the mermaid cafe

After waiting as they spent a long, slow afternoon in the oven, I just went to town on some baby back ribs. Holy cats, they were good. Super messy, of course, but delicious! And I have leftovers, so I'll be able to repeat the experience this week!

The pecan shortbread (pic) turned out well, too. I'm a little sad there's no blood orange gelato to go with them, but once the chicken tenders are gone, I will definitely be making it!

In more fannish news, there was a post I saw somewhere on tumblr that talked about a crossover (or fusion? it didn't go into great detail) between Batfam and Dungeon Crawler Carl, and said that the Bats would all be outside during the collapse, and feel obligated to go into the dungeon. And I don't necessarily disagree? But I also don't necessarily agree, either!

In DCC, we're told the collapse happened at approximately 2:20 am PT, which means it was 5:20 am ET, and if you (and by "you" I mean me) believe Gotham is in New Jersey, that is probably after they are all home, and hopefully showering/sleeping, so I'm not sure they survive just by nature of being on patrol. Maybe if Tim is out in San Francisco with the Titans, where it would also be 2:20 am PT, he'd survive, but I'm not necessarily convinced he would go into the dungeon, either. Because there's whatever survivors on the surface to take care of also. Maybe they'd split up? Some would go into the dungeon to see what it was about and others would stay up top to manage any survivors, lead any fighting against alien invaders?

Like, could Kon take being underground for so long without access to sunlight? He should probably stay on the surface and help that way. (I also think this is a hard crossover to make happen simply because...there are canonical aliens in the DCU and also the Green Lantern Corps. So you'd have to do some fast talking/handwaving to get to the interesting parts, because how do the Green Lanterns not know about this? Otoh, you could go full AU/fusion and have Krypton be a world that was stripped ages ago and everyone is shocked to see Kryptonians on Earth. Same with Tamaran or Mars I guess.)

And I do wonder how Batman specifically would fare in a dungeon where killing is the preferred (by the System AI and the Syndicate running the thing and a large portion of the audience) way to survive and advance. He and Cass would find other ways, and I'm sure they would amass fans and, eventually, sponsors, but it'd be harder, I think, especially on the earlier floors. I think we have seen him kill aliens though, at least in the animated universes, so maybe he'd be okay at first with killing goblins and ogres and ghouls etc. Idk.

Jason, otoh, would be all, "I'm built for this!" and shoot his way to glory, or at least do the killing when Bruce and Cass couldn't. Steph and Dick might be pragmatic enough to come around to killing mobs, at least, ( spoiler for Dungeon Crawler Carl )

And while I think a fusion might be a better way to go than a regular crossover (I know there is someone writing a Superman and Carl are BFF in the dungeon, or at least creating art for it, but I don't know what they've chosen to use for backstory), I would love to see Damian interact with Princess Donut. Or the System AI deal with Oracle.

*

As I may have mentioned, Baby Miss L loves potatoes, so when I saw a t-shirt on Etsy that said, "Potatoes gonna potate!" around a picture of a potato, I thought, I have to get it for her! Unfortunately, it was only available in neon green, which I did not like the look of. Luckily, many other vendors were also selling t-shirts with pictures of friendly potatoes on them, so I got her this one that says, "Tater tot!"

This morning, I received a series of glamour shots and a video of Baby Miss L thoroughly excited about wearing the t-shirt. It was so great!

I also learned that The Muppets covering Jungle Boogie is one of her current favorite videos. AMAZING!

On all counts, her vibes are immaculate.

Tomorrow, I'm going to a birthday bbq at my brother's, and I'm bringing her the Batman and Robin t-shirts, plus some toddler books about Batman and the Justice League. Hopefully she enjoys them almost as much! (I also recently sent her a Captain America t-shirt, which I believe she wore for the 4th, and I also got pics of her in the Superman dress, with her arms up like she was flying. 😍😍😍)

In other news, I found this review of the new Superman movie really moving. Will I venture out to a theater to see it? Probably not, but I will be very excited to watch it when it makes its way onto HBO in a few months.

*

Oh fandom, once again, I ask you to think through your AUs as you write them! If Batman kept not just his identity but his family/all the Robins and Batgirls hidden from the Justice League, and therefore Dick didn't have an Uncle Clark growing up, where did he get the name Nightwing??? And if you have him use it anyway, why doesn't Clark have questions about it???

I realize that most people who write these types of AUs don't really care about this sort of thing, but I do. I spend quite a lot of my time wondering about these things as I'm reading!

(lbr, a lot of the time, I'm guessing these fic writers have no idea that Nightwing comes from a Kryptonian myth that Clark told Dick about, so these questions never occur to them, but a quick google will tell you!)

And ha! This is the perfect icon!

*

I've had this date nut bread recipe on my list of things to try for a while - so much so that I bought dates and walnuts a few weeks ago - but didn't get around to it until yesterday. When I realized it required flour I did not have (whole wheat pastry flour), so I just used regular AP flour instead. Also I think my oven seriously runs hot (I have an oven thermometer, I just need to use it) because I baked it for 30 minutes uncovered and another 20 with a foil tent and it is like 5 shades darker than the picture and the ends were so overdone as to be inedible. The flavor is only okay to me, so given that it requires some extra work (chopping and soaking the dates before blending them - I used my food processor) before you get to the one-bowl portion, I'm not sure I'll make it again. But I do have some whipped cream cheese, so it'll be a nice breakfast for a few days. *hands*

Last night, I dreamt that I was filling in for Alfred - or possibly helping out by taking over the keeping of the Wayne Tower penthouse apartment? - and I had to keep pretending that I didn't know Dick was Nightwing (and sometimes Batman) even though there was strong evidence available. Mostly I kept the pantry and fridge stocked and did some cooking and light cleaning while pretending not to notice the false door that led to the bunker in the basement or that his friends were like, easily identifiable superheroes. *hands*

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This looks really cool: 1982 DC Comics Style Guide (though I wouldn't pay $95 for it).

I finished Evil over the weekend and I enjoyed it. ( spoilers )

So that was fun.

If I sign up for Yuletide this year - and I'm still not sure I'm going to - I might request fic about Ben.

*

An assortment of things, and also, stuff (it's kind of a lot):

+ Got up this morning my usual time (10 minutes before the alarm would have gone off even!) and made the dough for the double chocolate chip cookies. It's chilling in the fridge now, though I guess it's only going to get 23 hours of chilling time. I'm sure it will be fine.

+ Every time I think about buying some specialty item "required" to make pizza at home, I'm reminded that nothing bigger than a 9x13" pan will fit in my oven, and I save money. I would own so many very specific pans (and other equipment, e.g., a pizza peel, a baking stone) if I had a normal oven. Meanwhile, a regular quarter sheet pan works fine. *hands* I do wish I had my grandmother's pizza pan and also her pizza recipe, but alas, I have neither.

+ My plan to make a key lime pie for my birthday was temporarily nixed when Stop and Shop called me to ask which non-key-lime lime juice I would like substituted for the key lime juice I ordered that was not in stock. I was like, well, neither of those since I want to make a key lime pie? So they refunded it, and I ended up ordering it from Amazon, which isn't my favorite thing to do, but I've already got the graham cracker crust and the condensed milk, so I kind of was set on the key lime pie. We'll see if it arrives by Monday.

+ I am going to see Baby Miss L (and the rest of the fam) tomorrow! I am excite! Today, I got several videos and pictures of her in music class, which she loves. 🥰🥰🥰

+ I enjoyed both of these Defector blogs in different ways:

• There Are Three Essential Lawyer Movies by Albert Burneko, which makes me want to rewatch My Cousin Vinny (and watch Michael Clayton for the first time)
  
• ‘The Bear’ Misses What’s Truly Toxic About Fine Dining by Corey Atad, which I think is 1 part "this show isn't what I wanted it to be and so it's wrong" and 1 part accurate, because the season 3 finale has definitely got some self-indulgent nonsense happening in it. ( spoiler )

+ I enjoyed this week's episode of The Acolyte. ( spoilers ) It'll be interesting to see if they can wrap the whole thing up in another 30 minute episode, since I guess the next one is the finale.

+ I don't know much about James Gunn's Superman movie, but this article suggesting they recast Smallville actors in the DCU reboot did something to my BRAIN.

Like, sure, Tom Welling as Jor-El and Erica Durance as Hippolyta would be cool shoutouts, which many DC properties do, and of course I'd enjoy seeing Michael Rosenbaum as another iconic Superman villain as suggested.

But then, my friends, THEN the article goes on to suggest JENSEN ACKLES AS BATMAN and it was like MY BRAIN TURNED INSIDE OUT. 🤯🤯🤯

First of all, how is he old enough??? And yet, he's in his 40s now, I think, which is old enough to be Bruce Wayne as a dad, which is apparently the flavor of Bruce Wayne we are getting (which means ROBIN, and possibly even ROBINS PLURAL???), and supposedly he voiced Batman in one of the games? IDK IDK, but him voicing JASON in Under the Red Hood is what got me to watch that movie, which is what got me to actually watch all the DC animated shows and start reading DC comics after doing NONE OF THAT when I was in Smallville fandom (and actively vowing NOT to read any comics when I was in X-Men movieverse fandom), so having him as Bruce now (instead of, you know, Dean pretending he's Batman) would be like, full circle or something. I don't even know!!! I need help reacting to this!!!

+ I leave you with today's Song of the Day: Bruce Springsteen's Pink Cadillac.

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Random things:

- On the recovery front, things have started to get itchy, which is almost worse than pain to me. I also cannot wait until I'm able to manage washing my hair. The temptation to chop it off all gets stronger every day. Also, sneezing and coughing hurt. Do not like! Plus, getting out of bed is a fucking adventure I could do without.

- Sad to see Saquon Barkley sign elsewhere. Hopefully the Giants draft a future QB1. Also sad the Rangers didn't do something exciting to improve the team for the playoffs - they really need someone to skate with Kreider and Zibanejad and I don't think this new guy is really going to move the needle there, and fucking Florida and Carolina both improved. I guess we'll see!

- Watching more Rock the Block and it makes me laugh when someone is like, "none of the others will think of this!" and then they cut to the next team who are planning exactly the same thing. They may have different styles and strengths but they're all professionals! On the other hand, in that ginormous (and poorly laid out, imo) house in season 4, how were there no other bedrooms? Like yeah, some of them made the study into a bedroom/office space, but like, they kept dinging Michel and Anthony for designing for a bachelor not a family but despite the house being stupidly huge, nobody really seemed concerned with putting in kids' rooms or a nursery. There was that bunkroom in the basement, but like, you have a $2.7 million house and you're going to stick all your kids in one room with one bathroom in the basement? That's insane. Also, every time someone puts in a putting green and isn't dinged for being "too specific" I am enraged. THAT IS TOO FUCKING SPECIFIC. Way more than, say, a sauna or some design choice that could easily be painted over or staged differently. Did love that someone finally put in a small library. I realize that they are doing things that are not necessarily to my taste but sometimes they enthuse about things that strike me as just ugly. *hands* Mileage obviously varies.

- The cleaning service was supposed to come this week and I was torn - I'd really like the bathtub and the kitchen floor cleaned - but I also am not up to doing the tidying necessary before they come, so I cancelled. April is soon enough.

- WOOHOO ZIBANEJAD!!!

- So back in December it was brought to my attention that my tag "the batdad his batkids deserve" had for some reason been synced to "Bad Dad Bruce Wayne" instead of "Good Dad Bruce Wayne" so I dutifully emailed Support and today, I got an email saying that had been corrected. I'm not sure why anyone would think the batkids deserve a bad dad, but I'm glad it's fixed.

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Letter of Intent
DCU; Batfamily ensemble; g; 2,770 words
An addendum to the last will and testament of Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth.

Listen, I refuse to accept that Alfred is going to stay dead, but I kept wondering, if he left Dick all his money (per Nightwing), what did he leave everyone else?

On AO3.

( The purpose of this letter is to clarify my wishes regarding my personal property. )

~*~

Feedback is adored.

~*~

Yesterday's Red Hood: Outlaws webtoon episode debuted a new emblem on Jason's armor - it's not a red bat anymore, it's a phoenix (pic). Which is appropriate, but you and I and Dick Grayson all know that it's really meant to be Flamebird, no matter what Jason or anyone else claims.

I was also amused to see the ring on Babs's finger, so I guess Dick did in fact pop the question (and got the tattoo). I just wonder whether this comic and WFA are in continuity together - Jason's relationship with Bruce is quite different (and much better, imo) in WFA. (I can't believe WFA Bruce would do the thing with showing Jason the poll saying Gotham didn't like him as Robin. I actually can't believe Bruce at the time Jason actually was Robin ever doing that either, and I've only read a handful of scans from his Robin days, but I guess even the these webcomics get some residual ick on them from bad-dad!Bruce that seems to be in vogue in some versions of the current comics.)

Otoh, I do like that both Webtoons have given us a strong Babs-Jason (and Dick-Jason) friendship. I thought that was one of the things Batman and Robin Eternal did really well, too (Jason & Babs, I mean).

Otherwise, I don't really care that much about the RH:O webcomic itself - it makes me feel bad for Bizarro, but I'm not finding Artemis particularly interesting, which is a shame. She should be! But mostly I just feel meh about her. It doesn't help that the plot, such as it is, skips around a lot and doesn't always seem to make sense? It tries to do bigger plotty arcs and does not always succeed in pulling it off. Otoh, it does pull some deep cuts and fun cameos, but overall, I like WFA much more.

*

I guess if I keep reading Reverse Robins AUs (as opposed to ones where Dick gets snatched up by the Court of Owls as a kid and Jason is Bruce's first kid - but that is a different post about a different type of AU) it's my own fault, but I'm here yet again today to ask you, if you are going to write such an AU, to consider the following:

1. Whether Damian or Duke is Bruce's first kid, and what that changes, such as:
   
   1. Damian being more secure in his position as heir/first-born
      
   2. Bruce having a somewhat different policy on metas in Gotham
      
   3. How old is Bruce when this happens? How long has he been Batman? Did he know about Damian/does Damian come to him still at 10, and Bruce has been Batman for those 10 years, or does Talia drop him on the doorstep as a baby? It would affect his parenting (and also he'd have to acknowledge from the start that he was Damian's father, so would Duke not have to wait the way Dick did to be adopted?
      
   4. What their name is? If it's Duke, he's probably starting out as Signal and that's not a legacy title. If it's Damian it's probably Batboy or something unimaginative like that. (Otoh, with Damian, maybe it's Raptor or Falcon [we are not worrying about copyright and Marvel here]; I've seen Shadow in fic, which also works.)
      
   5. do you keep the age-mates the same, e.g., Damian and Jon? And then Damian becomes Nightwing and Jon becomes Flamebird? Actually, in this case, I would bet Jon is the instigator of the name rather than Clark, if that's the route you take.
      
   6. And if so, does Damian form a version of YJ or Teen Titans? (E.g., do you bring in Irey and Jai, Lian, maybe Milagro Reyes or Sin? [and if so, is everyone age-reversed in order for the kids to be around before Wally and Roy?] Colin and Maya and Maps? For Duke it could be the We Are Robin kids, but it'd then be Gotham based, and also, without Robin, how does that work?)
   
   
   
2. Where/how does Steph fit in?
   
   1. Is she one of Bruce's kids or is she still more of an outsider who came with Tim?
      
   2. Is she the first Batgirl? Does she get murdered or severely injured (i.e., is she filling Jason's or Barbara's role?) Or does she stay Spoiler the whole time?
   
   
   
3. Tim!
   
   1. Does Tim still figure out their identities, and if so, how without the quadruple flip? Is he still obsessed with the Robin analogue here?
      
   2. And is Tim "Batboy 2" or does he take a different name?
      
   3. Most of the stories I've read keep the animosity between Damian and Tim, which can work, especially since Duke is not really in the Robin line of succession, but here he'd be taking over for a dismissive/disdainful Damian? Idk, a lot depends on where in the order Duke is and if Damian has mellowed towards adoptive siblings etc. I could see him being a lot more tolerant of Duke, who is a meta with his own code name etc. than of Tim stepping into his shoes, especially if you parallel Damian with Dick and Damian's fired from being Batman's junior partner and then Tim shows up in his uniform.
   
   
   
4. A Death in the Family
   
   1. Is it Steph? Is it still at Black Mask's hands? And if so, can she come back as "The Masque" (short for "The Masque of the Red Death" of course - she's not a Philistine!) and have it out for Sionis rather than Joker?
      
   2. Is it Tim? Joker Junior is right there and many people have done interesting things going this route.
      
   3. Imo, Red Hood only works if 1. Joker is the killer and 2. a whole convoluted revenge plot is in play, but I don't think Tim would plot revenge in the same loud/dramatic way Jason did; Steph might but a lot would depend on question 2 above - it's different if she's acknowledged as part of the family and part of the legacy than if she's not. Because is Steph really going to care if Bruce doesn't kill her murderer? And would Tim ever even expect that? I think the answer to both is no, so there's got to be some other drama for them to play out. Certainly Ra's is involved if it's Tim, because of course, but I'm not sure what would get Steph there.
      
   4. If Tim is JJ, is Steph Oracle? or v.v. if Steph's the one who comes back all murdery?
   
   
   
5. Cass!
   
   1. I generally think of her as a few months older than Jason so are you going by age or by order in which they joined the family? (I also LOVE AUs where they are twins, though I don't understand how you could think Shiva was potentially Jason's mother when he's never otherwise been indicated to be Chinese-American, and the other two candidates are white ladies?)
   
   
   
6. Where does Babs fit in? She's in before Jason canonically, but older than Dick, so I'd put her between them somehow maybe, but does that change Batman's relationship with Jim Gordon? I guess you could flip the order of his kids and have James Jr. be older?



7. Let Dick still be the originator of Robin, even if he's not the first, the original, kid sidekick anymore. So much of the DCU depends on Dick as Robin, and I realize that most people when they set out to write an AU are not thinking in those grandiose terms - certainly if I were writing one, I wouldn't! - but as a reader who loves his character, I do wonder how removing him as a pillar of the universe early on cascades into so many changes.

I feel like I probably had more questions, but this is why I don't write sprawling AUs. I am not that picky a reader tbh, but I do have some variation on all of these (and sometimes more!) running through my head every time I read one of this nature, at least until the author answers them (some authors answer almost all of them; some answer none, which makes me scratch my head, because where do you get the name Robin from if there's no Dick Grayson first? Why would Steph choose "Red Hood"? etc. etc., and there are some whose answers I find less than satisfactory but at least they thought about it?). I guess a lot also depends on the story you want to tell and why you've chosen this type of AU. Idk. I just think about it a lot.

Please forgive any wonky spacing - I couldn't quite remember how nesting ordered lists worked in html.

*

Still waiting for the super and the plumber. I did order an instacart delivery for 2 more gallons of water, just in case, and I can order more tomorrow, if I need to, though I'm hoping they can do at least a temporary fix today because I don't like not having running water.

Anyway! I added author names and posted this year's yuletide recs to unfitforsociety:

unfitforsociety has been updated for Yuletide 2022 with 14 recs in 9 fandoms:
* 4 The Queen's Thief
* 2 The Expanse
* 2 Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power
* 1 Star Wars: Andor, 1 Raven Cycle, 1 Rivers of London
* 1 Ms. Marvel, 1 Enola Holmes, and 1 Iliad

I wanted to share my two gifts again as well, now with author names on:

Ms. Marvel
Paristan by avani
Sana Ali leaves home behind, and finds home anyway. This is a fantastic peek into Sana's head as she moves to Jersey City to live with her family. <333

and

Enola Holmes
i'll hide underneath my pride by buries
Tewksbury invites Enola to join him at a country house party with some old friends. Of course, while they're there, a case appears for her to solve. I really enjoyed this! It was everything I love about these two characters together. <333

*

As for what I wrote, well, I matched on Batman: Wayne Family Adventures with someone who wanted Damian's first day at the Manor, with some JL cameos if possible, so I wrote that:

When the Papa found out he began to shout and started the investigation
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures; Bruce, Damian, Dick, Alfred; Tim; Clark; g; 3,084 words
"I am Ibn al Xu'ffasch, heir to the Demon's Head and son of the Bat." Tim and Dick exchanged an incredulous look. The boy sniffed disdainfully. "If that is too difficult for your plebeian American mouths, you may call me Damian."

Since B:WFA is a much more emotionally accessible version of the characters, Bruce was even able to say some good things to Damian right away! Truly an alternate universe. *g*

Then I saw a B:WFA pinch hit had lingered and picked it up. Then I discovered the recipient had chosen "any" characters and left no prompts, so I panicked for a few minutes, but talking with angelgazing, devildoll, and especially lembeau helped me figure out what to write:

Katie, Bar the Door
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures; Batfamily; pg; 2,915 words
Duke's never been to a hockey game. Jason thinks that's a shame.

lembeau and I just started spitballing about what kinds of ridiculous things could happen at a Gotham sporting event and then the story basically wrote itself. I feel like this was so obviously mine? Because the Gotham Dark Knights are kind of a thinly veiled version of the NYR here? But maybe I only see that because I know I was thinking about it as I wrote. It was partly because I was watching a Rangers game that I had the idea, so.

I had saved a couple of other requests that went to the pinch hit list while I was still working on my assignment, so once both the assignment and the pinch hit were done, I wrote two treats - one more B:WFA:

Dance, then, wherever you may be
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures; Dick, Cass, Damian; g; 1,430 words
Dick understands why Cass loves to dance.

and one Star Wars (technically for the novel Leia, Princess of Alderaan):

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life
Star Wars; Breha/Bail; g; 1,692 words
"Leia is an orphan," Bail says gravely. "She needs a home."

again, I had very specific scenarios in mind for these, based on the prompts, so the writing went pretty smoothly.

All of my recipients left lovely comments, and I have answered all of them, so I feel like my yuletide 2022 was very successful and is now wrapped up.

Here is the non-yuletide story I posted in December, so we can consider this post the monthly writing round up post for December 2022, as well:

Have you been half-asleep, and have you heard voices? (on AO3)
Star Wars; Finn/Rey/Poe; adult; 1,486 words
Finn and Poe always track her down; they don't let her solitude sour into loneliness.

I guess that's all for now. I will be back with the annual writing roundup later. I am still deciding if I want to keep all the questions, and if so, what my answers will be.

*

In the office today. Commute was fine, though my wireless earbuds popped out when I put my mask on, so now I know which order to do that in when I get ready. *wry*

The one plus of the open office plan is I am sitting right next to a window! (though also right next to a radiator so once the heat comes on, I will probably switch to an interior seat.)

Last night, I learned about Batman: Wayne Family Adventures and I am IN LOVE. The Batfamily hangout comic I have longed for lo these many years. #the batdad his batkids deserve

I mean, I have minor nits to pick - why is Cass still Orphan? Babs is Oracle so Cass should be Batgirl or Black Bat! (I don't mind that Steph is Spoiler, though she could *also* be Batgirl.) But overall it's adorable! I want more! Also, and you know I am, like, contractually obligated to say this, needs more Dick. #everybody loves dick

OK, I started this entry at 10:30 and then work interrupted until now (1:30). I keep hoping it will stop being busy for a little bit so I can catch my breath, but so far no dice. Sigh.

Anyway, last night I also watched Marvel's What If and ( spoilers )

*

No fever this morning! And I slept another 10 hours thanks to NyQuil, so I feel a lot better, despite the lingering cough, which is back to sounding much worse than it feels instead of hurting as much as it sounds. *g*

(Some backstory, I guess? My mother was a smoker until the last few years of her life, but the kind of smoker who lit a cigarette, took a couple of puffs, and then left it burning in the ashtray where others, i.e., me, would breathe it in; I also used to have terrible bouts of chronic bronchitis every winter - thankfully, that mostly stopped in my early 30s - which left some scarring on my lungs. So even though I have honestly never smoked a cigarette - or anything else! - in my life, I have a two-pack-a-day smoker's cough. 95% of the time, it sounds much worse than it is, but when I get sick it tends to ratchet it up terribly. On the plus(?) side it is also a very wet cough? Idk idk. It often freaks people out when they hear it, but it's just normal for me.)

Anyway, I stayed up a little later than normal last night reading fic. You know that joyful feeling when you see an author that you like has posted a new story and it's 95K words long? And then it turns out that not only is that story about Jason's ongoing reconciliation with the Batfamily, and them all pulling together to help him, but also about Robin and the Robin legacy? Yeah. Here's an insta-rec:

Recollect, re-collect (94438 words) by Ptelea
Jason would tell you that his most recent case, where he stopped a wannabe warlock's spell-in-progress, went just fine.

Jason would also tell you he was fine with the distant, prickly status quo of his relationships with the other Bats.

(Jason is maybe not the most reliable of narrators.)

Or: A spell gone wrong leads to Jason hashing some things out--with himself, with Dick, and with the rest of the Batfam. Featuring: rather a lot of thoughts and conversations about memory, change, damage, love and trust, accountability, family, hurt, lies, death, Spyral, pedestals, cases, memorials, stories, and Robin.

If you have ever been a fan of Robin - especially Dick or Jason, but really any Robin - I highly recommend reading this story. It made me sob my face off several times, and I devoured in one sitting last night, so I'm going to reread it again slowly. I think I will be rereading it many times in the future as well. #forever crying about robins dot tumblr dot com #being robin gives him magic

*

Here are the Good Boys I'm spending my week with:
( good boys )

*

I cringe/laugh every time someone in Batfamily fic has Alfred refer to someone - usually a member of the Justice League - outside the family as "Master," e.g., "Master Clark," because it would never ever happen. I don't know if it does in canon because the canon comics writers don't know either, but "Master" is the title used for the under-18 boys in the house. The girls will always be Miss (or Ms., I guess, if someone insists) until they get married, but the fact that Alfred continues to call Bruce "Master Bruce" when he's well into his 40s is hilarious to me, but also sad because he still sees him as a little boy, I guess. (Or, more likely, comics writers didn't know this and it just carried on from there.) And thus none of the other boys ever gets to mature either. *hands* But outside the family, it should be "Mr. Kent/Mr. Queen" etc.

*

Ever since old boss2 bought me a sponge cake from Kam Hing Coffee Shop in Chinatown the night she drove me home from the office back in April, I have been thinking about trying to make my own. I'd never made a real sponge cake before, with the egg whites as the only raising agent, but it seemed like it was time to try.

I chose this recipe because it seemed straightforward if fussy (why yes, I did sift the cake flour + corn starch mix twice). It's not a one-bowl proposition, and whipping egg whites is always fraught, but it all came together and they turned out pretty well, though I might have cooked them a titch too long (even though I cooked them 4 minutes less than the recipe calls for) (pics).

I bet they'd be really good split open and filled with whipped cream and lemon curd. Or sliced and macerated strawberries. Hmm...

And then linked from that recipe, there was a recipe for Dalgona coffee, which I had never heard of but needed to try once I had. So I just made that, and it's okay? I don't know if it's that I bought the brand of instant coffee(!!!) that the recipe suggests (Folger's Decaf) and it's only okay coffee-wise, or if my expectations were too high. But it does whip up quickly - I used an immersion blender with a whisk attachment in a tall metal milkshake cup so it didn't spray everywhere - and looks very impressive. Maybe I need it to be colder? It does remind me a little of coffee ice cream (which I have been eating a lot of recently - Tillamook coffee almond fudge to be exact (and tbh, could use more fudge but the ice cream is so creamy) so I will probably make it again sometime.

All of which leads quite nicely into the June Something, Day 9:

Drop the cast of a fandom you follow into a reality tv show - who/what/why? If you need a list of reality TV show examples, click here.

Clearly it's the Batfamily on GBBO. Alfred eventually wins, of course, but Jason and Steph, and, somewhat surprisingly, Damian, give him a run for his money, though Damian does not fare well during pie week. Bruce is out the first week, despite his actual best efforts - cooking is like chemistry why is he so bad at this??? - then Kate, Cass, and Tim (no, Tim, your attempt at Dorito-flavored pastry cream was not "GENIUS!"), Babs, and Duke. Dick lasts longer than anyone expects him to, but pastry week knocks him out.

It's for charity, so nobody complains too much, and they all end up having a much better time than expected.

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