#and all this for one (1) singular (one) pea (just one)

[thecl0wnfather]

eddie, get on the loveseat, eddie. eddie. eddie. eddie. save me, eddie. eddie, save me. eddie... save me...

[coulsons-fullmetal-cellist]

Say It With Flowers

(Dieter x horror loving female)

Words: 1, 191

Summary: your relationship with Dieter explained through the language of flowers

My entry for Jett’s Flora and Fauna challenge!

Warnings: hints to abusive past, lots of adorable fluffy stuff, so many flowers!

Check out masterlist here

The applause was triumphant, even from the safety of backstage where you were currently hiding. It was better to stay far away from the wings in case Dieter felt the need to pull you on stage. The relationship was still new, so you didn’t want to be subjected to questions by the interviewer.

You gave a little wave as he almost ran up to you. “Hey, honey cakes.”

He moved to kiss you but then noticed the throng of people. Opening the door to his dressing room, he gestured you inside.

“My girlfriend will take off my makeup,” he shut the door behind him. “And anything else you want.”

You smiled off his flirtations as you were distracted by all the colourful bouquets spread around the room.

“That’s a lot of flowers. Are you going to take them all home?”

“Oh, no, they’ll be sent to old folks’ homes.”

“Really?”

“My abuela always loved getting flowers so I’d like to make some other abuelas happy.”

“The more I learn about you Dieter,” you wrapped your arms around him. “The more I fall in love with you.”

He tried to hide his blush, “Do you want any before they go? I know Valentines is a bad time for flowers, but is flowers in general going to trigger you?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never really been given flowers in earnest. It was always this thing which I now know is called love bombing.”

Dieter sighed in sympathy, “Oh yeah, that’s happened to me often. It was always with some trinket and a big fancy bunch of flowers.”

“I only ever got the saddest bunch from the petrol station.”

“He couldn’t even put in the effort? What sort of flowers did he get you?”

“I don’t know the names of flowers,” you looked around and pointed to some that looked familiar. “Those ones I think.”

“Yellow carnations?” he sucked his teeth and shook his head. “Oh, those are a bad sign.”

“They are?”

“Yeah, in floriography they mean disappointment.”

“What-a-what-graphy?”

“Floriography. Have you seen my film As the Petals Fall?” you shook your head. “Me neither. All I remember from the film was the floriography, or the meaning of flowers.”

“Was it a romance?”

“There was a dead body, so I don’t think so.”

“Oh, I may watch that. So you wouldn’t give me those?”

“Fuck no, I’d only give you flowers with a positive message,” he moved over to a bouquet and pulled out some small white flowers. “This is baby’s breath, it’s usually a filler for bouquets but it means everlasting love which I hope we’ll have.”

“Well, if you’re the ones giving me these, I might grow to like flowers.”

*****

And you did.

He would always leave you a single flower but with this singularity came a meaning that was so deep and profound. As your smile reminded him of sunshine he offered you a yellow tulip. After the first time the two of you made love, he gave you blossoms of the sweet pea as it meant blissful pleasure and thanks for a lovely time. He expressed his continued passion for you through a red tulip. Whenever he was away, you knew he was missing you as he’d send a pink camelia meaning he was longing for you, or the red carnation meant his heart was aching for you.

Christmas gave him the excuse to get out the mistletoe, not just because it was a romantically cheesy tradition, but it meant love and friendship.

Once he rediscovered his love for yarn craft, he would crochet anything with flowers so his messages of love could have a more permanent medium. He mostly made granny squares with daisies or roses, the classic expressions of love and now you wore them as a cardigan or carried it as a tote bag.

When you moved in, he gave you a sprig of small holly blossoms as they symbolised domestic happiness, it was hard to find but he found the small white blossoms. He gave you a carnation for your first anniversary and then again for your first wedding anniversary.

“Now, the rose,” he held out the single flower to you. “A red rose is a symbol of love. A single rose means love at first sight, two means love and affection.��

“So the more you add, the more you love me?”

“Well, 15 means sorry, so go with 12 or 24.”

“Oh,” you gasped. “All those flowers you gave me on Valentine’s…”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m sure someone got a better use out of them.”

*****

And he continued to pass on his knowledge.

Clara gasped at the display of colour. “Wow! So much colour!”

“I know, we have a lot of choice. Now,” he kneeled down. “Do you know why I get flowers for mummy?”

“Cause they pretty and she pretty?”

He couldn’t help but smile, “That’s exactly right. But also, every flower has a special meaning to them, like a secret code.”

“A secret code?” he nodded, and she clapped her hands in excitement.

He picked her up and proceeded to point of various flowers. “Red roses mean ‘I love you’, pink carnation means ‘I’ll never forget you’ and yellow pansy means ‘thinking of you’.”

“Audrey two: I eat you!”

“I don’t think they have any of those today,” she pouted so he continued to explain every flower and its meaning.

*****

“Honey cakes, we’re home!”

Dieter took off his crocs and Clara followed taking off her little crocs. You almost couldn’t see her behind the huge bouquet of flowers she was carrying.

“Oh wow pumpkin, look at all those flowers!” you managed to take the petaled gift from her before she fell over from the weight.

“Wait, secret code!”

“Did daddy teach you?”

“Every flower!”

She almost jumped up on the couch as she was eager to tell you what she had learned. She couldn’t remember the names of the flowers, but she remembered their meaning.

Pointing at each one in the bouquet, she recited, “I love you; I love you; I love you!”

“That’s a lot of ‘I love you’s’!”

“I love you lots, mummy.”

“I love you lots, pumpkin!”

“Now cupcake,” Dieter reached into his crocheted tote bag. “I have a flower for you.”

“For me?”

“Yes,” she reached out for the single white flower, wrapped so lovingly. “This pink rose means happiness because you and mummy both make me happy.”

She hugged it close, giggled out a blush and ran off to show her toys.

“She’s going to love getting flowers.” You got out a vase and started filling it with water. Dieter got something else out of his bag and hid it behind his back.

“Dieter, I don’t think I could fit anymore flowers in this vase.”

“Oh, I don’t have a flower for you.”

“You don’t?”

He shook his head. “Is there a secret language for cheese?”

“Cheese? I don’t think so, why?”

“Well,” he held out a small wheel of cheese to you. “I couldn’t find a flower that says ‘I love you to the moon and back’ so I decided to say it with cheese.”

Lovingly tagging @morallyinept @boliv-jenta @simpingcowboy @ellenmunn @o-sacra-virgo-laudes-tibi @chaithetics @myloveistoolittle @cevans-is-classic @glshmbl @cupcakehp @gswizzsstuff

[fgfluidity]

pincera (part 3)

Summary: pincera- Latin, ‘cup-bearer, one who mixes drinks’ || The private and intimate life of the house.

Pairings: Damien/DA, Celine/Mark, Celine/Will

Tags: Alcohol, Bootlegging, Adultery, WWI, Fights, implied Overserving, Abusive Parents, Autistic!Seer!DA

Parts: 1 | 2

find it on ao3 | donate to my kofi

@opprose @statictay @volbeast @otterlyinluv @flerpdederp @hapikiou (and if anyone else wants to be tagged lmk!

Of course, we know now that not all twins are strictly identical, veritable clones of one another and of the same sex. They don’t have to be the same sort of person in temperament, interests, style, or whatever else; a pair of twins can be as opposite as the poles of a magnet, with only the circumstances of their birth enough to tell you otherwise.

This is the case with Damien and Celine, but even then… many would be hard-pressed to believe them on it.

They don’t look much as all alike. Celine is shorter, small enough of frame to be considered slight, and a good deal paler than her twin, despite the same lineage. For his part, Damien rests at the shorter side of average, but maintains a broader, stronger figure than that of at least one of his friends-- he could never match up to Wil, even if he wished it, but Mark’s no challenge.

Her father’s coloring with her mother’s features, and his, the exact opposite.

She dresses in flowing, deep color, and his favor rests with the straight lines of a nicely-tailored suit.

She holds a taste for the macabre, the mysterious, and he busies himself with the mundane and realistic.

She’s the braver, the bolder, the more outspoken of them both, and Damien…

Found it much more of a struggle.

The air is tense. It rests heavy in the ornate dining room, the singular sound of cutlery sawing through meat and vegetables bouncing off the cavernous walls, coming back to him.

Celine, across from him, almost seems bored, methodically cutting apart her meal as if, a scant thirty minutes ago, she and her father hadn’t been nearly at blows. Still, she resolutely isn’t looking at any of them-- it has to be affecting her somehow, he just knows it.

His mother, at the foot of the table, says nothing. It’s regrettably her default state, these days, but with the energy radiating from her partner at the opposite end, feet interspersed with various dishes, he must wonder if it’s self-preservation or fury that stills her tongue.

He can’t make himself look down towards his father. Celine can rage and act aloof all she likes, but he can’t bring himself to lie-- he’s very frightened of the man. He’s held the power for years on end, over both this city and his own family, and if Damien’s ever going to get out from under his thumb-- unlikely-- it’s certainly not by rocking the boat, as it were.

His supper is an alright place to look, though, and he pays far too much attention to his fork and knife. Saw the meat, back and forth, but he can’t go too quickly; if he scrapes the plate, that jagged and earsplitting sound will equally split the tension in the air, and the aftermath won’t be pretty. Stay calm, stay polite, stay out of the way, and you just might make it through-- he’s learned that tactic quite well.

The dish of peas scoots towards him, and the tablecloth bunches. He doesn’t pay it too much mind-- he still has his own scoop sitting there, untouched, on his plate-- until it scoots again and several tiny peas spill over, stark green against white, one rolling to the edge of his plate.

He blinks at it a moment, the spell broken, and then looks up.

His mother places a bite delicately in her mouth in lieu of saying a word, but her eyes flick from his plate to him-- once, twice.

It may be difficult, out in the world, but his mother’s non-verbal communication has never escaped him-- likely through necessity. The bite he’d been sawing away at has come free, sitting on his fork; likely, any futher action would bring about that awful shriek he’s trying to avoid. Thankful for her help, he brings it to his own mouth.

Salty, savory, well-cooked-- it’s enough to stir his appetite all over again.

“Tomorrow, I’ll be making a call to that school.”

At once, his father’s voice turns the flavorful food to ash and dust in his mouth, and he struggles to swallow around the sudden dryness of his throat.

To her credit, Celine doesn’t start at that, retaining her disinterested expression as she expertly slices up more of her meal. “You’re free to do so, but I won’t be going. Like I said.”

“You will.” His voice comes as a roll of thunder down the table, a warning, and the hair standing up on the back of Damien’s neck could just as easily be from the lightning as it is from fear. “I’m trying to make something of the two of you, and you’ve been resistant at every turn. It ends now, Celine.”

“No, it won’t.” She looks up at him, finally, her eyes cool. “I want nothing to do with politics or any such thing. I have my own passions worth following, thank you.”

Damien keeps his eyes firmly on Celine, but he can’t stop from flinching as his father’s chair scrapes back from the table; he doesn’t need to look to know he’s looming over the end, dark and terrible.

“I’ve had enough of this,” he seethes. “You have to, because at the very least I can make something of you, unlike your brother--”

In an instant, the thunder ceases, the crackling electricity falling out of the air, as everyone in the room simply stares.

Celine, face twisted in barely-restrained, icy fury, sets down her newly-emptied water glass so hard that it cracks from the crystalline base. “I don’t have to do anything,” she hisses. “I’m leaving, and good riddance. Clean yourself up-- you have a meeting tomorrow, Father, and you really don’t want to miss this one.”

She whirls away, frosty air and an unsettling silence left in her wake, her shoes echoing down the polished hall until, finally, the slam of a door silences them.

Damien swallows hard and chances a look at his father.

He doesn’t make to move, but a tendon in his jaw twitches, eyes hard as flint, even as drops of water roll down his nose and off his chin. The thundercloud has stalled in place, headed off by the cold, but that can only last so long. It’ll come for him, eventually, like it always does.

But if she can just go, can just stand in the face of the thing that tore him down for years...

Before he can stop himself, he rises from his own chair, hardly worrying about the shriek against the tile. “I ought to go and follow her, see if I can… talk to her,” he explains, too full of nervous energy to quail before the look his father gives him. He swallows again, letting it course through him. “Water might ruin that tie. I would take her advice.”

The brief courage fails him, then, and he hurries off for the door, but not before he catches sight of his mother.

His mother, braving that storm every single day, even before they did. Who remained quiet and calm, because any push back might transfer more onto her children.

His mother, who gives him a smile just like his sister’s, because it was hers first: all-knowing, satisfied, proud.

He turns, and runs after his sister.

It’s easy enough to catch up with her; he has longer legs, and she hasn’t gotten very far. In fact, as he slows his jog under a gas lamp, she’s already turned to face him.

“I’m not coming back,” she says, matter of fact, eyeing him as if she expects him to try and change her mind.

The eyebrow she raises when he shakes his head makes him grin. It’s always fun to surprise Celine-- she always seems a few steps ahead of everyone else, though whether that’s through her machinations or some mystical ability, he can’t say. “I know you aren’t. I just wanted to talk to you, before…”

At that, she gives him the smallest smile, stance relaxing as she steps up beside him. “Sure. Come with me, little brother-- I need a drink.”

These days, it’s only proper to escort a woman after dark, but from the moment they step into the smoky bar, it’s very clear he’s the one being escorted; Celine strides in with a ripple of her lacy cape, paying no mind to the gentleman who raised their eyes to their intrusion.

They go back to whatever they were doing, but it leaves Damien a bit on edge as he picks out his barstool beside Celine.

He waits until she’s through ordering to speak up, the weight of her words truly settling in. “You’re leaving. For… good, this time, yes?”

“Yes.” She doesn’t look at him, keen eyes watching as the barkeep tosses the ingredients into a metal cup. “I thought you didn’t think I was coming back.”

“No, I do, and it’ll be good for you, it’s just…” The words remain lodged behind a knot in his chest, grappling with the idea that his sister will be gone. It isn’t until the drink-- some pale green thing in a frosty glass-- is in her hand that it loosens enough for him to speak. “I’ll miss you. I don’t know what I’ll do without you around to be the brave one.”

She eyes him behind the glass, savoring the drink for a few long moments. It feels like she’s reading deep into him, like no matter what, she’ll know everything about him. “You came after me.”

Damien frowns, confused. “Yes?”

“Against our father. You were scared to death all night, but you still came after me.” Finally, she smiles, something real and rare. “You’ll be the brave one, too-- you are.”

He doesn’t feel very brave, his stomach twisting in his middle at the thought of the strangers here, his angry father at home, university starting soon. Then again… “Well, I did say he’d ruin his tie if he waited any longer to change,” he starts, smiling himself as she chuckles. “By the way, about his meeting… does that have something to do with you?”

Celine snorts. “It takes no precognition to tell his awful manner was coming back to bite him, someday. I’ve heard people talking. It just seemed now was the time they might finally take the chance.”

“So, you aren’t actually magic?” He teases.

She smiles, her self-satisfied smile. “I didn’t say that. College will be very good to you. Here,” she continues, holding out her drink. “Try it. It’s better than the champagne.”

He does, because he knows university is rife with the stuff, and his sister won’t steer him wrong. It’s sharp, cold enough to sting, but under the zest is something sweet.

He raises the glass in salute to her, and she leaves it raised when she takes it back. She’s not going away forever, not completely, but in the meantime, he’ll take on the world. Just like she would.

--------

Gin Gimlet

--

50ml/2oz gin

25ml/1oz lime cordial

or 25ml/0.5oz each lime juice and simple syrup

Add ingredients to shaker with ice. Shake sharply and return to frosted martini glass.

Deceptive in its seeming simplicity, a sharp and tart drink, best served ice cold. Not the sweetest around, but strong enough to put you under-- if you aren’t careful.

[abramsbooks]

RECIPE: Pesto alla Trapanese (from Pizza Czar by Anthony Falco)

Trapanese pesto originates from the western Sicilian province of Trapani. Like the iconic Ligurian version, it features basil, but Trapanese pesto uses almonds (instead of pine nuts) and tomatoes. It’s Sicilian, so there are breadcrumbs and really nice olive oil too. This recipe originated out of a collaboration with my friend Paul Cavalcante, a talented Italian chef I worked with in Staten Island. It was Paul’s idea to do a vegan Trapanese pesto pie. We were shooting from the hip, throwing things in a blender, and after the third version, we knew we had something. A local who tried it said it was the best vegan pizza she’d ever had, which is when my job seems like it’s the coolest thing in the world. Just toss some al dente noodles in a saucepan with a little pasta water and at the last minute, throw in the pesto.

Makes 1 quart (about 1 liter)

250 grams (about 8 ounces) unsalted almonds, toasted

500 grams (about 1 pound) cherry tomatoes

100 grams (about 3½ ounces) canned whole peeled tomatoes (preferably Bianco DiNapoli), drained

60 grams (about 2 ounces) basil leaves

3 grams (1 tablespoon) mint leaves

15 grams garlic (about 5 cloves), peeled

8 grams (1 teaspoon) sea salt

175 grams (¾ cup) extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the almonds, cherry tomatoes, canned tomatoes, basil, mint, garlic, and salt in a blender or food processor and blend until the nuts are pea-sized.

Continue to blend while slowly incorporating the olive oil until the paste is emulsified but not completely smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning, transfer to a container, and refrigerate until ready to use (no more than 3 to 5 days).

In his comprehensive first book, legendary pizza czar Anthony Falco teaches you everything you need to know to make pizza wherever you are, drawing from his singular experience opening pizzerias around the globe

If there’s one thing the entire world can agree on, it’s pizza. It just might be the world’s favorite food. In every climate, in every region, in every kind of kitchen, there’s pizza to be had, infused with local flavor. In this definitive book, filled with hacks, tips, and secret techniques never before shared, International Pizza Consultant Anthony Falco brings the world of pizza to your kitchen, wherever you are.

After eight years at the famous Brooklyn restaurant Roberta’s, culminating with his position as Pizza Czar, Falco pivoted from the New York City food scene to the world, traveling to Brazil, Colombia, Kuwait, Panama, Canada, Japan, India, Thailand, and all across the United States. His mission? To discover the secrets and spread the gospel of making the world’s favorite food better. Now the planet’s leading expert pizza consultant, he can make great pizza 8,000 feet above sea level in Bogotá or in subtropical India, and he can certainly help you do it at home. An exhaustive resource for absolutely any pizza cook, teaching mastery of the classics and tricks of the trade as well as completely unique takes on styles and recipes from around the globe, Pizza Czar is here to help you make world-class pizza from anywhere on the map.

For more information, click here.

[starrynite7114]

Headcanon: Pets

A/N: Good morning/afternoon peeps! A small update from me! 

ooh a request! Angel comes home form a run and finds his s/o has gotten 3 kitties and a puppy for company! His reaction? @gemini0410​

Masterlist

Request tagged list: @justahopelessssromantic : @ifoundmyhappythought : @carlaangel86 : @woahitslucyylu : @encounterthepast : @enamoured-x : @thewarriorprincessxo : @briana-mishell24 : @bribri-82 : @chibsytelford : @agirllovespasta : @twistnet : @everyhowlmarksthedead : @trulysuccubus : @jadert15 : @sammskellington : @cind-in-real-life :  @claytoncardenasbabymama : @sadeyesgf : @thickemadame : @summertimesadnesswithadashofsass : @gemini0410 : @elcococruz : @samcrobae : @sesamepancakes : @iambabyharry : @blackmissfrizzle : @mrs-losa : @1-800-imagines : @phoenixhalliwell : @lady-pswrld : @dazzledamazon  : @getyourcrayoncas : @fvckthisbxtchup : @lukealvxz : @scuzmunkie : @lilac-tea-time : @danie1432 : @cocotheclown : @soaronmywings : @my-rosegold-soul : @buttercup812 : @itskiranbitch : @angelreyesgirl : @sheeshgivemeabreak : @vicmackeybullshxt : @bigcreatorwombatdreamer : @khyharah : @strawberrywritings : @cherry-icetea : @fuzzy-jellyfish : @losolvidad0s : @brownsugarcoffy : @courtrae89 : @prdsdjarin : @blessedboo : @marvelmaree : @enamouravecleslivresetlechocolat : @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead : @thesandbeneathmytoes : @dark-twisted-and-mechanical-mind : @maddie-georges : @pearlkitten33 : @aquamento : @incorrect-mcdanno​ : @that-chick212​ : @rebel-without-cause-x​ : @inscribeddiatribes​ : @kaystacks17​ : @mindless-x-dreaming​ : @justlikebreathing​ : @imanerdychubbyqueen​

CREDITS TO THE ORIGINAL GIF MAKER!

* You and Angel have been talking about getting a pet.

* Not plural, singular.

* After you two signed the paper for the first house you bought together as a married couple, getting pets was the first thing on your agenda. 

* But that’s when the problem arose

* You wanted a dog and kitty, Angel wanted a dog.

* Angel suggested you two get a dog first and see how that went.

* You wanted to just bite the bullet. It was better for you two to get the dog and kitty so they would know one another already. 

* Angel has not fallen for your usual puppy dog eyes, holding strong and he was proud of himself.

* “Please? I’ll take care of them and so that I’m not alone.”

* “Okay? Let’s get a dog, but a dog and a cat at the same time? No way baby. We’re barely getting the hang of living in a home.”

* You left the conversation at that and not bringing it up again. 

* You could start with a dog and if you happened to leave with a cat, then it was the will of the lord.

* “I love you, keep the doors locked and I got the cameras just in case.” Angel sighed.

* He hated leaving you to go on a run, but he had to work for your home.

* You two were equal partners after all.

* “I love you too mi rey.” You wrapped your arms around him, inhaling his scent. It was insane that you already missed him and he hasn’t even left.

* Angel placed a kiss on the top of your head. 

* “I’ll call at every stop.”

* It was a habit that Angel picked up when you two began dating four years ago. 

* Whenever he went on a run, he called you to let you know he was safe. It was a reassurance for you and for him.

* At that time, he wasn’t incredibly worried about your entanglement with the club.

* But with you being the club’s resident doctor, he wanted to assure your safety.

* Chucky checked on you every night and it was endearing, since Angel always showed you how much he cared.

* When you first treated Coco all those years ago, you didn’t expect to become involved with Angel.

* Due to your program at school that helped pay for your tuition in exchange for you serving at an underserved community, you came to Santo Padre.

* You just never thought you would be staying at said community.

* But here you were now, five years later.

* Engaged with a mortgage.

* And you wouldn’t trade it for the world.

* Now, if you only had a puppy and a kitten.

* Angel has been gone for two days.

* And in those two days you’ve been searching for a doggie at a shelter. 

* You finally found the doggie you and Angel wanted. 

* It was a grey Pitbull that had blue eyes. As soon as your eyes landed on him, you were a goner. 

* A two year old stray that was found in the streets. 

* But it was odd since he wasn’t alone and he wasn’t at the designated dog area.

* He was with a kitten that snuggled closely beside him.

* “They were found together. We don’t usually have them placed together, but the poor boy wouldn’t stop crying unless he was near them.” One of the shelter employees explained to you.

* You knew you couldn’t part them, the poor pup would not fare well without them.

* And that was the story on how you got a cute doggie that you have yet to name, wanting Angel to be there so you two could decided together as well for the kitten as well, that they estimated to be six months old.

* After a trip to the pet store, you set the two up in your bedroom where you had the doggie bed by your dresser. 

* You bought them plenty of toys, treats, and food.

* Seeing them run around happily inside your home, you were more than happy.

* Now, all you had to do was convince your fiancé to keep the two newest additions to your family.

* The next day, Angel came home.

* “Baby, I’m home, what the fuck?” You heard Angel at the front door.

* You made your way out of your office when you found your new boy sniffing Angel. The kitten was on the coffee table, assessing the situation, waiting for his brother to give him some sort of sign.

* “Surprise!” You spread your arms and smiled.

* “Corazon, we talked about this, one at a time.” Angel was exhausted. All he wanted to do was cuddle wit you. 

* “I know, I know,” you rushed over to Angel, wrapping your arms around him, his arms around you. “But I couldn’t leave the kitty because they’re like two peas in a pod.”

* “A likely story.” He chuckled. “What am I going to do with you? Next time I leave for a few days, we’re going to have goats.”

* You pulled away, your eyes lighting up.

* “Absolutely not, we are not old McDonald.” He laughed, kissing you. “Querida, I missed you.”

* “I missed you more.” You looked up at him.

* “Alright baby girl, what did you name them?”

* Angel pulled you onto his lap, wrapping his arms around you. The doggie jumped onto the couch next to him, sitting down.

* “I was waiting for you.” You wrapped an arm around his neck, sitting sideways on his lap.

* “I’m surprised you did.”

* “Babe!”

* “I’m kidding.” He laughed. 

* Angel scratched his head, making the dog lean his head towards him.

* “Blue.” The dog perked up, moving closer to Angel. He wrapped an arm around him, scratching the top of his head.

* The kitten jumped up the couch, settling next to blue. It was a ginger tabby cat. 

* “Red.”

* So simple.

* “Blue and red?” You looked at the two who were now laying beside you and Angel. “You know what, that works.”

* “No more surprise pets, please?”

* And you didn’t bring anymore surprise pets.

* Angel ended up bringing two kittens home he found near the clubhouse.

* Two months later, you two had 3 kittens, Red, Ollie and Nicko. And your sole dog baby, Blue.

* And another addition in six months, a baby boy or girl, didn’t matter.

* You and Angel had your own little family.

[hopeymchope]

Godzilla Singular Point

I came into Singular Point with some trepidation because Godzilla’s history in anime is both very recent and extremely bad. The three anime movies released between 2017 and 2019 are easily the worst work of famed writer Gen Urobuchi and honestly contain more bullshit than I can even get into here. Those movies and this series were both Godzilla anime properties commissioned by Netflix, which didn’t get my hopes up very much. Thankfully, Singular Point is a very different beast from the anime trilogy. One could argue it’s very different from most Godzilla media, actually — at least from my perspective. And I’m still a pretty entry-level fan of Toho’s Big G, all things considered.

Let me just warn you right up front: This smartphone-based virtual assistant is basically the breakout star of the series. 

When you think “Godzilla,” you probably don’t think “incredibly dense sci-fi concepts,” but with the big G’s first-ever anime series, the writers clearly set out to change that perception. Before the first kaiju even appears, the lead characters are plucked from obscurity and dropped into a mystery that involves fourth-dimensional time travel, physical objects that look different from all sides, theoretical math concepts, self-propagating A.I., and a whole lot more. And it’s NEVER made clear how all of it connects to the rampaging kaiju! Although we spend a lot of time investigating a red dust or sand that is very obviously tied to the monsters in SOME way, no one ever makes a connection that explains the relationship. Maybe we’re supposed to wait for a later season to connect the threads... but let’s get into the idea of “another season” later.

I like to think of myself as someone who typically enjoys hard sci-fi, but even with the characters spending loads of time trying to explain the high concepts driving the story, I was never able to fully wrap my head around what was going on in the mystery at the center of GSP. I rewound and rewatched a few explanations, but I still walked away feeling lost. I eventually settled on some vague, loose understandings of most of the ideas mentioned, but those understandings were subject to being ripped apart in subsequent scenes when I was shown or told something completely at odds with what I thought I knew. I can’t say I was ever bored with the thick, dense scientific concepts on offer — trying to find purchase with these far-out ideas kept me glued to the screen — but damn, I sure wish I was able to comprehend them.

What do we want?! DENSE SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSION AND DEBATE! When do we want it?! AFTER THOROUGH RESEARCH, TESTING, AND PEER REVIEW!

Another weird thing about this show is that the lead characters remain in separate locations and on separate tracks for the entire duration. We have Yun — a mechanical engineer and programmer who has an amazing grasp on physics and human behavior. And we have Mei — a grad student who is deeply invested in theoretical science, UMAs, cryptids and other far-flung concepts. Both of them are basically geniuses in their fields, and even though they take opposing views of just how flexible reality is, their shared ability to think “outside the box” becomes the crucial component in solving the mystery at the core of the series. Because they don’t even know one another (despite being separated by like, ONE degree), they only ever interact via text messages and behind screen names, which feels pretty damn weird. At least  I immediately liked both of them, with Yun being the standout to me because of how his lowkey reactions to crazy shit generates a lot of humor.

This soundtrack cover LIES; you will never see these characters in a room together like this. 

Alas, we don’t get to know the characters a whole lot beyond what we learned of them in the first two episodes. It’s not long before they’re trapped in a series of complicated exposition dumps, endlessly attempting to explain the high concepts of the show to other characters as well as my dumb ass in the audience. The fact that I liked them in the first couple of episodes carried me through more than half of the show, but I was always hoping to see them share more of themselves or just display more emotion. Anime as a medium excels at emotional storytelling. But despite the major, world-altering events the characters are constantly warning us about, none of them seem to have many emotions about said events. 

Further complicating matters is how, when major events finally occur in this show, they are often kept off-screen. One character shockingly dies, but the portrayal of that death is so piss-poor that I didn’t even realize it’d happened until someone mentioned their death in the next episode. After that vague death, I was particularly sensitive to anything that looked like it might possibly be lethal. Yet a later event that is played up as a tragic, fatal occurrence ends up... fine, somehow? It’s not clear how the character survives, because — even after one of our heroes is left screaming their name in despair as they seemingly die — nobody ever talks about or explains how he’s just fine a couple of scenes later. And near the end of the series, there’s a major transformation that occurs for one of the characters, and we never see it happen nor do we understand HOW it happened. It’s just that suddenly, this character is extremely different due to off-screen reasons that are only vaguely verbalized.

I guess these two really bonded at some point for some reason? And what you are seeing here is literally the height of emotion shown in the entire show.

Even though the overarching story of the series so far pretty clearly wraps up in episode 13, we then get a post-credits tease for a potential second season. So the question becomes: Would I watch that?

Well... Godzilla Singular Point is a series with a lot of issues that kept me at arms’ length from it — tons of extremely confusing dialogue, highly frustrating choices in direction that lead to baffling storytelling, characters who are mostly exposition-dumping — and yet there’s still some foundational work here that I appreciated a lot. When the action occurs, it’s pretty cool/fun. And when urban destruction occurs, it can be awe-inspiring. The human characters, though little-explored, have likable and interesting foundations to them that could be expanded upon. And I didn’t even mention the soundtrack, which features a variety of musical styles combined with the classic Ifukube theme music and an OP that is an absolute banger. (I have a weakness when it comes to music; a good soundtrack can carry me through even the blandest series sometimes.) Even the core idea of centering a Godzilla series around hard science and mathematical concepts is a compelling one, I think! I just hated the execution of it; they went waaaaay too far on poorly explaining incredibly complex, mind-bending concepts for my pea brain to handle it. They spend so much time trying to explain things, yet somehow they never succeeded for me. 

Ultimately, I’d probably give the show another chance. But if I do give another season a chance, it’ll be on probation. I wouldn’t watch the entire season unless I could see within four episodes that they’d definitely improved things.

Would I recommend that anyone watch the series as it currently stands? I mean... not really? I guess if you really dig complex math, hard theoretical science, and/or Toho’s stable of monsters, then maaaaaaaaaaybe give it a shot. But otherwise? Naaaahh. It’s not good enough at anything to make it stand out from the anime crowd. I didn’t hate it like I hated the Godzilla anime films, but Singular Point is still something that both casual viewers and most fans can comfortably ignore for the time being. It’s not a complete disaster, and it’s not without its highlights... but it’s definitely disappointing in my opinion.

OKAYOKAYOKAY, so let’s talk about the kaiju for a bit! 

Below will be SPOILERS revealing all of the kaiju that appear in Godzilla Singular Point and giving my feelings on them. 

Godzilla — It’s interesting to see a version of Godzilla that borrows some ideas from Shin Godzilla. Shin G has been incredibly unique until now, but this Godzilla manages to fold some of Shin’s distinctive aspects in with the more classic/typical versions to build a fun new depiction. Be forewarned that Godzilla doesn’t show up until the series is halfway over, and he doesn’t get a ton of screen time, either. He’s used quite sparingly and kept in hazy settings, often framed from the neck-up when they show him. It’s a little frustrating that they felt the need to shroud him so much, but I respect the fact that whenever Godzilla is shown, the destruction he causes is on a scale far beyond anything that the rest of the kaiju ever do. He is pure devastation. 

Rodan — He’s easily the biological kaiju with the most screen time in Singular Point. Rodan is first introduced as one gigantic pterosaur, but if you’ve seen ANY trailers for this show then you already know that his depiction transitions into an asston of smaller pterosaurs, all of whom are also called “Rodan.” (Apparently the word Rodan is both singular and plural, like the word “buffalo.”) Although he looks kind of cool at first, pretty soon Rodan showing up isn’t special or threatening anymore. Rodan appearances go from “a big goddamn deal” to “some bland background noise” before the series is even 1/3 finished. The design might be a little too far removed from the original for my own taste, but even if I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t be able to care for this Rodan simply because he’s rendered so unimportant and unimpressive.

If you go out in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise... 

Anguirus — Now check this guy out! Anguirus gets one of the coolest fights in the show and also demonstrates some powers that are well beyond anything we’ve seen him do before. Because he sticks to unpopulated areas, we never see him do much damage to Japan, but he is definitely holding all the attention when he’s on-screen. He’s a highlight for me — a total badass who is very unique in his abilities. And the stated origin for his name is goddamn adorable.

Manda — Yup, Manda is in this series... but I don’t have much to say for him. It seems like the creators of the anime didn’t have much to say about him either. His role amounts to little more than a repeated cameo, and in most of those cameos you only ever see his tail. When we finally see his full body, it’s done so briefly and kept at a distance, leaving me with no real impression. I had to look up his design online and... yup, that sure looks like Manda. Final score: MEEEEHH.

Kumonga — I definitely did not see this appearance coming! Kumonga is much smaller here than you may be used to, but she gets to star in the most suspenseful sequence in the series and easily earns the most exciting cliffhanger moment at the end of an episode. I was utterly glued to the show during her screen time, which comes with a lot of icky twists. Good ones! I honestly like Kumonga here more than I ever have previously.

NEW PHONE WHO DIS

Salunga — Uh, who? This is the one monster that isn’t based on a classic Toho kaiju but instead is a brand-new creation. I suppose that everybody who touches the Toho Kaiju franchise wants to make their own mark on it in some regard. But a big part of the fun of this series for me personally was the anticipation of seeing new interpretations and designs of classic Toho monsters. And so, given that he kind of resembles both Baragon and Gabara, I never stopped wishing they’d just used one of those guys as the basis and namesake. Taken on his own, however? He’s... pretty neat. Not unique or exciting, but solidly above par.  He resembles a cross between a lizard/dinosaur and an ape, plus his head has some nifty coloration. 

Our Jaguar!

Jet Jaguar — I guess Jet Jaguar isn’t exactly a kaiju in the traditional sense because he’s a Giant Robot. However, if you want to consider him one, then I wager he probably gets even more screen time than Rodan! We meet him almost immediately when the series begins. Initially an odd pilot-driven robot that was constructed at the whim of a quirky old factory-owner with too much disposable income, Jet Jaguar grows and changes over the course of the show, ultimately undergoing a transition in episode 7 that makes him pretty damn impossible to dislike. In fact, I utterly adored him by then. This is definitely the best Jet Jaguar I’ve ever seen. His design is recognizably similar to the original yet utterly distinct, too. Like many of the other kaiju here, he’s not nearly as big as he was when he was first introduced to the movies, but his size is ideal for battling the smaller-scale monsters that we spend most of the series on.

[lennydaisy]

SWAN SONG || The Walking Dead AU || CHAPTER ONE.

‘You have to trust that every friendship has no end, that a communion of saints exists among all those, living and dead, who have truly loved God and one another.

You know from experience how real this is.  Those you have loved deeply and who have died live on in you,  not just as memories but as real presences.’

HENRI NOUWEN

                        The Walking Dead.

       Season 1-?

                                        FEM OC! and ?

Enjoy :) and here is the link to the PROLOGUE!

College. Something I never went to. Sure the thought was there. The ideas to get my diploma and possibly becoming a doctor sounded like a great idea. Until I hit senior year of high school. That was when I realised that maybe I'm not meant for school. Sitting in a classroom wasn't my ideal cup of tea, but I stuck it through high school because I was determined to not become a high school drop out.

When I was in high school it was as though everybody had already figured out what they were going to when they took their first steps into the big, bad world. I was never like that. I left high school and I felt lost. I had no clue what I wanted to do. I convinced myself that I was a disappointment to my family because everybody instantly knew what career path they wanted to pursue and I didn't.

I felt that way until I joined the police academy, a year after I left high school. I was in a real slump, applying to anything and everything, I wasn't getting anywhere until Ally suggested the police force. I instantly declined, not believing that I had any chance of making it. I wasn't the most physically active, any chance I got to skip gym class I grabbed with two hands, but the Police Academy was tempting. I wanted to challenge myself and also prove to all the people who thought I couldn't do it wrong.

And I'm glad I did. Joining the P.D was by far the best decision I made in my life. I found myself as a person. I went from being this shy, delicate flower to an independent and determined individual.

Just because I didn't go to college doesn't mean I didn't experience what's it's like to be a typical college student. I attend my fair share of parties, not that I enjoyed them but I still went to please Corey who didn't want to go alone because apparently, that's embarrassing. Aside from the parties, I don't understand why people stick it through college, sure a degree is a good excuse but honestly is any college student happy? Judging by the faces passing by my car the answers no.

My mind is still on autopilot from what had happened not even a half-hour ago. The scene still vivid in my mind, like a record, stuck on repeat, it won't leave me alone. Maybe if I hadn't rushed her out the door then she would still be here, at home with her husband, happy. Her husband. I've ruined a family-

My thoughts being abruptly stopped by the sound of knuckles furiously knocking on the only rolled up window. Moving my drooping eyes to the source only to be met by the slightly annoyed face of my sister Cora. Leaning over to push down the lock, I'm smacked in the face with the humid Atlanta heat.

"About time, I've been knocking for five minutes," she exclaims holding the door open, entering the car. Only humming in response, repositioning myself in the driver seat, staring deadly out the window, "Wow, what's up?" She asked instantly knowing something's off.

"What? Why would anything be up?" Shaking my head, trying to focus on now and not the past, "Oh I don't know maybe you burning a hole into my school with your eyes or the fact that you haven't acknowledged Maggie in the back seat." She states with that smart tone that I love oh so much.

Swirling round in my seat, I met with the contagious smile of Maggie Greene. She a delightful one. A pure soul who could honestly do no wrong, and yet somehow she's best friends with Cora. The pair are polar opposites, like two peas from completely different pods but it somehow makes sense. Cora is like a hyperactive puppy whereas Maggie is a house cat. Maggie keeps Cora grounded. Without Maggie, I don't even want to know where Cora would be.

When Cora first started college she got in with the wrong crowd. She started to miss important family events; like our weekly game of family-friendly monopoly. Cora wasn't Cora anymore, she was someone new, she was trying hard to become something she wasn't. That's until she met Maggie. Apparently, Maggie went through something similar, I don't know all the details, that's a secret between them. All I know is that they met in the student car park at night completely shitfaced with no way to get home. It all came from that singular moment of stupidity, and I'm glad it did because I've already 'lost' one sister, I don't need to lose another.

"Hi Maggie, sorry just had a weird day at work," I half lied, staring up the car again driving out of the almost desert car park, "The farm?" I asked, knowing where to drop her off having done it a couple of times.

"Don't worry about it Macy, we all have our days, and yes please if you don't mind," her southern accent radiating through the car, a genuine smile covering her face meeting at her eyes. Nodding my head, my eyes training back on the road but my mind and eyes can't help but wonder. It was only a few miles back that I saw those things from the news, they could be lurking around here too.

"You will not believe what Ashton said to me today," Cora said, kicking her feet up on the dash of my car, her hand sitting comfortably behind her head. "Oh please do tell," taking one hand off the wheel to push her dirty Dc. Martens on my beloved car.

Scoffing as her feet slap against the floor of my car, y'know where a normal passenger's feet are supposed to go, "He said, 'i think we should see different people', and I was like 'why', and he said, get a load of this, 'I just don't think it's working out'. Yeah no shit it's not working out, he never calls me, never texts me, and that's the first time he has ever spoken to me in school," leaning towards the cool air drifting through the window as she rants about her love life.

"Ashton a grade-A douche, I pretty sure we've had this conversation every time I pick you up," I state as the boredom begin to consume me at the ritual of Cora's love life discussion coming up once again. Looking in the rearview mirror I see Maggie nodding her head in agreement, "I agree, out of all the guys in our school you choose Ashton," she gags making a yuck sound, her face scrunching up at the thought of her best friends boyfriend.

"It's kind of your fault y'know," I laughed as she sided eyed me, "you met a guy called Ashton and expected him to what? sweep you off your feet?"

"She's got a point," Maggie pointed out hiding her laughter better than me, "No she doesn't!" Exclaimed Cora as she turns around to fully face Maggie in the back middle seat, "what about your love life huh, oh yeah it doesn't exist," she sassed hands crossed over her chest, a smirk on her face as though proud of her very mediocre remark.

Shaking my head at my sister's antics, "Maggie will meet a guy when she's ready too. Just because she not actively looking doesn't mean it will never happen. And I bet when she does meet someone, he'll be a million times better than Ashton or any of those other guys you've been with."

"Thank you, Macy," I hear her quietly responded, shyness overtaking her voice at my comment. Not being able to hide my smile at the innocent girl behind me and the slightly ticked off girl beside me, "um hello! You're supposed to be on my side-," Cora's voice shuts off to a silent whisper. Confused at her sudden change of tone, I glance her way. Her eyes trained directly out the front window, never blinking.

Trying to find what she was looking for wasn't hard. It's them. Only a few, 2 male and 1 woman, a couple of meters away from my travelling car. These are different, they're nothing like the ones I encountered earlier. The ones from before were coming towards me at an agonising walking pace, these ones however are running, running extremely fast.

Cora's heavy breath begins to fill the car, as Maggie mutters incoherent words. I however am static, this wasn't just a one time encounter. In the space of not even an hour, I've seen a dozen of these people. The government has issued official reports telling us, the public, that's there is absolutely nothing to worry about and they have this all under control. At first, I believed that, but now with these thing sprinting towards my car, I'm beginning to beg to differ.

"Um, Macy drive. Macy, please drive!" A panicked Cora heaves in my ear. Judging from my previous encounter, fight or flight is not an option right now. Not until I fully understand what these things are.

My tires make the all to familiar shrieking against the warm tar, with nowhere else to go but straight through the few in the middle of the road. The sound of the dead weight hitting the bonnet of my car before flying over the top was like nothing I've heard before. It's sounded sickening. A mixture of bones clashing and screams. A horrific sight and sound.

The car stayed in utter silence until I pulled up to the Greene farm, to where none of us dared to move a muscle. You could hear a pin drop over the sounds of slightly irregular breathing. The beating sun shining through the front window causing the car to feel more insufferable.

"That's those things from the new isn't it?" Asked Cora quietly as though scared to break the silence. Having not enough courage in my voice to reply, I just simply nod, "that's why you had a weird day at work, wasn't it?" She asked again, this time staring at me but I refuse to meet her eyes only nodding again. Hearing the shaky breath from behind me and the sound of the door opening, snapped me back to reality.

Looking out through Cora's window, I see a slouched Maggie struggling to keep her balance. Pulling my lips into a tight smile, "Be safe," I said gently toward the shaken up girl. Muster up a nod she replies, "you too, the both of you," before turning round to met her sister Beth at the porch. Seeing the pleasant girl brought a smile to my face as I waved back to the gleeful youngest Greene.

Once Maggie was safely inside her farmhouse that's when I pulled away, only to have something at the corner of my eye catch my attention. Hershel, Maggie's father, walking away from the slightly beat barn. In his hands some sort of animal handling pole. Nothing unusually really, Hershel is a vet but that's not what's concerning. The glooming blood dripping slightly off the loop is however concerning.

"Hey Mr Greene," greeted Cora, her voice still failing her a little. Laughing at the younger girls formalities, "how many time have I told you to call me Hershel," he said walking closer to the car, a cloth in hand as he tried to discreetly clean the pole in his hands, but the deed was already done, I had already seen it.

"A couple more times should do the trick," she tries to joke, wanting to forget what had just happened. Luckily enough Hershel doesn't notice the pressed bloody handprints of the front and sides of my car, as he leans to see me at the driver's seat, "Thank you for dropping our Maggie off again Macy, it really means a lot."

"Don't sweat it. Didn't want her travelling back home herself especially now with the mess that's all over the news," a sharp inhale from Cora causes me to reach over, comfortingly grabbing her sweaty hands in my own, rubbing the backs for her hands softly.

"Ah yes, I did see that. I'm sure its nothing to worry about," he waves his hand slightly, looking over his shoulder at the barn he had just left. I frowned my eyebrows at the elder's change in body language; his wondering eyes and shuffling feet are causing me to doubt the man's knowledge of the current situation.

"Better safe than sorry I guess," I dismiss getting ready to drive off again, "I suppose you're right," his voice becoming harder to hear with him no longer facing me. The sound of my engine starting up again is what snaps him in our direction, "Well Thank you again, have a good day," he farewelled beginning to make his leave, walking up the same creaking steps to the porch.

Before he could catch the door handle, I yell, "Hey Hershel," catching his attention, "Be safe," only to receive a simple nod before he descended into his home. Home.

"Let go home," I exhale tapping my sister leg, catching her teary eyes, "we'll be fine."

I don't know who I was trying to reassure, Cora or myself, but with what has been going on recently, I think everybody could use a bit of reassuring.

This is quite a short chapter but I need to start somewhere right? If you took the time to read this, Thank you! and I hope that you liked it :) 

I might start a taglist for this au, so if you would be interested in being tagged when I post for this au then just message me or comment to let me know!

I’m going to try and post chapter two later today hopefully too :))

DAISY.

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Sunday 18 August 1839

4

10 ¾

fine morning F60 ¼° at 4 ¼ am barley oats peas etc. niceish open country about Sollenbrun [Sollebrunn]  – good small as usual beds A- poorlish – paid 4/12 rigs = 2.40.0. Banco – enough for our boiled milk and 6 eggs and butter and the little bit of brown bread ate (the tea and sugar our own) – a few houses scattered about near the Station and afterwards – Bäreberg a little hamlet 1 ¾ m. at 6 ¾ = 1 mile per hour – still fine but clouds lowering – bare wide-extended sterile plain country heather moor with patches of corn to the little scattered village of Bäreberg neat little whitewashed church a little before coming to the station – could not sleep there I think – the people going to church – all the men by themselves and all the women ditto in little companies – very neatly and well clothed – 25 minutes here (at B-) we had come faster than William expected – the horses not arrived – off at 9 21/.. – A- and I had breakfasted (had a little of Mrs. Todd cold rice pudding at 8 ½) – wrote out yesterday afternoon after leaving B- at 9 21/.. then slept a little then wrote thus far till now 10 50/.. and we just a fir forest – Scotch and spruce but much Scotch – a relief after the poor uninteresting country this morning – we had a little at starting but not [?] – the clouds threaten more

off at 5 5/..

2 four wheeled and 2 wheel carriages besides our own off before 5

2 forest for 10 minutes

August Sunday 18 rain – common juniper cranberries and bilberries and heather grow everywhere in the forests and on the commons – at 2 little bit of forest – at 12 20/.. Lidköping on the Wenner [Vänern] lake – nice little wooden town with large grande Place, in the style of Wennersberg but not so large? – nice view of the lake as we cross the grande Place green with grass – then a wood bridge over good river then lesser square and goodish street to the gate (common square posts) out of the town – had entered by another such gate – nice neat little town – neat good (stone?) whitewashed church the people well dressed – some gentlemen walking about – fine broad expanse of lake, but its boundaries as far as we can see sparingly wooded in front of us – better behind us – and no where bold – hill range gently sloping to the waters edge in front (left) oats green and rye in stook, close together – better farming or better soil or but just about the town than since close to Götheborg [Gothenburg] – the lake calm but looks muddyish hereabouts as if shallow and lying on sand – our road now at 12 40/.. (10 minutes from the town) very sandy (red sandy) – and enter a little forest Scotch fir we had also a little bit before entering the town – at 1 5/.. out of the fir forest and again upon the lake and cross another little stream – here Epilobium (Contamine) a weed among the oats as in fact we have seen it before in Sweden – now birch wood and firs (forest) again and sandy but very fair road – the roads all along very fair – A- and I had Deventer gingerbread and enjoyed it till 1 ½ then emerge again up the fine sea-like lake – but its scenery must be tame – the day finer now – [fresher] drier air over this juniper common a long reach of the lake and Lidköping just distinguishable – Cållängen [Kållängen] at 2 7/.. good station – 2 or 3 carriages – 2 ladies?

SH:7/ML/TR/12/0030

 August Sunday 18 getting some boiled milk? in soup plates – all looked well – a house? and 2 or 3 cottages and large farm buildings close to the station house – could sleep there very well – but nothing (said William) to be had but bread and cheese – the horses not arrived – had to wait till off again at 2 43/.. – at 2 50/.. pass thro’ picturesque little village – neat good stone built church – this and another larger church and village in sight at Cållängen [Kållängen] – the large church perhaps an English ¼ or ½ mile distant – several [?] cottages scattered about here , in little groups – the clouds still very threatening but a little sun now at 3pm – ripe oats uncut and lime set up in little sheaves – much cattle red and horses pasting on the common more cleared and better pasture than usual – the corn etc. in fenced off patches – the cattle generally a reddish fawn-colour – little and slim but good – went into the cowhouse and stable at C- horses fed out of deep troughs – no racks – eat their hay out of troughs at the door of the station – cow has nor racks nor anything – must surely feed out of moveable tubs – floors boarded – horses part only by a double rail but top tail as high as the horses – cows each stale at 3 8/.. bit of fir forest chiefly Scotch and then moor heathy and sweet gale etc. only for one cow parted by a few boards the height of the cows’ head at her head and sloping down to 1/3 of that at the thick boards tail – let into one another no other visible support at the bottom end – pigs kept warm in winter – the styes opening into boarded huts or as it were vestibules! at 3 1/3 on the heathery sweet gate, juniper, bilberry moor Kinnekulle (pronounced Chinnahcullah)fine – roundish long balked wood hill full in view about a mile off (right) – there may be a fine view of the lake

August 18 and as they of several towns  but what else can there be? sheep here – the cottages hereabouts very small and low, mere wood huts – the [strong] thatch covered with peaty sods – very poor and picturesque – our road still very sandy –

Kinnekulle reminds me of mowcop [Mow cop] near Lawton but is not near so fine –

Enebacken  at 4 5/.. neat good wood house and a cottage or 2 the village at a little distance – prettyish on starting from here – could sleep here well I should think – still sandy road – Kinnekulla the summit of a picturesque line of hill – looks well and nearer  from the top of the rising ground just beyond our Enebacken station – and soon enter young forest chiefly Scotch again – pretty stage from Enebacken – forest and pretty with big granite boulders moor young fir wood – at 5 ¾ water (left) and en face a little [reach] of the lake – nice drive all the way from Lidköping, but pretty from E- several small hamlets and villages scattered all along – at 5 10/.. long, straggling, unpainted picturesque wooden (tiled, strong thatched or shingled) village of Bjorsätter [Björsäters] good whitewashed brick or stone church – some better larger red houses at the station (in the village) at 5 55/.. – might perhaps sleep here à la rigueur? little 2 story houses door and 5 windows to the street – a tall maypole just before us lower down the street – off again at 6 5/.. nice foresty pretty enough drive till 7 8/.. fine sunset over the lake and cross two good wooden bridges into the very neat nice little town of Mariestadt beautifully situated – on a little bay of the lake – very nice good little right angle streeted town – the western horizon quite red – [gilding pin] a clay of the handsome looking whitewashed church and topping the tops of the fir forest on the east side the lake (in front of us) with a sight autumnal brown – singular effect – at some distance ½ the height of the trees [?] – this colours the gradually wore itself out as we neared and forest – enter it at 7 20/.. – chiefly Scotch fir – arrived at Hasslerör at 8 – 2 rooms – comfortable

SH:7/ML/TR/12/0031

August Sunday 18 Boiled milk and 4 boiled eggs and butter – had our own bread and preserved lemon and Tods’ rice cake – good supper – and over at 8 50/.. – then had Grotza and long motion Reading handbook on Sweden – fine day – F64 ¼° at 9 ½ pm

[missguomeiyun]

Homecookings [May ed.]

Cheers to the end of another month~

I had my 2nd staycation of the year in mid-May, & it was productive! I got a lot done, for real! I did some watercolour practice~ Below are some works I did during this month; I used my Korea photos as a guide. It was fun!

I also watched some Kdramas; I highly recommend Rugal! If you’re into Kdramas like The K2 or City Hunter, you’ll like Rugal. There’s action, a little bit of sci-fi, crime (gang/organizations vs NIS teams), & excellent cinematography. Born Again is another Kdrama I watched; it’s not done airing yet so I guess I’m still technically ‘watching’ it. Despite low ratings, I am enjoying it! I like the 3 leads A LOT!

As you all know if you’re in Alberta (/Canada), things started to reopen. I’m not sure if it is a wise decision, but I will still keep on practicing social distancing. I mean, that only means I’m going to/from work anyway - again, this whole thing hasn’t impacted me all that much. In fact, when my BFFs & I had another video chat session to catch up/celebrate a birthday, a question discussed was “how has quality of life changed during the pandemic / how it’ll affect short term and/or long term QOL once it’s all over?” Tbh, my QOL has improved! Not significantly, but there has been some positive changes. I actually feel happier to be seeing less ppl (friends included). This reclusive life while keeping in contact via “wifi” has been the best of both worlds for me. I do miss going to Hmart... lol but other than that, I’m pretty self-sufficient at home. I’ve got loads of coffee, adequate amount of snacks, plenty of books to read, not running low of art supplies anytime soon. .. I’ve literally got everything that I need, you know what I mean? I even have things that are on my to-do/to-try lists that I can start if I want to *shrugs* I consider myself one of the lucky ones that aren’t affected, & I’m super grateful for it.

PS: I do need to watch out for the “Quarantine 15″ HAHA but I don’t think that will be an issue for me. Actually, who knows.. . continue reading this post & let me know if you think I’ll gain the Quarantine 15 :P

^ This is my cocktail consisting of cold milk, hot chocolate powder, instant coffee powder, & the cappuccino honey. It’s basically a cold mocha (not iced! Bcos I had no ice in it!). It was refreshing~ Some days in May were hot!

^ My homemade kimchi wrapping (cut up) pork loin. The kimchi I made (the 1st jar that I opened was kinda sour so it paired well with meats or to be eaten on its own; not the most ideal for soups). This was very refreshing! I only lightly seasoned the pork with salt & fresh ground black pepper. Then I peeled longitudinal strands of my napa cabbage kimchi & wrapped small pieces of the pork loin. Excellent appetizer, if I do say so myself :D

^ Hearty soup! I’m slightly surprised I haven’t shared this on here yet (at least I don’t think so). You know the Campbell brand creamy Thai chicken & rice soup? I LOVE LOVE LOVE that soup so much. I’d say it’s in my top 3 of the ones I’ve ever tried. Anyway, on its own, it is too salty for me. So what I do is dilute it with more veggies + water. Using about 1/3 of the can each time, I add anywhere between 1-2 cup of water with it into a pot, then add in whatever veggies I have: green cabbage, napa cabbage, mixed frozen corn/peas, tomato, cauliflower, & broccoli. These are my main choices. The amount I add depends on what else I have for the meal. The natural sweetness from the veggies give it a very good flavour, but the “background” Thai taste is still present.

^ My fancy hot chocolate with a book.. . This is my 3rd Sophie Kinsella book. I didn’t think I would be into her books but surprisingly I am.. . Her female protagonists are all kinda similar lol at least for the ones I’ve read anyway. But umm the fancy hot chocolate! It is a gourmet hot chocolate mix I purchased from the Butterdome Craft Fair back in December. I put it away & then the holidays passed.. . anyway, this was the Noel-blend, so it has a very chai feel to it with nutmeg & cinnamon. I tried a little bit of it before, & got no allergic reaction from it, so I up’ed my amount this time.

^ Random May afternoon snack while on staycation.

^ 2-ingredient baked wings. There are a lot of Asian-inspired sauces for marinating/cooking meats, I find. Like you always hear soy garlic, honey garlic, or ginger sesame, teriyaki, etc.. . you know what I mean? 1st of all, as a Chinese person, do I particular cook with these combos of condiments/sauces? No... lol I think it’s a very Westernized concept... OR the other good one is, “drizzle sesame oil on everything!” Which I also don’t do... Recently, there has been a lot of wings happening in my household, so I’m trying diff things with them. For these baked wings, I marinated the wings in (diluted) hoisin sauce + fish sauce. Hoisin sauce is sweet, while fish sauce is super salty. I think I added about the same amount of each...then added some water. Marinated these 8 wings for 5-6 hrs, then baked them for ~40mins. I didn’t turn them around, so only the skin side is dry-ish, while the bottom is moist + juicy.

PS: I prefer this 2-bone wing piece (rather than the drumlette, aka the mini drumstick that’s attached to this wing piece). How about you?

^ Upgraded rice cake + dumpling soup. I added cheese, furikake flakes, as well as 3 kim-mari’s (deep-fried seaweed rolls).

^ Simple fried rice (just egg + leftover rice, with a tsp of soy sauce)

^ Grilled meat (pork + beef), kimchi, rice, & radish + pollock soup. 1st time using the electric contact grill in 2020! It has been around for so long, but we just don’t use it; so it made its way down to our basement storage...... It now resides in the kitchen but unsure how long it will stay........ Mom thinks it’s in the way, esp for such an infrequently used appliance. Tell me, what else should I use it for so it can stay around for longer?! :P

^ Jjapa-guri wings! THIS WAS SO AMAZING! Okay, have you guys watched Parasite? If not, that’s ok, just familiarize yourself with “jjapa-guri”. Long story short, it is a combo of 2 instant noodle (flavours): blackbean sauce + the Neoguri powder. The name is a compound term of the 2 essential components. For these wings, I used my blackbean sauce (from jar), with the Nongshim (instant noodle) kimchi powder. Can’t see the redness bcos the blackbean sauce is so dark. But anyway, I pan-fried the wings, & then they’re about 50% cooked, I added spoonful of the blackbean sauce & added some kimchi powder in (also some water so there’s a bit of a sauce created). So tasty!!!

^ Basa fillet stir-fry with rice. The stir-fry contains: choy sum stalks, green cabbage, bell peppers, & thin rice cakes. For the sauce, I used abalone sauce + sugar. Abalone sauce is more salty & has a more deeper flavour than oyster sauce, so a little bit goes a long way (at least the brand we have anyway). For my singular serving amount of ingredients like this for a stir-fry, I normally add 1 almost-overflowing tsp of oyster sauce. I added the same amount of abalone sauce & it was too salty for me personally. So I added sugar (not sure how much I added.. . maybe 2 tsps?). I don’t think abalone sauce is very common to the Western population, but it’s an item easily purchase-able at Asian grocery stores! Next time you’re in one, you should buy a small bottle & try it out!

^ “Hotpot leftover special”. Threw some leftover things from hotpot & made it into a soup. Over a bed of instant noodles :P Bcos it is my staycation, so I’m eating 2 instant noodles within 1 week *gasp*

PS: I normally like the plain white surface for my photos. What do you think about this colourful tablecloth? Personally speaking, too colourful, vibrant, summer-y & bright for my liking.

^ Nestle drumstick (the fudge flavour). 1st one in 2020~ Does anyone know how long these can be stored for in the freezer? No expiry or best before date on the box; this was a Costco product & there are 18 drumsticks (9 fudge; 9 caramel). 1 box of 18 probably lasts us like... 7 months HAHA bcos we eat it so infrequently. It’s crazy, I know. Looks amazing in the photo, but the cone part is like getting kinda soft. Esp at the bottom, it’s kind of.. . chewy. Still tastes fine & everything; but the cone is softened. 

This is it for now. Hope you’re staying healthy & safe, wherever you are.

[jugpea]

I’ve got you, babe

↪

jughead jones x sweet pea summary: a soft jughead upset over his drunk dad, ft. comforting sweet pea a/n: I did this sorta pre-relationship, and it’s like 1:30 in the morning and this was the first thing that popped into my head. I feared if I didn’t write it now, I never would, so I hope this is enough for you. If ya’ll have any other requests, please send them here! 

Once FP was tucked soundly into his bed, face shoved deep into the pillows, Jughead finally relieves himself of his duties and retires to the couch with a tired sigh. How close had they come? How close had he come? And stupidly, he believed that a retirement party at a bar of all things was a good idea -- no matter the turn out, not matter how carefully conducted, the same result was bound to happen.

Things could’ve be mended, Jughead was sure of it. There were always so many possibilities for FP Jones, and he refused them all. All except for one.

Jughead looks to the fridge, wondering if there’s any leftover bottles in the shelves. He pulls his beanie from his head, stands, and trudges his feet along the carpet. He cleared as many empty bottles as he could from the living room table, and kitchen table, and then made his way over to pull the lever open on the fridge door.

Sure enough, another six pack nestled in the bottom corner, untouched, but surely waiting in anticipation to be drank by the drunk knocked out on the couch. Jughead peers over the window into the living room, ensuring there were no signs of his rise as he cracked them open, one by one, and tipped them upside down to drain down the sink.

While he waited for them to empty, he treated to the bathroom to brush his teeth and change into something with longer sleeves. A colourful reflection caught his attention through the bathroom window; he dropped the toilet seat down and stepped up out of curiosity.

Brilliant arrays of blues, reds and purples illuminated the tiny courtyard between the gathering of trailers. Jughead’s breath caught in his throat for a moment, wondering which Serpent could possibly be the culprit. Then, he chuckled once at the thought. A Southside Serpent unwinding his or her day with a lightshow.

After another minute of watching the lights swirl intricately, Jughead began to lower himself back to the floor before a movement pulled his attention to the door of the trailer. The figure was bent over, dark silhouette hard to make out until they stood and descended their stairs.

Jughead watched Sweet Pea carry two blue bins of recycling down into the pit, green hoodie three sizes too big for his already large frame. He jumped down from the toilet seat, quickly gathering the cans from the sink to toss into his own bin, slipping his feet back into his boots. He tried his best to keep the squeak of the door as quiet as he could as he exited, happy to see that the teen had noticed him, too.

Sweet Pea plopped onto the wooden steps of his own trailer, sliding over far enough to give Jughead enough room to join him.

“Sweets,” he greeted after sorting the empties. “What’s up with the light? You strip on the side, or something?”

“Just listening to music.”

Jughead nodded once, fingers absently folding and unfolding. “You left the Wyrm a little late. Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

The step was damp, but Jughead didn’t mind. The chilling air, however, was a few degrees colder than he anticipated. “Open bar means a good time.” The Serpent replied nonchalantly. “I have a data management midterm Monday, and I need to study or I’m gonna totally bomb so I’ll be up for a while anyway. Shouldn’t you be in?” He inquired, leaning closer to bump their arms together.

Sweet Pea watched Jughead’s shoulders slump forward in defeat, raven curls falling over his already saddened eyes. There’s a brief moment where he envisioned reaching out to pull them away from his face, but quickly dismissed it.

“Long night. Tall Boy wouldn’t let the party die, so the party moved back here. Everyone’s gone now, and dad’s passed out, I was just cleaning up the trailer ... ” he trailed off quietly, fidgeting the frayed threads on his sleeve.

Guilty, Sweet Pea turned his head to look down at the teen, thinking about how he had been the first to order a round of shots -- one of which FP shot down whilst staring his son straight in the face. At the time, Sweet Pea hadn’t thought anything of the disappointment that shot across Jughead’s face. Thinking back now, his skin felt warm and stomach pooled nervously. “I’m sorry, Jones.” He breathed, unsure of what else he could really say.

“What? You don’t have to --”

“But I do. I … I called that first round. It completely slipped my mind that he wasn’t supposed to have anything to drink.”

Jughead dismissed it with a wave of his hand, hugging his knees up to his chest with a loud exhale. “It’s not that he’s not allowed. It was more that he said he wasn’t going to … and he did.” He began to felt his lip tremble, burning sensation building behind his closed lids as he let his face fall forward into his arms. He was careful with keeping his words clear and concise. “And I made a mistake, one he won’t let me fix, one he’s hellbent on fixing himself. All while jeopardizing everything, and for what?”

The Serpent gnawed on his inner cheek. “You wanna come in?” He offered, jerking his thumb to the half open door of his own trailer. “It doesn’t smell like booze.” He added.

Jughead didn’t even think twice before he was standing on his feet, following Sweet Pea into his home. It hadn’t been the first time he’d stayed the night, certainly wouldn’t be the last, he was sure.

He was familiar with the tweed couch, and itchy blanket, but had grown fond of the scent that lingered on the pillow Sweet Pea pulled from his own bed. But tonight he noticed that the area had been rearranged; he examined the furniture, new positions of the couch gave him a full view into the bedroom on the other side. He noticed that the lights were coming from a disco looking ball in the corner, and the gentle melody of something from Sweet Pea’s playlist came from the speaker of his phone it the other room.

“You know, if this keeps happening,” Sweet Pea gestured to outside and across the courtyard where Jughead’s own trailer sat, “My couch is always free -- or my bed, if you’re here for more than a night in row.”

Jughead couldn’t help but smile. It was a thoughtful gesture, he decided, knowing that Sweet Pea was willing to offer up his own comfortability for him. From the moment he had met the Serpent, he had been shown a great deal of kindness. Or at least what he considered to be kindness, but he was sure that underneath all of the barriers and guards Sweet Pea had thrown up, there was a genuinely good hearted kid inside.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Jughead mused with a smile, tucking his feet under his legs.

Sweet Pea busied himself with tidying up the rest of the space -- not that Jughead cared if it were messy. Sweet Pea might have been the neatest teenage boy he knew. After a while, lights began to be flicked off, and Jughead nervously took his bottom lip between his teeth.

The Serpent noticed Jughead’s sudden change, and left the light on over the stove. He grabbed two cans of Cola from his mini fridge and wandered back over into the living room with a grin that stretched ear to ear. “Thirsty?”

“Thanks,” he mumbled as he took the can, wrapping both hands around its cold aluminum. “You don’t have to stay up with me.”

Sweet Pea shook his head, tugging half of the blanket over his thighs. “I know what dads can be like, and I know what alcoholics are like. Neither are easy to deal with.” He shrugged, leaning his frame against Jughead. “I just don’t want you to have to feel like you’ve gotta deal with that shit alone anymore.”

Jughead finally lifted his eyes to meet Sweet Pea’s, a look of wonderment taking over his features. There was something about his hooded lids and dark lips that felt so dangerously inviting, Jughead had to force himself to swallow back the lustful thoughts of surging forward to capture them with his own.

Oh, how he wondered what they’d taste like.

Sweets, not oblivious to Jughead’s hesitation, placed a comforting hand over his knee and squeezed tightly in reassurance, “A Serpent never stands alone. I’ll take care of you. You took care of us.”

A moment of silence hung between them. Uncertain of what he should say, Jughead placed his Cola on the coffee table and turned to face Sweet Pea. Then, he threw his arms over the Serpent's shoulders and pulled him close, breathing in the leftover cologne from the retirement party. And there was no moment of hesitation when Sweet Pea’s arms returned the gesture, winding tightly around his waist to hold him close, tightly enough as though he were holding him together.

And in that long singular second, the bond that had been formed between the two teens solidified; there were now feelings of mutual respect, a foundation of trust, and perhaps even a ground of understanding.

[ladyoftheeverything]

The Stars Aligned ch.1

Hiya guys! This is just a story I thought i'd share on my tumblr since I have it on my other sites. The other sites you can find it on is Archives of our Own , Deviant Art , and Fanfiction.net. I think there is one more but I forgot xD So i'm just gonna leave this here and hope ya'll like it!

----

Chapter one

"You're telling me you wouldn't pay top dollar for an nature witch?" The silvery, calm voice of Heagin Nathaniels asked the Grey doctor who happened to be in charge of the research laboratory in which Oni had been brought too. The Grey, though Oni hadn't seen him yet suspected the doctor looked like all the rest of his kind with thin limbs and an enlarged head that seemed unlikely to hold itself upright with what seemed like an even larger set of eyes that lacked emotion.

Her suspicions were correct as she spotted the doctor pass by the crack of the door that had been left ajar ever so slightly. This Grey was roughly taller than her capturor , Heagin Nathaniels, who stood rough about 5'6. Greys from what she knew weren't large even know this one proved to be a little different with an increased height and an ashen grey coloring that might have been a sign of increased age. Either way, this grey did in fact look like all the rest she's seen and Oni could have easily lost him in a crowd of others like him if not for the lab coat. An odd , human things for a Grey to wear.

"I pay high units , terran-dweller." Terran-dweller, a commonly used named for species from earth or its sister planets.

Heagin's exhausted sigh was heard from inside the room. "It was a figure of speech-"

"-Your terran language formalities mean nothing to me, terran-dweller. The requirements for maximum units dispensed for a nature hex are that they must be of reproducing age and come into full potential of there energy. This one you have brought me is neither." Oni perked , hopefully that this grey would refuse Heagin , surely if Heagin was turned down yet again for her then he'd be forced to let her go. What else was there to do with a Hex that had yet to come into her powers but to wait and none of the buyers were interested in waiting.

She heard the man curse before his voice lowered beyond on what she could hear. Her sea green eyes looked down to the metal clasp that held snugly to her wrist and was connected by an energy beam to the wall, Oni pulled at the connection, moving back as far as the energy would allow before her wrist ached with pain. There was no point in trying, time and time again she'd tried getting free of her bonds and time and time again they'd failed. Her wrist seemed to be permanently bruised when the rare chance she was allowed to have the clasp taken off and the sensitive area was painful to the touch.

Oni flinched and scrambled over to her position by the wall where she had been told not to move from as she heard the two inside shuffle around before stepping out. A feeling like she had to vomit formed in her gut as the young girl watched as the Grey reluctantly shook Heagin's hand in what could only be an agreement. That was it, she'd been bought, despite what she had hoped and prayed for she'd been bought by the one place she had feared on going too. The Academic Limitations of Species was a place of fear by many who had been captured, being bought by them was basically a death sentence.

Heagin looked towards Oni, gruffly bearded man with his thick arms and leathery tanned skin gave a two finger salute as he started off in the direction they had came. "Enjoy your stay here, little one." His eerily calm voice stated.

Oni panicked. "No , please! Please Heagin I don't wanna stay here! Anywhere but here please!" She pulled until she reached the end of her connection, wrist thumbing in protest.

"What's done is done , little one. Grew strong for them and you might just survive."

"Heagin! Please!" Oni felt the hot tears streaming down her cheeks as her pleas fell silent , a cold clammy hand gripped harshly to the back of her neck. The Grey touched a nondescript place on the wall as the energy holding her to it released, the metal clasp deactivating and falling free to the fall. Having but a moment to only rub at the harshly colored bruise on her cocoa pigmented skin before pushed forward down the corridors towards a set of large steel doors.

Once past the doors that seemed to open on there own Oni was confused. The hallway was starch white and brightly lit, almost so that her eyes squinted to not be pained by it. From what she could tell it seemed to stretch on forever, a narrow channel that didn't look to lead anywhere different except straight until they came upon a passageway leading off to the left or right only after they were standing directly in front of it. But as she peered down the halls that broke off even those looked to keep going forever. It was only after they made a right turn did she noticed that everything looked the same, nothing was out of place to distinguish where one actually was, a labyrinth.

She wanted to cry, she felt more hopeless now than anything that had happened. Even the day she had been abducted while playing outside of her mother's village seemed not to compare knowing she was doomed to remain in this place.

"Escape is impractical." The Grey said simply, not even bothering to look down at her. "The building was designed to be impossible to escape unless you know the correct number of steps, turns and which doors lead into which areas."

Oni stayed silent. "You should be honored to have been purchased by our foundation."

She looked up. "W-why? You hurt p-people."

"We study species, some tests involve pain while others do not."

"Why?"

"The reasoning is information not available to residents." The Grey grew quiet again, leaving Oni to work up the courage to question the being further.

"Am I allowed to ask questions?"

"Of course, though the questions in which you long to know may or may not be available. One can only ask."

She took that as a sign to ask. "Will I be here forever?"

"The answer is undetermined. Completion and total corporation of the trials set forth by the foundation will reveal if you may leave."

Oni's mood slowly turned positive. "You mean if I just do all the tests I can leave?"

"The answer is undetermined."

That wasn't a no! And from what she could gather if all the tests were completed there was a chance they'd let her go. Surely this was a good sign, perhaps there was someone in charge she could talk with that would be better at letting her know what was expected of her.

The two turned yet another corner but Oni winced as the cold grip of the Grey's hand tightened on her neck, stopping her from walking on. Blinking in surprise at what stood there in the middle of the hallway was a being she hadn't seen before. It was tall, perhaps six foot or larger with lean muscles hiding just bunched and tense under the white set of a shirt and pants. Below the surface of its rich mahogany skin that on certain areas turned to a cream color showed scars big and small, a couple of bad healed slashes were placed on his neck. It's eyes held a fierceness to them, like blue flames trapped behind shards of glass as they glared towards the Grey doctor.

A low menacing growl bubbled up from its chest, odd crab-like appendages equipped with threatening tusks flexed and flared to reveal and inner set of teeth. Even the beings tube like hair that surrounded just below crown seemed to flare in agitation at seeing the doctor. In all the creature was definitely pissed and Oni felt herself shrinking back , scared of what he would do.

"Anath, you're not supposed to be out of the common rooms...or out of your room to be frank." Anath said nothing, the hallway seeming to fill with tension so could have cut it with a knife. "You're frightening the newcomer now is that what you want, Anath?"

The blue eyes snapped to Oni, noticing her for the first time before he switched his gaze back. They leapt, knocking the Grey down onto the floor while scrambling up and barking some at Oni. She moved away from large being , staring fearfully at it as it's mandibles moved as an odd series of clicks and grunts sounded.

The two stared at one another for only a moment before they narrowed his brow ridges at the young girl before snarling and taking off at a sprint. Once they were alone the grey lifted himself up from the ground, dusting himself off before continuing as if nothing happened, oddly enough Oni was allowed to walk without the male's clasp on her neck.

They turned and entered into a room that was arranged much like a regular doctor's office would, a lifted bed with a sink and countertops laid inside. The Grey motioned for her to hop up onto the bed and she did so.

"What happened out there?" She eventually asked when it seemed the doctor wouldn't even explain, its back turned to her as it searched through one of the drawers.

"A rather vexatious resident here. Pay him no mind, once his purpose is served he'll be eliminated."

Oni's mouth went dry. "E-eliminated?"

"Killed."

Her cheeks flushed. "I know what it means."

"Then why the question?" The grey pondered, turning as he held up a singular device that looked to be the size of a pea.

"I mean, why not just, you know, let him go home?"

"Allowing someone of his species to return home is forbidden, to avoid military action tests on his kind must remain anonymous."

"Oh…"

"You do not agree?"

Oni said nothing, merely watching as the Grey crosses the room and tilted her head to the side. She flinched at the unnatural feeling of the tiny metallic device being pushed into her ear. Once whatever had been inserted in the doctor turned, pulling out a holographic pad and began working.

"You did not run."

"Huh?" Oni questioned before wincing in pain as a sharp shrill rang loudly into her left ear where the device had been out. The grey work quickly to adjust the noise before entirely cutting it out.

"When Anath knocked me down you had a chance to run. You did not."

The girl tried to smooth down her frizzled and poofed mess of red kinky curls that stood out oddly against her dark colored skin as a way to soothe her nerves a bit. "Y-you said if I was good I could maybe go home right?"

"Discussions with my superiors will reveal further information on that. Complete detachment from our foundation is highly unlikely but supervised living else where can be an option. Again, superiors must address the issue."

Hope once again raced through her mind. This was it, if she could make it through the trials they needed from her and behaved then there was a chance she'd be allowed home. She'd be allowed to see her family once more.

"When can I meet the people in charge?"

[rainydawgradioblog]

RDR Essentials - Hard Rock (4/26)

RDR Essentials is a weekly newsletter of alternating genres that outlines key releases of the past month, upcoming events around Seattle and happenings in the specified music genre.

Made in collaboration between Rainy Dawg DJs and the Music Director.

Releases:

Nocebo - Elizabeth Colour Wheel

Elizabeth Colour Wheel is one of the my favorite emerging bands right now. The Boston-based 5-piece just released their debut album Nocebo on SF dark music label The Flenser, whos expansive roster includes releases by Deafheaven, Have a Nice Life, Panopticon, and so many more powerfully oppressive and depressive acts. Musically, in the 8 tracks on the album, Nocebo touches on a ridiculous amount of experimental metal and rock subgenres but still manages to meld them together into something cohesive. Even just the opening track, Pink Palm, manages to hop from slowcore to shoegaze, then over to punk and ends with an absolutely massive doom/drone section, all within 6 minutes. The seven tracks that follow don’t give any sign of settling into a singular sound either. Somnambulist and Bedrest provide a quick ambient breather between more energetic cuts like Hide Behind (Emmet’s Song), which leans more into the black and doom metal influences, and the thrashy noise rock and unrelenting chug of 34th. 23 and Life of a Flower and verge slightly more towards post-rock and make beautifully jarring use of the band’s dynamic range, slowing louder sections to a more serene crawl so they can crank it up again and make themselves seem twice as loud as before. Head Home wraps the album up with a massive few minutes of cathartic feedback and incredibly thick guitar drones. RIYL - Have a Nice Life, Thou, Isis

- Elliott Hansen

Dog Whistle - Show Me The Body

Show Me The Body, a banjo-brandishing hardcore punk trio from the Corpus collective (home to other innovative acts like Dreamcrusher), has quite a lot on its mind. The band’s political leanings are worn on its sleeve: affiliations with the Occupy movement in their home of New York City, the Stop Mass Incarceration movement, and political silent films populate its history. In an interview with The Intercept, vocalist Julian Cashwan Pratt commented “I don’t really even like to think that’s political, in a certain way. Because I think when you live around so many damn people, it’s more of, like, a decision or not a decision to engage.” This mantra thrives in the bands latest release, Dog Whistle. Album opener “Camp Orchestra” hits with a slowly marching bass line with tangential guitar riffing that explodes into condemnation of forced labor in concentration camps by Nazi scum, “no work will set you free”. The band further explored themes of exploitation, abuse, and genocide in their silent film birthed after their recent tour of concentration camps through Europe, and investigations into the prison system of the United States. On droning interlude “Animal in a Dream”, Pratt speaks, “every institution has hand in the business of death” before stepping back into the more industrial influenced “Badge Grabber”. My favorite tracks on the record make full use of hardcore punk buildups, which can be found best in the  “Forks and Knives” and “Arcanum”. The former withholds fury until the last moment with glitched-out sample loops, and the latter slowly adds instruments on top of a consistent banjo riff with nihilistic spoken words until its breaking point. These tracks were especially excellent in their show on Sunday at Black Lodge, where the band’s noble energy was put on full display. Keeping with the inclusivity of the bands beliefs, Pratt declared during an pause between songs that “this ain’t no gang shit, if we knock somebody down we help them back up”

- Max Bryla

Bidet Dreaming - Sea Moss

Sea Moss is the most danceable noise band I’ve heard in a hot minute. The Portland, OR duo consists of Zach D’Agostino on drums and electronics and Noa Ver on vocals and electronics. They’ve released two EPs, Bread Bored and Ugh, in the past two years or so of their existence, which feature irresistibly groovy drum beats, mangled contact-mic vocals, and raw, squelchy electronic sounds coming out of mysterious little hand-built boxes decorated with all manner of knobs and switches. Their debut album Bidet Dreaming is due May 10th via Crash Symbols, and they’ve released the titular opening track in advance. Pulsating electronic tones backed by a persistent kick drum explode into frantic squealing and blast beats before locking into a groove punctuated by mangled yet rhythmic vocal lines. Although I can’t yet speak on the rest of the album, titles like “Appease the Peas, Please,” “Knock Knock Joke” and “Fancy Shit” have got me very excited for this release.

- Elliott Hansen

Upcoming Releases:

~ 05/2 Protomartyr - No Passion All Technique

~ 05/3 Empath - Active Listening: Night on Earth

~ 05/3 Fury - Failed Entertainment

~05/3 Body Type - Ep2

~ 05/3 Versing - 10000

~ 05/10 Greys - Age Hasn’t Spoiled You

~ 05/10 Pottery - No. 1

~ 05/23 Petrol Girls - Cut & Stitch

Events Around Seattle:

04/26 - Iceage @ Vera Project

7PM / AA / $15-$17

05/13 - Splatter @ Funhouse

7PM / 21+ / $8-$12

04/27 - Slow Code/Prison @ Kraken

8PM / 21+ / $7

[painfulbutsweet]

For the zodiac ask 🤓 my sun sign, your sun sign, Libra, Sagittarius, Mercury, Lilith and 9th House 😘 🤜💜🤛

i just realized i have 9 unanswered asks that i completely forgot about. great. lul.

alright, let’s get this shit started! 

gemini: what was the last text you sent?

if it’s on my phone texts then it’s ‘you can use the small gates now, i fixed it’ to my nephew. a facepalm emoji to the group chat on messenger with my 2 nephews. ‘yeonjun is slaying in that valentino pea coat v detail that is worth $3,500 on his first tweet lmao he’s Tae #2′ on kakao to my friend. and saying hi to my soulmate on discord. 

leo: name something you love about yourself.

that’s a hard one. i guess i love my stubbornness. i know it’s hard to deal with, but it also made me reach many goals in life.

libra: describe your dream partner.

i’ll describe 2. 1: he’s like a bird song in sweet morning air, speaking in metaphors, wandering for hours in an art gallery, being lost in daydreams. 2: she’s a a strong affinity for kindness to all living creatures, she’s like beautiful seashells from many summers ago that i picked in Portugal and she’s a heart that yearns for serenity. and i got too poetic with this so bye.

sagittarius: if you could travel to any place in the world, where would it be?

right now? probably somewhere warm like Seychelles with a person i admire a lot.

mercury: what color do you talk in?

purple. i’m blue and red mixed up. i can be cold af but also my fire burns.

lilith: do you have any guilty pleasures?

many to count. like listening to Jimin talking in satoori? oh. my. god. Or listening to Singularity non stop just because that voice can send me over the edge? yeah..

9th house: what’s your favorite quote?

“The more you love, the more you suffer.” — Vincent van Gogh

astrological asks.

[grandparadisekoala]

20 Questions You Should Always Ask About Women's Black Pea Coat Before Buying It

The Most Common Faults Folks Make With Gals's Black Pea Coat

TRENCH COAT

introduction:

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Trench Coat Women of all ages's Vogue: experimented with a water resistant trench coat?

Females's trench coats have been around for centuries, and over the years there are actually a spread of different trench coat styles. Some Women of all ages choose to dress in a water resistant trench coat, while some choose to wear a hooded trench coat. Recently, some Girls have experimented with wearing a trench coat in the rain. You will find a number of ways to don a trench coat, so it truly is nearly the individual to decide which fashion they prefer.

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[makistar2018]

10 Years Later, Taylor Swift’s ‘Fearless’ Still Slaps

When it was released in 2008, Swift’s sophomore album launched a thousand takes. Today, it’s best remembered as a simple time capsule

By LAUREN M. JACKSON November 12, 2018

Taylor Swift during the "Fearless" tour at Madison Square Garden on August 27, 2009 in New York City.

Theo Wargo/WireImage for New York Post

Like Propel water, The Scarlet Letter and mechanical pencils, Taylor Swift’s Fearless pairs well with the sporadic squeak of team-issued sneakers, overpriced hot lunches and the kind of angst that defines comfortably suburb-bound teenage years. Sliding open the album on Spotify with my iPhone 8, I can still feel my limbs stretched in all directions, hear the snap-crackle-pop of a dozen adolescent girls’ joints going through the motions of yet another warm-up to what would become the soundtrack of my high school varsity dance team’s inner and outer lives, as well as leave poptimism forever changed.

I am 27 now, still anxious but inflexible, no longer clinging (as) tightly to singular albums to tell the emotional landscape of my life — but back then, Fearless was god. Swift was barely into legal teenagedom when compiling her sophomore album’s original 13 tracks, but more than the happenstance near-synonymy of our ages (I’m younger by 1 year, 6 months, 27 days), the four-walled, high school claustrophobia induced by the album is a matter of skilled musical mood setting. From the first downbeat of the inaugural title track to the last flippantly rebellious “hallelujah” on “Change,” Swift traps us in the mind of an ungainly teen as she was once trapped, as I was, as so many others wading the ambiguity between comportment and desire that doesn’t quite end when gowns come on and caps fly up.

Like so many notebook pages on the golden screen, Fearless is filled with boys. Stans and haters have their theories, but I like to think of each song as an archetype, less true stories of relationships gone sour than a young woman’s true to life hetero-ethnography. There are the boys who do good — the “Fearless,” “Love Story,” “Hey Stephen,” “The Best Day” boys (the last a tribute to Dad) — the boys who nurture and love intensely. They do all the usual country boy things, all the usual cinematic things: driving slow, kissing in the rain, flouting archaic inter-familial squabbles. They honor their promises and, most of all, leave the narrator better changed for her affection.

These boys who do good are short-lived. By Track 2, “Fifteen,” we’re already checking in to Heartbreak Hotel for the upteenth time with an account of that age generic enough to warrant a fan-made montage of clips from Degrassi: The Next Generation. The song tells an allegedly universal story of freshman year woes, complete with riding in cars with senior boys who also play football (because of course). It’s saccharine, sung in the vernacular of normative coupling that would become Swift’s enemy in the gossip pages. But the limited lexicon is not necessarily untruthful. “Fifteen” has aged about as well as anyone would expect, but some of those refrains make me yearn for arms long enough to slap all the powers that be responsible for belittling the whims of young girls. And according to the greater duration of Fearless — tracks like “White Horse,” “Breathe,” “Tell Me Why,” “You’re Not Sorry,” “The Way I Loved You,” and “Forever & Always” — the greatest threat to the happiness of teen girls are boys.

November 2008 looks rosy from here. America had just elected its first black president, the man who promised too much hope and change to possibly be true, but faith felt good back then. Men had committed just five mass shootings over the past year with one more on the way in December (2018 has 307 mass shootings to its name so far). The nation boasted just under 150 recognized active white supremacist groups (that number would climb to over 1,000 during Obama’s presidency). Global finance was in crisis but cable networks were still winning Emmys. Amy Winehouse was alive. Kanye still made sense and a bright-eyed, hair-tousled new country darling was exclusively concerned with dating, rather than local politics. 

Like any celebrity who is also a woman, but also in a lane quite her own, Swift’s relation to mainstream feminism wanes and waxes with the season. A female artist beloved by the girls for whom her songs are written, Swift and her music are therefore more scrutinized, more rigorously excavated for signs of harmful messaging than her male singer-songwriter peers. Fearless frayed Swift’s reputation in a way that wouldn’t let up for years, if ever, largely because of its critical success. Swift took home four Grammys at the 2010 awards, including Album of the Year, beating the Dave Matthews Band’s Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, The Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D., Beyoncé’s I Am… Sasha Fierceand, most egregiously, Lady Gaga’s debut studio album, The Fame. The perceived slight invited robust inquiry into this supposed album of the year, and the aesthetic discrepancy between the two quickly turned to politics. 

Autostraddle’s Riese called Swift “a feminist’s nightmare,” the enemy of “brave, creative, inventive, envelope-pushing little monsters” everywhere. An accompanying infographic, “a symbolic analysis” of Swift’s works to date, cataloged her most damning motifs, including “virginal” imagery, “the stars,” “crying,” and the 2AM hour. At Jezebel, Dodai Stewart agreed that Gaga was the rightful winner, speculating that in a race between “Gaga the liberal versus Taylor the conservative,” the latter “makes the Academy feel more comfortable.” One joy of pop culture is the revelation of how melodramatically things can change. Last month, Swift announced her endorsement of Tennessee Democrats Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper for the midterm elections; meanwhile, Lady Gaga hews the path of glamorous respectability on her lengthy A Star Is Born Oscar campaign. 

Feminist readings of Fearless weren’t wrong, exactly. Allies on the album come in strictly male form, while other girls are competition for Swift’s persecuted first person. Even the red-headed bestie Abigail becomes a lesson in chastity, losing her virginity — “everything”! —to the boy who broke her heart (the foil to Swift’s main character, whose dreams of living in a big ole city protect her from such a fate). The charting single “You Belong With Me” is a bouncy jaunt through the valley of me versus those other girls. The video that won Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards over Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” — to seismic effect — stars Swift as both the frizzy blonde, bespectacled weirdo in band and the sleek brunette cheerleader with the man (Lucas Till who now plays MacGyver on CBS). In true romantic comedy fashion, Good Swift, clothed in white, ends up with the guy in the end, defeating Bad Swift, whose only crimes it seems are great taste in footwear and not appreciating her high school boyfriend’s likely moronic sense of humor. Both the song and video became emblematic of a kind of Swiftian all-for-one girl power. Her 2017 video for “Look What You Made Me Do” resurrects and buries all sorts of Swiftisms, including the iconography of the uncool girl who features so heavily in the Fearless-era of her oeuvre. 

Pop music exists not to elevate our souls or our politics, but to safely wade in the muck of our pettiest appetites, whether they come with trap drums or in serenades. Pop music deserves interrogation, but it will never exceed us. Fearless was a diary, sounding like the selfishness that bubbles up regardless of one’s intellectual or political guards against it.  The debate it ignited wouldn’t happen were it released today, amidst all this. It’s a relic of a time when determining exactly what an album meant, culturally and aesthetically, was a crucial discussion to have in public, when nuance had stakes. Compared to the basic moral tenets we now expend so much of our energy defending, such communal acts of criticism feel small and regretfully scarce. Fearless was a moment, now relegated to a time capsule, no longer a prompt.   

Rolling Stone

[businessweekme]

California Highway 1 Road Trip

Six weeks ago, Highway 1 fully reopened in Big Sur, following devastating mudslides in May 2017. After $54 million worth of repairs and the removal of millions of tons of earth, rocks, and debris, travelers can once again enjoy an uninterrupted drive along the gorgeous coastal highway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

But it’s not just the views that make the trek one of the most famous road trips in the world. There’s also the food to contend with: Dotted along the winding route, you’ll find peppery smoked-fish tacos, juicy burgers smothered in eggs and melted cheese, and homemade doughnuts oozing with jelly.

Our version of this journey begins in Point Reyes Station, north of San Francisco. There, you’ll want to stock up on triple cream Mt Tam cheese from Cowgirl Creamery and scarf as many straight-from-the-bay oysters as you can get down. Your eating adventure will continue from there—you’d better start hungry.

  Point Reyes

Side Street Kitchen

The specialty at this year-old, bright, modern diner is the crispy skinned rotisserie chicken, fragrant with herbs and served half or whole with an array of sauces, including curried yogurt, salsa verde, and chimichurri rojo. The other specialty: puffy, sugar-coated, fruit-filled apple fritters. 60 4th St., Point Reyes Station

The Boat Oyster Bar

Hog Island Oyster Co. is famed for the oysters it pulls out of the bay and supplies to top dining rooms around the country. A reservation-only café on the water features those world-class bivalves; the menu changes often, but it frequently includes Hog Island’s singular kumamotos. You can get a dozen raw for $36; even better are the barbecued ones, grilled and dripping with chipotle bourbon garlic butter. 20215 Shoreline Highway, Marshall

Half Moon Bay Area

  La Costanera

Peruvian food is having a moment in the U.S., and La Costanera, with its wall of windows overlooking the water from a second-floor dining room, has been recognized by Michelin’s Bib Gourmand. The menu has a mix of classics such as antichuchos (grilled skewers) with marinated beef heart and pork belly; empanadas; tender beer-braised lamb shank; and lomo saltado (beef tenderloin with onions, soy sauce, and a fried egg, if you want one). 8150 Cabrillo Highway, Montara

Dad’s Luncheonette

Chef Scott Clark used to cook at San Francisco’s Michelin-three-starred Saison. He’s transformed a red-painted train caboose into a cozy, wood-lined diner with a small menu of comfort food favorites. The $12 hamburger sandwich has melted cheese, a soft egg, and red onion pickles on grilled white bread; the mushroom version substitutes maitakes for the grass-fed beef. 225 Cabrillo Highway South, Half Moon Bay

Sam’s Chowder House

Seafood makes up almost the entire menu at Sam’s, including a “Captains Platter” of oysters, clams, shrimp, poke, and ceviche; an appetizer of grilled sardines; steamed clams (with the option of linguine); and lobster rolls, “naked” with butter or “dressed” with aioli. At night, the place highlights fresh catches such as Pacific swordfish and local halibut. The seats on the deck offer a panoramic ocean view. 4210 Cabrillo Highway, Half Moon Bay

Hop Dogma Brewing Co.

The rotating array of craft brews at this locally popular beer hall might include Pyro’s Prost chili beer (pilsner brewed with jalapeño); Every Third Inquiry, a Bourbon barrel-aged stout; and the flagship Alpha Dank IPA. Guests can order food from nearby Lamas, a Peruvian and Mexican restaurant, and the tacos, burritos, and arroz con pollo will be delivered to the taproom. 270 Capistrano Rd., Half Moon Bay

Duarte’s Tavern

Dating back to 1894, when Frank Duarte bought the place for $12 in gold, this venerable restaurant specializes in a California version of Continental cuisine. The menu runs the gamut from shrimp cocktail to pork chops with fresh applesauce. The specialties are anything with artichokes, plus the cioppino, packed with clams, shrimp, cod and especially crab, which people drive down from San Francisco to eat. 202 Stage Rd.

Santa Cruz

The Picnic Basket

Set on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the picturesque luncheonette has an all-day menu with a powerful breakfast selection: golden-brown turnovers stuffed with seasonal fruit or Niman Ranch ham and cheese; an egg-potato-greens frittata sandwich on toast; and house-made jelly doughnuts. Later in the day, hot dogs and elbow macaroni and cheese turn up on the menu. The nearby Penny Ice Creamery, where everything is house-made under the same ownership, is equally popular. 125 Beach St.

Monterey Peninsula

The Meatery

A serious, whole-animal butcher shop with impressive cuts of meat on display, this white-tiled space also serves as a deli. Sandwiches range from a hefty Reuben to banh mi made with caramelized pork belly slices, pickled vegetables, a hit of cilantro, and kewpie mayo on a French roll. A highlight is the house corned beef with sauerkraut on rye. The hot food offerings change daily: On Sundays and Mondays, there’s buttermilk-fried chicken; on Thursdays, visitors line up for the baby back ribs. 1534 Fremont Blvd., Seaside

The Bench Restaurant

Set on the impossibly scenic Pebble Beach Golf Links 18th hole, the Bench has a crowd-pleasing menu that offers all kinds of pizza-styled flatbreads: with pepperoni; with ratatouille, fennel ricotta and heirloom tomatoes; and with bench bacon and grilled, pickled red onion. The 24-ounce short rib, the Smokey Joe, is smoked for 10 hours. Aside from the best views, the outdoor deck has fire-pit tables. 1700 17 Mile Dr., Pebble Beach

Aubergine at l’Auberge Carmel

Chef Justin Cogley operates one of the country’s best under-the-radar fine-dining restaurants. Set in a Relais & Châteaux property, the intimate dining room has a $175 tasting menu that combines local ingredients in unexpected ways: A Morro Bay oyster with caviar has a hit of sea water, and seared abalone is accompanied by romaine lettuce that’s been braised and sliced in thick rounds, with lobster-infused lettuce puree. Monte Verde at 7th Ave., Carmel

Big Sur

Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant

Amid the trees in the hills off the highway, this exceptional café produces terrific pizzas from the wood oven, with a charred, bready, chewy crust and such toppings as creamy greens, mushrooms and tangy taleggio, and red sauce meatballs. The place is first and foremost a bakery: The creamy lemon curd pie in a pistachio crust is addictive, as is any pastry in the display case. 47540 Highway 1

Sierra Mar at Post Ranch Inn

Post Ranch Inn, renowned for its modernist, cliffside, treehouse rooms overlooking the ocean, has a new manager, Gary Obligacion, formerly of Chicago’s celebrated Alinea. The property’s Sierra Mar restaurant is home to one country’s largest wine collections, with 14,000-plus bottles. It complements an elegant four-course tasting menu from which the seared foie gras has a garnish of hazelnuts and king salmon is paired with smoked split peas and sweet apple. 47900 Highway 1

The Sur House at Ventana Big Sur

In 2017, Ventana went through a multimillion-dollar renovation. The renovated Sur House restaurant now has outdoor fireside seating and a bar menu with smoky spice-rubbed chicken wings and open-faced tuna melt accented with pickled fennel. The dinner menu has deceptively simple dishes, such as grilled pork loin on a bed of jalapeño-spiked grits. The wine cellar is also notable: some 10,000 bottles with a focus on the Central Coast. 48123 Highway 1

San Luis Obispo

Ruddell’s Smokehouse

There’s not much barbecue along Highway 1. The notable exception is Ruddell’s, where founder Jim Ruddell set up shop in 2001 in a small building with a few tables outside. The place smokes albacore and salmon with a brown sugar and kosher salt rub; chicken is slow-cooked over hickory. The smoked seafood and poultry are available as tacos in a big French-roll sandwich or salad—and by the pound. 101 D St., Cayucas

Cracked Crab

In the surfing town of Pismo Beach, the unpretentious Cracked Crab has a blazing neon sign and lines stretching out the door. The menu changes according to availability of seafood and features an ocean’s worth of crab: dungeness cocktail with lime and avocado; puck-size, pan-seared lump blue crab cakes; and New England-style lobster rolls stuffed with crab instead. The seafood buckets offer the opportunity to mix and match wild Gulf shrimp, Alaskan crab, clams, mussels, and lobster tails; they go for $61 for one person and $79 for two and come with all the mallets and scissors you’ll need to extract the shellfish. 751 Price St., Pismo Beach

Santa Barbara

Jalama Beach Store & Grill

In Lompoc, the epicenter of Santa Barbara winemaking, is this grill, set inside a store that’s set inside the county park. The specialty is the Jalama burger: It’s quintessential Cali-style, with shredded lettuce, tomato, onions, special sauce, and a griddled bun. The burger has gotten so popular over its almost 40-year history that the name is trademarked. 9991 Jalama Rd., Lompoc

La Super-Rica Tacqueria

Famous for being name-checked by Julia Child, Super-Rica is a cheerful, white-and-turquoise stand with a large selection of options that feature stellar homemade tortillas. The tacos are filled with all kinds of grilled meats—chunks of spiced, brick-colored chorizo; adobado with tender strips of marinated pork. The Super-Rica Especial is made up cheese-stuffed green pasilla chiles that are roasted and draped over tortillas with marinated pork and more cheese, for $6. 622 N. Milpas St., Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara Shellfish Co.

At the end of a dock on the harbor, this photogenic counter started out selling local seafood almost 30 years ago. Customers can still buy fish from commercial fishermen here. (There’s also a robust online store with trays of uni and stone crab claws.) The chopped caesar comes with a choice of grilled, skewered shrimp or sweet scallops. There’s more local shrimp, coated with coconut and crispy fried, garnished with onion rings. Also highly recommended are the linguine studded with garlic-sauteed clams in the shell and the monumental, steamed two-pound crab, along with a selection of local wine and beer by the pitcher. 230 Stearns Wharf, Santa Barbara

The Los Angeles Area

Malibu Farm

What started as a pop-up dining room by Helene Henderson in 2013 is now a farmers market-driven restaurant and café on the Malibu Pier, with outposts in Miami and Hawaii. The all-day café at the end of the dock has a lightbulb-lit menu that boasts a pile-up of Swedish pancakes with whipped cream and whatever the seasonal berries are, as well as kale caesar and BLTs with lemon aioli brushed on whole wheat. Down the pier, a slightly more serious version of the restaurant offers a tofu, spinach, and tomato scramble on weekend mornings, and nachos, featuring blue corn chips laden with black beans, melty cheese, and drizzles of sour cream in the evenings. 23000 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu

Tallula’s

Chef Jeremy Fox, who heads up the nearby vegetable-focused Rustic Canyon, now puts a creative spin on the Mexi-Cali dining room. In a colorful space decorated with hanging plants, Fox uses exceptional local corn, served Mexican-style with smoky chipotle aioli, and accents black-cod tacos with malt tartar sauce in tender, house-made tortillas. A daily taco special is dreamed up by rotating cooks in the kitchen. The serious bar program features mezcal Manhattans on draft, as well as the obligatory margaritas. 118 Entrada Dr., Santa Monica

Father’s Office

Chef Sang Yoon began serving one of the—if not the—country’s first gourmet burgers almost 20 years ago. The Office Burger is made from freshly ground, dry-aged beef, so it’s got a deep, meaty flavor that’s further accentuated by sweet caramelized onions, bacon, gruyere, and blue cheese. Accompanying fries, standard or sweet potato, are presented in a mini-shopping cart. Father’s Office is equally known for pouring dozens of local craft beers. 1018 Montana Ave., Santa Monica

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