i want to think abt my twinswap more but every time i try to the only mental image i get before laughing is asch chewing at the manor's walls with guy pulling at his coat & luke and sync telling each other to throw themselves out a window while van pulls them along on a leash. like disbehaving children.

Tender Spots - CH3 - Matt/Jessica

Shit goes south when Stick dispassionately tells them that Danny is the key. Jessica doesn’t want any part of it. Danny looks like a cornered animal, rage and desperation painted across his face. He’s struggling to summon whatever it is that gives him his powers. It feels wrong. He’s one of them, someone who’s trying to be a good guy. She knows if she stepped in the conversation would be over immediately. Danny’s glowing fist and his struggle to manifest it wouldn’t stand a chance against being thrown into the wall. It isn’t fair, so she backs off.

Ten seconds later and she wishes she had ended it before it started. It’s funny. Richie Rich is not the person she thought she would be using her newly found punching skills on. The knuckles on her right hand connect with his skull straight on, the line of her wrist perfectly straight so that her had doesn’t snap back painfully with the force. She controls the strength, not wanting the murder the moron. Although, it’s difficult. Every cell in her body is full of kinetic energy and there’s nothing her muscles want more than to unleash it all. Rage had coursed through her when she’d seen him aim the glowing fist bullshit at Luke.

On the surface she looks calm and collected. Her posture is relaxed, shoulders slouched, stance sloppy, but her heart is beating in her chest so hard she thinks maybe her shirt is vibrating from the force of it. Surreptitiously, she glances down at the thin cotton. It doesn’t matter how many times she sends people sailing through the air with her punches, the feeling is surreal. Her adrenaline still spikes. It's not human and her brain struggles to reconcile reality with what should be. Danny is splayed in front of her on the floor, unconscious. His face would almost look peaceful if the ghost of righteous indignation wasn’t pulling down at the corners of his mouth.

She looks back over her shoulder at Luke. “You okay?”

He nods in response, picking himself up off the floor and brushing away the dust from his hoodie. She can tell he’s already forgiven Danny, and that he probably even feels sorry for the unconscious idiot, or maybe it’s just because he knows what it’s like to be put down by the infamous Jessica Jones. That’s how Luke is, forgiving of people who don’t necessarily deserve it. The thought makes her throat constrict, an unexpected longing for something she can no longer have hits her like a ton of bricks.

Again, the feeling doesn’t show on her face, not a muscle twitches. Instead it’s her lungs that feel too small, like her heart is too big pushing against them. Memories swirl inside of her, and not for the first time since this bullshit started, she wishes she could just go home and curl up with a bottle of booze and drink until there’s nothing left inside of her. The idea of letting the city fall down around her doesn’t seem so bad.

She starts to back away from the scene. The others have already taken over, lifting Danny up and tying him to a chair. She can feel it, the ache in the back of her throat, the need for the burning to slip down into her stomach, the curl of it slowly making its way through her limbs. Just a little bit… to make this less sharp, less real…

The warehouse smells like dust, mildewed leather, and freshly spilled blood. She can see particulate in the air where the sun streams through the skylights, and still somehow it is dark. The large space suddenly feels small, like the walls are moving toward her and the lights are getting dimmer. Her breaths are shorter than normal. She needs to get the fuck out of here.

The feeling of someone’s hand on her elbow stops her. Her head snaps up to connect with the unseeing eyes of Matt’s devil mask. She hates that thing. It’s stupid looking with it’s ostentatious devil horns, and the facsimile eyes molded from polymer. She’d like to have a word with whoever designed it. Mostly she hates it because it makes her realize she’d much rather be able to see Matt’s soft brown eyes, even behind the lenses of his glasses. “What’d I tell you about grabbing me, Beelzebub?”

He’s frowning… maybe… It’s hard to tell. So much of his expression is in the upper half of his face, the way he knits his brow when he’s impatient or frustrated with her, the way his eyebrows shoot up when he’s surprised or impressed, the way the apples of his cheeks make his eyes crinkle when he smiles.

His mouth is a straight line, pressed together like he’s debating whether or not to speak. The line begins to quirk up on one side. “Hmm… I like to think that was an idle threat, since you’ve decked me more than once since then and I’m still as blind as ever.”

He lets go anyway. The two of them have situated themselves into a corner away from the rest. It’s strangely private, and Matt leans close to whisper at her. “Seriously though… are you alright?”

He’s asking her that? The man who’s surrogate father just unflinchingly beheaded someone? The man who’s in love with a zombie is asking her if she’s alright? Her nostrils flare, snorting out an annoyed breath. “I told you to stop doing that x-ray hearing shit on me.”

He has the decency to look sheepish. “I’m sorry, it’s second nature.” He reaches for her again, this time pausing to give her time to move out of reach if she wants. His hand curls around her wrist and brings her fingers up to his neck. Gently he presses her fingertips against his pulse. “I’m keyed-up too, okay. I just... “ He sighs. “You seem like you’re about to make a run for it again, and I kind of need that to not happen.”

She frowns. His pulse is rapid and his skin feels a touch warmer than it should, slick with sweat. She pulls her hand away roughly, glancing back at the rest of the group. “What’s the plan now? None of us have slept in days, and we don’t even know what the hell is going on at Midland Circle or what we’re supposed to do about it. If your buddy Stick is right about Danny being some sort of doomsday key…”

She trails off, hoping Matt will understand what she leaves unspoken. If Danny is the key, wouldn’t it be easiest just to get rid of him? The thought makes her feel more heartless than usual, but hell, she’s so fucking tired of everything, and this week has felt like a million years in the desert without water. She’s thirsty, god damn it.

“We need to find out what the architect was planning, and how he was going to do it.”

She pushes herself away from the wall, stomping past Matt. Any excuse to get out of this dank warehouse is a good one. “Well then, let’s get a move on.”

-

For any other person, this would be a scene straight out of their most romantic fantasies. Walking along the streets of New York in the fall, chilly breeze whipping up against their skin as a handsome devil (ha) clinging to their arm, smiling mischievously at their quick wittedness.

It makes Jessica feel strange. She wonders if Matt knows how attractive he is. Surely… he’s stupidly charming whenever they have to talk to strangers, that smile, that body. He has to know the way women melt when he turns their attention toward them. Of course, she’s noticed. It’s shocking, actually, that no one else has figured out Matt is Daredevil. How many overworked defense attorneys have arms like that?

“Is it close?”

“I think so.”

“You think?”

She knows exactly where Mrs. Raymond lives, recalls the stunted maple tree out on the sidewalk in front of the brownstone. The last time she’d walked up the steps there had been a half gallon of whiskey coursing through her veins, and the image of a man’s brains exploding on her wall running in and out of her head.

She pushes the memory away. “Yeah, I mean… don’t all these brownstones look the same?”

He chuckles. She can feel the sound against her. Is that how it is for him? Is every sound like a touch. She shivers at the thought. She mumbles an apology, and presses forward. The maple tree is almost the same, missing a few more leaves than the last time. She practically drags Matt up the stoop.

Jessica curses softly under her breath. The brownstone is empty. One glance through the ground level windows tells her everything she needs to know. They left in a hurry, newspapers from packing litter the floor. The glass of a broken vase is scattered across the hardwood. Leave it, we don’t have time. She can almost hear how frantic they must have been.

Matt is close behind her, one hand still curled around her bicep. “What is it?”

“They’re gone.”

He nods. Of course he nods. He was probably just about to tell her no one was home. “From the tone of your voice, I assume they probably won’t be coming back anytime soon.”

“They were afraid.” She kicks herself. She shouldn’t have come back around the first time. The daughter thought her father was some kind of selfish prick, but the wife had known something shady was going on. Jessica fights the urge to put her fist through the door in a fit of anger. Instead she spins on her heel, leaving Matt in the dust. “Come on. I’d be a pretty shitty private detective if I couldn’t track people down.”

The thought of bringing him to her apartment isn’t a pleasant one. She’s never been ashamed of the way she lives, but for some reason the thought of letting him walk pass the threshold makes her feel naked, like she’s exposing the pale blue veins on her body to someone with a sharp knife. Matt doesn’t seem like the type of person to start cutting her to pieces, but neither had Luke. Sometimes people aren’t in control of what they do.

Even if you don’t feel like reblogging or whatever, please feel free to leave comments and such on ao3. It really stokes my motivation to write. :D

We have a beautiful wrought iron, propane fire pit with glass marbles in the back yard. And in the house we have a gas fireplace with a switch on the wall. I love the thing. Last year, we vacationed in Taos, New Mexico. Killer trip. The ranch where Georgia O’Keeffe’s home is, and where City Slickers was filmed, is about an hour from there, and they give horseback tours of it all. It’s absolutely idyllic. There are charming museums, stores that sell fun metal sculptures from Mexico, the scenic Rio Grande Gorge Bridge where you can see goats playing, some neat restaurants, and it’s about an hour from skiing in Red River. The hotel we stayed at had a bocce court, and we could see prairie dogs playing all over out the back window. The room had an adobe fireplace in the corner that was amazingly efficient. My husband was in love with that thing. A year later, still having that urge to burn wood, he had to get a chiminea. That means I get to spend the same on a no reason kitchen toy. Awesome.

An Instant Pot? 8 quarts was really tempting, but I already had a really nice Cuisinart pressure cooker, so I couldn’t justify it. The vegetable cleaver I’d been eyeing? I’ve got a really nice knife collection, so I probably shouldn’t. A sous vide? I’ve been sous vide-curious for some time, and the little home versions had much smaller price tags than they used to. J. Kenji Lopez Alt had just posted about Maine lobster rolls using the sous vide. Yeah. I’d love a trip back to hike and eat lobster rolls in Bar Harbor again. Making real deal ones at home sounded fabulous. I ordered the Anova Sous Vide, a cook book to go with it, Lisa Q. Fetterman’s book, Sous Vide at Home, a plastic tub to cook in, ping pong balls to prevent evaporation, and a FoodSaver to get rid of air and seal it all up.

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The Sous Vide is the second best thing I bought for my kitchen this past year. I bought a kamado-style grill this summer that’s keeping spot #1, but this thing’s really awesome. I call it Luke because it looks a bit like a lightsaber, and cooks everything in luke warm water (okay, that’s an exaggeration). The learning curve is minimal. It just involved 5 minutes of swearing from my husband as he connected it to Wi-fi, but he rather enjoys and is prone to swearing as he gets electronics going. There’s a little dial in the front that you can use to set the temp manually, but that’s only to one half of a degree. You can get to one tenth of a degree using the wi-fi.

I’ll go onto the my review of the book with my pics and thoughts on the dishes I tried in a bit.

The container’s perfect.

I’m on the fence about the ping pong balls. They work well to prevent evaporation. The problem is that any time you are putting food in or taking it out, the balls bounce all over the kitchen. They look like little Minions and the brand is Kevenz, so my kids think it’s hilarious to yell “Kevin” and run around the kitchen collecting them every time it happens. My dogs are interested, too. If I had a do-over, I might get a lid with a sous vide cut out. Yeah, they make those.

The FoodSaver’s unnecessary, but I wanted one for speed marination, and this was a fantastic excuse to grab one. I’m super curious about trying it with tofu. We love tofu, but it flavor can’t really penetrate it, only the surface gets flavor blasted. I can’t wait to see if this will get that done, but that’s an experiment for another day.

Here’s the link to the recipe for Connecticut Lobster Rolls on Serious Eats if you’d like to try. If you don’t have a sous vide and are feeling super adventurous, they give directions for a beer cooler turned sous vide hack. Sounds like something out of Myth Busters, no? 🙂

Here’s my review of the book…

I absolutely love this book. The dishes I’ve tried involve quick prep while the Sous Vide heats up, then you pop the bag into the water and clip it on so it doesn’t sink to the bottom, do something else while it cooks, and then quickly finish it off on the stove or with a torch for searing, caramelizing, and flavor development. Wholly recommend.

Pictured below: 1) My sous vide, a heat safe plastic tub, ping pong balls to stop evaporation, and eggs cooking away. Love everything but the ping pong balls. They fly all over the kitchen every time a food goes in or out. I might have chosen a lid with a cut out if I had a do-over.

2) Eggs Florentine with No-Whisk Hollandaise Sauce – p 26. Easy and amazingly good. The egg texture is perfection. I used a whole bag of spinach and 9 eggs instead of 5 the second time.

3) Zingy Crushed Potatoes – p 190. Wow. Best potatoes ever. Ever.

4) Perfect Sous Vide Steak – p 145. This was the first thing I made in the book. I didn’t get a great sear with the pan heated up at medium high. I suspect that the author has a better stove than the builder grade one I’m rocking, so I’ll try high heat next time and see it that does it. I’ll update this then. Thought I’d mention it in case you have an average stove, too. 5) General Tso’s Chicken – p 89. Wonderful. It’s spicy, but not off the charts spicy. My daughter thought there was cardamom in the dish because of the floral notes of the Sichuan peppercorns.

6) Foolproof Garlic Shrimp – p 55. Terrific texture and flavor. I made peppers and onions and quartered a pineapple to go with it.

7) Vietnamese Caramel Chicken – p 83. Delicious. Totally plate-lick worthy.

8) Vanilla Crème Brûlée – p 203. I love this technique for crème brûlée. There’s no guesswork about when you’ve achieved just the right level of wobble. I will never go back to the oven method.

Some other things I have flagged to try: Vietnamese Shrimp Summer Rolls – p 51 * Beer-Battered Fish and Chips – p 59* Butter-Poached Lobster with Cognac Sauce – p 56 * Jerk Chicken Wings – p 75 * Chicken Katsu – p 81 * Perfect Fried Chicken and Waffles with Honey Hot Sauce Syrup – p 93 * Duck Breast with Apricot Mostarda * Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwiches – p 133 * Carne Asada with Chimichurri Sauce – p 149 * Creamy Winter Squash Soup – p 173 * Beet Salad with Goat Gouda and Pistachios – p 174 * Carrots with Yogurt-Dill Dressing and Sunflower Seeds – p 177 * Sweet Potato Tacos – p 181 * Thai Green Curry with Winter Squash – p 186

I’ll update this as I play in the book more.

Sous vide. Food jacuzzi. Foodcuzzi. Perfect foodie gift. We have a beautiful wrought iron, propane fire pit with glass marbles in the back yard. And in the house we have a gas fireplace with a switch on the wall.