#△ * shaka laka ( crack. )

[championglider]

➼ | "I really don’t get what people see in Kaeya. I swear, they must've hit their head really hard to look up to him like that. Either that or he must’ve spiked their drinks to compliment on his charm. Like he has any to begin with. I dunno, it just feels reaaaally fishy and suspicious to me. to simp over HIM out of all people.”

[spitfireapm-blog]

“Shoot your shot, everyone!”

[gerudoraised-blog]

gerudo @ link in the gerudo outfit: what a pretty little vai shamas: uhhhhhh u serious?

[ladyfl4me]

A,E,F,G,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z ;o

Okay *cracks knuckles* let’s go! F, M, and S have already been taken from this list, so feel free to send in... B, C, D, or H, I guess. Yeehaw. This is really fucking long.

A: How did you come up with the title to [TMWCIFTC]? -- It started, as many things do, as a bad pun. The novel The Spy who Came In from the Cold was a cold-war spy thriller, about a British spy who goes over to East Germany as an apparent defect, except he’s actually there to spread misinformation and fuck shit up. He falls in love, becomes disillusioned with his superiors, and is shot dead over the corpse of his lover after climbing over to the east side of the wall. Needless to say, this is nowhere close to what happens in TMWCIFTC. I chose it early on because of the literal meaning: there’s a moth(man), he’s coming in from the cold WV weather, boom shaka laka, we have a title. Over time, though, it’s evolved into another meaning. Indrid himself is coming in from an isolated, lonely existence: he’s rejoining the family that cut ties with him, he’s in love, he’s warm and safe. The moth sure did come in from the cold, and hopefully he stays that way.

E: If you wrote a sequel to [TMWCIFTC], what would it be about? -- Hm. Considering my entire TAZ fic career is a tangled hairball of sequels and prequels, I kind of have this base covered. At the moment, TCOS - aka The Children of Sylvain, the sequel to TMWCIFTC - is about three things: a Pine Guard road trip race against time and the feds, the Spanish Sylvan Inquisition That Nobody Expected (least of all Jake and Hollis, who have to set aside their differences and past conflicts to save Kepler - and who knows, maybe they’ll fall in love along the way), and Alexandra the Interpreter getting woke to Sylvan politics and doing what she can from the inside to change them. In other words, it’s going to be a massive sequel that is the finale of the Amnesty alternate universe I’ve created. It’s this series’ Endgame. (That reminds me, I need an actual title for this collection of stories I’m writing. The ��Tin Cinematic Universe” doesn’t quite have the ring to it that I’d like.)

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order? -- eh, it kind of depends. It’s like a buffering bar on Youtube videos. I outline what I can until I run out of ideas, then start writing, then add outlines to the end, until the outline is complete and I just have to keep writing.

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)? -- I don’t have one for reading, but for writing, I fucking love structuring chapters around songs. Classical or otherwise, I love music. All my stories play in my head like a movie screen, and I just do my best to describe what I’m seeing in my head with an accompanying score. It’s not so much a guilty pleasure as it is a writing process. Frankly, I don’t think I actually have a guilty pleasure; the act of writing itself is all the happiness I need.

J: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic]. -- An alternate ending for The Devil Went Down To Georgia would be... interesting. It ended with Boyd-as-Jersey-Devil scaring the pants off some poor broke college kid, who stole his worthless fiddle; then he changed back, and he and Ned went on their merry way to go break into Aubrey’s house and send everything down the drain. If there was one thing that I could change in there, it would be how fast Ned ran. If he ran a little faster, he would have seen the alley; he would have witnessed Boyd turning into the Jersey Devil, or at least turning back into himself; and he’d get a very rude awakening as to what Sylvans are and that his partner (in crime, and everything that mattered) was a fucking cryptid. God, that’d be a fun AU to write. Who knows, I might go do that someday.

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with? -- At the moment, the only angsty idea that I’m actually conceptualizing is a Hollis/Jake angsty breakup for TSG. (Spoilers, I guess.) I once wrote a very grimdark ending to TMWCIFTC where everyone fell through the ice and drowned. It wasn’t fun. I’ve also mentally killed off each Amnesty protagonist and NPC in various ways, but I never felt comfortable writing them down. I only write angst with a happy ending because those are the kinds of stories I need to hear.

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting? -- 9 times out of 10, I just throw it into the void. I write as much as I can in big chunks, and then kind of hope for the best. TMWCIFTC, for example, is a completely unedited, unbetaed vomit draft. I usually do a quick reread of my oneshots to catch grammar and spelling errors, but other than that I just trust myself that it’s fine.

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you? -- Can I get some kind of resolution for To the Edge of Night? Can I please get some kind of resolution for To the Edge of Night??? I was 14 chapters into that bastard before I a) became a more casual MCU fan and b) discovered TAZ. It was such a niche fic with such a niche structure - LOTR as galactic Asgardian propaganda to cover up Odin’s mistakes - that at some point I lost interest in it. I just saw Endgame though, so now I might get some inspiration for stuff to bastardize.

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters? -- Characters. When coming up with character backstories, I can usually find ways to slot their lives together that necessitate a plot. I love character-driven stories, where their actions actually do shit and their words actually mean something, in favor of getting dragged along behind the plot like tin cans behind a car.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?) -- I’m definitely an architect, but in a really messy way. My friends can attest that I do an insane amount of planning for each story - often in their DMs, sorry about that, Fae, Cro, Indy and Aline 😬 - and all that usually ends up in a stream-of-consciousness rant outline on Google Drive. Knowing where the story is going helps me a lot, but the planning I do is definitely just building flower beds in which to sow seeds. Or building a greenhouse. I plan the bare bones of a story, and things get really wild within it, but it does follow a logical plot structure.

Q: How do you feel about collaborations? -- I have a lot of respect for the people who can successfully pull it off, but idk if i’d ever want to do one myself. I get really possessive of my stories and ideas and like to be the one in charge of their execution. That being said, some collabs have produced amazing stories. I don’t mind reading collab fics, but actually being in a collab grates on me more than it should.

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence? -- I’m definitely influenced heavily by Neil Gaiman. I read American Gods and Good Omens a lot while I was trying to write TMWCIFTC; not only was it a good brain break, but I was able to pick up a lot of tips on scene pacing, concise yet expressive language, and character interactions. My creative wriitng professors have always told us to read so we know what to steal - not in terms of content, but in execution. 

On the fanfic side, @miamaroo is a huge inspiration for me. I’ve been reading Northern Migration a lot recently, and I love how its canon divergence is so worldshaking and so complex, but is still familiar in nostalgic yet terrifying ways. I read it back in October, went, “Huh, I wanna do something that wild. And if miamaroo can do it then I sure as fuck can too,” and I started planning TMWCIFTC during that one month dead zone the McElroys took last year. Northern Migration is one of the best, most coherent, most stunning, and most incredibly written TAZ Balance AUs I’ve ever read, and if I hadn’t read it, I wouldn’t have been inspired to take the fuckall huge plunge into TMWCIFTC.

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist? -- Bed sharing and cuddling, hand kissing, wrist kissing, whump, sympathetic villains. Canon divergent AUs are my absolute favorite things to both read and write. Anything that would turn me into Charlie Kelly slamming his finger on a bulletin board screaming, “CAROL,” is a fic I would give my life for. 

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand? -- Not a fan of a) woobification and b) flat villain characterization, to the point where the story is riding on villain tropes instead of an actual person or plot. Character nuance is always something I look for when I read. I don’t usually get bitter about tropes, though; some stuff, when subverted, works really well. I fully subscribe to don’t like, don’t read, don’t write, which is why I don’t write anything that warrants AO3 content warning tags or an Explicit rating, in favor of focusing on plot. Every author has a reason for what they write and how - be it their level of experience, personal preference, or simply the joy of writing something and getting it out there - and I respect that. Within reason, of course.

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much. -- 

@miamaroo, for reasons I’ve already discussed. My favorite TAZ Balance author hands down. Read Northern Migration and give it the love it deserves, or I’m replacing all the faucets in your house with silly straws.

@transagentstern. Fae has a bunch of absolutely incredible fics and an amazing grasp on characterization. We come from the same place with AUs, in that canon is but the bare planks on which we put the drywall of our plot an characterization. They structure AUs and character backstories from the ground up in believable and emotionally raw ways. Also they have great music taste. I especially like their interpretation of Indrid in Moth to the Flame; he, like all the other characters in the story, is far from perfect, and his character arc is explored in relatable ways that I love to read. 

@keplersheetz. Aline - theneonpineapple on AO3 - researches like a motherfucker and has a wealth of knowledge/experience/viewpoints to draw on, making author-author interactions with her an absolute delight. She’s also doing the lord’s work with rarepairs. Spin a wheel, find a ship, and she’s probably written for it or at least conceptualized it. Reading her character studies and stories of the old Pine Guard - aka Mama’s original crew, before the current PCs joined - is always a delight. I’ve also hashed out a lot of details for The Children of Sylvain, especially for Mr. Boyd Mosche, guilt-wracked Jersey Devil extraordinaire, with her help. 

V: If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose? -- Not gonna lie, I’m fine with a lot of stuff that’s out there right now. It’s been a hot few months since I’ve actually stopped to read fic, but from what I recall, most of the fics I’ve read have done a good job of keeping things intact.

W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones? -- The vaguer, the better. With really specific prompts, it usually feels as if the story’s been written for me already; with vague, general prompts, I have more agency to explore my own ideas. Some accompanying detail is usually nice, though. For example, the coffee shop/college/flower shop AUs that @transagentstern​ wrote are my ideal prompt for drabbles: premise, a little bit of open-ended detail, clear explanation of what’s going to happen while leaving the rest up to the imagination. Good stuff. If it’s for a long-form piece, though, I prefer full agency, or even just some time to lie facedown in the dirt and wait for an idea to strike me.

X: A character you enjoy making suffer. -- Yes.

Y: A character you want to protect. -- Tim.

Z: Major character death–do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can’t tolerate? -- I do read lots of major character death, yeah, though not always for TAZ. There’s something cathartic about seeing a character die, but sometimes it sits wrong with me in ways that I don’t like. As for writing, I’d rather kill a character for a reason rather than for shock value/for the Feels, though said Feels can accompany the reason. 

[edgewaterfarmcsa]

CSA WEEK 15

PICK-LIST

Carrots - Bok Choy - Corn - Melon - Grapes (!) - Onion - Garlic -

Carmen Peppers - Hot Peppers - Cherry/Red/Heirloom Tomatoes 

CSA FLOWER SHARE DOES NOT GET ENOUGH ATTENTION HERE…

HOWEVER, HERE SHE IS IN ALL HER GLORY, WEEK 10 OR 11 OF FLOWERS

Attention World!  We are officially extremely small scale grape growers!  These grapes were planted 7 or so years ago. If you’ve ever taken the trip down River Road, you can spot them on the river side of the road headed south just above the first greenhouses.  Historically they’ve been surrounded on a sidehill with too tall poison ivy and grass making the tending of the grapes completely unappealing. Please note the poison ivy does not affect the outcome of the grapes, but it does affect where I travel.  Anyhow, George has been on top of mowing, and Ray has been on top of daily crop surveillance- and as a result every few days he arrives with a couple flats of grapes and I am completely blown away. These grapes have undergone massive disregard since year three of their life, yielding very little fruit.  But this year, on year 7 with just as little work put into them as any year, we got a crop!  Boom Shaka Laka! 

Bottomline Here:  “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”   Ralph Waldo Emerson

In other news, welcome to mid September- a time in the season when nearly everything we grow is ripe for the picking and all flavors from the field are at peak “oh damn that’s good”.  This is also the time in the season where reality sets in and we have no choice but to recognize the change in the seasons. Leaf peepers love this time of year- and I’ve heard lots of light conversation about the cool crisp change in weather.  Pooh is ecstatic that he gets to don his nearly 8 month uniform of a navy or black long-sleeve turtle-neck (literally worn every day from now until May 1). But have you all forgotten this cold harsh tundra that we have chosen to live in? Have you forgotten that in just 3 months our sun will start to set just a few minutes after it rises (clearly an exaggeration but you get the point)? Have you forgotten that our January produces 0 fresh foods?  Gentle reminder here people: get on cooking large batch tomatoes, peppers, etc… So when we have reached the 1000th day of snow piles and ice sheets, we can pop open our freezer/pantry and remember a time of sunshine and green.  

Bottomline Here:  THINK AHEAD! order crops in bulk from our farmstand for your preservation/seasonal (winter) depression needs.  Think tomatoes (heirloom! Reds! Cherries! plums! ), peppers, green beans, cucumbers, corn, cabbage, broccoli, onions, raspberries, beets, carrots, etc…

ALSO YALL:  There is still room in our FALL CSA!! However, we are nearing the cut-off for sign ups so if you are considering joining the party, now would be the time!  If you have any questions about how it works, email me or ask anyone at the farmstand. CHEERS!

 TIPS - TRICKS - RECIPES:

This past weekend we made the following shakshuka recipe in bulk.  It took 4 boxes of tomatoes, 2 bushels of sweet peppers, 1 bushel of onions, and 20 heads of garlic… From that amount we produced 46 qt jars of the following shakshuka sauce to be used in not only its traditional form (with poached egg, crusty bread or pita, salty cheese) but also as a base for the following meals:

Chilequiles - Chicken Tinga Tacos - Tortilla soup - Chili 

MAKE THIS (SHAKSHUKA) SAUCE FOR YOUR FRIENDS/FAM/YOURSELF THIS WEEKEND AND CONSIDER HOW STELLAR IT WOULD BE TO EAT IT AGAIN IN THE WINTER BY A WOODSTOVE. NEXT ORDER THE INGREDIENTS IN BULK FROM OUR FARMSTAND, GO STOCK UP ON YOUR CANNING SUPPLIES, AND SPEND ALL OF NEXT WEEKEND SAUCING, PRESERVING AND WONDERING HOW THE HECK DID YOU GET INTO THIS MESS? I GUARANTEE THAT ON SUNDAY NIGHT AT 10:30 PM YOU WILL SIMULTANEOUSLY THANK ME AND HATE ME.  

Shakshuka [Eggs Poached in Spicy Tomato Sauce] Serves 4 to 6

1/4 cup olive oil

3 jalapeños, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped (OPTIONAL)

3 carmen peppers, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, crushed then sliced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

6 Tomatoes chopped

Kosher salt, to taste

6 eggs

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

Warm pitas, for serving Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.

Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush with your hands. Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Season sauce with salt.

Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce’s surface. Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes. Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and parsley and serve with pitas, for dipping.

Your melon: Gentle reminder to leave it on your counter and allow it to ripen up before cutting in.  

Grilled Pepper and Torn Mozzarella Panzanella

SERVINGS: 4 TO 6  TIME: 45 MINUTES 

TO GRILL: 4 1-inch slices bread, country-style

3 large red bell peppers, halved, seeds removed

1 medium red onion, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch wedges

3 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

TO FINISH:

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoons capers, drained (rinsed if salted)

4 ounces mozzarella, torn into bite-sized pieces, or 4 ounces bocconcini

Fresh herbs — snipped chives, basil, or parsley or a mix thereof — to finish (optional)

Prepare vegetables: Place bread, pepper halves, and onion wedges in a large bowl and drizzle with 3 tablespoons olive oil, then sprinkle 1 teaspoon kosher salt and many grinds (or about 1/4 teaspoon) black pepper. Use your hands to toss everything together until oil coats everything.

To grill: Heat your grill to medium-high, or if yours is small and dinky like mine, high heat. Spread peppers and onions across grill grates and grill, lid down, flipping as needed, until onions are charred in spots (they’ll be done first) and peppers are blistered and blackened in many spots and beginning to soften. Transfer onions to a plate as they’re done; transfer peppers to a bowl. Use bread in bowl to swipe up any excess salt, pepper, and/or oil in it and place slices on grill. Grill until toasted on both sides. Transfer to plate with onions.

No grill? You can do all of the above under your broiler, or in your oven at 450 degrees F. Broilers vary wildly in how robust their heat is, so keep an eye on it. Vegetables tend to take longer in the oven, up to 40 minutes, but check in at 20 to be safe. In both cases, turn vegetables and bread as needed to get an even color.

Marinate peppers: Place foil or a lid over peppers in bowl to trap heat. Once they’re cool enough to handle, remove as much of the skin as you can. This is unquestionably the most annoying part so do only as much as would bother you to have to eat. (For me, this is almost every speck but you’re probably less crazy.) Cut peppers into 1/2- to 1-inch wide strips.

In the bottom of a large bowl, whisk together sherry vinegar, remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, sugar, about 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (and more to taste), and garlic. Add capers. Add peppers to bowl and let them marinate for as little as 5 minutes or up to a day, even. The longer they souse, the more pickled they’ll taste. After 5 minutes, however, they still have plenty of flavor.

To assemble and serve: Shortly before you’re ready to eat the salad, add onions to the bowl with the peppers. Tear bread into chunks and add to bowl, along with mozzarella. Mix gently, making sure the dressing coats the bread. Taste and add more seasoning if needed. Finish with herbs and serve in big heaps.

[championglider]

(feat. @caelumsaltator , @eleventhenforcer , @nightmonarch  and myself as the Backstreet Bois

BACKSTREET’S BACK, ALRIGHT)

[championglider]

➼ | “The next bastard who makes fun of my height will get their shins kicked to oblivion and a Baron Bunny on their face.”

[championglider]

➼ | Pouts at all of you tall people.

[championglider]

➼ | “Kaeya's an asshole, pass it on.”

[championglider]

@melodicbreeze​​​ asked:

(poorly) covers her with his cloak. there. the outrider is hidden

➼ | "Is he gone, is he gone--?!” Poor Amber is so much in a state of panic that she can’t even see how ridiculous she must look, being covered so little by Venti’s cloak. Although she can’t fully escape his sights since she herself and Kaeya are part of the Knights of Favonius, but perhaps he’ll forget about getting even with her if she avoids him. 

[championglider]

➼ | “If anyone asks, tell Kaeya-senpai that I’m not here. I’m not here at all--!~”

[championglider]

dawnsdarkside replied to your post:

"you don't have to tell me twice."

➼ | “I’m glad that we both see eye-to-eye on this, Diluc!~” Was it weird to announce it so loud that way? Perhaps that’s why Kaeya gets on Amber’s case about spreading rumors about him being a bully, but it also feels justified, too! “Sometimes an Outrider like me needs to let out certain frustrations, you know--?”

[championglider]

Kaeya: exists

Amber: YOU'RE BEING A MEAN BULLY AGAIN >8(

[championglider]

soverxign replied to your post:

"But the question is, am I a good one~?"

➼ | “OH SHIT, it’s Sir Kaeya!!” Panicked Outrider mode activated, and she looks very flustered. “Y-You weren’t supposed to HEAR THAT!!”

[championglider]

soverxign replied to your post:

serves amber some rabbit stew

➼ | “...Screw you, Kaeya.” Is this some kind of twisted joke? It damn sure feels like it.

[championglider]

➼ | "FUCK!” Immediately gasps and covers her own mouth. Nobody heard Amber curse that loudly, did they? Hopefully no one noticed that...how unbecoming of this Knight and Gilding Champion of Mondstadt!