#the hood is actually based off of those hats that where also scarfs | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ansu-gurleht · 5 years

Text

rules: what does your character keep on their person? bold for always, italic for sometimes. then, tag some mutuals!

tagging: @nerevar-shid-and-fard @orsinium @devilsworddante @ptsilenthill @sheobaby @ anybody else who wants to do this, i’m bad at this lol. [tagged by @akulorkhan. the edit-tag worked buddy!]

Ku-vastei

➳ BAG

➳ WEAPONS

➳ APPAREL

➳ HEALTH + MAGIC

➳ STEALTH

➳ TOOLS

➳ PROVISIONS

➳ PERSONAL

anything bold, (in parantheses), AND italicized is stuff i’ve personally added to this for clarification purposes. feel free to get rid of them if i tag you!

b/c i want to, im going to elaborate on this under the cut:

she has a backpack wrapped in a bandolier of potions, most homemade. the inside of the bag is....kind of a mess. she just throws things in and has to dig around when she needs something. (not fun when she needs the knife or needle. but that’s what restoration magic’s for, right? there’s no tetanus in nirn, right?) she keeps the shovel (more of a trowel really, mostly used for muck-ing about, hehe) fastened to her bag as well. on top she keeps her guar-hide sleeping bag, wrapped in kresh fiber.

on her hip she (currently) has a sparks-enchanted glass dagger she nabbed off the corpse of one of her first morag tong writs. she thinks. she doesn’t exactly remember where she got it, but she probably killed someone for it, and love it very much.

her primary weapon, however, is a conjured daedric spear. it’s very powerful, and she loves it. just a wave of her claws and it’s hers, ready to stab.

she wears minimal medium armor, just enough to conceal under her robes. right now, it’s an orcish cuirass and bonemold pauldrons. she has a scarf now, but only after having to brave the ashen wastes of molag amur for mage’s guild business, and then winding up almsivi-intervention-ing to ald-ruhn, where there was a helpful ash-scarf merchant. she brings it with her everywhere on this stupid island now. she’s got a belt just to secure her robes a bit, and a few magic rings.

one of those is the ring of khajiiti, which she got from doing a quest for mephala that she didn’t know she was doing, who it was for, or why. first guy she talks to in the morag tong base when she finds it says “go poison this guy’s food and don’t ask why.” so she did it without asking why, and when she came back, the morag tong guy said “mephala wants to talk to you now” and then she gave ku a magic ring. really nice magic ring, too.

as i said, her backback’s potion bandolier is chock full of useful little brews. restore health, magicka, fatigue, some cure blight disease, some dispel, levitation, etc. anything she might need that she might not (reliably) be able to cast a spell for. (she knows a levitate spell, but it’s really, really hard. she has one shot for it to work, and if it doesn’t, she’s out of magicka.)

she carries a mortar and pestle for on-the-go alchemy, and a lot of herbs and ingredients. she’s very disorganized, but at least she tries to keep those ingredients separated in pouches so as to avoid accidental reactions. she also keeps some of the marshmerrow + saltrice poultice she learned to make from her naheesh so long ago, for those times she doesn’t want to cast a spell or drink a health potion. if you apply it to a wound and wrap it up, it’ll heal, slowly but reliably.

she wants to get into enchanting, and so carries around a fair amount of petty soul gems, and a few lesser ones, and she knows a basic soul trap spell. but she’s constantly cursing herself because she always forgets to cast it, and ends up just killing the thing. she’s got a loose kwama forager, rat, cliffracer soul here and there, but she decided recently to stop carrying them around, because hist knows when she’ll actually use them for anything. still, she keeps some empty gems on her, just in case.

ku taught herself how to pick locks and disable minor traps long ago, when sneaking around the plantation to get or spread information, or to unlock armories to arm her revolt. now that she’s more magically inclined, she knows an ondusi’s spell, but always tries to pick it first, to try and keep the skill fresh.

she keeps a piece of charcoal to keep up with her journal and update her maps. even in her late 40s, she’s not completely literate, having been first a slave, then a revolutionary, then a prisoner. but she can read well enough to get by, and can even write in cyrodiilic enough to keep as detailed a journal as she can. (unfortunately, despite her ability to read cyrodiilic, it doesn’t do her much good in vvardenfell, since a lot of things seem to be written in daedric.)

she keeps needle and thread to sew up any damage to her robes, and to close particularly egregious wounds to maximize the effectiveness of healing magic done on them. she has a knife for utility purposes, generally gathering/processing ingredients such as plants or hides, as well as anything she doesn’t want to dirty her precious glass dagger for. and she keeps some kindling and corkbulb to start fires to keep her warm during the cold nights.

she always carries food and a slaughterfish-gut water bag whenever she’s on a trip for business. usually she eats salted slaughterfish, mudcrab meat, saltrice porridge, and scuttle. she also never turns down any tasty bugs she comes across. she boils her water (and cooks her porridge) in a small cast iron pot, and has a similarly sized pan for grilling meat. she keeps some sujamma on her, not for recreation, but in case she ever needs a bit of a pick-me-up.

as a child, she spent a lot of time with her khajiit friends, who always seemed to have a way to occasionally get a hold of moon sugar, despite the harsh punishment if a slave was caught with it. as a result, ku developed something of a sweet tooth, and occasionally like to treat herself to some.

she also carries extra food and water, just in case she ever runs into a situation where she needs to escort a slave to safety.

her money never seems to exceed about 3000 drakes, mostly due to having to bribe so many people for information, since she’s not always so good with words. now that she’s got a semi-stable job with the morag tong, though, this might change soon. and if she ever gets around to selling some of the junk she’s got holed away.

she keeps the journal and map she obtained from arille’s tradehouse in seyda neen in a front-pocket of her backpack, and tucks any books she finds interesting in her travels in the bottom of her backpack. currently, she is carrying one regularly: "a pilgrim’s path,” just in case she is close by to one of the shrines, or forgets what offering to leave.

she carries her sadrith mora hospitality papers, as well as her current morag tong writs, in a separate pocket from her journal and map. she’s also been collecting these strange, glowing, singing plants she keeps finding along the water with no discernible alchemical uses. she’s shown them to other alchemists, as well, but none of them knew anything about it. some, however, told her there was an alchemist in caldera who studies these plants. she has yet to visit caldera, though.

around her neck she carries a sentimental comfort item: a fire-proof twig from a hist tree (given to her by her naheesh, it is a small fragment of a branch that fell from a hist tree) bound tightly to a small pearl ku’s mother once found in the soil at the bottom of a marshmerrow paddy. both of these women are now long dead, lost either before or during her revolt. they’re all ku has left of them, and constant reminders of the futility of her actions as a young adult.

#tes #tesblr #teslore #argonian #morrowind #nerevarine #akulorkhan #nerevar-shid-and-fard #orsinium #devilsworddante #ptsilenthill #sheobaby

15 notes · View notes

81scorp · 4 years

Text

Constructive criticism: Fantastic Four

(Originally posted as an editorial on Deviantart Aug 3, 2015. It has not been changed from how I originally wrote it.)

In 1961 Martin Goodman, the editor of Marvel Comics (Which back then was called Atlas Comic.), called writer Stan Lee to tell him that their competition, DC Comics (Which was called National Comics back then.), had created a team of superheroes called the Justice League, and it was a big seller. "I want us to get on the bandwagon too. Cook me up a book which stars a whole team of heroes - and do it yesterday!" So. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created Fantastic Four, Marvel`s first Superhero team which not only sold great, but also introduced the idea of relatable superheroes. Plus: unlike most Superheroes they didn`t have secret identities. In 1986 Constantin Film acquired the film rights to Fantastic Four and a low budget movie was made by producer Roger Corman in 1994... only to never see the light of day. Except in the form of bootlegs. The movie was only made so that the company could keep the movie rights. Probably waiting for a time when special effects had improved so that it wouldn`t look stupid and they could do the source material justice. In 2005 a new Fantastic Four movie was made and unlike the previous one this one was released in the cinema. And it wasn`t that good. The CGI on Reed Richards didn`t look good, Ben Grimm`s rock-body looked very rubbery, Dr Doom`s motivation was copied from Norman Osborn`s from the Spider-man movies and it took the team till the third act to realize that they could use their powers for good. (Yes, there was that scene at the bridge, but after that their biggest priority, which took up an unnecessary large amount of time, was to get rid of their powers.) Unlike Phantom Menace and Transformers, revenge of the fallen I don`t feel that listing a few points is enough, I`d change most of the story. Here`s how it could have been better. At the beginning of the movie the four are already training and preparing for their journey into space. Their backgrounds and relationships to each other is revealed through dialogue and interactions. Reed and Sue has been in a relationship for at least six months and Reed is already kind of a celebrity in this world (kinda like Stephen Hawking) and he`s nicknamed "Mr Fantastic". He sees a science magazine with him on the cover and a headline that says: "Smartest man on earth?" It makes him think that under different circumstances it could have said "Smartest men on earth?" He tells his story to Johnny who has never heard it before. Reed had always been very intelligent for his age, the only one of his age that he felt was his intellectual equal was a guy he met at college: Victor Von Doom."Hold it." Johnny interrupts. "His name was actually `Doom`?" "Well, he was born in a european country, I think it was called Latveria. Maybe it`s a common name there that means something different in their language. Anyway..." He continues his story about how Victor was brilliant but also very hard to work with and eccentric. One day he did an experiment that literally blew up in his face. Reed doesn`t know what happened later. Some said that Doom died others that he was kicked out. Then comes the day. The four go out into space, Reed notices that he has miscalculated, they get bombarded with cosmic radiation and crashland on earth. They discover their powers, John thinks it`s cool, Sue and Reed are cautiously optimistic but they all feel sorry for Ben who got the worst part of the deal. A military team comes to get them, sees Ben, thinks he`s a monster, gets ready shoot him but the rest of four go: "No no! don`t shoot! he`s with us!" Reed is troubled by guilt and the four are driven home in silence. Back at the base the four are quarantined for a few days. Reed examines and tests their powers to make sure their condition doesn`t get any worse, and to see if there is a cure for Ben. Late one night Reed is up working hard, the radio is on in the background. The music is interrupted because of news: there has been an accident somewhere, many are injured. Reed stretches his arm to reach the radio so he can switch to another station because he`s too tired to listen to bad news. But then he stops himself, the reason he got into science is because he wanted to change the world for the better. If he turns the radio off now he`s no better than all those other people who turn a deaf ear to all the bad things in the world. With his powers he could actually do something. So he listens to the news. Somewhere in an Latverian town at night, three activists are running down the streets. They are caught by authorities. Cut to: a cell, the three activists are being interrogated by a man who talks to them in a kind, yet condescending way. They were protesting against their ruler and spreading propaganda against him. The man tells them that they can avoid punishment if they take back what they have said, they refuse. The ruler himself enters, a man in cloak and armor (because of the light and shadows we don`t see his face but from the sound of his voice we can guess that he`s wearing an iron mask). He gives them the chance to apologize to him in person, they still refuse. The ruler charges his glove and fires. Reed has managed to get his friends out for a walk in the nearest city in civilian clothes. Ben is fully clothed with hat, trenchcoat, scarf and everything but still feels like a freak on display. Reed has a special radio that allows him to hear 911-calls. A building is on fire near where they are. The four run to it and use their powers to help people. Ben is at first reluctant to get into the fire because he knows his clothes will burn and people will see his body, but he knows he can`t put that over human lives. The people are saved, the four are heroes, people see Ben`s body. Some react in fear, others don`t care (because he saved their lives), but Ben still doesn`t like being exposed. They get famous, TV wants to interview them, media calls them "The Fantastic Four", they move into the Baxter building, Sue designs their FF costumes Reed makes them out of unstable molecules, Johnny is OK with the media circus, Ben is not. He feels that Reed has been too distracted by the publicity and has abandoned his research. Ben never says it out loud but Sue can see it and talks to Reed who feels guilty and goes back to working on a cure for Ben. Then I figured there could be a montage of FF doing Superheroic stuff and Reed searching for Ben`s cure. Ben does all the Superhero stuff because he knows it`s the right thing to do (the needs of the many and all that), but he gets no joy from it. Near the end of the Montage we can see that the hooded ruler has been following their adventures on the news. After the montage Ben could have mixed feelings about his situation: sure, he`s helping people and making a difference, but he still has his body issues. He goes out late one evening to clear his head and meets Alicia Masters who makes him feel better about himself. That same night Reed has made great progress in his research, he should be able to reverse Ben`s condition within a few days. Things look good for Johnny too, he`s gotten the phone number of a hot girl he likes: Frankie Raye. The next day a ship lands on top of the Baxter building. The ship`s autopilot tells them to come aboard, it`s master has important things that he wishes to discuss with them. The FF suspect a trap but get on the ship which takes them to Latveria. The ship takes them to a castle where they are shown to a dining room and are soon introduced to their host: Dr Doom! Dr Doom removes the lower half of his mask to eat and we can see that at least half of the lower half of his face is scarred. He tells them what happened after the explosion at the university. He was kicked out, wandered the world, learned meditation in tibet, had an epiphany where he realized that he was the right man to rule the whole world, created his armor, returned to his birth country which was in a horrible state, made it better but also turned it into a dictatorship. He and Reed wants the same thing: to make the world a better place, he just thinks that Reed approaches it from the wrong angle: he only treats the symptoms and doesn`t go to the root of the problem. Doom uses his own country and the (real life) benevolent yugoslavian dictator Tito as examples of the positive sides of fascism. Doom wants the FF to assist him in uniting the countries of the world and create a Utopia. FF refuses, Doom locks them up in cells and starts preparing a trip to U.S.A. With them out of the way It`ll be easier for him to take over U.S.A and force his "benevolent" dictatorship on it. Doom: "At first they will resist, but in the long run, they will be grateful." FF breaks out of their cells, gets by the sequrity systems, fight a few guards and fights Doom who turns out to be a Doombot. (F.Y.I: The Doom they talked to in the dining room was the real Doom.) The real Doom is on one of three ships that has just lifted and are headed for U.S.A. The FF manages to get on board, fight a few robot guards, manages to take down the other two ships and fights Doom (for realz this time). The ship gets wrecked and falls. It is headed for a Latverian town but the FF manages to aim it at a nearby lake. The ship sinks, Reed wants to save Doom but can`t find him. FF escapes in an escape pod. Next day they celebrate in the Baxter building. Ben has brought Alicia as his date and Johnny has brought Frankie Raye as his. Reed tells Ben that he should be able to restore his humanity by the end of the week. Ben, who has learned to accept himself, respectfully declines. Reed then proposes to Sue, everybody is happy. Or?... Mid or post-credit scene: A group of Latverian citizens have gathered in a building. Now that Dr Doom has been de-throned they can turn Latveria into a democracy that respects human rights. Things can only get better from here. Cut to: the lake. Dr Doom walks out of the water and onto the shore. He has an apparatus in his armor that allows him to breathe underwater. He is alive and he is pissed. The end Not perfect but it`s the best I could come up with. It doesn`t have to be super faithful to the source material to be good, but the source material was the only better alternative I could think of. Thing: Mocap or practical? I could go either way. A practical suit wouldn`t be bad if it was a good practical suit. (They did it well in The neverending story which came out 1984.) and I wouldn`t mind Mocap if was good and the actor got to interact with the other actors at least half of the time. Characters Johnny should be a little bit smarter and mature than he was in the 2005 movie. He could be an adventure seeker and the funny guy. Ben could be a tragic figure that turns into an everyman who`s a bit of a loveable brawler and the funny guy. Almost like Johnny except he`s older and wiser. Sue could be the diplomat of the FF. When the team starts to fall apart she`s usually the glue that holds them together. She could also be the one who translates Reed`s technobabble to John and Ben (to the best of her abilities). Reed is the egghead of the group, but also leader, idealist and slightly asperger-ish. (Sometimes Sue has to translate subtle hints from others that Reed doesn`t always pick up.) Dr Doom is a megalomaniac who should be based on real life dictators, wants to rule the world and not some CEO who is pissed because Reed and friends messed up his face.

#marvel #movie #fantastic #four #constructive #criticism #editorial #81scorp

0 notes

quowreadspact · 7 years

Text

Breach 3.5

iThe rubber boots weren’t well insulated against the cold. It was fine at first, but the cold gradually seeped in. Or, perhaps, the warmth gradually seeped out. Unjustly snatched up from where they belonged, in the wrong environment, while I tried to figure out the fastest, tidiest way of getting rid of them.

Or maybe its bad karma. Though I don’t know if I’d risk frostbite by not wearing shoes...

They were a good metaphor for me, really. Or for me and Rose.

It said a lot that I was thinking in crazy, abstract metaphors like this. I was tired, wrung-out, and emotionally drained. Just as the warmth had seeped out of the boots, something had been leeched out of me, leaving me… not cold, but whatever was left behind when personality, identity and one’s position in the world were taken away.

Magic is dangerous Blake. Glamour, blood magic, those target your essence. Honestly those effects aren’t as bad as they could be. Yet. Will Blake continue the trend of Wildbow characters losing their minds? I mean, he is already sorta starting too. Too early to say though, so maybe not. But I feel like Pact will end on a darker note than Worm. And possibly Twig, though it hasn’t ended yet. I just get a darker vibe.

As I made my way across the city, my footsteps a little clunky in the inflexible, ill-fitting boots, I had a hood, but no hat, no gloves, and only the boots. The torso was the least important part of the body to keep warm, really, but even there, I had only the sweatshirt.

Parts of me ached, alternately from the cold and the recent transition back to becoming Blake Thorburn. I felt stiff, and I didn’t have much confidence that I’d be able to handle myself in a more serious situation. Couldn’t run that fast, wasn’t sure I could throw a punch, and I’d suffer more than any opponent would if I tried to buy time.

When a short, shadowy figure got in my way, all of that meant I was a little more concerned than I might usually be. Given that it was an Other, the usual added up to ‘pretty damn concerned’.

Fuck.

LEAVE BLAKE ALONE! Go home and drink something warm... cmon, how far are you from home? Do you have a mirror? Where is Rose?

I tensed as it drew closer.

“Dickswizzle,” I said, as I realized what it was.

It unceremoniously dumped a pile of stuff onto the sidewalk.

“Carefully!” I heard Rose. “Ugh, Too late.”

Dickswizzle stepped back and scratched at its dangling genitals, looking very unconcerned with Rose’s frustration.

I rummaged through the things. A scarf, a hat that passed for unisex, two pairs of gloves, June’s hatchet, Leonard’s bottle, one of the bike mirror pendants, and a pair of socks.

Oh. All my worries were unfounded. So he won’t freeze to death. He has a weapon and another magical thing. 2 things to keep Rose around. Ok I’m confident he can make it home safe now. Thanks Dicky-Wizzy.

“How did you lose your boots and jacket? You didn’t leave them behind, did you?”

“No,” I said. I looked at the tatter of glamour that still remained. “I think my glamour soaked into them and I lost them when I changed shape… I tore them up when I shed the glamour.”

“Inconvenient.”

“I didn’t even think about it,” I said, “Which, I suppose, was the problem.”

Damn Rose no faith in Blake huh. Gotta think even when exhausted, but that is super difficult. I don’t blame him. Blake did very well today.

“Speaking of problems, I’m starting to see how you can fall into a trap, dealing with goblins,” Rose said. “They’re so naturally unpleasant they make you unpleasant by association. You can’t deal with them without sounding like a vicious lunatic. No, Dickswizzle, you can’t wipe your ass with those pages. No, Dickswizzle, no vomiting or depositing any bodily fluids. Stop that, Dickswizzle, don’t shove that hourglass up your rear end. Fuck it, Dickswizzle, no fire. Listen to me, you little motherfucker, you can’t shove that wand up any orifices, understand? It was all I could do to keep from screaming, and that was in the span of five or six minutes.”

Up… orifices? His nose? There weren’t many that you could shove something up.

I didn’t ask. I didn’t want Rose to tell me it wasn’t the nose.

Oh cmon Blake you know he means his asshole. Don’t lie to yourself. I’m sure you will see grosser more sickening things later.

I was too focused on that to think before I asked, “Why was he shoving things up places? He was supposed to destroy the books and implements.”

“He did. He’d get something lodged in, then break it in half. I’m really not keen to replay the scene in my head.”

I let the image appear in my mind’s eye, despite myself. Damn it.

WHY

WHY WHY

“You got away without being seen?”

“Yeah. She might have heard me, but she came downstairs, and Dickswizzle scampered off. I left.”

I nodded.

“I still don’t feel so happy about it.”

“I know,” I said. “But she did take part in trying to ruin us and kill me.”

“Leanne didn’t do anything, and you betrayed her and invaded her home, where she’s supposed to be safe.”

“I know,” I said, again. “But if I can get roped into this because I’m of Thorburn blood, maybe Leanne falls into the same purview. I don’t know. As far as I know, we don’t have a way of measuring that karma in concrete terms. It’s something to read up on.”

“Noted,” Rose said.

Yeah it was pretty risky. Your karma is so shit that it barely matters though, to be fair.

I nodded. “We need to get you a servant. Something better than a goblin. A homonculus, a bound Other, or something, so you can do more in this world.”

“So I can back you up?” Rose asked.

“That’d be nice,” I said. “But I was thinking more like, well, it’s the only damn thing I can think of that would convey how goddamn thankful I am right this second. For these clothes, for the sentiment, all that. And I don’t like leaving debts unpaid, even before all the rest of this got started.”

I mean nice sentiment but you’re both keeping each other alive it should be expected and not really a debt. But she does need a servant, that I agree with.

“I’m worn out,” I admitted. “As bad as I was after spending my blood. Maybe worse.”

“Erosion of self via. glamour,” Rose said. “Imagine pouring water over a rock. It seems into the cracks, the rough bits, and the pores, covering it. It changes states, from water to mist to ice and back to water again. It expands or contracts, shifts and generates friction…”

“And I changed states a few times,” I said.

“Tear away the ice while it’s set deep into the rock, you might take away some rock with it, or see some bits splinter off. And when that rock isn’t very sturdy to begin with…”

“I’d rather say the rock’s integrity has been weakened by recent abuse,” I said.

“We can say that,” Rose agreed.

This conversation doesn’t bode well for Blake’s future mental state. Crack theory: Blake loses his mind so Rose takes over permanently. And Blake is ok with that.

“Did it work?” Rose asked. “Getting into Laird’s house?”

“I think so. They said the ritual was interrupted. They’re having another gathering in a week… which leaves me the task of figuring out how to fuck with that plan.”

“Leaves us. I’m on your side here, Blake.”

“Right. Yeah. We’ve got to figure this one out. I have a sense of what they were trying to do. Targeting the property the house is on, but not the house itself. Something time based, a vortex of some kind. Powerful, requiring nine or so practitioners to shape. Drawing, I think, from some sort of store of energy that Laird’s zeitgeist familiar was managing.”

“I glanced through a reference book on Chronomancy. It’s pretty standard practice to bank time,” Rose said. “Give up an hour of your day, hold on to it, make use of that time elsewhere.”

“That sounds insanely powerful,” I said.

“The rate of return is pretty abysmal. Give up an hour, gain a minute. But I guess you can get better results if you have more hands on deck, a whole circle handling the working.”

“And a lot of power stored up?” I asked. “I wonder if any of that power was spent… I mean, the circle was glowing and stuff was moving. I could feel power. Did that drain Laird’s reserves? If we stop the ritual again, or a third time, will he or will they run out of stored power?”

“That’d be nice,” Rose said. “But he’s going to be on guard. He’ll be wary.”

Hm. But what will he do with that time? Give it to Blake so it feels like he is spending months in the house when it has been a week so he starves? I’m almost 100 percent sure it isn’t that but still. Something fucked up like that. And I doubt his power is drained much. If at all.

“Trick number one is figuring out when and how to recuperate, Blake. You keep on tapping this well of personal power when it’s nearly dry.”

I nodded.

“You’re actually listening to me?”

“It’s sage advice. I need a goddamn power source. Not just a bit of hair.”

“You need a demesnes. Or a tool that can make any use of power more efficient,” Rose said. “Or a familiar.”

“It all comes back to that,” I said.

“At least now we know you have a talent,” Rose said. “Glamour. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a Faerie as a familiar.”

“Maybe it would be a terrible idea,” I said. “Because we know how easily glamour can fuck with me, and that would be leverage the familiar could use to take me over. And we know how shoddy my defenses against this magic stuff are. Look at the Briar Girl. Can you not see some familiar getting a hold on me? Fucking me over worse?”

I tapped my connection to the house and used it to find the general direction I needed to go.

FINALLY PLEASE. Sleep eat and GET ONE OF THEM. You need to anyways. Also careful about using that connection you don’t want anyone to see it.

“We make the familiar less of a thing,” I said. “If we’re going to stagger this, use one of the three rituals to get leverage on the next, and use the two established power bases to get leverage for the third ritual, maybe I do the familiar first, after all. An Other that isn’t so strong that she’d be able to mess with me, one that might be able to get us some outside knowledge or power. From there, we start looking at implements, which we’ve already agreed was the easiest call to make.” “You’re not going to be able to get a Faerie familiar,” I heard a voice behind me. I turned around, startled. I didn’t feel a connection. My initial impression was that it was a disembodied voice, a ghost or something in that vein. But he wasn’t. He was very much real. Very alive. Very human. “Andy, was it?” I asked the witch hunter. He nodded. “Yes.”

Oh here we go. Just let the man go home, please. He doesn’t need this. Smart plan btw Blake.

No weapon in hand.

I glanced around. I couldn’t feel any connection to anyone nearby, but I still didn’t feel any connection to Andy.

Good sign...

“I’m not trying to reap any extra karma by sharing details with you,” Andy said. “Those other guys are doing the whole ‘play fair’, ‘see the whites of your enemy’s eyes before you doom them forever’, and that ‘announce your intentions before seeing them through’ garbage. If and when I come after you, Thorburn, I’m not doing any of that.”

“What,” I said. “You’ll shoot me in the back?”

He shook his head. “I’m a terrible shot. If there was a magic bullet with your name on it, Eva would be the one to shoot it.”

“Uh huh,” I said.

“She’d also be the type to molotov your house, or shiv you from behind while you’re walking down the street. I mean, if I can sneak up on you…”

“She’s a little more talented in that department, huh?” I asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, she is.”

He stayed there, silent, not volunteering any more information.

“How did you even find me?”

“Trinkets and some very, very basic investigation techniques.”

“And how are you going to take me out?” I asked. I was tense, and all too aware that even this guy was liable to give me a run for my money. He didn’t seem like a fighter. “More trinkets?”

“Right now? I’m not aiming to take you out,” Andy said. “Take that for what it’s worth. If I was here to kill you I wouldn’t say so. I can lie, after all.”

Ok so what the fuck are you doing then if not threatening or giving information or attacking. Let Blake Go Home 2kforever.

“What do you want, if you’re not here to kill me?”

“Right now, I’m keeping an eye on you. Don’t worry, nobody else is coming.”

“Keeping an eye on me? You going to report on me to Laird?”

He shrugged. “Does it matter what I tell you? I’m just going to lie.”

“You’re clearly not interested in talking,” I said.

“I can talk, if it helps,” he said. “You were talking about Faerie. Court Faerie deal with prominent families and powers. Around here, you’re not getting a Faerie familiar unless you’re a member of the Duchamp family. You could get a fairy, that’s F-A-I-R-Y, but then you’re talking about the witless, minor denizens of their realm. Foot high things with butterfly wings. Going that route would be dumb.”

“You’re helping me, now?” I asked.

“This is more self serving. You’ve already dealt with a head-on attack. If they called Eva and me in to deal with you, I’d probably take point. And I don’t want to kill someone with a fairy -that’s with an R-Y at the end- for a familiar. I’d feel like I was picking on the vulnerable. In this case, it would be the equivalent of murdering the mentally handicapped.”

Ah so this man has pride. Interesting. But he could be lying so... read up on fairys.

“People keep going on about that sort of thing. I’m supposedly Blake the fool, the unsturdy rock, the guy that’s going to die within the next five years, no questions asked. Now there’s some implications that I could fit in the same box as the mentally handicapped.”

“If you pick a fairy for a familiar,” he said. “Just to clarify.”

“I was just comparing myself to a rubber boot in my head. But the moment it comes time to decide how dangerous I am, oh, I’m the biggest threat that Jacob’s Bell has ever seen.”

“You can be an idiot and a threat at the same time,” Andy said. “When you’re dealing with these kinds of forces, an idiot is the bigger threat.”

“Unless they’re exceptionally smart,” Rose cut in.

“Oh, it’s the vestige. Hello vestige.”

“Hello Andy.”

Damn just the vestige then. Poor Rose. You’re more than a vestige to me. Poor Blake too damn I think he is pretty smart just ignorant in the nicest sense of the word.

“The geniuses are an even bigger threat, yes,” Andy conceded. “And the geniuses are so few and far between they don’t really warrant mentioning. Your grandmother was good. Scary good, but she wasn’t a genius.”

“Is there a middle ground, here?” I asked. “Can I at least build up enough respect for people to start saying, ‘hey, that guy isn’t so dumb and reckless after all’? ‘Maybe he isn’t the bombastic idiot that’s going to retaliate and accidentally plunge Jacob’s Bell into sulfur and hellfire?'”

“If you stand by and let them kill you, you’re clearly crazy,” Andy said. “Maybe dangerously so.”

“If I fight it, I’m reckless,” I retorted. “That’s a catch-22.”

“It sounds like you’ve answered your own question,” Andy said. “About finding the middle ground.”

The answer being no? Damn Pact is dark.

“Who do you serve?” I asked him.

“The council.”

“Laird and Sandra, primarily, then?”

“Essentially. But if Johannes had a job for me and there weren’t any conflicting orders from the real powers, then I’d obey those orders.”

“Would you obey me?” I asked.

“You’re not on the council, not technically. When Molly turned up, or when she moved into the house, sometime around then, the council held a meeting, and they agreed to remove the Thorburns from the list of affiliated powers.”]

Good information to know... one day he should try to get back on that list.

“Theoretically,” I told him, “I could be in charge of you one day, couldn’t I?”

“No, you’re not going to make it that far,” Andy responded. “Sorry.”

“I’m getting really sick of people telling me I’m going to die,” I said. “That decision’s up to me.”

“I’d put more of the choice in your would-be murderer’s hands,” he said.

“Who? You?”

“It’s very possible.”

“Your sister is the one with the killer instinct,” I said. “The itchy trigger finger, almost eager to shoot someone. She’s the killer, and you’re the bookish guy who keeps her on track and on target, researching the target, right?”

He nodded. Not even an iota of surprise that I might know this.

I don’t remember learning this about them. It has been too long. And theoretically... the answer should be yes, Andy. Damn.

“And you’re the one who’s afraid, who doesn’t want to hurt a human being. Well fuck that. I have a mother, a father, a little sister. And we’re not close, I admit, but that’s because I’m too fucking human to tolerate the monstrous shit my family was doing to each other. I did okay in school, and had the craziest crush on a girl in grade seven. I dated girls and fumbled my way through it all, and some of it was so fucking poorly handled that I cringe when I think about it, even five years after.”

“You’re trying to humanize yourself.”

“Damn straight!” I said. “I lived on the street for a while, because all of the fighting and conflict over fucking Hillsglade House and the money we’d get from selling it. I didn’t want it then. I don’t want it now. The stress from it ate me up inside.”

“I hear you. We could probably compare histories on that front. Though there weren’t millions of dollars at stake for me.”

He was deflecting, or something. It was eerie, that he was going out of his way to compare us. Was he distracting me after all?

I glanced over my shoulders, checking the darker streets around us.

“Eva’s at home, I promise,” he said. “There’s a chance she followed me, but I’m honestly not trying to set you up to have your throat slit or to get you shot, and neither of us are about to murder someone without the council to cover it up after the fact. I don’t have any other help, no big plots at work. You would probably be able to tell if anyone but me or Eva came.”

“Assuming I believe you.”

“Assuming you believe me, yes.”

Yeah he could totally be lying and be super cold on the inside or hate all practitioners or something.

I sighed, “Listen, I’m a regular, average guy who loves art but can’t draw, who’s still figuring out how to be a friendly, decent human being, because his parents never bothered to teach him that stuff. That thing you were saying to your sister, not wanting to hurt someone? She told you it was fine because we’re practitioners, we’re not really people, right? Something like that? Well, at this stage, I think I’m still more person than practitioner.”

“I hear you,” Andy said. “Yeah, I even believe you.”

Don’t think he cares. Everyone sees Blake as a threat, person or no.

“I just want to be left alone,” I said. “I want to deal with this, kick Laird in the metaphorical ass until he stops coming after me, get Rose into a position where she’s free, happy and healthy so I can fulfill my oath to her, and handle the crap I’ve got to handle, like a stupid pair of promises I made to a little girl, and a deal I made with someone else. I want it all to stop, because the only thing that’s keeping life from going back to normal is them.”

“I just want to be left alone” is a lie then, is it not? But yeah Blake you made too many promises.

“I understand,” Andy said. “But it doesn’t work that way. You’re the threat, and you’re an obstacle to this town evolving to a different state and reaching a new kind of stability. I’m the guy who takes care of threats. When and if the order comes down, I’m going to remove you from the picture.”

He said it so easily. Remove me from the picture.

“Without guns or fire or any of that?” I asked. “Because that’s Eva’s job, apparently.”

“I find a little distance helps.”

“Right. When removing me,” I said. “Come on. At least have the balls to say what you mean. You’re talking in this quiet, calm, monotone because you’re trying to detach yourself from this shit.”

“Killing you. Executing you. Putting you down,” he said. His eyes dropped at that last bit, then raised up to meet mine again. “Yeah. I don’t use the guns or knives or any of that, because even when it is a monster? One of the bad ones I shouldn’t be able to sympathize with at all? I can’t help but feel like shit after, and looking in your eyes as I do it makes it ten times worse. The detachment does help me deal with it. Sorry if it’s frustrating.”

Or just don’t kill him :) I know he will though. Feel kinda bad for him but idk. He deals with some awful people and it is hard to justify that.

“I’d accept your apology, but it’s kind of hard to when we’re talking about me being murdered at your hands.”

“You? If we get that far? If it helps, I’ll feel horrible. I’ll remember all that stuff about you having a crush on some girl and I’ll lose sleep. I’ll remember the look in your eye, I’ll think about how much this all sucks. But I’m still going to do what I need to do.”

“Why? If this is all some big, fucked up situation, why not change it? You aren’t sworn into anything, and the rules don’t bind you.”

“Because I made promises, and even if I’m not in a position to be forsworn, I still can’t break them.”

Careful Blake. You’re not wrong, but you’re tired and you can’t afford to be in a fight right now.

“Despite the sleepless nights? The fear that eats at you? The fact that you’re killing innocent people?” I asked. My voice was low, and anger was seeping in even when I wasn’t raising my voice. “I have a hard time buying that.”

“Despite all of that.”

“Family, is it?” I asked.

“A little bit of family. Obviously, or I wouldn’t be working with Eva.”

“Because family isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” I said. “It isn’t fucking half of what it’s supposed to be. See, there’s a big, big fucking difference between someone being your relative and someone being family.”

“Then I guess I’d say Eva is my relative,” Andy said. “And ‘family’ plays a very small part in this.”

Interesting. I’d say that relatives can mean nothing to you but your family means a lot. I don’t know whether Andy sees it that way too, but if so, he just feels obligated.

“What’s the rest?” I asked.

“The rest is private. It wouldn’t matter, would it? There’s nothing I could say that would reach you and your specific perspective. Because we come from very different places. Having people you owe everything to, who you could never ever pay back.”

“It sounds a hell of a lot like we come from similar places,” I said.

“These people you owe? Are they dead?” he asked.

“No. Very much alive.”

He nodded. “You’re lucky.”

I frowned. “Am I? Because it’s a quiet sort of hell, knowing you owe someone everything, and once in a while you have to look them in the eye.”

They could be friends, in a different situation.

I shivered. “Well, this was fun. Another death threat onto the pile, and I can’t even bring myself to hate you.”

“I appreciate that,” he said.

“Don’t,” I responded.

He didn’t flinch.

I wanted him to retaliate, to fight back. I didn’t want to fight, but I needed goddamn cues to find my way through the conversation.

In a way, he seemed just as inhuman as some of the Fae I’d encountered. The swordswoman had been more animated, had at least had an iota of passion.

Andy wasn’t even pretending.

“I’m cold,” I said. “I’m leaving.”

I turned to go. I heard his footstep behind me.

Following me.

“Yeah, I don’t think you’re hearing me,” I said. “I’m going this way. I’m not keen on having you tag along.”

Good leave. This is awkward though. He has been told to keep an eye on you ha. How close are you to home Blake? Hurry.

“I’ve been asked to keep an eye on you.”

“Why?”

“Because Laird Behaim and Sandra Duchamp are interested.”

“Is he trying something?” I asked.

“He’s preoccupied,” Andy responded.

I reached for my hatchet, touching the handle.

“Bound spirit?” he asked. “Wraith? Ghost? Elemental? I’m actually pretty good at dealing with those. I’m kind of shit when it comes to fighting, but if you try using that, then you’re going to be down one trinket, and that looks like pretty intricate work.”

“Blake,” Rose said. “No fighting. It’s not the time, and we can’t lose June when we haven’t even used her.”

“Assuming he’s not just lying to our faces,” I said. I can’t fight even if I have to, I thought. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I felt almost like I’d retained some of the negative qualities of the six year old. I didn’t feel strong.

Yes Rose please continue to be the voice of reason just suck up the fact that he is following you and go home.

“I’m not a threat,” Andy said. “Take this for what it’s worth. Laird sent me to keep an eye on you. I only do so many favors for him a month… and doing this harmless favor means I’m not taking a job to kill you.”

“But you’re still reporting back to Laird,” I said, as I turned and started walking. I tried to keep my stride going, despite the fatigue I felt. He was shorter than me, burdened with that backpack, and I didn’t remember him being particularly fit.

If I could leave him behind, all the better.

“Keep an eye on him,” I told Rose. I flipped the mirror pendant around so it hung between my shoulders.

Super Awkward. Keeping an eye on the preson who is keeping an eye on you. That is funny.

“How log have you been doing this?” Rose asked. It took me a second to realize she wasn’t talking to me. “Two years,” I heard Andy behind me. “Not long.” “Feels like a while,” he replied. “Can we not talk to the assassin in the funny hat?” I asked. Rose ignored me. “What gets someone like you working for someone like Laird?” There was no answer. “Power? Wealth?” “Responsibility, I already said.” “Is there a finite amount of responsibility, Andy? Is there a point where you’ve paid your dues and you’re free of all this?” “That’s the second question you’ve asked that I already answered. No. I could go my entire life and not pay them back.” “That’s a hell of a burden,” Rose said. “Yeah. I’m not dumb, you know. I’ve faced down worse manipulators than you.” “I’m not trying to manipulate you. I’m trying to figure you out. Do you think your departed acquaintances would want you to do this? To spend your life indentured to them?” “I know they wanted it. They said so. That they needed me to handle it, for their sakes.” “Uh huh,” Rose said.

Why is he telling you all of this? Remember he could be lying. I’m not sure how to feel about this dude. If he isn’t lying, I’m super curious about him. If he is, then he is probably just a shitbag. HIm being honest is more interesting so I’m leaning towards that being hte case.

I trudged along, doing my best to leave him behind. My leg was already raw where the boot was rubbing my jeans against my leg.

“If the tables were turned, knowing what you know, would you ask them to don the mantle? Kill people and feel horrible about it? Have nightmares?” Rose asked.

“No,” Andy said. “But that’s me, my personality.”

“If they’re asking you to commit your life to something you couldn’t imagine yourself asking someone to do… it doesn’t sound like they were really your friends. It sounds like they were using you.”

“Hey, Thorburn,” Andy called out. “Your pet is starting to irritate me.”

“Good,” I said.

Ew. Pet. Gross. FUck this guy.

“What I’m thinking,” Rose said, “And I don’t know enough about Blake’s situation to say for his case, but if you’re that indebted to someone, and you devote your life to staking vampires and burning witches-”

“You’re oversimplifying,” Andy said.

“Simple is good. That stuff isn’t the point. You’re devoting your life to this stuff… what if you die? I mean, it’s inevitable, right? What if you die, and you find yourself in the afterlife. You meet these people again. You obviously didn’t pay them back for whatever they did for you. Do they look at you with disappointment?”

“Probably,” Andy said.

“That’s sad,” Rose said. “Do you have Eva’s support?”

I thought of the vision.

“No,” I said, automatically.

“No,” he agreed.

So then what is the point? They won’t like you either way.

“Is anyone backing you up?” Rose asked. “Do you have a listening ear? A confidant?”

“No,” Andy said.

I glanced back. His eyes were downcast, his expression serious. Was he bothered, or was he more focused on not stepping on ice and losing his footing?

“That’s awfully hard,” Rose said.

“Spare me the false sympathy,” Andy said. “I’ve said it before, I’ve gone up against better manipulators.”

“And none of them have tried to see what’s going on in your head?”

“Some have. Some have looked. Doesn’t matter in the end.”

“Did any offer to be that listening ear? The confidant?”

“Hm?”

“Hey, Rose,” I said. “Don’t you think befriending the dorky witch-hunting kid should be a collaborative decision?”

“You can make friends and decide who you do and don’t want to forgive,” Rose said. “But I’m still a free being, more or less, and I can decide who I do and don’t want to interact with.”

Damn Rose, you tell him. Though I agree this should have been discussed ha.... dangerous choice Rose.

“It’s a little more complicated than that,” I said. My legs were burning now. I wondered if he was getting tired.

“I’m not looking to make friends,” Andy said.

“I’m not looking to be your friend either,” Rose responded. “I am offering to hear you out, if you need it. There have to be points where you’re feeling lower than low, Andy. Where you want to cry or go crazy or something. Now, instead of getting to that point and having nowhere to turn, you can turn to me.”

“And I have one more reason to feel bad when and if I have to kill your master, removing you from the picture as well?”

“Ahem,” Rose said. “I’m a free being. Present stuck-in-a-mirror circumstances excepted. And if you feel horrible, then good. You deserve to. I said I’d hear you out, I didn’t say I’d lie to you or go easy on you.”

Rose you can’t lie. And damn why won’t people understand that Rose isn’t his fucking slave. Even if that was what she was built for, she isn’t.

Andy shrugged. “I can’t and won’t take the deal.”

“Okay,” Rose said. “But the offer’s out there.”

Andy didn’t respond.

The remaining fifteen minutes of our slow and not-so-steady walk over snow and ice were undertaken in blissful silence.

We made our way to the neighborhood, the dark structure of Hillsglade House looming against the pale evening sky. The light from the moon and city lights was reflected off of white snow, cast onto the overcast sky above, making it seem almost as bright as it was during the day.

I heard a jostling, and turned to see Andy hurrying to catch up. My hand flew to my weapon.

“I’m not a threat,” he said. He wasn’t really out of breath. Was he more fit than he looked? Simply uncoordinated?

“You keep saying that, as if saying it over and over makes it true.”

“It is. And it doesn’t matter. You’re home.”

We’d nearly reached the block the house was on. My eyes flew over the premises, then went back to Andy.

“This feels like a trap,” I said.

“It is and it isn’t,” he said. “It wasn’t really explained to me, so I don’t really know. My focus is supposed to be on you.”

Something is so up and Blake won;t know what it is until it fucks him over. How depressing.

“Why?” I asked, glancing away to look back at the house.

“To pass on word to Laird,” he responded.

There was an eerie conviction in his gaze. An intensity that I hadn’t sensed moments ago.

“Blake,” Rose said, “This is going nowhere. Let’s get you back in the house and resting. We still need to plan and do some reading.”

“Doesn’t it feel wrong?” I asked. “Why not send Fargo here to kill us? He’s only here to gather info and take it back to Laird. Why?”

“It’s trivial,” Rose said. “Our priority is getting you in fighting shape, and I wouldn’t mind that servant. There’s a thousand things we could dwell on, outside of the head games the witch hunter is playing with us. No offense, Andy.”

“None taken.”

“Come on, Rose,” I said, my eyes fixed on Andy. “You and I aren’t so different. Reach deep, dig for those instincts, and tell me you don’t feel this is something serious.”

There was a pause. “I can’t tell if it’s because you’ve psyched me out or if you’re right.”

“I’m right,” I said. “Laird’s pulled something.”

Oh no maybe we will find out now...

There was a pause.

“The something?” Rose asked, quiet. Her question was partly a statement.

My head snapped around, looking over the house.

The ritual?

No.

A kind of horror settled in me.

No, no, no.

Where was it? The symbols I’d seen drawn on the floor… they would have covered a certain area, here in the real world.

My leg stung where the boot was rubbing it as I strode around, moving closer to the gate.

A circle, like the one I’d seen as part of the diagram, barely perceptible. The spirits on and above it were brighter.

I could hear the tick and tock sounds I’d heard in the room, now. I wasn’t sure if it was real or imagination.

WELL FUCK. IT WAS ALL POINTLESS. FUCK.

“What does it do?” Rose asked.

“It makes accessing and using your resources in Hillsglade House so inconvenient it’s pointless,” Andy answered. “The unawakened might notice something when they walk down this sidewalk, but nobody does, do they? Surely you’ve noticed how the locals avoid the property. Mail doesn’t come here, restaurants won’t deliver food to this address. You’re isolated. They can’t target the house, as it was once a demesne, so they target the space around it.”

“To do what?” I asked.

“Waste your time,” he answered. “Something you already have in short supply.”

I reached into my pocket and found a quarter. I flicked it over the circle.

It slowed as it flipped over the line, growing slower with every passing second.

It looked like it would take minutes to hit the ground.

I looked at Andy, trying to read his expression. It was as placid as ever.

“I’m not sure what you’re seeing, Blake,” Rose said.

I looked, and I saw the quarter in the air, spinning in slow motion. When I looked without the benefit of the sight, I saw it on the ground. Different views for the awakened versus the unawakened. Different effects.

The Duchamps had been a part of the ritual. Had it been more than targeting it at this particular neighborhood?

This is even worse than what I imagined.

“Slowing time,” I said. “The quarter is still in the air, to my eyes.”

“The long driveway,” Rose said. “How long do you think that walk would take?”

“Weeks?” I asked, quiet. “A month?”

“Meaning we’d miss council meetings,” Rose said.

“Yeah. The wedding would go ahead, and so would the plans for establishing a Lord for the city, while we make the excruciatingly slow walk up to the house. Tying us up until some time when Laird’s ready to deal with us,” I said.

“And that,” Andy said, “Mostly wraps up my end of things.”

I snapped my head around. “Your end of things?”

“This is what he wanted a report on,” Andy said. “A description of your face and actions as you realized, making sure you got the full message. He hired me to observe, to make sure he wouldn’t have to wait months for you to come after him. Assuming you might only realize when the season changes. He’d like you to know that for now, he’s hands off, until you give him an excuse.”

“And the rest?” Rose asked.

“Remains to be seen. I know there’s a bounty on your head, a prize of three favors to any Other that catches you. That might take a few days to revoke, if they decide to go that route. If an Other kills you, though, and the new heir heads for the house, they’ll lose a great deal of time, and they’ll find a trap waiting for them when they next leave the property. It’s done.”

Great time to make friends with Maggie and beg for her protection. Good lukc Blake you’re really fucked.

“Oh, you did win,” Andy told me. “You embarrassed him, you counted coup, you probably cost the Behaims more than you know, when you damaged those books, and it would have cost Sandra to tidy up that mess. But…”

“He won more?” I asked.

“He won more decisively,” Rose murmured. “A more targeted, devastating strike. But then again, he’s the guy with the big guns, the power, the soldiers…”

I shook my head a little. What the hell were we supposed to do now?

“It’s not a kid’s television show,” Andy told me, “Where the antagonist makes the Machiavellian plan and then abandons that plan completely the first time it fails. People fail, they revise, they adjust parameters, they you achieve victory through persistence and hard work.”

I turned to stare at the house.

“It was nice meeting you,” Andy said. “I hope I don’t have to kill you.”

Does it matter. Someone will and you probably helped indirectly at some point.

“Hey,” I said. “Do me a favor, Andy?” “Maybe.” I pulled off the rain boots, then stood on the sidewalk with two socks on each foot. “Take those boots back to their owner?” “Will do.” I could hear him walking away. “Rose?” I asked. “What is it?” “Do me a favor, and call the lawyers? Like you did before?” “I’d say that’s only for emergencies, but I think this counts.” “Yeah.” I barely even heard her reciting the names. I didn’t turn my head as a man came to stand behind my left shoulder. “What can we do for you, Mr. Thorburn?” “Can you undo this?” “I think you know the answer,” he said. He wasn’t one of the ones I’d met before. “Is it a price I’m willing to pay?” I asked. “Most likely not, given Ms. Lewis’ notes.” “Okay,” I said.

Well the boot karma is resolved. Least of our problems.

True the lawyers may be able to help a little bit. Maybe.

“Anything else?”

“What about safe passage to Toronto?” I asked. “There’s no reason to stay here.”

“That can be arranged for a very small cost,” he said.

“Putting me in contact with the local Lord, so I don’t step on toes? I’ll need some things, as well.”

“Clothes and supplies. Yes. Shall we negotiate?”

“I think we have to,” I said.

Oh now this is interesting. Moving settings. If he doesn;t die along the way. They lost so many resources. Ugh. So much info in the house. Can Rose still access it? They didn’t affect the house itself. Hm. I think she can. So they have access to the books at least.

#breach 3.5 #3.5 #text #breach

2 notes · View notes

technologicalgambler · 7 years

Text

((Well, that whole December/January shtick went so well. Hope ya caught my sarcasm, because I’m mad at myself. The inability to complete plot threads was mostly due to end of year depression/anxiety, school being a bitch, and the fact that neither of us (Technomun who is simultaneously Grimmun, and Cathartimun) can get our shit together.

((This post is just playing catch up with all of the shit that happened out of tumblr over the course of the last two months. So a lot of stuff has happened, that’ll be under the cut.))

((Alright, let’s get this started.

-The Birthday Weekend

That went. Fairly alright, all things considered since it involved several parties that hate each other. Eridan was an ass the entire time (no big surprise here), and harassed the shit out of Vriska. Terezi was an obnoxious brat through and through, Karkat cried a lot, Vriska got drunk to avoid her feelings...so nothing new among the trolls. Well, other than the fact the Destiny Islands crew and the Radiant Garden crew got to meet up again. Eridan, an ass as usual, tormented Vriska whilst invisible until he got caught. This is why she drinks.

Dave had to be mostly tipsy through the whole thing, and practically leashed to Karkat to avoid him killing Dirk, and later got REALLY drunk...Dirk got horribly drunk on only a few drinks, and kept going between sober and smashed through the weekend. Those two still aren’t on good terms, but on...better? Dave can at least (slightly) stand being in the same room with him. Roxy’s tired. Grim got drunk...Terezi was hitting on everybody (except the trolls). Jade was one of the two people who remained totally sober (the other being Eridan), and declared the couch the Sane Zone, for anyone who was sober or could handle being drunk (translates to her, Eridan, Roxy, and Grim). Anyone who succumbed to intoxication was promptly, and literally kicked off of the couch and onto their ass. This happened to Karkat at some point. This allowed her to be on...eh, better terms with Eridan. They got to talk shit over, and now they’re not at each others throats most of the time and can agree on a few things. Not great friends, but not openly shit talking each other.

It was the last day of the weekend - Roxy and Grim’s birthday - that they actually distributed presents. Here’s the list that we made to keep shit straight because there’s so fucking much.

To Dave

Sword from Jade

MIDI fighter from Roxy

Crow from Karkat (Dave named it Fido)

A knife named The Ace from Karkat’s boss (story about that later on)

A suit from Dirk

Ice troll skull from Vriska (as in Skyrim)

“Oh my god, it’s R2-D2! I loved him in Star Trek!” (Dalek) shirt from Grim

Red and white Scalemate with shades sewn onto it from Terezi (Red with a white belly)

To Jade

CD case/shelf from Dave

RHCP album from Karkat

New bass from Vriska

Soldering kit from Dirk

Danger Days Union jacket from Roxy

Badlands/Halsey sweater from Grim

Black and green Scalemate from Terezi (Black with a green belly)

To Roxy

MCRX Black Parade jacket from Jade

Pokemon Sun from Dirk

Pokemon Moon from Eridan

Super Mystery Dungeon from Terezi (and her 3DS)

MCRX flag and album from Grim

A poster that Dave drew of one of Roxy’s favorite scenes from the Complacency of the Learned – the scene where Calmasis cruelly curses Frigglish

Pink and violet Scalemate from Terezi (pink with a violet belly)

To Dirk

Last minute gift from Jade of Genji’s sword

Entire series of the Free! sub from Roxy

Iwatobi jacket from Eridan

Orange and black Scalemate with shades sewn onto it from Terezi (orange with a black belly)

“I’m BATMAN” shirt with the words in the logo, and a nice Batman cape from Grim

To Grim

Galaxy aesthetic assault rifle from Jade

Black and pink Scalemate with white eyes from Terezi (black with a pink belly)

Authentic Atom Cats jacket from Dave

Exorcism book from Vriska

Tickets to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them from Dirk and Roxy

Harry Potter movie collection from Karkat

Glowing pink nautilus necklace from Eridan

This is why we needed a list.

Suffice to say, the birthday weekend was...eventful, hectic, and fun.

-Christmas Weekend

This time, they spent Christmas weekend at the Radiant Garden castle. Which was an adventure, since they not only had to leave Jackie behind (like they were bringing a Deathclaw to a place like that), but also had to deal with Eridan’s dogs, Pronauma and Terancor (note: they’re massive, not adults yet, and will be about the size of Polar Bear Dogs from ATLOK), and the looming threat of being thrown into the dungeon with Dragon Mom.

More drinking, more antics...Dirk had to be dragged out of his room more often than not. Nothing MAJOR happened (other than Jade embarrassingly mentioning something about her and Karkat, causing Roxy and Grim to scream), but it was certainly something.

The loot pile this time is as follows (WARNING: LONG)

To Roxy

VR set up from Dirk

Ugly Christmas sweater from Grim

A cat plushy from Vriska

A plasma rifle from Jade

A robotic cat tail from Dave

Super Mario Maker for the 3DS from Terezi (along with Roxy’s copy of Fire Emblem: Conquest)

Pink cat cloak made of fleece from Terezi

A blue LED constellation scarf from Eridan

To Dirk

A Cintiq from Roxy

Ugly Christmas sweater from Grim

A Kamina body pillow from Jade

A Genji butt mousepad packaged in a condom box from Dave

Fleece Batman hooded cape (similar to the dragon cape) from Terezi

A tank top like this from Eridan

To Dave

Final Fantasy XV + Season Pass from Roxy

Bleach: the Diamond Dust Rebellion from Dirk

Ugly Christmas sweater from Grim

A new DSLR camera from Karkat

A Princess Peach 3DS carrying case from Vriska

A new skateboard with a crow deck from Jade

A black, fleece cloak based around a crow from Terezi

To Jade

Seasons 1-3 of Sherlock from Roxy

A Fionna hat (Adventure Time) from Dirk

Ugly Christmas sweater from Grim

A GIANT husky plushie from Karkat

Glow-in-the-dark space-themed guitar/bass picks that come with stickers from Vriska

A Tunnel Snake’s jacket from Dave

A white wolf cloak made of fleece from Terezi

A set of camo bandana collars for Becca from Eridan

To Grim

Black and gray leopard print weighted blanket from Roxy

Resident Evil VII from Dirk

Ugly Christmas sweater from Terezi

A devilishly sultry Alternian romance novel from Karkat

The Bible from Vriska

A pink beanie with cat ears attached to it from Jade

A Lucid Plasma Caster that has a slag element from Dave (picked it up from a job in Pandora)

Black cat cloak made of fleece from Terezi

This tank top from Eridan

To Terezi

Super Smash Bros for 3DS from Roxy

Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright; Ace Attorney from Dirk

Ugly Christmas sweater from Grim

Super long red dragon plushie from Karkat

Replica of Falchion from Fire Emblem: Awakening from Jade

Red dragon shoulder puppet from Dave

A D&D starter kit from Eridan

To Eridan

A book heavily detailing battles from WWII from Roxy

A coffee mug with skull and crossbones on it from Dirk

Ugly Christmas sweater from Grim

An Alternian wartime romance/tragedy movie that the two would always watch back on Alternia from Karkat

Some more of that Death’s Brew coffee from Jade

A violet sea horse cloak made of fleece from Terezi

To Karkat

Ugly Christmas sweater from Grim

Condoms from Vriska (JOKE PRESENT)

Yurio’s leopard print hoodie from Vriska

A red sickle that looks a lot like this from Jade (custom made! <3)

A Krabby plushy from Dave

A silver fleece dragon cloak trimmed with red from Terezi

A copy of the sketch of the Signless and his group from inside of Dualscar’s journal, copied meticulously by hand by Eridan, and framed (gift from Eridan)

To Vriska

Ugly Christmas sweater from Grim

Hardcover collection of the Spider-Gwen comics from Karkat

A red, electric guitar (Charvel Desolation DS-3) from Jade

A Spider-Gwen sweater from Dave

A tiny poop emoji phone charm from Terezi

Too many people. Eridan got his girlfriend, Aradia, a new necklace he made, but he gave that to her later on to avoid Vriska’s prying eye.

-New Years

I can skip a lot of shit with this one because we wrapped that up recently. New Years was just a few people getting drunk, Jade and Dirk getting into it and resolving shit, and then setting out on a quest to find her siblings, Jake and Jane.

What’s more interesting is the month that followed, as they proceeded to search worlds she had coordinates to to see if his soul string ability reacted, via her workshop door. They nearly got killed a few times by some of the worlds’ fauna, nearly lost Dirk to some of the worlds, and Jade managed to scoop Dirk’s fake eyes out from his skull, and replace them with better prosthetics. Roxy caught them because Dirk’s medical bot, HAL, showed up to the workshop when he felt Dirk go under, and have some nerves severed. Roxy knows about the eyes now (and got a ton of new prosthetic arms, and a better anchor for them), but doesn’t know about their project.

Like I said, a lot of shit went down. This is just a summary of all we talked about when I was dealing with finals, and we were both dealing with the weird funk of the holidays, and coming of the end (of the year). Finally able to write again, so here ya go.

Let’s see if they can actually get shit moving again.))

#original #ooc #out of tumblr rps #summary of rp events #long post #technogunblade #catharticgrievance #caliginousadvocate #tipsygrimdrunk #apocalypsearcylakey

2 notes · View notes

perfectwave-blog1 · 7 years

Text

Quick and easy homemade halloween costumes for kids in 2017

October 31 appears to creep up on us every year. Still established on managing Junior to that one-of-a kind disguise ? Frightened by the idea of making your own costume from scratch? Don`t be. Get to the spirit with ideas that can pulled-together with much more household items, espresso filets, and cupcake liners. We know it`s tempting to just give up and check out the Halloween store for a few packaged kid costumes, but just think about how unique your child`s outfit will be in the event you use one of those ideas as inspiration. These costumes for kids range from easy to more advanced, to help you pick your favorite based on your own skill level. Each of these could be finished during some free time on the weekend, therefore you won`t have to plan too much in advance. In case your kid is begging to get a store-bought costume, there are a lot of options to make them reconsider, including two types of peacock choices, mermaid, aviator, and a race-car driver. You can also sweeten the deal by bringing them with you so they have a component in creating the disguise, when you buy the components. When Halloween comes around, they`ll be pleased to have a completely unique costume.

Yellow Duckling Costume

Here`s an idea that`s positive to quack your child up. Plus, in a crowd, your youngster will truly stand out in bright yellow. A pair of boots that are orange along with a bunch of fake feathers will have your lucky duckling ready to waddle around the hood. The hat with eye-balls along with a bill are made from a base ball cap, feathers, plus a ping pong ball. To actually get into character, practice producing duck sounds with them to allow them to show off when it`s time to go trick-or-managing. The outfit is also a plus for the reason that it functions long-sleeves and long pants so it`s perfect for a a cold Halloween evening.

Flapper Costume

A Roaring Twenties revival: Dancing her way around the neighborhood having a bob cut, strands of pearls along with a hot pink dress that, well, we designed for for twirling. The fringe on the gown is created from some thing totally unique: Pink Post-it notes. Use fringe scissors or typical scissors to cut slits on the notes and attach rows and rows of them onto the dress with tape. Both the “flowers”on the headband and gown are made from cupcake liners. After you`ve prepped the dress, make certain you practice the Charleston or Turkey Trot along with her before the large night.

Fisherman Costume

This seafarer is positive to reel in compliments (and candy!) with this low-maintenance disguise. There`s no catch to how effortless this costume is to make—but there are a couple household items required. The only factor you`ll need to make is the fish-ing pole—for the rain-coat and pants, just add a strip of silver tape to the arms, legs, and torso portion of the jacket. For the fishing pole, you`ll need a wooden dowel, toilet paper roll (which will be the “reel”), ribbon and also a ceiling hook. By buying toy fish and maybe even a bucket hat Accessorize.

Jailbird Costume

Grownups will get a kick from the clever play on words, although obviously, the children will love this entertaining costume. Free to hit the streets on Halloween evening, this guy`s disguise comes as well as faux feathers, white tape, and much more. To generate the leading that is plumed, cut and glue a boa to the human anatomy of a sweatshirt. If you can`t find striped pants, take a pair of black types and add white tape to it. To produce the eyes and “beak” glue a yellow base ball cap to the hood of the sweatshirt after which attach black buttons.

Aviator Costume

Prepare for take-off. This one`s for the curious child who h AS an obsession with planes and desires of traveling all around the world. Imaginations will soar when your child steps into this disguise. The costume is also a no-brainer for the busy parent—you just need to create the aviator jacket and pair it with a white t-shirt and khaki pants. For the aviator jacket, you`ll require a brown sweatshirt, brown tape, and furry felt material. To complete the seem, give some goggles as well as a scarf to him. He`ll be ready to fly away into Halloween night.

Mermaid Costume

Is every thing really better down where it`s wetter? In case your kid is in her phase, she will be truly wowed by this costume. Produce a splash out of water with this Easy To-generate disguise that demands cupcake liners streamers, ribbon, a headband, and sea-shells. Locate a starfish in the craft retailer or toy store and style a little necklace from it. With every one of the gorgeous shades-of blue and green hues, your Small Mermaid will stand out as well as shimmer such as the sea. The streamers create a cascading effect and she`ll love twirling around.

Strawberry Costume

Think period is longgone? Think again. This original costume is best for Halloween and is one of the most easy child costumes to make. The disguise starts using a pair of leggings that are matching along with a ripe redshirt. The “seeds” about the top and bottoms are made from yellow craft paint. The fruity look with a stem made from pipe-cleaners felt and more. Major bonus: the outfit is comfy enough that the little one won`t be itching to get from it during trick-or-treating across the neighborhood.

Thornhill daycare

Genie Costume

Have a desire or two or three. If she`s dreaming of a magical disguise, then watch how quickly this one comes together—poof!—just like that. Create a jacket using a lengthy sleeve shirt and cut down the middle, then attach jacket fasteners that are gold. Add gold dot stickers and gold tape to both the “jacket”and a blue jumper. The hat is a gold celebration hat with scarves connected. Don`t overlook to add-in accessories like a “magic carpet” along with a gold lamp (or just a tea pot spray painted gold).

Wise Owl Costume

Whooo requirements a last-minute costume thought? To your serious scholar, dress her up as wise owl that is little. The night owl`s get-up begins with brown leggings and shirt and calls for cupcake liners, faux feathers, a headband and ribbon. Plus, like any scholarly owl, you`ll need a pair of eyeglasses (adorned with feathers) to finish the look. We guarantee your kid will will cherish the “wings” of the costume—just watch her run-down the block together with the cape traveling. The whole get-up is really very a hoot.

Cobalt Peacock Costume

Here comes little skip spectacular with her lively blue feathers and her chipper disposition. Just when you thought one peacock costume wasn`t enough, here`s an alternative that`s in a deeper, cobalt blue. This edition is perfect for small children who may not have patience to get a longer —the “train” is shorter on this one. To create this one, you`ll require the same feathers made from cupcake liner and tissue paper, but instead of creating lengthier ones, you`ll want to keep them shorter. Don`t neglect to finish the outfit with an ornamental headband.

0 notes

ktkski2017-blog · 7 years

Text

Mount Kenya: Lenana

February 22, 2017

Day 3

No rain overnight! We actually slept very well, which was much needed as today was hyped up to be a “big hiking day” for us. We packed up our bags and ate a big breakfast of pancake/crepes with toast, jam, peanut butter, and fried eggs. Dunsten, Luke and I set out on our journey before the camp of Frenchies or the friend couple had fully breakfasted. We slowly ascended from 3300meters up to the next camp set around 4200 meters. Pole pole (spelling?) means slowly, slowly – which is definitely the way in which we traveled. The route was along a long ridge so there was a wide expanse of fields to our right (which included the lake and area we bushwhacked through the previous day) and a gorge to our left – at the top of which was a huge waterfall “Victoria falls” that emptied out of Michelson lake at the base of one of the ancient volcano’s calderas. The sky was full of clouds and the temperature kept varying between hot and cool. Luckily the sun was not very intense – I kept applying sunscreen knowing that cloudy skies can sometimes be worse than clear ones. As we continued to ascend we got closer to the center of the mountain, with giant cliff drop offs and huge spikes/spires in to the sky. There was one mountain side that was particularly shiny under the cloud cover and we speculated whether it was ice or lava rock. Dunsten said it was the remains from an old helicopter crash. Whoops. We continued to trudge upwards and the porters passed us one by one on their way to set up camp for the day. Three and a half hours later we arrived at our destination. Guess the “big hike” day was not as challenging as we had expected? Or those steroids were really something… We arrived before noon and then had nothing to do for the rest of the day. The camp was pretty barren as most plants and animals cannot survive at such altitude. The campers that had summited that morning were still packing up their bags so we hung out with Elijah, taking in the smell of burning trash and rotten wood that he had lit for a fire. One of our porters had claimed the best tent spot and was sitting there waiting for the others to clear out. Once they were gone, however, there was no one else to fight him for the spot as it was just us. He set up the tent and then retreated with the rest of our porters/guide/cook in to a tin lean-to that was placed there and was the location of the kitchen as well as where our porters etc. would sleep overnight in kind of makeshift bunks. Luke and I were sitting on a barren expanse of rock, next to our bright red picnic blanket and thermos of hot tea, passing the time away. The latrine was unuseable (full) so Luke and I would scramble over a small ledge next to our tent and find a bit of ground to do our business behind a couple of tufts of dried grass. If someone was on the small hill next to us to use the cell reception up there then they could accidentally see us – or if someone was exploring the lake our bathroom overlooked then we would also be exposed.

After lunch (which was just three hours after our huge breakfast so I wasn’t even hungry), we set up the inside of our tent and prepared for rain or snow overnight. As we were running low on water, I hiked down to one of the cleaner pools and filled up the water filter we had borrowed from Christina and Cyrus. We had been using the filter in Chogoria as well as the water is not safe to drink without risking getting a parasite – the water from this pool was cleaner than the water we had gotten out of the tap in Chogoria. We filled up our water bottles and I had a little clean water left over so I offered it to Elijah. Due to difficulty with communication (and me overestimating the amount of English he understood) he thought I was giving him the bag that made up the second half of the filter. He went in to the tin hut and was there for longer than I would assume it would take for him to empty the clean water in to his own water bottle, and when he emerged without the bag I realized my mistake and went in searching for the filter bag. There was much confusion and people were looking everywhere for the filter bag as if it hadn’t just arrived in the hut. Elijah was telling me that the filter bag was drying in the sun by our tent (the other half of the filter was there). Eventually Dunsten arrived and I was able to explain what the mistake was and Elijah found the filter bag in his things so I retrieved it and quickly packed up the filter. I felt bad because the other porters and cooks could be heard from outside of the hut teasing Elijah. I apologized the next time I saw him and he seemed like he was over it. Dunsten took us on a walking tour of the nearby features which was really cool – there are several lakes that make up a kind of marshland with varying levels of water filtration. Some areas are downright boggy with moss and unstable ground. Other areas were rocky with water pooling on the rock and very little organic material in the water. We also were camped near a huge cliff that dropped off in to the caldera. The magnitude of height was really difficult to capture with a camera while standing on the ground – I do think a helicopter would be the best way to view this (though I wasn’t signing up for any helicopter tours). We returned to our campsite and proceeded to wait until the other groups of hikers arrived. Once they did we had to let them get settled in for a few minutes before I headed over to say hello. They were suffering from altitude sickness including headache, nausea, and generalized fatigue – so we quickly left them to nap and recover from the hike. The weather kept changing – from sunny and warm to cold and threatening rain. At one point it started to hail vs snow so we retreated in to the tent. Maybe 10 minutes later the sun came out and warmed up the tent so much that there was no way we could remain in it with the zippers closed. The sky was cloudy the whole evening so we didn’t get a really good look at Lenana or the two taller peaks until just before sunset when the clouds broke up, silhouetting the mountain in front of the setting sun. We had dinner in the setting sun and had to keep moving in order to keep the sun on us. Once the sun went down it got much colder and we headed to bed in preparation for an early morning awakening to summit the mountain. Because we were fast hikers, we were to leave around 3am whereas the other groups were planning on getting up around 1:30am. The night was cold but the sky was clear – no rain in sight.

Day 4

Sleep was challenging for Luke as he had difficulty staying warm. I was using Christina’s air mat with reflectors that kept the heat near me, I also had a mummy sleeping bag and was wearing a ton of clothes in addition to using my blanket scarf as an extension of the mummy bag. We woke up with the other hikers because it is hard to remain asleep when people are talking and packing up around you. We slowly got up and added more layers to our clothing. The water had frozen in our camelbacks (also borrowed for C&C) but otherwise I really wasn’t too cold (Please note I was wearing: tank top, tshirt, long underwear shirt, fleece, hooded sweatshirt, puffy coat, and rain coat with gloves, ear muffs with a hat over them, and running pants, long underwear bottoms, and hiking pants with two pairs of wool socks). We had some tea and cookies prior to starting the hike – a bizarre 3am snack. Dunsten met us with his handheld torch and we started the ascent without speaking very much. Most of the hike at the beginning was actually relatively flat – mostly marshland that had frozen during the night. After 30minutes or so the slope began pretty distinctly. It was made of gravel/crushed lava rock that was falling down from the mountain slopes. The gravel was mixed with ice crystals to appx 1inch layer. It wasn’t very slippery going upwards, however occasionally one would slide backwards because the incline was so sharp. We slowly trudged up the incline one step at a time. We could see the headlamps from the other two groups way way above us and I dreaded the abuse my body was going to take. But with baby steps we advanced and eventually overcame the French group. “Good morning” was the first thing we had said in about an hour, and we passed them with a “see you soon!” Occasionally we needed to climb up rocks, but mostly we trampled over the gravel/snow. Because we were moving too fast according to Dunsten’s calculations, we were going to get to the top too early for sunrise and were going to have to sit in the cold. So he started to add more breaks in to our ascent to kill time. Around that time my energy stores ran out and I needed to stop for a break to eat some protein – so we ate a Cliff bar and some almonds that I had brought from the US. As we got closer to the top we came upon the friend couple who had slowed their pace due to altitude sickness and lightheadedness. We passed them and continued to climb, however Dunsten became concerned again at our pace and decided we should sit for a while to pass time. We popped a squat on some rocks, turned off our headlamps, and watched the sun start to very faintly warm. The mood had been rising while we were climbing and it offered some light to the surrounding area as well. The friend couple caught up with us and sat down to join us to pass time before sunrise. They were complaining of cold so Luke and I gave them our mitten warmers that we weren’t using. In fact I had only used my gloves for 15minutes at the beginning of the hike until I got too hot and had to remove them. The Jordanian was lightheaded and nauseous from the altitude. After sitting for a while, we left again for the summit as a group and hiked together. We took one more break for the Jordanian to catch his breath and then completed the summit shortly thereafter. There was a ladder to help us climb the final steps to the top of Lenana, which we reached as soon as the sky was orange from sunrise. We waited for 15-20minutes for the sun to finally break over the horizon and light up the Bation behind us (the tallest top of Mount Kenya that can only be reached by rock climbing experts). It was cold and I needed to get out my blanket scarf to protect from the wind. The French ladies showed up sooner than expected and in time for the first hint of sun. After photos we began the descent.

Not a cloud in the sky – we slowly walked down the path we had taken that morning in the dark. Barren land – like I would imagine the surface of Mars – with ice crystals under the gravel now exposed from our boot prints from the ascent. We got out the hiking poles to help prevent us from sliding down the gravel slope. As the sun warmed the ice, the path became more slick. The hike down felt like forever compared to the ascent. We finally reached our campsite and the cooks had breakfast prepared for us. My legs already were sore and kneeling was very painful. After breakfast we packed up our bags in preparation for the remainder of the descent. As the porters were waking up and packing their own bags and Luke and I were sitting around doing nothing, we started to take down the tent on our own with some laughter from the porters. Elijah came over to help us take it down and then we were off to finish the hike. Down down down we went. My knees were sore, Luke developed blisters on his feet, the sun was relentless without a cloud in the sky. I reapplied sunscreen every hour or so but could feel my skin burning under the new lotion. Four and a half hours later we were walking past the fish ponds on the way to the Bandas. By that point my knees were past being sore and were actually feeling okay again. We had stopped for a quick lunch at the campsite near the caves/waterfall – ramen noodles and bread with butter and honey – but we hadn’t dallied for long, hoping to get the descent over with and return home for a shower and break from the sun. Once at the Bandas I jumped in the safari vehicle and left Luke to hand out the tips we had prepared for all of our porters/cooks/and Dunsten. They seemed pretty pumped with the amount that we gave them and rejeuvenated – with lots of hand shaking and smiles. We all piled in to the car to drive back to Chogoria. On the way out of the park we had to pass the National Park gate and there were some audible noises from various guys when they saw that it was patrolled. The serviceman in camo walked up to Dunsten’s window and they shook hello before the serviceman moved aside the gate and we drove away. As we drove down the mountain we passed several hiking groups that were walking up the mountain “acclimating” on their first day of the hike.

0 notes