Huh,, Well THAT Was Interesting

huh,, well tHAT was interesting

first day of school ahhhh future me? 🎤

But I am not just another number. None of us are. - ARC Trooper Fives

I’ve had this idea swirling around in my head for a while and I finally finished it lol and had the balls to post it

I wanna tell you guys a story,

Not too long ago, my friend Bella came out as aromantic to me, and now I’ve got some things to say.

I was the one who told her what aromantic means, because I was explaining different sexual orientations to her. I remember saying, “Asexualiy is when you have romantic attraction, but no sexual attraction.”

Bella immedently, without missing a beat, asked, “Is there an opposite to that?”

I asked what she meant, and she asked if there was a term for sexual attraction but no romantic attraction. I told her about aromantics. She got weirdly quiet, then excused herself.

Not two weeks later I was heading to my boat. I was supposed to meet Bella and another one of our muteral friends there for a day of fishing.

As soon as I was in earshot, I saw Bella storming off the boat, and our other friend standing there like an idiot. Boi had no idea what was happening.

Anyway, Bella isn’t looking where she’s going and walks smack dab into me. That’s when I realized she was crying. Puffy red eyes, wet cheeks, the whole nine yards… And if you know anything about Bells, she does not cry. Ever.

She’s been through some serious crap in her life, and she does not cry. She’s tough as nails. Bella has a steel core. She does not not cry. I’ve seen her fall off a roof and break her arm before, not a single tear. I can’t stress this enough, Bella. Doesn’t. Cry.

So seeing her in tears shook me. I took her by the shoulders and escorted her somewhere more private where we could talk. We ended up in the women’s restroom, which was weird as fuck for me, because haven’t been in a woman’s rest room for years. Luckily it was empty, and I’m realistic, I know I don’t pass so well, so I don’t think anyone would have said anything anyway.

Before I can even ask her what’s wrong she hugs me around my middle and burys her face in my hoodie. Then, in a voice I can only describe as traumatized, she says, “I think I’m broken.”

I’ve never seen her in so much pain, and Bella and I are CLOSE. She’s one of my dearest friends. She’s like my little sister, but if she’s like my sister, our other muteral friend is like her twin. He and Bella have know each other WAY longer, they’re practically inseparable. They come as a pair. They’re a duo. They’re a package deal.

Appearently, said muteral friend asked Bella out and forcefully kissed her. She shoved him off, and told him she’s aromantic, which she only recently figured out. She wasn’t ready to be out, but this muteral friend left her no choice. She tried telling him no, and he didn’t listen. Bella saw no other option.

Quote on quote, this is what he said to Bella. “That’s okay. You just haven’t dated me yet. We’ve been like, unofficially together for years. You’re probably just freaked out that it’s finally going somewhere.”

After that I’m not 100% clear on what happened, but apparently Bella kept saying no Nd trying to explain herself, but he kept insisting he could ‘fix her.’

Eventudally she started crying and stormed away. That’s when I found her.

Keep in mind, this was her first experience coming out, and her best, closest friend insisted he could fix her and forcefully kissed her. I found out later he also implied corrective rape would ‘solve the problem.’

Bella was traumatized. She’s still traumatized. I tried to make her feel better by buying her an aro pride shirt, and taking her go a local LGBTQ+ hang out. I wanted her to be around like minded people, so she could see she wasn’t broken, and her identity deserved to be respected.

Instead of a warm, welcoming environment… The first thing someone said to her was, “This place is for REAL lgbt people. You don’t belong here.” He also implied she wasn’t human.

Just think about that for a minute. Her first experiences with being an out aromantic have been limited to;

A person she trusted more than anyone forcing himself upon her, claiming she was ill, and needed to be fixed. (Raped.)

Sobbing in my arms in the women’s restroom because she thought she was broken and defective.

Being told she wasn’t welcomed in LGBTQ+ spaces and called inhuman.

This isn’t what I want for her. Bella deserves better than this. She needs a support system, not all this crap. I’ve spent the past week trying to undo all the damage exclusionists, arophobes, and people she trusted did.

Aromantics and asexuals belong in the LGBTQ+ community. You literally cannot change my mind.

I FOUND IT FOLKS

Blackberry, Apple, and Whisky Pie to celebrate the Autumn Equinox or Mabon

The Autumnal equinox is here! It’s the day where light and darkness are equal, a perfect balance. We are now entering the dark part of the year. It’s time to celebrate the second harvest sabbat. Personally it’s one of my favourite because we can see the shift in Nature. Summer is fading away but there is still lots of green leaves. The air is getting colder but the sun is still hot. I am now preparing my home for the winter to come. I decluttered all my closets and donated every thing I didn’t needed anymore. There is still plenty of fruits to make jams and preserves as well

On this day of celebrations, I am giving you this amazing Apple Pie recipe. It requires a bit of work but it is totally worth it, I promise! Funny story, it’s the first time I am baking a pie, I’ve never had pies before, it not really custom where I grew up. I was curious so I decided toggle it a go. I had to do it 3 times with small adjustments every time and now I am really satisfied of the result, and now I am really convinced that it is one of my favourite fruit desserts!

Time

Preparation: 30 min the day before (the dough) + 1h30 (making the pie)

Cooking: 1h

Cooling down: 45min

Ingredients

Pie dough

If you want to just a single crust pire, you’ll have to divide the quantities by 2.

330g all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

3tbsp sugar

230g butter (must be very cold) cut into 1cm cubes

120mL iced water approximately

Filling

4 apples peeled, cored and cut into thin strips

200g blackberries, lightly crushed

2tbsp whisky (I recommend a sweet one, not too smoky for a light flavour. I used Glenmorangie)

3tbsp light brown sugar

1tbsp grounded cinnamon

1tsp all spices

1/2tsp clove

1/2 tsp nutmeg

40g flour

3tbsp Salted Maple Caramel (I used this recipe here https://bromabakery.com/salted-maple-caramel-recipe/ ) If you don’t want to do this recipe, any caramel spread will do.

1 egg beaten for the egg wash

Preparation

Pie dough

Make the day before

In a large bowl combine sugar, salt and flour

Add the butter. Mix to cover the butter cubes with flour (it keeps them cold longer). Rub butter into flour until it is the size of walnut halves.

Make a well in the center and add the water a few tablespoons at a time and mix lightly until the dough comes together (don’t over do it)

Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest in the fridge for the night. This step is really important because a very cold dough will be extra flaky!

Filling

In a large bowl, mix together apples, blackberries, whisky, sugar, cinnamon, all spices, clove, and nutmeg.

Let it rest during the next step.

Making the pie.

Pre heat your oven 190°C / 375°F

Lightly grease your pie pan with butter then dust it with flour (your pie will not stick to the pan in this case)

Divide the dough in 2 balls.

Put one ball back in the fridge

Roll out the other ball in a disk. It has to be large enough that it will recover your pan and drape over the edges of it. Gently fit the disk onto your pie plate by patting the edges of the pan.

With a fork make some holes in the dough

Filter your filling through a colander to separate as much as juice than you can. Now add the caramel, and the flour, mix well. The fruits have to be coated by the flour and the caramel.

Don’t throw away the juice, it is delicious to drink with black tea

Pour the filling into the pie pan.

Let the pie rest in the fridge while you are doing the next step.

Decorating the pie

Roll out the second ball of dough, then cut thin strips about 1 cm wide.

Use them to create a lattice pattern on the top of your prepared filling.

You can make braids and lie them around the edges of the pie. You can also use cookie cutter to add fun shapes, let your creativity guide you!

There is tons of amazing inspirations on Pinterest and Instagram if you need it!

When your design is done, brush the pie with the egg wash.

Bake for an hour at 190°C / 375°F.

IMPORTANT! Check the pie regularly and if it becomes too brown, cover it with an aluminum foil. I usually have to do it after 35-40 min of baking.

Observe this rare trading card I got for $1.57!

We stan Jaster Mereel, Mandalore the Reformer on this blog. We also ignore great swathes of canon around here!

Now! Even though Jaster is now only canon in Boba's chain code and listed as mentor, I wish to direct your attention to the back of this card.

"He also raises an orphaned farmer's son, Jango Fett, as his own." AS. HIS. OWN.

I don't know what that means to you, but my dude, that reads as Jaster raised Jango as his own son. Jaster was his father.

So! Fanfic writers, while we all chose to write differently and all sorts of different plots, let others have their headcanons in peace. Educating people about actually harmful words is good.

But Jas'buir used to be canon and I'm sticking to it! Also most of us write Jaster a lot softer than he is in canon and yanno? I like it. I do enjoy giving him more ruthless moments though, usually against his enemies.

(Disclaimer: I hate the whitewashing and kriffed up faces in the Open Seasons comics. All Fetts are round-featured and darker skinned in my fics. I even got the Bad Batch their melanin back, since I was pressured into adding them to my fic.)

[Image Descriptions]

Top picture - A trading card of Jaster Mereel from Star Wars Legends in a plastic sleeve encased in a thicker protective plastic sleeve. It's got a picture of Jaster from the Open Seasons comic firing at someone in the field at the Fett Homestead where Death Watch had chased the True Mandalorians to. Cut out at the right edge is his left hand holding onto a terrified Jango's arm. You can barely see the arm and some hair. Captioned: Jaster Mereel, with Mandalorian underneath it.

Bottom picture - Jaster's stats, which are all really high except for Force Power. The bio reads (and I'm going to fix the mispellings tyvm)

"Born on the Outer Rim world of Concord Dawn, Jaster Mereel is a law enforcer who staunchly believes in justice and fair play. Accomplished as a soldier, he goes on to become the leader of all Mandalorian clans, reforming the volatile thieves into honorable mercenaries. Mereel is opposed by the splinter group Death Watch and its leader Tor Vizsla. He also raises an orphaned farmer's son, Jango Fett, as his own. In 52 BBY, Jaster Mereel is betrayed by second-in-commant Montross and slain by rival Vizsla."

Goggles 😍