charisstoma

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/plompe-toren?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=atlas-page


BURGH-HAAMSTEDE, NETHERLANDS

Plompe Toren
Its town washed away centuries ago, this lonely tower by the sea tells the tale of a mermaid and a curse.

A brick church tower along coastal Zeeland in the Netherlands is all that remains of a town lost to the sea. The tower is the keeper of story of a trapped mermaid, her frantic merman husband, and their curse on a 16th century community.

The story of the tower might end with a storm, a failed dike, and a changing coastline, but for the Plompe toren (or “squat tower”) the story has a twist: Inside is a 360˚ illustrated panorama that tells of a mermaid caught in a fishing net, and the curse her merman husband placed on the town.

The Netherlands has long relied on elaborate engineering to hold back the sea. This is especially true in Zeeland (Sealand), the collection of islands and peninsulas in the far west of the country. At the end of the 15th century the coast around the once-prosperous fishing village of Koudekerke looked much different than today, with the seashore nearly two miles (3 km) further out into the Oosterschelde (the estuary).

Fierce storms plagued the coast, and the dike failed, swallowing up the town. Anything that was left was torn down, with the exception of the Plompe toren. Legend says, however, that the tower was left behind as a cautionary reminder.

The story varies, but basically goes like this: one day a fishing boat caught a beautiful mermaid in its net. The mermaid’s husband (a merman) tried frantically to get the fishermen to let her go, but to no avail. They brought her back to shore as a prize to show off, where she slowly withered and died, leaving her distraught merman (and sometimes even a mer-baby, depending on the narrator) behind. Seething with anger and vengeance, the merman placed a curse on the town, and it was that very night that the storm hit, taking the town out to sea.

The Plompe toren was sparred, but only as a reminder of the destruction of this once-prosperous community, and a beacon to the fishermen in the Oosterschelde of the result of their cruelty to the beautiful sea-family.

Know Before You Go
The Plompe toren is on a small coastal island of the Netherlands, about a 45-mile (75 km) drive from Rotterdam. You can visit year-round - they are open 7 days a week from 9am to 6pm, and there's plenty of parking next to the tower.

Title: When Peeing in the Shrubbery
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 1481 @_o
Meep you owe me for this one. But since this all came about from a plunny that erupted from a discussion we had together .. and though it’s early…….
Happy Natal Day Saskia
This is your present from Meep and Me.


The sound of what he thought was a light rain, warm drops making their way through the leaves of the shrubs he was sleeping under, is what woke him. For a moment the acrid scent made him wrinkle his nose before he felt those warm drops not on his fur but onto bare skin. When was the last time he’d changed, he didn’t remember, but he didn’t like it and he didn’t have any clothes or the ability to form clothing it seemed.

“You idiotic buggerer,” he shouted erupting out of his haven of leaves. “I was sleeping under here!”

The idiot wavered on the walkway, then in a sloshed voice, “pretty.”

It was night and the area deserted and Ben thought about a return spraying to gain some clothes but whether or not his familiar powers would work when he’d been forcibly changed he didn’t know. He couldn’t manifest clothing and that was something he’d been able to do even as a kitten. It was something his mother had said marked him as possibly turning into a powerful familiar when he was older. Well his mother wasn’t here anymore, disappearing when he wasn’t hardly old enough to hunt for himself, but he could fend for himself.

The idiot still stood unsteadily on his two feet with a loopy look on his face. Not a bad looking face but the mind inside was pickled to the gills at the moment.

“You live some place close to here, my friend?” Ben looked at the guy’s clothing and sighed. It was too warm really for a coat but the guy had one on anyway. No, not a coat, a gown or a robe thing. Stepping up to work on the fastenings of the robe thing perhaps wasn’t smart thinking.

“Ooooh,” the idiot said, fingers reaching to stroke over Ben’s chest. “I like the way this is going. Who thought I’d get lucky after the kind of day I’ve had and then …”

“Hey! You,” any angry voice shouted, “AzHar! When I’m done with you…”

Ben burrowed his nakedness inside the robe and found bare skin. A spare thought of congratulations that yes it was too warm for a coat crossed his mind before there was a pulling inside him and noise and sparkly lights. Dimly as the world faded into grey, Ben heard, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Don’t die on me, Pretty. Please, please don’t die.”

He had enough left to mumble, “Ben. Namesssss Ben. And you’re an idiot.” And then the world went away.

It wasn’t the earthy smell of dirt and growing things that met his nose, it was the scent of socks, used socks. Some idiot had thrown their smelly socks under his bush was his first irritated reflection.
“Idiots,” he grumbled as he stretched on the unusually smooth softness of the ground and he stopped, flicking an ear and flexing his claws experimentally. His claws caught and pulled at the fabric of the soil which didn’t act like soil and the sounds were all wrong. In the background was the closing of a book and a chair being pushed back.

“I’ll stay over here, okay? Don’t panic. How do you feel?”

Slitting open one eye, Ben was confronted by … laundry, dirty laundry by the smell of it and he put out a paw to shove the offensive ball of socks out of his face and then sneezed.
“Sorry. The texts say that when confronted with a feral familiar that the scents and odors of a human or wizard would help acclimate the familiar to being around humans or wizards. Personally I’d think that the fragrant bouquet of a wizard would smell better considering you’re magical and so am I, but you’ll have to tell me if that’s true.

If the socks weren’t used … Ben sneezed again. ‘Oh for a hand to lob the socks at the idiot’, and Ben found himself putting idea to action and then back to fur.

The Idiot couldn’t have wider eyes than Ben right now, only one paw and forearm had changed to accomplish his attitude towards waking up in a basket of dirty laundry. A cat can express profanity in cat terms. Ben did, looking first at his paw and then at the Idiot and then back at his paw, where he flexed his claws out and in for reassurance that everything was as it should be.

“Um, I take it you didn’t know you could do that? And,” the Idiot grinned, “you don’t like smelly socks in your face when you wake up.”

Ben stared at him, well more of a long glare, before going back to watching his paw flex.

“Think you could change completely without me helping like I did last night,” he stopped because Ben was giving him another glare, “Yeah. Okay, it would be much easier for us to talk if you’d transmog to human, if you can.” He looked uncertain. “Do you need clothes or anything special? Probably be better if you weren’t in the basket when you did it.”

Giving a great sigh that drew a smile from the Idiot which earned the Idiot another glare, Ben climbed out of the very deep basket nearly falling onto his nose. That called for some tail grooming and a glare from the very full basket of dirty clothing to the Idiot and another great sigh. Glares and sighs, not a great way to meet someone and convince them to open the window or door so someone feline could disappear back into the shrubbery.

He walked into a clear part of the floor. Okay, maybe it won’t be that difficult to change. He used to do it as a kitten and judging by his paw, hand, paw, whatever, he could do it again … maybe. Now how did Mom tell him how to do it again? Focus. Focus on what you want to be.

It did not help that there was a large tome open to a picture of an Upland Ogre on the table close by. Judging by the gasp from across the room, the change had been successful, sort of. Ben threw a worried look over at the Idiot.

“It’s okay. Really. How about I close the book I was using to prepare a lesson for next week and you try again. Your natural form is human or that wouldn’t be what you transformed into when we met. So I’ll just close the book and please don’t bite me.”

Ben grinned, which probably wasn’t instilling of confidence as the Idiot paused and mumbled something under his breath. Protection spell? Maybe. The Idiot wasn’t quite an idiot after all when confronted with a grinning ogre.

Closing his eyes this time, Ben focused again and became … a cat.

“Been a long time since you’ve been human?” The Idiot came close and knelt down. “Here,” he slowly reached a finger forward to touch between and up a bit of Ben’s eyes. “You helped me. It’s only right that I help you. This is what you looked like to me last night.”

The image was more than a sight image, it was also the feeling the wizard had gained of Ben’s self concept when they’d connected during the attack. It was like being shown yourself with all your warts and blemishes but with all your good parts too and it included the wonder and attraction the wizard had felt, slightly blurry for he had been drinking, at the human person in front of him.

Oh yeah this is the way to meet someone and Ben felt a sense of home smiling up at the wizard. “Hi,” he said shyly.

“Hi, back,” was said back just as tentatively. “My name’s AzHar, but my friends call me Oz.”

Ben burst into giggles. “A wizard named OZ. The Great and Mighty?” He straightened up and smiled, “Ben. Short for Bengal Maung. Nice to meet you and you’re right I don’t like waking up to smelly socks in my face.”

“I’ll remember that,” Oz smiled back, “it’s early yet but if you’d like, sometime in the future, how about waking up to a smelly wizard?” He put his hands up, “Just putting it on the table. In case you found you might like to work your way towards that goal. I certainly wouldn’t object. Now,” rubbing his hands together, “how about I find you some clothes because you’re too distracting as you are and we could eat in or go out.” With a lilting hopeful smiled, “I have tuna.”

Ben rolled his eyes, “got anything beefier?” And then he grinned, “not that the Great and Mighty isn’t good enough but I want a cheeseburger and fries. It’s been a while. And if you kick me off the bed when I’m curled near your feet sleeping, I am so biting you.”

Saskia, I'm hoping that your family and friends were not on either of those 2 trains.
So terrible. They are saying that no one has died, but 100 injured is not good.
I think there's someone else on Lj that I talk to occaisionally from the Netherlands.
Everyone please be alright and let me know.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/04/21/100-injured-in-head-on-train-wreck/UPI-66791335058616/