#and a ton more little rocks in some containers as well

[ranger-kellyn]

How do you have a chunk of pumice??

haha I have a small collection of rocks! and I hiked the volcano in sitka alaska back in 2015, and the beach was covered in pumice stones.

[nvrsaidiwasinurcloset]

Hated - Ethan Landry - Part 2

Ethan Landry x Fem!Reader

This contains SMUT. - Minors DNI

Part 1

Summary: Ethan's hated you for a while, but a little bit of time alone and a heated argument leads to something more.

A/N: Send in requests, I need the inspiration <3

As you sat down in the living room with Ethan, Chad looked back and forth between the two of you. He was suspicious, because you wanted to kill each other yesterday.

“Uh, I um,” Ethan mumbled, so you cut him off, “He was helping me get back into my school account. I locked myself out of it earlier.”

“Oh, cool. Well, the rest of the guys are coming over soon,” Chad said, as Ethan’s leg started to bounce. He wanted to have some alone time with you, and that can’t happen if the rest of the friend group comes over.

“When will they be here?” You asked, relaxing on the couch.

“In like, an hour. I’m going to leave in a few to get pizza, you guys want to come with?” Chad asked, as Ethan was struggling to sit still.

“I think I’m going to hang out here. It’s my turn to pick the movie tonight, and I need to pick the perfect one so Mindy doesn’t give me shit,” you said, exchanging a quick glance with Ethan.

“I have a ton of homework I need to work on,” Ethan said, as Chad headed to the door.

“Okay, I’ll be back soon. Don’t kill each other.”

The second Chad was out the door, Ethan was on you. You finally had to push him back, “Let’s go to your room.”

Your clothes were shed yet again, as Ethan hovered over you. “You want me to eat you out again?” he asked, a small smile playing on his lips. His determination to please you was so attractive.

“Shouldn’t you let me take care of you?” You asked, placing kisses along his jawline.

“As much as I’d love that, I won’t last long. I don’t want to disappoint you,” he said, moaning as you lightly bit his neck.

“Ethan, it’s okay if you don’t last long. Please don’t think you’re disappointing me, because this doesn’t have to be a one-time thing,” you said, trying to assure him that this experience was more about him than you.

“We can do this again?” he asked, his anxiety starting to fade.

“Of course we can,” you whispered, kissing him on the tip of his nose.

He walked over to his bedside table, rummaging for the unopened box of condoms that he kept just in case. After grabbing one and putting it on, he came back over to you, resuming his place on top of you. He nudged around at your entrance, his nerves getting the best of him.

“Hey, when you put it in, go slow,” he nodded, before slowly inching his way into you. He kept watching your face, looking for any signs of discomfort. He really wanted to take care of you, and it was mind-blowing. Most guys only care about their own satisfaction when it comes to sex.

Once he was fully inside you, you nodded for him to keep going.

“Fuck, you’re so tight.” he said, as he continued to rock his hips into yours. It didn’t take long before you were close. He was filling you up perfectly, hitting all the right spots.

You reached your hand down to rub circles on your clit, and he felt like he could cum at the sight alone. You felt yourself tightening around him, and his eyes started to roll back.

“Fuck fuck fuck, I’m cumming,” you moaned, gripping his biceps as your body started to shake.

Ethan couldn’t form words as he filled the condom, the fucked-out expression on his face telling you everything you needed to know.

“Can we really do that again?” he asked as his breathing returned to normal.

“Only if you don’t start hating me again,” the small laugh that left your mouth was his new second favorite sound, the first being the way you moan.

“I don’t think I could ever hate you,” he said, as you both stood up to get dressed.

[midastouch013]

Seasick

I'm sorry, I just had to use this gif, but it has nothing to do with the fic, I swear.

Based on this request

Summary: You're on a cruise with your girlfriend, and so why do you snap at her?

Warnings: None, unless you count throwing up.

P.S This one's short, I'm sorry, I've been kinda stuck on my writing

----

The cruise had been your idea—a chance for Natasha to unwind, away from the constant demands of being an Avenger. You knew how much she loved the sea, the gentle rocking of the waves, the endless expanse of blue stretching out as far as the eye could see. So, you planned this getaway, a luxury cruise away from the bustling city.

As the ship set sail, Natasha wasted no time in making the most of the luxurious accommodations. You found her stretched out on the private deck of your cabin, soaking up the sun in a black bikini that left little to the imagination. Her red hair was fanned out around her, and she wore sunglasses to shield her eyes from the bright sunlight.

You, on the other hand, opted for comfort over style, dressed in an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt on a black tee and cargo shorts, a beer in hand as you admired the view (both of them).

"Enjoying yourself, Nat?" you asked, taking a sip of your beer.

Natasha cracked one eye open, a lazy smile tugging at her lips. "More than I can say, Y/n. This was a brilliant idea."

You settled into the deck chair beside her, reaching out to brush your fingers along her bare arm. "Just wanted to spoil my favorite Avenger a little."

Natasha chuckled, shifting to make room for you on the lounge chair. "Well, mission accomplished."

You hummed, giving her a forehead a peck followed by her lips

"I'm glad"

---

As the day wore on, you suggested exploring the ship and trying out some of the activities it had to offer. Natasha agreed enthusiastically, and soon you found yourselves participating in a salsa dancing class on the upper deck , against your many protests which had been override by a simple plead from the redhead.

However, Natasha couldn't help but notice that you kept disappearing at odd intervals. She watched you slip away multiple times, always with a mysterious expression on your face. Concern started to gnaw at her when you came back every time just a minute level paler, but she pushed it aside, not wanting to ruin the mood.

After the third time you disappeared, Natasha finally approached you, a slight frown marring her features. "Y/n, you keep disappearing. Is everything okay?"

You turned to face her, your expression neutral. "Yeah, everything's fine, babe. Just needed to take care of something."

Natasha's brow furrowed with worry. "Are you sure? You've been disappearing all day."

You felt a surge of frustration, your patience wearing thin. "I said I'm fine, Nat. Can you please just drop it?"

Natasha's concern turned to hurt as she recoiled slightly. "I'm just worried about you, Y/n. You've been acting strange all day."

You snapped, unable to contain your frustration any longer. "Well, maybe if you stopped hovering over me, I wouldn't feel the need to disappear!"

Natasha's eyes widened in shock at your outburst, hurt flashing in her eyes before she quickly masked it. "Fine," she said, her voice cold. "I'll leave you alone then."

With that, she turned on her heel and stormed off, leaving you standing there, regret washing over you in waves.

You stood there for a moment, your stomach churning with a mix of regret and guilt. But as you took a step to go after Natasha, a wave of nausea hit you like a ton of bricks. Clutching your stomach, you stumbled back towards your room, moving as quickly as you could.

By the time you reached the door, you were feeling light-headed and queasy. You barely made it to the bathroom before you were retching into the toilet, the taste of bile burning in your throat.

After what felt like an eternity, the nausea began to subside, leaving you feeling weak and exhausted. You groaned as you rinsed your mouth and splashed some water on your face, trying to soothe your frazzled nerves.

Feeling utterly defeated, you crawled into bed, pulling the covers up around you. You closed your eyes, hoping that when you woke up you'd fell better and apologise to your girlfriend.

--

As you lay in bed, trying to calm your queasy stomach, you felt another wave of nausea hit you. Rushing to the bathroom once again, you barely made it in time before you were retching into the toilet for what felt like the fourth time since your argument with Natasha.

You were so focused on trying to keep your stomach under control that you didn't hear the door open, or the soft footsteps approaching you. It wasn't until a gentle hand was on your back, rubbing soothing circles, that you realized you weren't alone.

Looking up, you saw Natasha kneeling beside you, her eyes filled with concern. "Babe, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

You wanted to respond, to reassure her that you were fine, but another wave of nausea hit you, and you were back to retching into the toilet.

Natasha didn't hesitate. She pulled your hair back gently, holding it out of your face as you emptied your stomach once again. Her touch was gentle, her presence a comforting anchor in the midst of your misery.

After what felt like an eternity, the nausea began to subside, leaving you feeling weak and exhausted. You leaned back against the wall, breathing heavily as you tried to regain your strength.

Natasha didn't say anything, just reached for a washcloth and wet it with cool water before gently wiping your face clean. Then she helped you to your feet, guiding you back to bed and tucking you in with a tenderness that brought tears to your eyes.

"Thank you love," you whispered, your voice hoarse from retching.

Natasha smiled softly, brushing a strand of hair from your forehead. "Anytime baby. I'm here for you, always."

After you had gotten back under the covers of the bed, you felt a pang of guilt as you looked at Natasha, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, near your legs, watching you with concern.

"I'm sorry, Nat," you said, your voice barely above a whisper. "I forgot to bring my meds for my seasickness, and I didn't want to ruin our holiday."

Natasha's expression softened, and she reached out to take your hand in hers. "You don't have to apologize. I'm just glad you're okay."

You shook your head, feeling the need to explain further. "But I wanted this to be special for you. I wanted you to have a perfect holiday, with all of the recent missions and the government being on your back. I'm sorry I messed it up"

Natasha stood up and pulled you into a gentle hug, holding you close. "Y/n, you already make every day special just by being here with me. And as for the holiday, well, I hardly ever let myself have one, but being here with you is more than I could ever ask for."

"I love you, Nat. I just want you to have a good time"

"Anywhere with you is a good time" she assured, before a smirk creeped up her face,

"And I'm sure you'll show me an excellent time tonight"

" No walking for you tomorrow, that's for sure"

----

[ghouly-boiiiii]

A Light in the Dark 🕯️

Chapter 1: Throwing Stones

Lucy x Cooper Howard / The Ghoul

Summary: Takes place directly after the end of Season 1. As they begin their journey, Lucy is understandably very angry and fearful towards the Ghoul. She hates him, and is only joining him because she wants answers. He, however, is harboring secret feelings for Lucy ever since she saved his life. Having not been with anyone since Barb, and believing she would never feel the same, the bounty hunter has to deal with these feelings on his own. Little does he know, Lucy finds herself having inexplicable feelings for him as well, and struggling to make sense of them.

Tags: Slow Burn, Romance, Angst, Enemies to Lovers, Casual Sex Lucy and No Wait Let Me Court You Cooper, Cooper is touch-starved and rusty in bed, He's also self-conscious about his body, Ghoul channels old romantic Cooper, Lucy is confused by strange surface dweller mating customs, She helps him discover his old self, He helps her discover her true self, Did I mention there would be angst

Rating: Mature - Word Count: 1,742

SPOILER WARNING: Contains all the spoilers. No trigger warnings except eventual sexy time with a zombie man and lots of angst.

In this chapter...

To her horror, the rock shot straight forward and bounced off the back of The Ghoul’s head.

She threw her hands up in front of her. “I’m sorry! I-I didn’t mean to hit you! Please, don’t…”

“Don’t worry…” To her surprise, his voice was gentle and unthreatening. “I ain’t gonna do nothin’ to hurt cha’… But…” The Ghoul kneeled down and picked up a rock, then looked up at her and threw it in her direction.

She watched as fell to the ground at her feet.

“Huh… I missed.” He shrugged with an odd smile, then turned back around and kept walking.

Authors Note: This fic starts out somewhat similar to my other fic, My Name Is Cooper, because it starts directly after the end of the season. They have similar conversations at first, but the tone is much different and the story goes in a completely different direction. This one is more serious (still with some humor though, of course), and is probably going to be longer. I really wanted to do a more realistic, slow burn romance. I know there's a ton out there already, but I wanted to do my own version because idk, reasons I guess lol. But I really wanted to dive deep into how these two navigate their relationship and the very complicated feelings they might have for each other. This is what you might call another free-writing project, so I don't know *exactly* where it's gonna go, but I will do my best to make sure it has a decent ending when the time comes! Inspired by the cool peeps on Discord and touch-starved Cooper headcanons lol.

Lucy felt the cool night air fill her lungs as she took a deep breath and tried to still her mind. It was silent. Nothing but the soft crunch of leaves and dirt under their feet, and perhaps the occasional frog or cricket.

The vault dweller looked out at the distance before them. A fog rose up from the earth, illuminated by the faint glow of a thousand lights that mirrored the stars above. She was in awe, even thinking that it was beautiful. But it was only a distraction from all the pain and confusion she felt.

Her whole world had turned upside down. Nothing was as she believed it was. Nothing was as it seemed. Everything she thought she knew had crumbled into dust within a matter of minutes. She was numb. Overwhelmed. Everything felt surreal. And now she found herself once again alone… with him. 

As Lucy stared ahead at his silhouette in the darkness, she felt nothing but disdain. The young vault dweller was taught to forgive and forget. But she was fairly certain the people who taught her that were never fed to a giant salamander or tied up by their neck and dragged around a desert or sold for organs. How could she possibly forgive, let alone forget, such horrible things that were done to her?

She couldn’t. But she had to stuff down her feelings and let it go… for now. 

“So… where are we going?” Lucy finally asked. They must have been walking for at least thirty minutes at this point. And he hadn’t looked back even once, only reacting to the dog when she came up to him, and even then with barely more than a glance. Lucy wasn’t even sure if he knew she was still following him anymore.

The Ghoul didn’t answer right away. He waited a moment, before he took a breath and said, “Can’t say for sure yet… but looks like yo’ daddy might be headed for New Vegas.”

“...That’s a town?” 

“Big town.” 

“Okay…” Lucy took a deep breath. The conversation seemed to be going… okay so far. “So…  what’s in this town? Why do you think he’d want to go there?”

The Ghoul didn’t answer.

The vault dweller swallowed hard. She wanted to push, but she knew she had to be cautious. “How do you know my father? Are you going to tell me?”

The bounty hunter seemed to be ignoring her.

She huffed. He was so rude. So rude and inconsiderate and unaccommodating, it sickened her. Maybe if she started with something simpler… “Okay, so… do you got like a… name or something?”

Again, nothing.

Lucy frowned, her tone getting exasperated. “I’m just… wondering what I should call you… You really not gonna answer that either?”

“I don’t give a good goddamn what you call me.” He snapped, sounding a bit angry.

Lucy fell silent and her throat got tight, a bit of fear rising in her. She truly didn’t know what kind of madness compelled her to follow this man, after everything he did to her. She was hypervigilant about his every movement. Knowing that at any moment, he could turn around and try to do... something to her. 

With her hand on her pistol, she kept her distance. This one, armed with actual bullets. She wasn’t sure if it would do much, but it was something. 

Truly, every fiber of her being told her to get as far away from this… creature as she humanly could, but…

He had answers. And so did whoever they were going to find. She needed those answers. There was no question about it. Sure, she could just turn around and go home. Go back to her life in the Vault with Norm and Chet and Stephanie and everyone else. But she would never be able to live with herself. Those questions would never stop haunting her. She would never stop feeling compelled to seek the truth. Lucy knew this about herself, and her body acted almost automatically as she took one step in front of the other behind those of this two-hundred year old cowboy. 

“Look… you don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to. Obviously, we’re not friends. But if we’re going to be working together… we need to at least communicate effectively...”

The Ghoul was silent for a moment, then finally responded, “Well, then… I got a question for you , Vaulty.”

“...Okay?”

“What happened to the doctor?”

“...The doctor?”

“Yeah. How’d he end up with no head?” This time, he did turn his head slightly, although not enough to see her. “...Who cut it off?”

"Uhh... Well, uh... I-I did..." Lucy's eyes fell to the ground.

"You did?" The bounty hunter said in surprise.

“Uhh… well…” She swallowed hard, as she remembered the task. She’ll never forget having to cut off someone’s head for the first time… and, well… hopefully, the last. “He asked me to.”

“He asked you to cut off his head?” This time, he did look back at her, peering over his shoulder questioningly with a raised brow.

“Yes… he… he took cyanide and told me… He told me it would be easier… if I just… brought his head…” 

The Ghoul turned to face ahead of him, then just said, “Huh…”

There was silence for a moment, before he asked another question. “What about the Super Duper Mart? What'd you do in'ere?”

Lucy blinked, then narrowed her eyes at him, flustered by the fact that he would ask that, considering he put her in that situation. “...Why do you wanna know?”

“Curious, I guess.” The Ghoul said simply. "It's just kinda funny... what with all that 'Golden Rule' talk, how many people seem ta' end up dead 'round you."

“It was an accident!" The vault dweller quickly retorted. “I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt... I just…" She paused and looked down at the ground somberly, remembering Martha. "They... they were holding all those people captive… I... I couldn’t just leave them there…”

“You mean those ghouls?”

“They’re people. Maybe they have a condition, but they’re still people..." She snapped, then added under her breath. "Unlike you...” 

Dangit. That was not a good thing to say. Lucy bit her tongue, hoping he didn't hear.

She swallowed hard and tried to play it off. “But I did have to kill some of them. So, you know…” She said, trying to sound confident in her ghoul-killing skills. "I'd, uh... watch out... if I were you."

"Heh. Well, good for you, Vaulty." He snickered. “…Anyways, how did you get the–”

“Now! Now, hold on!” Lucy said, holding up a bluish-grey finger. “If you get to ask me things, I get to ask you things.” She lifted her head a bit higher. “A question for a question. That’s only fair.”

The Ghoul peered over his shoulder at her again for a moment as he continued to walk, then turned back. “Alright.”

“Yeah… so…” She looked down at the ground and exhaled, then back up with determination in her eyes. “So I get to ask you—”

“Two questions.”

“Five.” 

“Five?” 

“That’s right. You technically asked me five questions. Actually, six.”

“Well, that don’t sound quite fair to me, Vaulty.” He said with a smirk. “I asked you two questions. The rest were for clarification. They don’t count.” 

She huffed in dismay. It was worth a try, she thought.

He chuckled. “Tell you what. You can ask me however many questions you want. But I get to pick which ones I answer.”

“No! That’s not fair! I answered the questions you asked me, now you’re gonna answer mine.”

“Well, you didn’t have to answer my questions. That was your choice.”

“What!? I–” She huffed, unsure how to counter that.

“Alright… question for a question.” The bounty hunter said, raising his voice, and two fingers.  "You got two. Have at it, sweetheart.”

The vault dweller jumped, then quickly ran up closer, but still stayed a few feet behind him. Out of arms reach. “...Name?”

“Pass.”

“How do you know my dad?”

“Hard pass.”

She huffed. “This isn’t fair.”

“And what is, darlin'?” He scoffed, holding his arm out beside him. “What in God’s Green Earth made you think that anything in the wasteland is ever fucking fair? It’s every man for himself out here, sweetheart. Thought you might’ve figured that out by now.”

Lucy growled, and as she momentarily lost her cool, she kicked a rock in front of her. To her horror, it shot straight forward and bounced off the back of The Ghoul’s head.

He froze, and she took a sharp gasp. Oh, no… now she’d done it.

As she watched The Ghoul slowly turn around to face her, she threw her hands in front of her. “I’m sorry!” She said in a panic. “I-I didn’t mean to hit you! Please, don’t…”

The old bounty hunter stood there and just stared at her a moment. “Don’t worry…” His face was in shadow, but she could see the gleam in his eyes. To her surprise, his voice was gentle and unthreatening. “I ain’t gonna do nothin’ to hurt cha’…” 

Lucy rose her head and lowered her arms a little, relaxing somewhat.

“But…” The Ghoul kneeled down and picked up a rock from the ground. He tossed it in his hand once, then stood, looked up at her, and threw it in her direction.

She watched as it weakly flew towards her, then fell to the ground at her feet.

“Huh… I missed.” He shrugged with an odd smile, then turned back around and kept walking. 

She looked up at The Ghoul and raised an eyebrow before she continued to follow, wondering what the hell that was all about.

“One thang you gotta learn, Vaulty…” He said, raising his voice commandingly. “Caps ain’t the only form of money up here. Everything you have is potential currency. That includes information.” He said. “You see, that Golden Rule a yer’s only works if other people agree with it. Now that might be all peachy down in your vault, but up here, you don’t wanna be givin’ nothin’ away unless you know you gettin’ somethin’ in return. If you don’t do that, you’ll be eaten alive out here.”

“So… You’re giving me survival lessons now?”

“Yeah… I guess I am.” He said as he turned to smile at her, then tipped his hat up with a single finger. “...But those you can have for free.”

To be continued...

[chanis-banani]

Dirt on my leather

"rub some dirt on it."

Inspiration: 'Dirt on my leather' by WOODZ

Synopsis: you and Seungyoun come home drunk after a concert, get even more drunk and have the horniest sex of your life

switch! Seungyoun x switch! reader (gn)

3.7k words

Contains: alcohol (whiskey), swearing, thigh-riding, marking (hickeys and nail scratches), choking, unprotected sex, biting, hair-pulling, choker-pulling, creampie

autor's note: there are spoilers for upcoming smuts hidden in this post. see if you can find 'em ;)

Seungyoun tilted his head back and chugged the whiskey straight from the bottle. Tamnavulin sherry cask - cheap, but decent. He handed the bottle to you and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. You also took a big gulp from the whiskey and made a disgusted face as you swallowed it. Even the sweetest of whiskeys still tasted like gasoline.

☆ smut under the cut ☆

You and Seungyoun had just attended a rock concert together and it had been amazing. You had joined the moshpit together, drank a fuck ton of alcohol, carried the lead singer when he was stage diving and headbanged until your necks cramped up. After the concert, you were both still filled with adrenaline and alcohol - not to mention how horny you both were. You could barely keep your hands away from each other as you drunkly hurried home. Once you had finally arrived, Seungyoun rushed to grab the whiskey while you put on some music from the band you just watched. He sat down on the couch and once you were within his reach, he grabbed your waist and pulled you on his lap.

The way he kissed you was wild and hungry and his lips still tasted like whiskey. The whiskey tasted better from his mouth than from the bottle. This way it wasn't as overwhelming and you could kind of see how it supposedly tasted like white chocolate and caramel.

Suddenly he pulled away and pushed you from his lap. You looked at him with a startled expression, but he stood up as well and hooked his fingers under the edge of your shirt. "Undress," he said promptly. Before you even really got the chance to execute his orders, he had already pulled your shirt over your head and tossed it in the corner. His eagerness turned you on like crazy and you could feel that warm fuzzy feeling in your lower belly increase by the second. You quickly brought your hands down to your pants to unzip them. As soon as they were open, he took it upon himself to pull them down for you, pulling your underwear along.

The clothes were quickly kicked somewhere to the back of the room, after which Seungyoun sat back down on the couch. "Wait, won't you undress?" you sputtered, since you were now completely in the nude while he still wore all his clothes from the concert. "Not yet," he replied with a grin. His arms snaked around your waist, swiftly pulling you back on his lap like before.

As he pulled you on his lap, he spread his legs a little to make sure you sat on just one of his thighs. The leather of his pants felt cold against your skin, especially on your sensitive area. Both of his hands were brought to your hips and he pulled you a bit closer towards him so he could kiss you again. But he didn't stop there.

Soon you felt how he began to guide your hips back and forth on his thigh and you immediately realized what he was doing. He had worn his leather pants to the concert, because he knew how much you liked them, and now he was making you grind your naked body on them.

His pretty lips were still connected to yours while his hands continued to guide you back and forth, making you let out little moans in between your kisses. It felt so wrong, yet so good to hump his thigh like this, dirtying the leather in the process. It might have been the alcohol, but soon you began to lose yourself completely in the feeling.

The corners of Seungyoun's mouth curled into a cheeky little grin when he realized you no longer needed his guidance to ride his thigh. Now that his hands were free, he removed them from your hips. He rested one of them on your waist while he brought his other hand to the back of your head, digging his fingers into your hair. His grip on your hair tightened and he pulled your head to the side, exposing your neck. "Seungyoun-" you murmured under your breath, your voice shaky.

His hair tickled against your cheek when he brought his lips to your neck and began to kiss and suck on your skin. You were so taken aback by this sudden feeling that you didn't even realize you had stopped grinding yourself on him. Of course he didn't like this, so he lowered his hand from your waist down to your ass and roughly helped you on your way again.

The smell of his cologne, the friction against your sweet spot and the stinging sensation from his hickeys all made your head spin. Seungyoun held you a little more tightly as he began to suck on your skin even more roughly. You could tell by the burning feeling on your neck that this mark would remain there for at least a week.

When he pulled away, you could still feel the sting on your neck. He looked into your eyes with a sweet, yet somewhat mischievous smile on his face. "Y/n?... Would you please suck me off?" You could tell from the tone of his voice how horny he was. Until now you hadn't payed much attention to his crotch, but when you looked down, you could see a huge bulge through his leather pants. Besides that, you also noticed a stain on his thigh from where you had been riding him.

You let out a little gasp and looked back up at him with a grin on your face. "Of course," you said with a sweet voice and you pressed yourself against him while sliding your hand into his pants. He let out an excited little gasp when you found the tip of his dick with your fingers and stroked it playfully. He wrapped his arms around you to pull you into another kiss and slid his hands down to grab your ass tightly.

After a little while of making out and teasing his cock, you disconnected your lips from his and removed your hand from his pants. Just when he began to pout at you, you got on your knees in front of him and hastily began to undo his belt. While you were working to take off his pants, he pulled his shirt over his head. Soon all of his clothes had been removed and tossed aside and the only thing he still wore was the choker around his neck.

You took a moment to admire him, looking up at his beautiful body and stroking your fingers along his sides. His dick brushed against your cheek when you pressed a kiss on the gun tattoo on his belly. Then you trailed a few more kisses towards the base of his cock. Once you were there, you licked your way up from the base towards the tip, earning a deep grunt from him. He gently stroked your cheek at first, but once you took his tip into your mouth, he moved his hand to the back of your head and held on to your hair a little less gently.

Perhaps it was the whiskey, but you had the feeling that Seungyoun didn't have as much self control today. Usually he would let you suck him off however you wanted, but this time it's like he didn't have enough patience and he began to thrust himself into your mouth. At first he was still gentle with you, but he began to lose himself more and more in the sensation.

His grip on your hair tightened as he moved your head in accordance with his hips. Tears ran down your cheeks as he began to hit the back of your throat again and again, but dear lord, you had never been this turned on in your entire life. There was something about how Seungyoun pleasured himself with you that made your lower stomach feel hot and fuzzy and you began to long for his dick to fill another hole of yours.

Suddenly he pulled himself completely out of you, leaving your mouth empty and longing. He crouched down in front of you, his eyes leveling with yours and he gave you an almost feral look. "Get on the couch." His voice sounded husky and wild. Your drunken thoughts clouded your mind and it took you a while to process what he was asking from you. Apparently you took too long, because suddenly you felt his hand on the back of your neck and his lips connected with yours again. Seungyoun was too impatient to wait for you to follow his orders at this point, so he decided that he might as well fuck you on the floor.

He guided you to lay on your back and quickly got on top of you. He continued to kiss you while his hand traveled from the back of your neck to your throat. You squirmed and moaned against his lips when you felt how his fingers tightened around your neck. At the same time the tip of his dick already poked at your entrance, driving you even more crazy.

Once again your head was spinning in ultimate bliss. You wanted him just as badly as he wanted you and to make this known to him, you bucked your hips up, hoping that somehow he might slip into you. However, he pulled himself away just enough so you couldn't reach his dick and he chuckled against your lips when you whined at him.

You bucked your hips up at him again, this time more forcefully, but still he made sure to stay just out of your reach. Just when you were about to give it yet another try, Seungyoun pulled his lips away from yours and tightened his grip around your neck a little more. "Are you really that needy?" he asked with an evil little smirk and you nodded heavily in response. "Alright then," he said, now with a more gentle tone. He let go of your neck and gave you a little kiss on the lips, after which he pressed his forehead against yours.

His eyes were closed as he took his length into his hand to aim it at your entrance more properly. Considering how wildly you had been making out, the way he inserted himself into you was very gentle. His uncontrolled neediness now made room for his more tender and caring side. You both held your breath while he began to enter you, but once he got a little deeper, neither of you could resist a little moan.

"Are you doing okay?" he asked. You nodded and gave him a reassuring smile. He pressed a quick kiss on your lips and then pulled away to look at you again. "Can I be a little rough with you today?" His eyes had an excited little twinkle in them. God, if it were up to you, this man could be rough with you any day. "Only if I can be rough with you as well," you replied.

He flashed a big smile and pressed another quick kiss on your lips. Then he brought his mouth to your neck. A shiver ran down your spine when you felt his breath on your skin and you squirmed beneath him, now even more turned on than before. Seungyoun began to kiss your neck once again while you desperately tried to move your hips to feel the friction of him inside you. But he didn't give in at all. He made sure to keep his own pelvis very still and pushed his weight down on you so you wouldn't move too much either.

Just when you wondered why he even asked if he could be rough with you, you suddenly felt his teeth sink down into your neck. At the same time, he pulled his cock almost completely out of you, only to push himself back inside at a provokingly slow pace. He continued to move his hips very very slowly like that, which ultimately made the sensation more intense. When he was inside, you felt full and warm and like the two of you became one. But when only his tip was inside, you felt an intense, aching urge to somehow make him fill you back up again.

Luckily for you, he was just as needy as you and this quickly caused his thrusts to become more intense. His teeth clenched more tightly onto your neck as he picked up the pace a bit and he let out low, hungry grunts against your skin. You wrapped your arms tightly around him, digging your fingers into his hair. "Fuck..." you moaned under your breath. The way he bit and sucked on your neck left a slight stinging sensation on your skin and it felt amazing.

Since Seungyoun could tell that you really enjoyed it, he became more comfortable as well and slowly stopped holding back. He became completely relaxed and submitted to his urges. The way he bit your neck became more wild, not to mention how he was pumping in and out of you.

What had begun as slow, intimate movements now became a hungry, almost feral kind of drilling. You moaned his name over and over again and pulled him more tightly against you as a fuzzy kind of bliss took hold of your body. You felt lightheaded and lost all awareness of your surroundings, except for Seungyoun. All you could register was how he slammed himself into you, mercilessly hitting your sweet spot over and over again. And how his mouth traveled along your neck, leaving bites and kisses and hickeys all over it. If he kept going like this, you would surely reach your climax very soon. But it would be too soon. You wanted to savor this desperate neediness a little longer.

Before Seungyoun knew what was going on, you had pushed him off of you and thrown him on his back on the floor. "Y/n!" he squealed in surprise. You got on top of him and immediately sank down on his cock, taking his entire length in all at once. This made him let out a loud moan and he squeezed your ass tightly. His cheeks and ears were bright red from surprise and excitement. God, the way he looked at you just made you want to fuck his brains out.

He nervously adjusted the metal choker around his neck a little bit and at the same time you saw his eyes traveling to the large bite mark he left on your neck. It must have looked quite impressive, because the corner of his mouth curled up into a subtle, mischievous smirk. Even his own lips were swollen from the intense work he had done on your neck.

You bent over him and brought your face very close to his. "You must be so proud of how you marked me..." you mumbled in a low voice. You noticed how his Adam's apple moved as he swallowed a little nervously and goosebumps appeared on his neck. "So dirty..." you whispered and then you licked your way up from his chin to his lips, locking him into a passionate kiss.

He shuddered in pleasure, but you didn't give him the chance to savor the moment. You sat up again and placed a hand on his chest to make sure he would stay on his back. He pouted at you, but you just looked down at him with a large grin on your face. "Stay put now," you cooed while sliding your fingertips along his sides. His dick was still inside of you while you sat on top of him like this and it was very obvious that he wanted nothing more than for you to move your hips. Yet he stayed put like you ordered.

You grabbed the bottle of whisky from the coffee table, pulling the cork out with a little pop. Seungyoun watched as you took a swig from the bottle, only to put the bottle away without offering him any. He looked offended and just when he was about to protest, you grabbed him by his choker and roughly pulled him up so he was sitting as well. This already took him by surprise, but then you continued to kiss the whiskey from your mouth into his. A big drop of the substance escaped from between your lips and rolled down Seungyoun's chin.

You cupped his face with your hands and when you pulled away from the kiss, he looked at you with the horniest expression you had ever seen om him. "You're so fucking hot," he mumbled and he licked the spilled whiskey from his lips. He inched his face towards you again to continue kissing you, but you placed your fingers against his lips to stop him.

"What do we say when we want something?" you asked. "Please," he replied with a little pout on his lips. "Almost," you said with a mean little grin. He pouted even more and gave you a desperate look. "Pretty please?" "That's right."

You connected your lips with his again and began to move your hips up and down, instantly turning him into a moaning mess. Both sitting up like this was an intimate position and it was easy for him to reach your sweet spot this way. You felt how one of his hands gripped into your hair, while his other hand held your ass so tightly, you were sure it would leave a bruise. Even though you moved your hips quite quickly on your own, Seungyoun was so needy that his hand guided you to be even more forceful with him.

Both of you moaned loudly against each other's whiskey-stained lips as you fucked on the floor like this. Slowly but surely, you could feel that hot, fuzzy feeling in your lower stomach again as you began to get closer to your climax. You moved one of your hands down from his cheek to the choker around his neck and tugged it to pull him more tightly against you, making him squeal with delight. Then you pulled your lips away from his to trail kisses down to his neck. Once you found the right spot, you bit down on his neck just like he had done to you, making him cry out with pleasure.

You continued to bite and suck on his neck to make sure he would be marked up as well. All while moving your hips up and down in a way that made him reach as deeply into you as possible. With every thrust, he hit your sweet spot, making that knot in your lower stomach worse and worse.

Once it became too much to handle, you removed your mouth from his neck in order to embrace him more tightly, resting your head on his shoulder. This signaled to Seungyoun that you were about to cum and he reassuringly rubbed your back as you fucked your own brains out on his cock. He turned his head a little bit so his lips were right next to your ear. An intense shiver went down your spine when you felt his breath on your skin as he whispered:

"Go on. Cum on my cock for me."

Like some kind of spell, this instantly untied the knot in your stomach. You cried out loudly and dug your nails into his back as a wave of pleasure came crashing down on you. Your body trembled, your heart was beating like crazy and you gasped for air as you hit one of the most intense climaxes of your life.

Seungyoun moaned along with you and held you tightly to support you through your orgasm. But before it had even washed over you completely, you were suddenly on your back again and he was fucking himself into you with deep, harsh thrusts. You cried out even more, desperately clinging on to his neck while you could feel how mercilessly he pounded himself into you.

Within mere seconds you felt completely overstimulated. Blurry stars were dancing before your eyes and all of your thoughts completely lost their coherence. All you could process was the sensation of his length slamming into you again and again, while he moaned out your name under his breath. His fingers dug themselves into your hair and he cried out the most desperate of moans.

His last few thrusts were a bit slower, but reached even deeper. And then, with a loud cry, he plunged himself as deeply into you as humanly possible as he reached his climax. You could feel the intense pulsations of his dick inside you as he filled you with his cum. Everything felt hot. Your face was hot. His skin felt hot against yours. His dick felt hot and so did the cum that now slowly began to leak out of you.

Both completely out of breath, you lay there silently in each other's embrace, with Seungyoun's dick still inside of you. You took a quick glance at the time to see how long you had been going at it - 4:58 am. You had been fucking for over an hour.

The two of you lay on the floor like that for a while, completely exhausted and panting heavily. Seungyoun lay with his head on your chest and played around with your fingers while you used your free hand to stroke his head. Suddenly he lifted his head a little, like he noticed something.

He sat up and grabbed something from the floor, holding it in front of you with a weird grin on his face. "Look what we did!" he exclaimed. In his hand, he held the leather pants that he had been wearing that evening. Apparently they had been lying right next to your butt on the floor this whole time. Now they were stained with your fluids, Seungyoun's cum and whisky.

You pulled a disgusted face and laughed. "Well next time you should undress if you don't want to get dirt on your leather."

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Ad Perpetuam Memoriam

AU: The Donna Trilogy | If I Could Turn Back Time

Note: Farewell, Ten...

Not a ton of actual g/t in this one, as per usual in If I Could Turn Back Time. More of a recontextualization of Ten's regeneration.

~~~

Burning.

Everything inside, burning like the sun.

It was all the Doctor could do to contain it all. He'd held it in for as long as he could. Now it was coming for him. To take him away, and replace him with some new man.

He'd done his best to make the most of his remaining time. That was his reward, after all. Getting to say goodbye.

And he had, in his way. Seeing faces that had been all together not so long ago, now scattered across time and space. Doing good and living their own lives.

For most of them, he hadn't said a word. Not because there was nothing to say, but he was never one for a proper goodbye. In his mind, this was better. Saving Martha and Mickey. Introducing Jack to another familiar face. Even protecting young Luke from harm and being able to wave goodbye to his dear Sarah Jane one last time. 

It got more complicated as he held a copy of A Journal of Impossible Things and stood in line to meet and have it signed by the author.

Verity Newman. The great-granddaughter of Joan Redfern, the woman whose heart he inadvertently broke when she fell in love with his human persona back in 1913.

Whether he meant to or not, the Doctor had hurt Joan in one of the most painful ways possible. In John Smith, she had found a love deep and profound, and had no way of knowing that his life was not only false, but fleeting by design. The Doctor was a living reminder of that fact. 

That's why he couldn't bring himself to visit her directly, even though it would have been easy enough to do in the TARDIS. He had no doubt that seeing him again would do more harm than good. At best she would turn him away, as she had done so long ago, before he could get one word in.

No apology in the universe could satisfy that hurt.

What was almost worse was that, as he waited his turn to speak with Verity and have her sign a copy of the novelisation of Joan’s journal, she wasn't the only person on his mind.

Ever since he started his farewell tour, he had at least a vague plan for how to visit everyone he wanted to see. For Joan, this was the best he could do. It wouldn't make amends, but would at least acknowledge what he did wrong. After this signing, he had an idea for an indirect goodbye for the Nobles. And though he couldn't cross universes to see Rose one last time, he still had opportunities to at least glimpse her in the past.

And there was still one person he was incapable of seeing again.

He did his best to push that thought out of his mind. The man in front of him was walking away, and it was his turn to see Verity. She and Joan deserved better than absentmindedness in that moment.

~~~

The wedding was beautiful. Well, what little the Doctor saw of it from the outside, in the aftermath of the actual ceremony. Donna and Shaun were glowing, showered with flower petals in the pleasant spring breeze. 

When the Doctor managed to catch Sylvia Noble and Wilfred Mott's attention, he was sure to keep the conversation with them short, yet meaningful. He simply gave them the gift he'd brought, and explained how he was able to come by it. 

A small token from Sylvia's late husband to give to his daughter on her wedding day. 

He stuck around long enough to see it given to Donna. She had no clue about the weight it carried, but her mother and grandfather could silently appreciate it. After everything he and Wilfred had gone through that Christmas, saying goodbye to him and Sylvia felt just as important as saying it to Donna. Even if he couldn't say so directly to her without risking her safety.

Wilfred had been a rock for the Doctor in the time leading up to the end. Out of anyone on the planet, he was the one who managed to hunt the Doctor down fairly quickly, and right when he needed someone. 

At first it was just good to have someone to talk to again. Traveling alone was starting to take its toll. With the foreboding feeling of his death hanging overhead, he'd had nobody to open up to about it, nobody who might even begin to understand what that meant for him.

“I'm going to die.” Four small words that had felt like a cold anvil resting on his hearts.

He knew Wilf was well-meaning when he brought the Doctor to a cafe close to where he knew Donna would be. Hearing about her life without him was bittersweet. She'd gone back to living as an ordinary human, struggling as the rest of them did. Engaged to a friendly-looking man, sharing that ordinary life with him. And yet something within her was aware that she’d lost something, and yearned for it without knowing what or why.

Still, it meant the world to the Doctor to see her again.

Then Wilf had to go and ask him. “Who have you got now?”

“No one,” the Doctor had to answer.

“What about…” Wilf had trailed off when he glanced to the Doctor's shoulders, the breast pocket of his jacket, and found them both empty. Looking him in the eyes once more, that emptiness was present there, too. Wilf's heart sank. “Did something happen to the little ‘un?”

The Doctor's jaw clenched at the reminder. Memories crashed over him like a wave before he could do a thing to push them down. A horrible man pointing his device toward the only friend he had left to travel with since Donna had to go. Calling Zepheera's name just as the device fired, a shot of blue light engulfing the inches-tall woman and leaving nothing behind.

It hadn't killed her, but to the Doctor it might as well have. It had displaced her in time and space, and he had not a single lead as to where or when she ended up. 

If she were human, hunting her down would have been difficult but potentially doable. Like finding a needle in a haystack. But she was a borrower; not only small in stature, but hard-wired to survive by remaining hidden and not making waves. It turned the search into finding one particular mote of dust in a haystack the size of a skyscraper on an empty and uncharted asteroid floating in the Void.

“Lost,” the Doctor finally managed to tell Wilfred. “For good.”

Wilf's face fell. “Oh, I…”

“Traveling alone, now,” the Doctor pressed on before Wilf could get out his condolences. Feelings and memories now swirled around him in a maelstrom, and he was struggling to bring them to order. But maybe they needed to come out.

Right then, there was nobody he trusted more with his vulnerability than Wilfred Mott.

“I thought it would be better alone.” At this, he broke eye contact. He couldn't hide the shame in his expression, in his voice, as he admitted, “But I did some things that went wrong.”

Mars was still fresh in his mind. The water creatures overtaking Bowie Base One. Knowing full well that the demise of the crew was a fixed point in time, and being unable to resist sticking around and helping them anyway. Only to ultimately decide that he was through standing by any more when he could do something to change it.

Because who in the universe could stop him if he tried?

He learned the answer to that when he brought the few surviving members of the crew back to Earth. As he reflected on his attitude back then, the way he spoke to them and especially Adelaide…talking her up as an important figure that he'd managed to save from her established fate while waving off basically everyone else as little people. It made his insides clench in hindsight.

Donna would have given him a smack for that kind of talk, if he was lucky. And Zepheera… If she'd heard that, she'd probably never speak to the Doctor again.

And in the end, it hadn't ‘fixed’ anything at all. Adelaide still died, and her legacy remained largely unchanged. The Doctor hadn't accomplished a single thing in his act of arrogant defiance.

He thought that traveling alone would mean that he couldn't lose anyone else. Instead, he realized then that it just meant the only person he had left to lose was himself.

“I need–!”

At that point, the Doctor cut himself short and buried his face in his hands. He could feel the floodgates weakening, and finally made an effort to rein himself in. Wilfred wasn't asking for him to dump all those emotions on him at once, and breaking down in the middle of a cafe did no one any good.

Not him. Not Donna. Certainly not Zepheera.

Though they split off shortly after that, having Wilfred around for the journey to come had been a balm. The Doctor had someone to talk to, someone with ideas that weren't his own. More than that, he cared for the Doctor and had his best interests at heart when the Time Lord could only focus on the daunting tasks at hand.

He was almost surprised when Wilfred's response to learning that the Doctor was over 900 years old was to reflect on humanity in comparison and remark, “We must look like insects to you.”

Oh, no. The Doctor could never look at them that way. Least of all after he'd experienced traveling with someone like Zepheera.

A large part of his travels were taken in through the eyes of his companions. They were the ones with fresh perspectives on things the Doctor took for granted. On occasion, his human friends could help him realize the enormity of his decisions and actions. With Zepheera, it was a daily reminder of that. She found the strength and bravery to face a universe greater and wider than even humans could perceive it. 

The Doctor had even managed to find a way to literally see things from her point of view, and that was in the forefront of his mind as he regarded Wilfred fondly and replied, “I think you look like giants.”

She would have loved this, thought the Doctor as he looked back on Donna's wedding festivities. Seeing Donna so full of joy on the happiest day of her life… It was a sight the Doctor wanted to remember for the rest of time. He only wished Zepheera could have been there to see it, too.

And wherever and whenever Zepheera was, he wished for the same thing he had for Joan Redfern. That she was happy in whatever life she'd made for herself.

The Doctor's work was done here. He could feel himself running out of time, and he still had one more stop to make. But he was so reluctant to leave this place. Especially considering what came next.

~~~

There was no stopping it. The Doctor knew that painfully well.

Already the regeneration energy had begun to flow from his hands, even as he piloted his ship into orbit. He barely paid attention to the time he set it to, simply determined to not start whatever new life that waited for him in 2005. He couldn't risk changing anything that happened with Rose before it even began.

It wasn't fair.

That thought turned over and over in his mind. This face, this life, was still so fresh. He'd only had it a handful of years, and to have it so quickly snuffed out… Sure, he'd done quite a lot in that time, but it still felt all too fleeting. Barely a blip in his 900 years.

He could still hear himself shouting to absolutely nothing and no one, “I could do so much more! So! Much! More!” That feeling was still there, but the anger had largely settled. Now it just made him sad, seeing the end so rapidly encroaching on him.

The worst part was that he was well and truly alone for it. Rose had been there when he'd changed last, hers was the first face he saw with fresh eyes. Even when he'd sort of regenerated with the metacrisis, he'd had Rose, Donna, and even Jack there with him.

Now the TARDIS, the one place that felt like home, was so terribly cold and empty.

The Doctor could feel the heat rising, spreading from his core. Soon it would take over every cell in his body, rewrite everything that made him himself.

He wasn't ready. None of this was right.

“I don't wanna go,” he uttered, sounding so small and helpless even to himself.

No one was there to hear it. He felt no comfort or warmth in his final moment. Only the burning of a sun as his vision turned gold.

[jbbartram-illu]

Hey hi hello!

I’m a big fan of your work, I bought a small raven witch from you, which I love and cherish, and I was wondering if I could ask you what kind of tools you’re using for your sgraffito?

I’m getting back into ceramics myself, and I just got a little jackalope cup back from the kiln, where I tried to sgraffito détails in my slip, but the cobalt was meltier than I anticipated and it covered most of them. I think I need to work on my application, but also that a thicker line might help, and I was wondering what you were using?

You can check my stuffs at @unnamedartist-portfolio if you want, and if you have any advice, I would be so honored to hear them!

Hope you have a fantastic day! :)

Hello @iam-adreamwalker! My apologies for taking 500yrs to reply to this - I've only just now found the time to take some better photos of my sgraffito gear.

These are basically all of my sgraffito tools, but you definitely don't need this many (I just have a pottery-tool-buying PROBLEM). My core tools are the ones to the left - the two pointy sticks & the two carve-y guys. Both of the wire loop tools are by Kemper, and I'm not 100% sure the brands of the sticks. The colourful set is from Xiem and is nice if you're doing a ton of sgraffito work, because it offers so many options for carving! I especially like the round-loop tools for carving feathers.

Here are some close-ups of my main tool gang:

I especially like the darker-brown stick tool because its point is slightly rounded, making it easier to scrape the slip off the surface of the clay vs. just making a deeper line that won't be as dramatic (more on technique later!).

Speaking of rounded-tip tools, I just realized I forgot my other favourite, a core tool that could replace the lighter-wood pointy stick in my Most Important Sgraffito Tools ranking - the ball-ended, double-sided stylus! This thing is a tiny powerhouse and, like the more rounded point on the dark-wood stick, it gently draws the slip off the clay rather than gouging:

Next up, slip! I'm not sure what you were using as your colour layer, because you mentioned that it ran/moved on the surface of the clay, which my stained slip doesn't do. Did you mix glaze into the slip? Or were you working with a powered pigment?

When I'm making coloured slip, I use a powdered pigment called Mason Stain, which can be used to dye slip, clay, and clear glaze bases (eg. to make translucent celadon glazes). I use a couple different brands, but it's all called Mason Stain.

If you're a sensible person you can find proper recipes for mixing the slip and the stain, but I honestly go by how it looks - I add it to the slip a few spoonfuls at a time, mix, and see how pigmented the slip looks. If you want to really make sure the pigment is well-mixed you can get a stick blender from a thrift store or attach a mixing head onto an electric drill (something I'd like to upgrade to as the stick blender is SUPER messy & hard to clean out), but I mostly just mix it really well with a stir stick.

Once it's mixed, I keep my slips in these little self-sealing glass containers from IKEA, which stop it from drying out too fast (I tried keeping slip in regular jars & it turned into a rock...you definitely need a container with a rubber seal on it!). You'll still need to add water here & there, but it can sit for weeks without too much concern.

My slip is a little thick & gloopy, so I usually brush two layers of slip onto the leather-hard sculpture, letting each dry before I put on the next coat, and I let it dry until it's no longer at all tacky before I start carving (otherwise things WILL smudge and it WILL be terribly messy.

Finally, technique! I did take a look at your blog & the sgraffito project you mentioned & one thing I noticed was that your scratch marks were very deep and didn't reveal much clay under the scratched-away slip. This is an easy thing to have happen, especially if your slip/clay/both are still too wet or you're putting too much pressure on the carving tool.

My best tips for remedying this are:

Make sure the slip isn't at all tacky to the touch & that the clay underneath is leather hard.

Go very gently at first! It doesn't take much to scratch the slip away and you can always come back and take away more slip/make your carving area deeper if you want to, but you can't put the clay back!

Use the carving tools at an angle to the clay (somewhere around 45º ish, this is not a hard science), not perpendicular to it - this will stop you from stabbing straight down instead of scraping. If you've ever done linocut prints, think of the angle you hold the linocut tool at - sgraffito is generally a pulling-towards motion vs. a pushing away one for lino, but the angle is important either way!

Having even just a small variety of tools (eg. my core 4-5 as shown above) will also help, as you'll have options for line-weight/how much slip a tool takes off.

Phew! I sort of got carried away there, but I hope this was helpful?? If you have any more questions (or if anyone else does), please don't hesitate to ask! I'm still planning on making a proper sgraffito tutorial/series of tutorials, but need to find the time for all the filming/editing that requires.

[lizard-shifter-noms]

Still Subject to Change Chapter 14 (NEW)

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Hello everyone! i decided to repost arc 1 of SSTC

(the chapters were way too long and had a bunch of typos but hopefully this will make reading easier)

this Story contains Vore, Dont like dont read.

if there are still any grammatical errors i’m sorry.

——————————————————————————

Walking back out into the snow wasn't pleasant, the wind kept blowing little ice fragments in my eyes and it was hard to see anything at all, making me stumble over some rocks that were strewn in between the greenery.

This had grown into a proper snowstorm while I was in the cave making finding Rikaad even more urgent.

The worst thing was that i could not use my eyesight to find anything and the snow actually stung my skin making me wish that i had the thick fur coat of the Ardua form right now.

But the bracelet was still jammed and in a storm like this it was impossible to even try to fix it.

So I had to suck it up for now and just continue onwards.

Since the storm only had brought more snow it was absolutely impossible and I hoped that Rikaad hadn't already frozen to death.

I wasn't exactly sure how long a human could last in a storm like this with no shelter, so I did something I hadn't done since my mother died.

I decided to pray, while the God Amesimos had NEVER done me any favors I decided that this wasn't for me, It was to find Rikaad alive.

Chanting over and over in my head, ‘please be alive please be alive’ While I trudged through the icy environment.

At some point I stopped dead in my tracks, I was very sure I had heard a noise coming from behind one of those Rocks that were scattered about.

I Hoped that I had found Rikaad and not some random animal, so I went slowly around the boulder to the side that was more shielded from the wind only to find some footprints leading away from me around the rock.

He was avoiding me by going around the stone and keeping out of my sight, He really was a smart man and while I could just jump over the boulder to grab him I was sure that if I actually tried that I'd have my fingers sliced off for good this time.

So around the rock it was then.

Circling it and following the footsteps only brought me back to my starting point, Rikaad always somehow a few steps ahead.

Well my footsteps were a lot louder than his on the crunchy snow so he did have an advantage, and I was honestly surprised he had not started huddling in the sheltered area for warmth.

But I knew that nobody would ever see him like that, He was a prideful individual.

And a frozen one if I didn't get him soon, so instead of lunging over the boulder I climbed on top of it only to see a Human silhouette dart away from it across the snowy ground.

Jumping down from the boulder with a loud boom I immediately went after him, if i lost sight of him now i probably wouldn't be able to find him again.

Bolting across the ground I tried my best to follow him even if there were a ton of obstacles in the way as Rikaad apparently insisted on taking the most cluttered route he could.

“RIKAAD WAIT! YOU'RE GOING TO FREEZE!”

I received no response but he actually seemed to run a bit faster now and I had to double my efforts to not lose sight of him.

On the plus side, running like this was probably going to warm him up a bit, and he couldn't run forever either so I was bound to catch up at some point.

If i didn't run full force into a tree first.

There were so many things in the way, including rocks, trees and some shrubbery.

The only lucky thing about this was that none of the plants seemed to have thorns but the branches whipping my face were bad enough already.

At some point while running after the surprisingly fast human I breached into a clearing that had a steep hill in the middle.

Maybe now I would finally have some luck.

Rikaad was trying to run up the steep hill but with his shorter legs and the snow slipping out from under him he wasn't making a lot of progress.

I sprinted as close as I dared to Rikaad, trying my best to ignore how the cold winds stung at the various cuts from the tree branches.

I slowed down on the last few meters, I did NOT want to trample the smaller man after I had finally caught up to him.

He still had his back to me but I learned from last time that if I tried to grab him he'd slash at my fingers with his sword.

So instead I tried to get in front of him.

Standing in front of Rikaad I could see that the smaller man still had his sword gripped tightly in his hands.

He did not look good, with pale skin and Blue lips he stood slightly shaking in the snow.

None of that managed to deter his icy Gray gaze though, he was staring at me with a grimm sort of determination raising his sword up a bit higher.

I could literally see ice crystals building on his blade even through the snowstorm that seemed to drone out everything else.

“Rikaad! Come on, let’s go back to camp, the others are waiting, they even managed to get a new fire going!”

I wasn’t sure if he even understood what I said over the roaring of the wind around us but he definitely saw that I did speak as he was looking right at my face.

Unfortunately it looked like he had not heard anything of what i said as he gripped his sword even tighter if that was even possible and charged straight at me, his icy eyes burning with something i couldn’t name.

I jumped backwards a bit trying to keep out of reach of the blade, I was not keen on having my Achilles tendon cut.

I had no doubt that was what he was aiming for, he wasn’t dumb, he’d knew that if he sliced that it would be over for me and by the way he moved that was exactly what he had planned.

“RIKAAD! THE OTHERS ARE OKAY! I SET THEM DOWN IN A CAVE THEY’RE SAFE!”

He continued his onslaught with no regard for how cold it was, he either didn’t hear me or didn’t want to hear me.

In either case he had to stop, he was destroying himself like this.

Looking back into his face I finally recognized the look in his unnerving eyes, Bloodlust.

He would not stop until either he was dead or he had managed to kill me.

I needed a plan, and that fast.

I had longer legs than him so I retreated as far as I could without stumbling over my tail, trying to think of something over the loud wind.

Rikaad was a Guardsman, a trained and battle ready person.

I was a Giant that didn’t want to injure him and I knew if he fell down in this weather he’d be dead.

He was an insanely stubborn man so he would only go down if his heart stopped beating.

I NEEDED to get him somewhere warm as fast as possible or he would die.

Backing up into a tree I reached around and broke off one of its thicker branches, If anything I could use it to keep the sword away from me.

Rikaad had caught up to me while I was breaking the wood and managed to stab the side of my foot, scarcely missing my heel.

“AAUGH”

I yanked it back from him even if my first reflex was to kick whatever the hell hurt me and ended up spraying snow everywhere.

Maybe that was an idea? If i could back up far enough again i could just dump some snow over him, that was bound to stop him for a few seconds right?

Running a bit away from him again I dropped the branch in his way to slow him down, this guy was really mad right now and I wasn’t keen to be on the wrong side of that wrath more than I already was.

Coming to a halt between two old trees I shoveled a fair bit of snow into my hands and waited for Rikaad to catch up.

He was running full speed at me, which was impressively fast and I had to time it right so as not to miss him.

If I missed he would cut my achilles tendon and kill me.

I realized that I had never been more terrified in my life, The Guards in Kamerasca were mostly just loud talking idiots.

This was one very angry and determined person that purely intended to kill me, and I did not doubt a second that he could.

He could and he would if I didn’t stop him.

As he got closer I held the snow ready and dropped it just as he was about to charge me,

the frozen flakes cascading down on top of him, burying him up to his waist in the cold substance and stopping his mad march forward.

I didn’t have much time to restrain him as he was already digging himself out of the snow so I lunged at him.

plucking the sword from his death grip on it which was surprisingly firm and yanked him out of the frozen heap, secured in a fist.

He was wriggling and writhing in my grip trying to get out and even ended up biting me, and it wasn’t just an annoying sting like when Robin had bit me either.

It was like a wolf had sunk its fangs into me and I was sure if he didn’t let go soon he’d take an entire chunk of flesh out of the side of my already hurt pointer finger.

“Rikaad! Dammit calm down! I’m not going to hurt you! Everything is alright! The others are safe! I’m going to get you back to Kamerasca and then you will never have to see me again okay?!”

The grip of his teeth loosened slightly before he let go fully to stare at me.

The Bloodlust I had seen before had partly vanished, but not by much and he moved his blood stained mouth.

He was saying something but over the Roar of the wind I couldn’t hear him.

“What? I can’t hear you, can you say it louder?”

He just stared at me, still holding that icy gaze that reminded me of a corpse’s lifeless stare, it was clear that he would not repeat himself.

And I was not putting him near my ears and asking him to restate again, he’d manage to rip my ear off with his bare hands or something.

Since I couldn’t hear him and he probably couldn’t hear me with the wind it was best to just move on with this.

I really hoped that he wouldn’t somehow manage to kick my teeth out, But with how cold he was and now that the adrenaline had run out a bit I doubted he could do something like that.

Since stalling was now only making him even colder than he already was, I shoved him headfirst into my mouth, being mindful of my fangs, and swallowed as soon as I was able to.

It was like I had stuck a frozen piece of metal in my mouth and I was really surprised that he had managed to not succumb to the cold beforehand.

He was dragging horribly in my throat after the first swallow so I gulped again, sending the angrily writhing form deeper down into the warmth of my guts.

—————————————————————————————————

He tried to writhe again, but his trapped body wouldn’t allow him to.

Some small treacherous part of him was grateful for the warmth rolling over him in waves, as it chased away the chill in his limbs, but he was, as a whole, horrified.

The Giant was eating him!

He was suddenly lurched forwards, horribly squished into Donovan’s throat.

He seemed to drag just the slightest bit and used every opportunity to try and resist the wave-like motion of the muscles that intended to send him to his death.

Flexible flesh shifted to accommodate him, another sickening squeeze and he was deposited into the Giants stomach.

Rikaad could hear the Bastard’s body working rhythmically around him, from the loudly beating heart to the disconcerting gurgles beneath him.

And there was nothing in here aside from himself.

Nothing at all.

No Arthur and no Robin.

No trace that either of his best friends had ever been here.

He scrambled into an upright position trying desperately to find ANYTHING, the Giants digestion couldn’t be this fast could it?

He patted at the ‘walls’ and ‘floor’ hoping to be wrong about this.

He prayed that he would find something, to know his friends were not completely gone, but found absolutely nothing.

Like they had never existed.

Rikaad started panicking, thinking that he had lost his best friends to such an unfathomable fate, one he would share soon.

Hearing Donovan speak he decided to ignore it;

it was probably just mockery anyway.

And he had no desire to converse with the Beast that had betrayed them in the most horrible manner he could ever think of.

Gritting his teeth he squirmed into a sort of sitting position.

Fumbling around to pull his pant leg up he reached for the dagger he had hidden there and pulled it out of its sheath, ready to strike the nearest sickeningly shifting wall.

Plunging the blade into the fleshy and rippling wall in front of him he heard a loud shout of pain that ringed in his ears and everything got suddenly a lot tighter in the fleshy bag he was trapped in.

He heard speaking from above him but once again ignored it, if the Beast wanted to plead it was too late now.

If he was to go out like this he would cause as much pain as possible to his devourer.

Raising his dagger once again he tried to pay no mind to the blood running over his fingers along with whatever else fluids were in here.

He hoped none of the blood was his, but in the darkness he couldn’t really tell.

He struck the fleshy wall again and an even louder shout shook his entire surroundings.

If he wasn’t panicking as much he might have made out a ‘Please stop’ from his captor.

The walls suddenly caved in on him even more and he could not move, The blade still stuck where he had struck the Stomach wall.

Not being able to properly use the knife anymore he instead tried to kick as hard as he could while trying to spread his elbows to gain some room.

——————————————————————————-——————

After Rikaad landed in my pouch I immediately went to check in on him.

“Rikaad? Are you okay? Not freezing to death anymore?”

I got no verbal response but I could feel a lot of shifting.

He was probably okay for now and trying to get into an upright position.

After a few seconds of stillness from him I started walking back to where Arthur and Robin were.

I was Lucky and actually knew the way back as The small man in my gut had taken me on quite the wild chase around the snowy forest.

But after only a few steps there was a sudden white hot sensation in my pouch.

The pain i experienced was unlike any other i had ever felt before, It was a sharp stinging pain and i doubled over in a desperate attempt to make it stop

“Rikaad what are you doing? Stop!”

I had taken his sword away so where did he get another blade?

The only reaction I got from telling him to stop was another painful stab, A searing hot piercing sensation that hurt like hell.

“PLEASE STOP! RIKAAD I’M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU SO PLEASE STOP!”

I received no answer but I could tell that he planned to stab me again.

So far I had gotten lucky and he only damaged the front wall where there were no other organs, but if he managed to hit something else like my lungs I would be done for.

So I did the only thing I could think of, inhale as much as possible and lean forward while squishing my hands into my abdomen.

It had worked when Robin freaked out so maybe I could at least stop him from stabbing me again.

I could literally feel the blade he used to slash at my insides as I squished him in place.

He kicked at the front wall in retaliation and it hurt, he had missed the gashes he’d cut a few moments prior but it was still painful.

Stumbling back towards the cave where the others had set up our stuff was proving to be an awful task with an angry person in my pouch.

“Rikaad please stop you’re not going to die everything is okay just please stop stabbing me!”

There was an elbow painfully jabbing at the sides of my pouch and I was glad that it once again missed the bleeding wounds that were made previously.

“Eating me wasn’t enough? Now you want to mock me too?!”

He was still angry and I wondered what else I could say to make him finally believe me.

“Rikaad i promise you’re fine! Nothing is going to happen to you, you’re fine I swear!”

Maybe promising twice in a row would make him believe me? I was Fae after all, at least half anyway.

“FINE?! YOU ATE ME AND YOU’RE TELLING ME I’M FINE?! DO YOU EVEN HEAR YOURSELF RIGHT NOW?! LET ME OUT!”

Rikaad hollered, delivering another mean kick to the front wall that almost made me stumble to my knees.

If I fell down now I wouldn’t be able to get up again so I tried to power through it and staggered past the snowy trees towards where Robin and Arthur were waiting.

Trying to walk while being bent over to stop Rikaad from stabbing me again was horrible as his weight actually rested ON the wounds he had caused, resulting in a hot throbbing ache that spread over the entire pouch.

How far was the cave again? With Rikaad kicking every chance he got it was hard to orient myself and find the way back.

Having to hunch over also made it really stupid to see in front of me, I even managed to almost walk into the cliff wall in front of me.

At least all I had to do now was follow the side of it till I found the cave again.

There were even more kicks and jabs from Rikaad and at this point I knew that he would not listen to me no matter what I said so I tried my best to ignore the pain.

It did not work, and at this point I had gotten really nauseous and was struggling not to throw up.

If I threw him up out here in the snow he’d freeze immediately or simply die from temperature shock.

I was also pretty sure that if I did throw him up I would absolutely rupture my insides and bleed to death.

So getting him out was currently not an option, i didn’t know what exactly i would do when i managed to get into the cave but to get to that point i had to find the damn thing first.

Dragging a hand that was sweaty from pain along the jagged side of the cliff I tried to feel for the entrance of the cave.

At this point i wasn’t sure if i was capable of speech anymore, just wheezing in pain and hoping that Rikaad would finally stop his painful onslaught on my guts.

As my hand suddenly grasped nothing on the cliffside I was half leaning on I almost fell over, prompting even more kicking from Rikaad who was still silently continuing his onslaught on my guts.

Or maybe I just couldn’t hear him over the storm AND the rushing in my ears from the pain.

Being as careful as I could I climbed through the narrow part of the cave’s mouth before walking the bend to the larger part.

I was still wheezing and sweating when I rounded the corner and saw both Arthur and Robin sitting next to the fire they had built.

I stumbled forward and their eyes snapped to me as I let out another painful wheeze.

Both of them shot up from their sitting positions as I managed to get a few steps closer before my legs buckled underneath me and I fell onto my knees in front of them.

“DONOVAN! Are you okay? What happened?? Where’s Rikaad?”

Robin was rushing forward to get to me but was held back by concerned looking Arthur who had grabbed his Scruff to prevent him from getting too close.

And that not a moment too soon as I keeled over again this time to lay curled on my side still squishing my pouch to stop Rikaad from getting a hold of the blade again.

A pained groan left me and Robin managed to wrangle out of Arthur’s grasp, running directly for my face and stopping barely a meter in front of my eyes making him appear blurry.

Or maybe it was the pain that blurred everything in front of me, At this point I really couldn’t tell.

“Donovan what happened? How can I help?”

It was admirable that he immediately offered help even if he didn’t know what was going on so I did my best to tell what happened but only a painful wheezing half whisper left me.

“He’s hurting me! Get him to stop!”

At my words Robin immediately darted away from my face towards where my pouch was located and got really close to the sore flesh.

“Rikaad stop! Whatever you are doing is hurting him!”

He actually stopped and I could practically feel his surprise and confusion radiate through me.

He really did believe that they had died, that I had killed them.

Well add that to my already miserable time right now.

“Robin?”

The voice that answered back was clearly Rikaads, he was good at masking his terror that he had no doubt felt just a few seconds prior,

But it was still slightly shaky even if it was barely noticeable.

“Yeah i'm -”

“Rikaad! You idiot! what the fuck are you doing!?”

Robin was shoved to the side by Arthur who went off babbling at Rikaad and asking what the hell he had done to get me to look like death.

I barely registered any of it, white spots were dancing around my vision but at least Rikaad had stopped hitting me.

Now maybe i could relax my bruised pouch a little.

Slowly loosening the muscles holding the confused man in place he slid a bit and accidentally bumped into one of the bleeding cuts making me hiss out in pain.

And Robin looked at me with big brown eyes, eyebrows up in an expression of worry and something else.

It was not pity, it was a look of empathy, not something I had received before.

He slowly went over to where Arthur was talking to Rikaad, even if I still couldn’t make out what they were saying as the rushing sensation in my ears only got louder the more Rikaad moved.

Robin stood in front of the flesh that covered my pouch and slowly held a hand out, ghosting the slightest bit of contact over it before lightly pressing in and Pain bled throughout my entire Chest leaving me mute at the awful feeling.

It hurt like someone had shot an actual metal cannonball through me.

And the white spots in my vision only grew larger and larger until I couldn’t see anything else.

After about a second of an achingly hot pain that made everything else feel like it wasn’t there anymore the white disappeared, leaving only Darkness as my brain decided to not put up with this any longer.

PREVIOUS / NEXT / OVERSIGHT

[fantastickkay]

Album Review of the Week: Elvis Presley - Viva Las Vegas (1964)

As Beatlemania began its meteoric ascent to the top of the charts, Elvis continued his now humdrum routine of churning out 2-3 movies per year. However, Viva Las Vegas is one of his best films! It also costars Ann-Margret who has recently begun burning up the movie scene, her breakout role in Bye Bye Birdie being just a year earlier. Their chemistry was palpable, but I am not really here to review movies - at least not yet!

I have the CD reissue, which may be a bit different than the original tracklist. Here, we start with the titular - iconic - tune, Viva Las Vegas. It has a fast, rotating, bossa nova beat to get your shoulders shaking and the lyrics invoke the very feeling of walking the Vegas strip! If you see it once, you'll never be the same again. And how! My mom literally goes there 4 times a year, I go about every other year with her. I especially love his vocal delivery here and there when he gives a little growl to add some sass. Very well done track, especially among the quality he was given at the time!

Next, we have a cover of What'd I Say. This is a fantastic dance track as well, the scene in the movie is a lot of fun! His vocals are not quite as strong here, but a fun cover nonetheless.

If You Think I Don't Need You is a song that is often playing in my head. I love the fast vocal delivery, the melody is tons of fun and it gets you bopping which is always a good time.

I Need Somebody To Lean On is our first ballad, it's movie scene has some amazing colorful lighting to set the melancholy mood. Elvis does a fantastic job delivering the emotion. He sings it soft and morose and simply sounds really great.

We're back on the dance floor with C'mon Everybody! We have a call and response, instruction kind of song as the verses give a Simon Says vibe. I love the lyric "Well, there ain't nothing wrong with the long-haired music /Like Brahms, Beethoven, and Bach /Well, I was raised with a guitar in my hand /And I was born to rock". A surprisingly biographical tune as his movie character is a waiter by day and race car driver by night, not a rock star as he is in real life!

Today, Tomorrow and Forever is a snoozy ballad but Elvis' voice is luscious enough to keep you interested! Still, it is not much more than your standard movie track to force the romance along.

Night Life is a saucy number, a darker sexier version of Viva Las Vegas.

Santa Lucia is an Italian (?!) song. I don't remember this being in the film so it feels especially out of place to me. I mean, it is very fun that he got to flex his skills like this for a little one minute diddy! He was probably trying to impress Ann-Margret's character.

Do the Vega seems like a sibling to C'mon Everybody with its instruction-style lyrics, although a much cheesier and children's movie version. I am not as much a fan of this track, it is too juvenile in my opinion.

You're the Boss is our first duet with Ann-Margret. Most of their duets were cut from the original movie and soundtrack and Elvis' manager did not want anyone to get close to overshadowing his star. In fact, the movie contains a solo Ann-Margret tune that I really love and am super disappointed it was kept off of the soundtrack ("My Rival") This is a very sexy number, with its bare percussion and laid back vocals.

The Yellow Rose of Texas / The Eyes of Texas is simply a silly movie number. I used to love this one as a kid, the silliest songs were always my favorite (see: All Together Now by the Beatles). I still enjoy it now, but there isn't a whole lot to say about it since it is clearly a silly movie number.

The 2009 CD edition closes with The Lady Loves Me, another duet with Ann-Margret. Though the lyrics represent a trope that is frowned upon today, it is quite hilarious as it depicts Elvis flirting and Ann-Margret cutting him down at each turn. Both of their vocals are really great here as well, they both do well to portray a conversational tone.

Even with its skips, this is one of the strongest mid-1960s albums from Elvis (which is entirely soundtracks between 1962-1967) with some great vocal performances. It is also rare in that his female co-star has vocals featured, this will not be present again until Nancy Sinatra co-stars with him in Speedway in 1968, I believe.

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

My story needs me  to create massive load bearing trucks (up to 80 metric tonnes) in my story as well as the roads they go on. They do need to go on the main roads across my world, not specifically designed roads in limited areas. I'm not sure what are good truck measurements that I need or anything like that. How many tyres, how large? Whether they are tall, long, or wide. I suppose if they are wide trucks, they are certainly allowed to use two lanes. These trucks need to either have a container of their own or are simply flat and you can place a container onto it. Also what speeds can these trucks go, what if I in fact do need them to be speedy as well?

Addy: While this isn’t my area of expertise, I have a little bit of experience with road capacity and design. I’m most familiar with the United States, so I’m going to use US numbers for road and vehicle capacity. “Main roads” could mean many things, from highways to residential streets. I’m going to assume that this is some sort of freight that needs to be delivered to factories or other industrial centers.. basically, I’m assuming that this vehicle needs to go anywhere a modern-day semi truck needs to be able to go.

When in doubt on this kind of thing, a good place to start is to look up whatever governmental agency regulates your subject of interest. Read through the glossary, look at their website, see what kind of things they focus on and find important. You can also look up a handbook, or combine the agency name with a simple keyword. I have an advantage in knowing what to look for, but it all really starts with the governmental agencies involved.

If this was Earth, the kind of capacity you’re talking about – 80 metric tons / 176,000 lbs / 88 imperial tons – would be handled exclusively by rail, with normal freight vehicles moving cargo to and from the rail depot. In some cases, such as for rock quarries, rail stations are built on-site to eliminate the need for wheeled vehicles. Rail doesn’t offer much mobility, though, so let’s look at some numbers.

(Image is from a 2012 FHWA report on some kind of pilot program in Maine and Vermont, I just lifted it from google)

Semi-trucks (which I’m just going to call trucks) have two main types of axle. You have single axles and tandem axles. You also have tridem axles, but those aren’t as common on large vehicles. A single axle is just an axle with wheels on it. A tandem axle is a grouping of two axles that are closely spaced, around 4 ft/1.2 meters. The weight capacities allowed on these axles varies by the state, and I’m going to use Michigan numbers. More on that below.

Next to consider is the overall weight of the vehicle. Trucks have laden and unladen weights; these are also known as gross vehicle weight (GVW) and curb weight, respectively.  The laden weight/GVW is how much it weighs with cargo, passengers, fuel, and everything else. The unladen/curb weight is how much the vehicle weighs without any loading or containers on it. The laden weight is what safety measures and capacity laws apply to. There are two major reasons that trucks have weight limits. The first is wear on the road. The longevity of a road is basically determined by how many heavy-weight vehicles (so semi-trucks and RVs) drive on it – passenger vehicles don’t really weigh enough to cause an impact. Heavier vehicles, more damage to the road. The second reason is road safety. At speeds of 65 mph/105 kmph, it takes a passenger vehicle ~300 ft/91 meters to come to a stop, assuming a flat road. A semi truck traveling the same speed will take about twice as long to stop. Your proposed vehicle would probably take a bit over twice as long again, for a total stopping distance of roughly 1320 ft/402 meters. This is just a matter of physics. 

You can have it go as fast or as slow as you want, but it’s probably going to have pretty terrible acceleration. You also probably don’t want it to go too fast, since the whole stopping distance thing can get pretty dangerous.

Most states have a maximum gross vehicle weight of 80,000-100,000 lbs, but Michigan is apparently insane, with a maximum GVW of 164,000 lbs. Their calculation method is actually a bit easier for us, as they limit the amount of weight on each axle in a way that lets us add a lot of wheels. So ignore everything I just said, we’re going to use the Michigan method.

Max loads, pulled straight from Michigan law. If you want to look it up yourself, google “MVC 257.722”

 (a) If the axle spacing is 9 feet or more between axles, the maximum axle load shall not exceed 18,000 pounds for vehicles equipped with high pressure pneumatic or balloon tires.

  (b) If the axle spacing is less than 9 feet between 2 axles but more than 3-1/2 feet, the maximum axle load shall not exceed 13,000 pounds for high pressure pneumatic or balloon tires.

  (c) If the axles are spaced less than 3-1/2 feet apart, the maximum axle load shall not exceed 9,000 pounds per axle.

  (d) Subdivisions (a), (b), and (c) shall be known as the normal loading maximum.

Michigan law also allows for a single tandem axle with 16,000 lbs/axle, for a total of 32,000 lbs across the tandem axle. There are other exceptions and allowances, but they don’t apply to our many-axled vehicle. 

Image from Livingston County Road Commission

This is an example of an allowed Michigan truck design. The tractor unit is the part with the driver, and the semi-trailer is the part that detaches. If we change the steer loading from 15,400 to 18,000 (permitted if you do special tires), add a third axle to the rear portion of the tractor unit (not allowed under Michigan law, do not try at home), and add one additional tire to the back of the semi-trailer, that gets us up to 183,000 lbs. If we keep the tractor unit the same and instead add two tires to the back of the semi-trailer, we get 180,000 lbs, which also gets us to your 176,000 capacity.

To word it another way, the image shown has a 1-2-8 pattern. We could make that a 1-3-9 pattern or a 1-2-10 pattern – either way would work.

So basically, you’re looking at a vehicle that’s 53 ft long along the axles. If we add 6 ft to account for the front and back, that gets a vehicle with an overall length of 59 ft. It’s 8.5 ft wide and has one steer axle, 2-3 rear tractor axles, and 9-10 semi-trailer axles, for a total of 50 wheels. In meters, that’s 16.2 along the wheels, 18 total length, and 2.6 wide. Height doesn’t really matter, though it’s probably somewhere between 3.5 and 4 meters.

Michigan does apply a seasonal limit decrease in the spring, reducing capacity by 25% on concrete roads and 35% on all other road surfaces. Call it 35% on everything to be safe, so you’d have a springtime capacity of roughly 118,000 lbs.

Utuabzu: Sounds like you want a road train, you see them in rural Australia fairly often. They're big, noisy and pretty intimidating to drive past. Generally they're used to transport ore from mines to ports where rail isn't available or practical.

Tex: This was, interestingly, also an issue faced by the US President Eisenhower. He was previously part of the 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy, and when he became president, he expanded upon the Interstate Highway System with the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. American highways were used as part of the military logistics system, compensating for the limitations of transportation via railway. Most of the roads that later formed the Interstate Highway System were based upon the Pershing Map, created by General Pershing in response to the 1919 convoy.

This allowed the standardization of roads, routes, and construction of highways, which needed to withstand the weight of goods transported by the military (i.e. tanks, missiles). Highway engineering has accordingly developed its own methods, and really came into prominence after WWII, with significant developments in its construction.

[eyeopeningarchivist]

Statement of Phoebe Morris

Concerning: The disappearance of her wedding planner.

Statement Taken: August 20th, 2013

Statement Recorded by Martin Blackwood, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, London.

Statement Begins:

This happened just a little over a week ago and I'm... still struggling to comprehend it. Michelle and I had wanted to get married for quite some time. We just couldn't decide on when and where. She wanted to go somewhere expensive, extravagant, and grandiose but I wanted something more low-key. Something intimate and quiet. The only thing we could agree on was that we wanted to do it in another country. It was her idea to find a wedding planner and that led us to Philo Newcomb.

I... had mixed feelings about Newcomb from the beginning, honestly. He always seemed... I dunno, preppy? Eager? Overly friendly somehow. And I just wasn't quite sure he knew what he was talking about. I wasn't sure how you could make beige look garish and loud but his suit managed it and the ideas he had for how our wedding should look didn't sound much better but Michelle seemed to like him and he at least seemed friendly. It helped that the location he was trying to sell us seemed gorgeous. It was a massive estate in Mendoza, Argentina with a beautiful sunset view over the balcony. It was apparently owned by some local big shot lawyer in the area or something and Newcomb had been nice enough to pay for our tickets himself. So, I was split.

But then... he showed up. Philo was leading us down to the vineyard when a man in a security uniform stopped me. He was a rather large, bald man with a stoic expression on his face. His whole head seemed completely clean-shaven, not even a spec of stubble anywhere. And I remember his badge said "Tobias Rieper." He said "I think you should look at this" in an even tone and shoved a scrapbook into my hands. It contained... locks of hair... and pictures of corpses and... newspaper clippings of mourning brides and grooms over the course of decades. And on the very last page was a picture of Michelle and I on a date, with Philo's face crudely taped over mine. By the time I looked up, Tobias Rieper had already left.

I got Michelle out of there as fast as I could. I made some excuse about getting the flight bookings wrong and all but dragged her out of there. I-I didn't even explain anything until we got back to the hotel. I didn't even think to call anyone at first. Not until a few hours after we got back to our rooms. When I did pick up the phone, Michelle turned my attention to the tv. Philo Newcomb had been found dead at the estate. Having fallen over the railing from the top floor. With no suspects, police ruled his death an accident.

Michelle and I haven't discussed getting married since. We... need time. But, I thought that was it. That this was just a horrifying situation that we just barely got out of thanks to some help from a stranger. I didn't think there was anything supernatural about it. Until I tried to thank Tobias Rieper for his help.

From what I could find, there is no record of anyone by the name of "Tobias Rieper" working at that estate. Not as security, as wait staff, nothing. So I looked him up online. I got a ton of results online. A corporate liquidator from New York. An all star chef from France. But nothing about our mysterious security guard. But as I kept digging, I saw a pattern. There were never any photographs of him, but sometimes there were... stories attached. Stories about people meeting a mysterious stone faced, completely bald man named Tobias Rieper on the same day as a mysterious disappearance and never finding him again. Meeting a talented rock drummer the same day a famous rock star gets shot. Meeting a stone faced mechanic the same day as the grand prix accident. The name and face is always the same. The only thing that changes is the clothes. Like a mannequin trying on a new suit.

Statement ends. 

Notes:

We tried to look up this Tobias Rieper as well and, well, we found just as much as is mentioned in the statement. Tim did, however, manage to dig up the lowest possible quality photograph of someone who matches the description of Mr. Rieper, only this man is labeled as “Lutte Faucheur,” an ex accountant from around the Bordeaux region who was let go from his firm after claiming to have “Visions From God...” Something about his eyes in the photo... He looks tired...

As for the mentioned events, we looked into them just to make sure they all lined up and they do, the only detail missing being that Philo Newcomb’s death was ruled by the Argentinian... Argentine? Er, the police in Argentina said they figured he was drunk when he fell. No autopsy report was filed but given the nature of his death and the fact that it happened where it did, well, I guess they just put two and two together...

For what it’s worth, both "Lutte" and "Faucheur" are words in french... Lutte meaning "Struggle” and Faucheur meaning "Reaper..."

End recording.

{{I'm so sorry this took so long ;^; }}

[umichenginabroad]

Kangaroos at last! (Week 6)

With the summer semester over by the start of February, it was time to get serious with the beginning of Term 1. But first, O-Week! O-Week stands for Orientation Week and is the week prior to the start of classes where, everyday, there is a never-ending community of booths all around campus. Each booth is there for a society, club, or organization ranging from Rubik’s Cube club to Surfing society! I was personally excited by the Social Volleyball club, Soccer club, as well as some wilderness and rock climbing ones. After scanning countless QR codes and meeting tons of students who were eager to sell their clubs, it was time to try an Australian sausage sizzle! Imagine a hotdog, but replace the curated, curved bun with a piece of bread. Quite literally, the sausage sizzle is a sausage on a square piece of white bread. Beyond being confused, I was simply a little disappointed. Maybe hotdogs are better left in buns freshly toasted off an American grill…

My roommates and I wanted to capitalize on the extra week of no classes, so a last-minute road trip was in order. In just two days, we rented a car and planned a trip all around Southeast New South Wales, just south of Sydney. Before we knew it, Lauren, Charlotte, Shaunak, Evan, Anthony, and I set off towards the Jenolan Caves just a 3.5hr drive away. Full of wallabies hopping around on beautiful trails around the conservation reserve, the little Jenolan town more than exceeded our expectations. Not to mention the incredible caves! Stalagmites, stalactites, crystals, and a perfectly clear river were just a few of the attractions we witnessed on our guided tour. 

From there, we made our way towards Narooma, a small coastal town with an incredible beach and coastal view. On the way there we passed through a small national park, and I laid eyes on my first wild kangaroos! As soon as I saw one, I saw dozens. Some were single, some in pairs or small groups, but all blended in well with the surrounding trees. It was hard to contain my excitement in the car, but soon enough we would get up close and my excitement could infect my surroundings. While standing at the Narooma coast, we were pleasantly surprised to see seals sunbathing on rocks and even dolphins surfing the waves! As someone whose happiness levels directly correlate to the number of wild animals I’ve recently seen, I was beaming.

I haven’t even mentioned the infinite number of cows, sheep, goats, horses, and chickens we laid eyes on during the drive. I was honestly astonished at how similar rural Australia is to the rural areas of midwestern states. Just add some more hills and ocean beaches to Wisconsin, and before you know it you’ll feel like you’re in Australia. After Narooma, we drove to Jervis Bay where we watched the sunset and the next morning went to Cave Beach through Booderee National Park. There, we were greeted by two dozen kangaroos at the entrance to the beach. 

We had only spent 3 days outside the city and all of a sudden, kangaroos were commonplace. The trip ended with a drive through Kangaroo Valley to Fitzroy falls where we did a quick hike before heading towards Kiama, another coastal town not far from Sydney. 

Famous for Kiama’s Blowhole, a rock formation which shoots big ocean waves into the sky, Kiama was a cute town with nice shops and restaurants. 

Just like that, we were back in Coogee and I was back to soaking up the beauty right outside my own front door.

David Bayer

Biomedical Engineering

University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia

[itcamefromthetoybox]

We’re Back: A Dinosaur Review

Man, it has been a while! I know I meant “Blind Box Month” to end in February, but then a ton of stuff happened, I caught Covid, and just general life chaos that’s kept me away from writing. Now that I finally have the energy to do it, though, let’s get back into reviews! This week, we’re looking at a line focusing on dinosaurs rampaging and those that hunt them down: “Dino Strike Hunt!”

Ok, so what exactly is this? Well, first, let’s look at the company that makes it. I first became aware of Zuru when my wife started collecting their Mini Brands line, a blind box series of tiny versions of real-world products that are in scale with the average doll. Each container has five items in it, and it’s a fun line we’ll probably talk about some other time. Zuru does a ton of different types of toys, such as robot animals, plushies, and most relevant to this review, multiple blind box items. Due to past experiences with them, I went into this with some good expectations, so let’s see if my optimism was rewarded or if it was dashed against the rocks of reality, like my dreams of getting a date in high school.

“Dino Strike Hunt” focuses on dinosaurs rampaging and the vehicles designed to stop them. Each box contains one vehicle or dinosaur that comes disassembled and has to be put together, with the dinosaurs having more soft plastic parts than the vehicles. It’s a pretty straightforward idea aimed at kids who like vehicles or dinosaurs.

Now, I tend not to focus on packaging, choosing instead to look at the toy itself. This is one of those times I’ll make an exception, though. Like most blind boxes sold by Zuru, the package is a ball with two tabs on opposite ends of the ball. Opening it is a feat that is definitely made easier with longer nails. I trimmed mine before opening one of the packages, and that was a decision I regretted almost immediately. Upon removing the tabs, the package falls apart into five slices, like an orange. Each slice has a foil cover on it, and removing that foil reveals a piece of whatever you’re building. It’s a fun little package, though it does result in some wasted plastic.

Finally, all those hours of peeling fruit have paid off!

The toys themselves are a mixed blessing. Like I said earlier, you can end up with either a dinosaur or a vehicle, and there’s no way to tell which you’re getting until the package is opened. The vehicles tend to be fun little toys where you snap together the five parts to make a neat little stylized military vehicle. The dinosaurs, on the other hand, can be the biggest pain to assemble. The vehicles are all harder plastics, so attaching everything is really easy. The dinosaurs tend to have softer plastics, usually in the limbs, which makes pegging them onto the body a challenge. If the peg on the body can’t be forced into the soft plastic limb in just the right way, the limb will fall off after a very short time. Getting the limbs on there sometimes requires a lot more effort than it should, and seeing the limb fall off after that can drive a man to dark places at the bottom of a bottle.

It was around this point that I began experiencing some regrets. Later would come the drinking.

A part of the toys that I really like is the little action feature they have. For the vehicles, this can be something like a grabbing claw or a firing projectile, and for the dinosaurs, it’s button-triggered moving parts, which they use to break out of restraints. The vehicles come out on top here due to the aforementioned issue with attaching the dinosaur parts. If a part isn’t secured just right, it moving in any way will detach it. Picking the dinosaurs up became far riskier than it needed to be. There was something just sad about watching the part I spent God knows how long fighting just fall off for the fourth time.

The toys honestly do look fun. The dinosaurs look like the kind you see in "Jurassic Park” and the vehicles look like they came from a 90’s cartoon. I can safely say the looks are the strongest point here. Unfortunately, as great as the toys do look, the issues with the dinosaurs weigh on me, like a backpack loaded with text books I will use all of once but still paid for.

Helicopter: fun. Pterodactyl, a bit tricky to assemble, but came out alright. Dilophosaurus: punishment from Toy God.

Now, would I recommend “Dino Strike Hunt?” Honestly, no. The issues I had with the dinosaurs are a real turn off for me that I know would be really frustrating for kids. The vehicles are great and kids would like those, which is why I would instead recommend some of Zuru’s other blind boxes, which are just the snap-together vehicles. All the fun of the vehicles with none of the frustration of trying to attach an arm to a peg too big for it. “Dino Strike Hunt” and Zuru’s other blind boxes can be found at most retail stores that sell toys, usually tucked away in the back of the toy section. They tend to run for about $5-$8 depending on where you shop. The packaging does work great as an Easter surprise, so don’t be afraid to try some of their other blind boxes instead of this one. This is JS signing off and wishing you Happy Toy Hunting!

[the-haunted-office]

🍑 Where is your OC’s favourite place to relax or calm down? Recount a story of their time spent in this place! What makes it so special to them?

( Doomsday!)

Jumbo Ask Game

A couple of Doomsday's favorite places are up on the Office roof, and the glass rock beaches that can be found around Post-Apocalyptic Fictional Earth. There are many of them now, and they're just like sandy beaches, only the sand has been replaced with tons and tons of glass rocks, which is really what is known as sea glass. Sea glass is broken pieces of glass that has been smoothed out by being tossed around in the ocean for so long, so much that it looks kind of like a pretty, shiny rock. The ones that Doom collects often are actual sea glass, although some of them are rocks that have sea glass in them and other elements and minerals as well.

What makes these places so special to her are how isolated they are, but at the same time, they feel like they are hugging her. She somehow feels close to others there. Eerily this is because a good number of those glass rocks do in fact contain lost souls. She isn't consciously aware of this fact yet, but the Reaper part of her can sense it. Her Dampening energy is sensing the souls in those rocks and drawing her to them, but for some reason, some property of the rocks or the way the souls are hiding out in them, is preventing her from properly seeing them. Point is, a lot of the rocks she finds comfort in.

Some of them, however, she does not get along with.

And that's where we get those Doom's Cursed Rocks drabbles from. x) There are some little pieces of writing there! I do have some more ideas that I plan on writing, but there are some mean little rocks out there that she brings into the Office that are actually cursed and they cause her trouble from time to time, ehehehehe.

[the-firebird69]

Hulk Hogan Cosplay In Fan Expo Dallas Comic Con

Kanye is off trying to mock me I'll tell you it's pretty hard and our friend here says it's really hard to mock any professional wrestler that he act zany and crazy and out there I said it too I'm like one of the most conservative and you can't quite mock me turns out to be advertising for what could be one of the best ideas i've ever heard in my life. That in the beer and he says I might wanna step it up a little so my people know I'm not a complete **** make a more expensive one in addition to this one and continue making the original Real-American beer And it would be more like a regular label it wouldn't have the image except maybe a smaller one that looks more like a classic label with probably be like an inch tall in a photo negative and it'll be embossed stuff they said that's nice.. That's my people and it really is pretty nice. There'll be a decent beer can reflect on the same theme but a little bit more quality and some gold on it and it'll be a nicer brew and I know how to make a real nice one it's a good idea because the less expensive one would sell better because they taste the expensive one and say we're still drinking it and the expensive one is going to be very nice I know how to brew And extremely well and German beers are world famous. And they would knock it out it's amazing this idea I had it myself but I heard him talking about it someone could jump up and do it make tons and I'm selling so much of it is really hurting california buys more of this than anyone in Earth they had these ideas to send huge huge containers of it and I'm doing it and they come back and we refill them takes all day to fill them up. Then I empty like half of that that they're giant vats The containers don't go in a truck no they do so really it's like a milk truck full and it doesn't empty a vat or half one but they're big I mean these things it's it's a tanker coming to fill up your facility that's some crazy stuff and we ship it warm we try we do cool it though we don't cool the all the way down just the way 70 and we get there and they start to cool it and we test it. It is a huge operation now huge you told me how it would work now our guys are getting the idea I got to get the idea whiskies and things like that. I like this idea

MAN CAVE It would be for that or other fighting arena it's like a sumo idea but you would have AWWF and WWE wrestler costumes was sumo they have headgear and you'd have to have it with this they said you can cover the face and it's a mask it's kind of like a leather mask but it's not leather and we know what the material is it's kind of sturdy and it would look like our face they have my beard on it that would be a big hit and we would have to have 100 andre in the big show the rock and all sorts of characters and we can get together and design these and there could be an undergarment and an outer one for doing all sorts of crazy maneuvers you can tap out it might work in Vegas typical gamble and their friends and it'll get a little rough and then our friend here has accepted the match he was saying Star Trek we can do that too we have those funny batons we do the sumo there's a couple other things that they do boxing with huge gloves and the casino can be the man cave we could have living room set up for horse races and sports games and you sit there with your friends and your crew or if you're a loner you come in and you make a group with loaners then you gamble against each other and I've seen it but the domain cave That the man gave its informal and everybody can jump in there sit down have a beer have a hamburger or a steak and cigar and some wine have you a woman sit with you and drink the mixed drinks and embed on things wilmington wimbledon and big horse races hockey games and he says wrestling I've never heard that before and you'll find out how it goes you're supposed to have a winner and it really does not happen that way it's kind of like MMA and you're just trying to make it look really cool it's like a massively dangerous and hugely powerful people look into it and finally figured out yeah I got back into it too many people call me a wimp and people get into it and they'll figure out it's real that's kinda cool we have these matches in Vegas and one of the rules is you can't gamble on it but the gamble over MMA and a lot Sometimes it's really past it but I'm doing all the meaning of wild on you I mean This is a very intense sport then he was saying what am I gonna do in Hulkamania goes wild on me we're gonna get it the idea is bad is dangerous but really it's out of hand anyway no if you can gamble the use of weapons will be restricted I will we should do it

Hulk Hogan You think this is a great idea and all of it and he's sending a lot of beer his brewing more beer than he can brew and he's open breweries and on the West Coast tons of them no he's using a 4 or 5 and they're pretty big we're in the process of acquiring three breweries but we don't have them yet they're in the upper Midwest and yeah the water is an issue there's a way to take it out of there and it starts flowing you take it out of the middle not the top or bottom and he was right on. We'd like to get involved in that but we don't have a huge brewery in the Midwest it's three or four medium-sized ones and they're far away from each other but if we started them up now we'd have a reputation by the time this thing hits it's war profiteering but they're the ones who would be paying. Twice. So he says we would have to own the names of the businesses we buy or acquire and that's true it would be ideal and in this case. The thing to do. We're going to try and purchase one at least tomorrow on a Monday that is and they know about it and they are a certain group and we would send it to their area And we are okay with that. Other beers will follow but they're already brand names. And Hulk Hogan has a winner everybody likes it and we put up our post and the sales went through the roof. It's just like you said is trucking it out there it's not too far they have these huge vats that they put it in and they empty one a day and it's like half a tanker truck no it's like four tanker trucks and they clean it every time I mean these people are serious they only have like two types of beer yeah so that's a lot of beer we are thinking about putting a place out there and our vats are twice as big and we'd have like 10 to start and we pipe it in and yeah that's to go to a smaller one and keep it cool but I'll tell you what that is an intense system that they have you should see how much beer that is and they don't charge that much it's about a dollar a beer and they like it 'cause they just hand you a dollar it doesn't make you think and stuff. We are going to try and get involved so if you want us to build a facility and have us ship you our brand of beer we know what person it is and what the area is we will set you up currently that beer company makes five different beers and we would set it up with 5 vats is there so huge and train people and train plumbers as well and then there's like three or four vats for hard alcohol and there would have to be bats for fruit juices to mix with it and we do have a couple fruit juice companies and it stays pretty good and then there's other mixers things you mix it with but still that would be ideal and the cost of the place is not cheap it's millions about 70 million and Tommy Allen is going to call says he has the money. And he knows which one we're talking about and the son is interested because it's only got one brewery or brew house is not true And  it has 4 or 5 in the Midwest and they have two or three on the outside of it those are very big they only conserve two or three city areas at a regular volume and right now they're serving two but that's the upper Midwest and they'll close soon. It's not Pabst Blue Ribbon they're pretty good it's not the one that Trump wants and it's not any of the big brand names it's not true it might be Michelob. We really have not sold that many beers lately and our son and daughter say wouldn't that make you the winner VJA because it says Michelob light for the winner. You know just as a side note. Kinda smiling 'cause it's kinda funny michelob was one of the beers our son and Dodger liked and I drank too much daughter not Dodger and they drank a bit much but it tasted good and then it kinda like faded away it came back a little bit with nickel world light and faded away again so we like to do this and we wanna set up a meeting and we're not sure how to know we know and we wanna bring in a vat so we're gonna go ahead and do it and we'll have to network and he says today is Saturday and it's a good time to do that and they have they call them a certain thing it's not a bar it's not megaplex Not a good guess and not close brewhouse no paupers beerhouse no the big vat no it's much beer as the eye can see and then you'll probably never get it. Brewers pub no it's a big bar there's a lot of good food that's fast and a lot of beer and a lot of people go there it's their own beer brand they're gonna love it it's way down South in Hulk Hogan is not down there but he is in the he's in the middle somewhere with the rest of them are and he's sending tons of beer by the way they're brewing a ton he gets the idea try and be useful and food is very useful and they can't do it they have a hard time brewing as well and he knows about it he says this is what it's like we do need to do something. So our son says I have a great idea because that might not stick too well except the food and it's sometimes hard to explain to them because we're building the food so we're making it and they want to sit there threatening us but wine is another but really you could be a broker for kit cars and start selling them tomorrow and he says why don't they do that and says I can't get any of them to do it none of them have any balls none of them and you guys have teams to copy them and he leans forward and says you're right this is how it goes. It really is so he says we have a few we like and we know about that one and they think they can handle it. Those are ones you like so they even drive those. This is stopping a **** **** and pay attention they can't drive that one either so they're they're talking about I said everyone has one of those they said the Corvette's nice it's not as fast as it can go but it's easy to make to go fast and it's safer than most so we can make a kit and people have done that for centuries before Corvette was even here on Earth and he's laughing because you're saying some weird stuff and it's also strange this is like 12 beers and then looking at real American beer label. And Corky is saying he's coming at me bring it bro. Then really you wanna buy this beer

YOIU WANT TO BUY THIS BEER CORKS.......AND YELL AT THE HULK HOGAN IMAGE,,,BRING IT BRO BRING IT BRO....BRING IT BRO

And really that little skit already happened but it might happen again. So they're probably by the beer and tac will go around about kit cars we have so many of these stupid chassis and he says it might be a good deal so he's gonna look into it it's kind of a heavier end of things they really can't brew their own beer either but you know they can find us to do it but where we can't get the car out there at all and we can probably get beer out there. It's pretty pleased and he says we're gonna have to do it my burial cell and for Christ sake don't put A put that up there and he says he has to in sells beer. He started before he started again and he says different stuff but.

OR ......THATS RIGHT HULK WE USE YOU. NEED IT TOO. NOW.  AND DRINKU UP I SAY BG SAYS

WE SAY IT LIKE THIS. MORE OK CNT GET ENOUGH. AND NNOW. SEND IT. T HEY DO.  WE LIKE. AND  BRING IT OK BRO BRING IT  MORE...HAHAHAHAH.

OK and a Corky said it is in LA right now it says LA county is downtown LA believe it or not and he's not near El Pollo loco he's near where our son was when he had like his first good meal at the market and he's in a restaurant a small and having a Hulk Hogan yeah they're far reaching it's not a keg it's A It's a can. So he's making tons of beer this guy's making beer we have a few breweries that are smaller they would not be big enough to supply him with like an hour of beer no it's like a day for what he's doing so we could call him up see if he wants us to brew it. The longer trip but we have a milk trucks too and that's what they use. So he's kind of interested and we have like 20 of those that's 20 days of his current volume. And he knows how to reach us sorta so that would be good we'll get those going we're looking for people to man those right now to clean them up and get them cleaned up and going and start a couple bruise of our own and we can sell those we get some orders and we'll sell that. And right now

Thor Freya

Olympus

We're in charge here but this is an idea. To be a broker and he'd sell to dealers and he wants to do it. The Corvette's a great idea and came from these guys cause they can drive it and sun was saying it too. Alien is a race car the saline is a race car the John Cena is a race car they go over 900 miles an hour the Corvette kit would be extremely fast probably about four or 500 mph and faster than the stock Corvette lighter but it would have a real cage and be safer so they want them now. And they're gonna bother Hulk Hogan and I hope he knows where we are release the phone number. And our son says I have no idea we're we're somewhere near the Pontiac plants. According them off you can say it on the radio He says I really don't want to do that but okay

We're going ahead now and thinking knows how to contact us.

Thor Freya

We're really gonna be into this we hear there's a stitch boat design and he can't seem to get it anywhere 'cause nobody will put it in there. I'd have to claim it's mine and there's so many people would buy it and I'll tell you what it's a way to survive and he says the stitch boat is very simple and fun and there's a bunch of there's a few designs out there and you could of course change it but really it's a basic principle and we don't have to say the design if you can make one and I think I'm going to make one I know how to design and engineer it the pieces are not as flexible as it sounds it says doesn't have to be and you don't run it as far and it's like these bays like two foot bays and you run a straight piece and you might have a couple days where it's kind of not as straight but there has to be a some kind of something you can do with there I need to think for a minute of it's not gonna be straight kinda straight let me ask somebody

ric flair

There's one or two designs that have it when you spin across on the inside bottom you're going at the scene and the scene is not necessarily straight it could be curved too but you can infill it because the curve is not humongous with the melding material and he says he doesn't like it but he's going to test it and on bigger boats you can practically put it flat and it fills it with like an 8th of an inch and the melody material hardens to metal. you could put a closure piece in and you could melt that to it but the edge has to be wide somehow and the sun says you could clip it and do it but that's there's no point to that unless you put bracing to each of the clip points or you could take like a two by one inch piece and clip it and use the melody material under it and then put a piece along it if there's a big gap of like half an inch or one inch so he's easy idea and it's not too hard and really it is not. Take the piece so it's another angle and you put it along the 2 inch vertical edge and you just use self tapping screws and the melding material and it's all done it says that's pretty smart and it goes where did you get that I said from the stitch boat that I designed originally and you'll probably put the pieces close to the bottom as possible and with the vertical angle along the vertical angle of the first piece so he gets that and it's all melted together and then you tie the clip in the end of it with a clip to the truss now he's interested and says it's a very simple mechanism because you can use the glue and it's true that's Rick Flair. Us to bring stuff out there to you guys. And there might be a lot of that because the max are in the factories and we are too they run a few of them but not many but they actually will be out there later and we will be too. That's not why it's because you're not sending anything.

Thor Freya

We need this stuff pretty quick like now so we're gonna see if our guys can get it together but really we get this this is gonna be tense. For Corvette kid online and I don't see any.

Hulk Hogan They're very close but you can make the kid different and not a replica.

We want to get this project going we have others first the sewer and water was spoke about and we need people now. Other big one to launch right now

Olympus

[secretariatess]

Kylin 51

            Kylin remained in the seventh village until the rest of the party heading up to the capitol had arrived.  Rei was sending Ofjaet, Taileia, and Morganne for obvious reasons, and Kylin and Preman to act as guards for them.  When Morganne came, she brought Gloryborn with her.

            “To carry all of my supplies,” she informed him, gesturing to the pack laden on the horses.  “Without knowing what’s causing his illness, it is very important to have everything on hand in case. No one will question it.”

            As long as no one inspected all of the bags, that was.  One of the bags contained some preliminary equipment for an apprentice.  If the bags were searched, it could be easily written off or explained as being backup equipment for the Rangers, trusting that no one at the capitol knew the practices of the Rangers well enough to refute them.

            When they had gathered, they met up with Kendra at the sixth village.  Kylin was careful to pull up his mask and hood to ensure that he would not be recognized by Glae, should he cross their path.  He kept it them up even after leaving the village, though more for its added warmth.

            They reached the first village in good time, Kendra even remarking that they had gone faster than she expected.  They spent the night there, leaving early in the morning.  The first portion of the trip out of the Veil was not unfamiliar to Kylin.  Rangers had traveled the path before.  It was only strange when they followed the curve of the path towards the north and River Jeopardy instead of taking a side path away from it.

            They came to the earthen bridge over the river.  While maintaining a brisk pace was the goal, Kylin, Morganne, and Preman could not help but to look over the edge at the rushing water below.  This was the closest they had ever been to Jeopardy, and it was fascinating, to say the least.  Tons of forceful water with white crests tumbling over rocks and crashing into trees that leaned too far over it, disappearing feet beneath where they rode, only to come out on the other side, continuing its dangerous journey.  Having only heard it from a distance, the sheer volume was overwhelming to Kylin.  He wondered how Ofjaet handled it without showing a trace of being bothered.

            Not just that, but both Ofjaet and Taileia were seemingly immune to the charm of the river’s frightful beauty.  They continued on without so much as a glance, Ofjaet caught up in his extraction of whatever useful information he could get out of Kendra.

            It was dark by the time they had cleared the river and entered Harlofelp.

            No.  They had already been in Harlofelp, Kylin reminded himself.  The villages were a part of the kingdom, even if they felt so very different from . . . here.

            And “here” happened to be in the shadow of a towering wall.

            “Chester,” Kendra told them.  “The last town before the Veil.”

            Chester looked like the home of something sinister.  Kylin was quite glad when Kendra steered them away from it.  The land was much more open out here, not as many trees to be near, but sleeping under the open skies was familiar.  Sleeping in such a walled area that looked as though it contained more people than the villages and Rangers combined did not appeal in the slightest.

            “Potential spies?” Ofjaet surmised about Kendra’s decision.

            “And more,” she confirmed.  “As I told your captain, there is a good reason we cause trouble there.”

            In the morning, Kendra followed the main path for a little ways, explaining that this was the merchant path, headed to the east.  It was not a very busy road, with only some bands of merchants and lone travelers traveling to and from Chester.  Passersby would give nods as a form of greeting, but otherwise kept their eyes on the road ahead of them, unbothered by appearance of anyone else there.

            They did not stay on the main road.  When they came to a small town, Kendra informed them they would be taking a lesser traveled road that went straight north.  It was not quite evening when they arrived, and yet their guide started making plans for the night.

            “We still have some light left, and we can provide our own light if need be,” Taileia said.  “Is there a reason we cannot continue for a little while longer, considering we are supposed to go as swiftly as possible?”

            Kendra paused, then let out a laugh.  “Forgive me, I forgot who I was dealing with, and that you would have no qualms about not staying at inns for the night.”

            They did agree to have a quick rest at the town before continuing on.  A decision that made Kylin glad that they were not staying there for the night.

            The soldiers were loud, but this town somehow seemed louder.  It was busier, bigger, and colder.  And there were not as many trees.  He did not know a single face in this crowd of people, not a single shop or store among the buildings, not a single thing about this town.  Even sounds that were similar were not familiar.  Nothing was familiar.

            And he wasn’t even close to home.

            He was so very far from home- Amelia’s cottage, the headquarters, the Ranger camps, the villages, and the entirety of the Veil Forest.  Telling himself that this was not a permanent trip, that he would be back as soon as everything was resolved, did not soothe him.

            Using the excuse of keeping his very excitable horse out of the way of harming anyone, Kylin found a spot that was away from people that was not as busy, even though it did not get him away from the noise.  However, it did make things a little less overwhelming.

            Morganne found him after a few minutes of being alone.

            “How are you doing?” she asked, her tone suggesting she knew why he was where he was.

            He shrugged.  “You don’t happen to have anything to block noise, do you?”

            “We’ll be leaving shortly,” she assured him.  “It’s supposed to get quieter down the road.”

            He sighed, his eyes catching sight of Gloryborn, and he was reminded of burden that awaited him if all went well and Selim was released from his family.

            It was one thing to be working alongside fellow Rangers.  It was an entirely different thing to be given responsibility of one who was learning.  A responsibility he felt wholly unfit for.  He could not guarantee Selim’s survival.  And even if Selim abdicated successfully, Kylin had a hard time imagining that the royal family would take Selim’s death well, especially under someone who was supposed to ensure that didn’t happen.

            Rei was such a fool for making him do this.  This was a disaster waiting to happen.

            Especially with the evil seeping out.

            The others rejoined with them, and they headed out again, leaving the hustle and bustle of the town behind.  Eventually, they moved from the lesser traveled road to no road at all.  All that surrounded them was farmland, barren for winter’s chill.  Some houses and barns could be seen in the distance, with woods in front of them.  It was so . . . quiet.  So unnaturally quiet.  They could see for miles, and yet, there was a sense of unease.  Even Taileia and Ofjaet appeared uncomfortable, though they tried to mask it.  The only one who seemed unbothered by their surroundings was Kendra.  In the gathering darkness Kylin could hear her humming various tunes to herself.  It only made the scenario eerier.

            When the suns were merely a line of light sandwiched by the darkness, the Rangers pulled out their balls of light and attached them to their horses’ breast straps.  The woods that stood before them seemed so close now.  There was no chance they would spend the night in the open, quiet, fields.

            As the trees came into Kylin’s hearing range, he unconsciously nudged Vicious to pick up her pace.  Sensing his excitement, she did so happily.  Her change of mood interested the other Ranger horses.  Not to be outdone, they quickened as well, their pace just under a trot.

            There was a collective sense of relief when they reached the first line of trees.  Kendra had actually fallen behind in their anxiousness to get to the woods.  She watched them with baffled curiosity as they dismounted and set up for the night.

            Morganne did a check of her supplies, ensuring that everything was still good for use and organizing them according to possible need.  Kylin offered his help, which she took to mean using him to hold things.  As she went through the packs and her pockets, she kept up a flow of talk, half to Kylin, half to herself.

            “If someone is attempting to kill him and use the illness as a cover, then I would suspect a poison is being used,” she said, partly mumbling.  “I believe I have everything for a poisoning . . .”  She searched her pockets, pulling out small vials and carefully inspecting them.  “Unless the treatment is the method of assassination, in which case, some of these antidotes will be useless.”

            Kylin watched her with fascination, his cupped hands filled with vials Morganne hadn’t determined where to place yet.

            “But, that also could mean that whoever is doing this is adding one ingredient to throw the treatment off.”  Morganne gave Kylin a stern look, as though he had suggested this complication.  “I imagine I cannot take everything in at once, so what’s in my skirts will have to be immediate. Diagnosing should take precedence, but there are things that will require immediate application.”

            “Are you enjoying yourself?” Kylin asked, amused.

            “I did not have time to organize everything earlier,” Morganne said brusquely.  She paused, scrunching her forehead in frustration.  “But yes. I am.”  She picked through some of the vials in Kylin’s hands.  “Kendra’s description only gives me so much information. And his condition and symptoms can be a result of so many things. I would prefer to be working on it as soon as possible, especially if someone wants him dead, but that just might not be something that can be done. I have to know what I’m dealing with and I have few things to narrow it down. One wrong move, and I can make things worse.”

            She began placing the vials where she wanted them with the concentration of someone solving a particularly complex logic puzzle.  When she had determined what went into her skirt pockets and what could be stored in the packs for later and placed them there, she thanked Kylin for his help and went to go and sleep.

            The next day of travel went much better than previous days.  While the woods were not the Veil, it felt a lot more familiar to the Rangers than the open, treeless fields.  Kylin could hear sounds of animals hiding just out of sight, small branches breaking off and falling on beds of dead leaves, and birds that decided to stay for the winter making occasional comments to each other.  The emptiness of the fields was replaced by the smell of Autumn’s last hurrah.  The color of the trees, save the needles, had dropped to the floor where sparks of orange could still be found among the shades of brown.

            As relaxing as Kylin found it, if he was tempted to take it easy, Vicious was there to remind him that she was waiting for her moment, excited by the familiar surroundings.

            By midday, the solid ground turned into forested swamp.  It slowed their pace some, as they navigated around the softest parts of it and avoided getting their horses stuck.

            They were not clear of the forest when night fell, but Kendra assured them they were very close, suspecting they would arrive at the castle sometime before noon.

            Her assessment proved accurate.

            They had not traveled long before they reached the other side of the woods and stood staring up at the walls of the capitol.

            Figures of guards could be seen standing at the top of the wall.  The gates were open and an influx of people flowed through them in various manners- on horseback, on foot, in carts.  They wore all sorts of colors, in fashions Kylin had never really seen before.  Here and there, he could spot the uniform of the military and he couldn’t help but feel a wave of distaste.  It did not matter that they weren’t in the Veil; they were soldiers and that was enough.

            The visuals aside, the noise was near unbearable.  Too many people were talking.  Too many feet walking on the gravel.  Too many creaky wheels.  Too.  Much.  Noise.

            To hide his expression of distaste, he pulled his mask and hood up.  Morganne gave him a sympathetic look.

            Kendra stopped short of the road, glancing around before speaking.

            “Follow the main road, and you will come to the castle,” she told Ofjaet.  “The farther you go, the quieter it will get. You will pass the university and the cathedral before the castle, so do not mistake those for your destination. The guards will ask why you’re there, but do not tell them the Myst sent you, or mention my name. I do not care what you tell them as your answer- just do not mention me or the Myst.”

            Ofjaet promised her they wouldn’t, and Kendra parted with them.  They  joined the busy throng of people, making their way into the city.  Despite the variety of people present, the Rangers stuck out among all of them.  Nowhere else could the color of their cloaks be found, nor the specific style, the gear they brought, the pins they bore.  Even the garments underneath their cloaks were different.  Every Harlofelpan could pin them as the foreigners they were, staring as they passed by.  Some even stopped in their tracks to get a better look.  The guards watched their journey through the gate, waiting for them to do something that would necessitate approaching them.  Ofjaet and Taileia led the way, not giving the onlookers a glance in return.  They kept their heads up, Taileia’s set and sharp, Ofjaet relaxed yet poised.

            Inside the capitol was nothing like Kylin had ever imagined.  Buildings so close to each other there was barely any room between them.  Shop signs dangling from almost every door frame.  Windows opened on the second floor with more people haging out of them, either calling out to someone they knew on the street or beating the dust out of fabrics.  Music could be heard somewhere, its location obscured by the plethora of voices.

            They continued to draw attention, and Kylin could even catch snatches of conversation regarding them.

            “They definitely are not from the northern kingdoms. I would recognize it if they were.”

            “Those two are so tall . . . how can one be so tall?”

            “They couldn’t possibly be from the Veil? Are they Rangers?”

            “What business do Rangers have here? They can’t be Rangers.”

            There were some curious children who followed them for a while, being forced to fall back as they were called back or reached the bounds of how far they were allowed to go.

            As Kendra promised, the road quieted as they continued.  Not as many people around, though Kylin could still hear it.  The Rangers remained a source of fascination.

            They passed a structure the Rangers agreed was the cathedral Kendra had mentioned.  It had a staircase taller than most of the buildings they passed, ending in a platform leading to giant, ornate doors.  From there, the building only went higher and more ornate, ending with a pointed bell tower.

            After that, they passed the university.  This was not a singular building, but rather a multitude of elaborately designed buildings, surrounded by well kept lawns and intricately carved statues.

            And then, at last, they reached the castle.

            It put the cathedral to shame in terms of size.  Its outward designs were austere, peering down at the ragged Rangers and demanding to know what they were doing.  There were guards at the top of the steps to the main doors, and at the bottom.  When the bottom guards realized they were not just passing by, they stepped in the way.

            “State your business,” one of them said.

            “We are Rangers from the Veil Forest,” Ofjaet began.

            The guards glanced at each other before cutting him off.

            “We’ve been expecting you,” the guard said.  “Allow us to take your horses and we will bring you to His Majesty.”

            As the guards called for stable boys, the Rangers exchanged looks.

            Expecting them?  Kendra had not mentioned that they would be expected.  In fact, the implication had been that they wouldn’t be expected.

            When the stable boys arrived, they dismounted, being to leave their weapons behind.

            Kylin did as they asked, strapping his most obvious weapons to Vicious’s saddle.  He kept a couple of his concealed daggers.  A glance at the other horses told him his fellow Rangers did the same thing.

            The guards looked them over, making sure they were able to approach the king.  When they determined the items they still had on them were safe, they were led up the stairs.

            They were given no time to look at the rooms they were brought through.  They were ushered straight into the throne room.

            Straight in front of the stern glare of King Masitof.