#now i wanna think about what my ldb's would look like

[arr0w-ace]

I love this idea!

I've always thought it would be cool if the way the Dragon Aspect shout looked was unique to each Dragonborn. Like, it reflects their own individual soul or dragon or somethingon

[argisthebulwark]

Most of what I’m seeing whenever I open tumblr are skyrim and bg3 content. So now an idea of crossover between the two has been planted in my head.

What if LDB got transported to BG3 world, retaining their powers and along with their things (armor, weapon, potions etc.). Whether they also become Tav in this world or not is undecided. So, LDB goes with the bg3 party and becomes a hero of their world as well, helping their companions with their past and all. Until another threat, this time involving LDB’s past. What if Miraak, angry and mad when the LDB was taken from him, found a way to get to bg3 world and wreaks havoc there as he looks for LDB?

Sorry, just wanted to kinda vent and share this idea with you since you’re one of my fav fic writers. Just really want to share it though if you like it and want to make it into a fic, that would be wonderful. Sorry if this comes out like I’m requesting but am really not.

YESSSS god i'm only on act 2 of baldur's gate and i want to do something big when i finish and can do it well but this is such a cool idea. i'm gonna share some of the notes i have laying around about this subject below the cut because i don't wanna potentially spoil any bg3 content.

"Where are the cultists?" "Which ones?" "The cultists that were just chasing me!" "Do you mean the Absolute?" "No! Miraak's cultists." "I have no clue what Miraak is."

The Dragonborn stomping their way through the forests with three strangers in tow, clueless as to how they ended up in such a place but willing to accept help. Bombarded with strange terms in every conversation, accepting weapons with unknown enchantments and clothed in armor visibly different from their companions.

They'd get sick of correcting people - they don't know what a drow is. They're a Dunmer and they know nothing about living underground.

"What school of magic are you trained in?" "School? It's destruction magicka, it just comes naturally. I read a book once I think." "You must be very powerful to obtain such a spell merely from a scroll." Gale purposefully ignores their pronunciation of magic. "Sure. I am a very powerful mage. Let's stick with that."

None of their companions know anything about the Thu'um. Or Alduin. Or anything. The Dragonborn stumbles trying to find some link between their worlds but there is nothing tangible, nothing that ties them to home. They resign themself to solving their friends' issues, acknowledging that the only way out must be through.

Meanwhile Miraak scoures every inch of Tamriel in search of the Last Dragonborn. Something had gone horribly wrong during their return from Sovngarde - the portal had opened and closed yet no one came through. He's frantic, concluding that he needed to step through the portal on his own.

Rumors of a new threat, one of unfamiliar power reaches their little party just as they're relaxing after another job done. The Dragonborn is still aware that something had gone wrong but they'd grown comfortable, learning that they liked having a camp to return to when the world became too much. At home in Skyrim they had houses but those were filled with generals and employees, stewards and political figures. Their camp is cozy, companions bickering and sharing food as day wore into night.

Miraak tearing through the Forgotten Realms in search of the Last Dragonborn, worry and rage fueling every step. Outright ignoring unfamiliar laws and summons from strange gods he ventures on, clinging to every rumor of a mysterious dark elf. There's horrible tales of tentacled monsters that remind him of Mora and Miraak fears that the Dragonborn has been taken hostage, surely they're imprisoned and need his help.

Miraak's powers would terrify Faerun, powers unpredictable and fueled by an unknown entity. He leaves a trail of destruction in his wake as he rushes from villages and towns seeking his Dragonborn. He follows stories of an elf who can Shout louder than the gods, frustrated that he's always just a few steps behind.

Miraak would probably meet them somewhere in the Shadow Cursed lands, whether it's Mora's protection or his lack of attachment to this world he finds that the shadows welcome him instead of plaguing him. He skulks through the dark in search of his Dragonborn, too many stories pointing him in the same direction for it to be coincidence.

When the Dragonborn and their friends finally confront this mysterious threat that's been stalking them, warded and high on an assortment of potions, they stop in their tracks. Facing them across the clearing is a mask they'd seen before, hands crackling with sickly green magicka. It's the first familiar thing they've seen since arriving. Miraak feels like home.

Their companions are stunned into silence when their new leader drops their sword, arms open as they bolt across the battlefield. To their horror their friend collapses into the arms of this villain, easily knocking the intimidating mask out of their way.

Gale would probably want to study Miraak. like a bug. Shadowheart would not be a fan i think. Karlach would think he's cool but in a kinda gross way - he didn't really need all those tentacle motifs, right?

these are just my silly little outline points, i'll def change as i get closer to finishing the game but you are so right anon these games need to be smooshed together. i need camp and romance systems with my skyrim men.

[sheirukitriesfandom]

In Defense of Savos Aren

Today I wanna talk about my favourite sad old elf again. I often see threads across the internet about how Savos doesn't care about the students and that he's a terrible archmage or even the worst of the four guild leaders.

Now, this post is not meant to portray Savos as a cinnamon roll or to make him seem like he's somehow the greatest archmage to ever grace the College of Winterhold, but rather an attempt to show why Savos might not be as bad as people make him out to be. This contains some speculation, but most of it is supported by canon. 

1. Time

Now, first off, we only get to see a small bit of his time as archmage. While we don't know how long he's been archmage, but we have two dates that serve as a loose timeframe. In the midden there's a letter about the great collapse written by archmage Deneth, so Savos wasn't archmage yet in 4E 122. The prima guide also tells us that Savos "took threats seriously and secured the college grounds" after the White Gold Concordat, which means he's already been archmage somewhere around/in 4E 175, so by the time of Skyrim (4E 201) he's been archmage for roughly 26 years, however, the guide mentions him having been "archmage for a very long time", so he's likely had that position for longer.

2. The Circumstances

What is clear though is that Savos got the position at a difficult time. After the Oblivion Crisis mages were shunned even more while at the same time, the mage's guild was disbanded, leaving only few independent places where one could study magic almost without any limitations. And to top it all off, the great collapse happened, destroying most of Winterhold and leaving its citizens resenting the college for something it may or may not have had a part in. Bottom line, Savos got the position at a time in which every diplomatic decision could potentially mean the college's certain doom. Taking this into consideration, it's not at all surprising that he is hesitant to actually lead the college. Not to mention that the last time he actively lead something 5 of his friends got killed (I'm not even going to dive into the toll that must've taken on his mental health).

3. Keeping The College Apolitical

Now, what could be meant by "took threats seriously and secured the college grounds"? Well, it could be taken literally, meaning that he had the college locked up, but given his insistence on the college being apolitical, it might also mean that he made sure that the college doesn't fall to the Thalmor or the Thalmor controlled empire. But if that's true, then what about Ancano? Well, to be honest, I don't think that Ancano has been there since the Concordat as that would imply that, in 26 years, Tolfdir never mentioned the Augur of Dunlain - unlikely since Savos asks the LDB if Tolfdir has been telling stories AGAIN - and Ancano never ventured into the midden dark before, which is also fairly easy to access. It would also imply that Ancano has been living in a storage closet for 26 years... I think it's more likely that Ancano was deployed when the civil war started. But even so, trading an obvious Thalmor spy for the political independence of the college is a small sacrifice. Savos’ refusal to share any important information with his supposed “advisor” points to Ancano being a calculated risk.

4. Reputation Then there's the problem with the college's reputation. The college is, as stated, resented in Winterhold. However, Savos apparently managed to get a powerful friend on his side: Kraldar. Who's that, you ask? When you first come to Winterhold, Kraldar is ""just"" the last remaining noble of the city, however, if the DB joins the Empire and conquers Winterhold, Kraldar becomes the new jarl. And all of a sudden, the college is in a much better position. We know that Kraldar isn't just partial to the college, but specifically a personal friend of Savos Aren which he reveals in both his dialogue regarding the college and a dialogue between him and his servant, in which he wants him to invite Savos to dinner. Savos himself says "I hope my work as archmage may help" in relation to the college’s reputation. So he's not been as inactive as people claim!

5. “B-But The Students!” "But he doesn't care about the students" I hear you say. Quite frankly, that's rubbish. One of the first things he says to you is that he doesn't tolerate experiments that harm the other students. Yes, there's the line "Don't tell me another apprentice has been incinerated. I have enough to deal with right now.", but considering the previous group of apprentices did meet a grisly end, it's not surprising. Could Savos have prevented their deaths? I doubt it. All corpses were found outside the college’s premises; if anyone is to blame for not supervising them it's the teachers since they were in charge of the group. If anything, you can blame Savos for not making sure they do their work (Remember, he’s not involved in the day-to-day activities). And since guards are stretched thin as is, do you really think they'd help locate the missing students? In Stormcloak territory? Should the teachers forsake the college and look for them divines know where? Post a bounty in a town that’s already at their throats? Sad as it is, there's not much that could've been done. 6. The Eye Then there’s the issue with the Eye of Magnus. I believe taking it to the college was the right step in a civil war-torn, bandit infested Skyrim. What happened next is something that Savos probably couldn’t have foreseen. Think of it from Savos’ perspective: You’ve seen that thing before, on the Staff of Magnus and you know where that staff is. So even if people figure out they need the Staff of Magnus to unlock the eye’s power and manage to locate this mythical artifact, they still have to get it. From this point onward you have two options: give them the torc and enter Labyrinthian again, this time being prepared for what’s to come, or not giving them the torc and letting the figure out a way to enter Labyrinthian, potentially ending their search or, if they succeed, set Morokei free. Regardless of which he would’ve chosen, “My stupid advisor shooting lighning at the eye/ having some unexplained Deus Ex Machina magic” probably wasn’t on his list of things to consider. That being said, Savos is absolutely at fault for prolonging the search for the staff. Can’t entirely absolve him from his mistakes. Conclusion: So, is Savos a good archmage? Probably not. His hesitance to actually lead the college makes him less than ideal for the post and did lead to dissent between his subordinates as well as a lack of control over college activities, however, I still think he’s a better guild leader than Mercer “Killed the former guild leader, drained the guild treasury, pissed off Nocturnal and tried to kill the LDB” Frey.

[archdovah]

Mal Dovah (little dragon) - Miraak x tld oneshot

Can be found here on AO3 (with the translations of the Dragon Language)

Summary:

 A month ago, the last dragonborn released Miraak from Apocrypha. In return for his release, Hermaeus Mora bound him to her in a ritual she did not understand the implications of until it was too late to go back. What was the cost of her soul and who owned it now?(Miraak x tld oneshot, Hermaeus is only spoken of and does not make an appearance, small nsfw part)

A/N: BEHOLD my long overdue Miraak x ldb fanfic cause we all wanna romance those we can’t have (in vanilla). 

She looked up at him, through the flickering light of the campfire. She bit her lower lip and looked up at the stars. Devines, how did she get here. Well… she knew that. But looking at the man beside her alone was enough to make her feel like the fire dragons could breathe was burning inside of her instead. That feeling crept up on her. At this point she thought she’d need it to keep her alive and breathing.

“Miraak.” She paused but he didn’t respond. “ I don’t believe I’ve said this to you in a while but… I’m sorry. He gave me the choice and I am aware you’d rather be with anyone else but me. “ “ He made me aware of the alternative option. Of what would happen if I opt to abandon you.”

She swallowed hard. The idea of him leaving her terrified her for two reasons. One, Miraak loose on Nirn could be a recipe for disaster. She had broken his spell over Solstheim but he was still powerful. Regardless of whether his powers had been subdued. Two, she didn’t want him to leave. His voice resounded again, louder than her thoughts even without the echo she had gotten used to in Apocrypha. “I owe you an apology as well. I only attempted to kill you because it was my only way out. Fate decreed that you had to die so that I could win my freedom. I did not wish you harm personally. I regretted it as I was watching you.” “ Stealing my dragon souls.” She muttered, frowning at him in some glimmer she still felt over that. “ Yes. In many ways, this is a far more favourable outcome.”

She scraped her throat. “ So what is this… ritual he did anyway. It almost seemed like some sort of marriage ceremony.” Miraak threw a branch into the fire. “ Nii Lost. “ She looked at him, dumbstruck, and this time he looked back. “Excuse me?” Miraak grinned in the way he tended when he knew something she did not. Smug. Arrogant. “It was. Did you truly believe he wouldn’t get anything out of this? We’re the only two dovakhiin in this world. He wants to know what happens when we are put together, we are his experiment. He seeks to find out if we’ll kill each other or strengthen each other. No better way to test that than to tie us together by a bond not even Akatosh can break.” “ But we did not choose it. It is invalid if it was a marriage. And there was no priest there, he couldn’t… ” “ I am a dragon priest. And you freely agreed to being tied to me for the rest of your life, did you not? If I recall correctly, you even yelled it to Hermeaus Mora. I agreed as well, otherwise the binding ritual would not have worked and he would have killed me regardless. He merely added that we cannot stray from each other until a certain distance.” She hugged her legs, head leaning on her knees. What a mess. “ What if we get too powerful? What if I seek to take over Nirn too, as you did.” “ Then he has shaped history once more. Hermaeus Mora is laughing at us, you know. He will likely await our demise or reign in the one of us who outlives the other. Offer us a miracle solution to cure us from our grief. Unless we were to have a child.” She scoffed. “A child.”

He wasn’t laughing and it made her heart beat so fast that she could feel it in her throat. “ You think that could happen? I mean... knowing what needs to happen in order to conceive a child.” “ I am aware that you feel connected to me, even without the ritual. “ “ I already told you that I do not approve of the way you seek to read me Miraak.” “ Zu Drey Ni.” She looked at him, confused. “What do you mean you did not?” He sighed and moved closer to her. He looked at her, took his glove off and outstretched his hand to her. He put hers on it and watched as he turned it upwards. He traced a finger from its palm to her shoulder. “Morah. It feels like a fire does it not? Scorching yet pleasant.” She nodded.

“ I cannot sense that from you.” She laughed. “You read about this? What kind of books did you read in Apocrypha? I mean it must have gotten lonely but…” He shook his head, looking her straight in the eyes with a very serious expression. She stopped laughing. “Have been with another Dragonborn before?” He shook his head again and glanced down at her lips for a second. That is when it dawned on her. “ You feel it too.” “Geh, Mal Dovah.“ “ What does that mean? Yes, little dragon?” He nodded. “ How do I know this is no trick? How could you feel this and still have wanted me dead?” She felt all the more hurt and pulled her arm back and got up, shaking her head. “This is a trick.” “ He believed you were no threat of me doing that because of this bond. Why else would I complimente you during battle rather than trying to break your spirit? How else could I call you back to my tower as often as I like. He thought I would not be able to harm you because it would tear me asunder. But I already was broken and blinded.”

“ And so you almost did.” She could feel tears burning in her eyes and they infuriated her. “ You fought me as well did you not? I was certain that there could be no future with us both in it. Krosis.” She gritted her teeth as he got up too and walked towards her. Careful, as if he was concerned he would scare her away. He stopped very close to her, closer to her than he had ever allowed himself to be and reached for her waist. She let him, looking at his face. She remembered the first time he had removed his mask, how it knocked the breath right out of her. A sense of possessiveness and belonging had mixed with her anger. She hadn’t expected to feel attracted to him physically as well, but as soon as she’d seen his face. Somewhat scarred but still young, still handsome, still wild and tempestuous in his stare. She remembered how his eyes had lingered on her too, but as if he was confirming something. Confusion and anger, but he had seen hers before. He already knew.

She reached up to his face and placed her hand on his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into it with his lips slightly parted as he breathed out. “ You do not owe me anything. I will not force a relationship on you. I owe you my freedom.” “ Yet you are shackled to me, with him likely watching.” “ He had my soul and in his presence in the ritual, he gave it to you. And you gave yours to me.” She swallowed. She had repeated his words in the dragon tongue and had guessed as much. But hearing it confirmed…

“ So where do we go from here?” She whispered to him, feeling far more vulnerable than she had. “ I told you that I know things that the Greybeards will never teach you. I can teach you even more than you know.” “ You know damn well that is not what I am talking about.” He remained silent. “ What do you wish to happen next?” “ How would it feel when we…” She noticed a small smile on his face. “ I do not know that. Vonmindoraan? Frin? Unslaad?. “ “Yeah thinking is not an option right now so you’ll have to tell me what that means.” “ Incomprehensible? Hot? Eternal? My guess is as good as yours. “

He reached for the side of her neck, gently. She looked up at him, again feeling her pulse in her head and it was going a little too fast. “ Do you want to know?” “ Dreh hi?” She stood on her tiptoes and barely managed to reach his lips with hers and she made the most of it before she whispered to his lips. “Geh. Even if just because your behaviour afterwards will likely tell me all I need to know about where your loyalty lies.” He grabbed her by the arms and put her against the wall. “Then we will not.” “ Why not?” “ He may wish for me to take you by force but I shall not.” “ By f..? This is not my first time, Miraak. I have a potion which keeps me from getting pregnant.” “ But you do not wish to. You merely wish to test me. If I ever do have you, it will be because you want me as I want you.” She couldn’t stop a grin which she imagined looked a lot like his when he knew something she did not. “Social cues are your Talos’ heel aren’t they?” He looked confused and a little angry because of it. She grabbed his hand and led him towards their tent and on her sleeping bag. She sat on top of his lap and he allowed her to do so. Then she took the top part of her armour off, shivering in the cold with only a breastband to cover her torso. He immediately put a hand on her collarbone and she felt warm again. “ Hi Los Brit.” Ok. Focus. She opened her eyes. “ Do you want me? ” “ It does not matter.” “ It does.” She leaned forward, pushed down his robe and kissed him on the neck. She then leaned backwards again. “ Because if you are truly mine, I want you.”

She saw a shift in the way he looked at her. Something more animalistic and hungry. Before she knew it, his hand gripped the back of her head and his lips were rough on hers. He felt how he pulled her closer onto his lap and moaned as she moved against him. He didn’t want to let go when she wanted to take off her armour. She whispered “Let me go.” Into his ear and he did, clearly not happy about it. “Take off your armour.” He seemed to doubt for a second, but when she helped him with it and placed burning kisses on every surface that was revealed, he no longer seemed to mind. She only skipped one area and grinned at him when she took a step back. His eyes didn’t leave her as she undressed. He seemed entranced. What followed next released something within her that she could only describe as feral. He seemed careful at first and it made her feel restless and all the more impatient. She commanded him “Uznahgaar” through gritted teeth as her nails dug into his back. She tried to get him closer, deeper, faster. When he finally did stop holding back, she felt the vigor and ferosity he had put into their fight once more. But this time it did not feel destructive, it was as if the way he moved in her forged their souls together. As if every hungry kiss was a lifeline. It indeed did feel indescribable, hot, and like they could keep burning forever.

When they were panting beside each other after, she was still laying on his arm. She looked over at him, unbelieving that this morning she was still wondering if he considered her any more than a nuisance. “ You…” she was still catching her breath “… feel any different? Want to betray me yet?” He grabbed her leg and put it over his before he grabbed the small of her back and pulled her against his body. “ What do you think, Mal Dovah?” He was also slightly out of breath when he asked her and kissed her neck the way she had kissed his before they began. She didn't respond and tangled her fingers in his messy hair when he let stopped and she could focus again. To some extent at least. “ I think that if I wasn’t already married to you that I would want to now.” She laughed and moaned as she felt his finger trace her spine. She looked him in the eye again, foreheads now almost touching. He placed his hand right above her left breast and she still felt it burn but it left no mark. “ Zu’u los hin. Hi Los Dii.“ “ I am yours, you are mine?”

He kissed the top of her head, more softly than she had ever figured he’d be capable of, and eased against him. “ We should have done this a month ago, would have made our travels a lot more pleasant.” He played puled her even closer and kissed her again. “ I did not trust you yet, then.” “ YOU didn’t trust ME?” her voice sounded a lot more high-pitched than he was used to and she heard a warm laugh coming from him. It was glorious. “ Miraak?” “ Hm?” “ … nevermind.” “ I believe I do too, Mal Dovah.”

[rutisup-blog]

Castle Rock Tanning Club #2

“He shot me down…bang bang…I hit the ground bang bang…my baby let me down.”

 Kill Bill just started. Uma Thurman is beating the shit out of some black chick. I’m just sippin’ some Fat Tire. Mike, Joel, Ken, and some other dude are here. Other dude just broke me off a piece of Toblerone. “Now that’s a fine piece of ass…looks just like Larissa’s ass” said one of them during a scene of Uma Thurman wearing tight jeans.  A discussion breaks out about Larissa being a masseuse.

“He’s not gay, he just eats his corn the long way”. says one of them. These dirty old men just don’t stop with the jokes. So, where was I with that my castle rock adventure…

* * *

I set my alarm for 10:15…I’m of the philosophy of trying to get to brunch at a reasonable hour. It’s hard to tell what time it is when you don’t have windows in your room. I woke up several times, as per usual. Partly due to drinking last night, and partly from having two roommates.

I throw on some sweats and a black and white palm tree shirt—one of like six shirts in my inventory here. Time to saunter down for brunch. I don’t even have flip-flops here. I had a little preview of brunch around midnight when they started serving midrats brunch. I was sitting at a table talking to some sous-chef who mentions she’s from Russia in every conversation.

The table we sat at was round, wooden, and full of galley chow. I saw she had a polaroid photo of some guy tucked into her clear gel iPhone case. The other girl at the table had a pink clear water bottle full of water—or what appears to be otherwise. It turns out that it’s just vodka. There’s also a polaroid of someone I carry, it’s just in the ID Pouch of my wallet. “He’s down at Pole” she says.

Enough midrats…back to real brunch. It’s 10:45 and I’m sitting at a table with my friends–basically just a bunch of fuckin’ dudes. There’s gotta be like eight of us all around one of those big wooden tables. Cheeses of every kind were out–per usual–and fresh berries—unusual. Got damn, were there ever a lot of fresh berries available at brunch. After I ate my fill I decided it would be tasty to make a berry margarita in my HydroFlask. I mix some fresh strawberries and raspberries, margarita mix, and that god awful Jose Cuervo together in my HydroFlask with some ice. Surprisingly, it tastes good

It’s another Castle Rock day with the Castle Rock Tanning Club (CRTC). Joel, Tim, and I are going out there per usual to do some snowboarding. Some other people raise an interest over brunch, and we recruit some people to slide down on their lunch trays in lieu of skis or snowboards.

People come and go from our busy table, but we agree to “Meet up at the hand-wash at 12:00”. It’s about 11:20 now, and I call it quits on brunch. I get ready, putting on my snow pants and packing my backpack full of goodies: four PBRs, a HydroFlask full of Berryrita, and a flask of tequila. I grab a to-go paper bowl full of French toast for the road. It takes me longer than you would think to get all of that together, and I’m hustling to get a move on.

We make it out the gate around 13:00, late as per usual. There’s a balloon launch planned for today at 20:00. We check-out of the station at the firehouse with less trouble than our first attempt and then head off down the road towards Castle Rock. We’ve got to walk up the hill and out of town again. “Let’s see if we can get a ride, we’re walking past shuttles anyways” says Tim. He runs inside as we pass Building 140, the building shared by shuttles and the post office. A minute later Tim bursts out of the building. “Load up!” he says. Sick, it worked—we’re getting a ride up that treacherous hill.

The Ford E-250 lumbers up the hill as we pass three people on fat tire bikes. “I bet Bernie’s involved” I say as we creep up on them slowly powering up the hill. Upon closer inspection I see a dude with white Oakleys on pumping away—Bernie. Called it.

Onwards. We get dropped off at the trailhead. We march onwards through the snow—much more manageable and packed down from last week. Tim found an NRK-9 strap for me to fashion as a board sling, so I’m not dragging my snowboard in the snow this time. Joel slips on a little ice, we all have some conversation. It’s a two hour hike up to the rock.

“Who’s the lone ranger, walking back” I say as we see a pale man walking our way. “Man, Is that Vinnie? He walks like him”. says Tim. As we get closer to each other we realize, shit, that’s Velcro Vinnie! We ask him what the heck he is doing alone, and the conversation goes as follows:

“Oh are you supposed to bring someone?” “Did you even do a footplan?” “Nah”.

We ask him to come up to the rock with us, but he wants to get back for Sunday massage / self-massage class. Sayanora.

Icebridge DC-3 Basler

The first apple passes us by, but we stop at the second one for a little rest and chill-sesh. I crack a cold one and Joel opens a bottle of Scrumpy. I get the speaker going, we drag the chair outside into the snow. It’s a beautiful day in Antarctica, a balmy 30 degrees Fahrenheit. I shed my jacket and hang out in my cover-alls and t-shirt–It was pretty sweet out here. We pop the hatch in the apple and Tim uses a snowboard to prop the door open. We wave hello at everyone going past us.

Onwards. We close up the apple and head up to castle rock. We slog up the hill and up to the rock. We mount it and hang out a little on the ridge, our chill spot from the inaugural discovery expedition. About 15 minutes go by and we see Justin–from brunch–coming down off the top of the rock.  “Hey! What’s up dude, wanna come up again with us?” says Tim. “Yeah, sure”.

Ropes have been set in the rock, leading us up to the top. We get up there about 5 minutes later, finding our promised land awaiting. There’s no one else up here, just lots of rock. There’s a nice flat clearing with some nearly black volcanic rocks. It’s huge up here, you could have a whole camp site here. We set up shop, laying our bags down. Shirts pop off, suns out guns out. It’s nice and warm. There’s a flight coming in at 16:00, so we hang out. Drinks are flowing. We all lay down on our clothes—our own makeshift blankets. Justin brought his own blanket but I just didn’t have the cargo space.

We hear a plane coming in for a landing. It’s NASA’s Icebridge DC3 Basler. It’s painted red white and blue, making it stand out. I grab my camera and snap some photos of the landing. It’s pretty neat.

Groups of people come and go from the top of the rock.  “We don’t bite!” yells Tim at them. One guy was even wearing a big red. Meanwhile, we’re here topless. They look disturbed by our presence. At the edge of the rock we find a little ridge area we can hang out it that blocks the wind. Heck yeah. We end up migrating over there, piece by piece. It’s a beautiful thing. Meanwhile, all these people that are on the other end of the rock kind of stay up in that windy area, afraid to come down to us at the clearing.

“This is the firehouse announcing an uncontrolled landing. FROZEN11 will be landing at 1635.” Nice, looks like we got a little airshow. Uncontrolled landing sounds scary, but that just means that there’s no air-traffic controllers working right now. There was supposed to be some LC-130 Hercules landing today, this must be one of them. We take some photos posing in front of the beautiful mountains—the Royal Society range and Mt. Discovery–taking advantage of this beautiful day.

Brrrraaaappppppppp. We can hear the throaty sounds of a plane coming in over the sea ice. It’s that LC130, greenish with a red stripe on the tail. The Air National Guard flies those. It photographs beautifully, foregrounding the Royal Society Range.

30 minutes later and the same thing again–another LC-130. This time I grab the binoculars and track its landing—it looks even cooler, those binoculars much more powerful than my 55-250 lens. Watching a giant plane land on skis like that never gets old. I think it’s the only large aircraft that has skis for its landing gear.

LC-130 coming in for a landing. It’s got 5000 pounds of package mail for us.

The LC-130 joins two other LC-130s, two DC3 Baslers, and a Twin Otter.

I’m at that perfect buzz, just enjoying the beautiful weather. We’re getting ready to head out now, unsure if we should wait for the balloon launch at 20:00.

The fog gets thicker minute by minute back over the sea ice. It’s starting to come up over the top. The visibility that way has dropped to almost zero. It’s a good time to leave. We pack up our HQ and head back over the top of Castle Rock, to the rope routes down the rock. There’s a couple of people that have just come up—a little late for the party. They’re laying prone looking out into the fog as we depart the rock. Strange.

We climb down, feelin’ pretty tired. We strap into our snowboards and skis. Joel is having trouble with his bindings again. It’s kind of funny to watch, he’s kind of at his wits end with these cheap gear-issue alpine skis.

It’s way clearer than last weekend. Out over the permanent ice shelf it’s clear as day—a wall of fog behind us, now spilling over castle rock. I ride down, looking back at the stark beauty of fog flowing over Castle Rock, like cream over coffee, or dry ice and ice cream like they used to serve at Moxie’s.

Antarctic fog

It’s a nice minute-long ride down the mountain and then it flattens out. It’s what I would call the equivalent of a ‘green’ run in California. It’s not so fun after, hiking uphill until we can get to the next slope. We get over the ridge, and see the beautiful long run down to the ��Kiwi Ski Hill’ and where the ‘green apple’ warm-up hut is. We peer over at the Long Distance Balloon Facility (LDB) to see if the balloon is launching. It kind of seems like it could be, so we walk out of the boundary zone and to this rock ridge overlooking the ice shelf. There’s some Pisten Bully tracks, so we figure it must be fairly safe.

Nothing is really happening down at LDB upon closer inspection. We strap in and get going down the mountain. It’s pretty fun…as far as McMurdo snowboarding goes.  I slalom down the hill between the flags–having a ball. And then we hit the bottom and that’s over. Hours of hiking for just those two little runs. Still, worth it. I would rate the second run a ‘blue’ or even ‘bluegreen’ on the California scale.

We rest a bit in the green apple (ol’ granny smith), hanging out before our long walk back. It’s about four miles back to base from here. About 1.5 – 2 miles until the main road. We see some shuttles drive by—damn it. They look so close, but they’re still another 30 minutes of walking. Long gone by the time we get there.

More walking, and then we finally are nearly at the main road. A slow ‘delta’ heads out the opposite direction we need to go. I get on the radio:

“Shuttleops, Castle Rock Rec Group”. “Shuttles, go ahead”. “Can we get a ride from the snow road?” “uhhh..well we got a delta coming back from Willy in about half an hour, you can grab that…”.

Dang. So we walk another mile, walking past Scott Base and the pressure ridges. We see a dot off into the distance–that’s the Delta we saw earlier on its way back. We hang out atop some Concrete barriers and try to check out LDB again. Hard to tell what’s going on. Looks like a balloon or something is on the ground. Eventually the Delta drives by. The driver keeps driving. “Shuttle Delta” I say on the radio, and she stops–this lady is in a hurry.

We climb up those rough, metal, drop-down stairs into the passenger compartment. A delta has big fat tires that are nearly five feet tall and really puffy, it’s got like 8 of em, and the driver cab is separated from the back. We climb in, strapping into the bench style leather seats lining the sides. These things are bumpy as all hell and go about 7 MPH up the hill.

A grouchy National Guardman is the sole passenger, looking grumpy behind his Oakleys that they had to stop and pick us up. It strains up and over the hill, and half an hour later we’re back at McMurdo–starving. We drop our shit off and then stop by the galley.

I grab a tray, plate, knife and fork and start walking up to the food line.

“Dude, don’t we have to check back in?” “What time is it?” “22:57”. “Shit.”

Visions of salty search & rescue team members and firefighters paged for no reason enter my mind. I just leave my tray with my plate on it by the food line in the galley, abandoning it on some ledge. We hustle back to the firehouse to check in, and when I go back to the galley my stuff is still there—oooh yeah baby. Nothing like chowing down on some food after a long day. We get news that they rescheduled the balloon launch to another day–perfect.

And I went straight to bed after that.

Castle Rock Tanning Club #2 was originally published on RUT-IS-UP