#bivvy

[nicopossum]

A little helldivers 2 comic 💥

[heungmins]

happy birthday rachel mwah mwah mwah hopefully this year you can get some imessage games lessons and finally beat me xxxxzz

i beat you TWICE in archery and you still havent sent back checkers and idek how to play the fucking thing you dirty manc

[mossandfog]

Bivvi Makes Towable A-Frame Tiny Homes for Modern Camping

We’ve always loved the style of an A-Frame, those simple yet iconic triangle-shaped cabins, that make you feel like you’re on an adventure. 🌲 🏕️ While there are a number of companies making beautiful, modern interpretations on this classic shape, most of them are expensive and require just as much land as a normal cabin. Bivvi has a new take on the A-frame, creating small versions that can be…

[stoneageproductions]

Victoria Cave Sunset & A Night Sleeping Under The Stars... Victoria Cave was discovered by chance in 1837 and since then has been completely excavated. Within the cave’s thick clay deposits, scientists found an amazing record of climate change in the Dales over thousands of years. Victorian excavators were particularly fascinated by ‘bone caves’ where there might be a possibility of finding evidence for the earliest humans along with long extinct animals. Victoria Cave certainly had plenty of animal bones. The earliest, at 130,000 years old, included those of hippos, narrow-nosed rhino, elephants and spotted hyenas. They date to an Upper Pleistocene interglacial when the climate was much warmer than today. It seems as if at that time, the hyenas were using the cave as a den and dragging scavenged bones back to it. No evidence was found for human activity during this period. The glaciers then returned and from 120,000 to around 12,000 years ago the cave gradually filled with layer upon layer of clay deposited as the glaciers periodically melted. After the last Ice Age the cave was used by hibernating brown bear. In amongst the animal bones of reindeer was an 11,000 year old antler harpoon point, the first evidence for people in the Yorkshire Dales. For archaeologists, the Roman layers were even more interesting. Here a collection of unusual bronze and bone artefacts were found, including brooches and coins. The unusual nature of some of the finds has led archaeologists to believe that the cave was being used as more than just a storage place or shelter for craft workers. It may even have been some sort of shrine.

[elkenbulwark]

We are the monsters causin' trouble in paradise. [playlist] in order

[iamapolarbear]

My Outdoors: a night on the water

Last summer, I set off to Purbeck intent on a weekend of “adventure”, which I spent at Norden Farm Campsite, exploring Corfe village in the pouring rain, doing my first sea swim and getting to jump into the cab of a heritage steam locomotive. This year I found myself back there for the “My Outdoors” section of my Silver Maverick Award. The aim was to spend three days and night outdoors and do at…

[csinstagram]

[nathanlnes]

It can be seen as a waterproof bag that can also be used as a sleeping bag. Imagine a bivvy bag in NZ with a thin lightweight outer cover that fits over both the sleeping matrices.

[inkandguns]

I can’t stop thinking about project homeless (needs a better operational title). Maybe I do four months in Colorado Springs, four months in Naples by mom’s house, and four months in Palatine, IL, where I was homeless before.

I think a monthly trip to the gear locker for changing up loadouts would be fair. I have family in all three areas but I do not want to be leaning on them for support. More stipulations would be that I have to reside the way a homeless person does: bivvy site, car, etc. No sleeping at a girlfriend’s house or on a buddy’s couch.

My main source of income would be FedEx ground - any homeless person can get this job. I happen to be entering my fourth year there so my hourly rate will be really good in any urban area. I feel like this is fair because again; any homeless person can work at FedEx ground.

I would do some months with dog, some months without her. I feel like she would be a big advantage even though she’s gentle 99% of the time. I’ve been training her to sleep by my feet and keep them warm. Dog adds a level of complexity I haven’t dealt with before.

Maybe I’ve gone completely insane or smoked too much of the excellent weed I grew this year, but can’t banish this operation (still needs a better operational name) from my mind.

Hardcore mode: do three months in each of the above cities and the last three months in the Seattle area.

[portraitoftheoddity]

Hiking Gear & the 10 Essentials

So, I'm prepping to go on my first solo winter hike tomorrow, and in making sure I'm geared up, I'm going through my pack and making sure I have 'The Ten Essentials'

What are the Ten Essentials? The general consensus and list from REI says:

Navigation

Illumination

Sun protection

First aid

Knife + a gear repair kit

Fire

Shelter

Extra food

Extra water

Extra clothes

So, here's my pack:

It's a 36 liter pack, has an adjustable waist and chest strap, and it's very comfortable and great for making sure I can carry what I need. Here's what's inside...

Navigation

I have a set of maps of the mountains in the various subranges of the range I enjoy hiking in, and have a small compass that attaches to my pack's shoulder strap. I can bring whichever map is relevant to the hike I'm doing that day and slide it into its plastic pouch to keep it dry!

2. Illumination

This means headlamp! If you get caught out after dark, having a headlamp is pretty essential so that you can see the trail markers and get back down without getting lost or badly injured. I keep the batteries in a separate baggy to prolong battery life, and test them before hiking to make sure they work.

3. Sun Protection

In the summer, I will bring a tube of sunscreen with me and reapply during my hike; in winter I sweat a lot less and am more covered up, so I admit, I just apply some in the parking lot, especially when most of the hikes I do are in the shade. But I always bring sunglasses with me! It can get pretty bright up on the summit.

4. First Aid

Okay, I go a little overboard here, but having been seriously injured on the trail, I err on the side of being prepared. I have a comprehensive first aid kit for longer outings, glacier gel for blisters, afterbite for insect strings and bites, a lightweight foam splint for broken bones, medical tape, and an ace bandage. There's also a little pouch with an antiseptic wipe, a few bandaids, and some advil and tylenol that I keep in an easy-to-reach pocket -- on very short outings, I sometimes just take this. If I'm hiking with someone else and they have a first aid kit, I may leave some of this behind since there's not that much need for redundancy. But if I'm solo or the most prepared in a group, I make sure I'm stocked up.

5. Knife + Gear Repair

I call this my MacGyver kit. If something tears, breaks, or is otherwise borked, I can probably rig up a temporary fix with this. I have, left to right, some duct tape, a swiss army knife, zip ties, safety pins, and a spare bootlace. Great for reattaching broken straps, fixing a broken boot, assembling shelter, etc.

6. Fire

I deeply hope I'm never in a situation where I am so fucked I need to build a fire out in the wilderness to survive the night, but if I ever am that fucked, this will help. I have a lighter, and a bit of tinder -- in this case, a toilet paper roll stuffed with dryer lint, to use as a fire starter.

7. Shelter

Again, never want to have to spend an unintentional night outdoors, but if I do... Here I have two itty bitty things that could save my life. There's an emergency bivvy -- basically a plastic sleeping bag that you can climb into that will keep out water and reflect some of your body heat back at you, weighs about 4.5 ounces -- and a space blanket. Combining these, in addition to building a fire and using my knife and other supplies to rig together a lean-to out of branches to keep myself out of the wind, I could probably make it through a cold mountain night in a worst case scenario situation.

8. Extra Food

You burn through a lot of calories on the trail, so it's always good to have snacks. I often bring a sandwich and maybe a cookie to eat on summit, but in addition I have nonperishable sugar- and protein-rich snacks, such as trail mix and granola bars. I also keep a spare baggie for my trash!

9. Extra Water

In the summer, I always bring two liter-sized water bottles with me because I drink like a fish, and dehydrating on the trail is a big problem. In the winter, where I sweat less and get less thirsty, I've been bringing a liter and a half with me and doing fine (I usually drink the liter on the hike, and polish off the rest back down in the parking lot). But I also have water-purifying tablets with me, in the event I wind up lost and in need of water -- there's a lot of natural streams and water sources near the trails around here, but there's also a lot of wildlife so some method of water purification is necessary if you're going to drink from them if you don't want to ingest some microbe that's gonna make you sick as hell.

10. Extra Clothing

I will probably be fine on this hike with a thermal shirt and a fleece jacket, but I am packing my puff jacket just in case, as well as extra gloves and extra socks, in case I slip on a water crossing and get my feet wet. My puff folds up pretty small and is very lightweight while being very insulating, so it's perfect for winter hikes. In the summer, for a low-altitude hike, I will often bring a sweater and a windbreaker. Usually when I'm hiking, I'm VERY warm, but as soon as I stop moving, be it to take a breather, to enjoy the view on summit, or if Something has Gone Wrong™, I'm going to get chilled and want those added layers.

And a few extras that aren't on the list, but which I bring with me...

BONUS: SOS

Whistle! This is a simple thing, but if I'm hurt or lost and need help, I can blow a whistle a lot louder and for a lot longer than I can yell. Three short blasts means "Hiker in distress" and the sound will carry. And unlike a cell phone, whistles don't need signal or batteries.

BONUS: Sanitation

Yeah, sometimes, you gotta pee in the woods. For that, I have my kula cloth (antimicrobial reusable self-sanitizing pee cloth that clips to the outside of my pack), a pee funnel so I can pee standing up without dropping my pants and having to awkwardly squat, and in the event I'm ever out long enough that I gotta number two, something to wipe with and a plastic bag to carry my wiping material out with so I don't leave dirty tp out in the woods.

BONUS: Traction & Mobility

For winter hiking, I bring my microspikes. These are a rubbery frame that slides on over your boot with little chains with short metal spikes on the bottom, which dig into the ice you're walking on to give you traction so you don't slip.

I also love bringing my trekking poles on hikes to help with my balance, stability, and impact on my shitty knees.

So, that's my full inventory of gear! Feel free to drop any questions in my askbox.

[ekebolou]

A Haunting, pt 2

A bit longer: ~3,300 words

A week later, Dominicus had returned to his still-cramped but at least wind-tight dormitory room, thrown his bag into his chair, thrown his boots – after the necessary careful shimmying required by their being almost too small – off his feet, and thrown himself onto his bed, hands behind his head.

Bivouac was over – had been for a few days – and after the initial shock of being dragged back into the ‘civilization’ of the Academy, Dominicus found himself still very tightly wound.

Of course, most of the other cadets would say he was always tightly wound, but they had all the perceptiveness of a bucket of cabbages. He was not tightly wound – he was very angry. There were hundreds of reasons for him to be angry. He could not possibly list them all. They ranged from the very small, very justified anger that they only let the Midraeic cooks make parts of the mess hall’s offerings and thus he hadn’t had a good, full meal in ages, to the basic premises of Ainjir society, which were, at heart, stupid. Or maybe he should switch those around. A good dish of lupa could possibly solve everything. Tea. Flatbread (with garlic, but the amount his mother used only). Almond cakes. Fine sugar. More bread.

But then he got sad and angry, so maybe not.

He was mad at Cole, obviously, but that was not surprising in itself. It had been at least two weeks since he had seen Cole anything but distantly, but rather than the time away making him less angry, he seemed to have only gotten more angry, and also to have forgotten entirely why they were fighting in the first place (other than the obvious – Cole’s poorly-hidden determination to be First among cadets, which was also Dominicus’ goal, though for much better and more realistic reasons).

He spent some minutes staring doggedly at the wooden ceiling and not seeing it. He was trying very hard to figure out why he was so mad at Cole while simultaneously trying very hard not to remember that Ghent had, in his infinite and insufferable wisdom, told him exactly why he was so mad.

Dominicus was not a good a liar, even to himself, so it was a running battle to see if he churn up enough wild frustration and offense at Cole (of which there was always plenty) to keep the words ‘you need to get laid,’ from echoing through the thunderous emptiness of his head.

He wished he could temporarily rip his own eyeballs out and fling them across the room, so he was keeping his hands under his head and holding very still, to stifle the desire to experiment.

The sheer pressure of the air in the room should have made swirls like smoke around the door when Taig walked in, his face instantaneously struck with regret. Regret that he had walked in? Regret that he lived there? Regret that he lived at all?

He met Dominicus’ gaze, though, and persisted.

“So, what are you up to?”

Dominicus pictured old Ghent, his horrible face red with laughter as he bent over his knees and wheezed, ‘not fucking.’

“Nothing,” Dominicus said, and because Taig reacted to this gentle phrase as if he had hurled a stone out of his mouth, he tried to casually swing himself around to sit up.

When he looked again, Taig had retreated a pace or two further behind the door. Like it was a shield.

“What?” Dominicus said. Fuck it, that wasn’t casual – he wasn’t good at being casual – but he also wasn’t angry at Taig (God, why not? He should be! Thanks to Taig their tent smelled rancid enough the ollamh had forced them to burn it, leaving them sleeping with no shelter the last few days of bivouac), so it was worth trying to tone it down a bit.

“Well, uhhhhh….” Taig replied and then paused, and Dominicus did start to get angry at him.

“Well, uh… well, you know the, um…” Taig fidgeted, “you know that whole, like, campfire story thing at bivvy and all and, uh…” He had tried to laugh as if much more relaxed than he was, which even Dominicus could tell was not all.

“That dumbfuck basement ghost story?”

“I mean, was it a ghost?” Taig responded, narrowing his eyes and nodding, “You didn’t seem so sure then…”

Because, at the time, Dominicus was trying not to expel from the world of the living one of the few tolerable tentmates he had ever had for being ambulatory filth, like an orphaned kitten before it learned to clean itself. Because Taig, like an idiot, had managed to scare himself enough to stay up half the night, as did many of the other First Years, like several idiots, guaranteeing a miserable day of fatigue, contempt from their superiors, and complaining. Because Taig was at least smart enough not to totally swallow Dominicus’ flat out lie that there was no basement in the place the Second Years had set the story, that, in order to get Taig to shut up and go to sleep, he had to spend some time asserting he had seen cheese wheels being hauled in and out of said area (despite cadets not being allowed anywhere near it) and cheese couldn’t realistically be haunted, now, could it?

“It’s a prank,” Dominicus replied flatly, “not a ghost.”

“Yes, well, but,” Taig paused, having gained enough of his confidence back to hold a finger up and stride out from behind the door. “But what if it was?”

“What if it was what?”

“A ghost?”

“It’s not a ghost.”

“So some other kind of spirit?”

“What kind of spirit,” Dominicus asked, absent of all desire to know.

Taig narrowed his eyes, mouth open a moment before speaking. “There are… other kinds?”

Dominicus sighed heavily. “There’s not a…” and then he finally got enough of a lid on his anger (or frustration at sexual frustration) to be suspicious. “Why are you talking about this?”

“Well, it’s a point of interest, just, you know, it’s an interesting–”

Dominicus shut his eyes. “Why are you talking about this to me?”

When he opened his eyes Taig was looking at him somewhat doubtfully, but also, somewhat hopefully. “Do you think you could, y’know… investigate?”

“Investigate?”

“Yeah…” Taig began, but on seeing Dominicus open his mouth (to angrily tell him to do his own damn homework) he went on, “Not alone, of course, you know, that would be silly, I mean – would you be willing to maybe investigate… with me?”

“What.” Dominicus said, enunciating the full stop.

“…With us?” Taig replied.  Suddenly, there were three more Ainjir sidling out from behind the door, poking their heads around so they could join Taig in staring at Dominicus with their tea-saucer eyes caught in various stages of hope, credulity, and fear.

“What the fuck,” Dominicus said.

*

“What’s this?”

The cover-side and pages of the book Dominicus was reading flipped up, nearly hitting him in the face. He had been leaning, chin-on-fist, quite heavily over them as he read the opposite side.

He snapped up to glare only to see Cole stroll around the edge of the table and throw himself into the chair on the opposite side, grinning. He was playing with a ball – a peach? A plum – moving it senselessly between his hands before his chest, and he leaned back in the little wooden chair like it was the most comfortable he had ever sat in, ten feet of cat in a two-inch cradle.

Dominicus was very aware he wasn’t mad at Cole, per se, in this moment. But Cole was still irritating.

“What do you want?” Dominicus snapped.

“To see you,” Cole replied, grin widening ever so slightly.

Dominicus frowned at him, refusing to watch the plum as he gave it a little toss, from hand to hand. “Did Taig tell you I was here?”

“You’re always here,” Cole said. He caught the plum as he sat up, leaning forward to put his elbows on the table, one finger of the hand with the plum-filled palm touching just the edge of the pages of Dominicus’ book. “And I don’t talk to Taig.”

Fuck – he caught Dominicus staring at the plum in his hand. When Dominicus looked up into his eyes, Cole smiled.

Cole was of the astonishing opinion that they didn’t have to like each other to have sex, but of course, Cole was an especially degenerate Ainjir even when amongst a flock of degenerate Ainjir. They had been fighting – technically, they were always fighting – but this rapprochement Cole kept doing… it was something.

What?

Something. A scheme? For what? God knew this didn’t benefit them at all. Well… not, like, professionally. And personally, they found each other frustrating. Dominicus knew that Cole often felt as frustrated as he did because that perfect little wall of a face would slip or he would say or do something that wasn’t entirely in keeping with his idiot persona put on for his idiot friends and then retreat for days to nurse whatever secret ego-wound this slip had caused him.

But then he would come back.

Choosing to come back to Dominicus rather than just… well, just… well, anyone could do that. Would, probably. He was fucking… popular. But it wasn’t… like it wasn’t… great.

Well, it was. That wasn’t why Dominicus was doing it. Well… but… fuck.

Dominicus didn’t know what he was doing, constantly hoping Cole would be coming back.

The grin dropped, and Cole looked down at the book, which Dominicus resisted the urge to instantly shut. “What’s your low-forties friend got you doing for him now?”

Low forties was quite a good rank in a class of a more than a hundred, but, of course, not good enough for Cole. Unless it was just for sex. One of his less appealing features, and one which Dominicus suspected was a bad habit left over from last quarter more than his real opinion. Or maybe Dominicus wanted to think of it that way.

He grunted as a thought struck him, flipped the around and pushed it before Cole.

Cole read the title and laughed. “Ghost stories?”

“Yes,” Dominicus said.

Cole glanced at him, but one thing Dominicus knew was that it was better to wait for your enemy to make a fool of himself than do anything to prove yourself a fool first.

“Why are you reading ghost stories?” Cole asked, in a decidedly less I-know-you’re-looking-at-me fashion.

Dominicus was tempted to stay silent for longer, to see if Cole would start trying to work out how ghost stories might give him an advantage in their next intellectual bout, but he didn’t really have time for that.

“Taig said there is a ghost.”

“Taig has probably said bivouac food isn’t that bad,” Cole replied, but he was looking at the book, flipping it open with his free hand while the other dandled the plum. “Why is Taig talking to you about ghosts?” – and turning a page – “Do you even believe in ghosts?”

“Do you?” Dominicus asked.

Cole snorted. “As much a figment as gods.”

Cole wasn’t even looking up, so he couldn’t see Dominicus’ sharp frown, but Dominicus wiped it away, anyway. It was utterly foolish to think they would do anything but fuck and fight.  Fighting would probably be how it would end up either way. But this was also precisely the weakness Dominicus had been hoping to exploit.

He had worked out that Cole knew a lot more about gods – about Ainjir’s old ways in general, most likely – than he liked to let on. Feigning ignorance was never Cole’s favourite tactic, and when he did it, he did it to get something. Of this, as far as Dominicus could tell, he feigned ignorance about all the time. He slipped, of course, but his friends were fools, and if those fools had noticed, they at least weren’t so stupid that they would go against him, so Dominicus didn’t think that anybody else actually paid attention to it.

Most cadets were fools. As he resisted the urge to watch the plum, he noticed he was kind of a fool. 

Whatever. Humility wasn’t Cole’s best skill, so he sometimes forgot to pretend like he knew nothing Ainjir’s old ways. So he was vulnerable.

“Taig and some others apparently went in the cellar beneath the Tower,” Dominicus said, “and now they are frightened.”

Cole snorted again, but looked up without raising his head, an absolutely devastating perspective to have on his face. “That old saw – but good on them for getting in, I guess.” Then he raised his head. “What’s it got to do with you?”

“They want me to do something about it.”

“What?” Now, Cole actually sat up, pushing the book aside and pulling the chair closer. “What do you mean?”

Dominicus shrugged, very naturally forming a frown because it was equally mysterious to him. “I don’t know. We were told the story at bivouac. They went to test the story. It is now tested, and they think they are…” he really wasn’t sure of the Ainjir word…

“Haunted” Cole offered. “Cursed?”

Dominicus shrugged again. “I don’t know. I don’t know what they want.”

He gestured to the book – obviously, not pleasure reading (so it was better than tomes about logistics, that didn’t make it for-fun reading).

Cole absently brought the plum to his cheek, rubbing against it for a second. It was terrible. Suddenly, he smiled. It was also terrible.

“What?” Dominicus demanded.

“I know what they want.” He leaned back in his chair again.

“What.” Dominicus said, leaning forward and hating that he sounded so stupid saying ‘what, what, what’ all the time. Hating the Ainjir language for making ‘what, what, what’ sound so stupid in the first place. Hating the table between them. Hating the plum. Jealous of the plum.

“You, my friend,” Cole said, even though they were not friends, “are Midraeic.”

“I am aware,” Dominicus said, absolutely hating that he liked looking at Cole so much, on account of Cole’s tragic stupidity.

“Oh, come on,” Cole said, scooting closer over the table, just as Dominicus had. “They don’t know anything about this stuff – about spirits and ghosts and curses and things. Those are for,” he raised his chin and grinned at Dominicus, “believers.”

“What,” Dominicus said, again, with more direct hatred of all of the above.

Cole laughed, and Dominicus felt a thrill as he was torn between enjoying the sound, wanting to strangle him, and wanting to tell him not to make so much noise in the library (which could be solved with strangling). Then Cole leaned forward again over the book on the table, resting his chin in the hand that held the plum so it rested against his cheek, this time not absently at all.

“They want you to go down there and pray or something – do a ceremony of appeasement, or some kind of ritual, call on your god or your Prophet to save them. They don’t have anyone to call on – they don’t think gods are real; they don’t know anything about them.”

Dominicus only let himself get a little distracted by the idea of Cole biting into the plum – he wouldn’t do it in the library, or if he did, Dominicus would stop him. No eating in the library.

Maybe eating other places.

“…What is a Midraeic prayer supposed to do about an Ainjir god?”

“Oh, it’s not a god,” Cole said lifting and letting the pages of the book rifle back down against the edge of his thumb.

“So, what is it?”

“It’s a cave,” Cole said. “Surely that’s how the story starts – with the old basalt caverns under the Tower’s foundations, the first Academy building and all that. They didn’t even start the tower until after, I think, Founderhall had been built for like twenty years…”

“You haven’t heard the story?” Dominicus asked, brows furrowing in spite of himself.

Cole smiled at him – he did delight in being asked to make himself sound superior. “No. They tried to scare us with other things than ghosts. But I know it – it’s a tradition.”

The OTHER thing Cole didn’t like admitting was that he knew a lot of the Academy’s history because he had been born in the Capitol. Having seen how the other cadets born in the Capitol were treated, Doninicus understood that one. But that meant he had to get Cole back on target or there would be some kind of stupid, face-saving exercise to be handled.

“A tradition for what? To scare the Second Year with… a cave?”

“No, it’s to get them in trouble, of course, and it pays off every time, because even if they do make it down without getting them in trouble, like your little friends, then they’ll get scared shitless, and do something stupid about it.” Cole turned his chair so he sat facing out, towards the library shelves, and crossed his ankle over his knee, but he was still touching the plum against his cheek, handling it so softly his hand hardly moved, so he was still caught up in thinking.

“They did not have Midraeics to ask before me,” Dominicus pointed out. “How is that supposed to work?”

“Yeah, so it must be something else,” Cole agreed. “I would suspect it would be something to get them back down there – you know, double the chances of a beating.” He glanced over the plum to look at Dominicus again. “Did they say how they were cursed?”

“They said they had been touched.”

Cole’s grin broke free again, but he said nothing.

“What?” Fuck you, Ainjir language.

Cole scooted forward over the table again, holding the plum out between them, looking at Dominicus over it with half-lidded eyes and twisting it back and forth in the library’s light. “They were touched – so they have to touch back.”

Dominicus was physically uncomfortable for obvious and potentially enjoyable reasons. “Touch… the cellar?”

“No,” Cole chuckled, and folded his forearms, still leaning forward over the table. He had looked away when he laughed. It, for one, meant that Cole wasn’t laughing at him; and, two, Dominicus, close as they were, got a nice look at his neck, under his collar.

“It means,” Cole said, smiling benignly at him again, “that they have to find whatever dead thing they think touched them, and touch it back. It’s bad luck to see a corpse and not touch it.”

Dominicus, though he wanted desperately not to look like he was anything but the utterly focused master of this conversation, felt his mouth open a little, and hang there. “We… would have to touch so many corpses?”

Cole did the whole gentle laughing thing again, only looking up, which was just as nice. “Battle is different.”

“What?” Dominicus asked. “Why?”

“Well, for one,” Cole replied, “it’s not in a cave. Not usually,” he said, seeing that Dominicus was about to tell him about a battle in a cave (skirmish, anyway, since it was a small cave). “Caves are places of spirit – they’re always prone to being strange. They touch the underworld, if deep enough, and catch and hold things – running water, sound, air, and spirits. Can’t open a window in a cave.”

That last was utterly nonsensical to Dominicus, but he didn’t bring it up.  Cole smiled. They were both leaning slightly across the table (Cole was leaning more). For a moment, they said nothing.

That was really all the information he needed.

Dominicus grabbed the plum as he stood up, and, grinning, Cole followed him out.

[galacticquiltsystem]

Galactic Quilt System's Sideblogs

The following is the current list of our system's headmates' sideblogs as of 5/1/24!

@gq-aina "Cherry Blossoms and Sparkles" This blog is run by Aina and focuses on anime, lolita fashion, and Japanese culture.

@gq-aphra "Mud Puddle Splashing" This blog is run by Aphra and focuses on goblincore content.

@gq-beetle "Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!" Content Warning: bugs, beetles, spiders, creepy-crawlies. This blog is run by Beetle, a headmate who loves all things bugs!

@gq-bivvie "Just Another Omega" This blog is run by Bivvie and focuses on omegaverse content from the perspective of an Omega.

@gq-canary "2BA Master" This blog is run by Canary and focuses on Pokemon-related content, including Canary's journey to play and beat every Pokemon game in existence.

@gq-fen "Recovering System Host" This blog is run by Fen and focuses on her journey to view herself beyond her system roles and her feelings as the current host of the system. Will contain a lot of parenting and cottagecore content. TW: cancer and infertility trauma.

@gq-fiasco "The Anarchist Blanket Fort" This blog is run by Fiasco and focuses on anarchist/leftist content.

@gq-francesca "Be My Neighbor" This blog is run by Francesca (a Fred Rogers factive) and focuses on positivity content, primarily as a way to cultivate a place for the rest of our system to go when we need positive reminders.

@gq-freckle "The Dollhouse" Run by Freckle, an adult Little (age regressor) in our system, her blog focuses on doll-related content, including her subsystem, which is comprised of dolls. A lot of Rainbow High and American Girl Doll stuff here!

@gq-fritzy "Little Fritter" This blog is run by Fritzy, a sfw adult age-regressor. This blog will focus primarily on agere content with an agender lens.

@gq-galaxy "A Star Reborn" This blog is run by Galaxy, a VTuber fictive ("OC") who started life as a literal star and after going supernova, awoke in a spaceship adrift in the stars in a new, humanoid form.

@gq-indica "Catnip Thoughts" This blog is run by a Sprigatito fictive who adores catnip and her namesake. It will contain 420 themes and content.

@gq-ivy "Modern Witching" Ivy's subblog features mostly Pagan and witchy content, as she is a center of spirituality within the System.

@gq-jasper "Aspiring Artist" What it says on the tin! Jasper is a lover of all artistic mediums and this blog will focus on creating and appreciating different kinds of art.

@gq-josie "Magic Is Kawaii" This blog is run by Josie and focuses on gaming content - primarily Magic: the Gathering.

@gq-julianne "Support Main" Julianne is a Soraka (League of Legends) fictive. She has split from her source somewhat, but still enjoys playing League and other competitive video games, even though she isn't very good at them.

@gq-kalylia "Sweet Swirlybun" A former system host, Kalylia, works on finding out more about herself and what life will be like for her now that she is no longer the host of the system.

@gq-leigh "Dreaming of Disney" This blog is run by Leigh and focuses on Disney content (franchises, movies, and parks).

@gq-maisie "The Language of the Loaf" Maisie adores baking and her blog will focus on that alongside cooking and all things food. Note: Maisie appears innerworld with darker skin. She is NOT "transracial" - we understand that our body is white and we in no way believe ourselves to be POC.

@gq-miku "Alt MikU" An alternate universe Hatsune Miku, this fictive-run blog will focus on our Miku and her journey to self-discovery and self-fulfillment.

@gq-monstera "Cryptozoology Jams" This blog is run by Monstera and focuses on various cryptid and monster content, including fictional franchises like Monster High.

@gq-nadia "Poolside Bookworm" Nadia's sideblog will feature reading content, book reviews, poolside pictures, etc.

@gq-oakley "Pups and Pastures" Oakley is a former horse girl and her blog will feature tons of content about her special interests: horses, dogs, and dreams of van life.

@gq-paradigm "Kawaii Paradigm" Paradigm is a cozy video games streamer. Her content will focus on cozy and wholesome video games.

@gq-pichi "Poke-Pals Space" This blog is run by age-regressor Pichi and will focus on Pokemon content specifically from an agere perspective.

@gq-pippa "Pippa's Palace" This blog is run by Pippa (a MINOR) and will focus on her various interests as a young teen, which include Minecraft, skincare, and princesscore.

@gq-ponycrew "Friendship is Plural" This blog is collectively run by the Galactic Quilt System's My Little Pony subsystem and includes both canon and oc fictives. It will focus on MLP content.

@gq-rowan "The Threehouse" Rowan is an adult age regressor (Little) in the system who loves nature and cottagecore. Her blog will feature these themes.

@gq-sanrio "The Sanrio Squad" This blog is collectively run by the Galactic Quilt System's Sanrio fictive subsystem and will focus on Sanrio content.

@gq-saoirse "Selkie Secrets" Saoirse is a very shy headmate and also an adult age regressor. She loves selkies, seals, cold weather, and related things.

@gq-sebby "The Littlest Anarchist" This blog is run by Sebby, an adult age-regressor, and will focus on alternative little content (punk and spooky themes).

@gq-seren "Parchment and Dice" This blog is run by Seren, a half-elf, and will focus on various tabletop rpg content.

@gq-skipper "Clowning Around" Skipper's sideblog focuses on clowncore, clowning, puppets, and circus arts - her favorite things!

@gq-story "A Storied Tapestry" Part of our healing process is handled by Story, a headmate who creates short stories based on our headmates, innerworld experiences, and especially our fictives' pseudomemories. She'll post these stories here.

@gq-syskids "Kiddos in a Trenchcoat" This blog is collectively run by the Galactic Quilt System's SysKids. These are MINORS, so the blog is closely monitored by the system's internal parent, Fen.

@gq-therians "Tails 'n Paws" This blog is collectively run by the Galactic Quilt System's therian subsystem. Therians in this subsystem include a fox, bat, rabbit, otter, tanuki, wolf, raccoon, maine coon cat, possum, and ermine.

@gq-toybox "Quilted Toybox" This blog is collectively run by the Galactic Quilt System's soothers/companions who are living toys. It will include a lot of art and perhaps their thoughts on their roles.

@gq-triagetrio "Chronically Cute" This blog is run primarily by Chronic and will focus on disability and chronic illness content. The other members of the system's Triage Trio (Crescent, who handles acute body injuries, and Cupid, who handles acute body illnesses) may also post here.

@gq-vikki "Seaside Dreaming" Asiavik aka Vikki loves marine biology and blogs about all things life in and around the water. She's very autistic and marine biology is her special interest.

[contest-winning-pest]

Nightmares, again, of the claws and eyes. Of raging against rage, of fire against fire, the earth shaking, the feeling of resolve and fury and the dance known as 'battle'--

Kerry, awake, slipped out of her bivvy bag on the floor and walked to the little balcony of the one guest room, which was moonlit and blue, and closed herself in. Brendan and Wally were probably still asleep, but she needed a minute.

Breathe. Try not to move too much. Balance your heart and senses. In. Hold. Out.

In. Hold. Out.

In. Hold. Out. Reset.

Kerry's teeth stopped tingling.

"... May the dream be changed." Was that a flare of Aura? ... Someone tossing in bed. Between her misaligned Aura and her own shaken mindset, it was hard to pick out whether they were awake or asleep.

Even after all this, she didn't have someone to rely on. Not really. She flipped open her DexNav, and considered the numbers within.

... Satoshi was unlikely to understand, and Takeshi would move mountains for any child but it felt like ash in her mouth to call him because she had a bad dream.

... She could call Musashi and Kojirou, but they, too, had their own problems. And Professor Birch needed his sleep.

She closed the clamshell of her DexNav with a snap, and once more heard the rustling of sheets, then the sound of the curtains moving.

"... Wally?" Now she felt even worse, but tried to keep the noise down. "Sorry, I must have woken you..."

[richardhandelcarp]

Comfort over too much kit.

More Ramblings This is something that goes around in my head all the time. As I get older, I’m torn between comfort and taking too much kit. I’ve come to appreciate the importance of comfort during my fishing trips. Having ample space to move about within my bivvy, a comfortable chair to sit on, and avoiding spending the entire day hunched up on my bedchair has become a priority. While there…

[bikepackinguk]

Day Sixty-eight

Out from the woods after breakfasting, it's back to the road once more.

Barrow-in-Furness is fortunately well supplied with some good cycle paths so it's a nice ride in the sun down into town to take in some of the sights, before heading across the bridge to see the pretty little island of Walney.

Back again through Barrow and following the cycle route, I have a few redirections as the ride along the quayside is locked off, but eventually make my way south from the town for a great ride in the sun around some lovely salt marshes rife with wildlife.

The ride hits the coast once more by Rampside with a truly beautiful view across Morecambe Bay, with thebroad running right up along the coastline.

The cycle route diverts more inland after a ways, but I opt to stick with the main road to keep on taking in the views. A few hills start to cause a bit of work to be needed, but eventually I make my way over and in to Ulverstone, with a striking view of the Sir John Barrow Monument on the hill above.

With the A590 looking particularly busy here, I opt to take the cycle route leading a little inland to avoid it. Whilst it's some nice country lanes, it also goes straight up and over the hills, meaning a very sweaty section of the journey.

Finally the hills are crested and I roll down to Greenodd, where a bridge offers a shortcut over the River Leven and a nice little ride through the nature reserve.

After a break for lunch, it's time to strike south on the B5278, which leads through some nice tunnels of trees down to Cark, before some more slogging through repeated climbs until arriving round at Grand-over-Sands.

There's a great stretch of promenade to ride along here, with some more beautiful views across the bay.

Out from Grange, it's more cycle route following in order to navigate around the busy A road, which offers a combination of nice long flat stretches along with repeated climbs up and out to the other side of Levens, where we head south once again.

Past Levens Hall, we hit the coastline once more west of Heversham, with the wind beginning to make its appearance blowing up from the bay.

The ride along past Sandside continues to be very pretty, though the strong winds are making progress more of a chore, and after reaching Arnside we're up some steep ascents to get across to the south stretch of the AONB.

The area here is very beautiful with a combination of lush forested areas and beautiful sea views, but it's also very hilly and a lot of work to keep going.

Around a corner as I approach Silverdale and there's a sign welcoming me to Lancashire! Progress!

With the evening wearing on and the legs having earned a break, it's not too much trouble to find a spot of trees here where I shouldn't be disturbed for the night. It's curious how attitudes change - on the ride up the east coast, I was very conscious about getting the tent up before Scotland and spent almost every night in my bivvy bag. After weeks of use, I'm happy to use it whenever I can now!

TTFN!

[jovialturtleface]

Bivvy