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carynsilver · 4 years ago

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Favorite Fics: Darcy Edition

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Things started going on that hurt my soul, and I just felt like, who cares about some fic recs when people are getting hurt? But… I don’t know. I still find solace and comfort in reading stories, even when things are hard—especially when things are hard. So, I finally felt like maybe it was time for another. If the fic writers out there are giving me escape, warm fuzzies, and enjoyment during these weird times, then they deserve some love directed back at them.

So far, I’ve listed my top 10 favorite Stucky, Drarry, and Stony fics. I love them all, but… that is a lot of dudes. I decided it was time for a little girl power in my fanfic recs. One of my favorite BAMF female characters is Darcy Lewis—one of the best and most under-rated, under-explored characters in the MCU.

I love Darcy as the every-girl who has the moxie and chutzpa to hold her own in a life full of superheroes. The girl tased the God of Thunder because he was freaking her out, for goodness sake! I love her being BFFs with Jane, being Thor’s lightening sister, and creating a found family. I love her living in the tower and caring for all the superheroes and science geniuses like they won’t care for themselves. There’s enough leeway in her backstory for fun twists, too, like being Jewish, or—one of my absolute faves—secretly being the daughter of Tony Stark.

There are a ton of good Darcy fics out there, but these are my top 10. Thank you, writers, for sharing these amazing stories with us!

Casa de Island Avengers by @inkbert

I clicked on this story because of WinterShock (Darcy/Bucky), which is a favorite ship of mine (I feel my love of Bucky has been previously discussed at length, lol), but it has become one of my favorite fics of all time. Not even just in the MCU—if I were listed my top five fanfics ever read, this one is on the list.

The concept is simple—post-Ultron, the Avengers started falling apart as a team, so Steve spearheads the effort to get them all on a two-week vacation to Tony’s private island in a last-ditch bonding effort. Every character (except Thor, but he does get some good screen time) has his or her own point of view for at least a chapter or two. Sometimes, this leads to characters sounding the same, but @inkbert really grounds each character in their own backstory and makes their inner monologues sound unique. Then, so many wacky hijinks ensue—camping, drinking, movie nights, girl bonding, sailing, pranks, and the most competitive game nights and challenges you’ve ever seen.

The ships included are Darcy/Bucky, Steve/Natasha, Pepper/Tony, and Clint/Wanda, but this story isn’t only about the ships. It’s about all these crazy characters bonding—found family at its finest. This is probably my favorite Darcy/Jane BFFs story ever, and the Bruce/Tony science bro connection is classic. The story is fully seated in cannon (up through Ultron and moving to the ccmpound), except no Clint/secret family and Pietro lives. Read it. Read it now! And if you enjoy it, there are several one-shots that follow, including a Wanda-centric one that shouldn’t be missed.

Best Supporting Soulmate by Valeris

I love a good soulmate fic, and this is an excellent one. The first thing your soulmate says to you is written on your skin, and there are both romantic and platonic soulmates. Darcy has Jane as a platonic soulmate, but it’s her other soulmate who made her life crazy before she even met them. What are you supposed to do when your soulmate’s first words to you are to let them die?

The two primary ships in this fic are Wintershock and Stony, which work well together, but the story delves into a lot more relationships. I don’t love the whole amnesia trope in a Stucky fic because losing all that history and friendship hurts so much, but in a WinterShock fic, I have a real soft spot for Darcy being able to help post-HYDRA Bucky learn how to person again, and she does that in spades in this one. She also cultivates friendships with just about everyone in Avengers Tower and beyond. Darcy/Johnny Storm BFFs are amazing, and the deep friendship Darcy develops with Tony in this story gives me all the feels. This is a great version of BAMF Darcy who can see what the tortured characters need and is able to help them get there. And there is some interesting conflict with the Fantastic Four, as well.

This was one of the first, if not the first, WinterShock stories I ever read. I had been trying TaserHawk, but it wasn’t really my cuppa, and then somehow found this one and got hooked.

Road Trip of Champions by @leftennant

Natasha and Steve are going on a road trip. Steve wants Bucky to come with, but they feel like they need a fourth to make things even. Natasha bribes Darcy into coming with, and over the course of the trip, we get a lovely WinterShock romance. The road trip concept is fun, and Darcy and Bucky have a light enemies to friends to lovers vibe going on. Bucky is recovering, Darcy isn’t going to take anyone’s crap, and Natasha and Steve really just want a little private time along the way. And the bit at the end of the main story when they play paintball—classic and a scene that has stuck in my mind long after reading many other fics. The protective vibe Bucky has for Darcy after all this and how it even affects paintball is adorable. There are other one-shots in this ’verse as well that should not be missed. You might never think of lemons the same again.

Daybreak by @anogete

Anogete has a really good touch with snarky, caretaker Darcy. I love all her WinterShock stories, but this is the one that’s stuck with me the most. The concept of Darcy trying to help dismantle Bucky’s trigger words by creating new memories for each one was so compelling. The therapy aspect did give me pause (a personal thing; it is dealt with as respectfully as possible in the story), but it all works out in the end. The fact that I loved it so much despite a mild personal ping with the concept speaks to how well it’s written, honestly. :-) And, if this one isn’t to your taste, Anogete has plenty of great WinterShock to read, so definitely try one of them instead!

The Run ’Verse by themonkeycabal

Though it eventually becomes a WinterShock story, my favorite thing about this universe is the Tony-Stark-is-Darcy’s-father trope. This is probably my absolute favorite version of that relationship. There is also time travel, and BAMF Peggy Carter. And even though I don’t love the Darcy-becomes-a-Shield-agent thing as much as Darcy the Scientist Wrangler, this story has a great, cannon-compliant reason for why Tony, Clint, etc., weren’t able to come help Steve, Natasha, Sam, and Maria in CA:tWS. There are a ton of stories in this ’verse, and I enjoyed every single one. My favorite, though, is the one where Darcy and Tony go visit Howard’s forgotten secret bunker and have three generation’s-worth of overdue conversations.

A Morbid Taste for Ice by sitehound

This is probably my favorite TaserTricks story, though I haven’t read nearly as much Darcy/Loki as I have other Darcy ships. I think it’s because writing Loki in character and making it believable to me that Darcy would fall in love with him, especially post-Avengers 1, is a fine line. If the fic apologizes too much for Loki’s wrongdoing without enough repentance/reformation, I don’t buy that she would legit be able to fall for him, but, go too far on the redemption and Loki gets OOC.

This story hits all those beats pretty perfectly and combines them with the whole Darcy/Jane/Thor (and now Loki) found family thing, Thor/Loki brother angst, Jane/Darcy BFFs, and a really compelling murder mystery to boot. There is also an interesting subplot with Loki being what basically amounts to a magical mechanic that I found really interesting amidst the snark, romance, and mystery solving. I’m sad this writer only has the one story up because it is so good!

Bygone by @inkbert

This story is Shieldshock (Steve/Darcy), not WinterShock, so even though I do try to only choose one fic per author (mostly), I’m totally fine having two by @inkbert on this list. Besides, this fic is amazing, and it’s not like there are anyone’s rules to follow on these fic rec lists but my own, lol! This is hands down my favorite ShieldShock story ever.

Jane’s experiment goes awry and sends Darcy into the past—specifically after Bucky left for basic but before he shipped out and Steve got tapped for Project Rebirth. Darcy ends up living with Rebecca and Mrs. Barnes, and she falls head over heels in love with tiny Steve, so much so that they get married despite not knowing what the future holds for her. Then, the night before Steve is going to report to basic, Darcy blips out again, and when she blips back in, Steve is dead. The rest of the story has Darcy blipping her way through time, making friends with Howard, Peggy, and the Howling Commandos. Ultimately, though, it’s her brother/sister relationship with Tony that is the most poignant, especially by the time they catch up to the present again. And Darcy is a complete BAMF the whole time—going on missions, learning to fly anything with wings, doing anything and everything to keep her found family together. This story also gave me a plan for what I would do if I were ever shot back into a timeline like this where I couldn’t sew or cook or make a living—become a typist… genius, Darce!

Their Hearts Said by @anogete

Another Anogete story because I just can’t resist. All her stories are really good, be they WinterShock, ShieldShock, or even her really good Loki/OC fic. I would definitely suggest giving all of them a try.

This ShieldShock story is my favorite post-Infinity War tale. It picks up a few weeks after the snap, with everyone grieving and trying to figure out what to do next. Steve is barely holding it together while the remaining Avengers try to figure out what they can do. After Jane and her family disappear, Darcy heads to Avengers Tower, hoping against hope that maybe Thor knows what’s going on. Darcy and Steve start sleeping together as more of an escape from the awfulness around them than anything else, but as the team works on a plan to save the day and bring everyone back, they develop real feelings for each other. There is also time travel and I really loved the minimalist way she wrote how the day was saved in this. It balanced well with the character stuff. This story is much preferable to End Game—too bad cannon didn’t go like this!

Good Madness by Em_Jaye

Normally, I prefer my Darcy embedded within the MCU cannon. I adore that every girl keeping up with superheroes thing. But, I do enjoy a good AU on occasion, and this is one of my faves. It’s ShieldShock and kid!fic. Darcy runs a bakery that was left to her by her mother (real You’ve Got Mail tones there, but no creepy identity porn), and Steve comes in for treats on occasion. One day, he brings his daughter, and the rest is history. I love the Steve/Darcy romance in this one, and Steve’s daughter is a sweet character. I love the Full House thing Steve has going on co-raising his daughter with Bucky and Sam. And there is a nice Bucky/Natasha subplot and some really good Tony, which I would say more about except that I don’t want to spoil the surprise. My favorite story in the series is the five rules one at the end, so definitely keep going long enough for that. And if you like Em_Jaye’s writing, you should check out The Long Way Around—a Shieldshock, time travel, Endgame fix-it WIP that is excellent, as well.

One Year by @steeleholtingon

This story is WinterShieldShock. OT3s aren’t my favorite trope, but somehow with Bucky/Darcy/Steve, it works. Maybe it’s something about the boys’ history and Darcy dragging them into the future. Kind of what she does for each of them individually in WinterShock and ShieldShock, but with even more oomph. I haven’t read the whole tag, but One Year is my favorite.

Bucky’s Winter Soldier recovery has pushed both Steve and Bucky to the edge. Steve ends up leaving (at Bucky’s demand, but also because the team is afraid he’s going to do some kind of suicide via superhero duty if he doesn’t get his head on straight). The wrinkle—the night before he left, Darcy and Steve had a comforting one-night stand that resulted in two pinks lines on the test. The resulting story takes place one month at a time. Steve tries to piece himself back together and put his feelings for Bucky in the past whilst falling for Darcy over text messages. Bucky, on the other hand, realizes how he fucked it all up and vows to be there for Darcy and Steve’s baby while Steve is gone. Darcy navigates the waters of an unplanned (but wanted) pregnancy while balancing her feelings for both of them. And all the rest of the Avengers, science crew, and other Avengers-adjacent peeps support all three of them through it all. Angst, recovery, and a happy ending. So good!

So, after all that, what are you guys waiting for? Get to reading all this Darcy goodness! :-)

And now I need to figure out what fic rec list to work on next. I have a Stranger Things one (Harringrove and Mileven) almost ready to go, and then I need to decide what to do with the ships and characters that I don’t have a full top ten for. Group them together, perhaps? Bughead and LoVe might be a good combination, lol. And WinterHawk and WinterIron.

#darcy lewis #darcy x steve #darcy x loki #darcy x bucky #wintershock #shieldshock #tasertricks #fanfic #fanfic rec #quarantine reads #highly recommend #thanks for writing these fics #bucky barnes #steve rogers

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yuthoe · 4 years ago

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To-Go: 2+1 (PENTAGON: Yan An)

or “The Two times Yanan Tries to Ask You Out and The One Time He Succeeds.”

So this was requested a while ago, and at first I thought they were asking for baker!reader, but I reread the ask and saw it was actually the opposite so I had to rework the plot in my brain. Regardless, in both versions, Yanan is adorably awkward.

This turned out so long and I swear I didn’t mean for it to get to 2k words lol, it just happened. Also it seems that i HAVE to add a dash of mild angst whenever i write my fluff. apologies if this turns out bad--i’ve been out of it lately, and i guess exploring my writing style. also i’ve been busy trying to become a #contentcreator on youtube lmao.

hope you guys like it!

WARNING: a dash of angst. WORD COUNT: 2,223.

Master List

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Yanan pulls his head up from putting freshly baked strawberry and chocolate Danishes in the display rack at the jingle of bells. The “welcome” dies on his lips at the sight of you, and he quickly makes to straighten up, only to bang his head on the underside of the top shelf. He rubs his slightly throbbing head as he wobbles to the kitchen.

Depositing the empty tray and tongs on a table, he desperately says, “Help! She’s here!”

“Ooohh,” his friend Changgu says, closing the oven door on a new batch of baguettes before turning fully to Yanan. “So what are you doing here, then? Shouldn’t you be out there at the counter?” he asks, one eyebrow raised and a playful smile on his flour-dusted face.

Yanan just groans. “Yeah, but I don’t know what to say!”

Changgu shrugs, takes the rag from the belt of his apron and wipes his hands with it. “The usual, maybe? ‘Is this all, or would you like a coffee with that? Will you have these to go?’ Come on, you’ve said it tons of times before--,”

“Not that, Changgu!” the taller man said, waving a hand in front of his face, as if swatting a fly away. “I meant about asking her out! I have no idea how to ask her! I’m not exactly the most suave person out there.”

The baker laughs, hearty and clearly amused. “Just be yourself, Yanan, what’s the harm in that?” Changgu takes the few steps to the refrigerator to get another batch of dough. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some bagels to make.”

Yanan lets out a pained sigh before turning and exiting the kitchen, mentally thanking his friend for that unhelpful advice.

Just in time too, as you’re stepping up to the register with a tray of goods. You smile at him and wave as you set the tray on the counter.

“‘Afternoon, Y/N,” Yanan asks, quickly punching in the codes for three chocolate-filled croissants, two lemon curd Danishes, a pack of miniature cookies, and a baguette loaf; two years working at a bakery as the frontman leaves him no choice but to memorize product codes even for the least popular baked good. “Would you like a coffee with these?”

You hum, already scanning your prospects at the menu board above him before he asked. You squint, pursing your lips in concentration and Yanan thinks it’s the most adorable thing. And then you smile and turn back to him. “Yep, a medium caramel macchiato, please!”

“All righty,” he says, punching it in. “To go as always, I’m assuming?” he asks, smiling shyly.

“You know me so well, Yanan,” you reply, smiling back. “I’ve got a few friends coming by tonight, so I’m doing some shopping.”

“Ah, hence the baguette?” Yanan asks, before rattling off the price for everything.

You root into your bag for your wallet and hand him a bill before saying, “Yep, gots to have that bread for the cheese board.” Yanan gently puts the change into your upturned palm before turning to the coffee machine behind him.

“Don’t cheese boards usually have crackers?” The whir of the coffee grinder almost drowns out his voice, but thankfully you can still hear him.

“Yeah, but sometimes you just need more carbs.” Yanan sputters a laugh as he presses the shot button on the machine and turns back to see you smiling at the joke.

And then Yanan just decides to go for it. “Does this wine and cheese party have room for one more?” he says as he turns his attention to making your coffee. He feels his ears burn--from embarrassment or dread, he’s not sure.

You’re unable to bite back a smile, and then a loud laugh. “Mm, sorry, Yanan, I’m afraid it’s girls’ night tonight. But you know, sometimes one of our guy friends tags along too, just for the cheesy rom-coms, so I can ask. If you want.”

Yanan sets the hot paper cup in front of you and waves a hand. “Ah, no, you don’t have to; I was just joking.” He hopes the laugh he lets out is believable.

“Oh,” you say, taking the cup and the paper bag in both hands. “Well, let me know if you change your mind about that, ‘kay?” You turn for the door. “Thanks for this, Yanan! I’ll see you!” you say, and you disappear once again with the jingle of bells.

Yanan stares at the closed door, then sighs and deflates until he’s crouching behind the register, resisting the urge to just bang his head into it.

***

You reappear the next Monday, just as Yanan finishes putting up freshly packaged dinner bread on a shelf. The bells’ chimes welcome in a gust of wind from the chilly morning, and Yanan shivers, just a tad, and rolls down the sweater sleeves he wears under the bakery’s navy blue linen apron. He takes the empty tray he’d brought in and retreats once again behind the counter, sneaking glances at you from the corner of his eye.

He doesn’t mean to be creepy, and he hopes he doesn’t come off as too chummy when he asked if he could join your get-together the previous Friday. He doesn’t usually do that, nor does he even usually have a need to ask someone out; he spends all his free time in the bakery and all the customers, while nice and respectful (except of course, for the one-in-ten nasty ones), are more like family to him.

And then you came along one summer afternoon for a mocha iced coffee and a bagel, and after taking a sip said, “Is the mocha iced coffee this good usually, or is it just because you made it?” Yanan’s face turned as pink as his hair back then and stuttered through the rest of the transaction.

The next time you came in a few days later, you made no mention of the iced coffee thing, but still managed to strike up a conversation with the introverted boy. Yanan was grateful for it--he was too flustered to reply properly, after all--and from that short exchange about strawberry jam blossomed a casual acquaintanceship.

Everything was going fine and dandy until one closing time when Changgu said, “So when are you going to ask Y/N out?” At Yanan’s expression of incredulous surprise, the baker continued, “What? She comes by the bakery more than once every week and talks to you everytime. She even asked the part-timer once if it was your day off when she came in and you weren’t there. All signs point to her liking you, man.”

Yanan had been helping put away trays and bolts, but at his friends words he froze, party scared of the idea that someone might be interested in him and he had no idea how to go about it, and partly excited that someone might be interested in him and that hadn’t really happened or been brought to his attention since elementary school.

And he does suppose it’s time he puts himself out there since Changgu has been pestering him about taking less shifts because he’s getting sick of seeing him all the time. Plus, he needs to get out more anyway. Two birds with one stone, right?

“Thanks, Yanan,” your voice snaps him out of his reverie. “I’ll see you later!” He registers your goodbye too late, tries to make words come out of his mouth, raises a hand at the door swinging closed behind you.

He really just went on autopilot while being consumed by his thoughts, huh? Yanan groans inwardly, deciding to make himself an espresso to distract him from his abysmal flirting skills.

***

You push the heavy door open and inhale the distinct smell of freshly baked bread. It’s been a few days since you stopped by--work had been demanding lately and required you to clock in earlier and punch out later, so your routine got disrupted. But yesterday you submitted that finance report and could finally take your time getting that good, good coffee. And yeah, maybe a snack for later.

There are a couple of people milling about, trays full of bread, or holding a bag of rolls. You make a beeline towards the display case of confections; if you could, you’d spend all day here, just looking at the golden-brown baked dough, some lightly glazed with sugar, colorful from the fruit fillings you know they make in-store. The chocolate chip cookies are a crowd favorite--big and chunky and guaranteed to have an ample amount of chocolate in every bite. You however, are partial to their oatmeal cranberry cookies.

The way this bakery makes them gives the cookies a crunch (you suspect they put rock salt in there or something, but you aren’t a baker so what would you know?), the tartness of dried cranberries gets dialed down by the oatmeal, and the cinnamon adds a depth to the fruity flavor. It’s your favorite to-go item here, and you immediately take a medium-sized bag. You tell yourself to save these and not just devour them in one sitting this time.

A customer is getting his items rung up when you get to the counter, already seeing Yanan’s head bob up and down as he reaches for the baked goods. “Sometimes being tall is tiring,” he told you once. “Like here, I have to bend a bit to ring up the food because the counter is too low for me. But don’t tell Changgu I told you that, he’d hold it over me forever.” You both laughed at that.

“Thank you for your patronage,” you hear Yanan say now, handing the paper bag of food to the man in front of you. “Take care, and come again!” He waves to the man before turning to you.

“‘Morning, Yanan,” you say, handing him the bag of cookies. “Are you feeling okay today?” You noticed when you last came in that he was oddly quiet and subdued. You weren’t quite sure why he was so down, so you didn’t attempt to make conversation; your mouth is sometimes too fast for your brain and you didn’t want to end up saying something to accidentally offend him.

“Hey, Y/N,” he says, greets you with a soft smile, but you see he’s trying to avoid looking at you. “Yeah, I’m fine. Can I get you a coffee?”

“Yeah, a large hot mochaccino, please.” You hand him a bill and he returns your change. “I’m glad,” you say, fiddling with your wallet as Yanan works the coffee machine. “You seemed kinda down last week.”

You see him start, then press the button on the machine before turning to you. “Did I?” He bites his lip. “Sorry, I… I was just thinking.” He taps his long fingers on the wooden counter, the whirring of the machine and soft jazz emanating from the speakers the only sounds for a moment, before Yanan speaks again. “About last Friday… I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep, I just thought it would be a funny joke, but I actually half-meant it, but I wasn’t really expecting you to say yes to me, and even if you did I didn’t want to trouble you, but I just thought it would be kinda nice to hang out with you, you know, outside the shop, I mean, ‘cause like, you’re really fun to talk to, and I’d like to--,”

“Woah, woah, wait, Yanan, wait a minute,” you say, interrupting his rambling, an amused smile on your face. Yanan clamps his mouth shut and busies himself with making your coffee. You think you see a sweep of pink on his cheeks. “I… was actually serious about that--inviting you to hang out, I mean. I think you’re great to talk to, and I. I wanna get to know you more, too.” You can feel your face heat up as you fix your eyes on the grains of the countertop.

You hear a soft tap in front of you, just as the fragrance of espresso and chocolate assault your nose. The green paper cup sits in front of you, and you raise your eyes slowly--up Yanan’s clasped hands, to the linen apron stamped with the bakery’s logo, and landing on his eyes, shy and worried but hopeful.

“So,” he says, almost too softly that if you weren’t paying attention, you wouldn’t have caught it. Yanan takes a deep breath. “Do you… want to have dinner sometime?”

You think you must have misheard it. But you saw his lips moving, heard the sound come out of his mouth, so it must be real.

You’re nodding before you realize it, smiling before you notice your cheeks are hurting. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d love to.” A relieved smile breaks out on Yanan’s face, and you briefly wonder how you didn’t realize he’s beautiful when he smiles.

He lets out the breath he’s holding as he pushes the cup of coffee to you. “Here’s your coffee, to go.” You reach out to take it, and make sure to brush your fingers against his. Electricity rushes up your hand, and you feel it buzzing as you say your goodbyes. as you exit the shop and step out into the chilly morning. as you remember him everytime you take a sip of the delicious coffee.

#pentagon #pentagon yanan #yanan #kim yanan #pentagon yanan scenario #pentagon scenario #pentagon imagines #universe net #uninet #fic: yanan #fic: mine #fic: not spicy

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miss-anna-banana-blog · 4 years ago

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I never thought I’ll be writing something like this, specifically the part of exposing myself in front of the people who follow me + the ones who don’t but still are checking up all the time. These pictures take me back to summer 2017. The worst year of my entire life. You couldn’t tell of course because I made sure no one wouldn’t be capable of noticing these kind of things. I posted positive, happy and silly things and I “became the best version of me” lmao. Now I can finally admit that was some huge ass bullshit and I’m mad no one said a thing. A few months before those photos were taken, I started to battle with my super toxic new old friend Anorexia, followed by her cousin Bulimia. I could remember having a goal: To be as skinny as possible. To look as good as I could ever look on a family trip to the beach (now that I think about it, it’s like, come on, it’s your family they don’t give a shit). Also, before that, I had my high school prom and you can guess what my new eating disorder did for me. Did you guessed? Yes, it made me bought a smaller freaking expensive dress! So that I could have a motivation to lost all the freaking weight I hated. I remember being asked by the lady in charge of the dress store “Don’t you want the L size? I think you could feel more comfortable” And my whole face started to burn. I felt awful. But I remained calm, laughed and said “I’m about to go on a diet. I’ll loose all this weight” and she ofc had to be this supportive “buy all my shit” kind of person. So she suggested me to get the S size. But around that time I was dumb, but like not that dumb after all because I knew that, there was no way in hell I could fit into that shit, even if I stopped eating for like a whole month. So I decided to get the M one. And yes, maybe M is kinda considered a fat girl size, but this dress was made of lace. fucking lace. Which means, it was tight and getting the M was sort of a big deal. That day I paid for my own dress (because my parents had no idea about my future plans) and went home all happy and excited because I finally had a goal to achieve: To fit in that dress, because I couldn’t afford to throw all my money away. So at this moment I’d like to state that I have a mild pill addiction (nothing serious, but sometimes they still appeal to me as candies or some shit) and it appeared around this time because this girl had an eye opening moment when she found out about...*drum rolls* LOSING WEIGHT PILLS. It was a whole thing. I was shocked. Like, I could lose weight by taking this lil pill? Everyone said “yes” forgetting that ofc It’s not that easy. So I started to take them daily, even surpassing the recommended dose. I began to let those pills solve my whole eating problems. I started dieting but sometimes I had these huge cravings (I could also say I’m kind of a compulsive eater?) anyways, I wanted to eat junk food, but I couldn’t do it. My whole brain was like “No honey” and then we started to have a battle and when I won that battle, I decided to choose the losing weight pills as my ally. So, in resume, I ate a lot of shit and then I’d let the pills do it’s job. And what job I’m talking about? Diarrhea LMFAO. I mean, I had to get used to be shitting my pants every single time because everything I ate ended up in the freaking toilet in a very gross way. The thing is, I learned to live with this awful thing. I made it look like something normal. But the truth is, it wasn’t normal and I could have gotten a serious disease by doing that. But as always, that wasn’t enough. And when I realized the pills process was kinda slow I decided to cut most of the foods I considered “bad”. I ate once a day, drank tons of water and detox tea; courtesy of my mom. Because, now that I realize all this stuff, I didn’t started all of this by myself. I let my mom help me develop it. She has always talked about losing weight methods, pills, creams, all the things that would help you lose weight, my mama knew. So I always had this fear of my mom targeting my fatness. I had the fear that she would be disappointed because of the weight I had after all the advice she gave to me and my sisters. I mean, she always had something to say about this losing weight thing, How could I be fat? She literally was giving me options to not be fat anymore. So to her, at first was kinda normal that I decided to go to sleep to avoid eating. I would literally had a small plastic bag with some granola for breakfast and water. Then I would eat tuna with lettuce and lemon and more water and then I’d have more tuna for dinner. And when I felt hungry as hell? I went to sleep. It helped me a lot to be a sick person at it’s fullest. But hey, I def started to lose weight. With all the things I cut and the pills I was this close to achieve my goal. I decided to join my mom on her gym routine and people there started to compliment me about how skinny I started to look. I was living the dream!! I started to push myself way harder on the gym (I also almost fainted like 2-3 times a week) but Hey, I needed to get toned! Being skinny wasn’t enough. So I started to realize I could get myself to look better. And guess who helped me achieve my skeleton look? My dearest friend, index finger. We had our first meeting one time at the bathroom. That time I didn’t thought I’d be capable of doing something like that. I was scared of the result. But somehow we managed to forget that rocky start and the first time I vomited I was like “woah so this is how it feels. My god, can’t believe I’ve missed this my whole life” and it was so easy. I didn’t even need to cut foods. I could eat whatever I wanted! And then It would be gone for good! And all I had to do was push my finger deep in my throat. So fucking easy. And that’s how I finally achieved my goal, by playing the girl from the exorcist movie in my bathroom every day after every meal. I should’ve been happy, but my ED said “nope” and I had a whole breakdown and missed my prom. I went trough a lot of changes, decided to cut and dye my hair and tried to become a whole new person while stile carrying my oldest two versions (The one before the ED, and the one who had the ED) and I felt like I became an actress in this movie called “how long could you keep it cool until you become crazy”. Around that time, I weighted like 43...42 kg. I was way under my weight. My legs were tiny and I loved them. I loved to feel my ribs, my hip bones. I loved to see how my clothes looked bigger on me. I even sent some of my clothes to be fixed so that they would be smaller and fit me and yet, they didn’t because I was too small now. And I loved it. No one said a thing. My family was like “Oh now you’re skinny? It must be from the gym” My mom was thrilled. She never said it, but I could tell by the way she looked at me when I asked her if she could send my clothes to her friend because they didn’t fit me anymore. She even started to buy me clothes on smaller sizes and we even joked about how now I would have to buy on the kid’s section because I was so small and I couldn’t be prouder. I took photos with the clothes that looked bigger on me. I had to have proof that I was tiny! I was having a moment. And people started to notice that I became tiny but never asked how I got to be ‘that’ tiny. So, they never asked. I never answered. Until now lol. So the family trip to the beach happened and there I ate all the things I couldn’t while achieving my goal, because what the hell I was already skinny, I could eat whatever I wanted. And I ate, and ate and yet, I looked good on the bikini photos. I MEAN, for the first time in years I bought a TWO PIECES swimsuit. I had a great time there, it felt like a culmination in my life. I took cute pictures in front of the beach house, my cousin complimented be about looking skinny and pretty and yeah, happy ever after. Back at home, the struggle wasn’t over. I started to eat normally again but always fearing about my weight. I was perfect. I couldn’t lose that. So it begins the journey of “eating and regretting and then vomiting and then regretting it and then sending everything to hell and eating once again” and that went on repeat ALL DAY. To summarize, this isn’t exactly a story with a happy ending. It got to a point where I realized “WTF DUDE. YOU’LL DIE FROM THIS” and I stopped doing all that shit. Even my parents noticed the whole thing before I could send it back to hell. Tbh I was kinda expecting them to be mad or anything but they were like “we could hear you vomiting” and that’s all. Um, so you heard? Uh, sorry? My mom was more worried about how the toilet looked after I threw up on it. She said the stains were awful. So, I’d like to say sorry to my mom for staining her toilet while dealing with all my shit. My bad mom.

Now, I’d like to state that it’s been three years since that happened and my family and I still haven’t spoke about it. I had to seek help somewhere else. And you know, I’m not stating that my parents are the ones to blame. No, I was 17. I was totally aware of how awful having a ED was and yet I decided to participate. However, I totally believe they should have said something. I mean, it took a very short time for me to lose more than 30 kg and I slept all day. Wasn’t that weird for them? Maybe. But my parent’s weren’t exactly raised to be aware of people’s emotions. My parents were raised to be emotionless. They rarely show emotions and that’s something regular at home. So, if they ever felt worried they never expressed it because they didn’t knew how. And that’s normal, At least to me.

Moving forward to 2020, I’m 21. I’m an ED survivor (hate the word but you know, I didn’t died so I guess I kinda survived?) and I’m still in recovery and def not fully healed. That’s why I said this didn’t exactly had a happy ending. Because when you have an ED you can’t just put it away and make it disappear from your life. Nope, it’s not that easy and if someone says it is. They’re big liars. People talk about how difficult is to recover and gain weight without having these awful thoughts but they never tell you how your relationship with food changes forever. Or maybe they do, but it’s very rare tbh. Now, 3 years after having an ED I can say I still have it in me. Every time I eat something, I can’t help to feel guilty. To have the urge to vomit everything or the amount of times I say in my head “You need to cut food again” I get a losing weight goal every month. And I have the same feelings and thoughts I used to have 3 years ago. I look at myself in the mirror and I don’t feel proud. I get the feeling I’m not having my best moment. And it sucks, you know? Because it’s tiring. Having your mind working 24/7 on the food you just ate and you could have replaced it with something healthier. And not being able to stop it. It also doesn’t help the fact that my mom is still obsessed with losing weight. She still has this habit of checking what I eat and making this “I don’t approve it” face. A month ago, I kinda had a relapse. I started to cut foods and then I was like “Hey, remember those pills? They still exist, you know?” But, I had no money. I couldn’t go outside to get them (bc quarantine, yikes) and I had no idea which ones would help me this time. So...I asked the expert; my mom. I’d like to state again I’m not blaming her. Anyways, I told her I felt fat and awful (she never said “you’re not fat” bc I have to admit, I am, at the moment) and asked her for her advice on losing weight stuff. She quickly recommended some popular diet pills she once listened a woman recommend in the radio. She even told me about a deal they had! Which included 3 bottles, all of them with 60 pills. Bro, I was in paradise at that moment. 180 pills plus having the opportunity to lose weight? WHAT A FUCKING DEAL My mom was thrilled, she even got the deal for herself (and both suffered from the same consequences, that my mom tried to cover up by saying that “it was the body’s reaction” and that we were detoxing our bodies” but I decided to cut that bullshit and stopped taking them bc I had awful results (and also, I wasn’t exactly losing weight which was the whole goal)

Today, June 2nd. I reflected about this whole thing. I am proud I never went to the bottom and to the hospital. But I’m not proud on the fact that I still haven’t recovered. Not even a bit. I mean, yeah, now I have double thoughts before doing something my ED tells me to do, but I still have the urge of being skinny. I still compare my body and feel like that is the only thing I could offer. Most stories shared this day, are successful ones. Most have this cute ending with them still being skinny but now, reflecting on life and talking about healthy weight gain. But not all stories are like those ones. There’s people still struggling. Like me, I haven’t even recovered but yet, I’m sharing this shit. Because that’s the reality behind having a daughter, sister, friend, with an ED.

We would never openly say “I HAVE AN EATING DISORDER” but it’s always in the little details. It’s in the way they read the menu and search for the healthy options and the calories, the way they express about their bodies, the way they constantly say how much they need to go to the gym. It’s in the way they look at food whenever you offer them, like if they could calculate how many days would it take for that food to get stuck in their body, specifically in the abdomen area. It’s there, but not many people gets to see it. It’s a matter of paying attention. And no, we do not want attention all the time, we do not want you to save us. It’s not about that. It’s about being aware that we are struggling and that we might need your support at least once.

Personally, I do not want to be saved. I just want to cope with it. I want to be able to eat healthy without falling again into these crap. I want to be able to look back and say “I fucking did it”. If I’m totally honest, the thought of losing weight will always be here with me. I’ll always have this little voice telling me “You could be smaller, you know? “You could stop your dad from saying that you’d be perfect to play football again because you could tackle everyone with that body” “You could be as tiny as your sister” “You could show your ballet teacher that you do not look like a ball anymore” “You could make your mom proud because you have taken her advice” “You could fit in that shirt and those pants again” and the most important one “You could have it all” because sadly, in this world, skinny means successful. And while I still try to achieve being that successful, the ED thoughts won’t go away, not at all. And I’m being honest. Terribly honest. But at least, I’m not lying and saying I’ll do better. Because, I’ll be better, just not today and maybe not even in two years from now. But I’ll be one day.

This story was shared to commemorate the World Eating Disorders Action Day (June 2nd) to spread awareness about what ED really mean and what they actually look like in real life.

#world eating disorder action day #june 2nd #spread awareness #eating disoder things #eating disoder thoughts

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tumblunni · 6 years ago

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okay to talk about EXACTLY HOW i would handle giving charon a big good boss fight and also sympathetic backstory and redemption and all that jazz

there are approximately ten million words beneath the cut, and also ten million raspberries in my shampoo, and these charon thoughts are just as sweet as that

alright so ALREADY i kinda did feel like he was sort of a friendly enemy when i first played the game?? like his Thing of being the constantly never fightable dude actually was kind of sympathetic in a way. it always just felt like he was Chilling Out and not giving much of a shit about being evil and also had nothing personal against you the player. he doesnt follow any of cyrus’s big philosophy and he’s clearly only here for the money and really phoning it in, and that kinda makes him not your enemy at all, even though he’s on the team youre fighting. Like I always found it a good establishing moment that in the Valley Windworks when they first introduce “hey this time there’s two galactic teammates here” and all, CHARON IS STANDING DIRECTLY IN EYELINE OF YOU RUINING EVERYONE’S PLANS. he’s just standing there! and of course he’ll never do anything to warn mars about you, the game just isnt programmed that way. but it fits really well with his character if you think of it as an intentional thing? just imagine this random gramps sitting there drinking tea while all his teammates actually Care About Things and Use Effort. He’s always criticizing team galactic’s plan too and like WHY IS HE DOING THAT TO YOU if not because Nintendo Wants Him To Be My Best Friend ok. Like he doesn’t fuckin trust anyone on his team so why would he spill the beans about his big secret plans he has to make money off of this villain plan and then bail before they actually do all the dumb shit with legendaries and such. Yes ok its PROBABLY just because its a videogame and they need to exposit stuff to the player that the character is probably just thinking and not saying out loud. But wouldnt it be so much better this way!!!! Also even when you finally face off against him personally in the postgame for his actual dumb money plan he’s still like ‘lol fourth wall breaking time im gonna not have a boss battle cos if you beat cyrus’s ass i aint got no chance’. Dammit nintend i still wanted to fight him but thats endearing so i cant stay mad at u! And he has several lines during it with stuff like “i like seeing children trying so hard BUT YOURE TOO LATE” and “youth like you can live in idealism but for me its all about the money”. Like man u remember that time i had a big angry rant about how his manga version was super OOC cos they didnt just choose to make him eviler but made him murder a child? like the only time anything involving children is mentioned in canon its him being mildly more polite to children!!! MILDLY FRIENDLY! LET ME HAVE THIS...

okay so YEAH the first big change would be just giving him more screentime and more fleshed out character in these early scenes. Make him a full on friendly character who is technically on the opposite side but has no beef with you and no loyalty to the greater plan of his team. So he’s just comically like “oh hi again! yeah lol today’s plan sucks huh?” and makes idle conversation while the main character villain admin of the day is actually doing important plot stuff. like have him along for everyone’s scenes not just mars at the start, dissappear for hours until the very end. And yes definately keep the thing of the game constantly lampshading that he’s a new character for the third version of the game, and everyone in the team thinks he’s useless and forgets he’s even there. it was annoying in the original game cos he actually didnt get any love from the writers themselves, but yknow you could give him an expanded role and rewrite that stuff to be more like “oh poor guy he’s the underdog”, yknow? am i the only one who felt inherantly sorry for him?? i mean he’s a tiny grandpa!!! and he looks so sad on his official art!! Oh oh and also add the additional running jokes and expanded characterization he had in his very brief anime appearance, which was honestly the only well written part of the entire team galactic arc. It fleshed out a bit of his relationship with jupiter who never really appeared alongside him in the game except to say “im not teaming up with you” at the end. Having the context that she finds him annoying cos she’s very serious and also very dedicated to cyrus so she hates this opportunistic bastard pretending to be dedicated when its an obvious lie. And also she thinks his laugh is obnoxious XD Oh also I liked how they expanded upon that one scene of Saturn being sarcastic at gramps and made it into an actual thing that him and charon most often work together and have a mutually sassy dynamic. I found it humanizing that anime saturn is very serious but can comically overreact to very minor teasing from this grandpa! I thought that was better than the games where he’s just serious or the manga where he was 100% changed to be 100% silly and kinda stole charon’s personality for reasons i will never understand.

ANYWAY! IN SUMMARY! show scenes of charon being endearing by being not really interested in the big evilness, being underdog-y by always failing at his smaller evilnesses and getting disrespected, and also maybe drop in some more interpersonal relationships between the admins to hint that charon does indeed have some friendship going on even if he’s a tsundere bitch who’d never admit it. Also maybe the other thing from the anime where they made him a cool computer guy? cos srsly it was lazy that the games just said “he’s the science” and never clarified wtf he actually does at his job. cos cyrus is already a science boss??? he kinda already did most of the big sciencey plans?? why does he need this man if its not for mechanical or legendary pokemon stuff OK HEY MAYBE COMPUTERS! also its funny to imagine him being a memey blogger but sun and moon actually made faba canonically that so i dont think you could improve on him. TAKE NOTES FROM BEAN MAN, NINTENDO

Also maybe you could hint at the rotom backstory before it actually happens? like could just show some mild implications that he is sad, cos the ‘friendly enemy’ thing would already be decent foreshadowing for him potentially having a soft spot. “Wah i am an emotionless evil money man” says local villain, while gossipping with Dawn about his coworkers and sharing lemon squares. But like I mean i don’t really want him to be LITERALLY that, i still like him being grumpy and guarded about his secret good heart. I’m just saying “friendly” as in.. sort of a disconnect between what he says his personality is and how he actually acts. The stuff he actually says is very grumpy but like.. hey he’s saying stuff to you when he doesnt need to, and nobody else on this team is casually talking to you as if youre not an enemy. Like he’s SUBCONCIOUSLY friendly and doesnt realise it? He’d never SAY “i am lonely hello please talk to me” but he’d sure as hell walk over to you and talk to you anyway. About grumpy things! Grumpily! And maybe express occasional compliments in a sort of “haha im surrounded by idiots you’re way more down to earth than all these adults who act more like children”. Cos in that fourth wall breaking moment he has, he respects that you’re a badass and decides thats why he’s not gonna have a boss fight. “You’d just kick my ass, so lol fight these grunts instead while i run away and do my evil plan” That is the kind of sympathetic charon i want!! He’s doing a douchey thing by breaking the script of how boss battles work and making everyone else fight you instead even though he knows that they’ll lose. But he’s also likeable because breaking the script of boss battles is unexpected and comedic! And he’s also accidentally being complimentary to you so its like SIMULTANEOUS JERK AND NICE AT THE SAME TIME. Thats the good stuff!! That quality grumplegramp content!!! if he got redeemed and just 100% changed his personality to lose all the sass and sneakyness then that’d be boring yo...

OKAY WHERE WAS I? Okay hey once you’ve established that, maybe now you have a basis for the sad foreshadowing!! Like you could have one scene where he’s suddenly NOT friendly, he’s not just grumpy in the funny sort of way but actually seems cold and stoic and actually does something useful to the team’s mission or whatever. Sort of a ‘whoa what’s wrong with him today’ thing and it could be subtle cos on the first playthrough you’d just think he was being a jerk cos he’s a jerk and all. but maybe it happens on a scene of team galactic doing some evil plan in eterna forest/other place that’d potentially relate to the rotom sidequest. like he’s just really fuckin depressed to be reminded of his one big failure in life. OH maybe it could actually be at the unnamed junkyard thats mentioned in his backstory but doesnt actually feature as an area in the original game? It could make sense that it’d be part of their plan cos team galactic attacks various energy sources and other technology related places to find the stuff they need to make the big world erasure machine. could just be simply them robbing some old generator parts after their attempt to take the whole power plant failed.

Oh and also maybe add a lil something to his last scene at the galactic lab? Cos like.. what we already have in the game has potential to be a moment where he did a good thing but no its not. Like when you look at it, hey he kinda helped you out here by being all “hey lol saturn the kid is here, bye im not stopping u, feel free to take the lake trio”. Even if saturn is the one who actually SAID feel free to take the lake trio and actually had a good hint at redemptiveness moment and all. Please never take that away, that was good, you just coulda had both of them do it, yknow? And we dont wanna make charon go full good guy all of a sudden when he hasnt even finished his characetr arc, so instead make it more of a moment where its like “im a bad guy but this is going too far”. Like maybe ACTUALLY HAVE A PAYOFF for the foreshadowing that he has no loyalty to cyrus and is blatantly plotting to betray him at some point. He never actually did!! He only tries to capitalize on cyrus already being defeated in an entirely optional sidequest that fails at delivering a proper payoff.

So hey! My idea! Add some complexity here by making it clear that charon is evil in a more petty and mundane way and not in a.. like.. actually dangerous way. Once things start getting actually dangerous he starts chickening out! Like he’s a jerk who does mean things to get money but he’s just MEAN and not friggin murderous or worldending. Give him a moment of “oh shit cyrus was actually serious oh god how do i get off of this train”. Like it seemed that he never really believed that team galactic would ever truly create a new world, and he certainly didnt give a shit about it, he just thought he found an easy opportunity for a paycheck in some dumbass’s deluded plan that’d never really work. But OOPS i guess it actually is happening, oh fuck! Give him a bit of a crisis where he realizes what he actually helped this man do, but not like a full on “everything ive ever done is bad and i dont wanna be evil anymore”. Not YET! Just friggin.. “oh fuck i cant spend money if the universe doesnt exist and also i am dead”. “PLEASE HELP ME CHILD, CYRUS IS GONNA TAKE AWAY THE MONEY!!” xD It’d be fitting for his character and a good light moment of comic relief after the emotional and dark stuff happening around this section of the game. Like he already kinda does that by having that scene of saturn snarking at him, but it could be even more funny! Move the first him and saturn bickering scene to earlier on and have this be like a satisfying scene of saturn actually winning? cos in the anime it was always charon being smug and making fun of him while saturn gets all grumpy about it, now it could be the reverse with smug charon having a breakdown and realising his whole money plan is in shambles and its his own fault.

Also maybe it could have additional payoff with Charon actually helping you take down cyrus? Again, not actually because he’s switched sides but because he's still evil but evil for different reasons than cyrus. That good ‘reluctant teamup with minor goofy villain to take down big actually scary villain’ thing. With the added bonus that the minor goofy villain is objectively a worse person than the scary villain and the scary villain is still redeemable, as opposed to in the manga where they used this same trope in the form of “cyrus is good now and we’re making charon the big scary villain to prove how good cyrus is cos charon is worse”. That was dumb. It was especially dumb cos WHY ON EARTH would you pick charon for this??? like they still had moments of him being comedic and wimpy yet at the same time wanted us to believe he was legitimately threatening? ANYWAY my idea for this is that charon’s computer skills could pay off and it could be something like “oh i always put a failsafe kill switch in my computer just in case i need to grab the money and run”. Like him being a paranoid untrusting selfish asshole was actually the reason he was able to save the day! Also it would explain why cyrus’s machine only fails and summons giratina in platinum version. the manga actually did say that charon sabotaged the machine so thats one actually good thing that came from it! Congrats u filled one plothole while making twenty more XD

OH and perhaps this same section could also foreshadow the rotom thing? like I was thinking about how he could actually choose to give up and let you take the lake trio and have it still be 100% in character. It could be an extension of his “shit, i didnt think things would get this serious, please save me from the consequences of my own actions!” moment. Cos I think that any normal dumb greedy money man would still be horrified at the idea of mutilating a thousand year old majestic unicorn of mythology and then flushing it down the toilet when it outlives its uselessness. Like he doesnt do it because he wants to help you save the day or anything, just cos the idea of killing the lake trio is just too evil for even him. It could be kind of a meaningful moment about how cyrus is doing all this for good reasons yet they caused him to do these actions that are even more evil than the actual dude with evil motives. And maybe you could establish this through a scene of him and cyrus inetracting, which could also help amp up how intimidating cyrus is, in preparation for the big climax? Have charon trying to wimp out of “disposing of the useless specimens”, but cyrus is having none of it. Like it could start off funny with him making up loads of other excuses cos there’s no way he’d admit he’s having Feelings and all. “Wait but let me have them! if theyre useless to you then i can just sell them right?? ha ha thats the only reason im saying this, lol you know me i’d never be swayed by any sentiment” But cyrus sees through it instantly and gets right up in his face like fuckin Raw Cold Fury, no you are NOT going to disobey me. He is PISSED OFF because the only reason he kept this useless senile old bat around is because he’s the only one in this group who isn’t a simpering moron at the mercy of their pitiful heart. If you can’t even do that, then what’s the use of you? So everything charon tries fails and all he accomplishes is getting fired on the spot for even TALKING ABOUT defying his boss. And cyrus just orders saturn to dispose of the lake trio instead. Saturn of course is smarter and says nothing in defiance, but then the both of them work together to let you take the pokemon and just act like they failed to stop you rather than doing it on purpose. And its kind of an uncharacteristically quiet and intense moment between these dudes that are usually at each other’s throats with funny banter. They’re united for a moment but for very different reasons. Charon knew that cyrus wasnt a good guy from the very beginning and he just underestimated him, and is now feeling in over his head and worried this could be the end. And saturn always thought cyrus was good but is starting to struggle with doubts. And maybe charon actually tries to warn saturn about it? Like “hey i knew this all along but i never told you but HEY CYRUS MIGHT ACTUALLY KILL US ALL” and saturn starts on his usual speech about cyrus being the greatest but he starts to question it and AAAAA! but ultimately this moment isnt the moment where he makes the right choice, and he does end up going back to cyrus and continuing the plan. and also charon is on the edge of actually doing something good and trying to stop cyrus’s big ol doom time (albiet for selfish reasons of No Money In The New World) but he also wimps out from this chance and instead decides to grab as much cash as he can and run the fuck away, as if its even possible to outrun the destruction of a whole dimension. but at least him and saturn agreed on the lake trio rescue operation, thus their moment of almost-redemption helped the player even if they didnt actually turn good. AND then you’d have the surprise moment of charon actually stepping up at the last minute and doing his thing to sabotage the machine and all. which again doesnt really solve the whole thing and doesnt really make him turn good but at least it downgrades the threat from ‘cyrus actually succeeds in destroying the world’ to ‘okay we just need to deal with a slight case of poke-hell and one collossal centipede’. Srsly man sinnoh’s plot has the highest stakes cos in platinum you straight up actually fail and cyrus actually would have destroyed the world if not for giratina! Oh and also a random note is that i think it’d be funny if charon helped you out while still running away? like you just learn about the machine sabotage being his responsibility cos it flashes his goofy hacker logo from the anime or something. Maybe instead he hacks your Poketch and is like HEY HELLO IM GONNA SPLODE THE THING BUT NOT COS IM A GOOD GUY, BTW I AM A SAFE DISTANCE AWAY PLEASE DONT LET CYRUS KNOW I DID THIS

SO YEAH! whatever! whether or not we get that added bit of teamup with charon in the climax, we’ve still given him a bit more screentime so the player actually remembers him and actually cares about doing his optional sidequest in the postgame. so him not having a boss fight would be less of a letdown and all. But having the teamup plot would be a good opportunity to turn the wifi event into not a wifi event! maybe during his panic charon drops the key to his secret lab and thats how you get it? cos really it makes no sense at all that the magic wifi gods can just hand you something you’d have no idea existed and never have an opportunity to get. none of the other wifi items are literally a thing owned by a significant character that needs to be teleported out of his pocket by plot magic! Also it sucks that a chunk of important backstory would be hidden in a wifi event so if they still wanted rotom’s alt forms to be a wifi event then JUST make it the ability to get the forms and not the charony diary bit. Cos it makes no sense that the ENTIRE REASON CHARON EXISTS is to introduce the rotom form event yet you’d have no clue he was connected to rotom until after youve already finished the event. It gave no damn indication you had to take the key to this particular dude’s lab in team galactic!! ANd click on an otherwise unmarked wall!! Put the diary somewhere else and hey there’s a Charon Clue(tm) and now you can actually find the damn event, there you go, fixed. Also annoying cos nothing in the event tells you you have to go somewhere entirely different to catch the one rotom in the game, and click another unmarked piece of scenery that only has a staticky screen to indicate rotom if you happen to be playing at night. Seriously this is why serebii.net was such a lifesaver!!

Okay so WOOP there we go, here we are at a point where the player has seen more of charon and had oppotunities to grow to like him as a character and be suspicious that maybe he could have some sympatheticness. And if he drops an Importante Key Itemme right before the end of the game then thats a hint that postgame stuff exists involving him, and at least one clue where to find it! All the rotom diary stuff would play out exactly the same except that its less of a hell to find, lol.

BUT THEN the big difference in Stark Mountain is that now you have the full context of charon’s backstory and the game actually reacts to you having that knowledge. Like maybe if you dont do that step first then either charon never appears at stark mountain until you do, or you get an abbrieviated version of the quest without the redemption plot? I was thinking actually maybe make it one of those daily repeatable quests, to avoid the player doing the quests out of order and permenantly losing the chance to redeem gramps. Like if you dont see the rotom diary then instead of a big actual quest you just get some five minute “oh we’ve seen team galactic sneaking around stark mountain, defeat them for Some Money Or Something hey thats weird that they were only stealing money hey yknow who’s all about the money? charon! maybe go follow up on his Importante Key Itemme to continue the plot.”

SO THEN once you return Emboldened By The Knowledge Of Good Gramps, you get the proper thing. And... it would actually play out totally the same as in vanilla platinum. Charon doesn’t have a boss fight, all his minions leave him and say he sucks, he gets anticlimactically taken out by someone else in a cutscene, and his last moment is someone making a crack about him being so frail and useless that the hot volcano breeze could knock him over.

BUT THAT ISNT THE END

Its just a fake out that its gonna have the same funny ending as every other charon appearance, and the same lack of him being remotely threatening.

cos NOW WE FINALLY GIVE THE MAN A GODDAMN BOSS FIGHT

and yknow how i said i hate the manga where he’s all super evil and owns three legendaries and kills a guy? okay take away all that stuff but KEEP THE MOMENT OF GRANDPA GETTING TO DO SOMETHING BADASS FOR THE ONLY TIME EVER

Maybe he surprises everybody by actually not being down for the count! And by now he’s just SO pissed off from a whole game’s worth of failing and being disrespected that he does something desperate and stupid at the last minute. If he was meant to be the dude who invented the red chain, maybe he could use it to control heatran even if looker took away the magma stone? like i feel it’d be in character for charon to secretly steal a prototype red chain for himself during the whole “oh fuck my boss is legit destroying the world i need to get out of here” thing. Grab some stuff to sell now your last paycheck is dissappearing into an ominous void, lol. He didnt expect to actually be using it, and if the actually completed red chain puts enough stress on its weilder to make them cry blood then this thing must be even more risky to use! so its a really huge holy shit moment of tiny gramps actually doing something intimidating! and his boss fight could actually be using heatran and actually having heatran get to goddamn appear in this sidequest. it was soooo underwhelming to have to return thru the dungeon a second time to actually see heatran, this time without any story stuff to break up the long walk...

also this entire thing could be a great climax to his character arc and sort of a moment of “okay THIS was actually his motivation all along!” Cos I always felt like Charon’s real motive was low self confidence? Like he’s always on about money but he seems to focus more on SUCCESS instead. Fame and success. “Ha ha i am the greatest scientist and i want people actually aknowledge me” is a thing he repeatedly brings up and also that other characters directly demonstrate in how they act towards him. It just feels like he thinks he can buy that with money if he’s failed his whole life in earning it. And the old “acts egotistical because he actually hates himself” character archetype would work really well as a sympathetic interpretation of his character. It would be like how he’s ‘subconciously friendly’. The thing he actually does (being boastful) is because of a different reason (not believing his own lies and being super insecure about his self worth), but he keeps it so well hidden that not even he realises that its really what he feels. Similar to how he acts grumpy because of a different reason, because he actually DOES want friends and he’s just guarding his emotions under a million walls cos he’s scared of being hurt again. And scared of how he knows he’s a weak willed person who might betray his friends again for his desperation for money. Which is really a desperation to feel valid as a human being, which is really just ‘i want friends’ again under another coat of paint. So depressingly he caused his own problems because of the same character trait that was once a positive in his life! I think he works well when interpreted from that angle, he’s like a dark subversion of a pokemon professor or of your classic ash ketchum figure. Like “the power of friendship” is what turned him evil, and also turned him into a guy who acted awful to his friends. And it could add to this thematic thing if “loving pokemon” was also referenced throughout his plot in a negative sense?

That’s actually one other good thing about the manga, they removed his greedy grumpyness (bad) but replaced it with the same motive as the villain of the 2nd movie (weird flex but okay). Aka “a guy who collects legendary pokemon just as trophies and has forgotten how to treat them like genuine friends”. Even if that wouldnt be his main character concept in this hypothetical rewritten game, it could still be a secondary trait that’s used to suppliment the main emotional arc. Like instead of just saying “money money money” you could flesh out more scenes of him actually talking about HOW he’s gonna get the money and what he’s gonna use it for. Via collecting all the rare pokemon, and to collect more rare pokemon. Which will somehow (in his twisted cynical perception of how the world works) make him a person of value and get people to respect him. It could also tie together pretty much every scene he already has! Cos his backstory is finding this pokemon friend... who was a rare unknown species. And maybe as a kid he decided to become a scientist initially just out of excitement to learn more about his new friend and show them to the world! But then the realities of the difficulties in being respected as a scientist gradually wore him down and he became more cynical, more obsessed with recognition, more believing that the only way to get it was by being an asshole and he’d just get taken advantage of if he kept being soft. And he started to forget why he really wanted that fame in the first place, and instead it just became an obsession, a vain hope that he’d hate himself less if he accomplished his life’s dream. When really from the player’s perspective its obvious that even if he succeeded he’d still be depressed when he realized how he’d lost everything in the process. And it’d be a more realistic sort of way he could have turned from a good kid to an asshole gramps. There wasnt any single day he suddenly made the decision to change, it was just a gradual wearing down of his morals over the years. he became more obsessed and more cynical that normal moral ways of doing things would never get him what he wanted. he started making small sacrifices to his personal sense of morality, and eventually reached the point where he’d completely abandoned it all without even noticing the gradual change. And somewhere along the way he forgot that he started this because of his pokemon friend, and discarded it as “not good enough” in favor of this vain quest to acquire a million other rarer pokemon and just friggin put them on a shelf to boast about them and feel less empty inside. And then also his redemption was a gradual change too? After he reached that point of completely betraying his own sense of goodness, he gradually got sadder and more tired with living this way. By the time you see him ingame he’s not remotely happy with being evil and he’s just a poor dude who’s deluded that being evil is the only way to escape the sadness rather than the cause of it. And thats why his whole ‘oops im accidentally subconciously befriending my coworkers and also the enemy’ thing kinda set him on the road to eventual redemption, cos its the first bit of small upliftingness he’s had in ages. sorta recharges his Ability To Care and he starts realizing what he’s doing and feeling regret. But yeah throughout the main game he never actually acts on his doubts and just repeatedly misses the chance to get redeemed and makes you Kinda Frustrated, similar to zuko or peridot’s redemptive arc? And ultimately reuniting him with his old best friend and showing him that its not too late to fix what he broke = the actual catalyst for his changes to fully stick and he completely switches to the good side.

BUT ANYWAY thats why he needs a boss fight first!

Something like 50-70 years worth of self hate and frustration from devoting himself to a super incorrect way of defeating that self hate, and sacrificing EVERYTHING for the sake of it, and being disrespected the entire time, and being terrified that you’re getting old and running out of time, and almost dying to some guy’s weird void plan, and losing the only thing you had left aka the team galactic job and a few maybe sorta kinda friends you had, and now being disrespected AGAIN by those same people you thought were friends (but never actually admitted it to them) and then also bitchslapped by a frog?? Also this place is real fuckin sweaty?? Yeah stark mountain is a great climactic point for his entire frustrations to boil over and be a bigger eruption than the actual volcano!

Thus we have Grand Dad Gets Serious And Has An Actually Interesting Boss Fight!

but also grand dad is being emotionally open and whoops accidentally might be tearing down those walls he built up around his big ol soft as fuck heart

like the battle would possibly be more ‘you talk him down into giving up, realizing he was wrong, quitting being evil, and going home to his friend that he misses so much. and finally realizing that thats actually the only way he could ever really defeat the self hate that drove him this far in the first place. also he’s not worthless and his friends always believed he was the awesome dude he always wanted to be’. Yknow, rather than actually defeating him and all. I mean you still do that but i think it’d be a case like with the giratina fight where even if you lose or run away you get the same result, just slightly altered text? Just as long as you come here with rotom in your party your victory was already a foregone conclusion. you just get a really cool boss fight as your reward, yknow? cos seriously I WAS WAITING THE WHOLE GAME FOR THAT DAMN BOSS FIGHT!!!

obligatory link again to the cool song i think is a great summary of all of my headcanons for this man’s character arc and would also be badass backing music for a hypothetical boss fight:

youtube

context: it makes more sense if you imagine it as his own internal thoughts of all the stuff he’s been running away from accepting in his own feelings. and/or what he THINKS that the player and rotom would be saying to him, so he’s shocked into speechlessness by the fact that they actually do think he deserves a second chance and has the potential to be good.

actually that could be a really good ending to the fight!!!

like when you get through to him and convince him to stand down, he cowers in fear thinking he’s gonna get the karmic payback for everything he’s ever done. and he tries to run away from reuniting with rotom. half of him is scared that his friend hates him and the other half is.. well..

i think it would be thematically appropriate to end it with a hug

just an image of this lil toy robot pokemon hugging this scared old man, and he’s just so empty and doesnt know what to say. its the last thing he ever expected. and then his shock turns into pain and sadness, as he was really the most scared that his friend actually would forgive him. that everything he ever did really was all for nothing, and he should have done this years ago and saved all that lost time. he’s so scared because he thinks he doesnt deserve forgiveness and he doesnt know what to do now its happening. so he just lets out all those tears he’s never cried over all these years, and the scene ends with him desperately hugging his best friend and never wanting to let go ever again

And then that’d be the big moment that was really the turning point for him, though of course that wouldnt be the end of his redemption and if there was any further postgame content you could show various scenes of him atoning throughout that. or just some images in the second credits scene after you beat the postgame stuff. i’d kinda like if there was some moment of him apologising to the rest of team galactic and joining them in their attempts to rebuild the team into something good. and maybe an extra postgame segment where this redeemified team goes on some bigger quest to try and rescue cyrus from the distortion world and heal his pain too. i think you could get a lot of good scenes out of a redeemed charon being along for the ride! like you’d obviously have cyrus being skeptical that this dude really has changed so much, and probably an extension of that earlier scene where he’s pissed off that the one guy he thought agreed with him about emotions being foolish is actually being the most emotional of everyone. but i think because of that they could also have scenes of relating together and actually starting to form a friendship in the end? like i can see charon feeling guilty for never trying to reach out to cyrus before, and also believing really strongly that cyrus can be redeemed cos like ‘yo i’m way worse than you and i was able to change, please believe that its a possibility for you too!’ Also cyrus likes machines so i think he’d be happy to meet rotom and become friends. And he has that whole grandpa related backstory so it might help a lot towards healing those scars and reuniting the two of them if he starts forming a friendship with a different gramps? THERES A LOT OF GOOD THEMATIC LINKS BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT TEAM GALACTIC MEMBERS THAT ARE NEVER EXPLORED IN THE ORIGINAL GAME

also in the original version of this plotline it was a fanfic/fangame idea of an alternate universe swap where dawn/lucas/other customizeable protagonist is a galactic grunt instead of the hero. so a lot of the details were different but in that version the protag was literally adopted by whichever galactic admin they picked as their main friendship route. entirely because of self indulgent ‘i wish these guys were my dad/sister/grandpa/whatever’ feels cos sinnoh helped me thru a tough time as a kid. soooo i cant really do that charon grandpa idea where he also renovates the Old Chateau into a ghost pokemon sanctuary and becomes like an actual good pokemon professor. (also rekindles his friendship with prof rowan and agatha from the kanto elite four cos thats just a random headcanon i have) BUT i could still do all that except the part where he adopts u cos canon dawn/lucas already has a mom lol. And i think it’d be more fitting of canonverse protag to adopt Cyrus? Like obv in the canonverse itd probably be the main boss of the team who gets the bigger redemption plot and is canonically the best friend EVEN THO for tumblr user tumblunni in particular it is All Grandpas All The Time. And i like the idea of Cyboy being a survivor of child abuse who tries to become a good dad just like his parents werent. But i also like the idea of dawn’s mom adopting him as her new big brother and him getting to experience a genuine loving family for the first time! I think itd work that way cos cyrus is meant to be 27 even tho he looks older, and i dont think dawn’s mom is that young and also i just see no chemistry between them as any sort of ship. (and headcanon cyrus as asexual anyway) But also the family does still keep in touch with all the other galactic friends!!!

hhhh i wrote So Many Word just about grandpa redemption holy shit i’ll probably die if i try and cover all the other teammates now

ok i will leave it here but just know i also have Deep Headcanons about all of them, even if charon gets the most. somedaayayyyay i will share with you more!!

#commander charon #why. why am i like this #okay apparantly i have used that exact tag like 15 times already on this blog and im betting most of them were also about charon #please love charon

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pftones3482 · 3 years ago

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A List of Fruits I've Had and What They Should Generally Taste Like, So You Can Tell if You're Allergic (in No Particular Order):

Banana: mild in flavor, sweet

Apple: depends on the apple, but generally red apples are sweeter, yellow and green ones are tart (except red delicious apples, fuck those shits)

Lemon: sour

Lime: also sour, but make it tangy somehow

Grapes: red grapes tend to be sweeter, green grapes a little more tart

Oranges: sweet, but if they're not QUITE ripe they can be a little mouth puckery (they are technically a citrus after all)

Clementines: sweeter version of an orange, taste like summer

Strawberries: typically sweet, but unripe ones tend to fall on the more bitter side

Blueberries: mixed bag tbh, but sweet/tart

Plums: VERY sweet, juicy af, a dark flavor (if that makes sense)

Pears: crisp and light, very subtle sweetness

Mango: frankly kind of boring for all it's hype, sweet. Good in salsa tho 👌🏻

Pineapple: overall sweet, your mouth WILL hurt if you eat too much tho but that's bc the acidity is eating at your body 🙃

Cranberry: tart, underlying sweetness. Great for pairing

Peach: like one of the sweetest fruits, sticky, highly underrated

Grapefruit: sweeter than lemons, more tart than an orange

Kiwi: sweet but subtle, seeds are kinda annoying but flavorless

Watermelon: overrated, it's like 90% water and the rest is subtly sweet

Cantaloupe: On the sweet side, towards the rind is bitter

Honeydew: very subtle sweetness

Starfruit: I'm ACTUALLY allergic to this one lol, but a subtle sweetness similar to pears

Dragon fruit: also subtly sweet. Seeds are annoying but again generally flavorless

Cherries: sweet sweet sweet (underripe can be tart tho)

Pomegranates: fruit of the underworld, dark sweet flavor

Raspberries: Tart in the beginning, sweet at the end

Blackberries: Tart in the beginning, sweet at the end, but make it darker somehow

Coconut: a sweet woody flavor

Rhubarb: tart and woody, pairs well with strawberries

Anyway that's all the ones I've tried I can think of, hopefully you're not allergic!

One absolutely hilarious part of human existence is the repeated incidents of spicy bananas. People who have lived their entire lives up to this point just assuming that a specific fruit or vegetable is supposed to taste bitter, tangy, or spicy, having no fucking idea that all this time, they've been allergic to this plant. Because how would they have known? You learn what things taste like by tasting them, nobody's going to tell you that bananas are supposed to be one of the mildest flavours out there. And people already eat so many things that taste hot, bitter, tangy and tart! Because they like how that kind of thing tastes like!

You can just happily much on a plant, thinking "ah, this angry plant tastes sharp because it hates me. Much like all the other sharp angry plants that people eat because they like the sharp", and it wouldn't cross their mind to think that the plant just hates you, specifically.

#the only fruit i KNOW im allergic to is starfruit and it doesnt change the flavor just makes my tongue and throat itchy #fruit #food #at no point should any fruit that isnt pineapple make your mouth tingle and itch #pucker yes #not tingle and itch lol

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felidaefatigue · 6 years ago

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@serenitynerd replied to your post: its not summer till i make homemade ginger syrup...

Pics! Recipe? Sounds lovely

i didnt take pics but its a simple process! (literally, its just a simple syrup ;P)

i dont really measure cause its not super necessary but all u do is:

1) peel and thinly slice or grate (slice if u wanna make candied ginger later) a chunk of ginger. I did a whole... root thingy? like, hand size group.

2) add that to water and abooout equal parts sugar of choice(i usually use a little less than equal, and this time i did about 3 cups water

3) bring that to a low boil and simmer it for awhile, then turn off heat and let it steep for about an hour. (depends on how spicy you like it! If you’re more into mild spice, before you do the sugar water, give it a quick simmer in plain water, dump that, then do the sugar.)

4) strain out the ginger, and chill. Then add it to whatever! (tea, desserts, what have you) for the pseudo-ginger beer i make i put maybe.... 1/3rd a cup of syrup in a tall glass and fill it with soda water and a little bit of lemon juice?

this is just my... memorized way of doing it, im sure you could google more accurate versions lol

optional candied ginger: pat the left over ginger dry, toss with sugar. bam. delicious. (also, not technically how you make candied ginger, but hey. it works)

#serenitynerd

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peachnymphuniverse · 7 years ago

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little things i love/love to do -smell my fingers after peeling an orange -sit on my roof late at night -playing uke under the porch while it rains -opening my windows when it’s chilly and bundle up -slide around in fuzzy socks while my dog chases me -paint my nails and take it off around ten minutes later -when my ukulele strings leave dents in my newly painted nails -listen to my broken record player so that the song registers in my head as a little off key -journal about people’s smiles -in airports i walk around and smile at everyone and get sad if they don’t smile in response (sometimes i double back and repeat the process until they do) -talk to people i’ve just met in the way i wish i did to the people i’ve known -make cookies and dance in the kitchen -close my eyes and guess what flavor jelly bean i get -buy razzles and read in the merc -new sheets -freshly cleaned hair -playing with short (relatively guy) hair -making tea after a rough day -nailing a song first try -sweaters from thrift stores -the feeling when a stranger is nice to me -cheeks hurting from laughing so hard -sporadic adrenaline and finally doing the thing -almond milk over ice -this one gray and pink plate my mom got -mismatching soft patterns on my bed -cuddles with pets (or humans on a good day) -the warmth that occurs when someone calls me beautiful -shiny hair -writing a good song that makes you feel something -piling blankets and pillows in a corner and reading -my mom asking me if i’m happy everyday (and legitimately caring about the answer) -any type of garnier hair product (smells hella good) -the use of the word heck in any context -flowers and flower tattoos -when my sister compliments me (its like the highest form of praise in my life) -the temperature tea is at when it’s hot enough to warm your whole body but not too hot that it burns -tea that has too much honey -hummingbirds in general -my dads laugh -seeing people kiss (not in a creepy way i just really enjoy love) -guys in sweaters and pastel colors -incense from rockin rudy’s -new pj’s -my cat -the sting of hot showers -speaking native languages -people who take random pictures of me -kale salad -dresses that make me look coot -the smell of burning paper -hugs -soup -people who give me their hoodies -making jokes during movies -folded chips -the farmers market when it rains -people with warm hands -people with cold hands -people (ik i say otherwise but people are actually v wonderful sometimes) -cinnamon on hot cocoa -finding a song that relates to your life -stars -blue eyes -baths with music and tea -wearing my stepdads sweaters -making a really nice house in sims -nice teachers @franzen @elder -people with nice eyebrows #envy -buying people coffee -going downtown alone for a few hours and not talking while reading or drinking tea -airports -beaches (the smell mostly) -vanilla perfume -waking up when the blankets are still perfectly in place -when i’m wearing shorts and my warm kitty curls up on my bare legs -layers (button down, sweater, jean jacket) -pretzels with peanut butter -yellow -new socks -citrus smelling stuff -dark chocolate -old cameras -rose and mint flavored lip balm -tiger lilies and sunflowers -when my hair is damp and my head gets it warm -rupi kaur -new watercolors -thrift store vinyls -mike and eleven -knee high socks -overalls -big flannels + jean jackets -popcorn with chulula -drive around in my moms convertible -japanese cherry blossoms -going to the library with @anna everyday -finding a new song and listening to it till you know each word -rain (the smell) -crunching leaves -the stars at 2am -using my kitty as a pillow when she’s curled up -playing the piano (badly) -white curtains -photo booths -nice handwriting -earrings -being under a bunch of blankets -pretty journal pages -hugs when it’s cold out -ink drawings -making my bed -the fact that my favorite band has a song called hannah -genuine laughs and smiles -warm soup on cold days -new jackets -thick socks -when it’s cold outside but you have a v good coat and ur all toasty and happy -soft blankets -finishing homework early -fetal position+big sweaters+floor=happy hannah -making up chords on the uke and giving them names like bartholomew and furghi -remembering inside jokes from forever ago and laughing -laughing so hard you’re incapable of breathing -belting theatre music when home alone -suppa warm bagels -chess w/ tea and mi madre -making spotify playlists for every mood -pretty journals -yellow -knowing little quirks about my friends -asking little questions back and forth with someone i care about -freckles -boys eyelashes -hiking alone -my soft doggy -post-it note quotes -edamame beans with a lil salt at 3 am -my new mattress (praise the lawd) -getting stuff in the mail -the people who actually read all of these lmao -long hair (rly missing mine rn) -big shirts w no pants -people who have specific smells ex. cotton, lemons, lavender, cinnamon -hugging tall people -watching the previews before the movie -messy scribbly handwriting (i think really good handwriting is lacking in character) -this one picture of my dad from the eighties -sweet potatoes -people who use the word beautiful instead of hot -spoken poetry -asking boys what their favorite flower is (odds are they actually have one) -waking up on sundays and making myself breakfast -being hydrated: drink water kids -almond milk w a bit of nutmeg + cinnamon -mixing different teas (i’ve concluded that mandarin orange + ginger is v good) -knowing you somehow made someone’s day better -people who play with my hair -picture books with good plots -sparkling apple cider -asmr (lol don’t judge me) -realizing the other day that i am pretty, and if you don’t think so, that’s ok. -popping popcorn perfectly (ur welcome for the alliteration) -waking up ten minutes before your alarm -elevators arriving right as you push the button -warm winter days, today was v nice -powder blue shirts -hearing a song from ages ago and realizing that you know every word -plugging your phone in at 1% -the amount of hugs i get every day -cuddles -painting myself or people -when a boring class is over @science -watching a movie after thinking about it for a while -packing for a plane ride -new ringtones -going to the merc and getting the last muffin there -holding hands with people in a platonic way -hugs from behind -comfort food (ex. brown rice and tofu w spinach) -crème brulèe -driving at night or in the rain -the way it feels when this certain person says my name -soft hands + long fingers -mild weather -putting my hand out of the car when it’s chilly -nail-polish that peels off in one piece -messy/curly hair -new pj’s -hugs that last a while -giving birthday presents -calling my cat bean -“hannah bee” (nickname from my mam) -cinnamon gum -noice cancelling headphones -calling people by their full names -stiles stilinski falling -new soap -brown eyes -long eyelashes -soft breathing -bronze -swearing but not actually swearing (heck, darn) -fetal position anywhere -being hydrated -nose highlight -small stuffed animals -chocolate milk w straws -my sister -having paint left on my hands -light gray shirts on people -pillow forts -highways at night -bumper stickers -drinking sparkling apple cider out of wine glasses -when my room is hot + i put my hand on a cold wall -hearing my cat purr -catching people looking at me and just smiling at them -hugs that nearly make me fall over -or that squeeze so tight you have to readjust your footing -new pads of paper -dropping a toxic person/thing and feeling weightless -my new room -shopping w my sister -eating hot dogs in target w my sister -friends who ask if you’re ok randomly -when lil asks how my day went -singing fallout boy/ed sheeran/bad rap w reya -chocolate cake -washi tape + journals -kicking a ball really hard to relive stress -p4 spanish -hearing nice things people say abt me -having a messily clean room (w a few things scattered around) -walking around downtown w tea and friends -hot pockets (new discovery for me circa monday) -cracking my neck, knuckles, back -having a heater in my room and always being warm -taking my hair down when it’s still a lil damp and being able to smell shampoo -a teal 1987 ford bronco in my neighborhood -slow orchestra music -piano solos -watching mystery movies and figuring it out before the people do -subtitles -protective friends -today being the first day i haven’t felt spaced out in years -old book smell -rain-soaked hair -resting my head on someone’s warm chest or arms -the acoustic versions of songs i like -the three people who i’m ok w calling me banana -how i don’t swear unintentionally anymore -21 questions -sleeping at school -cutting pancakes into triangles -jim and pam -jelly beans -perfect pancakes -tucking my cat into the crook of my stomach -the office -empty movie theaters -coke zero w a straw -the smol boy me and kenzie became friends with -my package came today -the way my mom sings to her houseplants -being tickled -sofffftttt kitty pawssss -sleeping in really late cause i normally wake up early -golden milk -lullabies -granola w yogurt + maple syrup + cinnamon -sleeping on the ground in my moms office -big sweaters tucked into jeans -mad-libs -collaging -thin sweatshirts -drinking soup out of mugs -small straws -target hot dogs

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veggiewytch · 7 years ago

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No Oil Super Garlic Hummus

I love garlic... there is no denying it lol... I put it in almost every dish and will even eat it raw... yep... raw! This version will DEFINITELY keep the vampires away ;)

I also love hummus... probably about as much as I love garlic lol... and while most hummus has a little garlic in it, I take mine OVER THE TOP!

This recipe makes a double batch, cut in half if you don’t want to have so much hummus... but a double batch is essential in my house LOL

You will need:

2 cans of no salt added chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed 1-3 tbsp of tahini (sesame seed paste, make sure the ingredients are only toasted sesame seeds! there will be oil when you open the jar, just stir to incorporate... you could leave the tahini out, however, you won’t have that traditional umami flavor that is hummus!) I say 1-3 tbsp so start with 1 and work your way up because making tahini requires tasting, seasoning, tasting, adjusting, tasting until perfect ;) 2 tsp each garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt or garlic salt (you could even add some cayenne if you like that kick!) 6-10 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed (yep... depending on your garlic, you might have a mild hummus or a spicy one... the last batch I made was a lot milder than the one that is in this picture... add garlic cloves one at a time and taste until you find your desired level... garlic can be very spicy when raw!) Juice of 1-2 lemons... start with one lemon, you may have to add more but hummus NEEDS this acidic punch! Warm water to help with blending Food processor or high speed blender Place your chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic cloves (or add one by one after blending) and seasonings to your food processor or blender. Start on slow then work your way to high, adding a little water to continue breaking the chickpeas down. This process will take a little while as you want to get the chickpeas as smooth as possible! Keep tasting, blending and adding water to get your desired consistency. My flavor profile might not be the same as you, so play around with it... this is a base hummus recipe that does NOT have oil. A lot, ok most, hummus has added oil. I find that it is not needed when warm water does the trick just fine :) The measurements for the spices are not precise as sometimes I add more tahini than I mean to (it can get away from you if you’re just free pouring lol) so I have to counter that with more seasonings and lemon juice... making food is FUN... just go with it... if it tastes good, write down what you did and keep it for next time!

I hope you give this a try!

Peace, Love and Garlic!

#vegan #vegan vittles #hummus #no oil #garlic

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imyourliquor-youremypoison · 8 years ago

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Tagged by my beloved tagging buddy @reivenesque

RULES: Answer all the questions, add one of your own and tag as many people as there are questions

1. COKE OR PEPSI: Coke though I don’t really care; I rarely ever drink soda and when I’m really thirsty I don’t care what’s in my glass

2. DISNEY OR DREAMWORKS: Disney used to be a safe bet the all the more recent disney movies have disappointement me in some way, and I’ve always liked Dreamworks’ characters design better. Also I’m in love with Spirit the Stallion of Cimarron and Sinbad.

3. COFFEE OR TEA: I’m a huge tea drinker, but not the tea you buy in bag right, the real tea that’s kinda expensive and that you drink with a slice of lemon or a lil bit of mil like a 19th century British aristocrat, but it’s not something I couldn’t live without. While coffee is a must have if you want to get something out of me before noon.

4. BOOKS OR MOVIES: If you’d asked me this question last year, i would hav said books, without the slightest hesitation. But now I’m a senior at uni and time is something I don’t have anymore, so I’ve turned to movies to entertain me (and fanfiction, always fanfiction, I’d rather not sleep than stop reading fanfiction).

5. WINDOWS OR MAC: I have both, but I don’t use them for the same stuff. I really like Mac for a number of reasons, but most of the time Windows is a better fit for whatever shady stuff I do on my laptop.

6. DC OR MARVEL: Marvel, that’s not even a real question.

7. XBOX OR PLAYSTATION: Playstation. I scarcely play but when I do, it’s on playstation.

8. DRAGON AGE OR MASS EFFECT: pardon my French but what the hell is that?

9. NIGHT OWL OR EARLY RISER: Early riser, not doubt. I’m a literal grandma, when the sun sets I go to bed, I need my 10 hours of sleep.

10. CARDS OR CHESS: Cards, I guess? by elimination bc I don’t play chess.

11. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA: Vanilla girl over there

12. VANS OR CONVERSE: Vans

13. LAVELLAN, TREVELYAN, CADASH, OR ADAAR: No idea what this means

14. FLUFF OR ANGST: I have nothing against fluff but most of the time people don’t know when to stop and it turns into a marshmallow shit fest, so angst (as long as I can look forward to a happy ending)

15. BEACH OR FOREST: Beach

16. DOGS OR CATS: LISTEN FOLKS, until a few days ago I would have said cats but I just got attacked by a murder crazed stray cat in the street and my right forearm still showcases an impressive number of bloody bite marks and scartches so fuck you cats, now I prefer dogs

17. CLEAR SKIES OR RAIN: Rain, i’m a rain kinda gal

18. COOKING OR EATING OUT: Is this an actual choice or am I simply too poor to afford eating out? I’ll have to go for cooking #LivingTheStudentLife

19. SPICY OR MILD FOOD: I am very sad to say that I have a weak, white-people constution and spicy food doesn’t sit well on my stomach even if I like eating it.

20. HALLOWEEN/SAMHAIN OR SOLSTICE/YULE/CHRISTMAS: Halloween

21. WOULD YOU RATHER FOREVER BE A LITTLE TOO COLD OR A LITTLE TOO HOT: Anyone who knows me knows that I have random heat strokes that are ruining my life and I hate above average temperatures which is why I constantly threaten to go live in Iceland. I’d rather be continuously cold than be a little too hot all the time. Actually, I’d rather die.

22. IF YOU COULD HAVE A SUPERPOWER WHAT WOULD IT BE: Something that has to do with the mind, nothing physical like super strength or the ability to fly. Like mind reading would be cool but not enough. Super intelligence probably, I don’t know if my ego can take it but I would sure like to know that wherever I go I’m always the smartest person in the room (cocky much? maybe a little bit)

23. ANIMATION OR LIVE ACTION: Animation I’d say

24. PARAGON OR RENEGADE: Still don’t know what that means

25. BATH OR SHOWER: Bath, with a book, and something to drink and music aaaah yesss

26. TEAM CAP OR TEAM IRONMAN: If I listen to my head: Team Ironman (I even made a ‘Team Ironman’ shirt for the Civil War premiere lol) but my heart tells me to go in whichever team Bucky Barnes is

27. FANTASY OR SCI-FI: Fantasy.

28. DO YOU HAVE 3 OR 4 FAVORITE QUOTES IF SO WHAT ARE THEY:

“A woman is only vulnerable when her nail polish is drying, and even then she can still pull a trigger.”

“My father had taught me to be nice first, because you can always be mean later, but once you’ve been mean to someone, they won’t believe the nice anymore. So be nice, be nice, until it’s time to stop being nice, then destroy them.”- Laurell K. Hamilton

“You don’t understand an antagonist until you understand why he’s a protagonist in his own version of the world.”- John Rogers

What is bad for the heart is good for the art. The terrible irony of our lives as artists. - Jandy Nelson, I’ll Give You the Sun

29. YOUTUBE OR NETFLIX: Youtube. Mainly because I don’t have Netflix, but I do watch more series than videos.

30. HARRY POTTER OR PERCY JACKSON: Harry Potter, what even is this question??

32. STAR WARS OR STAR TREK: S T A R W A R S (I have a Stormtrooper tattooed on my chest if it’s any indicator)

33. PAPERBACK BOOKS OR HARDCOVER BOOKS: Paperbacks, they are just more practical. But when I really like a series of books, I buy the Harcovers (Harry Potter, Twilight [yes well, I was young], most of my historical fictions)

34. FANTASTIC BEASTS OR CURSED CHILD: Fantastic Beasts. Let’s just not talk about the mess that was the cursed child plot.

35. ROCK OR POP MUSIC: If I have to choose, rock. But I listen to whatever sounds good to me, no discrimination of music genres here.

36. WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR LIFE: I’ll have to agree with @reivenesque and go with myself. Everything else is either materialistic or temporary. People are temporary and feelings are temporary, so I really would be a hypocrite if I said ‘love’ or ‘friendship’ because i’ve lost both already and all that’s left is me. Love yourself first guys.

37. THE LAST BOOK YOU READ/THE ONE YOU’RE CURRENTLY READING: Ooooh boy, I remember the last book I started, but not the last one I finished. Unless we’re talking fanfictions too? Well, the last piece of writing I finished is Mon Ami, Mon Amant, Mon Amour (My Friend, My Lover, My Love), by Laney (It’s a dramione fanfiction in French) and if we’re only talking actual published novels, I started The Dressmaker, by Rosalie Ham

38: SONG THAT MAKES YOU SMILE/SONG THAT MAKES YOU CRY: Don’t laug at me but Never Gonna Give You Up will never fail to put a smile on my face, and as for the sad one it’s Mad World (the Sense8 verion)

39. SUSHI OR WANTON SOUP: Sushis, I coudl live off of sushis

40. SPRING OR AUTUMN: Spring, because my birthday’s in Spring and it’s the end of school

41. DRAWING OR WRITING: Writing

42. SINGING OR DANCING: I can’t do either but that’s not what’s going to stop me from doing both

43. TV SHOW/MOVIE/BOOK THATS LIKE YOUR HAPPY PLACE, SOMETHING THAT ALWAYS MAKES YOU SMILE:

Movies: Mamma Mia!; 10 Things I hate about you; Ever After;

TV Shows: Sweet/Vicious; Gossip Girl; Merlin; Vicious

Books: Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine; After Class (Bucky Barnes fanfic) by Team Damon; The Politician’s Wife (Dramione fanfic) by pir8fancier; La Vie est une Chienne (Life’s a Bitch, dramione fanfic) by Brunhild-Ana

44. FIRST GOOD CHILDHOOD MEMORY THAT POPS INTO YOUR HEAD: nothing comes to mind if I’m being honest.

45. If you could be any animal what would you be and why?: If being a unicorn is off the table than I’m going to go for a cat. It’s both fluffy and deadly like me

46. What’s the best joke you’ve ever heard: I don’t like this kind of question, I usually forget every joke I’ve ever heard when someone asks me that and most of those I’m heard are in French anyway so... I swear I’m a funny person, but more like a sarcastic, quick on the draw kind of funny

I TAG @bathshebaa @malfoygasmic @s-kamimagines @iheartsatang @marvelsbitch @angelicawastaken @demonindistress @skamous @highsunflowerr

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ovalcastle · 7 years ago

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mountain asks

moon: what is your astrological sign?

aries sun gemini moon lol dont b scared tho

gingerbread: your moral alignment

chaotic good binch

birdseed: family or friends?

yes

sheets: your sexual orientation

bi baby

warm milk: when do you usually fall asleep?

past midnight. shes an owlly bitch.

pot of honey: your gender identity

cis girl!

snow: what is your favorite time of year and why?

summer bc the world is soaked in honey light and it smells like lavender and hot food and i can wear cute outfits and i always am a more joyful version of myself in the summer

yarn: what are your most enjoyable hobbies?

writing poetry, thrift shopping (specifically cor wicker baskets), cooking, reading, listening to music, taking abt/eating soup

bicycle: what are you talented at?

writing poetry, cooking, talking abt/eating soup

folktale: what stories remind you of your childhood?

so many.... theyre mine and im not going to tell you i wont share them

woods: where do you feel at peace?

in my room and in the cold ocean and in the deep, wet woods

chicken feet: what is your emotional "flaw"?

bitch what isnt my emotional flaw

red cheeks: what makes you nervous?

responsibility.

sunflower: what do you love and cherish?

my friends and family and pets and myself and my spaces i create for myself

bells: what sounds are your favorite or calm you the most?

scratching/tapping on carved wood, crackling fires, the sounds of being in the room with multiple people you well know enough to sit in silence with. everythings asmr if u livin right bitch.

turnip: what is a food you could eat everyday?

lentils! and i do, bc im poor

spit: do you get jealous easily?

no, not really at all actually bc jealousy is a weak ass emotions

mushroom: list unique things you like about yourself

my sense of style, the fact that i would die for the aesthetic, how good i smell, my music taste, how i dance, the way my tiddies look.

cupboard: a good childhood memory

collaging cards out of old magazine clip outs while drinking hot chocolate after going sledding on a snow day off school. fog on the windows

eyebags: what do you think makes a person attractive?

confidence and sense of self, strong jawbone, That One Kind of Eye Contact ™

fallen log: something you've gotten over that you never thought you would

the concept that friendship is inherently unequal

dagger: your worst fear

spiders crawling into my mouth when i sleep and turning out to be a boring old person

whisper: do you have any secrets?

yemp.

wild boar: which person do you feel closest to?

many!!!

sweet: what candies or cakes are you fond of?

pistachio rose cale BITCH

footprints: do you remember your past lives?

i know i was a poet.

fur: name an animal you feel connected to

tiger! 🐯

vodka: do you drink?

sometimes im a LIGHTweight af

sour cherry: an obscure tradition from your family?

just all our christmas decorations.... like that one where you light candles and it spins!!

pine needles: what is your favorite scent?

lavender or rosemary or fresh lemon mmmm

heart-shaped: do you believe in love? are you in love?

yes!!! yes!!!!

home: where do you dream of living?

italy!

spice: list your favorite herbs

rosemary, mint, curry (ik its not one herb ok........... but hear me out...), bay leaves, thyme, etc

mud: something you're insecure about but trying to love

my very fucking mild ass acne scars

tobacco: do you have any addictions?

not really.....

sock: how would you describe your clothing taste?

eclectic, vintage, witchy, colorful, high waisted

cuckoo clock: are you a morning, a noon, or an evening person?

evening!!! i am the sun at night

wooden fence: a favorite memory

laying in the sun dappled grass under a tree at camp listening to jazz and reading annie dillard

#my posts #i FUCKING love these bc i love talking abt myself

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kristinsimmons · 7 years ago

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Ask Angela: Savoury toddler snack ideas, nut-free flourless muffins, and more

Were baa-aaack! Thanks for your patience last Friday as I escaped the flu’s chokehold, lol. I’m happy that we’re into the swing of things again with some fun questions today! How nerdy am I that I get excited to test these things out? I’m basically just relieved that I can taste food again.

In case you missed it, yesterday I posted my recipe for the flourless muffins that have been in our breakfast and snack time rotation lately. We received so many questions about these muffins that I thought I’d include a couple in today’s roundup as well—see the last two for my notes on a nut-free version and ingredient swap. Also be sure to check out the comments in the post itself as I’ve answered a slew of other muffin questions there. I can’t wait to hear what you think about them!

Q1. Great toddler snack ideas! I’m wondering if you can create some more ideas for savoury snacks? I have a two year old who is clearly a vegan foodie. I give him a daily snack at 4pm and once a week try to provide a savoury snack too. Daiya Plain Cream Cheeze Style Spread on top of very small celery sticks has been a hit.

Hi Laurie, I love this challenge! It’s definitely easy to default to snacks that are naturally sweet because they tend to be instant hits with kids. Here is a list of savoury snack ideas your little one may enjoy. I hope my suggestions help! And if any other readers would like to chime in below, please do. A big thanks to my recipe tester Nicole for helping me drum up some ideas!

Avocado “fingers”: avocado slices tossed in crunchy breadcrumbs or almond meal and garlic powder. Adriana really likes this one and it’s super easy to prepare on the fly.

Carrot sticks (either raw or steamed) dipped in Cashew Sour Cream, hummus, or mashed avocado/guacamole.

Cooked chickpeas that have been rinsed, drained and dried. Toddlers love a finger food!

Dill Pickle Smoothie from the app (iOS/Android). This savoury smoothie comes together in a few minutes and I find kids love its tangy flavour too! If serving it the first time you may want to scale back on the lemon a bit until they get used to the flavour.

Avocado Hummus Toast from Oh She Glows Every Day. You can leave the 9-Spice Mix off if you choose, but I recommend letting toddlers try it first. You never know what they are going to like!

Pickles! Pickled cucumber, cauliflower, carrots and beets. Pickles may not be a hit on the first try, but keep offering them.

Sun-dried Tomato and Garlic Super Seed Crackers (Oh She Glows Every Day, p. 81). You can give the larger seeds several pulses in the food processor if your toddler isn’t able to chew them yet.

Seasoned kale chips. Try my Flawless Kale Chips, or if you have a dehydrator my Sun-dried Tomato Cheezy Kale Chips are out of this world!

Sneaky Shamrock Crackers. These spinach, dill and whole grain crackers can be cut into any shape you (or your kids) like.

Super Power Chia Bread (The Oh She Glows Cookbook, p. 229 and on the blog) This is a dense, hearty bread that packs a nutritional punch. Try it spread with hummus or mashed avocado.

Cast-Iron Tofu (Oh She Glows Everyday, p. 137) cooked in rectangles and cut into thin sticks for dipping in ketchup or mild barbecue sauce. My Crispy Breaded Tofu Strips are also a huge hits with kids.

My Homemade Wheat Thins crackers taste just like the real thing, and they can be frozen too.

My Jumbo Chickpea Pancake cut into small pieces or fun shapes.

Q2. What can I use as a substitute for carrots in your Perfect Veggie Burger recipe? I can’t eat carrots for health reasons.

Hey Jelena, Grated sweet potato will work just fine in place of the grated carrot. Grated beet could be a fun twist, but I haven’t tried it yet so I’m not entirely certain. I’d love to hear if you do, though!

Q3. Hi Angela, I’m loving the return of Friday FAQs/Ask Angela. I love unwinding on my lunch break at work reading the weekly post. I have a question about your Nut-Free Dream Bars from Oh She Glows Every Day (p. 211)—do you have any swaps for brown rice syrup in the crust? Every grocery store in my city is out of stock, and I want to make the bars for my mom’s birthday.

Hey Amanda, I’m so happy you look forward to the series every Friday…picturing you reading over lunch makes me smile! I used brown rice syrup in this crust because it’s the stickiest type of liquid sweetener and tends to bind ingredients very well. But your question made me curious, so I tested out a maple syrup option for you as well! Instead of using 2 1/2 tablespoons brown rice syrup, I used an equal amount of pure maple syrup and followed the crust directions as written. I found that the maple syrup crust was softer and crumbled a bit when sliced, but overall it didn’t break apart quite as much as I expected it would with that swap. It still tastes great, so I’d say it’s an option as long as you don’t mind some of the crust breaking off here and there!

Q4. What model coffee grinder do you have?

Hey Lauren! I’ve used this KitchenAid BCG111OB Blade Coffee Grinder for the past several years, but I do have a couple qualms with the grinder overall. You have to be pushing the lid down for the grinder to run, and I’d much prefer being able to press a button and walk away while I prep my coffee things. You also can’t specify the grind level (e.g. course, fine, etc.) on this model, so it can be difficult to achieve a precise grind. Other than that, the grinder works just fine. But would I buy it again? I would probably look for one that suits my needs a bit better. If anyone has a coffee grinder they LOVE, please do share below!

Q5. Is there anything I could substitute for the almonds and almond butter in your new Flourless Bite-Sized Breakfast Muffin recipe? I bake for a lunchbox program for kids and I’m always looking for good nut-free recipes. We use SunButter and Wowbutter in place of nut butters. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions?

Hey Alana, Good news! I just tested a nut-free version of these muffins and it worked great. I used 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds instead of the whole almonds and substituted the almond butter for 1/2 cup of SunButter Organic Sunflower Seed Butter (make sure there is only sunflower seeds on the label). I also upped the cinnamon to 1 teaspoon to balance the sunflower flavour. This nut-free version does have a distinct sunflower flavour (not exactly surprising, haha!), but I still find it pleasant even if it isn’t as sweet as the almond version. Arlo approved of them, but Adriana wasn’t as sold on this version. ;) Mine also turned out a bit darker and more dense than the almond version. All in all, I do think it’s a decent option. I hope this helps and I would love to hear what you and your students think if you try it.

Q6. I’d like to make your Flourless Bite-Sized Breakfast Muffins. Is there anything I can use instead of arrowroot starch?

Hey Tara, For sure! An equal amount of cornstarch tends to work well as a swap for arrowroot in baked goods, so you could try it out. I haven’t tested it myself as I don’t tend to keep cornstarch in my pantry. Please let me know how it goes if you try it!

“Your 3-Layer Nut-Free Dream Cups are the best thing ever. I made half my batch with peanut butter and the other with almond butter. So good. As much as I love peanut butter and chocolate together, the almond butter was amazing. (Though I understand nut-free is great for people who can’t have nuts at all.) MAKE THESE. DO NOT hesitate. I actually cut each cup into quarters as I thought a whole cup was way too much. At times I would have half, but mostly ate a quarter at a time and that was enough. What a treat. I will make these over and over and over and over…. :)”

Hey Trish, Haha…your review was so fun to read. Thank you so much for trying the dream cups! You’ve reminded me that I need to make a batch of these beauties soon because it’s been WAY too long. So many recipes…so little time!

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shrinkingwmn · 5 years ago

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I finally got to go to the Circle Craft Holiday Market! It is a yearly market downtown that is always held on a long weekend. I wasn’t able to attend in the past because I was working but my days off have changed and when my friend asked if I wanted to go I didn’t even pause to think, I just said yes!

A Holiday Market? Hell yeah!

I went in with a budget, which I’m pretty sure I went over. I went in with the plan to buy Christmas presents, I mostly bought stuff for myself. I went in with a plan to buy a healthy meal at some point in the day, instead I ate all the samples.

Suffice to say, the day didn’t go as planned, which I’m glad about because the fun was spontaneous, I like the stuff I bought, and the samples were free!…which in my version of math helps offset the cost of oh say, the necklace I bought… 😉

It was definitely not crowded, I guess most people went on the first and second day it was open? I like that it wasn’t crowded, no fighting to see the displays, easy to walk around without getting bumped, it was much more relaxing than some of the Christmas events I’ve been to. Plus, it was inside so we were cozy warm. 🙂

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One of my favourite booths was a company called JusTea. It is a Vancouver based, family run business. They go to Africa a couple times a year and source all their tea from there. The tea is all ethically sourced, and some of them are picked (or is the right word harvested?) by a woman’s co-op. Each tin has a picture of one of the farmers on it, so you can see who was making your tea leaves. The teas smell amazing! I kept taking deep inhales of the teas like I was trying to get high from them or something lol but really, it was just because it smelled that good. There was a fruity tea called Purple Rain that not only smelled delicious but had a taste to match. In the end I bought African Breakfast, which is their version of an English Breakfast or Orange Pekoe. It is a mixture of different tea leaves which gives it a more complex taste. Each tin also comes with a hand crafted spoon that took 9 hours to make. 9 hours on a spoon, talk about a personal touch! The gentleman manning the booth mentioned that when you want to buy more you can go to their store and they will sell it to you in a compostable bag, so you can refill your already existing tin, and not create garbage when throwing out the bag. Why doesn’t every company do that? That little touch makes me love them even more. Here is their website if you want to check them out: https://justea.com/

Another great booth is abeego, they sell reusable beeswax wraps that you can use to keep your food fresh and protected, whether it is covering the top of a bowl of leftovers you have in the fridge or wrapped around the sandwich you’re taking to work. I actually own a set of these, they were a gift, and I haven’t used them yet because they kinda freak me out. Instead of buying any at this booth I just grilled them to get a better understanding of how they work and I am kinda amazed. The beeswax has antibacterial properties so you don’t need to worry about your beeswax wrap touching your food. Like you see in the picture you can wrap it around the cut end of a vegetable (their sample is a cucumber) and it will keep the end fresh. You can take your cheese out of the plastic and wrap it in a beeswax wrap and the cheese will stay fresh and mold free longer. They are fairly low maintenance for care, rinse them off using cold water, use a mild dish soap if you really want, then let them air dry. They can be rolled or folded for storage. An important thing to remember is not to get them hot, they are made out of beeswax after all, and what does beeswax do when it gets warm? It melts. So if you’re putting hot left overs in a bowl and want to use the beeswax sheet to cover the bowl, wait until the food is room temperature before covering the bowl. Pretty easy right? Oh, and when they finally reach the end of their life, which is when they stop sticking to surfaces or itself (this can take a year or more to happen) you can either compost it or rip it up and use it as a fire starter when you next go camping. Which for me will be never, so compost it is! I’ve gone from wondering “what the hell I am supposed to do with these beeswax wraps?” to “I can’t wait to use these!” Super glad I stopped and talked with them. Oh, and they are also locally made and ship anywhere so if you are interested their website is: https://canada.abeego.com/

I bought myself a necklace I absolutely 100% do not need, but really wanted, and apparently wanting it mattered more in the moment than needing it lol

Again, a Canadian made product, well, work of art really. The holes in the charm are the Capricorn constellation, my constellation. It is simple, and pretty, and I can see myself wearing it often. She also had a necklace I’m regretting I didn’t get a picture of that is the word fuck, dangling down so you’d have to turn your head sideways to be able to read it if you were looking at someone wearing it. I actually also really wanted that one, but since I spend the majority of my time at work, where I would not be able to wear it, I opted for the one I could actually wear and enjoy on a daily basis. Go figure lol Rachael, the artist, has a lot of beautiful pieces, and since Christmas (and other holidays) are coming up you may want to check out her website at http://www.laughingsparrow.ca This was my most expensive purchase at the Market, and while I wish jewellery didn’t cost so much I can understand why a hand made piece, that is sourced from sustainable materials can’t be cheap. You get what you pay for, and I feel I got something great that will last.

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The other edible things I purchased are a jar of Pink Grapefruit & Champagne preserve, which I will instantly make less fancy by putting on toast. I don’t know how to describe it other than delicious. The Preservatory is a business out of Langley BC, they focus on small batch artisanal preserves, and lemme tell ya, they are good at their niche. I have seen them in a shop called All of Oils in Surrey BC but hadn’t tried them until they offered samples. Man am I glad they offered samples. Their website is: https://thepreservatory.com/

Sweet Thea is a bakery out of Langley BC, they are where I got the cookies. I know the package says I bought Ginger Crinkle, and I did, but if you notice, not all the cookies in the bag look the same. That is because the friend I went with bought a bag of Chocolava cookies and we swapped three for three. I honestly don’t know which I like best. Normally I’d be saying of course the chocolate cookies, but the ginger is also incredibly good. They are soft cookies, both types, and just so decadent. We split one of each cookie in half so for our first cookie we got half of each and while normally I am that person to keep dipping in to the cookie package, I didn’t reach again. Not because they weren’t good, but because they were so satisfying I didn’t need more. I didn’t even know that was possible, did you? You can find their website at: https://www.sweetthea.com/home The lady we bought from wasn’t as friendly as people at the other booths but I’m going to assume that is because it was nearing the end of the day and she was probably tired after a long three days working the market. We may have gone at a quiet time but I’m sure the other days were much busier.

That deceptively simple Lemon Square package is hiding an amazing lemon coconut square inside. That small square is meant to be cut in to four pieces! The flavour is so strong, not in a bad way, that you don’t need more than a small square to satisfy you. Well, in theory, I am not cutting and sharing that square lol Here is their website: https://thelemonsquare.ca/

And lastly, Whiskey Marmalade by Blaire’s Confectionery. They are a company in Kamloops BC that makes Scottish treats. They had various types of marmalade, shortbread, fudge that isn’t fudge (apparently in Scotland it is called something different), and probably other yummy items that they didn’t have at the booth or I didn’t notice. Hey, I can’t manage to see everything ya know, especially when I am sampling shortbread and fudge that isn’t fudge lol Their website is being redesigned right now and when I tried to go to it was directed to check out their page on Facebook so if you want to find them I’d search for them there. I didn’t sample the marmalade, I hate marmalade, but I thought my brother might like it, so I got it as part of his Christmas present. Don’t worry, he doesn’t read my blog so no ruined surprise for him! I also wanted to buy the fudge that isn’t called fudge but couldn’t bring myself to spend $10 on a food indulgence…says the woman who ended up buying cookies and a lemon bar *rolls eyes*.

Can a couple pieces of art be anymore Canadian than a beaver in a canoe or a mama bear and cubs in a canoe? I’m thinking no.

So there you have it, an afternoon of wandering the booths, buying stuff, hanging with a friend, and enjoying my first Christmas activity of the season. Only 42 more days until Christmas!

Circle Craft Holiday Market I finally got to go to the Circle Craft Holiday Market! It is a yearly market downtown that is always held on a long weekend.

#abeego #Blaire&039;s Confectionery #Christmas fun #Circle Craft Holiday Market #justea #JusTeaKenya #Kenyan Purple Leaf Tea #Laughing Sparrow #Rachael Hatala #Sweet Thea #The Lemon Square #The Preservatory

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