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arts-butthound · 3 years

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Sense and Salarian Ability Chpt. 2

(Also read on AO3 if you prefer, leave me a kind kudos if you like my work: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22537765/chapters/57317959#workskin )

After filing the paperwork for theft with C-sec, a week passed with no discernible action. Walking through the ward, to and from work, Lau would scan the mob of people for familiar faces. At times, he’d imagine he’d seen her, weaving through a crowd of much taller adults or disappearing into a vent. But when he’d turn to confirm the vision, she was gone with the steam and smoke of the vendors. A wisp of air passing through nothingness.

Lau shouldn’t have cared enough to still hunt for her. Despite the vulnerable feeling of being robbed, had he actually lost anything of value? It was a hunk of dried dirt that had escaped his grasp to make into anything. Yet he dreamed of it, vividly; the mediocre and stale curves that had taken him too long to piece together into a feeble attempt of replicating waves on the sea. Lau had hated even looking at it. He asked himself why he still looked for its shards. He should be over this by now. A better salarian would have put the ordeal behind him. A better salarian would have given up on ineptitude and worked toward something more attainable. A respectable salarian would have…should have…

Lau’s fingers tightened around the handle of his mug. He only half listened as his sister nattered on over the vid-com about one thing or another, adding only small confirmatory remarks if she asked for his input. In front of him, on the table, several holo pads held shipping manifestos, bills, and requests from eager artists wishing to be displayed and sold in his gallery. None of it caught his interest, but he flipped through the paperwork to appear busy while in front of Nalano. She continued her tirade of a chore list to him and Lau turned his head toward the window, watching the blurred, colored lights of traffic whizz pass. “You’re going to be here, right Lau? Appearance is everything at events like this.”

“Yes, Ano. I’ve already made the arrangements.” Lau took a drink of his tea, overlooking an artist’s plea for validation. Being a turian upstart didn’t hurt, with the scarcity of the species style outside of turian space. Lau made a note to email the artist about further examples of his work.

“Good. Zejaa will have you entertain some of our business partners. I expect you to be busy currying favors.” Since their mother had died a few years back, Lau’s boss of a sister had taken charge of their branch of the family. Wielding her feminine power with an iron will and steel forged words, she had further built their branch’s influence in clan politics. Now that their cousin was formally becoming the clan’s Dalatrass, Nalano’s power would grow tenfold. The two had been as thick as the dense jungle trees that wove around one another since childhood.

“-as is custom, I know.” Lau droned. “Relax Ano, things will go off without a hitch on my end.”

Nalano smiled and Lau got the feeling that if she could pet his cheek, as their mother had done when she was pleased, Nalano would have done so. “Dependable Lau. You never make trouble for me. Azik may not be able to come at all because of his partner and I still need to find a back up babyitter.” She paused for a moment with a cleansing breath. “ I’ll speak further with you another time.” Nalano hung up, leaving Lau in the abrupt silence of his dark apartment. He closed the holo-pads and stowed them in his work satchel. Standing up, he moved into the kitchen to replenish his tea, robotically.

Dependable Lau.

He decided against more tea.

Looking at the clock, Lau grabbed his satchel and gazed into the hall mirror. Clean faced, suit nearly without flaw, Lau flattened his collar with a flare of gravitas and feigned importance. He stared into his own eyes, avoiding the dark uniformity in his peripheral vision. Today was a new circle. Lau locked the front door behind him. It was a brisk, cool, walk to the Nasurn Gallery, consisting of fifteen, maybe thirty minutes on a bad day. Lau’s focus remained on the crowds and the pavement, intent on not looking for the ghost of the duct rat that he’d never see again. It felt good to stretch his shoulders and his legs this morning.

When he walked through the back door, Lau was greeted by a hellish heat and the rhythmic and scattered ringing sound of a hammer meeting steel. Behind the wall ahead, Eramanthe cursed loudly as the ringing ceased once again. The salarian rolled his eyes as he flipped on the ceiling venting system. She always forgot about the fans on her work days. Lau wondered if she’d been born on an arid world far off in Asari Space. Walking up behind her, he could almost see it. As a young girl, she would be a sun burnt baby-building sand castles in a desert long after she should have gone inside to her mother. She could have been a chubby little thing, running with wild abandon just to feel the sand rush in between her toes. Maybe her family went on beach trips to escape the heat by way of a breeze coming off the water. The intense temperatures hardly seemed to bother the woman.

The work shop was empty today, with the other sculptures pushed far into the walls in order to give the asari room to work. The forge burned with a blinding yellow, illuminating the massive metal behemoth beside it that had stolen Eramanthe’s sleep for weeks now. She twisted the arms of the galactic community together and in the center of their outreaching palms, Eramanthe planned to plant a miniature of the Citadel. The theme was a little predictable for Lau’s taste, but her results were worth a bit of cliché. With metal and her biotics, Eramanthe’s figures felt like they could move and breathe on their own. They had the soft bend of skin and muscle that caressed the viewer’s attention. Of life’s soft and tender emotions, Eramanthe caste them in metal and polished them to a mirror shine.

Her sculpture still lacked a hand or two, missing the drell, turians, and vorcha. Why Eramanthe insisted on putting the vorcha in there was beyond Lau. It wasn’t as if they added anything to galactic culture. On the work bench laid the disembodied hand of the turians. “I like what you’re doing with the seams there, Era. But this looks a little aggressive compared to the others.” Lau quipped, looking at the hand from over her shoulder. She nursed a small burn on the outside of her thumb and groaned in miserable agreement.

“I think some of real life is bleeding into the piece.” Eramanthe collapsed into a nearby chair with her eyes closed and head tilted back. “Maybe I just need to…step back for a while.”

Lau moved closer to the metal hand. The iconic turian talons were uncut and vicious looking, unlike most of Eramanthe’s works in which they were trimmed with a rounded edge. The hand was flexed as if it were a predator that was about to strike. “Fighting with Cassias?” Lau mused, watching as Eramanthe ground her palms into her temples.

“I think we’re going to break up, Lau. He’s just…so….so-” Her hands flexed and clawed at the air, veins popping from the skin.

Lau inched away from Eramanthe’s rage. “Uncompromising?”

The asari sunk lower into the chair, crossing her arms and legs with sharp angry movements. “He’s too conforming. Too restrictive! Imagine what he’d do to our girls with that kind of attitude! He’d ruin them!”

“If he lived long enough, that is.” Lau said to himself. Eramanthe shot daggers at him from her seat; her entire face looking like she’d tasted something sour. “Hey-look at me.” the curator defended, jabbing a finger into his abdominal hood. “I get to make that joke! Besides, Cassias isn’t a young man anyway. You can do better, age wise.” Lau retracted said finger as Eramanthe transferred her glare from him to the ceiling. He scratched the back of his neck, averting his eyes back to the metal hand on the table. Quietly, he said “The hand should be salvageable. You only need to loosen the fingers and cut down on the talons. It should be fine.”

Eramanthe stretched out of the seat, pushing it to its two back legs. “I want babies, Lau. I want them real bad.” She rocked back and forth on the chairs legs.

Lau briefly ran his hand across the metal arm on the table, feeling its heat slowly ebbing out into his palm. He turned to face her, “I mean, you can get kids without keeping the father around. Isn’t that what you asari do?” Lau snickered as Eramanthe threw her balled up sweat rag at his head. It was a bull’s-eye mark, hitting Lau square in between his horns.

“Been digging up cultural weaknesses to report back to your Union, salarian?” Eramanthe grinned toothily; brows narrowed. “Or is it just for a busy-body Dalatrass?” The two smiled at one another from their opposing sides of the room, Eramanthe’s eyes a bit brighter than they were a minute ago. She was prettier when she smiled. Lau found that glowering only made Eramanthe’s particularly round face look like a withering gourd, melting and squashing into unintelligible shapes. Yet, the way she held herself was still slumped over. She hugged herself, hands wrapped around her elbows and a clouded faraway look in her eye.

Lau placed a hand on her shoulder and returned the sweat rag to her expecting hand. “Personally, I don’t see the draw.” He said, “But you’re determined enough, Era. You’ll be putting aside all your passions and career to raise a brood of crass girls in no time.” Era shook her head, ignoring the salarian’s distaste of the idea.

The tinkling of the bell above the door in the parlor rang and the two shared a glance. The sound of the bell was more of a whisper; like a shameful, slow outcry that begged not to be heard and hoped to go unnoticed. Though not unheard of, it was rare for patrons or guests to come to the gallery before noon. When Lau didn’t hear the sound of the door closing behind the bell, the pores of his skin tightened around the base of his bulbous skull. His feet led him cautiously to the front room, with a straight back and stern countenance. There he saw, mirrored in the glassy flooring, two very unwelcome duct rats. They stared wide eyed at him, crouching over some foreign object on the floor. One held the door slightly ajar, just enough to slip back through without sounding the bell once again. Letting out a small growl, Lau lurched toward the girls. He wrenched the door from the asari’s hand and slammed it shut before the two could escape his grasp once again. A sickly, burning anger broiled in his belly.

“You two” Lau spat “are in very big trouble!” The human girl with the pale eyes started fidgeting spasmastically, her hands flying around her face and chest while her mouth opened and closed like a fish left out in the sun. She constantly looked back at her companion, who quaked in fear as she tried to pry the door open. The human’s hands clawed toward Lau in a beseeching manner. Her mind was slower than an elcor’s walk in the garden, it would seem, as her mouth had nothing to say but the smacking of a dry tongue. Lau watched her in disgust. The little pest who had been a blight upon him for too long did not measure up to the scheming, malicious whelp that he had pictured; but rather was a simpleton with less to offer of herself than a vorcha mercenary.

“N-no.” the human sputtered out, finally clutching and pulling at her shirt as if something were missing in her pockets. “No. I’m sorry…uh-uh-uh. Vey…” the sounds were strangled in her throat before she could get them out.

Eramanthe came into the room, looking at the two children and then meeting the fire in Lau’s eyes with the surprise inside her own. “Lock these two down, Era. I’m getting C-sec down here.” Lau ordered. He leaned his weight against the door to keep the two in and pulled up his omni-tool. The human child looked as if she were about to cry, her breathing shallow and fast.

“Wait, old man!” begged the young asari, beginning to wrestle Lau’s arm away from the fingers that threatened her freedom. “She just came to say sorry. That’s all! Don’t call the blues!”

“Lau” Era interjected slowly, gliding across the floor.

“What are you waiting for, Era? Use your biotics on these degenerates already!” the salarian ordered.

While Lau fought against the younger asari, Eramanthe’s attention was trained on the human. The girl bit at her lip and looked as if she were chastising herself, her gaze intent on trying to tell the salarian anything. When the human grasped at the small object on the floor, Eramanthe’s mouth slid up into a small smile, “Lau, hang on a sec.” With quiet panic, the human girl carefully shoved a piece of board into Lau’s chest. The girls stumbled back as he let go of the asari child, steadying each other.

It was his worthless piece Lau realized, looking at the clay turning and swirling upward from the board. It had been patched back together with cheap craft clay, nary a crack showing…despite the differing shade of color of the clay he’d used and what she’d used. There were juvenile fixes to curves and shapes that…actually worked. The edges had been softened where he had made sharp turns, not to a fantastic degree, but enough to make a difference. There were unfortunate blobs of dried glue in places-but there had been an attempt to hide them with similar clay blobs in varying places. They almost looked like bubbles-in an amateur sort of way. Lau stared at it in silence. He refused to believe that a duct rat, with no form of education outside of anything but ducking the law, could have put together the pieces so intuitively. Despite himself, the salarian found himself impressed.

“Sorry I broke it.” The little human said, drawing the attention of the two adults once more. “I tried to fix it.” She toyed with one of her fingers, not making eye contact with anyone in the room.

Eramanthe pawed at the sculpture from around Lau’s arm. “You did a good job blurring the lines where the old material and new meet.” She drew her hand away, rubbing her fingers together. The brownish coloring had stained her skin-a sign of cheap mock clay. It smelled mostly of salt.

“You did this?” Lau sounded more like he was accusing her than asking. The girl nodded slowly, nervously. The asari child had started inching toward the now unattended door.

“What’s your name, sweetie?” Eramanthe squatted down to meet the duct rat’s eye level. She held out her hand warmly toward the girl. Lau looked at his friend as if she were crazy.

“Um…uh-Tegan” the human looked at Eramanthe’s offered hand as if she were offered credits and tentatively reached out-

Her hand was snatched out of the air by her companion, who whispered a firm “Come on.” before turning towards the adults with a tight, polite grimace. “Sorry, we gotta go now. We won’t bother you again.” She pulled the human girl with her, the two scurrying out the door before another word could be spoken. The human’s eyes caught in the glass window.

Lau passed the rest of the day in uneasy silence. The duct rat’s appearance rattled his core, as did the sudden appearance of his failed bobble-fixed and childishly improved. In a corner of his office, sitting on an aged couch, Eramanthe had resumed toying with the small sculpture after having called it a day on her own piece. He only found irritation in watching her curious twists and turns and Lau’s jaw tightened until it threatened to never move again. Lau found himself actively looking at his hand to avert his gaze from her-watching the tendons and muscles flow underneath his copper-toned skin as hands flew across his keyboard in feeble attempt of distraction. Answering these emails was always how he ended the day. But today, the hollow weight of routine threatened to crush Lau beneath it.

“You know what, Lau?” Eramanthe purred, finally setting the sculpture down in her lap. To Lau’s chagrin, she continued to pet at it absently. His head turned toward her like rusted machinery. “This is actually pretty promising now! It reminds me of some of some of your old college work that you’ve showed me-”

Lau pressed the palms of his hands to the desk, in a knee jerk reaction. “WHAT?” he hissed, “It looks absolutely nothing like my old works!”

“I mean energy wise, you angry little squit.” Eramanthe waved off his reaction. “Look at this, really I mean!” Reluctantly, Lau watched it from the corner of his eye. The form was a confusion of will and intention. It drew upon a ghost of a memory before Lau shoved it back down into the dark recesses of his mind. “There’s so much enthusiasm!” Eramanthe continued to cheer.

“It looks like its being pulled apart by different ideas of what it’s supposed to be.” Lau muttered darkly.

“Sure. But that shouldn’t bother you of all people. I mean, that kind of look helped you graduate, right?” Eramanthe’s shrug caused boulders to fall upon Lau’s spine. He stared intently at wood grain of his desk. She continued to speak but he chose to tune her out.

Pushing the chair back, Lau walked to Eramanthe and took up the sculpture, his fingers threatening to crack the wooden board. “It’s hardly even my work anymore. So it has nothing in common with what I used to do.” He opened up a cabinet, shoved the thing deep onto a shelf, and closed the door. The offensive object finally out of sight, Lau felt he could breathe again.

“Oh, squirt lube up your cloacae and loosen up, man.” Eramanthe crossed her arms and scowled. “The kid did good work.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Lau returned to his desk, resuming his evening work.

“I think she has potential worth nourishing!”

“She’s not an orphaned varren whelp, Era. Leave it be.”

“When she comes back, we should see what else she can do!”

“ERA! STOP!” Lau shouted. Her enthusiasm was too much for Lau. He collapsed back onto his chair, resting his head on the cool wood of his desk. Eramanthe was on her feet, glaring daggers at him. “Just…please.” the salarian took a deep breath, trying to clear the tight muscles in his head. “Yes. Admirable though it is that she came back, it doesn’t change what happened. Now I’d appreciate it if you let this finally drop. Period!”

The quiet between the two hung stagnant in the air. Suffocating. Claustrophobic. The unrelenting automated clicking sounds of Lau’s haptic keypad signaled that the salarian was done talking. Eramanthe scowled as she stood, readjusting her clothes. “Okay, Lau.” She padded towards the door, her boots hanging from her shoulder on laces tied together. “I’m going home. You should too. Sleep off that attitude, maybe.”

Alone again. Lau hung his head in his hands, clicking off from his emails. What a disaster.

#butthound writes #salarian #salarians #mass effect 1 #mass effect #asari #turian #fanfiction #salarian oc #SASA

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razorblade180 · 4 years

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Sunshower 8

A shower. A simple shower and a brief walk to the pond was all Ilia had left before the most awkward conversation in her life. No amount of White Fang training could prepare her for this. Expressing feelings weren’t something covered when training to be a spy. Maybe Neptune was right on the money about taking time to sort out her head before confronting the problem. A piece of her soul felt like it left Ilia’s body at the realization just how crazy that was to her. Neptune was right and she should’ve listened. He must never know. ‘Oh well. What’s done is done. Might as well appreciate the time I have before self destruction.’ She thought walking back to her house painfully slow.

Slow or not, eventually she found herself in the middle of the forest in front of an arrow sign pointed done with her initials on it. The ground underneath her feet was clear of any obstacles; just a perfect grass circle. Around her were tall, strong trees that shot straight in the sky with branches as thick as logs. One tree in particular had a branch that bent down lower than the rest and had small holes carved into the trunk. Ilia rested her hand on the sign and turned the arrow straight up. ‘Home sweet home at last. Well...mostly.’

Usually Ilia wouldn’t miss the chance to train her acrobatic skills but there was way too much on her mind to trust herself to not slip up. Instead off running up any trees or flipping from branch to branch, Ilia took the easy path and started climb up the tree with carved footholds in it. If Adam was ever good for anything it was his constant nagging about how houses in Menagerie should have at least two easy ways to get to. Multiple types of a faunus species might have to drop by for whatever reason and it would a real pain for a place to only be accessible by having a specific trait. Even a broken clock was right twice a day she supposed m.

Ilia reached a layed of dense foliage that was woven together with straw and covered the entire circle below; essentially blocking most of the sunlight from coming through. ‘Where is that stupid...ah ha!’ relieved to find the soft spot in layer, Ilia pushed her way through with easy and stood on the flooring. Infront of her was a giant hut. The roof was also made of a thick straw that allowed rain to run off it as it extended past the actual frame of the wooden house. Two windows were placed on each side of the door. Decorating the outside was always an idea she entertained but never did. The inside and the utilities was the more important part anyways.

The girl smiled when the gentle breeze from opening the door hit her face. To the left was a futon up against the wall with a silk blanket on the armrest and a rug on the ground in front of it. A small coffee table was a bit further away that held a tiger lily as the center piece. Up against the wall the door was on had a dusty entertainment center with a tv smack dab in the middle. Old movies were placed below it leaning against each other. The right side of the room had the floor made of harden clay since it was the kitchen. The only thing really in it was a wooden circular table in the middle, a fridge in the back that faced the direction of the living room, and from that ran a counter top that curved all the way back towards the door. It caved way into a sink a few feet from the fridge before being a counter again. Then was interrupted again by a basic stove with two burners up top that were about two feet out of reach from Ilia. Drawers held everything she needed underneath the countertop.

She’d be lying if she said wasn’t hungry but considering there’s someone waiting on her, bathing and thinking took priority. Ilia kicked off her shoes and moseyed straight down into the hallway and opened the bathroom door. Easily the smallest room she created for the soul purpose of allowing other rooms to be bigger. She was at the sink the moment she walked in. Passed it was the toilet and another few inches away was the tub that ran sideways. A sliding warped glass door was attached to it. The ceiling had an opening above it to vent out the steam she always made. Ilia found herself leaning against towards the full mirror on top the sink. Her hands curling against it and staring at her reflection in slight concern.

‘Geez I look this rough even after sleeping?’ The woman thought looking at how mess her hair was. Underneath her eyes were a bit dark but that’s the price of partying hard; even if she didn’t enjoy it. Well...most of it. She started looking at her hair tie before settling it down.

‘Last night really happened. It wasn’t a dream. I wonder how much Sun exactly remembers? How much do I remember?’ Soon her clothes fell to the floor as she continued to look in the mirror. The color of her skin slightly turning pink the more she recalled last night.

‘He...might remember seeing me, all of me. Is that good or bad? I remember all of him.’ That memory only helped to make her get pinker. “All of him...”

Her hands retreated from the sink and went to her hips. Bit by bit the entire picture was forming. Last night was getting vivid. She remembered the way he was looking at her; the way he held her. Ilia remember the way his fingers wrapped and pressed into her hips. The feeling was...new? No, that’s not quite the word. Foreign, it was foreign to her. Not to say that is was bad, just expected. Like everything else was last night was. The words they exchanged, the feelings behind them that accompanied tears and the embrace that came afterwards. Ilia wasn’t expecting any of that. It was nice. Sun was ni- “Agh! What does that mean!?!?” She shouted out loud before walking to the tub flustered and turning on the water. “A cool bath. A cool bath will calm me down. Everything will make sense when I calm down.” Water rushed out the faucet and filled the tub that gave another reflection to struggle with. This time she had noticed something she had overlooked the first time. A few spots on her chest weren’t spots at all. They were little bruises lightly peppered everywhere. She had forgotten her hips weren’t the only thing that got a fair amount of attention last night. She’d be flattered right now if she didn’t feel like she was about to die from her own memories. “Sigh, why is this the one time I remember everything!?”

xxxx

Sun:*texting* “Neptune! Aww you asleep yet!?”

Neptune: “We just saw each other...”

Sun: “I know, just have a question. What would you do in my situation? Follow up, what would happen if-”

Bzzz! Bzzz!

His phone lit up with a Neptune’s name in a face time. Sun immediately answered and saw his best friend with messy hair and laying in the hammock.

Neptune:.....

Sun:....Am I bugging you?

Neptune:No, just can’t believe this is happening. I’m usually the antsy one. Is this how you feel usually; calm and fine? I didn’t realize you had the best seat ever.

Sun:How do you deal with drama all the time!?

Neptune:Because I have you dude.

Sun:That was sweet and all but.....

Neptune:You are Sun Wukong. If you can handle being friends with Ilia after she stabbed you then you can handle a little awkward post sex conversation. I got your back but I don’t think you’ll need it.

Sun:Wow, thanks Neptune.

Neptune:No problem. Consider it me paying it forward. You were there with my major girl problem.

Sun:*eyes widened* Woah I didn’t think you would ever mention-

Neptune:Her name is still banned!

Sun:Should’ve guessed. Still proud of you.

Neptune:Yeah yeah, save that pride and turn it into confidence. It’s not like you’re on a time limit to think. Just don’t run into her and do something crazy.

Sun:About that....

Neptune:What did you....?

The embarrassed boy was about to answer before he looked across the lake to see the girl in question finally showing up. Her hair was still down and she wasn’t in her usual clothes. Ilia wore a plain white T-shirt and what looked to be gray track pants. Complete with black running shoes. Sun couldn’t tell if it was for comfort or a sign that this will end with her fleeing the scene. He was sitting on a pier that led to some pretty deep water after all.

Sun:I’ll call you later Neptune. Maybe.

Neptune:What does that mean!? Su- *disconnected*

Sun:*mumbles* Definitely going to be hearing about that later.

“Hearing about what later?” The voice said, catching him off gaurd. His tail perked up along with his swiveling head. He was surprised to see Ilia was standing a few inches behind him already. Was she faster than he realized or was he spacing out that much? Now wasn’t the time to think of it.

Sun:H..hey

Ilia:Hey *rubbing her arm*

........

Sun:Wanna have seat? If you know, you want to? Which ever is fine by me. Sitting or standin, hehehe not much of difference and stuff. *clears throat*

Ilia:*raises eye brow* Freaking out?

Sun:Oh you know. A little bit.

Ilia:Good. Means I’m not the only one. Today is....

Sun:Yeah, definitely. A real cluster of a lot of things.

Ilia:Exactly.

A few more minutes went by before Ilia finally chose between sitting or standing. Her feet inched up to the edge of the pier next to him. She thought about her choice one more time in her head before sitting down next to him; her legs dangling over the edge. The soles of her shoes grazed across the water’s sureface. Distorting the perfect image of the blue sky above. Ilia couldn’t bring herself to look at him directly but his reflection was manageable at least. What she saw was to be expected but surprising all at once. Sun wasn’t looking at her either. His tail was wrapped around his left wrist as he rubbed the tip.

Ilia:(I guess even the most social of people have their moments. Damn, really wanted to be the passive one here but looks like I’m going on offense.) Did, did I keep you waiting?

Sun:*turns around* Huh?

Ilia:Were you waiting here long? I kinda took my time bathing.

Sun:Oh, no it was fine. Too many things to think about to notice the time.

Ilia:Makes sense. There’s definitely a lot of things to think about. So.... wanna try thinking about them together? Two heads are better than one.

Sun:Sounds like a plan. Should we be facing each other then or-

Ilia:*red* back to back would be nice!

Sun:Oh......

Ilia: “Oh?” That not work for you?

Sun:It’s fine.

Ilia:Obviously it isn’t with you.

Sun:Yeah but face to face makes you uncomfortable apparently so I’ll deal.

Ilia:...... Well now I don’t want to do back to back at all.

Sun:*chuckles* Oh my god...

Ilia:What?

Sun:Does this really matter? I was just trying to make you feel comfortable.

Ilia:Well I’m trying to consider your feelings dummy. Someone has to validate them unlike you.

Sun:What’s that supposed to mean?

Ilia:You just tried pushing the way you feel to the wayside like you did last night!

Sun:What else was I supposed to do!? You were having a horrible time. Are you trying to tell me you would’ve listened if I wobbled up to you drunk and depressed.

Ilia:OF COURSE! We’re friends! I care about your feelings! *stares at him*

Sun:....

The two of them locked eyes quietly. Sun’s face inspects the rigid expression on Ilia’s face. He’s seen the girl be serious. He’s been on the serious end of her weapon after all. This was different though. Familiar.

Sun:I think Neptune is growing on you.

Ilia:What?

Sun:He’s always getting on me when it comes to things like this. Guess you really do care? *smiles*

Ilia:.....*looks away*

Sun:Ilia?

Ilia:Shut up. *turns red* we’ll just look at each other through the lake. Sound fair?

He stares down at the water and notices the girl every so often stealing glances at him before looking away again.

Sun:This works.

Ilia:Why was back to back even a problem for you?

Sun:Why is your hair down still?

Ilia:Where...where the hell did that come from?

Sun:Oh I thought we were asking obvious questions. Discussing important problems gets harder when you can’t see a person’s expressions. If you can’t see them then words feel less honest.

Ilia:Don’t trust my words?

Sun:I don’t trust mine. I...have a knack for saying things that don’t particularly go perfect with what I’m trying to get across. Earned a few slaps because of it.

Ilia:Ouch. Who’s bold enough to do that?

Sun:Not many but it happened enough times to know I should tread more lightly with sensitive topics.

Ilia:Fair enough. Well if it means anything, you’ve been doing pretty well so far. Not just today but with last night at the party too. Thanks.

Sun:I wouldn’t exactly thank me for last night. Are we finally gonna talk about how it ended?

Ilia:I’m still on why you think you my hair is still down.

Sun:Ilia...

Ilia:Fine, fine, where do we even start?

Sun:Do you regret it?

Ilia:Right into the deep end I see. Good as any place I suppose. It’s the only real question I had time to mull over. When I woke up I was extremely shocked about the entire thing. I didn’t remember much at first and I’m going to be honest with you. Everything felt really shitty.

Those words cut deeper than Sun expected. His hands joined together tightly. A slow exhale left his body as he nods and stares into the water. ‘Can’t blame her.’ Sun thought to himself before the touch of Ilia’s hand landed on his shoulder. The boy glanced at her reflection to see it was as calm as the water it was on,

Ilia:However, I’ve had the opportunity to take a nap and a bath since then. Last night was definitely confusing, weird, and probably the most vulnerable I’ve felt since fighting Blake. It was also the first time since then that I felt genuinely comforted; you did that Sun.

Sun:So, we’re okay then?

Ilia:Yeah. No regrets on this side of the pier. Just a really, really unexpected story to tell one day.

Sun:Phew! Thank the Gods! *falls back*

Ilia:I’ll take that as you have no regrets either?

Sun:Most of my worries came from thinking I hurt you in someway. I can deal with feeling a bit of weird or uncomfortable as long as you don’t hate me. No way I could live with this otherwise.

Ilia:You really put others before yourself don’t you?

Sun:I wouldn’t say that. If I can make someone’s life better then I try. Accidentally making more problems messes with me.

Ilia:(I can relate.)

Sun:Next question. Are we...gonna talk about this after this conversation?

Ilia:Not sure I follow.

Sun:We ever gonna bring this up in casual conversation or Is this our secret?

Ilia:Do you wanna tell people?

Sun:Not really, no. I don’t want to pretend like this never happened either.

Ilia:Pfft you make it sound like I was your-.......

Sun:Hmm? You ok? *sits up*

Ilia:*covers face*......

Sun:......

Sun:You remembered I told you that last night was my first time?

Ilia:*nods* I can understand if you wanna push me into the lake right now.

Sun:Eh. It’s no-

Ilia:Don’t say it’s no big deal. That’s a huge deal! You only get one of those.

Sun:Wasn’t it your first time too last night?

Ilia:With a guy! I’ve been with women bef- how have I been with more women than you!? That’s insane!

Sun:*shrugs* We ran in different circles I guess. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this but you’re way more of chick magnet than Neptune.

Ilia:The girls here seem to be swarming around him like flies.

Sun:True. Doesn’t mean he’s slept with any of them. Neptune just gets a lot of dates.

Ilia:You’re lying....

Sun:Ask himself yourself at the party tonight.

Ilia:Wait, you’re partying again tonight?

Sun:Might as well. I was gonna skip it but didn’t really hangout with Blake last night for obvious reasons. I was hoping you’d back me up.

Ilia:Me?

Sun:Yeah you. Think of it as sort of a do over. I don’t mind the way yesterday ended but everything leading up to it was....a social disaster. *rubs head* Yang and I are on shaky ground. Eventually it’ll get back to Blake unless I can find a way to bury the hatchet. Who knows? Maybe things will blow over like this?

Ilia:Doesn’t Yang have a reputation for being aggressive?

Sun:All the more reason for you to have my back! Besides, don’t you wanna try putting your best foot forward in all this?

Ilia:Not really.

Sun:Wow...

Ilia:Did you forget I’m the one who had the mentality to brush off Belladonna problems and feelings for awhile? I think I’ll just stay home this time.

Sun:I can’t change your mind? You really want to stay home?

He was asking a lot of good questions. Anymore and Ilia might have to tell Judy that her detective promotion might get stolen. Staying home wasn’t the most exciting thing ever but faking fun was no better. Home had a bed though and no drama.

Ilia:Sorry, maybe tomorrow. I doubt this will be the only party. Let me know how it goes though okay? If they ask about me then just tell them I party too hard yesterday. Too much excitement.

Sun:Ummm out of curiosity, is that last part a lie or the truth? *blushing*

Ilia:Ummmm that’s uh. That’s definitely a question isn’t it?

Sun:*winces* F..forget I asked.

Ilia:Listen-

Sun:I get it. Definitely weird to ask. I was curious but we can leave that one alone.

Ilia:There’s just a bunch of layers to that. That entire moment is pretty jumbled. Peak performance was something neither of us were at. Not to say that you were underperforming! No you were...I thought.....sex was.... I don’t want to ask for an out, but could you kindly give me one? I’m digging myself a hole.

Sun:Hmmm. Don’t you have to go back home and rest up? I’m pretty sure you told me you needed strength for partying tonight. *smirking*

Ilia:That’s cheating! I don’t want that shovel!

Sun:I’m not saying you have to go to Blake’s house. Enjoy other things. Hangout with Neptune. He thinks you’re cool. After I’m done with my business then the three of us can hang. No drama, no weird conversations,just the three of enjoying the festivities.

Ilia:Persuasive, aren’t you?

Sun:So are you when you’re drunk and I can’t believe that just came out my mouth; was that too soon?

Ilia:Considering it’s been like ten minutes? Yeah it is, but I walked into that one. *crosses arms* I will party for three hours at most and this time there’s no drinks. Deal?

Sun:I can work with that. See you tonight then?

Ilia:I’ll be on the beach the moment three hours are up I’m gone, so you better make nice with Yang fast.

Sun:Please, making friends is practically my secret semblance.

Sun hit his chest before smiling proudly. Ilia couldn’t help but cringe a little at the remark but at the same time wondered if that was possible. The charisma around him did seem to be a bit infectious. Blake and Neptune adoring the boy was proof enough that he can find interests with people on opposite ends of the social spectrum. Ghira was the only one who seemed impervious to it but what dad isn’t wary of charming boys talking to their daughter? Especially in Blake’s case.

As much as she stressed over the talk, it was over in a fraction of the time she expected. Yeah there was a lot of things that could’ve been discussed further but not as important as what they went over. There’s time for that later. Right now she running on fumes and Sun had already got up and started to walk away. Yet there was one thing that gnawed at her thoughts a little as she sat alone. A thing that flustered her because of his idiotic question. Ilia was his first and he was fine with that happening, but was she herself actually good!? He hadn’t once commented on her performance. Ilia wasn’t sure if she actually wanted the answer. All she knew was she was tired of turning pink.

Part 7

#rwby #rwby sunshower #ilia amitola #sun wukong #sun x ilia #neptune vasilias #rwby sunspots #rwby ships

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fireflyfish · 7 years

Text

Tano and Kenobi: Tatooine

Previously on Tano and Kenobi...

Desperately fleeing the relentless pursuit of the bounty hunters sent by Culling Blade, Ahsoka Tano and Obi-Wan Kenobi have fled with the Duchess of Mandalore, Satine Kryze, across the Outer Rim. Out of time and with nowhere else to run, Ahsoka makes a bold decision to trade their starship for passage on a freighter.

A freighter bound for the desert planet of Tatooine.

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Melausta on the Outer Rim.

A Republic cruiser flew through the atmosphere, smoothly gliding over the spaceport of the planet’s capital city.

Hovering in place for a moment as the landing gear deployed, the vermillion ship slowly sank down into its assigned landing bay. White, billowing clouds of steam jetted out of the ship’s exhaust vents, nearly obscuring the boarding ramp that was quickly lowered.

A humanoid figure strode out, hard-soled boots ringing against the duracrete walls of the landing bay. He stepped into the warm midday sunlight and pulled off the voluminous hood that covered his brown hair and blunt features. Taking out his personal communications device, the man keyed in a frequency. “This is Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and I have landed on Melausta.”

There were several minutes of silence as the message bounced through the express relays of the holonet system before the reply came back.

“Understood, Master Jinn,” Mace Windu’s voice crackled over the com, low and serious. “Please inform the Temple when you have located the Duchess of Mandalore, Knight Tano, and Padawan Kenobi. May the Force be with you. Windu out.”

The line went dead and Qui-Gon tucked his com back into his belt and took off into the bustling city with one thing on his mind.

I’m coming, Obi-Wan.

Three days later it became clear that while Obi-Wan, Knight Tano, and the Duchess had been in the capital city of Melausta, they were no longer there and most likely hadn’t been there for two weeks, maybe more. The local magistrate helpfully explained that there had been a bit of a scuffle with some Mandalorian bounty hunters about three weeks back but no one had been able to charge them with anything more onerous than disturbing the peace.

“Some of those boys work for Jabba and the Hutt Syndicate,” the magistrate explained, showing Qui-Gon the footage of the fracas in the market district. “So there wasn’t a lot of push from the judiciary to indict them. And nobody’s seen a Jedi on Melausta in years! Truth be told, the Hutts are the law out here, Master Jedi.”

Qui-Gon frowned at the holo footage with his arms folded over his chest. “The citizens of this planet are content to let known criminals and bounty hunters walk free on their streets?”

“You’re mighty far away from Coruscant, Master Jedi,” the magistrate shrugged, pulling out a data stick and handing it over to Qui-Gon. “People here are just glad they won’t be kidnapped and sold into slavery on Nar Shaddaa. I’m sorry we can’t be of more help to you.”

Qui-Gon took the data stick with a brusque gesture and thanked the local law enforcement officer for his help before marching out of the building and back to his ship.

He would use the onboard computer to process the data stick in the hopes of finding some clue to Obi-Wan’s whereabouts. The footage was the only real lead he had, what with the Force silent and still on the subject of the boy. No matter how deeply he meditated, nothing seemed to spark in his awareness and there was a growing, cold dread in his heart that he would find him too late.

I knew Tano would lead you into danger, Obi-Wan. I only hope I can find you before she carelessly gets you hurt.

Two days later, he still had not found anything that would help.

“And you’re positive there’s nothing?” Qui-Gon frowned at the hologram of Master Jocasta Nu hovering above his ship’s onboard holoprojector. “Nothing at all?”

“I’m sorry, Qui-Gon,” Master Nu shook her head, frowning. “I have been over the footage twice myself, as have Masters Plo and Windu. Knight Tano and Padawan Kenobi are nowhere to be found. The droid analysis reports the same finding.”

“But there has to be something there!” Qui-Gon insisted, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms over his chest. “They couldn’t have just vanished!”

“All we can do is trust in the Force and wait for them to contact us,” Master Windu said, his face appearing in the flickering blue light of the projector. “I understand your concerns, Qui-Gon, but the Senate has an assignment for you and I cannot put it off any longer. You must return to Coruscant. Another Jedi will take over the search for Knight Tano and Padawan Kenobi.”

Qui-Gon grit his teeth and bowed his head to Master Windu, the Master of the Order. “Yes, Master Windu. I understand. Who will be taking over the search in my absence?”

“Master Tinn is on his way as we speak,” Mace said, hoping that the mention of a sitting member of the Council being dispatched to find two lost Jedi would sooth Jinn’s hackles. “We are all worried about Ahsoka and Obi-Wan, but you are needed here, Qui-Gon. Once we have located them and assured the Duchess’s safety, you will be the first person I call.”

Nodding, Qui-Gon bowed to the hologram. “Thank you, Master Windu. I will depart shortly.”

And with that he cut off the feed to the Temple and let out a particularly florid curse in Bacchi. He rested his hands on the communications console in his ship, unable to help calling out into the Force. Where are you, Obi-Wan?

To say that Tatooine was hot would not do it proper justice.

Obi-Wan couldn’t really think of a word that could do the desert planet on the Outer Rim justice but “hot” just didn’t seem up to the task. He liked “blistering” or “scorching” but they didn’t quite encompass the blinding, searing light of the twin suns of Tatoo 1 and Tatoo 2. While the length of the day was similar to that of Coruscant with only a few extra hours of sunlight added, those hours seemed brutally exhausting and cruel to Obi-Wan, who just wanted some peace from the heat and the stark brightness overhead.

And that didn’t even begin to cover what all this sun and ultraviolet radiation was doing to his skin. If he got out of this mess without third degree burns, he told himself, he would consider it a miracle.

“Thank you for letting me borrow your robe, Ben,” Satine murmured from where she stood next to him as they waited for Ahsoka to emerge from the cantina she had stepped into looking for information. If there was any consolation to Obi-Wan’s suffering on Tatooine, it was that he had spared Satine further misery, like a true Jedi Knight.

“You are more than welcome, S-Satine.” Obi-Wan stumbled over the Duchess’ given name, feeling scandalously informal. They had decided on the flight to Tatooine that it would be dangerous to refer to Satine by her titles and Obi-Wan had spent most of the flight stammering over her name and feeling even more like an idiot than he usually did.

Ahsoka finally had to step in and suggest with a smile, “You could always call her ‘my lady’. Then you’re still being respectful but a stranger might simply think you’re being extra romantic with your girlfriend.”

Satine had been in the refresher at the time and so Obi-Wan felt free to hiss at his master. “The Duchess is not my girlfriend, Master! I am a Jedi and she is the leader of the Mandalorian people! A relationship between us is impossible and against the Jedi Code!”

Ahsoka nodded solemnly at her padawan’s observation. “I agree. Those are all very good reasons why Satine should not be your girlfriend.”

Obi-Wan watched Ahsoka out of the corner of his narrowed eyes. “I sense a ‘but’ is coming, Master, and I do not think I am going to like it.”

“But if you do decide to make a go of it, I support you,” Ahsoka grinned, pulling out some ration bars and offering one to Obi-Wan who refused in a mortified huff. “Satine is a lovely young woman and I don’t think you could do better than the ruler of a planet.”

“Master!” Obi-Wan groaned, covering his hands and wishing they were on a planet so he could beg the Force to open up a bottomless pit and swallow him whole.

In the end, Obi-Wan chose to stumble his way through Satine’s name in the interest of her safety and also because a small part of him was secretly thrilled at the prospect at being allowed to cast aside his propriety for the mission.

But only for the mission. Once they were safely back on Coruscant, Obi-Wan was fully prepared to go back to using the proper and more respectful “Your Grace”.

Still, it is nice to call her by her name, Obi-Wan thought.

“Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to colonize this hellish planet?” Satine grumbled, pulling the hood of Obi-Wan’s robes further down to give herself more shade. “And why haven’t they built any kind of protection from the suns? Mandalore is a desert now but we don’t live exposed to elements like this. It’s barbaric!”

Obi-Wan chuckled softly and rummaged around in his go bag lying slung over one shoulder. He pulled out a small metal canister filled with cool water that Ahsoka had given him earlier that morning.

They each had one and he knew for a fact that Satine had already gone through hers. “Thirsty?”

Satine let out a gasp of delight and took the canister and was unscrewing the cap when she stopped and turned to look at Obi-Wan, her brows furrowed and her expression worried. “Were you just going to let me drink all your water without saying anything?”

Obi-Wan flushed, which was hard to see under his sunburn, and looked away. “I… thought something cool might take your mind off this sandy hellscape we find ourselves in.”

“Ben Kenobi!” Satine said, looking horrified as she reached out to give Obi-Wan a good swat on the arm. “You… you… stupid boy! Take your water back! I will not be responsible for your death by dehydration.”

Obi-Wan took the drink canister back from Satine and tucked it back into his bag with a guilty relief. “Thank you, Satine. I shall endeavor not to expire today.”

Satine nodded, mollified. “Good. I should hate to have to explain that to Master Ahsoka.”

“Explain what to me?” Ahsoka asked as she emerged from the cantina, a smile on her face as she tucked a handful of credits into a pouch on her hip. “What did I miss?”

Obi-Wan was going to explain his chivalrous actions but Satine got to them first. “Ben was going to gallantly give me the last of his water because I was childishly complaining about this accursed heat,” Satine announced, her head high. “And I made him take it back as I do not relish the idea of him dying from dehydration or the having to explain his untimely demise.”

Ahsoka blinked in confusion, her gaze jumping from Obi-Wan to Satine and back again as she arched one brow. “Right. Well, the good news is, I’ve got enough money for an early dinner. Bad news is, there’s a big podrace coming up and there’s no place to stay.”

Pulling her hood up over her montrals, Ahsoka moved forward into the busy central thoroughfare of Mos Espa with Obi-Wan and Satine at her side. Since it was the main artery of traffic and business in the city, the street was lined by stalls and shops, each one selling something different and the merchants calling out in a wide variety of languages but predominantly in Huttese.

Satine stayed close to Obi-Wan’s side as they walked, asking softly what different sellers were saying, and he happily translated for her. They passed a stand selling exotic food from as far away as Corellia and one stand that offered what it was calling traditional Mandalorian “Fire Food” once Obi-Wan translated it back into Basic.

“Oh! It’s trac’lo’ras!” Satine smiled as she drifted over to the stall. “It smells heavenly.”

Ahsoka followed Obi-Wan over to Satine and the Jedi agreed that the skewers of spiced meat looked and smelled divine. She fished out the credits necessary for two skewers and handed them over to the seller, who bowed his head in thanks and said something in a language she wasn’t very familiar with.

Continuing on their way, Satine let out a happy sigh at the little piece of home. “Oh this is delicious! When I was younger and my mother would take me to the market, she would always buy one and share it with me.”

“Master, would you like the rest of mine?” Obi-Wan offered, having eaten about a third of his skewer and unwilling to let Ahsoka starve if he could help it. “It’s quite good but I’m not sure I should put so much on my stomach with all this heat.”

Smiling back at her padawan, Ahsoka took the offered food. “Thank you, Obi-Wan.”

You won’t be too hungry? she thought as they stepped out of the way of an oncoming landspeeder. And why is Satine wearing your robe?

Obi-Wan glanced up at Ahsoka and bit his lower lip. I… I wanted to protect her from the sun.

Obi-Wan! Ahsoka shook her head and pulled off her robe, with a swirl and draped it over Obi-Wan’s shoulders. “There. That’s better.”

“But what about you?” Obi-Wan protested but allowed his master to pull the hood up and hide him in its shadows anyway. She could sense his relief in the Force, cool and sweet.

“I’ll be fine,” Ahsoka promised as they came to a stop at the corner of another street, watching the ambling, colorful crowd of Outer Rim civilization pass them by.

Ducking under a nearby awning, it was startling to see how much a difference simple shade made in the omnipresent heat and blinding haze of the Tatooine sunlight. Ahsoka hadn’t really understood her master’s hatred of his home planet, but she was starting to get an inkling.

The three of them paused under the protective shade of a droid merchant’s shop as they watched the chaotic swirl of Mos Espa pass them by. Beings from all corners of the galaxy were there but it was easy to tell the natives from the visitors.

People from off-planet had a faint pink softness about them as their bodies began to adjust to the relentless heat and dryness. They were the ones throwing back expensive canisters of water and dousing themselves or their necks in an attempt to beat the heat at its own game and they left far too much delicate skin bared to the elements.

The natives were the ones covered up in the light colors of sand and dunes, their skin dark, faces sharp and in some, prematurely aged. They stuck to the shade as much as they could, their loose robes flowing and allowing what breeze there was to help stave off the heat.

The Force seemed particularly riotous on Tatooine, as if the sheer variety of people and purposes gave a new dimension to it that Ahsoka had rarely experienced and Obi-Wan had never felt before.

“Are you gonna buy something or just take up space?” the owner of the stall muttered as he stepped out from the cool shadows of his shop. “I’m not running an inn!”

Ahsoka held up her hands and gestured for Obi-Wan and Satine to move on ahead of her. “My apologies, friend. We’ll be on our way.”

“Lazy off-worlders,” the man grumbled, shuffling back inside. “Bunch of no-goods and gamblers making everything a mess for the Boonta.”

Frowning, Ahsoka hurried to catch up to Satine and Obi-Wan, who were now standing on the side of the road watching something up ahead.

When she stepped up next to her padawan she saw what had frozen the two teens in place.

A Nikto and a Weequay were laughing loudly as they stood on either side of a young human woman who was holding a package close to her chest and trying to get away from them. There was a growing circle of space around the trio as people backed away from the scene of the young woman and her harassers, who were picking at the braids in her hair and the protective cloak she was wearing.

“Sarela! Did you boss give you the day off?” The Weequay grinned as he leaned in closer. “You should come spend it with me! I’ll take real good care of you.”

“Don’t listen to that chuta!” The Nikto sneered, wrapping an arm around the girl as he tried to guide her away from the front of the large shop she was trying to purchase goods in. “Everybody knows Trazz is all talk and no meat if you catch my drift!”

“Let go of me!” the girl shouted, trying to break free. “Get your hands off of me!”

There were mutters from the crowd around Ahsoka, whispers about how “Someone should do something,” and then replies of “Won’t matter. They’re Gardulla’s men. Nobody messes with Gardulla.” Anger, frustration, and defeated resignation colored the Force around them.

Obi-Wan seethed at the sight and Ahsoka found it hard to disagree with him. He looked up at his master, his expression pleading for permission to go break a few bones to protect the young woman being accosted.

Minutely shaking her head, Ahsoka reluctantly tried to lead Obi-Wan and Satine past the thickest part of the crowd.

We can’t put Satine in danger like that. If we act, her identity might be revealed and I really don’t like our chances on Tatooine of all places, Ahsoka explained to Obi-Wan, who bristled with outrage as he followed his master, his jaw clenched.

“Yes, Master,” Obi-Wan managed to grind out, trying to guide the Duchess through the crowd. “We’re going, Satine.”

“We can’t!” Satine hissed, keeping her voice low as they struggled through the crowd mesmerized by the ongoing scene. “We can’t let those brutes hurt that poor woman!”

“Master says we cannot risk the danger of exposing you,” Obi-Wan explained, even as he struggled to accept his master’s logic. While he knew it made the most sense and would keep the three of them out of danger, it went against the very fiber of his being, of the Jedi Code and his own morals and what made it even worse was that he could sense his master hating her decision just as much as he did.

“But.. but that’s wrong,” Satine said, looking back at the poor girl. “What if something happens to her?”

Ahsoka closed her eyes and tried to tell herself that she was doing the right thing. That it was more important to keep Satine and Obi-Wan safe.

“Maybe we’re just not being convincing enough,” the Nikto sneered as he patted the blaster on his hip as his friend snickered at his side. “Now why don’t you come with us, Sarela. Me and Trazz just wanna show you a good time. What’s wrong with that?”

“Be a good girl and we won’t tell Gardulla that your folks are behind on their water taxes,” the other thug said, picking up on his buddy’s odious suggestion. “If you’re really nice to us, we’ll forget all about ‘em for a while.”

“No! Please! Let me go!” Sarela pleaded, as the crowd started to disperse, already knowing the endgame of this little overt display of bullying. Things like this happened every day in Mos Espa and all over Tatooine and sometimes it was just better to turn your head and accept it than hope for something more. Something better.

Ahsoka closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I can’t let this go.

“You know, I don’t think she wants to go anywhere with you,” she called out, the crowd quickly pulling away like the tide rolling out. “In fact, I think you two should leave the girl alone and go about your business.”

The thugs turned slowly to stare at Ahsoka in a kind of dumb-struck, bug-eyed shock. “What did you say?” the Nikto asked.

“I said, you should leave her alone,” Ahsoka replied, striding out toward the men, her head held high, her gaze calm and level and her hands loose at her side. She could feel Obi-Wan’s fierce pride radiating in the Force and Satine’s relief, weaker but still there. She was glad to know that they were all agreed that there were just some things they couldn’t ignore.

“And who the hell are you?” the Nikto spat, jabbing a finger at Ahsoka’s chest.

Ahsoka canted her head ever so slightly and smiled. “A concerned citizen. Now I suggest you and your friend leave... Sarela? It’s Sarela, right?”

The girl nodded, her eyes round in surprise.

“Good,” Ahsoka’s gaze never left the two thugs. “I suggest you and your friend leave Sarela alone.”

“Are you gonna make us?” the other man sneered, arms folded over his chest. “Sarela’s a real good friend of ours, aren’t ya?”

“I d-don’t want any t-trouble,” the girl stammered, looking frantically from Ahsoka to Gardulla’s men. “P-please! I just… I just want… to go home.”

Ahsoka glanced at Sarela, at the panic taking over her spirit, and her lips pulled into a thin line. “You heard her, gentlemen. Let Sarela go home.”

“Kark you, you headtailed bitch!” The Nikto snarled and lashed out with a fist, no doubt hoping to catch Ahsoka by surprise. The crowd, drawn back by Ahsoka’s actions, let out a gasp.

“What the hell?” The Weequay stammered as Ahsoka stood there, as solid as the rocky bluffs of the wastes, her blue eyes bright with anger and the Nikto’s fist caught neatly in her hand. “No way! There’s no karking way!”

The Nikto let out another curse as Ahsoka used his fist and his arm to unbalance him and fling him to the ground. “My arm! That bitch broke my arm!” he howled in pain.

“You’ll live,” Ahsoka sniffed and looked at the Weequay still standing in front of her.

She could feel Obi-Wan’s spirit shifting through the Force to whisper to Sarela, telling her without words to slip into the crowd and run away back to her family, which she did.

“Do you want to try your luck too, friend?” she asked the Weequay.

Enraged this strange woman was making a mockery of him and his buddy, the Weequay pulled out a knife and lashed out at Ahsoka in a wide arc.

She dodged it easily, hopping backwards as the thug advanced. His eyes were wide as he stared at her, caught somewhere between fury and fear. She could tell that he didn’t really want to be in this fight but he couldn’t let the challenge to him and his friend stand. Not when Ahsoka had humiliated them in public like that.

No one would ever respect them again if word got out about this.

He advanced with wild swings, once, twice, and then a third before Ahsoka blocked his right arm with her left, twisted it over and around, pinning it against her side.

The Weequay cried out in pain and dropped his knife.

With her opponent’s torso exposed, Ahsoka pummeled him with a few hits to the guts before she gave him a proper upper cut and let him fall over backward to lie gasping on the ground as he spat red blood into the dust.

Ahsoka stared down at the thugs, her blue eyes brighter than the sky overhead. “Go back to your boss. And never bother that girl again. Do you understand me?”

Compulsion was laced thick through her words, and the Nikto and the Weequay slowly shambled upright and stumbled back into the crowd, muttering to themselves as the curious onlookers dispersed and normalcy resumed.

Ahsoka let the crowd surge up around and past her, letting it carry Obi-Wan and Satine over to her side. She looked at them and gave them a half smile at Obi-Wan’s approving nod and Satine’s relieved and proud grin.

“That was truly amazing, Master Tano,” Satine said as she followed Ahsoka and Obi-Wan back to the edge of the street and the fringes of the crowd. “Those ruffians will certainly think twice about accosting any more innocent people after that.”

“I just hope Sarela is alright,” Ahsoka said as she slid past a large Ithorian arguing with a Rodian about a speeder part as if the entire encounter hadn’t even happened.

Every one had short memories on Tatooine.

“And I think it would be a good idea if we could find a place to stay for the night. Especially after what just happened. I don’t want those idiots to come back looking for us with more friends and even more weapons.”

“But where can we stay?” Obi-Wan asked, following his master and keeping Satine close to his side. “We haven’t enough credits for an inn and we don’t have a ship anymore.”

Ahsoka let out a sigh and came to a stop between two shops, one selling off-world fruits and vegetables and the other selling a variety of alcohol from all around the Outer Rim. She pulled Obi-Wan and Satine close as they started to discuss what they were going to do about lodgings.

“I’m sure there’s some place we can stay,” Ahsoka assured her padawan and the Duchess. “Mos Espa is big enough to have a place that we can afford somewhere and then tomorrow we can see about earning some credits to get us off this planet.”

“Perhaps we could try one of the inns near the spaceport?” Satine suggested. “I thought one of them said the nightly rent was ten credits for a room. I would be happy to sleep on the floor if it would save us money.”

“You don’t want to do that,” an accented, feminine voice interrupted their conversation, carried on the faintest breeze. “That’s where the night flowers work.”

Ahsoka looked back over her shoulder at the owner of the voice, a petite woman with dark hair coiled into a thick braid at the base of her neck. She was inside the produce stall, picking out some brightly colored sunset fruits from Corellia and setting them into a basket that was covered with a bright green cloth.

Reaching out to the Force on instinct, Ahsoka found it was silent but warm and reassuring to her senses. “Thank you, my friend. If you don’t mind me asking, is there a place you would recommend we stay?”

“What’s a night flower?” Satine asked Obi-Wan, who leaned over and whispered the explanation in her ear. She let out a gasp and turned bright red, slapping a hand over her mouth.

The woman smiled at the fruit in her hand and looked up at Ahsoka, her expression exhausted but her dark eyes kind. “Not if you’re considering the Night Flower Garden. Do you have no money?”

Ahsoka shook her head. “No. We… we didn’t plan on coming to Tatooine.”

The woman nodded, a sad smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “Most people don’t. What is your name?”

“Ahsoka. This is Obi-Wan and her name is Satine.”

Obi-Wan bowed and Satine gave a little curtsey as they chorused, “Hello.”

“Are they… your children?” the woman asked, her brows puzzled as she put the last of her shopping in the basket. She pulled a tan scarf up over her head and tossed the loose edge over her shoulder, the warmth in the Force leaving with her as she moved away.

“I protect them,” Ahsoka explained, watching the other woman as she walked up to the shop keeper and pulled back the cloth that was covering the food, handing over a few credits after he gave her the total.

“Give Gardulla my best,” the merchant said as the woman stepped out onto the street and gave Ahsoka a long look before beckoning her to follow.

They moved down the street, the woman a few feet ahead of them, weaving in and out of the crowd, gliding past clutches of people. She came to the end of the busier section of the main road and waited for Ahsoka, Obi-Wan and Satine to catch up.

“I saw what you did for Sarela,” the woman said, holding a hand up by her mouth, her words soft. “I saw you stand up to Gardulla’s thugs. I haven’t seen anyone stand up to my master’s men in a long time.”

“Your master?” Satine echoed, her eyes growing wide with a dawning realization. “Oh no!”

The woman glanced at Satine but did not reply as she moved ahead, looking Ahsoka up and down. “You are right. You will need to stay out of sight. You are very distinctive, even for a mercenary.”

“My master’s not a mercenary,” Obi-Wan tried to explain, reaching for his lightsabers when Ahsoka stopped him.

Mercenary works for now, Obi-Wan. Let’s not blow our cover just yet.

“Well, whatever she is, she needs to hide and you do too,” the woman explained, giving Obi-Wan and Satine a look as she folded her arms over her chest. “Your accents make you exotic here and exotic things do not stay free for long on Tatooine. You may stay with me and my son. It is the least I can do after what you did for Sarela.”

“We couldn’t,” Ahsoka said, sensing the anxiety and tension coming off of the woman in heavy, swamping waves. What she was offering was clearly going to put her and her son at risk and Ahsoka didn’t want to put anymore lives in danger than she absolutely had to. “I’m sure we’ll find some other place to stay.”

“You won’t,” the woman insisted, shaking her head. “We don’t get many Togruta off-worlders, let alone females capable of taking down two of Gardulla’s men. Word will get around fast. You’ll be safer in the slave quarters.”

“The slave quarters?” Ahsoka echoed, the Force louder now in the back of her mind, urging her to follow the woman, to accept her offer. “You’re a slave?”

“Yes,” the woman explained and stepped out into the sunlight. “Gardulla is my master. My name is Shmi.”

Shmi. Her name is Shmi and she has a son.

“My mother’s name was Shmi,” Anakin said one night of a long forgotten siege as they had stared up at the stars overhead. “And I know she would have liked you, Snips.”

Ahsoka froze, her heart suddenly pounding in her chest as Obi-Wan and Satine almost ran into her.

Her mind went blank.

She struggled for something to say, what to think about this sudden revelation that Anakin’s mother was there, right in front of her. That their long, hard flight from Mandalore had taken them to right where they needed to be.

“Master?” Obi-Wan murmured, reaching out to touch the back of Ahsoka’s arm, his spirit brushing hers, warm and golden with concern. “Are you alright?”

Shmi came to a stop in the middle of the road and looked back at them, confused. “Ahsoka? Are you coming?”

You coming or not, Snips? A warm memory of a voice thought long lost broke through the stunned white noise of Ahsoka’s mind, bringing with it a wave of joy, relief, and the sudden terrified realization that she was about to change the future irrevocably.

There was no going back.

Everything was going to change and it was going to be her responsibility to see that it was for the better.

Why are you here, if not to change things? The Presence whispered in the back of Ahsoka’s mind. Don’t be afraid. You won’t be alone. Obi-Wan is with you. This is as much his destiny as it is yours.

Ahsoka looked down at Obi-Wan, his furrowed brows and his worry radiating out into the Force, that was swirling around them both like a river about to burst over its banks. He had no idea what was about to happen, who they were about to meet, and how his life was going to change. Ahsoka wanted to pull him into a hug right then and there and shout, “It’s him! We found him! Your padawan and my master. We found Anakin! And we’ll save him this time. We won’t lose him.”

And then it felt like a knife in her heart that she couldn’t tell him, that she couldn’t share just how important and momentous this was.

“Master Tano?” Satine murmured, stepping up next to Obi-Wan. “Mother Skywalker is telling us to follow her.”

Ahsoka shook herself out of her thoughts and looked up at Shmi, whose dark eyes were narrowed in suspicion. “I’m sorry. I think the sun is getting to me.”

Shmi shook her head and continued on. “Then we need to get you inside. Come on.”

Shmi told Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and Satine to wait in an alleyway around the corner from Gardulla’s palace on the edge of Mos Espa. She had to drop off the shopping she had done for the Hutt’s kitchen before she went home for the day.

“You don’t stay in the palace?” Satine asked, puzzled because while her family’s servants and retainers stayed within the Kryze compound, she couldn’t imagine a Hutt allowing their slaves to wander free.

Shmi shook her head with the studied patience of one who had explained this many times before. “No. I have a tracker chip embedded within me so I couldn’t run away even if I stole a ship. The minute I try to leave the atmosphere, the chip detonates, opening an artery or injecting a poison. I don’t know which. The ones who are poisoned, they call them ‘dancers’ because of the seizures the poison causes.”

Satine let out a horrified gasp. “That’s barbaric.”

“That is how it is out here,” Shmi explained, her eyes soft as she reached out to squeeze the young girl’s shoulder. “There is no slavery on your world, is there? This must be hard for you to hear.”

Satine shook her head fiercely. “There should not be slavery anywhere.”

Shmi chuckled softly. “You will get no argument out of me on that topic. Stay here while I take this to the cook. I should be back shortly.”

Ahsoka, Obi-Wan and Satine watched her go, waiting for her to pass out of sight before speaking again, voices quiet and hushed.

“We have to save her,” Satine insisted, her cheeks flushed and eyes bright. “This is wrong! Putting an explosive chip in someone and violating their civil liberties! It’s abhorrent.”

“But we haven’t any credits,” Obi-Wan said, his arms folded over his chest and one hand in front of his mouth as he chewed on his thumbnail. “And we still need to find a way off this planet and back to Coruscant.”

“Perhaps we could barter for something,” Satine suggested as Ahsoka leaned back up against the wall and stared off into the distance, her mind whirling with thoughts and possibilities, different futures unspooling before her like bolts of fabric flung out into a river to wash downstream with the current. “Do we have anything we could sell?”

“Nothing that will free Shmi and get all four of us back to Coruscant,” Obi-Wan said, peering at the bag he had been carrying all day. “It’s mostly Master’s datapads and a few emergency rations and a medkit. Nothing that will fetch us any decent money.”

Satine groaned, rubbing her temples. “If only I could contact my uncle. If he’s found the informant, we could have the money wired here and leave in two days’ time.”

“That is a lovely thought, Satine, but we can’t risk it,” Obi-Wan said, his voice kind but brooking no argument. “I’m sure we’ll think of something. Don’t you agree, Master?”

Obi-Wan’s words startled Ahsoka out of her meditations and she turned to look at the two teenagers next to her. “I’m sorry. I was lost in thought. And there’s five of us. Shmi has a son, remember?”

“Oh, right,” Obi-Wan nodded. “I forgot about him. How old is he?”

“I’m not sure,” Ahsoka shrugged as the Force alerted her to Shmi’s return. “Here she comes!”

Shmi came around the corner and walked down the alleyway to them, pulling her scarf up over her hair. “I hope I didn’t make you wait too long. The taskmaster didn’t want to let me leave early.”

“Did we get you in trouble?” Ahsoka asked as they fell in line behind Shmi, who led them across another wide road before heading into a alleyway between two older buildings.

“No, no!” Shmi said, waving her concerns off. “He understands that I have a young son at home and sometimes he needs me. It’s part of the reason I stay in the slave quarters and not in Gardulla’s palace. They can’t stand to hear him cry.”

“Oh. How old is he?”

“Almost two in a few months,” Shmi answered with a happy smile. “He is my whole world. He has been the best thing to happen to me since I entered into this life.”

As they spoke they crossed over a smaller street and into a part of Mos Espa that had seen better days. The mud brick buildings were built one on top of the other, like a warren or a beehive.

The doors to the different homes were open to allow in the breeze and groups of children ran around, laughing and calling out to each other as they played a complicated game of tag. A quartet of women were sitting in the long shadow of a row of houses, gathered around a battered and dusty table. They were shelling beans as they talked and watched the the neighborhood children.

The youngest of the group, clearly pregnant, was the one who saw them first. “Shmi! You’re back early! Is something wrong? Who are these people?”

“These are my friends, Abarrane,” Shmi answered, gesturing to Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and Satine. “They protected Sarela from Trazz and Drez.”

“I heard about that!” one of the older woman gasped, peering up at Ahsoka with watery eyes the color of old jade. “Of course, I heard it was a Twi’lek! Thought it was maybe Nalea. Thought she’d finally had enough of those brutes bothering her girlfriend. Well, good job, young one. It couldn’t have happened to a rougher pair of bullies.”

“Thank you,” Ahsoka said, bowing her head. “I just wanted to help.”

“Not enough people in the galaxy like you,” the old woman observed before she caught sight of one of the children up to something dangerous. “Oi! Greedo! Get down from there! You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“How is he?” Shmi asked Abarrane, trading a loaf of bread and some dried figs from the shop for her own bowl of shucked legumes and a package wrapped in waxed flimsi. “Did he give you any trouble?”

“Of course not,” Abarrane replied with a wide smile. “He was an angel. He’s been napping for about an hour.”

“Oh good,” Shmi sighed, and her relief flooded through the Force.

Ahsoka thought it was strange that someone who did not possess Force sensitivity could have such a direct effect on the Force around her. But whatever that meant, she would have to think about it later, she decided as Shmi invited them into her home. “Please come in. It’s a little small but we can make it work.”

Satine and Obi-Wan entered, followed by Ahsoka, and all three happy to find the temperature dropping once they were out of the sun and protected from the oppressive heat by the stone walls around them.

Shmi came in last and closed the door, activating a small circulation system as she directed her guests into the main living area. “Please, make yourselves comfortable. I’m just going to check up on my son.”

Satine took a seat on a plasticrete chair while Obi-Wan sat down on a wooden bench. He offered it to his master but Ahsoka shook her head. “No. I’m fine. I’d rather stand.”

“I’m surprised at how cool it is,” Satine murmured her eyes taking in the details of construction and the small little decorations Shmi had added, from a colorful, if faded, wall hanging made of knotwork and beading to a thin but well-maintained blanket which was folded carefully over the one upholstered chair in the room that all three had left empty for their host.

“Mud-brick buildings are used in hot and arid climates because the bricks serve as insulation,” Obi-Wan explained to Satine. “It keeps the homes cool in the day and warm at night. The desert can be deadly cold at times.”

“I am aware of what a desert can be like,” Satine replied with a wry grin. “I do come from one, you know.”

Obi-Wan turned red. “I’m sorry! I didn’t meant to imply… Of course you would be well aware of the dangers of such an environment!”

Satine let out a giggle and shook her head as Ahsoka smiled. “I was teasing, Obi-Wan.”

“Ah, well, yes,” Obi-Wan blushed even more and looked away before he searched for a topic to hide his embarrassment. “Did we ever catch Shmi’s son’s name?”

“It’s Anakin,” Shmi said, standing in the hallway that opened onto the room where her guests were sitting, her son tucked up against her side. The little boy let out a soft yawn and tried to bury his face in his mother’s shoulder, clearly wanting to go back to his nap. Shmi shifted him around and gently kissed his forehead, whispering to him that they had guests.

It’s him. It has to be him, Ahsoka thought in amazement. After all this time.

“These are friends, Ani,” Shmi whispered to her son, rubbing her hand down his back as he slowly woke up and took in the people around him. “This is… Satine, right?”

“Yes,” Satine nodded, wiggling her fingers in greeting. “Hello, Anakin!”

The small boy blinked at her, his little face wrinkled with confusion before his mother turned toward Ahsoka, who stepped away from the wall to walk over to Shmi and Anakin and smile down at the young boy. “This is Ahsoka and she is a Togruta. Can you say ‘Togruta’, Ani?”

Anakin could not say Togruta but he did let out a delighted giggle as he reached for one of Ahsoka’s lekku, his chubby fist grasping in the air. His face lit up, as did the Force around him, filling the room with such a pure, radiant happiness it almost made Ahsoka cry for joy.

Ahsoka gently stroked Anakin’s cheek as Shmi told him it was very rude to pull on someone’s lekku. “Hello, Little One.”

Hello, Skyguy. I found you.

And finally, Shmi introduced the last guest. “This young man is Obi-Wan. Say ‘hello’ to Obi-Wan, Ani!”

Obi-Wan gave Anakin a wide grin and bowed his head, meeting the boy’s gaze with his own. “Hello, Anakin. It’s a pleasure to meet… you,” he said, trailing off in wonder and awe at the boy’s brilliant presence in the Force.

Anakin just smiled and shyly mumbled, “Hello.”

#Tano and Kenobi #Ahsoka Tano #Obi-Wan Kenobi #Anakin Skywalker #Shmi Skywalker #Qui-Gon Jinn #Bigger than life and twice as snippy #Someone you don't want to mess with #You burn in your own flames #The Most Problematic Glacier in the Galaxy #HE'S HERE! HE'S HERE!#BABY ANAKIN IS HERE!#LET'S BREAK OUT THE CHAMPAGNE AND HAVE A PARTY!#WOOOOHOOOOO!#OUR FAVORITE TINY SPACE BEAN IS HERE AND HE'S ADORABLE!#We'll see more of Obi-Wan's reactions in the next chapter #BUT ANAKIN SKYWALKER IS HERE!!!!!#WOOHOOOOO!#*eyebrow wiggles*

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fluffyllamas-23 · 7 years

Text

For @iluvthesnz who sent me this wonderful prompt. She’s wonderful and amazing and new to the community (so give her some love)

Spencer was exhausted. He was used to being tired - he was in the middle of getting his doctorate, and had spent countless sleepless nights researching and writing papers. His days were jam packed with classes, and work as he struggled to stay sane. Except, this didn’t feel like his usual tiredness. This was deeper, it reached his bones and left him feeling like his entire body was too heavy for comfort.

He’d gotten two weeks off as a vacation, and he had fully intended to spend that time relaxing with Harper. Unfortunately, she had come down with an awful cold, that ended up turning into a sinus infection and bronchitis and left her completely miserable and drained. The first week, she spent the majority of her time sleeping and generally felt like shit. By the second week, she was feeling better but was crabby and the two of them were going crazy.

“Spencer, I feel better, will you just stop?” She spat from her spot on the couch.

She loved the man, but she was sick of staying in bed and on the couch. She wanted to be up and around, but Spencer had been overly concerned and protective since she got sick and she wasn’t sure how much more she could take.

He sighed in exasperation, throwing his hands in the air. “Fine. Do what you want. I have to go do homework anyways.”

“I’m going to the store,” she said quickly. “Do you need anything?”

“No.”

Harper smiled softly at him, wrapped her arms around his neck and then pecked his cheek and mouth. “Thank you for taking care of me. I know I’ve been a bitch.”

“Yeah,” he smirked, “but you weren’t feeling well, so I won’t hold it against you.”

She chuckled. “Alright, I’m leaving. Have fun with your papers.”

He made a face. “Doubtful. Hey, I’m almost finished with one of them, will you proofread it for me?”

“Yeah, sure. I probably won’t be home for a while. I’m sick of being stuck inside.”

Harper didn’t return for four hours. When she got back, Spencer was still at his desk, typing furiously on his laptop. He was staring intently at the screen, his tongue poking out from between his lips slightly. She was tempted to interrupt him, because she wanted to spend actual time with him when she wasn’t sick, but she knew he needed to get work done.

She had fallen asleep around eight, still drained from her recent illness. When she woke up around four, she patted the spot next to her groggily, hoping to find Spencer so she could snuggle up to him. She pulled herself out of bed and walked over to where he was.

“Spencer.” Harper mumbled sleepily. She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him and rested her chin on the top of her head. “It’s four in the morning. Come to bed. You have work in four hours.”

“Why are you awake?” He asked, grogginess in his voice.

She yawned, “I woke up and you weren’t there.”

“Is it really already four?” He asked, eyelids drooping in exhaustion. His eyes were burning and throbbing from the number of hours he had spent staring at his computer screen.

“It is, and you’re going to hate yourself when you have to wake up for work.” She grinned, putting her hand on his back.

He practically collapsed into bed, his eyes closing as he immediately fell asleep. Harper climbed in bed next to him and pulled the blankets over him.

Three and a half hours later, his alarm went off.

“Noooo.” Spencer moaned.

Harper was already up for the day, more than eager to return to work. When he managed to drag himself into the kitchen, she inhaled sharply.

“Spencer.”

“Yeah?”

She frowned. “Are you hating yourself right about now?”

Yes. Yes he absolutely did right now. “No, I’m fine.”

“You look exhausted. You should call out and get some sleep. Three and a half hours isn’t nearly enough.”

He shook his head. “No, we need the money. I’ll be fine, Harper.”

She sighed. “Please don’t run yourself into the ground. We can live if you don’t go to work for a day or two. Really. You take care of yourself - you could probably use a few days of just resting.”

“I’m fine.”

The rest of the week dragged, and his symptoms came on so slowly that he almost didn’t notice he was getting sick.

The exhaustion had come on long before anything else. It had been so constant and so present, that he had just come to accept and ignore it.

The headache was next - it started off in his forehead, which he blamed on not drinking enough water. No matter how much water he drank, the headache just didn’t want to go away. Instead, it just got worse. Slowly, it moved from his forehead, to his temples, to the base of his skull. Eventually, his entire head was throbbing with an intense pressure that made his eyes feel heavy and swollen.

The sore throat came after the headache. It felt raw and swollen, and each time he swallowed, it felt as if someone had shoved knives down his throat. Talking hurt, too. Unfortunately, he worked in retail, and his job required him to talk to his customers, which was doing wonders on his throat.

It was Friday before he realized he was definitely coming down with something. A big indication was how frustrated and irritable he was - he was typically very even keeled, but right now, he was beyond annoyed.

He had just come off of a nine hour, very busy shift. They were short staffed, and he hardly even had time for his lunch break. There must have been something in the water, because it seemed like every customer was angry about something, and he had lost count of the number of times he had been yelled at.

“Spencer!” Harper groaned the moment he walked through the door. “You left your shit everywhere. I thought you said you would pick it up?”

“What the hell is the big deal?!” He exploded, throwing his arms in the air.

Her eyes widened. “I just-”

“-I’m tired, Harper. I’m sorry I forgot to pick up my fucking jacket and shoes.”

Her mouth went dry. This was bad. “Spence, I-”

He exhaled sharply, clenching his jaw. “I’m going on a walk.”

“Spencer!” She called after him, eyebrows furrowing together. What the hell was that?

She texted him once, asking him to come back home so they could talk. When he didn’t reply, she called him a few times, leaving messages with each missed call.

She decided to just leave him alone to cool off. Harper knew he had been stressed and tired, and that something was obviously bothering him. Hopefully, the walk would allow him to clear his mind and blow off some steam.

When he still hadn’t returned three hours later, Harper became worried. When it started pouring and he still wasn’t back, she became panicked. She grabbed her coat, purse and keys, and got in her car and drove off in search of her husband.

It was twenty minutes before she was able to find him, and she was near tears.

Spencer was curled in a ball, his arms wrapped around his body and on a bench. She nearly drove over the curb in her attempt to park quickly and get to him.

“Spencer.” She said quickly, crouching next to him. “Babe, look at me, open your eyes.”

He forced his eyes open as soon as she put a hand on his burning cheek. “Harper?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Hey, let’s get you into the car, you’ve got a fever.”

“Nnnngh…I d-don’t…hhh…hhn’gSHH! *Snff* feel well.”

“Bless you. Come on, you need to get out of the rain.”

He nodded after a couple of moments, and she helped him to stand up. Spencer slumped into her, and she grunted as she struggled to hold him up.

“Okay, okay, Spence? You’re going to need to help me a little. I can’t carry you to the car.”

He managed to stand up straight, but stared down at his feet, as if he was willing his feet to move. After a minute, they seemed to work, and he forced himself to the car.

As soon as he was in the passenger’s seat, Harper turned the car on and blasted the heater, aiming the vents at him. She chewed on her bottom lip anxiously as she rifled through the back seat, looking for a towel or something she could use to warm him up. He was shivering miserably, his entire body trembling as he was slumped against the window.

“Hih'TSSHHEW! HITSCHIEW! Hihh-hiHTSHHH!! H-hihh…nnnngh *snff*”

Each sneeze sounded like it was ripping from his throat. They were full of congestion, and sounded like they hurt.

Harper couldn’t find anything, and muttered expletives under her breath when she remembered she had cleaned out her car the other day. Normally she had a ton of blankets and towels in her trunk, but she figured she wouldn’t be needing them anytime soon.

The drive home was mostly silent - the only sounds being him sniffling, sneezing and coughing. She was too worried to try and keep up and conversation, and he felt too shitty to do so.

He was too weak to help much, but She had managed to get him from the car, up the stairs, into the shower, and onto the couch pretty much by herself. Her muscles were burning, but she could finally focus on getting him better.

“Tha’gk you.” Spencer rasped when Harper handed him a hot cup of tea.

She nodded, eyebrows furrowed as she pressed the back of her hand to his temple. “Is this why you were so mad when you got home? You’re burning up.”

His eyes filled with tears as he remembered the exchange he’d had with Harper. “I’b sorry.”

“Hey, hey, hey.” She soothed, cupping his cheek. “Why are you apologizing?”

“I yelled at you.” He whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried not to burst into tears.

He hiccuped, his breath shuddering as he did burst into tears. Harper took the tea from him, placed it on the coffee table, and then sat next to her weepy husband and pulled him into a hug.

He buried his face in her neck, and she rubbed his back soothingly.

After a few minutes, he calmed down slightly.

“You okay?”

His breath hitched, “Hhh…*snff* Hih'TSSHHEW!HITSCHIEW!…Hihh-hiHTSHHH! H-hihh…h-heh…*snff*

“Bless you, Spence.”

“Hhh…th-tha’gks…eh-heh…F-fuck-*snff* Hih’TSSHHEW! *snff* *snff*”

Harper handed him a tissue, and then went off in search of the thermometer and some medicine.

When she took his temperature, and it beeped in close to 104 degrees, she all but had a heart attack.

No wonder he was so emotional.

“Hey, Spence?” She asked softly, crouching in front of him. He was lying on his side on the couch, not totally with it. She clutched the fever reducers in her hand so hard her knuckles turned white. “Can you look at me? I need to get your fever down - will you take these for me?”

Once she had managed to get him to take the medicine, she got to work trying to get his temperature down.

When Spencer came to next, he immediately wished he was sleeping again. He was stretched out on the couch, his legs on Harper’s lap as she sat with her head hanging back, fast asleep.

He felt markedly worse than when he got home from work, and he let out an involuntary whimper.

“Spence?” Harper mumbled tiredly, looking over at him.

“What happened?” He sniffled, squeezing his eyes shut. “Why does it feel like I got hit by a trai’d?”

Harper massaged her aching neck. “You spiked a pretty high fever. I think it’s gone down, you seem more with it.”

He went into a harsh coughing fit, his lungs sounded like they were scraping together and trying to eject themselves from his chest.

“Ow.” He moaned, rolling on his side. He curled into himself, but Harper pulled at his arm.

“Sit up. You can’t be lying down if you’re coughing like that, it’ll make it worse.”

He groaned in protest. “Leave be alo’de.”

“I’m sorry.” She sighed. “I know you hate me right now, I hated you when you did this to me, but that sounds bad. You need to be sitting up.”

He grumbled something under his breath, but once he started coughing after a particularly intense sneezing fit, he sat up begrudgingly.

Spencer immediately slumped into her, resting his head on her shoulder.

“I do’dt feel well.” He croaked.

“I know. I might be calling your doctor in the morning. I don’t like the sound of that cough.”

“That’s ud’ecessary.” He sniffled.

“No, it’s very necessary.” She frowned. He sniffled again, and rubbed at his aching forehead.

“I yelled at you, right?” He asked, regret coloring his tone.

“Yeah, but it’s okay.”

“I’b sorry…I didn’t bead to.” He sniffled.

“I know. Spencer, it’s okay. I’m not mad at you. I was more worried, I thought something might be up.”

“By head is killi’dg be.”

“I have something that might help. Are you feeling up to walking?”

“Depe’ds…what is it?”

“Steam bowl.”

His brain still felt too fuzzy, and he wasn’t entirely sure what she was talking about.

“Huh?”

“Just…trust me, yeah? My mom always had me do it when I was sick, and it helps break up the congestion.”

He rubbed his eyes tiredly. He was willing to try anything. “Okay.”

Her face lit up. “Okay, sit tight. Try getting some more sleep, I’ll wake you up when it’s ready.”

He was exhausted, but he was so miserably stuffed up that he was having a hard time falling back asleep. Not to mention that he was sitting up and that was not an easy position to sleep in.

“Alright, ready?” Harper asked, holding a towel in one hand.

Spencer was sitting at the table, fighting his urge to curl up on the floor and sleep. He never thought he’d see the day where a tile floor looked like a good place to sleep, but here he was.

“I guess.” He mumbled, sniffling. As soon as he put his head over the bowl of hot water, Harper put the towel over his head and bowl, trapping the steam.

His nose immediately started running, and he sniffled desperately.

“Hih'TSSHHEW! HITSCHIEW! hiHTSHHH! Ehh…Hih'TSSHHEW! HITSCHIEW-TSCHIEW! ..Hihh-hiHTSHHH! *snff* *snff*”

Harper was sitting in the chair next to him, rubbing patterns on his back absentmindedly as she yawned.

After a few minutes, he took the towel off of his head.

“Hey, that worked better than I thought it would.” He said, blinking tiredly.

She shot him a tired grin. “Yeah? Ready to get some sleep? It’s almost three.”

He rubbed his aching forehead. “I have work in a few hours.”

“Yeah, no. You’re not going to work. You need to rest.”

“But-”

“-no buts. You’re sick.”

“I feel better.” He muttered.

She quirked a brow, “temporarily. You’re not going to classes either. You’re staying in bed until you’re feeling better.”

He groaned in defeat, too tired to fight her. “Okay.”

She nodded sharply. “Good. Now let’s go to sleep.”

Harper and Spencer stood up, and he trailed after her as she walked into their bedroom.

“Goodnight.” Harper said, kissing his slightly warm cheek.

Spencer curled up to her. “Goodnight. Love you.”

“Love you, too.” She mumbled, eyelids closing as she drifted to sleep.

#I hope you liiiiiiiiked it #OCs #this took me forever to write and it ended up being so long #omg I got a tad bit carried away #Spencer and Harper

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do-you-think-im-spoopy · 7 years

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I wrote this during season 7 and it’s been in my drafts ever since. It’s just more of my Bonnie Bennett witch aesthetic daydreaming. Thought I’d finally get rid of it though.

Billowing steam rolled around in the small room, bouncing off the white walls and curling back around itself to wind playfully around Bonnie as she stood with her nose in a spell book.

“Honeysuckle for prosperity,” she read, tossing a handful of fresh flowers into the hot water filling the tub without looking up from the book.

“Hyssop for protection,” she muttered, reaching into her basket of fresh and dried herbs and flowers, locating the purple blooms and tossing them alongside the fragrant honeysuckle in the water.

“Lavender and lilac for harmony,” she read with a smile, happily adding the petals to the concoction.

“Jasmine, cowslip and gardenia for love and passion?” she said, scoffing at the notion as if it were somehow more ridiculous than any of the rest.

She then looked around the tiny bathroom as if anyone might possibly be there and tossed a handful of each flower in the water with a smirk.

Peering over the edge of the claw foot tub, she looked down at the inviting, bubbling brew of nourishing milky water, fragrant colorful flower petals and potent dried herbs with a satisfied smile. Turning off the running water, she watched as the water settled, the beautiful debris floating lightly atop the surface of the water until it almost, but never quite, stilled.

She needed this. She deserved this. After successfully returning Stefan and Damon from literal hell, and helping Caroline safely deliver magical twins, helping save Enzo from Matt’s psychotic vampire hunter friends. She’d earned a break, to say the least.

So she turned down Caroline’s invite for Girl’s Afternoon (which had replaced Girl’s night now that she had become a mother). Instead opting to let herself into the Salvatore mansion, with little regard to what Heretics might still be residing there. Once you’ve stared death in the face as she had so many times before, it took quite a bit to intimidate you. And she’d snatched an antique basket from atop a shelf in one of the guest bedrooms, dumped the dusty contents of it onto the bed and left it for someone else to clean up.

She carried the basket to the spacious garden in the backyard and helped herself to the array of fresh flowers and herbs she found growing there, planted centuries ago by witch’s long gone now. It made her feel calm to be here, surrounded by the things that had helped so many that came before her. She gathered a basket of various plants and brought it back home. Home to her Grams’ house, which was the only home she’d ever really known.

Dust suddenly sprung to life around her as she swung open the door to the long-neglected house. She locked and spelled the door behind her. She smiled sadly at her Grams’ sweater still hanging on the coat rack in the corner, pausing a moment to walk over and smell it, only to find it matching the scent of must and abandon in the house. She bit back her disappointment with a sigh and walked to her Grams’ closet, knowing it was full of the remnants of her magic. Bonnie smiled at the jars of dried herbs and roots, the beautiful old spell books and colorful charms and chakras hanging from little hooks on the wall.

She collected a few of the herbs into her basket, laid a particularly well-worn book of herbs on top as well as a deep red garnet stone necklace that had caught her eye and made her feel instantly better as soon as she’d wrapped her hand around it.

Which brought her here…dropping the thin straps of her linen dress from her shoulders, letting it slip down over her hips and puddle at her bare feet. She kicked the dress toward the hamper and opened the curtain above the tub, allowing even more light to flood the room. The view to the overgrown backyard was at least bright and green and soothing. Rays of late afternoon sunlight shown sharply across the ripples in the water, making them look even warmer and cleaner and more inviting.

Bonnie couldn’t wait another moment to dip a black polished toe in. The temperature was perfect. A touch on the hot side, as she preferred. She could feel the luxurious moisture of the goat’s milk bubble bath she’d used soaking into her thirsty skin. A heavy and satisfied sigh left her lips as she submerged herself fully in the lavish tincture. The leather band that held the garnet she’d slipped over her head quickly turned dark brown as it soaked up water. She admired the way the red stone shown warmly in the sun and stood out beautifully against the skin of her chest.

She’d forgotten Grams’ advice about taking time for yourself. Taking time to pamper. There’d been plenty of time for that when she was stuck in 1994. An involuntary shiver ran through her at the thought. She blamed it on the cool air flowing from the vent in the ceiling and dropped deeper into the warm water with a quiet little splash.

Her phone buzzed on the counter near the sink and she groaned, wishing she’d remembered not to bring it. But curiosity always wins and she reached for it none-the-less. It was just a hair out of reach.

“Reciperare,” she said, watching as the phone slid the remaining few inches into her waiting hand. She smiled proudly, loving the little advantages she was learning to actually using magic for yourself for a change. She checked her messages, her eyebrows jumping a bit in surprise as she saw the message was from Enzo.

Drinks? My treat.

Bonnie felt her heart give an extra little patter as she pictured him texting her. She quickly closed the message and shook her head with a smile, biting her lip, embarrassed. She placed the phone on the towel she’d laid on the ground next to the tub and ignored the message…before reaching over and grabbing another handful of jasmine and tossing it into the tub with a sigh. Love…passion. Who had the time? Well…maybe she did now. She stared down at the phone, either talking herself into or out of responding to Enzo.

A loud banging on the door made her sit up startled, covering her chest with her arm.

“Bonnie!” came Damon’s familiar voice through the two shut doors.

Bonnie relaxed and sunk back into the water.

“What do you want, Damon?” she asked in a normal voice, knowing he could hear her either way.

“It’s Julian,” he shouted, “He’s threatening to find Elena if we don’t-”

Bonnie let her head slip beneath the water, muting the sound of Damon’s voice. Damon’s next mission. His next favor. She tried to think of the last time he’d come calling without needing something from her. Even he knew it. She could tell by how ashamed he was every time he asked her for something.

She stayed under until she was sure Damon had given up and gone. She’d end up helping, of course. For Elena. And, who was she kidding, for Damon. But not right now. Not until she was ready.

“Lavender and lilac for harmony,” she repeated, throwing more flowers into the water, desperate for a little harmony.

“Wine for the soul,” she decided, grabbing the glass of zinfandel she’d placed on the edge of the tub, taking a long drink and savoring the crisp bite on her tongue.

Keeping no track of time, she eventually decided to drag herself to her feet. Feeling heavy, but not in the way she normally did, not drained and used-up and exhausted beyond her years. But full, satiated, happy. She wrapped a fluffy towel around her, tossed a rag down to catch all the flowers and watched as the water swirled its way out of the tub, taking with it the negativity of the past few weeks…years if she was being honest.

She dried off and dropped her dress back over her head, admiring the garnet necklace and the way it seemed to radiate happiness and peace straight into her soul. And the way it looked amazing on her. Admiring the soft glow of her skin in the wet mirror.

Bonnie collected her basket of ingredients and her grandmother’s book and left the bathroom. The air was thick and moist with memories and emotions, both sweet and sour and she was suddenly both reluctant and relieved to be leaving.

Damon was waiting for her on the porch as she walked out the front door, leaning up against a column. She didn’t bother trying to act surprised. He kicked off of his heels as she brushed past him.

“Have a nice bath?” he asked, obviously having been listening like a creep as she’d talked to him.

“Yes, actually,” she smiled.

“Well good, now that the break’s over, what are we going to do about this little Julian problem?” he said, panic overriding his guilt, his natural cockiness shining through.

Bonnie felt a tremor of anger at him begrudging her a moment to herself, but noticed that an immediate calm fell over her. Like a warm pair of arms wrapped around her. Or a voice whispering in her ear that it would be okay. A familiar set of arms if she thought about it. A familiar voice.

“Grams…” she said, touching the stone around her neck and it sent a little pulse of warmth through her palm.

She smiled.

#bonnie bennett #bonnie bennett earth witch #bonenzo #damon salvatore #tvd

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rainhorn6-blog · 5 years

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New To The Instant Pot? Here’s What You Should Make First

Happy weekend everyone! I hope you had a wonderful holiday, and that you snagged some great deals yesterday (if that’s your thing!) I’ve had a hunch that a lot of retailers would offer a great deal on the Instant Pot this year, and it appears my hunch was correct! So in case any of you took advantage of those low prices and bought your first Instant Pot, I thought it would be helpful to offer some advice about how to get started using it! You’ll learn the step by step method for testing it out, and I’ll share some of the best very basic recipes that are perfect for beginners.

But before we get started, I want to let you know about my eBook Everything Instant Pot! It’s a great resource that’s jam-packed with useful information, including everything you’ll learn in today’s post (plus much more!) You can buy it in my shop, or download it for free if you’re an OGT Plus member!

Okay, now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about your new Instant Pot! Once it arrives in the mail and you pull it out of the box… what happens next?

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Start With The Water Test

Before you start cooking, the Instant Pot manual suggests performing what they call an Initial Water Test. Doing this “test” is an easy, low-stress way to learn how the Instant Pot works, make sure it’s working correctly, and clean it up before you start cooking. To do the Initial Water Test, just follow the five steps below.

How To Do The “Initial Water Test” In Your Instant Pot

Step 1 – Plug in your Instant Pot, and pour about 3 cups of water into the inner pot.

Step 2 – Lock the lid in place and turn the steam release handle to “Sealing.”

Step 3 – Select the “Steam” button and set the timer for 2 minutes.

Step 4 – Once the timer goes off, press “Cancel” to turn off the Instant Pot. Perform a Quick Release by turning the steam release handle to “Venting.” (This will cause steam to shoot out of the steam release valve, so be careful!)

Step 5 – Remove the lid from the pot, then wash the lid and inner pot with warm, soapy water.

After getting a little more familiar with your Instant Pot by doing the water test, you’ll be ready to start cooking! Below you’ll find a list of super simple Instant Pot “recipes” that are perfect for beginners. Start by making one or two of these foods, and you’ll be ready to tackle more complex recipes in no time!

9 Super Easy Instant Pot Recipes For Beginners

1. Pasta

Pour your uncooked pasta into the inner pot, then add enough water so the water line sits 1″ above the pasta. Cook on “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” for 4 minutes on High pressure. Once the timer goes off, do a Quick Release by turning the steam release handle.

Cooking pasta this way was one of the very first things I tried with my own Instant Pot. Now it’s the only method I use to cook pasta, because it’s so quick and easy! And the pasta turns out perfectly al dente every time.

2. Rice

Measure out the amount of rice you want to make and put it in the inner pot. Measure out the same amount of vegetable or chicken broth (a 1:1 ratio of rice to liquid) and pour it over the rice. Cook on “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” for 4 minutes on High pressure. Once the timer goes off, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then use Quick Release to release any remaining pressure.

3. Eggs

Set the trivet into the bottom of the inner pot, and pour in 1 cup of water. Place your eggs on the trivet, then cook on “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” for 3-6 minutes (see below for cook times). When the timer goes off, use Quick Release and transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water to cool.

Cook 3 minutes for soft-cooked eggs with a runny yolk

Cook 4-5 minutes for medium-cooked eggs with a soft yolk

Cook 6 minutes for hard-cooked eggs with a fully set yolk

4. Cheesecake

It might seem crazy to list cheesecake alongside basics like pasta and rice, but it’s really one of the easiest things I’ve made in my Instant Pot! It turns out perfect every single time, and all you need is a small springform pan that will fit inside the inner pot.

Get the recipe: Classic Cheesecake

5. White Bean Chicken Chili

This chicken chili is a great first meal to try, because everything gets cooked together! It’s straightforward to make, and deliciously comforting to eat. Get the simple recipe by following the link below. (It’s the first recipe in the list.)

Get the recipe: 25+ Delicious Instant Pot Recipes

6. Freezer Meals

Having freezer meals on hand can be a lifesaver when you’re rushing to get dinner on the table! Check out the link below for instructions on how to make 5 easy freezer meals. You’ll also find the simple instructions for cooking those frozen meals in your Instant Pot!

Get the recipes: 5 Easy Freezer Meals

7. Pot Roast

This is another great meal for beginners because it’s very simple. You’ll have a delicious pot roast on the dinner table in no time, and some veggies and potatoes to go with it! All you have to do is whip up some gravy (which you can easily do in your Instant Pot with the “Sauté” setting) and it’s dinner time!

Get the recipe: The Easiest And Most Delicious Pot Roast Dinner Ever

8. Steel-Cut Oats

Use a 3:1 ratio of water to oats. (Using 1 cup of dry oats and 3 cups of water, you’ll end up with around 4 servings of cooked oats.) Cook on “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” for 5 minutes on High pressure. Do 10 minutes of Natural Release, then Quick Release the rest of the pressure.

Cooking steel-cut oats in your Instant Pot is SO much faster than cooking them on your stovetop. It’s perfect for those cold winter mornings when the only thing worth getting out of bed for is a warm and hearty breakfast. Top your cooked oats with fruit, nuts, peanut butter, maple syrup, or all of the above! :-)

9. Stock

Have you ever tried making your own vegetable or chicken stock? I definitely recommend it! It’s fast and easy to do in your Instant Pot, and you can use up a lot of food scraps you would normally throw away. (Onion and garlic skins, chicken bones, and vegetable peels are all fair game for stocks!)

Get the easy instructions for making chicken stock and vegetable stock in your Instant Pot at the link below!

Get the recipe: How To Make Homemade Chicken Or Veggie Stock

Still Have Questions?

If you’re still getting to know your Instant Pot, I hope you’ll give one or two of these simple recipes a try. Sometimes the best way to learn is by doing! And if you still feel apprehensive, or have questions that weren’t answered in this post, check follow the link to the post below. In that post I addressed 11 of the most common questions people ask about Instant Pots, so there’s a good chance you’ll find your answer there!

Read More: If You’re New To The Instant Pot, Here’s What You Need To Know

What are you looking forward to cooking in your Instant Pot?

Source: https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/what-to-make-first-in-your-instant-pot

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risevessel4-blog · 5 years

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New To The Instant Pot? Here’s What You Should Make First

Okay, now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about your new Instant Pot! Once it arrives in the mail and you pull it out of the box… what happens next?

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Start With The Water Test

How To Do The “Initial Water Test” In Your Instant Pot

Step 1 – Plug in your Instant Pot, and pour about 3 cups of water into the inner pot.

Step 2 – Lock the lid in place and turn the steam release handle to “Sealing.”

Step 3 – Select the “Steam” button and set the timer for 2 minutes.

Step 5 – Remove the lid from the pot, then wash the lid and inner pot with warm, soapy water.

9 Super Easy Instant Pot Recipes For Beginners

1. Pasta

2. Rice

3. Eggs

Cook 3 minutes for soft-cooked eggs with a runny yolk

Cook 4-5 minutes for medium-cooked eggs with a soft yolk

Cook 6 minutes for hard-cooked eggs with a fully set yolk

4. Cheesecake

Get the recipe: Classic Cheesecake

5. White Bean Chicken Chili

Get the recipe: 25+ Delicious Instant Pot Recipes

6. Freezer Meals

Get the recipes: 5 Easy Freezer Meals

7. Pot Roast

Get the recipe: The Easiest And Most Delicious Pot Roast Dinner Ever

8. Steel-Cut Oats

9. Stock

Get the easy instructions for making chicken stock and vegetable stock in your Instant Pot at the link below!

Get the recipe: How To Make Homemade Chicken Or Veggie Stock

Still Have Questions?

Read More: If You’re New To The Instant Pot, Here’s What You Need To Know

What are you looking forward to cooking in your Instant Pot?

Source: https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/what-to-make-first-in-your-instant-pot

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lauriecgarcia · 5 years

Text

New To The Instant Pot? Here’s What You Should Make First

Okay, now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about your new Instant Pot! Once it arrives in the mail and you pull it out of the box… what happens next?

Start With The Water Test

How To Do The “Initial Water Test” In Your Instant Pot

Step 1 – Plug in your Instant Pot, and pour about 3 cups of water into the inner pot.

Step 2 – Lock the lid in place and turn the steam release handle to “Sealing.”

Step 3 – Select the “Steam” button and set the timer for 2 minutes.

Step 5 – Remove the lid from the pot, then wash the lid and inner pot with warm, soapy water.

9 Super Easy Instant Pot Recipes For Beginners

1. Pasta

2. Rice

3. Eggs

Cook 3 minutes for soft-cooked eggs with a runny yolk

Cook 4-5 minutes for medium-cooked eggs with a soft yolk

Cook 6 minutes for hard-cooked eggs with a fully set yolk

4. Cheesecake

Get the recipe: Classic Cheesecake

5. White Bean Chicken Chili

Get the recipe: 25+ Delicious Instant Pot Recipes

6. Freezer Meals

Get the recipes: 5 Easy Freezer Meals

7. Pot Roast

Get the recipe: The Easiest And Most Delicious Pot Roast Dinner Ever

8. Steel-Cut Oats

9. Stock

Get the easy instructions for making chicken stock and vegetable stock in your Instant Pot at the link below!

Get the recipe: How To Make Homemade Chicken Or Veggie Stock

Still Have Questions?

Read More: If You’re New To The Instant Pot, Here’s What You Need To Know

What are you looking forward to cooking in your Instant Pot?

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8302119 https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/what-to-make-first-in-your-instant-pot from The Top Cleaner https://thetopcleaner.tumblr.com/post/180690157692

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endlessarchite · 5 years

Text

Painting Our Brick House White!

The weather hasn’t been perfect for photos and our landscaping isn’t looking it’s finest at the moment, but I couldn’t give two flying squirrels because I’M SO FREAKING EXCITED ABOUT OUR PAINTED BRICK HOUSE THAT I LITERALLY CANNOT EVEN. I am unable to even. And I’m a 36 year old suburban mom, so that’s saying something.

Our house is so heartbreakingly beautiful I literally would not be surprised if it started glimmering in the sun like Edward the vampire from Twilight. GO WITH ME HERE, THIS POST IS GONNA HAVE A LOT OF CAPS LOCK. You have been warned.

Today we’re gonna break it all down – what type of paint we used, why we chose it, how the process went, how much it cost, all that good stuff. And I’ll try to go easy on the exclamation points. No promises, though!!!!!!!!!!

Why Paint Our Brick?

The short answer is that we wanted to. This is our third brick house and I’ve daydreamed about painting ALL of them at some point, so this is basically a 12+ year fantasy that has finally been realized. John has been interested in the idea, but he is so dang practical. So his concerns about maintenance or it showing green mildew and stuff like that have always convinced him that it was a bad idea. But after discussing it on our podcast this summer, a lot of our listeners soothed our fears (we heard from dozens of people who have lived in a painted brick house for 10+ years with zero brick maintenance) and then we found a product that gave us the confidence to go full steam ahead. More on that in a minute.

This house, of all of our brick houses, felt like it was the perfect candidate for a painted exterior. We’ve always loved how stately it feels from the curb, and the way it’s situated at the end of the street and framed by large trees just felt like it was poised for greatness. It was also built in the early 80’s, so it wasn’t lovely historic brick that we’d be painting over… just maroon-ish craggy brick with beige uneven mortar. So we had a lot fewer qualms about painting that – as long as it wouldn’t end up being this super annoying thing we had to maintain. Here’s a more detailed shot of our brick so you can see what I mean about the craggy texture and the maroon coloring.

See how the white painted test swatch immediately feels less ragged looking and all of that uneven beige mortar is neutralized? As soon as we saw that test swatch we were like: YES. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

And the good news is that we are not town pariahs for this choice. Ha! Richmond actually has TONS of painted brick houses that are 100+ years old, especially in the more historic areas closer to downtown (like The Fan and The Museum District in Richmond City). So it’s not like all of the “real” gracious and historic homes here are unpainted brick. It’s actually a super normal thing to have painted brick, even in the protected historic areas.

Our neighborhood also has some of these newer 70’s/80’s brick houses that have been painted – but none of them are on our street. In fact, 5 of the 6 houses closest to ours are all unpainted brick (the 6th is siding)… so that also made us feel like painting ours was a great way to break up all the dark brick that’s clustered on this end of the street and add some nice variety.

That photo above is the most recent “before” that we have. John took it back in September, but A LOT has happened over the last five years to get us to that point. The photo below is what the house looked like when we first laid eyes on it. Well, “squinted at it through the shadows” is a more accurate description:

In addition to clearing some trees in the front (both for aesthetic reasons and to solve/prevent some of the moisture & rot issues the house had when we bought it) we also got a new roof, had the exterior trim & siding painted, painted the front door and garage doors, graded & seeded the entire yard, replaced the windows, added landscape lighting, and took various stabs at landscaping. And that’s just what we did to the front!

So as dramatic as the painting transformation was last week – it took a while to get to the point where painting our brick would pay off like it did thanks to all of that stuff that also came before it.

And even though our backyard is still in progress, the difference back there is almost more shocking in some ways.

In addition to new roof, new windows, and fresh paint – we also removed the rotting deck (ugh it was so much maintenance, and it blocked us off from the yard in an annoying way) and added the gravel patio, which is just temporary (we’d love a stone patio down the line) . We also opened up the musty carpeted sunroom to make it a covered porch with a nice cross-breeze and two fans overhead. This “in progress” photo from last year as the deck was coming down is the best photo we could find from the same angle:

And now it looks like this! I could SQUEAL WITH GLEE FOR HOURS about how the white paint helped to unify all of the different surfaces (like the big section of siding above the garage, the large meter box on the back, and even the various stove vents and dryer vents). I never realized how choppy and busy the back of the house looked before – so this photo is like a breath of fresh air. I still have so many plans for back here, but this one big paint update feels like we’ve come such a long way! Future plans: along with longing for a stone patio where the pea gravel is eventually – we’d love big window boxes under the windows above that area to unify them since that one has super chunky molding where we raised the window during our kitchen remodel. I’m also going to paint the two doors along the back of the house the same color as the new front door I think. The list goes on…

What Color & Product We Used

I could look at before & afters all day (there are more of those at the end!) but we wanted to answer your burning questions. First and foremost, the paint we used is a product called BioDomus by a company called Romabio and we can’t recommend it highly enough. None of this post is sponsored or anything (we paid for the paint, the labor, all of it!) so I’m just gonna say that up front because I’m about to rave about this paint and it might just sound like an infomercial. It is THAT GOOD. So here we go.

My research (and a lot of you) kept pointing me in the direction of BioDomus and we can totally see why. The main thing is that it’s a MINERAL paint that’s made specifically for brick, stone, stucco, etc – and not a traditional LATEX paint. Latex paints seal brick which can trap moisture and cause damage, but this mineral paint lets the brick breath like it needs to. It’s essentially more like a stain (hooray for durability and better performance!) but it has an opaque painted looking finish, which is the look we wanted.

It has a ton of other cool things that make it amazing for this type of application and these factors all helped give us (aka: John The Skeptic) the confidence to move forward with the project:

The high pH in BioDomus makes it alkaline, which makes it naturally mold-resistant, meaning we should get LESS of that green haze have little to no mold and mildew issues that John has been pressure-washing off of the house each year.

It CAN be pressure-washed, although the painter advised us to use low pressure – just like you would on any other painted surface

It has a 20-year warranty, meaning we shouldn’t have to repaint for at least a couple of decades (!!) – word on the street is that it often lasts for 30+ years which amazes us to no end

The reason it has such an insanely long warranty (and is guaranteed to never chip or peel) is because it’s just as breathable as brick. Our painter said “it’s literally like painting brick with brick.” Isn’t that crazy and so cool?!

All of their products are sold concentrated & are completely non-toxic (by contrast, traditional acrylic paints have water already in them, but to increase their shelf life, they have to add more chemicals to stabilize them).

And – here’s my new favorite feature – it has a FLAT FINISH, which is SO RIDICULOUSLY LUXE LOOKING. I’m about to start calling my house Chateau Sherry or Villa Blanca like a freaking housewife you guys. THAT IS MY LIFE NOW.

I didn’t really appreciate that last feature until it started to go up, but I think the fact that it’s super matte (instead of glossy/shiny) is what helps give it that historic looking high-end feel, like something straight outta Europe. Do I live in France now? Should I create a two story bookcase a la Belle in Beauty & The Beast? Should John start a beret collection? Maybe. The funny thing is that we worried that painting our house would make it look newer and less historic and classic, but I’m telling you this flat soft white paint makes it feel SO MUCH MORE HISTORIC AND CLASSIC to us! It’s kind of insane.

BioDomus does come in a small set of existing colors, but they can also color match it to any color you want by Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams – which is what we did. Just like any color-matching that happens across paint brands, it’s not 100% exact, so you DEFINITELY want to order some test pots before committing to an entire house. We knew we wanted something that read as a pure but soft white (not too beige or gray – and not too blinding and stark or cool) and we also wanted it to work with our existing white trim since all of our new windows have vinyl wrapped sills that wouldn’t be getting repainted.

After Googling / Pinteresting a bunch of white exterior colors and consulting with some friends with white houses, we got little BioDomus test pots that were color-matched to these four colors: Sherwin William’s Moderne White (top right), Benjamin Moore’s Swiss Coffee (middle right), Sherwin William’s Alabaster (bottom right) and Benjamin Moore’s Stonington Gray (that’s that left swatch). Our winner ended up being right at the top: Moderne White by Sherwin Williams.

It’s a bit warmer/muddier than a stark white, so we knew it’d look great and not be too blinding – and we tested it in a few other spots right next to the window trim to make sure they looked good together. I had the goal not to settle until I found something that truly felt like a soft warm white color, and it’s such a great one. Couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. This photo is probably the most accurate to the true color in person:

Or maybe this one:

How To Paint Your Brick House

As you know, we hired out this project but that does not mean you can’t DIY yours – especially if you live in a one story house! The paint itself is pretty straightforward to apply, but our challenge was the size of our house – specifically the height. We have a two story home with a full third floor attic and a chimney that extends almost another full story beyond that, so it took a 45′ lift to reach a lot of the brick. We also thought it would be prudent to have a pro apply ours so we could study exactly how it was done and tell all of you guys the right way to do it so you’d have long-lasting results and nobody would have a peeling or bubbling house after all that work (can you imagine?!). And the good news is that it isn’t even that complicated. YOU CAN TOTALLY DIY THIS – especially if you’ve got a less-tall home or are doing a smaller brick project. Completely doable.

As for how we found our pro painter if you’re looking to hire it out, when we bought our BioDomus paint (you can buy it directly from one of their retail locations or call 678-905-3700 to buy it from them), we asked who they thought would be a good person to hire to apply it, and they tossed out a guy named Lance with experience with the product who is based in Kentucky just as a suggestion. Even though they said any local painter should be able to follow directions and apply the product correctly without much issue, when we heard about this painting specialist who had experience with BioDomus already, we thought it sounded like a good idea to learn from him and make sure our paint went on correctly so we have that awesome warranty to lean on and we don’t worry about teaching you guys the wrong way to apply it or some other NIGHTMARE like that. Cut to us all waking up after two weeks and our houses are all purple or something. And Lance was great! Here he is below, just doing his thang and making all of my dreams come true (you can follow him on IG here).

Lance was so sweet to travel to do our painting job since the folks who sell BioDomus recommended him, but he mainly travels all over the US for his antique limewash applications (using this other product called Classico – you can see those finishes and more on his IG account). So if that’s a look you’d like, he can definitely help you out. Oh and he’s working on a video about how to D.I.Y the same BioDomus process that he used on our house – just for anyone who wants to see it in more detail. Isn’t that nice?! So we’ll update this post with that once it’s complete. But in the meantime, we’ll break down the basic steps for applying the BioDomus product:

1. Prep Your House

Like any paint job, you’ll make your life easier if you take time to prep first. For our project it included steps like:

Moving outdoor furniture and decor out of the way

Removing shutters and shutter hardware

Taping and covering all of the windows, lights, etc.

Pressure washing any grimy areas

Note on that last part that you don’t need to pressure wash every inch of your brick before painting it. Lance recommended going over any areas that seemed to have dirt or mildew build-up, but other than that you can apply the paint directly without further prep. Aka, no primer either!

They also did not tape off or cover surround areas like landscaping or roofing. They just tossed down canvas drop cloths as they went and held up small pieces of cardboard to act as spray shields whenever they got close to an area that needed protecting as they went.

2. Mix, Spray, and Backroll Your First Coat

I say “mix” first because BioDomus needs to be diluted slightly with water (remember, they send it concentrated so it’s less expensive to ship and completely non-toxic). You can read the exact dilution measurement on the package, but roughly speaking it comes in a 4-gallon bucket and you dilute it to become a standard 5 gallons.

The product can be applied with a roller, but Lance recommends spraying it – especially if your brick is craggy. It would take more work to get full coverage into every nook and cranny with a roller, but as long as you’ve got a high-nap roller (like 1 1/4″) it can be done. But again, spraying is MUCH faster. I mean, for reference, it took a crew of three people two full days to spray the first coat on our house. Just imagine if they had been rolling it all. It could have easily taken three times longer. NOTE: They wet down the brick before spraying or rolling – it just helps the product penetrate and soak in – remember it’s more like a stain than a paint. So you’ll want to get all of your brick wet before applying it as you work your way around the house.

It’s also helpful to backroll your first coat, which means going over the first coat that you have sprayed on with a roller full of more paint, to really smush that extra paint in and even out the coverage. Lance said it’s not necessary, but it makes the second coat much faster to be this thorough from the start. Note: if you aren’t spraying, just rolling two coats on should do the trick.

In the photo below you can see the guy in the lift (Jeremy) spraying and the guy on the ground (Josh) rolling an area that has already been sprayed.

And this photo below of Josh backrolling the garage really shows the difference between just the first spray coat (far right) and how that backrolled area looks a lot more solid and filled in.

3. Caulk Gaps

After the first coat dried, the crew went around and filled any large crags in the brick with caulk. This isn’t absolutely necessary, but even when we painted our brick fireplace inside several years ago we found that it helped to eliminate any deep shadows or dark spots with some caulk. They just used regular indoor/outdoor paintable caulk, so it’s not hard to do – just a little tedious.

4. Spray Your Second Coat

Since they were so thorough on their first coat, and since BioDomus has pretty great coverage, the second coat was able to be sprayed in a single day without any backrolling. That still would’ve taken us like ten days, so it was pretty great to have pros on the job.

5. Paint Any Non-Brick Areas

In addition to the little bit of siding that we have on one side of our house and around the back, we also had random things like our metal electrical meter, the wood door to our crawlspace, and a half dozen other non-brick areas around our house. BioDomus is meant for masonry (it works on brick, stone, natural stucco with no primer, but can also be applied to other surfaces like hardie board with BioGrip Micro primer), so be sure to prep and paint those other materials with the proper paint. Lance recommended Benjamin Moore’s Low-Lustre finish for our hardboard siding so it’d match the matte look of the bricks and it worked out really nicely.

They were able to get great coverage in one coat of spraying our siding (without priming) but we did prime some other elements – like our meter box and dryer vents – with this all-purpose spray primer.

6. Clean Up and Put Things Back

John The Fact-Checker Of This Post always likes to point out cleanup in any project because it’s so easy to forget that it takes time and energy. You know, removing tape and tarps, putting furniture back, and rehanging shutters if you want to have those back up. Speaking of which – we are NOT planning to rehang our shutters. We were surprised by how much we liked the look of the house without them, and a ton of the painted historic homes that we love most downtown don’t have them either (along with about 1/3 of our own neighborhood) so it just feels good to let the painted brick breathe. We had originally planned to buy new operable shutters like the duplex – but we’re happy to save ourselves the expense and the labor of doing that since we like this look so much.

That’s pretty much it when it comes to the DIY steps for an undertaking like this! Lance made a quick video that shows the process very briefly but he’s planning to create a much more detailed one soon, so we’ll link that how-to video once it’s ready so you can see it in action (in case you want to DIY it – or even just to show your pro if you decide to hire it out). And if you have any questions about the paint, the folks who sell BioDomus are really responsive and helpful. The guy who created it is named Michael and he is SUPER PASSIONATE about it. He and his wife Leslie run the company, and you know we like a husband and wife team ;)

How Long Did It Take?

Every project and house is different, but I thought it’d be helpful to give you a sense of how long it took for this to happen at our house. It all occurred over the course of five days, but really it was four when you exclude travel.

Day 1: Travel and prep (shutters down, windows taped, start of pressure-washing)

Day 2: Brick on front & chimney side of house get first coat

Day 3: Brick on the back & garage side of house get first coat (also portico demo/rebuilding, but more on that later)

Day 4: Brick on the whole house gets a second coat

Day 5: Siding painted, clean-up, and travel

And again, this was with a professional crew of three painters working from about 8am to 6pm straight every day (except travel days). Lance said typically they’d use scaffolding instead of a lift, but the lift was easier to rent and made them faster. So if your crew uses scaffolding it might add extra time.

How Much Did It Cost?

We haven’t received final invoices yet, but Lance said he typically prices a house of our size around $4,500 – $5,000 in labor. Our labor line item in his estimate was exactly $4,500 (and there might be a travel fee associated with someone coming a long way to do your work – but obviously that changes based on how far they’re coming, where they’re staying, how many people they bring, etc). We paid for the paint separately, and our job took 7 four-gallon buckets of BioDomus to complete (although he said our brick was especially thirsty so yours might not need as much, even if it’s the same size!) which cost around $1,700 in materials. And when we add in about $200 in siding paint that we purchased ourselves and provided for Lance, our material cost was around $1,900. So the painting portion of this makeover, again by our best guess without invoices being here yet, is about $6,400 total.

Obviously, every project is different and there are lots of factors and circumstances that can affect cost. There are definitely regional price differences too (we asked two of our friends who painted brick houses on the west coast that were smaller than ours and both of them said it was around 10K, which was a lot more than our cost for this project). So just note that this price might be higher or lower than yours, depending on where you live. We went into it fearing it would be closer to 10K, so we were pleasantly surprised, although $6,400 isn’t exactly pennies.

Update: all of the invoices are now in, and the final total was $7,500. If it’s helpful, Lance said clients should expect to pay $1.50-$2.50 per square foot (depending on your area) to have their brick painted with BioDomus by a good pro painter (who will apply it the right way so it’s warrantied & so it lasts). Labor & materials are included in that per-square-foot price, so you wouldn’t have to buy the paint like we did. Lance also noted that BioDomus technically requires less labor & materials compared to traditional latex & acrylic coating since covers with only 2 coat process (remember how well it covered in one coat?) verses a possible 3 coat process with traditional latex or acrylic paint. That means the price difference between using BioDomus and brands like Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore is usually pretty negligible.

I said “the painting portion of this makeover was $6,400” because thanks to a spontaneous porch makeover we also had a few hours of work from our electrician and about a half a day of work from Sean the Contractor, but we’re still waiting on those invoices. And speaking of the porch makeover…

What’s Next?

We plan to get into this story in more detail on next week’s podcast since it’s quite the rollercoaster (and this post is already long enough) but if you followed along on Instagram last week, you know that in the midst of the painting madness we decided to tackle the porch makeover AT THE SAME TIME. I can’t stress enough that this was NOT the plan going into the week, but I woke up with a wild hair on Tuesday morning and just couldn’t shake the feeling that we should rip the portico off right. that. second.

A few frantic calls to Sean later, and I had somehow convinced him to come to Richmond that afternoon, spend the night at his girlfriend’s house (it helps that she lives in Richmond), and come over bright and early the next day and help us remove the portico (J and I debated doing that ourselves but it was extremely heavy and we worried we’d crack the brick steps or shatter some facade bricks if we tried to muscle it down without help). So less than 24 hours later, by 8:30 am on Wednesday morning, the portico was down, and we were hard at work rebuilding the new surround with Sean…

…which led to a frantic call to our electricians who came and helped us wire up two big 22″ lanterns (that we bought right off the shelves that morning) to cover the two holes in the brick that had been revealed when we removed the portico. You might remember that Halloween was last Wednesday, so it was some sort of Trick Or Treating miracle to have working porch lights and a fully reconstructed door frame that we completed literally minutes before the first little costumed kid ran up our walkway.

Like, this was Tuesday evening:

… and this was 24 hours later:

Our original plan was to rebuild the portico with new chunkier columns, but we’re both really loving the look without a portico – and the door surround that we threw together in about four hours is actually pretty darn good (still needs to be painted white – it’s just primed and caulked but the weather isn’t cooperating). So we’re planning to leave it like this for the time being. The new door color helped a lot too. It’s Benjamin Moore’s Tranquility in a super high gloss finish. They have a new-ish paint line called Grand Entrances, and it’s made especially for front doors that you want to have a mirror-like shine. Tip: sand the heck outta your door so it’s smooth before applying this, because it’ll super amplify any flaw. If you do that, it looks like a million bucks! We love how ours came out!

A bunch of houses in our neighborhood have front stoops without an overhang, and packages get left in plastic bags so they don’t get wet, and we enter and exit exclusively through the garage, so I’m not sure we’ll even miss the portico. There was also a pretty amazing bonus to our foyer from taking down that huge overhang: so much more light shines in through our sidelights now! We keep thinking someone left the light on in there! It has definitely come a long way since we first bought the house:

Oh but one more “gotta do that” on our ever expanding to-do list (if you give a mouse a cookie… or if you paint your house white…) is to redo the porch floor with some pretty outdoor-friendly tile, much like we did on the back porch. At first we debated leaving the steps unpainted but the dark beige mortar clashed so badly with the brick house, so we knew we needed a new plan. BioDomus isn’t a porch & floor paint, so it’s not really meant to be walked on and we agreed with Lance’s recommendation to go ahead and paint it so the house didn’t have a big clashing brick tongue in the front, but none of us expect it to hold up longterm.

Our plan is to tile it with something similar to our back porch or maybe even add slate. This photo of Reese Witherspoon showed up in my Instagram feed over the weekend and, well, GOALS. See her painted brick house with those awesome stone steps? Also goals: that dog.

And of course my head is spinning with all sorts of thoughts about our landscaping. The white has really made all of our bushes “pop” and I spent a good hour on Friday trimming and shaving them to try to make the best of what we have, but I feel like I need taller plants on the porch, something big to anchor the left side of the house, and – I dunno – I know our boxwoods are very “English garden” but they’ve never been my favorite because they remind me of those big cement balls in front of Target…

I’m also somewhat obsessed with the idea of replacing that window over the front door (that’s our son’s room) with a larger window so the house feels more balanced and doesn’t have those two blank spaces on either side. This house’s middle window is what I’m thinking about – and it would fit in our son’s room and let in more light, so that might be something we do down the line too.

Oh, and we killed around 75% of our yard (intentionally) after it got overrun with crabgrass this summer, which is why it’s all brown. So hopefully we can reseed and reclaim some green in the spring. At least the fall colors are helping it blend in! Same goes for the back – the grass needs to grow back in, we need to finish that patio (maybe slate like the front steps?), John has to rehang our garden lights, and at some point we need to paint the back doors Tranquility too… and the shed Moderne White to match. The list is long.

But again, we’re trying to just enjoy the amazing progress we’ve had and not get overwhelmed by the tasks that this one very exciting update has added to our to-do list. But wait, have I mentioned that I dream about adding a window to the top left side of our house for balance and to let more light into our master bath/closet? Always scheming… ha!

In summary: I really can’t emphasize enough how happy we are with this change. I caught John outside gazing at the house like a goon the other day and I FREAKING TEARED UP WHEN I PULLED INTO THE DRIVEWAY. I know. It sounds crazy. But the house is just so beautiful it’s what I imagine it feels like if you get the final rose on the Bachelor and actually love that person and they actually love you back and your relationship actually works and you both feel understood and fulfilled. My house has undergone a pretty extreme makeover, and I love it for all the right reasons. AND CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE HOW GOOD IT’S GOING TO LOOK WITH SNOW ALL OVER IT THIS WINTER?! AGHHHHHHHHH.

We talked about some of our nerves on this week’s podcast and John has been anxious about making such a permanent decision for months, so it’s that much more of a GIANT RELIEF to both be so over the moon with the result. Our neighbors love it. Our family loves it. Even a teacher in the preschool carpool line last week said “I saw your house all painted and I’m in LOVE.”

Me too, carpool line friend, me too.

P.S. Have you seen our furniture line sneak peek? You can preview every single piece in our upcoming collection (soon to be sold on Wayfair.com and Wayfair.ca) and read all the measurements, etc (here’s everything from the bedroom section, the dining section, and the living section). WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR YOU GUYS TO SEE IT ALL! And you can get on the email list over there to be notified the second it releases on Wayfair ;)

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0 notes

truereviewpage · 5 years

Text

Painting Our Brick House White!

Why Paint Our Brick?

And even though our backyard is still in progress, the difference back there is almost more shocking in some ways.

What Color & Product We Used

It has a ton of other cool things that make it amazing for this type of application and these factors all helped give us (aka: John The Skeptic) the confidence to move forward with the project:

It CAN be pressure-washed, although the painter advised us to use low pressure – just like you would on any other painted surface

It has a 20-year warranty, meaning we shouldn’t have to repaint for at least a couple of decades (!!) – word on the street is that it often lasts for 30+ years which amazes us to no end

Or maybe this one:

How To Paint Your Brick House

1. Prep Your House

Like any paint job, you’ll make your life easier if you take time to prep first. For our project it included steps like:

Moving outdoor furniture and decor out of the way

Removing shutters and shutter hardware

Taping and covering all of the windows, lights, etc.

Pressure washing any grimy areas

2. Mix, Spray, and Backroll Your First Coat

In the photo below you can see the guy in the lift (Jeremy) spraying and the guy on the ground (Josh) rolling an area that has already been sprayed.

And this photo below of Josh backrolling the garage really shows the difference between just the first spray coat (far right) and how that backrolled area looks a lot more solid and filled in.

3. Caulk Gaps

4. Spray Your Second Coat

5. Paint Any Non-Brick Areas

6. Clean Up and Put Things Back

How Long Did It Take?

Day 1: Travel and prep (shutters down, windows taped, start of pressure-washing)

Day 2: Brick on front & chimney side of house get first coat

Day 3: Brick on the back & garage side of house get first coat (also portico demo/rebuilding, but more on that later)

Day 4: Brick on the whole house gets a second coat

Day 5: Siding painted, clean-up, and travel

How Much Did It Cost?

Update: all of the invoices are now in, and the final total was $7,500. If it’s helpful, Lance said clients should expect to pay $1.50-$2.00 per square foot to have their brick painted with Biodomus by a good pro painter (who will apply it the right way so it’s warrantied & so it lasts). Labor & materials are included in that per-square-foot price, so you wouldn’t have to buy the paint like we did. Lance also noted that Biodomus technically requires less labor & materials compared to traditional latex & acrylic coating since covers with only 2 coat process (remember how well it covered in one coat?) verses a possible 3 coat process with traditional latex or acrylic paint. That means the price difference between using Biodomus and brands like Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore is usually pretty negligible.

What’s Next?

Like, this was Tuesday evening:

… and this was 24 hours later:

Me too, carpool line friend, me too.

The post Painting Our Brick House White! appeared first on Young House Love.

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0 notes

statusreview · 5 years

Text

Painting Our Brick House White!

Why Paint Our Brick?

And even though our backyard is still in progress, the difference back there is almost more shocking in some ways.

What Color & Product We Used

It has a ton of other cool things that make it amazing for this type of application and these factors all helped give us (aka: John The Skeptic) the confidence to move forward with the project:

It CAN be pressure-washed, although the painter advised us to use low pressure – just like you would on any other painted surface

It has a 20-year warranty, meaning we shouldn’t have to repaint for at least a couple of decades (!!) – word on the street is that it often lasts for 30+ years which amazes us to no end

Or maybe this one:

How To Paint Your Brick House

1. Prep Your House

Like any paint job, you’ll make your life easier if you take time to prep first. For our project it included steps like:

Moving outdoor furniture and decor out of the way

Removing shutters and shutter hardware

Taping and covering all of the windows, lights, etc.

Pressure washing any grimy areas

2. Mix, Spray, and Backroll Your First Coat

In the photo below you can see the guy in the lift (Jeremy) spraying and the guy on the ground (Josh) rolling an area that has already been sprayed.

And this photo below of Josh backrolling the garage really shows the difference between just the first spray coat (far right) and how that backrolled area looks a lot more solid and filled in.

3. Caulk Gaps

4. Spray Your Second Coat

5. Paint Any Non-Brick Areas

6. Clean Up and Put Things Back

How Long Did It Take?

Day 1: Travel and prep (shutters down, windows taped, start of pressure-washing)

Day 2: Brick on front & chimney side of house get first coat

Day 3: Brick on the back & garage side of house get first coat (also portico demo/rebuilding, but more on that later)

Day 4: Brick on the whole house gets a second coat

Day 5: Siding painted, clean-up, and travel

How Much Did It Cost?

What’s Next?

Like, this was Tuesday evening:

… and this was 24 hours later:

Me too, carpool line friend, me too.

The post Painting Our Brick House White! appeared first on Young House Love.

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0 notes

billydmacklin · 5 years

Text

Painting Our Brick House White!

Why Paint Our Brick?

And even though our backyard is still in progress, the difference back there is almost more shocking in some ways.

What Color & Product We Used

It has a ton of other cool things that make it amazing for this type of application and these factors all helped give us (aka: John The Skeptic) the confidence to move forward with the project:

It CAN be pressure-washed, although the painter advised us to use low pressure – just like you would on any other painted surface

It has a 20-year warranty, meaning we shouldn’t have to repaint for at least a couple of decades (!!) – word on the street is that it often lasts for 30+ years which amazes us to no end

Or maybe this one:

How To Paint Your Brick House

1. Prep Your House

Like any paint job, you’ll make your life easier if you take time to prep first. For our project it included steps like:

Moving outdoor furniture and decor out of the way

Removing shutters and shutter hardware

Taping and covering all of the windows, lights, etc.

Pressure washing any grimy areas

2. Mix, Spray, and Backroll Your First Coat

In the photo below you can see the guy in the lift (Jeremy) spraying and the guy on the ground (Josh) rolling an area that has already been sprayed.

And this photo below of Josh backrolling the garage really shows the difference between just the first spray coat (far right) and how that backrolled area looks a lot more solid and filled in.

3. Caulk Gaps

4. Spray Your Second Coat

5. Paint Any Non-Brick Areas

6. Clean Up and Put Things Back

How Long Did It Take?

Day 1: Travel and prep (shutters down, windows taped, start of pressure-washing)

Day 2: Brick on front & chimney side of house get first coat

Day 3: Brick on the back & garage side of house get first coat (also portico demo/rebuilding, but more on that later)

Day 4: Brick on the whole house gets a second coat

Day 5: Siding painted, clean-up, and travel

How Much Did It Cost?

What’s Next?

Like, this was Tuesday evening:

… and this was 24 hours later:

Me too, carpool line friend, me too.

The post Painting Our Brick House White! appeared first on Young House Love.

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0 notes

travelinglifeshighways · 6 years

Text

Yellowstone National Park - Day 2

Wyoming

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Smoky, 86°

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.” – John Muir

The morning broke with the sun shining through the trees; the smoky haze that had covered most of the western United States was still in full force creating a blurry mist from horizon to horizon. It was clear above with blue sky but as you looked toward the horizon in any direction, the view was limited to only a mile or two. Without the smoke it should have been for miles.

There were no shower or laundry facilities at our campground so had to go to Fishing Bridge campground, as this is where the park’s showers were located. It took a little time to get there since the road leading to that site was under repair. Finally, we were ready for the day’s exploration of the park!

A little past LeHardys Rapids, the road leads to the parking lot for the Mud Volcano. There were many people walking along the trails around the features. I was imaging something like Krakatoa: a massive cone, spewing muddy material. I was a little disappointed pulling into the Mud Volcano area only to find that the “volcano” is nothing more than a giant pit which, granted, is muddy.

Mud Volcano - (I know a let down for me too)

The eastern half of Yellowstone National Park has two geyser areas, Mud Volcano and West Thumb Geyser Basin. The two offers an outstanding contrast: where West Thumb is known for its relative tranquility and limpid waters, Mud Volcano’s fame rests on its boisterousness and acridity.

Most of the best attractions in Mud Volcano are located just outside the parking lot. The Mud Cauldron is view-able from the pathway right in front of the parking area. It is a large area of mud and water heated by steam escaping from far below. As you head left from the parking area toward a steep climb, a short side path leads to the Blood Geyser.

Blood Geyser

The sign said this feature used to “erupt” muddy water up to 50 feet in the air in the 1800s. It has long since stopped this activity and, at present, is a sizzling mud pot area.

Continuing up the pathway, climbing the Cooking Hillside, which is quite steep but relatively short.

Cooking Hillside

The boardwalk trail resumes at the top and soon comes to the Churning Cauldron.

Churning Cauldron

This area was a cool pool filled with bacteria until earthquakes in 1978 and 1979 greatly increased the temperature. It tosses muddy water three to five feet high. Further ahead, at the top of the hill, the boardwalk goes to the left and right. To the left is a short side path leading to the Black Dragon’s Cauldron. It is a large, sizzling lake of mud. It was created in 1948 along a crack in the earth, and coated nearby trees in mud when it exploded into existence.

Return to the main boardwalk and take the right turn back downhill towards the parking area. A short distance down the walk is the Grizzly Fumarole.

Grizzly Fumarole

This feature’s appearance varies widely depending on recent precipitation. It can be a watery mud-pot, a thick mud-pot, or simply a steam vent (fumarole).

At the bottom of the hill almost to the parking lot is Mud Volcano and a short side boardwalk leads to the Dragon’s Mouth Spring. A favorite for many, it has nothing to do with mud. I thought it was one of the more interesting features in the park.

Dragon’s Mouth

It’s a spot where boiling water has gradually eroded away the hillside, creating a cavern that resounds constantly with roaring waters — almost like there really is a dragon lurking in there. Bizarre noises emit from the opening, making the idea of a dragon’s mouth rather believable.

Continuing north on the loop road you come to Hayden Valley where bison and elk free range on both sides of the road. The Yellowstone River winds along its way with rolling hills giving scenic views over each hill. We saw several bison herds grazing in the distance. Closer to the road, there were some individual bulls. One, standing at the base of a small cliff had gathered quite a crowd of photographers and others that wanted a close up view. It was easy to get great pictures from above the bison.

The Canyon Village area is one of the most majestic areas found within the Park boundaries. More photos and paintings are done here of the vast breathtaking views along the canyon’s edge of the deep canyons. With the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River featuring two breathtaking waterfalls, a vast canyon lined with yellow cliff walls, and a number of viewpoints and hiking trails, there is something for everyone.

Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River

The walk down to Artist viewpoint is well treed with breaks giving amazing views of the canyon walls, the river below and from several vantage points, the Upper and Lower Falls cascading into the canyon far below.

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River

Along with Old Faithful, it’s one of the park’s two marquee destinations. Seen from above, the canyon looks like the earth itself has a loose seam: A 20-mile-long, sheer-sided gorge plunges more than 1,000 feet to the Yellowstone River, widening up to 4,000 feet across in places.

Yellowstone Canyon

Two thundering waterfalls pour over two immense drops in the river’s course, and a palette of bright reds, yellows, orange, whites, and browns swirls cross the rocky walls. In short, it’s every bit as impressive as that other Grand Canyon, if not quite as big.

According to the ranger discussing the early exploration of the park, the first reports of Yellowstone, in the early 1800s, described a place in the northwest corner of the Wyoming Territory where mud boiled, water spouted, and steam came out of the ground. The area in question was at the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, the longtime home of a band of Shoshone Indians. In 1807, John Colter, a former member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, met with ridicule when he first described the fantastical place. People then jokingly referred to it as "Colter's Hell."

Ferdinand V. Hayden, head of the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories, decided it was time for professional explorers to take a look. In 1871, Hayden led an expedition to Yellowstone to determine the real value of the land. The expedition party consisted of a botanist, zoologist, mineralogist, meteorologist and a team of topographers who were there to collect scientific data about the landscape. Also accompanying them was a young artist named Thomas Moran and a photographer. For the first time, Americans were able to see what mere words had previously described. (NPS Ranger talk)

The day ended at Tower Fall and Tower-Roosevelt. Located in the northeastern part of Yellowstone near Tower Junction, the fall plunges a stunning 132 feet.

Tower Falls

The unusual rock columns north of the fall were created by lava flow that cracked as it cooled. It was just over an hour’s drive back to the campground where a small waterfall was alongside the roadway.

Small Waterfall along Roadway

Back at the campsite, a great dinner with a campfire under the night skies ended the day.

#Adventure #America the Beautiful #America #Beautiful Places #Beauty #Interesting places #Interesting things #RV'ing #Road Trip #Travel #Traveling Life's Highways #National Park #Yellowstone National Park #Waterfall

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lovebloomsamongstthestacks · 6 years

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Levi couldn’t help the overwhelming joy that filled him when Eren accepted and even said he had been planning on asking if he could walk him home. Truth be told he wasn’t in any danger of being hurt, getting beat up was one think but if anyone ever tried harming him more than with their fist he could simply fry them where they stood. Unable to contain his happiness he smiled brightly up at Eren.

“Okay I will wait for you then. I’ll clean up while you get ready.”

Levi said joyously and got to work cleaning up from the meal they all had. He did feel a little bad for snapping at Jean earlier, it was all Uncle Kenny’s fault after all. He was going to have to think of some way to make it up to Jean and apologize. Perhaps he’ll bring Uncle Kenny along for proof that it was his fault that Levi snapped at Jean because of that damn word. Damn Uncle Kenny always getting drunk and saying his midget ass needs to run back home to Munchkin Land.

It was a little while before everything was cleaned up properly to his standards before he joined Eren at the door with his things. He would need to shop for a lot of food and he didn’t have the car since his mom was working today. Perhaps he should sell some stuff and earn the money for a cheap little beater he could drive to school and around on errands. It didn’t need to be big or anything, or even new, maybe he could ask Mike what type of car he could get that would be reliable but cheap enough that he could buy for a few hundred dollars.

They chatted amiably as Eren drove them, with Levi’s directions, to the store Levi needed to go to that was a little far from Levi’s house. However, it was the store Levi liked best because they were generally always pretty clean, their prices were terrific, and they never had any problems with the food they bought from there. It was a wholesale, organic co-op after all. Levi loved it and paid for the membership himself for him, his mom, and Uncle Kenny.

Levi showed the store person his membership card and told them that Eren was with him before they were allowed to enter and start their shopping instead of being directed to the membership services counter. Getting a basket he and Eren began shopping and they were there for at least an hour. By the time they were finished they had tried every sample in the store and walked away with two baskets full of food. Levi didn’t bother to mention that it was only a weeks worth of food.

They were having a lot of fun shopping around together and discussing different foods, it almost seemed like a date. Levi blushed at that thought which kind of made him happy but he thought that might seem a little weird because he didn’t think grocery shopping could be counted as a date. Although they still chatted and Levi gave instructions on how to get to his house from the store. Though the closer they got the more nervous Levi got because the guy he liked was coming over to his house for the first time.

Once they arrived Levi unlocked the door and led the way to the kitchen since they were both ladened down with bags of food. It took a couple of trips back and forth from the car to bring everything in but the two of them managed to get it all. After every bag was brought in Levi started putting it away and though he told Eren he had done enough and should just rest he still insisted that he would help him put it all away.

The smell of Eren had surrounded Levi’s senses throughout both car rides, playing havoc on Levi’s heart. He managed to get along rather well with holding a conversation with Eren and doing his best not to show that he was extremely distracted by his closeness. The moment he stepped into the house and it seemed as though Eren’s scent mixed with the regular smells of the house making many of his fantasies pass in his mind.

However, he thought he was rather insane for thinking he could smell the individual smells and how they mixed. But what if it was one of those mutant things and he really could? Obviously his sense of smell wasn’t as good as Mike’s but apparently it wasn’t as bad he thought it was. After all what human could grow scales on their skin and breath fire? Also the large dragon birthmark on his body that looked almost exactly like a tattoo wasn’t exactly normal either.

After everything was put way Levi could feel the dirt and grime of the day weighting heavily on him. It made his skin crawl just thinking about it. There was nothing to do and his OCD was telling him he needed to take a shower, right away or his behavior would get even more erratic. He turned to Eren a bit nervously because now that they weren’t putting things away he wasn’t sure what to do.

“Um.... If you don’t have anywhere else to be I-I’d like it if you would stay a little longer...”

It seemed that being near Eren for so long made him a bit bolder than he would be normally because that wasn’t at all what he had been intending to say. However, he was extremely relieved that Eren agreed so quickly. A relieved smile over took his face and he couldn’t help but beam up at him as he led the way out of the kitchen to the hallway. He stopped in the hallway and turned back to Eren blushing slightly.

“I.... I ah... I need to take a shower real quick... If you’d like you can wait in my room or the living room? I won’t be too long it’s just been a rather long day.”

His face at this point was probably scarlet because it felt super hot. What was worse was his chest was feeling super hot with usually meant he needed to vent the fire in his lungs before it vented itself and caused him to burn something down. He didn’t know what it was but the more time he spent with Eren the hotter his body felt. It felt a little hotter when Eren didn’t even hesitate in choosing to wait in his room.

Levi nodded and led the way up to his room from where they were standing in the hallway. Luckily there wasn’t really anything in the open that he was worried about but he was fully aware of Eren’s presence as he followed him up the stairs. His sensitive ears could hear the rustling of their clothes as they climbed the stairs and entered the second door on the right.

Stepping straight into the room he moved over to the closet and pulled out a large hoodie that looked like a dress on him. Since he was small he hoped it wasn’t too obvious that it was actually a girl’s sweater. The skulls and other marking made it rather masculine in appearance. He wasn’t quite ready to fully admit he wore girls clothes just yet. He also grabbed a pair of black leggings that were also nondescript enough to be for men.

He tossed them both on the end of the bed and started digging around in the bottom of his closet. The closet door was only slid open halfway so only his school clothes were showing and the other half of his clothes were hidden by the door. Finding what he was looking for he slid the closet door shut and turned around with a large fluffy towel in his hands only to find himself face to face with Eren’s chest.

“Ahem.... Make yourself comfortable, I-I’ll try not to be too long.”

Levi said clearing his throat before speaking as he slid his gaze up to meet Eren’s. He quickly slipped into the bathroom that was just off his room, a frosted glass door marked the entrance to his bathroom next to his closet door. He completely forgot about his clothes laying on the end of his bed. He had just known he had to get out of the room quickly or he may end up climbing Eren to see if his mouth really tasted the way he always imagined.

In his rush to put a little distance between Eren’s scrumptious scent and himself he even forgot to lock the door. He stripped out of his school clothes tossing them in the hamper before he turned on the shower. Levi loved that his bathroom was more modern and that it was in the center of his bathroom, all four walls were glass and the shower head was set into the ceiling and was one of those rain showers.

He didn’t even bother turning on the hot water since he had to cool the fire in him. He placed his towel on the hook on the side wall of his shower and stepped into the cold water not even feeling the chill as he tipped his head back and opened his mouth letting the water slide down his throat to his belly. Steam billowed from his mouth filling the bathroom like it was a sauna. Once he was satisfied that he wasn’t going to be in danger of torching anything when he got out he closed his mouth and started washing himself.

After changing the water from cold to hot, though he left some of the cold water on to keep it from getting too hot. Levi quickly scrubbed every inch of himself but his body only seemed to get hotter until a rather painful erection had risen up in all it’s glory. Eren’s scent was still wrapping around his senses and turning him on as he touched himself all over to wash. He couldn’t help imagining Eren’s hands following the path of his hands and by the time he realized what he was doing it was already too late to stop.

His breathing was labored as he leaned against the back wall of the shower that faced the bathroom door. He was so preoccupied that he didn’t even notice the door was cracked slightly. He simply knew he needed to get out of the shower quickly and he couldn’t possibly do that with a massive erection. His hand gripped the base of his shaft and slowly stroked the length of it. He did his best to hold back the throaty moan forcing its way out of his throat.

He did his best to stroke himself off and was busy stirring himself up into a fever pitch of desire. His knees grew weak as he slid down against the glass as he stroked himself off. He had to bite back Eren’s name to keep from calling it out just in case he heard him through the door. Soon his stroking wasn’t enough and his fingers had to work his ass to get him closer to the edge. Moans and whimpers were muffled by the glass and the running water as he did his best to hold them back. Getting caught in this position by the guy he was in love with would be extremely embarrassing.

The click of the door closing, the sound of clothes rustling, the click of the shower door opening were all lost to Levi’s frantic need. He still wasn’t getting close enough. Usually this much would be enough to make him cum but for some reason it still wasn’t enough. His name was lost to his ears a couple of times until his attention was drawn behind him as his nose followed Eren’s scent back to his person. The scent was too strong to still be coming from the other room now.

“D-don’t l-look....”

He whined it was too embarrassing being caught like this but Eren’s gaze on his body was only making it hotter. Even though it was so embarrassing he couldn’t stop moving his hands. It was frustrating. His fingers were not nearly enough to satisfy him like this. He also couldn’t tear his eyes away from Eren as he was getting soaked by the water. His clothes were plastering to his body outlining everything that was hidden. Including a rather delicious looking erection in Eren’s pants.

His ears weren’t catching anything that Eren was saying right now as he crawled over to Eren. The water was masking the tears of frustration that were welling up as he sat up pressing his face against Eren’s erection, nuzzling it before he ran his tongue over it through his pants. His hands worked to free it from Eren’s pants so that he could take the entire length into his mouth.

The Dragon in him was pleased that he was with his mate so there was no need to resist mating with him. However, just before Levi got it into his mouth Eren stopped him pulling him away and crouching down so that Levi was looking into his eyes. A low keening whine escaped Levi at being kept away from what he wanted so badly. He did his best to focus on what Eren’s lips were saying. He was asking him if this was what he really wanted.

Levi felt like telling him that it was a dumb question but instead his hand curled into Eren’s soaked shirt and pulled his mouth closer to his own. Only a breaths space apart Levi could only whisper three words before his mouth came crashing down on Eren’s. It must have been the right three words because Eren’s mouth met his hungrily and his hands began roaming, touching, and teasing all over Levi’s body. The three words that had been spoken were small but with great impact.

“I need it.”

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