#'this looks really bad' I think as I wedge a tennis ball under her with my foot

[sixlegnag]

do any of your dogs like activities that make you look like you don’t know how to interact with an animal

because mine sure does

two of her favorite games are “tug of war with one of her canine teeth and/or nose as the toy” and “lay outside on the ground chewing something while I shove her with my feet and generally inconvenience her as much as possible”

[oneeyeddestroyer]

Sharing Skin: The Home Game (Part 1)

Atmospheric and sensual, Sharing Skin has produced a handful of you mentioning just how much it makes you want a good bath. The goal of the prose was to create a unmistakable relaxing vibe with just the right touch of decadence. The bulk of my planning period for this fic was crafting the delicate details of each bath, piece by piece. Every aroma, every color, every bubble, every bath bomb, every drink, all the way down to the flower petals and the snacks, was hand picked to build an ambiance (as Eliot would say) and indicate the overall mood of the characters in that scene.

As a little treat, I wanted to curate some of my favorite bath essentials*. Recipes, products, mood lighting and wine pairings for your nerves!

We’re going to take it bath by bath to help you guys recreate the magic of each chapter. That was super fucking cheesy, but I bet you lived for it anyway. I think El and Margo are really starting to rub off on me. 😉

Bath One: What We Deserve

Upon entering the room, Margo’s fingers twist intricately and the room fills with cool, flickering light. She’s always loved the way Eliot’s skin looks in blue.

The first bath is pretty simple: brisk, refreshing air, cool toned lighting, sparkling wine, bubbles and a quick smoke.

While I can’t magically alter the tone and color of the lighting, I do have this pretty fucking best oil diffuser with color changing lights. There are a few really neat ones on the market, and I’ll link to a couple I have personal experience with. Easy to use, you add a few drops of essential oil into a small amount of water in the basin, and let it do all the work of diffusing a fine, gorgeously scented mist of your own creation. The lights change color in a slow, fluid movement, and some can be made to maintain a single color light with soft pulsing effects. Mine is Bluetooth compatible so I can play all the Enya I want as I take a soak.

Recommendations:

1. Colorful Essential Oil Diffuser

2. Ultrasonic Bluetooth Oil Diffuser

If you’re a drinker, sparkling wine is easily the best part of any bath. A nice, chilled wine is both refreshing and lovely balance to the heat of the bath—it doesn’t hurt to have a glass of ice water in the side as well. I’m not a huge fan of proper champagne, so I’ll share some of my favorite sparkling wines instead.

Something Dry

La Marca Prosecco is affordable a delicious. Not too dry, but certainly not too sweet either. Super lovely for people who are a little shy on dry whites.

Something Sweet

Bartenura wines are so fuckin delightful. If you like sweet wines, these are definitely for you if you haven’t already tried them. Fruity and fun, and also Kosher if I am not mistaken

A Rosé

Grapefruit isn’t everyone’s jam, but if you’re down to try something new, this shit is fucking delicious. A lot of wines get described and crisp and refreshing, and this is the first time I fully experienced what that could mean for a wine. It’s definitely worth the shot even if you’re not super keen on grapefruit. Eliot and Margo would definitely want you to try new things. 😉

For the bubble bath, instead of recommending a product, I wanted to share an easy recipe to make your own. Hand making bath and skin care products is a low key hobby of mine and it’s a ton of fun.

Simple Bubble Bath Recipe:

½ cup warm distilled water

½ cup liquid castile soap, scent of your choice (find unscented castile soap here)

¼ cup vegetable glycerin (find organic glycerin here)

a few drops of essential oils of your choosing

Combine all the ingredients and stir them until they're even and smooth. Over time they may separate, so just give them a quick shake in the container until they mix back together, just don’t shake too hard or it will froth up before it’s time for your bath. There is a premature ejacualation joke in there somewhere, I’m sure of it. 😂

I’m not a smoker, and I certainly do not smoke indoors, but I have had a casual smoke after a bath before, it really hits the spot if that is a thing you do. Some hookah, a vanilla clove, or handmade cigarettes of herbs like lavender and damiana can be truly lovely if you’re so inclined. Or, you know, you could just smoke weed like a normal 20-something, your call.

Bath Two: Intertwined

A quick dance of her fingers around each other causes the candles lining the tub to ignite, one by one. The warm flickering illuminates the room with a soft glow.

For best results, wait for a rainy day and bring a friend.

A minimalist bath after a rough night. Budget whiskey, candles, and maybe a good smoke at the end of it all before calling it a night.

Floating candles are a great way to create a simple but relaxing vibe. You can go through the delicate balancing act of lighting real candles and keeping them afloat without putting them out, or you can use these nifty, waterproof LED floating candles and save yourself the trouble. Maximum vibe for minimum effort is Eliot and Margo as fuck.

Whisky recommendations (Eliot takes his in a flask here, but feel free to have yours in a glass, maybe with a spot of water or over cold stones):

Bushmills 10 Year

Jameson Black Barrel

Knob Creek Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Bath Three: Winner’s Circle

Margo nods her approval as she settles against Eliot’s chest. With the bubble situation under control, the soft, rosy gold water is visible where their bodies emerge from bubbles. As their movements still, the water shimmers with brilliance that could make the night sky jealous as the light catches individual flecks of glitter.

Confession: I spent way too much time on the Lush website trying to dream up this bath. I suffered through hours of product reviews and ASMR videos of “Lush Cocktails” before I finally settled on the right mix of products. I will never look at a strainer the same way again.

If you’d like to soak in your own gloriousness a la Bath 3, you’ll need to pick up Sunnyside (a lovely citrusy bubble bar with glitter for DAYS) and The Comforter (the classic black currant bubble bar that many considers Lush staple, and a personal favorite) from your local Lush or order them from the website. Combined, they make the prettiest rose gold. It’s everything, I promise! The bubble bars are designed to be broken apart and used in small chunks, because they create a serious amount of bubbles. I’d cut them in pieces and use a small chunk of each, or you can go buckwild like El and Margo, but expect some serious overflow if you do it right.

Oh! And bonus points for setting up a trophy to gaze at as you soak.

If you liked one of the wines from the first bath, you can easily pair it with this bath too, or you can use one of these. I will alway have more wine to recommend.

Something Dry

Ruffino Prosecco is lovely, dry and fruity. It can be a touch pricier than La Marca, but not by much. Totally affordable—as most proseccos are— and tasty. Even if you don’t really like dry whites, it’s hard to go wrong with a prosecco.

Something Sweet

Martini & Rossi Asti. Affordable, sweet, Italian sparkling wine. It’s self explanatory and delicious.

A Rosé

I told you guys I live for Bartenura wines. The Malvasia di casorzo is seriously one of my favorite wines. Sweet and fruity, it’s just really fucking good. I won’t try to sell you with somm lingo and flavor notes like “wilted vines” and “fresh tennis balls”, just drink the wine. If you like sweet, it’s awesome.

Bath Four: Delusions, Major and Minor

Notes of ripe, juicy peach, and hint of honey fill the air. The bath water is a bright, creamy orange with a soft light glowing from beneath the surface. Their subtle movements create a shimmer as they stir the water.

**

Margo lightly strokes the water and hums as she considers her next choice. She brings her hands together, rolling her wrists over each other before stitching her fingers together in an intricate shape. A deliberate tap of the surface of the bath with her middle finger causes the water to turn pink beneath her touch. The color ripples out from the point of contact in concentric waves, quickly changing the entire bath. With the same finger, she traces a small sigil on the back of Eliot’s left hand to tie him into the spell. Eliot makes three quick taps along the surface of the bath. Orange, yellow and red diffuse into the water, the edges of Eliot’s colors are much more feathered and frayed than Margo’s. The colors swirls together, blending into beautiful gradients when they come into contact with each other and the pink hues from Margo. The result is somewhere between the light of a setting sun and an abstract painting.

I have a couple of ways you could recreate this bath if you’re so inclined. If you want to go for the bright, peachy vibe complete with Bellini, a peach scented bath bomb while you rub yourself down with scrubee will give you that mix of ripe stone fruit and honey. (And don’t skimp on scrubee, that bad boy will leave your skin silky smooth and hydrated as fuck and the scent is incredible) The bath bombs I wanted to recommend seen to mostly be out of stock, but I hope a few come back for the summer months.

Peachy by Lush

Pretty as a Peach by Bath & Body Works

Honey Peach by Sabon

Basic Bellini recipe:

One part peach nectar

2 parts prosecco

If you want to get really fancy with it, you can purée a couple of peaches and mix one part of that with 2 parts prosecco (or you can flip those proportions if you want a more fruit heavy cocktail), but if you want to get fancy without doing a ton of work, you can buy a peach nectar instead. Just make sure it’s the good stuff, actual peach nectar, and not some sugary “fruit juice blend” where none of the fruits involved are actual peaches. I’ve used both Goya and Jumex. I always garnish with a peach wedge or wheel.

If you don’t want to go with the peach bath, you could do a multicolored bath instead. Hot Topic has a cute dragon egg bathbomb that changes a colors as it fizzes and finally settles into a nearly black final bath color. It’s super fucking huge and so much fun.

Continued in Part 2

*I am not paid or sponsored in any way shape or form, nor am I associated with any of the above brands, licenses, etc.. I’m just overly enthusiastic about a fanfiction I wrote and a slut for good bath vibes.

[frangipanidownunder]

I have a sickly sweet prompt for you. Set slightly in the future. Mulder and Scully's second child is now 12. Will visits every now and then but never stays long. During one of his visits, his 12 year old sibling randomly asks Mulder how he and Scully fell in love. I just wanna overdose on fluff right now. Don't let me down frangipani!

Windmills: a fic

Tagging @today-in-fic

It’s a strange feelingto know that Will is on the way home. And yes, it is home. That’s what he calls it. The blades of the windmill turnanti-clockwise despite the tendencies of the prevailing winds. Mulder alwayswaggles his eyebrows and says, in his exaggerated southern accent, “Build it,and he will come. Y’all best get the pot roast on.”

           And she does. It’s a recipe that shesaw once in a vision and Mulder declared it the best thing she’d ever cooked,without a hint of irony. The windmill blades turned and Will showed up on thedoorstep with a crooked smile and a grateful hug. He spent two days with them,fixing the flywires, turning soil in the long-dry vegetable patch, sowing seedswith his father. And yes, he is his father. She’s always known, but for thesake of science, she ran the tests anyway. Love conquers all. Even black-lungedpsychopathic rapists.

           Today, Esther is in the yard, pitchingher baseball. There’s no wind. It’s high summer, muggy with the threat of an eveningstorm. Her skin is sheen with perspiration and Scully sees the rash of pimplesbreaking out across her forehead. Her body is changing, growing. She looks moreand more like Mulder these days – all rangy limbs and the large nose she hates.But she’s beautiful beyond convention and every day Scully tells her daughterthat.

           The blades turn and Esther throwsthe ball one last time before rushing up the steps, past Scully. “Dad! Will’scoming.”

           Scully puts down her book and watchesthe windmill. In her head, there’s the familiar pressure of the connection andshe breathes. In and out, as the blades rotate. He’s coming and he doesn’t knowhow long for but can she cook those fritters this time, the curried corn onesbecause it’s too hot for roast and besides Mulder really needs to get thebarbecue out and give it a clean. And how are the tomatoes? There should be areal good crop this year. He’s got fresh basil with him and a wedge ofmozzarella so he can make Esther the salad she loves.

           Before she’s really come around,Scully has already reached for the olive oil and the salt and pepper and she’ssearching for the platter and bowls with the blue windmills pattern becauseit’s like a family joke now. Everything gets served on them when Will’s back.

His hair is short thistime. Neatly cropped and pushed up at the fringe. He looks like a movie starand she remembers Mulder with his spiky bangs and baggy suits what feels like ahundred years ago. Fuck, he was handsome then and she couldn’t do a damnedthing about it but look. And she glances over at him now, washing tomatoes atthe sink, wearing an old grey tee that’s untucked so she can see the flare ofthe muscles at his waist and the patch of silver hair in the middle of hisback. He turns and smiles at her and fuck, if he isn’t just as handsome now andthere’s a whole lot she can do about it, even if it takes them a little longerto get there these days.

           “Can I layer the salad, Mom?”Esther’s curled her hair so that it frames her face and she’s wearing a fittedvest and cut off denims that just make her look even longer-legged.

           “Sure, honey. Wash your hands.”

All the while, Scully’s watching Will and he knows it. He opens a beerand sits next to her. “I don’t know,” is all he says and she knows he’ll begone in a day or two. She covers his hand with hers and squeezes, grateful forany time with him.

The salad is perfect with the fritters. There’s sourdoughbread and salty butter and fresh greens with spring onion relish and a crispwhite that Mulder pours with a little too much extravagance. Scully is flushedand the fan is ticking overhead. Her hair is sticking to her head and Estherhasn’t stopped asking Will questions. He fields them with experience, neverreally saying much, but giving his sister enough material for him to remain heridol. Mulder runs his beer bottle against his lips and she smiles at him,running through their years together. If there was ever a case more strangethan their son, she can’t remember it.

              “Will,do you have a girlfriend?”

              “Nope,”he says, leaning back on his chair. “Don’t have time these days.”

              Shefrowns and says in a low voice, “But you must have been in love at least once?”

              Willlaughs and the fan clicks in time. “I’m not sure if I know what that even means.”

              Estheris growing more curious.   “Everybodyknows what love is,” she declares with the authority of a pre-teen. “Even Momand Dad know.”

              There’sa slow smile spreading over Will’s face and it’s the perfect out for him.Esther needs to choose her words more carefully. Scully picks up her plate andstarts to take the others to the bench next to the sink.

              “Yeah,why don’t you tell us how you fell in love, Dad?”But it’s Will who asks, teases.

              Mulderchuckles and he’s had a bottle of beer too many and Scully knows it’s bad. Sheturns on the tap, running her wrist under the water and praying it’s not goingto be too bad.

              “Well,”he starts, “it’s pretty hard to fall in love with a spy. Especially one in asuit three times as big as she was.”

              “A spy?”Esther squeals. “Mom wasn’t a spy. She was a scientist. A doctor. And all shewas trying to do was keep you in check. She’s told me this part. She wasassigned to keep Spooky Mulder from chasing aliens. And you shouldn’t judge awoman by her clothes.”

              Willgrins and takes another swig of beer. “There’s no such thing as aliens.”

              Esthersits upright, leaning on her elbows. Her eyes widen. “Then how do you explainyour blood? And Mom’s?”

              The roomstills, save for the whoosh of the fan blades, and Scully turns to look at herfamily, seated round the table. A typical scene. But her twelve year olddaughter is goading her adult son about his bloodwork and her husband iswatching them like he’s at a tennis match – head turning from child to child asthey trade arcane statements about their provenance.

              “Iworked out pretty early on she wasn’t really a spy. Not in the Cold War sense,anyway. Although, she was pretty good at freezing me out of anything importantin her life.” His expression is pure Mulder. A wide, cocky smile, chin up,eyebrows raised.

              “I thinkyou forget just how many times you ditched me, Mulder.”

              “I didthat to save you, Scully.”

              “Good tosee your martyr complex is still as strong as ever.”

              Estherclaps. “Round one to Mom. Tell us about your first kiss.”

              Will linkshis hands behind his head and waits. Mulder stands up and takes another beerfrom the fridge. Scully sighs, wiping her hands on the tea towel.

              “Shekissed me when I wasn’t me,” he says. “A man who could take any form trickedher with some red wine and a smooth line or two and she fell for it. Can youbelieve it?”

              “Ididn’t kiss Eddie Van Blundht with a silent H, Mulder. And you know it.Besides, his smooth line or two was generally what one might consider typicaladult conversation. He asked me about my life. I told him stories. He listened.That’s how dates usually go.”

              “So youadmit it was a date?” Mulder says, looking at Esther. Their daughter giggles.Will shakes his head.

              Scullythrows up her hands. “It wasn’t a date insofar as we were partners and therewas no way we would have or should have been dating. But it was an occasionwhere grown-ups conversed like grown-ups while enjoying adult beverages.”

              “Wherewere you, Dad? While Mom was not kissing you?”

              “I wasbravely fighting my way out of a locked cupboard and rushing to your mother’srescue.”

              Scullydraws in a breath. “I’ve never needed rescuing, Mulder. You know that.” Thesuds float around the sink, swirling and dancing with the same mirth that set Estheroff.

              “TheAntarctic ring a bell, Scully? Snowcats and anti-virus medication. Alien podsand hyperthermia.”

              “Is thatthe bee thing?” Esther asks, eager for more, even though she’s heard thesestories, or versions of them, for years. “You didn’t kiss then, either. What’sthe go with you two? How long did it take you two to actually kiss and declareyour love?”

              “Itried,” Mulder says. “I kissed the 1939 version of your mother and I declaredmy love for her when I got back to 1998. But she didn’t believe me. How manytimes can a guy be rejected?”

              Scullysmirks and jabs him in the ribs. “You rejected me when I turned up in yourhotel room with wine and cheese. You decided searching for the mothman was themore attractive prospect.”

              “Ah,Florida. Your hair was a frizzy mess and that blue coat, not quite as bad asthe earlier version but still, and your singing.”

              “Scullyhas a nice voice,” Will says. And she sees him in his cot kicking his legs likethe baby he was but wondering what was going on in that brain of his. “Iremember the lullabies she sung me.”

              The soundof Mulder’s bottle hitting the table top startles her. He flexes his jaw andchews over what Will has just said. His abilities are a blessing and a curse.To consciously remember a mother’s lullaby from those early months may seemlike a wonderful thing but it wasn’t that much later that Scully gave him away.

              “You stillhaven’t told us about the kiss,” Esther says. “And the zombies. I wanna hearabout the zombies.”

              “Again?”Scully asks and she takes the cheesecake out of the fridge. She pours maplesyrup over it and sprinkles crushed pecans. “It was very chaste but it meant alot. The kiss was the beginning.”

              “Andwhen did Mulder really tell you he loved you, Scully?” Will is amused now,egging on his sister, but as he leans forward, there’s a wistful look in hiseyes. She’s listened to him for years, out there, doing whatever it is he’s doing.He tells her his dreams. He tells her his nightmares. She’s come to know theirson in her head and she shares it with Mulder the best way she can but there’sstill a disconnect that both Mulder and he find frustrating. Here now, at thetable, surrounded by his family, Will looks a little broken.

              “Muldertook a little while to actually say the words.” She pushes him a plate ofcheesecake and watches his lips pop open a little. He’s remembering that momenttoo and it’s not one they’ve shared. So many of the roads in their lives havebeen twisted, pot-holed and filled with dead-ends that this one moment wherethey were both in the same lane is one they hold dear.

              “And sodid you,” Mulder counters. “Besides, we both showed our love in different waysand in less conventional terms. I once told your mother that she was my one infive billion.”

              “You hadbeen committed at the time, Mulder. Was I really supposed to take the ravingsof a madman seriously?”

              “Your motherforced her way into a game and shot all the bad guys.”

              “Andgirls,” Scully adds, nodding to Esther.

              Mulder chuckles.“And she made sure I didn’t make too much of an ass of myself on national tv.”

“I saw that episode,” Will says, “andyou did make an ass out of yourself, Mulder.”

Smiling, Mulder shakes his head. “Whatwas it you said, Scully? ‘Mulder, you wanna talk about werewolves to me, knockyourself out but this could ruin your career’. That meant a lot.” His mouth straightens.“You were and still are my constant, my touchstone.”

“So, we know you don’t say itvery often but when did you feel it?” Esther asks. “You’ve told me all thesestories but I still don’t know when you both fell in love.”

Will smiles quietly and Scullyshivers. Mulder puts his spoon down.

“When your mother was returned tothe hospital, after she’d been abducted, I felt so grateful that she was back,so compelled to find out what had happened, it drove me for years, that fire. Ididn’t recognise it at first,” he stops and looks at Scully. “but that was lovein its purest essence.”

“Mom?” Esther hands Scully atissue. “your turn.”

Scully dabs her eyes. “I wasdying. And the only person I was truly scared for was your father. That waslove in its purest essence too.”

“But why didn’t you tell him?” Estherasks.

“Because what would have been thepoint?” Will says. “And by the time she went into remission, it would havelooked like a sympathy thing.”

The fan whirs above their headsand Esther rests her chin on her hands. “But Dad was already in love with you.”

Chuckling, Mulder ruffles herhair. “And that, pumpkin, is the insanity of adulthood. We spend so longavoiding people or feelings or choices that we miss out on life. Take it fromus, your paths are not always destined to run where you think they will. Somake the most of the journey.”

Will pushes back his chair andcollects the plates. Esther gets up and helps. Mulder leans forward and takesScully hands in his. He mouths ‘I love you’ and Scully nods and says ‘me too’.

Outside, the wind whips up andthe windmill creaks into action. Will stands at the back door with his sisternext to him watching the blades turn and turn.