#you better not get a cow covered in flour

[astral-catastrophe]

@twink-between-worlds

Happy late birthday Ravi! I wrote something with Four having to witness two of their brothers being idiots because I thought that you might enjoy the chaos. I’m so sorry that this is late, but better late than never? I have had this idea living in my head for weeks, and I thought that now would be a good time to write it because Four is one of your favorite characters <3

Anyways, I’m bad with words, happy b-day ily /plat <3

Four woke up to dead silence.

Which was uncommon for Lon Lon Ranch. They had looked around the small room that the rest of the chain had been sleeping in and was surprised to learn they were the only one there. The rest of the Links had left everything in scattered piles and from the belongings Four could tell that Wild had been up for hours, Wars had been next to Wind, and that Sky had left the Sailcloth for Four to sleep bundled up in.

Four gently folded the Sailcloth and set it on the pillow Sky had been using that night. They would tell Sky later where it was.

Four sighed and got out of the bed that they had shared with Sky. As they pulled on their tunic, Four tried to ignore the aching that lingered in their bones. This was normal after all, because the author decided to project onto them.

After getting dressed, Four slowly made their way down the stairs and walked to the kitchen. The Cook had been chatting animatedly with Malon, and they were both covered in flour. They noticed Four and stopped talking.

“Mornin’,” Malon offered a smile and walked over to Four. After dusting off her hand on her trousers, she ruffled Four’s messy hair affectionately. “You should have the Sailor do your hair. It’s a mess.”

Four half shrugs. Wind was recognized as a master hairstylist in the group since he had plenty of experience doing Aryll’s hair. “I’ll go find him later.”

“That’s fair,” Wild said as they turned back to what they had been cooking with Malon. “Anyways, can you tell Hyrule that I need some more flour from castle town? He and Wind wanted to visit today, so you can hit two koroks with one stone.”

Four paused for a second, unfamiliar with the phrase that Wild had used, but they just went with it. “Alright.” They swiped an apple off of the counter. “We will be back soon.”

Four headed out the back door as they bit into their apple. From what they could tell it was roughly mid morning. Looking around, Four could easily spot most of their strange family. Time and Legend were milking the cows and avoiding the cucco pen like the plague, while Sky was cheerfully petting the devil chickens. Wind and Hyrule were watching the fairies around the fencing curiously while Wars watched them from the sidelines. Twilight was out with the horses.

Four headed over to where Hyrule and Wind were. They were leaning against the fence as they casually chatted with the fairies.

Wind looked up. “Four!” Wind hissed, grabbing the Smithy’s arm and pointing at a fairy that had settled in Hyrule’s hair. “Look!”

Hyrule had stopped moving and now stood still as he nervously glanced at his brothers. ‘What do I do?’ He mouthed.

Four snorted and sat down on the ground. <<Looks like you’re stuck,>> they signed to Hyrule so they wouldn’t disrupt the fairy.

A telltale click from behind them told them that Wind had used their pictograph and now had the moment of Hyrule’s minor panic captured on film.

After a few moments of Wind and Four watching the fairy, she flew off and Hyrule practically melted against the fence.

“Free at last,” breathed the Traveler with a dramatic flair he must have picked up from the Veteran.

Wind chuckled then looked back at Four. “Anyways, Traveler and I were wondering if you’d go to castle town with us?” The Sailor asks, shuffling on his feet as he glanced over at the Traveler, who nodded along.

“I had just come out here to talk to you about that.” Four chuckled.

“I need to pick up some potions stuff so you and Legend could help me figure out how to make potions on our own.” Hyrule said quickly, eyes widening.

“Wild can make potions, though.” Wind scrunched up his face.

“But they taste weird.” Four points out as if the potions the heroes used regularly didn’t already taste weird. Four stood up. “Come on, we should get moving.”

***

Castle Town was lively around this time of day.  Merchants had been set up for hours and were steadily seeing their products around midday.

Four, Hyrule, and Wind had all walked in a small jumble while holding hands because they all collectively agreed they didn’t want to get lost. It was crowded and they were all short. If this trip to Castle Town went smoothly then they would all be allowed to go to castle town alone whenever they wanted to.

So of course everything had to go south.

One second, Four had a tight grip on both of their traveling companions, the next, they both had vanished into a sea of people.

Four momentarily panicked and turned quickly. They headed toward the fountain in the middle of the plaza, figuring that would give them higher ground to find the idiots they had gone to castle town with.

And sure enough, moments after Four had climbed the ledge of the fountain they noticed both Wind and Hyrule, who were soaking wet- as if they had jumped into a body of water- and were now being dragged away from the castle path by a pissed off looking guard.

Four quickly followed the soldier to what must have been the local jail.

Four sighed before going inside about three minutes later. The building was small and looked like any other basic building in castle town. Near the back of the front room, Hyrule and Wind were sitting on some benches, looking incredibly guilty for whatever stupid thing they had been convicted for.

“Sir,” The Smithy began, walking over to the soldier who was chewing out their brothers, “I am so sorry about my brothers. Just let them out and we will go back home to the Ranch without causing any more problems.”

“You have business with the Lon Lon’s?” The soldier asked instead of answering what Four had said. Apparently Lon Lon Ranch was the only ranch around this area.

“We are relatives of Link.” Four replied smoothly. “My brothers aren’t used to Hylian culture and I can assure you that they weren’t trying to be offensive in any way. We came from a nearby kingdom.” Four realized that the kingdoms they were familiar with in their time might not exist here, but that would be a problem if this idiotic soldier knew anything about geography.

“I don’t care where you came from.” The soldier said with a heavy sigh. “And since you’re just a kid, I’d say go get an adult then we can figure something out.”

Four would have very much liked to lunge at the man and commit a crime, but instead they offered him an innocent smile. “Alright!” Then Four sprinted out the door and didn’t stop running until they got to Lon Lon Ranch.

***

“I can’t believe you two got arrested.” Time hissed at Wind and Hyrule as they walked back to Lon Lon Ranch. The sun was starting to set and if they hurried they could make it back in time for dinner.

“In my defense,” Wind began, “We heard some dipshit talking bad about Malon. We defended her, but got pushed into the fountain. Then we noticed the castle and we thought it would be cool to meet your Zelda.”

Four chuckled. “So that’s why you two just vanished.”

Time sighed. “You kids have lost free roaming privileges, except you, Four. You’re responsible enough to wonder on your own.”

Four smirked at their siblings as they walked back inside the farmhouse.

***

About halfway through dinner Four realized something. “Damn! We didn’t actually buy anything on the list!”

[aesethewitch]

Rosemary Soda Bread

Soda bread was the first bread I ever learned how to make. I remember feeling nervous, since people had told me before that baking bread was hard... but my rustic-looking, slightly-underdone-in-the-middle, circular loaf was delicious. It just needed tweaking.

That recipe has undergone many iterations in the seven years (holy cow, SEVEN YEARS?) since then. This version is by far my favorite, and I hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients:

4 cups All-Purpose Flour (or your favorite kind of flour - just be aware it may change the texture and flavor)

1/4 cup Light Brown Sugar

1 and 1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 stick (or 1/4 cup) Unsalted Butter, cold

1 and 3/4 cup Buttermilk

Zest from half an orange (OR from half a lemon, if you prefer)

1 Egg

1 tablespoon Fresh Rosemary, or 1 teaspoon Dried Rosemary

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or to 175 degrees Celsius.

First, mix together all of your dries in a large mixing bowl. You can use a stand mixer or your hands for this, depending on how floury you like to get. I usually use my hands.

Cut in your butter with your hands or with a dough blender (again, I like to use my hands) until your mixture is dry and crumbly.

In a separate container, mix together your buttermilk, egg, and zest. Chop up your rosemary to your desired consistency (I usually chop it pretty fine) and add it to your mixture. Then, add the mixture to your dries and mix gently or on low speed until combined.

On a lightly floured surface, knead your dough for about 2 minutes.

Using a greased bowl, cover your dough and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

Then, roll out your dough and cut or shape it into your desired shape. I usually go for the classic, rustic round loaf. Sometimes I’ll cut it into two, but for the Feast, I’ll be leaving it as a single loaf. This dough keeps its shape really well, so you can do a lot with it!

Place your loaf on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush with egg wash (which is just a beaten egg mixed with a little water). You can sprinkle more rosemary on top, too, if you want!

Bake your bread for 30 minutes. Let it cool slightly before cutting into it, and enjoy!

Optional magic that you can include while baking:

Rosemary is a protective, cleansing herb. While you chop and mix in the herb, you can focus your intent on protecting whoever will be eating it. I like to bake this bread before I do anything else as a way to cleanse my oven and cast a protection over the entire kitchen as I cook and bake and prepare.

You could also use additional rosemary to draw a sigil or other protective symbol on top of the loaf.

The orange (or lemon!) peel adds a fresh zestiness to the bread, but it also adds prosperous energy and an uplifting effect on the spirit. As you zest your citrus and add it to the milk, consider the things you want to achieve and imbue the zest with those intents.

I’ll be thinking about keeping my friends’ spirits up during the colder months, especially the ones who have been hit by financial hardship lately.

Use the kneading time to set the ultimate intentions of the bread. Kneading is an act of give and take, push and pull. Give some of your own energy, take some of the ingredients’ energy. This is the time to sing, chant, or just say a few words over the bread.

For my own purposes, I’ll be repeating a few words that match my goals: joy, warmth, comfort. Yours can be more involved or detailed, but I find that simple works much better for me.

The rest period is exceptionally important, both for the bread and for ourselves. While your dough rests, take a moment to ground yourself. Consider the way the baking soda is bubbling to create air as the gluten in the bread relaxes. As you sit or stand in the warmth of your kitchen, let yourself relax just like the dough. Absorb the cleansing and energizing energy from the ingredients and the air around you.

If you make this recipe, please let me know how you liked it!

Happy Autumn, everyone!

[heaven-in-a-wild-flower]

Jurdan Headcanon (Jude Duarte and Cardan Greenbriar)

I’ve also published this on ao3 if you’d rather read it there, here’s the link. I’m making this a full series (Cardan in the Mortal World).

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Previous Chapter (Chapter 2.5)

Cardan in the Mortal World (Chapter 3)

Flowery Flour, Beeping Time Bombs and Chocolate Lips

Cardan decides to surprise Jude with a home-cooked meal (he read in a magazine that that is 2nd in the Top Ten Most Romantic Date Ideas! He wanted to choose the 1st but for the life of him couldn’t figure out what Net-flix and Chill meant). Jude has gone out with Vivi and so he has a few hours to prepare the food. He doesn’t think it’s going to be that difficult, there are instructions and tiny people showing the process on the Book of Mac (he imagines Jude exasperpatedly shaking her head and correcting him, “It’s called a MacBook, Cardan!)

He opens up the list of ingredients and copies it down onto a sheet of paper. Then he sets off for the nearest market, Walmart (Cardan nobody calls Walmart a market!). The door opens without his pushing it open. Hmm, maybe they have pixies to open it here.

The air is cool inside, conditioned by another Mortal device. He roams the aisles, searching for all the ingredients on his list. He’s making Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting, he doesn’t understand most of those words but it is a cake so he thinks it’ll be alright. He finds most of the ingredients quite easily (although he’s still a bit confused what flour is and if it is indeed grounded up flowers). He’s only has milk left from the list.

He knows that they usually use the milk from cows in the Mortal World. He’s wondering where they keep the cows in this place. He stops a man with the word, Walmart tattooed on his shirt (he must be the head of this market).

“How can I help?” the man asks, turning to him.

“Oh yes, I will require your assistance in determining where the cows are kept.”

The man looks befuddled, “Sorry sir. We…don’t sell cows here.”

“No, I do not intend to purchase the cows, I desire only the milk,” Cardan clarifies.

“Oh! You want milk? Okay then, follow me.” The man sets off and Cardan follows. He then leads him to a glass case of packaged bottles. “Here you are.”

Cardan looks closely at the bottles and sees some labeled ‘milk’. “Will this suffice for Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting?” he asks. He wants to make sure he’s using authentic ingredients (Jude would kill him is he mistakenly poisoned her).

“Yeah sure, dude,” the man replies.

***

Cardan is following along with the little lady on the U-Tube. It’s going perfectly. He’s even put on the right attire, a pink apron that says ‘Kiss The Cook’. He likes this idea, to give clear instructions for what to do even on the clothing. Maybe he should have some such thing sewed onto his kingly robes too (he thinks of Jude kissing him every time she reads it and grins happily. Oh yes, it is certainly a wonderful idea.)

When the lady, her name is Rosanna Pansino (he thinks this is quite a distinguished name and can’t understand why she would shorten it to ‘Ro’), says to whip the cream, he pauses. She didn’t ask him to purchase a whip. He checks the shelves, (maybe this is a normal kitchen tool?) and still doesn’t find one. He watches the video and realizes that she doesn’t use a whip at all, just some metallic contraption that he has in the kitchen too.

It takes him a few tries to crack the egg correctly (after this ordeal, his respect for his cooks has gone up drastically). Eventually the batter has been successfully transferred to a pan and placed inside the heating box (Oven). He sets the time on the dials and sits back to wait for it to be done.

In the mean time, he wonders at the bliss he sees on Mortals’ faces as they talk about chocolate. He decides to try some cocoa powder to see for himself if it is as good as they say. He picks up a spoonful of the powder and puts the whole thing in his mouth. His face shrivels up and he starts coughing madly. He drinks some wine to get the taste out of his mouth and thinks that Mortals have very strong taste buds to be able to not only endure that but to also enjoy it.

When the timer on the heating box has finally come down to 10 seconds he watches it carefully, unsure what is about to happen. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then…beep, beep, beep! He startles and tries to figure out what to do. Ro did not show this part at all. He tries to remember what he’s seen in those moo-vies he and Jude sometimes watch. Beeping means…time bomb! The heating box has overheated or some such and is about to explode.

He runs out of the house and crashes into someone. No, not someone, Jude.

“Cardan, what are you- what’s happened?” she asks, holding his flour covered arms and staring into his panicky eyes with confusion.

“The heating box is about to explode!” he blurts out.

“The heating box? Oh, the oven. What did you do to it?” she asks, raising one brow.

“I tried to make a Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting and I followed Ro’s instructions perfectly. But at the end of the timer it started beeping like a time bomb!”

“Oh my god, oh my god,” Jude says and bursts out laughing. He loves this sound and his eyes go dreamy for a moment, all his panic forgotten and his body relaxes.

“What is it? How are you not worried?” he asks, when he’s finally regained his wits. She pulls him back into the house and opens the heating box and takes the pan out after putting on gloves (Cardan understands the importance of looking good but is this really the time to be accessorizing? But since he knows nothing about this, he stays wisely silent).

“That’s just the sound it makes when it’s done baking,” she informs him, smiling fondly.

“Oh. Well, that is bizarre and unnecessarily alarming. A tinkling of bells would have worked just fine,” he says petulantly, crossing his arms and frowning (Jude thinks this is simply adorable, even if she’ll never tell him that).

***

They continue the decorating together. He likes this a lot better. He’s gotten many many kisses. The apron is definitely working. They finally eat the chocolate cake. It takes a lot of persuading on Jude’s part (maybe even some bribing). She doesn’t understand why he’s glaring suspiciously at it. When she finally feeds him a piece, his face relaxes.

“Oh. Oh.” He says reverently. “I understand now.”

Jude is expectedly puzzled but forgets all about it when he kisses her. Mmm, Cardan hasn’t wiped his mouth properly and he tastes like chocolate but she certainly isn’t complaining.

Tagging, @jurdanhell @nee-naw-nee-naw-beepbeep

Let me know if anyone wants to be added to the tagging list (or removed).

Next Chapter

[taetaespeaches]

m.list - kim seokjin. (all drabbles)

updated. February 4, 2023.

here are all of my Jin fics- including longterm couple fics. listed in the order they were written.

[♡] indicates the drabble is part of the long term couple’s universe.

[ key. ❃ ⇾ fluff; ☁ ⇾ angst; ☆ ⇾ smut ]

❃ ⇾ “I broke your nose, and I’m sorry for that, but what you’re doing isn’t fair.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “Why are you looking at me like that?” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “I happen to have this mood ring, and it would be very helpful to me if you would put it on.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “Just admit it. Brad is better looking than Leo. Accept it and let’s move on.”[♡]

❃ ⇾  “I’m going to spend the rest of my life making you laugh.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “I always knew you were only into me because of my stellar cooking skills.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “You can’t take it back now.”

❃ ⇾ “I’m not saying I’m the best boyfriend ever, but c’mon, I’m pretty great.” [♡]  

❃ ⇾ “Dolly Parton’s a real jerk, huh?”

❃ ⇾ “And what if we just mess the bed up again?”

❃ ⇾ “You’re not an asshole, you’re just a pain in the ass.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “You look so cute covered in flour.” (Christmas series)

☆ ⇾ “It’s midnight, we’re supposed to kiss.” (New Year’s Eve drabble) [♡]

☁ ⇾ “I want to be happy about this but I’m just so angry.” (Part 1) [♡]

☁ ⇾ “Love, we need to talk.”  (Part 2) (+ fluff; light smut) [♡]

❃ ⇾ “Easy, girl. Everyone is just a few feet away.” [♡]  

❃ ⇾ “I’m a simple man, love.”  [♡]

❃ ⇾ “Did he just call her Poopsie?” (+ crack) [♡]

❃ ⇾ “For you, darling, I would collect every cherry blossom in Korea. And Japan – no – in the world.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “I’ve told you this, always choose Yoshi.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “My goodness, what happened to your wedding ring?” [♡]

☆ ⇾ “Don’t you think you’ve made me wait long enough to get my hands on you?” (+fluff) [♡]

☁ ⇾ “I still choose you every single day.” (+fluff) [♡]

❃ ⇾ “What was that one move you did? The kick one?” [♡]

☁ ⇾ “You may want me, but you need you.” (+fluff) [♡]

❃ ⇾ “Did we just give relationship advice?” (+angst) [♡]

❃ ⇾ “Why is there mistletoe in every room of the apartment?” (birthday fic) [♡]

❃ ⇾ “Not me, we. We are writing Christmas letters to Santa.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “And we’d have a damn corkscrew.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “You practically raised those two brats.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “I’m terrible at getting engaged, I forgot all about this part.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “What’s wrong? Do you want attention?” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “We’re just too in sync.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “There is enough room for both of us.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “I’ll be up when you’re down.” (+slight angst) [♡]

❃ ⇾ “I actually preferred the cow pun.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “There is enough room for both of us.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “No reason.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “You’re gonna wash my hair?” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “I can’t relax, I’m scared.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “Do you think I could get Peachy under here?” (feat. ot7 x oc gf’s) [♡] 

❃ ⇾ “You’re warm.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “We have terrible luck with picnics.” (+suggestive) [♡]

☆ ⇾  “It’s a tattoo. You have a tattoo?” [♡]

☆ ⇾ “You actually got it?” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “Jin, just get it in the car.” (platonic!reader) (+crack) [♡]

❃ ⇾ “I tried to make you cinnamon rolls.” [♡]

❃ ⇾ “Will you be quiet? You’re giving people the wrong idea.” (+smut) [♡]

[heyitssmiller]

Chop It Like It’s Hot

Chapter 9: We Brie-long Together

The boys finally talk.

To everyone who has shared their ideas for this story, I love and appreciate every last one of you! I tried to include as many ideas as I could in this chapter. This one’s for y’all! <3

Tag List: @peanut-in-the-goal @whataboutmyfries @raxelle-nite-in-gale @heyoitslysso @spookydiyharrypotterbat

Chop It Like It’s Hot Masterlist

@lumosinlove

.

Excerpt from Chapter 8 (If you don’t recognize this I would really recommend reading the last chapter!)

“We’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Logan asked, green eyes hopeful. “At the game?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” The bus driver honked the horn, clearly fed-up with waiting. “You’d better go before they leave you behind.”

Logan and Finn gave one last wave before heading towards the door while Leo began making his way back to the kitchen.

“Hey!” Logan called suddenly. Leo turned back around to look at them. “Can we take you out to dinner tomorrow? After the game?”

Leo’s stomach churned at the wording. He gathered up all his courage, took a deep breath, and asked, “Is this a date?”

Finn and Logan beamed. Leo’s heart skipped a beat.

“I sure hope so.”

Leo smiled hesitantly at Finn’s words. “You’re serious?”

“Of course we’re – ” Logan was cut off by the horn of the bus again. He whipped around to shoot it a glare. “One second.”

He fished out his phone from his pocket and quickly sent a text to the team. Don’t wait for us. Harzy and I are going to take a cab back. He then proceeded to turn his phone off. “Finn, you might want to silence your phone.”

Then they both turned to look at Leo again.

His heart skipping a beat had now turned into a full-on arrythmia.

“I honestly can’t believe you didn’t pick up on this sooner.” Finn said, still smiling. “I mean, we weren’t exactly subtle.”

Leo finally closed the distance between them, hyperaware of the two pairs of eyes following his every move. “I had my suspicions. I was just…” He sighed, looking down. “Every possible outcome seemed so terrible and I was so scared that I was going to ruin all of this.”

He reached out to grab Finn’s hand, then looked up at Logan and gently cradled his neck in his hand, thumb brushing against his pulse point. “Guess that was kinda dumb, huh?”

Logan groaned and surged forward to capture Leo’s lips with his own.

Oh.

Leo exhaled in a sigh and kissed back, moving his hand slightly so that his fingers tangled in soft brown hair. He couldn’t believe this was actually happening, holy shit. He had no idea how he’d become so lucky, but he definitely wasn’t about to question it. Logan stood up on his tiptoes, grabbed Leo’s shirt for balance, and tilted his head for a better angle.

“Oh my god, I love my life.” Finn whispered as he watched the two them. Leo smiled and broke away from Logan in order to kiss Finn with equal enthusiasm. With a muddled brain, Leo tried to sort through all the emotions he couldn’t put into words before Logan moved to kiss his neck, causing the blond to gasp. All previous train of thoughts had officially left the station.

“We – we should probably talk about this.” Leo managed to say in between kisses, his grip on Finn’s hand tightening.

“Kiss now, talk later.” Finn mumbled back. Logan hummed in agreement.

Leo couldn’t really find a flaw in their argument.

That arrythmia was quickly morphing into cardiac arrest.

After an undiscernible amount of time, though, he reluctantly had to lean back in order to breathe. Both boys looked up at him, pupils blown, and Leo smiled.

What on earth had he done to deserve this?

“As much as I’d love to stay here,” He said as he pressed a kiss to Logan’s forehead. “I know y’all probably have to get back to the hotel. You’ve got morning skate, right?”

“No…” Finn whined, pressing closer to his boys.

“I already overfed your entire team the night before a game. I’m not going to be responsible for two of their wingers being tired all day tomorrow.”

“But it’s still early. Maybe we could just walk back to the hotel?” Logan suggested. “I’m not ready to say goodnight yet.”

“It’s November.” Leo countered, then sighed when Finn and Logan just sent him blank looks. He sighed. “Northerners. I will be a freezing, miserable mess if we walk around New York City all night in weather like this.”

Logan pouted, which proved to be very distracting because Leo couldn’t stop staring at those full lips.

“We could always go back to my place for a little while.” He finally conceded, watching the other two perk up. “It’s not too far of a walk. You guys can call a cab whenever you need to leave.”

“Yes.” Finn blurted, leading the way towards the door and dragging Leo and Logan along with him. “Let’s do that.”

“Hold on – Finn,” Leo laughed, trying to pull his hand free with little success. “I need my keys.”

Finn reluctantly let go of his hand, only to immediately grab it again when Leo came back with his keys. Leo arched an eyebrow as they stepped outside into the cold. “You know I still have to lock the door behind us, right?”

The redhead sighed dramatically and released his hand again. Logan smiled and said something in French about drama queens as he stared at Finn in adoration.

It didn’t make Leo’s heart ache anymore. Instead he just felt giddy – like he would never be able to sleep tonight.

How had this become his life?

Leo quickly locked the doors to the restaurant and then laced his fingers with Finn’s again. “Ready?”

“Lead the way, Peanut.”

So they began the walk back to Leo’s apartment, side by side. Leo and Finn shared stories about the places they passed as they walked – a strange combination of childhood stories from Finn and food recommendations from Leo but Logan soaked up every word, wanting to learn as much about his boys’ city as he could.

Finn was playing with Leo’s hand when he brushed his thumb across a thick, raised scar on one finger. He held it up to inspect and pressed a gentle kiss to it. “What’s this from?”

Leo looked down at it. “Oh, I almost took that finger off in culinary school.”

“You did what?”

“We were learning how to properly butcher a cow and it didn’t end well.”

Finn looked a little green. “Oh my god, baby.”

Leo tripped over his feet and looked over at Finn, who didn’t even seem to realize what he’d said.

Leo’s heart would never recover from tonight.

“Oh, Fish, show him that one scar you got sophomore year of college. The one from that asshole who played center at Brown?”

“Oh yeah! Nut, you’ve gotta look at this one.” Finn said excitedly, dropping Leo’s hand to roll up his coat and the shirtsleeve underneath it. “So it’s the third period, we’re tied one to one. I was on a break away, right? And then...”

They continued to share stories as they walked, although Logan was finding it harder and harder to focus on anything else but the rising spots of color on both of their cheeks and Leo’s nose, god it was too cute. The three of them finally reached an apartment building and hurried inside to get out of the cold.

Leo led them to his apartment and unlocked the door before welcoming them inside with a sheepish grimace. “Sorry about the mess, I’ve been making a lot of pasta and didn’t have time to clean it up before I left.” His stomach growled loudly. “Didn’t have time to eat, either, so I’m going to make a snack too. Make yourselves at home.”

Logan looked at the kitchen that was covered in flour, cooking utensils, and several different pasta cutters. He smiled softly at the sight, although he felt a little guilty. “You really went through a lot of trouble for tonight, huh?” Finn stood by his side and wrapped an arm around his waist. Logan leaned into him slightly as they both watched Leo preheat the oven and grab a wheel of brie and fresh raspberries from the fridge. Next came honey and crackers from the pantry.

“It wasn’t too bad.” Leo said as the oven beeped to signal that it had reached the right temperature. He put the brie in a pan, drizzled it with honey, and set it in the oven. “I enjoyed it. It’s been a while since I made pasta from scratch.”

Leo led the way to the living room where they all sat down on the couch, getting as close to each other as they could. Logan finally got to kiss the pink of Leo’s cheek, which earned him a soft smile.

“We still should probably talk about this.” The blond said, snuggling close to them. “I mean, how is this going to work? We all travel all the time. I’m based in New York and y’all are in Gryffindor. That’s a lot of long distance.”

Finn sighed, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling. “I’m not going to lie to you, the season is going to be hectic. It always is. But we can visit as much as we can, and then there’s the offseason.” He smiled and poked Leo in the side. “You’ll be lucky to get rid of us then.”

“And you aren’t constantly recording new shows, are you?” Logan asked. “You could always visit or tag along to away games if you wanted.”

“I do a lot of videos from home, too. If you don’t mind me commandeering your kitchen every once in a while, I could always record them from there.”

“Peanut, literally nothing could make us happier than you taking over our kitchen.” Logan grinned at the thought, remembering the week Leo had spent in their apartment. He wanted to have that every day.

“Oh my god, we’re going to eat so much good food.” Finn sighed happily, resting his chin on Leo’s shoulder.

The timer for the brie went off. Leo rose to his feet to head back to the kitchen, shooting his boys a look as he went. “Your nutritionist is going to kill me.”

“Nah. You’ll be fine.” Finn reassured, giving Logan a lovestruck smile. He sent a similar smile back. “I’m sure you can run faster than him, anyways.”

“That’s not exactly comforting.” Leo called over his shoulder, taking the brie out of the oven and setting it on a plate with the raspberries, crackers, and more honey.

“I can’t believe a giant like you is afraid of a five-foot-nothing nutritionist.” Logan teased.

“If you’d seen the way he was glaring at me for all the pasta I cooked tonight, you’d be scared too.” Leo sat back down on the couch and picked up a cracker, scooping some warm brie onto it and adding some honey and a raspberry on top. “Now I know you’re probably full, but y’all have to try this.”

***

Logan looked over at Finn as the elevator began to slow down. “You ready for this?”

“Not at all.” He replied, but he was still smiling.

The elevator doors opened with a ding! and Logan and Finn stepped out. Their entire team was waiting for them in the hotel lobby with matching smug, teasing looks on their faces.

“You took a cab home, huh?” Talker chirped with a wicked grin.

The rest of the team erupted in cheers and whistles and cat calls, talking over each other in order to keep the teasing going.

“We signed up for this, didn’t we?” Logan asked, rolling his eyes.

Finn just kept smiling. He was going to be smiling for weeks after the events of last night. “Yep. And it’s definitely worth it.” Then he raised his voice for the rest of the team to hear, “Keep laughing while you can! We’re going to be soft, squishy romantics for at least the next month and you guys are going to have to deal with us. You’re going to be so sick of it, I can guarantee it.”

The team gave them uncertain looks.

“Now, get ready! I’m about to talk about our sweet ray of Louisiana sunshine the entire way to the stadium. I sure hope there’s a lot of traffic, because I have a lot to say.”

“Oh god. What have we done?”

“Blame Dumo - he’s the one who signed them up for that show.”

“Hey!”

***

The Gryffindor Lions Talk Show: Hosted by Butts and Kinzy

Longbottom: Looks like we’ve got a special guest in attendance tonight, folks! For those of you who don’t know, two of our finest went on a Food Network cooking competition during the offseason, and it looks like they’ve made a friend.

McKinnon: That’s chef Leo Knut. He was one of their instructors on the show. It’s nice to see that they still keep in touch. *clears her throat* There’s a link on all of our social media pages where you can watch Harzy and Tremzy be absolute disasters in the kitchen. Go check it out if you haven’t already! Now for our starting lineups!

[all-the-atelophobia]

TW: meanspo to myself, binging, mental illness— plz block don’t report if you don’t like, I need an outlet to vent

I really really hate myself. My weight has skyrocketed to 168.4 pounds. Putting my BMI at 24.1. I feel so incredibly disgusted with myself as a person. I have had ZERO self control lately and it makes me feel so gross. My waistline has ballooned. My face is fat. My arms are flabby. My legs are so wide. My underwear cut into my fat and make my love handles bubble. Especially the past two days, I have eaten so much and so many times when I wasn’t even hungry at all. I only contributed to the stretching of my stomach, and I know I’m only making it more difficult to restrict in the long run. Food isn’t even moving through my stomach like it’s supposed to. I ate spinach pizza over seven hours ago and still managed to puke parts of it up just now. My nicotine addiction isn’t even helping. I’m simply destroying my lungs and my body. My gag reflex is diminishing, and I’m paranoid Will is getting suspicious of my purging sometimes. The best thing I could do is get back to restricting. And, honestly, even that will be challenging with Will sometimes. I need to return to work and just never eat on work days. Only then will I be able to get better at losing weight. I miss the days before the wedding when I would I would see 140 on the scale, or even the few times I saw a weight in the 130s. My face was so slim and defined, my arms didn’t look flabby, and my stomach was flat. I could confidently go for a run in some shorts and a sports bra. I wasn’t even close to as disgusted with myself as I feel now. My weight is rising again like it did on the way to my highest weight ever. When I was a walking balloon and ball of fat. I’m practically already there. I need to be skinny again. I need to be fit again. Only then can my mental health improve. I won’t abuse substances. I won’t need to get drunk or have wine to go to sleep. My mood will be better because I will simply look and feel better. I am so gross. I’m a fat, ugly, disgusting piece of lard. The amount that I eat makes others go hungry. I could sustain myself with so many fewer calories than what I indulge in now. I eat my emotions like a sycophant. I succumb to the cravings of my flesh like a Neanderthal, an imbecile. I am weak. I have no strength or self control. I stuff myself until I’m full. I gorge myself on fatty, carbohydrate-saturated crap. I am a glutton. My body is filled with sin from imbibing on horrible foods. I am disgusted with how I treat myself. I don’t show myself any self love because I am killing myself with indulgence. Why do I treat myself like this? Why cannot I not condition myself to run on few calories and the promise of a skinnier body. How can I be successful once and for all? My lifestyle is not sustainable at the present. I need to guilt my mind and my soul and surround my head with the thoughts of what an ugly, fat cow I am. Even cows don’t eat as much as I do. Even animals can stop eating when they aren’t hungry. My own dog doesn’t eat her dinner if she feels full. What did I eat today? I gorged on chips. Carbohydrate rich tortilla chips fried in oil. I smothered them with processed cheese and fatty, oily sausage. The queso literally had fatty grease pooling and floating on top. And. I. Ate. It. Anyways. I’m a disgusting pig. Sausage isn’t even recognizable meat. Intestines and spare decaying flesh parts stuffed into an artificial casing. And I washed those animal parts down with fried tater tots, bursting with grease. Even those were covered in cheese and pig flesh roasted in more fat. Then, even more food because I can’t stop myself. A flour tortilla stuffed with antibiotic rich chicken breast- literally the flesh of a bird. With more FUCKING CHEESE. And I even stole a bite of Will’s burrito because my own food wasn’t enough.

[juliandev0rak]

Hometown 🤠🐴

One: Hometown – what was the place they called “home” like? What were the people like? Did your OC like it there or did they leave the first chance they got?

echoes of the past event

@arcana-echoes​

Camellia Giardini, they/them Western Venterre 14 years before the events of The Arcana

Words: 1554

Warnings: none

It’s another dusty August day on the Giardini Ranch, the heat making waves and casting a haze over the fields. The sound of cattle lowing in the distance and cicadas buzzing makes the afternoon feel sleepy and although there’s still a lot of work to do before the day is over, nobody feels much like doing it. 

Perched in a large oak tree sits Camellia, nose stuck in a book as usual. They’re far enough from the fields to avoid their family, but close enough to find their way back when it starts to get dark. Their horse Miele is grazing a few feet away, both of them enjoying a break after a morning out in the sun. At eleven years old Camellia is expected to be helping on the ranch, herding the cattle and harvesting alongside their older siblings. 

Normally, someone would have gone looking for Cam by now, with the harvest quickly approaching all hands are needed. But it had been decided that afternoon that it’s better for everyone if Cam stays out of the way during the busy season, they do more harm than good when they try to help.

Camellia can barely stay in their saddle, much less try to open and close gates or be of any use with the cattle. Even simple tasks like harvesting apples or picking vegetables are ruined by Cam’s wandering mind and Miele, who is never far from their side, who has an insatiable appetite and ends up eating more than Cam can even pick. 

Their older siblings, Cassia, Calix, Calla, and Calanthe, seem to have no problem following in their family’s footsteps, each of them seeming at home on horseback and suited to the task of farm work. Even Cam’s younger siblings, Canna, Clio, Crisanta, and Clema who is only three, manage to make themselves useful harvesting or helping Ma in the kitchen. 

It’s only Camellia who seems to have no place here, always knocking things over or forgetting to close the stable doors. 

It’s always,

 “Out of my way, Camellia!” 

“Move aside, Cam!” 

“To your left! No your other left! Camellia, what are we going to do with you!”

Everywhere they go, Cam leaves chaos in their wake. They try to be careful, to watch where they walk and to listen to instructions, but they can’t seem to do anything right. That’s why they’re sitting in a tree alone in the middle of a busy work day, it’s better this way. 

The one thing Cam seems to be good at is reading, and luckily their family home has a library that nobody else seems to care about. The book they’re currently reading is about alchemy, a topic which seems to have been a special interest of Cam’s great great grandfather Carlo who had built the house. 

The library is where Cam spends most of their free time. It’s not a huge collection, but it’s well stocked with farmer’s almanacs and books about magic, so at least they have something to read. Their family doesn’t venture into the old wing of the house much, preferring to spend their time in the kitchen or living areas which are better heated and have more ventilation. But Cam doesn’t mind the dust or the cold, they just like having a room to themself.

Bedrooms are hard to come by in the old house and Cam shares a room with both Calla and Calanthe. While Calla is nearly sixteen and the nicest of their siblings, Calanthe is thirteen and intent on making Cam’s life as difficult as possible. The rest of their siblings act similarly, teasing them for everything and exposing Cam’s every mistake to their parents. Calla is the only one who encourages Cam to study and develop their interests, the only one who tries to understand them.

Aside from reading, Cam’s biggest interest is in magic, though they tend to think of it more as a science than a supernatural force. Even at a young age, Cam knows there are some things that can’t quite be explained, and that magic is a way to look for those explanations. 

Camellia’s Ma has a bit of magic herself, able to dry clothes at the touch of a hand, heal minor wounds, and the like, but she’s never had an interest in exploring it further. When Cam had begun to show similar signs of magical talent their parents hadn’t thought much of it besides hoping it might help Cam improve at their chores. 

So Camellia has taken things into their own hands, trying to practice and hone their skills as much as possible with only the few books they can find in the library as a guide. Their siblings make fun of them for trying and failing at magic just as they do with everything else, but Cam isn’t ready to give up. 

Just yesterday they’d been practicing and had accidentally set their mother’s prized lemon tree on fire. They’d been too proud of their fire conjuring to notice that it was burning uncontrollably, and luckily Cassia had been nearby with a bucket of water. Cam had been scolded endlessly for their irresponsibility, and it had carried over to this morning when they’d accidentally let the cattle out of their gate with the flick of a hand, nearly causing a stampede.

That was when their father had decided to give Cam the next few weeks off, better to have them out of the way where they can’t cause more trouble. They’d overheard their parents talking at lunch about sending Camellia away where they could be “put to better use”. Cam had run out of the house immediately, not wanting to hear how much their family wanted to get rid of them. 

They’d jumped on their horse and made their way to the oak tree, the only place to get some peace and quiet with eight siblings always around. It’s been many hours since then and Cam’s stomach is rumbling from missing lunch, they’re considering venturing back home when they hear a voice from the distance calling their name. It’s their older sister Calla.

“Cammy, come down from the tree.” She calls, her apron is covered in flour so Cam knows she’s been sent from the kitchen to find them. 

“Why should I! Maybe I’ll live here now, everyone would like that better.” Cam says angrily, suddenly feeling like they might cry but not wanting to do it in front of their sister. 

“Oh Cam, you know Ma and Pa didn’t mean it when they said they’d send you away.” Calla frowns, the expression not looking right on her usually happy face “And if they did I’d talk sense into them.” 

“I don’t belong here, I hate cows.” Cam mutters. Calla laughs at that, not unkindly, and reaches the bottom of the tree. 

“I don’t like them much either, but there’s plenty of other things to do.” She says, “When you’re older you can do the bookkeeping, and help Ma at the market, I bet you’d be good at that! And I know Cassia and Calix hate doing it, I’m sure they'd be happy to spend more time outside.” 

“I don’t want to do the bookkeeping, I want to do magic.” Cam sighs, swinging their leg down from the branch they’re perched on.

“And you’re good at it! Maybe we can find you a teacher someday.” Calla smiles, ever the optimist. “Isn’t Aunt Angela a witch?” 

“That’s just a rumor, Pa doesn’t like her so he calls her that, remember?” Cam laughs, thinking about their mother’s sister who had disappeared mysteriously a few years earlier. She’s somewhat of an enigma to the family, none of the children really know much about her aside from the cards she sends on birthdays and holidays.

“Well maybe it isn’t, Ma has magic after all. What if her sister does too!” Calla grins, “She lives in the city somewhere, maybe you should visit.”

“Now you’re trying to get rid of me.” Cam says, only half joking.

“Cam, I would never, you know I’d miss you too much if you went away.” Calla says sincerely, offering her hand up to help Cam. “Now come down! We made ricciarelli.” 

“But it’s not the holidays?” Cam questions, the family usually reserves cookie making for winter time when everyone is stuck indoors.

“You looked like you could use some sweets, I convinced Ma to make them as a harvest treat.” Calla smiles, her blue eyes, the same color as Cam’s, shining.

If there’s anything to motivate Cam it’s sweets. They finally decide to jump down from the tree, grabbing Calla’s offered hand for help. As they put Miele back in the stables, Cam can’t help but think about what Calla said about finding a magic teacher. 

It seems too good to be true, and they don’t know if they believe their Aunt Angela is really a witch. Still, Cam has to hope that someday they’ll be able to find a place to belong. Hopefully a place with less cows and siblings. 

As they walk back to the house, Cam takes in the rolling hills and old growth trees around them in the golden light of sunset. The countryside is beautiful, and although Cam doesn’t like living here, they have to admit that at least the scenery’s nice.

[realityhelixcreates]

Lasabrjotr Chapter 74: Lessons and Dreams

Chapters: 74/?

Fandom: Thor (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rating: G

Relationships: Loki x Reader

Characters: Loki (Marvel),

Additional Tags: Post-Endgame: Best Possible Ending (Canon-Divergent),

Summary:  You are troubled by dreams, while Loki seeks ways to make things easier on you. You receive an unexpected visitor.

They day was almost upon you. The decorations were all up, your drum beat and chant were properly memorized. Several Avengers were on route, and parts of the semi-built city had been cleared and cordoned off for the festivities. Buridag was almost here.

You had your cloak and armor. You had your drum, and your parts memorized. You had your beloved prince, and your Valkyrie escort. There were some things missing though.

You wished Nanna Beth could have been here to see this. You wished someone from back home could be here to see this. Someone other than Todd, who damn well didn't deserve it, but would be here anyway. You had the feeling that, if you asked, Loki would have had him barred from attending, but you didn't want to go down that road. You were supposed to be a grand symbol of the integration of humans and Asgardians, and you didn't think you could do that honestly while at the same time excluding people just because you didn't like them, and they were awful people. Which Todd was. Ugh, why hadn't he gone home yet? He hadn't spoken to you, or tried to contact you, and he didn't even seem to be trying to cause trouble. It was weird.

And then there was the issue of the bull...you still didn't know what to do about it. You were coming to the conclusion that you would simply have to endure, and somehow go on with your life. Would it be good for you? To further experience and understand the importance of death? To become a symbolic provider of plenty for the gathered celebrants?

You would just have to clench your teeth and deal with it. It was one of those hard lessons you would have to learn as the lover-and advisor-to royalty.

You'd probably never touch a hamburger again though.

Sleep had been coming to you only reluctantly; the long, stretching moments after closing your eyes for the night were filled with thoughts and questions about Ymir's Dreamscape. You were not permitted access to the artwork-no one was. For all that it was contained within the protective confines of the shield and size-changing devices, it was still considered too precious for informal handling.

But it haunted you. You saw them painting in your dreams, shapes and concepts you had difficulty understanding. Glancing over their shoulder at the workings of a truly alien mind, and hoping not to be noticed, though you were no more than a mote in their eye.

Streaks of color. Clusters of circles. Shapes that were nearly anthropomorphic, yet wrong somehow.  They drew and drew, in between millennia long stares of contemplation, watching the asteroids clump up bigger and bigger. Occasionally they had to brush them away from their immense body.

They had more fingers than you did, and each one was stained with color, almost all the way to where they joined with the palm. Crackled veins of colored light pulsed up and down the fingers, from a bright spark on the tip of each; it flashed whenever they dragged their fingertip along the canvas they had created.

You couldn't see the whole thing: it was so big, and so far away, and they weren't done making it yet. You would always wake up before they were finished. You would see the colors more vividly in the daytime; certain hues of red and blue, purple, yellow, orange, and green-they popped out at you. Each of the great beings fingers traced its color into your eyes.

Your lessons had tapered off, to give you time to concentrate on the festival. You weren't though; artwork occupied your mind. You doodled approximations of the things you saw in your dreams, close, but never quite right.

You tapped your drum, and recited your chant, the ancient words spinning back countless aeons, and thought about colors.

                                                                        ******

Loki stood out in the paddock and watched the bull. It was a proud creature; it walked the confines of the fence, confident in its great strength and prowess, munched its hay secure in the knowledge that it could not be bested.

It died tomorrow. He would swing the sword he almost never used, and bring the feast to everyone. It wouldn't be the only one: There were pigs and chickens and sheep, already butchered and ready to go, it was just the bull that was symbolic.

“Magnificent beast, is he not, my liege?” Andsvarr asked. “Shame about the public execution though. I know it's tradition, but it seems a bit gratuitous.”

“You speak very freely today, Alarrson.” Loki said. “You lack guile. Say what you came to say.”

“Er, I apologize your Highness, I did not know how to broach the subject. Have you perhaps spoken with your good lady about the bull sacrifice?”

“Not beyond discussing it as a part of Burdag tradition. Otherwise, she has been rather busy learning her ritual.” He paused, realizing Andsvarr knew something he didn't. “Why? Has she confided something in you?”

“I would say that she has, your Highness.” Andsvarr said. “Has she brought up her discomfort with this sacrifice to you?”

“She has not...Though now that you do, I can't say I'm surprised.” That may have something to do with your increased tension lately. The way your mind had been wandering. There was a great deal of stress on you; perhaps he should have thought more about how the live sacrifice of the bull might effect you.

“Humans used to make such sacrifices very often, from what I've read.” Andsvarr continued. “It's one of the customs we shared. It's much less common now, I hear, but since she came from a smaller farming settlement, I would have thought she'd seen one before.”

Loki shook his head. “Her community is agrarian, and a monoculture at that. While I was there, I saw no livestock at all. Just endless corn.”

“Weird stuff.” Andsvarr commented. “But tasty. And so many applications.”

“It is not, I think, only the sacrifice that troubles her.” Loki said. “It is the sacrifice on top of everything else. If that doomed giant hadn't woken up...”

“If we hadn't been digging in the ice.” Andsvarr pointed out, then withered under Loki's stare.

“Don't think I haven't thought the same.” Loki said severely. “But my brother has been studying the humans effect on their own planet, and he tells me that the melting of the ice may have been inevitable. They will awaken, no matter what. Better now that we are prepared. But it shan't be before Burdag, so now I must think of what to do with him.” He gestured toward the ox. “His fate is sealed, but I wonder if there is some way I might change the presentation? Removing her from the ceremony would reflect poorly on the public, but...”

“If it pleases...” Andsvarr interrupted after the pause. “There was talk in the barracks about something one of the gate guards heard from an islandpostur man, that the bets were on whether the Gävle goat would burn this year, and when. I looked it up because some of us were placing bets. You have a hand phone don't you? If you look, you might have the same idea I did.”

“When did everyone around me decide that cryptic was the way to be?” Loki complained. But he realized that Andsvarr was allowing him to claim credit, rather than trying to dictate to royalty.

Andsvarr went off to his drills, and Loki left the ox to his munching. A quick check showed the Gävle to be a kind of effigy, composed of straw-a stand in for a real goat. This was how human civilizations got around the ritual spilling of blood. By sacrificing in the shape of the original.

He saw instantly what Andsvarr had. But how to make it work? The sacrifice and butchering was to be done right there on the spot; obviously, that couldn't be done with straw.

But a container covered in paper and flour paste, shaped like a cow...

Maybe.

He needed to find Beli.

                                                                   ******

There was a flat, dry area outside of Asgard and Trolerkaerhalla that was reserved for the landing of small planes and other aircrafts. It was cleared of snow, and roped off so that the air travelers could get inside the city as swiftly as possible, but that didn't stop the more die-hard of admirers from putting on their warmest clothing and waiting to catch a glimpse of who was coming to the festival. Some of the arrivals were no one of note to the observers, but a few of them garnered great attention; The Vision, in his bright colors, Maximoff, and Dr. Banner, as uncomfortable as ever with the cheering and applause.

They weren't the only important people to have answered their invitations: representatives and ambassadors from all around the North Atlantic Sea were coming in-from the relatively nearby Faroe, Shetland, and Orkney islands, as well as the Hebrides, whose names you were just learning.

You were at the gates to greet these esteemed visitors, speaking what little Icelandic you had managed to learn. There were a surprising number of representatives; it seemed like everywhere in the North wanted to be there-people from each of the Scandinavian countries and various areas within, to the larger island countries; Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and North Ireland.

You still didn't quite know the difference, but you knew it was important enough not to ask.

There were also people from such far-flung places as Svalbard, Greenland, Germany and Estonia. In fact, it seemed as though most of Atlantic and Baltic Europe had sent someone. To your surprise, Canada and the United States had also come, even though they didn't recognize Asgard's sovereignty.

And then there were the anthropologists, journalists, even a few 'local' celebrities. Everyone wanted pictures of or with you, and you hoped that none of these people would turn out to be horrible, since pictures of you with them were going to be on the internet forever now.

You couldn't help but side-eye the religious representatives- some Christian, and some Heathen, from all the surrounding countries, and from within Iceland itself. You weren't sure what the Christian leaders were doing here: Asgard, by its very existence, posed a great challenge to their faith, so perhaps they were facing that challenge head on? Or perhaps it was to gather information. You didn't think they would have much success in proselytizing here, as it was hard to convince people to turn to a god that wasn't well known for answering directly, when the Aesir they'd grown up with were just right there. And it was extra hard to force conversion when you didn't have a weapon capable of harming the people you were trying to force.

The Heathens didn't make you any more reassured: speaking to Sofie had taught you that there were definite problems within those communities, racism and authoritarianism chief among them. Though, like any group of people, there were plenty who didn't accept such things. It just wasn't easy to tell by looking.

None of this was anything you'd ever had to think about back home. Diplomacy, poise, professionalism, visibility, navigating complex social and political relations-what use did a simple baker have for such as these?

You hadn't baked in weeks. Your time was mostly sucked up by lessons and political stuff, and though Loki had promised you respite after the ceremonies, you still couldn't help but wonder if that part of you life was simply over.

The cooks had learned your cinnamon roll recipe, and most of Asgard was picking it up. Loki was spoiled for cinnamon rolls these days, and showed no sign of growing tired of them. You wanted to introduce him to cornbread, snickerdoodles, or even no-bake cookies, but there just hadn't been time. Everything was lessons and dreams.

The sun dipped low, and though it was still early in the day, you would be going back inside once darkness fell. It simply got too cold to stay out. Luckily, it seemed that all the visitors had the same idea, and the stream of representatives and celebrities trickled off with the fading light.

Soon there was only one plane left, tiny, even smaller than the flock of already small planes that had come and gone. Only two people disembarked, no bodyguards, and they struggled against the strong winds. At least they were properly dressed in warm coats. Coats that you recognized.

No, there was no way. No possible way. But they were here.

“Daddy!?!” You squealed, and threw yourself into his open arms. Professionalism could be damned.

[scifrey]

WORDS FOR WRITERS: The Value of Fanfiction

There’s been a lot of chatter on social media these last few weeks, recycling that trashy, self-aggrandizing, tired old “hot take” that reading and writing fanfiction is somehow bad for you as a writer.

Before we go any further, let me give a clear and definitive answer to this take:

No, reading and writing fanfiction will not make you and does not make you a bad reader or writer.

 Period.

 Why? Here’s the TL;DR version:

1)      Reading and Writing, any kind of reading and writing, will make you a better reader and writer. And it’s enjoyable, to boot.

2)      Fanfiction has been around as long as Original Fiction, so we’d know if there was any negative impact by now (spoiler alert: there isn’t.)

3)      Practice is Practice, so matter what medium you get that practice in.

4)      Comprehending and writing fanfiction is harder than writing original fiction because you have to hold the Source Media Text in your head at the same time as you’re reading/writing a different story. It improves your understanding of storytelling.

5)      No hobby, no matter what it is, so long as it doesn’t harm anyone else or yourself, is bad. And that goes double for if you decide to keep it a hobby. Not every fanfic writer wants to write original fiction, and that’s just fine. Not every hobby has to be monetized.

 Okay. But what do they mean by “fanfiction”?

 “Fanfiction is fictional writing written by fans, commonly of an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settings, or other intellectual properties from the original creator as a basis for their writing.”-- Wikipedia

 Basically – it’s when you take elements (setting, characters, major themes or ideas) of a Media Text (a novel, a movie, a podcast, a comic, etc.) and create a different story with those elements. You can write a missing scene, or an extended episode, or a whole new adventure for the characters of the Media Text. You can even crossover or fuse multiple Media Texts, or specific elements, to create a whole new understanding of the characters or their worlds.

 Similar to fanfic, you can also create fanart, fancomics, or fansongs (“filk”), fancostumes (“cosplay”), and fanfilms. These are called Fanworks or Fancrafts.

 Fanfiction is usually posted to online forums, journals, blogs, or story archives and shared for free among the public. Before the advent of the internet, fanfiction was often printed or typed, and hand-copied using photocopiers or ditto machines, and distributed for free (or for a small administration fee to cover materials) among fans at conventions, or through mail-order booklets (“zines”).

 Fanfiction has existed pretty much since the beginning of storytelling (A Thousand and One Nights, Robin Hood, and King Arthur all have different elements attributed to them by different authors retelling, twisting, adding to, or changing the stories; there’s no single-origin author of those tales.)

 There are billions on billions of fanfics out there in the world—and while a majority of them are romance stories, there are also adventures, comedies, dramas, thrillers, stories based on case files, stories about the emotional connection between characters when one is hurt and the other must care for them, historical retellings, etc. There are also stories for every age range and taste, though be sure to take heed of the tags, trigger warnings, and age range warnings as your browse the archives and digital libraries.

 As a reader, it’s your responsibility to curate your experience online.

 So why are people so afraid or derisive of fanfic?

 People who are hard on fanfic say that…

 ·       It sucks.

o   Well of course it sucks! As it’s a low-stakes and easy way to try out creative writing for the first time, the majority of fanfiction is overwhelmingly written by new and young writers. Everything you do when you first try it sucks a little bit. 

I’m sure no figure skater was able to immediately land perfect triple axels ten minutes after they strap on the skates for the first time in their lives. No knitter has ever made a flawlessly perfect jumper on their first try. No mathematician has ever broken the code to send a rocket into space after having just been taught elementary-school multiplication. So why on earth do people think that new writers don’t need to practice? I can promise you that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first rap was probably pretty shaky.

·       It’s lazy or it’s cheating.

o   Listen, anyone who tells you that writing anything is lazy clearly has not sat down and tried to write anything. Writing is tedious. It is boring. It takes hours, and hours, and hours to get anything on the page, and then once it’s on the page you have to go back and edit it. UGH. There is nothing about being a writer—even a fanfic writer—that is lazy.

o   And anyone who tells you that trying to tell a fresh, new story within the limits and confines of a pre-existing world and have it make sense is cheating, then they have no freaking clue how hard it is to be creative with that kind of limitation placed on you. It’s harder when you have a set of rules you need to follow. What you do come up with is often extremely interesting and creative because of those limitations, not in spite of them.

o   The argument that using pre-made characters, settings, tropes, and worlds to make up a new story is cheating is also complete bunk. Do those same people also expect hockey players to whittle and plane themselves a whole new hockey stick from scratch before each game? No, of course not. And yeah, a baker can grow all their own wheat, grind the flour, raise the chickens and cows so they can get eggs and milk, distill the vanilla, etc. Or a baker can buy a box mix. Either way, you get a cake at the end of the process. Whether you write fanfic or original fiction, you still get a story at the end of the process.

·       It makes you a worse writer.

o   * annoying buzzer noise * Practicing anything does not make you worse at it. And reading stories that are not edited, expertly crafted, or “high art” will also not indoctrinate you into being a bad writer. If anything, figuring out why you don’t like a specific story, trope, or writing style is actually a great way to learn what kind of writer you want to be, and to learn different methods of constructing sentences, creating images, and telling tales. Or you know, just how much spelling and grammar matter.

·       It’s not highbrow or thoughtful enough.

o   Sometimes stories are allowed to be just comfort food. Not every book or story you read has to be haute cuisine or boringly nutritious. You are allowed to read stories because they’re exciting, or swoony, or funny, or just because you like them. Anyone who says differently is a snob and worth ignoring. (Besides, fun silly stories can also be packed with meaning and lessons—I mean, hello, Terry Pratchett, anyone?)

·       It makes you waste all your time on writing that can’t be monetized.

o   No time is wasted if you spend it doing something that brings you joy. Not every hobby needs to be a money-maker and not everyone wants to be a professional writer. You are allowed to write, and read, fanfic just for the fun of it.

·       It’s theft.

o   According to Fair Use Law, it’s not. As long as the fanfic writer (or artist, cosplayer, etc.) is not making money on their creation that directly impacts or cuts into the original creator’s profit, or is not repackaging/plagiarizing the original Media Text and profiting off it’s resale, then Fan Works are completely legal. So there.

 How, exactly, does fanfic make you a better writer?

 Fanfiction…

 ·       teaches you to finish what you start.

o   The joy of being able to share your fic, either as you’re writing it, or afterward, is a big motivating factor for a lot of people. They finish because they get immediate feedback on it from their readers and followers. Lots of people have ideas for books, but how many of them do you know have actually sat down and written the whole thing?

o   Fanfic is also low-stakes; there’s nothing riding on whether you finish something or not, so you have to inspire yourself to get there without the outside (potentially negative) motivation of deadline or a failing grade if you don’t get the story finished. You end up learning how to motivate yourself.

o   Fanfic has no rules, so you write as much or as little as you want, stop wherever you think is a good place to end the story, write it out of order, or go back and write as many sequels or prequels as you like. Again, it’s totally low-stakes and is meant to be for fun, so you can noodle around with what it means to write a “whole” story and “complete” it, which teaches you how you like to write, and how you like to find your way to the finish line.

·       teaches you story structure.

o   Before you can sit down and write a story based on one of your favorite Media Texts, you’re likely to spend a lot of time consuming that text passively, or studying it actively. Either way, you’re absorbing how and why Media Text structures the stories it tells, and are learning how to structure your own from that.

o   Once you’re comfortable with the story structure the Media Text you’re working in is told, you’ll probably start experimenting with different ways stories can be told, and find the versions you like to work with best.

·       teaches you how to write characters consistently.

o   Fanfic is really hard because not only do you have to write your fave characters in a way that moves the story along, but they have to be recognizable as those fave characters.

o   This means you have to figure out their body language, verbal and physical tics, their motivations and they way the handle a crisis (fight, flight, or fawn?), and then make up the details you may need for your story that you may never see on screen/the page, like how they take their eggs or what their fave shampoo is, based on what you already know about them. That takes some top-notch detective work and character understanding to pull off.

o   Once you know how to do that, just making up a whole person yourself for original fiction is a breeze.

·       Teaches you how to hear and mimic a character/narrator voice.

o   You have to pay close attention to how an actor speaks, or how a character’s speech patterns, dialect, work choice, etc. is reflected on the page in order to be consistent in your story.

o   And all of this, in turn, teaches you how to build one for yourself.

o   I have a whole series of articles here about building a narrative voice, if you want to read more on constructing an original voice for your narrator.

·       Teaches you how to create or recreate a setting.

o   Again, like achieving character consistency, or mimicking a character or narrative voice, it takes work and paying attention in order to re-create a setting, time period, or geographical region in a fanfic—and if you’re taking your characters somewhere new, your readers will expect that setting to be equally rich as the one the Media Text is based in.

o   Which, again, teaches you how to then go and build an original one for yourself.

·       teaches how to take critique.

o   Professional writing is not a solitary pursuit. In fact, most writing is not entirely the work of an author alone. Like professional authors work with editors, critique partners, and proofreaders, some fanfiction writers will sometimes work with beta-readers or editors as well. This are friends or fanfic colleagues who offer to read your fanfic and point out plot, character, consistency, or story structure errors, or who offer to correct spelling and grammar errors. This is a great way to practice working with editors if you decide to pursue a professional career, and also a great way to make friends and strengthen your community and skill set if you don’t.

o   Many fanfic sites offer readers the opportunity to leave a comment on a fic, rather like a reviewer can leave a review on GoodReads or Amazon, or any other online store or blog, for a novel they’ve read. Sometimes these comments/reviews are 5 star and enthusiastic! Sometimes they are… not. The exact opposite in fact. As you get comments on your fanfic, and learn to ignore the ones that are just mean rather than usefully critical, you gain the Very Important Skill of learning to resist firing back at bad comments or reviews, while enjoying the good ones.  It also teaches you how to ignore drama or haters.

·       Teaches you how to exist within a like-minded community.

o   While the actual writing part of writing is solitary and sometimes tedious, nothing is ever published into a vacuum, whether it be fanfiction or original. Besides your editing/critique/beta reader group, you will also likely develop friendships, a support network, and mutuals. It’s always great to uplift, support, cheer on, and celebrate one another’s accomplishments and victories, whether the writing is fanfic or original.

·       Teaches you that it’s okay to write about things important to you, or your own identity.

o   You can change a characters ethnicity, cultural background, sexuality, religion, or disabilities to match yours, and talk about your lived life through the megaphone of that character. Or, you can insert original characters based on you, your desires, and experiences.

o   Once you’re comfortable writing in your #ownvoice in fanfic, you can approach it in original fiction, if you like.

o   See my article titled Your Voice Is Valid for more on this.

 What if I want to be a professional writer?

 Notice how I didn’t say “real writer”. Any writer who writes any kind of story is a ‘real’ writer. I mean, pinch yourself—you’re real, right? The difference is actually between being an “amateur” writer (a hobbyist who does not write for pay), and a “professional” (who is paid for their writing). Just because you only play shinny on the street with your friends, or in a house league on the weekends, it’s doesn’t mean  you’re not still as much of a hockey player as someone who plays in the NHL.

 Writing fanfiction before or at the same time as writing original fiction that you intend to sell is a great way to learn, or practice, everything I’ve mentioned above. If you read it widely, it will also expose you to different story telling styles, voices, and tropes than your reading of published fiction.

 ·       Can I sell my fanfic?

o   No. For fanfiction to remain under the umbrella of Fair Use Law, you cannot profit off your fanfiction. There’s some grey-area wiggle room around things like charging a small amount for a ‘zine or a PDF to cover administrative costs, but zero wiggleability around, say, selfpublishing your fanfic and charging heaps for it.

·       Can I “file off the serial numbers”?

o   “Filing of the series numbers” is when you take a fanfic you’ve written and essentially pull it apart, remove everything that’s clearly someone else’s Media Text, and reassembling the story so that it’s pretty much a completely original piece of creative writing.

o   Yes, you can sell these, provided your filing is rigorous enough that you aren’t likely to be dinged for plagiarism. It’s widely known that Cassandra Claire’s Shadowhunters was once Harry Potter fanfic, and that Fifty Shades of Gray was once Twilight fanfic. But did you know that my Triptych started life as an idea for a Stargate Atlantis fic? There’s lots of stories out there that were once full fics, or the idea for the novel was originally conceived for a fandom, but written as original instead.

o   So long as you’re careful to really rework the text so that it’s not just a find-name-replace-name rewrite, you should be fine.

o   Be aware, though, that the agents and editors you might pitch this novel to know how to Google. They may discover that this is a filed-off story, and depending on their backgrounds and biases, might be concerned about it. There’s no need to inform them of the novel’s origin straight off in your pitch/query letter, but you may want to have a frank discussion with them about it after it’s been signed so they can help you make sure that any lingering copywrited concepts or characters are thoroughly changed before publication.

o   Should you take down the original fic-version of the novel while you’re querying/shopping it? Well, that’s up to you, and whether you’re comfortable with an editor/agent potentially finding it.

·       Should I be ashamed of my fic, or take it down, or pretend I never wrote fic?

o   What? Why? No! I mean, I have hidden some of my most immature work, but I’ve left pretty much my whole catalogue of fanfic online and I don’t deny that I was/am a ficcer. Why? Because it’s a great repository of free stories that people can read before they buy one of my books, so they can get a taste of how and what I write. Also, you will be in good company. Lots and lots of writers who are published now-a-days started in fandom, including:

Steven Moffat

Seanan McGuire

Rainbow Rowell

Claudia Gray

Cory Doctorow

Marissa Meyer

Meg Cabot.

Naomi Novik

Neil Gaiman

Lev Grossman

S.E. Hinton

John Scalzi

The Bronte Sisters

Andy Weir

Sarah Rees Brennan

Marjorie M. Liu

Anna Todd

...and me, J.M. Frey

 How fanfic can harm.

 Like with anything else, there are ways that reading and writing fanfiction can actually harm you, or others, but it has nothing to do with the reading or writing of fanfiction in and of itself.

 ·       Some creators may prefer that you don’t (and may or may not follow up with legal action).

o   Anne Rice famously went after fanficcers in the 90s who wrote fanfic of her work, handing out Cease & Desist notices like confetti.

o   99% of creators don’t care. Those who do will generally have a notice on their websites or social media politely asking fancreators to refrain. Mostly this is due to their general discomfort over the idea of anyone else getting to play in their worlds. The best thing to do is respect that request, and find a different fandom to write in.

·       Flamewars and fandom fights leading to bullying and doxing.

o   Regrettably, just like any other community filled with people who have different favorites, opinions, and preferences, there will inevitably be clashes. It’s up to you to decide how to react to negative interactions, and how to model positive ones.

o   Don’t forget, you curate your online experience, so don’t be afraid of that block button.

o   Also, don’t be the jerk who goes after people for liking different aspects of the fandom. Everyone is entitled to interact and like a Media Text their own way. “Don’t yuck my yum,” as they say.

·       Trying to make money on other people’s IP/Media Text (law suits, etc.)

o   It doesn’t belong to you, so don’t try to make money on it.

o   There’s a grey area here in terms of selling prints/plushies/jewelry/etc. and there’s no hard line about where one copyright owner will draw the line, and another won’t. Warner Bros. owns the film rights for both Harry Potter and Hunger Games, but I’ve seen Harry Potter-themed bars spring up while fans wanting to make Hunger Game fanfilms have been shut down. A friend of mine sells hand-made fandom-inspired items at cons—there is no rhyme or reason to what she gets told to stop making and what she’s left alone on.

o   Best thing to do if you’re told to stop is just so stop, move on, and find a different fandom to be active in.

·       Writing Real Person Fanfic (“RPF”) can be considered a violation of consent.

o   This article sums it up pretty well, but basically… if you decide to write RPF, be aware that they person you are writing about is a real person, with real thoughts, and emotions, and they may feel violated by RPF. If you decide to write it, never send it to the people it’s about, and always clearly tag it so other can choose to engage with it, or avoid it.

o   Also be aware that it could ruin their love for what they do. For example: the friendships between the members of 1Direciton became strained and the band eventually disintegrated because people wouldn’t stop sending band members smutty stories or art of them having sex with one another, and it made them too uncomfortable to continue in the band.

·       Showing/sharing fanfic & fanart outside of its intended context. Fanworks are for fans, and there are definitely issues if…

o   It’s shown to celebrities/actors/creators.

  Shoving your fantasies onto the people who create or portray your fave characters is rude, and wrong, and also kinda gross. If they seek it out themselves, that’s one thing, but the same way you wouldn’t throw it at a complete stranger, don’t throw it at them. You may love the characters these people play, but they are not their characters, and they are not your friends.

  It may also really weird them out and ruin their love for what they do.

o   it’s shown to writers working on the series.

  There was a famous case where a fanficcer sent a story to a novelist, and the novelist was accused of plagiarism by the ficcer when their next novel in the series resembled the plot of that fanfic. There was a whole court case and everything.

  Because of this, writers of TV shows, books, etc. don’t want to (and often times, legally can’t) read your fanfic. They don’t want to get accidentally inspired by what you’ve written, or worse, have to throw out something because it resembles your fic too closely. Just let them write their stories the way they want, and if they choose to seek out fic, they will.

o   it’s mocked by celebrities.

  I’m not letting Alan Carr and Graham Norton off the hook. If it’s super rude and gross to shove fanworks at actors/writers/creators when you’re a creator, then it’s doubly rude for anyone to take a story or art made for a specific audience (the fans), by a specific community (the fans), lift it out of it’s context, and invite the public to mock it while also shoving it at the actor/celebrity in a place where they are literally cornered and can’t leave (i.e. the chat-show sofa). Man, it really steams me up when they do that. It’s rude and it’s tone-deaf, and it’s not fair.

  And most of the time they do it, they don’t even ask the artist or writer for permission, first, which is just…. Uuuuugggghhhh. It may be fanfic, but it was still created by someone, and you should always ask permission before publicly sharing something created by someone else.

  Grrrrrrr.

 In Conclusion

 If someone tells you that reading or writing fanfic is bad for you as a creator, tell them to get bent.

Famous Fanfic

·       Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda

·       Wicked by Gregory Maguire

·       Wicked: the Musical by Stephen Schwartz

·       The Phantom of Manhattan by Fredrick Forsyth

·       A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman

·       Sherlock by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat

·       The Dracula Tape, by Fred Saberhaugen

·       Paradise Lost, John Milton

·       Inferno, by Dante

·       The Aeneid, by Virgil

·       Ulysses, by James Joyce

·       Romeo & Juliet, by William Shakespeare

·       The Once and Future King by T.H. White

·       A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, by Mark Twain

·       The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas

·       Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith

·       Phantom, a novel of his life by Susan Kaye

·       …and so many more.

[veganrestaurantnicosia]

The 7-Day Plant-Based Food Obstacle by the # 1 Plant-Based Restaurant in Cyprus

Everybody is discussing the benefits of eating a lot of environment-friendlies, fresh fruits and also superfoods while taking in much less meat. From social media sites influencers to celebrities to nutritionists as well as food scientists, people choose plant-forward diet regimens to cleanse their bodies, minimize their environmental impact and also protect against certain wellness illness.

Plant-based diet regimens include lots of vegetables, entire grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, fruits and superfoods with little or no handling. The listing of tasty plant-based dishes is unlimited, yet eliminating meat, milk and also other animal-derived products all at once is not a simple task.

To make healthy cooking and also consuming simple, fun and also quick, start with a 7-day obstacle!

Day 1

Try switching pet protein for plant-based proteins. So, as opposed to loading your lunch or supper with poultry, red meat or pork, get the healthy protein you require from one of the below green resources:

Quinoa, farro, amaranth Tofu, soy Lentils as well as beans - the Mediterranean diet regimen at its ideal! Chia seeds Almonds Kale

Add a few of these rich in protein ingredients to every snack and meal you'll carry the first day.

Day 2

Look for neighborhood seasonal produce in Cyprus food store. Watermelons are so flavorful and also juicy in the summertime, while grapes, figs and romaine lettuce preference exceptionally in fall.

So, load your refrigerator with the best veggies as well as fruits generated by local farmers and utilize them to make the most imaginative cooking mixes.

Day 3

It's the seed day! Seeds are not just for the garden. They are superfoods that can help you preserve a solid body and mind. They use us important nutrients, like healthy fats, iron, calcium and magnesium.

Load your shakes, salads as well as main dishes with chia seeds, sunflower, hemp seeds, pumpkin or sesame seeds.

Spread them on toast, yogurt, or mix them with nuts and dried fruits to obtain a treat that will enhance your power as well as metabolic process.

Day 4

Consist of healthy and balanced fats in the 4th-day food selection. Choose avocados, coconut oil, milk, shreds as well as flakes, plant oils like virgin olive oil, cacao powder, nuts and seeds.

Plant-based fats help reduce the risk of persistent conditions, such as diabetic issues as well as heart problem.

Day 5

Do you recognize how many animal-based dairy products options exist available? Grocery stores have assigned entire shelves as well as aisles to dairy-free products that have taken the world by storm recently.

Dairy-free food options are not only for lactose-intolerant individuals and also vegans. They provide significant benefits to all health-conscious consumers, such as much better digestion as well as beautiful skin.

Milk options - Coconut milk, almond milk, rice milk as well as soya milk are all delicious cow's milk choices. As opposed to whipping cream, attempt adding coconut lotion to your cooking.

Butter choices - Olive oil is optimal for caramelizing or sautéing foods. For pleasant dishes, like pancakes, a ripe banana would certainly make your food taste far better than ever before. Lots of people utilize avocado and also coconut oil with a bit of salt for baked products as well.

Cheese & yogurt alternatives - Tofu as well as soft lotion "cheese" made from soya, cashew or coconut milk can be quickly found in several grocery stores. Inspect the grocery store's milk totally free shelves for lactose-free yogurts created by prominent yogurt brands.

Ice-cream choices - Select dairy-free, fruit-based sorbets and also ice-cream made from almond, cashews, coconut as well as various other nut-based milk. Or check out the Elysian Plant-Based Cooking Area Bar in Nicosia, Diagorou 15, to taste the most scrumptious plant-based ice-cream in Cyprus!

Day 6

Today you'll discover the remarkable world of plant-based beverages and sugar.

Instead of soft drinks and caffè cappucino, dedicate this particular day to lots of water, environment-friendly tea as well as black coffee.

In addition, attempt to satisfy your sweet tooth with a cake made of vegan chocolate, gluten-free flour, coconut sugar and also agave nectar instead of honey.

Day 7

On the last day of your plant-based food obstacle, start an authentic plant-based culinary trip out of your cooking area. If you're in or around Nicosia, look into the Elysian Plant-based Kitchen Area Bar - the very first 100% plant-based dining establishment in the heart of Cyprus' funding.

At Elysian, you'll discover the most tasty and also healthy signature hamburgers, covers with gyro, healthy smoothie bowls, pancakes, ice-cream and also refreshing salads.

All recipes as well as sweet delights are made with the finest plant-based active ingredients to serve our clients fresh, healthy and balanced, nutritious as well as savory food that will certainly revitalize and charge their system.

Read our blog about  Eating Out While Vegan

[ihearthes]

If you had to assign the songs of Fine Line to people or moments in your life, which songs would you choose? Why?

This was an interesting thought experiment, nonnie, and it took me some time to process before I felt like I could respond.  I’m not sure I responded in the way you were expecting.  

Golden: Where I grew up, we had this hill that we used to climb to the top and then we would lie on our sides, tuck our arms in and roll down the hill.  It was fun and scary at the same time because you never knew if you were going to accidentally roll into a pile of dog poo or over a painful stick or into an ant hill.  But damn, we had fun!

Watermelon Sugar makes me think of sitting under a summer sky as the sun is sinking to the west, and everyone is laughing around the picnic table, telling ridiculous stories that try to top the previous story, but no one really cares what stories anyone else tells -- as long as the belly laughs continue. 

Adore You reminds me of a fish I saved from the ocean and raised until it was too big to keep in a fish tank in my house.  Oh, wait.  No.  That’s not my memory.  What I do remember is when I had a crush on this guy who played in a local cover band.  He went on to play in a larger, more regional band before becoming a bass player for Sheryl Crow. All I wanted was to adore him. Not that he knew I was alive.  LOL. 

Lights Up is that feeling where you get a new job that includes more responsibility than you’ve had before.  You keep pinching yourself because you cannot believe that someone has put this much faith in you. Yet you can’t stop strutting with pride as you walk to work with a giant grin on your face.  I’m forever questioning the judgment of people who hire me, terrified they will realize they made a giant mistake.  🤣

Cherry:  That petty moment when you scroll through an ex’s Instagram or Facebook page and keep driving by their house checking to see if the lights are on. It’s that shameful “I miss you now that you dumped me” moment -- even when you know that the two of you are better off apart. Back in the day before mobile phones maintained everyone’s name and phone number, you used to be able to call someone just to hear their voice saying “Hello,” and they wouldn’t know it was you because there wasn’t caller ID.  Not that I ever did ANY of these things.  Nope.  Not me. 

Falling: That moment of self-loathing when you think you’re over that person weeks or months after the break-up when you cannot stop yourself from thinking about them.  Your thoughts are full of “what ifs”.  For me, it was this guy named Andrew.  He was my “what if” for a very, very long time where I kept thinking, “What if we had stayed together? What would life be like now?” It’s a dangerous downward spiral that is hard to shake yourself out of (or always was hard for me to shake myself out of).  Dark reverie indeed. 

To Be So Lonely: Haha. This is truly the moment when I get caught by said ex by either accidentally liking a post on Instagram or driving by his house while he was actually outside and saw me.  It’s the “I’m dying of embarrassment, but I’m going to put on my bravado so you have no idea.”  In fact, I’m going to attack you for catching me cause how dare you live your normal life?!

She: This song always makes me think of this kegger I went to in college where I ended up getting into the most existential conversation ever about everything you’re NOT supposed to discuss: politics and religion.  She is that song playing in the background of that conversation as the group pretends to be spouting important ‘truths’ but really everyone is drunk off their ass.  We ended up at Village Inn at like three in the morning eating chocolate chip pancakes with extra bacon and sausage. What a night! 

Sunflower Vol. 6: Dancing in the kitchen in my socks while my sister and I bake Christmas cookies and get covered in flour and end up with tummy aches from the combination of laughter and eating raw cookie dough. 

Canyon Moon: There used to be this field behind my house when I was a kid.  It was surrounded by barbed wire, and it was home to several wild blackberry bushes.  When my mom wanted to get rid of us, she would send us out with buckets to pick blackberries.  Naturally, more ended up in our mouths than in the buckets, and we would have to watch out for the cow patties.  My arms and legs would end up scratched from the barbed wire, and my nose would end up sunburnt, but holy shit, what fun days those were!

Treat People with Kindness: July 14, 2018.  Los Angeles.  I met a bunch of amazing Harries at that show, and the mood was high and lovely.  We were all there for the same reason, and fuck -- that show was worth every penny spent to get there.  What a night!

Fine Line: Okay, so this one is going to sound weird.  It doesn’t remind me of a specific time or place, but it makes me think about the fact that we’re all dichotomous.  We think we belong in a certain box labeled with whatever society has decided (tall, short, fat, thin, smart, dumb, funny, beautiful, talented, ignorant, boring, etc.) we are.  But we’re multi-faceted humans, and we each walk a fine line between what society thinks we are based on common labels and who we truly are -- unique and lilting and perfect. 

My apologies if you wanted something different, but these are the thoughts that came to me.  Thanks for the ask.  I feel fairly confident not many people will read this, but it was a fun exercise to put into words.  

[mizumi-xi]

Sweet Treats

Author’s Note: okay so any writing in ‘these’ is thoughts that the character is thinking it is also been put in a different style so you know and thanks for reading.

Origin: story of seasons (3ds game)

Word count: 1,909

Pairing: Raeger x FReader

Warnings: none really just the harsh conditions that come back from reading my writing.

Summary: (y/n) decided to make Raeger a treat on the anniversary of the time they became friends.

~(y/n) POV~

I took myself out of my bed going over to my calendar, identifying the date as the seventh of summer, recognising it’s an anniversary of mine that I hold dear to my heart, nodding to myself. I wandered over to my closet looking through each of the outfits that I own, discovering the blue and white dress I own what I had Picked out last night to wear for this day.

Taking the hangar out of the closet, I scurry to my bathroom to change out of my nightwear and into the bluebell dress. I set my dirty clothes in the hamper before i exit the bathroom once I’m into the wide area of my house I travel to my full-length mirror to style my (h/l) (h/c) hair.

Turning to face my kitchen, I raise my left hand onto the counter as I reach up to the cupboard on the wall to get down my recipe book with my right hand. Holding it in both my palms, I set the bulky book on the counter. Smiling as I scanned the cover “(Y/n)’s book of deserts by Raeger” flipping the pages scanning each open till I pause on page 29 seeing a small design of a pinkish-red pie with a golden pastry topped with pale green rosettes of cream circling the rim of the pastry.

“That’s the one” I murmur to myself as I learn the ingredients nodding to myself as I placed my apron on as I pick up the equipment that I needed placing them on the counter. Turning my head to the fridge I stride up to it gripping the door before opening it scanning the contents of the fridge spotting the watermelon, watermelon juice, kiwi, double cream, condensed milk, lard and margarine taking each of them out of the fridge and setting them onto the counter I move to the cupboard taking out flour placing it beside the other ingredients.

I glance to the clock before I choose the 4-inch pie dish since I was simply making it for one person moving to the side while I prepare the pastry humming a light tune that ends just as I finish preparing the pastry which I then roll up and cling film and set in the fridge to rest.

Grabbing the condensed milk, watermelon, watermelon juice, and cream, I commence on the filling of the pie crust, forming a watermelon cheesecake mix without the cheese. I stare at the bowl with the batter in uttering a little “very pale” opening a draw beside me stumbling through the things before I pull up natural red food colouring.

Opening the vial up I drop a singular drop into the mix before stirring it to catch the colour get sharper as it wound up a colour akin to that of what a watermelon on the inside looks like moving it to the side to take the pastry out of the fridge to assemble the crust before baking it looking at the complete pie components I realise I’m missing an essential part of the pie quickly whipping up the kiwi flavoured cream I check on the time and look in the oven at the pastry taking it out with oven gloves as the pastry turned a golden colour.

After assembling the pie, I set it in a small white box before noticing two hours had occurred; I put the box in the fridge and rush out of my home to take care of to my animals and field. Walking to my field, I take my watering can and sprinkle the strawberries, speaking to them as I say small encouraging comments to the plants.

“That’s it become big my strawberries you will be the tastiest in town” once I finish watering the plants I waddle over to my chicken hut to look after them arranging the grain into the trough I continue to check on the cows spotting my favourite one Cherry a reddish-brown cow running up to her I pat her head as she happily moos.

“Cherry darling guess what day it is” cherry moo’s as if she can understand me “yes that’s right I will travel straight thereafter I have looked after you all” Cherry lets out another moo as she gradually turns away so I could look after them. Placing water in the water trough, I wipe my forehead a little with my forearm and wander out of the cow shed and back into my home to read the time.

Taking a big inhale of air at what the time is now “oh sheesh it took four hours to cover that” mumbling to myself I glance at myself in the mirror before fixing my attire and picking up the box from the fridge in my hands flying out of my house.

Arriving at the entrance of the central part of town, I search around before I rush to the only restaurant in the centre. Looking at the door I spot a closed sign on the door knocking at it lightly I wait before the door gently opens to a dirty blonde haired male in a chef outfit smiling.

“Ah (y/n) what do I owe the pleasure of your arrival at my shop on this day” tilting my head to the side as a cheeky smile appears upon my face as my eyes narrow.

“What can’t your friend come over for an impromptu visit” he shakes his head, chuckling a moment before opening the door further, stepping to the side with his arm out pointing inside. Walking past him into his restaurant, I look to the island bar moving up to it, setting the box on the counter and hopping onto the seat.

Raeger closed the door, striding over to where I was sitting spotting the box that I had set “oh pray tell what you have brought over” I stare astonished at him, my mouth settling into an o shape.

“I-well-um, did you forget today is the anniversary of when we became friends two years ago” a shocked look sprung onto his face before it transformed into a sad one.

“Oh, it is I’m sorry I have got nothing for you I’ve been rather busy” I shake my hand about, laughing softly as I open the box, removing the small pie.

“That’s okay I brought you something that I made. Do you have vanilla ice cream” his face lights up at the sight of the pie then nods running off to the freezer to bring the ice cream as I pick up a plate and set the pie on it out of the tin.

“Here I go it” you spot him rushing back as his words spill out as I take the ice cream out of his hands my fingertips grazing his as I drag it back to scoop up ice cream and plant it in the middle of the pie.

“There ya go it’s a watermelon pie with kiwi cream and vanilla ice cream its to cool you down in this hot summer heat.” he glances up to me with a modest flush to his face before peeking at the pie gasping.

“You used the recipe book I made you” he has a small taste of the pie before staring at me again, stunned. “this is a cheesecake filling,” I hum a little in agreement.

“Yup, I didn’t like how it was gelatine so I produced a cheesecake filling without cheese so it could bring the flavour out better.” he studies the pie before eating more of it humming.

“I guess I know what I could make you do you mind waiting” he stops eating the pie taking the plate with him and placing it in the sink “you’re wonderful at baking you realise that (y/n)” I giggle at his compliment and settle my head against my hand.

“I learnt from the best. Isn’t that right Raeger” winking at him he spins his face away as he hesitates over a few words as he’s creating something “y-yes you di-did I recall when you first asked me to teach you to how to cook you had the same dress on and your hair was longer than it is back then”.

“Do you recall everything back then?” I interrogate him as he puts something in the oven before he twists his entire body to me.

“of course I recall everything it was the fifth time we had met when you requested that. You even suggested we could practice at your home since you realised I don’t like people who aren’t dear to me in my kitchen.” He draws a deep breath before he proceeded, “it’s also the first time I stayed an outfit I genuinely loved but solely on that peculiar person”.

My head tilts to the side as a wrack my brain, struggling to recall who we passed by when traveling to my house, before removing my head from my hand, hitting my fist into my open palm.

“Oh, Angela yeah she was sporting a nice dress that day I didn’t realise you liked her.” he peered at me with a sad expression before exhaling.

“That’s not wh” the timer on the oven had sounded out as he opens the oven to take the creation out as he gradually assembled what he was creating “close your eyes please (y/n)”.

“Oki” I close my eyes as I feel Raeger's presence in front of me before a small cold item was situated against my lips. “Open up please,” a murmur comes from him as I open my mouth slightly as he sets the treat in my mouth as his fingers rest against my lips as their warmth spread over my lips.

“Soft” I open my eyes hearing the murmur of words said but not following them while I savour the taste of the treat in my mouth “huh what did you say” he sways his head, bringing his hand away.

“Nothing, nothing, just savour the gifts” nodding I pop another in my mouth to devour it, beaming as he just watches me.

“They’re amazing you realise that are these a new item on the menu I bet many individuals have loved them the milk chocolate goes nicely with the watermelon gelatine and the kiwi flavoured chocolate goes nicely with the vanilla shortcake,” he looks at me shocked before his face comes back to natural.

“I just came up with them you gave me the thought and no they won’t go on the menu and I’m truly shocked you could taste every flavour,” he looks at the plate of chocolates then back up to me placing his palm on the side of my face rubbing his thumb against my plush cheek “your so wonderful (y/n)”.

~Raeger POV~

‘She’s so beautiful I love how the dress she’s wearing is what drove me to notice her. I love how she asked me to teach her how to cook and I love how every new recipe I create is because I dreamed of her. She is my friend and my first love and I can’t wait to express to her how much I cherish her’.

“No, you are my favourite chef you are incredible” she beams up at me as my palm stands on her soft cheek.

‘She will be the death of me one day’.

[sandrawrites13]

my world | | mark fischbach x reader

request:  Do you do Mark x Male! Readers? If so, can I request one where Mark and male!reader go on a small trip together and Mark proposes? Sorry if this is too much! I love your writing a whole lot! 💖

of course mark x male readers are game!! this request warmed my heart so much that i had to go watch proposal videos. and then i cried. and now i’m writing this, and will probably cry again. also thank you so much!! :) 

warnings: YO GUYS IT’S A GIRL!!! Y’ALL ARE FATHERS IN THIS ENJOY :) also bullying and sexuality discrimination from stupid haters :(, but it’s cute i promise :). 

when you and mark both came out to the public, your fanbase took it very well. there were rumors going around before you two came clean, anyway, and it led to a lot of speculation (and hashtags) to trend on twitter, which mostly encouraged your decision to make a video exposing your relationship. 

as usual, however, when there were fans, there were haters. and this time in particular, though there weren’t many of them, the ones that hated on you hated on you. they made fun of every insecurity you had. 

they called you all the names in the book, especially fag**t. that was their favourite, and it filled you with so much anger that people had the audacity to say that to another human being -- but mark was always there to calm you down, by your side, the epitome of taylor swift’s you need to calm down music video. 

you also had by your side ally, who was the love of your life and the love of mark’s as well. you were grateful that no hate was directed towards her, half because you two kept her out of the public (to the best of your abilities), and half because she was only six-years-old and had already dealt a lot in her life. 

her mother, your best friend -- lynne -- had fatally died in a car accident when her daughter was two. she left her only child, allison (who you nicknamed ally), under your care and she grew up with you as her father. 

your hole in your heart was filled with ally, but more of all filled with mark and her combined, of whom you started dating just seven months after adopting the young girl. 

you caught mark multiple times braiding her blonde hair, watching as she glistened proudly in the mirror: “daddy! daddy! look! papa is making me look pretty!”, a giant smile abroad her face. 

there were other times he gave her makeovers. or times where you would walk in the kitchen, examining thoroughly the sight of cake batter all over the floor and walls, flour and sugar over your daughter’s face and a plastic crown on her head. your boyfriend smiled back at you, waving his hand and greeting, “sup, y/n.” 

that’s what made you fall in love with everything -- with the whole situation. your daughter. your boyfriend. nothing could be better. 

except of course, for a very needed vacation and a break from youtube. 

which was mark’s idea originally. he wanted to take you and ally out to see the countryside, driving from california to kansas and staying on a farm for an entire weekend. 

you loved that idea, personally. 

you grew up on a farm when you were little, and you never really wanted to move to the city until you grew up, and adopted ally. after you started dating mark, it became clear that you weren’t going to be going anywhere soon. 

but now, you were finally returning back to your home. to your favourite place. 

ally was especially excited, repeating like a mantra that she was gonna see “horsays!” (on account of her speech impediment you just found too pure to fix for at least another year). 

mark, chuckling from the front seat, wrapped an arm around you while you drove, leaning his head on your shoulder. “you excited?” he asked. 

the man never failed to make you blush, as evidenced by the blood rushing to your face as you peered at him, glancing just from the side at the sudden conversation when you had admittedly been zoning out. “i’m so excited, baby,” you replied. 

“good. because i am with the two people i love so much!” he exclaimed, booming, as he sat back up in his seat. “and we’re going to go see horsays. and doggies. and chickens. and. . . what’re they called again? the ones that go moo?” 

“a cow!” exclaimed ally from the backseat. 

“that’s right,” mark said, pretending to hit himself in the forehead. you chuckled, rolling your eyes playfully, encouraging him to kiss you on the cheek. “and ally, since you’ve been so good in the car. . .” 

her eyes went wide from the back, her mouth agape as she narrowed her eyes. “daddy. . . do you mean. . .?” 

you laughed, already knowing what was about to happen before he replied, as he fished narrowly in his bag, rummaging for a moment before stripping a thin bar covered in a sleek wrapper. 

“chocolate!” she screeched. you jumped in reply, raising an eyebrow to your boyfriend. 

“you’re terrible,” you mouthed, grinning. he merely waved you away, ignoring your critiques to his childish parenting. “mark fischbach, if you give her that--.” 

“thanks, daddy!” she cheered, now opening the bar. you sighed. 

“you know she’s spoiled, right?” you asked. he once again returned to wrapping an arm around you, kissing your cheek softly. 

“oh, handsome,” he argued. “you know you are too.” 

you didn’t respond to him, still in the midst of a blush covering your cheeks as you turned into the secluded farm. 

the darkness was only semi-alluding the lights that were shining from the back of the farm, illuminating the beautiful landscape and the barn behind it. ally, a mouth full of chocolate, stared in awe as, when you approached, you noticed the sight of some tables around and food planted on top of them. 

“they must have had a party,” you muttered, turning behind you. “alright, come on baby one and baby two. we need to go to sleep. we can clean all of this up in the morning.” you walked out of the car, approaching the trunk. “alright guys. i’m just gonna get the blankets.” 

you heard mark mumble silently in agreement, and then his voice disappear as he fell farther from you -- away. you, however, spent your time fishing through the trunk, trying to find the blankets and the pillows you had brought (since ally was too terrified to sleep without ‘blankie’.)

“hey mark, do you know where blankie is?” you asked, pushing some of the other ones you brought to the side to try and find it. “mark?” 

there was no answer, filling you with slight annoyance as you continued to look. ally would just throw a fit if you didn’t have her blanket, and God knows that you would not want to hear it. 

“mark,” you repeated, harsher as you knelt on the side of the trunk opening, trying to get a good look of the entire inside. “mark!” 

still, there was no response, causing you to whip around and narrow your eyes. however, you were numb and frozen when you witnessed the scenery behind you now transformed, all of your friends behind you and mark on one knee. 

ally was by his side, her mouth opened wide in shock as she stared between the two of you. 

immediately, you almost collapsed back into the trunk, your eyes watering with tears as you realized what was happening. jack, felix, and ethan were muttering to themselves with giant smiles on their faces, the rest of your friends doing similar. 

“y/n,” he began, making your heart melt. “y/n l/n, i love you more than words can describe. you are everything to me. you are my universe.” there was a pause as he took a shaky breath, tears now filling his own eyes. “since the moment you came into my life, i’ve learned what happiness was. you made me remember the good in the bad and you helped me learn to love the little things. you are my everything, and i will never be able to give you what you have given to me. ever. but i can try.” 

pulling something out of his pocket, you covered your face as tears rolled down the sides of your cheeks. 

“y/n, the most handsome boyfriend i have ever managed to have, and the most amazing, caring, intelligent father that has ever graced this earth. . . please, make me the happiest man on earth, as cliche as that sounds, and please, please, take me to be your husband. will you marry me?” 

those words came out like a dream, floating together in the air before you collapsed to your knees in front of him, pulling him into a deep kiss and letting your body melt with his. “yes, mark,” you whispered out loud, gasping for air from the amount of tears. “yes, yes! yes, i’ll marry you!” 

cheers were let out, you holding each other, smelling each other’s scent, laughing and crying all in the same time, hearing jack’s loud voice exclaim that bob owed him fifty bucks that mark would pop the question first. 

that was until you heard a tiny voice from besides you. “what does marry mean?” 

when you looked up and were locked with the sight of your daughter, you looked up to your fiance, watching him force a smile on his ecstatic face, wiping his tears. standing for only a moment, you watched him get up only to kneel back down and take ally’s hands in his own. 

“ally,” he whispered quietly, holding her face and instructing her to look at him in a gentle, calm voice. “ally, i need to tell you something, baby.” he paused. “i’m not your biological daddy, okay? and i wasn’t there for you when you were born. your other daddy was.” 

you remembered the day you sat in the waiting room, waiting for your best friend because her shitty of a boyfriend decided not to come. 

you recalled the moment she was born, and you also remembered the day that the will was read, and you were given custody of the young girl. 

“but,” he interrupted. “i need to ask you if you’re okay with me being your real daddy. and letting me be there for you my entire life. being there for both of you. for daddy and you. i’m asking you if you’re gonna let me watch you grow into a beautiful, young lady, and protect you from everything.” 

all of you were now bawling at this point, as you watched him speak to her in anticipation as to what she would say. 

“please let me be your daddy, baby,” he said, the last part hushed. “is it okay if we’re all a big family?” 

ally, unable to say anything, wiped her tears and nodded hysterically, making mark’s voice let out a, “yeah?” and then a following, “yeah. yeah!” before grabbing her and pulling her off the ground, twirling her in a hug. 

you felt yourself collapse emotionally, and before you knew it, you were running towards them too, yanking them in a similar hug and listening to their heartbeats against your head. 

“i love you,” you heard mark whisper in the middle of screams from your friends. “God, i love you so much.” 

“i love you too,” you gently voiced back. and you did. 

they were your family. 

your love. 

your world. 

[peacefulheartfarm]

Prepare for Disaster

Prepare for disaster is a motto I grew up with living in rural Michigan. Back in the day, when the power went off due to a winter storm, it could be off for several weeks. Today we have much better electrical systems and our current provider has kept us in good shape. We have never been without power for more than a few days. But even that can be disastrous if we are not prepared. Today I want to talk about how we prepare for disasters that may or may not happen.

First, let me take a moment to say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. Thank you so much for your time and attention. I appreciate you all so much and I couldn’t do it without you. It’s midwinter and life goes on here at the homestead.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates

The cold weather has been consistent for weeks. Not too cold, getting just below freezing at night and 40s and sometimes 50s during the day. This is a typical Southwestern Virginia winter. I look for a few days of freezing weather sometime in the near future. A typical winter will have at least four or five days when the temperatures drop all the way to the teens and occasionally single digits overnight. That four or five day stretch usually happens at least once and sometimes twice, usually in January. It hasn’t happened yet. Still waiting for that shoe to drop. We did have some unseasonably cold weather in December, but January is proceeding right long the normal line.

Cows

The cows are handling the cold weather as they always do. It amazes me that these animals can go through the winter without seeming to notice it too much. I go out there and the cows are moseying around, eating grass and/or hay looking like they don’t have a care in the world. If they are eating, they are laying down, relaxing and chewing their cud, again, like they haven’t got a care in the world. Personally, I don’t handle cold very well, but I’m so glad they do.

Donkeys

The donkeys handle the cold very well also. Their coats are full and thick. Just about everyday they come up to the milking shed looking for a treat. Scott or I will give them a small handful of sweet feed and a petting. When they are finished, they head on down to the creek and out to pasture with everybody else. Our donkeys are the friendliest animals on the homestead.

Sheep and Goats

The sheep and goats always prepare for disaster in winter. They have really thick coats. Our goats are cashmere goats. They have a really thick undercoat of cashmere that they shed in the spring. Our sheep are hair sheep which means they also grow a thick coat of wool and shed it in the spring. No shearing for these sheep. I was watching the ewes graze in the front pasture. Just like the cows, not a care in the world.

Quail

The quail are even more amazing to me. They have feathers and I can’t see that they have any extra feathers for winter. Whatever they have is what they have and that’s it. My ladies and gents have it better than they would out in the wild. There is a box shelter where they can get completely out of the wind. They can huddle together for added warmth. Sometimes I go out there and they are kind of fluffed up, but other than that, not a shiver. Nature is amazing.

Garden

This time of year is the time to plan for the spring garden. What plants will we grow? How many? What will be rotated to another location? And so on. I’m a bit behind on getting started with that but I just can’t seem to drum up the energy. It’s too cold and I don’t want to think about going out in the garden when it is cold. Anyway, I’ll get to it in the next couple of weeks.

Creamery

The creamery roof is nearly complete. Scott is putting the finishing touches on the peaks. He spent much of the day yesterday rigging up a way to safely move around up there. Today he is full steam ahead getting those ridge caps completed.

Still to come is all of the ends of the building above the ground floor. I think they are called dormer walls or something like that. It’s basically the area from the top of the block building to the peak of the roof. All of that will be covered in the same metal as with the roof.

It’s cold out there every day. And every day Scott is out there working in it. He doesn’t mind the cold and he prepares for it with layers of clothes.

Preparing for Disaster

Speaking of being prepared, let me get into how we prepare for disaster. Some of it anyway. I could probably talk all day long about how we created and executed our plan. Some of it is still in progress.

No matter where you are in the world, there is always something you can do to prepare for disaster. You simply never know when power is going to be out or something disrupts the flow of goods. For instance, I got caught short this summer because there was a shortage of canning jars and lids. In the end, I did have enough for what I needed to save our harvests, but it was touch and go sometimes. Recently I came across canning jars while in town and I purchased just about everything they had on the shelf. Still no lids but I got a better stock of jars than I have had in the past. We learn from our mistakes.

Let’s start at the beginning. The first thing to stock up on is water.

Water

You should always have water on hand or access to clean water. Making this happen doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Today, we have a hand pump connected to our well so we can always get water when needed whether we have power to the well pump or not. Still, we keep water on hand in the house. While it’s easy to go out there and hand pump some water, it is still easier to reach back in a closet or go into the spare bathroom and get some water for cooking, cleaning and flushing.

The recommended amount of water you will want to store is 7.5 gallons of water per person per month. A family of four would have 15 gallons of water stored if preparing for a short-term disaster lasting a few days or weeks. That’s where you always start. How much do I need for 2 to 4 weeks? Then get it done. You have the blue 5-gallon containers at Lowe’s, Home Depot, the grocery, and so on. Invest in a few of those and you are good to go. Strapped for cash? Buy one a week or even one a month. Your stored water will need to be refreshed regularly. Either use it or pour it out, but replaced what you have stored in the containers every 6 months or so. You don’t have to get there all at once. But you do want to get your water situated first.

Food

The second item is food. This one is a little trickier and takes quite a bit more time. So, start now. There are many methods for building up your food stores. Set several goals with this one.

How Many Days to Prepare for Disaster?

First, how many days of food do you need to store? That depends. Start with a week, then go to a month, then three months and so on. Ideally, you get to a place where you have a full year’s worth of food stored for your entire family. That may seem like a lot and it actually is a lot. But for my peace of mind, I wanted a full year of food. You may make your cutoff date sooner – and some even plan for longer.

What Food Should Be Stored?

Second, don’t store anything your family won’t eat. What are you eating right now? That’s what you want to stock up on. Forget the MRE’s and whatever else might sound great or someone might try to sell to prepare for disaster. What you want is food that your family regularly eats. Most foods have a shelf life of at least a year. If you rotate what you have saved, using the oldest stuff first and adding back what you have used in the back of the shelf, you can come up with a system that keeps you stocked up at all times. This is the first in, first out method. Instead of having one box of cereal, you have 12, or whatever you determine is the right number. Buy an extra box or two whenever you shop, or whatever you can afford. Build up slowly. You’ll be there before you know it.

Bulk Foods

One of the best ideas for food is to store some products in bulk containers. I’m talking about beans, rice, sugar and wheat or flour. You can live a long time on beans and rice. And if you are into making your own bread, having wheat or flour on hand at all times is a great idea. This is another place to build slowly.

The pieces you need to do this part effectively are: 5-to-6-gallon food-grade plastic buckets, mylar bags, oxygen absorbers and a standard household iron. The mylar bag goes in the bucket. The beans, rice, wheat, or flour go in the bag. Toss in a couple of oxygen absorbers and seal the bag with your iron. The oxygen absorber will suck out all the oxygen in the bag, And the sealed bag without oxygen will keep the food fresh for up to 30 years. I said 5 or 6-gallon buckets, but you can use smaller buckets. I like the larger buckets because I can buy 40 or 50 pounds of beans or rice and it fits in the larger bucket.

Canned Goods

Let’s talk about canned goods. These can also last for a very long time – not so much as the beans and rice, but still a long while. Those “use-by” dates on the can are not expiration dates. They are CYA dates for the manufacturers. As long as the can is not damaged and the seal is in place, canned food in jars and metal cans will last for years. Food in jars needs to be kept out of the light. And all canned foods need to be kept at room temperature or lower. Keep that in mind when you are planning where to store your stuff. Strapped for space? Under the bed works pretty well. Use that cabinet space up high that is empty because you can’t reach it easily. Find used shelving at yard sales and put it up in your garage. Lots of ways to make the space you need.

And don’t forget the can opener. Not one of those electric ones. No! a hand-operated can opener is needed.

Self-Protection

I’m not going to talk about this one because I’m not educated enough to know what to say. We do have weapons and ammo and such but Scott handles all of that. I’ll just mention it here and say find someone who knows what they are talking about with this and follow their podcasts or YouTube videos. It’s definitely important. And don’t forget to get the proper training. It’s no good to have weapons you don’t know how to use safely and care for properly.

Energy Needs

This is the last piece I’m going to touch on today. There is so much to cover on this topic I couldn’t possibly do it justice. So, I’m just going to give you a bit of information to get you started. Every person’s situation is different and your energy needs are going to be different.

Gasoline

Keep extra gasoline on hand. That’s an easy one. We try to keep 12 containers at all times. I must say, we are not as efficient at this as could be desired. If you have 12 containers of gasoline labeled one each month, rotate through that stock at a particular date in the month. In other words, in January, you empty the container labeled “January” into one of your car gas tanks. Pick a day of the month that you do this. The first, 15th or last day of the month are good choices. Take the empty container and refill it. That newly filled container won’t be emptied for a year and it will require a fuel stabilizer to keep it fresh and usable.

Generator

Having a generator that has enough power to run your refrigerator and freezer is a great tool. Again, add these things as you can afford them. Get your food stores up to a couple of weeks at least before moving on to a generator. Your generator will need to be started once a month to keep it in tip-top shape and so you know it is in good working order. You don’t want to be without power and find out that your generator is no longer working.

Living off the Grid

You may decide to go completely off the grid – or at least be prepared to go completely off the grid. That takes a great deal of planning and the choices are endless so I’m not going to go into that topic. But I will say keep in mind that, while solar sounds really good, if you don’t live in a really, really sunny place it may not be the option for you. There are other options.

Having a wood burning stove is always good. At the very least you can use your gas grill to cook meals – if you have planned ahead and have an extra propane tank or two. We took out our electric stove and put in a gas stove. The oven won’t work but the surface burners can be lit with a match. Keep some of those on hand. I like using what I’m used to using for cooking, so this works for me. We have the wood burning stove as well – complete with an oven. I really should learn how to cook on that thing in the event we run out of propane.

Communication

This is the toughest one to get prepared for in my opinion. How do we communicate? As long as the cell towers are up and running and your phone battery is charged, we can communicate. Well, we would have to climb way up to the top of our property and then maybe, just maybe, we would get a cell signal.

Right now, we have all sorts of social media where we can find out what is going on with family, friends and co-workers. But what if you didn’t have that? How would you get in touch with people? Could you get in touch with people? This topic requires some deep thought, lots of planning, and practice sessions to make sure your plans work. You don’t want to be isolated.

There is a significant amount of banning of communication going on in the large tech communities. They have a great deal of power. Indeed, more power than the US government. They can turn off anyone with the push of a button. They can make you disappear. You might want to consider broadening your reach to smaller platforms if you can find one that works for you and your family.

I have created a page on a site called Locals. You can find me on locals by searching for peaceful heart farm. Once you’ve joined my community, you can post whatever you’d like on my page. We can have a conversation and share insights.

I think I’m going to end there.

Final Thoughts

The animals go on and on and don’t give a thought to whether there is power to heat the house. And as long as the grass and hay keep coming, they are good to go. For us, it’s more complicated. As I said, I don’t like being cold. I’m grateful for our wood burning stove. It saves on electricity in the winter and is quite useful in a pinch for cooking.

I’ve spent years gathering food, both for ourselves and now saving up in case our neighbors are not prepared or not financially able to make it happen. And our water supply will also help out – and indeed has – helped out our neighbors. There is so much more to prepare for disaster but these two pieces are key. Water and food. Start today. You just have no idea when the power lines are going to go down with a winter storm, a hurricane, tornado and so on. It may be only a couple of days but it very well could be weeks. Remember hurricane Sandy and what a disaster that was and not so long ago.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please hop over to Apple Podcasts or whatever podcasting service you use, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. If you like this content and want to help out the show, the absolute best way you can do that is to share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content. Let them know about the Peaceful Heart Farmcast. And please give locals.com a try.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Check out this episode!

[shiro-0197]

Omg they sound really good! I'm glad you guys got to bake :D I saw Kuro's cookies, 😝😝 they're cute. I'm sure yours tastes and looks really good too!! Send me pictures when you bake next time :D makes me wanna bake too tbh 😭😭 I should quickly bake some brownies before New year's. CINNAMON. CINNAMON IS BAE. I carry a stick of cinammon in my pocket everywhere because the smell calms me down so much ‼️‼️‼️ (anyways, due to the added cinammon, I now deem your cookies AMAZING. even if they don't have choco chips >:)

oh noes I hope you get better chairs next year 😔😔 it's no fun to constantly fidget when you're sitting. Added pain, I swear. I usually just lean back on my chair so much, I'm constantly on the verge of falling. Because Angel sits behind me :D she's always asking me to be more careful skdjsksk 😷

Aw you're right, those do bring problems of their own. I hope to be unlike those doctors, in the future. And when I am, you can bet I'm gonna prescribe you the right stuff 😾😾💖

you're so precious, I wish you all the best !! Your mom sounds so cool and badass, and I'm sure she'll look wonderful riding a motorbike in the future :D

AYO‼️‼️‼️😭😭 WHAT THE HECK ❓❓❓❓‼️ I'm sobbing that image is so cursed, I've never seen it xD but yeah Pinterest is a weird place, tho it has good stuff, occasionally.

the cat was staring at you cuz it thought you were cute, I just know it 😾💖 (unrelated but we find animals cute? That surely means they find us cute too, right?) but yeah, when they have big eyes, they just look like puss in boots, and that's just so precious skkssks 😭💖 I want a cat so badly rn 😾😾

ah I see!! I've googled it :D it looks really good, anything with meat is good😍😍 (I'd be a horrible vegetarian. Oops.) Tho I also googled the cuisine there and it all looks really nice!! I noticed that you guys mostly have stuff with dough and bread, or is that just Google messing with me??😭😭 We have Absolutely nothing with dough here tbh. We use a lot of rice, and a lot of noodles :D and curries. Loads of those.

Awww I hope you do sometime too. Just let loose and sing!! You'll feel so much more relaxed afterwards >.<

I'm so annoyed rn tho my leo coordinator just messaged me, saying we have a president's meeting 😃🔫

LIKE WTF WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT 😭😭😭 WHY WHY WHY I PLANNED ON SLEEPING IN ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW YEAR !! OR SPENDING TIME WITH MY FAMILY?? GRR 😾😾😾😾 now I'm gonna have to wake up at nine, join the meeting, and pretend to be awake. sorry for ranting tho :(

Yes I owe you a three hour long hug, a meal, headpats, and a bookshop date 😣💖 WDYM I'm sobbing why are you so sweet I can't even argue you with you anymore 😭😭 just know that I love you with all my heart 😾

—a disgruntled individual who feels better after reading your reply.

Heheh I will!! If I dont mess up XD it was really hard to make nice shape cuz the dough spild stick to my hands and wouldn't stay in the sheet 😭 Sure they are, they look like the cow dumps🤭 Though he said that they were a bit too sweet and now his throat is a sticky mess. Sounds weird now that I'm saying it, but hopefully you know what I mean😭

Oh!! So you love cinnamon? Good to know😼 The cinnamon smell seems kind of overwhelming to me tbh, but maybe I'm just a weakling XD but it is nice, I'd probably live it as much if it werent so strong hehe

True true, like I'm suffering enough, give me a break. Heheh, its really concerning when someone in front of you is leaning their chair back, like sir... please you're about to die stop that😭😭

Oh I'd love to have an appointment with you, doc😝😝

She is badass!! She rode a motorbike years ago, and idk the details but sounds so damn cool. Like, a motorbike, how cool is that!!!😭😭

Heheh, could be true, but my face was like almost fully covered because I hate it when my face is cold😭 but let's pretend it saw me🤭 I think they do? We find different species cute, so they must as well XD TRUE their big eyes are so shiny and pretty and I'm just ...bye 🥺🥺

(Same tbh, I love meat... not sheep meat though, lmao I hate it) Yeah, we really like flour I guess XD that's so cool tbh, I'd love our traditional cuisine to be noodles. I dont even know why I love them so much, it's just... good. Wonderful. The best🍜

KSKCKSKD NOO I FEEL SO BAD FOR YOU WHAT THE HELL WHO DOES THAT!!! What a way to start the new year😭😭😭 LIKE GIVE HER A WEEK OR SOMETHING WHAT THE HELL dont worry!! You can always rant to me<3, I'm here to listen

Hehehh, good to know, I love you a lot too💕💕💕💞💞💞