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balkanradfem · 7 months

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So, since the gardening season was unsuccessful, and really sad, I've been dreaming of starting new seeds. I've decided, this time, I'm going to plant so many tomatoes that nothing will be able to prevent the tomato harvest. It's gonna be all tomato garden, 40+ tomato plants, I'll build shelters for them in case of hail, weave nets, I'm ready, let's do this.

However, it's October, and there's precious little I can do in October to start plants; if I germinate anything right now, there won't be enough sun for it to grow, and it will pout and die </3. It happens every year when I stubbornly plant basil and it checks out the daylight levels and decides to nope out of that situation.

So, instead, what I'm doing, is still learning about mushrooms! I'm going to the forest regularly and collecting anything that could possibly be edible, and trying it out. I've been lucky to find so many edible boletes, I've been drying them in the summer and I have a great dried mushroom stash, which will prove very valuable during the winter.

Now there's a mushroom that grows when nothing else is really available, the latin name is 'Neoboletus luridiformis' and it looks like this:

Cool, right? A red bolete mushroom. She's called Scarletina Bolete. Looks poisonous. However, sources claim that this mushroom is edible, granted it's cooked first. I've been sheepish to try it because it's so red, and there are red boletes that are 100% poisonous, so this is just a health risk. You can check if the mushroom is this one because it stains blue and black when you cut it, and mine do. This is how it looks like cut:

I mean that does look extremely unappetizing but it says right there on wikipedia that it's edible:

hmm so anyway, I've finally decided to stop being a coward, and I cooked the mushroom and had some yesterday! It's still not been a full 24 hours, but I'm faring well for now. If this turns to be a good food source, I'll be set for the entire year because this baby grows at all times in the forest.

Another cool thing I'm trying out is acorn pancakes. I discovered some people on youtube who are making acorn flour and then baking pancakes out of it, and I've been curious about acorns before, but now I'm set with instructions and knowledge on how to process it. Acorns were used as a source of flour before wheat was in use, and it was pretty great, because they didn't need to cut down forests, or plow the fields, or turn bunch of soil to dust; people can just collect acorns because oak trees are everywhere here. The only issue is that the acorns are filled with tannins, which is a chemical that produces a very bitter taste, which makes them not very tasty. However, people have also figured out how to ''wash the tannins out', and there's a process of boiling and throwing water away, or leaving them buried next to a riverbank for a year, in order to get them to taste good.

I haven't yet decided what route I'm going to take, but I collected some acorns last time I was in the forest:

I have to admit they feel very good to hold in hand. They're so nicely brown, almost chestnut in color, they're shiny, pleasant oval shape, and very heavy. It felt like I was holding something valuable, rich. Since they're a wild food, I know they have more nutrients in them than anything we developed ourselves, wild food generally has 3 times more nutrition than anything growing in a human-made garden.

I've also stumbled on a few acorns that have sprouted roots! I've collected them as well, and put them in a soil-filled container on my balcony, let's see if I can grow an oak tree. That would feel extremely cool to grow.

I'm also collecting and curing walnuts (apparently you can make a walnut butter out of them I did not know that), conkers (for the laundry detergent, I love them), nettle (drying into powder, using as a calcium supplement) and I've also found some violets growing at this time, so I collected the leaves for tea; they're medicinal for colds, flus and fevers.

I'm going to the forest again tomorrow, and hopefully I'll write another update about fun things I've found and trying out! Stay safe and don't follow my lead to eat weird things, unless you research them yourself.

#foraging #mushrooms #acorns #acorn flour #gardening #october update #learning about nature #living from the land #foraging for food #processing wild foods #dangerous looking mushrooms #i should make a post from all the mushrooms i've learned to it #it's at least 8 mushrooms by now

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jwonsociety · 2 years

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strictly professional // psh

pairing ➼ athlete!sunghoon x tutor!fem!reader

genre ➼ strangers to lovers, fluff

word count ➼ 1.6k

warnings ➼ mild profanity, sunghoon is bad at math, y/n is bad at feelings

You need extra credit, and Sunghoon happens to have a C in calculus.

a/n ➼ i’m writing a multi-chapter niki fic at the moment, so here’s a little something with sunghoon while i work on that :) i’m a sucker for the tutor trope and we all know hoon’s bad at math so this felt obligatory

As you sat isolated in the library with only a hangnail to accompany you, you reflected on the life choices that led you here.

You considered yourself a perfectly normal high school student. You got straight As, were loved by all your teachers, and turned every assignment in on time. Even outside of academics, you had a good amount of friends and plenty of interesting hobbies to pass your free time — so, once again, how did this happen? What malicious forces aligned that led you to pretending to be captivated by the nutrition facts of your drink so that people didn’t realize how awkward you felt?

The answer was actually rather simple: a negative six.

Just the thought of that godforsaken negative six made your blood boil. You clenched your fist tightly as if you were a super villain reflecting on the tragic backstory that led them to a life of crime.

Last Monday, there was a huge test in calculus — “huge” as in “30% of your grade” huge. Suffice to say, you were nervous. You spent the entire week leading up to it studying your textbook, meeting your teacher after class, and making your friends quiz you during lunch. Hell, you even color coded flash cards! *Color coded!*

When the day of the test finally came, you felt confident. All of your hard work would surely pay off. The final question of the exam consisted of four parts and was worth the majority of the points on the test. Confident in the material, you jumped right in. It wasn’t until you went back to check your work that you realized that in the first part, you had misread a negative six in the equation as positive by accident, consequently throwing off your calculations for the entire question.

Before you could fix it, the dismissal bell rang like the trumpets of judgment day. There was no turning back.

You had begged your teacher to let you retake the test — honestly, *groveled* was probably a more accurate way to describe the level of ass-kissing you deployed.

“Please, ma’am,” you had pleaded. “It was one simple mistake. Can’t I have another chance?”

Your teacher had not been impressed in the slightest. “I’m sorry, y/n, but you know I have a strict no retake policy in this class. However, there is one thing you can do for extra credit, if you’re interested.”

“Yes, I’m interested!”

She’d sighed. “One of the boys on the soccer team currently has a C in my class. As you know, athletes at this school must maintain at least a B-minus average in all subjects in order to play, so he’s looking for a tutor.”

So, yeah. Negative six. Library. Hangnail.

The mysterious boy you were patiently waiting for was Park Sunghoon. You had certainly heard about him — just about every girl in your school had a crush on him — but you’d never really interacted with him personally. You had seen him run out with the rest of the soccer team during the pep rally, but that was about it. You supposed he seemed like an alright guy.

However, Park Sunghoon was currently fifteen minutes late for the tutoring session. You thrummed your pencil against the table. Where the hell was he? You almost considered leaving when you heard the library doors swing open.

“I am so sorry,” you heard a breathless voice say behind you. “I know I’m super late.”

Rolling your eyes, you whipped around to face him. “Sunghoon, where were…”

Woah. He’s definitely a lot more attractive when you’re not looking at him from a set of bleachers. Silky, chestnut brown hair framed his face, slightly windswept from the hurry he had just been in. His forehead was obscured by wispy bangs that settled over his brows and his dark eyes were wide and pleading, like he was afraid that you were annoyed with him.

His expression morphed into one of confusion, probably because you trailed off mid sentence literally just to stare at him like an idiot. “Uh,” he began, visibly perturbed by the fact that you were burning holes through him with your eyeballs. “You’re y/n, right?”

You stared some more. “You know my name?”

“Well, Mrs. Jang told me you would be my tutor, so…”

Right. Tutoring. This was a tutoring session. “Oh, yeah. Duh.” You cleared your throat and straightened your posture in an attempt to gather yourself. “Here, sit down.”

He smiled shyly and settled down next to you, slinging his backpack over the back of his chair. He pulled out a notebook and a pencil case and set them down on the table before turning to face you. “So, where do we start?”

Now that you could observe him up close, you noticed a lot more small details about him — specifically, the small freckle that was on the side of his nose. Truly, Sunghoon was a beautiful person.

“What do you struggle with?” you asked, trying to sound as professional as possible.

He cringed. “I don’t know. I guess kind of… everything…?”

That wasn’t helpful at all, but Sunghoon was one of the cutest guys you’d ever seen so you were going to let it slide. “Let’s just start with the chapter we’re learning in class right now. Is that okay?”

He agreed, and you flipped open the textbook to the content you had been assigned last week. As you explained you could tell that Sunghoon wasn’t fully processing the information you were telling him, but he was still making an effort to understand. He nodded at everything you said and even asked clarifying questions when he missed something. You knew this was an educational context, yet you couldn’t help but get butterflies at the undivided attention he was giving you.

You pointed at a problem on the page. “This question is asking for you to find the integer part of this expression. How would you go about doing that?”

Sunghoon stared at the question for a few moments, chewing his lip as he thought of a solution. You couldn’t help your gaze from traveling down to his mouth as he worried his soft, rosy lips between his teeth. You noticed that his canines were considerably sharp, like a vampire’s. For some reason you found it extremely attractive.

“You should use the density of the rationals?” he answered hesitantly, eyes flitting up to yours in search of approval.

You grinned. “That’s right, Sunghoon! See, I knew you’d get the hang of this!”

He smiled back at you bashfully, running his hand through his hair. “Ah, it was just an easy question. I’m kind of hopeless when it comes to this stuff.”

“Aw, come on, that isn’t true,” you insisted with a frown. “Clearly you’re not completely hopeless. You just answered a question correctly!”

He shrugged, casting his gaze downwards. “The only reason I’m here is because I’m totally flunking calculus. Mrs. Jang is so pissed at me because she thinks I’m not trying, but I swear I am! I just genuinely don’t understand most of this stuff.”

He looked so defeated, it kind of broke your heart. Wanting to comfort him, you reached over and gently placed your hand on the side of his arm. “But you’re still trying, Sunghoon. That’s what really matters. Some people just aren’t built for a traditional classroom, that’s all.”

Sunghoon gave you a small smile. “Thanks, y/n. We should definitely have another session together sometime soon. You’re an amazing teacher.”

“Aw, thanks,” you replied sheepishly, cheeks turning a warm pink hue at the compliment. “Just don’t be late next time!”

He giggled and rubbed the back of his neck in an embarrassed manner. “Yeah, sorry about that, by the way. It was a family thing.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine, don’t worry,” he assured you. “My mom was stuck in awful traffic so I had to go pick up my little sister from her school and take her home. I was really worried about her — I didn’t want her waiting there all alone and confused, you know?”

You nodded in understanding. “Don’t worry, I get it. You really care about your sister, huh?”

“Yeah,” he replied in a soft voice. “She’s such a goofball. I love her.”

He smiled to himself, as if he were musing on the many fond memories he shared with his sibling. You could feel your heart melt. It was sweet to see Sunghoon be such a doting older brother.

Suddenly, you heard your phone buzz and turned to look at it from its place on the table. When you saw the time on your home screen, you tensed.

“Crap, my bus is going to leave soon,” you said, panicked. You gathered your materials and turned to him. “This was great, Sunghoon! I’ll see you—”

“Wait, y/n,” he interrupted. “I should probably give you my number, right?”

You blinked. “Oh. Yeah, that would probably be a good idea.”

He smiled, amused by your disorderly manner. “Give me your phone.”

You complied and he quickly entered his information. When you took your phone back, you could see he saved his contact as “hoonie <3”. The heart made your face heat up.

“It’s my nickname,” he explained. “But only people I like can call me that.”

This boy seriously made your brain malfunction in every way possible. Was he flirting with you? “Th-thanks,” you stuttered. You started for the door but he grabbed your hand, causing you to stop in your tracks. When you turned to look at him, he had leaned in closer. So close that you could count his eyelashes if you wanted to. You hoped he couldn’t hear the pounding of your heart.

“Listen, y/n,” he started, voice low. “We should hang out sometime, outside of school. Just the two of us.”

He looked straight into your eyes, searching for a response. The feeling of his hand in yours nearly made your knees buckle. Your faces were mere inches apart; you felt so tiny under his gaze.

“I’d love to, Hoonie,” you answered, voice so breathless it was almost a whisper.

“Great,” he said, smiling. “It’s a date then.”

#sunghoon x reader #sunghoon x y/n #sunghoon x fem!reader #sunghoon oneshots #sunghoon #park sunghoon #enhypen #enha #enhypen x reader #enhypen oneshots #sunghoon fluff

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irithnova · 1 year

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it’s my headcanon that mongolia may have once conquered china, but china knows that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

so china begins cooking (let him cook)

and mongolia becomes addicted to chinese cuisine lmaooo (and mb even the cook himself)

Hahah interesting headcanon, I quite like it myself.

Historically, Yuan Dynasty court food was still mainly Mongol/Mongol influenced! Contrary to what some may believe, the Mongols of the Yuan were not sinicized, and this is seen even through the food they ate.

When the Mongols conquered China, they established their own court cuisine as a demonstration of power and authority. This aligns with the long-standing tradition across Chinese and other court societies of using food as a symbol of respect, dominance, hierarchy, and power.

It is reasonable to assume that the Mongols cuisine their pre-imperial ventures were similar to other central Asian trends .

Historical records mention feasts among Central Asian "barbarians" and their use of food in state ceremonies and hospitality. Rather than adopting China's classic cuisine, the Mongols built upon their own traditions, incorporating diverse international influences while also maintaining their steppe eating customs and foods.

This display of cultural preservation, despite the availability of Chinese alternatives, is seen as a testament to their determination!

Further, the Mongols established their capital in North China, which had already been under non-Chinese rule for over a century and had its own distinct cuisine. The Chinese food in the north was already influenced by Central and West Asia since the Han Dynasty.

Even before occupying China, the Mongols had vast imperial ventures and so they had opportunity to absorb culinary traditions from various regions.

Because or this, they didn't feel the need to adopt Chinese cuisine of the time, which was based on ingredients not readily available in the north. The Mongols were influenced by their Turkic officials and the cuisine they encountered in Beijing had already been influenced by previous dynasties.

Mongol feasts became increasingly diverse with the foods as the Mongols conquered more land, thus gaining access to more typed of foods.

The historian George Lane shares what a meal at the Mongol imperial court might have included:

"Appetizers might have included momo shapale with sipen mardur sauce, delicate steamed Tibetan mushroom ravioli smothered in a creamy, spicy yoghurt sauce. A salad of Bhutanese chilli and cheese might have followed. The main course, shabril with dresil, comprised Tibetan meatball curry with nutted saffron rice, honey, and currants. Himalayan steamed bread with turmeric and barley beer with honey would have accompanied the main food, and also as a dessert, Chinese chestnut mound with cream and glazed fruit would have found favour. "

The Yinshan Zhengyao is a 1330 CE book written by Hu Sihui, which served as a guide for the Mongol imperial court. It contains various recipes and cooking techniques. Some of the dishes include:

1) Roast Wolf Soup

2) Mountain oysters

3) Detoxifying Dried Orange Peel Puree (for hangovers)

While the Mongols definitely retained their cuisine (and culture), I do think Mongolia definitely did try traditional Chinese cuisine! There's no way he stayed there for (almost) a century and didn't try it.

He most likely then tried Song Dynasty food! The last Chinese dynasty to the South before the Yuan completely took over.

During the Song dynasty, Chinese cuisine reached new heights in terms of variety and nutritional value.

In fact, in 1998, the American "Life Magazine" listed the top 100 influential events of the past 1,000 years. One of them was the rise of restaurants and snacks during the Song Dynasty, which came at 56!

During the Song, people started eating three meals a day instead of two. This change gave them more time to explore and experiment with different cooking methods and flavours.

In Hangzhou, the capital of the Song Dynasty, cooks tried out a variety of herbs and spices brought from different parts of Asia. The noblemen hosted banquets that would last for days, serving dishes named "Dragon Meets Phoenix" and "Seven Stars Encircle the Moon." Hangzhou impressed Marco Polo so much that he described it as a place of abundant pleasures, akin to paradise!

Some song dynasty foods that China might have prepared for Mongolia (to prove this his cuisine is ~superior~)

1) Orange stuffed with fried crab

2) Plum blossom soup

Here's a website I found which talks more about Song Dynasty food:

The Song popularised foods that are even loved to this day like ham, braised pork, hotpot, fried bread stick, rice dumpling, and popcorn. It was a truly revolutionary period for food.

So I speculate that Mongolia tried Song Dynasty food, and yes, he was very impressed by it!

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morethansalad · 7 months

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Easy Parsnip & Carrot Bake (Vegan)

#vegan #appetizer #dinner #bake #chestnuts #parsnips #carrots #coconut milk #cumin #thyme #plant milk #nutritional yeast #lemon #cornstarch #turmeric #garlic powder #sea salt #🧡#🤍

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feministdragon · 11 months

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Re: bone broth. Will you share your process/fav vegetables/types of bones?

different vegetables you can use for helping break down bones:

literally any leafy green has the magnesium content, but mustard greens are particularly high in minerals and nutrients

the classic eastern style soup base: sliced ginger root and green onion

the classic western style soup base: onions / carrots / celery (celery has silicon which is also great, besides being good for your liver)

then when you're heating up the broth for a meal there's lots of things you can add, one thing that's really convenient is what in english is called 'kelp buds', they're fantastic because they're dried, so I just keep them in a jar by the stove and add it to the broth whenever I heat it up, it makes it super umami and also both me and a friend have found our hair loss reversing after eating them every day over 5-6 months, of course different people are going to experience different results

also can add meatballs, caramelized onions, cooked chicken, water chestnuts, chopped green veggies, tomatoes/raw onions/kelp buds combo, honestly literally any vegetable you have that requires cooking can go it. sometimes I just drop the various things in till they're cooked and take them back out again, like just use it as the cooking medium for a bunch of things, then I have several veggies a meat and a soup for dinner, but i've used the same pot to cook it all.

for breakfast you can drop eggs in to cook in there, then green onions, or chives, or cilantro, or basil, or any green herb.

here's my current broth recipe

here's a book about fats and nutrition

#broth #bone broth #food #nutrition #animal fats #feministdragon

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supp-up · 5 months

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It's Christmas Eve.

It's Christmas Eve. #merrychristmas #christmaseve #suppup #supp_up #christmas2023 #merrychristmas2023 #bingcrosby #military #veterans

It’s finally Christmas Eve 2023. I genuinely hope all those deployed are having a great Christmas no matter the situation, and that those who had the chance to come home remember those who haven’t. Out of all the days of the year, I think Christmas is the time to set aside differences and put the human back in humanity – and the only way for real humanity to work is positive cooperation and…

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ronearoundblindly · 7 months

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The Stark Legacy (26)

Tony Stark's daughter (OC) x Bucky Barnes epic slowburn

Capacity, part of Book III: Power (see previous or series)

Summary: Tony works with Namor to pay Lil'Sam's debt.

Warnings for canon-level violence (hunt for an enemy). Also, this was originally written way before MCU's version of Namor came to screen, and the character is more like the comics' version. Rated Teen/15+ ONLY, please. WC 2.5k

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX—April 2039

I do not want to die here. I will not die out here, Tony repeated again, watching Namor emerge onto the tiny island beach with a fresh catch of kelp in hand, and for once, a surprise of actual fish. As a superhuman, Namor understood very little about nutritional requirements for ‘surface-dwellers.’ Protein from fish was a treat that night.

Tony had never gone that long in space. Now on Earth, he felt pummeled towards the ground at all times. His muscles struggled; his lungs grew tired. ‘One step at a time’ became a mantra he repeated over and over. Namor, surprisingly, allowed Tony his time to physically recuperate as long as his mind remained in spitfire condition, which was no easy task while cut off from radio contact on a remote island.

The buoyancy in the water helped. His muscles needed the rest. Tony abhorred eating in front of Namor, the challenge being to lift the weight of the food and repetition of minute motion without any aid from his suit, but the King of Atlantis seemed unimpressed by Iron Man’s shaking hands or slow rehabilitation in normal gravity.

Friday used low-power mode to ignite the pile of wood he’d assembled then minimized his suit for his daily physical therapy, using his own muscles instead of his iron-aid. His initial fear of dying due to dehydration evaporated when Namor summoned clean, fresh water out of nowhere into a stone jug solely for Tony, but the island fruit, kelp, and odd fish diet left much to be craved. However, he was alive. Score one for Tony.

“This mother fish had a good life, and I feel you will appreciate her death so you may live.”

Yes, old lady fish sounds scrumptious. “I do appreciate it—her sacrifice,” he replied instead, “thank you.”

Unlike many other nights, Namor joined Tony by the fire, staring into the flames, the stars obscured by thick clouds. Tony would never get even the simplest signal through that mess.

Every so often, Friday caught a transmission from Banner at HQ, but this pathetically remote, square-mile island couldn’t consistently ping any satellite. If Tony got Friday to boost the signal, he risked lowering his power supply. Namor had made it clear that he should be prepared to leave at any moment if the King received word of Tigershark, and Tony did not want to be stuck deep in the ocean, fighting water-breathers, when his O2 level went critical with little power. Within the last two weeks, there had been three sightings, but the pair had arrived too late.

Tony flipped the fish on the hot stone inside the flame, nibbling on yesterday’s dried kelp.

This was the first time in recent memory that Namor stayed top-side long enough for his hair to dry, curling gently around his ears. Despite the appearance of black locks and black eyes, when dressed with sufficient light on dry land, both were more chestnut, not so different from Tony’s before his hair had gone gray, before he started dying it back darker to stop references to ‘salt and pepper.’ Tony felt close to a panic attack every time someone uttered that phrase.

“I recognize him now,” Namor tossed into the fire. “I know why Tigershark came to Atlantis.”

Tony’s interest peaked though the king decided to extend the drama of reminiscing over a dance of gold and ember. He coaxed the seaman on, “and…”

“Todd Arliss, the sniveling, arrogant, swimmer from your country, regularly swam feats of endurance across unsafe waters. He caused dozens of other, weaker swimmers to attempt the same and fail. For months, areas of the seas were littered with bodies of men, women, and some children who died trying to emulate Arliss, yet he continued. One particular day, during some sort of human warrior show, a boy fell off a ship. That idiot Arliss stopped a professional team from rescuing the boy. He believed his show of strength was worth more than a minute of breath for the boy dying in the water,” Namor scowled while reciting his tale. “I sent a current to stop him. I snapped his spine against the ship and kept the boy afloat until a real rescue team came for them both. I should have drowned that fool.”

Tony remembered that feeling of regret so vividly. “So you made a demon and he haunts you. Been there.”

“You did. You made him, and now you know what—”

He forgot his cover. “Okay, first of all,” Tony blurted, too hungry and tired to hold his tongue, “I didn’t do anything to or for Arliss. That pompous—” He caught himself. “I’ve never met him, but I am partly, indirectly responsible for the technology that was stolen to change him, maybe. And second, he could not have become a water-breathing mutant on his own. We need who he’s working with. That’s the real evil.”

Namor considered Tony’s words without moving.

“Third,” Tony started again more calmly this time, “let’s review what we know.” Which would be a lot easier if I could talk to Banner. This is one of those times where listening would come in handy. If he hadn’t been off-world for so long, he would know the lay of the land better.“Actually, what do we know?”

“Tigershark—Arliss is not intelligent enough to do this alone. If you did not transform him, who did? No being in the ocean would dare give him that power.”

“If I could be on land, civilization land to speak to—” but Tony was stopped by the blazing eyes that met his.

“You will pay your debt, Stark.”

“Yes, but we need info. So bad guy on land needs to be tracked as we do on land. The fish haven’t produced any bubbles of wisdom have they?” Namor bristled, but Tony kept going. “Let me do this my way, and we can both get what we want—” he slapped the cooked fish onto a different rock to cool “—and some fries would be great.”

Honestly, Tony was relieved that things progressed so quickly once he and Friday had access to what Banner and the team knew. He may not have had much time to chit-chat about, say, Sam, but that would have proved a distraction and possibly ruined the advantage of their freshest intel. Banner always had a way with tracking energy signatures; Tony called it ‘romancing the wave.’

Knowing the previous places Tigershark had been in the last weeks, Banner tracked anomalous weather buoy movement around coasts to narrow the mutant’s landfall location. From there, lacking social media or conspiracy theory postings about a shark out of water, he found city sewer plans for runoff pipes, dismissed pipes too small for a man-sized shark to wiggle through, and produced a short-list of convenient spots, such as abandoned warehouses or sparsely populated neighborhoods. Tony had never been so grateful for the well-oiled, well-funded machine that was his team.

Namor loathed hunting on land or spending any significant stretch out of the water. Tony loathed following a scantily-clad water-dude around. The man needed a super swimsuit with a lot more coverage, even climbing out of the tropical waters in between Belem and Sao Luis, Brazil. They didn’t have far inland to go and only four suspicious locations.

Incidentally, the first location was correct, which left the two shocked and off-balance, scrambling when the door to the condemned building flew off its crooked hinges. The rusted metal smacked Tony’s suit in the jaw, making a toe-curling scraping noise all the way up the helmet.

Tony’s visual feed flickered. “Wild guess, we found ‘em.”

The once golden-haired Olympian emerged tall, now crowned by a sharp protruding fin atop his skull, ribbed faintly up the length of his back. The taut, thick grey skin covering his streamlined swimmer physique peeled away at the mouth to reveal three rows of tiny razor teeth. Arliss was disgusting, but while Tony picked apart Tigershark’s mutant puzzle, the man-creature rushed him with two outstretched arms tipped with heavily webbed fingers and thick nails.

A high-pitched scream rang out from the open doorway. Namor bolted inside, leaving Tony with a ravenous monster from the deep lunging toward him.

Arliss’s flat jaw, squared full of extra teeth and a shrunken, useless tongue, chomped at Tony’s face. Tony clamped his Iron hands against each end of his mouth while Slippery Todd latched around his waist.

Tony wondered whether Sam had seen Todd like this and if she’d been scared. Had they threatened her to help them? Hurt her? Perhaps they lied, and Sam had no intention of turning a man into this…thing.

His boot thrusters forced them off the ground a few feet, and without traction from his smooth skin and partial wet suit, Tigershark began to slide. Tony forced his legs into a slingshot arch that slammed the dangling, foreign weight to the ground.

The transformation must have added flexibility to Arliss’s bones. He slithered upright with teeth bared again.

“Namor,” Tony called. “You want a crack at this guy or what?” Tigershark was gone by the time he turned back around. “Shit,” he mumbled. While he tracked the low body temperature of the retreating mutant, his display warned of more than just Namor and his betrothed inside. “Friday, send a heat-seeker and a track-dart for good measure.”

“Yes, Boss.”

Inside, Namor battered his trident against a cage. Two doors in lay the blue-skinned body of a similarly slippery-suited woman. Tony blew the locks between Namor and Dorma until something far stronger blasted him against the opposite wall. Right, Beach Boy doesn’t know how to secure a damn building. Good news though: Friday confirmed nothing was broken.

A lanky, middle-aged man with a fierce widow’s peak in a white lab coat flaunted a comically giant gun, one heavy enough to require both hands and balancing on his hip. The white coat bore a slice across the chest, red at the frayed edges; Namor had gotten a strike in. Rambo waltzed right past the Atlantean king. Sparks zapped across the gun’s wide muzzle. Energy weapon, origin unknown. Friday searched for analysis.

“Welcome, Mr. Stark, “the creepy doctor, assuming from the clothing, drawled in a thick accent. “I’ve been dying to know. How is our Harvard girl?”

Tony cocked an eyebrow, but Iron Man’s face gave nothing away.

“I was pleased to hear that moron of a king not only failed to kill her, but that my gift has borne the fruit of—”

“Your what now?” Tony half-listened, aiming a bullet at a tiny spot clear of the power source and the magazine within. He didn’t want to blow the whole place with a bad shot. “Look if ‘gift’ is a euphemism for,” an Iron arm swung past his crotch, “then you’ll have to book with a different therapist. Freud is available in hell on Tuesday. Please see the assistant.” Tony pointed, firing a small-caliber to disable the triggering system.

The doctor’s gun died, sputtering an electric swan-song before dropping. His target remained unfazed by the loss of his weapon, and less fazed still by Namor bolting out to the sea with Dorma in his arms.

The doctor grabbed his chest wound. “Oh please, Stark. Do you really not know? Are you that out of touch?” The bright white of his smile stood out against dark features.

Tony ignored him, dispatching two magnetic cuffs at Dorcas’s wrists. He recognized the face now, vaguely, from when Agent Hill handed him a file in a room above the Earth. Doctor Lemuel Dorcas, known associate of Harvard professor Simon Marshall. Sam? She really met Tigershark? She really is mixed up in all this.

“I’ll give you a hint,” the doctor continued, “What burns at 3000 degrees Celsius? What could stop a tsunami?”

This guy was the link, the connecting puzzle piece. The glow in Bucky’s arm. Sam has Extremis. Sam is infected with Extremis? No broken bones, no healed fractures.

The toothy grin shifted in thought. “You know, in a way, I have supported young Samantha’s development more than you yourself have. Does that make me a better father?”

Tony grasped Dorcas by the throat, but the doctor wouldn’t stop talking, spitting a few drops of blood with every few words.

“You fathered her, yes, but I gave her a way to leave you behind. I made her what she is now.”

Tony’s helmet popped open. “The hell you are—”

Spit flew red. “I gave her what she needed.”

“You gave her a virus. You made her sick.” Tony shook Dorcas, pulling against the magnetic restraints.

“I saw her potential, and I encouraged it,” Dorcas gurgled a laugh. “We helped her. Sam has friends now.”

“You sick son of a bitch, you put her in danger,” Tony screamed so close to Dorcas’s face he could rupture an eardrum. “Now I’m gonna put you in the ground.” Iron Man’s palm pressed into the doctor’s gut with bruising force. “Slowly. Painfully.” He fired, the ringing of the steel bars behind his target echoing off the walls. Tony released his grip on the man’s throat and let the body drop to the floor like a wet sack of potatoes.

Dorcas slumped, hands high and pulled at unnatural angles by the cuffs. His gurgling stopped, and Iron Man left him there to die.

Tony’s ears rang. A sharp pain stabbed him behind the eyes. His head throbbed. There was no sign of Tigershark aside from a tracker inside a chunk of flesh that appeared to be bitten off. Tony dutifully returned to the beach, but he did not go back into the water.

No one was around.

His mind turned over and over, his idea of his daughter being rewritten by the second. Child? No. Harvard? Not that type of student. His? He wouldn’t have done this. Would he?

The truth stung him deep inside. Tony absolutely had done it. He put toxic metal into his body, told no one he was dying, injected untested trackers under his skin, instigated a genocidal robot that almost wiped out the planet. He had done all of it in the hopes no one else would have to hurt—that was the lie he told himself. The motivations muddled and shifted: because it helps others, because you can, because it’s cool, sounds fun, challenges you, doesn’t challenge you, makes you impressive, saves lives, puts someone out of business, embarrasses someone. Vanity tied with charity in a bow. Philanthropy, indeed.

Tony watched the water with unseeing eyes.

“If I were an observant man, I would think you had an investment in this beyond my threat.” Namor returned from the sea to stand beside him. When Tony didn’t reply, the king relinquished, “go home, Stark. You have paid your debt.” Namor walked back to the surf, diving smoothly beneath the foaming crests.

“No, I haven’t,” Tony whispered to himself. His helmet shot back up over his face. “Friday, we’re going to headquarters.”

“Flight plan established.” The suit and Tony left the beach.

“Show me all files on Samantha Stark.”

“Yes, Boss. What year would you like to start with?”

[Chapter 27: Pigeons]

[Main Masterlist; Light Masterlist; Ko-Fi]

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