#it probably needs a bigger pot which doesn't help. but

[sukimas]

why is basil a plant people grew so much around the mediterranean i'm fighting for my life watering this thing every two days

[suzukiblu]

WIP excerpt: Not-Kon/Not-Match. (( chrono || non-chrono ))

Maybe she picked too many options ending on an "n", Cassie realizes belatedly, glancing at him again. Though a lot of the options did, really, and apparently Not-Kon/Not-Match likes that anyway, so . . . 

Not-Kon/Not-Match is looking very intently at the scallions he's chopping, she notices. 

"I vote Nolan," she decides, since that's the one he actually said he liked. "It means 'champion', it looks like. Just in case you need an alias later, for whatever reason you might need one. Or want." 

"Mm," Not-Kon/Not-Match says, still very decidedly focused on chopping up those scallions. Never has a scallion been so decidedly chopped, Cassie thinks. "Yeah. Okay. Nolan it is." 

"Cool," Cassie says, putting her phone to sleep and setting it aside. "Nice to meet you, Nolan." 

Nolan smiles, just a little, and glances up to meet her eyes. He looks exactly like Kon, and nothing like Kon at all. 

"Nice to meet you too, Cassie," he says quietly, still smiling. 

She smiles back. It's not Kon's smile he's wearing, which makes it easier. 

Though she does wonder if he's doing that on purpose or not. 

Nolan finishes up with the scallions and checks on the noodles, then throws the edamame into the pot with them and grabs a bowl and some rice vinegar and soy sauce and brown sugar and then . . . Cassie's not sure, is he, like . . . making salad dressing or something? Or maybe a marinade? 

Weird. 

Okay, Tim definitely uploaded actual, like, real and genuine recipes into Nolan's brain. That is definitely a thing that he did, for whatever reason. 

Also weird, under the circumstances. 

Less weird that Nolan would go straight to using said recipes, though, since he's very explicitly prioritizing not being Kon right now. Cassie figures that's reasonable, under the circumstances. Although probably Kon would've also rather broken out of his cloning tube into a nice comfy superhero base with a cute girl and a stocked kitchen in it, she suspects. Well–assuming that Nolan actually thinks she's cute, anyway, but her personal self-image issues aside the point still stands. 

Really it'd be better if Nolan didn't think she was cute, come to think, because neither of them needs that problem in life. Just . . . yeah, no. Never, please, for both their sakes. 

Hopefully the therapy uploads will deal with that issue if it actually becomes an issue. 

Nolan finishes with the probably-dressing and strains the noodles and edamame over the sink, then grabs a bigger bowl and throws everything in it together to toss. Cassie watches, half-debating calling someone again, but only on principle. She doesn't feel like she's in danger or needs backup and feels even less like bringing everyone down on Nolan's head all at once would help the situation. 

Also if she does someone might call him "Conner" without knowing any better, sooooo . . . 

Yeah, calling can wait. 

At least until after they eat and clean up, anyway. 

Nolan gets a couple of bowls and forks out, which probably she should’ve thought to do herself, and then he splits the noodles between them and sets them down on opposite sides of the counter before sitting down across from her. He looks exactly like Kon, and exactly like Match, and nothing like either of them at all. 

But still enough like Kon for it to hurt, of course. 

“Thanks,” Cassie says. 

“Sure,” he says.

[turtlesandfrogs]

So, here's the problem: the longer I work in gardening and landscaping, the more I care about the ecological impacts of native plants, and the less I care about aesthetics. Which is a problem, when most clients' primary concern is that their yard looks nice. Which, fair, I just don't care as much about it as they do and I feel like I could be making a bigger impact than I currently am.

So I'm thinking of quitting this job and going one of two entirely different directions, and for some reason it's rather hard to choose.

Option A is starting my own native plant nursery, which would focus on small (4 inch and gallon pot sized) native plants, with a focus on plants that are most important for native pollinators (especially those that are endangered or threatened where I am). There's some competition, but mostly at selling-to-landscapers level and not retail, and I'd want to focus on retail sales.

Option B is to get a job with the state doing some kind of ecological restoration work. The problem with that is my bachelor's degree is over a decade old and I don't actually have the kind of experience to put on my resume that would likely convince them that I can do the work (unless a combination of teaching and being self-employed as a gardener that helps people incorporate native plants and removes invasive species counts, which maybe?). So I'd probably have to take a lower level job and one that's further away to get in, and then work my way up.

Option A has the upsides of: completely setting my own schedule, getting to work with plants most of the time, getting to work with my partner, flexibility to decide I want to start teaching classes again or something. It has the down sides of having to do taxes multiple times per year, and not being guaranteed to work, and either needing to take out a business loan to get started or work at a day job to fund starting it up. Also if it fails I'll have to get another job without have professional references again, which yikes.

Option B has the upside of once you're in state work, it's way easier to get other state jobs so if I burn out of one job, I can hop to another relatively easily, will almost certainly make more money, comes with health insurance and retirement savings, and is likely the more stable option. On the down side, it would mean working 40 hours a week without getting to pick my schedule and it would be harder to take time off than it is now, I'll have to work my way up to a comfortable salary, and there's a lot less autonomy than when self employed. But I'll also have professional references out the wazoo, so finding new jobs should be easier?

One of the things that concerns me is I have ADHD and up until teaching, the longest I ever stayed in one job was almost 2 years. I taught for 4 years, then was self-employed as a gardener for 4 years, and now I've worked for this landscaping company for just over a year (and am grumpy about a) not making much money and b) aesthetics and only providing services to people who can afford us, rather than say, improving the environment for everyone). So I'm actually kinda afraid that if I started the native plant nursery, I would get sick of it after less than 5 years and be starting from scratch again. Whereas with a state job, I can pop over to a new job fairly easily. On the other hand, maybe I'm just doubting myself too much because all of those other jobs were actually really bad matches for me.

Anyway, my brain is going in circles over this. I mean, really, part of me thinks I should stay at this job even though it doesn't pay much compared to what I could make elsewhere (I have learned a lot though, which can be transfered to other jobs) just because it's so low stress compared to any other job I've had in the last decade & because the people are great and the work isn't bad. It just galls me that occasionally clients have ideas that I strongly disagree with, like cutting down a very nice magnolia tree because "it's too big" and I just have to do it because I'm an employee now. Ugh.

[murkystarlight]

Slides in the ask box

You already know, what this is gonna be about, pal...

Adjust his cowboy hat

Gabriel headcanons? Or maybe Gabriel X Ivor headcanons? Or maybe even better Gabriel X Ivor headcanons where they adopt Petra in the process?

Slowly slides out of the ask box

Simple!! EYYY yeah I figured it'd be him

Puts on my own cowboy hat

Alright.. let's get it started then.

First off, his hair. I think he has like.. a buzz cut? Not good with hairstyles but yeah. I think that's the vibe I'm looking for.

Gabriel is a great cook, he can fix any mess in a pot other... certain people make. Though his nose gets stuffed easily(either just conditions or allergies) and you sometime end up with something either too bland or just too.. flavorful

I always used to think Gabriel would have a really good, healthy routine which he follows everyday. Probably because it's the only thing that makes him feel secure and sane. Doing the same routine everyday and night-. He cannot stay awake during sleepovers. He will fall asleep when his bedtime comes.

He wears glasses for reading. He also wears them for when he needs to look at something clearly, something special and important(totally foreshadowing) to him. He doesn't like wearing glasses though(magnus teased him about it a lot. Thought he also needs glasses. But he doesn't really need to wear them cause he barely reads-). He has tried contact lenses but it takes like.. half an hour so.. he needs some more practice to put them in well.

He isn't exactly an animal person(one of the things he really doesn't like is cleaning) but he owns and cares for two dogs. One was just a pet, the other one he took when he found em abandoned in a forest.

Oh and. You know.. dad jokes

Okie- now moving onto Gabriel x Ivor (plus their adoption of a grown ass woman who acts like a teenager)

They're like the sunshine x grumpy trope? Right? Yeah... think so. I like that-

Alright. So Gabriel is someone who wakes up at 6-7 in the morning(like I said. Schedule) and Ivor is the type of person to be going to sleep at that time. Gabriel often just grabs Ivor from his lab and brings him to bed with him. Like a body pillow.

Ivor can cook. He just really likes to uh... experiment with his cooking. Sometimes it tastes great! But most of the times... uh- ahh-... yeah. Let's keep him in the lab shall we?

Honestly still pissed off the fact that they made Ivors dialogs so confusing in the first episode. I very much believed that Ivor had some bigger personal beef with Gabriel, or some other problems with the order.. like he was an assistant? Like he wasn't an official part of the order, but was about to get like a promotion or something. But the order changed their mind and kicked him out for different reasons like, different perspectives on 'helping' or 'being a hero' and lack of effort(maybe?). ... yeah that isn't what we're supposed to be talking about here lol. Anyways--

Gabriel likes hugs. He likes warmth in general. And Ivor likes his personal space. He is more fond of affection and physical contact in season 2.

Now a bit of the.. adoption situation

I don't know how it happens. I don't know why they'd do it in the first place. She just woke up one day with two dads and apparently all her friends agreed on it??

Gabriel sees Ivor and Petra as really similar people, almost as if they were an actual family. Ivor and Petra refuses to believe it but everyone silently agrees with Gabe.

Gabriel is more of the nice dad and Ivor just doesn't care much. But in reality he does. He's more like the... protective dad in like TV shows with rules like.. no boys inside you're room, stay five feet apart or some shit but he never admits it. Or shows it much. But he does get really.. uhh annoying when things like that happens.

It took them three years for Petra to actually accept the two as parental figures.

Uhhhh I don't think I can think anymore- that's it for now. But I like those three. I think I might end up writing more abt them lol.

Thanks for dropping by Simpl :)

[apenguinbird]

Animal familiars: Savanaclaw and Octavinelle.

Second part of this. Savanaclaw

Leona: Cheetah

A pretty interesting companion right? 

Leona probably bonded with it when he was a kid or preteen, like 10 to 12.

Just walked into the castle with the cheetah behind him while he had a smug face. 

The cheetah’s name is Amica.

Leona doesn’t show it but he values her company. Probably the one person back at home he felt truly appreciated by.

Great naps, if you find Leona sleeping Amica is close by.

Amica is very intimidating which Leona uses to his advantage but she isn’t dangerous, she’s not afraid to tackle you though, good luck running away, you can’t.

Please look up what a cheetah sounds like. Leona has to make sure she doesn’t chirp in front of other students, she has a reputation to take care of!

Cheka loves Amica and treats her like a house cat which she allows, to the horror of everyone around them.

Ruggie: African wild dog (Or Sunset Savanna wild dog?)

Ruggie’s partner in crime since they were young thanks to the other wandering to Ruggie’s neighborhood. African wild dogs unfortunately suffer from human hunting so you can imagine how that went.

African Wild dogs are great trackers and hunters which was very useful back home, the kids in the neighborhood adore him. In NRC not as much but they still go everywhere together, and his familiar can help him with his jobs and shores.

Ruggie wasn’t planning on taking him to NRC but the other was not taking no for an answer.

His best class is Animal Linguistics but he doesn't need that often to communicate with his familiar in their own way. 

Jack: Husky 

I’m trying okay.

Snow buddies! In winter they go snowboarding together.

Bigger than the average husky.

Loyal to a default.

Jack can carry his buddy in his arms and the latter will wag their tail in the process.

You can find Jack and his familiar running together on the track.

Yes, huskies are loud, and yes, Jack has to brush him once a week to make sure his room isn't covered in fur.

Thank the seven for the special abilities familiars have because otherwise, a husky in no way can survive in a dorm like Savana Claw.

Octavinille.

In case your familiar is a water creature, there are spells that allow you to carry them around the school in a bubble type of container, but they’re usually kept in a dorm's tank.

Floyd and Jade: Barracuda.

Peas in a pot, they indulge themselves too much.

Yes, Floyd would allow his barracuda to bite other students.

“It don’t bite.” “YES IT DO.”

Jade’s isn’t aggressive… usually.

Back at home, they were a menace.

Floyd sometimes jokes he could make a barracuda sandwich… he’s joking... yeah even his familar knows to stay away from Floyd when he's in a bad mood.

Azul: Eel

I swear to good eels are freaking scary

Yes, he sees the irony but sees it as pretty on-brand.

They would hide in Azul’s pot together.

It scared off Azul's bullies.

Azul’s family had his own private aquarium in his office, if you go there to talk with Azul you will probably feel a very intense stare in you.

“Are you going to squeeze it too?” “Of course not.” “Azul, that's so unfair!”

Azul has used Animal Linguistics to get blackmail material.

[alienducky]

Having thoughts about hygiene in Fodlan again, and screw it I'm gonna share my over thinking about things that probably shouldn't have been thought about to begin with

Does Fodlan have running water and flushing toilets? Or rather, do the nobles and fancier merchants and possibly the church have running water and flushing toilets?

I'm going to assume that the smaller towns and villages are probably stuck with town wells, then outhouses and chamber pots, because of the in game maps and the faux-medieval vibes of the games, but with the bigger towns and cities, it's possible?

I don't really care if the running water is provided by mundane utility magic, or if the windmills we see behind the greenhouse in Houses is acting as an Archimedes screw and bringing water up from somewhere to put in the aqua duct for the fishpond and there's another that fills the bath house, it's more a "do they have running water for taps to wash their hands after using the toilet/privy/whatever, or wash before they prepare food" sort of thing.

(side note of I've considered the baths and have made a poll about them before, and head canon that there are a mix of large communal baths and smaller individual ones, and while the individual ones would get filled and emptied each use the communal ones would probably be like Roman baths or onsen, which I haven't looked into because distractions) (the baths also point me towards them being more "wash every day so we're clean" sort of society, rather than having a "drown ourselves in perfume so we can't smell that none haven't washed in weeks" vibe that I've read about in Horrible History books, which also point towards hand washing, but I have no evidence either way)

But it's the toilets and resulting sewage I'm wondering at the most. Because if, say, the monastery had sewage pipes built in because toilets are A Thing, then that sewage needs to go somewhere.

(Which if I remember right is something of a plot point with Cornelia because she implemented a sewage system in Fhirdiad to help with the plague? So they have at least some knowledge of this stuff... Though why Rhea hadn't tried to install one at any point before that if she knew about them is very hmm)

And it makes me question and side eye the open waterways in Abyss a whole lot more than I had when I assumed they are simply channeling the water from some underground spring at the top of a mountain (that may or may not be where Sothis "landed" but that's a whole other tangent and headcanon) into that great chasm so that the space under Garreg Mach doesn't fill with water and crumble/erode away

Because if that water is in fact old bath water and etc, then that's going to make Abyss rather fragrant

Of course, if we go with no they don't have flushing toilets then Abyss gets infinitely better, but I then have questions about their toilet situation, because the little bit of research I managed to do about medieval Europe toiletry habits wasn't exactly helpful?

Lead to some interesting sidetracks about people's bladders bursting because it was impolite to excuse yourself mid meal, but I digress

The biggest thing I took away from it all was don't drink water from downstream of a town. And. Well. With the monastery being at the top of a mountain and that being where a lot of waterways start, it's very, ya know

Anyway. Lots of thoughts. No answers. Please discuss with me if you got this far?

[clouds-of-wings]

I think I'm also a coffee snob in a coffee drinker's body btw. I don't even mean to, but the potential for optimization is just so obvious there. I started grinding my own beans after I started going to cafés more and realizing how aroma-deficient the pre-ground powder I was using was in comparison to what they serve there. It may taste good when you get it fresh from the store, but that stuff loses what makes it great after a couple of weeks. Then I started figuring out how to even store the beans properly. My current way is "leave it in the original package, wrap an elastic around it, put it in an old ice cream container", which helps but is clearly not ideal yet. It's just hard to find a good container that's big enough and doesn't look extremely ugly. Not taking the beans from the original package is apparently very important to preserve the aroma, but it makes the container you need to store it a lot bigger and most pretty containers aren't that big.

Now my sister is letting me use her moka pot and I realized that while "normal coffee with a splash of cold milk" tastes like water and sadness, "concentrated coffee mixed 60/40 with hot milk" is actually heaven. At this point it just makes sense to buy actual espresso beans, right..? It's how you're supposed to use a moka pot after all, right?

It always escalates like this. The end result is probably something like "shit, I have to start growing my own coffee I guess".

I usually use loose green tea leaves, because I am a coffee snob in a tea drinker's body, but I can't deny that teabags give the water a much stronger taste because the tea is pulverized. I got out my old weed herb grinder to break down the loose leaves a little but so far it doesn't really make a difference. Next step: SMASH THE LEAVES WITH A HAMMER!

[prayerplanthoarder]

If you've ever wondered how long it takes to water root a ZZ plant (like me), here's my experience so far!

Unfortunately I didn't take a pic when I first removed these two stems from the original pot, so I don't remember when that was exactly. However I can say with confidence that the first root tips didn't take too long to show up. Not at all longer than with any other plant, which did surprise me a great deal! The jar has been sitting atop a stone windowsill that gets warm-ish during the winter due to the heater below it, though, so I'm pretty sure this helped a lot with kick-starting root growth.

That said, I'd removed the stems from the pot because they'd been been getting very very wrinkly and sad with thin floppy leaves (root issues because I didn't water it correctly/ because the substrate isn't great for succulents). I actually didn't have a lot of hope for them because of the sad condition they were in, but I still wanted to at least try to save them.

First I generously cut off the base with the dried/ dead/ mushy roots. Then let that dry overnight before putting it in a jar with water (I think I also put cinnamon powder on them). After just 2-3 days the bases started to get slimy and rot, so I did everything over from scratch. The second time had the exact same result, so it obviously wasn't working for me, even though most of the internet seems to do it that way with great success.

So I cut off the rotting parts for a 3rd time and decided to just stick the freshly cut stems into the water and hope for the best. After a couple of days I noticed the very ends were expanding, but it looked different from before and it also wasn't (as?) slimy, so I just left them in the water.

Maybe after 2-3 weeks I noticed the tiny little root sprouts that you can see in the first picture. Let me tell you that this completely blew my mind! I'm still so happy it worked 😭💘

I didn't do a lot of maintenance except for refilling water as needed and changing the water (and cleaning the jar in the process) only once or twice when it started to get too murky/ dirty and once the roots got to a certain size I changed the jar for something much bigger so the roots and bulbs would fit through the opening later on.

They're still doing really well in there, although root growth seems to have slowed down during the last weeks. As long as they're fine I don't mind though 😃

Not sure if I'll put them back in with the mother plant at some point, but considering I'm going to lose a lot of space in the new apartment that's probably the best thing to do. I'll have to change the substrate, though. The one in the original pot is just way too fine and holds too much water.

--

Bonus pic of the regular green ZZ I'd gotten from my sister last spring:

At least this one is doing great in it's pot and substrate 😂 It had lost 2 stems, but shortly after that 2 new ones sprouted, so yay!

Still didn't get to repotting it, but the new pots have been waiting for their turn! It doesn't seem to mind to be very rootbound.

[in-superbloom]

did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen? (a.i.)

right where you left me: prologue

pairing: ashton irwin x olivia jones (oc)

warnings: uhh a kinda grieving theme i guess? but no deaths. it has a sad tone overall, but nothing major (in this chapter hehe). foul language because i can't help myself. the tiniest mention of alcohol, but as a memory. think i should probably warn you that this contains a very sad ash. also not much dialogues. this is mainly for explanation and introduction, but very important for the story. if you find anything else that might be triggering, please let me know so i can add it here !!

author's note: oof okay. so. this is the prologue of a series very very dear to my heart that i've been working on for what it feels like my whole life but really it's been just a few months. but i'm in love with the story (which rarely happens with my own writing) so i hope you can enjoy it too !! this is also my very first time posting a fic since 2013 so pls keep that in mind <3 no i am not shaking as type this ofc not also: although i have the full story ready in my head, this is the only chapter that's written. i wanted to wait until i had at least a few ready before posting this but i'm too anxious for that lmao just saying this bc it will take a good while until i have any more chapters, so <3 (p.s.: i went over this thing a million times since may so if you find any errors pls look away, i'm not fixing this thing anymore. thanks <3)

another note: anna from the future here to say that i completely forgot about the playlist i made for the story lmao here it is in case you're interested k thanks bye <3

credits: title is from taylor swift's song right where you left me. model in the picture: paola locatelli. banner by me.

i also wanted to take a minute to thank some really nice friends that i've made here over these past few months & that i'm extremely grateful for @wastelandcth @suchalonelysunflower @littledrummerangie i cannot thank you babes enough for inspiring me the way that you do & for letting me yell about this to you && for encouraging me so much 🥺 i'll never be able to explain just how much this means to me, so i'll have to settle for saying thank you at any change that i can get <3 i love you all 💜 also gem my baby, thank you for the inspo with the banner 💚

@bluesdelis look babe i did it 😌 you know how grateful i am for you & for you letting me have a breakdown every week about my writing for the past 8 years so let's not dive into that or else i will write something bigger than this prologue jsjsjdjd love you 🖤

i hope you all have a good reading and a nice day ♡

let me know what are your thoughts about the fic ! ♡

word count: 4.1k

☆☆☆

Cold. That was the first thing that Olivia’s brain processed.

Still with her eyes closed, she buried herself more into the duvet, while her arm blindly reached for the furnace in human form that she calls boyfriend. However, as soon as her arm was only met with cold sheets, her eyes shot open.

Blinking the sleep away, she sat up on the bed, searching for the infamous red clock resting on Ashton’s bedside table that was supposed to look like a vintage alarm clock. Olivia had ordered it online at an auction website a couple of years back, as a gift for his 23rd birthday, since it was something he had mentioned multiple times prior that he was looking for, but still hadn't found. But when it finally came in (two weeks after the due date), it looked nothing like the picture she saw on the website. Feeling beyond frustrated, she wanted to send it back immediately and ask for a refund and maybe leave a not so polite review on the seller's page. But Ashton stopped her right away, laughing like the situation was absolutely hilarious to him, while saying, 'I like it, it’s quirky'. So, the clock stayed and found a home right next to him in their room.

Some days, however, she would wake up at some ungodly hour because of the blaring noise of the only ringtone the clock had. But whatever annoyance she could feel towards the object, it always vanished as soon as she felt Ashton's lips gently touching her face in a good morning kiss before he would get up to start his day, leaving her to catch some more hours of well deserved sleep.

As the furthest from a morning person as a touring musician could possibly be, Olivia had always feared that living under the same roof as Ashton would turn her into an early bird like him, but she's thankful that it never happened (not that he needs to know about that).

When she sees the red clock, she smiles at the sudden but welcome memories of them flooding her foggy brain, but frowns slightly when she realizes it reads 12:13 pm. Ashton rarely lets her sleep past 10 am.

Gathering all her strength and will, she rises up from the bed, smoothly picking up a grey wool sweatshirt from the chair (way too baggy on her slim body, but it smells like him), pulling it over her head and relishing on the soft material warming up her body. Making her way to the door and calmly going down the stairs, she can’t help but stop for a minute to admire the picture frames on their walls, one in particular catches her attention – probably one of the most prized pictures and memories they had. It felt older than it actually is, but it was around 4 years ago, she's sure – a little while after the two of them met. The picture was of their group of friends that still remains the same: Ashton and his best friend, Luke; Olivia, her best friend, Calum and their old hometown friend, turned into Calum’s new friend at college, turned into everyone’s friend, Michael; and her then newly band members, Suki, Eli and Ravi. Together, their group was the life of the party through all their college years, and it showed by the big smiles and drinks in hands they all had in the picture. It was a very special night, the first time Olivia’s little band played for the public – for a small audience sure, but it was a wonderful night nonetheless. What a long road it had been since that night.

Her nostalgic thoughts were interrupted by a shiver that went through her whole body, and it made her realize how oddly cold the whole house was, not only their bedroom. Which, granted, it was November in New York and the weather was just getting colder, but that’s exactly why Ashton always made sure to keep the house warm enough. As much as she loved the chilly season, the warm weather always reminded him of his hometown, and who was she to deny him that?

The smell of fresh made coffee could be sensed even before she reached the kitchen. Arriving there, the curly haired woman still found no signs of her boyfriend, so she went straight after the coffee maker pot sitting on the far left corner of the cream marble counter. Smiling softly at the tons of memories of Ashton's sleepy figure making their favorite beverage, she reached for a coffee mug on the cupboard on top of the counter and poured the remainder of the hot liquid on it (it's her favorite mug, if she must choose – it was a gift from a fan, and it had printed on it a collage of the pictures of her and Ashton that were posted on social media through their first year of relationship).

Moving to the glass doors that lead to the mini garden they cultivate, she didn't have to open them to spot the 6-feet-tall man sitting on a bench outside, looking oddly small in his oversized clothes, coffee mug tightly held between strong hands. Something about his figure made Olivia frown, however: he was staring with an unwavering look at her small but eye-catching pot of yellow daffodils that were almost as much of a pet to them as Stitch at this point. Sensing that there’s something definitely off about his semblance, she made a mental note to talk to him and find out what’s wrong later. So she goes back to the kitchen, knowing that he might need this quiet and private moment for himself.

She lost count of the minutes that went by (couldn't have been more than five) before she hears the garden's door opening and closing, and then his bare feet are dragging his brawny body to her. Except, he goes over to the sink, walking right through her, not showing any sign that he even saw her hunched figure over the counter table in the middle of the room.

Alright, someone's in a mood.

Olivia tries to swallow the annoyance already bubbling inside her – he knows how much she hates to be ignored, no matter how mad he might be – by trying to think of what she can say that won't piss him off. This is always a hard feat to accomplish when Ashton gets in these moods, but there’s a reason for them to work so well together.

“I missed my favorite body heater when I woke up,” she says in her best sweet voice, knowing how quickly his resolve crumbles when he hears that voice.

Still, no reaction.

That settles a worry at the pit of her stomach, because Ashton is never like this. Even when he's not in the mood to talk, he always gives some kind of reaction to her words; it doesn't matter how small, just enough to make her feel acknowledged.

When he's finished washing his mug and the few scattered dishes across the sink – she noticed that he already had lunch, if the lone plate in the drying rack is anything to go by –, he dries his hand in a towel, turns around and throws it on top of the same counter Olivia was leaning up against. Once again, he walks away not even sparing her a look.

Indignant, she leaves the now empty coffee mug on top of the table and follows him as he walks up the stairs, any determination to not aggravate his mood now well gone.

“Hey! In case you didn't notice, I'm right here. Whatever got you in this sour mood, I'm certainly not to blame, so can you stop being a child now and talk to me?!”

Ashton just keeps walking – more like sluggishly dragging his body – until he reaches their bedroom and suddenly stops just merely two feet inside the room, looking around with vacant eyes; like he was expecting to see something that wasn't there.

“Okay, that's really mature of you. Are you planning on ignoring me all day then?” Olivia questions exasperated, staring angrily at the back of his neck, where the condor tattoo lives – her favorite of his, but that sight doesn't bring her any peace today like it usually does.

Her glare only breaks when she hears the familiar sound of dog tags swaying on her right side. Shifting her gaze to the direction of the sound, Olivia notices Stitch, their small, black & white French bulldog – who she thought was outside in the garden – slowly trudging his way from around the bed until he stops at Ashton's feet, looking up at one of his humans with sad eyes. That realization only makes the worry in her stomach grow uncomfortably.

“Hi buddy,” Ashton's voice cracks a bit from the lack of use, but he smiles softly at the sweet dog, and crouches down to pet him.

Olivia can't help but gasp as she notices three things all at once that leave her overwhelmed: first, how she didn't even notice Stitch was in the room when she woke up – which never ever happens, in fact, most days he wakes her up whenever he deems her bedtime as finished and can't ever contain his excitement when she finally gets up; second, how the windows blinds are closed, which, again, rarely occurs under their roof, not if Ashton can help it. And third, how sad and melancholic the whole scene in front of her is – how sad and melancholic Ashton is. Pointless to say by now – that's also a very rare occasion.

A chill creeps up Olivia's spine, putting her body into high alert and also serving as a reminder of how everything looks out of place today. Trying to keep her head from spiraling down way too soon, she wraps her arms around herself and crouches down beside her two favorite boys, trying once more.

“Ash? Can you hear me?” even with her throat closing, she softly asks, purposefully putting her face in Ashton's point of view. Her only answer is the low whispers he's letting out to Stitch, while cradling the tiny dog in his arms, spreading gentle kisses on his head.

“I know, bud, I know. I miss her too,” is the only whisper she could understand and immediately wishes she hadn't. The weak wail that comes from Stitch's throat seems to fit perfectly with how the three of them feel.

Ashton then looks up and for a couple of seconds, and Olivia can swear he’s staring right into her eyes. But when he shows no reaction, she knows he’s just staring ahead and not at her, with that look that says there’s too much going on inside his head. She feels the urge to embrace him and get him to talk about whatever is on his mind, so they can share that weight like they always do, but when Ashton gets up from the ground and settles on the bed with Stitch, Olivia can physically feel the crack in her heart caused by the feeling she’s left with.

While Ashton is pulling the duvet over him and the dog, with clearly no intentions of getting up anytime soon, Olivia stands up on her feet with a new-found determination – she needs to figure out what the hell is going on.

This nightmare had to be just that, right? Nothing but a very vivid dream – she's had those before. Scary sure, but they always go away, and soon enough she's back into Ashton's arms, with Stitch jumping on the bed ready to lick their faces off. She just needs to wake herself up from whatever fucked up dream this is – right?

She's running down the stairs this time, frantically in search of something, of what exactly, she doesn’t know – but she knows she needs an answer. The more she looks for something, the more desperate she gets, not knowing what to look for. Then suddenly, something catches her eyes.

The white and blue calendar that's held up by magnets on the side of the fridge. She knows their calendar is red and yellow. They got it from their favorite flower market. Slowly, as if scared of what it might be there – “It's just a calendar, for fucks sake” – she approaches the damn thing. Upon inspection, she deems it as a normal calendar – she really doesn't know what she was expecting – until.

She knows what's wrong with it now.

It's November. She knows it, because the Asian and last leg of her first world tour is about to begin November 21st, eleven days from today. Right after Mike's birthday, she knows this.

Then why does the calendar say today is January 14th?

☆ ☆ ☆

Ashton woke up with a jolt. He quickly sat up, frightening the little Frenchie that was asleep right next to him on the bed. Trying to make sense of his surroundings, he roughly rubbed his face to get some sleep off of it and soon reached for the dog that was staring at him with sleepy but sad eyes. Ashton is sure Stitch understands far more than a dog is supposed to understand about their current situation.

The room is covered in shadows, almost pitch black, but he can see the sunlight even through the thick dark grey blinds covering up the windows. Ashton knows he won't be able to sleep again at that moment, so he gets up from the bed – much slower than he used to. His heartbeat is still out of control because of the nightmare that woke him up, but he can't bother to pay attention to it when Stitch is softly wailing beside him. Ashton lets out a ghost of a smile when the dog rests his head on his right upper thigh, looking up at him with an expression Ashton knows all too well.

“C'mon you little ravenous creature, let's feed you,” the bulldog excitedly jumps to the ground, already running his way down the stairs, not even waiting for Ashton to get up.

That gets a real smile out of him, but it vanishes as soon as he glances at the alarm clock on his bedside table. It reads 5:13 am, nothing out of the ordinary for him. But that small and inoffensive clock, with its red paint peeling off, holds a lot of memories for him. Memories that two months ago would bring joy to his heart, but now he almost wants to throw the object across the room.

It was a stupid thing, really. He had been wanting a vintage alarm clock and Olivia got one for his birthday. But the product they received was definitely not the one she bought, and if he's being honest, he didn't like it as much as he made out to. But seeing her so excited in the weeks before it arrived, and how disappointed she was when it did, he couldn't help but try his best to make her smile that luminous smile again. It's part of his nature by now.

That's also the reason why he lets her think that he doesn't notice when she wakes up at some ungodly hour (her words, not his) along with him, because of the annoying and only sound the alarm clock is able to produce. He always leaves soft kisses in every inch of bare skin he can find on her sleeping figure, so she goes back to the dream land and doesn't wake up before 10 am. No one wants to deal with that kind of bad humor, not even him.

As much as he likes being a morning person and absolutely enjoys her company in the mornings, he knows she'll take any and every extra hour of sleep she can get before starting the day. And that's why he loves that she's so stubborn that his early bird tendencies never got to her – he knows she feared that this would happen when they moved in together, but he met her like this, fell for her like this. He wouldn't change a single thing about her.

Ashton drags himself out of the bed, wincing slightly at how cold the wooden floors are under his bare feet. He doesn't bother putting some socks on, or a sweater – the cold weather in the house is uncharacteristically comforting to him. Nothing feels warm without her anyway.

While descending the stairs, he mentally curses himself for not being strong enough to look past the picture frames on the wall. One in particular catches his eyes – a picture from the night of Olivia's first concert with her band. The memories of that night are still painfully vivid in his mind: the laughter among their group that eventually infected everyone at the pub, Suki and Luke's first kiss and the silly smile that didn't leave his best friend's face all night, the standing ovation Olivia got after her three-songs set, and her captivating and breathtaking smile that made him realize right then and there, while watching her sway to the music, that he was definitely falling in love with her and there was nothing he could do to stop it – not that he wanted to.

So many memories held up on that wall, in the relatively short time since they met, that he can't help but wonder if that's all they'll get in this lifetime.

Ashton is abruptly taken out of his thoughts by Stitch's barks coming from the bottom of the stairs. He quickly jogs down the few steps left and goes straight after the dog's food in the kitchen's cabinet. After Stitch starts to happily devour his breakfast, Ashton goes to make his coffee, doing enough for two people like he always does, since Calum drops by most days for a chat or to drop Duke before going to work. Although all three of them know he just can't bother to make food for himself in the morning, while Ashton is the group's elected chef. Ashton always says he just needs a boyfriend – Olivia says Calum already has one who makes him breakfast every day.

He grabs an apple from the fridge and makes his way outside to their garden. Even though a lot of their memories took place there, the garden is the only space in the house where he doesn't feel like suffocating all the time. At least here, he can breathe some fresh air and look at the sky when he's feeling overwhelmed – which is basically all he's been doing for about a month now.

Yet, a lot of the garden has Olivia's name written all over.

He remembers vividly the day she came home after spending two weeks in LA doing some pocket shows, with a pack of daffodil seeds and the largest smile. She excitedly told him that a friend gifted it to her when she mentioned the little garden they were planning to build together at their new house. The friend told Olivia that daffodils symbolize rebirth and new beginnings, so as the good lover of symbolism that she is, Olivia loved the idea of having those flowers to symbolize their new beginning.

Ashton, on the other hand, wasn't a fan of the flowers at first – he just didn't see the appeal to them. But nonetheless, he indulged her, letting Olivia plant the seeds near the bench they used to sit during the quiet and unrushed afternoons, so they could admire the sunset, and she could happily look at the daffodils.

Pointless to say – the damn flowers grew on him.

Now, however, looking at them without Olivia and her contagious joy next to him, they were back to be as dull as they were before, if not more so.

Still lost inside his head without any sense of how much time went by since he sat down, Ashton doesn't hear the front door closing, and doesn't notice that he's no longer the only person inside the house until someone sits next to him on the bench. Yet, he doesn't show any sign of acknowledgement to them.

A few minutes go by before either of them speaks up.

“Luke said you didn't go to see her yesterday,” Calum starts softly, not wanting to disturb the calmness of the morning.

Ashton takes a few seconds to respond, “No point in doing that.” The black haired man licks his lips while thinking carefully about his next words.

“You know staying inside this house all day by yourself won't help either,” Calum turns his head to his left and takes a good look at Ashton's uncharacteristically hunched over figure, and immediately thinks that anyone can tell this man is not himself anymore. His second thought is that Olivia would hate seeing him like this.

“And what exactly do you expect me to do? Move on with my life like nothing happened? Like I'm not slowly and painfully losing the love of my life? Just because it’s easy for you doesn't mean it's easy for me.”

Calum closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He knows Ashton doesn't mean it, it's the anger and frustration talking. He knows it. Doesn't make it sting any less.

“I'm not telling you to move on with your life, because that's far from what I'm doing, and I certainly don't expect you to do it. I'm just saying you need to occupy your mind or else–”

“I'll go insane? Think it's a bit too late for that,” Ashton interrupts with a bitter tone that doesn't belong to his usual chirpy voice.

“You know it's not,” Calum sighs and drinks the rest of his coffee, moving his body slightly, so he's facing the blonde man, “I got a job interview for you at that school you talked about so much last summer, the principal said you can go any day this week. I went ahead and sent her your resume as well as explained everything that she needs to know about Olivia, so you don't have to. You just gotta put on some decent clothes and show up.” he sees Ashton's face softening a little and takes it as a victory. A few beats go by and then, “Maybe take a shower too. That's gonna make you feel better.” Calum leans in closer to his friend's personal space and takes a sniff, causing Ashton to deflect from him slightly, but not to push him away – another small win.

“Definitely take a shower, you stink. When was the last time your hair saw shampoo?”

“Fuck off,” is Ashton's only reply to the younger man's inquest. But Calum can see a smile creeping up on the blonde's face, which brings out a smile of his own.

“I'll send you all the details later today,” he checks the hour on the watch on his wrist and gets up, “Just please, Ash, go. I can't lose you too.”

Calum gently lays a hand on Ashton's shoulder and squeezes a little. The man doesn't look up, but gives a curt nod to his friend, who's satisfied enough. Calum stops on the threshold of the garden glass doors to give some kisses to Stitch – who came to make Ashton company as soon as he finished his food –, and then he puts the coffee mug on the dishwater. And soon enough, he's on his way out of the door. But not before snatching a tangerine from the fridge.

Ashton is left by himself once again. As he hears the sound of the front door closing, he thinks that this might be his life from now on. Just him and Stitch, trying their hardest to make it through another miserable day without the love of their lives. While everyone else comes by just to make sure he's still breathing. Breathing, maybe, but alive?

Swallowing the tears, he looks up at the sky. It's a deep, beautiful mix of orange, pink and blue, but he knows that it won't last long and soon the rain will be pouring down. He thinks about how much Olivia loves the rain.

God, he needs to pull himself together. She would hate to see him like this. Maybe he should take Calum's offer after all, he really needs to occupy his mind.

Making a mental note to thank Calum later, and also to apologize for how rude he was to him this morning, Ashton slowly gets up from the bench to put his mug on the sink and makes his way to the living room, with the small dog loyally following his every step. He puts on some cartoon that for once doesn't remind him of her (she always lovingly made fun of him for still watching those) and cuddles with Stitch on the couch. He can take a shower later.

Not half an hour goes by, he falls asleep and has a good dream for a change. He dreams of the days he spent with Olivia in the Philippines last February, right before her first world tour started. Some of the most magical days of their lives – surrounded by delicious food, a whole new culture to learn about and the warmth of the sun. Infinite counted days full of love and passion, where they were the only people in the world.

Even his subconscious knows to hold on to that brief moment of happiness, because he might never live that again.

[amgurd]

ahhh ok ok I was wondering cause I'm thinking about moving in with a couple of tumblr friends. how did it work out for you?

I debated a bit on actually answering this, because I still don't trust where it's coming from and I don't really feel like talking about it (it'll also be a very long read), but I also have no reason to think anyone would try to get some gossip here. Plus, if someone can use my experience for help, then it's probably worth it.

It had some good and some bads, but to be perfectly honest, it ended in a mess. With that in mind, this will have a lot more bads than it will goods, but I also don't want that to scare you.

If you're looking for advice, my first rule would be get your name on a lease no matter what. My roommates refused to let me put my name on the lease after a point, which is an extremely scummy thing to do. If you haven't lived in an apartment kind of deal before, a lot of places will require you to be on the lease, but some places won't as long as there are others who meet the rent requirement regardless.

That was the position I was in. We all moved to the apartment on the same day, but I moved to the state last, just days before we actually moved to the apartment, so they had already signed the lease with their names. This was the first time I ever lived in an apartment, so I was a bit ignorant to how living in it actually worked. The apartment office told me that I didn't have to worry about it because even without my income, there was enough to make rent with my two roommates. Don't be like me. Demand to have your name on the lease as soon as you can. You pay to live there, and if you're looking to move apartments again in the future, a lot of them look at verifiable rental history. I got SUPER lucky in my current place where I explained everything to my apartment manager, she gently made fun of me for not having my name on the lease, but I got approved because my income met the requirements and my credit is good.

Before I go on, if there is nothing else to take away from this, it's just make sure you at least have your name on a lease. Don't let yourself get pushed around like I did and have your roommates not allow you to put on there after a certain point. Even if you live with five other people in a small, affordable place and the rent really isn't a problem, keep it on there so future apartment managers have something to look at.

Next I would recommend establishing firm boundaries. This might seem a bit obvious, but there are times where it can really get away from you or fall through the cracks. For example, most of the cooking materials were a gift to me from my mother. My roommates would leave cooked food in a lot of those things, which made them harder to clean and we eventually had a bad case of flies in the kitchen/living room area because of how much uneaten food was just left in pots, pans, etc. If you're going to let people use your things, just make sure they're all being treated with the respect you want them to be treated with. It might not sound like a big deal, but when my roommates were "washing" my kitchenware they had used the night before my move, everything was disgusting when I unpacked it.

A bigger boundary might be pets. I'm not sure what your possible living situation may have for pet policies, but if there are pets allowed, pleeeeease talk it over thoroughly with your roommates. One of my roommates had the mindset of "Oh yeah, I'm going to get a problematic dog and work with it!", which isn't a bad mindset to have. Just because a dog has issues doesn't mean it shouldn't be in a home.

The downside came when it actually came to putting her money where her mouth was. She basically did nothing to train the dog at all. She got a dog that needed a smaller, more rural environment and space to run, and brought it to a cramped apartment in the Phoenix metro area. Even then, none of the dog had his bad habits worked on. She would actively encourage him to jump and paw, and he was a bite risk on top of it. I had my mom out to visit around Christmas, and it was legitimately embarrassing trying to explain why the dog was so poorly trained after I told my mom that my roommate specifically wanted a dog like that to work with it. In fact, I had tried to change her flight to Phoenix to me flying to see her instead, and I came close to canceling a non-refundable plane ticket to make it happen. That's how little I wanted her in that apartment.

And that isn't to say that all pet situations are nightmares. Just make sure you have an active and open dialogue with the people you live with to make sure that everyone's on the same page with the animals they want to bring in. In most cases, it's totally fine, but don't be like me and put yourself in a situation where it's embarrassing to have your mother visit.

This is similar to the lease thing, but make sure you know what your name is on with the bills! I had the internet stuff set up in my name and I paid on that. The total bill got merged into the rent, so it kind of became a mess to keep up with, but I still had the modem/router/gateway thing rental under my name. I didn't get that returned before I left, and when I my roommates it needed to be returned, I was assured it would be taken care of. Sure enough, I woke up one morning to something like a $30 or $40 charge because the equipment, still in my name, hadn't been returned and the internet hadn't been canceled. Even if the internet plan had been canceled, the equipment was still a rental. I had to ask about it again, and if I hadn't, I would have been on the hook for the payment. Just make sure you know what's under your name and try to make sure it's taken care of, because if it's not, people can try to keep you on the hook for it like they did with me.

Honestly, those are kind of the biggest things I can think of. The rest of it comes down to how well you know the people you're moving in with, or at least how well you think you know them. I have a few examples of how that can kind of fall apart too. Again, these aren't meant to be scary, but it can kind of show how you might not know someone as well as you thought you did.

When we first moved in together, we decided to split groceries three ways and we'd all just eat dinner together. That saved on the hassle of three people trying to have their own kitchen equipment, which will take up a LOT of space (we struggled with room with basically having just my kitchen stuff and some of theirs). It also helped with food storage since you're not having three adults trying to cram separate meals and ingredients everywhere.

That was all fine and good for a while. Eventually, I was picking maybe a meal a week there, which is a pretty uneven balance. To be honest, that didn't really bother me too much. I was the least picky eater in the apartment by a mile, but when I would make suggestions, they'd get turned down for things like it being too expensive, which it wasn't. I took the L on it and just decided to choose super bland and agreeable stuff (we had so much chicken and plain white rice lol).

Toward the end of my stay, that devolved into one of my roommates saying that we were going to all take care of our own groceries. That was fine too. I'm a grown man and I can take care of my own meals. I don't love cooking and I'm scared of burning/cutting myself, but it wasn't anything I couldn't do.

That ended up being a lie and they did it to exclude me from all things food. Honestly, that was fine too, because like I said, I'm an adult who can figure out his own food. The issue was they just lied for some reason about each person taking care of their own food stuff when that wasn't the case. They cooked their own meals for two after saying they'd cook individually, so it was definitely a deliberate action to exclude me.

The moral of that is to make sure you're not being lied to and to make sure that nothing is being hidden from you. They also lied to me about closing the lease. They said it was going to be closed in January, when it wasn't set to be up until March, but it wasn't closed until at least February, and that was something I feel was done to get me out of the apartment as soon as possible. That in itself was fine, I'm a big boy. If you want me out of the apartment, that's perfectly fine with me, but don't lie to me about it.

To tie in with that story, they also didn't tell me about them planning to close the lease until I specifically asked about it around October. It was information deliberately withheld from me and I'm not really sure why, but don't let it happen to you.

One of my roommates also said something like, "Oh don't worry, I'll drive you up to where you want to move to make sure you get a lease signed with no problems." I moved out there without a car, so that was a huge relief to me and was presented as a favor to me for essentially chopping my time to look for and move to a place by half.

The time to move comes and I pay for the rental van, which I was perfectly fine with paying for. I paid for the initial bit of gas, some food, and some energy drinks. Perfectly happy to do that.

We end up hitting snow and ice on the way up to my current place, which delayed the move by about three or four hours, I think. When we got in the apartment, one of the first things I did was call to extend the van hours, again something I had no issue doing. Asking someone to make a multi-hour drive back in snow and ice is not a nice thing to do, so I didn't have any beef doing that.

The issue was what was once a favor because my roommates wanted to close the lease early and force me out became a bill for me. I paid my roommate about $100 for the trip up here (it was originally $200, but she owed be about $100 anyway). When we get here, I offer her my bed to stay the night on so she didn't have to drive anymore in the poor weather.

She declined that, opted to drive roughly 150 more miles, and get lodging in a different city. She told me she was worried about driving in the snow and ice, so the solution to driving in the snow and ice was to drive through the snow and ice to a city with a similar climate to the area I live in (so, you know, it gets snow and ice). She then asked that I pay her an additional amount for her food, lodging, and time. On top of that, I had to pay for extending the van and the extra miles driven on it. I've tried to ask people to find the thread of logic in it, and every person has told me that it was confusing at best, and a close friend of mine said she was a parasite for doing that.

These may seem like kind of bitter and downer stories, and I promise I don't want you to take them that way, but if you're genuinely a stranger on the internet who happened across my blog and knew I lived with people I met on Tumblr, I want to give you the most context I can. I knew these people for years and thought they were upstanding people, and even now, I don't think they're particularly bad people. I just really want you to sit down and think about how well do you really know the people you're planning on moving in with.

It's a big change no matter what, and it can be a great one if you're getting the respect you deserve, but there are times where the reality of the situation and the people you're sharing your living space with aren't exactly what you hoped they'd be.

No matter what you decide, I wish you the best in making your decision. Right now, I'm super happy where I am. I'm 26, with no degree or real skills, and I get to live by myself in a 2-bedroom apartment in an area I wanted to live in. It was a bit bumpy to get here, and I know I missed out on a few things, but a few months of being screwed over by people pretending to be my friends honestly got me in a really good spot in life. Regardless, I hope this is what you were looking for because it took me a LONG time to type out. Let me know if there was something else you wanted to know and I'll see if I can be of any help.

[oopey-doopey]

Quick question: I got a liking to Cob pretty fast (who doesn't, let's be honest) and was wondering if you have some kind of physical description of him? (Yeah, I know he's a tall boy and boar but anything else noteworthy) Or a drawing or something cause I'm in the mood of drawing him for you. If that's ok with you that is. 👉👈

Drawing any scenario or character I create/describe is always okay with me bud! I guess this is the time to say I'm fine with any random submissions or asks of anything! I guess I’ll just drop the Cob lore and design post here tho. 

Under the cut if ur interested

Cob physically would look like an animatronics Central European Boar with a lot of the cuter traits of a pig. Like he's the droopy pig ear and screw tail and a pot belly (pun intended) of the usual farm pig but then the hair type, tusks and longer snout of the aforementioned boar. 

Design wise, he’d be built to appear stocky, wider build as he’d need room to store all the garbage he eats. Like his main body shape is if you turned an golden apple upside down. His fingers are like hooved fingers to keep the theme of him being a wild boar, so ig three pronged? Think of it how bird characters use their feathers as fingers. Color would be like dark greyish brown with black or white spots, mainly cause he’s not supposed to attract guests and it hides messes that get on him better. Either has his hooves out like a mad man or like tacky glamrock work boots.

Outfit is probably like a normal janitor uniform with the Freddy logo on the back, maybe a hat of some sorts to fit the chill vibe of the PizzaPlex. Various stickers on his pant legs though, kids love giving him them.

Lore/Mechanics

He was of course made to clean up major food messes that couldn’t go in the trash compactor and help the staff bots as they were falling behind. He was not made with the most adaptable A.I. so he can’t download things like the others can or  be linked to things but that also means he can’t really be hacked.

During the testing of his functions the mechanics found that when hunting down messes he targeted everything and anything. He would wipe down guests and even try to clean off the bots when they performing, often having to be turned off until shows were over. Although this was patched so that he’d wait, if anything looks too messy he will prioritize it to be clean, sometimes making a bigger mess trying to get to it.

Cob is just kinda set to roam the PizzaPlex using his snout (scent tracker) to find messes and keep the place clean for guests. If nothing major is detected he’ll just hunker down in one area and wait.

Gameplay wise, he’s not an enemy or an ally. He’s like an obstacle in multiple areas as you would need to create a mess to get him to move out of the way or make a way for you as he tries to get to it. He’d also try to clean the animatronics which is just him chasing them if they get too close while he’s around. This also applies to Freddy which can knock you out of the suit. 

Cob would only become hostile to Gregory if he saw Gregory making the messes as he’s programmed to also stop the sources. Usually he wouldn’t attack a guest to do this but you aren’t a guest  now are you? Either scans Gregory as a mess and eats him or hits him with his broom which is bad as it is metal and he is way to strong. If you’re just getting in the way he may pick you up and move you or nudge Gregory away with the broom.

MISC

Would be most useful against Chica as she ruts around in the trash and he’d target her for cleaning

Least around Roxy as she can easily out maneuver him.

Weird mysterious and ominous fellow until you talk to him, then he’s just a workaholic charmer

Sounds like either Rag N Bone man sans the British or Louis from Princess and the Frog

Doesn’t have a green room as he’s not a performer, more of an experience, but he does have a giant storage closet that he made a bed in out of stolen plushes.

Doesn’t need a bed just thinks it makes the place look homey

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 4 for the first time. Random thoughts.

I never said anything about it before but I love Shadow Weaver's DCAU Batman eyes. They're so expressive.

Episode 1: Okay...I wasn't expecting Catra to do that. I mean, it makes sense. If she has leverage over Hordak then she's basically in charge of the Horde and that's what she's wanted (or at least believes she wants) since episode 1. It's an aspect that made her a good antagonist, that she's not blind to the evil of the Horde, she just doesn't care as long as she herself is secure. Which naturally begs the question, when the rebellion and the princesses are crushed, when the Horde is on top, when Adora is dead, when Catra finally has everything she's ever wanted...will she actually finally be happy? Somehow, I have my doubts.

I definitely feel for Glimmer in this. When you go through as big a loss as she did you need to be able to feel and vent if you're ever going to get through it. It doesn't have to be right away but everyone doing everything in their power to avoid the topic entirely can make you feel like you're going crazy. It'a especially bad for her since it unintentionally makes it feel like everyone is acting like it doesn't matter that Angela is gone when it clearly means everything to Glimmer.

Episode 2: I actually had a potted cactus plant once. Accidentally forgot about it and left it outside for an entire winter. Once the snow was gone the cactus looked like it had melted.

I kind of want to see what an interaction between Double Trouble and Clayface from the Harley Quinn animated series would look like. I'm guess Catra was just testing how good Double Trouble was as a doppelganger because it doesn't seem like she did anything while Adora was being distracted, though I suppose that could be a reveal in a later episode.

Not much to say except that I love how buff Huntara is while still clearly being a woman. Like, women can have a variety of different body types, as this series and Steven Universe show, and Huntara's build isn't just, like, Bow's body with lipstick and ponytail and the animators calling it a day. No, she looks like a freakin' jacked adult woman.

Episode 3: I didn't figure out the Flutterina = Double Trouble twist until a minute before it was revealed, so good job there. Before that I was wondering if Flutterina was some fan's original character where they won some contest where their OC got to be in the show for an episode. She was giving off some weird self-insert vibes. That twist made it all work though. It's honestly not a bad plan. Shapeshifters haven't really been a thing in the series before now so there's no reason to suspect it. Even if they did they'd probably be expecting it by way of magic or technology, while Double Trouble's seems to be a natural ability.

I like that even though Bow is definitely the goofier one of the trio he is still consistently shown as competent. That's never in question. He was very heroic and reassuring to the villagers this episode. I get why those kids idolize him so much.

Catra's having guilt over what she did with the portal and to Entrapta and her response is basically to just double-down. She doesn't know any other way to be. Not going to lie, I am kind of hoping we get another moment in the show where Adora just completely overwhelms Catra with the sheer power of She-Ra. I'm not saying like brutalize her or anything but just something where Catra is made to realize just how powerful Adora is and that she could just destroy Catra if she had a mind to do so.

Episode 4: Well, I was saying I wanted Adora to do it but I guess I don't mind Glimmer being the one to get some good shots in on Catra. Like I predicted, Shadow Weaver's moving in to become her teacher like she was with her father. Honestly I like that that was more Adora's problem than Glimmer using her as bait, which she seemed to get over pretty quick. Yeah, it was kind of a heartless thing to do but it was an understandable tactic and she clearly outright told Adora that she did it and why afterwards, which at least means she's still being honest.

It occurs to me that Glimmer and Catra may be the ones running parallel right now. Both are basically leading their respective sides of the war. They both have lost someone very important to them. And both are trusting someone they probably shouldn't. Both even have outfits that've been updated in the intro. The difference is Glimmer's just trying to deal with a bad situation while Catra's is entirely self-inflicted.

Minor thing but I like Glimmer's new outfit this season. I'm sure this is the intention but it makes her look older and more mature. A little more muscular in some shots too.

Episode 5: Heart of Etheria project. No idea what that is but assumedly whoever's a part of it doesn't like Light Hope and Mara being friends. Sounds like it's very much interested in She-Ra being just a warrior, and perhaps a tool, for the greater good. It does make me wonder though how much Light Hope remember from when she was rebooting. Even if she deleted the Mara memory she could potentially still have the memory of her and Adora watching the Mara memory, as well as Adora asking to be her friend.

Episode 6: Yep. Scorpia; definitely favorite supporting character. There is something kind of funny about her whole "Scorpions are loyal" line when you remember the story about the Frog and the Scorpion, where it stings the frog despite it meaning death for itself as well simply because that is its nature. But finally we're having someone go save Entrapta, and I can only assume at some point Scorpia's going to access the power of the Black Garnet.

The parallels between Catra and Hordak are definitely at their max here with that speech of hers to him. She's basically trying to convince herself that she doesn't need anyone, the timing of which is appropriate since she just drove away Scorpia and now truly doesn't have anyone. Not that I blame Scorpia, obviously. Like Adora before her, however good you believe someone can be and that you can help them, at some point you just have to cut the toxic people out of your life. You have the right to be happy too.

And man, Bow is just the best. He saw something was wrong between Adora and Glimmer and defused the situation like (snap) that, pushing them to talk like any sane person would.

Episode 7: I'm sure it is just because I've seen way too many TV shows and movies (both animated and live action) that don't do it but it is just such a relief to have a show where the characters just TALK and LISTEN to each other. It doesn't solve all their issues but they're at least not being stupid and freakin' petty. It helps the drama feel a lot less forced and contrived.

Episode 8: A little bit of amusement in Bow thinking at first that Glimmer and Adora didn't even notice he was gone despite them coming to his rescue very shortly afterwards, given Catra is only now realizing Scorpia has left and assumedly she did so a while ago. Bow and Sea Hawk hadn't been gone for that long so it's not unreasonable Glimmer and Adora wouldn't be worried about their absence (Bow was literally talking about "me time" when they last saw him), while Catra is only noticing Scorpia's absence now and it was because she wanted something. Like Scorpia said, she's a bad friend.

Kind of ironic given that a lot of Catra's issues are the direct result of Shadow Weaver giving her very little love growing up but it does seem this tough love is probably what'll get through to Catra the best. She might finally stop making bad decisions and lashing out if she's forced to live with the consequences of them, like Adora told her last season.

Glimmer gets a bit of slack from me since she suffered through a huge loss, that being her mother, and then was immediately thrown into being queen right after. It'd be hard for anyone to be 100% on their game and well-adjusted in a situation like that, and I buy that she was on some level resentful of Adora for coming back instead of her mother, even if unintentionally so. What definitely helps is that Glimmer very clearly and immediately regretted what she said to Adora. Like Catra she's lashing out but unlike Catra Glimmer recognizes some of the damage she's doing and knows, at least in this case, that she went too far.

Episode 9: Now that I can see the design in color I definitely prefer Mara's She-Ra with pants to Adora's She-Ra with shorts. Honestly, while the differences are pretty minor, I do think Mara's She-Ra design is overall a lot better than Adora's. Sharper shoulder guards. Bigger cape (especially the cape, I love capes). I don't know, there's just a lot that clicks with it and I wouldn't mind Adora getting a similar outfit later.

Madam Razz definitely had a Yoda feel this episode. I was very much expecting her to start wacking Mara with a stick over the sugar like Yoda did with R2. Though while that was Yoda acting crazy, for Razz it's because she experiences time out of order, and I don't think I've ever seen that concept taken to this extent, or at least done this way before. There are characters like River Song from Doctor Who, Professor Paradox from Ben 10, or even the Reverse-Flash who interact with other characters in time out of order but those characters are still on a linear path from their own perspective, even when travelling through time. Razz is just bouncing around her own timeline, seemingly not even any real reason or cause to it like Subaru from Re:Zero. Clearly she's not just remembering things oddly because her talk about things of the present are heard by people in the past and have an effect. I wonder if maybe the reason why is because Razz was at ground zero of Mara's actions and this is a side-effect of pulling Etheria away from the rest of the universe.

Bringing more Star Wars into this, it basically sounds like the Heart of Etheria project has turned Etheria into a magic Starkiller Base; storing power that'll be unleashed to destroy whole planets. And jeez, I think this was the first time I really felt creeped out by Light Hope when she was talking to Mara.

I'm looking forward to seeing what it means that the First Ones only made the sword and that Etheria made She-Ra. If that's the case, why is only the sword able to bring out the She-Ra form? Is it like MCU Thor's hammer and the weapon was just meant to help him control the power he already had? Or is what we think is She-Ra not actually She-Ra and that form that Adora and Mara take is just a stand-in for the real thing?

Episode 10: It didn't even occur to me until now but Double Trouble's capture is another blow to Catra's circle of "friends" too. They were at least able to make her laugh. One less person for her to talk to and just...really just distract her from her thoughts.

It's a good dilemma this episode presents about what to do with the Heart of Etheria. The safest and probably best option is to just dismantle it, like Adora and Bow want, since it could easily lead to the destruction of the entire planet if it goes off. Not the mention there's so little they know about it and what it was intended for and the one person who can potentially tell them, Light Hope, they were warned not to trust. But it's not hard to understand where Glimmer is coming from in wanting to use that power to fight the Horde. They're already losing the war and now she knows Hordak Prime and his FAR more powerful forces are on the way. Tapping into the Heart is a huge risk but she's not seeing any other paths for the rebels to win. It's a really good dilemma, with good arguments presented from both sides, and I buy this widening the schism between Adora and Glimmer.

Episode 11: I have mixed feelings on King Micah still being alive. On the one hand there's a lot of good potential interactions we can now have with him, primarily between Glimmer and Shadow Weaver, and he is a fun character. But on the other I can't help but wonder if this kind of lessens the impact of what Angela gave up to overcome the false reality. Part of what made it so emotional was that she had to accept the person she loved was dead and not coming back...except now we see that he wasn't dead and now he is coming back. Yeah, their family lost out on years together and that does still carry some emotional weight but I was already also half-expecting Angela to come back later in the series because she's stuck between dimensions, meaning there's a chance she could still be alive. If both Glimmer's parents come back then that really feels like it takes a lot of weight out of her story. But I guess we'll see what happens.

Also, why did the Horde exile him to Beast Island? Why not just kill him?!

Episode 12: So the Horde exiles Micah to Beast Island instead of killing him. The First Ones protect their secrets by sending their bad tech to Beast Island. Does no one know how to just destroy things in this world?

Ohhh, I am so looking forward to next episode. While it's debatable whether Glimmer should be going through with her plan she is at least being smart with how she's going about it. Double Trouble was being paid by Catra to work for the Horde, not out of any sense of loyalty. Glimmer has the resources of Bright Moon at her disposal so it's reasonable she could pay them more to switch sides. Double Trouble was very good at sabotaging even a group as tight-nit as the heroes, so Hordak and Catra are probably easy pickings with all their issues.

Episode 13: ....WELL THAT AIN'T GOOD!

I'll admit, I had a little bit of an unintended laugh. After all we've heard about Horde Prime, like this shadowy all-powerful monster, I wasn't expecting the fabulous flowing dreadlocks and smoothness. Credit where it's due, man has charisma and charm, which goes a long way in helping your big evil world conqueror not be a very flat character, because it's doubtful he's going to have the same kind of sympathetic motivation as Hordak or complexity as Catra to keep him elevated.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Double Trouble kicking at Catra while she's down. Adora and Scorpia were honest but they never wanted to hurt Catra. Not so much with Double Trouble and they just shove reality into her face. Everyone leaves Catra because of Catra. She's the common factor. It's her fault and no one else's. Again, I don't know for certain if Adora and Catra get together at the end (Catra would have a LOT to make amends for regardless) but Double Trouble was definitely implying Catra had feelings for her with the way they put Catra's hand on "Adora's" cheek while talking about how she left her.

I like that we see Glimmer's plan actually working at first. The princesses get a massive power boost and decimate the Horde forces. But the minute it starts going wrong she immediately admits Adora was right and she tries to stop the energy flow. I imagine having her there with Catra was intentional by the writers. Despite some parallels, Glimmer can actually accept her failures and work to try and fix things. Unlike Catra, she didn't blame Adora for things going wrong.

So the sword allows the First Ones to control She-Ra and the energy she'd be absorbing from the planet. Assumedly that means there are at least some parts to She-Ra that have nothing to do with the First Ones and thus maybe Adora can still use some of those powers without the sword.

Season 4 verdict: Yeah, the show keeps getting better, though I will admit last season's finale had me more emotional, but that's a bit of an unfair comparison given everything that happened in that finale vs. this one. This is definitely the series hitting its darkest hour, where it feels like EVERYONE lost. Not just the rebels but the Horde as well. The sword and Light Hope are gone and She-Ra (for now) along with them. Glimmer and Catra are basically prisoners. Hordak's probably going to have his personality stripped away. The Fright Zone is in ruins. The only one who's gained anything is Prime.

Really looking forward to what the final season has in store, especially since there seems to be the implication that Catra just saved Glimmer's life.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o1j5gk/going_in_blind_watching_season_4_for_the_first/

[poormeowmeowcollector]

Oh My God They Were Roommates! Just Roommates

Warnings: mentions of nightmares, smoking, breakdowns and lactose intolerance.

Characters: aro!Bucky ace!Loki (also genderfuid)

Summary: After the end of the Avengers, some kept fighting and some retired. Bucky was too tired to keep going, and he wanted the normal life. But he didn't expect the God of Mischief asking for the same thing

Notes: I made the Bingo! This was so tough to write but I really love the results!

Read On AO3

The Avengers are now in the past, after the Big Battle with Thanos. Some have gone offworld, some keep fighting and some just stop and try to leave a normal life. They are too tired to keep fighting. And Bucky is one of them.

After the battle, and after Steve handed his legacy over Sam, Bucky promised himself a normal and calm life. Sam respected it and asked for no help, even if things go bad. He pays a visit once a week and stays in touch.

Bucky now works in a small coffeeshop, and rents a small apartment. It's simple and cozy, he likes it. And he likes his simple life with his friendly co-workers and nice customers and he even gets laid if he's lucky enough. He falls in love with this kind of life.

One day, on a rainy night of November, he hears a knock on the door. He doesn't bother fetching his metal hand as he crosses the room and opens it.

And he finds Loki outside, wet and shivering. He never liked rain, says that water can compromise his cold resistance.

"Come in, you must be freezing," Bucky opens the door and moves aside. Loki nods and smiles, kicking his boots out after his feet meet the carpet.

And Loki never mentions Asgard. They didn't mention it as much before Ragnarok, but now they act as if it never existed. And suddenly, they make traditional soups.

"Th-thank you…" Loki smiles.

"Don't mention it. Take that thing on, will ya? Settle near the radiator, over the couch, I'll make you something warm to drink, okay?" Bucky replies, pointing at the soaking wet coat Loki's wearing. He makes a small nod and does as he was told, watching Bucky as he fetches his hand and heads to the kitchen. He knows that he shouldn't give him tea or coffee, it's quite late and Loki's an insomniac, so he settles down with chocolate. Well, he has a big sweet tooth, why not enjoy a nice warm cup of chocolate?

He goes back to the couch, smiling just a bit when he sees Loki covered with the blanket like a burrito. Loki takes the cup, holding it to warm up his hands before he takes a long sip.

"Th-thank you, it's q-q-quite g-good," He smiles, his shivering chin making his stutter appear.

"Again, don't mention it. What brought you here?" Bucky relaxes on the other side of the couch, his eyes on Loki. Last time he remembers, Loki was fighting.

"I couldn't move past Tony… it, it went bad, even when I was fighting. All nightmares and flashbacks and I… I think it's killing me. I wanna get out of this, retire. It's just too much, I can't take it anymore," He admits, his voice trembling again but not because of the cold. Bucky reaches out to his hand, a tight grip on it with his fleshed limp. And Loki leaves a small smile.

"And, I thought if you could use a roommate…" He finishes his answer.

"To be honest, it does get a bit boring without some idiots yelling at toasters," Bucky smiles.

"Bread should not be flying!" Loki spits, and Bucky laughs at it. But Loki also lets his lips twist upwards.

"You can stay for how long you want. But we will have to get a bigger apartment, this one has only one bedroom," Bucky answers.

"Let me rest for tonight and it will have a second bedroom tomorrow," Loki eyes the former soldier. He almost forgets about his magic. "But I can settle down on the couch tonight, it's comfy," He smiles. Bucky smiles too, he really doesn't feel like abandoning the apartment, he worked so hard to make it the way it is.

And they start to catch up with each other, while they have the energy to stay up. But they both grow tired and end up muttering goodnight and going to sleep.

For Bucky, it was a normal Saturday sleep, when he knows his alarm clock won't wake him up. But Loki hadn't slept with such peacefulness since Tony died.

~~~

"WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU PUT MY HAIRBRUSH?" Bucky yells from the bathroom.

"WHY THE FUCK WOULD I TAKE YOUR HAIRBRUSH? I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU BRUSH THIS SHIT UNTIL NOW!" Loki yells back from the kitchen.

"LISTEN HERE, YOU LITTLE SHIT. IF YOU EVER DISRESPECT MY HAIR LIKE THA- Nevermind, I found it," Bucky mutters the last few words. And Loki hears him perfectly. Because they are 7 feet apart. They didn't need to yell at each other.

"Good for you. Now stop blaming me whenever you lose something," Loki answers, waiting for the soldier to appear on their viewing field. And he did. But they now sigh and pay more attention to the food they're cooking.

"Alright, I'm sorry," Bucky hums, Loki making only a throaty sound as an answer. "What're you making? It smells nice," He asks, moving towards the kitchen to peek at the pot.

"It's a traditional stew on Asgard, you'll see," Loki smiles, but actually means "no peeking until I'm done".

Usually, Bucky was the one doing the cooking. Loki is a better cook, they use a lot of seasoning and know which one goes where, but they don't like it as much. In fact, Bucky can swear they only cook when stressed, as if they try to distract themselves with the smell of whatever they throw into the food.

And they basically talk through the night, with interruptions when Loki is rushing to the bathroom and returning like they had to give birth over there. At least until they both grow tired and fall asleep, right beside to each other. For the first time in days, no screaming and waking up in the middle of the night occurs.

Bucky sighs, trying to find something else to focus on. Something other than Loki's odd behaviour the last days, with the ongoing silence and numbness. Other than the sudden Æsir cooking. Other than the smoking they pretend it doesn't happen, like Bucky doesn't recognize the smell of tobacco in them. Something other than the screaming he hears in the middle of the night and knows that he can't help because Loki tends to lean towards the fight response and Bucky cannot fight back without hurting them.

And he knows where those things lead to. It's not the first time that Loki started going south after Tony. And the previous one was ugly, by all means. What if this one turns out to be ugly too?

"What are you thinking of?" Loki asks, their voice carefully soft. Bucky tries to appear calm, it's not worth worrying Loki too.

"Nothing special…" He shrugs, avoiding eye contact. But he hears Loki sighing and moving the pot before they walk on the couch and sit beside him.

"Is that why you are so worried? Come on, speak it up. Weren't you saying that we should talk about what is bothering us?" They are still soft, like Bucky's the elephant in the room. They were always like this, prefer to soothe others than speak about their issues.

"I'm just worried…" Bucky admits. This will not end pretty…

"Do you want to say what is worrying you?" Loki sits closer, big green eyes staring at him. The dark circles that start creeping around them making them brighter.

"Nah, it's not worth it…" Bucky regrets it and stares elsewhere, gazing at the asexual and aromatic flags hanging on the doors of the two bedrooms. And Loki makes a small tutting sound.

"You can just say you don't feel like talking, lies weren't needed," They argue.

"Says the god of them," Bucky thinks out loud. He shouldn't have said that.

The room gets cold, something Bucky knows is happening because Loki loses some control of their Frostbite when overwhelmed. They stand up and go back to the kitchen, speaking only to inform him that the dinner is ready with a dead voice.

Bucky follows them with hesitance, waiting for them to fill a bowl with the brownish stew before he serves himself and settles on the chair opposite to them.

The stew is nice. The taste of meat is strong and the seasoning makes it kind of sweet. Not exactly Bucky's taste, but he doesn't mind it. Loki plays with the pieces of meat inside it, his right hand holding his head.

"It's nice," He mutters, hoping he can make a small smile appear.

"It's shit," Loki argues, letting the spoon fall on the bowl as they stare at it with disgust. And then, they cover their face with their hands, their rapid breathing echoing.

"Hey, it's just some stew," Bucky tries to soothe them down but they stand up and pace to their room, the door slammed behind them. Bucky wants to follow, walk in and hug them tight and soothe them down. But it's wiser to give them some space.

He tries to finish his own meal, but his appetite is long gone. So, he empties the bowls back in the pot and washes the dishes, trying to think of what to do. He can already feel the apartment going colder and colder, and it's never a good thing.

Maybe if he finds something to cheer up Loki? They like sweets, maybe a cake. Thank God there's a candy store down the road, it will be maybe ten minutes on foot.

Loki doesn't react when Bucky opens the door and leaves, they probably don't even care. Bucky's lucky enough to find a dark chocolate cake, their favourite flavor, and it's cheap enough to buy it. And Loki is still locked in the room when he returns with the dessert.

"Hey, can you please let me in. Just wanna check on ya, you know," Bucky knocks the door. The handle twists and the door opens after a blanket of frost covers it. But, Loki's magic is like a green light that acts like smoke…

Loki is sitting on the corner of the bed, the room around them covered with a thin layer of ice. They have dropped every illusion, even the Æsir one. They do it plenty of times in an attempt to get used to it, or when they can't control the seiðr. They smile just so, fags showing, as they light out a smoke on an ashtray.

"Will you stand there?" They ask, voice dead. There are no tears in their ruby eyes, not trembling from the crying. They just look numb.

Bucky nods and sits on the other side of the bed, placing the box in front of him and a fork above it. "I thought you would like some cake…" He hums, inspecting Loki as they glance at the box.

"Thank you," They try to smile but their face disagrees. They take the box to their lap and open it, frost appearing on the paper that touches him and the fork.

"So, do you feel like speaking?" Bucky asks. They hate showing it, but they love talking and it actually helps them a lot.

"It's just some homesickness. Don't worry, it will pass…" They shrug one shoulder and take a bite of the cake. Their lips twist upwards, a good sign, and they place the box between them and Bucky, a second fork appearing in their hand.

"Oh, thank you," Bucky smiles and takes it, not minding the freezing cold of Bucky's skin. "So, it's about Asgard or the Avengers," He asks.

"Kind of both, somehow… and, it's also the nightmares, as usual. But they're manageable," They lie. After years with them, Bucky knows when they lie. And, most important, he knows when to demand the truth and when not.

"Well, if you feel like it will help, you can come over for snuggles and emotional support." He suggests. Loki smiles and nods, staying silent as they focus on the cake. Can you blame them? They haven't eaten properly for days. But Bucky does give them a look when he realises how fast they devoured the dessert.

"Wait, did you ask for lactose free?" They ask, after making the box vanish. And Bucky forgot to ask.

"Shouldn't you also ask before you eat the whole thing?" He also asks, his worry about how much Loki's small intestine shall suffer tonight growing.

"So, we are both idiots," Loki comes to a conclusion, finding Bucky agreeing.

"Basically, yes… and, I think I should suffer with you tonight, right?" He asks.

"Definitely, just lay near the wall, you don't want to be between me and the toilet," They respond, freeing the space of the bed they meant. Bucky got his metal hand out, he doesn't like sleeping with it on, and lay where he was instructed to, Loki laying beside him.

[the-ethereal-serpent]

Venus Flytrap : Care & Growth

Plant Them in a Plastic Pot With Good Drainage

Venus flytraps need a lot of moisture, but too much water in the pot or in their ground can lead to mildew growth and root rot—so plant them in a pot with drainage holes. Although they can still grow in pots without drainage holes, this requires you to pay more attention to how much and how often you water.

Also opt for plastic pots rather than clay or cement blocks. Minerals in the clay or cement can enter their water supply, which can cause mineral burn.

As your plant grows, you may need to repot it to give it more breathing room. Gradually move up to bigger pots. There's no use planting it in a huge pot thinking that this will make it grow faster.

What Type of Soil Do I Use for Venus Flytraps?

As mentioned in the beginning of the article, Venus flytraps are used to growing in undernourished, acidic, and sandy soil. Using a 1:1 ratio by volume of sphagnum peat moss to horticultural sand is perfect for holding moisture while still providing drainage.

What Is the Best Soil for Growing Venus Flytraps?

Don't use regular potting soil, compost, or any enriched soils or mosses. Also resist the temptation of using fertilizers to help them grow. An overload of nutrients is actually harmful to the plant.

Use horticultural sand, not sand from the beach. Sand from the beach, like clay pots, can add too much mineral content and cause your plant to wither.

Use peat moss and not just sphagnum moss. The difference is that sphagnum moss holds too much water and has a neutral pH. Peat moss, commonly referred to as sphagnum peat moss, is more acidic and holds just the right amount of water, mimicking the conditions in the flytrap's natural habitat.

Use gravel or use more sand to provide more drainage. Perlite is commonly used to aerate soils and prevent them from caking. You can also try using a 1:2 ratio by volume of peat moss to sand.

How Often Should I Water Them?

The soil should be kept damp at all times. Usually, you only need to water every few days, but if you live in dry or hot areas, or if you have larger pots, you may need to water every day.

However, be cautious of overwatering. Growing in a large pot or in dry, hot conditions can make the surface layer of peat moss seem dry, but the deeper layers may still be moist.

Only use distilled water or rainwater. Tap water—or even filtered water—usually contains too many alkaline minerals that will harm the plant. Remember that they thrive in acidic environments.

If you are forgetful or don't have enough time to water, one trick is to put the pot in plastic tray, dish, or saucer. Fill the tray up with water, and the peat moss can draw it up over time like a sponge. This is most useful for smaller pots or during the summer, when the weather is hotter than usual.

How Much Light Do Venus Flytraps Need?

Venus flytraps can survive in partial shade and a minimum of 4 hours of sunlight, but if you want them to thrive, provide them with 12 hours of direct, bright sunlight. The morning is the best time for this since the rays are not too intense.

Avoid direct sunlight if it's too hot out, like during the summer, to prevent them from burning or drying out. You can provide some shade by hanging some cheesecloth or other light mesh fabric over the plants. You can also place them under the shade of taller plants or trees. Just make sure there is still adequate sunlight coming through the shade.

They can get some sunlight indoors if you place them by a window that has access to direct sunlight—usually windows that face east, west, or south.

What if I Don't Have Access to a Window With Direct Sunlight?

If you live in a place that isn't too sunny, or you don't have windows that face the sun, consider investing in artificial growing lights—usually fluorescent or LED lights. Keep the lights close to the plant (about 2-8 inches away). Remember to turn them off after 12 hours

Should I Feed a Venus Flytrap?

If you are growing them outdoors, they can probably catch their own prey. However, if you are growing them indoors, or you notice they are looking unhealthy, you can periodically help them out by feeding them small insects.

Just make sure to keep track of which traps you have fed. You don't want to overfeed them. They can only open and close so many times in their life, and repeated feeding can sap their energy.

It is best to feed them live insects because this will help trigger their natural digestive processes—urea released by the insect signals the plant to secrete digestive juices. However, feeding them live insects can be difficult to do and really isn't necessary. Feeding them dead insects is perfectly acceptable.

What Can I Feed Them?

As their name suggests, they love eating flies. However, they can eat any insect small enough to trap, such as mosquitoes, moths, ladybugs, spiders, beetles, and ants.

If you feed them, make sure the insect is about 1/3 the size of the trap. If the insect is too small, the trap may not close fully and may end up not eating it at all because it won't provide enough nutrients. If the insect is too big, the trap can't close fully, making it harder for the plant to digest the insect and increasing the risk of a bacterial infection (from bacteria accumulating on the dead insect).

How Do I Feed Them?

I use a long tweezer to hold an insect (small spider or fly). The trigger hairs should be touched for the trap to close. Tickle them a tiny bit with the insect's legs.

How to Care for Venus Flytraps During Dormancy

Venus flytraps bloom in the spring, grow through the summer and fall, and go dormant through the winter (roughly 3-5 months). They do not die in the winter, although it may look like they are. They just aren't trying as hard to grow in order to conserve energy for the next growing season.

This doesn't mean you can just neglect them. They still need sunlight and water to perform photosynthesis. Here are some tips to help your plant make it through the winter:

The best place to keep them is outdoors, but make sure you don't live in a region that is susceptible to frosting and freezing. Plants in pots are more likely to freeze over, so the best tip is to move them into the ground, where the soil large volume of soil can act as insulation that protects the rhizomes. Remember to use acidic, sandy soil that is suitable for Venus flytraps.

Keep the plants cool, but don't allow it to freeze. The ideal temperature range during dormancy is between 32 ºF and 55 ºF (0 ºC-11 ºC). However, it will still stay dormant at higher temperatures.

Some people keep their flytraps in a plastic bag in the fridge for the entire winter. If you choose to do this, remove dead leaves (appear brown or black) and mist with fungicide to prevent mold and fungal growth. Check on them periodically to make sure they have enough water

Give them some sun, but less sun than usual. Dormancy is thought to be brought on by a combination of dropping temperatures and shorter days (shorter amount of daylight). During the winter, the plants should receive less than 12 hours of light.

Keep the soil damp, but you don't have to water as much. The plant still needs some water, but it won't be using up as much of it. Monitor the moisture of the moss daily for the first week to help you gauge how often you need to water.

When it comes out of dormancy, gradually increase the amount of sunlight, food, and water.

Why You Should Take Care of Them During Dormancy

You can choose to let them die over the winter, but dormancy allows the Venus flytrap to remain healthy and strong. Cared for properly, they can live up to about 20 years.

Repot Them as They Grow

As more traps grow and get bigger, give them more room by gradually transferring them to larger and larger pots. This will give them more breathing room—both for the traps and the roots. Growing roots can cause the sand and moss to compact, so larger pots are a good idea to improve aeration.

Prune Dead or Dying Leaves

Sick, dying, or dead leaves and other plant parts are susceptible to fungal growth that can invade and kill the rest of the plant; it is important to remove them as soon as you notice them. It's easy to tell if the leaves are dead or dying: they will be wilted, dry, and appear brown or black.

It's best to prune as early as possible, but if you forget, and you notice mold starting to grow, remove the affected parts right away and lightly spray the plant with fungicide.

Should I Let My Venus Flytrap Flower?

Producing flowers is energetically costly for any plant, but in the wild, they do accept the cost for the sake of reproducing. However, for a potted Venus flytrap, flowering is unnecessary, and unless you are experienced and know how to care for a flowering plant, it will likely cause your plant to weaken and possibly die.

The flower grows up from the middle of the plant from a rod-shaped stalk. Once you notice a growth in the middle of the plant that doesn't look like the other flat leaves, you should nip it immediately.

What Happens If You Put Your Finger in a Venus Flytrap?

The Venus flytrap won't be able to harm you, but you will be harming it. If something like a twig, animal, your finger brushes against the trigger hairs, the trap will close, but it little else will happen. The trap will reopen in about a day. However, this is energetically costly for the plant.

A Venus flytrap can only close and open a few times within its lifetime. It may pique your curiosity to put your finger in—or even see if it can eat other foods like small bits of meat—but unnecessarily triggering the trap will only result in the plant's premature death. If you notice that a trap isn't closing when triggered, it is possible that it has eaten recently, or is running out of energy and nearing the end of its lifetime.

How Do Venus Flytraps Work?

The monster-looking leaf, or trap, has two lobes, each sporting tooth-like spikes (trigger hairs) along the edges that trap insects such as spiders, gnats, houseflies, and ladybugs. The two lobes produce a sweet-smelling nectar that attracts insects.

When an insect lands on a trap and bends one of the trigger hairs, the jaw-like lobes quickly snap shut, claiming the unwitting insect as its victim. Over the next few seconds, the trap gets tighter, making an air-tight seal as it floods the chamber with digestive juices to draw nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous from the insect

[Source|https://dengarden.com/gardening/Hungry-Venus-10-Things-On-How-to-Care-for-a-Venus-Fly-Trap]

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Heyy I wanna talk about my plants.

Okay so on Saturday I was on a walk around town, and I happened to walk by a store with a table full of plants in front of it.

[ID: a small table full of plants in little temporary pots. end ID]

Herbs and Succulents, mostly. So I paused to look at it, and noticed there was basil. I've been wanting to grow basil for a while, so obviously I lingered some more to consider buying it. After a bit, the person managing the store came out to ask if I wanted to buy anything, cause they were closing up and she was gonna put the table inside as soon as this other guy showed up to help her carry it in.

And I thought about it a little longer and decided, yes, Imma get a basil plant. So we picked one out and brought it inside to ring it up. And when we went inside, I saw more plants and noticed some oregano. 'Oregano is pretty awesome,' I thought, and bought that too.

Now, this was near the beginning of the amount of walking that I wanted to do, so she put the two pots in a bag for me and I carried them that way. They smelled soooo good all the way home. Getting home, I put them in the windowsill.

[ID: basil and oregano on the windowsill, still in their small pots and on saucers. The basil is on the left. Both plants are about 4" tall. end ID]

I haven't repotted them yet, but I plan to soon.

Today (Monday) I went back for the sole purpose of looking at succulents. I struck up a conversation with the employee behind the counter, chatting about all the cool plants in the store. They have several aloe veras, much bigger and plumper than mine, and I learned that I was misled on aloe's sunlight needs. Turns out it loves having several hours of direct sun, not hates it, and if it doesn't get enough sun it just won't grow. Which is probably why mine is barely any bigger than when my friend gave it to me a year and a half ago.

I eventually decided to get a rosette succulent, Echeveria pulidonis, because I love roses, and I love rosette succulents for all the reasons I love roses except for the smell, and this one has a particularly striking coloration.

I also found several detatched succulent leaves, and not only did the cashier-person let me have them, she even pulled a rooted one out of a pot and gave it to me.

[ID: Five succulent leaves, held in the palm of my hand. All are green. Two are narrower than the others, and the larger of these two has begun to sprout. end ID]

Of course I wanted to walk more so I just carried my new plants for a while. At one point I told my succulent, "I know your card says to give you full sun, but I'm a vampire so we're gonna walk in the shade. When we get home I'll put you in the window."

And now we're home and both the rosette succulent and the aloe vera are on a west-facing windowsill in my bedroom.

[ID: A photo, taken from slightly above, of an aloe vera (left) and a rosette succulent (right) on a sunny windowsill. The aloe is very small and only has five skinny leaves. The other succulent is plumper, and it is green with red tips. Both are in small pots, but the rosette succulent's pot is smaller, and is not on a saucer. end ID]

I still need to repot the new succulent into something bigger, as well as put the clippings in dirt, but for now these are my plant adventures!

[mensstyleinspirationblog]

Personal Loan No Credit Check From Upstart Doesn't Have To Be Hard. Read These 9 Tricks Go Get A Head Start.

 Hey, what's up individuals Houston here. And if you person that really don't have any type of credit history, however you have a excellent paying job. You have you to end up university and also everything, yet it's hard for you to get started developing your credit scores and everything.

Then this video is for you because it's some points that I'm mosting likely to inform you concerning in this video clip that I've been stating over and over and over as well as currently it's starting to become a bigger issue.

So today's video clip. We're talking about how to A individual lending from startup now upstart.

It's a peer-to-peer platform.

So they have outdoors financiers that agree to invest their cash to provide you money.

Right therefore which is amazing since currently you have character and also startup there point is we're not focused more on individuals's personal credit report. We actually focus more on the private as well as how the person has actually operated.

Shelves over the years.

So let's talk about this. Well with startup they want you to be making at the very least $12,000 a year, certainly US person 18 years of age now. It's fine that you do not have any credit report since they utilize artificial intelligence and the expert system they pull in all this various other data, which I'm going to be discussing. So focus that's mosting likely to help figure out. If you receive a finance via upstart.com now, like I claimed, they do not focus on you. If you have a slim file credit history or whatever, they're not focused on that as well as concentrate on if you have a good paying work, they check out your education as well as your line of work also.

Like say that you mosted likely to college for like nursing or something like that where you know more probable you do not you would not have a huge unemployment Void or whatever. So those are the type of people Again, I'm not just stating nursing.

I'm simply giving that as an example to make sure that you all can be clear on what I'm saying.

All right now, like I stated, they will certainly endure a debt to revenue approximately 45 percent, right, which is cool, you recognize, as well as their financings are between 3 years to 5 years and also they'll own anywhere from a thousand up to 50,000 and also if you do have a credit rating the minimum credit scores Will certainly they will certainly approve as in between a 626 40 or higher currently now that I discuss to you some of the basis of this there's one thing that I've been informing you all about expert system.

You can have a excellent paying task.

Okay, and also you can have a ideal education and learning, but what's occurring with artificial intelligence.

Remember I spoke about the ZIP code thing.

A great deal of these firms and also I'm not claiming startup however a lot of these firms mosting likely to start factoring in that.

So this here postal code thing. This is among the elements that establishes just how much money financial institution or any kind of type of lending institutions may want to offer you as well as the factor is is because they're calculating everybody because ZIP code, right?

As well as because you may have a 755 go school, but if everyone else concerning 680 or whatever once more, you're tossed into this pot a lot of the time.

All right. It relies on the lender and how they're actually taking a look at it as well as among the things that like I stated concerning up star is that they're mosting likely to they're not focusing as much on this below credit history.

However, like I claimed their focus on your revenue your education and learning as well as your occupation, so if you're a person that has a university level or you may be aiming to finish six months out or whatever.

Those are the things that they're looking at. So they recognize that hey individuals that have a higher education.

This is just how the formula is calculating people that have a college individuals that more vibrant have strong grade point averages.

Currently again where your conventional Financial institutions they do not ask you about.

Your GPA all right, however with their artificial intelligence with startup the factor they look at your GPA since they presume that their expert system tells them that GPA as someone with a high GPA most likely is not going to default because they are among those people that care for their if they dealt with their qualities their care for the credit history sort of point. So even if Do not have credit history.

You a lot more like Louisville and also recognizing that they know that you have a great GPA. They know that you they presume expert system assume that you much more accountable Okay, as well as like I said a great deal of individuals in the bad neighborhoods as well as the more challenges IP codes and things.

They're mosting likely to be shut out.

Okay, not claiming that startup is going to differentiate.

Yet once more expert system is what's providing data.

Okay, and so since they  hinge on expert system you perhaps that Prime person that has a excellent type of score excellent revenue yet something this below Factor can simply clean you out.

Okay.

Now I'm not telling you just pack up and move to a new zip code. Hey, there's your house. That's your house. It is what it is, yet The same time you need to understand that with expert system.

They are factoring in this stuff. Now in order to determine what kind of financing you qualify and also require buck quantity.

Okay.

So like I stated startup is for individuals that may not have credit rating, yet they have earnings being available in as well as they have great qualities in addition to they may be or they might also have have a great education and learning or they're on their way to completing a graduating from college and also taking a look at their profession.

Like I said, if you have a good strong line of work or whatever that plays a variable and also once more for them that it gets rid of to credit history, right?

That's what they're trying to get individuals far from. Okay.

Don't bother with the credit history.

Do you have these various other things?

Location.

So this is up star.com.

If you a individual that meets these requirements then maybe you intend to check them out.

If you have difficult credit history and you do not fulfill these demands.

There are some bad credit lenders. I'll place a web link listed below you can check them out as well.

However with up start again their focus on individuals that their primary focus not saying that you can not use with them. M even if you don't have an education, however I'm telling you that's where their primary emphasis is for people with higher education, but have no debt or restricted credit report as well as things. They're trying to help them begin restoring credit.

So again, this is Houston with 3 Way funding. I just desire you all to be mindful that now a great deal of these peer-to-peer companies.

They're using expert system to identify If you wish to qualify for a financing through their firm or otherwise.