#sails in the fog manta

[justanotherrcblog]

FYI: If you haven’t read this story yet, my tags are a little spoiler-y

[anamorozov]

[amyakapeach]

I really like Manta from Sails in the fog (Game: Romance Club). Seriously, guys. I think he is an interesting character and, to be honest, he is very hot and handsome 🤤🤭 Seems like people just forgot about his existence. He deserves more attention. I feel bad for him because of this fact 😔

[pirunika]

[thestonelady]

Shadows and Waves

Pairings: Adelaide x Manta; Adelaide x Kai (mentioned)

Set post canon

Tag list: @clanlessrebel @somin-yin @lazypartridge @keviriass @krishu213 @moonagxdaydream @wpbianca99

_________________________________________________________

Time moved on, life changed. And the spirits watched from beyond.

And something awoke...

Adelaide has done as she had wanted ever since escaping her arranged marriage. Every choice in her life has been her own. Including embracing the shadows and giving her conciousness up.

Yes, she had always made her own choices, even if they seemed outright mad. And no, during her limited mortal life, never had she regretted giving her heart to the dark spirit, Manta.

She had known from the moment she saw him on the island that he was the only one she wanted.

But as her quest continued she realised there was some duty to fullfill before she plunged into the darkness of the sea.

Kai knew. And while he loved her fiercelly, he understood he wasn't the only one. Told her about his beliefs - the ones they taugh had their children alongside the indigenous of her ancestors - about Gods, valkyries, dwarves, dragons and cursed gold. Sigurd, the Slayer of Fafnir was one his favourite stories to tell. And while he would tell her how he shall find his place in Valhalla, she would find hers in the halls of Aegir and Ran. And she would everytime swear the shadows twirled in the corners as if amused.

She embraced darkness and felt nothing.

... But divinity came from worship.

And the people of Santo Domingo never forgot Adelaide. Her, who brough back the old ways, who made sure every person and every belief to be accepted in her realm. Her, who saved them all from the Crown and the literal Armageddon. Santa Adelaida some even called her, prayed to her in times of hardship, prayed to her when sailors went on long voyages. She was, alongside the ancient gods and spirits, the one they always put their faith in.

And that was exactly what Manta had expected.

~

Sluaghs were all-knowing but had no mind of their own. But yet she felt thoughs slowly forming. She heard people calling upon her for help, and she felt the need to answer in some way. Memories of past slowly resurfaced.

She felt in her... Heart? Core? ...emotions the longer she stared into the darkness.

Manta was there, of course. His violet gaze holding hers, waiting. Her being was enfulged in his cloak. One of his hands was holding the back of her head while the other was at her back. She felt like she was floating in water.

Sluaghs were all-knowing...

"I am a spirit," she said, "But I am not a sluagh anymore."

"No, you aren't," Manta confirmed, "I hold no control over you now."

"You knew this would happen," she stated knowingly.

"I did," he affirmed, "You may have traded divinity for balance once, but the worship never ended. Your soul would have changed one way or another."

Adelaide closed her eyes, concetraining on her soul.

"I still feel you."

"Call it an aftereffect of choosing to become a sluagh," he told her, smiling, "There is a bound between us now. What it means to you is all up to you."

She opened her eyes again, and staring straight into his violet eyes, she stated, "I think you already know what my answer is."

"I do"

One of his hands wandered into her own. She knew what she should do. Piercing him, putting a piece of herself into him, just like he did many years ago. Even now, he didn't wince.

"I love you," she told him.

"We won't be apart," he promised, "We will always watch from the shadows."

"And deep waters," she added, "Together"

"Together" he echoed.

She leaned in and kissed him.

"I've missed this," she whispered against his lips.

"I know," he said taking a step back, "Come, we have much to do and many to meet."

The spirit hold out his hand to her, and she took it gently, feeling what he felt through the bond.

He wouldn't tell her outright, she found out. No, instead he would let her know through their bond. Oh so gently, it felt like a warm caress inside her chest.

Warm... Not something expected from the Jailer of the Seas.

"Wait"

She put her hand on his chest, there where once...

"I..."

"I know," he said.

"Next time you do something like that, tell me beforehand," she told him, "I don't want to relive that day."

"I won't need to," he smirked, "You would know."

Of course, the bond.

There was still much to learn about being a spirit.

"Come now," he beckoned her, "There is much to do."

Yes, she could hear it, feal it. They truly had much to do.

And they had an eternity before them.

~

Santo Domingo was an unusual place. For centuries, since they became independent from the Spanish crown, all people lived in equality no matter their origin or belief. So it was set by their liberator: Adelaide, whom some believed was the patron of the island.

Alongside her, which was a local curiousity said to be estabilished by Adelaide herself, were other spirits worshiped : Northern, Mezo and Southern, who were the embodiments of the Americas; a Mermaid, who represented everything light; and lastly the representation of darkness, Manta, 'Hijo de La Muerte' - the son of Death.

To this day, Santo Domingo stood strong, an odity in the world, but a beautiful odity which many had seeked out. 

[romance-club-daily]

But do you know if I can have some fun with Manta/the mermaid without it's effect on the relationship with Sebastian?

😬 Unfortunately I'm not sure about it. Because I think there is an ending if you accept to become a spirit or a mermaid, even if you marry at the end, you can go with the Manta/Mermaid. But I don't know if there's some dialogue with the LI or affect our relationship.

People who have done this, and would like to help, please reply here!

Thank you in advance! 🤗

[abagofcotton]

ydigffw7puyfiyudo7ycyhi9ifyf

HIM !!!!!!!!

A school of stingrays riding a wave

[patriotismforstetriol]

Firelight, Starlight (Pt 1)

Okay I’ve nearly got Sky thoughs out of my system now. Need to compress all my ideas down into one story and then should be done. There’ll be three chapters, first two coming out today. Here’s the first:

Summary: Once, a long time ago, six guardian spirits offered their people a home in the clouds. They're gone now, and all that's left are strange little caretakers in the ruins.

External link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/36751693/chapters/91680574

Once, a long time ago, the people asked their guardian spirits for a home, and their guardians gave them the sky.

The world up near the stars was beautiful. Alien, too - its seas were air and cloud, its animals made of sunbeams and starlight and icy comet tails, its plants made of fog and the empty spaces between galaxies.

Once, a long time ago, people sailed its cloud-seas with the same ease they sailed its water-seas. They built their towns on islands overlooking great open vistas, and in what passed for caverns, expanses walled above and below with cloud. They planted grass that grew into meadows, and trees that grew so tall and broad their tops were lost in the clouds. They tamed the larger creatures to ride. The people were careful, the whole while, watching they weren't ruining the balance.

With their ancestors' guidance, the people learnt to capture and condense the energy of the small creatures into what they named power diamonds. Great glowing prisms were set into their barges, so they could float, into their lifts so they would rise without aid, into the great gates on their temples, too heavy to be opened by hand, to store their knowledge in the archives. Their monuments were hewn from the rock-mineral of the sky-lands and lined with bells and skylights and great drops into the endless cloud that would set a person born to solid ground swaying.

The sky-lands were always cold. The sunlight was distant and delicate and the winds blew. The people felt the wind's bite and the deep cold of shadows that had never seen warmth in a way their manta-mounts did not.

So they lit their cities with fire - candles in each window, warm lanterns shaped like the power diamonds that powered their civilisation in each street. Fire, wild, was destructive. Fire, carefully tamed, was what kept  them warm. Everything, as always, had to be balanced.

Like any other world, the skies had a natural ecosystem. The plants with wide lonely lapels like the empty space between stars shuddered and shrunk under the warmth of little migrating embers, then those little embers would go out in a comet-crab's swift icy rush. The butterflies, bright and golden, that sprung out where sunlight touched found their resting places on moon-glow fungi (perhaps delayed a little while by a stay as part of a power diamond). Then there were the birds, like cool winter sunlight, chirping in a distant stream far above or far below, into whose trails the soaring starlight-mantas would dip, and the jellyfish with their underwater-rippling skin, and deep below the clouds there were massive whales that all swore existed but none had seen up close. And let it not be said that the people were not part of this system, that their harvesting of crabs and birds and fungi were not part of the equilibrium.

But all ages come to an end, though it feels like a terrible thing. This does not mean the people of the civilisation of this age were careless, or that their existence upset the balance of this place. They did all they could. They made a tiny, terrible mistake.

The people were always careful with new inventions. But their patron spirits hadn't been worried (they weren't all-knowing), and the substance was inert as far as their tests showed, and the mantas didn't react, and the birds didn't react, and the plants and jellyfish and whales reacted much too late.

By the time it came to light, it was already too far gone.

It was in the water, they found. The butterflies didn't appear near water sources anymore. The little embers, seeking out plants to burn, entered lakes or rainfalls and were doused to lifeless ash. The emptiness plants grew wilder and more defensive, throwing out spikes and twisting thorny feelers and growing in fierce bursts.

The people begged their patrons for aid, and their patrons pulled light from their hearts and gave it freely. For weeks the people and spirits toiled together to refine that light into a great purifying power diamond, larger and fiercer than any they'd made before. Under its glow the oily sheen on the water was visible, and as they ran the waters through its directed light it cleansed the pollution from them.

But still the rain fell. Still, water percolated through the ground into the minerals and clouds beneath their towns. The natural processes of the world worked against them.

One day, the shape of a whale rose from the deeps. Its bones were of the same mineral as the rock of this land, and it was furred with static - still monumental, even in death.

With the whale's death, the people's benefactors realised it had always been too late. The great power diamond couldn't cleanse fast enough.

But they and their people were made of the same determination, only separated by a few layers of mortality. They wouldn't abandon this task, or this people, or this land.

The elder spirits poured their raw power directly into the land, like six more great power diamonds. They poured out enough of their energies that each, one by one, fell into a deep sleep. They poured their energies into this task until their very effigies cracked.

As the last faltered, the tide their efforts had been slowing was no longer held back.

From the deep rose a wave of dark dragons. The creatures cruised forwards, shuddering, shedding flakes of themselves with every movement. They were slow, no faster than a ferry-boat, but inexoreable. Parents clutched their children as this tide of plate and dust rose into the skies, displacing the travelling birds.

The call came. Come to Eden. Come to Eden, away from the dragons.

The people knew it was not a promise of safety. They knew it would be a last stand. Guarding their greatest city, a beautiful mesh of raw rock and mountain and industrial civilisation. Guarding the city where the great power diamond, their last hope of cleansing the world, their last gift from their benefactors, still stood tall.

There, their warriors took up shields and spears powered with the light of this land, and when they ran out of those, they took up weapons of metal and wood and banners of cloth.

The dragons arrived with no formation or unity. Just great shuddering groaning collapsing beasts, drifting like lazy flags in a slow wind.

The warriors braced to push them back. It was, of course, already too late. It was too late the moment the tide of dragons came in proximity to the city. It was too late when their presence caused a crack to appear in the great power diamond.

Inside the city, selflessly heedless of their own safety, technicians rushed to and fro before the diamond, trying to ease its stress, and outside its walls warriors still fought to drive the dragons back and give themselves just a little longer, just a little more hope.

The power diamond their ancestors had given them snapped. It exploded outwards in a howl of power and wind, turning the mountaintop to dust, crumbling the city to ruin.

The diamond's remains hung there, suspended in void, above a destroyed city and a decimated battlefield.

For all their efforts, for all the generations they'd lived in and with this land, for all their achievements and their determination, the people of the lost civilisation could not fly. The diamond's shards hung above the broken forms of the warriors who still breathed, much too far to reach.

The diamond seeded a storm, and the storm broke. Clattering dragons moved with broken grace into its winds and grit and rain. And all that was left of the people of the lost civilisation were their ghosts.

[thebibliomancer]

Tides of the Dark Crystal liveblog pt 15

Tides of the Dark Crystal by J.M. Lee because we’re halfway through, whoa-oh I can’t think of a rhyme but we’re in a desert now.

Last times on book: Amri and co are on a quest to unite all the Gelfling clans against the Skeksis. They’ve managed to convince Maudra Ethri of the Sifa to not sail off into the sunset and join the cause. And now they’ve reluctantly hired known thief and smarmy guy Periss of the Dousan to take them on his sand skiff to the Crystal Desert where Maudra Seethi is.

Chapter 15

A storm in the desert, a teeming of Crystal Skimmers, a peril, and some Tavra/Onica content.

Team Naia plus Periss sand sails all day and continues sand sailing when night falls. But people need to sleep so they’ll just leave someone on watch.

Kylan volunteers Amri for first watch. Amri is like ‘hey, rude’ before realizing that Kylan was subtly letting him stay up at night without making a big deal of it in front of the others. And then he’s warmed by this kindness.

Aw, frens.

Some hours later, Naia joins Amri up on the deck because she had a weird, bad dream. She was in the Sog but she was Gurjin. And a message came for Momdra Laesid who reacted in horror to whatever it was. And then Naia woke up.

Amri suggests it could be an omen but Onica is sleeping.

“I’ll ask her when she wakes... You should rest, too, nightbird.”

Amri stood and yawned. Then he added, “Birds die in caves.”

“Nightworm, then.”

“They’re called nurlocs.”

“Go on!”

Hah! Frens!

I love that they’re the kind of friends who bust each others chops.

So Amri goes below deck and I’m confronted with the idea that this sand skiff has a below deck. How big is this thing? I was picturing...... Moana’s boat. But on sand.

Periss’ ship doesn’t just have a lower deck, it has hammocks. Multiple hammocks. Multiple hammocks with multiple hammocks still vacant. At minimum that’s... lessee Kylan, Onica, Periss all sleeping.... There’s a minimum of five but I don’t know if it would be uneven so there’s probably at least six hammocks!

This is a big, small ship and Periss was scooting around all alone in it.

Anyway, Amri gets into a hammock and passes out almost immediately.

He’s woken up in a hurry by Kylan (although its now daytime so he must have been asleep some hours) because there’s a storm and Crystal Skimmers because it doesn’t rain in the desert but when it rains it pours.

Also, they’re in the basin now so its just endless sand in all directions.

To their right, the sky ended in a cloud of gray dust crackling with lightning rolled like a monster with fire in its teeth. It boiled, unleashed and unconstrained like a whirlpool, in the wide desert.

Also, Crystal Skimmers. Darkened ones.

Geez, I feel like we haven’t deal with the darkening in a while. It barely come up, if at all, during the Sifa stuff. Because of ocean, I guess? I mean, if the darkening works by seeing some darkened crystal veins all that open ocean means that only the deep sea creatures are gonna get darkened and they’re probably bonkers already.

Anyway.

The approaching sand clouds teemed with horrific golden creatures. Their diamond-shaped bodies were bigger than the skiff, the size of the three-masted Sifa ships, with rough, ragged manes and long barbed tails. The creatures crashed out of the sands turned up b the storm to the left and the right and all around them, snapping with enormous gaping mouths.

If you remember the giant flying manta rays that the Dousan use to travel, then its those guys.

They seem huge so I wouldn’t want to deal with a rabid one of them, let alone a teeming of them.

Seasoned desert traveler Periss also decides that the storm isn’t natural either. He would have been able to navigate around it except for the Crystal Skimmers ambushing them.

One of the Crystal Skimmers side swipes the skiff’s starboard float and then gets tangled up in the ropes and starts dragging the boat around.

Periss recognizes this Crystal Skimmer as Hanja, who has the remains of a Dousan harness on its back. He begs Hanja to calm herself but Onica says that she can’t be reached since she’s seen the darkness. And that they’ll need to cut free or get dragged to death.

Seasoned boat traveler Onica takes charge. She and Periss go out to cut the ropes at the bow and stern where the Skimmer harness tangled.

They succeed in cutting the lines but before Amri can pull Onica back into the boat

Just as the starboard float glanced off the racing sand below, another Skimmer burst from below them. Amri felt Onica’s fingernails rip against his palm as the Skimmer snagged her in its enormous mouth, tearing her from his grasp.

ONICA NOOOO!

You’re too delightful to die! We barely know ye!

Okay okay okay Crystal Skimmers don’t have teeth so she’s not getting chewed but its got her good and it doesn’t feel the pain as she stabs it in the lips with her knife because its so maddened by the darkness.

And it keeps diving into the sand with Onica in its mouth which as far as experiences go I imagine is like being in a tumble drier full of sandpaper.

Periss follows the Crystal Skimmer but its flying too high and he says that Onica will have to fly down to them, winged girl Gelfing that she is.

“She can’t fly.”

The tiny, numb voice came from the folds of Amri’s cloak.

“What?”

“She lost her wings in a storm,” Tavra said. “She can’t fly.”

Oh no! Is that her Dark Backstory that we left the Sifa plot without learning? The thing that filled Ethri with much regret?

Naia decides she’ll fly up to the Skimmer and save Onica but her wings are so dried out from the desert that she probably can’t fly and if she did, her wings would probably be destroyed.

Geez, there’s a lot more to having wings than I had ever considered.

Amri decides he’ll do it instead.

But what of his no wings? Necessity is the mother of invention, probably. Amri pulls off two of those fins (that have already been noted to be roughly the size of Gelfling wings) and ties them to his back.

Buuuuut he doesn’t know how to fly. So Amri’s plan has a part 2. He tells Tavra to take over his body like she did before.

OH! That’s coming back up! And her being a spider is plot relevant in a lot of surprising ways this book.

“Amri, I didn’t do it on purpose before,” Tavra protested. “It was an accident! I don’t know how!”

“Well,” he growled, “you’re going to have to figure it out!”

He leaped and spread his arms.

The wind picked up like a hand, thrusting him into the sky. The gusts were like waves, coming from every direction, knocking him and twirling him higher and higher. He had no idea how to navigate, how to fall - how to fly. All he could do was try to keep his arms from breaking as the wind battered and beat him.

“You and Onica made a promise!”

“But I can’t --”

“Are you going to break your promise?”

Oof. Going for the hard-hitting emotional low blow, Amri? You can be mean when needs must, especially for the guy who wants to be the funny friend.

Can’t argue that it works because it works.

Amri is suddenly slam dunked into a dreamfast with Tavra for some important exposition dreamfasting.

A memory of a storm at sea with Onica’s ship broken to bits and her clinging to it as it breaks into smaller bits, holding Tae safe in her arms while the wreckage of the ship and the hail of the storm tear her wings to shreds.

Amri as Tavra fights her way through the storm, scoops up the two Sifa and flies them from the wreckage.

Promise me, someday we’ll sail away.

Tavra and Onica sat together on a misty shore, watching the tide bring in shards of crystalline ice. The seafarer’s lantern glowered nearby, dimly lighting the fog that surrounded them like a protective blanket. They were hidden there, by the silver mist. Or at least they could pretend they were, just for this moment.

To a place where no one can find us. Where there are no Sifa... no Vapra...

Their hands touched palm to palm, fingers weaving together.

Where it doesn’t matter. Where we can just be... one.

I’ve said before that I was 99% sure that Onica and Tavra were dating with all the saying it without actually saying it about their relationship. But, uh, I’m now 200% sure.

This is about as explicit as you can get without having one of them say girlfrens.

Anyway, the dreamfast ends and Amri finds that he’s flying. Or rather, Tavra is flying Amri. Like he’s a giant robot and she’s a plucky anime youth. Mobile Suit Amri.

Tavra is such a good flier even when flying with some juryrigged wings and she’s responding so intuitively to the winds that Amri briefly thinks that the storm had just quieted down since it seems less severe.

But when they reach the Crystal Skimmer, seeing Onica hanging limply in its mouth knocks Tavra out of sorts. The improvised wings get ripped off by the wind and Amri has to climb the Skimmer’s mane towards its mouth.

Now that the drift has ended, I’ll comment that the thing they did, Tavra piloting Amri to take advantage of all the physical skills she has. Its an interesting way to use the two of them. And its an interesting extension of Amri deciding to take up Tavra’s sword to take her role in the group despite having zero experience in swordery or fighting. But as an ultimate move, its probably unhealthy. Since Amri’s deal is that he feels useless and like he doesn’t contribute much to the group. If he starts thinking of himself as just a convenient meat puppet, that’s not great for his self-image.

Can’t deny that it got them 90% towards saving Onica but Amri has to do the last 10%.

The Skimmer dives into the sand - which we can now confirm from the POV character’s POV is an awful experience that crushes and scrapes and suffocates - but Amri manages to pull Onica free right when the creature dives towards the sand again.

He stood, tried desperately to find Periss’ skiff, but it was impossible. All he could see was gold and black, the storm and the din and the deafening howls of the Skimmers. He pulled Onica with him, trudging - any direction, it didn’t matter, he only wanted to be anywhere else. The sand burned his eyes, washed against his ankles, then his knees. He tried to listen, but its voices were too many. Millions of screaming sand-crystals, earth moving like water, singing in a tongue he couldn’t understand.

He turned as the ground shook. A Skimmer erupted under his feet, and Amri’s own scream was lost as the beast’s black maw swallowed them alive.

Geez, there’s just way too much getting eaten by giant beasts in this chapter.

[cyberneticlagomorph]

>Cyberneticlagomorph is live on Caster! 🔴

>Jack  is back at it again at his ranch in space, his breath fogging in the freezing cold, thin air as he floats around almost aimlessly. The dusty, kelp-grass covered ground beneath him is sprinkled with tools, seedlings, bags of seeds, and his little glowing sunfire friend.

>the chat is filling fast with familiar faces, each excited about space. There’s Paramore playing instead of normal High Wilderness ambiance

>a few giddy newcomers spam the chat with questions

>”zippitydoodumbass: wtf is this? like where is he?”

>”fee-fi-fuck-off: YOOOO IS HE IN SPACE??? HOW IS HE IN SPACE HOW IS HE BREATHING?? IS HE AN ELF?? AN ALIEN?? WTF??”

> apatheticInfinity donates 420 bytes and asks Jack to do a flip, which he does while answering the numerous questions and loudly contemplating adding a FAQ to his stream description

>”Hello i’m Jack, today we’re out in space, specifically we’re in the High Wilderness, which is space but in an entirely different timeline than the one I live in.”

>As he lazily does a flip in zero gravity the chat floods with even more questions asking how he can cross timelines

>”The High Wilderness has air, it’s just thin as all fuck, and colder than the sad empty void my ex calls her heart. I can hop timelines ‘cuz magic. Many of my friends are from other timelines, this stream is broadcasting to other timelines actually, I’m very thorough.”

>He does a very wiggly, complex maneuver that puts him back on the ground. You can see where he is now, see everything from the first person perspective of whatever camera he’s using to stream. Likely his cybernetic eye.

>The place is beautiful and strange, so very strange.

>he’s definitely in space, some dinky little planetoid covered in odd plants that sway like seaweed and kelp, strange sail-like trees with tiny black leaves like moss against the trunk. Harsh howling winds blow across their numerous hollows and produce a haunting flute-like sound

>far away, in the star-speckled void, are vibrantly hued dust clouds and nebulae, and the dark dusty band of a nearby asteroid field.

>something bright and glowing gold scampers up to him, speaking a language that hurts to hear. The stream glitches and flickers for a second before a very cute graphic of jack tangled up in computer wires comes up, proclaiming technical difficulties. It doesn’t last long before the stream comes back and the strange language the little glowing creature was speaking is wholly understandable. This language is Correspondence, it doesn’t so much as translate clearly into words as it does notions, feelings, and concepts that one can both hear and feel

>”Hullo friend, star friend, feeder friend, soulless and sweet. Will you furrow the earth today? sail the stars today? challenge gods today? I’m hungry... your boat came.” its voice is without gender but is high like a child’s, it looks something like a very small star, something like a clump of souls, and something like a cat or a monkey. It floats effortlessly through the thin air to nuzzle Jack’s face with it’s flame-haloed head. Jack scratches it behind what might be ears, or what might be gills. It’s very hard to tell what does what on something so strange.

>Jack says something back to it that suggests affection and warmth on the tail end of a gentle scolding. The little glowing thing pulsates like a beating heart and perches on Jack’s shoulders. The chat is filled with ‘awws’ and ‘dawws’ and further questioning as to who/what the fuck that thing is

>”This is Glimmer, a ‘judgements heart’, i picked them up during my last trip here. They’re sweet and warm and I love them. Say hi Glim”

>Glimmer says hi back and Jack grabs a garden hoe off the ground.

>”Today’s itinerary is getting these seeds in the ground and then going hunting the the asteroid field out yonder.” He jerks a thumb towards the dusty gray line in the distance. Glimmer is singing to themself, a strange nonsensical song about dirt and wells and things that write poems for worms. Glim isn’t of much help as Jack tills the soil and plants strange seeds of all different shapes and sizes. He buries bulbs and roots, blankets odd black tumors with mulch, and transplants long creeping things with long hollow ‘leaves’ that thrum like violin strings whenever the wind blows.

>Jack doesn’t explain anything about the plants and seeds, only that they’re a surprise for later. His final act of botany is to plant a number of rose bushes and berry brambles around the base of the Ranch house, along with some other things that look like they’d climb just as eagerly.

>Gardening in space is much harder than it sounds considering everything wants to float away when you're not looking, but he sticks to his task and gets it done just in time for the door to his ranch house to open and reveal a tall, beautiful woman in red. Her long white hair kisses the back of her ankles, blowing elegantly in the wind as she seems to glide up to him. Her silver eyes glint with the same gentle affection that tugs the corners of her mouth up into the barest ghost of a smile. Other than that she's stonefaced and a little mean looking, like she'd cut you if you breathed at her wrong.

>The chat breaks out in heart eyes emojis and shouts of "WIFE", Jack is purring, a sweet whirring-rumble like an old school computer. He greets this woman with a soft, dreamy hello and a half-assed warning that he's streaming this live

>"Don't you fret lapin, I know how to behave." Her voice is sultry, almost mockingly so as she leans in to kiss him only to pull away before their lips can meet, and the chat howls that she's a tease. She introduces herself to the chat as Jeanne. She is one of Jack's fabled two wives and by god is she beautiful, ethereal, terrifying. She seems more fae than he does somehow, every move she makes is artwork, and the world is her canvas. The Caster chat is suddenly a sea of [message deleted] as some of the less... tactful comments about Jeanne removed at Jack's discretion. Everyone is warned to keep it in their pants or else he can and will curse them over the internet.

>That stops everyone cold. Quietly wondering if he is that powerful. He likely isn't but someone who can marry THAT and also afford a ranch in fucking SPACE is obviously not to be fucked with. So the chat settles down like a pack of scolded school children. Jack leaves Jeanne to linger in the fields, while he circles back behind the barn to wash off at least some of the dirt he is now caked in.

>You'd expect a well in such a rural setting, but no, instead there is something like a bastard cross between a normal stone well and a gas pump with a windmill strapped to its back end. Empty canisters litter the ground around it, some rusted, some new, all of them painted a ghastly florescent yellow that makes them easier to see among the dark foliage. Jack asks the chat to watch before he takes the pump and squeezes it into empty air. Fat globs of water, like shimmering soap bubbles, flow from the nozzle trembling and steaming in the cold cold air.

>He sticks his hands into it, giggling like a dork. He manages to get most of the dirt off before the glob evaporates or freezes... honestly it's hard to tell just exactly what happens to it after awhile. Mostly cleaned, he makes his way back to join Jeanne but is interrupted by a great scarred calamity of a Curator, shrieking about hunting, singing shrill songs about teal eyes, North, and meat.

>Jack explains to the confused chat, that this is Mr Veils, an associate of his. Veils is a Curator, a giant starry furred horned space bat native to the High Wilderness that drift about hoarding things, and selling said things to other species they come across. Most are nicknamed after their hoards. Mr Veils deals in fine fabrics... usually. But today Veils couldn't give a damn about buying or selling, it just wants to hunt.

>The chat is entranced really. Jack stows the last of the gardening tools in the barn before pointing towards the asteroid fields and asking Veils to meet him there. Veils flies off with a joyous cry and a thick layer of foam coating its lips. He watches the quickly shrinking dot that is Veils grow ever smaller before turning to Jeanne.

>"Race you." He says, sounding a little cocky. She merely lifts an eyebrow before leaping into the air, a pair of gorgeous moth's wings appearing at her back as she swoops away in the direction Veils went. Jack, along with the chat, shouts that she's cheating to which she replies

>"Since when has any witch ever played fair, lapin?" you can hear the smile in her voice, even over the wind as Jack shifts into something winged and powerful, flying right after her. He loses of course, landing grumpily on a large asteroid at the edge of the field, Glimmer still clinging stubbornly to his shoulder.

>From afar it looked barren, maybe even mournful, but up close it is lush, and wild, and strange, oh so very strange. Each and every chunk of pitted stone is alive with plants. Strange swaying things that look more at home at the bottom of the sea than space. Translucent, sail-like things, strange whistling trees, even stranger bushes and undergrowth that retreat into hollows in the rocks when disturbed. Each and every 'plant' clings stubbornly to the stones with armored roots. What isn't stone, or plant, is ore and ice glowing with what little light can be found here.

>Some ores are recognizable, others are impossible colors and textures that ooze when Jack touches them, or slither and shift. There are gems stuck in the stones as careless as sprinkles on a cupcake. There are animals here too, as equally strange as their surroundings. Eyeless deer leaping from stone to stone, scaly rabbits with tough hides to protect against the pebbles and grit blowing in one the winds, geese-like things with segmented necks and pincers like bobbit worms drag anything that scampers too close shrieking into the darkness of their burrows.

>There are birds and fish, massive crabs, strange mantas, jellies, cat-faced harpies, all bounding though the waving grasses and cavern mazes. Spider-legged beasts lap at exposed patches of ice, or gnaw lazily on transparent lichens.

>Jack is overcome with awe that is quickly replaced by annoyance as Veils swoops low and plucks some hapless beast off a rock and into the sky, the animal bellowing in fear. He remembers that he is here to hunt, not sight-see, and his entire demeanor changes. His body drops low, his movements suddenly fluid and catlike, but it's somehow clear that he hasn't changed shape again. This is all him.

>He slinks off like an animal, picking across the ground on all fours with surprising ease, as if  he were born out here. The chat keeps making 'dummy thicc' jokes

>"inutechy: hrn colonel, I'm trying to hunt, but I'm dummy thicc and the clap of my ass cheeks keeps alerting my prey."

>Jack is far too focused on the eyeless deer thing in front of him to be amused. His normal tactics won't work here, so he has to be fast and brutal. Just as he prepares to strike, the beast is shot cleanly and he just sort of sits there, dumbfounded.

>"Too slow." Taunts Jeanne as she flits off to do more damage elsewhere, gun still smoking. Jack scowls at her retreating back before slithering off to find more prey. Between Jeanne and Veils and his overall unfamiliarity with this place, Jack has a tough time catching anything, but manages to snag a few not-rabbits ("cannibalism" proclaimed the chat), and the evil geese-worms ("cursed. Thanks I hate it" whined the chat).

>Amid the gunfire and Veils... everything, another curator descends upon the scene. Much chubbier than Veils, with small folded ears, and a very stony expression. Its holding a much much smaller Curator with long rabbitlike ears and horns similar to Jack's antlers.

>Jack drops everything (mostly a half dead... something his teeth were in) to go and greet the pair of them. As he gets closer it's clear to all that even though the smaller bunny-like Curator is obviously a baby, that she is nearly the size of an average human adult. Curators are absurdly huge but Jack doesn't seem to mind. He greets them both with kisses and hugs, introducing them to the stream as Mr Stones and Galena. Galena is the obvious offspring of Jack and Stones, several people make rude remarks about Jack's apparent sluttiness and get banned on the SPOT. Stones wraps a wing around Jack and licks his face.

>Veils sings taunts from high on the winds, betting Stones that it can't out-hunt it this night. Stones merely huffs and tells Galena "Watch and learn." Before hauling its powerful body into the cold sky. What happens next is nothing short of amazing and a little humiliating on Veils end. Stones sails through the asteroids with grace and speed, plucking bobbit geese from their holes with practiced ease, fleeing scalebuns run right into its opened jaws and blind deer meet their ends before Stones even hauls their bodies off the ground.

>It's anything but gory, it's clean, efficient, magnificent and Jack just sort o f stands there, watching. It's clear he's given up on catching anything else tonight, so he might as well sit back and learn from a master. Galena watches too, babbling excitedly in Correspondence, flapping her leathery wings. Soon the fun is over and everyone is dragging their numerous kills into piles to further show off their prowess.

>And then a curious thing starts to happen. The Curators start to sing. Well, Veils sings, Stones raps surprisingly well with its monotone voice. Both spit lyrical disses tearing each other's hunting skills apart line by line. It's beautiful, it's BRUTAL. Jack mentions that normally he'd join in but with a pile as small as his it'd be a fools errand, but somehow he gets drawn into it anyway. His melodies swoop high, combined with echoing tones produced by glittering crystal shards made by his magic. As he predicted he gets lyrically evicerated by the others. Even Jeanne gets in on it, her voice is as pretty as the reset of her and She Does Not mince words.

>By the end everyone is grinning, packing up their kills to take home. Jack carries both his AND Jeanne's catches in his chest space, leaving the chat to wonder just how much room he has in that thing. Stones gives Jack a few parting licks before scooping up Galena and heading back to the ranch house, Veils leaves with something small and fluffy clenched in its teeth.

>The stream ends with Jack trying to tetris everything he and his wife have caught into his concerningly large meat freezers. He promises an update on the plants soon and signs off by blowing a kiss to himself, and therefor the stream in a bathroom mirror.

[pirunika]

i was hesitant to read this series but i started and its quickly becoming my favourite

[thestonelady]

And now part two :

[romance-club-daily]

Character’s Profile ~Manta

"I usually seduce mortals and never the other way around."

Book: Sails in The Fog

When meeting the MC he comes off as flirty and seductive towards the her. She will have multiple chances to seduce him and vice versa for him since it is only a dream.

Interesting fact:

Observing people from the shadows, he sometimes notices a person with great potential. Then he clings to such a person, sending them trials and troubles one after another, until the human gives up, disappointing the dark spirit, or, on the contrary, gains moral strength, obtaining the power to become something more, having achieved success in life and fulfilling the purpose. So, if everything in your life goes awry, then perhaps Manta is preparing you for great accomplishments”.

Posted by Romance Club Game on Facebook

Additional and more detailed info on the Wiki | Manta

RC Character's Profile Masterlist

[fallen-gravity]

Somebody Worthy of Being Saved

Fandom: Moana

Category: Gen

Relationships: Moana & Tala, Moana & Maui

Word Count: 2,767

Summary: A selfish trickster. That's all Tala's ever thought of Maui, because that's all she's ever seen him be. He stole the Heart of Te Fiti, he locked Moana in a cavern in an attempt to steal her boat, and he abandoned her to the sea when she needed him most.

But what she doesn't know about Maui is that he's got a soft side. That he actually, truly does care for Moana, and that he's willing to go out of his way if it means that she gets to be happy. And as someone who's only grown up with stories depicting Maui as malicious, as someone who cares for nobody but himself, it's pretty shocking to Tala when she witnesses this softer side of Maui with her own two eyes.

Notes: I was talking to @peri-plum160 on Tumblr, and we were talking about the possibility of the stories of Maui's good side being lost to history just as voyaging once was. Humanity got angry at him for taking that away from him, and any stories of him doing good for humanity, or any version of the story of Te Fiti where he was a selfless hero rather than a selfish trickster dissipated into thin air.

Because of that, any sign of Maui being a legitamtely caring person would seem invsisble to those who don't know him personally. And we both thought it wouldn't be fair if Tala never got to see that caring side to him at all.

Even in the afterlife, she is known as the Village Crazy Lady. Whether the nickname followed her into the afterlife, or if her fellow spirits truly believe she’s out of her mind, Tala’s not completely sure, but she would be less surprised finding out it were the latter than the former.

Because just as the people in Motunui did, almost nobody believes what she has to say. On Motunui, nobody believed that the ocean spoke to her. That it called to her, just as it called to her son, and to her granddaughter Moana. Here in the afterworld, nobody seems to believe what she says about Moana. The story of Te Fiti’s heart, they believed instantly. They saw the mother island come back to life with their own two eyes. But what they don’t believe is when she says she always knows how her granddaughter is feeling. But if she didn’t know she was in distress, Tala had quipped with a wide smirk across her face, then how could she have known to visit her the moment Moana started doubting herself?

But they just brushed off her remark, and claimed she knew when to visit her because she just happened to be watching over her when she needed help, and they explained her appearance on Moana’s boat with convenient timing at best. But they’re wrong, because if there’s one thing Tala knows best, that would be her granddaughter.

Even when Moana was very young, she couldn’t sneak anything past her grandmother. Every time she snuck down to the beach, and every time Tui followed her to drag her back to the village, Moana tried to put on a smile for her father to prove to him that she could handle being Chief, that she wasn’t going to run off again, but it was only Tala who could see her smile falter, and the way she bounced back and forth on her feet when she promised her father she would stay still.

And to no surprise of Tala’s own, it wasn’t long before Moana started coming to her when she was upset. Why can’t we go past the reef? What’s out there? Why is Tui so afraid of leaving?

Very early on, Tala would skip over the gruesome details of Tui’s friend to save the young girl the nightmares and out of fear of lessening the call to the ocean her granddaughter felt so strongly, but as Moana got older and her call grew stronger and stronger she would be more willing to open up about why Tui didn’t want his people to cross the reef.

And Sina may have been the one who ended up telling Moana about Tui’s friend, which may be what Tui claims to be the reason none of his people were allowed to cross the reef, but Tala knew better.

Maui.

It was all Maui’s fault. When he selfishly ripped Te Fiti’s heart out of her chest, a fatal darkness began falling over the island, and sea monsters began popping up in the water like flowers, attacking every boat that came even half a kilometer within their territory. It’s all Maui’s fault their people stopped voyaging, and he didn’t care one bit. He stole the heart for himself, despite his already immortal status that would render the stone useless to him. Nobody knows for sure why he stole the heart, but Tala wouldn’t be surprised in the least if it was only so nobody else could have it.

A selfish trickster. That’s all Maui’s ever been, and that’s all he’ll ever be.

Because although she was not with Moana directly, Tala was with her in spirit for the entire trip to Te Fiti, and even with Moana’s first meeting with the demigod he was nothing but selfish. Tala had been half-joking when she suggested that Moana drag him to Te Fiti by the ear, but he spent so much time talking about himself, and yanking Moana’s oar out of her hand, that Tala almost felt pleased with herself when Moana actually whacked him in the stomach and yanked him down by the ear to force him to listen to her.

Which, despite the authority and confidence in Moana’s voice as she yelled at him, it did nothing to deter the demigod. Instead, in attempt to murder Moana, he locked her in a cavern and took off in her canoe.

And even after Moana escaped, he was nothing but rude to her. When the Kakamora surrounded them, he yelled at her when she brought up a suggestion he found useless. He simply glared at her when she revealed to him that she had no wayfinding skill of her own. When Moana’s pet chicken swallowed the heart, he did nothing to help her retrieve it back. And when she excitedly asked him to teach her how to sail, he simply scoffed in her face.

And as far as Tala was concerned, Maui was incapable of change.

But Moana must have seen more in him than she did, because she acted very differently towards him after she and Maui escaped Lalotai. Because Lalotai also functions as the underworld, Tala was unable to watch over her granddaughter while she was down there, and she scoffed at herself when she eventually had to give up on trying and hoping the demigod would be enough to look after her in her place.

When they escaped, Maui was limping, using half of his strength to use his newly-retrieved hook as a walking stick and the other to rely on Moana. At a glimpse Tala was convinced he was trying to belittle her, and make her feel smaller than him, but at a second, more careful glance she saw that Moana actually had an arm going around his shoulder to help him stand up straight.

And as far as Moana was concerned, he was capable of change. Because after that fateful trip down in Lalotai, the demigod softened up. No longer did he yell, or roll his eyes at her when she wasn’t looking. Only once did he knock her off of the boat again, but even Tala could see the regret on his expression after he did so, and afterwards when the ocean placed her back on her boat Moana and Maui spoke in soft voices for the rest of the night.

And Tala was almost ready to believe Maui was capable of change after all. Because after that night, he and Moana worked together like they’d known each other their entire lives. Moana trusted the demigod, and it was clear that he trusted her as well. Now, when she turned her back to him, Maui would smile at her as opposed to rolling her eyes. When she made a joke, or simply did something he found amusing, he would genuinely laugh instead of scoffing in her face.

And when he taught her to wayfind, it was on her own terms. She didn’t even need to ask.

Whatever had happened in Lalotai, and whatever Moana had said to him on the night they spoke in hushed voices, it worked well enough to convince even Tala that everything was going to be okay.

Until they faced Te Kā for the first time. For the first time in weeks, the two of them got into an argument. Moana was convinced their boat could make it through a large crack in the barrier islands, and Maui was convinced that trying to sneak through would get them killed. His hook cracked when he was blocking an attack from Te Kā, and it was about when he started blaming Moana for what happened did Tala realize she had been right all along.

Maui is incapable of change, and cares for nobody but himself.

And when he took off in the middle of the night to leave Moana to fend for herself, that’s when Tala swooped in and took over for him. Because Moana didn’t need him. Forget about him, because he cares for nobody, she wanted to say, but kept her mouth shut for her granddaughter’s sake. Moana really did seem to grow to care for the demigod, and the last thing Tala wanted to do was to hurt her. So instead she convinced her she could do things herself, and that nothing should be able to stop her, and she sailed off with the heart clenched in her fist determined to save the world herself.

It’s later, much later, when Moana tells her herself that Maui came back. He sacrificed his hook to save her life, and had Moana not discovered the location of the spiral when she did, he wouldn’t have hesitated to sacrifice his own life.

And when Moana goes on to explain his new tattoo, that’s when Tala is truly convinced that there may be some good in Maui after all.

Just not very much.

--

It’s a little under a year after Te Fiti is restored when Tala feels Moana’s deep distress again. She’s in a similar setting, out in her canoe in the middle of the ocean, and her sail is closed. The only significant difference between this time and the time she visited Moana just outside of Te Fiti is that this time she’s in broad daylight rather than a murky nighttime fog. Moana’s sitting at the edge of the canoe, feet dangling in the water.

With no demigod in sight.

So it’s with a frustrated sigh that Tala manifests her manta ray form and swims around Moana’s canoe in a large circle. One of the downsides of visiting Moana in the daylight, however, is that the sun’s bright light makes both her ray form and her spirit form hard to see. So even when Tala is sitting on the edge of Moana’s canoe with her legs crossed, Moana does not turn around.

Tala rolls her eyes in amusement, and she’s about to clear her throat to catch Moana’s attention, but a loud hawk’s screech from the sky interrupts her before she can. Moana looks towards the sky at the same time Tala does, and when the hawk spots her it dives down towards her canoe and takes the form of a man just before it reaches the deck. Although his back is turned to her, Tala instantly recognizes Maui when he sees him.

“Moana!” he says, and his voice is cheery. It’s so unfitting to the situation Tala’s almost considering asking him to leave and come back at a better time. “There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you”.

“You have?” Moana responds, but it’s a half-response, one that usually means that Moana’s not in the mood for talking.

“Course I have!” he replies. “I went to Motunui looking for you and I couldn’t find you anywhere. I asked your parents where you were, and you wanna know what they said?” he asks, almost laughing, and takes a few steps closer to her. But then he stop mid-step, and frowns, dropping his hook down to his side, like he can tell even without seeing her face that something is bothering her. “Are-are you okay?”

Moana’s shoulders tense, but they relax just as quickly, and she’s laughing as she turns to him, wiping at her eyes with her wrist. “Is it that obvious that I’m not?” she asks, and pats at the ground next to her, and much to Tala’s surprise he doesn’t hesitate for even half a second before he sits down beside her.

“You’re sitting out here in the middle of the ocean and your parents have no idea where you are?” Maui says, and rolls his eyes. “I don’t think you could be more obvious about it if you tried, Chosen One”.

It’s enough to make Moana snort, and Maui smiles inadvertently before his expression softens. “Seriously, Moana, what’s wrong?” he asks, and Moana sighs and plants her head against his arm. He lifts it up for her, and when she plants her head against his side he drapes his arm around her.

“I don’t know” she says, and scrubs her hands down her face. “I’ve just been incredibly stressed lately. Ever since I got back from Te Fiti, all I’ve been doing is catching up on training to become Chief, right? And it’s just been so much work trying to get all of the boats in the cavern up and running again as well as attending to the village along with preparing for the official ceremony, which only means more work, and less sleep, and it’s just been so much that it’s just messing with my head”. Moana shakes her head. “And it’s gotten me thinking. My dad does this kind of work every day and he’s fine. He never seems to need a break, or to stop moving, and he’s always doing twice what I’ve done today without blinking an eye”. She pauses. “Everyone thinks he’s a great Chief. What if...What if I can’t live up to that? If just preparing to be Chief stresses me out, what kind of Chief will that make me in the future?” she asks. “Not a very good one, that’s what”.

For a long moment, Maui is silent, and Tala’s almost ready to step in for him. Because this is clearly a subject Maui doesn’t know much about, and one Tala knows everything about. Of course Moana’s going to be a great Chief, she’s going to be the best Chief there ever was, and she’s not going to let Moana convince herself she isn’t because Maui’s unable to convince her otherwise himself.

But just as Tala goes to stand up, she sees Maui’s grip on Moana’s arm tighten, and he tugs her closer to him. “Don’t ever speak like that again, Moana, okay? I never want to hear those words coming out of your mouth again” he tells her, and though his voice is firm there’s definitely something soft to it as well.

“But…” she starts, and Maui shakes his head sharply.

“I don’t want to hear you say those words again. Do you want to know why? Because you’re wrong. You couldn’t be further from the truth if you tried” Maui starts, and rubs at her back gently as he pulls her closer to him still.  

“You’re gonna do amazing, Moana, trust me.” he shakes his head. “You traveled across the sea. You stormed through Lalotai without a second thought. You brought a goddess to her knees with nothing but your own words” he smiles at her. “If that doesn’t sound like a great Chief, like the greatest Chief there ever was, I don’t know what does. You’re gonna do great, Moana” he smiles, and leans his head against hers. “They’re gonna love having you as Chief” he finishes, and Moana responds by turning and throwing her arms around him in a hug.

“Alright, alright, you’re right” she says, and smiles up at him. “Thank you, Maui” she says, and he laughs as he winds his arms around her to hug her back.

“Yeah, well, you’re welcome, Moana” he grins, and she giggles as she leans her head over to rest it against him.

And all Tala can do is sit and watch in shock.

Because everything she’s ever known of Maui, everything she’s ever been told, he just proved wrong in front of her very eyes.

As a young girl, Tala was told he never cared about anyone. All he did he did for himself, and that he couldn’t care less about how his actions affected others. But here he is, less than fifteen away from her, cradling Moana lovingly in his arms, still speaking in a hushed voice, running his hands through his hair.

And it’s after she died that Tala learned what Moana and Maui spoke about in hushed whispers the night after they escaped from Lalotai. When Maui was just an infant, his mother tossed him into the sea because she didn’t want him. The ocean, having seen what his mother did, deposited him on the lap of the Gods because it saw someone who was worthy of being saved. One look, and the Gods could see he was destined for greatness.

And early on, Tala had almost wanted to laugh at the story, believing it to be a joke. But now that she’s seen the other side of him Moana raved about to her the first time she saw her again after Te Fiti, to see how much he cares for her granddaughter, Tala realizes that the ocean was right.

That he truly is somebody worthy of being saved.

[exoticlifestyles-blog1]

PLACES TO VISIT IN NEW SOUTH WALES

New South Wales is full of exotic destinations and has loads of fun things to do. It is geographically the most diverse state in Australia. Explore the amazing range of stunning places to visit in New South Wales. To know more about a holiday in New South Wales, simply visit Exotic Lifestyles. Sydney Sydney, marvellously hung around its brilliant harbour and shorelines, has visual wow factor like couple of different urban areas. It is also called as harbour city. Sydney Air Port is well connected with worldwide global hub. From Air Port it takes hardly 20 minutes by taxi or by railway to reach Sydney city. Regional train and coach services depart from central station to many destinations around NSW. Sydney is famous for the following and you must not miss any one.

1 Sydney Opera House.

2 Sydney Harbour Bridge.

3 Bondi Beach.

4 Secret Harbour Beaches.

5 Byron Bay. (Avail domestic flight from Sydney to Ballina Air Port).

6 Cultural Events like visits to museums, art galleries, theatres, cinemas and monuments of historical importance.

7 Sophisticated dinning at grand hotels, restaurants and eateries.

8 Discover inner city neighbourhood of ports and Surry Hills.

9 See the life and events at beaches like water sports, surfing, yachting etc.

10 Taronga Zooand Wild Life Sydney Zoo.

Sydney, the capital of New South Wales and one of Australia's biggest urban areas, is best known for its harbour front Sydney Opera House, with an unmistakable sail-like plan. Gigantic Darling Harbour and the littler Circular Quay port are centre points of waterside life. There is angled Harbour Bridge and Royal Botanic Garden close-by. Sydney Tower is open air stage and the Skywalk offers 360-degree perspectives of the city and rural areas.

Sydney Aquarium, Taronga Zoo and Wildlife Sydney Zoo protect creatures like koalas, kangaroos, sharks and snakes. Pyrmont Sydney Fish Market is the largest working fish market in southern hemisphere. It is the home of Australia's best sea food. It has a working fish closeout and eateries serving the day's catch. There are multicultural eating openings everywhere throughout the city, incorporating into Haymarket's Chinatown and the eateries serving the Italian people group in Leichhardt. A ship ride through the harbour is a piece of the involvement in visiting external Sydney goals like Bondi and Manly Beaches - both prominent for surfing. This seems to be the best and economical way to explore.

Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains are mountainous region and mountain ranges are located in NSW. The region boarders Sydney's metropolitan area. Geologically it is situated in Sydney basin. The Greater Blue Mountains Area has been listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO in the year 2000. Blue Mountains area includes theGovernment area of city of Blue Mountains. The hotels, guest houses and lodges have been spread on Blue Mountains. These ranges are rugged and were earlier considered as impassable.

The following are the tourists attractions:-

1 The edge cinema offers the tourists the panoramic view of Blue Mountains.

2 The giant stairways walking track which runs down a cliff into Jamison Valley near Three Sisters, a rock formation each above 900 metres. This site is 50 kilometres North West of Sydney. The giant stairway is made of 800 steps of steel &stone.The Tourists can take approximately 2 hours to climb but can return by railway which Descends 415 metres thru sand stone cliffs via a rock tunnel. Return by cable car.

3 The Toy And Railway Museum at Leura.

4 Valley Height Locomotive Depot -A Heritage Museum

5 Katoomba Scenic Railway which is used for tourists but originally it was part of Katoomba mining tramways.

The popular way to visit Blue Mountain is by coach.

The Blue Mountains is an Australian feature. The slate-hued fog that gives the mountains their name originates from a fine fog of oil oozed by the colossal eucalypts that frame a thick shade over the scene of profound, regularly out of reach valleys and etched sandstone outcrops. It is known as emotional landscape and it envelops soak bluffs, eucalyptus woods, cascades and towns specked with guesthouses.Katoomba, a noteworthy town in the territory which fringes Blue Mountains National Park and its bushwalking trails. Different towns incorporate Leura, known for its greenery enclosures and chic vibe. The site of the Corridor of Oakswere planted by progressive Australian Prime Ministers. Regular attractions in the territory extend from layered Wentworth Falls to the enlightened Jenolan Caves, loaded up with stalactites, stalagmites and underground streams. The Blue Mountains - named for the eucalyptus cloudiness over them - additionally envelop Wollemi National Park, known for its wild waterways and uncommon Wollemi pine. The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden at Mt. Tomah highlights a case of this tree alongside a few outlandish animal varieties. Blue Moutains is a home for atleast 400 species of animals and a good source for hunting.

Byron Bay

Byron Bay is a beach front town in the south eastern Australian territory of New South Wales. It's a mainstream occasion goal, known for its shorelines, surfing and scuba jumping destinations. Cape Byron State Conservation Park is on a headland with a beacon. Among June and November, humpback whales can be spotted from headland perspectives, for example, the Captain Cook Lookout.

A string of sandy shorelines extends both north and south of the headland. Fundamental Beach is prominent for swimming and swimming. Clarkes Beach has positive conditions for water sports and figuring out how to surf. There are outstanding surf breaks at The Wreck, The Pass, Wategos Beach and Cozy Corner. Manta beams and ocean turtles can be found in their regular territory at the Julian Rocks Marine Reserve. Experience organizations offer skydiving, tourist ballooning, gyrocopter, bushwalking and hang skimming trips. Around the local area, Jonson Street is a famous nightlife region with shops, eateries and bars.

Hunter Valley

The Hunter Valley, north of Sydney in New South Wales, is one of Australia's significant wine locales, with a social history going back to the mid 1800s. Referred to for varietals, for example, Semillon and Shiraz. It is home to various wineries, including widely acclaimed brands and family-run boutique activities. Most are found in south of the Hunter River and offer basement entryway wine samplings and vineyard visits.

[epcot2032]

Welcome to The Seas! The first thing that should be noticeable is the general aesthetic of the pavilion. The focus on Pixar characters has been greatly reduced, with a renewed emphasis on science in their place. Here is an overview of the pavilion.

The Seacab ride has been completely reworked. Turtle Talk with Crush remains in its same location. There is an expanded observation area with interactive displays. Perhaps most noticeably, the Coral Reef Restaurant is no more. This area will be repurposed as a research facility and will house the first portion of the new "Behind the Seas Tour." Additional expansion space is located in the northwestern portion of the pavilion. This is where the new Viking Voyage boat ride will be built. Journey to Seabase Alpha: As you enter the pavilion, the first portion of the queue is dedicated to famous explorers of the ocean and its biology. James Cook, Jacques Cousteau, Charles Darwin, Sylvia Earle, Vagn Ekman, and Mary Oceaneer all have busts paying tribute to them. From there, we enter a narrow, dimly lit tunnel, the sounds of the oceans beckoning us to continue our journey forward. At the end of the tunnel, we come to the final portion of the queue, a large lockout chamber. The Seacabs now come into view; round, translucent, open-top spheres that shall carry us during our journey to Seabase Alpha. The first scene we come upon is the formation of our planet. Volcanoes erupt spewing lava and steam, meteors fall from the sky, a black haze covers the horizon. We are then blanketed by a dense fog. Rain cascades down all around us. Lightning flashes and thunder claps. The cloud cover gives way to a fast flowing river. Early forms of sea-life can be seen just beneath the surface. After crossing the river, we come across a small lake. Forging onward, we realize that we are surrounded by Norse, Greek, and Mayan deities. Ran, the Norse sea goddess of death warns us not to venture forward, for doom awaits us. Ignoring her pleas, we move on, entering a dark tunnel. A brisk wind swirls around us. The sound of a tidal wave looms closer and closer until it seems to crash directly overhead, and water splashes over our us. Will we survive?! Finally, the storm calms, and we find ourselves in the midst of a shipwreck. An eerie calm takes over. The sound of a waterfall can be heard in the distance, getting closer and closer. We traverse directly under it, and suddenly, we seem to be in an entirely different world. All around us are various sea creatures; sponges, anemones, giant eels, and the glowing eyes of something perhaps more ominous. Pressing onward we come across schools of fish, towering ropes of seaweed, and massive crustaceans that pop in and out of hiding places. Rounding a bend, we are caught completely by surprise as a giant prehistoric shark lunges out at us, narrowly missing our vehicle. Further ahead, a vast whale swims peacefully and enormous jellyfish bob up and down. A door opens, and we are surrounded by the Seabase Alpha main tank. Sharks, manta rays, and dozens of species of other fish swim by. A sense of relief comes over us, as we have survived our treacherous journey, and may now proceed to observe the animals from a safe distance! (NOTE: Once again, I will eventually create visuals for each of these scenes, but for now, I only have the overview). Departing from our Seacabs, we have a number of options to further experience the pavilion. On the ground level are a number of smaller viewing areas complete with interactive touch screen displays that offer an endless bounty of information about all the different species to be found in the environment. Additionally, the Turtle Talk with Crush attraction will appeal to kids of all ages. It’s totally sweet! On the upper level is the Manatee Encounter. EPCOT scientists are here throughout the day to educate guests about manatees and their habitat. Two additional attractions will be added to the pavilion over the next few years. The first to be available will be the Behind the Seas Tour. Here, guests can get a first hand look at some of the day-to-day operations that take place at the pavilion. We’ll learn what all the animals eat, how much they eat, how the tank is cleaned, why each species was chosen for the environment, and learn all about EPCOT’s wildlife preservation efforts. The second attraction to be added will be the Viking Voyage. A spiritual successor to Malestrom, guests will board a boat and set sail on a four story dark ride along the North Sea. Featuring multiple lifts and small drops, this attraction will pack a thrill for the entire family! There will also be no shortage of retail options. Shirts, hats, bags, keychains, pins, and plenty of toys featuring the characters from Finding Nemo and Finding Dory are available. We hope you have enjoyed your time exploring The Seas. Please visit us again soon, and enjoy the rest of your day at EPCOT Discovery Center!