Food is Magic

[princess-su-rip]

The Taste of Purple || Souffle

[princess-su-rip]

a-merman-not-a-guppy‌:

The idea of colours having distinct flavours was pretty incredible. Finn wished that he could try something like that more. It would only enrich a person’s experience with colour. At least in his opinion. But then again, Finn was an artist. He had a greater connection with colour than other people did.

“O-O-Oh. That’s s-s-s-s-so c-c-cool!” It truly was. He couldn’t imagine having a different mood and then the flavour of a colour changing in some way. That was even more interesting. Finn wished he could try it all. “Mel-Mel-Melon-y. That s-s-sounds s-s-so in-in-interesting.”

His eyes went wide and he leaned over curiously. “I-I-I…I-I’d like to i-if it d-d-d-doesn’t b-b-bother you.” Finn was just curious enough to not feel horribly forward for even asking about the taste of the different colours and all. He was curious enough to try. “It’s ni-nice to me-me-meet you though S-S-Su. I’m Finn.” He smiled shyly at her, reaching out to gently shake Su’s hand. “I’d love to s-s-see how pur-pur-purple tastes.”

Finn. Cute artist boy was named Finn. She filed it away, and then wondered if she could find out his signs and stuff and ask Mei. Just for like, fun, because Su didn’t really want a boyfriend. But she liked playing those games and seeing the charts that Mei created-- they were like works of art too in their own way! 

But way more important than figuring out Finn’s chart was procuring this purple. She could do it. Su was getting better and better at procuring colours and this one was man-made, technically, which was always easier than trying to get the colour of blueberry skin, for example, or a dusty, red-orange leaf (which was actually more like procuring green, because it was the absence of colour-- colour dried out from the leaf...very complicated). 

“Then leave it to me!” Su said. She dug out her spoon and then, biting down on her lip, she tapped the pencil tip with the head of the spoon. 

The air shimmered. Su twirled her spoon around and then little streaks of purple appeared. She twirled the spoon and wrapped the purple around the head of the spoon like it was noodles. 

“There! Wait right here!” Su instructed. “Actually--hold this. Be very careful. Purple’s kinda sleepy as colours go, but it might still try to escape. I’ll be right back!” 

So, leaving her spoon-wand with Finn, she went back to her table and scooped up her tea cup. She carefully weaved back to Finn and put the cup on the table. 

“Thank you!” Plucking her spoon back from Finn, she dipped the head of it into her tea and gave it a couple of mixes. She knelt down then, squinting at her tea. She sniffed it. Gave it a few more spins. “Almost done. It’s still settling, I think.” 

[princess-su-rip]

The Taste of Purple || Souffle

[princess-su-rip]

a-merman-not-a-guppy‌:

‘Copy and pasting’ Finn mouthed, as he tried to process just hat it meant and how this girl did it. Either way it was an incredibly cool idea. He never would have thought of colors having flavor and taste but he really liked the thought. Honestly Finn wished he could find out more: what did blue taste like? Was green good or bad? How about yellow?

“W-Well it s-s-s-sounds c-c-cool. And re-really g-g-good.” Finn thought that her ability to add some good taste to her tea with colours was incredible. He wasn’t going to stand in the way if all that she needed was to copy and paste his purple. In fact, he really wanted to watch her do it. If it was something that could be seen. Maybe it couldn’t.

He smiled shyly and pushed his purple colored pencil toward her, drawing his hands away and worrying at his lip. “W-What d-d-does b-b-blue taste like? Is it g-good too? Or I guess…d-d-do you have a fav-favourite c-colour t-to taste?” He ran a hand through his hair and wrinkled his nose. “S-S-Sorry. As a k-kind of artist I think it’s the c-c-c-coolest con-con-concept. Tasting c-c-colours.”

It was a cool concept, but it was also super annoying. Su didn’t know any other way, of course. Reagents never appeared to her like they did to other sorcerers, and she couldn’t fake it if she wanted to-- even though, when she was younger, there’d been this brief time when she’d given it a shot, fumbling and lying about what she saw. But she got it wrong every time. She couldn’t procure like that either, and it’d made her feel like a big failure before she even got started. 

Luckily, she had Ting-Ting to tell her that it was okay that Su had to do things a little differently. Without Ting-Ting helping her figure out how to procure from her weird synesthesia, she would have never gotten to this point. 

Now, she could get annoyed at the whole world for invading her sinuses and tastebuds, but she also knew it was part of being Su. To others, it seemed a lot more magical though.

She liked that-- and giggled, feeling freshly pleased at the boy’s reaction. “It kind of depends on my mood and what I’ve had to eat that day! Like usually reds are bursting with flavour. They’re juicy and rich and sometimes spicy and other times-- chewy? I dunno!” she laughed louder. “But if I’ve already eaten spicy ramen noodles that day, I don’t want to taste anymore! I want something cool and sweet and mild, like.... honeydew. Pastel colours always taste melon-y to me, then.” 

She picked up the purple. “But here! You can taste it too, kind of. First I have to procure it, and then I’ll mix it into my tea, and you can have a taste. If you want, that is. Maybe you find it awfully strange, tasting a weird girl’s tea who you just met. In which case, let me introduce myself so I’m not so strange anymore! Hi! I’m Su! I’m a kitchen-witch-in-training!” She stuck out her hand for the boy to shake. “What’s your name?” 

[princess-su-rip]

Ding Dong Dragon! || Suley

[princess-su-rip]

dragon-prodigy‌:

Sparky wagged his tail excitedly looking between his two new friends as one of his new friends started talking to Jake. 

Jake quirked a brow, “A pageant.” He thought for a moment, reading over the clipboard. “Well, ya know, I think he’d love it. Don’t know how I’d deal with him from then on, but maybe. He’s a non-magical sorta fella through and through but I think his personality gives him a bit of magic.”

“Yeah, totally. Like he’s so charming already. He seems like he’d put in a good show.” Haley’s heart was beating a mile a minute, gosh he was cute and tall. Like really tall compared to her. 

“Alright then, think I’ll give it a go. Long as I don’t have to dress up in the outfits myself.” He snorted and signed his name and info on the petition before handing Haley the clipboard. 

She read the clip board. “Well, thank you so much, Sparky and… Jake. Wow, your name is Jake. My brother’s name is also Jake what a coincidence. I mean not that it isn’t totally a common name or anything, just funny. Well, not that your name is funny.” Haley laughed nervously and Jake just smiled at her.

“Yeah, I got the drift. Well, I’ve gotta go work on a paper so, nice meeting you two ladies and we’ll see ya round.” 

As he walked off, Haley breathed out. “Well, that was successful.” She composed herself again and grinned at Su, “Go us.”

One signature down! 99 more to go!!!!

Su didn’t actually know if they needed that many, but she figured if she showed up with 100 signatures then Ting-Ting and MuHou would be proud of her. They would see that she put in a solid effort. That goal might even be overly ambitious, but Su started with big goals like that-- and slowly scaled back. 

“Who’s next? Hmmm-- let’s see if that dude’s got a pet,” Su said, feeling buoyed enough by their one signature to dive into the deep end. So she headed straight to a guy who was reading some book on a bench.

“Hello!” Su chirped.

The boy started. “Jesus Christ.”

“Not quite! Hi! I’m Su, and this is my colleague, Haley. We’re campaign for Animal Rights and stuff. Do you have a pet?”

The bloke blinked. “Er. I-- have a bird.”

Su blinked and made an ‘o’ shape with her mouth. “A bird! That’s super unusual.”

“Not really--”

“Is your bird very beautiful? Do you think your bird would like to compete in a beauty pageant?”

“Excuse me?” the bloke asked but Su was already thrusting the petition toward him. His eyebrows raised further on his forehead.

“An Animal pageant? Well, this is mostly for...for magical Animals, isn’t it? My bird isn’t magical.”

“Doesn’t have to be! You can enter your bird in the Mundane categories. Or you don’t have to, if you don’t want, but we would appreciate your support.”

“For an Animal pageant.”

“Yes,” said Su. This guy was way more difficult than the other, yeesh. She made her brow furrow. “Unless... you hate animals.”

“What? I didn’t say--”

“Don’t you think animals deserve rights?”

“Of course--”

“Then save the animals! Sign please.”

A beat. Then the bloke shook his head, but picked up the pen and scribbled a name down under Jake’s. John Darling.

Su beamed. “Thank you!” 

[princess-su-rip]

The Taste of Purple || Souffle

[princess-su-rip]

a-merman-not-a-guppy‌:

Finn had found himself another art project. Christmas had gone by and he was already inspired to do something new. That was how it went with his art. It was his passion. Finn was constantly drawing. Even when he went out to get a nice warm hot chocolate.

He was pretty content where he was, slowly sipping at his hot chocolate when he had to pause to give his hand a break from the drawing. Finn was attempting at a drawing of his puppy with all of the toys he liked to play with. It was slow going, but he was excited to get it done.

And just as he set the black coloured pencil down, a girl just kind of…appeared. Or it felt that way to Finn since he had been so invested in his art. He blinked up at the girl, staring for a long minute before he processed the question. And yet Finn still didn’t quite understand it.

“How d-d-d-do you b-b-borrow pur-pur-purple m-magically?” Finn questioned, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “D-D-Does it take the c-c-colour from the pen-pencil?”

Oh, he was cute! 

Su only rarely thought these things. And truthfully, she was more interested in his drawing, which reminded her of Roo’s too. She liked artists. She thought she herself was an artist, though cooking and baking was a healthy blend of both art and science. So she was like, an artist-scientist-witch mix! 

But this boy was pure artist. He looked it too-- he wore a cute shirt with a beautiful pattern and had big eyes behind lens-less rims, which means the glasses were for #AestheticPurposes. She hoped he wouldn’t mind Su’s question too much. 

“Oh, kinda! Its more like copy and pasting! The colour won’t disappear from the purple so you don’t have to worry about that. Or else I’d owe you a purple, right?” She giggled and tilted her head. “But it’s called procuring! And your purple tastes perfect for my tea.” She licked her lips again. “Almost...lavender-y. Which makes sense! I’ve always loved when colours taste like their names. Like red doesn’t taste like red, red tastes spicy or sometimes umami-- or kinda bitter and dry-- but lavender does taste like lavender, and orange does taste like orange!” 

[princess-su-rip]

♥ 45 likes

sourpatchsu: Don’t be such a ham! 

[princess-su-rip]

The Taste of Purple || Souffle

@a-merman-not-a-guppy​

The Qins were out on a coffee-and-tea date! 

Coffee and tea were big staples of the Qin household in general. Su had been taught how to properly brew tea by her grandparents. She still remembered the first time she’d done it all by herself-- she’d been six years old, her grandmother’s hand on her shoulder guiding her the whole way. What she hadn’t told her grandmother though was that the whole time, Su was tasting other things. She was tasting the peppery sunshine and thinking it’d taste good, sprinkled in a rooibus. And she was tasting Comfort, which was soft in the mouth like marshmallow. It came from that hand on her shoulder. 

She had started to add teeny little ingredients like this whenever she made tea, just to experiment. And now as she sat in Hatter’s, cupping the ceramic of her earl-grey-and-honey, she thought it was missing something. She sipped it gently. She smacked her lips together. There was just something else there, something in this shop that she was...

She liked her lips and looked around.

And then she saw it. 

“I’ll be right back!” she told her family. She popped up from the cafe and crossed it to where a boy was leaning over a picture... 

He had a bunch of different coloured pencils out on the table. That’s what Su was tasting! 

“Hi, um-- excuse me? I was wondering if you’d let me borrow your purple. Magically-speaking, I mean!” 

[princess-su-rip]

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake || Mei Su Soup

[princess-su-rip]

princess-mei‌:

Mei giggled at the idea of rule-breaking as an ingredient. It would be a powerful ingredient, though, also volatile and after her experience with Robbie, Mei was going to stay away from volatile ingredients for a while…

The giggle turned sharp, a bark of laughter and her cheeks brighter pink at the mention of Lock. She rolled her eyes.

“He’s not that bad!” Mei huffed. Really, she didn’t actually think she’d ever see him do any rule-breaking. He wasn’t like Tae, who she knew had broken a few rules already. “He’s never even been in detention.” Mei shrugged a shoulder. 

The only thing really bad about him is those criminally blue eyes. Mei was not going to say that, but there was nothing stopping her from thinking it. 

“If you want rule-breaking,” she said, taking another nibble, “you should get it from Louie Mallard.”

Su didn’t actually know much about Lock, besides the fact that his eyes were blue, the kind of blue that her sister swooned over, because it looked like it came straight out of a movie screen or something. She’d call Lock her sister’s type only that probably wasn’t really saying much. In Su’s point of view, Mei’s type was really just boy. Cute boys, hot boys, pretty boys, rugged boys, sporty boys, artsy boys-- boys boys boys, like that one song by Charli XCX! Su was way pickier, though she’d never crushed on someone in real life. Her crushes stayed on those movie screens and disappeared almost as soon as the movie was over. 

She did know who she didn’t like though. Louie would be one of those boys, even if he was very funny. 

"Hmmm, that’s not what people at school say. Maybe he’s just too sneaky to get detention,” pointed out Su. She was still grinning brightly and then reached for her own cupcake, peeling off the biscuit on the top so she could crunch into it. 

“Not that he’s bad, I mean! You just seem to be into troublemakers, that’s all.” She poked her sister in the arm. Even Tae was a troublemaker! Maybe that was Mei’s Swynlake Type. 

[princess-su-rip]

Happiness is nearby like ice-cream cake! (ice-cream cake)

Feel the rhythm As your body remembers, I like it (oh, yeah) Something unforgettable (unforgettable) Right now (right now) Just follow the heart, I like it Fly above the horizon

[princess-su-rip]

Ding Dong Dragon! || Suley

[princess-su-rip]

dragon-prodigy‌:

Haley grinned with a little giggle to match the other girl’s at the joke. Su was very funny and clever, Haley liked that, “Yep, exactly. Petworking.”

She looked over to the tall blonde man (who was very cute actually but Haley was here on business so she pushed that thought way down), probably around like out of college or grad student age if she had to guess. His dog was extremely cute and energetic, tossing his head around as he grabbed the stick and sprinted back to his owner. 

“Oooh, yeah, points for energy definitely. There’s no harm in walking up to him right?” She walked up to him, standing tall, though she’d still probably be like almost a foot shorter than him. There were two of them. It was the buddy system. They could totally approach a stranger in a park. There was nothing wrong with this. 

“Excuse me! Sir!” She waved at him, picking up the pace and walking more quickly forward to catch him, feeling pretty silly all in all but they needed people and Haley wasn’t about to not sell this deal to every opportunity they came across.

The blonde’s head turned with a brow raised. Additionally, this immediately apparently made his dog notice them and come bounding over wanting to sniff them with his cold nose for the remnants of any of the pets or food they had. 

“Oi, Sparky, c’mon. Knock it off, ya ham.” He walked over to his dog who looked at the two of them excitedly like they were going to play with him. He patted the dog on the head and looked between the two of them, speaking in a thick Australian accent. “What can I do for ya ladies?”

Su wasn’t looking at the man at all. If she did, she’d probably have only one comment and that was: old. 

Only after someone pointed out that he was cute would Su blink a little, consider, and maybe agree. But that’s the way Su was! All those genes were given to Mei. That, and Su really had a much different type, she guessed. She liked cute boys in bright colours, not grown men who hadn’t shaved that day. 

But the dog. Oh boy! The dog was sooooooo cute and Su giggled as he came bounding over and shoved its nose at Su’s hands. She immediately started petting its cute little face. “You’re hungry, huh?” she spoke to the dog. She understood. Su was almost always hungry.

But! They had a mission! Don’t get distracted, Su!

Su looked up and cleared her throat. “Right! Um, we’re actually collecting signatures for Swynlake to help sponsor a Pet Pagaent! It’s for magical animals and mundane ones.” She offered the man the clipboard so he could read the full petition. “I bet your dog would be a great candidate!” 

[princess-su-rip]

Ding Dong Dragon! || Suley

[princess-su-rip]

dragon-prodigy‌:

Haley let out a laugh, “Yes that’s very effective. I think we’ll keep that in our back pocket if our pitch doesn’t work.” Haley would never resort to begging because she’d get self conscious about how she’d end up looking but Su totally pulled it off in a cute way. It was good to know all your weapons before you went into battle. And this was a battle for the good of animal kind. “Okay, we should totally hit up the park then.” She zipped up her jacket in finality and they set off to the park. 

It was early enough to where there wasn’t necessarily a ton of dogs there yet, but it would fill up soon. Divide the population and conquer. “So, I figure we could totally get a couple dogs from here. Maybe two or three and then in order to get our cat quota up, I’m sure they’d have information on other pet owners and where we’d find some cats. It’s all about networking.” 

“Ah yes, pet networking. Everyone knows about pet networking. Petworking!” Su said as they talked, then broke into bubbly, bright giggles, each one like a Gusher bursting with flavour as they left her mouth.

They arrived in the park in no time and Su surveyed the area. Her eyebrows raised and she pointed at a tall bloke throwing a stick to a dog.

“What about that one? He looks kind of approachable, right? And that’s a pretty nice dog. That dog could maybe win some beauty awards or like, best in fetch, or--” she frowned and looked down at the petition, totally not sure what was actually on it.

“Er. You get the point!” 

[princess-su-rip]

Ding Dong Dragon! || Suley

[princess-su-rip]

dragon-prodigy‌:

“Oh! Well, that like totally makes sense. And I mean I think it’ll just fly by and be done in no time.” Haley rocked up onto her toes with a grin. Ever the optimist and high achiever, she never believed there was something someone couldn’t do with some hard work and proper planning/time management.

Su had a really good energy about her. Not like magical. Or maybe it was magical, Haley didn’t really know. It was just nice. It brought the mood up. Haley could feed right into that. “Yeah! It’ll be fun, for sure. We just kind of need to figure out the best way to go about searching for people with pets. I mean we can knock on doors and stuff since we’re already in this area and not a lot of people have outdoor cats, but maybe a detour to the park or something would help too. Then we’re definitely bound to run into some cute dogs, for sure.” Her mind was already going through possible routes and options for them to take.

“Oooooh, that’s a good idea,” said Su and a thoughtful expression moved over her face as she nodded. “I was just planning to go door to door and rely on what I call the Su Su Effect.” 

At that, she clasped her hands together and twisted her hips as she batted her eyelashes. “Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?” 

She burst into a fit of bright giggles. “See! Lots of people can’t resist someone cute begging really pathetically. I dunno why people ever try to be proud about these things. My sister is like that-- suuuuper proud. She’d probably never beg for anything in her life. But I like your idea! The park could be a good place to start.” 

[princess-su-rip]

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake || Mei Su Soup

[princess-su-rip]

princess-mei‌:

Mei knew what Su was trying to do. Her sister was many things but subtle was not one of them.

Part of her was annoyed. She just wanted to be grouchy and live in her room for the rest of her life. She didn’t want cheer-up cupcakes because this was the perfect situation to get her sent back home if she just milked it for as long as possible. (And, really, she was kind of afraid to leave the house again, especially after dark. And they were just letting those werewolves walk around town like they weren’t vicious monsters!) 

But–she was also kind of touched that Su was trying. 

It made her smile a little and pick one of the cupcakes off the plate, though she didn’t eat it quite yet, instead, she took the little cookie off the top and nibbled on the corner of it.

“Jie jie will be really mad we’re eating on the bed,” she told her, but kept nibbling on the cookie anyway. “Maybe that’s enough to cheer me up.”

It wasn’t. She went back to nibbling.

“Ahhhh, yes, rule-breaking!” Su gasped and she poked at the air. A giggle tumbled from her lips next. “That could also be a very powerful ingredient!” 

Though one had to be careful with rule-breaking. Technically, using it in her kitchen witchery would not be real kitchen witchery, which was primarily based on natural ingredients-- not just tea leaves and wheat and poppy and rosemary, but sunshine and starlight and the ripple on the pond’s surface when you dropped a stone onto it. Various emotions could also be used in magical baking, but you really started to get away with yourself when you dealt with too many abstract concepts. Rule-breaking was probably one of those. 

Rule-breaking also tasted a bit like pepper. She felt it tingle on her lips, making her lick them briefly. The taste faded, which made sense, because Mei wasn’t actually trying to rule break. 

That’s not why she ate the cupcake. 

Su persisted then, not getting into the nitty-gritty of kitchen-witchery-cupcakes right now. “You know who would have excellent rule-breaking for a cupcake?” She scrunched up her nose and bumped her shoulder into Mei’s. “That Lock boy.” 

That will help. Talking about boys always helped! 

[littlebirdofprey]

oh to have a giant wooden spoon and a big ass cauldron to make potions and also pasta in

[courtdraws]

9 loaves, the feline bakery! (click for hq)

[1ibertine]

[canolove]

🌸Shen Yue🌸

(October 2019)

©️@工夫真言沈月工作室 weibo

[princess-su-rip]

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake || Mei Su Soup

[princess-su-rip]

princess-mei‌:

Mei had been moping.

Of course, Mei’s moping meant wondering the house with her blanket over her shoulders, huffing sighs and waiting for someone to ask her what was wrong so that she could turn them down. 

Though, she meant it too. 

Mei felt like something inside her was broken–and she hated this stupid town. At school, she spent as much time being quiet as she could these days. She didn’t want to be noticed. Being noticed meant the Ashleys telling her how awful she was. Spreading rumors about a stupid drug addiction. Spreading rumors about how she’d made up the whole werewolf thing for attention. Which she hadn’t.

She’d been avoiding Vee and Huey, and even Ariel (who kept looking at her across the cafeteria with her big blue eyes like a bat signal.) 

The only thing that made her feel better was her text conversations with Tae. Her first date with Tae already under her belt (and it had been awkward, but sweet!!) 

When she got home from school most days, she curled up in her room, and watched Netflix. (Currently: Queer Eye in Japan. Queer Eye was kryptonite for a love witch.) 

She didn’t even hear the knock, so it was a good thing that Su just waltzed right in. Even though Mei tugged off her headphones.

“Su!” she barked in annoyance, but huffed the next second as her eyes fell down to the cupcakes. She wanted to be annoyed. She wanted to be all–mopey and depressed and be the kind of girl who hung up a “Keep Out!” sign on the door. But, at the end of the day, her heart got all gooey at her sister’s thoughtfulness.

And how could she resist cupcakes?

“What flavor are they?” she asked, trying to hide her reluctant smile. 

She wordlessly scooched over on the bed to make room for Su.

Even if there was a sign on the door, Su would probably still come in when it came to a certain level of mope-iness, which is exactly the level where Mei was. It was the leaky kind, so strong that Su could taste it through the door. Which was really annoying, and so really, she came in her for a public service. Not just for Mei, but for Ting-Ting, who was fretting over Mei’s yin and yang imbalance, even if she wasn’t saying anything-- but for Su too, who needed to wash out this bitter-berry taste with some lemony goodness. 

Basically, if one Qin sister was upset-- all the Qin sisters were upset. 

Cupcakes were always the answer.

Su kept smiling, for now not pressing the big werewolf-shaped space in the room as she came forward and sat down on Mei’s bed, balancing the little plate on her lap. 

“Lemon, poppy seed, and summer sunshine!” she told her sister. “The icing’s just regular buttercream, but I could maybe add sunshine too if you feel like it needs a bit more oomph. I call them cheer-up cupcakes. You gotta tell me if they work,” She lifted the plate up to Mei. “For magic-food-science-purposes of course.”

And I want you to feel better. Su didn’t have to say this.