#foraging for wild materials

[balkanradfem]

Basketry: Take two

So if you remember, a few days ago I attempted to make a basket out of unprocessed, unknown type of bush/tree, and it was fun! It didn’t produce a basket, but I got some practical knowledge.

Since then, I’ve started following a lot of basketry groups and blogs, and the things I’ve learned have made me impressed and intrigued. Firstly, these people have no limits in what they’ll make a basket of; trees, grasses, dry stems of plants, houseplants, dry corn leaves, wild brambles, tree bark, vines, you name it; they’ve made a basket out of it. Secondly, they’re not just making natural baskets, but cordage, out of almost every natural material! They know how to process stems of cattails and all kinds of plants in order to get the fibers and make them into little cords, and then they can even use those cords for making baskets! And the cords can be used for anything you would need a piece of string, like macrame, crafts, tying up plants, it’s incredible!

So now I’m determined to get more of this knowledge, it seems almost godly to be able to go out in the wild and then create practical items out of every piece of grass, stem and tree.

One vital piece of information I’ve gathered, is that you can harvest blackberry bramble using thick gloves and shears, and then you run it thru a piece of old denim in order to scrub all of the thorns from it, and it’s usable for basketry. This information feels golden, because not only is blackberry is perfectly pliable and easy to manipulate in basketry, but it’s invasive and overgrowing the entire field I work on, so making it usable for practical purposes is a dream come true. I will be testing this out today!

So I’m at it again; I’m out and first thing I want to do is collect that same non-identified tree/bush branches in order to try and complete my failed basket. I’m smarter this time, so I’ll be collecting only the thinnest and most pliable branches!

This is how that bush thing looks like, it even has some black berries, which makes me believe it’s a rhamnus (Buckthorn). Anyway, I got a bunch of it, and then went to look for the blackberry brambles.

I found this grass situation on the way, and figured that if everything else fails, I can always try to make some grass stuff? Grass has to be easy to weave with, it’s extremely pliant. The only thing is, this grass’ edge is very sharp. It gave me a papercut almost immediately. Still, I got a bunch. Maybe it won’t matter that it’s sharp.

Okay, so I arrived at the blackberry place, and I have my very thick gloves on, and I’ll try running the vines thru a piece of old denim, to see if it really removes all those thorns:

Not only it worked, it worked immediately and perfectly! I was careful to run it in both directions, but even after running it once, the brambles have been smooth and safe to handle! I was able to hold it in my hand! I’m extremely pleased, and I spent next 15 minutes pulling out the invasive blackberries, and making good material out of them:

My piece of denim is a bit filthy, but it isn’t badly damaged! It will be good for more times.

So, I got home, put all that stuff on the floor, and figured I should go see if I can re-do my last basket. It’s been on my balcony ever since, drawing the attention and sympathy of the onlookers. Here’s what I got:

Since the spines of the last basket were essentially fine, I tore off all of the branches I attempted to weave with the last time, and decided to start again, this time with a bit thinner ones!

And it started off great! Mind you, I was still using a LOT of brute force here, these branches did not want to bend the way I wanted them to, I was being pretty aggressive to make it look like this. The start looks awesome, and then I realized that bending the basket to go up, is not as easy as it was with newspapers, and I struggled a bit to make the bend and to continue weaving upwards.

And here’s a basket! As you can see, I didn’t end it very professionally, I just cut off the ribs and pushed in the handle (it’s not safely inside, it could detach with weight), but this, this is definitely a basket-shaped item! Compared to the last thing I did, this is a good learning curve in the working.

Now, sadly, this basket is barely usable, or more specifically, it’s usable only for the stuff that doesn’t mind being stabbed. Since the material was so hard to bend, when I wanted to put in a new branch, I had to stab it into the basket, and force it into any opening available; I couldn’t tuck it down nicely as you’re supposed to. So at the end, I had to cut a whole lot of branch endings, and the sharp edges have remained everywhere; you can get stabbed just by holding this thing.

Not to despair, this is a learning basket, and now I know there’s a problem like that, I can work on it! I filled that basket with walnuts and pinecones and I’m perfectly happy with how it looks right now.

This basket will also show me how this material stands the test of time; when raw materials like this dry, they usually shrink up, so the basket might lose a bit of it’s shape, and I will see in few months what it looks like.

I still have blackberry bramble, some drying dandelion stems, twine, and my grass, but I did tire myself out making this, so I’ll leave those for another day. And when some of these materials manage to dry, I will try doing the proper process of drying and soaking, to see what difference does it make to use raw vs prepared material. But this is what the raw thing can do! I’m happy to know it.

[headspace-hotel]

Oh my god I'm sooooo mad right now

So. I have no business telling people not to collect wild plants/materials.

I do it all the time.

However.

The words "wildcrafted," and "foraged," even "sustainably harvested," are terrifying to see in an ad on Etsy or Instagram

There is a such thing as the honorable harvest where you ASK the plant if it is okay to take, with the intention of listening if the answer is NO. Robin Wall Kimmerer talked about this, She did not make it up, it is an ancient and basic guideline of treating the plants with respect.

Basically it is not wrong to use plants and other living things, even if this means taking their life. But you are not the main character. You have to reflect on your knowledge of the organism's life cycle and its role in the ecosystem, so you can know you are not damaging the ecosystem. You have to only take what you need and avoid depleting the population.

Mary Siisip Geniusz also talked about it in an enlightening way in her book Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have To Do is Ask. She gave an example of a woman who was on an island and needed to use a medicinal herb to heal her injured leg or she would not survive the winter. In that situation she had to use up all of the plant that was on the island. This was permissible, even though it eliminated the local population, because she had to do it to save her life. But in return the woman had the responsibility to later return to the island and plant seeds of that plant.

And what makes me absolutely furious, is that there are a bunch of people online who have vaguely copied this philosophy of sustainability in a false and insulting way, saying "wildcrafted" or "foraged" materials to be all trendy and cool and in touch with nature, when it is actually just poaching.

If you are from a capitalistic culture the honorable harvest is very hard and unintuitive to learn to practice. I am not very good at it still. This is why it is suspicious if someone is confident that they can ethically and respectfully harvest wild materials with money involved.

So there's this lichen that is often called "reindeer moss." It looks like this:

It grows only a few millimeters a year.

This is "preserved" reindeer moss.

It is from Etsy, similar is also sold in many other online shops, many of which have the audacity to describe it as a "plant" for decorations and terrariums that needs no maintenance.

It is not maintenance-free, it is dead. It has been spray-painted a horrible shade of green. The people buying it clearly don't even know what it is. It is a popular crafting material for "fairy houses," whatever the hell those are. So is moss, also dead, spray-painted, and wild-harvested. Supposedly reindeer moss is harvested sustainably in Finland, where it is abundant, for the craft industry. However poaching of lichens and mosses is absolutely rampant.

It's even more upsetting because there's hardly any articles drawing attention to the problem. This one is from 1999. And the poaching is still going on.

There is a "moss" section on Etsy, and it is so upsetting

These mosses and lichens were collected from the wild. Most of the shops are in the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia, which are the major locations of moss and lichen poaching. There are some shops based in Appalachia selling "foraged" reindeer moss.

Reindeer moss may be abundant in Finland, but in Appalachia it should NOT be harvested to be sold on Etsy as craft supplies! Moss doesn't grow quickly. Big, healthy colonies like this took years to grow. Some of these shops have thousands of sales, all of bags and bags of moss and lichen, and thinking of how much moss and lichen that must be, I am filled with horror.

Clubmosses do not transplant well, and these ones have no roots. The buyers do not realize they have bought a dead plant because clubmoss stays green and pliable after it is dead.

This is especially awful because in Mary Siisip Geniusz's book she talked about clubmosses being poached so much for Christmas wreaths that they had almost disappeared from a lot of forests.

I don't even know if this is illegal if it's not a formally endangered species so I don't know if I can report them I'm just. really sad and angry

[starchbean]

First Mayapples!

I found my first ripe mayapples at my first LARP XD

I was out in the woods at Dystopia Rising Indiana doing some in-character foraging where you look through the woods for these little green cards that represent stuff you find...

That woods was absolutely full of ACTUAL edible things!

Walnuts, hickory nuts, and mayapples were basically everywhere the eye could see, it was incredible!

Mayapples are something I've never found while they're actually ripe before, so I was really excited. I popped a few of them into my hip bag along with the cards and spirited them away to the minifridge XD

They taste like ...

Imagine taking a lemon and turning the volume down, but a little sweet, and kind of goopy?

I really like them! I hope I can find more in the future. I'll be scattering the seeds near my home.

P.S. Shoutout to Pip who was my foraging buddy. You'll probably never see this, but it was a blast, thank you!

If I had more time I would have gone back for the hickory nuts, lol

[alexanderwales]

Alright, here's my dream Stardew Valley style game, designed for my own tastes.

You come to a small town with the usual twenty to thirty people. It's in the middle of nowhere. It's a fantasy town, and no one actually farms anymore, partly because it's only questionably profitable, partly because a lot of the knowledge has been lost. Instead, everyone uses these magic doodads which are very powerful but also very limited. The tavernkeeper has a doodad that makes him a single kind of weak ale and a single variety of off-tasting wine. The clothier has basically a square mile of linen to work with, and everyone wears her drab clothes. Tools are made from a doodad that the blacksmith owns, not even made of any actual metal, just a material that wears away after a month and needs to be replaced by a new copy from the blacksmith's doodad. People get their meals from the doodads. They get their medical checkups. It's all a bit shit.

Because I'm a worldbuilder at heart, I would have this all exist in the wake of a large-scale war that depleted the town of its fighting-age population, with the doodads being a sort of government program to ensure that more of the lifeblood of the town could be drained away. And for there to be some reason for the town to continue existing, perhaps the government is harvesting some resources necessary in the creation of doodads. That's enough for a pro-doodad faction and maybe some minor drama with them, though I do like the idea that the only reason things are Like This is because there was a war and things got bad. It's not necessarily a bleak town, but there's definitely a listlessness to it, a "what's the point".

So you're a farmer, but no one is really a farmer anymore. Maybe there are a few books, but you don't learn farming from books, you learn it from practical experience; that's a lot of what this game is about. When you start, there's no one to buy seeds from, there's just a bunch of wilderness where farms once stood, now all long overgrown.

So you go out and forage, for a start, and you clear the land, and you pay attention to the plants and how they can be used, and you start in on making recipes with them, maybe with the help of your grandfather's old, partially incomplete books. You find some wild corn that's a descendant of the old times. You find some tomato seeds in an urn. You discover potatoes because you see them dug up by a wild boar, which itself was once a domesticated animal.

In my ideal game, you need to pay attention to the soil quality, to how far apart things are planted, to what crops work well together. Farming is a matter of companion planting and polycultures. You get some chickens by giving them consistent feed, and you keep them around because they're natural pest control. Your climbing beans climb the stalks of your maize. You're attracting pollinators. (From a gameplay perspective, yeah, we probably put this all into a grid, and you have crop bonuses from adjacencies, and emergent gameplay that comes from all that, some plants providing shade, others providing nitrogen fixing.) You're a scientist making observations about the plants, maybe with your incomplete book giving you confirmation on the nature of all your crops once you hit certain production goals or a perfect specimen or whatever.

Cooking is the same. There has got to be a system that I like better than just "combine tomato with bread to get tomato bread". I'm pretty sure that it's some variant of the actual process I use when cooking, which is making sure that things are properly cooked, balancing flavors against each other, adding in a little salt or acidity or umami or whatever. Time in the kitchen, in this game, is often about making meals, ensuring that if you have a fatty piece of meat you have some asparagus that's coated with lemon to go with it. (From a gameplay perspective, I think building the dish once is probably sufficient and it can be automated after that, and building the meal is the same. I don't want to play this minigame every time I'm cooking a dish, I just want to play it a single time until I have good knowledge of the best way to grill a BBQ chicken breast with a homemade sauce.)

But if we're having a little minigame here where we pay attention to how long we're cooking the kale to make sure that it's the right texture, and we're paying attention to abstractified mouthfeel and palette, then we can get something else for free: variation. See, you're not just cooking to get an S grade, you're cooking for people with different tastes. The cobbler has a sweet tooth, the librarian loves fruity things, the mayor cannot stand fish, that sort of thing. From a gameplay perspective, maybe we represent this with a radar graph with some specific favorite and least favorite individual flavors, and maybe it's visible to the player, but the important thing is that player gets feedback and have a reason to strive for both "good" and "perfection" and some of this is going to depend on the quality of the ingredients.

And this is, gradually, how the town is brought back into the fullness of life. You're not just cooking for these people, you're also selling them food, and they're making their own recipes, and all the stuff that's not food is making their businesses not suck anymore. After the first test keg of ale goes swimmingly, the tavernkeeper wants more, a lot more, and puts in an order for hops, wheat, grapes, anything he can use to make things that will improve nights at the tavern. The clothier will skeptically take in wool and spin her own yarn, and then eagerly want more, because how awesome is it to have a new textile? There's a chemist who is extremely interested in dyes and paints, and wants you to bring him all kinds of things to see what might be viable for going beyond the ~3 colors that the doodads can provide.

So by year two, if you're doing things right, you're the lynchpin of the revivalist movement. People are now moving to the town, for the first time in decades, because they hear that you're there and doing interesting things with the wilderness. Maybe there are other farmers following in your wake, but maybe it's just new characters who are specifically coming because a crate of wine was shipped to the capital city. Maybe some of them bring new techniques for you, or a handful of plants from a botanical garden, and there are new elements for the minigames, or maybe some automation for the stuff that's old hat.

I think something that's important to me is that there's a reason for the crops you plant and the things you do. I always like these games best when it feels like I'm doing something for someone, when I can look at a plot of cabbages and think "ah, those are the cabbages I owe to Leon". Where these games are at their worst, everything is entirely fungible and I've planted eight million blueberries because they have the highest ROI.

And yeah, in most of these games, there are other minigames like fishing and mining and logging and crafting, and since this is just a blog post and not a game, I definitely could massively expand an already sizeable scope.

I think for mining the player would use doodads of their own, and maybe you could make a mining minigame out of that, using the same planting tile system to instead create an automated ore harvesting machine that plumbs the depths of the earth (possibly dealing with rocks of different hardness, the water table, and other challenges along the way).

Fishing is a question of understanding the different fish species, what they eat, where they congregate, and then setting nets or lines, since I have never met a fishing minigame I really enjoyed. Again, there's some idea that the player is gaining information over time, building up a profile of these fish, noticing that some of them go nuts when it rains, understanding the spawning season, that they go to deeper water when it's cold, etc.

Crafting really depends on what you're crafting, but if you're reintroducing traditional artisan processes to this town, then people are going to need tools and machines and things. I'm not sure I know what a proper crafting game looks like. The only experience I have to draw on is wood shop, where I made wooden boxes, cutting boards, and picture frames. Since this is an engineering-lite puzzle-lite game, you could maybe do something in that vein, e.g. defining a number of steps that get you the correct thing you're trying to make, but ... eh. I love the idea of designing a chicken coop, for example, or building a trellis if I want my climbing beans to not need maize, or whatever, but I don't know how you actually implement that. There are definitely voxel-based and snap-to-grid games where you build bases, and I tend to find that fun ... but it's mostly cosmetic, for the obvious reason that doing it any other way than cosmetic requires programmatic evaluation, which is difficult and maybe unintuitive. The closest I think I've seen is ... maybe Tears of the Kingdom? Contraption building? But I don't know how you translate that to a farming game. Maybe I should ask my wife about this, because she's always doing little projects around the house (an outdoor enclosure for our cats, a 3D-printed holder for our living room keyboard, a mounting for our TV).

Making an interesting crafting system is difficult, which is why pretty much no one has done it.

And if I'm talking pie in the sky, without concern for budget or scope, I want the villagers to all have a mammoth amount of writing for them. I want petty little dramas and weird obsessions, lives that evolve with or without my input, rudimentary dialog trees that let me nudge things in different directions. This is just an unbelievable amount of work on its own, it would be crazy, but I would love having a tiny little town game where sometimes other people would fall in love. I would like to be invited to a wedding, maybe one that happened because I encouraged the chemist to hang out with the clothier, and in the course of working together on dyes, they fell in love. With twenty people in town and another ten that come in over the course of the game if you hit the right triggers, I do think this is just a matter of having a ton of time/budget. You write tons and tons of dialogue so there's not much that's repeated, you have some lines of conversation between characters that are progressed through, you have others that trigger off of events, and then you have personal relationships between NPCs that can be progressed through time or with player intervention. Give single characters a pool of love interests, have their affections depend on their routine which depends on what's changed in town ... very difficult to do without spending loads and loads of time on it though.

Anyway, that's one of my dream games. No one is ever going to make it, it would be a niche of a niche, and as scoped here, is too much for a small team to ever actually finish, let alone polish. But it's the sort of thing I'm imagining in my head when I think about playing Stardew Valley and its successors.

[enbycrip]

Folks, if you are talking about or sharing anything about “native plants”, please mention *your* location and *where* the plants are native to, not only country-wise but environment-wise.

So many people are learning about rewilding, gathering, foraging and gardening for food in harmony with the environment entirely online. Making your information clear for those people takes you little effort and limits confusion and misinformation getting out there.

The internet isn’t only “not just America”; many nations contain different environments with materially different conditions.

I live in Scotland. Most of the gardening and foraging information I get in the UK is calibrated for the south of England, which is a really different environment from mine - spring can come up to a month later and the south is semi-arid, which Scotland is *not*.

These days I actually look at a lot of Danish and Swedish gardening advice because their environment is a lot closer to mine. And that’s within one small nation. The world is wide and full of incredible diversity.

I am seeing UK-based pages sharing information about “native lawns” which contain plants from arid areas of the US because there’s no specificity in the original post. A small amount of information in the post, even a few lines, about locations, environments, context and goals would prevent this sort of confusion and incorrect information from spreading.

A lot of people are really enthusiastic and ready to be engaged in gardening for food, rewilding, gardening in harmony with the environment, soil preservation etc, but confusion and feeling they can’t trust information sources can really kill that. Make it easy for people new to the movement where you can, please.

ID: some photos of my native rewilded lawn from Scotland, UK, containing buttercups with butterfly eggs on them, yellow rattle, a willow tree, wild orchids, and many different grasses, and my small garden pond upcycled from a Belfast Sink surrounded by wild grasses, ladies’ mantle and wild geraniums and with woundwort and pondweed growing in it. There is a short path mowed in the lawn to allow safe passage of mobility devices and a wooden bench sitting in the long grass. A somewhat overgrown gravel drive and a front door with three steps up to it can be seen. The photos were taken in early June 2023.

[luimagines]

You Show Up While He’s Traveling Part 3

Masterlist

Part 1 Part 2

Part three will include Time, Warrior and Wild.

Content under the cut!

Time

Time was going over what they had to work with and what they would be able to do with it. It would take a while until they would be able to restock and there wasn’t a lot of things in the environment where they could forage their own materials.

He rubs his temples and sighs. This would frankly be a lot easier if he was by himself. Not that he minds the company of the boys too much, but they don’t seem to realize how many resources they seem to sap out of what they have.

“Hey Old Man!” He hears them call, making his head hurt more than he’d ever tell them. “We found someone that says they know you!”

Time frowns and looks away from his logical puzzle. That claim should be impossible. This isn’t his home and he’s far from any acquaintances. Who would say such a thing?

“And who are they?” He calls back, putting the supplies away. He’ll come back to it.

“Someone. How should we know?” Time can hear the way Legend rolls his eyes. “They asked if we’ve seen Link. Bulky. Heavy armor. Scar over his eye with red and blue facial markings. We figured they must be legit if they could name specifics.”

Time stands and makes his way over to check it out. He stalls. Time can feel the way his jaw goes slack and how he nearly trips over his own two feet. Your name tumbles from behind his lips. He can’t believe this.

You seem to sag with relief and throw yourself towards him. “I was so worried. Thank Hylia, you’re alright.”

Time bites his tongue, more focused on catching you and holding you within his arms once more. “What are you doing here? I thought you said you were going to stay home.”

You huff. “I did. And yet here I am. I promise I wasn’t trying.”

You kiss his cheek and pull back, looking him over and smiling at what you see. “I forgot how you looked in your finery.”

Time shakes his head, a smile blooming on his otherwise serious face. “I promise you, it hasn’t changed. You, however, have.”

You blink and step back entirely, looking down your front and your sides, hoping to see what he sees. “What do you mean?”

“You’re even more beautiful then when I left you.”

You smack his shoulder and push him.

“Jerk. You scared me for a moment.”

Time laughs and pulls you back to him. “I’m not sorry. I see you’ve already met the Veteran.”

“He’s fun.”

“I told you do.”  He smirks and turns to the rest of the group. They’ve all stopped what they were doing to see his reactions and interactions with this mystery person. It widens when they all scramble to make it seem as if they were not openly staring. “These are the others boys I mentioned in my letters.”

You perk up and beam, looking around the group. With a wave, you introduce yourself and cling onto Time’s arm. You turn back to him with a smile that spells trouble. “You mentioned a descendent. Which one is he?”

“You have to guess.” Time snorts.

“What?!” You cry. “That’s not fair! I’ve waited this whole time to meet your group and you won’t even tell me this!”

“Nope.”

“You’re the worst.” You pout.

“You love me.”

“I do.”

“Is anyone else confused about what’s happening right now?” Wind raises his hand.

“This is-” Time repeats your name. “And they are the love of my life.”

Warrior

Warrior was busy trying to count the rupees in his pouch so he could plan ahead on their purchases. Granted, he was starting to run low. It left him with two options. Either start selling or start cutting the grass.

Would that even work in this Hyrule? Is that something that he can count on of the time being? Four mentioned small being that live in the grass. Would they mind if he came in and cut it all down?

He sighs and stashes the pouch away. There’s very little he can do about it on his own regardless. It’s easier to pool their money together.

“Tough luck, Captain?” Sky comes up next to him and leans on the railing. “I’ve never seen you so annoyed.”

“It’s hardly anything new.” He tries to wipe the look off of his face. It’s not going to do him any good. He has to make sure the group has its needs met. No reason to worry the troops about their supply line.

“Lady troubles?” Sky ventures.

“Not this time.” He shakes his head. Ok, maybe he can laugh about it. It’s not exactly the picture he wanted to paint himself as but as long as you don’t take any of it to heart, then perhaps he can learn to mitigate it.

If not, he’s in trouble when he gets home.

“Well then maybe I can help with the problem.” Sky offers.

“I appreciate it but I’m afraid that it’ll take more than just the two of us-”

“Link?” A voice calls out.

Both men look up in the direction of the voice without thinking. Warrior freezes. His heart gets lodged in his throat. He recognizes that voice. Is it really-?

“Link?” You call again and he sees you walk out of the crowd around you. “What are you doing here?”

Sky tilts his head, unsure of what to make of this new person until he looks over to Warrior’s bright, start struck eyes. “Ah- you know them.”

“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?” Warrior grins, shouting without meaning to. He runs. You meet him halfway.

The two of your collide with enough force to shock the people around you. The chain comes around the corner, having heard their name called.

Warrior starts peppering your face with kisses. “I can’t believe you’re here. Are you ok? Are you safe? Were you sent by Lana?”

You giggle, trying to pull his hands away from your face so you can properly answer him. “No, no, no, nothing like that. I just walked around and found you here. I thought you’d be home later.”

He stops his barrage. His thumbs come up to rub little circles on your cheeks. “Darling, we’re not home right now. The farthest from it. That’s why I’m asking.”

“Oh.” You blink, finally looking around you. “Well Zelda mentioned that they were trying to rebuild some settlements so I thought I had just wandered into one of them.”

Warrior shakes his head. He might cry at the sight of you.

“Hey, Captain!” Hyrule calls out. “Are you going to keep making goo goo eyes or can we meet them?”

“What?” You try to look around Warrior, focusing on the voice. “Link? Do you know them?”

“More than I’d admit at the moment.” He mutters, turning to wave the group away. It doesn’t work. If anything they’re more intrigued.

 You snort and step away from him. “Let me go say hi.”

“No-” Warrior holds your hand. You stop and raise an eyebrow. He’s nervous. “Um...They might say some stuff.... Don’t pay too much attention to it.”

“Like what?”

“Uhhhh....”

“The pretty boy didn’t run away this time!” Legend laughs. “They must be the one!”

“Like that.” Warrior sighs, hanging his head in defeat. You bite your lip and pat his shoulder in consolation. “Are they always like this?”

“Unfortunately...”

“...I think we’ll get along just fine then.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Wild

Wild was separated from the group again. But not because he saw something shiny and decided to investigate.

He had to look for more food to cook for the group. Since it had more or less become his job to make sure the heroes besides him were fed, he had to make sure he had enough supplies to meet the demand.

It wasn’t looking to good. At least not in this particular area.

The bushes that he was sure to have berries were empty. Either something else came before him and plucked them all off, they were out of season or he was simply incorrect on the type of bushes these were.

That wasn’t going to stop him though.

Actually, there was one thing that interested him as he continued his search for edible food. There was a bit of cloth on the bush. Nothing that seems worthy of noting. It was beige and clearly torn.

Perhaps someone did come to take the berries before he did.

Wild moved on.

On his way to the next bush, he saw a few berries that were ripe for the picking. He didn’t hesitate to grab them. But besides the bush was a strange foot print on the ground. It wasn’t churred up by an animal. that was a human boot. It was slanted and elongated. Like the person slipped. It seemed fresh.

He began to follow that instead of the food trail.

Multiple bushes and branches were torn as he got closer to whatever it was.

He looks up to see that there were multiple claw marks against one of the tree. Those certainly didn’t belong to any human.

He kept walking, albeit with his hand on his bow just in case.

There was a groan. A very human groan. 

Wild rushes forward and his brain stops working.

In front of him lays a very familiar human. You were face down on the ground, a large cut to your mid-section with multiple tears to your clothes. You seemed to just be waking up from whatever had knocked you out to begin with. Slowly, you push your arm from under you and lift your face up.

Wild runs to you. “What...what...what....”

Wild swallows hard and move to roll you over. It’s easier to pick you up that way.

“Link?” You lull your head to the side. “...You found me...”

“I did.” Wild breathes out, lifting you. “I did, I did, I did...”

He says it on repeat like a broken record. the food has been forgotten, his main goal is to get you back to camp to tend to your injuries. If he’s lucky, Hyrule would be kind enough to heal you.

“I missed you.” You say as if you hadn’t just been attacked.

“I missed you too.” It breaks Wild out of his repetition.

His return to the camp spokes even the more seasons of heroes. Legend jumps to his feet while Warrior and Sky unhesitatingly begin to get the medical supplies without being asked.

“Wait- who are they?” Wind asks over the commotion. “Do you know them?”

“Yes.” Wild fights over the way his throat wants to close up. He places you down and begins to clean your wounds. Twilight gets a spare change of clothes and hands them over as Warrior hands over the gauze. Wild thanks them both. 

“Ok, but who are they?” Four asks kindly.

“My partner.” Wild says. It shuts the group up. They watch as he tends to you. 

Hyrule sneaks in the spell from behind Wild’s back to heal you.

They’ll save their questions for when you’re feeling better.

[eezdalf]

We should also consider if the inhabitants of the mega-sites consciously managed their ecosystem to avoid large-scale deforestation... Archaeological studies of their economy suggest a pattern of small-scale gardening, often taking place within the bounds of the settlement, combined with the keeping of livestock, cultivation of orchards, and a wide spectrum of hunting and foraging activities. The diversity is actually remarkable, as is its sustainability. As well as wheat, barley, and pulses, the citizens' plant diet included apples, pears, cherries, sloes, acorns, hazelnuts and apricots. Mega-site dwellers were hunters of red deer, roe deer, and wild boar as well as farmers and foresters. It was 'play farming' on a grand scale: an urban populous supporting itself through small-scale cultivation and herding, combined with an extraordinary array of wild foods. This way of life was by no means 'simple'. As well as managing orchards, gardens, livestock and woodlands, the inhabitants of these cities imported salt in bulk from springs in the eastern Carpathians and the Black Sea littoral. Flint extraction by the ton took place in the Dniestr valley, furnishing material for tools. A household potting industry flourished, its products considered among the finest ceramics of the prehistoric world; and regular supplies of copper flowed in from the Balkans. There is no firm consensus from archaeologists about what sort of social arrangements all this required, but most would agree the logistical challenges were daunting. A surplus was definitely produced, and with it ample potential for some to seize control of the stocks and supplies, to lord it over others or battle for the spoils; but over the eight centuries we find little evidence for warfare or the rise of social elites.

a description of talianki (located in modern day ukraine), a neolithic site from 5,700 years ago (inhabited from roughly 4100 to 3300 bc) from the dawn of everything by davids: graeber and wengrow

once again this book is fantastic - and one of its main theses is that "the agricultural revolution" and some of the conclusions we draw from it are, largely, not true.

the development of farming in human societies is a much much longer and more "playful" process than popular narratives would have us believe. 'agricultural revolution' suggests an on/off switch almost. and the way it's usually taught sees agriculture being "invented" and then spreading like wildfire to take over the globe - only then allowing for true cities and the "necessary evils" they entail. this simply isn't true. an urban, farming society is not automatically doomed to bureaucracy, inequality, and exploitation.

all across the world the archaeological evidence points to the domestication of plants taking literal thousands of years longer than it "ought to." and then, even when the domestication of a wild plant was complete there isn't an immediate rise of huge fields and class stratification (as the popular narrative goes). again - in the magnitude of multiple thousands of years. we have generations upon generations of humans with farming know-how who don't immediately begin a march of politics and inequality precipitated by farming.

agriculture isn't humanity's curse no matter what the memes and capitalists say. we are not doomed to our current ways - we can imagine, we can build, we can create new ways of being. the past is the present is the past. and fuck you capitalism and doomed "human nature" debates. and read the dawn of everything <3

[sleepyfan-blog]

Author’s Note: This is another fic in Cedric’s Adventures in Astartes Husbandry! First. Previous. Next. Thank you to @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan for allowing me to borrow her OCs Zariel and Hura! Also thank you to @kit-williams for allowing me to borrow her OCs Arnault, Roland and Angela

Tagged: @egrets-not-regrets @kit-williams @bleedingichorhearts @the-pure-angel @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan

Warnings: none, ask me to tag if anything bothered you

Summary: Cedric enjoys his weighted quilt and makes thank you jam. A lot of thank you jam.

Cedric silently marveled over the beautiful quilt that Miss Angela had made for him. He ran his calloused hands over the covers, admiring the neat stitching and the high quality feel of the fabric in his hands. Reverent he picked up the blanket and wrapped it around his body, a happy purr rumbling in his chest at how warm it was. It was heavier than the quilts and blankets he had used before…

The additional pressure on his body was wonderful. It reminded him somewhat of being in a pile of sleeping Brothers, after a rough training session, or more recently after a dangerous and difficult mission. Where if they each tried to sleep in their own bunks, night terrors Would haunt them and wake the others with the flailing and noise, so sleeping in a pile together on the floor was for the best.

As the Apothecary of the squad, he had made sure to set an alarm on his vox for ten minutes before Reverie, so that he and his brothers had enough time to wake up and get properly dressed before morning mass and prayers, brought to the prayer room by one of their mentors. They'd been caught in a pile once by his mentor, and while the older Apothecary hadn't been cruel in his scolding and relatively light punishments, he had made it very clear that to be caught in a pile of brothers was to ensure a squad-wide punishment.

Cedric wanted to repay her for the kindness, as he continued to cuddle into the wonderful quilt, but what? He had limited access to materials and had none of the local currency… But there was a forest not far from the city this base was in… and he did know how to forage. It was also midsummer and there should be wild fruits and berries ripe for the picking. He would just double check that anything he picked was safe for baseline consumption first…

~

Cedric woke up with a slight sound, blinking sleepily as he yawns and stretched, rolling his neck and shoulders. He felt so safe and warm. Something soft was pressed against his cheek, so the Primaris happily nuzzled into the sensation, feeling unselfish purr once again. Why he could purr, after having arrived on Ancient Terra was one of the mysteries of the galaxy. Allegedly all Astartes had the ability to learn how to purr.

He had learned this after a sleepover with four of his fellow Primaris Marines, having woken to the sound of several rumbling sounds emanating from his sleeping Brothers… and realizing that he himself had been making the sound.

Cedric had panicked and fled to the medbay, nearly physically running into Apothecary Hura.

“Are you alright, young Cedric?” The very large Death Guard asked, peering down at him and smiling a little at him.

Cedric fidgeted, torn between his instinctual weariness of Chaos Marines and the desire to ask a question of an older and more experienced Apothecary. “I… I woke up hearing a… A strange sound and I am worrying that it is indicative of a respiratory illness. Myself and several other marines were making this sound while sleeping. The sound woke me up and I-I don’t know what it means.”

“Oh? What was the sound, Cedric?” Hura asked, looking at him more assessingly “I do not sense any of Grandfather’s Gifts bestowed upon you.”

“It… It’s a kind of rumbling sound? Like.. Kind of like a growl or a snarl, but not meant to intimidate or warn away?” Cedric explained, fidgeting a little with his hands.

“Rumbling… Oh! Can you mimic the sound for me?” Hura asked, his smile widening a little “I think I may know what it is, but if you could show me, I will be more certain.”

Cedric nodded, taking in a deep breath, closing his eyes and trying to make the strange sound. It took him a couple of tries and a couple of minutes to actually make the quiet, rumbling sound. It felt low in his throat, perhaps even emanating from his chest.

Hura smiled brightly and slowly telegraphed moving one of his hands, ruffling Cedric's hair. “Yes, I know what this is. It is called purring. It is a sound we Asrartes can make. Whether we were always capable of it and only discovered it, or if it was a change within us upon our arrival on Ancient Terra has yet to be discerned. If we ever could. It is a sound of soothing. Of safety, and care. It is a good sound.” The ancient Marine began to purr as well, patting Cedric on the shoulder.

“Oh… Thank you for informing me, sir.” Cedric murmurs, ducking his head a little, embarrassed that he had panicked over a good thing.

“You don't have to call me sir, Cedric. We are both Apothecaries and I am not in charge of you. We are colleagues.” Hura hummed.

“I… Th-thank you si-Appthecary Hura. That is very generous of you.” Cedric murmured, eyes going wide.

The young Black Templar mentally shook himself out of his Reverie, realizing that he was purring to himself. Not that he was terribly surprised, given how comfortable and cozy he felt all wrapped up in this tremendously thoughtful gift. Cedric checked the time, stretched and yawned as he slowly got up, carefully folding the blanket and placing it reverently on the bed before heading off to requisitions for all the things he would need to make jam from scratch.

He also informed the front desk person that he was heading out into the forest to collect berries and expected to be gone for several hours to get the amount he needed. The front desk person- one of the baselines attached to a Salamander who lived on base was mildly surprised but wished him well on his task.

~

Cedric marveled at how beautiful Holy Terra is at this point in time. Back in M42 the atmosphere had been long burnt away to a thin, smoggy layer that didn't do much more than slowly poison anyone unfortunate enough to breathe in its unfiltered air. If there were living plants on Holy Terra, it was because they were specifically cultivated on the orders of the Lords of Terra in raised beds, tended to by specialized serfs.

He had seen wild spaces on a handful of worlds that he had visited, but he hadn't ever been able to enjoy nor explore them. Always on a mission for the emperor on the eternal Crusade that his chapter took. The concept of having time off, more than the handful of hours assigned to sleep was baffling to the young Primaris. He still struggled with the concept, though it had been introduced to him months ago, shortly after he had arrived on M3 Holy Terra.

Cedric closed his eyes as he took in deep breaths, enjoying the fresh scents of the plants, trees and nutrient fish soil beneath his feet. It was pleasantly warm, and a slight breeze was causing the leaves and branches on the trees to stir. With a small smile Cedric made his way through the forest, finding a large patch of thorny vines. The vines themselves were a light brown color with off-white thorns. The leaves grew off of thinner stems branching off the thicker vines and were a bright green with serrated edges. Many of the vines were filled with dark purple-black cluster berries, though some of them were a striking reddish color, and a few were green.

Cedric carefully plucked one of the dark berries, popping it into his mouth, a soft sound of surprise leaving him at the startlingly intense sweet-tart taste of the berries… And the slight crunch of the tiny seeds within them. These were delicious! Cedric plucked one of the redder berries and winced, as the tartness of this berry overwhelmed the sweet, meaning that it was likely unripe.

He briefly looked at the green berries before deciding that they were probably more unripe than the reddish berries, and thus left them alone. As his Bletcher’s gland hadn't started giving him extra phlegm or saliva, he knew that these berries weren't poisonous, and began collecting berries from these thorny vines.

Cedric made sure to collect the largest, darkest berries for the jam he intended on making, while also being sure not to strip any one of the bushes completely of the tasty fruit, mindful that the fauna likely fed on these berries and might suffer if he was greedy.

~

Time passed and Cedric had one ten-pound bucket filled with delicious black berries. His high healing factor had dealt with the many little cuts and nicks that he had suffered while collecting the bounty of the berries… Though his hands were partially stained with the sweet juice of the berries as some of them had burst, despite his best efforts to be gentle while collecting berries.

He returned to base and carefully followed the proper cleaning protocols for the berries, laying them out to dry as he set up the four saucepans, letting them heat up. Cedric hummed to himself as he measured out the sugar, circus juice and pectin that he would need for each batch to turn into jam. He also set up twenty-five jam jars, as if his calculations were correct, ten pounds of berries would fill twenty-five eight-ounce containers of jam. He had triple checked his math, and also set up a huge pot of water to start heating it up, so that the jam would be properly sealed.

Cedric timed putting the berries into the four sauce pans so that would have enough time between each of the pans so that the process of the jamming process to devote to each saucepan without getting flustered or worried that the others weren't getting the attention they needed when it was time.

He tasted the jam throughout the process, making sure to adjust the sweet-tart ratio for optimum taste and texture, pouring the hot jam into the glass jars and screwing the lids on tight. He then lowered the filled jam jars into the water bath to boil until the hot water caused the jam-jars to self-seal. Cedric repeated this process until all twenty-five half-pint jam-jars were properly sealed.

Cedric carefully labeled each of the jars of blackberry jam with a label and a pen, using his best handwriting in both Gothic and his best translation into the local language.

“What are you making? It smells delicious.” Apothecary Zariel asked, peering into the small kitchen that Cedric had commandeered for the day.

“Blackberry-lemon jam, sir!” Cedric answered promptly, gesturing to the still lightly steaming jars as he grabbed the basket he intended to use to carry the jam jars to Miss Angela's home. After checking to make sure it was okay to visit, first off course.

“That is. A lot of jam Cedric.” Zariel hummed, looking over the neatly stacked rows of fruit preserves. “Any particular reason why you decided to make jam?”

“Well… Miss Angela made me a weighted quilt. I thanked her for it, but it is a very nice blanket and I wanted to give something back! I also found a lot of blackberries with which to make jam! And I plan on offering thank-you jam to others as well. For helping me adapt and settle on Holy Terra.” Cedric explained, feeling a touch shy.

“That's quite thoughtful of you. I'm sure your giftees will be delighted with the jam.” The Ultramarine Apothecary responded before heading off.

~

Cedric had divided the jam jars into two separate baskets. He was fairly sure that ten jars of homemade jam was probably a reasonable thank you gift for a hand-made quilt. Hopefully…

The other fifteen he planned to give out to others. His first stop was at Ash'val's office. The Salamander was out, likely handling some of the visiting Scouts, but that didn’t put Cedric off at all. He mere placed a filled jam jar on his desk before leaving. His next stop was the base commander, who was in a meeting with several others.

Not a problem! Cedric left the jam jar on his office window sill and labeled it with his name on it before stealthily moving to the Reclusiam. He left two jam jars there. One for Chaplain Feldarim, the other for Ramiel. After that, he swung by the apothecaries’ offices, leaving a jar for Hura, Zariel and two other older apothecaries who had been kind enough to take him under their tutelage.

With seven jars left, he made sure to keep one back for Claude, Jophiel and Catius in his room, labeling their jars with their names. As expected, three jars left of the fifteen not meant for Miss Angela.

Cedric then headed over to the forges, peeking in, looking for Pyrus. He found the other business working on something and made his way over to the Salamander Scout’s assigned cubby, placing the jam jar and making sure it had the other’s name on it.

The primaris black Templar walked back to the reception area of the base when he spotted Brother Roland and happily trotted up to the older Templar, greeting him with a cheerful “Hallo sir!”

“Hello Cedric. You wouldn't happen to know why the base smells like fruit today, would you? It is distracting and I hope to get some. Blackberries go great with many kinds of brot.” Roland informed Cedric.

Ah. Oops. He had forgotten that the sweet smell would carry far, especially to throw sensitive noses of Astartes. “Ja, I do. I have been making jam today. For thank you gifts. These are for you and miss Bakerin. Both of you have been very kind to me, and I just… Thank you.” He tried to explain, pulling out two of the jars and offering them out to the other, desperately trying to ignore how awkward he was suddenly feeling.

“That's quite thoughtful of you. Danke, Cedric. My bonded and I will enjoy these very much.” Roland responded, reaching out to ruffle Cedric's short hair and then take the offered jars of jam.

“I am glad to hear that. I am going to call Arnault. I made jam for him and his bonded as well.” Cedric explained.

“I am sure they will enjoy the jam as well. Have a good day, kleiner bruder.” Roland hummed before heading further into the base.

~

Arnault (the Emperor's Champion!!) was indeed content to allow Cedric to wander up to his home when he had called, so the Primaris marine navigated his way through the bustling baseline city successfully, making his way to the pairs cozy looking home. Cedric readjusted his grip on the basket of jam jars and did his best to suppress the rising worry gnawing at his hearts and knocked on the door.

“Come on in, Cedric.” Arnault called out from within the home.

“Yes sir.” Cedric acknowledged before promptly obeying the command, carefully opening, entering and then closing the door behind him. “I have a thank you gift, for both of you. I hope you enjoy it.”

“That’s very sweet of you, Cedric! Thank you.” Angela piped up as she set down the cloth and needle she had been holding. She stood up from the couch and walked over to Cedric, taking the basket and peeking inside “what kind of jams are these?”

“Blackberry and lemon! There is a large patch of them growing in the forest nearby, so I picked some of the ripest of them and made jam. I made sure to seal the sterilized jars properly, so they will last for years if stored correctly.” Cedric explained cheerfully “You made something for me and I wanted to reciprocate. Both you and Arnault have been very kind and generous to me, and I am very grateful.”

“Danke, Cedric. I do love blackberries.” Arnault hummed “but they go bad so quickly when they are fresh. I wasn't aware that Primaris Marines were taught ration supplementation.”

“I'm not sure if all of us were. My mentor taught me how to properly can, dehydrate, pickle and make jerky of pretty much anything edible we came across while on Crusade. It's amazing how much a little bit of surprise jam will do for squad morale on a long or rough mission.” Cedric explained with a small shrug. “He said that just because we astartes can eat just about anything and survive it doesn't mean we should be sloppy about what we eat. That and keeping any baseline support staff alive is important on longer missions. The Imperium is at it's strongest when we all work together.”

“That's true enough. Come, sit down little brother and enjoy some of this jam with us.” Arnault ordered, gesturing for Cedric to come further into his home.

“Yes sir.” The young Apothecary responded, happily obeying his very cool older brother.

[squeakowl]

‘Wild Textiles’ by Alice Fox Is a Practical Guide for Turning Foraged Materials into Fiber-Based Works

[rabbitcruiser]

Mesa Verde National Park (No. 10)

With the introduction of corn to the Mesa Verde region c. 1000 BC and the trend away from nomadism toward permanent pithouse settlements, the Archaic Pueblonians transitioned into what archaeologists call the Basketmaker culture. Basketmaker II people are characterized by their combination of foraging and farming skills, use of the atlatl, and creation of finely woven baskets in the absence of earthen pottery. By 300, corn had become the preeminent staple of the Basketmaker II people's diet, which relied less and less on wild food sources and more on domesticated crops.

In addition to the fine basketry for which they were named, Basketmaker II people fashioned a variety of household items from plant and animal materials, including sandals, robes, pouches, mats, and blankets. They also made clay pipes and gaming pieces. Basketmaker men were relatively short and muscular, averaging less than 5.5 feet (1.7 m) tall. Their skeletal remains reveal signs of hard labor and extensive travel, including degenerative joint disease, healed fractures, and moderate anemia associated with iron deficiency. They buried their dead near or amongst their settlements, and often included luxury items as gifts, which might indicate differences in relative social status. Basketmaker II people are also known for their distinctive rock art, which can be found throughout Mesa Verde. They depicted animals and people, in both abstract and realistic forms, in single works and more elaborate panels. A common subject was the hunchbacked flute player that the Hopi call Kokopelli.

Source: Wikipedia

[honeybeezgobzzzzz]

☠️ Flirting and Foraging 101

Flirting and Foraging 101: Offhandedly flirting with Rayleigh as he teaches you about the plants on Rusukaina, you ask a question that lands you in a position to find out what it is like to suck old man dick.

Warnings: Explicit Language, Explicit Material.

To Note: Rayleigh x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~7.7k

You walk beside Rayleigh, the thick canopy of Rusukaina casting dappled shadows on the ground. The jungle is alive with the rustling of leaves and distant calls of wild creatures. Terrifying ones to be honest, but Rayleigh keeps them at bay. Rayleigh pauses to examine a low-growing plant with broad leaves and tiny white flowers.

"This," he says, crouching down, "is Sika root. Crush it into a paste, and it'll help with infections." Your eyes widen with excitement and you lean closer for a better look. Rayleigh's knowledge and experience is vast and invaluable, certainly when it comes to plants!

"Really? Show me how to identify it properly," you say, crouching beside him.

He smiles, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses. "Anything for a beautiful lady like you."

You roll your eyes but smile. He's been flirting with you since you met him! "You're incorrigible, Rayleigh. What would Shakky say?"

He laughs, the sound deep and rich. "I've been called worse, and Shakky would agree with me." He hands you a leaf. "See the serrated edges? That's how you know it's Sika root."

You take the leaf, feeling its texture between your fingers. Memorizing it for your notes. The jungle air is humid, making your clothes cling to your skin. At least the jungle is only a portion of the island. Rayleigh stands up and stretches, his muscles rippling beneath his shirt.

"You know," he says, leaning in slightly, "a man could get used to this view."

You snort. "The plants or my ass?"

Rayleigh grins mischievously. "Both have their charms."

You shake your head, fighting back a laugh as you pocket the Sika root leaf. You'll sketch a picture of it later. His flirting is harmless but persistent—a game he's all too good at playing. At least Shakky isn't here to gang up on you.

As you continue walking through the dense foliage, Rayleigh's hand brushes against yours accidentally—or maybe not so accidentally. You won't put it past him.

"Tell me more about these plants," you prompt, changing the subject as much for your own sake as his.

"Ah," Rayleigh begins with a twinkle in his eye, "ever heard of Nila berries?" He leads you to another cluster of plants, this time with small blue fruits hanging from thorny branches. "They’re good for numbing pain when chewed."

"Pain relief? That sounds useful." You reach out to pluck a berry but pause as he gently takes your hand.

"Careful," he warns softly, guiding your hand to avoid the thorns. "They’re tricky little things that leave a nasty sting not even the berries help with."

His touch lingers longer than necessary. You meet his gaze for a moment that feels stretched thin by his teasing before looking away. It is entirely your fault for putting yourself in this situation but Rayleigh certainly isn't helping.

"Thanks," you mutter, popping a berry into your mouth and wincing at its bitter taste. Ah.

Rayleigh chuckles at your reaction. "Not exactly sweet, are they?"

You smirk through the bitterness. "No worse than some of your jokes."

Rayleigh throws his head back in genuine laughter. “Fair point.” He picks a berry himself and inspects it closely before tossing it aside.

As you walk further into the jungle’s heart, he continues pointing out different herbs and roots—each one with its own set of uses and quirks—while dropping compliments that make you roll your eyes but secretly enjoy.

"And this one here," Rayleigh says stopping by another plant with long narrow leaves and purple flowers clustered at the top. "This is Lilia Vine; its sap can be used to soothe burns."

"Is there anything you don’t know?" you ask him teasingly.

Rayleigh smirks as he looks down at you over his glasses. “I’ve had plenty of time to learn… And I’d love to learn more about you.”

You roll your eyes dramatically but can't help the small smile that tugs at your lips. “I’m sure Shakky would love that.”

“She might,” he says nonchalantly while brushing off an imaginary speck from his shoulder. "Now, I think there is a fungus you might like to see…"

The sun dips below the horizon, casting long shadows through the dense jungle. You and Rayleigh decide to make camp for the night, the sounds of rustling leaves and distant animal calls creating an eerie but calming backdrop. Rayleigh finds a small clearing and begins gathering sticks and dried leaves for a fire.

"Why don’t you let me handle this?" he says, striking flint against steel. Sparks fly, catching on the dry tinder. The flames grow, licking hungrily at the kindling until a warm fire crackles between you. "I am sure you're itching to start writing notes."

Well he isn't wrong about that!

You pull out the samples you’ve collected, setting them on a flat rock. Your notebook follows, its pages filled with detailed sketches and notes from past excursions. You begin to sketch the Sika root leaf, your pencil moving swiftly over the paper as you glance between the two.

Rayleigh glances over at you, his eyes reflecting the firelight. "Always working hard," he remarks, leaning back on his hands.

"It’s how I learn," you reply without looking up, concentrating on capturing every serrated edge of the leaf. The more detail the better.

He chuckles softly. "There’s more to life than work, you know."

You pause your sketching to meet his gaze with a raised eyebrow. "Coming from a retired pirate who now spends his days coating ships?"

Rayleigh smirks. "Touché." He shifts closer to the fire, stretching out his legs. "So, tell me something about yourself I don’t know."

You roll your eyes again but humor him. "I hate bananas."

Rayleigh raises an eyebrow. "Really? They’re so... innocent."

"They're mushy and gross," you say with a shudder that’s half-serious, half-playful.

Rayleigh laughs again. "Noted. No bananas for Gazania." He picks up one of the Nila berries you discarded earlier and examines it closely before popping it into his mouth. He winces at the taste but chews it thoughtfully.

You go back to your sketches but can’t resist throwing in another comment. "At least you haven’t asked to see my panties yet."

Rayleigh chokes on his berry, coughing as he laughs. "What!?"

"Brook," you say with a smirk, giggling softly in memory of the musical skeleton. "He has this habit of asking women to show him their panties."

Rayleigh’s laughter dies down to a chuckle as he wipes his eyes. "That skeleton... always full of surprises."

"Tell me about it," you mutter, shading in the veins of a Lilia Vine leaf.

Rayleigh leans closer, peering over your shoulder at your sketchbook. His breath tickles your ear as he speaks softly. "Your drawings are impressive."

You shift slightly but can’t help feeling pleased by his compliment. "Thanks," you say, trying to keep your tone casual.

"Maybe one day you’ll draw something special just for me," he murmurs.

You snort and flash Rayleigh a smile. "Keep dreaming, old man."

Rayleigh grins and leans back again, clearly enjoying this little game of verbal sparring as much as you are.

The night deepens around you, stars appearing one by one in the darkening sky while the fire crackles and pops in a comforting rhythm between bouts of conversation and laughter.

"By the way," Rayleigh says suddenly, breaking a moment of comfortable silence. "Do you have any other peculiar dislikes? Besides bananas?"

You tap your pencil against your chin thoughtfully before responding with a mischievous glint in your eye, “men who think they’re charming when they’re really just old.”

Rayleigh clutches his chest dramatically, eyes wide with mock horror. "Old? You wound me, Gazania! I’m in my prime!"

You laugh, the sound light and genuine. "Prime of what? The fossil record?"

He places a hand over his heart, feigning injury. "Ah, the cruelty of youth."

"You'll live," you say, rolling your eyes. You but can't help the grin tugging at your lips. His antics are endearing, even if he does push boundaries. Though you are seriously considering entertaining them at this point, the man's got skill…

Rayleigh leans closer again, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "You know, some women find experience very... appealing."

"Is that so?" you counter, raising an eyebrow. "I prefer a sense of adventure."

He chuckles, a low rumble that resonates through the quiet night. "Oh, I’ve had plenty of those."

The fire crackles between you, casting flickering shadows on his weathered face. He looks every bit the legendary pirate he once was—and still is in many ways. A thought crosses your mind.

"Why do they call you the Dark King?" you ask, genuinely curious.

Rayleigh's eyes twinkle mischievously. Instead of answering directly, he shifts even closer until his lips are just inches from your ear.

"Wouldn’t you like to find out?" His breath is warm against your skin.

You feel a flush creep up your neck but keep your composure. "And here I thought you'd give me a straight answer for once."

He chuckles softly and pulls back just enough to look you in the eye. "The title has its perks," he says with a lazy smile.

You shake your head, half-exasperated and half-amused. "What would Shakky say about all this?"

Rayleigh's grin widens. "Oh, she’d probably suggest we invite her along next time."

Your eyes widen slightly at his boldness. "You really don’t hold back, do you?"

"Life’s too short for that," he replies with a wink. Rayleigh's wink sends your heart racing, but you decide to play along with his game.

"Alright, Rayleigh," you say, a teasing edge to your voice. "I've been wondering... what's it like to suck old man dick?"

Rayleigh snorts loudly, almost doubling over in laughter. "Old man dick? You wound me again, Gazania!"

You can’t help but laugh with him, the sound ringing out into the jungle night. "Well, you did say you’re in your prime," you retort.

His eyes sparkle with mischief as he steps closer. "I guess I'll have to show you just how prime I am."

Before you can react, Rayleigh’s hand slides into your hair, his fingers tangling in the strands as he pulls you so close your noses brush.

Your breath catches as Rayleigh's hand tightens in your hair, the warmth of his touch spreading across your scalp. His eyes, glinting with mischief and something deeper, hold yours captive.

Then his lips are on yours, firm and unyielding. The taste of Nila berries lingers, bitter and unexpected. His other hand finds your waist, pulling you closer until your bodies press together.

You respond instinctively, your hands reaching up to grip his shoulders, feeling the solid muscle beneath his shirt. Your fingers dig into the fabric as you kiss him back with equal fervor. His lips move against yours with a purpose that leaves no room for hesitation. Not that you even find yourself in that position.

Rayleigh's tongue teases at the seam of your lips, and you part them willingly. The kiss deepens, growing more intense as he explores your mouth. Each movement is deliberate, coaxing and demanding at the same time. Your senses are flooded with his presence—the scent of sea salt and earth that clings to him, the scratch of his stubble against your skin.

He pulls back slightly, just enough to murmur against your lips, "Still think I'm just an old man?"

You smirk through the haze of desire clouding your mind. "You've got some moves for an ancient pirate."

He chuckles lowly, the sound vibrating through you. "Let me show you more then," he whispers before capturing your lips again.

The hand in your hair slides down to cup the back of your neck, tilting your head to deepen the kiss further. His other hand roams from your waist up to the small of your back, pressing you closer until there’s no space left between you.

You can’t help but respond to his touch; every nerve ending feels electrified. You press yourself against him harder, feeling the contours of his body—strong and undeniably experienced—against yours. Your hands travel up from his shoulders to tangle in his hair, pulling him closer still.

When he finally breaks the kiss, you're both breathing heavily. His forehead rests against yours as he catches his breath.

"Impressed yet?" he asks with a playful glint in his eye.

"Maybe a little," you admit breathlessly.

He grins and leans in for another kiss but pauses just before your lips meet. "Shakky would definitely want in on this," he murmurs against your mouth.

"Next time then," you cheekily reply.

His laughter rumbles against your chest, a sound so full of life it momentarily stuns you. "Next time, huh?" Rayleigh's voice is a low, sultry whisper that makes you shiver in delight.

You lean into him, your lips brushing against his as you speak. "A pirate's always got a few tricks up their sleeve, right?" You challenge him with a smirk, your eyes gleaming with anticipation.

The corner of his mouth quirks up in a grin. "Oh, I've got plenty of tricks," he assures you, his hand tightening possessively at the nape of your neck.

His lips return to yours with renewed fervor, his tongue flicking against your lips, coaxing them apart once more. You open for him, your tongues meeting in a passionate dance. His kiss is deep and erotic, exploring every inch of your mouth with an urgency that leaves you breathless.

You moan into the kiss, the sound swallowed by his insistent mouth. Your fingers curl into the fabric of his shirt, pulling him closer as you lose yourself in the sensation of his lips on yours.

Moving your hands down his chest, you feel the hard planes of muscle beneath the soft material of his shirt. You slip your fingers beneath the hem, exploring the ridges and valleys of his abdomen, each muscle defined and toned.

Rayleigh breaks the kiss, his breathing ragged as he gazes down at you with dark, hooded eyes. "You're playing with fire, Gazania," he warns, his voice husky with desire.

"I told you that I wanted to suck your dick did I not?" you say, your voice low and teasing, the words hanging between you, charged with an undeniable heat. Your intentions were clear.

Rayleigh's eyes crinkle as a smirk curves at the edge of his mouth. His gaze drops to your lips, then lower still to where your fingers trace the hem of his shirt, as though he's imagining your touch elsewhere.

"Indeed, you did," he murmurs, the corners of his mouth lifting in a slow, knowing smile that promises all sorts of wicked delights. He leans back, the firelight casting dancing shadows across his face, accentuating the sharp angles and lines that tell the story of a life lived to the fullest.

With deliberate slowness, Rayleigh reaches down, his fingers undoing the buttons of his shirt. Each one releases with a soft pop, and with every inch of exposed skin, your breath hitches in your throat. He is intentionally drawing this out, you just know it. His chest is a map of scars and old wounds, each one a testament to the battles he's fought and won.

"Then by all means," he says, his voice a warm rumble that vibrates through you, "have your fun."

You don't need to be told twice. Your hands, emboldened by his words, slide up his chest, exploring the contours of his body. Your thumbs brush over his nipples, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from him. The sound spurs you on, and you lean forward, pressing a trail of hot, open-mouthed kisses along his collarbone.

Rayleigh's hand tangles in your hair, guiding you lower. His skin is warm and salty beneath your tongue. You can feel the steady beat of his heartbeat against your lips as you make your way down his torso, your hands mapping out every ridge and valley of his abdomen.

When you reach the waistband of his pants, you pause, looking up at him through your lashes. His eyes are fixed on you, watching with rapt attention as you deftly undo the fastenings and free his erect cock.

For a moment, you simply gaze at him, your hand gently wrapping around his length. He's thick and heavy in your palm, and you can't help but marvel at the man before you—a legend among pirates, now laid bare for your pleasure. Technically his too but semantics aside, this is for you.

His breath hitches, a low groan escaping his lips as you begin to slide your fingers up and down. The rhythm starts slow, your hand gliding up and down his length with deliberate tease.

Rayleigh's hand tightens in your hair, his eyes never leaving yours. "You’ve got a talent for this," he murmurs, a teasing edge to his voice.

You smirk, your grip tightening slightly as you increase the pace. "I aim to please."

His chuckle turns into a moan as your thumb circles the head of his cock, spreading the bead of pre-cum that’s gathered there. The sound is intoxicating, urging you to explore further. You shift your position slightly, angling yourself better to watch every reaction play out across his face.

"You have magical hands, Gazania," he breathes out, his voice rough with need.

You have no intention of stopping. Your strokes become more confident, alternating between firm squeezes and gentle caresses. Rayleigh’s hips begin to move in time with your hand, small thrusts that match the rhythm you set. His control is impressive, but you can see the strain in his expression, the effort it takes for him not to take over completely.

"How's this?" you ask, your voice low and sultry.

Rayleigh’s eyes darken with desire. "Just like that," he growls.

You increase the pressure, watching as his control begins to fray. His breathing grows heavier, each exhale a ragged gasp that sends shivers through you. You lean forward again, pressing a kiss just below his navel before looking up at him with a wicked grin.

"Feels good?" you tease.

Rayleigh’s laugh is breathless and strained. "You're wicked," he replies. "But yes... it feels incredible."

Your strokes quicken, your hand moving with purpose now. You can feel the tension building in him, the way his muscles tighten under your touch.

Rayleigh's hand tightens almost painfully in your hair as you feel his hips stutter against your touch. He looks down at you, his gaze heavy with desire and something more primal. "You wanted to taste me, didn't you?" His voice is low, filled with a challenge.

Your lips curl into a wicked smile. "Oh I did."

"Then you'd better stop with your hands, or you'll have to wait until I'm ready again," he warns, his breath hitching as your grip tightens for a moment.

You look up at him, eyes gleaming with anticipation. "I guess I'll just have to taste you now."

Rayleigh's eyes sparkle. You shift positions again, moving down so you're level with his throbbing cock. Your mouth waters at the sight of him—thick, veined, and glistening.

You lower your head slowly, letting your breath ghost over his sensitive skin. Rayleigh shudders in response, a low groan escaping his lips. Your tongue flicks out to taste him, savoring the salty essence that clings to his tip.

"Gods," Rayleigh breathes out, his grip on your hair loosening slightly as he lets you take control.

You open your mouth wider, taking him in inch by inch until he hits the back of your throat. The feeling is intense; he fills your throat entirely. You hollow your cheeks and begin to suck, creating a delicious friction that has Rayleigh gasping above you.

"That's it," he murmurs encouragingly. "Just like that."

Your hands come up to stroke what your mouth can't reach, fingers wrapping around the base of his cock and gently caressing his balls. You can feel them tightening under your touch, a clear sign that he's close.

Rayleigh's other hand finds your shoulder, squeezing gently as if to ground himself. His hips start to move again, thrusting shallowly into your mouth. You take him deeper, relaxing your throat to accommodate his size.

"You're amazing," he groans out between ragged breaths. "Don't stop."

The praise spurs you on. You increase the suction and bob faster on his cock, each movement eliciting another delicious moan from him. His fingers flex in your hair and on your shoulder as he struggles to maintain control.

You hum around him, the vibration making him curse under his breath. You can feel every twitch and pulse of his cock as you work him closer to the edge.

"Gazania," he warns, voice tight with impending release. Your eyes flicker to his and burn with demand. Come.

Rayleigh's response is immediate; he groans loudly as his hips jerk forward one last time. You feel the hot rush of his seed filling your mouth, and you swallow eagerly around him. The rush of warmth flows down your throat and fills your belly.

His breathing is harsh and uneven as he comes down from his high, but there's a satisfied smile playing on his lips as he looks down at you.

"You really do know how to please an old man," he says with a chuckle.

You pull back slowly, giving one last teasing lick before sitting up and wiping the corner of your mouth with a smirk. "I aim to please."

Rayleigh's eyes sparkle with satisfaction as he catches his breath. "So, has your curiosity been sated?"

You nod, your eyes raking over his incredibly strong and muscled body. The scars and lines tell stories of battles fought and won, adding to his allure. "For now," you reply, unable to keep the admiration out of your voice.

"Good," he says, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. "Because now it's my turn, and it's a shame I'm the only one naked."

Before you can respond, Rayleigh pulls you to your feet with surprising gentleness given how fast you end up standing. His fingers find the hem of your tank top, lifting it slowly over your head. His knuckles are warm against your skin, leaving a trail of heat in its wake.

"Let’s see what you’ve got under here," he teases, his voice low and filled with anticipation.

The cool night air brushes against your exposed skin as he tosses your tank top aside. His fingers trace the lines of your collarbones, sending a wave of desire through you. He pauses for a moment, eyes locked with yours before reaching behind you to unhook your bra.

"Such a beautiful sight," he murmurs appreciatively as your breasts are freed. His hands move to cup them, thumbs brushing over your nipples in a way that makes you gasp.

"Not bad for an old man," you tease back, trying to maintain some semblance of control. "Though I do suppose you have practice undoing bras?"

Rayleigh chuckles, his touch becoming more deliberate. "Old? Maybe. But I know how to make a woman feel young."

His words send another rush of warmth through you as he continues to undress you slowly. He takes his time, savoring each moment as if it's a gift to be unwrapped carefully.

His hands slide down to the waistband of your shorts next, deftly undoing the button and sliding them down over your hips. The fabric pools at your feet as he kneels before you, placing a kiss on each hipbone before standing again.

"Now we're even," he says with a playful glint in his eye.

You can't help but laugh at his easygoing nature even in such an intimate moment. "Even? I think you've got some catching up to do."

Rayleigh's grin widens as he steps closer, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you against him. "Oh, I plan on catching up," he promises before capturing your lips in another searing kiss.

Rayleigh's lips claim yours with a hunger that matches your own. His tongue twists against yours, exploring and teasing with an intensity that leaves you breathless. The kiss is erotic, each movement of his mouth a promise of the pleasures to come.

You moan softly against his lips, your hands moving to grip his broad shoulders, holding yourself steady as his touch ignites a fire within you. Rayleigh's hands continue their exploration of your body, his touch both firm and gentle. His thumb brushes against your nipple and pleasurable delight erupts across your breast.

"Rayleigh," you gasp, breaking the kiss for just a moment to catch your breath.

His eyes lock onto yours, filled with desire and a playful glint. "Yes, dear?" he asks, his voice a low rumble that makes your heart race.

"I don't think I'm the only one who is wicked," you whisper, pulling him back into another passionate kiss.

His hands slide lower, fingers trailing down your sides and across the curve of your hips. He grips your ass firmly before letting one hand sneak between your legs. His fingers part your folds with a deftness that speaks of experience and confidence.

"You're already so wet," he murmurs against your lips, his voice tinged with admiration.

You can only moan in response as his fingers find your clit, rubbing slow circles that make you arch against him. Your breathing quickens, each touch sending sparks of pleasure through your body.

Rayleigh's kisses move from your lips to your neck, nipping and sucking at the sensitive skin there. "I want to hear you," he whispers between kisses. "Let me know how good it feels."

Your hands tighten on his shoulders as he increases the pressure on your clit, his other hand sliding back up to cup your breast. "Rayleigh... oh gods," you manage to say between gasps.

He chuckles softly, the sound vibrating against your skin. "That's what I like to hear."

His fingers work their magic on you, alternating between gentle caresses and firmer strokes that have you teetering on the edge of ecstasy. His mouth moves lower still, trailing kisses down to the swell of your breasts. He takes one nipple into his mouth, sucking and flicking it with his tongue while his fingers continue their relentless assault on your clit.

Your moans grow louder as the pleasure builds within you, each touch pushing you closer to the brink. Rayleigh's intensity is matched by an easygoing playfulness that makes every moment with him addicting.

"You taste so sweet," he murmurs around your nipple before moving to give the other the same attention.

Your head falls back in bliss as he works both nipples with expert precision while keeping his fingers busy between your legs. The dual sensations are almost too much to bear; you're caught in a whirlwind of pleasure that threatens to consume you entirely.

"Rayleigh, I'm so close," you pant out, gripping him tighter as if afraid to let go and bucking your hips against his palm.

He lifts his head slightly to meet your gaze again, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. "Then let go for me," he commands softly. "I want to feel you come apart in my arms, Gazania."

With those words and one final flick of his thumb over your clit combined with a gentle bite on your nipple, the tension within you snaps. Your orgasm crashes over you like a tidal wave—intense and all-consuming—leaving you trembling in its wake.

Rayleigh holds you through it all; his touch never falters even as he watches with satisfaction at how completely undone you've become within his arms.

"Gods, Rayleigh, you've got magic fingers," you pant, your voice still breathless from the waves of pleasure coursing through you.

He chuckles, that low, warm sound that fills your body with butterflies. "Glad you think so," he murmurs, his fingers finally slowing their assault. He watches you with a mixture of smug pride and desire, eyes dark and intense.

Without warning, he scoops you up effortlessly, your body light in his strong arms. You cling to him, the remnants of your orgasm still making your limbs feel like jelly. "What are you doing?" you ask, half-laughing.

Rayleigh smirks down at you. "Just getting us more comfortable." He carries you over to a patch of soft moss on the jungle floor and lays you down gently. The ground beneath you is cool and damp, a stark contrast to the heat of his body as he settles between your legs.

Rayleigh settles between your legs, his eyes locking onto yours with a mixture of humor and hunger. His breath ghosts over your skin as he parts your legs wider, his grip firm yet tender.

"You know," he begins, his tone casual but laced with an underlying hunger, "you’re not the only one who's been wandering around hungry."

You can't help but chuckle at his playful remark. "Oh really?" you tease.

Rayleigh's eyes gleam with mischief as he lowers his head, pressing a kiss to the inside of your thigh. "Really," he murmurs against your skin, his lips warm and soft. "I've been wondering what you taste like."

Oh no, he is going to wreck you! Your fingers thread through his hair as he kisses a trail up your thigh, each touch igniting a spark of electric pleasure. His movements remain unhurried, savoring every inch of you as if he's unwrapping a long-awaited gift.

"You're quite the flirt, Rayleigh," you manage to say between breaths, your voice trembling.

He looks up at you, a grin playing on his lips. "And you're quite the temptation," he replies before placing another kiss higher on your thigh, closer to where you want him most. Where your flesh throbs.

His fingers part your folds gently, and he pauses for a moment to take in the sight of you. "Absolutely beautiful," he murmurs before dipping his head lower.

The first touch of his tongue against your most sensitive spot has you gasping. The second, your hips twisting against his hands. He licks slowly, deliberately, tasting you with a ferocity that leaves you breathless. Like a starving man. His hands grip your hips harder against your squirms, holding you in place as he devours you with a hunger that's primal yet somehow controlled.

"Rayleigh... oh gods," you moan, unable to keep quiet as waves of pleasure course through you.

His chuckle vibrates against your core, sending another jolt of pleasure through you. "You like that?" he asks, his voice muffled but teasing.

"Yes," you gasp out, your hands tightening in his hair.

He continues his assault on your flesh, alternating between gentle licks and firmer strokes that push you closer to the edge once again. His fingers join in the effort, slipping inside you and curling just right to hit that perfect spot.

Your body arches against him involuntarily as the pleasure builds rapidly. Rayleigh's pace quickens in response to your reactions, driving you higher and higher until you're teetering on the brink once more.

"Let go for me again," he murmurs between strokes of his tongue. "I want to feel every bit of it."

His tongue performs wonders on your clit while his fingers delve deeply within you. The tension builds until it's nearly intolerable, then explodes into sheer ecstasy. You cry out his name as the orgasm tears through you, legs flailing and hips jerking wildly.

Rayleigh's grip tightens on your hips as he holds you down, riding out every wave with his mouth and fingers. He groans against you, relishing in the taste and feel of your release. "That's it," he praises, voice thick with satisfaction. "Just like that."

As the tremors subside, Rayleigh doesn't let up. His tongue dives back into your cunt, lapping at the remnants of your orgasm with renewed fervor. "Mmm, I could do this all night," he teases between licks.

Your body shakes violently; your clit and cunt are over-sensitized from the intense orgasm. "Rayleigh, please," you protest weakly, trying to pull away. "I can't... it's too much."

He looks up at you with a wicked grin. "I know you can take it," he says confidently before diving back in.

You squirm under his relentless attention, every nerve ending ablaze with over-stimulation. Despite the intensity bordering on discomfort, a part of you revels in his determination and the sheer pleasure he brings.

"Rayleigh!" Your voice is a mix of laughter and exasperation as he continues relentlessly.

"You're not tapping out already, are you?" He smirks against your folds, clearly enjoying himself too much to stop now.

"I might have to!" You manage to say between gasps and moans.

His fingers slide back inside you, curling perfectly once more while his tongue flicks mercilessly at your engorged clit. The combination has tears springing to your eyes from sheer influx of persistent pleasure.

"Just one more for me," Rayleigh coaxes gently but firmly. "I know you've got it in you."

With Rayleigh's gentle coaching and fingering, you feel the storm of pleasure within you tighten once more. The relentless pressure of his fingers curling inside you, paired with his tongue's expert flicks on your clit, sends you spiraling into another orgasm. Your scream catches in your throat, choked by the intensity of pleasure washing through your limbs.

Your legs clamp around Rayleigh's head involuntarily, muscles locking as the pleasure crashes through you. Your hands dig into the moss beneath you and tangle in his hair, pulling him closer despite the overwhelming sensations. Your body convulses with each wave, squeezing around his fingers that continue to stroke you through it all.

"Rayleigh!" you manage to gasp out, voice a mix of pleading and ecstasy. Your vision blurs, tears slipping all to easily from the overwhelming bliss.

Finally, he withdraws his fingers and laps at your inner thighs with lazy strokes, savoring the aftermath of your release. His breath is warm against your skin as he places a gentle kiss on each thigh before climbing up to hover over you.

"Still with me?" he asks, a playful glint in his eyes as he takes in your dazed expression.

You manage a weak nod, trying to catch your breath. "Barely," you reply with a shaky laugh.

Rayleigh's grin widens as he leans down to press a soft kiss to your lips. "Good," he murmurs against them. "Because I'm not done with you yet."

His words send a renewed spark of desire through you despite your exhaustion. "You're insatiable," you tease breathlessly.

"And you're irresistible," he counters smoothly, his voice low and filled with promise.

Rayleigh's eyes sparkle for a moment before he bends down and tangles his tongue with yours again. His kiss is deep, consuming, his taste mingling with the remnants of your release. His hand moves to pull your leg up, resting your knee against his hip. You feel the hard length of his cock press against your oversensitive folds, sending another jolt of pleasure mixed with a hint of overstimulation through you.

You whimper against Rayleigh's mouth, the sensation almost too much to bear. He breaks the kiss just enough to murmur against your lips, "Don't worry, beautiful. I've got you."

His words are a teasing comfort, his voice laced with playful confidence. "Insatiable old man," you manage to tease back, your breath catching as he shifts his hips slightly.

"Old? Maybe," he replies with a chuckle. "Just relax and enjoy the ride," he says before capturing your lips in another searing kiss.

As you're distracted by his kiss, Rayleigh takes advantage of the moment to slip the head of his cock into you. Your body clenches around him tightly, making him groan in appreciation. He pushes forward slowly, feeling the resistance of your walls as they stretch to accommodate him.

You inhale sharply at the sharp stretch, a mix of pleasure and a slight sting of pain. Rayleigh's lips find yours again, kissing you softly as he whispers against your mouth, "Relax, honey. You can take me."

His words are a command and a reassurance all at once. You try to breathe through the sensation as he continues to push inside you inch by inch. The fullness is overwhelming, but Rayleigh's gentle coaxing keeps you concentrated on remaining relaxed.

"That's it," he murmurs encouragingly. "You're doing so well."

You giggle weakly at his words despite yourself, finding humor even in this intense moment. Rayleigh takes advantage of your distraction to thrust deeper, seating himself fully inside you with one final push.

You feel the solid weight of Rayleigh pressing you into the soft moss, the cool dampness seeping into your skin as he fills you completely. The sensation is intense, a mixture of discomfort and pleasure that leaves you momentarily breathless. His cock, hard and thick, stretches you in ways you hadn't anticipated, and your body tightens around him reflexively.

"Rayleigh," you whisper, your voice a blend of surprise and pleasure as you try to adjust to the intrusion.

His lips trail from your mouth, leaving a path of heat down your jaw and to the sensitive spot where your neck meets your shoulder. He nips at the skin there, a gentle reminder of his control and your surrender.

"Just enjoy it," he murmurs against your skin, his voice a low rumble that resonates through you.

You nod, your breath hitching as you focus on relaxing your muscles, on allowing yourself to take him fully. His hand cups the side of your face, his thumb stroking your cheek in a gesture so tender it almost brings tears to your eyes.

The pain begins to ebb, replaced by a slowly building warmth that radiates from your core outward. Rayleigh remains still, giving you time to accommodate his size, his every breath a quiet testament to his restraint.

As the initial discomfort fades, you tilt your hips experimentally, a soft groan escaping your lips when the movement sends a jolt of pleasure through you.

Rayleigh chuckles at your response, the sound vibrating through his chest and into yours. "Eager, are we?" he teases, his eyes gleaming with a mix of amusement and desire.

You meet his gaze, a playful smile tugging at your lips despite the intensity of the moment. "Maybe I'm just ready for you to move," you retort, your voice steadier than you feel.

"Is that so?" he murmurs, a sly grin tugging at his lips. Without warning, he pulls back slightly, then thrusts forward, filling you completely once more. The sharp stretch elicits a squeak of pain from your lips.

"Rayleigh!" you gasp, trying to adjust to the sudden movement.

He leans in close, his breath hot against your ear. "This is what you wanted, isn't it, honey?" he says softly, his voice tinged with both challenge and reassurance.

You nod, biting your lip as you brace yourself for more. The discomfort slowly gives way to a deeper sensation as he starts to move with deliberate slowness. His hips draw back just enough before pushing forward again, each thrust measured and controlled.

The feeling of him sliding in and out of you is intense, stretching you to your limits with every stroke. Your walls cling to him tightly, amplifying the sensation. "Rayleigh," you breathe out, your hands gripping his shoulders for support.

His pace remains unhurried but thorough, each thrust purposeful as he fills you completely before retreating only to plunge back in again. The friction builds steadily, a warmth pooling deep within you as he continues his rhythmic movements.

"You clench around me so deliciously honey," Rayleigh murmurs against your skin, his voice thick with desire. His hand trails down to your hip, holding you steady as he drives into you with increasing intensity.

Your body responds eagerly despite the lingering sting of overstimulation. Every thrust sends waves of pleasure radiating outward from where you're joined, leaving you gasping and writhing beneath him. "Don't stop," you manage to whisper, your voice trembling with a mix of need and satisfaction.

Rayleigh's demeanor shifts from easy-going to intense as he picks up the pace slightly. His eyes lock onto yours, a fierce determination in their depths. "I won't," he promises softly before capturing your lips in a searing kiss.

His tongue explores your mouth with the same deliberate precision as his thrusts inside you—deep and consuming. You moan into the kiss, the dual sensations overwhelming in their intensity.

Rayleigh swallows the sounds you make with every thrust as he kisses you. His lips are demanding, almost punishing, as they move against yours. You claw at his hair and back, gasping for oxygen in between mind-numbing kisses. Each breath is a desperate gasp, your senses overwhelmed by the relentless assault on your body.

"Rayleigh," you moan into his mouth, the word barely a whisper as he deepens the kiss. His tongue dances with yours, each movement echoing the rhythm of his thrusts. You can barely think, your world narrowed down to the sensation of him filling you completely, over and over again.

His hand on your hip tightens, holding you steady as he drives into you with increasing intensity. "I want to feel you come around my cock," he groans against your lips, his voice rough with desire.

Your hands clutch at his back, fingernails scraping against his skin as you shake your head. "I don't think I can," you gasp out, your voice trembling with a mix of desperation and pleasure.

Rayleigh's eyes blaze with determination as he looks down at you. "You can," he insists, his thrusts growing more urgent. "I know you can."

The friction between your bodies is almost unbearable, every movement sending waves of pleasure radiating outward from where you're joined. Your body responds eagerly despite the lingering sting of overstimulation, each thrust pushing you closer to the edge once again.

"Please," you manage to whisper, your voice barely audible over the sound of your own labored breathing.

Rayleigh's lips curl into a wicked grin as he leans down to capture one of your nipples in his mouth. His tongue flicks over the sensitive peak before sucking it into his mouth, adding another layer of sensation to the overwhelming pleasure coursing through you.

You arch against him involuntarily, a choked cry escaping your lips as the combination of his thrusts and the attention on your breast pushes you closer to the brink. "Rayleigh!" you cry out, your hands fisting in his hair.

He releases your nipple with a soft pop before moving to the other one, giving it the same attention. "That's it," he murmurs around the hardened peak. "Just let go for me."

Your orgasm ripples through your body, making your walls clamp around Rayleigh's cock and the muscles of your abdomen spasm in pain that rivals the pleasure ripping through your body. The intensity of it leaves you breathless, every nerve ending alight with sensation. Your vision blurs as your body shakes violently, each wave of pleasure pulling a choked cry from your lips.

Rayleigh's thrusts grow erratic as he feels you tightening around him, his control slipping as he chases his own release. He takes your jaw in his hand, forcing your gaze to meet his. "Look at me," he commands, his voice rough and desperate.

You manage to focus on his face, your eyes locking onto his as he leans down to kiss you. His lips are demanding, bruising against yours as he swallows your cries. The taste of him is intoxicating, adding to the sensory overload.

He thrusts into your clenching body with renewed fervor, each movement pushing you higher into the abyss of pleasure. Your hands claw at his back, desperate for something to anchor yourself as your body convulses beneath him.

"Rayleigh!" you cry out, the sound muffled by his mouth on yours.

His hips slam against yours one final time, burying himself deep inside you as he groans into the kiss. You feel the warmth of his release filling you, a rush of heat that sends another jolt of pleasure through you. His cock pulses within you, each spasm matched by a corresponding twitch from your own body.

You fall limp beneath Rayleigh, truly exhausted and barely able to move. One of your arms slides off his shoulder to the mossy ground, the cool dampness a stark contrast to your overheated skin. Your breaths come in ragged gasps, each one a struggle as you try to regain some semblance of composure.

Rayleigh chuckles against your lips, the sound a low rumble that reverberates through you. He kisses the corner of your mouth, a gentle contrast to the earlier intensity, and his fingers trace soothing patterns on your cheek. "How's that for an old man," he murmurs, his voice tinged with pride and satisfaction.

You manage a weak smile, your body still humming from the aftershocks of your release. "I don't think I can move," you admit, your voice barely above a whisper.

Rayleigh's eyes twinkle with amusement as he brushes a strand of sweaty hair from your forehead. "Then don't," he says simply, his tone gentle but firm. He places a soft kiss on your forehead, the touch feather-light and comforting.

As you catch your breath, the comical flirting emerges naturally between you two. "You mentioned something about inviting Shakky next time," you tease, a playful glint in your eyes despite your exhaustion.

Rayleigh laughs heartily, the sound warm and genuine. "Did I now?" he replies with a smirk, clearly enjoying the banter.

"Yes," you insist with a mock-serious tone. "I distinctly remember you saying it."

He brushes another strand of hair from your face and kisses you there tenderly. "Next time," he promises softly, his lips lingering on your skin for a moment longer.

You can't help but smile at his words, feeling a sense of contentment wash over you despite the lingering ache in your muscles. "I'll hold you to that," you say with a playful wink.

Rayleigh's grin widens as he looks down at you, his expression filled with affection and amusement. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you," he says warmly.

Rayleigh’s warm smile softens the intensity that still lingers in his eyes. He shifts beside you, his fingers brushing tenderly along your cheek. “You should get some rest, honey,” he advises, his voice a low rumble. “We can continue our plant discussion in the morning.”

You chuckle weakly, the sound mingling with the last vestiges of your heavy breaths. “I doubt I have much choice,” you murmur, closing your eyes for a moment to let the cool night air caress your flushed skin.

Rayleigh’s lips press a gentle kiss to your forehead, lingering just long enough to make you sigh contentedly. “Good girl,” he whispers before pulling back to settle beside you on the mossy ground.

Date Published: 9/18/24

Last Edit: 9/18/24

Rayleigh Masterlist

[siriscrafts]

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog! I'm a physics student, @siri-of-all-trades is my main/study blog, but on here I'm a crafter, knitter, artist and so on. I especially love learning new fiber arts, be it lace making or engineering new knitting patterns. I strive for sustainability, diy-ing and mending what I can using local materials.

My interests include:

Knitting

Lace making (tatting & bobbin)

Sewing

Pattern design (knitting, sewing, etc)

Weaving

Natural dyeing

House plants

Foraging, wild herbs

Baking and cooking

Cosplay/costuming (occasionally)

Drawing and painting

Embroidery

Miniature wood carving, apparently??

Jewelery making

Here are some examples of stuff I've made:

You're welcome to follow along and interact! My blog is a safe space, despite doing some traditional crafts I don't welcome TERFs or the like.

Here's more about me:

You can call me Siri! (She/her)

From Finland 🇫🇮

I'm doing my master's in physics, focusing on new energy technologies. I especially like solar cells!

I've been crafting since I was little!

I take up new crafts regularly as I come accross them. Since there's so many crafts already, some are just for one project. Knitting is probably the most stable one, since I can do that on lectures and there's always new techniques to learn.

[headspace-hotel]

i'm discovering the sublime joys of natural plant fibers. literally don't know how to knit or crochet or anything and barely know how to sew but extracting and spinning fibers is apparently like the golden ratio of physical and mental activities for me. It's so much fun I will lose hours at a time just HONED in on my yarn and stuff.

Milkweed is so awesome as a plant oh my god. It produces ultra-soft seed fluffs that apparently can be spun if you're careful, the fibers are so smooth they can easily pull apart but making three strands and spinning them into a three-ply yarn seems promising, seems like it would be strong enough to work with. The seed fluffs were historically used widely as stuffing for jackets and pillows and the like, which they are amazing for. Milkweed fluff is way warmer than wool apparently? And on top of it, it has this gorgeous silky sheen. It's SO pretty and it's SO soft.

But the milkweed stems also have bast fiber which is very strong and is obtained by taking the dead stems and beating the crap out of them until the woody stuff is all broken and the fibers separate. This stuff is strong and soft and also has a nice sheen to it and I'm excited to see what could be made from it

Altogether it's a shit ton of usable material per plant, all of which is harvested after the plant dies back for the winter, not affecting its ability to regrow the next spring. With common milkweed, the stems can be greater than 6ft tall and the seed pods are big and each containing a lot of fluff. I filled a whole plastic grocery bag with seed pods, easy, just by walking through a field with lots of milkweed.

Apparently an old common name for milkweed is "wild cotton" which strongly suggests that the seed fluffs have been used for textile purposes

I've also learned from browsing foraging sites, the Myaamia ethnobotanical database and various books that Milkweed has an insane amount of culinary uses. It must be cooked because of the poisons in it that discourage munching by predators, but you can eat the leaves, the flowers, the underdeveloped seed pods (apparently they are compared to cheese?! And the flowers color drinks pink??)

like whoa! so much benefit from one single plant!

I'm working with Dogbane (Apocynonum cannabinum) bast fibers right now and they're sooooo great. Not only is beating the fibers a ton of fun, the fibers are a really beautiful shiny chestnut-blonde sort of color and very strong and fine and soft.

Dogbane fibers also have this lovely fragrance that is like a blend of cedar and forest soil and old books. Milkweed has its own distinct fragrance, very subtle, that I struggle to describe and don't like as much, but it's cool to notice that it has a smell.

[littlelightbolt]

Finding Prowl - a JazzProwl + baby Blue Mer AU

Never really written stuff before but this idea was stuck on me so I've put it out in bullet point form.

I'm looking for mabye someone to give me more ideas on this one, cause I only have certain scenes in my mind.

This is very much a setting-the-scene chapter, I have 2 more written-ish coming.

If anyone interested please message me.

Chapter 1: The capture.

Open on the wild kelp forest, sunny waters where the light filters the sands in rays of colour.

A group of otters are foraging the deeps for clams

One particular one has got their haul in their pouch. Content.

A shrill cry echoes through the waters

The otters scatter, from within the Kelp a higher pitched keen sounds back

A juvenile orca mer floats through the green curtains.

They seem to be having fun, doing spins and zooming with the tidal movements. They take care to not get too close to the shore.

With a flip if their tail they depart off to deeper waters to reunite with what seems to be returning hunting party and mum successful and full from a good hunt.

With a shell clutched close, the young one meets with mum. Showing off the pretty find as they get their fill nursing.

Mother holds the close, the water was warm, the waves calming the sun bright.

It will forever be ingrained in the young ones mind.

The moment shifts as a new noise arrives

Loud and noisy it cuts out all other sound of life, it grows louder and in their direction.

The pod around him grows tense, the young one cautiously curious not knowing why the sound was bad

In a flash the matriarch let's out a shrill command and the pod scatters

Mum and the little take off staying close together. The little one tries their hardest to keep up, wild with fear bled off their mother. She urges them to the kelp forest. Once within they would be safe.

But, whatever was chasing them seemed faster yet. A sharp shadow blocked out the sun above them. The baby whines with fear . The mother urges them to dive.

A horrid sound rocks the water, disorienting the poor baby and mother. They become immobile. The young one literally quaking in pain and fear scents the water around them.

A splat, something enters the waters, the young one see a strange mesh of holes surround them. They start to panic struggle but the mesh has entangled him. Their sharp cry is echoed by their mother who still wracked with pain tries to come to their rescue, clawing the material to no avail. The ropes were too thick to cut through in time.

The young one pulled a pull upwards, their thrashing increased 3 fold.

With a wail, they are plucked from the warm water of his home to the brittle cold air of New Zealand.

He looks on in horror as his mother disappear from his sight , hidden by the white hard surfaces of the beast he was on.

As soon as he was flat on the hard surface, strange bipedal creatures went down on him, putting wet furry things on their flank and yelling over them in harsh tones. The smell of long dead fish greets him.

The wails of his mother can still be heard overboard and he shrieks for ever help.

The boat rocks sideways as they see their mothers hands grasps the walls to reach him.

A glint of a weird shiny barrel winks from the grasp of one of the bipedals however. The little one watches in confused horror as it is pointed at their mother.

She sees it too late.

BANG!

The little one silences. The mother is quiet. There is red leaking onto the floor, it reaches the little one as the ship continues to rock. It smells like warm blood, it coats some of their side.

Mother is silent, stock still almost. Her face locked in a scary gaze. She rocks and slides unsteadily, and falls back into the ocean.

The cry of the seagulls just got louder. The bipedals began to bark again at one another!

“The fuzz is on their way! Let’s move out!

With the the familiar sound of a motor hits the shocked babies ears faintly as the shudders of the boat lock them into their fate.

They get moved to a little water pen, only as wide as the length of their body. They couldn’t move at all.

It was there the little one cold, hungry and scared cried itself to sleep. Praying their mother would come and save them.

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Next Chapter

[outofangband]

Collection of Nargothrond headcanons for @eilinelsghost. Working on updating my two larger Nargothrond world building post

Nargothrond has a variety of languages spoken! Noldorin Quenya and the Falathrim dialect of Sindarin are the most common. Telerin is spoken to a much lesser extent by elves like Finrod who have Telerin family but does become more common. As I’ve spoken about here, Telerin and Quenya actually have more similarities than Telerin and many of the Sindarin dialects in Beleriand do The Mithrim dialect of Sindarin is also spoken to a lesser extent. Of course phrases are traded and after awhile most residents speak at least two languages, similar to other large elven strongholds.

The Beleriand and traditional Sindarin modes of Tengwar as well as earlier Sindarin writing systems are used with the Beleriand mode becoming most common. There is also a system of pictographs invented by the Falathrim which is used primarily for recording weather, sea conditions and other natural phenomena as well as directions and travel instructions. There are a small number of dwarves who speak their own language, specifically a dialect of two groups in the Ered Luin and surrounding communities to the East.

Food is typically served on ceramic plates. The River Narog is rich in clay deposits and both Noldor and Sindar craftspeople in Nargothrond are highly talented potters working with red clay. Orange from alder bark, yellow from dyers greenweed for yellow, and woad for greens and blues along with imported dyes and pigments were used to decorate dishes, often with scenes and stories. The woods around Nargothrond was called the forest of the hunters and presumably hunting was practiced especially as we know Finrod took place in hunts before its founding. Most if not all meat in Nargothrond comes from hunting, likely primarily venison, rabbits and game birds such as pheasants. The woods and fields also provided the opportunity for foraging and the cultivation of edible plants including daylilies, stinging nettle, wild spinach, juneberry, chestnut, hazel, and wild garlic. Rowan berries which we know are canonically found in the region are made into jellies.

The architecture of Nargothrond is a combination of inspiration from Menengroth with input from Finrod’s dwarven allies who helped build it. Finrod was also inspired by his memories of the spacious, often communal homes of the Teleri, though the landscape was quite different, similar materials were used including clay and limestone. (In Valinor the clay was an import from the mountains though by Nargothrond it was collected from the river)

One favored tradition in Nargothrond was the annual hunting trip taken in the wooded hills outside the fortress itself. Dwarves who had aided in the building often traveled back for this event and feast. Trade was discussed and gifts exchanged. The event is in late autumn and corresponds with both a Noldor harvest festival and dwarven celebration of the full moon which began shortly after the first moonrise.

[lorinplayspalia]

Your Order is Served Quest Checklist

A friend suggested I make checklists for this quest line. Keep in mind that you might not craft a gold star dish on the first try, so you may need to collect much more than what the recipe calls for. (It took me at least 4 tries to make a gold star Oysters Akwinduu.)

If cooking is difficult to you because of lag or server congestion, you can always have a friend help you. (I will even help if you are on the NA server, just lmk.) You will need to start the cooking so you get the dish, but it will use whoever is using the station's ingredients, so plan accordingly.

In addition to the ingredients, you will need 2 mixing stations, 2 ovens, 2 prep stations, and 1 stove.

[ ] Gold Star Oysters Akwinduu 1 Oyster Meat 5 Salt 1 Spicy Pepper 1 Tomato 1 Onion 1 Wild Garlic 1 Heat Root 1 Butter 1 Chapaa Meat

[ ] Gold Star Muujin Bahari 1 Butter 2 Wheat 2 Corn 3 Salt 1 Chapaa Meat 1 Mushroom 1 Spicy Pepper 1 Onion 2 Spice Sprouts 1 Wild Garlic 3 Muujin Meat 3 Plant Fiber 3 Cooking Oil 1 Vinegar 1 Egg

[ ] Gold Star Petit Fives 2 Sugar 2 Butter 1 Egg 1 Flour 2 Sweet Leaf 1 Milk 1 Fruit 1 Corn Raw materials list & where to get each item under the cut.

1 Oyster Meat - From unopened oysters found on the beaches of Bahari Bay, simply open the oyster like you would a zeki capsule.

8 Salt - Purchased from Zeki's General Store for 10 Gold. In total: 80 gold.

2 Spicy Pepper - The seeds can be purchased from Zeki's General Store for 170 gold. They are harvested after the first 6 days of growth, and then every 3 days for a total of 4 harvests.

1 Tomato - The seeds can be purchased from Zeki's General Store for 80 gold. They are harvested after the first 4 days, then every 2 days for a total of 3 harvests.

2 Onion - Onions can be purchased from the Daiya Family Farm for 120 gold each, so 240 gold. The seeds can be purchased from Zeki's General Store for 20 gold (total: 40). They are harvested after 4 days of growth.

2 Wild Garlic - Foraged from Kilima Valley and Bahari Bay. May also be purchased from Zeki's General Store for 30 gold (60 gold total).

1 Heat Root - Foraged from Bahari Bay cliffs.

4 Butter - Purchased from Zeki's General Store for 40 gold, for a total of 160 gold.

2 Chapaa Meat - Hunted from Chapaa or purchased from Zeki's General Store for 26 gold, for a total of 52 gold.

2 Wheat - The seeds can be purchased from Zeki's General Store for 25 Gold (total: 50 gold). It is harvested after 4 days. Additionally, you can purchase it from the Daiya Family Farm for 130 gold, or 260 gold.

3 Corn - The seeds can be purchased from Zeki's General Store for 30 gold (90 total) and are harvested after 5 days of growth. Additionally, you can purchase corn directly from the Daiya Family Farm for 160 gold (total: 480 gold).

1 Mushroom - It can be any mushroom, so I recommend the mushrooms foraged from Kilima Valley.

2 Spice Sprouts - Purchased from Zeki's General Store for 30 Gold (60 gold total), or foraged from Mirror Fields or Leafhopper Hills in Kilima Valley.

3 Muujin Meat - Obtained by hunting Muujin. A tip I have for hunting them: Go to the cliffs above Statue Garden and chop the trees. Muujin will run into trees, so chopping the tree will "release" them so to speak.

3 Plant Fiber - Obtained from chopping trees or bushes.

3 Cooking Oil - Purchased from Zeki's General Store for 20 gold, or a total of 60 gold.)

1 Vinegar - Purchased from Zeki's General Store for 200 Gold.

2 Egg - Purchased from Zeki's General Store for 24 gold, for a total of 48 gold.

2 Sugar - Purchased from Zeki's General Store for 20 gold, or a total of 40 gold.

1 Flour - Purchased from Zeki's General store for 10 gold.

2 Sweet Leaf - Foraged from Bahari Bay.

1 Milk - Purchased from Zeki's General Store for 30 gold.

1 Fruit - This can be Blueberry or Apple. To get blueberries: You will receive 5 blueberry bush seeds from completing Badruu's friendship level 3 quest. The blueberries are harvested 4 times. To get Apples: One seed is received after completing Nai'o's friendship level 3 quest. Another is received for completing Zeki's level 3 friendship quest. Apple trees can be harvested 4 times.

As always, let me know if I have forgotten something.