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lxvestxned · 3 years

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y/n is massively afraid of toads, but tries to at least touch trevor for the first time with the graceful help of her best friend neville. while also in complete denial about the feelings they are starting to have for neville. fluff + gender neutral reader! 2500 words.

side note: please don’t make fun of me if i got toad-logic wrong in this one — the fear is real bro. LMAO.

Neville talks about Trevor nearly the same way one might talk about a younger brother. Mildly annoying, but also so very important to the point that he could not even remember his life before him.

Trevor couldn’t be a better gardening pal for him, save for when he disappears while Neville is deepest in concentration with his plants. He always entertains Neville’s miniature hat creations, sitting still and proper while Neville has a good laugh.

I could not be happier about his connection to Trevor. I haven’t brought it up to him yet, but Trevor seemed to be an important figure of worthiness to Neville. I also had to appreciate that Neville had the company of a pet in his quiet house on breaks.

I only wish I would have wised up and got on better with the toad.

Amphibians and reptiles are a bit of a sore spot. To put it gently, they are a thing of nightmares to touch or even to look at. Trevor’s skin was bumpy, coarse, and loose looking. Eyes bulging, dark, and unblinkingly horrifying.

Was his skin rough? Was he heavy? Was he slimy? Oh god, and what would his bones feels like? Could Neville feel him breathing in his hands?

My stomach swam to my throat with every thought. However, the guilt from my fear of Neville’s beloved pet made me feel much worse.

I can’t help recalling from years ago, the way I once jumped a foot away from Neville’s attempt at a lighthearted pat on my shoulder. Simply because I was hyper aware that he had held Trevor in that same hand not even five seconds before.

Neville recoiled too, shock washing off his features only while I frantically showered him in embarrassed apologies. He then promptly washed his hands for a full two minutes to make me feel better. The memory was one of those that frequently replayed in my head when I laid in bed trying my best to sleep over the wailing thoughts of regret.

In place of physical adoration for the toad, I bombarded Neville with questions about him any time they struck me. Each was gratefully met with a patient and particularly-amused response from the proud toad owner.

“Trevor is bumpy and all, he sort of feels like really extreme goose pimples— no, acne.” Neville spoke while lovingly stroking his pointer finger down Trevor’s back in the Gryffindor common room.

“He isn’t heavy at all actually. One time I had him in my hand, looked away for a moment, and when I looked back he was gone. I didn’t even realize.” He whispered to me, just as Professor Binns rambled back toward their side of the classroom.

“Trevor’s not slimy!” He said whilst playfully pointing the prongs of his accusatory fork at me, “you’re thinking of frogs! And even then, I’ve read that they only look it and don’t feel it.”

“I don’t know what his bones feel like?!” Neville laughed incredulously, “seriously, where do you come up with these questions?”

Turned out my latest inquiry was the one that lead me to my doom.

The clump of red, yellow, green, and blue students travelled up the snow-white hill, returning from a full and chilly Magical Creatures lesson. I walked alongside Neville on the trek, body automatically crawling with shivers on the thought of toads once again.

“When you’re holding him, can you feel him breathing?”

Neville let out a huff of laughter between pants for air against the hill’s incline. “I suppose so, I mostly notice his heart beat normally.”

“His heartbeat?!” My gloved hands squeezed into tight fists to resist my overreactive imagination from taking over. The ghost of a toad pumping it’s lungs and beating it’s heart in my palms was enough to make me visibly cringe— which I was determined to suppress at all costs.

Hermione, who was a bit ahead of us, slowed to join our pace, “Yes, Y/N, toads have hearts too, y’know.” She said.

“You’re joking!” I announced sarcastically.

“Why don’t you just hold Trevor once, then you’ll have all the answers you need?” Hermione laughed.

“I’ve asked her and she doesn’t want to.” Neville said.

“I do want to!” I sighed, “I just can’t.”

“Yeah, she said she can’t.” Neville reiterated.

“And why not?” If Hermione was anything, she was a problem solver. And I was suddenly determined to prove that I did, in fact, have a plan of action.

“I’m scared,” I said, “but, I figured if I could gather enough information about what exactly to expect... then, maybe I could do it eventually.”

Neville finally lifted his gaze away from the trail at our feet to smile at me. His smile was open-mouthed almost like he had words on the tip of his tongue ready to fall out. But, Hermione spoke up again.

“Honestly, it’s not as bad as you might think. I think you may even be over thinking all of this. Holding Trevor is almost like... like a leather pouch.”

I muttered, “sure, a living, breathing, beloved leather pouch.”

“You should probably try touching him first before you start carrying him around,” Hermione said right as we reached the plateau level with the archway back into castle walls.

Neville and I hung by the archway like we usually do, recapturing our breaths through the rigid air. I did not expect Hermione to stand with us, allowing Ron and Harry to be carried away with the crowd entering the hall.

Her determination loomed over the silence and I felt the need to accept that solution. After all, Hermione was bound to have another seven loaded up and ready to be dispensed. And not to mention, Neville’s eyes had an unwavering sort of gleam in them that I could not quite put a finger on.

I was suddenly and weirdly diagonal with one palm against the brick arch, the other on my hip, and the toe of my boot scuffing the snow. “I could probably do that,” I had to wonder whether I was at all convincing.

“I can help you,” Neville peered into my soul, to which I decided the gleam was, at the least, highly influential.

I gulped, “yeah, I can do it.”

— — —

There Trevor was, 15 centimeters of pure, mind-numbing terror.

I felt like I had only blinked since we were standing out in the pure white snow. Except, Hermione, Neville, and I were very much in the middle of the Gryffindor common room. Comfortable in my casual change of clothes after dinner, but also filled to the brim with dread as the reds of the room edged in my vision.

“Are you ready?” Hermione smiled as encouragingly as she could.

I finally tore my eyes away from the toad perched on the couch’s arm that Neville was half-blocking with his body.

“Yeah, of course! It’s not that serious!” I gave my best snarky smirk, as if I hadn’t just gnawed a small tear into my bottom lip.

I didn’t want to refuse Hermione the opportunity to be a part of her own solution to the problem that wasn’t hers. But, then again, I wish I did only for the sake of privacy.

Hermione’s presence was a bit heavy to endure. She conjured a very deep desire to prove myself a good friend to Neville with her eyes alone. Which meant false bravery was all I could manage to show at the moment. True feelings buried not-so-deep below that crumbling surface.

“You can do it, Y/N, don’t think.” Hermione relayed that unhelpful bit of information atleast a hundred times within the span of the last fifteen minutes. Although, I did entertain it every time.

With the sudden distraction of Neville turning to pick up his pet, I managed to squeeze a “Thank you, Hermione! I got it!” through the corner of my lips.

Unfortunately, every statement of bravery was like a mating call when among Gryffindors. I could feel sets of interested eyes triple upon our little gathering without even lifting my head. In fact, I was almost positive that Dean had made his way from across the room to lean over the couch cushions from behind.

I wasn’t ready for Neville to stand from his spot on the couch, nor was I ready for him settle down in a kneel in front of me. I could’ve forgotten Trevor entirely with the way I was focused in on Neville’s face. He hadn’t looked one bit nervous, which was a rare and reassuring sight. I had to smile at the thought that, for once, I was the one emitting enough nervous energy for the both of us.

He was pretty quiet up until that point, so his voice made my breath quicken as finality closed in around me. “I’m going to help you, alright?”

That was it, no going back. My face felt as though it was glowing redder than the room. The fluttering in my stomach clashed awfully against the dread that was already shacked up there. I clenched my jaw tight, trying desperately for a look of certainty as I nodded.

Trevor sat comfortably still between Neville’s palms, face nearly pressed into Neville’s chest. I almost wanted to joke that it looked like I was about to be proposed to with the arse of a toad, but Neville brought some humor of his own.

A mischievous grin crept over his lips first, “and you can wash your hands right after.”

I grinned despite the huff of sorrowful air that escaped me. The horrid memory filled me with a brand new sense of urgency to right my wrongs. I held him by his shoulders, “I’m really, really, really sorry about that!”

Neville almost bent forward in hearty laughter, until he realized that he shouldn’t bring Trevor any closer. “No, I know, I know! I was trying to lighten the air.” He shook his head gently, “Come on now.”

I scooted forward in my seat to plant my feet flat on the carpet, fists already balled up tight. “Yeah, come on now,” I echoed, perfectly-thoughtless, as Hermione instructed.

“I’m going to hold him right here, and he’s not going to move. All you have to do is put your fingertips on mine, okay?” Neville instructed so gently that I was ironically totally overwhelmed.

I took the look around the room that I was avoiding, and sure enough, Gryffindors were gawking from every angle. Hermione nodded and Dean was smiling extra wide.

I couldn’t find words. Instead a single shaky hand of mine unwound itself and reached forward. It very unhelpfully occurred to me at that second that I had never even touched Neville’s hands before. And you know what, it shouldn’t be strange to admit your best friend has nice hands. Because he does. Not helpful information, but definitely information.

I was almost worried that my aim was so shaky that I would miss his nails altogether and jab Trevor.

But before I knew it, I was touching the hand that was touching Trevor. Which, of course, reintroduced the smile to my face when reminded of Neville’s joke.

“Yes! Now, I’m just going to pet Trevor, and you can keep your fingers on mine until you’re ready, alright?”

I was too nervous to move my gaze from Trevor any more, but I presumed from the cheer in Neville’s voice that he was smiling hard.

He slowly moved his fingertips to the top of Trevor’s head, and I had to press harder to keep from slipping astray. Then, Neville did exactly as he explained.

My upper lip began to furl up as my imagination ran buck wild in my mind. The worst of all textures invaded my senses and made me want to cringe out of existence. My eyes squinted at the seemingly violent breathing and heart beating that bumped against his warty surface. Our fingertips stroked down his back so many times that my movements felt robotic.

It was automatic enough to break my stare away from it when Neville called my name, “are you breathing?”

I blinked a few times, and let in a gasp of air that I hadn’t even realized I needed. “Apparently, not.” I laughed, surprised by my hushed volume.

“Merlin, so much suspense for this?” a Gryffindor near the windows was met with a brief glare from Neville, but he concentrated on me.

“Why don’t you take a big breath, and then try putting your fingers in front of mine?”

I loosened up my face, as I took a deep breath in. The long breath out allowed my other hand to unwind as well. I parted my teeth, while my fingertips eased on to the very tip of his nails. “Okay,” I tried another deep, thoughtless breath.

“You can do it, Y/N.” He whispered.

I blinded myself with my unoccupied hand.

Trevor felt gravelly.

Like extreme acne.

His breathing was not nearly as noticeable as the racing heart, beating at the top of his body.

He had a spine.

Noticeable only because the several wobbly scribbles of a line that I tried to draw was not nearly as straight as the subtle ridge at the center of his back.

I eased the hand off of my eyes. Sure to embarrass myself as the sting of tears felt closer than ever. When I looked between us, the room felt a little bit bigger. Almost like we weren’t surrounded by onlookers awaiting my first true reaction.

Our knees were resting so carelessly against each others. Neville’s hand was no longer stroking Trevor with me, it was upright exactly the way someone would hold a ring box ajar. His face was flushed pink, a dopey smile on full display.

My heart floated up and out of my body, drifting high above my head like a balloon. A smile of my own lit up my entire face, while I cupped my palm on Trevor’s back like Neville did minutes before.

Dean and Hermione congratulated me on my fierce battle versus a backwards toad.

But then Trevor made an awful noise that made me jump to attention.

“Okay, Trevor’s done for... the rest of the year.” Neville hurriedly placed the toad on the table behind him.

When he turned to face me, the tiny bit of nerves that infinitely plagued his features returned while he was very caught up between continuing to kneel or standing up.

I hopped to my feet, helping Neville choose to straighten himself up as well.

“That was amazing, Y/N!”

“You’re, you’re— amazing, Nev!” I must have forgotten to resume thinking because I trapped him in a hug. His arms pressed against his sides and all.

After a burst of his nervous laughter rattled through the air, he tried to hug me in return. When only able to bend at his elbows, he hovered his hands over the edges of my back for a moment. Until finally he placed his hands even softer than the touch I just shared with Trevor.

Dean and Hermione swapped looks then, and I had to shut my eyes to pretend I didn’t notice.

#Neville Longbottom #neville longbottom imagine #neville longbottom fic #neville longbottom x reader #neville longbottom x y/n #neville longbottom x you #harry potter imagine #neville longbottom imagines #neville longbottom fluff #neville x reader #neville x you

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witchcraft-in-wonderland · 3 years

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Ships and Shells (Pt.1)

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There were a great many things that Virgil didnt know, how to solve complex math equations, how to balance a book on his head, how the ocean could be so close to him yet so obscenely far. Really that was what confused him, a title of 'Prince of the Seas' and yet he hadnt set foot near one once in his life.

For a kingdom based so heavily around aquaculture, it was rather odd that his parents seemed to fear water more than they feared the idea of poison in their goblets.

Of course, that didnt mean they'd halted the economy all together, oh no, it was perfectly alright for other people to do the dirty work of the oceans, so long as the nobility stayed away from it.

But that's the thing about keeping an eighteen year old boy trapped in an expansive palace with windows pointing out to a place he wasnt allowed to go. It never worked.

In the case of this particular rebellion, Virgil had strayed off nearly every day at night to watch the tides, to feel the water on his feet, to call out to the distant shore that seemed oh so welcoming when he wasnt allowed to accept its invitations.

And if he couldnt sneak out, he watched ships dock and leave from the harbor as often as he could, his mind swimming with ideas of what it might be like.

"But mother I dont want to go to my classes! The instructor is all boring and- creepy-" Virgil complained, dragging his nails along the table and pouting slightly.

"Well if you didnt want extra classes than maybe you shouldve paid more attention the first time," the queen responded coldly.

"Well how can I! You've placed the classroom right next to the ocean! If you wanted me to pay attention so badly why would you give me a view like that!" Virgil responded, throwing his arms up.

"Well I'd expect you to have a little more self control than that!" And that settled it, if Virgil's mother was mad, there would be no further questions. Virgil mumbled a bit before he stormed off to his classes, fidgeting with his hoodie strings as he walked.

Of course, he still didnt pay a single lick of attention, simply stared out of the window and cringed at his professor's comments until it was over.

And then it happened, he'd walked out of the study, and heard a loud crash from outside. He raced to a farther window, pressing his face against the glass.

A large black ship was docked in the harbor, and the harbor itself, was on fire.

Virgil had to duck as something hit the window, a quick look allowed him to recognize it as a grappling hook. So Virgil began to run as fast as he could, watching pirates was one thing, getting taken by them was another.

Unfortunately for Virgil, he was fast, but pirates with ropes were much faster. Virgil froze as he heard boots land on the floor in front of him, and attempted to turn back in the other direction, only to run into another pirate.

"Aaawwweee, poor thing, he thinks we're gonna hurt him doesnt he!" Said one of the pirates, cackling. Virgil looked up and spat in his face. The man blinked, pouting slightly.

"Well fine, since you want to be so rude about it, Janus? Roman?" The man looked over Virgil's shoulder, Virgil attempted to break into a run again, only for his arm to get caught by someone else. He swilling around and attempted to bite his captor, only to feel someone else press against his neck, his vision went spotty, and then faded entirely.

He woke up in a cell, the smell of salt water filled his nostrils, he had cloth wrapped around his mouth, wrists, and ankles.

"Terribly sorry for the lackluster greeting, we're not used to skittering mice," Virgil glared at the man standing outside of his cell.

"Gee, you could kill a man with those eyes," the man cackled. Virgil let out a low snarl.

"Oooohhh, I'm shaking in my boots!" The man leaned against the cell, lifting on leg up and propping it on a barrel behind him.

"Tell me, what exactly do you think you'll be able to do to me when you're stuck in there, and even if you were out, pompous prince like you couldnt even throw a proper punch," the pirate said with a grin, Virgil noticed silver fangs glinting at the front of his mouth. Virgil lunged at him slightly, only to end up falling on his face. The silver-fanged man let out another sickening cackle.

"And dont get any ideas about escaping, you're on Captain Remus Duke-Prince Kingsley's ship now, and you'll abide by my rules, or you'll find yourself hanging from a fish hook off the hull," the Captain's voice took on a sudden threatening tone that sent chills down Virgil's spine. Virgil watched as Remus turned on his heel and strode out of the room, wishing ever so intensely that he couldve broken his bonds and strangled the man before he even set foot outside the door.

It felt as though Virgil had been alone in that cell for hours before someone showed up, he was short, with messy auburn hair and bright green eyes. He looked guilty, sad even.

"Here's your food, I'll uh- get that cloth off now-" he stammered, slipping the tray through a slot in the cell, Virgil turned his back to the man, waiting patiently as he felt the man's fingers working through the cloth bindings. Almost as soon as he felt the last piece of cloth fall from his body he bolted upright and tried to push his way through the cage bars. The man who'd delivered his food gave him a pitying look, but didnt stop him. It wasnt until Virgil had managed to tire himself put and collapse onto the floor that he spoke.

"Well, I suppose if you're quite finished, youd like to ask questions, then?" He said, raising an eyebrow. His face was soft, even the mildly annoyed look spread across it now didnt take away from the rosy flush of his cheeks, nor the faint glimmer of his irises.

"Yeah, question one, what the hell do you think you're playing at," Virgil said, slamming his arm against the cage bars again, ignoring the vibration it sent through his body.

"Ok, dont get mad, which is probably a redundant statement since you already look like you're going to explode, but, I cant answer that particular question yet," he said, the guilty expression quickly resurfacing.

"Ok, sure, fine, can you at least tell me what you need me for? Because it clearly isnt a ransom or I'd already be dead," Virgil grumbled, smirking slightly at the worry this seemed to cause the man.

"Well uh, I dont have all of the details, but uh- well- Remus says- I think- we need your help with something? Like- finding something, he says we cant do it unless you're with us," the man stuttered, shifting his feet on the ground.

"Oh really? So if I were to- say, remove myself from the equation, you'd be at a loss hm?" Virgil said, the man let out a terrified squeak. Virgil gave a merciless laugh, for a pirate, whoever this man was, he was nowhere near as threatening as his captain.

"Well uh- yes- that's, how I assume it would work- but uh- I dont think it would be very beneficial to you either-" the man continued, his boots now tapping more frequently on the ground.

"You and I have very different ideas of beneficial," Virgil replied.

"Roman? Is everything alright my darling?" Virgil paused as he heard another voice, this one deeper, almost silky in tone.

"I'm alright Janus-" Roman replied, Virgil heard shuffling.

"Are you going to eat? I dont think it wise to starve yourself, after all, a prince of the seas die in the middle of the ocean? There are far less ironic alternatives, and with much more bravado than that," Janus said, Virgil muttered a bit before he turned to the tray, which was, by some odd miracle, still hot. He glanced in the direction of his co-captors to get a better look at the second figure. Janus was tall, with wavy brown hair that was parted to the right, the left side was shaved, there was a very prominent yellow snake skull drawn on the right side of his face as well, and he, to, had metallic fangs, though his were gold, and were visible even with his mouth closed, Roman, it seemed, had no such additions. Virgil eyed them both carefully before he started eating, and he hadnt realized how hungry he was till that exact second.

"And dont worry about excercise, you'll only be trapped here until we're in the next town, of course you wont be getting off the ship, so dont get any ideas," Janus said calmly.

"And what makes you think you can stop me?" Virgil said, glaring up at him.

"Who exactly do you think incapacitated you upon our arrival at the castle?" Janus said plainly, flexing his hands, upon which were gold accents that seemed to trace it like a skeleton.

"Well, enjoy your meal, and dont sit still for to long, it gets dreadfully uncomfortable for your joints to get that stiff," and with that, the pair were gone, Janus fixing his hat, and Roman clinging to Janus' arm like a lovestruck puppy.

And there was Virgil, alone, and very much unhappy.

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#cori writes #long post #ships and shells #ts remus #ts virgil #ts sides #ts janus #ts roman #tw kidnapping #tw drowning mention #tw suicide mention #roceit #romantic roceit #dukexiety #future dukexiety #romantic dukexiety #tw blood

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milkybunbuns · 3 years

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i. new beginnings → perfection masterlist → next

w/c: 3.3k

warnings: bnha spoilers ahead (season 1 episode 5 mainly)

a/n: this series will follow closely with the anime although I might be missing parts of it since it’s been a while since I watched BNHA. also i went overboard with this aishhh, though I don’t think future chapters will be so long oh and I couldn’t be original so I stole the quirk idea from one of my old fics on wattpad and added more abilities to it haha

“Aww comee onn you really can’t be sending me to UA, you know how much I like being at home with you!”, you whined at Keigo, grabbing tightly onto his arm and digging the soles of your feet into the carpet of the living room.

The said man sighed, facepalming, “Look nuggie, I would never do anything to make you uncomfortable but you’re gonna have to interact with people if you’re going to become a popular pro hero in the future like me!!”

“But can’t you just keep home schooling and training me?”

“I would, but I have hero work to do as well at the agency and I wouldn’t have enough time to help you out”, you pouted and kept your ground in the living room. It had already been a fussy morning with Keigo chasing you everywhere to get you to put on your uniform. With a final rub of his temples he spoke up again, “I’ll let you buy anything at the grocery store tonight?”

You looked up at him and stuck a pinky out, “Pinky promise?”

“Yup!!” and before you could even respond he scooped you up, already flying out of the building and flying towards what you assumed was the direction of UA.

“Please warn me next time!”, you yelled over the wind as you held on tightly, you would use your quirk but you still didn’t have a licence and you were still learning how to fly through narrow spaces. Crashing into a building didn’t sound very appetising at the moment. It wasn’t too long before you spotted the easily recognisable glass building of UA, Keigo slowing down for a landing and allowing you to get off.

“Alright I’ll see you later nuggie!”, he waved cheerily, already getting ready to take off.

You just nervously responded with an “uh-huh”, while examining the surroundings, students bustling everywhere. Alright 1-A it was, I should probably ask someone, maybe someone who looks nice. Hmm, how about that purple-haired boy, yeah, he looks like a senior and doesn’t look too bad. You briskly walked up to the purple haired male with elf ears, “Err, hii-”

He looked up at you with shock and you could see bullets of sweat dripping off his forehead, “u-uh h-h-hi”, he meekly responded, looking like he was going to die any second.

Just as you were about to ask for directions to 1-A, too cherry voices called out to the boy in front of you, “Woah, you’re socialising Tamaki! Great job!”, a blonde boy with blue eyes strolled up to his friend, grinning brightly and giving him two thumbs up.”

“Hey Mirio! Wait up!!”, you turned around, immediately spotting a light blue haired girl rushing towards her friends waving happily. She must’ve noticed you standing there awkwardly and quickly came to your rescue, “Hi!! I’m Nejire and that’s Tamaki and Mirio! You must be a first year here!”, she smiled at you gently, pointing to the respective people as she introduced you to them.

“Nice to meet you Nejire-senpai, I’m L/n Y/n. Also do you know where 1-A is, I’m kinda lost”, you had enrolled as L/n Y/n instead of Takami Y/n as to not reveal the last name of Hawks since it was meant to be kept secret for some reason he didn’t tell you about.

“Speak no more, we’ll guide you there since we’re the big 3 after all!”

“Huh, what’s the big 3?”

“Oh, it’s basically 3 students in their third years who are talented and I guess you could say that’s us. Come on Mirio and Tamaki, let’s help bring this student to her class.”

Mirio took your right side, while Nejire led on in front, pointing out different buildings and Tamaki in the back.

“I’m Mirio! Great to meet you!”, he reached a hand to shake with you which you quickly did, “Same here Mirio-senpai, I’m L/n Y/n.”

“You’ll be seeing us around the school plenty, so if you ever have any questions, feel free to ask us or any of the teaching staff, they’re always happy to help! Well, I guess I can’t really say the same about Mr. Aizawa..”

“Oh, isn’t Mr. Aizawa, Eraserhead?”

“Yeah, he is and as a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure he’s going to be your teacher this year.”

“That’s uhh wonderful, he sounds like a great guy!”, you replied awkwardly trying to sound cheery.

“Don’t worry too much, you’ll do fine”, he patted you on the back reassuringly and at the same moment, Nejire announced that you had arrived at 1A.

“Thank you Nejire, Mirio and Tamaki-senpai”, you bowed to them, before they sought you off, heading for their own classes. Pushing the door open, the room was already bustling with students and you scanned your eyes over the room finding a seat between a spiky red hair boy and a green haired girl who looked a bit like a frog. Honestly, the random desk at the back seemed wonderful at first, but you remembered how Keigo had encouraged you to sit around more social people and they seemed social enough. It was probably the least you could do after he went through all the convincing with Nezu and some other things to get you to UA without having to take any tests.

You were really relieved when neither of them didn’t bother to talk to you, or notice you maybe, and continued on chatting to their friends. It seemed like you were just on time, the bell ringing and yet not any sight of any teacher. Frowning slightly, you were about to get up and go to the staff room which Nejire had pointed out earlier to search for Aizawa-sensei.

Luckily, he arrived in some sort of yellow sleeping bag which slightly resembled a cocoon, announcing in a sorta lazy and flat tone, “Go somewhere else if you want to play at being friends. This is the hero course.”

The room quickly quieted down and became silent as everyone averted their attention to Aizawa, “It took 8 seconds before you quieted down. You kids aren’t rational enough. I’m your homeroom teacher Shota Aizawa. Nice to meet you. This is sudden, but put this on”, he presented a UA PE uniform out of thin air, or maybe he had it hidden inside his sleeping bag that whole time? “And meet me at the field after.”

Without any hesitation, everyone got up and grabbed their PE uniform from the desk which had their names on the packaging, likely to have been pre-ordered and filed out of the classroom towards the lockers. You grabbed yours, grimacing as a blond spiky haired boy shoved past you, resisting the temptation to yell at him and give him a piece of your mind. Like what, how can someone be so rude!

Upon arrival at the locker rooms, you didn’t really try to socialise with anyone, nor did they, I mean, your locker was in the back corner so they probably wouldn’t notice you anyways which was fine to you. To draw the least attention towards yourself, you waited until all the other girls had headed out happily chatting among themselves, then followed closely behind them and out onto the field where pretty much everyone was already assembled.

“We’ll be having a quirk assessment test”, well there came the flat recognisable tone of Aizawa, he would definitely be an interesting teacher, that’s all you could say for him. Everyone either goraned or shrieked in horrification at this announcement, quirk assessment on the first day? Well damn, okay, thought first day would be a bit more chill. Kinda ironic for someone who seems like he can’t be bothered to do much himself.

“But what about the entrance ceremony or orientation?”, some girl piped up, yup definitely a bubbly one, she should be pretty easy to make friends with.

Okay at this point Aizawa was just getting a bit too blunt, “If you’re going to become a hero you don’t have time for such leisurely events. UA’s selling points is that it’s ways aren’t traditional, which is the same as how the teachers teach.” You watched him carefully as he skimmed over the class, landing on the rude blond spiky kid from earlier, “Bakugo, you finished top of the practical test, didn’t you? What was your furthest throw in middle school?” So Bakugo is his name, I’ll just stay away from him.

The said boy looked up cockily, a shit eating grin on his face, “67 meters.”

“Okay, then try throw this ball, but you can use your quirk.”

“Sure”, he grabbed the ball, leaning back on one foot in the circle and yelling “DIE!” as the ball flew off. It wasn’t took long before a beep came from a device that Aizawa was holding, showing 705.2 meters.

“Know your maximum first, that’s the most rational way to forming the foundations of a hero”, he seriously seemed to have something with things being done rationally...

A chorus of woah’s were heard throughout the class, well that sure did blow up that Bakugo’s ego. His ego must’ve been too big for his own good.

“This is going to be fun!”, an alien looking girl exclaimed punching her fist in the air.

Followed by a black haired boy excitedly looking on, “So we get to use our quirks as much as we want!”

And yet again, the mood came crashing down as Aizawa spoke up again, “It looks fun, huh? You have three years to become a hero, you think it’ll be all fun and games? Sure, then whoever comes last in the 8 tests will be expelled. Welcome to UA’s hero course!”, earning another screech form the class including yourself. Alright Y/n, you are NOT wasting this change Keigo gave you and you better do well in this!

“Let’s begin shall we? Starting with the 50m dash.”

The first two up were blue haired boy and the frog looking girl who sat next to you in class and before you could even blink, the blue haired boy was already off, speeding past the finish line. His quirk must’ve something to do with speed, so don’t panic Y/n, there’s only so much you can do with speed, you encouraged yourself determinedly looking on. And maybe you were a bit tooo busy encouraging yourself when you noticed the same bubbly brown haired girl patted you on the back.

“Hey, it’s your turn. Also, I’m Ochaco Uraraka, nice to meet you!”

“Thanks Ochaco-san, I’m L/n Y/n. We can continue to chat after these tests, sorry”, you apologetically looked at her before rushing towards the starting line. Beside you, was a white and red haired male with a red scar over his left eye. Okay that’s edgy, time to focus! You activated your quirk allowing wings to grow on your back through the use of light energy which was absorbed through two horns on your head.

Ready

Set

Go!

You flapped your wings as fast as you could making it in 4 seconds which wasn’t too much faster than the guy behind you gliding along with ice. Your brain quickly put together what his quirk was, white represents ice and red must represent fire. Wonder why he didn’t use his fire like the explosions of that Bakugo boy, it would’ve been much faster than skating.

Then came the grip test which you absolutely flunked, only coming in at 43kg which was pretty much the lowest in the class. Well what can some damn light energy do to help increase your grip? All it’ll do is burn your hands off.

After came the standing long jump with you passed with breeze, just flying to clear the sandbox and with the repeated side steps you simply used pure speed to get through it. And at last, came the ball throw the one which you were most excited for since you had a great plan to get a good score. When it came up to your turn you grabbed the ball tightly throwing it up in the air gently right above you, then activating your quirk and encasing it in a bright bubble made of light energy, then sent it off, controlling the bubble to keep going forwards without leaving the circle at all. You concentrated hard, thinking about the ball in your mind and it got more difficult to control until you couldn’t visualise it’s location anymore and let it drop. A beep was heard as Aizawa presented you with his device, showing 1638 meters.

Satisfied with your work, you smiled a bit and got back to your place.

“Midoriya, your turn”, the green haired boy nervously walked forwards, grabbing onto the ball and throwing it. You almost scoffed, if you didn’t feel the teeniest bad for the poor boy who had seemed so confused. Something was surely off about him, how did someone who can barely even use or control their quirk get into UA... He was given another chance, getting almost the same as Bakugo, except his hand turned a weird purple colour. That must be one powerful quirk for one weak body, you grimaced at his injury.

“Ow, that’s gotta hurt, Aizawa-sensei sure is harsh”, Ochaco frowned at the scene in front.

“I mean yeah he is, but not gonna lie, if I was in Aizawa’s spot I’d seriously be wondering how he got in, though he does have some potential with a quirk as powerful as his.”

“I’m sure he’ll get better, hopefully he’s not last, I’m really hoping that Mineta kid gets expelled, I already don’t really like him just by the looks of him.”

“Either it’s a crush or just you dislike Mineta, but then again, you shouldn’t be judging a book by its cover.”

“Eh what make sure you think that!”, she panicked cheeks flushed, “Its just that Mineta guy really seems like a perv.”

“Well, in that case, I guess it’s kinda his own fault, first impressions are key.”

“That’s true I guess.”

The two of you were snapped out of your conversation when Aizawa’s voice rang through the field, pulling up a projection, or was it a hologram? Anyways, you quickly skimmed through the board, searching for your name and you were glad to see you had landed a decent spot, coming in 3rd, just behind the Todoroki kid. And in last came Midoriya, ow, that’s seriously gotta be a huge blow to his self esteem.

“No ones actually gonna get expelled, it was just a rational deception to get you all to go beyond.”

“It was clear it was a rational deception”, Momo who you had seen on the top of the board piped up unhelpfully.

“Ughhh well that’s just greaaat”, you groaned into your hands “and now we appear to have a smartie genius know it all in our class as well”, you muttered annoyed as Ochaco sweat dropped patting your back slowly.

“L/n, you should not be so disrespectful to your classmates!”, Iida reprimanded, chopping his arms up and down.

“Okay thank you thank you.”

Finally school had been dismissed and you stood outside the gates of UA, impatiently tapping your feet as you waited for Keigo to come pick you up as other students made their own way home. It had been 10 minutes already and the bird brain still hadn’t picked you up! Welll, he didn’t really ever specify that he would come pick you up, you just kinda assumed? Frowning, you activated your quirk, not give one hec about the no quirk in public rule since walking home would take forever and you didn’t have that kind of time smh. Flapping your wings and stretching your arms, you prepared to take off and far into the sky where the police wouldn’t be able to see you flying around.

“What are you doing using your quirk in public without a licence?”, a loud voice boomed, stopping you in your tracks.

“Oh hi Endeavour-san!”, you smiled a bit, continuing to ignore his words and continue what you were going to do. You were really great at being annoying and ignoring people, just a trait you picked up from Hawks I guess.

Endeavour deadpanned, “You’re not allowed to be using your quirk and I know you don’t have a licence, so you need to go and take public transport or walk like everyone else.” He was completely ignored as you started floating a bit, “Well, I’ll be off then! Have a wonderful evening Endeavour-san and Todoroki-san.”

You flew off, but before you could get anywhere, Endeavour was already pulling you down by your foot, I mean, considering how strong he is, it succeeded. “Okay then Mr.Smartie, how am I meant to get home now without my quirk huh? I have no clue how public transport works”, you sneered at him, huffing and crossing your arms unimpressed.

“Go walk home.”

“But it takes a long time.”

“Then go figure out the public transport time schedules.”

At this point, you were sick and tired of him and Todoroki looked pretty annoyed as well, so you decided to do everyone a favour. You grabbed Todoroki by the wrist running off and dragging him while waving back at Endeavour, “I promise I’ll return him in one piece! You don’t need to worry!!”

Endeavour was about to chase after you, but you were already gone and out of sight, whatever, he had to return to his patrol anyways. It could also be good training for Shoto to deal with the annoying villains, not saying you were a villain, but you sure did fit that annoying standard.

“Your welcome”, you yawned lazily, staring up at the sky while walking. Todoroki was still confused but if being with you let him get away from being with his father he was more than glad too. Plus, he could use this chance to find any weaknesses about you, you seemed quite strong and could be someone to look out for in the UA sports festival.

“How did you talk to my father like that? Most people would’ve never had the guts to do it.”

“Wellll, for one, I’m not most people and I know him pretty well, I’ve talked to him a lot of times on his patrols. There’s almost nothing scary about him, he’s just a big fire guy walking around with an angry voice, but it’s not like he can harm any of us, he’s a hero.”

Todoroki felt his blood boil at what you had said, Endeavour was no hero, driving his mother to the end of her wits, training him harshly from a young age, some hero. But the rational part of his brain won over the emotional part, explaining that you were an outsider and had no clue as to their personal lives. Todoroki was intrigued with your quirk, he wanted to learn more about what it could do, all he knew so far was that you had the ability to create wings, bubbles made of light energy and not very much else. Considering you were the sister of Hawks (Endeavour had told him, I guess that’s something that Endeavour is useful for), he honestly expected more, but you could be holding back. He considered asking you more about your quirk but that would probably make you put walls up around yourself and see him as a threat. It was probably just best to wait and see your full potential.

You noticed it had become silent and nobody had anything to say, enveloping both of you in an awkward silence. Well, you were pretty sure you were the only one feeling awkward. You made up some lame excuse and sent Todoorki off on his way, glad to be out off the awkward silence. UA wasn’t that bad, you supposed.

#mha #bnha #boku no academia #my hero academia #todoroki x y/n #todoroki x you #todoroki x reader #mha todoroki #bnha shoto todoroki #shoto #shoto todoroki #todoroki #todoroki shoto #wing hero hawks #hawks #mha hawks #keigo takami

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anne-lister-adventures · 4 years

Text

Wednesday, 12 March 1840

5 35/’’

11 50/’’

Reaumur 10º on my table (our breakfast and washing and writing table – Our only one) at 6 1/4 a.m. Quite ready – Washed and at breakfast at 5 55/’’ – Not bit here tho’ abundance of the sort of beetle and another sort of little insect likish a small beetley (hard back) ant? Do these larger insects that the people never seem to disturb and that swarm on the walls, keep them free from insects of worse kind, bugs &c.?

Just after breakfast Gross came in flippantly saying ‘a great misfortune’ – Beginning to enlarge upon breaking my St. P-[Petersburg] thermometer – This too bad – The loss too great – I never uttered ∴[therefore] his talking useless, and he wisely went away – A-[Ann] never uttered about it then or afterwards – Nor I –

Gave a blue note (= 5/-) to the old woman of the house (the old mother?) – She very well satisfied – One of my old thin leather gloves missing – Must have fallen out of my fur glove in the Prince’s Kibitka last night – Seeking it (the glove) detained us a few minutes – The only thing I have lost since Norway – Domna lost her little sac with p.[pocket] handkerchief scissors pins and needles &c. &c. = 4/-? She said, on Sunday night at Kopanowskaya (vide bottom of p.[page] 70) – off from Soroglazinskaya at two minutes before 7 – Ha Волга, on the Volga –

(станица Замиянооскя) at Zamianowskaya at 9 1/4, a poor and picturesque little fishing village – Unpainted board, little, cottage-like Station House but the best house in the village? We might have slept there – Neat little church – Had slept most of the way to here – Much snow in the river latterly – Fine morning – Not much wind – Have written all the above (in pencil in my note book) without glove on without my warm hand getting starved or even cold – Proof how much warmer it is today than yesterday –

Wattled farm yards – Hay stacked on the tops of the sheds, but little to be seen now – 2 Calmuc tents in farm yards – Large iron cauldrons lying about – Using for boiling fish grease – An undulating desert of fine red sand all immediately around the village – On rising ground at a little distance there seems a roughness as if of some low shrubby vegetation –

Off at 9 3/4 down again upon the Volga – The village lies along the sand bank close above the river – The right bank has sometime since lost its boldness (from Tzaritzine) – It is now little different from the sandy bank on the left side – Wherever a stick will grow, there is willow which fringes both banks more or less – Read Russian Grammar and sleep – Right bank low bare sand as last station – Left bank low but a line of wood –

At 12 1/4 Lebajinskaya (the village and good church at some distance) – Station House – Lone house – Large unpainted-board Government Station House, the Imperial Eagle as usual in the pediment of the front end – Forlorn – Getting out of repair – A sort of fosse all round the house, to clear it of the surrounding sand, now 3 or 4 ft.[feet] higher than the bottom step of the 5 or 6 up to the ground floor – As if the sand avait envie de l’engloutir – Sauntered about on the bare sand hillocks while we changed horses – The very desert of the great Zahara – Fine red sand that must blow about terribly – Picked up some of the white prickly low stuff that every where covers the sand where and as much as anything does cover it hereabouts – They say there is pasturage at some distance –

Off at 12 40/’’ at 1 25/’’ pass near under little village left bank – Is it not on an island? Our route yesterday and today has seemed very much au milieu du fleuve – At 1 50/’’ the Courier called attention to a man and boy going at a good rate on a huge camel – The 1st we had seen – The Prince’s (Prince Cerdebjab de Tumen) people, from near his garden – The large wooded island alongside us (left – a little distance) all belongs to him – In fact, he is Sovereign Prince of the Calmucks all along from here to Astrakhan –

The camel female – À double bosse – When fat, each boss stands upright – Now that the animal is poor, and hard-worked, and has just had a young one, these bosses hang down like 2 thick flaps (perhaps 8 in.[inches] broad and 9 or 10 in.[inches] long?) when they stand upright said George the animal is four archines high – Now she is only 3 – I should guess her to stand now (to the top point of the shoulder) 6 ft.[feet] 6 in.[inches] English that is 19 1/2 hands high! I asked if she was one of their tallest – Yes! And certainly the one we saw a little while afterwards stood 2 or 3 hands lower – This man has 2 camels – Some have 20 – The laine George called it woolly hair, is cast every Spring and is worth 16 Rubles per pood – She herself is worth 100/- all this took us 12 minutes the long line of wood near (left) is an island belonging to the Prince – Gave the man a 20 Silver Kopek piece – He well pleased – The nose of the animal pierced thro’ the ligament above the nostrils and a smooth hair cord run thro’ to which the cord (rein) is tied, and by pulling this the animal lies down for the people to mount or dismount – She chewed her cud all the while –

A Kalmyk and his camel. (Image Source)

We had been about 7 or 8 minutes in our Kibitka again when Nikolai (the Courier) called our attention to a fishing party – We alighted again, and stood from 2 10/’’ to 3 5/’’ over the square hole in the ice intently watching the outdrag of the net – The draught of fishes – It reminded me of the N.[New] T.[Testament] the manner of this being probably much the same as in the time of our Saviour – The net seemed never ending – They had got some little of it hauled out when we arrived, and it certainly took 3/4 the time we were there before we came to the end –

The mesh seemed about 1 1/2 in.[inch] square yet 2 moderate sized frogs and good sized prawn had not escaped – The net was a good deal torn yet there was a tolerable draught – Some hundreds of fish – Perhaps a tank of 2 cube yards would have held them

2 yards x 1 yard and 1 yard deep – There was one Poisson Blanc = 20 lbs.[pounds] at -/80 per lb.[pound] at Moscow might be had perhaps for 2/- here on the spot – This the most valuable because they salt this kind – There were 2 or 3 Sadocs nearly as large as the Poisson Blanc, or perhaps that would weigh said George 15 lbs.[pounds] and the Courier bought one (Sadoc) for us = 10 lbs.[pounds] and another sort of fish that George seemed to call something like Lyash – All the fish taken were of these 3 kinds – The latter not much valued – Our Sadok = 10 lbs.[pounds]) -/15 and the other fish was given? – There were about 30 men – Pay 25,000/- per annum for the right of fishing here – A certain extent of river – Could not learn how great – Water here about 2 archines deep and ice (said George) 1 a.[archino] thick –

Fishing on the Volga, near Astrakhan. (Image Source)

Off again at 3 5/’’ – At 3 50/60 at Dowinowskaya – Neat red-yellow painted board Station House at this end of village on our left – We had never stopped before having our Station on our left – It seemed as if we had got to the other side of the river – How is this – Neat white green roofed church – Village apparently small and not good – Merely a fishing village –

Off again at 4 1/4 – At 5 1/4, left, near, island of willows and a few Calmuck tents among them – By and by pass close left a line of Calmucks sitting on their hams on the ice, each (5 or 6 yards apart) at a little round hole not a foot in diameter (perhaps 8 in.[inches] diameter) fishing – Great breadth of river – Perfectly flat, sandy banks – The Cathedral seen at some distance and a church or 2 far in the distance ahead as if the Town or another Town extended far down the river –

We seemed to come within the precincts as it were of Astrakhan at 5 3/4 and at 6 1/4 we stopped at the address given us by our Postmaster at Jenotaiewsk – Full! Drove on and inquired at 2 or 3 places – No Inn – Not a lodging to be had – What to be done – Sent to the Chef de Police – Very civil – Came and offered us his house for the night – Accepted with reconnaissance – He spoke a little French – Thankful –

Astrakhan seen from the Volga in the late 19th century.

At 7 1/4, having waited an hour in the street and fallen 1/2 asleep, chez lui – A good salon and large anteroom – In clover – But long in getting tea – I lay on the sofa – Our fish (non Sadok) was to be boiled – But as it turned out the Cuisinier was out – There was no fire, no anything – And I had completely finished tea and lay some time on the bedstead they had brought before the fish came after 10 – A-[Ann] had waited for it – I tasted and then went on eating – Excellent – Never tasted such fish – Fresh – Fat – Full of roe – Well boiled – It was A-‘s[Ann’s] thought to keep it for breakfast – Had Domna at 10 50/’’ – Fine day –

[in the side of the page:] thermometer broken

[in the side of the page:] on the Volga all today –

[in the side of the page:] Camel

[in the side of the page:] Fishing on the Volga

[in the side of the page:] Station on our left

Page References: SH:7/ML/E/24/0043 and SH:7/ML/E/24/0044

#anne lister code breaker #anne lister #ann walker #moscow to baku 1840

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noro124 · 5 years

Photo

hey everyone it’s my frog collection + other cool things i had on the shelf at the time! i have 57 frogs (counting the packaged ones as one unit), which is 45 more than the last time i took a picture of my frog collection. enjoy!

under here i will tell you where i got each frog & why i grouped them like that! the groups can also be read in the captions. all pics try to go from left to right, from the back row to the front.

i. frogs that are big

Summer relaxin’ - my dad got him for me at a yard sale a few years ago.

HAPPY FROG - my dad also got him for me at a yard sale, but closer to 6 months ago. He’s hanging over my bed right now on my Wall Of Stuff.

Paper frog - my sister ripped him off the bulletin board at the Starbucks where she works to give him to me

White frog - picked him up at TJ Max when my mom took me dress shopping.

Dark green frog - i don’t know...i think from a yard sale? he’s hollow & i keep a semicircle paperweight in the hole in his stomach.

ii. 8 frogs that will break if you drop them & 3 that won’t

Yoga frog - my dad got him for me, maybe from Goodwill?

Ol Chumbo - got him at the flea market for $8. He is solid iron.

Just Eat What Bugs You!! - got him from a thrift store in a small town in Colorado. he’s got beans in him! if you shake him he rattles

Blue glass - he’s a candle holder! I got him from an antique store in Tennessee & then saw another one of him at the flea market years later.

Bronze goofball - crooked eyes. very endearing. also very heavy. got him in a shop that sold lots of bronze things outside the Louvre.

Gold - a gift from my boyfriend!!!

Sassy Frog - i think my dad gave her to me? or maybe i bought her at the antique store.

Little brown frog - more fragile than he looks, missing his front right leg so i got him discounted from the antique store near school.

Glass frog king! - got him in prague! he was overpriced, but worth it

Teeny glass frog - also got him in prague for $3!

Another glass frog - got in the same store that I got tiny frog in.

iii. frogs that are minerals

Chunky brown frog - got him at the antique store near school. i think my boyfriend bought him for me on one of our first dates!

Black frog - $35 but worth every cent. smooth, elegant, made in Japan. gotten from the antique store near school.

Flat brown frog - got him from the flea market.

Malachite frog - bought him online from Bekkathyst! Expensive, but I took advantage of a sale.

Rose quartz frog - got from a really cool mineral shop in Prague! I did a project on that shop, about redesigning the storefront.

Pink frog - got from a yard sale a long time ago, only recently rediscovered in my room & added to the collection.

Little frog on a leaf - got from a gift shop at the end of a long 14k altitude hike in Colorado.

Frogs 8-12 were all given to me by my boyfriend after he came back from NY. They’re a big family!!!

13. Tiny frog bead - got from the flea market!

iv. frogs that are squishy

Mint green frog loaf - picked this up from a recent con!! my boyfriend paid for half of it because he said this was something i needed to have, & he was right!

Webkinz frog - my dad got him for me at a yard sale because he liked the mischievous look in his eyes.

Little frog orb - part of a set of 3 round squishy things my boyfriend’s parents gave me for easter.

TY Beanie Baby Frog - a beanie baby original my sister got from a yard sale. he might be worth a lot of money since he’s an original. i’m looking into it.

Dark blue sand frog - I’ve had this since I was a child. he’s got stitches in his armpit because he used to have a big hole that let all the sand out.

Stripey sand frog - got her at a yard sale when i was maybe 9 so the dark blue frog could have a friend!

Green and orange beanie frog - picked this up from a “Night Market” in Vienna. having seen real night markets in Taiwan, I was kind of disappointed, but the frog was a good purchase.

Green beanie frog - got in belfast from a cool museum. has a pink twin owned by one of my friends. all frogs have sweet dreams

v. frogs that are toys

Skeleton frog - one of my roommates got him for me from a halloween store.

Glowing frog - he changes rainbow colors! my sister gave him to me for my 20th birthday last year.

Slime frog - my boyfriend got him for me as a Welcome Back present after i returned from Prague! he’s nasty. he’s full of yellow goo & he has a cap on the bottom of his body that you can undo to take out the goo. it takes hours to put the goo back in.

Keychain frog - also a flashlight that croaks when you turn him on! I saw him in Milan & had to have him.

Lime green frog - my dad gave me 3 frog bath toys for Christmas. I have one in my collection (this one), one at his house, & one at my mom’s house.

Blue frog whistle - I think one of my friends gave this to me but I’m not sure.

Wooden frog - bought him from a nice lady at the night market in Taiwan in 2017.

Wooden frog 2 - he rolls! picked him up for $4 in one of the Golden Lane shops in Prague Castle.

Frog rubber band - got him as a reward for being good at the dentist in like 2007.

vi. frogs i have not unwrapped

boblende fro - a frog bath bomb with a toy frog inside that i got from a weird store called Flying Tiger in prague. i don’t want to open him because he’ll be crumbly & i like the packaging a lot, & also i don’t want to use him yet.

Grow Frogs - another gift from my boyfriend’s parents for easter. I haven’t used them yet because I’m lazy & I don’t know if they’d crumble & I don’t know where I’d put them if they were unwrapped.

Frog King stickers - got these in northern ireland as well! i haven’t used any yet because they have layers & the things I’d put them on (my phone case, sketchbook, my laptop) move around a lot & the stickers would get destroyed really fast.

vii. frogs with jobs

Candle holder - one of my friends gave it to me for my birthday.

Green frog - got him from the local crafts store my roommate used to work at. He can hold onto the outside of cups or flowerpots or my finger!

Frog thimble - a different roommate gave him to me after he got back from his trip to Spain.

Frog clip - one of my friends gave it to me for no reason! really nice of her!!!

Mosaic frog - the roommate that went to Spain got this for me there too! he doesn’t have a job, he just doesn’t fit into any of the other categories.

Keroppi pin - got this for 50 cents in Taiwan & then lost it for a year.

Tiny rubber frog - given to me by one of my roommates for Christmas. he got it in Florida. he doesn’t have a job either.

Milan eraser - picked this up in a stationary store in prague called McPen.

viii. miscellaneous items on the frog display shelf

Fat cat with big poofy cheeks - i went to the flea market with my dad & saw this funny man.

Round unicorn & pink fish - the other 2 round things that came with the frog my boyfriend’s parents gave me for easter this year.

Crab ornament - given to me alongside the tiny rubber frog. he’s missing a leg and is EXTREMELY fragile - pieces of his shell fall off all the time.

Red wooden painted egg - got from an easter market in Prague.

Eggplant container - I keep souvenir pressed pennies in here.

Stone egg with stand - I got this for my dad from an antique store, but my dad said I could keep it.

Golden pig - gotten somewhere in Prague. I was gonna give it to one of my roommates, but my mom said “You should keep it for good luck, it’s the year of the pig!” & so I did.

Snake carving - my grandma used to give me little carvings made of the same material all the time before she died. I don’t know where I got this.

Little glass crab - a gift alongside the crab ornament & tiny rubber frog!

White rock - looks very pretty in the right light. got it from a mineral store in Cesky Krumlov.

Smooth rock - smokey quartz I think? got it from the same mineral store.

Carnelian scarab - got this from a really cool mineral store outside the Louvre. I could have spent all day in here - they sold really expensive frogs too. I had my eye on one made from turquoise, but it was 160 euros. Maybe next time.

Labrodorite heart - my boyfriend paid for half of it when he came to visit me in Prague! it’s very blue & very gorgeous.

Labrodorite chunk - my boyfriend got this for me at a hippie music festival!

Chunk of limestone - got this in northern ireland where there was a cool bridge near an old limestone quarry. I thought this rock looked cool, like mochi. You can’t tell from the picture quality.

Glass lizard - part of the gift with the crab ornament & the other things.

Turtle - got him from the flea market. not sure what he’s made of, but he’s handcrafted!

Shiny turtle - this was on the ground at the flea market. it probably had fallen off a display & cost money, but i put it in my pocket. please don’t arrest me

Stone turtle - got this guy from an aquarium that’s 2 hours away from home! we went as a group over spring break to the beach, but half of us immediately went home & half of us went to the aquarium. i got to touch a shark there.

& that’s all, folks! thanks for reading my frog lore!

#noro.txt #all the money i make is spent on big stuffed animals or frogs #mostly the stuffed animals because i receive a lot of frogs as gifts

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thinkingagain · 5 years

Text

“What we have then in our present world is clear: A Plague of Beasts.”

Sir Sleepy of the Bunny Nest (A Novel of the Revolution) Book Two: Empire Chapter One

The frog, light green with a yellow stomach and a glistening red scarf around his neck, held out the red heart talisman he always carried. “Good morning, Green Bear! I give my heart to you.”

“Basil!” Green Bear returned the hello in a decidedly British accent. His fur was dark blue green and he wore a bow-tie of blue-green plaid. For a magic bear, he was on the small side of medium. “Good to know that you and your heart are well.” He looked around at the sunny morning. “Such fine weather today here in, what do they call it, the Piedmont region? Though I understand that Beasts call those mountains behind us the Blue Ridge.”

“They are indeed somewhat blue.” Basil considered the landscape a moment, then looked closely at Green Bear’s bow-tie. “Have I told you before,” he said, “that I admire the tasteful understatement of your tribute tie? It supports your fallen fellow bears perfectly, and avoids the garish shouting that mars nearly all Beastly attire.”

“You remarked on it when we first met.” Green Bear straightened the tie carefully. “I appreciate any chance to talk on the subject. My cousins the brown bears have been gone now for at least a thousand weather cycles in the so-called British isles.”

The two animals fell in side by side. They walked down the grassy path towards the Animal Meeting Ground. Though the land was wet from two days rain, the sun that morning was bright and dry. Light flashed along the still wet trees and plants. The aromas of plants and flowers were sweet and full of earth. In the crisp air, the curtain of bunnies that stood high around the land of the Demesne was invisible to a casual observer. Any Magic Animal who looked closely could see that its translucent folds held as strong as ever.

“It’s important to honor those who fell in our long struggle against Beasts,” Basil said. “I wonder what we should expect from the meeting.”

“I didn’t consult the program. I assume Leo will continue last week’s talk regarding the food chain. I forget the title; I’m so sloppy with details sometimes.”

Basil smiled as if the idea of Green Bear being sloppy was ironically amusing. “I think it was simply called ‘The Food Chain: Beastly Lies and the Magic Animal Response.’ I thought that Leo was impressively on point, as he can be at his best.”

“He often is. But I don’t mind when he meanders. Seldom has an animal thought as much about thought itself as Leo. If that sometimes leads him down winding paths, I usually find it worthwhile to follow where he travels.”

“Agreed.” Basil looked out at the nearby hills. “Still, on some of these fine mornings, I’m tempted just to sit in the mud on the banks of a stream and sing.”

“I almost slept in myself.” Green Bear’s relaxed expression widened into satisfaction. “I woke early, then fell asleep again. I could have wiled away the whole morning napping and rolling myself clean in the grass.”

“What a pleasant life it is, here in the Demesne.” The long red line of Basil’s mouth, his plump cheeks and large eyes gave the impression that he looked at everyone benevolently. “Leo’s conclusion, I felt, was especially helpful.” He broke into a throaty-voiced imitation of that big rabbit, an already legendary figure in the founding of the Demesne. “Environmental conditions can lead to the swarming of specific creatures in a way damaging to the balance of animal life in specific areas, a process that the Beasts have named a ‘plague.’ Yet Beasts are the only creatures which make conscious alterations in landscape and food chain patterns that lead to plague-like damages. Only Beasts can damage the food chain enough to destroy life on the planet. The term ‘plague’ is defined by a Beastly history of claiming that a power greater than themselves, often supernatural, motivates and judges their actions. I must conclude that the only creatures capable of consciously committing a plague, in the way that Beasts use the term, are Beasts themselves. What we have then in our present world is clear: A Plague of Beasts. How to fight back against this plague must be a fundamental task of the Demesne.”

“That sounds almost like a direct quote.” Green Bear nodded appreciatively. “Excellent impersonations aside, you have quite a memory, Basil.”

“I appreciate that. Still, I can be a most inattentive frog. I hadn’t realized until yesterday that Sir Sleepy and some of the team had gone on a mission. I suppose they would have asked if they needed help?”

“I’m sure.” Green Bear squeezed his new frog friend on the shoulder. “All of us here in the Demesne are ready, I hope, to fulfill what others ask of us, and what we ask of ourselves. Even on days”—here he cleared his throat, growling a bit—“when we would rather loll sleepily in the grass.”

“They are preventing a slaughter of wolves, I believe?”

“Yes. In an area that Beasts call Wyoming. Beast territorial divisions are often so arbitrary that they can be difficult to remember, yet knowing them has been crucial to my work.”

“Having come from the other side of the ocean,” Basil pulled his heart talisman close to his chest, “it will probably take you longer to learn all the specifics of where we are. I have to say though,” he grimaced shyly, “I have no particular expertise in hand-to-hand combat with Beasts.”

“It’s not my main line of work either,” Green Bear said, calmly reassuring, “although I’ve had my moments. I suppose I’ve wondered a bit how useful my talents will be.”

“I’d love to hear more about your talents. I’m concerned that my own are somewhat esoteric.”

“Indeed?” Green Bear eyed Basil curiously. “I might have used the word ‘esoteric’ for my own talents also.”

The two continued chatting about things they had in common until they reached the Animal Meeting Ground. Arriving, they greeted enthusiastically those already there.

The Meeting Ground was an open, circular meadow with rocks surrounded by little bumps of land. The gathered animals could sit on the grass of the Meeting Ground itself or in an elevated ring around it. The animals already gathered there, rabbits, pandas, koalas, frogs and many others, shared the news of the morning loudly and happily. The Demesne was already busy. Everyone was eager to continue the struggle against Beasts that had brought them from all over the world to the magic landscape here in the Piedmont.

#bunny #rabbit #revolution #empire #satire #animals #animal rights #politics #adventure #theory #philosophy #environmentalism #sir sleepy

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travelworldnetwork · 5 years

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By Christopher P Baker

10 December 2018

A decade ago, death stalked my drive to Parque Arqueológico Nacional de Tierradentro. The road from the town of Popayán over Colombia’s Cordillera Central mountain range was infamous for ambush and kidnap. Lonesome military posts hinted ominously at the presence of Farc guerrillas. I gripped the wheel tightly as I negotiated the unpaved road through a bleak, windswept Andean landscape, and cold fog swirled around me like a funeral shroud.

Thankfully, I arrived at one of the world’s largest necropolises alive. Unsurprisingly, I had the vast pre-Columbian hypogea of Tierradentro to myself.

View image of Colombia’s Cordillera Central mountain range was once too dangerous to visit (Credit: Credit: Christopher P Baker)

You may also be interested in: • The language at the end of the Earth • We may have cracked the mystery of Stonehenge • The tiny island of giant money

South America’s largest trove of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures isn’t on Easter Island, nor even in Peru or Chile, as most travellers might assume. It’s Tierradentro’s 162 underground tombs carved into solid volcanic bedrock, and the more than 500 monolithic stone statues and tumuli (ancient burial mounds) surrounding the nearby town of San Agustín, sprinkled throughout 2,000 sq km of the serried mountains and highland plateaus of the Upper Magdalena Valley in southern Colombia.

These mementoes of an advanced, yet unknown (and unnamed), pre-Columbian, northern Andean culture had largely been off-limits during five decades of civil war. Now that the region is finally safe from Farc guerrilla activity, the awe-inspiring, yet little-known, Unesco World Heritage sites are easily visited and are guaranteed to amaze and inspire.

South America’s largest trove of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures isn’t on Easter Island

Eight years after my initial drive to Tierradentro, I arrived anew in the remote region and centred on the hamlet of San Andrés de Pisimbalá, amid a mountainous knot on the upper slopes of the Inzá Valley, 115km north-east of Popayán. From the twin (and tiny) Museo Etnográfico and Museo Arqueológico below the village, I followed a hilly and muddy trail that looped over surging mountain ridges, linking the five core concentrations of ridgetop tombs.

Staring into a black abyss at Alto de Segovia – the most impressive of the sites – induced lurching vertigo as I descended an elaborate spiral staircase drilling like a nautilus shell into 8m of andesitic tuff. I felt like Indiana Jones entering the Emperor’s Tomb. Below, the vast burial chamber measured some 12m wide. My torch illuminated walls and columns profusely adorned with geometric designs in black, yellow and ochre pigments, and human and animal figures danced in the flickering shadows cast as I roamed.

Another tomb was expertly carved to replicate a slanted roof and other elements of a pre-Hispanic wooden house: an allegory, no doubt, to prepare the deceased for the continuum between life and afterlife that was a sine qua non of the enigmatic society that carved these impressive funerary monuments.

View image of Tierradentro’s 162 underground tombs were carved into solid volcanic bedrock centuries ago (Credit: Credit: Christopher P Baker)

Since the time of the region’s subjugation by Spanish conquistadors in the 1530s, the area has been inhabited by the Nasa, an indigenous group who speak páez (a Chibcha language). Yet little is known about the mysterious culture that flourished throughout the first millennium and then disappeared six centuries before the Spanish and the Nasa arrived on the scene. Although excavations began in the 1930s, archaeologists are still at a loss to explain who settled the region, where they came from or where they went. And no-one knows the relationship between the carvers of Tierradentro’s complex shaft-and-chamber tombs and, a 180km drive to the south-west, San Agustín’s earthen tumuli (burial mounds) and hulking statues.

The drama of the giant stone statue at whose base I stood seemed appropriate to its stupendous setting. It was weatherworn and smothered with blue-green algae. It towered above me some 5m tall – solemn, big-eyed, with a large scowling mouth.

The statue is one of a veritable army of colossuses and totems studding the plateau-like mesetas around San Agustín, a lovely colonial town close to the Ecuadorian border. About one-third are enshrined within Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín, comprising about 50 separate yet more-or-less contiguous ceremonial burial sites centred on the town that lends the entire collection its name.

View image of The Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín protects hulking stone statues hewn from volcanic tuff (Credit: Credit: Christopher P Baker)

The majority of the statues were found within immense tumuli in which the pre-Columbian people buried their chieftains. They contour the meseta like a basket of eggs. My guide, Davido Pérez, knew every detail of every statue and the dolmens – stone sarcophagi topped by huge slabs within the tumuli – that most of them guard. Ferociously expressive and vital, the statues are so refined and well preserved they cut across barriers of culture and time. Pérez chattered away as we followed a trail that wound uphill to Alto de los Ídolos, the largest of the ancient sites.

“What you see is the legacy of an intense funeral cult,” Pérez said. “Death was viewed simply as a transition to another life.”

Death was viewed simply as a transition to another life

Hewn from relatively soft volcanic tuff, the statues – known locally as chinas – range in size from barely 20cm to 7m. Most were rectangular. Some were oval. A few were as hemispherical as if turned with a lathe. And most were etched with abstract motifs or zoomorphic figures, wrapping two-dimensional designs around three-dimensional objects to walk a path between worlds. Sunlight threw into high relief the exotic designs filled with tense, latent energy. Some resembled snakes, frogs and birds of prey – symbols of creation, wealth and power in pre-Columbian culture. Many were warrior figures with jaguar-type fangs – an allusion to chamánes (shamans), spiritual leaders who were thought capable of absorbing the jaguars’ power.

At the top of a large knoll, half screened by masses of overhanging foliage, we came upon a solitary statue – nicknamed Doble Yo (Double Self) – staring dead ahead, a perverse smile carved upon his lips. He wore a carved jaguar fur, its large head resting atop his own head and topped, in turn, by the skin of a crocodile. “This statue fuses male and female,” Pérez said. “It also symbolises the coupling of human and animal spirits upon which shamans relied for sorcery and power.”

“This one is vomiting,” said Pérez, pointing at a bulging-eyed figure. “He depicts the ancient practice of ingesting hallucinogens.”

The symbolic meaning of many other designs can only be guessed at.

View image of Little is known about the pre-Columbian society responsible for Tierradentro and San Agustín (Credit: Credit: Christopher P Baker)

The next day, our horses sure-footedly negotiated the steep trail that led downhill to a site called La Chaquira. Dismounting, we clambered down a staircase carved into the hillside to stand at a rock-strewn precipice overhanging the turbulent Río Magdalena. Waterfalls plunged from the far canyon wall. It was stupendously picturesque.

Pérez turned to point out petroglyphs etched on the massive boulders poised above the canyon rim. The largest displayed a male with hands thrown high, paying homage to Mother Nature's magnificent landscape.

Peering down into the gorge, I envisioned Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar and his ruthless army marching up the valley in the late 1530s after conquering the lands of the Inca. The indigenous Nasa put up a brave resistance but were no match for crossbows and muskets. They were driven into remote mountain redoubts. But the statues and tombs remained undiscovered until 1757, when Friar Juan de Santa Gertrudis stumbled upon the vast lithic library and called it “the work of the devil” as “The [natives] did not have iron or implements to produce such a thing.”

View image of Friar Juan de Santa Gertrudis, who came upon the statues and tombs in 1757, described them as “the work of the devil” (Credit: Credit: Christopher P Baker)

The tombs were looted centuries ago for their gold huacas (revered objects) and precious relics. And many of the original statues were lost or dispersed around the world. In 1899, for example, British anthropologists led by Captain H W Dowding loaded several dozen statues onto a boat bound for England. It promptly sank. Only one effigy was retrieved and transported to London, where it stands in the British Museum. Most extant statues are now anchored with concrete and rebar, but they still occasionally get spirited away. They’re in great demand on the illegal antiquities market and are now on the Red List of Latin-American Cultural Objects at Risk.

My only risk was wanting to stay

Despite its remoteness, I found this fertile centre of sculpture so compelling, and the once tense ambiance now so relaxed, my only risk was wanting to stay.

I lingered to enjoy the region’s cornucopia of other attractions: white-water rafting on the Magdalena River; exploring the Tatacoa Desert; a mountain drive to caves inhabited by nocturnal nightjars. As I once again negotiated an unpaved road through a wild, windswept Andean landscape, I found myself musing on how the dangers of guerrilla ambush are a thing of the past, and how San Agustín’s inscrutable statues and Tierradento’s dancing subterranean figures have finally risen from the dead after being off-limits for decades.

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jesusvasser · 6 years

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John Deere 1050K: The Ultimate Building Machine

DUBUQUE, Iowa — This must be what it feels like to be God. I’m 8 feet off the ground, atop 94,000 pounds of shuddering steel, massive push beams the size of tree trunks holding aloft a towering, 13-foot-wide blade that’s advancing in front of me with the grim, relentless cadence of Caesar’s Roman army laying siege. Below, tracks more than 11 feet long on either side churn into the dirt as the rig’s 13.5-liter diesel throbs and bellows with 1,162 lb-ft of torque. Up ahead, I can almost see the massive mound of earth in our path begin to wince.

This is the John Deere 1050K crawler dozer—what city boys like me call a bulldozer—the largest and most powerful the company has ever built, a yellow-and-black Optimus Prime capable, it seems to me, of busting right through the Great Wall of China. Ten minutes ago, I’d never been in a crawler before. Now I’m seated inside the 1050K’s windowed cab, piloting this snorting behemoth alone. If I forget how to make it stop, I might just plow straight through to the Great Wall after all.

Let’s do Launch: On his first-ever dozer drive, St. Antoine aims the mighty Deere skyward—mostly because he doesn’t know how not to.

You would think a machine so brutish would require a crew of whip-snapping lion tamers to manage. But no. Despite the ease with which it can transform anything in its path into a Belgian waffle, the 1050K is a pussycat. Steering and speed are controlled with an intuitive joystick and a small thumb switch. A set-and-forget power-management system automatically maintains optimum engine rpm. A hydrostatic transmission (essentially a continuously variable tranny that requires no gear changing by the operator) means I’m able to manage the monster’s pace with one hand. The airy cab is heated, air-conditioned, and outfitted with an iPod-ready audio system. If I were so inclined, I could effortlessly bash the nearby maintenance building into rubble while simultaneously relaxing to Franz Liszt’s “Liebesträume No. 3 in A Major.” And on top of it all, the 1050K looks less like an ungainly construction implement and more like a piece of modern sculpture.

“Because of their work in automotive, Designworks is highlighting areas where we can bring in new materials. We’ve now got plastic roof lines, plastic handholds that allow us to bring together complex shapes without a lot of expense.”

For that, the folks at John Deere in part can thank their colleagues at BMW Designworks.

John Deere never lived to see a tractor with his name on it. It was 1837 when the blacksmith from Grand Detour, Illinois, invented the self-scouring steel plow that would revolutionize the farming industry. (Prior to Deere’s innovation, wooden or iron plows had to be stopped regularly and cleared of muck.) It wasn’t until 1912, after John and his son and business partner, Charles, were both dead, that Deere & Company president William Butterworth made the decision that would make the John Deere name famous worldwide: The brand began building tractors. By 1923, Deere had unveiled its legendary Model D, a two-cylinder design that would remain in production for an incredible 30 years.

The cab of a 1050K is no NASA clean room, but there’s plenty of high tech on hand. Steering and speed are controlled via joysticks, while a hydrostatic transmission manages gear changes.

In those early days, a tractor’s appearance meant nothing. Not to tractor makers. Not to buyers. Indeed, most tractors were of the “unstyled” variety, their various mechanical components hanging out like the frog you dissected in high school. But by the late 1930s, in an effort to differentiate themselves, tractor companies began to design their wares. Some, such as Ford, employed in-house stylists. Deere went a different way. In 1937, the company turned to renowned New York City industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss. By then Dreyfuss was already an acknowledged virtuoso, a human-factors pioneer who had fashioned everything from streamlined locomotives to the iconic Western Electric “I Love Lucy” 302 Bakelite telephone. He’d never even seen a tractor before, but Dreyfuss was so taken by the notion of working on one, it’s said that he jumped on a train to the Deere factory—then in Waterloo, Iowa—the same night.

Playing Dirty: In mere minutes the author discovers that rich Iowa farmland is no match for 94,000 pounds of thundering Deere.

Dreyfuss-designed tractors first appeared in 1938. He streamlined the much-beloved Model A (Deere’s first tractor with adjustable wheel treads) by enclosing the previously open fan shaft and adding a grille around the radiator. “For more than 80 years now, we’ve had some level of industrial design in our products,” says Gordon Miller, director of construction engineering at Deere’s Construction and Forestry Division. “It’s more than just the mechanical side. It even extends to Deere’s green-and-yellow paint scheme, which is known globally.”

Since 1995, though, John Deere’s products have taken shape in concert with a decidedly different associate: BMW Designworks. American designer Chuck Pelly founded the studio in California in 1972, and it proved so successful that by 1995 Germany’s BMW Group had wholly acquired it. Based in Newbury Park, California, Designworks also boasts studios in Munich and Shanghai. Clients include such diverse brands as Coca-Cola, Dassault Aviation, and Mercury Marine. And, of course, John Deere. “Interestingly, Chuck Pelly used to work for Dreyfuss,” says Stephen Chadwick, director of global operations for Designworks (who wrote his Ph.D. thesis on the aerodynamic properties of tennis balls). “So even way back, Pelly was helping John Deere out.”

The Deere/Designworks relationship bloomed from the start. “In the mid-’90s we were engaged on a new development, the H Series crawler,” says Doug Meyer, global director of construction engineering for Deere’s Construction and Forestry Division. “And one thing that’s always a struggle for us in construction is that we have various machine forms—from a backhoe to a skid-steer loader to a crawler—and to bring them all together somehow is a real challenge. So to give them all a similar language, a recognizable look and feel, we connected with Designworks.”

John the Ripper: Looking more like a tank than a construction implement, the Deere 1050K dozer is just as fearsome at the back as it is at the front.

The H Series was a milestone for us because it was the first crawler on the market with a hydrostatic transmission,” Miller says. To help get it right, Deere and Designworks turned to customer-advocate groups—lots and lots of focus groups. “We always engage the customer throughout the entire development process—from initial sketches to foamcore cabin mock-ups to early prototypes,” Meyer says. “We even let them experience prototypes at their job sites. From where an operator wants to store their lunch box to the joystick location to how the doors open, it’s all on the table. Sometimes, based on what our customers say, we have to do a lot of work over again.”

Yet it’s never as simple as building what the customer wants. “Whether the customer admits it or not,” Chadwick explains, “how a product looks plays a big part in their purchase decision. It’s the same with construction equipment as it is with automobiles. The emotional side. I can remember a designer once coming up to me and saying, ‘We’re done. This thing does everything we wanted it do to.’ And I laughed and said, ‘Yep, but it doesn’t look very good.’ It’s amazing. We might just break apart a few lines, blend a few surfaces. Sometimes it doesn’t cost us an extra cent. But the machine has to have good industrial design.”

The machine doesn’t just have to look good, it’s also got to look right. Brett Bedard, Deere’s manager of marketing communications, says, “A machine can be fully capable, but if it doesn’t look strong enough, the customer will ding it. They’ll say, ‘This one looks beefier.’ And you can counter with, ‘Well, ours will push more dirt.’ But if it doesn’t look like it can, the customer will say, ‘Well, I’m not buying it.’” Chadwick agrees: “We can identify from the outset how the machine form should look. Then we can test that with the customers, get the buy-in from them. It’s a constant validation process, making course corrections along the way.”

Meyer highlights another benefit of having Designworks on board: the studio’s automotive expertise. “Because of their work in automotive, Designworks is constantly highlighting areas where we can bring in new materials they’ve worked with, such as plastics. We’ve now got plastic roof lines, plastic handholds that allow us to bring together complex shapes without a lot of expense. Their designers see things in other industries and bring them into ours.”

Tonka toy heaven!

Designworks apparently did its part on the H Series, because the crawler was a hit. And in the two-plus decades since, the studio’s involvement has grown to include Deere’s entire spectrum of construction and forestry products. Indeed, Designworks is now considered “a strategic, enterprise-level supplier”— aka a partner. Today, the studio’s design influence has permeated the entire Deere product range. “For crawlers at least, we want angles that give a ‘moving forward’ look,” says Tim Post, engineering manager on crawlers. “It’s cues like the sloping hoodline. The roofline. The console layout and the color scheme. If you stand and look at our crawlers, the language carries through all the way from the 450 to the 1050—and into other product lines, too. Even from a distance, you can say, ‘That’s a Deere.’”

Designworks is now considered “a strategic, enterprise-level supplier,” aka a partner.

To see where Deere and Designworks are headed next, Robert Moore, engineering manager on backhoes, takes me out into the field to check out a model 410L, Deere’s second-largest backhoe. “You’ve got a loader bucket on the front and an excavator—or backhoe—at the rear,” Moore says. “But the thing is, the traditional backhoe form hasn’t changed much since the 1950s. It’s a tractor-based platform, and that’s always been a limitation.”

For a few minutes, I play around with the 410L, first scooping up dirt with the front bucket and then flipping the seat around to dig a deep hole with the excavator. Tonka toy heaven! I could do this all day. But Moore has other plans. He motions me to jump out of the cab and then hands me the newest product-development tool for Deere and Designworks: a pair of virtual reality goggles. I slip on the headset, and suddenly I’m looking 10 years into the future. There, “standing” before me where the 410L used to be, is a concept for a next-gen Deere backhoe: the so-called Fixstern. German for “fixed star,” fixstern is a word adopted by BMW to denote its pioneering design process (eyes fixed on a distant star). As applied to a backhoe, Fixstern basically means “wasn’t this thing in ‘Avatar’?”

“With VR, we’re able to sit together—engineers, designers, marketing people—and all see exactly what we’re building.

After switching the VR goggles to cockpit view, my hands grasp wildly at thin air as I attempt to “touch” the Fixstern’s controls. “We’re no longer constrained by having a tractor base,” Moore says. “The Fixstern is 20 percent lighter—thanks to emerging materials—has far better interior spaciousness and visibility, and features a hybrid powertrain for efficiency. With VR, you’re able to ‘see’ just what an operator would see from the driver’s seat. Notice the Fixstern’s backhoe. We’ve created a double-jointed mechanism that allows us to pivot the arm left or right of center. Right now the arm is on the right, giving you excellent visibility to the trench in front of you. In the 410L, the center-mounted arm blocks the trench.” Moore is correct. The Fixstern’s view to my “construction site” is vastly improved.

What a VR headset wearer “sees” from inside the Fixstern backhoe concept. (Note an enhanced view of the trench thanks to a pivoted arm.)

“With VR, we’re able to sit together in a conference room—engineers, designers, marketing people—and all see exactly what we’re building, discuss changes, where are we going to get this part. It’s revolutionary,” Moore says. Then he laughs. “Imagine me, Mr. Pocket Protector. In meetings I used to have to draw this stuff!”

For the past 20 minutes I’ve been charging the 1050K crawler into a massive mound of dirt, gouging out Cadillac Escalade-sized loads with the front bucket, then dumping them into another pile nearby. And by this point my new dirt pile has grown to a sizable mountain of its own. After making a final deposit into my dirt bank, suddenly I realize the 1050K and I are straddling the top of the mound. I’m staring almost straight up into the sky, the blade poised to dig into the clouds, the whole 47-ton leviathan practically teetering atop my pile’s summit. Do I back up? Go forward? I scramble around the cockpit. Surely there has to be an ejection switch in here. But no, I’m on my own.

Engineering manager Robert Moore, right, explains the vision that’s soon to become a reality.

I make the decision to go forward. I ease the 1050K ahead, gingerly, slowly … when suddenly the beast dives over the top, almost falls, and then with a thundering ka-blam, blade and tank tracks and mammoth diesel engine come crashing back to earth. Incredibly, the 1050K shakes it off as if this were business as usual. Me? I feel like a skydiver who’s just returned to Earth without a parachute.

As I step down from the cab, one of the 1050K’s attendants walks over and slaps one of the crawler’s treads. “Nice work!” he says with a laugh. “I’ve never seen this big ol’ boy do that!”

I smile back. But inside I’m thinking, “Well, duh. This Deere’s got BMW in it.”

The post John Deere 1050K: The Ultimate Building Machine appeared first on Automobile Magazine.

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eddiejpoplar · 6 years

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John Deere 1050K: The Ultimate Building Machine

Let’s do Launch: On his first-ever dozer drive, St. Antoine aims the mighty Deere skyward—mostly because he doesn’t know how not to.

For that, the folks at John Deere in part can thank their colleagues at BMW Designworks.

The cab of a 1050K is no NASA clean room, but there’s plenty of high tech on hand. Steering and speed are controlled via joysticks, while a hydrostatic transmission manages gear changes.

Playing Dirty: In mere minutes the author discovers that rich Iowa farmland is no match for 94,000 pounds of thundering Deere.

John the Ripper: Looking more like a tank than a construction implement, the Deere 1050K dozer is just as fearsome at the back as it is at the front.

Tonka toy heaven!

Designworks is now considered “a strategic, enterprise-level supplier,” aka a partner.

“With VR, we’re able to sit together—engineers, designers, marketing people—and all see exactly what we’re building.

What a VR headset wearer “sees” from inside the Fixstern backhoe concept. (Note an enhanced view of the trench thanks to a pivoted arm.)

Engineering manager Robert Moore, right, explains the vision that’s soon to become a reality.

I smile back. But inside I’m thinking, “Well, duh. This Deere’s got BMW in it.”

The post John Deere 1050K: The Ultimate Building Machine appeared first on Automobile Magazine.

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jonathanbelloblog · 6 years

Text

John Deere 1050K: The Ultimate Building Machine

Let’s do Launch: On his first-ever dozer drive, St. Antoine aims the mighty Deere skyward—mostly because he doesn’t know how not to.

For that, the folks at John Deere in part can thank their colleagues at BMW Designworks.

The cab of a 1050K is no NASA clean room, but there’s plenty of high tech on hand. Steering and speed are controlled via joysticks, while a hydrostatic transmission manages gear changes.

Playing Dirty: In mere minutes the author discovers that rich Iowa farmland is no match for 94,000 pounds of thundering Deere.

John the Ripper: Looking more like a tank than a construction implement, the Deere 1050K dozer is just as fearsome at the back as it is at the front.

Tonka toy heaven!

Designworks is now considered “a strategic, enterprise-level supplier,” aka a partner.

“With VR, we’re able to sit together—engineers, designers, marketing people—and all see exactly what we’re building.

What a VR headset wearer “sees” from inside the Fixstern backhoe concept. (Note an enhanced view of the trench thanks to a pivoted arm.)

Engineering manager Robert Moore, right, explains the vision that’s soon to become a reality.

I smile back. But inside I’m thinking, “Well, duh. This Deere’s got BMW in it.”

The post John Deere 1050K: The Ultimate Building Machine appeared first on Automobile Magazine.

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