I haven’t even held her yet.”

You say nothing.

“Did you forgive them?”

You chew on your lower lip, struggling to answer him. Did you? In the pre-apocalypse you would have cut ties with both your fiancé and sister-in-law, but in the new world, you didn’t have that luxury to hold onto pain the same way you would have before.

“I was just—” He presses his head against the metal bars of the cell, a sob escaping from his mouth. “We were just beginning to forgive each other, and then she died, and now I’ll never know if we could have made it. But we’ll never know because both Lori and Shane are gone.”

Rick drops the ax in his hand and slides to the floor. You mirror his actions and sit down beside him. “What’s done is done. We can’t bring them back, but we need to keep it together for our kids. And you have a beautiful daughter waiting to meet her father.”

—

While you’re handing Jace over to Beth, Daryl walks over to your bunker. He tilts his head to greet the young girl before looking at you. “Hey, are you and Glenn just getting ready to go?”

“We are just getting ready to go now.”

He says nothing while observing you, checking your ammo, and swiping your knife into its sheath. Beth takes no notice of this because she is so focused on Jace reaching for her hair, not that she seems fazed by it. It’s not until you reach for the long-sleeved top at the end of the bed and place it over the vest top that Daryl finally says something again. “The area has already been checked out; there are hardly any dead roaming. Should be in and out quick.”

Although it seems like a general conversation, the look Daryl is giving you is reassuring. “Yeah?”

He raises his eyebrows and points at your hands. Your fingers were trembling while you pushed the buttons through the holes on the top. Daryl was the only one that noticed. “You worried?”

You sigh, “I’m not worried about the run; I just don’t like leaving Jace, Carl, and the baby when my brother is absent.”

Hershel would no doubt be running point in the cell block while Daryl cleared out the lower level of the prison, but you still couldn’t help but worry about leaving them. Beth was amazing with the babies, but you felt guilty whenever she watched them for too long. On the flip side, you still needed to do your share of supply runs.

“I’ll make sure nothing happens to them while you’re gone.”

You press your lips together and smile, “I know.”

“Yo Lily,” Glenn says, standing beside Daryl. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you guys soon.”

—

“We just hit the powdered formula jackpot,” Glenn says, holding the store’s door open with his foot so you can get by. “I can’t believe we have all this stuff.”

Aside from a few birds nesting inside the store, it looked as if nobody else had been in it in a long time. There were shelves full of baby formula, diapers, and bottles that you placed either in your backpack or in red baskets. You’d even managed to find some toys for the kids to play with. “Thank God, I’d hate to go back empty-handed.”

“And where is it y’all good people are calling home?”

Being startled by an unfamiliar voice, you drop the baskets to reach for your gun. The man in front of you had blood sprayed across his face and a large blade at the end of his wrist instead of a hand.

Glenn comes up behind you, looking confused. “Merle?”

The man lets out a laugh, places his gun on the ground, and starts to come closer. “Wow!”

“That’s far enough!”

“Okay, okay, honey. Jesus.”

“You made it,” Glenn says, sounding surprised.

Merle, Merle, Merle You knew that name but couldn’t place it, and then it finally clicked for you who this man is. “You’re Daryl’s brother?”

He nods, “Can you tell me, is he still alive? Huh?”

“Yeah.”

Merle looks genuinely relieved to know his brother is safe. “Hey, you take me to him, and I’ll call it even on everything that happened up there in Atlanta. No hard feelings, huh?” When he notices Glenn staring at the large blade, Merle laughs. “Oh yeah. Well, I found myself in a medical supply warehouse. I fixed it up myself. Pretty cool, huh?”

Glenn tries to reason with Merle by saying he’d bring Daryl to him, but you already knew that wasn’t going to work. Even if you hadn’t heard stories about Daryl’s brother being untrustworthy, one glance at him and you'd know he was trouble. Merle expected you to believe he had made it from Atlanta himself, and aside from the blood that belongs to someone else, he looked clean and relatively healthy. You look at the car behind Merle, and in its reflection, you see another gun in his back pocket. He notices you looking and lunges for you.

“Get off me!”

He wrestles you to the ground and holds the gun to your head. You try to wriggle out of his grip, but he places the blade in your throat, and you are completely trapped.

"Merle, put the gun down and let her go!” Glenn yells, “Put it down now!”

Merle presses the gun closer to your face, and you tremble with fear when you hear him clicking the safety off. You met Glenn’s gaze and shook your head slowly. “We will never tell you where our camp is.”

“Very mouthy for someone with a gun to her head,” he laughs. “Put the gun in the car, son.”

Glenn reluctantly follows his orders. By the look on his face, you know he’s in a silent agreement that, no matter what, you weren’t telling Merle a damn thing. You’d rather die than lead a man like that to your family. With all the commotion, the garbage-covered street was beginning to fill with walkers.

“Get in the car, Glenn; you’re driving. The three of us are going on a little road trip.”

[blurredcolour]

Heyy!! I would do anything, and I mean ANYTHING for some John Brady domestic headcanons with a chronically ill reader? 🤍🤍

Nonny this ask is so very lovely and I’ve interpreted it as reader and Brady in a relationship but please let me know if you were hoping for something different!! 💙

Cut for length, no real warnings aside from references to Catholicism and spoon theory

John Brady is the kind of man who takes oaths and vows very seriously - I mean he volunteered for the Army Air Force and went overseas to bomb occupied Europe, they are more than just words to him

So he very much meant “for better or for worse” and “in sickness AND in health”

There is no question of spending his life with you, whether you come to the relationship with your illness or receive the diagnosis later on. You are his person and he is undeterred by the fact that this may come with some complications or difficulties

Hyper vigilant for any and all of your needs - present, imminent, perceived, potential or otherwise

Seems to thrive on memorizing your catalogue of triggers and symptoms and remedies. At times you may wonder how he has space in his head for anything else.

There would probably have to be some negotiation at first, his desire to keep you safe and comfortable feeling restrictive and overbearing. Sometimes you want to do things that cost a lot of spoons and have a lot of consequences. Sometimes these opportunities or events are worth the costs

John will have to have that explained to him because he cannot bear to see you suffer, so it is difficult for him to wrap his head around why you would knowingly put yourself in a position that will result in pain for the sake of enjoyment. It might help to bring up his flying adventures to illustrate your point.

I still don’t see him entirely understanding it but he will nonetheless respect your decision, now that he knows you are making a choice rather than simply overextending yourself carelessly, and be all the more supportive through the inevitable low that follows

He will still pull the plug, however, if you’re actually putting yourself in danger

More than happy to be the reason you leave anywhere early

“Have an early day at the office tomorrow” or “big project coming up.” It is NEVER because you’re feeling overwhelmed or unwell.

Practically an encyclopedia when it comes to your medications, specialists, and recent appointments. Does his best to attend all of them with you, colouring in the medical history when you look at him for specifics. If for some reason he’s not able to accompany you, he sends you with a list of information and helps you prep

Juggles being the primary income earner, cook, house keeper, and caregiver without complaint

In fact he is far too silent about it, particularly the first period where he literally tries to manage it all to his self-exacting level of perfection

Winds up incapacitated in bed beside you and there is another stern talk about realistic expectations

After a lot of trial and error the pair of you manage to find a very comfortable way of life, dealing with flare-ups as needed, easily pivoting to quiet nights in as required

I mean good for you for picking this man to make a home with, he’s not out there seeking the night life and bright lights anyway. A jazz record and cozy blanket and the person he loves is all he could ever ask for in an evening anyway

[mimzy-writing-online]

Hi there, i have a story where 1 MC is blind. I dont want to fall into any bad tropes so I was looking at your blog and I wanted to ask your opinion. my character went blind young but she sees a shifting mix of color, it cant imply distance or details however, at the start of the story she is gifted a tool that helps shape them into rough outlines, my plan is for her to stop using it as her character grows more confident (use it as a plot point for her development). Do you have any thoughts?

It sounds like this might be a possible accessibility tool, so I don't think she would abandon it completely. She might become less reliant on it as she develops her other senses to be more helpful, but in situations where she needs a little extra help, maybe she'd dig out that tool. New environments, meeting important people where she has to make a good impression, moments where she's in danger, those would all be useful and relatable reasons to use additional accessibility devices.

The goal of orientation & mobility and life-skills classes isn't to become Daredevil-levels of confident in your remaining senses. The goal is to make you an expert in all the accessibility devices at your disposal.

A personal weakness of mine is that I am not proficient at screen reader with my phone. I would be much more powerful if I would take the time to master it because I'd be able to use my phone in any situation without trouble. As it is, I struggle to use it in my low-vision settings and it takes me a lot longer to finish tasks (texting, google search, opening/navigating apps) and a lot more eye-spoons.

If I got good at it, I would probably use a combination of screen readers and my remaining vision to get things done.

I'm going to open the comments to all disabled readers and ask: is there an accessibility tool you used for a while and then phased out of your tool-kit?

[prismuffin]

Josh Sauchak Relationship Headcanons !!

A/n: Just posting some Josh Sauchak headcanons @ Midnight cause why tf not? gn!reader!!

Type of fic?: Headcanons

Warnings?: Light swearing, talk of guns, explosive devices, drugs but not really, and sexual topics (NSFW is separated and marked!)

!-! More Under The Cut !-!

Relationship!SFW:

-Physical contact can be a bit weird for him at first and you'll have to wait for him to initiate a lot of the contact, or you'll have to ask so you can know what he's comfortable with

-^After a while though he becomes more comfortable with the thought of it and doesn't mind when you do certain stuff without giving him a heads up first

-Cuddling Josh in the beginning of your relationship was mostly just simple spooning

-^The more your relationship develops the more he enjoys sleeping in the same bed as you

-^^MOST DEFINITELY IS A LITTLE SPOON IDCCCC!!!

-^^^Won't admit it to your face but it is a bit hard for him to fall asleep without you there

-Kissing is something he grows to enjoy over time

-^He prefers cheek or forehead kisses more than mouth to mouth kisses

-^^If you do kiss him on the mouth he'd rather them be short and sweet

-His PDA levels are usually very dependent on where he is

-^In pure open day public it is very low, he'll let you hold his hand but that's pretty much it.

-^^In HQ he's a bit more lenient; he'll let you kiss him and hug him and all just don't be embarrassing

-Do not bother him when he's working oh my godddd

-If you talk to him while he's working he'll respond back but he'd much rather prefer it if you didn't try to talk to him right now

-He'll ask you to bring him energy drinks while he's working

-^You have to monitor how much he has cause he will chug them like water

-Getting him to take breaks by bringing him lunch

-Dates with Josh usually happen in HQ or in your apartments

-He's a picky eater for sureeee also textures can mess him up

-^If his pancakes are too soggy from the syrup cause he took too long to get off his computer, he can't eat them

-If you home cook good meals for him he'll be so goddamn happy

-^Will ask you to make him food ALL THE TIME

-^^Hates eating fast food after eating your meals everyday but he'll do it if you can't cook for whatever reason :(

-If you do physical hacks for Dedsec like Marcus he'll be worried for your safety

-^Gives you awkward hugs before you go off on a mission and then tells you to be careful

-^^Poor baby can't stand seeing you get hurt, if he's watching over cams and you and Marcus are getting shot at he has to look away

-^^^He still hears everything through comms though and if you get hurt he'll frantically look for a way to help from his position at base

-If you come back from a mission hurt he's immediately on you with a medkit, guiding you to the couch so he can help with your wounds

-Even though he's worried he'll still scold you if you complain or whine (If the injury isn't that bad)

-^ "Yeah, well, you wouldn't be in pain if you'd just listened to me and waited"

-If your injuries are serious he'll try and convince the team to bring you to the hospital

-^If they can't cause of some cTOS shit then he'll hover over you

-^^Will move his computer near wherever you're resting so he can work and watch you at the same time

-If you work with explosives and destructive materials like Wrench he's definitely scared of and for you

-^Every little hiss of pain initially has him on alert but after a while he knows it's just you fucking with burning wires

-If he hears an explosion from your room or little space in HQ he'll check on you immediately

-If you ever lose something like a finger while messing with explosives he is totally apprehensive about you working with explosives after that

-^He will be trying to convince you to stop and pick up hacking a bit more or something else that's less dangerous but still helpful

-Jokes fly over his head half the time because of his Aspergers so it can take him a minute to get them

-Once he does get the joke he'll laugh to himself and might even repeat it back to you

-If you say "I love you" to him first he'll probably stare at you for a second while fighting back a smile that eventually slips by anyway and will nod

-^He might not say it back right away but when he does he'll mean it.

-If he says "I love you" to you first he's probably high off his ass at a festival or something 💀

-No but seriously, if he says it first he'll probably say it while looking down, he'll fidget a bit as he waits for your response

-If you don't say I love you back to him after he tells you he can overthink it for a little while

-If you do say it back after he tells you he'll be very happy and very smiley

-If you ask him to take off his beanie he'll just deadpan stare at you for at least a minute before looking around and asking why

-^You say you wanna see his hair and he just...slowly...removes it..?

-^^Has totally slept with the beanie but if he does take it off he doesn't mind you messing with his hair but it's far too short for you to do anything like braiding or putting it up

-If he randomly walks up to you and shoves his face into your back or chest and hugs you HUG HIM BACK RIGHT AWAYYYYYHDYWGDIWB

-^He only does that when he's overstimulated or very very tired and its usually the latter

-If he's overstimulated for any reason just try and get him away from the area and to a more quiet one and comfort him as he needs

-Definitely on the aro/ace spectrum

-^It's not that he can't feel romantic attraction he's just more Adfomantic/Aliquaromantic (he can only feel romantic attraction in certain circumstances)

-^^It's the same thing for him when it comes to him being ace, it's not that he can't feel it but he needs to have a strong connection to feel any sexual attraction

-Luckily he has a very strong connection to you 😉

Relationship!NSFW:

-As stated above, he is on the ace spectrum so it was probably a little while into the relationship before you guys had any sexual interaction

-If you had a conversation about having sex with him before he was comfortable he'd probably realize in that moment that he's on the ace spectrum whether it was you who suggested it or not

-The sexual attraction probably grew over time

-When he was officially ready he'd go out of his way to buy condoms before telling you

-^He just like randomly leaves at sundown and then comes back at night while you're in the kitchen or something and tells you then that he's ready

-If you're up for it that night then cool but if not then he'll probably schedule a time when you both are free

-^He'd prefer if it were soon so he doesn't overthink it too much and change his mind

-Whether he's topping or not he'd definitely want things to go a little slow at first but would get/would ask to get faster as time goes on

-Josh has breathy moans for sure, in fact you might not even hear him until he cums

-Finds out he has a praise kink

-Lovessss it when you praise him, he loves to pleasure you and that soon becomes his focus whenever you two have sex

-Doesn't really mind getting or giving head but he kinda likes giving more than receiving

-Isn't really that sexually adventurous but if you beg him enough to try anything he might give it a go- but, if he doesn't like it you'll owe him

-If you want him to degrade you he'll try his best but praises may slip every now and then

-Post nut clarity hits him HARDDDDD

-If he has cum on him after sex it will drive him crazy after a while and he'll have to get up and clean it off

-If you want to cuddle after sex he's down, in fact half the time he crashes anyway especially if you were rougher on him

-His sex drive is also relatively low!

!-!

Thanks for reading, Have a nice day/night

Feel free to request!

Masterlist

[jack-the-nibbler]

Valentine’s Tea

A belated oneshot where Jack spends time with you in a rather...unconventional way on Valentine’s Day.

“Well, luv, I promised the perfect afternoon tea for you, didn’t I? You seemed to enjoy your little treats…I only think it’s fair for me to indulge now.”

All you could do was stare up at Jack from your position on his plate, hanging onto every word he said. You had gladly accepted his invitation after work, and he’d been nothing but a gentleman. The chocolates and treats practically melted in your mouth, and the tea was the perfect temperature and sweetness…and had been laced with a shrinking potion, condemning you to end up in the same position as a cream puff.

You watched Jack grab a spoon and drop two cubes of sugar into his cup and stir them around. He still looked rather cute, especially in this attire-a coat and top hat the color of dark chocolate, deep pink waistcoat and bowtie, heart-patterned dress shirt, and small roses pinned to his lapel and hat band. But that sly, hungry smile on his face put you off. You’d only been dating Jack for a little while, and though he was sweet, there was an air of danger around him. Surely he wouldn’t hurt you though…right?

Jack took a few long sips of tea, heaving a delighted sigh. His stomach gave a low growl as the drink settled. It almost felt like his stomach was beckoning to you…or were you just tense? Your unease didn’t go unnoticed. With utmost care, he took you in his hand and lifted you up to face level.

“Darling, there’s no need to be afraid,” Jack cooed. “Perhaps I could soothe you with a few kisses. Might that help?” Before you could respond, you were moved terrifyingly close to his mouth…which you’d eventually end up inside. Those soft lips moved in and pressed against your middle with a soft “mwah”. It tickled quite a bit!

Jack chuckled before planting another kiss, then another, and another. His fingers kept you from squirming free as his plush lips tickled you. You laughed and pushed against Jack’s face, having to endure the onslaught of smooches. Your fears had mostly dissipated…at least until one kiss turned into a lick.

“Shhh, darling…just relax. I’ll take care of you.” He whispered. Jack’s tone, soft as silk, was enough to ease you again. His warm tongue slid up along your front, lingering on your face. You felt each taste bud squishing against you, savoring you, painting you in a layer of saliva. With every lap of his plush tongue, Jack purred fondly at your flavor.

You were soon placed back down, but not for long. Jack took a small dish of melted chocolate and drizzled it over you. The sweet fluid thankfully wasn’t hot, but it did stick to you. You looked up at your boyfriend, watching him lick his lips and reach for a fork.

“I did say I prepared a shiny fork and knife just for you too, yes? Luckily for you, I’m not putting the knife to use.” He said. You did scoot back as the tines drew close, praying that Jack wouldn’t think to spear you. Thankfully he only scooped you up, slowly bringing you back to his lips.

Jack opened his mouth, his warm, clean breath washing over you. He gave you a moment to admire the view-his white teeth, pink tongue, and dark entrance to his esophagus. You were so entranced, you barely noticed him sliding you inside. As the fork pulled away, leaving you on Jack’s tongue, the reality of the situation set back in.

“W-Wait!” You cried, but it was too late. Jack shut his mouth, sealing you in darkness and leaving you at the mercy of his tongue. The soft muscle slipped and squished around you, suckling up the chocolate from your form. His soft hums vibrated around you, saliva clinging to you as the chocolate melted away.

After a minute or two of tasting, Jack’s tongue nudged you towards the back of his throat. Your feet slid over the edge, down into the tunnel of flesh. Trying to pull yourself up would be pointless-the surface was simply too slippery. You gasped as you slipped in, watching the throat open below you. In a single, small glk, you were sent on your way to your boyfriend’s tummy.

The walls of Jack’s gullet were slick and soft, the peristalsis steadily squeezing you downward. It was tight, but not crushing, feeling more like an odd full-body massage. An additional pressure was placed on you, the surrounding muscles pulsing with a hum. You realized that Jack was pressing a finger against you-feeling you travel down his esophagus. He panted softly, licking remnants of your taste from his lips as you slid past his collarbone.

After what felt like hours of being squeezed downwards, you fell from the end of the gullet and landed in a fleshy pouch. Jack’s stomach. Almost immediately, it started to churn and pulse around you, trying to determine the size of its new occupant. It briefly contracted as a small belch escaped his mouth.

“Ah, pardon me! My belly is just so happy to have you, luv!” Jack remarked. “You truly are an exquisite treat, my dear…here, allow me to give you a warm little bath.” You tilted your head, then heard gulping you above. Seconds later, you were doused in a cupful of Darjeeling tea. You sputtered as it poured from the sphincter above, filling the stomach up to your waist with the fragrant drink.

You sighed, having no choice but to lay back within the artist’s belly. You were still a bit nervous, yes, but it really was nice and warm. The fleshy walls were just as soft as his tongue, gently gurgling around you. It shouldn’t have felt so nice…especially as Jack carefully pressed down on his belly, rubbing you within himself.

“Mmmh~...Happy Valentine’s Day, luv. I hope you’re cozy, because I’ll be keeping you for a good while.” He cooed. Jack tenderly pressed on you again as he got up, rocking you within as he went to sit in his favorite chair. You sighed, settling into the bath of tea. One hell of a Valentine’s Day gift…oh well. You did feel strangely loved, tucked away inside your boyfriend. Perhaps this wouldn’t be the last time he showed his affection this way…

[fuzzydreamin]

What The Companions Say About... Mole rats!

I'm posting these just because I find the companions in-game reactions to things rather interesting. You might be surprised by what some of them have to say about certain things.

These are just their dialogues for during combat and after combat or walking through areas inhabited by this enemy type. It does not include anything from specific areas, quests, or other dialogue.

⌨ Ada

⌨: There must be literally miles of mole rat warrens beneath the Commonwealth. ⌨: The mole rat is a filthy species… I'm detecting high levels of bacteria in the area. ⌨: Humans actually ingest these beasts? Fortunately for us both, I lack a vomiting subroutine. ⌨: Since mole rats will chew on anything… including wires, may I suggest we move along? ⌨: Mole rats. Hardly worth our time, ma'am.

☘ Cait

☘: They're comin' out of the ground! ☘: One rat-ka-bob comin' right up!

☘: Mole rats? Disgusting little vermin. ☘: If we bag a few of them, maybe we can have a little treat for dinner tonight. ☘: Wish we could just step on these little bastards. Would save us some ammo. ☘: Mole rats gather all sorts of interestin' things, so it's worth pokin' through their den for loot. ☘: Phew. Yup, it's mole rats all right.

⚙ Codsworth

⚙: Get those varmints! ⚙: Exterminating time!

⚙: Mole rats. Nothing more than two vicious vermin merged into one, I suppose. ⚙: Watch out for holes, mum. Mole rats about. Wouldn't want to twist an ankle. ⚙: Curious creatures, mole rats. ⚙: Quite enamoured with bits of shiny, the mole rat is. Occasionally they pilfer something useful. ⚙: Not your garden variety vermin. Nothing short of the saw or flame-spout will do for mole rats, I'm afraid.

⚕ Curie

⚕: Was the ancestor of the mole rat a mole or a rat? Does anyone know? ⚕: Potentially mole rat meat may be quite nutritious. A healthy diet requires a great deal of protein, after all. ⚕: Mole rats exhibit pack behaviour. ⚕: These mole rats are little more than pests, yes? ⚕: Mole rats are a curious species.

♞ Danse

♞: {With contempt} Diseased vermin! ♞: {With contempt} Bleed, you filth!

♞: {Nasty rats.} Ugh. Diseased filth. ♞: {Repulsed by the thought of eating rats.} The thought of eating these things makes me sick. How can people stoop so low? ♞: I loathe wasting precious ammunition on these vermin. ♞: Ugly little creatures, aren't they. ♞: {Pause while trying to think how to describe it.} Mole rat stench is quite… pungent.

🕶 Deacon

🕶: Do we have to kill these guys? 🕶: Burrow deep and run away, little buddies.

🕶: You know, I've always wanted a pet mole rat. I'd call him, "Ziggy." 🕶: I always feel a little bad shooting mole rats. Not bad enough not to eat them, though. 🕶: Mole rat. The other white meat. 🕶: One mole rat is kinda cute. A swarm of them, though, that's trouble. 🕶: When I retire I want to be a mole rat farmer. That'd be the life.

☠ Gage

☠: How many of you little shits I gotta kill? ☠: You're not tunnelling away this time!

☠: Little shits oughta stay underground, if they knew what's good for them. ☠: Get an entire pack of mole rats on your ass, and you can wind up in serious trouble. ☠: All right, mole rats - another friggin' nuisance the Commonwealth shits out like there's no tomorrow. ☠: I ain't saying I've been desperate enough to eat mole rat, but… well, I ain't sayin' it. ☠: Cook anything long enough, and it doesn't taste so bad. Molerat might be the exception to that.

☣ Hancock

☣: {Amused} Only room for one skinless freak 'round here. ☣: {Amused} Hey, dinner delivered itself.

☣: {Neutral} Mole rats. About as dangerous as they are pretty. ☣: {Neutral} Watch your ankles around these things. ☣: {Neutral} Keep an eye on the ground. Little bastards like to burrow. ☣: {Amused} Nearly lost some fingers to a mole rat once. They do not like to spoon. ☣: {Ribbing the player. / Amused} Pretty sure even you could handle these things on your own.

☸ Longfellow

☸: {Sage old hunter giving advice} Mole rats are damn tricky, poppin' up out of nowhere like they do. ☸: {Sage old hunter giving advice} If you think there's mole rats about, you get up on somethin' tall and you watch the ground. ☸: {Sage old hunter giving advice} One mole rat ain't a threat, but when the other six show up, that's when you start runnin'. ☸: {Begruding respect for a small but aggressive creature} Mole rats are nasty little buggers, I'll give 'em that.

⨁ MacCready

⨁: Goddamn mole rats! ⨁: Gonna mount you on a stick!

⨁: Ugh, I used to eat these things. Still can't get the taste out of my mouth. ⨁: Don't even want to imagine what kind of diseases these are carrying. ⨁: Mole rats will burrow right up under you if they have the chance. ⨁: That smell is horrible. I think I'm gonna puke. ⨁: Don't underestimate mole rats. Seen them strip the flesh from a man's bones in a matter of minutes.

♥ Nick

♥: {Neutral} Walking sacks of plague. ♥: {Neutral} Guess that makes us the rat traps.

♥: {Neutral} Seems everything that survived the bombs got bigger and madder. ♥: {Neutral} Watch your step. Probably walking over a mole rat warren as we speak. ♥: {Neutral} I heard these things taste as bad as they smell. ♥: {Neutral} Whoever coined the phrase "mountains out of mole hills" clearly never saw a mole rat den. ♥: {Neutral} Mole rats are quick little buggers, aren't they? ♥: {Smells something horrible at the start. / Disgust} Bleh! You can bet no one would eat these things if they had to smell them first.

✉ Piper

✉: {Concerned} Hello. Mole rats! ✉: {Stern} Watch it. Could be more burrowed nearby.

✉: {Emphasis on the first "A." Telling a joke at the end. / Neutral} A mole rat's a pest. A pack of them, well, that's just good eating. ✉: {Remembering / Neutral} During the thin years, when the harvests didn't pan out, finding a mole rat felt like a gift. An angry, smelly gift. ✉: {Neutral} Rule one of mole rats - never get between a Brood Mother and her… anything. Just stay away from them. ✉: {Neutral} Wonder if there's a warren nearby. ✉: {Neutral} Whew. One of these rats must be seriously ill. Nothing healthy should smell like that.

☀ Preston

☀: I thought I smelled something. ☀: Look out. There may be more of them under the ground.

☀: Watch where you step. Mole rats. ☀: I once lived on mole rat for two months. Almost turned me vegetarian. ☀: When these little buggers start tunnelling, watch your back. They're liable to pop out anywhere. ☀: These things'll tear up a field of crops faster than you'd believe. ☀: You can always tell when mole rats are around. What a stink.

☢ Strong

☢: Puny little mole rats. ☢: Strong smash mole rats. ☢: Mole rats worthless fighters. ☢: Strong hear humans say mole rats annoying. Strong agree. ☢: Strong not like mole rat tunnels.

☾ X6-88

☾: {Amused} If these things were a little smaller, we could just step on them and save bullets. ☾: {Disgust} Damn mole rats get into everything out here. ☾: {Confident} Time for some pest control. ☾: {Confident} Come on, give me something real to fight. ☾: {Disdain} Mole rats… the scourge of the Commonwealth. At least they die easy enough.

-----

My Notes:

Several of their voicelines imply that people think the mole rats are some sort of combined creature of a regular rat and a regular mole, and not just a big naked mole rat. Even Curie is confused about it. This just doesn't seem right to me, especially since the model does just look like a naked mole rat. Also of note is that the mole rat did exist before the war, as the ones found in vault 81 were specifically bred by vault-tec, so it's not a product of random wasteland radiation exposure.

Mole rats STINK.

Cait, Deacon, Hancock, and Piper enjoy eating mole rats. Curie seems open to the idea. Danse, Preston, and Gage could not be paid to eat one, ditto for Ada and Nick but they aren't exactly needing to.

Deacon and Curie both want to keep mole rats, though Curie would certainly experiment on hers.

I wonder if Mac primarily ate mole rats just because living in a cave attracted them. Perhaps they were common pests for the Lamplighters. At least it's a change up from the usual cave fungus and "strange meat".

[thekrows-nest]

normally i dont have my OCs be yanderes when I set them up with someone else's yan OC but i like the idea of a yandere primmy with krow <3<3<3 some more naughty stuff will come eventually

General Things:

Prim 100% has her hands on Krow all the time she's so insatiable 😭 (Ofc she stops whenever Krow asks- consent is sexy :lipbite:) I know she'd love to press long and drawn out smooches on Krow's lips only to nip his lip as she pulls away. Prim adores holding his hand all the time or wrapping her arms around his neck from behind. She peppers kisses all over krow's hands calling them pretty and gushes about how talented they are as an artist. Constantly compliments him on anything and everything. Prim would frame anything that Krow gifts her 🥰 She'd put little braids in his hair, transferring some of her hair clips onto him.

Prim's huge on gift-giving. I haven't specified it too much i think??- but Primmy’s not the type to just buy expensive gifts because they're expensive. (She haaates most of the popular luxury brands) She honestly puts the effort to buy gifts that are meaningful to her darling. I'd say Prim would avidly watch Krow paint/sculpt and take note of any paint/material he runs low on. As much as she would love for krow to let her spoil them with her money she understands that it can be overwhelming so she tries to be careful about it. She buys him groceries often because he probably cooks all the time for her since she cant cook for shit 😭

Yanyan things:

I don't think there's very many things that Krow would do to make her act rashly 🤔 I think they pair so well that its just unlikely jdhdbdbd

But i still wanna talk about kidnapping so lets pretend Primmy lost a few (more) screws

Krow would wake up in a plush bed, leg chained to the wall, enough slack to move around the room. Prim sits at the foot of the bed, perking up as she spots him awake. "Birdie! Good morning, love." She coos, leaping over and tightly hugging him. A sweet strawberry scent fills his senses. She tightly grips his face, looking at him with absolute adoration. "I know this seems a little scary but it's for the best. I can't have you getting away from me." She nuzzles him close, sharp nail nicking his cheek as she moves. She presses a kiss over the cut and licks the small bead of blood. Krow lifts a hand to feel his neck, a collar customized to suit him sit snugly on him. "Oh I'm so happy I have you here with me, birdie. We'll be together forever and ever." She lets out an airy giggle, lacing their fingers together.

Okay NOW I think I have the spoons to actually respond to this ndfgbld

Krow is totally fine with all the physical affection Prim wants to give him (the only time he'd really ask her to stop is when he is trying to work on some art, ESPECIALLY if it's something where he could accidentally nick her like if he was carving something). He'd definitely get a bit bashful over the compliments, but accept them in good stride. What affection she gives him, he returns in equal doses. Krow is like a mirror, reflecting the love and attention his Dove gives him in turn.

Small, meaningful gifts Krow can and does appreciate. Like I mentioned before, the more expensive and/or grand the thing, the more awkward he gets over it. Even if he KNOWS it is within Dove's price range, what makes him feel weird about it is that he cannot do the same in turn. Like, he can also gift small, cute stuff. But something impressive with a hefty price tag? Not at all. And he'll cook all the time for Prim. He enjoys it and food is something that makes him very happy. I hope Prim delights in different foods and cuisines like he does. You'll never get bored with Krow's cooking.

As for the yandere side of things hoo boy.

Like you said (and I think I did too), I highly doubt there's anything either one would do to make the other spiral into more crazy yandere acts. Prim I am sure wouldn't do anything to ignite Krow's jealousy (not to dangerous levels anyway) and I don't think Krow would do anything in turn.

But again, for the sake of the plot bunny, let's say he did.

Admittedly Krow is... torn?

On one hand, he is flattered that Prim loves him SO MUCH that she wishes to keep him forever and ever. He feels much the same! He'd love to stay forever! But also like... "Heheh, D-Dove, m-my Muse, y-you didn't have to g-go through s-such efforts. Y-you could have simply a-asked me to m-move in." And he was... never gonna get away from you?

And yet. And yet he thinks of his coworkers. Especially Luke and Jazzy. He loves the both of them too. He wants them in his life somehow. It is not like they replace Prim or are more important. Prim AND Luke with Jazzy are equally important! Krow knows he'll have to proceed with caution to convince Prim that he WILL be with them, forever and he isn't leaving them or anything. But he has some devotion to Luke and Jazzy too.

It's... a sticky situation for sure.

[electrasev5nwrites]

Ninja Daily: Clarity 12

"Have you ever decided what you want to do about your old boss," Obito called out over the irritatingly chipper sound of summer cicadas.

Aiko glared, not even trying to respond. That was too hard with a lungful of fire. She pushed the flames out, pursing her lips like her intention was to go in for a kiss. The small spray that she forced past her teeth came out in a thin, high-arching plume.

(and that heat hurt, if this was a C-class jutsu she didn't know how Obito's teeth hadn't splintered from the heat of higher level jutsu).

He dodged it easily, alighting on the pock-riddled ground with a butterfly's grace.

In comparison, she felt like an eighty year old smoker. She wheezed for a moment, tilting her head back to optimize oxygen consumption. "You tried to trick me into breathing in to speak," Aiko accused hoarsely through a hot, painfully dry mouth.

That would have hurt.

All she got in return was a surprisingly wicked grin, before he telegraphed the motions of a water jutsu. Her chest was still aching from the last chakra she'd filled it with, but she mimicked his motions anyway, letting him teach her another jutsu.

He'd become a much less gentle teacher since her eyes had changed. Admittedly, that appeared to be because he was sharing his formidable repertoire of elemental jutsu. Learning that way was paradoxically effortless but time and labor-intensive. Seeing him perform a jutsu was enough for her to mimic it and reproduce it, but she still had to practice everything he showed her when alone later to truly master it.

With a little too much glee, Obito had taught her the lesson that being able to perform a jutsu was unrelated to being able to control it by allowing her to copy an A-level earth ninjutsu, and then saving her only at the last moment when she nearly killed herself with it.

Maybe that hadn't been kind, but she wouldn't forget or complain again about it being dull to have to learn D- level ninjutsu before he'd teach her anything more impressive. At least she was past the really low level stuff now.

The water jutsu he demonstrated (in a mirror, really, her motions so closely followed his that it was nearly impossible to tell he was leading) turned out to form a slick of two-inch or so water that coated the ground.

'Meant to make it easier to track opponents I can't see?' Aiko theorized. He didn't spoon-feed jutsu to her. Figuring out their use was her job. 'The splash should allow me to find anyone who was too surprised to water walk in time. If I can sense through the water, or force someone to use chakra to stand on top, I can use that chakra expenditure to keep track of their movements.'

"I was serious, you know," he brought up when they finished. Aiko didn't look up, bent over as she was to dab at her face with the hem of her shirt. "I tracked down your civilian coworkers when I realized what had happened. I may have jumped to the conclusion that there was a reason you were down for the count and they were fine."

Aiko looked up sharply at his sheepish tone. "Judging by your phrasing, they weren't responsible."

"No," Obito admitted, breaking eye contact. "I don't know about the woman who employed you all, though. I thought you might like to know, for peace of mind if nothing else." He frowned audibly. "That doesn't mean that they don't still present a danger to you, mind. They saw you activate your bloodline. If you think there's a chance they might talk, we'll have to do something."

She sucked on her lower lip, considering it.

'I had fun with that job when it lasted, but it wouldn't really be worth it to go back to Ando-san and try again. Then again, it would be polite to talk to her instead of just wandering away forever. I wonder if she ever got her cart back?'

After a moment, he reluctantly added, "We could kill them. The decision is in your hands, but I don't see much point in taking care of them forever."

Aiko blinked, honestly taken aback. "No, I don't think that'll be necessary," she waved him off. "I don't think they knew what was going on, certainly not enough to sell information. Besides," she decided, "we could just…" her voice trailed off, as she tapped a finger meaningfully against her temple.

Obito snorted, rolling his eyes. "You mean me," he groused. "You'd probably fry their brains."

She shrugged, unbothered by his lack of faith in her abilities. He was right, after all. Who did she have to practice genjutsu on? No one, that's who. All she knew was stuff that worked by altering and distorting areas near her person. Hypnosis was entirely different.

"We may as well take care of that today," Aiko decided, giving a stretch. "You drop me off with Ando-san, I'll see if she's guilty and give my resignation if she's not, and you pick me up after an hour or so?" Her voice lilted in question.

"Of course," he indulged. "And I'll take your former co-workers home."

"Lovely." She leaned back so far that her back cracked three times, nearly collapsing in a puddle of sore muscles. "It would be kind of rude to just stop by, though," Aiko mused. She frowned slightly. Maybe she should bring a peace offering.

("I heard you were dead," Ando-san said tonelessly, staring at Aiko with an expression she couldn't quite sum up.

Aiko shrugged, not knowing how to feel about that. "That was for a limited time only. May I come in?"

The older woman's mouth moved silently for a moment. Apparently unable to verbalize anything, she stood back and held the door open.)

Team Kakashi had nearly returned to Konoha after the three men tracked away from the spot where Raidō had nearly been killed into a dryer forested area. Not because they were unsuccessful, per se.

"Located traces of both Aiko's scent and that of unknown Uchiha," Tsunade read silently from the scroll she'd been given by a dog in a blue cape. "Gone to reinvestigate clue from previous mission, suspect that woman known as Ando-san had been in contact with Aiko after all."

What? She furrowed her brow, not seeing the connection, until Kakashi's scribbles spelled out the logic- "Oh, I see." Tsunade blew air out of the side of her mouth.

Funny. It had taken Genma to point out something that one of them really should have seen before.

She hadn't released a photo of Aiko with the subtle call for their contacts to keep an eye out for her. It would have been too dangerous, considering the intention had to keep the information that she was missing quiet. The only internationally available photo of Aiko was the one in the bingo book.

'And that picture is old,' Tsunade confirmed for herself when she flipped open her copy to verify Genma's information. How lucky that he'd gone to look after she had attacked Raidō (and wasn't that a can of worms, shit). 'Far too old to be in use now, it should have been replaced. If anyone other than incompetent Iwa had put out the bounty, it would have been. This might even be her graduation picture.'

The girl in that photograph still had baby-fat cheeks, a choppy home haircut, and a truly obnoxious dimpled smile. She was much cuter than the pointy-elbowed teenager that Tsunade had first met years ago.

Kakashi had scribbled down the description the unpleasant civilian in Grass had given him for point of comparison. It did describe Aiko accurately: the Aiko of about age sixteen and up, when her face had thinned out and her big baby eyes seemed to fit her face better. The twins looked more alike now than they had before they'd lost their respective baby fat that disguised the fact that their bone structure wasn't that disparate.

If Ando-san had learned Aiko was missing, she wouldn't have known to describe her that way unless she had either seen Aiko recently or knew far too much about Konoha shinobi.

Assuming the first was true, Kakashi would get information out of her. If the second was true and Ando-san was a spy, she'd be coming back to Konoha in chains.

Tsunade actually smiled, leaning over to scratch the canine messenger behind his floppy ears with much more cheer than she ever treated Jiraiya's summons. The nindog allowed her touch, and after a moment dissolved into a gooey puddle of doggy love. His chin was laying on her knee and he was staring up at her adoringly through shining brown eyes when Sasuke pushed the door open and strode in, wearing a grumpy expression and mission clothes.

The look he gave the dog was truly withering.

"What's Kakashi done now?" Sasuke prodded, amusement tilting the corners of his eyes just slightly when the hound stiffened in offense.

'How petty does he have to be to taunt a dog?' Tsunade wondered. Out loud, she lazily replied, "He's found good news, actually. I'd tell you all about it, but I want your report first."

When Kakashi returned with Yamato and Genma three days later, she was relieved enough to nearly cry. Naruto had been trying her patience. Naruto practically bounced on his former teacher, mouth running a mile a minute. He peered over Kakashi's shoulder, deflating slightly when it became clear that his sister wasn't following.

Tsunade wasn't too cold to deny that she shared a little of Naruto's disappointment.

Gently, Kakashi pushed the blond away and patted his shoulder. He centered between his two teammates, slouched slightly in what wasn't quite his usual attitude.

"Any news?" she prompted.

Hatake glanced at Naruto for a moment, before directing his voice to her. "Genma was right," he admitted, a strange twist in his voice. Irony, perhaps. "Ando-san opened the door and greeted us with, 'I thought you said she was dead'," he mimicked, pitching his voice up slightly. "We'd missed her by about four hours. Apparently, Aiko came by with apology cookies for letting all Ando-san's goods rot and her wagon get stolen."

Naruto let out a surprised laugh, eyes glittering with relief. At least she sounded like she was doing reasonably well, if a bit confused. They'd been so close- next time, they'd work things out. They just needed to talk to her and she'd see.

Tsunade cradled her face in her palm, suddenly feeling a headache. "Should we be sending someone to wait around Ando-san's house?"

Kakashi shook his head regretfully. "The cookies were also an apology for quitting without notice."

And now for something completely different

"It is time to take our next jinchuuriki."

Five shadowy figures flickered in the dim light of a gaping cavern. Suigetsu, the only person who was physically present, rapped his fingers against the handle of his sword in boredom.

He heaved a beleaguered sigh and sneered. 'Dramatic old men.'

This whole thing reeked of theatricality. The heavy uniform cloak on his shoulders matched that of the projected participants. From their perspectives, his face was probably cast in as much shadow.

He'd never even seen his fellow Akatsuki, aside from the asshole that had recruited him. Not much for camaraderie and hugs, these guys. He told himself that was fine. There was no point in bonding with anyone other than a fellow swordsman of the Mist.

Their apparent leader's deep baritone rung out again, distorted through static by the projection jutsu he was using. "We will be hard-pressed to acquire all the jinchuuriki in time once the great nations are at odds. We must be ready to strike and seal the last bijuu in rapid succession. However, there is one jinchuuriki that can be obtained before the critical moment. My partner and I will do so. If all goes well, we will perform the jutsu tonight."

It was hard to believe that the prick had a partner. He didn't seem the type to play nice. Curious, Suigetsu let his eyes wander over the figure standing closest to the leader. They could be standing in the same location or miles apart for all he knew, but their apparition-like projections were perhaps only two feet apart.

Even if they'd been in person, the high collar would have obscured the vast majority of the person's face. As it was, the only physical characteristic Suigetsu could pin down was that the person was short in comparison to the leader. Very few men were that short.

That meant either a child or a small woman. His gut told him it was a woman, especially considering her proximity to the leader. His logic wasn't rock-solid: the leader could be a pedophile. But it seemed less likely.

If he was a pedophile, of course, Suigetsu'd have to kill the disgusting bastard. He would kill leader eventually regardless of what happened, of course, but still.

"Be ready."

With that, the jutsu cut out. Suigetsu irritably pulled his sword over his shoulder and used it to cut through a hanging wall of moss in the decrepit, damp shithole he had to wait around in all day. "Useless fuckface," he grumbled. "Better hurry that slow ass up."

Obito seemed to shrink a bit when the jutsu faded, leaving them staring at the front yard instead of a dark cave. "I think that went well," he said to himself in an undertone, apparently bemused at that.

'This is sort of exciting.'

Aiko finally felt free enough to bite down on the hard candy she'd been nursing while Obito monologued. Sharp chips of green apple flavor fell across her tongue and melted nearly instantly. She may or may not have let out a slightly gratuitous moan of long-delayed pleasure. Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

She could all but feel Obito consider giving her a wearisome look, and decide against it on grounds of pointlessness. When her mood was this good, she just couldn't be stopped.

This was going to be her first time using the ridiculously long jutsu, so he was going to have to excuse a bit of fidgeting and silliness. He'd cautioned her that it was an incredibly trying technique, but that made her feel more excited than anything.

Perhaps she should be worried, but at worst Aiko was feeling butterflies in her tummy. She grinned to herself while pulling off the distinctive outer uniform. She could do this: she could do anything. She didn't know where her talent for ninjutsu had been hiding before her eyes got all sassy on her, but the fact that it had come out was thrilling.

Perversely, she was sort of falling in love with her ugly eyes. They truly were awful to look at and they contributed to her fatigue, but they made her combat repertoire so much better that it was downright unfair. What element she was using didn't even seem to matter: breathing fire wasn't any harder than hiding in the earth.

Besides, the ugly eyes weren't a half-bad chakra exercise. The concentration required to change them was significantly less than it had been when she had first started. Obito was more irritated by that than she was: one than once, he'd implied that she shouldn't mess with them if she didn't have the automatic ability to turn them 'off' and 'on' in the way he did. Worrywart. Aiko chose to believe that she was the one who was better off, because deciding otherwise would be depressing.

"Ready to go?" Obito glanced back at her, apparently preoccupied with checking his equipment for the last time. "Chakra pills, hydration? We're not going to come back before we do the jutsu, and it can take the better part of a day."

'This is not the first time you have asked me that.'

Aiko blew air out through her lips in what was too forceful to be a sigh. "Yes, mom. I have a change of socks too. But you know we have to come back," she reminded wearily. "You don't want me wearing the cloak there, remember?"

Honestly. It was his plan; he could recall it for an hour or two.

He made a sound of vague comprehension, apparently only now realizing that she had shrugged it off and piled the hat on the table.

Their mission wasn't going to be that hard, frankly. She was still itching to get started. Hopefully, they would find their target quickly once Obito took them to the village. Most of the plan was up to him: he was going to hypnotize the jinchuuriki into fleeing the village, whether through stealth or violence didn't matter much. The point was that the blame wouldn't be on them when no one could find it. It'd just be another missing nin, albeit a demonic-powered one.

Sensible? Yes. That was the worst thing about that plan. But Aiko had to acknowledge that it suited their purposes a lot more than challenging the village of Waterfall to a glorious battle for control of their beast.

'Although I would totally kick ass, were that the plan. I can't believe he didn't want me to be a front line fighter. Ninjutsu and taijutsu are so much more enjoyable than throwing things.' Aiko flicked her eyes to purple, and then back to red. Purple-Red-Purple-Red-

"Stop that." Obito reached back and gently swatted at her head, ignoring the indignant sound that she made. "The chakra fluctuations are very distracting. You'll remember to suppress that?"

At that, she couldn't help but roll her eyes. Of course she knew how to go unseen.

And that was exactly what she did, while Obito transported them directly in the village that had apparently been hidden behind a waterfall.

'Some people take the 'hidden village' thing much more seriously than others,' she mused philosophically, carefully leaning into Obito's side to avoid colliding with an adorably tiny child who was appropriately incapable of seeing through his Sharingan genjutsu. 'I don't think any of the others are really hidden. Spectacularly inconvenient and remote, yes, but not hidden per say.'

Props to Taki for committing to the name thing, then. For all the good it did them. As far as she could tell, Taki didn't have a single person capable of realizing that two invisible ninja were in their midst.

That was almost a pity, because she might have liked a fight. The vast majority of her new toys had only been used on Obito in spars.

Aiko swallowed that awful thought and wrapped her hand a little tighter around Obito's bicep, tugging in the direction she thought most promising. 'This isn't a game,' she berated herself. 'If we have to fight here, it won't be a fun spar to test out my abilities. It'd be a massacre. I don't want that, what the fuck am I even thinking?'

There was something frightening and insidious about just how easy it was to forget that other people were real and their pain mattered in the way that hers did.

She couldn't let herself think that way. Rationalizing fighting for her life and killing people who were in her way was a necessity of doing her job. Bringing that violence to civilians and people who weren't her enemies was unacceptable.

'I'm such a child sometimes. A brawl in the middle of Taki wouldn't be fun for these people. It'd be terrifying, even if I didn't kill anyone.'

Mood dampened, she didn't try to work up enthusiasm when they actually managed to locate the jinchuuriki via process of elimination. Taki was small, after all, and there were only so many things that shinobi did in their off-time. Since a jinchuuriki was likely a shunned loner, finding it on the training grounds wasn't surprising.

The thing itself wasn't exactly what Aiko had expected, though. The picture Obito had shared was of a tanned girl with eerie orange eyes and hair that reminded Aiko of her base level eyes. As with all shinobi mugshots, it was neither flattering nor expressive. The thin-lipped girl depicted looked ready to reach out and hurt the viewer.

In person, the jinchuuriki seemed almost disconcertingly normal: cute and perky, and as preoccupied with training as any other shinobi.

For all the good it did. It never stood a chance.

'There's something artistic about watching Obito use genjutsu.' Aiko sucked on her bottom lip and watched the chakra move with purple eyes, transfixed by the illusions he was pulling together. The first three layers slid smoothly around the jinchuuriki, distorting its reality and interfering with inhibitions and thought process. There was a worrisome moment as Obito spun a compulsion into the mix when thin, teal brows came together as if the bijuu was trying to shake it off.

She pursed her lips, impressed when her friend soothed whatever objections were roiling in the target. Obito might have been onto something with his claim that the Sharingan could control bijuu.

Point one to him, then.

From start to finish, the jinchuuriki only stood still for about seven seconds while Obito flipped its worldview and made it realize that a walk outside the village would be quite nice right about now. Smoothly, it bent to slip the large, red cylindrical device on its back and took off at an easy gait, round-cheeked face smooth and untroubled.

It looked disconcertingly adorable. Aiko pressed a hand against her tummy, irritated that the tactic she used against others was kind-of-sort-of working on her. She knew that a pretty face on a petite girl could be disarming. She should have immunity or something.

'Apparently, it doesn't think sneaking is the way to go,' Aiko noted, tilting her head in mild interest as they trailed their target across streets full of people that pushed to get away from the beast. 'And no one looks interested in stopping it. Is just walking out seriously going to work?'

That just seemed too easy. Weren't villages supposed to have tight control and regulations? Perhaps the jinchuuriki was so habitually agreeable that the sudden turnabout had them all stunned and unable to react appropriately. That kind of whispering and pointing couldn't be the normal state of affairs.

There was clearly no love lost between Taki's monster and the slightly chubby man posted at the gates. As the three came closer, Aiko had to classify the expression on his face as 'cruel disdain'.

'That really can't be an intelligent way to react to a powerful village weapon,' she thought doubtfully. 'Either you're frightened, or you're not. There's no circumstance in which taunting the demon makes any amount of sense whatsoever.'

People were surprisingly stupid sometimes about the simplest things. She did enjoy the slight break in his expression the moment he realized that 'Fuu' was still smiling and walking towards him en route to leave the village.

The confused scowl that turned to flat-out befuddlement when the jinchuuriki walked out the village without a word was a memory that Aiko would treasure.

At her side, she suspected that the shaking of Obito's chest meant that he was hiding laughter as well.

'I can't believe they're really going to let their most powerful weapon just walk away,' she marveled silently as they followed past the namesake waterfall and a mile into the countryside without a hint of pursuit. 'Are they really so weak?'

Obito elbowed her after a few minutes, which she took as her signal to go. She shook off Obito's cloaking genjutsu with a concentrated blink of her purple eyes and strode up to the jinchuuriki, trusting that whatever illusion he'd put the beast under would keep her relatively safe.

If it had fought, the plan had been to use chakra chains to subdue it. Since that hadn't happened, it hardly seemed necessary. It would probably be enough just to keep the other shinobi calm. The jinchuuriki smiled docilely at her, apparently accepting Aiko's appearance without a second thought.

(Jinchuuriki were not very bright, were they?)

Then again, Obito had expected that it wouldn't find her to be particularly fearsome. No matter what conditioning was pounded into someone's head, shinobi still found it much easier to be wary of a tall man in a lurid mask than a pretty teenager.

She interlocked her arm with the jinchuuriki's companionably, giving a cutesy smile of her own. Aiko was oddly surprised at just how soft and warm its skin was. She didn't know why she had expected anything different, but it just seemed off. A heartbeat later she was drawn from her contemplations by the sensation of Obito wrapping a firm hand around her shoulder—they were about to Kamui away. "Ready to go, Fuu?" Aiko asked warmly.

For whatever reason, the taller female form all but melted against her at the small kindness. She felt a prick of guilt—it was terribly sad that the creature had been treated so poorly that she was vulnerable to this.

"Aiko," it greeted in a much higher conversational pitch than Aiko's near contralto.

It was an effort not to let her smile falter.

'Obito, you told it my name? Very creepy.'

Effective, but still disconcerting. She could have lived without that. On the other hand, if the jinchuuriki thought they were friends, of course soothing it would be easier. The tactic was an intelligent one.

"Where are we going?" Fuu followed up, turning her head slightly.

Aiko let her gaze wander westward, to the isolated locale in the Wind Country's great empty deserts that had been selected for this operation. "Nowhere special." She nudged the taller kunoichi (and it was disconcerting, just how human it seemed up close). "I think my house for a bit," Aiko shared easily, keeping her tone light. "We're going to go see some of my friends later, but they won't be ready for a while."

That extraction had been much easier and timelier than their worst scenario estimates. Obito would probably flit ahead to take care of last minute arrangements like putting out protective seals and traps to keep them from being disturbed while they worked while the other Akatsuki filtered in.

That was when Obito pulled them through what she privately thought of as a void to a safehouse with that same sick, twisting motion and eerie blankness. Fuu seemed a little motion-sick, but not nearly as disturbed as Aiko had been on her first few trips via Kamui.

Without ever letting the jinchuuriki know he was there, Obito tapped his fingers against Aiko's arm in the Konoha code he'd taught her.

Hour or less. Use caution.

'Of course I'll be careful. It's cute, but it's still dangerous.'

She nodded slightly in confirmation, making the motion look natural. She wouldn't have been able to tell that he'd left if she couldn't see through his genjutsu with the purple eyes of funkiness.

Aiko glanced into the jinchuuriki's trusting orange eyes, wondering how she was supposed to entertain them both for an unspecified period of time. They hadn't spent much time thinking about the mundanities of this outcome. Aiko was torn. On one hand, it felt like she should be locking the other kunoichi up and feeding her gruel or something. On the other hand, watching Fuu lean her cylindrical burden against the wall and blink agreeably up at the ceiling almost made her feel like she had a girl friend over.

'There's no particular reason to be unkind,' Aiko decided, twisting the end of her long braid around her fingers. On the other hand, leading the jinchuuriki to the more private areas of the house like her room or the sitting area seemed too friendly. She compromised by indicating that the other should pull up a seat at the kitchen table. Aiko poured herself a glass of water- and after a moment's thought, did so for her (guest? Prisoner?) companion as well. Manners never hurt.

When she came back to the table, she leaned her elbows on the table and her chin into her palms, sizing up the placidly compliant girl-shaped demon obediently sipping at her beverage.

'I wonder what on earth Obito did to it with that genjutsu.' Aiko tilted her head slightly, trying to catch latent glimpses of intelligence flickering in hypnosis-dulled eyes. 'He convinced her that she knows me and trusts me, for sure. What would it take for something like that to trust a person? From what Obito said, I wouldn't have thought it was capable.'

"Fuu." Aiko let warmth color her tone. The jinchuuriki perked up, pathetically eager at the small hint of affection. "Do you remember how we met?"

"Of course I do. You stopped me from using my bijuu in Mizu, which meant that no one was mad at me for causing an incident." Fuu frowned slightly, and added with a bit of petulance, "I thought you were an awful showoff."

She felt a muscle under her eye twitch. An awful showoff? That seemed pointed.

'Obito, you jackass.'

"I later confirmed that my initial analysis was accurate, but you're not all bad," Fuu blithely continued.

'Why is it that Obito teases me even when constructing elaborate backstory?' Aiko wondered, feeling her pasted-on smile waver. 'Did he come up with this specifically to test if I would be nosy enough to figure out what he did?'

Well, he could suck on that. She wasn't going to let on she'd done what he expected. He'd just laugh at her.

"Actually, by my standards, you might be my best friend." Fuu gave a depreciating laugh, rubbing at the back of her neck in a gesture that looked much more genuine than her otherwise muffled body language. "That's pretty sad, isn't it? You haven't tried to kill me, anyway, and you were nice to me at the hotsprings. And then there was the whole thing with Grandmother Time," she continued, before descending into babble about an imagined adventure that made absolutely no sense – something about traveling with a Kumo nin on the lam from the leader of Ame?

She tuned out most of the fantastical nonsense; mind still arrested by the phrase 'you might be my best friend'.

Heat rose in Aiko's cheeks before she controlled herself. Her throat felt oddly right—and that was ridiculous, none of this was real. She shouldn't feel embarrassed or pleased by that bit of emotional frankness. Everything the jinchuuriki was talking about was artificially constructed.

So she shoved the wiggling sensation of bashful pride down and changed the subject to an inquiry about what it was like to be a jinchuuriki.

What she heard indicated that her deductions had been dead-on: there was no one there who could hope to physically keep Fuu under control. So they had resorted to bullying and attempts to cow her into servile obedience.

(If she ever went back to Taki, Aiko might not use as much restraint as she had today.)

'Why does it matter?' Aiko wondered uncomfortably, hooking her feet around the rungs of her chair and letting the conversation fade into silence. 'It seems a lot like a person, and it has a hell of an imagination if Obito was letting it fill in blanks instead of coming up with that all himself. But it's not. So why does the idea of Taki mistreating it bother me? It's not just the illogical nature of that decision, it's something morally motivated.'

Obito gave her a funny look when he came back and noticed that she and the jinchuuriki were sitting in amiable silence, but didn't venture to comment.

Aiko smiled weakly, tilting her face up in a moue of cuteness that hopefully communicated the phrase, 'I'm not getting attached to her.'

She blinked, a little disturbed at that thought. 'It,' she corrected hastily. 'What am I saying, it's not really a person.'

Even as she thought that, Aiko wondered if she was lying to herself. But she couldn't think of a reason that Obito would have lied to her about that. It didn't seem to serve any purpose. If she was willing to fight and kill people for him, why would he worry about this specific job? If Fuu really was a person, killing her wouldn't be any different from killing other people.

Obito must still have been veiled under genjutsu, because Fuu never reacted to his appearance. Light didn't reflect off of his mask when he tilted his head, which was a little creepy. Aiko shrugged it off and glanced down at his hand quickly signaling through a short message.

Immobilize target. We move out.

She blew air out the side of her mouth and turned back to Fuu as she stood and walked around the table, pushing down the odd feeling in her gut. Getting attached was unacceptable.

Trusting, Fuu glanced up. She didn't even move to stand.

Aiko told herself she didn't care at all, easily reaching an arm around Fuu's shoulder in a parody of a one-armed hug. The teal-haired girl leaned into it, and didn't even react when Aiko's left hand curled up through her hair to pulse chakra into the base of Fuu's skull.

She balanced the jinchuuriki easily enough to a hand on each of its shoulders so that it didn't fall out of the chair, wiggling her eyebrows at Obito.

'See,' she said silently. 'I don't care. No big deal.'

He snorted in amusement. "Here, let me take that so you can put on your uniform."

"I still don't see why I have to hide my face from our coworkers," Aiko groused without any real feeling, gratefully latching onto the change of subject. Reluctantly, she kept her face still as Obito easily took the jinchuuriki out of her grip.

It was probably lucky that the uniform covered almost all of her face and shadowed what was left, because letting Obito take her to the cave rubbed in the reminder that they were about to kill Fuu, even if it was inadvertent. The hideous oversized statue that Obito had summoned to crouch over them all seemed like some demon god, and Fuu the sacrifice when she was laid at its feet.

The contrast was odd. Fuu didn't look like the demon in that scenario. Fuu just looked like a little girl.

'It has to be done.' Aiko pinned her lip between her teeth and calmed her chakra. 'Obito told me that this part was hard, but it's necessary for his plan.'

Whatever the hell that was, anyway. Tsuki no Me made little sense to Aiko, but Obito was passionate about it and he was her friend.

Outwardly serene, she made her way to the high pillars that ringed the cavern. There were far more than they needed, as far as Aiko could tell. She didn't comment and instead left an empty space in between her chosen perch and Obito's.

'It stinks in here.' She swallowed, breathing shallowly through her nose. 'It stinks like mold and death. Has Obito used this location before?'

On some pre-arranged order, another Akatsuki –the one she didn't know- sauntered over to the low central point where Obito had dropped Fuu and pulled the massive sword off his back. Aiko grimaced at the almost sensual way he stroked the blade before he allowed it to drop on Fuu's belly.

'Ew. That man has problems.'

Problems like his supremely creepy sword, she realized a moment later as it convulsed through the white wrappings and latched onto Fuu with what appeared to be scales. That was just nasty. She stiffened but didn't let herself look away. It would be both immature and disrespectful to distance herself from what was being done today. It was real even if she ignored it.

'It also looks really uncomfortable.' Aiko bit the inside of her cheek, tasting iron-rich blood. Fuu was shuddering visibly, convulsing on the rocks, brutalizing her own body in an attempt to squirm away.

As far as she could tell, whatever he was doing involved draining Fuu's chakra. Aiko reluctantly admitted to herself that decision made a lot of sense. It was twice beneficial: it would allow that Akatsuki member to pour more juice into the jutsu, and it would decrease the amount of time they had to spend draining Fuu of demonic chakra by getting rid of her regular chakra.

The Akatsuki who could only be Zetsu (the only person present with giant plant fronds that prevented him from wearing a hat) arrived last and took point across from Aiko, on Obito's other side. As Fuu was left alone, Aiko gratefully turned her attention to the people she would be working with.

'Small group,' she noted interestedly. 'No wonder Obito was nervous. This'll take longer than he'd like with only five participants.'

Obito raised his arms first. In perfect concert, everyone mirrored his motion. Aiko licked her lips and concentrate, bringing the painfully long hand sequence she had memorized into the forefront of her mind and pushing away the impulse to look down at the small figure below.

Rat-Dog-Dog-Dog-Tiger-Dragon- {...]

The whimpers started below at almost the exact moment that the group hit and held the last handsign. In the sickest, strangest way, they were comforting: Fuu sounded like an animal in pain, and not a person. A jinchuuriki, not a human being.

It went on and on, dragging out the daylight hours into one long monotonous blur of slowly letting energy seep out. Aiko switched her eyes to red in an attempt to preserve as much chakra as possible. Even Fuu seemed to tire: her pale limbs thrashed less, and her voice quieted for minutes at a time when all she could do was gasp raggedly.

What must have been an hour or so of painfully careful boredom was enough for it to become clear that even with her partially occupied reserves, Aiko was the chakra tank of the group. The others were all relatively comparable with the exception of the lithe swordsman that had stolen from Fuu's chakra. Once his stolen energy was sapped, he drastically altered his output in an attempt to keep from being drained.

Aiko was both irritated by his inability to fairly contribute and sympathetic with his desire to avoid chakra exhaustion. That could kill.

There was a noticeable lurch in the upswell of chakra, and a horrible scraping as one eye began to move on the grotesque statue. She would have known that meant the end even if Fuu hadn't begun shrieking with a new vigor, slamming the back of her head on the rocks again and again in mad, stupid pain. In contrast to the darkening Fuu must have been experiencing, the cavern was growing lighter from the pure concentration of energy accumulating.

Fuu's body was actually being pulled off the ground by the sheer stubborn force of the energy being sapped out into the hideous statue.

It was clearly the end. The demon went out in one last hurrah of vivid white light and an inhuman croak torn from Fuu's abused throat.

She fell like a broken doll in the instant that the cavern darkened, supernatural presence gone. Then she was limp, blood spreading out from her head and dripping slowly down into the rocks she laid on.

Aiko sucked her lip in between her teeth, glancing down. She didn't need to check to know that there was no pulse and that the girl would be growing cold. She took a deep breath and buried any regret at having helped kill a lonely thing like Fuu. At least it was over.

"Good work, everyone," Obito rumbled, voice exceptionally low from being silent for so long.

Despite her determination to be professional, she cringed at that juxtaposition of positive reinforcement and her bleak mood.

'He did say that this was hard.'

She turned her face slightly to look at him, despite knowing that she wouldn't be able to see anything but the light hitting his eyes. She swallowed the urge to ask what was going to happen to Fuu's body. Judging by the group silence, Obito was the only person who should be speaking up in these meetings.

In the end, she didn't have to ask. Zetsu made his way down towards the body, slipping into out of the shadowy heights to the wash of soft light below.

Oh, good. She didn't want to have to ask. It would be a bit pathetic to make it so explicitly apparent that she'd gotten somewhat attached in a few hours. But really, Fuu had gotten a poor hand in life. She deserved a nice send-off. Fire would be alright, although really-

Oh god. What- what was he… Aiko gaped, feeling her stomach lurch at the sight of what appeared to be toothy protrusions extending from Zetsu's fronds and digging into Fuu, dragging her whole into the shadows hidden by Zetsu's cloak. Someone chuckled, but she just felt ill.

Inanely enough, the next coherent thought she managed was, 'I don't think I like my coworkers much.'

"That was well done," Obito repeated, letting go of her arm as the kitchen coalesced into visibility around them. The overhead light flickered three times before coming on when he lazily flipped the switch, washing them in clinical brightness. "I think we should-"

"Can it wait?" she interrupted, in a calm voice that did not sound like her own. "I need a shower. I feel disgusting." Aiko didn't wait for a response, shedding the hat and cloak as she left and tossing them on the counter.

Strictly speaking, she didn't need a shower. She hadn't done much in the way of physical expenditure, though the cave had been foul enough that she would have claimed that was the problem if he'd asked. She shed her uniform, kicked it under her bed, and went to stand under the hot water for a while to breathe in steam and think in peace.

'That seemed unnecessary. I don't really mind that we killed Fuu, but the body could have been treated with respect.' A moment later, she frowned. 'I… I didn't like the way that we killed her, though. That was cruel. Is Obito's plan worth doing this to six more jinchuuriki? I know that they've already been twisted, but maybe that doesn't justify what we're doing.'

She remembered the gist of his words at the time—that nine beings had to die in order to buy peace. In the grand scheme of things, that wasn't much bloodshed. Of course, she'd also never seen something killed like that. All Aiko's kills were fast and efficient. But it had taken Fuu the better part of a day to give up and die.

'I don't think she deserved that. Fuu didn't do anything wrong. We hurt her because of something out of her control—something done to her as an infant. I didn't think of what we would be doing in that sense.'

Akatsuki was a lot more cutthroat than she had supposed.

It was ridiculous, of course. But she couldn't help but remember the matter-of-fact way Zetsu had gone about what was obviously a habitual duty and wonder what would happen to her if she ceased to be useful.

No, that was crazy. Obito cared about her. He wouldn't let that happen to her.

Aiko thought she'd dismissed her paranoia, but she found herself making a note to look into a few things. Like excellent seals for keeping her room safe, and whether or not Konoha really had put out a bounty on her that would keep her from going home. Though she had no idea how to find that out, since her entry in the most recent bingo book had been so very out of date…

She'd have plenty of time to start poking around and attempting to fill in blanks, since Obito had been so much busier lately.

'I mean, I have to figure out something.' Aiko swallowed, carefully rubbing about twice as much conditioner as she needed into her long hair. 'I don't really want to do that to another jinchuuriki. At least, not until I understand why we're doing it.'

[usascripthelpersofficial]

THE BEST BITES TO BOOST LOW BLOOD SUGAR

Hypoglycemia, commonly known as low blood sugar, is a condition that can affect anyone, though it's particularly prevalent among individuals with diabetes. It occurs when blood sugar levels drop below normal, leading to symptoms such as dizziness, sweating, confusion, irritability, and in severe cases, loss of consciousness. Managing this condition involves not only medication and monitoring but also diet. Here, we explore some of the best foods to consume for quickly and healthily boosting blood sugar levels.

Quick Carbohydrates for Immediate Relief

When blood sugar levels dip dangerously low, the primary goal is to raise them quickly. Fast-acting carbohydrates are the go-to:

1. Glucose Tablets and Gels

Specifically designed to rapidly increase blood sugar levels, these products are a reliable and measured way to address hypoglycemia. They're portable, making them convenient for on-the-go scenarios.

2. Fruit Juices

A small glass of fruit juice can provide a quick sugar boost. Orange, apple, and grape juice are excellent choices, but it’s important to consume these in moderation due to their high sugar content.

3. Honey and Sugars

A tablespoon of honey or sugar can act fast to elevate blood sugar levels. They're easily digestible and start working within minutes.

4. Candy

Hard candies or gummies can offer a rapid increase in glucose. However, they should not be the first choice due to their lack of nutritional value and potential dental health impacts.

Balancing with Protein and Fats

After the initial quick fix, it’s essential to stabilize blood sugar levels to prevent them from dropping again. This is where a combination of proteins and healthy fats come in:

1. Nuts and Nut Butters

Almonds, peanuts, and cashews, or a spoonful of peanut or almond butter, can provide a good mix of fats and protein, helping to stabilize blood sugar levels.

2. Cheese and Crackers

The combination of cheese (protein and fat) with crackers (carbohydrates) can help maintain blood sugar levels after the initial boost.

3. Yogurt

A small serving of plain Greek yogurt, which is higher in protein and lower in sugar, can be an excellent snack for managing blood sugar.

Long-Term Dietary Management

For those regularly experiencing low blood sugar levels, incorporating complex carbohydrates, fiber, protein, and healthy fats into your diet can help manage and stabilize blood sugar over time:

1. Whole Grains

Foods like quinoa, brown rice, and oats have complex carbohydrates and fiber that help slow the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream.

2. Vegetables

Non-starchy vegetables like leafy greens, broccoli, and peppers are low in calories and carbohydrates but high in fiber and nutrients.

3. Lean Proteins

Chicken, fish, tofu, and legumes provide essential proteins without the added sugars that can spike blood sugar levels.

4. Healthy Fats

Avocados, olive oil, and flaxseeds contain fats that are beneficial for blood sugar control by slowing the digestion of carbohydrates.

Conclusion

Effectively managing low blood sugar levels involves a balance of quick-acting solutions and long-term dietary strategies. While immediate interventions are necessary to prevent serious complications, incorporating balanced meals and snacks into your daily routine can help stabilize blood sugar levels and prevent future episodes of hypoglycemia. As always, it's crucial to consult with a healthcare provider or a dietitian to develop a personalized plan that addresses your specific health needs.

[rmpmw]

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How to Eat Truffles & Other Pairings?

What are the different types of truffles and its health benefits?

Truffles are unique and delicious fungi found mainly in Mediterranean climates. They have a strong, earthy flavor that adds depth to savory dishes. They are highly prized by chefs and food connoisseurs alike, as they add a certain je ne sais quoi to any meal. But aside from their delicious taste, truffles offer numerous health benefits to those lucky enough to eat them. Here, we’ll discuss the different types of truffles and the many health benefits associated with eating them.

There are three main types of truffles: white truffles, black truffles, and Perigold truffles. White truffle is the most prized variety of all and is known for its pungent aroma and deep flavors reminiscent of nuts or mushrooms. It's typically found in northern Italy in forests such as those near Piedmont or Alba during late autumn into early winter months. Black truffle is more commonly found than white and has a more subtle flavor that can be likened to hazelnuts or almonds - although some argue it has an even deeper earthy taste than white truffle! It's harvested mainly in southern France during the summer months. Perigold Truffle is another rare type of truffle that is usually only available seasonally from spring through summertime in areas like Spain or France. It has a much milder flavor than either white or black truffle but still lends an unmistakable complexity when used in cooking.

The health benefits associated with eating truffles are numerous! For starters, they are low-calorie yet incredibly nutrient-dense foods containing significant amounts of vitamins B and C, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, selenium, phosphorus, and dietary fiber - all of which contribute to improving overall health when consumed regularly on top of a balanced diet. Furthermore, many studies suggest that consuming these unique fungi can help fight various illnesses including digestive issues such as upset stomachs due to their high levels of dietary fiber; they may also aid in reducing cholesterol levels while increasing HDL (good) cholesterol levels too! Finally - perhaps most importantly - these scrumptious delicacies act as natural antioxidants helping protect our bodies from dangerous free radicals which harm cells over time leading to premature aging and other diseases if not managed properly through regular consumption of antioxidant-rich foods such as this one!

Truffle products are widely available both online and at physical stores throughout Europe making it simple for anyone looking to get their hands on some tasty fungi! You can find everything from fresh whole tubers to dried powders which can be used for seasoning or added to sauces or stews for extra flavor without compromising on nutrition either way! Additionally, there are many different recipes featuring these mushrooms so no matter what your cooking style maybe you’ll find something suitable out there too! So whatever your preference - be it freshness versus convenience - you'll surely find something suitable amongst all the amazing selections out there today when it comes down to enjoying the rich flavor profile and numerous health benefits afforded by indulging yourself with delectable truffle products!

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[jacqueline-riggwells-gaming-blog]

Gonna do a run down of my Kingmaker group:

Moira, Dwarf Fighter (played by my Beloved Wife): She's developed a habit of loping people's heads clean off with well-timed critical hits - the RNG and Fighter accuracy really helping her establish a name for herself. Tough, heavily armored, ax and shield. Play the bit to a hilt, y'know? Very protective of her party members, maybe because she's the toughest (at least in her head)?

Halrath (Played by Olvi's husband) - Half-Elf of a minor noble house, Ranger with a bow and a bird and dangerous precision damage. All this noble stuff has made him take the position of party face a lot of the time, even if mechanically he's not the best suited to do so. Love it.

Olvi (Played by Halrath's wife) - Goblin bard! She has a drum and noted inability to sing. I would say, typically, a gentle soul? But once lines have been crossed? Then out comes the violence! Everyone loves Olvi! I guess except receivers of The Violence. Okay, truthfully, she just doesn't have attack spells yet. Maybe that'll change at Level 3? (They're level 3, now)

Arkk - He's a kobold druid with lots of like storm and lightning focus so far, likely forever. I think they already used his kobold-ness to their advantage as a group this last session. Using his Free Archetype at 2 (we're using Free Archetype rules) he's got a hunting cat, now who is named Cat

Finally, as a note 1) I like having a companion NPC with the group so I can ... nudge them(?) when no one wants to make a decision, sometimes they're all low on spoons, and that's fine. 2) in this specific game they made one Frontline Combatant and I think we were all afraid of lack of HP/Bodies to Block for them 3) Kingmaker comes with a lot of fun(???) potential companion NPCs, we likely won't ever use many of them, although Linzi gave some clutch heals in the intro.

So. Given all that I am running Amiri - Human Barbarian with a giant sword - and I'm doing so, hopefully, in a just annoying enough kind of fashion? Charge in, hit some things, take some blows, needle Moira about how she's a Headtaker and afraid of, probably, like, one Owlbear. Mostly fall into the background. I'm having fun in so doing.