{"id":12301,"date":"2026-10-25T14:36:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/?p=12301"},"modified":"2026-10-25T17:15:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T21:15:31","slug":"the-great-pumpkin-bake-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/the-great-pumpkin-bake-in\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Pumpkin Bake-In"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by Greta Jia-Kang Cabrel<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.s2b2search.com\/wiki\/index.php?title=The_Great_Pumpkin_Bake-In\">Read this piece&#8217;s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tau Rho Pi was the oldest and oddest fraternity at Blaize\u2019s college, with a marked tendency to induct mad scientists, lovable losers, and other iffy fellows instead of the corporate heirs, former class presidents, and ex-varsity athletes sought after by conventional brotherhoods. Indeed, casual observers often assumed that Tao Rho Pi was a professional rather than social fraternity, given how profoundly serious its members were about the production, preparation, and consumption of food and drink. They were quietly humorless about the keg parties, hot dog eating contests, and other rites of excess cherished elsewhere on campus\u2014not actively judgmental, unlike, say, the public health honor society, but nonetheless dismissive of all exhortations to \u201cbe more fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blaize himself had been told to \u201clighten up\u201d throughout his life, by classmates and cousins who called him a sissy for heeding his mother\u2019s and teachers\u2019 strictures about specific tools for specific tasks: fabric shears were not to be used on paper; raw meat was to be dealt with only on designated surfaces, which in Blaize\u2019s household were wood cutting boards engraved with the names of cow and chicken breeds; certain soaps and detergents were best for the care of skin, clothes, and implements, and while Blaize would never sneer at someone resorting to one-formula-fits-most products for reasons of budget, space, or time, he was not a fan of guys who readily dropped hundreds of dollars on sports paraphernalia but rolled their eyes at women\u2019s hoards of specially calibrated cleansers and cosmetics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On good days, Blaize found \u201clighten up\u201d a hilarious order, given his scrawny build and how terminally offended his uncles were by his inability to care about football. On bad days, he felt doomed to spend the rest of his life alone, because he <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a weedy, fussy weirdo, and what self-respecting non-sociopath would willingly hitch their star to that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the end of his first year at college, Blaize felt less doomed, at least in terms of companionship. (His GPA was a different story: he was sailing with ease through O-Chem and linear algebra\u2014courses that annually persuaded a dozen freshmen to change majors\u2014but struggling mightily with Shakespeare I, despite its reputation as an easy A, and butting heads twice a week with the social science instructor who regularly made sweeping declarations about how \u201cwe all\u201d should feel and think about class, gender, and power.) The one-night stands and flings he\u2019d indulged in had all been agreeably no-strings and low-stakes, albeit not all low-key: things had gotten embarrassingly loud with a dark-haired psych major who\u2019d gleefully edged him for hours, and the threesome with a butch softball captain and her bespectacled sidekick had been so intense that, for weeks afterward, seeing foil-wrapped chocolate-mint candies in checkout lanes and waiting rooms had him blushing violently. An exquisite rendition of Beethoven\u2019s Sonata No. 30 had him falling to his knees with alacrity for the austere blond pianist who\u2019d performed it, and making out with a philosophy major under a large blue blanket had been heavenly: Blaize had little patience or aptitude for critical theory and spiritual speculation, but the guy gave excellent head when he wasn\u2019t sermonizing, and the soft, well-worn fabric felt amazing against his skin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What also felt amazing was how safe all his trysts had been\u2014not a single one had been a prank or pity fuck, unlike his misadventures in high school. Blaize had not planned on participating in rush to begin with, let alone pledging his time and fealty to whatever clique of gross, judgy boys deigned to deem him worthy of sanctioned bullying\u2014but at a student orientation picnic, the Tau Rho Pi brothers had served taro boba and raspberry hand pies to those daring or knowledgeable enough to taste their wares, and at a study break the following week, Blaize\u2019s RA had served the most delicious tisane Blaize had ever sipped.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upon asking about its ingredients, Blaize had been invited to a tea-blending party at Tau Rho Pi\u2019s manse a few days hence, and then to subsequent sessions of pea-shelling, oyster-shucking, garlic-braiding, and mochi-pounding. By the time he signed the chapter register, he was well versed in the lore about Tau Rho Pi members: that they were a cult of Satanic squash-fuckers who forced initiates to literally eat dirt and carve sigils on one another with paring knives. That a man fool enough to join their ranks was destined to either live forever or perish mysteriously, given how Tau Rho Pi alumni <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">always<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> seemed to die or disappear at the height of highly accomplished careers as restauranteurs, sommeliers, food stylists, horticulturists, and the like, with never a body visible at inquests, visitations, or memorial services. That there were supernatural forces both mentoring and protecting the men tapped for the fraternity, and nothing on earth would save you if a Tau Rho Pi brother caught you doctoring a drink or claiming a dish like eggplant rolls was nut-free when the filling was primarily walnut paste.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rumors of hazing were false, although Blaize could see how the chapter\u2019s expectations would seem punitive to men accustomed to regarding kitchen and garden chores as feminine, or menial, and that there would be sour allegations on the grapevine as well by culinary lordlings not admitted to Tau Rho Pi despite their pedigrees and precollegiate prizes. Blaize himself had wanted to throw knives and tantrums at least once a month\u2014at, for instance, his inability to make lemon curd without strands of egg white mucking up the golden spread; at the salted caramel glaze that hardened into a slab impervious even to mallets; at the meringue swans that resembled melted clocks rather than fairy-tale birds during his first six tries at executing the recipe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But he\u2019d persevered, without being an asshole about it, because that was expected of him too, and on the seventh day with the swans, a p\u00e2tissier who had reportedly drowned forty years ago walked into the kitchen and then walked Blaize through all the adjustments needed to shape and set the meringues. Chef Peizhi periodically stopped by afterward, gently proffering advice even when Blaize\u2019s brain wasn\u2019t on the verge of melting down from trying to \u201cget\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hamlet <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(neither the ghost nor the hero of the play made any damn sense to him) or char grapes properly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, yes, belonging to Tau Rho Pi did mean encountering laws of mortality beyond human ken, and standards of morality, too: its leaders held the adage about great power being inseparable from great responsibility as close to their hearts as the wondrous pairings of wine and cheese and fruit and spice they were privileged to consume, and that meant exercising vigilance over what Tau Rho Pi members put in their bodies\u2014not in terms of calories or \u201cguilty pleasures,\u201d which no true Tau Rho Pi had any interest in policing, but in permission to be sticklers about safety, no matter how obnoxious or officious others found their queries. Tau Rho Pi members were notorious for refusing cocktails and other concoctions with secret ingredients, and there were cautionary tales galore about cocky Sigma Alpha Epsilon bros (it was always a jackass from \u03a3\u0391\u0395 or PIKE) meeting unattributably grisly ends after thinking they could get away with a little roofie here or kratom powder there in the presence of men from Tau Rho Pi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the start of his sophomore year, Blaize had become privy to another reason Tau Rho Pi was home and haven to champions of consent: to be granted agelessness, immortality, and preternatural powers with knives and fire required acts of surrender and submission performed with full awareness of the transaction. In addition to the currency of kitchen labor, such as toiling over croquembouche towers, kabocha buns, kouigno\u00f9 amann, and enough croissants to pave College Street ten times over, Tau Rho Pi members paid their dues toward senior membership by tending to larders and cellars, helping with harvesting and preserving the bounty of orchard, field and forest. They were continually observed and sometimes joined by existing Great Pumpkins\u2014the brothers and alumni who possessed the magical powers to terrorize pretenders and inflict vengeance on grifters across generations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not everyone could bear such scrutiny, or the responsibilities that mandated it, and fellows choosing to leave the fraternity invariably accepted a final glass of ale that veiled their memories with a happier story than their failure to stay the course. Blaize, however, thrived amid the making of dried apple garlands and pressing of cider and Peizhi\u2019s unvarnished instruction on everything from preparing choux to preparing himself to become a Great Pumpkin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a dark and stormy night when Peizhi bestowed on Blaize a grave, pleased smile and said, \u201cYou are ready if you feel you are.\u201d They and eleven other members of Tau Rho Pi were comfortably ensconced in the parlor of the fraternity manse, with a roaring fire and everyone glowing with satisfaction after the sumptuous twelve-course feast they\u2019d assembled for themselves. Blaize\u2019s contribution had been to carve up a quartet of striped pumpkins, slicing up the flesh for soup and de-sliming the seeds for roasting, and rolled and braided thin ropes of dough into delicate lorighitta pasta rings until his hands ached.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI did not know that this was a final exam,\u201d Blaize said, gripping the arms of his chair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s not,\u201d Peizhi said, his voice gentle as his brushwork when painting chiffon cakes. \u201cNone of us will take you further until you are sure. I have told you all along that there is no going back, past this step.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">am<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> sure,\u201d Blaize said, unclenching his right hand. \u201cIt\u2019s just a lot, even though I\u2019ve wanted it since I found out it was real.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yinka, the RA who\u2019d served Blaize the splendid spice tea at the start of his journey, grinned at Blaize\u2019s admission. \u201cIt <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a lot. We wouldn\u2019t consider you right for this if we didn\u2019t think you understood how huge it is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With a shaky laugh, Blaize folded both hands into his lap. \u201cI understand. Peizhi made sure I understood what\u2019s about to happen.\u201d He looked at his mentor and softly said, \u201cThank you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peizhi nodded and stepped up to the fire, placing two more planks on it. Blaize admired the surge of rising sparks for a silent minute before taking a deep breath, standing up, and letting his gaze travel to every face in the room, locking eyes with each man in turn before speaking the words Peizhi had taught him: \u201cI am of sound mind and sound body, and I welcome with both the beauty you are to grant to me, ever ancient and ever new.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe welcome you,\u201d twelve voices responded, and then Blaize was engulfed in the most <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">alive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> embrace he\u2019d ever been in the center of. He\u2019d been sandwiched between bodies before\u2014at concerts, in subway cars, that threesome with the shortstop and the bookworm\u2014and he\u2019d unfortunately wasn\u2019t a stranger to mob action, either, thanks to pantsing attacks during junior high PE, but being caressed and kissed and stripped by the cluster of Great Pumpkins felt like falling into a heap of warm, favorite blankets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They weren\u2019t all on him all at once, of course\u2014there wasn\u2019t enough of him for that, and there were deep, dark rituals embedded within the sheer pleasure of shared gratification. Any last traces of fear Blaize had harbored about being the butt of an elaborate joke\u2014yes, he trusted Peizhi and the other brothers, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014that all vanished when the first strong tongue swirled around his hole and then plunged in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He instantly knew it was Jacques who was rimming him\u2014not because Jacques had ever licked him before, or made any other prior contact with mouth or fingers, but because with each sweep and thrust of tongue, Blaize felt himself caramelizing into something half-flesh, half-soul: he still had a body, and that body was happily melting into the pleasures being meted to it by Jacques and the three other men kneading, stroking, and pinning him down while Jacques ate him out, but he could feel his essential self somehow becoming as sweet and salty as the bacon-wrapped dates Jacques was known for serving at balls and galas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His own come tasted like devils on horseback when Yinka fed it to him, right before fucking his mouth until his veins sang as bright as the tea they\u2019d blended, and he was unsurprised when the next man\u2014Mathias, a specialist in vegetable souffl\u00e9s\u2014dribbled tea-infused semen between his lips before rolling his knees up to his ears and taking him, with Nicolas the vintner pressing into the same hole a dozen strokes later. Blaize felt tears leaking from his eyes as they smoothly slid against each other inside him, and tongues on both sides of his face lapping up those tears.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Blaize moaned, overwhelmed by everything happening to him, one of the tear-drinkers paused and rested a cool hand on his forehead. \u201cNot in pain, no?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNot pain,\u201d Blaize said. \u201cDon\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe won\u2019t.\u201d He sensed rather than saw the tear-drinker\u2014Luc\u2014smiling as the cool hand brushed his damp hair away from his face. \u201cEvery ounce of you is so delicious.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He could feel another man replacing Luc at his face as Luc moved down to Blaize\u2019s cock, cupped hands catching the deliciousness erupting from Mathias and Nicolas\u2019s joint effort. Blaize tasted asparagus, thyme, and champagne in the liquid Luc dripped onto his tongue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNotes?\u201d Yinka asked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPeach, pear, and toasted brioche,\u201d Blaize said. \u201cMaybe some ginger and peppercorns, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cVery good,\u201d Luc said, having licked his own palm to check the flavors himself. \u201cNic, some of us should rehydrate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou\u2019re as subtle as your roasts, which is to say, not at all,\u201d Nic grumbled, but even in his dazed, exceedingly stimulated state, Blaize could tell that it was a longstanding bit between the two, borne out a few minutes later as Nic handed around flutes of the same champagne to everyone in the room. Blaize was helped up into a sitting position, with Yinka behind him as a stable seat-back, and Luc holding the flute between Blaize\u2019s small, careful sips from it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blaize felt glorious. He felt filthy. He felt like he\u2019d pulled a sixteen-hour shift in the kitchen, with triumph and exhaustion pervading all his senses. He felt bullet- and knife-proof, the protective shell of Great Pumpkinhood around his mortality becoming ever thicker with every Tau Rho Pi spilling in and onto him, every challenge they\u2019d conquered settling into his skin and bones and soul the way heat turned raw dough and flesh into fuel and feast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the break, living up to Nic\u2019s potshot, Luc was all muscle and brazen domination as he pounded into Blaize, his earlier gentleness nowhere in sight as he mercilessly drove Blaize right over the edge, and then hauled him up and fucked him even harder until Blaize was incoherent with the Luc-ness of it all\u2014Luc sinking his teeth into Blaize\u2019s shoulder, Luc\u2019s hands clamping his hips hard enough to leave bruises, Luc\u2019s cock hammering him until he felt he would crack open from all the power claiming him. He sagged forward as he came, spurting into the mouth of Owen, crouched in front of him in happy anticipation, and Luc tipped him back and cradled him as Owen released the catch into his mouth, this time with the flavors of pomegranate-glazed lamb.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Luc continued holding Blaize as Owen massaged his throat and cheeks and jaw both on the outside and inside until it was clear that every drop had been swallowed, and then Luc stuffed his fingers into Blaize\u2019s mouth while Owen closed his lips around Blaize\u2019s cock. Blaize moaned around Luc\u2019s fingers in near-delirium as Owen sucked another orgasm out of him, this time carrying the flavors of rabbit and turnips back to Blaize\u2019s tongue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The next man was gentler still, content with cleaning out Blaize with feather-light stroking and licking, though Blaize felt every touch like hard rain striking sunburned skin, and the come brushed against his lips bewilderingly tasted like the most aggressive blancmange ever boiled. He was followed by a burly fellow who fisted him with eerie ease and rested fingers coated with hot honey on his tongue until Blaize revived enough to choke on the burn, prompting Nic to return to his side with a flagon of water.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a feast that had gone on almost too long, Blaize half-hysterically thought, where one didn\u2019t stop eating even after one was full, for fear of missing out on some rare delicacy or preparation. The eleventh man had a knowing, sympathetic gleam in his eye as he pushed into Blaize, pinching his nipples with \u201cstay with me\u201d urgency rather than intent to arouse. The spoonful of semen he wrung out of Blaize tasted like morels, and Blaize was not too far gone to marvel at every astonishing molecule fed to him over the course of the night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Peizhi\u2014last but not least\u2014drew Blaize into his arms, Blaize again mouthed \u201cThank you\u201d against Peizhi\u2019s chest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou chose this,\u201d Peizhi said, not without pride.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou chose me,\u201d Blaize said. \u201cAnd you taught me the proportions to expect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNot everyone I teach manages to absorb what I can give them,\u201d Peizhi said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blaize inhaled deeply\u2014a great gulp of air. \u201cI\u2019ve proved that I can. That I do. Haven\u2019t I?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYes. Yes indeed,\u201d Peizhi said, and wrapped his hand around them both.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.s2b2search.com\/wiki\/index.php?title=The_Great_Pumpkin_Bake-In\">Read this piece&#8217;s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki.<\/a><\/p>\n<span class=\"simplefavorite-button has-count preset\" data-postid=\"12301\" data-siteid=\"1\" data-groupid=\"1\" data-favoritecount=\"2\" style=\"background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#000000;color:#000000;\"><i class=\"sf-icon-love\" style=\"color:#000000;\"><\/i>Love<span class=\"simplefavorite-button-count\" style=\"color:#000000;\">2<\/span><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Greta Jia-Kang Cabrel Read this piece&#8217;s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki. Tau Rho Pi was the oldest and oddest fraternity at Blaize\u2019s college, with a marked tendency to induct mad scientists, lovable losers, and other iffy fellows instead of the corporate heirs, former class presidents, and ex-varsity athletes sought after by conventional brotherhoods. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[847,425],"tags":[776],"class_list":["post-12301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bangbang-no-123","category-text","tag-greta-jia-kang-cabrel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12301"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12318,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12301\/revisions\/12318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}