#so somewhere in there Mudlark happened!

[totally-not-an-awkward-okapi]

“What is your relationship to Basil Karlo?”

“What’s your relationship like with your father?”

“Basil Karlo is your father?”

“No. I was just curious.”

[copperbadge]

Thanks for sharing! I prefer traveling solo for the same reasons you do! :) Do you happen to know any websites or tricks for doing it cheaply? All the budget traveling sites I see package their deals per person based on double occupancy rooms as the default, so being a single traveler typically doubles the price. :/ Hope you have yourself an awesome trip!

Well, I started traveling on my own before the bulk of the internet existed, so I've always just homebrewed it. I don't think I've ever done a package tour. I know people who have, and really enjoyed it as a struggle-free way to see the world, but I tend to have specific and unusual goals. I do know that there is a whole culture of couchsurfing -- I knew someone who belonged to a couchsurfing website and traveled Europe that way for very cheap -- but I've never investigated it.

Usually when I'm going somewhere I have an idea of something I want to see, so that's where I start -- where's the zoo/museum/restaurant I want to visit? Can I stay near there cheaply? If not, where can I stay within transit access? Once I have housing sorted I look at what else is around where I'm staying and the places I already want to go, and I build an agenda from there.

The only site I use for direct tourism research (as opposed to like, Google Maps or local transit sites) is Atlas Obscura, which has an index by region of cool stuff to do. I look at Atlas Obscura to see if there's anything I shouldn't miss, and I also often google stuff like "[region] local foods" or "[region] art museums" or whatnot. Because I don't like driving, I study public transit in the area using Maps, although lately I don't worry as much about that as long as the area I'm traveling to has cabs/rideshare.

The first time I visited Boston, when I was 19, I had heard about the Great Molasses Flood, and I'd read that the best place to see where it happened is from Copp's Hill Burial Ground on top of a hill in the North End. That also sounded cool, and I scheduled a day to start at Copp's Hill and follow the Freedom Trail south afterward (this also ultimately involved me nearly getting arrested for breaking into a cemetery, but I got away). Following the Freedom Trail led me to some unexpected sights too, like the Holocaust Memorial north of Fanieul Hall. I derailed a portion of my morning to explore that, which was fine, I didn't really need to see the entire Freedom Trail and I picked it back up again later.

So for me solo travel is equal parts "Well, I know what I want to see" and the serendipity of discovery. There are a couple of days on the Europe trip where I have at least some free time for resting or rambling as I see fit. Meanwhile, I'm going in search of weird old bakeries and crepes and frites and Carciofi alla Giudia and the random Irish pub in Rome and an occult bookstore Neil Gaiman recommended near the British Museum -- but who knows what I'm actually going to find?

(Hopefully treasure. I'm going mudlarking on the Thames one morning.)

[serenanymph]

15 questions tag

Tagged by the lovely @macabremoons! Since I already answered this for Crys, I'm going to answer for Icarus this time.

Are you named after anyone? Nope, but he did choose his last name - Kal-Nira - after his moms, Kali and Nira. Beasts generally don't have last names, but he wanted something to remember them by.

When was the last time you cried? Hmm. He's actually pretty emotional and open about his feelings, so quite recently. If we're talking the last time he cried in the wip uh... yeah that's a spoiler.

Do you have kids? He's 17, so no, but he loves playing with the kids in the Grove.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Very rarely, and only when bantering but never as a means of insulting someone. He's simply too nice for that.

What’s the first thing you notice about people? Threat levels, because you learn to be cautious when you're a Beast and the world is against you. He also tends to see the best in people, though, so besides that it would be positive qualities - and oh, their expressions and how they're feeling, due to his high empathy.

What’s your eye color? I'd describe it as onyx or obsidian if I wanted to be fancy, but honestly it's just. Plain black.

Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings, without question.

Any special talents? Not particularly (because I haven't figured it out yet shhhhhh-), but if he did have any it would probably be something odd and largely insignificant, like a random skill that would make for a good party trick (sorry, Ink).

Where were you born? A hidden Beast village, somewhere close to where Kosei's Border was at the time. Possibly in the New Territory? But then Kosei got pushed back and the war swept down south towards them, and, well. You can guess what happened.

What are your hobbies? Genuinely he has like. So many. He's just super curious and interested in everything, so he's picked up a bunch of stuff over the years - mudlarking, woodwork, paper folding, knitting, cooking (but he tends to burn stuff in the kitchen), etc etc. He also reads a lot of human books trying to understand their culture, but the anti-Beast sentiments get pretty tiring after a while so he steers clear of mythology/religious books.

Have you any pets? Nope, but he is fond of cats (though they keep on trying to eat him when he's in bird-form).

What sports do you play/have played? Does swordfighting and flying count?

How tall are you? About 175-180cm. A tall boi.

Favorite subject in school? He doesn't really have much of a preference, but he loves to learn new things in general. Magic theory's difficult though.

Dream job? He'd probably need to be eligible to apply for jobs first... (and, you know, not get attacked on sight due to being Beast and everything)

So uh whoops. This got a little too long.

Anyway @lyssa-ink @reneesbooks @kaiyo @loopyhoopywrites, tell me more about your characters *makes grabby hands* (though no pressure, of course!)

+ open tag for anyone who wants, as usual!

(blank questions under readmore)

Are you named after anyone?

When was the last time you cried?

Do you have kids?

Do you use sarcasm a lot?

What’s the first thing you notice about people?

What’s your eye color?

Scary movies or happy endings?

Any special talents?

Where were you born?

What are your hobbies?

Have you any pets?

What sports do you play/have played?

How tall are you?

Favorite subject in school?

Dream job?

[copperbadge]

Erlockho

@fhben gave to the successful fountain fundraiser and requested: Mitth'raw'nuruolock, or whatever the Sherlock Holmes / Grand Admiral Thrawn ship name might be.

Title: Erlockho

Rating: General

Notes: I had to save yours for last so I could research Admiral Thrawn. :D And from what I could glean, we haven’t yet seen him return to known space, so I did the most fun thing I could think of.  

Thrawn awoke confused and in pain, but whole and apparently somewhere safe. His last memory was of the purrgil wrapping him in its arms, holding him fast as it leapt him -- and Ezra Bridger -- and the Chimaera into hyperspace. He’d had a glimpse, fleeting and painful, of their destination, and for a second his spirits had lifted. They were returning to the Unknown Regions, closer to home. 

But traveling outside of Known Space was dangerous, and they had no navigator; he’d had barely a second to register a familiar starscape before a wormhole opened up, directly on top of them. The purrgil had screamed, he didn’t know what happened to Bridger, and the world had gone black.

Now he lay on a pallet in some small chamber, apparently recovered if not rescued; when he pushed himself fuzzily to his elbows, a human seated nearby leaned forward, startling him. 

“Good morning,” the man said, in a rough, slurring kind of Basic that he barely recognized. He must be either on the outer rim, or somewhere that hadn’t seen much Imperial attention in a long time. 

“Where am I?” he asked, rubbing his head. 

“London. Baker Street. I doubt you’re familiar,” the man said. “We don’t see many men with blue skin and red eyes, in this part of the country. You’re lucky one of my Irregulars found you while mudlarking on the Thames. I’m a collector of mysteries, and I fancy I’ll treat you kinder than the police.” 

Thrawn frowned. He didn’t know what Irregulars were, or mudlarking, or the Thames. Perhaps a nearby ship? 

“As to who you are, I hardly could say, except that you were born poor, have served as a career military officer, possess a taste and passion for the arts, and have subtly changed allegiance as an officer many times -- one would never call you political, but one may call you a military politician,” the man continued. “And, perhaps stating the obvious, you do not have your origins on this planet, Earth.”

Ah, planetside then. That was something, at least. 

“You’re a Jedi,” he ventured, uncertain how the man could otherwise know so much.

“I expect not, although I couldn’t say what that is. Just an observant man. I beg your pardon -- my name is Sher’lock’holmes.”

“I am Grand Admiral Thrawn.” 

“So I have deduced correctly,” Sher’lock’holmes said. “Do you know how you came here?”

“An accident, during combat.”

“Hm. Well, I have a habit of collecting soldiers as well as mysteries,” the man said with a tilt of his lips. “And being newly bereft of my last one, who has recently set up housekeeping elsewhere, it seems the universe has dropped another in my lap. How do you do.” 

The man reminded him of someone -- of Moff Tarkin, severe and precise, but without Tarkin’s air of chilly indifference. Sher’lock’holmes might see into one’s soul, but he’d at least hesitate before snapping your neck if he didn’t like what he saw there. Such a man could be useful, to a stranger on an unknown planet. 

“How do you do,” Thrawn echoed back to him. “Thank you for...preserving me.”

Sher’lock’holmes’s smile was warm. “I look forward to furthering our acquaintance. In the meantime, my landlady Mrs. Hudson has prepared some breakfast...”