#it has been a most excellent year for tadpoles around here!

[shadyufo]

All the cool tadpoles hang out in the writhing mass.

[soulcost]

character summaries.

WARNING. major spoilers for act 3/the end of the game for baldur's gate 3 below the cut. do NOT read unless you are okay with major story spoilers in relation to the dream guardian/the emperor and orpheus.

baldur's gate 3.

astele "nine-fingers" keene, 29. astele keene, more commonly known as "nine-fingers", is the leader of the guild, a criminal organization operating within baldur's gate. she is a calculated individual and a mastermind when it comes to planning and scheming, taking as much time and resources necessary to enact and execute a plan. she is an excellent judge of character and can rapidly assess a person's motives within moments of meeting them.

the emperor, 900+. a rogue mindflayer that has maintained an independent mind free of the elder brain's influence, the emperor is masterful at manipulating those around him and pushing them toward actions and decisions that will directly benefit him. before he was known as the emperor, he was balduran, the namesake of baldur's gate; the reputation of his previous identity and his influence over the minds of others enabled him to operate the knights of the shield within the city until being captured by enver gortash for the purposes of executing the absolute's plan by capturing civilians and implanting them with magic-infused mindflayer tadpoles.

lae'zel, 21. a formidable githyanki warrior, lae'zel is a devout follower of vlaakith, much like all gith, and is a ruthless opponent in battle. when she is implanted with a mindflayer parasite, she buries her fear of becoming that which she fears most by seeking out allies facing the same troubles as she does and seeks a cure. when it becomes apparent that her entire belief system is built on lies, she grapples with a crisis of faith while devoting herself to a cause that will free her people from vlaakith's chains.

larkin bashar, 40. a human oath of the crown paladin and member of the flaming fist. larkin has always been devoted to doing what is right, even if it's not necessarily the best option or most reasonable, which has caused him to butt heads with his little sister, liana, more often than not. while he loves liana unconditionally, it hasn't been enough to stop the two from having a falling out after an explosive fight. he goes years without hearing a word from her, until she shows up in baldur's gate with a ticking time bomb in her skull and an impossible challenge ahead of her.

liana bashar, 33. a jack of all trades, master of none. liana is a human college of lore bard hailing from whitekeep; following a nasty breakup, she leaves baldur's gate to travel around the sword coast and see what the world around her has to offer, playing at taverns and parties alike and sustaining herself on tips and the odd small quest here and there. she returns to baldur's gate to settling back in, only to be captured by the nautiloud shortly thereafter and implanted with a mindflayer tadpole.

penelope dusek, 678. an elf skilled in the art of necromancy, penelope is the brains behind the penelope dusek finishing school for the undead and the outcast, an academy in baldur's gate geared toward rehabilitating creatures deemed monstrous and educating them in the ways of polite society so that they may coexist with the people of faerun.

orpheus, 2,000+. son of gith, prince of the comet, the true heir, vlaakith's no. 1 enemy. orpheus has been trapped inside the astral prism for centuries and as of the events of baldur's gate 3, is the psychic defensive force that protects the party from falling to the elder brain's influence. his story is banned from being told and shared among the githyanki people, punishable by death, for he is the only threat to vlaakith's reign over the githyanki people.

vaira, 29. a githyanki monk, skilled at the art of deception where her motives are concerned. from an outsider's perspective, vaira is much like any of her kin, devoted to upholding vlaakith's will. in actuality, vaira has been one of a handful of githyanki devoted to the prince of the comet and seek his freedom. she is on a mission to meet with githerazi and speak to her side of the cause when she is captured by the nautiloid and implanted with a tadpole.

voss, 1,500+. a githyanki knight, vlaakith's right hand. while voss is the picture of a devoted githyanki and holds the highest honor a gith can reach, he has been plotting for centuries a way to free orpheus and liberate the githyanki people of vlaakith's rule. the key to that liberation is the astral prism, and a group of adventurers doomed to become illithid. he will do whatever he has to in order to see this mission through.

life is strange.

chloe price, 18 - 25. stubborn, mischievous and rebellious, chloe has a lot of walls built up from years of being beat down by life. her father died when she was 12 years old and the same week, her best friend max caulfield moved to seattle and steadily stopped reaching out. she has a deep fear of abandonment and tends to push people away before they can leave her, but underneath that hardened exterior, she can be a very loyal friend.

max caulfield, 18 - 25. quiet, awkward, but ever-observant, max is an aspiring photographer who discovers she can rewind time and stop disastrous events from happening when she sees her best friend, chloe, get shot in the school bathroom and rewinds time to stop it. the next week of her life is a rollercoaster of events that put her newfound powers, and everything she thinks she knows about arcadia bay and blackwell academy, to the test. she's a very kind-hearted person and is always prone to doing the right thing, even if it sometimes bites her in the ass.

steph gingrich, 18 - 25. super gay, super hot, super nerdy; steph can be hailed as "queen of the nerds" for good reason; she knows more about dnd than you, she listens to better music than you, and she can play the drums. with all of the above being said, she's got a wicked sense of humor and while she can be a lot to take in at first, she goes to bat for her friends every time and will happily tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. it's because she loves you, I'm sure.

resident evil.

ada wong, 24 - 50. not much is known about ada wong - which is more than fitting for an elite spy-for-hire. her contracts often involve tracking down samples of viruses and parasites alike that can bring about world-ending epidemics and hand deliver them to her employer at the time, regardless of their intentions. up until the raccoon city outbreak, she was fine utilizing any means necessary at her disposal to get the job done, no matter who suffered in the process. a certain rookie cop changed her philosophy on things, just enough.

albert wesker, 35 - 55. a genius in his own right, and a ruthlessly ambitious one at that. wesker is many things - cold, calculated, cunning, et cetera. his biggest ambition is to accelerate human evolution to the next step forward through the uroboros virus, wiping out the inferior specimens of humanity and elevating those that survive to a heightened existence.

ashley graham, 20 - 40. aka baby eagle, aka the president's daughter. after surviving the events in spain that nearly resulted in her being a puppet for the los illuminados that would usher in the cult's rule over the world, ashley has devoted herself to a career in occult investigation, hoping to prevent situations and experiences like her own from ever happening again.

jill valentine, 24 - 50. a former member of the raccoon city police department's special tactics and rescue services. jill valentine got thrown into the world of bioterrorism in a ploy meant to kill her and the remaining members of the S.T.A.R.S. team, but thanks to her calm nature in a crisis and quick thinking, she survived. following the raccoon city outbreak and the fall of umbrella, jill has devoted her life to fighting bioterrorism, becoming a founding member of the bioterrorism security assessment alliance (BSAA) and working to eradicate bioterrorism and the organizations that create it wherever she can.

miscellaneous.

kim possible, 16 - 20s, disney's kim possible. cheerleader by day, freelance crime fighter by night. kim is a very type-a person, she's kind, she's a little judgmental, she can be socially awkward, but she always does the right thing. she also doesn't bother with a secret identity and her parents are fine with her extracurricular hobbies, just so long as she's home by curfew.

lula mae henson, 32, project zomboid oc. a farmer based out of west point, kentucky. lula mae is just getting into the rhythm of running the family farm after the passing of her grandparents when all hell breaks loose in knox county; in less than a week, a virus causing those infected to become zombies and spread this disease ravages knox county and begins spreading through kentucky, the midwest, and eventually, the country. lula mae is one of the few who have managed to survive, her skills with growing and preserving plants a vital one as food supplies and sources begin to dwindle. but the undead are getting smarter and more resilient by the day, and there's no telling how long she'll be able to hold out.

tree gelbman, 21+, happy death day. the world's bitchiest sorority girl gets murdered on her birthday, only to reset the day and do it all over again. what she thinks is a bad dream quickly becomes an endless and repetitive cycle; as she works to find out who her killer is, she learns to be a better person.

[timeforelfnonsense]

Between Heaven & Hell

Astarion x Dafni

Rating: M (no spice but its mentioned) 

Ao3

Inaleth Sweet is a D&D oc belonging to one of my dear friends @ladyofthelatke from one of our old games. We were talking about Dafni liking romance novels and realized she'd be a fan of Inaleth. A fun little easter egg! The name of Dafni's book was also brainstormed by our D&D party! I don't know that I love the ending but meh!

Sunshine & Starlight: My on going bg3 series 

Downtime for Dafni had become rare and fleeting in the past few days. Not that she mined being busy! She’d never been much good at sitting still. Her mind moved from thought to thought as quick as a hummingbird’s wing. A life of adventure rather agreed with her breezy disposition, that was a silver lining among the mess at least. But she found herself road-weary and overextended. Perhaps it was the tadpole or the fact she’d been in more battles in two days than she had in the last year. She couldn’t be sure. Either way, a little idle time would be good for her.

She was lounging on her belly in a grassy patch on the river bank, idly flipping through the dog-eared pages of a novel bound in soft pink leather, Between Heaven and Hell scrawled across the cover in faded gold lettering. It was a rather risqué account of an amours elf torn between the affection of her aasimar and a tiefling suiters. The first in a series penned by one Inaleth Sweet of Waterdeep -  A fellow eladrin and personal favorite author of Dafni’s. She’d read it dozens of times but it never failed to enchant and intrigue her. 

She’d always enjoyed reading. It was the only time she could bring herself to be (mostly) still. She could lose herself in the colorful whimsy of her imagination. She’d always been a romantic. Her headful of silly daydreams of love and adventure from a tender age. She had spent days on end in her village imagining what the world might be like beyond the shelter of Peleira and the familiar forests and shores of Faerie-Gwynneth. Books provided her wanderlust an outlet in the years before she crossed into the Material.

A pale hand snatched the book from her hands pulling her back to reality. Astarion glanced down at her with a mischievous grin, raising a singular angled brow. She clumsily fumbled to her knees attempting to reclaim it from him but Astarion simply raised the novel out of her reach. 

He looked almost ethereal, shrouded in the soft, peachy glow of sunset as he flipped through his stolen prize. His loose undershirt was unbuttoned almost to his navel showing off his lanky feline-esque physique. It was completely unfair for him to be that gorgeous! Somehow he managed to mix boyish charm with noble dignity. She imagined Astarion was very much the kind of man humans pictured when they talked about the peerless beauty and grace of the elves. 

“My, my, Daffodil, I never pegged you as a consumer of salacious novels. Aren’t you just full of surprises?” He said through a chuckle as he began to thumb through the pages, “You fold the corners of your books? And I thought I was despicable!” 

He might have been from the Material Plane but he had that spark of mirth common to those hailing from her homeland. It was a welcome change of pace. She’d found he could be quite charming (when he wasn’t being surly or aloof). He’d taken to treating her with teasing endearment as of late.  He would refer to her by little diminutives such as darling or dear. That was when he wasn’t calling her by that twee pet name, Daffodil. She knew that the majority of his doting was little more than suave twaddle but she couldn’t help but be won over by him.

 There were things about himself he’d clearly chosen not to disclose. She was never one for secrets but she could hardly begrudge others for having them. Astarion’s omissions were likely connected to whatever had made him so prickly in the first place. She was curious of course but she wasn’t going to press him for anything he was unwilling to give.  Dafni understood relationships much the same way she did gardens. Both required patience and dedication in order for something beautiful to flourish. She earnestly hoped a genuine friendship could blossom between them but that meant allowing him to open up to her in his own time no matter how badly she wanted to bombard him with a-million-and-one questions. 

 “What have I done to deserve this roguery?” 

“Roguery?” Astarion snickered.

“Roguery.” She repeated. “Now find your own way to pass the time and give me mine back!”

Her brows stitched, her lower lip forming that perfect little pout of hers. She was trying very hard to appear cross but her eyes gave her away. They were sparkling with impish delight as she made another valiant effort at retrieving the silly thing. Despite her tilt towards clemency, Dafni was a bit of a puck. 

“This is my way of passing the time. I can only wander among the trees so many times before the novelty wears off. Besides, making you blush is far more entertaining.” 

Dafni snorted a blite smile forming at the corners of her plump lips, “You are incorrigible, you know that right?”

“So I’ve been told.” 

“Well, I suppose if you are that bord I could read to you?” She yanked the book from his hands, clutching it to her chest smug and victorious. Reaching out with her free hand to tap a finger on the tip of his nose. “But, I’m skipping all the dirty bits!” 

“Spoilsport.” 

“It’s that or walking around the woods for the hundredth time.” 

“You do raise an excellent point.” He sighed carefully arranging himself on the grass beside her, “Very well, I’ll agree to your stipulations.” 

“Just be glad I’m not going to make you read for one of the characters! And because I’m just so sweet I’ll even start from the beginning for you.” 

He listened intently as Dafni delivered the tale as if she were performing a one-woman play. Her face was adorably expressive as she changed her voice with each new character. Messy curls bouncing with every animated gesture. Occasionally she’d trail off feigning horror at the ‘dirty bits’ as she called them.

 What would lewd words have sounded like in her lilt voice? Part of him wanted to find out right then. That wasn’t the first time such musings had crossed his mind. Dafni had made a few appearances in his private thoughts since their meeting. She had a coy, maidenly allure that conjured up all kinds of tempting images. These were nothing more than flights of fancy but fun nonetheless. Just another benefit of keeping her around.

He found himself lingering around her almost on instinct. The joy that followed her was tangible and warm as the sun on his skin. When she was near his mind felt quieted and the fear that gnawed at him would soften just a tad. He had grown to genuinely enjoy her company. He’d expected her to be dull and overly pious. Instead, he found she was rather amusing, coquettish even. She was witty and observant, always having a playful quip at the ready. The sort of whimsical woman whose effortless charm drew people in. She would have made an excellent vampire if not for her ridiculous soft heart.

Her compulsive need to care for every living thing  with a sob story was somewhat vexing but he could hold his nose and deal with it most days. He’d make a comment here and there but really that was for her own good. She was painfully naïve, always seeing the best in people. It was clear to him Dafni’s life had been gentle. Free of hardships that might have taught her to approach others with such little skepticism. 

A part of him was grateful for her lack of suspension.  He knew gaining the trust of at least one of the members of the party would be crucial if he intended to enjoy the benefits of traveling with a group long term. Her friendship and propensity for peace making provided him with no small measure of safety. Still, that safety was at risk if she continued to offer herself up on a silver platter to every soul with even the smallest tale of woe she came across.

He glanced over at her, a found (begrudging, but found nonetheless), smile on his lips. The last rays of the setting sun casting its light on her lovely cherubic profile. While his motivations for befriending her had been far from altruistic having her near made his life provable better. When they’d first met he’d assumed her kindness would come at a price but she had surprised him, wanting nothing but his company in exchange. Without thinking he reached out cupping her cheek in his hand. The freckles, sage skin was unbearably soft  and warm against his cool palm. Her heartbeat quickened bringing his attention to the tantalizing, wildflower sent of her blood.  She leaned in close her eyes fluttering closed- 

“We should head back to the others, it’s getting dark.” Astarion muttered, pulling back from her.

“I- Ha, of course. It’s late…” Her lower lip was caught in her teeth, her eyes darting ever so quickly from his mouth back to his eyes. 

As tempting as she might be he was already in too deep with her. If he kissed her, he’d only want more. Any change to the current dynamic could disrupt the fragile safety he’d acquired. He couldn’t put himself at risk for the temporary happiness she might have brought. Perhaps when things were more settled. When he knew he could afford the risk, he would know the taste of her lips. For now though, he would have to resist. 

[thudthud]

the hunger of colonization

I transport the account of colonizer on my skin, The karma of my ancestors, a vicious quantity left by the need to win Every mis step taken is another memory within my brain My ancestors did nought for creation… in fact they were quite vain There is nothing I can do about altering the past All I can do is put in sufficient exertion to make the change of energy last My grandpa used to say, “ There are good Indians and bad”* HOWEVER, It was on their backs that I’ve received everything I’ve ever had.

Whenever these words were spoken I would shut my ears off from it pretend I was in my happy place and acquit them from all judgment. I know now that doing that wasn’t the right decision That I should have made standing with my friends my one and only mission. The speeches they expressed around me never rested well in my stomach I could see all the privilege I’ve been provided from it. You may look at me…. and ask what backs behind me I see.

I see Grandmas and Aunts. Uncles and Dads. Babies, friends and some very injured lads. I see their home and land being given to people because of the color of skin they had. I know what it feels like to have your home ripped from you. To only be able to look at a distance as your home is used without you. Being told you were never welcome in the first place That you need to leave so someone ‘better’ can take your space. The words that left my mouth much were, “WHAT HAVE I DONE WRONG?” “DID I NOT TRY TO TO EVERYTHING YOU ASKED, HAVE I NOT BEEN STRONG?”

When I opted to make my life about making things better, I ungracefully untied knots that had always been together. Knots within myself and the people around me. Knots within the very constructs of society. a lot of those knots never parted whatsoever, A lot of the people thought their remarks were quite clever. They really weren’t clever in the slightest. A lot of their views were incredibly rightest. The year right now is twenty one years past the millennium, I still have aunts that worked and slapped kids in gymnasiums. They hide under their veils and hoards of cloth. Sitting around tables together to scoff I know this to be true because I’ve seen it with my own eyes, Resting over tables and telling each other lies.

The color of your skin should not dictate your worth. Certain things should not be a guarantee from birth. The path forward is curvy and long The start of it wasn’t marked with the bang of the gong For a lot of us this will be our lifelong matter I really hope that at some point we can all work together.

My skin is pale and white. but please understand I am still trying to do what is right. There is no way in the world I could ever fully comprehend, Id like to help with anything to try and make amends Saying sorry does nothing at all, It’s the actions that go with them that allow a person to stand tall. If you filled a room with my family you’d see Half of them are bending backwards screaming like Banshee’s Their screams fill the room with darkness and hate. Their ideas and opinions have become stagnate. Its time now to hear the voices of those who were hurt For me and my people to help them burn down the church.

This system was built on all of their blood and sweat changing from residential schools to foster homes with very little and yet Many middle fingers are still raised high Justin Trudeau are we allowed to ask why? Why was there an “Indian problem”** to be fixed? Why is there so much internal trauma that’s so deep and all mixed? People in these positions of power doing the same over again despite the people getting louder

If the ancient Greeks travelled here to see democracy in action they’d cry kneel to the ground and Throw their hands to the sky “Why doesn’t everyone have a voice” “We invented democracy so people would have a real choice” If I had a child in the world today, I would be so wary of the words people use around and say. How big a deal it is to raise our babies into Earth Warriors, never knowing pain and only being filled with wonder. Full disclosure? I have no idea what I am doing all I know is I need to get behind what is brewing. This us and them has gone on forever you’d think after a few hundred years we would have gotten much better.

I read columbus’s*** journals in my first year of university, A book wrapped in hate and providing much clarity. “These people are beautiful” he wrote in his journal “They would make excellent slaves” he said and I hurled This journal entry has impacted the lives of you and me These journal entries shaped our entire society.

At one point in time, I was racist and all of my views were undeniably baseless. I some times remember those views in the back of my mind how can people who speak those thoughts ever think they are kind? We need to tell people to stop spewing inappropriate garbage Stop looking at all these people as targets and listening to their knowledge There’s a man in my town who stands on a box with a mic His speakers being over used with too much force and might Babies and kids walk past him with their mothers. Hearing from him that God hates their sisters and brothers. Freedom of speech only goes to far Human rights need to not be seen as bizarre I come from the settlers of this land coming here being promised something very grand When I walk on the sidewalk people clear the space for me If only they knew for them id take a knee. I am starting to understand what it can feel like to be hyper aware of your skin. To not feel totally comfortable in any space that you are in. I have friends who are both one and the other. Getting blamed by both communities for not being another The internal struggle they wake up daily with is something we need to start understanding. That being part of both communities should be something rewarding.

I used to be a day camp counselor, getting to work with amazing kids every summer. One week a child came in my care, being sent with a rap sheet I was hyper aware. The week started just like any other, telling the kids the rules and to get along with one another. He sat separate from most of the children, asking every ten minutes to go to the washroom. After the second day I pulled him aside to just talk we ended up on the forest path outside and walked The child was going to the washroom you see To wash his hands it was not to pee. “I do it every ten minutes, because out of all the kids I am certainly the dirtiest” He showed me his beautifully tanned skin and he sighed feeling like all of himself was something to hide. Tears filled my eyes and started to fall, I didn’t think anything I had to say would have any pull at all. this sweet baby in front of me was hurting so much it was a crime To make an innocent child believe they are covered in slime. “Baby boy I am going to tell you this once and very clear, there is nothing wrong with your skin at all my dear. You are a child unlike any other, being blamed for the anger and called a great bother. I see you my child I see you so clear You are so beautiful this breaks my heart and fills it with fear I worry that someone else is going to say something like this to you and that you will try to mend the cracks yourself with nasty unfit views. When you stand in the pond out back of the center, the tadpoles come to you like you’re an energy center. The bees fly around you with so much glee, I know no other person who has bees sleep on their knees” We really need to get into everyone’s minds that being racist isn’t cool and all of that knowledge hand off starts within our schools If I had been educated properly maybe getting thrown into it wouldn’t be so bewildering That colonization hasn’t done much good for the world, its sent us all spinning. When I was growing up I was told there are three sides to every story. That the truth was hidden somewhere in the middle of all the hate and swearing. I think if we all just sat down and centered with the earth once a day. We would all pay more mind to what these people say. *This sentence isn’t appropriate and is incredibly wrong. I loved my Grandpa very much but his views weren’t right.

**Duncan Campell Scott said this in parliament quite a few years before Hitler announced that Germany “Has to fix the Jew problem” This is genocidal speech.

***we do not capitalize the names of those who do not matter.

By Thudthud

[drariellevalentine]

Medically Inevitable

Chapter 3- Eye-widening Events

Characters:- Arielle Valentine, Sienna Trinh, Elijah Greene, Jackie Varma, Landry Olsen, Ethan Ramsey, Diana Hudson, Kyra Santana, Bryce Lahela

Pairing:- Arielle Valentine x Ethan Ramsey

Warnings:- Death, Miscarriages, PTSD etc.

General PoV:-

Sunlight peeks through the blush tinted curtains in Arielle’s bedroom. Her most relatable song “Older”, by Sasha Sloan plays from her phone, waking her gently. She rises slowly from her queen sized bed, taking her time to follow through her morning routine. After witnessing a vivid sunrise with the accompaniment of a cup of tea, she pins her hair up and steps in her shower. One relaxing shower later, she goes into her walk-in closet and slips on the outfit she picked out last night- a raspberry velvet fitted top paired with white leggings and white pumps. If there’s one thing that Arielle Cerise Valentine loves, it’s jewellery. She goes to the other end of her closet and slips on a pair of matching earrings. Lastly, her mother’s pendant necklace. She felt it was calling to her. After finishing her usual makeup routine and fishtail braid, she steps into the living room, following a delicious scent.

Arielle’s PoV:-

I step into the kitchen to find Sienna and the others laying out a huge breakfast spread. “Oh my god! Guys, when did you even find the time to do this?”

“We wanted to thank you and we all thought we should have a nice roomie breakfast.”, says Sienna.

We all take a seat and eat as much as we possibly could. “Sienna, I swear you had a private chef help you whip up this stuff. It’s so delicious.” Everybody agrees. Sienna blushes and thanks everyone.

“Anyways, I hooked up the TV and bass speakers last night! We are officially ready for a housewarming party!, says Elijah. Everyone starts chiming in ideas for the party, as Sienna notes them down on her phone. We all give her a share of money for the party and decide Sienna and me will go shopping later.

A little while later...

“Have you guys heard the rumours?”, asks Elijah.

“About what?”, you innocently ask.

“About Banerji suddenly quitting.”, Jackie nonchalantly says.

“What?”, Landry exclaims. You nearly spit out your food. “Naveen...quitting! No! It can’t be.”, your mind races.

Landry keeps on rambling, “No going away party?....No announcement?...”

You can’t believe it. Your mind goes to the events of last night, where your godfather and Dr. Ramsey were arguing. Snaps snaps you out of your reverie. “It’s getting late, Ari. You should head for your shift.” You wave goodbye to everyone and head down to the parking lot. Sliding into your Lexus, you drive towards Edenbrook.

Ethan’s PoV:-

You step out of your car, having parked it at your usual spot. You’re about to head inside when you receive a page. Apparently, one of your residents decided to go golfing. You’re about to head inside when you see a rose gold Lexus park next to your BMW. “I’ve never seen this car before, and an excellent driver too.”, he thinks. Out steps a chic dressed woman with a little bag on her back. “Who is this woman?”, you wonder. And that’s when it catches your eye, the violet ombré at the end of her braid. She locks her car, slipping her keys into her pocket while putting on her white coat. “Rookie.”

She looks up, her violet irises laced with surprise. “Dr. Ramsey, Good Morning!”, she says with a cheerful smile. You greet her back. She turns to leave, not wanting for her to leave you say, “Wait. Follow me.” She drops off her belongings and wordlessly follows me. You lead her to the patient who’s doctor decided to ditch his job.

The patient lights up at the sight of her, I mean who wouldn’t! “Goddamnit Ramsey, what is wrong with you today!”

“Are you my doctor?”, the patient asks.

Arielle turns to me with a questioning look.

“This is Kyra Santana. Her doctor decided to ditch his responsibilities so she’s yours now.”

“Ooh yes! Show me off!”, Kyra exclaims.

Arielle chuckles while picking up her chart. “Kyra Santana, age 28, fractured radius in need of casting.”

“Is that all?”, you ask.

“Yes.”, she answers.

“Kyra, tell Dr. Valentine what is actually wrong with you.”

“I’m afraid it’s cancer, my very hot doctor.”

“What?”, Arielle frowns in confusion.

“Check the cell count on the last page, indicating of?...”, you probe.

“Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma!”

“Yeah, in my left lung.”

“Dr. Valentine, sometimes the problem isn’t always in front of us. You should thoroughly read through a patient’s chart. Nowadays, they let pretty much anyone become healthcare professionals.”

“If you’re here for cancer treatment, how did you break your arm?”

“I saw a bike abandoned by the subway and tried to ride it. Apparently, I’m not very good at it.”, she says gesturing to her arm.

“YOLO huh?”, she laughs.

Kyra laughs.

“Dr. Valentine, what is Kyra’s treatment plan?”

“Well, first we need to cast her arm and then”-

You interrupt her, “Good. Now do that.” You swiftly exit the room.

Arielle’s PoV:-

“Wait! What about”-

“Don’t worry, female version of McDreamy, I already have a treatment plan and a CT scheduled right after this.”

“You should know that I’m straight, but I totally support 🏳️‍🌈.”, you ramble in a worry that Kyra might take offence.

She starts laughing so hard, “I was teasing you, I know that you are straight.”

Feeling embarrassed you say, “Let’s cast that arm, shall we.” You cast it firmly.

“Would you like to sign my cast?”, you write ‘Miss McDreamy’ on it. “Damn! You have legible.. no really pretty handwriting.”, Kyra says. You thank and wave to her.

Later, you are running an errand for Ines. “ Hey Arielle, do me a favour and give these labs to Dr. Ramsey. He’ll be in Room 413.”

You enter the room looking at your pager and say, “Excuse me Dr. Ramsey, Dr. Delarosa asked me to”- You finally look up to see Chief Emery with her hand on his cheek, whispering furtively but quietly. “Oh!...um...I...I’ll just leave these here.” You can bet a million bucks that your cheeks just turned 50 shades of red. You run out of the room and accidentally bump into someone.

“Sorry!”

“Hey Elle!”

“Elle?”

“Yeah, short for Arielle.”

“Okay.” You notice Kyra sitting a bed. “And where are you off to, Madam Flatterer?”

“About to be prepped for a lobectomy, assisted by yours truly.”

“What?!”

“After the CT scan results came back, it kind of happened pretty fast.”

You pull Bryce aside. “Take care of her for me.”

“Don’t worry, Dr. Zimmerman is an amazing surgeon.”

“She’ll be golden.”

“Woah! I never thought I’d see Dr. McDreamy fighting with another Dr. McDreamy.”, you laugh as Bryce wheels Kyra into the OR.

You head down into the ER to see if there are any cases, where you see Aurora, whose ass is being kissed. “Hey Aurora.”

“What?”

“I said hi. It’s legal to greet someone.”

“Well it shouldn’t be.” Just then, you hear the ambulance siren. You both rush to the entrance as the ambulance doors’ open.

A very muscular paramedic steps out, helping an unconscious woman with an oxygen mask on.

“Diana Hudson, office fire, all of her coworkers got out but she’s pregnant and couldn’t move fast enough.”

“How long has she been unconscious?”, you ask.

“She fainted in the ambulance.”

“Serious smoke inhalation, but I hope I got them out in time.”

“ Wait? You got them out! What about the firefighters?”

“They were taking too long.”, he says with a shrug.

“That was really brave of you. Not many people would have done that...”

“Rafael Aveiro.”

“Dr. Arielle Valentine.”

“I’ll see you around, Dr. Valentine.”

After Diana gets admitted, you search her phone for her emergency contacts. You’re scrolling down when one particular contact catches your eye. ‘Dr. Ethan Ramsey’

“No way!” You rush to Dr. Ramsey’s office and knock. “Come in.”

You enter the room. “What do you want, Rookie?”

“I was going through my patient’s emergency contacts when I saw your name. Do you know a Diana Hudson?”

“Diana?” He follows me to the patient’s room as I told him what happened.

You enter the room and are relieved to find Diana awake.

“Hi Diana, I’m”-

“Ethan!”, the woman exclaims.

“Diana! What have you gotten into this time?”

“There was a fire and I couldn’t get out. Luckily, you had Superman on payroll!” You laugh.

“I’ll call your sisters and fly them in from Arizona. I’m so glad you’re alright.”

“Diana, this is Dr. Valentine. Dr. Valentine, Diana was my first patient when I was an intern.”

“What were you in for?”

“Burst appendix, I was totally freaked out but Ethan calmed me down. Even kept in touch over the years.”

“That’s so sweet!”, you exclaim.

You take a stethoscope and warm it on your palm. “So, was Dr. Ramsey always like this?”

“Oh yes, he’s aged like a fine wine, don’t you think?”, she teasingly says that leaves you giggling.

“Dr. Valentine, the examination if you don’t mind.”

You run the resonator and take all her vitals.

“Did the EMT manage to get my purse?” You hand it to her. She searches for something and frowns.

“Is everything alright, Diana?, you ask.

“Yeah, it’s just I saw this adorable stuffed frog and thought it would have been perfect for my little tadpole here, I know it’s silly.”

“No it’s not. It’s absolutely beautiful, in fact Dr. Ramsey and I can go and get it for you.” You give him a pleading look. He agrees and you both step out of the room.

“How are her vitals?”

“They’re all fine, but her breathing is short and her elevated B.P should be low. I’ll order a chest x-ray and a urine sample.

“Good work. Drop off the labs and meet me at the hospital’s entrance in 10 minutes.”

You get the sample and order the x-ray, then walk towards the entrance, leaving your white coat behind. You see Dr. Ramsey, sitting in the driver’s seat of a BMW. You ride shotgun.

“Nice car, Dr. Ramsey.”

“Thank you.”

He turns on the radio and a concerto comes on.

“So...Are you and Chief Emery.. um...in a relationship?”, you tentatively ask.

“I don’t advertise my private life at work.”

“We’re not at work.”, you counter.

He sighs, “Before she became Chief, we were in an on and off relationship. As of last year, no.”

“What about you?” You’re surprised.

“I ended a six year relationship two months ago. He was jealous that I had gotten matched into Edenbrook and he didn’t, so he decided to screw with my then best friend.”, you confide. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be telling you all this.”

“It’s fine. And for what it’s worth, you should never let anybody hinder your career.”

“Trust me, I learned that lesson a long time ago.” He shoots you a look. Luckily, you’ve arrived at the burning building.

You exit the car and say, “Let’s hope it didn’t fall there.”, gesturing to the raging inferno. You and him scan the surroundings for the little toy. You’re about to give up when... “Look!” He points to a drain, where a green toy is stuck. You both rush and take a look, it’s deep and dark.

“Hell no. I am not going down there! Haven’t you seen IT?”

“It’s just a movie, anyways you won’t be able to reach it.”

“Can you hold my waist?”

“What?”, he looks at you like you’re an idiot.

“I’m very flexible. I can reach down there and grab it with a flashlight but I’ll fall down because I don’t have any support. If you hold me...”

“Fine.”

You lay down and wiggle your upper body down into the drain while he holds your lower waist tightly.

You twist incredibly low and he has to hold your hips instead. “Almost there.....Got it!”

Dr. Ramsey pulls you up from the waist. “How did you manage to get that?”

“A girl’s got to have some secrets.” He hands you a towel to wipe yourself off and a little bag for the plastic toy.

“I’ll get this sterilised and given to Diana.”

“I’ve never seen someone go to this lengths for their patient.”

“Well I’m not like most doctors.”

“Well you could have done it to impress me.” You arrive at Edenbrook.

“Not really. When Diana was telling us about the little frog she bought for her baby, you could see that beautiful smile on her face. There’s nothing more beautiful than a mother’s love towards her child.” You see Dr. Ramsey tense up, but you decide to say nothing. Thanking him for the ride you head inside.

Some time later, Danny hands you the results for Diana. You’re reading through them when, your heart stops. Diana has preeclampsia, the same diagnosis your mother had 24 years ago. You rush to find Dr. Ramsey and hand him the charts. His face falls.

“They’re in serious trouble, aren’t they.”, you say sadly.

“Come on, Rookie. Let’s go tell her.” Your face falls as you imagine her face. “That’s the job, Rookie. Nothing we can do about it.”

You enter the room and Diana notices your faces. “What is it?”

“Have you heard of preeclampsia, Diana? It’s a condition that affects 1 out of 10 pregnant women. It means that the blood flow from your placenta is slowing down, depriving the baby of vital nutrients.”

“Does that mean my little tadpole is in trouble?”

“No, it just means that we’ll have to deliver the baby earlier.”, he says.

“No, I won’t. It’s too early. If he’s not in danger right now, then I won’t.”

“Diana, listen. I know this is scary but if you wait, it might be too late. There are post-birth complications but this is the best way.”

“No, I won’t.” Dr. Ramsey leaves the room.

You turn to her, desperate, with tears in your eyes, “I know what it’s like Diana. My mother had preeclampsia too. She was in the exact same place as you, and by waiting, it cost us a great deal. But I survived, I’m living proof. Please don’t wait. A child should never have to grow up without their mother. It’s the worst form of torture a child could ever face.” Realising tears are streaming down your face, you rapidly leave the room and accidentally crash into someone.

“Hey, hey, hey. What’s wrong?” You look up to see Bryce. He wipes your tears and pulls you aside.

“It’s okay, it’s just one of my patients hit really close to home.”

“A beautiful face like yours shouldn’t cry. Come with me, I am making it my personal mission to cheer you up. He leads you to a milkshake bar a few blocks away and orders a large Oreo milkshake with a ton of ice cream.

“You really know the way to a girl’s heart. I mean it, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Anyways, you remind me of my sister, she’s all the way in Hawaii. So you can be my little teenage sister.”

“I’m not that young.”, you roll your eyes.

“How old are you?”

“24.”

“I’m 27.”

“So what? I graduated a few years early.”

The huge milkshake arrives. Bryce grabs two spoons and hands one to you.

“Dig in!” Between the two of you, you manage to finish the whole thing.

“That was absolutely delightful.” You open your wallet but Bryce doesn’t let you.

“No way am I letting you pay!”

He pays and you both exit the store. Suddenly your pager beeps. “911 for Diana! I gotta go, bye!”

You rush towards the hospital and run into the waiting room, breathless. You find Dr. Ramsey sitting in one of the chairs, attempting to speak you end up coughing. He looks up. You’re finally able to speak. “Wh...what happened..Dr. Ramsey?”, you manage to ask with your chest heaving.

“Diana had a seizure. The baby’s just been delivered via c-section. It’s 50-50 he’ll survive the night.” Your heart tightens. “Diana?”

“She died.” Your throat tightens, it’s hard to breathe. You take deep breaths, recalling what your psychologist said. “I’m so sorry, Dr. Ramsey”-

“I’m fine.” He gets up and leaves; turning around to say, “Go home, Arielle.” He leaves. You can’t find it in your heart to leave and find your legs leading you to the NICU. You step inside and find Dr. Lozoya.

“Is is okay if I give this toy to him? His mother would have wanted him to have it. It’s been sterilised.”

“Of course. Poor thing, we’ll know in the morning.”

She leaves, leaving you alone. You place the little tadpole near the baby.

Your breath catches in your throat as your eye catches the name. ‘Ethan Hudson.’ You want to help him but don’t know how. You start humming one of your favourite arias. One that your mother used to sing as you stand near the cube.

Ethan’s PoV:-

You receive word from one of the nurses that Diana’s baby is in the NICU. You’re walking near when you hear a mesmerising voice, humming a very well known French aria. You follow the voice and find Arielle humming, standing near the baby.

“What are you doing here? I told you to go home.”

“I don’t like the fact that he has to fight for his life alone. I’m staying with him.”

“Do you mind if I can join you?”

“Not at all.”

You sit beside her on the loveseat.

“Ethan...”, she whispers. You’re shocked that she just called you by your first name.

“Excuse me?”

She doesn’t break her trance. Instead she answers, “Ethan...the baby’s name is Ethan, Ethan Hudson. She named him after you.”

You’re speechless. Your eyes flash towards the name tag. “She was right, she had named him after you.”, you think. Your throat tightens.

“You must have known her pretty well.”

“I did. I didn’t have many friends back then. I just meant to check on her, knowing that my patients were out there, living their live to the fullest,.. it really kept me going. She was recently divorced and feeling alone, so she insisted we meet for coffee. It turned into more emails and coffees, and Sunday roasts in between.”

You can see that her eyes are red. “Does it ever get easier?”, she asks.

“Grieving for the loss of a patient isn’t a bad thing. I would be more concerned if you didn’t. To answer your question, we have a certain process when it comes to... the end stage. It helps the family to cope a bit more easier.” Her face remains the same.

“The first patient I lost was in my 4th week. I didn’t make any mistakes though. He had an inoperable malignant tumour in his brain. He wasn’t much older than I am now. It was hard.” She turns to look at you, her violet irises meeting yours.

“She trusted us, she trusted her life and her baby’s. Maybe if I had talked to her some more, she would have agreed sooner.”

“She gave her consent to the surgery, but she had a seizure in between. She said to me that you were the one who had convinced her. How did you do it?”

She takes a deep breath. “I...My mother was diagnosed with preeclampsia in her late third trimester. Since my brother was perfectly healthy, she didn’t want to deliver me yet and kept putting it off. “It...”, her voice breaks. “It cost her her life.”

“I’m so sorry, Arielle. You should have told me, I would have taken you off this case.”

“Do you know what the worst part is? She was fine, after she gave birth. We were all so happy that she had survived, and then a day later, she died. An artery was slightly nicked, causing internal bleeding. They didn’t notice until it was too late.” Tears are streaming down her face.

You wipe them away. “I thought, at least I could save her, but I couldn’t.”

She wipes her face and says, “I’m sorry, I’m the one who’s supposed to be offering condolences.”

“It’s okay.” She wordlessly places her hand on your thigh. You place your hand on top of hers. You see her drift off to sleep and you do the same.

“Bzzzt....Bzzzt...” You wake up to see Arielle, fallen asleep on your shoulder. And then, you see baby Ethan, his heartbeat strong. A smile spreads across your lips.

“Arielle....Arielle?” You gently tap her cheek.

Arielle’s PoV:-

You faintly hear someone calling your name. Your eyes flutter open to Dr. Ramsey’s face. You realise that you’ve been resting your head on his shoulder. You jerk up and apologise, “Oh my god! I’m so sorry. Your shirt’s ruined!” Your cheeks turn red for the second time today. “It’s alright. Look.” He points to baby Ethan’s cubicle. You suddenly remember where you are and jump up and rush over to see. There he is lying peacefully, breathing in and out, heart beating strong. “Je suis si fier de toi petit têtard. Tu ressembles à ta mère.(I’m so proud of you, little tadpole. You look just like your mother.)”, you whisper in French to the baby.

“Tu parles français?(You speak French?), he asks.

“Oui. Très couramment en fait. Ma mère est ... était française.(Yes. Quite fluently actually. My mother is...was French.), you reply.

Your pager buzzes. “Crap! I have rounds in 20 minutes.”

“You should go.” You turn to leave. “Thank you Arielle.”

“You’re welcome.” You leave the room and head towards the locker room to shower and change.

Thrity minutes into the shift, and suddenly the central paging system goes off, asking all the medical interns to gather in the atrium.

Sighing, I ask Sarah to run a blood test of my patient in room 508 before hurrying down the halls.

God knows what happened this time!

"Any idea what's wrong?" I nudge Jackie reaching the group in the atrium. Sienna is yet to join us but everyone else is here.

Jackie just shrugs.

A few minutes later Sienna joins us. "What happened guys?"

"No idea," I answer as Elijah and Landry is fanning over some comic.

"Good morning interns," Dr.Emery tries to grab our attention.

She's standing in front us, near the reception desk, Dr. Ramsey standing by her side. And unlike Dr. Emery he seems angry and exasperate.

"As many of you may have heard, Dr. Banerji is now a person of early retirement," She starts. Your mind starts racing again, no matter how much you try to calm it.

“Dr. Banerji is retiring? But why? He loves treating patients, saving lives. There's no way he wants to leave all this on his own.”, you think. Harper Emery keeps saying things but I can hardly concentrate.

“He left. I won’t be able to talk to him, apologize to him, bond with him.” All my hope shatters.

"-which leaves and empty position in the Diagnostics team. And this year you guys will be competing each other for that position. Dr. Ramsey will explain you the rest."

That's the last thing I hear her say before Dr. Ramsey takes over.

"We'll be evaluating you every week on the basis of how well you solve your cases."

"Your weekly evaluation result will be published in the announcement board every week," he continues. "Anyone who wants to join drop by my office before midnight tomorrow to sign up your names."

"You all can go and resume your regular activities now," Dr. Emery smiles before walking away.

Dr. Ramsey too walks away but towards the hall where construction of the new block is going on.

"I can't believe they will be taking interns on their beloved Diagnostics Team!" Landry says surprised.

"Development of the interns must be so important to them," Sienna says thoughtfully and Jackie scoffs.

Leaving the group to talk I rush after Dr. Ramsey.

“Dr. Ramsey, wait," I call after him. He stops and turns around.

"I- is this what you were talking about with Dr. Emery yesterday?"

"Yes," he sighs.

"But you said that we aren’t ready yet."

"Because you aren’t," he stops then again continues thoughtfully, " But are any of us truly ready for anything."

He says, walking away leaving me alone to deal with my thoughts.

“Naveen left. I don’t know where he lives, why he left; hell! I don’t even know if he’s in the US or not.”

“Cosa farò adesso!?(What will I do now!?)”, you scream in Italian.

[hunterbahamut]

Here is a new story, and my first actual writing commission.

This was done for PictorisAurora, and this is a story involving their own sci-fi world and aliens; the Anura, and one of their characters; Rhrellia.

Rhrellia is a new member to a hatchery for the Anura, and this is the story of their first day on the job.

More information about their characters and setting can be found on their twitter, but I can do my best to provide links for some references.

Anura: https://twitter.com/PictorisAurora/status/1191223903600959488 https://twitter.com/PictorisAurora/status/1191553450796077057

Ursrapod: https://twitter.com/PictorisAurora/status/1272683960854691840

Rhrellia: (Warning, this link does contain spoilers for the story) https://twitter.com/PictorisAurora/status/1271588082203181061

But, I hope you enjoy reading it!

--

First Day

It was their first day, and Rhrellia was feeling rather nervous. It seemed a little silly; this was something they had been trained for and were excited to have finally happen, but there was still that nervous feeling fluttering in their stomach.  They took a deep breath and worked to keep themselves calm, but when they reached the top of the hill, they got their first good look of the hatchery.

“Oh wow...” The hatchery was one of the complexes that was established for the breeding and development of young Anura tadpoles, situated in a large area of marshland. And it was huge.  There were a few buildings spread out over the area, but the vast area was just marsh and wetlands surrounded by a large fence to keep the wilderness out.  It was both impressive and intimidating, adding to Rhrellia's nervousness, but they took in a deep breath, slowly calming their nerves before continuing down along the path towards the main gate.

The main entrance wasn't very big and seemed to have only a simple guardhouse; something that surprised Rhrellia at first.  As they approached, they could see two other Anura ahead; a taller one dressed in simple armor and holding a spear while the other, stockier one was wearing more simple clothing. The two noticed Rhrellia's approach and the stocky Anura raised their hand up in greeting.  “Hello there!”  They called out, “You must be the new caretaker!”

“That's right.” They replied, “I'm Rhrellia.”

The stocky Anura nodded, “Pleasure to meet you!  I'm Seralha, I'm the supervisor of the care grounds here.”  They introduced the other guard, “This is Crvohk, one of the senior patrol guards. They'll be your partner here to help show you around and help you get acclimated to how we do things here.”

Rhrellia nodded, looking to the taller Anura, “Nice to meet you!”

Crvohk nodded, “And you.”

Seralha smiled and nodded, “Right!  Let's get you inside and situated before the day really starts!  I hope you're not too tired from your trip.”

“Oh not at all.”  Rhrellia said, “I'm actually really excited to get started here!  This has been something I've been looking forward to for the past few months!”

“Excellent!” Seralha smiled, “Well right this way, we'll show you to your room!” The two Anura lead Rhrellia into the compound proper, even inside they were still amazed by the size they of the place. Their first stop was to the bunk house, where most of the guards and caretakers stayed.  They were shown their new room and was able to drop off their traveling gear, before heading out to the see the rest of compound.

“The marsh is separated into six different pools.” Seralha explained, “It helps makes watching over the tadpoles easier for the guardians, as well as help keep up with our roll call.” As the morning came and the sun started to rise into the sky, the area started to wake up and come alive.  The tadpoles were waking up and started to play around while other Anura caretakers started their work.  Seralha showed Rhrellia around the area they would be working, instructing them about their procedures for meals and the times for school and play time.  Crvohk then took them around the perimeter, explaining their patrol routes and showing them where the guard stations, armories and first aid stations were placed.

“We usually rotate and take turns on certain duties.”  Crvohk explained, “Some days we'll take care of the manual labor, feeding and cleaning, the other times we'll be on patrol to chase away any of the larger predators.  Thankfully, over the years, things have been pretty quiet since most of the predators know to stay away.”

“That's good.” Rhrellia said, nodding before they smiled.  “So when do I start?”

Seralha laughed, “You are an eager one!”  They smiled, “Well, I think that covers about everything, so I think you can get started whenever Crvohk says.”

They nodded at that, “We'll be working in the east section, we've been short-handed after one of our older caretakers retired.  We won't have you start on patrol just yet, so you'll be helping with the the feeding and manual labor tasks.  This way you can get meet the tadpoles and they can learn who you are as well.”

Rhrellia smiles and nodded. “Alright, that sounds good!  Ready when you are!”

Seralha left the two as they headed to the eastern marsh area.  The different ponds were separated by natural raised walls made of more solid earth with natural pathways set up so the older Anura could walk around while carrying supplies.  Along the sides were several wooden docks that lead into the waters where there were other caretakers and teachers with schools of tadpoles all gathered around.  Some of the tadpoles noticed Rhrellia and swam over to them and almost immediately started asking many different questions, making Rhrellia laugh a little before the teacher managed to wrangle them back over to continue their lessons.

The rest of the morning went by and Rhrellia was proving to be a natural at this.  They worked well with the other caretakers, going about the tasks quiet well, and taking time to meet and talk with some of the other tadpole schools they got to meet.   By the afternoon,  Crvohk came over with some of the other caretakers.  “C'mere Rhrellia.  It's about time to start the afternoon roll call, we'll show you how that works and how we handle that.”

Rhrellia nodded and walked with the group as they approached the edge of the pool.  The schools all gathered and they started to do their head count, calling out the names.  While it was slow, it seemed pretty simple and straightforward.  However, an uneasy silence fell over the caretakers.  “Is something wrong?” Rhrellia asked.

Crvohk didn't answer right away.  “....we're a few numbers short.”  They said, “This isn't too uncommon though; but this is why we do multiple counts throughout the day...”

“Do we have anything to be worried about?”

“I hope not.” Crvohk replied,  “They might be playing or hiding and just didn't hear the call.”  They made the call again and redid the count, but they arrived at the same number.  “Okay...now we have to worry.”

Rhrellia's ears twitched, starting to feel nervous.  “What do we do in this case?”

“We don't panic, first of all.” Crvohk said.  “The caretakers here will check the immediate area and see if they're nearby.  We'll go and check the perimeter fence and just make sure things are alright there.” 

With a plan in mind, two of the caretakers went int the water while Crvohk took Rhrellia and headed for the tall outer fence. “We'll just do a quick check of the fencing, just make sure there isn't anything strange or damaged.”  Crvohk said, the two jumping into the water and swam towards lower sections. The fencing was made mostly of hard wood, held together by lengths of metal wiring, leaving little to now space for anything to slip in or out.  At first glance, everything appeared to be sturdy, but the two moved in closer and started to inspect it, rapping and pushing against the sections.  Rhrellia was tapping along until they came to a section that rattled.   Startled, they gave it a firm push, discovering a section that could be pushed out, creating an opening that lead right out into the marsh beyond.

Crvohk saw this and he had a worried look on his face.  “Oh no...”

Rhrellia pushed on the board and looked out, letting out a gasp,  “I see one of them!”  They said and started to squeeze through the opening, despite Crvohk's protests.  They quickly swam over to the scared looking tadpole.  “It's okay, you're gonna be safe.”  They said, reassuring the young Anura and gently coaxed, them out of their hiding spot holding onto their arm.  Rhrellia then swam back to the fence; Crvohk pushing on it so they could let the tadpole swim back in.

“The others must have snuck out through here then.” Crvohk said, the worry now clear in his voice.  “We'll need to warn the others and get a search party together.”

“Right, but we need to hurry!” Rhrellia said, “I can start on ahead!”

“What? No!” Crvohk said, “We have a lot of area to search, and there are still predators out there!  We need to gather the others.”

“But the longer we take, the greater the risk they'll get lost, or worse!” Rhrellia argued back. “I'm already out here, I can go on ahead and start the search, then I can meet up with you!”

Crvohk seemed to groan, but they relented. “Alright...” They said in a disapproving tone, “But take this with you.”  They pushed the fence open again and pushed their spear out for them.  “It's still dangerous out there.  Don't get into anything you don't think you can handle!”

“Thanks, I'll be careful!” Rhrellia took the spear and quickly turned and started to swim out further into the wild marsh.  Crvohk let out a small, worrying grumble. “Be careful you.”

Trying to track down and find a group of tadpoles was not an easy task; there was no way of knowing how long they were out here or how far they could have gone.  Still, Rhrellia had to stay calm; getting worried or panicky wasn't going to help anyone.   They quickly started the search by exploring the immediate area; checking around rocks and reeds, but so far there wasn't any sign of them.  Slowly, they started to expand their search and moved further out.

And further still.

This was starting to scare Rhrellia. They were now pretty far from the hatchery, too far for any of the lookouts to spot anything.  Would the kids really have gone this far out? Rhrellia climbed out of the water and onto the marshy shore, looking up into the sky.  It was slowly turning over into evening now; while there was still some daylight, it would only last few a few short hours at most.

“Not sure how much more I can do.”  They let out a sigh as they started to feel rather defeated.  They turned to head back to the water, but that was when something caught their attention.   Close to where they were, they could see what looked like tracks in the marshy ground.  As they moved in closer to investigate, they could see that they were animal tracks of some kind.  There weren't many but they were big; bigger than anything they thought was around here, and they actually seemed familiar.  Before they could give it any more thought, something else grabbed Rhrellia's attention; it was the sound of reeds clicking together, despite the lack of any wind blowing.  They turned and looked around, seeing the many clusters of reeds and plants at the edge of the water.  “Ah! That's it!  They must be hiding there!”

There was a huge sigh of relief and Rhrellia started to move to the water's edge, but they stopped suddenly again when they picked up a new sound.  They stayed still and listened close; it was more clicking but this time it was different.  This wasn't the sound of reeds or plants rustling against, this one was more distinct.  And it was one they recognized. They gasped, suddenly realizing what it was: the size of the prints and the sound of the clicking, the clicking of echo-location.  It was an Ursrapod.

That couldn't be right though, what was a dangerous apex predator doing so far out of their normal habitat?  Now Rhrellia was scared and they held their spear in a tight grip.  While they were trained to fight, most of it was against smaller creatures that were expected to be in the area, not something as dangerous as an Ursrapod. They stood still and slowly started to look around, trying to scan the area  There was a chance that they were already discovered by the Ursra's echo-location...

And they were right.

Despite its size, the predator came charging out from the brush, taking them by surprise.  It swung its large forearm out and slammed it against the smaller Anura, sending them off their feet and landing hard in the muck with their spear landing a few feet from them.

“Uuuhhh...” Rhrellia's head spun as they tried to recover, forcing themselves back up. They looked up in time to see the Ursrapod bring their tail around; the flower-like bulb on the end opening up to reveal the tail mouth, hundreds of sharp spines lining the 'petals' and the sharp teeth around the central opening.  They let out a gasp and jumped out of the way as the tail mouth came down, snapping the air where they were just seconds ago.  Rhrellia tried to stay up, but they slipped and fell back down and started to scramble, trying to reach the the spear. The Ursra moved quickly though and soon it was on hovering over them again.  Just as Rhrellia grabbed hold, the tail mouth came streaking down again.  They tried to roll out of the way, but this time the mouth snapped down and grabbed hold of one of their ear tendrils.  Rhrellia's breath caught in their throat as they tensed up, but the Ursrapod started to pull its tail back, causing the Anura's reflexes to kicked in and they tried to jerk back.

For a brief second, there was the sickening sound of flesh tearing.  Rhrellia let out a sharp, loud cry as pain hit them hard and flooded over their head and face. They tumbled forward and hit the soft muck again, letting out a gasp of pain as they could feel blood start to flow from their missing ear and onto their shoulder.  Rhrellia pushed themselves up, using the spear to help as they gritted their teeth and head ached.  They had to try and fight through the pain, else the predator was going to get more than just an ear.

The Ursrapod continued to advance on its prey.  Rhrellia saw it coming and tried to ready themselves as it charged. They dodged around it and ducked down, but they slipped in the muck again and lost their balance.  They were able to catch themselves this time, but they stumbled as they turned to attack back. They swung the spear, aiming for the predator's softer underbelly.  The blade made contact, but with their failing strength and the awkward swing, the blade only made slight purchase, hitting more on the tougher upper hit and only scratching the softer flesh below. The Ursra was quick to retaliate and used its hind legs to kick backwards.  Rhrellia tried to deflect, raising the spear up quickly, but the kick still made contact, sending the Anura spinning backwards and crashing into one of the rock formations behind them.  They landed awkwardly and the impact caused the spear shaft to shatter in their hands and the hooked blade sliced into their arm as they tried to catch themselves.

Rhrellia gasped out in pain, shaking in pain and fear as the world was spinning all around them.  “Oh no no no...”  Their mind was racing, trying to think of what to do as they could hear the Ursrapod advancing on them, ready to finish them off.  There was little time to think and they just let reacted instinctively as adrenaline surged through them. They dove down to the ground and grabbed hold of the spear head as the larger creature reared back up on it's hind legs, ready to slam down on top of them.  Using all of their strength, Rhrellia pushed themselves up and lunged forward.  They weren't aiming, but they managed to plunge the hooked blade right into the Ursrapod's forepaw, using their momentum to push forward, digging the blade in and dragging it up its' leg before they lost their grip and fell forward.

The Ursrapod let a loud, low groaning sound from the pain and pulled back.  It had taken enough damage now that it lost interest in its prey and it started to retreat back into the brush at a quick pace.

Everything was suddenly quiet.  Rhrellia didn't move for a few moments, laying still as their mind buzzed from the pain and body shook from adrenaline. Slowly, they pushed themselves up and looked around, “Is...is it gone...?”  All they could see was the broken spear pieces amongst the blood-splattered mud. As much as their body demanded rest,  Rhrellia had to make sure that the tadpoles were safe.  They pushed themselves up and slipped back into the water; the cold immediately hitting them and giving them a moment of relief as it dulled the pain.  Slowly, they made their way over to the reed patch and started to look around.  It was hard to see with the fading light, but after a few brief moments, they were able to see several pairs of eyes looking back out at them, followed by the smaller Anura tadpoles as they started to come out of hiding.

Finally, there was a huge sense of relief and Rhrellia nodded.  “It's okay little ones,  you're safe now.  Lets get you back home.”

“There!  Over there!”

Rhrellia was taken by surprise and they looked up and finally saw a group of the other caretakers approaching, including Crvohk. “Rhrellia!” The called out, shocked when they saw how injured they were.  “What happened?!”

“Ur...Ursrapod...”  They managed to say, “But...I found...found them.”  They pointed over to the reeds as more of the tadpoles started to come out of hiding.

The other caretakers started to gather the tadpoles while Crvohk helped Rhrellia to the surface, settling down on the bank as Seralha came rushing over with a first aid kit.  “What did you say?  An Ursra?  Are you sure?”

Rhrellia nodded slowly.  “I...I managed to chase it off...”  They started to recount the events of what happened and the encounter while the other two worked on bandaging them up. “Do you realize how dangerous it was to go off like that by yourself?”   Seralha said, looking and sounding rather flustered, “It's already dangerous out here for anyone by themselves with the just the normal predators, but to face off with an Ursrapod?”

Crvohk lowered their head down before speaking up, “They're not the only guilty one here, I let them go on ahead..”

“I should reprimand you both for it!” Seralha before they let out a heavy sigh.  “But...I'm just glad things didn't turn out worse than they did.  I'm also rather impressed that you were able to chase something like that off by yourself”  They looked to Rhrellia, “...first day on the job and you fight off an Ursra...”

Rhrellia looked down, at a loss for words, but Crvohk helped them back up to their feet.  “Come on, let's get back to the compound, we can discuss all of this in safer waters.”

It was slow going, but soon the three made it back;  Rhrellia never felt a sense of relief like they did when they were back inside.  “Did we...get all of them?”

Seralha slowly shook their head, hesitating to answer for a moment.  “Not all of them...we're still missing one.” They sighed, “I don't like to admit this, but with an Ursrapod out there...”  They didn't finish the sentence, the others knew full well what that meant.

“What's an Ursra even doing out here in the first place?” Crvohk asked.  “We're a long way off from any of their swamps.”

Rhrellia sighed as they held their head for a moment, “Something must have chased it or forced it out?”

“Maybe,”  Seralha said, “But Ursrapods don't leave their grounds very easily.  It would need to be something either very big or very devastating.”   They let out a sigh, “I think we can think on that some other time.  Crvohk, could you escort Rhrellia back to their room?  I think we all need to get some rest after all of this.  I'll need to speak with the others and make sure the fence is mended and we have extra patrols for the night.  Just in case.”

“Of course.” Crvohk nodded and he helped Rhrellia back to the bunkhouse and up to their room.  “Well, I have to say...you have a heck of a way of making a first impression.”

Rhrellia just let out a dry laugh, “It wasn't my intention.”

“I'm sure.” Crvohk said, “But you've certainly impressed me, just by going off like that to look for the missing 'poles.  I don't think many newbies would be willing to do that.”

Rhrellia sat down onto the bed. “I just thought...it would be a bad idea to wait any longer.”

“And you could have very well be right.” Crvohk said, “I wish I had gone with you though...could have saved you from loosing your ear like that.”

Rhrellia sighed, “It...I'll be aright.”

Crvohk nodded, “Well, you'll be off duty for a while I wager, and then on light duty after that.  Just make sure you don't make a habit of it, okay?”

“I'll try.”

Crvohk nodded, “You'll have a good story to tell the others at least.”  They reached into their pouch and pulled out the broken spear head and sat it on the side table.  “And a good trophy to go along with it.”

Rhrellia looked at the stained metal blade and shivered. “Yeah...I guess so...”  They slowly shook their head, “Still...I'm sad that we lost one of them.”

“I know.” Crvohk said.  “That's a feeling you'll never get used to...but sadly it's one of the risks of our job.  We do everything we can to watch and protect them, but sometimes, even with all of that, it can't be helped.”  They reached over and put a hand on their shoulder.  “Just remember, you saved many more today, and that's nothing to be taken lightly.  Okay?”

Rhrellia sighed, “I'll try.”  They looked up and gave them a weak smile. “Thanks.”

Crvohk nodded and turned to head out.  Rhrellia watched them before their gaze fell onto the blade again before letting out a sigh.  Exhaustion was finally starting to over take them and they laid back, finally letting themselves rest.

In the following days, the story of the Ursrapod encounter had spread through the compound, to both adult Anura and tadpoles alike.  Rhrellia found themselves retelling a few times, even showing off the spear head to those that asked.  The tadpoles would immediately recognize Rhrellia now, some even referring to them as the 'Ursra slayer'.  It was odd, but kind of flattering as well, so they were willing to roll with it.

There was still concern about the Ursrapod; many wondering if it was still out there as well as wondering what could have brought it all the way out here.  It was scary to think about, but Rhrellia seemed to be even more committed to their duties: this was their home now and they were going to protect it and everyone inside it.

[omgcpreversebang]

The first OMGCP Reverse Bang is officially closed!

Thanks to all the amazing artists, authors and betas for giving us all these new art pieces and fics!

Under the cut, you can find this year masterlist. Fics are listed in alphabetical order.

The Adventure Ends in Chaos by loveyoutoobits (lostflares)

Art by omgtranspoindexter

Rating: T

Caitlin is the defacto leader of the odd questing group consisting of Caitlin as the ranger, Chowder as the rogue, Dex as the cleric, and Nursey as the bard. They travel from one land to another, across the ocean, fighting an ogre, a group of pirates, and the beast of Riberia, which proves a tough nut to crack, even for the somewhat experienced adventurers.

All I need is home (my feet will always land) by whatsdunisdun

Art by shadowfaerieammy

Pairing: Derek Nurse/William Poindexter

Rating: T

“Alright, Poindexter?” Nursey asks, a soft smile on his face, bright sunlight behind him, lighting up his hair like a misshapen halo. “Alright, Nurse,” Dex replies, and if Nursey doesn’t drop his hand once he stands up, Dex isn’t really one to complain. He didn’t know he could have this, but now doesn’t know how to live without it. OR: 5 times Nursey found Dex and 1 time Dex found Nursey

A Cat By Any Other Name by WhatWouldLilyDo

Art by pretty-meris

Pairing: Derek Nurse/William Poindexter

Rating: T

Nursey sat by the cat and held out a finger in greeting. “You’re gorgeous. I haven’t seen you before. Hi. I’m Derek.” The cat leaned its head towards his finger cautiously before pressing its head against his hand. Nursey was all too happy to give the cat the petting it wanted. “How are you, this fine day?” The cat stood and looked at Nursey before she arched her back and rubbed it against his hand as she stepped onto his lap. Her eyes seemed to be pointed to the cast on his left arm. “I know,” Nursey said with a sigh. “I play hockey for the Falcs, you see, but a bit of a confession — I didn’t injure myself on the ice. It was totally unchill. I tripped over the boards at the end of the game. I may never be able to show my face in public again. But I have to be chill. For the fans. And Jack drew a falcon, look, so at least I have a neat cast.”

Don’t Keep Your Distance by actualkon

Art by jckzimmermanns

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: E

The kingdom of Montré has, for centuries, been isolated in the snowy mountains, holding its wisdom and secrets of magic close to its heart. Now, for the first time, the kingdom is forging an alliance with the neighboring kingdom of Samwell; their princes, Jack and Eric, are married off to each other. With their fathers dealing with a potential invasion, and their mothers ruling in their place, Jack and Eric are left in a palace on the outskirts of Montré to become familiar with one another.

Fall back together (monsters turned out to be just trees) by whatsdunisdun

Art by topieornottopie

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

Soon enough, something that is surprisingly not Beyoncé is blaring out of the car’s speakers, and Parson is trying to see how loud he can turn the music up without pissing off Jack, who appears to be attempting to read a history book in the middle seat. Connor doesn’t understand these people most of the time, but he loves them. Reluctantly, but still.

OR: Whiskey, Chad L, Jack, Bitty, Kent and Tater go on a weekend road trip/camping getaway together. Some unlikely friendships ensue, some emotions are discussed, and some relationships are finally worked out.

Flasks of edelweiss by palateens

Art by intimatopia

Pairing: Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

edelweiss n. - a European perennial symbolizing adventure and notoriety. literally translated as "noble white"

flask n. - a metal container used to hold and conceal liquid. sometimes a tool of dependency for the excessive.

It’s the first time Jack realizes why Kent’s eyes change the way they do. More often than not, Kent remembers while Jack forgets.

For Good by sailorsav

Art by jckzimmermanns

Pairing: Adam Birkholtz/Justin Oluransi

Rating: G

 Adam Birkholtz has been racing teams of sled dogs most of his life. The sweet isolation of living in a tiny town of Northern Maine let him excel at that. There’s no one he’d rather be around than his dogs. Well, not until he meets the new vet in town and then he wants to be with his dogs and Dr. Oluransi.

Long story short: A Holsom Sled Dog AU

From afar by hockeydyke

Art by tangotangredi

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

National Geographic wildlife photographer Jack Zimmermann arrives at a small, uninhabited island off the coast of Georgia to get some shots of migratory birds, but there's something else lurking in the waters, and he's pretty sure it's watching him. The problem? Jack can't swim.

Got Your Back by LeftWingLibrarian

Art by rub-a-dubb

Pairing: Gen, Shitty Knight & Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

Extrovert Shitty adopts cold hockey robot Jack Zimmermann.

Hey there Ghosties, it’s us, ya boys! by emimix3

Art by omgtranspoindexter

Rating: T

It would sound like a stupid idea, but the year was 2016 and the new Ghostbusters movie had just come out. So of course, when there were issues with the Haus' ghosts, Tango's first idea was for him and his friends to become the local paranormal investigators. If they wanted Dibs, it was that or massaging feet for months anyway.

Choose Your Own Adventure story (mobile-and-desktop friendly) based on the adventures of the Tadpoles hunting ghosts.

The Hothead and the Cat by bellabee

Art by nubs-mgee

Pairing: Derek Nurse/William Poindexter

Rating: G

William Poindexter was not soft, thank you very much. Anybody who knew him could certainly attest to that. He was as hot headed as his hair would suggest and had a fuse shorter than Bittle. It wasn’t often that he showed emotions other than indifference or anger, and when he did it was usually to Bitty or Chowder. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t feel any other emotions, obviously, he just wasn’t one to show them. This, among many other reasons, was why it was so baffling to Nursey when Dex suddenly stopped on the walk back to the Haus at the sound of a pitiful mewl from a bush. He had come to an abrupt stop, causing Nursey to run into his back and almost topple over. Dex grabbed his arm to steady him, though not without shushing him for the noise he created from his clumsiness.

While on a walk, Nursey and Dex stumble across an injured kitten. Once they get her fixed up, neither can bear to get rid of her. Thus, she becomes their secret basement cat.

I Wanna See You Be Brave by Kirani

Art By dyinginjapanese

Pairing: Denise Ford/Tony Tangredi/Connor Whisk, Connor Whisk/OMC, Minor or Background Relationships

Rating: T

In which crushes are had, feelings are talked about, and chirping is indistinguishable from flirting.

Is Forever Enough? By ershai

Art by actualkon

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

"Eric crept cautiously toward the street. No one was in sight; whoever had been speaking was no longer there. He didn’t know whether to be glad of it or not. His head was pounding, he was in a strange place - who could say if the unknown speakers were friend or foe? He had no memory of how he had come to be here. He could barely remember his own name, his head hurt so monstrously.”

The Kiss: Five Years On by blueflamingo

Art by korechtonia

Pairing: Kent Parson/Jeff “Swoops” Troy

Rating: T

Five years after The Kiss, a journalist wanting to write about how hockey's changed reaches out to players across the NHL.

Learned Our Lessons Well by McBangle

Art by immahockeysticktoyou

Pairing: Gen, Shitty Knight & Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

Shitty had known enough sons of celebrities and millionaires to have a pretty clear idea of what Jack Zimmermann would be like. But this kid was nothing like any of them. For some reason, Shitty couldn’t shake the urge to protect this quiet, awkward nerd. Or to maybe actually be friends with him.

Or, scenes from Shitty’s and Jack’s friendship, from their frog year through Shitty’s second year at Harvard Law.

Let Him Dance With Me (Just for the Hell of It) by shiptoomuch

Art by karin848

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: E

Turns out having loud sex with your fwb does not make you popular with the neighbors...

Like the Way It’s Going by deppendlttleocean

Art by pwoops

Pairing: Kent Parson/Jeff “Swoops” Troy

Rating: T

Kent Parson spent the ages of 18 through 24 pining over a boy who didn’t love him anymore (maybe ever) and then spent all of 25 and the first month of 26 thinking about the first “real” crush he ever had. eff Troy had been a year older than him and a year younger than his sister Naomi. But Naomi had repeated Kindergarten and she and Jeff had ended up in the same class. Then he ended up at every single one of Naomi’s birthday parties and sleepovers, and then he ended up at their house after school every single day until he and Naomi were inseparable. Then he and Kent were inseparable.

The Line Between by writingonpostcards

Art by transzimmermann

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: M

After accusing his partner, Kent, of being a double-agent, Jack is suspended from his job. One year later, Jack’s put back on duty with Bitty, a US agent five years his junior. It’s hard not to read it as a snub. Jack and Bitty’s partnership is rocky, with distrust on both sides. When a chance arises for Jack to prove his suspicions about Kent, can he move past his resentment toward Bitty so they can work together and finally prove he was right?

More Than a Friend by believesinponds

Art by lasenbyphoenix

Pairing: Alexei Mashkov/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

Jack sees Tater as more than a teammate, more than a friend. On a long roadie, Tater does something about it.

My Love Keeps Me Warm by kirani

Art by sexydexynurse

Pairing: Chris Chow/Caitlin Farmer/Derek Nurse/William Poindexter, Chris Chow/Caitlin Farmer, Derek Nurse/William Poindexter, Background Ford/Lardo, Background George/OFC, Past Dex/Whiskey

Rating: E

Will Poindexter is not looking forward to six months of darkness at the remote Antarctica scientific base he’s stationed at, until his colleague Derek Nurse approaches him with a mutually beneficial arrangement, and then one thing leads to another and, well, the dark gets a lot more interesting.

New Face of Failure by Khashana

Art by abominableobriens

Pairing: Jack Zimmermann/Kent Parson

Rating: M

Fresh out of rehab, an angry, jaded Jack is dragged unwillingly to the Olympics, where he begins a passionate love affair with a figure skater who understands him more than he thought possible.

Newsies Need (Ford’s) Help Today by TheAceofLyz

Art by jckzimmermanns

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: G

Denice Ford has been searching for a job, but the one she ends up with is in a world she thought she left behind.

It's still going to be awesome, though.

No Question by winchysteria

Art by tangotangredi

Pairing: Chris Chow/Caitlin Farmer

Rating: G

It is a well-curated myth that Caitlin Farmer has been certain about everything she has ever done in her entire life.

Now I’m A Believer by sc010f

Art | Art2 by pwoops

Pairing: Kent Parson/Jeff “Swoops” Troy

Rating: no rating

Jeff has never believed in luck. Rituals aren’t superstitions - rituals are ways of focusing the mind. Jeff has never believed in God, really, either. If he’s ever believed in anything, it’s been hockey. He loves his mom, but love is different from belief, and later he loved Tristan, and probably believed in him, too. These days, though, Jeff knows better than to believe in anything other than himself. He exists, he breathes, he works, and he still loves his mom, but love is different from belief. It’s not hubris, it’s just a fact. A lifetime of hockey had been taken from him, but at least he gets to keep his music.

Of imagination, all compact by akaparalian

Art by zim-tits

Pairing: Derek Nurse/William Poindexter

Rating: T

“Well, we can’t just leave him here,” Dex snarls, pacing back and forth and occasionally raking his hands through his hair so violently that it’s started to stick out in all directions. “Personally, I’m thinking I should turn him into an earthworm and leave him out on a rock to fry.” “You can’t turn me into an earthworm,” the stranger calls dismissively from the other end of the glade, where Dex had ordered him to stand so that he and Chowder could discuss amongst themselves how best to ‘deal with him.’ He’d acquiesced, at least in the sense of physically going over to where Dex had told him to go, but he hasn’t exactly been letting them get on with their business without input. “And why not?” Dex snarls, spinning around to glare at him. “Dex,” Chowder points out, as calmly as possible, “you can’t turn him into an earthworm. You’re terrible at that sort of thing.”

Or: the lunatic, the lover, and the poet.

Off to the Races by blindinglights

Art by actualkon

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

The thing is, Bitty knows that Jack doesn’t mind Bitty racing because Jack still races. He knows this, they’ve talked about it a lot. He also knows that Jack is only worried this time because of the fact that he’s racing the Lax Bros again, because of some stupid bet they made before.

On the Wings of Dragons by effyeahzimbits

Art by KARIN848

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

The How to Train Your Dragon AU that nobody realised they needed until now.

The Vikings of Samwell have been at war with dragons for centuries. Until one day, a young man by the name of Eric Bittle changes destiny. He wouldn’t kill a dragon.

Out of the Hockey Rink and Down the Rabbit Hole by Black_market_orchids_and_books

Art by missweber

Pairing: Kent Parson/Jeff “Swoops” Troy

Rating: T

"There were labels on the bottle and the plate that held the cake; the former said ‘Drink Me’ while the latter said ‘Eat Me.’ Kent had to laugh at that. This was some weird kind of Alice in Wonderland shit. Still, he couldn’t just unfall through the hole. The only way out of here was through that door..."

Kent Parson has become Alice, left to wander Wonderland to find a way out again. Everything about Wonderland is just strange and there is this vague sense of familiarity that Kent gets from the people he meets there, but he just can't remember. Why is all of this happening? He was just trying to practice when it all started…

Paint Me Like One of Your French Canadians by Denois

Art by pastel-franceschi

Pairing: Derek Nurse/William Poindexter

Rating: M

Lardo hooked Dex up with an extra part time job to help make ends meet back in his frog year. Modeling for the art classes was pretty easy money, and the team never had to know. Until Nursey took an art elective and needed a private model to complete his project and pass the class. Nursey's sure that he can keep it professional and friendly....as long as Dex never sees the completed paintings.

Photosynthesize (and drink up the sunrise) by Faiasakura

Art by abominableobriens

Pairing: Larissa Duan/Kent Parson

Rating: T

Lardo wasn’t anticipating much time for relationships or dating when she moved to New York. If she’s truthful to herself, she doesn’t know what she was anticipating. But Kent feels like coming home.

The one where starving artist Lardo meets Kent, son of the local bakery owner. Romance ensues, revelations are had, and things don't end so much as they progress.

Pies, waves and kisses by bittycanbake

Art by ForFutureReference

Pairing: Derek Nurse/William Poindexter

Rating: T

In a world where magic, ghosts, fae, demi-demigods and monsters are real, Nursey Patrol has a whole different meaning for poor ol' Dex and the rest of the Samwell crew.

When Nursey proposes they go on holiday to his parents' cottage in Cornwall, England, Dex manages to convince Nursey that Lardo, Shitty, Bitty and Jack should come with. Y'know, make it a couples' holiday... only he and Nursey aren't a couple yet. But hey, at least Dex will have the backup he needs for Nursey Patrol.

A pinch of magic by halfdesertedstreets

Art by abominableobriens

Pairing: Justin Oluransi/Kent Parson, Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann, Justin Oluransi/Jack Zimmermann, Justin Oluransi/Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

Jack pauses at his doorstop, key in hand, nonplussed as he takes in the small army of people hauling boxes and furniture into the once-empty house. “Swoops, if you drop that box of plates, I’m fucking murdering you!” a voice calls out in cheerful warning. “That dining set has been in Ransom’s family for over twenty years!” “What the hell, bro, plates do not last that fucking long!” a tall figure balancing a precarious stack of boxes yells back.

Or, the one where Jack is a solitary spellbook shopkeeper, whose quiet life gains a lot more color when Kent Parson and Justin Oluransi, warlock partners deeply in love, move into the house across the street.

Real Gone by moransroar

Art by kittpurrson

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: G

“Better keep an eye on him,” Shitty muses as down below, the coaches call everyone together to start the tryout process, and Bitty privately thinks he won’t have any trouble keeping his eyes on that.

Roll for Initiative by bookwyrmling

Art by faiasakura

Pairing: Larissa Duan/Kent Parson

Rating: T  

“Are you working on any art projects right now?” “Shits!” “I’m allowed to ask!” he defended himself. “You’ve always loved art and then you just suddenly dropped it all and flew across the country.” “I’m getting my life together!” Larissa argued. “It feels more like you’re running away." Larissa glared out her apartment window, hiding from the late summer heat as her air conditioner burned through her paycheck. “You’d know about that, wouldn’t you?” she asked, not quite regretting the words as much as she knew she should.

Sometimes it takes a run-in at a frat party and a Dungeons & Dragons campaign to realize how much life there is left to live.

Send Me Back A Thousand Days by ackermom

Art by faiasakura

Pairing: Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

The boy in the frame is slipping off his jacket. He looks into the camera, suddenly aware of its presence. He’s not smiling yet. But the sun is shining across his face, and Jack remembers that this was the first time he ever loved Kent.

Seventh Time’s The Charm by halfdesertedstreets (coming soon)

Art by korechtonia

Strictly Professional by blindinglights

Art by goldenknighter

Pairing: Alexei Mashkov/Kent Parson

Rating: T

Kent Parson gets injured right after the start of the season and Alexei Mashkov ends up assigned to help him get back on the ice.

Summer Camp by RoyGoodRoyGreat

Art by smhloudboy

Pairing: Larissa Duan/Shitty Knight

Rating: T

Shitty and Lardo decide to end Shitty's Samwell career with a bang by signing up to be camp counselors.

The Thing About William Poindexter by shadowfaerieammy

Art by sexydexynurse

Pairing: Derek Nurse/William Poindexter

Rating: T

William Poindexter is a private person; he likes to keep things to himself. Everyone knows this, especially his roommate and D-man Derek Nurse. But when Derek Nurse realizes that his roommate might be hiding something huge, he takes it upon himself to uncover the truth with the help of his friends. What could he possibly discover?

Trail Magic by Denois

Art by tangotangredi

Pairing: Chris Chow/Derek Nurse/William Poindexter

Rating: M

Five days after winning the Frozen Four, Dex’s world flipped upside down. When his friends heard that he was planning to hike the Appalachian Trail with just his two Newfoundland dogs, they invited themselves along. Are any of them prepared for the highs and lows of the mountain ranges or each other?

We must open our hands by kirani

Art by carys

Pairing: Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

“Shapeshifting? That’s rare. May I ask what kind of bird?” Kent smiled again, glad it hadn’t derailed the conversation. “A crow.” The man, Jack, hummed. “I would have taken you for something lighter. Smaller, maybe.” “Hey, is that a comment about my height?” Kent put a hand on his hip. “Haha, no,” Jack replied. “Just the feeling I get from your magic.” “Ah, an empath. Also rare.” Jack’s cheeks colored and Kent nearly melted. Handsome, magic, and shy? Adorable.

We Say Please by giraffeter

Art by 4rekid

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann, Larissa Duan/Shitty Knight

Rating: T

A year after his divorce, Jack Zimmermann is finally getting the hang of this whole "single parent" thing. When his best friends Shitty and Lardo ask Jack's daughter to be a co-flower-girl in their wedding, Jack meets their friend Bitty - a single dad, just like him. The fact that Bitty is sweet, charming, and cute as a button? That's just icing on the (wedding) cake.

Eric "Bitty" Bittle has a thriving bakery and an adorable little girl - too bad he doesn't have much of a social life. All that changes when he meets sexy hockey star Jack Zimmermann. So what if Jack is probably straight? It's just nice to make a friend who understands what Bitty's going through.

Can these two single dads overcome heartbreak and find love again?

Welcome to the Neighborhood & Welcome to Our Hearts by Lukutoukka

Art by vicioushyperbolizer

Pairing: Caitlin Farmer/William Poindexter, Chris Chow/Caitlin Farmer/William Poindexter

Rating: T

He saw them for the first time the morning two days after he moved in. He ran into them a few weeks later. With a little help from his favorite d-man, maybe he could be in their lives for a lot longer than that.

you could make this place beautiful by sophiegaladheon

Art by karin848

Pairing: Eric Bittle/Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann

Rating: T

Eric Bittle has thirteen soulmates. Thirteen. A baker’s dozen of soulmates. There was something appropriate about that. It fit.

You Make Me Happy by Lukutoukka

Art by theartofhellebarde

Pairing: Alexei Mashkov/Kent Parson

Rating: T

It's the first time Kent and Tater will see each other since Tater was traded from the Aces to the Falconers. They're... excited. A lot. Jack is not equipped for any of that, but especially not the dog in his locker room. Hold on, Tater the dog?

[panfishonthefly]

Go Big Or Go Home - Flies for Big Panfish!

Do you want to catch big panfish? Try fishing larger flies! Most anglers fish flies in the 8-12 size range for panfish. They use small flies for good reason as bluegills and other sunfish have small mouths. That being said, larger panfish have the uncanny ability to cram large objects into those tiny mouths. Think back to the years before you picked up a fly rod for the first time. Many of you probably had a background in spin or bait casting. How many times were you surprised by a large bluegill that ate your crank bait, spinnerbait or 7" plastic worm that was intended for largemouth bass? It was these experiences that led me to start throwing larger flies when I want to target big panfish.

How Big Is BIG?

I am always amazed at the size fly that can be crammed into the mouth of a large bluegill. While I have occasionally hooked large sunfish on bass flies larger than a size 2, I consider a size 6 or 4 hook the perfect platform to build a fly to target large panfish. A size six seems to be the sweet spot. A fly that size is large enough to attract the attention of large bluegill and the occasional bass but it small enough to catch fish in the 6-8 inch range as well.

Expect Fewer But Larger Fish.

The downside to fishing larger flies is that you will usually catch fewer fish. It is not that smaller panfish will not be interested in your offerings its just that they have a hard time getting their little mouths around them. Another downside will be missed hits. Often smaller fish will pick up a large fly, and you will detect the hit. When you go to set the hook, there is nothing there. That is because the smaller fish were only able to grab a portion of the fly and did not have the business end (the hook) in their mouths. If you're looking to keep your rod bent all day long its best to go with smaller flies.

The good news is that larger flies often attract the attention of larger fish. Often these fish will ignore standard-sized offerings then viciously attack a larger fly. Just like their cousins, the largemouth bass once they get big, their feeding habits change. A 12-inch bass may be content to chase down dragonflies all day long, but once that fish gets larger, it’s feeding habits will change. The larger fish select larger food items, expend as little energy as possible and feed less often. My experience has shown me that large bluegill and other sunfish are no different than bass in that regard.

The Diet Of A Large Bluegill

There is no doubt that large bluegills eat the same things their smaller siblings do. As they grow bigger, they add more items to their diet. These include things like large dragonfly larva (and adults), crayfish, baitfish including young of the year bluegills, larger terrestrial insects like hoppers and cicadas even tadpoles and small frogs. If they can cram it into their mouths, it is fair game. I learned this lesson myself several years ago. A few of the lakes I fish have large numbers of tree branches that extend over the water. Birds build nests in those branches, and occasionally the young birds fall or get pushed out of the nest. I observed this firsthand once, and the bird disappeared in a swirl instantly, the moment it hit the water. I suspected a bass was behind the attack and that night I tied a few baby bird imitations made out of spun deer hair. The next time I was on the water, I tried my new creation. The first fish I caught on it was a bluegill! I thought it was a fluke, but I took two more 11 inch bluegills on that fly before I hooked my first bass!

Flies for big panfish

Fishing baby bird imitations for big bluegills may not be for everyone, but fortunately, you have a lot of other options. You can turn your standard bluegill patterns into big fish flies by supersizing them. Here are a few of my favorites.

Big Nymphs

Take a fly like the iconic Bream Killer. It is typically tied in a size eight to ten. Tie them in size six or four, and they become an excellent fly for targeting large panfish. Believe me, a bluegill 8" or larger will have no problem annihilating a size six fly.

Streamers

Baitfish patterns are another favorite of mine for large panfish. As a bluegill grows in size, small fish begin to appear on the menu. Anything from the classic woolly bugger to more imitative streamers will work on large panfish. My favorite big fish fly in this category is the James Wood Bucktail. This pattern will be familiar to long-time readers of this blog but is likely unknown to many of you. The James Wood Bucktail is a creation of Harry Murray, the owner of Murrays Fly Shop in Edinburg, Virginia. It has its roots as a bonefish pattern, but Mr. Murray created this pattern to imitate a juvenile sunfish to target smallmouth bass on his local waters. It does not look like a sunfish to me, but Harry was on to something when he developed this fly as the fish love it!

Topwater Bugs

The sky is the limit here all of the standard patterns will work just go a little larger. Again simply upsize your fly to a size six or size four and your good to go! A favorite this summer has been a big, chunky ,black Fat Albert. The Fat Albert will float like a cork all day long and will support the biggest panfish nymph in your box if you want to hang a dropper off it. It has a provides a buggy silhouette with wiggly rubber legs pointing in every direction. Tied on a long shank size six hook, it is a mouthful for all but the largest panfish but they can’t resist it! I have caught enough bass on this pattern that it has earned a permanent spot in my bass box as well!

Hold On Tight!

One of the added benefits of fishing larger flies is that these flies will attract the attention of larger predators. Bass, pickerel, pike even the occasional catfish will show interest in your larger offerings! You may catch fewer panfish, but if you throw a few bass in the mix, it can make for a good day on the water.

A Word On Conservation

Remember those larger panfish are important in maintaining healthy fish populations! If your keeping fish for the pan let the big ones go and fill your string with fish under 8”!

[minestland]

Prickly pear and claret-cup cactus (these will soon be showing off their bright spring blooms), and the view from the Toroweap desert water tanks. Here is a photograph of one of the many Fairy Shrimp residing briefly in these ran filled desert water pools at Toroweap: www.flickr.com/photos/12150532@N04/32824618843/in/photost... I stopped on my loop hike and later Fred and I returned to these artistic desert water tanks, some brimming with Fairy Shrimp - - to photograph them and enjoy the sight of the short lives of the desert Fairy Shrimp. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Not one to sit still for long, I took photos at the overlook and then walked south to photograph Vulcan's Throne and Lava Falls. Then returned to hike the rim of the canyon along a circular route, cutting through the empty of campers, campground, and spending time enjoying the fairy shrimp show, in many of the recently filled desert water tanks. Part of the appeal of Toroweap is there are no signs saying "if you fall over the edge it is a long way down" or five foot high cyclone fences keeping you away from the canyon rim edge. In short you have to use good judgment and the park service doesn't try to warn and protect the lives of everyone. who can't use common sense, good judgment and care. In other words: Let Natural Selection .... work. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fred and I did our best to contact "somebody" with the park service, BLM, or any ranger station to find out the conditions of the roads leading to Toroweap (Tuweep) and to see if we could get a permit to camp there for one night (Friday March 3rd, 2017). We couldn't reach anyone and when we were given the opportunity to leave a call back number, nobody did. We decided to head for Kanab, Utah and spend Friday night there and head out to Toroweap early the Saturday morning and make a day trip out of it. There are three roads into Toroweap: 1. From St. George, called the Main Street Route. It is 90 miles long and climbs up over the south shoulder of Mt. Trumbull (good petroglyph panel). It is impassable in winter due to snow and mud. It is the route I took on my first visit to Toroweap in April of 2008. 2. From Colorado City, called the Clayhole Route. This is the shortest way in, just 56 miles but it is impassable when wet (and it had been wet before this March 2017 trip). 3. West of Fredonia, is the so called Sunshine Route. It is 61 miles and is the most dependable way in to Toroweap. That is the road I came out of in 2008 after camping at Toroweap (first come first serve camping back then). And this is the road Fred and I took to and from Toroweap from Kanab. No matter which of the three routes you take in, there is now a gate past the rangers' station, which doesn't allow vehicles to get in and out during "off hours", so no stealth camping. And the road between the rangers' station and the viewpoint and campground at Toroweap, takes care, caution, and high clearance for the last mile or two. Big towing bill if you do a transmission on this stretch. We had a long talk with volunteer ranger Bob on the way in (and later on the way out). The campground was empty he told us and if we could have camped had we known, who to contact (we do now). Oh well. Next time. We saw only a handful of people at Toroweap. Most seemed intent on doing a Chevy Chase "vacation" visit to this beautiful sight. They drove up took a few photos, and left. Fred and I wandered the canyon rim and spent considerable time enjoying the desert water tanks, full from recent rains, and some alive with fairy shrimp. Fairy Shrimp [Branchinecta lynchi] and Tadpole shrimp have incredible "survival and reproduction" strategies as many plants and animals of harsh desert environments do. Freshwater shrimp can complete an entire life cycle in two weeks if needed: egg to egg laying adult. Freshwater shrimp produce two types of eggs. 1. non-fertilized eggs and thick walled "resting eggs". The first kind are produced when water and food are both abundant and hatch only females. When the pools start drying up, food is scarce, and the chemistry of the stagnant water changes - the shrimp produce eggs of both sexes. This generation of mating shrimp produce the "resting eggs". These can withstand freezing, boiling heat, and complete drying out of the eggs (for decades, even for 100 years) UNTIL the next fresh water in the right amounts, falls again. The "resting eggs" can only hatch if the pool dries out completely. Fairy Shrimp, have two pairs of 11 legs, which they use to row their way around in life, swimming upside down. Their color tends to reflect what they eat, so the fairy shrimp at Tuweep were "green" looking. Algae eaters no doubt. They usually hatch in January and die in early March. I will post a few photos I took of the fairy shrimp in the pools at Toroweap. Here is the link to photographs taken, when I camped at Toroweap in April of 2008. A campground owl kept up his call, all night long and a beautiful moon crossed the night sky. A wonderful experience: www.flickr.com/photos/12150532@N04/albums/72157604781519716 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Friday the 3rd of March, 2017: The weather was great. Warm and sunny. Fred and I spent hours hiking the plateau containing innumerable, unique, and artful sandstone rock forms. Little Finland, now located in the Gold Butte National Monument. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Story: There is beauty in winter I do like living in a place where there are four seasons to look forward to. Winter, however, is not my favorite (that would be Autumn). What I have against winter is: 1. adverse road conditions where "getting out" on the road is dangerous, stressful, or impossible. 2. long nights and short days. 3. too much snow, clouds and high winds. 4. cold. I list cold last for good reason. You can dress for cold weather and if the roads are OK, and the weather good there are a lot of things I enjoy doing during the short days of winter. The winter of 2017-2017 has been the absolute worst year in a decade, for poor road and driving conditions (ice, snow, visibility, slush, wind, etc.) The result: cabin fever and too many jigsaw puzzles. So after the last football game on TV I started looking forward to heading to the Southwest as a way to "get outside" and hike and drive back roads as soon as possible. I watched the 15 day weather forecast like a hawk for all the towns closest to my favorite places in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. Turns out there were some really nice windows of great weather in Southern Utah, Arizona, and Northeastern Nevada in January and February. I was primed to go. I even stirred up some interest among a few of my like minded friends. The problem: When roads were good to drive in Eastern Washington (where I live) and wonderful in the Southwest (where I wanted to go), the roads in between were terrible (covered and iced, traffic accidents, and road closure signs). Around the first part of February there appeared to be a brief opening for road conditions from here to there, with great weather: there (The Southwest). I had two of my road trip friends convinced to go for it, but then yet another succession of winter storms moved across the Western states and I was forced to admit - - road trip #1 for 2017 was not a go. My friends agreed. Trip cancelled. Cabin Fever continued. Another SW road trip weather and road conditions window happened around the 22nd of February. Ed, a good friend and an excellent photographer, whom I have traveled with many times on road trips, had an opportunity to join me. His wife was back in the Southeast helping out their daughter, who was having major foot surgery, and my wife was in Colorado with her two little granddaughters day care duties. So Ed and I set the 22nd of February as our departure date. We had motel reservations set in Boise for the way down and back and then several days at St. George, Utah, where we intended to use as our "base camp" for drives, hikes, and photo ops in the Arizona, Utah, Nevada corner of the Southwest. Ed picked me up in his nice Jeep Wrangler on the 22nd and we were on our way. What a great feeling it was to be "on the road again" and out of the house! We headed for Boise, where we had rooms reserved for Wednesday night the 22nd. Between my house and Boise the roads had been ice and snow clear. No problems driving at all. We headed out of Boise for St. George, at dawn on the morning of the 23rd of February. The farther east we traveled on the interstate, the higher the winds became, snow started falling and worst of all, ice patches started showing up on the interstate. I-84 east of Boise, is an 80 mph highway that some folks will drive at 80 mph, even when ice and snow on the road, coupled with poor visibility tell most reasonable people, that isn't a great idea. About 100 miles from Boise near an exit off I-84 (near Bliss, Idaho), traffic came to a stop. State police were directing everybody off the interstate eastbound, who had not yet passed that exit. The interstate was closed down due to a wreck involving to semi rigs, on the ice covered freeway. We were lucky. Had we arrived ten minutes earlier we would have been past the exit and stuck in the long parking lot of cars, having to wait for hours for the wreck to be cleared and the eastbound lanes re-opened. Ed and I checked the maps and he used a smart phone ap to see that roads all over the area were showing no movement of traffic. It appeared we could get around the wreck by taking highway 26 as others were doing, but I wanted to be certain and ask about the interstate road conditions beyond the wreck between Bliss and Salt Lake City. I jumped out of Ed's Jeep and in blizzard conditions, went over to a police vehicle blocking access to the interstate. He rolled down his window and confirmed that yes, you could get around the wreck by taking a loop on highway 26 but it was slow going with all the interstate traffic, attempting to do so. When I asked about the highway and weather conditions beyond the wreck to Ogden and Salt Lake City, he just shook his head and said "terrible". I returned to the Ed and his Jeep with the bad news, and though both of us hated the decision, we decided to abandon our trip to the Southwest. We called and cancelled our room reservations and started back to Boise, Baker City, La Grande, and Pendleton. Ironically the farther we drove towards Eastern Washington, the better the weather and roads became. At Pendleton, the sun was shining, so we decided to salvage the day and took off for Walla Walla, Dayton, and Starbuck, Washington to visit and photograph Palouse Falls. Ed spent Thursday and Friday nights at my house, so Friday, we took a good weather consolation drive along back roads in the Ellensburg, Washington area to photograph some wildlife and winter snow scenes. Saturday morning Ed headed back over Snoqualmie Pass to his home. Exactly one week after Ed and I had given our Southwest trip a try, I decided that the roads and weather forecast again "looked right" for a the trip that had now twice been abandoned. I didn't feel right asking Ed to commit to another attempt, especially since his wife would be returning home from their daughter's place, so I decided to make Mesquite, Nevada, instead of St. George, Utah, my destination and go solo. I called up another "like minded" road trip, backpacking, hiking friend in Boise (Fred), to let him know I was going to give "strike three" a chance, and head out on in my pickup truck on Wednesday the first of March 1st, 2017, as early as possible. Fred (suffering from major cabin fever, like me), said he would love to meet up with me in Nevada, though he only had a narrow window of two days to spend in the area, due to his work responsibilities. So, I sheepishly called my wife and told her "You won't believe this (but after being married 46 years, of course it didn't surprise her), but I am going to give the trip another - go". Wednesday 3.1.17 I drove to Ely, Nevada.There was only ONE icy interstate section about ten miles long east of Baker City, Oregon, where they reduced the speed limit temporarily to 30 mph, but once past that - - dry road only. When I got to Ely, I got a room for the night. The next morning it was 9 degrees, but no wind, no snow, clear dry highway and THE SUN WAS SHINING. Just before the intersection of Nevada's highways 93 and 168, where I would cut over towards Mesquite, Nevada. My pickup truck shook, then a loud noise boomed. A few seconds later it happened again. I knew immediately what it was, given where I was. Fighter jets (twin tail dual exhaust), were heading single file for some above the desert flight training. They were flying on the deck (a few hundred feet above the ground and at high speed). I pulled over and stopped to watch the last jet cross the road above me and then pull into a vertical climb to join the flight formation gathering. It was a wonderful experience. I got to Mesquite, Nevada and got a room and got my hiking gear ready to go for a trip out to the very recently designated Gold Butte National Monument, a short distance southwest of Mesquite. A cell phone from Fred said he would meet up with me early Friday morning for the back road driving, hiking, and photo ops at: Whitney Pocket; Devil's Throat; and the fascinating rock formations of Little Finland by Mud Wash. We piled into Fred's vehicle Friday morning (a nice roomy Ford Explorer rental unit), and were on our way. The weather was perfect. Few other people out in the area that day. We spent the day hiking and photographing, and bumping along the designated back road routes in the area. To add a little excitement to the day, the left front time of Fred's vehicle blew a hole through the sidewall, while traveling Mud Wash. A Laurel and Hardy scene ensued, as we read the owner's manual, unloaded the back of the Ford Explorer, and got the doughnut spare put on. (Fred doing all the heavy work. Me claiming old age as an excuse for doing the light work associated with the tire change). We got back to Mesquite in time for Fred to get the blown tire replaced and for the two of us to have a nice Mexican dinner at Mesquite. They even had horchata, my favorite drink, when I used to work in Mexico from time to time. Before dawn the next day (Saturday March 4th) we were on our way to Toroweap on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a 56 mile drive, (by the best route) on dirt roads, with a four wheel drive only section near the end. The road started just west of Fredonia, Arizona. There was some conflicting information on whether or not any of the road would be open to Toroweap and we tried in vain, to see if we could obtain a permit to camp the night there. All worked out well though. We decided to spend the night in Kanab, Utah, and make the Toroweap a "day trip", which we did. NOTE: My first and only other trip to Toroweap was in April of 2008. Friend Ed (who had attempted this trip with me a week earlier), friend and photographer John, my son Derek, and I had all four camped at Toroweap on that occasion. We took the long route in from St. George on that trip. With John's guidance, I had just purchased my first digital camera: a Canon Powershot G9, and was trying to learn how to use on the spot. Here are my Flickr photos of that Toroweap trip and camp out: www.flickr.com/photos/12150532@N04/albums/72157604781519716 Fred and I spent the entire day at Toroweap and were surprised to learn that the campground was open but not one person was camping there. I hiked through the campground later in the day and visited site number one, where Ed, John, Derek and I had camped 9 years ago (no permit required then, just first come first serve). I was delighted to find fairy shrimp in some of the sandstone water tanks at Toroweap. Along with tadpole shrimp, I find their life strategy (with eggs viable for up to a century), fascinating. We celebrated our Little Finland on Friday and Toroweap on Saturday good weather and good fortune, with a wonderful, end of the trip dinner at the "Rocking V" in Kanab. I did justice to a one pound rib eye steak and Fred went local with some bison steak washing the meal down with his beverage of choice: a Spiral Jetty. Thanks Fred. Sunday morning Fred headed back to Boise and I dithered. I thought about extending my stay with some hikes in the area but winds in excess of 20 mph and cold weather was going to move into Southern Utah. My wife would be flying home on the 10th, so I decided to start on home myself. I got a surprise on the drive home. North of Ogden, it started blowing and snowing. It got worse and worse until visibility was really a problem, with snow on the road but fortunately no ice. All the way to Twin Falls, it was near blizzard conditions. Then the snow stopped for most of the way to Ontario, Oregon, where I got a room for the night after seeing the huge "Winter Driving Conditions Ahead" warning sign, across the freeway. Monday morning the 6th of March: no wind, no snow, dry road, sunshine. I drove from Ontario to La Grande, Oregon. No problem. Then across the Blue Mountains between La Grande and Pendleton, I was reminded that winter is not yet over in the Pacific Northwest. Solid ice on the road and 40 mph across the Blue Mountains. I kept my pickup truck in 4WD, Everyone, mostly truckers, were driving sensibly in the conditions, so I didn't see any accidents or vehicles in the ditch. I was sure glad I hadn't tried driving the road the night before. At a lunch stop at Meacham (yes of course: biscuits and gravy, side of bacon, and big glass of milk at the Oregon Trail Cafe), locals talked of the snow that was due in the mountains that night. I was pleased to arrive home by noon on Monday the 6th of March, 2017. A good road trip, excellent hiking, good company, and I managed to gain weight on the trip (might have had something to do with Mexican dinner, in Mesquite; Steak dinner in Kanab; and more biscuits and gravy at Meacham). Enjoy some of the photographs. Oldmantravels 7 March 2017 https://flic.kr/p/SHruN5

[oumaimaoriflame]

Tips On How To Pick The Perfect Recumbent Trike For Sale http://bit.ly/30WvbQv

By Kevin Turner

Most people are taken back to their juvenile bike riding days when they think about trikes. Three-legged bikes were the norm when a child started learning to ride. Moving on to a two-legged bike was seen as an amazing achievement, which is why going back to a trike seems strange for many people. However, trikes have gained a lot of popularity over the past few years, and riding them is a favorite recreational activity. If you want to enjoy the massive health and entertainment benefits which come from riding a recumbent trike for sale, you have to choose the perfect model. Here are tips and guidelines to help you make an informed decision. The first thing you need to think about is the type of bicycle that will be best suited for your needs. Here, you have to options, the delta bike, and the tadpole. The delta trikes have a wheel in front which helps with the steering. On the other hand, the tadpole trike kind of looks like the opposite of the delta bicycle in that it has two wheels in front and one wheel at the back. The second thing that you need to think about is your bike riding abilities. Note that the delta trike is best for people that have been riding trikes for a while and are able to control the ride through sharp corners and turns. The tadpole bicycle is best when you need a bike that can stably negotiate corners, even when speeding. The other consideration to make is the mobility of the rider. The good thing about the delta trikes is that you can get on and off it with ease. The simplicity of the design makes it low enough to hop on to and uncomplicated to get off. On the other hand, tadpole bicycle is a little challenging, especially for elderly people and people with disabilities. Next, think about what you mainly want to use the bicycle for. If you need a bike that is fast enough to participate in activities such as road races, recumbent trikes may not have the speed that two-legged bikes have. However, if you need something to help with the regular ride around the neighborhood while having some fun and exercising your muscles, there is no better option than the recumbent trikes for sale. Then, think about the type of steering that you are comfortable with. Trikes come with two types of steering. There those that have an over the seat steering while others feature the under the seat steering. When choosing the steering type, think about the amount of traffic on the roads that you use often. OSS steering is best for busy roads because you can steer without looking. USS will need you to turn to look beforehand. The suspension system is another consideration to make. If you have back problems, or you are going to be steering through rough roads, think about a bicycle with a great suspension. The excellent suspension takes the pressure off your back when riding. Those are the most important tips and guidelines to follow when buying a recumbent bicycle. There are different trike brands at different prices. Compare and contrast before picking the one that gives you the best value for your money.

About the Author:

Get excellent recumbent tricycle purchase tips and advice, right now. You can also get more info about a great adult recumbent trike for sale at http://bit.ly/2XXmKUi today.

[beautysupply101]

Considerations To Make When Choosing An Ideal Recumbent Trike For Sale

By Kevin Turner

Most people are taken back to their juvenile bike riding days when they think about trikes. Three-legged bikes were the norm when a child started learning to ride. Moving on to a two-legged bike was seen as an amazing achievement, which is why going back to a trike seems strange for many people. However, trikes have gained a lot of popularity over the past few years, and riding them is a favorite recreational activity. If you want to enjoy the massive health and entertainment benefits which come from riding a recumbent trike for sale, you have to choose the perfect model. Here are tips and guidelines to help you make an informed decision. The first thing you need to think about is the type of bicycle that will be best suited for your needs. Here, you have to options, the delta bike, and the tadpole. The delta trikes have a wheel in front which helps with the steering. On the other hand, the tadpole trike kind of looks like the opposite of the delta bicycle in that it has two wheels in front and one wheel at the back. The second thing that you need to think about is your bike riding abilities. Note that the delta trike is best for people that have been riding trikes for a while and are able to control the ride through sharp corners and turns. The tadpole bicycle is best when you need a bike that can stably negotiate corners, even when speeding. The other consideration to make is the mobility of the rider. The good thing about the delta trikes is that you can get on and off it with ease. The simplicity of the design makes it low enough to hop on to and uncomplicated to get off. On the other hand, tadpole bicycle is a little challenging, especially for elderly people and people with disabilities. The other consideration to make is the purpose of the machine. If you want a racing bike for the road, trikes may not be the best option. Typically, they are slower than regular biking bikes. On the other hand, if you need a machine that will help you ride around the neighborhood and have some fun while exercising, recumbent trikes for sale are your best deal. Next, think about how easy it is to steer your trike. Most trikes come in one of the two main steering options. First is the over the seat steering. This is great for busy roads because you can twist and turn the bicycle without having to take your eyes off the road. On the other hand, there are those with under the seat steering. These are a challenge on busy roads because the moment you take your eyes off the road to control the trike, you are exposing yourself to dangers of oncoming traffic. The suspension is another important aspect to think about when choosing a recumbent bicycle. The goal is to select the bike with the best suspension as this reduces the possibility of getting hurt on rough roads. A bicycle with a great suspension system is more comfortable and fun to ride. These are the tips and guidelines to consider when shopping for a recumbent trike. Lastly, think about the cost of the bicycle. Compare and contrast the different products in the market before settling on the one that will best suit the riding and recreational needs.

About the Author:

Get excellent recumbent tricycle purchase tips and advice, right now. You can also get more info about a great adult recumbent trike for sale at https://ift.tt/2KFV7vF today.

https://ift.tt/2Z7zS9J

[ralph31ortiz]

App Smashing with Kindergarteners #ipadchat

A conversation with Carrie Willis on episode 83 of the 10-Minute Teacher

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Today Carrie Willis @carriewillis18 talks about how kindergarteners in her STEAM lab use their iPads. They use SeeSaw portfolios, green screen videos, and more. She also talks about what the students do and what the adults do.

Listen Now

Listen on iTunes

Stream by clicking here.

Click to download the transcript or scroll down and read it on this page

Click the button for iTunes or Stitcher to subscribe to this show

    In today’s show, Carrie Willis talks about the workflow in her kindergarten classroom with iPads:

How they use Seesaw

Making videos with green screen

What kindergarteners can do thsmselves

The challenges of kicking off an ipad lab

Workflow with kids

I hope you enjoy this episode with Carrie Willis!

Want to hear another episode on elementary portfolios with SeeSaw? Listen to Suzy Lolley talk about elementary portfolios with SeeSaw.

Selected Links from this Episode

Twitter handle: @carriewillis18

Aurasma

Episode 52 on Aurasma in the classroom – Dr. Tim Green

K’nex Organisms and Life Cycle kit

Green Screen App by Do Ink

SeeSaw app

Episode 27 – Using SeeSaw for Elementary Portfolios

Quiz to see if the 40-Hour Work Week is Right for You from Angela Watson

See “A Stress Free Plan for Closing Out Your School Year“

Some of the links below are affiliate links.

Full Bio As Submitted

Carrie Willis

Carrie Willis is the technology teacher and director at Valley Preparatory School in Redlands, Ca.

Carrie is an Apple Teacher, Microsoft Innovative Educator, DEN STAR, Wonder Innovation Squad member, and all-around techie.

She loves STEAM, PBL, coding, robotics, green screen, app smashing and more. You can follow her on Twitter @carriewillis18.

Transcript for this episode

Click to download the PDF transcript

[Recording starts 0:00:00]

Are you planning your summer like I am? Well I recommend that you get the free video series from my friend Angele Watson. Five summer secrets for a stress-free fall. Just go to coolcatteacher.com/summer.

On the last episode we talked about iPads in kindergarten www.coolcatteacher.com/e82 . Well, today we’re talking about app smashing in kindergarten. This is Episode 83.

The Ten-minute Teacher podcast with Vicki Davis. Every week day you’ll learn powerful practical ways to be a more remarkable teacher today.

VICKI:              Carrie Willis @carriewillis18 from California has been app-smashing with her kindergarteners. Oh my goodness, Carrie, what have you done?

CARRIE:       I’ve been having a lot of fun, we have a brand new STEAM lab at our school this year, so that’s science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. And we’ve had all of us students, grades pre-school through 8 come to our steam lab and just kind of partake in some amazing design projects, engineering projects, technology projects. So I’d like to talk about our kindergarteners today with you.

VICKI:          Cool. Yeah, I think I saw you on Twitter and you were talking about how they were using Aurasma https://www.aurasma.com/ . Had done a show recently on Aurasma http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e52 . But tell us about this project, what did you do?

CARRIE:       So our kindergarten students were taking part in in our international baccalaureate unit on sharing the planet and they had been studying insects and habitats and life cycles and kind of how insects share the plant with humans as well as other living things. So as part of our design and engineering unit in our STEAM lab we had the kindergarteners build different organisms and living things out of K’NEX http://amzn.to/2rPSWcC .

[00:02:00]

                    And we used a K’NEX for education kit called organisms and life cycles. http://amzn.to/2qViqF3   And each student was given a different – kind of like an instruction challenge card where they kind of followed the instructions and built their living things. And then after they were finished we studied food web that included all of these different living things they had built out of K’NEX. So it was like a poster that showed all the living things in the K’NEX kit and where they kind of fell in a food web, you know. You know, what they ate and what ate them.

And the kindergarteners got to study this and do a little bit of research and tried to figure out if they had a caterpillar what does this show that the caterpillars eat and what eats the caterpillars. And then we talked about if this particular student had the caterpillar, what kind of habitat the caterpillars lived in. and they kind of wrote down some facts, some things that they learned from this poster, this bit of kindergarten research that didn’t involve any words but just kind of studying a picture.

And then we used our green screen that we have in our classroom and we used the app, Green Screen by Do Ink https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/green-screen-by-do-ink/id730091131?mt=8   which we absolutely love. If you don’t already have that app downloaded on your iPad and you’re a teacher you need. And I don’t work for them, I just love it that much. And so we put the habitat of the particular organism that student had built in the background and the students sit in front of the green screen and explained kind of their organisms place in this food web or in a food chain and recorded a little video and then made the poster come to life by using Aurasma. https://www.aurasma.com/

And if you’ve never used Aurasma before, it’s an app where you can take a video and overlay it on a still picture, like an actual physical picture. In this case a poster.

[00:04:00]

                    So we would overlay the video of the student with the caterpillar in front of the green screen on top of the caterpillar image on the poster. So when you hold your phone over the picture on the poster that picture would come to life as a video.

VICKI:          So Carrie, I’m curious, you’ve already blown the minds of many people and you’re talking kindergarteners. How much of this work did you have to do and how much did they actually do?

CARRIE:       So the students built their organism, their living thing from the K’NEX all on their own, most of them did not need any help at all. And then when they were finished building they would go over to this poster that we had and they would kind of study the poster and see if they could kind of track the food web and figure out what their organism ate and what eats it. And this wasn’t hard for them because they have been studying this sort of thing in their classroom already having to do with their insect unit that they had been working on. So they knew what he predators were and what insects have food sources.

So they were able to easily kind of analyze this poster and follow it and then most of them had an easy time kind of being able to come up with what sort of habitat their particular living thing would live in. So these kind of range from – there was frogs, there was tadpoles, there was a bald eagle, there was a crab, fish, different insects, there was a mouse. So it was all different things. So they would say whether or not they thought that they lived in a pond or in the ocean.

VICKI:          So they did a pretty good job with the building of the K’NEX and the describing on the green screen. Now, were they able to actually edit the video at all?

CARRIE:       At this point no, they probably would be able to do that but for time sake we just pulled up and image and we did the filming in this case.

[00:06:00]

VICKI:          Okay.

CARRIE:       Our kindergarteners actually have done things with video, they’ve used See Saw and Book Creator to kind of record little journals of their caterpillars, fed them and watched their lifecycle as they turned into butterflies and released them. So they chronicled their lifecycle of their butterflies that they patched in their classroom and they did that themselves using SeeSaw https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seesaw-the-learning-journal/id930565184?mt=8 and Book Creator https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/book-creator-for-ipad/id442378070?mt=8 to create little video journals of this.

So they have done work with video, they just didn’t in this particular case with the green screen video.

VICKI:          Cool. So you’ve just done this incredible app-smashing project and it sounds like a whole lot of technology but you know the question people always ask is did they learn about habitats and insects better with using the technology than they would have without?

CARRIE:       I don’t know if they learned about it better but I feel like they definitely will remember it better because they will go back and they will watch these videos over and over again. I remember as a child different videos and projects that I did but definitely don’t remember worksheets that I did, I definitely don’t remember chapter reviews from my science book. But I definitely remember when I had to create this video as part of my science class on different parts of the body and different bones and muscles.

I mean, I can recite that back because I remember creating this awesome project. So I think there’s a bit more retention when you do these kind of exciting projects with kids.

VICKI:          So we talked with Carrie Willis about app-smashing in kindergarten, it can be done, you can do some really cool things. And I think that we need to give kids the chance and not be scared of these big long names and just let kids create and innovate using technology. We’ve got such a great example form Carrie today.

CARRIE:       Thank you. And I think it’s important to introduce kids to this technology. We don’t have to expect them to be able to do it at this young age but introducing it to them now, they’ll remember that later when they’re a little bit older, when they are matured enough to be able to use it themselves to create great projects.

VICKI:          If you follow my newsletter or blog you’ve probably heard me talk about Angela Watson’s 40-Hour Work Week. coolcatteacher.com/quiz  This program really helps you to be a better teacher, have better classroom management and more organized classroom and so many things. Now, Angela used to be a 5th grade teacher but I’ve actually found a lot of things applicable to my 8th grade and up classroom.

So you can take a quiz to see if this program is right for you. Just go to coolcatteacher.com/quiz and learn more about Angela Watson’s 40-Hour Work Week.

  [End of Audio 0:09:18]

  [Transcription created by tranzify.com. Some additional editing has been done to add grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. Every attempt has been made to correct spelling. For permissions, please email lisa@coolcatteacher.com]

  The post App Smashing with Kindergarteners #ipadchat appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/app-smashing-kindergarteners-ipadchat/

[athena29stone]

App Smashing with Kindergarteners #ipadchat

A conversation with Carrie Willis on episode 83 of the 10-Minute Teacher

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Today Carrie Willis @carriewillis18 talks about how kindergarteners in her STEAM lab use their iPads. They use SeeSaw portfolios, green screen videos, and more. She also talks about what the students do and what the adults do.

Listen Now

Listen on iTunes

Stream by clicking here.

Click to download the transcript or scroll down and read it on this page

Click the button for iTunes or Stitcher to subscribe to this show

    In today’s show, Carrie Willis talks about the workflow in her kindergarten classroom with iPads:

How they use Seesaw

Making videos with green screen

What kindergarteners can do thsmselves

The challenges of kicking off an ipad lab

Workflow with kids

I hope you enjoy this episode with Carrie Willis!

Want to hear another episode on elementary portfolios with SeeSaw? Listen to Suzy Lolley talk about elementary portfolios with SeeSaw.

Selected Links from this Episode

Twitter handle: @carriewillis18

Aurasma

Episode 52 on Aurasma in the classroom – Dr. Tim Green

K’nex Organisms and Life Cycle kit

Green Screen App by Do Ink

SeeSaw app

Episode 27 – Using SeeSaw for Elementary Portfolios

Quiz to see if the 40-Hour Work Week is Right for You from Angela Watson

See “A Stress Free Plan for Closing Out Your School Year“

Some of the links below are affiliate links.

Full Bio As Submitted

Carrie Willis

Carrie Willis is the technology teacher and director at Valley Preparatory School in Redlands, Ca.

Carrie is an Apple Teacher, Microsoft Innovative Educator, DEN STAR, Wonder Innovation Squad member, and all-around techie.

She loves STEAM, PBL, coding, robotics, green screen, app smashing and more. You can follow her on Twitter @carriewillis18.

Transcript for this episode

Click to download the PDF transcript

[Recording starts 0:00:00]

Are you planning your summer like I am? Well I recommend that you get the free video series from my friend Angele Watson. Five summer secrets for a stress-free fall. Just go to coolcatteacher.com/summer.

On the last episode we talked about iPads in kindergarten www.coolcatteacher.com/e82 . Well, today we’re talking about app smashing in kindergarten. This is Episode 83.

The Ten-minute Teacher podcast with Vicki Davis. Every week day you’ll learn powerful practical ways to be a more remarkable teacher today.

VICKI:              Carrie Willis @carriewillis18 from California has been app-smashing with her kindergarteners. Oh my goodness, Carrie, what have you done?

CARRIE:       I’ve been having a lot of fun, we have a brand new STEAM lab at our school this year, so that’s science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. And we’ve had all of us students, grades pre-school through 8 come to our steam lab and just kind of partake in some amazing design projects, engineering projects, technology projects. So I’d like to talk about our kindergarteners today with you.

VICKI:          Cool. Yeah, I think I saw you on Twitter and you were talking about how they were using Aurasma https://www.aurasma.com/ . Had done a show recently on Aurasma http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e52 . But tell us about this project, what did you do?

CARRIE:       So our kindergarten students were taking part in in our international baccalaureate unit on sharing the planet and they had been studying insects and habitats and life cycles and kind of how insects share the plant with humans as well as other living things. So as part of our design and engineering unit in our STEAM lab we had the kindergarteners build different organisms and living things out of K’NEX http://amzn.to/2rPSWcC .

[00:02:00]

                    And we used a K’NEX for education kit called organisms and life cycles. http://amzn.to/2qViqF3   And each student was given a different – kind of like an instruction challenge card where they kind of followed the instructions and built their living things. And then after they were finished we studied food web that included all of these different living things they had built out of K’NEX. So it was like a poster that showed all the living things in the K’NEX kit and where they kind of fell in a food web, you know. You know, what they ate and what ate them.

And the kindergarteners got to study this and do a little bit of research and tried to figure out if they had a caterpillar what does this show that the caterpillars eat and what eats the caterpillars. And then we talked about if this particular student had the caterpillar, what kind of habitat the caterpillars lived in. and they kind of wrote down some facts, some things that they learned from this poster, this bit of kindergarten research that didn’t involve any words but just kind of studying a picture.

And then we used our green screen that we have in our classroom and we used the app, Green Screen by Do Ink https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/green-screen-by-do-ink/id730091131?mt=8   which we absolutely love. If you don’t already have that app downloaded on your iPad and you’re a teacher you need. And I don’t work for them, I just love it that much. And so we put the habitat of the particular organism that student had built in the background and the students sit in front of the green screen and explained kind of their organisms place in this food web or in a food chain and recorded a little video and then made the poster come to life by using Aurasma. https://www.aurasma.com/

And if you’ve never used Aurasma before, it’s an app where you can take a video and overlay it on a still picture, like an actual physical picture. In this case a poster.

[00:04:00]

                    So we would overlay the video of the student with the caterpillar in front of the green screen on top of the caterpillar image on the poster. So when you hold your phone over the picture on the poster that picture would come to life as a video.

VICKI:          So Carrie, I’m curious, you’ve already blown the minds of many people and you’re talking kindergarteners. How much of this work did you have to do and how much did they actually do?

CARRIE:       So the students built their organism, their living thing from the K’NEX all on their own, most of them did not need any help at all. And then when they were finished building they would go over to this poster that we had and they would kind of study the poster and see if they could kind of track the food web and figure out what their organism ate and what eats it. And this wasn’t hard for them because they have been studying this sort of thing in their classroom already having to do with their insect unit that they had been working on. So they knew what he predators were and what insects have food sources.

So they were able to easily kind of analyze this poster and follow it and then most of them had an easy time kind of being able to come up with what sort of habitat their particular living thing would live in. So these kind of range from – there was frogs, there was tadpoles, there was a bald eagle, there was a crab, fish, different insects, there was a mouse. So it was all different things. So they would say whether or not they thought that they lived in a pond or in the ocean.

VICKI:          So they did a pretty good job with the building of the K’NEX and the describing on the green screen. Now, were they able to actually edit the video at all?

CARRIE:       At this point no, they probably would be able to do that but for time sake we just pulled up and image and we did the filming in this case.

[00:06:00]

VICKI:          Okay.

CARRIE:       Our kindergarteners actually have done things with video, they’ve used See Saw and Book Creator to kind of record little journals of their caterpillars, fed them and watched their lifecycle as they turned into butterflies and released them. So they chronicled their lifecycle of their butterflies that they patched in their classroom and they did that themselves using SeeSaw https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seesaw-the-learning-journal/id930565184?mt=8 and Book Creator https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/book-creator-for-ipad/id442378070?mt=8 to create little video journals of this.

So they have done work with video, they just didn’t in this particular case with the green screen video.

VICKI:          Cool. So you’ve just done this incredible app-smashing project and it sounds like a whole lot of technology but you know the question people always ask is did they learn about habitats and insects better with using the technology than they would have without?

CARRIE:       I don’t know if they learned about it better but I feel like they definitely will remember it better because they will go back and they will watch these videos over and over again. I remember as a child different videos and projects that I did but definitely don’t remember worksheets that I did, I definitely don’t remember chapter reviews from my science book. But I definitely remember when I had to create this video as part of my science class on different parts of the body and different bones and muscles.

I mean, I can recite that back because I remember creating this awesome project. So I think there’s a bit more retention when you do these kind of exciting projects with kids.

VICKI:          So we talked with Carrie Willis about app-smashing in kindergarten, it can be done, you can do some really cool things. And I think that we need to give kids the chance and not be scared of these big long names and just let kids create and innovate using technology. We’ve got such a great example form Carrie today.

CARRIE:       Thank you. And I think it’s important to introduce kids to this technology. We don’t have to expect them to be able to do it at this young age but introducing it to them now, they’ll remember that later when they’re a little bit older, when they are matured enough to be able to use it themselves to create great projects.

VICKI:          If you follow my newsletter or blog you’ve probably heard me talk about Angela Watson’s 40-Hour Work Week. coolcatteacher.com/quiz  This program really helps you to be a better teacher, have better classroom management and more organized classroom and so many things. Now, Angela used to be a 5th grade teacher but I’ve actually found a lot of things applicable to my 8th grade and up classroom.

So you can take a quiz to see if this program is right for you. Just go to coolcatteacher.com/quiz and learn more about Angela Watson’s 40-Hour Work Week.

  [End of Audio 0:09:18]

  [Transcription created by tranzify.com. Some additional editing has been done to add grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. Every attempt has been made to correct spelling. For permissions, please email lisa@coolcatteacher.com]

  The post App Smashing with Kindergarteners #ipadchat appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/app-smashing-kindergarteners-ipadchat/

[aira26soonas]

App Smashing with Kindergarteners #ipadchat

A conversation with Carrie Willis on episode 83 of the 10-Minute Teacher

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Today Carrie Willis @carriewillis18 talks about how kindergarteners in her STEAM lab use their iPads. They use SeeSaw portfolios, green screen videos, and more. She also talks about what the students do and what the adults do.

Listen Now

Listen on iTunes

Stream by clicking here.

Click to download the transcript or scroll down and read it on this page

Click the button for iTunes or Stitcher to subscribe to this show

    In today’s show, Carrie Willis talks about the workflow in her kindergarten classroom with iPads:

How they use Seesaw

Making videos with green screen

What kindergarteners can do thsmselves

The challenges of kicking off an ipad lab

Workflow with kids

I hope you enjoy this episode with Carrie Willis!

Want to hear another episode on elementary portfolios with SeeSaw? Listen to Suzy Lolley talk about elementary portfolios with SeeSaw.

Selected Links from this Episode

Twitter handle: @carriewillis18

Aurasma

Episode 52 on Aurasma in the classroom – Dr. Tim Green

K’nex Organisms and Life Cycle kit

Green Screen App by Do Ink

SeeSaw app

Episode 27 – Using SeeSaw for Elementary Portfolios

Quiz to see if the 40-Hour Work Week is Right for You from Angela Watson

See “A Stress Free Plan for Closing Out Your School Year“

Some of the links below are affiliate links.

Full Bio As Submitted

Carrie Willis

Carrie Willis is the technology teacher and director at Valley Preparatory School in Redlands, Ca.

Carrie is an Apple Teacher, Microsoft Innovative Educator, DEN STAR, Wonder Innovation Squad member, and all-around techie.

She loves STEAM, PBL, coding, robotics, green screen, app smashing and more. You can follow her on Twitter @carriewillis18.

Transcript for this episode

Click to download the PDF transcript

[Recording starts 0:00:00]

Are you planning your summer like I am? Well I recommend that you get the free video series from my friend Angele Watson. Five summer secrets for a stress-free fall. Just go to coolcatteacher.com/summer.

On the last episode we talked about iPads in kindergarten www.coolcatteacher.com/e82 . Well, today we’re talking about app smashing in kindergarten. This is Episode 83.

The Ten-minute Teacher podcast with Vicki Davis. Every week day you’ll learn powerful practical ways to be a more remarkable teacher today.

VICKI:              Carrie Willis @carriewillis18 from California has been app-smashing with her kindergarteners. Oh my goodness, Carrie, what have you done?

CARRIE:       I’ve been having a lot of fun, we have a brand new STEAM lab at our school this year, so that’s science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. And we’ve had all of us students, grades pre-school through 8 come to our steam lab and just kind of partake in some amazing design projects, engineering projects, technology projects. So I’d like to talk about our kindergarteners today with you.

VICKI:          Cool. Yeah, I think I saw you on Twitter and you were talking about how they were using Aurasma https://www.aurasma.com/ . Had done a show recently on Aurasma http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e52 . But tell us about this project, what did you do?

CARRIE:       So our kindergarten students were taking part in in our international baccalaureate unit on sharing the planet and they had been studying insects and habitats and life cycles and kind of how insects share the plant with humans as well as other living things. So as part of our design and engineering unit in our STEAM lab we had the kindergarteners build different organisms and living things out of K’NEX http://amzn.to/2rPSWcC .

[00:02:00]

                    And we used a K’NEX for education kit called organisms and life cycles. http://amzn.to/2qViqF3   And each student was given a different – kind of like an instruction challenge card where they kind of followed the instructions and built their living things. And then after they were finished we studied food web that included all of these different living things they had built out of K’NEX. So it was like a poster that showed all the living things in the K’NEX kit and where they kind of fell in a food web, you know. You know, what they ate and what ate them.

And the kindergarteners got to study this and do a little bit of research and tried to figure out if they had a caterpillar what does this show that the caterpillars eat and what eats the caterpillars. And then we talked about if this particular student had the caterpillar, what kind of habitat the caterpillars lived in. and they kind of wrote down some facts, some things that they learned from this poster, this bit of kindergarten research that didn’t involve any words but just kind of studying a picture.

And then we used our green screen that we have in our classroom and we used the app, Green Screen by Do Ink https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/green-screen-by-do-ink/id730091131?mt=8   which we absolutely love. If you don’t already have that app downloaded on your iPad and you’re a teacher you need. And I don’t work for them, I just love it that much. And so we put the habitat of the particular organism that student had built in the background and the students sit in front of the green screen and explained kind of their organisms place in this food web or in a food chain and recorded a little video and then made the poster come to life by using Aurasma. https://www.aurasma.com/

And if you’ve never used Aurasma before, it’s an app where you can take a video and overlay it on a still picture, like an actual physical picture. In this case a poster.

[00:04:00]

                    So we would overlay the video of the student with the caterpillar in front of the green screen on top of the caterpillar image on the poster. So when you hold your phone over the picture on the poster that picture would come to life as a video.

VICKI:          So Carrie, I’m curious, you’ve already blown the minds of many people and you’re talking kindergarteners. How much of this work did you have to do and how much did they actually do?

CARRIE:       So the students built their organism, their living thing from the K’NEX all on their own, most of them did not need any help at all. And then when they were finished building they would go over to this poster that we had and they would kind of study the poster and see if they could kind of track the food web and figure out what their organism ate and what eats it. And this wasn’t hard for them because they have been studying this sort of thing in their classroom already having to do with their insect unit that they had been working on. So they knew what he predators were and what insects have food sources.

So they were able to easily kind of analyze this poster and follow it and then most of them had an easy time kind of being able to come up with what sort of habitat their particular living thing would live in. So these kind of range from – there was frogs, there was tadpoles, there was a bald eagle, there was a crab, fish, different insects, there was a mouse. So it was all different things. So they would say whether or not they thought that they lived in a pond or in the ocean.

VICKI:          So they did a pretty good job with the building of the K’NEX and the describing on the green screen. Now, were they able to actually edit the video at all?

CARRIE:       At this point no, they probably would be able to do that but for time sake we just pulled up and image and we did the filming in this case.

[00:06:00]

VICKI:          Okay.

CARRIE:       Our kindergarteners actually have done things with video, they’ve used See Saw and Book Creator to kind of record little journals of their caterpillars, fed them and watched their lifecycle as they turned into butterflies and released them. So they chronicled their lifecycle of their butterflies that they patched in their classroom and they did that themselves using SeeSaw https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seesaw-the-learning-journal/id930565184?mt=8 and Book Creator https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/book-creator-for-ipad/id442378070?mt=8 to create little video journals of this.

So they have done work with video, they just didn’t in this particular case with the green screen video.

VICKI:          Cool. So you’ve just done this incredible app-smashing project and it sounds like a whole lot of technology but you know the question people always ask is did they learn about habitats and insects better with using the technology than they would have without?

CARRIE:       I don’t know if they learned about it better but I feel like they definitely will remember it better because they will go back and they will watch these videos over and over again. I remember as a child different videos and projects that I did but definitely don’t remember worksheets that I did, I definitely don’t remember chapter reviews from my science book. But I definitely remember when I had to create this video as part of my science class on different parts of the body and different bones and muscles.

I mean, I can recite that back because I remember creating this awesome project. So I think there’s a bit more retention when you do these kind of exciting projects with kids.

VICKI:          So we talked with Carrie Willis about app-smashing in kindergarten, it can be done, you can do some really cool things. And I think that we need to give kids the chance and not be scared of these big long names and just let kids create and innovate using technology. We’ve got such a great example form Carrie today.

CARRIE:       Thank you. And I think it’s important to introduce kids to this technology. We don’t have to expect them to be able to do it at this young age but introducing it to them now, they’ll remember that later when they’re a little bit older, when they are matured enough to be able to use it themselves to create great projects.

VICKI:          If you follow my newsletter or blog you’ve probably heard me talk about Angela Watson’s 40-Hour Work Week. coolcatteacher.com/quiz  This program really helps you to be a better teacher, have better classroom management and more organized classroom and so many things. Now, Angela used to be a 5th grade teacher but I’ve actually found a lot of things applicable to my 8th grade and up classroom.

So you can take a quiz to see if this program is right for you. Just go to coolcatteacher.com/quiz and learn more about Angela Watson’s 40-Hour Work Week.

  [End of Audio 0:09:18]

  [Transcription created by tranzify.com. Some additional editing has been done to add grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. Every attempt has been made to correct spelling. For permissions, please email lisa@coolcatteacher.com]

  The post App Smashing with Kindergarteners #ipadchat appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/app-smashing-kindergarteners-ipadchat/

[patriciaanderson357-blog]

App Smashing with Kindergarteners #ipadchat

A conversation with Carrie Willis on episode 83 of the 10-Minute Teacher

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Today Carrie Willis @carriewillis18 talks about how kindergarteners in her STEAM lab use their iPads. They use SeeSaw portfolios, green screen videos, and more. She also talks about what the students do and what the adults do.

Listen Now

Listen on iTunes

Stream by clicking here.

Click to download the transcript or scroll down and read it on this page

Click the button for iTunes or Stitcher to subscribe to this show

    In today’s show, Carrie Willis talks about the workflow in her kindergarten classroom with iPads:

How they use Seesaw

Making videos with green screen

What kindergarteners can do thsmselves

The challenges of kicking off an ipad lab

Workflow with kids

I hope you enjoy this episode with Carrie Willis!

Want to hear another episode on elementary portfolios with SeeSaw? Listen to Suzy Lolley talk about elementary portfolios with SeeSaw.

Selected Links from this Episode

Twitter handle: @carriewillis18

Aurasma

Episode 52 on Aurasma in the classroom – Dr. Tim Green

K’nex Organisms and Life Cycle kit

Green Screen App by Do Ink

SeeSaw app

Episode 27 – Using SeeSaw for Elementary Portfolios

Quiz to see if the 40-Hour Work Week is Right for You from Angela Watson

See “A Stress Free Plan for Closing Out Your School Year“

Some of the links below are affiliate links.

Full Bio As Submitted

Carrie Willis

Carrie Willis is the technology teacher and director at Valley Preparatory School in Redlands, Ca.

Carrie is an Apple Teacher, Microsoft Innovative Educator, DEN STAR, Wonder Innovation Squad member, and all-around techie.

She loves STEAM, PBL, coding, robotics, green screen, app smashing and more. You can follow her on Twitter @carriewillis18.

Transcript for this episode

Click to download the PDF transcript

[Recording starts 0:00:00]

Are you planning your summer like I am? Well I recommend that you get the free video series from my friend Angele Watson. Five summer secrets for a stress-free fall. Just go to coolcatteacher.com/summer.

On the last episode we talked about iPads in kindergarten www.coolcatteacher.com/e82 . Well, today we’re talking about app smashing in kindergarten. This is Episode 83.

The Ten-minute Teacher podcast with Vicki Davis. Every week day you’ll learn powerful practical ways to be a more remarkable teacher today.

VICKI:              Carrie Willis @carriewillis18 from California has been app-smashing with her kindergarteners. Oh my goodness, Carrie, what have you done?

CARRIE:       I’ve been having a lot of fun, we have a brand new STEAM lab at our school this year, so that’s science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. And we’ve had all of us students, grades pre-school through 8 come to our steam lab and just kind of partake in some amazing design projects, engineering projects, technology projects. So I’d like to talk about our kindergarteners today with you.

VICKI:          Cool. Yeah, I think I saw you on Twitter and you were talking about how they were using Aurasma https://www.aurasma.com/ . Had done a show recently on Aurasma http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e52 . But tell us about this project, what did you do?

CARRIE:       So our kindergarten students were taking part in in our international baccalaureate unit on sharing the planet and they had been studying insects and habitats and life cycles and kind of how insects share the plant with humans as well as other living things. So as part of our design and engineering unit in our STEAM lab we had the kindergarteners build different organisms and living things out of K’NEX http://amzn.to/2rPSWcC .

[00:02:00]

                    And we used a K’NEX for education kit called organisms and life cycles. http://amzn.to/2qViqF3   And each student was given a different – kind of like an instruction challenge card where they kind of followed the instructions and built their living things. And then after they were finished we studied food web that included all of these different living things they had built out of K’NEX. So it was like a poster that showed all the living things in the K’NEX kit and where they kind of fell in a food web, you know. You know, what they ate and what ate them.

And the kindergarteners got to study this and do a little bit of research and tried to figure out if they had a caterpillar what does this show that the caterpillars eat and what eats the caterpillars. And then we talked about if this particular student had the caterpillar, what kind of habitat the caterpillars lived in. and they kind of wrote down some facts, some things that they learned from this poster, this bit of kindergarten research that didn’t involve any words but just kind of studying a picture.

And then we used our green screen that we have in our classroom and we used the app, Green Screen by Do Ink https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/green-screen-by-do-ink/id730091131?mt=8   which we absolutely love. If you don’t already have that app downloaded on your iPad and you’re a teacher you need. And I don’t work for them, I just love it that much. And so we put the habitat of the particular organism that student had built in the background and the students sit in front of the green screen and explained kind of their organisms place in this food web or in a food chain and recorded a little video and then made the poster come to life by using Aurasma. https://www.aurasma.com/

And if you’ve never used Aurasma before, it’s an app where you can take a video and overlay it on a still picture, like an actual physical picture. In this case a poster.

[00:04:00]

                    So we would overlay the video of the student with the caterpillar in front of the green screen on top of the caterpillar image on the poster. So when you hold your phone over the picture on the poster that picture would come to life as a video.

VICKI:          So Carrie, I’m curious, you’ve already blown the minds of many people and you’re talking kindergarteners. How much of this work did you have to do and how much did they actually do?

CARRIE:       So the students built their organism, their living thing from the K’NEX all on their own, most of them did not need any help at all. And then when they were finished building they would go over to this poster that we had and they would kind of study the poster and see if they could kind of track the food web and figure out what their organism ate and what eats it. And this wasn’t hard for them because they have been studying this sort of thing in their classroom already having to do with their insect unit that they had been working on. So they knew what he predators were and what insects have food sources.

So they were able to easily kind of analyze this poster and follow it and then most of them had an easy time kind of being able to come up with what sort of habitat their particular living thing would live in. So these kind of range from – there was frogs, there was tadpoles, there was a bald eagle, there was a crab, fish, different insects, there was a mouse. So it was all different things. So they would say whether or not they thought that they lived in a pond or in the ocean.

VICKI:          So they did a pretty good job with the building of the K’NEX and the describing on the green screen. Now, were they able to actually edit the video at all?

CARRIE:       At this point no, they probably would be able to do that but for time sake we just pulled up and image and we did the filming in this case.

[00:06:00]

VICKI:          Okay.

CARRIE:       Our kindergarteners actually have done things with video, they’ve used See Saw and Book Creator to kind of record little journals of their caterpillars, fed them and watched their lifecycle as they turned into butterflies and released them. So they chronicled their lifecycle of their butterflies that they patched in their classroom and they did that themselves using SeeSaw https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seesaw-the-learning-journal/id930565184?mt=8 and Book Creator https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/book-creator-for-ipad/id442378070?mt=8 to create little video journals of this.

So they have done work with video, they just didn’t in this particular case with the green screen video.

VICKI:          Cool. So you’ve just done this incredible app-smashing project and it sounds like a whole lot of technology but you know the question people always ask is did they learn about habitats and insects better with using the technology than they would have without?

CARRIE:       I don’t know if they learned about it better but I feel like they definitely will remember it better because they will go back and they will watch these videos over and over again. I remember as a child different videos and projects that I did but definitely don’t remember worksheets that I did, I definitely don’t remember chapter reviews from my science book. But I definitely remember when I had to create this video as part of my science class on different parts of the body and different bones and muscles.

I mean, I can recite that back because I remember creating this awesome project. So I think there’s a bit more retention when you do these kind of exciting projects with kids.

VICKI:          So we talked with Carrie Willis about app-smashing in kindergarten, it can be done, you can do some really cool things. And I think that we need to give kids the chance and not be scared of these big long names and just let kids create and innovate using technology. We’ve got such a great example form Carrie today.

CARRIE:       Thank you. And I think it’s important to introduce kids to this technology. We don’t have to expect them to be able to do it at this young age but introducing it to them now, they’ll remember that later when they’re a little bit older, when they are matured enough to be able to use it themselves to create great projects.

VICKI:          If you follow my newsletter or blog you’ve probably heard me talk about Angela Watson’s 40-Hour Work Week. coolcatteacher.com/quiz  This program really helps you to be a better teacher, have better classroom management and more organized classroom and so many things. Now, Angela used to be a 5th grade teacher but I’ve actually found a lot of things applicable to my 8th grade and up classroom.

So you can take a quiz to see if this program is right for you. Just go to coolcatteacher.com/quiz and learn more about Angela Watson’s 40-Hour Work Week.

  [End of Audio 0:09:18]

  [Transcription created by tranzify.com. Some additional editing has been done to add grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. Every attempt has been made to correct spelling. For permissions, please email lisa@coolcatteacher.com]

  The post App Smashing with Kindergarteners #ipadchat appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

[annabelaplit]

What Else Has Annabel Been Writing in her Free Time?

I just don’t feel like writing about A Tale of Two Cities anymore. I like the book but I’ve run out of things to say. However I have been doing a lot more scholarship and personal writing over the past week. 

Career Goals

As I enter my final year of high school, finalize my college plans, and begin my adult life, I am beginning to realize I have no idea what the future will hold for me. I have plans for what I want my profession to be, and backup plans in case they fail, but I cannot foresee the exact forces that will drive me, and the eventual destination of my professional life. But as I sit here typing this document I am sure of my passion for political history and I hope to make it the foundation of my career.

Last year I took an Advanced Placement United States History course and it changed the way I view the world. History, I discovered, was not a list of past events, but the process of crafting a personal interpretation about what the past means. It is poring over first and second hand sources to determine cause or effect, right or wrong, important or nonessential. It is arguing to find the truth, crafting views out of scattered glimpses, and as someone who loves to argue and learn I find history to be endlessly engrossing. I am currently taking Advanced Placement European History as well as seeking to educate myself about political and governmental processes, and I intend to be a history or history-political science major in college.

My studies would most likely concentrate on American political history. In high school the topics I have been drawn to most are America’s early colonial period and the age of Jackson. I would love to study both subjects in more depth and perhaps turn them into a independent study or thesis project. I am also fascinated by the histories of other regions. I have spent the past four years learning German and my European history course has given me an excellent introduction to the history of the Germanic regions. I will most likely continue my study of German in college, perhaps as a minor, and a semester abroad there could give me a chance to immerse myself in that country’s history. In addition I would love to take classes about political theory, the history of the ancient world, and Asian, African, and Latin American history. Essentially, I want to have a deep understanding of the events that have formed the world of today.

As I work through my collegiate curriculum, I can see two potential career paths emerging. In the first path I would decide to attend law school. I would make use of any pre-law resources at my college and devote significant time to studying for the LSAT’s. Ideally I would be able to attend a law school well suited for those going into public interest jobs, for I have long dreamed of being a public defender. I think the best way to uphold the principles of our justice system is to make sure that all people have access to adequate representation regardless of their economic resources. Although I would be honored to be a public defender, those types of lawyers are often compensated poorly, given few resources, and have to take on enormous caseloads. The amount I owe in student loans may mean I cannot afford to take such a low-paying job and, the intensity of the work leaves me at risk of burning out.  But no matter what my specific legal job is, I want to use it to help people through law, to make their lives and legal system better.

The other type of job I can see myself ending up in is in academia. If history continues to engross me in college as much as it does in high school and I discover that I have a true talent for it, then I may choose to enter a graduate program for the subject. I would focus my studies in a narrow area, most likely political history, although the time period, geographic area, and specific topic I will study are things I won’t know until well into college. My eventual goal would be to become a history professor. I would have the opportunity to research what I am passionate about and share my love for the past with others. If my personal interpretations of previous events and trends have even the smallest impact on the collective understanding of history, then I feel like I will have accomplished something important.

But whether I become a lawyer or a professor or just keep working as a summer camp kitchen assistant for the rest of my life,  I want my career to fulfills me and allow me to serve others. The reason I work so hard, the reason I sit at my desk for hours and hours doing schoolwork and writing up college scholarship essays, is because I hope that one day my all of my effort and all of the sacrificed time will go towards making the world a better place. I feel that my affinity for history and my love of research and arguing should go towards something greater than myself. That belief is what gets me out of bed in the morning, it is what drives me to try and maximize my potential. If I work hard enough, if I find a way for my passions to serve others, thenI will have given meaning to my life. So even though I may not be able to predict my future career, I know exactly what I want to do.

1506 Richville Road

The beach is an indent on a squirrel shaped lake.  Its boundaries are a wooden dock, a line of ancient rocks, and two unassuming houses. To reach the placid waters you must first walk through a rectangular grassy plain, down a sun-bleached staircase surrounded by thorns and sharp rocks, and past a sign proclaiming that the beach is private property unless you live on Lakeview Lane, Perimeter Avenue, or Bell Albero Way. Your family, being the first to populate the latter street, is thus allowed unlimited access to the small spit of sand. The beach is your frequent and fixed destination, your company during long strings of summer days.

The beach offers a plethora of potential activities, but you spend most of your time on the miniature jetty, the line of worn boulders extending over the water like an outstretched limb. To reach this creation, you must wade through the shallows and climb aboard the first rock, a high circle whose texture is metal granola. Straight ahead, tilting diagonal, lies one smooth but algae covered in the early months; it's like walking across a bar of wet soap. You step up now; this rock is the color of faded black dye and is peppered with gradual depressions. Now you have a choice; clamber sideways over more rough ridges, or continue straight on flat underwater stones edged by mutated pebbles. The passing of the years has taught you the jetty’s every secret, and your movements are as confident as a rushing river. Hand here, foot there, jump on this rock, avoid that one; you arrive at your destination in a matter of seconds.

The final boulder is a throne. A giant triangle, it ascends far higher than the other rocks and makes them seem pitiful in comparison. In your younger years this mammoth was far too intimidating to climb, but as you gain height, you discover secret footholds and ascend to its peak. Sit on top and you can watch the world, look across the sky blue lake and marvel at the mountains that seem to be at eye level.

You are on the throne when the thunderstorm comes. The sun is shining where you sit, but across the lake, the sky is dark purple and lighting is flashing in shapes of twisted tree roots. Thunder is rumbling and the storm is moving closer to the beach, but still you sit with your feet hanging off that rough weathered rock, utterly transfixed.

Your turn around to see your mother gesturing and yelling your name. “Gather the stuff, we need to go!”. The thunder rumbles, louder now. You climb down through the line of rocks and scurry to the shore. “Hurry up, Annabel!”.You pick up the blue cloth bag that holds the sand toys. You shove in the nets used to catch tadpoles, that tan thin disk which sifts through rocks like gold, and the pink foam football with Splat! written on it in a cartoon font  The storm roars louder, and fat wet raindrops start to darken the sand. Grab your latest novel, your faded orange towel with Pooh-Bear, your dirt stained pink crocs. The rain is torrential, and the lighting is almost upon you. Run now, up the soaked wooden staircase, across the grassy field becoming lousy with puddles, into the waiting white minivan, waiting for you so it can turn around and go home.

This is one beach day cut short, but you don’t mind. There will be others. The beach has remained the same for a thousand summer days and it will last for a thousand more. Those ancient boulders on which you play are removed from time, and the years may change you, but it will never change them. The beach is your home, far more so than that cold impersonal house where you sleep at night. Sitting in that musty minivan, watching the beach get pummeled by white-capped waves you feel confident that things will never change.

But things do indeed change. They change suddenly, and with such volcanic force that you never get to say goodbye to your favorite place on earth. The beach is no longer yours to frequent, just as your residence is no longer 8 Bell Albero Way.

But the beach is not gone. The place where you grew up, where you spent a million moments, lives inside you still. Your DNA has mingled with its granules of sand, your tears are its raw saccharine water, the ends of your hair are the tails of the tadpoles you once chased, and your vertebrae are those ancient rocks which have defined your life. And just as the beach weathers the storms of rain and waves, you will weather the storms that come your way.