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the-insomniac-emporium · 3 years

Note

I love your writing.

if it's not too much trouble may i make a request? I'm thinking the Dimitrescu women meeting and/or courting a fellow immortal.

the circumstances of the immortal's powers and possession of immorality are entirely up to you. I just like the idea of them meeting someone they could literally spend forever with...because they deserve it ❤

I wasn't sure if you wanted a story or headcanons? I went with HCs, here, but if you wanted more of a drabble or whatever just lemme know and I'll write something like that.

Also, I got excited and carried away so this has the whole Dimitrescu family, plus shorter ones for both Mother Miranda and Donna. Admittedly Alcina's is also a little on the shorter side? I tried to write everything that came to mind, but I am kinda tired right now, sorry. Might reblog this and add some more later.

(Under read-more for length)

Cassandra:

Tries (and fails) to hide her excitement. Mortality is one of the bigger things that has made her keep her distance to others, at least in the past. Every Maiden she’s ever been the slightest bit smitten with, up until this point, has been incredibly fragile. Seeing as she’s not exactly the softest person, one can easily imagine why that would be a turn off for her. But now that’s no longer a problem!

On the other had… having an immortal partner gives Cassandra pause. Why? Because what if they breakup? Normally, she can just, ahem, “dispose” of any exes (regardless of how much it hurts) so she doesn’t have to see them/deal with them anymore. If that’s not an option, she’ll definitely take longer than usual to do anything about her feelings. She wants to be sure, 100%, before she gets in over her head. Chances are she won’t hold back for as long as she wants though.

Likely to have a loud, messy confession. She’ll have been avoiding you for a few days, always ducking out of whatever rooms you enter, leaving you both hurt and confused. After enlisting the help of her sisters, you’ll be able to corner her outside. She’ll tell you, under no uncertain circumstances, to leave her alone. But you’ll refuse, demanding an explanation.

“I thought we had something. I thought you cared,” you’ll snap, eyes watering. “If that’s changed… if I was wrong, just tell me. I’ll leave and I’ll never come back.” Cue thunder and raining (because tropes) and Cassandra dramatically pulling you into a kiss, holding you so tightly you think you might bruise. Then she’s demanding that you stay, refusing to apologize but making it clear just how much she does care.

Being immortal, you’re not as defenseless as some of Cassandra’s past interests. Naturally, she doesn’t get quite as protective as she normally would. She’ll still have your back no matter what, ready to fight by your side against any foe, and will probably consider doing so a “fun bonding activity”. Oh, some lycans are encroaching on Dimitrescu territory? Time to go destroy them, as a power couple!

Despite having all the time in the world, Cassandra won’t change much of her actual courting behavior, nor the rate at which things advance. She’s still gonna get handsy fairly early on, still gonna “rah!” at you in the hallways, and still going to struggle with her jealousy.

Immortality Compatibility: I can see Cassandra going for another vampire (or vampire adjacent) creature, or someone demonic. She likes her lovers a bit rough, with some nice bite to their personalities. If you’ve got sharp teeth, or claws, or glowing eyes? Oh boy, she’s gonna be making heart eyes at you all the time.

Bela:

If your immortality isn’t immediately obvious, Bela is over the moon with joy when she finds out. Her eyes will go wide for a moment, before she tries to seem calm (so as to not freak you out), but her heart is pounding. This is what she’s been hoping for. As much as Mother Miranda has done for her family, there’s no guarantee that she’d be willing to give more. Even if Miranda granted Bela’s lover her “gift”, there was no telling what the results would be, or if the lover would survive. Now that there’s no need for such a transformation, it’s far easier for Bela to imagine herself in love (and eventually be in love).

Slow-burn romance over a decade or longer, oops. Doesn’t even necessarily mean to take things so slowly, just doesn’t feel a need to rush things, preferring that they develop organically. With both of you having unlimited time, you’re both used to working on a very large timescale. Maidens watching the two of you probably place bets on how long it’ll take you to hold hands for the first time. Everyone knows it’s coming, but no matter how much Cassandra and Daniela complain, Bela refuses to jump into things. By the time the two of you are officially together, you’re probably madly in love with each other.

More protective than Cassandra, if only because she knows just how rare you are. Immortal or not, you likely still have a weakness, and Bela will do everything in her power to make sure no one else knows what it is. If applicable, she will also ensure she has a countermeasure readily available. For example: If you were weak to fire, she’d make sure that the castle keeps extinguishers handy, just in case. Though they should probably already do that. Not that the Dimitrescu family cares much for OSHA compliance.

Somehow grows more in love with you with every passing year, and makes sure that you know this. Whether you’ve been together for one year or one century (because in this house we ignore canon), she’s always performing little acts of love, giving constant reminders of how strongly she feels. Gifts, special dates, book recommendations, etc.

Immortality Compatibility: Bela seems like the type to go for someone with a calming presence, and perhaps somewhat of a contrast to herself. I can picture her with someone somewhat angelic, or druidic, someone very in tune with nature. She’d love to feed deer with you and relax in the forest! Or lay against a tree by your side, listening to you talk about various microorganisms for hours at a time.

Daniela:

Practically tackles you when she finds out/connects the dots. This is just like one of her romance novels, where a lonely (attractive as fuck) immortal spends years in isolation before finally meeting the love of their life, who they get to spend the rest of eternity with. Absolutely ecstatic about the whole situation. Won’t stop kissing you and pulling you close, rambling about how great it’s gonna be to spend your lives together. Honestly? Kind of overwhelming. You might have to remind her a few times that you don’t have to rush into things, considering you have all the time in the world.

Introduces you to people as her “super cool/rad immortal life partner”. Genuinely cannot bring herself to not brag about you. If her sisters haven’t found someone like you yet, you can bet that Daniela will tease them about it all the time (much to their annoyance). If Momma Alcina doesn’t, though? Dani will keep her thoughts to herself, thank you very much (being grounded at her age does not impress the s/o).

Tries not to show it, but she’s actually very nervous. You’re immortal! You’ve probably seen a lot of shit (she certainly has)! Worries about keeping you interested in her, though she would never admit it. This tends to lead to her performing ridiculous acts to showcase her affection, regardless of the cost or, like, whether or not you’d even enjoy whatever she has planned. In order to counter her anxiety, you’ll want to reassure her whenever you can, and give her plenty of “I love you”s.

Strikes a decent balance between Cassandra’s nonchalant attitude and Bela’s protectiveness. Will defend you if you need it, playing up the romantic aspect, but also entirely willing to hide behind you in a scary situation.

Immortality Compatibility: Having probably read Twilight… Dani would date a werewolf, as long as they weren’t the smelly kind. Also interested in a sort of “magical”/elemental type, especially if their powers are influenced by emotions. In other words, if someone flirts with her in front of you, and your response is to subconsciously light your hands/the other person on fire? She thinks that’s hot, pun intended.

Alcina:

“Oh? Interesting,” she’d say, smiling softly (and trying to ignore the heat rushing to her face). Similarly to Cassandra, she’d try to play it off, not wanting to seem too excited. And, well, she’s not as excited as any of her daughters are. After all, she’s had more time than them to “get used” to the idea of outliving any potential romantic interests. So, she’s not exactly desperate for a relationship, even with someone she could spend an eternity with.

That being said, if she is romantically interested in them, she’s very relieved. Outliving a loved one can be incredibly traumatizing (fuck you c*pcom, you know what you did), and knowing that you’re safe (or at least safer than most) brings her no small amount of comfort.

Also, just glad to have another person close to her age around. Her daughters are somewhat stuck as young adults, and I imagine Alcina would want someone who gained immortality a little later in life, such as herself, as opposed to, ya know, reminding her of her children. That probably goes without saying. Hopefully.

More so than her daughters, Alcina would change her level of protectiveness depending on her s/o’s power level. If you’re a shapeshifter who can also turn into a big ass dragon? Then she’s not going to coddle you. If you’re immortal but still vulnerable, then she’s going to do her best to keep you safe, even going so far as to enlist the assistance of her daughters. “If you see a single Maiden growing mistletoe, or bringing some in from the village, let me know immediately,” or something like that, depending on your weakness.

Immortality Compatibility: Definitely would want someone in a situation similar to herself, having once been truly human, only to be “elevated” by something. Bonus points if you’re another disciple of Miranda, double bonus points if Miranda specifically “made” you to be Alcina’s boo/honey/darling/dear.

Bonus! Mother Miranda:

Oh god finally someone who won’t leave her (can’t leave her). No one can take you away from her, and that’s a relief that she’s been craving for over a century. Even if romance isn’t high on her priority list, she welcomes it with open arms, glad to have someone by her side through all of life’s chaos.

Admittedly slow to trust at first, probably just using you as a tool at first. But prove yourself enough, show that your devotion is more than just misdirected self-interest, and she’ll start to warm up to you. Forming a real relationship would likely take a couple decades, similar to with Bela. Once you are together, however, the two of you are inseparable in all matters.

You’d be her #1 follower, most trusted adviser, and the only person allowed to understand 100% of her thoughts and motives. While Miranda wouldn’t allow you to be seen as the same level as her (sorry), you’d still be a legend among the villagers. To them, you’re Mother Miranda’s champion, the epitome of a devoted follower that they all aspire to emulate. Not that they know the two of you are a couple, though.

Immortality Compatibility: No gimmicks, no cheap tricks, she wants (and respects) a fellow scientist, someone who clawed their way through adversity and forged themselves into something indestructible. Double the interest if you did so for a similar cause to her own, as she would appreciate your ability to relate to her suffering.

Bonus! Donna:

Someone to play with! FOREVER! No more losing people she cares about, no more accidentally breaking people, no more people scrambling to leave. Now that she has you, she can finally spend some quality time with another (living?) person. Honestly her dolls (or at least Angie) are just as excited as she is. Regardless of her relations with the other three Lords, Donna much prefers the company of a lover.

For real though she’s shy as hell and you might not even realize who’s pulling the strings until you’ve been in her house for over a year. She’d probably use her powers to trap you inside, at least at first, though they’d be nice hallucinations. You’d have to treat the dolls nicely, especially Angie, before she’d let you interact with her.

Eventually you’d be allowed to leave, and you’d be given a key to return whenever you wanted to. Assuming that you do, in fact, come back, the two of you would have a very, very slow romance, if only because of Donna’s anxiety. Hand holding makes both of your faces turn beet red, seriously.

Immortality Compatibility: *chanting* GHOST GIRLFRIEND GHOST GIRLFRIEND POLTERGEIST PARTNER POLTERGEIST PARTNER WOOHOO! Something with a flexible, only-sometimes-tangible form, who absolutely could have left at any time but didn’t because they wanted to stay.

#cassandra dimitrescu x reader #bela dimitrescu x reader #daniela dimitrescu x reader #lady dimitrescu x reader #mother miranda x reader #donna beneviento x reader #resident evil: village #re8 village

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goalieprotectionsquad · 4 years

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so i’ve watched like three straight days of maine cabin masters and my idiot ass is thinking of the harringtons having a cute little cabin on a lake in maine where they went every summer as a family before his dad started making bank and didn’t have the time anymore.

it’s been seventeen years since steve’s been up there. he doesn’t live at home anymore. he has a job that doesn’t really make him happy, but doesn’t really make him miserable, either. he has plenty of savings from the government coverup but doesn’t have anywhere to go with it. nothing to spend it on. the kids get older. they leave for college. he’s in his mid-twenties and complacent and isn’t all that motivated to change anything.

he gets dinner with his parents when they’re in town in the spring. his mom is talking about a lodge they stayed in when they visited basque country over christmas and he suddenly remembers the cabin. he waits until his mom is done relaying unimportant details like the color of the drape tassels to ask his dad if they still have the cabin in maine, and it’s evident on his face that he’d forgotten about it, too. he looks sort of wistful for a moment but it passes quickly. yeah, they still own it. no, nobody’s been up there in a while. steve doesn’t really think before he’s saying, “can I take a trip up there?”

his parents stare at him for a second like they’re surprised he’s actually interested in doing something, which. not unfair. his dad can’t remember where he put the keys but gives steve the address and tells him to find a locksmith who can get him inside. (steve plans on elbowing through a window or something to save on time and the hassle).

he subleases his apartment and leaves. everyone he likes is either away at school or just. away. moving on with their lives. he doesn’t have anyone to say goodbye to beyond telling his boss he’s quitting.

it takes a while to get up there, but he does, eventually. the cabin is hard to find and it looks so bad on the outside that steve has to triple check the address on the adjacent cabins to make sure it’s the right place. he thinks it’s maybe not just him who hasn’t been here in almost twenty years.

he stays in a hotel and gets up early to meet the contractor. she looks like she’s holding in a laugh when she introduces herself as kali. “look,” she says. “I’m going to be straight with you. this place is literally falling apart.”

steve doesn’t know what to say so he says, “yeah.”

“we can do a walkthrough,” she continues, “but I guarantee that this is going to make your budget look like pocket change.”

steve doesn’t really want to say it’s his dad’s money, so he shrugs and says, “let’s do it,” and watches her pick the lock.

the foundation is rotted out. the floor is rotted out. the porch is rotted out. she points at things and says any variety of that has to go or we’d start by taking that out or when was the last time you were up here again? they need to hire a plumber and a landscaper and an electrician and probably an exterminator, too, and kali doesn’t say anything when she watches him write a check for half the amount she quotes. she gives him a calculating look with kohl-rimmed eyes and says, “all right. we’ll be here tomorrow morning.”

steve shows up at seven because he doesn’t have anything better to do and there’s already a truck parked outside. a tall guy with a beanie shoved low over his forehead is tearing the porch off the front of the house and steve goes over to him and tries not to get hit with any falling debris.

“hi,” he says and has to stand there a minute before the guy looks at him. “I’m steve. is kali around?”

she’s inside the cabin and is leaning over the sink when steve walks in. she yells no. no. no. out the open window to her right as the water continues to run and then yes that’s it we got it as it cuts off abruptly. she looks unsurprised when she turns around and sees him standing in the doorway.

“hi,” he says again. “I’m here to help.”

“you’re paying us to do this for you, you know,” she says, but something in her face makes steve feel like she gets it.

a guy with his hair pulled into a tight bun at the nape of his neck hoists himself through the front door from where the porch used to be. “hey,” he says, all silk, when he sees steve.

“billy, this is steve harrington. the homeowner.” she stresses the word enough that steve literally cannot not notice the emphasis. billy rolls his eyes and shakes steve’s hand. it’s rough with calluses and steve would be stupid not to think about what that would feel like on his skin.

“billy hargrove,” he says. “head carpenter.”

“steve’s here to help with demo,” kali says.

“well,” billy says. he gives steve one of the most obvious once-overs he’s ever seen. “welcome aboard. you’re gonna help me knock down these interior walls, pretty boy. heads up, though. you might break a nail.”

billy shows him how to use a stud finder and how to cut into the walls to make sure there aren’t any loose wires running through it and then he fucking kicks the wall in and gives steve a wild grin as the drywall dust settles into his blond hair.

steve comes back every day to see billy. he doesn’t even bother lying to himself. billy is funny and sharp and always seems to have a comeback for anything anyone ever says. he shows steve how to build things. stands at his shoulder and watches him use the staple gun on the trim. brings him lunch when he goes out to get food for the rest of the crew.

he tells steve that his mom sent him to live with a friend who had moved from san diego to bangor a few years before. his parents split and she didn’t want him living with his dad. he says susan is a little ditzy but she means well, and she didn’t give up on him during his rougher years in high school even though he isn’t even her kid. he calls her daughter my sister and gets a pinched expression on his face when he talks about how she’s been going through her teenage angst since she was eight and how they’re still figuring out how to not always be at each other’s throats.

it takes a month for them to take out the rotted lumber and to fix the foundation and floor and porch and roof. billy shows steve the crumbly mess in the insulation that means he has an ant infestation. steve helps make the framing for the bathroom and bedroom walls and helps lay the stones for the walkway down to the lake. he spends all day at the work site, then he goes back to the hotel, has dinner, crashes. rinse and repeat. he spends the days the crew isn’t working exploring sort of idly and missing the smell of sawdust.

when kali declares the place habitable, he buys a mattress and drops it onto the floor of the master bedroom, which is still missing its walls. he checks out of the hotel and buys some groceries and spends his evenings down at the lake, his own private little waterfront. he tries reading but the only salvageable book in the cabin is walden and he can’t make it past the first page.

he hears axel and mick talking about a meteor shower one night. once the crew is gone and the sky is turning purple-navy, he goes down to the lake and lays back to look at the stars. they’re brighter out here, brighter than hawkins, somehow, and the sky feels endless.

he turns to look over his shoulder when he hears footsteps crunching through the undergrowth in his direction. “just me,” billy calls through the dark. he drops down heavily next to steve and passes over a beer and a hamburger wrapped in greasy foil. casual, like they do this all the time. his hair is down and curly and he’s wearing a red shirt unbuttoned to his navel, where it’s tucked into his jeans. he’s wearing cologne, too, and billy smiles when he sees it get steve’s attention.

they talk and they sit in comfortable silence and then they talk again. billy seems to be getting closer and closer until their shoulders and thighs are pressed together and their elbows are knocking. when billy turns to look at him, their noses almost brush, and steve knows billy doesn’t miss the way his eyes drop to his mouth.

“have you swam in the lake yet?” he asks instead and gives steve a wicked smile when he shakes his head, and then he’s up and stripping down and is in the water, wet hair slicked back over his head, before steve’s brain has even puttered beyond looking at billy’s mouth. “come on it, pretty boy! water’s fine.”

he unabashedly watches steve undress and reaches for him immediately once he’s in the water. no preamble. just. puts a hand on his hip. when steve doesn’t move back, he slips an arm around steve’s waist, and then the other. their knees bump under the water and billy noses at steve’s cheek. kisses him on the chin and the corner of his mouth before he kisses his bottom lip. they kiss and kiss, the water not even up to their collarbones, and steve has never been so aware of the night noises around them. cicadas in the trees. a loon some ways away. something shrieks in the distance and it startles steve enough that he stumbles in billy’s grip, and billy tightens his hold and tilts his chin closer again and whispers, “it’s just a fisher cat,” into the crease of his lips.

they start heading back to the cabin before billy makes them double back for the food wrappers and beer bottles and steve grabs their clothes so he has something to do with his hands. he’s never run naked through the trees before but there’s something freeing about it. for some reason, the trees out here don’t look as threatening as the ones in hawkins. maybe they’re older, wiser. maybe they’ve seen more and know how to protect him and billy from whatever else is out there.

steve clears away the painting tarp over the bed and barely has it on the ground before billy is crowding against him, skin dry but hair dripping at the ends over his freckled shoulders. they lose track of time in a cabin they rebuilt together.

billy’s hand on his chest is what wakes him up. the sun is filtering in through the windows and billy is trying to press a mug of coffee into his hands. steve doesn’t own mugs or coffee or a coffee maker out here. steve sits up and leans against the wall, right where they’ve sketched out the custom headboard billy’s going to help him carve, and lets the blanket pool around him in a way that has billy’s gaze dropping, the apples of his cheeks going a little pink. he looks good in the morning sun, in the little bits of dust floating through the air.

“where’d you find the coffee maker?” steve asks. “and the change of clothes?”

billy gives him a big shark smile but sounds a little sheepish when he says, “I was hedging my bets on needing morning provisions.”

steve makes them eggs and bacon and toast and they sit out on the new front porch to eat and wait for the rest of the team to show up. billy keeps leaning in to kiss his ear, the hinge of his jaw, the side of his neck. just pecks. they still set steve on fire.

billy stays that night, and the next, and the next, and the next. they go swimming for real, eventually, and play cards, and fall asleep outside in the grass with their fingers twisted together. out in the open as much as in their own little world.

kali knows something is going on between them, even if steve doesn’t know if billy told her or she figured it out herself. when it’s just the three of them in a room, billy likes to pitch his voice down, low enough to be husky, but loud enough to be overheard, and gives steve directions more gutturally than usual. pull out a little, he’ll say, all breathless, when they’re fitting the doorframes. now push it back in. harder. mm, yeah, steve. right there. steve doesn’t know if it’s meant to be embarrassing or not but he laughs himself red in the face anyway.

they finish the cabin over the next six weeks. if steve hadn’t been there every day for almost three months, he might have thought he’d gotten the address wrong. it looks like a house, first of all. the outside is a soft brown to blend into the trees. there’s a little living room with a couch and a little table with two artfully mismatched chairs in the kitchen. there’s a huge window in the master bedroom overlooking the lake. steve has never really felt drawn to the water as a non-great-lakes-midwestern kid, but every time he looks out over the lake, he wonders if he even wants to go back to hawkins.

it feels weird giving kali the second half of the payment, knowing he won’t see her again. he hugs her and she pats him awkwardly on the elbows until he lets go. one by one, the rest of the team leaves, and it’s not until steve’s standing alone in the fading sunlight that he realizes that billy’s gone, too.

it’s the first time billy’s just left without saying anything about where he was going and when he was coming back. that deep, dark part of steve says they were just fooling around during the job, but he drinks a beer and talks himself out of panicking. he makes himself a sandwich. lays in the bed. showers. doesn’t really know what to do with himself now that the job is done and billy is gone.

he’s laying on the couch and staring up at the ceiling when the sound of a key scraping in the lock has him on his feet on instinct to do -- something, he didn’t really think that far ahead -- but then the door wedges open and billy’s head appears around it.

“sorry,” he says when he sees steve still gaping. “didn’t mean to scare you. we just -- kali forgot to give you back your spare.”

steve watches him reach out and hang the key ring around the hook next to the door. it overlaps steve’s set.

“oh,” steve says. “thanks.”

billy gives him a little smile and looks like he’s going to leave, but then they’re both saying wait in the same moment and billy’s smile reappears around the door, wide but shy.

“stay,” steve says.

billy slides the rest of the way past the door. he has a small duffle thrown over the shoulder steve couldn’t see behind the door and he’s holding a bottle of cheap grocery store champagne.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” billy says. now that steve’s shown his hand, it’s like billy’s found his footing again. he drops his bag and goes over to the cabinet to pull out two mugs, sets them on the counter. he wraps an arm around steve where’s he’s drifted over without really meaning to. billy kisses the corner of his mouth and presses the bottle into his hands. the foil is already peeled off the cork. “I heard you’re celebrating a housewarming. you wanna do the honors?”

#harringrove #i'm so mad this was supposed to be short but then it was 2700 words #i like. cannot stop watching this show #ryan reminds me so much of james harkin lol #i've only been to maine once and only to portland but i have had friends from maine #and my college best friend went there every summer and always showed me pics of how beautiful the sky is there at night #also sorry if my rehab timeline is off LMAO #sorry but also not sorry #also billy has toooootally developed a little bit of mainer accent lol

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hteragram-x · 4 years

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Firefighter AU [again]

New story for the AU. This time about Virgil wondering who the hell is Logan. Also, apparently, Virgil’s main personality trait in this universe is thinking that Remus is very pretty and then being like: “hey! who said that?!”.

If it’s the first time you see this AU I think you can still understand what’s going on without reading older posts, but in case you’re interested: [HERE] is the introduction, [HERE] are some general HCs, over [THERE] you can find a story where Remus and Virgil met for the first time, and [HERE] is previous story :>

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Word count: 2240

Relationships: technically Dukexiety, but they’re not there yet; Creativitwins

TW: mentions of fire (what a surprise), small injury, mentions of blood, some animal bones, swearing (because I’m mentally 12 and think that swearwords are fucking hilarious)

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Because Logan Said So

Over the last four months Virgil has learnt a lot about his new co-workers. Not every information he managed to gather was particularly interesting or even worth remembering, but having that knowledge helped with making the new workplace more familiar. And familiarity brought comfort.

He learnt, for example, that their janitor – Jeremy – was the most grumpy and easily annoyed person in the entire firehouse despite being the youngest janitor Virgil has ever met. It was relatively easy to avoid him most of the time, but if he wanted everyone to know about his problems with something you would be informed that he’s unhappy regardless of your own involvement, or lack thereof, in the situation.

Virgil also learnt that Anna was pretty helpful when it came to failing equipment and technology. They weren’t employed to do the repairs, but it didn’t stop them from trying to fix everything anyway. The guy with very short hair, whose name Virgil could never remember, was leaving his helmet in unexpected places and had three kids that he talked about all the time. Alex was often late, but always stayed at work longer than anyone. And that one girl everyone called Apple for some unknown reason was currently building a house and you couldn’t escape hearing about it, no matter how much you didn’t want to at the moment.

Talking to Virgil about issues he wasn’t that interested in seemed to be the common thing among most of his co-workers.

Pretty standard stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary.

What was also not out of ordinary was the bird skull lying on his desk this Tuesday.

“Remus! Is this a gift or are you just leaving your stuff all over the office again!?”, he half-yelled knowing that the younger twin had to be somewhere in the building at this hour. Not that he memorized his schedule or something. He just knew…

Suddenly a head with a mass of unkempt hair and spider webs on top of it popped from under his desk. It was not the first time Remus was staying there, but Virgil still winced seeing the man crawling from the tiny space. It cannot be comfortable, he though for probably fifteenth time.

“There’s no way it’s comfortable in there,” he pointed out, also for fifteenth time.

“It isn’t”, Remus said, like he always did and smiled, stretching his long arms above his head. Even without his shoes – he always walked around the office in just his socks, because of course he did – he was still much taller than Virgil which somehow managed to fluster him more every time he noticed the difference.

Virgil decided to ignore the futile argument instead pointing at the skull and a couple of sticks he’s just noticed next to his computer.

“Can you keep your mess out of my desk?”

“You didn’t even say ‘hi’ to me today”, Remus pouted.

“I’ll say ‘hi’ when you take your stuff from my space,” he sighed.

Remus groaned, his arms hanging loosely at his sides in resignation.

“God… you sound like Logan.”

A-ha! There he is. This mysterious “Logan”, whoever he was.

Over the last four months Virgil has learnt a lot about his new co-workers. But no other person was as interesting and worth knowing as Remus himself. The number of weird quirks Virgil has memorized about the guy was unmatched by any other person working at the firehouse which was in no way a surprising score given the circumstances in which they’ve met.

He was weird in so many ways that it almost seemed normal again. And according to Roman he used to be even more chaotic and unpredictable when the twins were younger. At first Virgil was pretty nervous around the guy – with all of his jokes about violence or with his creepy staring – but now this… interesting behaviour became just a normal and entirely expected part of his days.

If Remus run into the room and didn’t stop until he hit the wall… fine. Virgil just checked if the guy was okay and went back to work. If he bit the bar of soap… also fine. You just had to make sure he didn’t swallow it all and forget about it for the rest of your day. When he left some of his most disturbing sketches on the fridge, you just commented on his skills as an artist or flipped them, so the picture was facing the door of the fringe, if the drawing was particularly disgusting.

A standard day with Remus.

Apparently talking about some “Logan” that no one ever met was also a standard part of his character. And Virgil was very annoyed at himself knowing how jealous he sometimes felt because of this mysterious guy. The jealousy, however, seemed to weaken a bit when he realized that Roman was also bringing the name up almost every day. It started to sound like an inside joke that Virgil was too nervous to ask about.

“Okay! Your desk’s just as clean as my legs yesterday when I jumped into the river to find a shiny stone, but it was a broken bottle, so I got glass stuck in my hand!” Remus smiled even wider, showing a little too many teeth and lifting his palm with three fingers covered in bandages.

Virgil pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Why do you have zero self-control?”, he asked, very much aware that the question was pointless.

No one knew. And if someone did know, it definitely wasn’t Remus.

“Sounds like a question Logan would ask”, said Roman who has just appeared out of nowhere behind Virgil. The shorter man shivered a little, not expecting anyone except for Alex who was finishing his shift to be in the room with them.

“It does!”, Remus agreed poking the bandages with a finger. Knowing him, Virgil assumed he wanted to check if it’ll make the wound open and colour the fabric with blood. “And like I said, I just cleaned up your desk.” The firefighter moved much closer to Virgil towering over him with some different kind of smile. He really was smiling a lot for a person, who wanted to appear at least a little scary most of the time. “Where’s my ‘hi’?”

The shorter man glanced up at him, suddenly feeling a little overwhelmed with the whole situation and all of his conflicting feelings. It definitely wasn’t the first time he found himself in a position like that. He should have got used to Remus being annoying and invading his personal space long ago. Or maybe he did get used to that and he was just confused by the fact that he really… didn’t mind?

“Hi,” he said finally, the corners of his lips lifting slightly.

“Hello,” Remus answered with something twinkling in his green eyes.

There was a minute of silence. None of them seemed to want to move.

“You’re both gross,” said Roman decisively and ruined the moment by rolling his eyes and walking right between them to the adjacent kitchen.

Virgil felt blush creeping up his neck. He completely forgot about the second twin being in the room with them. Wouldn’t be the first time he got distracted like that.

And he couldn’t even get mad at Roman… that was a little bit gross. …In a good way.

“You can keep the bird skull if you want to. I planned to paint it and add to my new sculpture, but I have plenty more to use instead.”

Virgil was more than grateful for the change of the topic.

“No, thanks. But show me the sculpture once it’s done.”

That was apparently a right thing to say, because Remus looked very satisfied with himself which was always nice. Virgil really liked to see him so cheerful, even when it meant complimenting some naturalistic painting or listening to his unsettling ideas. He was even more handsome when he seemed genuinely happy… wait, what?

Virgil coughed nervously and quickly moved to the desk, putting his bag down and turning the computer on. When he was adjusting the headset and checking his microphone he looked back at Remus and gave him a little shy wave.

“Don’t set yourself on fire today,” he said using their usual equivalent of ‘good bye’.

“No promises!”, was a standard reply.

***

Roman grabbed a bag of gummy worms from Remus’ hand preventing him from showing them all into his mouth at once.

“Stop eating so much sweets. You’ll already too energetic today.”

Remus shrugged and took a long sip of some energy drink he’d been hiding behind his back.

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

“It cannot be healthy for you!” Roman tried to grab the can as well, but Remus was sitting on the kitchen counter, so he easily lifted it out of his brother’s reach.

“Why?!” he asked in a whiny tone.

“Because Logan said so!”

“No, he didn’t.”

“But he would if he was standing here right now.”

“…fine!”

Remus jumped off the counter sending his twin annoyed look, but he put the drink away, only now noticing his slightly shaky hands. He hasn’t said anything to not give Roman the satisfaction and moved to the changing room to dress for their upcoming training.

Virgil followed him with his eyes, not even trying to hide the confusion. Remus almost never did anything, because it was healthy or responsible. What was happening?

�� Who the hell is Logan?

---

“Roman! …Roman! ROMAN!!!”, Remus looked up seeing his brother sitting atop the fire engine with a book. It was his favourite place to escape the noise, people… and work. “Get down here, you lazy motherfucker! We’re moving the old hoses to the new room.”

“Have fun then!”

“They’re heavy! Come back here and help me!”

“I’m busy…” Roman looked at Remus from behind the book, hoping he’d just get bored and walk away. “And you can lift them yourself, come on.”

“No, I can’t! They’re packed in those bigger boxes. If I do this myself I’ll drop them on my feet or hurt my back and Logan said it’s dangerous!” Remus smirked, already knowing he won the argument. “And do you really want to leave me unsupervised?”

“Okay, okay. I’ll help… It’s not your fault you’re a weak baby!”

The rest of the conversation was too quiet for Virgil to hear through the open window from the garages below. The twins probably moved to the other room to finish the task. And Roman, who truly didn’t like this kind of repetitive labour, helped without much complaining… Strange.

Who the fuck was Logan?

---

“Roman, you forgot the scarf. It’s freezing. Logan said you’ll catch a cold!”

“Logan would already give you a lecture for sleeping on a chair like that… At least move to the floor… I’ll bring you some blankets… Yes, I know it’s 4am. You think I’m happy about it?”

“If Logan saw the mess you’ve made he be so disappointed with you…”

“Okay, stop staring at cute boys and get back to work! Just imagine if Logan saw you right now. It’s pathetic. Oh… is my little brother blushing?”

“What do you mean ‘why’? Just stay safe. Because Logan said so!”

“Because Logan said so!”

***

“Okay… who the hell is Logan?”

Remus looked at Virgil from the axe he’s been sharpening on the office floor. He was clearly confused, not expecting anyone to talk to him after Roman left the room a few seconds ago.

“What?”

Virgil gripped the fabric of his trousers nervously.

“I’ve asked who’s Logan.” There was a moment of silence. “You… you two keep bringing him up and I… I know that no one with that name works here and no one else is ever talking about this guy. If it’s a guy.” He stopped himself before he started rambling. “So… Who is Logan?”

Remus was looking at him with a very weird set of emotions in his eyes. It was impossible to decipher what he was thinking or feeling at the moment which was pretty unusual for a person who was normally so open with what he thought or felt.

Finally he went back to cleaning the axe lying on his knees.

“Wouldn’t you like to know operator boy…” he said with a smirk.

Virgil blinked, even more perplexed.

“Y-yes! That’s why… Of course I want to know! That’s why I asked in the first place!”

This time Remus openly laughed as if Virgil just told him a joke. It was one of his loudest and wildest laughs that most people learnt to ignore after working with Remus for a while, but it was still pretty creepy for anyone unfamiliar with the firefighter’s personality. Virgil would find it pretty pleasant to listen to if it wasn’t meant to mock him at the moment.

“I don’t know what’s so funny…” he said defensively. He already regretted ever asking the question. Maybe it was a wrong moment? Maybe he should have asked Roman instead?

“Of course you don’t! Oh, the irony…”

He was very close to asking “what’s the irony”, but decided against it. Apparently he wasn’t getting any actual answers right now. Okay. He could wait and be patient when he wanted to. He’s already been waiting for months before the curiosity finally pushed him to say anything. There were other ways to get that information. It might be a difficult task, but he’ll learn the truth… eventually.

--- ----- --- ----- --- ----- --- ----- ---

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Taglist for this AU: @isabelle-stars @wintersandsunshine

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fallen029 · 5 years

Text

About Life: Postcards

He was gone a lot.

Her whole life.

Not the entirety of it, of course. And he was always certain to spend some amount of time with her, when he was home. Then, when he wasn't, he was always certain to write to her. Not long letters or anything. He was hardly that sort of man. But he was sure to scribble a few words on a postcard or two, if he was going to be gone for a significant amount of time.

Laxus never thought she minded much.

Aura.

She was his only child, the first and the last, the one and only. Without a doubt, this meant a lot to him and he did care for her deeply. But at the same time, being a father was never his strong suit and it was a far more distant relationship than maybe she deserved.

But she never complained. At least not to him. And he figured if she did her mother, Mirajane, then he'd definitely hear about it. The woman loved to yell at him over any slight he made. For someone who showed everyone else such open love, she seemed to find it far easier to find faults in the man.

Not that he could blame her much.

He could be better. A lot of the times. But there was just something always…

Heh.

Laxus wasn't good at being open. Or loving. But he was really good at watching Aura practice her magic. And he was very good at patting her on the head, when he found her hiding away, somewhere in the guildhall, buried in a book. He liked to tell her the fantastical tales of his travels when she was little and, now that she was older, he was pretty good at taking some time out of his very limited free time, to listen to her go on and on about whatever drama was currently bogging down she and her friends.

He was a good father. He knew he was. Maybe not great, but he was there and it was more than he or most of his friends had, growing up. Aura was taken care of mostly by her mother, but considering who the woman was, he figured she couldn't be too upset about that either. Her aunt and uncle looked out for her too, Lisanna and Elfman, and the Thunder Legion had always doted on her. She had plenty of people to turn to, if she needed them.

But he knew how important he was to her.

She never said it, much the same way he found it difficult to put it in words in the reverse, but he knew she did. The second he was in town, he usually sought her out and no matter what she was doing or what plans she had, she was quick to coming over to his apartment to wait for the man. She liked it there and he never denied her, if he was home. It was comforting, to have her there. Around. When she was younger, it forced him to be a bit better too. Not drinking all night, drowning his sorrows. He had someone else to look after. She was the reason that he learned to cook, took to cleaning up after himself better, and made sure, if nothing else, that he never went too far. Out on a job. Or even away from it, in some seedy bar where someone was testing him a bit too much.

The amount of confidence and faith that Laxus had in himself was astronomical.

But he didn't have anything to prove anymore. If he ever did, honestly. The important thing was to come home. Always. So he could make dinner and listen to Aura go on and on about her stupid friends.

It was a reserved relationship, but it was one and he took great pride in it. And a lot of joy.

He always thought that she felt the same. They were alike in most other ways, anyways. For someone who spent so much time around her mother's bubbly side of the family and the woman's friends from the guild who were, well, much the same for the most part, Aura seemed to take have a much more...cool disposition. She wasn't outright cold, like him, and could actually socialize quite well for her age, even when she was young, but there was always else to it. To her. She pulled away, a lot, and even though she had so many friends in the guild, with the other young people that frequented it, Laxus found his daughter to be alone a lot. Or at least wishing for it.

"It's quieter," she remarked to Laxus once, when he found her hiding out from a party in the hall out on the balcony overlooking the grounds. It was a clear night, one with shining stars and a moon, giving her more than enough light to scan over the pages of one of her books as she sat with her back against the building, the tips of her toes just touching the adjacent railing. "Out here. In there's okay, but..."

"Yeah," he agreed with ease because he'd come all the way up there to smoke, not search out his daughter. But she was just as well, at his feet, as he went to lean over the rail. "I know."

It just always felt like they were on the same page, somehow. About a lot of things. But that was the one thing, huh? About unspoken things? You can never be completely and utterly certain, no matter how completely and utterly certain you feel, about another's perspective. Understanding.

And maybe, honestly, if he was being perfectly honest with himself...he didn't quite get all his own feelings correct either.

Though it was technically built to, it felt rather sudden to Laxus, when he arrived back in Magnolia one day, not to find his young daughter hanging around the hall awaiting his arrival, but rather her nowhere to be found. This wasn't wholly unnatural. She was frequent to go out on a job or two, with her uncle or aunt. Maybe tag along with another team. Or, sometimes, hanging around the hall all day just wasn't that much fun and she'd bail. Go training. Hang out with friends. Something.

Still, Laxus found himself questioning Mirajane about it, just a bit, as she approached the table at which he'd sat. The woman had come right over with a mug of ale before he even requested it, but as their eyes met, he found himself asking for something else.

"Where's Aura?" he asked as the woman set his drink down.

Things were in a pretty steady place between the pair of them currently, he and Mirajane. They'd begun their relationship as friends and he felt like, even though they'd gone through some down periods (even some of absolute hatred), he was glad to find they were still that. Friends. And...sometimes, when he drank a bit much and she looked at him just right, well…

But no.

Thoughts were thoughts. And things were better, he found, as friendly, but distant.

"Oh, I didn't even think to tell you," the woman sighed some to him then as her gaze was taken by some of the younger guys in the bar, who were being a bit too rowdy and would no doubt soon incite a brawl. "She went out on a job."

"That's all?" He tried hard not to sound disappointed as he drug his mug closer, paying little mind to the brewing fight. Most everyone knew better than to mess with him. And anyone who didn't would be quick to learn. "With who?"

"Oh, no, Laxus, I meant a real job."

"What?"

"Like...a serious one." And Mirajane's eyes were back on his, the blue irises alight as she told the man, "She begged and begged and I just thought, well, if she's ever going to be a real mage, then I have to start trusting her more. The job is pretty far out, at least a day or two away. The request sounded pretty serious too. I think that'll take her a bit to get it done, but I really have faith in her that she'll get it done." Mira looked off then, just a bit, as she added, "And if she can't, well-"

"She'll be fine." Laxus stiffened a bit though, in something of annoyance maybe as he didn't quite understand why it was that he wasn't at least consulted of this beforehand (though he only would be perturbed a short while before conceding his true lack of dominion over the girl), but still managed a long sip of his beer. Correcting himself then, he added, "She'll do fine."

And she would. Of course she would. She was a Dreyar. They didn't fail. It wasn't in their blood.

But he only heard about it, anyways, rather than been there to congratulate her. Make over her. Like her mother would be able to. Laxus had only planned on being home for a short while, given he'd already had plans with some other high ranking mages in other guilds, a party of sorts, and, well, he thought about canceling, to stick around, but he just thought he'd see Aura when he was finished.

If she was even home yet.

She wasn't, actually. But only because, as her mother told him, she was out on yet another job.

"You know how it is, Lax," she yawned at the front door of the Strauss house, where he'd gone to get Aura bright and early, for some training and breakfast. Instead, he was only presented with a very tired (and slightly annoyed at being awoken on one of her rare off mornings from the hall) Mirajane. "She's a wizard; she wanted to go right back out on another job."

"Well," he grumbled a bit, kind of put out (though Mira would argue she was the one who truly was, then) as he kicked his boots against the porch step on which he stood. "Is she alright, at least? Not all beat up?"

"I wouldn't have let her leave if she wasn't."

And he knew that. But...he kinda wished, maybe, Mira wouldn't have let her leave until, you know, she'd at least spoken to her father. Because while she'd been accompanying many people on jobs for years, even taken some small ones around town with her dumb guild friends for a bit, this was different. Her first real, big job.

And…

Laxus kinda thought they'd always do that together. If that's what she wanted. Not to go alone, but to go on a serious, solo mission with him. And he was sure they still would. Eventually. Of course they would. How could they not? And anyways, it felt so much like him, she was so much like him, to want to do it all on her own. To be getting it done all on her own.

Aura was her own person and he was so glad for this fact.

Still, he didn't want to hang around his apartment, he found, if she wasn't going to be hanging about with him. So he took off to, on his own job, and things would be better. The next time he came around. Or he ran into her, at least, his daughter.

He was a bit disoriented, as he always was after a long journey on the train, but he could place the girl anywhere. She was his own, after all. It helped that she was standing further down on the platform with some of her guild friends and the kids were messing around perhaps a bit too much, drawing some attention to them. The kinda stuff to be expected from kids on the cusp of maybe being teens or already teetering over into it, but still enraging to most adults. Fun. Laxus found himself kind of annoyed by their horseplay as well, when he was first passing with a head to his forehead, before he took note of his daughter among them.

Everyone always told her that she looked so much like her mother. And maybe she did, Laxus could give up that fact, but when he saw her for the first time after a few weeks, her features struck him far less than her overall presence. She just looked like his daughter. It wasn't anything physical. Not really. The only thing that tied them fully together was, maybe, their similar locks.

It was her presence. Even so young. It didn't matter her standing in the group of five or so kids she was standing in then, or even when she was spending her days more around the adults in the guild. She just had a certain air about her. One that he'd always felt as well. Though she lacked the smugness and perhaps some of the unadulterated talent, but her humility did little to mask her confidence.

Because it wasn't arrogance. Not in him. Confidence was far different. And he felt it in her as well.

Aura smiled in greeting when he approached then, but didn't move to hug him. They weren't much ones for that, the two of them. He figured she got it enough from the rest of her family.

Still, his presence wasn't much appreciated by her friends, who straightened up immediately at the presence of the man. Laxus was quite imposing, even for those who'd only been in the guild a short time. He ignored them, anyways, as he only addressed his daughter, his words causing a tint to rise to the girl's cheeks as it was her turn to shuffle her feet and mutter some things.

It was always hard. To get true praise from the man. But to be getting it then, in front of her friends, wasn't quite embarrassing, but was at least a bit overwhelming, maybe.

He didn't tell her much. Just that he'd heard about her jobs of late and that he was glad to hear she was doing so well at them. Then he removed the hand that had been soothing his pounding head and reached out with it, instead, to rest against his daughter's shoulder.

"You're doing good," was the most he could offer her, but somehow, it felt like too much. "So keep doing it."

He wished her well, anyways, on...whatever dumb shit she was looking to get into with her friends. Though, honestly, he could admit that he kinda wanted her to cancel whatever it was, to come home with him, to hang around him for awhile, Laxus found himself happy she could still do it, anyways. Have fun. Being a mage for him young had meant training and jobs constantly, all alone or, when the Thunder Legion started hanging about, with people just as drive and single minded as he.

Laxus didn't want that for Aura. He wanted her to be strong and powerful. To be something to be feared. To make a name for herself. Continue on the name he'd given her. But he never wanted her to be wholly like him.

Ever.

When Aura got back into town, it was a few nights later and, though it was late, she arrived at the hall regardless of it being closed. She knew her mother would still be there, closing up, and the woman smiled warmly when it was her daughter who entered the thick, hall doors rather than someone she'd be forced to turn away.

"I came to walk you home," she said easily and her mother only hummed in response, not rightly believing her.

"I'll make you something quick to eat," she told the girl with a soft sigh as Aura fell into one of the tables, her head falling down to it sleepily as her stomach growled in appreciation. "But I don't want to stick around long."

Neither did Aura.

But the well stocked kitchen of the bar beat whatever was awaiting them at home.

"Your dad just left on a job a day or so ago," Mirajane remarked when she came to set the plate down in front of her grateful daughter. As Aura grinned down at it, the woman said, "He's been trying to see you, but-'

"I did see him."

"Huh?"

"When I was leaving. At the station. He was there, stumbling around." At her mother's look, Aura grinned and assured her, "Just from motion sickness, I think."

"Well," Mira sighed as over a second time to place a drink before her daughter (Aura was disappointed to find it to be water as opposed to a fizzy soda, but, well, it was late), "I really want you to be around, when he gets back into town."

"Why?" But she didn't even give her mother a chance to answer as, with a crinkled nose she decided, "No."

"Aura-"

"That job's still there. I see it. The one you told me to leave for a week, to see if someone else wanted it." Aura pointed across the dim hall, over at the request board. "I went and did something else, like you asked, and now I wanna go on that job. You said I could."

"And you can. But your father-"

"I just," she complained, "saw him. And he won't care if I'm gone when he gets back or not. Why would he? He'd want me to take the job."

Maybe.

But even if they didn't spend a lot of time together currently, Mirajane always found herself somewhat in tune to the man. Sort of. He kept to himself very well, but she was rather good at reading her guildmates. The man seemed rather down, the past few times she'd seen him, especially after informing him their daughter wasn't about. It had been over a month at that point, since they'd spent any genuine time together. Maybe two. Mira knew she wouldn't want that much time to come to pass between she and her daughter.

And yet, she wasn't Laxus. While she could tell he was somewhat perturbed by the past few weeks, she also knew that he'd never want to keep Aura from a job on his behalf. From growth. Plus, Mirajane had no idea when he'd be back and she couldn't just bar the girl from going anywhere for days on the man's account. If he really wanted to see her, he would have waited for her.

That was the thing though, wasn't it? Mira could diagnose it, she felt, even from her distant observation. Laxus had a hard time admitting when someone hurt his feelings. Mostly because very few people did. Most of the time, others only aggravated or annoyed him. You had to care for someone, very deeply, to be genuinely hurt by them. Seeing as deep, interpersonal connections weren't something the man was known for (not even in the women he infrequently dated), it was hard for him to experience that sort of pain.

But he did care for Aura in that way. Whether he could easily admit it aloud or not. Which she was pretty sure he could, honestly. But to admit something was hurting him, that he could even feel such a thing still, well, that just wasn't in the slayer's wheelhouse.

So while it wasn't really her business, Mirajane did feel at least some need to rectify the unintended slight Aura had sent his way. But she couldn't force their daughter to do something. Especially not when the man wasn't even willing to broach the subject.

"You should just remember that he loves you too."

"Mom," Aura complained with a heavy frown, but the woman only shrugged.

"Just try and do something nice for him," the woman suggested as her daughter, completely annoyed by her mother prying into what she felt like was a completely separate relationship. "He'd really appreciate it."

Aura doubted it, heavily.

Her father was different than literally every other person she knew. It was more than just his power and arrogance (because yes, it really was arrogance). While he was so completely everything that Fairy Tail stood for, Laxus also always seemed so distant from it. A silent observer. It was much the same in his parenting style. Laxus was there and definitely a part of things, but she hardly ever saw him a background participant.

A bonus, if anything.

It was how she always felt growing up. There was her mother, who was the be all of end all. Then there was Aunt Lisanna, who cared for her frequently, followed closely by Elf, who hung around as well. And Gramps, he was pretty important, before his death. IT was hard to think of the man now, but she did have memories, perhaps not as strong as others in the hall, but she could remember sitting out on the man's back porch during the summer, listening to him talk while they watching lightning bugs dance around in awe.

Her mother had an assortment of friends she found herself drawn to early on as well. Miss Lucy was very close to her mother and was probably her most frequent babysitter. And Cana stayed over sometimes, when her lifestyle led to some in-between payments as far as housing went.

But Laxus was always there. Somewhere. He'd show up, anyways, in what felt like the most opportune times when she was a child. Or at least in the shade of nostalgia, her rose-tinted glasses painted it this way. When her mother was being the most overbearing or her aunt and uncle at their absolute embarrassing, he'd roll into town with a new toy and whisk her away to get ice cream. To forget about how annoying the others were.

Because Laxus wasn't overbearing. Or embarrassing. He was super cool. He let her stay up as late as she wanted, do most anything she wanted, and best of all, he had an awesome motorcycle that was parked in the garage of his apartment building which he swore to her, many times over the years, that eventually she'd see him ride, yeah, definitely.

Eventually…

But the best part of Laxus was probably that he went away.

Or maybe it was the worst and, through virtue of a young mind, a silver-lining was born. Laxus left a lot. All the time. Which sucked. But that meant he never became a drag and was almost always desired. Coveted. Leaving meant returning. And returning was always so joyful, it was difficult to recall the opposite. Laxus didn't have to discipline or worry or scold or nag; he just got to come back in the best of times only to disappear before the worst.

He wasn't the same as her mother. She knew him as her father, fine, and enjoyed, at least somewhat, the veneration that was attached to her father's last name, but he was hardly like most her friends' fathers.

He was different.

He was Laxus Dreyar

And Laxus Dreyar hardly felt any emotion, if it wasn't intense bouts of anger, self-loathing, and overwhelming confidence.

So it didn't make sense to her, what Mirajane was saying. That the man, for some reason, required more. From her. He never had before.

Sure, yes, fine, whenever he came to town, they usually spent his first day of recuperating together, and maybe some time after, but nothing concrete. He was a very serious mage and had a training regimen that, while occasionally he broke to allow her to accompany, Then there was his nightlife which, fine, she didn't know a lot about, but she also wasn't a little kid. Not anymore. She knew that her father saw women, sometimes quite seriously. And even though they always seemed to fizzle out eventually, he still had to allot time for this. And then there was the Thunder Legion who, as they all seemed to age, were finding their own ways, slightly separate from the man, but they still wanted their time with him.

Laxus had a lot of obligations. And he would be bothered to think she felt as if she were one. But was she not? She had a time and slot in his life which, up to that point, was filled solely on his end. While she enjoyed her father greatly, to now find herself at least somewhat in control of her world at large as she ventured further and further from home in search of greater adventures, she was discovering the same call that kept him so far, so often.

Aura just couldn't picture the man wanting her to feel any other way.

Not when he'd expected her to accept his own desire for so long.

Still, the thoughts most have bothered her somewhat. Maybe. Not enough to be there though, Laxus found, when he arrived back home a little over three weeks later. He hadn't intended to be gone so long, but the job that he'd taken had gotten him all tangled up and well…

He stopped by the bar, first thing, but of course, his daughter was nowhere to be found. He saw her main two or three friends though, hanging about, being nuisances, and after a deep whiff of the air, found her scent completely absent. While a month or two ago, he'd have certainly assumed her just hiding away somewhere, he felt safe in deciding she was just gone on a job.

Her mother wasn't around to inform him of this, but it was just as well. The slayer slung back a beer, made some passing remarks to the lingering about Bickslow, about how he wanted him to get the other two and meet him for some late night training the next day, before departing for him. If Aura wasn't there to keep him up straight, fine; he'd raid his liquor cabinet and at least fall asleep peacefully that evening.

After a good number of days away, his mail had accumulated a bit and Laxus was grumbling a bit, as he flicked through it once he stumbled through his front door. With little care for tidiness while having what he wouldn't admit was a bit of a tantrum, maybe, he was licking the obvious trash all about with little care. Flier for the new bakery? Toss. Letter form that woman he was avoiding? Toss. Postcard from some dumb city he'd never been to? Toss. Postcard from another city he'd never been to? Toss. This weird advertisement with a picture of a cat staring down into a fish bowl, but they were selling movie lacrimas? T-

"Wait."

And he said this aloud, coming to a stop in the middle of his living room as he clutched the strange advert in his hand. But it wasn't what caused his hang up. In fact, along with all the other mail in his hands, it was thrown with far less ceremony to the ground as he rushed over to where he'd tossed one of the postcards. Frowning, he moved to pick it up, realizing he did actually know the city. In passing, at least. It was one of the major ones, obviously, and had a really iconic tower, which was of course the focus on the photo. Flipping it over, he didn't find any hastily written note or anything, really, other than a signature.

His daughter had really pretty handwriting. Far better than his own. He smiled down at her signature, feeling a bit silly, maybe, as he crossed over to where he'd tossed the other postcard. It truly was a city he didn't know then, and he felt a pang of worry, that he didn't recognize it right off the bat, wondering if she was really alright, out there somewhere he hadn't ventured, but turning over the postcard only revealed the same thing.

Aura Dreyar

There was no message, no post script. She'd written exactly what she'd intended. Just her name. The same as he had to her, for all those years. Because that was another thing about the unspoken, wasn't it? Once you spoke, it was ruined. Same with writing. It had to be known, with no actualized communication, or else it didn't count.

And oh man, did this feel like it counted.

Rubbing at his eyes, Laxus thought it would be too much, to add alcohol onto what he was already feeling, and thought he should just have a nice, calm night. Like he would if Aura really was there. Decompress.

He'd been far too tense recently.

When he met with the Thunder Legion the following evening, Evergreen was griping, just a bit, about stupid Elfman while Bickslow kept making sure, every time she stopped, to mention something in passing about the man, to rile her back up again. But Freed, ever observant and knowing the man hadn't been in the best of moods the past two months or so, only studied the man as they all stretched out, there in their typical clearing.

"I take it," he finally broached to the slayer as Laxus rolled his shoulders, loosening up; a training session between the four of them was nothing to approach lightly, "that you have some sort of engagement then, Laxus?"

"Huh?"

"You seem...more upbeat," the rune mage offered simply. "I thought, perhaps, there is something you're looking forwards to."

"Nope." The man even shook his head, but there was something of a grin, maybe, one of those faint ones that the slayer only wore when completely unable to hide it. "Nothing."

"Then you'll go with us, eh, boss?" Bickslow took some time out of absolutely getting Evergreen far too fired up (he'd regret it later), to look over at the man. "We saw the perfect job, there, on the board. Me and Evergreen. AND someone else was there, with us, but I can't quite-"

"Elfman," Ever hissed his name and Bickslow cackled, but Laxus found himself shaking his head once more.

"Maybe ask the big oaf to accompany you," the slayer suggested with a frown over at the seith who, for all his teasing, feared even the implication. Ugh. A job out with Elfman. "I ain't goin' nowhere."

"A date then?" Freed kept up, but Laxus seemed unwilling to engage with any of them outside of magic then.

It was just as well.

Evergreen had more than a few...aggression to get out.

"Oh, Laxus," Mirajane remarked when they finally ran into one another the next morning, up at the bar. She was the only one on shift and, when she came over to present him with a beer regardless of the hour, she only made a face. "Lisanna told me you were back. Aura though, is-"

"Out. Yeah. I know."

"You do?"

He only shrugged though, making no mention of the postcards as he claimed a table to himself. "She's a Dreyar; one of us has to be out there saving you sorry sacks from peril at all times."

The face she made with different then, but still, Mirajane merely replied dryly, "Lucky us."

Pulling his mug closer, he offered to the woman as she turned to walk away, "I think I'll be stickin' around a bit."

"So early?"

"Not the bar," he grumbled at her back. "I meant… Magnolia. Home. I… So if I'm not here, when Aura gets in, send her by my place. Or out where I train."

"I don't really know how long it'll be, Laxus, until-"

"It doesn't matter." Lifting his mug to his lips, he said around it, "I can wait."

Fanfic

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#Laxus Dreyar #Mirajane Strauss #Thunder Legion #Fairy Tail #Fanfiction

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recoiiled · 5 years

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“ ‘being hurt doesn’t teach anybody anything,’ said lily. ‘it doesn’t help. it just feels bad.’ “

☾ ↪ bob morley, cis male, 35, he/his. ／ ❛ have you heard from THEODORE DANE ROBINSON lately ？ yeah, the THIRTY FIVE year old HISTORY PROFESSOR. pretty sure they’ve been here EIGHTEEN/TWO YEARS, and from what i’ve heard, THEO can be kind of RESTLESS & OVERSTRUNG, but i caught them on a good day once, and they were pretty AFFABLE & PERSEVERING. i’m probably overthinking it, but given all the crazy shit around here, i hope they’re okay. maybe they’re watching their favorite scary movie, i heard it’s THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.

WARNINGS: discussions of murder, sibling death, parental death, ghost mention. second section mentions stabbing and open spaces, as well as snakes and scorpions. ADDITIONAL MATERIALS: theo’s stats page, playlist, & pinterest board ADDITIONAL NOTES: this is pretty much just theo’s app!!! and by pretty much i mean it is his app, like, exactly. if anything doesn’t make sense it is On Me because i have proofread these like TWICE (twice!!!) and still feel like i done fucked up big somewhere in there. anyway i can’t wait to get to plotting with all of y’all!!!!! ( zoe, 21, she/her, and cst. )

001. TELL US A HEADCANON OF HOW YOUR MUSE FEELS ABOUT THE HOLLOW MAN'S ALLEGED RETURN ?

the robinson family was a family with a long history, stretching back in holloway long before the murders marked them forever. that long history was told with laughter and warm interjections and embellishments at every family gathering ( family gatherings included: birthdays, weddings, holidays, and the every-other-week sunday dinners. ) for as long as theo could remember. this cousin tripped on her way down the isle when the whole town had been invited to the wedding, even the mayor, and made front page news. that great-aunt traveled two towns over to compete in a pie-making contest and won, but earned so much scorn from the win that no robinson can ever visit that town again. it went on --- theo was always meant to love history. he was raised on his family’s history, fed a steady diet of passed-down stories from anyone who had something to say. and he was raised on the town’s history, because you couldn’t live in holloway and not steep yourself in the myths of it. not steep yourself in the stories that surrounded every house, every family just as ingrained in the streets as your own; he knew things that were certainly tall tales, like all the myths that came with being in washington, and he knew the true facts of their town’s founding that each student learned when they were in the second grade. ( he knew every bigfoot sighting and alien tale from surrounding towns, could weave tall tales of his own to any younger robinson who would listen. ) there were family secrets, he was sure. there were a lot of robinson’s, and robinson-adjacent people, who flitted in and out of theo’s life growing up. he was a smart kid --- he knew how to read a silence that fell over a room as soon as a kid walked in. he knew how to tell when a scrapbook was missing pages. but there were other things on his mind and he knew that if there were things he needed to know, someone would tell him. family was important to theo, that sense of community he found he could find almost anywhere in holloway. adults kept things secrets from kids, but he didn’t think it was malicious; it was just a sign of being human. he was a pretty chill kid and everyone around him knew it; the sort of child who was always underfoot, but quiet about it, who tucked a toy or a comic book or a paperback with him and sat with the adults. theo just liked being where the action was, even if sometimes the action was subdued because of his presence. he was a frequent receiver of high-fives and hair-ruffles, frequent relayer of information to the other kids of the robinson clan. no one really thought of him as nosy, though certainly someone could have looked at him and seen that; they thought he was a kid who knew that there would always be a place for him.

growing up, theo had five siblings --- their own little robinson clan plenty big, as if holloway wasn’t already full of people they were related to. mom’s side was big and dad’s side was big; both parents looked at the other when they were newlyweds and said, we’re not going to have that many kids. both remembered crowded childhoods and laughed at people their age, determined to have a big family. and then a few years after the first they said, well, one more. and once they opened the floodgates there, it just kept happening, and before they knew it they had a family the size of the brady bunch. theo himself was somewhere in the middle; the oldest boy, but not the outright oldest. his sister emma was the leader of all their fun, with his second oldest sister her second in command, ready to carry out her orders. he was there to reign in anything too outrageous, which felt an odd place for the third sibling to be in the pecking order; the most responsible, in a way, when he was three years younger than emma. but it worked. everything about the six robinson kids worked. theo’s childhood was both snail-paced and lightning fast. there were moments that buzzed lazily by, summer breaks spent in the drowsy almost-heat of the town, daring other kids to sleep out in the stars. there were months that sped by theo so fast he could barely recall what his fourth grade teacher looked like. theo was un-bothered by time; he was always running an hour late or an hour early, never could quite tell if it was tuesday or friday. he was a go-with-the-flow kinda kid, and it felt like he would never quite shake that mentality off. ( his responsibility extended to contributing to plans, not to getting places on time or doing homework by the due date. let’s be realistic. ) they were all a little laidback, knew their way around each other --- breakfast in the mornings before school was a well-oiled routine, someone manning the toaster, someone brewing the coffee, someone scrambling eggs, and on and on. dinner was also fun, their parents joining in on the chaos in the kitchen, everyone doing their part even if it had nothing to do with what was happening on the stove. it was great, to be a robinson.

1976 dawned and it felt like it would be a great year. theo remembered the robinson’s family new years party, everyone waving sparklers around and shooting off fireworks. he was a few years out from even being able to steal a glass of champagne, but everything was golden tinged anyway; like nothing could go wrong that night, like it was a good omen for the year to come. spoiler alert: it was fucking not a great year. not for theo. not for holloway. certainly not for emma. if he could scrub the awful, whole three-hundred-and-sixty-five of it from his memory, he would. if he could have a do over, he would take it. theo was on time for something for the first time in his life, and it was emma’s funeral. he imagined her ruffling his hair for it, giving him a trademark sardonic look. what, I’m worth the punctuality cousin jess’ wedding wasn’t? everything felt awful --- he knew the whole town was in mourning, but he felt the gaping hole emma left in the robinson family like a physical wound. he wondered, and hated himself for wondering, how anyone else could know what they were going through.

life went on for theo, but only because life had to go on; because he knew emma ( of course he knew emma, the robinsons where tight-knit as they came and he knew his sister like the back of his hand. better than that. ) and he knew she wouldn’t want the family to wallow in her loss forever. in fact, he knew she’d be pissed if he wallowed; could practically picture her whacking him over the back of the head for it, eyes wide as she demanded, what the hell are you doing, theodore? theo was fifteen when emma died and it felt like he had to go back to normal as soon as possible. he’d been the responsible one of the robinson children; emma had been their ringleader, but he’d been their glue, and he knew if she was gone he could never, ever afford to fall apart. he could leave and change and do what he pleased, but he had to be fine, he had to be okay. he also knew that if he showed any cracks in his surface outside of the family, everyone would be overly kind to him, soft with pity for him. he wasn’t the only person in town related to one of the hollow man’s victims --- but theo couldn’t shake the feeling that if he let himself be seen as one of the dead girl’s brothers for a moment too long, he would never be seen as anything else. ( the truth was: part of him almost didn’t see anything wrong with that. he loved emma, he missed emma, would it really be so bad to have an identity tied to her? but he couldn’t. he couldn’t. ) he’d always been a softer kid; he had male cousins, and younger brothers, and his dad was always around to play catch if theo asked, but he had two older sisters and a mom who meant business and that meant he’d never really been macho, a guy’s guy. he liked telling stories and reading stories. he knew a shit ton about bog bodies and the riches of king tut’s tomb, had a favorite ancient civilization, a favorite revolution --- the whole nerdy nine yards. but after emma ( after everything ) he joined cross country and the baseball team. he dated a few girls at his friends’ suggestions, went to parties, cracked jokes with ease. he figured if he became someone entirely different, on purpose, no one would think to question all the ways he wasn’t the same.

002. WHAT IS YOUR MUSE'S GREATEST FEAR ?

that few years re-invention was for a good cause; theo wore it like armor. the whole of halloway wanted to move on from the murders, and no one was exactly waiting around him, looking for a stray look from poor theo robinson as a cue to ask how he was doing. the robinsons were close --- they’d always been close. emma’s murder didn’t take that away, but it did take something from it. they were a tightly wound machine that had to learn how to operate without a vital part. if theo thought too hard about it all his heart would break; he knew some families were rife with discord because their personalities were never made to match up, but the robinsons were, in a lot of ways, so similar. they all put up a brave face so the rest of the family wouldn’t worry too much about them. they would never shatter for missing her, but they’d never really be able to move on. it was a double-edged sword, the price they had to pay. his brave face was becoming mr. congeniality. he’d always been open and friendly, but there was something sweeter about it before. soft. he was a boy who seemed like he could break so easily, who no one wanted to hurt. ( he was hurt anyway. his sister died. she was murdered, brutally. imagine thinking he’d stay the same after that? ) after the murders, there was an edge underneath his sunny smiles; he’d never been the popular guy before. but all of a sudden he was untouchable. people parted ways for him in the halls and seemed startled when he gave them a friendly nod, and asked about the volleyball team, or the student council, or their younger brother. no one expected someone with a steel-forged spine to hand you fresh-baked banana bread for your sick grandma. people had always liked theo; but after everything, they really liked theo. the thing was: theo wanted to study history. he’d always wanted to study history. he wanted to be an archaeologist, he thought, since he figured that was the best route if he wanted to be elbow deep in the past. he’d come to this conclusion when he was in middle school and even after everything, theo was sticking to his guns. he used to think that he loved holloway too much to leave, though. that he’d find a way to finesse their degree programs to work for what he wanted. that he’d never be able to find somewhere that filled him with the same warm feeling being so near his family did --- close family and distant family and blood-related and not-so-blood-related all as close as could be. holloway was comforting, once upon a time. now he knew that he had to leave. it wrenched something from his parents when he told them he’d applied and been accepted to school some clean across the country. somewhere cold and old and as far as he could get from the hallows. but he’d known when he was fifteen that emma would have smacked him for wallowing, and at eighteen he knew she would have punched him for staying. he imagined her saying, are you staying for me? you’ll kill yourself for a ghost, theo. his sister spoke to him a lot, in his head. but that’s what was so great about leaving for college. no one at school expected the boy with an iron forged heart to be haunted.

people in holloway were so dazed by the news of him leaving that the fact that he was leaving for an ivy league kind of blew right over their heads. and theo wanted it that way. he got the sense that if people forgot all about the soft kid he used to be, before emma ( in his head, he always thought of it as b.e.; he’d never been religious, but he figured he could adopt the catholic wording to cut his life in half ), they could forget him altogether if he left abruptly enough. in a way, he was right. the ivy league-ness of his choice made the rounds, made the gossip, and then it passed. holidays for the robinsons used to be sprawling affairs, but theo made sure to only come back for his immediate family. he stayed sequestered with his siblings and his parents and boarded a plane back to campus as soon as the festivities waned. pretty soon, he thought, I’ll be a ghost too. then holloway could be full of them. cornell university was the culture shock to end all culture shocks --- and it was everything theo hoped it would be. the finger lakes, on paper, didn’t seem that different from the region around the hallows. and holloway had its college, too. but he’d thought ithaca was about as different from home as he could get and still find his feet on solid ground. the buildings were all red-bricked and ancient feeling, the air crisp even in the summer heat of move-in day. the hills and the gorges and the rolling trees; it was a place of clean beauty. unbloody, untouched. his classmates came from all over, just bright and eager to get on with their lives as he was. they were all fascinated with his origin story, when they got to see glimpses of it; he’d agonized, a little, over telling the truth. some just knew he came from ‘ that town with all those murders. ’ for others, wasn’t as interesting as his major or his plans for his degree, what he’d gotten on that last exam. others still seemed curious, though; to get to know him, really get to know him; and this was his time to move on. this was why he’d moved out so far. but. he couldn’t just lie about emma. why not? the emma that lived in his head asked. in his head, she’d always be seventeen and beautiful. it hurt to think he was older now than she’d ever get to be. I wouldn’t mind if you lied. why would you move all this way to feel just as tied down by the past? but in the end he couldn’t lie. he couldn’t.

so they were all fascinated with his origin story, but once they heard it and understood, a little guiltily, that theo was caught in the midst of his hometown’s tragedy ... they backed off with the questions. and pretty soon it faded into the background of things people knew about him; he went to parties thrown by cornell’s frats and ithaca college’s music students. he went apple picking and to hockey games. and he studied his ass off, pulled more all nighters than he’d ever thought healthy, or possible. the archaeology program was amazing. worth acquainting a new crop of people to the story of the hollows. theo was practically a chameleon at this point. he wasn’t the soft, sweet kid he’d been b.e. but he wasn’t the surprise people always saw him as in high school, all sun-tempered-steel, either. he still had more steel in him than softness. but he wasn’t making the same effort, to ask about people’s family, or sports team, or whatever. he was just another guy --- he had friends in other majors, but he mostly stuck around the other archaeology students, or history majors, people who crept to the same corners of the school’s library. he was nice to the people in his building, and his friend’s significant others, but he was kind of over doing the most to seem perfectly healed. he was a student, and that’s what he would focus on, and so he did. theo graduated with a few digs under his belt and a glowing recommendation that had him headed to the united kingdom for two years for a master’s program, exploring the secrets of old castles and glens. it wrenched something a little more from his parents when he broke that news, but by then, theo thought, they’d known to see it coming. they loved him enough to let him go.

here were the things that kept theo robinson up at night, despite declarations that he was fine ( and he was, mostly ):

he couldn’t stand in an open space with his back to it. there was something hollow ( ha ha, pun unintended ) in all that empty space. there was something awful in the unknown. something fragile in the unprotected skin of your back.

he had a bit of a problem walking first through doors, too, which was a problem. he’d had plenty of female co-workers who hated having the door held open for them. and he respected that. but having someone at his back like that made the hair at the back of his neck stand up, gave him a cold shiver it took longer than he’d like to admit to shake off.

he encountered this fucked up snake at one of his dig sites --- definitely venomous, though he wasn’t going near enough to it to find out. snakes are a no-go for him.

it’s probably a problem that he can’t stop talking to his murdered older sister’s ghost. emma’s voice lives in the back of his head and he can’t get her out of there; most days he thinks he doesn’t want to get her out of there. he tells himself he’s not so crazy that he talks to her out loud, so is it really a problem?

he won’t ever tell anyone he hears her all the time. he can’t handle the gut-punch the pitying, wary look would cause.

scorpions are also a no-go, also because a shitty encounter on a dig.

it’s been said, but it bears reiterating: he cannot stand the feeling of emptiness behind him.

he’s had recurring nightmares for years now where he’s fighting a lion gladiator-style in an old roman colosseum; he pulls his sword on the bloody thing and at the last moment the lion stands on its hind legs and pushes him, and even though they’d been in a colosseum, theo falls into nothing and wakes up in a cold sweat. every single time.

he wonders if he wasn’t stabbed in a past life; the blade dug snug in the small of his back and wrenched out before he could do anything.

theo still came home for all the important holidays; tried to make it home for as many birthdays as he could, always bearing foreign gifts and exciting stories. he moved away from scotland and headed to egypt. then he moved from egypt to morocco, spent another chunk of time where he hung out with other people just as obsessed with history and archaeology as he was; there, he decided to keep his own history under wraps. no one needed to know about the hollow. he fell in love; he fell out of love. he couldn’t recall a second where he didn’t have sand in his hair, under his nails, and a broad grin swept across his face. those years confirmed for theo: this was where he was meant to be. the voice of emma in his head was quiet, happy for him. came out mostly to chide him to eat healthier, sleep better, call home more. it was hard to get technology out to the actual dig sites; almost no one had cell-phones, they weren’t cartoonish wall-street brokers. but luckily, theo was living on the edge of a little city, full to bursting with life, and people, and landlines. ( everyone spoke french, which theo had little practice in. one of his co-workers was french canadian and made fun of him endlessly for any and all attempts. ) life at this particular site was great; then one day his father called him in a panic at four in the morning and said his mother was having a health episode --- those had been his words. theo flew home in a rush, crowded into the hospital room with a dozen other robinsons for as long as the medical center staff would allow. when she died, he stayed in the thick of his family for the first time in years. but theo was more grown up than he had been at eighteen when he left and thought he was leaving for good. he was ready to be there for his siblings while his father couldn’t be. theo and his sister oversaw funeral arrangements. they were the ones who tried to get their family’s lives back on track. theo said, I’m not going to stay too long, just until everyone is back on their feet. he said, I really do need to get back to the site. he said, I’ll stay until christmas but then I have to go. some of his siblings were already grown up themselves and were called back into the thick their lives before their grieving period was really over --- but they went back all the same. luckily they were all still in the hallow; it was nice to be together again, theo could admit. he’d missed it, even if now it wasn’t the same. and then his father had an unexpected heart attack and theo was the last adult robinson in his immediate family with nothing else to do, and looking after his two youngest siblings fell to him.

his dad got better, by a certain degree of better, but theo felt awful anytime he thought of leaving holloway again. he put his master’s degree to good use and got a teaching job at the local college, made sure to start spending time with his living siblings. with his living parent. he couldn’t quite figure out what the emma in his head thought about the choice; some days he imagined her telling him, theo, you were so happy in life you made for yourself. others, she said, remember how good home felt, when it was good? then shelly meyers died, and he wished he’d figured out which version of emma to listen to. he thought, I can’t fucking do this again. on the one hand he was glad to be around; he couldn’t imagine hearing news of the new murder while he was halfway around the world and had no way of keeping tabs on his family. he couldn’t even picture the spike of fear that would drive into his chest. but his family was still here. and he was still here. and no amount of family dinners, of walking everyone to their car and making sure they had a knife or pepper spray on them, would shake his fear. he already had one ghost in his head, and it felt like there were dozens of others just waiting to join her.

003. TELL US A LITTLE MORE ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER. WHAT ARE THEIR QUIRKS ? PERSONALITY TRAITS ? FATAL FLAWS ?

so theo probably, like, definitely has a multilayered reputation around town. he was born and raised in holloway and I definitely feel like the robinsons are the sort of family that like. everyone definitely isn’t related to, like biologically, but everyone is a family friend of. there’s a lot of them, and they’re mostly warm and inviting and like being well known and well liked around town. theo himself was a very likable kid! when he was a kid!

and the elephant in the room is that theo’s oldest sister was one of the twelve victims of the original hollow murders. so that definitely tinged the way people saw him for a bit.

he decided that he Have To move on when it seemed like that’s what the town wanted to do. did a full one eighty and was very much a Likable Cool Guy until he left for college and full on left. I doubt anyone but his family saw him in the years between him a.) graduating from high school and b.) coming back for his mom

he’s been back in town for two years! fun!! just in time to get mcmurdered!!!

his primary mode of transportation is a motorcycle which he maintains mostly on his own. it makes him seem a lot cooler than he is. he read a ton of comic books as a kid and definitely still does. he’s an x-men fan all the way. some of his students at the college definitely refer to him as the hot history professor but he is 100% still a nerd.

he got a b.s. in archaeology from cornell and his master’s in history from some scottish university I’ll figure out when it’s not 3:51am and I don’t have a cold.

( edit from when it’s not 3:51am but i still have a cold: i’ll still figure that out later aksjdhgf )

he has a rather gnarly scar on his left thumb and another hefty one along the back of his right calf. his job was pretty scrape-happy, so he’s got a bunch of other, smaller scars, but no other big ones.

theo has a black (former stray) kitten named oscar who he dotes on, like, really really dotes on.

hmmm. fatal flaw would probably be that he has developed Very Good escapist tendencies. he wouldn’t say that but he does. he’s a runner --- super ironic for someone who has a fear of leaving things at his back.

theo owns an ungodly amount of denim and leather jackets. truly, his closet is packed. when he was in high school he had a letterman jacket, too, with patches for baseball and cross country both. it’s probably still in his dad’s house somewhere; all the kids’ stuff is neatly stored in the attic, and theo knows he could hunt that jacket down if he really wanted to add it back to the collection.

he’s not super open about it because he is a Man of Science but he fully believes in bigfoot. and aliens. though he’ll fight anyone who says bullshit like, the aliens built the pyramids. theo has to draw the line somewhere.

of all the places he’s lived ( holloway, ithaca, scotland, egypt, morocco, plenty of other sites for smaller amounts of time ) the hollow is definitely not his favorite. surprise, surprise, but it bears repeating.

ooc I know he’s probably not going to make it out of this alive, but theo’s plan for when the murders all blow over is to apply to cornell’s grad program and move back to ithaca for a bit to wipe the hollow off of him. then probably fuck off to some more dig sites before eventually settling at a college not in holloway to teach again, because I think he does enjoy being a professor. he just hates this town

#( ⊱ ━━ 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒍𝒆𝒇𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚┊intro. )#hollowfm.intro

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chrysaliseuro2019 · 5 years

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Deliverance

A relaxed start to the the day in Vrsar. Breakfast laid on and it was a little different. Basically at the mostly open air restaurant which was adjacent to the rooms. We sat under a large tree called a Ladonja. Famed in these parts as a tree for the locals to sit under and chew the fat. Spot on. This was in a little area opposite the main part of the restaurant overlooking the town and out to sea. Quite a panoramic spot. So panoramic was it that they had set up a false window which you could stand in front of, as if the sea and town were the backdrop view you had from your room. We of course took a photo there but were more amused by the people who took a photo from the reverse way ie. looking into the “non room” from the sea.

Breakfast was a laid back affair sitting under the tree listening to the various foreign voices around us (mostly German) and made more laid back by the same waitress we had been chatting to the night before about the Fantasy duo. She was in fine droll form.

Post breakfast we had determined to visit Rovinj. It’s regarded as the star of the Istrian peninsula. Medieval town with all sorts of stone laneways and nooks and crannies which are very attractive. Topped by the church of St Euphemia, the largest baroque building in Istria, which we made our way up to. Luckily, though it overlooks the town, it’s not too high up as temperature in the 30s and humid and the shade ran out near the top.

Rovinj is a sizeable town, full of tourist shops of all categories, from tasteful to the usual fridge magnet pap. We had arrived around 12.30 and strolled around for perhaps a couple of hours with a view to staying the night. Interestingly, accommodation was not jumping out at us. Often, the various signs “zimmer, sobe, camere, apartments, rooms for rent” and of course plain old “hotel and B&B” are very prominent but not here.

We decided that though it had plenty of charms Rovinj was not for us. At least to stay the night in. From what we could see, accommodation was costly, scant or out of town. It also wasn’t quite pushing our buttons in terms of having to stay there. A little too busy, a little too commercial and of course not user friendly in terms of bed for the night. We continued on with Liz scanning possible next destinations. She came up with Fasana. Coastal town, didn’t know too much about it but it was worth a try. As we headed there we came across a delightful little beach at a place called Peroj. Around 5 kms shy of Fazana. We turned off the main road and drove along a wide stone road, adjacent to the beach and saw a few beach umbrellas and beds but not too busy. Liz went to the local beach bar and struck a deal on a couple of beds and umbrella (just beat the German couple to the last available beds) and so we spent the next 3 hours+ relaxing in this delightful location.

I was researching ferries from Split or Zadar to Ancona for the next leg of our trip and got very close to booking but it was a prolonged research process and around 6.45 we thought we had better find somewhere to stay this night as time was marching on. Liz had been looking at Fazan but hard to get anything in town as it was booked out or prohibitive. There were some possibilities at 1.2kms out of town or 2kms +. We went into town tried the tourist bureau where they simply recommended pricey hotels. Parked up and walked into the centre by the beach looking for accommodation signs. A few apartments but they were either booked or not responding to phone calls. The delightfully named Hotel Feral was unfortunately also full. We would have loved to stay there. A couple of ferals in the feral hotel. Tried a couple of flash hotels but one was full and the other too pricey.

Now getting towards 8.00 pm and nowhere to stay the night and fair to say we were getting a little toey. Probably more because we could see this funky town and could not find anywhere close. We knew we would find somewhere but ideally didn’t want to be too far from town.

Amusingly we found one B&B advertised close to town and headed there. Approaching it we started to feel a little disquieted. Scrubby old garden and gate with a bit of looped wire keeping it closed. As we stood at the gate contemplating whether to go in a man appeared out of the house. Let’s say he looked a bit like a good old boy from Deliverance the movie. Bare feet, trousers which had seen much better days (years) and possibly weren’t his. Also roaming around the yard (garden is too flattering - there was all sorts of bric a brac lying around) was a large dog I’m thinking Shetland pony size. He looked friendly enough but was of the guard dog variety (a shepherd) and the “beware of the dog sign” made us even more wary. As did his loud bark.

Anyway having come this far we called out to deliverance man, in our slowest and well enunciated English, something along the lines of “do you speak English - is this a B&B and do you have a room?” Already beginning to pray that the answer was no (to either of the last 2 questions). We could have garbled the effort as he didn’t speak English and so opened a door and called out to someone to come out from inside the house. They yelled back but did not appear so he showed us up to the room. The door being opened allowed a waft of cigarette smoke to waft out which again was unpleasant.

Meanwhile the hound of the Baskervilles took a liking to me. Liz was showing him all the affection but he was slobbering around against my leg trying to be my best mate including proudly fetching his semi crushed plastic bottle for me to see. We all four went to the room, Liz, me, Wilbur and Fido. We thought the dog was going to come into it for a mo to help us check it out but obviously he knew his place and sat by the door curiously watching on and waiting to continue his slobbering.

The room looked like it had last been occupied 10 years earlier. Possibly by the person who left our host’s trousers behind. Dark, dank, musty and very hot (the room though also probably applicable to the trousers). We couldn’t imagine spending 5 minutes in there let alone a night. Especially with the Clampetts and Rover for company. We mumbled that we would think about it and retreated as fast as we could. The old boy couldn’t have given a stuff (he was v friendly) but the dog watched us go a mite sadly I thought.

In the end we succumbed and booked a place 1.2 kms from town. Not too bad, we thought we could waltz in from there relatively easily, though we did have a bit of trouble locating it via Apple maps so another 20 mins down the drain. But eventually we rolled up. I had read an article about the locals being masters (and mistresses) at gilding the lily and making places seem much better than they truly are. Well we got dudded. 1.2 kms was to the signpost to the start of town. Let’s say it was about 4/5 kms out from the centre. Delightful landlady. Spoke German fluently but virtually no English (which forced me to try and recollect high school German from 50 years ago).

Room was fine but we realised that the walk into town was not on so pretty quickly changed and drove in. By now it was 9.00pm and they don’t eat as late in Croatia as they do in Greece. Town though was still rocking. It’s relatively small but obviously a favoured tourist destination as plenty of people (without being overwhelming) were doing their evening promenade or still having dinner by the waterfront.

We found a restaurant right on the front and had drinks followed by dinner. Grilled squid for me and mussels for Liz. Very good. Staff extremely helpful and friendly. Our seats were close to a little market area where the nearest stall was a guy blowing glass with plenty of onlookers. Great spot for people watching and we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours in perfect temperatures. Liz also managed to book a hotel for the next night right smack in town so we were set up for the next day. It was one of the pricey ones from night before but obviously they had a room free for one night so brought down the price on booking.com and we were in. Great. Went for a walk around town and then headed home.

It had been yet another different day. Laid back Vrsar to kick off, followed by picturesque though touristy Rovinj, a glorious laze for several hours on the beach, serious contemplation of the next move and the ferry. Followed by a couple of tense hours looking for a place to stay including the trouble finding the location of the B&B. Then a great dinner and relaxing remainder of the evening.

Next day we were able to check out of our B&B and the room was free at the hotel. Easy switch. They also provided free car parking at a car park which was about 150 metres away so easy bag transition and nice though snuggish room, though we didn’t care, being smack in town was the key.

We had one plan for the day. Head straight to the beach of yesterday at Peroj and grab one of those few beach umbrellas and beds. Liz was getting toey as to whether we would make it in time. The transfer to the hotel soaked up a little time and of course I needed to complete suitable ablutions prior to departure. The tension was rising in the car as we headed there and a lack of beach facilities for the day was going to cause repercussions. Relief. Only one umbrella was taken when we arrived so we had the pick of 5/6 others. We chose and immediately headed to the little beach bar for a toasted sandwich breakfast. Now around 11.00am.

The rest of the day was spent lazing, swimming, sleeping, blogging, reading followed by lazing, swimming, blogging, sleeping and reading. We were feeling very chilled.

Also took a decision to forget the ferry from Croatia to Italy. Neither of us are very keen on them. Our experience, at least of overnight ferries, in this part of the world has not been great. We were also happy to drive around. Cost might end up similar when comparing ferry costs including small cabin overnight to petrol, toll and accommodation cost for one night driving around top of Italy down.

We didn’t leave the beach till 6.30 and couldn’t believe where the time went. That evening we did pretty much the same as the night before. Went to the same restaurant given it was a great place to sit and watch the sunset and passing throng and had good food and uber friendly staff. Didn’t disappoint. Grilled squid for Liz , grilled sardines for me. Went to the No1 gelato shop in town post that and strolled around the little town again before heading the 50 metres home. Great day.

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180abroad · 6 years

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Days 147-148: The Night Train to Prague

I'd never been on a night train before, and it was one of the little things I wanted to experience at some point during our trip. The trip from Krakow to Prague takes about eight hours by train--one of the longest train journeys of our entire trip--so it seemed like the perfect candidate.

I'm glad to experience an overnight train once on our trip, but I'm also glad that it was only once.

Just getting the tickets had been a chore. Renting a cabin on an overnight train is more complicated that just getting a regular ticket, and we couldn't book directly through the rail company. We could have waited to buy the tickets at the station when we first arrived in Krakow, but we didn't want to take that risk if we could avoid it. There are a limited number of cabins, and if they sold out before we got there, we'd be out of luck. Plus, the tickets would be a lot cheaper if we bought them a few weeks in advance.

We ended up buying the tickets through a Polish travel agency while we were in Britain and having the tickets physically mailed to our B&B in Inverness. There was a pretty steep mark-up, but we still got them for less than what it would have cost to buy them at Krakow station.

After picking our bags up from our Krakow host, we took an Uber over to the train station and hunkered down in a café. It would be about a four-hour wait before our train arrived. Probably. The station's timetables were all on printed posters, and these days it's hard to trust that anything printed is still up to date. I got up every half-hour or so stretch my legs and check the arrivals and departures board.

We made good use of the time, though, and we managed to plan out all the trains we wanted to book for the rest of the trip.

Finally, it was time to head up to the platform.

There was a few minutes of uneasy confusion when the train first arrived and the numbers on our tickets didn't match any of the cars. We had a hard time getting a straight answer from the conductors about where to go, but our fears were somewhat allayed when we found a cluster of other travelers with the same issue. Eventually, we pieced it together that they were going to add more cars to the train before leaving, and our car was going to be one of them.

One of the other people in our cluster was a woman from Arizona. When she found out we were from California, she promised not to hold it against us, then jokingly held her index fingers up in a cross like she was trying to ward off evil. And she kept calling us a cute couple even after we had told her several times that we were cousins. When it finally sank in, her response was "Ew, gross!"

Yeah? Maybe she was just tired, too.

The night train proved to be both more and less comfortable than I had anticipated. On the plus side, the sheets and mattresses weren’t too uncomfortable, and the train operator provided bottled water, toiletries, and a continental breakfast with tea. On the downside, the beds were frustratingly narrow, and the cabin uncomfortably hot. Cracking the window helped with the heat, but it also let in a terrific amount of noise. Just when I would start to feel comfortable with the racket, an opposing train would crash by on the adjacent track or our train would jolt with a piercing shriek of the brakes.

I didn’t mind the rocking of the train too much, but it did get to Jessica. She had initially claimed the top bunk, but within minutes of leaving the station we had to switch because she was getting motion sick up there.

All in all, it was probably the worst night's sleep we'd gotten since Lucerne. Mercifully, the train pulled out onto a side track outside Prague at some point in the early morning, giving us a couple hours to sleep before we finally pulled into the station at 8:30 in the morning.

It felt like we'd pulled an all-nighter, and with groggy heads we stumbled out into Prague station. Our Airbnb wouldn’t be ready for check-in until noon, but we had some tasks to accomplish in the meantime. The first was to get our next train tickets before leaving the station, but we weren’t nearly caffeinated enough for that yet.

We parked ourselves in a café in the train station and slowly churned out a plan for the next few days while kick-starting our brains on expensive iced lattes. The menu was strangely complicated, and the people serving us seemed confused by our presence. But maybe I was just projecting my own tired confusion.

The part of Prague that tourists visit is divided into four sections. There's the medieval Old Town, clustered in a bend of the Vltava River. Old Town is known for its charming shop-lined streets and well-preserved Jewish quarter. Then there's the New Town, built over the last few centuries in a band around the outskirts of the Old Town. It houses a lot of Prague's great monuments and Art Nouveau architecture. And across the Vltava from the Old and New Towns are the Little Quarter and the Castle Quarter, where the city's richest residents and noblest visitors historically lived.

Having sketched out some things to do–and imbibed a minimally sufficient level of caffeine–we went to get our train tickets out of town. Having spent last night figuring out all the trains we would need to take for the rest of the trip, we figured we'd try to buy as many of them as we could. (We may have learned a lot of flexibility during the trip, but we're still obsessive planners at heart.)

But given the long line of people waiting behind us and the tenuous level of communication we managed to achieve with the person behind the ticket counter, we decided to settle for just getting our tickets to Vienna, where we would try our luck again.

I had always expected that one of the biggest culture shocks of the trip would be going from Scotland to Poland. But it turned out to actually be going Poland to the Czech Republic. In Poland, virtually everyone we dealt with spoke very good English, and Jessica’s familiarity with the city and some essential Polish phrases made everything go as smoothly as I could have imagined.

Prague was a much more difficult transition. Even something as simple as using a public pay-toilet–something we’d done plenty of times in plenty of countries–was a challenge. The payment machine was complicated, the instructions were only in Czech, and the attendant didn’t speak any English either. Luckily, another traveler who spoke Czech and English was able to translate for me.

Navigating the train station to the metro platform also proved difficult. We tried to follow the signs, but not every turn was marked. The shopkeeper we asked directions from didn’t speak English, so we resorted to just saying “Metro?” while looking as cartoonishly quizzical and helpless as possible. A confused shopkeeper eventually pointed us in the right direction. It was right in the middle of the station's main atrium. Again, I blame the lack of sleep.

Later, when we went grocery shopping, I felt overwhelmingly out of place. Not since we were in Morocco did I feel this unable to figure out the basic, routine procedures of living in a place. Even in Krakow, I could at least say please, thank you, and sorry in the local language. Somehow, even just those few words seemed able to bridge a thousand-mile gap. We tried, but between the lack of sleep and the punishing heat we just couldn't keep them in our brains. It also didn't help that many of the phrases were close enough to Polish for me to get them confused but not close enough that I could get away with just speaking Polish and trusting people to understand me.

Even after all this time abroad, it’s still unnerving to find myself surrounded by people I can’t communicate with, in their own territory, where it’s clear I’m in their way. Standing in front of the ready-meals, confusedly fumbling with my phone to figure out what everything was, I could tell that I was annoying the other customers who wanted to get in. Even though I always moved out of their way to let them in, I felt I didn’t belong there in the first place.

And Google Translate wasn't much help when it came to Czech cooking instructions:

Anyway, after finding the Metro–finally something we understood!–we rode over to our flat. It was on the fuzzy boundary between the New Town and the rest of modern Prague that tourists don't really go to. It was close enough to walk into the Old Town. Or, at least, it would have been if the sun wasn't so unbearably scorching.

Our place still wasn’t quite ready yet, so we picked up our keys (which were on a little wooden tree and tagged with adorable names like "Lovely" and "Cozy"), dropped off our bags, waited for a few gallons of sweat to evaporate from my quick-dry t-shirt, then headed out for lunch.

Jessica found a place called Bar Fud, a Wisconsin-themed pub restaurant specializing in cheese fries staffed mainly by American expats. I know–bad on us for going to the American food place on our first day in a new and exotic European capital. But we were tired, hot, and hungry. And let me tell you, those cheese fries were damn good.

I had a deliciously decadent cheeseburger, and Jessica had a spicy chicken sandwich. Too spicy, actually--it was overflowing with jalapenos. She made a valiant effort, but in the end Jessica had to scrape most of them off. Mildly regrettable ordering decisions aside, as we sat in a shady outdoor booth drinking cold cider and eating our sandwiches, everything finally felt right again with the world.

As we left, we passed a tourist and a local flirting over a glass of absinthe.

Finally able to enter our apartment, we both knew that we weren’t going to be doing any sightseeing today. Instead, we checked in, converted the sofa bed (which also took a surprising amount of effort and ingenuity), and flopped down for a sweaty few hours of afternoon napping before dinner.

At least Prague seems to believe in ceiling fans, which is one step in the right direction compared to everywhere else we’ve stayed in Europe.

Oh, and the elevator.

We never had a problem with it, but the elevator in our building was one of the smallest, most unnerving elevators we used on the entire trip. It never quite aligned with the floor you were on, and it always started moving with a jolt several seconds after you started to think it must have already started moving without you noticing.

Again, I'm glad to have had the experience of taking a night train, but looking back, we almost certainly would have had a better time if we'd just taken a regular day train. We definitely would have felt better, and we might have even had the energy to actually do something interesting in town with the few hours we still would have had that evening.

Next Post: Prague–Old and Nouveau

Last Post: Salt, Cemeteries, and Castles (Krakow, Part II)

#180abroad #prague #czech republic #travel day #night train #hot #bad translations #so hot #cheese fries #seriously why is it so hot

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havekiddoswilltravel · 5 years

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Why Families Should Visit San Juan, Puerto Rico Post Hurricane Maria

Spring Break Adventures to San Juan with Kids

The Island of Puerto Rico is still recovering from Hurricane Maria which devastated much of the tourism industry. My husband and I visited San Juan in May of 2017 just months before the category 5 hurricane left our favorite resort there in ruins. We were sad to see that the San Juan Ritz is still closed as of our April 2019 trip to San Juan.

Why San Juan: While Puerto Rico is still in post hurricane recovery mode, it’s in much better shape than the last time we visited one-week post Hurricane Maria, as a departure port for our Adventure of the Seas 7 Night Caribbean Cruise. While we homeschool our three younger children, our eldest daughter’s Spring Break landed dead smack in the middle of two dance team commitments for our kids. Thus, we ended up with just 4 days and 3 nights to pull off a getaway. Last month, I took advantage of a Jet Blue deal to Santo Domingo for kid 1’s mother – daughter 13th Birthday yes trip. Three weeks prior to Spring Break, I scored another Jet Blue deal out of JFK, this time to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Though we live in Connecticut, we’re always willing to drive to NYC when we score deals out of JFK that make flying as a family of six more reasonable. Thank you, Jet Blue.

How we got there: Once again, we booked a 5 am flight out of JFK, but this time decided to drive into NYC the night before in order to enjoy a Dominican Sushi lunch at Mama Sushi. Yummy. If you’ve never tried platano maduros on sushi and don’t want to travel all the way to Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico to try this delicacy, I highly recommend a road trip to Manhattan to Mama Sushi. We found out about Mama Sushi via Facebook and Pero Like and decided that our departure out of JFK gave us a perfect excuse to enjoy this restaurant. We spent the night at a Marriott near JFK and were up at 2:30 am and ready to drive to the airport. Going through the TSA pre check security line was a breeze and we were sitting at the same departure gate that kid 1 and I had used 2 weeks prior for our mother daughter yes trip to Santo Domingo.

Where we stayed: On prior trips to San Juan, we’ve stayed at the San Juan Ritz Carlton, the Marriott Resort & Stellaris and Casino and on this trip decided to try the Hyatt House which I booked via AirBnB. We booked at 1 Bedroom, Bay View Suite with a separate living room and full kitchen that comfortably accommodated our family of 6. As our children are getting older, I’m finding it more difficult to book hotel rooms that work for our family without breaking the bank. The Hyatt House Airbnb rate came with breakfast and access to the bigger pool at the Hyatt Place property across the street. Daily parking for our rental car was $14.00 per day which is less than half of what we’ve paid at other San Juan hotels. In addition, the parking was conveniently located and always had plenty of open spots.

Where we ate: We’re big foodies. If I’m honest, we plan many of our family trips around affordability, interest and food. There are many places that other people have high on their travel bucket list, that I have no interest in visiting due to bland and dull food options. Just saying, food is important to our family and Puerto Rico didn’t disappoint.

Some of our favorite Puerto Rican meals were had at the Kiosks at Luquillo Beach which is located about 30 minutes form the San Juan National Airport. These uniquely Puerto Rican food shacks – restaurants are lined near the beach and offer a diverse offering of food and drinks. You can sample everything from traditional Puerto Rican Fried Street Food to traditional Puerto Rican dishes with at times a bit of Dominican flare. You will also find fusion Puerto Rican, Seafood, BBQ, Peruvian, Mexican, Pizza, and all with Beers and Mixed drinks. The hours of each kiosk are varied and while we visited twice during our 4-day trip to San Juan, realized that some are also seasonal. Our favorite kiosk was #38 Edelweiss which has local Puerto Rican food and a sit-down environment which views of the beach located behind the kiosks. We had the best chicken mofongo of our entire trip at this dining establishment and the rice and beans were plentiful and perfect for our four children. The kiosks are located on the ocean side of route 3 in Luquillo, adjacent to Balneario Monserrate and just five minutes east of El Yunque National Forrest. We also enjoyed shopping at the souvenir shops located at the kiosks including Monkey Threads #30. My husband purchased a really cool and unique pair of hand carved wood sunglasses at Monkey Threads, as he had forgotten his in the car at home.

We loved this area so much that we returned one evening at sunset and oh my goodness, this is a must. We enjoyed snacks and drinks by the shore while having the entire beach almost to ourselves. The kids enjoyed a sunset swim and we had to drag them off the beach before we were left in the dark. This ended up being a highlight of our Puerto Rican adventures.

Bebo’s BBQ – Bebo’s is a must for adventurous frugal families looking to feed a large group with traditional Puerto Rican food on a budget. It is a typical local take out and dine in (open air) BBQ that offers a little of all of our favorite Puerto Rican foods. There is no menu and the employees don’t speak English, but it is so worth it for affordable and authentic food. You can’t beat getting a whole chicken for $10. It’s so close to the airport that we stopped by for a second time on the morning of our departure and ate chicken right out of the container while sitting in our rental van.

Bebo’s BBQ - Address: Calle Marginal Rt. 26, Carolina, Puerto Rico

Vagon – We had dinner here on our first night in San Juan after a full day at the beach in Luquillo. The kids were exhausted from a 5 am flight out of NYC and a full day of swimming at the beach and pool and we were so glad that we found this unique eatery. We arrived at Vagon at 6:41 pm and they closed at 7 pm, so we were glad that we found a parking spot for our rental van right out front. We had read reviews stating the parking could be challenging in the area. The servers were attentive and the food came out quickly. We had a variety of tacos and nachos while enjoying the music playing and people watching. The ambiance of the outdoor seating area and food truck inspired kitchen was eclectic and a fun way to kick off our San Juan adventures. They have other locations in Santurce, Dorado, Caguas and Hato Rey.

Vagon - Address: 302 Calle Labra, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Piu Bello – We had been to this small restaurant on a prior trip to San Juan when we stayed at the Ritz San Juan and we would walk one block to Piu Bello for rice and beans when we didn’t feel like catching an Uber to other restaurants. While the Ritz is still under construction post Hurricane Maria, we decided to head to Piu Bello right from the airport for “breakfast” upon landing in San Juan. Piu Bello offers breakfast, lunch and dinner at an affordable price which a location conveniently near the airport.

El Jibarito – We've been to El Jibarito several times and wanted to return with our kids because we love the decor and ambiance. Some call it a tourist trap because you can get better food and bigger portion sizes at other restaurants outside of Old San Juan, but if you are looking for typical Puerto Rican cuisine in a child friendly environment, then I would recommend El Jibarito. I like to have the pastel and oja and my kids always get white rice and beans. I say: go at least once.

El Jibarito - Location: 280 Calle Del Sol, San Juan Puerto Rico – Viejo San Juan

Metropol – While many think that Metropol is Puerto Rican food, it’s in fact a mix of Cuban and Puerto Rican cuisine. The restaurant is massive and can accommodate large parties. The food portions are huge and it’s easy to share dishes. If you’re staying in Isla Verde and have a craving for Cuban, I highly recommend that you head to Metropol. Once the Ritz San Juan is open again, this restaurant is located within walking distance of the resort.

Metropol - Location: Avenida Isla Verde, San Juan. Additional locations throughout the island in Barceloneta, Caguas, Dorado, Fajardo and Hato Rey.

Bistro Café – During a prior adult only trip to San Juan, the concierge at our hotel recommend Bistro Café for breakfast and oh my goodness, all I can say is that I wish that I could bring them home to CT. I’m a huge foodie and could eat breakfast for any meal. The food and the service set this restaurant apart from others in the Condado area of San Juan. We spoke to a gentleman who was sitting near us and informed us that this is a local’s secret restaurant after a night out. This restaurant is a bit more expensive than others that I’ve recommended, but it’s worth it.

Bistro Café - Location: 29 Calle Jupiter Avenue, Isla Verde, Puerto Rico

Café Manolin Old San Juan - This traditional, old school diner in Viejo San Juan is a must for an affordable, simple and retro breakfast in the heart of Old San Juan. You’ll find a nice mix of tourist and locals enjoying the free coffee refills and breakfast sandwiches at the breakfast counter.

Café Manolin - Location: Calle San Justo #251 San Juan, Puerto Rico

Senor Paletas – We stood in a long line full of locals one evening and immediately knew that we were at the right place for traditional Puerto Rican Paletas (popsicles). Oh my goodness! Amazing! Every flavor we tried was better than the last. The paletas were fresh and like no other. There are two locations, one in Old San Juan and another in Condado.

Downtown Creamery – Fajardo, Puerto Rico. We enjoyed delicious and natural Puerto Rican Ice Cream and dairy free sorbet at this creamery after enjoying a day swimming in the ocean in Luquillo.

Ikebana – We were sad to find out that our favorite Japanese – Puerto Rican Fusion restaurant located in Old San Juan was closed after the hurricane, but were happy to come across this restaurant located in Guaynabo as an alternative. We had a rental car and it was a quick 10-minute drive there from the Hyatt San Juan. We love platano maduros on our sushi roll and were happy to get to enjoy it on our last evening on the island.

Ikebana Sushi Bar - Location: Ebano Street Suite #3 Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

Additional food recommendations:

La Bombonera in Old San Juan.

Stop & Go in Condado.

What We Did:

Day 1: Even though our Spring Break trip was a short 4 days and 3 nights long, we were able to pack so much into our time in San Juan. As aforementioned, we spent our first day on the island swimming and eating our way through Luquillo Beach. We enjoyed the afternoon swimming at the hotel pool and had a light dinner (or cena as Puerto Rican’s call it) and went to bed.

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Day 2: The morning began with exploration of Viejo San Juan (old San Juan). We parked for $3 for the entire day in a public parking lot located near the Paseo de las Princesas. We walked the ocean side trail all the way to the old gate of San Juan. From there we journeyed to the El Morro and explored the fort and exhibits. If time permits, bring a kite, as the hill in front of El Morro is a perfect location for kids and big kids alike to fly a kite. The cobble stone streets, colonial architecture, shops and unique criollo touches of El Viejo San Juan, are a blast with kids. We cooled off by eating piraguas (Puerto Rican shaved ice) and then worked up an appetite exploring the beautiful historic streets. We then went to Fortaleza Street to explore the many shops, restaurants, Cafés and take pictures under the colorful umbrellas. Look out for hombre arana (spiderman) and watch him climb onto nearby balconies. We then walked from Calle Fortaleza to our secret sea glass beach and spent a good two hours in search of sea glass. San Juan never disappoints when it comes to seaglass. Our afternoon consisted of swimming at the hotel pool and a short nap before heading back to Luquillo for snacks at the kiosks and a sunset set swim. I can’t believe that we almost missed this experience because we were tired. Our kids had an absolute blast swimming in the ocean as the sun set and enjoyed having the beach almost to ourselves. This is a must do for anyone traveling to the San Juan area with kids.

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Day 3: This day was all about El Yunque National Rainforest. We’ve visited el Yunque prior to Hurricane Maria and despite knowing that portions of the National Forrest including the welcome center are still closed due to hurricane damage. El Yunque is the only rain forest in the US National Park system and a one of a kind nature experience for families with kids. We arrived early because we wanted to enjoy the views from the top with fewer clouds and less crowds. Due to several of the popular trails still being closed, the trails can get crowded later in the day. There is no entrance fee and the park rangers that we bumped into were friendly and helpful. This is key due to the welcome center being closed. El Yunque is still worth a visit, even with limited trails and lack of a welcome center. There are paved trails that lead all the way to the top of the mountain. We experienced sun, humidity, rain and clouds. It was a perfect learning experience for all of our kids. We hiked the Mount Britton Trail to the tower and the Yokahu Tour. Make sure to wear sunblock, insect repellent, a rain jacket and water proof shoes. After enjoying the beauty of El Yunque, we stopped by Luquillo once again for yet another meal at the kiosks and a meal. Can you tell we love Luquillo. Our time in San Juan was coming to an end and our kids wanted to enjoy every last bit of sun and pool time. We let them swim until sunset and then went to our room for showers and take out for them, while hubby and I got dressed for an adults only dinner out. We wanted to enjoy Puerto Rican fusion sushi prior to flying home the next morning and were able to head out to Ikebana Sushi Bar for our last dinner on the island.

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Where to shop:

I was on the lookout for the traditional Puerto Rican leather flip flops of my childhood which are now hard to come by on the island. I spent hours looking in shops in Old San Juan and ironically found two pairs in the gift shop Just outside of El Yunque. I was so excited. Old San Juan is a great area to visit boutique, galleries and other unique shops, full of locally made art, crafts and gifts. Every visitor to San Juan should visit Ole, a family owned hat store located in Old San Juan. Tourism dollars are crucial to the revitalizing of the island post hurricane Maria and I loved being able to use our Spring Break to do our part to support the local economy.

About Ruth: I’m a wife and mami of 4 active and globe-trotting kiddos. I’ve always loved a good adventure and truly believe that it’s possible to travel with kids. Join me, as I share our adventures and inspire you to get out of the house with your kiddos. Whether you’re planning a family vacation, a road trip or a trip of a lifetime to an exotic destination, I’ll share insights, trip reports and information that will inspire you. Check back often to stay up to date on things to do with kids at your next travel destination.

#sanjuan #sanjuanwithkids #travelwithkids #familytravel #adventure #travel #explore #springbreak #foodies #blackfamilytravel #bloggervibes #borrowedtime #luquillobeach #luquillo #pr #caribbean #beach #nyc

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allineednow · 7 years

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<p>Self-Reliance, stockpiles, & Survival Skills -- How Some Women Are Preparing For Our Uncertain Future</p>

For the month of October, Bustle's #blessed series will investigate how young girls are trying to find meaning, finding connections to some higher power and navigating spirituality in 2017.

Kristen Tyler, a 36-year-old Portland resident who works as the director of recruitment for a software firm, has spent the past decade learning how to become a successful prepper. If a major disaster happens -- in her country her city, or the world -- Tyler would like to have everything she'd need to survive on her own. Contrary to popular belief, not all preppers are religious folks getting ready for an apocalyptic doomsday. In actuality, they are worshippers of intense and organization planning, who, rather than trusting in a higher power (including the higher power of authorities), place their faith in self-reliance, survival skills and stockpiles -- and many of them are women.

Every one to two months seals a new supply of foods such as quinoa, beans, and rice to eliminate moisture, a process that may extend the shelf-life of their supplies. She does the food for her two pups, a silver lab called a yorkie, Rhaegar and Winston. She also stashes cases of bottled water under the bed and in the closet (in addition to the five-gallon water jugs she keeps in the garage), keeps books on emergency field medicine convenient, and regularly buys new supplies to add to the extensive first-aid and trauma care kits she keeps around the house and in her car.

She then meticulously records everything she's in spreadsheets, which she keeps and in a bodily a binder she updates regularly, just to be safe. It is still a work in progress, but her ultimate goal is to have the ability to survive for a complete year with no outside help if needed -- mainly to be prepared in the event that "the big one" hits.

RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Pictures

Portland is adjacent to the Cascadia subduction zone fault line, which runs along the coast of California through Oregon and Washington, and into British Columbia's tip. Experts predict that a rupture -- which they they mostly agree is inevitable, though no one knows when it will occur -- would be catastrophic, causing a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that would last roughly five minutes and result in tsunamis along the shore.

"I wouldn't find all that where I live," Tyler tells Bustle, "but here in Portland it would nevertheless be a substantial quake that would take down trees and buildings and cause landslides and some pretty serious destruction."

Early in their relationship, Tyler, who also runs a side business as a photographer, sent articles about the Cascadia fault line to her boyfriend, 28-year-old Aaron. They also watched a documentary about it. However, it was not until the couple had to survive a mini-emergency that is scary together that Aaron became supportive of her efforts.

"It doesn't usually snow here," Tyler explains, "but last winter it did, and we were snowed in for several days."

"It was a reality check for both of us to realize even something as little as being snowed in for 48 hours can be quite scary if you're not prepared."

Aaron was worried that they couldn't drive anywhere. He took advantage of the weather and the time off work to do some snowboarding down their road. It was all fun and games until Rhaegar, who was still a pup at the momentand Aaron's snowboard, collided. The couple was alarmed when they understood his paw had been sliced open.

"It was before I had gotten really serious about first aid kits," Tyler says. "We couldn't leave, and we had this moment of complete panic realizing we had an injured animal and were running low on supplies to help him with. It was a reality check for both of us to realize even something as little as being snowed in for 48 hours can be quite scary if you're not prepared."

Rhaegar needed stitches. They managed to tend with antibacterial cream and gauze out of their small kit before the snow cleared and they could get him but they had trouble.

"After that," Tyler says, "Aaron was like, 'I am so happy to know that you've thought the majority of these things through so we'd be prepared if something bad happens.' He is definitely fully on board with my prepping now."

She adds that they added the spreadsheet column list their available first-aid supplies and 2 pet cones and a dog first-aid kit.

"I don't ever want to be in a position where I don't know what I'm going to feed my kid again."

At a time when the US has only seen multiple catastrophic hurricanes, and major earthquakes and other natural disasters have rattled many parts of the world, many preppers are admitting that they don't trust anyone but themselves, and are taking steps into their own hands to make sure they can look after their needs, including their food stocks, medical care and peace of mind, should tragedy strike.

For female preppers, near-disasters or little emergencies like a badly injured dog, provide the impetus for their desire to learn more about disaster preparedness.

HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Pictures

For Daisy Luther, who has authored several books about prepping and runs the website The Organic Prepper, the first scare that pushed her toward prepping was financial.

"When my oldest daughter was only a month old, my husband lost his job," Luther tells Bustle. "That was our sole source of income at the moment, and we had two weeks of complete bleak poverty while we were waiting for unemployment and he was desperately seeking a job."

"It really scared me," she says. "I thought, 'I don't ever want to be in a situation where I don't know what I'm going to feed my kid again. '''

Luther started out only that if something went wrong financially they have food and essentials like toothpaste and toilet paper, buying additional food and household equipment. They also started saving money so they have emergency funds available after her husband got a job again.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images

In the summer of 2003, the entire eastern seaboard of North America experienced a power outage. By that time, the couple had two daughters and lived in Ontario, Canada.

"It was absolutely miserable," Luther says. "The children were so sexy and so uneasy. Our food spoiled. We had no backup plan for retaining any lights on or maintaining ourselves trendy. All we had was a few scented candles we were using at night."

Following that, Luther, who is now in her late 40s, started to take prepping. She started researching options for backup generators and water distribution and purification systems, growing and preserving her own organic food with the goal of keeping her children as healthy as possible in the case of an emergency, and making sure the family had all of their important documents within reach -- passports, proof of insurance, mortgage agreements -- just in case they ever had to leave town fast.

"You want to practice living without your everyday comforts as you've still got a working thermostat and a refrigerator full of food."

Luther's husband died unexpectedly at the age of 40, and her further encouraged to make sure she and her daughters would be prepared for the future, regardless of what came their way.

They raised goats and cows and lived off the grid with only a wood stove for heat in a cabin in North Central Ontario. Now Luther and her daughters, who are who are 16 and 21 years old, live in a little town in Virginia, where they keep a large garden, do plenty of food preservation, and regularly talk about what they would do in the event of various emergencies.

"Prepping is much more about doing stuff than storing stuff," Luther says. "You want to practice living without your everyday comforts as you've still got a working thermostat and a refrigerator full of food in case it doesn't go as planned. I remember one year, we only got three tomatoes from our garden and a single egg out of our chicken, so we certainly would have starved to death if we'd been relying on that."

Luther also keeps numerous firearms. She says she knows how to use them, and so do her daughters. In a emergency situation, she says, other people could turn into a threat.

"We're not as militant or aggressive as a whole lot of the preppers you hear about in the media." Luther says. "It feels like the ones who get the most attention have a tendency to be the loudest and most outrageous. I guess it's easier to disregard the ones that are out here growing our food and canning our tomato sauce. I believe my approach is very common sense."

"But," she adds, "We're still packing, pretty much everywhere we go. We're not going to be pushed around."

"I want to have a plan of action if or when my 'kind' becomes a target of another Holocaust or something."

"I am a democratic socialist, with specific libertarian factors, such as (mostly) supporting gun rights," Nikki (who requested to only be identified by her first name), 18, tells Bustle. Nikki, who resides with her parents in rural Michigan but is about to to move to a dorm to begin her freshman year of college, says she regularly practices with a bow and a rifle as part of her prepping activities, and sometimes visits a Reddit forum for liberal gun owners.

"I think the books are far more significant than the weaponry."

Since she's about to move into a tiny dorm room where it would be difficult to keep a big stockpile of supplies or food, the main element of her prepping involves analyzing and gathering books on survival skills.

"I think the books are far more significant than the weaponry," she says. "You could have an entire army under your command, but should youn't know how to clean a wound, or get new water, then you may as well be dead. I believe knowledge is far more valuable than any quantity of food or ammo."

Nikki, who is transgender, has been interested since she was 16, in prepping, but says she did not get really serious about it before Donald Trump got elected.

Scott Olson/Getty Images News/Getty Images

"There has always been a whole lot of racism, transphobia, and homophobia where I live," she explains. "There was a church that was burnt down in the 50's for supporting civil rights, and the KKK was an active group here until 2008 or so."

She adds that she knows not all of Trump's supporters are racist or transphobic, but says she has seen her "fair share of harassment," and finds that things seemed to get worse for people of color and the LGBTQ community where she lives after Trump got elected.

"In the event that people such as Trump become increasingly extreme," Nikki says, "I want to have a plan of action if or when my 'kind' becomes a target of another Holocaust or something. I get that such a scenario is unlikely, but I'd rather be prepared and not have a issue, than not be prepared and be trapped in the middle of a genocide or atomic war."

Although Nikki may seem like an anomaly given the stereotypical image of a prepper (straight, male, middle-aged, politically conservative...), Daisy Luther states preppers actually are very diverse.

"It is a common misconception that all preppers are conservative, right-wing Christians," Luther says. "I know pagan preppers, Jewish preppers, atheists and agnostics -- it is a very wide spectrum. I of my friends share those beliefs. A good deal of us are sort of apolitical."

JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Pictures

"I would say preppers are more tight-lipped than tight-knit," Austin tells Bustle. "And there is a very good reason for that. Let us say the lottery is won by somebody. They wouldn't broadcast that they won a lot of money... because if they did, people would line up at their front door with outstretched hands, right? Same is true for preppers. Why announce that you've got a good deal of water or food, then when a catastrophe happens, guess who shows up at your door?" (This also explains why the girls interviewed for this story would not provide Bustle with photos of their stockpiles.)

Lots of preppers do use sites to connect together and exchange suggestions, often anonymously, though they could be tight-lipped. Austin is a fulltime homesteader with her husband in the Appalachian Mountains in Western North Carolina, but she grew up as a self-described "city girl" in Central Florida, also states the transition into self-sufficiency was somewhat lonely at first.

"In an emergency, your neighborhood will be the people in your immediate neighborhood, not people you know from the net."

"I'm a very social person by nature," she says, "and living up on a hill with 60 creatures who don't talk back was kinda tough originally for me. I get my energy from other people."

So she did what most people would -- she seemed for community online. She made the on Twitter in 2011 after having some trouble locating folks to connect with. Now, it remains one of the very hashtags on social media within the prepper community.

There's also a national network of communities called the American Preppers Network. Many people use their forums to connect online, but some chapters organize regular IRL meetups in their communities, rather than all preppers are secretive.

Marc Serota/Getty Images News/Getty Images

"In an emergency," says Daisy Luther, "your neighborhood will be the people in your immediate neighborhood, not people you know from the net who reside across the country or even just too far from your house to walk into."

She points out that with Hurricane Harvey, "What you've seen is that all these men and women are helping their next door neighbors. The people who share a road are those looking after each other."

"They don't need to be preppers," she adds. "I just think it's important to find people you've got something in common with in your physical area."

"The most important component of survival is yourself."

The majority of the girls interviewed for this story just laughed, when asked if they've specifically sought out partners who prep.

While a few dating sites specific to preppers have cropped up over the years, most of them now seem to have expired domains, and Bustle couldn't track down anyone who'd ever used one -- although a couple of women did note that they'd said their interest in preparedness in their online dating profiles, mostly to avoid beginning a relationship with anyone who'd be inclined to give them a hard time about it down the line.

"If you really wanted to date another prepper, you would be better off going to meetups," Lisa Bedford, who has written several books on prepping, runs the website Survival Mother, and functions an internet preparedness school in partnership with Daisy Luther, tells Bustle. "But you can also just put in a dating profile that you're interested in gardening, camping, and hunting, and you may have a pretty good chance of finding someone like-minded."

Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Bedford resides with her husband and two children in Texas, about an hour outside of Houston. The preparedness efforts of her family include maintaining a healthy savings account in the event of a emergency, keeping emergency kits and maintaining a food and water supply on hand that could last them a few months. In the end, though, she revealed what others told me -- that being emotionally prepared is more important than any of that.

"You could spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars getting prepared," Bedford says, "but I believe survival doesn't require all of those kinds of expenses as much as it takes some agility and nimbleness. We've got several months of food on hand, but what if we came home and it had been flooded? The most important component of survival is yourself."

"I don't plan on keeping my children on a tightrope expecting something bad to happen."

Bedford's children are homeschooled, and though the curriculum includes lessons in preparedness, she says she does her best to make sure they feel safer because of this, rather than afraid.

"We don't have things like atomic bomb drills, or anything like that," Bedford says. "We do spend time talking about potential scenarios every once in awhile, and focus on problem solving and quick decision-making skills. And while we do have some things in place in the event of more extreme scenarios so the stuff is there if we need it, I don't plan on keeping my children on a tightrope expecting something bad to happen."

While preppers are dismissed as paranoid, Bedford and many of the girls Bustle and pointed talked into the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, from hurricanes Harvey and Irene to recent events, to demonstrate they'd rather be safe than sorry.

"Preppers are teachers, moms, models, bank tellers, retail clerks, lawyers, and the list can go on and on," Jane Austin said. "Preppers are not an exclusive group or club...we are just people who understand a tragedy could occur at any moment, and prepare for it."

Read More #blessed:

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ramialkarmi · 7 years

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London delivery startup Doddle is closing most of its stores after burning through tens of millions of pounds

London delivery startup Doddle is closing most of its high street stores after burning through tens of millions of pounds in investment funding.

The company is laying off more than 100 people as it pivots its business model.

In 2015 it lost £24 million ($31 million) on just £687,000 ($878,000) in revenue, across dozens of stores.

Investors have sunk about £48 million ($61 million) into the company.

In August 2015, Doddle enlisted James Heptonstall, who creates viral videos of runners racing against public transport, to help the logistics startup launch a new feature — "Doddle Runner." With a tap of the Doddle Runner button in the Doddle app, customers could have their mail sent from any location via a human who would run through crowded city streets. No need to leave your house or workplace to visit the post office. A Doddle Runner would show up anywhere, like an on-demand competitor to the Royal Mail.

In the launch stunt, Heptonstall, on foot, raced three other people to deliver a package the short distance from Monument to Cannon Street during rush hour in London. One rode a bike, one went on a bus, and another took the London Underground. The whole thing was filmed for a YouTube video.

Heptonstall won easily — with a time of 1 minute and 23 seconds — in an apparent demonstration of the efficiency of runners in getting round London. The Tube user came second at 2:48, the cyclist came in third, with 3:32, and the bus was last, with a miserable 8:09 time.

But when Doddle Runner launched in real life, there was a catch: The runners weren't actually allowed to run.

"For health and safety reasons they're not allowed to run," Doddle CEO Tim Robinson told Business Insider. "They can walk briskly, is how we described it."

"To be fair, I think the most valuable thing they had is an Oyster card," he added, referring to London's ubiquitous public transport pass. "They spent most of their time on the bus."

Later that year, Doddle said it planned to expand Doddle Runner to new cities but the service was discontinued in 2016. Robinson described it to Business Insider as a "pilot," and said that was "always the plan."

Meanwhile, the company is grappling with bigger issues.

The parcel delivery startup is closing 17 of its retail stores across the country — most of its remaining stores. It is laying off more than 100 employees, and pivoting its business. It is nowhere near being profitable.

In 2015, its first full year of operation, it lost more than £24 million ($31 million) — while pulling in less than £700,000 (£894,000) in revenue across dozens of stores.

"Lots of members see us as the new Post Office — although I'm not allowed to say that," Robinson told City AM in early 2016.

For a fee, customers can receive or send packages at the stores. Won't be at home to receive a delivery and can't get it sent to work? Just get it delivered to Doddle instead, where "parcelistas" will take care of it until you can collect it. As e-commerce has boomed over the last decade, so too has click-and-collect, and Doddle — with its brick-and-mortar high street stores — is one of the most visible proponents of the model.

But conversations with former employees, Robinson himself, and accounts filed with Companies House paint a picture of a company in transformation. The three-year-old business is spending huge sums, sinking deeply into debt, and generating comparatively little revenue. Doddle is now changing direction, shelving its ambitious retail strategy as it moves away from standalone high street stores and shifts its business into kiosks in existing stores in an attempt to cut costs.

"I think we haven't got everything right, but I think we've got enough right to build a sustainable business," Robinson said in an interview at the company's East London headquarters. "It's just a sustainable business whose ambition is slightly different to what it was two and a half years ago."

A brief history of Doddle

Doddle's stores are hard to miss. They're big, bold, and purple.

Dotted around train stations and British high streets, they're emblazoned with bright purple signage on the outside, and have a minimalist white-lilac-purple design within.

Doddle was the idea of Tim Robinson, now the CEO. His original vision was to launch Doddle's stores in under-utilised spaces in or nearby rail stations across the UK. Stations, with heavy footfall, are an ideal place to pick up a package on your way to or from work, the logic went.

The company was launched as a joint venture between Network Rail and Lloyd Dorfman, the billionaire founder of Travelex, a currency exchange company best known for servicing tourists at airports. They initially invested £24 million between them, split equally, Robinson said. Their aim was to change how people send and receive parcels with a chain of high-profile high street stores.

There were plans to open stores at 300 stations, Sky News reported in 2014. But three years later only a sixth of that total are actually open — 57 shops, including concession desks inside larger stores. Just six are standalone stores. 17 sites are facing imminent closure.

So what happened?

From relatively early, Doddle faced difficulties enticing people into stores. "What we're finding is consumers are not prepared to walk far off the beaten track to collect their parcels," CEO Tim Robinson told the BBC in July 2015. "I think some of the assumptions we had in our original business model that we could be 100 yards to the right outside a railway station have not really played out."

Network Rail withdrew from the business in the Autumn of 2015, The Times of London reported at the time. The move was part of a broader sell-off of assets by the rail organisation after it was effectively renationalised by the UK government. (It is also selling off at least 18 stations.)

Dorfman, who serves as Doddle's chairman, bought out Network Rail's 44% stake for an undisclosed amount — giving him 90% of the company overall.

While the focus was on train stations, some stores were located nearby, rather than inside the station itself. "We learnt that it wasn't just railway stations that our services really worked in," the chief exec said to City AM in January 2016. "We've got six stores in universities now. Shopping centres work well … we'll have over 300 stores by 2017, but not all in railway stations."

"As you get further out into the provinces it's harder to find 1,500 sq ft on a railway station, so we look for retail units that are right in the eye-line," he also told Essential Retail. "We're either in the station or adjacent to it — within and around stations."

Doddle is hemorrhaging cash

Doddle's public accounts from this time show the company generated very little revenue compared to its losses.

Doddle officially started trading in September 2014, and in the year ending December 21, 2014, it lost just under £11 million. During the same period, it booked just £16,779 in revenue.

In other words, in its first three months the business made less than the annual salary of a single employee working a 40-hour week on minimum wage (£6.50/hour in 2014, or £17,280/year). Doddle had 43 locations in operation during the period, according to its accounts.

Doddle's revenues grew in 2015, the most recent year accounts are available for publicly, as did its losses. The company lost £24.4 million throughout the year, with revenues of just £687,505. That means the 56 locations it operated were generating, on average, just over £12,000 each annually — less than the salary of a single full-time employee.

Meanwhile, the company was spending £8 million a year on staffing costs for its 336 staff.

Doddle's accounts for 2016 aren't public, but Robinson said revenue grew by slightly more than 200% year-on-year, while losses "shrunk a bit." (A spokesperson later declined to provide exact figures.) If we estimate revenues at £2.5 million and losses at around £18 million, that would mean the 70-odd locations (both shops and concession stands) Doddle was operating at the end of the year were still only pulling in around £35,000 each, not nearly enough to cover losses.

Robinson said that the company always expected to lose money when it started out, describing Doddle as a "growth business."

Dorfman's cash is keeping the company afloat, and since the initial £24 million Network Rail/Dorfman investment, he has invested "kind of similar to the same again," Robinson said, which would put the total invested at about £48 million. The company owes him at least £16 million, according to Companies House documents.

A former retail manager said staff spent hours waiting with no customers in the early days of the business, though it grew rapidly throughout their time there. And a negative review of the company posted on job review site Glassdoor in November 2016 said they had "plenty of time to look for other jobs as we have hardly any customers ... our store barely takes enough to turn the lights on." (The company is rated 2.4 out of 5 on the site, with ratings dropping recently.)

The manager Business Insider spoke to questioned whether the standalone high street model could ever be viable: "It doesn't take a genius honestly. When you see a store in a premium location, and the rent can be £100,000, and there are five staff inside on average 22 to 25 [thousand] per annum, minus the manager, it's easy to understand that this particular store costs pretty much near a quarter of a million ... you need to make stellar, unrealistic sales in terms of collections, returns, etc etc."

Later, the source added: "I think they always knew they're not gonna make any money for the first one, two, three years of the operation. The most important part was to make ourselves known."

Doddle is happy to experiment — but not always successfully

The company was willing to take an experimental approach to new ideas and products, and was "happy to try new things," former staff said.

Some stores have changing rooms, where customers can try on clothes they ordered online, and send them back if they don't like them. However, they were only used "handfuls of times," Robinson said. One store had fridges storing alcoholic drinks for a trial by AB Inbev that sold drinks via Deliveroo.

Doddle Runner was an example of this experimentation. Couriers on foot were assigned to stores, delivering and collecting parcels in the surrounding area. It launched in the City of London in 2015, with a press release from the time saying it would later "roll out across London and major cities." However, it was discontinued in 2016. A Doddle employee said that "uptake was minimal" during their time at the company.

Robinson said that Doddle is in talks with online retailers about "lighting that up again" — but integrating it into the online checkout process, so customers would have the option to order parcels to their desk when they buy them.

Doddle Neighbour was another experiment. The project tried to turn ordinary people into collection points, allowing you to get parcels delivered to your neighbours rather than a physical store. But Doddle struggled to find people willing to become a "Neighbour," and the feature is no longer available.

Click-and-collect is hot right now — but competitive

Doddle is looking for other sources of revenue beyond walk-in customers and one-off orders. It has deals with companies like ASOS and Amazon for deliveries and collections. And Doddle has been selling itself to big companies as a kind of outsourced post room for their employees. Goldman Sachs is among the clients.

Individual customers can also sign up as "Doddle Unlimited" members, giving them unlimited collections and 10% off sends for a monthly fee. (Including the free tier, Doddle has 350,000 members, but just 6,000 are "Unlimited" members, according to the CEO.)

Click-and-collect is a fast-growing niche in e-commerce, with shoppers expected to pick up £6.5 billion from places that offer the service by 2018, according to Verdict Research. Numerous high street chains, from Tesco to John Lewis, now offer the service — and there are third-party click-and-collect services also giving Doddle stiff competition.

One of the largest is Collect Plus, a parcel-sending-and-collecting-network in more than 6,000 locations across the county. Unlike Doddle, it doesn't operate its own stores. Instead, it piggybacks on other retail locations, enlisting newsagents, garages, shops and more to handle the parcels in exchange for a fee — drastically cutting costs.

From a financial perspective, Doddle is a minnow next to Collect Plus, which did £49.6 million in revenue in the year ending March 2016 — while losing £447,783.

Online retail behemoth Amazon is also placing "lockers" into shops that customers can order their parcels to. (Some Doddle stores contain Amazon lockers.) And catalogue retailer Argos is also partnering with companies like online auction site Ebay to let customers collect orders from their stores in a similar fashion.

Doddle has historically been at a disadvantage against these companies. For organisations like Argos, or the corner shops working with Collect Plus, click-and-collect is just one additional revenue stream among many others. It can be used as a loss-leader to keep customers coming back for other services. And Collect Plus and Amazon don't have to worry about expensive high street rental or retail staff costs like Doddle does. But Doddle has all those challenges, and deliveries are its only revenue source.

Core customer loyalty is no longer enough

Joe Rackham, a TV production manager who lives in Putney, South London, said Doddle was invaluable as he planned his wedding in 2016."It's been a godsend for us to be honest, we would have really struggled to accumulate everything we needed to buy for our wedding without a service like Doddle."

He added: "Before Doddle we had been so used to arriving home to a missed delivery card from couriers who would then expect us to travel out to the middle of nowhere to pick up packages from a depot with opening hours that were never convenient. The staff at Doddle have always been really friendly and helpful, so it's sad for them also that many of them will be losing their jobs as a result of these closures."

Rackham is typical of Doddle's core base of loyal customers. Robinson has said in interviews that a subset of Doddle customers will come time and time again, becoming extremely regular users of the service, and an ex-manager said their team made a point of remembering the names of these regulars.

But when you're renting some of the most prime real estate in the country, a small and devoted following isn't enough. Tens of millions in the red, Doddle is finally realising that.

Doddle is closing most of its stores and pivoting

At launch, Doddle wanted to build 300 stores within three years. In February 2015, Essential Retail reported it was aiming for 100 stores by the end of 2015. And at the start of 2016, Robinson said the company would have "well over 300 stores by 2017."

But at its peak, Doddle had just 39 standalone retail stores, in addition to concession desks inside larger retailers. A former Doddle employee said they were told Doddle had met its parcel targets for 2015 and 2016 — but the company is now closing most of its stores and laying off staff as it pivots to a concession desk-model.

It has quietly been closing stores, a few at a time, since 2016. One employee laid off when their store closed earlier in 2017 told Business Insider the closure came as a shock, as employees had previously been assured that it was not at risk and had met its targets.

But the imminent closures are its largest single batch to date — 17 stores, from Milton Keynes to Kingston, are being shuttered on April 28. "The reality is that shop [in Milton Keynes] has been open for two and a half years, it has had a decent amount of money spent on it," Robinson said. "We'd capped out at about 250 transactions a day, we were struggling to get any more than that and for that store to work it'd need about four-to-five-hundred."

Just six high-street stores will remain, including Liverpool Street Station and Finsbury Park, along with two standalone kiosks in Westfields, London. ("A couple" of the remaining stores are profitable, the CEO said.)

102 people are losing their jobs in this batch of closures — retail employees, as well as "head office functions that are no longer needed because we're not supporting the store network," Robinson said, and cuts across other departments "to make the business more fit and lean for the future."

Instead, the company is focusing on concession desks and kiosks inside larger stores, largely inside Morrisons supermarkets, Ryman stationers, and Cancer Research UK charity stores, dotted from Glasgow to Brighton. Instead of an entire dedicated store, a Doddle location becomes a single desk, like Collect Plus.

Robinson said that the company's partners like Amazon and ASOS want to see it in more locations, hence the shift. "It's clearly about efficiency and productivity, so in order to satisfy the demands of our retail partners to get more sites, to become more present, we've had to rethink how we spend our working capital."

Doddle has an ambitious roll-out planned, aiming to be in kiosk 500 locations by the end of 2017, and 1,000 by the end of 2018. (A previous story in CloudPro reporting Doddle wanted to be in 1,000 stores by the end of 2017 is incorrect, Robinson said.)

The company is also now experimenting with selling white-label tech to other companies. "We're working with a number of high street retails, both domestically and internationally, and carriers, helping them set up their own click-and-collect networks using the tech we've built," Robinson said.

Doddle is also apparently in talks with a major retailer about the company adopting Doddle Neighbour's tech for their own deliveries — paying people to take in orders when the customer isn't available to collect it. "This is a retailer that has years of brand knowledge, and experience with people living in pretty much every house in the country ... this retailer has a loyalty base of several million."

This isn't an approach Doddle anticipated when it first launched, but in a few years, 30% of its revenue should come from white-label tech services, the chief executive predicted.

The CEO doesn't think the retail stores were a failure

The vast majority of kiosks and Doddle locations will be manned by the employees of the store its inside, which — along with the lack of expensive retail units — should significantly reduce costs. Tim Robinson estimates the company will do £5.5 million in revenue in 2017, and will become profitable in 2018.

Despite Doddle's losses, the exec argued that he doesn't consider the retail shops a failure, and that it couldn't have struck the deals it has with partners without the stores helping them "cut through."

"We wouldn't have been able to do this pivot if we hadn't done what we'd done previously. I mean, do I wish I'd had 10 fewer [stores], 15 fewer? Probably, particularly with what we're going through now, ultimately getting to that position where you're having to say goodbye to colleagues and locations you've put a lot of time and effort into."

The exec also suggested the company might return to standalone stores one day. "I've said to people a few times, 'what I might've done is build the click-and-collect network for 2022 but I built it in 2014' ... the idea might've been six, seven, 10 years ahead of its time."

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joesbrownusa · 8 years

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Houses For Sale in Floyd, VA

15976 Woolwine Hwy, Floyd, VA

Price: $120000

NEW WELL. Newly staged furnishings convey. Prefect property for your growing young family or weekend retreat to the mountains. Newly remodeled and well insulated with 4 acres to roam, including beautiful yard with pond. Just a stones throw from the Blue Ridge Parkway and 7 miles from the great town of Floyd and all the attractions that with each. Great value. Don’t miss this one.

2117 Cannady School Rd SE, Floyd, VA

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Home on over 9 acres of woodland with view. Home has three bedrooms, two full baths and has and currently still receiving updates and remodel. Open living, family room areas. Purchaser will have the ability to finish updating as they desire to make this home exactly what they want. Call Listing Agent Levi Cox at 540-230-7162 or email [email protected]

2121 Cannady School Rd SE, Floyd, VA

Price: $149500

Large four bedroom home with nice views of the surrounding rural area on 3.28 acres. Three full baths with skylights. Small branch on edge of property. Two car attached garage.

312 Franklin Pike SE, Floyd, VA

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Here’s your chance to own a gorgeous piece of property, offering over 25+ Acres in Floyd, that features a fully stocked spring Fed Pond, a barn, partial fencing throughout, mostly cleared land, a spring, and so much more. The Land would be perfect for horses, to build your dream house for seclusion, to farm, and so much more you can utilize this land for. Give me a call today if you would like more information on this Fantastic Piece of Land!!!

1429 Floyd Hwy N, Floyd, VA

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100+ acre of gorgeous farmland located minutes from downtown Floyd! Completely fenced, amazing views, with spring for watering livestock. The owner has worked this beautiful, rolling pasture land for 65 years and you won’t find an exposed rock anywhere! Ideal topography to build a pond at one edge of land. Covered structures on the property. Could also be a great location for a developer with potential for subdividing into mini-farm parcels. Multiple building sites with gorgeous 360 degree long range views! Private showings by appointment only.

Black Ridge Rd, Floyd, VA

Price: $199000

Amazing acreage with open building sites. Fantastic long range views. Property has been perked for building site. Old Home place on property. 10 of the 25 acres have been cleared in 2014. Buyer to install well and septic

820 E Main St, Floyd, VA

Price: $449000

Located just outside the Town of Floyd, this Lovely Home is a rare find with a Beautiful 4.8 acre yard. The Home has beautiful hardwood floors. The Large Living Room with Fireplace was designed with the Dining Area on One End. 3 BR, 1 ½ BA, Large Kitchen and a Bonus room (Den or extra Bedroom). Lots of storage in the 26′ x 21′ Attached and 30′ x 24′ Detached Garages plus a storage building. The Basement, though unfinished, is partitioned and has a room with a fireplace.

145 Penn Rd NW, Floyd, VA

Price: $189000

4 bedroom brick ranch in a great location just outside the town of Floyd.Hardwood floors, large back deck. Full basement, partitioned with ½ bath. Big back yard! Has a double attached and a double detached garage. Great starter home for large family.

312 Franklin Pike SE, Floyd, VA

Price: $199900

Relax in the serenity and peace of Floyd County in your new home, with over 26 acres of land. Land is partially fenced, has a spring, and is mostly cleared, which would be ideal for horses or farming. The home is a clean and spacious over 1,900 square foot Home which features an updated Kitchen with an island, a master bath which features a spa tub, huge rooms, walk in closets, a storage shed, unique custom ceiling fans, a well built deck, and so much more. The home and land is a must see!!! Call and make your appointment today.

1135 Epperly Mill Rd SW, Floyd, VA

Price: $384900

THE PERFECT GETAWAY, This Flawless 1 owner home sits ”ON TOP OF THE WORLD” and is a must see if you are shopping in this price range looking for this location and land. Offers 35 Acres of premium land! If a open floor plan, Top grade finishes, and long range views are a must then come ready to make your offer. 1 year Home warranty included. Book your appointment today!

3333 Christiansburg Pike NE, Floyd, VA

Price: $400000

Well-built 3 BR 3-½ BA home on 9+ wooded acres w/ stream, with large multipurpose building on adjoining 1 acre lot. 1520 sq ft warehouse built in 1995 with 12 ft ceiling, loading dock, 3 overhead doors, 1050 sq ft office heated and cooled with full bath. Great for hobbies or business use. House sits back from road, other building fronts on Christiansburg Pike. First time on market. House has 1,728 sq ft up, 1,728 sq ft down. Built in 2000. Main floor has kitchen, living room, 2 huge bedrooms each with private bath, ½ bath in hall, 9’ ceilings, 2 x 6 walls, all oak and ceramic tile floors, two porches and carport. Wide hallways and doors, many elder-friendly features. Walk-out basement has full bath, kitchenette, utility room, large living room, bedroom, and storage areas. Private yet accessible. Extras include wood stove and generator panel. Cedar board and batten siding. Only 10 min to Floyd, 20 min to Christiansburg and I-81. Mature woods and walking trails along scenic creek. Lots of wildlife, wooded tracts adjoin. Home next door also available.

3327 Christiansburg Pike NE, Floyd, VA

Price: $309000

House in the woods. Well-built modern home on 19 wooded acres w/ stream, great for nature lovers. Very comfortable home, good floorplan for family or entertaining. Light and spacious with large rooms and lots of windows. 2,016 sq ft up, 2,016 sq ft down. Main floor bedrooms are split – master with full bath, two more bedrooms and full bath, 9’ ceilings, natural woodwork, 2 x 6 walls, all oak and ceramic tile floors, recessed lighting, large deck and porch. Wide hallways and 36" doors. Walk-out basement has full bath, utility room, huge living and storage areas. Custom maple ca binetry throughout. Extras include soapstone stove, foam insulation throughout and generator panel. Hardi-plank siding. Mature woods and walking trails along scenic creek. Lots of wildlife, wooded tracts adjoin. House sits back from road, very private, plenty of room for gardens. Built 2007, on paved road only 10 min to Floyd, 20 min to Christiansburg and I-81. Owner retiring and ready to sell.

New Haven Rd, Floyd, VA

Price: $119900

Wooded lot ideal for building or hunting with Hogans Creek running through. Road frontage. Easy access. Convenient location to town and schools.

New Haven Rd, Floyd, VA

Price: $119900

This 18.68 acre tract is mostly wooded. Has Hogans Creek running through it. Has good road frontage and easy access. Good location within easy commute of the town of Floyd, Christiansburg, Radford and Roanoke. Property would be ideal for a hunting or recreational retreat or building your private and convenient country home or vacation home.

Parkway Ln S, Floyd, VA

Price: $84600

Privacy, hunting and home site all on this 15.79 acre property. Located just off the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway and a short drive to Floyd. Has road frontage along Route 8 (Parkway Lane S). Beautiful level building spot. Offers seclusion, privacy, creek and hunting. Priced at tax assessed value!

Parkway Ln, Floyd, VA

Price: $64900

Excellent for your get-away cabin, rustic home or private home site! All wooded tract has nicely maintained road easement and has state maintained road frontage. 7.08 Acres of rural land in Floyd VA. Abundance of wildlife, great hunting property or residential property. Property has been perked. Adjacent 15 acre tract for sale separately for more acreage. Convenient to the Blue Ridge Parkway and other historic and recreational activities such as wineries, Mabry Mill, hiking trails, music festivals and more! Located in Floyd County VA.

532 Christiansburg Pike NE, Floyd, VA

Price: $139000

Neat & clean Brick Ranch Home with Hardwood Floors. 3 Bedroom, 1 full bath. Great location within easy commute to town of Floyd, Roanoke, Christiansburg & Blacksburg. One level living in a convenient setting. Outbuildings.

Address Not Disclosed, Floyd, VA

Price: $269900

Spacious 3 bedroom, 3 bath home in immaculate condition is ready for new owners! The main level offers living, combined kitchen/dining, master suite with walk in closet & full bath, 2nd bedroom, office, and a second bathroom with closeted washer and dryer. The lower level is finished and provides a complete separate living space inclusive of seating area, kitchen/dining combo, den with gas fireplace, third bedroom and bath with stacking washer/dryer, french doors to porch and 274 sq ft of unfinished storage space. This is a one owner home with many upgrades at construction. Among these are 3′ doors and hallway, insulated tilt windows and custom kitchen back splash. Ceramic tile and carpet on main level, laminate on lower level. All of this on 1.81 landscaped acres with garden spaces and fruit trees with a pleasant ridge and surrounding neighborhood view. Located on a quiet cul de sac less than two miles from the town of Floyd.

140 Little Cabin Rd NE, Floyd, VA

Price: $35000

Looking for a remodel to fix up or maybe just land to build on? Look no further! This property has almost 5 acres of pristine land where you can build your dream home or your own private cabin to get away from it all. The possibilities are endless!! Most of the work has been done for you, cleared area’s encompass the existing structure. If a complete build is just too much for you but you still want that dream get-away spot, don’t worry! The existing structure is a one bedroom one bath house that with a small remodel could make your dream a reality!! Book your appointment today!

194 Yellow Brick Rd NW, Floyd, VA

Price: $149900

Well taken care of, this manufactured home sits on a permanent foundation in a private, rural setting on a spacious 5+ acres! Perfect level of privacy for those with a love for the countryside. Abundant wildlife to see from the covered front porch, perfect for a picturesque, pastoral lifestyle. Easy living on one-level with an open floor plan and recently updated laminate hardwood floors. New landscaping rocks at the front of the home. Outside heat pump replaced in 2014. Room to roam and room to grow!

from Houses For Sale – The OC Home Search http://www.theochomesearch.com/houses-for-sale-in-floyd-va/ from OC Home Search https://theochomesearch.tumblr.com/post/158036493800

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bradstravels · 8 years

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Closing Thoughts - Philippines: Pinnacle adjacent

Monday, January 16, 2017 Journal Entry:

I can’t believe three weeks already flew by…the Philippines came out swinging and put on quite the show the entire time I was fortunate enough to find myself in this beautiful country. The country tried hard to convince me it was the king of Southeast Asia. It came close to dethroning Thailand as my top pick, but it fell short for reasons I will list below. Regardless of its position in my ranking of SE Asian countries, I had an absolutely amazing time. I can’t think of a better send off for my tour of SE Asia.

Enough hype. Let’s jump into my takeaways:

My first stop was in Manila, but only because I flew into the airport there. A friend, Nina, was there to meet me at the airport and immediately whisk me away to a country club in the highlands of Tagaytay approximately one hour outside of Manila, and then we went to another country club in Punta Fuego. Even upon returning to Manila for a couple of days for the New Year’s Eve celebrations, I never really saw much of the city as Nina’s family lived outside of the central area.

Let’s be honest, I didn’t see much of the city because Nina’s father just happens to be a Filipino congressman. During my time with Nina and her family, I had a personal driver and bodyguards. This was quite the change for a man who has been backpacking for the past 11 months. No more walking through slums while with this family. Instead, we jumped around country clubs, partied at their family-owned hotel, and watched fireworks at their mansion.

What is the takeaway here (other than finding friends with incredible connections of course)? Filipino hospitality. No one in this family had ever met me before. They hadn’t even heard about me before. I hadn’t spoken to Nina in eight years! None of this seemed to matter. They welcomed me with open arms. Paid for everything while I was with them (food, accommodation, transportation, fun). It actually made me feel a little uncomfortable. They were so generous. I did nothing to earn such generosity. How could I ever repay them? Maybe one day I will figure that out, but for now I just hope everyone sees it as an example of how kind the Filipino people are.

After leaving the family, I did not stumble upon more locals insisting on paying for everything. But. BUT. I did find all of the locals I met to be just as kind. At least for me, these have been the kindest people I have met in SE Asia. Perhaps anywhere I have visited, and that is saying a lot. The Filipino people do not hassle travelers. One response is all they need. If I said no once to a single taxi driver, no others around him would ask me again. The driver who asked would wish me a good day. If I said where I was going but couldn’t use a taxi, they would tell me the best way to get there. Travel agents wouldn’t even try to sell me services when I asked questions. They were just excited to talk about their country. I would have to ask them if I could buy a service! This amazed me.

I should note that seemingly EVERYONE in the Philippines thinks that I look like a vampire from Twilight. I can’t even count how many locals told me this (side note: I’m shocked so many Filipinos have watched the Twilight series). Without asking other travelers of their encounters, I can’t know if my “famous” look got me special attention or not.

(Side side note: they always said it as though it were a compliment, but I’m not sold yet that being so pale everyone thinks I am a vampire is a plus.)

Boracay…listed just a couple years ago as having the best beach in the world…is most certainly worthy of the title it once held. The beaches on this small island are stunning to say the least. Beautiful white sand and clear blue waters await all those who make the journey. More than just beautiful beaches, this is a PARTY island. People wake up and start drinking immediately. Head to the beach, grab a drink. Go to dinner, grab a drink. Go back to their hotel or hostel, grab a drink.

Around 11:00 pm or midnight everyone heads to the bars and clubs and continue to drink the night away. Boracay’s party scene is reminiscent of what I found on Koh Phi Phi in Thailand. It is absolutely wild.

What could possibly dethrone Boracay as the best beach in the world? That would be Palawan. Well, technically Palawan was voted as the best island in the world. It has several beaches worthy of the title “best beach.” Most flights land in Puerto Princesa, but travelers need to head to El Nido to get the best beach experiences. If there isn’t a rush, I would encourage checking out the underground river outside Puerto Princesa before heading to El Nido. I’ve been in a few caves now that also house rivers, but this one has been the most impressive. The river is quite large, and the stalagmite / stalactite formations are better formed than many others I have seen.

El Nido is a five to six hour ride from Puerto Princesa. This is not the most comfortable ride, and some people do get motion sickness due to the fast pace and wild turns. What awaits is well worth any discomfort though. Several smaller islands surround El Nido, some are so close that they can be reached via kayak. There are daily tours to many of these islands; each one has something “unique” that the locals want you to see. Frankly, it doesn’t matter which set of islands one chooses to see as they are all gorgeous.

The only negatives about El Nido are its lack of sufficient accommodation during peak season and its almost non-existent Wi-Fi during most parts of the day. They are working on both of these issues though. It will just take time before they can catch up to the wild jump in tourism to this area. Also, let’s face it, not having Wi-Fi can be a great thing. It just needs to be known before arriving so travelers can plan accordingly. Not knowing this made booking my onward flight rather difficult.

After Palawan I headed to Donsol Bay in an attempt to swim with whale sharks. I chose this area over Oslob (or other areas in the Philippines) because they do not feed the sharks here. The experience is natural, so no sharks are harmed and their migration habits are not influenced. Sadly, I cannot report that I succeeded in swimming with the world’s largest fish. I reached Donsol just as a tropical depression was blowing over, so the water was too murky to spot anything from the boats.

This was a rather tough pill to swallow because the location is out of the way of everything else. There are only a handful of resorts to stay at, and Wi-Fi is lacking here as well. This means that I had absolutely nothing to do after my failed shark swimming tour was over (the beaches here are not like the beaches of Boracay or Palawan, there are no other activities close to the whale shark area, and the resorts do not have many other tourists to meet). I still think it is worth a visit since there is a VERY good chance of seeing the sharks here (top spot in the world actually), but potential visitors should make sure the weather is good before making the journey.

I had a couple other destinations on my list to visit after Donsol, but all of these destinations required me to stop in Cebu City on the island of Cebu first. Upon arriving in Cebu City, I discovered that it was time for the Sinulog festival. The festival is similar to Mardi Gras in the US. People from all over the Philippines come to Cebu City to partake in this festival. This changed my plans. I decided to stay in Cebu City to experience the festivities.

The city itself can be seen in one day, so it is usually just a temporary stop for travelers on their way to nearby areas. Sinulog is not a usual time though. The city transforms. Decorations are everywhere. Everyone is happy and excited. Music is blaring. Well…one song is blaring. Seriously, I listened to one song, and one song only, on repeat for three straight days. The festival itself is on Sunday. This day is filled with parades, dancing, carnivals, parties, and really any other festival type activity one can imagine. It’s a blast.

I can’t end this discussion of the Philippines without mentioning the food. Delightful. Surprisingly so. I had a couple encounters with Filipino food in Houston, but I was able to get a very different perspective here. I feared everything would be very unhealthy. Fried chicken, sweet spaghetti, halo halo, and pork drenched in sweet sauce were the foods that came to mind before arriving here.

Of course these foods exist here and are delicious; however, I also found loads of fresh fish and plentiful vegetables. The country also has more American influence than any other country in SE Asia, so there are many options for a taste of home if it is desired. There were times where I actually began to think I was in an American neighborhood…so many American chain restaurants.

The big negative that prevents the Philippines from surpassing Thailand as my number one destination in SE Asia? Transportation. Traveling between the islands is not easy. Many islands can be reached by ferry, but the ferry rides are usually VERY long. Flights are sometimes the only option, and many times they are the only “reasonable” option. Since I arrived during the peak season, my flights were very expensive. I paid more for flights here than I did in Europe.

More than anywhere else in the world other than America. And the flights were almost always delayed! The land travel is not much better as the roads are often quite poor and the vans stop frequently if any seats are available for more passengers. It is very difficult to plan anything in a timely manner as one never knows how long getting from one place to another will actually take. The infrastructure here is severely lacking. It is in need of a major overhaul. The government has realized this and already has several projects currently underway to remedy the issues. The Philippines will look drastically different in 5 – 10 years.

I am now sitting in the Singapore airport, waiting for a flight that will take me back to Bali for two days in route to Australia. My time in SE Asia is over, but I am grateful that my first and last stops in this area of the world turned out to be my two favorite. I started and ended this journey on wonderfully high notes. The Philippines has earned a special place in my heart, and I can say without a doubt that it is worth a visit for anyone making a stop in SE Asia.

Until next time...

Brad Livingston

Postscript: How do I know Filipinos are cool cats? While walking down the boardwalk in Puerto Princesa, a young boy rode by me on a bicycle. He was only five or six years old. He reached the end of the boardwalk, turned around, and headed straight for me. He slowly stuck his hand out. Never saying a word. Never making eye contact. When he reached me, I too stuck my hand out and gave him a high five. He never even slowed down. No need, our mutual respects were paid.

Smooth, kid. Smooth.