#wanderingbasilisk

realized I never answered this one from the last time I did this wip meme probably because I got embarrassed. problems!! i've got em.

anyway this is basically all @orodrethsgeek's fault spinning out of the timelooping essek into a new moral alignment fic, taking one of the scenarios in that and going "okay but what if I continued this one past the point it cuts off in the main fic" and now I'm 111k deep with no end in sight.

the basic branching point from the originating time loop fic was "the iteration where essek tries avoiding the nein entirely, it doesn't work, he ends up basically going 'fuck it' and eventually spirals into suicide because it doesn't matter! nothing matters! nothing is real and everything is pointless :)" but in the au a nearby jester appears and does a revivify and honestly things just go downhill from there for a while.

like, the whole thing is kind of a sprawling mess but I'm having a lot of fun. it's multi-pov. verin shows up. nobody's happy for pretty much all 111k so far. there are moral dilemmas. it's a good time. I have no idea if it will ever go anywhere because it's a longass au of an au that requires a lot of the context of the originating au (which is also long) to make any sense at all but I'm having fun and @orodrethsgeek keeps enabling me and isn't that what matters, really

thank u!! | send me a 👀 for a W.I.P from this year

here's a snippet from the next chapter of where did my baby go? that i SWEAR i am still working on

Superboy wonders what Clark Kent is like. 

It doesn't . . . matter, obviously. The mark on his chest is fake. There's nothing in it. No one on the other end. 

But he . . . wonders, still. 

Superboy stays up hiding in the clouds for the rest of the day, getting covered in condensation and trying to avoid startling any birds or planes, and feels stupid and useless and just–stupid. 

He's sulking, he's pretty sure. He knows he's sulking. 

He's trying not to, but it feels like he can't help it, remembering how Lois Lane’s real soulmark looks. 

It looks exactly like his fake one, is the thing. It looks exactly like it. 

There's no difference at all, except for the part where his is a fucking lie. 

He doesn’t . . . he doesn’t know how he feels about that, except for “bad”. 

💜: Which character is way hotter than everyone else seems to think?

...do you perchance have that recipe, and would be willing to share it? 👀

​I do (thanks past me for never deleting my texts), and have asked permission to share, and it has been granted.

2 c flour (all purpose)

1 c sugar (white granulated)

1 stick (8 tbsp) butter

3 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 c cocoa powder

1 tbsp heavy cream

1 c beet juice

matcha powder (straight matcha powder - not sweetened matcha latte powder) and turmeric to taste; I believe the recommendations were 1 tbsp matcha and 2 tbsp turmeric.

The recommendation was to do a matcha creme patissiere for frosting but for some reason creme patissiere consistently eludes me so I'd do a matcha-flavored, light on the sweetening version of your go-to cupcake frosting. I think I did a not-very-sweet whipped cream, honestly. The recipe he recommended, if you are a better pastry chef than I and wish to try, is this one (matcha pastry cream only although if you feel like making pate a choux as well, I support this endeavor)

Edited: realized I did uh. not provide any details on the making thereof bc they were not in the screenshots. basically, standard cupcake rules:

Cream together butter and sugar

Beat in eggs

Add the dry ingredients, mixed together, a little at a time; alternate with the remaining wet ingredients (ie, the beet juice and cream). Essentially, find and follow a normal butter-based chocolate cupcake recipe except put matcha and turmeric in with the flour and sub in beet juice and cream for the milk/buttermilk.

Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 20-ish minutes, do the toothpick test as needed.

Notes:

You do want straight up beet juice that isn't mixed with various other fruits, and this can be a pain in the ass to find. I don't have a solution here, just a heads up.

Once you have used a cup of beet juice, you will have a bunch of beet juice left over. You can either use this to make even more cupcakes, or you can make a very lazy borscht (which is what I did) or you can just drink it. I don't know your life.

You can leave out the heavy cream and swap butter for margarine if you are dairy free, which my brother and his friend did test, but egg-free versions were not tested so if you are vegan/have an egg allergy you'll need to play around with your go-to substitutes.

Similarly, should play well with your go to gluten-free all purpose baking flour.

for every fandom i ever enter there is always the dream of 'what if zombies?', i love the zombie genre so much. its all about the survival found family in desperate times. now with added critical role! i'm really excited about this one, i am in love with the idea i've come up with for how the zombie apocalypse starts in exandria and can't wait to share it

Essek turned his attention away from his maudlin thoughts and back to the reports on his desk. For now, at least, it was business as usual, even if his mind was elsewhere most of the time. He read with half a mind, the words barely registering. A list of battalion movements along the border. Bazzozan requires more weapons. Jester had rarely gone so long without sending to him, perhaps Beauregard and Veth had succeeded in convincing her to cut ties with the traitor? Da'leth had apparently been sighted leaving his tower regularly but not for the king's side. Unusual levels of violence in some villages and towns near the Ashkeepeers Peaks. Perhaps Caleb was having second thoughts on his redemption? Trade interests growing in the wake of the new peace. He said he wasn't born with evil in his heart but if Essek scarcely believed that how was he to expect that Caleb truly believed it as well? Three soldiers in the lower slums started a brawl in a tavern causing casualties. A quick and purposeful knock at the door caused Essek to jump in his seat.

verin's road trip is basically the drow they find in the zadash sewers is the one and only verin, complete with luxon beacon and secret surprise too, mwhahaha. anyway the nein naturally adopt hot boy the younger and seek to help him return to xhorhaus with his treasures! shenanigans ensue

“You all! Halt,” The guards call out to them and the human woman swears colourfully under her breath, letting Verin know their group has been singled out amongst the crowd. “What now?” Molly asks worriedly. “There! Freeze fiend!” Another guard shouts and Verin tenses, reaching for his sword. Before his fingers curl around the hilt, the human man is there, in his space, hand grasping his wrist tightly. Verin growls and snarls at the man who would betray him, only to note that the guards are not approaching, the clamour of armour and yelling is leading away from the group. “Nott has created an image, we don’t have time, let’s go,” he mutters, tugging on Verin's wrist with urgency. Verin nods and relaxes, somewhat.

@wanderingbasilisk

essek memory loss was a concept i wrote down while half-asleep a year and a half ago, completely forgot about, and rediscovered earlier this month with zero memory of writing it

essek loses his memory for plot spoiler reasons. jester, who finds out about this via her daily sending, tells him how to find caleb, this smart and handsome and totally amazing guy whom essek will love. she does not tell him that it's been about a year since caleb broke up with him.