Aiden Darren: Ugh!
Fine!
I'll stay with you, I guess...
π
πΆ
π
Hanji ZoΔ: EEEEEE!!
You won't regret it little guy!
Wait, we don't even know you're name.
AD: It's Aiden Darren. I already know everyone's names.
Christa Lenz: Did you overhear them?
AD: Of course I did, I can hear a mouse squeak 3 kilometers away...
[To Hanji] By the way, I don't think you're supposed to scream in agony trying to relieve yourself.
HZ: I hate to admit that I've had troubles with my bowel movements as of late...
AD: I could make you a wild greens salad with extra chickweed.
Should help out with your bowels.
Ymir: So, you know a thing or two about foraging?
AD: You could say that...
If you know what you're looking for, you can get enough food to feed this outpost for a week without leaving an acre from here.
Sasha Braus: I guess it's good to have someone else who knows how to survive off the land.
Mikasa Ackerman: If you're willing to teach us, we could harvest enough to have a more decent meal.
Ymir: Eh, what the hell.
It beats waking up starving.
HZ: Very well.
[Hanji moves you to her collar]
Lead the way, little guy.
[The Scout women exit your home, lead by Hanji, who in turn was lead by you.
After walking into a vast landscape of open plains, you told them to stop]
AD: Alright, this is where I get off...
Give me a few minutes and I'll forage some local flora you can grab that's safe for human consumption.
ππ¨
[Jogging around the area, you see plenty of prime specimens to show the ladies.
Picking a few samples of each, you return near them, organizing the foliage based on types & usage]
Over here!
Okay, so these right here are good for eating, these here are good for adding to food(seasoning), and finally here are plants good for medicinal purposes.
I'll be happy to answer any questions.
HZ:π
AD: Yes?
HZ: How were you able to run so fast with that little body of yours?
AD: Hey, I'm not little!
I'm actually pretty tall for my age...
As to answer your question, us dwellers can run as fast as your horses.
Hell, we can sprint even faster.
HZ:π€ Amazing!
I have so many other questions, but I suppose they can wait for later.
[As the ladies analyze the flora, you answered any of their questions about them.
With them foraging, you went out to acquire some more cooking supplies.
You extracted raw sugar from some hearty plants and salt from a pile of mineral stones.
After putting it in stone vessels, you also began foraging]
*Snap*
AD: Hmm?
[Recognizing that sound & smell, you made your way over next to Sasha, seeing a little grin on her face]
π’π’π’π’πΆ
SB: Hmm?[Sasha looks down to see you by her foot]
Need help little, uh I mean Aiden?
AD: No, but I know you're hiding something...
I can smell it on you, and I heard it fairly recently...
You caught a hare, didn't you?
[Sasha picks you up with one hand, then pulls back part of her jacket with another, revealing a freshly killed hare]
Guilty!
But please, keep it quiet.
I want to see the look on Jean's face when he sees this.
AD: He seems like the kind of guy that needs to be knocked down a peg or two...
Your secret is safe with me.
π
I see some wild berries in the distance over there!
We should grab some.
SB: I don't see it.
AD: Dweller eyes can see much further than human eyes. Trust me.
SB: Alright, let's go.
[Riding on her shoulder, you guide her to the berries until they came to be visible to her]
Wow, you were right.
There's a whole bunch of different berries here.
Which could mean it came from deer scat, so I need to watch my step...
I recognize a few of these as edible, but I don't know about the the others.
AD: They're all edible...
Wait, you mean edible for dwellers or humans?
SB:π What do you think?
AD: Okay, okay...
I know which one your weak human digestive systems can handle...
Those blackberries for one.
A great find for dwellers, but the seeds might make it a bit more difficult for you humans...
Those blueberries are good too...
And that big patch of snake berries is A okay for human consumption.
You ought to pick as much of those as possible, since they're considered an invasive species.
SB: Got it.
You seem to be quite the survivalist.
AD: It's fairly common for us rural dwellers...
I've eaten just about everything you can think of...
Oh!
Except for humans, titans & dwellers of course.
π€π
Actually, I think I technically did eat human.
SB: Ah, you mean when you bit Ymir.
AD: I'm just glad I didn't get sick.
Dwellers do use collected human blood for alchemy, but consuming it raw is risky with how potent & unpredictable it is.
SB:π° Uh...Why do you dwellers collect human blood?
AD: We're not bloodsucking parasites.
We take a portion of shed blood as payment for our healing services.
SB: Healing services?
AD: We can heal other living beings of virtually any injury or ailment, but since it takes a toll on our lifeforce, so we take previously shed blood for payment...
Ever known or heard of someone survive a life-threatening incident?
It's no miracle, it's our healers.
And before you ask, yes, I know how to heal, but don't go thinking I can save mortal wounds.
You'd need more dwellers working together to heal stuff like that.
SB: I think I got enough berries, so we should part ways until we're all done.
AD: Very well.
[You hop off her shoulder and part ways]
[After another hour of foraging, the ladies gather up their harvest, which was fairly bountiful]
HZ: I think we did quite a good job.
AD: I'll say...
All you need is some game, and you have enough food for a week at least.
HZ: Let's hope those boys return with some thing good.
We should head back to get this stuff prepared while we wait for them.
[The ladies head back home, with Potato Girl in charge of cooking, Christa in charge of washing the goods, Ymir & Mikasa prep the ingredients, and Hanji was grinding medicines in a mortar & pestel for first aid purposes.
You had the stealthy assignment of seasoning the hare Sasha had hidden away, gutting it and stuffing it with aromatics, but it was missing some essential seasonings]
AD: Okay, this food is missing some spices.
Anyone willing to follow me to the basement?
Usually I'd go by myself, but it'd be more efficient with human help.
HZ: I'll go.
I can always grind these later on.
[Riding on her shoulder, you guide her to the rubble filled section which held the buried Basement Bulkhead]
AD: Here we are...
Hang on...π[With a wave of your hand, you moved away the rubble, revealing the cellar doors]
HZ: You're definitely telling me how you did that afterwards.
AD: Very well.
[Entering the basement, you sling a flame to fly around the basement, lighting every candle for much needed light until it returns to your hand to extinguish it]
HZ: Add that to the list.
AD: The spices should be in that corner.
There's so much stuff down here...
Books, models, diagrams, artifacts, armors, weapons, stuff I have no clue what it is...
It's like a treasure trove...
AD: No, all our treasure is in the opposite corner.
HZ: WHA!?
AD: And it's property of the Darren Family, so I better not see a single coin or jewel missing!
HZ: Very well...
AD: Actually, now that this is accessible to you humans, I'll make sure none of you even know where it is...
π[With a few claps of your hand, you put an illusion on your Family's wealth, disguising it as broken crates]
HZ: What did you just do right now?
AD: We'll add it to the list.
HZ: I appreciate it... Now let's get those spices.
[Hanji was astonishing with the quality, quantity & variety of the spices in your basement. You're sure there are at least a handful of spices she hasn't even heard of]
AD: Let me grab some oil & vinegar and that should be enough.
HZ: Let's head back up to the others.
[Back on her shoulder, she walks back to the other ladies]
ππ
SB: I don't know what seasonings you have, but they smell is amazing...
The broth and vegetables are at a rolling boil, so feel free to throw in those spices.
AD: Not so fast!
My mom taught me a little trick to bringing out the most from spices.
[With a handful of ground black pepper, you heated your hand enough to toast it, then tossed it into the pot, repeating several times with other seasonings]
π²
πππππ
Women: *Mmm...*
MA: That smell...
CL: Smells so yummy!
SB:ππ Chef's kiss!
Ymir: Damn, that smells good...
AD: Hey uh, what's with that pile of bones?
SB: Oh that? That's just from all the rations we had here.
I managed to convince Captain Levi that I could use them to make stock, so he agreed not to toss them.
Why?
AD: You could make some Gnome Jelly with that & the berries we found.
Women: Gnome Gelly?
AD: It's not made with gnomes, but rather they developed it as a magical dessert.
Ymir: Magic?
Magic's not real.
AD: You say that when you know a guy who can spontaneously construct a titan with a bolt of lightning just by biting himself.
You wanna tell me how that's possible in a scientific sense?
Ymir:...
AD: Magic is absolutely real...
Us dwellers are innately gifted with an array of magic, just like the other small folk before us, and the other beings of the old world.
Hell, even humans were said to be able to wield magic eons ago, but they had to learn how to channel it unlike other creatures of mystical sentience...
My grandpa figured that the humans back then abandoned it for the pursuit of technology.
CL: Magic is real...
AD: Anyways, I'll make some Gnome Gelly.
[Boiling the bones, you take a portion of the hot, liquid gelatin into a dish, mixed in some sugar, berry juice & fruit, then used magic to cool the concoction]
Done...
π
...
ππππππππππ
Crap! The men are coming back!
CL: What do we do?
SB: Where do we hide him?
HZ: Ladies, relax...
I already figured out exactly where to hide him...
πΆπ
β¬
γ°[Hanji dropped you into her clevage, tucked you in all the way, then buttoned her blouse back up]
MA:π³
SB:π³
CL:π³
Ymir:π³
HZ: What?
He'll be fine in there. | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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