#but then I swapped to doing the past 4 seasons and i could do them without looking at anything hehe

[skitskatdacat63]

I somehow just spent 4 straight hours making grid guides for myself, I think I have a problem

[scoops-aboy86]

Just Keeping Life & Soul Together (Secret Admirer pt 4)

Steddie Week 2024, July 4: Trade / body swap / Wouldn't It Be Good by Nik Kershaw

wc: 1812 / rated: T / set between seasons 2 and 3 / also on ao3

By the time Steve recovers enough to drive home, it’s time to clock out anyway. Robin hangs back, not taking off on her bike until she sees him get in the car, and he’s had more time to think about it now. 

Robin’s outfit that she’d changed into in the employee bathroom after clocking out is an eclectic mishmash of different colors and patterns; Secret Admirer said they wear mostly dark colors. That’s not the only reason it isn’t her, but Steve can’t quite put a finger on anything else. It’s just… she has a very different vibe. 

He’s exhausted and still not feeling great, so that’s as far as he thinks about it. 

But the next morning he wakes up, still with some of that post-headache grogginess but better, and realizes that if she was telling the truth about someone in the ice cream parlor sending him that cone, Secret Admirer was there. Probably saw how out of it he was and felt bad, but not bad enough to overcome their reservations about revealing themselves. 

God, Steve wishes he could remember who had been in Scoops when his efforts to ‘man up’ and push through the pain had crumbled. He doesn’t, but that’s okay. Robin knows. 

~

Dear Secret Admirer,

Yes keep writing. Please keep writing. My head’s been killing me these past couple days and wanting to write back to you is the only thing that’s kept me going. I’m sorry I got Bilbo’s name wrong. 

So I guess you already knew I had a headache the other day since you sent me that ice cream. That was you, right? Strawberry with rainbow sprinkles? I wish you would’ve stayed. I know you’re shy or scared of me not wanting you once I know who you are, but it really kind of sucked that you didn’t. I’m not trying to make you feel bad or anything but I missed you so much even though I don’t know you. But I feel like I do know you, because you keep telling me things about yourself, like bread crumbs in that fairy tale from the book my mom used to read to me when I was a little kid but she stopped a long time ago because my dad didn’t want me to be a sissy momma’s boy. But fuck that, sometimes everyone needs to be read a story so they have something good in their head while they go to sleep, okay? I have nightmares a lot. I can’t tell you about them because I signed an NDA, but they’re horrible. I wake up screaming sometimes, only I can’t when my parents are home because my dad gets pissed and my mom gets disappointed, just like they did about how hurt I got last year. And the year before. It’s all connected and it’s all bullshit and none of it was my fault, I just happened to be there and I got sucked in and I keep getting sucked in and some nights I can’t even sleep anymore. 

You said you smoke, right? Cigarettes and other stuff. Cigarettes don’t help, drinking makes me feel like shit, so maybe I should try the other stuff. Does it help with sleeping? Do you think it would help my headaches or make me not dream so much? I’m so tired and I keep thinking that if I got some the smell would be like you’re there, since you smoke it too. I want to feel like you’re here with me so I’m not alone. Maybe if you were here the nightmares wouldn’t be as bad and I could get some sleep and then the headaches wouldn’t happen as often because you were right, they get worse if I don’t get enough sleep or if I’m stressed out. 

What if you called me sometime? 555-5555. You wouldn’t have to say anything, maybe just play some of the music that you think I’d hate and I can tell you if I do or not? Just let me talk to you? The hard thing about writing is I have to fill a whole page without any way to know what you think about any of it for at least a few days, and I guess a one-sided phone conversation isn’t that different but it would be something, right? I might like your music after all and then we’ll have something in common. Or maybe I can listen and then you can write to me about why you like it and if it’s something I didn’t think of (there are a lot of things I don’t think about on the first try, perspectives and stuff) maybe it’ll grow on me. Sorry if I’m pushing too hard but you said you wanted to give me something with all this and it was just an idea I had. You could give me new things to find out about, like with the Hobbit in his hole eating his hobbit breakfast. (I really liked the part with the glowing sword, that was awesome, I wish my bat would glow when )

Anyway. Robin knows about my headaches now too I guess, which is embarrassing. She was nice about it though and let me hide in the back until I could go home, but she probably still hates me for being King Steve. I’d write about something else but there’s not a lot going on in my life besides you.

— Steve

PS My parents are gone all this week, so if you do call it’s just me here. And you can call whenever, but maybe Friday at 10:30? You don’t have to though. Just keep writing.

~

The next time Steve goes to work, head no longer in danger of splitting open, Robin still calls him a dingus. It doesn’t feel as mean as it used to though. So that’s something. 

It’s easier now to take her jabs in stride. Before he’d just tried to let it roll off him like water off a duck, but he cautiously tries out responding in kind. 

“Your hat’s on backwards,” she calls across the parlor, smirking when it makes him reach up to check. “Made you look!”

Five minutes later, he gets her back with, “Your shoe’s untied.” When she glances down, he grins and adds, “Yeah that’s right, Buckley, two can play at this game.”

“Oh, it is on, Harrington.”

They start racing during the slow times when there are only a couple of people in line at a time, one sticking to scooping and the other ringing up while the former tries to move the second customer along before the latter finishes the first transaction. It’s a much better use of the You Rule / You Suck board, though she does still add tallies for whatever she considers Steve’s failed flirting attempts. (He’s not even trying anymore, not with Secret Admirer always on his mind these days.) Makes the ache of pining a little easier to bear; makes the day almost fun. 

“Hey, so,” Steve ventures while they’re cleaning up after close. “I have a question.”

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Robin tense up. “What?”

He feels wrong-footed already, if just that was enough to put her on edge, but he can’t stop now that he’s pulled the trigger. “Who, uh. Who sent me the ice cream the other day?”

She blinks, and once she’s processed the question the stiffness in her posture goes away as quickly as it had come. “Oooh. You think someone’s sweet on you, is that it? Admit it.”

“No,” Steve sputters back. Even he had to admit, though, that the way his face heats up immediately really undercuts the claim. 

“Tell you what.” She crosses her arms and leans back against the counter, eyeing him smugly. “I’ll trade you for it.”

“You’ll.” Now it’s his turn to blink. “Trade me?”

“Yeah. I have information that’s valuable to you, apparently, so you give me something that’s valuable to me in exchange.”

Steve scratches the back of his neck, trying to think. “I could… give you dating advice?”

Robin snorts. “Absolutely not.”

Flustered, he throws up his hands. “Well what do you want, then?”

She’s full on grinning at him now, and while it’s not necessarily malicious (which he appreciates) it’s still at his expense (which he does not). “Uh-uh, you’ve got to put your thinking cap on and come up with something on your own, Mr. Hair. It’s more genuine that way.”

“What? Nooo,” Steve groans, but he supposes he’s grateful that she didn’t whip out the ol’ it builds character that his dad threw at him when ordering him to get a menial summer job. “And I don’t have a thinking cap.”

That makes her actually laugh. “Well duh, who’s dorky enough to own an actual thinking cap?”

Dustin does, Steve thinks fondly. The little squirt is only off at camp for another week, and he really has missed the little shithead. It’ll be nice to get along with his coworker and have a friend around… as pathetic as that does make him feel. 

But whatever, first he has to figure out what Robin might want in exchange for what could very likely turn out to be his Secret Admirer’s identity.

~

Every time Eddie has seen Steve since that Tuesday at Scoops, he’s with his coworker Robin. Apparently he’s started giving her rides so she doesn’t have to bike everywhere all the time. They talk animatedly, like little kids racing from thought to thought as they gleefully mock and annoy each other. 

And it’s probably his fault somehow. Maybe knowing that Steve was actually suffering instead of suffering his own consequences had softened her up, allowed her to pause and notice the soft and genuine person underneath what remained of the King Steve veneer. Maybe it’s impossible not to fall in love with Steve Harrington. 

Whatever it was, the results make Eddie yearn to swap lives with some girl he doesn’t even know. Someone who gets to touch Steve on the arm without reproach—even if it’s more of a punch than a touch, jeez. The only relief he gets from the green monster of jealousy twisting around his heart is Steve’s letter asking him to call, so even if Robin is interested now then it seems she’s out of luck. 

Call. And not even talk, but just listen to Steve’s voice and maybe play selections from a few of his favorite albums, then spend his next letter talking about why they’re his favorites. This perfect man has managed to pluck three of his favorite things to do out of thin air and present the offer as a favor to Steve rather than, uh, only the closest Eddie has ever been to going on an actual date in his entire life. 

… If only he felt in any way prepared.

Tag list: @hotluncheddie @lawrencebshoggoth @sofadofax @tangerinesteve @steviewashere

@cryingglightningg @theresebelivett @sleepy-steve @rozzieroos @lunaraindrop

@just-my-latest-hyperfixation @wheneverfeasible @swimmingbirdrunningrock @yesdangerpls

@matchingbatbites @ihavekidneys @p0lybl4nkk @grtwdsmwhr @cheesedoctor

@whalesharksart @thetinymm @envyadams-vs-me @practicallybegging @imhereforthelolzdontyellatme

@dauntlessdiva @nerdyglassescheeseychick @fuzzyduxk @chaosgremlinmunson @greatwerewolfbeliever

[mariikado]

Good Omens 2 and mistaken identity.

And don't show this to Neil! And don't ask him about it!

Carefully! There may be spoilers here.

We know from the first season that if the characters switch bodies, a secret sign can be found somewhere. This sign will indicate who we are actually seeing.

The collar on Crowley's jacket indicates that it is in fact Aziraphale.

And now the big mystery of the second season. This is a real "The Clue". Who is who really?

1. I'll start with Shax and her adorable glasses that don't belong to her at all.

2. In the next episode, Aziraphale is in a Bentley listening to «Moonlight Serenade» by Glen Miller & his orchestra, "a very modern tune from 1939." It was this tune that was playing in Doctor Who when the Doctor and Rose found themselves in 1941. Shax gets into the car and says:

Is Shax replacing him now or is she replacing him in some other story? Maybe in 1941. The melody in the Bentley seems to smoothly mix up time. And 1941 may turn out to be part of the future, but placed in the past.

3. Next we are shown 1941. We are transported to Hell and see Shax with an adorable snake on his belt. Who is this Shax?

Read about the demon Shax. A very interesting demon: he knows how to drive you crazy, steals things, maybe even jewelry, maybe even royal ones.

Come to think of it, we learned some very interesting things about Jane Austen earlier: she transported alcohol (like Crowley in 1941), planned a diamond heist (Shax's specialty). So where exactly is Shax in episode four and where is Crowley? What if someone had swapped Shax and Crowley in this part of the story? Remember that the episode is called "The Hitchhiker" (And watch a movie with that title). And Shax was that hitchhiker, so she should be the main character in episode four.

4. Let's move on. Someone very similar to Shax is negotiating something with Furfur and then we see Furfur with a snake tongue. The same question to Furfur: who are you really and what do you really look like?

Read about the demon Furfur. His ability to create storms and bring lovers together is enchanting. So who's really making it rain for Nina and Maggie? So, the deer is the symbol of Furfur. Neil had one fun special spoiler involving the deer and Crowley. Find him, it's very funny.

5. Next we will have a deadly trick with catching a bullet. Aziraphale wears an adorable snake print vest. So what does Aziraphale actually look like or who is Aziraphale in this scene?

Could there be another change of faces before the focus? What if Aziraphale was actually sitting in the audience?

By the way, up to this point in history, faces could also change more than once. Shax's mirror haunted me. There is one angel depicted with a mirror. What's his name? Oh yeah. Gabriel.

6. And after the trick, the guys sit, drink wine and Crowley pronounces his words as if he had already said them before. So who is Crowley?

What happens in the dressing room behind the scenes while we see Aziraphale, and the wall behind him slowly floats (episode 4, 35:03, see for yourself). And could there be another change of faces at this stage?

Let me summarize a bit. My personal view on the situation. Just imagine that Shax is actually Gabriel (we don't know what happened to him after Aziraphale's failed execution). Perhaps he is the same supreme archangel who was sent to hell (Metatron talks about this). Gabriel switches places with Crowley (I doubt that this happened by mutual desire). So Aziraphale goes to the theater with Gabriel and Crowley talks with Furfur in Hell. Then, it seems to me, Furfur becomes Crowley (and not vice versa) and comes to the theater in the image of Crowley. By this time, on the theater stage, Gabriel is already wearing a snake vest, and Aziraphale looks like Crowley and is sitting in the audience. Then in the dressing room, Furfur, who looks like Crowley, switches places with a character who looks like Crowley, but is actually Aziraphale.

The biggest question is: did Furfur know who he was switching places with? Whose team does Furfur play for? And who really is Furfur himself? Have you read about Azazel yet? Furfur says he never met Job (I'm a demon, I lied...) Think about that too.

In fact, Aziraphale and Furfur may be similar to Gabriel. Perhaps in Season 3 the outer shell of the characters will play a role, but at this stage I would like to just understand the souls. And all this works well only on the condition that Aziraphale and Crowley have not swapped places. And if at some point they do change for some reason, then everything becomes even more confusing. Because if Crowley and Aziraphale swapped places even earlier, before the events of the focus (ignore the fact that this is 1941, it may not be him, just as 1827 may be a different time), then Shax in Hell is Aziraphale, and Aziraphale in 1941 - Crowley. It's all very confusing, but that's how it should be. The story was deliberately confused so that no one could get to the bottom of the truth.

To be continued. Part 2.

[adoremoonie]

The Mixed Legacy Challenge for The Sims 3

This is (gonna be) a 10 generation legacy challenge. I came up with this challenge simply because I could not decide what legacy challenge I wanted to do so I did a mix of all my favourite ones. Including Not So Berry, Jam Legacy, Zodiac Legacy & All In One Lepacy! So all credit goes to the creators! ପ(๑•ᴗ•๑)ଓ

Rules: ☆ Finish the rules of every generation, but there are different options for some generations so you can do whatever fits your gameplay preference more!

☆ There is a color for every generation if you want berry sims etc!

☆ There is a family trait that you choose that every generation heir will have. If you can't have a trait because of your family trait you just swap out that one for one similiar!

☆ You got to have this mod to be able to give your sims all the traits I have given them OR you could cheat them when they age up and change them in CAS OR just give them 1-2 of the traits. Would also recommend NRAAS mod aswell because of the money changes etc!

☆ Most importantly do what you want and have fun!

Now for the generations...

Generation 1: Purple You left everything you know behind, escape your past for a new beginning. Finally start that family you always wanted with someone new. You want to change, but can you?

Traits: Family Trait, Kleptomaniac, Nurturing, Rebellious, Frugal Job: Start at the cemetery then switch to criminal OR kleptomaniac full time LTW: Become a master chief OR The emperor of evil OR Possession is Nine Tenths of the law

☆ Master athletic and martial arts skills ☆ Use the kleptomaniac trait to provide for your family ☆ Get with your partner and marry them fast ☆ Get the death flower (perhaps at the cemetery?) ☆ 3 or more children

Generation 2: Yellow You don’t want to end up like your parent. You have dreams, big dreams! And you will do everything to be the biggest star, hopefully your family name won’t ruin that.

Traits: Family Trait, Star Quality, Diva, Lucky, Ambitious Job: Singer LTW: Vocal Legend OR Lifestyle of the rich and famous

☆ Have a band as a teenager ☆ When you become an YA you quit the band to go solo ☆ Master an instrument (guitar, piano etc) ☆ Become a five star celebrity ☆ Marry a big celebrity ☆ Only have one child

Generation 3: Red You lived in luxury thanks to your parent but did that make you a little spoiled? Maybe. you say as you move to a big mansion in the tropics. But you do actually have a job! You are a lifeguard and you save tons of cute tourists everyday. Yeah, maybe you did buy an hotel just to flex but can't be that hard to run one of those?

Traits: Family, Great kisser, Loves to swim OR Sailor, Party animal, Snob Job: Lifeguard then Resort owner LTW: Resort Empire OR Seaside Savior

☆ Have only one child ☆ Buy and run an hotel when you are an adult ☆ Reach level 5 of scuba diving ☆ Have one of those people you saved OR a mermaid be your future partner ☆ Own a house boat

Generation 4: Blue You had a little bit of a rough childhood, sure you were rich but your snobby parent barely gave you any of that rich money so you start working on cars on the side to make some side money, but turns out you LOVE it. You’ve always craved that big family life and you will spoil your children rotten in ALL the ways.

Traits: Family Trait, Family oriented, Slob, Schmoozer, Vehicle Enthusiast LTW: Surrounded by Family Job: Work at a part-time job OR Daycare before you quit to start making cars for a living

☆ Meet your partner in high school and marry as soon as you both age up to YA ☆ Be best friend with all your children ☆ Fix up ATLEAST 10 cars ☆ Throw family parties every season ☆ Buy every thing your children wishes for

Generation 5: Green You had an amazing but messy childhood. You had everything. A big loving family! But that also meant no privacy and you couldn’t do what you love the most without your siblings disturbing, science. So now you just want to be alone.

Traits: Family Trait, Loner, Eccentric, Neat, Grumpy LTW: Monster Maker Job: Science Career or none

☆ Move to a new town and the house should be as far away from the town as possible and never move out ☆ Make imaginary friend real ☆ Have ONE friend ☆ Marry your (only) friend OR an alien/imaginary friend/simbot ☆ Master the inventing skill ☆ Build two simbots optional: have an alien baby

Generation 6: Pink Having been stuck in the same town, in the same house, you need something new! You need adventure! And you want to capture it all. But you also have to get home to look after your plants.

Traits: Family Trait, Daredevil, Outgoing, Gatherer/Green Fingers, Adventurous LTW: World class gallery OR Great explorer

☆ Go to China, Egypt and France ☆ Master the photographing and gardening skills ☆ Complete atleast 3 thombs at each location ☆ Marry someone from China, France or Egypt ☆ Get atleast one VISA ☆ Have a big garden with every plant

Generation 7: Orange You have always loved horses, a horse girl (or boy, or person) if you will. But having your own horses and a big ranch is expensive and your parent wasted it all on traveling so you work smart not hard!

Traits: Family Trait, Equestrian, Horse Lover, Dislikes children, Mooch LTW: Gold Digger OR The Jockey Job: Any job before you get married then quit

☆ Start with 30 000 simoleons ☆ Marry rich and have them mysteriously die ☆ Master the nectar making skill and riding skills ☆ Win a competition on the highest level for racing ☆ Have 3 or more horses ☆ Have twins

Generation 8: Grey Yes you are twins, you look exactly like each other but your personalities couldn’t be more different. One of you got your nose in the books since you had the chance, always got good grades, got the diploma and finally got your dream job. While the other wasn’t as lucky in school, it was just too hard but you still go to university with your twin and you might have not gotten the best grades but you sure had fun and also met your soulmate.

☆ Have both twins as heir ☆ Go to university with both twins

Twin 1 Traits: Family Trait, Over-emotional, Irresistible, Workaholic, Non-Committal Job: Politcian OR Doctor LTW: Master Romancer OR perfect student ☆ Have a rocky relationship with your partner/partners ☆ Get married for the first time as an older elder ☆ Max charisma skill ☆ Only have one child or none ☆ Good grades ☆ Get the naughty reputation Optional: Get two diplomas

Twin 2 Traits: Family Trait, Loser, Artistic, Easily impressed, Nurturing LTW: Jack of all trades ☆ Have 5 or more different jobs ☆ Get fired from at least 3 jobs ☆ Meet the love of your life in university ☆ Max painting OR sculpting skill ☆ Bad grades ☆ Have two or more children ☆ Help children with all skills ☆ Get the Eternally Faithful reputation

Generation 9: Plum Your parent got you this supernatural book for you when you were a kid about werewolves, witches, vampires… All of it! Ever since then you have been hooked. Can you find it out in the real world too? And of course, your cat is sleeping right beside you while you read.

Traits: Family Trait, Bookworm, Supernatural Fan, Socially Awkward OR Brooding, Cat Lover LTW: Any from the Supernatural expension Job: Fortune teller OR Ghost hunter

☆ Max the writing skill (writing supernatural books) ☆ Don’t have a tv in your house, only books and computer ☆ Marry a supernatural creature ☆ Become a supernatural creature ☆ Own 3 cats or more Optional: Find cure to become human again

Generation 10: Turquoise

In the works...

If you play this challenge you can use the hashtag #mixed legacy or tag me!

and please give any feedback you might have! ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

[mdhwrites]

Luz makes a lot of mistakes in season 1 but fandom barely talks about it. I hate the mistake she makes in Adventures in the Elements the most. She literally steals Amity's training wand, uses it without permission, ignores Eda's advice and triggers the Slitherbeast. Eda, along with Amity's siblings get captured and almost killed. I remember Luz doesn't even apologize for what she did to any of them. Seeing Amity get mad at her is totally deserved, and she rightfully gets to feel angrier at Luz. It's like a backward in Lost in Language in which Luz apologizes Amity for trespassing her secret hideout and reading her diary.

Adventure in the Elements is one of the most fascinating episodes of TOH for me because you talk about all of her mistakes... And that episode is a culmination of a lot of them. Literally a minimum of three different lessons are retaught in that one but instead of Luz being punished for these things, she's rewarded with a new spell. It is a perfect encapsulation of why TOH sucks ass as a kid's show.

Because let's break down some of this:

"Steals Amity's training wand"

Episode 4, The Intruder, features Luz stealing from Eda to get a leg up in magic to terrifying consequences. One could also argue that Luz was reminded that one should respect other's boundaries and the damage betraying their trust can do in Lost in Language, episode 7, by how it devastates Amity to have Luz have invaded her space and seen her diary.

"Ignores Eda's advice and triggers the Slitherbeast."

In episode 3, Luz is taught to at least try and listen to Eda about magic because Eda, you know, might know what she's talking about. Episode 2 even reinforces the idea that Luz needs to listen to Eda because her mentor will help her grow up. Thrown out here.

"Along with Amity's siblings getting captured and almost killed"

Selfish bravado to impress others leading to people almost being murdered? It's not Luz's lesson, except that one could argue it's a part of Once Upon a Swap where she learns why Eda doesn't show off, but Willow's from Hooty's Moving Hassle where her need to prove she's better than Amity, that she's a strong witch, gets Luz, Willow and Gus captured and almost killed.

And Adventure in the Elements is episode 12. I just listed HALF of the episodes that come before this one. And yet instead of showing us how much Luz has grown midway through the season, she repeats as many of her past mistakes as she possibly can.

HOWEVER

She does apologize... Kind of. She apologizes in the same way she does for a lot of things in S1 by setting it right. She made up for things by trying to fix the damage they did, such as going to Amity after the witch's duel or saving Eda after causing her to transform or going after Amity in the library. It's part of why her deciding not to fix her mistake in S3 is so abhorrent to me because her saving grace was to try and fix things but apparently in the end she can't be bothered when fixing it is too hard.

No, the bigger problem to me than the lack of apology is that most of this stuff goes unaddressed. She fixes that the siblings were killed but the rest? Amity joins the Azura Book Club and she gets a new glyph. In fact, she is put in time out and the only one she admits to having been wrong about is that Eda was right about magic being everywhere because she gets her glyph because of that. The rest though? Just normal children's show protagonist things!

Which would scan a lot better if A: TOH didn't despise being a kid's show and B: if it were a better kid's show. If it were like Amphibia where it teaches constantly new and evolving morals about different parts of life instead of constantly going back against basic behavioral things like whether or not it's okay to lie. Instead, it ignores a lot of that to claim it's more complicated and more mature when in actuality it uses every last excuse of a kid's show when it's convenient for itself, such as people ignoring when the main character does awful things to them.

You can't have it both ways and you certainly can't have a hero who only knows how to make the same mistakes all the time while claiming they're doing nothing wrong. It's a shame the fandom learned to ignore Luz's mistakes because the show has no interest in thinking Luz did anything wrong.

======+++++======

Another problem to all of this btw is just that it's boring. Like S1 has a reputation for being boring because of all of this repetition and it deserves it for that reason.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[swan2swan]

Let's talk about what happened with Brookenji.

And no, I don't mean the fallout in Chaos Theory. I mean what happened in the original show. At least, what I believe happened. This is--mind you--total Conspiracy Board style speculation based on little pieces of evidence collected and gathered throughout my years looking into behind-the-scenes stuff and following social media. It would really help if I could find one particularly tweet, but I think it was deleted either in anticipation of spoilers or just because he regularly deletes them.

But...here's the one responsible for that:

Xi.

Xi was the Original Ben, as you can see. Young and nervous. While Ben was...

Well. Ben. Big Ben. But obviously the jock character. The tall, smarmy, rich white guy.

You may be able to see where this is going, but I submit this evidence to you from my memory, and you'll just have to trust me:

One of the showrunners of Camp Cretaceous tweeted ages ago (Season 1-2, well before Season 4 and the Nonsense), tweeted about how there's a disappointing lack of Asian romantic leads in media.

And you know what? He's right. Very much so! Think of ten major tentpole movies from the past thirty years and pull a Japanese, Korean, Chinese, or Vietnamese romantic lead. No, no, no, not the women! The men. An Asian man.

"Oh, well, Shang Chi--" no. Don't get cute.

The fact is, it's just...not a thing that happens. And I think one of the goals with Camp Cretaceous was to change that. Just like they struck ground with Yaz and Sammy being an interracial wlw romance in a children's cartoon, they were gonna put an Asian dude in the romantic partner position.

By now, you obviously see where this is going...and what happened:

If Xi had remained the scared kid, he would have fallen from the train. He would have grown in the jungle and emerged as a wild child. He would have an mmensely different feel in Season 3 where he was breaking away from the group and determining to stay on the island...until the end, when he bonded with the group.

And that is when Brooklynn--or Jules, rather--would have suddenly taken interest in him. Xi and Jules, the wild kid and the rich girl. It would be cute!

But they changed things and took them in a different direction--possibly pretty close to the time the show started. Which meant that the whole first half of the show barely had any setup planned for Kenji and Brooklynn, as they were now known...and they didn't really want to go with Ben and Brooklynn. Especially with how strong the dynamics between Ben and Bumpy and Ben and Darius became.

But they still had to set up the Brookenji romance, and the plans for OG Ben and his Rich Dad to shatter the group dynamic suddenly had to adjust...and you know what? Throwing the romantic strain into it was a pretty good idea! Not bad! But...with the timing of his arrival, the writers only had one season left to them. So they had to jam it all into one season, because there was a little race-swapping done at the last minute that wound up being super-crucial to the endgame.

And personally?

As messy as Brookenji was, I think it was better for them not to remain rigidly focused Xi-Jules and turn it into Ben-Brooklynn. While it would have neatly paired off everyone for the final seasons--Ben and Brooklynn having their Rich Girl/Wild Child romance, Kenji and Darius having their Friends-to-Brothers arc as Kenji betrays the group for his dad (SEE HOW SMOOTHLY THAT WORKS, TOO?), and Yaz and Sammy...well, you know...I think I like what we got with Ben a lot more.

But you can see how the original plan of broad strokes would have been a lot smoother. Turned out that the characters evolved more than planned. And obviously they could have stuck with the Kenji/Darius focus being the main fallout of the group...but that also sort of leaves Brooklynn high and dry with regards to the plot. What's she got left? Though, also...looking back on those seasons...even her romance with Kenji didn't do much for her. Probably because it wasn't really supposed to be a thing. We don't know what the plans for Jules were in the original script, but when those got ditched (PRESUMABLY. THIS IS ALL ME SPECULATING!!!), they had to scramble with her. Maybe she was supposed to have more parental issues. I dunno.

But whatever the truth is, I do still maintain that Kenji was written to be a romantic guy with that in mind. Listening to Brooklynn's color preferences, feeling awkward, being protective...heck, he even kept that rizz through to the new series:

But the bottom line is that Kenji isn't Xi. He didn't have the growth that was planned for Xi, which would have tangentially influenced Brooklynn/Jules's sudden interest in him.

This is also one of the consequences that comes with having shows compressed and rushed so much in the modern era. If we'd been getting filler episodes over the seasons, they might have been able to start building Kenji and Brooklynn up during the E750 arc, if not sooner.

NOTE: I'm not sure what the scripting and planning timetables were with this show. But from what I've gathered, the characters were swapped well after the conceptual stages. And they made it work! There's still a coherent story! I think the sloppiness just came because they had to hurriedly change tracks on some parts, and we noticed.

[avelera]

Vibrating over Daniel’s ending.

I’d love your thoughts on what it means for next season?

(And any other thoughts you have about the finale are so welcome 🙏)

Heya! I actually wrote up my thoughts here.

But, short Daniel-specific version:

I think we'll get Louis-as-Lestat's-agent inviting Daniel to interview Rockstar Lestat for his next book and Daniel salivating at the chance to do so.

(Very different tonally from what I was expecting, btw. No joke, I thought the falling books were going to be Lestat crashing through the ceiling to kidnap Daniel for an interview so he could tell HIS version of the story lol, but I can see why they went for a tearful Loustat reunion instead and how kidnapping Daniel wouldn't have worked with that, funny as it is in my head).

The good news is that I believe we'll get Daniel's snark throughout Lestat's book since that's been the framing device of the show so far (though, there's less of a "mystery" to unravel in Lestat's narrative than in Louis's so... who knows, maybe they will break the format since you don't need an investigative reporter with Lestat to drag secrets out, Lestat literally can't shut up). Honestly, I am SALIVATING to hear Daniel tear Lestat's narrative limb from limb lol.

The bad news is that I think, sadly, that if we dive right into 1-2 seasons of The Vampire Lestat, we won't be getting the space to explore Armand/Daniel and why that happened and if Devil's Minion happened in the past until a theoretical Season 5, if we follow the books and leave the end of TVL to go into Queen of the Damned, where that beat takes place.

IF we do that, sadly, it means we'll have to wait on the full explanation of Daniel/Armand.

HOWEVER, I also wouldn't put it past the show to actually do more interweaving of past and present than that. Have some modern stuff like Daniel/Armand/Devil's Minion in the present day while we're ducking in and out of Lestat's trip down memory lane to 18th century France.

GENUINELY, even as a writer, I don't know how they'll tackle the order of events given that means it'll be a LONG time before we get an explanation for stuff they set up in this season like Daniel's turning and part of me thinks they won't wait THAT long because the eagerness to learn this info is here now, and might not be there in a couple years, people might have forgotten by then.

That said, they also introduced Raglan James, the villain of Vampire Chronicles Book 4, the Body Thief, so that actually signals that they're willing to seed things very early before the pay-off, UNLESS they remix the order of the books significantly and Akasha gets pushed back.

It actually would kinda make sense to push Akasha back she is an EXCELLENT final boss and Body Thief is a bit of a come-down after her so I wouldn't totally blame them for swapping those two books in terms of the order we see their events in. But maybe not! They've been surprisingly faithful in a lot of ways. Regardless, I trust their discretion.

And finally, my hope when we DO finally get Devil's Minion, we're going to have the modern Daniel/Armand juxtaposed with the 1970s one, ending in Armand refusing to turn him in the 1970s, wiping his memory (perhaps knowing that vampirism would drive young Daniel mad, as it canonically did in the books, but old Daniel is made of sterner stuff now) and then we flash forward to the present and old man vampire Daniel and Armand and whatever THEY'VE got going on (hopefully: Daniel domming the shit out of Armand the way he always wanted).

So ok, I lied, I had more thoughts, lol!

[zalrb]

OK currently rewatching season 5 after just finishing season 4, and as someone who hates Riley and as someone who ships Bangel, I don’t understand the discourse that Buffy didn’t try hard enough with Riley including when Xander tells her she didn’t commit because....

like, Xander has to talk her down from trying to stay with him when the Initiative takes him to the hospital

and she was going to storm the Initiative for him

she’s extremely protective of him

part of the reason why she and Willow aren’t as close as they were is because she spends so much time with him

When Angel comes back after the whole Faith debacle, obviously there are many reasons why she asks him to go but one big reason is how Riley would feel with him around

she defends him to Angel

And one of the many reasons why I hate Buffy and Riley together is how much his male fragility and casual chauvinism

puts Buffy in a position where she makes herself smaller to appease him

she is constantly worried about not bruising his ego

she constantly seeks his approval

constantly wants to make sure she’s in his good graces

when the Faith body swap situation happens, she puts the onus on herself to make things right with him

There is nothing happening in their relationship for him to believe she would’ve went to LA to cheat with Angel, it’s just his own insecurity

considering how much he hates Buffy having a sexual past

like she effectively tells him she’s madly in love with him here

but he can’t let go of Angel, he links him to the Dracula situation, which again requires her to assure him

and then links Dracula to being one of the first reasons he lets vampires use him for blood as some sort of payback for an extraordinary circumstance.

Besides the fact that Riley was never really OK with Buffy being as self-sufficient as she was and never really left this mentality

always wanting to be her protector of some sort

when she doesn’t need a protector, the issue is he wanted her to feel about him the way she felt about Angel and she can’t do that with anyone but Angel and if that’s a reason for him to walk away then whatever, I mean, I’ve been making fun posts comparing the two of them throughout my rewatch because Bangel is superior (lol) but that doesn’t mean that Buffy didn’t fight for Riley because she did.

So, I’m always like it’s one thing to say that Buffy could never have the same type of passion and intensity and love for Riley that she had for Angel, which actually isn’t her fault, and it’s quite another to say that she just didn’t try to make their relationship work.

[starsfic]

Since its looking more like season 4 will occur in the past/in the pages of JTTW

Mortality Swap Bai He getting sent to the past and dealing with the whiplash of meeting pre breakdown Wukong

Okay, new resolution.

Lady Bone Demon was banned from ever sending her into weird scrolls again. Bai He wasn't even sure why she needed to go into this scroll in the first place, beyond the fact that the spiders had been sucked in, and no, she couldn't get them out from outside. Thankfully, Red knew enough magic to teleport them through...until the scroll interrupted the teleportation ritual.

Where even was she? Or, better yet, where was she?

Bai He looked around, rubbing her elbow where she had landed on it. She looked to be in the jungle somewhere. But there was no sign of the boys anywhere. She took a deep breath.

"GUYS!" A bird flapped up at her call. "HELLO?! RED?! XIAOTIAN?! ARE YOU THERE?!" More birds flew away, but no voices responded to her. Bai He hissed, looking around. Okay. So she was alone. That...

That was fine!

All she had to do was find her way out of the jungle. Maybe there was a path somewhere that would lead to a village! Bai He nodded at the plan and looked around. Now, where to start walking? North was a good option, right? Yeah!

"North is..." She rotated around, glanced at the sky, and hazarded a guess. "This way!" Hopefully. With that, Bai He began to walk.

At least the jungle seemed way nicer than the alligator swamp. The sun was bright and warm, with beautiful plants blossoming around her. The dirt under her feet was nicely even. There were even birds singing and people laughing-

Wait.

Bai He paused, cocking her head. That was people talking! She must've been close to a town! She couldn't help a relieved laugh as she began to laugh. She could hang out there, blending in, until Red found her! She was sure of it!

She grabbed a bush, pushed it out of her way, and froze.

A large table stood in a forest clearing, full of fruits and other food. Six demons sat around the arrangement, eating and drinking goblets of wine between rich laughter. And there, on the table, dressed in sunshine yellow, was Sun Wukong.

"And then I-" His eyes met hers and Bai He felt her blood chill.

No, no, no... He was supposed to be far away! He was supposed to be somewhere else, licking his wounds after the battle of the Samadhi fire! He wasn't.

"Hello there!" A male voice broke through her thoughts. All the demons were turned, staring right at her, including Macaque and Sun Wukong. The person sitting in front of her was a blonde lion, who was starting to stand. "Little girl, are you alright? How did you get here?" His voice was concerned, but Bai He was more scared of the monkey than anything.

"She's probably a spy!" An eagle was standing up now, holding a spear. "How else could she get on this mountain?"

This...mountain...oh no.

"I'm sorry," she squeaked, turning away. "Wrong table!"

Before she could break into a run, a warm hand landed on her shoulder, halting her in place. "Kid, it's okay! Peng's not gonna hurt you." She froze. Sun Wukong was holding her. Sun Wukong was talking to her.

Sun Wukong...was leading her to a chair?

"How did you get here, little girl?" His voice was concerned. "Humans don't rarely come on my mountain, especially ones as young as you." Bai He blinked, unsure of how to respond. Wukong stared back but sighed. "I think she needs a minute, boys." He pulled away and Bai He watched as he pulled out a hair and summoned a bowl. The lion was by his side in a moment, helping him fill the bowl with food, mostly fruit. When it was full, Wukong set it in front of her. "Eat up. When you're done you can answer my questions."

A realization made her stomach twist.

Oh. This is what he was like before.

[not-5-rats]

It's been days since my last question/scenario post, bet ya'll thought you were safe lol

Questions/Scenarios for the best bugs in the land 🫶

1) Mafia! AU

Has your Bug got another job to try and hide their job in the Mafia?

2) How expressive is your Bugs face?

3) What's a sign somebody has upset/ irritated your Bug?

4) Something people often misunderstand about your Bug?

5) Swap! AU silly lil scenario :D

"I can't believe they've bloomed, I thought I planted them too late in the season!"

Chez had dragged Bug out to the garden...again, a clutter of iris' sat infront of them, clearly having bloomed very recently. Chez was clearly surprised he was so sure he had missed his time for growing them but luckily he had just made it :D

Chez began to ramble about the glorious, purple flowers infront of them. Bug tried to listen but this happened so fucking often, like dude how much do you know about these plants-

They sorta zoned out...but then they felt something brush against the back of their leg just below their knee. It felt kinda like a super fluffy cat strolling past. They were kinda started so looked down only to see Chez's tail softly curling around their leg.

It was like he was giving them a hug but when they looked at him with a confused look he was still talking abt the iris'...he didn't notice. Chez never really spoke his mind, he never said if he liked/ trusted somebody or not but this was clearly a sign that he trusted Bug, trusted them so much that even his subconscious knew they were a safe person

What do they do?

6) Anotherrrr scenarioooooo

(cw (mentions of): child abuse, alcoholism, ableism)

Bug was sat in the living room, they were minding their own business attending to a hobby so they didn't really notice when two young girls came and sat on the living room floor.

Both of the girls had some paper and began to doodle with a large box if crayons sat between them. Daisy was humming to herself whilst Fran sat in silence, Daisy asked Fran if she could talk to Bug multiple times but Fran signed at her that Bug was clearly busy so no.

But then Fran said she was going to get a drink and make the two of them snacks so Daisy took her chance to strike. She stood up, ran over to Bug and began to chat their ears off. At first Bug wasn't really listening but then she said something that caught their attention

"Is it weird that Fran doesn't speak? Dad used to get really angry when she wouldn't talk, he would throw his bottles at her. They smashed all over the floor then we had to clean them up. Look!"

She shoved her hands into their face showing a million different scars and scratches, most of them healed up but still clearly quite sore

"Dad said Fran was a freak, that she just wanted to cause problems and embarass the family, he said lots of other things but Chezzy says I'm not allowed to say those. And its not just Dad, loads of people call Fran bad names"

She pauses for a second staring at her hands, all the reminders of the actions of their deranged, drunk dad. Then she stared Bug right in the eyes as she asked her final questions

"Is Fran a freak? Why do people hate her so much just cause she doesn't speak?"

(For context Fran has Selective Mutism, she physically can't speak when she's around people she doesn't know/ is in a stressful/ uncomfortable/ new situation)

Tags -

@rozeliyawashereyall @willowve01 @asmrbrainrot @kaiamtt @iistxrmyskyii @insignificant-anarchy @stxph-artist @aspenm00n @keyaartz @fangsshadow @rustycopper4use @piffany666 @dreamyshape @idontevenknow7878 @lunaritychuwolf @littlesiren79 @castbracelet240 @strayharmony943 @proxdragon @tiefling-chaos @threeweekinsomnia @recated @wilderrorcard @diamondzoey @fennaboysenberry @lunnats @lightdragon789 @pinkcocopuff-aqualoid @astralbulldragon13 @reefhastoomanyaccs @kaydenskiwi @greaysharkboi @itzscribz @blingzyya @ccstiles @puffin-smoke @fruity0salad @takashishihoin

[unitedbydevils]

Match Review: Manchester United 2-1 Brentford

So, I commentate for Stretford Paddock FC (go see us on youtube and Twitch) and we had a dogshit first half where we went behind and came back to win. Copy and paste here for United, a proper game of two halves, but the second half... we DO know how to ball.

Viva Garnachooooo. Fair play to Erik Ten Hag. He stuck with Alejandro and Marcus, albeit swapping them wings, and it paid dividends. Garna looked potent, and Rashford's lack of driving in was replaced with proper wing play and an excellent cross for Garnacho's expert finish to equalise things.

We all wanted our front 4 to fire, so pair 1 popped off and pair 2 did too; Bruno with a cheeky backheel/flick thing off a driven Eriksen through ball, which put Hojlund through into the Brentford box. A touch, a second correction (baited breath), and a luscious chip over Flekken to secure the win. A glorious goal in glorious sunshine.

The frustration with United is that we were so slow and ponderous in the first half, and then just decided? to play better football. We're our own worst enemy. That could be a mental issue though, and means our recruitment should go for a few more nutcases/unshakeables.

Speaking of which, special mention must go to this absolute fucking unit. Matthijs De Ligt. This man had a great game, and while it's controversial that Brentford scored during the hoohah that was him being treated off the pitch... we're as much to blame for not having strategies to deal with that as the officials are.

He has had his wobbly moments at United, but generally speaking he has been very solid in that RCB position and a definitive upgrade on Maguire. That's a little unfair when Harry has also played fairly well this season, but he is a LCB with a weak left foot that then goes RCB and isn't happy with it. Classic United. Either way, Matthijs is big, faster than he looks, brave, and have very good awareness (generally). You can see why he gets made captain everywhere he goes, and if you want proof of his passion, go see his reaction when Brentford score. Walks away from treatment to bollock a ball off into the sidings in frustration.

Still, a vital three points secured against a manager potentially gunning for a job with us. That puts us 11th behind Bournemouth, with the Cherries beating 10-man Arsenal 2-0 hahahahahaha. Ah.

Next up, a shithouse of an away trip in the Europa League to Jose Mourinho's Fenerbahce, ft. Fred and Amrabat. Yay...

[stingrayloveblog]

Whee side order

My thoughts on it! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!! Youve been warned.

So, here are my honest thoughts. Let me just start by warning further that this is mostly negative.

Took me about two hours and one attempt to beat all 30 floors. Was pretty fun. I used splattershot though because i suck at dualies.

But... it felt very quick. Felt like there was a whole lotta nothing plotwise, too. It was fun, but the plot is pretty weak. Its just another rogue-ai-tries-to-assimilate-everyone plot. Which has already been done. For some reason they keep trying to do octo expansion but again and they keep failing to do that.

Taking everything into consideration, acht really had no reason to be there. You could remove acht entirely and have the same results. And im not just saying that because i dont like dedf1sh. They dont add anything to anything.

I havent unlocked all marinas dev notes but so far theres been her motive of saving the sanitized octarians which......... i have my own personal issues with that. They seem to not be able to decide how they want sanitization to work.

Doing the pallets, i assumed they would give you some memory thing related to the associated character, but you just get a stupid little comment from the post-final boss that doesnt really add anything to the plot or the characters. Also murch is on luna blaster for some reason. I was speculating a lot on who luna blaster and octobrush could be assigned to, but seems like theyre just doing anyone. Murch is very irrelevant to everything as a whole so its kinda just like whatever.

That being said, i feel extremely bad for agent 4 fans. Those humanoid red eyed things with one of them looking like 4 and then them not doing anything with that at all was a huge fake out.

From what i saw, a lot of people were theorizing and expecting things based on all the evidence we got that we never did end up getting because they went an entirely different route. No agent 4 being possessed or whatever (unless thats still true and just unlocked much later, which im hoping because it would make everything a lot more interesting), no implied body swapping, no copybots.

And most of all, nothing from the first trailer we got. With all the concept art. I know it was just CONCEPT art for a reason, but surely you cant just show off all these things and then have the final result be absolutely nothing like it? Then again, splatoon 3 has had more than enough false advertising already, so i guess it was wrong to expect things to be as shown. I just really really liked the giant hostile architecture black spikes picture. And theres none of that at all.

Basically, everything that was expected was significantly cooler than what we got, and to be completely honest, i dont think it was worth splatoon 3 being in really bad shape for such a long time. I dont think it really justified the amount of dumb things that happened over the past few seasons.

I do still think its fun, and i absolutely am going to try to collect everything, but it was significantly less interesting overall than i anticipated.

I do think the final boss attacks syncing with the rhythm was cool. But other than that the level design is extremely repetitive and there really is no variation. Im only enjoying it now because ive used weapons that i like/dont mind using, but once i have to start using weapons im bad at i just know itll be insufferable.

Overall, i am unfortunately disappointed but i still have hope that maybe there is something more, because surely that couldnt have been it.

Also just because it doesnt go along with any of my oc stories at all and i am absolutely not changing anything on my end because frankly im sick of doing that

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

4, 15, 22 please

4. How many WIPs do you have right now?

Oh jeez. Okay, so I’ve got two for The Untamed, two for Naruto, one for The Penumbra Podcast, one for Sweet Home. I’m not going into detail on those because you guys don’t care. And also, “in progress” is generous for them, since I haven’t worked on any for well over a year. I’ll go into more detail about the uhhh, nine Stranger Things Ones?? -Steddie Upside-Down AU - this is almost done!!! So close! I’ve also partially written four smaller fics from other people’s pov’s, so those could be argued as separate! But I didn’t count them that way lol. -Platonic Stobin Mind-Reading AU - this one!!! I’ve been thinking of it <3 the name says it all. The Russians gave them mind-reading powers, but only for each other. I have no plans at all for this fic. I just want hijinks and mostly fun. -Aro4Aro Stancy AU - this one’s almost exclusively just for me <3 and the premise is, wouldn’t it be both funny and tragic if two aro people were dating each other, had never heard the word “Aromantic before” and couldn’t figure out why they were so fucking weird about each other once they broke up? -Christmas - I’m going to be honest, this was supposed to be posted LAST christmas, but it’s a character study on Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve’s relationship with each other post Stancy break-up, and the weird in-between world where you’ve fought monsters together, faced traumas together, and also hurt each other irreparably <3 Or, it’s about their reactions to Christmas lights! -The Crash Bang Incident - Max crashes the car into Eddie’s van on the way to the tunnels in season 2 with Steve passed out in the back seat. Enough said.  -There There - Steve goes back in time, but Robin DOESN’T. He has a mental breakdown about this and makes it Robin’s problem, whether she likes it or not.  -The Red Strings of Crazy - character study of Robin just sort of, spiraling about trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Steve Harrington post his introduction to the Upside Down. She admits to being virtually Obsessed with him in season 3, so I totally think she has a murder board and stalks him about it because come on. She WOULD.  -Carol/Nancy - this is just porn…..I’ll probably never post it because I’ve never written porn. But! Carol sees Jonathan’s creeper photos of Nancy, and feels a certain way about them.  -Stobin Body-Swapping AU - this has no actual words of the fic written, but I’ve got like thousands of words of contradicting world-building. Pretty much, something happens in the future that kicks them back into the past in each other’s bodies. But not at the same time??? So Robin in Steve’s body will go confront Robin in Robin’s body, and she’ll be like, dingus…is that you??? And no, it’s past Robin. And Steve does the same thing. And they completely fuck up the timeline, because by the time they GET to the inciting incident in the present, Steve and Robin have both thought the other was crazy for YEARS because of all the yelling and accusations. This one may never get written, or if it does, I might say fuck the logistics and just go for the vibes because I cannot figure it out. 

15. How do you come up with titles for your fics/chapters? 

Almost always, I start with a theme that’s prevalent in the work. For example, for the Steddie Upside-Down AU, I was ruminating on survival, and hope through adversary. Usually, I spin through my mental rolodex of poetry/songs, find one that fits both thematically and has something I like as a title (either in the lyrics/verses or the title of the work). In this case, it was “A Litany For Survival” by Lorde which is an excellent poem. I think used lines from the poem as chapter titles. This doesn’t always work, but it’s my favorite method! One of my other favorite titles I’ve found this way is an unpublished au where the main character can see ghosts, which I titled “with feet that make no sound,” from the poem “Haunted Houses” by Longfellow. Sometimes, a title just comes to me without this method, but creating chapter/fic titles is like my least favorite part, so this is the go-to method. 

22. Do you know how your fic will end before you start writing?

Sometimes, but rarely! I know how the Aro4Aro Stancy AU is going to end. The Steddie Upside-Down AU was entirely a wild card. Often, when I’m writing, I’m telling the story to myself at the same time as I’m telling it to any readers. So, if something wild happens, we’re experiencing it together!

[exemplarybehaviour]

currently obsessed with this spicy peanut and pumpkin soup, which i will transcribe below with notes in small text in case it ends up behind a paywall again. it's fairly low spoons in that the bulk of the ingredients are opening cans/measuring peanut butter and then dumping them in a pot, and i think it could easily be made even MORE low spoons. also: VEGAN if u skip adding the optional dairy at the end.

makes about 3-4 servings. peanut butter + yogurt make it very filling for a soup. spicy enough to be interesting but not enough to warrant a warning unless you are very sensitive.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, peeled and diced (about 1½ cups)

4 garlic cloves, smashed

1 (1-inch) piece ginger, peeled and chopped

½ habanero or bird's eye chile*

1 (14-ounce) can pumpkin purée

3 cups water (or use chicken or vegetable stock)

1 (13-ounce) can coconut milk

1 tablespoon agave or honey (optional)

¼ cup unsweetened natural peanut butter

Salt

2 tablespoons sliced fresh chives (optional)

¼ cup crème fraîche or yogurt (optional)

*I used a whole habanero which i diced and didn't bother to deseed and got something pleasantly spicy but not too strong. one step tells you to REMOVE the habanero so i think you're meant to just.... chuck a halved pepper in? Use half-pepper if you want a less spicy soup (by removed the pepper before serving) or have an immersion blender to s m o o t h it.

LOW SPOONS NOTES: I used pre-minced garlic (just spoon in.... a lot bc it's less flavorful than fresh garlic) and ginger paste so I only had to chop the pepper and onion. I haven't tried it yet, but I bet the soup could be made even LOWER spoons and entirely shelf-stable ingredients if you switch out the onion, ginger, garlic, and habanero for powdered onion, powdered ginger, powdered garlic & red chili flakes or powdered chili (or some combination there of-- heating pumpkin, coconut, water and peanut butter on a stove top probably tastes fine). swapping out for Powdered Ingredients won't get you exactly the same flavors but also if you have them in your spice rack already.....

Cooking instructions:

In a large stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and ginger, and cook, stirring frequently until softened and just beginning to brown around the edges, about 4 minutes. Stir in the chile and pumpkin purée, and whisk in the water or stock (I just stirred vigorously with a spatula). Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and allow to simmer on low, giving an occasional stir, for 20 minutes or until slightly reduced and thickened. Remove the chile after the soup simmers if you don’t care for much spice.

Add coconut milk, agave or honey (if using), and peanut butter to the pot. Using an immersion blender or working in batches in a standing blender, purée the soup until smooth (you can skip this if you, like me, don't own any type of blender-- you will just have onion bits floating around). Season with salt and keep warm over low heat. Do not bring soup up to a simmer or boil at this point. (This reduces the risk of the oils in the peanut butter separating and breaking the soup's smooth texture.)

Divide soup between bowls, sprinkle with the chives and a dollop of crème fraîche or yogurt (I used plain Greek yogurt), or a drizzle of olive oil to make it vegan. Serve with a warm crusty baguette or chunks of warm sourdough for dipping.

CREDITS: Recipe by Yewande Komolafe linked above.

[recipesfromhome]

Easy Vegetable Soup

Do you know those recipes that are barely even really a recipe? The kind of food you make when you haven't planned ahead and you have to work with what's in your pantry and your icebox?

I ate a lot of that kind of food growing up. With two working parents, there wasn't always time to do in-depth meal prep. Meals were made with no less love, but much less preparation, and improvisation was a virtue I learned well.

It's silly, but I find myself homesick for that hectic lifestyle. These days, I have an abundance of time- time I find myself filling with my old habits. Sewing. Cooking. Housework. I can do all the meal prep now that my heart desires. But I still long for when my life used to be busier. When I had both more and less freedom. I don't know if it's the lifestyle itself that appeals to my nostalgia, or if I only miss it because I miss my home. My family. My parents.

Even if I can't get back to that kind of life, I can access some of the tastes that remind me the most of home. I hope to share some of those tastes with you, even if you don't share the memories behind them.

This vegetable soup is easy to make and easy to modify to what you have in your kitchen. You can swap out the stock for any kind you like; venison, pork, chicken, or vegetable (if you want to make this recipe vegetarian.) Vegetables can be exchanged for whatever you have on hand. You could even include some meat if you're looking for something a little heartier.

Easy Vegetable Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients

1-2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery sticks, chopped

1 onion, diced

3 potatoes, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can diced tomatoes or tomato paste

4 cups beef broth

1 bay leaf

1 sprig thyme

1 sprig rosemary

1 sprig lavender

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

To a large pot, add oil and heat until the oil has "legs" or appears streaky. Add carrots, celery, onions, and potatoes. Cook while stirring until onion begins to turn transparent. Add garlic and continue to cook until fragrant.

Stir in tomato or tomato paste and add broth. Bring to a boil.

While waiting for soup to boil, tie herbs together with length of red twine and add to the soup. Add salt and pepper and stir thrice.

When the soup begins to boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20-25 minutes or until potatoes slide off when pierced with a knife.

Remove herb bundle. Taste broth and adjust seasoning as needed.

Serve hot

This soup is best eaten on a cold day with a slice of good bread or some soup crackers.

[asifitsanotherbookblog]

Tis the season… for a bit of spice 🥵

Now, when I say I am obsessed with those bad boys who claim their women in books… I ain’t lying.. they are HAWT!

Something about that bad, morally grey man who is nothing but hard faced, rude, a little crazy but is fully obsessed with his girl and gives her the world.. ugh, I can’t get enough!

My top reads this year are wild in this aspect, millionaire office romance? Check! Mafia romance? Check! Sports… 🥵

I’m all over it but I’ve been sucked back into a world I love recently and it’s our not so anti-mafia men in The Alliance series by S.J. Tilly.

This series introduces us to 4 men, Nero, King, Dom and coming very soon, Hans. I have been extremely lucky to be able to read Hans before his official release and LET. ME. TELL. YOU! *stands up slamming my hands on the table*

He’s a force to be reckoned with! He’s had his moments throughout the series, he was unidentifiable, hidden in the shadows and damn right crazy to bring a grenade to a dinner with the alliance men and their queens, but oh boy did he!

He made himself known, he showed up, stepped up and proved that he could be part of the crew. Joining them in taking down trafficking rigs and protecting their women. I can’t go in to detail and you know what it’s soul destroying because I want to shout from the roof tops of what he’s doing because it’s UNHINGED! He’s the top dog of his field, leaving no trace behind and being the selfless, lovable, crazy Viking to our girl Cassie. OUTSTANDING !

But let’s bring it back, in the first book we meet Nero and Payton. Now Nero is just well.. he’s certifiable, let’s be honest. He literally meets Payton by just climbing her balcony and joining her in watching a movie. Even helps himself to the damn popcorn.

He tries to refrain but he can’t help but be pulled toward Payton and her innocence. Without even knowing he falls hard and fast! Even taking away her demons as he falls.. protects her with his life and gives her everything she ever wanted including her dog Toto.. they have a bond that is unbreakable and I am here for it!

His best friend King how ever.. well.. he meets his match with Savannah. Naive little Savannah literally walks into a gathering with her new date? He’s not a boyfriend she’s feeling it out, and thank god out girl has a few icks because he is a jerk, that happens to be the husband of Kings sister.. yup imagine how that went down! Anndddd then Nero marries Savannah to King.. I know! What the heck?! But also it’s actually beautiful, Stockholm syndrome aside.. they build a bond, burn a painting and he falls hook, line and sinker for our Sav.

Savannah even made a run for it once, how I don’t know but.. we meet Dom here. Oh our crazy head of the Chicago Mafia. But daaaaaamn is he good!!

On a “random” - I’ll use that lightly, flight he randomly knocks a cookies out of a girls hand when he “bumps” into her. This isn’t any girl.. it’s Kings half sister.. I mean come on. What are the chances… high apparently. Val is sweet as pie, shy and just needs a damn good hug, bless her soul and Dom apparent fits the bill, until he marries her in vegas, tattoos his name on her finger and makes it known that he is now an alliance bro, yeah… this is a roller coaster! But he shows val what love and loyalty mean, he saves her from loneliness and past traumas and gives her a life of luxury.. honestly I wouldn’t even be mad about him getting me drunk, married and swapping out my birth control for placebos. Cause Dom, our big guy.. is just EVERYTHING! He even calls her Mama.. if you’ve seen good girls, you know 👀

Basically all I’m saying that is it you love some gruesome sh!t and men who love hard.. these guys.. are definitely for you! You can find the alliance and all of S J Tilly’s books over on Amazon and they are on Kindle Unlimited too!

I think I’m going to dive into some more smutty men.. cause oh.. didn’t I mention.. they love, HARD. In EVERY WAY! 🥵🔥 oh yes it’s the whole damn package.. and they are packing a big one! 👀🫠