It was two hours later that Trina and Aife realised they’d made a slight mistake. They’d both long since eaten, and then Aife ran down to the nearby stream to gather some water to throw in the bath. It was freezing but it kept them clean and was a good excuse for Aife to do her morning runs with everything going on.

Once the pair had finished their morning routine and saw that Sui was very nearly finished with the outfit she was working on, that they realised she hadn’t had anything to eat since she woke up. Adding onto that, the fact she hadn’t really eaten anything the previous day either they were less than impressed.

Trina was annoyed mostly at herself but projected that onto Sui being a fool. Aife was just annoyed she didn’t think of it sooner. She was the one holding the food after all, so even if Sui wasn’t quite as crazy as they knew her to be, she didn’t exactly have access to the food storage to make anything.

And that was another issue the group was going to have to consider shortly as Aife debated the various methods open to her to get Sui to eat something. The two leading ideas were to place food near her mouth and assume that she’d just eat it, or, the alternative, was to distract her slightly, have Aife snatch the dress, and then make a deal that she can’t go back to work until she’d eaten at least something.

The real issue though, aside from forcing food onto Sui, was that they were running out. The coolers were stuffed with food and no ice, and they were thankful for the time stopping powers of the inventory. But they were three people and the food they did have was rapidly depleting.

Aife estimated they had around a week’s worth of food left, but Trina wasn’t going to let Aife get away with that assumption. It was indeed a week’s worth of food but only if you ate one decent sized meal a day, and while Sui wouldn’t even consider complaining, and Aife would be willing to tough it out,

Trina was unwilling to see both of her friend’s half-starved and decided to put her foot down. They had two days’ worth of food, and anything that was left after those two days would be either force fed to Aife or thrown out.

This discussion was held loudly and directly next to Sui… which of course made little difference to her contributions, still focusing on the dress. Trina eventually decided that she’d had enough and was now trying to convince Ito to help them distract Sui.

“Look, we need to feed her something. We can’t let her go on like this” said Trina

Ito gave a shrug that Trina couldn’t interpret. It was clearly more than an ‘I don’t care’ shrug, but she didn’t have Sui’s ability with the spider. Aife made the guess that it was a ‘what do you want me to do about it’ shrug which Ito gave half marks.

“Why don’t we just shove carrots in her mouth or something” said Aife “I really don’t know how to distract her when she’s like this, and if something gets damaged, we will be damaged, perhaps severely”

Trina cringed “Surely we have better options?”

Aife shrugged “I know Sui’s grandma did it a few times, but rapidly decided it was too much work and that she would force Sui to stop instead. We don’t have that luxury” said Aife

“I know but… I don’t really want to set precedent, that this is ok” said Trina warily

“Yeah, but let’s look at this realistically. Are we scarier than Sui’s grandmother?” asked Aife

“Yes. Or well, you are now. You have super speed and strength, and maybe increased perception so I’d say you should be fine” said Trina

“Oh… right” said Aife “Sorry, I guess I’m still stuck remembering her as such a spitfire that I forgot with all this magic going on that everyone is scarier now. I guess I can try. Ito can you like… I dunno throw some thread in front of her face?”

Ito gave Aife a salute before diving into Sui’s neck and returning with a bundle of silk that had been hidden underneath Sui’s outfit. Ito snipped a bit off with her mandibles then got ready. Aife gave a short nod and Ito threw the string with her full, if lacklustre, strength.

Sui froze in place and stopped working on the dress. Aife used this as a chance to swipe said dress and sprint to the other side of the table with it. Sui then looked down at her hands, and back up at Aife, with big eyes like a kicked puppy.

So, she was promptly smacked in the back of the head by Trina “Sui you need to eat. It has been nearly a day since you’ve had anything and it’s been quite the workout since then. You NEED food”

Hmm do I? Sui took quick stock of her body. Seems I need water more than I need food. Getting up Sui was about to walk to the sink but stopped. Ah, right, no water. “Can I have water first?”

Aife nodded and was about to take out some water from her inventory but Trina put her hand up to stop Aife. “If, now if, we give you some water, will you also eat lunch… or breakfast, or whatever this meal will be” Trina said… waited for a moment before following up with “And the next one as well at the very least”

Sui pouted “I’m not a child” Sui said in the most childlike manner she possibly could. Pouting, arms crossed, big eyes questioning if the ‘punishment’ fit the crime. “Yes, I know Sui, but if you can’t eat properly then how can you sew properly?” said Trina falling back onto one of her old classic lines.

Then all of a sudden there was a plate of food in front of Sui and she was starting to eat. Aife let her mouth hang open before raising her eyes to Trina and then back down. “How?” asked Aife.

What was on Sui’s plate was basically nothing. It was just a nutrition brick, or something similar. It didn’t look great to eat, but Sui simply took a large chunk out of it without hesitation. “No seriously how?” asked Aife

“System provides food if you haven’t eaten in twelve hours” said Sui “Got it put in my inventory with a notification about it”

“Wait what?” asked Trina “I didn’t get that. How did that happen?”

Sui shrugged “Dunno, but the taste is rather unremarkable. I’d assume that nobody other than myself would likely be able to stomach it, but it is at the very least baseline nutrition or so I’d guess”

“May I?” asked Trina, taking the fact Sui didn’t believe she could eat it as a challenge. Aife, knowing exactly how… ‘robust’ Sui’s eating habits were, quietly pulled out the cooler, before putting it back and sneaking over to the cupboard.

Taking out some lemon extract she filled up a glass with it and got ready. Trina on the other, was reaching down to grab a small crumb of Sui’s food brick. The instant it hit her tongue; Trina felt herself gagging.

Stumbling back Trina felt around for something to support herself. Aife held her up with a supporting hand and placed glass, now filled with water and lemon juice in it, into Trina’s grasping hand.

Aife was careful, making sure Trina was holding it before letting go. Trina downed it without even questioning what it was. The burst of sour lemon was enough for her to cough and nearly fall over if it wasn’t for Aife.

Aife grabbed the falling glass with unnatural swiftness and placed it on the counter. “Hack, eugh, oh why would you do that” moaned Trina.

Aife kissed her on the forehead and said “Bet you can’t taste whatever that other thing is now”?

Aife was right. Where her mouth at first felt like the driest part of the Sahara Desert had been dipped in shit and placed upon her tongue, now it was just the sour but refreshing aftertaste of a lemon.

“How? How can you possibly eat that?” asked Trina

Sui shrugged “Just eat it and don’t taste it” said Sui as if this was a totally normal thing people could do.

“Why would anyone want to eat that?” asked Trina

“To avoid starving of course” said Sui “I mean this is the message I got with it.

System User Sui has gone 12 hours without food ingested or contained within inventory.

Providing Emergency Supplemental Food Source.

WARNING Taste may be lethal in some cases.

Do not consume more than one within a 12 hour period. This may result in death.

Sui is recommended to find a source of food.

Emergency Food will only be supplied for a consecutive week.