Darkness

Ch.23: Finally, Some Good Fucking Food

Heyo, writer person again. This may be a bit shorter than usual, but I wanted to give you guys another chapter for being so patient with that long break I took. Hopefully this story will get back on schedule.Things are looking up as of late, so I hope you all are doing well too. Enjoy, friends!Also, here's the discord if you'd like to join: discord.gg/AzW56m2Ebq

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"Someone said food? My stomach is trying to turn inside out as we speak."

Misdirect froze, "Really?

"Not really. It's an expression," I had an arm wrapped over my stomach.

"It's painful for you when you're low on fuel?" He asked.

"It's not for you?"

Brainstorm approached with something in his hands, and he deposited it into Misdirect's cupped hands, "Fresh from the fabricator. Hurry up, we got stuff to do."

Misdirect turned to me, offering me what he now held. It was a pile of pale blue bricks. I recognized the familiar shape of the food-bricks and groaned.

"Now hold on," Misdirect said, "This is a new formula, the humans helped us with it."

"Really?"

His cupped hands nudged closer, prompting me to tentatively pick up one of the bricks. It was kinda squishy like a very firm marshmallow. I sniffed it. It smelled faintly sweet. The last food-brick I was subjected to had smelled of chemicals and farts and had been as hard as a literal... well, as hard as a literal brick. So being able to bite into it at all was already a vast improvement. I took a small bite off one of the corners and chewed.

There wasn't really a distinct flavor, just sweet with a mildly bitter medicine-like aftertaste. Not bad though. The texture was too firm to be a marshmallow, it was actually more gummy-like than I had first thought. My stomach accepted the offering more than happily.

And just like that, all at once the only thing that mattered in the whole wide world was this marshmallow-medicine brick thing. I tore into it, ripping chunks off with my teeth, barely chewing before swallowing. God, I was hungry.

In what felt like moments, half the marshmallow brick was gone. My stomach hurt from eating so fast but the feeling of fullness was unparalleled. Immediately a wave of exhaustion swept over me. I set the half-eaten marshmallow brick aside. Misdirect was staring, looking at me with some mix of disgust and amazement.

"Woah, uh...? You just...?" He leaned in closer, reaching a giant hand towards the half-brick. Jokingly, I swatted at his metal fingers and hissed at him. He pulled back with a startled look.

Good heavens, he thought I was literally feral. "I'm joking, you butt. Take it." I picked up the half-brick and chucked it to him. He didn't even make an attempt to catch it, which was fair because compared to him the brick was more like a tiny pebble. My bad aim had the thing bouncing off his shoulder, it fell and disappeared below the table. There was a muted thunk when it bounced off the floor.

"Should you be wasting fuel like that," Misdirect said. Glancing where the food brick had fallen.

"Probably not," I said.

Someone cleared their throat behind me and I turned to see Ratchet standing there with his arms crossed. He had an unamused look on his face.

"Kathrine." His expression was curt. "I see you are functioning as reported. Any new pains, leaks, or gouges you'd like to bring to my attention?"