#along with caring for the vegetation around the pond

[monstersandmaw]

I am unreasonably excited for this stardew fic im hearing about 👀 (also seb, my love- i always end up romancing him)

Thank you! In all my playthroughs (maybe five before this one, lol) I've never romanced anyone. This one (which inspired this story) I decided to romance and marry Seb :).

The story is gonna feature a lot of the game and setting as inspiration, but I'm going to edit the mechanics a bit so it's less contrived, and there are gonna be more supernatural elements and folks at play... :). And an affectionate, fwb situation with Elliott before the end-game Sebastian romance, just a heads up.

Since you were kind enough to reach out about it, here's a 1400 word WIP sneak peek of Rowan, my gruff, buff werewoof farmer:

(CW: standoffish, loner character with scars on his neck from a werewolf bite, passing mention of a werewolf attack at night that nearly killed him)

This run-down, wild farm, with its endless tangle of fairytale brambles arcing around the roots of maple and oak trees, and its overgrown ponds full of frogs and flowering water weeds, was beyond perfect.

Of course, Rowan knew next to nothing about organic vegetable farming, but that was a problem for another day.

Mayor Lewis dithered on the top step a moment longer before taking his leave with Robin and heading back up the rutted path towards the town. Apparently Rowan had been taciturn enough to drive the chatty old man away, and something about him had evidently unnerved Robin a little. Maybe it was the mess of scars on his throat. He didn’t much care. If it meant they left him alone, so much the better. He wasn’t sure that anyone but Robin in her off-road pickup could make it comfortably along the winding drive to the farm anyway, and it was a miracle that the old man hadn’t toppled into a pothole or a ditch on his way over.

Rowan watched them leave together, deliberately ignoring their nattering gossip about him, which carried easily enough on the spring air to his sharp ears, and he felt something new prickle down his spine. It wasn’t even close to the full moon — he’d made damned sure of that before booking his one-way ticket to the sleepy little valley — but something about this place set the wolf in him prowling. He realised with a jolt that his wolf liked this new territory, with its fresh air and cacophonous birdsong. Where he’d been fractious and aggressive in the city, prone to lashing out when he felt the least bit cornered or trapped, now his wolf was practically bounding on the spot to explore his new territory and claim it as his own, and Rowan recoiled from the idea.

“I am not an animal,” he snarled at himself.

He thought that after bearing the curse for a year, he should have been far more accustomed to the feeling of there being a whole new part of himself inside his own head, or in his heart. And yet, noticing that the way he was feeling was largely because of the wolf, and not his human side, still freaked him the fuck out.

He turned back to the front door of the tumbledown cabin where his grandfather had lived until he’d had to go into care five years earlier, and immediately put his boot through the rotten boards of the veranda with a curse and another snarl. A small family of mice skittered away beneath the house, their pungent smell rising through the new hole to his sensitive nose, and he sighed. “Still not alone, even out here.”

Although the moon was only halfway to full, and against his better judgement, Rowan did let the shift sweep over him a few nights later, and as he sloughed off the complex trappings of his human life and sank his claws delightfully into the velvet-soft dirt, he patrolled the perimeter of the farm where his human self had spent his first week in Stardew Valley clearing weeds and setting up his first organic vegetable beds.

His wolf didn’t think about the uppity shopkeeper in the general store or the awkward blacksmith who’d smelled of a nauseous cocktail of discomfort, anxiety and axle grease, or the harried-looking man in a tweed jacket who’d smelled of coffee and antiseptic. His wolf lowered its head to the ground and inhaled the scents of rabbit and squirrel. It couldn’t decide if it was relieved or saddened to find no trace of wolves — shifter or otherwise — in the area, but seemed to settle for relieved as he slunk like a deeper shred of shadow from the porch of the farmhouse and bounded off into the dark to explore the place with the new, golden eyes of a wolf in place of the slightly blurry, hazel eyes of a human.

A rockfall in the cliffs behind the wreckage of the greenhouse had exposed a damp cave some years ago, though it smelled of bat guano and little else to interest a wolf. He let it be. Trotting eagerly on, the wolf relished the decadent flex and stretch of its powerful muscles, and the bliss of being able to shift whenever the fancy took him was enough to make him tilt his head to the sky and howl his ecstasy at the silent stars.

Rowan knew that being bitten and turned, and dumped unknowingly into the secret world of the supernatural, had taken its toll on him.

His sanity had been right on the ragged edge when he’d come across that forgotten letter from his grandfather in a desk drawer. After a year of trying to hold the remnants of his miserable life in the city together, of slinking down into an old storm drain on the edge of an abandoned industrial estate every full moon, to cage and contain his frustrated, furious wolf, Rowan had known he had to get out of the city. Permanently. It was messing with his wolf and he was losing more of his awareness to it with each passing full moon. He’d also started zoning out at his desk at work and coming-to with claws out and the wolf prowling right beneath his yellow-eyed facade of calm, even halfway through the cycle. The constant clacking of keyboards, the shrill, metallic ringing of office telephones, and the stink of leftover lunches from the cubicle next door to his was going to make him snap. Violently.

Part problem and part gift, his wolf existed purely in the ‘now’. There was no painful past; no human lying abandoned and bleeding and irrevocably changed on the rain-soaked tarmac of a grotty bus station; no human who’d drifted out of touch with his one surviving family member; no bills overdue and no landlord to keep happy. There was only the scent of moss and emerging spring grass and last year’s fallen pine cones, and the echo of a fox’s passing trail across the land which was now his territory.

Rowan’s wolf followed its nose down to the lower pond and lapped luxuriantly at the rich, cool water. His ears drew back and another thrill of delight ran down the length of his body as the sweet, wholesome taste of the water exploded across his tongue; he could detect none of the pollution and chemicals of the city water, just fresh spring that bubbled up from the depths of the earth, carrying with it the minerals and magic of the place.

Yes, this place had magic in abundance.

His grandfather had married a witch, so magic had been in Rowan’s blood already before he’d been mutilated by a lone werewolf at three in the morning in a filthy, city bus station. Perhaps that had been why a bite that messy had taken when it would have killed most people. He prayed he never met his monstrous sire, because he knew he’d rip his fucking head off for ruining his life and turning him into a slathering, near-mindless monster once a month. It was probably only by sheer, dumb luck that he hadn’t been killed by hunters, or killed someone himself by accident, and it had only been by the grace and patience of a blue-haired witch named Mercury that he’d even known what was happening to him in the first place. He shuddered to think where he’d have been without her.

A figure moved in the darkness at the edge of the trees on the southern-most reaches of his property and his lips drew back into a snarl.

“Easy, Rowan,” came a resonant, bass voice, and he froze, tilting his head, ears pricked. He recognised that voice, but couldn’t place it. For answer, he just growled a warning. “Easy,” came the voice a second time. “Rowan MacTavish, I am not here to hurt you. It is I, Rasmodius.”

At the sound of his full name on the still night air, Rowan’s whole body shivered, but the wolf let go of his mind a little. Thought came to him just a little easier. Rasmodius. That was the name of the wizard in the tower. Rowan blinked his golden eyes and sat back on his haunches.

“May I approach?”

He whined and ended the sound in a soft sneeze. Close enough to a petulant ‘fine’, he supposed.

___

(more soon, hopefully, if there's interest :3)

#werewolf farmer #stardew valley farmer #stardew valley fic #rowan the werewolf #farmer rowan #ask me anything #wip

[winterhawkkisses]

Clint making Bucky a pecan pie or a pumpkin pie?

Bucky woke up restless, the way he sometimes does, but he sticks around long enough for Clint to be stirring so he can get an acknowledging murmur and a sleepy, musty kiss before he heads out.

It’s an inchoate thing, his need to move, not triggered by anything in particular and therefore not easily resolved. If he was expecting attack he could hunker down with Clint in the panic room in the basement; if he suspected an incursion he could circle the perimeter of Clint’s land and check all the myriad ways they’ve got to tell who’s been around. Instead he just drifts, through the orchard behind the house, around the edge of the barn, down to the pond that’s good for summer swimming. Every hour or so he makes sure to check in, viewing the house from a hundred different angles and making sure that he can get eyes on Clint, who’s wandering around the house and vegetable garden without a care in the world.

It’s nearly dark by the time he’s satisfied, the anxious energy in his belly making room for hunger and a gentle pull towards comfort and home. Bucky checks all the tripwires and cameras and sensors that fall along his path, but doesn’t particularly feel the need to go looking for more, so it’s only a ten minute hike back to the porch where he can kick off his battered boots.

Opening the door lets out a rush of warm air, and a smell that’s spiced and sweet, delicious in a way he doesn’t so much associate with the farm but that’s still perfectly settled here, indefinable and home. He follows his nose to the kitchen, and finds Clint bopping gently to something on the radio, scrubbing at a pie tin while the pie itself cools on the kitchen table.

Bucky pads silently to the counter, where a battered and yellowed book is propped open and leaning against a crossbow; there’s ancient and stiffened tape just about holding it together, so he flips it over care”fully to see a faded cover that sparks something distantly in the back of his head, like he’s seen it before but impossibly long ago.

“Oh, hey,” Clint says, and he’s turned around and is leaning back against the sink, no doubt adding a stripe of wet across his butt to go with the splashes all over his front. “Thought you’d be a little later - it’s not quite ready to eat yet.”

Bucky crosses the kitchen and wraps himself around Clint, tilting his head up enough to hook his chin over Clint’s shoulder, settled and warm and home in a way he’s found for the first time in about seventy years.

“I can wait,” he says.

#winterhawk #farm domesticity is my favourite winterhawk #can you tell

[sigridstumb]

A coyote chased a herd of deer down my street.

I opened my front curtain this morning and saw a herd of deer run past my window. And then I saw the coyote chasing them.

I live in a city. Like, I live in St. Paul, Minnesota. It’s the state capital. With Minneapolis we are the Twin Cities, a conjoined urban area with a population of three and a half million. Not including the suburbs. I live between a university campus and a highway.

And, yet, we have herds of deer.

I love the wilding of my neighborhood. Every house’s yard has multiple trees, various shrubs. Over the twenty years we have lived here more and more people are removing their lawns, a slow increase in native plants, shrubs, gardens, and alternative ground covers. Folks put in water features, tiny ponds and fountains. People leave logs and stumps, mulch with dead leaves. Most property owners try to avoid putting salt on the sidewalks in winter. Many people have bird feeders, especially during the spring and fall migrations.

And from this care of the flora comes fauna.

Stumps and rotting logs bring insects. Fallen leaves provide habitat for hosts of overwintering insects, their larvae, their eggs. The plant-eaters compost and process vegetable matter, breaking it down. As they thrive, the carnivores have someplace to live. In my yard in the summer we have wasps and dragonflies, but also bats and swifts. Shrews live in the yard year-round. 

As fewer people use chemicals on their yards and more properties have water features, the frogs and toads have moved back in. We also have birds. In winter the juncos stay here before moving back north in the spring. But we also have year-round cardinals and black-capped chickadees, crows and bluejays, and so many house sparrows. In the summer the goldfinches and robins come north to stay with us. 

Voles and shrews and small birds are compliments to the squirrels, both grey and red, the chimpunks, and the rabbits. They all thrive in the warm months and make it through the winter by seeking out the buried plant matter and insect life that can all be found in a yard that isn’t lawn-focused. And where there are prey animals, eventually we get opportunists and predators.

Foxes, raccoons, hawks, eagles, opossums -- we have them all. They might make a kill, sure, but there are plenty of eggs, young animals, and the trash of humans to get by. Human modification of the land in this city neighborhood has also created habitat for larger herbiviores and omnivores such as the local wild turkey flock, and, of course, the deer.

Both the turkeys and the deer love the wooded strips of land around parks and other mixed-use land. There are the university agriculture fields, where classes of students study crops every year, and there is also the university demonstration garden of flowers, herbs, and native plants. The old trolley line is now a tree-covered corridor between the ag fields and a very small wooded area located on the campus of a seminary. The sloped areas along the highway are full of sumac and other shrubs, tall grasses and small wetlands. Between and among all of these are people’s homes, many of which has gardens. The deer love the gardens. So do the turkeys.

A few years ago people started reporting having seen coyotes.

We now have an established neighborhood coyote pack. We think that three different individuals have been spotted. They roam the streets and yards, mostly at dawn and dusk but they can be up and about at any time. Some folks think they nest on the golf course property, not the main course but a very wooded section of property near the trolley line corridor, but that’s not confirmed. 

And this morning I opened my window and saw a coyote chasing a herd of deer down my street.

I love my neighborhood. I love that individual humans acting in concert -- not acting as a group or under direction, but just all choosing for their own reasons to do similar things -- have made this a place where the natural world is well enough established to give habitat to larger predators. We do have to be cautious of them, gods, yes. My yard? We have a seven-foot fence with coyote rollers on the top. (Google it, it’s hilarious.) And we walk the dogs during daylight hours when the coyotes are more likely to be asleep. But overall I am so very pleased to see the deer, the turkeys, the coyotes.

Even running down my street just after dawn. I am glad to see them.

#urban wildlife #city wildlife #rewilding

[cluelesswithadashofsmartass]

Stranger Things Characters Gardening pt.2

Here we go!

tw: some swearing

Mike:

*didn't see the point at first*

*he thought it was an old lady thing*

*then he got suckered into helping will and el with the wild garden*

*at first he went along with it because of them but found it to be quite calming*

*his favorite spot ends up being the pond. he's there so often that the squirrels aren't scared of him anymore; one of them even perches on his knee sometimes. he named it peanut*

*he wants to make his own at his house but doesn't have the room. he eventually decides on putting four plant pots on the porch*

*he uses the small amount of knowledge he gained from eddie's field trip impromptu kidnapping to the library to choose the plants. he ended up getting strawberries, basil, and snapdragons*

*it was originally supposed to be a solo effort but holly was just so persistent and he didn't want to make her cry. and thus began the wheeler plant project*

*he got help from eddie with the watering schedule and things ran relatively smooth. nancy helped occasionally and occasionally stole some strawberries. a lot of jam was made the following summer*

*the fourth pot remained empty for a while. neither of them knew what to put in there. then one early summer day holly's birthday mike and nancy ask holly to come out to the porch. in the fourth pot were three blooming spikes of hollyhock. holly ran up to hug them both*

*we need more wholesome wheeler sibling content*

Lucas (feat. Erica):

*ms. kelley recommended lucas get a hobby after hearing from his basketball coach that he was becoming very tense and anxious*

*yeah no shit sherlock*

*his parents already had snake plants in the house so why not make a mini garden of his own?*

*he chose mostly herb seeds to put in the window box outside of his room (imagine those nine culinary herb sets on amazon)*

*sue and charles are a bit confused at his sudden interest in gardening but don't stop him. sue's fine with it because lucas sometimes lets her use his herbs when she cooks*

*erica caught wind of it and teased him relentlessly*

*he brushed it off. he thought nothing of it until he heard muffled sobs coming from her room one night. his heart clenched a bit*

*he padded into her bedroom and held her until her sobs turned into sniffles. that morning he went with steve to the nursery and made a beeline for the lavender*

*erica didn't say anything but gave lucas a grateful smile. she helped him tend to his herbs as a way of saying thank you*

*one day, steve shows up on the sinclair doorstep with a bouquet made of his roses, mike's snapdragons, and el's sunflowers*

*"get in the car, sinclair." "why? what are the flowers for?" "take a wild guess"*

*he had an idea of who they were for*

Max (and Billy):

*she lives!*

*however, she's in a wheelchair and blind*

*(i'm keeping billy alive for this one) billy is more than willing to help take care of max*

*he considers it reparations after many years of him being an abusive piece of shit. she was hesitant but ultimately lets him since she doesn't have many options*

*she draws the line at him feeding her though. he still holds his hand under the fork or spoon when she eats to make her feel more confident in her motor skills*

*billy notices that she gets happy when she hears steve come to the door with the Friday veggie delivery. he reluctantly asked steve where he gets them. that marks the beginning of billy hargrove's gardening experience add another to the club*

*he tries to replicate steve's vegetables in the backyard. he has moderate success. he doesn't want max to see him fail so he works on it while she's in physical therapy*

*she begins to hobble around on a cane after about six weeks. steve tells her about what billy is trying to do. she takes baby steps out to the backyard and hears billy shuffling around*

*"you weren't supposed to see this." "technically i can't see anything."*

*he gingerly leads her over to the vegetable patches. she carefully sinks to her knees and tries to help billy plant the cucumbers. she relies on her sense of smell and touch immensely*

*i imagine them using burned-out tires from the camaro as planters*

*they try their hands at planting fruits. the blueberries and the old apricot tree thrive. the grapes also do very well they'd do better if those fucking birds would stop picking them off*

*someone knocks on the trailer door one day. billy opens the door to find steve and five out of the six little nuggets carrying flowers and little trinkets. he lets them all in*

*max appreciates the visit. she inhales the flowers' scents and tries to guess who grew what. she runs her fingers over the trinkets and tries to figure out what they are. it brightens her spirits*

*she gives hugs to everyone when it's time for them to leave. she gives lucas and steve the second biggest hugs*

*when everyone is gone, she feels around for billy. when she finds him, she gives him the biggest hug of them all*

*he immediately reciprocated*

This took a while. Did you like it? What would you like to see next? Let me know! :D

#stranger things #stranger things headcanons #season 4 volume 2 #mike wheeler #nancy wheeler #holly wheeler #season 5 predictions #dustin henderson #lucas sinclair #erica sinclair #steve harrington #max mayfield #billy hargrove #will byers #eleven #gardening #plants #flowers #wholesome #a bit angsty #six little nuggets #fuck you vecna #fruits and veggies #eddie munson #the party #therapy is fun

[xianyao-villainousquartet]

Xianyao (Wei Wuxian x Meng Yao) Modern AU Part 2

I haven’t done this in a long while, so let’s do it!

OTP Spring Questions! (via https://otp-imagines-cult.tumblr.com/)

1: Does anyone in your OTP/OT3 have seasonal allergies that kick up in the spring? How does the other member(s) help?

- I can’t imagine either of them having seasonal allergies, but if one did inhale too much pollen, I imagine the other would care for them as one would with a cold.

2: Where does your OTP like to go walking when the weather is warm?

-   A hiking park. The sceneries are beautiful, you’re not crowded by a lot of people, and there’s usually a good amount of breeze so it’s not sweltering.

3: How would your OTP handle it if one of them became a bee?

- Wei Wuxian would build a bee home for him with all these cool gadgets to impress Meng-Bee. Meng Yao would take the simpler route and buy a bee home for him with all the necessary items to keep him alive. They would both try to figure out how to bring the other back to normal, and if it requires going out, they will call for Yanli to help ba-bee-sit their lover.

4: Does your OTP plant flowers/tend to gardens?

- They will definitely have a lotus pond in their backyard, and a vegetable/fruit garden that Wei Wuxian tends to the most since Meng Yao has a 9-5 job, but he helps around during his day offs and listens to Wei Wuxian talk about his masterpieces passionately. They’re not big on a pretty flower garden, and their indoor plants are basic useful low maintenance ones like a snake plant. 

5: Does your OTP like the beauty and new life of spring, or the cold winter?

- Wei Wuxian prefers the Summer and Meng Yao prefers Autumn, but if you had them decide which one, they would pick the spring since they’re tropical people. They would rather deal with rain than snow. 

6: Does your OTP celebrate any holidays during the spring? How?

- They’re Chinese, and they do have a Spring Festival, though it’s more of a New Years festival that takes place late Winter. During Spring, they will definitely celebrate the Qingming Festival to pray for their parents if they’re dead in the AU. For Labor Day, depending on what jobs they have, they will stay in and become couch potatoes binging on television shows, since they’re such busy people. For the Dragon boat Festival, Wei Wuxian would definitely be participating in it, and Meng Yao would support him from the sidelines. 

-Meng Yao is also a Buddhist (of sorts), so he will be also celebrating their holidays in his own way and Wei Wuxian will be supportive.

7: What sorts of spring sports does either member of your OTP participate in?

- They’re both athletic, and swimming is the number one sport they both participate as river people. Along with water polo, rowing, fencing and volleyball.

- Separately, Meng Yao would invest in badminton and Wei Wuxian would get into lacrosse. 

8: Does the other member cheer their lover on?

- Absolutely! Meng Yao would bring out his Yunmeng dialect into that audience during his boyfriend’s lacrosse games, terrifying the shit out of those near him! Wei Wuxian would cheer him on while remaining on his best behavior, but if he hears someone speak bad about his boyfriend, he might get into a fight and get kicked out. Not without slaughtering the asshole’s ego though. 

9: If your OTP watches anime, what shows would they be looking forward to this spring season?

- They’re both Attack on Titans fans. Meng Yao’s favorite character is Erwin and cried when he died. Wei Wuxian’s favorite is Sasha and became distraught when she died. 

- A new anime that they would get into is Mashle because it kind of resonates with them, but they also love anime comedies.

10: How would your OTP react if it started to snow during spring?

- They’d investigate the cause first. Afterwards, they would go out to examine and play with the snow to experience the rare event. They’d probably travel to one of their sibling’s or friend’s place to share the moment.

11: Which member of your OTP accidentally wears an outfit too warm for the weather? Which member of your OTP accidentally wears an outfit not warm enough for the weather?

- Meng Yao for the former and Wei Wuxian for the latter.

12: What kind of flowers does your OTP give to each other?

- Meng Yao’s favorite flowers are chrysanthemums, and Wei Wuxian is careful to choose the right color. As for Wei Wuxian, lotus flowers aren’t good for a bouquet, so instead Meng Yao gifts him gladioli flowers which stand as a symbolism of one’s moral and loyal character and remembrance.

13: Which member of your OTP freaks out when they hear an ice cream truck pass by?

- Wei Wuxian a 100%! He would even go the extra step to rush to Meng Yao and convince him like a child to follow him to the ice cream truck.

14: Does your OTP care about how green their lawn is? Do they even have a lawn?

- Meng Yao cares about how green his lawn is since he cares about outside appearance, so he hires someone to take care of the front lawn.

15: If your OTP starts school in spring, where do they go to get supplies? Do they end up sharing any classes?

- Meng Yao would definitely shop around to any store for the best prices for the best quality, and would contact the professors beforehand so he has a list. Wei Wuxian would just get his from your typical store, or gives a list to Meng Yao since Meng Yao would go out of his way anyway to make sure he was ready for school as much as he was. And Wei Wuxian would thank him with other preparations for the semester. 

- And no to the classes because Wuxian would be working to get his degree in science to become a pharmaceutical scientist, and Meng Yao would be studying to get a degree in business administration.

16: Who would surprise the other with flowers?

- Meng Yao definitely has that flower theme going because of his family, but I don’t see them as the type of couple to give each other flowers as surprise gifts. Their surprise romantic gifts would be a cup of coffee. 

17: Who’s more likely to make a flower crown for the other?

- Wei Wuxian.

18: Does your OTP prefer to go outside during the spring, or do they prefer staying inside and cuddling up on a couch?

-Definitely going outside. They cuddled enough during the Winter/Raining Season, they need to go out and jog.

19: What sorts of wildlife would your OTP like to see? What kind of wildlife would they not like to see?

- They’d like to see insect wildlife since they’re the most diverse and interesting type of wildlife. They wouldn’t want to see mountain wildlife, especially on a hiking trip.

21: Which one would surprise the other by taking them to the beach before the summer crowd comes?

- Meng Yao would surprise Wei Wuxian with this, especially after a long stressful project. It would be right before sunrise. It’s cold, so they’re covered in winter jackets and pants, playing with sparklers, or those fun light up toys. They’d then have their breakfast inside the open trunk of their car while watching the sun rise, listening to alternative indie music in the background. After the sun is fully up, they do different things like building sandcastles, draw elaborate sketches in the sand, take a swim once its warm enough and more.

22: Which one’s hat would blow away in the wind and which one would go after the hat and bring it back?

- Wei Wuxian a 100%. He’d be doing parkour to get that hat! 

#xianyao

[nowvves]

Creating Your Dream Patio Pond

Adding a patio pond to your outdoor space can transform it into a tranquil oasis, bringing the soothing sights and sounds of nature right to your doorstep. Whether you have a sprawling backyard or a cozy balcony, building a patio pond is a rewarding DIY project that enhances the aesthetics and ambiance of your outdoor area. In this guide, we'll walk you through the step-by-step process of creating your own patio pond, from planning and design to maintenance tips for keeping your pond thriving.

Planning Your Patio Pond Design

Before you dive into the construction phase, take some time to plan out the design of your patio pond. Consider the size and shape of your outdoor space, as well as any existing landscaping features. Choose a location that receives adequate sunlight and complements the overall aesthetic of your patio or garden. Additionally, think about the type of pond you want to create – whether it's a formal koi pond, a natural wildlife habitat, or a serene water garden filled with aquatic plants.

Gathering Materials and Supplies

Once you have a clear vision of your patio pond design, it's time to gather the necessary materials and supplies. Here's a basic list of what you'll need:

Pond Liner: Choose a durable, flexible liner that is resistant to punctures and UV degradation. EPDM rubber liners are a popular choice for patio ponds.

Pump and Filtration System: A reliable pump and filtration system are essential for maintaining water quality and circulation in your pond.

Rocks and Gravel: Select natural rocks and gravel to create a naturalistic shoreline and provide habitat for beneficial bacteria and aquatic plants.

Plants: Choose a variety of aquatic plants, such as water lilies, lotus, and water hyacinths, to add beauty and oxygenate the water.

Fish (Optional): If you're interested in keeping fish in your patio pond, consider species that are well-suited to your climate and pond size, such as goldfish or mosquito fish.

Building Your Patio Pond

Now that you have all the necessary materials, it's time to start building your patio pond. Follow these steps:

Excavation: Dig a hole in the desired location for your pond, making sure to create a variety of depths to accommodate different types of plants and wildlife.

Install the Liner: Lay the pond liner in the excavated hole, ensuring that it is smooth and free of wrinkles. Trim any excess liner, leaving a generous overlap around the edges.

Add Rocks and Gravel: Arrange rocks and gravel along the edges of the pond to create a naturalistic border and hide the edges of the liner. Be sure to leave space for planting aquatic vegetation.

Install Pump and Filtration System: Place the pump and filtration system in the deepest part of the pond, following the manufacturer's instructions for installation and setup.

Add Water and Plants: Fill the pond with water and carefully place aquatic plants in their designated areas. Consider adding floating plants to provide shade and shelter for fish.

Cycle the Pond: Allow the pond to cycle for at least a week before adding fish, allowing beneficial bacteria to establish and water parameters to stabilize.

Maintaining Your Patio Pond

Once your patio pond is up and running, it's important to keep up with regular maintenance to ensure its health and beauty. Here are some essential maintenance tasks:

Water Quality: Test the water regularly for pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, and perform partial water changes as needed to maintain optimal water quality.

Plant Care: Trim and remove dead foliage from aquatic plants, and thin out overgrown plants to prevent overcrowding.

Fish Care: If you have fish in your pond, monitor their health and behavior regularly, and provide appropriate food and shelter.

Pump and Filter Maintenance: Clean and inspect the pump and filtration system regularly to prevent clogs and ensure proper function.

Building a patio pond is a fulfilling project that adds beauty, tranquility, and biodiversity to your outdoor space. By following the steps outlined in this guide and staying on top of maintenance tasks, you can create a stunning water feature that enhances your patio or garden for years to come.

FAQs

Q1: Do I need a permit to build a patio pond? A1: The regulations regarding permits for patio ponds vary depending on your location and the size of the pond. It's best to check with your local government or homeowner's association to determine if any permits are required.

Q2: Can I use tap water to fill my patio pond? A2: Tap water can be used to fill your patio pond, but it may contain chlorine or chloramines, which can be harmful to fish and aquatic plants. Consider treating the water with a dechlorinator before adding it to the pond, or let it sit for 24 hours to allow the chlorine to dissipate.

Q3: How often should I clean my patio pond? A3: The frequency of cleaning your patio pond will depend on factors such as the size of the pond, the number of fish and plants, and the local environment. Generally, you should perform routine maintenance tasks such as removing debris and testing water quality on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, with more thorough cleanings as needed.

#water feature #backyard pond #pond ideas

[calenheart01]

Wings by R + F

Ok here is Chapter 7 as promised and this will be the last chapter for the next two weeks as I need time to figure some things out. Have a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Chapter 7

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                The start of the journey was quite unnerving as we followed the small path through the dark woods. The area was eerily quiet, the ground seemed to swallow the sound of our footsteps. No matter where we stepped it was quiet, the dried twigs laying throughout the path dare not break either, for fear of awakening whatever beast sleeps here. It does not matter much, I do not feel like talking to my sister, I couldn’t believe she’d suggested we abandon the princess. She cannot fool me anymore, the last time she said she’d come back she didn’t, well not this time. I don’t care what she thinks, I’m not leaving. The path opens into a wider trail, the area behind us clearly separated from the new vegetation ahead, and we all sigh with relief. Most of the journey had been in a confined thorny vine tunnel like pathway; because according to dewy that was the only way to go.

“What is that place?” Ash questions with a shiver.

She has changed from the last time I saw her, or maybe I have changed, maybe the hopeful child I once was is gone. Either way, we don’t know each other anymore, so neither of us could trust what the other said. Dewy glances around cautiously before answering her. “The dark woods of Kanderslew, he’s a massive dragon said to be made of Vine and Bones, he sleeps somewhere in that area awaiting his master’s command.”                 Whoever his master is, I hope we never cross paths. A dark green vine seems to reach out and grab hold of my ankle causing me to fall, something clinks together noisily and as I glance down, a fearful yelp slips out of my mouth. Ash is quick to cover it, and I nod fearfully as I point down at the bones I had fallen on, it wasn’t a singular skeleton I just so happened to land on a rather large pile of bones, all seeming charred to death before being left to rot in the darkness of the woods. The three of grimace and Dewy shivers before silently ushering us forward.  Quickly Continuing forward, we listen to the birds singing lightly as we pass by into a much brighter place.

Dewy stands on my shoulder and stretches his wings outwards, the broken one looks good as new, save for the rather large discolored scar running through it. Apologizing once again he waves us off with the last of the directions before he leaves us for his home.

 Ash sighs in slight annoyance. “He’s not going to see us there?”                 She doesn’t let me speak, abruptly pushing passed me to move along on the pointed pathway, kicking rocks as she goes. It’s a short walk that turns into a long crawl through the underbrush entryway, the thick outer protection encasing the spirit pond is tough, and layered with thorns that grab at our clothes. The other side however is beautiful, the pond more lake is deep, the bottom long gone from view and the path on the opposite side almost invisible. The water swirls in beautiful blues and greens, whisps of white swooshing by, it all swirls to the center where the water seems to bubble and rise. It stands like a waterfall before it solidifies into a person…a child…they yawn and rub their eyes as they walk towards us slowly.                 “Wow, more friends to meet already?” The boy speaks to himself as he gets closer to us, he reaches a hand out but quickly retracts it, “No not quite your time…” He seems to pause, his glowing eyes scrunching into a smile as he speaks again.

“What are you guys doing here? Oh! Have you come to visit? It’s been so long; I was starting to think I’d been forgotten…” The boy’s smile is bright as he waves us towards the waters’ edge. Ash looks at him in astonishment as he babbles on about his collection of human teas, the black curls on his head bounce as he gestures towards my pack in excitement. “You even brought me a gift!” He holds out his hand and a strange frog covered in mushrooms I hadn’t seen jumps forward. “But what exactly is it? It doesn’t feel right…” “Um…excuse me, but I’m afraid I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know where the frog came from… please, I don’t understand what you’re talking about and we really don’t have time.” I rub the back of my neck sheepishly as his smile falls, his rambling had started to make me anxious.

Holding his finger up to me he stares at the frog while it croaks to him, I find it strange but wait for it to finish, ignoring Ash’s mumbled confusion. He looks at the two of us before straightening himself. “Oh goodness, I wasn’t aware I was with the two of you…yes, we must get you back on course and quickly…” He waves his hand over the water and tells us to step on to the small lit platform, and cautiously we follow his directions, silently hoping we wouldn’t be harmed.                 The whole interaction was odd, he kept talking of past meetings with us the whole ride over to the other side, urging us to do it correctly this time; whatever that is supposed to mean. Once over to the other side he ushers us to move quickly, looking back and forth between us and the other pathway, I offer a rushed thank you as we speed away in slight fear. My heart hammers loudly in my ears as we bound over the forest terrain, my stomach jumping to my throat the closer we get to our supposed safe haven. I understand now how truly scared I am.                 Pushing ourselves faster we excite at the sight of the forest’s edge. The new town’s towering entrance gate comes into view, its branded banner old and worn, just like its cobblestone streets. The townsfolk stand at their stalls offering what they can to the evacuated people of Gipysm. Most of our townsfolk shuffle closely with their families as they head towards the boats, too afraid to separate and get lost from each other, grabbing what they can on the way.

“Come on, we’ll get some gear and head for the boats at the front.” Nodding at her statement we slow as we pass through the gate, I didn’t want to argue here, I’m only hoping that in all this chaos I can slip away from her.

                Few people pay notice to us, and some move away cautiously, our roughed exterior an unknown threat to them. Ash holds tight to my hand as she leads me though the crowd, many of the stall owners call out for our attention, offering food and spare clothes. She ignores them all to finally stop at a small indoor shop, the sign on the front stating its clearly closed to everyone, but the golden bell dings quietly as she pushes the worn blue door open. There’s a man inside, tall but stocky, a tattoo of what looks to be a dragon races down the outside of his left arm as he steps quickly towards Ash. To say I’m baffled is an understatement, the man cups her face as he pulls her into a passionate kiss. “My love!” He starts, speaking in between more chaste kisses. “I was worried sick” He continues as she smiles daintily, something I didn’t know she could do, and then they part to stare lovingly at each other. “Jae...this is my beloved and betrothed…Darius.” She runs her thumb over the back of his hand, he sticks his other out to me, but I stare in disbelief.

“You must be the famed little sister I keep hearing so much about.” He smiles and I can tell he’s trying to be genuine but this new information has brought me nothing but pain.

“And you must be…out of your mind…”

I can feel tears begin to well within my eyes and I can no longer bare the sight of his face. Ash’s expression is one of surprise, her yellow irises blown so wide the color is almost invisible. I’m halfway out the door by the time she grabs my arm.

“What is wrong with you, I thought you’d be happy for me?!” I keep my hand on the door handle, my fingers tightening to keep from shaking, and refuse to look at her.

“Believe me…I’m happy for you. I’m happy you found a family that finally lives up to your standard… but now’s not really a great time to ‘meet the in-laws’” I pull my arm from her hold and leave her standing there in silence.

                I hear the bell jingle again as the door closes behind me, the tension from the shop dissipating into the air of the busy crowd. I have few coins left on me, the bulk of my wealth lost to the river by the hole in my coin-pouch. I would need many things for my journey to find the princess, traveling between shops I grab what little free items may be useful. I pay for a small leather satchel from an elderly woman by the water front, further inland I find a young lady selling hand sewn clothes, the only outfits left on display seemed to be of the men’s design; but that was better than the torn sheer nightwear that I’ve been wearing for 2 days.

                I didn’t have much choice on the outfits, each piece seemed to be copies of each other in different colors, the last of the clothes left from everyone’s rush to escape. The set I chose consisted of a deep green vest with a long sleeve white button-up shirt, black pants with a sort of drawstring waistband, and a pair of brown lace up boots that were a tad too large for my feet. I gave the young lady the last of my coin, she smiled brightly but I couldn’t return the gesture, every second that pasted by brought more weight of the past couple days down onto my shoulders. Gathering the items in my arms I turn to find somewhere to change, I’m not overly excited about the situation, but I need to make do until I can figure out how to help the princess.

                A calloused hand lands gently on my shoulder, the face of my sisters apparent betrothed coming into view as he turns me to face him, his expression is concerned and he hesitates for a moment.

“…Whatever happened between you two doesn’t matter right now, we can’t let past actions split us apart in the midst of danger. I need you to come with us to safety.”

                I shake my head, I don’t know if I can act like none of that matters, she abandoned me and now she wants to abandon our Royal family. For a decorated and loyal soldier of the kingdom she isn’t very loyal. A familiar voice somewhere in the crowd catches my attention, strained and borderline frantic from down the way, people gasp as they move out of the way of pounding feet.

“Where are we going??” The voice is masculine, and hoarse from short breaths, but the person it belongs to is none other than the Mabiella boy; an arrogant and self entitled brat.

‘Cassian…’ My mind sneers as he steps forward with his usual boisterous strut.

                The blonde boy has always been a thorn in my side and I feel sorry for the poor girl who has to marry that sod. He liked to walk past my home midday when the sun was at its highest, flaunting his golden wings as the rays hit them just right, boasting about how one day he’d be king. His father still makes him attend sword lessons with my father, he only ever complains of the strain it puts on his arms, saying he’d never have to handle a sword. I can’t understand why he thinks he’ll be King, the Royal Family would never promise their daughter to the likes of him, he has to be lying. Not too far behind him is the princess and another girl similar to Cassian, coming to a stumbling stop as they catch their breath, and a wave of guilt along with relief rushes over me. I step hastily towards them, catching the princess’ eye for a moment before addressing the boy. “Mabiella…” I snap at him coldly as he begins to circle me slightly.

The boy scoffs as he turns to me, adjusting his golden locks as he eyes me up and down. “Neecrusha…I expected you to end up down here with the commoners…I just never thought it’d be like this.” The blonde boy keeps his nose upturned as he gestures down at our roughed outfits.

                I disregard the boy in favor of the Princess, despite the clear exhaustion in her expression she looks to be alright, she has traded her soaked nightgown for a nicer pale lavender casual gown. Without time to properly introduce ourselves, this was the first time either of us had had a chance to attempt any sort of a greeting.

“You…you’re…” Her pause has me feeling guilty again.

“The girl who ruined everything, yeah, listen I am really sorry. I should not have tried to step in.” Bowing my head in both respect and shame I kneel as I await her response, I know not what punishment shall befall me once the king returns, but knowing now that I have brought shame to the Kingdom will scar me forever.

“Who are you anyway…to whom do I owe my thanks?” My head snaps back up to hers in disbelief, she owes no thanks to me for the damage I have caused us both.

“Wha…I…Jae I suppose” She smiles with an airy laugh as she extends her hand to my knelt form, still shocked I take her hand cautiously, she gives a small tug and I stand as she introduces herself as Dawn. The other girl seems to glance at the woods in slight agitation as she steps forward, “My names Casey, nice to meet you but we need to go, now.” As though they knew our next move a hoard of people come rushing out of the forest, shouting obscenities, and calling out to each other to stop them. The commotion draws the attention of the crowd, someone screams out and the streets turn into chaos. The four of us bunch up close and I try my best to tell them to follow as I try to get us back to my sister. Shuffling quickly with the crowd of panicked pushing and children’s cries, we move closer to the last place I saw them, as we near the door I see the two of them exit the door with worried eyes. I call out to Ash as we near the door, fumbling as we struggle to move with the people, Ash and her fiancé join our group as we look for an escape. The evacuation boats seem to be the only option, in the distance we can see our enemies closing in on all sides, so we are left with no choice. “It’s the only way, we have to go!” Everyone nods in agreement as we push further into the crowd. The edge of the docks comes quicker than we expected, the drop so sudden a few of us almost fall over the edge into the dark waters. Frantically looking up and down the docks we find the closest ships and head for the small rickety wooden board leading to the deck above us. The captain of our ship waves a small blue flag to the other ships, in response each of the crews jumps into action, The sails fall down into place, the anchor is hoisted up, and the boarding ramps are removed as the ships push away from the edge of town. The wind picks up in the sails almost instantly as the point of the ship cuts through the water, leaving large bouts of white foam from the crashing wake, while it speeds away from the danger. In the distance I can see his face, sword raised as he shouts a promise of our capture, an army at his back, and the chilling sight of my own face at his side. A sigh leaves my mouth, I slide down to sit on the deck with little room to stretch my legs, we’re safe for now.

#New Writer #Zawa'sproblemwriter

[chaosjustexists]

a hand swooped down out of the sky. people fled or watched in awe as it traced its way across the lands, digging rivers, growing plants, and occasionally destroying the most destructive of humanities creations. nature flourished below it and reached up to greet and worship it. the birds flew in patterns around it, the plants swayed in its wake.

it stopped above a small house connected by a small path to a temple covered in moss and flowers that was a little ways outside the city. the cottage sat on the side of a small hill, with the temple at the top. it was rickety and yet still stable enough, and nature was evident all around it.

the hand gently reached down to sweep a delicate finger across the very top of the temple, clearing away any dust and cobwebs and making it shine. the vines climbed up slightly more and formed a lattice around the edges, the flowers grew in waves and patterns around it, they all worked together to make it more and more friendly to all who wished to come.

then, the hand moved to the house. it made a small motion above it, and the plants grew around it. trees built up the main walls, vines made curtains around the windows, flowers, herbs, and vegetables grew in the garden, bushes formed fences, and a river swooped in and made a small pond, then continued along on its way, going down towards the ocean.

a small girl walked out of the house, her black hair glistening in its pile atop her head, styled and held in place by vines. her dress was simple, woven from fiber of dull browns, greys, whites, creams, and blacks. but her eyes held the most beauty. they were an amber color that shone in the sunlight and they held a depth of knowledge no mere mortal could bear. and yet she did.

she looked up at the hand and spoke softly, "hello, my goddess. what do you wish for?"

slowly, the hand morphed into a woman-like form. she descended to the ground, her brown hair forming into a braid that swayed in the slight wind and mossy panels forming to create a flowing dress. the skin around her bright brown eyes crinkled as her mouth formed into a smile, lined by soft pink lips with a dewy texture.

she extended her hand to the girl and opened it to show a single emerald hanging from a bright golden chain. "for you, child of the earth. for you have cared for my temple well in your few years of life and I wish to formally make you my temple's protector."

"I would gladly take your offer. you are as kind as I had always hoped and imagined."

the girl reached forward to gently lift the chain of the necklace from the goddess's hand and lifted it over her head to the sky. the emerald glistened in the sunlight as it swayed slightly. she brought it down to her chest and unclasped it, bring it around her head to be reclasped. she let it go and it floated down to rest neatly on her shoulders.

her dress transformed quickly, shaping into a flowy one made of ivy, not unlike her goddess's. flowers formed by her feet and the air around her became light and had an extra glow to it.

she looked down at her bare feet and too a small step forward. as her foot floated down to the ground, a light grew in her knowing eyes and a childish grin grew on her face. she bounded forward and enveloped her goddess's waist in a hug.

she looked up and smiled.

the goddess reached down and brought a hand to her hair, "you will do well, my sweet daughter."

#writeblr #writing #writers on tumblr #writblr #female writers

[thehungrykat1]

My Country House Tagaytay is the Newest Dining Destination Down South

There’s a new dining destination in Tagaytay that is surely worth the long drive. My Country House Tagaytay is a charming new restaurant inspired by the beautiful countryside escapes and rural homes on hills and ridges outside of the world’s most loved culinary destinations. The Hungry Kat went on a short trip down south to have lunch at this new venue and I really enjoyed their family-style “heritage classic” cuisine served in a relaxing and lovely garden environment.

My Country House opened its doors just last month at 115 Pulong Sagingan Street, Maitim 2nd West in Tagaytay City. It is easily accessible from the main Aguinaldo Highway and can be found using Google Maps or Waze. It is actually just a stone’s throw away from its sister establishment Farmer’s Table from Raintree Restaurants which has been very popular ever since it opened in 2021. They are open daily from 7:00am to 10:00pm and they have an exclusive secured parking area just in front of their gate so parking is no problem.

My Country House Tagaytay is Raintree Restaurants’ newest al fresco restaurant, bar, and events venue located in a beautiful countryside house and garden with lush greenery. The place used to be a family rest house which has now been converted into this lovely restaurant. You could already feel the warmth and homey ambiance as you enter the reception area.

The main dining hall occupies a spacious al fresco area with fresh air and natural light coming from the gardens and pond. You can find plenty of family-style seatings as they cater mostly to friends and families trekking to Tagaytay for a relaxing break.

Our group of media guests occupied this long table facing the pond. It was a wonderful afternoon filled with good food and lovely conversations in a very cozy and colorful setting.

There’s plenty of areas to choose from at My Country House, including these sofas and tables closer to the gardens. There’s also a bar area for those who prefer to sit up close with their beverages.

My Country House has a farm-to-table dining concept where your vegetables are harvested fresh, livestock is raised with care and love, all from your favorite local farmers. Freshly-baked bread is shared with family and friends over recipes that have been passed from generation to generation.

I saw these cute trio of American Silkie chickens named Ike, Tina and Gonzo walking around at the garden. I have never seen chicken as cute and furry as these three! My Country House is pet and animal-friendly so you can also bring along your beloved pets to join you in Tagaytay.

There’s also a small boutique inside the restaurant selling health and wellness items such as these aromatic oils. I actually bought a couple of bottles for myself.

We were hosted that afternoon by Raintree Hospitality Group Vice President Martin Wisniewski who joined us at the table for a bountiful lunch featuring My Country House’s specialties. The restaurant just opened last month but they have already attracted a lot of excited guests. To differentiate it from its next door neighbor Farmer’s Table, My Country House will be featuring a more celebratory menu highlighted by dishes we often encounter during big parties or holiday dinners at home.

I was joined by Ms. Gwen Jacinto who handles public relations for the company, as well as Raintree Hospitality Corporate Chef Kalel Chan. We were ready to sample the family-style "heritage classic" cuisine featuring healthy appetizers, homemade pastas, sizzling paellas, and grilled steaks for sharing.

I started by ordering one of their Smooth Blends, the Jolly Green Monster (P295). This healthy shake comes with a combination of mango, spinach, kale, lychees, coconut water, and passionfruit essence. It was quite refreshing and I could immediately feel the energy boost. They also have unique fruity cocktails like the Dragon Blood (P320) with its fresh pink dragonfruit and lychees blended with rum and lychee juice.

For our appetizers, we first had the Cheese Gougères (P350) with its delightful parmesan and basil cheese puffs stuffed with cream cheese.

The Miso Bagna Cauda (P395) is a healthier option as it comes with farm fresh vegetables that you can dip inside a miso butter anchovy fondue. These vegetables are harvested fresh from the local farmers, with some items actually coming from My Country House's own gardens.

I really like foie gras so the Seared Foie Gras Canapés (P575) was my favorite appetizer. These juicy duck liver are served on top of sourdough crisps and comes with fig jam, pineapple preserves, and sweet calvados apple relish.

The Burrata & Beets (P550) is another colorful starter with its buratta cheese served together with roasted sweet beets, fresh dalandan bits, fresh dill and mint, cucumbers, and roasted pistachios.

For those who really love salads, order their Tableside Kale & Romaine Caesar Salad (P325 per pax). The server will set up and prepare your salad right beside your table so you can watch them combine all these fresh ingredients which include anchovies, egg yolk, capers, minced fresh garlic, extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, white wine vinegar, and fresh basil topped with housemade cheese crusts.

We also got to try the Truffled Mushroom & Cheese Capelletti (P650). These are house-made spinach mushroom dumplings with three kinds of mushrooms and cream topped with pecorino.

For our main courses, we started with the Country Chicken Relleno (P995), a festive dish that is usually served at home during the holidays. This is a sliced half chicken stuffed with olives, pimientas, sausage and spices, served with chicken au jus.

My favorite dish that afternoon would probably be the Lengua Estofado (P795). This is a slow-braised ox tongue topped with wild mushrooms, Spanish chorizo, Spanish green olives, and potatoes topped with crispy jamon serrano. Instead of the usual thin slice of lengua, this one has thicker cuts of ox tongue which makes it look more like a creamy beef calderata. I do not usually like eating lengua but this dish made me change my opinions because it was so good.

Another popular dish that afternoon was the Chef's Famous Melting Salmon (P795). This is the softest, melt-in-your-mouth salmon fillet I have ever encountered! The fish is cooked in very low heat for a long period to make it that tender. It also served with asian herb relish plus red and white miso.

There’s also the Saffron Seafood Paella (P1100) with its medley of prawns, mussels, squid, Toscana peppers, haricot verts and fresh lemon. This is a great dish to fill up our plates and it goes well with all the other dishes that were served.

The highlight of any meal is of course, the steak! My Country House offers its Steak To Share (P5500), an 800-gram 21-day dry-aged bone-in US Angus rib-eye steak which can satisfy the entire table. All their steaks come with garlic confit and roasted tomato topped with Maldon Salt.

The steak is served with a choice of two sauces from tarragon béarnaise, merlot bordelaise, or truffled mushroom gravy. It also comes with a choice of two sides - potato gratin, creamy potato purée, creamed spinach or miso butter glazed carrots. You can also add 30g of foie gras for P495.

For desserts, we had a warm bowl of Classic Dark Chocolate & Pistachio Soufflé (P595) as well as the Tropical Fresh Fruit Bowl (P395) to end their delightful lineup of specialties.

My Country House Tagaytay is truly one of the best places to visit for those who are planning a road trip to Tagaytay. The charming and refreshing garden ambiance coupled with their extensive lineup of healthy and celebratory dishes makes it a worthwhile destintation for families and friends any day of the week. Come visit My Country House now while they are not yet too crowded, because I’m sure they will be the new talk of the town very soon.

My Country House Tagaytay

115 Pulong Sagingan Street, Maitim 2nd West, Tagaytay City

[phone]

www.raintreehospitality.net/mycountryhouse

www.facebook.com/raintreemycountryhouseph

#MyCountryHouseTagaytay #RainTreeRestaurants #Tagaytay #Restaurant #AlFresco #WelcomeHome

[coolwaymfg]

What Are Amphibious Excavators Used For?

Amphibious excavators are utilized in a wide range of tasks and applications, which are presented as follows.

Industrial Applications

We all know that amphibious excavators are mainly used to work in swamps and wetlands. However, there are a variety of other industrial applications where amphibious excavators can do a great job.

Amphibious excavators are referred to as the best option to be used for excavation tasks around riverbeds, oceanic costs, and most importantly, in the areas which have been hit by floods recently. Amphibious excavators can help optimize operating time and save tons of expenses in such areas. In addition, amphibious excavators can make the job easier in several other applications, which include disaster and flood recovery efforts, environmental remediation, dredging, highway laying, and pipeline laying.

Environmental Dredging

Amphibious excavators are not only limited to the construction areas but can be extended to work for environmental dredging. Traditional excavators can make the task much harder in shallow water depths because, in such depths, the excavators can get stuck or not reach the desired area. On the contrary, amphibious excavators are versatile equipment that can be handled well on land and float on water. Thus, the operator doesn’t have to think hard about whether he should be operating too far from the edge of the water or too close.

Environmental Dredging by Amphibious Excavators

The pressure on the ground is analyzed by the weight and tracks of the machinery. If the equipment is of convenient weight and has wide tracks, it means there will be no excessive pressure on the ground, and the operation can be carried out. On the other hand, deep furrows can emerge if the equipment is heavy. Moreover, mounting a dredge pump to the excavator guarantees optimal production and movement rates.

Excavation Dredging and Suction Dredging

Excavation dredging is usually carried out in shallow water areas, which go down to at least 9 meters. This kind of excavation dredging must be done with amphibious excavators because they provide optimal performance and don’t have a limited reach. Besides this, amphibious excavators can remove stones or mud, clean industrial waste ponds, and transform warehouse spaces.

Dredging of reservoir and input channels in the hydroelectric plant

At the bottom of the dam reservoir and inlet channels, a variety of sediments get accumulated. Using the amphibious excavators, these sediments can be dredged to maintain sufficient flow for several plant operations. It is also done to ensure that the internal machinery of the hydroelectric plants is maintained and taken care of.

Cutting of aquatic vegetation

With the help of amphibious excavators, unevenly growing aquatic vegetation at the bottom of a lake or a river can be cut down. To prevent the re growth of the plants, it is important to take out the complete roots of the plant. If the conditions demand, the operators can use special hydraulic tools to remove aquatic vegetation.

Amphibious Excavators used for Cleaning

 Cleaning

Amphibious excavators can easily work their way around narrow waterways and canals. Using these excavators, the excess sediment, tree leaves, trash, and branches, which accumulate at the bottom of the canal, can be taken out by dredging.

Mining Industry

Amphibious excavators can be used for a lot of operations occurring in the mining industry. Generally, these excavators are used for drainage and dam work along with assisting water pumps.

For more information visit us at https://coolwaymfg.com/

[keenregine]

It's only fitting to play the song Here Comes the Sun Quite recently, I spoke at length about my weight issues that have been dragging me down for the longest time in my life. And now, I want to move on into a more specific part of my body which is my face. Oh, the journey I had to endure to achieve the skin I have today was brutal, but the lessons I learned was somehow worthwhile. Not that I would consider my skin today to be in its ‘perfect’ state, that idea is kinda absurd. But I still try to learn everyday. As a teenager growing up in a tropical country, it’s inevitable to have a certain issue in regards to facial area. Especially at such age, little Regine (who never grew taller way past 5’, why is that?) is too conscious about her entire image. A single spot of pimple is already an immediate call for emergency. I was lucky my mom was always around to give me tons of unconventional advice that actually works every single time. From then on, I devoted myself on following her teachings until this very day, no questions asked. Even if I have an access with a much bigger source such as the internet, and the ever evolving industry towards skin care, I still look back from what my mom have taught throughout those years. Many thanks to her. As I’ve said, a pimple is a major catastrophe during my budding stage, so my mom’s solution? Dabbing a red lipstick on it overnight and watch it dry the next morning or the next after that. She’s very specific that it’s red and has a matte finish ergo fast drying effect, even when I look like a small pox victim when I’m sleeping but I don’t mind, the only down side are the stains on the pillow case, oops. I continue on to have a normal day at school of course without the lipstick on my face, not even on my actual ‘lips’, like hello obviously. I don’t know why I needed to say that, just trying to make this longer and conversational lol. So on the second day of doing the ‘lipstick’ routine voila! The pimple is gone. It was easy when I was younger because the skin’s elasticity was working at its finest, rejuvenating and ever resilient, so there’s very little to no scar left behind unlike when I grew older, but apparently not smarter. That’s where we discover the wonder of collagen supplement. Wait! Wait, not just yet. Gladly, I had no massive acne breakouts when I was in high school. Especially I have come across tons of different kinds of junk foods oily, salty, greasy, sweets or any other unhealthy options for that matter, because the top most priority is the ease of access and affordability, plus let’s just say I’m ‘allergic’ to vegetables (I believe we already covered that). But I have learned that I should at least wash my face using a proper facial cleanser, into which I saw on tv ads the one and only ever nostalgic brand, Pond’s. I remember buying it on a small budget size sachet, no moisturizing properties but it does at it claims, cleans your skin of any impurities. Never knew that a single product is all I needed to get through my growing up phase. Remembering it now makes me miss the older version of myself, very basic and more contented with life, always appreciating the small things. Before we make this more sentimental let’s move along with my skin care journey. We’re still at the beginning. . . I have brought my trusty and consistent routine until I went to college. YouTube started booming like a massive wild fire. It became my best friend, my everyday companion who entertains and answers to my questions in life. That’s where I discovered the art of makeup. I didn’t know what I was doing half of the time, all I believed was whatever they’re using I should also have it, or close. I dwell for so long in that whirlpool of unnecessary obsession, ignorant with a much realistic surrounding for example my studies. I can’t help but tell myself I could’ve done better with my grades if only I have focused more. I didn’t fail any subjects at that time (utterly passing), but increasing my grades higher would’ve been nicer. Everything happens for a reason, all the phases we went through was there for a great cause. I think? Starting to work as a nurse also comes with doing night shifts. Meaning, the body has the need to adjust entirely with the sleeping cycle. Pimples come and go at some certain moments, maybe a couple or a trio but it wasn’t quite a major issue for me. I just continue on with my unhealthy eating, staying up late and my precarious skincare. Until. . . In 2015, I had the opportunity to work abroad in a place where I’m still sitting right now. I’m about to leave Saudi for good, but I’ll share that thrilling journey another time, and it’s gonna be a long one. Going back, having no research about the weather of the place where I’m moving into was a great failure, I was so unprepared. I underestimated the high temperatures and low humidity of the new environment. Therefore, my skin was trying its best to adapt and protect until it no longer survived and eventually had the worst acne breakout in the history. At first I thought it was just a ‘seasonal’ change. But winter came until the next summer arrived again and I’m left with the same situation. I still kept pictures of me with a large group of acne happily dancing in my face, it’s depressing tis one of the darkest moments. Since, a lot of informative sources are available online, I went and dig into those. I started with home remedies, *Disclaimer, if you are a certified skincare expert reading this, I will you give all the right to judge my previous acne solutions. Yeah, home remedies, I tried lemon, slicing it in half and then dragging and spreading that lemon juice into my face until it dries. Slightly crying from the acidity when it accidentally hits one of my eye, or both. What a genius. I might have included some drops of honey in there if I’m not mistaken, I mean what am I making? an anti oxidant drink but for face. Anyway, it didn’t went well so I stopped. I realized that I’m earning more than I used to, so I have come up with a ridiculous idea of spending money on heavily advertised acne treatment. Enter pro-activ, As claimed, it has a promising effect of clearing up the skin in span of one month I think. I went ahead and purchase a second time, I used it consecutively for two months, no fail. After those few months, I didn’t notice any difference at all. My acne never stopped growing in scattered places, one gone and then came another, it was dreadful. I gave up and eventually think of another solution. I told myself, maybe I should stop stressing too much about this, probably another major reason that led me to that breakout. Supermarkets in Saudi really lives up to the definition ‘super’. It’s always enormous and so are the shopping carts, totally unrelated forgive me but I’m in the verge of falling asleep now. However, I want to finish this in one sitting, but also it’s six am now. Lame excuse. Okay, so. As I was saying, formulating your own perfect skincare routine might be one of the most difficult task in the world. I’m not claiming to be an expert yet again, this is gathered from my own experience. I failed a lot of times mind you. I strongly believe that it’s important that you know your ‘exact’ skin type. Only then you can select what is suitable and might work well for you. Sometimes or maybe most of the time, putting less on your face is actually quite helpful than using a product your skin doesn’t really need, which brings far more negative effects. I learned it all in the hardest ways one could ever imagine. I mentioned supermarkets earlier because it is the reason I find Neutrogena facial scrub, that green colored one with a smell of lime. Worked moderately for a reasonable amount of time, mainly stabilized my unsettling acnes. But never completely gone. Much like my acne I was also unsettled, never giving up with the clearing up project. Then I heard about the Indian healing clay, the one where you mix the cement-looking powder to a certain number of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, apply to your face like a mask, leave for a few minutes, the pulsating feeling is quite worrying but tolerable, then ‘apparently’ your skin will clear up after one week of continuous use. I never got the intended result, I only used it because it trending lol. Bandwagon gaming, big mistake. There are massive claims now that it’s harmful to your skin, and also extremely drying. I still have a long way to go but it’s getting really late now, the sun is already shining. I hope I could interest you with the continuation even if no one asked. If you feel like there’s no single chance of hope left, a change of perspective might help. Hehe anudaw until next time bye

[shadowpuppy2]

The Verdant Citadel,

Initially a crash site, the cave that would become the Citadel's relatively safe access to both the surface and underground portions of the Asphodel Wastes and natural concealment made it a perfect longer term hideout from Narmer, as the years passed and repairs to the orbiter, most crucially the foundry systems, were made, the caves were further explored and carved into a proper home. Over time, more survivors found their way to the Wastes in an attempt to flee cruel fates, and often quickly taken in to the Citadel's ranks, now more a bustling township than a hideout.

... The gateway surrounded by the shredded remains of Narmer troops slowly opens wide to reveal the foyer of the Verdant Citadel, a wide pathway leads further into the fortress, quickly branching into myriad side areas, as elevators off to the side move cargo between the levels. The vast cavern is lit primarily by an intricate network of mirrors and prisms that draw in light from the outside, many floor mats are placed around in an effort to stop the sand from being tracked too far inside the sprawling complex. Assorted banners and signs dot a nearby plaza, the din of conversation indistinguishable from here, briefly drowned out by the door closing behind you. A cleaning drone activates in response, its humble efforts all that stand between this place, and the unending tide of dirt. Side streets branch off this main road, people marching along on some business or another, while others chat with neighbors or tend to the garden boxes built on what seems to be every single spot one could fit, occasional aqueducts of varying sizes can be seen above the streets or branching out and slowly trickling in to the gardens and ponds that envelop this place, all but obscuring the wildly varied decor of the homes around you, some are carved out of the stone while others seem to be made of scrap harvested from outside, though having gone through a great deal of refinement, the banners and paints on and around the houses uniform only in the care, cleanliness, and paranoid militaristic considerations of it all. The buildings look made to take a missile or three.

The deluge of greenery is well cared for, it seems lush and healthy, with many areas bearing vibrant blooms or ripening fruit, as you look closer it seems those that don't are mostly edible greens or vegetables awaiting harvest.

The greater humidity is a welcome relief from the desiccating air outside, heavy with the fragrance of the blooms around, and something very appetizing.

As you approach, a large gate to the left, just before the plaza proper, recessed away from the road, a sign off to the side proclaims it to be the residence of a group of biologists, and a scrap of paper taped below states that they will pay well for any intact specimens brought in from the wastes, with the word intact being harshly underlined thrice.

Moving forth to the circular plaza, a large fountain takes up the center, a number of benches and tables surround it, and some enterprising fold have taken to setting up shop here, vending delectably greasy food and sugary drink to those passing through, though most of the hungry passerby head to a large door with a large neon sign above it, buzzing gently and reading "Kavor's Krash" in a neat and straightforward font, with what are presumably translations into corpus and grineer scripts set up to either side.

Circling the edges of the plaza, there's a storefront operated out of a large window in the building, "Want not" claims to help one get the most profit out of trips to the Wastes and to pay well for rarer materials from offworld.

At 90 degrees, with a lovely view of the fountain, is a structure that reaches to the roof of the caverns, the "Solar Smiths'" is run by a motley crew from around the system, united in great skill and creativity, using a collection of mirrors and lenses to focus light channeled in to the cavern from above to provide the heat needed for their line of work, many wear thick protective wear and distinct bug eyed goggles with lenses dark enough to render one effectively blind in any other environment.

Just next door, a smaller structure bears a similar storefront, and an attached garage area, run by a solaris exile showing off a collection of unfamiliar sentinel robotics, the same dark lenses hanging around his 'neck' more of a formality for him of course.

Across the plaza is the 'Krash, to its left, what appears to be a grocery, bins of fresh food are set up outside, and a narrow front room easily visible through large windows are large coolers of fish, meats and cheeses, the person on the counter busy with a customer.

To the right, a pair of open garages, through one you can plainly see a neatly kept workspace, adorned with posters kept behind protective acrylic, someone exits the attached building from a door in the back of the garage, and politely informs you that they sell k-drives and components. The other garage is all but entirely obscured by heaps and shelves of junk, an apparent purveyor of oddities and antiques recovered from the Wastes, or sold by others for some amount. A thrift store, after a fashion.

Opposite the entryway of the plaza, an imposing gate stands, dim and wispy void energy flows about it, a large medallion in the center. Perhaps a locking mechanism? The short street beyond is eerily quiet compared to the bustling plaza, you feel unwelcome. . . for now.

Heading back outside, a gruff ex corpus introduces himself as, Sigmus Zaldt, the one responsible for organizing 'expeditions' out into the Wastes above, and jungle like Caverns below, promising pay for a job well done, should you wish to assist.

#warframe #am i cool yet #posting cringe sorry #asphodel wastes #the verdant citadel #oh beans now i have to name all these vendors

[rngknsk]

The Aftermath

Chapter 2: Dinner

Sanemi Shinazugawa/Reader (F)

Three months have passed since you woke up at the Butterfly Estate beside your good friend Sanemi Shinazugawa. You have healed physically, but not emotionally. You take up an offer to spend some time by yourself at the Shinazugawa residence, hoping to finally find peace with yourself.

**THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE END OF THE DEMON SLAYER MANGA. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THE MANGA.**

Tags/warnings: Shared trauma, angst, survivors guilt, slight tw, comfort, slight fluff, reader is a Hashira

Chapter 1 can be read here.

You can also read Chapter 2 here on Ao3. 

Enjoy! :)

A little over three months had passed since defeating Muzan Kibutsuji and the remaining Upper Moons. Your injuries, along with the others who had survived the fight, were just about fully healed. One week prior to today, the demon slayer corps had been disbanded. Sanemi Shinazugawa, Giyuu Tomioka, and yourself had attended the final meeting called by the late Kagaya Ubuyashiki’s only son and successor, Kiriya Ubuyashiki. The remaining Ubuyashiki children were very grateful to you three. As the only remaining Hashira, they were only able to verbally express their appreciation for your support, to that you three slayers returned as well. If it wasn’t for the Ubuyashiki family, Muzan would have never been defeated in the first place. It was due to their clever organizational skills that any of you were even alive.

Concluding the meeting, Kiriya went on to inform the three of you now-retired Hashira that they had planned for a glorious celebration dedicated to the demon slayers to celebrate humanity’s victory. The celebration would be held at the Ubuyashiki estate since the grounds were substantial enough to hold all sorts of people and activities. Crows were sent to villages and towns across the land to inform of the festival, welcoming those who wished to show their appreciation to the remaining retired demon slayers for risking their lives for such a noble cause, and to pay their respects to those who committed the ultimate sacrifice. Every single village that was visited by a crow had accepted the invitation, many planning to bring dishes, drinks, and desserts of all kinds. Another large town had offered to bring fireworks to light up the skies at dusk.

After you were released from the Butterfly Estate’s infirmary, Sanemi had allowed you to stay at his residence while he remained. You had grown up living at the Rengoku residence after Shinjuro Rengoku saved you after your family perished at the hands of demons. Even after you became a Hashira, you would return to their home after long missions; however, part of you wanted time to yourself after losing so many people in such a short time. You loved Shinjuro and Senjuro Rengoku like family, but a feeling deep down in your heart persuaded you to accept Sanemi’s kind offer. After spending three whole months at the Butterfly Estate, constantly being woken by the voices of others you shared your hospital room with, you thought this would be a perfect opportunity to allow yourself to mourn in a healthy fashion. You spent a week at the Shinazugawa residence, taking time to heal your mental state in solitude. Sanemi Shinazugawa was a very secluded man and claimed he did not need the aid of the Kakushi throughout his time as a Hashira, so his residence remained empty until you arrived. There, you took time strolling through his gardens, tending to his flowers and various plants he owned and raised. You were surprised he didn’t show you his gardens after spending so much time training with him in his courtyard. The idea of Sanemi watering flowers made you laugh to yourself; this tough, vicious man taking the time out of his violent days of slaying demons to water some plants. Through the garden ran a small creek surrounded by neatly placed stones on either side, depositing into a pond with koi fish which seemed to be rather well behaved. At the center of his garden was a great, majestic weeping willow tree. The leaves of the tree draped down magnificently, just several feet from the ground. Most of your week was spent meditating underneath this tree. You felt safe underneath it, almost as if it was protecting you from anything outside of its weeping branches. The faint running water of the stream aided your meditation, allowing yourself to find peace at last. You also made sure to frequently check on his rhinoceros beetle that he kept in a quaint tank. You had seen him once or twice when you had visited Sanemi in the past, the memory of his name resting at the tip of your tongue. Taichi? That sounded right. You had to admit though, he was pretty adorable for a bug, and quiet too. You didn’t exactly know what to feed him, so you tried giving him a mix of greens and fruit you had harvested from the garden outside. He seemed pretty happy with what you gave him because he just about finished whatever you gave him.

It was evening when Sanemi had returned to his home, as promised by the nurses of the Butterfly Estate. In honesty, Sanemi had recovered almost two weeks ago, however the nurses insisted he remain in their care until they knew for sure his injuries wouldn’t reopen. To your surprise, Sanemi didn’t argue like he typically would. Instead, he simply agreed to stay, while on the other hand, you were able to leave just a week later. He had sent his crow the day before, informing you of his anticipated arrival, so that morning you were sure to stop in a town nearby to purchase some ingredients for a hearty meal that you figured you two could share. He wasn’t a picky eater by no means. You picked out many ingredients, green onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, napa cabbage, fresh beef, and wheat flour for the noodles you planned to knead and cook yourself. You also made sure to purchase the ingredients you needed to make his favorite sweet, ohagi. The villagers had recognized you as one of the former Hashira, insisting that you did not need to pay them for your pickings, however you persuaded them to accept your money regardless of your status. It was a strange feeling; you didn’t like being treated as someone of such importance. After all, you weren’t a Hashira anymore since the demons were defeated.

Once you returned back to the Shinazugawa residence, you spent the entirety of the day preparing your dough for the sukiyaki dish that you planned to make and bounced back and forth between making that and the ohagi as well. You imagined how Sanemi would react to making such a large meal, although you were sure he would enjoy it just as much as he enjoyed the meals prepared at the Butterfly Estate. Admittedly, the Kakushi who prepared your meals were very talented with cooking, and you were pleased that they provided such a wide range of dishes during your stay. It was a nice change to be provided with a warm meal that you didn’t have to make yourself. While living with the Rengoku family, you were typically the one to cook the meals during your days off from slayer assignments, and while on the clock, you were the one to provide for yourself. However, out of all the years you knew Sanemi, you never cooked for him before, and that made you anxious. What if he didn’t like your cooking? What if the noodles were too tough, or the vegetables were undercooked? You took a deep inhale in through your nose for a moment, then exhaled through your mouth. There was no time for worrying. If you wanted to make these dishes perfect, then you needed complete concentration.

Just a few hours before the sun set, Sanemi arrived at home. You had finished setting the table, just gathering up the leftover dishes that you used to cook. The door slid open and you jumped at the sound, reflexively whipping your frame around to face where he stood. He no longer was covered in bandages; only extra scars added to the previous ones littered his exposed skin. His face held an expression of disbelief at the sight of the prepared table; he certainly wasn’t expecting a home cooked meal.

“Welcome home, Shinazugawa-san,” you chirped. “I made dinner for us, so I hope you’re hungry.”

“You made all of this?” He questioned, taking a few steps inside before sliding the door close behind him. “I smelled it a mile away, of course I’m hungry. It smells great, L/N-san.”

You let out a quiet sigh of relief. That was a good sign, he thought it smelled good! You removed your apron and neatly folded it, setting it down on the ground beside the table. Sanemi made his way towards the table, kneeling down in front of it before scooting himself forward. You followed, clapping your hands together in thanks.

“Thank you for the meal!” You said, drool practically leaking from the corners of your mouth as you hovered over the hot, steaming bowl of sukiyaki. Sanemi smiled at your gesture, putting his hands together as well.

“Yeah, thanks for the meal,” he agreed. “I really appreciate it.”

You only gawked at the man sitting across from you. Was this really the same guy you’ve spent the last few years training with? He’s always been so brash, even towards you. The Sanemi you know would have scoffed at you without even voicing any thanks and dug right into his meal. You didn’t really know how to feel about his recent alter in personality. To be honest, you started to notice the drastic change as soon as you woke up in the Butterfly Estate just a few months prior to today. Sure, he’s always has his moments when he was tired, or even for an hour or so on a day off that you both shared sparring, but ever since the day you woke up, ever since you saw him cry, he’s been incredibly passive and compliant towards everyone. You told yourself that it was most likely due to the defeat of Kibutsuji and all demons. He didn’t have to hold such an aggressive persona anymore now that humanity’s biggest threat was eliminated. He could let his guard down a bit and try to enjoy the new chance of life that he was given. You couldn’t complain though, as amusing as it was whenever he would yell at you or call you names while you two trained or were assigned on missions together, it was nice to be friends with somebody who treated you as their equal rather than their inferior. Somewhere deep down, you thought, Sanemi never meant the things he said that might have hurt your feelings in the past.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you going to start eating?” he mumbled through a mouth full of noodles and meat. His pale lavender eyes darted downwards toward the faintly steaming ohagi resting on a dish in the center of the table. “I see you also made ohagi. Hopefully you made it right.”

Your cheeks puffed up in a pout, swiping the chopsticks from beside your sukiyaki dish. “Of course I made it right, red bean, just how you like them!”

“That’s not what I meant,” Sanemi chuckled after he swallowed.

After you both finished your sukiyaki, you sat and chatted for a little bit while munching on your ohagi. He told you about how he was one of the last patients to leave the Butterfly Estate, and how annoying he thought this one Kakushi worker was.

“She would check up on me almost every thirty minutes, always asking if I was hungry or thirsty, or if I was in any pain,” Sanemi groaned, visibly becoming more irritated as he explained. He was certainly picky when it came to people. That certainly did sound annoying, however you knew that the Kakushi girl was most likely only doing her job to make sure Sanemi was as comfortable as possible. “It got to the point where I had to start telling her to screw off, but she never got the hint. It was almost like she kept bothering me on purpose.”

“It seems to me that she was just doing what she was told,” you reasoned as you picked up your tan ceramic mug of warm green tea, taking a sip before continuing. “I’m sure she wasn’t doing it on purpose, she probably had orders to keep an eye on you.”

“Well, I’m sure she didn’t have orders to check in on me that often, nobody else was checked on that much at the Estate, not even you or Giyuu. I bet if I had been more aggressive towards her then maybe she would have left me alone.”

You rolled your eyes at his last comment. That sounded more like the Sanemi you knew, trying to scare people away, especially people who tried to help him. You knew that all too well. He was the same way towards you when you both met for the first time. You became a Hashira after he did, so he initially saw you as his inferior. He tried to intimidate you before every Hashira meeting began, to which you will admit, you did end up becoming nervous around him during those gatherings.

A few years ago, shortly after you were just promoted to a Hashira, you both were assigned on a mission together. It was a several day-long mission, most of it consisting of travel time. He was very hostile towards you in the beginning of your journey, snapping at you over any small question you asked. You had always made the first move to question what he wanted for dinners, but it ended up becoming a chore to agree on meals with him. Whenever you suggested something, he would always shoot down your proposal before eventually insisting on what his tastebuds craved. You imagined that you both could have saved so much time on that mission if he had just answered you appropriately the first time. After several days of sticking together, you could tell he was starting to calm down around you. Sanemi could never be perfectly calm, so when you say he “calmed down,” he was just slightly less hostile towards you whenever you spoke to him. Regardless, you tried your best to stand your ground and remain friendly towards him after contemplating if this was just the way he was always going to be. Sanemi was your partner on this mission after all, so to make sure the mission was completed correctly you figured you’d at least stay on good terms until then.

Following the completion of that mission, Sanemi’s taunting seemed to die down during Hashira meetings, and you found yourself having neutral conversations with him from time to time. It wasn’t until after Kyojuro Rengoku’s untimely death that you found him approaching you outside of Hashira meetings.

You were truly heartbroken over the death of your closest friend, and you took it very hard. Admittedly, you were on the verge of giving up as a Hashira because of it. You stopped showing up to Hashira meetings and received many letters from the other Hashira and even Kagaya Ubuyashiki himself, but you ignored them all. The first person to approach you was Sanemi, who had traveled to the Rengoku residence where you lived. He had come to offer you a meal and some company, which was quite astonishing to you. The last time you had seen him was during Kyojuro’s funeral, but he had not interacted with you at all; none of the Hashira did, except Mitsuri Kanroji for a brief moment of mutual comfort.

Sanemi apologized that he didn’t offer his sympathies earlier. He also informed you that everyone was worried over your lack of participation, to which you scoffed.

“If they’re so worried, then maybe they should check up on me themselves,” you said.

“That’s why I came instead.”

You were taken aback by his quick response. That was the first day that you recalled his change in personality, at least towards you. He was easily able to persuade you to begin attending meetings again, and even went as far as to invite you to train with him at his residence. Slowly, you started to notice yourself becoming more and more comfortable around him, enjoying the time that you spent in his company. There were certainly still times that he insulted you for not being able to knock him down in a spar, but he didn’t come off as purposefully aggressive like he used to. Kagaya Ubuyashiki recognized how well you two regarded each other and sent you on many missions together. You eventually became confused over how you truly felt towards Sanemi.

You never wanted to admit it, but it was certain that you deeply admired your fellow Hashira. In any other case, you would have believed that you were in love with him, but there was no way that you would ever admit to something so ridiculous. Sanemi was the complete opposite of you, so self-assured and violent, he was discourteous to everyone he met, which would frankly only harm your reputation if you were to commit to him. But the biggest reason of all was that you were both demon slayers, Hashira particularly. Neither of you had time to devote to such a thing as a relationship, because any mission you could take on may well possibly be your last. Being a Hashira was a considerable obligation, to which you were entrusted to protecting the lives of those weaker than you.

For the time being, you pushed away your feelings for Sanemi. You figured that he was too focused on his work and didn’t have time for a romantic relationship anyway. That was, until you woke up after defeating the demons.

“L/N-san? What are you looking at? You’ve been staring at my shoulder for a while. Is there a bug or something?” You were pulled out of your reminiscing, focusing on the silver-haired man you were recalling from your memories once again. He dorkily brushed his shoulder with his hand. “Nothing’s there,” he murmured.

“Sorry, Shinazugawa-san, I guess I zoned out for a second there,” you stammered.

He raised a faint eyebrow towards you, almost as if in question. You tapped your fingernails on your cup of tea that was now room temperature before quickly pulling it up to your mouth to chug the rest of the herbal liquid in hopes to break this awkward tension. When you returned the cup to the table in front of you, Sanemi spoke up to change the subject.

“I received a letter from the Ubuyashiki family’s crow yesterday, it was a reminder about the celebration tomorrow night.”

You softly gasped, remembering the same letter you received the previous day as well. You were so focused on seeing Sanemi again today that you totally forgot that tomorrow was the celebration that was dedicated to the former demon slayers.

“Oh, yeah,” you began. “It is tomorrow, isn’t it? How time flies,” you chuckled to hide your uneasiness. It was no matter, Sanemi effortlessly picked up on the way your body tensed up.

“Did you have something in mind that you were going to wear?”

You pondered for a moment, trying to imagine the inside of your closet back at the Rengoku residence. You owned a few pretty kimonos, however you received them as gifts when you were still an early teenager. Now that you were almost a decade older, you had no doubt that they didn’t fit you anymore.

“Well, not exactly,” you started off. “I have some kimonos, but I don’t think they really fit me anymore. After I became a demon slayer, I typically only wore my uniforms while I outgrew the other clothes I had.”

Sanemi hummed at your response. He leaned forward onto the table, propping himself up with a forearm while grinning strangely at you. His gesture sent a chill up your spine, and you noticed your face feeling rather warm. “Huh, is that so? I guess that means that we’ll have to go to town tomorrow to find you something nice to wear. I’m not letting you go to the festival looking like a fool.”

You gaped at him, unable to articulate a response right away. Your heart fluttered at his words, feeling flattered, almost honored, to be his concern. He wanted you to look nice tomorrow is what he was trying to convey. Such a trivial thing to be concerned about, you thought, but he did have a point. You would be meeting many people the least you could do was try to look presentable. After all, this was a celebration in honor of your victory.

“You’ll go with me, Shinazugawa-san?” you questioned with wide eyes, just to be sure you heard him correctly.

“Of course I’m gonna go with you, did you even hear what I just said? You can spend the night here and we can leave at dawn, I have an extra futon you can use. We’ll have a while before the festival starts tomorrow afternoon, so maybe we can stop for lunch when we get there. My treat, since you made such a good dinner tonight,” Sanemi avoided eye contact when he complimented your cooking skills, almost as if he was too shy to actually admit it to your face.

Your face broke out in a wide smile, a wave of encouragement washing over you. He actually liked your cooking! After worrying all day over it, you actually succeeded in making a meal that Sanemi would enjoy! Not one bit of his meal was left you noticed, and he even finished two or three cups of the tea you brewed. That was a huge accomplishment in your book.

“That sounds like a great idea, thank you for coming along with me!” You bowed your head in appreciation. “I suppose it’s smart to have a second opinion on whatever I decide to wear.”

Sanemi scoffed, standing from the table and gathering your empty dishes and cups and walking away with both hands full. “I’m sure you’ll look fine in whatever you put on,” he mumbled as he strode off to the kitchen.

You were left alone at the table, looking down as you twiddled your fingers nervously. It was one thing after another that made your heart rate speed up, it seemed. You didn’t exactly know how to handle this new Sanemi, you figured he wouldn’t care what you intended to wear, or to even go as far to take you out to find a nice outfit. Typically, he would mock anything you wore that wasn’t your corps uniform, so that final compliment was what threw you off the most. You exhaled loudly and clapped your palms against your reddened cheeks, hoping to scare away the tingles that ran throughout your body. The only thing you could focus on right now was figuring out what Sanemi’s intentions were with you. Sure, they were harmless compliments and kind gestures, but it was a whole other level for this man. He didn’t regularly give out compliments. In fact, he didn’t give them out at all. But now…? No, you thought. He’s just your friend, he just has a funny way of showing it. There was no way that he felt anything romantic for you. Even if he did, you would know it by now. Sanemi was a very blunt person, and he was always honest with you�� sometimes a little too honest. You bit your nail as scenarios raced through your mind. Being Sanemi’s friend was like being on a rollercoaster, sometimes you didn’t know what to expect. Sometimes it was disappointing, while other times it was a thrill.

Footsteps approached you again, tearing you from your ruminations. “It’s getting pretty late now; we’ve been talking for almost two hours. If we’re gonna be up early then we should at least get some decent sleep.”

Sanemi showed you to his room where he laid an extra futon just a few feet away from his own. You had been using his futon since you arrived at his residence a week ago and made sure to wash it before you first used it and after you last used it. He fluffed his extra futon up, asking you how you preferred to sleep, to which you insisted that you were pleased with any way your futon felt. You were just grateful that he even offered to have you spend another night.

He blew out the candle that sat between your futons that he originally lit to illuminate the room until you were both situated in your mattresses. You turned to your side to face away from his direction, taking a bundle of your heavy blanket into your embrace. You wondered to yourself if you should tell him good night or not. Would that be weird? You always said good night to Kyojuro and Senjuro. After a minute, you took in a deep breath and worked up the courage to speak, but were alas disrupted by a deep snore. Sanemi must be one of those people who fall asleep easily, you thought. It wasn’t very long before you followed, feeling an unfamiliar sense of comfort just before you fell into the unconscious world of sleep.

#shinaguzawa sanemi #sanemi shinazugawa #sanemi #shinazugawa #sanemi shinazugawa x reader #kny x reader #kny #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #fanfic #comfort #fluff #angst #writing #sanemi fanfic

[vladdocs]

Dracula's Life from 7 to 14 - Part 1 By Lyzhina Svetlana Sergeevna (Лыжина Светлана Сергеевна) Original in Russian: http://samlib.ru/l/lyzhina_s_s/dracula_7_14_1.shtml Annotation: Dracula's life from age 7 to 14 is the darkest period in his biography. Most authors do not even try to look into this darkness, but jump straight from childhood in Transylvania to the Turkish captivity, mentioning growing up as far as it goes. I will not, however, do so... The period from age 7 to 14 is important primarily because this is when Dracula began to realize himself as a Romanian. Before the age of 7, the world is pretty narrow for a person: mom, dad, grandparents and other relatives. Before the age of 7, a child does not really care about his own nationality, because he does not yet fully understand what it is. But after the age of 7, the horizons widen, and such notions as "small motherland" and "big motherland" appear. Dracula saw his Romanian homeland for the first time when he was about 7 years old, and, apparently, this first meeting made a strong impression on him. First time in his homeland In the summer of 1436, Dracula's father took over the Romanian throne and moved his family from Sighisoara to Tirgoviste, the Romanian capital of that time, no later than the fall of the same year. As a result, the life of the 7-year-old Dracula changed abruptly: 1) he now heard Romanian speech not only from his household, but also from everyone around him. 2) Home services were replaced by visits to the temple, rich and beautiful, and the services there were conducted to the highest standard, as a well staged theatrical performance. 3) The attitude of those around him changed. Everybody bowed to little Dracula like to the king's son, and even his peers, 7-year old boys like him, were obliged to bow. 4) the way of life changed - many new servants appeared, and the dwelling became much more spacious. _ _ _ _ Historical note: The house in Sighisoara was relatively small - 25x11 m in length and width, if we do not count the inner courtyard and the side passageway. At the same time the palace in Targoviste in the mid 1430s was 32x29 meters in length and width. It is not difficult to calculate that in terms of area it was almost twice as big as the house in Sigishoara. And that again without taking into account the adjoining territory enclosed by a fortress wall of 250x20 m. On this territory there was a temple built specially for the prince and his courtiers, as well as household premises. In addition there were extensive gardens and vegetable gardens, as well as ponds for trout breeding. They were necessary because the palace regularly hosted feasts at which enormous quantities of all kinds of food were eaten. _ _ _ _ We cannot say whether Dracula accepted his new life with delight or was embarrassed, but the boy saw the mood of his parents, who were clearly happy about what was happening. This should have led the child to believe that he, too, should be happy. Intensified Learning The only thing that definitely did not make little Dracula happy was his studies, because after he moved to Targoviste, his education was taken seriously. In textbooks on the history of pedagogy, you can read that all countries that have adopted the culture of the Byzantine Empire, along with Orthodoxy, adopted the system of teaching children. Romania is no exception in this sense. As in all other Orthodox countries, teaching followed the principles formulated by John Chrysostom: 1) simplicity of life, without excesses (so that the child would not fall into a dependence on comfort); 2) education with an emphasis on spiritual values (and contempt for material things); 3) strict control (parents watch where the child goes, what he/she does, what he/she says) 4) possibility of corporal punishment in case of disobedience (Chrysostom suggests "flogging"). Education had three levels: primary, secondary, and higher. They began to study (I repeat) at the age of 6-7 years old. Primary education was completed before the age of 12. Secondary education was

completed at the age of 17. It turns out that Dracula never received a higher education, because he was sent to the Turks at the age of about 14. No one in Turkey followed the Byzantine system of education. Dracula's higher education was replaced by lessons in the Turkish language and Turkish customs... But back to Dracula's elementary education. Elementary School Elementary education included four subjects: - arithmetic (counting on fingers, on pebbles, and in mind), - grammar (in this case Slavonic), - rhetoric, - philosophy (philosophy in the Middle Ages was perceived as the first step toward the study of "higher philosophy" - theology). The process of teaching itself was a little different from today - the children sat together, but each student was taught separately by the teacher. The grammar was taught on the basis of the texts of the Holy Scriptures and the lives of the saints. Rhetoric was modeled on the works of the same John Chrysostom. In the beginning, during the lessons of rhetoric children were supposed to retell the contents of texts and tell them by heart, and when children accumulated enough knowledge, the teacher arranged eloquence contests between pupils, where they were supposed to support their words with appropriate quotations. It is difficult to say whether Dracula competed with his elder brother, because the practice of competitions existed only in Byzantium, but, for example, in Russia such competitions did not exist. In addition, all forms of rivalry between Dracula and his older brother should have been opposed by the tutors, because in the family of Dracula on the paternal line practiced a special system of state management - the king had a co-helper in the person of the younger brother. About this writes researcher M.Kazaku. Dracula's grandfather Mircea the Old was at one time co-ruler of his elder brother Dan, and when his brother died, Mircea ruled alone. Dracula's father, Dracul Sr. was at one time co-ruler of his older brother Mihai, and when Mihai died, Dracul Sr. ruled alone. Dracula himself must also have been indoctrinated from a young age to be his brother's helper. An assistant, not a rival! All training and education of Dracula should be subordinated to this idea - Dracula should be prepared to help his brother and carry out all his orders, and in case of his brother's death he should continue his work. That is to say, he should continue it, and not do anything on his own! Dracula could think of no other fate, for he had before him the example of his father and grandfather, and in the Middle Ages the power of tradition was unusually strong. Apparently, when Dracula was sent as a hostage to the Sultan, he was encouraged by the same words about the need to help the elders: "Living with the Sultan, you will help your father and older brother a lot. And Dracula must have believed it, but later, when his father and older brother died suddenly, Dracula could not immediately get his bearings. He found himself in a role as an older man for which he was not at all prepared. He had no time to be instructed what to do and how to do it, so he had to decide everything on his own, to break his usual worldview and generally learn to be a leader... But here we are, once again, off-topic. Middle School According to the Byzantine system, the secondary level of education included the study of three new subjects: geometry, music, astronomy. Geometry, Dracula and his brother, of course, studied. In addition, it is known that as early as the 11th or 12th century, a collection of quotations from Aristotle about mathematics appeared in Slavic. These quotations together formed a coherent system, so that children in Slavic countries studied from this collection as from a textbook. Music in those days meant learning church singing, but it is unlikely that Dracula and his brother had time for that, because the Byzantine educational system in the Middle Ages did NOT include physical training, and sovereign's children needed this training. The physical training in the case of Dracula and his

brother was military training, where the pupil had to master 3 skills: 1) the ability to fight on foot; 2) the ability to fight on horseback; 3) the ability to command an army so as to lead it to victory. Perhaps the list of disciplines Dracula had to study after the age of 12 also included history and politics. Perhaps, the list also included Latin, but here we can not say anything for sure, because according to the Byzantine system of education all this (Latin, history, politics) belonged to the higher level of education, which, as we know, due to a number of tragic circumstances Dracula did not reach. Practical results of "Byzantine" education In a number of articles about Dracula one can read that he was supposedly a savage and ignorant - a kind of Neanderthal, but not with a club, but with a stake, who got an idea of culture only thanks to the years spent in "enlightened" Turkey. However, all this is nonsense! Dracula was educated before Turkey, and everything I've said here about the Byzantine system of education used in Romania for the education of the sovereign's children - not just a guesswork. All of this is confirmed in historical documents. From the texts that have survived from the time of Dracula, we can see that the Romanian rulers were literate people, read spiritual literature and were able to speak beautifully. For example, the beginning of the charter from May 20, 1388, which was dictated by the grandfather of Dracula, Mircea the Old. This charter is a gift to the monastery, but before going on to enumerate what will be given to the monastery, the prince reasons about God as well as a theologian: "Whom the Spirit of God guides, they are the sons of God, says the holy apostle, and to him echoes every one who values truth and does good works, desiring to receive eternal life - to leave earthly things on earth for the reward in heaven. Blessed are those who have heard the good voice, for they hear it always: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. In the same way, I, believing in Christ God and Christ-loving and autocratic voivode and lord of all the land of Ugrovlakh, <...> as much as I can, want to follow this voice and glorify God, who glorified me and in glory enthroned me on the throne of my parents". That's how he bent it! Here are the results of the rhetoric lessons, which were part of the first level of education according to the Byzantine system! No wonder that everyone liked these words of Mircea. It is no coincidence that in his letter of December 12, 1424, uncle of Dracula, Prince Dan II, reproduces them, and then another relative of Dracula, Prince Alexander Aldea, does the same in his letter of June 25, 1436. Dracula himself quotes this statement in his charter of April 16, 1457. And here is how Dracula's father weaves verbal lace in his letter of August 2, 1439: "And who dares <... > violate my approval and command, such let the Lord God strike with his terrible and just judgment, and let the Holy Lady of the Theotokos speak against this man, and let him be damned on behalf of the seven holy ecumenical councils, and let him be counted among those who, like Judas and Arius, denied the Lord, and all those who betrayed the Lord to death". Of course, many edicts in those days ended with a standard curse on possible violators, but Dracula's father added to this curse, which most modern readers can appreciate only after they look in an encyclopedia. Can you tell at a glance what "ecumenical councils" and "Arian heresy" are? But Dracula's father could! And, apparently, he knew church history. That is, he was highly educated. As for Dracula himself, we can judge the level of his education by his statements, which, of course, distorted by numerous retellings, but the essence remains. For example, the episode with the Turkish ambassadors who did not remove their headdresses under the pretext that the "law" forbade. "And I want to follow your law," says Dracula, "so that you may hold fast to it. In doing so, he almost quotes

the Gospel, which says, "I have not come to break the law, but to fulfill it." And think of the burned beggars: "...I delivered them, so that they would not suffer in this world from poverty or from disease. The very course of Dracula's reasoning leads us to believe that this ruler in his time studied both the Holy Scriptures and rhetoric. Travels around the country In addition to "book sciences" and "warfare" in Dracula's education was one more component, and a very important one - study tours around the country, i.e. in Romania. However, Dracula had to perceive these trips in a different way than his older brother, because the older brother was prepared for the role of a ruler, and Dracula - for the role of an assistant to the ruler. Dracula's older brother perceived cities, villages, fields and forests as his future property. Dracula, seeing all the same, perceived it as his brother's property to be protected. If Dracula's older brother thought, "All this exists for me - for my needs and my pleasure," then Dracula thought, "I must take care of the preservation of it all. This is why in Dracula's behavior when he reached adulthood we find a motive not at all characteristic of the rulers of that time - the motive of service to one's country. Dracula was not brought up as a ruler, so even when he became a ruler, he did not get rid of the attitude that was hammered into his head throughout his childhood and adolescence - you were born to serve and help. He did all those things he did - eradicating crime, winning favourable trade conditions for Romanian merchants, waging war against the Turks - not for himself and not even for specific people. He did it all for Romania, which he called his "patrimony," not in the sense of his ownership of the land, but in the sense of his concern for it. This is how Dracula's notion of homeland was formed, which was Romania, although his early childhood took place in Transylvania.

#vlad iii #vlad tepes #vlad dracula tepes #vlad the impaler #the life of vlad the impaler early ages #history

[stiltonbasket]

The babies. Anything about the babies. The babies getting lost in the rabbit field, the babies trying (and failing) to make breakfast for their parents, The babies and LQR. ANYTHING. as long as it involves the wangxian babies being cute and good babies

Lan Xiaohui's First Errand

by stiltonbasket

Summary:

“Do you have your hat, A-Yu?”

“Mm!”

“And your basket?”

Lan Yu holds up the meal basket dangling from his arm, full of delicious home-made snacks from his A-Niang’s kitchen. “Xiao-Yu has the basket!”

A week after his fourth birthday, Xiao-Yu sets off on his very first errand.

It goes (mostly) as expected.

魂兮歸来！何遠為些 室家遂宗，食多方些 稻粢穱麥，挐黄梁些 大苦醎酸，辛甘行些 粔籹蜜餌，有餦餭些 瑶漿蜜勺，實羽觴些 挫糟凍飲，酎清凉些 華酌既陳，有琼漿些

O soul, come back! Why should you go so far away? All your household have come to do you honor; all kinds of good food are ready: Rice, broom-corn, early wheat, mixed all with yellow millet; Bitter, salty, sour, hot and sweet: there are dishes of all flavors. Fried honey-cakes of rice flour and malt-sugar sweetmeats; Jade-like wine, honey-flavored, fills the winged cups Ice-cooled liquor, strained of impurities, clear wine, cool and refreshing; Here are laid out the patterned ladles, and here is sparkling wine.

—from Zhao hun (招魂), The Songs of the South

____

“Do you have your hat, A-Yu?”

“Mm!”

“And your basket?”

Lan Yu holds up the meal basket dangling from his arm, full of delicious home-made snacks from his A-Niang’s kitchen. “Xiao-Yu has the basket!”

“Shoes?”

Xiao-Yu kicks up the hem of his short white gown, showing the toes of two tiny cloth boots as his A-Die secures his hat strings. “I have my shoes, too!”

He stands still while Papa inspects the rest of his outfit, making sure that his hair is brushed smooth and that his mo’e is straight, and then he smiles from ear to ear when his parents swoop down to kiss his chubby cheeks.

“Xiao-Yu will be careful,” Lan Yu declares, peering into the precious basket and wriggling with delight at the sight of the wrapped-up snacks tucked neatly inside. “I’ll be good all the way, and bring Shugong his lunch.”

Today is the day of Xiao-Yu’s first errand: now that his fourth birthday has come and gone, he’s finally old enough to begin helping his A-Die and Papa with their duties around the Cloud Recesses, and the first important duty that A-Die decided to delegate to him was the task of delivering a lunch basket to the meishi where his Lan-shugong lives.

“Shufu has been tired lately, so he would rather not go to the senior refectory to dine with the rest of the elders,” Papa explained at breakfast. “He could have his lunch delivered out, but the food from the sect kitchens does not help to build strength. Wei Ying will cook luncheon for all of us and set aside a portion for your Shugong, and you must climb up the stairs to the meishi and deliver it to him.”

A-Yu has never even been allowed up the stone staircase to the meishi without Yuan-gege or his father holding his hands, so he spent the morning of his fateful adventure in the kitchen, almost quivering with excitement as he watched A-Niang prepare their lunch. Today’s lunch is sure to be delicious, since A-Niang made sanxian doupi filled with green onions and sweet succulent shrimp, and fried mustard greens cooked with a sprinkle of sesame seeds—and there is even a pot of hearty vegetable soup, which Xiao-Yu was permitted to stir with an enormous wooden spoon almost longer than he is. Papa packed up the doupi in a clean waxed cloth, and wrapped Shugong’s serving of mustard greens with hot rice and lotus leaves, and A-Niang put the soup in a covered dish and bundled everything into Xiao-Yu’s little reed basket with three steaming honeycakes for Great-uncle’s dessert.

“Maybe I should take it,” Yuan-gege frets now, as Xiao-Yu hefts the basket and trots past the scrubbed wooden table where he, Jingyi-ge, and Qing-jiejie were doing their homework. “Isn’t that too heavy for you, A-Bao?”

“I’m not a baby anymore,” Lan Yu declares. “I can pull A-Die’s vegetable wagon all by myself, and now I’m going to climb up the big stair to Shugong!”

Yuan-gege whips around towards Papa, probably to ask whether someone so small should be climbing up that long, winding staircase all alone, but Xiao-Yu hums his favorite lullaby and continues on his way unperturbed. When he looks back on the threshold, Yuan-gege, Jingyi-ge, and A-Qing-jie have all gone away to study somewhere else; but Papa and A-Die are still there, and A-Yu blows them a kiss before jumping down the porch steps and setting off up the path that leads away from the jingshi.

“I’m a great adventurer, climbing a mountain,” he giggles to himself, as he trundles along the grassy track and passes the smaller, straighter footpath that goes to Uncle Xichen’s hanshi. The main Lan family lives along the slope of a hill, with Shugong’s house at the very top and the jingshi close to the bottom, and Uncle’s house is right in the middle; but the hill only gets steep past the hanshi, which is why Xiao-Yu is never allowed to climb above it alone. Or at least he never was until today, because now Xiao-Yu is big enough to help Papa and A-Die with all the important things they have to do as Excellency and Xinhua-jun, so he’ll get to the top of the hill in no time at all.

During most of his walks through the Cloud Recesses, Xiao-Yu stops to look at wildflowers and peer into fish ponds along the way; but Shugong is counting on him, so he turns away from all the tempting zhuge cai blossoms and plants his chubby little foot on the bottom-most stair, staring dizzily at the steep steps as they climb up, up, up before vanishing from view. He doesn’t have A-Niang’s hand to hang on to, to keep his balance, and it wouldn’t do him any good if he did—because A-Yu has to carry the lunch basket and take care not to spill the hot soup inside, and it takes both of his dimpled hands to keep the basket steady.

“Don’t worry, Shugong! I can do it!” Lan Yu exclaims, climbing up a few more steps before squeaking in alarm as the basket lurches to the side. Xiao-Yu stops and takes off the lid right away, dreading the sight of A-Die’s delicious soup splashed all over the honey cakes—but the tiny soup pot is still tightly closed and shows no signs of leaking, so he marches up the stairs as calmly as he can before coming to a halt again when he hears quiet footsteps behind him.

The hill is completely empty aside from shrubs, a few trees, and Xiao-Yu himself, so he frowns and walks for another minute or two before he spots a pair of footprints in the grass right beside the staircase. A-Yu keeps going this time, blinking curiously when the footprints keep pace with him all the way up the mountain: one set on his left, one on his right, and one on the stairs just six or seven steps below him. They must be friendly ghosts, who saw him by himself and decided to keep him company, but they would have made their presence known if they wanted Lan Yu to see that they were there—so he pretends not to notice them while he climbs the last several chi, putting one foot in front of the other until he struggles up to the top.

“I did it!” he cries, clutching the precious basket to his chest as the meishi comes into view. “Shugong, shugong, Xiao-Yu is here!”

The doors to the meishi slide open as if by magic, and then Great-uncle is there, and Xiao-Yu toddles towards him as fast as he can before offering up the lunch basket.

“A-Yu,” Great-uncle smiles, lifting Xiao-Yu into his arms. “How did you come up all this way alone, ah? You’re too small to walk so far alone.”

“Xiao-Yu was too small,” Lan Yu announces, bubbling like an overexcited teapot when his Shugong peers into the lunchbox and makes appreciative noises at the tasty meal inside. “But now I’m big, so I can bring you food from A-Niang and Papa when you’re not feeling well! Shugong, do you like it?”

Shugong hums low in his throat. “I can see...hm, is that doupi? And Wangji’s favorite honey cakes?”

“It’s A-Niang’s best doupi!” Xiao-Yu nearly glows with joy as Shugong carries him into the house and brings out the food, transferring it to a set of serving dishes with plum blossoms painted on them. He tastes one of the doupi squares first, closing his eyes as the flavor of shrimp and scallions hits his tongue, and Xiao-Yu grabs a stray chopstick and pokes the lid off the soup pot so that Shugong can smell how wonderful it is: light and rich and savory-sweet, with pieces of soft eggplant and red tomatoes floating on top.

“It tastes divine,” Great-uncle praises, unwrapping the lotus-leaf package that holds the rice and mustard greens. “If I eat another meal like this tomorrow, I might be able to run all the way from Gusu to Lanling without even stopping for breath.”

Xiao-Yu dances back down the mountain after that, so quickly that the friendly ghosts who accompanied him on the way up keep falling behind, and collapses into Papa’s arms in the jingshi with all the satisfaction of a job well done.

“Shugong will get all better now,” he sighs, snuggling into his father’s sandalwood-scented robes. “A-Niang’s food is magic.”

“Aiyah, Xiao-Yu,” A-Die teases, as Papa chuckles under his breath and hugs A-Yu a little tighter. “It’s not magic, sweetheart. But Uncle will eat well if he likes his food, and eggplant soup and honey cakes and greens are some of his favorite dishes.”

“Honey cakes are Xiao-Yu’s favorite, too!”

A-Die throws his head back and laughs, and Papa reaches for a honey cake and feeds it to Xiao-Yu piece by piece while he regales them with the story of his perilous trip up the mountain.

“It was so high up, and I got tired,” A-Yu says importantly, licking honey off his fingers. “And there were three nice ghosts with me, but I couldn’t give them a taste of the doupi because it was for Shugong.”

“Such well-mannered ghosts! Did they ask you for some of Shufu’s food?”

“Well…”

____

“There were ghosts on the hill when Xiao-Yu was on his way to the meishi?” Lan Jingyi squawks, peering around the jingshi’s kitchen door. “Where?”

A-Qing reaches up and deactivates her invisibility talisman before pinching Jingyi’s ear.

“Silly melon!” she hisses. “He must have seen our footprints in the grass. We were the ghosts, remember?”

“...Oh. Right.”

“Hush, both of you,” Lan Sizhui whispers, his heart swelling to nearly twice its size as A-Yu yawns and falls asleep right in Xian-ge’s lap. “We can’t let Yu’er know we were there, so hush and go along with him when he asks you to help him look for his ghosts, all right?”

(And with that, the three of them tiptoe away, leaving little Xiao-Yu to his dreams in the warmth of his parents’ arms.)

#wangxian #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #my fic #twelve moons and a fortnight #baby xiao-yu!!! #he is the cutest #c:

[draftingteacups]

What are Dior, Aegis and Lukas’ favorite food and activities ? I might ask this question again in the future when Charlie and the final two in Soni’s Champion team finally made their appearance

Dior's favorite foods are bitter ones, usually vegetables and such. She's grown up in the wild where there's a ton of herbal medicines along with the ponds that the Flabebe roam, which is how Soni met her. She's not fond of spicy foods like curry, so she avoids those.

Her favorite things to do are taking care of the baby Pokémon, gardening, and reading/listening to stories.

The first one is mostly because the baby Pokémon at the labs have a tendency to bumble around and hurt themselves from play fighting, so she watches over them. It's one of the reasons why she has Heal Pulse.

She likes gardening for the sake of getting delicious food consistently, later turning that activity into ensuring that the Monet family had taken her in.

Dior also likes reading books whenever she has the time to, although that's not likely when few libraries would ever hand out their books to Pokémon without their Trainers nearby. If she can't read books, she listens to stories as a means of entertainment. It's a habit that she used to have as a Ralts in the Wild.

Aegis doesn't have a favorite food as its taste buds aren't as picky as other Pokémon. Having been a Ghost type for a long time, the notion of food is a thing that it can abstain from. Although if Soni offers Aegis food, it will consume it whole without any issue.

Aegis' favorite activities are usually centered on training itself to become stronger, so predictably swordsmanship is the option that Aegis goes for. The Pokémon doesn't like to let down its guard and is protective over Soni due to the malicious natured people that it often saw on the journey.

Aegis also likes its blade being sharpened and cleaned, but it does that task itself, mostly to maintain its blade. After all, that is its body. Alongside that, Aegis really likes to polish the Dark Stone that it used to evolve. It's of high sentimental value and after seeing Grim eat the charcoal-colored rock, Aegis stays away from the cat monster, not out of respect but because Grim can and will eat anything he sees. So, in short, Aegis' favorite activities are swordsmanship and self-care/maintenance.

Lukas, despite his tough appearance, enjoys sweets. He's fond of Pokepuffs as they were the first sweets that Soni shared with him when they first met as a reward for fighting at the Tower of Mastery. Alongside that, Lukas really enjoys Pokebeans because those are common, yet filling for his stomach. There are many ways to cook them and he enjoys doing so for the other Pokemon that have only ever had them plain.

Like Aegis, Lukas is fond of training, although this is more martial arts due to having Close Combat. He aims to perfect his moves to the point of not having any of his defenses lowered. He often spars with Aegis.

Alongside that, he likes meditation as it helps control his Aura powers and keeps him calm whenever the overwhelming sense of people's emotions affect him.

#ask #pokemon #soni's champion team #gardevoir #aegislash #lucario