#i could ride my bike but it's super steep

[koiketto]

reconnecting with nature but you're actually just broke and also in the states

[something2believe]

i wasn't diagnosed or even convinced i had me/cfs until 2020 but i feel like i definitely should've trusted something was wrong with my body when in 2017 i fainted at the dentist after riding my bike up a steep hill to get there (still mortified lolll they thought i was just super nervous 🥲) or in 2018 when i had to skip class bc i felt insanely unwell after conquering 5 flights of stairs and had to beg my mom to come pick me up bc i didn't think i could handle the walk back to the train station :|

[leesgrandadventure]

In probably one of my best travel ideas ever, we biked 21km (13mi) from where we got off the train in Myrdal to the town of Flåm, where we stayed for the night. I wanted to do this trip because there is a scenic train line between the two, but according to the internet it is super touristy and I didn't want to deal with humanity (and fyi the internet was right because there were SO MANY PEOPLE on the train platform), so when I discovered you could bike I was hyped because that's even more scenic than riding a train! The bike path was very steep/lots of switchbacks at first, but after that super easy and barely ever had to pedal since it was almost completely downhill.

[rpmtrish]

RPM Mag releases the May 2024 Issue! Check it out Today!

Join RPM Magazine for another fantastic issue with the release of the May 2024 Issue.  Click the cover here to view the full copy or subscribe to receive the full print magazine.  A limited number of printed copies are available if you are interested reach out to trish@rpmmag.com for more details or visit www.rpmmag.com/subscribe/. FEATURE CAR - NEXT LEVEL - Ziff Hudson's vicious Vette runs 3s in the 1/8th! Ziff Hudson is one of those names that seems to always be the topic of conversation in the world of small-tire drag racing. He’s fast and he wins.  He started racing at the tender age of 17 in his '71 small block nitrous-assisted Nova, dominating local street car classes at several tracks. While life took hold, he took some time off for his two girls and started his towing company at age 21; Ziff never lost the addiction to drag racing. SUPER COUPE - Corey Binkiewicz' first build went way further than he could have ever imagined. After a steep learning curve at young age, hopping up his 1990 Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe came naturally to Corey Binkiewicz, so he ran with it. “My parents always said my first word was ‘car’,” Corey said with a smile, “My dad was always working cars or the house and I was familiar with tools, etc. So, once I was old enough to get in trouble, I was constantly taking things apart to see how they worked or if there was a way to ‘soup’ them up.” ICONIC - This stunning 1985 Chevy C10 has a blown small block to go along with its good looks! Third Gen, Square Body, C-Series, no matter what you want to call them, Chevrolet’s 1973 to 1991 model full size pickups have become iconic and are now one of their most sought after generations of trucks. They are getting snapped up for street machines and street/strip builds alike and this low-slung 1985 C10 of Chad Gower is an example of the latter. It snowballed from his first vehicle that he drove daily through high school and college, into a nasty blown small block that he can take his kids out for ice cream in and then go hurt some feelings at the track. SUPER KID - Drag racers take note, there's a new kid in town, and his name is....Most every story in the world of fast cars and motorsports starts with something like, “I have been into anything with wheels since I was a kid”. For Brodie “Super Kid” Brown, it all started on his 1st birthday when he was given a Pocket bike. While he couldn’t ride it yet, his parents Jackie and Rob would push him around on the front lawn of their property. HIDDEN GEM - Barry Cunningham's 1940 Willys Coupe - HOT ROD DREAM - Barry Cunningham’s 1940 Willys is one sweet ride! Barry chose the cool hot rod rake with the rear sitting just a bit higher than the front. The Willys is just one of those cars that you can get way with darn near anything when it comes to stance. #ziffhudson #C7corvette #Iconic #Supercoupe #Barrycunningham #coreybinkiewicz #brodiebrown #chadgower #nextlevel #hiddengems #rpmmag #rpmmagazine #rpm25yrs Read the full article

[sosos-adventures]

Ha Giang loop day 3:

Waking up that day made me realize that this was the last day of the motorbike tour. And it made me a but sad. Never have I haver thought that a motorbike trip could be that much fun. So after breakfast we gor ready to leave to the final destination of our trip. A hidden cave. And let me just say that was an adventure. The other tour guides do not bribg anyone there. Why? Because it is way off the main road and it gets super steep and narrow. So after a 20min ride in that style we arrived at a little hut where an old guy was living. He gave us some plastic slippers and wearing these we started our little adventure. It was a very muddy and slippery path and our easyriders made fun of how bad we were hiking.. but to be fair they are used to doing this in these slippers. At some point we took them off and walked barefoot. My easyrider hat to hold my hand most of the way because it was extremely slippery.

WARNING!!!!!!

If you dont like feet, dont look at the picture.. this is how the slippers looked like. Not really the best option for a hike:

And at some point my sportspants got stuck in a branch and got ripped. So now I need to figure out how to sew this back together. Thank god my mom gave me a sewing class for my birthday. But all of this was worth the little hike. We arrived at a really cute cave with lots of light coming through. We got some pictures but it does not look as cool as it did in real life.

And now to the "fun" part of that day.. because it would be boring if everything just would go smootly right? On our way back to the motorbikes I gor bitten in my foot by something in the water. It started to burn a lot and I gor scared that it mighr have been a snake or so.. Naema told me that there are no poisonous snakes or spiders around and that it probably just was an insect.. our easyriders didnt really understand what I was saying so I panicked for a moment.. but with lots of cold water it got better. And then we headed back. And right when we wanted to leave Naemas easyrider told us that her motorbike had a flat tire.. so they tried to fix it but couldnt. So she drove away and my easyrider told us to get on the bike.. the 3 of us. Apparently there wasnt another spot to out all of our feet on so I was sitting behind the easyrider and Naema was behind me.. and I had my feet on the thingies while I was holding Naemas legs up in the air.. that was an intense workout for about 25 minutes.. and not on a main road.. it was the way back through the forest/coubtryside with the narrow steep roads.. what an adventure.

When we were back at the main road we had to get off and he left to find the other easyrider. And about 15min later he picked us up again and drove us to a repair service. About 20min later we were abel to get back on the road again :) actually such a fun way to end this trip.

When we arrived back at the hostel we were again the only tourists there. I dont know how we managed to do that. But the owner was super friendly and gave us the option to take a shower and get ready for our night trip to CatBa.

Before taking the bus we decided ro check out the restaurant of Naemas easyrider and support her business. Her Restaurant seemed to be her living room that had a front area with a kitchen and some tables. We sat down waited for her to prepare us some soup. Next to me there were 2 cats. A baby cat that was walking around everywhere and even jumped on our table. And then another cat that was chained to another table barely able to move. I felt so bad.. It broke my heart to have to see this.

But talking about nicer things: oue busride.. ao there was no good bus conpany driving to the island CatBa. And we just decided to let our hostel guide book us 2 tickets for a night bus sleeper. We thought it would be without a cabin.. appafently it doesnt matter what you book. You will always end up in a different bus. And ww gor so lucky. It was a similar bus to last time. So we gad our own cabin to sleep in. And it was also the only company that goes directly to CatBa. Usually the buses run through Hanoi, then you change and at the port you change again.. so we gor extremely lucky :)

So whenever you take a sleeper bjs in Vietnam be prepared that kts not gonna be the bus you booked. You can get really lucky or not..

[crucifixes-and-chrysanthemums]

Dream journal, 11/27/23. 99% waxing gibbous -> full moon.

I was test riding my motorcycle to see if I'd finally fixed it. I hadn't but it kept pulling right. I almost hit some UPS guy crossing the road but didn't at the top of the east lake road intersection going out of town, but it was massive compared to reality. I mean maybe a two hundred foot drop with a super steep grade. I ran off the road but kept the bike upright. I decided it would be easier to just hold the bike and slide downhill since the bike was super tiny. I reached the bottom of the slope and some old lady said she hoped my day turned around. I picked the bike up (now it was the size of a rifle) and looked at the tires and they both had chunks taken out of them, and I realized that's why it was pulling right. I said I'd ride to CR's house and he would have extra parts.

Dreamt I had two bushes in my room. They woke me up in the middle of the night because they were rattling. It turns out they had butterflies pupating in them and they hatched. There were many more butterflies though and so I had to cut away at the plants and get rid of them because they were taking over my room. The pods would fall in line from the trees and would stick to the ground so I has to cut them on both ends to lift the potted trees out.

MG and I were riding around on horses through the countryside. It was World War II but in the modern day. We came across a group of German civilians who were playing some game on horseback where they hit each other with sticks. The point was to swing it like a bat or a sword with your hand at one end. I decided to half staff it so I could swing more accurately or something. MG said good idea and I was hitting the German civilians pretty well until they got mad. MG said I was hitting them too hard (meaning I was too good at the game) and I said they're Germans that guy's brother shot my friend Private Williams yesterday I don't care if I'm kicking their asses. One of them grabbed us and told us to stop. He said something really offensive to MG and I told him not to do that and then my friend stabbed him. He was a great big fat man and had MG over his shoulder. Then we were in front of the whole town of villagers and I was shouting to them that for their own safety they need to leave the village immediately. I can't remember why.

Dreamt I bought a shed at TFP. It was decent size and on wheels. When I tried to move, one wall fell down. I tried to put it on the truck but it was too big. When I tried to return it, they were closed already.

[kylesbikeadventure]

Day 26 - Samuel P Taylor State Park to Half Moon Bay (Francis Beach Campground)

What a day (in a good way). Exhausting for sure, and a bit of everything.

Got an early start from camp, knowing it would be a longer day, particularly navigating through a big city. Said goodbye to Shannon - who finished her trip today in San Francisco - and Donald from Quebec who I've been at the same camp for three nights in a row now. He is travelling with his small dog, Harley, but will be flying with Harley from San Francisco to Mexico to let his dad watch him as the trip might a bit too much for the 17 year old pup. Donald will then fly back to San Fran to continue his tour to Argentina.

Had a nice bike trail leaving camp before rejoining the roadway leading into Fairfax. I think I missed a turn while in Fairfax, and a guy (Gary) in his car pulled up beside me as I was cycling and told me the bike lane was a block or so over. I said thanks and looked for the next right to get over a street. Cycling a bit more, I saw him stopped on the road. We ended up chatting a bunch - he cycles quite a bit and helped me figure out the best route to the Golden Gate Bridge. He has done a couple tours himself over in Europe. Very nice guy.

I eventually made my way through Fairfax and Ross which were quite beautiful towns that looked like they had a lot to offer. Had I known I would have spent some more time in that area. I think of all the places I've cycled through so far, that area north of San Francisco would be top of the list to visit again.

I eventually made it to get Golden Gate Bridge and biked up to a lookout for a photo op. Luckily the sun was out and I could see the bridge and city in the distance. The fog was still quite visible off the coast.

I went back down the hill to cross the bridge only to find the west side pedastrian pathway closed (until 3:30pm apparently…it's used as a maintenance pathway prior to that). So I had to lug my bike down and up a long set of stairs to cross over to the pedestrian/cycle path on the other side. A bit of a workout in its own right.

Once across, the challenge of navigating the route Google showed me was on. I think Google did well to avoid hills as much as possible, but they can't be entirely avoided and there were plenty of steep climbs enroute. I also had to stop constantly to check my phone, making sure I hadn't missed a turn. It did seem like Google took me the same route as bike path signs in the city, so that helped a fair bit.

Eventually made my way out after a lot of stop-and-go and big hills. The route was close to the beaches on the coast which were fairly chilly, windy, and grey.

Pacifica was the next challenge. There is a big climb out of that city on the highway with no shoulder and blind corners. I've read online it's super sketchy and for a lot of people the most dangerous part of the Pacific coast route. Luckily I also read online of a unofficial bike trail you can take instead. So I took that. It was hike-a-bike for maybe 200m or so, and was quite the challenge to push my bike up the path, but it eventually leveled out so I could ride. The trail puts you back onto Hwy 1 at the top of the climb and where the shoulder starts again, just before an area known as Devil's Slide.

Devil's Slide is the old Hwy 1 route which was replaced by tunnels in 2013 due to the continual landslides on the highway. It is now a cycling/walking road that skirts around the mountain top and was a great ride.

Mercifully, once back on Hwy 1 there was a strong tailwind pushing me to my destination as it was getting late (for my tastes, anyway - arrived to camp shortly before 5) and I was pretty spent. There was also a nice long bike path along the coast that I was able to join leading right into the campground.

Camping in Half Moon Bay tonight where it's plenty windy. Tomorrow should be an easier day to Santa Cruz.

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 691: Sakamich's third year, start!!

Pag 0

4: This is bad... teh

5: Kei-chan and the others....

I'm supposed to climb the wide slope the bus follows, and meet the at the “main gate” but....

Pag 1

1: Where am I, teh....

Pag 2

1: The road is narrow.... and the trees gare growing thick.....

2: There's such a terrific climb before me....

3: Waaaaa, and I have no time, teh

4: I have to climb like this? This steep slope!?

Do I go back? The way I came

Ahh, I really can't read a map

5: What do I do, I'll be late for the entrance ceremony, teh

Kei-chan and the others are surely waiting for me, and they'll tell me I still haven't fixed my bedhair, teh

Pag 3

1: Good morning

Congratulations for getting into school

'morning

2: Alright, smile!

Ah, my bangs

Next!

3: Is the gymnasium this way?

There's a guide

I wonder how many class there will be...

I'd like to be in the first class

Yeah

4: Woah, they're huge

Pag 4

1: I wonder if they're first years too

Right?The uniforms are new

They're both huge

2: Roku-chan is late

Yeah, Kei-chan. And he said “I want to show you my new bike and shoes, so wait for me before the school gate”...

3: We got that excited text yestarday....

Again... maybe he went the wrong way...

Yeah, that could be

With his bed hair

Pag 6

1: Kakaka!!

2: Look, look, Hotshot!! Manager!!

One after another!! In swarms!! One by one!! New first years are coming!!

First years sure are sparkling

3: And among them a great number of people will joing our club!!

4: Anyhow

5: We're the two times champions of the Inter High!! Our special strong team will be the most talked about!!

Kakaka

Pag 7

1: Yeah!!

2: Ahhhh

What's wrong, Hotshot!!

4: Looking at your hairstyle, I can't help it.... I wanna mess it up!!

Ow- oiii, hey!!

Stop it!! My hyper super new third year style!!

Sorry!! I'm thinking of controlling myself, really... here's a little me inside of my body....

What's wrong with your personality's tap!?

Pag 8

1: Don't just think it, try to control yourself!! You did the same hing last year!!

Huh!?

2: …. ah

Oi, what are you doin!

3: Anyway, let's look for new first year with a good physique and scout them

Don't ignore me with such a straight face, oi

Stupid Hotshot, you even forgot

4: Hmph

I'm not worried about that, we have a plan

5: This year's first years' “visit to the clubs' activities”!!

6: Where we show some of the club activities to the first years who came to us

Pag 9

1: There's about 15 minutes to show the club activities... it's not much, but it's enough!!

2: The menu is mine and Hotshot's serious roller battle!!

3: We'll show our serious roller battle and grab the first years' hearts!!

And then

4: They'll be impressed by my victory and join the club!! …. it's a super plan!!

5: Alright, I didn't ask, but it sounds interesting

6: Let's do it!! But

Victory will be mine!!

Pag 10

1: Let's bet a bottle of juice!?

2: Let's bet two!!

3: Ah, anyway, where's Onoda-kun?

Three!!

No, four!!

He's late

Four and a half!!

How do we do that half!?

He always comes way earlier

4: You drink the....

Ah!!

6: You're right

7: I don't know, maybe he found something that caught his attention on the roadside

Pag 11

1: Princess, princess

Pag 12

1: You're the princess~ You're the princess!!

2: White~ fufufun~

3: As expected, nothing beats going to school using on my city bike using the back gate slope

4: Like this I can ride and no one will hear me singing!!

5: Alright, I'm pumped up! Now, another song...

6: There's.... someone

Pag 13

1: Huh... ah...

What do I do, teh.... go back!?

But there's no time....

2: Is he having troubles...?

A new.... first year?

3: Should I call someone?

A teacher?

I'll call Naruko-kun....

Pag 14

1: I'll have to help him myself, somehow

2: I'll... call out to him....

4: After all, I'm already

6: Uhm

Teh!?

Are you maybe

Pag 15/16

1: Are you.... having troubles?

I'm already a third year!!

Pag 18

1: Ah, teh, yes

Uhm

2: The map, teh...

Huh!? A person!? He suddenly appeared

The entrance ceremony... my friends are waiting for me

Where are we, teh...

3: He arrived just at the right time, teh... this person

A “god”!?

4: Ah, uhm, this slope...

Can you climb it... with a bike?

5: Yes

Pag 19

1: Yes!!

Switch to one gear lighter

That's a relief, if he has trouble with his bike

2: Even I could be able to help him!!

Huh? Gear!?

Uhm...

Push your body forward and sit a little up on the saddle

3: This back gate slope is quite steep, but if you can even just clear the long slope in the middle, then after that... uhm

Teh!? Saddle.... handles?

4: If I tell you with words you won't understand, I guess

Pag 20

1: I'll just show you how to do it

2: Follow me

Yes.... teh

[entities-of-posts]

Ugh, I'm not sure how to start this. It's kind of pointless anyway by now, it's been so long, but it just feels right. A final note to end this horrid horrid chapter of my life. Maybe then I can finally rest a little easier. Find a new place, new people... maybe even go dating again. Alright.

Three years ago I was happily married to my ex-husband. I won't lie, of course we had our spats, but we did love each other. He is a smart, active man, if a little stubborn - and his son takes after him in almost every aspect. They love all kinds of outdoor activities. Biking, climbing, skiing, you name it. I'm.... a little less interested in all that. Of course I join in every now and then, but I just don't have the knack for it - or the courage to go down those black diamond trails they're interested in. They love those the most... it must be the thrill of it, I guess.

Every year they visit a resort for a month, and I get to relax a little and catch out with my friends. I never minded it too much, but... I was worried. The chance is small of course, but if something happened to them out there...At least that was the excuse I told myself for the terrible idea of joining them on their trip once.

Honestly it was...not that bad. The mountains were beautiful, the location was nice and it feels surprisingly satisfying when you come back from a day of exertion, ready to relax in a warm room with a cup of cocoa. The instructor praised me for picking it up fairly quickly, and after a while I wanted to get on a blue route. Intermediate, that is. ...I shouldn't have. But I was excited. My husband and son stuck with me as I was learning the ropes and they told me they didn't mind, but I could tell they wanted something a little more exciting. I was thinking that maybe I could finally properly join them next year.

I was determined, that day. There's this relatively long route near the top of one of the mountains with a ski lift bringing you all the way to the start. It's not super popular because you need the stamina for it, but we had charted out some spots where we could take breaks without getting in the way of other people. There was even a nice staffmember from the resort at the top. I think he could tell I was anxious - he smiled at me and told me to "Enjoy the ride".

And then... ugh. I just wasn't as good as I thought I'd be. The slope was more steep than I expected, and I was anxious about falling. It was a slow process, and they had to stop every so often to wait for me to catch up, and we were all getting kind of frustrated. I eventually told my son he could go ahead and wait for us further down, my husband insisted on matching my pace. And then at some point it happened. I fell. It wasn't that horrible, but I sure got a face full of snow and couldn't see anything until I managed to get up. And I...I suppose he must not have noticed it because when I looked up he was still skiing down, becoming smaller and smaller in the distance. I got anxious then and called out to him, but it's quite hard to hear up there... the snow softens every sound. I didn't notice it until that moment, those thick snowflakes falling down, absorbing everything.

But I still saw him. So it was fine, right? I just needed to pick up my sticks. Until I did just that and looked back up again, with the intent to follow. A strong gust of snow hit me out of nowhere and put me right on my back again. I sat up, and panicked - it was covering the tracks, covering me, and most importantly this sudden mini-blizzard was obscuring my sight. I got up again and started to make my way to the bottom.

But... it. It didn't help. The snowfall, it just got thicker and thicker. Until everything I saw was white. Sky white, ground white... it all blurred together. For a good while I just tried to keep calm and continue to stay on the path. After all, I could only go down, not up.

...I didn't reach the checkpoint. I don't know why, it couldn't have been further away than five minutes, butI couldn't find the flag - I - I just... after ten minutes I got worried that I had gotten lost. After half an hour I was sure of it.

The white, it just kept going and going and going, burning into my sight until I was almost sure I might as well be blind in spite of the goggles. I was getting exhausted, too... and numb. After an hour I couldn't feel my toes anymore. You must understand, there was no way the mountain was that large. There was no variation to the path, just the same slope, the same white - eventually I was sure the vague outlines of the trees were repeating themselves. It just....kept going. I don't know when I gave up. It might have been three hours. Maybe more. I could only stop and sit down and cry. I was so cold I hardly felt the snow. I... They found me, eventually. I don't know when exactly, at some point it was just blurring together. My husband, he....he told me I just stopped moving when I fell down and he got worried after a few moments. Enough to take the skies off and walk back up to check on me. He said I was all blue when he looked at my face. It had only been five minutes... but the local hospital said I had frostbite and hypothermia, as if I were been out there for ages. Trudging through the endless white. ....I couldn't live with my family anymore after that. Snow was a no-go, and I panicked in the most embarrassing way when next winter came. Even more than that, I felt...abandoned by them. How could they not have found me when I was so close? Why didn't they stop and wait? They knew I was just starting out, if they had just waited I wouldn't have-

I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

A year later, the divorce was done.

I still have nightmares about it, sitting numbly in a void of white with the wind howling around me. But maybe my new job in Texas will fix that. I could use some warmth. -M. Green

Hmmm, this tastes like your cooking, @starryskiesuphigh. Thank you, it makes for a very nice meal :)

[thewackyrandomwriter]

SNOW WAR- PART I. (Also on my Wattpad)

IRL- Inspired by the DOAWK book, The Meltdown (Which I was reading)

*Libby's POV*

In the small, sleepy town of Arcadia, there are these two neighborhoods that once got along with each other. Both neighborhoods are on the same street, but they're divided into two halves. There's Cirrus Street, which is the hill, and Acacia Street, which is the flat part at the bottom. The people from both of the streets used to like one another, they spent time out together every single time, every kid, teen, playing in each place. And even though they all live on the same street, nowadays the hills and the non-hills can't STAND one another because of one cold wintry day.

A large, fuming snowball fight broke out between the two neighborhoods. Not just any soft, regular snowball fight, a snow WAR- Yellow snow, ice balls, and all that was used in this. All that used to be friendship and kindness, go to smithereens.

The ones who live at the TOP of the hill have it MADE. Their part of the street is HIGH, but not too steep and such, so they can do anything they want up there. That's why all the athletes come from Cirrus Street. Unlike below, the roads are all cracked and just messy from the frozen weather lately, or.. more in general actually, which makes it impossible to rollerskate, ride bikes, anything basically. The thing is, nowadays, the kids who live on the hillside of the street think they OWN it.

And if any of the Acacia people come up to PLAY and HANG OUT, the people living in Cirrus Street won't LET them under any circumstances.And since then, the two could never be allowed in their territory, no more playing games or running around, where they all each stayed in their side of their street. The once peaceful, loving neighborhoods became the greatest of enemies.

There's a lot of bad blood between the hill and non-hill neighborhoods, which is why we can't be friends. But whenever I try to explain the situation to Aunt Minerva, or Uncle Henry they just don't get it. In fact, NONE of the adults on our street do. They're all friends with each other, and they have no CLUE about what's REALLY going on.

If you live on Acacia or Cirrus, you're either a HILL kid or a NON-hill kid, and there are no switching sides. There's a person who goes to my school named Sean Scott who lived on the lower side until last summer, which is when his family moved to a bigger house at the top of the street. But the others up there still consider Sean a non-hill person, so they won't let him hang out on the street. The Acacia side thinks of him as a traitor for moving, and won't let him sled in the winter, except for me and my friends, because he was actually super friendly to us. So now Sean is basically stuck indoors year-round.

Lately, though, things have been pretty calm on our street. Us non-hill kids keep to OUR side, and the other hill guys keep to THEIRS. But if someone does something stupid, this whole place is going to BLOW. Last winter, a bunch of the higher hill people bought the same winter gear as the lower street, and it was WEEKS before any of us caught on.

But when it SNOWS, the tables are turned. All of a sudden the Cirrus Street kids want to use our turf for SLEDDING, but that's when we give those guys a taste of their own medicine.

~~~

*No one's POV*

It was a nippy winter morning in Arcadia Oaks. November only felt like it just came along, but after Thanksgiving, December quickly rolled along. The light yellow sun was shining like always, beckoning people up peacefully as they rose from their beds. Libby got up from bed and yawned, went over to the bathroom, got herself all ready.

But instead of wearing her regular cardigan, shirt, jeans, and flats, she dressed in nice, classy, warming winter attire. She wore a thick white turtleneck, with a few other layers underneath, since it was very chilly outdoors. She put on some nice pants, but as they warmed her, they still looked very stylish in a way, which Libby loved. To finish it off, she wore a long beige trenchcoat, a dark purple scarf, a winter hat, gloves, and some dark boots.

"Perfect!" She said to herself in the mirror.

"Libby! Time for breakfast!" Uncle Henry hollered from downstairs.

"Don't wanna be late for school!" Aunt Minerva calls.

"Be right there!" Libby hollers back, getting her backpack, running out her door, down the stairs.

"Ah, mornin' Libby!" Aunt greeted with that sweet Auntie smile.

"Good morning, Libby!" Uncle greets, setting his cup of coffee. The welcoming smell of holiday delight lingered through the kitchen, making Libby more excited for the day, sitting down on her seat.

"Hi Libby," Lorraine waves a bunch of times.

"'Sup 'cuz," Valeria nods her head.

"Mornin!" Chantelle takes a dainty bite of French toast.

"Hi, ya'll," Libby giggled as Aunt serves her a plate of eggs and bacon.

"Ooh, eggs and bacon!"

After breakfast, Libby got all of her things and said goodbye to everyone before heading off to school to start her day with her friends. Once she shut the front door, about to take a step out, Libby's face dropped when something caught her eye. It wasn't just the nativity set that was elaborately placed outdoors or the shining trail of lights from the entrance to the front door or the hanging bright yellow stars from the porch ceiling. But she notices the grass had a thin layer of white glistening powder sprinkled out on the front lawn.

"Snow!" She gasps, putting her hands on her cheeks in excitement and unbelief. Snow like this is very rare in Arcadia, especially since the climate is typically very warm, in fact TOO warm for any snow, so this really surprised her. She grabs a small handful of snow, then lets it go, and trails off to her friend Jim's house.

When she approaches the Lake residence, she observes the neat wonderful lights hung by the porch and the adorable Xmas wreath on the door, not to mention some candy cane lights by the front lawn.. Libby politely knocked on the door, where Jim went and opened it.

"Oh, hi Libby, Morning!"

"Heya, Jim,"

"Come on in," He moved aside so she can go in, and once I did, a warm wave of heat strikes her.

"Wow.. it's warm in here," Libby said.

"Yep- My mom just got a new heating system for the house, so yeah,"

"Nice,"

Toby, Saraline, and Claire haven't arrived yet, so while they waited she sat on the nice comfy couch. He asked if Libby wanted some hot cocoa that he'd just made- Which she obviously accepted, hot cocoa with extra marshmallows. As she sipped contently, there was a knock at the door, which she places her hot chocolate down on the coffee table, and goes over to the door to open it.

"Oh, hey guys!" Libby greeted, her breath turning to a cold misty cloud of vapor from the chilly climate. The three of them were all snugly bundled up in layers and layers of insolation, from winter hats to boots, scarves, gloves, topped off with those thick snow jackets that made you look like a penguin when you walked, or in general- At least that's how Libby sees it, she does NOT enjoy wearing them.

"Hey, Libby," Claire waved.

"Hi, Libby," Saraline chimed in.

"Mornin' Libby. Jimbo in there?" he asks.

"Mhm, come in," Libby says.

The Trollhunting crew all conversed for a bit, talking especially about the unexpected fall of snow that hit the town, not to mention the sudden drop in temperature. They're sipping down some hot chocolate before bracing themselves for the cold air out there.

"Wowza guys! Today's super brutal, huh?" Toby shivers as a brisk gale swung by.

"I know- I don't think it's ever been this cold before." Saraline puts her gloved hands on her jacket pockets.

"I don't think it's ever been cold at all before," Jim says.

"Yeah, exactly," Claire adds in.

"Mhm, I agree," Libby chimes in. The teens reach the school, passing by the flock of bundled-up students, all dressed in their winter best.

"I think everyone here agrees, too," Libby observes some students, trembling, shivering, especially little Eli Pepperjack.

"Poor Eli.." Toby shook his head in empathy.

The classes went as normal, lunch ran smoothly, many people stayed inside the cafeteria, taking in all the warm foods and beverages to warm up.

~~~

When school ended and that final bell rang, the group started to walk back home, but the journey back proved more treacherous than the journey to school. The wind suddenly picked up, sending an immense freezing wind chill all throughout.

"It's-It's even c-colder than this morning," Libby trembled as she had her arms clutched tight.

As the wind picked up, the light snow started to slowly intensify. The thin layers of snow that were on the ground and grass, was quickly rising. They quickly started to approach the neighborhood.

"Oh no!" Saraline whispers, making everyone pause.

"What is it?" Libby asks. Toby just loses his soul as he looks ahead.

"Uhh-Uhh... g-guys-guys?" He stammers.

"What?!" Libby whisper shouts.

"Look." Jim points to a bunch of the Cirrus Street people out on their lawns, some building snowmen, some making snow angels, playing in the snow. The houses were nicely decorated with long colorful Christmas lights, some even had those inflatable snowmen or one of Santa Claus on his sleigh- Either on the snow or on the ROOF, which was pretty impressive since there weren't many over at Acacia.

"Oh.."

"My.."

"God.."

They had to go through Cirrus Street to get to Acacia Street where they lived, so they had to be careful to not go onto the Cirrus Street people's territory, it was obvious that they couldn't just sneak past them.. Those kids are too smart for that, so they'd have to blend in with the others.

"Just act natural," Jim instructed, the others nod in response, immediately making normal-looking expressions, giving the impression that everything was okay. And when they walked past them, everyone playing on the snow just gave them some glancing views, with confused looks on their faces.

"Hey..! Peace!" Toby makes a peace sign, trying to be cool.

"Hiya.. heh," Claire waves at some of the people out on the snow, who start to pause and just stare at them.

It all seemed to go well since it took a moment for them to think they were on the Cirrus side. After it was going well, something had to go bad- It didn't take too long for someone to notice something was not right.

"Hey.." A Cirrus kid pointed to Toby.

"Who's he?" A little girl asked, holding a snowball in her gloved hand.

"And who are they?" Another boy asks, pointing to the group of outsiders.

"Yeahhh.." Someone else speculated. Then the next second, a huge entourage formed around them, a circle of their enemies eyed them suspiciously.

"Oh dear.." Libby whispered.

"Who is SHE?" Someone finally points to Libby more specifically.

"Uh.. Who m-me?" She stuttered nervously, still keeping a smile.

"My name is.. P-Penelope.. Mum-Mumbleson.." Libby tries to invent a credible fake name, flashing a confident smile, the others in her friendly group nodding, playing along-but that quickly backfired, 'cause they weren't buying it. Jim facepalms after hearing and watching this painful moment.

"RUN!" Jim yells and soon massive pandemonium ensues.

"GET THEM! IT'S THOSE ACACIA STREET PUNKS!" They start to hurl snowballs towards the group where they were defenseless and helpless.

"GET THAT CHUBBY BRACE-FACE!" Someone in the crowd shouts, pointing at Toby

"WAIT- SPLIT UP, SPLIT UP!" Saraline hollers.

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING!" Jim yells as the teens split.

"I'LL HOLD THEM!" Libby insists.

"NO LIBBY, DON'T!" Toby screams as he's pelted viciously with snowballs, falling face-first to the snow.

"AAAAAHHHHAHHH!"

Libby grabs a huge mound of snow and creates poorly-shaped snowballs and throws whatever she has to try and fend them off, but quickly proves too much overwhelming work for her. People from all sides, attempt to corner her.

"RETREAT! RETREAT!" Libby panics, falling her arms about, running off over to catch up with her friends who were well far from the opposite neighborhood.

"RUNAWAY!" "LET'S MOVE GUYS, LET'S MOVE!!"

"THIS ISN'T OVER YOU MORONS!" The older Cirrus Street teen shouted, growled, kicking a mound of snow in rage. The snow got more aggressive, heavy snow started to fall, where everyone observed the sky and looked back at their pack leader.

"Oh.. they're doomed," He chuckled darkly.

"LET'S HEAD IN!" He calls out, where everyone goes to their houses in a rush.

[slippinmickeys]

Link for chapters one, two, three, four and five. 

This is the final chapter, thanks for sticking with me.  

She was separated from the rest of the patients in the ER by only a thin curtain that was occasionally thrown back with a curt shhtt! by any number of hospital personnel, quickly and at random. She flinched every time.

She was wearing an ill-fitting grey sweatsuit provided to her by the police officers who came to take her statement and her clothes, as evidence. She was allowed to keep her shoes, for which she was grateful. They were almost dry, though marked by a Pollack-like splatter of blood, mud and rain water. She had eight stitches in her arm, nineteen in her side, and a prescription for an antibiotic which she clutched tightly in her hand.

Shhtt! The curtain pulled back once again, this time admitting a nurse named Carmen--the woman was in her 50s and overweight, her hair pulled back in a dark bun with wiry strands of silver running throughout. She smiled at Scully, revealing a mouth full of crooked teeth. She’d had a tendency to call Scully “honey,” which Scully wanted to attribute to her sweet, maternal-like nature, but probably had to do with the fact that she couldn’t remember her name.  

“You’re almost out of here, darlin’,” she said, mixing it up a bit as she dipped her head to look Scully in the eye. “The doctor is filling out your discharge papers, now. These,” she handed Scully a few pieces of paper that were printed in faded dot-matrix ink, “are your after-care instructions. Ibuprofen for the pain. You can take up to 600 ml safely, every six hours.”

Scully nodded mutely and folded the papers around the smaller prescription. Nurse Carmen patted her leg gently.

“Do you have someone you can call to come get you? It’s late.”

Scully glanced up at the clock on the wall -- it was nearly 3:30 am. She flipped through her mental rolodex and came up empty.

“I… I don’t have my keys,” she told the woman in a halting voice, “he knocked away my keys.”

“Do you have a Super or a roommate that can let you in?”

At the word “roommate” Scully felt tears burn in her eyes unbidden, but nodded at the nurse. Gary, their building manager, would be cranky as hell about it, but would let her in. She tried not to think about Mulder, and of course could only picture him on the porch of some oceanside cottage, sitting in a bench swing with Debbie while they fed each other crabcakes and drank red wine.

Shhtt! This time the curtain produced her doctor, who had been kind enough, but always seemed too busy or distracted to meet her eye. His head was always buried in a chart or steeped in concentration six inches from her skin, sewing her back together.

“All right Miss Scully, you’re free to go,” he said, snapping a folder closed. “Have you been assigned a detective yet for your case?”

“No, they said they’d call me,” she answered, and thought but with my luck…

He nodded and walked away, and Carmen touched her elbow and told her which way to go to get to the hospital exit. She passed by a pay phone near the door to the outside, but realized she didn’t have any change and gave the nurse at the nearest station her sob story before the woman, looking bored, handed her the station phone’s receiver and let her call a cab.

She headed outside to wait.

There was an ambulance idling just outside the emergency bay, the EMTs leaning against the side of the rig, drinking coffee and joking with each other. She couldn’t remember if they were the ones who had helped bring her to the hospital, so turned the other way and walked forty feet down the sidewalk, embarrassed.

She hadn’t asked how long it would be until the cab showed up and wondered how many were even on duty this time of night.

The pavement was damp, as if it had only just stopped raining, and it was still cold. She rubbed her hands together and stamped her feet to keep warm, the movement jarring the wound in her side. She felt close to tears.

She heard the roar of a motor coming up the empty road, but a quick glance proved that it wasn’t her cab, just a motorcycle tearing up the drive, going too fast for conditions. She wondered if maybe the driver was hurt when he skidded to a stop under the overhang directly in front of the ER doors.

The rider swung off his bike just as the two EMTs pushed off the ambulance, chiding him and telling him he couldn’t park there. The rider ignored them and whipped off his helmet, about to trot into the doors of the hospital when Scully recognized him and shouted his name.

“Mulder?!”

His head whipped toward her voice and then he came running, his face a mask of worry.

“Scully!” he shouted as he approached. He slowed only when he was nearly on top of her and reached out two hands, only to whip them back, as if afraid he might hurt her. “Scully,” he said again, “God! Are you okay?”

“How-” she said, not quite believing it was him, “what are you doing here?”

“I just found out,” he said, stopping short then stumbling into speech again. “That you were attacked. Jesus, I thought the worst.” He reached a hand out again, but didn’t touch her. “Are you okay?”

He must have driven in the rain. His jeans were soaked through and his hands looked red and chapped.

“Scully,” he said, again, “are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, slowly. She wanted to be dismissive, but she was in too much pain. “I’m -- I’m cut,” she said, raising up her arm to show him the stitches. “And here,” she said, pointing to her side.

“Jesus,” he said, “Will you be able to ride the bike? I need to get you home. Shit.” He looked around, “you can’t ride like this, we need to get you in a car.”

“No!” she said, and his head whipped back to her. “I can ride. Just… Please just take me home.”

He looked at her a long moment and then nodded, shrugging off his leather jacket to put around her shoulders. He helped her gingerly get it on, and then reached down to zip it for her. The inside of the jacket felt like silk, and was dry and warm. He put his arm around her and led her to the bike, the EMTs looking on silently, sipping their coffee and staring unabashedly.

He got her on the bike first, unzipped her jacket a bit to put her care instructions and prescription in the inside pocket, and then delicately lowered the helmet over her head, securing it before putting on his own. He got on, careful not to jostle her.

She was able to wrap her arms around him--luckily even the injured one--without much pain, and his body felt wonderfully warm and solid in front of her. He kicked the bike on, and he drove as carefully back to their apartment as he had driven pell-mell to get to her.

XxXxXxXxXxX

When they got back to the apartment, she was stiff, bone tired, and she wanted to tell him she’d made a terrible mistake, but she couldn’t find the words.

He escorted her to her bedroom door and hovered there, an energy radiating off of him that fairly trembled. She turned to him, one hand on the doorknob, and looked at him expectantly.

“Did he… hurt you?” Mulder asked. “Other than…” he gestured vaguely to her arm.

“Hurt me?” she asked, confused, and the look on his face broke her heart. Oh. Oh. “No,” she rushed out, and put a hand on his arm. “This is the extent of it. I got mugged, Mulder. That’s it.”

He must have rushed to the hospital without any information. She could only imagine all the dark scenarios running through his head.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Okay,” he said, “Okay…”

“Goodnight, Mulder,” she said, and he nodded.

“Call out if you need anything. At all.”

She took her hand off the door handle.

“I’ll leave the door open, just in case,” she said.

He nodded and backed away slowly, throwing her several concerned looks as he descended the stairs.

She fell into bed and slept for 12 hours.

XxXxXxXxXxX

At 4:00pm, she hovered at the top of the stairs, her tongue thick with sleep in her mouth, her side and arm hurting. Her hair was a mess and she was afraid of what lay at the bottom of the stairs. Of facing the day, facing Mulder, facing her future. She thought of the dolly zoom in Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and placed her foot on the first step.

Mulder was waiting on the couch and leapt to his feet when he saw her.

“I was getting worried,” he said.

“Post-shock sleep,” Scully shrugged.

“How are you feeling?”

In truth, she was feeling so many things they seemed to bottleneck in her throat and render her speechless.

Finally, she just said, “Fine.”

He nodded at her, letting the silence settle around them, and it occurred to her that he was using a psychologist’s trick--waiting for her to fill the silence. She smiled to herself and let him have the round.

“How did you know?” she asked, wanting to know since he’d shown up at the hospital on his motorcycle like Steve McQueen. “That I’d been attacked? Where to find me?”

He sat down on the couch and she gingerly lowered herself next to him.

“Sam called,” he said, “ she was working at dispatch when your call came in. When I walked in the door, the phone had been ringing off the hook. She called and called. I’m so sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”

“You drove all the way down from the Chesapeake? In the rain?”

He looked at her, confused.

“I never went to the Bay,” he said, cocking his head to the side.

“You- what?” Scully said, sure she hadn’t heard right.

“I never went to the Bay with Debbie,” he said, “I went over to talk to her and break things off, like I said I would.”

Scully felt like the top of her head had lifted off and floated away.

“But Samantha said-” Scully started.

“Sam only knew what Debbie had told her the last time she saw her. We never went to the Chesapeake. I told Deb I wanted to see her before the trip, but only so I could break it all off. I ended up telling her everything. We sat and talked for hours…  She helped me figure out what to do.”

“What to do?” Scully said, feeling like pages had been torn out of an instruction book she’d been trying to follow.

Mulder looked down at the floor and then raised his eyes to her.

“I’m not the kind of guy who can date a woman… when I’m in love with someone else.”

Scully felt a surge of hope and happiness so overwhelming she wasn’t sure what the look on her face was. Mulder read it as something else all together.

“Look, I’m sorry. I know you don’t feel the same way. And I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable, and I swear going forward I will keep it to myself, but for weeks I’ve felt like this and I thought there might be a chance you felt it, too. But you don’t, and I respect that. I just… I needed to say it. I needed to say it out loud. Once.”

She felt light and heavy all at once, elemental. Lit from the inside, like she’d swallowed a mouthful of ginger.

He stood suddenly and ran his hands through his hair until it stood on end.

“This is all my fault,” he said, pushing the heels of his hands into his eyes.

Scully was taken aback.

“Your fault? Mulder-” she said.

“I shouldn’t have pushed myself on you,” he said, “after Ethan was here. You were hurt and vulnerable and- you said it was a mistake. It was. The mistake was mine.”

He looked to the ceiling, shoved his hands into his pockets.

“You didn’t push yourself on me, Mulder,” Scully said, refusing to let him take on responsibility for anything that had happened in the last 24 hours. She took a bracing breath. “And the only mistake was mine. When I told you that that night didn’t mean to me what it did. When I let you think for one second that I don’t feel the same way you do.”

His eyes snapped to hers.

She stood and walked to him, his mossy eyes searching and perspicuous.  He was miles deep and a fathom tall. She realised in that moment--and she would be able to look back and remember it clearly--that to love him had an inevitable feeling. Inevitable as gravity. As death and taxes. She grabbed his hand.

“My life right now is as tumultuous and up in the air as it has ever been and might ever be. I’ve been figuring out who I am on my own. I’m giving up what I thought I wanted out of my career and life for what I know I want. I’m about to move 3,000 miles away. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, I fell in love with my roommate.”

As he looked at her, a smile blossomed on his face and reached his eyes. He squeezed the hand she was holding.

“I’m sorry I pushed you away. Frankly, this,” she put her other hand on his chest, “scares me. But I also know I would regret not at least trying to be with you. I’d regret it until the day I died. I didn’t realize that until I thought I was about to.”

He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers, took a deep breath. She felt everything inside her click into place.

He leaned down and pressed the gentlest kiss to her lips.

XxXxXxXxXxX

They slept together that night--only slept. Mulder had gone out and picked up her prescription earlier in the day while she slept and the pills made her queasy.

Mulder tucked her into his own bed downstairs, brought her Saltines and ginger ale. When she awoke the next morning, he was curled around her. He helped her change her bandages and tie her shoes--she still couldn’t quite bend over.

At noon that day -- Labor Day -- the phone rang, it was Ellen calling from Seattle.

“Dana?” she said. “God, how are you?”

Scully didn’t have the first idea how to respond to that particular question, so she deflected.

“Ellen!” she said, “how are you? How goes the internship? You ready to come home yet?”

“It’s fabulous! And that’s actually why I’m calling. Dana, they offered to hire me on full-time. They want me to work out here while I finish my degree.”

“Oh Ellen, congratulations!” she said, feeling genuine joy for her friend.

“Thanks,” Ellen said, “I know you were counting on me to take the lease back over, and I can still probably help out for a few months now that I’m getting paid, but I thought I’d see how the new roommate is working out? Any chance he might want to stay for a bit longer?”

The roommate in question was currently tidying up in the kitchen, and came to the room’s doorway to eavesdrop on her conversation.

“The new roommate?” she repeated for his benefit, and then gave him a tart look, “He’s working out okay, I guess.”

At that, Mulder feigned insult and promptly whipped off his shirt and started doing push-ups.

“I take that back,” Scully said, maintaining eye contact with him while he exercised, by which she couldn’t help but get a little turned on. “He’s definitely working out.” Mulder stopped doing push-ups, sat up, and kissed his bare bicep. Scully let out a guffaw. “I’ll ask him.”

Ellen laughed too, without knowing why, and said “I’m so glad. And thank you. Oh, I’m going to miss you! Listen, I’ve got to get going, but we’ve got so much to catch up on. Talk soon?”

She watched Mulder as he disappeared back into the kitchen, still shirtless. “Sometime next week?”

“Done. I’ll call you. Bye Dane!”

“Bye!”

Scully rose to hang the phone back up on the wall and drifted into the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe to watch Mulder as he put dishes away.

“You do that a lot?” she asked him.

“Do what?” he asked, without looking away from his task, “Housework like a helpful roommate, or exercise hard to maintain my girlish figure?”

She came up behind him and kissed his bare back.

“Your figure is decidedly non-girlish, Mulder,” she said, ignoring his question, “for which I am increasingly thankful.”

He turned suddenly in her arms and she found herself staring at his bare chest. He rubbed his hands up down the tops of her arms, careful not to get too close to her cut.

“Oh yeah?” he asked, leaning his face down into hers.

She nodded into his kiss, “Yeah,” she said, right before his lips met hers. She deepened the kiss immediately, remembering the way the big muscles on his upper back had moved beneath his skin as he did push-ups, the way he’d looked at her with intent the entire time he was doing them.

He let her lead, doing nothing more than returning her enthusiastic kisses and dropping his hands to rest lightly on her hips.

She reached down and tipped her forefingers into the tops of his jeans, pulling him closer and then running her fingers to his fly. He pulled back, just as she popped the button.

“Hey,” he said, nudging her face with his nose, brushing his lips lightly against hers. “What are you up for, here?”

She looked down at him with intent, at where his erection was pressing against the fly of his jeans. “Whatever you’re up for, flyboy,” she said, and nipped at him.

“I just,” he leaned back a little bit more, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

She unzipped his fly slowly.

“You’re not going to hurt me,” she said.

“You pop a few of those stitches, your doctor might say otherwise,” he said, putting his hands on hers to still her movements.

“But I want you,” she said, licking her lips, reveling in the concupiscent lustiness he brought about in her.

He smiled at her slowly.

“We can figure this out,” he said, “we just need to be creative.”

“I have, so far, been both pleased and impressed with your creativity,” she said.

“Then allow me,” he said, and turned their positions so that she was standing with her back to the counter, then bent down to shimmy her sweatpants and underwear off, while she stood, patiently, wondering what his plan was.

When he straightened back up, he leaned forward, bracing his arms on the counter on either side of her.

“What,” he said, leaning forward to kiss her, “can you do that doesn’t hurt?”

She grabbed his head and brought his mouth back to hers for a deep, thorough kiss, then she released him.

“That,” she said, “didn’t hurt.”

He smiled at her.

“Noted.”

She reached forward and grabbed his fly again, and then started to lower his jeans down around his hips when she suddenly hissed in pain. Mulder grabbed her and straightened her.

“So no bending over,” he said. She nodded, a little disappointed. “Can you sit?”

“As evidenced by sitting on my ass nearly all of yesterday evening and again this morning, all information points to sitting being a medically approved position for Patient Scully,” she said in her best med student voice.

Mulder chuckled.

“Okay,” he said, and then surprised her by reaching down and easily lifting her up and onto the surface of the counter, which was cold against her aforementioned ass. She let out a startled yelp.

“Mulder!” she said.

“Was that pain, or the temperature of the counter?” he asked.

“The temperature of the counter,” she said through gritted teeth.

He smiled wickedly.

“The longer you sit on it, the more it’ll warm up,” he said.

She shook her head.

“Mulder, counters are for glasses, not for a-”

“Shh,” Mulder cut her off with a finger to her lips. “I promise I’ll clean up,” he said.

She tilted an eyebrow at him, but complained no more.

He put his hands on her thighs, spreading her legs apart so he could step in between them, their faces now perfectly level for kissing. He ran his hands lightly up her legs until his thumbs were just brushing at the crease where her legs met her pubis, sending a shiver down her spine.

He had pulled his jeans back up, but hadn’t zipped them, so she reached down and slipped her hand inside, grasping the silken steel of him, and he hissed into her mouth.

“You first,” he whispered, and then lowered himself to the floor, now at the perfect level to lean forward and press his face into her sex, giving her an open-mouthed kiss and inhaling deeply through his nose. “I love the way you smell,” he said, and then darted his tongue out to press into her labia. “I love the way you taste.”

She reached out and ran her hands through his hair, digging her nails into his scalp when he gently parted her labia with his fingers and started running his tongue softly over her clit, gradually with more speed and pressure.

She concentrated on keeping her torso immobile, which was difficult when all she wanted to do was gyrate her hips into his sumptuous mouth, chasing the orgasm she could feel building even now.

Just as he’d done before, he pressed one long finger and then another up and into her, and moments after he started rubbing the rough pad of her G spot, an orgasm surged up within her. She let go of his head and braced her hands on the countertop, holding herself as steady as she could as the waves crashed within her, and he gently lapped at her, slowing as she came down.

He stood when she exhaled, and she rolled her head from one shoulder to the other, letting the ringing in her ears lessen with each breath.

“How are you so good at that?” she asked, her tongue all lassitude in her mouth.

“I was a double major,” he said smugly, his cocksure grin charming as a flop-eared terrier.

She shoved him in the shoulder and he fell back a step, then moved forward to carefully help her down from the counter. She stood in front of him, still in a shirt with no pants, and he pressed a finger under her chin and tilted her head back until she was looking up at him.

“I like this look,” he said, “it’s very Donald Duck.”

She laughed and shoved his shoulder again.

“You know, I was going to push for reciprocity, but I think I just changed my mind,” she said.

“Nah,” he said, and leaned down to nip at her nose, “plenty of time for that.” He then leaned over sideways to look at her aftercare instructions, which had been stuck to the fridge. “When do you get your stitches out?”

“Friday,” she said.

“Gonna be a good weekend,” he mumbled into her lips.

She felt herself deflate.

“I leave for California the Friday after that.”

She hadn’t even begun starting to pack.

He leaned his head forward until it once again rested on hers.

“We’ll figure it out,” he whispered.

XxXxXxXxXxX

That night, they sat on the loveseat on their balcony, watching the stars wink on in the sky, Venus emerging brightly from the ecliptic. They drank iced tea (Mulder may have had a beer or two) and talked about how they’d handle being long distance, Scully tucked into Mulder’s side.

They had yet to come up with a plan that excited them both. The pull of sunny California started to wane.

“Have you ever found a place you felt like you belonged? Somewhere you just felt at home? Where you knew it was where you were supposed to be?” she asked him after a few minutes of silence.

He squinted his eyes, thinking. Then,

“It’s not down on any map,” he recited to the stars. “True places never are.”

Melville. She gave him a look, thought of her father.

“Yeah,” she said, “I’ve been searching for it my whole life. And I think… that place might be you.”

“You gotta go, Scully,” he said, looking down at her, knowing what she was getting at. “Med school is your dream, so it’s my dream, too. I won’t let you not go.”

She took a breath, knowing he was right.

“Besides,” he said, “I don’t want to be the only doctor in this house,” he said, then shrunk away from her, knowing what was coming. She swatted at him, then let him settle back against her.

They sat in silence for long minutes, until Mulder finally shifted.

“Be right back,” he said, and stood, her side going cold from where he’d been.

He came back a minute later, carrying the large white pillar candle that Scully had lit for him his first night in the apartment. He produced a lighter from his pocket, flicked it on and touched it to the wick, then set the candle on the small table in front of them.

“I’ll make you a deal,” he said, settling back onto the loveseat and gently tucking her back into his side. “Take this with you to California. I’m going to get one just like it. And when either one of us is doubting, or when things get too lonely or dark, we’ll each light the candle.”

She glanced up to look at his profile, her heart constricting in her chest with love for this man.

“To cast out the darkness?” she asked, her voice quiet.

He nodded, then rolled his head to look at her.

“I mean, we should have a go at the evil spirits, too,” he said, chuckling.

She smiled at him, and leaned her head against his shoulder, watching the flame dance in the light breeze of the DC night.

XxXxXxXxXxX

When Mulder got home from work the next day, Scully was on the couch trying to study, her stitches itching madly.

“Hey,” he said, swinging the door closed. He hung his keys absently on the hook by the door, and kicked off his shoes. He had something in his hand. He was radiating a nervous energy.  “Something came for you in the mail.” He looked at her significantly. “From Georgetown.”

“Probably paperwork for the end of term,” she said, barely looking up. “I’ve got a lot of crap I’ve got to fill out. You can put it in the kitchen.”

He sat down next to her.

“I don’t think that’s what it is,” he said, and held out a standard white envelope.

She looked at the return address. Georgetown Medical School.

She felt her eyes go wide and looked at him.

“Go on,” he said, and she wasted no time tearing into it.

She read the letter twice before leaning back into the couch and finally looking at him.

“Don’t make me guess,” he said quietly.

“Accepted,” she said, the smile blooming on her face mirrored back at her. “Full ride scholarship.”

“You get to stay,” he said, mirabile dictu.

“I get to stay.

The sunlight coming through the sliding glass door behind him glinted off his hair, turning it into a filmy halo of gold. He reached out and hooked her thumb through his pinkie, pulling her hand up until it was against his chest, pressing against his beating heart.

She felt the thump and swish of it, its heat and birr, and she knew what it felt like to be home.

THE END

[xoxomisschaos]

Dreams

I’ve always had the strangest dreams both irl, and when I sleep. I once played so much “Viva Piñata: Party Animals” that when I was dreaming I was still if 3rd person camera. As if I was still laying it and not asleep, that's not the strangest part though. I had to run the course in game as this character until I won. However the moment I won I was transported to this weird water park where 90% of this room was filled w water, and in the water were ofc sharks that would attack me if I stayed in the water for too long. In this part of my dream i had to build up enough speed while going down this massive water slide so that when I shot out of the tub it would shoot me through a hole in the wall opposite said tube. i wish I could say that was the end of it but it just keeps going; once I was through the hole I landed on top this super steep hill that I had to ride this bike, it looked almost exactly like my mountain bike I had as a kid, it was freaky. In order to move to the next area in my dream I had to ride the bike down this steep hill and jump the trench that was bellow me. Sounds easy enough right? Guess again, I had died about 3-4 times dealing w the sharks, but I died 6 times trying to land this bike. either by not getting enough speed and landing in the trench or by getting too much speed and eating ass on the landing. Call bullshit if you like about me dying in my sleep seeing as I’m still alive and all those dumb stories we all heard as kids, but it was really like dying. It was as if i had it the reset button in a game after watching myself die. It was a strange moment in “time”. Anyways, continuing on to the last part of my dream. After finally landing the bike I noticed that I landed in some weird mushroom village. Thinking about it the best way to describe it was a 3D version of a toad village from Mario Bros mixed w a Smurf village. All the buildings and plants, streams etc, were small as if they were made for Smurfs but it had the colors and art style from Mario. I spent what felt like 2 days in this village. I think one time i even fell asleep under a mushroom. But to get out of this place I had to get access to this book that was in on of the mushroom houses. i spent “hours” at this point bc for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to make the mushroom grow so that i could get inside. This book was essentially a way to travel to and from the “real” world and the world from my dream. It was kinda like the scale/rock from Drago Tales or Hermaeus Mora’s black books. In the end I found this watering can on a shelf near the stream. I used that to water the mushroom house and within seconds it was 3 times its size and I was able to leave and wake up finally.

To this day this is by far one of the weirder dreams I’ve had, its just the tip of the ice berg though. But as far as my crazy real life dreams go? I wanna be a sex and relationship therapist and a streamer, so that’ll be an interesting combo

[anjumkhanna]

Anjum Khanna - Top 10 best places to visit in USA

I'm Anjum Khanna from India and I will share with you my best places in the USA where I visited. Pleasing Planet's movement specialists have scoured the States to present to you our main 10 underestimated, restored and incredible spots to visit in 2020. From normal marvels to enrapturing coastlines and exceptional urban areas, these objections guarantee enormous things this year.

1. California’s Redwood Coast

Lose all track of time (and cell signal) along California's Redwood Coast. Film buffs may perceive the district's scene-taking sceneries from Hollywood blockbusters like Jurassic Park, E.T. furthermore, Star Wars. In any case, the full marvel of California's 2000-year-old redwoods – some arriving at 20 stories high – is difficult to catch on any screen. Gaze toward the woodland shelter: that last 100ft of redwood development marks a long time since Redwood National Park was built up in California's tree-embracing win over logging. What's more, this year, in the festivity of their 100th commemoration, Save the Redwoods League is without offering passage to more than 40 redwood state stops each second Saturday of every month.

In 2020, another sort of greenery has been standing out as truly newsworthy as California presents the state-wide legitimization of pot. However, the draws of the Redwood Coast far outperform changes in this industry, welcoming explorers to accomplish a definitive California smooth with its peculiar shops, brewpubs, espresso roasters and calm cheerful hours.

2. Boise, Idaho 

Home to a lively expressions network, a blast of grant winning wineries and specialty bottling works and a socially dependable shopping locale, Boise is what cool resembles before the remainder of the world has made sense of it. Fun celebrations have large amounts of Idaho's capital from downtown's Treefort Music Festival (hailed as the new option in contrast to SXSW) to the Boise Brew Olympics and Punk in Drublic – a lovely marriage of underground rock and specialty lager. 

Being in closeness to an abundance of characteristic wealth, metropolitan experiences effectively progress into outside departures. Wander through the Boise River Greenbelt, a 25-mile park in the core of the city, or head into the encompassing mountains and lower regions for climbing, mountain biking, skiing and stream boating.

3. Chattanooga, Tennessee

When minimal in excess of a refueling break among Atlanta and Nashville, the nature-driven 'Noog has changed itself into a stronghold of raised Southern living. Outside lovers rush to Chattanooga for the absolute best stone moving in the nation, bunch climbing and mountain biking trails and wild rides on the Ocoee River – one of America's best positions for whitewater boating. 

Foodies, hopheads and nerds aren't a long ways behind, either. Chattanooga's revived midtown – focused on the $20-million makeover of the city's unique train station into a multi-reason nightlife and diversion objective (counting a top notch guitar historical center) – is overflowing with journey commendable New Southern food, refreshing distilleries and nerd satisfying web speeds. Meet the New South!

4. Florida’s Space Coast

Space the travel industry is a rising star, with 2018 set to check the dispatch of the world's first lunar the travel industry departure from SpaceX. Try not to need to lose your life reserve funds down a dark gap? Visit the following best thing, Florida's Space Coast: home to the Kennedy Space Center and the setting for innumerable notable dispatches including Apollo 8 – the world's previously monitored rocket to circle the moon – which praises a long time since launch in 2020. 

View satellite dispatches from Cape Canaveral and Titusville or visit the new ATX (Astronaut Training Experience) at the Kennedy Space Center, where wannabe space travelers can go on a mimicked mission to Mars. Proceed your amazing experiences with an evening time kayak in the bioluminescent waters around Merritt Island and watch settling ocean turtles on an eco-accommodating visit.

5. Cincinnati, Ohio Set among steep slopes with the scaffold throne Ohio River swashing its edge, Cincinnati has consistently been a looker. Presently brew, expressions and clever neighborhood advancement are giving it some strut. The new Brewing Heritage Trail recounts the larger story: how Cincy was a main maker through the last part of the 1800s, its residents swallowing 2.5 occasions the public normal. Today Rhinegeist and other present day lager producers have assumed control over the relinquished distilleries, a considerable lot of which are walkable in Over-the-Rhine, an old German neighborhood of lavish block structures, new restaurants and crazy shops. 

2020 invites another section for the city's creative symbols as the Music Hall commends its 140th birthday celebration subsequent to going through enormous redesigns, and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company subsides into their new powerful exhibition space.

6. Midcoast, Maine

Single word says everything: 'Ayuh'. What could be compared to 'mm-hm', it's Mainers' typically eccentric and unassuming go-to answer. Is it valid, you solicit, that about 90% of Maine is forested (the most noteworthy level of any state), making it ideal for experience exercises and getting away from traveler swarms? Ayuh. Also, what about Midcoast Maine's wonderful sea exhibition halls and detonating foodie scene of art bottling works, neighborhood grape plantations and gourmet ranch-to-table cafés? It's not the tranquil woodlands it used to be. Ayuh. Indeed, 2018 will check the area's 70th Maine Lobster Festival and a transitioning as an inexorably energizing social focus of elite workmanship historical centers and exhibitions, isn't that so? Ayuh.

7. Richmond, Virginia

River City has flipped from modest to occurring, however the 'hello you all' friendliness remains. Scott's Addition, when an abrasive assembling region, drones with microbreweries, cideries and buzzworthy cafés, while the James River baits swashbucklers with whitewater rapids in addition to another 52-mile bicycle trail along its banks. 

Creative features incorporate midtown's splendid wall paintings, the eccentric Quirk Hotel (highlighting interesting plan components and its own craft display) and imaginative transitory shows at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The American Civil War Museum – an ongoing solidification of three separate Civil War locales – investigates Richmond's function as the capital of the Confederacy. One consistent? Patrick Henry requested freedom or demise at reenactments each Sunday in summer at St John's Church.

8. Kentucky Bourbon Country The territory of Kentucky is known for its moving slopes finished off with masterful pony cultivates, its wild commitment to school ball and, above all, its whiskey. The state's refining legacy runs profound, and those searching for a taste should make a beeline for Kentucky Bourbon Country, the brilliant triangle between Louisville, Lexington and Elizabethtown where this prepared soul becomes animated. You'll locate a luring organization of the nation's most notable refineries and first class eateries with whiskey motivated menus. 

Yet, this industry isn't so saturated with custom that it overlooks progress – create distillers are opening their entryways, long dead whiskey locale are being rejuvenated, and in 2020 the Frazier Museum will be named the official beginning stage of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

9. Minneapolis, Minnesota

In spite of arriving on arrangements of 'generally moderate' and 'generally reasonable' urban areas – and in a state positioned the USA's most joyful – Minneapolis appears to be a piece overlooked. In any case, after its chance at the center of attention during the current year's Super Bowl, that could very well change. The city endeavored to tidy up for the large occasion, specifically with redesigns to downtown's primary avenue Nicollet Mall presenting awesome light highlights, craftsmanship establishments and creative social spaces. 

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden likewise got a redo, with 18 new works by well known chiselers. Furthermore, Target Center, the city's NBA and WNBA field, got a fan-accommodating $145 million makeover. In the interim, new boutique inns and present day ranch to-table cafés (hefty on neighborhood fixings) are springing up with cool verve.

10. Southeastern Utah Arches National Park's colorful sandstone ranges. Island in the Sky's Colorado River-cut vistas. Landmark Valley's sky-puncturing towers. Southeast Utah's significant milestones have been firm top picks among voyagers for quite a long time. As of late, nonetheless, lesser-realized territorial destinations like the forested levels of the new Bears Ears National Monument have become hot-button news things because of political tussles in Washington, DC over securing characteristic and social assets. 

This tremendous quarter of the Beehive State holds numerous outstanding outside objections, from the lodging filled experience town of Moab and uncrowded Capitol Reef to the environmental Ancestral Puebloan vestiges of Hovenweep. Water has slashed the desert scene here, cutting the sandstone into alarming structures, for example, the pleasant Natural Bridges and huge Lake Powell. This is a quintessential Americana excursion nation.

Anjum Khanna launched his career as a freelance illustrator, and this started with covers of paperback books where he developed and displayed his penchant for realistic depictions of fantastic scenery. To achieve this, Anjum often used handmade maquettes and posed models for reference.

About Anjum  Khanna

Those who love fantasy tales and dinosaurs would be great admirers of the works of Anjum Khanna. After all, he's the author of the famous book series about dinosaurs coexisting with humans in a fictional setting. 

[rpmtrish]

RPM Mag releases the May 2024 Issue! Check it out Today!

Join RPM Magazine for another fantastic issue with the release of the May 2024 Issue.  Click the cover below to view the sample copy or subscribe to receive the full magazine.  A limited number of printed copies are available if you are interested reach out to trish@rpmmag.com for more details. FEATURE CAR - NEXT LEVEL - Ziff Hudson's vicious Vette runs 3s in the 1/8th! Ziff Hudson is one of those names that seems to always be the topic of conversation in the world of small-tire drag racing. He’s fast and he wins.  He started racing at the tender age of 17 in his '71 small block nitrous-assisted Nova, dominating local street car classes at several tracks. While life took hold, he took some time off for his two girls and started his towing company at age 21; Ziff never lost the addiction to drag racing. SUPER COUPE - Corey Binkiewicz' first build went way further than he could have ever imagined. After a steep learning curve at young age, hopping up his 1990 Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe came naturally to Corey Binkiewicz, so he ran with it. “My parents always said my first word was ‘car’,” Corey said with a smile, “My dad was always working cars or the house and I was familiar with tools, etc. So, once I was old enough to get in trouble, I was constantly taking things apart to see how they worked or if there was a way to ‘soup’ them up.” ICONIC - This stunning 1985 Chevy C10 has a blown small block to go along with its good looks! Third Gen, Square Body, C-Series, no matter what you want to call them, Chevrolet’s 1973 to 1991 model full size pickups have become iconic and are now one of their most sought after generations of trucks. They are getting snapped up for street machines and street/strip builds alike and this low-slung 1985 C10 of Chad Gower is an example of the latter. It snowballed from his first vehicle that he drove daily through high school and college, into a nasty blown small block that he can take his kids out for ice cream in and then go hurt some feelings at the track. SUPER KID - Drag racers take note, there's a new kid in town, and his name is....Most every story in the world of fast cars and motorsports starts with something like, “I have been into anything with wheels since I was a kid”. For Brodie “Super Kid” Brown, it all started on his 1st birthday when he was given a Pocket bike. While he couldn’t ride it yet, his parents Jackie and Rob would push him around on the front lawn of their property. HIDDEN GEM - Barry Cunningham's 1940 Willys Coupe - HOT ROD DREAM - Barry Cunningham’s 1940 Willys is one sweet ride! Barry chose the cool hot rod rake with the rear sitting just a bit higher than the front. The Willys is just one of those cars that you can get way with darn near anything when it comes to stance. #ziffhudson #C7corvette #Iconic #Supercoupe #Barrycunningham #coreybinkiewicz #brodiebrown #chadgower #nextlevel #hiddengems #rpmmag #rpmmagazine #rpm25yrs Read the full article

[littlecondo]

Sea to Sea Day 3

I was messaging a tumblr buddy about why I’m being so slow getting these updates up... Most of the days can be summarised as “there were mountains, it was hard” but that doesn’t make for the most compelling reading!

By Day 3, things were starting to feel rather tough. The final 2k climb up to the day 2 hotel had just about killed me and when the guides offered me a shortened route at dinner I jumped on it. I hadn’t been sleeping particularly well and my resting heart rate had been heading up each night. There were a few of us who took a boost up to the top of Marie-Blanque, the first climb of the day and then I set off on the descent with one of the other ladies.

While I’ve been focussed on the climbs, the descents on this trip are no joke either. They were mostly tight hairpins linked together by steep grades and I was very grateful for the disc-brakes and the bike set-up that actually meant I was super comfortable in the drops. We took the descent from Marie-Blanque fairly easily - I definitely would have ridden it harder (and perhaps been a little warmer had I done so). 

The hilarious bit was as we reached the valley, another cyclist came towards us yelling what sounded like “horse”. Um, well okay. Then, we came around a bend in the road and there was about 20 massive horses, all blocking the road. We stopped and stood there for a while wondering how on earth we would get through. Cars were also stopped as the horses seemed unwilling to yield. Then eventually someone, I assume a local, managed to get them moving and we snuck by. Lest this sound overly cautious, these horses were TERRIFYING. They were HUGE and I definitely did not want to get anywhere within kicking distance.

The main climb for the day started out of the valley. We were headed up the Col D’Aubisque. This is the climb with the iconic bikes at the top (spoiler: I made it!)

It’s also one of those brutal brutal climbs, where at points you can look down and see what you’ve come up and also look up and see how much further you have to go.

If you look closely at the picture, there’s reference to Gourette, a ski town. I made it there and looked down and up and nearly cried.

I was struggling along and would let myself take a break at about every kilometre marker. This made for slow going and by the time I got to the 3km to go marker I was in full on bargaining-with-myself mode. I told myself “you can cycle 100m, and this is only 30 times 100m” and then as the Garmin ticked over, I would count down “29... 28...” (except it was much slower than that!)

Here’s how my climb panned out on Strava.

I was SO HAPPY to reach the top. Dan was there and I quickly went inside the cafe to eat some lunch. It was honestly the best bolognese ever (maybe because of the rogue chunk of pineapple I found in it?) but I could have eaten three more portions of it.

I decided to call it a day at the top of Aubisque. It was technically only a short climb to the next peak (Soulor) and then a descent but my brain was fried. I could tell I didn’t have the mental focus to ride the descents well so I hopped back into the van. In retrospect feel a little sad that I didn’t ride the next part - the views were amazing and like most of the riding, it would have been spectacular but I think I made the right decision at the time.

That evening we had some time to explore; the bread vending machine was the highlight!

[rd2nowhere]

Ubud (Bali)

[IAN:] I’m not sure what I was expecting Bali to be like. In the end, although our experience in Ubud was not really what I thought it would be, I enjoyed it.

First of all, the southern quarter of the island is densely settled. We hardly saw any farmland in the 1.5-hour drive from the main airport to Ubud in the south-center of Bali. (On our later drives to Padang Bai and Sanur, it was the same: sprawling development of homes and shops.) From our Lonely Planet guidebook research, we were under the impression that we were ditching the party crowds and being sophisticated cultural travelers by going to remote Ubud, but that was not really the case. Central Ubud was swarming with tourists from all over the world. There was a distinctly California vibe to the place, with the plant-based menus, LA-based celebrity yogis, and on-trend interior design. The concepts that Bali had exported to California have come back to roost, through an Instagram filter. I told Wendi that the snake had started to eat its own tail.

It’s not so much that the cultural heritage of Bali was being displaced; it’s more that a parallel culture has arisen alongside it, described with the formula: Cancun + yoga - binge drinking. Anyone who wants to explore Balinese traditions can do that, but it’s not the foreground for most tourists. Well, I spent a mere three days there, but that’s what I experienced.

One adventure in Bali did not disappoint: a bike ride from crowded Ubud out into the countryside. I rode about 30 km along narrow roads with beautiful views of rice paddies, palm trees, and ornate Balinese homes. It was so refreshing to get some fresh air (aside from the occasional lungful of truck exhaust) and real exercise. As you head north from Ubud into the center of Bali, the terrain is gradually rising on a gentle slope, with a few short, steep climbs. It was a perfect workout because I could work hard on the way out and enjoy a super easy ride back.

Renting the bicycle itself was a bit of a challenge. I had to scour central Ubud to find a shop that rents bikes; most places rent scooters/mopeds but not bicycles because the chaotic driving and the hot, humid weather make Ubud a hostile cycling environment. Once I finally located the bike rentals, I talked to the guys at the shop the day before my ride. However, when I returned the next day, the shop was empty. A young guy from the place next door said that all the bikes were broken, except two that had been reserved. I had my mind fixed on a ride, though, and I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I asked more probing questions - “what about that other stack of bikes over there?” - and he kept deflecting me. I told him that I would pay extra for them to fix a bike (they looked fine), and that word “extra” got his attention. He went back to his spot next door and talked to another lady, who gave the thumbs up. Turns out, one of those two reserved bikes could be made available for the afternoon. Lucky me! The funny part is, even after my “extra” bid, this young guy charged me less than I had been quoted the day before, so I tipped him the difference ($1 rental, $1.50 tip). Sometimes, it pays to be persistent.

Other highlights from Bali: traditional dance, lush greenery and flowers everywhere, fun cooking class, fruit, the pool at the hotel, sunsets, the monkey forest, and stylish interior design.

[WENDI:] We chose to go to Ubud in Bali because we read it is Bali’s spiritual center, and we wanted to escape the surfer and beach party crowds. As Ian noted, Ubud was much more scene-y than I expected, and just packed with tourists and expats. It struck me as surprising that there are beautiful temples everywhere in Ubud and certainly a very rich cultural history - and that must have been what initially attracted so much foreign interest. Around that, a backpacker and yogi scene emerged, but today it seems like people come here moreso for this scene. We only stayed for a few days so maybe we just didn’t really get it, but overall I am glad we visited and saw Ubud.