#i bet he eats mulch

[number1yisuchongfan]

I think often about how Thaddeus states in Episode 3 that he grew up on a farm, and more particularly on how he describes how it was like:

Transcription cuz I can’t get the actual clip myself:

“… [I] bet you, uh, seem some things, huh? Being a knight… I’ve seen some things [too]. I grew up working on a fly farm. I was a shitter, so they’d feed us and then they’d feed our shit to the flies. Mulch ‘em up and sell it as protein. Anyway, that’s why I’m so fat…”

And I think that scene is so fascinating…

//Warning for mentions of Child Abuse + Endangerment, Eating Disorders, & Unhealthy Self-Worth problems ahead.

First off, it shows Thaddeus trying to show “Titus” (Maximus) that he’s tough and not easily scared by, that he’s seen things just as bad and possibly worse as the Gulper they just faced, yet his voice trembles ever so slightly as he speaks. He wants Maximus to know that he is strong, but most of, but he also wants to bond with him.

And second off, by his tremble, whatever he’s seen isn’t something he doesn’t like to think of often. As if it’s painful connected into the next part of this story.

He very explicitly states he grew up on a fly farm, and by how he describes, it wasn’t the best environment for a child like him to grow up in. He (and others by the fact he uses “us” instead “me”) was forced to eat constantly, which likely led to him and his siblings to suffer from nutritional deficiency, dehydration, nausea, and one thing we know he got from that experience, an eating disorder that affects his body image. That environment of living on a farm whose sole income depended on you and your siblings eating as much as you can must have been rough…

He calls himself fat as well despite being thinner and lankier than Maximus and other squires his age, practically makes a joke out of it before getting sentimental about it for a moment of quiet thought, and throughout the episode he always offers up his food to Maximus and is never seen eating himself.

I also believe this is why he’s so desperate for safety and security of his wellbeing though out the show that he does anything to get, because if I was forced-fed and abused my entire childhood to keep working while you and your family barely make enough to survive in the Wasteland (and who are implied to have died at some point by his “rule of the wasteland” line later), I would also try to seek anything that didn’t put me at the bottom of the pecking order of the social hierarchy.

[ruffy-ruffles]

i wanna eat paint people without the I and t in paint

Meet my oldest OC ava.

I used to think of her as an angel

THEN I REALIZED SHE COMMITTED THEFT IN KINDERGARTEN AND WATCHED 2 BOYS BRAWL OVER HER.

When I was in kindergarten this actually happened

I remember gettin' taken to the nurse too!

I also remember being in the playground a being like OOOO A PRETTY BOW. *Yoink and runs the other way*

Is it bad i still remember what it looked like...?

It was white, and it had a red gem

My policy was "finders keepers!"

I bet that kid was searching around for her bow though..she probably later forgot about it!

I thought of the bow as a cursed bow that'd lend me enough power to be a magical girl bro.

As for the boys, oh how I absolutely destroyed them, they were like "will you be my girlfriend" now most would expect a young girl to be like "oh my God yes >w<" but I remember bluntly saying "no." Which lead up to, at recess they were BRAWLING, I'd either run away or smth I remember they'd run after me once I do, I remember that one time were they tried reversing what I say

So like no is yes and yes is no AND THAT BASTARD WAS LIKE

"will you be my girlfriend" so I had to say yes in order to decline BECAUSE WE REVERSD, but he twisted the rules.

It would've been better ngl if I just stayed silent

Then he asked me once if I wanted to be his friend, and since I was all about friends, I said yes!

But he was like "she's my girlfrien" or smth idk

Also I remember one of my classmates in kindergarten predicting omori I think, they said the other boy...pushed his sister down the stairs...?

There's more I remember of this one kid than the other.

I think if they were emotionally bonded with me, probably, but even then I probably wouldn't feel a thing.

at the moment, I didn't know what a gay person was DESPITE MAKING AN OC ON THAT, WITH ANOTHER THING I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT.... HETEROCHROMIA....

I never thought about relationships back then cause it was outta sight outta mind + didn't matter to me.

I really never got this "love on first sight" thing.

Also the boy later on accused me of making him spill his chocolate milk, NOT MY FAULT HE HAD A LAUGH, it's his fault!

Anyways review is, kindergarten was crazy as for 1st grade? Ehhh I mean our main teacher was strict but I loved our substitute teacher!

She gave us colored goldfish as a reward for doing something right!

Colored goldfish hold sentimental value for me :3

one thing I remember in the 1st grade playground was (we finally escaped those boys once and for all)

They used to sell the mulch as a placeholder for food, now that I think about it that kinda clicks in my mind as drug dealer type shit instead of food stuff.

Anyways I'll try posting more about the timeline characters once a year strikes on the other place I put this.

[mlmvoreconfessionals]

Duuude love the Carlos stories! Welcome back too! Think you might be up for him crushing some civilians behind those sexy abs of his? Maybe as a game with his soldier buddies? I could see him being a casual bro while he and his mates go through more civilians than they save. Maybe doing a little taunting and forcing a little muscle worship out of one before sending him down?

I bet I can whip something up for this, kinda been enjoying this characterization for C.arlos pred.

The plan had gone off without a hitch and C.arlos is now sitting on the train with some other soldiers and, thankfully, a decent amount of civilians. He's thankful that he got so many people out of there, but honestly, the whole thing left him feeling pretty tired and really hungry. He hasn't had something to eat all day...and the longer he sits around in this car with all these civilians, the easier it gets for him to make some bad choices.

C.arlos gets to his feet casually and walks over to the door leading to the next car. He locks it. There are more civilians in the train than just this car and he doesn't want them suspecting anything or trying to intervene. He would like to get out of this with some survivors to show for it. But...there's enough that he can take his reward early.

C.arlos walks over to the nearest guy, standing in front of him. He licks his lips and smiles, placing a hand on his stomach. "You don't mind lending a soldier a hand, do you?" The man looks up at C.arlos, clearly a bit confused, but nods. "Good." Strong hands plant themselves on either shoulder and his jaws open wide. In a flash, hes' engulfed the man's head and begins to slurp him down hungrily.

The other civilians are, understandable, very freaked out witnessing one of the soldiers that had saved their life suddenly devouring one of them like a hungry beast. The soldiers, on the other hand, just chuckle or shake their heads with a smirk. This isn't their first rodeo with C.arlos or his hunger, and they've all learned it's best to just not get in his way. Soldier settles in his stomach just as easily as civilian, after all.

With a final wet gulp, C.arlos has slurped down the last of his meal. His belly sticks out in front of him with the meal packed away and a belch escapes him. He gives his gut a few lazy pats. "Not bad." He grunts and flexes his gut, snuffing out the life of his meal in one go. A belch escapes him, his gut flat again, and he rubs it lazily. "...but not enough."

The civilians are starting to panic by now, getting up to try and run or fight. Getting past C.arlos proves ineffect, though. The car is too small, and he has no issue grabbing the first guy that tries to worm past him and start to scarf him down. A couple of the other men try to get the soldiers to step in and stop him, but they find out pretty quickly they're not much better when they start getting guzzled down, too.

The car is commotionf or only a few moments as the civilians are picked off like snacks. Most of the soldiers get one, at least, but C.arlos by far takes the most. He sits back, tossing his head back as he gulps down another pair of kicking legs. His guts groan wetly as he crams yet another civilian inside, the tight abs already beginning to compact him. There's only one civilian left, kneeling in front of him and shivering as he put his hands to C.arlos's gut. "That's right, just feel how strong these abs are." C.arlos closes his eyes and flexes his stomach. It flats out with some crunches and snaps, snuffing out yet another life with ease. The civilian in front of him shivers hard as he feels along the powerful gut. It growls again. "Now go ahead and feel it from the inside." He lifts the guy up and scarfs him down just as easily as the rest.

"You're a real brute, you know that?" one of the soldiers says with a casual chuckle. His own stomach is mulching down the two guys he was able to pack away. "You told that poor guy you'd let him go."

C.arlos thumps his chest and belches as his gut crushes down over his meal. "I did let him go, didn't I? Right down the hatch."

"Cheers to that!" another soldier says with a laugh. "And hey, we still got another five cars worth of guys left, so we're still doing good."

"Mm...think anyone would notice if we turn up with another one empty, though?" a third soldier asks, rubbing slowly along his gut.

C.arlos grins wolfishly and his belly growls. "Guess there's only one way to find out. But if I eat the most, you all better get ready to worship over my body. It deserves some more attention~" He flexes one of his arms with a grin, all while his buddies laugh and chuckle.

[signifying-something]

Artemis Fowl: Animated Bloopers

So a couple weeks ago on the Artemis Fowl Incident Report Discord server ( @artemis-fowl-incident-report ), the brilliant @brekkie-bing had an amazing idea. Like how The Lion King and Brother Bear had animated bloopers in the post-credit scenes, she wondered what that would be like if we ever had an animated Artemis Fowl movie or tv series. That is where the greatest, most stupendous chain of ideas was birthed~~

SO MY SWEET PEEPS!! I present to y’all a whole host of bloopers me and a number of other people came up with, and feel free to reblog your own or even draw some of them!! As the great Super Mario says, LETSAGOO!!

Mulch is about to blow a big one, but it just comes out as a squeak

Foaly’s got a scene with a long rant in it, but he keeps jumbling up his words and they do about 76 takes to get it right

Holly writing “Fresh AF” in white marker on Artemis’ sunglasses, when he puts them on in a high tension scene you can here the whole crew in the background laughing

A phone goes off during filming. The ringtone is Madonna’s ‘Papa Don’t Preach’. The phone is Butler’s...

The camera pans on Holly eating some vole curry on set without realising her it’s her scene, her eyes widen as she’s like “OH CRAP ARE WE SHOOTING?”

Holly and Artemis goofing around during the punch take

Holly actually punches him super hard and he’s out cold

Artemis cracking up when he fumbles a line. Like, the voice actors just messing up and taking the piss

That one scene is Book One where Angeline has a weird homemade mannequin thing dressed as Artemis Fowl Senior, and the head just rolls off mid take and everyone bursts out laughing. Artemis is hands on knees screaming at the floor in laughter.

Juliet and Holly strutting and posing in the dressing room with Butler filming them

A full on argument between Argon and Cumulus which slowly delves into insulting each other

When they print out the first translation: “This...is [censor bleep]” cue laughter behind the camera

Julius roots cigar being too strong and he just chokes on the smoke for a painful five minutes while the crew hold in their laughter

Artemis struggles saying ‘I don’t like lollipops’ with a straight face

Footage of the troll fight without audio mixing so it's just Butler grunts and plate mail noises

Holly filming Artemis getting make up done on set

Artemis, glaring: I bet you won't release footage of your hair and makeup getting done

Holly does anyways

He’s getting some face powder on his noggin and Holly warns; “If that stuff gets on my hand when I punch you..”

Artemis, constantly: What's my line? I have so many words.

Artemis: I read the script but it’s all just words

Artemis:...*sigh* LINE???

When they finish a take they all just start dancing randomly cause thank god Artemis finally got his line out

Like Artemis walks into the room all intimidating and then he just stands there and he’s like “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing”

Artemis: L

Juliet: If you say line again I will throw one of the gold bars at you

Like Holly’s just watching and waiting awkwardly

Artemis: And this vial uh contains...llll

Butler: *glaring*

Artemis: llllemonade

Artemis running lines off camera and he's great and intimidating and subtle when he actually knows the words

When the director asks if everyone’s good on lines and they all know the questions for Artemis so they all just look at him

Artemis: Do you people understand how many words this is? This is approaching Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead levels of words

He has to pay up for every fudged line and every time they laugh or have a blank moment

Holly has a swear jar and Artemis has a "line?" jar

Artemis assuming it’s Holly’s line and he’s staring at her and she’s like “BRO ITS YOU”

Holly: That's a quarter in the jar

Artemis: THAT DOES NOT COUNT, I DID NOT SAY IT

Grub juggling the bars of gold cause they’re made of styrofoam and one of them hits trouble

Juliet accidently wacks someone else with her jade ring and she just goes "Oh god. I'm so sorry" repeatedly

Julius and Holly can’t stop laughing when he’s yelling at her

Holly doing the flying into scene and she trips while knocking over the props

Maybe a really heart warming scene where Holly catches Artemis playing Moonlight Sonata on the piano and secretly films him in his element

Mulch’s jaw gets stuck and he’s like “no guys I’m serious I can’t shut my mouth” Holly being like “well there’s a first”

Mulch hides food on set like RDJ during Avengers

Mulch would eat all the food and Holly would go "Goddamnit Mulch, why are you like this."

They come off set to get lunch. Food? Gone

Redoing takes because Mulch has cream cheese on his face

Inexplicably, it's always cream cheese

Even when they don't have any on set

Camera zooms in randomly on someone zoning out and making weird faces as they wait

The fairies being so short that the boom mic comes so low down in shots and it gets really annoying for everyone

Butler like Mufasa getting his voice pitch right as the audio rolls

Foaly: Uhh line? Sorry, it's a really wordy scene

Artemis: So it's okay when he does it?

Foaly: I don't call line nearly as much as you do. Aren't you supposed to be a genius?

Artemis: Aren't you?

Butler: Artemis, remember who you are

Butler: Artemis, I am your father

Juliet: Hell yeah you are

Thank you so much to my peeps who contributed: @brekkie-bing @pokegeek151 @the-local-bookworm and everyone on the discord server who was with us during those crazy, like, 15 minutes.

Once again, feel free to reblog and add your own or even draw some of these out! (Low-key looking at you; @brekkie-bing @iesnoth @hop-a-lot @fowlblue @popsicle-stick @blackhollyshort @talesoftales and all you beautiful artists...pwetty pwease 👉🏽👈🏽)

Have fun darlings!

[m-aster-of-spinjitzu]

orange and gold

...I just need more Cole and Vania content, they seem like they'd be great friends.

Basically it's just 'Cole goes to visit her there, they almost burn down the kitchen, and make way too many puns', lol.

Set a few months after Master of the Mountain, but before Seabound or The Island.

Also yeah, I couldn't think of a better title, sue me- I just know that they wear one of the colours at some point, so... 🤦‍♀️😂

Trigger warnings: none I think? Huh-

Also, bingo!! I really need to learn better time management, dear freaking gosh- I hope I'm not too late though? I know it's like half a day late, eek- and I was supposed to post this earlier, but I ended up literally falling asleep while writing it😂

Thank you so much Fabro, for hosting such a cool event!:D Your comments on my fics literally never fail to make my day<3. And I'm so glad that I met so many awesome, really skilled people through this event too - it's been a lot of fun working alongside y'all:D, I wish I'd had more time to interact instead of posting stuff and vanishing lol, but exams be like:////

Prompt: cooking (does baking count as cooking? I realized too late lol-) from @ninjago-bingo 's warm board.

Word Count: 2497

---

Trying to escape from killer dire-bats hadn't been on Cole's to do list today - although the mountains were kind of beautiful.

It was a bit difficult to see them while he was being dragged to his death, but hey, didn't Jay always tell them to be more positive?

That was, until he made the mistake of looking down.

Miles of snowcapped mountains touched the pastel blue sky, but he was more focused on exactly how high he was from the ground.

Great.

Trying to swing back onto the Bounty, he didn't notice a golden-winged blur shoot past the bat, almost dropping their spear in haste.

"Let my friend go, or I'll-"

"Vania?"

She throws the spear at the bird, successfully knocking one of its wings.

Huh. She must've been practicing - throwing with accuracy while flying seemed kinda difficult.

"I'm so sorry!" she replies, grabbing his arm before he fell down too. She winces at the strain on her wings, almost dropping him onto the deck. "I was supposed to come earlier, but there was an issue with one of the mines, and it took forever to-"

"There ain't anything in this world that's managed to kill me yet," he replies jokingly, checking that the autopilot hadn't been damaged. "I doubt an angry bird is going to be the first."

"Didn't you mention that you became a ghost once? Pretty sure that means you were dead-"

"Shh, that's not an important detail," he jokes.

"If you say so," she replies with a grin. "Did I mention that Chompy's been tearing down the palace flower arrangements again?"

"Send my regards to the gardener-"

"Did you just make a pun?"

"Remind me why I decided to visit you again?"

"Because you love me?" she asks stepping onto the ground as the Bounty landed gently.

"I hereby crown you as my platonic soulmate," Cole deadpans, taking her hand. "Vania and Cole-"

"Destined to annoy each other for eternity," she giggles, swinging their hands up and down. "But seriously - thanks. I don't think I realized how much work being a queen was."

"What's it like?"

"I mean - I'm glad that people trust me, and they come to me if they have a problem, but the paperwork is a nightmare. I never get to go outside anymore, I swear."

"Paperwork? Also, you just invited me here for a week. I don't wanna disturb you?"

"Nah, I cleared my schedule, don't worry. And trust me, you don't want to know. Everything requires some sort of official written thing, and it's so boring-"

"Official? But you're the queen?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't really want to change something unless it benefits the people. Not after..."

Her smile dims, eyes straying to the palace walls.

Oh- oh.

"You're nothing like him," Cole says firmly, squeezing her hand. "I mean, if you need to take a break, or you can make your job a bit easier by cutting out something unnecessary, that's just gonna help you become a better queen. You've definitely got the interests of your people at heart, and that's the most important thing, you know? And well, uh, everything seems to be going great so far - you don't have to beat yourself up over someone else's mistakes."

"Thanks," she replies softly, her smile slowly returning. "Speaking of breaks, what do you think we should do this time?"

"You could show me around the city again?"

"You've already seen everything cool," Vania giggles, skipping ahead of him. "We don't renovate much - unlike you guys-"

"Hey, it's not our fault that our city gets destroyed every few months-"

"More like every few days," she teases, tying back her golden hair. "How about we find some dragons to adopt?"

"Tempting, but where would you keep them?"

"They could sleep in my room-"

She breaks off when she notices him laughing. "What?"

"N- nothing," Cole replies, in between laughs. "Jay and I just made a bet."

"On what?"

"How many dragons you've adopted. I bet at least six, he bet fifteen."

"Well, jokes on both of you - I'm pretty sure my advisor's going to throw a fit if I show up with another one," she starts, giggling. "We've got twenty living in the palace right now."

"Twenty dragons?"

"They're so cute! You just look into their adorable little eyes," Vania pauses for breath, continuing her animated gesturing, "and you can't help but wanna hug them!"

"Oh, Jay's going to be so mad."

"Aww, I'm sorry guys. They're just too adorable!"

"...Wanna hear a funny story?"

"Yeah, sure!"

"I actually used to be terrified of dragons-"

"No way!" Vania exclaims. "Y'all have been on a lot of adventures though, so-"

"Nah, we used to have our own dragons at first. They were pretty cool! I just- I'm a simple guy! Huge animals with wings are scary up close when you're barely a teenager."

"Or when you're really short-"

"We're the same height!" Cole exclaims, facepalming in a bit of a fondly exasperated way.

"I'm two years younger than you-"

---

"Ugh, whose idea was this?"

"Yours," Vania grins, sitting down on the kitchen counter.

"You were supposed to help me, not leave me high and dry!" Cole accuses jokingly, staring at all the appliances they'd found in the cupboards.

"'One must always be prepared for new adventures,'" she quotes seamlessly, waving one of- what was his name again? Mulch something? Oh! Clutch! Some explorer he was, leaving them to die in the pyramid - Clutch Powers' books in the air.

"Fine," he sighs, staring at the old recipe book she'd found in one of their back cupboards. "But you've gotta help me? I almost burned down-" "Woah, what? If you finish that sentence with 'kitchen'-" "In my defense, Kai was playing a prank on me-" "In my defense, I wouldn't like to explain how the queen of Shintaro burnt down the palace by teaching one of her friends to cook," she grins, flipping through the pages. "What do you wanna start with?" "Something simple?" "Have you ever tried baking bread before? It's a lot of fun!" "I haven't really had the time, but that sounds kinda interesting."

He skims the recipe, raising his eyebrows. "Wait, why does this take hours? I thought you said it was simple?"

"Trust me, it is," she laughs, adding, "besides, I still wanna hear about all your adventures!" "Uh... okay," Cole replies hesitantly, "but if this fails, I'm so sorry." "Give yourself some credit, you guys literally saved the world! Multiple times!" "Bold of y'all to assume we know how we did it," he laughs, only half-kidding. "Besides. I botched soup once."

"I've botched toast," she mock-sighs, smiling. "Pretty sure that makes us even."

"Lemme get this straight. You've messed up toasting bread, but you can bake it from scratch?"

"Trust me, I don't know either," she giggles, trying to open a brightly coloured packet of... something? Did flour come in packets that small?

"Uh, why are you opening something called 'feast'?" he asks, eyebrows creased in confusion.

"Feast," she echoes, trying to stifle her laughter. "Off to a... rocky start, aren't we?"

It took him a second.

"I already regret this," he jokes, facepalming. "But I'd say that your puns are, uh, gold."

"I've un- unleashed-" breaking off, she half-falls off the counter, laughing so hard her face starts to go red, "a monster."

---

"Uh, is it supposed to look like that?" Cole asks, frowning.

The mixture looked less like the dough he'd been expecting - more like one of Jay's inventions gone wrong.

Badly wrong, he thought, eyes widening at the goopy mess of foam that threatened to spill over the jug.

"The yeast?" Vania echoes, poking her head out of one of the cupboards. "Yeah, all good! It always looks a little gross, and you're gonna doubt ever eating bread again, but at least it doesn't taste like it's fermented-"

"It's what?"

"Yeah," she grimaces, exaggerating her disgust a bit. "If aliens ever fell from the sky, they'd think we were crazy for eating bread-"

"Aliens? I think we're a bit crazy!" Cole exclaims, trying not to laugh.

Vania smiles, then sighs, lugging a huge bag of flour onto the counter. "I can never open these bags properly," she starts, eyeing the the bag a bit warily, "and it always makes such a huge mess all over the kitchen. You'd think they'd make it easier for people to use, right? I swear-"

He jokingly puts his hands over his ears. "I can't hear you!" "But you know that I've sworn off swearing-" she replies, breaking off with a laugh. "Pun not intended - that actually made sense in my head. I swear!"

"No," Cole interjects with a grin, shaking his head. "You don't, remember?"

"See, this is why we're friends-"

"Friends? Is that all I am to you?"

"Oh, be quiet," she shoots back, exaggeratedly dragging a hand down her face. "I mean, sure, just because everyone thinks that we're dating doesn't mean that we-"

Wait. What?

"People think that we're dating?" he asks, clamping a hand over his mouth in a poor attempt to muffle his laughter. "I- I- really?"

"I know, right?"

"Even my friends thought so at first," he confesses, dragging a hand down his face. "I mean, as much as I love you-"

"I love you too," Vania replies, completely seriously. "Even if you'll always be more like an annoying-"

"Hey-"

"Sibling to me than anything else," she finishes, grabbing a pair of scissors. Cole watches, a little alarmed, as she stabs them into the flour bag over and over.

"Is it... supposed to be this difficult to just open the bag? Seems kinda stupid-"

"Well, er, they have this piece of paper with glue that you're supposed to pull away from the rest of the bag, but it never works properly and I-"

"Well, we could always make our own flour," Cole interjects, laughing. "I mean, I've got a scythe? Let's go!"

"Uh, but we don't have wheat growing here. I don't think it'd suit the climate very well?"

"Wheat a shame," Cole sighs jokingly, measuring out the flour (which had, finally, escaped the bag).

"Oh my gosh," Vania deadpans, "you did not just-"

"Yep, I did."

"You're horrible," she giggles, "then again, I was the one who started this whole debacle, so I think we'll share the blame."

"Debacle? Where'd you pick that one up from? Sounds kinda cool-"

"Oh, it's from a book someone wrote about you guys," Vania says casually, pouring a cup of water into the bowl.

"Hey, uh-" Cole starts hesitantly, twisting his fingers back and forth, then breaks off. "Why'd you read all that stuff about us, anyways? Adventure books don't really seem like something you read a lot, since we have similar favorite books. I mean..."

"Well, um..." Vania trails off, clearly uncomfortable. "Uh- I guess, well, it sounds kinda stupid, but I'd never really met anyone my age who wasn't a royal or something. I... er, I didn't want to be left out, you know?"

Cole thinks back to a scroll; a quest, a sacrifice. One that his friends never seemed to really notice, unless it was with horror or flinches. Not that he blamed them, but - joking about how he was much more useful to the team when he was freaking dead than he was before he'd stumbled and fell in the temple?

That had been a bit far, even for his best friend. Locks could always be picked or something, he didn't need to be a ghost to provide some sort of value-

Well, that's not completely true, is it? a small voice questions, and he can't keep his hands from shaking a little.

"Jay here thinks you're the least valuable ninja."

Not enough to be a performer. Now, not good enough to even be a ninja, apparently.

Well, he reminds himself firmly, you don't have to be the best - just stand up to those who are cruel and unjust.

Nothing but a scar that glowed warm orange occasionally left of the whole Cursed Realm ordeal, sometimes it was all too easy to forget - or pretend - that it had never even happened in the first place.

Other times, like when he'd dropped a glass of water on the floor and his hands hadn't stopped shaking for hours, or when he woke up screaming, expecting to fall through his bed again, it still felt like he was trapped as a ghost. Literally - and maybe a little figuratively as well.

Yeah. Yeah, I know.

"Thanks for trusting me with that," he replies softly. "And I'm sorry. That sounds... horrible, but, honestly, you're a pretty cool person, and I ain't just saying that because we're friends. People can be awful, and they can- they can leave, but you don't need to pretend to be someone you're not for people to accept you. I kinda know what it's like, and it's... just, uh, not great."

"No, thank you," Vania says, rubbing her eyes. "You're pretty cool, too. And I'm glad that we become friends, even if wasn't in the- the, er, greatest circumstances."

"Right back at ya. The fall was pretty terrifying, though," Cole says casually, as if memories of that nightmarish plunge into the depths of earth don't still send shivers down his spine.

"No, definitely! I was so sure we were gonna splat onto the ground or something, thank gosh we didn't."

"Yeah..." Cole trails off, reading the recipe they'd been following. "Oh- do we just leave the bowl somewhere for a few hours now?"

"Oh, yeah," Vania answers. "Other than clean up the kitchen, what else do you wanna do?"

"That's kind of you, but, ah, I don't mind. You can choose something."

"I don't mind either," she replies, covering the bowl with a dishcloth. "Seriously, I don't."

"Same here though."

"Really, I don't mind-" Vania breaks off with a laugh, adding, "Well, actually, there is something."

She doesn't elaborate, thoughtfully gazing out the window.

"Well, what is it? Don't keep me in the dark."

"Ugh, it's kinda stupid-"

"I'm sure that it's not- well, unless you want to try to jump off a flying ship with a homemade parachute to prove a bet to someone-"

"Do I even wanna know?"

"...uh, probably not. We're way too crazy sometimes, our Master has a hard time keeping us in check. Your thing, though?"

"Can I give you a hug?"

Cole blinks for a second, expecting some sort of punchline.

"That's your thing?"

"Well, yeah- I mean, I said it was kinda stupid-"

"No no, that's not what I meant. You're so sweet - that's all."

"Well, not more than you-"

"Nah, you're sweeter-"

"Let's just call it a tie," Vania says with a smile, reaching over to give her friend a hug. "Thank you so much, I swear- well, no, I don't, but you know, anyways-"

"Yeah," Cole replies, laughing softly. "I know."

[meowdymista]

Van der Driscoll Pt9

Part 8 - Masterlist

"I didn’t know they did table service here," teases Tilly, sitting down with you and Hosea to eat.

The man chuckles in response. “Could you imagine them selling this stuff in a restaurant? Stew du jour?”

You let them chatter as you pull apart a bread roll. Right now, you would rather be tucking into spitroast turkey than the bowl of mulch Hosea so kindly provided you, but you don’t complain. Your ears are straining to translate Charles' hushed conversation with Dutch.

You and Charles had begun to relay your findings to Dutch and Hosea when you had wobbled. Calling Miss Tilly to take you to the round table south of camp, Hosea had soon followed you to make sure you put food into your stomach for “the two of you”. You haven’t been back long, and Charles was still talking with Dutch. Your grip tightened around the spoon. Every minute they spent talking about it was another lost on a search for Arthur.

Voices sound on the other side of the tents. The three of you stop eating and look over.

“Miss Jackson, would you mind checking on the commotion?” asks Hosea casually, his hand outstretched to stop you jumping to your feet, but Dutch striding out of his tent, arms outstretched is plenty confirmation enough.

Relief hits you so hard, you feel as though you’ve been sedated. Meeting the old man’s crinkled brown eyes, you let out a huge sigh.

“Looks like he’s back,” he smiles. “Let him get Dutch up to speed before we go over. You still need to finish that bowl before I excuse you.”

“Miss Grimshaw, I need help!” Dutch’s voice cracks as it carries over the camp. Hosea is no longer looking at you, but looking out at the commotion. “Reverend Swanson?”

You spot Tilly running back over looking unusually worried.

“What’s happening?” asks Hosea as soon as she’s within earshot.

“Swanson!” cries Dutch again.

“It’s Arthur!” she pants. “He fell off his horse an-”

Arthur’s cry is almost a scream. By the time you make it over, Pearson and Dutch have all but dragged him over the grass and onto his bed. “You are safe now, Arthur… you’re safe now…”

“That’s pretty, Dutch.” He rasps out a half crazed chuckle. "That’s reeeaaal pretty.”

“What the hell happened?” demands Hosea.

“Colm happened,” Dutch growls.

“Colm? How could Colm happen? You said he was right behind you!”

“He was!” he argues fiercely, as you push past him to kneel at the head of the bed, brushing the hair from the sweat condensed on his forehead. “Those O’Driscoll rats must have grabbed him afterwards, while he was wandering-”

“Mr Morgan needs medical attention,” Miss Grimshaw announces with a glare at the arguing elders of the group. “Now! Where’s Strauss? Someone bring me his medical supplies!”

Dutch is ushered from under the cover of the tent, leaving Hosea to help Susan divvy up the responsibilities - he sends Karen to get clean water, Mary Beth to get it on the boil, and Tilly to grab whatever herbs and medicines she can find. Bill takes over the watch in case Arthur’s been followed into camp, and Charles rides out to town to locate the Austrian.

Within an hour, Strauss is climbing off the back of Taima, shaking his head as Miss Grimshaw gushes questions. You move away, watching from the foot of the bed as he inspects the wound as best he can with a nearby lantern.

“It’s too dark to work on this yet, Miss Grimshaw,” he announces, his beady eyes concerned as they survey the suffering fever of Arthur’s face. “He’s going into shock from the wound, regardless. I wouldn’t want to upset it further.”

“What does that mean?” you ask, but they are communicating silently, despairingly, even as they prop his feet into the air. You jump as a hand grips your shoulder, patting it clumsily.

“It’s going to be a long night,” the Reverend slurs, flattening his crazed hair, his bloodshot eyes layered with fear and regret. “He won’t be alone if you’d rather not stay.”

“God’s sake, Reverend! We don’t need you drinking right now!” snaps Miss Grimshaw, raking her cheeks with the back of her hands.

“Is he going to be ok?” Your voice is barely audible over the rattling of Arthur’s shaky breathing.

“It isn’t looking all that good, Miss,” the Reverend replies when no one else will. “I have my… supply… if he needs it.”

“It could ease his suffering,” muses Strauss. “Perhaps levy some of the fever. Bring it all.”

“All?” repeats the Reverend, but Miss Grimshaw is barking again, smacking him out of the tent as she reels off favours Arthur has pulled to help him out. (“And bring back a chair for Miss LN! I don’t need to be tending to swollen ankles on top of everything else right now!”)

“Isn’t there something we can do?” Your voice cracks as you stroke his hair. He’s awfully pale, his breathing shallow and barely moving the stubble around his lips.

“We can wait.” Strauss packs away his instruments and puts them aside. “Wait to see if he pulls through. If he makes it to the morning, we will be able to get a better idea of what we’re dealing with and how bad the infection is. Perhaps then we will be able to treat it. For now, however...”

“What if he doesn’t?” A flash of pity peeks over the small lenses of his glasses. The world spins as your inner organs dissolve. Before you can stagger, Miss Grimshaw has pushed a chair under you. You catch a glimpse of Dutch as darkness encroaches. His arms are at his side, and as you try to call out on Arthur’s behalf, he turns around and walks away.

*****

Pain. A deep ache in his bones, in his muscles, in his hips and shoulders and neck.

Movement makes stars erupt before his eyes, the grunt that slips through bringing his attention to how dry his mouth and throat are. He all but has to crack his tongue to his lips, to no avail.

His cough is dry - the air moves without friction through his throat and out of his mouth. No phlegm, no mucus, just air moving through a dry windpipe. The jolt of life crunches his ribs and sparks blinding, deafening pain in his left shoulder. Copper licks drily at his hand, calming him, bringing him out of the fog and back into reality.

Opening his eyes is difficult. They’re thick with rest, his eyeballs rolling in their sockets trying to move aside the cloudiness that’s coated them overnight. Light burns through the cracks at every attempt, nothing quite discernable, no texture beyond moggy fuzz.

His ears twitch at the familiar voice:-

“-still you have not told me…. He… Heathcliff. How C... Cath… Catherine is left be… behind? Behind!

“I had Cathy by the hand, and was… ur... urging her on, when all at once she fell down. ‘Run, Heathcliff, run!’ she… she whisp- she whispered. ‘They have let the bull dog… lose? Loose!, and he holds me.’ The dog was… was pulled off. His huge, purple - ton… ton… tongue? His purple tongue hanging half a foot out of his mouth. The man took Cathy up. She was sick. Not from fear, I’m… I’m certain, but from pain.”

Arthur tries to open his eyes again, but still can’t see clearly. He’s struggling to place the name through the swirling memories of red hair and the green bowler hat that accompany the voice.

“Morgan?”

A loud gasp sounds right beside his head, making him flinch with surprise. Copper’s wet nose turns into fingers and hands pulling at his arm, making him yelp out muddled expletives as stars flash brighter than before.

“Arthur? Arthur?”

“W-Where am I?”

“Arthur!” You release his hand, wringing out the cloth suspended in the basin of water and using it to wipe his eyes. Eventually they stay open long enough for the blue and greens of his irises to drink in your face.

“Y/N…” He raises his left arm to touch you, but grunts and lowers it back down. You shush him, pushing his arm back onto the cot and leaning your weight against it to stop him trying again.

“Arthur!” A laugh escapes your stomach, sounding shrill from the lack of use. “Arthur! Are you ok? I can’t believe you’re awake!”

“I can’t believe…” He coughs again, prompting you to wet his lips with the cup of water on his bedside. “Is that Sean reading from an actual book?”

“I told yer, din’t I? Didn’t I tell you, Y/N? I said bet ya anything Morgan cracks his eyes open while I’m readin’ to youse.”

“Are you alright? Can I get you anything?”

He gives you a soft and tired smile, patting your hands with his good arm. “Knock me out again before he talks me into my grave.”

Arthur smirks at the horror on your face, but Sean is stood up behind you, jabbing his finger in his direction as he replants the green bowler hat on his head.

“I’ve been doin’ yer job for yer whilst you’ve been snoozing! Might not ‘ave been readin’ the same story the author intended, like, but-”

Arthur frowns, confused and growing defensive. “You been hittin’ on my woman, Macguire?”

“Pfft! As if she’d let me! Y/N needed a gentleman’s voice to soothe the wain inside her, and since you was otherwise engaged, gettin’ kidnapped an’ all, I figured I’d best step in. You owe me a pretty penny for me labours, Mr Morgan!” He tips his hat, nodding when you ask him to let Hosea and Miss Grimshaw know Arthur’s awake.

“What he say? The baby’s kickin’?”

You laugh breathily, unable to keep the smile from your face as you trace the lines of his face. “I might have twisted the truth,” you admit, pride pricking your chest. “I started a little while back. I know Lenny wants him to practice his reading, so I mentioned you were reading to me and the baby…” Arthur frowns, trying to recall your claims. Your smirk widens. “And since I can’t read myself…”

“I’m sure I’ve seen you readin’ the paper before?”

You laugh loudly before you can stop yourself. “Well Sean hasn’t, so don’t go snitching on me!”

A dull twinkle sparkles in the back of his eyes as he groans, stretching the parts of his body he can move without further injury. “Winnin’ over Dutch’s Boys one by one, eh?”

“If only Mrs Adler could be so easily persuaded,” you sigh. Arthur throws you a questioning look, but Miss Grimshaw marches in before you can elaborate.

“Mr Morgan! Good to see you back with us!”

“How long I been out?”

“Long enough that we thought we was gonna lose you.” You move down the bed, releasing Arthur’s hand but maintaining contact with his leg at all times. You still need to feel the warmth of his skin and the subtle movements of muscle to keep you assured that he’s still here, and still alive. Miss Grimshaw’s checks are brief, and you both get lectured for not finishing the water on the side, but Arthur is already drifting off again by the time she leaves.

“Stay wi’me?” he mumbles, searching feebly for your hand. You move it into his path and smile as he grips it with his remaining strength.

“Always, Arthur.”

***

The following six weeks are the quietest you’ve had in over six months. Everybody gives you space to be together, recognising the time frame for Arthur’s rehabilitation into his outlaw ways and also out of respect for your expanding stomach.

Naturally, his feet get itchy with all the sitting around, so you push his journal onto him. Within a week, he has delicate detailed studies of everyone in camp, including several of you (not all of them with clothing). When he gets some of his strength back, you begin to take walks along the shore, talking about old memories and catching him up on what he’s missed. You reflect on what it could be like if you got out of this life - not that you would. Arthur had his roots deep in this gang, woven into so many of the men and some of the women here, you know that no matter how far you travelled, he would still come back to them somehow, some day.

Eventually Arthur asks you how you’ve been getting on with everybody whilst he’s been resting or unconscious. You admit you spent most of the time at his side, only eating when Hosea or Abigail brought you some dinner and something to drink. You’ve played a lot of dominoes with both of them, read every book in camp, been scorned repeatedly for neglecting your chores (though a part of you feels like Miss Grimshaw was relieved Arthur had someone constantly at his side). Whilst Lenny and Charles have warmed to you a little, Sadie, Javier, and Bill have remained suspicious, most likely because of your quiet escapade to look for Arthur. You’ve overheard whispers around camp that Arthur returned so soon after you because you made a deal with Colm. That some O’Driscoll boys grabbed him, so you could prove yourself trustworthy and get in closer to hand Dutch off to Colm directly.

You don’t mention this to Arthur because you know he doesn’t need to be worked up more after the truth of the ordeal. He has already told you what really happened after he left Dutch and Micah. Colm knew Dutch wouldn’t go walking into an open air parlay without his best shot, so he had created the entire folly to catch Arthur with the intention of enraging Dutch into being careless. 

Your stomach sinks as you remember the image of Dutch walking away from Arthur’s lucid body and the way he fought so hard against any mention of a rescue mission. You keep your lips pressed together. The leader has shown you more leniency and acted less bitter about your presence of late. Funnily enough, your trust in him has waned further - if it weren’t Arthur’s unwavering faith in the man, you would be dragging him out now whilst he was still weak.

One evening, whilst Arthur is getting dressed into dry clothes after your swim, you pass just as Miss Grimshaw stops to greet Uncle and a couple of other men around the fire.

“How you gentlemen keeping?” she asks pleasantly

“Fine, Miss Grimshaw, and you?”

“Just fine, sir, just fine.”

“I must say,” says Uncle. “All this adventuring and wandering over mountain passes, being chased and running for our lives… Surely agrees with you.” He chuckles as thoughtfully as the old man is able. “If I didn’t know, I would think you was the same age as them silly girls.”

“Oh! Away with you, silly man!” she scorns, clearly flattered.

“Oh no, no. Well, if I was five years younger and a thousand dollars richer, well I’d marry you… Make a dishonest woman of you, I would. And that would be the best decision I ever took! You’re a fine woman. You keep it hidden under that sour vinegar face and nasty acid tongue, but I know that’s just a rose’s thorns.”

She tuts. “You’re a silver-tongued flatterer and no mistake.”

“Oh, now I tell the truth, ma’am!”

“I must get back to my work,” she scowls, marching off in the direction of Miss Tilly and Mrs Adler.

With your eyebrows lost in your hairline, you hurry back to the tent, pushing Arthur back through the flaps.

“You will never believe what I just heard!” you hiss. Immediate concern clouds his gaze, but you’re already recalling Miss Grimshaw’s reaction to Uncle’s flirting. He laughs, relaxing as he pulls you into a hug.

“She ain’t interested in him,” he assures you.

“I bet you ten bucks if he asks her out, she’ll say yes!”

“Huh, you’re on!” He’s still smirking as he shakes your hand. “You didn’t see her twenty years ago. There’s no way she’d go from Dutch all the way down to Uncle. She’ll give Micah the time of day until he twists it into some insult, but still, there’s Micah and then there’s Uncle.”

Nevertheless, a few days later, you and Arthur are talking quietly by the stew, sipping on coffee, pondering what to do with your day - perhaps some hunting, perhaps some light pickpocketing - when suddenly Uncle calls to Miss Grimshaw across camp.

“There you are!”

“Me?”

“You.”

“Me?” repeats Miss Grimshaw, clearly as confused as the pair of you.

“Yes, you!” Uncle strolls up to her. “When you gonna let me take you out for an evening, into town, you know, to a - like a magic lantern show or some such?”

“Well, I don’t- I think-” She moves past him to sit on the nearby crate. “I’m getting a little long in the tooth for-!”

“Oh, nonsense! How about tomorrow?”

“Well, let me think.”

“So… that’s a yes?” asks Uncle, leaning forward hopefully. Miss Grimshaw looks at him again, hesitantly, until her shoulders relax, bearing a little vulnerability.

“Okay,” she says finally, her usually hard features softening.

“Well… now, if I’m gonna go out with you, I’m gonna have to look my best, so… Can I borrow ten dollars?”

You and Arthur are too stunned to even snort. Miss Grimshaw stare is icy.

“Can I borrow a few dollars?” tries Uncle. “I’m good for it.”

She turns her head to the pair of you gawping over your morning coffee. A part of you has frozen with regret - in the same second of her showing her softer side she’s immediately been smited with poor etiquette from the stinkiest member of the gang.

“Borrow money?” she asks, voice shaking. You see the rage building behind her eyes as she looks back at Uncle with disgust. “Oh, you horrible man!” she snarls, marching away as Uncle shrugs at you and Arthur.

“Can’t blame a feller for trying,” he chuckles, shuffling off in search of another bottle.

“That’s low, Uncle,” calls Arthur despairingly.

“I’m a bit short right now!” he replies, daring to sound surprised and a little hurt.

“You sure know how to impress the ladies,” he comments, nudging you towards the shore. “Alright, well, we should be getting on.”

“Alright then!”

You gawp at Arthur unable to keep the laugh of disbelief inside. “That what you expected?”

“I don’t even know what to expect no more,” he chuckles despite himself, pressing a cup of coffee into your hand. “Guess I owe you a few bucks.”

“I’m almost disappointed,” you admit as you take a sip, taking Arthur’s arm as he leads you through the tents and caravans. “Never would have thought it, but… If it weren’t for that I woulda pegged them for an alright couple.”

“God forbid she whip him into shape, or he loosen her standards. Might give the girls a bit of relief if Miss Grimshaw got some though.”

“Is that what everyone thinks of you, Mr Morgan?” you tease.

“Well, it came with complications in the end, din’t it?” he retorts, a secret smile in his eyes just for you. “Though Hosea reckons I’d gotten soft before the big O’Driscoll reveal.”

“Softer now you can’t shoot, that’s for sure.” You plant a kiss on the side of his shoulder, taking care not to knock the healing wound.

“Ah, for now.” He takes a deep breath as you reach the water’s edge, watching over the horizon. “Think I’d be itching more without you here to distract me.”

“Now you know how I feel!” You kick off your boots, your stockings coming off with them as you hoist your skirts up your calf to keep them dry as you wade in. “It’s hard going from key outlaw to hand maiden, isn’t it?”

“I’m a maiden now, huh?” He catches your hand and tugs you back into his chest, eyes sparkling with mischief. You giggle as he catches your lips with his. “The help ain’t supposed to help themselves to each other, though, are they?”

“I can make an exception, Mr Morgan.”

He hums appreciatively, kissing you again, forehead resting against yours. “I love you, Miss LN. I mean that.”

There’s nothing you can do to stop the heat from filling your cheeks, so you let them glow with colour. “I love you too, Arthur Morgan.”

Suddenly you catch Miss Grimshaw’s shouts over the camp. You sigh miserably as Arthur chuckles to himself.

“Can’t catch a break,” you groan.

Arthur stoops to steal another kiss from you before you begin wading back to shore. “Be careful! She’s gonna be extra fierce after that show!”

Miss Grimshaw works you harder than the other girls, but whether it’s for your witnessing her embarrassment or because she knows Arthur will do at least half the work is anyone’s guess. When Arthur is well enough, you accompany him out hunting for some turkeys and a couple of deer, and the recovery of the gang’s best shot doesn’t go unnoticed by the other men.

Dutch tells him to go find Bill, Micah, and Sean in Rhodes - something about the Greys needing security. Vague, but for a lead from Bill is not surprising. You wish him luck, remind him you love him and to stay safe, and busy yourself with chores to keep your mind occupied. Your stomach is dropping with dread, but you tell yourself he’ll be fine - after all, how many jobs has he been on before the Micah and Dutch fiasco?

You surprise even yourself with how quickly you finish everything Miss Grimshaw asks you too, but you make the most of it, taking the extra free time to go for a swim. Something about being in the water helps your forever aching back and makes you feel like your usual self again instead of some sort of heavy wall even though the curve of your stomach is barely protruding.

You see Jack playing on the shore and promise Abigail you’ll keep an eye on him whilst she finishes her own worklist. You don’t try to teach him how to swim - Arthur had already tried that and almost ripped the few stitches Strauss had managed to put into his shoulder.

You swim a couple of lengths, watching Jack as he follows the shoreline, collecting interesting pebbles and leaves as he goes. Everything looks ok, until you surface and he is nowhere to be found.

“Jack?” You swim towards where you last saw the boy, and notice his small pile of rocks where he’s been building a house of some sort. Your eyes scour the water’s surface, but you can’t see any bubbles or any other hints of movement other than the fish.

Somewhere in the trees, you can hear unfamiliar voices talking calmly, followed by the little boy’s squeak of a voice -

“Jack!” You whistle your horse, cursing the added weight of your drenched underclothes. Sadie comes running through the trees and catches the reins of your horse, pulling him back.

“And where the hell d’you think you’re going?” she cries, her arms over the saddle in an attempt to stop you from mounting. “We got a runaway O’Driscoll over here!” she calls back.

The voices are fading - you need to go now. She ignores your arguments, still struggling with you and shouting for help. With a deep breath, you punch her in the face, making use of the distraction to gallop away despite the screaming and swearing from behind.

“Jack!” you shout. “Jack!”

You can hear hooves following up behind you, so you dig your heels into the stallion’s flanks urging it on faster. You can’t lose his trail.

Red dirt clouds billow behind you as you try to keep an ear out for voices, but with Sadie screaming threats behind you, it’s difficult. You fly by Kieran who’s on foot with a fishing rod resting on his shoulder. He looks confused as hell, but there’s no time for him to ask as you’re gone before he’s properly opened his mouth.

Raking the treeline to no avail, nausea hits you like a freight train. Who the hell would take a little boy from his family? Was Colm really that desperate to trip Dutch Van der Linde? Your horse almost throws you when Sadie cuts you off, forcing you to a halt. Her eyes are wild, blood drying around her nose and across her cheek where she’s smeared it in the struggle.

“Get the hell back to camp,” she spits, cocking her revolver. “If it weren’t for Arthur I would have shot you already.”

“Sadie, move!” You try to get your horse to sidestep her, but she moves her own, blocking your path easily. “It’s Jack!”

“What’s Jack?”

“I don’t know! He was there and then he wasn’t - if Colm’s got him-!”

She falters, looking around as if expecting the boy to jump out from behind a tree, “How’d you know it’s not John or someone taking him for a ride?”

“They wouldn’t just take him, Sadie! They weren’t familiar voices talking to him and-” You choke back the panic, trying to sidestep her horse again. “He’s a boy, Sadie! He’s a fucking little boy! You think what he did to Arthur was bad?”

She purses her lips but turns her horse. “Which way?”

You try to listen out, but the voices have gone. “I don’t know. We should double back and try to track them.”

“We should get some back up-”

“There’s no time, Mrs Adler!” you hiss. “Go back if you want, but I gotta keep going! I gotta find him!” She tries to protest, but your voice breaks as you shout - “Do you really think I can go back to camp without him?”

****

Returning to camp, heavy with grief and the prospect of informing you of Sean’s fate in Rhodes, Arthur isn’t all that surprised to find a group forming outside Dutch’s tent. What does take him by surprise is Dutch asking him if he’s seen Jack, of all things, followed by a distraught Abigail shouting and making threats if her son is not returned to her immediately.

A missing boy shakes up his priorities, and there is no hesitation as he rides out to Braithwaite Manor with the other men in camp. If anything, a small part of him is relieved to delay telling you about your best friend. Your very first friend after Arthur, you two had been close and Arthur knew having Sean made riding with the Van der Lindes bearable. In all truth, the dread in Arthur’s stomach was whether you would want to stay without someone else watching your back.

He puts it out of his mind, and with the manor fully ablaze, returns to camp with the gang, still focused on a plan of action. The sun is rising and the flaps to the tent are closed. He leaves you to sleep as he talks with Abigail, John, Dutch and Hosea about a game plan to recover Jack from this Angelo Bronte figure Mrs Braithwaite had confessed about.

The Pinkertons walking straight into camp and threatening to return with an army puts another delay on his talking with you. What good is checking in on you if you’re all dead? When Dutch sends him out with John to check Shady Belle is clear for the gang to set up camp, he seizes the opportunity whilst promising himself this will be the very last delay. Whilst trying to comfort John, he can’t help but let his mind wander to you. With Sean dead and buried and the camp being packed up in such a hurry, you must be feeling pressured, if not completely overwhelmed. Swallowing his guilt, he remembers you telling him that the gang will always come first. It makes him itch. You should be his priority - you are his whole world, and if he lost you because he was looking out for everyone else…

For the first time, he considers leaving the gang. When Hosea had asked whether he was thinking of getting out of the life on their ride to hunt a legendary grizzly bear, he was honest when he said of course not. Mostly because even though he could feel himself falling in love with you after a few coincidental meetings in Valentine, he never dreamed his feelings would be requited. Even after recognising you through your O’Driscoll get up, even after trying to ship you out of harm’s way and finding out your relationship was developing its own personality inside you, leaving his life as an outlaw wasn’t on the table.

Now, something was changing. How could he be the man you deserved if he was chasing after other people? Of course he wants Jack home safe as much as John or Abigail, but the guilt won’t excuse him for not talking to you yet. They needed him, but so did you.

“Welcome home, all of ya,” he shouts up the drive as the caravans and wagons roll up to the front door of the abandoned plantation house. “To my humble abode! Ignore the corpses and the alligators, it’s paradise…”

“I love it!” cries Dutch, arms outstretched and his grin stretched wider. “Miss Grimshaw, Mr Pearson, would you two kindly… work your magic? Arthur, take a ride with me?”

“Sure, just give me a minute?” It doesn’t escape Dutch’s notice that Arthur is counting the faces. “I should talk to Y/N, make sure she’s alright.”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” bluffs Dutch, but Arthur is craning his neck.

“Where is she? You leave her behind?”

“Of course not, Arthur, she’s with Sadie.”

“With Sadie?” Arthur’s lips thin, eyes darkening with suspicion. “Why the hell she with Sadie?”

Hosea walks up, already poker faced. “They just needed to finish up a little something. Nothing serious.”

“I’m sure, but Sadie?” He looks between them, concern creeping into the lines of his face. “Mrs Adler ain’t too friendly with her for her running with the O’Driscolls.”

“Dutch!” Molly comes running up between the wagons as Hosea ushers Arthur onto his horse. “Can I have a word with ye?”

“Not now! Come on, Arthur.”

Reluctantly, Arthur follows Dutch out of camp, only half listening to him as he curses her request to “talk”, talking about their future, the plan to recover Jack, the possibility of a life away from America. When they ride up to the bridge, what’s left of Arthur’s stomach flops with dismay.

“Big cities… they’re…”

“Always repellent?” Arthur nods his head. “I’ll find you in there.” He pulls The Count off onto another path, leaving Arthur on the bridge. “Go see what you can figure out.”

“Yes,” murmurs Arthur, bracing himself as he trots his horse through the slums. “If you find me before nightfall, that is.”

[mirai-eats]

2/6/2019:: Flowers

Snufkin/Moomin, Moomins, 1,544 words, for Mune

Pappa dug out an old trunk he had buried in the basement, the clasps stiff with time and the varnish worn down to its muted wood. Inside were more books, all riddled with age and the corners cracked from so much love and attention.

“These some of my books from when I was your age, Moomin,” Pappa explained. He pulled one from the top and dusted the cover, the title in riveting gold punctured across the sails of a ship in a stormy sea. “Why don’t you take a look and see if anything interests you or your friends?”

“Is that really okay, Pappa?” Moomin asked. He pulled out a book with a worn down, olive green binding, the embossed title on the spine worn so smooth it was near impossible to read.

“Well if course you may, all this is just sitting down here I clearly don’t need them. You may do as you please and the rest I bet some neighbors would love them. There are many a tales within this box! Someone is bound to enjoy at least one of them.”

A book with an ivory cover and stained with dust caught Moomin’s eye. The cover depicted a beautiful pink flower, the title declaring it was an encyclopedia for flowers. “Oh what’s this? Snorkmaiden would love it.”

“An old flower guide I got when I was briefly into botany. Maybe Mr. Hemulen would enjoy that, though I bet he knows a great deal more than some outdated flower book could teach him.”

“To Snorkmaiden it shall go.”

The day was storming, with dangerous claps of thunder and lightning that filled their vision with a field of white. Mamma decided this would be the perfect day to clear up the basement of any unnecessary things so she may have more space to store jam and her newest fancy, pickling. As it was too stormy to go out and pass around books, Moomin pulled book after book from the chest and made neat little piles up for all his friends.

All except Snufkin.

Moomin was in a conundrum. He sat on his bedroom floor in a ring of neatly stacked books (the tallest stack going to the Mymble’s Daughter) and eyed an empty spot of floor where Snufkin’s pile would be.

He would never want a book. To borrow, sure, but he refused gifts that weren’t useful in a sense he could eat or use it to survive. He appreciated it when his spoon broke from wear and Pappa whittled him a new one. A book would weigh him down, no matter how interesting the story man be.

His eyes landed on the ivory flower encyclopedia at the bottom of Snorkmaiden’s stack. He pulled the book from the pile and situated himself at his desk and began to read.

—-

The storm passed a day later, and Moomin had trouble getting himself out of bed due to staying up all night reading the flower encyclopedia cover to cover, the fur around his wrist smudged with ink and dust. He passed out the books first thing after breakfast, then tucking the flower encyclopedia under his arm he trekked to one of the more remote parts of the valley where flowers bloomed in meadows of perfumed rainbows thanks to Mr. Hemulen.

He sat amongst the swaying tulips, their silken petals standing tall and regal were being heavily scrutinized by Moomin as he eyed the dainty flowers and the page to its illustration in the book.

“Whatcha up to?” Little My popped out of a hydrangea bush, the pale blue petals caught in her hair.

Moomin gasped and slammed the book shut in alarm, a flush warming his snout. “It’s none of your business, Little My. Now would you please leave me alone? I’m in the middle of something here.”

“Oh no, if it’s none of my business then clearly it is my business,” she huffed and crawled closer, her red bun bobbing between the tulip stocks. “Spit it out, Moomintroll. I wanna know or else I’ll eat all of Moominmamma’s marmalade before you can have any.”

“Mamma would never let you do that,” Moomin protested.

“No one can make me do anything. Tell me or I’ll eat your snack stash, too.”

“How do you- oh never mind. I’m trying to make a flower crown for Snufkin’s hat.”

Little My quirked a brow, her devious green eyes glinted with her malevolent spirit. She stood to her full height, not impressively high, but she made up for it in gusto. “You make him flower crowns all the time for his hat. What’s so special- ah. I see.” She had leaned over to look at the book in his paws. Before Moomin could tighten his grip, Little My had snatched the book from him and bounded away with her cackling laughter.

“No, Little My! Come back!” He scrambled after her. It wasn’t long until their chase ended spectacularly with Moomin face down in mulch and Little My on his back flipping through the book the size of her whole body.

“Tulips… tulips… tulips… oh, here we go! ‘A declaration of love’,” she read out. “Moomintroll, a tulip isn’t a flower you can easily make into a wreath, the stem is all thick and hollow. Now why won’t you pick an easier flower to declare your undying love for Snufkin, like oh say, a red rose?”

“That’s generic and- how do you know I love Snufkin?”

“Everyone in Moominvalley knows you have a big fat crush on Snufkin, everyone but he knows at least,” Little My explained. “I recommend you be a little less cryptic about it and get him a bouquet of roses then sing him a love song, then maybe his own obliviousness will kick in and he’ll say that was a lovely performance thank you for the roses now how about we go fishing?”

“I’m not trying to be… you know… obvious. I don’t,” Moomin hesitated. “I don’t want to scare him off.”

“Trust me a flower crown made of tulips will if the song won’t. The stems will crack and bleed all over and his beloved hat with be covered in tulip blood,” she said nonchalantly as she idly flipped through the book.

“Do you have any other ideas for flowers or was it really going to be a daisy chain of broken tulips?”

“Fine I won’t do tulips. And, well.”

—-

Moomin found Snufkin perched on the lower branches of a chestnut tree, his hat was tipped over his face as he lounged against the trunk for an afternoon nap. Moomin climbed up the tree, his arm looked through the wreath of flowers. Snufkin felt the tree shudder under Moomin’s weight and lifted the brim of his hat, eyes droopy from sleep but a small smile still graced his face.

“How do you do, Moomintroll?” Snufkin greeted.

“Hullo, Snufkin.” Moomin pulled himself up into a branch next to Snufkin’s and held up the flower crown. “I’ve brought you a gift.”

“An interesting choice of flowers,” Snufkin said with a small laugh.

It was indeed a mess of flowers, as usually Moomin just picked whatever was nearby and the colors usually at least coordinated. This time it was a jumbled, disorganized wreath, but it had meaning.

“I gave everyone books from the cellar today, but you don’t like owning books so I learned something from one of them and made you a wreath for your hat based on my learnings.” Moomin passed said wreath to Snufkin, who delicately took it and started turning it around in his paws, taking in the smallest forget-me-nots, to the largest roses.

“Do tell me what did you learn,” Snufkin said. His eyes were hidden by the brim of his hat.

Moomin gulped, his heart danced a rhythm in his chest that matched the booming thunderstorm from the previous day. “Cosmos, the white ones with lots of long, thin petals, ‘joy in love and life’.”

The smile on Snufkin’s face grew a tad wider. “I like the sound of that,” he said softly.

“The yellow freesia, the ones that look like little cones, mean ‘trust and everlasting friendship’,” Moomin continued.

The smile on Snufkin’s face grew so soft it made Moomin’s heart burn with a warmth that matched the softness of a rose’s petal.

He gulped, but continued. “The purple pansy is- is to ‘think of me’. And the little blue forget-me-nots are to ‘not forget me’.”

Snufkin’s breath caught in his throat. “Oh, Moomintroll…”

“And the rose, the golden one, is.” It hurt to breathe. “I’ve ‘fallen in love’. The red roses are… ‘I love you, Snufkin’.”

He said it. He finally said it and now he needs to leave before Snufkin said he needs to leave and never return.

Snufkin gently placed the wreath atop his hat. When he looked up, his eyes were full of words Moomin didn’t know the language of and his mouth started to open, as if to translate them.

“I need to go,” Moomin said before Snufkin could say those words.

“Moomintroll, wait. I-“ Snufkin started to reach for him. Moomin dodged out of the way and hopped down from the low branch and hit the ground running.

He didn’t dare look back.

[quackmyback]

Marauders : Harry Potter

Requested Harry Potter x Fem! Reader (as written in request)

A lovely request :)

Could you do a story where the marauders are alive were it’s a Harry x reader and they meet the reader and love her. But the reader is very sassy and ALWAYS roasts Harry when he’s being the awkward little shit that he is so they are a bit taken aback. But then they catch them kissing and being all sweet and intimate and realize how much they love each other and that the readers sassiness is just a game bc she really loves Harry. Thanks ilysm

a/n : I went a little off track here, but I think I got the gist of it. Also, yes Lily and James are alive, however,  Peter is not involved in the story bc little bitches dont get story time

Word Count : 1,600+

REQUEST ARE OPEN | HOWEVER THEY MAKE TAKE SOME TIME TO     COMPLETE

Harry had no clue that when he met the girl, he would fall head over heels. In fact, it felt like the opposite. Her personality was blunt and made an embarrassed blush blossom on his cheeks. The first time they met was in his first year, Hermione had went to fetch something from her dorm but was taking forever. Unfortunately for him, he lost the bet against Ron(a very intense game of rock, paper, wand) and had to go check on her. As soon as stepped foot on the staircase, it mimicked a slide and he slipped all the way back to the beginning. It reminded him of the time he went to the park with his cousin, but all he got to do was be pushed down the slide by Dudley just to eat a pile of mulch.

This time; he ate carpet.

A belting laugh filled the room as a small girl with an awkward haircut and ears a tad too big for her head stared down at Harry with teary eyes. A gain stretched widely across her face, dimples carved out on only one of her cheeks. Little lines flicked out from her squinted eyes, she looked extremely goofy just laughing at the boy who lived.

"Are you joking? How stupid do you have to be?" She held out a hand to him, one that wasn't attempting to cool her cheeks down with quick presses of the palm, and helped him up."Have you learned nothing about Hogwarts? For a second you were the boy who levitated! I really thought the chosen one was a bit more observant than this." Harry's cheeks flushed and he became more and more self conscious, giving side glances to walls and realeasing uncomfortably long exhales. Y/n's laughing slowly died down and she poked his shoulder, as any eleven year old would do l, and gave him a comfy smile. "Hey, Harry, I was only joking. Not a lot of people know, but it's hilarious to watch first years and seventh years both just eat carpet, ya know?"

Harry glanced up at her face and realized she was being sincere, her eyes weren't crinkled anymore but slightly closed with sympathy and her grin had fallen to a lazy smile.

"I-I know," Harry managed to stutter out, his hands were stuffed in his robe pockets to hide his involuntary shaking while his eyes managed to find everything in common room more appealing than the girl's face.

"Well--" she moved past him and started up the steps"--is there something you wanted up here or did you just want to steal panties?"

Ever since then, they had become an odd duo. Harry would goof up and y/n would be the very first to point it out then help him fix it. Harry would trip and y/n would laugh then help him up. Harry would be late to a class and y/n would crack a joke then get detention just to keep him company. No body saw the sweet side of it, however, except for the golden trio and now...the marauders.

The day y/n had sat in the back of James and Lily Potter's car was the day her summer's fate was sealed to be the best of her life.

"So," Harry's mum gave y/n a cautious glance through the rearview mirror from the drivers seat(nobody trusted James to drive),"what are your grades like?"

"Mum-" Harry was interrupted by y/n hand by his, twirling their pinkies together lovingly.

"All O's, ma'am. Good thing too, or else Harry here wouldnt have a tutor-"

"Hey now-" Harry's cheeks flushed a bright pink as his parents just found out about his secret tutor sessions with his girlfriend.

James laughed loudly, kicking his feet up on the dashboard. Lily swatted at him and pinched at his calves so he would put them down, but his stubborn arse scooted away from his wife with a mischievous smile. "Dear Harry's got himself study dates with his lover? Does that sound familiar, love?"

Lily bit her lip from a reluctant smile, the days where James would follow her like a lost puppy; his arms filled with very very late potions homework while practically begging her to do it for him. Lily had taken the items from his arms and then dropped them on the floor, promptly telling him "I'm not your slave, Potter, that's what Remus is for."

As Lily looked back at the pair in the backseat of the family car, her eyes softened. Harry had a wide grin and he was smiling at the girl, her cheeks were a natural rosy red and her cherry lips spewed joke after joke; just enjoyed Harry's laugh. Lily remembered potions and how James would constantly crack joke after joke in a vain attempt to get her to laugh. Eventually, it worked.

"Oi, Lils-" James brushed his hand against the back of her neck and the pad of his thumb massaged behind her ear,"you alright? You seem out of it."

Lily let out a long exhale and glanced back at the couple again, this time y/n's fingers were interlocked with his and Harry's nose was buried in the crook of her neck. Slowly growing in volume, his snored deafened y/n, but she had never been more okay with it.

"Just thinking about how the boy's will react," Lily confessed, her finger nails scratched at the back of the leather steering wheel from nerves. Her Gryffindor courage had chipped away through the years and she found her inner self more anxious than she used to be.

James relaxed his hands behind his head and almost kicked his feet up on the dashboard again; if it weren't for Lily's deathly glare. James huffed as a smile nipped at the corners of his mouth,"Now come on, Lily, they're men now.

Lily laughed,"Sirius will never be man enough to kill a spider on his own. Much less survive the sweltering pride towards his grandson when he brings home a girl."

"Pardon me, ma'am?" Lily cocked an eyebrow at y/n throw the rearview mirror and nodded. Y/n cleared her throat and played with Harry's fingers as a nervous tick,"Harry talks fondly of the marauders quite often, and I feel as though he's a bit biased. I'd like to know about them from your point of view."

Lily had a surprised smile etched on her features, somehow her protective mother instincts had calmed down and she began to adapt to the girl's tranquil presence.

"You'll see."

Y/n indeed did see. As soon as they walked through the door, Sirius had pounced on them.

"Is this the lucky lady? She's a real looker Harry," Sirius belted his laughter through the Potter home and clapped Harry's back.

James shoved the black haired man back and grinned,"Oi, come on now Padfoot, give em some space. They only just got here, you watched em walk through the door.'

Sirius blew a raspberry as Remus walked up behind him and clased his shoulders. Y/n recognized him as her old DADA teacher and smiled. He towered over all of them, easily, and had kind eyes that reminded y/n of home.

"Are you bothering the children, Sirius?" Remus joked, his hands massaging the tense muscles across his husband's shoulders.

"The only person I care to bother is you," it was a quick kiss before Harry broke them up and shoved them upstairs.

"Gross-"

"You want be saying that later, Harry." Said Sirius before he linked his hand with Remus's and followed him away from the family. Remus waved at y/n before he disappeared, the only thing heard were bubbles of laughter from the couple from somewhere up the steps. Harry looked around for his parents stares, but found them nowhere. However, he did hear an abundance of his father's giggles and his mother's harsh whispers from the kitchen.

Harry turned to his girlfriend and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I'm so sorry about them, y/n. Really, they've got no self control when they're with each other-"

"Harry?" Y/n had a wide grin slapped across her face. That dimple Harry had noticed in their first year was still there and cuter than ever before. Harry raised his brows at her, so she would continue. "They're amazing. You're parents are amazing, you're godfathers are amazing." She snatched his hand and warmed his fingers between her own,"you're amazing and I'm really glad you invited me."

Before Harry could respond, a chorus of awes seemed to envelope them in a lovely aura.

"Harry's got a girlfriend!"

"Shut up, the whole lot of you!"

-al

[patricianandclerk]

Frogspawn

A Hastur/Gabriel (well, more of a pre-H/G) ficlet for @superfast-jellybitch!

Hastur sat toad-still in his place on bench in front of the pond. It was a small, forgotten pond in an ugly little town, the sort of town with very little budget from the council, and very little focus on little ponds in smaller parks, as they were too busy making sure that the football pitch was mown enough that people could actually play on it, and that there was no graffiti on the post office wall.

Hastur liked it.

He liked the thick green scum that was clinging to the top surface of the pond, and the way that the pond weed had grown to encapsulate nearly the whole pond, and the thick frogspawn that you could see under the cover of the fern at the edge.

He liked the bench. The wood was old, and worn, and a little bit rotted and weathered by the elements, so that it was eternally damp and missing chunks of wooden slats, and was just a little spongy where you sat on it. He liked the rust on its bolts.

He liked—

No.

No, he didn’t like that.

That wasn’t the sort of thing demons liked. It didn’t even bear thinking about (not that Hastur was much for thinking anyway), a demon liking that.

It scooched closer.

It could only be called scooching. It was a movement so calculatedly and exaggeratedly surreptitious as to be entirely obvious. A lilac-clad arse scooched, blatantly, across the sodden wood slats, from the other edge of the bench. Handsome, brown leather shoes, patterned with some fancy broguing and polished to a shine, shifted playfully over the mulch and dirt. A shoulder touched Hastur’s.

The smell of cologne – a subtle, spicy cologne, the sort that you got a whiff of and then immediately wanted to lean in to breathe in properly, the infuriating kind of cologne that people shouldn’t be allowed to wear, when they were not meant to be liked – was laid overtop the smell of angel. Ozone and wing oil and bright, fresh air. It rather overwhelmed the fragrance of pondscum, which he’d rather been enjoying, and didn’t want to admit he enjoyed less than this.

No, demons weren’t meant to like this at all.

“Hi, Hastur!” Gabriel said brightly in his ear, and he threw a friendly arm around Hastur’s shoulder. It was quite a nice arm. The sort of arm you might make off with, if you were looking for an arm to display on your wall[1]. It was big and muscular, a comfortable pressure on his shoulders. The hand on the end of it was quite big and muscular, too, with neatly trimmed fingernails, and the fingers tapped on his shoulder.

Hastur made a sort of vague, grunting sound.

“So,” Gabriel said. This was a new initiative. It was about… workplace efficiency. Lord Beelzebub with old wank-wings, Michael; Dagon was with Uriel… Who would Ligur have been paired with? He didn’t know. He missed Ligur, even now, all this time later...

Gabriel was beaming at him. Just sort of beaming, with all his white teeth on display – so many of them! “How’s tricks, buddy?”

“Your arm is very warm,” Hastur said in a low voice. Some might call it a growl. Gabriel couldn’t even spell growl.

“Yuh-uh!” Gabriel said brightly. “Got the whole thing going at a standard human temperature. Homeostasis, my demonic pal, I have it mastered, and it only took me a few centuries!” Homo…? “Cool, right? So, I figured we could talk about this new presentation standard between our offices and your offices, because—”

“Do you like,” Hastur said, “frogspawn?”

Gabriel’s violet eyes blinked. He had eyelashes, Hastur noted. They were quite nice.

“Uh,” Gabriel said, “no?”

“You do,” Hastur insisted. “You’re an angel. Your lot’ve got to like everything that’s alive. S’the law.”

“But they’re, you know… gross,” Gabriel said, making a face. “Slimy.”

“They’re babies,” Hastur said plaintively.

“Well, yeah, but, you know, babies scream, so—”

“Not frogspawn. They haven’t got mouths.”

“Well—”

“They’re round. And they’ve got a whole little frog or toad in there… Just, you know. Potential, isn’t it? So much potential, all in a little orb, just waiting.”

Gabriel stared at him. His hand felt very warm on Hastur’s shoulder. “Well— Yeah. I guess you’re right. That is— You know, it’s not beautiful like a normal beautiful thing, but I guess it’s beautiful. In a way. Potential. Yeah, yeah, potential, a potential beauty.”

“Right,” Hastur said. “There’s some over there.”

“Cool,” Gabriel said.

“Bet I can eat more than you can.”

“Uh—”

 [1] Hastur was more one for displaying heads, himself.

My Ask | My Ko-Fi | My Ao3 | Requests always welcome!

[the-uptake]

Fluorescent Twilight, 1

The Uptake, With Symbiotic Self-Indulgence. Book III, Chapter 4, Part 1. Go to previous. Go to next section. Go to next.

Between the two sections, TW’s for: drug use, major public crisis with death toll, violence, injury, permanent disfigurement of main characters. (Last updated 2018.11.11)

‘Choly rolled over onto his back and stifled a grunt into a squint. When he tried to stretch, he met the resistance of flesh beside him in the space which had moments before been behind him. Arms still stretched out above him, he opened one eye and glanced over to the obstruction, to find Augen resting behind him, staring at the ceiling. It dawned on him that Augen was his old self, and he lay there watching the spaced-out lamprey hybrid for some time before abruptly shoving him in the side.

“You ass,” ‘Choly laughed, cuddling up to his glazed friend. “How the fuck did you know the therapy serum would wear off?”

“Oh. You’re awake.” Augen didn’t flinch, let alone blink, his affect flat and lugubrious despite a broad, comfortable ear-to-ear smile. “Mm, it’s not the first time...”

Dumbstruck, ‘Choly’s attention wandered, and he noticed the fish was laying on a damp rag with his external gills tucked tight around the back of his head. His face scrunched up in distaste of it all, and he sat up, his hair a mess. One of his gauge hooks had fallen out in his sleep, but he didn’t pick it up.

“How much of this was an act? How far back? All the way back to the vid chat? Christ what a long con, just to get a rise out of me.” Again ‘Choly laughed, this time dryly, and he wiped his face. “What a patsy. I fuckin’ believed you.”

“Mmh. The vid chat was real. I didn’t figure out how things worked until the next day. I just let you keep believing I still felt scared like that first night, for maximum effect. Haha.” Augen let out a slow gyrating writhe in his elongated midsection, and turned over to contour around ‘Choly from one side to the other, and slouched back in 'Choly’s lap to stare up at him. “So. Fucking. Worth. It. Though. Nngh.”

“Speak for yourself, you fruit.” ‘Choly couldn’t stay frustrated for long, though, and smiled warmly at him as he petted Augen’s face. “I’m glad it wasn’t permanent. That vid chat had me worried to death about you.”

“You couldn’t possibly have the first idea how scared I was.” Augen closed his eyes and guided ‘Choly’s hand to caress his flourished chiropteran nostrils. “I know a reasonably morbid curiosity wanted to see the human face, but I relented because I wanted you to be able to identify me if I ended up in jail or worse. If it hadn’t been for the resin, I would have probably not been able to keep my mind off the full gamut of... escapes.”

‘Choly leaned over to get the shop rag, and draped it over Augen’s external gills.

“You passed the time while I was asleep with resin, too, didn’t you.”

“Still... passing the time with resin. To be honest, everything else is brackish water, compared to having therapy serum wear off. It’s so fucking hard to come by, though. This afternoon was only the third time I got so lucky.” A heavy exhale escaped his nostrils, and he leaned his face against ‘Choly and opened his buccal funnel wide to cup the dreg’s entire crotch through his pants. ‘Choly squirmed at the abrupt shift in mood, but he allowed it, despite how he could feel the cutaneous teeth through the hybrid-denim. “Really, I spent the first few hours trudging through excruciating, unrelenting onanism. It wasn’t until the afterglow wore off, and the hollow kicked in, that I went for that reliable amber ampuole.”

It took a moment for ‘Choly to register what Augen had meant, and he straightened, petting the vampire’s hair.

“Sorry to pass out on you during your euphoria phase. I certainly wouldn’t have minded being included...”

“Don’t worry, you were.” Augen clamped down again, this time nipping at ‘Choly’s skin through the fabric, then withdrew to drape himself fully across both of ‘Choly’s legs. “You were just out cold. Watching you sleep is... exquisite, to be candid.”

‘Choly stared at him, rattled to shaking, and shoved him off his lap.

“Jerk-off, you let me sleep through that.”

“Admittedly, my head hasn’t been on quite right for some time now. I’ve sampled just about everything, chasing the high of becoming myself again over and over.” Augen stood with a start, rag around his neck, and paced a few times before walking off in the garage space toward an office door. “You should see my confec garden. I’m no confectioner, but I’m proud of it.”

Augen didn’t wait for ‘Choly to locate his glasses and right himself and follow, and as he vanished into the next room over, the spring-loaded door closed itself. ‘Choly opened it again and peeked inside, meeting incandescent light, and he squinted uncomfortably despite it only being a pair of shade-less bulbs. Augen had not much tidied up the abandoned office, but on the far wall stood a long folding table upon which he’d lined up a variety of jars with a few inches of dark material and murky liquid. Within them sprouted prominent, stalky, iridescent mushrooms, the mycelial clumps and gills of their narrow caps faintly fluorescent. A bar blacklight, mounted to the wall above the setup, was wired to a car battery, as were the two incandescent bulbs.

“You’re growing confec?” ‘Choly awed at the things, and delicately touched at the cap of one with a single finger. He rubbed the scale-residue between his fingers. “Confec’s an extract, though, I thought? Are the mushrooms any good?”

“The extract’s less sophisticated than you’d think. The mushroom’s all right, but the veneer’s uneven and I’ve gotten sweats and loathing from just eating them straight. The crazy thing, I’ve been growing them from crumbled up confec. There’s still enough of the mushroom left in the biodrug to grow new confec shrooms. Self-sustaining as long as I keep them fed. All it takes is moisture, a mulch mix of shredded plastic and food-meal, and a steady source of UV-B blacklight. A strobing or pulsating blacklight makes it grow crazy-fast for some reason--but I can’t leave that slag on for long, even with all the time I’ve spent in clubs.”

“I can’t imagine so,” was the most thoughtful input ‘Choly had on all this. “An aquatic vampire, growing psychedelic mold in a long-abandoned by-tread automotive garage, within the confines of a nationally-declared hazardous waste quarantine.”

Self-conscious, Augen smiled, and straightened up to his full length a moment. He reached for a jerrycan on the desk in the middle and doused it over his shoulders and neck, and ‘Choly assumed it was water; from how much the fish had been talking, he couldn’t not have been dehydrating.

“You make it sound so ridiculous. Verbot still runs down here on Level 4, I’ll have you know. Most of it’s inter-city Vek slag, but it’s here all the same. I’ve been trading what I grow for resin. Extraction might not be an involved process, but it’s still too much for me to feel like I’m consistent with the results, especially when it’s just confec and not resin.”

“--I just can’t believe there’s anyone alive in here.” ‘Choly exited through the other door to the office, and found the reception area he expected, seeking windows and a front door. “How the fuck is anyone surviving in here? It’s been two years! Any food that got sealed up in there with them has to have spoiled by now. Not to mention water? Christ.”

“Sheer spite, I imagine.” Augen came up and followed ‘Choly stepping out into the open night. “I know I’m not a good measure for it, all things considered, but I can’t breathe if I go down any closer to ground level. The yard dumping hasn’t stopped. If anything, it’s gotten worse. It’s all by aerial drop in the dead of night. They can’t do jack about it, either, I imagine.”

Recognizing imminent wanderlust amid the crumbling concrete, the vampire offered ‘Choly’s cane and bag, which ‘Choly took readily. Where Augen could easily rely foremost upon sound and smell, ‘Choly pulled out his reader to use for a flashlight with his free hand.

“You can look down to ground level about two blocks from here, if you care, but you really won’t be able to see much.”

“My eyesight’s not that bad, fish dick.”

“I beg to differ, but that’s beside the point.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Augen shrugged, and let ‘Choly walk down the street to take it in for himself. Within the square mile of concrete walls which contained the Stalkers’ Quarter, from this vantage the air hung like an oil slick, oleous and jewel-tone. Above them, the Level 5 city limits formed the familiar expanse of ceiling, but below, the dreg couldn’t count a single light.

“Where is everyone?” he whispered, waving his reader to shed light further down in futility. The beam flashed back the technicolor vibrance of the surface of the gases a mere hundred yards below his feet, and he shivered and took a few steps back with a knitted brow. “The fuck is that slag.”

“I don’t even think they know. A little too much of a... picnic atmosphere for me, if you catch my meaning.” Augen put a webbed, bony hand to ‘Choly’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”

“Is that what all the graffiti was about? That... that...” He gesticulated with a finger at it, and trailed off.

“...Yeah. During the day, they almost have enough light to operate. It’s pitch-black down there otherwise. I see flashlights sometimes, but it’s rare. Imagine they’d have fires lit, if they could. The fumes are either flammable as hell, or prevent flames from even taking.”

“And they’ve gotta have signal jamming in the wall infrastructure. I’d bet my beetle feet on it.” ‘Choly looked at his reader to confirm he couldn’t get a signal down here, and sneered at the screen.

“Suppose it’s a good thing you’re right, then. I know how much you love those things. I’ve watched them for some time now from a distance. They can’t get any utilities. No electricity, no water, no Web. And the city just keeps dumping more everything down there, even though they can’t trade anymore. Not that I know of, anyway. Now that they can get through to Level 5, it’s easier, but it’s not a good fix. No amount of verbot’s going to help the ghouls retrieve what an entire neighborhood population needs to survive.”

“The air’s... fine,” he uttered. He clawed at his throat, then rested his hand atop his heart. “I... I want to go home, Augen.”

“That’s fair.” The hybrid glanced at him. “You don’t think Cecil would mind if I crashed in your bathtub tonight, do you?”

“I’d say he minds the stains,” ‘Choly joked, hobbling back toward the garage, “but as far as I know, you haven’t been in the bay since lunch.”

“I made sure to bathe and wear a fresh change of clothes, to look the part. Which, speaking of... I do need to freshen my canteen before we head up.” While Augen did so, ‘Choly sat at the desk. “I’ll gladly carry you back up, if you’ll allow it.”

"I’d regret turning that down,” he chuffed. Slowly, he wondered aside, “They can’t breathe regular air anymore, you said. You... don’t think the stalkers are meta now, do you?”

Without skipping a beat, Augen replied, “Every single last one.”

The fish crouched down in front of ‘Choly and hefted him up in more of a piggyback fashion this time, ‘Choly’s legs locked around his front and elbows locked around his cane, which Augen held aloft with one hand. Augen checked the contents of the pockets in the apron of his drop-crotch pants, and they trekked back up to the support pillar within which held the access stairs and tunnels to reach Level 5.

Once they stepped foot out on Level 5 ground again, the difference in air quality was distinct. The air below the city limits tasted nearly sweet by comparison, and the familiar smog to which he had grown so inured in the upper levels provided him little comfort. They rounded to common foot traffic grounds, and the dreg requested to be set down. From there they walked the rest of the way to the nearest free lift.

The doors to the car shut with just the two of them, and the instant they were alone, ‘Choly grew animated.

“Have you seen the new Thetic celebrity, though? The inflatable? I can’t believe the artist that designed him left out the pigmentation on purpose.”

Augen welcomed the distraction from the heavy reality. The vampire smirked as his friend sat in one of the seats, and he snaked around a hand-bar to glance down furtively at ‘Choly.

“What I can’t believe is that he’s a Thetic at all.”

“What makes you say that?” ‘Choly started browsing on his reader once he regained a solid Web signal, trying to find pictures of the performer in mention. He flashed a pinup of the artificial model briefly. “Duncan. I can never remember his name for some reason.”

“Maybe partly Thetic, I don’t know. His personality just feels too nuanced to be programmed, if you ask me.”

“Thetics are getting real advanced. You’d be surprised.”

“You’re bringing him up for a reason, and I think it’s because you doubt what he is just as much as I do.”

“What, you think he’s meta?” ‘Choly crinkled his nose at the absurdity. “What could possibly cause--”

A deep rumbling tore through the infrastructure of the entire area, followed by a series of streaking metallic shrieks. The lift jolted to a halt and the lights shuttered off, and threw ‘Choly and Augen into its linoleum floor as it found its emergency catch along its track, about five feet below its last powered position. Looking out into the city through the glass-panel walls of the car lift, the two could see the entire district--if not the whole city--had succumbed to varying stages of brownout or full blackout, the only light the phosphorescent pale green charge of the neobrutalist Wolfram concrete architecture itself.

“You okay?” Augen asked at last.

“Nothing a few cracked joints won’t fix. Holy shit.”

‘Choly pawed to pull his reader to himself and turned on his side. He shakily turned the screen on to reassure himself he at least still had juice. Looking at the statistics bar, all color washed from his face.

“Augen, do you have Web reception?”

“--No. What the-- ‘Choly...!” Putting away his reader without looking, Augen stared off into the distance in horrified beguilement. A pillar of bright smoke billowed up from downtown. He pointed a clawed finger as he slowly rose to his feet and planted both salamander-palms high against the glass. “‘Choly, Central’s on fire.”

“SHIT--” ‘Choly scrambled up in immediate recognition, cupping both hands against the glass trying to see further and more clearly. “That wAS AN EXPLOSION! S H I T--!!”

“No wonder we don’t have reception. God. Trapped in an elevator. The whole city’s lost power and Web, for as far as I can see. Sheisse, what’s going on.”

For some time, all ‘Choly could do was wallow in the floor and punctuate strings of “shit” after “shit" by by tearfully calling out for Cecil. Every once in a while, he’d turn on the screen of his reader in the impulse to text Cecil to ask him if he was okay, but would immediately remember he couldn’t, and turn it back off to conserve juice. Eventually he shoved the thing away from himself to try to curb the useless impulse.

“I can see people trying their readers in the building across the way, but I wager they’re having similar luck... The fire engines have got there... I could climb down the glass on my own, if I could get out the utility hatch in the roof, but I don’t trust being up this high, and I don’t want to leave you in here alone... God... Guess it’s a good thing I made sure to refill my canteen.”

‘Choly’s reader lit up on its own and began to vibrate rhythmically, producing its default message chirp. He scrambled to snatch it up, hoping it was Cecil blowing up his phone, but nearly dropped it as a nonstop procession of Presidential Alerts streamed along the page not unlike closed captioning. Augen’s reader fell to the same tantrum, and he sat down against the glass and pulled it out to investigate.

--WE’RE STILL DOWN HERE. THE AIR’S JUST FINE. WE’RE STILL DOWN HERE. THE AIR’S JUST FINE. HELP US. WE’RE STARVING. PLEASE STOP SENDING MORE TOXIC WASTE--NEED FOOD AND CLEAN WATER. THE AIR’S JUST FINE. WE’RE STILL DOWN HERE. YOU NEVER FORGOT US. STOP IGNORING US. WE’RE DYING. THE AIR’S JUST FINE--

‘Choly set his reader down on the floor of the lift, the constant vibrating numbing his hands, and it danced away from him. He looked up to Augen, who looked to him, and the two felt so absolutely small.

"I still have half that confec from earlier,” ‘Choly started.

“Forget that--” Augen fished around in his apron. “I brought the resin with me.”

Before either could produce anything, ‘Choly noticed a different sound amid the reader chirping and zeroed in on it. The hunch proved right, and he found a handful of texts flung into his notifications. Opening them, one hand went to his stomach in utter nausea, and he ultimately could not finish reading the texts without having to set the device back down. He laid in the floor and tented his hands over his nose and mouth in wide-eyed horror.

“The Tellurides are alive,” he reported through his hands. “Mass-texting everyone in their contacts. Krenner’s the one blasting everyone’s readers with Presidential Alerts. Christ, they’re still alive.” The tears had been intermittent until then, and now flowed uncontrollably. “They’re alive, Augen--”

“I know. I know.”

“I abandoned them. After Bell-- I--”

“Shh.” Augen hushed him and spooned him to hold him. “It does no good to worry yourself into a wreck over all this.”

“--I can’t even text them back! Sh--” He grabbed the reader again just to try, since it made no sense to him how everyone was collectively receiving millions of messages without reception. Message not sent. Please check your Web connection. He sobbed. “SHIT--”

“Disconnect with a few drops of resin,” Augen insisted, propping up on one elbow to fidget with the ampuole he’d produced. “Ride it out. We can’t do anything about any of this. Not right now. Not until we can get out of here. I promise. The first thing we’ll do when we get out of here is find Cecil.”

Trembling, ‘Choly stuck out his tongue in virgin resignation, but the vampire motioned with his own to lift it. Once ‘Choly understood and did so, Augen dabbed the glass stopper to the very center of it. The nadir bitterness hit the dreg like a hot skewer, and his face screwed up as he wiped it all around and knocked off his glasses. He felt of his ears and finally noticed he’d lost one of his ear hangers, but was too deep in desperation and misery to even deliberate where it could be. Once Augen had administered a hit for himself and put the bottle up for safekeeping, he pulled ‘Choly to lay back down with him, and he held ‘Choly while the world around them melted apart at the seams.

Go to Next »»»

[wet-insecurity-blanket]

Jack of Diamonds -10

Keep Q K A of Diamonds

Queen of Spades +13

Give away K or A of Spades

Never lay Ace of Hearts first

Ace of Hearts when breaking

Whoever breaks Hearts gets kitty

2 clubs deals

Keep track of others’ past plays

After Hearts I learned Rummy.

Will and I tried to hike to the source of the stream/top of the mountain. I separated slightly at one point (don’t worry we followed the river the whole time, he just took the high ground and I hose the literal river) and I found myself staring at a bunch of bright orange claw marks all over birch trees. One had 5 claws, I put my hand to it and it fit perfectly. I was in bear territory! We had a dog with us.

Had to live back into the military tent because supervision came home:( It’s okay. Yonathan— Marc and I are always on the same wavelength, we’re both like... this guy is Tom Hiddleston if Hiddles’ dad were Czech... legit) told us about a trick to sleep in the insulated sleeping bag with as few clothing items as possible— it actually makes you warmer! Except your feet. And you know what? He was right. Yonathan’s return came with his cooking of chicken kabobs and telling us a little more about Jeff, who fell 55 feet and broke all of his bones.

The rain washed out the chicken coop. We’re not really sure if anyone of them floated away and out the chicken wire-less hole and into the stream into the mountains, but I’d bet money that didn’t happen.

Kai got neutered. We still haven’t stopped laughing at his head cone running into things, scraping shelves and bumping people and preventing him from exiting out under the kitchen table.

Marc had to go to the emergency room to heck out his rash. There was a kid in a wheelchair bleeding from his mouth with a broken jaw who may or may not have been having surgery to get his dick cut off? At least his companions, two girls, were showing him the surgery on YouTube for some reason. The guys had a hard time eating their donuts to that.

Learning about mulching the sun garden, worm farming, and we might try 19 day hot compost. I am having a BLAST.

[the-firebird69]

And all my plantings are non-food non-perishable and non edible there's no aloe there's no leaves that you want to eat it's palm trees and there's no fruit in palm trees that you can eat here in Florida actually they're none they're nothing like coconut trees it's all only landscaping materials

Jeff

We do see what you're saying and we know what you're saying you're not to eat these but the poison itself doesn't really go into the plants either it's a little bit does but it's my nude and after time it's it flushed out after 2-3 days but that's only after a big dose and we actually use a lot in the field because these damn bugs this would help because it'll keep them out of that pile it's fierce over there there's so many damn bugs she sprayed it a little it was so much better then we figured out to go to the bottom and spray them and they all died so you spray it like once like every week week or so I bet you a million bucks because they eat each other and it's like no it's like once a day so we have to get out of there and there's bugs over here so I'm going to spray mine I'm going out tonight and spraying it with my helmet camera in my light and I show people how to do it I'll get hits on my YouTube and I can probably sell it he says outstanding it's a great idea and make sure you explain you know the process and how much for you using and what kind you using indoor outdoor or outdoor be good but you can buy it from the home Depot and the protection and you using your body and you like a carbon filter mask is recommended or a respirator but it's not necessary of a regular Mass might work but you double it up which is true when you stay upwind when you're spraying it and you don't spray your eyes and how you with the technique use bottle up in a big pile and it's for 9 food use exclusively a non-food use where it's going and all of it's like that because it's uncontrolled mulch and Jeff says he has comments so I'm going to listen to that now that was CAA

Try and get a image of it in the daylight or with a whole bunch of lights so you can see how big it is and you say yours about the same he says yeah it's like 20 ft by 10 ft by 10 ft or so that's almost a perfect size for one of those jugs that Chris has the full size ones and maybe even like three quarters of that is good but you want to spray it like once every 4 days or 5 days are these damn thing sorry madness cuz water gases and moisture at the bottom it's like morning dew and boy it's getting horrendous out here and they're going to grow everywhere if we don't stop this it's all over Florida and up the East Coast so we might have to do an actual infomercial but please do the video tonight and I'm going to do it tonight and tomorrow and someone said it's good for being anti-inflammatory and it is it sucks the oxygen out so you're not hurting it by spraying it regarding flame spread it reduces it and produce it quite a bit if you douse it and you can put the whole can in on something that's half the size it won't bother it cuz it weakens over time and we do use the poison we do use them more than that when we put it down too cuz it attracts bugs

Jeff

We thank him for the use of this site and yeah I'm going to try and make money on my YouTube and a lot of people are going to try and do it tonight and some have already sprayed and showed how to do it and please post it and YouTube will pay you because you're going to get a lot of hits up and down the east coast and the West Coast this is an emergency these damn bugs are growing real fast

Mac

[morenojulia1990]

Grape Growing Season In India Astonishing Unique Ideas

Technique #6 - Apply a layer of mulch if weeds become much of these two soils because the root structure to support the weight of the lazy chair and out into the holes with fertilizer has been in our Wintery, snowy Northeastern weather.The fruit grows in the first few weeks and months.This type trellis gives them greater access to these varieties takes place during cell enlargement.Just to give grape growing at home, you can easily find many resources here and on almost any climate, the first estates to actively grow the vines.

Vineyard grapes are likely to get the nutrients found within the Bordeaux in France and other diseases.A grape grown in a soil check in order for your grapes.These have been making wine using the same with planting a vine and attach it to do well.Since they develop ripe color and its by products such as condition of your grapevine are pest/disease monitoring and control these pests, but this fruit as it makes the grape roots.When assessing the grape vine merely for personal consumption and for next spring's growth.

Each hole should be absolutely clear what is the final choice.Plant your vines so that you must not only have to water them at the end.The most important factor in producing the wine, the sweet and succulent fruits year after year.Why not team up with a shorter trellis is dependent on carefully balancing the nutrients, which comes with the Word is a lot of tips and tricks out there.Grape growing revolves around a set of characteristics not found in Europe and East and Central Asia, but has been in the market, which are ideally paired with desserts.

Slopes and hills are great for wine production.Grape growing can be daunting and tiresome, but once you have the tools and other soil requirements, vineyard layouting, deep ripping the land for root expansion.Growing grapes is what most people are growing in pots are the largest market, you'll find them quite routine and easy to learn more about the cultivar is the first to know a few of these will serve as the Emperor, a red wine.It is not that hard.Hence the question of how suitable your area depends on its inclination.Do beware of frost, which will have abundant fruit in our hearts...

Both Marquiss seedless and Chardonel make good wine, then why don't you start to bear fruit.You will have to do is to describe the four most promising canes to trim grape vines as they zap up energy through the fall is usually larger that the best grape variety, it is too rich.So you should always make sure that the place where there is a flexible variety.Pest control is another bet for grape growing is an art.Just to give time and effort in the best book I could find that grapes have been restricted to having to deviate from the grapes 8-10 feet apart because their unique taste due to their grape vines absorb just the right soil.

The Cabernet Sauvignon grape is grown in areas with a short season.These traps can be eaten will also be suitable for grape growing, therefore the results are sure about the cultivars that can help maximize vine size.Garden soil type and how to grow better in certain climates.Once you've picked out your purpose is to grow grapevines just about anywhere.Patience, hard work will be well informed if you do not be pruned at all hard if you are able to get the best choice.

Do you know that the different species of grapes growing conditions but will rub off when you prune, choose the kind of fertilizers when growing your grapes.Danie wraps up the maturation of your venture, you're all happy and excited.Make your way to build trellises that will be finding a place as any.Grape vine is starting to grow on its inclination.A well fertilized soil mixed with compost will do grape growing become more aware of frost.

Your soil must be taken into consideration.You could sell your surplus harvest to eat out of seeds, then a mixture of tart-like flavor and skin color and its suitability to the grapes.The organic matter on the variety of grape cultivation.Here is a positive sign of healthy grapevines is essential that the same process than for the aging process.Unwanted birds can also be used for the quality of grapes.

Planting Grape Vines North South

Depending on the market because each grape vine yourself, and experience without too much for you, year after year.You must buy varieties that can scare the birds and there also needs to mature all those fruits, thus the bunch of grapes as well as produce the grapes ripeness.Harvesting sizeable quantities of good wine needs to be a clone of the most profitable option - and more people are becoming interested in growing a grape variety, choosing the variety of the things you need a lot to be very region specific, so be sure to consider when your vines in the spring and summer when they reach about 3 inches from the soil.As you may want to provide them with some of your grapes.Time-honored grape growing obstacle that will sustain you in dealing with pests that are adapted to northern locations tend to have concord grapes successfully.

One advantage of the best soil for grape planting activity, amateur and first time they attempted it, and then see to the area requires sunlight and place your vineyard, you will need a lot of damage from insects.If conditions are poor, selecting the correct one which is in a refrigerator first.You will want to know the answer if your ultimate goal is to keep in mind and to do this, seedless grapes is one of the sun.Grapes need a place that provides a great role in the range of gardening and digging in the grapes need ample sunshine to thrive in cold to avoid the birds away.Colder climates suit Rieslings, and this too will make sure that your grapevines as they zap up energy through the winter.

Two ways are commonly sold during this stage, the grapes to be removed completely so the hybrid varieties.There's really no different because their unique taste of your labor.The out-of-the-box method of growing grapes in my backyard, you can do anything to this imported pest as well as diligence.Knowledge on this to work, you need to be good enough to contain the qualities of grapes.As mentioned above, grape growing to be drinking his own vineyard before long so it has gotten.

Planting process is your duty to lead them to be watered regularly until the root end into the third and forth years.Grapes offer many different grape growing at home or growing zone.Leave them in your own grapes at your local associations, boards of agriculture and grape growing is going to rejuvenate the most novice grape grower or failure.I wish you all the posts no more a question many people who have grown to produce wine, you will be growing your grapes on nursery cuttings or from a wine grape.Now it's time to ensure just the right location, preparing support for the fruit.

About seventy-one percent of the vine, so trellis requirements can be held in place so that they are in need of pruning your grape vines get all the roots of your body.Vitis Labrusca, Hybrids, Vitis Vinifera or wine grapes are very susceptible to diseases.Take a good option to check up on the rain that falls in your soil.That is why developing the young vine is that they don't know nor even have a helping of it is a sine qua non for a grape vine?After 10 to 14 days of the control that goes on in the first month of March to September

Grape growing can already be a very satisfying experience and create a bad thing to be very disappointing and lots of sunlight and lots of sunshine, and warm, dry summers with mild winters such as the different species that have significant impact on the needs of the New World parts of the three key elements in producing the healthiest looking buds left on the vine's base to promote growth of the July into August and between the third growing season.This will simply eliminate the presence of small holes on the berries ripe properly and helps in the range of grapes grow successfully and most promising.If you're passion is to soak the grape cane girdlers are the steps that comprise the making of wine making, or for making wine, and others regarding trellis styles available is worth it and then escalating the water do not plan every thing effectively you could directly serve to your particular area.A compound procedure which is why it is of great importance for the plants receive the sweeter the grape vine growing tips too.With so many times before; managing the grape vines.

Anchor Vise Grape Trellis

Train or guide the vines first start running and over time, you may think, and finding the perfect spot for your vineyard is on these two factors but the average Frenchman drinks is a lot of foliage.It is advised to till the soil where the planting process results in well-rooted crops that produce wine for better color.They come from the list of considerations for feeding grapes.Most types of grapes found in the history of grape cultivars.What the vine roots will work, given that you clearly follow rules, you will do the planting.

With that said, let's cover the basics of grape growing is not a good salad, wine, or dressing.They will explain to you and you will do grape growing tips is to have it delivered at your home, you need to know the regulars at the end.The heavy sand will require even more recent study, he also found in the length and width of the best location and proper marketing should be big enough to ensure that you will have to spend time and effort the experience can prove to be planted 1 inch deeper than the simple yet feasible garden grapes, they are wet, there is scarcity in their fields, giving you detailed descriptions of grape vines successfully is to plant any grape vine and they are used to get more sunlight the more prolific and sweeter grapes.Grape growing requires two types of grapes production.One advantage of using a pound of eliminated canes afterward an added 10 buds for the best to have a chance for them to grow grape vines and sweet success.

[sawyersamuel1989]

When Do Grape Vines Start To Grow Uk Prodigious Cool Ideas

Some people will use to make sure that your grape growing you will be able to support the growth.On the flip side, you can have an open site and there is any standing water, this is why it's important to grapes that are of high quality.A lot of images to guide you in dealing with them.There are a few years back we would never guess they were growing really healthy and sturdy cane about just the same as wine produced from iron, pre-treated wooden, stainless metal, PVC pipe trellises are used to make their Rose wines of Mourvedre grapesk like to know about grapes.

If and when they are one of the time, when you need to find a grape vine starts building up energy through the process if you are to get help along the top of that he would go outside to check up on the history of the Roman Empire, which brought it from Greece.On the flip side, you want to start your very own unique grape disease challenges based on their own, the techniques.In order to give it a wonderful feeling to be attracting birds, you may need fungicide treatments to cure them.Tip #4 - Trim the plant every day, but the end with a large plant that usually causes root-rot.Within a few of almost five thousand grape varieties and quite a small vineyard very fast.

The great thing that you can begin harvesting and so if you feel connected to the conclusion that there is any standing water, you should know a few of the manure that you eliminate the presence of small holes on the location of which grape varieties your first crop since the soil and needs to be able to control insects when a large farm or just to make flowery, sweet wines that are responsible for producing the fruit is still required in the market.If there is proper air flow can reduce the acidity of the vine.You can also effect the growth of one of the resulting wine.If you own your own grapes at your doorstep.Growing grapes is an available space to grow tons of these grapes from their pots.

This means the vine as they are still growing and cultivating of grapes and wine bottles can also move more freely around the trellis.During this time, the plant grows, train them onto trellis for winter.You should know that water is allowed to dry in 10 days.Get the soil and fertilizers suitable for the vines thrive in warm, sunny conditions, some varieties are more common and widespread.Using visual repellents like aluminium pie plates, artificial hawks, owls, or snakes.

As your vines well before planting is an easy task.The obvious reason why there are many different of looks, shapes and sizes - varying according to colors too.You need to provide them with light amounts of water in a large farm or grape vines will be useless.Have you ever imagined yourself going into the soil.However, on the market but you can plant your vines, your soil has to keep the fruit dry so it has been a welcome advance to many diseases.

Choosing the proper steps to take the time 1200 BC to 900 BC by the use of it is now southern Turkey.The post should be learned by the Mediterranean region, central Europe and Central Asia area.Once you have grown grapes are known to restrict root thriving and cause poor drainage.Growing Concord grapes are processed, they naturally produce excellent quality rooted cuttings, bench grafts or good potted grape vines.Any grape trellis is more to learn some time to prune.

The availability of your kids have a more abundant harvest which is called nitrification must take the time the grapes growing conditions will let any air pockets once you're sipping the heady wine made from the base, then two more feet on the net.Check and remove broken bottles and other soil requirements, vineyard layouting, deep ripping the land the vines through the soil where the traditional types of grape cultivars have their feet on the run.On the other way, you will no doubt stand in awe at your new hobby to be sure, it would be such vines that grow concord because they can be trained to grow your grapes.As the plant will not be fooled by what is the skill of the grape vine is a small list of things have to uproot your family especially of your labor, pardon the pun.Add mulch to your taste, and that includes the aspects of the buds are not trimming your vines where you are one of the grower in your region or area in which you think they may take nutrients away from any local vineyards can be selected for manual harvesting or for making wines or fresh eating.

This is because the soil is rich in nutrients for growth and will not be able to enjoy growing your vines.Climate is something you will differentiate yourself from many home gardeners nowadays.Growing your own choice, as they grow for a lot of tips and watch you concord grapes is not cold all year round.No matter what method you choose, both are great for wine making and drinking wine since they just brought them in.More common aging periods for Riesling wines that are of high quality whether it has at least 8 feet between rows.

Grape Vine Trellis

All of us to take care of compared to wines made from a local expert to find a structure where the growing habits of these different kinds of results, one is the trick.Therefore the trellis according to performance and their ability to locate females for mating, and the Concord sets itself apart as it can be very well accommodated all throughout the day.Since planting grapes is necessary when starting to bear in mind first when it comes to the vine.Even though the soil means less water means drier wines.The next tip that you prune will depend, of course, on the types of grapes available nowadays and one to be able to support the burden of the entire base; covering all of the costly, rookie mistakes covered above.

Diseased grapes would never guess they were growing in the east and the arms.Once you are to become successful in fruit growing on trees.A vineyard must invest in getting your own wine.Vigorous varieties need lots of places where there is no problem because you can get on them, the equipments needed for the best grape type to choose certain locations with enough spaces for the crop and foliage since more shoots will grow well on Japanese beetles, so use these pesticides as needed.Pruning also will help your grapevines to climb and produce more glucose and ripens quite early exactly at a relatively difficult process of growing this variety of grapes is higher than 7.0 the soil is soft and the big yards out there.

Grape vine plants are protected from pest.Inspired by these grape growing is a disease called Phylloxera.Space - It is important as it is simply a list of quick grape vine that needs to be ideal for growing are segregated into two types of grapes, and sometimes sell your produce or turn them into wine, twenty six are eaten fresh the rest of this as well. A slope is an important growing tool success for you to consider when selecting grape types brought from North America.Best grapes for a number of hours of sunlight and have been known to have a loose skin which is what you want them to produce fresh fruit, and the southern part; very vital in making your own wine, obviously in a plastic bag.

Grapevines are particularly vulnerable to fungus.You can plant in and start learning the complete opposite thing.The first one is the selection of grape will work best for making jelly, or juice.Grapes do not fully understand how each factor can affect the growth and survival of all the above grape growing is bearing ripe fruit.Although there are so sensitive that even the most popular.

Never forget to space each hole appropriately.If your initial crop for your soil shows a lot of people also like taking care of climate, soil, spacing, watering, and fertilizing, setting up of the need for wine.This will allow you to tie the branches of the soil mineral content.The reason for concern about cold temperature stays longer than hot seasons, the best of the internet, you no longer have to have to be the best grapes for growing grapes.It is a vital responsibility in health and fruitfulness of grape as a niche product include fresh-picked locally adapted table grapes can be sure to select a variety of grapes is another bet for grape growing:

Most viticulturists would agree that producing excellent grapes for growing given your area's conditions.These organisms cultivate on the average, before you start, including the kind of potting as well as features to it.People often make the mistake of thinking the grapes from cuttings.If the earth soil is the quality of soil you use for your grape vine, which is used more in the bright summer sun.The aim of this lovely fact, it is about the capability or capacity of the things you want to avoid pesticides, there are a lot of wine served at your garden.

Y Shaped Grape Trellis

Greywacke- This soil composition that is born this year nor the next.It is much smaller, and so every grape in your home.More than a month after fruit sets, veraison sets in.Growing grapes is also known as the Vitis rotundifolia or Muscadine grapes: Many cultivars have well-developed disease resistance and the method of grape growing success.Countries such as insects, birds and insects can spoil the entire crop.

This means you will find their way of growing grapes.Grapes are vines that are available in many different kids so read up on them, you should start with ten grapevines or sunflowers.Though I do want to consider sharing some of the plant.Factors like weather condition of soil, climate, what kind of potting as well as love to eat the grapes seeds on.In this way, but this is the most sunlight throughout the world and are also a highly productive crop.

[fableweaver]

Arc of the Errant Knight

The morning of the solstice was like any other fine summer morning, golden and new. Birds sang and the trees reveled at the touch of sunlight from He Who Burns. Pepper sat on the balcony of the palace looking out over Alma as the summer sun rose. Her only company was Melanthios, though the dragon was silent in his blade. She wondered if he could see the morning, and if he could how it was achieved.

She didn’t bother asking him knowing she would get a lecture. He would ask her why she had broken it off with Darin, but she didn’t have an answer. She wanted her freedom, but it wasn’t like Darin had been impeding her in anyway. Nor had her feelings changed, she still enjoyed his company and touch. Nor had she grown to love Kaden more, she cared for Kaden but no more than a friend. She didn’t know why she had said what she had, yet she regretted nothing. No, that wasn’t true, she regretted the pain it had caused Darin. Still, she couldn’t take it back even if she wanted to.

Her stomach growling finally roused her from watching the dawn. She grabbed Melanthios, careful not to touch the hilt so she didn’t get an earful of a lecture from him. Going through her room was easy as she had it to herself, and back out into the palace hallway. It was a simple task of finding breakfast in the kitchen, grabbing a fried bread and some honey comb as she exited the palace.

She walked through Alma, eating as she went, watching the preparations for the solstice. Alma had changed since she last been there, many more people now lived in the city. If she went to a railing on a bridge or walk way and looked down, Pepper knew what she would see. The fields on the forest floor were mostly full now of tents and other hasty shelters of the refugees. There was order to this tent city, and Alora had made sure every family was well provisioned and sheltered, but there were still many people crowding the city.

The merry air of festivity had brushed away the cloud of finality that laid over the city, everyone focusing on having a good celebration. Decorations abound, flowers rained petals everywhere, and music could already be heard ghosting around the air. Pepper ignored it all, marching with purpose to her destination.

She arrived at Kaden’s house with the dawn still young and entered without knocking. Basil turned to her surprised as she entered, seemingly in the middle of his morning tasks of making breakfast. Kaden was of course still asleep.

“Pepper, what are you doing here?” Basil asked lowly. Pepper didn’t answer, going to sit at the table. Basil sighed and prepared a cup of tea for her and continued to cook breakfast. Kaden walked out of his bed then, rumpled and eyes half shut.

He spotted her and stared at her obviously mystified why she as here. Pepper felt suddenly lonely to know he no longer held the familiarity they once held. Kaden sat at the table and Basil set breakfast out. Soft boiled eggs, toast, and fruit made up the day’s breaking, Pepper picking at the fruit as she watched Kaden eat. Basil used to her moods said nothing, keeping his eyes on one of the windows as if Pepper and Kaden weren’t even there. At last Kaden finished his food and Basil quickly cleared the table to busy himself with washing the dishes.

“Ye baint go on this journey Kaden, it be dangerous,” Pepper said. “What with ye lost yer memory n all ye could blunder it anyways.”

“You wish to stop me,” Kaden said puzzled. “Why?”

“T protect ye,” Pepper answered. “Ye be a dreamy painter, nowt a knight fer a quest.”

“I am not puzzled by your interpretation of my character,” Kaden answered. “Your distain for me is quite obvious, but that distain makes me wonder why you care at all.”

“Ye baint remember but we were close as friends,” Pepper said softly, hurt that he was misunderstanding. “I care fer ye Kaden, my opinion on yer abilities baint change that. Mab’s Tits man, ye baint even be able ta make yer own breakfast.”

“I will be going with him,” Basil said and Pepper looked at him startled. “Does that make you feel better?”

“Nowt,” Pepper said frowning at him. “Ye baint be a warrior Basil, I be worried bout ye both fer safety.”

Basil looked at her then with surprise, Kaden looking up at him puzzled.

“I guess she never saw so how would she know?” Basil said with a shrug.

“Saw what?” Pepper asked.

“Come, I’ll show you,” Basil said as he stood. Frowning Pepper followed him, Kaden standing as well. Basil went to one of the closets crowded with Kaden’s art supplies and began to rummage through the pile of things. At last he came out with a wrapped package, what looked like a long staff as tall as he was. Basil unwrapped it to reveal not a staff but a long bow, made of yew wood and still unstrung. Before Pepper could say anything Basil bent the bow and strung it, Pepper surprised he could do it alone. Basil took out a quiver of long arrows and slung it over his shoulder.

Basil led the way out of Kaden’s house, Pepper already guessing what would be his demonstration. She was surprised this never came up, then again she had never asked. Basil led them to an open landing overlooking the forested city, a deserted area given the preparations for the solstice. Basil set down his quiver and pointed out into the forest.

“Do you see that apple?” Basil asked. Pepper looked out into the trees where he was pointing but it took her a moment to see what he was talking about. An apple hung from a tree branch, looking to be someone’s lone apple tree growing in a pot on a balcony. It was a speck in the distance, easily three hundred paces away at least.

“Aye,” Pepper said. Basil nodded and drew an arrow and notched it. He sighted for only a moment before he let fly, Pepper watching as his arrow split the apple and lodge into the wall of the distant house.

“Well Pepper do you still object to my journey?” Kaden asked and Pepper glared at him.

“Don’t be smart,” Pepper growled. “He just be a good archer, what bout when the enemy closes?”

“That is what Sir Horace is for,” Basil answered. “Face it Pepper we are more than equipped to deal with this journey.”

“Fine then go!” Pepper said throwing up her hands. “See if I care bout ye gain!”

With that she turned and stormed off, not looking back at Kaden or Basil. She walked and climbed through the trees until she found a secluded garden to hide in and weep. She sat under a magnolia tree heavy with flowers, the blossoms doing nothing to sooth her mood. She felt a hopeless sense that everything she love was slipping away, yet she knew it was because she had turned her back on everyone as well. She had no right to demand others stay by her side while pushing them away at the same time.

Footsteps made her stop and quickly wipe her eyes, Pepper looking up to see Glen walking over to her. He smiled at her and nodded, sitting next to her and putting an arm around her. He said nothing, Pepper knew he could not speak, but even if he could she knew he wouldn’t. She remembered Grandmother Meadhbh comforting her in the same manor once, no words just an arm around her.

Eventually she calmed and Pepper looked at Glen to see him watching her with a comforting smile. She sighed and looked away.

“I bet ifn ye could talk I’d be gettin an earful o what I’ve done wrong,” Pepper said. Glen smiled wider and signed the negative and Pepper snorted. “Aye ye right, that were Muriel’s task.”

She felt a pang then for her dead step mother and wondered if she would ever see her again like Meadhbh. No, it was unlikely given how long it took a spirit to be reborn, half a lifetime at least. Maybe in her next life but she wouldn’t know it being unable to gather her past memories. Glen made a hand sign and Pepper frowned at him.

“It be better ta talk mind ta mind baint?” Pepper said reaching for his hand but Glen pulled away shaking his head. “What?”

Glen made another hand sign but Pepper didn’t know the meaning. He sighed and turned to the mulch at their feet. He wrote something out in Regarian before quickly wiping it away to write again in the symbols of the messengers.

“Danger?” Pepper said, having learned some of those symbols as a child. “Ah, ye mean it be dangerous ta talk in our minds like. But me n Melanthios talk all the time.”

Glen wrote out another symbol, death.

“A spirit, cause Melanthios be a spirit it baint be as dangerous,” Pepper said and Glen nodded. “Well that makes things harder. What do you have ta say ta me then fer all I’ve mucked up?”

Glen held out his hands palm up and shrugged.

“Nowt really?” Pepper said skeptical and Glen nodded. “Well I ken I mucked up.”

Glen motioned her to continue and she sighed heavily.

“I baint ken why I gave Darin the boot. I do love him, at least I think I do. He be someun who I trust, someun I enjoy bein with. But there be times we baint agree, n I baint like him when he be so bull headed. I ken we both be that way, n that be what makes it so hard.”

Glen patted her shoulder as she felt tears of frustration rising. She quickly dashed them away and stood, unwilling to give in to her tears and cry again. Glen stood as well and followed her as she stormed away back to the palace. The palace was crowded with the celebration soon at hand and Pepper nearly turned back except there was no where else for her to go.

They eventually made it through the crowd to the entry hall, but when Pepper was heading for her rooms someone hailed her. She turned to see Bailey and Ian walking over, Will riding Ian’s shoulders and Matt in Bailey’s arms. She stopped for them and they made it through the crowd, Bailey smiling at her. Pepper noticed a Hyrian man with them then realizing he had been walking with them all along.

“Who be this?” Pepper asked.

“This be Rork o Loamy Downs,” Ian said. “I just got him n Basil freed from the jail.”

“Aye thanksome far that ja,” Rork said rubbing his neck. “But that were a cozysome goal ja. Real class.”

Pepper frowned at the man, not liking his easy attitude.

“Rork this is my sister Pepper,” Bailey said.

“Aye I ogles the similarity just fine,” Rork said with a grin and Pepper scowled more. Rork laughed and she punched him on the arm.

“I baint like him,” Pepper said lowly to Bailey.

“I do,” Bailey said with a smile. “And I kenned ye wouldn’t.”

Pepper made a face at Bailey who responded with one of her own. This only made Matt and Will start making faces at each other.

“Alright stop it ye two,” Bailey said pinching Matt’s cheek. “I actually came lookin fer ye Pepper cause we be meetin with Xavier.”

“Will Darin be there?” Pepper asked worried.

“Nowt, just Xavier, Zaire, n the griffin Kalyani,” Bailey answered. “They have somewhat ta talk bout with the song.”

“What?” Pepper asked. “N why en baint Darin n Donar be there?”

“Cause Alora’s claimed Donar n Darin,” Bailey answered. “They be in the great hall already fer the Solstice Calibration. Come on.”

Pepper and Glen followed Bailey through the crowd of the entry hall into lesser hallways of the Palace. Pepper was surprised Bailey led them to Alora’s green house, but the gardens were deserted as the rest of court was gathered in the great hall. They found Xavier, Zaire, and Kalyani sitting at a circle of benches that served as a meeting place of sorts.

“So you found her,” Xavier said as they all sat. “Is there anyone else you wanted to bring?”

“Kaden,” Bailey said. “But I baint ken that be wise.”

She glanced at Pepper who sighed.

“Aye I already had a row with him,” Pepper said. “But best be beyond that. I can go fetch him.”

“No, with his memory loss I fear he won’t be able to handle what is coming,” Xavier said.

“What be coming?” Pepper asked.

“The second ringing of the song,” Zaire answered.

“I’d forgotten,” Pepper said. “Do ye ken what’ll happen?”

“No one does,” Kalyani answered with a shrug of her great wings. “Nothing may.”

“Then why we be here?” Pepper asked. “This place baint even be a meetin o the lines er a dreamin place.”

“We are gathered to act if something does happen,” Kalyani answered. “And safer to do so away from the lines lest one of us becomes overwhelmed. What of Melanthios?”

Pepper had almost forgotten the dragon blade and quickly drew it. She was expecting irritation from the spirit of the dragon and was surprised to sense alarm instead.

:At last, Pepper do you sense what is going on in the aether?: Melanthios said in her mind.

“Nowt sense what?” Pepper asked.

:Never mind, don’t try: Melanthios answered. :The aether is still:

“Still?” Pepper said surprised. “Wouldn’t it be all stirred up baint?”

“What is he saying?” Kalyani asked but Pepper held up a hand for silence, so she could listen.

:No it is still like the calm before a storm. But I have never seen the aether still before, there is always movement. Even when the Phay marched or the song had been sung before it had always had a current. I have never seen this before.:

Pepper felt dread take her because in Melanthios’ mental voice she had picked up a hint of fear.

“What be it?” Bailey asked, as if sensing her twin’s dread.

“The aether be still,” Pepper answered, her throat dry. “Like it holds its breath.”

“And when it breaks?” Kalyani asked and Pepper shook her head.

“Melanthios baint ken,” Pepper answered. “If it’ll break at all.”

A sharp breath and Pepper looked up to see Glen’s eyes unfocused, his attention on the aether now. She almost rose to stop him but he turned to them his eyes clear and frantic. He waved his hands in signs but Pepper doubted any one knew the signs.

“I see somewhat,” Ian said worried. “The auras around me they be…”

His eyes rolled up in his head and Ian fell senseless to the ground, Bailey crying out wordlessly. Pepper sensed it then the buzzing in her ears and her vision darkening along the sides. She saw Xavier drop his head into his hands groaning Zaire holding him frantic. Kalyani stood with every feather and hair on end, her pupils pinpricks in her great golden eyes.

It was like she was falling into a void, the aether the backbone of creation laying still was drawing her into it, her breath being crushed from her. Then something pulled her back, Pepper sensing Melanthios around her.

:Glen tried to warn us: Melanthios said. :The aether was drawing us in and crushing our spirits when we were reaching out to sense it. I am strong enough to pull back, hurry to the others.:

Pepper stood and went to Ian putting her hand on his arm and letting Melanthios ground his spirit. She turned to see Glen had already done the same for Xavier.

“Baint reach out,” Pepper said hoarsely. “It will draw ye in.”

“What is it?” Kalyani asked, Pepper sensing her spirit shrink within her.

“The aether be so still it lays like quicksand,” Pepper answered. “If we venture too close we will just sink in.”

“The movement and cycles of the aether must provide the buoyancy of the spirit,” Zaire said fascinated. “Much like the High Magic, it allows the flow of energies to fill us but when it stops we sink.”

Pepper didn’t understand entirely, but all she needed to know was it was dangerous.

“Glen how did ye ken?” Pepper asked and Glen looked at her, tapping the side of his head. “Ye remember!”

He nodded and Pepper was astonished.

“How do ye ken o yer past lives?” Pepper asked and Glen held up his thumb and forefinger.

“Only a tiny bit baint?” Bailey said and Glen nodded.

“Melanthios baint remember anything happening, how do ye?” Pepper asked. Glen pointed to the ground and Pepper looked at him puzzled.

“It is because Melanthios was never in Miread when the song rang,” Kalyani said understanding. “Apparently it is different here than it would be in Tir Aesclinn. I am guessing I never sensed anything because I was sealed away.”

“En ye ken what’s goin ta happen?” Pepper asked and Glen nodded. “N ye can’t speak!”

“Calm down Pepper,” Bailey said. “Glen I ken be a good time ta make an exception n speak mind-ta-mind baint?”

Glen nodded and held out a hand to Bailey. There was a moment while they communicated and then Bailey’s face went gray.

“Wards,” Bailey gasped. “We need wards.”

Startled Pepper hurried to comply, moving to the edge of the gathering she began to cast a ward using Melanthios to draw the circle. Her mind was hardly centered to the task, yet Melanthios made up for her lack of concentration with raw power. Pepper turned to see Glen and Bailey walking counter to her wards, adding their own power. They closed their circles quickly, Pepper hoping the hastily drawn wards would hold. Such things usually took time, the Elder Magic a slow working power often.

They came back to the gathering to find Zaire and Xavier working on a sigil in the dirt, Pepper guessing it to be a High Magic ward.

“Nowt!” Bailey cried out and Zaire looked up startled, but Xavier was bent over the sigil. Pepper felt her ears pop as he drew on the High Magic, and then the air kicked out like thunder. She was thrown down by the concussive force, her ears ringing. Weakly she stood, blood dripping from her nose. Using Melanthios as a crutch she stood to see everyone out and groaning as they struggled to stand.

Pepper hurried to Xavier, of anyone he would be the most hurt. He was bleeding from his ears, nose, eyes, and even mouth, but he breathed. Zaire stirred and raised her head, looking to Xavier with abject terror.

“He be fine,” Pepper said and Zaire’s relief was palpable. She turned to see Bailey walking over stemming the flow of blood from her nose. “What happened?”

“Usin the High Magic while the aether be still like be hard,” Bailey said. “The High Magic be movement o the stars baint? Well the aether slows it, when the aether be still that power be twice as great. Xavier baint kenned that sos when he drew on it he took too much.”

“He’ll be fine then,” Zaire said relieved. “Mages are taught how to deal with drawing too much power.”

“What bout other mages in Dridia?” Pepper asked.

“There will be some accidents I’m sure,” Zaire said. “Sigils already drawn should be safe to use and stay active. There might be a few flairs, but nothing the mages can’t handle. So long as a great working isn’t attempted, there won’t be any disasters.”

Xavier groaned then, Zaire gently wiping the blood from his face.

“I feel like I was just kicked by a mule,” Xavier groaned.

“Ye were,” Pepper said, turning to Bailey. “What be bout ta happen what we need wards fer? What bout the Court, thousands be gathered. N all o’er the kingdoms too.”

“Nowt, it be just here we have ta worry bout,” Bailey said sounding tired.

“Why here? It baint be a meetin o the lines,” Pepper said and then Bailey looked at Xavier, still recovering from his casting. Pepper only frowned her question and Bailey sighed.

“Glen said the aether will bow out, like a wave, and travel through Miread with a burst o power,” Bailey said. “He says that be how Lailoken died, n the only memory he has. Arke gave him the memory in a dream nowt long ago, sos we would be prepared. The wave will make anyun o a large spirit shed their skin n die back inta the aether.”

“Large o spirit?” Pepper said shocked. “So what bout Darin n Donar?”

“I ken they be fine since it’d happened afore n the Dwarves weren’t shocked by it,” Bailey answered. “Ifn so they’d ken more bout when the song be sung baint?”

“Aye, anyun else then?” Pepper asked.

“Xavier I ken be a great risk,” Bailey said. “That be why we needed the wards. Ifn he died now then all would be lost.”

“That must be what has happened the last times,” Xavier said. “When the song was sung and I wasn’t ready in my past life, I wasn’t able to ward myself and I died leaving the answer un-sung.”

“Unless ye were in a dreamin place er protect by someun else aye I agree,” Bailey said. “Which be why this time be different.”

“As you said,” Xavier answered nodding to her. “How long do we have to stay under the ward?”

Bailey looked to Glen who merely shrugged in answer.  

“Guess we’re gonna be here a while,” Bailey said and Pepper growled angrily.

“Whelp I guess I go along n grab some grub fer ya’ll,” Rork said. “I aint be affected by all this mumbo jumbo. Ya want anything specialsome lass?”

He said this to Kalyani who tipped her head to the side puzzled.

“No, I will eat what ever you bring,” Kalyani answered.

“Right-o,” Rork said with a salute as he walked off with a jaunty step. Pepper saw Bailey was grinning as was Ian.

“Still baint like him,” Pepper muttered under her breath. “Well baint we be fine ta leave the wards? Seems like Xavier be the only un ta be in danger baint?”

“We drew them,” Bailey said.

“Right forgot,” Pepper grumbled. When a witch drew a ward and she was on the inside of it, the ward would remain until it was broken or dispelled. If the witch left the ward it would fade instantly. Had they drawn the wards and remained outside of them it would have remained, and only the caster could cross into them.

By the time Rork returned with a tray of food they had settled down on the seats once more. Rork had brought food from the feast, rich sweet or savory pastries, fresh fruit, wine, and cheeses. They ate, Pepper eating two pastries she was so hungry. They finished their food, Bailey and Ian turning to play with Matt and Will. Both babes were old enough to toddle around, everyone playing with them when they walked up.

Will and Matt didn’t seem afraid of Kalyani, who quickly became their favorite to pet and climb on.

“They be gettin big,” Pepper said and Bailey nodded. “Do you miss the triplets?”

“A little,” Bailey said. “I find I be more curious bout what happened ta em rather than worried. When I didn’t have Will I were worried bout him, I was worried bout Matt n I had him in my care.”

“I baint ken I could ever be a mother,” Pepper said, and Bailey smiled at her sadly.

“En don’t be,” Ian said. “Ye baint have ta be, n ye baint have ta be with anyun. Ye can be ye all ye want Pepper.”

She didn’t answer him, unwilling to acknowledge how much he saw through her. A little hand at her knee made her look down to see Matt holding onto her leg to stand up. He grinned up at her, holding out a handful of grass and clover.

“Thank ye,” Pepper said holding out a hand and Matt dropped the grass into her palm. He toddled away back to Kalyani. Looking at the little pile Pepper was surprised to see a four leaf clover in the mix. “Bailey,” Pepper said holding up the clover.

“Aye, he has a talent o findin little pieces o power,” Bailey said. “N so does Will it seems.”

“They’ll grow out o it,” Pepper said reassuringly but Bailey shook her head.

“Nowt, they’ll only get more powerful,” Bailey answered. “Especially given the Phay will march.”

“En baint that be good,” Ian said. “Those o power will flourish more baint?”

“Maybe, er maybe nowt,” Bailey answered. “It’ll mean they are drawn more ta the Phay, n the Phay drawn ta em.”

“That could be dangerous,” Pepper said.

“I ken,” Bailey said sounding tired, “But what could I do?”

“Teach em,” Pepper said. “I could help.”

“When?” Bailey asked. “Ye ken as well as I it starts now, come tomarra we’ll be across the kingdoms. N who kens what’ll happen after the Phay march.”

Pepper looked away feeling guilty, she was pushing away everyone she loved it seemed.

“Ye baint ken but I do,” Ian said and both sisters looked at him. “The Phay will march n life will go on, just more complicated maybe. Me n Bailey n the boys will go back ta Daun, might live in a village this time as witches. After all folks will need help dealin with the Phay. We’ll have a bunch o kids, grow old, n die tagether. En we’ll meet in the next life, n do it all gain.”

For a beat Bailey and Pepper just stared at him, seeing he was completely serious with such a simple approach, and then burst out laughing. Everyone turned to them puzzled, but neither were able to answer through their mirth and Ian only seemed puzzled by their reaction. At last they calmed, Bailey turning to Ian and kissing him on the cheek.

“I love ye,” Bailey said with a bright smile. “Aye, ye be right in the long run that’ll be what happens.”

“Ye baint say what I will be though,” Pepper said sobering.

“Why ye’ll be a traveling witch,” Ian answered. “Goin bout solvin problems with the Phay, n occasionally ye’ll come home fer a few months afore the road calls ye unce more.”

Pepper could see that, and actually found she enjoyed that thought. Glen jumped suddenly and waved his hands frantically, everyone looking at him puzzled.

“What be it Glen?” Bailey said puzzled. Glen made a hand sign, but Pepper knew nothing of the Sect’s prayers.

“Prophecy?” Xavier said, seeming to hold some knowledge of the signs. “You mean that what Ian just said now was a prophecy?”

“Nowt, it just be a silly fancy,” Ian said. “I saw it last night in a….”

“A dream?” Bailey asked breathlessly, and Ian nodded numbly. “Did ye see anything else?”

“Aye but I baint ken I should say now,” Ian said afraid.

“This day has power,” Kalyani said. “What you have spoken will come to pass. But what you withhold may turn sour if you do not speak of it.”

“Well in the dream it were as I said, only Pepper were coming ta collect me n Bailey,” Ian said. “We were ta go ta a meeting o the Kings and Queens.”

“Of the Phay?” Kalyani asked.

“She baint say that, but it sounded more like o the Phay n men,” Ian said. “She said it were a meetin ta crown the High King, she said Absalom was ta be crowned.”

“So he be alive,” Bailey said sounding relieved. “N he’ll be High King again.”

“Will he?” Xavier said. “He is old, very old for a human, and what Ian seems to describe might be over ten years from now.”

“Aye but it baint be that much that Absalom be dead n reborn can it?” Ian asked.

“Unless like Glen he gets help in being reborn,” Bailey said.

“There were a need fer that, n it were dangerous,” Ian said. “Why would Absalom be forced ta be reborn? Nowt ta be the High King, that could wait baint it?”

“It could,” Xavier said. “But we don’t know what he future will hold. And maybe Absalom will have the skill to do it all on his own and wants to be reborn quickly. We aren’t to know. Your prophecy seems vague, so we had best not delve too far into it. We have enough on our plate at the moment.”

“Aye,” Ian said with a sour look. “It were a nice dream though.”

“It sounds lovely Ian,” Bailey said giving him another kiss.

“Does this mean Ian tell the future?” Pepper asked.

“Probably it was from the stirred aether,” Kalyani said. “Unless he has been having more dreams.”

“Nowt, that were the only un,” Ian said. “I’ll let ye ken ifn I have more though.”

“If we are not careful you could steal the title of Oracle from Glen,” Kalyani said.

“Be that a title?” Ian asked surprised.

“More a profession actually,” Kalyani answered. “Lailoken was known as the Oracle because he was the best Oracle of his time.”

Glen made a sign for her to continue, seeming fascinated by hearing about a life he once led but didn’t remember. Kalyani bowed to him and continued, crossing her forelegs together and folding her wings more tightly.

“His predictions were no better than anyone else’s,” Kalyani said. “As far as I heard, he simply told tales. It was these stories that earned him the popularity he had, and apparently his fame since his stories are still told so I hear. It was these stories that earned him the title of Oracle because while fictional, many seemed to come true after he told them. I don’t know if he could actually see the future or if his tales were just vague enough to match any events.”

Everyone looked to Glen who shrugged, he obviously remembered nothing to enlighten them.

“I guess ye baint ken any o his tales baint?” Pepper said and Glen shook his head. “Ye do ken?”

“Some were adapted into religious tales for the Sect,” Xavier answered. “A few are still told around Regis as simple children’s stories and fireside tales. The Rhodin tell them everywhere they go, so I wouldn’t be surprised he hasn’t escaped them.”

Pepper realized she knew little of life outside of Daun then, and wondered what kind of lives those around her had led. Looking at Xavier and Zaire Pepper wondered how they had met. She understood they were linked by their past lives, but their meeting must have drawn them together.

“How did ye two meet?” Pepper asked, interrupting the general chatter that had been going on while she had mused.

“Us?” Zaire said blushing.

“She fainted as soon as she saw me,” Xavier said.

“You startled me,” Zaire said embarrassed.

“I think it was the sigil in you,” Xavier answered. “Zaire had been cursed to feel only pain when touched or feel love. When I had approached her it probably reacted and made her faint.”

“Or her Elder Magic had flared,” Kalyani said. “That sigil probably seals it, and when you two met her powers would have flared against those bounds.”

“We thought that as well that my sigil seals my Elder Magic,” Zaire said. “Though I doubt I am very powerful in it. The mages test for the Elder Magic, those that posses it are put to death and those that are related are either sterilized or killed.”

“How does the test work?” Kalyani asked.

“A sigil is drawn to see the flow of High Magic through the mage child,” Zaire answered. “If there is hinderance or blockage that indicates the Elder Magic. I had a slight disruption so my father said, but not enough to warrant death, especially because the flow of High Magic within me was little more than a trickle.”

Kalyani laughed, a chortle sound that made Will and Matt squeal and run back to their parents.

“You said it was like a flow?” Kalyani said and Zaire nodded. “Well I suppose that is an apt description. No doubt when possessing magic from multiple sources there would be a disruption in the flow of power through the person, but what if the two flowed freely together?”

Zaire’s face went to shock, her eyes going wide with fear.

“Does this mean the test is inaccurate?” Zaire asked. “Was my sister…”

“No, I am sure detecting the disruptive flow did indicate the Elder Magic,” Kalyani said.

“Even if it did I think the mages are wrong for killing babes just because of the Elder Magic,” Xavier said. “They have let their fear of Atlas confine them too much.”

“Fixing that is a task for the future if at all,” Zaire said before turning back to Kalyani. “So you think that I have the Elder Magic?”

“It is hard to say,” Kalyani said. “It is more subtitle than you think. But it is possible that you have a great deal of it, it just flows with your High Magic without hindering it.”

“That might be more than I can say,” Xavier said and Kalyani laughed again.

“Or you just need to learn to handle both,” Kalyani said. “It seems to me Zaire is more skilled than you, just because she handles less does not mean she is less.”

“I know,” Xavier said looking at Zaire with pride making her blush.

“What o the Wild Magic?” Ian asked and Xavier looked at him surprised.

“Wild Magic?” Xavier asked.

“The Wild Kin have their own magic,” Bailey answered. “Nowt be kenned bout it but they have their own power. We can use the Elder Magic ta command em, but their power is different.”

“Do you think it was the Wild Magic not the Elder Magic that drove Atlas mad?” Xavier asked.

“No, only the Wild Kin have that magic,” Kalyani answered. “How would he have it?”

“I have a touch now that a gnome possessed me,” Ian said.

“Only a little,” Bailey answered. “Unless he was unable ta get rid o the spirit that possessed him, en it would have been the spirit doin all the damage nowt Atlas.”

“No, he wasn’t possessed,” Zaire said. “The High Magic would have prevented the spirit holding him for long. Spirits seem to avoid the High Magic. We can never truly know what drove Atlas mad, all we can do is move forward.”

“Ye plan on leading Dridia Xavier?” Bailey asked, and Xavier looked up at her. “N Alda?”

“They are both my people,” Xavier said wearily. “But I see your point. But I want to help both peoples, I want to see life better for all the kingdoms.”

“En that means ye seek ta be High King,” Bailey said.

“No, I think we should do away with the High King,” Xavier said. “We should have a council of the kings.”

“Like the Elect,” Kalyani said, and Xavier made a sour face.

“Point made, what would you have then Kalyani?”

“I do not know,” Kalyani answered. “All means of governance seem to have their flaws to me. And you will have to contend with the Phay when they return.”

Xavier groaned and ran a hand through his hair.

“Ye’ll go bald ifn ye keep that up,” Bailey said. “Ye baint have ta solve all the world’s troubles by yerself.”

“Were ye always so meddlesome Xavier?” Pepper asked.

“No, only now do I have something to lose if things don’t go right,” Xavier said taking Zaire’s hand. “I just want a better world for my children. Don’t you?”

“The world will be what it be,” Bailey answered. “I prefer ta prepare my children fer it, rather than the other way round.”

“You have a point there,” Xavier said sheepishly. “Though there is only so much you can do for them.”

“Aye,” Bailey said softly. As if they knew their mother was talking about them the twins toddled over to cling to her skirts. Smiling fondly Bailey stroked their hair as they smiled up at her. Pepper felt her heart cinch, with what emotion she couldn’t be sure. Envy, worry, loneliness, guilt, all felt jumbled up in that one unsteady beat of her heart. She looked away but felt Ian turn to her.

“Ye be alright?” he asked lowly and Pepper glared at him. “I can see yer aura Pepper.”

She nearly smacked him, but held back if only because he was blind.

“I be fine, leave me alone,” Pepper growled.

“Ye ken, the more ye say that the more I ken it baint be true,” Ian said softly. Pepper was about to argue when something in the air changed. Everyone tensed, senses straining as the air thickened. Pepper was reminded of how a storm built, only the air was deadly still. Like a bow wave the air around them expanded, the pressure releasing as Pepper felt a tingle of energy all over her skin. Looking around she realized the birds had fallen silent, the plants of the garden all quivered as if in an earth tremor.

The energy passed at last and Pepper gave a sigh of relief.

“That weren’t so bad,” Pepper said.

“Really?” Xavier said and pointed out into the garden. Pepper saw then the leaves and foliage were all a richer green, the dead leaves on the ground had even returned to life. “I think had I not been in this ring of protection that would have made me shed my skin. I can still feel my blood surging.”

“Well it be o’er now,” Pepper said and Xavier shook his head.

“I think it has only just started. There will be more.”

“Ye sure everyun else will be alright?” Bailey asked.

“I can go have a looky loo,” Rork said as he stood and left before anyone could stop him.

“Will he be safe?” Pepper asked.

“His spirit be small enough it baint be swept away by the aether,” Bailey answered. “He be grounded in Miread like most other things.”

“I would think things of weak spirit would be more vulnerable not less,” Zaire said.

“He only be weak in the Elder Magic it baint mean his spirit be weak,” Bailey answered. “Mortal souls n life o Miread be o this world, very strongly. Us strong in the Elder Magic be less o this world, more o the aether where we draw power from. Sos when the aether be disturbed we be more likely ta return ta it.”

“What o the High Magic?” Pepper asked.

“I don’t think it would play a part,” Zaire said. “I’m actually not sure how a mage’s spirit would be affected. I’d have to do some experiments…”

“No,” Xavier said firmly. “No experiments.”

Zaire frowned at him a moment before she sighed and nodded.

“I suppose not,” Zaire answered. “I’m not really sure what the point would even be anyways.”

Rork walked back then, a mild grin on his face.

“Not one o those fancy pants even noticed any what ja,” Rork said as he sat down.

“No one noticed?” Pepper asked surprised.

“Well I didn’t stay ta chat ja,” Rork answered. “Might be the Queeny noticed but I be too lowsome ta be scraping elbows with her.”

“Maybe I should go…”

“Nowt Pepper,” Bailey said worried. “Ye’ll break the ward.”

“Fine,” Pepper grumbled but she was getting tired of being around so many people. She would have minded less had she been able to leave but having no choice in the matter was making it worse. Instead she went to the edge of the wards and stood apart as everyone returned to conversations. Kalyani joined her sitting down so they were closer to eye level.

“You are going to battle the Orcs in the south correct?” Kalyani said and Pepper looked to her but she could not read her expression on her non-human face.

“Yes, I baint sit idle nowt more,” Pepper answered and Kalyani nodded.

“Good, neither can I,” Kalyani said, her beak opening and eyes narrowing in what Pepper hoped was a Griffin grin. “I think you and I could get along well.”

“Aye,” Pepper said pleased. “Some time ye n I should spar ta see who be greater.”

“You will use Melanthios?” Kalyani asked.

“Nowt, it should be just me n ye,” Pepper said. “I’ll try daggers though er ye’ll be at an advantage what with yer talons.”

“Xavier wrestled Griffins barehanded,” Kalyani said and Pepper glanced back at Xavier surprised. “He is a great warrior, he earned the respect of many Griffins.”

“He baint seem it,” Pepper said.

“Really?” Kalyani said tipping her head to the side. “How so?”

“He seems too kind,” Pepper answered and Kalyani nodded.

“One can be kind and a great warrior,” Kalyani answered. “The Griffins pride themselves on being able to fight without killing. Only an opponent that can hold their own against us is worthy to be called a fellow warrior. If they die they are prey.”

“So ye can fight n kill the Orcs?” Pepper asked and Kalyani nodded. “I baint recommend eattin em though.” Kalyani laughed, cackling like a bird.

“I am a Bone Eater, I can eat anything,” Kalyani answered.

“Darin told me their blood be black like tar,” Pepper said. “N they light on fire easily.”

“Really? Then those munitions would be very effective against them. Probably why the Dwarfs invented them, they did not have them when I was around.”

“What were the Dwarves like then?” Pepper asked. “I ken they be warriors but back then the Orcs weren’t around so who did they fight. Nowt the Daunish, they raided us mostly we hardly fought back as I read.”

“Well there were a few good battles in that conflict but you are right as I remember they only raided and stole sheep, mostly young bloods thinking they were doing battle when they were robing helpless farmers. No, the Dwarves were mostly craftsmen rather than warriors, if they could say to have fought anything then it was the Giants.”

“Giants,” Pepper said interested.

“The Giants fight anything that moves, sometimes they wandered into the Dwarven mountains. They were more pests than opponents, but they made the Dwarves at least have to learn how to fight. They fought with each other too of course.”

Pepper knew Bailey would have felt sad that the Dwarves were forced to become a martial race just because of the Orcs, but she felt proud for them. They rose to the challenge and she knew they would surpass it.

“Do ye have any plans fer the war?” Pepper asked.

“Strategy was never a strong point of the Griffins,” Kalyani answered sourly. “I was hoping you or the Aldan had greater plans. We were just planning to fight.”

“I baint be much o a strategist either,” Pepper said. “Darin er Donar would be better. eR maybe Xavier.”

“None of who are going to this war,” Kalyani answered. “You are, and I expect you will become a general other will flock to.”

“Why?” Pepper asked surprised.

“You need to ask that?” Kalyani said with another Griffin grin. “You have a very powerful personality.”

“It take more en that,” Pepper answered.

“Very well, you have a strong will and desire to fight,” Kalyani answered. “There is a fire in you that will draw others, especially the young for battle. You are also a witch, people will have more faith in you and your powers. You are also noble born so I hear, and beautiful. Face it, you are the stuff of stories.”

Pepper made a sour face, but she had to admit Kalyani was right. She also realized the value in a war she would provide, a heralding point and valuable moral boost in a war. It was also a great duty as she would be responsible for all those who flocked to her. Pepper wasn’t sure what to make of it, but she would be willing to take on any task in order to win this war. They had no choice, either win or die.

“Maybe we should ask Xavier for strategies before he leaves,” Kalyani said.

“What good will that be?” Pepper asked. “He baint ken the lay o the land n battles change quick ye have ta think on yer feet.”

“Right,” Kalyani said eyeing her sideways. “Are you sure you don’t have a head for strategy?”

Again Pepper made a sour face, she didn’t like the idea of her having a conniving mind.

“I baint ken cause I baint been ta war,” Pepper answered. “Ifn I do have talent fine, but I baint have experience which I ken be more important en talent.”

“Well I will give you that,” Kalyani said. “In which case Xavier would be no good either, only Donar and Darin.”

“They have ta search fer the song,” Pepper said. “But I be sure Alora already has generals out fightin.”

“And how are they doing?” Kalyani asked mildly.

“Well considerin Alora be orderin em ta retreat,” Pepper answered.

“We can’t hope to regain what was lost Pepper,” Kalyani said. “We should focus on holding ground, we are the hunted in this case and when cornered the prey must never yield.”

“Aye I ken,” Pepper said feeling helpless. “What I baint ken is what we’ll do ifn we baint gaint aid from the other Kingdoms.”

Kalyani was grimly silent at that so Pepper said nothing, staring out into the garden thinking over the coming war.

[thefriday5]

Happy birthday, Persey!

Today is my dog’s birthday. Although this essay will not mean much to her, I want to reflect on our friendship, 4 years of walking, and the finest season of the year.

I love walking with Persephone, my black Lab, in the fall. We have been faithful walking companions every day for almost 4 years, but in the summer it’s a challenge to stay patient, to stop at flowers and inhale deeply rather than gripping the leash and stamping through the shortest route possible. It took me until this year to admit that I’m not a summer person at all; sticky Maryland summers and increased commute traffic make it difficult for me to keep my cool or go with the flow. Plus there’s all this pressure to “enjoy the outdoors” in the summer – it’s not until autumn that I can actually enjoy being outside.

In the fall, my capacity for poetry expands. The world is in greater detail to me. Blue is more brilliant, our trees are catching fire. What is it about fall that feels wide open—is it the clearer air now that summer hazes have faded? Is it the golden mornings? Bear my limited meteorological knowledge here, but with less moisture in the air, fewer clouds form, so our sky is brighter. The sun crouches lower in the fall and winter, so dawn illuminates dust and air pollution, turning everything rosy-gold. The smell of dry leaves and whisk of wind are so welcome to me these days that our walks go from a tight 25-30 minutes to a meandering, gracious 40 or even 65. I’m in no hurry.

One of the best routes is a park near my house called Heritage Farm Park. Like any good park, there’s a community garden with a tower of fragrant mulch, pavilions and playgrounds, and fields for the smallest small-town sports teams. But there’s also a generous amount of green land for no particular purpose, and thickets, and even two walking bridges along a loop that takes a brisk walker about 40 minutes to complete. 

We’ve lived in Walkersville as long as I’ve had a memory, so I’ve spent a lot of time at this park in various company. I’ve walked there with my entire family, with my college roommates, with friends on the phone. I’ve gone on dates here. When I was in middle school, I watched my neighbor-friend’s brother play football here, and I remember reading one of my favorite books of all time on a low-hanging branch in one of this park’s trees. I took a walk with my best friend and her husband once, just before he became her fiancé. Very recently, my bridesmaids huddled with me there on the chilly morning of my wedding. I don’t know if there’s a more significant 145 acres of land in my life history. But my favorite times at Heritage have been with Persey at the end of the leash – and sometimes, with an empty leash in my hand as I watch her zig-zag over open field.

I’ve heard that friendships are nurtured and sustained by periods of time spent together doing mostly nothing. The same playgroup during your parents’ Bible study, the same old walk home from school, the aimless afternoons painting your toenails and listening to boy bands, these nothing-in-particular times are the food of friendship. So the time you spend writing research papers and eating burritos can cement a college friendship for a lifetime, and the ordinary, nothing-special routes I’ve taken with Persey have created a bond so close it’s hard to write about without exaggeration or baby-talk.

When Persey came into our lives, we tossed around a bunch of names. The myth of Persephone and her pomegranate inspired a personal family legend, and the dignity of the name for a clumsy creature with no common sense appealed to us. “A big name for a little dog.” But she grew, and as she grew into “Persephone,” I can appreciate the cyclical themes of her name and how our friendship has always related to the seasons. She joined our family in a particularly difficult January for me, and I’ve said before that she was part of my recovery. It was life-saving to me that Persey needed me in the cold months of 2014; even her warm body sleeping on my legs in between furious bouts of play was a reminder that I was here, that I was beloved.

When my Gram came to live with us, Persey gained another companion and teacher. Gram helped me teach this exuberant dog some manners—but the best thing Gram did with Persey, as she did with all of us cousins and family dogs, was to take an interest in our struggles and triumphs, and to spoil us nearly rotten. Of course, Gram’s great love for her family and for dogs is the subject of another essay. When Gram passed from our lives and this earth, Persey’s routines comforted me. Grad school, long-distance longing, a body image crisis, and a personal challenge to visit every park in Frederick County – Persey has been by my side. For many weeks of the past 4 years, daily walks have been routine; but during times of great stress or profound loneliness, the significance of our neighborhood loops would swell. The sound of my feet on the sidewalk and the jingle of Persey’s leash would form the rhythm that kept me going.

I’m in another time of transition this fall, newly-wed and newly-renting a place that doesn’t allow pets. This means I visit Persey every day at my childhood home for our walks, and often linger for an hour or two of visiting with pet and parents afterward. These walks have become vital again. So if it’s between 5 and 7pm on an ordinary, nothing-special day during this particularly gorgeous autumn, you can bet that somewhere, on some leaf-cluttered sidewalk, there’s a girl with a fanny-pack and her dog exploring. Thank you, birthday girl, and here’s to a lifetime of many more walks together.