#gale finally getting his spa day

[nostalgiachan]

The Ring in Return

Ninth Prompt: "I almost lost you."

Act Three Spoilers

Summary: After ten years, Vier and Gale's research may be about to pay off: they may have found a way for Astarion to walk in the sun again. (2,031 words)

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After ten years, the end was finally in sight. Ten years of delving into every crypt this side of Barovia, sniffing out even the faintest hint of vampiric activity to find those who’d also journeyed down the same path, and to dig through whatever was left of them for the scraps of knowledge they may have left behind. Ten years of managing personal responsibilities, finances, resource procurement, travel time, work time. Ten years of constant drafting, testing, failing, and drafting again. But at last, Vier held within her hands the culmination of all their hopes, their dreams, their work.

To outside observers, it was merely a fancy ring - a platinum band with a black sapphire as its center gem, haloed by red-tinted sunstones and flanked by two small moonstone cabochons. But the platinum had been treated with crushed black opal, heliodor, and beljuril, and each piece of the ring was absolutely brimming with spellwork, all interwoven in a delicate circuit and focused toward a singular goal:

To make the wearer immune to the sun.

For some time, Vier had almost thought her goal was impossible, even with the help of the greatest wizard she knew. Gale Dekarios was absolutely essential to the creation of this item, of that there was no doubt. But for years, it seemed no matter what permutation of materials, spells, and methods of crafting they tried to piece together, the results ended with them no closer to success. One moment, the interwoven darkness spells would blind the wearer and leave them no better protected from daylight than they’d been before; the next, the heliodor would ambiently draw in too much sunlight and burn the flesh of even those who could freely walk in the day. Vier was absolutely willing to work for years, decades, centuries even; after all, assuming she didn’t meet an adventurer’s end or contract a terrible disease, she still had a healthy six hundred years remaining. But did Gale? While powerful wizards like Elminster certainly had a penchant for prolonging their lives, she didn’t want to hang the success of crafting this ring on assuming Gale would be in his full faculties a lifetime down the line.

But then, one day, the Wizard of Waterdeep sent Vier a summons: “May have found a lead. Meet me in Athkatla.”

Athkatla, city of a thousand vices, crown jewel of the nation of Amn. For once, Vier considered taking the journey alone. If the city was anything like she’d heard, even she’d be hard-pressed to keep on track with all of the temptations it provided. And Astarion? While she generally trusted him to behave himself, there was no telling what sort of shenaniganry he’d get up to if he had half the mind. So, of course, it was Gale who suggested the first thing they should do when they arrived in the city was to visit the local Temple of Sune which he’d heard had an absolutely lovely spa service.

“This all serves a very valuable purpose, I assure you,” the wizard responded to Vier’s clear displeasure. “Aside from making sure we’re relaxed and refreshed for the work ahead, I hear they have excellent private meeting rooms, where we’ll be neither seen nor heard.”

“Are you afraid someone’s going to eavesdrop on us?” Vier asked in return.

“Well, when one is dealing with difficult-to-obtain, possibly forbidden knowledge, it never hurts to practice precaution,” Gale answered in his typical chipper, yet slightly smug, manner. Vier’s lips couldn’t help but purse; she was certain Gale was far more interested in the spa aspect, but so long as this lead of his actually paid off, she supposed it wouldn’t hurt anything.

Surprisingly enough, though, Gale was actually being completely genuine about the private rooms. After she, Gale, and Astarion had been thoroughly bathed, splashed with tinctures, and massaged until their muscles were veritable piles of goop, they retreated to a lavishly-decorated rented room which had one way in, one way out, and seemed quite thoroughly soundproofed. The fact it was clearly some sort of boudoir had not gone unnoticed, and if only Gale hadn’t been there, it very well might have seen its intended use with just how relaxed Vier and Astarion had grown. Unfortunately for them - or, perhaps, fortunately for Gale - it wasn’t long before they were joined by a rather skittish looking individual with a satchel of scrolls. This person, Gale explained, was their information source, and he’d found an absolute whopper for them.

The visitor laid out one of the scrolls across the table between the four of them; its surface was covered with almost indecipherable writing and what appeared to be designs for a cloak of some sort. The man explained that over a century ago in Athkatla, there’d existed a vampire lord called Dragomir the Red. In his possession was a cloak which purportedly protected the wearer from all ill effects of the sun, but at the cost of severely weakening them in all other regards. Dragomir was long dead, and his cloak was nowhere to be found, but this individual had found something almost as, if not more, valuable: the original plans for the creation of the cloak by the necromancer Zulann Flass.

While Vier couldn’t translate the text half as well as Gale could, there was still much she could parse - symbols tied to specific spells, illustrations of ingredients to be woven into the fabric of the cloak, the exact order in which to imbue the material. The more she looked through the scrolls, the more her face began to light up. If they took those schematics and applied their own research to work around the cloak’s shortcomings…they could very well make their ring functional at last!

Vier and Gale thanked the informant profusely, though, as expected, he was not content with gratitude alone. He expected payment. Astarion floated the idea of a five finger discount, but the idea was quickly vetoed. This information, after all, had more than proven its weight in gold.

Of course, even with the schematics in hand, it would be another six years of work to once more amass funding, gather resources, and plan the new ring for testing. But at that first test, when the ring properly absorbed the beams of sunlight which hit it and the energy dissipated within the band, Vier nearly burst into tears. More testing followed, this time placing the ring on various summoned undead. While few had quite the same sort of issue with daylight as vampires, they still had a tendency to be somewhat weakened by the light of day. But with each new test, the new ring performed beautifully.

Soon enough, there was only one final test remaining, the test that Vier had been dreading most of all.

On that day, before the break of dawn, Gale joined Vier and Astarion in the Dawnshire Temple of Lathander. The church was perfectly situated on the tallest hill in the village, facing directly east so that the rising sun would always pour in through the massive windows behind its central altar. Every morning, Vier would greet Lathander’s light. This morning, she would not be greeting it alone.

As Vier turned to Astarion and slid the ring on his left hand, she could see he was trying to swallow his fear. “It’s a little gaudy, isn’t it?” he attempted to joke, though Vier knew his heart wasn’t in it. The look in his eye reminded her of that night, so many years ago, when he’d first poured his heart out to her. That night, she could see that he was willing to hope again, even if he was deathly afraid of the pain it would bring. Once more, he was hopeful. Once more, he was terrified.

As the sky beyond the windows turned a pale blue, Vier raised Astarion’s hands to her lips. “You know, I still have that moment just after we’d killed the Netherbrain seared into my mind,” she spoke quietly. “We stood there on the docks, Lathander shining brilliantly down on us as if he was celebrating what we’d accomplished. Deep down, I’d hoped that something of the tadpole’s effects would remain within us even when it’d been burned out of our heads, or that Lathander himself would make an exception for you in light of everything you’d done, and promise never to harm you again.”

“But then…I saw those silvery lines appear on your skin. I watched you crumble to dust. To have come that far and done that much, only to nearly lose you there and then…I couldn’t bear it. So I swore that no matter what it took, no matter how long I had to struggle, I would return the light to you. It’s the least you deserve.”

The tears in Astarion’s eyes shined nearly as brightly as the gems within the ring. “Gods, you…you truly are incredible, you know. In all this time, have I ever thanked you for all of this?”

“Oh, I’m sure you have,” Vier laughed through tears of her own. “And if you haven’t, all I’ll ask for is a smile. But, I suppose we shouldn’t get too ahead of ourselves.”

She released his right hand and turned to face the dawn with him, his left hand still gripped in her own, both trembling. The first rays peeked over the horizon, and soon spilled into the church, slowly and painfully rising. Higher and higher, they rose, flooding the room with golden light. Yet, Vier didn’t hear a single whimper from Astarion. He didn’t flinch or cry out in pain as the sunlight washed over him. He barely even squinted as the sun reached his red eyes, as if he was daring Lathander to do his absolute worst. Even with the full form of the sun in view, he didn’t budge an inch. They stood there together in silence, waiting for the other shoe to drop and for the ring to prove it had its limits. But that moment never came.

Astarion was completely fine.

From the pews behind the pair, an enthusiastic cheer rang out; Gale could no longer contain himself.

“Elminster’s beard, we actually did it!” he laughed, a surprisingly raucous celebration for the man. He quickly stood and crossed the floor, scooping up Vier and Astarion into the tightest of hugs. “Gods be good, you can’t believe how relieved I am!”

“You think you’re relieved? I thought I was about to fall apart for a minute there,” Vier joked as she returned the hug. Astarion, however, was surprisingly quiet in all of this. Was he just overwhelmed? Trying to process that he was truly free to enjoy the daytime once again? Or was it something else? As soon as Gale broke the hug, Astarion pulled him away for a moment, whispering something into his ear. In response, Gale simply nodded, and handed Astarion something that Vier couldn’t quite see from one of his robe pockets. After a moment, Astarion returned to her, once more taking her hands in his.

“You know, you’ve given me a rather lovely piece of jewelry today, gaudy as it is,” he said, trying to maintain his usual flippant air and only partially succeeding. “But for a while now, I’ve felt like something was a bit lopsided here. See, you’ve been breaking your back trying to make a nice ring for me - with help, of course, but still - but I’ve had nothing to really give to you in return. And you know me, tit for tat and that. Soooooo…”

Suddenly, Astarion dropped to a knee before Vier, and produced the item that Gale had given him.

“I got you a ring of your own! And on my honor, I didn’t steal it.”

The ring looked almost identical to the one that Vier and Gale had crafted together - platinum band, black sapphire setting flanked by moonstones, yet in place of a halo of sunstone was one of pale blue opal. He slid the ring onto her left hand.

“Honestly, I never thought I’d be asking this, but…Vier Alurlssrin, will you marry me?”

Vier didn’t bother to answer, instead letting the force of her kiss do the talking.

[notsoangstymiracublog]

All thanks to Lila Rossi

(Thank you for you guys who got tagged to check out this sorry excuse of a fic- well i wanna see your reaction so I'm sorry if you're busy and i am bothering you. also please prepare some bleach cuz this may be the worst fic ever in history of tumblr)

Tags cuz i swore to do this

[ @frostymoon11 @a-marlene-s @apex-primus @bugaboosandbees @captainrose35 @miracul0us-multishipper @miraculouscontent @miraculous-of-salt @lenoreofraven @gale-of-the-nomads @galahadwilder @nobodyfamousposts @symwinter @skaylanphear @imthepunchlord @autumnlover13moni8 @nerdasaurus1200 @gryffindorcls]

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Friday morning, best day ever and Lila felt excited that day, like nothing was going wrong in life, her perfect life. But the feeling turned into anger and disgust when Lila saw her enemy. Talking! With! Her! ADRIEN!

'this can't be happening, that naive girl had to stop going near my adrien! Something needed to be done'

Thats when an idea struck her, a plan to make every girl out there stood away from her adrien! No one but her can have him, Adrien will only be hers and they will be together forever. Gabriel better thank her after this cause this plan was the best plan she ever had

The brunette left from the school ground immediately, giving away fake smiles to those who saw her. She walked towards the Agreste Mansion instead of going to school, her mother will be very dissapointed but the old woman won't know anyway

A few days ago, Lila had seal a deal with Gabriel. She will 'protect' Adrien but in return, he must help her whenever she was in need for help. Now that won't be so hard to do, as long Marinette gave up on the boy, then Lila will be able to 'protect' him from the Bluenette. And about her lies, it's been 2 months and her lies were still not exposed, not that it's a bad thing

'So you think you can stop me, Marinette? No one, i repeat, no one can stop me' Lila thought as the gate opened for her

She entered the Agreste Mansion with ease knowing she was already given permission to enter whenever she wanted to. She gave the assistant a fake smile and gracefully walked towards the younger Agreste's room. The girl had been into his room a few times for 'tutor' but the smell of cheese just gets worse and worse. A bad habit she'll had to fix after he decided to date her

The brunette searched through his trash can, ignoring tons of crumpled papers with poems and drawings of Ladybug. After what felt like a hour or so, she finally found what she need. Tried to hold all the excitement as she placed it inside her handbag, nothing will be able to stop her from being with her Adrien

Lila cleared the evidence of her doing and brush off the dust off her clothes as she stood up. She went out of his room and left the mansion after saying goodbye to Nathalie

[the next Monday]

When Lila entered the classroom a lot of confidence and smirk on her face, Marinette suddenly knew that the liar did something but she won't be able to confront her inside the class. Not when the liar was surrounded by Marinette's friends, with the exception of Chloé who decided going to the spa was the 'best idea' at the time.

"Everyone, I have an announcement to make...." Lila said as she tried to not explode in happiness then and there

The other students chatter in wonder and confusion, buzzing with excitement for the announcement because Lila always did an amazing deed no matter where she went. Questions about 'what the announcement was about' were asked by everyone.

"Well..." the brunette started, "I am pregnant...." she acted scared and sad which somehow works as usual. (Bet you didn't expect that)

Anger filled the room, with a pinch of confusion

"Wha- when- Lila, who is the father?" Alya asked the girl, oh boy does she want to beat out of the boy?

Yes, she does

The brunette didn't answer which everyone thought she was forced not to tell who the father was, but then she opened her mouth, "Adrien's the father..."

"WHA- COUGH nInO hElP!" The boy in question choked on his water, his face screaming 'IM GONNA DIE' as Neene- i mean Nino tried to help his friend

When the words came out of her mouth, slowly one by one everyone went silent. Their expressions turned into anger and disgust. Lila thought it was towards Adrien but when the yelling started, she knew something went wrong in her plan. They were supposed to yell at him! Not her! (S u f f e r)

"Marinette, i want to apologize but someone needed to get their present first"

Alya walked closer towards the said 'pregnant' girl, "congrats Lila, here is a present from me!"

A loud slap echoed the classroom as everyone gasp in shock, Lila felt pain on her right cheek. Thats when she realized Alya slapped her, hard (and she can hear Alix and Kim in the background screaming 'ohhs')

'how dare she!? Who does she think she is!?'

"Uhm excuse me!?", oh god here comes daddy's girl "why would someone who is cute and smart like Adrikins! would want to be with a filthy liar like you!" Another loud slap echoed the classroom (y e s)

"WHY YOU!' Lila exclaimed in anger (makes her looks like a witch)

Soon, everyone started shouting and the teachers had to come in to hold back some of the students so they won't hurt the brunette. The principal heard about Lila's claim from Alya and decided to contact Lila's mom and Gabriel, they need to figure out what exactly was going on (first time taking action? I thought they'll just expell mote students- )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Class was dismissed that day so the teachers were able to talk with the parents about what happened earlier, Adrien was told to stay at school by his father considering Gabriel's social issues with the others, he needed his son (pfft- says the guy who can't even eat dinner with his son)

Principal Damocles explained everything to both of the parents, including Adrien, Gabriel threatened to make a restraining order against Lila because the she's using the Agreste's reputation and name for her own need. Lila's mom on the other hand, was trying her best not to scream then and there

Benigna Rossi thought she raised Lila into a good kid, her daughter was always kind, forgiving and honest. If you told Benigna that her daughter was manipulative, evil and a liar, well she won't ever believe you

But just imagine this! You just finished your work and was ready for some good nap HOWEVER your phone rang and the principal was there to tell you 'go to school now, i don't care if you're busy'. Then after you arrived, Gabriel freaking Agreste was ready to make a restraining order against your child, how terrific!

And oh it's not just that, you also received the news that the child you raised for years was lying to you and everyone the whole time. Wasn't it amazing? Yep it was. Then to receive another news that your daughter was pregnant and the father of the baby was innocent and didn't even knew stuff about the bird and the bees

F L I P P I N A M A Z I N G

Well her day was awesome, just earlier in the morning she said 'this is a beautiful day! Nothing can go wrong' well she jinx herself. Mentally smacking herself for letting this happen and also not raising her daughter better. But the woman knew better, she knew it's not her fault, she knew what to do, but will she be brave enough to do it?

And not even a month later, everyone in Paris discovered the pregnancy of Lila Rossi. Celebrities were interviewed and most of the topic was about Lila Rossi, about her lies and how some of might had an affect on their carreer. Most of them claim to not know her, but other celebrities who was familiar with Marinette exposed the liar, LIVE ON TV IN FRONT OF HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE

Yeah her reputation was gone, poof away into the wind in less than a month. All thanks to Lila Rossi herself for putting herself into this mess and didn't even think about other possibilities that could happen

Should i mention about the Ladyblog and how Alya managed to improve her blog? Yeah i probably should. Anyway, the ladyblogger herself took down every interview she had done with Lila. She also uploaded a video to explain why she took it down and to apologize for not fact-checking

From there, her blog had other contents other than a video of an akuma fight scene, Alya also uploaded a bunch of meditating techniques that will help anyone calm down. Not only that, she searched more about the miraculouses, her sources were from Ladybug herself so she didn't have to worry. More and more citizens knew how to stay calm and what to do when they got caught in an akuma attack (instead of recording everything when a freaking giant akuma was next to you)

All thanks to Lila Rossi, the Ladyblog had improve a lot. And the ladyblogger herself was invited to almost every news station, because she had proven herself to be a trusted reporter

And Marinette? She was happy, back to her usual cheerful self. Her teachers and friends apologized to her, she forgive them and yeah everything was back to the days where Lila wasn't in Dupont. Well, theres some good changes too, they now respect her feelings and was more understanding

All thanks to Lila Rossi, Marinette can now express her emotions and people around her didn't pressure her into doing stuff she didn't like

Well, you might be wondering, what happened to Lila Rossi herself? Principal Damocles expelled her from Dupont after hearing the claims from Marinette that Lila had threatened her twice. Both Lila and her mother flew back to Italy, Benigna Rossi decided to let Lila live with her strict grandparents

It was also discovered who the father of the baby was, turns out it was actually the Agreste's baby. Just not the younger one, the older one, Gabriel himself checked the cameras around the mansion and yep it was true! Lila was pregnant with Gabriel's kid

Her reputation was ruined as it was her who did it on purpose. The information was published by Alya, permission granted by Gabriel of course. The news were shared around the world, every news station was talking about Lila Rossi as the girl herself was suffering from being humiliated

What about the baby? Hmm who knows what will happen to it, at least we knew that Lila was not allowed to abort it because she cause the pregnancy to happen, and because she was a minor (i ain't letting the baby suffer- )

And there you have it people! Everyone had their happy ending, Lila Rossi? Not so much! But at least she wasn't in jail because working with a villain was a serious crime! Trust me, jail food ain't good (also no i haven't been to jail.....yet)

Hold up! Was that.....laughter? In the distance? Oh well why not show you guys who was behind all of this. Turns out, Tikki, Plagg and the other kwamis had planned this. Yeah thats right they were behind all of this! (P l o t t w i s t)

.....what? You think the tiny god of creation won't be upset if her chosen was being treated horribly? Well you're wrong terribly sweetheart. The kwami had planned this the whole time, after all she's the goddess of creation and literally anything that was created came from her. For example, the big bang! But we're not gonna talk about that-

Oh, so Adrien had accidentally left Plagg in his room the same day Lila barged into his room, what a coincidence! The tiny black cat of course had to tell his other half about Lila's plan, and so from there the Ladybug kwami gave tons of her luck to Marinette

Lila's plan might succeed if Adrien was a pervert or a player, it's a good thing he was a good sunshine kid! Who might lost his innocence after Lila's claim of being pregnant with his kid. Poor boy had been dying to know 'where babies came from' but lets not jump to another topic!

And thats all peeps! Everyone had their happy ending except for Lila Rossi. But she deserved it and every pinch of salt the kwamis threw at her (any Lila Rossi fan out there i am soo sorry)

All thanks to Lila Rossi! and the kwamis of course

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ F i n ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Welp i don't know if this is a crack fic or if this fic even makes sense but i write whatever pops in my head, and don't mind me writing stuff about my own story lmao,oh and look at the time! It's hidey time- ]

[Also terribly sorry if i wasted your time hehe..]

[jutri]

Hello! I was wondering if you could do this prompt for me. If you're busy don't worry about it :) Stiles is a caretaker at the new wolf preserve attempting to reintroduce wolves to the state in Northern California. An inured, badly abused wolf is brought in shaved, beaten, and tortured. The wolf starts to heal faster than normal under Stiles’ gentle care. Stiles knows exactly what he’s dealing with, but full-shift wolves are rare.

Stiles stares at the cage where the newest rescue resigned. It’s been four—maybe six days since the wolf had fallen under the Northern Wolf Preserve’s care, and unsurprisingly, the wolf still has yet to warm up to anyone. Even Danny, who seems to have a gift with animals of all sorts, hasn’t been able to coax the severely injured animal out of its seclusion. After Stiles had heard that, he mentally checked the wolf off as a Scotty —the werewolf whisperer— problem. Thinking that maybe if Scott flashed his eyes at the guy, he’d be more submissive and accepting of their care. Of course, that theory turned entirely south when the once-believed-to-be-normal wolf flashed red eyes and growled loud enough to rattle the bars to the cage as soon as Scott came into view.

“You’re making this a whole lot more difficult than it has to be, you know,” Stiles said as he squints at glowing red dots. “The least you can do is howl for your pack to come and find you.”

The wolf lifts his head into the light of his confinement and levels Stiles with a grumpy look. 

“What? Cat got your tongue, big guy?” 

When the flash of annoyance comes from the wolf so does a bad idea. Isn’t it always that way? Stepping over the mountain ash line he created after figuring out that the measly cage would do nothing against a full shifted wolf once he recovered his strength, Stiles unlocks the cage with a quick swipe of his key before sprinting back over the line. As expected, the wolf doesn’t give chase leaving Stiles feeling silly for wasting energy by running. 

“Listen up fur for brains,” Stiles places his hands on his hips, “I take my job very seriously. I’m a caretaker, a spark, and an emissary in training. It is my duty to help you regardless if you want me to or not. So it’s either you let me help, or I’ll drug you and give you a bath that way.”

The wolf doesn’t move.

“Dude! If you don’t listen to me Harris, my asshole boss, is going to send you to the pound to be put down,” Stiles says. “We don’t kill our rescues, but Harris is a dick and sends you ‘problem’ bad boys away. So unless you want to swallow pill after pill until something works, I’d suggest you get your furry butt over here!”

The wolf’s empty stare was as uncomfortable as a mid-July sunburn. Stiles holds his breath and waits for something…anything to happen as he held his ground. A few more breaths pass before the wolf struggles to his feet and limps its way towards Stiles. His fur was thin and clung to his frame like a windbreaker in a gale. Even from several yards away, Stiles could count his ribs. His movements were faltering as if each step pained him and his head was sunk low to the ground.

Sighing, Stiles’ shoulders slump as he draws a line through the ash.

:·ﾟ✧☆:✧:·ﾟ✧☆:✧:·ﾟ✧☆:✧:·ﾟ✧☆:✧:·ﾟ

Despite the trouble in feeding him the wolf finally began to show progress with only a couple days under Stiles’ care. His fur became shinier, and a bit of his weight came back to his body. A few sections of his fur is still shorter than the others, but Stiles thinks that that’ll only come back with time. 

:·ﾟ✧☆:✧:·ﾟ✧☆:✧:·ﾟ✧☆:✧:·ﾟ✧☆:✧:·ﾟ 

The wolf still doesn’t like Scott or Danny, which Stiles thinks is the funniest thing in the world. Even now as Stiles clocks back in from his break, he has to take a second to laugh at the sight of Danny kneeling in front of the cage with wolf snacks in his outstretched hand. 

“Stop patronizing him,” Stiles scolds as he moves to unlock the cage. 

Danny rolls his eyes and watches with slight pangs of envy as the wolf struts over to Stiles’ side. “I’m not! I’m trying to make sure you aren’t torturing the poor guy,” he says, bending down to get eye level with the wolf. “Blink twice if you need help, buddy.”

The wolf honest to god snorts, and Stiles feels slightly betrayed. 

“See, he does like me!” Danny smirks pridefully. 

Stiles flips him the finger as he turns to gather his things to give the wolf his bath. He hears the wolf’s soft grunting in response to the bottle of shampoo but could care less as Stiles stares at the blood painted across the wolf’s muzzle. “Since he likes you so much, do you want to help give him a—”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Danny vanishes from sight. Turning back to the wolf, Stiles taps his foot a few times before he leads them towards the preserve’s spa. Stiles’ mind wanders to thoughts about where the wolf came from and who could’ve done such a thing to a human being. Even as he’s scrubbing the filthy from the wolf’s fur, his mind is preoccupied with questions and confusion. So, you could only imagine the surprise he felt when suddenly the wolf poofed into a fully naked man. 

Stiles shrieks embarrassingly high pitched as he topples out of his chair and onto the floor. Causing shampoo to go everywhere. 

Here you go!! Sorry, it’s a bit short, my brain had decided to take a break about halfway through ヽ(๏∀๏ )ﾉ

[george-sykes86]

Weird towns, camping and lots of penguins

This next instalment comes after a week which has been filled with action. Despite only having been away for two weeks it feels like we have already crammed in a months worth of activities and the prospect of getting up and going to work is a distant memory. The crossing into Patagonia 'proper' to Puerto Natales was impressionable. The bus stopped at the immigration point on the border to have bags searched etc. Leaving the warm comforts of the bus, we stepped out into blustering gales, rain, rather bleak seemingly endless baron landscape and a portacabin. At this point I did think.. why on earth did we leave the warm cultural splendours of Buenos Aires and central Argentina?! This thought was further emphasised when we arrived in Puerto Natales (still pouring).Probably the strangest place I've ever been... Imagine if you will a cross between a ski chalet village and a tin shantytown and that's sort of what this place looked like, and at this time of the day deserted. However, waking the next morning we were greeted with something relatively rare in Patagonia- SUNSHINE. Suddenly, this odd place seemed somewhat charming and we were ready to set on our quest to try and find a way of entering the nearby national park, whose complicated booking system made it like Fort Knox of Chile. With all the campsites full and the town filled with disconsolate visitors desperate for even one night in the park we didn’t hold out much hope. After visiting the main park office it was looking like our only options were to either pay for a couple of nights in hostels in the park at the price of a central London hotel or alternatively chance our arm and head into the park and hope the rangers took pity on us and allowed us to stay in the free campsites. As we sat in the office of Fantastico Sur, the company with the only remaining availability, desperately trying to piece together some sort of a trip and our wallets groaning in our pockets the door swung open and two Brazilian angels entered. In this brilliant bit of serendipity they had two nights camping to sell, which aligned perfectly with some other availability meaning we were going to be able to get 4 nights in the park. It’s safe to say we almost bit their hand off for the bookings. With bookings stowed away it was off to the supermarket to buy provisions then to the outdoor shop to rent some fairly ancient camping gear. We were feeling pretty smug at this point and filled with enthusiasm for what the next 5 days had in store for us. Despite a few delays getting across to the starting line, we made quick progress through to the first checkpoint and were feeling confident of being at our camp well ahead of schedule. Then the trail got steep, the footing became rocky and the wind picked up. Progress was slow! It was during this last stint that my lack of aerodynamic form led to a gust blowing me across the rocks and unfortunately her ankle took the brunt of the incident. We eventually hobbled into camp with the rain coming down and the wind howling only to be lead past the lovely sheltered woodland camp spots to our pitch for the night, a wooden platform set out in the open with full exposure to the elements and whose only redeeming feature was it’s proximity to the toilets. The tent went up quickly and we piled into the dining area of the Refugio to be treated to a delicious three course meal of log life food which even featured an old favourite, Angel delight. That was as good as the evening got. George's well honed ability to sleep served him well but I had a night to forget. With the wind gusting still gusting at 70mph and the rain coming down heavily, conditions in the tent were tense. Every few minutes you could hear the wind building from high in the valley and the noise grew louder and louder like a oncoming stampede. Then it would hit! The tent, staked down and covered in boulders to hold it down, was rattled from side to side and the wooden platform shuddered beneath our matts. A 4am call of nature was like going over the top at the Somme. Well rested and suitably smug, George woke to find me white as a sheet, huddled in every item of clothing I brought, mumbling discontent. Ah well at least it was breakfast time!! Day two was an absolute triumph- fantastic lakeside views all day, minimal aches and we strode into a fantastic campsite where the tent fairies had already set up our abode ahead of arrival. This was topped off by a warm shower- a very welcome surprise after the previous nights experience where one had to dangle each limb in the shower for a few seconds at a time to survive the glacial waters. Day three; smugness gone. Awoke with ankle feeling like someone had taken a hammer to it. The first part of the morning was a very steep scramble up uneven paths and giant boulders. OWW- enough said.All discontent was forgot when we landed at the Mirador del Torres, breathtakingly beautiful! after a night of storms we arrived to see the highlight of the park and its glistening turquoise waters in perfect sunshine. WOW- just so beautiful, 8 understand why it is considered the highlight of Chile, captured on the notes. If only we didn't have another 25km to conquer before the next campsite...! Moods varied so much that in the morning I would be discussing how much I'd like us to get our own high-end kit, and even suggesting a summer camping jaunt to WALES (a moment of weakness surely), by the afternoon the tone would be more along the lines of 'george this is a one time thing, OK?!?!' Towards the end of the day as legs and back ached, my mothers childhood nickname 'firey harriet' came into its own. Luckily george had enough provisions stowed away that he was able to cure my low blood sugar levels (otherwise known as bad mood spikes) by feeding me snacks to promptly restore my enthusiasm- like a cart horse being fed polos to retain momentum. Now, if you're thinking it was just me, while George strode around the park with glee,. think again. Even Sykes was coining phrases such as 'I think I will cry when we finally get to the campsite' and reformed the lyrics to Queens don't stop me now, 'having a shit time, having a shit time..' which I could here him belting behind me. However, our home for the night was delightful and soon all wrongs were put to right. Perfect evening sunshine, and a sheltered spot for our tent- back to my 'I love camping, let's buy that tent!'. I was unable to walk the following day so George embarked on an adventure round the backside of the mountains en solo (probably relieved to ditch his counterpart, now affectionately referred to as 'the snail'). I had a wonderful morning in the sunshine, reading and bonding with the local staff who I sat with playing his flute he'd created out of a plastic pipe. On Georges return we treated ourselves for a valentines meal of canned tuna and crackers, then playing 'who can keep there feet in the glacial river longer'. I won :) After another OK nights sleep we trudged the 4hours trek back to the bus- and eventually made it back to the luxury of indoors, delicious un-packeted food and most importantly a BED; my old friend. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Reflecting on our time in Torres del Paine, we both say how incredible it was- insane natural beauty around every corner, and a catalogue of picture postcard photos; not to mention the sense of achievement on completing a challenging 5days hiking- totally out of our comfort zones. However, Probably best we didn't write this blog while we were walking or the language may have trouble into the slightly more vulgar. It was an experience I'll never forget and I truly thoroughly enjoyed, but next year it'll be a spa break for Valentine's Day George! On arriving further south in the large industrial town of Punta Arenas, the weird streets of Puerto Natales started to seem like a fairytale picturesque town. THIS was bleak. Maybe it was the constant rain but this is was not a charming place. On our first day, after listening to the hostel staff whinge about how much they hated the town we decided to brace the elements and check out the top sites which turned out to be a graffitied statue and a shipwreck which we got half way to and then turned back. Luckily we weren’t there for the sites but instead to catch a boat to Isla Magdalena home of 120,000 Magellenic penguins. Patagonia; the most beautiful landscapes we've ever seen, the most uninspiring architecture. But the region keeps growing on me.. I'm sure I'll be back one day.