#hook's inlet and shack

[dragoneyes618]

I bet Harriet and CJ are stealing from the shop as well. They're just better at not getting caught.

Also just the thought of the shenanigans they must get up to in there. Whose idea was it to let all the Hooks manage a business? (Captain Hook's, that's who.)

[hannahhook7744]

The Hook Family in my au (including their 'partners', pets, and next gen) Moodboards (Part 1);

Past:

Zarina Hook.

First wife of James Hook.

Bio mother of Peter Pan, Harriet Hook, Harry Hook, Calista Jane Hook, and Ally Liddell (she was adopted by Alice and Pinocchio in this).

Stepmother of Ginny Gothel.

Adoptive mother of Hannah Hook.

Daycare teacher and worker at the Hook's inlet and shack as well as at Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop.

No one is quite sure how old she was when she died because she's a fairy.

Severin 'Bluebeard/Le Barbe Bleu' de Montragoux.

Husband of Lucretia 'Great Grandmumsie' Hook.

Father of Adelais 'Mama/Grandmumsie' Hook I.

Pirate and Aristocrat who murdered his first six wives and got murdered by the seventh.

He was around 47 when he died the first time.

He was brought back with everyone else when the isle was created and was killed again in year 11 when he was 58 years old by his wife.

Present:

Lucretia 'Great Grandmumsie' Hook.

Wife of Bluebeard/Le Barbe Bleu/Severin de Montragoux.

Mother of Adelais 'Mama/Grandmumsie' Hook I.

Pirate and rich widower whose husband was 'lost at sea' (she still has his ship).

She is around 100 (no one knows how she's still alive).

Adelais 'Mama/Grandmumsie' Hook I.

Mother of James and Jasper Hook.

Ex-Wife of Davy Jones and 'Friend' of Nanny Nell.

Former teacher at Neverland Academy of Pirates and Mermaids (which has been renamed to Neverland Academy).

Current Teacher at Serprent Prep.

She is around 80 years old physically.

Nell Frost.

Childhood nanny of James and Jasper Hook.

'Friend' of Mama Hook.

She's around 80 years old physically.

Davy Jones.

(Alleged) Father of James and Jasper Hook.

Pirate captain.

Ex-husband of Adelais 'Mama' Hook.

No one is quite sure how old he is.

Captain Jasper 'Patch' Hook.

Oldest son of Adelais 'Mama' Hook and Davy Jones.

Partner of Arabella Smith-Hook.

Father of Atticus, Ian, Greyson, Nevin, and Morgan Hook.

He works at the Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop and he's also a pirate captain.

He is around 60 years old physically.

Arabella 'Bella' Smith-Hook.

Partner of Jasper Hook.

Mother of Atticus, Ian, Greyson, Nevin, and Morgan Hook.

She works at and owns the Lucky Bride tavern.

She's around 55 years old physically.

Captain James Bartholomew Hook.

Youngest son of Adelais 'Mama' Hook and Davy Jones.

Bio father of Peter Pan, Ginny Gothel, Harriet Hook, Harry Hook, Calista Jane Hook, Ally Liddell (she was adopted by Alice and Pinocchio in this), and Hope Hook (future).

Adoptive father of Hannah Hook (now), Hort Hook (future), and Hookling Hook (future).

Works at Hook's inlet and shack & Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop.

He is around 50 years old (give or take) physically.

Lady Hock.

She is a villain recruiter for the Hook family (mainly James) and also babysat the kids when they were younger. She also works at Hook's inlet and shack & Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop.

She is rumored to be related to the Hooks in some way but no one is quite sure how or if it's even true.

She's around 35 years old (give or take) physically.

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

Next up will be more of the present Hook family members and after that will be the pets and future Hook family members.

[zrtranscripts]

Season 8, Mission 30: Lady In Red

Last Stand

~

JODY MARSH: This is seriously not good! Sam, is there anything left of the Undaunted?

SAM YAO: Just sinking wreckage. No sign of more lifeboats. The cliff face next to the wreck has completely sheared off. The red fungus underneath is-is pulsing. Mor Island must be bursting with the stuff. Shona, the skincoats and the V-types are converging on the town. A few V-types are sticking by the boulder, guarding it.

MORAG BROWN: Those bloody Reids. That family's become nothing but trouble.

JODY MARSH: Sam, are you seeing this? We're still by East Loch. There's clumps of red fungus sprouting out of the countryside around us.

SAM YAO: It's coming through the soil all over the isle. The fungus is shifting in the earth, like you saw in that cave, Five. Like what made the rockslide on the cliff path. The islanders in town are all barricaded into their homes. That won't protect them long.

PAULA COHEN: Nothing's going to protect any of us long. If we can't move the boulder blocking that geyser, the silver mud won't spread. Nothing will stop the fungus. Frances, any ideas from Dearg?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Uh, we need something to move the boulder. A bomb or a powerful source of traction.

JODY MARSH: Morag. Callum's old drilling equipment, it's still on the island, right?

MORAG BROWN: Aye, Jody. Rusting on a beach. You think we can use it for this?

JODY MARSH: It's our best bet for moving a big rock. We've got to be fast. Once those V-types have hit the town, anyone left who's still resisting the red fungus is as good as gone. Morag, lead us to that beach. Paula, Five, keep your weapons out. Run!

~

MORAG BROWN: There's the equipment, just up the beach. A few rusty diggers and a tractor with a whacking great drill in the front.

SAM YAO: Guys, Shona and the other eight skincoats, they're ignoring the townspeople. She's giving a speech. I've got audio.

SHONA REID: The red god wakes. We are its shepherds! And we rise with it!

[crowd cheers]

SAM YAO: The skincoats are around Shona in a ring. They're drinking something. Oh, don't tell me... it was accelerant. Lots of it. There's, there's wreaths of fungus ripping out of them and coming from the ground under them, exploding from the cracks in the pavement. Shona's clapping.

MORAG BROWN: She's lost her mind. How-how do we get this big tractor thing started?

JODY MARSH: No idea. Paula, Morag, work it out. Meet us by the geyser. Five, we're going to distract the V-types guarding the boulder, pull them away.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Jody, I'm hooked into Sam's feeds. The fungus is sprouting everywhere on Mor. Where it's densest, it's forming fruiting bodies. It's going to release spores, go airborne.

JODY MARSH: And since we're all already infected, it's going to push us into zombiedom really fast. Guys, get that equipment hot-wired now. Five, with me. To the boulder, run!

~

JODY MARSH: Sam, Five and I just shot past the boulder. There's a bunch of V-types chasing us.

SAM YAO: Morag got the drill tractor started. She and Paula are roaring towards you.

AMELIA SPENS: Sam, it's Amelia. I'm near Gaisgeach ruins with Janine and a few marines from the Undaunted. Had to flee the coast to avoid V-types. Janine's still out. I'm seeing red spores in the air. Tell me there's a plan.

SAM YAO: Stand by, Amelia. Jody, I see the tractor coming over a hill. It's going to hit the boulder head on!

[tractor crashes into boulder]

FRANCES DEMSPEY: The tractor rammed the boulder, pushed it aside! The V-types are pulling back to town. The geyser's unblocked!

SAM YAO: Nothing's happening.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Oh no! The rain's died down in that part of the isle. The storm's moving too fast. The tides have calmed around that blowhole's inlet and the whirlwinds are past East Loch. Even if the geyser does spurt, the silver mud won't be sucked into the storm!

JODY MARSH: Five, do you feel that burning in your lungs? The spores! [coughs] No! No! We are not losing to her! We need another option! [coughs]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: The eye of the storm's approaching town. There's a blowhole there big enough for our needs, but it was sealed by the locals. They built a museum around it.

AMELIA SPENS: Then we need to unseal it. My marines salvaged what they could from the Undaunted. We have explosives. Also, my Armani dress.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Explosives might be enough to open the blowhole in town, but you have to do it before the winds blow the bulk of that storm past the museum. You guys need to meet Amelia at Gaisgeach fast. Run!

~

SAM YAO: Jody, Five, you're approaching the ruins. Watch out. The ground's splitting open left and right, creating fissures of fungus. Oh, [coughs] it's definitely in the air. Keep sleeves over your mouths.

JODY MARSH: I see Janine and Amelia huddled by that collapsed wall, marines with them. Janine's trying to stand.

JANINE DE LUCA: Miss Marsh, the Prime Minister informs me this is no time to be sleeping on the job.

PAULA COHEN: Janine, it's Paula. Morag and I are still in the tractor. The collision damaged the engine. Janine, if you start moving, you'll burn out fast.

JANINE DE LUCA: Unfortunately, Doctor, duty is not a matter of convenience. Marines. [marines come to attention] Present Miss Marsh your explosives.

AMELIA SPENS: Oh yes, obey her orders in a snap! Bloody military. Oh God, there's fungus growing on my fingertips. I refuse this, I simply refuse!

SAM YAO: Problem, guys. The town square's basically a red fungus forest. The stuff's everywhere. Shona's in the middle of it. The fungus is growing over her. She's half submerged by a mountain of it. Oh, that's awful.

JODY MARSH: We can't risk more fungus exposure. We need a path through that stuff.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: The fungus doesn't respond well to being frozen! It doesn't die, but it's inhibited. If you had some of the chemicals from the ice bridge left...

AMELIA SPENS: There's a storehouse near the remains of the ice bridge on the Mor side. My forces may have fished several containers out of the sea and hidden them there. The Undaunted had far too little space for loot.

SAM YAO: I'm closest to that area, guys. I can reach that storehouse fastest.

JODY MARSH: Sam, go. Five, meet Sam at the storehouse. Make sure he gets the chemicals safely to us. Oh. Sorry, Janine.

JANINE DE LUCA: My orders precisely, Miss Marsh. Five, Miss Marsh and I will rendezvous with Dr. Cohen and evacuate any townspeople we can. We will meet you at the town.

AMELIA SPENS: I think... I'm feeling dizzy, Janine. I think I'd better stay here. The marines can cover me. God, there's fungus on my hands, my arms! Oh, I can feel it pulsing in my head! Five, for God's sake, hurry! For your Prime Minister, run!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Five, that wooden shack is the storehouse. Sam's already inside.

[door creaks open and shut]

SAM YAO: Five! Five, over here! I found a container of the freezy chemical. Uh, can you carry it? [coughs] No, I'm okay. It's just a headache.

[door opens]

RORY: Sam. Sam, is that you?

SAM YAO: Frances, Rory just came in here. Rory from the shop. He's leaning on the doorway. Rory, are you okay? Look, step out of the shadows, eh?

RORY: Can you feel the tide in your head, the way it pulls? Help me, Sam.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Sam, careful! He could be turning.

RORY: I need help, Sam. The skincoats stabbed me. I'm bleeding. Please.

SAM YAO: Uh, Five, I'll-I'll check him for wounds. Rory, it's okay.

RORY: I was just out walking. I saw you. So did she. She's got so many eyes!

[RORY and SAM YAO struggle]

SAM YAO: Rory, get off. Five, gun down. You'll hit us both.

RORY: The whole island's throbbing in my head, but she's the loudest. She says I have to, Sam. She says drink up!

[liquid splashes]

SAM YAO: Five, stay back! Rory's not hurt. There's fungus growing on him. That was accelerant he poured on me. Oh God! Some went in my eyes. Five, run! Take that container to Janine. [coughs] I can feel it inside me, Five! Get away. You can't help me. You have to stop Shona. Tell Paula and Maxine – tell them they're my – tell them I'm sorry! Just run! Go!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Five, you're almost at the town. The fungus creates a hive mind for V-types. The more of it people have in their blood, the more it's linking them. Shona's piggybacking on that connection to control people! Like poor Rory. Sam's still in that shack. I've... I've lost him on comms!

JODY MARSH: Five, Janine and I are over here behind the boulder. There's the town square just ahead. We can't evacuate anyone. Fungus is covering buildings, streets, flowing out of pits in the ground. Shona's outside the museum with a line of V-types. She's half enveloped in fungus. It's rising around her like a cloak.

JANINE DE LUCA: The geyser is in the museum forecourt just behind the gates. We must get past Miss Reid.

JODY MARSH: Preferably with deadly force.

JANINE DE LUCA: Abel's priority must be to save, Miss Marsh, never to destroy. Though in this case, I would not begrudge that outcome.

JODY MARSH: Janine fixed the tractor.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Morag's charging the tractor into town, straight at Shona! Paula's on the back, pouring a petrol can over the side. Morag, don't wind the window down.

MORAG BROWN: [coughs] Shona Reid! Your ma was the kindest woman I ever knew, and she'd be ashamed of you 10 ways for this!

JANINE DE LUCA: The fungus is dragging Miss Reid out of the tractor's path like a tide. V-types are charging it. Paula is lighting the petrol. Burning fungus, that is our distraction!

SHONA REID: Morag Brown, I have had enough of your prattling tongue.

JANINE DE LUCA: Five, give me the container. The fungus dislikes my blood. I will run ahead through the square, lay down a path of ice. You and Jody follow with the explosives. The V-types are swarming the tractor, pulling Morag and Paula out! We can only save them and Mr. Yao through victory. Head for the museum! Run!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: That's it, Five. Follow Janine. Stay on the ice path she's pouring on the fungus. You're halfway to the museum. Shona's seen you!

SHONA REID: I am the red god's favorite, Five. It'll take the world, but my isle will be paradise first! My blood has the perfect balance of silver to delay our union. It can embrace, not subsume, so I can savor it.

JODY MARSH: Five, there's a crowd coming after us. V-types. Townspeople half-turned. There's Paula and Morag, fungus growing on them!

SHONA REID: It's letting me steer them, Five. I'm better with people. My puppets find weapons tricky when they're turning, but they all have teeth.

JODY MARSH: You go ahead, Five. Take the explosives. I'll keep them back.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Jody, you can't kill the townspeople, and V-types are indestructible!

JODY MARSH: An arrow to the leg will still slow them, and maybe she'll feel it. [bowstring stretches, arrow whips through air] The half-turned townsfolk are up front. If I slow them, it'll trip the rest. If I don't, they'll overtake us. Go, Five! Follow the ice path! I'll buy you as long as I can. Run!

~

FRANCES DEMSPEY: You're almost there, Five. The geyser's in the museum forecourt under the roped off gazebo. Hurry, the eye of the storm is passing!

DUNCAN MACALLAN: Hello, Five. It's Shona here. You're a clever, stubborn mind. That's why I kept this body in reserve.

[DUNCAN MACALLAN and Runner Five struggle]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Five, get up! Get him off you! Jody's too far to help. I can't see Janine on comms. Does anyone copy? The chief just tackled Five!

DUNCAN MACALLAN: This one killed your friend by accident, Five. He cried over it. But he still served me. I was the only one bold enough to lead. He'd cry now, if I let him.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: There's fungus all over him. He's turning V-type fast! [gunshot, metal crumples] He crushed your gun like nothing. Five, he's going to bite. Get up! [zombie splatters] Oh my God! Janine, you caved the chief's skull with a mace!

JANINE DE LUCA: Apologies for the delay, Five. Had to borrow a weapon from the museum. Rather heavy for everyday use.

JODY MARSH: Five, I'm falling back your way! The mob's inches behind me. Throw those explosives at the geyser.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Good throw, Five. The chief's gone full V-type. He's getting back up. Everyone, get away from the museum before the explosives blow. Run!

~

JANINE DE LUCA: Five, get down. We're beyond the square. The explosives – [shouts]

[explosion, water rushes]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: That did it! The museum blowhole's open. It's erupting with silver.

JODY MARSH: Five, Janine, Shona's mob is running from the geyser. There are no whirlwinds hitting the town square. I don't see Paula or Morag. Janine isn't breathing. Janine, get up! Frances, there's just drizzle, no silver rain! Why isn't it - ? [thunder rolls, rain pours, JODY MARSH shudders]

FRANCES DEMSPEY: The rain's falling! Gleaming silver... it's beautiful. The fungus is wilting wherever it touches, turning to ash. The V-types are dropping dead!

[JANINE DE LUCA gasps]

JODY MARSH: Janine! She's breathing!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: It must be the rain! It's soaking her in the material her nanites are made from. If there's enough, they can use it to reproduce, repair her!

PAULA COHEN: Jody, Five. It was in my head, the fungus, and then it just... faded. Morag's unconscious. Oh no, Janine!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: You need to get as much silver into her system as you can. Jody, I've spotted Shona. The fungus is all melted away from her. She's fleeing town towards the cliffs.

PAULA COHEN: Jody, Five, go after her. It's okay, I've got Janine. Make sure Shona doesn't get away. Run!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Five, Jody, Shona's just ahead of you along the cliffs.

JODY MARSH: Stop right there, Shona. I've got an arrow aimed at your back.

SHONA REID: Look at that sunset. It's peeking through the clouds. Gorgeous. Are you going to shoot me?

JODY MARSH: I should. You deserve it.

SHONA REID: Go on, then. Go on, then! It was mine! Do you understand? I was going to be powerful. I was going to rise with the island. I was going to last forever! It chose me. It was mine. I was going to see my mum. It promised me.

JODY MARSH: We don't kill the powerless at Abel. It's not what Ellie or Tom would have wanted. Five, grab her. She's under arrest.

SHONA REID: You can't arrest me. I'm part of the land. [runs away]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Oh my God. She threw herself over the cliff. She's hit the rocks below. She's... gone.

SAM YAO: Five? Jody? It's Sam. I'm okay. The fungus in me just died. I felt it die. I uh... I think I know where the Edda is. While the fungus was in me, I could feel all these memories, feel some of Shona's thoughts. There's something major hidden in a cave near Gaisgeach. Amelia felt it, too. She's heading there with her marines. You better join them, make sure this is for real. Run!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: You're at the ruins, Five. Looks like everyone's gathered there. Morag, Paula, Janine, Sam, Amelia and her troops. Silver rain's sweeping over the archipelago. The fungus is dying everywhere. Anyone who hadn't turned full V-type is recovering.

JANINE DE LUCA: Runner Five, Mr. Yao alerted us to the Edda situation.

PAULA COHEN: Janine's vitals are stable, Five. The nanites are healing her fast, now they're in good numbers.

JANINE DE LUCA: I owe you my life, Five. I owe all of you. Thank you. Our losses here were not in vain. We have wiped out the fungus in the Far Hebrides, and we have the Edda.

MORAG BROWN: Aye, it was in that cave over yonder. Bloody well hidden, too.

JANINE DE LUCA: We will remember the fallen, Five. Tom and Ellie will not be forgotten. Nor will the laird.

SAM YAO: It's kind of wonderful, isn't it? The silver rain, the sunset poking through the clouds. I think... I think they'd have liked this.

JODY MARSH: The people here are safe, Sam. We're safe. That's what would have made them happy.

AMELIA SPENS: Yes, yes, et cetera. The important thing is we have the Edda. [paper rustles] And about time, too. Now we can get back to the mainland, work out how to wipe out all the V-types and assorted zoms forever, and have a nice comfortable... oh.

SAM YAO: Oh? Oh, what? Amelia, what's written in there?

AMELIA SPENS: Ah. Well, obviously I now have more familiarity with Old Norse than I ever desired to have, and if I'm reading this correctly, I think we may have a problem.

[thunder rolls]

~

[spiteweaver]

previous | next

Boggart’s swamp was more than half mangrove. Butted up against the Sea of a Thousand Currents, it supported a wide range of wildlife unique to it; you could find these creatures and plants nowhere else on Sornieth but along this single, eight-mile stretch of coastline. On a good day, this was a boon for a swamp witch. Access to rare ingredients ensured his experiments bore fruit more often than not.

Today, however, it was his bane. Gale-force winds buffeted the mangroves, pulling them up by their sturdy roots and disturbing the communities of small creatures that had nestled there for generations. The downpour was ceaseless, and threatened to flood areas further inland; the local Maren, an unusual freshwater variety rarely seen by dragonkind, had abandoned their overflowing inlets for the murky, stagnant bogs of the deep swamp. The cloying air was thick with animal cries.

“How much further?” Asura called.

Boggart did not respond. His eyes were busily scanning the canopy for signs of life. Now and again, he caught sight of Cerdae stumbling through the brush, or the glint of a Maren spearhead in the gloom, and hope swelled in his chest. The swamp’s inhabitants were making headway.

Asura left him to it, focusing instead on keeping himself aloft. He was a Skydancer, his breed born of the wind and weather, but neither the Scarred Wasteland where he had hatched nor the Sunbeam Ruins where he now resided were known for their fierce storms. He’d had little practice, and so Boggart outstripped him for most of their flight.

At last, they touched down in a clearing cramped with debris and donned their glamours. Asura leaned heavily against a nearby rock formation; it was slick with slime, but he needed to rest. Each breath spawned needles in his throat and chest. His stomach somersaulted, and his wings burned with exhaustion.

Ahead several yards, he spied what must have been Boggart’s hut through the dense vegetation. It was larger than he’d expected, but appeared to still be only a single room, with many ramshackle windows placed at odd angles and a crooked metal chimney rising from its thatched roof.

“Come,” Boggart said. He was a dragon of few words, but when he spoke, it was always in a commanding tone. “Come,” he said again, motioning frantically for Asura to follow. Heaving and panting, Asura obliged, careful to trace the panicked Mirror’s precise path.

Boggart disappeared into the hut well before Asura reached it. The healer paused again on the rickety porch, shook the weariness from his bones, then continued inside. The interior of the shack was musty, but homey in its own right. Dried herbs hung from hooks over a cast iron stove. In one corner stood a rickety desk cluttered with papers and tomes; in another, Asura spied a sizable cauldron, bubbling with some sickly purple concoction.

When his eyes fell on Vigrid, he gasped. He had never met Vigrid, but he knew instantly that the Ridgeback was bigger than most of his kind when well, even wearing his glamour. There were the remnants of musculature finely sculpted by years of hard labor underneath his baggy sick clothes. His hard jawline spoke of a handsome face, but now it was drained of color and thin with fatigue. His Plague eyes had lost their mischievous ruby sparkle.

Asura gulped. “It’s bad,” he said. “How long has he been like this?”

“The sickness worsened rapidly,” Boggart reported, “in only a few hours’ time. I tried to brew a healing draught, but--but--” His words caught in his throat, and a heart-wrenching sob came out in their place.

“Hey...” Vigrid’s head lolled sideways onto Boggart’s hand, his dark red locks spilling over the edge of the bed. He tried to reach up to cup his mate’s face, but the effort was too great. “Hey, come on,” he rasped, “I told you...I told you not to cry...”

“Can you hear me?” Asura asked, leaning forward to better examine Vigrid’s condition. He looked even worse at close range. “Mr. Vigrid, can you hear me?”

“Yeah,” Vigrid mumbled, “yeah, but...I ‘dunno who you are...”

“My name is Asura. I’m a healer; I can help you.”

“Bogs brought...a healer...?” Vigrid managed a crooked grin. “I must...really be dying then...for him to trust someone else with me...ah, shit...Bogs, I’m sorry...I’m so sorry...”

“Silence,” Boggart demanded. “This drake will heal you. He will.”

“We always knew...it was a long-shot...”

“Silence!”

Asura stepped back, shedding his coat and rolling up his shirt sleeves. There wasn’t much room to work, but he’d danced in tighter quarters. “Mr. Boggart,” he said, “you’ll need to stand back. I don’t want to accidentally transfer his illness to you.”

Reluctantly, Boggart moved to the opposite end of the room, huddling close to the cauldron. Once he was certain the area around Vigrid was clear, Asura began his dance with a slow sweep of his foot across the dusty floor. He formed a circle in the grit, then bent low, arms outstretched in an elaborate pose.

“I’ll be damned,” Vigrid croaked.

The pair of swamp-dwellers watched in stunned awe as Asura performed. Even in the sparse space given to him, he moved without faltering, performing impossible twirls, death-defying flips, and strange maneuvers that made Boggart’s head spin. It was fiercely beautiful, made more so by the glow of crimson Plague magic surrounding him.

The seconds turned to minutes, and Asura slowed, his breathing labored. With a final bow, he collapsed to his knees, hacking and coughing into a trembling hand. “I got most of it,” he informed. “How do you feel?”

Vigrid flexed his fingers, rolled his shoulders, wiggled his toes. “Incredible,” he murmured. “I was dying. How did you...?”

Asura smiled weakly. “I draw sickness into my own body through dance,” he explained. “I’ll be bedridden for the next week or so, but I’ll live; you would not have. It was double pneumonia, unlike any form of it I’ve ever seen. I’d wager it originated here in the swamp.”

“Vigrid...” Boggart shuffled forward, almost shyly. His eyes kept darting up to meet his mate’s, but he could never seem to muster the courage to hold them for long. “Are you...?”

Vigrid grinned again, stronger, more sincerely. “I’m fine,” he said. “C’mere.”

Sniffling and sobbing, Boggart closed the distance between them and buried his face in Vigrid’s chest. Vigrid pressed a kiss to the top of his head. Asura heaved a relieved sigh. Outside, the wind was beginning to die down; a thin ray of sunlight slanted into the hut through one of its grimy windows.

“Thank you,” Boggart said. Asura blinked incredulously. The little swamp witch was watching him from a gap over his shoulder. “You saved him.”

“Why don’t you stay here and rest a while?” Vigrid suggested. “Weather’s clearing up, but you look about ready to drop.”

“I...” Asura nodded. “Thank you,” he said, “I’d appreciate that.”

[ Like my work? Here’s my ko-fi! ]

[cleverskull]

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Kuang Si Falls, Luang Prabang, Laos

Previously an amazing destination for travelers, the Laotian city of Luang Prabang is enticingly adjacent to Kuang Si Falls, a three-layer wallow remarkable with waters hence pristine and sapphire as it is tough to prevent hopping therein. Climb the streams all over the place to drip the excursion groups and find your own clandestine part of ecstasy.

Torres Del Paine National Park, Patagonia, Chile

Appreciate the marvelous Andes and journey one of South America’s most stunning National Parks. Get your llama limbs on and then climbing over foothills encumbered with the snowy material and all over splendid planets.

Grand Prismatic Spring, Wyoming, USA

Many damp things to knockback your punches off, this is the best time to visit in North America. This natural pool, with its multicolored waters, is available in Yellowstone National Park and is the third biggest blistering spring in the globe.

Huacachina, Peru

Hook a gaze of this striking desert retreat that is constructed in the 1930s all over the place a prevailing watering shack. Always pay attention to unwrapped for a gaze of the lake’s fabulous inhabitant, a mermaid. Peru is also a striking place to one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Machu Picchu, and a wonderful holiday spot.

The Door to Hell, Turkmenistan

This is, in fact, a fountain, however ‘Door to Hell’ sounds quite attractive. Along with, this red-hot pool of magma in Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert as it looks how you’d imagine access to the netherworld to gaze: burning and humid.

Mount Rinjani, Lombok, Indonesia

It is hard to hike at the peak of Mount Rinjani, the next highest dynamic volcano in Indonesia, with this remarkable sight. A hollow stream, lovingly famous as ‘Child of the Sea’ by residents, assembles pretty above of this classic hike. Also, never overlook the chance to view dragons even though you’re in Indonesia, especially at Komodo National Park.

Blue Lagoon Hot Springs

The Blue Lagoon hot springs are located in Iceland which are artificial pools of water; however, the springs are burnt indeed with the volcanic action on the island. The springs are mainly stunning in the snow-white winter, and the water yet relatively pleasant.

Ice Canyon

The ice canyons in Greenland were engraved by softens water which is as profound as 150 feet.

Ball Pyramid

Ball Pyramid is the world’s loftiest aquatic mountain. It continues a safeguard volcano shaped around 7 million years back. It is 562 meters from top to bottom and is situated southeast of Lord Howe Island in the Pacific Ocean. In addition to this if you are looking for travel manager jobs then it could be the best chance to try it.

The Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s leading coral ridge system. It’s positioned in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. It is quite huge; you can look at it from external planetary. The reef is a famous destination for scuba divers and other travelers.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

Plitvice Lakes National Park is one of an ancient national park in Southeast Europe along with the hugest park in Croatia. The park is occupied with a lavish green backdrop, swanky inlets, and astounding cascades.

These are all incredible destinations on the planet that you must visit once.

All you got on CLEVERSKULL.COM 

[hopestolen]

HOW THE SEA WITCH FELL IN LOVE WITH A PIRATE .

PART ONE .

          she’s four years old , legs dangling over the dock , talking to the eels   —   well , mainly herself , but would tell you different   —   that filled the water below her feet . she’s a weird kid , she knows that even at her young age , but she doesn’t care .   ❝   did ju know dat octopuses have    t h r e e    hearts   ?   i wish i had three hearts . da’t be weally cool .   ❞    words jumble together with her still present   “   baby - voice   ”   . 

          children older than her by a few years sneak up from behind , yanking her head back by pulling strands of loose teal hair . it was nothing   NEW   —   uma found herself the usual target of kids in need of feeling powerful . the eldest grabs the silver locket from around her neck , breaking the chain .   ❝   hmm , think this would be worth anything   ??   ❞   laughs the group .

          ❝   HEY   !   give dat back   !      ❞   she cries reaching for the irreplaceable treasure . she may play the   victim   role , but she was still fearless .   

          ❝   why should i   ??   ❞   is questioned back with malice .   it was a legitimate question . she wasn’t born a   fighter   or even a pirate   —   the cruel world she was sentenced to would soon make her into that . uma bites her lip trying not to cry   —   her   MOTHER   gave her that necklace   —   what was she supposed to say   ?

          a boy in a long red coat , maybe a year or two older , jumps from the ramp of docked ship next to the skirmish . in the blink of an eye , he’s grabbed the chain   &   pushing the bully into the drink .   dramatic   . uma sees a fire in his crystal blue eyes she’s never seen before in anyone . his hand reaches for the sword sheathed at his waist , but the rest of the gang is already running back toward the isle mainland . the girl takes a sharp breath , unsure what to think   —   who had a real sword at this age   ?   ma didn’t even let her handle butter knives .   

          ❝   i believe this belongs to you   ?   ❞   the boy   (   with a really cute accent   )   holds up the piece of jewelry ,   &   uma nods shyly , shoving it safely into her coat pocket .   

          ❝   thank you   ,   ❞   her heart flutters matching her exasperated voice . no one , except her mom , had ever made an attempt to protect her before ,   &   he was a stranger . he gives a toothy grin , introducing himself ,   ❝   i’m harry .   ❞   

          the baby sea witch smiles back ,  ❝   uma .   ❞

PART TWO .

          now she’s   t e n   , with the companionship of the princess of darkness .   ❝   the target   ??   ❞   the daughter of maleficent questions with a wicked grin . uma points to the ship that belonged to hook , hoping to catch a glance of her best friend .

          uma   &   mal carry a bucket of slime to the docks for their occasional   “   evil   ”   pranks . the plan was to coat the pier in the slippery slime ,   &   watch the pirates fall like dominoes , one after the other . she smiles to herself when she sees the back of a tall yet skinny boy , looking out at the vast ocean surrounding their home . mal seemed to eat up all her free time these days . whether she knew it or not , this was not a friendship but a partnership   —   one the dark fairy’s mother likely told her to make in return for at least   SOME   control over the barge . 

          no , she found herself longing for time spent alone with the son of captain hook   —   &   the son of gaston befriended along the way   —   but mal played the jealousy card any time she did . ugh , those fairies . always annoyed at not receiving an invitation .

          with their antics ending in   TRAGEDY   at   supposedly   the sea witch’s fault , but really at mal’s own insecurities , the mutual   “   break up   ”   is a blessing in disguise .   (   at first   )   . uma found herself glad to get away from mistress of evil’s daughter … until mal made it her god damn mission to have the entire island   hate   her .   she just wanted to move on   . tears are about to stream down her face , when the pirate boy looks into her eyes , takes her hand   &   tells her ,   ❝   i’ll always choose you   ❞   .

PART THREE . 

​​          barely a teenager , she bursts into hook’s inlet   &   shack looking for the one   &   only harold hook .   ❝   teach me how to use a sword ,   ❞   is stated with strong conviction looking up into his eyes . the first in a long list of demands to come . when asked why she shrugs off the question as if it’s about time she learned how to defend herself . the innocent gleam in her eye put there by her mother is now gone , replaced with rage   &   fear .   ❝   what   ?   you’re the only one who can be a pirate around here   ?   ❞   she teases , a smirk on her face again to hide any doubt .

          uma had always been a fast learner . sure , she wasn’t as great as the pirates who have been training their who lives , but she could be with time . blades clash , turning her anger into   POWER   . maybe she was just extra tired that day from long shifts at the restaurant , or too trusting of the world she was condemned to , or simply living in ignorance from the monsters who lived here . maybe it was the purple - haired   witch’s   bitch’s fault for creating the reputation she was   WEAK   , or the isle’s for labeling her   attractive   when she clearly wasn’t interested . it’s an easy decision to never to tell anyone about that night   —   it felt embarrassing   &   made her feel smaller than she already felt to begin with . it was just easier this way , even if kept a secret from her best friend .

          tripping over her footwork , harry pins his sword loosely at her throat with their faces inches apart . her heart is beating through her chest , as they’re locked in momentary silence . what even was this … feeling   ?   shaking with adrenaline from fear was nothing new , but this was   MUCH   different . she would never be scared of him . inhaling sharply through her nose , she breaks the quiet ,   ❝   … okay so how do i fix that   ?   ❞

PART FOUR .

          uma watches him flirt with everyone else on the isle .   it’s never going to happen   , echoes in her mind .   can you blame him   ?   you’re not exactly anything special   .

PART FIVE .

          ❝ you work for me , remember   ?   do i have to keep reminding you   ?   i’m captain , you’re first mate ,   ❞   uma raises her eyebrows . another reason to add to the ever growing list of   “   reasons she can’t ever make the first move   ”   . what if he only said yes because he felt the   OBLIGATION   to   ?   after everything , mutual consent was so very important . she couldn’t take the   chance   .

          ❝   first   date   if you’re lucky ,   ❞   he teases , adding a classic wink   &   looking utterly proud of himself .

          her heart almost jumps out of her chest . she   should   be used to these passing comments , but they still take her by surprise   —   even after the twelve years they’ve been friends .   he’s just a flirt   , she reminds herself .   it doesn’t   MEAN   anything   .

          ❝   shut up ,   ❞   she rolls her eyes , playing it off with a laugh .   ❝   &   see to that sail .   ❞ 

[kootenaygoon]

So,

It’s easier to trust someone when they’re naked. 

I’ve been a nudist since I was a small child, and I never feel more comfortable than when I’m fully immersed in water, like a hippo, wearing nothing but sunglasses. When I heard that Nelson had a clothing optional beach called Red Sands, I packed up Paisley and the dogs and set out for an expedition. It was easier to find than I anticipated, and we bumbled upon it while trying to make sense of the Google directions. She scrolled through the old Star stories about the various city council hearings that had been held about Red Sands, and read to me out loud about how the community had opposed a condo project to maintain the integrity and privacy of the beach. (“They love to protest about everything here, eh?”) After parking just outside city limits we hiked down the train tracks through the forest, Muppet and Buster straining excitedly at the leashes, and then down a slope to a small crescent of sand with a vaguely pink hue.

There were only a few other people there, mostly older men, so we made a bit of a spectacle as we tried to wrangle our dogs and settle down for a picnic. Paisley took off her top for a bit, but eventually put it back on because she felt self-conscious. Then there was me, blissfully nude. I carried the dogs out to the edge of the water and threw them in, encouraging them to frantically doggy-paddle back. We quickly abandoned this game when it became apparent that Buster was alarmingly cold, shivering feverishly. Paisley cuddled him in her lap, chastising me for being too rough with them.

“Look how small he is,” she said. “He’s like a little potato.”

For a while it was quiet, and we enjoyed the tranquil scenery while Muppet dug her snout playfully into the sand. A little while later Scarlet Mary Rose, the burlesque performer I’d been bugging Paisley about, came out of the woods with a basket on her arm. She danced over to give me a hug, then excitedly introduced herself.

“I was actually telling Paisley about Boob camp,” I said. “I thought it would be a cool idea for her to join.”

“Oh, you should!”

“I don’t really have any dance experience,” Paisley said, shyly. “I’m not sure it’s my thing.”

“You know what? Why don’t you come to the first couple of classes for free, just try it,” Scarlet said. “If we haven’t hooked you by the third class, then you’re free to go. What do you think? You in?”

Paisley giggled nervously. “Okay.”

“Oh girl, you have no idea the adventure we’ve got in store for you.”

Eventually Scarlet found a spot across the beach. We worked our way through a six-pack of ciders, taking turns dunking in the lake as more and more people spilled on to the beach from the trees. Some were just hikers who would sit in their shorts for a few minutes, panting, then continue on their way. Others were clearly there to party, and sometimes came packing little stereos or their own bongo drums. Two dudes instantly stood out, Dru and Cy, and as we lay there on the beach I invented backstories about them for Paisley, whispering them as she giggled. 

They looked like one of those off-kilter movie pairs, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito, or Jay and Silent Bob. Dru was a scrawny, bespectacled vagrant known to loudly perform 90s ballads and Cy was a nearly silent giant of a dude, well over six feet tall, with a long dreaded troll beard. They were the sort of characters who would seem over the top in fiction, but here they were right in front of us. Real people.

“Bro, thank you so much for doing this. It’s like a big help, man,” Dru said, as we drove him back into town with Cy at the end of the day. “I mean it’s kind of a long walk at night, you know? It gets a little sketchy sometimes.”

“What’re you guys getting up to tonight?”

“Oh, we’re on a kind of a limited budget, you know? But we’ll get some more beers, get up to our regular shenanigans.”

“So how long have you been a musician?”

He turned in his seat, delighted by my interest. “I’d say I’ve been taking it pretty seriously for seven or eight years now. And I have material for at least, like, three albums. Maybe more.”

Cy grunted, nodded knowingly at me in the rearview.

“Well I’m the reporter at the newspaper,” I told him. “And I’m the arts guy, so you should totally let me know if you’re ever doing a show or anything like that.”

“Oh dude, really? Oh, dude, that would be so amazing.”

“I’m always looking for new stories.”

Besides Dru and Cy, the most important person on the beach was the King of Red Sands. He was of indeterminate age, though I put him somewhere around 50. He wore nothing but large wrap-around sunglasses and a black baseball cap, its brim shading his clean-shaven face from view. He had clearly been a thin man at some point, but was now rocking a pregnant-looking paunch. That afternoon he clambered off his speedboat, which he had parked onshore, and shouted commands at his passengers as they tried to off-load the booze coolers and camping chairs. He gesticulated with a beer can clutched in his fist. I would later learn that various features of the beach — like a sculpted rock seat and a tiled art-piece — were thanks to him, and that he’d also completed some controversial and perhaps illegal clearing of small trees to make for better sunbathing spots. Though people called him the King of Red Sands, I don’t think he considered himself royalty. He just loved his surroundings fiercely, and over the decades had developed a sense of ownership over that little inlet that was deep-rooted in him. He would eventually tell me that he planned to be cremated, then he wanted his ashes spread at Red Sands. I told him that seemed like a pretty legit plan to me.

“What about you?” he asked. “You think you’ll stick around the Koots?”

Standing naked with him, shin-deep in the lake, there wasn’t any reason to pretend to be anyone other than myself. “I really struggle with feeling like I belong anywhere. I want to stick around long enough that I feel like this, here, is my home. I haven’t had that for a long time.”

He smiled, swigged his beer. “You’ve got a nice little family there.”

“Yeah, that’s my main thing. Making that work.”

“Don’t take that shit for granted.”

“Believe me, I don’t. Every day I remind myself how lucky I am.”

He sneered. “No, that’s too far. It’s not about luck. It’s about putting in the work, it’s about really letting yourself trust someone else, it’s about commitment. I’ve been married for 30 years now and I work at it, all the time.”

“Thirty years. Wow.”

“Best decision I ever made was shacking up with her. Amazing what a good woman can do for your mental health.”

I looked back at Paisley on our blanket, against a backdrop of trees. We’d been together for three years, but it still seemed hard to believe she was mine. Beside her I felt like a brute. She was highly sensitive, with quick access to a wellspring of deeply felt emotions, and could be moved to tears by a sad meme on Facebook. I called her my duck. She knew I loved her, loved her with the desperate conviction of someone convinced they’ve found their lifelong soul mate, but it was the rest of being in a relationship that just didn’t seem to be in my skill set. I was constantly saying the wrong thing, hurting her feelings or trampling her conversationally. We’d nearly broken up in Halifax then we’d nearly broken up in Victoria, now this felt like our last chance. If we couldn’t make it work here, we wouldn’t be able to make it anywhere. I waved at her, and she gestured that she was ready to go.

“Hey man,” the King of Red Sands said, “You want a beer?”

***

Thursday afternoon was the end of my week, and by August I’d established a pretty reliable routine of heading straight to Red Sands with the dogs the moment we put the paper to bed. Paisley usually declined to join, busy with her desserts or just couch-locked watching Workaholics. I didn’t have much of a social life, and didn’t feel like I needed one, but it was there I found myself routinely chatting with strangers and making new friends. Most of the time I kept Muppet and Buster leashed, walking them back and forth along the shore, but when there weren’t any other dogs around I would let them chase each other in circles and explore among the rocks. One evening we stayed until the sun began to set, huddled together on a towel. I was reading The Ever After of Aswhin Rao and drinking my last cider when a small posse of party kids came screaming down through the trees. Dru and Cy were in tow.

One pony-tailed dude with vivid black tattoos on his bare torso made a noisy spectacle of jumping out of his saggy jeans and running into the water, throwing himself down like a cresting whale. His friends kept yelling “Snapper! Snapper!” The rest of them began making camp at the opposite end of the beach. One of the women was in a uniform, like she’d just gotten off work, but the rest looked like jobless skids. Buster was unconscious against my thigh, but Muppet was curious about these newcomers and decided to amble in their direction. I watched, concerned, because Muppet routinely ended up in situations she couldn’t handle. She wasn’t good with other dogs, and half the time she wasn’t good with people either. I loved her desperately, but had no illusions about the fact that she was a needy, neurotic mess. As the kids started to welcome her, smiling, I looked back down at my book.

“No, Brutus, no!”

I looked up, and saw Brutus before Muppet did. A healthy-looking German Shepherd with no shortage of energy, he’d been bounding through the forest exploring while his owners marched ahead, but upon spotting Muppet’s tiny white figure through the trees he came sprinting down the beach with kamikaze abandon. Shit. Muppet tensed, spotting the danger, then came yipping in my direction with great haste as I struggled to my feet. Some of the kids were jumping up now, yelling at Brutus, as he cut off Muppet’s path diagonally and sent her tumbling. He continued past her then turned, ready for another go. Before that could happen I had Muppet up in my arms, tight to my chest, with Buster tucked beside her like a football. Somewhere behind me I’d dropped my cider, and now I looked ridiculous, naked and flustered with my trembling canine progeny scratching at my bare flesh.

“Dude, that’s my bad,” the pony-tailed guy said, dripping and clutching a leash. “Bad boy, you come here. Fucking come here.”

“It’s all good,” I said. “It happens.”

“Real killers you’ve got there.”

“That’s the joke people make, pretty much every day.”

“Fuck, and here I thought I was being original. Hey, you’re the reporter, right? You work for the newspaper?”

“Will Johnson,” I said.

“Snapper.”

“You’re one of those guys who just has the one name, like Madonna?”

“I’ve got other names but Snapper’s the only one that matters.”

By this point Dru had pulled out a guitar, and was screaming his way through a Nirvana song. Cy was taking a pull from a freshly cracked beer, and the two women were now disrobed and venturing into the shallows holding hands. Snapper promised to keep Brutus leashed, apologized again, then headed back to his spot while I did the same. Muppet was whining and upset, so I knew I had to get out of there soon. I started throwing things into my bag while keeping the dogs leashed to my ankle, and decided to smoke one last joint before heading back down the train tracks. The sky was orange now, and dark shadows were forming. Paisley was probably starting to wonder where I was. A few puffs in, one of the women with Snapper stood up and walked over. Maybe 25, with messily half-dreaded brown hair and matching nipple barbells, she was tattooed, brazenly nude and completely unashamed. She introduced herself as Blayne, and asked if Muppet was okay.

“Oh, I think she’s calmed down now. She’s got her Dad.”

“You don’t remember me, do you?” she said. “I can tell.”

I gaped for a moment. “I’m sorry…”

“In Fairview, like two months ago. You took a picture of me walking my dog.”

“In Fairview?”

“Yeah, it was in the paper. I was walking like this, kind of over by Selkirk College?” She struck a pose, mid-stride, with jazz hands. It made for an epic silhouette, and I shifted Muppet closer to my lap just in case my body betrayed me.

“Oh, shit, yeah. I remember that. Right,” I said. “Hi.”

“You told me you just moved here.”

“Yeah, with my partner Paisley,” I said, mentally congratulating myself for mentioning her. “We were in Victoria before this.”

“Oh, I love the island.”

“Yeah, the only thing about the Kootenays is I find it hard being away from the ocean, you know? But I really like the culture. I’m starting to meet people. It’s amazing how many artists and musicians are kicking around.”

“I was born n’ raised here, so I’m a little over it. You’ll get to know all the locals pretty quick and then things get old fast. Everybody knows everybody, everybody fights everybody, everybody fucks everybody. That’s Nelson,” she said. “Maybe it will be different for you guys, though.”

“Why do they call him Snapper?” I asked, looking over to where he was patting Brutus on the sand. The dude looked the part of a small-town drug dealer, like a real criminal, but I didn’t want to be a dick about it. He was scrawny, feral-looking.

“Oh, in high school he snapped some dude’s arm for kissing a girl he liked,” she said. “Or at least that’s the story.”

“Is it true?”

“How true is any story?”

The Kootenay Goon

[angelinatoms]

Being a bunch of wake-riding pros who’d spent the past two decades jumping, carving, surfing and skating boat wakes together, we got right into what we love most about being on the water. (Bryan Soderlind/)

When it comes to water, the state of Florida is many things: swampy marsh with suspicious-looking gators, crystal-clear springs occupied by curious manatees, wide-open lakes with boundless potential, the busy Intracoastal Waterway and much more. The idea behind the North Florida Loop was to see as much of that diversity as possible, all while aboard two wakeboarding boats—a Malibu 23 LSV belonging to pro rider Brian Grubb, and a MasterCraft -X-Star belonging to the legendary Parks Bonifay. Our five-day itinerary called for us to run north up Florida’s St. Johns River, wrap through downtown Jacksonville, and hook south down through the saltwater ICW to Cape Canaveral. Basically, a 400-mile journey with no real need to set foot on dry land. In other words, a boater’s dream.

Whether you’re looking for amazing wakes or somewhere to cook breakfast while cruising, the Malibu 23 LSV and the MasterCraft X-Star proved their versatility. (Bryan Soderlind/)

The early-summer air was perfectly still as we slow-motored along the cypress-covered shorelines of the St. Johns. Pro wakeboarder Massi Piffaretti was casting frog lures from the back of the X-Star, rider-turned-videographer Erik Ruck was prepping lunch for the crew on board the Malibu, I was bird-watching with my binocs, and photographer Bryan “the Golden Bear” Soderlind was reciting interesting historical tidbits he’d picked up online while researching the dignified old river. Even though we’d only just rounded the corner from the boat ramp from which we’d just launched, we were already fully immersed in the vibe of our journey. Time was no longer a concern, so everything began to move at a more leisurely pace than real life, and the boundless nature of being on the water made every friendly boater who waved as they passed by us our neighbors. We were river people now.

A short distance from where we’d started, the no-wake zones loosened up, and we were free to run. Being a bunch of wake-riding pros who’d spent the past two decades jumping, carving, surfing and skating boat wakes together, we got right into what we love most about being on the water. Appropriately enough, Bonifay hopped in first and inspired all of us with his creativity and fun-loving ways. He even got the two boats running close together to create a spine with the wakes, which motivated the rest of us to get in on the action. We took turns riding, and with each new rider, the excitement ticked up a notch. Snaking (or “gatoring”) our way along the winding river, we knew we were in for something special during the next handful of days.

Nature abounds along the North Florida Loop. (Bryan Soderlind/)

As the intimacy of the narrow river opened up to a huge, wide lake that we could barely see across, we could suddenly hear the sirens in the distance, luring us off course with a sweet song of crystal-clear water coolly flowing nearby. A brief reprieve from the midday Florida heat was too much to resist, so we veered west into a magic little cove called Silver Glen. Brown water full of snakes and gators quickly warped into a clear-blue potion full of manatees and silverfish. It became obvious why the conquistadors thought they’d stumbled upon the Fountain of Youth. We swam around the bowl-shaped headsprings—millions of gin-clear gallons of cold water pumping out of a crack in the earth—and then got out the toys. Grubb had brought two Lift eFoils, battery-powered, self-propelled hydrofoil boards. Using the wing to reduce drag and elevate the rider off the water, they can silently carve through over 20 miles of water before needing a recharge. We all took turns riding the eFoil magic carpets, flying patterns around each other as we got better, and continued to dive around in the springs until it was finally time to go. We’d located a riverside lodge just a little bit farther north, but there was just enough glowing yellow daylight left for Piffaretti to take one more wakeboard session.

The Lift eFoil provided a great way to cruise around Silver Glen and elsewhere. (Bryan Soderlind/)

With all of our batteries fully charged the next morning, we were primed and ready to resume our journey north. The previously wild and pristine river was now becoming more populated, the shoreline morphing into the classic small-town feeling of north Florida. Places with names like Palatka, Deep Creek and Astor featured riverfront houses on every point of the socioeconomic spectrum, seafood restaurants offered to deep-fry everything that could be found under their docks, and more one-of-a-kind north Florida lodging was right at the water’s edge. Our photogenic backdrops were now peppered with houseboats, wooden train trestles, Air Force bases and nuclear power plants. In a wider, branching part of the river, nearly in sight of our next major destination, we came across an 80-foot river yacht, half-sunken and jutting out of the mud near the trees. Utterly torn apart, it appeared to be a hurricane refugee that got caught out in the open and spent the next 10 years weathering down even more. We tipped our hats in sympathy to its derelict plight, and then happily waxed the portside bow so that Bonifay could board-slide the beautifully upturned gunwale, since such a spectacular opportunity rarely presents itself to those inclined to take it. Bonifay took the incline spectacularly, doing the setup such justice that even the ship’s original owner might’ve watched the session without shedding a single tear.

A half-sunken, 80-foot river yacht provided opportunities for some fun board sliding. (Bryan Soderlind/)

A few turns of the river later, the bait shacks and bullfrog croaks to which we’d grown accustomed quickly turned into high-rises and car horns—an all-out assault on the senses as we entered the bustling center of downtown Jacksonville, one of Florida’s largest and busiest cities. Grubb invited me for a doubles session, wakesurfing behind the Malibu on our (nonpowered) hydrofoil boards, right through the heart of downtown Jax. Somewhere, 40 stories over the water, in one of the many bank-stamped skyscrapers above us, an overworked number-cruncher probably glanced up from his calculator and TPS reports just in time to watch me and Grubb fly by on our foils, ropelessly hopping from one boat wake to another, dropping back to the third roller, and soul-carving past his building toward the shipping port laden with giant cargo ships and foreshadowing, without even once looking back. We’d gone from the remoteness of swampy, cypress-laden riverways to the hustle and bustle of 9-to-5 urban life, but we were still grinning from ear to ear.

The North Florida Loop serves up some amazing opportunities for wakeskating. (Bryan Soderlind/)

Passing through Jacksonville brought other changes to the journey: dolphins rolling through the wakes of seafaring outriggers, and a very different water texture as we skirted the sandy shores of Huguenot. We were no longer floating on the St. Johns River; we were now motoring down Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway, which meant the North Florida Loop had made its southbound turn. Although happy to return to my native salt water, I was grateful the St. Johns had so warmly taken us in.

If any other part of the trip had felt like a step back in time, it paled in comparison to what came next. After a marina breakfast, we anchored abeam one of the oldest buildings in America: the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine. A Spanish fortress from the 1600s, the castle has endured attacks from pirates, sieges by British colonial forces, and a Confederate takeover, yet it stands firm in the year 2020, though no longer under control of the Spanish crown or the Confederacy. With a bit more reverence and distance than we’d given that poor river yacht back on the St. Johns, we glided around the emerald green waters of the Castillo de San Marcos on our eFoils in the beautiful morning light, carving through centuries of imperialism and strife with our silent hoverboards, while the pelicans above matched our turns with thoughtful dispositions. Bonifay was on the back of his X-Star, strumming a tune on his guitar, and Bear was tempting me to hand off the eFoil by waving a mason jar full of fresh-pressed juice. A fair deal. The peaceful day took a sharp turn when period-accurate subtenientes de fusileros approached the cannons on the terreplein and began loading them. We skedaddled southbound, taking a quick detour out the inlet to catch a quick peek of the open ocean before looping back to the calm waters of the ICW.

We happily cruised southward, enjoying glassy water and sunshine all the way until Ormond Beach, where a dark squall line stretched from east to west, threatening to derail the day. With only minutes to prepare, we hunkered down under a bridge. Through gale-force winds and a blinding deluge of rain, we endured the truth of summertime in Florida before suddenly emerging back into sunshine. The trip wouldn’t have been complete without at least one thunderstorm sending us scrambling.

Cooking and jamming around the fire was a great way to end the day. (Bryan Soderlind/)

Following Mother Nature’s brief delay, we made berth at Indian Mound Fish Camp a little bit south. With the slightly cooler temps, we made a little campfire out front, cooked dinner, and sparked up the best jam session of the trip, with Bonifay on his carbon-fiber guitar and vocals, Ruck on my half-size six string, and yours truly backing them up with the fiddle. We jammed in the moonlight until our campfire was low-glowing embers. Continuing south in the morning, our vista opened up to the familiar Mosquito Lagoon, an indicator that we were nearing the end of the road. I took the opportunity to enjoy a proper wakeskate session behind the boat, since I’d mostly been fooling around with hydrofoils for the past few days. Clad in my favorite Hawaiian shirt and lucky shoes, I jumped off the back of the boat right into that same joy that made me fall in love with watersports from the very start. I don’t think the smile left my face for the entire session. With the final boat ramp in sight, we diverted to a small island in the lagoon to soak up the sweet final hour of our epic adventure together. Climbing around on the half-submerged trees, taking group photos in the sand, and getting one last ride on the eFoils, we all agreed that the road trip by boat had just become a new tradition for us to indulge in for many, many years to come.

#boating #boatingtips #boatingsupplies #boatingnews #boatingshop #wolfcreek

[hannahhook7744]

The Hook Family in my au (including their 'partners', pets, and next gen) Moodboards (Part 2);

Present:

Alala Hook.

Second (murderous) wife of Captain James Hook.

Bio mom of Hope Hook; adoptive mom of Hort and Hookling Hook. Stepmother of Peter Pan, Harriet Hook, Harry Hook, Calista Jane Hook, and Ally Liddell (she was adopted by Alice and Pinocchio in this).

She doesn't work.

No one is quite sure how old she is because she's a siren.

Harriet Teuta Hook.

Future Wife of Anthony Tremaine-Lathyn.

Future Mother of Annalise Tremaine-Lathyn-Hook, Thomas 'Tommy' Tremaine-Lathyn-Hook, and Katherine 'Katie' Tremaine-Lathyn-Hook.

She is the captain of the Queen's Fury, a member of Diego's band—The Bad Apples, and a worker at Hook's inlet and Shack as well as at Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop.

She's 18 going on 19 years old (in d1).

Ginevra 'Ginny' Flower (ironic given she's allergic to them) Gothel.

Future Wife of Clay Clayton.

Future Mother of Gabe, Tim, Connie, and May Clayton.

She plays the tambourine and harmonica (and sings a bit) in Diego's band—The Bad Apples—and is the chefmate in Harriet Hook's crew. She also works sporadically at Hook's inlet and Shack, Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop, and Mother Gothel's Healing Emporium (she also featured briefly in 'Skin Deep With Mother Gothel' and hated every minute of it).

She's 18 going on 19 years old (in d1).

Peter Pan.

Future Husband of Moira Banning.

Future Father of Maggie and Jack Banning.

Leader of the lost children of Neverland.

He's twelve going on thirteen physically and mentally (in d1-d3).

Harrison 'Harry' Alistair Hook.

Future Husband of Uma Athanasiou, Gil LeGume, Chad Charming, and Audrey Rose.

Future Father of Mordermore, Konstantinos, Manon, and Vassilis Rose-Athanasiou (they spun a wheel to decide the last name).

First Mate of the Lost Revenge (Forever), Worker at Auradon Prep (Formerly), and Worker at Hook's inlet and Shack & Hook's (Formerly) & Clock & Curiosity Shop (Formerly). Founder of the scammers and pickpockets club.

He's fifteen going on sixteen (in d1).

Calista 'C.J' Jane Hook. 

Future Wife of Freddie Facilier and Zevon Sorcerer of Enchancia.

Future Mother of Carter Zoran Hook.

Worker at Hook's inlet and Shack & Hook's & Clock & Curiosity Shop. Future Owner of Great Grandmumsie Hook's/Bluebeard's ship—The Avenger.

She's thirteen going on fourteen (in d1).

Allison 'Ally' Ludovica Collodi-Rossi-Liddell/Adelais Zaria Hook II.

Future Wife of Jordan Ayad.

Future Mother of Malik Ayad-Liddell.

Caterer at Mad For Tea, Leader of an Acapella Group, and Future Private Detective.

She's thirteen going on fourteen (in d1) and is Cj's long lost twin (who was adopted by Alice and Pinocchio Collodi-Rossi-Liddell).

Hannah Artemis Hook/Xena Mechthildis Quenby Villa Princeps-Guarder.

Future Wife of Haul Bjorgman.

Future Mother of Metta, Everett, and Ashton.

Captain of The Stormbringer (Forever), Writer (Forever), BDA Detective in Training (Former), and Worker at Hook's inlet and Shack & Hook's & Clock & Curiosity Shop.

She's twelve going on thirteen (in d1) and is adopted.

Hookling Holden Hook.

Adopted son of Alala and James Hook.

Future Owner of Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop, as well as his uncle Jasper Hook's ship—the Rake.

He's three (in d1) but isn't adopted until the barrier is brought down when he's five (in d3).

Horton 'Hort' Cannon Hook.

Adopted son of Alala and James Hook.

May or may not be the Future Husband of Sophie Witcher (still deciding).

Future Owner of the Serpent's Cry (Grandma Hook's Ship) and Teacher at Serprent Prep.

He's one (in d1) but isn't adopted until the barrier is brought down when he's three (in d3).

Hope Aegea Hook.

Daughter of Alala and James Hook.

Siren and Future Owner of Hook's inlet and Shack & The Jolly Roger.

She is born in d2.

[hannahhook7744]

The Hook Family in my au (including their 'partners', pets, and next gen) Moodboards (Part 3);

Atticus Finn Smith-Hook.

Never marries.

Never has children.

Worker at Hook's inlet and Shack & Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop (Formerly). Planned Future Owner of his father, Jasper Hook's pirate ship 'The Rake' (Formerly). Member of the Stormbringer Crew.

Died at sixteen years old in year 11 of the isle after having a seizure while babysitting his younger siblings and cousins, Bernard 'River' Le Beak-Fathom, Skia Aoratos, and Lucas 'Luke' Tremaine-Westergaard.

Nevin Logan Smith-Hook.

Never marries.

Never has children.

Never had a job. Planned Future Owner of his maternal grandfather (and mother)'s tavern, the Lucky Bride (Formerly). Member of the Stormbringer Crew.

Died at four years old in year 14 of the isle after contacting rabies from being scratched by a fox he'd befriended.

Greyson Alfie Smith-Hook.

Never marries.

Never has children.

Worker at Hook's inlet and Shack & Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop (Formerly). Planned Future Owner of Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop (Formerly). Member of the Stormbringer Crew.

Died at nine years old in year 18 of the isle after parkour gone wrong.

Morgan Kenna Smith-Hook.

Never marries.

Never has children.

Never worked. Planned Future Owner of her father, Jasper Hook's pirate ship 'The Rake' (Formerly). Member of the Stormbringer Crew.

Died at two years old in Year 14 of the isle from one of the plaques.

Ian Duncan Smith-Hook.

Never marries.

Never has children.

Worker at Hook's inlet and Shack & Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop (Formerly). Planned Future Owner of Hook's Clock & Curiosity Shop (Formerly). Member of the Stormbringer Crew.

Died at eleven years old in year 18 of the isle from drowning in a failed escape attempt during a storm where his homemade raft fell apart.

Claymore 'Clay' Comrade Clayton.

Future Husband of Ginny Gothel.

Future Father of Gabe, Tim, Connie, and May Clayton.

He's the backup/second guitarist of the Bad Apples, a member of The LeGume Hunting Club, Counselor for the Rat Trapping Club at Serpent Prep, and is the powder monkey of Harriet Hook's crew.

He's 19 going on 20 years old (in d1).

Anthony Francis Tremaine-Lathyn.

Future Husband of Harriet Hook.

Future Father of Annalise Tremaine-Lathyn-Hook, Thomas 'Tommy' Tremaine-Lathyn-Hook, and Katherine 'Katie' Tremaine-Lathyn-Hook.

Purser of Harriet Hook's Crew and Future Owner of Curl Up & Dye (if he doesn't get caught embezzling funds by then, that is).

He's 18 going on 19 years old (in d1).

[hannahhook7744]

Badun Detective Agency Detective Profile (Edited on December 2nd, Year 23 due to new information):

Name: Hannah Artemis Hook.

DOB: December 2nd, Year 8.

Status: Dead.

Last Known Address: The Stormbringer Crew (Part Time),

The flat above Hook's Inlet and Shack (Part Time).

Previous Address: The Jolly Roger.

Country of Origin: The Isle of the Lost.

Race: Caucasian. 

Gender: Female.

Dental:? (Profiler does not know what dental is and thus cannot answer the question). 

Height: 3"0 (36 Cm).

Weight: 47.7 lbs (21.63636 Kg).

Hair color: Dark Brown (with a white streak on the left, a teal one on the right).

Eye color: Dark Brown.

Languages: English, Pirate Speak, and Fairy Speak (Fluent),

Latin, English, Greek, Ciazarn, Spanish, and French (Sparsely).

Title: Detective-in-training Hannah Hook, Captain Hannah Hook, The Messenger, and Angel of Vengeance.

Identifiable markings: Mild freckles, very short nails (from her biting them), sideways anchor scar on her right knee, small dot scars all over her left hand, a mild thin scar on her scalp, and several jagged scars on her feet (from stepping on glass).

Family:  Severin 'Bluebeard/Le Barbe Bleu' de Montragoux (Adoptive Paternal Great Grandfather)(Deceased),

Lucretia Hook (Adoptive Paternal Great Grandmother)(Living),

Adelais Hook I (Adoptive Paternal Great Grandmother)(Living),

Nell Frost (Nanny/Potential Adoptive Paternal Step Grandmother)(Living),

Davy Jones (Alleged Adoptive Paternal Grandfather)(Living),

Jasper 'Patch' Hook (Adoptive Parental Uncle)(Living),

Arabella 'Bella' Smith-Hook (Adoptive Parental Aunt-via-marriage)(Living),

Atticus Hook (Adoptive Parental Cousin)(Deceased),

Greyson Hook (Adoptive Parental Cousin)(Living),

Ian Hook (Adoptive Parental Cousin)(Living),

Nevin Hook (Adoptive Parental Cousin)(Living),

Ian Hook (Adoptive Parental Cousin)(Living),

Morgan Hook (Adoptive Parental Cousin)(Deceased),

James Hook (Adoptive Father)(Living),

Zarina Hook (Adoptive Mother)(Living),

Lady Hock (Babysitter/Backup Godmother)(Living),

William Smee (Godfather)(Living),

Molly Smee (Godmother)(Living),

Samson 'Sammy' Smee (Godbrother)(Living),

Sterling 'Squirmy' Smee (Godbrother)(Living),

Skipper 'Squeaky' Smee (Godbrother)(Living),

Adelais Hook II/Allison Liddell (Adoptive Sister)(Living),

Calista Jane 'CJ' Hook (Adoptive Sister)(Living),

Harriet Hook (Adoptive Sister)(Living),

Peter Pan (Adoptive Brother)(Living), 

Ginevra ‘Ginny’ Gothel (Adoptive Parental Sister/ Biological Maternal Aunt), 

Harrison 'Harry' Hook (Adoptive Brother)(Living),

Icarus (Owl)(Living)

and Midas (Racoon)(Living). 

Education: 1st grade (Partly).

Employment: Worker at Hook's Inlet and Shack (Occasionally),

Worker at Hook's Clock and Curiosity Shop (Occasionally),

Isle Messenger (Occasionally),

Pirate Captain of the Stormbringer (Permanently).

Badun Detective Agency Employment: Detective-in-training.

Skills/abilities: Thievery, people reading, improvised weapons, escape artist, and researching.

Signature:

HaNnAh HoOk.

Notes: 

—Agent is impulsive.

—Agent has little to no self-preservation skills.

—Agent is partially blind and partially deaf, as well as extremely clumsy.

—Agent is not the best at fighting but is good at providing a distraction, running away, and being a swordsmen.

—Agent is also good at improvising and figuring out people's wants/needs (and using them to her advantage).

—Agent has debilitating migraines and sensory overloads. She also gets overstimulated and under stimulated a lot.

—Agent has a debilitating fear of spiders.

—Agent hates shoes.

Edited on December 2nd, Year 15:

Note(s):

—Agent Died on December 2nd, Year 15.

—Due to Agent Hannah Hook's deaths, the 'If I Go Missing' and 'Will' Files have become mandatory for all members of the B.D.A.

Edited on December 25th, Year 17 :

Note(s): Agent has been spotted multiple times after her death in a ghostly form. For theories on how, check theories file 077.

[hannahhook7744]

Hook Family Appearance Masterlist;

Moodboards:

1.

2.

3.

Part Four Coming soon.

Outfit Boards:

Coming soon.

[dragoneyes618]

What job did captain hook have on the isle again?

Hook outlet right?

Hook's Inlet and Shack, which sells fishing supplies, according to Harry (who used to work there until his father found out he was stealing from the cash register). Also Hook is still captain of the Jolly Roger (unless his crew had enough of him and mutinied).

[hannahhook7744]

Locations on the isle of the lost;

Canon locations;

Bargain Castle.

Bazaar.

Carlos' House.

Castle-Across-the-Way.

Claw Trimmers.

Cobra's Cave. 

Doom Cave.

Dragon Hall.

Dr. Facilier's Voodoo Arcade.

Frollo's Creperie.

Goblin Wharf.

Hades' Cave.

Hell Hall.

Hook's Inlet.

Hook's Inlet and Shack.

House of Horrors.

Jafar's Junk Shop.

Lady Tremaine's Curl Up & Dye.

Lost Revenge.

Serpent Prep.

Shan Yu's Dim Sum.

Slop Shop.

The Strait of Ursula.

The Forbidden Fortress.

Troll Town.

Ursula's Fish and Chips.

Warlock Way's Department of Disorder.

Witch School.

Gaston's dules without rules.

The Facilier's Shop.

Isle of the Doomed.

Queen of Hearts' Salon.

Bits and Bobs.

Cauldron Repair.

VK's hideout.

Not canon locations;

Hades' restaurant (idk if it is canon or not. I'd it is correct me).

Creeps' peak.

Cannibal cove.

Gaston's Pub.

What do you think the rest of the signs say? Other than Hook's Inlet.

[hannahhook7744]

For the record, my oc Hannah Hook admits to no wrong doing.

I bet Harriet and CJ are stealing from the shop as well. They're just better at not getting caught.

Also just the thought of the shenanigans they must get up to in there. Whose idea was it to let all the Hooks manage a business? (Captain Hook's, that's who.)