#child ghost hour

[oh-gh0st]

good afternoon fellow ososan people palette from color-palettes :p

[bones-of-a-rabbit]

The brotherless/what was taken au

Reader is an asshole. Snarky. Smartass. Rude for no reason. Just basically a prick. But there is something sincere abt them that Sun thinks is good. Moon likes the challenge, likes how stubborn and abrasive they are, but can tell that something has made them that way, the same way the virus made him into something different. Either way, both are curious about the reader, who seems equally as interested in them.

Takes place a few years (15? Maybe?) after Plex catches fire and closes permanently. Some unnamed company has dug out what was left behind and is messing around with the animatronics to see how damaged they are. Reader is hired for the Sun/Moon tasks. The company’s goal is to trace back what happened to the Plex, why it happened, and who was involved. When the project is done, the suitable animatronics (the ones cleared of the virus) will be given a chance to return to the world and carry on with whatever sort of life they wish, with close supervision for six months to a year to be sure they’re hospitable enough to live with the public.

Sun/Moon are kept in a square, bland as hell room with a big window on one side. This leads to an observation room where a staff member (reader) can talk to, interact with the animatronics without being close to them, and manage controls for the room. Sun/Moon are hooked up to a system by a series of chords that stretch from their back. These control them: turn them on and off, which parts of their body they can move, give short correctional shocks, basically can keep them easily under control and helpless. If they remove the chords, they power down immediately. There’s no way to get rid of the chords or ignore what they do.

Reader gives them simple tasks. “Pretend this teddy bear” a teddy bear is dropped into the room “is a distressed child. What do you do?” They ask them basic questions. “What were you built to do?” “What is 13 multiplied by 24?” “Why is the sky blue?” “Who created you?” Just testing their knowledge. What they know. About themselves, about the world. Sometimes they’re rude and play tricks on the animatronic for no reason. They don’t hurt them- just kind of push them around. Sun gets attached, with how Reader is, at heart, a jokester, and, when fixing any broken parts Sun/Moon are discovered to have, diligent and careful, making sure everything is as it should be, asking how they are feeling every step of the way.

Moon is still partially warped by the virus and rarely comes out. When he does, reader turns intense, borderline vicious, needles him and antagonizes him. They’ve got a fight to pick with him, it’s obvious, but neither Sun nor Moon can remember much from before the fire.

But reader went to the Plex as a child, often. And they remember everything.

-

Aka, reader is the older sibling of one of the kids Moon lured away, and even if it’s been years, that’s years they’ve spent seething and hurting, and they still want answers- and for Sun and Moon to regret what they did, and regret it properly

Also could be considered an unlikely enemies-to-tolerance-to-friends-to-confused-but-might-be-crushing relationship! Reader has always thought they knew what they’d do if they ever got the chance to make Moon pay for it all, but suddenly they’re here and he’s there and they’re both stupid and hurting and shells of themselves and neither is sure what they want anymore

[matrose]

nightmare

[shower-phantom-ideas]

Yall know whats crazy? I grew up in an actual haunted house lmao. Most of my friends wont even come over to my moms house now a days. My roommate hates it there

The phone is literally not plugged in to anything (it’s an older style that isnt wireless) and it will ring. And I mean it’s not plugged into the phone line or power.

Old clock chimes. Never mind that the chimes r just sitting in it not strung up.

Locked out? But that door is a deadbolt?

Ah yes the person who is standing in the kitchen looking out the window. Never mind that the sink and counter are in the way. (Got a photo of this one but the ghost only remained in it for a year before it disappeared)

Foot steps behind u in the hall? Don’t use the end bathroom then cause u will have no privacy. One of my friends had the door open then close while he was in there smh.

Random shadow hand covering up tour phone screen? Time to leave.

Don’t bring keyboards in this house if you aren’t ready to see them type. Don’t being computers if you don’t like the blue screen.

Do not sleep here unless you are ready to sleep like a coma so the ghost can’t wake you up at 2am.

Do not be here unless you are ready to be watched and never alone ( menacingly)

[diamondisunmemeable]

Probably a bad idea to post this now due to recency bias but...

[indigo-flightly-falls]

you guys don't know about the au that keeps plaguing me

you guys don't know about my half asleep decision to place a few more hermits (and 3 others) into yhs so they can suffer and die with grian

you guys don't know the backstories for everybody and how it makes what happened even more tragic

you guys don't know the vision of bdubs walking into the old apartment for the first time in years only to find a gray and dusted covered space

You guys don't know of the pictures that lined the walls, gateways to a time long gone (was it better then the current time? they were alive at least)

you guys don't know the ways i killed off the characters. the colors their blood became and how they became nothing more then another mystery

you guys don't know why i keep thinking of bloodstained halls with whispers of those long gone, of a patch of grass with broken and rough stones cracked with age

you guys don't know the tragic story of loss and gain and grief and letting go and love and hatred i've crafted

[octopus-doctor]

.

[ecto-stone]

Everything is actually a big Chess Pieces refrence ? Alway have been.

[doctorwhoisadhd]

WHAT IS IT WITH DOCTOR WHO AND PUTTING THINGS IN 1941. LIKE

[curseofbreadbear]

UCN STARTERS || ALWAYS ACCEPTING! || @slaughterlocked

slaughterlocked: "You'll have to forgive my enthusiasm. But it'll all be over soon." [william to cassidy !]

❝ N-No... ��

[Cassidy's breath hitched in her throat; she'd made a terrible mistake. She'd followed the golden bunny to the back under the assumption that he'd help her -- he'd assured her as much. He promised her safety and guidance, and she had blindly assumed that he had the best of intentions. After all, it was Bonnie! Why shouldn't she trust him?]

[Alas, each of his promises were proven false. The rabbit led her to some sort of employees-only back room; the energy emanating from it felt malevolent, twisted, as did the bunny's intentions. His voice was as jolly as ever, but he loomed over her in a manner that suddenly terrified her. She had never been scared of Bonnie...but this presence no longer felt like Bonnie. This was something different.]

["It'll all be over soon." Cassidy could assume what that implied, and she was suddenly overcome by her horror. She feared for her life now more than ever. Her breathing grew frantic; she scrambled for the exit, stumbling over herself in the process. She fell to the ground in a heap, a trembling mess of helplessness and cowardice. She couldn't move anymore. She was glued, tethered to the spot. Tears welled in her eyes; she shut them, trying to blink them away. They fell anyway.]

❝ Please -- please don't hurt me. ❞ [Cassidy spoke in a desperate whimper. A shuddering sob followed her plea, and several more tears fell.] ❝ I don't want to die. ❞

[circusislife]

brain no workee

can I just like collapse and lay down next to you?

you don't even need to ask<3

you know, the pillow fort is still there, and we've set up loudspeakers if someone wants to put some music ;)<3

[dirtbra1n]

hanzawa masato doesn’t like sundays.

the shrine won’t be performing any exorcisms today. to be more specific, the miko that greets him feels his forehead with a warm hand and decides that he’s in good health.

he doesn’t want her to know how little he values her judgment, so he bows to offer a prayer instead.

—

he’d woken up this morning without having had any dreams. he went out of his way, on a morning that was over-bright and unsettlingly still, to make a trip to the shrine. because he hadn’t had any dreams. for all intents and purposes, a full night’s rest.

a monument to the places his mind has been lately, that this was cause for alarm.

barring that, lack of dreams notwithstanding, masato woke up just before the sun rose. the statements made about darkness before dawn are wrong, but his house is old and construction in the neighborhood leaves it eclipsed by increasingly taller buildings that are increasingly growing occupied by increasingly unneighborly neighbors.

the statements made about darkness before dawn are wrong, but when masato wakes up his room is dark and somewhere between too cold and not cold enough.

he doesn’t think it’s particularly scientific—knows this, truthfully—but he’s become familiar with the following pattern:

open your eyes first thing in the morning; you don’t want to be alive. throw the sheets from your legs and feel as the warmth is leached from your body. roll onto one side and feel as your ribs resist the desire to cave in. check the time and feel as the numbers rattle hollowly, meaninglessly, in your brain.

your name is hanzawa masato. you don’t feel tethered to any of the unkind physicality happening to “you”.

you want to die more than anything.

and then he stands, finally, and moves to go about his routine, and if he wasn’t put through an especially brutal wringer overnight, he’ll forget his ideation and go about things the way he always does.

if he was put through that wringer, he can forget. he’ll make himself forget. he’ll learn how to make himself forget.

—

he doesn’t intend to die, is the problem. that simplicity would be a blessing.

the shadows cast before him were inky, stretched long. the trains rattle near-silently on the tracks, low rumbling swallowing the impact of his own footsteps. the footsteps of other people, though sparse, jab like sharpened stones into his ears.

days like these feel fake. days like these make his dreams feel real. days like these make masato feel a little less than alive.

he would feel stupid saying so out loud, but he’s starting to believe that no one’s as haunted by ghosts as ghosts themselves.

he doesn’t know what brought him to this conclusion.

(a lie, mostly. if he had to hazard a guess: an answer lying somewhere between his exhaustion and reluctance to fall asleep, his wishing to die but fear of death, the restless shifting—currently absent—river.)

the thing about all of this is that masato doesn’t actually believe in ghosts.

not real ones, anyway. if anything—anyone—is going to drift aimlessly through the halls, holding a lantern or candlestick or knife, reflection held in its edge tortured and gaunt, it’s going to be him. an offhanded, deeply involved joke at which to have a sadistic laugh.

he has his obligations, though. of course, the knife would be fake—the edge of it dull and without character, not reflecting much of anything, harmless.

he thinks tashiro would think it’s funny. after the shock and fear and flustered anger wore off, at least.

—

real or not, the house he grew up in—the house he lives in now, the house currently, on only this day once a week, occupied by only him—is haunted.

—

he hasn’t forgotten. if it matters. he’s never been very good at lying to himself, and this one was an awfully slow sort of deal. the sort of deal that is just as much a pain to forget as it is to remember.

there was very little tenderness. he couldn’t quite stretch his legs all the way out, couldn’t reach his arms out over his head. his fingers were cold and useless, deadened, slow. the air pushing in and flowing out of his lungs seemed to whistle through the puncture wound in his chest.

he wishes that he could learn; there was no tenderness, in truth. time moved slowly, if at all, abandoning him to sit stiff in the water, soaked to the bone. abandoning him to finish dying in isolation.

he woke up, a few hours ago now, sweaty and splayed out, drowning only in his sheets, and it was an awfully slow sort of deal, but it couldn’t make him forget.

masato’s never been very good at forgetting things, either.

try as he might to toss them out, two facts cling like hooks to his skin:

1.    hanzawa masato is a still-living human being, and

2.    he doesn’t want to die.

(if he had to hazard a second guess, like he was on some sick introspective game show, masato would say that all anyone ever wants is to live, but living’s hard, and it hurts. it never stops hurting.

he figures—reluctantly, he doesn’t want to spend as much time as he does mired in unwinnable existential debates—that if it’s going to hurt living and hurt dying, he might as well live.)

—

masato doesn’t know where that puncture wound in his chest even came from.

—

I’m at the shrine

Like… for fun?

spiritual enrichment

Of course. Silly question.

Mom says to buy yourself a charm.

which one

…Health?

she said love. I’m buying YOU a love charm

I DON’T NEED IT.

—

poorer, he walks home as evening settles. the clouds that had been crowding the edges of the sky have hung themselves low over the city; no moon.

masato navigates mostly by bleeding sunlight and does not grieve. though his eyes insist otherwise, there is no river.

he carries three charms. good health for his mother, love for his older brother, evil warding for himself. he doesn’t know what compelled him to buy the third.

worn through by the prickly feeling at his skin, he turns his head stiffly to check—there is still no river.

at present, there isn’t anything worth his grief. one pocket lighter, the other heavier, but as insistent as his older brother was that he not buy the damned love charm, it’s not like masato doesn’t know that he’ll just as stubbornly insist on paying him back.

tomorrow, though. they’re not back until tomorrow.

abandonment, maybe. if he was grieving. he both had a dream worse than usual this morning and he didn’t. he was alone in that house and he wasn’t. it’s haunted when he’s there and not when he isn’t, but his mom insists that he house-sit every fucking sunday like the house would be the one pleading “how could you leave me here alone?” and not him.

but it’s not grief, and he’s not pleading. because he won’t let weird dreams count, no one even died.

it’s a pedestrian street, glossy shimmering concrete. everyone but him is walking right where the water would be.

there is no river. his chest aches. he knows better than to entertain the idea.

[mbat]

do not get bored in the sims it leads to weird things

i made two of my OCs (two gay guys) and things were going nicely and cutely for them but boringly for me, and i forgot to pay their bills for a minute so the power went out, and i saw on the power thing that it mentioned the landgraabs and i was like. man fuck those rich people. im gonna go kill them. again, bored out of my mind

so i switch to their family and i build a pool with walls, ol reliable, issue is... for some reason the mother was pregnant, and i didnt realize till i was already doing it and i wasnt going back at this point, the father and son die, and im left for half an hour trying to figure out how to force her to give birth so she can die cause pregnant sims are immortal, and i finally figure it

and im gonna be real with you i was just gonna shift click the baby and press destroy object BUT THEN IT PROMPTS ME TO NAME IT (ive never had a baby in the sims before it never interested me) and i was like. oh i cant destroy this baby i love it now actually

anyway i named it after one of the gay guys from earlier cause i was gonna make them adopt it right, but heres the thing

when death came for the father and son, i added him to the family just to see if i could, and so he stuck around after he did his business and was just chilling, and so when it came time for me to seperate the baby and the mother so the baby could be taken care of, he was there and i was like hey. take care of this while i kill the mom please

and so she dies, and then theres a second death and i go oh this is an opportunity and i add him to the family and so now its two deaths and a baby

thing is this child looks like a landgraab, is named after some guy who doesnt even know any of this happened, and is being raised by two versions of death (one named grim reaper one named death [insert lazy last name just to fill the slot]) and for like 2 in game days they were all just living in the landgraab mansion of whom no landgraabs remained until i moved them into a smaller and less weird house

anyway i made the weirdest sitcom situation i guess. this is not at all how i play the sims ever lol

i should probably introduce that one sim to the child he didnt know he now kinda has...

[dragonfruitghosts]

Trick or treat!

~@monty-glasses-roxy (Halloween game OP sorry for any duplicates!)

hello there friend! You get this drawing I made of my oc, Jasper, over the weekend that I didn’t post yet!

She’s gonna be posted at a later point once I finish drawing the two other ocs I was gonna post the art of alongside him

[biancabelairs]

the pattern in how this fandom at large jumps at the chance to turn on anybody that has some form of issue with the company's billionaire owner is real gross actually

[wildflowers-of-trolberg]

So, I've talked extensively about Novel Johanna on here; about how I believe she's a bad mother, and how I would genuinely call her abusive. I think she's harsh to the point of cruelty more than once, refuses to understand her daughter, and, the thing that really makes her abusive, consistently manipulates Hilda and makes things about herself. So now, with the release of the audiobooks, I'm putting my money where my mouth is:

I've compiled every clip I think proves that she's abusive from the first five novels. I didn't include Hilda and the White Woff; in print, I thought Novel Johanna was surprisingly reasonable in that book, and although some of her voiced lines have been less kind than I was expecting in the audiobooks, I don't think there's any moment where she could really be called abusive in those. Obviously, I have also excluded any purely positive or neutral moments, but these are in the minority (off the top of my head, four interactions across the first three books are completely excluded, and one in Book 5, but I might be forgetting one or two.)

I'm open to doing more compilations like this, if anyone's interested (Hilda's bad friends is one I've been considering) - please let me know!

As for the clips I've included:

Hilda and the Hidden People:

00:00-01:30 - Johanna finds out Hilda went near a troll rock.

I wasn't originally going to include this moment, because Johanna's not completely unjustified here and her dialogue read as quite fond to me (I thought the "I'll tell you exactly what happened" bit was meant to come across as lighthearted). Her tone in the audiobook makes it very clear this isn't the case, and while she's not completely wrong to worry, she's very harsh and this establishes she doesn't really support Hilda's adventures (she does flip back and forth on that, though).

01:30-01:51 - Johanna firsts suggests moving.

Johanna had definitely been thinking about moving before this in both the show and the novels (she comes up with Trolberg quickly in both), but the way she brings it up here sounds to me like she's trying to hide that (more on that later). More importantly, she ignores Hilda's concerns completely, and sends her to bed to avoid talking about it, despite how much Hilda's upset.

01:51-02:48 - The next morning.

I wanted to include this one mainly just to prove that Johanna had no intention of discussing the move in the morning, although it does also have a bit of her being dismissive of Hilda's adventures (I have no problem with her telling Hilda to eat less peanut butter though).

02:48-03:18 - Johanna brings up the visit to Trolberg.

Johanna clearly lies directly to Hilda here about why they're going; she's already committed, and once again refuses to be honest with her daughter or show any understanding. Instead she resorts to being manipulative for the first of several times.

03:18-03:48 - Hilda struggles to sleep.

This is a direct continuation of the previous section, just with some intervening stuff with Alfur cut out; Hilda sees right through her mother's facade, and is deeply hurt by the possibility being forced onto her.

03:48-08:06 - The visit.

I did try and cut this up, but I ended up including so much of it that I decided to just feature the whole thing. This confirms that Hilda was right, and that her mother was lying and has fully committed to moving behind her back, and when Hilda gets upset about it, Johanna immediately makes it about herself ("please don't be difficult today, Hilda"). Hilda is kicking off a bit, but she has a very good reason to be upset, and she's not wrong about the city's founding; instead of understanding, or trying to reassure her and asking her to keep an open mind like her show counterpart, Johanna tries to guilt her. By the end, Hilda seems to genuinely be suffering a sensory overload, and again isn't unjustified when she gets upset, even if she isn't being kind; she directly calls her mother out, and Johanna's reaction proves that she was right.

08:06-09:30 - Hilda finds Johanna packing.

This is a moment I've previously overlooked, but it's a moment that doesn't happen in the show; Hilda comes home to find her mother in her room, going through her things without her and packing up. There still hasn't been a proper discussion of the move, and once again, Hilda's concerns are ignored; this is the closest Johanna ever comes to apologising for the whole thing in this book. I've also included the end of this scene just to show how much Hilda is hurt by this (compare the show, where she only cries once during the whole of the first two episodes).

09:30-09:58 - Hilda thinks she's about to die.

This moment really hurt me; Hilda genuinely believes she's about to die, and her last thoughts are about how awful she thinks she's been to Johanna. She doesn't think at all about how much her mother has hurt her, because Johanna has successfully manipulated her into thinking she's completely in the wrong, and that she's a bad person.

Hilda and the Great Parade:

09:58-13:03 - Hilda comes home after her friends abandoned her.

This is another moment where I wasn't originally planning on including the whole thing; I thought Johanna was supposed to be fond during the edelweiss exchange, but her tone is genuinely a little unkind. She does soften when Hilda breaks down, but she doesn't actually say anything reassuring, she just insults Hilda's friends (admittedly, they are terrible friends in this book, but throwing petty insults at eleven-year-olds is not really a good thing to do). The really important thing here is the ending; Johanna learns that she's been lied to and tricked into giving the raven away to someone Hilda hates and thinks is cruel, but she just doesn't care. Hilda's thoughts are excessive, but Johanna should care enough to try and fix things, like she does in the show (where she's even less culpable).

13:03-14:05 - Ms. Hallgrim berates Hilda in front of the parents.

Johanna isn't prominent in this, but I've included it for two reasons. Firstly, Johanna's immediate reaction is to blame Hilda the same way Ms. Hallgrim does, and glare at her across the room. Secondly, it's important context for the next scene, which is the first conversation Johanna has with Hilda after her daughter has been berated to the point of tears in front of mocking, jeering adults. I want that to be kept in mind.

14:05-14:55 - Johanna thinks Hilda is sick.

Johanna has just seen her daughter cry in front of everyone, and her immediate response is harsh; she knows full well that this situation is partially her fault, and she could resolve this by just talking to Ms. Hallgrim, but she doesn't, and the implication is that she cares more about her reputation than her child. Even when she is persuaded to help, it's reluctant, and seems more like she's just doing this to get Hilda to stop pestering her.

Hilda and the Nowhere Space:

14:55-15:22 - Why Hilda was signed up for Sparrow Scouts.

Johanna has always been excited for Hilda to follow her lead, in all versions of canon, but here that seems to be the only reason Hilda's been signed up. It was Johanna's idea, purely so that she could make her daughter more like her, and it seems Hilda wasn't given a choice in the matter. Moreover, all Johanna cares about is Hilda's attainment, to the point where that comes before asking how Hilda's day was or how she's feeling, every time; if she actually listened, she'd realise Hilda isn't actually enjoying Sparrow Scouts at all.

15:22-15:51 - Hilda's afraid of disappointing her mum.

Hilda genuinely thinks she's useless because she hasn't won any scouting badges; she's tying her self-worth to something that should be fun (and that's reinforced later) and she's acutely aware of how much pressure Johanna is putting her under. She isn't doing any of this because she wants to; it's all about what her mother wants her to be.

15:51-16:23 - Hilda is allowed to go on the trip.

This is right after Hilda invites Tontu in and the house gets trashed by the nisse; it starts with Johanna punishing Hilda for something that isn't her fault, which isn't great, but then the only reason she changes her mind is so that Hilda can earn a badge. That pretty much confirms that the pressure she's putting Hilda under is deliberate, and that all she cares about is her daughter being like her. She even explicitly states that she doesn't want Hilda befriending creatures, which is tantamount to saying she doesn't like who her daughter is and actually wants her to be 'normal' (in direct contrast to Show Johanna in both The Bird Parade and the ending of The Stone Forest).

16:23-16:43 - Hilda dreads the badge ceremony.

This just reinforces how bad Johanna has made Hilda feel, and how Hilda is measuring her self-worth by Sparrow Scout Badges.

16:43-17:19 - Johanna berates Hilda at the ceremony.

This is the moment that's normally cited as Novel Johanna's worst incident, and while I think the move as a whole is worse, she's outright cruel here, in public. She has already seen how upset Hilda is (Hilda's whispered an apology already), but she comes over, during the event itself, and insults her daughter for who she is and for not being good enough until she cries. She genuinely makes her own daughter cry over badges, knowingly, and leaves Hilda feeling worthless and alone over something that should have just been childish fun.

17:19-17:56 - Johanna's "apology".

What Johanna says here just isn't good enough; "please forgive me" puts the onus on Hilda to forgive, not on Johanna to make it right. It's an admission of guilt, but it isn't a proper apology, and it doesn't make up for what she said. I didn't trust her tone when I read the novels, and I don't trust it now; it feels more like she's saying this to assuage her own guilt (and stay on Hilda's good side) than actually because she wants to make right her daughter's hurt. Moreover, she doesn't actually apologise for everything; she doesn't mention the pressure she put Hilda under at all (even though her show counterpart did, and all she did was get a bit carried away in her excitement), and this doesn't come up in the ending scene with the handmade badge, either. I haven't included that because this is the only apology we get; Johanna does say that Hilda is the best daughter she could ask for, but she doesn't make any more apologies or promises to be better.

Hilda and the Time Worm:

17:56-18:44 - Hilda gets grounded.

I don't think Johanna is fair in the show version of this moment, and there she's far less harsh. Johanna actually has more cause to be upset here (her daughter has committed an actual crime), but she falls right back into genuinely manipulative behaviour by accusing her daughter of doing what she did (in this case, sabotaging the mechanical bellringers and then lying about it) just to hurt her mother; she makes it about herself, again, and only sounds tearful when she's trying to make her daughter feel guilty.

18:44-19:10 - Johanna talks to David and Frida about Hilda.

This is the second time Johanna outright says that she doesn't like the way Hilda is. She talks about her child caring so much as a bad thing, and once again effectively admits that she wants Hilda to be normal; she knows Hilda was trying to do the right thing, and she resents that. To his credit, David does actually defend Hilda right after the section I've clipped, and I think it's the only time in the entire series that Johanna's treatment is actually addressed; however, it's not acknowledged beyond that, and Johanna doesn't actually get to respond to her missteps being pointed out.

19:10-19:26 - Johanna refuses to unground Hilda.

This is just pursuant to above; David's words didn't stick, and Johanna still thinks she was completely justified. Her show counterpart effectively lifted Hilda's punishment before the day was even up, but Novel Johanna wants it to last up to a fortnight over Hilda caring too much. This is also how the book ends, and the first time Hilda and Johanna talk since the grounding scene (Hilda gives Johanna her Sonstansil present, Johanna says she loves her, and then we get this.)

Hilda and the Ghost Ship:

19:29-19:47 - Johanna talks about her parents.

I just wanted to include this because it's the only mention of Johanna's parents directly in the whole franchise, as far as I know, and basically confirms that they weren't kind either (and again, that Johanna doesn't like Hilda adventuring at all). It's basically a veiled threat.

Huge thanks to @sarasplenda and @stargazer-sappho for helping me get the books to compile this thing - if anyone has any thoughts, questions, or comments, please let me know! :))