Fic Update and Raspberry Cobbler

[mark_asphodel]

So, I turned four cups of U-pick raspberries into a very nice cobbler.  The recipe is the "old-fashioned berry cobbler" in the middle of the page, the one with raspberries in it.  I substituted black raspberry jam and added some vanilla to the biscuit topping, and it went over very well at Sunday dinner. I've been on a baking binge, in between the two custard pies, this cobbler, and the plum butter kuchen I meant to write about that got lost in the shuffle.  Reason?  We still haven't turned the furnace on, and it's getting kind of chilly.  Oops.

-x-

We finally have a decent cupcake shop in my end of town.  I will elaborate on this critical development on a later date, but right now, all I have to say is: purple velvet cupcakes.  Yes.

-x-

So, speaking of cupcakes... no, wait cupcakes have nothing to do with Chapter Two of "Honesty is (Not) the Best Policy."

I'd be amiss not to say that I'm very excited that raphiael is continuing to poke at her girl!Ephraim story, because girl!Ephraim and girl!Marth really do present two different challenges.  Ephraim's image is, after all, overtly, defiantly masculine.  He's strong and tough and bold and uncouth enough to expose his naked shoulder to female eyes.  You have a beef with Ephraim, you challenge him to a duel and hope that you win.  And he has an explicit female foil in his sister... over whom he physically towers.  So, an female Ephraim who hits all those essential points would indeed be tricky to write.  Good luck, Raphi! :)

Marth?  Different story.  "Pretty tiara boy," as he is still known over on GameFaqs, has had his, ah, girlish side exaggerated to an exponential degree by fandom and SSB:Brawl, but he's not hitting a lot of the alpha-male points of characterization and never did.  That old Monshou no Nazo ad that was kicking around YouTube made it clear that he was being promoted as ideal fantasy fuel for a young girl.  He's safe, at least unless your name is Jiol or Lang.  It's not surprising at all that little girls like Maria and Malliesia, not to mention Tiki, gravitate toward him.

[I studied opera for a while in college-- Italian opera, mostly, but I did take a brief foray into Southern Chinese Yue opera and takarazuka theater.   "Trouser roles," and the requirements thereof, just fascinated me, particularly the assertion that in some forms of drama a female actor is the only way to capture the role of the romantic hero.]   

So the roles that need to be inhabited by the girls in question are pretty different.  But the game verses also present some unique challenges, and that's where Ephraim definitely has an advantage over Marth.   This'll be a weird ride, for certain.