mark_asphodel | Entries tagged with merric

So, while I was rummaging around through the tea collection today, an unpleasant thought struck me: with R. Hirt, Jr. gone, where the hell am I going to find Kusmi Tea?

Kusmi Tea is different and special. A distinctly Russian company that's been operating out of Paris since the Bolsheviks took over, they specialize in flavored, blended teas with names like "Anastasia" and "Prince Vladimir," and the flavorings are a bit different than your typical "Republic of Tea"-type offerings. There's a lot of emphasis on citrus and spice, and the smokiness of Lapsang Souchong, and floral overtones of rose and violet. The teas fill a niche and do it very well, and the less highly-flavored ones like Russian Morning and Russian Evening are great, too.

I admit I did not like the Tchai, Nepalese tradition or no. It was a little too flavorful for my tastes.

Fortunately, they do have a website and ship to the US and Canada.

-x-

The adventures of girl!Marth continue with Chapter Four of "Honesty is (Not) the Best Policy," wherein the cognitive dissonance is beginning to get to Merric.

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."

( Notes and stuff. )

OK. So, sixteen-year-old Merric is a student at Khadein University studying wind power applications. He's a well-regarded student and a favorite of Professor Wendell, but he keeps getting into scrapes with a fellow student named Ellerean, whose study focus is the dangerous fringe field of electrical technology.

Anyway, things are going along well enough when a horrific act of industrial sabotage takes place in Merric's homeland of Altea-- a regional center of steam and hydropower thanks to its abundant water supply. An attack on Altea's great steam engines causes chaos and destabilization; Merric's attempt to get to the bottom of things leads him on a truly bizarre odyssey involving airships, gears, arc lights, goggles, and Linde. Oh, yes, and the permeable boundary between technology and magic.

Basically, the underlying premise is that the dragons of Archanea fostered technological development among humans instead of tutoring them in access to magic. Canonically, the dragons had technology they used themselves, and the magic seen in the games is a substitute to bring humanity up to an equivalent standard of living. So this would be an alternate timeline that assumes that the dragon technology, whatever that consisted of, wasn't lost.

Anyone interested in working on this, for a big bang or anything else, sign up right here.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Desk
Current Music: "Shabby Doll," Elvis Costello

So, I'm trying to get a quota of interesting cooking in before I get sent to Vegas. Yesterday, I harvested some daylily buds and made a stir-fry with lamb, daylily, and fresh mushrooms from the farmers market. If I'd been feeling more ambitious I'd have made a real nice dish with a ginger-black bean sauce, but bottled sauce did work in a pinch and it was pretty good except for the soggy brown rice. I am SO switching back to jasmine rice... the brown rice turns out better when I don't follow the directions.

This morning, I decided to offload some of the excess strawberries I bought on Friday (also at the farmers market) in the form of a sweet omelet. No, not one of those super-fancy fallen-souffle deals; this was more like a flourless crepe, not too sweet and pretty darned tasty. Warmed, sliced, fresh strawberries are so much nicer than gloppy pie-filling stuff, which I've come to loathe.

-x-

Yesterday I completed two more must-see goals in the Metro Detroit experience-- a tour of the legendary Rouge Factory and a trip to the top of the Renaissance Center. Seeing the First Wonder of the Industrialized World gave a huge boost to my inner technology geek (though the official presentations on the tour are whitewashed beyond credibility), while being at the top of the tallest building in Michigan was pretty amazing. I could see the spoke-like outlay of the city, with the main arteries of Michigan, Jefferson, Woodward, Gratiot, and Grand River spreading out for miles and miles and miles... I swear I could see the city lights of Mount Clemens off in the distance. We were above helicopters.

Also, while Coach Insignia is a place I'm absolutely going back to for dinner, I'd sure hate to be a paying guest on the night of a wedding reception. There's nowhere to run from the music. I'm sure we annoyed people.

-x-

Maybe I'll use the FE big bang as an excuse to finally do steampunk!Archanea, but I'd want a collaborator because I am not doing that on my own.

But that way I can finally get a picture of Merric with goggles. And Linde. Steampunk Linde. Mmm.

-x-

"The Art of Manufacturing" (a short film shown at the Rouge tour) is like Koyaanisqatsi as filmed by Disney. Makes you wonder what might've happened had Henry Ford and Walt Disney joined forces to create one empire of fantasy Americana.

-x-

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night remains awesome beyond comparison.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Beanbag Chair

I left work early today, crawled home, and slept. Sometimes there's just no other sensible option.

-x-

Anyway, after all the positive response to that fragmentary dump of "When Mila Walked the Land" (<3 <3 <3), I uploaded chapters 2 and 3. That 'fic had not been updated since December of 2009, and the master file hadn't been touched since June of 2010. That's a record for time between updates for me, heh.

The project actually dates back even early, to the pre-LJ says when I was bopping around on DevArt talking to

shimizu_hitomi and almost nobody else. I was only a couple of chapters into playing FE8 when the crossover potential smacked me between the eyes, and Hitomi's translation of the FE2 script cemented my belief that something Needed to be Done with the pretty obvious links between Archanea/Valencia and Magvel. But at the time, I was really averse to the crackiness of a crossover that would, say, feature Marth and Eirika chillin' together and maybe hooking up for something. Didn't like the idea. Thought it would be lamesauce.

[Point and laugh, Raphi. Go ahead.]

So, instead, I dreamed up a generation-gap scenario wherein the playable casts of FE2 and FE3 are twenty years older than we see them in the games, and then Eirika falls through a rabbit hole into Archanea along with bucketloads of dark critters. Of course, she doesn't speak a word of the common language, so the chaos that ensues isn't exactly cute.

The other gimmick was a pair of OCs as the initial POV characters-- Lara (the daughter of Marth and Caeda) and Rudolf (son of Alm and Cellica). These kids are closer in age to Eirika and thus relate to her on a different level than the adults. Original explanation of story here.

( Read more... )

Dunno when Chapter Four will go up, because it's more fragmentary than the other unfinished chapters and my schedule sucks right now.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: Desk
Current Music: "Pillar of Davidson," Live

And, here we go with the first response to my fic prompt self-challenge. This one is the response to

sacae 's second challenge (Archanea, Merric/Linde, 1850's America, gen or romance). Apologies if I got anything wrong on the 1850s America part... I did do some research, but not bucketloads of it. So if I erred on forms of address or whatnot, mea culpa.

( Transcendence )

ETA: posted it on FFnet here.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Couch

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Notes and Errata of Mark of the Asphodel

Fics, Essays, and Such

Entries tagged with merric

Russian Tea

Fic Update and Raspberry Cobbler

Steampunk Archanea Plotbunny

Sweet Omelets and Such

Fic Update: "When Mila Walked the Land," Chapters 2 & 3

Prompt Response (Transcendence)

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