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junicai · 3 years

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what i made.

| order no. | 7/21

| summary | With a new Japanese member in their midst, Aria knows that he must be feeling homesick. So, she takes it upon herself to try to alleviate as much of it as she can.

| word count | 1.7k

| warnings | sickening fluff

| era | circa. January 2021

“Are you coming?” Aria had her phone held between her ear and her shoulder, scooping two reusable plastic bags from the countertop as she moved past. There was a small clinking sound and she paused, peering into the bag to make sure the glass containers hadn’t chipped off each other.

Doyoung would have her head.

Satisfied that there was no shattering, Aria moved again, snagging her coat as she pushed past in her free hand. Yuta hummed on the other end of the phone.

“Yeah, I’m about to leave.” Aria could hear him rustling about on the other end of the line.

“His apartment is the second one on the third floor remember - he told me Sungchan was going somewhere with Jungwoo, shopping I think?” Aria paused to think. “Anyway, he’s gone all afternoon, so Taro is alone.”

The shuffling paused on the other end of the line. “He’s been quiet with you too, right? It’s not just me?” Yuta asked.

Aria hummed sadly. “Yeah, it’s not just you.” She pulled the door firmly closed behind her, only moving away when it signified that it had been locked with a beep.

Living in the Dreamie dorms again had been a change. A nice change, don’t get her wrong, but for the last year she’d been spending most of her time in the 127 dorms. Now, with the Dream comeback on the horizon, she’d moved back into her old room - happy to see that the fairy lights she’d installed (meaning: stuck onto the walls with sellotape) were still functioning after she’d changed the batteries.

“Remember how I got? Right after debut?” Aria questioned, now moving away from the doorway and into the hallway.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Aria replied. “I think he’s just gotten homesick - it happened to me, and I hadn’t been training for that long before debut.”

“Makes sense. It’s probably harder because he’s older as well - the pressure might be getting to him.” Yuta’s voice was growing sadder, so Aria interrupted him before he himself could get down.

“So!” She cheered, lifting up the bag of ingredients that was hanging in the crook of her arm. “We go and we cheer our last musketeer up.”

“I told you not to call us that.”

“Why not!”

Aria giggled as Yuta began to list out the numerous reasons why he hated that nickname, tucking the phone into the other crook of her neck as one side began to cramp up.

She entertained the man with small hums and little rebuttals every now and then, walking out of the left apartment wing and into the right; where Shotaro and Sungchan’s apartment was located.

SM had moved their dorms into one apartment building for Mark, Aria and Donghyuck’s peace of mind. And also theirs. There had been several incidents of Donghyuck and Aria dashing down to the Dreamie dorm at one in the morning to grab something; and it was going to give their managers grey hair if something wasn’t done about it.

Now, the larger apartment block they all lived in had two wings; the right wing, where the two 127 dorms were located, as well as Shotaro and Sungchan’s, and then the left - where the Dream dorms were. WayV was still in a separate apartment building, much to the entire group’s irritation, but it was a work in progress.

As Aria stepped out of the elevator onto the third floor to see Yuta already standing outside Shotaro’s apartment door, she pulled her phone out from beneath her ear and hung up without warning.

She snickered at Yuta’s face when the man realized he had been hung up on, and just as he was about to click redial, she popped up behind him.

“You were saying? Mr. Musketeer?”

Yuta rolled his eyes. “Akari, you’re asking for it now.”

Aria gently pushed past him, knocking twice on the door. She turned to face him afterwards, batting her eyelashes innocently. “I’m doing nothing at all- Taro! Hi!”

Shotaro opened the door with bleary eyes, blinking at the light that blinded him slightly. The apartment behind him was dark, no lights on, and by the state of his hair Aria could infer that they’d just woken the boy up.

“Hm? Akari?” Shotaro blinked sleepily at her. “What time is it?”

Aria bit her lip to stop the smile growing across her face. “It’s almost two in the afternoon, Taro.”

Shotaro blinked rapidly at that, clearing the fog of sleep from his eyes. “Oh! Is it? Sorry!” He opened the door wider, flicking on the lights after his two members walked in.

Aria held up the two bags on her arm. “Can I put these down somewhere? I think my hand is slowly losing circulation.”

Shotaro gestured towards the table that was partly covered in old newspapers. At a closer glance, the newspaper had a few spots of dried paint in various bright colours. She looked back to him. “Sungchan’s newest artistic endeavor go well?”

“Yeah!” Shotaro pointed towards where an old ripped t-shirt was hanging off the back of a door - a small graphic square had been painted on in haphazard lines. “He’s really proud of it.”

“He should be,” Yuta stepped forward to examine it further. “It’s really good.”

Aria dropped the two bags onto the clean side of the table, rubbing her hands together to get the blood flowing back into her fingertips. “Ok!” She exclaimed, turning to face the two men.

“I,” She began, poking herself in the chest, “Have a little surprise for the both of you.”

Yuta’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Me?” He mouthed, pointing to himself in a question. Aria nodded.

“But! I need the kitchen to do it, so go, shoo. Get out.” She waved at the two boys, shooing them out of the kitchen.

Shotaro whined at her slightly. “But I could help?”

“Then it defeats the purpose of a surprise, doesn’t it?”

He opened his mouth before closing it, frowning at the ground. Aria waved at him. “Go go. I’ll be done quickly.”

Once the two boys had disappeared into the main living room, Aria returned to the two bags on the table and slowly began to pull out the ingredients. The red bean paste that she’d made the night previous was packed away in one of Doyoung’s glass boxes for food, and she was careful to place it near the wall and out of the way of where she might knock into it.

Dorayaki. The red bean pancake had been something she loved as a child, and Yuta held similar sentiments. She could only hope that Shotaro did as well - because at this point, it was almost a ritual for the original two Japanese members to go out and buy dorayaki when one or both of them were feeling off.

With the filling set aside, Aria moved quickly to set up a small work station beside the hob, pulling out a mixing bowl and a whisk.

The eggs went into the bowl, followed by honey and sugar. They were stirred together quickly, combining in a matter of under a minute.

Next, came the flour, which was to be sifted in slowly.

“Sieve, sieve.” Aria mumbled to herself, pulling open and closing drawers periodically. “Where would they keep a sieve?”

She contemplated asking Shotaro for a minute, but ultimately scrapped that idea and chastised herself lightly. “They’re teenage boys, Akari. They’re not going to own a sieve.”

With that, she had to make do; using two forks laid over each other and pouring the flour mixture very slowly into the eggs. It was messy, and she got more flour on the counter than in the bowl, but it worked out for the most part.

Aria set the bowl aside as she turned on the electric rings, letting them heat up. The boys only had a small frying pan, that she could do nothing but pray was non-stick; and Aria winced at the thought that this might take a little bit longer than she’d hoped.

She strained her ears for a moment, comforting herself with the fact that the two boys seemed engrossed in a conversation, and weren’t missing her presence too much for the time being.

The mixture was poured on one by one, and gradually Aria amassed a sizeable stack of small, circular pancake shapes on the plate beside her. Then, it was only a matter of making a small mountain shape on the inside, before putting a second pancake on top - like a little hat.

She sealed the edges of each dorayaki, placing them on a plate.

“Taro? Yuta? Do you want to come on in here?” She raised her voice, hoping that they’d hear her.

“Yeah? What’s up?” Taro was the first to appear, his eyes curious before they caught sight of the plate held in Aria’s hands.

His face lit up like a lightbulb, and his mouth dropped slightly. “You did not.”

“I did.” Aria grinned.

“Hey, look at you go little baker.” Yuta came over to snag one from the top of the plate, and had his hand batted away.

“Stop it, they’re for Taro. He gets one first.” Aria scolded, and Yuta backed away with his hands up.

Shotaro, on his end, looked like he was about to cry. “F-for me? Really?” He gnawed at his bottom lip.

Aria placed the plate down on the counter, moving to wrap the slightly younger boy in a hug. “Yeah, for you. Consider this your official initiation to the j-line. Very exclusive club. You’re the first member to be added since 2016.” She pulled back with a wide grin.

Yuta joined the group hug, longer arms encircling both Shotaro and Aria where they stood. “You’re never getting rid of us now, Taro.” He teased. “We know your apartment passcode."

The trio stood quietly, smiles on all their faces until the dorayaki went cold on the plate.

Not a single one of them cared; and if Sungchan came home to Yuta lying on the floor with Shotaro lying curled up to his left side, and Aria lying across his lap with her hand tangled in Shotaro’s - all three, fast asleep - and took a picture to send to Jungwoo for blackmail?

Then that’s between the apartment walls, and him.

#*moonlight café #nct 24th member #nct imagines #nct female member au #nct female member #nct extra member #nct additional member #kpop addition #nct addition #kpop additions #nct additions #nct female oc #nct female addition #kpop!oc #kpop #nct scenarios #nct reactions #wayv #SUPERM

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perditaalottachocolate-blog · 4 years

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Oops, I Did It Again!

I can finally share this fic with you here! Or rather share the fact that this was actually my work. How many of you suspected that?

I want to thank all the people who made this event possible and took their time for it to happen! Anyway, this was fun so I hope you liked it, or you will once you read it ;) Check out other fics from the Who’s Who pt. 2 challenge as well, if you haven’t. And now without further ado:

Summary: Oops! Leaving an akuma unattended is not a good idea, especially when you’re Hawkmoth. Gabriel learns it the hard way, inadvertently saving the day in the process. He hadn’t planned to make a habit out of it, but of course when he starts playing with akumas, trying to save his assistant, his son or Adrien’s admirer (who Gabriel’s been trying to akumatize, no to avail), somehow he becomes an accidental hero of Paris. He even manages to knock some sense into his own kin and put an evil Italian girl to shame at the same time. All in a day’s work for Paris’ bravest civilian.

AO3 / fanfiction.net

***

“Adrien, duck!” Gabriel yelled at the top of his lungs.

THUD!

Oops. A boulder the size of a bus smashed to the left of where his son had been just seconds earlier . Gabriel paled at the thought of what could have been had Adrien had slower reflexes. The agility from the fencing and karate workouts apparently paid off.

THUD!

Another rumble reminded him that it was time to run, not ponder upon the various extracurriculars Adrien attended.

“Father!” he heard his son’s panicky voice. “Look o-”

Smash! He ran face first into a leathery wall.

Squish! Gigantean fingers closed over him and lifted him off the ground.

Akuma: 1; Gabriel:0.

He cursed inwardly as the giant lumbered through the streets. Each step thundered between the old walls and raised clouds of dust, making Gabriel’s eyes water.

“Father?” he heard Adrien’s muffled voice nearby. He squinted to the side.

His son was trapped similarly to him in an enormous fist of the monster. Only the mop of blond hair stuck out from behind the green fingers.

“I’m here!” Gabriel called and the blond mop sighed in relief.

“Any ideas how we escape?” Adrien asked.

Gabriel bit his lip as he considered their situation. He felt a bit responsible. It wasn’t entirely his fault, but seeing as he was the one who released the akuma in the first place he couldn’t claim he was not to blame. It would be much easier to say that it was Mademoiselle Rossi’s fault - and it was, to a degree...

After all she ’ d been the one to drop by the mansion uninvited and to force his bodyguard to let her in. Then she bullied Nathalie into letting her meet the boss immediately . His assistant knew perfectly well he’d been busy with his other project, but apparently Lila had been extremely persuasive.

The way Nathalie passed on her request made Hawkmoth sigh in exasperation, drop his transformation and rush to his study, the freshly released akuma left to its own devices. And why had Lila come under the pretence of “discussing her appearance” at the new collection’s premiere? To badmouth Marinette and her “uninspired creations”. Again .

Gabriel would rub the bridge of his nose in irritation, had his hands not been pressed to his sides inside the trap. He’d known for a while that Lila had been holding a significant grudge against Adrien’s pigtailed friend. Which, if you’d asked Gabriel could mean only one thing - she must have been terribly and utterly jealous. Gabriel had yet to meet a more talented, modest, polite, kind and considerate teenager, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he desperately needed a successful champion, he’d be happy to nudge Adrien in Marinette’s direction. Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng would make an excellent girlfriend, and dare Gabriel say an even finer daughter-in-law.

Maybe he was going out on a limb here, since Adrien stubbornly claimed Marinette was his friend, and a good friend only, but just one look at the gooey eyes his son was making at the mere mention of the girl told a quite different story.

But he digressed once again, pondering on how exactly had he and Adrien ended up in two of the four hands of Hawkmoth’s newest creation.

The truth was he had no idea who accepted the akuma, what were their reasons, motivation or even powers. This was Startrain all over again. Gabriel hated being helpless, a victim at the heroes’ mercy. Yet here he was, trapped, waiting for the rescue.

Although… maybe this wasn’t Startrain? After all, even if he couldn’t control the akuma, he was still here. He could act. Who needs the heroes anyway? (He did, but only because he wanted to play with their toys for a bit).

Gabriel concentrated, analyzing the villain’s size, posture and looks. He listened closely to the constant muttering of the beast he hitherto had been ignoring. He took notice of the direction they were headed. He assessed his resources, considering if Adrien would be of assistance. Finally, he crafted a plan.

Step one, bite.

“YOOOOOWL!” the villain bellowed.

He smirked. Akuma:1; Gabriel:1.

***

“How does it feel to save the day? We’re about to find out,” the reporter chirped to the microphone. “Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news.” She winked to the camera. “We’re at the Grand Palais, waiting for the newest collection from Gabriel to hit the runway, but all everyone talks about this week is the bravery and aptitude of none other than the fashion mogul, the owner and creator of the Gabriel brand, Monsieur Agreste himself.”

The cameraman turned to him and Gabriel suppressed a groan. This was so typical. You pull just one miraculous rescue before Ladybug can save your butt, and suddenly you’re a national hero. Still, you don’t look a gift horse, that is publicity, in the mouth. You just roll with it or whatever kids say nowadays.

“All in a day’s work,” he drawled, minding to keep his voice modest yet confident. This wasn’t the first interview that followed his reckless stunt and despite the fact that he’d just been reiterating the same speech, journalists didn’t seem to get nearly enough of “Paris’ bravest civilian hero”.

Nathalie, who’d been shadowing him for the time of final preparations for the show, gave him a short nod and disappeared in the crowd. It was time to launch their concurrent plan, the sole reason this new collection even got a show in the first place.

Gabriel kept the reporters properly busy so that no one would notice the little blue feather floating harmlessly towards the intended goal: the pink purse of one very stressed Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who fidgeted nervously at the edge of her seat, waiting for another of her original creations to feature in a Gabriel show. Nathalie had made sure Adrien’s friend got her fill of the Bourgeois’ finest brand of malice, which would put her in that fragile, disturbed state perfect for accepting an amok. Just a little trick to lure Ladybug and Chat Noir and hopefully to put an end to the ludicrous series of failures they’d been experiencing ever since Hawkmoth made his presence and demands known.

And then things went haywire. An unexpected wisp of air from the high window intercepted the amok and it sailed in a completely different direction, sinking into, oh great , Lila Rossi’s bracelets.

So much for carefully woven, detailed plans and handpicked victims.

“Sentimonsters!” Gabriel cried. “Everybody out!”

If he’d learned one thing working with Mademoiselle Rossi, it was that things got unpredictable and much more calamitous when she was involved. That’s why he had wanted to leave her out of his plans this time. That’s why she had been offered to actually model a piece, just to keep her occupied, even though she didn’t have even one model bone in her entire body.

Now Lila’s grin turned positively evil, as she sent the senti-snakes after… of course… Marinette. That Italian girl had some serious issues if anyone asked Gabriel. Why haven’t Nathalie called off the amok anyway?

Gabriel set out to find his assistant. Lack of control over their evil little friends was usually the source of big inconvenience. He’d learned it the hard way last time. Searching would go much faster if it wasn’t for the brainless crowds panicky sloshing inside the Grand Palais hall. Oh, for the love of-

“You must evacuate!” Gabriel yelled. “Find the nearest exit!” He squinted at the walls. Was it really that hard to actually read the signs that were there? “Here, and here, and here,” he said as he waved at the doors and people finally listened. The crowd started to file out of the building.

“Please stay calm,” Gabriel continued to shout over the heads of the evacuating viewers. “There’s no need to trample each other. The sentimonsters are busy.”

He risked a glance at the snakes. Indeed they were kept busy. Marinette was doing exceptionally well at keeping one at bay. Sadly the other two weren’t engaged with her, but went off to attack someone else. A cold sweat covered Gabriel when he saw whom.

Adrien batted at the two remaining senti-snakes with a clothes rack, while shielding an unconscious Nathalie, curled in a corner. She must have been knocked out cold.

The older Agreste cursed under his breath. Where the hell was Ladybug and Chat Noir when one needed them? This was supposed to be a perfect trap.

At that moment the rack Adrien had been fending the snakes off with snapped in two and the first monster launched itself at the boy.

Red flooded Gabriel’s vision. He pushed, leaped, ran, slid. He acquired a wrench somehow. He hit, thwacked, walloped and smacked until the sentimonsters scuttled away and huddled in the opposite end of the hall.

Ladybug arrived just as he and Adrien helped Nathalie to her feet. His assistant sported a nasty bruise on her forehead. Adrien’s clothes, the showcase items, hung in tatters from his shoulders. His trousers looked as if they were made of sieves.

“It’s the bracelets,” Gabriel muttered, motioning towards backstage, where Lila’s maniacal laughter could be heard. He gritted his teeth.

“Got it,” Ladybug nodded.

One throw of a yoyo later, the heroine had the crazy Italian girl tightly gift wrapped as she went for the amok.

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

Gabriel actually sighed in relief as the swarms of butterflies cleared the hall. Thank goodness it was over.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” a familiar voice cut into his ease, “you’ve all seen this here, live, in TVi! Paris’ bravest civilian hero in action! Wasn’t he amazing?”

Oh, that was the one thing he’d forgotten about. Why had he thought the reporter would have enough brains to run away? Of course she’d been broadcasting the whole thing live - what would get her a bigger audience than a fashion show turned heroic rescue mission?

“Oh no,’ he groaned, “not again .”

“Monsieur Agreste,” Madame Chamack shoved her microphone right under his nose and asked hopefully, “a few words of comment?”

Gabriel looked around helplessly. Adrien was searching for Marinette, Ladybug was trying to free herself from Lila’s hug of fake gratitude, and Nathalie took a sudden interest in the ceiling. A shadow of a smirk danced on her lips and he knew she’d never let him live this down. He might have to give her a raise just to keep her quiet.

“Sure,” he took a deep breath and turned to the reporter. “Why not?”

***

Gabriel swore this would be the last time. Either the plan works and he gets the most cunning, powerful and brilliant akuma ever, or he declares Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng off limits. Some gut feeling told him she was really special. If anyone could get him those miraculouses, it would be her.

This was attempt number too-many even by his standards, but he was grasping at straws here. So when Lila offered to prove Marinette was a false friend, a liar and a bad influence, if not a threat to Adrien, Gabriel got tempted. One last time. If the Italian Job, as he started to think of it, didn’t work, he’d stop trying to akumatize Marinette whatsoever. As for Mademoiselle Rossi herself, he was still on the fence. On one hand, she had displayed incredible talent at riling people up. Chloe Bourgeois had nothing on her. On the other hand, Lila’s presence near Adrien, her more or less veiled suggestions that she wanted to be his girlfriend, her nosiness and conceit, the way she seemed to believe she got Gabriel himself wrapped around her finger, that he was actually buying her bull, well, suffice to say it was starting to get on his nerves.

And he was quite fond of his nerves, thank you very much.

Gabriel wasn’t even sure how exactly Lila wanted to provide proof of her claims, but it surely wasn’t anything legal. Even better. If it worked and he’d get the akuma it wouldn’t matter. If it didn’t work, he’d have a substantial leverage in case she’d decide to go after him one day.

His tablet chimed and a notification from Lila’s instagram account popped up on the screen. She started a live stream. A public live stream.

“A dangerous game you play, Mademoiselle Rossi,” Gabriel muttered under his breath. He clicked on the notification and transformed into Hawkmoth not taking his eyes off the feed.

Somehow Lila had managed to corner Marinette in an empty dressing room. Despite the buzz of a photoshoot in progress and tens of people milling around the two of them were alone.

“What do you want, Lila?” Marinette’s tone was confident, even a bit exasperated. “Out of the two of us I am actually interested in learning a few things by taking part in a photo shoot.”

“I told you to leave Adrien alone!” Lila ignored her classmate’s jab, getting to her own agenda.

“What’s it to you? You don’t own him.”

“I don’t,” Lila admitted, the unspoken “yet” implied in her smirk. “But I am his close friend and I know bad acting when I see it.”

“Bad acting? What are you getting at?”

“You know, Marinette,” Lila murmured, adjusting the phone so that the other girl’s face would be seen. “You know very well. We’ve talked about it before. Might as well admit it now.”

Marinette, bless her heart, stammered something incoherently. Poor girl , Gabriel thought. If even he was aware of her gigantic crush on his son, then probably everyone and their dog knew (bar one oblivious teen in denial). But it was one thing to know people knew, and quite another to be forced to voice such a personal, intimate detail. And yet it turned out Lila had more tricks up her sleeve.

“We all saw the posters in your room,’ the Italian girl tsked. “ And Alya told me about the Athanase gift….” She raised a brow.

Marinette’s eyes got bigger. All her bravado seemed to evaporate under Lila’s insinuations.

“Nino mentioned an all boys party…” Lila drawled, pausing for effect.

Marinette gulped. “There’s nothing wrong-”

“In being a fan? I agree.” Lila smiled sweetly. “But considering the, ahem , scale and detail, wouldn’t you say it’s more than that?”

“More?”

“You’re not just a fan of fashion, Marinette. You’re obsessed. My question is - is it just fashion? Or maybe you’re Adrien’s crazed fangirl?” Lila circled her classmate, minding to keep the camera fixed on her. “Or maybe…” she suspended her voice, before going in for the kill, “maybe you’re trying to make a break in the industry on the backs of Adrien and his father? Connections are everything after all.”

A wave of pure, white hot hatred rammed into Hawkmoth. On the screen he saw Marinette seething, her lips pressed tightly together, her fists clenched and eyes narrowed to slits. He dropped the tablet and summoned the akuma.

“Go, go, go!” He rushed the butterfly.

When he returned to the device, the stream had already ended. He had no idea what had happened, but at that moment Lila posted a new picture - of herself with Adrien with the make-up artist in the background. An innocent smile and a V gesture had been paired with a few cringeworthy emojis and hashtags: #truefriends #friends4ever #friendshipgoals and so on.

There was no sign of Marinette, but Hawkmoth already felt the strong emotions ebbing away. No hatred meant no target for his akuma. He remembered himself before he broke the tablet in half. He sighed, calming himself down. At this rate he’d become the next champion.

And then the sirens started to wail. Fire alarms blared from every corner of the facility.

“What on Earth-,” Hawkmoth scowled at the flashing red lights. It couldn’t have been an akuma. It was still somewhere out there, searching for its target. So the alarm must have been caused by something else.

Footsteps outside told him something must have happened. He sniffed. The unmistakable stink of smoke filled his nostrils. For a second he considered his options, but ultimately he dropped his transformation and left his hideout.

Around him people headed for emergency exits, but Gabriel felt a sudden urge to look for Adrien. He broke into a run. The boy had an awful knack of getting himself engaged in dangerous situations, and if Lila was nearby, it was probably a good idea to keep an eye on his son.

Sure enough he found Adrien tucked in a corner, checking his phone instead of running to safety. Gabriel set his course to intercept. Without slowing down he grabbed the boy by his shirt and dragged him outside. On his son’s phone the last seconds of Lila’s Instagram story unraveled. Adrien’s brow furrowed in indignation.

“Where’s Lila,” he growled, before remembering himself. He swallowed the bile that was probably up in his throat. “Have you seen Lila, Father?” he asked.

Gabriel was actually impressed. As an empath he could appreciate both - the extremely strong emotions and keeping them in check.

Adrien climbed to his toes and inspected the crowd that fled the building. “Where’s Marinette?” This time his voice wavered.

He spotted his Italian classmate nearby, talking to a reporter, a studied concern marring her face.

“...of course I had to do something,” she said with emphasis. “All my friends are very dear to me. One of the things Dalai Lama has taught me-”

“Lila!” Adrien cut in, ignoring her ramblings and the audience. “Where’s Marinette?”

BOOM! Something blew inside the building. Glass shattered on one of the roof windows and plumes of smoke poured outside.

Lila paled and stammered something. For the first time her face seemed to be honest. She was genuinely scared as her eyes set upon the building’s entrance.

“What did you do?!” Adrien cried.

Gabriel’s stomach clenched as it dawned on him.

“She can’t get out?” he hissed, grabbing Lila’s elbow.

The girl gulped, shaking her head slightly. Then the terror disappeared from her face, replaced with well-practiced innocence. “The door locked behind me. I was going to get help but the alarm-”

Adrien beelined for the building. Gabriel cursed under his breath and dove after him. He briefly considered a quick transformation once he got inside. But it would rouse too many difficult questions if not only Gabriel Agreste but also Hawkmoth suddenly started rescuing people, so he dismissed this idea. He had enough brains to grab an extinguisher on his way.

“Adrien! Wait!” he yelled. He was about to jump into smoke when a string wrapped around him and he was yanked back.

“Monsieur Agreste, what’s going on?” Ladybug released her hold on him. “Is Adrien there?”

Gabriel tried to keep the scowl off his face. He wasn’t used to being treated like a toy.

“His friend is trapped in that building,” he explained. “We need to-”

Ladybug’s yoyo beeped.

Chat’s face appeared on the screen. “Could you lend me a helping paw, my Lady?” Thick clouds surrounded him. “I have an akuma and a fire source here,” he said.

Ladybug shot an anxious look at Gabriel. “Any civilians?”

“Still looking,” Chat grunted. The screen blurred and a creak sounded when he forced a door open. “Ouch,” he hissed as the sprinklers started to work. “This cat doesn’t like to get wet,” he complained.

“Coming, Chat!” Ladybug shut her phone. “Please, stay here, Monsieur. This is not a job for civilian heroes,” she added with a faint smile and ran into the building.

Gabriel waited a whole minute, which said a lot about his self-restraint. When the swarms of ladybugs buzzed out of the roof window, fixing the damage and taking the rest of the smoke with them, he broke into run.

Adrien was wrestling with a door to the only closed dressing room.

“It’s stuck,” he shot out as a way of explanation. The corridor was too narrow for him to get a good running start, but he was doing his best to force his way in.

“No Ladybug or Chat Noir to help?” Gabriel scowled. Maybe this was below their paygrade.

“They put out the fire, but they had to leave,” Adrien mumbled. “They were each down to their last marker.”

Gabriel pushed the boy aside and grabbed the knob. It wouldn’t budge. “Marinette’s in there?”

“Yes, sir,” came a faint reply from behind the wood.

“Please get away from the door,” he instructed. He swung the extinguisher and smashed it into the lock. It did the trick much better than Adrien’s shoulder.

His son burst inside as soon as the door swung on the hinges. Gabriel tactfully turned away when the boy pulled Marinette into tight embrace. He was wondering if the accident finally knocked some sense into Adrien, or if his son was still on the adrenaline high. Either way Gabriel made a mental note to finally address the “good friend” issue. For now he settled for averting his eyes and leisurely swinging the extinguisher he’d still been holding only to get a flash in his face.

Click. Click. Click.

At least three reporters decided to capture this moment for posterity.

“Ah, and once again our local star, Gabriel Agreste, saves the day, or rather a member of his crew-” a journalist for TVi entered the scene, the microphone at the ready. “Can we get a comment on the latest video one of your young models posted shortly before this dangerous incident? I believe it featured the girl you just rescued,” he pointed towards the teens behind Gabriel’s back.

Thankfully Marinette managed to free herself from Adrien’s bear hug, but her face was a battlefield between blissful blush and whitewash mortification.

Gabriel cleared his throat. “No comment,” he stated.

“But the conflict might affect the performance of your staff-”

“I value Mademoiselle Dupain Cheng’s talent and skill in design. I appreciate Mademoiselle Rossi’s hard work on the set,” he admitted. “But I refuse to be dragged into any personal conflicts. Now please, leave the set. We’ve already wasted enough time and money. No further comments,” he gestured towards the exit.

“-oh I’m sure she was just trying to make a victim out of herself. You know, to gain pity or instant fame-”

That was Lila whispering in hush tone somewhere nearby, already spreading rumors. Gabriel’s fists clenched. He’d had enough.

“-Jagged Stone, who wrote a song about me, you know, he once said that fame-”

Gabriel flinched. He watched Adrien’s back as the boy led Marinette to the bathroom, steering clear off any prying journalists, keeping close to her, as if he would never leave her side again.

Fame, Gabriel thought. That’s a dangerous game. I’ll show you instant fame, Mademoiselle Rossi.

***

“We’re at Le Grand Paris, with Paris’ bravest civilian hero, Gabriel Agreste, although I imagine he needs no introduction!” Nadja Chamack exclaimed, starting her interview. “Monsieur Agreste has proved that you don’t need a miraculous to beat akuma after akuma. Ladybug and Chat Noir must be big fans of yours,” she grinned.

“As I am theirs,” Gabriel bowed, suppressing a flinch, and he went into monologue mode, providing the meat every reporter was after these days. From the time he slid across the table to thwack the akuma that threatened his fashion show, to the time he unloaded a bucket of hot coffee on another villain’s head to save Adrien, to numerous occasions he had managed to outwit his akumas (which wasn’t really as difficult as people seemed to think) before Ladybug and Chat Noir managed to get to the scene, he slowly but surely established his image as the civilian hero.

“Can you tell us more about today’s event?” Nadja asked. “You’ve been very secretive about it so far.”

That was the plan. His newest collection, the spotlight of the event, was only an excuse, as he had a particular fox to fry.

“All I can say is a night of quality fashion awaits us,” he said with a smile. “Our dear guests are going to be models as well!”

Nadja took the bait, and Gabriel was proud to say she hadn’t been the only one.

“Ah, guests as models!” The woman leaned in. “Does this mean we won’t see your regular models?”

“On the contrary, the show is going to feature many familiar faces,” Gabriel replied cryptically.

“I already see one - is that Lila Rossi?” Nadja zeroed in on the girl who just arrived at the red carpet.

“Indeed.”

“And her companion for the event?” the reporter asked, eyeing the crowds curiously.

Lila waved at the photographers and came to a halt next to Nadja, undoubtedly expecting a few questions. She was looking around, very much interested in her partner herself. Gabriel nodded to Nathalie, who led the boy fresh out of the dressing room.

“Your son, Adrien-” Nadja regarded him.

Lila’s lips stretched into a sly smile. The boy shot her with a toothy grin so unlike Adrien, that she recoiled in surprise.

Gabriel suppressed a smirk as he shook his head. “May I present Felix Graham de Vanily, my nephew and Adrien’s cousin.”

Felix bent in a deep, respectable bow. If he wanted, his manners were impeccable.

“Remarkable,” Nadja marveled. “They easily could have been taken for-”

“Twins?” Gabriel interjected. “Yes, they even managed to fool us a few times,” he let out an amiable chuckle, he’d been practicing in front of his mirror. “Felix is going to be Lila’s partner for tonight. I think I can let you in on a little secret: Adrien is going to accompany his girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?!” Nadja and Lila shrieked in unison.

Gabriel allowed himself just a little smile. He put a hand to his chest. “A development that warms my heart,” he declared. “A very talented designer, who’s behind a few accessories for this collection. But I’m sure you already know her-, “ he gestured to the red carpet, where a new pair of guests appeared.

“ Marinette ,” Lila growled under her breath.

“I must leave now,” Gabriel nodded to the reporter. “I need to see to a few last minute details. Let me show you around, Felix. And Lila,” he added looking at her above the rim of his glasses.

Felix offered the Italian girl an elbow. She shot one last look at Adrien and Marinette, but she had no choice but to make room for them as she was led to the building.

“Mademoiselle Lila Rossi!” Felix chirped in delight. He was giving the girl a smile worthy of a shark straight from a dentist appointment. “We meet at last! Adrien has told me so much about you!” His grin widened, a feat Gabriel never thought possible. “So many celebrities are going to be here tonight. I can’t wait for you to introduce me to them, since you know so many famous people.”

Up to this point Lila was giving him a sour smile, but now fear flashed in her eyes. “Ce-celebrities?” she stammered. “S-sure, I know a few,” she added, anxiously looking around. “What the-?!”

That last exclamation was at the burst of flash in her eyes.

Felix just shot the two of them in a selfie. “Great! This goes straight to my Insta! I’m tagging you of course,” he added in theatrical whisper. “I hope many more pics with all those celebs are going to follow!”

Gabriel trailed after them at a distance. He was very pleased with himself, humming in content at placing the right boy at the right place. Nathalie appeared at his side.

“Excellent job with Felix,” he praised. “I see you even managed to brief him, despite the short notice.”

His assistant’s smile was positively sinister. “I haven’t,” she said. “Apparently he’s been keeping in touch with Adrien and he kind of took the initiative himself.”

“Even better,” Gabriel nodded in approval. There were few things he appreciated more than champions with drive.

He kept close to Felix and Lila, as his nephew led the girl from one cluster of guests to another, snapping pictures, and crying in disappointment whenever someone wouldn’t recognize Lila. He spent a significant amount of time in each group introducing her, and explaining how she knew so many people, alas no one in particular. At one point Gabriel thought he saw the boy pocketing Lila’s phone, but he might have been wrong.

He checked the social media. Felix’s Instagram feed was full of pictures with their guests and Lila, who’s frown deepened with every photo. Jagged Stone and Penny Rolling, Prince Ali, Clara Nightingale and Audrey Bourgeois. Name after name, face after face, and not even a sparkle of recognition, which of course hadn’t escaped Felix’s attention. Two hashtags #sheknowsthemALL #thoughNOTthisONE accompanied every post. Not so subtle, but infinitely less brutal than what he initially had in mind. It might not destroy her reputation, excuse his pun - instantly, but a gradual decline was fine by Gabriel. Everything done in white gloves. Why didn’t he think about it earlier?

Felix and Lila stood by André the ice cream maker, who’d been appointed as a sort of celebrity catering novelty. He was shaking his head at the girl and Gabriel knew that meant he had no idea who she was. Felix feigned a moan of disappointment. The boy’s eyes twinkled with amusement.

“That looks like some just desserts,” came a comment from behind Gabriel’s back. It was Adrien hand in hand with Marinette.

Gabriel hadn’t been lying to Madame Chamack. Marinette’s petite hand was tightly and tenderly wrapped in his son’s palm. The gooey eyes look was really good on him. The older Agreste made a mental note to use that for their next shoot.

“Astonishing. It’s a miracle she hasn’t been akumatized yet,” Adrien reflected, observing the scene with André.

Marinette elbowed him, but she was smiling.

Not really a miracle, Gabriel pondered, just your everyday Agreste hero miraculously restraining himself. Oops, he thought, did I do it again and save the day?

#gabriel agreste #miraculous ladybug #adrinette #lila rossi #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #Who's Who pt 2 #ml fic rec #crack #definitely

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the-coconut-asado · 5 years

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Crazy for Kiwi Crickets

When it comes to eating out in Fiji, you are only as good as your last success.

Consistently get it right and the punters will flock. Anything less than excellent and it’s ‘Maaan that place has gone downhill – but the duck soup at Harbour Centre is the Bomb!’ You can’t actually get duck soup at Harbour Centre, but anything with duck in Suva is a sure-fire winner as they are in constant short supply.

Fiji is always in pursuit of the New Big Thing. That duck soup place I mentioned was actually the New Big Thing once, so was The Guava Café (doorstep griddled toast and Land of the Giant-sized portions); Singh’s burn-your-ring curry house and the Chinese restaurant at Samabula where you got a decent takeaway and a ringside seat at a sailors’ punch up.

There are some classics that never go out of fashion. The cream buns at Hot Bread Kitchen – the ‘cream’ is actually buttercream and they sell them in sets of six like monkey bread so yeah, good luck with just eating one; Cardo’s Steakhouse in Denarau – they claim their cattle are descendants of Argentine castaways from the 19th century (kind of yarn that could spark a punch up in that Samabula Chinese restaurant, but the steaks ARE consistently good); Friday seafood lunch at Suva Bowling Club (you may not recognise half the seafood on your plate, and that’s a good thing); And, sadly closed now, The Cottage – tucked behind the main drag in Suva, serving the best local Fiji food and only open at lunchtime. And didn’t we all wail when the owner retired and shut up shop after decades of top-quality chow.

Anyway, it’s quite something when the New Big Thing is your sister-in-law’s café. Weta (Coffee) Fiji, the fifth child of Mue and her husband Darran, opened its doors in March this year.

The café gets its name from a gerbil-sized cricket native to New Zealand. A quick google search and you can watch a film of a weta fighting a foraging pig, so maybe not exotic pet material.

While the lion’s share of daily sales will always be the coffee (and we returned with bags of beans to London, it’s that good), it’s the food at Weta that’s getting the lion’s share of hype. World Health Organisation apparatchiks would probably advise not have more than one Honey Butter Waffle a month, yet people are spectacularly carb-loading these Weta signature goodies daily on their way to work. Take a look at the picture below and you could so easily join them.

Aside from the waffle-fest, Mue and cousin Cherie (whose aunt founded that other Fiji café classic Bulaccino) have entered into a kind of foodie face-off with each other, competing to see who can come up with the most mouth-watering innovations. The Honey Butter Waffles already give 1-0 to Mue; but ever thought of combining crispy nuggets of bacon with a rich mayonnaise, slathering it on a chicken schnitzel and sandwiching it all in a toasted mini baguette? Then check out their Chicken Baconnaise Panini and Cherie evens the score. How about a teal-green smoothie that tastes fruity and delicious but you don’t know why? Place your order for their Ugly Green Juice - a joint invention so let’s call it a draw. I assiduously worked my way through most of their menu over two weeks and couldn’t find much that was less than evil genius.

Because this is a family concern, and Mue does a lot of her experimenting in her own kitchen, I got caught up in the whole entrepreneurial swirl when we were there this summer. Watching while Mue, with apparent carelessness cloaking a keen cook’s eye, tossed ingredients for her Marsala Chai muffins into the food processor at 5 in the morning while simultaneously whipping up a vegan version of her waffle mix. Slavishly watching her EPOS app to see if the sales dial had moved to kerching! levels – in short, generally starting to catch the fever of the hospitality business owner. Is Suva ready for Kava Hot Chocolate? (Kava is the ceremonial drink of Fiji with delicate overtones of mud). Apparently yes, and at least 10 people on the first day of sales had a dreamless sleep that night. Another invention marked up to Mue and another profit stream.

Having eaten our body weight in tropical breakfast patisserie, we left Suva for a few days to head to our own New Big Thing on Fiji’s Other Big Island.

Savusavu is a picturesque town with a bay big enough to host a fistful of yachts and a marina to moor them. Even though it’s popular, the road to Savusavu – which nestled on the South coast of Vanua Levu - is one less travelled compared to the resort islands of Western Viti Levu. It has a reputation as a millionaire’s playground and we were told ‘be careful, you won’t want to come back’ (do people wrongly assume that we are at home in the company of dicks with yachts?). Anyway, they weren’t wrong about the beauty of the place, and I can now tell them a few tales about some unexpected food epiphanies.

The first was thanks to Sarah, the owner of the Gecko Guesthouse. It said in our Airbnb blurb that she would throw in a cooking lesson if we asked nicely. Which we did, and she obliged, if a little reluctantly at first. We spent one chilled-out evening learning her techniques for snake bean and bitter gourd curries (be sparing rather than slavish with your spices), a-ma-zing fish madras (although we can’t get fresh walu in the West, swordfish would be a decent substitute) and clever hack for cooking rice (err, use an electric rice maker).

However, the piece de resistance of Savusavu is a ‘dive’ (my friend Ije’s word when he saw the Insta post) called Arun’s Hidden Taste of Paradise.

The name felt a bit at odds with its appearance, which is a little grubby and dishevelled, but don’t be fooled. The clue is in the word ‘hidden’ because if you make it through their mesh-covered door you will taste cassava chips which are meltingly creamy on the inside and quadruple-cooked crispy on the outside and, hands down, the best butter chicken I have eaten in my life. The eponymous Arun, both owner and cook, seemed frankly scared when I asked for a photo, so I didn’t push on asking for the recipe – but kept the flavour profile running around in my head for the rest of the trip.

Obsessed as I was, I hunted down ingredients lists for butter chicken on my bookshelves and I think I have found a pretty good match in Vivek Singh, who based his Cinnamon Club classic on a 1950’s recipe from the Moti Mahal in Old Delhi. But then I saw a recipe for a curry pie in last month’s Delicious Magazine and had the brainwave to make this pie with the butter chicken. And while you might have to make the trip to Suva to get Mue’s original and best Honey Butter Waffles TM, I have slightly adapted her Chai Latte and Choc Chip Muffins and Ugly Green juice here.

So raise your Ugly-Green juice-filled glass to New Big Things. And watch out for the next one - the launch of Mue and Darran’s Writers Lodge guesthouse with Kava Bar and Weta Café later this Autumn.

You can follow them on @wetafiji.

Butter Chicken Pie

You can just make this butter chicken straight with pilau rice and all the trimmings, but turning it into a pie takes it to the next level. This pastry is super short and crispy, thanks to a mix of butter and lard. Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients or the processes. It’s dead easy over a lazy Sunday and the flavours are so worth it. Serves 4.

Ingredients:

For the butter chicken:

800g boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces

One red chilli and some coriander leaves

1 large red pepper, seeded and cut into strips

For the marinade:

120g Greek yoghurt

5 garlic cloves, grated or crushed

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated

1 tbsp sunflower oil

Juice of 1 large lemon

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

3 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp garam masala

½ tsp turmeric

For the sauce:

8-10 tomatoes

1 in piece of ginger, half grated and half chopped finely

4 garlic cloves, grated or crushed

4 green cardamom pods, 2 cloves, 1 bay leaf

2 tsp chilli powder

80g salted butter, diced

2 green chillies, split lengthwise but still joined at the stem

80ml single cream

A few dried fenugreek leaves

1tsp garam masala

1 tbsp. sugar

For the spiced butter:

1 Tbsp. ghee

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 tsp. crushed chillies

For the pastry:

230g plain flour

1 tsp kosher salt

65g salted butter, and 50g lard, both chilled and cubed

4tsp. soured cream

1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar( or use white wine vinegar as a substitute)

4 tsp. water

1 egg., beaten

3 tbsp. lime pickle (I like Pataks)

2 tbsp. sugar

How to make:

First marinate the chicken. Mix all marinade ingredients, stir in the chicken, cover and pop in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or preferably overnight.

Heat the oven to 220C/ Gas 9. Spread the chicken pieces out in one layer on a large baking tray, leaving a margin on the side to say out the strips of red pepper, tossed in a tsp. olive oil. Cook for 15-20 mins, turning the pieces halfway through so that they cook evenly. Remove from the oven and set aside while you make the sauce.

Slice the tomatoes in half and put in a large saute pan with 125 ml water, grated ginger, garlic, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf. Simmer, covered for about 25 mins until the tomatoes are mushy (the aroma from this simmer will already be driving you wild with desire). Remove the whole spices, add the chilli powder and simmer for a further 10 mins (Vivek likes to push the tomatoes through a sieve and just use the resultant puree, but I prefer my sauce to be a bit more rugged, a little less refined).

Add the chicken pieces and the red pepper slices and all their juices and give it a good stir. Slowly stir in the butter, a couple of cubes at a time, and simmer for about 8 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Add the chopped ginger, chillies and cream and simmer for a minute or two longer. Stir in 1 tsp.kosher salt, crumble in the fenugreek leaves and the garam masala. Adjust the seasoning if necessary then add the sugar.

In a separate small pan, warm up all the ingredients for the spiced butter until the seeds start to pop. At this stage you can serve the Butter Chicken with the spiced butter spooned over the top, but if progressing with the pie (which I urge you to do) , then set both the chicken and the spiced butter to one side.

Now make the pastry (you can also make this ahead and chill, just bring back to room temperature before rolling out). Combine the flour , salt and a generous grind of black pepper in a food processor. Add the butter and lard and blitz until it has the texture of fine breadcrumbs. In a separate bowl, mix the soured cream, vinegar and water then add to the flour and butter mix and just blitz until the mixture starts to come together (don’t overwork it). Turn out onto a floured surface and bring together into a smooth ball. Wrap in cling film then chill for at least 30 mins.

Heat the oven to 200C/ Gas 6. Brush the rim of your pie dish with the beaten egg, then fill the dish with the butter chicken and drizzle the spiced butter all over the surface. Roll out the pastry in a circle big enough to cover the pie dish, then lay over the top of the dish, crimping the edges to seal and trim off any surplus pastry to neaten the edges. Cut a small cross in the middle to let the steam out during cooking and make some pastry leaves with any pastry offcuts.

Brush all over with the rest of the egg glaze then pop in the fridge for 10 minutes.During that 10 minutes, make the lime pickle glaze by mixing the pickle with 2 tbsp. boiling water and the sugar. Set aside.

Bake the pie for 40 mins then brush all over with the lime pickle glaze and bake for 15 mins more. Serve garnished with the chilli (dipped in a little oil to make it glisten) and a few coriander leaves.

Mue’s Chai Latte Choc Chip Muffins (and some variations)

When I asked Mue for the recipe she had to quantify her instincts on ingredients, (and thanks for leaving out the eggs first time round missus) but the results were judged by those who ate them as ‘the best they have ever had’. I have slightly adjusted the recipe, using chai latte mix instead of masala chai and used my favourite buttermilk instead of sour cream. (makes 12 generous muffins)

Ingredients:

3.5 cups flour (about 350g) plain flour

3 tbsp. baking powder

1 tbsp chai latte powder

Pinch kosher salt

125g butter, melted

200g sugar

2 tbsp. Coconut oil, melted

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups buttermilk and maybe a tbsp of milk

2 eggs

1 50g packet of chocolate chips plus a few extra for serving

For the streusel topping:

20g plain flour

10g sugar

10g butter

1 tsp. Chai latte powder

How to make

Heat the oven to 220C/ Gas 7-8. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with muffin holders (I like the tulip-shaped ones in the photo).

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, chai latte powder and salt. In separate bowl mix the melted, cooled butter and coconut oil with the beaten eggs, Buttermilk, splash of milk (1 tbsp) and the vanilla paste. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until a thick, gloopy consistency. Add a little more milk if the mix is too stiff. You want it not quite falling off your spoon. Then fold in the chocolate chips.

In a third bowl, rub the butter into the flour until you have fine breadcrumbs then mix in the sugar and chai latte.

Fill the muffin cups evenly (about 2 tbsp. Mix per cup), then top with the streusel and pop in the oven, turning the heat down immediately to 180C/ Gas 5. Bake for 30 mins until a skewer comes out clean from the centre, then remove from the oven and dot each muffin with a few more chocolate chips cool and serve.

Variations

For Blueberry muffins, omit the chai latte powder and choc chips and stir in 3 oz fresh blueberries into the muffin mix. Bake as before.

For Apple, Pecan and Golden Syrup muffins. Melt 2 tbsp golden syrup with the butter and coconut oil, then add all the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients as before. Fold in 1 grated apple and 50g coarsely chopped pecans into the muffin mix then bake as before. Dot each muffin with a few more chopped pecans when out of the oven and before they cool.

Mue and Cherie’s Ugly Green Juice

This is the colour of verdigris but tastes delightful. Just shut your eyes and drink (or colour match with your nail polish, like here).

Ingredients:

½ cup frozen strawberries

2 tsp acai berry powder or lingonberry powder

2 tsp Splenda or Stevia sweetener

4 tsp. Spirulina

1-2 Cups nut milk (try to get a nice think consistency, so start with 1 cup and add more to taste

How to Make

Put all your ingredients into a blender, blitz till smooth and serve.

It’s that simple.

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choclette8 · 4 years

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New year, new me, new you, perhaps. Veganuary is a good time to explore plant milks. And what a coincidence, there’s a splendid new book out which will help you do just that. Read on for a review of Plant Milk Power by Dr Aparna Prinja & Shital Shah. Plus there’s a chance to win a copy for yourself. You’ll also find a recipe for a delicious raspberry cashew nut milk smoothie.

AD – this is a review post. It contains affiliate links. See my cookie and privacy statement for further details.

Veganuary

For the second year running I’m taking the Veganuary challenge. I’m over a week in now and I’m loving it. This book along with the raspberry cashew smoothie has helped, but I just find it really exciting to come up with three meals a day that are entirely vegan. So far this year I’ve posted a recipe for roasted hazelnut bliss balls, but do watch out for some more substantial recipes further down the line.

You can find all of my Veganuary posts by clicking on the link. Most of them are recipes, but you might find these ideas for 31 healthy vegan breakfast recipes useful as well.

Plant Milk Power

Authors Dr Aparna Prinja and Shital Shah debunk the myth that plant milks are difficult to make. Their book, Plant Milk Power: delicious, nutritious and easy recipes to nourish your soul is stuffed with gorgeous recipes for easy and quick to make vegan milks and smoothies. There’s no need to strain or sieve anything. How fabulous is that?

From the title, I was expecting worthy recipes for conventional nut milks such as my hemp seed milk. But Plant Milk Power is actually a lot more interesting than that. The premise is that they are delicious drinks in their own right. Yes, you could add them to hot drinks or your cereal, but that’s not the real point of them. I haven’t tried to use them this way as they are sweetened with dates and I prefer my conventional milks to be unsweetened.

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Photo captured from Plant Milk Power.

As the subtitle suggests, the milks and smoothies are meant to be nourishing to both body and mind. So they taste good, look good and are healthy too. Dr Aparna Prinja is a professional nutritionist and Shital Shah runs a nutrition-based catering business. So I reckon their credentials for coming up with nutritious and tasty recipes are sound.

In Love with Plant-Based Milks

As well as recipes for various nut and seed milks, there are lots of what I’d call light smoothies. As you can see from the front cover, these are beautifully coloured and range from green to yellow to pink to purple. If you like green tea, I can highly recommend the matcha, chia and almond milk. My matcha is a bit past its best, so the photo below is not as vibrantly green as it should be. But it was still a great way to start my day. I’d definitely call it a smoothie rather than a milk though. The chia seeds made it quite thick.

Almond Matcha Smoothies.

The base recipes for the plant-based milks are interesting too. They not only include the usual suspects, but you’ll find pistachio milk, oat milk and sesame seed milk amongst other less obvious ones. As for the smoothies, you can go safe, as in this raspberry cashew smoothie. Or you can go wild. The baobab, cacao, almond, chia and sesame seed calcium punch has just got to be tried.

Walnut milk is my new favourite thing. I was expecting it to be a bit bitter, but not at all. It’s absolutely delectable. You can see a photo of one I made further down the post.

Ingredients

At the back of the book, you’ll find an ingredient section. This not only tells you about linseeds, for example and their health benefits, but also shows a photo so that you can easily identify them. Possible allergies and intolerances are not forgotten either.

Standard nuts and seeds are covered in the first section. Although oats are a grain, they have a place too. The second section covers ingredients that are used both for flavour and health. These include baobab, cardamom, maple syrup, moringa and saffron. The final section is all about fruit. These have also been chosen for their health benefits as well as their flavour.

Although some of the ingredients take a bit of effort to find, many of them are everyday ones that you can buy anywhere. Many of the recipes require nuts or seeds, dates and water only. Oh! Don’t forget that pinch of kelp, if you so desire. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read on.

Publisher Details

Plant Milk Power: delicious, nutritious and easy recipes to nourish your soul */ Dr Aparna Prinja & Shital Shah. Published by Meze Publishing in paperback with an RRP of £15. ISBN – 9781910863411.

If you like the sound of Plant Milk Power, head down to the bottom of the post where you’ll find the chance to win a copy.

What I Really Liked

I have to say I’m completely in love with this book. It’s just perfect for jumpstarting that healthy new year, whether or not you’re vegan or participating in Veganuary. Even if I get tempted by less healthy foods later in the day, I like a nutritious start. I also like my breakfasts to be interesting. There are so many good ideas in Plant Milk Power that I feel completely inspired. I can’t wait to get going with almond, cacao, chicory and walnut milk. Sadly, I threw out my chicory powder when I was having a clear out a few months ago. I wasn’t using it so thought the compost heap needed it more than I did. Oops!

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Photo captured from Plant Milk Power

There are lots of good tips too. I’m already incorporating some of them into my morning smoothie. Iodine is one of the nutrients often lacking in plant based milks. It just so happens that kelp is full of it. So if you add a pinch to your morning milk or smoothie, it’s going to help. When I remember, which isn’t very often, I take a kelp supplement. But I’d far rather add it to a smoothie than take it on its own. It doesn’t affect the taste, so that’s an added bonus as far as I’m concerned. I’m not a fan of the flavour.

Walnut Milk.

Plus there are simple drink ideas to kickstart the day that are a lot healthier than coffee. As I may have mentioned, walnut milk is my new favourite drink. Every recipe sounds delicious and the photos are appealing. There are lots of pictures, so the book gets extra brownie points for that.

What Could Be Better

Really, there’s very little I can think of to improve Plant Milk Power. The main issue I have with the book is that it’s a paperback. I much prefer my cookery books to be hardbacks as I find paperbacks get tatty really quickly. Especially if they’re used as often as this one is likely to be.

The other niggle is that with my librarian’s hat on, I want and expect a recipe book to have an index. It makes it so much more useful. Whilst the book only has 43 recipes in it, it’s still quicker to go to an index to look for recipes with raspberries in, for example, than it is to trawl through the page of contents.

Top Tips

Overnight Soaking

You need to be organised. Every recipe requires overnight soaking of the nuts or seeds. I haven’t tried nearly as many of the recipes as I otherwise would have done as I keep forgetting to do this. Activating the nuts and seeds is key to these nourishing milks and smoothies.

Power Blender

You will need a power blender to make the plant milks in these recipes. An ordinary blender just won’t cut it. You need a machine that’s able to grind the nuts and seeds up finely enough to make a smooth milk.

As a Froothie ambassador, I have tried a number of power blenders. By far and away the best so far is the new glass-jugged Froothie Evolve*. I much prefer to blend in a glass jar as I’ve always been a bit wary of plastic. The Evolve is powerful and has a vacuum function so that the nutrients don’t oxidise. See my power blender review for more info on this. This makes your plant milks even more nutritious. Having said that the Nutri Force* is a powerful little blender which is the perfect size for the milks and smoothies in Plant Milk Power.

Raspberry Cashew Smoothie

It’s a rare occurrence for me to buy fruit and veg out of season. But when I spotted some reduced raspberries recently, I couldn’t resist. Raspberry cashew nut milk smoothie was one of the recipes in the book after all. Gosh, I can’t wait until the raspberry season so I can guzzle this again. Plus there’s a couple of other raspberry recipes I’d like to try. The raspberry and tiger nut smoothie has my name written all over it.

As you can imagine the combination of raspberries and cashew nuts is a really good one. The cashew nuts make for a particularly creamy milk and the raspberries provide colour and punch. But the ingredient that got me particularly excited was the addition of rosewater. As anyone who’s been following me for a while will know, I adore the combination of rose and raspberries. Initially I was tempted to use my rose syrup instead of rosewater. But I wanted to stay true to the recipe and not use refined sugar, so in the end I went with the ingredients as stated in the recipe.

These include lemon zest. What a lovely addition this is. And why haven’t I thought of using it before? It brings a bit of extra vibrancy as well as flavour. And lemon and raspberries are another good combination.

So, once you’ve soaked your cashews overnight, it’s just a case of whizzing everything up in a power blender. So simple and so quick.

Photo captured from Plant Milk Power.

Alternatively, you can add chia seeds and transform your raspberry cashew smoothie into a ‘Turkish Delight’ chia bowl.

Stay in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you get hold of Plant Milk Power or try this recipe for raspberry and cashew nut smoothie, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do share photos on your preferred social media site and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

For further book reviews and giveaways follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.

Plant Milk Power. PIN IT.

Raspberry Cashew Smoothie – The Recipe

Raspberry Cashew Smoothie

A zingy sweet and floral smoothie to wake you up in the morning. Packed full of nutrients, it's almost guaranteed to put a spring in your step.

6 cashew nuts ((about 9g))

150 g fresh raspberries

2 dates

1 tsp rosewater

½ organic lemon – zested

pinch of kelp powder

110 ml fresh water

Soak the cashews in 60ml water overnight.

In the morning, remove the cashews from the soaking water and place them in a power blender. Discard the water.

Add the remaining ingredients and whizz until you get a smooth smoothie. I used the smoothie function on my Froothie Evolve, then gave it an extra minute at speed 7.

To transform this into a ‘Turkish Delight’ chia bowl, just add 15g of chia seeds that have been soaked overnight in 60ml of water.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.

Sharing

I’m sharing this healthy and delicious raspberry cashew smoothie with The Peachicks Bakery for #CookBlogShare.

Plant Milk Power Giveaway

Meze Publishing is offering one Tin and Thyme reader a copy of Plant Milk Power. To be in with a chance of winning, please fill in the Gleam widget below. You will need to leave a comment on this post, answering the question, which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Gleam will pick a winner at random from the entries received. If you are commenting anonymously, please give me some way of identifying you as I will be verifying the validity of entries. Any automated entries will be disqualified.

This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address. Winners will need to respond within 5 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked. Leaving your details gives permission for them to be passed on to Meze Publishing should you be a winner in this giveaway.

Prizes are offered and provided by Meze Publishing and Tin and Thyme accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party. Tin and Thyme reserves the right to cancel or amend the giveaway and these terms and conditions without notice.

Closing date is Saturday 8 February 2020

Plant Milk Power

Thanks to Meze Publishing for the copy of Plant Milk Power. They did not expect me to write a positive review and all opinions are, as always, my own. This post contains affiliate links to Amazon and Froothie Optimum products*. Links are marked with an *. If you buy through a link it won’t cost you any more, but I’ll get a small commission. Thanks to my readers for supporting the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.

Raspberry Cashew Smoothie – Plant Milk Power New year, new me, new you, perhaps. Veganuary is a good time to explore plant milks. And what a coincidence, there's a splendid new book out which will help you do just that.

0 notes

afterspark-podcast · 5 years

Text

G1 Episode 9: Transcript

Episode Show Notes

[This can also be found on AO3!]

[Stinger]

S: Feed me! Or you need to get on your bed and let me lie on you!.

[Intro Music Plays]

O: Hello and welcome to the Afterspark Podcast, and episode by episode recap of the generation 1 Transformers cartoon. I'm Owls!

S: And I’m Specs. [titters]

O: Do you want to try that again?

S: And I'm Specs.

O: Today we're gonna be talking about episode number 9, Fire on the Mountain! Let's talk about giant robots today, shall we?

S: Yes.

O: So, if you remember last time we got Dinobots and sadly Dinobots will be Sirs Not-Appearing-in-this-Picture until the next episode, so I will, ah, kindly put my love for Grimlock away and we'll talk about it later, but just remember my cute Dino baby is coming back next episode.

S: Yeah.

O: Alright, so, um, today's episode opens with Brawn and Trailbreaker trailing- haha- Thundercracker and Starscream.

S: And they're totally driving on a road that looks like it's paved with giant metal bricks. That design choices for industrial areas this cartoon are really weird.

O: Especially because this is a human area. This is not, like, an Autobot area they're breaking into or-

S: or Cybertron.

O: Or Cybertron. This is a human area which seems mildly weird, um, but whatever. Uh, they arrive at a steel plant. Uh, Starscream running ahead of Thundercracker once they land, uh, with Starscream reminding Thundercracker of his superiority all of the way there.

S: Dot, dot, dot.

O: [Laughter]

S: Thundercracker is basically just trying to bring up that, hey, the steel from this plant might not be quite up to snuff for the project the Decepticons need it for and Starscream is completely ignoring him.

O: Because of course he is. Starscream is Starscream, and Starscream is gonna do what Starscream wants.

S: Yeah and they're stealing steel.

O: Oh my fucking pun! [Laughter] This is not even a good pun! Anyway throughout this we find out Starscream can apparently shoot missiles from his chest. Okay.

S: Titty guns. [Laughter]

O: [Sigh] We’re supposed to save all the innuendos till we get a Megatron gun. One psychedelic looking explosion later Thundercracker and Starscream fly off, leaving the Autobots buried under the wreckage.

S: There's some surprisingly nice background painting here, I really like it.

O: I believe you called it, “artfully destroyed,” while we were watching it.

S: Yeah, that sounds about right. And Starscream said we're bringing the house down.

O: Oh, you punny-punny bastard you. So the Autobots dig themselves out of all the wreckage, then they report back to the Ark.

S: Not helping any of these people. There's this entire crowd of people wearing welding masks-

O: That we saw running from from the Seekers.

S: Like, they- they're not helping any of these people that just got exploded or had stuff dropped on their heads. I mean, yeah, we totally- we totally saw this is entire crowd of people running away.

O: They’re fiiiiiine! So, uh, the Autobots get new toys today. Back to the Ark, they now have satellites or “sky spies.”

S: Honestly, I'm really wondering what diplomatic hoops had to be jumped through for this. I mean, the Cold War was presumably still going on or maybe the onset of the giant robot war put that on hold.

O: I mean, can you imagine Russia wouldn't have reacted very well to this. Like I-I imagine that like, Optimus would have had to do some serious smooth-talking. Like we, you know, we are neutral. We just want to keep the Decepticons in line. We're more than happy to help you guys, too. I don't know how that would have worked but he apparently did it so, ehh?

S: Like, I don't think I've ever read anything where anyone's tackled this but I kind of want them to.

O: Yeah, like, I know that a lot of more “edgy”, uh, recent stuff they- they tend to do focus on that kind of thing a lot more, and I'd like to see it but I'd like to see it a bit more positively than just the humans are going to kill the giant robots. It's a little depressing after a while, when they keep doing that.

S: Cuz they did this with Bumblebee, actually. Spoiler Alert!

O: Yeah, basically in Bumblebee they were, like, well we don't want the Russi- we don't want them to go to the Russians for help, so they end up helping, um helping, um, some of the robots that are not very nice robots if you catch my drift.

S: Mmhmm. And it's like, uh, eventually real- they eventually realized that these robots are the bad guys and John Cena’s character is the voice of reason, “They're called the Decepticons!”

O: [Laughter] Which is also kind of funny if you’ve read the comics, there's actually a legit reason they’re called that but more on that later. So meanwhile, in South America, the Decepticons are standing in front of an Incan pyramid and Soundwave is going on about some Incan legend being true.

S: How did he research this? Did he call a library? Did he go to the library?

O: I rather love the idea of a librarian just being like, “Well, technically we're open to everyone. This includes giant, evil 40-foot alien robots as long as they're not blowing up the building.”

S: I mean, they are- the libraries are public service.

O: Speaking as a former student librarian I can attest that, yes, I definitely would have helped him research history shit if asked. [Laughter] You're a librarian it's what you do! You do not discriminate! Like, yeah.

S: And we have yet another shaft leading down to the Earth's core.

O: Of course we do. The earth is just full of them and none of them are volcanoes.

S: It's leaking like a sieve. Sieve? [different pronunciation]

O: Sieve. Sieve. [Laughter]

S: I’ve never heard anyone say that word.

O: That is why I’m here.

S: Yeah, geeze, this cartoon.

O: They had a one plot idea and they said, “If we use it again a few episodes later no one will notice. The kids will not notice.”

S: Well, honestly probably no one did. I don't know. So Megatron blasts the pyramid and does some impromptu remodeling. I mean, we’re not sure how big this hole is. You can see all the robots through it but it doesn't look big enough for them-

O: They had to crawl through. But it is still a pretty big hole, they're pretty tall.

S: Yeah, and so he does this and it's pissing off anthropologists, archaeologists, and indigenous peoples.

O: And me! Stop destroying historical sites, you bastard! Trying to take over the world? Not a problem for Owls. Destroying history? Now that's a problem.

S: Yeah, yeah, and for some reason the tunnels and stairs in the pyramid happen to be perfectly sized for Megatron and Soundwave to walk down. It's like, okay.

O: Aliens. [Laughter]

S: And so we've got another freaking crystal! This one is called “The Crystal of Power.”

O: He’s really got a thing for crystals, doesn’t he? He even calls it magnificent.

S: Honestly, he should just get a pet rock.

O: Honestly? Optimus just needs to put a ring on it and maybe we wouldn’t be having this problem!

S: [Laughter] Oh my god.

O: Just get a giant ring with a giant rock, and I’m just saying maybe- maybe that’s all Megatron wants is for Optimus to recognize him and give him a giant fucking rock, ok?

S: Oh god, the diplomatic gift that is also a wedding present.

O: Oh boy.

S: Anyway, Megatron picks up the crystal, unleashing the fires of hell.

O: This does absolutely nothing.

S: They don’t even utilize this weird column of energy that comes out of the-

Both: -hole-

S: -that crystal was plugging for Energon cubes or anything. He apparently just wan- Meg’s just wants his bling.

O: Yeah, okay seriously so we give another Starscream, uh, Megatron tiff. Uh, Megatron insinuating that the steel Starscream stole had better be strong enough for their big-ass gun.

S: So, is he- is he gonna test his mettle?

O: [Sighs] I’m not talking to you. [Laughter]

S: Okay, and then Starscream shoves the crystal in their big damn gun thing and the column of energy underground, like, explodes or whatever? Or something.

O: So I guess we stand corrected? It seems to be- it seems to be related to what they're doing on the roof of the temple but I still don't understand how they’re affecting each other.

S: And Meg’s seems pretty happy?? With ‘Screamer right now????

O: Yeah, it is- it is a little strange, he does actually seem happy with him right now. Uh, elsewhere the Sky Spy picks up on this weird energy signal that's coming from the Decepticons and the ruins they’re in. Laserbeak spots this Sky Spy in orbit and Megatron shoots it with his big fucking gun.

S: And the thing is, Laserbeak isn't in orbit.

O: Yeah, he’s got good eyesight. He’s a good birb.

S: Yeah. Yeah, he really is.

O: And then some probably pretty terribly racist 80’s stereotypes of Peruvian people talk about ancient gods returning.

S: [Heavy sigh]

O: I would like to apologize. I don't really know how- it's like, it just- it doesn't seem very respectful. We're both white though so we don't really know, but it's that kind of stereotypical “We're gonna talk about people from a different country and they all have accents” and seem kind of dumb? It just doesn't seem very good.

S: And it's just like aliens? But the scale up those stairs it does kind of make you think, have transformers been here before?

O: BEAST WARS!!! So, yes- maybe, maybe. [Laughter] So, this crystal of power thing is apparently well known enough that a young Peruvian woman puts two and two together that someone's trying to use the damn thing.

S: I mean, if she knows about it- tons of other people in her- in her locale probably know about it so how did this thing not get looted?

O: Well, it does unleash the literal fires of hell once moved.

S: But that's true, but people get really dumb when giant rocks are involved. Especially giant shiny rocks. Anyway, I guess it's also completely fucking massive.

O: Yeah, they may not be able to lift that. Yeah, they may not be able to get a machine in there - one person probably couldn’t do it.

S: Oh yeah, considering it takes- Megatron can pick the thing up in two hands. That's like as big as my cat is to me.

O: Right, it's not small.

S: Compared to a human. A human would be like- I am NOT doing comparative math right now, I’m sorry.

O: Uh, I would say a human shorter than Megatron, for me.

S: Okay.

O: Probably.

S: So, if Megatron was, like, a six-foot human- it would be, you know [indistinct]. Let's go with, maybe, eight or nine inches?

O: Yeah. Basically, it's too big. Megatron espouses about having ultimate power and that it's all his. Starscream would like to cut in to remind him that communal property is a thing in a relationship and shit.

S: And Thundercracker just looks like he really, really doesn't want to be here.

O: [Huff of Laughter] He just- it just looks like, “Do you two ever bitch at each other in private? Where we don't have to deal with it?”

S: He kind of- yeah.

O: [Laughter] He’s just like, “If you two are gonna do this, please do it elsewhere. We're trying to work here.” Uh, so the steel frame for the BFG melted after Megatron, uh, fired it and Megatron rightfully blames Starscream.

S: His metal totally did not hold up, it seems.

O: So, Starscream blames Thundercracker despite it literally be all Starscream's fault.

S: And Thundercracker, poor scapegoat that he is, gets punched off the pyramid by Megatron. Who then leaves Skywarp in charge.

O: Skywarp is really happy about this.

S: Megatron is literally leaving the least mature bot in charge and, yeah, Skywarp’s just like, “Haha, you nerds.”

O: [Laughter] [Indistinct] Yeah, he's very happy to be in charge.

S: Megatron and Soundwave and Reflector fly off to get more metal from a nearby mining town. Which we had the discussion that it might not be very good quality?

O: Yeah, I am curious- like at the time if there was a metal refinery in Peru, like would the metal from the US have had been a higher quality? I don't really know, like my gut instinct is to say the US metal would have been better but that might just kind of be the bullshit we grew up with in the US, so I really don't know? So, uh, meanwhile- Wheeljack and Sideswipe are now in the Arctic-

S: Grave-robbing! Um, sort of.

O: So, remember Skyfire? Well, I'm convinced Wheeljack has only just now found out about the whole Skyfire thing from a few episodes ago and realized the poor guy's not dead he just needs dug out. So uh, Wheeljack’s got Sideswipe using his piledrivers to try and dig out Skyfire who's been stuck in an iceberg thing.

S: Like, Sideswipe breaks- breaks the ice and then Skyfire just, like, fucking bobs up out of the water like some sort of bobber that's been stuck under or something and then, um, I don't know? Wheeljack, like, shoots him with a gun that like partially melts him and he asks a question and Skyfire’s just awake, and he’s apparently been awake for this, like, the last few episodes?

O: Yeah, there's a reason I didn't try to write out how I was going to explain that. Because it was too much- it was too weird.

S: It-

O: It’s too nuts.

S: It’s too weird. It's weird and. Yeah, so Skyfire gets out and he, Wheeljack, and Sideswipe talk like they all know each other.

O: These three have literally never met until just this moment. Sideswipe nor Wheeljack were with the group that went to the Arctic a few episodes ago.

S: I mean, I suppose it's conceivable that Skyfire and Wheeljack knew each other prior to Skyfire’s, uh, icy entombment back on Cybertron.

O: I mean, he was a scientist but I kinda doubt it?

S: Maybe they knew each other by reputation, I don't know.

O: Who knows? It still seems like a kind of weird conversation.

S: Yeah, and he's instantly made into the Autobot taxi, being sent back to the base to transport some Autobots. You know, to Peru.

O: [Laughter] Welp, glad you’re awake! Get to work.

S: Pretty much.

O: Next we see him, Skyfire is chauffeuring Brawn and Windcharger down to South America.

S: And Brawn thinks he and Windcharger can totally take on Megatron, Soundwave, and Reflector, you know, by themselves. Like idiots. He turns down Skyfires offer to the help with this confrontation.

O: I've decided Brawn is definitely an idiot.

S: He's- he's just hard-headed. Like, yeah, just hard headed. And Brawn and Windcharger just, you know, totally bail out of Skyfire. They jump. Without parachutes. There’s none of those-

O: Handy parachute.

S: And Brawn lands on Soundwave, calling him a “dipstick tape deck.”

O: Now, listen here, you ass! In this house we respect Soundwave. [Laughter] Um, and then Windcharger lands on Reflector.

S: It's-It’s really like a Decepticon rodeo.

O: Nobody lands on Megatron, though.

S: Yeah, he, um, he gives terrible piggyback rides. Once you're done he shoots you.

O: [Laughter] Yeah, he would.

S: And Brawn rides?? Soundwave face-first into a mountain.

O: Brawn’s officially on my shit list now. Yep, definitely on my fucking shit list.

S: Megatron proceeds to shoot Brawn who basically goes flying backwards knocking down poor Soundwave who was just getting back up. Like, again.

O: Yeah, yeah. I feel bad for Soundwave.

S: It's just a Soundwave gets beaten up episode.

O: Seriously, fuck you Brawn! Anyway, Windcharger calls Skyfire for a retreat because he's not a complete fucking moron.

S: He's being chased by Laserbeak or someone?

O: Uh, yeah, I think so.

S: Laserbeak is chasing Windcharger. That's what's happening.

O: And Soundwave finally gets a shot in, repaying Braun for his shenanigans.

S: Yep, and Meg’s transforms into his alt-mode and Soundwave fires him off.

O: To Soundwave’s credit he at least actually looks like he aims with Megatron's scope but he still manages to miss every damn shot. So, Skyfire eventually evacuates these two idiots midair when Windcharger, in car mode, runs into Brawn who's in robot mode and then ramps off a cliff with Brawn clinging to his windshield.

S: It looks silly, but when doesn't it?

O: We know what we're talking about.

S: And it's the dreaded return of Astroseconds.

O: Which just makes me hate Brawn even more.

S: So much groaning.

O: So back at the Ark, everybody's loading up into Skyfire after finding out there's a bunch of fucking Decepticons in Peru and one of them is Megatron.

S: And Skyfire is just totally huge here. I mean, he's massive. He looks like, comparatively, he's- like all the Autobots are human sized whereas he's Autobot sized.

O: Yeah, the scale looks kind of off. Optimus, especially, is super tiny and I don’t think he's quite that tiny.

S: It's just really off. It’s so off.

O: Regardless, once they’re in Peru, Optimus pats Skyfire on the nose-cone, kind of like a horse? As a thank you?

S: Well, Skyfire is friend-shaped, so...

O: He is friend-shaped. Skyfire drops everyone off and then flies off by himself to investigate the ruins that, uh, the Decepticons have been creating shenanigans in.

S: Well, he hasn't had an opportunity to do science or whatever in forever. He just wants to do some hands-on anthropology.

O: At least it's more in vein [than] with the fighting, I can't really blame him.

S: Yeah.

O: So, Decepticons are attacking some sort of metal refinery, stealing additional, well, steel.

S: The Autobots show up and then Optimus fucking Prime rams into Megatron. As a semi, throwing him through a wall. That was pretty great, actually.

O: It was- it was a very entertaining scene. Brawn proceeds to steal Megatron's fusion cannon.

S: And then does this great magical girl-esque transformation, twirling around and ending up with the fusion cannon on his shoulder.

O: Megatron gets beaned in the chest by his own fusion cannon and Brawn gets knocked on his ass from the kickback.

S: Yeah, and Laserbeak is a good birb and he takes this opportunity to return the fusion cannon to Megatron. Megatron tries to blast Brawn but, you know, he misses.

O: You realize Brawn is one of the only ones who's actually hit another bot with a gunshot in this goddamn episode.

S: Yeah, yeah.

O: Fuck that shit. The shot hits something else and explodes. The young woman we saw earlier is here for some reason and Spike pulls her into Bumblebee to get her away from the explosion. They drive off.

S: And the falling debris because he's- I don't know, the shot, like, took out this radio tower thing?

O: It caused this big explosion, so there was stuff coming down from the sky, too-

S: Yeah.

O: So, note: The young woman's name is Louisa. We don't ever actually hear it in the episode but I kind of tired of calling her young Peruvian woman.

S: And we'll never see her in another episode, so.

Both: [groans]

O: Sorry, Louisa, you deserve better.

S: Yeah.

O: And time number 55 that poor Bumblebee’s being chased by Laserbeak.

S: Yeah, Bluestreak’s apparently allowed to hit someone today - as he blasts Laserbeak.

O: I would like to officially request that Soundwave and his cassettes gets a vacation after this debacle.

S: And Megatron calls Skyfor- blagh.

O: Skyfor-? My name is Skyforge!

S: [Laughter] It’s not actually a bad name.

O: It isn’t, actually!

S: Megatron calls in Skywarp as a backup. Starscream is livid at being left to nursemaid the big glowy crystal and the gun.

O: The humans and Bumblebee enter, uh, the temple as Soundwave sends Ravage in after them.

S: Skyfire continues to investigate the ruins, being captured by the two remaining seekers. So, Thundercracker and Starscream.

O: And poor Skyfire. Poor dude just woke up, again and gets blasted in the chest and knocked out.

S: And dragged into the temple like such a large sack of flour.

O: Yeah, cause he's so much bigger than them. So the Cons retreat, having gotten all the steel they need. Megatron causes a rockslide on the nearby village.

S: The Autobots blast all the rock, saving the village.

O: You’d still think the village would have gotten hit by some of the rocks or debris or something but apparently shooting in the general direction of something destroys all momentum.

S: I guess? And Louisa and Spike are just riding in Bumblebee down an ancient Inca tunnel that- that seems-

O: That's perfectly scaled for Cybertronians!

S: That seems like a really good way to damage a historical site and in any case they're apparently really unconcerned while being chased by a giant metal cat.

O: I'm just going to assume they don't notice Ravage here for sanity’s sake.

S: He is a stealthy dude.

O: He is, but he wasn't being very stealthy here.

S: And the two Seekers carry Skyfire into the temple. Megatron apparently plans to rewire Skyfire’s brain so he’ll be a Decepticon. Okay.

O: Can he do that? If he can do that, why doesn’t he do that more?

S: Well, apparently, that's one of the possible, uh, origins for- uh-

O: The Constructicons, right?

S: Yes, the Constructicons, yeah.

O: So, meanwhile, Megatron levels a nearby mountain with the BFG.

S: The Decepticons just absolutely fucking love ecological disruption apparently.

O: Specs, Specs- the gun is fucking purple! [Laughter]

S: It is his favorite color! Yeah, and Bumblebee and the crew have found the hole into hell.

O: Ravage attacks as Spike attempts to fix an offline Skyfire because there- he's in the same room as the hole from hell, apparently.

S: You know, the Decepticons just wanted to consolidate things, I guess. I don't know. And Megs is super super super duper stoked about his gun firing on the Autobots.

O: With Laserbeak on his shoulder again.

S: Honestly, the gun placement doesn't make any sense. I'm not going to talk about that.

O: But just know that this spatial stuff, it's- it's not rooted in logic. Then we'll just go from there.

S: Yeah. No one can hit shit today, though. like we've only got two confirmed-

O: No, three, cuz technically Soundwave hit Brawn. Thank god. Yeah well I'm glad somebody fucking did. Anyway, Skyfire wakes up in time to catch Ravage midair and toss him away from his pals.

S: Like, he can hold Ravage in one hand.

O: That is is how much bigger he is!

S: That's honestly kind of amazing and terrifying.

O: Like, don’t get me wrong, Ravage is just considerably smaller than everybody else but still!

S: Yeah, just, like Ravage can stand on top of Bumblebee and hold him down so like yeah.

O: His hand is bigger. Er, it's smaller than a Volkswagen Bug for Christ's sakes.

S: Yeah, lots of fighting happens outside, the majority of which involves Megatron and Starscream shooting as Autobots as they attempt to climb the temple. The Autobots don't make a ton of headway but Starscream does end up with Brawn in his face.

O: Of course, he fucking does! Fuck Brawn!

S: And Megatron tosses Ironhide down the pyramid. Optimus makes a surprisingly graceful catch. It's really graceful.

O: So Skyfire shoots the, like, shoots the BFG destroying it and unleashing the literal fires of hell.

S: Skyfire, actually, for whatever reason like, well, Spike fixes him, he throws the cat, and then transforms and flies out of the temple.

O: Yeah, I'm like- I don't even remotely know how he would fit.

S: So, yeah, after he flies out of the temple, he shoots the big fucking gun destroying it and unleashing the fires of hell.

O: Optimus tackles Megatron and tosses Megs off the ruins. Megs lands headfirst on the ground.

S: And the Decepticons retreat.

O: Thundercracker proceeds to have no sense of self-preservation what-so-fucking-ever and, to be entirely done with today, he starts sassing the hell out of Megatron and Starscream for basically everything that has just happened. Wheeljack has apparently invented a high-tech manhole to plug the hell hole.

S: But they put it on top of the temple instead of, you know, in the temple where the crystal was originally plugging it so…

O: I don't know. I just don't know. The cartoon clearly doesn't know, either.

S: Yeah.

O: Anyway, so Spike and Bumblebee are taking Luisa home and she apparently plans to introduce Bumblebee to her brother's convertible- whose name is Juanita.

S: And cars emote-ing! Bumblebee is super cute here.

O: He is! He does like this squash and stretch thing.

S: That make him smile with his bumper and that is adorable. Oh, one of the things the Autobots do is that they all like lean themself up against the sides of the temple-

O: Oh, god, I forgot about this.

S: To be like? Skylights? Or something?

O: I don't know if it's like a celebration because it doesn't seem like they're helping light where they’re putting the manhole down or what. It's just, it just it is pretty funny when you see like cars on their backs like 180 degrees vertical, like their skylights or their headlights to the sky. It’s just like, what are you doing?

S: I don’t know, they're doing something but I don't know.

O: Anyway, that's where the episode cuts- is on cute Bumblebee. So I join us next time for episode 10: War of the Dinobots, in which the Autobots will learn the perils of leaving their big, young, dumb Dino-babies unattended for more than five fucking minutes.

S: And introducing two new Dino-babies.

O: Yes! Two new Dino-babies! One of which is Swoop, who is also very cute!

S: Yes.

O: Alright, my dear Specs, what is our fanfic for today?

S: Alright, so today we have a selection. Well, smaller selection than yesterday or the- the last two episodes but still a nice little selection. We've got three fanfics today.

S: “Like a Sinking Star” by Katharos, which is G1. It's not really specified if it’s cartoon or comic. It's rated K, its Gen, there's no pairings. Our main characters here are Starscream and Skyfire though there are original characters, and so in summary: “Pre-war, the Academy is a hotbed of political dissent, protests, and factions. Skyfire is a struggling grad student, desperately chasing grants with his partner Starscream.”

S: And it just. but it's- it's enjoyable and it shows Skyfire making difficult ethical decisions and Starscream being a political- maybe doing political machinations, which is entertaining and so our theme or character base for today for that rec is Skyfire and it's a one shot.

O: As he makes his glorious return on this episode and I think… Does he survive till the end of the series? [Indistinct]

S: Yeah, you never really see.. I don't think you see him in season 3, so I think it’s assumed that he survived but I don't know.

O: Yeah, it gets kind of weird. So, in the Transformers movie they don't actually- you don't actually see everyone who dies.

S: Yeah.

O: As terrible as that sounds, so it's sort of like, unless, if you don't see them- you kind of, maybe, should assume they're dead? Because we didn't, like, in a few of them- you see their bodies in the movie but you like to see them for like two seconds. It's actually why I don't like the Transformers movie. It’s because it gets very depressing and I don't know, they didn't even give screen time to everybody who died. Like, I want to say we did not see Wheeljack's body?

S: We do see Wheeljack's body, he's one of the people that- or one of the bots that Arcee is pulling-

O: Ah, that's right.

S: Like Windcharger’s body is also there in that scene. It's before, like, it's when Springer is trying to push like the... catapult thing? He's calling Arcee over to help him push it and she's been pulling Wheeljack's- Wheeljack and Windcharger’s corpses, uh, I guess to safety.

O: It's really depressing. I was like, we didn't even see- didn't even see Wheeljack die and then, like, Ratchet dies in a very horrifying way. Honestly.

S: And Prowl.

O: And Prowl.

S: Like you see him vomiting up smoke.

O: Yeah,it’s pretty horrifying. It's one of the few times where Megatron is legitimately threatening, actually.

S: Like this movie scarred a generation of children.

O: And I, like, I as an adult am looking at this, going, “Okay, guys, that seems like a bit fucking much, don't you think?” And also it just seems really disrespectful because like a lot of them died off-screen and then we're following characters we don't even know through the entire movie, who weren't really that bad but I was bored. That's my biggest complaint is I get bored when I watch this movie.

S: Yeah, it was a movie, they decided they wanted to get rid of the old cast to sell toys and so they were just like, “Kill everyone!” Or at least that was the production mandate by whoever was in charge.

O: It was really depressing, though, because I'm like, so Skyfire could be alive and somewhere else or he could have been one of the casualties.

S: There-

O: In the movie.

S: Like, there are numerous pieces of fanfiction that treat it like Skyfire’s gone off into the universe to do more science stuff and that's what he's doing in season 3-

O: I hope so.

S: Or post season 3. But yeah, let's let's move on. Yeah, okay so our next rec is “Hunted” by WaywardInsecticon. It's G1 cartoon based, rated K plus and it's Gen. Pairings: none. So, our main characters here are Skywarp and Thundercracker, though there are original characters and Megatron, Starscream, and other Decepticons also show up. “Skywarp and Thundercracker come across a plot by a disgruntled Monitor to take over Cybertron - in the most literal sense possible. Now they're being chased by some very dangerous people, and the Seekers are outnumbered, outgunned, and running low on power.” Our theme here was Seekers! with an exclamation point and this is actually the third in a series.

S: It's so Wayward- well it's part of Waywards first venture into writing Transformers fanfiction, which I think she's mentioned she's not especially fond of but I really enjoy a lot of the ideas that she had. And so to touch on Monitors: a monitor in this particular fanfiction universe that Wayward created is essentially what Shockwave is and so there are like Monitors for each section of Cybertron but Shockwave is sort of the overarching one. Basically they're the sort of the general managers of each- it's like city-state to make sure that, uh, make sure that everything is running smoothly and this one’s decided that it wants to take over Cybertron and basically usurp Megatron's authority and power.

O: A mistake, clearly.

S: Yeah, but like I enjoyed Skywarp and Thundercrackers characterization and there's some pretty neat- just there's something. I enjoyed it. It's also- it's quite old, it's something that I first read quite a long time ago, definitely over te- 15 years ago now, I think. Maybe. Yeah but it's- it's fun, I enjoyed it and definitely recommending it to you, dear listeners.

S: Our last recommendation is “Ali Versus The Giant Robot Shoplifters from Space” by Misya. Misya? The author's name is spelled Misya and I’m just unsure of how the author prefers the pronunciation and please correct me, I suppose. Thank you. Continuity is Animated, this one is rated M, which is our first M-rated recommendation and it's for cursing. So there is- unless you object to cursing, there is- there isn't really any objectionable, like, adult content in here. It’s just cursing. It’s rated M, it's Gen, there's no pairings and our characters here are original characters, uh, the aforementioned Ally. There's also Lugnut and Blitzwing.

O: Again, all from the Transformers Animated continuity.

S: Mm-hmm-hmm. But in summary “TFA. Ever wondered how the Decepticons find food for Professor Sumdac?”

O: So, some- some background as we haven't been talking about Animated. There is a character in Transformers Animated that gets kidnapped by the Decepticons at some point and is with them with- for an extended length of time.

S: Yes.

O: Um, so it's basically, well, they had to have been feeding him, so how were they doing that?

S: Mm-hmm and so our theme for this was Decepticons and acquiring things. Cuz, we see them stealing steel in this episode and they're always trying to-

O: -Steal energy or Energon or something.

S: Or materials and in this piece of fanfiction, they're stealing food, which, god, hearing a robot, a giant robot, that's just ripped the roof off of your place of work asking, “Where do you keep your flesh?”

O: Oh, dear [Laughter] I haven’t read this one yet, but clearly I need to?

S: “Where do you keep your flesh?” is a trip and Ali is definitely very done with the day.

O: [Laughter] I don’t think I blame her!

S: Mm-hmm, so that one is a one shot and I definitely recommend it, as I recommend all of these- so thank you and on to our art recommendations by Owls.

O: Our fan art recommendation for the day- I'm going to go with I think her name is STF or S-TF, I couldn't actually find their name. Their tumblr name is S-TF.tumblr.com. Uh, so and then their Twitter is named, like, I think-

S: BBBTF. [They’ve changed this a couple of times since we recorded the episode, at the time of posting this transcript their Twitter is S_TFCM. ~Owls]

O: So I wasn't really sure to call this one, uh, but that- but that's their user account or that's their I can't- different accounts that we have will have their Tumblr and their Twitter. Unfortunately, we can't read most of their comics because I believe it's in Chinese or Korean but their art is really pretty. There's this one series they did, in particular, that I really like- with characters from the IDW comics accompanied by quotes they said and, uh, we will be reblogging a post that has a bunch of those and that is what we will be linking to.

S: Mm-hmm.

O: My favorite ones in particular out of the set, were the Shockwave one. As we had mentioned earlier, Shockwave was very, very different originally in the IDW comics and then was kind of made into this emotionless shell of himself and so it's rather fascinating because the art involves, you know, kind of both sides of that which I thought was very interesting. There's one for Cyclonus and Tailgate and then there's also one for Megatron and Terminus. And Terminus is Megatron's mentor because then the IDW comics he was originally a miner. Like, not as in young, but somebody who works underground-

S: In a mine.

O: -In a mine. And it kind of shows, like, his own guilt because he thought he had left Terminus to die, um, and so they're very- they're very interest- I think they're very well done and they work very well with the quotes from the comics.

S: Yeah, I'm especially fond of the First Aid and Ambulon one.

O: And I will tell you that there probably isn't enough Ambulon fanart to satisfy Specs.

S: Yeah, I want a toy and it's not going to happen.

O: I’m still confused how we don't have a freaking Rung, honestly.

S: I want a Rung, too, yeah.

O: Yeah, I don't understand how there hasn't been a Rung made.

S: Even a third party Rung. Maybe it's just that he doesn't have, like, a cool alt-mode.

O: He doesn't have a cool alt-mode but, I mean, come on! I don't even think I necessarily want a Rung if you get a Rung, but I want to take pictures of your Rung.

S: Well I mean we were already planning on doing the thing where when you get your Wheeljack I bring my Ratchet down-

O: Oh yeah we're gonna make robots kiss.

[Laughter]

S: Well, maybe in the future. There's always new third party toys coming out.

O: Don't I know it!

S: And that just about wraps it up for us today! Remember to check out our tumblr at Afterspark-podcast.tumblr.com for any additional information, show notes, or links we may have mentioned. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter @AftersparkPod (all one word) and SoundCloud and Youtube at Afterspark Podcast. you can also find us on Pillowfort as Afterspark-podcast and on AO3 by searching for Afterspark Podcast or by checking the Transformers All Series, um, things and searching for it in the search.

O: We also do have links to the specific series page on our Tumblr and Pillowfort and Facebook. It should be on both our Tumblr and PIllowfort.

S: Yes. Till next time, I'm Specs!

O: And I'm Owls!

S: Toodles!

[Outro Music Plays]

#transcript #afterspark podcast #g1 episode 9

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chickpow · 7 years

Text

The Marron Sandwich Part 1

This old Fanfiction was written by the talented Kinomi <~ Click and Support the author! WARNING: This story is Marron/Trunks/Goten, if this pairing isn’t your cup of tea then scroll away. :)

The Marron Sandwich

****

"No…a little more to the left, it's not even. Augh! Too far! Turn it back this way…"

Trunks rolled his eyes at his lover's fussiness from underneath the twelve-foot pine tree he was rotating this way and that, even as he complied good-naturedly. Christmas was a big deal to Goten, and so by default it became a big deal to Trunks, as he got suckered into helping decorate their apartment for the holidays. It was their first Christmas living together; he knew that's why Goten was going all out. He wanted to make a good impression on their friends and family as they came to visit over the next few days before Christmas.

"Does it really matter at this point? You're just going to put lights and ornament crap all over it anyway Goten." He pointed out logically, peeking out from under the branches. Goten sniffed.

"Shows what you know. It absolutely makes a difference in the final presentation…so keep turning." Goten told him authoritatively. Trunks grinned.

"Yes Sir. Sure you don't want to come down here and help me screw it into the tree stand?" He asked, trying to sound innocent. Goten raised one ebony eyebrow at Trunks' wolfish expression and mention of 'screwing' something. Goten knew well enough to know HE would end up being the something. But Trunks was so irresistible and adorable that Goten grinned back and got down on the floor under the tree with him, inspecting the tree trunk sitting in the stand with a mock suspicious eye.

"Looks like you have it pretty well screwed already." Goten told him. Trunks chuckled and rolled toward him, curling his fingers in Goten's coarse hair as he pulled his lover closer to claim his mouth in a kiss. Trunks leaned over him as he deepened the kiss, his fingers going to the buttons on Goten's shirt. Goten grabbed his wrist gently, stopping him.

"Not now." He said, and softened the rejection with a kiss on Trunks' nose. Trunks frowned slightly.

"Why not?" Trunks asked. Goten sighed quietly, Trunks had a memory like a sieve.

"I told you…Marron's coming over for dinner tonight." The play of emotions that crossed the lavender haired demi-Saiyajin's face before settling in a faint scowl weren't lost on Goten. They were the same ones he felt when he thought of their best friend.

"How ever did you manage that one? Last I remember she wanted nothing to do with either of us." Trunks asked, trying to keep his tone light. Goten lay on his back and folded his hands on his chest, looking up through the branches of their Christmas tree toward the ceiling, his expression solemn. Trunks put his arm around him and rested his chin on Goten's chest.

"Can you really blame her Trunks? We hurt her pretty bad." Goten said quietly. Trunks turned his head and put his ear to his lover's chest, listening to his steady heartbeat. He didn't like to be reminded that he and Goten's happiness had been at the expense of their best friend's. He'd always been close to Goten, had always loved him. It had just been unfortunate that he and Goten's relationship had deepened into passionate love while Trunks was in a serious relationship with Marron. He'd loved her very much, and he'd probably have married her if things hadn't happened the way they did. It had come down to a choice between the two of them, and despite the depth of his feelings for her, she just hadn't been able to compete against Goten in his heart. No, he really couldn't blame her at all for how angry and hurt she'd been by those who were supposed to be her closest friends.

Goten stroked Trunks' silky human hair as he rested against his chest and said nothing. What could Trunks say? Goten wished fiercely that there was some way it could have worked out for all of them, that Marron hadn't been the one left out in the cold with no one. Goten loved her with nearly the same depth that Trunks had, she was his closest friend after Trunks. In some ways Goten was possibly even closer to Marron than Trunks had been.

"I wish there was a way we could make it all right for her. I still wish it hadn't needed to have come down to a choice of me or her for you Trunks." Goten sighed sadly. Trunks raised his head to look at Goten.

"Are you sorry I picked you koi?" He asked with a little grin. Goten blushed and pulled Trunks up to kiss him.

"Never…you know what I'm sorry for." Goten whispered against his lips. Trunks brushed the hair out of his lover's ebony eyes and kissed him again, slowly opening his mouth with his tongue to meet and twist with Goten's. His hands ran over his sculpted body possessively.

Trunks knew. It had not been gentle the way Marron had found out that her boyfriend and best friend had fallen in love. He and Goten had been so caught up those first days in discovering and exploring the new feelings they had for each other that they'd been careless. Trunks never said as much to Goten, but he knew he would remember the look of pain and betrayal on Marron's face when she caught them making love for as long as he lived. He'd carry her anguished sob to his grave.

Goten groaned softly in the back of his throat and reluctantly pulled away from Trunks. "I don't want to stop…but I have to finish cooking dinner."

Trunks gave a little pleading whimper and looked cute, wagging his eyebrows at him. Goten looked at his watch a minute and bit his lip. At his hesitation Trunks slid a hand down his stomach to the fly of his jeans, stroking Goten's erection through the cloth. Goten closed his eyes as Trunks freed him from the confines of his jeans and began to fondle him.

"I'm sure there's enough time for cocktails before dinner, ne?" Trunks purred, laughter evident in his voice. Goten groaned, both in defeat and at his lover's awful double entendre as Trunks' mouth closed over him.

"Maybe just a quick one." Goten gasped.

****

Marron dragged her feet as she approached the apartment Trunks and Goten had moved into. She was over a half an hour late already. She'd sat in the car for the last forty minutes, trying to work up the courage to go and knock on the door. To go in there and see them together and try and pretend it wasn't killing her inside.

She shifted the good bottle of wine she was bringing as a gift in her arms. She hadn't wanted to come when Goten invited her. In some ways she'd rather poke herself repeatedly with a pointed object than be here, but her father had talked her into it. Telling her to be open-minded and not throw away a lifetime of friendship frivolously. She didn't know where he got the idea that she was being capricious about any aspect of what had happened, and was of a mind to tell him so. But in the end she hadn't. In a perverse kind of masochistic way she wanted to see them again, even though it was painful. She loved them. Despite the hurt, she just couldn't turn those feelings off overnight.

She reached the door and took a deep breath, trying to bolster her courage. Her knuckles had barely left the wood from her knock when Goten threw open the door. He grinned hugely at her and pulled her into the apartment, engulfing her in a hug. His hair was damp from the shower and he smelled like soap as Marron stood stiffly in his embrace, trying to hold on to the bottle of wine.

"I'm so glad you came! I was afraid you weren't going to show up." Goten said. Marron bit the inside of her mouth hard; trying to quell the tears she could feel wanting to form in her eyes.

"I almost didn't. " She whispered. Goten squeezed her harder a moment before letting her go. She kept her eyes lowered, but she could still see Trunks standing behind Goten and a painful lump formed in her throat. When Goten moved out of the way she saw Trunks approach her so she thrust the bottle of wine at him so he wouldn't touch her.

"Here." She said, holding out the wine and looking somewhere over Trunks' left shoulder. She noticed he was damp from the shower as well; she didn't want to let her mind run over the implications of why they would both be fresh out of the shower. Best not to wonder about such things too long.

Trunks took the bottle from her and handed it off to Goten, never taking his eyes off of her. She could feel him looking at her. He took a step toward her and she took a step back, her back running into the door. She risked a look at his face and saw he was frowning slightly. Goten was looking between them nervously, holding the bottle to his chest. Trunks made as if to move toward her again and she squeezed her eyes shut tightly, certain she'd start bawling if Trunks touched her.

Trunks ran his hand through his hair and looked helplessly at Goten. He hated that he'd hurt her so badly she cringed away from him. The awkward moment dragged out, as Trunks and Goten looked at each other unsure what to do. Marron was the one who broke the moment by taking two hesitant steps forward into Trunks' arms, burying her face in the front of his shirt. Her slender shoulders shook as her hot tears soaked his shirt. This wasn't what she'd intended when she came here, to end up crying in front of them, but she couldn't help it. She felt so alone now.

"I better open this bottle…I think we need it." Goten said and went into the kitchen. Trunks put his arms around Marron, resting his cheek against the top of her head a moment.

"I should hate you…I want to hate you…why can't I?" Marron whispered miserably into his chest. Trunks buried his face in her hair.

"I don't know. I wouldn't blame you if you did." Trunks whispered back. "I'm glad you don't though." He said and led her into the living room like a child, sitting her on the sofa next to him. She sat with her elbows on her knees and her head down, her loose hair falling over her face. Trunks kept a hand on her back, needing to keep in contact with her. As if his touch could banish her animosity toward him.

She woodenly took the wine glass from Goten when he returned from the kitchen with the opened bottle and some glasses. He sat on the other side of her on the sofa and watched with some concern as she drank the glass of wine in two big gulps, silently holding out her glass for more. He looked to Trunks, who shrugged, drinking his own wine. Goten refilled her glass and she dispatched with the second nearly as quickly as the first.

She slowed down with her third glass and finally leaned against the sofa back. Not even paying attention as Trunks moved his hand from her back to slide his arm around her shoulders. She was deep in thought as the three of them sat quietly together, not sure what to say. Marron remembered that before if the three of them were together with a bottle of wine they would be up talking and laughing most of the night. Now they sat like polite strangers.

"How far we have fallen…" Marron muttered to herself. Then shaking it off she straightened and looked from Goten to Trunks, a bright and obviously forced smile on her face.

"So how are the two of you doing?" She asked. Goten's eyes clouded at her attempt to pretend everything was fine. Maybe this had been a bad idea, but he didn't want to lose his best friend from his life. He wanted to find a way to make it all okay, but he didn't know how. Trunks was watching them both and Goten couldn't read his expression at all.

"Marron… you don't have to be polite and pretend with us. I can't speak for Trunks, but I understand what we've done can't be forgiven. If you want to scream and yell at us…at me…do it." Goten said. Marron turned her expressionless face to his, her crystal blue eyes fathomless and swimming with unshed tears. He thought, hoped, for a moment she might rip into him, but she didn't. She sighed heavily instead, sliding her eyes away to study her wineglass.

"It wouldn't do any good." She said quietly. "It won't change a fucking thing."

Trunks' eyes widened and met Goten's over her head. In all the years they'd known Marron they had never heard her curse. The harshness of her words said more than her deceptively soft tone.

"If there's something you want to say to us, that you need to get out - just say it Marron." Trunks suggested. Marron's eyebrows snapped down and she frowned, even as her lower lip trembled slightly.

"There's plenty I want to say to both of you…but I won't." She said and took another big sip of her wine. Goten's brow knit in concern at her; if she kept it up she'd be drunk before dinner. He'd never seen her drink so much before.

"Maybe you should ease up on the wine." Goten offered, and snapped his mouth shut at the look she leveled at him.

"Is this why you invited me here…to alleviate your guilt? You'd like it if I'd scream and yell at the both of you…you'd feel bad for five minutes and then sit around patting yourselves on the back for letting me 'get it out of my system', and 'understanding how I feel'." Her face twisted angrily as she spoke. "You two don't understand anything." She spat, and finished her glass of wine setting it down on the coffee table almost hard enough to break it.

"We understand. We know we hurt you. You think we're not hurt by what we've done?" Trunks asked. Marron whirled on him eyes blazing.

"Oh I'm so fucking sorry! Were you two hurt? GOOD!" She snarled. "At least you still have each other. You're not alone. You two took everything from me. You were supposed to be my friends…" Her eyes went back to Trunks as the tears that had threatened, fell from her eyes in fat drops, her voice breaking. "…And you were supposed to love me. What a joke."

"I do love you Marron." Trunks said quietly, his sapphire eyes sad. Marron pressed her lips together in a line as she looked away. She refused to acknowledge Goten as he put his hand on her shoulder.

"I love you too." Goten said.

"Right. Sure you do." She laughed, ignoring Goten. "You loved me so much you just had to throw me away for HIM. You loved me so terribly much that you had to cheat on me with my best friend. I really feel the love there, Trunks." She said bitterly.

"Feel what you want. But I did-DO love you Marron. I didn't stop loving you, it's just that I love Goten too." Trunks tried to explain. He reached out to touch her hair, expecting her to flinch away, but she didn't, just let him stroke her hair. "I didn't 'throw' you away."

"You cut me out of your life, Trunks…you and Goten both. I was inconvenient, an impediment to you two being together, having your little 'happy ever after'." She wiped her nose on the back of her hand. Goten handed her the tissue box silently and she took it without thanks. "So you two just dumped me. And you have the balls to tell me you love me…" She said with a bark of laughter. Trunks looked slightly annoyed.

"We didn't dump you Marron. I can only tell you I'm sorry so many times! I'm sorry things worked out like they did, I'm sorry you walked in on us that day. I'm sorry I was in love with two people at the same time. I'm sorry it came down to a choice…but I won't be sorry I love him." Trunks said scowling.

"Trunks…" Goten said warningly. Marron and Trunks ignored him as they stared each other down.

"Fine! You're sorry… Still doesn't change the fact that you dropped me like a bad habit for him. So stop saying you loved me! You left me!" She bit out. Trunks threw up his hands in exasperation.

"What was I supposed to do Marron, huh? Sleep with you both?" Trunks asked. Marron held his gaze for a long moment, before she dropped her eyes to look at her hands fisted in her lap. Trunks' mouth dropped open as he processed the implications. He looked to Goten, but his lover offered no indication he was either mistaken in his assumption or alarmed by the prospect. Trunks took a huge swig of his wine.

"You would never have shared me with Goten." Trunks said when he got his brain around the initial shock. Marron gave a vague motion of a shrug.

"You never asked me…or gave me the option." Marron said almost inaudibly, before looking at Goten. "May I have more wine?" She asked.

Goten filled her glass and leaned back watching her thoughtfully, as she drank it in hurried little sips. Roses were blooming on her cheeks as she blushed softly, her eyes lowered. She was indescribably lovely to Goten, she always was. An idea was forming in his mind and he looked at Trunks, ebony meeting sapphire as they communicated silently. A slow grin spread on Trunks' face and he nodded once.

"So you would share me with Goten?" Trunks asked her, scooting a little closer to her. Marron shrugged half-heartedly, not noticing Trunks' use of present tense, and twirled the half empty wine glass in her fingers. She wasn't drunk just relaxed and feeling more than a little sorry for herself.

"Moot point now…" She mumbled.

Goten took the wine glass from her lax fingers and set it on the table. Marron looked at him first curiously, then warily as he took her face in his hands. He smiled at her and inclined his head to hers kissing her softly. Marron's eyes widened impossibly that her best friend was kissing her - and in front of Trunks! Certainly she'd kissed Goten before, but not since she was much younger. She leaned back in surprise until she found herself pressed up against Trunks' hard chest. Goten cupped the back of her head with his hand and stroked her lips gently with his tongue until they parted. Her eyes slid closed as Goten kissed her, exploring her mouth leisurely, and she could feel Trunks' hands in her hair, stroking.

"I think the question is whether Trunks will share you with me." Goten told her grinning when the kiss broke. "It's the only fair way." Marron looked at him dumbly. She must be drunk or dreaming, she thought as she gaped at Goten, her lips parted.

Trunks tipped her head back and took his turn kissing her, maneuvering her in his embrace until she was leaning against Goten, who wrapped his arms around her waist and bent his head to nibble and lick at her neck. She found herself starting to respond to Trunks' kisses, Goten having just put her into a state of shock with his.

Trunks felt her arch into him subtly, and he ran his hands up her torso to her breasts, to find Goten's hands already there, teasing and tugging her nipples lightly through her blouse.

"Too slow Trunks." Goten said with a low chuckle. Trunks narrowed his eyes playfully and kissed Goten deeply. When he turned back to Marron he found her studying them carefully, her eyes half lidded. He'd never seen exactly that look on her face before.

Marron parted her lips as she watched Trunks kiss Goten. She was becoming awash in the sensation of Goten against her back, his hands fondling her breasts and going to the buttons of her blouse. She should stop this, they were only doing this to make themselves feel better she was sure of it. But oh! An opportunity like this didn't come along everyday and she didn't have the strength to say no.

Goten finished opening her blouse and lifted her from his chest to help her out of it, settling her back against him comfortably when he was done. Trunks' hands went to the front clasp of her bra, where he hesitated a moment, looking into her glittering eyes before he unclasped it. Peeling the lacy cups back from her breasts to fall to the sides of her body. He looked down on her pale milky skin with desire. He did love her body…he loved her. And now he wanted to share her perfect body with Goten, whom he loved as well.

"Goten look." He said. Goten raised his head from where he'd been nuzzling at her neck and looked down at Marron's bare upper body. He hissed in his breath slightly. "Isn't she beautiful?" Trunks asked him. Goten nodded, and kissed Marron briefly on the lips.

"She's gorgeous…and you're an idiot." Goten told him a grin.

"Is all this supposed to be making the two of you feel better? You guys give me a pity fuck and send me on my way? Your consciouses clean. Because if it is I'm out of here." Marron blurted out, scowling at them. Trunks leaned over and kissed her, brushing her cheek with the backs of his fingers.

"I love you Marron…I would never do that and make things worse. This is about making all of us feel better. We're a package deal…if you have me you have him. Like Goten said…it's only fair." Trunks told her with a gentle smile. Goten shifted her in his arms, tilting her head back to look at him.

"I love you too. We're not cutting you out of our lives…we're bringing you in. And you're not alone. You didn't lose a lover. You gained one." Goten said, and kissed her. He smiled at her dazed expression when he pulled back and looked at Trunks.

"Where were we?" He asked. Trunks grinned and flicked his eyes toward the bedroom. Goten returned the grin. "Let me go turn off dinner." He said and slipped out from under Marron and ran to the kitchen.

Trunks pulled Marron up and led her to the bedroom. She shrugged out of her bra on the way, letting it slide off her arms to litter the floor. Trunks pulled her into his arms when they got to the bedroom, stealing a moment without Goten. He brushed her hair back from her face tenderly.

"I meant what I said Marron…I do love you. Don't feel you have to do this…" He said caringly. She lifted her china blue eyes to him, even as she blushed.

"I-I want to…is that wrong?" She asked quietly. Trunks felt equal measures of love and lust pump through his body. And he slid his hands over her bare back, feeling the texture of her silky skin. How fortunate could he be? To be able to have the two people he loved the most in the world.

"No. It's not wrong…what did I ever do to be so lucky?" He asked and kissed her before she could answer. He ran his hands down her bare torso to her long skirt, unzipping it and letting it pool at her ankles. She stood before him naked save for her panties and thigh high stockings. Trunks gave an evil smirk and traced a finger over her inner thigh along the edge of the stocking.

"You know I love these…" He purred. He hooked his fingers in her panties and pulled them down her long legs, tossing them aside. She reached to pull her stockings off and Trunks stopped her. "Leave them on."

"What did I miss?" Goten asked as he bounded into the bedroom. Trunks turned Marron so she faced Goten, his hands resting on her waist. She blushed to be standing for the most part nude before her best friend. Goten smiled appreciatively. "Did I tell you you're an idiot Trunks?" Trunks snorted.

"You might have mentioned it." He said vaguely. Marron quietly excused herself and slipped away to the bathroom. Goten looked momentarily concerned.

"Did I scare her off?" He asked. Trunks shook his head as he sidled up to his lover.

"I'll ask you the same thing I did her, koi… You sure you want this?"

Goten's dark eyes sparkled as he looked into Trunks', a smile playing about his lips. "I believe it's my idea you're trying to take credit for here…" Trunks licked his lower lip, his fingers again going to Goten's shirt buttons.

"You know what I mean." Trunks purred. Goten grabbed Trunks' rear and squeezed it gently.

"We have the room in our hearts and our lives for her koi. We love her." Goten grinned evilly and gripped Trunks' backside harder, eyes gleaming as he ground their pelvises together. "Besides…doesn't the entire idea just make you hot?" He teased, nipping Trunks' chin with his teeth.

"You have no idea…" Trunks chuckled, and kissed him. Opening Goten's mouth greedily to suck at his tongue suggestively. They pulled the clothes from each other hurriedly as they kissed. Rubbing their bodies against one another as they did. Trunks realized Marron had been gone for some time and he pulled his head away from Goten's to look for her. She sat in the middle of the bed cross-legged, with an elbow on her knee and chin in hand watching them. The black of her thigh high stockings a sharp contrast to her pale skin and hair, which shone in the soft light.

"Don't let me interrupt." She said smiling. Her eyes widened as Trunks and Goten both advanced naked onto the bed, flanking her and forcing her onto her back as they leaned over her. In perfect unison, almost as if planned, they lowered their heads to her breasts to nip and suckle at her nipples. She gasped and arched her back at the intense and unfamiliar sensation of having both her breasts attended to at once.

She lifted her hips as she felt hands caressing her inner thighs, moving up to the wet hungry center of her, opening her. Goten moved up to gather her into his arms, leaning over her as kissed her. She let her head fall back over his arm, her mouth opening in a silent gasp against his, as she felt Trunks move between her legs and put his mouth over her. Licking deep as he put her legs over his shoulders, spreading them wide.

Closing her eyes and whimpering she submitted to them both, Goten's thorough exploration of her mouth as he caressed her breasts, and Trunks' unparalleled skill between her legs driving her mad with desire. Her body tensed against them as she came in a mewling sob, muffled in Goten's kiss.

"Mmmmm…awfully good with his mouth isn't he?" Goten whispered, smiling against her lips as she panted. She nodded mutely, her head swimming as Goten and Trunks caressed her, Trunks placing kisses over her belly as he stroked her slowly with his fingers. Goten still softly kissing her face and neck.

She brought her hand up and caressed Goten's cheek as he kissed her, before twisting her fingers in his unruly hair. He groaned loudly against her neck and held her tighter. Marron looked down to see Trunks' lavender head buried between Goten's legs now, even as he still stroked her with his fingers.

She watched transfixed as Trunks' head bobbed, eliciting deep moans and purrs from Goten. Trunks raised his eyes and saw Marron watching, and a smile curled the corners of his mouth around Goten's length. Trunks delved two fingers deeper into her, making her shudder as he rubbed her g-spot.

Trunks moved up Goten's body, turning him onto his back and sitting on his stomach. Marron watched them owlishly, not sure what to do, and she let her hair fall over her face. Goten rested his hands on Trunks' thighs, as Trunks leaned over to kiss him, sharing the combined taste of Goten and Marron on his tongue. After a minute or two Goten pulled away, frowning.

"You're not paying enough attention to Marron." He accused.

"Can't help it…I want you both." Trunks said, maneuvering Marron so she straddled Goten's chest facing him. Marron heard Goten's low chuckle from behind her as he traced his hands lightly down her spine to her hips.

"Greedy isn't he?" Goten asked.

"Mmmmm Hmmmmm." Marron purred, arching her back like a cat as Goten rubbed her lower back with his thumbs, and Trunks dipped his head to suckle at her breast again.

Trunks moved farther down Goten's body, rubbing their erections together. His had had no attention so far and he was so aroused as to have it be almost painful. He knew exactly what he wanted.

"Come here." He whispered to Marron. She was being so luscious and compliant, letting he and Goten manipulate her into positions that pleased them all. Of course she'd always kept him on his toes sexually, and as he pulled her into his arms to kiss her, her supple body molding to his, he had to agree with Goten…he was an idiot to let her go.

Trunks moved back and lifted her, settling her onto Goten's length, as his was pressed to her belly, her legs around Trunks' hips. Her little gasp against his mouth as Goten filled her, and Goten's echoing grunt making his groin throb. Trunks pushed her back gently until she lay on Goten's chest. Then watched from beside them as Goten ran his hands down over her breasts and hips before holding her legs wide and thrusting into her, curling his hips up to do so. Her eyes were half lidded and she turned her face toward Goten so he could kiss her.

"Nnh! Trunks…she's tight." Goten gasped. Trunks met his lover's black eyes with a wicked grin and he leaned over their flexing bodies, rubbing his own need against Marron, making her sigh. He ran his tongue over Goten's lips before kissing him hard.

"Almost as tight as you are koi." Trunks purred, and turned his head to catch Marron's lips in a searing kiss. He could tell from Goten's labored breathing he was getting close and he stopped them with a whispered. "Not yet."

Moving Marron off of Goten's erection he positioned himself to take his length, glistening and slippery from Marron. Goten placing her to straddle his face, before pulling her hips down roughly to his waiting tongue.

Goten groaned as he felt Trunks take him in, tight and hot in a different way than Marron had been. It was the most intense experience he'd ever had, making love to them both - his two best friends. He didn't want it to end, as the sensation of Trunks riding him went straight to his head, and he delved his tongue deeper into the honey of Marron, trying to keep from coming too soon.

Trunks watched through glazed eyes as Goten worked his mouth against Marron, his arms flexed as he held her hips down and still, making her toss her head and cry out instead. He knew Marron well and waited until she was near another explosive climax before yanking her off Goten like she was a doll - and impaling her on his own throbbing shaft with a deep grunt of satisfaction as she sealed around him tightly, sobbing out her release. This was what he'd wanted…both of them at once, and he closed his eyes tightly against the overwhelming sensation of it…Goten buried deep inside him, him sheathed in Marron…heaven.

Marron wrapped her arms and legs around Trunks as his sex split and lifted her, until all she could do was hang on as Goten and Trunks moved in a sweaty, grunting dance of strength beneath her. Trunks' powerful body moving on Goten's as he worked hers against his, driving the three of them remorselessly on to a loud devastating explosion of pleasure, first Marron, then Trunks, and finally Goten.

They collapsed into a tangle of limbs, Marron pressed between them as they gasped for breath. She was amazed she felt so coddled and cherished as she snuggled between them, smiling secretly as they petted and kissed her, both of them whispering they loved her. It was a complete turnaround from the way she felt when she stepped into their apartment earlier. She loved the feeling of being held to Trunks' chest, Goten's strong body against her back.

She swiveled her head up and saw Goten and Trunks kissing above her, whispering words of affection to each other, and was happy to find it didn't hurt to see them as long as there was a place for her. She smiled at them as they kissed, and was still smiling when they paused and looked down at her.

"I love you guys too…thank you." She told them; squeezing the arms she had wrapped around Trunks as Goten kissed her tenderly, and rubbed her nose with his as he grinned. Trunks lowered his head to kiss her also.

"I love you…I won't ever let you go again." Trunks whispered in her ear. "My Marron."

"OUR Marron…" Goten corrected. Trunks grinned at Goten and nodded.

"Hai…our Marron." He conceded. Marron beamed and wiggled down closer between them…she could get used to this as she felt their hands on her, leisurely caressing and petting her. She felt Trunks start to stir against her belly, even as Goten was nudging his stiff length against her too. Turning her to face him.

"My turn in the middle!" Goten called, as Trunks protested and Marron giggled. Goten sighed as he slipped into Marron's moist heat, happy he'd gotten his wish. There was a way to make everything right between them all, and this was it.

"But what about my dinner?" Trunks pouted, even as a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he moved behind Goten.

"We're having sandwiches." Goten grinned, and winked at Marron.

#The Marron Sandwich #Marron #Trunks #Goten #Fanfiction #DBZ

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