#once i got a thing that was just in an opaque green wrapper with no markings and i kept it for like 3 years

[i-am-just-a-skeleton]

I fuckin love when you go to a parade and somebody's throwing the most obscure out-of-pocket weird-ass candy like everybody else's got skittles and tootsie rolls and bubble gum but these weirdos have whatever the fuck all this is

[resplendentgoldenwings]

All That Remains, Chapter 7

rating: teen

characters/pairings: Iris West, Barry Allen, Joe West, Francine West,  WestAllen

warnings: none

summary: It’s Barry’s turn to comfort Iris when Francine files for divorce from Joe.

beta: asexual-fandom-queen

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

Chapter 7: In A Fairy’s Garden

13 years ago

The surface of the water rippled, opaque and nearly black, wind stirring a ripple of eddies on the surface. Thirteen-year-old Iris West sat on a log beside the inlet. The copse was closed by trees. The ground covered by violets and other little plants that grew in patches. The afternoon sun, filtered by clouds casting a soft gray light.

The frogs, crickets, and birds that had quieted with her arrival took up their chorus again. Iris listened to the animals, the wind rustling through the leaves, the quiet flow of water, and wished that she had brought a blanket so she could lie in the grass staring up at the overcast sky. The weatherman expected clear skies later that day. She didn't mind though; the soft, silvery clouds had their own quiet beauty.

"Did you know that Iris is considered to be at its most beautiful in the rain."

Her mother had told her that one late, cloudy afternoon as they'd sat watching movies.She supposed that was why she had a soft spot for overcast days.

In this quiet little copse, it was easy to forget that there was an expressway only half a mile away. Easy to forget Central City and the whole noisy world. The river with boat rides, Gray Pier packed restaurants, a ferris wheel, and even a stained glass museum. Even the park crowded with over a million people waiting for fireworks and vendors selling popular foods like grilled corn on the cob and turkey legs faded from existence.

It was summer now, but when her mother had first brought her here in the spring, it had been covered with wildflowers in violet, yellow, blue, and pink, the trees bowing with blooms the size of her mother's hand. Lit with soft summer sunlight, to five-year-old Iris West, it had looked like a magical fairy's garden where anything could happen.

A family of squawking ducks swam into view, mod, dad, and noisy ducklings following behind. They seemed to float on the water's surface, riding the gentle current with ease. They alighted on the opposite side of the inlet, waddling and ungraceful on land.

The mom and dad nudged at the ducklings grooming them, and Iris frowned. Was it ducks or geese that mated for life? She threw a pebble into the water, and one of the ducks looked up from grooming their ducklings to squawk at her.

"Sorry."

She poked her lips out and looked back up at the sky. The wind was picking up, the sun was starting to peek through the clouds in golden-slivery glints. The weatherman was probably right, clear skies for the fireworks.

The family of ducks waddled off into the trees. In the silence that followed their departure, Iris heard the muffled sound of footsteps. Her hand moved to a large stick that she had picked up during her walk. That was the problem with isolated spots like this in the city, creeps.

The creep emerged from the trees, and Iris felt her spirits lift.

"Barry!"

He strode over to her as gangly and awkward as a baby giraffe in baggy cargo shorts and a stripped t-shirt.

"Hey, Iris!"

He came and sat beside her on the tree.

"Your dad is looking for you."

She started to get up, but his hand on her arm stopped her. Barry checked his watch.

"I told your dad I'd find you. He won't send out the squad cars for another twenty minutes."

Iris rolled her eyes.

"You weren't looking long, were you?"

Barry shook his head.

"I figured you'd be here."

Something about those words warmed her.

One morning when she was still five years old, Wally just two, her mother had woken her up and asked her if she wanted to go on an adventure.

Of course, she'd said yes. Francine had gotten her dressed very quickly, and they slipped out of the house leaving Wally with Joe. They took an express bus downtown and strolled through Central City park to this out of the way spot, all of it very exciting and mysterious to Iris at that age. Then they'd walked to this little copse where Francine let her pick wild flowers.

After that they'd listened to a few street musicians and strolled over to the Original House of Pancakes, not to be confused with gross IHOP. Iris had had strawberries and cream for the first time along with cherry crepes.

The flowers were still  pressed between the pages of a scrapbook that her mother must have, somewhere.

She'd bought Barry here once a couple years ago, in the fall.

"I really need to come here in the spring."

"It's really pretty."

"Do you 'uh wanna talk about your mom?"

Iris sighed.

"What's there to say? She went crazy and left."

"Iris!"

"But that's what happened. She stopped sleeping, checked herself into behavioral health for two weeks, came home, packed up her things and moved in with her sister."

"Parents get divorced."

Iris snorted for a reply.

"This isn't like Tamika Myers. Her parents hated each other; everyone knows that." She drew her knees up to her chest. "This is different." Her voice was soft now. "We were happy; it doesn't make sense."

"I guess not," Barry rubbed her back.

"All of a sudden, after six years of being ok she just turned moody and distant and distracted." Iris shook her head. "It doesn't make sense."

Francine West had had her first psychotic break shortly after Joe's partner had been shot and killed in the line of duty. She'd seemed ok at first helping the widow and her children, but then the widow had moved out of state to stay with family in Coast City. Her first episode had followed not long after.

The mother Iris West had known for the first seven years of her life had transformed into someone else. No matter how neat and clean seven-year-old Iris kept herself, no matter how neat her room or well done her homework was none of it pleased the distant, moody person her mother had become.

It had taken a year of medications and hospitalizations to get Francine back something resembling normal. Weekly visits to a therapist along with regular medication kept her grounded in reality for the past six years. They'd even figured out that the initial episode had been partially triggered by her husband coming so close to being killed.

They'd taken in Barry after Henry Allen's bail had been revoked. Francine had doted on him while he grieved his mother and still made time for her own children. Once Henry had been acquitted she'd been helping father and son readjust. Francine had been well.

"You miss her."

"It's not the same seeing her at Aunt Loretta's house. She's got her kids and husband. They don't  want us over there all weekend." Iris shook her head.

"It takes time to adjust. Dad's been out four months, and we still haven't really adjusted." Barry threw a pebble into the water with a frown, and it was Iris' turn to worry.

"How is your dad?"

He didn't say anything just tugged at the grass absently, a distant look on his face.

"Barry."

Iris prodded him with a gentle hand on his arm, and he looked up then, a tired look in his green eyes for just a second and then his mouth flicked up the corners, a forced version of his familiar smile.

"He's alri- no he's not." The boy shook his head. "He's drinking more; he was hungover this morning. He hasn't been to the grocery store, and we're running out of everything."

"Oh my God." Iris stared at him with wide eyes. "Barry do you have anything to eat? We can…"

"There is stuff in the pantry. Your mom stocked it pretty good when she was coming over; there is even some food in the freezer, but I don't know what to do."

Iris stared at him worry for her best friend bubbling. She knew Henry Allen had problems, but this was really bad. In the course of a year, Henry had lost his wife, his practice, his reputation. He owned his house outright, and he must have money saved since he didn't work. But what was going to happen to Barry?

"We can tell my dad-"

"No! No! Now way."

Barry glared at her a hard look in his eyes that she had never seen and Iris drew back.

"Geeze. I came out here to cheer you up, and we're talking about my drunk dad. Listen," Barry's face softened. "Don't tell your dad ok.I'll manage, just don't tell him."

"I don't Barry. I'm worried about-"

"Please don't. I don't want my dad to get in trouble."

His green eyes pleaded with her and Iris gave in with a nod.

"I won't say anything."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Thanks." Barry smiled and fished for something in his pocket. "So operation cheer Iris up."

"Barry you don't have to-"

"But look I'm prepared and everything." Barry pulled several Laffy Taffy wrappers from his pocket.

"Really."

"They're corny, but you always laugh. So let me see."

Iris watched him shift through the wrappers.

"Alright. How do you get a baby alien to sleep?"

"I don't know."

"You rocket."

Her lips quirked upward at the corners just a bit.

"What has no legs, but can do a split?"

"That's an easy one, a banana."

"You're right, but this one is better. How do you communicate with a  fish?"

She thought a moment before shrugging.

"You drop a line."

Iris actually laughed at that one and Barry laughed with her. They sat together for several minutes reading and laughing at Laffy Taffy jokes. Iris let Barry take her mind off her mother. After all, there wasn't anything she could do about, and Barry hadn't meant it this way, but his situation with his dad was so much more messed up than hers.

Her mom was sick, but she got help and medication, and Iris could see her, call her. Nora Allen was gone forever, and Henry Allen was not being much of a dad. And here Barry was trying to cheer her up. Iris felt herself grow warm.

She studied her best friend for a moment. The afternoon sun picked up hints of red and gold in his dark hair; it flooded his eyes so she could see flecks of gold amidst the green. He was wearing that broad, excited smile that invited you to join his humor.

Barry read the punchline of another joke, and Iris let herself laugh loud and free.

"There we are." Barry grinned at her proudly, and their eyes met and held as her laughter abated. Iris got that strange swollen feeling around her heart, and Barry turned pink.

"We should probably go meet your dad."

"Oh yeah."

Barry got to his feet and held out his hand to her. Iris took it and let him pull her in one easy move, his grip surprisingly firm and secure.

"Come on." He gave her hand a comforting squeeze. Hand-in-hand they started back to the park, and Iris promised herself she would always care of Barry the way he took care of her.

"I know you've been trying to get your dad to get you a cell phone for your birthday."

"Yeah."

"Tell him you need it to call your mom."

"That's  a great idea, Barry."

FF.net

[arplis]

Arplis - News: I’m going to be honest—I am “that camper” at the campground

As soon as I’ve found my camping spot for the night, whether car camping or backpacking, I undergo a gear explosion. Clothes, food, and shelter are strewn about in a chaotic mess. Sometimes, it feels like I spend a quarter of my time in the outdoors rummaging through my gear to find what I need, and then going through yet another reorganization process. This is why I finally started asking my friends (and the internet!) for better camping storage ideas. 20 Super Helpful Camping Storage Ideas Staying organized at your campsite is important for a variety of reasons. Knowing where to find your gear can help keep you safe in case of an emergency. Proper storage helps you avoid attracting wildlife to your site and habituating them to humans. Good camping storage ideas can also save you time, ensuring that you don’t spend the bulk of your trip unpacking and repacking, unpacking and repacking. Since accepting my condition as “that camper,” I’ve started using these camping storage ideas to improve my organization and experience while exploring the great outdoors. 1. Be Organized, But Keep it Lightweight I’m a backpacker at heart, so my first thought when trying to get better organized on the trail was how much weight a bunch of organizational doodads would add to my pack. However, good utilization of your backpack’s existing pockets can keep you organized without adding any additional weight. Simply designate which pocket will have toiletries, which will have snacks, which will have extra layers, etc.—and then keep it that way, every single time you camp. However, not all backpacks or other outdoor storage items have sufficient built-in pockets. When I was biking the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Trail, my panniers were one big pocket. In these cases, I like to use lightweight ditty bags, such as Gossamer Gear’s Cuben Q-Storage Sacks, which zip closed, resist water, and only weigh between 0.1 and 0.3 ounces depending on size. 2. Color Code Your Dry Bags I do a lot of kayak and canoe camping, and when I started, I only considered the size of my dry bags when packing up my gear. However, many dry bags aren’t see-through, so I’d get to camp and find myself, once again, searching ravenously through my many dry bags for dinner supplies. When I’d finally find my dinner bag, I’d open it up and have to search through a bunch of breakfast stuff before I eventually found dinner. This is all to say that color coding my dry bags is now one of my favorite camping storage ideas. I like to use 10- to 20-liter dry bags in many different colors to organize my gear. I put breakfast in the orange dry bag, lunch and snacks in the red dry bag, and dinner in the blue dry bag. Sleeping gear goes in green, and extra clothes go in yellow. I always know which one to grab when I need it most. 3. Use See-Through Storage Bins Using see-through storage bins is a perfect camping storage idea for car camping trips. This keeps all of your gear secure in your trunk, so it’s not rolling about with every twist and turn of the road. When you get to your campsite, you don’t even need to take the lid off of the bin to see what’s inside; rather, you can quickly peek around the sides of your different bins to make sure you’ve got the right one before you dig in. 4. Keep Smelly/Scented Stuff in One Space On a camping trip with my partner in Wyoming’s bear country, I went to grab a book out of one of our bags to bring into the tent with me. As soon as I pulled it out, I realized it smelled like perfumes. It had been packed closely to our toiletries, and had absorbed the smells. Having this in the tent wasn’t going to work, so I ended up storing it in the bear box for the night. When packing for camping trips in places where bears are active, make sure you isolate any of your smelly stuff to specific bags or boxes so they don’t contaminate your other gear. You can also organize your smelly gear using LOKSAK OPSAK Odor-Proof Barrier Bags, which offer some protection, as well as the ease of see-through material. 5. Embrace Multi-Use Items A great way to stay organized while camping is to be mindful in the first place about how much gear you’re bringing. Focusing on gear items that can be used for multiple functions is a great way to do this. Use a carabiner that’s also a knife and a firestarter. Use your cooking pot as your bowl. Find a tent that can be set up using your trekking poles. With a little creativity, you can stay organized by using what you already have more intentionally. 6. Know What You Keep on Your Person-—and Where it Goes at Night When I’m hiking or otherwise exploring the outdoors around my campsite, there are certain safety items I always want to have on hand. These include a compass, whistle, small knife, and headlamp. These are all items I keep on my person. I know my whistle and headlamp are on strings around my neck, and my compass and knife are in the large pocket on my hiking pants. At night, these go in the net at the foot of my tent. When I dress in the morning, they go back on my person. Keep your safety items organized by keeping them close. 7. Two Words: Fanny Pack I was a big fan of fanny packs as a kid and I’m pumped that they’re now back in style. Fanny packs are a great way to organize the gear you need for the day. They’re no-hassle and allow you to keep what you need close and easily accessible. 8. Have Specific Storage Ready for Your Trash A common mistake I used to make when camping was not bringing along something to store my trash. I didn’t think about it at first because I didn’t have any trash to start. However, as I started to work through my granola bars and other trail snacks, I’d soon find myself having to stuff my wrappers into various pockets or bags that were available at the time. If you don’t plan in advance for where you’re going to put your trash, your other camping storage ideas may be compromised. I like to reuse gallon Ziplocs for trash storage on backpacking trips. I keep some old grocery store bags in my trunk for trash storage during car camping trips. 9. Compression Sacks are Your Friend for Cramped Quarters The first time I went winter camping, I realized that my cold-weather gear took up a lot more space than what I bring for summer months. I needed a camping storage idea that would help me cope with limited space. Compression sacks are perfect for this. I use Seal Line Blocker Compression Dry Sacks to store my gear when space is cramped. They’re lightweight and have a PurgeAir valve to help compress clothes, sleeping bags, and other gear even further. 10. Make a Poop Bag When my partner took his 8-year-old nephew on his first canoe camping trip, he wanted to make pooping in the woods a fool-proof process for him. Thus, the “poop bag” was born, and it has since become a staple for our camping trips to keep our “when nature calls” items well-organized and ready to grab as soon as the call comes. The poop bag is pretty simple. It’s a 10-liter dry bag containing everything you need for a poop break. My partner then used a Sharpie to write a “How to Poop in the Woods” numbered list on it, including such wise tidbits as, “don’t get poop on yourself or the trowel.” Inside the dry bag are all the necessary items—a hand trowel, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and opaque Ziplocs for used toilet paper. It’s nice to have everything in an easy-to-grab bag, especially for campers who are new to the Leave No Trace procedures of pooping outside. 11. Set Up a Hand and Dish Washing Station Having a designated space for hand and dishwashing is a great way to maintain order at your campsite. If car camping, you can get a 5-gallon water jug with a spigot to put on a picnic table. Keep your soap next to it and use bungee cords to strap a paper towel rack or hand towel holder above it. On the ground beneath the water jug, place a plastic bin to catch your gray water. 12. String a Clothesline at Camp One camping storage idea that’s especially useful for multi-day camping trips is a clothesline. You can use this to hang and air out your smelly hiking clothes or wet bathing suits and life jackets. You can also use it to keep gear away from curious critters. 13. Keep Gear Secure in Hard-sided Containers In addition to hanging things, using hard-sided containers is an excellent way to store your gear while keeping it secure from common campground critters like raccoons. We repurposed some old 5-gallon primer buckets with screw top lids for gear storage on our canoe camping trips. We keep our entire camp kitchen, including fuel, in one of these buckets, which helps with organization. As a bonus, they’re also water-resistant. 14. Repurpose a Hanging Shoe Rack Hanging shoe racks are a wonderful camping storage idea because of how versatile they are. They can be hung up inside an RV, or even on a clothesline at your car camping site. With several different pockets, they’re great for organizing kitchen supplies, food, and toiletries. 15. Use Mini Containers to Bring Along Spices Just because you’re camping doesn’t mean you should eat boring food. Add some pizzazz to your camp meals by bringing along your favorite spices. Store them in repurposed mini containers, such as old lip balm jars with screw tops or Tic Tac containers. You can also find some pretty snazzy traveling spice cases for sale if you don’t mind spending the money. 16. Make Portable Drawer Sets Your Best Friend An easily overlooked camping storage idea is one you might see more often in an office. Portable, plastic drawer sets are a great way to stay organized at camp. In RVs, you can use them to save space and tuck away items while they’re not in use. If you’re car camping, they’re useful for organizing the gear in your trunk rather than having it roll around in the car. 17. Take Advantage of Old Metal Coffee Cans Old coffee cans are one of my favorite reusable camping storage containers. They’re sturdy, stack easy, and don’t take up much space. And they’re perfect for repackaging various snack foods, like trail mix or chips, if you don’t want to bring a bunch of plastic bags along. Some people also store their toilet paper rolls in these; they’re the right size and water-resistant with a secure lid. 18. Install a Wall-Mounted Magnetic Strip If you’re lacking drawer space in your RV or camper van, one of the more helpful camping storage ideas is a wall-mounted magnetic strip. These are helpful for storing your knives, tools and other metal utensils. You can also add some magnetic hooks to hang other gear or clothing. 19. Have a Camping Grab Bag Ready Getting myself out the door is often the most frustrating part of camping; the prep can be overwhelming is everything I need to go camping is stored in different places. This is why I’ve taken some time to prepare a camping grab bag. This backpack has everything I would need for a quick, last-minute night out. For items I don’t want to store in the grab bag long-term (such as my sleeping bag, which needs to have space to expand in its fluff bag), I write those down on an index card that I keep in the front pocket of the bag. This way, I have a quick checklist of what to add to the bag before I head out. 20. Label Large Plastic Totes by Gear Type for Post-Trip Storage Keeping gear stored and organized properly even once you’re home will lead to easier organization and storage when you’re ready to venture out again. Invest in some large plastic totes and use duct tape to label them by gear type. This will make it easy to identify where the gear you need is when you need it. We have one tote labeled winter camping, another labeled camp kitchen/water storage, one labeled shelter, and a couple others. They stack easily on top of each other and fit well in the closet until we need them. The post 20 Nifty Storage Ideas to Help Campers Stay Organized appeared first on The Dyrt Magazine. #Gear

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/i-m-going-to-be-honest-i-am-that-camper-at-the-campground