1X1 with Kipori

[Kipori]

(You make a solid point there hahaha. As far as I know they haven’t come back, so I think we are in the clear for the time being. We will have to see about it when the weather warms back up since that seems to be when they appear again.
I’ve always been pretty easy to distract so yeah, staying on task proves to be difficult for me. I pretty much have to do an hour of work, half an hour break and repeat until I’ve finished the stuff for the day. Thankfully most of my classes are pretty structured in terms of when stuff is due so I have clear weekly deadlines and plans to meet which makes staying on track easier.
That’s awesome you found a community like that! Should come out with some cool finds.
Yeah that was sort of why I was leaning that way as opposed to teenagers. I’d like to teach history but most elementary schools where I live have teachers teach all the subjects to thier respective classes so if I was to stay around here I would probably end up as a general teacher. That would be fine, but I’m pretty terrible at math so I’m worried about trying to teach it haha. Guess that’s what the education program is for but we will see. I think the program allows me to teach at any grade from K-12 so I would have some ability to move around from my understanding but I would have to look into it more haha.)

Ollie Hobbes
Hearing that it might not even be necessary to use clothes to cover the rest of the field brought Ollie a bit of hope but he knew better than to let it get too bright. Instead, he shifted it to one side, for the time being, gathering his pack up and shouldering it in order to follow after Rodger who seemed to have decided they had wasted enough time on the back and forth. Ollie could agree they had burned more daylight on the subject than necessary but also understood that it wasn’t something anyone had wanted to do.
With the packs, the trek back up to their crossing point had felt longer than it had when it was just him and Rodger, so Ollie was quick to abandon his pack again once they got there. Climbing down a mountain with a pack was easy compared to climbing up, but he had forgotten just how annoying it was. Glancing back down the path, he wasn’t surprised to see Parker trailing farther behind than normal, clearly struggling despite his lighter pack. There was a pang of concern at how much the other boy was struggling despite how early they were into the trip but before he could think on it too much, Rodger was calling for his attention and he shifted to look at the other. Parker would have time to rest before having to cross the field so hopefully, that would ease the other boy’s struggles a bit.
“Yeah alright.” He nodded, eyeing the tree Rodger had decided upon. It seemed to hold under his stress tests so that was enough for Ollie. “I doubt I can avoid getting scratched up out ther regardless but okay.”
Even if he kept his pants, his arms were going to get cut up, especially his hands but he couldn’t complain about being saved from suffering cuts to his legs. They would be a pain to deal with over the course of the rest of their hike but compared to Parker, Ollie had a feeling he would manage better with those sorts of injuries. The other boy was already having trouble without injuries. Dismissing it for now since Rodger had made the call, Ollie grabbed his climbing harness out of where he had stuck it in the top of his pack and started getting it situated. He had enough experience with it to make the process quick and efficient, tightening it just a bit more than he normally might have for extra safety. After a check over to make sure he was secure in the harness, he looked back to Rodger.
“Alright, ready when you are.” He grinned, equal parts excited and terrified at the prospect of crossing the field untethered like this.

Lt. Warren Frost
With the choice shelved, for the time being, Warren gathered up his things like the rest of the group. While not pleased about hiking back up the way they had come, Warren would rather they cross at a shorter distance than the current spot they had set up at. From the sounds of it, Cadet Castillo and Hobbes had found a shorter area but the mountain a little ways so Warren was happy to hike back up. Cadet Cutriss seemed less thrilled but Warren was already aware how little the Cadet liked hiking in general. He wasn’t openly complaining though so Warren didn’t draw attention to him, instead following the trio up the mountain again. Castillo and Hobbes quickly pulled ahead but Warren lingered a bit back to stick with Curtiss. He didn’t walk in step with the cadet but a few paces ahead of him so that he could keep half an eye on the less fit cadet.
By the time both he and Curtiss arrived at the designated spot where the other two had deemed they would cross, Castillo was tying the ropes together and Hobbes was getting himself into his harness to cross. The grin on Cadet Hobbes’s face was somewhat worrying but knowing the teenager, he was just excited to do something possibly dangerous which had Warren sighing in defeat. Not for the first or last time, he wished he had been assigned an easier to handle group like his colleagues.

[taikunfoo]

(Hopefully the aphids stay away I've had the start of a resurgence of soil gnats - nothing to serious right now but enough to know they're there. Also for some reason over the past month or so I've found three ants, two of which had made their way into the toliet on their own so that's pretty confusing, especially since it's winter here.

I'm glad you're doing okay with classes and staying on track! I'm still definitely struggling with staying focused at work, and it's been a slow past few weeks, so a blessing and a curse at the same time. It's good that you have the flexibility with your course to be able to choose what grade/age range you'll wind up in, but math is definitely tricky. Do they offer courses on teaching it/going over the different kinds of math classes some more?

For the plant trading community I was able to get some seeds and some plants, some of which I was trying to find for a few years which was exciting! I'm really excited about the upcoming spring and summer - I'm in the process of planning out this year's garden and I'm so excited to get more corn out of it.

Also I'm having way too much fun with this, poor Ollie!)

Rodger Castillo
Rodger nodded, acknowledging that he heard Ollie, but he didn't look up until he finished looking over his knot, giving it a few experimental tugs and turning it over in his hands. While he was confident of the knot, he handed it off to Lt. Frost to check, just in case that he'd missed something. He remained kneeling, sliding the rope experimentally over a few spots to see which had the least amount of friction before turning back to Ollie. Not bothering to get up, Rodger remained kneeling while he gave Ollie's harness a once over, checking it carefully. Rodger cast an expert eye over the buckles and straps, making sure that none of the red tape was visible. 'Red is dead' his father had drilled into his head since he was a kid, and the last thing they needed was someone slipping out of their harness and sliding down the rocks.
"Front is good." He said, reaching to Ollie's hip and snagged a strap, gently tugging him until he turned around so he could inspect the back of his harness. With a satisfied nod, he used his grip on Ollie's harness to pull himself to his feet, stretching his arms over his head before returning to his pack to get his harness out and ready to go - might as well get everything checked over while he still had Ollie around. Rodger removed his harness from his pack and stepped into it, pulling it to his waist and deftly tightening the various straps as a number of carabiners clinked from the front loop. He picked out one with a belay attached to it and removed the others, putting them on the ground where they could easily be reached if he needed another. Rodger gave his harness a quick check, but still turned back to Ollie, looking over his shoulder at his friend.
"Can you check my harness?" He asked, knowing that even though he was good, he still had to have someone else check, and at the very least Lt. Frost wouldn't be able to fault him for being through. They were making good progress at least - they'd gotten back up to the site where they'd cross, found a tie point on this side, and they were almost ready for Ollie to start making his way across the scree field. Rodger looked up at the sky - they still had a pretty good amount of time before they had to make camp for the night, at least four hours, possibly more if they could keep Parker moving. They might even make it all the way off the mountain and into the valley - it looked like once they got past the scree field it would be a continuation of their easy hike down the side of the mountain. The valley below looked sparsely vegetated, a thin layer of grasses, scrub, and dirt covering rock with more trees than were on the mountainside. If he squinted he thought he could make out some deciduous trees mixed in with the conifers. Rodger brought his wandering focus back to what was in front of him - Ollie, and Lt. Frost handing him his knot back.
"Does my harness look good?" He asked Ollie.

Parker Curtiss
Parker finally managed to make it up to the rest of the group, trying his best to hide how much climbing back up the side of the mountain had winded him. They should have just done this the first time around instead of walking further down the mountain, that way they wouldn't have had to hike back up! He planted his rear on a rock and dropped his pack, thankful that he'd get to sit around for a while while the others did something with getting the ropes set up. Should he help out? No, he didn't know a thing about tying knots, he just left that to Rodger who knew what he was doing. Not that he'd be able to help Ollie cross either. All he wanted to do right now was to just sit down and not move for the rest of the afternoon. Maybe he'd wander over and see if there was anything to do after he caught his breath.

[Kipori]

(That does sound...rather odd but I guess they would just be following each other's trails to their doom. Not ideal for them but that's what happens when the first one is dumb haha.
I think that will depend on what Uni I end up going to? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how the education program works or is structured but I'm sure there will be a point where the focus will be on teaching math effectively so hopefully that will get me to a place where I feel comfortable. If all else fails, I can go into teaching high school where most teachers only teach one subject, rather than elementary where teachers teach all 4 core subjects
Here's hoping that this coming garden season is better than the last one! Or at least you don't have the same problems you did last season haha
Ollie is suffering, poor guy. Though Parker is also suffering, just for entirely different reasons)


Ollie Hobbes
It was impossible to fight off the blush that grew on Ollie's cheeks as Rodger turned his attention to his harness. Of course, Rodger would decide to check in the most embarrassing way possible, it was as if the other boy enjoyed making him suffer. Ollie knew Rodger had no idea that what he was doing was embarrassing him, it occurred often enough that Ollie could safely conclude that fact. It didn't change his own body's reaction to the embarrassment though, and short of hiding his face behind his hands, there was little he could do to get rid of the reaction. Well, maybe deal with the crush he had on Rodger but Ollie didn't see that happening any time soon either. Seems he was stuck to be perpetually embarrassed by Rodger and his tendency to be efficiently embarrassing.
With no way of telling Rodger to stop, he had asked the other boy to check his harness, after all, Ollie had no choice but to suffer through the check. He turned when he felt a tug at the strap at his hip, refusing to look at Rodger for even a second while he was there. This meant he was unprepared when Rodger suddenly decided to use his harness to drag himself up, causing Ollie to yelp slightly and dig his heels in to keep from sending both of them over. Giving Rodger a light glare for that, Ollie stepped out of Rodger's space in an attempt to lower his own heart rate down and get rid of the blush that still felt like it was burning bright on his cheeks.
In an attempt to distract himself, he turned his attention out to the scree field, mentally mapping a possible path he could take in order to cross with the least amount of concerns. There wasn't much chance of any of the paths actually being passable, since he couldn't see a lot of the field yet, but it was distracting enough that his face started to feel less warm. It was of course then that Rodger decided to get his attention again, drawing Ollie's focus back to the other boy.
"Why do you need me to do that?" He asked, already moving to do so since it was only fair, "You never mess it up."
Ollie wasn't happy with being in Rodger's space again so soon, well he was actually pretty happy about it but refused to internally admit that, but it was unavoidable to check the various straps and connections which made up the harness. Unlike Rodger though, Ollie had no intention of doing said check while kneeling. Though it would serve the other boy right for being annoying.
As he suspected, the harness was perfectly done up, not a bit of red tape visible and the few experimental tugs proved that the harness wouldn't be going anywhere without some serious effort.
"What did I tell you, you never mess it up." He laughed, smiling playfully at Rodger as he stepped back out of his space. "We good to go then?"
With the harnesses in place and Lt. Frost's confirmation that the knot looked solid, there was nothing stopping them from starting the crossing now. At least not as far as Ollie was concerned. There was some underlying anxiety bubbling in his chest but it was easily ignored in favour of excitement and curiosity about how the entire thing would go.

Lt. Warren Frost
It was unexpected when Cadet Castillo handed over the knots to him to check over. He had assumed he would have been confident enough in his own work as to not need it checked over but apparently, Warren had overestimated how confident the Cadet was. This was not a bad thing, of course, in fact, Warren was pleased to know that Castillo was confident but not overly so. He was happy to get others to look over his work and give feedback, even if he was internally confident in his abilities.
Checking over Castillo's work was simple enough, the knot was clearly well done even without looking it over critically. After giving a few hard tugs and tugging the rope in different directions to see if the knot would shift or show any signs of strain, Warren was happy with what he saw.
"The knot looks secure." He commented, glancing towards Castillo and Hobbes, the latter having taken over checking Castillo's harness. "I have no concerns with it."
He handed the knot back over when Castillo held his hand out for it, easily shifting back to give the pair space to finish their preparations for Hobbes's crossing of the scree field.

[taikunfoo]

(Hopefully that was the case - I haven't found any other ants despite it starting to warm up so I'm especially confused haha.
I do have a nice black-leafed cherry that I didn't get a chance to plant in the yard last fall that I've been keeping indoors over winter and it's starting to bloom now. It smells so nice when I go down there because the smell has just spread through the area and it's quite pleasant! I also have quite a few amaryllis getting ready to bloom so I'm super excited about those as well. Plus the seeds for my summer garden arrived last week so I'm really excited!
Best of luck though with the courses though If you don't mind me asking how many years of schooling do you have left? Are there any classes you're looking forward to taking (like more History classes)? Is there a specific time period you're really interested in?

Also sorry in advance for Parker's lackluster response - I spent a day trying to come up with something but ultimately came up with that, hopefully his internal monologue/sarcasm gives you a chuckle!)

Rodger Castillo
Rodger stood, momentarily caught off guard by Ollie's flushed face and struggled mentally for a few moments to figure out why his friend seemed so embarrassed. Oh. He made a mental note to check harnesses while standing, and looked away, using a hand to scratch at the back of his neck. When Ollie felt comfortable enough looking at him again, he mouthed an 'sorry' at him before submitting himself to Ollie's inspection of his harness. He listened to his question, and shrugged.
"You only have to mess things up once for them to not matter anymore. While I do a pretty good job of managing my equipment, the one time I'm moving fast or distracted and don't double check and miss something, then I could die. Tie a knot wrong, leave a harness unsecured, it comes apart when I'm fifty feet up in the air." His mind drifted back to a memory of one time when he'd caught his dad's red tag on his climbing harness showing. His father's reaction, normally relaxed face growing tense, a deep shuddering breath, and then kneeling down to give him a hug. Rodger's father had about twenty years of climbing experience, but the excitement of wanting to get on the rock and show his son the ropes, literally and figuratively, had made him miss a single strap. "I may be good at this, but it doesn't mean I'm immune to making mistakes on occasion." He said with a shrug. His father had taught him from an early age to be mindful of his thinking and how his actions could have consequences. One of the things he'd learned about was different mentalities taken from aviation flight training: anti-authority, impulsivity, invulnerability, macho, and resignation. While they did learn about these at during their training at the Galaxy Garrison, he'd just had a lot more time to recognize and apply them to his thinking than the other cadets. While he usually wasn't prone to the anti-authority mindset, or a belief that he was above the rules, like any other teenage boy he did have streaks of macho - trying to impress others by taking unnecessary risks, and invulnerability - he'd come out of different situations fine before, so why should this time be any different? Rodger thought he was getting better at impulsivity by trying to take a few steps back to evaluate different situations, but if he was being honest at times he definitely needed some work. Thankfully he didn't have to deal with resignation, but that definitely was because he was tenacious in whatever he did, determinedly working through the problem or the challenge set before him.
With his harness checked by Ollie, he reached out and accepted the knot back from Lt. Frost, using a carabiner to fasten it to Ollie's harness. He looped the other end into a belay clip, stringing the line out behind him and clipping the belay device onto his harness. With that done, he walked around the tree, securing himself and scuffing up the ground underneath his feet, kicking away loose stones and making sure he had good footing- he didn't want to fall if Ollie took a tumble. Knowing that Parker would likely want to do the bare minimum, Rodger asked him to sit on a convenient rock and keep an eye out for any loose stones coming down the scree field or if something was looking unstable. He spent a few minutes carefully coiling his rope so it wouldn't get stuck on anything or catch one of his legs, before looking back at Ollie. "We're good to go, just call out if you need more slack or if you're about to take a tumble." He said, bending his knees slightly and starting to feed some rope through his belay.

Parker Curtiss
Sure Parker, just go sit on the rock over there, and look for rocks. Hey, there's a rock, and there's a rock. It's almost like I'm looking at a bunch of rocks. Go figure. At least I'm sitting down and getting a break before climbing across all of those rocks.

[Kipori]

(That is a bit weird for sure, hopefully, they stay away. Ooo nice that the seeds showed up, right in time for the nicer weather? It's been hit or miss here on whether we get sun or rain (sometimes we get both) with the occasional hail storm mixed in.
I'm actually in my last semester haha, or well done since yesterday as that was my last exam. So as long as I don't fail anything I will have my bachelor's degree! It hasn't entirely settled in yet that I am done school now, or at least until I go into the education program. Going to be a bit weird honestly. I am a bit sad because there is a world war history class being offered next fall that sounded super interesting but I won't be able to take it, oh well. I pretty much enjoy learning about any time period haha, I'm not picky when it comes to history. But I do like learning about the different wars in particular, mainly the psychological drives that push people towards war and rationalizing the things that occur during war. Particularly with regards to the second world war as you can probably imagine. One of my favourite history classes we got to meet and talk to a survivor of that war and it was really powerful and crushing. Skipped the rest of my classes that day and went home to watch cute cat videos haha. Anyways, got a bit off track there, TLDR: Put any history class in front of me and I will enjoy it regardless of subject matter.
And no worries about Parker, he doesn't have much to do now but I am looking forward to his attempt to cross the rocks because that is going to be very funny. I enjoy his sarcasm a lot.
Also, sorry this took me nearly a month to get back to you. We had some bad medical news in the family and I have been dealing with that on top of final projects and exams haha. I'm done classes now though so hopefully there won't be any more of these month-long pauses!)


Ollie Hobbes
Rodger of course has a point that the one time you didn't check would be the one time things failed or went wrong. It was the sentiment that had him checking his welding goggles before starting on an engine even when he logically knew he had already put them on. Better safe than sorry.
"What's a fifty-foot drop really? Live a little." He teased, thankful for the distraction from his earlier embarrassment. Rodger seemed to have noticed, not that it had been well hidden if the apology was anything to go by. Ollie knew he should probably be mortified about it, but Rodger didn't seem inclined to look to much into it so he just took a deep breath and went about checking the straps like he had been supposed to. "Looks like you'll be able to keep the no mistake record for one more day at any rate."
It took a fair bit of willpower not to bounce from foot to foot as Rodger hooked him up to the makeshift rope. Seeing the mismatched length of rope tied to his harness made what he was about to do a bit more real in his head and with it brought a small bubble of anxiety. He shook the tremor out of his hands as quickly as it appeared, reminding himself that he could trust Rodger's work. It had been given the green light by the Lieutenant and he was supposed to step in if they were about to do anything life-threatening. A glance towards the man got him a sharp nod which was enough for Ollie.
Turning his attention back to Rodger, Ollie waited for him to secure himself and get his footing where he liked them. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at Rodger's comment. "I think you'll know if I'm about to fall before I have a chance to call out...and I doubt I will be calling for slack if I am falling."
He would have different choice words on his tongue if that was to happen and he didn't know why Rodger thought any different. Maybe he just hoped Ollie would take this seriously? If that was it he would be disappointed because even though Ollie knew the seriousness of his task he never took anything seriously.
Saluting Rodger with a playful grin, Ollie turned his full attention to the scree field. It seemed much wider now that he was standing on the edge of it with the intention to cross. The rocks seemed sharper and less stable which he knew he had no way of judging. Shaking his head to clear up the last remnants of anxiety, he took a deep breath. The scree field really wasn't that terrifying, he had Rodger on the rope and Parker watching his back, for what that was worth, everything would be fine.
Shoring up his courage, he took the first careful step onto the rocks. They shifted under his feet but the edge of the field was made up of smaller rocks that were more stable than the rocks further into the center. Ollie was sure he could make good time for the first few feet and then would have to slow as the rocks got bigger and less stable below his feet. The urge to move quickly had to be pushed aside despite the relative safety of the edge since the stability of the rocks could shift at any second. So he went slow and careful, not putting his whole weight down on the next step until he was sure the rocks below him weren't about to shift and sent him rolling down the hill. Slow and steady was just going to have to work.

Lt. Warren Frost
Despite his misgivings about the plan the cadets had concocted, Warren would be the first to admit it had come together quite well and quickly. The rope was solid and Cadet Hobbes seemed relatively confident in his own abilities. Enough so that he was joking around and teasing Cadet Castillo, which was always a good sign. When Hobbes looked towards him, a questioning look in his eyes, he gave what he hoped was an encouraging nod. That seemed to be enough for the cadet since he turned back to Castillo and getting everything set. With nothing to do with himself, Warren moved back and out of the way. He wanted to observe but stay out of the way of the cadets. Not that Curtiss was doing much, having been relegated to a rock to "watch for loose stones" which he did not seem pleased about at all if his facial expression was anything to go by. There wasn't time to wonder why he was so disgruntled about it, since Hobbes was taking the first steps onto the rocks. Warren held his breath for the first few steps only releasing it when Hobbes didn't go tumbling down the mountain right away. In fact, he made very slow progress which was strange to see from the cadet that usually dove headfirst into things without concern for his safety. It was a relief to see him treating this with the caution he should and Warren just hoped he kept it up the entire way across, not just at the beginning.

[taikunfoo]

(I'm really sorry to hear about your family, again, no worries on the timing, I'm pretty bad at it myself lately. Congrats on wrapping up with your degree!!! How are you going to be doing graduation now (if you haven't already graduated)? I can definitely see how that would be an interesting class - I wonder if the same rationalization mechanisms were present (at least the ideas/ways of thinking) with this pandemic/some of the issues and politicization in the US right now. Weather-wise we actually had a freak snowstorm here the other week that took down a large pine tree - killed the power (thankfully at the end of the workday) and blocked the road. I think I'm going to wait to plant until mid to late May for the corn, maybe the potatoes a little earlier. I'm still not sure what the best way of mounding them without submerging them in my garden is haha, so there's still some thought that needs to go into that. I started turning over the soil and picked up some compost from a store so we'll see how that goes. I already have it spread over 2/3 of the garden but I want to go back over half of that and re-turn it over so that's going to take a bit-used a rake instead of a shovel and I wasn't satisfied with the soil being loose enough. It rained recently too so now the soil is all heavy so I'm waiting for it to dry out so it will lighten up and make the shoveling easier!
I'm glad you appreciated Parker's bit, even if it wasn't long haha)

Rodger Castillo
Rodger listened as Ollie spoke, nodding along but he slowly was getting more and more embarrassed the more he thought about it. Now that Ollie had set off across the scree field, all Rodger could do was try to fight the rising flush to his cheeks and slowly let out more line as Ollie started his scramble across the scree field. Of course that meant he had to stay very focused on Ollie and his movements, which meant staring at his center of gravity to see if he was starting to become unbalanced so he could take up a little slack and provide some steady force against him. Which meant that he was staring at Ollie's rear. He worked hard to focus on watching Ollie's center of gravity as he cautiously advanced across the first of the rocks - Rodger couldn't afford to be off balance (ha) with his attention right now as a belay partner. He was really pleased that Ollie was being more cautious while moving across the scree field instead of rushing forward. He tightened the rope as a rock teetered under one of Ollie's feet, and relaxed slightly when he found his footing. All things considered he was doing a good job getting across the scree field - Rodger judged that he was already about a quarter of the way across the scree field. He glanced over his shoulder to look at the remaining rope and thankfully it still looked like they had a lot left. Who knows - perhaps it would be possible for them to get across the scree field without having to sacrifice some of their clothes to be a part of the rope. Rodger was pleased that things were going so well - they still had a lot of daylight left and setting up the rope and getting their things back up the slope hadn't taken that long at all. Once Ollie got across the slow part would be getting their things and themselves across the scree field, with himself likely taking up the rear of the group leaving the rest of his team to belay him across the scree field. Admittedly he did feel a little uncomfortable about the idea, but at the very least Lt. Frost would be keeping an eye on things and step in if he was in any unnecessary danger. As long as Parker wasn't belaying him, he'd be fine. A quick glance over to the young man proved that he still had a sour expression on his face, which admittedly wasn't unusual, but at the very least he was diligently watching the scree field for falling rocks upslope. Ollie seemed to be getting towards the middle, and most dangerous part of the scree field now. He had slowed down considerably, and was taking his time picking his way across the wobbly rocks. Rodger was a lot more cautious about playing out slack in the rope, keeping just enough to let it rest on the top of the rocks to take the weight off, but not so much that it was draped over them. If there was any spot that there would be a rockslide - it would be in this middle area that Ollie was traversing now.

Parker Curtiss
Watching the scree field wasn't exactly his idea of fun - Parker toyed with the idea of seeing if he could dig his tablet out of his bag to read a book but ultimately decided against it. While it was something he wanted to do, and as nice as it would be for him to have a relaxing read while sitting on the rock when everyone else did their whole boulder scramble, he begrudgingly understood that he had some obligation to stay there staring at the rocks. He did turn his head when he heard a clatter, but it was from down the scree field below Ollie, so he resumed looking up the hill. Parker did wonder when would be the best time for him to cross - the first was already taken, and he definitely didn't want to be the last as he wanted the extra support from a secured rope. That left second and third - should he go second with a somewhat secured route, or go third after Lt. Frost? Would weight be a factor in crossing the scree field? Would the rocks be more compacted with the Lieutenant's weight or would they be more unstable and shift with it?

[Kipori]

(I think graduation is going to be virtual as it stands, which is totally fine with me haha. I believe that my Uni is going to offer any graduates who missed in person graduation a chance to walk across the stage at a later date when things open back up again and they can hold an in-person event but I am unsure whether I will end up going to that or not. I don’t really like all of that stuff to begin with, had to do it in high school and that was more than enough for me.
A snowstorm? Dang that seems out of left field for this time of year for sure, but good that you didn’t plant anything before that. Hopefully it settled down weather wise for you and you got some things planted on time.)

Ollie Hobbes
With only a few minor slips over the first quarter of the scree field, or at least what Ollie judged to be about a quarter of the field, Ollie was gaining some confidence in his movements. With that confidence came a slightly faster pace, not wanting to keep everyone waiting for to long but he could also only go as fast as Rodger allowed him since the other was feeding him the line and could slow him down if he really wanted to. It seemed that Rodger was content enough with his pace since the line never tightened behind him, and while he occasionally had to backtrack a little to dislodge it from a rock, he was mostly moving forward at a comfortable pace. Once or twice the slips got his heart rate up enough that he had to pause and take a deep breath before moving again but so far, he had no close calls with tumbling down the mountain which he was calling a success honestly. Part of him wanted to look back to see how far he had actually come but he pushed that desire back, not wanting to lose his footing because he decided to be stupid and look back, losing his footing in the process. So instead, he focused on the slowly shrinking distance between himself and the other side of the field. Now that he was actually among the shifting rocks, he found that that field was a lot larger than it had originally looked and that the rocks were much less stable than he might have imagined. He wasn’t at risk of falling as long as he was cautious, but of course caution was never his default setting, so it wasn’t all that surprising when he stepped wrong and the rock under his one foot gave out, slipping out from under him and pitching him to the side. This resulted in his center of balance shifting as well and he didn’t have the time to correct it before he slipped as well. It was less of a tumble and more of an uncontrolled slide which lasted only a second since he was able to wedge his foot among the rocks again, but the moment of uncontrolled movement had his heart pounding in his throat and the rocks around him tumbling down the field. Breathing hard, trying to get his heart rate back under control, he looked back towards the others, now laying parallel across the field rather than horizontal, giving a thumbs up to let Rodger know he was fine. A few scraps at most and his ankle definitely wasn’t happy with catching his weight like that but it wasn’t a sprain as far as he was able to tell, which was good for everyone.

Lt Warren Frost
It was rather strange to watch Cadet Hobbes move with caution and control, where he was usually the first to take risks and ignore possible consequences until he had to deal with them. Warren was pleased to see that the Cadet could be serious when he wanted to be, though it made him wonder why he didn’t take other situations where there was the same amount of risk as seriously. It was something to ponder as he watched Hobbes move across the field. By the time Hobbes reached the middle of the field, or what Warren could guess was about the middle, he seemed to have gained some of his usual confidence and had gained a bit of speed. It wasn’t that fast as it seemed Castillo had some measure of control over Hobbes’s speed but he had definitely picked the pace up. A glance towards Cadet Castillo didn’t show any signs of concern at the new pace so Warren didn’t comment. Looking to the other side to see what Cadet Curtiss was doing, he was also pleased to see him taking his job of watching the field seriously. Though Curtiss always took things rather seriously so that made sense. The clatter of rocks caught his attention and he looked back to the scree field only to catch the moment where Cadet Hobbes seemingly lost his footing and sliding a few feet down the field, the rocks around him sliding down as well.

[taikunfoo]

(Yeah I don't know what happened with the weather but we went from that to maybe a week of spring then we hit 90s for about a week and now we're back into the 40s. I've given up haha. The potatoes are in the ground as well as one row of corn (not sure how that's going to go), but I'll be planting another row sometime later this week or weekend I believe. Trying to stagger the harvest out so I'm not completely flooded with corn all at once! For the graduation it's a lot of the same thing, sit around for a few hours, spend another hour waiting to walk across a stage. I'd definitely do a virtual one if I had the option! My school was pretty big so we had little mini colleges in it with different subjects grouped together, and I was getting dual degrees from two different ones, so I had to do the whole sit through two different ceremonies. Have you already had the ceremony? If so did it go well?)

Rodger Castillo
Rodger carefully kept track of Ollie's progress across the scree field - he'd made great progress so far and was now in the middle of the scree field, which would be the most dangerous part. He was pleasantly surprised that he'd made it that far without major incident, but almost instantly as the thought crossed his mind one of the rocks under Ollie's feet shifted, sending the younger man into a slide down the side of the scree field. Rodger immediately dropped his weight back in his harness, using his slightly heavier mass to take up the slack and anchor the rope with his hands from sliding any further. Thankfully he'd been keeping a careful eye on the slack and so Ollie didn't slide far, he wasn't sure if it was due to his work on the rope or if he'd found stable footing, but Ollie seemed to get his footing relatively quickly so Rodger breathed a sigh of relief. He loosened the rope slightly, giving Ollie a bit more slack if he needed it, and couldn't help but grin when the young man turned back to give them a thumbs up. Crisis averted, for now.
As Ollie moved across the field, nearing the 3/4 mark across, Rodger started sneaking glances down at the coiled rope to see how much they had left. Ollie was too far away for him to get an accurate read on how much distance was left - was it twenty feet? Thirty? He only had maybe twenty feet of rope left, so he decided it would be a good time to reach out and communicate. He cleared his throat before calling out, trying to do his best to project his voice.
"Hey Ollie! Hold up, how much further to the edge and a good tie-off point?" He asked, wondering how many jackets they'd be temporarily sacrificing to the rope. He put the line break on before glancing over his shoulder at Lt. Frost and Parker - he'd definitely ask the Lieutenant to handle any of the tying the knots into the rope. Unfortunately it would mean taking Ollie off the harness belay, but there was no way that the jackets would fit through it. Rodger wasn't thrilled with the idea, but if he had Lt. Frost helping he felt more secure that between the two of them they wouldn't let Ollie slide down the slope.

Parker Curtiss
Surprisingly Ollie had made it halfway across the scree field before almost sliding off the mountain - admittedly it took longer than Parker would have guessed. Seeing his slide brought to a stop did give him some encouragement that it would be possible to cross with relative safety, after all he'd be crossing with a secured rope on either end. Parker resumed thinking about the ideal position to cross in, bouncing between second or third position before ultimately deciding that if the rocks hadn't slid after the heavier Lieutenant Frost walked all over them then they weren't likely to with his lighter weight. Third position it was! With his decision made he resumed watching upslope, seeing nothing but rocks, rocks, rocks, a bird, and some more rocks.

[Kipori]

(Completely fair, I stopped looking at weather apps and the like because it is just easier to assume Mother Nature is going to do whatever she wants when she wants to and no amount of weather data is going to catch everything haha. It's starting to finally get warm here which is great because I want to go swimming! My friend works at a marina and we are trying to sort out a day the group (At least everyone who has their first vaccine shot) which is gonna be awesome. Here's hoping everything goes well with the garden haha, and hopefully there isn't anymore freak snow and the corn cooperates with you.
Yeaaah, I'm not a big fan of sitting still for hours on end so it's my worst nightmare, especially since its a university graduation so I can only imagine how many people there are to get through and since my last name is towards the front of the Alphabet, I would have to sit though so much and be bored out of my mind haha. Ooof, having to sit through two sounds horrible, glad I would have the one if I was doing in person graduation. I did yeah, it was yesterday actually. They butchered my last name haha, which we expected cause no one has ever been able to pronounce it right in my entire school career, it was funny how badly they did though. Other than that, it was pretty standard stuff, nothing really interesting so I didn't watch must past when my name went up on the screen)

Ollie Hobbes
Once he had gotten back to his feet, Ollie dusted himself off and gave himself another quick once over. Testing his ankle with his actual weight was his biggest concern but it held fine with only a slight ache which he wasn't worried about. There was a chance he would be sore tomorrow, it was actually quite likely that he would be sore tomorrow at this rate, but besides that he had no concerns about continuing on. The scrapes that had broken skin had already stopped bleeding so he made a mental note to properly clean them after they pitched camp for the night and got ready to move again. Rodger had taken all his slack when he slipped, which had helped keep his tumble from being worse, but now he needed the slack back if he wanted to make progress again. Thankfully, Rodger seemed to accept his thumbs up as the signal that he was alright and the slack quickly returned to the rope and Ollie was able to start picking his way back over the rocks again, albeit at a slower pace than he had been managing before. He didn't bother trying to climb back up the rocks to the path he had been climbing over before his slip, figuring he could cross here and then move the rope to be a straight line rather than risk slipping again trying to climb up. The rocks were just to unstable for him to think it was a good idea. So he surveyed his new path and set out, picking his way over rocks and testing anything that seemed unstable or gave his gut a sinking feeling.
He was about 3/4 of the way by his estimate and making good time when he heard Rodger's voice through the air and paused to catch what the other was saying. It took his brain a moment to process what Rodger was asking and realizing they must be getting towards the end of their current rope supply, looked forward to try and calculate how much more he had to go. It was hard to get a perfect estimate, but he could probably give a good enough one that Rodger would be able to judge if they still needed more rope or not.
"I'd say twenty five feet left across, plus a bit between the edge and tree line." He yelled back, cupping his hands around his mouth to better project his voice back, side eyeing the rocks to make sure the sound didn't disrupt anything it shouldn't. "Will we be good?"
If he had to stop and wait for them to add more rope, now would be as good a time as any. He was on relatively stable rocks which didn't appear to be at risk of shifting under his weight and there was no large rocks directly above him which he had to be worried about crushing him. Of course, he really didn't want to have to stop and would rather just get across the field as soon as possible so they could start making progress again but if there wasn't enough rope, then there wasn't enough rope. Nothing anyone could do about that. Yes, he was itching to move but he kept his feet planted, waiting for Rodger to get back to him on what their plan going forward was going to be.

Lt. Warren Frost
Cadet Hobbes's slip had done nothing good for Warren's heart rate but it seemed that he was fine if the thumbs up and grin was anything to go by. He hadn't slid very far, seemingly kept from sliding by lack of slack on the rope tethering him in place. The weight that Castillo had on Hobbes seemed to have also helped, keeping Castillo planted and not giving any ground to the rocks. Letting out a long breath, he turned his attention to the remaining rope as Hobbes got himself back to his feet and started up again. It was becoming clear that they were running low on rope with each passing minute that Hobbes didn't get across the field and Warren was unsure they would have enough to make the full trip. It had been a concern at the beginning and while he had hoped it would be proven false, it was clear that if they were to make it, it would be a just thing. Cadet Castillo seemed to have similar thoughts a few minutes later when he yelled out asking for the distance from Hobbes, who returned back within a minute with an estimation.
"Will it be enough?" He questioned, eyeing the dwindling rope with skepticism but wondering if Castillo had an idea of getting the most out of the rope they had or if they would have to pause and add more.

[taikunfoo]

(Well shoot I forgot about these - I'm so sorry. Hopefully the rest of your summer was fun and you enjoyed the swimming! How is work going for you? Settling into the post-graduation life okay?)

Rodger Castillo
Rodger glanced beside him, trying to measure out the remaining rope - they looked like they had about twenty or so feet left, so that necessitated the sacrifice of a couple of jackets, and a detachment from his usual belay.
"Hold on a second!" He called back, using a foot to find the end of the rope and drag it towards him across the ground while he fished through the pile of clothes to come up with a couple of jackets. Rodger would much rather sacrifice the jackets than the pants - he was sure he had a lightweight sewing kit in his pack somewhere and the most likely place the jackets would tear would be the underarms, which would be a nice spot to have an extra breeze in the hotter parts of the afternoon. He didn't want to think of what would happen if they made it back in the shuttle with all of their pants ripped between their legs - now that would be something that they wouldn't live down for the rest of their time at the garrison, perhaps even longer. Rodger suppressed a shudder and set to work deftly tying the jackets together. He called back to Ollie to inform him of his progress and next steps.
"I'm going to take you off the belay now to tie the jackets to the end of the rope!" He said, waiting for the okay from the Lieutenant before running the remaining rope through the end of the carabiner. He carefully tied the end of the rope and the sleeve of one of the jackets together, giving it more than a few test tugs to make sure the knots were sturdy and would hold. Knowing that if Ollie slipped his hands would be the failing point due to rope burn (or jacket burn, depending on how far along he was), Rodger dug through his pack searching for his gloves. The pair he had was very worn already despite being less than a year old - they had started out as a black pair of gloves missing their fingertips with additional strips of thick, almost leather-like cloth reinforcing his palms and the covered half-fingers. Currently they seemed almost a shade of sooty umber from their last trek through the desert - red soil colored the cloth despite all of his slapping the gloves against various surfaces. Out of habit more than anything else, Rodger slapped them against his leg, sending up a few puffs of red dust, causing him to sigh. There was no way he'd be getting the color out of the gloves - he could always wash them but he worried about ruining the gloves, either through weakening seams, destroying or separating the reinforced sections from the rest of the glove, or having the red dust turn into a clay-like consistency that got painted over the inside and outside of the glove.
With his gloves on and a smear of red across his pant leg, Rodger was now ready to belay Ollie across this last stretch of the scree field. He adjusted his grip slightly, making sure that he was confident that he could arrest a fall, before calling ahead.
"Okay, you're all set, go ahead!"

Parker Curtiss
Parker looked towards Rodger when he started tying the jackets together, making sure that it wasn't his jacket that was going first. He didn't want to end up with a torn jacket - while he'd be able to get a new one as soon as they got back to the garrison, he didn't want to have to get too cold while they were on the mountainside. During their previous excursions the desert had gotten pretty cold at night, but Parker still wasn't sure if that had been just regular cool nights and his perception had been skewed from the excessive heat of the day, or if the desert really did get pretty cold at night. Parker didn't want to figure out just how cold it would get on the mountainside tonight, and fully intended to be wrapped up safely in his tent wrapped in his sleeping bag and jacket and hopefully staying warm. He narrowed his eyes as Rodger picked his jacket up second, but begrudgingly admitted that it was at least better than being the first or last jacket. It better not rip.