#cooking metaphors

[heycarrots]

There’s been a lot of discourse about the nature of James and Miranda’s relationship. There’s even been a lot of discussion on my podcast about it. One thing I want to make clear is that my podcast is a platform for discussion on all points of view. I’m not going to agree, 100%, with everything that’s said, but it makes the views of my guests no less valid. There’s no right or wrong, here, because this is art and therefore, it is subject to interpretation.

My intent, however, is to attempt to get as close to the original intent of the actors as possible because we look at a show or a film or a play as going through several layers of distillation. Each level purifies the intended narrative leaving its truest essence.

When we make a reduction sauce using an alcohol of some kind, let’s say a red wine, the heat applied to it burns off things we don’t need for flavor. You’re never going to get drunk off of red wine reduction because there’s almost no alcohol left in it. That all gets burned off, leaving only the flavor components, which is what we wanted all along, anyway. We want that extra element that enriches the flavor of the steak, by adding nuance.

So let’s take apart that meal.

We start with the birth of the idea. The story kicks around in an author’s head, trying to get out, growing bigger and more persistent until it outgrows the confines of the mental box inspiration is stored in and has to be let out. That idea, that’s the cow.

The author raises that idea, feeds it, watches it grow, and then, ultimately slaughters it. That sounds awful, but once you have that idea pulsing, growing, evolving and then finally commit the final draft on paper, it is a kind of death. The life of the story comes to an end and it becomes memorialized in a mausoleum. Readers will come to visit, spend time with it, lay down flowers, cherish it, and mourn its passing.

The next level is adaptation. That’s the steak. There are many ways you can slice the story, large roasts encompassing the whole story or a smaller, hyper-focused character study fillet mignon.

A writers room gets hold of the cow and carves it up. They choose what gets cooked and what gets tossed. A GREAT group of writers saves the bones. They take in the entire supporting structure of the piece and while the whole story may not make it onto the screen, they will have slow roasted the bones for a stock. When you watch a show like Black Sails, where themes are introduced that won’t fully be explained or explored until several seasons later, that’s what that is. It is the stock being used to flavor the whole dish. You’ve distilled the entire cow to its purest essence and so every scene, every line of dialogue, every acting choice, encompasses the entirety of the story. A line from episode one is defined by knowledge of the finale and in regard to dialogue, defined by an actors’ knowledge of a character’s backstory. There are many writers rooms who are creating the bones of the story as they go, which means they aren’t starting with a rich stock. You can’t trace back character motivations or choices to begin with because those motivations changed throughout production.

Black Sails, again, isn’t one of those shows. Steinberg and Levine came into the writers room with their stock pot full and sloshing, spilling story everywhere. The richness of the details they were laying can make season one a bit hard to consume unless you are ready for a story on that level. Viewers need to come to the table with some bread to sop up all those character details because we WILL need them later.

Over the course of finalizing scripts and blocking out episodes, the steak is cooked. Like any great steak, this story is medium rare. More juice comes out with every bite. It’s what makes the show infinitely rewatchable. It continues to cook on the plate, but because it wasn’t overdone, it never dries out.

When the actors get ahold of it, that’s the reduction sauce we were talking about. That sauce provides nuance and flavor. That’s the emotion. A line of dialogue on a page is just ink. It’s nothing until it’s spoken aloud. And like any bit of language in this world, it’s subject to interpretation. In this case, it’s the actor who does the interpreting.

I spoke on the podcast about the art of subtext and how huge a role it plays in Black Sails. One example we used is Jane Eyre. It’s one of the most frequently adapted novels in the English language and with each adaptation, we get a new version of our characters. The most volatile and subject to change is Rochester. There are MANY versions of Rochester that I find appalling (including the original beast in the book), but each actor has formed him into something else, based on their performance. Toby Stephens takes Rochester and turns him into a silly tragic romantic, broken many times over by a society he never really fits into, despite the status of his birth. He connects with Ruth Wilson’s Jane because she fully and happily inhabits that space on the fringes that Rochester thinks he needs to climb out of. Jane takes his hand on the outside of the wall, turns him away from the guarded palace and shows him the wild world that was at his back this whole time.

This is what Toby Stephens, Luke Arnold, Louise Barnes, Zethu Dlomo, and really all the actors for whom their subtextual choices make them reflect like prisms, have done with their performances.

In the final distillation, character motivations and emotions are finalized by the actor. Writers can pontificate, the source material lies dead in its lovely tomb, but stories live and breathe by their storytellers.

What we’re left with is Toby’s face telling the world how deeply Flint loves Silver. Every single choice tells this story.

We’re left with Luke showing us how much Silver is repressing in his feelings for Flint. Luke’s face shows us an incredible depth of feeling and a door slamming shut.

We’re left with the incredible intimacy between James and Miranda, which speaks of a decade of shared physical intimacy. There’s an openness, a freeness to it until the moment in episode 3 when Miranda learns that James has found the Urca and is leaving soon to pursue it. She gives some of it away when she says “I thought I’d have you all to myself”. She is mourning the loss of intimacy that she only gets in short windows of time. They aren’t strained because James isn’t attracted to her, but because he’s rarely there. She has him for a few days at a time before he’s off on another hunt. The coldness starts from the moment he tells her he’s leaving in a few days because I believe she thinks he won’t be coming back, that this is the hunt he won’t survive and she’ll finally have lost both James and Thomas. From the moment Richard Guthrie darkens her door, she’s looking for a way to weaponize him and get them out. For her, it’s a race against the clock and she’s willing to sacrifice a bit of her relationship with James in the present to secure happiness for them in the future.

This is also why James still has sex with her before leaving, even though he’s furious for her reading Meditations to Richard. This is how they connect. They connected through physical intimacy in the flashbacks, as well. Him stroking her thumb in the carriage before the kiss. Tactile contact to seal their understanding of each other. Miranda bracing her hands on his chest during important moments in the Hamilton’s home, something she also does to Thomas, to show physical connection, physical intimacy. Miranda thrives on physical touch.

To think that, for 10 years, James is lying there like an object for Miranda to use, is, to me, short sighted. To think that James doesn’t love Miranda outside of a group, is also ignoring the fact that, 10 years on, James will not leave on a hunt (angry as they both are) without physically connecting with her, trying so hard to reach beyond his anger and the wound freshly opened from sight of that book he’s chosen not to look at for probably the better part of those 10 years. The way his hands hover over her back after she comes and he desperately wants to be with her in that moment, like the best of their moments, but he just can’t, speaks to the depth of his love for her.

So many fans of the show point to this sad sex scene as one of the most important character moments for James and Miranda, but I consistently come to the opposite conclusions about WHY it’s important and what we learn from it, because I’m taking my cues from the actor’s choices, not the director or the writers. On the page, in plain ink, he hates having sex with her. Toby and Louise show us, however, that they are trying to recapture a thing that is fleeting, reaching out to each other to patch up an old wound from which the scab has been picked off, leaving it seeping and raw.

From Toby’s performance, regardless of the words he uses years later to describe it, we see not a character who “loves men” or a character who “loves women”, but a character who LOVES. I don’t see Flint defining that love in terms of boxes and parameters. He’s a character who must be coaxed out, but then loves without reason, without a safety net, as he proves with his love of Silver. As was also referenced by a guest on the podcast, he places a sword in Silver’s hand and says “do it”.

Anyway, this post got away from me and took several turns, but the love between James and Miranda being dismissed by so many in the fandom has been bugging me for a while and I just needed to emotionally vomit on tumblr.

[mothbiter]

I've been missing the taste of human flesh ever since I went vegetarian. No, I’ve been missing the sensation of devouring. How do you like your steak? Take a meat cleaver to my brain and I'll teach you how to cook it. I won't even ask for a bite. It’s the least I could do given I’m going to have to disappoint you. Nothing about me is well done. I’ll leave the hob on in my forgetfulness. I’ll pretend it was an accident. I’ll let the flames consume me if you don’t do it first. Come get it while it’s hot! Don’t wait! Don’t you know meat goes off? How many flies can follow me around until you throw me out? I’ll do my best not to lick the blood as it drips out of me. I’ll singe my tastebuds off to avoid stealing from you the first taste. No one eats carnivores anyway. Cattle are grass-fed. I’m so tired. I miss the devouring. Won’t you please show me I’m still devourable? I can’t do it myself anymore. I went vegetarian, remember? You don’t even have to lick your lips when you’re done, though it helps. I’m sick to death of destroying myself and sickness ruins meat. Please, don’t let me rot. Please, don’t let me rot.

[solarockk]

T I T A N I A

designs // first meeting // 13 years old tea // Legacy

shiny duo pokemon au "Pokémon Shiny Jewels Sun&Moonstone" by @wyvernspiritit and I

[cairafea]

the primordial desire to fight a krill is at the top of maslow’s hierarchy of needs

[babytrapperdiaz]

we talk a lot about the symbolism of the repetitive traumas the other characters have gone through, eg. chim being impaled/having his heart stopped, buck needing to save/be saved by loved ones, eddie effectively being cornered/trapped in confined spaces (sometimes by a helicopter, sometimes by being shot at).

but we should definitely further discuss how bobby repeatedly falls victim to structural oversight/damages. eg. how his family died, the owners of the rehab center committing arson and blaming him for it, the snipper who targeted firefighters because of how he interpreted his treatment by the lafd (and committed arson to lure them out), being trapped in the rubble at the call center, and now presumably being seriously hurt in this literal structural collapse. like tell us more about how this public servant in a leadership position is repeatedly falling victim to what is basically systemic shortcomings in the community. like please. i'd very much like to know more about that.

[lazycranberrydoodles]

fanart of @missveryvery’s a biography of the male favorite <33

my favorite fengqing fic!

he’s wearing an ancient chinese cat collar :) it’s thematic :)

[fluffydice]

You can pry Kuboyasu doing dog-like things like tilting his head attentively/curiously and visibly perking up when he's excited out of my cold, dead hands.

[pissbbyy]

uhh there’s like 3 hours left b4 it ends buut happy trans day of visibility to one of the most t4t couples in media woo!!

[wilsonsmcgillsweatshirt]

If I could describe James Wilson any way I wanted, it would be painful. He reminds me of so many different kinds of pain, I can't pick just one.

The kind of pain you don't even realize hurts. Like when you cut yourself and you don't even realize it until you've already smeared blood all over your shirt and the countertop. Like when a deer is shot, and for those brief few moments, it keeps running. It doesn't even realize it's been hit until it's too late. This type of pain creeps up on you. Like that myth that says you're supposed to put frogs in a pot of water and slowly warm it up so they don't even realize they're dying? That kind of pain. You don't even see it coming. You can't even prepare for it. One moment, you're fine, and you understand life, and then everything changes before you can even blink. Wilson is like that. He sneaks up on you, he integrates himself into your life, and he becomes everything you need. And you don't even realize it's happening until suddenly you can't exist without him. Suddenly, your whole world revolves around him, and you can't quite figure out how that happened so fast.

The second type of pain that James Wilson embodies is the kind that maschocists would die for. It's the kind of pain that hurts, but you can't pull yourself away from it. It's the most dangerous kind of pain because it's the kind that you learn to love. It feels like your lover biting your lip when you're kissing, or when your muscles ache after a night together. It's like having a puppy that playfully nips at you or a cat that kneads your legs while purring. It's the kind of bittersweet pain you feel when thinking back to fond childhood memories. You smile at them, and they warm you, but you're left with a bone deep ache. When you move out of your parents' house, and you're so excited to have your own place, but looking at your now empty childhood bedroom makes you want to cry. James Wilson is that kind of pain. He slides his way into your life and slips into your heart, and just looking at him hurts because he's so beautiful. He reels you in with the most perfect words and softest actions, and he convinces you that you are the center of the universe, if only because he said so. And when his attention inevitably wains, and you go from obsession to neglect, you can't even fully be mad at him. Because he knows you'll soak up any drop of his affection, and he'll feed you just enough that you don't starve. He strings you alone, and just when you've finally got the courage to leave, he'll look at you with those soft eyes and kiss you with those pretty lips and convince you that you've hung the stars. And it becomes a vicious cycle that you can't claw your way out of, and you're not even sure if you want to try.

James Wilson is an addiction. He hides himself through innocent smiles and sweet words and pressed clothes and a facade. He's not what he looks like. He's not safe. He will promise you that you can trust him, that he's innocent, that he's only got your best interests at heart. And you'll be tempted to believe him. But everybody lies, and nobody lies better than he does.

[synnthamonsugar]

So like I'm not normal about Eris fucking stabbing Savathun with a sword but I'm also not normal about Savathun fucking ....... GIVING Eris her Ghost to do whatever she wants with .... her symbolic heart ... her connection to the Light, the thing she'd spend eons in pursuit of......... GOD!!! GOD!!!!!!!!!!!

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

Fake dating to piss off Shuichi's parents

Clown: Thinking about shuichi lamenting to his friends about his parents always needling him about a girlfriend/ getting a different job/ settling down. And he makes the vauge suggestion of considering taking anyone home just to shut them up And (maybe rantaro) goes "haha, I know someone who would make them lose their minds for like…30 dollars and free dinner" And it's Ouma It's always Ouma The first text he ever recieves from ouma is, "Soo…my dearly beloved to be, how bad do you want this to go?" "Absolutely horrid." "Splendid."

Checkers: He shows up in clown makeup pulls up to their driveway in his little clown car honks at then with his clown nose

Beez: oh you know what would be funny if shuichis parents had to take him w them to some kind of event or wtv n to make him not look like a loser they tell him he needs a date

Checkers: RUIN THEIR IMAGE jokes on them they’re the real losers here

Apollo: Kokichi makes little cue cards with all the problematic things he's learnt about Shuichi's parents and idly flashes them at random people to spread the news

Beez: HE DOES THE STUPID HIGH SCHOOL PRANK TAPING A PAPER ON THEIR BACKS "WE'RE SHIT PARENTS" Clown: He's causing scandals left and right

Dra: No but it would be so funny if he wasn't [wearing a clown nose] and still managed to get the sound by touching his nose/pl Clown: AJSGSH Its a skill!! Along with the several handkerchiefs he hacks up onto the floor

Apollo: Shuichi: WHY DIDN'T YOU WARN ME? Rantaro: Since when have my friends ever been normal? Clown: Rantaro is watching this from home. Sipping his tea as he watches the news roll in Dra: He complains but he actually loves it

Beez: they gotta pretend they like kokichi too they have an image to maintain they are so happy for their son and his ugly fucking boyfriend theyre serious Sini: They are so pro gay rights Clown: Their clenching their teeth so hard they bleed but "oohh they're sooo happy their son has found love" Apollo: Shuichi's embarrassed by the stories Kokichi is making up but seeing his parents in pain? It makes it the embarrassment worth it

Clown: I have the image of ouma stretching idly as he tell the reporter " Oh me? Psh! I'm actually an adult entertainer. Mhm! You won't believe how far the clown niche gets ya, mhm, real freaks out there. This? honk drives them bonkers. These kind folks are so understanding of my line of work!" He absolutely feeds a different story to every reporter

Apollo: Sure…People talk about what sort of…Things Shuichi are into considering his boyfriend says that sort of shit but hey…If it's pissing off his parents, he'll let Kokichi to claim to do whatever the fuck he wants He uses the fact he's multilingual to his advantage as well.

Sini: “These young celebrities are in love with me!” “One bad joke is all it takes, trust me” “These people have no humour! That’s humorous on its own, really! So charming” Clown: "Oh they've been sooo welcoming. They only tried to pay me off once?? Twice??"

Checkers: He’s reciting a waffle recipe in Spanish Reading out loud a Russian translation of My Immortal Clown: He's sobbing the entire time like its something emotional Apollo: He comes up with 'pet names' to use during interviews. The interviewers think it's super sweet…Until they see the comments pointing out that Kokichi was just saying random words Checkers: He is passionately defending pineapple on pizza. In Italian Clown: Omg, nicknames ranging from the classic "babe" to "my combusted inflamed refrigerator on wheels " And shuichi has to stutter his way through something equally as bad And yet the faces of pure rage on his parents face lend him strength he didn't know possible Apollo: Interviewer: Aww so sweet Interviewer, reading the comments: Why was he calling Shuichi a soda covered stress toy??? What is wrong with today's youth? [my reply to Apollo's message] that sounds kinky

Clown: I love the thought of this starting out as ouma leading the charge. He's throwing out ideas he hopes shuichi picks up. But as the night goes on the last remaining fucks shuichi gives fly out the window. And he is absolutely going all out. Ouma nearly stumbles in keeping up with the absolutely insanity shuichi has awakened in himself and he may be swooning Sini: HE’S CREATED A BEAUTIFUL MONSTER Apollo: Shuichi's gone from the awkward attempting to flirt back stage to the You're actually sorta cute so I'm going to put effort into this stage in like one night and Kokichi is shook Checkers: Saiharizz but it’s just unhinged insanity Beez: the most effective rizz on kokichi tbh Sini: Shuichi: evil unhinged laughter Kokichi: [heart eyes] “I will make my parents eat their own shit” “….So are you free later-?”

Clown: All it takes is realizing how afraid his parents are of breaking their facade and hes pulling ouma to the corner, absolute giddy realization happening in his anxiety ridden husk of a body as he frantically says "Did you see their faces?? Ouma did you see how mad they were?? Haha! Oh my god! They can't do anything to me. I can do anything" Apollo: Kokichi is internally screaming because holy fuck a cute guy just dragged him into a corner are they gonna kiss? No? Oh well, hearing him realise how he can do anything is just as good Me: this is a fake dating scenario, of course they're going to kiss, just not in a corner, that would be against the point, do it in front of everyone Sini: Kokichi: “I can fix him” Bitch, I did, and that was by making him worse Clown: He may be going mad with power Just a little Will shuichi regret this in the morning? He doesn't CARE. That's future him's problem. He's having FUN Rantaro is lowkey impressed by how fast Shuichi has managed to lose it Sini: Rantaro is dramatic [rolling eyes emoji] He’s fine. He’s his best self rn Ignore the maniacal giggling

Apollo: Shuichi manages to get his hands on some soda, something he's not allowed a lot so his 'teeth aren't ruined' or some bullshit…Man's on a trip Sini: He really is in his rebellious teen phase rn He will eat after midnight HA He will drink alcohol He will tag a building He will post embarrassing photos on a burner account

Apollo: Rantaro: What the hell Kokichi? Kokichi: It was one cup! Shuichi: [h y p e r]

Sini: “I feel so alive! Why haven’t I tried this before!? This is great! Fuck coffee, this is my life blood!” He’s been deprived Too much You give him a taste of something new and he goes wild

Clown: On one hand, shuichi has never looked happier, on the other, his eyes show a manic energy that is just a wee bit spooky Sini: Kokichi isn’t sure if he should be concerned or aroused Clown: Just one moment, a single moment for shuichi, grinning, tells ouma honestly "thank you for this" and its over for one kokichi ouma Sini: He is on the floor Shuichi is poking him

Me: sugar rush Shuichi just dips Kokichi and kisses him while showing a middle finger to the camera Clown: Shuichi offers a very nervous peck on the cheek initially and by the end he's dragging ouma halfway over the table to kiss him passionately on the lips in front of his parents

Clown: The aftermath may be less fun But it was so worth it Sini: It’s like a hangover lmao Wtf did he do last night? Clown: He wakes up feeling empty, shakey, strangely shirtless in a bed he doesn't recognize, theres a lingering feeling of impending dread and his phone is buzzing nonstop. Still. He feels so satisfied with himself. He smells like grape soda Sini: He smells like….Him Clown: YES. That and he's blanking on the memory of him toppling over the soda tower at the end of the night Apollo: He sees Kokichi and internally freaks out because What the fuck did we DO? but he then learns when he fell into the soda tower, his shirt got all gross and Kokichi being the everloving boyfriend he is, washed it…Well got someone else to wash it but yeah

Clown: Reality may be creeping up on him in the background but the phones been chucked to the side for now Ouma grins at him and goes "I never got the dinner you promised" and shuichi grins back Apollo: They're fucking dorks. Meanwhile, the Saiharas are attempting damage control, Shuichi's uncle is supportive but also god damn it did it have to go like this and the internet is fucking blowing up Clown: Need Miu to be watching her daily drama channel in the morning with a bowl of cereal and the first thing she sees is ouma's face and she does a spit take Apollo: She starts ringing him but he's not paying attention Clown: Kaito minding his buisness when he sees "Former child actor gone rouge" and it's just shuichi cackling maniacally Apollo: Kokichi is hovering in the background all smug like, dressed in the most horrible outfit despite the stylists trying to make him look nice. Clown: He loves to watch the world BURN From a distance, as shuichi and him take the time to tentatively start to know each other in the aftermath Sini: More so Shuichi causing the world to burn Me: Me: some paparazzi takes photos of them on that dinner they go out on and the relationship gets solidified in the media's eyes Clown: YES. If someone spreads a picture of them at some run of the mill diner in the morning for some breakfast. Hair unbrushed. Ouma still has remains of clown makeup. Shuichis eyeliner is smudged all over. Shuichi is shoving a cinnamon roll into oumas mouth mid rant with the biggest smile on his face.

Apollo: Maki, waking up because her Ouma Sense is going off: Who has that brat gone after this time? Maki knew Shuichi would be getting a fake date for some event. She switches on the tv, sees the bastard of the orphanage she grew up in and just turns it off Shuichi says he wants to introduce Kokichi to his best friends and he and Maki lock eyes. Kokichi: ["*chuckles* I'm in danger." gif]

Clown: She can't be too mad!! Look at shuichis face!! Thats pure joy right there!! Maki begrudgingly accepts and oumas like" sOB I knew you loved me!!! " Apollo: She does hit Kokichi over the back of the head later and then gives him a shovel talk. Shuichi is confused when Maki hands him one of those backpack leash things Clown: Maki, deadpan,"you'll need it." Me: she's a little confused about who needs a leash atm

Clown: I am thinking of the end of the night immeadiately after. Shuichi did not expect to go that far. And as he's calming down. The jitters come back. His phone is a death sentence. He's obsessively waiting for the ringing to start.

Ouma leads him to the bus stop, shuichi drove them there but its just not the time. Ouma wants to live thank you.

Drenched in sweat, and soda, and oumas pockets being stuffed with cake they ride together silently. Shuichi barely even thinks to ask where their going. Reloading his notifications again and again.

Shuichi is hugging his knees. He barely remembers sitting on oumas bed. He's still hugging his knees. "I-" he breaks out into nervous giggles, "I screwed up didn't I?"

And kokichi sighs, it's silent between them before kokichi erupts into laughter. "You were amazing!" He insists, and he's so absolutely giddy. Nearly in awe. It's hard for the doubts to eat at him when ouma looks at him like he hung the moon and the stars. "You were amazing."

And ouma teases him relentlessly, and shuichi is too busy being embarassed to let himself fall into regret. He ultimately falls asleep peacefully in a bed that isn't his and ouma yawns and steps away to sleep on the couch.

Bonus:

Beez: saiou pulling fake proposals in restaurants to get free dessert thats it Hina: Kokichi initiates them Shuichi tries for real and Kokichi thinks he's joking Beez: damn the dessert must look good if shuichis the one proposing for it Ves: they just move on shuuichi thinks they're engaged kokichi thinks he was doing a bit Me: 1) do it AFTER they're married 2) have their actual proposal in privacy, duh. I think they would prefer that anyway This is the sequel movie to the fake dating to piss off Saihara's parents romantic comedy Ves: but the comedy Me: Adam Sandlers plays Kokichi Ves: im imaging him in a terrible purple wig now why would you say that Well, it would be more of his type of deal to play Shuichi, since this makes Kokichi the love interest while he is the protag Beez: alternatively someone they know goes into the restaurant theyre at n witness a proposal so they go over to congratulate them but saiou r like shit [eye, mouth, eye emojis] Me: Ha! Deserved

[writingfromruins]

Have you heard the story? The story goes:

Everything is hunger to you. Down to your bones, everything is hunger. Your husband starved you in every other way he could, but he left you in the kitchen to make dinner. You don’t know how to stop the rumbling in your soul but your body, at the least, is sated. Your husband likes lamb. He wants it for dinner tonight. You press the weight of your thumb into the most recent bruise and wait for it to stop hurting.

Once there was a man and there was a wife and there was a kitchen.

Lamb for dinner tonight, he says. So small and trusting. Fed well, sheltered. Stress is bad for the meat: when you taste it you can taste fear. So the lamb does not question when the butcher comes. Why would you raise something just to kill it so young? The butcher sells you a leg of lamb, frozen. It is heavy in your arms, so so heavy. You press your thumb into the most recent bruise and it still hurts. Why would you care for something just to kill it? You were devoted and you were devoured for it. Lamb to the slaughter. When your husband presses bruises to your skin they are too familiar to be fearful. When you raise your knife in the kitchen to make dinner, there is no love in the motion of it.

Once there was murderer and a murder weapon and a corpse.

Damn if you’re not hungry though. The only want you can satisfy in great and flavorful abundance. The kitchen is yours, and under your hands meat has fallen away from bone, bone boiled into stock, and years pass as your knife taps against the cutting boards impatiently. Nothing is alive under your knives. You are hungry, so, so hungry. A creature of stomach and teeth. Devout to the only thing that he wont take, devouring , empty and hollow except for your belly, hot with good food and fine wine and bile— he calls to you from the living room for a drink and you pull the lamb out from the freezer and go give him the cold shoulder.

This is how the story goes:

You kill him. You kill him and then you season the leg of lamb with salt, pepper, fresh rosemary cutting slits in the meat so that the garlic seeps in. You arrange the lamb on a tray in the middle of peeled potatoes, so they’ll benefit from the cooking meat, and put them in the oven, with plans to make gravy from the fat drippings. Your husband, cooling in the living room, says nothing. You leave to get the fresh veggies to pair with the meal. How silly to forget them. You take your time. When you bring the men to see the corpse the lamb is done, and you serve it out- it cannot go to waste. Such a good meal, they tell you, bellies full with a transgression, not for the first time. Recognizing something in it, even if they don’t quite place what. You eat too, and are not hungry. No part of you is hungry any more. Down to your bones, you are sated.

playground myths and other formative lies // PD

[klanced]

this isn’t even about my evil agenda anymore I actually just need to hear your dissertation on voltron/klance x first love late spring

you do evil things to my dick and balls. i hope you know that.

first love / late spring is a very keith-core song, but i think it also applies to both keith and lance... but more specifically, FL/LS is keith pre-relationship, and then FL/LS is lance once they have already started dating.

i'm obsessed with that one interview of mitski where she explained that she wrote this song while she was experiencing her vulnerable first love... and first love is vulnerable. you simultaneously reap the rewards of being known but at the same time, you've now let someone else know you, and now you have to trust them to take care of you. and it's so vulnerable. it's more naked than being naked. and it's so difficult as well because now you're learning a brand new way you can be hurt.

so keith, pre-relationship... he's pining for lance and he is MISERABLE. he's lost control! he feels like he's being consumed by the enormity of his feelings. he's eight years old and small and never asked for this, he never wanted to know he could feel this way. he just wants lance to fucking go already. keith wants to spit vitriol and blame and shame and drive lance away so that when lance leaves him (and he will leave him, like everyone else has), then at least it will be on keith's own terms for once. and keith doesn't, he refuses, to say how he feels. he'll spitefully choke on his confession until it suffocates him. he doesn't want to know what lance might say.

but he also is afraid of lance's reaction because... if lance gives him even a sliver of ground, if there's even a promise of a chance -- keith will fold instantly. he will jump into this love headfirst. he'll do anything if it will make lance stay with him.

and then lance, mid-established relationship... things with keith are perfect, everything is going great, so why does lance feel so anxious all the time? why does he feel so scared when keith looks at him like he's his whole world? maybe the problem is lance. because what they have is real. because he's pretty sure keith is it for him. and that terrifies lance. because lance, deep down, knows he's going to screw this up. and it's not just his heart on the line; he's also going to hurt keith.

keith smiles at him and lance feels sick to his stomach. he wants to tell keith that they might be happy right now, but eventually, lance is going to ruin this. he wants to warn keith that lance is going to break his heart one day.

lance isn't always so negative about himself. during the day, it's easy to let himself be buoyed and enveloped by his feelings for keith. he loves being in love with keith. because the love is real. it's real, and it's there, and that matters. but at night, all those poisonous insecurities and anxieties rear their ugly head, and lance finds himself standing on a ledge over a drop. lance daydreams about spending the rest of his life with keith; lance has never felt so young and small.

[fisheito]

how would you eat/cook each nukani character

oh noooooooooo (holds my face in great contemplative agony) u can't do this to me

Eiden: oh mein gotTtTtt getting my hands on eiden would be like receiving an entire cart of summer fresh-from-farm produce. or an entire cow carcass . i would have SO MANY PARTS and SO MANY WAYS to prepare him and every part of him would taste delicious in its own way. there's no way i can ONLY cook eiden one way. i'd have to put him thru every process possible (true to his versatility). i thought about spitroasting him (for the joke) but that's too much eiden for one method. i need to covet him like the king tuna at the fish market as i take him apart piece by piece look. i am frying him like egg for a fast breakfast. i am meticulously grinding him to a paste in a traditional mortar and pestle. i am using him as pesto AND as dipping sauce. i will dehydrate him and drink him as tea. he will be roasted . braised. devoured raw in ceviche. i'll infuse him with vinegars! syrups! oils!! is there a way to make a sourdough starter but it's eidough starter so i can just keep him on my shelf and feed him every day and pass him down for generations? i want eiden for every meal of the day prepared 1000 ways

Aster: would aster taste like blood or the absence of it? hmmmm..... i guess it depends on when he feeds! maybe if i bite into him after a feeding session, he'll burst like a cherry tomato. but otherwise i feel like giving aster the sashimi treatment. put him all fancy on the plate with some garnishes after i treat him with a light citrus wash or smth. a fresh cool flavour!! i'm tempted to make some sort of beverage out of him. dilute him into a fancy mocktail of strange spirits and woody spices. aster juice?!?! looks like pink wine???! i have to treat this one like i'm spoiling him with gifts. he'll probably end up on the artisanal charcuterie board with the fusion jams and marmalades...

Morvay: i feel like he would have a very...particular aroma. he eats a very specialised diet so of everyone in the clan, he has to follow "you are what you eat", right?? my first instinct for some reason is to cure him. like, turn him into prosciutto. if he's gonna have a funky smell, might as well turn up the salt and cure him. tie him up and lock him in the carefully controlled environment of the curing basement. dark... surrounded by other meatbags... slap him around every now and then. slice him up thin and put him on that fancy cheese board with a bunch of other strong smelling foods. slurp him down him with a glass of astringent aster juice to balance out the richness of the morv

Yakumo: soup. he's getting souped. it's only right. might split him half and half into one soup and one stew. maybe the soup will just be a concentrated essence of snek-style broth. like a clear, warming bowl of pho that is DISTILLED YAKUMO and doesn't need much else besides some fave spices to accompany the flavour. as for the stew? i just straight up like stew and it can be so nutritionally complete. so he's going in the classic comfort stew. chunks of yakumo and seasonal vegetables simmered to make a thick hearty pot of glorp. maybe add some alcohol to it if i want to live dangerously. he will sustain me for days to come. anything that i do not turn into soup? i'm going to steam him. a mild little parcel of wrapped yakumo, gently steamed for a hot minute. yakumo tastes best to me when a little wet.

Edmond: to honour his thick sugary ass, i have to turn edmond into some sorta dessert. turn the defrosted ice queen into ice cream? now i could just put edmond in a pot and reduce him until he turns into a syrup but then i would waste all the extra good bits that make up edomon. u need the tsun with the dere and reducing him to pure dere is NOT balanced. he can withstand quite a bit of punishment so maybe i'll whip him up like a custard (by hand FIRST. if that's not strong enough, i'll use an electric hand mixer). turn him into an earl grey creme brulee where u can set him on fire then smack that caramelised crust before spooning out the goopy insides.

Olivine: i feel like i'd wanna enjoy olivine in his least processed form. just enjoy the pure marbled goodness of well-exercised, tender oli. so why not a steak? medium rare to rare? just a little pan-sear and we can chew on him all we want. (i considered searing on a grill, but it's easier around here to get a pan instead of a grill. and oli is all about being accessible to the greatest number of people.) on the other hand, that might not honour oli's nature. he, too, can stand up to a lot of punishment. he might even like it. so part of him can be the relatively unprocessed slab and the other can be a cutlet. that way i can beat him with a hammer, dredge and bread him, then toss him into the deep fryer. to be served with a variety of heavy or creamy sauces.

Quincy: this man is OLD and TOUGH and he probably tastes like every bit of wildlife in the forest combined. then again, he's also always sleeping so does that mean his meat is quite relaxed and i don't have to tenderise forever to be able to chew it? quincy probably eats the simplest diet (no processed microwave preservative type cocktails in here) so he'd be best appreciated in an equally simple dish?? i'd like to skewer him. make him bite-size and cook him over a campfire. alternating with simple salt vs. intricate dry rubs bc i'm not sure which i'd prefer. if he ends up being tough, i'll let him hang out in a savoury marinade for however many days he needs (do NOT make me put a pineapple in there, mister).

Kuya: i lied. **THIS** man is OLD and TOUGH and SINEWY and A BITCHASS to deal with and i bet if i cut him at *just slightly near the wrong spot* then some mystery sac of foul gunk will explode all over me like a punk'd prank. i will take any excuse during the cooking process to abuse this one. grate his rind to infuse in the sauce. mince him for the physical satisfaction then throw him into the blender anyway. toss him violently into a fiery wok and start saute-ing him with every other ingredient ever. i hope you get stabbed by a bunch of pointy carrots. i'll broil him as if he's not already crispy. and I BET at the end of all this work, i'll have somehow have messed up and made him inedible. skill issue. at this point i give up, toss the entire kuya into the pressure cooker, and turn him into stew.

G/Karu: i wanna toss them like a salad (i think they'll have fun with that). i could go the traditional way and make wolf jerky. bring it on the road for a durable snack! if i could somehow chop these two up and turn them into furikake, they could become my convenient, reliable flavour injector for a quick bowl of rice. it's tricky because there are two distinct flavours and they gotta be treated differently to bring out their full potential. but they're also inseparable. what do i do??? i might just put them into my party-type foods where flavours are supposed to mix and it's the wildness of the combos that make it all fun. he's going on the 12-topping pizza!! he's being melted onto the giant tray of nachos!!!

Blade: CAN I EAT THIS? WILL I DIE? WILL MY TEETH BREAK OFF? i have to debone him. i bet there are pointy bits hiding everywhere. get my special tools out and pluck at him for over an hour (i must be thorough). might just put him in the microwave (he'd probably enjoy that). i feel like essence of Blade would also do well as a bubbly drink. mix a simple edroid syrup with some club soda and some edible flowers to look pretty (low calories too!). if the legends are true and blade can adapt to any flavour, i might just turn him into a condiment or special spice mix. grind him to dust and put him in a nice glass container near my stove so i can add him to various foods (the weirder the combo, the better). keep the spirit of experimentation alive with Blade popcorn seasoning!!

Dante: i am gonna make him fragrant as hell. gonna smoke him over intricate spice combos or tea leaves and impart him with the most alluring lung-punchiest sniffs. i don't wanna be too harsh with him but i trust that he'll at least stand up to heat well. he'd probably complain about wasting time, but i'm not rushing the process. u will sit in the smoker and steadily break down over time. maybe after the smoke, i can tuck the odds and ends into a savoury saucy pie. bake him for an hour surrounded by a flaky buttery crust? i might also experiment with some fermentation, like a dante kimchi. i'm curious as to how he'd change flavours given time to age (and just relax for a bit, really).

Rei: i am pickling him. he's gonna become that sour salty lil accompaniment to every meal i have. he'll last forever and somehow never mould and no matter how long i leave him chillin in the fridge, when the time comes to put him on a bun, i know i can rely on him to not suddenly go limp. i still gotta be careful with him tho. can't just stick my fingers in the jar and introduce contaminants all the day because it IS possible to Spoil the Goods idk i just feel like i'd have to let him sit in SOME sort of marinade or brine. if i try to eat him raw i might turn 14 shades of purple before dissolving into radioactive bile

[the-last-quest]

Sibling bonding idea: you both d!e and get revived everyday in an never ending loop

[vietbluecoeur]

onglet a l'échalote

Rated: M

Relationship: Rody/Vince

Word Count: 5.1k

Summary:

“I know what you did.” The words scrape on their way out. He feels raw all over. “I’m hungry.”