#collect good sized rocks as i dig huge hole and i put them in a bucket and then at night before bed i

[eelmachine]

jast got dun diggin a HOLE now my stumache is grumbaling. MEATY STEW PLEASE.

[five-rivers]

Pennywort and Swallowtails

For @phantomphangphucker :)

Prompt:  Flynn, due to being Phantom’s aka the Ghost King’s family and part of the Zone’s society, receives a Prince title and is now getting crowned.

.

Flynn couldn’t put his finger on exactly why, but the Ghost Zone seemed different lately.  There was something in the atmosphere, almost.  It felt… lighter, maybe?  

He didn’t like it.  

After all these years in the Ghost Zone, he’d come to regard any change from the norm with suspicion.  The tendency had saved his life multiple times.  Usually, such changes were caused by a nearby and powerful ghost.  Or, on rare and terrifying occasions, a not so nearby and obscenely powerful ghost.

For example, that Pariah Dark guy he’d heard about from some of the ghosts he traded with.  Flynn sure was glad someone else had taken care of him.  Not that Flynn was much good in a fight against any ghost more powerful than that annoying one in overalls that showed up whenever Flynn so much as thought of making anything even vaguely box-shaped.

Which wasn’t that often.  Flynn had never really nailed the whole carpentry thing. Ha.  He’d never been super great at the whole square thing either. Because he wasn’t one.  Skipped school and everything.  The whole high school experience.  Ha.  

Sometimes he really cracked himself up, but only in the most depressing of ways.  

He sighed, heavily.  Maybe he should think about spending more time in his hideaway cave, under his cottage (aka his shack, it was a shack, who was he kidding).  Stock up on supplies.  Get ready to weather a storm.  Literal or metaphorical.  

But hiding out in the cave was so boring.  There wasn’t anything to do down there. Except try to design better grass shoes and to patch his increasingly ragged clothing with limited amounts of thread. He preferred being outside greatly. Even if it was just on his little floating island, messing around in his little garden, growing potatoes and blood blossoms, digging for those crystals ghosts seemed to fear and desire in equal measure.

Flynn was peripherally aware that he was supplying the ghosts he traded with the equivalent of ghost uranium (one of the few human-world things he’d picked up was a middle school science textbook), but…

Yeah.  Guy had to eat, and the Ghost Zone didn’t exactly have cops running all over the place, or the United Nations, or… yeah.  Honestly, the Ghost Zone didn’t have much of anything, at least not in these parts.  It was pretty empty around here.  

Just like Flynn’s heart.  

Ha.  

Yeah.  That was a good one.  

Eh.  Life wasn’t so bad.  He was sort-of-kind-of friends with half a dozen undead monsters of questionable morality, had his own house, most of his teeth, and copious free time.  Plus, it had been a while since the ‘rocks from nowhere’ decided to trash his roof.  Which was bad for the sport he had invented (Chucking Rocks into the Misty Void), but good for roof integrity.  And not having a concussion.  Or losing any more teeth.  

But, back to his original topic.  

Flynn glared absently at the Zone at large. Okay, yeah, something was going on. Was it Flynn’s problem? Maybe.  Was it directly Flynn’s problem?  No.  The day was otherwise clear and ‘normal’ (the term being used loosely in the Ghost Zone), so he might as well go about his day—

The sky tore open in front of him.  

Flynn recognized that.  Before he knew what he was doing, he threw himself away from the portal. The last time he’d stepped through one of those—

The thought crossed his mind that this portal might lead back to Earth, back home, back to Mom.  But he knew from his ghostly friends how unlikely it was that the portal would put him anywhere near his home physically, not to mention temporally. It might not even lead back to Earth for that matter.  

He took cover behind a boulder, cursing his blasé dismissal of potential danger.  Who knew what could come out of a portal?  At least according to the ghosts he talked to.  Hopefully, nothing came out that he couldn’t beat into submission with his ectoranium staff.  

This was going to suck so much.  

The portal disgorged three floating eyeball ghosts in voluminous robes.

(One of the other books Flynn had gotten his hands on was a dictionary.  Which he had read.  Twice. Living on a tiny floating island was boring when it wasn’t terrifying.)

Ah, heck.  He could take one ghost.  Three? Yeah.  Not a chance.  

Maybe they’d leave?  They couldn’t know for sure he was here.  With how unpredictable portals were, and all.

“Flynn Walker,” intoned the central eyeball ghost with a great deal of gravitas.  

Flynn’s body did something between a cringe and a blanch.  

He was never trusting Globithar the Lapidarist’s tall tales ever again.  He wasn’t going to give him any more discounts for them, either.  No way to control a portal his scarred left butt cheek.  

“Flynn Walker,” repeated the eyeball ghost, now with a touch of annoyance.  

“In accordance with the laws of the Infinite Realms,” said the leftmost ghost, in a higher-pitched voice, “we call you to take up your position in the Court of the King of All Ghosts as a member of his family.”

Ah, that ectocontamination Aunt Maddie had sometimes talked about had finally caught up with him, and he was hallucinating something fierce. Either that, or these ghosts thought unbelievable jokes were good bait.  They weren’t.  Flynn would know.  He’d made many unbelievable jokes.  They’d never attracted anything but groans.  

Ha.  

“This is ridiculous,” hissed the third ghost.  “He isn’t even a real ghost.”

“He’s more ghostly than Phantom’s sister,” said the second.  

“We don’t have any choice about her, though.  Can’t we simply… not tell Phantom about this Flynn? Especially if this cousin of his is so craven as to hide at a moment like this.”

Rude, but accurate.  

“He’ll find out,” said the first eyeball, tiredly. “He always finds out.  Damn Clockwork.”

This was officially too weird for Flynn.  Why were they cursing out clocks?

“Because they’re petty and don’t have anything better to do.”

Flynn may or may not have shrieked like a little girl at the voice behind him.  The uncertainty was mostly because Flynn hadn’t seen or heard a little girl since he was in the vicinity of his cousin, Jazz, which was years ago.  At least a decade.  

But he did scream.  Loudly.  Which he really should know better than to do, living in the Ghost Zone and all.  He brought his staff up defensively, too, though, so his self-preservation skills hadn’t completely shorted out.

“Clockwork!” chorused the eyeball ghosts.  

“Yes, yes,” said the ghost who’d snuck up on Flynn, flicking imaginary dust off his robe as he smoothly, and dizzyingly, shifted between ages.  “I’m sure you’re all very shocked that I’m here, after you just finished complaining about how much I know.”  He examined his fingernails.  “Now, Mr. Walker—”

“Walker?” shrieked one of the eyeballs.  

“Yes, he is related to our illustrious sheriff. As I was saying, I am here to bring you to your cousins, who have risen quite a bit in this world.”

“What.”

“It is, indeed, rather surprising,” said Clockwork. “To those who cannot see the twists and turns of fate.  Or those who are willfully blind to those twists and turns.”  He eyed the eyeballs.  

“What,” repeated Flynn, more forcefully.  

“Clockwork,” growled the lead eyeball.  

“Allow me to explain,” said Clockwork.  “Do you recall your youngest cousin, Daniel?”

“Uh,” said Flynn.  He adjusted his grip on his staff.  “Vaguely?”

“He was crowned King of All Ghosts a few weeks ago. As a member of his family and an active participant in ghost society, you are automatically a member of the court. Assuming you wish to be, of course.”

“You- You’re saying I have family here.”

“Indeed.”

“Like, Aunt Maddie?”

Something odd passed over Clockwork’s face.  “No.  Your cousins. Daniel, specifically.”

“Wait, wait, he was a baby.  Wouldn’t he only be, like, ten or something?”

“Fifteen,” corrected Clockwork.  

“How did he die?”

“You will have to ask him that,” said Clockwork.  He raised an eyebrow.  “If you would like, you can sleep on this and I will return tomorrow.”

Flynn bit his lip.  Hard.  Okay. He wasn’t dreaming.  And- And this ghost didn’t seem to be lying. What would the point of that even be, anyway?  Flynn was nothing.  He didn’t have anything they could possibly gain by lying like this.  

“I’ll go with you,” said Flynn.  

“Excellent,” said Clockwork, clapping his hands.  “Then let us away to the castle.”

.

Well.  That was certainly a castle.  Or a palace? Flynn wasn’t sure of the difference. The ghosts hadn’t lied about that, at least.  

It was a big step up from Flynn’s house.  Which, honestly, more deserved the title of hovel. Or perhaps shack.  

Or even hole, when compared to all this.  Dear god, this place was fancy.  

Flynn hunched his shoulders, feeling out of place even as Clockwork led him deeper into the massive edifice.  

Come on, Flynn, he thought furiously at himself. Some of these people aren’t even wearing skin.  You are not underdressed.  

Clockwork brought him to a normally sized (which was, incidentally, not a given in this place, which contained both huge and tiny doors) door with understated but elegant carvings.  “Here are your rooms,” said the ghost.  “You will find a selection of clothing in your size in the wardrobe, and the bathroom is fully stocked and human safe.”

“Human safe?”

“Human safe.”

That was ominous.  

“There is a bell in the room that will summon a servant should you need one.  I will collect you for dinner in three hours.  Long enough for you to relax, I should hope.”

Or long enough for him to worry himself into pieces and chew on their curtains.  

… There would be curtains, right?  This place had to be fancy enough to rate curtains.  

He opened the door.  

Lots of curtains.  Lovely.

No, really.  It had been so, so long since he’d seen curtains.  He might be crying.  

Oh, gosh, that bed looked so nice and soft.  He wanted to—

Wait, no, he was filthy.  Filthy.  Covered in years’ worth of grime.  He hadn’t had a proper bath since he’d still been living with his mom.  

Pathetic, right?

There was a human-safe bathroom in here somewhere. Beyond the snark, he was looking forward to having a human-safe bath.  He was craving a human-safe bath.  With clean water and soap.  

Could the bathroom also have toothbrushes?  Toothpaste?  Unrestrained luxury.  

The bathroom door was in the same style as the outer door, but the handle was different, lighter.  The inside was tiled and surprisingly modern.  

There was a sink.  

He played with the sink faucet for several long minutes before remembering that he’d come in to take a bath.  

He spent several minutes playing with the bathtub faucet.  

Then he got into the bathtub and experienced a half hour of combined panic (he didn’t really know how baths worked anymore, and the sensations were weird) and nirvana (the sensations were also good).

He had to keep cycling the water.  Because he made it so, so dirty.  He sank into the water, up to his chin.  

When he got out of the water, he decided his hair was a lost cause.  Because it was always a lost cause.  Only, it was even more of a lost cause now, because it was also wet and had been stripped of its usual protective layer of oils.  

There was a variety of toothbrushes and toothpastes available.  He tested them out and discovered that he would probably need the services of a dentist. A good one.  Were there ghost dentists?  There had to be ghost dentists.  They had a lot of teeth.  A lot of teeth.  Sharp, scary, teeth.  

Ugh.  His baby cousin was a ghost.  He’d probably have teeth like a shark.  When he’d last seen him, he’d hardly even had any teeth at all.  Because.  Baby. Little, tiny, baby.  

Who Flynn barely knew.  

Why did he even want Flynn?  Or was it just some weird ghost tradition thing?  

Ghosts were weird.  Anything could be possible.  

He flopped face-first onto the bed.  His bed?  His temporary and maybe permanent bed.  If he was allowed to stay here.  

Oh, gosh.  Clockwork and the eyeballs seemed to know how to make portals.  Could they make a portal back to the human world? To Earth?  

To Flynn’s proper time?

To Mom?  

He missed Mom so much, even after all this time.  

(Dad?  Not so much. He hardly remembered the man.)

He wouldn’t know until he asked, he supposed.  But asking maybe-royalty would be scary. Talking to all these powerful ghosts was scary enough by itself.  

Ehhhh, he thought he’d gotten rid of his more cowardly side by now.  He was living in the scariest place out of the world.  

Ha.  

Yeah.  

He crawled out of the bed, dragging his nice, clean self to the wardrobe.  Oh, boy. Many clothes.  He hadn’t even seen so many clothes since the last time he’d been in department store.  Incredible.  

They were so fancy, too.  He didn’t know how to choose.  

He didn’t even know how to wear half of these things. At least half of them.  

He began to tease lengths of fabric from the wardrobe and lay them on his bed.  Some of them looked cool.  And also the kind of thing that he’d destroy just by touching it.  

Except he had already touched them, and they hadn’t been destroyed yet.  Yet.

Oh, cool, there was underwear.  Wow.  It had been a while.  

.

Okay.  The bed was incredibly nice, but somehow too nice.  Like, no nap nice.  

He wanted to take a nap.  

But no nap was occurring.  

The bed was too soft.  Ugh.  This was like the thing in that one war novel he’d read when he was probably way too young to read it.  

He groaned.  He hadn’t thought that was real.  He’d thought it was an exaggeration, or just drama.  Or something.  

He crawled off onto the floor and the wonderfully plush carpet.  

Maybe he could sleep here.  

.

He woke up to a faint knocking sound and rolled sideways under cover.  What cover? Oh.  Bed.  That was the bed.  He was in the room.  In the castle.  The ghost king’s castle.  

His baby cousin’s castle.  

He was going to cry.  This was so weird.  

Embarrassed, he rolled back out from under the bed and threw on the first clothes that came to hand.  Which.  Might not have been the best of ideas.  But, hey, he was dressed now.  

He stumbled over to the door and spent several long, embarrassing seconds sleepily remembering how to open doors with this type of handle.  Eventually, though, he managed it.

Clockwork was standing there.  One of his eyebrows went up.  “Interesting choice.”

Flynn looked down.  Orange and green went fine together.  What was he talking about?  

Forget it, he wasn’t about to develop a sense of social shame after living in a hut for a decade or so.  

“Come, now.  Your cousins are expecting you.”

Flynn briefly considered ducking out, phasing through the floor and out of the castle using a tangibility trick he’d picked up a couple of years back.  At least, that would spare him from this ‘diner’ he was rapidly approaching.  

He decided not to do that.  Running away wasn’t his style.  

(Who was he kidding?  That was definitely his style.  He would have run away so, so much if he had anywhere to run to.)

(It wasn’t like he could exactly fight ghosts on even footing.  Each and every one of them had Martian Manhunter’s powerset.)

“Don’t be afraid, Flynn,” said Clockwork, looking back over his shoulder.  

“Do you, like, read minds?”

Clockwork chuckled.  “Only the future.”  He swung the large, gilded door open.  

Inside, there was a long table, set with silvery plates.  There were a small group of children beyond it.  One of them waved at him.  Was that Danny?

Flynn took a deep breath and walked forward, back to his family.  

[melon-wing]

Full Moon

This Story was inspired by @gridoc ‘s fanart found here

Grian laid on the soft grass, looking up at the blue sky. The smell of flowers was all around him and he could hear birds tweeting. He loved this part of being a Hippie. He seriously should have tried something like this way sooner. It was so relaxing after a stressful day of working. And the plus side was, he could always be close to his boyfriend. His eyes landed on Ren sitting on top of his RV, playing a few notes on his guitar and humming no song in particular to himself. This was perfect. Or as Impulse had said, the ‘Disgustingly sweet life of a freshly married couple’. And while they weren’t really married or anything like that, the living together thing, albeit temporary, was something new, that both of them enjoyed a lot.

Grian stretched and stood up as the sun started to get closer to the horizon, walking over to Ren, who stopped playing the instant he noticed him and jumped down from his RV.

“Hey, beautiful!”

Grian smiled, stepped up to his boyfriend and gave him a chaste kiss. “Hello there, Handsome.” He distantly heard a gagging sound from the direction of Impulse’s RV, but chose to ignore it. “So what do you say to a nice dinner? Stress taught me a really nice recipe and I thought I could try it tonight. We could even bust out some candles and make it really romantic.”

Ren’s smile faltered and he shook his head. “Sorry not today. It’s… not good. I need to be alone, you know. There’s a full moon tonight.”

Grian sighed and stepped back, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He hated it when Ren disappeared once a month during the full moon without telling him anything at all. He had tried asking so often now but never gotten a satisfying answer. Depending on Ren’s mood he either got no answer at all, or was distracted with kisses. Only one time he had told Grian that it was dangerous during the full moon, but refused to give any further explanation.

Ren noticed his foul mood – he always did – and soon soft lips covered his. He opened his mouth begrudgingly at first, but soon got to enjoy his apology make out session. When they separated, both a little out of breath his mood had indeed gotten a little better.

“I’ll make it up to you. Let’s take tomorrow off. No building, no digging. We’ll lock the RV and rock the wheels.” Grian grinned at the idea.

There was another annoyed groan coming from Impulse’s RV. “Oh dear god. I’ll take tomorrow off then. Have fun guys! Don’t break the RV.”

They looked at Impulse and then at each other and laughed, everything else forgotten.

Everything was just perfect.

~*~

Grian loved their new world. He really did. But part of him missed the old place. Getting around had been so easy there. He had been able to see Ren every day and they had spend a lot of nights together. Now it took hours upon hours of rowing for one of them. It was their own fault that they had settled so far apart, but there was nothing you could do about that. They were both builders and once a builder fell in love with a spot, nothing could change that.

Grian swore to try and get an Elytra as soon as he was able to. Maybe he could ask his neighbour Scar for some help. But that had to wait for another day. At the moment Grian was busy collecting sand for his little Hobbit Hole. He really couldn’t carry a lot unfortunately and he hated it. He had to take so many trips to gather all the materials.

As he rowed back, the sun was already setting. He didn’t really fear the night, as long as there were no phantoms flying around. Wait… When was the last time he had slept in a bed? Damn, now that he thought about it, there was a high chance of phantoms spawning around him. Maybe it would be better to spend the night somewhere else. Or to find someone with a bed.

Grian took his communicator out and looked at the coordinates, a smile forming on his face. He was really close to Ren’s little island. Maybe he could go there and crash for the night.

<Grian> Hey Ren. I’m out on the ocean. High chance of phantoms. Can I crash at your place?

Grian waited for a few minutes, watching the setting sun and it’s reflection on the water. There was no answer. Their chat wasn’t really busy today at all. Most of them were working hard and not looking at their communicators.

<Grian> I’ll just come by. If you are not there, I’ll just use your bed. Feel free to join me ;)

Grian put his communicator away and got back to rowing. When he reached ‘Loser Island’ the sun’s last rays were already fading over the water. He had made it just in time. He tied his boat to the dock and went over to Pamela, petting the cow on its head and handing her a piece of wheat before continuing on to the hut.

“Ren?!”, he called out as he opened the door.

There was nobody inside.

“Ren you there?”, he called again. He heard a noise from down below were he knew Ren was working on his base and smiled. Without hesitation he jumped down the hole and landed with a splash in the water down below.

“Ren?”, he asked, looking around and getting out of the water. Damn this place had gotten huge since the last time he’d been here.

Before he could look around for his boyfriend his communicator gave of a series of beeps as a number of messages came in. Maybe Ren wasn’t here after all and had messaged him now.

He took out the communicator and looked at it.

<Docm77> Don’t go there, Grian!

<Docm77> Please answer me! Go somewhere else

<Docm77> Grian tell me you didn’t go. It’s dangerous!

Grian looked at the messages in confusion. What the hell was going on with Doc? He never spammed the chat like that. And what was he going on about?

<Grian> I’m already in his base’s lower level. What is going on, Doc?

There was nothing dangerous in Ren’s base. Sure, it was a little dark, but not dark enough for Mob’s to spawn. The torches lit the place up and the full moon was shining through the window. His communicator beeped again.

<Docm77> You idiot! Run! Get out! I’m coming!

Wait… The full moon? Grian raised his head from his communicator to look through the glass front, seeing the moon rise through the ocean water.

Hadn’t Ren told him to never ever visit him during a full moon? Was he up to something dangerous during that time?

There was a rustling sound behind him. Grian’s heart was beating frantically as he turned around. Something was moving slowly by the wall in the shadows.

“Ren? Is that you? This is not funny.”, he called to the shadow. There was a low growling sound and Grian jumped a little. “Ren…?”

The shadow moved a little and finally the torch light revealed it. Grian’s breath hitched, his eyes widened and fear grabbed his heart. The communicator dropped from his hands falling to the floor. At the other side of the room was a giant wolf with sharp teeth and huge claws and it was staring out of glowing red eyes directly at him.

He wanted to scream, but only a silent whimper left his mouth. That was no mob he had ever seen. It was huge, almost double Grian’s size. And he didn’t have his diamond sword with him.

The eyes of the creature were fixed on him. A tongue darted out of its mouth to lick over the glistening teeth, and finally Grian was able to move again. He tried to ignore the pains that came from a whole day of digging sand and sprinted towards the bubble elevator. He needed to get out of here. With its size the creature probably wouldn’t be able to follow him through the tight space.

But just as he had began moving the wolf started to run as well and it was faster than him. He needed to hurry up. He needed to get out of here. He didn’t want to die here.

He was almost there. He would make it. His hand already hit the water as he reached for it, when something hit him in the side, throwing him to the floor. He skidded over the rough stone for a few metres and then came to a halt, panting heavily. He hurt all over from the tackle and from the stone grating away his jumper and into his skin. He stood up on shaking legs, trying to ignore all the scratches. The wolf stood between him and the exit now. There was no way he could get out of here. This was the only exit. He could try to get out of the glass front if he was able to break it, but without any gear on him there was no way he’d be fast enough and the water pressure would be hard to fight any ways.

He tried not to move. Maybe it wouldn’t notice him. Maybe it wouldn’t go after him if he didn’t trigger its instincts.

The wolf kept its eyes on him and Grian’s heart kept beating faster and faster. He was seconds away from having a full on panic attack. His adrenalin was probably the only thing that kept him standing right now and not cowering in fear.

The wolf slowly crept closer and Grian took a few slow steps backwards, looking around for anything he could use as a weapon, but there was nothing. He grabbed one of the torches standing around, holding it out defensively in front of him. Maybe it would be scared of fire. He kept stepping further and further back, the creature following his every move.

And suddenly his back hit the wall. Panic rose inside of him and he hurriedly looked of to the side for a way to get out. That was when the creature jumped. Grian instinctively held the torch in front of his body. There was a howl of pain and the smell of burning hair in the air. The beast held a claw up to its shoulder and stared at Grian. It looked even more enraged than before

And then it pounced again in wild furry. Grian swung the torch in front of him, but one hit from the giant paw sent it flying.

Grian screamed as searing pain shot through his arm. Blood dripped down to the floor from three long gashes the claws had left on his arm. Tears formed in his eyes. He would die here. Doc wouldn’t make it in time. That monster would kill him.

In his panic Grian darted off to the side, stumbling a little. He needed to get away. He didn’t want to die here. And why wasn’t Ren here to help him out? Why was a monster running around in his basement?

Something heavy hit his back and Grian fell, rolling over the stone and coming to a painful halt on his back. If he survived this his whole body would be littered in bruises and scratches.

He hurried to get up, but the giant paws of the beast were suddenly standing on his shoulders. It was lowering its mouth, sharp teeth ready, mouth wide open. Grian raised his arms to push it away, trying to frantically grab anywhere to get it away. It didn’t work. The wolf growled and suddenly Grian’s arm was in its mouth. It was about to bite down and probably take his whole hand off. Then their eyes locked. Grian could see his face reflected in the red eyes. His terrified face full of tears and for a second the red started to flicker, turning into a soft blue. Blue like the sky. Blue like the eyes of…

“Ren…?”

The beast seemed to hesitate and Grian pulled his hand back to safety, away from the sharp teeth.

“Ren is that you?” He felt the pressure fading a little from his shoulders and dared to hope again. He didn’t understand whatever was happening right now, but somehow in some way Ren had turned into this… this wolf monster. And he was coming to his senses. Maybe he was recognizing Grian.

“It’s alright Ren. Everything is okay. Okay? I’m sorry I came over. Don’t do this”, Grian whispered. His words seemed to have an effect on the creature. He just needed to keep talking. Keep it distracted.

“I… I love you, Ren…” One of the giant paws slid off of Grian’s shoulder and he decided to take the opportunity. He hurriedly rolled to the side and got up. That turned out to be a bad idea. The blue eyes instantly turned red again and the beast was growling in anger. Grian wanted to run, but he soon stumbled and then felt sharp claws piercing right through his shoulders. He fell to the ground again, breathing heavily. It was over. He wouldn’t get away this time. He was hurting everywhere. He could feel the warm breath of the wolf right next to his ear as its mouth moved to his neck.

He prepared for the worst, when he heard a loud splash of water.

“Stay down!” A voice shouted. Something flew right over his head and the creature howled in pain.

Grian turned his head to look back. A trident was embedded right in the wolves upper body, blood staining the fur red. It stumbled back a few steps, its eyes flickering between red and blue. The trident ripped itself out of his body again as if by magic and it fell to the ground. It took a few more shaking breaths, trying to get up again, growling dangerously. Again a trident flew, this time hitting its lower abdomen. It struggled to stay upright and took one more shaking step, before it fell down one final time and stopped moving.

“R-Ren…? REN!”

Grian tried to get up, but a warm hand on his back kept him from moving and he looked at Doc who was kneeling next to him, bloody trident in his mechanical arm.

“It’s okay, Grian…”

“Nothing is okay!” There were tears gathering in Grian’s eyes now. He just felt the tension of this whole ordeal all at once becoming too much. “You killed him! That was Ren and you killed him!”

“I know, but…”

“You knew?!” Grian almost shouted, wincing at the pain it caused in his shoulder. “Why? Doc, if you knew that was Ren, why did you do it?”

“You need to calm down, Grian, man…”, he said calmingly, put down the trident after one last look at the wolf and then carefully turned Grian around to get him into a sitting position. “Look.”

Grian followed his instructions and saw the wolf’s fur moving a little as low breaths were still leaving its mouth. “Is he… Will he...?”

“He will be okay. He is one tough guy in that form. And I know how to aim. I just did enough damage to stop him. He will be fully healed once the full moon is gone, don’t worry. He always transforms back without any injuries. No one is dead. And it looks like he didn’t get to bite you. He didn’t right?”

Grian shook his head and Doc let out a sigh of relief. “Good. He would never forgive himself if he turned you as well.”

“What… turned me into what…? Is he a… Werewolf? But they don’t exist. That is just a fairy tale.”

“Well before they multiplied like crazy, people thought phantoms were just a fairy tale and now they are everywhere…” Doc sighed and looked over to where Ren’s body was still lying. “It should be up to him to explain this to you. I told him so many times that you should know what he was. He was so scared you would leave him and look where that got him. He almost bit you. That fool.”

“He is a fool… But I love him even at his worst… He should know that.” Grian smiled sadly and tried to shrug, but the pain in his shoulder almost had him doubling over. Doc’s hand was the only thing that kept him up.

“Can you stand up? Should I call Xisuma to teleport us to a safer place?”

Grian shook his head. He didn’t want to get Xisuma involved. It was his own fault he was in this situation. “I’ll manage…”

Grian managed to slowly get up with Doc’s hand steadying him. Doc was constantly looking him up and down a worried expression on his face. “You don’t really look to good.”

“’m fine…”, Grian mumbled, swaying a little. His face was as white as a sheet of paper. How much blood had he lost? There weren’t too many wounds on his body, but those cuts seemed to be pretty deep. He took a shaking step towards the exit, but stumbled and hadn’t it been for Doc holding him up, he would have fallen to the ground again.

“Stupid stubborn fools, both of you”, he mumbled, his communicator in hand. Grian could distantly hear the sound of typing and beeping, as if he was under water. He couldn’t think clearly. Everything around him started to sway. And then everything around him disappeared and they suddenly stood in a brightly lit room. He was rushed over to a bed. Xisuma was standing there looking at him worriedly. Oh… So they had transported him to Xisuma’s place.

He wanted to say something, but his vision started to fade and he suddenly felt so tired. He couldn’t keep his eyes open and slowly drifted out of consciousness. Maybe he would wake up and realise all this had been just a nightmare.

In his dreams he was haunted by glowing red eyes. The wolf was always right next to him no matter where he went. He was suddenly back in the cave below Ren’s base, the wolf above him. But this time there was no trident flying through the air. No Doc to rescue him. He felt the sharp teeth bite into his neck and screamed.

He screamed and screamed, hands were on him at once and he heard voices talking to him. Slowly but surely he gained a sense of his surroundings. He was in Xisuma’s bed. There was no wolf. It was bright and the sun was shining through the windows and someone was holding his hand.

A little out of breath he looked at Xisuma who was gently holding his hand, his helmet abandoned in a corner of the room.

“’suma…?”

“Yeah. You alright, Grian? You had a nightmare.”

“So it wasn’t real?”, he asked, still a little dazed, but the pity in Xisuma’s eyes made him realise how stupid that question was. Of course it had been real. Why else would he be in Xisuma’s bed of all places? And he still hurt all over. He looked down at his arm. It was tightly wrapped in a bandage. The white fabric was stained dark red in some places.

And suddenly he realised it was morning and Doc’s words came back to him. “Ren! Where is he? Is he alright? I need to...”, he hurriedly tried to get up, but Xisuma gently pushed him back into the mattress.

“Don’t strain yourself”, he mumbled then turned around and stepped away from the bed. “Ren, get over here. You heard him.”

Grian heard some rustling in the corner of the room and finally he saw Ren slowly stepping up to his bed. Why hadn’t he been next to him this whole time?

“Ren…” Ren looked bad. He wouldn’t raise his head to look at Grian. His eyes were red and puffy and there were still tear tracks on his face. His whole posture just screamed Insecurity. “Ren, babe… Look at me, please.”

Finally Ren raised his head and their eyes met. He could see tears shining in Ren’s eyes. “Grian… I am so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. I promise. I just… I can’t control the wolf. I tried to stop it. I really did. I was so scared. I’d understand if you don’t want to be with me any more.”

Grian shock his head and slowly raised his non bandaged arm to rest a hand on Ren’s cheek. “It’s alright. Nothing bad happened. I’m okay. And I still love you.”

Xisuma sighed next to them and put down a few clean bandages onto the bed. “I’ll give you guys a little privacy. Ren, He needs a change of bandages. I trust you to take care of that. Talk it out you two. I’ll be back later.”

Grian noticed that Ren looked a little panicked at Xisuma’s retreating back and he opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something. Maybe he wanted to stop Xisuma. As the door fell closed, Ren even flinched a little, head hanging low again.

“You don’t want to be alone with me?”, Grian asked sadly, noticing all the signs.

Ren looked finally looked back at him, eyes wide with shock, shaking his head. “I thought you wouldn’t want to be. I thought you might get scared after I attacked you.”

Grian huffed in mild annoyance. “If I didn’t want to be alone with you I would have told Xisuma. We have been alone thousand of times, haven’t we.”

“Yeah but I attacked you…”

“Right. You attacked me. Once. When you weren’t even yourself. We have been together almost every night since the last season. Percentage wise I think I have a good chance to be safe alone with you.” Grian slowly got into a sitting position, wincing a little at the pain, but unlike Xisuma, Ren made no move to stop him. He grabbed Ren and pulled him into a hug. It hurt, sure, it hurt like hell. But seeing Ren like that, seeing him blame himself for everything that happened, that hurt even more.

“It’s okay. We are okay. It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known I’d be there.” He felt Ren’s hand hesitantly wrapping around him and Grian almost melted into the embrace. “I love you. And I’ll always love you, even if you transform into some monster wolf, I’ll still love you.”

Ren was shaking now and Grian felt something wet on his shoulders. He carefully petted Ren’s back with his unbandaged hand, trying to calm him down. “It’s okay… Everything is fine…”, he continued to whisper words of comfort until he felt Ren calming down. They still stayed there for a while, neither of them ready to let go.

Until Grian moved a little and pain shot through his arm. A pained whine escaped him and Ren let go of him as if he’d burned himself. “I’m sorry. Oh god, Gri, I’m so sorry. Look at me. I’m a mess and you are the one that got hurt. I should be the one to care for you not the other way around.”

“Don’t worry, it’s…”

“No. It’s not okay. Stop saying that. I know you want to reassure me, but I have a right to worry about you. You are hurt.” Ren picked up the clean bandage. “I need to make it up to you, even if you don’t see that. You might be okay, but I… I’m not okay yet.”

Grian didn’t dare to say anything. He wanted to make Ren forget about what happened, but he understood where Ren was coming from. It was probably easier to forgive someone else than to forgive yourself. So he just nodded and held out his wounded arm.

Gently Ren peeled of the bloody bandage. Grian averted his eyes, not ready to see the damage the attack had caused.

“I owe you an explanation, I think”, Ren began and Grian just shrugged. “No, Gri, I really do. I should have told you a long time ago. Doc was always pestering me about it. I guess he was right. If you had known you would have paid more attention to the moon.”

“Tell me then… Whatever you are comfortable with.”

Ren smiled sadly, putting the bloody bandages to the side and taking a washing cloth from the bedside table. He dabbed it gently against the wound. It stung like hell, but Grian tried not to show any discomfort as Ren began explaining.

“I was still young when it happened. It was long before I came to Hermitcraft. I got lost in a forest looking for… I don’t even know what I was looking for any more. It was stupid to go out alone that late. It was a full moon. That huge wolf suddenly appeared in front of me. I tried to run away, but it was just too fast. It bit me. It probably would have killed me. But I was lucky. Someone had noticed my screams and chased the monster off. I thought I was lucky. Until the next full moon came and I transformed. It hurts… It hurts every time. All the bones in your body shifting, your skin stretching out. But the worst thing is not how it feels but the way you lose all control. I was never able to control myself.”

“But you did...”, Grian whispered, thinking back to last night, when his arm had been in the wolf’s mouth, about to be bitten. “Your eyes. They turned blue and you didn’t… you stopped.”

Ren smiled sadly and nodded. “That was the first time I managed to do this. And even though… even when I love you this much I wasn’t able to stay in control. I tried so hard...”

Ren took a shaky breath, quietly put the wash cloth away and started carefully bandaging the arm again. “I’m glad Doc was there. Even if he almost killed me... I once told him if worst comes to worst he has my permission to kill me. I’d rather die then see anything happen to you.”

“Well and I’d rather be bitten than see you die. So I’ll have a talk with Doc about that agreement”, Grian replied with an annoyed huff and while Ren looked like he wanted to argue he held back. He probably knew that Grian wouldn’t change his mind on that matter.

Ren kept bandaging up his arm, then paused and looked straight into Grian’s eyes, gaze full of worry. “Just… Never visit me during the full moon ever again. Promise me that you’ll be careful. If I were to bite you, I’d never forgive myself.”

Grian averted his eyes. Ren wasn’t the only one who felt guilty about this whole ordeal. If he had just paid attention to the moon… If he hadn’t stayed out so late… If he had waited patiently for an answer instead of just barging in… If he had…

“Grian. Stop it.”

“’m not doing anything…”, Grian mumbled quietly, turning his eyes back to Ren.

“You are blaming yourself, when I am the only one to blame. I can see it in your eyes.”

“Well… If I’m not allowed to blame myself, then neither are you!”

Ren shook his head, about to answer again, but Grian wouldn’t let him. “No. You listen to me, Mr. Ren. You had no control. You told me enough times that you can’t see me during a full moon. So what? Yeah, you maybe should have told me you are a werewolf after two years of dating, but whatever.” Grian looked back to Ren again, nothing but love in his eyes. “It will take me a while to get over this, sure. I will feel bad about it and so will you, but we can pull through it. Don’t you ever doubt that.”

Ren lowered his eyes and finished bandaging Grian’s arm. But for the first time since Grian had woken up there was a small smile on his lips. And Grian knew at that moment that they would be alright.

[shelterinwilderness]

4 Best Way to Build a Shelter in the Wilderness for 2021

In this article, you will learn about different types of survival shelters you can use in a wilderness survival situation and possibly save your life.

Survival stories in the wilderness are not uncommon.

Tyson Steele, 30, survived the harsh Alaskan wilderness for three weeks before being rescued.

Initially, he hid in a snow cave, and then he made a tent out of scrap material.

The rest of Tyson's story indicates that he had plenty of knowledge about how to build a survival shelter, which he claimed he learned from being in the outdoors and watching YouTube videos.

If you were in Tyson's position, what would you do? Is it freezing?

I hope not. However, your survival would depend on your ability to build a cold-weather shelter.

By reading this article you will avoid the freezing fate by learning how to make or identify a natural shelter for extreme weather conditions.

The skills you need to master so that you can make your emergency shelter and the type of survival shelter that will work best in different survival situations are also discussed.

Here is a quick overview of survival shelters.

4 Types of Wilderness Survival Shelters

Lean-to shelter

Tarp shelters

A-frame lean-to shelter

Snow shelters

Also, check the Best 5 Person Tent for Camping 2021 If you are planning to visit nature with a group of friends or family, a 5-person tent is a perfect choice.

4 Types of Survival Shelter: How to Build a Shelter in the Wilderness

These 4 different types of shelter in the wilderness provide protection from the effects of winter's cold, summer's heat, rainy weather's wetness, and insects.

1) Taking a lean-to shelter

Lean-to shelters are quick and easy to construct. Lean-to shelter can be either single- or double-sided. The cold will not be sheltered by single-sided lean-to shelters.

Furthermore, a single-sided lean-to shelter may not be practical if the wind or rain changes direction.

Shelters with double lean-to Shelters are more effective. Providing they are installed properly, they will keep you from the rain and wind.

Here are some instructions for building a lean-to shelter:

Hold a long pole firmly between two trees by placing it between a Y-joint on each tree. There are also options, such as tying a strong rope on the trees or making a firm square lashing to hold the pole on each tree.

You can cover one or both sides (for the single-sided shelter) with poles so that the poles meet at the 'lean-to' pole.

Make your shelter dense and waterproof by covering the poles with branches and heaps of leaves, grass, or other types of vegetation.

You can replace the branches and foliage with a tarp, emergency blanket, or poncho if available.

2) Tarp shelters

In the wilderness, we should always carry tarps in our backpacks and keep them in our vehicles.

When we have to build a survival shelter, a good quality tarp like the Aqua Quest Defender Tarp will protect us from harsh weather conditions.

A simple tarp shelter can be constructed by tying a rope between two poles or trees and draping your tarp over the rope. You can use the cord to tie the corners of your tarp away from you to firm it.

It will protect you from rain and wind, but you might need to build a tarp teepee if you want protection from cold and wild animals.

When you are in a group, a tarp teepee shelter is a good option.

How to build a tarp teepee shelter:

Find a few poles that are long enough to accommodate the length of your canvas.

Tying the first three poles at the top will prevent the poles from detaching from each other.

Prop up the three poles diagonally from the bottom until they are stable and resemble a teepee.

Place the other poles between the first three poles and firm them with ropes.

Wrap the tarp around the poles to complete your tarp teepee shelter. At the top, the joint between the poles creates smoke flaps, and the space between them allows rain to enter. You can prevent this by placing a piece of canvas on top to seal the space.

Tarp teepee shelters offer more space, so you can make a fire inside. You should leave the entrance open to prevent carbon monoxide intoxication.

3) A-frame lean-to shelter

Similar to the lean-to shelter, the A-frame shelter is easy to assemble and uses materials that are readily available in the wilderness.

The name refers to the A-shaped shape the shelter takes at the entrance. While the shelter will protect you from wind and rain, you may need a fire at the entrance to generate heat.

Just don't get too close to the entrance to avoid intoxication.

Making a lean-to shelter from an A-frame:

Three sturdy posts will suffice; two around 4-5* and one around 10* (or the size that will allow you to lie down inside the shelter without leaving part of your body outside the shelter).

Grasp the three posts in a Y-shape by weaving the two shorter posts together in an A shape. Set the two posts firmly on the ground and create the width of the entrance that you desire.

Using a strong square lash, fasten the longer post to a tree at the other end of the Y-shape. You can also secure the post firmly with smaller rocks or logs if you find a tree stump or rock nearby.

Put the end of the horizontal post on one of the long horizontal posts, and stride them out at uniform distances, so that you can even out the walls of your shelter.

Make your shelter thatched and fill up the open spaces with grass, sticks, and twigs. If you want to stay relatively warm, your shelter walls should be thick enough to keep you dry and protected from the wind. Pine boughs, moss, or leaves can be used to add more density to the walls. Additionally, you can add these to your shelter to remain undetected.

Garbage bags can be draped over horizontal posts in the event that water gets in and insulate the space before adding the wall posts.

On the floor, you can put a log bed, which can be covered with leaves.

4) Snow shelters 

Due to its density and the trapped air in its flakes, snow acts as an insulator.

Loose snow is more insulating because it traps more air and therefore preserves more heat. Snow can be used to build any of these types of shelters.

The snow trench shelter

A snow trench is designed to create an insulating shelter against cold and wind. Snow trenches can be made in two ways.

If you have access to compacted snow, you can cut it into blocks, arrange them on the ground in two parallel lines, and then cover the top of the trench with more blocks.

The blocks can, however, be cut out with a survival knife or saw if you have one available.

The second method requires digging out a trench, covering it with poles to create a roofing base, and then insulating the top layer with tree boughs and leaves.

Cutting out snow blocks requires more energy than this method. The trench can be dug with a stick since the ground is moist. You must dig a trench long enough to cover your entire body.

Shelter in a snow cave

The snow shelter is created by hollowing out the snow pile. We describe one method of building a snow cave for survival.

Snow usually drifts and gathers into huge piles in one place due to wind. When you need to build an emergency shelter in winter, you could use this to build your snow cave.

Alternatively, you can pile up snow and follow these steps to create a snow cave:

Build a pile of snow around 5 feet high and 10 feet long. You will have a shovel with you if you are making a snow cave. In an emergency winter shelter, however, you'll need to use your snowshoes or anything else you have that could serve as a shovel.

Let the snow settle and compact so that it stays together and does not separate when you make your cave.

Collect the materials you will need to insulate yourself inside the shelter while your snow bonds. You can use pine or spruce boughs, or even dry leaves.

You can mark the entrance of the cave by cutting a square shape into the snow and then gradually scoop out the snow. Wear waterproof clothes to avoid getting wet and losing insulation from your clothing, which may lead to hypothermia. As you dig, lay pine boughs on the cave base to prevent losing heat through convection and conduction.

Afterward, smooth out the top of the cave into a dome shape. This compacts the snow on the roof and prevents dripping. You will be able to move better if your cave has a concave finish. For an enclosed snow cave, you'll need to make a few ventilation holes in the roof and pass a stick now and then to keep them open.

Make your spruce/pine boughs bed by crawling in a few times to compact it. To act as insulation, your bed should be a few inches thick.

If you stay in the snowy wilderness for more than a night, you will need a more stable snow survival shelter like an igloo.

Shelter in an igloo

It takes longer to make an igloo than other winter camping shelters, but if temperatures do not rise, it will last you for more than a night.

For cutting out snow blocks, you'll also need a shovel, a survival knife, or a saw.

Snow igloos work best when the snow is compact.

Here's how to build an igloo shelter:

Find a flat area.

In the snow, draw a circle about 12ft (3.5m) in diameter. Make the drawing compass more accurate by planting a stick in the center and tying a string to another stick that is half the diameter of your circle.

Remove the top layer of snow and dig around 2 cm deep.

To cut the compact snow into 50cm-long blocks, use a knife or saw. If you don't have compact snow, you can use a crate, but you will need to wait for the blocks to compact.

Create a slight angle towards the inside by arranging the snow blocks around the base of the circle.

As you stack the blocks, you will end up with a dome-shaped roof.

Dig out two or three blocks at the entrance point. Make sure your entrance faces the wind.

Seal off the gaps between the blocks with loose snow and smooth the roof inside to prevent water from falling.

Snow shelter made from a tree pit

Another winter survival shelter that you can use is a tree pit. This type of shelter already has the basic structure for your shelter built for you.

The tree's trunk is buried a few feet by snow. After digging out the snow around the tree trunk, you cover the bottom with pine boughs and leaves to create an insulation bed.

The tree canopy already covers you, but you'll need to cover the top of the pit with branches and leaves. It will keep the heat inside and prevent any snow on the tree from falling on you.

Summary

Protecting yourself from the extremes of weather elements is crucial if you find yourself in the wilderness, whether you are lost or planning a trip.

Ideally, you should learn how to build extreme weather survival shelters before you face a survival situation.

Understanding your wilderness survival shelter needs and identifying an appropriate situation should precede your selection of a specific shelter design.

In winter, you can build a snow cave, dig a trench in the ground if you're in the desert, or make an a-frame shelter if you're in the jungle.

Whatever choice you make, your ultimate goal is to survive the extremes of weather, which makes the strain of making a survival shelter worthwhile.

[swallowtail-jumper]

Wrist-ful Thinking

1443 words | Curse words, mentions of vomiting | Noctis-centric

It was the day after a week’s worth of snow finally melted. Noctis had been walking around in a half state. If asked, he would’ve said he was feeling sick. The few times that he threw up would’ve gladly assisted with the illusion of some type of virus taking hold. But he wasn’t asked, confined with the one person who didn’t talk to him even after a week of white hell trapping them inside. Which meant he was forced to confront the truth of what was going on every time he tried to justify- to lie- to himself.

He was tearing himself apart.

As soon as the snow was melted enough that he could walk out without ten layers, Noctis headed out. The cold made him shiver, the snow made him shudder, but he just walked. There was so much of the land he hadn’t walked upon. There were so any possible paths that he hadn’t taken. If he were to get lost, he needed to be able to find his own way back.

He knew any saving that would be done for him had to be done by him.

----

The first day, he found a little cave. After cautiously checking out if there were any living beings in there that would kill him for disturbing him, he found a small Radiant Flutterbun. The thing scampered away from him at first sight, disappearing into the ground meters away. Noctis shrugged and put one of his socks into the cave. He’d need something with more of his scent on it to keep animals away. But that was a later thing, as there was no way in hell he was leaving one of his nice, warm jackets in a cave.

(Ten minutes later, the feeling of walking around with just one sock on was too distracting. He walked back and took the other one off to throw it with its twin.)

The second day he found what probably would be a stream. The water was still frozen, though what interested Noctis more were the pebbles underneath the ice. Carefully, he pried one out, feeling his skin stick slightly to the cold, but smooth surface. It was the prettiest light blue. Like a certain dragon’s eyes.

He pocketed it. It’d look good decorating his cave.

The third through twelfth days were filled with the same kind of small discoveries. More pebbles. Some nests of animals. A couple damp bird feathers. Every day Noctis explored until his legs started to hurt, or he saw the sun starting to go down. He taught himself to read time in the shadows just so he wouldn’t be caught out in the dark, so he would know exactly when to start jogging- or one memorable occasion, sprinting- back home.

And every day he would make a map of his journey. Several, actually. Most of them were copies of each other, excluding the location of his cave. He wasn’t sure he’d ever want to share the location of that with anyone else.

Every day he would come back home, and he would be greeted with silence that felt so much better when he knew he was too exhausted to do anything but eat and fall asleep. His travels let him pick up firewood, and he’d gotten good enough at hunting small game that he could bring it in to cook for himself.

Sawyer didn’t question, didn’t look over.

-----

On the thirteenth through sixteenth days, Noctis took a break from exploring to go and find someone in the town who would be willing to help him learn to sew. He had skinned his meat before cooking it; maybe he could make socks?

He ended up being helped by Minnie and Ewar. Ewar also ended up giving him a stuffed mith, saying he had no use for it. Minnie sighed, and Noctis stayed by her for the majority of the time, but, overall, he learned the basics fairly quickly. Having a photographic memory was definitely proving to be useful these last couple weeks.

It was on the twentieth day that Noctis fell head over ass into a pit. Not like a little hole from a tree rotting or a squirrel digging up their buried food, but a hole that was at least twice his size height-wise.

Noctis was more than 6 feet tall. This was an extremely big hole that he did not appreciate being trapped in. Especially with the way he had landed on his wrist when he had fallen. He winced as he pushed himself up, trying to remind himself that he shouldn’t use it even as he automatically went to balance himself with it.

Luckily, the problem of trying to get himself out was solved by a rope being thrown down. Unfortunately, that meant that someone was there to throw the rope down at him. Noctis sighed. Either it was going to be insults (Sawyer) or a lecture about not falling into holes and watching where he was going (anyone else). He tied the rope around his waist and gave it a small tug, his feet lifting off the ground seconds later.

Instead of finding anyone from his little village, he was greeted by the sight of a huge Serthis. ‘Huge’ as in the hole looked just barely big enough to fit him.

One of his teeth, the ones that stuck out past his lip, were chipped. Noctis gulped a little at the sight of it. What could such a creature eat that would damage it like that?

“What the fuck are you doing in my trap?” A smart man would give an honest answer, or maybe try to reason with the Serthis that was clearly physically capable of murdering him, if not just completely eating him.

Noctis is not a smart man.

“Uh, I’m not doing anything in your trap. As you can see, I’m actually-”

“Ha ha ha, very funny.” The Serthis had a lisp. Noctis very wisely chose to ignore pointing out how well his image of Serthis actually fit with the real deal.

“I’m glad you think so.” Noctis paused for a second, gathering his thoughts before he realized that he’d already made an idiot of himself, and there was no real point in attempting to salvage his image. “Hopefully funny enough to not eat?”

“Oh, gross, of course. I don’t eat things that can communicate with me.” That’s really all that Noctis needed to get as confirmation that he could turn his back on this guy. He untied the rope wrapped around his waist, and then realized that, hey, his wrist was bleeding. And he bled on the rope.

Oh well, might as well ignore that for now.

“Uh, sorry about the falling in your trap thing. Are there any more I should know about so you’re not pulling me out of another one tomorrow?” The Serthis snorted a laugh, rolling up his rope with practiced ease.

“I’ll tell you, if you part with some of that jewelry.” Noctis shrugged good naturedly. He had at least three more body parts he could sprain. At least it would keep him occupied. “Oh, fine. There’s some splattered around the island. A snake has to eat.”

“Thank you.” Noctis looked up at the Serthis to smile at him but ended up realizing the sky was darker than he was comfortable with. He’d definitely be hauling ass to get home. “See you around?” Noctis gave a wave. It probably looked as if he feared for his life, but again, he couldn’t bring himself to care. Cold and dark night? He’s running. Giant Snake person? Fine whatever.

The Serthis’ answer is nearly lost, but Noctis smiles to himself as he hears a rumble of ‘maybe’ come from behind him.

(When Noctis gets home, his arm hurts a lot more than it did before. He goes to ignore it when he’s stopped by Sawyer looking at him. The thought that it stops him because it’s become something of a commodity is saddening But Noctis has no time to think of that, because Sawyer is already grabbing an old shirt to help wipe off his arm.

“I don’t know what you’re doing but you should be careful.”

Noctis wants to tell him, wants to show him the little things he’s collected. To show him the little home he’s made for himself. To tell him that there’s a huge Serthis that could very easily demolish the village. But the words get caught in his throat in the tender way that Sawyer cleans his cut.

Noctis can feel the ghosts of fingertips removing rocks from his skin long after they’ve gone to bed.)

[avengeultrons]

Title: Those Summer Nights (Reader x Avengers) 

Summary: A night of s’mores, sand and waves, games, and quality time with friends. What more could you want?  Word Count: 1841

A/N: I seriously wrote this in a day CAN YOU BELIEVE? took my mind off of studying for a while LOL enjoy! thank you @whisperbreeze for the request my luv

--

Your lazy beach day was winding down; the sun was setting and turning the sky pink, families were heading home, Wanda, Steve and Bucky were tossing a frisbee back and forth on the sand. You were swimming around in the low tide, taking a boogie board far out into the deeper, colder waters to ride the waves in with Pietro. Clint and Tony were building a bonfire to cook hot dogs and s’mores in once the sun had disappeared completely from the sky. It was nice to take a day off and just be with each other, relaxing and taking it easy.

“Race you in?” you flashed a smile at Pietro, your hair a wild lion’s mane of salt water and sand tangles. He looked over at you and laughed, rolling his eyes as he sat atop his boogie board like all of the surfer dudes that you had seen on every summer movie ever.

“You are so on,” he said, turning his back to the beach to watch as the waves grew. You smirked, and started running in the water. Pietro scoffed and did the same, trying to catch a wave into the sand.

Wanda, Steve, and Bucky stopped their frisbee game, Natasha looked up from her novel, Bruce propped himself up on his elbows to watch. They were all watching the tight boogie board race play out in front of them; it was all up to the waves. You took off on the first wave, now on your knees in the water. You were so close to the shore that you could practically crawl the rest of the way, “Not so fast!” Pietro laughed his infectious, hardy laugh from behind you and suddenly shot up to the shore on a huge wave. He almost looked like Ariel pushing herself up on the rocks in ‘Part of Your World’.

“How?” you scoffed and got to your feet, dragging your board behind you like a three year old pouting after not getting what they wanted, “I need a drink,” you exclaimed, heading for the cooler dug into the sand to snag a beer. You popped the top off and wrapped yourself in a towel, scowling at Pietro.

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game, Y/N,” he simply shrugged, clinking his beer bottle with yours. You rolled your eyes, wringing your hair out with your towel, “How is that fire coming?”

Tony shrugged, sending another spark into the dry driftwood, “Nearly there,” he said sarcastically. Clint was throwing gasoline over the wood, signaling for Tony to try igniting it again. For such a simple feat that cavemen figured out, starting a fire yourself was truly harder than you thought. Nevertheless, Tony and Clint’s fire ignited, “Who’s ready for dinner?”

You all gathered around the warm, crackling fire on blankets and stumps and lawn chairs, rotating hot dogs over the hot flames. Natasha was playing classic rock music on her bluetooth speakers, humming along as she sipped wine merrily. This time together was the epiphany of summertime to you; true relaxation with the people that you cared about most. Oh, and s’mores.

It was completely dark out now, just the stars and the flames to light your faces. Jovial, gleeful laughter floated around like songs in the wind as you told stories and remembered all of the good times together. You threw your old sweatshirt from college on and reached for the bag of marshmallows propped open on Tony’s blanket, “Wanna play a game?” Sam proposed, sipping from his glass of whiskey. Tony raised an eyebrow as you dangled your marshmallow into the flames that immediately licked at the sugary treat, turning it from white to golden to dark brown in a matter of seconds.

“Like what?” Steve questioned, assembling his own s’more. A collective groan ensued when Sam suggested Truth or Dare, “That game always gets people into trouble, Sam.”

Sam rolled his eyes, setting his beer bottle into the sand as he grabbed a chip from the party sized bag, “Okay, fine. How about ‘never have I ever’? You just hold up ten fingers and put one finger down each time you’ve done something. Whoever has the most fingers up at the end, wins.”

“Or loses, depending on how you look at it,” Natasha added, taking a graham cracker from the sleeve and snapping it in half for her s’more, “Fun though. I’ll go. Never have I ever jumped out of an airplane without a parachute,” this one seemed to be directed at Steve. Both him, Sam, Tony, and Bruce put one finger down. They all sighed dramatically.

“Never have I ever used Captain America’s shield when it wasn’t mine to use,” Steve retorted. You, Natasha, Bucky, Sam, Tony, Thor, Clint and Wanda all put a finger down, “Y/N? Really?”

Your face burned a deep crimson shade, “I just wanted to take a picture with it, I hardly moved it!” you admitted, your face falling. You took a bite of your s’more as everyone laughed so hard that you thought they would all stop breathing.

“That’s sweet,” Steve said as he sent a smile your way. You were more than happy to dig yourself a hole in the sand and bury yourself, “Tony, your turn.” Tony pondered for a long moment as you roasted another marshmallow, holding up your free hand’s five fingers, “Never have I ever been so drunk  that I don’t remember what happened the next day. Before you all think I’ve done it, I always remember what’s happened!” You and Wanda shared a glance, unable to control your own laughter.

“Care to share?” Pietro peered over at his sister, leaning back on his elbows as her eyes widened and ears turned red. She merely shook her head, smiling at you.

“Oh, that was a fun night, wasn’t it?” Natasha asked the two of you.

It was hardly a month ago that the three of you got together and drank wine and baked cookies, a typical girls’ night in for all of you. You and Wanda were both so wine drunk that you apparently confessed to Wanda about how badly you wanted to kiss her brother and Wanda, crying, said that she wanted to kiss Vision. It was all a blurred mess to you, but it was one story that Natasha liked to remind you of. She even said that you nearly called Pietro to tell him, too.

“Don’t you dare,” Wanda said with a nervous laugh, watching as Natasha glanced from you, to Wanda, to Pietro, and then back to you. She shrugged and took a sip from her wine, raising a glass to the two of you.

Steve watched apprehensively, glancing over at Sam as if it was his fault that Natasha was now playing with fire. He pleaded her with her eyes to not say whatever it was that she was about to say, but he knew it was no use.

The waves seemed to crash louder, the fire seemed to grow higher. Your nervous thoughts twisted in the wind as you held up your eight fingers, your palms sweaty from the stress and anxiety that this game was causing, “Never have I ever wanted to make out with Pietro,” she said, her words taking a moment to truly sink in with everybody. No one said a word, except for Tony, who put all of his fingers down.

“Well, never have I ever had a crush on Bruce!” Wanda offered, her eyes shifting from you to Natasha. She exhaled loudly, “Okay, maybe that one was crossing a line. Sorry, Bruce.”

Natasha shrugged and put a finger down, her eyes staring straight at you, “None taken, Wanda. It is the truth after all,” he smiled over at Natasha, who rolled her eyes and took another gulp of wine. Oh, god. This was awkward.

No one said a word except for Tony, who put all of his fingers down, “Oh, damn it. I lose. Or win, however we’re playing. What a bummer. This is awkward! Okay, game over, who wants to eat their worries away in the form of s’mores?” He clapped his hands together and tossed marshmallows through the air to everyone, catching your gaze. You mouthed a ‘thank you’ and gladly toasted another marshmallow.

“Look Y/N, if you want to make out with me, all you have to do is ask,” Pietro chided, smiling widely at you from across the fire pit. You rolled your eyes, a rock forming in your stomach. You would definitely be getting Natasha back on a later date.

“How do you guess it was me?” you raised an eyebrow, stuffing your third s’more of the evening into your mouth. Wanda choked on her own marshmallow treat as she stifled her laughter from Pietro’s side.

Tony, who knew how obvious you were when it came to things like little crushes, nodded in agreement, “Yeah, if you think it was Y/N it could honestly be any one of us. Y/N isn’t exactly very vocal with things like that,” he lied straight their his sugary marshmallow coated teeth.

“Since you lose, Stark, you get to take a dip in the ocean. My guess is that it’s pretty chilly right now,” Bruce said with a laugh. The air itself was chilly, everyone was covered in either a blanket or jacket. In order to ease the tension, though, Tony nodded affirmatively and took off in a sprint to the ocean. He let out a banshee cry and all of you broke into laughter as you heard the loud splash from the jet black water ahead of you.

Steve sighed and took a swig of whatever was left in his beer bottle, “Great game choice, Sam. Way to really lay awkward tension on thick,” he said sarcastically. He leaned over onto his elbow, looking up at you as you watched Tony splash around like a toddler, “I definitely want to see these shield pictures of you.”

“Come on in, the water’s frigid!” Tony chuckled from the water. His head bobbed up and down in the midnight colored water, the only reflection being from the moon and the stars.

You kicked off your sandals and hopped up, “Never in a million years!” you grinned at Steve, throwing your sweatshirt onto your towel haphazardly, “I’m getting in that water.” Wanda laughed at first, but ended up taking her sneakers off and running off with you.

“Wait up!” Pietro yelled after you as you sprinted to the shore. You let out a scream as he caught up to you and dove in front of you, straight into the water like a fish. Everyone on the sand watched like a bunch of parents

You couldn’t stop laughing. The alcohol in your system sent a sort of buzz through you that made everything even more extravagant. You were warm despite the cool temps of the salt water, giddy despite the awkward situation moments before. For the first time in a long time, summer actually felt like summer.

[jessicakehoe]

Olive & June’s Sarah Gibson Tuttle Wants to Bring Back the At-Home Manicure

Sarah Gibson Tuttle thinks it’s high time women embrace the at-home mani. As the founder of ultra-popular L.A. based nail chain Olive & June, that may seem like a counterintuitive goal, but Gibson Tuttle has her sights on bigger things: namely, changing the face of the nail industry. She took a year off working in the salon to devote all of her energy to digging into what was missing from the puzzle of the at-home manicure.

This week, the brand launched their first-ever polish collection, complete with an array of “seven-free”—that is, free of notorious nail polish chemicals including toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), camphor, ethyl tosylamide and xylene—pastel-leaning neutrals, and one game-changing device. The Poppy is a universal handle designed to fit on top of any nail polish bottle, using ergonomic design to help stabilize your painting hand. In other words, it’s the solution to the awkward and oft-frustrating shakes that result from trying to paint your nails using your non-dominant hand, resulting in a smooth nail polish application and fewer smudging incidents.

We spoke with Gibson Tuttle to find out where the nail industry is at right now, where it’s heading and how we can all get on the at-home mani train.

What inspired you to create this line of products?

In 2017, after we had three of our salons open, we were getting a ton of inbound interest from investors and franchisees, so we did a deep dive in the industry to figure out what the best way to deliver Olive & June’s happiness to everyone would be and what we learned was pretty surprising. Women on the coast were participating in nails 40 times a year, mostly at a salon, and the price of their manicure was about $12 to $14. Women outside of L.A., San Francisco and New York were participating in nails six times a year and their average price of a manicure was $25. We figured out that women weren’t really able to participate in nails as frequently as they might want to, and they felt that it was near-impossible to paint their own nails. Then at the same time, we saw the boom of everything moving to at-home, from Netflix instead of going to the movies, to make-your-own-meal services, to everything in skincare and obviously makeup. But nails was not participating in the category. 90% of the nail industry is in service. You have 10% of the industry at home, whereas makeup is 99% at-home. We had this lightbulb moment where we really felt it was important to give every woman everywhere a routine and in essence, teach them how to do their own nails.

How did you come up with the Poppy?

Every time I was using a different handle [at home], my hand was smushed, it felt like I didn’t have enough grip and I was shaking. When I went to the brush designers, I said, my hand shakes when I paint with the non-dominant [hand], it’s not comfortable. And I don’t want to mess up my nails, because once I’ve actually gotten my nails painted, I don’t want to mess them up again. I want something I can squeeze really hard without messing up my nails. Once we figured out a shape that was ergonomic and stabilizing, then it was, “How big is it? How small is it? How soft is it? How stiff is it?” The brush matters so much. So it became iterations on the shape itself. The other thing that we were considering was that I know women everywhere have many polish bottles at home, so how do we create something that’s universal, that goes on top of every nail polish bottle? That was a huge consideration for us. It’s sold separately for that very reason. I want women to get empowered to start doing this themselves. And how do we democratize that salon manicure? We lean into what you already have.

What are the main pain points of at-home manicures?

The number one issue was painting with your non-dominant hand, over and over and over again. The second biggest issue was cuticles. Everyone was like, “sure, I’ll learn how to paint but what do I do with my cuticles?” Which is something we’re tackling with our next product coming out in April. Also, there were quick dry issues. We know that it takes a minute for polish to dry, even if it’s quick dry, so we wanted to create a habit or a routine out of it. Some of the other pain points were shaping, which we get a lot of. We’re launching Olive University on our site, Olive U. With hair and makeup, there’s different skin tones and textures but with nails, it’s much more straight-forward. It’s like, 30 things people want to know, and it’s the same questions over and over and over. It’s interesting that no one’s tried to solve it. When you look at the industry, it’s mostly made up of service. You mostly have brands that you use in service and then you have manicurists. But with the at-home piece, people are just starving for information. The few tutorials [on YouTube] that are good have millions of views for a reason, because people are really just looking for information.

It does seem like people who get their nails done at salons regularly don’t try it for themselves at home.

They truly don’t believe they can. They truly believe it’s near-impossible. The thing about it is that nails is the cheapest way to change your look. It’s the least expensive way to be in beauty, and it’s the category that we’re most excited about as little girls. The women who learned how to paint when they were teenagers totally feel differently about the category. They feel like they can do it better than a manicurist, even. There is a salon market, and we love the salon market. We love our clients. But there is a demand that is not being met by the salon market and would never be met by the salon market. There is so much more demand than the salon market ever can satisfy. You have these women who are six times a year [at a salon] and they want their nails done 52 weeks a year. If women knew how to do this like they do hair and makeup, their experience would be so different. But no one’s ever leaned into teaching them.

Why did you decide to go with pastels?

We looked at what our in-salon clients love colour-wise and also what they cared about. They cared about no-chipping but also the ingredients, so how do you find that point of being as clean as possible while being as effective as possible? That was the seven-free formula. It’s longer-lasting with a base coat embedded in the colour. We look at them as new neutrals. Our clients and followers love something they can wear to any event, that they can wear to work and feel really comfortable [in], even a light blue that’s subtle enough. But they also can wear it out with their friends on a fun weekend to Coachella. We wanted to find shades that weren’t currently on the market. When we looked at what was popular at salons, we tried to find the holes. Like, a blue that has a ton of white in it so it feels like a neutral but it’s not this shade of nude.

What brush size did you find most effective, after all that testing?

We went in the middle, because some of the too-wide brushes are really hard for women with tiny nails, and we have a few people in our office who were very frequently outspoken about something that would be too wide, which I loved. I look to not only our company but also our community. We asked a ton of questions—what were people’s favourite brushes, what were their least favourite brushes, explain to us why it makes you feel good—and we found something in the middle. We have a flat brush that’s rounded at the bottom that leans a little more towards that wide brush while not being too wide, so that in one to three swipes (depending on the size of your nail) it works for you. But we cut it down a bit. We had a wide brush that I loved but it overwhelmed a smaller nail-bed, and we obviously didn’t want to do that. That was one of our last-minute changes that I think our team wanted to kill me on. But we really will not put out a product until we’re all really excited about it.

Any tricks for painting nails using your non-dominant hand? 

I think the only thing I would say, if you’re not using the Poppy, is to find a bottle of polish that has a brush that is helping you not, hurting you. We probably tested about 100 brushes. Very few brushes actually help assist you. These polish bottles are essentially a pro product being delivered to the consumer, so you have to look for a bottle and a shape of a brush that is helping you paint versus you having to manipulate the brush.

Any major nail trends for 2019?

I think neons are going to be king all year. I’m sad that we’re just launching our first collection because had I had a bunch of collections out, I definitely would have released neons. I was this close to buying a neon yellow sweatshirt this weekend, which at 38 is pretty surprising. I think a lot of colours are becoming more mainstream and a lot of fun and I think with nails, it’s becoming easier for people to rock whatever they want and for that to be normal, versus a wild and crazy mani that you can’t wear to work. I think you’re going to continue to see the trend of more rounded nails. Women are loving that feminine shape. Nail art-wise, other than New York, I think it’s a lot of fun and people are loving it. We continue to see evil eyes being one of the absolute most popular manis in our salon. I just saw a neon mani with evil eyes the other day and I was like, “of course.”

The post Olive & June’s Sarah Gibson Tuttle Wants to Bring Back the At-Home Manicure appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

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[foggyinjapan-blog]

28th Oct. First of Many

I woke up this morning and nothing hurts!!! The bed was comfy and I am smiling! I think I'm going to lay in bed for a bit… I deserve it!

For breakfast I head to a cafe that Miho recommended 'Cafe Hanafusa'. I walk in and it reeks of smoke… oh no. A quick glance at the menu and it looks like it's just a coffee house. Order myself an iced coffee - expensive and small - and sit down. It was actually delicious! No food for me though, maybe I'll get yet another egg sandwich from Lawson’s…

Cafe Hanafusa is very close to Daitoku-ji Temple, I don't really know what I'm going to do today so I may as well cruise over and have a look. It's about 5 minutes on my bike and I park it just within the gates. I have a wonder around and start to follow some other tourists "surely they know where they're going!" They don't… they lead us into a private ceremony and the locals looked very surprised to see us. I slowly reverse out, back facing the door and find a temple where you pay a fee to get in. This is more me; I know I’m allowed to be here because I have paid. I paid 1000 yen, which is about $12 AUD and I am allowed to visit 2 temples. I am instructed to only take photographs of the gardens and not inside the walls.

I walk in and straight away the garden amazes me! So much care is put into the plants and I instantly feel relaxed. I haven’t even made it inside yet! Through the door and I take my shoes off like everybody else. I walk to an area of the building and read the information the man at the door gave me. The Kohrin-in Temple was built in 1520 A.D. and features a tea room, a symbol of the Elysiam Mountain through an azalea bush and stones, a Baidara tree and many Chinese arts. I’m very impressed. I wonder through the temple looking at the different plants and features, I locate the tea room and come to a stop in front of the main garden. It is so tranquil. Everything is so strategically placed down to the pebbles/rocks that line the garden. Someone has gone through with an over sized rake or something and made patterns with the rocks. I just sit for a while and zone out watching this amazing place!

The next temple I visit consists mainly of tea rooms and a cemetery. I am given a map and take myself of the tour. The tea rooms remind me of the Japanese anime films we used to watch in high school. There is a huge walkway I have to walk under which is very detailed. The cemetery is stunning and you can tell this place is well cared for.

I have seen the temples I wanted to see and now its time to leave. It’s a Saturday so it’s quite busy and there are a lot of girls and ladies in Kimonos! What a beautiful sight! And awesome, I’ve just noticed I have the hiccups… and they are bloody loud too! So I’m now walking to the exit trying to hold my breath and still be respectful to the locals. Another loud hiccup, fark hahaha. Oh well, nothing I can do.

I have a quick look at my map and decide that I want to head to a café I saw on the internet this morning. It randomly popped up on Facebook or Google and it was very close to me so I thought why not! It’s called Alpha Food & Drink. What grabbed my attention was the new creations they have come up with. It’s called a cloud drink and you can accompany it with a pot plant dessert! The idea of the cloud drink is that you order a hot drink and on top of that, they hover a stick of fairy floss in the shape of a cloud. Over time the fairy floss starts to melt making it look like rain. Your very own rain cloud! (Oh that’s right, I was looking at the weather and this came up because it was going to rain today haha!) So right in front of me I have a little rainstorm going into my coffee! What an amazing idea! The pot plant dessert literally looked like a plant. It came with a shovel spoon so I started to dig and eat! It was chocolate biscuit crumbs as the soil, mint as the plant, and underneath was cream with banana and chocolate syrup! Yum! I have a rain cloud on my table and I’m eating a pot plant. I’m so stoked!

After this delicious feast I ride into central Kyoto. I am absolutely loving having the freedom to ride around on my bike! I start singing and looking around. I’m noticing that everyone has clear umbrellas… why? Why no colour. Then I see this one lady with a white umbrella with patterns on the inside… why? I guess that makes sense. We buy things to make ourselves happy and if you buy an umbrella with the print on the outside then you can’t see it! I think all umbrellas should be like this! *shower thoughts*

(I’m also thinking that maybe tomorrow i’ll bring an umbrella because I seem to be the only person in Kyoto without one and the only person in Kyoto who is absolutely saturated!)

I reach Kyoto shopping mall and find a park for my bike. I thought that this would be a good spot, everybody else is parking their bikes here, great! So I put it in the wheel hole and the bloody machine grabs onto it and locks it in… I didn’t even know it was a machine… Fuck, now my bike is stuck in this machine and everything is in Japanese! I take a few photos of the instructions and try and find some wi-fi. I’m trying to translate it on the google translate app but all I get is that I have to go to a ticket machine. I locate the machine, everything is in Japanese SHIT! I press some buttons, walk up and down a couple of times and then realise to the right of the screen there’s a section in English… how have I survived this long in the world!?!?

I head into the mall and have a browse in the shops. I go to this sticker store, B-Side Label, that I went to last time. I love that their stickers are so unique. I walk in and the 5 people that are working in this tiny store greet me! One of the guys actually recognized me from earlier this year, so cool!! I have a look for ages and pick out some good ones and this time some badges too! Sweet! Then after my purchase I’m asked to draw a little Halloween pumpkin to add to their collection. Haha I love it! After the sticker store I browse some more shops, buy a few things and then come across a vintage store! Out the front they’ve got these wicked fleece jumpers… brilliant, how much am I going to spend in this store? I try a few on and of course I have to pick the most expensive one! Great buy though, I’m happy! It has a hood, a sick pattern and pockets! What more to you need. I bought it on my travel card as well, so basically I’m not over budget at all haha #justification

Time to go home I think. It takes about 40 minutes to ride home but it only felt like 20. This isn’t so bad! Park my bike and climb up the 4 flights of stairs to my room. (I hope this makes me fit after 3 weeks!) In the common area there are 2 people sitting and enjoying the view. They’re from Melbourne, first time in Japan and they are loving it! I met Koji for the first time as well, he explained some of the plants in the room and is also very kind! This room is so stunning, there are couches and plants everywhere in this outdoor sanctuary! We chatted for a while, and then I got stuck into this journal.

It kind of feels like I am writing Bridget Jones Diary; except Keeley Bryan’s Diary. (Not the same ring to it...) Maybe I should start writing my alcohol intake and my weight as motivation haha! Well whatever I do, I’m definitely going to have a drink or 2 tonight. Have you heard of the drink Chuhai? Or as us Aussies call them Strongs? They are super alcoholic and will definitely get you on your way! One Chuhai and you’ll have a great night, 2 and it will possibly be the worst hangover in your life! Let’s celebrate being in Kyoto!

(Ps. I’m drinking them in my room though because its raining and I’m pretty sure Netflix just called my name!)