#Program makes fishing accessible to kids

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

I Cherish You, Halcyon Days: ii.

“You’re gonna die, kid. In the worst way possible.”

tags: afab!reader (she/her), angst, slow burn

pairing: gojou x reader + onesided!getou x reader

summary: You’re 15 years old when you’re told you’re going to die. You’re 17 years old when you realize who your killer will be. And you’re 17 years old when you make peace with the fact you wouldn’t want it any other way.

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"[Full Name]," your aunt's tone is stern.

"Now before you start, Auntie, I just want to say you look lovely today."

"[Full Name]."

"Classes were canceled today!" Your aunt looks at you in disbelief and you chuckle nervously. Lying to your aunt isn't normally your style, but you knew the trouble that would be heading your way if you told her you ditched. Your classmates and teacher were easy to lay off when you texted Shoko you wanted to be alone. You don't have the same excuse to toss to your aunt. "Seriously, I told you months ago that this school is weird with its scheduling, didn't I?"

Her brow unfurled only slightly at the reminder, your weak argument somewhat convincing. There isn't much she knew about the world of jujutsu besides what Yaga told her in the initial sales pitch as to why he wanted you to transfer to Tokyo Jujutsu Tech. Auntie Chiharu only knew the basics: curses are real, cursed energy and that's the bulk of what your education would be concerning going forward.

Skeptical as she was, your aunt didn't stop you when you expressed your interest in attending. She only asked that you did what you could to stay safe. "And if it gets too much, you can always go right back to Tsubame High with all of your friends."

You loved that about your aunt. She'd never stop you from the pursuit of self-discovery. It's what made her especially cool to you when you first came to Japan during what was supposed to be a temporary living arrangement. As long as you weren't doing anything exceedingly stupid, you were free to give something a shot. As long as your grades didn't slip, she was quite loose when it came to curfews.

My parents were the kind to be really strict," she told you one day over lunch. "When I remember how uncomfortable that was, I told myself I'd try to be different than them. Just don't take your privileges for granted and I can keep being the cool aunt, okay?" Auntie Chiharu wasn't your family, not by blood anyway. In reality, she was just a family friend ー your mother's host sister back when she did a year long exchange program in Japan. She's been Auntie Chiharu for as long as you could remember.

"Well if you are just actually visiting because you didn't have classes today, then it is nice to see you, [First]," you finally get a smile back from the woman. "You didn't have to come all the way out here. I was going to see you next week."

If you could do so without bringing overt suspicion to yourself, you'd sigh in relief. "I just wanted to surprise you, that's all. And I wanted to see Mina."

Auntie Chiharu makes a knowing sound, "ah ha! So it wasn't me you wanted to see, but Mina. I should have known." Picking up a bucket of fish and ice, the aquarist nods at the one she left behind before leading the charge to where your favorite animal companion lies. "Maybe one day you'll love your aunt like that, you just want me for the aquarium."

Everything about it still feels as magical as the first time you came to your aunt's place of work your first summer in Japan. You were too young to care about things like humidity and the incessant cries of the cicadas and your level of Japanese was nonexistent. All that paled in comparison to visiting another country for the first time and even that fact paled in comparison to getting backstage access to an aquarium. So almost everyday that summer break, you left early in the morning with your aunt to her job. If you weren't helping to feed some of the animals with freshly washed hands and arms alongside the watchful eyes of the staff, you would walk around the place pretending you had rented out the entire place for yourself.

You love all the sea critters in the Wonder Aquarium, Mina is a simply the most beloved part of the 'my aunt is an aquarist' experience. She was 7 and you were 7, a bond meant to be as far as you were concerned back then. Even now, you consider Mina the beluga to be among your very best of friends.

If you weren't busy with school, you were at the aquarium telling her about the little updates in your life, the highest highs and the most embarrassing of lows.

The time you cried as you told her about the accident you had in class because you couldn't remember how to ask to go to the bathroom.

When you finally made your first friend.

Becoming a first year in middle school. Meeting Chinatsu and Tooru.

And of course, you told Mina all about how you got yourself dragged into the world of jujutsu. How the weird demon and ghouls you always saw were called curses and that you were going to learn to how to fight them.

You haven't been able to see her as much since your enrollment. The thought of her being a few short minutes away does something to calm your nerves after the events of yesterday.

Grabbing a bucket for yourself, you follow after your aunt with an enthusiastic skip, "seeing you is an added bonus!"

"How's school been?"

"It's been fine," you keep any mention of dying in the worst way possible at the hands of your beloved to yourself. Auntie Chiharu is many things. One to take fortunes of death concerning her niece with a pinch of salt ? You're sure she'd sooner try burning down your school. You never even told her about the death of the one and only second year at the school a couple months prior. "I told you before how they actually celebrate our birthdays at this school because there's not a lot of students, right? But because me and another classmate ー that Gojou guy I mentioned ー have birthdays just days apart from each other, they're just celebrating ours on the same day." Your aunt makes a noise of curiosity and you explain with your own noise of annoyance. "He was born on the 7th so we're supposed to share the 8th."

"Well that sounds fun."

"Trust me, sharing a birthday party with Gojou isn't going to be fun. He's annoying." I was supposed to be due in late November, right? Why can't I share birthdays with Shoko? But no, instead baby [First] took her sweet, sweet time and decided December 9th was the day for her.

Auntie Chiharu ignores your dismay, laughing at your anguish, "I still haven't met your classmates from this school, you know. You should bring them over when you get the chance. I'll make sure they leave thinking you're really cool."

I'm pretty sure they'd find you way cooler than me. "I'm not really sure if any of my classmates would be interested in coming to an aquarium. Well, maybe Suguru would be, just to be polite." Everyone else comes from jujutsu families whether big name or small. "Then again, I think Utahime would love it here." During an old conversation of yours concerning first date spots that weren't just dinner or a movie, you both agreed that going to an aquarium would be a fun conversation starter. Among your upperclassmen, she is a romantic.

"Suguru sounds like a first name to me," comes says coyly. "So does Utahime. Is there romance blossoming at this special school of yours?"

You roll your eyes in good fun, "I'm on first name basis with almost everyone at that school, Auntie," you tell her before she can run on with her theories about your non-existent love life. "I'm not into either of them and neither of them are into me. I'm holding out for Morris, we've been through this."

"That man is married and 36 years old."

"He's gonna leave his wife some day," you counter with too much confidence for someone only turning 16 in 6 days. "And when he does, I'll be waiting at my wedding venue of choice!" Whatever your aunt says in response, you have no idea as she shakes her head with an exasperated release of her breath. You open your mouth to argue for the sake of arguing when you see a familiar squishy head peering over a wall and any debate concerning your pipe dreams halt. "Mina!" Two more heads pop up, ah yes the other members of her little pod. "Ryuu, Yuu!"

Auntie Chiharu pats your back lightly, "I'll take the boys and feed them before moving onto a different area. I'm sure you can handle your best friend." Your aunt knows the drill. Mina time is private time, like writing in a sentient diary. "Don't jump into the tank," she adds with a pinch.

You chuckle, "that was 10 year old [First]'s prerogative."

And 7 year old [First]. And [First] 8 through 9.

"Hey, Mina," you sigh softly, placing a gentle hand on her melon and giving it a friendly squish. It doesn't matter how many times you've touched it, beluga skin still feels something akin to touching wet styrofoam. "It's been forever since I've seen you, how you've been?" At Mina's friendly whistles you beam. "Good! I'm glad to hear the boys aren't giving you too hard a time. Me? School's been... something." You wait until you hear the telltale clatter of the the tank doors and you know Auntie Chiharu is far enough to not hear anything that comes next.

Another breath leaves you, this time much heavier in nature as you toss a few fish into Mina's jaws. "Seriously something," you whisper. "You already know where I'm going to school now, you don't need a major recap. But," you stall over your next words and focus on feeding Mina fish and ice.

When there's nothing left in the bucket besides melted water and fish scales you place you decide to lay on your stomach, disregarding the cool water seeping through your shirt and pants. "I'm supposed to die, Mina," you murmur at last, touching her melon again. "Looks like we won't be growing up together, after all." You recall Takamatsu's owlish eyes, his near manic grins.

All sorcerers are supposed to be at least a little crazy, apparently.

You wonder what the crazy meter is for someone who can see glimpses of someone's future when they look at them. Crazy enough that I can't ask him 'boring questions' about how I die. "Not really sure when, I forgot to ask. But to be honest, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have liked it if I asked," you tell the beluga about Takamatsu's disdain for lackluster questions. "So don't go asking me when or where. I don't know that either.

"... it's not like I didn't go into sorcerery thinking I couldn't die," you continue on. "It's a huge part of the job description. Warning: being a jujutsu sorcerer will bring in closer proximity to curses and curses can cause death, life threatening injuries, disembowelment, decapitation, more death and oh did we mention death? Ask your primary doctor if being a sorcerer is right for you."

But you promised yourself back when an undertow almost took you out that you wouldn't let fear run your life, just like Auntie Chiharu decided not to. Now here you are, confronted with something scarier than the abstract 'I could die' ー a solid confirmation of death. "... but I guess it's not even a curse that does me in, girl. I'm supposed to be killed by someone precious to me."

You wave your hand and despite yourself, you giggle when Mina rolls onto her side and waves back. "You're not gonna kill me are you, Mina?"

The sea canary makes what you say is a convincing argument that she wouldn't even dream of doing such a thing. "Don't worry, I didn't think you would," you reassure her, letting your arm sink into the chilly water. It's not jumping into the tank, Auntie Chiharu can't make any complains. Death by beluga whale sounds pretty interesting so you're sure Takamatsu would have mentioned it if you asked. "But this person is supposed to be so special that I won't even die mad about it. That Takamatsu guy said I really loved them."

You must really really love them.

At the sounds of clicks and whistles that are distinctly not the beluga in front of you, your eyes wander to the far east of the tank where you know your aunt is. You try to imagine Auntie Chiharu killing you, you try to picture how you'd feel if she did it now.

"I'm," you rest your chin on the hand that isn't elbow deep into icy cold water. "I'm really gonna love someone that much some day," you babble softly on in awe at the statement. "It's kinda amazing when I think about it. I don't really know if there's anyone I love that much right now. I don't even think I love my parents that much. We're the kind of family where our relationship got better after I moved out of the house." No more weird daughter, no more talk of imaginary ghouls. The love you have for your parents definitely has its limits. Your future executioner you adore definitely has to be someone that isn't family. "Who do you think it'll be?"

Mina has no answer for you but you grin anyway, "I wanna meet 'em too."

It's almost 18:00 when you finally finish making your way up the gazillion steps onto Jujutsu Tech's campus and that's when you're caught sneaking back into the dorms by Suguru.

"I thought you were sick in your dorms," the boy remarks when he catches you red-handed.

You laugh sheepishly, rubbing the back of your neck, "you wouldn't happen to believe me if I said I'm just a figment of your imagination, right?" Your shoulders sag in relief when Suguru chuckles at your lackluster attempt at covering your ass. At the very least, you knew the taller boy wouldn't snitch on the fact you hadn't actually been moping in your room all day.

"It'll be our little secret," Suguru says at last when his light bought of laughter subsides. Perfect. "How are you feeling?"

"Compared to yesterday? Better," talking to a beluga whale about your problems has been a surprisingly effective tactic since you were 7. "I just needed to clear my head and think for a while. And well I guess I thought, if I'm gonna die anyway, why not knock something off my bucket list. I've never ditched school before," despite your lackadaisical grin, Suguru grimaces at your words and your heart clenches. It's too soon to joke about your fate, even for you. But fake it til you make it. You made your decision. "So why not do it so I'm not laying on my deathbed full of regrets, right?" The lack of banter in return makes you sigh, holding your arm closely to your side. "Sorry. Kinda just figuring out how to approach the whole... dying in the worst way possible thing."

Suguru's look of sympathy isn't one you know if you should accept full-heartedly, "he let you ask questions about it, so there might be some way to change what happens to you. The future is malleable."

You remember how the seer looked aghast at you even asking how you die and snort, "those answers were helpful and unhelpful at the same time. So, I'm not really counting on things changing much." Not unless you really didn't like what you saw in the future. "Either way, I want to see this thing through and see what happens. It's terrifying, don't get me wrong," you divulge truthfully with a shaky sigh. Shit yourself levels of terrifying if you're being particularly honest.

Death may be part of your job description but you don't want to die. "You got 'hey man, you're gonna have some tough life decisions' and I got 'you're dying, not sorry'. And I don't even have a timeline I'm working with," you curse yourself again for not asking Takamatsu when you'd die. But if I did, he'd probably cut off letting me ask anymore questions in the first place. That sounds like a boring question, after all. "But living in fear isn't my style. So I'm just gonna keep doing me until I'm in the dirt. We're all dying some day, I'm not special."

And there's someone I want to meet, you keep to yourself. I want still want to choose my own future. So you will.

You'll meet whoever it is you're supposed to love so much you wouldn't even care if they killed you and you'll judge for yourself if they're someone you actually want in your life. With un-tinted glasses.

With an internal pat on your back, you give Suguru one that is much more external in nature, "so don't worry about little ole me. I'm pretty sure I'm not dying any time soon based on what I was told though, so don't get all sad on me. My birthday's coming up though so if you do wanna be extra nice, just get me extra presents or something."

You get a small smile in return, although you're sure your classmate isn't thoroughly convinced. You accept the smile as a win despite that. "I'll try to catch myself from moping too much then. I'll tell Satoru to be extra nice too," Suguru turns a sharp but playful eye toward you. "You're birthday buddies, after all."

"Please be for real," you squint back in displeasure. "Now we're gonna be stuck together all day on the 8th. Be lucky you don't have any birthday buddies." Utahime and Suguru's birthdays were a comfortable enough distance in February that neither had to worry about sharing anything other than a birthday month. Apparently that's too much to ask for yourself. "Let's switch birthdays, actually," you rest a fist on your other palm, a metaphorical light bulb lighting up over your head. "He's your best friend, it would perfect!"

"No way, I can't handle that much Satoru in my life." You roll your eyes, sticking your tongue out petulantly. "If it's any consolation, we didn't get along much our first couple weeks of school." It didn't offer much comfort so much as amusement. According to Shoko, their first day of school, Suguru and Gojou got into a fight so bad classes had to be canceled the rest of the day. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that squabble. "So it'll probably be the same for you," he smiles to himself, lost in whatever thoughts of friendship and rainbows he must be having. "It'd just be nice for the two of you to get along seeing as you're both friends of mine."

You hold your index fingers up in an 'x', "don't jinx me please. I'm a proud member of the We Hate Gojou Alliance with Utahime, I'm not betraying my girl like that." In spite of your vehement protests, Suguru laughs. He can laugh all he wants, I'm not giving up my badge of being a hater. A yawn falls from your lips. "Anyways, I'm hitting the showers," you yawn again, the lack of sleep finally beginning to catch up to you. "I've been out all day and I'm tired."

"Where'd you go anyway?" Suguru asks as you finally continue making your way to the dorms. "You smell like fish."

You laugh sheepishly. That's a drawback to the backstage aquarium visits. Good ole fish smell.

There's a reason no one wanted to be next to you on the train. "Enoshima."

"... Enoshima?"

index | previous chapter | next chapter

Extra

Alt. chapter title: Local teen trauma dumps to beluga whale, results may very

Auntie Chiharu's name is written with the characters for small '小' and spring '春'. That isn't important, I just think it's a cute name. She's got a degree in marine biology and works as an aquarist in Enoshima. She's not your average aunt, she's a cool aunt. Has heard many of your Gojou-related rants in the past. She deserves a medal

[hapan-in-exile]

Volume 4 - Post #6: Count your blessings

Another installment in this ongoing serialized fanfic

Genre: Mandalorian x Fem! Reader

Total word count: 2K (sixth post in Volume 4)

Rating: Explicit - smut, language, +18 *NSFW*

_______________________________

VI. It takes the better part of a day to hide the Razor Crest under the tree canopy. At some point in the afternoon, you stop looking up from your work, expecting the Mandalorian to emerge from behind one of the tall ferns carpeting the forest floor. It often took him days to track down his quarry. He wouldn’t be back anytime soon.

Instead, you dig into another round of roasted fish and listen to Nito’s unsettling story about exactly how he gained access to the Imperial archive. Which involved the spouse of a sitting Galactic Senator and a dominatrix. 

“My concern is that Mando didn’t properly contextualize this,” you say, picking a bone out from between your teeth. “You see, sometimes consenting adults want to pretend—it’s important that they’re just pretending—because everyone participating enjoys—” 

“Ah! Stop!” He places all four hands over his ears. 

“And for the record, I’m not against paying for sex work under ethical conditions. Especially in that kind of scenario where professional expertise—”

“Stop talking!”

“Okay. Okay,” you wave him down. “The only other thing I want to say, is that I encourage you to get comfortable with the basics and develop good communication before you think about exploring—” 

The Ardennian throws a handful of fiddleheads at you. “What do I have to do to make you stop talking?!” 

“Alright, I’m done! Just know I’m here, if and when you want to talk.”

“Sure,” Nito sneers. “Cause you and Mando are so great at communicating.”

“Wow!” You glare at him. “That was mean, little sidekick.”

“Sidekick?” He practically chokes on the word. “I am not your—don’t call me sidekick.”

“Yeah? Well, don’t start slinging shit around if you don’t want to step in it.” 

You extend Nito a hand in truce and somehow manage to avoid slapping the condescending look off his face when he rolls his eyes.  

“Right. So what did you learn from these uncensored records?”

Nito had already done an extensive amount of sleuthing on the HoloNet for site plans, handbooks, technical documents, senate committee reports, and whatever else he could find about the Empire’s coaxium production on Lakaran. 

“When Ubaa Dir found us on Sriluur…I kept thinking about how the Tagge Corporation makes so much money. Everything they do is about cost-savings and shortcuts. There’s no way they would build a completely new operating system. They’ve just been overwriting and patching the old lines of Imperial code. And now I know which program they used.”

That makes you sit up straighter. “You mean…you did it? You designed something that can take over the refinery?” 

“Not just the refinery,” Nito says excitedly. “The entire facility. Door locks, alarm protocols, climate control. I can turn the decorative fountains on and off if you want me to.” 

“Nito, that’s—”

“A feat of astounding genius,” he finishes for you with a spectacularly smug look. The size of this kid’s ego probably generates its own gravity. 

“Yes, I am humbled to be in the presence of such boundless intellect. Getting back to the malware you so ingeniously created. Are you saying all I have to do is launch this program, and you’ll have remote access to the operating system?”

Nito’s bad moods usually fall somewhere along the spectrum of sarcastic brat to sulky drama queen, but the way his nostrils flare, and eyes dilate is pure outrage. He looks absolutely livid. 

“Uh, no. I’m not doing anything remotely,” he scoffs at the absurdity of your suggestion. “I need to be onsite to work on the TaggeCo network.”

“Look, Nito, I’m sorry about the snarky sidekick remark. I know it feels like being an equal member of the team means taking on equal risk, but—”

“Because I am!” He shouts. “You think my voice in your earpiece is all you need to splice into their systems? They will try to override my program with anything they can throw at it. You think Mando can deflect those kinds of attacks? Because you sure as hell can’t. You need me there.”

“That’s not our only responsibility, Nito. What are we going to do? Bring a toddler with us on a heist?”

“Yes!” Nito exclaims. 

Your jaw drops open. “When Ubaa Dir’s fighters launch a ground assault to take the refinery, some dead-eyed TaggeCorp exec back on Coruscant is going to decide whether destroying the entire facility under the cover of some ‘industrial accident’ is better for their bottom line. And if we don’t have control of the network when they make that call, everyone will die. So, yeah, you’ll be talking to me through an earpiece because I don’t want you, or the kid, anywhere near.”

“And what if someone blocks the receiver signal, huh? What if you’re in a fight, it falls out and gets crushed? What then, Thuli?” He growls at you, jaw set with conviction. “Just because you’re scared doesn’t change the fact that you need me!”

Gods, you’re so bad at navigating conflict. Your body becomes so overwhelmed with anxiety that you actually stand up from your seat next to the fire and start pacing. The Child, who had been sleeping next to you on the blanket, stirs—eyes blinking wide in confusion.

“Of course, I’m scared! We’re jeopardizing the lives of innocent people. What? Were you hoping to startle me into some kind of epiphany?!”

The Child whimpers in distress, clinging to your knees until you pick him up. “I know you resent being back on babysitting duty—”

“He’s not a baby,” Nito snaps. “And I know you know that.”

“What—?”

“Okay, he might be a baby, but he’s not helpless. He can…do things,” Nito says in a hushed whisper. “And if I’ve seen it, I know you’ve seen it too.”

You draw in a sharp breath and drop your gaze toward the kid. But he’s already back asleep, contented in the safety of your arms.

So…we’re finally having this conversation. Part of you reflexively wants to deny it. Honor Mando’s wishes and say nothing. Convince Nito that it’s all a figment of his overactive imagination. 

It’s painful realizing how comfortable you’ve become with dishonesty. How readily the lie springs to your lips. Erenada, this is what’s eating Humia alive—the compulsion to reach for deceit instead of truth, even when it serves no purpose.  

“What have you seen him do?”

The tension in Nito’s posture melts away. Instead, he becomes alight with fascination, eager to share this memory he’d replayed in his mind countless times. He’s so excited he can barely think straight.

“Mando tracked his bounty to Numidian Prime, but the guy nearly shot us down from the sky. I was making repairs to the engine turbine…It was so humid out that all this moisture had collected on the wing. When I opened the injector panel, these mynock came out of nowhere. Just flew at my face, attacking me. And I slipped, but…I didn’t fall. Something…caught me. Some kind of force that held onto me.”

A force. 

You recall seeing a shimmering wave when the Child moved the boulder to save Mando’s quarry trapped underneath. Like a haze over desert sand as he lifted the rock above the cave floor. And you’d thought that same thing—that it was a forcefield, somehow wielded by this tiny creature.   

Nito’s shoulders slump. “It was him. He saved me.”

The kid’s mouth twitches, his hands opening and closing while he dreamed, blissfully unaware that he’s the subject of your whispered speculation. The Mandalorian may want to hide these abilities, but they couldn’t be contained.       

“I’ve seen it, too,” you nod. “He lifted this boulder a thousand times his weight and size.”

“Do you know how he does it? I mean, you can do…stuff,” Nito raised all four arms helplessly. “You both have powers. How is it possible?” 

“I—”

In this case, it’s probably best to leave the truth unspoken. If Nito knew what you were truly capable of—the things you'd done, the accidents—as a child? He would never look at you with that trusting gaze ever again. And you’re not ready to give that up.

“I’ve never heard of a Hapan able to manipulate inorganic matter. My power is tied to the connection between living things. I wield...physiology. Granted, I never finished my training. There is secret knowledge only practiced by the most revered sages. But I don’t know how he does it.”

“Can’t you just look inside his mind for answers?”

“No,” you shake your head. “I can’t read someone’s mind like pages in a book, Nito. If he were to focus on a particular thought or memory, I might witness it, but I can only sense emotion.” 

Thinking back to that day in the cave, you remember, “He felt…sadness. And guilt. Maybe it was different that time…it took him a long time to access his power because he felt so conflicted about it. Not like with you and—he saved Mando, too—from a charging Mudhorn—”

Nito huffed, and a hateful smile spread across his face. “So you and Mando have known this whole time, and you never said anything to me?”

Fuck! Kriffing hell, there’s no avoiding this…so much for that trusting gaze. 

“I—yes. Mando asked me never to speak about it, but I should have pushed back. You deserved to know. I’m sorry, Nito. I made a mistake.”

This did nothing to mollify the rage building up inside the Ardennian. He stomps forward to shove a finger in your face. 

“Well, I don’t forgive you! I don’t know why Mando doesn’t trust me…but you didn’t push back because you liked sharing a secret with him. He’s the only thing you’ve ever cared about out.”

Your head snaps back as if you’d been slapped. “Nito, that’s not—”

“And he doesn’t even care enough about you to be here. Look around, Thuli. Mando’s not here. I am!” 

Ouch! Okay, you might have deserved that. He’s right, after all. You’d been so touched that Mando trusted you with this secret, you hadn’t really thought about hurting Nito. But damn, did this kid have to rip your heart open to bury the knife in your chest? 

“Can we talk about this without—?”

“Guess what,” Nito howls so loudly that the baby shudders awake, whimpering. “I don’t trust you guys either. You’re both too stupid to do this without me. I’m going to take down that network, and I’m bringing the kid with me.” 

And he grabs the kid from your arms to tuck him into his apron pocket. With a theatrical twist of his shoulders, Nito stalks toward the Crest. 

“Nito, I don’t know how to get you inside the refinery. Why do you think I’ve been mopping floors for the past two weeks? So that I can walk in through the front gate.” 

He doesn’t even bother turning to look at you. “Then get me a transponder.”

“It doesn’t work that way!” You cry desperately after him. “There are checkpoints and scanners everywhere. I'm not wearing this thing as a costume prop!” 

This time, he stops to give you an accusatory glare. “So what about Mando, eh? I bet you know how to get him inside.”

“Mando can get himself in, and I don’t think I need to explain how he’ll manage that.”

“Then, Mando can get me in, too. He brought us with him for the job on Coruscant.”

“That guy was a bureaucrat, Nito. TaggeCo has a private army! Why can’t you see that I’m trying to protect you?"

"No one asked you to! I've been taking care of myself for a long time."

And the almost imperceptible crack in Nito's voice as he stifled down a sob breaks what's left of your heart.

"But you shouldn't have to. You’re right! We are stupid. Let us be stupid while you are smart and stay out of danger.”

Nito is indifferent to your tears. “You don’t get to make that decision for me! You can’t do this without us, Thuli. Figure out how to get me into that operations center, or none of this works.”  

It’s hard to believe that you started out the day excited.

**********

Continue reading: Volume 4-Post #7: Thrilling Tales of (Undercover) Emergency Medicine

Back to Volume 4 - all posts

[vioyume]

Rambling about an old defunct Disney site

So like does anyone remember Disney Create? It shut downed in 2014 but it was essentially a social media for drawing and it had it's own drawing program. Similar to Animal Jam's I guess but you can pick different themes for what you want to draw with by clicking on a show you want.

So the Phineas and Ferb one will give you assets such as character stickers, backgrounds, and music from the show, Club Penguin is the same thing but with their own characters and etc. (Btw there was this "Got Milk" thing happening before but I never understood what it was)

But getting back to the art program, some of it's features were a decent amount of different brushes as well as ones like vines or snowflakes. But you can make your own brushes and stickers too. There was a feature to make comics too, and when you're done with the comic you can read it like a slideshow/video, no layer feature but what do you expect from a program made for kids.

I frankly remember being like 7 and was tracing bases but never posted them as well as recreating mlp characters in a pet creator.

Besides drawing there was a music video creator, and these pet creator things as far as I remember. The pet one is getting parts and coloring on them to make a pet you can interact with (dogs, cats, fish, birds, etc), and the music video one is using assests from a show to create a cool slide show, I made many Phineas and Ferb ones when the movie was coming out.

I can't say much about the social media part of the website because I never made an account, but when I did it was late into the site's lifespan and I don't remember anything nor know how social media works, think one of the features was saving your work.

The site to me was not a huge impact, I would've find another drawing site somewhere else but it was certainly convenient when I wanted to draw silly ponies. Kind of sad to see that only screenshots exists and it's just something people barely remember but you can access it through the way back machine but it needs flash so you can't draw in it.

Anyways here's some screen shots from google, I'm pretty sure some Warrior Cats fans liked using it but I can't find any for the pet and music video creator.

The toilet dog photo is the only thing I found of the pet creator but not the actual program itself and it was from someone's Wordpress blog but it gives you an idea how it works. Here's the link

[kitcat992]

│Identity Saga │Narrative Discourse (The Steps to "Son")

Identity Saga

It doesn't matter how much time dwindles on since writing the first installment of the Identity Saga; some days, it feels no different than if it were last week. And completing Tony's journey of self-growth — allowing himself to open up and bring Peter into his life as 'more than a mentee' — was absolutely one of my favorite things about writing Identity Theft.

I remember starting this story the night I saw Infinity War; I fell head over heels for what little interaction we saw between Tony and Peter in that movie, combined with Spider-Man: Homecoming. And like most things I latched onto those seeds and breadcrumbs and went wild with it. I wanted to see create the journey that got Tony to being a "dad figure" and decide if I was going to do it, I'd be going all in. It was the slowest of burns I've ever written, but the most satisfying, all at the same time.

Through-out Identity Theft, we watched Tony and Peter evolve after a 6ish month gap from Homecoming to narrative present. From "mentee" to "like a son", it was a huge pleasure (and one of my biggest accomplishments, at the time) to take Tony through that journey. Following each event of the story, we got to see himself allow the destruction of the barricades that kept him from bringing someone close into his life. And most importantly, begin to see himself as a pseudo father-figure — especially after the hangups he's had in his own life.

As Identity Crisis comes to a conclusion — with the second installment following Peter's journey from "mentor" to "like a dad" — I think it's important to revisit the narrative discourse of Tony's character growth through this saga. Providing relationships that felt "earned" through organic growth and pacing was my goal with this series, and even with the word count far exceeding what I ever anticipated (along with a time-frame that I never expected in completing the saga) I'm very proud to have gotten these characters where they are in the narrative.

Tony deserved this in the MCU. In my little sandbox of stories, he got it.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 1: Prologue

Tony scoffed, mildly amused. “Jesus kid, that’s the best question you can come up with? That part was borderline child's play.”

“Yeah, well, no, it’s just —” Peter stumbled over his words, scooting his stool closer to where Tony sat. And then closer after that. “Facial recognition typically uses bio metrics for its body measurements and calculations, to—to you know, refer to metrics related to human characteristics, but its used in access control, never memory stored control. And I can’t imagine a simple storage unit could hold all this information and relay it back to the recognition program in time to provide results, so…how'd you do it?"

Tony hummed, giving a short and sharp nod. If there was one thing he could always count on, it was that Parker could talk his head off when it came to science. And while he had days where he doubted supplying the kid with so much technology to support his vigilante heroism — six months ago, for example, when the Ferry Incident was still fresh in his mind — it was moments like this that renewed his confidence in the young lad.

He wouldn't admit it aloud, but it made him proud.

Or some mutated form of the emotion he hadn't quite figured it out yet.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 6: Breakfast at Tony’s

“My intent was never malicious with Peter." Tony sighed, rubbing harshly at the nape of his neck. "He’s just a boy trying to keep his family and friends safe and honestly, can you be angry with that? None of you can look me in the eye and say you wouldn’t want the same thing." Tony noticeably turned to Clint. "Hell, Barton, your entire family is a secret from the world.”

Clint shrugged, not making an attempt to dispute the fact.

Tony continued on, “I respected his request and followed through with it. So if you have anyone to be mad at, it’s me — but it’d be pretty damn stupid to stay mad over something like this. We have bigger fish to fry.”

Rhodey looked between him and Peter, raising an eyebrow with curiosity.

“You trust him then?” he asked.

It was easy for Rhodey to tell when Tony was bullshitting. They had been friends for a long time, way before Iron Man, long before Afghanistan — there was a foundation between them that couldn’t be rattled. His entire life changed along with Tony’s, somehow joining him in the crazy ride of War Machine, the brief blip of Iron Patriot, and ultimately landing with the Avengers.

So when Tony nodded, he wholeheartedly believed him.

“I do,” Tony said, flapping a hand in Peter's general vicinity. “He’s good. He’s better than good, he’s great.”

Nobody missed how Peter looked up at hearing those words, his eyes sparkling with a sense of pride that made him grin ear-to-ear. For a moment, Tony looked nowhere else but at that. A shadow of a grin washed across his own face, something that not one person in the room didn’t notice.

The exchange was brief, but unique, giving Tony a different light to him; a humility that bounced off him no different than the skylights from above.

Steve noted that.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 7: New Kid on the Block

Tony pounded on the kid's back as he coughed dirty river water onto the ground with each action, his inhales wet and rickety.

“Breathe, kid, breathe…” he calmly instructed him, obviously not wavered by the thumbs up that Peter insisted on giving, not until his coughs dissipate and his breaths were less shaky.

Peter took a deep inhale, this time clean and dry. He watched in front of him as Sam contained the much smaller rock creature — and he laughed.

“Holy crap, he’s so small now! That’s just…” Peter grinned ear-to-ear. “That was so awesome! Way more awesome than the Android, which is still so awesome. Holy crap, that was —”

Peter stopped mid-sentence as Tony removed his Iron Man mask, exposing much less happy features than what he was experiencing.

Oh crap. He was in trouble — he had to be in trouble - he must have screwed up and now they were angry with him, again — angry again. Heart plummeting to the sopping wet soles of his feet, Peter gulped hard enough to shake his throat.

“Mr. Stark, I —”

His apology was cut short when Tony laid a hand on his shoulder, sighing with relief.

“You did good, kid,” he said. “You scared the devil out of me, but you did real good.”

Peter grinned, possibly wider than before. Mr. Stark wasn’t angry — no, he seemed almost…proud. And though it wasn’t much, barely a twitch of his lips, he could tell Tony was also smiling.

He did good.

Peter nodded in thanks, wiping away the dirty water from his mouth. He did good.

Those few words were the best he had heard in a long time, feeling a sense of pride in himself that he hadn’t felt in months. Suddenly, all the overlapping failures washed away — the Daily Bugle's headlines didn't mean squat to him. Not with the approval he'd just received.

Tony must have noticed his happiness, because he went from having his hand on him to wrapping his entire arm around his shoulder with a tight squeeze.

Peter relished in it.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 8: Afterparty

It wasn’t too long into their trip to Queens though that Peter fell quiet, and Tony briefly considered turning on music to fill the silence. Sparing a glance to the passenger’s seat where Peter sat, he ultimately decided against it.

“Damn, kid,” Tony muttered. “Talked yourself right to sleep.”

While he would have liked to believe as much, Tony knew better than that. He could see the day was wearing thin on Peter by the time the sun had set, the bags under his eyes growing darker with each hour. He had to wonder if the kid had even slept last night.

Still, he kept up the facade well, eagerly talking to everyone like the energizer bunny he was.

That was the thing with Peter — always moving, always bouncing and jittery.

Tony could only imagine how much adrenaline had pumped through the kid’s veins, between last nights adventure and then his geeky-self getting overwhelmed hanging out with the team. It had to be enough energy to fuel a third world country, and the crash was probably just as bad.

He looked back to the road, a soft sigh escaping his lips. He wasn’t sure how or when he got into this situation, but deep down inside, he knew it didn’t bother him. The fact it didn’t bother him probably bothered him, but he’d deal with that another time.

The kid did good today. He did better than good, he did great — fantastic, amazing even. This little amazing Spider-Man saving the day like a pro. It was like a sense of pride that bubbled within him, happy to see the kid excel, take the reins at the crazy job he was thrown into.

Tony knew Peter had it within him. To be the hero, to be better than he was. He just needed the guidance.

It was something Howard Stark failed at.

His father gave him all the money in the world, but he never gave the guidance Tony needed. It took Afghanistan for him to realize he needed to be his own light in the darkness. It took more than that to realize he had to do better for the world — the Battle of New York, Ultron. The Accords, and the dismantling that followed.

Looking over at Peter again, Tony softened. He didn’t know what it was about the teenager that drew him in like a magnet. All he needed was an extra hand in Berlin, something to convince Rogers that he was off his rocker and needed to come to his senses. They should have parted ways after that, there was no reason for him to become so connected. And yet half his year was spent focused on the Spider-kid —

No.

Peter.

He was focused on Peter.

It was almost as if they were one in the same. Two damaged souls just trying to make the world a better place, so their pain wouldn’t be experienced by anyone else.

Tony knew he shouldn’t be getting so close. People close to him got hurt — he hurt those close to him. It was instinct by this point; the toxic, inevitable nature within him that he couldn’t shake. And now Peter was close — he was close to the team, his life, his world —

It was asking for trouble.

Somehow, along the journey he had taken as Iron Man, this fifteen-year-old kid looked up to him. He was a role model now — what the hell was he supposed to do with that? There wasn’t anything good about him to look up to. If anything, he was the example of what not to do.

'Don't do anything I would do. And don't do anything I wouldn't do.'

Yeah, that summed him up pretty damn well.

Tony looked up in the rearview mirror, the headlights from behind them highlighting the browns in his eyes. It was strange — an odd feeling, knowing Peter admired him. It kind of made him sick to his stomach, and not just because of the sappiness behind it all.

This was dangerous territory. Guiding a kid, mentoring a kid. This wasn't what he set out to do.

Being Iron Man, flying in the skies, saving the world — that seemed like a piece of cake compared to this. There wasn’t a playbook on how to mentor a teenager — scratch that, a teenage superhero.

The most he could do was try.

It would mean headaches — all kinds of headaches, frustration, stress — Tony knew exactly what kind of trouble this was asking for. But he owed it to the kid to at least try.

He owed it to himself.

“Is it worth it, Tony?” Steve had asked him. “Is he worth it?”

The procession of streetlights and passing cars illuminated the interior of the car, shinning inside just long enough for Tony to catch the sight of Peter curled up in the leather passenger seat. His head was lolled to the side, his arms clutching the bag that contained his spider-suit. His mouth was slightly ajar, and light snores slipped out with each breath he took.

Yeah, Tony decided. He’s worth it.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 10: And Washed the Spider Out

Somehow, and for some reason, Tony's eyes locked onto the scattered papers on his desk.

The MIT brochures stared back at him.

Mocking him.

“I just…I don’t know, Mr. Stark.” Peter hesitantly set the brochures on the work table, stepping back with caution. “I can’t leave New York. What about Spider-Man, protecting the little guy? I can’t do that from MIT. And—and I can’t —”

“You can’t what?” Tony snapped in a way that was purely controlled, a vibration of intimidation that shook Peter’s core. If looks could kill, he'd surely be six feet under from the piercing glare the billionaire gave him.

Peter bowed his head, his eyes locked on his dirty sneakers.

“I can’t leave Aunt May.” His words were quiet, his hand rubbing at the nape of his neck. “She needs me, Mr. Stark. I can’t just leave her...not yet.”

Tony squeezed the screwdriver in his hand so tightly that the metal tip broke through skin, a stream of blood trickling out.

It didn't hurt enough. It ached, throbbed, and stung, but it didn't hurt enough to distract him from the sickening pain in his heart.

So he did the only thing he could think of.

“Goddamnit!”

It took one sweep of his arm to knock over everything on the table. Papers, tools, and random mechanical parts fell to the ground with a clatter and bang. It wasn’t long after that he decided, screw it, the entire table can join them. And then once he knocked the table to the ground, Tony kicked the chair over as well. He kicked it — kicked, kicked and kicked it, slamming it against the wall with the force of his anger. 

“Damn it!” he kicked repeatedly, angrily. “Damn it, GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!”

He screamed because he needed to, his voice harsh and jarring, because he had to, because this isn't happening, this isn't real, this can't be real.

But it was. Tony had no ability to change it, no amount of money to fix it, no control over any of it. He croaked as his knees buckled under his weight, pathetically sinking down onto the stool with a deafening headache starting to drown out the scratchy pain in his throat.

And he let himself be.

It was like a tidal wave, the grief. Washing over him instantaneously.

He heard the whoosh of the sliding doors but never the alert from his AI. Because he shut it off, of course. Though he wouldn’t have needed the warning to begin with.

Tony knew exactly who it was.

“You’ve gone too far with your override privileges, Pep.”

His voice was so ragged he didn't even recognize it, wet with tears and clouded with pain. It didn't sound like him at all.

“Tony...” Her voice was steadier than he expected it to be. 

He was reluctant to let her near him. To let her feel the anger and shame radiating off him, to see him in such a weak, pathetic state. Yet he never made a move to otherwise stop her.

She knew it all, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

“He was just a kid." Tony shut his eyes and held them tight. “I’m the adult. I was supposed to protect him. He was just a kid.”

Hunched over on the stool, Tony never moved. Pepper approached him and without any hesitation, without any shame, wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled his head close to her, letting him rest in the tuck of her stomach where she stood.

“It’s okay, Tony.” Pepper ran her hand through his hair. “It’s okay…”

It hit him with capsizing quickness. Tony felt himself pulled forward, as if the weight in his chest was enough to define gravity. The sobs wretched through him and he wailed, like a dying animal, crying in agony.

They came one after another, harsh and loud, until he couldn't breathe, until he was gasping from the exertion of dissolving into his emotions. Her shirt became soaked with his tears, but neither cared. She held him closer as his cries howled in the room.

“It’s okay, Tony.” Pepper’s own voice cracked. “Shhh, it’s okay.”

There was no physical mark, no external catalyst for his distress — he made it out okay. He wasn’t swallowed up by the burning flames, eating away at his flesh and muscles and stripping him of the life he knew. He was okay.

But he was still burning, gasping with panic at flames that didn't exist.

Throat aching, his sobs died to thin, whistling intakes of air, choking on his own tears when they hiccupped in his throat.

“I can’t fix this. I can’t fix this,” Tony gasped, over and over. “I can’t fix this, Pep. I can’t bring him back.”

Pepper held him tighter, her own tears salty on her lips.

“I failed him." He choked on another sob, pulling tight at his chest. "I — I failed him.”

Pepper didn't respond.

Tony didn't need her to.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 11: Avengers Disassembled

“We lost him too, you know," Steve's voice was almost too quiet to hear.

Tony wished it had been.

“You lost him?” Tony scoffed, the sound piercingly angry. He slammed his mug down on the table, uncaring as the contents split everywhere. "I'm sorry, exactly how long did you know him?"

Steve met his angry eyes with soft ones, stripping him of every decade he slept frozen in ice.

“You’re right,” he nodded, struggling to find the right words to say — it showed in the bob of his throat, highlighting the shadow that covered his jaw. “It's not that I don't wish I had known him sooner. Or longer. Because I do, we all do. Peter was a good kid." Steve frowned, the downward tug of his lips creating lines on his face Tony hadn't seen before. "It's just...he obviously meant a lot to you, Tony. I don’t think I’ve ever…”

There was a pause.

Steve looked down to the coffee cup on the table, watching as the mess began to leak driblets onto the ground. One drop at a time, creating a small puddle on the marble floor. A mess that somebody, at some point, would need to clean up.

“You called him your kid.” Steve forced his eyes away from the dripping coffee, back to where Tony sat. His head tilted to the side, just narrowly. “Last week…out on the island…you called him your kid.”

The coffee kept dripping.

Tony barely craned his head around to look at Steve — close enough now that if he wanted to take a seat next to him on the couch, he could. If Tony hadn't been so confused, he would've made a run for the other sofa. Or jump straight down the stairs, need be. Whatever it meant to get Steve away from him.

Curiosity always did win when it came to Stark's. And Steve's out-of-the-blue comment was just enough to grab his attention.

"Your point?" Tony made a face that was caught between insulted and perplexed, and something else he was too tired to figure out.

Steve found himself leaning against the armrest of the sofa, slowly, enough that the movement didn't jostle the man sitting there.

“Tony…” Steve started to say. “Was he actually your son —?”

“No!” Tony's eyes were wide enough to fall onto the floor. Jesus, if that didn't get him to sober up quickly. "Christ, no, I didn't have — no!"

He definitely needed to go heavier on the whiskey. Tony brought a hand to his forehead, not realizing it was wet with coffee until it smeared against his temple. He cursed under his breath, rubbing the back of his hand roughly against his jeans before returning to a halfhearted temple massage.

This was exactly the shit he'd been worried about with Parker. Rumors, speculation, tabloid garbage nonsense that would spread like wildfire — this was part of why he wanted to keep Peter secret from the team.

A scoff shook his back. So much for that.

Despite Tony's outburst, Steve still seemed wary. His head tilted further to the side, his confusion deepening. All the more visible underneath the lack of sleep that coated his features.

It was a tired Captain America that Tony took pity on. His confusion was no different than Bambi on a dewy morning, lost and looking for answers. Glancing over at Steve — really looking at him — and Tony didn't understand how even the blues of his eyes had deepened with that confusion. It was almost enough to make him scoff again — because of course Rogers could pull off the Bambi eyes when he wanted to.

Screw it. It didn't matter now. It didn't matter what the team knew and what they didn't know.

It wasn't like Peter was around to worry about anymore.

"He wasn't...he wasn't my kid, no," Tony let out that scoff after all. "He’s been — he was— hanging around here. A lot. More often than I probably should have let him.”

Tony adjusted himself on the sofa, attempting to straighten his back in a way that would evoke poise they both knew he didn’t have right now. The sip of coffee he took only further deteriorated that attempt. The hand holding his mug began to tremble with the liquid he hadn't consumed in ages.

“What can I say, he was needy and I needed..." Tony didn't realize his foot was tapping against the floor until the sound started to aggravate him. "It doesn't matter what I needed."

Identity Theft│ Chapter 12: The Doctor Is In

“You came here to tell us Peter is still alive." Wanda looked up at Strange, the expression that fell on her face tighter than the words that thickened her accent. "You want us to find him.”

It wasn't a question. Rather, an acknowledgment of his task.

Stephen simply nodded. “I have been warned, by the Vishanti, that the death of your ward —”

“He wasn’t my ward,” Tony snapped.

Stephen noticeably rolled his eyes. “Whatever relationship exists here — it’s the catalyst. If not taken care of, it will start a chain of events beyond our control of stopping. Beyond even my control of stopping.”

“What chain of events?” Tony asked, hard-pressed, the liquor that left his system no longer at play for his anger. “What’s so awful from one kid kicking the bucket?”

Stephen didn't answer right away. The silence that followed seemed to be the longest yet, with a faint line deepening across his forehead.

Finally, “I have not been granted that knowledge.”

Maybe it was the sleep deprivation. Or perhaps the day’s events finally took a toll on him. Maybe, even, he couldn't handle his whisky as well as he could in the past. But for a moment, Tony stared ahead blankly, unable to think of a proper response. His mind went empty, his brain going blank. He blinked, once and then twice, before wearily shaking his head.

“Alright, I’ve entertained this long enough.” Tony turned around, shooing him away with his arm. “Grab your rabbit and leave through your top hat, or whatever pyrotechnic light show you have in your back pocket. I’m not sending anyone to walk you out, so you’re on your own —”

“Your kid is still alive!” Stephen argued, stepping forward — his feet hit the floor as loud as his voice broke through his throat.

Tony spun fast on his heels, the rage in his eyes blazing hot. “I watched him die.”

Stephen shook his head. “You watched a building explode.”

Tony pointed an accusing finger his way. “That he was in.”

Stephen slammed an open palm into his chest.

And the world stopped.

Tony felt it before he saw it. A sudden displacement from his body, as if his mind had become its own entity; disconnecting from everything that held him grounded in the real world.

Stephen used one hand to grab the wrist of the finger that pointed at him, yanking him forward in one harsh tug. With one fluid motion, he slammed his open palm into Tony's chest. The strike was so hard it knocked him off balance.

Or at least, it would have. It should have.

Tony was witnessing real time in milliseconds, possibly even slower. Fractions of milliseconds. Fractions of fractions of milliseconds. He stared at his own body — his own body, caught in slow motion, stumbling backward.

Stephen's hand was still on him, covering his t-shirt, the balls of his heels barely having barely lifted off the ground.

With shaking panic, Tony realized that he wasn’t in his body anymore.

He stared at his hands with disbelief. The rough, callous fingers were so faint, so tangible that he could see the floor below him, as if his skin were made of sheer glass. His physical body continued to fall backward, centimeter by centimeter, destined to hit the floor. The surrounding world around him moved like molasses; all as he floated away, a translucent form with no control.

And then, he was sent soaring.

Tony could feel the air knocked from his lungs at the forced momentum, losing all connection with the world that once was. He could feel the wind fly through his hair, hitting his skin, his stomach rolling with waves of nausea as he flew faster than Iron Man could ever dream of going.

It was a blur and spectrum of colors. A roller coaster caught within a kaleidoscope. Tony was vaguely aware that he was shouting, possibly even screaming — hysterically screaming. But he couldn’t comprehend anything that was going on.

He couldn’t connect with what was around him.

And then he stopped. Face to face with dazed, glassy, brown eyes.

Young eyes.

Panicked eyes.

Peter’s eyes.

Tony could hear the kid's breathing — each inhale raspy, forced. For one split of a second, he heard a heartbeat.

Alive.

Living. 

One blink, and everything was gone.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 12: The Doctor Is In

Tony took a deep breath, this time through his mouth, and tried to hone in his mind. He even closed his eyes the second time around. The crickets chirped, and his own breath echoed in his ears, all the while he faintly heard Strange whisper under his breath.

“Clear your mind…”

Tony was never good at meditation. If he had an idea for an invention, he could focus on it for months. If given an object to fix, he’d do his damnedest to repair it. But mediation meant silence, and silence usually followed uncomfortable thoughts.

Howard, his mom. Afghanistan, Obadiah, Vanko, Hammer, Killian…

He shook his head, fighting to steer his mind in the right direction. These people brought his demons to life; they weren’t what — and who — he needed to be focused on. They were people that made his life hell. People who were out to get him.

Loki, Barnes, Ultron —

‘Come on, treat this like a problem.' Tony growled, the sound muted in his chest. 'You can fix this. You can fix yourself.’

It was a joke to even trick himself into that. He knew he could never fix himself. But he was lucky enough to have people around him to get him through the day. Pepper, Rhodey — hell, though he hated to admit it, he had the entire team of Avengers watching his back. He may be a hot piping mess, but he’d never have to be one alone.

And Peter. The kid was glued to his side whether he wanted him to be or not. Peter never saw the bad in him. Even with his entire history laid out in newspapers, recorded in videos, spread across the tabloids — Peter shrugged it off as though it didn’t bother him.

The kid had so much life in him. Even on his worst days, the kid smiled with more love than Tony could ever give back. For the longest time he believed he was mentoring the kid to be like him — but he soon realized that having Peter in his life was making him the better man, not the other way around. He made every beat of his heart worth it.

Peter made him want to be a better person. To not let his baggage and trauma control his life. To spend the evening in bed with Pepper rather than in his workshop — because life was short and he didn’t know how long he had with her. To make more time with Rhodey, because they had been friends for decades and the man deserved better than what company he had been providing.

To forgive Steve, because mistakes shouldn’t always define the man.

“When you can do the things I can…but you don’t, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.”

For a moment, Tony stopped breathing. He didn’t realize it, but the air halted in his chest, stagnant with the thoughts that passed by in his mind. His forehead creased as he focused so intently, and so deeply, on the memories that made his arms quiver and his eyes twitch.

But he could see it — he could see a young Peter; sitting on his bed in his Queens apartment, the kid all but starstruck at the concept of talking with Tony Stark. He could see him ripping off his Spider-Man mask, giddy and excited at his first team-up with Iron Man. And for one short moment, he could feel him, his own arm wrapped around the lanky but built teenager as they walked away from the island together.

For a moment, he felt at peace.

Stephen was the one to come out of his trance with a gasp, a thud on the ground that startled Tony back to the present. From the way his clothes shook, Tony could only assume something magical had happened.

And he missed it.

Well, damn.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 15: Parker Luck

Something inside Steve finally broke. When Tony briskly walked past him, attempting to reach the rest of the team, he grabbed onto his bicep tightly. Stalling him from moving any further.

“You good?” Steve asked, his voice almost too low to hear.

Tony looked over at him, stone-cold sober with exhaustion that sank deep in his bones.

“I will be once we get this over with,” he answered.

Steve didn’t let go of his grip. “You know we have your back on this, Tony. Right?”

Tony shook him off, roughly at that, with his brows furrowed tight.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Steve had a million different thoughts raging in his head — things he wanted to say yesterday, the day before that, and the day before it all. It burned a hole deep inside of him, screaming to get out.

They didn’t have time for it, though. The others stood across the room waiting for them both; waiting to leave any second now. With resignation, Steve settled on the most straightforward answer he could muster up.

“It means we’re going to find him.” Steve tilted his chin low, his eyes locking onto Tony’s. “And we’re all going to come back, together.”

What he didn't say out loud was heard, loud and clear in the emphasis of his words. There wouldn't be sacrifices made. This wasn't New York — they weren't doing that again.

Tony paused, his tongue running across his teeth before he popped his lips together, turning to face Steve head-on with a strong fury emitting from the pores of his skin.

“Let’s get one thing straight, Rogers," he started, each word heavier than the last. "Whatever we’re about to walk into, the end result is bringing Peter home. If for one second, there needs to be a decision made between the kid, or me, or anyone else, you best believe the kid comes first. Every time,” his tone was deep and rumbled like gravel. “Is that clear?”

There was a quiet moment between them. One only filled with the suffocating tension from Tony’s imposition.

Steve honestly didn’t know how to respond. Not at first. Not on instinct.

“That won’t need to happen,” he finally said, his voice too reserved for his own liking.

“Look me in the eye,” Tony demanded, the lines on his face tight. “He comes first. Is that clear?”

Steve opened his mouth to speak.

Nothing came out.

The silence only grew thicker, and the next inhale that lifted Steve's chest was a struggle. He stared at Tony, unable to break the hold the man had on his eyes. There was something about him that seemed different in that moment. Something as foreign as the magic he still couldn't wrap his head around.

It was the self-sacrificing, almost parental drive and commitment that he felt coming from Tony. It was the intrusive realization he'd been denying since the night the chameleon helmet had been stolen, finally ringing true to his ears.

Tony had changed. He'd come to accept that long ago — it wasn't as if they were both the same people they knew five years ago. But Tony's change was abrupt, not something he expected, not something he'd ever even considered. It was obvious the day he showed Peter off to the team.

Staring at him now, the flood of emotions pouring off from him — doubt, fear, panic, an unhindered compulsion to hurt those who had hurt his family — Steve came to realize those changes not only made him a different person...but a better one.

A handful of years ago, they once stood in a similar position. Steve insisting that Tony was nothing without his suit, that he knew men without such fancy armor worth ten of him. Tony stood next to him now, all but stripped of his technology, and eager to run head first into a battle they were unsure of. Ready to sacrifice himself for someone he felt was better than them all.

Steve decided, then and there, that he wouldn’t let that dedication go to waste.

“If it comes to that,” Steve preempted, “then yes.”

Identity Theft│ Chapter 16: Smoke and Mirrors

With each hit, Tony expected the next, anticipated them, and in the moments after they landed, he let his body relax. A blow smashed into his temple, rattling Tony’s head within his breaking helmet. He tried to escape, to wiggle out from under the man, his legs writhing desperately to get a grip on the floor.

Howard leaned back, panting breathlessly. “You resent your father for how he raised you, yet you couldn’t even protect a young boy from dangers you put him in. His death is on you, Stark.”

Tony took the moment and ran with it. With a grunt, he kneed the man between his legs, a painful cry showcasing his achievement. Tony gave one hefty smack across the side of his head and Dmitri toppled over, his appearance flickering on and off. He phased between multiple different people as the light-show filled the otherwise empty hallway.

Tony jumped up and dashed forward. He launched himself on top of Dmitri, planting him face-first onto the floor. His body-weight pinned him to the ground, his knees digging into his back to keep him still.

“You may be good at fighting, but you’re a damn horrible liar.” Tony smacked his head against the ground, holding it there. “Now I really don’t like asking things twice. Where. Is. He!?”

The helmet was shutting down. Tony could tell it had already been exposed to too much damage, the flickering lights bouncing off the billion nanites that ceased to function.

Dmitri’s eyes slid up to look at him.

“I’ll tell you when you’re dead,” he sneered.

WHAM!

A stern blow to his head, one after the other. Tony didn’t let up, using strength only emotion could fuel, chips of his metal suit flying from his knuckles. He beat the man relentlessly, beat him even as he damaged his own suit — his own form of protection — he didn’t let up.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!WHAM!

“Dead so you can take my money, right!?” Tony threw his arm back, punching again. “You did all this so you could take my money, you took my kid for my money — you fucking psychopath!”

He didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. A blaze of rage shredded his restraint, a ballistic force unleashed and out of his control. It seemed like an hour, it seemed like a lifetime that he kept hitting and hitting and hitting and —

His knuckles were bleeding. The nanites spread around him like glitter, broken pieces of magnets shredded and discarded. Only when he physically lost his strength, his body tapping him out, did Tony stop.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 17: Grace Under Pressure

When the smeared blood took a curve into an open room, Tony half expected to be led down another hallway. He instead came to a startling halt at the entrance. To his surprise, the room was a dead end. It was just that — a room.

What caught his attention was the reflection of Captain America’s shield, the red and blue standing out from the dreary darkness around them. It was directed right at him, attached to Steve’s back, telling him that the man was facing forward. Tony squinted, realizing that Steve’s attention was clearly focused on something — or someone — important.

He stood frozen in the doorway, listening intently to the sounds from within. The voice was so quiet he almost didn’t catch it.

Almost.

“Stay with me, soldier,” Steve spoke softly, his tone more delicate than Tony had ever heard it before. “Easy now, I got you, son.”

Tony furrowed his brows. It was the only part of him that he could feel move, his nerves paralyzing the rest of his muscles. But he knew couldn’t have stood there long; Steve’s instincts kicked in quickly, his head turning over his shoulder when his presence was noticed.

He never said anything. It was probably for the best, Tony wasn’t sure if he would have heard him to begin with. Not over the pounding of his heartbeat, the blood rushing through his ears. Steve moved, just ever so slightly that both their flashlights gave sight to —

“Peter.” Tony’s breath lodged in his chest.

The kid was slumped forward, only held upright by the metal straps around his arms — Tony balked, they had him bolted against the wall. He was too far away to see if Peter’s eyes were open or not. It was too dark to see if he was even breathing, the intrusive thought making his stomach churn.

But he was there. No mind tricks, no sick psycho taking on his identity, it was him — his Peter.

His kid.

Tony was already across the room before he realized he was moving. Vaguely, he heard Steve say something, the intensity in his tone telling him he should listen. He couldn’t. His focus didn’t steer away, his eyes locked ahead, soaking in the sight like he hadn’t seen Peter in two years, not the two days it had been.

His knees hit the floor with a resounding smack.

“Hey, hey…” Tony breathed out. A sense of endearment he didn’t know was possible laced his tone. He suddenly understood why Cap had sounded the way that he did.

With what he saw in front of him, it almost felt natural to speak in such a way. He didn’t fight it, he didn’t push it away, and he’d deal with that startling thought at a later time.

The kid looked so...fragile. It was impossible not to speak with such delicacy, as if their voices could shatter him. His young age only intensified the sight of his broken frame.

Peter didn’t flinch, not at his words or Steve’s.

Unsure if he should touch him, Tony’s hands hovered over his body.

“I got you. I gotcha,” he chuckled, the laugh almost sounding hysterical. “We got you.”

Identity Theft│ Chapter 19: When the Bad Things Happen

Tony could have sworn his heart would burst out of his throat. His fragile, weak, shrapnel damaged heart.

Goddamn this kid.

He wasn’t sure how much time he had wasted standing uselessly in the doorway, unsure of where to go and if he should even walk inside. The room was packed and clustered with machinery, bustling with working staff and along the way, four-hundred-some square feet shrunk dramatically in the chaos.

Peter seemed to be center of it all, laying flat on his back, motionless in the hospital bed up against the far left wall.

It wasn’t until a nurse kindly walked him in that he finally moved. He barely muttered thanks, too busy staring at where Peter laid, a vortex of spiraling emotions sweeping him away.

Relief, horror, guilt, shame, fear, anxiety — and somehow none of it mattered. Once he was there, once he got close to Peter, he didn’t want to be a breath away. Not ever again.

He was alive. The kid was alive, and he didn’t even care that he needed to rely on the beeping machinery to tell him that. The blazing flames of a burning warehouse had been drowned out by the ocean’s salty waters and washed them ashore — damaged, beaten but alive.

He’d cling to that as long as he could.

Tony shifted weight on his feet and grimaced. Tubes, catheters, wires — Peter was surrounded by a warehouse of medical supplies. A very baggy gown barely covered him, hanging loosely from his shoulders, more like a blanket than an act of modesty. A thin sheet covered his waist but left his one leg exposed, something Tony adamantly refused to look at because he simply did not have that kind of strength right now. The glimmer of a metal rod was enough to make his stomach churn. His face wasn’t faring much better, a tube snaking down his throat and up his nose, IV’s in his arms and even his chest.

Yet nothing bothered him nearly as much as the stillness.

Peter was always moving, always hyperactive and bouncing with an energy he couldn’t contain. Once Tony had watched the kid doze off in his workshop, and even then he was twitching restlessly. He was never sure if it was his age, the spider-bite or both combined. Whatever it was, it was Peter. Bouncing, jumping, jittery and twitching — he never sat still.

Seeing him so still, so motionless — Tony hated it. Peter looked as if he were only a shell of himself, no color to his face and no warmth to his body. Tony swallowed convulsively against the rising bile in his throat. This was too much.

He had thought that his panic developed more into a slow burn, a languid torture that he could handle. He was wrong.

Tony’s hand dropped from the bed’s plastic railing, resting uneasily on the firm mattress beneath him. He hadn’t meant for his hand to fall on Peter’s, his fingers brushing up against the IVs and wires that protruded from underneath the sheets. He also didn’t move it away.

“You’re good, kid,” Tony muttered quietly.

It wasn’t naive to say as much. Healing factor or not, the kid had the strength of a thousand warriors, strong-willed beyond his expectations. If Peter could have that kind of resolve, so could he. If that meant doing everything in his power to get him better, that was what Tony would do.

“You’re stronger than all of us put together.”

The beeping of machines filled the air, some constant and some further apart. It practically drowned out his voice, already a whisper under his breath. Protectiveness rumbled in his chest and his sight locked onto Peter, unable to look away, unable to want to look away.

His shoulders were stiff and his neck tense, and he never paid mind to his fingers slipping underneath Peter’s palm, lightly gripping his hand in a loose hold. He never paid attention as his thumb grazed back and forth over Peter’s knuckles, distantly remembering the comfort it would bring him when his mother did the same thing.

“You’re good.”

Tony didn’t notice that Helen let him stay an extra eight minutes.

He did notice that Peter’s fingers twitched under his touch.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 20: Family Ties

He didn’t have anything to say in return. While May had returned her focus on Peter, she could still see as Tony closed his eyes, letting them rest that way. One may think he had fallen asleep, but she knew better.

She knew he was hiding.

It was something she noticed early on with Tony. It was an attempt to keep her from seeing the flurry of emotion that always passed through him, a rush of humanity almost always hid behind some fancy pair of sunglasses he insisted on wearing, the gatekeeper to his true self. He never showed his emotions by talking, instead it was his actions. Always do, never say.

He stayed quiet, occupied with his own thoughts, but his eyes would speak more than his mouth ever could. His actions always showed his concern; he would pace the floors, repeatedly check Peter’s medical charts, go as far as to make sure the hospital bills were covered, and was always persistent on getting updates from the doctors.

But this was the longest they had spoken since she arrived at the compound, going on three days. Even then, the conversation was mostly one-sided on her part. It was like a self-defense move, as if not talking would keep him in place — in check, from getting any closer to her and Peter.

May held back a laugh. The only problem with that was Tony had gotten himself knee-deep into that pool already.

Maybe he didn’t realize that yet.

Maybe he had trouble accepting it.

She caressed Peter’s hand. For a while, the quietness returned. Never peaceful, just a lull from their voices.

“You know, my husband used to have this look in his eyes whenever he was with Peter,” May said, the words heavy on her tongue. “It was unique, something I had never seen in him or...or anyone else before. It was like..I don't know, it’s hard to explain. It was like no matter what, Ben wanted to be there. For all the good parts, for all the bad parts. He wanted to teach him everything he knew and hope he could guide Peter from making the same mistakes he had made before. It was like...he knew he wasn’t Peter’s dad and he never wanted to try and replace Richard, but at the same time...he still wanted to be a father-figure for him. He didn’t want Peter to go without that in his life.”

May let out a heavy breath, and with it she turned to look at Tony. “I see a lot of that in you.”

Tony averted his gaze.

May didn’t need to see him to know how he felt.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 21: Sins of the Father

The air is crisp and cool. Refreshing. Tony takes in a deep breath of it, his shoulders sagging with relaxation.

The smell of salt water is strong, drafts of wind hitting his face with no sign of letting up. It’s his favorite aspect of the Malibu mansion. The evenings provide solitude, moments where only whispering waves of the ocean could be heard, water crashing and beating unforgivably against the mountain rocks.

His home. Looking out from his bedroom windows, he releases a lungful of air, and his eyelids close shut, giving way to a small smile on his face. Nothing could ever take away the tranquility of his home.

“Mr’...Stark...I...I don’t...”

His eyes snap open.

Peter lays heavy in his arms, beaten and broken. Bleeding. The blood is everywhere, coating his hands, staining his skin. He grips Peter’s body tighter, pulling him closer, hugging him with nauseating despair.

Over the sound of ocean waves, he hears the wheezing, the struggle — a crackly, heartbreaking whine.

“I don’t feel so good.” Peter’s voice is barely a whimper, drifting away in the wind. An exhale of air escapes the boy’s chest and Tony waits for a returning breath.

It never comes.

The smell of the open sea no longer brings him peace. The horror swells inside of him, eats away at his bones, the sulfur and ocean-life now nothing but a repulsive taste in his mouth.

CRASH!

Tony shields the motionless body with his own, bracing himself for the impact. Windows break around him, the glass mansion shattering with the intensity of the wind. He waits to be swept away, to feel the never-ending tide hit his body like knives, freezing and paralyzing. He waits for the outpour of the ocean that never comes.

“Tony, Tony, Tony…”

His eyes locked intently on the man kneeling in front of him. He’s no longer kneeling, he’s sitting. He’s paralyzed. He can’t move, crippled to the sofa. His heart withers away with fear, decaying from the ruins of panic that steal his breath.

Obadiah shakes his head, scoffing. “Look at you.”

The man’s voice is gruff, breathy against his skin. Too close, too close for comfort, his nerves screaming danger. The weather from outside the mansion roars, winds howling, lightning blazing and thunder rolling. He’s helpless to its wrath, paralyzed in place.

“It’s a shame, you know.” Obadiah moves closer, leaving little space between the two of them. His hand lays against Tony’s chest.“I spent thirty years of my life holding you up, at your side, guiding you through the tundra of a dog eat dog world that you would never have survived without me.”

The lights from above shine brightly onto his bald head; successions of flashing lightning obscure his face. Tony’s mind hollers to get up, to run, run-danger-run-run—

Obadiah squeezes his face, hard. His other hand claws at Tony’s chest, fingers digging for a hole that no longer exists. Tony shudders at those familiar, sadistic blue eyes staring him down, the need to scream burgeoning.

“Thirty years, Tony. You barely gave that boy one, and look at what it did to him.”

His face is held tightly in Obadiah’s grasp, cheeks aching at the pressure. His eyes wander freely. They lock on the corner of the room, the shadow of a mangled body barely seen. The lightning illuminates red and blue, the suit — his creation, Peter’s livelihood — laying in a crumbled mess.

“You finally outdid yourself,” Obadiah belittles. “Did you really think that you could right your wrongs...just like that? Take a child under your wing and sing the praises of unearned, undeserved redemption? He was better off without you, Tony. Your influence is only poison, you containment and kill everything you touch. That’s why we worked better in weapons manufacturing. That’s why you’re a —”

“You’re a failure.”

His eyes look back.

Stane is gone.

His limbs move freely, no longer held down by his former business partner, someone who he once considered to be a mentor. The storm comes to a sudden stop, leaving only darkness in its wake.

And Howard Stark.

They stare at each other.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 22: Sweet Sixteen

Tony leaned forward against the wet metal railings, feeling the dampness sink into his wrinkled AC/DC t-shirt.

“It is what it is. He’ll have to deal.”

Pepper huffed a sigh. “Tony, you’re being—”

“He almost died!” Tony shot up stiff as a board, facing her head on and he forced himself to dry swallow in an attempt to rid himself of the painful lump forming in his throat. “He almost died, Pep. I held him in my arms as he...”

A shiver rippled through his core and Tony had to look away, trying to focus on anything but the echoes of haunting memories that crudely invaded his mind. The smell of musty grass, the humidity in the air, the drizzle of rain — anything but the pleas, the cries and the screams.

Tony sniffed, swiping his thumb over his nose. “People like Dmitri won’t be able to hurt him if I stay out of his life. If it means I need to cut all ties to keep him safe, you can be damn well sure that’s what I plan on doing.”

Bringing the thermos to his mouth, he let the coffee scorch his throat as he drank gulp after gulp, desperate to settle his nerves. He was barely getting by telling himself things would get easier, better, that he’d go back to how things were before and then it wouldn’t be so difficult anymore.

Right now, it was the only thought that kept him together, like glue to a broken vase. If he couldn’t protect the kid at arms reach, it’d have to be done at a mile’s distance. Right now, he just wanted Peter to be safe.

That apparently couldn’t happen as long as he was around.

They’d deal with it. Eventually.

“You know,” Pepper visibly shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “You once told me that you wanted your legacy to be about more than just weapons and technology.”

Tony didn’t break his stare, eyes locked straight ahead. “Your point?”

Pepper stared at him, her eyebrow high in the air. It took a moment for things to click, to finally register what she was implying. The moment it hit him, Tony spun on his heels with comically large, wide eyes.

“Him?” His voice squeaked at the absurdity of the implication. “Pepper, he’s —”

She immediately held a hand in the air. “Wait a minute, hold on—”

“He’s got an aunt, he’s got his own life, he —”

“Hold on, you are jumping way ahead of things.” Pepper sighed. “Like you usually do.”

“Hey!” He pointed a finger her way. “I take offense to that.”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Tony. Hear me out.”

“I always hear you out,” he insisted.

She cocked her head to the side. “Do you now?”

“I do.” Tony puffed out his chest and straightened his posture. “You don’t give me enough credit.”

Pepper stared him straight on. “So you’re not nervously rambling like a buffoon —”

“Not at all.”

“Because I brought up the slightest possibility of Peter taking on a bigger role in your life —”

Tony shook his head. “No clue what you’re talking about.”

“Similar to that of...I don’t know, a son?”

“He’s not my son,” Tony finally snapped, his voice dangerously low. “Okay? He’s not. He’s just some kid, some brat who got in way over his head and is, quite frankly, lucky that I came along to keep an eye on his scrawny pubescent ass.”

Pepper squinted suspiciously at him. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” she repeated.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 23: Bridge Over Troubled Water

If the injection of medicine did indeed bother him, Peter didn’t let it show. The entire time Bruce emptied the contents of the syringe through his IV, Peter stayed staring straight ahead, occasionally blinking and smacking his chapped lips.

“... whoa ...”

The effects were immediate, more-so than any other drug they had given the kid.

“Taste...funny,” Peter managed to mumble, his words thick and slurred. “Like...coconut.”

Every muscle in his body visibly loosened, one by one until he started drifting forward, to the point where Tony had to tighten his grip and keep him steady. Both him and Bruce gently pushed him back against the pillows of the bed, comfortably arranging his limbs for him.

And as Peter sagged into the comfort of the mattress, all tension drained from his muscles, Tony sagged in relief with him. The adrenaline surge left his body all at once.

He lifted a brow, waiting expectantly. “Feeling better?”

Peter wearily nodded, his lashes fluttering with little attempt to keep his eyes open. Each movement of his became slower until eventually, he found himself leaning to the side, his shoulder resting heavily against Tony’s chest.

“There ya go, that’s it.” Helplessly, Tony found the corners of his mouth curling upward, and without a second thought he tangled his fingers into Peter’s sweat-dampened hair. The kid’s head lolled into his chest like a rag-doll, and it was only then Tony realized this was the closest he had been to Peter since…

It became quiet. The few nurses still in the room preoccupied themselves with their assigned tasks and the machinery surrounding them drastically quieted down, no longer the angry beasts they once were.

At that moment, everything seemed to melt away, as if the sounds and sights surrounding him ceased to exist. Words darted away from him, and as everyone else stopped talking, he found it unnecessary to converse himself. He focused on the gentle rise and fall of Peter’s chest, the soft breathing that escaped from his mouth, the peace that encompassed his face.

‘He’s okay.’ Fingers carded through Peter’s hair, lightly massaging his scalp without even realizing it. His heart fluttered in a soft beat as the kid fell lax. It was, without any doubt, the most calm he had seen from the kid in days.

It was easily the best thing he had seen in weeks.

His wandering fingers untangled from the soft, brown curls down to Peter’s cheek, the back of his hand stroking his relaxed facial features. With it, he brushed away the drying tears that smeared across his skin.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 25: Grounds for Improvement

It happened quickly; one cry tearing off into two, choking off into more. Though the doors to the hospital room were shut by automatic nature, the sounds easily leaked out into the hallway. Managing to slip through glass and drywall and drifting away from the seclusion of just the two of them.

Tony had still been looking at his phone’s text messages when he heard it.

By knee-jerk reaction he began to walk away; his head down low, dodging the corners only by habit.

This wasn’t a moment for him to bear witness to. It felt private. Intensely private.

Tony wasn’t oblivious; he could see the anxiety riddling Peter, the distant look in his eyes and the small muscle in his chin working — quivering. The tension had been palpable, and after all the kid had gone through, he certainly deserved a break-down or two. Or six.

It was no surprise he waited for the comfort of his aunt until he had one.

An ember of jealousy ignited in Tony's chest at the odd desire to have been there instead. It wasn’t his place or his time. He said it once before and he’d say it again — they weren’t there yet.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 25: Grounds for Improvement

Stark Expo 2010.

That had to make the kid, what? Tony did the math, coming to the age of eight.

The little Peter he stared at was eight years old. Half the kid's lifetime ago.

Tony ran his finger along the photograph, the gloss lost due to age and the edges bent with the bottom corner torn.

Looking at it, and something more tugged at his memory.

He laid the photos out, letting the piece of notebook paper sit to the side. The photos seemed to be kept together as a set, all taken of this one family trip. The young kid wearing cheap Iron Man merch, hoodie and fingerless gloves with the toy helmet too big for his head — Tony realized it was Peter.

He picked up the photo. ‘Wow, kid was scrawny back then.’

Tony pursed his lips, humming. The thought ate away at him, the memory on the tip of his tongue. There was more to this, there had to be. It wasn’t that the Parker’s had gone to a Stark Expo — though he, of course, wished it hadn’t been that Stark Expo.

So much had happened that year with nearly dying, nearly losing both Pepper and Rhodey in his life, dealing with SHIELD using Natasha to spy on him — nearly dying, that served to be mentioned twice. For a fleeting moment, he almost gave up — sure that he wouldn’t be able to recall such a tiny detail in the mass of events that had occurred.

Tony leaned back in his chair, defeated, and sighing to let the universe know as much.

God, what a shitshow of a night. His head fell back and he stared up at the ceiling, recalling the disastrous monstrosity that was Stark Expo 2010. Those damn Hammer drones sent out to target Iron Man; they were lucky no one else managed to get seriously hurt in that cluster fu —

“Nice work, kid.”

Tony shot forward in the chair.

The photograph of Peter laid on-top of the scattered prints, with Iron Man helmet barely fitting his small head.

“Huh,” he found himself saying aloud, staring at the picture with unblinking eyes.

It was an minuscule moment in time, surely stored away only because his problems nearly got a child killed. Tony knew that he’d never put the two-and-two together had it not been for those photos, telling him a story he hadn’t realized he needed to hear.

The scrap piece of notebook paper called out to him. Tony snatched it a bit too hastily, suddenly needing to know what it said.

It was folded three times in and Tony had to shake it flat once opened. His eyes scanned the cursive handwriting, all the while ignoring the way his heart beat heavily in his chest.

Tony,

One way or another, you’ve always been in his life. The only difference now is you have a chance to make that count.

I trust you’ll do the right thing.

May Parker.

His eyes darted from the note to the stack of photos behind it. Tony slowly relaxed in his chair, never tearing his eyes from either of the two.

Recalling that memory was like watching another life rip open before him at the seams, a time where he only lived to feed his ego and feed it well. He realized, back then, that he was allowing his pride to dominate; coddling it as a mechanism of self-protection. It was nothing more than allowing weakness to masquerade as strength.

The photo surprised him, shaking loose latent feelings he hadn’t realized were even there. A paternal aspiration everyone had made clear to him but he had so adamantly denied.

Here Tony was, trying to determine how to best structure the boundary of his relationship with Peter and meanwhile, it had already been created for him.

'A fierce commitment.' Tony could feel his lips pursing to the side. There wouldn't be any running away, there wouldn't be any digging his head into the sand — not when a line had already been scratched out in that sand, reclaimed by the shifting tides of the events they'd suffered through.

The choice was already made for him, years ago. He just never knew it.

‘Fine,’ Tony thought, smacking his lips and folding his arms over his chest. ‘Time to regroup, then.’

He could still negative this. He could still make this work.

Besides, back in the base, he would have done anything for a second chance — a breath of opportunity to start again. To give Peter everything he needed, the whole world, the life he deserved.

The photos provided a new outlook, a window where he had originally thought there was a wall. Tony saw that he had the power to be the architect to his own life, to build reality to the desires he always wanted.

He had that now.

What was he to do with it?

Tony cracked a smile.

Whatever it was, whatever it required, he was ready for what came next.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 26: Building Blocks

Even as he went on to explain the finer details of their rescue mission, the room lacked any tension. It helped greatly that Peter wasn’t immune to the pure star-struck wonderment at hearing Tony’s stories, listening intently to how they had increased the tensile strength on his web fluid, how a magical wizard got them in and out of the place, and most of all —

“You finished the nano-suit!?” he exclaimed, nearly jumping out of bed with excitement. “Can I see it!?”

“Sorry, bud.” Tony gave a small shake of his head, his finger lazily pointing down to Peter’s leg. “It’s on you.”

Peter frowned, looking down at his leg before back up at Tony. “What?”

“What was left of it — used it for that sock you’re wearing,” Tony explained. “It’s a nanite cast, designed to promote bone healing. I’m sure Bruce will be thrilled to show you the x-rays of how mangled your leg was. He said it was in eight pieces or something, shattered like a stale piece of peanut brittle.”

Peter didn’t seem to be paying attention. As Tony rambled on, he removed the blanket that covered his leg to better stare at the thick black and silver device that he wore around his calf. It was every sense of the word futuristic, conforming around his leg from the knee down, fitting snugly like his suit. If he stared at it long enough, he could see lights run up the length of the sleeve every so often.

“No way,” Peter lamented, looking over at Tony sadly. “But you put so much work into that!”

Despite Peter’s protest and remorse for the forsaken project, Tony couldn’t muster up a will to care.

“Well, you’re more important,” he answered honestly. “Besides, I can make another suit. I can’t make another Peter Parker.”

Tony hadn’t meant to create a moment between them, the words having slipped out before he realized what he was saying. Peter stared at him, at first confused and slightly startled, before he slowly let himself relax and smile.

It was a look so warm, Tony was sure it could melt even the coldest of hearts. While he couldn’t take the words back, he quickly realized that he didn’t even want to. He tried to remember the photos he had sitting in his workshop, to remember that as uncomfortable as the emotion felt, that he wanted this.

And besides, Peter didn’t seem to be fighting it. Kid was glowing brighter than the sun.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 27: Growing Pains

Despite his encouragement, Peter remained dejected. “You were right, though. The moment I mess up and it’s ‘ Spider-Man: Thwarted by local street magician.’ So stupid.”

“Yeah, well...” Tony popped his lips, shrugging. “What do they know?”

Peter scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“No, seriously, what do they know?” Tony asked again, piquing Peter’s interest. He finally looked up from his hands, frowning, completely puzzled. Tony met his gaze head-on. “Tomorrow’s issue isn’t going to be about Spider-Man taking down a psychopathic Russian spy in an underwater facility, all with two broken wrists, hypothermia, a concussion—”

Peter blushed with embarrassment. “Okay, I—I get it—”

“A shattered leg, a gaping hole in his stomach and back,” Tony went on, ignoring his protest. “And you still managed to knock that Bond wannabe flat on his ass. Don’t let some outdated, old fart of a journalist who’s a couple years away from retiring and starting a podcast get under your skin.”

Peter gave a soft, wobbly laugh that brought on the inkling of a smile. With it, the tension seemed to thin just enough that Tony felt comfortable leaning forward, resting a firm open palm on Peter’s shoulder.

“For every ten good things Iron Man does, there has to be fifty that the press doesn’t talk about. They will always pick and chose what the public wants to hear. That doesn’t discredit your doing, kiddo. You know in your heart what you’re doing is right.” Tony’s voice dropped a little, quieter but no less sincere. “And if I’ve been hard on you lately about that, well...I really have no excuse. I just want you to be safe.”

Peter nodded, letting his smile widen a tad bit more. The feel of Tony’s thumb stroking over the curve of his shoulder was grounding, comfortable. It reminded him a lot of the same feeling he’d get when he wore his suit — protection, safety.

“Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

Tony patted his shoulder before leaning to the side in his chair, grabbing his coffee cup from next to him.

“Always thanking me, and I never know what for.”

Peter gave an easy smile and shrugged, a swell of warmth and gratitude replacing the butterflies of anxiety in his chest.

“For being here.”

Tony looked up from his coffee cup and gave him a wink, all charm, no bite. Any worry he had about his off-handed comment from before faded away with it, and Peter grinned as he picked his phone back up, though he was too distracted to really use it.

He stared down at the device, flipping it around, caught up in his own thoughts. He almost felt silly for having panicked earlier over what he’d say. It was just that he and Mr. Stark always had an odd relationship, never really defined, always bouncing between ‘he helps me do my superhero-ing and keeps me in line’ to ‘he’s like my mentor and teaches me all these cool things’.

But that had changed lately, since Homecoming, since he broke-in-but-not-really-broke-in to the Avengers facility. He wasn’t exactly sure what this was now, what they had become. He didn’t care either way. He liked it.

Uncle Ben would always tell him to try and find the positives out of any situation he was faced with.

Peter smiled — he was pretty sure he just found one.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 29: Breaking the Cycle of Shame

“I’m going to answer your question in the simplest terms possible and I ask that in return you keep the rising level of emotions to barely above average, capisce?” Tony crossed his arms and tilted his chin low, tired eyes meeting Peter’s.

Peter nodded a little too fast, rapt with eagerness.

Tony hesitated, taking a moment to reel himself back in. He was dangerously close to backing out, coming up with some pathetic excuse that he was sure Peter would buy in a heartbeat. But it wouldn’t do him any good, he had to remind himself of that.

This whole thing he felt going on — the ever-incessant ‘more than mentorship’ deal everyone called him out on — it was a two-way street. If he wanted to be better than Howard, he needed to put himself out there. He needed to be better than his own father if he had a shot at this.

It wouldn’t come easily. But then again, nothing good ever did.

It was that realization that pushed Tony forward, breaking through the walls he had built for himself, if only a smidgen.

“Growing up, my dad didn’t give me a lot of support. He was cold. He was calculating. Never told me he loved me, never even told me he liked me.” Tony took a deep breath in, his chest visibly rising. “What I’m trying to say here, kid, is that I don’t have the best first-hand experience with this sort of- stuff. Christ, the world’s lucky Pepper doesn’t even want children, can you imagine how badly I’d screw up a child?”

Peter smiled so softly, with such a gentle glow that Tony almost felt bad for dumping a load of pessimism on him.

“I think you’d make a great dad, Mr. Stark,” he said, the happy lift in his tone enough to break through even the iciest of hearts.

Tony smiled in a way he wasn’t initially sure he had been capable of doing. The kid was too pure for his own good, He couldn’t help the burning blaspheme at thanking whatever higher being was out there protecting that innocence.

Even with weeks building a gap between believing the kid was dead and holding him alive in his arms, Tony’s gratitude hadn’t diminished. He still felt the same, immense indebtedness that Peter was getting a second chance at things. That they were getting a second chance at things.

All and all, he still felt like it was a miracle to be here, in the now, with Peter by his side. He hoped to never lose that feeling.

“You’re a great kid, Pete. And not just because you’ve decided to run around New York a skin-tight suit putting yourself in harm’s way every chance you can get.” Tony cleared his throat, working to rid the raw emotion that laced his words. “So seeing as I’m not good with the whole touchy-feely sort of dialogue happening here, I’m going to say this once and you better listen good because I can’t promise I’ll ever repeat it. You’re...well, I’ll just say it. You’re like a son to me. I don’t ever want to entertain the idea of losing you again, not because it’ll be heavy on my conscience, but because you have a lot to offer this world and in the grand scheme of things, you’ve barely begun.”

Peter stared at Tony for a long time, at a loss for what to say. The understanding seemed to crash into him in waves, each staggering in a series of what had been the past year and a half. Germany, Toomes, Homecoming night, frequent internship visits, the Chameleon helmet, the burning building, the undersea base, Dmitri...each event began to stack on top of the other, building into something completely new.

He had always felt like Mr. Stark had been the anchor to his otherwise turbulent super-hero life. He had just never expected that side of him to transition into other aspects. Personal aspects.

And just like that, Peter’s throat began to tighten once he realized how much that truly meant to him.

“I...I don’t know what to...”

“Don’t. C’mon, learn to feel the room, you’ll ruin the moment.” Tony waved his hand, motioning for him to come closer. “Just bring it in before I regret this.”

Peter didn’t have much say in the interaction. Tony had already wrapped his arm around his shoulder, pulling him in tightly, so close that Peter could rest his chin against the crook of the man’s neck.

His embrace was warm, albeit surprising. Peter’s eyes widened enough that he worried they might pop right out of his sockets. And though he relished at the contact, he did little other than lay a hand gently against Tony’s back to reciprocate. Part of him couldn’t tell if this was real or not. In his defense, the last time he assumed they were hugging, Mr. Stark was just trying to open the door for him.

When the touch wasn’t grounding enough for him, the scent was. It was hard not to notice the smell of his cologne, different from the usual musky, smokey scents he found most older men wore. Mr. Stark smelt light, fresh, reminding him a lot of the familiar smell he often encountered while recovering in the infirmary.

It made him feel safe. It occurred to him a beat later why that was.

Just when his muscles began to loosen, allowing him to fully enjoy the moment —

“Mr. Stark, this isn’t…this isn’t a hug, is it?” he joked, resisting a smirk. “I thought we weren’t there yet?”

The words were delivered with such intense sincerity that it took Tony a few seconds to even register them. When he did, he pulled away abruptly, his face stern even once being greeted with Peter’s million dollar smile.

“See what you just did there? That was ruining it. Never do that again.” Tony waved him an open palm. “Proud of yourself?”

Peter laughed.

Tony warmed up to a smile.

Identity Theft│ Chapter 29: Breaking the Cycle of Shame

“Wait! Hold up, hold on!” Peter swivels around, running back towards them both, gripping his cue-cards tightly. “I forgot something!”

Tony gaped, gesturing ahead. “Peter, they’re about to call your name, you need to — ompfh!”

The weight of a muscular sixteen-year-old teenager smacks into him, his breath nearly knocked out of his chest before he can finish. With eyes comically wide, Tony stumbles back, Peter’s arms wrapping tightly around his waist.

“Love ya, dad.” A huge grin spreads across Peter’s face, his head tucked deep in the crook of Tony’s neck.

“Love you too, son.” Tony returned the gesture with a squeeze that may have been twice as enthusiastic as Peter’s. He only pulls away once the announcer calls Peter by name, going to pat him on the back before ushering him away.

Peter nods quickly, giving Pepper a toothy smile before turning his back on them both.

The red velvet curtains begins to draw upwards, inching towards the high ceilings with a whir that could barely be heard over the announcer’s voice booming from the surround sound. As soon as he stopped speaking, the crowd began to clap, a harsh echo of their greeting bouncing off the walls of the large concert hall.

With his shoulders pulled back tight and his hands nervously rubbing together, Peter spares Tony one more look, his grin brighter than the lights that began to flood in from the auditorium stage. His grin spoke it all— the audience could be a million strong and Peter would only ever care about one person’s opinion, only ever care about his number one fan.

Tony could feel his heart soar out of his chest from that look, overflowing with pride.

The stage lights seep in as the curtains pull up, casting an overwhelming bright halo where Peter stood. It eclipses around him, highlights him as he begins to walk on stage until eventually, Tony can see nothing but white.

He opened his eyes to the same.

“Tony?” Pepper’s voice seemed distant, but her hand was firm on his shoulder, grounding him to reality. “Tony, are you okay?”

Tony blinked, his every thought in high definition, his mind seemingly caught between then and now. The crisp white colors to his bed-sheets filled his vision, his eyes slowly coming into focus until eventually he could see even the finer crinkles from his own pillowcase.

The overhead lights to their bedroom were bright from above, harsh in comparison to the gently rising orange sun coming from the room’s window. Pepper’s warm body was settled next to his, a weight that dipped the mattress low.

“Hey...” she softly said, leaning further into his vision. “Another nightmare?”

Tony shook his head, his mouth dry, slacked open. His heart beat fast in his chest despite never having been jolted awake, never having woken up with a scream or a shout.

He slowly managed to sit up from his resting position on his side, the goosebumps that traveled up his arms razor sharp.

“No. It was...” Tony shook his head, his hand running down the length of his face. “I had a dream.”

There was a heavy silence that fell between them, the rhythm of Pepper sweeping her hand across his arm the only indicator that time still existed. The fluorescent lights from above began to dim away, allowing the sunrise from outside to cast a golden ray of copper hues into the room, bringing with it a brand new day.

He took a shallow breath in as she stared at him, exhorted him silently, softly and without any words.

“We had a kid,” Tony explained, swallowing hard. “It felt so real.”

[amvenvs3000w23]

Make Learning Fun!

As a nature interpreter, your role is to educate people about the natural world and its conservation. This is a skill not many people have, as it takes a while to develop. At the core of interpretation is communication. It is essential to communicate your knowledge and enthusiasm for the natural world, in a way that is accessible to everyone, despite their education level. For a general rule of thumb, writing and speaking at an 8th grade level is a good way to ensure that the information being presented is understood by the widest audience possible, regardless of their background or education.

Using clear and concise writing styles helps to simplify ideas, and makes it easier for people to grasp the concepts that you are presenting. Have you ever been to a lecture and all the material flew past your head? This is what many people experience when they listen to a presentation. Instead of a fun afternoon learning about the “Carolinian” for example, they get caught up trying to process all the technical information, which leaves the visitors exhausted. For people who want a relaxing afternoon this will make them not want to come back, and most importantly limits their ability to learn. When interpreting, ideas and jargon should be simplified so then visitors can easily listen and follow along without having to think too much about it.

Furthermore, using a more accessible language style can help to create a more inclusive environment for people who many have not had the opportunity to learn about nature in a formal setting. A huge barrier towards nature interpretation, is that many people feel left out or “not smart enough” for a nature program. For example, remember your first day of university. You may have felt as it you weren’t “smart enough” to be there as your surrounded by academics doing all sorts of interesting research. This same feeling is what some people feel when attending a nature presentation. They feel like they don’t deserve to be there, and it discourages them for attending programs in the future. If the information is presented in a simpler format, then these people will be able to understand the content and feel included in the discussions you may have. 

This doesn’t just apply to adults, many kids who attend programs have limited knowledge or vocabulary about the natural world, and simplifying your content will help them as well. It is important however to ensure that you aren’t “dumbing down” your program as this can make people feel discouraged about their knowledge, or reading levels. When creating a program, we need to simplify concepts and vocabulary, while maintaining professionalism, and focus. People like to be treated their age, a 40-year-old who had difficulty understanding concepts is still a 40 year and should be treated as one. Always maintain professionalism and never use sarcasm or act higher than the people you are presenting to.

The 8th grade level of communication is a good rule of thumb as it accompanies the majority of individuals in our population. For younger audiences, we can further adjust, and for audiences from universities or institutions we can heighten our content to better meet their needs. It is important as interpreters to always try our best to accommodate to everyone while making them feel comfortable and excited to learn. Your visitors shouldn’t feel like they are studying but rather having fun and enjoying themselves.

My "Find the Fishes" nature program where visitors and I seine netted for fish species so we could see the biodiversity in the bay. During the program I adjusted my vocabularly for the kids, adults and university students who attended.

[nurvinaari1]

Most Powerful Tips Stay Healthy During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is one of the most difficult yet the loveliest time for a lady. Getting great consideration during and after pregnancy is vital. Great consideration helps in the development of child and the mother to remain sound during and after pregnancy. There are a few significant ways proposed by  gynecologist in hiranandani hospital in Thane that keeps you and your kid sound and fit. Here we will discuss 6 most significant ways.

Eat good food:

Food is the main piece of our lives. Eating healthy food is very important during pregnancy as you are taking care of your kid too. In this way, eating supplement rich food assists your kid with developing further in the belly. As well as drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water every day, you ought to eat five or six even dinners with a lot of folate-rich food sources, as braced cereals, asparagus, lentils, raw grain, oranges, and squeezed orange. There are sure food sources that ladies ought to try not to eat while pregnant.

Try not to eat:

Crude or uncommon meats

Liver, sushi, crude eggs (additionally in mayonnaise)

Delicate cheeses (feta, brie)

Unpasteurized milk

Crude and unpasteurized creature items can cause food contamination. Some fish, in any event, when cooked, can be destructive to a developing child since they're high in mercury.

Work out:

Staying active in pregnancy is significant for your overall wellbeing and can assist you with decreasing pressure, further develop flow, and lift your state of mind. It can likewise energize better rest. Take a pregnancy class or stroll no less than 15 to 20 minutes per day at a moderate speed — in cool, concealed regions or inside to forestall overheating. Pilates, yoga, swimming, and strolling are likewise incredible exercises for most pregnant individuals, however make certain to check with your PCP first prior to beginning any activity program. Hold back nothing of activity most days of the week. Pay attention to your body, however, and don't go overboard. Kegel practices fortify the pelvic floor muscles, which support your bladder, guts, and uterus. Done accurately, this basic activity can assist with making your conveyance more straightforward and forestall issues later with incontinence. The greatest aspect: Nobody can perceive you're doing them — so you can rehearse Kegels in the vehicle, while you're sitting at your work area, or in any event, remaining in line at the supermarket.

This is the way to do them right:

Work on pressing like you're halting the progression of pee when you utilize the restroom

Hold for three seconds, then unwind for three

Rehash multiple times

Take Multivitamins:

Taking an everyday pre-birth multivitamin can assist with guaranteeing you get the perfect proportion of the key supplements you and your child need during pregnancy. These incorporate folic corrosive, iron and calcium. Counsel your primary care physician prior to beginning your multivitamins. Ladies ought to get ordinary pre-birth care from a medical services supplier. Mothers who don't get customary pre-birth care are substantially more prone to have a child with low birth weight or different inconveniences. If accessible, think about bunch pre-birth care.

Stop liquor and smoking:

Adjusting a solid way of life assists you and your kid with becoming sound. Sound way of life incorporates great eating routine and customary activity and stopping liquor and smoking during a large number of and even while you breastfeed your kid. Smoking and drinking increment the gamble of abrupt baby demise condition (SIDS), untimely birth, premature delivery and other unfortunate results. Drinking liquor builds the gamble of having a child with deadly liquor range jumble (FASD). FASD can cause strange facial highlights, serious learning inabilities and conduct issues.

Liquor can affect a child's wellbeing in the earliest phases of pregnancy, before a lady might realize she is pregnant. Accordingly, ladies who might become pregnant likewise shouldn't drink liquor.

Get a lot of rest:

Rest assumes a significant part in your day-to-day existence schedule. What's more, during pregnancy lady ought to have no less than 7-9 hours of rest so the kid and the mother get adequate measure of rest they need. Mother ought to rest on her left side as it assists in blood with streaming and development of the kid. Rest likewise helps in your pressure. Lessening pressure is pivotal for further developing birth results. Pregnant ladies ought to keep away from, however much they can, distressing circumstances. Enlist your friends and family to assist you with overseeing pressure in your life.

Remain clean and deal with your cleanliness:

Keeping yourself clean is additionally something imperative to do during and after pregnancy as the kid's invulnerable framework is exceptionally low and can get any infection. So incessant had wash and dealing with your as well as of your kid's cleanliness is vital to keep both the mother and the kid solid.

You should be more mindful and dependable during and after pregnancy as you are liable for your as well as your kid's wellbeing. So, keep every one of the significant ways of remaining sound during and after pregnancy, assuming you actually get any issues or any sort of intricacy during and after pregnancy contact Dr. Sujata Rathod..

To Know More Or Consult: +91 9869174139

Hiranandani Hospital Hamilton ‘B’, Hiranandani Estate, Off, Ghodbunder Rd, Patlipada, Thane West, Maharashtra 400607

Life Care Polyclinic, Shop No. 138, Vedant Shopping Complex, Kores Road, Vartak Nagar, Thane(W) -400606

Rosa Vista, Godhbunder Road Opp Suraj Water Park, Maharashtra 400607.

[kayak03a]

KAYAK’s Guide to Camping Near Me: Find the Best Sites for Outdoor Fun and Relaxation

Planning a camping trip can be an exciting experience, especially when you're eager to enjoy the great outdoors without traveling too far from home. If you’re searching for Camping near me, KAYAK offers a simple and effective way to find the best local sites. Whether you’re looking for a peaceful retreat or an adventure-filled weekend, KAYAK’s platform makes it easy to compare campgrounds, find great deals, and ensure your outdoor getaway is just what you need for fun and relaxation.

Why Choose KAYAK for Finding Camping Near Me?

When searching for camping near me, KAYAK’s platform offers a wealth of options for finding campgrounds that suit your preferences. With its easy-to-navigate search filters, real-time price comparisons, and access to user reviews, KAYAK takes the stress out of planning your camping trip. Whether you're an experienced camper or a first-timer, KAYAK allows you to:

Explore local campgrounds: With the keyword camping near me, KAYAK pulls together a wide range of nearby campsites for you to consider. You can search based on distance, ensuring that you find options close to home for a spontaneous weekend escape.

Compare amenities: KAYAK helps you find campgrounds that offer the amenities you value most, from restrooms and showers to fire pits and hiking trails.

Read reviews: User-generated reviews allow you to get a feel for the campground before booking, ensuring that you pick the best spot for your needs.

Find the Best Camping Spots Near You

Searching for camping near me on KAYAK opens the door to a variety of campsites, each offering unique experiences. Whether you’re looking for a tranquil forest setting, a lakeside retreat, or a family-friendly campground with activities for everyone, KAYAK has you covered. Here’s how you can find the best camping spots near you:

Nature Escapes for Peace and Relaxation

If you're looking to unwind and reconnect with nature, KAYAK’s search for camping near me will highlight secluded campsites that are perfect for relaxation. These serene locations, often tucked away in forests or near quiet lakes, offer the peaceful atmosphere you need to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. KAYAK’s reviews and ratings can guide you toward campgrounds known for their tranquility, scenic views, and peaceful surroundings.

Adventure-Filled Campsites

For those who prefer an active getaway, KAYAK makes it easy to find campgrounds with plenty of outdoor activities. When searching for camping near me, you’ll find options that offer access to hiking, biking, fishing, and more. Some campgrounds even feature adventure sports like zip-lining, kayaking, and rock climbing, making them ideal for thrill-seekers. With KAYAK’s filtering tools, you can prioritize campsites that offer the activities you love.

Family-Friendly Campgrounds

Camping is one of the best ways to create lasting memories with family. By searching for camping near me on KAYAK, you can discover campgrounds that cater to families, complete with playgrounds, educational programs, and kid-friendly activities. Whether you're traveling with young children or teens, KAYAK helps you find sites that offer a safe, fun, and engaging environment for the whole family.

Compare Prices and Get the Best Deals

KAYAK’s platform not only helps you find the best local campsites but also ensures that you’re getting great value for your money. When searching for camping near me, you can compare prices from various campgrounds in real time, ensuring that you find a site that fits your budget. KAYAK also offers special deals and discounts for many campgrounds, giving you the opportunity to save money while enjoying the great outdoors.

Budget-Friendly Camping Options

If you’re on a budget, KAYAK’s filters allow you to find affordable campsites without sacrificing comfort. From basic tent sites to cost-effective RV hookups, the platform highlights campgrounds that provide essential amenities at a lower price. Whether you’re looking for a quick weekend getaway or an extended stay, KAYAK ensures that you find camping near me options that are both economical and enjoyable.

Seasonal Discounts and Special Offers

Many campgrounds offer seasonal discounts, especially during off-peak times, and KAYAK makes it easy to spot these deals. Searching for camping near me on KAYAK gives you access to exclusive offers that may include discounted rates, free nights, or additional amenities at no extra cost. These deals are perfect for campers who want to enjoy nature without breaking the bank.

Book Your Campsite Instantly with KAYAK

Once you've narrowed down your choices for camping near me, KAYAK’s seamless booking process allows you to secure your campsite quickly and easily. With just a few clicks, you can reserve your spot, ensuring that your perfect campsite is locked in for your desired dates. This instant booking feature is particularly useful during busy seasons when campsites fill up quickly.

Read Reviews for a Better Experience

Before finalizing your reservation, KAYAK lets you read detailed reviews from other campers. This insight is invaluable when looking for the best camping near me, as it helps you understand the pros and cons of each site, from the quality of the facilities to the friendliness of the staff. Armed with this information, you can make an informed decision and book your camping trip with confidence.

Enjoy Your Outdoor Adventure

Camping offers the perfect opportunity to disconnect from the digital world and reconnect with nature, friends, and family. Whether you’re seeking a quiet retreat or an action-packed adventure, KAYAK’s search for camping near me makes it easy to find the best local campgrounds that fit your needs. With tools that allow you to compare amenities, prices, and reviews, KAYAK helps you plan an unforgettable camping experience with ease.

Start your search today for camping near me and get ready to embark on an outdoor journey filled with fun, relaxation, and natural beauty. KAYAK’s platform is the ultimate guide to finding the best campsites near you, ensuring that your next camping adventure is one to remember.

[ghostfromforest]

Best Resorts in Maldives: A Tropical Paradise

The Maldives is home to some of the most luxurious and breathtaking resorts in the world, offering a perfect blend of relaxation and adventure. Among the best resorts in Maldives, you will find a variety of experiences, from overwater villas with direct access to the turquoise lagoon to private beach bungalows nestled in lush tropical gardens. Guests can indulge in world-class dining, rejuvenate with spa treatments, and explore vibrant coral reefs through snorkeling and diving. For those seeking privacy, the best resorts in Maldives offer secluded settings, ensuring a serene and peaceful vacation amidst nature’s wonders. Each resort in the Maldives is unique, catering to different preferences and desires. Whether you’re celebrating a honeymoon, planning a family getaway, or simply looking for a tranquil escape, the best resorts in Maldives have something for everyone. They provide activities such as sunset cruises, dolphin watching, and cultural excursions, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in the beauty of this island paradise. With exceptional service and unparalleled views, these resorts promise an unforgettable Maldivian experience.

Overwater Bungalows at the Best Resorts in Maldives

The best resorts in Maldives are known for their iconic overwater bungalows, providing guests with a direct connection to the crystal-clear waters of the Indian Ocean. These luxurious accommodations allow you to step straight into the lagoon for a swim or snorkel, while offering panoramic views of the surrounding tropical beauty. Many of the best resorts in Maldives ensure that each bungalow comes with its own private deck, sun loungers, and even an infinity pool. The serenity and privacy of these bungalows make them perfect for honeymooners or anyone seeking a peaceful retreat surrounded by nature.

Exquisite Dining at the Best Resorts in Maldives

When it comes to culinary experiences, the best resorts in Maldives leave no stone unturned. Guests can indulge in world-class cuisine, with a variety of dining options that include everything from fresh seafood grills to international gourmet menus. Many of the best resorts in Maldives offer beachfront dining experiences, where you can enjoy your meal with your toes in the sand, under the stars. Some resorts even feature underwater restaurants, providing a unique dining experience surrounded by vibrant marine life. These culinary adventures are just one of the many reasons to stay at the best resorts in Maldives.

Spa and Wellness Retreats at the Best Resorts in Maldives

For ultimate relaxation, the best resorts in Maldives offer exceptional spa and wellness facilities. Set amidst lush tropical gardens or perched above the water, these spas offer a range of treatments, from traditional Maldivian therapies to modern wellness techniques. Many of the best resorts in Maldives incorporate locally sourced ingredients, such as coconut oil and marine algae, into their treatments, providing a holistic approach to rejuvenation. Whether you opt for a massage with ocean views or a personalized wellness program, the best resorts in Maldives ensure that your mind, body, and soul are revitalized.

Family-Friendly Experiences at the Best Resorts in Maldives

While the Maldives is often seen as a honeymoon destination, the best resorts in Maldives also cater to families. Many offer kids' clubs, family villas, and a range of activities designed to keep younger guests entertained. From snorkeling with colorful fish to building sandcastles on the beach, the best resorts in Maldives provide a safe and exciting environment for children. Some resorts even offer babysitting services, allowing parents to enjoy a romantic dinner or spa treatment. With plenty of family-friendly amenities and activities, the best resorts in Maldives ensure that everyone, regardless of age, enjoys their stay.

Romantic Escapes at the Best Resorts in Maldives

The best resorts in Maldives are renowned for being among the most romantic destinations in the world. Whether you’re planning a honeymoon, anniversary, or just a special getaway, these resorts provide the perfect backdrop for romance. From private candlelit dinners on the beach to couples’ massages in overwater spa suites, the best resorts in Maldives go above and beyond to create unforgettable experiences for couples. Many resorts also offer private excursions, such as sunset cruises or secluded island picnics, allowing you to enjoy intimate moments with your loved one in paradise.

Adventure Activities at the Best Resorts in Maldives

Adventure seekers will find plenty to do at the best resorts in Maldives. From scuba diving and snorkeling to jet-skiing and windsurfing, there are endless opportunities to explore the underwater world and the surrounding islands. The best resorts in Maldives offer guided dives, where you can swim alongside manta rays, sea turtles, and a variety of colorful marine species. For those looking to explore beyond the water, there are also land-based activities such as beach volleyball, nature hikes, and cultural excursions. With so many exciting options, the best resorts in Maldives offer the perfect balance of relaxation and adventure.

Sustainability Initiatives at the Best Resorts in Maldives

Many of the best resorts in Maldives are committed to sustainability and eco-friendly practices. From protecting marine life to reducing plastic waste, these resorts are dedicated to preserving the natural beauty of the Maldives for future generations. Some of the best resorts in Maldives have implemented coral reef restoration programs, while others focus on renewable energy solutions such as solar power. By choosing one of these eco-conscious resorts, guests can enjoy a luxurious vacation while also supporting the conservation efforts that protect the stunning environment of the Maldives.

Conclusion

The best resorts in Maldives offer an unparalleled combination of luxury, natural beauty, and personalized service. Whether you're seeking adventure or relaxation, these resorts provide experiences that cater to every traveler’s desires. From exquisite overwater bungalows to world-class dining and wellness retreats, the best resorts in Maldives ensure that every aspect of your vacation is extraordinary. With stunning views, exclusive amenities, and endless opportunities for both relaxation and exploration, a stay at the best resorts in Maldives guarantees memories that will last a lifetime. Embark on a journey to paradise and experience the true essence of Maldivian luxury.

[devilsss-dyke]

Guanaja Beach Resort: The Ultimate Destination for Adventure Seekers

For adventure enthusiasts, Guanaja Beach Resort offers an exciting array of activities to enjoy. The surrounding waters are teeming with marine life, making it an excellent spot for snorkeling and scuba diving. Guests can explore the island's natural wonders, including hiking trails, waterfalls, and jungle excursions. The resort also offers kayaking, paddleboarding, and deep-sea fishing for thrill-seekers. After a day of adventure, unwind in the comfort of your private villa or indulge in a rejuvenating spa treatment. Guanaja Beach Resort seamlessly blends adventure with relaxation, making it an ideal getaway.

Family-Friendly Activities at Guanaja Beach Resort

Guanaja Beach Resort is not only a destination for couples and solo travelers but also an ideal vacation spot for families. The resort offers a range of family-friendly activities, including beach games, guided island tours, and snorkeling excursions suitable for children. Kids will love the chance to explore the island’s natural beauty, while parents can relax knowing that there are activities designed to keep everyone entertained. Guanaja Beach Resort also provides babysitting services, so parents can enjoy some time to themselves while the kids are in safe hands. It’s the perfect mix of adventure and relaxation for all ages.

Eco-Friendly Practices at Guanaja Beach Resort

Sustainability is a core value at Guanaja Beach Resort, and the resort is committed to preserving the natural beauty of the island. From eco-friendly building materials to solar-powered energy, the resort strives to minimize its environmental footprint. Guests can participate in conservation efforts by taking part in beach cleanups or learning about the island’s unique ecosystem through educational programs. Guanaja Beach Resort also supports local wildlife preservation efforts, ensuring that future generations can continue to enjoy the beauty of the island. Staying at this resort means contributing to a sustainable future while enjoying a luxurious vacation.

Weddings and Honeymoons at Guanaja Beach Resort

For couples looking to celebrate their love in a stunning tropical setting, Guanaja Beach Resort is the perfect venue for weddings and honeymoons. The resort offers tailored wedding packages that include everything from ceremony planning to catering, ensuring that every detail is perfect. Exchange vows on the pristine beach with the turquoise waters as your backdrop, or host an intimate reception in one of the resort’s elegant venues. After the wedding, newlyweds can enjoy a romantic honeymoon, complete with private dinners, couples' spa treatments, and unforgettable island experiences. Guanaja Beach Resort creates memories that will last a lifetime.

Romantic Getaways at Guanaja Beach Resort

If you're seeking a romantic escape, Guanaja Beach Resort is the perfect destination. The resort offers everything needed for a romantic getaway, from private beachside dinners to secluded villa accommodations. Couples can enjoy sunset cruises, couples' massages, and intimate moments on the resort's pristine beaches. The peaceful ambiance and stunning natural beauty of Guanaja Island make it an ideal place to reconnect and relax. Guanaja Beach Resort caters to couples looking for both adventure and relaxation, providing an unforgettable experience that strengthens the bond between partners.

Diving Excursions at Guanaja Beach Resort

For diving enthusiasts, Guanaja Beach Resort offers a world-class underwater experience. The resort provides access to some of the most stunning coral reefs in the Caribbean, where guests can explore diverse marine life, including vibrant fish species, sea turtles, and occasionally dolphins. With crystal-clear waters and experienced diving instructors, both beginners and advanced divers can enjoy safe and exciting dives. Guanaja Beach Resort also offers night dives for those seeking a more adventurous experience, allowing divers to witness the fascinating behavior of marine creatures after dark. This is truly a diver’s paradise, where every dive unveils new wonders.

Guanaja Beach Resort’s Commitment to Local Culture

Guanaja Beach Resort prides itself on celebrating and preserving the local culture of Guanaja Island. Guests are encouraged to immerse themselves in the rich traditions of the island, from sampling authentic Honduran cuisine to participating in local festivals. The resort organizes cultural tours that take guests to nearby villages, where they can meet local artisans, experience traditional music and dance, and learn about the history of the island. Guanaja Beach Resort fosters a strong connection with the local community, ensuring that visitors not only enjoy the island’s natural beauty but also its cultural heritage.

Island Hopping Adventures at Guanaja Beach Resort

For guests seeking to explore beyond the island, Guanaja Beach Resort offers island-hopping excursions to nearby cays and islands. These day trips provide a chance to discover the hidden gems of the Caribbean, from untouched beaches to secluded snorkeling spots. With a knowledgeable guide, guests can explore remote islands, enjoy picnics on pristine shores, and discover the unique flora and fauna of each location. Whether you’re looking for a romantic escape or a family adventure, Guanaja Beach Resort ensures that your island-hopping experience is filled with breathtaking views and unforgettable moments.

Conclusion

In summary, Guanaja Beach Resort is a hidden gem that invites guests to explore the untouched beauty of Guanaja Island. From its luxurious beachfront villas to its exciting range of activities, the resort is the perfect destination for couples, families, and adventure seekers alike. Whether you're diving into the vibrant underwater world, enjoying a romantic dinner on the beach, or simply relaxing by the infinity pool, every moment at Guanaja Beach Resort is designed to create lasting memories. Escape the ordinary and immerse yourself in the extraordinary at this remarkable tropical destination.

[stillcamp]

Family Camping Guide: Best Campsites, Kid-Friendly Gear, Fun Activities & Safety Tips

The family camping trip is a classic, yet still, efficient way of strengthening a relationship with family members while discovering the beauty of the natural world. Regardless of your experience, be it a newly formed family of campers or a family of great adventures, organizing a memorable family camping trip entails a lot of considerations things like the choice of the destination and the comfort of every family member. This summer we will provide a complete guide of camping ideas, the best campsites for families, camping gear necessary for kids, outdoor activities, easy campfire recipes, safety tips, a camping checklist for a family, fun camping games, and how to make your trip truly unforgettable.

1. Summer Camping Ideas for Families

Summer is the season of camping trips with family. If the temperatures are warm and the days are long, the outdoor adventures become even more fun and enjoyable. The list below contains summer camping ideas that your family is going to love.

a. National Park CampingVisiting national parks is the best way to get to know various terrains as well as the nature-oriented educational programs directed to kids. For example, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon are the parks not only displaying the breathtaking views but also offering them family-friendly hiking trails, wildlife spotting and ranger-led programs that teach kids about nature and conservation.

b. Beach CampingWater-loving families will find camping at the beach to be the ideal combination of relaxation and mega-adventures. Campsites on coastal states like California and Florida allow you to enjoy the ocean and sand while you are just steps away from the beach, spending the night over there. Don't forget to bring things like sunscreen, beach towels, and lots of water toys for the kids!

c. RV CampingRV camping is a brilliant choice for families as it brings in a lot of modern stuff including air conditioning units, kitchens, and bathrooms, thus providing a more relaxing camping experience. RV campsites scattered all over the place pave the way for you to have the opportunity to go on a trip with several stops. To add to the fun, some campgrounds provide amenities such as pools and playgrounds where children can play.

d. State Park CampingState parks give the camping alternative that is easily accessible and budget-friendly, and they are often the places with less crowded than the national parks. Visit local state parks that have campsites near hiking trails, lakes, and picnic spots. State parks mostly provide family-centered activities like ranger talks and exhibits of animals.

2. Planning the Perfect Family Camping Trip

A successful family camping trip requires thoughtful planning. From selecting the right campsite to packing the right gear, here are some tips to ensure your trip goes smoothly.

Choosing the Right CampsiteThe choice of your children's age and interests has to be considered when you are selecting a camping place. Young kids may be the ones who value campgrounds that have playgrounds, easy trails, or places where people can go swimming. On the other hand, teenagers might be the ones who value more difficult hiking, swimming in the water, or the opportunity to learn fishing or kayaking.

Creating a Flexible ScheduleWhen you are planning your activities, be sure to have a mix of structured outdoor adventures as well as downtime. Too many activities can cause stress whereas too much freedom can be boring for children. Hiking, canoeing, or exploring can be paired with quieter activities like sitting by the campfire or playing games.

Getting Kids Involved in PlanningLet your kids get their hands dirty in the trip planning by choosing some activities, help with packing, or assist in setting up the tent. It is because of them that we feel necessary, and it is always they who look forward to the trip.

3. Best Campsites for Families

Finding the right campsite is key to a great family camping trip. Here are some of the top campsites in the U.S. that are perfect for families.

a. Acadia National Park, MaineThe Acadia National Park is a gorgeous complex of coastal cliffs, thick forests, and various hiking trails that are made for any age. Blackwoods and Seawall Campgrounds are equipped with kid-friendly amenities such as picnic tables, fire rings, and even rangers-led programs. The park boasts beautiful uninterrupted views of the Atlantic Ocean and furthermore provides countless activities for those that love being in nature thus it is perfect for family trips with a hint of adventure.

b. KOA (Kampgrounds of America)KOA campsites  are characterized by their family-friendly atmosphere. They provide many locations with pools, playgrounds, mini-golf, and organized activities such as movie nights or crafts for kids. KOA has a variety of options including tent camping, RVs, and cabins, so they really do cater to all camper types.

c. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee/North CarolinaThe Great Smoky Mountains entices multitudes each year, luring people in with its vast, green woods, creatures that roam its area, and plenty of well-marked hiking trails. The Cades Cove Campground is a family favorite that is very close to the scenic drives, historic sites, and beginner-friendly hikes of the park.

d. Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, FloridaFor people looking for a combination of camping and Disney truck, Fort Wilderness is a great place to be. Besides the RV sites, cabins, and tent camping options, the site also offers horseback riding, canoeing, archery, and pools, plus direct proximity to Disney World.

4. Essential Camping Gear for Kids

Packing the right gear is crucial to keeping kids comfortable and engaged during your camping trip. Here’s a list of must-have items for your little campers.

a. Kid-Sized Sleeping BagsOpting for a sleeping bag that is metal specifically made for kids guarantees they are warm and very comfortable during the night. These sleeping bags are and they have better insulation and thus the children can comfortably sleep in the temperature variations.

b. Child-Friendly Camping ChairsShare among children their unique little space around the campfire using mini portable camping chairs for them. To this end, such a tiny addition is definitely a significant step to make them feel more integrated into the camping arrangements.

c. Headlamps and FlashlightsKids love having their own flashlight or headlamp. It’s not only practical for nighttime navigation but also adds to the adventure of camping.

d. Kid-Friendly BackpacksIf you are going on a hike a child-sized backpack is a great way to let your kids take care of their own personal belongings such as their water and snacks thus making them feel like they are part of the team.

e. Bug Spray and SunscreenPack insect repellent designed for kids along with sunblock to shield them from bug bites and sunburn. Choose gentle, hypoallergenic options that are suitable for children’s sensitive skin.

5. Fun Outdoor Activities for Families

Camping is all about making the most of the great outdoors. Here are some outdoor activities that your family can enjoy together.

a. HikingFinding a camp site is easy because there are many such sites at the foot of the mountains which are near the picturesque hiking trails. Select an easy or moderate hike that is beautiful and has wildlife spotting opportunities. A hike can also be made more interactive for children by turning it into a scavenger hunt where they look for certain plants, animals, or landmarks.

b. FishingFishing is an exciting but calm sport that the family can undertake during the weekends. Almost all campsites are located near bodies of water for instance lakes or rivers that guarantee great fishing. Those of you that are not familiar with the rules and regulations of fishing are encouraged to look into local fishing guides or  state regulations for the best tips on fishing.

c. GeocachingGeocaching today is a peculiar scavenger hunt based on GPS uses to find secret caches. It allows one to explore the campground in a fun way while keeping the kids entertained. First, you will need some geocaching apps for your gadgets.

d. Canoeing or KayakingIf the campsite is built on a shore you can rent canoes or kayaks for exploring. Don't forget to bring life jackets for everyone and check the rental services.

e. StargazingCamping away from city lights undoubtedly is the best way to go and have fun with the night sky. Not only bring a star map, but also use a stargazing app to identify constellations and planets. Stargazing can be secreted into your peaceful way of life to open your children’s minds to astronomy.

6. Easy Campfire Recipes for Families

No camping trip is complete without delicious meals prepared over the campfire. Here are a few easy and kid-friendly recipes your family will love.

a. Campfire PizzaGet pre-made dough and stretch it over a grill grate and let the family member choose their favorite toppings. Cook over the fire for a fun, customizable meal until the crust is crispy and the cheese is melted.

b. Foil Packet MealsFoil packets may be prepared and cooked as over-the-fire meals in no time. To do this, combine meat, veggies, and seasoning. Each one can prepare their own packet, thus making fun and personalized dinner for everyone.

c. S’moresA true camping experience, s'mores are the most favorite snack for the kids. Toast marshmallows on top of the fire, then hug the graham crackers and the chocolate to make a gooey, tasty dessert.

d. Banana BoatsFor a sweet twist on s'moress, try banana boats. Cut a banana in half, stuff it with chocolate thrive and marshmallows, wrap it in foil, and cook on the fire for a sticky, yum dessert to die for.

7. Camping Safety Tips for Families

While camping is fun, safety should always come first. Here are some key tips to ensure everyone stays safe during your trip.

a. Fire SafetyEvery time children are near the fire, make sure to watch them, and tell them to keep a distance that is safe. If you have to go to one side, make sure the fire has not been left alone and there is no way to use water or a fire extinguisher.

b. HydrationCamping is often a physical activity. Therefore, it is very important to be hydrated. The water consumption of every person should be monitored and controlled regularly throughout the day, and particularly during hiking and outdoor games.

c. Sunscreen and Bug SprayRemember to lather on the sunblock and bug spray often postponed the swimming or strenuous sweating. Use products for your kids that are safe and reapplying as needed.

d. Food StorageTo prevent wildlife from being attracted, it is recommended to store food in airtight containers or bear-proof lockers if such are available. Keep food, trash, and any scented items as far away as possible from sleeping places.

e. First Aid KitA well-stocked first aid kit is a must for camping trips. You can also add pain relievers, band aids, antiseptic wipes, tweezers, and the medications you need.

8. Family Camping Checklist

Packing for a family camping trip can be overwhelming, but having a checklist can help. Here’s a list of essentials you’ll need for your trip.

Shelter & Bedding:

Tent and stakes

Sleeping bags (kid-sized if needed)

Sleeping pads or air mattresses

Pillows and extra blankets

Cooking Essentials:

Portable stove or grill

Cooking utensils (spatula, tongs)

Cooler with ice packs

Food and snacks

Water bottles and water filter (if needed)

Plates, cups, and cutlery

Clothing:

Layers for various weather

Sturdy shoes or hiking boots

Hats and sunglasses

Rain gear

Personal Items:

Sunscreen and bug spray

First aid kit

Toiletries

Towels

Entertainment:

Games and toys

Books or e-readers

Camera

9. Fun Camping Games for Families

Keep the fun going with these entertaining camping games for the whole family.

a. Scavenger HuntCreate a nature-themed scavenger hunt where kids can search for items like a pinecone, feather, or a unique leaf. It’s a great way to explore the campsite and teach kids about the local environment.

b. Capture the FlagThis standard board game is a perfect match for families or big company events. Split into teams and compete to capture the other team’s flag without getting tagged.

c. Storytelling Around the CampfireAfter a day filled with outdoor events, gather around the campfire to share your stories. Each family member can take turns narrating their story, either a creepy ghost story or a funny memory.

d. Flashlight TagAfter Submission of the Sun, Enjoy a Game of Flashlight Tag. A "tag" player uses a flashlight as a "tag" in the dark, making the game even more interesting.

e. Nature BingoPrepare bingo cards of different plants, animals, or natural features, and while you are at the campsite, you will have to check off items which you find. The runaway will be the first person to get a bingo and wins a prize!

10. Creating Memorable Family Camping Trips

The key to a memorable family camping trip isn’t about perfection, but rather enjoying the time spent together. Here’s how to make sure your trip is unforgettable.

a. Embrace FlexibilityIt is the same as life and in the adventurism that sometimes as a turn things don't go as expected, yet that is the whole adventure. The other side of the coin is that you can be that speed bump detour, but instead of it all and turn the situation into best.

b. Involve the KidsEncourage your kids to participate in the camp set-up, firewood gathering, or meals preparation. When they are involved, they will be more interested and have fun during the activity.

c. Capture the MomentsGetting involved while away from home is vital, but don't lose sight of the need when you capture pictures or videos of your trip. With time, they will become valuable and you may even make a photo album of the journey.

d. Create TraditionsA camping trip with the family should be a tradition by setting up a trip every year, either to the same campsite or exploring a new location each year. The traditions not only build up the excitement for the family members but also help create everlasting memories.

1. What are the best campsites for family camping?Great family campsites include national parks like Acadia National Park, KOA campsites with family-friendly amenities, and fun spots like Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, which blends camping with theme park activities.

2. What gear should I bring for kids on a camping trip?Essentials include kid-sized sleeping bags, child-friendly camping chairs, headlamps, backpacks, and kid-safe sunscreen and bug spray to keep them comfortable and protected.

3. What are some fun outdoor activities for families while camping?Activities like hiking, fishing, geocaching, canoeing, and stargazing are perfect for keeping the family entertained while enjoying nature.

4. What are easy campfire meals for kids?Kid-friendly campfire recipes include campfire pizza, foil packet meals, and classics like s’mores and banana boats.

5. What safety tips should I keep in mind for family camping?Fire safety, staying hydrated, proper food storage, sun and bug protection, and bringing a well-stocked first aid kit are essential for a safe camping experience.

Conclusion

Camping in the family is the most excellent way to interact, visit, and have the best time of your life. Even if you're a first-time camper or an experienced one, this guide covers everything you need from choosing the right campsite, and packing the right gear to planning outdoor activities and making sure your family is safe. You are now well informed about everything, so it’s time to pack your bags and head into the great outdoors to enjoy a truly memorable family camping trip!For additional tips on camping with kids, check out resources like Camping With Kids.

[marine-world-99]

Discover the Excitement of 16D Cinema at Marine World

Are you a movie enthusiast looking for a unique and immersive cinema experience? Marine World offers an unparalleled opportunity to dive into the world of 16D cinema. Imagine being right in the middle, along with your favorite characters. Feel every thrill and shake with the latest technology. The movie experience will be more realistic and exciting.

Marine World is well known for its 16D cinema, as well as being one of the best places to visit near Guruvayur and Chavakkad for tourists and movie enthusiasts. India’s largest public aquarium, Marine World provides attractions suitable for visitors of all ages – making this attraction one worth seeing both for movie enthusiasts and tourists. Let’s discover what makes Marine World a must-see destination!

Marine World’s 16D Cinema Is an Unparalleled Experience Marine World’s 16D cinema is an innovative technological feat that transforms movie-watching to an unforgettable experience. Created to engage all your senses and bring scenes to life around you, its advanced technology ensures every detail is crystal clear while physical effects such as seat movements synced to action scenes, sprays of water, wind effects and an immersive and unique cinematic experience for viewers.

16D cinema can make sure that you and your family experience each storyline with complete immersion. Not just an ordinary cinema experience – 16D cinema provides an unforgettable cinematic adventure!

There’s something special here for kids of all ages as well as adults – from superhero films and documentaries to animated adventures and much more – everyone will find something they will enjoy here.

Marine World provides an enjoyable 16D cinematic experience for the entire family, featuring attractions designed to be fun and accessible for visitors of all ages – an ideal destination for family outings!

Marine World: A Hub of Attractions While 16D cinema is certainly one of the many attractions at Marine World, as India’s largest public aquarium it provides much more. Visitors can enjoy its extraordinary array of aquatic life from all corners of India as exhibits demonstrate different aquatic ecosystems and its inhabitants such as fish, corals and other sea life – not forgetting its delightful colors and behaviors!

Marine World Aquarium also features interactive displays and educational programs that promote marine conservation, making Marine World an excellent way for children and adults to gain insight into this matter. Marine World makes an excellent learning center about protecting our oceans for both kids and adults.

Best Places to Visit Near Guruvayur

Marine World is located strategically near Guruvayur and is one of the top places to visit in Guruvayur. Guruvayur’s famous temple attracts pilgrims all over India. A trip to Marine World is a great way to combine spirituality with entertainment after visiting the temple. Marine World is close to Guruvayur, making it an ideal addition to any itinerary.

Tourist Places Near Chavakkad

Chavakkad is another well-known tourist destination nearby. Marine World stands out as a top Tourist Places Near Chavakkad. Combining your visit to Marine World with other attractions in Chavakkad such as its beach or lively local markets could create a truly memorable day trip experience! Plan Your Visit

Organising a visit to Marine World is easy! Open throughout the year, booking tickets in advance for peak tourist periods is strongly encouraged to ensure a great value experience at the attraction. They offer various ticket packages such as family passes which offer excellent value.

Marine World offers many facilities designed to ensure a pleasant visit for travelers traveling with children, such as ample dining options offering various cuisines to cater to different palates and convenience services to make sure that every experience at Marine World is optimal. And here are a few tips for having

Plan Your Visit

Make the most out of your visit to Marine World with these tips for making the best experience: Book in Advance Secure tickets early to avoid long lines and get the best seats for the 16D cinema experience. Arrive Early: Allow yourself plenty of time to explore all attractions at a leisurely pace.

Dress Comfortably: Wear comfortable clothing and footwear so you can experience all of the park activities without experiencing discomfort.

Stay Hydrated: To maximize enjoyment during a full-day park tour, keep yourself hydrated throughout.

Engage with Interactive Exhibits: Don’t miss the educational programs and interactive displays at the aquarium – they will make your visit much more rewarding.

Marine World Is an Engaging Family-Fun Destination

Marine World offers attractions tailored to bring fun, education and excitement for people of all ages – whether that means young children, teenagers or elderly family members! You’re guaranteed an enjoyable day trip when planning your visit here.

Marine World offers an exciting and engaging experience, featuring 16D cinema, India’s largest public aquarium, and other attractions that combine to provide unforgettable moments and memories with your loved ones while providing cutting-edge entertainment and education about marine life.

Marine World offers more than just tourist attractions; it provides an experience combining entertainment, education and excitement. Boasting an immersive 16D cinema, Marine World provides an experience like no other near Guruvayur or Chavakkad – making Marine World one of the must-visit tourist spots near Chavakkad.

[neli-draws]

The Best New Resorts in the Maldives You Need to Visit in 2024

Discover the top new resorts in the Maldives for 2024, where luxury and innovation meet paradise. These recently opened retreats offer unparalleled experiences with state-of-the-art amenities, breathtaking ocean views, and exceptional service. From overwater villas with private infinity pools to eco-friendly resorts that blend seamlessly with their natural surroundings, each destination promises a unique escape. Indulge in world-class dining, rejuvenate at cutting-edge spas, and explore vibrant marine life with exclusive diving and snorkeling excursions. Whether you’re seeking romance, adventure, or relaxation, these new resorts set the standard for contemporary island luxury. Embark on a journey to these extraordinary resorts and make your Maldivian dream vacation a reality.

Luxurious Overwater Villas: The Pinnacle of Maldives Resorts

Indulge in unparalleled luxury with overwater villas at the best resort in Maldives. These exquisite accommodations offer breathtaking panoramic views of turquoise waters, direct access to the ocean, and private decks perfect for sunbathing or stargazing. Each villa is meticulously designed to blend seamlessly with the natural beauty of the Maldives, providing a serene retreat where comfort and elegance meet. The best resorts in Maldives ensure that every detail, from high-end amenities to personalized services, elevates your stay to a new level of opulence.

Gourmet Dining Experiences at the Best Maldives Resort

Savor a culinary journey like no other at the best resort in Maldives, where gourmet dining takes center stage. With multiple world-class restaurants offering diverse cuisines, from fresh seafood delicacies to international gourmet dishes, your taste buds are in for a treat. Enjoy romantic beachfront dinners, elegant fine dining experiences, and vibrant buffets all crafted with the freshest local ingredients. The best Maldives resorts pride themselves on delivering exceptional dining experiences that complement their stunning surroundings.

Unmatched Spa and Wellness Facilities at Maldives’ Top Resort

Rejuvenate and relax at the best resort in Maldives, renowned for its exceptional spa and wellness facilities. Offering a range of treatments from traditional massages to modern therapeutic sessions, the resort’s spa provides a sanctuary for holistic well-being. Experience luxurious facials, invigorating body treatments, and yoga sessions with picturesque ocean views. The serene environment and expert therapists ensure that every aspect of your wellness journey is catered to, making it a standout feature of the best Maldives resorts.

Exclusive Activities and Adventures at the Best Maldives Resort

Explore a wealth of exclusive activities and adventures at the best resort in Maldives. From thrilling water sports like snorkeling, scuba diving, and paddleboarding to serene boat excursions and island hopping, there’s something for every type of traveler. Engage in guided nature tours, sunset cruises, and private fishing expeditions. The best resorts in Maldives offer bespoke experiences tailored to your interests, ensuring that every moment of your stay is filled with excitement and discovery.

Family-Friendly Luxury: The Best Resort in Maldives for Families

The best resort in Maldives caters to families seeking a blend of luxury and family-friendly amenities. With spacious villas, kids’ clubs, and tailored activities, this resort ensures that guests of all ages have an unforgettable experience. Enjoy family-oriented excursions, educational programs, and engaging entertainment designed to create lasting memories. The best Maldives resorts understand the importance of family time and offer comprehensive services to make your vacation both relaxing and enjoyable for everyone.

Sustainable Practices at the Best Resort in Maldives

Experience eco-friendly luxury at the best resort in Maldives, where sustainability is a top priority. The resort implements innovative green practices, including renewable energy sources, water conservation systems, and waste reduction programs. By focusing on preserving the natural beauty of the Maldives, the resort ensures that your stay has a minimal environmental impact. Enjoy a guilt-free getaway knowing that your accommodation supports conservation efforts and promotes sustainable tourism.

Unrivaled Seclusion: Privacy and Serenity at the Best Maldives Resort

Escape to unparalleled seclusion and serenity at the best resort in Maldives, designed to offer the ultimate in privacy. Each villa is thoughtfully situated to provide guests with a secluded retreat, surrounded by lush vegetation and pristine waters. Whether you’re lounging by your private pool, enjoying a quiet beach, or indulging in a spa treatment, the resort ensures that your experience is intimate and exclusive. The best Maldives resorts excel in offering a tranquil sanctuary away from the bustle of everyday life.

Conclusion

The best resort in Maldives stands out for its luxurious accommodations, exceptional dining, and comprehensive wellness and adventure offerings. From the opulent overwater villas and gourmet dining experiences to family-friendly amenities and sustainable practices, each aspect of these resorts is designed to provide an unforgettable stay. Whether you seek tranquility, adventure, or a combination of both, the best Maldives resorts deliver a perfect blend of comfort, exclusivity, and natural beauty. Embrace a world of unparalleled luxury and make memories that will last a lifetime in this tropical paradise.

[entervending]

Topic: Maximizing Profit with Mechanical Vending Machines

Maximizing Profit with Mechanical Vending Machines: A Comprehensive Guide

Are you looking to maximize profit with mechanical vending machines? You're in the right place! Whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro in the vending business, this guide will give you the lowdown on selecting the right machines and products, finding the best locations, and keeping your machines in top-notch condition.

Choose the Right Machines and Products

The journey to a profitable vending business starts with the right equipment. Do you know that mechanical vending machines vary greatly? From gumball machines that dispense colorful gumballs to capsule machines offering toys in capsules, each option has its perks. How about a bouncy ball vending machine for that extra fun factor? The choice of products is just as crucial. Imagine a kid’s delight when they see hard candy, toys in capsules, or bouncy balls! The joy doesn't stop there; adults love these just as much, especially items like hard candy and capsule toy vending options.

Strategic Location: The Secret Sauce

Where you place your vending machines can make or break your business. High-traffic areas like malls, grocery stores, schools, and amusement parks are golden spots. Think of it as fishing; you want to cast your net where the fish are. The same logic applies here. High visibility and easy accessibility will draw more customers. Picture a gumball machine near the checkout counter at a busy supermarket — it's an impulse buy waiting to happen.

Stay on Top of Maintenance

Ever heard the saying, "A stitch in time saves nine"? This couldn't be truer for vending machine maintenance. Regular checks and timely replenishments keep your machines running smoothly and prevent coin-jam nightmares. Ensure you’re stocked up on essential vending machine supplies like gumball machine refills, candy dispensers, and other vending machine parts. With regular servicing, you'll guarantee that your machines are in prime condition, ready to churn out happy customers and even happier profits.

Marketing Tips and Tricks

Don’t underestimate the power of good marketing. Social media shout-outs, loyalty programs, and even signage near your machines can draw in crowds. You can also partner with local businesses for cross-promotions. It's all about visibility and making your vending machines the go-to choice for quick treats and fun surprises.

Analyzing Performance and Scaling Up

Keep track of which products and locations perform the best. Use this data to tweak your approach. Are capsule machines with toys in busy malls your top sellers? Or do bouncy ball vending machines earn you the most at family entertainment centers? Knowing this helps you make informed decisions to scale up and maximize profits.

Conclusion

So, are you ready to turn those mechanical vending machines into profit-making machines? The right mix of product selection, strategic locations, consistent maintenance, and smart marketing will pave the way for success.

For those looking to kickstart or expand their bulk gumball business, I highly recommend checking out Entervending for top-quality machines and supplies.

Click on Entervending to visit the website.

[scentedconnoisseurduck]

Family-Friendly Activities in Dubai

Dubai, a city renowned for its blend of tradition and modernity, offers a wide array of family-friendly activities that make it an ideal destination for a memorable family vacation. From interactive museums to thrilling theme parks, Dubai has something for children of all ages. This article explores the top activities in Dubai that families can enjoy, including visits to the Dubai Museum and the upcoming Museum of the Future tickets.

Museum of the Future: A Glimpse into Tomorrow

Innovative Exhibits and Interactive Displays

Set to open in 2022, the Museum of the Future is one of Dubai’s most anticipated attractions. This state-of-the-art museum will focus on futuristic concepts and technologies, offering an immersive experience that will captivate both children and adults. Interactive displays and innovative exhibits will explore themes such as artificial intelligence, space exploration, and sustainable living.

Family-Friendly Features

The Museum of the Future promises to be a family-friendly destination with its engaging and educational exhibits. Children will be able to participate in hands-on activities and experiments, fostering their curiosity and creativity. The museum’s futuristic design and high-tech installations will provide an exciting and inspiring environment for young visitors.

Tickets and Visitor Information

Tickets for the Museum of the Future will be available online, ensuring a convenient booking process. Various ticket options, including family packages and special rates for children, will make it easier for families to plan their visit. The museum’s central location and easy accessibility will also add to its appeal as a must-visit attraction for families.

Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo: An Oceanic Adventure

Marine Life Encounters

Located in The Dubai Mall, the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo is a favorite among families. The massive aquarium houses thousands of aquatic animals, including sharks, rays, and colorful fish. Children can walk through the 48-meter-long tunnel, offering a 270-degree view of the underwater world, and marvel at the diverse marine life swimming above and around them.

Educational Programs

The Underwater Zoo, located above the aquarium, offers interactive exhibits and educational programs. Kids can learn about different aquatic ecosystems, conservation efforts, and marine biology through engaging displays and presentations. Special experiences, such as glass-bottom boat rides, shark encounters, and feeding sessions, provide unforgettable memories for young visitors.

LEGOLAND Dubai: A World of Imagination

Rides and Attractions

LEGOLAND Dubai, located in Dubai Parks and Resorts, is a dream destination for children who love LEGO. The park features over 40 interactive rides, shows, and attractions designed for families with children aged 2-12. Kids can explore themed areas such as Adventure, Kingdoms, and Imagination, each offering unique experiences and challenges.

LEGO Workshops and Building Activities

In addition to the rides, LEGOLAND Dubai offers various workshops and building activities where children can unleash their creativity. The LEGO Factory Tour allows kids to see how LEGO bricks are made, while the Mindstorms workshop lets them build and program their own LEGO robots. These activities provide educational fun, combining play with learning.

Dubai Parks and Resorts: A Thrill for All Ages

Motiongate Dubai

Motiongate Dubai, part of Dubai Parks and Resorts, is a Hollywood-inspired theme park featuring attractions based on popular movies from DreamWorks Animation, Columbia Pictures, and Lionsgate. Kids can enjoy thrilling rides, live shows, and interactive experiences featuring their favorite characters from movies like Shrek, Madagascar, and The Hunger Games.

Bollywood Parks Dubai

For a unique cultural experience, families can visit Bollywood Parks Dubai, the world’s first theme park dedicated to Bollywood. The park offers live performances, cinematic rides, and colorful parades inspired by Bollywood movies. Children will love the vibrant atmosphere and interactive attractions that bring the magic of Indian cinema to life.

Dubai Miracle Garden: A Floral Wonderland

Stunning Floral Displays

Dubai Miracle Garden, the world’s largest natural flower garden, is a visual delight for families. The garden features over 50 million flowers arranged in stunning designs and structures, including life-size floral houses, heart-shaped arches, and the iconic Emirates A380 floral installation. Kids will be mesmerized by the vibrant colors and imaginative displays.

Family-Friendly Areas

The garden includes various family-friendly areas, such as play zones and picnic spots, where children can relax and have fun. The Butterfly Garden, located within Dubai Miracle Garden, houses thousands of butterflies in nine custom-built domes, offering kids a close-up experience with these beautiful insects.

Conclusion

Dubai offers a wealth of family-friendly activities that cater to children of all ages. From the historical insights of Dubai Museum to the futuristic wonders of the Museum of the Future, there is something to inspire and entertain every young mind. Attractions like Dubai Aquarium, LEGOLAND Dubai, and Dubai Miracle Garden provide a mix of education and fun, ensuring that families create unforgettable memories together.

As Dubai continues to grow and innovate, its family-friendly attractions will undoubtedly expand, offering even more opportunities for exploration and adventure. Whether you’re looking to delve into the past, explore the future, or simply enjoy a fun-filled day with your kids, Dubai is the perfect destination for a family adventure.

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Explore the Best of Egypt with Hurghada Holiday Packages

Discover Pristine Beaches and Coral Reefs

One of Hurghada's main attractions is its beautiful beaches. The city's coastline stretches for miles, offering soft sandy shores and warm, turquoise waters. Holiday packages often include access to private beach resorts, where you can unwind and soak up the sun. For the more adventurous, Hurghada is a paradise for snorkeling and diving enthusiasts. The Red Sea is famous for its stunning coral reefs and diverse marine life, making it an ideal spot to explore underwater wonders. Many packages offer guided diving tours, providing you with the opportunity to witness colorful fish, sea turtles, and even dolphins.

Thrilling Desert Adventures

Hurghada isn't just about the sea; the nearby desert also offers a plethora of activities.Hurghada Holiday Packages Many holiday packages include desert safari tours, where you can experience the thrill of riding quad bikes or camels across the golden sands. These excursions often include a visit to a traditional Bedouin village, where you can learn about the local culture and enjoy a delicious meal under the stars. For a truly unforgettable experience, consider booking a hot air balloon ride to see the desert landscape from above.

Luxurious Accommodation Options

Hurghada boasts a wide range of accommodation options to suit all budgets and preferences. From luxury resorts with all-inclusive amenities to budget-friendly hotels, there's something for everyone. Holiday packages often include stays at top-rated resorts, providing you with access to world-class facilities such as swimming pools, spas, and fine dining restaurants. For families, many resorts offer kids' clubs and entertainment programs to keep the little ones engaged while you relax.

Exciting Water Sports and Activities

For those who love water sports, Hurghada is a dream destination. The calm and clear waters of the Red Sea are perfect for activities such as windsurfing, kitesurfing, and jet skiing. Many holiday packages include equipment rentals and lessons for beginners, so you can try your hand at these thrilling sports. If you prefer a more relaxed experience, consider a glass-bottom boat tour or a leisurely cruise to explore the surrounding islands and enjoy the breathtaking views.

Cultural and Historical Excursions

While Hurghada is renowned for its natural beauty, it's also a gateway to some of Egypt's most famous historical sites. Many holiday packages offer day trips to Luxor, home to the Valley of the Kings, Karnak Temple, and other ancient wonders. Tour Operator in Egypt These excursions provide a fascinating glimpse into Egypt's rich history and allow you to experience the awe-inspiring architecture and artistry of the pharaohs. Additionally, you can visit the nearby city of El Gouna, known for its picturesque lagoons and vibrant nightlife.

A Culinary Journey

No holiday is complete without indulging in the local cuisine. Hurghada offers a variety of dining options, from traditional Egyptian dishes to international fare. Many holiday packages include meals at resort restaurants, where you can savor fresh seafood, flavorful kebabs, and delicious mezze. Don't miss the chance to try local specialties such as kushari, a hearty mix of rice, pasta, and lentils, or baklava, a sweet pastry filled with nuts and honey.

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Family-Friendly Fun: Discovering Activities and Attractions Near Cape Coral Beaches

Nestled along the picturesque shores of Southwest Florida, Cape Coral boasts not only stunning beaches but also a treasure trove of family-friendly activities and attractions waiting to be explored. Whether you're soaking up the sun on the sandy shores or seeking adventure beyond the beach, Cape Coral offers something for every member of the family. 

Let's dive into some exciting options to make your family vacation unforgettable:

Top Activities and Attractions Near Cape Coral Beaches

1. Splash and Play at Sun Splash Family Waterpark

Cool off from the Florida heat and make a splash at SunSplash Family Waterpark. This thrilling waterpark features water slides, lazy rivers, and interactive play areas suitable for all ages. Race down the slides, float along the lazy river, or relax in the sun while the kids enjoy the splash zones. With plenty of amenities and shaded areas, it's the perfect spot for a day of family fun in the sun.

2. Explore Nature at Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve

Immerse your family in the beauty of Southwest Florida's natural landscapes at the Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve. Take a leisurely stroll along the boardwalk trails winding through mangrove forests, spotting native wildlife such as birds, fish, and even the occasional manatee. Pack a picnic and enjoy a scenic lunch overlooking the Caloosahatchee River, or rent kayaks to paddle through the preserve's serene waterways.

3. Get Wild at the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium

Embark on a journey of discovery at the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium. This family-friendly attraction offers interactive exhibits, nature trails, and a planetarium showcasing captivating shows about the cosmos. Explore indoor and outdoor exhibits featuring live animals, including birds of prey and reptiles, or participate in hands-on activities and educational programs designed for visitors of all ages.

Expert Tip: Stay near the cape coral beaches at one of the affordable cape coral hotels. Opting for Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott ensures a delightful retreat, serving as your ideal hub for exploring the city. Conveniently located just moments away from Lee Health Hospitals and Campus, Lee County Sports Complex, and the Fort Myers Beach, this top-rated accommodation choice promises easy access to key attractions.

4. Hit the Miniature Golf Course at Mike Greenwell's Family Fun Park

Challenge the family to a round of mini-golf at Mike Greenwell's Family Fun Park. This sprawling entertainment complex features an 18-hole miniature golf course, batting cages, go-karts, and arcade games. Put your way through themed holes surrounded by lush landscaping and water features, then cool off with a refreshing treat from the snack bar. With activities for all ages, it's a guaranteed day of family-friendly fun.

5. Take a Dolphin Cruise from Cape Coral Harbor

Set sail on a dolphin cruise from Cape Coral Harbor and embark on a marine adventure your family won't soon forget. Cruise along the sparkling waters of the Gulf of Mexico while keeping an eye out for playful dolphins frolicking in their natural habitat. Learn about local marine life from knowledgeable guides and enjoy scenic views of the coastline as you create lasting memories with your loved ones.

Final Words

With its pristine beaches, diverse wildlife, and abundance of family-friendly attractions, Cape Coral is the perfect destination for your next family vacation. Whether you're seeking thrills at a waterpark, exploring nature preserves, or enjoying a round of mini-golf, there's no shortage of adventures to be had near Cape Coral's beautiful beaches. So pack your sunscreen, gather the family, and get ready for a memorable vacation filled with fun, laughter, and endless exploration!