#cookie run operation survival

[rosejigglypuff76]

For All the Cookie Run Operation Survival Comic Fans 🍫🍑

Peach Cookie is now in Cookie Run TOA, and I took the opportunity to pose with Dark Choco Cookie 🎀

[quibbs126]

Eh???

[chewyjellycable]

There are so many variants of Aloe.

Beta Aloe - Biker who travels unknown lands.

Original AI Run Aloe - Morally Grey Researcher, performed Horrific Testing for a Good Cause

Field Trip Aloe - Previously a Botanist, current Robotics Engineer

Operation Survival Aloe - Scientist of an alien planet known as Bluestar, created remote cyborgs for people to live forever. Now wishes to cause a revolution due to this tech getting out of hand.

Operation Survival Chancellor/Aloin/Vera - Evil clone of Aloe meant to be their replacement. The ruler of Bluestar.

Science Basics Aloe - A Seismologist who has connections to other scientists and, assumedly, acts as an alarm when something is going to happen.

Kingdom Comic Aloe - Visitor from the Future variant that's a brilliant builder and previously called Engineer Cookie

[aurora-ze-aquarius]

So I read some of the Cookie Run comics on Mangadex.

What the text says:

Canon Dark Choco:

- depressed

- send help

- daddy issues

Comic Dark Choco:

- happy

- has friends

- agent of pure chaos™

- 'lol i'm immortal betch' - Dark Choco, probably

[basilseedcookie]

chapter 200 of operation survival. the end for real this time (and the end of my scanlations for now...!)

read on mangadex

[shittysawtraps]

I believe that Santa could defeat Jigsaw. Jigsaw can control the entire situation by having an entire year to prepare and use drugged cookies and milk to knock out the fat man and drag him off to his holly jolly torture cavern.

Present him with a series of Christmas themed traps to dissect the morality of naughty and nice, asking Santa if he feels like he is allowed to decide the status of others, if he is justified in his constant surveillance, if his gifts or coal hve ever made a real difference in his many years of operations.

Jigsaw has him trapped: no chimney, no sleigh, no elves, no nothing.

However, Santa has a major advantage over Jigsaw: he knows him.

He tells John that he's sorry about Gideon. Gideon would have loved Billy.

Santa talks to John, seeing right through the marionette and the voice synthesizer, and he keeps up a running commentary on everyone of the trapped victims as he uses his toy making knowledge to disarm the traps and set them free without harm.

He relentlessly chases down John without pause or rest, still calmly talking about John's other victims, and describing the parts of their lives that Kramer didn't see, the struggles and difficulties he didn't know about, and finally confronts John with the truth once he corners him:

John didn't do this to test Santa, these were all his on fears about his own work.

Santa leaves John Kramer's gift on his bedside table and leaves, and when John opens it up it's a board puzzle that becomes a family photo once John solves it. It's himself and Jill, when they had just gotten the news about the pregnancy.

John stares at it for a while before tossing it aside and starting work on his next series of potentially deadly (but potentially survivable) tests.

can i hire you to make the saw christmas special

[gardenview-research-crew]

[INTRODUCTION.dat] CURRENT EVENT: [MAIN RAMPAGE]

Heya guys, ymoved blogs (@garden-view-research-teams), this is a new blog you can actually send asks in.Well, This is kind of a new AU and Blog that polishes out the flaws and inconsistencies with the old AU that was shadowbanned and said blog will be deleted. What's the Survival! AU about? Basically the original Toons (aka the ones we play in-game) are slowly being twisted and taking the effects of the Ichor Operation as Dandy went missing right after. The Toon are separated in different teams as they face the other twisteds accidentally created by Dandy himself as they try to find out whatever happened.

Rules:

-Please start your ask either like "To (Toon)", or "To (Team)", and no "Can you hug me"s or "Can I give you cookies". (sorry-)

-Can ask about research and give info on twisteds -Yeah feel free to be silly and goofy I don't mind-

-No NSFW/Smut/Proship/Incest questions since the mod is a minor

-No Racist, Political, Homophobic and any offensive stuff -Be rude or a jerk in general

-Interrupt RPs

-Don't Let mains be in Search teams for too long, they're VERY unstable as of now.

[NOTE: I do NOT support or condone Rox's actions and only love the game for the characters, lore, and game. ]

Oh well uhm, meet the teams! (thx for my bestie @catchingrockd for the team names): (TW/CW: Mold, Ichor/Bl00d, and some disturbing imagery(?))

TEAM BASIC

The first team made, Toodles isn't allowed to go on Runs often due to Rodger wanting to protect her, but when she is, Pebble has to go, too. Though if he goes wild, then Poppy and Boxten are alone or have to move to another team. With all of that aside, these guys know how to finish floors fast.

TEAM CLEANS O' JOY

These Toons know how to be prepared! Defending from twisteds and doing their jobs very well. They can get rather distracted at times…With that so, the team knows to support eachother and keep going no matter what!

TEAM BRIGHTS O' AQUATIC (My favorites-)

They're not the best…but not the worst too (if you don't count Shrimpo I guess). This team's compositions is just for Toons that aren't too well liked (minus Astro and Brightney, god pray that this team isn't going down). They CAN get the job done, just expect several problems on the way.

TEAM BAKES O' SILENCE

This team's…..well they're quite…"unique" to put it lightly. Despite Flutter's weird staring habit and Sprout being a bit wild at times, this team does try to work things out. Razzle and Dazzle may not agree on everything, even in dire situations, but they're better than Team Brights o' Aquatic anyway.

TEAM FANCY O' ELECTRONICS

Probably the only team with some self-preservation. Rodger started the whole "Search Teams" idea and recruited many of the others along the way. Watch out for Vee though, she can get a bit…crazy, along with the others

[aronarchy]

The extent of Russia’s influence in Sudan goes beyond its involvement in the current war. It’s not only fueling war in Sudan but it’s the reason Russia is able to continue its war in Ukraine and other places despite being sanctioned by the West. Russia is surviving western sanctions by exploiting, smuggling gold and aiding the Sudanese Transitional Military Council (TMC) in the suppression of the pro-civilian led government movement.

In 2014, Putin was vocal about creating an economic plan to circumvent potential Western sanctions tied to the Ukraine war. By 2017, they began extending lifelines to autocrats, and unsurprisingly, former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir joined Putin’s economic pipeline. After a meeting between the two presidents, Russian geologists and mineralogists employed by Meroe Gold arrived in Sudan.

The Russian companies, including Wagner, a private military company linked to Russia and frequently engaged in conflicts worldwide, began establishing a presence in Sudan. Notably, Wagner leader is under US sanctions, accused of meddling in the 2020 US elections. In 2020, under Trump administration, the group was sanctioned for its heavy exploitation of Sudan’s natural resources. The exploitation was so evident that they literally had to be sanctioned by Trump, which is quite surprising.

In 2019, following Al-Bashir’s overthrow, Wagner transitioned to striking deals with the Rapid Support Forces militia general, Hemeti. This militia, formerly known as Janjaweed and implicated in the Darfur genocide, received weapons and training. Wagner, in return, gained access to smuggled gold and devised plans to maintain control, ultimately contributing to today’s proxy war in Sudan.

The method of gold smuggling involved disguising it as flying cookies and concealing the smuggled gold beneath Russian cookie boxes. 🤣

In 2022, @/nimaelbagir a Sudanese journalist and CNN’s Chief International Investigative Correspondent went to a Russian owned gold mining facility in Sudan. Watch her report here ⬇️

Full report here:

In June 2022, the Darfur Bar Association (DBA) launched an investigation and confirmed Wagner mercenaries presence in South Darfur after its attack on gold miners in South Darfur. The investigation also revealed that the Transitional Military council (SAF+RSF) knew about the presence of Wagner in Sudan and in 2019 a copy of the report was actually sent to then prime minister Hamadok.

The DBA investigation also revealed how the UAE is involved in Sudan and its role in the current war. There’s also an extensive investigation report on the role of the UAE in Sudan by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal that proves the UAE involvement in Sudan.

How are the UAE and Russia linked you might ask?

1) Most Sudanese gold passes through the United Arab Emirates. Unofficial data from the United Arab Emirates reported that over $1.7bn of Sudanese gold landed in Dubai in 2021, just under half the value of all the country’s exports. But there is little accurate data tracking it after it arrives in the UAE (arrives via Russia). Most industry exports reckon that official figures account for less than a quarter of total gold sales. Khartoum’s central bank recorded gold exports of 26.4 tonnes from January to September in 2021 but estimates over 100 tonnes would have been smuggled out during that period. (Africa Confidential)

Amdjarass, the Chadian town just across the Sudanese border, is the base from which the UAE is running an operation supposedly to help Sudanese refugees. But behind the façade of what the UAE maintains are humanitarian efforts, lies covert weapons, drones, and medical treatment to injured RSF fighters. (The Africa Report)

A U.S. Ally Promised to Send Aid to Sudan. It Sent Weapons Instead. (WSJ)

The New York Times report on how the UAE is further involved ⬇️

2) In April 2023, following the onset of the war in Sudan, the Wagner group was exposed by CNN for allegedly supplying missiles to the RSF in their conflict against the Sudanese armed forces (SAF). The arms came through the UAE under the guise of humanitarian aid for Sudanese refugees in Chad. These armaments were destined for the UAE’s local proxy, the RSF, in Sudan’s western region. In addition, CNN exposed that the shipments of surface-to-air missiles provided by Wagner were destined for the RSF via flights shuttling the hardware from Latakia, Syria, to Khadim, Libya, and then airdropped to northwestern Sudan, where the RSF enjoys a strong presence. This support from Wagner is considered a significant factor contributing to the RSF’s continuation of the war and their reported atrocities against Sudanese civilians, including killing, looting, sexual violence, and mass destruction of Sudan’s infrastructure.

The satellite images from CNN and the open-source group “All Eyes On Wagner,” provide evidence of an escalated Wagner presence at the bases of Khalifa Haftar, the leader of a Libyan militia supported by Wagner, in Libya. This heightened presence was purportedly in preparation to assist the RSF militia against the SAF.

Full report here:

3) There is evidence that the UAE has been funding Wagner in Libya to help reduce the financial burden on Russia for its Libyan operations and has been deploying these forces to prop up its ally, General Khalifa Haftar, who has been fighting the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in Tripoli. The report that the UAE is funding Wagner in Libya actually came from the US department of defense, which again is a surprise considering the close alliance of the US and the UAE.

East Africa Counterterrorism Operation, North and West Africa Counterterrorism Operation Quarterly Report to Congress, July 1, 2020‒September 30, 2020

[thisapplepielife]

Written for the @steddiemas challenge.

Surviving the Flood

Prompt Day 6: Baking & Cookie Decorating | Word Count: 1200 | Rating: T | CW: None | Tags: Future Fic, Long-Term Relationship, Fluff, Christmas, Baking Cookies, Eddie POV

"Eddie, no, don't…" Steve trails off, "...touch those yet." 

Well, his warning came a little too late, and now his thumb has made a crack right into the icing he thought was dry, but now his thumb is sitting in a pool of green Christmas tree icing. 

"Well, shit, sorry," Eddie says, putting the cookie down and reaching for a paper towel to wipe his hand. "I thought these were supposed to dry hard as a rock?"

Eddie definitely got that impression from the tutorials Steve has been watching on royal icing. Even Eddie's algorithm on his phone thinks he's obsessed with cookie making videos, now that Steve's decided to do this.

"They do. They will. It just takes hours. The ones over there are ready for their second layer," Steve says, picking the damaged cookie up and holding it up to Eddie's mouth. 

Eddie bites down, and chews. It's fine. But a little cuter than it is tasty, that's for damn sure. 

This isn't how his mom made Christmas cookies, not at all. Those were frosted with thick, soft, sweet icing, and he was welcome to decorate them in any haphazard fashion he desired. 

These, here in their kitchen today, have a blueprint. A very specific and planned out order of operations to achieve the finished look that Steve has in mind. So, Eddie's following the plans, today. Steve's the boss. This is his rodeo.

Steve goes back to his stand mixer, adding water about three drops at a time, and beating it, and repeating the process, until his flood icing is the right consistency.

Eddie doesn't really understand. Is there not a recipe? Why do they have to baby it along?

A few more drops later, and Steve runs his silicone spatula through it, looking at it intently in the mixing bowl. Watching. FInally, his hand goes down, "There. Perfect."

If he says so.

Steve pours some of it into a pastry bag, and the oven beeps. Steve leans back and looks and nods to Eddie, indicating that they look done. So, Eddie takes them out and puts them on a cooling rack. Then, he walks out into the garage, lifts the lid of the chest freezer, and pulls out the next cookie sheet. Apparently freezing them for a few minutes after cutting out the shapes stops them from spreading as they bake. Eddie never would have guessed.

But Eddie takes the sheet, the last one, thank god, and heads back inside to put it in the oven. He sets the timer for another ten minutes. And as soon as he's done doing that, Steve is handing him a piping bag of icing, and Eddie fills, no floods, the already outlined cookies and then slides them to Steve. In an assembly line fashion.

He feels like Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory, just a little, while trying to keep up with Steve and not quite hitting the mark. Steve doesn't say anything, though, just lets Eddie do it at his own pace.

At least Eddie hasn't resorted to stuffing them in his shirt quite yet.

One more flooded, Eddie pushes the cookie at Steve.

Steve is gently tapping each one on the counter after Eddie floods them, bringing any little air bubbles to the surface, and then he uses a toothpick to pop any stubborn bubbles that didn't burst on their own. 

Now these cookies will have to dry for hours, if not overnight, before they can do the next layer of stiffer, not flood, icing on top, to give them that 3D effect. 

It's a lot of work. A lot.

The quick little videos all made it seem like it all happens in less than a minute. No, this is a two-day project. Minimum. 

There are bowls all over their kitchen with wet paper towels on top, so the royal icing inside doesn't start to harden and develop a crust before they can use it. 

Every drinking glass from their cabinet has a different colored piping bag of icing resting in it, leaving a crusty little mess in the bottom of every cup. 

It's all very time consuming, and messy, and Eddie doesn't really have this kind of patience. 

Luckily, his husband does. 

Steve clips his magnetic reading glasses over his eyes from around his neck, and Eddie smiles. They're a little dorky, but Eddie wouldn't have Steve any other way. Growing older, still together, is a gift Eddie would never take for granted. Not after everything they've survived. That they can stand around in their fifties, worried about nothing but the cookies on the counter in front of them, is really something.

They've survived way worse, so they can definitely survive making these cookies.

Eddie watches as Steve is concentrating hard. His hand shakes just a little as he tries to stay steady. This is harder than it seemed, for sure, but Steve is forging ahead, pushing past any mishaps and problems they've had. They aren't gonna be perfect cookies, not for a first try, but they still look damn good, Eddie thinks. Cute. Just like Steve.

Eddie would never say it out loud, but he does think they could have just bought cookies, fancy cookies, the fanciest, but Steve wanted to make these himself for their annual Christmas Party. 

So, Eddie was roped into helping. 

He's not sure he's actually been all that helpful, but he's trying.

He carefully carries trays of finished cookies to the dining room table, so they can fully dry. 

He does up the dishes, over and over, as Steve works, to keep ahead of the mess. 

And it's long past dark outside now, and they've been at this all day long. Steve stands up, and stretches. 

"My back is fucking broken," Steve says, hanging his head backwards.

Eddie walks over and runs his hand up and down Steve's back. 

"High or low?" Eddie asks. 

"Both. All of it. But mainly across my shoulders," Steve says, trying to roll them, and loosen himself up. 

Eddie moves his hand up, bracing his other against Steve's bicep, and rubs. Hard. Back and forth. 

Steve moans at the touch, "That's good." 

"Are you about done? I'll give you a full rub down when we go to bed," Eddie offers. 

Steve laughs, "Oh, I'm sure you would." 

Eddie smiles, he didn't mean it that way. But yeah, he'd do that, too. If Steve wanted him to. But Eddie knows better. Steve's gonna be asleep the minute his head hits the pillow tonight. 

And he's not wrong. Mess cleaned up, Steve showers, takes as many pain relievers as he can, and crawls in bed. 

Eddie lays beside him. 

"Your cookies look great, sweetheart," Eddie tells him, because they do. They were made with so much love. Everything Steve does is filled with it. 

Steve says thanks around a yawn, and minutes later, is asleep. Snoring softly in the darkened room. 

Two nights later, Eddie stands back and watches as all their friends ooh and ahh over the trays of Steve's cookies. Steve brushes them all off, acting like it was no big deal, but Eddie knows better, and he smiles, so in love with Steve.

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @steddiemas and follow along!

[unluckyxse7en]

This is old news now, with the newer cookies released since, but I've been thinking a lot about how the fandom kept comparing Affogato to Pomegranate - for better or worse - because something about it seemed really... Off, you know?

And I finally figured it out: Pomegranate and Affogato are almost nothing alike in actuality. Superficially and aesthetically? Yes they carry similar vibes. But as characters, motivations and backstories go they're almost entire opposites.

Note- A lot of this is conjecture from taglines, defeat sprites, and reading up on wikis, so bear with me.

Affogato's story is one of trying to claw his way up from rags to riches. From being the servant taking orders to being the king giving them. It's heavily implied he's been mistreated and pushed around all his life for his background, and he knows he didn't do anything to deserve it but exist.

His response to this situation is to take charge of his life. He's due a backlog of respect and good treatment, and he fully intends to demand immediate payment, with interest. He is snarky and backstabbing and conniving and manipulative, because he is tired of being trod on and dismissed and abused all of his life. He has been taught that to get good treatment, he has to be underhanded, hard to read, manipulative.

Even so, he is quick to defer to others as a survival mechanism. If you push, he falls over, deliberately. He will surely take revenge later for it, but when push comes to shove, in the moment he will take his hits with a stoic face and avoid further escalation. It could be calculation, but also is likely a trauma response.

So then how does Pomegranate compare to this? Well, it's been harder to analyze her upbringing, any specific traumas or lack thereof, because there's not a lot to go off of for her backstory in crk. A lot of it is 'once upon a time she was a priestess foretold to fall to darkness, and she did the end'. You could argue it either way, as perhaps being foretold to betray her village led to being a social outcast, or that the lack of detail implies her life was pretty bland before Dark Enchantress arrived.

Either way, there's a few key differences between her and Affogato:

1) she has not, cannot and will not experience the exact trauma he went through. She fit in perfectly with others in her village physiologically and had a place she 'belonged' -and from her pov, went from there to a place she Belonged when she joined DE.

2) she is a willing and truly, wholeheartedly Devoted servant. She does not demand or ask to be DE's equal nor superior. She is consumed with the desire for nothing more than to be of some use to DE, to perhaps be praised and seen positively by her, but Pomegranate does not ask for more even if more would be nice. This leads to the next points -

3), unlike Affogato she is not very underhanded. Manipulative? Yes. But a lot of her tricks are done in the open and are not about subtlety or pulling the wool over your eyes, so much as hitting where it hurts emotionally or threatening your safety using DE's reputation. This also ties into:

4) Pomegranate is not actually very self-sufficient or self-motivated. This is where being Affogato's opposite comes into play.

See, Pomegranate and Affogato are two ends of an unhealthy spectrum in this area. From their tactics and backstories to even their attacks and functions in their teams, Pomegranate operates Solely on externalized motivation and power, while Affogato Exclusively sticks to whatever he can do with his own hands. Capitalistic society might argue Affogato's way is 'better' somehow in that he is Always capable, but is he? Did not having anyone to truly rely on or trust work out for him in the end? Not so much.

And in a game like Cookie Run, a game where all challenges are crafted for Teams of cookies, to work together with various strengths to overcome obstacles.... Affogato really isn't going about any of it in a way that will get him where he wants long term. He's a loner in a 'friendship is the true power' narrative world. He has his reasons, but ultimately will not achieve his goals as a result. He'll always have the motivation and drive, but never the means.

Pomegranate also suffers from this construct, but in a different way.

Pomegranate is not looking to be equal to or superior to DE. She places her on a pedestal and is otherwise content serving her, so long as she gets recognition. However, in her drive to get that recognition, she does seek out being above everyone else. Not equal to. Above. She sees herself as a channel for DE's wisdom and while she can never be above or equal to DE as a result, DE's wisdom and intelligence trump all else, in Pomegranate's world. So she places herself above the others, peers and foes alike, and distances herself from all of them.

Even if that weren't a factor though.... Pomegranate dwindling herself down to nothing more than an extension of Dark Enchantress also means she is never truly Capable. She does not function independently the way Affogato does (although the wedges she intentionally drives don't help). But over-reliance is another loss of freedom, even in the 'Friendship Conquers All' narrative.

Pomegranate has no drive on her own, where Affogato has nothing but. She only does what she understands DE wants, and will only cooperate with others just enough for that purpose. If you take DE out of the equation.... What would remain of Pomegranate? What would she even do with herself?

And this is part of why these two are so different. When you take everything from Affogato, his fire continues to burn. He will lose and get beaten up, but he will cut his losses like a lizard with a decoy tail if it means he lives another day, because as long as Affogato lives his drive and purpose remain.

Taking everything from Pomegranate would mean taking away Dark Enchantress, too. You could take anything else and she'd barely bat an eyelash, too unattached (or acting like it) to be impacted. Because so long as she has DE she has all she needs. But if you took away DE?

Obviously it would depend on how you took DE out of the picture for her. If Pomegranate thought she could get her back and that's what DE wanted? She, like Affogato, would stop at nothing. But if she thought she couldn't, or worse that DE fully rejected her?

It's possible Pomegranate would try to take DE's plans into her own hands. But it doesn't feel as nearly a sure thing. Even her role in a team is to support others quietly, bolstering them so they can fight for the cause. She does not take matters into her own hands unless she thinks that's what DE wants.

So tl;dr - back when Affogato came out, the fandom kept comparing the two, and especially used their superficial 'sketchy advisor' shared tropes as a form of discourse on hate of female characters in fandom (???).

But I really think it's a disservice to Pomegranate to claim she's the same character as Affogato if anything. So I had to write out their differences because really when you push aside the superficial traits, they're more opposite than alike. It's only natural some people would like one more than another when they're so different, in either direction.

[rosejigglypuff76]

What's the relationship between Sea Fairy Cookie & Herb Cookie? (Known as "Mother & Son of Elementals")

Sea Fairy Cookie and Herb Kimura are Mother & Son in my Cookie Run Kimura AU! The concept itself is based on Story Arc 2 of the official Cookie Run Korean Comics known as Cookie Run Operation Survival.

Herb is born out of a flower that Sea Fairy was taking care of (and still is every once in a while) alongside a wish from her to have a child. The flower bloomed revealing the newborn Herb, which is a reference to the Fairy Tale called Thumbelina. The scene itself appears in the first chapter in the Cookie Run Kimura AU.

They have a wholesome and loving Mother-Son Family Bonding, with Sea Fairy being the calm and caring mother to Herb. The green-haired teen himself being polite and equally as caring to his friends and his mother.

Sea Fairy teaches Herb all the things he needs to know, and also be the sweet and supportive mother. Herb happily follows Sea Fairy's advice and he too gives an equal amount of love and support.

Just like his mother, Herb is a Nature God. Specifically a Young Nature God, since he's immortal just like her but still a Legendary God in Training nonetheless.

In Short: Sea Fairy Cookie & Herb Cookie have a very wholesome Mother-Son Family Bonding, filled with loads of love and support for each other. Their Family Dynamic is healthy and filled with love, support, understanding, and care.

[raetreaderarts]

I read the cookie run manga (operation survival to be specific) and guys she’s so smart I love her <3 She’s just full of information!!! Let her cook, I love listening to her infodump

(um btw do any of y’all know where I can read the rest of the manga, the websites I found only go up to chapter 204 👉👈)

[justforbooks]

Le Crookie 🥐🍪

It was 3 February when the queues started forming at Boulangerie Louvard in Paris. Even in the sort of downpour that usually empties streets, clued-up teenagers gathered outside the family-run bakery in the 9th arrondissement, desperate to get their hands on one thing: its owner Stéphane Louvard’s invention, le crookie.

It’s a crisp croissant filled with American-style cookie dough, then baked to achieve a soft, gooey centre, and a video of the Frankensteined pastry had gone viral on TikTok.

Arriving a decade after the New York-based French pastry chef Dominique Ansel revealed the recipe for his cronut, the crookie is the latest in a long line of hybrid croissant offerings to cause international fervour. “We were very surprised,” says Louvard, who now sells up to 2,200 crookies per day. “We had to hire two additional people to be able to produce the necessary quantities. It was a little stressful.”

Bakeries across Paris have now started selling them. “My local is doing it, even though it’s not very trendy at all,” says Houssine Bouchama, director of Time Out Paris. Meanwhile, from Singapore to Toronto, copycats are making their own versions. Cookie Crumble, a micro-bakery in London, has been getting orders from across the country. Rhiain Gordon, founder of Babyfaced Baker in Edinburgh tells me it’s “unusual to see any left by 10am”.

To say that cross-bred takes on classic breakfast pastries have captured public imagination is an understatement. In 2013, when Ansel first brought the cronut, with its glazed doughnut outside and flaky pastry inside, to New York, they sold out so quickly that a black market arose on advertising website Craigslist. By the time it landed in the UK in 2016, it was with so much fanfare that Londoners skipped work to try it.

A muffin-croissant hybrid, the cruffin, was next, causing such a stir at Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in San Francisco that in 2015 the recipe was reportedly stolen. Then came the croloaf (croissant dough baked in a bread tin, debuted by M&S in 2016). There have been tacros (pulled pork filled taco-shaped croissants created by San Francisco’s Vive La Tarte) and cretzels (salted pretzels made with croissant dough, by Seattle’s Coyle’s Bakeshop).

Since the global launch of TikTok in 2017, the appetite for these hybrid snacks has accelerated. In 2022, the suprême – a spiral of croissant dough stuffed with the pastry creme-filling of an Italian bomboloni doughnut – became a global sensation. Next came the croffle; croissant dough pressed in a waffle machine, popularised in South Korea by cafe chain Aufglet.

What is it about hybrid croissants that have captured global public imagination for so long? Meg Palmer, a research manager at market research agency Verve, thinks it’s because “there’s something about the merging that makes it more permissible to be indulgent”.

Pastries are also perfect for TikTok, she explains, because they look and sound great. “[In videos of] the crookie you see hands breaking through the croissant. You hear that initial crunch, and you see whether it’s got filling if it oozes out. It’s very sensorial.”

She ties the constant invention of hybrids to small businesses trying to stand out on social media. “They’re always thinking ‘what can be our hook?’ People do latch on to these trends, and they don’t just want a flat white and a croissant any more.”

Bouchama has seen the impact of this in Paris. “There’s an Americanisation of French patisserie going on; the desire to reach an international audience on TikTok,” he says.

Bakery Philippe Conticini in Islington is London’s main purveyor of novelty croissants. The chain launched in London in 2020 with classic French patisserie, but found it hard to survive.

“We’ve found we have to be creative all the time and follow the trends,” says Ludovic Carassi Del Villar, operations manager. The shop soft-launched its £5.90 crookie last week and is already getting calls demanding more.

Back in Paris, TikTokers are already moving on, says Bouchama: “Some bakeries are now experimenting with the pain au chocolat-brownie.”

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[aurora-ze-aquarius]

Welcome to another episode of, "Aurora can't stop talking about the Dark Cacao Kingdom Cookies. Send hel-"

Today, we are going to be dissecting Dark Cacao and Dark Choco's relationship via MLP, because this song is just too good.

Also idc if you see it as cringe, it's ✨my blog.✨

Ok so. This song. But in Dark Cacao and Dark Choco.

Ok so, to sum up my ramblings because I can't stop thinking about it.

Celesitia's verse is Dark Cacao after the events of chapters 13-14, when he finally realized what a douchebag he's been to, not only his son, but the entire kingdom basically. Failing his duties as a father due to his very not well mental status, as well as trying to keep up with the declining state of the kingdom. He loves Dark Choco, but unintentionally pushed him away and didn't make room to care for him more growing up.

"And Neither had [s]he loved [her] as [she] deserved. [S]he watched as [her sister's] unhappiness grew."

Dark Choco in turn, felt frustrated. He loves his father, but felt hurt and angry towards him. So he went in search of the sword, only for the dang thing to use his emotions against him and turn against his homeland.

I'm stealing this headcanon from the comics, but basically, in the comics, the sword's curse basically sort of enhances your strong negative emotions. In the comics, Dark Choco lost control when he believed his crush friend was hurt, and his anger took control over him, amplified by the sword's curse.

My interpretation of canon is somewhat similar. The strawberry jam sword amplified Dark Choco's emotions to the point where he lost control and attacked Cacao, resulting in his banishment. However, he still has some semblance of awareness and control over his actions. He still actively chooses the path of darkness, believing it to be the only path left he could travel. He still chose to hurt people, even when he knew that's not what he wanted. He didn't stop until the end of the cacao chapters.

Ok, back to the music. Luna's Soliloquy is basically Choco pre-chapter 13-14, and how despite how much he's (rightfully) angry, hurt, and upset at his father for what he did, he still misses him, and yearns to make things right.

"My pain grows, I can't know. Are you still the same?"

But after so long, and when he finally received some semblance of closure for what happened, the sword's grip on his soul weakened, because his negative emotions weakened. He was able to come to terms with what happened. He's still very much hurt, and is still recovering, but he's able to accept his emotions better. It'll take a while until they can both meet again, and make things right, but I can't help but think of their story whenever I listen to this song.

[basilseedcookie]

chapter 195 of operation survival. this is a new volume, and the last one i have

read on mangadex

[powdermelonkeg]

@argentleif Starting a new post from this one!

So by gryphs wanting the leftovers, does that mean they have cannibalistic tendencies? Or rather they want the leftovers of non gryph meals?

They're opportune cannibals. They won't hunt each other unless they're infringing on territory, but they will eat any dead gryph they come across.

Wow that is a terrifying werewolf. How long do they tend to live with their new way of life? Like what's the survival rate of the first transformation, as in how many two foots are waiting for the transformation to revert so they can take out the now very naked and very person sized werewolf? Do they flee society? Or try and act like it didn't happen? Mixture of both? In two foot form do they congregate? Do they fight eachother while transformed because food is food? Do they all transform at the same time i.e 'the 15th of every month is werewolf night' or 'every full moon' or is based on when they got bit and thus a two foot werewolf and a transformed werewolf can co-exist (until the two foot is probably eaten)?

It varies as to how well they survive--are the two-foots good enough at hiding from a starving predator to not get eaten? Do they have any experience hunting werewolves? The belluan still regenerates while in two-foot form, so it's difficult to kill them.

Fleeing society is the best bet one has at surviving, unless they know they have a steady supply of fresh blood. A particularly savvy belluan can drink from a victim, eat the evidence when next they change, and act perfectly normal otherwise.

Most belluans operate solo; those that stick together are more often familial ties--ie, one of them turned the others and has cobbled together something of a cover for them all. I have a pack that operates almost like a mafia, where the "disappearances" for getting on the wrong side of the wolf in charge wind up as food. Outside of that, a blood-fed belluan isn't hungry, so it won't care about another one. A starving belluan (as most are) will still try to kill and eat another on sight.

Transformation is more of a biological function than a supernatural event, so it doesn't care what time of the month it is. Each strain has its own rough cycle--for example, one with an average cycle of 53 days could turn as low as 50 days post-bite, or as high as 56.

Ooh I see, how are knightwardens chosen? How benevolent are they? And what do the public and political leaders think of them?

There's a sort of exam taken every few years among young children. 2% of the population are spark-eyed, meaning they're capable of using magic. They get taken and shipped off to the Elemental Colleges to learn how to use that magic.

If you're not spark-eyed, but you score high enough in cognitive and coordination tests, you're sent to the Knightwarden Academy. Generally speaking, the public loves them and the leaders are glad for their services; knightwardens are meant to be cordial, kind, and the heroes that stop the horrors from happening to you.

Oooh that's cool. So by not intermixing is that full stop as in the only way they're interacting is via battle, uneasy truces, and interacting like the other has the plague?

Or is it specifically that they can't have offspring or live in the same house, but could hypothetically live in the same town and work together in a field?

Specifically, they cannot have offspring. They're different species that experienced convergent evolution (it runs a little deeper than that but that gets into historical lore on where everyone came from), so they're genetically incompatible. Nobody cares if you go and marry one, or adopt a handful of different two-foots, but a human can only have a child with another human.

Oh wow. So doppels could be kind little old ladies who give out cookies but will punch your lights out if you try to do the same, as well as horrifying beasts of destruction all based on how they're treated? Damn. What happens if two blank doppels see eachother? How are doppels made?

Doppels that stay in one place for awhile drip silvery liquid onto the ground. Give that puddle enough time undisturbed, and a new doppel will eventually form out of it.

Blank doppels don't generally last long. There's always something around to try to mimic--if not a person, a wild animal. If you were to theoretically leave one in a vacuum for ages, then somehow introduce it to another one without any sort of interference that could be copied, they'd probably endlessly copy each other's ripples and look like watery mannequins until interrupted. They just stare until they find something to copy.

Oh gods, those poor dragons, and potentially dragon riders depending on how they are chosen (i.e. if they choose to be, they're horrid, if they're tricked or just yoinked from the street because the makers of dragon riders are already into the unethical, they also get some pity, though less than the dragons). What do knightwardens think of dragonriders? Are they the one's doing it?

So, back to the knightwardens, remember how I said if you pass high cognitive and coordination tests, you get chosen? If you aren't spark-eyed, you don't pass those tests, but you ARE red-threaded (part of the magic system) AND you pass a very narrow physical margin, you're sent to the Dragonblood Citadel. No choice in the matter.

Knightwardens generally think of dragonbloods either with pity or with disgust--depends on the warden. They aren't scared of them, so it's a tossup between "you're a monster, and I'll kill you the second I'm ordered to" and "you were chosen for your job, just like me. You got the short end of the stick."

Is ocheon the country? Or an entity? Or the name of the people of said planet?

Continent! The planet is Ater, the continent is Ocheon, and the country on the continent I've developed the most is Abrylia. I gave a full rundown here!

How are the now mutant dragonblood riders treated by society? Are they heroes with dark secrets the public doesn't know? Or a viewed necessary evil?

People are generally afraid of them. Dragonbloods are tall, built like brick walls, with claws, patches of scales, draconic eyes, fangs, and the ability to breathe fire. It doesn't matter how they act, society is going to see them as a monster, something to live with to keep the dragons in check, and, if the aggressor is feeling cocky, an easy way to rid the world of another dragon.

The unfortunate thing is, for how imposing dragonbloods are, the mutations were never designed to strengthen them. They've got chronic pains, dehydration, blood that feels like it's on fire, and a general weakness to them; they're seldom ever trained in their own combat, only in how to direct their dragons, so a few two-foots could easily gang up on a dragonblood.

How often are dragon nests raided?

Whenever they're found. It's a public duty to report any wild dragon sightings so they can be monitored and eventually raided; the end goal is to have ALL dragons under the killswitch of a dragonblood eventually.